Chương 153: Chapter 149

ILLY: How the feck did you guess he'd done it? The message returned on Wade's phone, which meant they really had done it somehow. WADE: Had a quest to teach him. It just completed now. thnks btw. ILLY: Can't begrudge you that one, you got a quest for us done too. Killing not-leon. WADE: Happy to help. You going to explain how you taught Harrison magic? ILLY: That quest you helped us complete, it gave me a one-time safespace pocket.

Plus we got a potion that cures mana necrosis and heals earlier, so we're going full throttle on training Harrison. WADE: You know you're a lot more understandable when you're texting? ILLY: Up yours you little shit. WADE: See, way easier to understand. One issue, SAS operatives are now a potential lootbox get. What do I do if that happens? Would there be a chance he'd pull this Harrison guy in some future lootbox, or would it be some random SAS operative? What was the morality of that even?

The System seemed to bring people that agreed to join up like Selena and Eri, but was that because it knew that would happen, or that it got lucky? Regardless, he got a text back from the Scot herself on how to handle the situation: ILLY: You practice your five second elevator speech begging for your life and make sure you're a few feet away before the summoning yanks them in. Also holding hands high up your head would work. Talking about help, Leon says he's planning on going with you next round.

WADE: You sure that's okay? He can probably come with me, but not sure how I could get him back to you after. He might be with me for a few rounds until we figure out a way to reunite. ILLY: Your assassin/thief used a teleport scroll, right? WADE: Yeah, plus a few other stuff we're sure came from lootboxes according to identify. ILLY: And he got all that in under three rounds and was willing to waste it on you. Think about that. Teleport scrolls can't be that rare out here. We'll run into one eventually and use it.

That was still a wild gamble, but there was some truth to it. If it were some kind of rare epic find, the assassin wouldn't have used it up on him. He'd been convinced Wade would be an easy kill, why waste something that valuable? WADE: kk, sounds good. He closed his phone, and took a breather. Things were looking up. He now had Eri, and Leon with him for the crew quest, so that's three out of five crewmembers for the minimum requirements.

He'd need to get two more somewhere, and he had a feeling Medy was onto something about hiring someone or bringing someone in from Earth with him. Possibly associates of Zin who already know about the other world?

"No can do champ." The Archdemon shrugged when he asked.

"See, the real issue is what happens if you die out there? Who's going to bring my people back?" Wade stared.

"I didn't have 'actual archdemon cares about his henchmen' on my bingo sheet." One gloved finger raised right up to his face.

"Don't mistake this for altruism or anything champ. I'm speaking strictly from business."

"Business?" Zin took one breath and went on into a tirade: "Do you know how hard it is to find good quality henchmen? I lose one guy to your little adventure and I'm back to square one with some mouth-breather who thinks 'reconnaissance' is a type of high class art movement. No thank you."

"I don't remember you bothering about that back when we were in Hell?" Medy said, still at the foot of the bed watching the sleeping Ann. Zin pulled at his collar with a nervous tug, "That was when I had a legion. Legion. L-e-g-i-o-n. As in, replaceable bodies by the thousands. I got maybe.." He held a gloved hand out and dramatically counted down.

"Let's see here... three, four, five people on this entire rock who know what I am and haven't tried to spray me with holy water. That wouldn't work by the way, just nixing that idea out of your head early before anyone gets cute. Anyhow, where was I? Oh right! The part where I don't have to start looking for new hired hands in the first place." Wade was starting to suspect there was a kernal of something deep inside the Archdemon.

But he did bring up a good point: Whoever was coming with Wade could run the risk of getting stuck in the other world if Wade miscalculated the size of something's teeth and overall hunger. He was planning on going all out next round in hunting down larger things, getting his gold lootboxes, and all the other items on his to-do list. Hopefully the extra one-round boon he was getting from his storefront buys was going to cover the rather unworkable Arsonist boon he had right now.

There were directions with that boon he could think of, but he simply didn't have the synergy yet. While the rest of the crew here started chatting on off-topic items, Wade scanned through his quests and schemes. One thing he needed to complete was his Augmented Hunter. He could see it listed on his boons: Augmented Hunter: For the next five challenge gauntlets, gain +1 random stat increase on full completion of each gauntlet.

Charges remaining: 1 He'd technically already gotten five additional stats from his four kills. One of those gauntlets had given him an intelligence boost, that his luck duplicated. And best of all, it hadn't eaten up an additional charge. The entire Challenge Gauntlet questline had been the gift that kept on giving. The first kill had opened up this entire quest chain. The next three kills had handed him a +10% health regeneration on any future gauntlet completed.

Another three kills had given him this beautiful five-point stat boost. And now he was on the third part of this quest. Gauntlet Mastery Path (Part Three) - Eliminate six more Challenge Gauntlet targets. Rewards: Single-use Trophy-Collection Knife. Moderate Leveling Experience. Storefront Option Unlocked - Single-use Trophy-Collection Knife. 4/6 Completed Gauntlets. He still had two more wins and then he'd get that knife. Not only that, he'd also unlock being able to buy more of those in the future.

Single-use Trophy-Collection Knife - On use, cut off a permanent trophy part from a defeated Challenge Gauntlet enemy. Offers unique round modifiers. Limit of one trophy effect active at a time. He had no idea what it would give him, but he had a feeling this would be critical. He was deep within the gauntlets at this point, and the rewards had become significant. Now he was going into a realm filled with monsters, some had to be above level 50 and trigger the gauntlets. Wade would go full on big game hunting.

But he still needed to figure out how to get back out, at least in order to go help the other Players out there. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. There were twenty or so still stuck in the Nathir shelter-city for certain, and Wade was pretty sure getting them rescued and started on the path up would be critical. That and eliminating the bad apples.

Illy had already started that process and unfortunately equally confirmed humanity was a mixed batch of randoms. Some might help, some might hide, and others might just make things harder for everyone. He had that Avengers Assemble questline to get twenty in an allience, and the rewards were significant. He didn't think it was a coincidence they just happened to know where that many players were all still stuck in.

No, Wade had to figure out how to get back to Hell and means of traveling around the world of Azdrial. And as he considered it further, there was a potential: The System itself as a cheat. Good Traveling - Obtain the means to travel out of the Arcane Realm. Rewards: Storefront Progression Options. Copper Lootbox. Negligible Leveling Experience. … Maybe he didn't need to get all his ducks in a row in order to migrate from realm to realm the 'proper' way?

He'd been tossed into the Arcane Realm through means that technically shouldn't exist or that the locals here hadn't discovered. It could be there'd be a means to travel back to the mortal realm or Hell directly using a teleport scroll instead of going through whatever bullshit the realm of the dead had. Illy had mentioned those scrolls might be a lot more easy to get than expected. The Nathir assassin did have one within three rounds already.

If he could somehow unlock the storefront option to buy those teleport scrolls, he could travel around like a god would.

"You look like you're scheming something." Medy said from the foot of the bed, watching her mortal. The greed was starting to radiate out of him, and while greed did taste better to her, she was unfortunately stuffed at the moment and couldn't eat another bite. But given how often that mortal radiated greed out of nowhere, she didn't think she was missing all that much of an opportunity.

"Debating how I'm going to get around in the Arcane Realm. If I can get System-based transportation that's reliable, I'd be cooking hard over there." That and he also needed a crew together. The SAS possibility from a lootbox was highly tempting to pray for - because they would operate like Selena and Eri did, which means even if he died, they'd come back to Earth and wouldn't be stuck in another world. Did Eri actually count as a crewmember? He stopped and realized there might be a loophole here.

If Eri counted as crew, then that might mean summoned minions did too. Which means he might not need living bodies out there, but instead just needed to backtrack to the dead bodies of those older miners, and bring a few back under his control. The Wade Necromancy build. Oh yes, he could potentially work with that. And if he had them equip the Spray Bottle of Wade Bullshit, he could have them attack at range. Or perhaps coat them with the bottle, and have them kamikazi the enemy in the world's deadliest hug.

It only affected enemy targets, not allied ones, right? He looked over the description and confirmed it very clearly stated it only affected enemy targets. Oh the things he could potentially pull off. His head snapped up, to realize there was an entire conversation going on between Jason, Zin and Medy about life here that he'd missed out on due to his hyperfocusing.

"Welcome back to Earth." Jason chuckled, "You looked a little lost in your head. What get-rich-quick scheme did you come up with this time?"

"I need to be a necromancer." Wade said. Jason stared.

"Huh. Didn't see that one coming." ZIn held a hand up to Jason, cutting him off. Eyes still staring straight at Wade the whole time.

"No, no, go on, explain what you mean there kiddo, consider me curious." Wade did. His theory might not work sure, but knowing how to bring back dead skeletons seemed to be a skill a lot of people used in Azdrial these days, so sooner he learns the better. Plus at some point they'd need to go back into the shelter city, preferably with all the guns and grenades he could bring, and start saving the other stuck players there. Controlling the feral skeletons littering the entire place there was a good idea to him.

"Necromancy doesn't have any known runes associated with it." Zin started.

"Getting a soul yanked into the bones is the easy part. You then need a strong free magic spell to control them and you're basically stuck on babysitter duty after. Because feral minions that aren't controlled well, act exactly as feral as they are. Think... babysitting angry chihuahuas with a taste for living flesh." He paused.

"A bigger taste for living flesh then normal, I mean."

"The free magic part is why it's hard to get more than one minion at a time too." Medy said, "Without runes to make the process more efficient mana-wise, a lot of necromancers run the risk of necrosis if they're getting two or three more skeletons up. But…" She gave him a look over.

"I guess you don't actually have to worry so much about that problem?" Wade grinned back. It seemed he might have his own crew of the damned going pretty soon. The technical methods of doing the spell went a little over his head as Medy explained the theory. Historically, back when Death still did his job as a God and collected dead souls to ferry them around, a necromancer would have a short window of time to yank a soul back into their body.

And they'd be a lot more conscious and well adjusted given the recent death. The minion would slowly decay over time or possibly snap any moment, as the spirit realm's existence was a caustic element to identity. The sooner they got to either Hell or Heaven, that'd be where their memories and identity would be once again safe from fading away. But just like Warlocks these days are now dime a dozen, so too were necromancers.

Souls weren't going anywhere, there wasn't a time limit before Death caught up and ferried their souls away. They just remained stuck in the spirit realm, and eventually fall feral. And as mana slowly infused bones, it would eventually cast by itself the basic spell already.

"It's mostly bone." Medy said.

"It's one of the most versatile alchemical ingredients I know of, bar none! It can be used in basically everything, but usually in anything involving decay, change, life, and especially death. Basically any potion meant to inflict damage probably uses bone in some way if they're good. Bit tricky to properly prime the specific essence since there's so many tangled up in there, but if you know how to, you can-""She'll start geeking out for hours if you let her." Zin said, jabbing one finger out to her.

"The part that matters to our little champ here is that mortal bones are enough to draw their own soul back through the realms as is, without the mortal being anything special. So it's not a coincidence we use a god's to travel around in general."

"Finding that divine bone thing is what's got me under the gun here." Wade said, "I'm pretty sure later on in the game I can use transportation scroll to get around directly, but those aren't guaranteed. If I want a foolproof reliable transportation between realms, I need to get one of those dead god bones." Which meant finding a mining expedition out there, and mugging the Captain for their bone. Medy tilted her head at him.

"You just need a way out right now until you find these scrolls right?" Wade nodded.

"You got another idea?"

"Well, I didn't know you had a divinity working with you when you asked about how to travel around, you know? I told you the typical way we move around, but there's other ways you could do it. It's just… more rare and not really done much?" Wade felt his phone buzz in his pants, and when he checked it, there was a single text. Absolutely not. Oh boy. This ought to be good.

"Medy, what, exactly, is this other method?"

"Well, Death isn't alone in traveling around between realms. All divinities can travel realms, it's in their core nature. That's why the bones of a dead one will work for the ritual, doesn't matter their domains or what they were." Zin stared. And then started laughing. Hysterically. With malicious intent. (╬ Ò﹏Ó)"Proceed." Wade said, rolling a finger at her while Zin took a few steps away to get a breath in between the howling maniacal giggling at a certain troglodyte's great expense.

She stared at her fellow Archdemon, not really understanding why he was so gleeful, but nevertheless turned back to Wade to finish the lecture.

"Well, she can't cut off a finger and hand it to you for the realm transfer ritual, but she can skip the ritual altogether and move you directly herself. Any living god can, just like Death did. I mean, they're Gods, afterlife and souls are one of the fundamental things they used to work with. It's only a little rare right now because Gods tend to be either too powerful to care, or in hiding from everyone. And where would they carry a mortal off to anymore anyhow? Everything's broken down from the old days."

"Ah." Wade nodded, now realizing why Zin was trying his hardest to stop cackling in the corner. He was starting to have actual tears in his face now. They were going to get kicked out of nursing home at this rate. Meanwhile: NO NONONONONO, BAD MICHAEL. I'M NOT DOING WORK. NEVER.

"Zin, would you so kindly be willing to drive us to Play's basement?" Wade sweetly asked his favorite Archdemon. Said Archdemon tried his absolute best to get his voice under control again, "Mr. Wade. Nothing would bring me greater joy than personally escorting you directly to her divine couch. I'd even bring out the red carpet if we got time." You can pry out of this couch from my cold dead hands mortal.

"Can you convince her to come with you though?" Medy asked, looking over Wade's shoulder to the vibrating phone.

"She doesn't seem like she'd want to. Might be hard to actually grab a god and pull them off something, they can be real hard to work around, you know?"

"Oh don't you worry about that." Wade grinned.

"I have ways." FAT CHANCE OF THAT ٩(╬ʘ益ʘ╬)۶ Wade hummed.

"If Play comes with me, that's for sure one more crewmember for the quest. And not to mention the quest description for good traveling says I need to get the means to travel around the realms, it didn't specify how I'd do it. You coming with me this round would insta-win that quest." REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻ And better yet, if he did bite the dust early on and leave her stranded in the Arcane Realm, she was like level fuck-everything already. He didn't fear for her life.

Hell, she might even be roped into helping him grind out some of those challenge gauntlets. Draw back monsters above level 50, and have the level three hundred nuke wipe them out of existence for him. The smile creeping on his face would have made the grinch jealous.

"You coming with me is the optimal move, and you know it. If you didn't come with me, why that would…." Time for the deathblow.

"That would make you bad at games. Objectively bad. So Play: Are you bad at games?" The phone stopped vibrating every two seconds. There was a long, spiteful, pause. And Wade got his answer through the System itself: Good Traveling Complete! New storefront options available. Negligible leveling experience gained. Copper lootbox spawned.