Chương 23

I wasn't sure how the others would react once they fully woke up to the news that we were about to go and throw ourselves at almost certain death once again. Well, I liked to be a little positive. Maybe this wasn't gonna be certain death. The boss was the most dangerous thing, and now that we had more levels — and more gear coming —, our chances of surviving were much higher. But there was a thought that nagged me. I was walking beside King Pussycat as we went to the crafting district.

Apparently, King Pussycat had been apprehended by the undead. He said that the undead that were guarding the boss were not the strongest in the tutorial, by far. Those were alphas. And the thing was, the only reason why there weren't stronger monsters was apparently one of balance. A boss wasn't allowed to guard another boss before evolving. It would have been too unfair to humanity, and it would have almost guaranteed, on the second day of the tutorial, that the boss would hatch from that damn sarcophagus.

If that was the case, everybody would have died — or that's what Bluemont said. So, this stronghold of undead where apparently King Pussycat's subjects had been captured and imprisoned would most likely have, at the very least, one boss. At the very least. Those were King Pussycat's words. He said he didn't know what exactly would wait for us there. He had been shuttled almost immediately to power the boss chamber.

"Sir John, you look very pale," King Pussycat said.

"I am a little worried, that's all. I just tend to get in my head, King Pussycat."

"Fear is a disease of the mind, Sir John. Do not let it affect your body." Yeah. Saying, "Don't be scared," is not really known as the best therapy for anxiety.

"Why not think about all the innocents that we are going to save?" Yeah. If I think that failing tonight, after almost failing yesterday, might mean that hundreds of millions of people die as a result, and that one of the best warriors of humanity, Father Okonkwo, dies — meaning that even the remnants of humanity might be doomed — can you see how that would not make me less anxious?

"Complaints are for children, Sir John. We have duty. And in front of duty, what is it worth to worry about such trivialities? We have a task, a task that shall be accomplished on pain of death. And those who are dead cannot worry anymore, Sir John." I still was getting accustomed to getting lectured by a gigantic lion. I checked the quest. Quest: The Poisoned Blood of Kings Description: Once a prideful and powerful king, now a dying sovereign.

Despite his great power, King Pussycat was poisoned by the Widow's Tears. This poison will rip him apart in: 20 hours, 17 minutes Objective: Save King Pussycat's life before the poison claims his heart. Reward: B-Ranked Pet Armor One thing that struck me was the fact that the pet armor was just B-Ranked for such a difficult mission. Maybe that was a hint. Who knew?

When we finally reached Lucas, Marcus, Tina, and Hailey, I saw that the crafting district was just a large plaza with many shops — blacksmiths, leather workers, people fletching arrows, and the like. I approached my team and they turned to me but didn't say anything.

"What's up, guys?" I asked. They were all frowning, but they didn't say anything.

"What's the problem?" I saw that behind them there were a few men and women with dirty clothes and dirty hands. Lucas had untied the bow from the stump of his arm. I had told him that Father Okonkwo would be able to regrow it once we reached floor two. I had sent him that message through our Team Chat, and he had said just "Great," with a thumbs up. I didn't know if that was passive-aggressive, given Lucas's character, or just slightly awkward. I didn't know what was the etiquette when talking about severed limbs.

It was Lucas who spoke first, pointing with the stump at the crafters.

"They say we're not getting anything." Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. I looked at the people behind Lucas, and I walked forward. Um.

"Hi," I said after a beat. A burly man with a leather apron scoffed at me.

"Get lost."

"Yeah, we're not doing this," I said to the man.

"I don't think you understand what the hell is going on. We need gear because we're going—""They've already explained everything to us. So you're going to save your little stupid pet when an army is coming, Selfish John?"

"Wait, what did you just call me?"

"I called you Selfish John. Lotheriel showed everybody just how selfish you are when the battle ended." I passed a hand through my hair while the man continued.

"And now you guys want to go and save the life of this lion just so that you have a strong pet to rely on and farm more levels instead of helping us?"

"We need the lion — which, by the way, is called King Pussycat." The giant lion nodded at me, grateful for that.

"Because there is a damn army of people coming, and he can blow all of them apart. But they poisoned him, and I need to save his life." The man looked in disgust at me and King Pussycat, clearly not believing any of my words. I felt like my head was about to explode. Convincing the craftsman was extremely important, but I just said, "You know what? I don't care. Just where the fuck are the crafting benches? We'll make our own equipment.

I'm sure that you guys got some skills, equipment, or whatever, and can craft better shit. I don't care. Get the hell out of my way." But after I said that, and I tried to sidestep the man, I found him once again in front of me, and he took a large hammer — I'm talking a Thor's hammer — out of his inventory.

"You're not going to use our facilities. Father Okonkwo bought the crafting district for us, and I'll be damned if a bastard like you uses it for his own selfish purposes." The giant hammer that he had in his hands didn't look like something one would use for crafting. It was too big. Even as a blacksmith, did it make sense to have such a giant hammer? Was he making car doors with it? What the hell? And so I activated the Sphere of Intuition. I didn't close my eyes, because I didn't want to look weird.

But there was something off about this man. When I did, the parts of the district that were included in the range of my Sphere changed. I saw circuit-like lines and runes glowing on the crafting benches. There was a much denser concentration of mana than what I had seen so far. I didn't remember exactly if I had used the Sphere of Intuition at the crafting haven. But if I had, I would have remembered this kind of thing.

But my attention went from the crafting benches close to me to the man's hands, wrapped around the hammer. I took a sharp inhale. There was black smoke on his hands. I had kept looking at my hands after we exited the pyramid. Killing monsters didn't do that. So the smoke could only mean that this man had killed a human. Had he done so in self-defense? I looked the burly man up and down.

"Are you stupid?" Tina finally snapped.

"Do you understand what's at stake here? Fucking humanity is going to die because of you. We need—""Because of me? You are so self-important that you believe you are going to save humanity?" The man scoffed.

"It's going to take everybody. We're making the gear for everybody. Every single bench is currently busy. We're making the gear for our soldiers. Even women and children are going to fight. And I'd rather make them something than you bastards." It appeared that we were caught between a rock and a hard place. We had a bunch of precious materials from all the corpses that we reaped in the boss's room. We didn't get any experience for those kills, since it was the undead's doing.

But with all the crafting material, it would be insane not to use them. And if we really had to tackle another boss less than twenty-four hours from the first, then we needed to be as prepared as we had ever been.

"Listen," I tried reasoning with the man, "I just need this for—" But he cut me off.

"Miss Alice!" He looked happy.

"Miss Alice, our true hero." I turned to see the woman, the Asian woman with the bob cut, walking toward us. The guns in her holsters had been clearly reloaded, since they now looked polished and glowed. I hoped that, being Father Okonkwo's right hand, she would be able to help us.

"Hi," I said, turning to Alice.

"I'm sorry. We really need—""What's happening?" She cut me off, asking the craftsmen. They looked relieved by her arrival.

"Miss Alice, these bastards wanted to take away the crafting benches from us."

"What?" I snapped.

"We weren't doing that. We just needed to craft something."

"Yes," Hailey chimed in.

"We're just trying to craft some new equipment, and we'll go."

"You'll go? Where are you going? Has Father Okonkwo told you about the situation?" Alice frowned.

"Are you guys fleeing?" She looked angry already.

"No, we're not fleeing," I said.

"And I'm going to tell Father Okonkwo where we're going." I immediately explained, to the best of my abilities, what the situation was, and the fact that King Pussycat was the only way I knew to win the upcoming battle against whoever it was that wanted to kill Father Okonkwo. And I really hoped that Alice, being the most capable person from how her fame apparently preceded her everywhere, would be able to understand my point of view.

Yet, when I finished talking, she just said, "You really are selfish, aren't you?"

"I don't know why people keep calling me selfish," I said through gritted teeth.

"But we really don't have the time for this, Alice. I care about people not dying. And my friend here is the only hope we have." I turned toward the crafters and was about to make my way between them. I doubted many people had poured all their attribute points into Strength. And I was not gonna let anybody stop me. But that's when Alice said, "Lotheriel showed us when you abandoned your co-worker."

"I don't even know what you're talking about," I said, not even turning, sizing up the man stopping me.

"At the very start of the entrance test. He showed how you knew that the desks were not bolted properly, and you didn't tell her. You didn't even jump to help her. He showed us how easy it would have been, and you did nothing." I turned slowly toward Alice.

"Are you talking about Gina?"