Chương 48: 47. Rib Rings

Travelling at night was always safer. Participants were aware of their limitations and exerted a lot more caution. Daylight tended to make them careless. As Avon liked to say, the only good use of sunlight was when engaging in a war campaign. Of course, he was probably the only person to think that. The death rate among participants in war-related trials was three quarters at best. Not that it particularly mattered. That far on, coming in last was practically as good as death.

With more junk and curse cards than prizes, one either ended up at the top, or was sentenced to a painful death during the following trial. The current trial didn't grant us the luxury of choosing. Despite being in a jungle, there was no obvious food or water anywhere around. I still had some of mine, in addition to the item I had been given, but that wasn't going to cut it. Also, the window of opportunity was shrinking. If we didn't move on the elves' camp, they would come for us.

"I don't see any birds," Cathy whispered as we continued through the vegetation.

"I know." The truth was that all the creatures were in the opposite direction. If the jungle was viewed as a giant circle, the number of skulls on the doors determined how closer they were towards the center. As Harlequin had said, the center offered a greater chance of finding the birds, but also a lot of other nasty creatures. The elves roaming about were more of a random factor and a timer.

They made things "interesting" for the powers that be and encouraged participants to complete their goal before getting hunted down.

"There'll be a shortcut." If not, we were in serious trouble. I stopped in my tracks. In the distance ahead, barely visible between the dense vegetation, there was a figure. The Eagle Eye special let me clearly see parts of the entity's clothes and face. Seeing my reaction, Cathy and Eleonor readied their weapons.

"Wait," I whispered. The entity had elf features, yet it didn't seem like just another enemy. For one thing, Harlequin's Sight didn't provide me any information about it.

"Stay on guard," I took my own divine blades out of my inventory. They kept on tugging forward, though not exactly in the direction of the creature.

"But don't attack."

"Why?" Carl asked in his version of a whisper.

"What's out there?"

"I'm not sure." I looked over my shoulder.

"Stay here. I'll go and find out. If I call you to join me, know that it's a trap."

"What if you're wrong?" Cathy asked.

"If I am, it'll kill me and you'll know it was a trap," I didn't have the desire to argue.

"Otherwise, give me a few minutes, then join me." Chances were good that we had come across another merchant. That wasn't the reason I wanted to get there alone. There were a few things I wanted to inquire about without anyone else listening in. Also, I was hoping that it would turn out to be a golden-eyed. The closer I got to the elf, the more noise I deliberately made, provoking it to react. Stoically, it remained there, sitting on what so far seemed to be the only stump in the entire jungle.

When I came within fifteen feet of him, the elf granted me a glance.

"Nice swords," he said. It was a merchant, alright, silver eyes glowing on his face. In this trial, he had taken on the appearance of an elder elf in a white and green adventurer's outfit. The pristine white shirt and trousers made him stand out from the surroundings, like a dove among ravens.

"I've got better, though," he quickly added.

"You're a merchant?" I asked the one question that no entity within the trial could lie about.

"You know that already." He looked at me with a thin smile.

"So, what do you want? There's lots I can offer for the gold you're carrying."

"How about a treasure locket?" I went straight to the point.

"It's a bit early for that. I have other things for sale." A blob of light flashed above his shoulder. After it had faded, a bird was perched there. Feathers of gold and silver made up its plumage, neatly arranged like a noble's coat. A beak and feet of living lightning constantly flickered, making it clear that the creature was all but decorative. In the wild, the creature could take off someone's arm in the blink of an eye, then return for more.

"A genuine adult phoenix-hawk," the merchant announced.

"Taking it will bring you all the closer to completing the trial. Or you can keep it as a familiar," calmly, he reached out and petted the creature with his left hand.

"The choice is yours, really."

"And how much will that cost me?" I played along.

"Most of your gold, a few of your cards," he said in a soft voice.

"Nothing, considering what you'll gain." Almost every merchant said that, and nearly always it was a lie.

"I still prefer a locket," I insisted.

"A locket…" the bird disappeared from the elf's shoulder.

"Or maybe you could use another bow? One that shoots arrows through trees." Nice try. There indeed was a weapon with such qualities, and I was relatively certain that he would be able to sell it, but it would be a mistake for anyone to buy it. That was another reason why I didn't want the rest of my group here. Merchants always took advantage of participant's ignorance, even those that had formed divine pacts.

"If you won't sell me a locket, I want you to attach the rings I have to my ribs." The merchant's expression changed. Gone was the polite smile, replaced by an almost porcelain expression.

"That would still cost you a lot," he said.

"Not to mention the pain involved. Are you sure you want me to go through with it?" If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. I took out two gold ingots from my inventory and held them in front of the merchant's face.

"I want you to make my backpack into a holding ring." I took out two more with my other hand.

"And I want you to put all rings onto my ribs."

"The pain will be excruciating," the merchant warned me.

"And no card or trinket will help you bear it."

"And I want it done before the rest of my group arrives."

"Very excruciating…"

"I know." I shoved all the gold ingots into the merchant's hands.

"Will that be enough?" The elf looked down at the gold, then back at me. A grotesquely unnatural smile formed on his face, stretching all the way up to his eyebrows. Without warning, the gold vanished. The merchant's hands thrust forward into my chest, tearing through cloth and flesh. I clenched my fists, using the healing abilities of my Two of Chalice. My efforts didn't even dull the pain. As the merchant had warned, neither skills nor distractions had any effect.

The merchant's fingers kept delving further, like dull spoons trying to reach my lungs and scoop them out. It was impossible to breathe. I wanted to cough, but the same pain that wrecked my chest held my throat, silently choking me. I had no voice to yell or scream. Asking him to stop was impossible now. A single second broke up into thousands of instances, each lasting for as long as an hour. Time meant nothing anymore. My mind tried to rationalize what was going on, telling me that it would soon be over.

Yet my senses kept on screaming, proving it to be wrong. Pictures of my past flashed before my eyes. I saw people I knew, monsters I faced… I saw participants joke, huddled around a fire, then get replaced by new ones as I slowly aged. Only three more trials, I remembered a goddess saying. After that, you'll be free. I had no idea what that meant. When I had asked the goddess, she told me that she would see me on the other side. Yet, the other side had never come.

I had been left for dead before that, betrayed by the person with the key…

"You actually went through it," the merchant's voice brought me back to reality. I was back in the jungle, standing before the elf. My back felt bare, missing the weight of my backpack, and yet I could still feel it with me. Ten bloody holes stared at me from my chest.

"All your rings are there," the elf's smile had returned to normal, although he still sounded a lot more cheerful than I would have liked.

"There's plenty of space for more, if you would like."

"Next time," I managed to say, looking at my status window. In addition to all my cards and skills, I could see the effects of the rings as well. The backpack was also present as a "special", just like the Pouch of Containment. It also contained a full list of its contents, although they weren't presented like slots. Apparently, all I had to be mindful of was its physical volume. I used my healing skill on my chest. The holes closed up, returning my body and my shirt to their previous state.

"Suit yourself," the merchant said with a slight sigh.

"Anything else?" Ask him for some booster spheres! Serp shouted in my mind.

"I'd like a key," I said. The elf's brows arched.

"A key?" he asked as if unfamiliar with the concept.

"What kind of key?"

"A key that would lead me to all the hidden places."

"You have enough gold for a shortcut." The elf stared at me for a bit longer.

"Ah, you mean a map." A rolled-up piece of parchment appeared in his hand.

"Something that will show you most of the secrets of the jungle. You don't have enough to buy it, but if you give me everything you have left, I'll give you one with some of them." Clearly, the key—whatever it was—couldn't be bought from a merchant; a normal one, at least.

"How much for one that shows me three things?" I changed focus.

"The location of the phoenix-hawks, the elf's camp, and the shortcuts between them."

"That's the same as asking for all the secrets," he laughed.

"For a hundred gold coins, I could give you a map that shows one. Or I'll take a few cards if gold is an issue." The conversation continued back and forth without any significant result. The more I haggled to reduce the price, the more the merchant went on a tangent, offering me something completely different. After a few minutes, the rest of my group arrived, starting an entirely new conversation. Eleonor proved to be the smartest. Instead of cards and weapons, the only thing she requested was food and water.

The price was exorbitantly high, but the goth didn't seem to care, buying a road ration and a flask of water, like someone would buy an overpriced snack at the airport. Carl was next, using his "business skills" to try to get a weapon on the cheap. Once again, he was given a useless trinket—a child's spring—as a complimentary gift and told to be on his way.

"Can you get a map?" I whispered to Eleonor while the merchant was engaged in a long conversation with Cathy. There had to be some link between elves and the goddess Diana, for he was visibly more polite than a moment ago.

"What map?" the goth asked while chewing.

"The camp, the birds, and the shortcut to them," I whispered.

"At least the shortcut." The woman looked at me with the mocking smile of someone who had snatched the last piece of chocolate from the vending machine.

"There's no need for a map. I know exactly where that is." The conversation between Cathy and the merchant continued for several minutes longer. It was difficult to follow it closely. From what I could make out, it had started as a discussion about arrows, then moved to bows, upgrades, enchantments, and an offer to integrate some of her cards into the weapon. It was the first time I had openly seen the topic discussed, and by a merchant at that. Clearly, being a follower of Diana came with a host of advantages.

For all the divine punishment associated with the position, I certainly hoped that was the case. When the final deal was done, and there was nothing further left to trade, the merchant vanished in a flash of light, leaving only the stump behind. We kept on walking. The hours trickled on. Day turned to evening, bringing with it the sounds of the night. Buzzing and chirping filled the air, along with distant howls. None of them were real.

Last run, it had taken me months to figure out that the sounds' only purpose was to keep participants on edge. The rest of the group didn't seem particularly bothered, because all the time I was using the Symbiont card to keep any insects away. At one point, Eleonor stopped, raising her left hand for us to do the same. Without saying a word, she pointed forward between the trees. Normally, it would be impossible to see. Thanks to my Eagle Eye and my Moon necklace, I spotted exactly what she had in mind.

In the distance, three elves were sitting round a small pile of wood. If there was a fire, it had to be special, for I couldn't see any flames. Three. I raised three fingers into the air. Two of them were scouts similar to the one that had attacked us before. The third was something completely different. There was a large black jaguar lying down next to him. The beast was huge, larger than all three elves combined.

Wood Elf Beastmaster Level: 10 Cards: Beastmaster, Four of Rings, Seven of Rings Special: Eagle Eye, Silent Step Familiar: Black Jaguar Weapon: Elf Daggers (x6) The Beastmaster elf was obviously the leader. Bulkier than the scouts, he was the only one wearing a vest of thick brown leather. Multiple daggers were tucked into his belt, with potentially a few more in his boots. Also, I could clearly see the necklace of severed ears hanging around his neck. Long time no see, Earcutter, I thought.

Let's see how things go this time.