Chương 11

"Level 90. Nine-ty!" Oliver said for what must have been the hundredth time.

"It doesn't matter how well suited my class is for infiltration and elimination of undead. I cannot kill a Vampire Lord at level 90."" I am not asking you to kill the Vampire Lord," Benjamin said through his little drone.

"Of course I am aware of the level discrepancy. That's precisely why I cannot ask another experimentee to act in your place. Your class is perfect for this mission. I simply need you to sneak inside and leave behind one of my spider drones near the server."

"If you have drones, just use them to sneak in! Why am I necessary at all?"" I've attempted to do exactly what you propose on my own and all of my attempts have been soundly crushed. And not only at your biome's server. All biomes appear to have some sort of protection. I need a person on site to manually assist me." Oliver stood up and began pacing around in the windowless apartment. The Vampire Lord. Just the sight of the creature had been enough to scare Oliver into hiding for over a week. But…

like Benjamin said. He didn't need to fight the monster. Just sneak past it to wherever the server was inside the castle. He gripped his black hair and tugged it. It was absolute insanity. Just like everything else that had happened to him these last five years. There was still that chance though… could he really turn down a chance at escape? Even a slim one? To see the outside world again. To meet with his family. To enact vengeance on his prison wardens. Those dream-like thoughts filled him with a deep longing.

"Fine. I'll do it." He straightened his hat and squared his shoulders. The rational part of him couldn't believe the words left his mouth. But this at least gave him some sort of direction. And, if there was some sort of hint to where the 101st biome might be, Oliver was willing to bet his life it would be near the scariest monster he'd ever seen.

"I'll go as well," Kiki said. Oliver gave her the side-eye. The trim of her armor continued to glow, even inside. Their combat with the peace officers proved her to be a terrifying fighter; however, Oliver wasn't exactly keen on fighting his way forward.

"Your class doesn't exactly lend itself to stealth," he said. He still recalled running from those mech dogs earlier. Kiki had not been particularly helpful in that escape. Well, besides when she chopped several of the robots into scrap with her katana. If nothing else, the [Neon Samurai] definitely had skills that aided her swordsmanship.

"Stealth may not be all you need," Kiki said.

"No one can match me in close combat. You won't be sneaking all the way there. Better to have someone on hand with more than a shovel for when your life goes side-ways." Oliver shouldered his silver shovel and opened his mouth to defend his faithful weapon but was cut off by the drone speakers." It is true,"Benjamin agreed." Kiki is incredibly talented with a blade. I won't insist you take her with you, but I do encourage you to consider it. Otherwise, I might have a different mission for her to embark on."

"What sort of mission?" Kiki asked, perking up." The biome in the opposite direction. Known in the files as Giant's Garden Biome. I lack as solid of a lead as with Nightmare Biome, but there is a chance we could access the server there. And we need at least two, perhaps three, more servers to gain complete access to the administrative privileges I'm seeking."

"What's that biome like?" Kiki asked.

"Giants everywhere to fight? How big?" Oliver, on the other hand, had a completely different image of the place. He thought it sounded like an entire biome inside the body of a living giant. Traveling through a prison of flesh in a constant battle against internal parasites and the immune system. That sounded horrifying to him. Kiki's innocent, and far more likely, assumption allowed some tension to leave his shoulders as he realized his background likely made him jump to the most morbid conclusions.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more." No. It's more like a normal backyard garden. Only everything is sized up considerably. With insects the size of elephants. Not a pleasant place." It sounded nicer than what Oliver had imagined. But he didn't voice that thought.

"What classes are the test subjects over there?" Kiki asked." Unimportant."

"What do you mean, 'unimportant?'" Oliver cut in.

"Are they dead?"" No. We wouldn't have merged with their biome if nobody survived. But… they're not exactly alive either. The three still there are essentially brain-dead. They've been strung up by a pack of void spiders who've been draining their fluids regularly from their cracked skulls for a time somewhere between two to four years. The venom keeps them 'alive' in name only." That sounded like a monster he'd encounter in his own biome. Maybe the others weren't quite as peaceful as he'd first assumed.

"Grim," Kiki said.

"I should go and end their lives. Set them to rest."

"And claim the free levels their deaths offer?" Oliver asked dryly. Kiki froze, her eyes widened.

"What? No. I didn't—"" That's not what Kiki meant,"Benjamin explained." She genuinely was thinking of freeing them because that's what she would want done to her in that position." Kiki nodded.

"Exactly."

"Well, going that direction sounds like suicide, regardless." Not that going back to his biome sounded safer.

"You can join me as I travel if you want. But you need to listen if I ask you to stay behind when we reach the castle itself." With that decision out of the way, Oliver decided he was going to take advantage of this final chance to rest somewhere that seemed decently safe. Getting ready to sleep, Oliver activated Summon Sanctuary. A few minutes later, a coffin smashed through the glass coffee table. Kiki cried out in surprise and started demanding explanations, sword in hand.

Oliver remained silent and let Benjamin attempt to explain his skill to her. Meanwhile, he opened the coffin and started rummaging through his stored things. He found a spare shirt and jacket. The enchantment on his current one now in as good of condition as the physical rag hanging from his shoulders, Oliver swapped the destroyed jacket out for the enchanted version.

As he removed his old shirt, he noted that the fresh circle of skin from where he'd taken the blast to the chest earlier had regrown, utterly unblemished. He wished he had another health potion or two on hand.

"Hey, Benjamin," he called over to the drone, interrupting a discussion between him and Kiki about supplies.

"Do you have a way to get us supplies? I could use some enchantments on my clothes, and I'm down to my last health potion."

"Enchantments? Health potion?" Kiki repeated, confused." Different biomes have different resources. Ours lacks magical materials like you might find in your biome. There are nanobot pills that repair damaged bodies though. Unfortunately, they also are laced with a tracking system the peace officers use to surveil everyone's actions."

"They are?" Kiki shot up.

"Worry not. I neutralized the ones in your bloodstream long ago with my own nanobots. However, doing so with Oliver might prove more difficult. Not only because it takes time to interrupt and corrupt the opposing nanobots, but also because he uses magic like health potions which could potentially create a clashing combination. I'm uncertain how the two will mix." Benjamin offered him several other pieces of equipment and Oliver surveyed his options.

The gear they used here was powerful and sturdy, but didn't quite fit Oliver's stealth mission. They liked plasma which was very much not the style he was looking for. He privately hoped he might be able to find equipment along the way, like he had in the mushroom village on the way here. In fact, Oliver considered that he might actually be able to revisit that town on their return trip.

But his hopes were dashed when he recalled that the drones wouldn't be capable of carrying him all the way across the biome in one go. They'd need to travel back in a different direction. Instead of sleeping in his sanctuary, Oliver claimed the couch for himself. If Kiki was plotting to lop off his head for an extra level, he figured she would have done so already. It was smarter to save the sanctuary's timer for when he needed a safe place to rest in the future.

He slept for the first time since emerging from the flaming wreckage of Ventri. And apparently his body was exhausted, because he slept for over eleven hours before he wearily stretched and sat up on the couch. Ready to face the new day.