Chương 16: Life is valuable. It should be traded

It should be traded Kayzen stepped back and observed the hunched humanoid monster. Its entire body was bulging with pinkish-white muscles, with a face that only had large eyes and a wide mouth. Not a single trace of skin or hair was left on its entire body. Vasser punched the creature right in the stomach, making it clash against the faraway wall. Only now did the two of them look at their surroundings. This was a closed off area of around a hundred square meters.

Judging from the rows of tables and cabinets it looked like some sort of resource hub.

"Need my help?" Kayzen asked although he already knew the answer.

"No need. I'll keep it occupied and analyze things just in case it helps later. You look around."

"On it," Kayzen moved to the closest cabinet but kept his perception around Vasser to be safe. This time though, luck wasn't on his side. As soon as he pulled on the metallic handle the entire cabinet disintegrated into dust. He moved onto the second, third and fourth cabinet, but the result remained the same. Except for the floor and walls, everything he touched turned into dust. Not willing to give up, he moved to the wall with peeling paint and took out tweezers from the Hemogaster backpack.

His target wasn't the paint, but rather, the moss that had covered the entire place. Yet just like before, the moss also turned into dust. Almost as if something was preventing him from interacting with the surroundings.

"Vasser, step back. Let me curse it." While confused, Vasser still stepped back and allowed the hunchbacked figure to get closer. Despite suffering so many blows there was hardly any sign of damage on its body. Just as the monster staggered within the range of 50 meters, it suddenly kneeled over and disintegrated another table. It flailed its arms and scratched its muscles which were dissolving under the hex, yet nothing seemed to work.

On the other side, Kayzen looked on with emotionless eyes and observed his newest hex forged from the Phototoxin shard. With his records as the source and ether as a medium, he had overwritten the fiend's genetic structure. It wasn't a mere biological attack, but rather, the manifestation of records.

"Ugh, that's disgusting." Vasser frowned and covered her nose. Under this closed-off area the pungent stench was getting too hard to bear.

"It's not like I wanted to torture it. I was thinking if I could collect some samples, but that seemed unlikely." As Kayzen said, up ahead the traces of blood and flesh left behind by the monster were turning into grey particles. He cancelled his hex and gestured at Vasser; and in the next moment, a torrent of golden light gathered around her fists.

"In the name of Argia, BEGONE." The monster, the furniture, and even the moss on the wall was turned to dust in a fan-shaped area. Kayzen couldn't help but admit that her abilities looked a tad bit cooler than his own.

"I think you won't get anything of value in these combat zones, since all they leave behind is this," Vasser kicked the pile of grey dust and picked up a broken shard. It was similar in shape like theirs, except it was bluish grey and broken. At the same moment, two miniature portals appeared on the far end of the hall. One was glowing in faint saffron while the other was navy blue. Above them was a projection of an hourglass with golden sand trickling down.

"Is that the event zone you spoke of?" Kayzen asked while looking at the navy-blue portal. It was a surreal thing to witness space itself forming a vortex.

"Yeah. The other one should be a combat zone like this one, with stronger enemies. We'll get more fragments from them. The event zone should be random as I said." Kayzen glanced at the hourglass that was halfway through and focused his attention on the grey ether shard fragment. Right off the bat he could tell one of its uses: Storing records, or rather, abilities. Even without any experiments he was sure he could store some genetic information alongside akashic records to make a carrier shard.

It had limitless uses, still, he decided to choose the event zone. They needed more information. As if she had guessed his answer, Vasser was already standing before the blue portal. The two nodded at one another and stepped into the next zone. This time, there was no dizzying sensation. A cascade of light surged towards them and in the next second, they found themselves in the middle of the road. They could neither speak nor move any part of their body. Time itself had frozen in this zone.

Since Vasser had already informed him beforehand, Kayzen wasn't caught off guard. After a futile attempt at rolling his eyes he looked at the only discernible thing in his vision. Highway Robbery You are the leader of the bandit organization "Vulture." After months of tracking you have intercepted the imperial convoy. What will you do? Throw Bombs. Life is but a spark of brilliance between eternal darkness Rewards: Alchemy grenades x3 Penalty: None Hijack the convoy. This story originates from Royal Road.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Life is valuable. It should be traded. Rewards: Event continuation Penalty: None Move aside. Life is valuable. Don't risk it. Rewards: None Penalty: None Below the table were golden and red shards, symbolizing the two of them. Vasser had told him that in order to move forward a majority in any one option was needed. Since there were only two of them, they both had to select the same option.

Same as before there was also an hourglass above the table. Comparing it with the one before they had approximately three minutes to make the decision.

'No need to think so much.' With the process of elimination Kayzen chose the second option. Third one was a waste and they had alchemy grenades in Erde as well. If his body was able to move then he would be grinning with excitement. Despite the dangers involved this was a thrilling moment. The screen flickered after Vasser also chose the same option. Now, they were given two more choices. Hostages After killing all the guards, you have captured the imperial scholars. Demand ransom from the nearby city.

Rewards: Ether shards x3 Penalty: None Interrogate the hostages to see what they were up to. Rewards: Diary of??? Penalty: None This time Vasser picked the second option even before Kayzen did. They would be getting ether shards from the combat zones as well, so there was no need to go for them right now. As soon as the two of them made their choice, the scene before them changed. They saw the bird's-eye view of the vulture bandits destroying the convoy and kidnapping the scholars.

It was as if the story was being played out based on the choices they'd made. What caught Kayzen's eyes was the technology of this civilization. After seeing the skinless monster, he wasn't surprised that this ruin came from a humanoid race. The people were similar to humans except they had scaly skin and big sensory organs. Their technology, on the other hand, was totally different from Erde. The convoy was traveling on beasts which were half fused with machines.

Some had their legs modified while others housed cart-sized bunkers on their back. The weapons they used were even more varied, from laser guns to flamethrowers and good-old crossbows.

"A pity we can't see anything else." Kayzen spoke in a wistful tone.

"At least this is more interesting than the ruin I've been to. The events there were all about saving or killing some animals." Two portals appeared once again while the duo were talking. This time, they were both the same.

"Let's go right," Vasser took the lead seeing it was the combat zone. Kayzen followed her steps and after another cascade of light, they arrived at the next area. This one was bigger compared to before, and so were the fiends that lay ahead. Hissssss Yellow eyes glowed in the dark environment. The scent of alcohol spread across the area while broken jars and shed skin lay across the floor. Vasser looked at Kayzen and the two knew what to do. This time it would be reckless to charge ahead.

The zone looked like a mix of warehouse and underground cellar. From the numerous eyes and slithering sounds they could hear, the monsters were likely to be snake types. Kayzen stretched out his perception in a cross-shaped area, but due to the large distance, he failed to sense anything of value. He had already predicted such an outcome.

'I can ignore the other three directions due to terrain.' He closed his eyes and imagined a large root spreading towards the front. 10 meters… 50 meters… 80 meters… the farther he went the more resistance he felt. It wasn't an issue about him being able to shape the ether, but rather, the limitation of his mental capacity. The root that he had imagined was one meter in width and hundred meters in length. In total that was an area of a 100 square meters.

The overload of sensory information caused veins to bulge on his forehead.

"You alright?" Vasser looked back while keeping an eye on the monsters.

"Yeah, just give me a minute. Make some distraction to draw them over." Vasser nodded and punched at some of the vats ahead of them. As if provoked by her action, the yellow eyes which were darting cautiously became clearer and clearer in their eyes. The first monster to appear bore a resemblance to a sand boa. Its three-meter-long body had fallen-leaf like marks whereas its eyes were shining like gems. The most striking was its forked tongue, dripping with golden-green liquid.

At the same instant the monster made its appearance, Kayzen managed to stretch his perception all the way to the other end. What he sensed was blurry compared to before; not that it mattered with the size of the monsters. Like a lighthouse in the ocean he scanned the zone from one end to another. Due to Vasser's provocation the monsters were all crawling towards them.

"There's three of them, all same in size. I'll take the closest one to get an idea of their abilities."

"Go ahead," Vasser nodded and stood in front of Kayzen. The fiends didn't wait for their attack either as they slithered towards them from different directions. Their speed was nothing to laugh at either. The one closest to them chose the shortest path while the farthest of the three crawled on the ceiling, leaving the middle one who moved to the side where rows of vats were sealed. Kayzen took out a bone fragment from his backpack and connected it with the ether root. The source and the medium were connected.

He adjusted the root again and again since the snake wasn't moving in a straight line. As soon as the monster reached within fifty meters its entire body was covered by Kayzen's perception. The shard in his hand shattered and fell on the floor. At the same time, the snake frothed from its fanged mouth and started twitching on the floor. Kayzen thought for a second and reported his findings, "The hex isn't connecting well due to resistance or lack of target's blood. You take on all three while I'll weaken them."

"Got it." Vasser nodded and ran towards the monster at the side. While on the way, she also threw a vat at the one crawling on the ceiling, successfully getting the attention of all the monsters. Kayzen on the other hand repeated the same process and used hex on the remaining two. Just like the first one, they too stopped moving and twitched for a while. Contrary to how it appeared they weren't in a fatal situation since the poison of ordeal beans was resisted by them.

However, it was a different case when Vasser reached them.

'It was for times like these that I chose this particular poison.' There were many more potent substances if his goal was to kill the monsters, yet Kayzen had used the ordeal beans for a very simple reason: Unlike other substances which would lose their fatality after they were resisted, this one was different. The snake on the side wall drooled from its mouth and lunged at Vasser. Even an idiot could tell that its saliva would be toxic after seeing the golden-green glow coming out of it.

"Let them drool it out, try to blast them away from afar." No sooner had his words ended when the snake in the middle was sent flying to the other side. Indeed, great minds thought alike. Kayzen retreated all the way to the back. His crimson eyes observed the three targets as the metaphysical roots shaped the ether flow around them. The second ailment of the SLUDGE syndrome erupted under his hex.