Chương 55: Chapter 56: An Offer of Death

"Wait a second," I say.

"Are you suggesting that the person who killed the god got a bunch of skills, then died and repeated the tutorial again and again until they were able to truly challenge the god?"

"Most of your lower classes are based on skills, are they not?" The dragon asks.

"That means that they would be able to qualify for the more advanced classes, the more advanced skills, even at lower levels."

"That would up their odds," I say. I wonder how high a level we could have gotten to if we'd gone through the tutorial again.

"There'd have to be quests," I say.

"We all but ran out of quests when the tutorial ended. I got lucky with a few secret quest." I bet there were more secret quests that someone could find if they were just grinding away skills. Actually, now that I think of it, someone could have spent the whole three days in the park, just practicing skills, then left before the field came up and locked them in the park. There's no need to gain levels, is there? Then again, if they did that, they'd lose a lot of attribute points.

So maybe they'd go out and make sure that they had reached a high enough level to offset the losses at death, and then spent the rest of their time just grinding away at skills. That would allow them to get a lot of skills really quickly. And yeah, it would let the get access to advanced classes.

"That doesn't seem like enough, though," I say.

"Even if they got advanced classes. Even if they made it to level thirty by the end of the tutorial, with an advanced class and everything, I don't see them taking on a god." To be fair, I don't know how powerful a god is. What was it they said? Mythic elite at the very least? How many times their level do they get in hit points then? The dragon has five thousand times its level in hit points.

"What level are the minor gods?"

"I have met a few," the dragon says.

"None I have met were lower than fifty." Fifty times five thousand is a quarter of a million. Figure a god is maybe double that, so that's a half a million hit points. That's mind boggling. Still, if there was time to upgrade your skills – and your spells. The spells stayed consistent too. So if you got a hold of some good spells or abilities, and maxed those out, you might be able to do some pretty serious damage. Also the equipment didn't go away when we died in the tutorial.

So you could get good equipment and level it up to its maximum. Didn't we talk about doing this? About how if we had stayed in the tutorial for another run through we could've gotten even better, even stronger?

"How long do you think they stayed in the tutorial?" I ask.

"That I do not know," the dragon says.

"But I know that your kind have been trickling in to our world for the last year, and the god died only in the last two weeks, as you said." So possibly there were fifty weeks in between. That's 350 days. Potentially 116 times through the tutorial. Yeah, you could get pretty beefy doing that. There's probably a limit to what level you could be, but your stats would be out of this world. And so would your skills, abilities, and spells.

I don't know that you could solo a god at that point, but if you had a group of people who were just as committed as you were, it would be possible.

"That's incredible," I say.

"Whoever that is, whatever level they are, they are way more powerful than they look."

"Indeed," the dragon says. Then it pauses for a moment and asks somewhat idly, "how many times have you died?"

"Twice," I say. Why?"

"I am going to cast a spell on you," the dragon says.

"Do not be alarmed. I am just trying to suss out where your stats are and figure something out."

"I'm above what I've lost," I tell him.

"I've recovered enough levels to offset what I lost in dying. If that's what you're trying to figure out."

"It is. So if you were able to do so, it stands to reason that our mystery god slayer was able to do so as well."

"That was my thinking," I say.

"Maybe by a lot. They might have ridiculously high stats. Which I do not."

"But your stats are higher than one who has reached your level without ever dying. That is significant."

"Why is that significant?"

"Because someone must be ready to fight this god slayer." The dragon says.

"And likely the only way to do this is to follow a similar path." I don't like the way the conversation is going. I do not want to die again.

"There has to be another way," I say.

"Other than constantly dying every few days."

"I cannot grant you power," the dragon says.

"The most I could grant you is experience, and then only if you defeat me. But I can grant you death, and a chance to climb ever higher with your stats."

"Won't I lose everything though?"

"Your items are not soul bound?"

"Just my bag."

"Put everything you wish to keep in your bag, then. They will come with you." I really don't like the way this is going.

"I don't want to die."

"I can provide you with great treasure, if you are willing to go after the god slayer."

"Can't I go after him without dying?"

"Each time you die, you will rise up more powerful. You have said so yourself." His logic is hard to get around. But still.

"I don't want to die," I say.

"That is natural," the dragon agrees.

"But you will revive."

"It'll take forever for me to offset the losses," I say.

"I don't have that many quests completed." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"You will be reduced to level one," the dragon says, as if its still considering things.

"But you will level up quickly. You said so yourself. It took you three days to reach level twenty four. That is an astonishing pace."

"That was in the tutorial level," I say.

"There were people to help me. And there was a constant supply of monsters to slay. It was way more dangerous than this forest."

"I will help you," the dragon says.

"I will help you regain your levels. Come back here after you respawn, and I will help you gain levels quickly. We will hunt together. I will do the lion's share of the work, and you will reap the benefits." Is this dragon really offering to power level me? It's a hard offer to turn down, really. But it comes back to the whole "I don't want to die" thing.

"I'd still rather not die. Maybe when I have better items to keep, it would make sense. But right now, I need to gain more levels to help offset the death. I've only just exceeded what I lost." That's not entirely true. It only took until level 17 to offset what I lost. I actually did that pretty quickly. But if I can come up with a good reason for this dragon not to kill me, I'm willing to stretch the truth a little bit. He sniffs at the air, and there's a brief rumble in his chest. Right.

He said he can smell lies. Nonetheless, I get a rank of something called Subterfuge, and my Negotiation goes up a rank as well.

"So you would prefer to get to a higher level before dying and respawning," the dragon says.

"I can understand this, though it may be that you are wasting time doing so. The early levels come more quickly than the later ones do. It will be easier to recoup your losses if you die sooner."

"Maybe," I say.

"But if I'm going to catch up to this god slayer, I need to maximize every life."

"This is true. And interesting. Take your bow back out and string it," he says. It seems he's come to some kind of decision. I take out my bow and restring, afraid that I'm about to fight a dragon.

"Climb on my back," the dragon says.

"What?"

"Climb onto my back. I will fly us somewhere to help you gain more levels quickly. We will get you to my level. Then I will kill you, so that you can restart." That is one hell of an offer. I wish I had more quests to fulfill. I also wish I had the impression that the dragon was giving me a choice. But it feels like- "and if I say no?"

"Then I will slay you now, and hunt for you when you respawn to make sure we can do this again." Yeah. That's what I was afraid of.

"Why are you so keen on me being the one that goes through this?"

"You have already died twice," the dragon says.

"You are the furthest along the path that the god slayer took. Ergo, you are the one that makes the most sense to continue along this path."

"What about my friends, though? They're pretty far along the path too."

"Would you like me to kill them as well?" I mean, that would get us all to start over together. But no. No, I don't want him to kill my friends. I don't want him to kill me.

"Is there any way to dissuade you?" I ask.

"To opt out of this battle you're trying to set up with the god slayer?"

"If you are not willing to work towards my aims, then I have no reason to keep you alive," the dragon says.

"You have no reason to kill me, either."

"True," the dragon says.

"Though you are a high level, and killing you will grant me a fair amount of experience myself. Perhaps not enough for me to level, but a fair deal." Shit. Dragons level too? Of course they do. Everything levels, right? It just might take them longer to do it. I hope it takes them longer. Wait. It has to take them longer. If it didn't, the dragon would just gain a bunch of levels really quickly and then go after this god slayer himself.

If you can gain levels quickly, there's no need for someone else who can level up quickly. And he wouldn't have been surprised at how quickly I level up. So they level, but not as fast as I do.

"Why is it so important to you that someone kill the god slayer?"

"The minor gods are all dragons," he says.

"I hope to become one someday, and I don't like the idea of someone out there slaying us."

"But if he can slay you, and I can slay him, doesn't that mean that I can slay you? Won't I become someone you'd fear?"

"You are not the type to go around slaying gods," the dragon says.

"We have established that."

"Even if I do kill him, he'll just level back up, even more powerful than before."

"Not if you defeat him without killing him. We could capture him. Or set his spawn point somewhere we control and kill him until he loses so many stat points that he is no longer a threat." He wants to spawn camp this guy? That seems cruel. Still, I suppose this god slayer guy started it.

"It sounds like your plan has a lot of holes in it," I say.

"Are you sure I can't convince you to try something else?"

"Like what?"

"Like train a bunch of us to high enough levels that we can be a threat, and send us all after the god slayer at once?"

"You would not be as powerful as he is, even at the same level."

"But we'd out number him."

"That is assuming he is a lone wolf in this situation."

"If he's not, it would take a whole lot more than just me to do this."

"You are right," the dragon says.

"I will need to recruit more of your kind. Climb onto my back."

"I don't want you to kill me." I say.

"Climb onto my back." the voice sounds more commanding, less patient. I think he really intends to kill me if I say no. I might still be able to convince him to let me go. But if he wants to power level me a bit at this point first, I'm not going to say no. I climb onto his back, fitting myself between two spikes that come out of his spine, right between the wings, lodging my feet under some scales.

"Is that okay?" I ask as my stick my boots under the scales.

"It is mildly uncomfortable," the dragon says.

"But I believe that will keep you in place well, and I can handle the discomfort. I am going to lift off now." It takes another huge bite of the bear, swallowing the meat quickly as it finishes its meal.

"Hold tight." I can feel the power of the dragon as it bunches its legs up beneath it. It doesn't quite feel like I'm sitting on a rocket, but that's the closest experience I can think of that I imagine would be like this. The power builds under its legs, and it flares its wings out wide, then pulls them taught against its body. The dragon then leaps into the air, its legs propelling us up at least thirty feet.

The wings flare out and catch the air, and with a few mighty flaps, the dragon seems to gain control, and it starts to gain altitude. I look down at the little clearing that it made and see that it didn't just land flat. It created the hill as it was slowing itself down. It came in for a landing directly, and it looks like it kind of crashed when it was taking out the dire bear, like it skidded along the ground, wrenching trees out by their roots and creating the small hill that it was leaning against.

I notice all this, and then we're flying up high enough that I can see the world curving. In a few minutes, we're speeding along and passing the edge of the forest. This time, the forest ends in a more rocky plain, with hills and mountains starting almost immediately after the trees ends. I can't tell how fast we're going, but I don't think I've ever gone this fast before. Not even in a car. If I had to guess, we're going in the hundreds of miles an hour as the dragon darts across the landscape.

Not quite fast enough for a sonic boom, so I know we're not going that fast, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could have flown back to Elmspire in less than half an hour. He flies us across the barren landscape, only slowing down when he sees a herd of creatures moving along the ground. He stops flying forward, flapping his wings wildly to keep in a sort of hovering position. Then he turns his head to me.

"Shoot them," he commands me, gesturing down to the creatures on the ground. They're way out of my range, but since they're below us, it doesn't much matter. The arrow will be pulled by gravity, and it will reach terminal velocity. The only question is whether or not terminal velocity is fast enough for the arrow to actually do damage. They used to say that if you dropped a penny from high enough, it would destroy a car. But I heard that isn't true.

The penny can only go so fast, and that fast isn't fast enough to destroy a car or kill a person. It might hurt a person, but it wouldn't kill them. Maybe the arrow is the same way.

"Can you get closer?" I yell. The dragon chortles.

"Just make sure you shoot one of them," he says.