Chapter 25

Leon woke up, staring at the ceiling. Somehow, he hadn’t noticed when Ava had crept closer and now laid with one arm and a leg over his body. He carefully moved them, sat up, and put on his backpack. Both of his companions still slept. Usually, if one wanted to, one would wake up when completely restored, like he’d done now, but he assumed they didn’t want to wait for the time it would take for his fatigue to go down with nothing but each other’s company.

Info, camp, he thought, and it displayed the information and time. Out of ten hours, a little over two were left. He listened to the side of the tent. Something paced around out there, meaning a chest had opened while they rested. Leon froze. What if more than one chest opened because they slept so long? What he could assume, from the little fatigue he’d reclaimed without the tent, was that another chest automatically opened after about half an hour after finishing the last one. He’d slept for a little over seven hours, and there were seven chests left when they decided to rest. For all he knew, all monsters could be waiting for them outside.

Leon drew his long sword and opened the flap. Two green imps hung with their claws in the chains over the portal, chattering with high-pitched sounds, and four wolves sprung toward the tent. Leon backed and let the flap settle. Only six. Six monsters for chest six. And all of them were fourth level.

He hadn’t thought about it earlier, but most of the monsters, except in the first chest, had been fourth or fifth level. Yet the system had calculated the 80 strongest ones. That could only mean that the levels would soon rise, together with the amount of monsters they met each time. If it followed the formula it had kept to so far, they would meet a number of enemies that corresponded to the number of the chests they opened. If that held true to the last chest… they would have a challenge ahead. Especially if the levels of the monsters rose. Leon looked back at Hert and Ava. Maybe he could make use of the tent one more time.

Leon stepped out of the tent and held his sword at the ready. Then the wolves launched.

*******

Half an hour later, Leon laid down on the leather. He closed his eyes to sleep, to get back the fatigue he’d spent. It had worked well to let the monsters go to attack, slash out at them, and then dive back into the tent and wait for them to back off. It was a fail-safe method, as long as he stayed close by. Too bad the camp had a time limit, or he’d exploit it more.

Even though he’d jumped in and out of it more than a couple of times, Ava and Hert never woke.

Leon set the in-game timer to wake him when his fatigue was restored again, which would be around the time when the text had maybe twenty minutes left. Then, he changed it to half an hour from now. It would only restore about 6% of the fatigue he’d built up, but that would make it easier to see if his assumption was correct.

The memories didn’t seem to play until everyone was awake, but if the chest’s monsters had been defeated, it wouldn’t be impossible that the next one’s enemies would arrive after a time, memory played or not. He didn’t really care if they didn’t see what memories lay in store for them. He just needed to beat the monsters and get out of here alive with Ava and Hert. That was what mattered. If Ava and Hert would sleep until the camp disappeared, maybe he’d have the time to take out the monsters, if they spawned, and go back to sleep to recoup some more energy. With that thought, he drifted off to sleep.

Thirty minutes later, he woke just as Hert stretched out a hand to shake him.

“Crap,” Leon said. “Hoped you’d sleep for longer.”

“You don’t enjoy my company?” Hert asked in a sour tone and pulled back the hand.

Leon quickly explained what he’d found, and Hert nodded. Then they both walked out of the camp. No new monsters had appeared.

“Well, at least you earned us one chest basically free,” Hert said. “Go lay down. Even if your fatigue is only a couple of percent, you can regain some more—”

He stopped as Ava opened the flap and stepped out. The camp collapsed behind her and faded away.

Hert swore as the scene changed around them. “You just had to go out of there without asking, didn’t you? Now we only have two camps left, yours and mine.”

“Good morning to you, too,” Ava said and yawned. “Wow, another memory already?” She took out her staff.

“You have a camp, too?” Leon asked, feeling his heart lighten a little.

Hert didn’t answer as his grim face shifted with the scenery. They stood in an aula of sorts, full of elegantly clad people chatting in groups. Flowers stood in enormous arrangements around the red walls and servers in black and white carried trays with champagne glasses, stopping here and there to gather and refresh empty ones.

Memory-Hert stood nearby, sipping at the bubbly liquid. He still had hair, though the bushiness had gone down a little. He almost spat out his sip as a broad man in a tight suit patted his back.

“Good job! You really deserved it.”

Memory-Hert gave an awkward smile. “Thanks. But your reportage about the orphanage made for worthy competition.”

“It was nothing against your piece about the drug cartel. Take the win with pride, because next time, I’ll definitely take it from you.”

“Where are the monsters?” Ava looked around, hugging her staff.

“Leon beat them,” Hert said.

“What do you mean?”

“Shh.” A soft smile played across his face. “Here she comes.”

Leon followed his gaze towards a staircase to the left. A slim woman in a soft blue dress and with hair twisted into a bun flowed down the steps, caressing the railing with thin fingers and giggling at something her friend said. Then, she suddenly looked over to their group and blushed, waved to her friend and hurried over to Memory-Hert.

“Congratulations,” she said, and Memory-Hert looked at her like in a daze. She threw him a dazzling smile. “Cat’s got your tongue?”

“N-No,” Memory-Hert stuttered. “Thank you.”

“Father was really impressed. You really know how to move people with your writing.” She touched his elbow. “No need to blush.”

“I—I… Thanks.”

“Come, let’s have a chat. I want to hear more about your adventures.” She pulled Memory-Hert through the room and to a different one on the left side.

“Should we follow them?” Leon asked, but as the words fell from his mouth, the scene changed. Not to the black stone room, but to another memory. His own.

‘6 of 12 CHESTS OPENED

22 of 80 MONSTERS SLAIN’

The text faded and Leon frowned as the scenery grew into the driveway outside the hospice. Jane stood there in her black cap, puffing on a cigarette, as Memory-Leon walked up to her.

Why this memory? And why didn’t they get to get back to the room between the memories? Was it because he slew the monsters beforehand?

“Was the traffic okay?” Jane asked, looking toward the entrance. Thick and wet snow started falling around them.

“Sorry you had to work when it happened,” Memory-Leon said, and stroked her arm. She twitched, so he moved back.

“It’s cold,” Ava complained. “Why does it have to snow?”

“Yung,” Leon said under his breath.

“What?” Ava said.

Then four wolves leaped toward them, kicking up chunks of snow and their breaths created puffs of smoke. Leon pulled out the long sword, feeling tears gather in his eyes. This was why he was here. The memory was so fresh, yet it wasn’t.

Hert readied his shield beside him.

“Not my patient, anyway,” Jane said. “But news travel fast when one of the staff’s relatives…” She cleared her throat. “You didn’t need to come.”

“Of course I did.” Memory-Leon sighed. “How’s Mom? Does she know?”

The three level four wolves launched at Leon, but the level five one tried to stop. Its paws skidded on the ground and bashed into Hert’s shield as the three fell on Leon. Leon swung his sword, hit one, but the ground was too slippery with his soleless leather boots and he fell, holding the blade sideways and pressing a hand on the metal. Two of the wolves hung over the edge, snapping their jaws at him, while the third bit into his leg and started pulling. The coldness seeped into his clothes, and though his body heated from the strength of holding back the wolves, he shivered.

Jane shook her head and scraped at the caked snow with her boot. “She hasn’t woken up yet. Maybe that’s for the best.”

“You don’t mean that,” Memory-Leon said.

Leon heard a thud, and the searing pain in his leg changed to a dull ache.

“And there!” Ava shouted, and Leon heard another thud.

He raised his knee and kicked out. One of the wolves hanging over his sword slipped, cutting itself on the blade, and blood spewed out over Leon’s chest. It sank down, leaving a message about a critical hit and Warrior’s Build activating.

“How long has she been sleeping now?” Memory-Leon said.

“Five days,” Jane said. “I know last time was seven, but I think it will be longer this time.” Jane snuffed out the cigarette and Memory-Leon followed her to the staff door.

The wolf hanging over his sword snapped its jaws at him and in his peripheral, Ava ran past with the wolf she’d hit at her heels. Leon tried kicking at the wolf above him, but it was in a bad position. So he kneed upward. It hit, but the wolf didn’t move.

“The progression is slower in women. We know that,” Memory-Leon said. “You and Mom have more time. You should make use of it.”

Jane’s voice filled with anger. “Uncle just died. Mom has maybe two years left. Two and a half at the most. Our aunts have maybe four years before they die, too.”

“Help me,” Ava shouted. “There’s more coming!”

Leon heaved the sword upward and gained enough leverage to push the beast aside. He landed on his knee and slashed out. The wolf yelped, but Leon got up on his feet before it did. He pushed the sword deep into the furry chest and spun around.

The wolf that slid into Hert’s shield had come back to attack him, but no matter how it launched, Hert could block it with his shield. He was way more proficient as a tank than Leon had come to believe, but Hert still didn’t dare to lower it to land an actual blow on the almost feral creature.

Jane continued. “You’re really lucky if you get more than three years before the blood in your body starts to aggressively attack the muscles. Even though I’m a woman, it won’t be more than ten years before my body does the same to me.”

Leon looked at Ava, coming rushing toward him, with the wolf close after. As she passed, Leon swung the sword, and it hit the unaware wolf in the side, knocking it back, but not killing it. Then Leon saw the three level four imps. They would have taken him by surprise if they didn’t move at a glacial pace. Leon let out a snort at the sight of the creatures taking shivering steps toward them, holding their green, almost gray, arms around themselves as they left patterns through the snow. The wolf launched toward Leon.

“This isn’t a time to be smiling,” Jane said.

“If I’m lucky, I’ll get seven,” Memory-Leon pointed out.

“You won’t,” Jane said. “You know that for each generation, it takes less time for the disease to kick in.”

Memory-Leon stepped forward and hugged her. “Maybe they’ll find a cure until then. I know you don’t believe that, but we have to believe in something.”

Jane stood completely rigid for a few seconds, but then she slowly raised her arms to hug him back. “I know.”

Leon landed a blow on the wolf as it jumped, and it collapsed beside him, the weight of the hit spraying up newly fallen snow. Leon turned from the imps to help Hert when the scenery changed. Instead of sending them back to the stone room, they stood in Uncle Jerry’s hospice room.

Memory-Leon caressed his uncle’s arm with soft fingers, and red streaks formed in their path. The face, as with the rest of the body, was skeletal, and there was nothing to prove there were any muscles remaining under the skin.

“This is our future,” Memory-Leon mumbled. Then he sank onto the floor, crying.

Leon stopped in his tracks, suddenly unable to move. Ava ripped at his arm.

“Behind you!”

Dazed, Leon turned around. The creatures that reminded him of bundles of twigs had regained some of their green color, like they had thawed. They screeched and leaped forward. Leon looked to the side for a split second, and seeing Hert could still hold the wolf back, he readied his swords for the imps.

Jane stepped toward Memory-Leon. “The coroner says they won’t be able to come until tomorrow because of the snow.” She gripped his arm. “Come, let’s get you into a room so you can sleep.”

As the imps launched at him, the scenery changed again, back to the stone room. Leon swung the sword, hit one of them, then his foot snagged on the stairs leading to the portal. The hit creature screeched and backed off, holding the glowing wound. The imps chattered at each other, and the two others joined their injured comrade. Leon scrambled to his feet and shot toward Hert, swinging his sword in an arch. It hit the wolf’s side, and it haunched down, snarling at Leon.

“Thanks,” Hert said from behind his shield.

Before the wolf sprang at him, Leon ran a few steps forward, kicked its chest, and slashed down with the sword. The wolf yelped and fell to the side.

Claws ripped into his back, and he screamed. The sword was too big to hit at the creature on his back, so he threw an arm over his shoulder, hit something sticky, and grabbed at it. Once he finally got a grip, he bent over, flinging the imp onto the stone floor. Back aching, he pierced the sword into its chest.

Ava had been shouting a continuous tirade of “no, no, no” while Leon fought, and he saw her running by the righthand wall, clutching her staff, and the two red-eyed imps chasing after her. She switched direction toward Leon and Hert, and the focused imps didn’t see the sword or the shield coming. Leon’s imp fell down, scratching at its throat, as the one that ran into Hert’s shield sprawled back. Ava took her staff and stabbed it into the writhing, hurt monster, finishing it off with her slight damage. Leon did the same to the dazed one.

“That’s what you get!” Ava shouted, kicking at the dead imp as it faded away.

‘7 of 12 CHESTS OPENED

29 of 80 MONSTERS SLAIN’

Then the space around them shifted. Rooms opened up in the walls and changed into a dimly lit living room full of dancing, scantily dressed people. Loud music boomed from the speakers, and Memory-Ava, wearing a tight black dress, climbed up on a table, holding a wine bottle raised over her head while she moved to the beats. A slim brunette pulled at her arm, shouting for her to come down.

“What is the point with chests if we don’t get the chance to rest between opening them?” Hert groaned. Somehow, it was like his voice was separate from the music, and was fully audible, just like their memories’ echo-y voices were, though not as strong.

As the brunette gave up on trying to convince Memory-Ava and simply pulled her down from the table, six wolves ran in from different sides of the room; four level five, and two level six. Behind them came two level five imps. Leon stared at the levels. He’d definitely get exhausted before this fight was over. He was already at 37%.

Leon grabbed Ava and Hert, and they sprinted behind a beerpong table, where someone just scored in a glass. Cheers erupted as the wolves sprang forward, stopping just on the other side. Two wolves paced beside the table and two crept under it.

“Why are you ruining my fun? Don’t you have a good time?” Memory-Ava said to the brown-haired girl as the latter pulled her toward the wall, standing close to Leon and the others.

“You need to stop. What are you doing?” the friend asked, ripping the wine bottle from her hands and putting it on a side table.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m having a good time.”

Hert crouched and held his shield and hammer under the table while Leon turned toward the wolf on his right. It launched at him, and Leon kicked it down and followed up with a slash. Ava held her staff out horizontally and the wolf crashed into it.

“Your father cut you off and the first thing you do is to continue to party and play around.”

Leon kneed the creature’s head as it tried to stand and struck it again. Behind him, Ava’s wolf snarled and snapped its jaws. Hert, put in an awkward position, still managed to hold back the monsters under the table with his shield and the broadside of his hammer.

“Maya, sweetie,” Memory-Ava caressed her friend’s cheek. “He didn’t cut me off. He just continued to nag me, and I couldn’t stand it, so I moved.”

“Is that so?” Maya said and pulled out a magazine from the side table dividing the pair from Leon and the others..

Leon finished off the wolf and turned toward Ava as the two imps sprung over the table. He changed targets to them, watching their claws. There was too little space between the table and the wall to fight them efficiently with the sword. As the two imps flew toward him, he ducked. They slammed into the wall behind him and fell down.

Imps might be fast, but that meant they couldn’t stop in time. Leon stomped down on one imp’s arm and threw his sword into the next, creating a searing hole in its chest as another wolf launched at him from the side. He tried to dodge again, but the imp he’d pinned down slashed at his leg with its claws, then held tight. The wolf barreled into Leon’s body, slamming him to the side and he fell into Ava. She stumbled over with a yelp.

Maya read the headline out loud. “Avalene, the Party Queen. Is that really what you want with your life? You’re smart. And after everything your father has done—”

Memory-Ava pulled at the magazine and threw it aside. “Don’t be boring. Come on, let’s have some shots. It will make you funner.”

Ava pressed the staff toward the wolf while Leon spun around to shield his throat with his arm. The fangs tore into the flesh, and he screamed out. The imp let go of the leg and came up on its feet, then jumped up on the wolf, where it climbed over the fur to scratch at Leon’s face. The wolf let go of Leon’s arm and threw its head upward, hitting the imp in the chin. The wolf snarled and snapped after it as it fell, but then turned its attention back to Leon. The diversion had been enough. Leon had taken out the short sword and pierced it through the wolf’s throat. It fell lifeless to the side.

“How are you doing?” Hert asked.

With no time to get up on his feet, he rolled onto the imp and grabbed it by the throat, bashing its head and body to the wall. As the imp screeched and slashed out with its claws, Leon buried the short sword in its chest, leaving a burning hole. He gasped and came up on his feet, dismissing the notification that he was bleeding. He put the sword back into the inventory and picked up the long one that laid where he’d fallen.

Maya ripped her arm from Memory-Ava’s grip, fury written over her face. “Seriously, Ava, you need to wake up. Stop this. You don’t have any money, you don’t have a job—”

Memory-Ava laughed. “You worry too much. I have ways to get around.” Memory-Ava pointed to one guy by the window. “He’s a real estate agent.” She pointed to another, “He’s a lawyer.” She pointed to a third, “He’s into stocks. They’ve been very generous.”

“You okay, Hert?” Leon asked as he jumped over Ava. Just as he did, the wolf’s strength defeated her, and she got pushed back. Leon’s foot snagged on the wolf’s head, and though it knocked the wolf back onto the floor, it sent Leon down, too.

“They’re backing off,” Hert shouted, and a second later, the two wolves under the table leaped toward Leon. He rolled on his back and kicked out at the first one, but the second landed with its paws on Leon’s stomach.

“Heal!” Ava shouted.

Out of nowhere, Hert came with his hammer, bashing it into the side of the wolf’s head. Its body flung to the side, into the standing wolf. Hert stepped over Leon and swung the hammer in an upward motion, sending the dazed wolf into the wall. Hert raised the hammer above his head and slammed down. The wolf laid lifeless. Then he kicked the wounded one and finished it with another blow.

“Eventually, they’ll want something more than flirting,” Maya said as Hert pulled Leon up on his feet. Ava stood with flushed cheeks, looking at the scene, yet her expression remained placid. “Please, Ava. You have to get a grip. Get a job or beg forgiveness from your father. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

Memory-Ava smiled. “I’ll manage, just like I’ve always done. People just can’t resist me.”

“Your act of shifting between lamb and lion without remorse or afterthought will land you in a bad spot some day. A day where no one is there to protect you.”

Memory-Ava snorted, shook her head, and trotted off to one of the men she’d pointed out. She grabbed his arm and kissed him on the cheek, then took the drink from his hand and chugged it down. The man smiled.

The scenery changed. The remaining wolf got up on its paws and jumped toward them. Leon finished it with a slash as they found themselves back in the stone room.

‘8 of 12 CHESTS OPENED

37 of 80 MONSTERS SLAIN’