Chapter 14

Escthew (I)

“No way!! I used to go there when I was a senior in high school!” Cain exclaimed jubilantly, causing Amelia to laugh freely and Justin behind the two to scoff and look away coldly and coolly. “What are the chances?”

“I know, right?” she added. “We might have even met each other and just don’t remember.”

“No way,” Cain shook his head. “I may be forgetful when it comes to numbers, but smokin’ hot girls like you? I’d remember you gals even in death.”

“Oh, I like the confidence,” she chuckled lightly, curling her lips into a smile.

“My confidence’s got nothing on your courage, though,” Cain said, glancing back at Justin. “To think you walked back in here even after finding the exit just ‘cause four idiots decided to play soldiers.”

“... I’m just glad they’re safe,” Amelia said, sighing. “Thank you for looking out for them.”

“Oh, no problem,” Cain grinned, meeting Justin’s resentful gaze. “That’s what grown-ups ought to do, no? Besides, I’ve a kid of my own. I can sympathize.”

“Oh? You do?”

“Yeah, a daughter.”

“How old is she?”

“Nine.”

“Ah, such a cute age.”

“Yeah,” Cain nodded. “She’s in that period just before bursting into a full-on rebellion and outright refusing to talk with her dad, but also not too young to the point she’ll forget everything. How about you?”

“Me? Kids? Ha ha, no way, no way. I’m still half-a-kid myself...”

“Eh, I was more curious about the boyfriend part, though.”

“He he, you’re rather difficult to resist, I must admit,” she said. “But I’m afraid I’m already taken.”

“... aah, of course,” Cain sighed, looking up at the sky with a look of melancholy. “I was hoping guys throughout your life were all remarkably stupid. Turns out, there was a smart one to lock you in quickly.”

“Ha ha ha, cheer up; I’m sure you’ll find your other half as well.”

“... ‘fraid I already did,” he glanced at her, smiling bitterly. “Fucked it up, though.”

“... you can be afraid all you want,” she smiled faintly as she replied. “But if you really did find her, you don’t strike me as someone who’d just walk away.”

“...” Cain looked at her expressionlessly for a moment before he smiled, shaking his head and falling into silence.

Is it really fear, though? He reached into his pocket and took out a cigarette, firing it up with magic, causing Amelia to stare at him wide-eyed for a moment and for Justin behind to two to scoff audibly once again. Cain, however, ignored both, taking in a lungful of it, letting it burn through his throat. Maybe giving it another shot... isn’t the worst idea in the world...

Though they didn’t rush back, they still arrived at the small ‘leveling grounds’ relatively quickly. By then, everyone was on their asses, panting and wheezing, dozens of corpses of bamboo-like creatures strewn across the ground around them. Amelia immediately rushed to the three teens that stayed behind, a worried look on her face, while Emma and Rick looked at him dubiously.

“... what’s the secret?” Justin walked up next to him suddenly and asked, surprising him.

“Secret? Ah, I know this one -- the big secret is that the birds are government drones hired by the Lizard Gods to spy on us?!”

“...” Justin’s eyes turned dead for a moment as he stared at him blankly. The look, really, did hurt slightly. “Don’t be a dumbass.”

“Mighty brave of you to assume I know how to be anything else. So, what’s the question?”

“... you... uh... how are you so confident with women? Are you a player or something? What’s the trick?”

“...” it was Cain’s time to stare at Justin as though the boy had just uttered the dumbest sentence a human had ever spoken.

“W-what?” Justin pulled back slightly, embarrassment clear on his face.

“... there’s no trick, man,” Cain sighed, replying and taking out another cigarette. “No secret, no big conspiracy. There are no plays, no games, no smoke and mirrors.”

“... then what is it? Just ‘confidence’?” Justin scoffed.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“... it’s stupid.”

“Of course it’s stupid,” Cain chuckled. “’cause you don’t have any.”

“Screw you!”

“If you had, you wouldn’t be asking about the tricks,” he said. “Besides, what did I do? Think back. Were there any tricks there? Or was I just having a normal conversation with her?”

“...”

“... they’re not ghouls, kiddo,” Cain chuckled, patting the teen’s head. “They’re not gonna chew your head off, you know? Afford them the courtesy of seeing them as normal human beings, and I guarantee they’ll afford you the same.”

“...” Justin fell silent, causing Cain to sigh and sit down on top of a tall boulder. I guess I missed the whole ‘teen boy awkward around the girls’ phase...

As far as he could remember... Emma was with him. And as far as his teenage memories went, she was by his side. Being by her side so often, and seeing all the dumb sides of her that others at school never got to see, made him realize the two of them were the two sides of the same coin.

“The next time you see a girl you like,” Cain said, glancing at the boy. “Walk up to her, tell her she looks pretty, and ask her whether she wants to go see a movie with you or something.”

“... yeah, no.” Justin said, looking at him once again as though he was a dumbass.

“... how about we make a bet?” Cain said after a moment of silence, a faint smile cropping up onto his face.

“A bet?” Justin quizzed, arching his brows.

“Hm -- tit for tat, as they say.”

“Nobody says that anymore.”

“What do they say?”

“Who cares?! What bet?”

“Khm, fine,” Cain continued. “I’ll have at it again with my ex-wife, and you ask out your crush. Whichever one of us meets success first wins.”

"..." Justin glanced between him and Emma, deliberating with an expressive face. Damn, so this is what it means to ‘be open like a book’... sheesh... never play poker, boy... “No begging, right?”

“... that was a joke, right?”

“... y-yes, of course. Of course it’s a joke, dumbass. Ha ha. As though I’d ever actually beg. Ha ha ha...”

"... alright, everyone ready?" Cain ignored the boy, fearful he might hit the young lad where it hurt, hollering at everyone to gather in front of him. "What are your levels?"

“... 4.” Emma replied.

“3.” Rick added.

“2.”

“4.”

“3.”

“... Justin?”

“2.” the boy replied.

“Amelia?”

"Level? Ah, yes! 2! Why? Shouldn't we be going outside now?"

“No, not just yet,” Cain said, smiling innocently. “First we have to make a pit-stop.”

“Why?” she asked.

“... there might be some other kids trapped there.”

“Alright, let’s go!”

“...” everyone momentarily fell silent and looked at her pitifully, though said nothing.

“Alright, great. Justin, lead the way.” Cain said, standing up and tossing the cigarette away. “Rick and Emma right behind him, the three of you at the flanks, and Amelia and I will just be hanging in the back... chatting.”

"..." Emma shot him a glare and scoffed, moving to the front while Rick looked at him oddly, shaking his head and moving to the front as well. Amelia noted the reactions and chuckled lightly.

“Your ex, I assume?” she asked as the space around them cleared up, the small party moving on ahead.

“Yup,” Cain nodded. “Out of this world, right?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “How in the hell did you get her in the first place?”

“... if I knew, I’d do it again.” he shrugged.

“... by the way, there are no kids where we are going, right?”

“Nope.”

“... you lied to me.”

“What can I say?” he chuckled. “You are very easy to lie to.”

The group moved relatively slowly toward the nearby mountain and up a sloped path surrounded by either a deep fall or thick shrubbery. The 'moons' up above had already swung around once, it seemed, and were back at the top, shining down the ambient light.

The silence was often broken, however, by either the group up front chatting, or by the songs of the critters within the woods, and occasionally a distant howl of a beast.

“We’re here!” Justin suddenly called out as the party came to a halt in front of a framed cave, with two pillars holding up an arched roof over the entrance. It appeared remarkably old, yet still stood tall at nearly twenty feet. A wide platform extended upfront, jagged, clearly large enough for a camping site to be set up.

"Alright, let's rest," Cain said, sitting down and taking out some pearies from his inventory. "Eat these; they're a bit bitter and have a really fuckin' weird texture, but they'll rile you up quickly."

“Where’d you get this?” Rick asked, curiously twirling the small fruit in-between his fingers.

“When I first got trapped here,” Cain said. “I was in some sort of a valley, and these were hanging from the trees. I tasted one, and decided to pluck the whole valley dry.”

“Ah, yes,” Emma joined. “You found yourself trapped inside who-the-hell-knows-what, saw strange ‘fruits’ that don’t exist on Earth, and your first thought was -- ‘hey, I wonder how that tastes’? God, it’s a miracle your dumb ass is still alive...”

“It--it just means, you know, that he’s spontaneous! Yes!” Amelia chimed in with a strained smile. “An adventurer, a free spirit, a soul--”

“Just stop,” Cain interrupted, lowering his head. “Please... just... stop...”

“... yes. Sorry...”

“... so, khm, what do we do once inside?” Rick asked, trying to break up the awkward atmosphere.

“We kill whatever’s in there.” Cain replied with a shrug.

“... and if we can’t?” Rick probed.

“We run away.”

“Good plan...”

“You guys have me, right?” Cain said, pointing his thumb at himself, grinning. “Don’t worry. Unless some Freiza-looking, planet-annihilating, big-dick-energy-having sucker shows up, I’ll handle it guys!”

“...”

"Khm, you lot done with your fruits?" Cain coughed awkwardly, feeling slightly embarrassed because of the strange looks they were shooting at him.

“Yup...”

“It’s a weird taste, but decent...”

“You were right though; I feel like a rock.”

“Rock?”

“Yes, a rock.”

“You mean the Rock?”

“A rock, the rock, what’s the goddamn difference?”

“Alright everyone, shut up and stand up,” Cain said, interrupting the fight that was about to break out between the young lads. “Rick and Emma stand at the front; three of you always be near Amelia and defend her. Justin, act like an actual Assassin and blend in into the cave, waiting until I tell you to hop out like a rabbit and stab some ass. And I, yours truly, will wear the crown and kick some-- hey, guys, I’m not done with my speech! I still have like three badass one-liners! Tsk, fine, have it your way!” Cain begrudgingly followed everyone inside, entering a wide and tall tunnel lit up by strange gems embedded into the high ceiling.

The party proceeded onward carefully, alert at every noise, while Cain remained relatively relax. Even at their level, he mused. It should be possible with Amelia. I just wonder how the hell did she raise 'Soul Strengthen' to fuckin' A- already... holy shit. Even at 'C' it doubles party's Vitality and Strength...

The creature inside is a well-recorded one as it was one of the first monsters inside L.A.’s Tower to be identified as a ‘raid boss’. As it was rather easy, a lot of game jargon eventually found its way into the Tower’s glossary, and thus the separation between the creatures was made -- mobs, like those that others fought to level up, elites -- like the direwolf Cain felled -- mini-bosses, dungeon bosses, raid bosses, field bosses, and the top-dogs of every floor -- guardian bosses.

The further division was made within each of those ranks, however, based on how difficult the creatures were to battle -- ranging from soldier-level to dragon-level difficulty, and the hypothetical cosmic-level standing beyond it. Though, as far as Cain was aware, in the last run of this, Conquerors have only faced one dragon-level guardian boss, and it was the one that froze the entire progression in L.A.'s Tower for three years before Cain returned.

At the end of the tunnel was a wide chamber, home to a general-level raid boss. Though the classification sounded broad and vague, it was actually fairly straightforward and direct -- it meant that its attacks had wide patterns, but the creature still had patterns and, furthermore, ‘raid boss’ categorization signaled that a proper party was necessary for it to be felled. Though it wasn’t unheard of for those superstar-level Conquerors to solo bosses, most stuck with partying up as the risk otherwise was unnecessary.

The central chamber was remarkably well-lit, as though they'd walked into a ballroom, every inch of it visible from the very entrance. The ceiling grew taller, well over a hundred feet at that, held up by over a dozen columns of hard stone. The floor remained pure dirt, though appeared beaten, as they didn't kick up any dust by walking.

“... holy shit...” Rick mumbled from the front as the entire party came to a halt. “What the hell is that?”

“...” Cain shot his gaze to the front and to the other end of the chamber where a creature straight out of fantasy books lied curled up on the floor, only now opening its eyes, noticing them. He silently checked it out.

//Escthew Race: Void Beast

Level: 30

Traits: Short-tempered(B-), Resilient(C+), Agile(A), Instinctive(S-)

Skills: Level is not high enough to see //

The creature had six legs in total and was furred, its head triangular like wolf’s, decorated with six curving horns. The color of its fur was maroon-red, and its tips almost appeared to be on fire. It was long, well over twenty feet, and over eight feet tall. The queerest part, however, was its insanely long neck that made up half the length of its body, and its ability to curl and curve at any angle without losing any speed.

It had six eyes, too, three on each side of its head, and a low-hanging, wide maw with two rows full of blistering, white teeth. Altogether it looked like a bizarre crossbreed of a wolf and a fox, with some giraffe DNA hanging in there.

“... you want us... to kill that?” even Emma shuddered at the thought, taking a step back. Everyone except for Cain did.

“...” I can’t exactly tell them it looks more dangerous than it actually is, he mused, stroking his chin. The greatest difficulty of battling Eschthew was tying up its neck and that would be his job. Emma and Rick only had to tie up its legs, while the three teens would just occasionally have to block needle-like attacks when the creature would fire them off from its fur. Lastly, Justin could easily approach its rear and occasionally poke it as a distraction so Cain could comfortably continue dealing damage. Without Amelia, Emma and Rick definitely couldn’t hold it tied up... let alone the three boys. It’d basically fall entirely on me to hold its aggro 100% of the time... which is simply impossible... "Well, we can't know unless we try. Amelia's already graciously shared her stats with me, and one of her abilities will increase your Vitality and Strength to insane levels temporarily. You can hold on, trust me. Justin and I will be in charge of dealing damage."

“... me?” Justin jerked up, startled. “What the hell man?! What did I ever do to you?!”

“... just poke its butt once in a while, man. Geez, it’s not like I’m asking you to reach into its mouth and choke out its teeth...”

“...”

“Whatever,” Cain shrugged. “I promise you all safety -- now get into position. It’s time to raid this bad boy!”