Chapter 74

Lykan

Differences

At first Lykan had wanted to go after old Man Roberts and the others, to ask if they had heard from his father. But he already knew the truth, that his father had left here a long time ago. First, he had heard from Aren. Then when he made his way through the remains of the library his initial search proved his father had left. The secret stash where father kept his prized books were gone. They were in a place that would be protected from the flames that consumed the library as they were separated by stone. Also, the family pendant was missing, the one that glowed green under moonlight. Everything was gone, and his father, Israel Vita, would not have taken them if he was not intending to leave. Those books and the one pendant were his final keepsakes that reminded Israel of Lykan’s mother.

Lykan of course had always wondered why his father would have chosen this place above all others to stay here. He was a Sage Class with many advanced and evolved skills, someone of his caliber would have been accepted by any nation. Yet, he chose the lowly kingdom of Tython to settle in.

Lykan had wondered why he would stay. One day he got an answer that had seemed like a bad joke, but now after seeing the labyrinth that was the catacombs beneath Abberty Village come to life by just entering. Lykan couldn’t help but wonder if his father knew more about this place than he was letting on. More than he ever let anyone know about. His words at the time were cryptic and easily dismissed by his ten-year-old self. But now, the weight of those words seemed to hold more meaning.

“This town like most human settlement’s rests upon a powerful leyline. All around the world humans are drawn to such places as they provide power. The resources and plants that grow are healthier, people tend to live longer and develop powers not seen in the larger cities. There is of course the downside.” Israel said, all those years ago.

“What downside?” A ten-year-old Lykan asked.

“Well monsters grow larger with access to such powers. There is even a monster that lays deep within the catacombs beneath our feet.” Israel said, pointing down below.

Lykan not being convinced lowered his eyes as he tried to read his father for any signs that he was lying. Or in his words, turning the truth. Yet, his father gave no such signs.

“Aren’t the catacombs where we are supposed to go in the case of a monster attack?” Lykan asked.

“Yes…”

“Well why would we hide from monsters in a lair with a badder monster?” A younger Lykan asked confused.

“The monster I speak of is far asleep sealed away deep within the catacombs. A great hero one day will have to go down and slay him before he awakens fully to destroy the world. But that day will not happen for a very long time.” Israel said.

“Destroy the world? Didn’t you say that such scenarios were the work of poor writers. That saying one person or entity could destroy the world was a truly ridiculous notion held onto by kids?” Lykan pressed back, finally seeing the kink in the armor.

Israel looked taken aback by the comment, before shaking his head and letting a faint smile fill his lips.

“My boy you are indeed too smart. And of course, you are correct. One entity, powerful or not does not have enough ability to destroy the world. Even the one beneath our feet would not be able to do such, but if he had help. Say a few thousand or so powerful entities all awakening all at once. That would be enough to destroy the world.”

“Now there are a thousand of these monsters? Are they all here?” Lykan asked incredulously.

“No, there is only the one here… You know what. Why don’t you run along and train?” Isreal said exasperatedly.

With that the memory ended, and Lykan was once again stuck in a room filled with whirring cylinders that the voice from overhead called drones.

***

With a few movements, and searches Lykan had not only entered each room that had been occupied by others. But the automatic drones had also cleaned any sign that humans had been there. There were of course still signs of aging, of the rooms being untouched with dust and hints of dark veins that permeated the structure. These points, the dust and the veins were both left untouched by the drones.

Similarly, the crates that had been brought in full of food remained untouched. Instead, the drones merely cleaned around each barrel, sack of rice, or other food source. Within a few minutes time the entire top level of the complex had been cleaned. Each room he went to was first illuminated, then cleaned if anyone had gone into the room. As it turned out every room had been entered at some point. Every room defiled with the bio-hazardous materials the female voice kept speaking about.

The voice was the other thing that kept seeming to be off. The voice sounded real, lifelike, but it was so perfect. Word for word recited in the same exact cadence. Lykan didn’t know how such delivery could be conducted each time. It was only the third time of hearing the speech and wondering how it sounded so wooden that he realized that strange perfect cadence. That was part of why he went into every room, to hear the voice speak.

There were a few things that stood out as he made his way through the labyrinth.

The first thing was that not every light that turned on, went out. In fact, as he made his way through square signs written with red lettering would remain lit. There was a word that Lykan couldn’t quite make out at first, followed by a glowing red arrow.

After realizing that the arrow pointed to a stair exit to the surface and not a ladder exit Lykan thought the word meant exit. Then as if something clicked in his mind, he began seeing more and more words around the facility.

Each door had a plaque above it detailing what the place was being used for. Or at least what they were originally intended to be used for.

On the surface most were Storage. This ranged from Open Storage to Material Storage, to Hazardous Storage. Each room had different levels of drones available to them. The pen where the animals were kept was an Open Storage room.

The room where the food was kept was surprisingly called Material Storage. When it came to the Hazardous Storage room, he wasn’t allowed in.

“Contamination rating too low to enter.” Was what the voice said as he tried to push his way through the closed door. Lykan didn’t know what the owners of the place thought hazardous materials were, but if it was just blood and some dirt Lykan felt he could deal with it. But the voice was insistent, so after a point he turned around and tried to find other things of interest.

Now that the facility came to life around him, he could see that there were hatches that led downward. One even clicked open upon his approach. Hearing the clicking of seals being released Lykan was curious. He knew that there was one main tunnel that led to lower floors, but he had never seen an opening nearly pop into existence by his proximity. That alone was enough to catch his attention.

Wanting to go further, to explore he continued. This time another ladder stretched out before him. Though this one seemed too already be lit. At least the red glowing sign that spoke of an exit lit up as he came close. The glowing red light was enough to show Lykan the path down. A path that still had not been lit up.

Lykan planned, that if this room did not light up once he was on the ground he would exit. Particularly before the hatch overhead sealed up cutting off his one and only known exit. With a facility this large he was certain that more exits likely existed, particularly if the first floor was any indication. Even half the number of exits would be enough to find a path up and out.

Steeling himself, he went lower into the darkened room. Then once his foot touched the solid floor a connection was made and the room instantly began to light up once more, causing a sigh of relief to flow from Lykan.

This second floor down also had the look of a facility that had never been touched. Not even insects, nor subterranean species got this far. Lykan thought about this but realized that if the perfect seal from overhead was any indication, then such events were not that unbelievable. For how a spider could climb through a perfectly sealed flooring. Without being lured by the spider, why would larger rodents try to burrow their way in.

There was also the fact that a true monster might lie well below the surface. Something that all but radiated malice that other creatures could pick up on. Something like a hibernating dragon, that that caused Lykan to chuckle.

Hibernating dragons. Lykan shook his head, as he had the thought. Such an idea was ludicrous, while dragons could sleep for a season, or through a particularly bad winter storm. The idea of a dragon hibernating, at least in the term of stories of old was ridiculous. As dragons were both very active and very social creatures. The idea that one would willingly cut themselves off from others of their kind or other species at all was laughable.

Still Lykan couldn’t help but wonder if his father’s old bedtime story had taken root in his mind. He had believed his father at the time. Even though he had tried to convince himself that his father was joking, Lykan couldn’t help but feel there was a level of truth to his words.

Shaking his head at his own childish fears he muttered to himself. “Old man, you got me again.”

Just as he was musing to himself, the female voice came to life.

“I’m sorry. I did not catch that ‘you got me again.’ Would you like to do a training tutorial instead?” The female voice asked.

Lykan stood still as he looked around trying to see if the female speaker was nearby.

“Can you see me?” Lykan asked hesitantly. Only after asking did, he realizes that he was speaking in the weird alien language. Lykan wondered if this was due to hearing the female voice so often and it being the only real voice, he had heard speaking complete thoughts for quite a while. He had also intended to learn how to speak the language, so maybe it was his own subconscious coming to terms with these facts.

“Can you see me training tutorial selected. Warning, we suggest you make your way to a full training room. We cannot guarantee full training immersion at your current location. Training will begin in thirty jeleters.”

Lykan wasn’t quite certain what a jeleter was, though from the context his mind told him that it was a measurement of time. Likely on the smaller end of the scale, though that was hard to tell for certain as well.

Just when Lykan began to wonder where the nearest training room was, a green light trail began to flash on the floor.

“Proceed on path indicated to enter training room for training tutorial Can you see me.” The female voice called out.

Not really knowing what else to do, Lykan followed the glowing green lines to the giant room indicated. As he approached a section of the wall opened, revealing a giant open room. Lykan hesitantly entered the room.

As he did the door closed and reformed into a perfect wall behind him. Lykan turned to look at the now solid state of the wall and tried to see any signs of grooves or indentions that would indicate this was a door. He could not find anything that would indicate the section of wall he was looking at was anything other than a wall.

“Please proceed to starting area.” The female voice called out from all around.

Again, Lykan wondered how the voice seemed to come from everywhere all at once. Even with magic the voice had an origination point, but Lykan for his part could not feel any magic being used in this. Instead, he just felt the waves of sound hitting his ears from all sides and angles. It was an entirely disconcerting feel. Before he could get too lost in his own thoughts a glowing green circle began flashing at the exact center of the room.

Shrugging to himself and half wondering if this was some sort of trap Lykan hesitantly approached the glowing circle. He looked and saw the lights slowly change as he got closer. The ground at the center of the room looked solid enough and with a hesitant step Lykan took one step in, ready to jump back at the first sign of trouble. None came, so he moved his other foot inside the giant five-meter circle.

Once he was inside the circle not only did the floor not give way, but the lights around the circle changed from green to orange, to red.

“Tutorial will begin in five, four, three, two, one…”