Chapter 65 - First Contact

Max slept well in the darkness, all things considered. It was a curious thing, and Max wasn’t sure why. The fear and anxiety was there. Maybe it was the advancement to Amethyst, it was definitely noticeable. But there was more to it.

Yes, he was nervous about finally facing the enemy. But it wasn’t fear of death or pain. It really wasn’t. He had been tempered in that. With the Siren and the Stranger especially. Once you have a brush with death a few times, your perspective changes.

“Well well, look at you being all tough, Maximilian,” Maverick said.

Heh, shut up.

It really had hardened Max. It had given him a calm that was indomitable. He had used that calm to subdue Brian. He had used a seed of that to decide to kill the Stranger. It had made him stronger. He was what he was supposed to be. A weapon of humanity. Fighter at the forefront.

Still, he wouldn’t go into battle with foolish overconfidence. But he had cultivated true confidence, and he would use the most out of it. He had to. This was it. This was what this whole hellscape was about. Survival. Right to exist. And Max would snuff out every enemy life out here. Without mercy. That excited a savage part of him. And that was where his calm came from. Confidence. Certainty. Unequivocally, without any negotiation or second guessing, Max knew what to do.

Max was the first to get up. That was probably due to his advancement to Amethyst. It had significantly cut down his need for rest it seemed. Max had some drink and food before he went up to Torguk to wake him up and get this party started.

They had found a nice spacious room, with only one entrance. They had had some back and forth with Torguk about whether one entrance meant easily defensible or death trap. Fortunately Max won that argument.

While the dwarves were getting ready for their day, Max went out to scout. Torguk protested about it, but there was nothing he could do about it. Max told the dwarf to wait for his return before they get moving.

Now Max was traversing the dark hallways, gripping the black leather of Maverick’s handle as he moved with care. The Amethyst advancement had done wonders for his night vision. He couldn’t see as well as one would in the light, but his sight in the total darkness was definitely uncanny. Still he would have to watch out for traps.

He was five minutes into his scout when he sprung a trap.

A pile of rocks and rubble fell on him the instant he tripped on a piece of thin rope. The rumble and clatter fell on him, half burying him. As the dust billowed about him, he checked his Health points. Over 200 lost. More than Max had expected. And that was with his relatively high Toughness. No wonder the dwarves died or got heavily injured.

The trapper must be fairly high level. Not only does he have the ability to magically set up the rocks above, but his traps do an inordinate amount of damage. I wonder what kind of a Cultivator he is.

“Max,” Maverick whispered. “Do you think it's wise for us to carry on further? With your legendary clumsiness, we only need two more traps and you’re minced meat.”

“You have a point,” Max said. “Even one trap, followed by an ambush would do me in.”

“Well you have potions,” Maverick said.

“I’d rather not use them. I can return to the dwarves and let my Health naturally regenerate.”

“At least you make up for your legendary clumsiness with some elementary foresight.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mav.”

“Don’t call me that!”

*

The expedition got moving promptly after Max returned. He walked at the back and while his Health regenerated, he kept his ears and eyes open. As they progressed, they lost a few more dwarves to the traps. Max cursed to himself every time it happened. The enemy knew they were on the move again.

By the second hour, the expedition halted. Torguk called Max to the front.

“Heard something.”

“What was it?” Max asked.

“Just whispers and hisses,” Torguk said. “Not far from here.”

Max nodded. “I will be at the front now. I will scout ahead.

Torguk clearly didn’t like the idea, but he gave Max a curt bow.

Max went ahead, maybe a hundred yards. He crossed over a tripwire and left a chunk of rock next to the thin rope, hoping it was enough to warrant investigation from the dwarves. It didn’t take long before he heard voices too. He crept closer, until two fuzzy shapes came into view deeper in the darkness. Max crouched behind a pile of rubble and gave Maverick a mental note to keep quiet. Maverick scoffed through their soulbond as if to ask if Max thought him completely stupid.

Max didn’t know what kind of night vision the enemy had. They were some kinds of reptilians, so they could have better sight in darkness. Max really hoped that was not the case. It didn’t seem to be, as Max took peeks from behind the pile of rubble, the two shapes didn’t react. They were facing each other and hissing and spitting in their language. Max crept closer to stop behind another pile of rubble.

Now he could already see the shapes of these creatures. They seemed to be indeed wearing jumpsuits like Max. The other one had arm guards and pauldrons made of some crude metal and the other one was wearing a pointy hat. They clearly had an inhuman elongated face, like a dog, or well, a lizard. That was about as much Max could see right now, but he could hear them talk from this distance.

“You heard them too?” the one with the pointy hat asked.

“Of course I heard them,” The other one with the armor hissed.

“One of us should go and report,” the first one said.

“By one of us, you mean yourself,” the second, more aggressive one hissed again. “Slassekhsnas knows already. She says she can sense which traps are sprung.”

That’s disconcerting. Can they sense it even if we defuse the trap, or spring it without anyone getting killed?

“I think she lies,” the pointy hat one said.

The one with the pauldrons slapped him. Max could hear the echo of it travel past him. “Slassekhsnas is your superior officer. You do not doubt them. Besides, you have no Cultivation yet, how would you know?”

“I’m level 14,” pointy hat said. “I will unlock the secrets soon enough.”

“You’re a fool to think you will unlock anything powerful like that at 15,” the other said. “Slassekhsnas is level 21 and has gone through a class evolution. There is a reason why she leads, and you are here standing at guard with your stupid hat.”

Well shit. Level 21? Who knows what you unlock at 20

“This hat gives me +3 in Constitution and +2 in Wisdom.”

“It gives you a foolish look you surely deserve. Now go run off and tell the leaders that the enemy is here.”

The pointy hat guy took off on a jog. Max waited until he couldn’t hear the echoes of the steps. After that he snapped into action.

Max wasted no time.

He double [Tethered] himself against the pile of rubble, repelling himself from it towards the enemy. He zoomed through the air and crashed into the lizard. He yelped and hissed, but Max tethered him against the floor. It wasn’t as effective as what Max was used to. The enemy growled and struggled against the pull, slowly but successfully.

It still gave Max plenty of time to blast six magic bullets into the enemy’s cranium. The lizard yelled the entire time, before it went limp.

Defeated Level 16 [Ishkarassi]

You gained 460 experience points

Max looked at the dead, prone body of the lizard. He felt nothing, only triumph. Frantic shouts could be heard from where the pointy hat guy had gone. They would soon know something entirely different than dwarves were down here. They would hunt him.

And Max would hunt them. One by one.