Come Get Me

"I can't believe you needed my help with this."

I raised an eyebrow as I looked over at him. "Oh yeah? Coming from the guy who got one shot by a butter knife a few days ago?"

Tim ignored my response and shot tentacles out towards the tank, who screamed in terror as he was lifted into the air. Without a shield, he didn't have much going for him. I watched as he struggled and pulled out a sword in a last-ditch effort to slash at the tentacles, but Tim's vitality was so high that nothing short of advanced-tier weapon energy could do any damage to him.

The tentacles proceeded to wrap around the poor guy and drag him inside. I couldn't help but laugh a bit when I heard the muffled screams from inside the chest. All these players coming after me were taking shots at my life, which helped me get past the fact that I was taking their lives.

If I wasn't the summoner, I would be terrified of Tim right now. Fortunately, he was under my control. Or, at least, I liked to believe that he was. I looked over to where I had assumed the swordsman was lying, injured. There was a pool of blood growing larger by the minute in the area. I stepped over to see if I could feel around for where his invisible body was, and ended up finding it. There was no option for me to acquire any of the skills, which led me to believe that I had killed him by accident. It's hard to deal non-lethal blows to an invisible target.

"Hey Tim, next time try to leave some of them alive so I can check their skills. Some of these players could have good skills I can acquire."

Tim shrugged, or at least gave the appearance of what a giant treasure chest would look like if it were to shrug. "Can't make any promises; I mean, I don't know if they have butter knives or not. Might end up getting myself killed if I don't kill them first."

Tim opened up his mouth and spat out a large collection of items that I assumed came from the mage and the fighter that he had just eaten. There were also numerous other items that came out of him. I had almost forgotten that he had gone around and killed a bunch of other players for hunting me. I looked down at the bounty and nodded in approval.

There were five full sets of sturdy leather armor that I could tell was crafted from Emberbeard Behemoth hide, over a dozen swords, various monster parts, potions, scrolls, and even some alchemical explosives. I took stock of everything and added everything of value to my inventory.

"Impressive work, Tim. How many players did you kill?"

"Eight. It would have been nine, but one had some kind of teleportation skill."

My ears perked up as I heard that. A teleportation skill should also be on my list of skills I want to acquire. I wish I could copy more than 3, but there was only so much I could do. Although I wasn't fond of mages, one thing that they had more access to than others was variety. I'd much rather have a teleportation skill that I could use without a limit, something that I could use multiple times throughout the day and know that it's going to refresh after a cooldown. There were some mage classes out there that had teleportation magic, among other things. The problem with them was that they could only use it so many times in a day, maybe two or three times total.

"Was that one a mage?"

"Yeah, their magic didn't have much of an effect on me, though.

I looked to the side and scratched my chin as I thought about the benefits and drawbacks. "Shit, maybe it might still be worth it…"

"What are you talking about?"

"I want a teleportation skill, but because if it's from a mage, it can only be used a few times a day at best."

"Well, I don't know exactly how your copy skill works, but beggars can't always be choosers."

"I'm going to be a chooser."

"You're a greedy fucker; you know that, right?"

"Only in this life." I pointed south. "There's over twenty more players in that direction.

Tim started heading west. "I'm going to finish off the small fry; I'll see if I can flank that big group you're talking about once I'm done. You got a plan for them?"

I nodded. "Kind of, I just needed to stall at first, but I should be able to win thanks to the Fateweaver class. If I use my Last Stand skill, I should have no trouble winning, but I want to hold only resources like that for real emergencies."

"Most people would look at situations like this as real emergencies; you're a weird one." Tim disappeared into the geysers.

I started to move on to the next safe zone, all while constantly checking the position of other players in the vicinity. The number of enemies did not change, and I could sense them slowly closing in on my position. The group of players were definitely being led by Gillion, which was why they were being so cautious while traversing the death geysers.

They knew my position on the player map in their system, but this gave me an idea. Once I reached the next safe zone, I started to put my plan into action. I pulled out the alchemical explosives that were in my inventory and examined them.

Sludge Beetle Bomb [Uncommon] 

Description: A crude alchemical explosive made from various flammable, acidic, and reactive fluids harvested from sludge beetles. This explosive will explode on impact and deal high damage to creatures level 5 or below and medium damage to all other creatures within 3 meters. A vitality stat of 35 or higher reduces the damage by a single tier. Detonating a Sludge Beetle Bomb within 3 meters of another Sludge Beetle Bomb will cause them both to be set off.

There were ten of these bombs total, which meant I could cover a 12-meter by 12-meter area while still having an extra explosive I could throw to trigger the rest. It's a shame that they had to be within 3 meters of each other; otherwise, I could have spread them out in an 18-meter by 18-meter zone. I started to lay out my trap as I felt the other players begin to close in on my position.

"Alright, fuckers, come and get me."