Bait

Ian took his time looking around. Technically he didn't have a strict deadline, but he felt a real need to be as fast as he could.

There was a carcass of what could once have been an alligator, sprawled out on the bank of the river. Ian poked it with a stick, feeling superstitious – it was more than certain that the assumed reptile was dead by now, so badly had it been licked by the flames. It had been an unfortunate innocent victim.

Now it would help restore the natural order of the biosphere of Earth.

Ian found himself using more complicated words and more intricate structures in his inner monologues. He was growing, his thought processes were maturing, and he was among the first to really live in that real-time progress with the system providing updates about everything he learned and did.

It was odd to enter the first stages of adulthood as a character in a real video game.

He cut a chunk of the charred meat. It could actually be called meat instead of just flesh – it had been cooked, but unfortunately, the steak was nowhere near rare. Ian had to hope that the cobras were down for some culinary crimes.

Ian felt uneasy about tasting the alligator, but he was also tempted. Supposedly reptiles could be eaten once they had been properly cooked.

Then he imagined his health points dropping after eating something that had been dead and hanging out in the remaining jungle for who knew how long. He decided against testing the meat.

He looked at the bottles, trying to decide which ones provided the most poison with only a mild taste. Some of the liquids inside smelled so strong that it would have taken more than barbeque sauce to cover the stench. Rhino cobras could supposedly smell blood from a mile away. There was no reason to assume that they would not notice his little trick.

He would have to make up something odorless from the powders in his bag. Surely Kortock was sensible enough to pack something that had a chance of working.

"System, can you tell me what these powders are?"

[ACCESS DENIED]

[TO ACCESS INFORMATION, APPLY GENERAL CHEMISTRY KEY]

"I suppose I can't get that thing out here in the jungle," Ian said to himself and sighed. He sort of had to keep a clear head while mixing the powders, since there was still a sizable chance of getting attacked by something. The apex predators here were – if the krobinnuti and humans were not counted – filtigers and cobras, but the alligators were nasty as well. Mankind had merely lived next to them for too long for even a young scrawny fellow to be shaken up about the possibility of encountering one. Alligators were something one carefully pulled out of one's swimming pool, or the swimming pool of the cool friend who could afford a nice house with niceties.

No, Ian was worried about the cobras coming before he was ready, he was worried about filtigers and most of all, he really did not want to encounter a krobinnuti out here. The last time he had met one out in the wild had not ended well for his poor house.

[KORTOCK IS CALLING]

"Accept the call," Ian said.

The sweaty face of his mentor appeared as a realistic hologram in front of him.

"Things are bad. Whoever has betrayed us is hiding too well," Kortock warned Ian.

"Oh, splendid." Ian sighed. "Is it someone I know?"

"Unless you know the entire department I work in, well, probably not. It's got to be a big boss, someone with access to military explosives. I used a favor that a friend owed me to get the remains of that car analyzed and I found that it was definitely not a homebrew thing."

"Homebrew. Makes me think of moonlight, you know, the booze, and summer wine." Ian sighed again. All of a sudden he felt the recent events taking their toll on him. He was not, after all, built for such excitement.

He wanted his uncle back, so that he could introduce Uncle Jacob to Kortock and the other way around, and of course, drink homemade wine in secret. Things that were good to keep as secrets, they were often related to fun with friends, stolen pieces of a past that never existed.

Secrets that made the difference between life and death were not fun at all.

Ian would have rather chit-chatted about the careless life they all had been robbed of by the krobinnuti, but Kortock had to return him to this reality.

"In any case, it is not safe for you or me to be in 13 right now. I am bringing some backup and coming to you. We need to take a holiday from the world of men. Meanwhile, we could use that time to level you up."

"An adventure?"

An instinct that was eons old, natural human curiosity, arose within Ian. It was almost strong enough to fight his fears.

"I am glad that you are able to see the positive side," Kortock said. "You don't know half of these people, and I can't bring too many, but I will bring enough people to keep us alive. It will be a traditional adventure party…you are, of course, the hero, and then there is me, the mentor, I am bringing a nimble archer, a healer, and a heavy-duty tank kind of a guy. Send me your location."

They exchanged information. Kortock hung up.

Ian was still in the progress of mixing up different powders to make up something that did not taste too unappetizing.

Luckily, the rhino cobras did not excel in the field of visual reason too much. If they did see some powder on their food, they would be likely to think that it had rained down from the skies and was therefore a divine blessing, or whatever beasts thought.

"Hey, boy!" a familiar voice called.

Ian turned around and saw Lilac approaching him, wearing her best boots and a battle suit.