Chapter 29

Luke fell out of the roof and tumbled head over heels through the air for several minutes before landing roughly in a pit of sand. He just barely managed to avoid impaling himself on his spear as did.

Well, this is weird, he thought, dusting himself off and looking around the room he found himself in. Brilliant red lava flowed down the walls into a thick moat that circled the room, illuminating it with a soft orange-red glow.

Jutting out of the sand pit was a thin, silvery walkway leading to a large statue of the empress. A statue fully cast from gold.

A little pretentious, but I would be tempted to do the same if I had this much gold lying around.

Arrayed along the way at equal distances were hundreds of pedestals, and on top of each one, suspended in the air, was some manner of object—weapons, armor, clothing, jewelry, rocks, jewels, vials of pills and potions, and, strangely enough, a bunch of eggs. Eggs of every color and size that he could imagine.

That's a strange addiction if there ever was one.

Luke's eyes darted from treasure to treasure until he saw it. Floating in the middle of the room, between a sword and a black breast plate, was a wooden mask. Glowing in his vision.

Mask of a Thousand Faces

Huh. I guess forty-nine-point-nine-nine percent mastery was enough for the Hero. A bit sudden, but I'll take it.

Securing his sword on his side, he fixed his shield to his back, sent his spear to inventory, and started down the path, looking at each item with curiosity.

The hero said we can only take one thing, so I should grab the mask first. I'll see if I can manage to get anything else later, but it's better not to tempt fate. It would really suck if the floor falls out under me if she decides I'm too greedy or something.

I'm kind of jealous of how cool this is, though. It's like the ultimate man cave. Or some Minecrafter's trophy room. His eyes darted to the lava along the wall. A thirteen-year-old one who thinks lava is the coolest thing—hottest thing ever.

"Is somebody there? I need help! Please!"

Immediately Luke drew his sword from its sheath, unconsciously slipping into the First Stance of the Sword—and regretting it immediately as his already-expended mana was drawn even more, which made his head swim and his knees buckle.

Not good. Luke ended the technique with an effort of his will while he raked the room with his eyes to find the source of the voice. He didn't have to wait long, as a dirty, blue-robed figure clambered out from behind the statue.

Is that—?

"Len?" Luke called out. More than surprised to see him. I would have put money on him being dead.

"Yeah," he bit out, clutching the stump of his left arm. He'd lost it fighting a turtle a few days prior—and putting on quite the show as he did.

"I thought you died in your room or something."

"Funny," he rasped. "I had some of the blue healing potion left in my room. It got me through. Just barely. Listen. I think the turtle was poisonous or something. My arm is starting to rot. There's a potion on one of those pedestals—I think it's a Hero-tier healing medicine. I need you to grab it for me."

Luke frowned as he mulled over his request.

I want to help him, but …

"Why haven't you grabbed it already?"

"I wanted to, but I got this first"—he fished a small, spherical silver rock out of his pocket—"and it won't let me touch anything else. Please, I'll die," he begged.

It can't ever be easy, can it? Luke thought, feeling a headache coming on.

"Do you think a regular healing potion will work? I have a few of them."

Len shrugged his robe off his shoulder, revealing the stump of his arm. It was hideous. The end was bandaged in a crusty brown bandage, and tracing out from it were thick black and blue lines. Pus-filled boils littered his shoulder and chest.

That's infected for sure. Luke winced as he saw the poor state Len was in.

"You don't know what you're asking me." Luke looked away from him.

I need that mask. I can't let anyone recognize me once I leave. Once other people get out, and they will, word about me will spread. If it reaches Arke, and she finds out what I look like, I can say bye-bye to my soul.

"Here." Len tossed him the rock. "I don't know what it is—it just caught my eye. It was here, though, and it's valuable. Take it and give me the potion. I'm begging you!" He dropped onto his knees. "It's a fair trade."

"Why haven't you left yet? You disappeared days ago."

"I've been trying to! There's this stupid thing here. I've been feeding it my mana for days, but it's still not charged, and the closest place it'll let me go is on the other end of the island. It's too far from anything I know. I don't want to die. Please. Please, help me!"

That must be the teleporter. What to do, what to do.

Luke reached into his pocket and pretended to fish around for something, sending the strange rock to the inventory at the same time.

No sense in turning away free treasure.

He pulled his hand back out, revealing a vial filled to the brim with blue liquid.

"This is the same potion we got earlier. I made it out of the lava without too much damage, so I didn't need to use it … The letter said that if we aren't dead, then this should do the trick"—Luke reached back into his pocket, this time coming back with a vial of pills—"and this is all the medicine I have."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Len knelt down in front of him.

… awkward.

Luke walked forward slowly, on the lookout for sudden surprises. A few weeks of calm weren't enough for him to forget that he was a killer in the company of other killers. Even with the empress's ban on death, he wouldn't put it above the others to get greedy and do something stupid. Nor did he know how such a thing would be enforced.

His eyes landed on the mask as he walked by it, and after a brief moment of hesitation, he dashed forward and grabbed it before Len could get a word in edgewise.

If the potion doesn't work, he dies. I'll have done what I could. He might even live long enough for someone else to come down and help him.

As much as he didn't want to see the man die, Luke would choose his own life above someone else's. He would give him the potion because he liked to think that despite all he'd done to get here, he was still a good person.

"Here." Luke placed the medicine a few steps away from the kneeling figure, scrunching his nose as the smell of rotting flesh and copper invaded his nose. Then he stepped back as Len crawled toward the vials.

Luke took a moment to check the descriptions for the rock and the mask in his inventory.

Status | Skills | Quests | Inventory

Capacity: 325.6 kg of 10,100 kg

Items:

Mask of a Thousand Faces

Tier—Hero

Reconstructs the wearer's skull to alter their appearance. Can permanently alter the pigmentation of skin and hair.

Aethonem Aquilam Egg

Tier—Mortal

An egg of a burning eagle. Descendant of a creature that has feasted on a titan's liver for millennia at the behest of Zeus. If hatched, it will possess strong regenerative abilities in addition to the inherited traits of its genus.

To hatch, soak the egg in the boiling blood of a Warrior.

Oh, wow. Luke read over the description. The mask functioned more or less like Luke thought it would, but he was a little apprehensive learning that it would be rearranging his face.

I can't remember how many times some bully has threatened me with that, and I can't believe it's finally happening. In the weirdest way I could ever imagine it happening, too.

The egg is a little weird, too, and I have no clue what to do with it. I don't remember seeing burning eagles in the society's bestiary, either. I guess that's another thing I have to look into. Still, if the egg's ancestor was choking down titan liver, then it must be fairly strong, and the titan in question is definitely Prometheus. I wonder if the war between titans and gods happened here?

Len pulled the cap off the Warrior-tier potion and downed it in one big gulp, and in the next breath did the same with Mortal-tier medicine.

That really is the stuff. Luke watched him with a hint of regret as his condition improved visibly moments after. His boils shrank rapidly every second before disappearing entirely, while some color returned to his skin. He still looked sickly, but much better off than he was before.

Seems like he'll make it.

"Thanks … Luke … I … O—" Then with a groan, his face planted into the ground as he lost consciousness.

Whatever, no use regretting my decision now. Besides, the egg has to be worth something. If I'm lucky, it'll be worth a lot more. Maybe I can even hatch it and get myself a nice pet.

Stepping over the Inner Disciple's prone form, Luke made his way to the statue before walking past it, barely giving the empress's visage a glance.

Immediately, he came face-to-face with an altar with a map of the archipelago engraved on its surface. Jutting out just in front of it was a post with a button, just like the one he used to call monsters in the arena.

Hmm. Looks like I'm limited to the archipelago. It might have been better to go farther, but pickers can't be choosers, I guess.

He traced his eyes over the map, committing as much of it as he could to memory, not knowing when he would have need of it again. His eyes eventually fell to a red dot on a tiny, nondescript island that he assumed was his current location.

Walking up to the post, he ran his fingers over the surface, only mildly surprised when the map on the altar suddenly zoomed in to a specific point.

Playing around with it, he came to realize what Len was talking about. Even though the entire archipelago was shown on the map, only certain parts, showing as green dots, were available as targets.

There was one on Carim, like Len said, on the northmost tip of the island—the opposite side of the island from where he was currently, and in complete wilderness to boot.

Cities and towns were marked with their own respective symbols, although Luke couldn't be sure that the map was up-to-date. The empress had died three hundred years ago, and a lot could have changed since then.

There are countries on Earth younger than this tomb.

He flicked through from island to island and spot to spot, not knowing what the right choice was. He was hoping that the Seed would give him a quest or some guidance, but it seemed content to let him make a decision without its influence, suggesting that where he went didn't quite matter.

Eventually, Luke's eyes settled onto the largest island in the chain, as well as the one with the most cities.

It's go big or go home right? Now, let's see how this works. I'd prefer to get the fuck out before this guy wakes up, or I'll have to kill him for knowing where I'm going. What a waste of a potion that would be. Or send him through first. Yeah, that seems like a better option if it comes down to it.

Before that, though— Luke removed a few sheets of paper and a pencil from his inventory and scribbled down a copy of the map. His inhuman agility allowed him to draw a near-perfect copy of it. Then, for good measure, he zoomed out all the way and drew a rougher map of the entire archipelago, carefully labeling each island as well as every town.

All right. He navigated back to the island and picked a remote-looking spot a few dozen miles away from a river, along its western edge.

Waiting a second longer to give the Seed time to issue another quest, he pressed down on the button when it didn't.

A message popped up instead of a portal:

Insufficient Mana

Well, that's just great. Forgot about that bit. Nothing ever is easy.