Book 3: Chapter 52

Aaron sat hunched over, staring at his hands. He knew losses were going to happen; that was the world they lived in now. There was no escaping that. But to watch a half dozen people charge into a battle they knew was lost so that he could escape was something else entirely.

Why’d they have to go dying for me…

He let out a long sigh. His thoughts on the matter weren't entirely honest; he knew that. They hadn’t died for him so much as they had died for Dober. But that rational line of thinking didn’t help much.

It was getting crowded outside the Bellagio. A few scouts had stayed back to keep an eye on the swarm and cause it trouble if it started to march over the plains again.

But Aaron, along with the others, had returned to recover, and now the bruised and battered warriors sat around as healers and other helpers saw to them.

“What’s the body counter?” Ryan, doing his squad leader job, asked one of his men.

The young man nudged his glasses and scanned a pad he had been writing on.

“Um, ah, let me see here,” he said, ticking the pad here and there. “Twelve. We lost another on the way back. The poison was too deep, and without awakened energy organs, they couldn’t cycle healing potions or antidotes as well.”

“Dammit, really? Fuck me. Another one. What a fucking mess,” Ryan groaned and rubbed his temples.

Aaron’s ears twitched as he overheard the conversation. “Hang on a moment. We lost twelve?”

Ryan turned to him with a sober look, and Aaron’s gaze fell back toward the ground.

Many people had died, and it was kind of weird that he took these losses personally. But then again, he felt directly responsible this time, unlike previous incidents.

Meanwhile, Talia was just shaking her head beside him.

“Bastard ants,” grunted a dirty, blood-stained man nearby. “You guys were a bit

preoccupied

, but that swarm… they seemed to be better organized than last time. When we hit them, they caught us with a few ambushes. Nothing to be done about it. Once they get their claws in you…”

Aaron swallowed. That made it so much worse. They had rushed through the swarm faster than the first time, and he had a pretty good feeling that was why they had been more organized when fighting the squads.

He also hadn’t eaten more of his bat curry. If he had, they might have survived. But he had gotten too caught up fighting the royal guards.

“What’s with all the moaning and groaning?!”

He heard someone plop down beside him and turned to see Becky, the catgirl, and she was already deep into Zero, her hands running through his fur.

“You’re a good boy, aren’t you?”

But she hadn’t survived the battle free of wounds, either. There was a big cut across her eye that was healing, and she was missing several fingers.

“She’s tougher than she looks,” Talia said. “She’ll heal. Us on the other hand…”

Aaron nodded at that. There were wounded all over the place, including a couple on stretchers that looked miserable. Groaning and turning against pain as people tried to care for them.

“Maybe I can help.”

Aaron got up and walked toward them. He wasn’t sure if he could do it, but he wanted to try.

“What are you doing?” One of the healers said as he approached.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be a moment.”

Aaron extended his hands over a badly wounded man and started to pour aether into him. The aether didn’t heal the wounds directly, but a sigh of relief escaping the man’s lips made it clear that the pain was easing somehow.

Giving them some aether to help their souls mend seems to help. Well, I’m no healer, but if I can do something to ease their suffering, it’s the least I can do.

After a few seconds, the man seemed at peace, and Aaron moved on to the other badly wounded and did the same. They were all lower levels, with poor foundations, and most either didn’t have any, or at least not all their energy organs awoken. If they did, Aaron’s injection of aether wouldn’t have done that much, but for the ones that didn’t, it made a considerable difference.

“Thanks,” a healer smiled at him. “You’ve made our job easier.”

“Ahhh, dammit! This sucks!” Talia huffed as Aaron dropped back down beside her. “I’m going to end those bastards for this.”

“Yeah, same. I share the feeling. But we should probably focus on resting first.”

Aaron wasn’t really one to speak; he was as angry as anyone about how things turned out. But he could see Talia literally trembling with rage, and he knew he had to calm her down somehow.

“Easy for you to say. Those guys who helped us escape? They were my people. People I had fought beside since the early days in the Tutorial. I brought them here for a better chance. And…”

“And? What are you getting at? You think they would have been better off alone?”

“Maybe,” Talia shrugged.

“Talia, don’t beat yourself up. You did give them a chance. I mean, have you even been looking at the ranking system? Our new world’s population is dwindling, and fast.”

Talia blinked, and with a rush of morbid curiosity, opened the ranking to check the number.

Population 4,998,674,784

“That is…”

“Yeah, insane isn’t it? Less than five billion people are left, and that’s spread across three races, two of which we might have to fight for our own survival. Bringing people here isn’t looking so bad now, is it?”

She sat there for a while with a blank expression until she started to slowly nod.

“Then we can’t waste any more time. We need to exterminate these ants as soon as possible,” she continued, but in a much more measured way.

“Yeah,” Aaron agreed. “But we need to take our time. We can’t afford to fuck up again. That said, I have a plan for dealing with those royal guards.”

“A plan?” Talia’s expression lit up.

Aaron nodded and explained what he had learned during the fight, describing the powers and debuffing Skills of both royal ants.

“I see. So all I have to do is get Lord Rhino to fight me in the sky? That shouldn’t be hard.”

“You make that sound so easy,” Aaron chuckled.

“Because it is,” Talia shrugged. “That fool is as arrogant as they come. I’ll just tell him he’s chicken if he doesn’t want to fight me up there. I highly doubt he respects my strength enough to resist the bait.”

Aaron almost made a counterargument. He almost scolded her for not taking their enemy seriously enough. But she was entirely correct. The ant’s weakness wasn’t just how reliant it was on fighting on the ground, but also its blinding arrogance.

Okay, that works. But what about the centipede?

As he considered that thought, he pulled the dungeon token from his scabbard to check it.

“Just over a week remaining…”

“What’s that?” Talia perked.

“The dungeon token.”

“Oh, right. I almost forgot about that. Yeah, it’s coming soon, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and I have a feeling it’s going to be important. But these ants…”

“I know,” Talia nodded. “I don’t want to miss it either, but we can’t leave Dober like this. The place will be overrun.”

“You know what?”

“What?” Talia turned to him.

“We should be in a Party.”

Talia thought for a moment, then nodded. They hadn’t been in a Party before, since Parties were mostly useful in Dungeons, so it slipped their minds, but there was no reason not to be. It would help them keep tabs on each other, and later, when it was time to use the Dungeon Token, they would be able to join together.

“Yeah, we honestly should have already been in one,” she said, sending him the invitation.

Aaron returned the nod as he accepted. “That, and if killing the ant queen takes too long, we’ll need to work together if we want to be able to catch up to everyone else. We can’t have someone like Darius taking all the rewards.”

“Absolutely not,” agreed Talia.

Aaron turned to Zero to send him a Party invitation, but for some reason, the System wouldn’t push it through.

“Oh, boy,” he rubbed the wolf, getting under its chin and eliciting a happy howl. “Looks like we won’t be able to bring you along. Well, I suppose it's not such a big deal. We might not even make it to the dungeon at this rate.”

“What are you talking about?” Becky turned to Aaron with a half-lidded glare before continuing her pats.

“Huh? You actually want to talk to a human, do you?”

“No. But I can’t stand overhearing dummies. Zero is your pet, right?”

“Yeah? What of it?”

“Do I really need to teach you everything?” Becky sighed. “Oh well, I suppose that’s what comes with genius.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your pet, dumbass! You want him in your party, don’t you? Well, why don’t you just soulbind him as any other tamer would?”

“Soulbind?” Aaron looked perplexed and shared a glance with Talia, but she didn’t seem to know either.

“Yeah. Soulbind. Need me to talk slower? Anyway, if you soulbind this fluffball, he’ll always be in your party. But be careful! If you die, it’ll hurt Zero. And you better not hurt this cutie!” She scolded.

“Hurt Zero? Hey, hang on! Does that mean if something happens to Zero, it’ll hurt me, too?”

“Huh? I suppose. If Zero dies, you’ll take a permanent soul wound.” Becky said with indifference as she continued to pat Zero. “It goes both ways, though. You both can take on some of each other’s abilities and traits if you’re soulbound. Maybe you’ll grow some fur. He does have nice fur.”

“You don’t

have

to,” interjected Talia. “I did some minor research on it. It’s all voluntary. You won’t turn into… You won’t be like Becky if you soulbind. It’ll just affect your Skill and Race Evolution options a bit.”

“Hmm,” Aaron scratched his chin. “Having Zero come along in the dungeon could be a great aid. But if he is always going to be in my party, I’d be permanently tying myself to him…”

Aaron looked up at the happy wolf receiving pats. It was a risk, but ultimately, he felt like it would be worthwhile. Zero had already helped him several times, and that wasn’t to be underestimated. And if Zero could grow and take on some of Aaron’s abilities from the bond, that would help the wolf keep up once Aaron pulled further ahead when he got his D Grade Class.

“Zero,” he held out a hand, and the wolf immediately rose, walked over, and pressed its nose into his palm. “So, what do I do?”

“Seriously?” Becky rolled her eyes. “Just feel it. You know, like you do with all the System stuff.”

Aaron focused on the thought of soulbinding with Zero, and immediately, a prompt appeared.

Do you wish to Soulbind with [ Zero ]

Y/N?

Aaron’s brows perked, and after another few seconds of deliberation, he accepted the prompt, and in an instant, Zero appeared beside him in the party menu. But the wolf wasn’t actually using up one of the five party slots.

“Okay, looks like we got our dungeon party sorted.”

“Yeah, nice. Now we just have to kill an entire hive of ants in just over a week,” Talia snorted.

“Ahh, about that. I’m going to need a moment,” Aaron waved his index finger. “My soul still needs a little recovery time.”

“You really need to stop wearing that thing out,” Talia sighed.

“Yeah, I know.”

Aaron retreated to the temple to recover. Once the rejuvenating energy and ever-growing truths of the temple were running through him, it only took a few hours for his soul to recover.

But by the time the group was ready to march again, the dungeon timer had clicked down to less than a week.

With less than seven days remaining, all they had to do was cross the plains, defeat the royal guards, and then siege and kill the queen…

Somewhere far to the west of the Jungle

A figure bounced along the ground, blasting shockwaves through the earth each time he hit, and finally, he crashed into a wrecked building, knocking the last of the rubble down.

It was a scene of absolute carnage. Buildings were burning all around, and smoke filled the sky with angry flashes of red, as the remaining sentry lasers blasted at the swarm pouring over the walls.

Bodies littered the ground everywhere, and explosions and the rattle of Skills echoed all around. But it was somewhat calmer in the inner chambers of the settlement, where the big man had just destroyed one of the main buildings.

“Bahaha, I thought we might actually be in for a challenge. Guess I was wrong,” spat a towering silver-haired man with four arms. “Is this really the best you have?”

“Now, now, brother. They’re only human. What did you expect from a lesser race?”

“Huh, I dunno…” The big silver-haired man looked confused for a moment. “More than this?”

There were two of them standing amongst the corpses of the settlement’s strongest warriors. A few of them had held out for some time, but bit by bit, they had been crushed under heel.

The silver-haired humanoid almost looked human, save for his additional arms. But there was also an odd perfection about him, like his skin was too smooth and shiny. Lines also wrapped around his body as if marking carapace shell pieces that weren’t actually there.

“Human!” The silver-haired ant called. “You still alive in there?!”

“I still sense him in there, brother,” said his companion, who stood a few meters back.

The second figure looked much more like an ant. It stood upright, was about the size of an average man, had a snake’s head, huge feathered wings, and a scorpion tail. But otherwise, it looked like an ant.

“I’m not done yet!” Came a voice from the rubble.

A second later, the rubble exploded outward, showing the surroundings, and out stepped a huge man with scruffy hair, and almost every inch of his skin covered in scars.

He raised his forearm up to his mouth and licked a wound that was carved down it, and within seconds, it healed to leave behind a nasty scar.

“Thank you. This should serve me well.”

“What are you yapping about, human?” Asked the patchwork ant.

“These scars, haha,” the human shook his head. “They’re my greatest power. And every scar makes me a little stronger. You see this one,” he continued, pulling up his torn and shredded shirt to reveal a gnarly scar on his stomach. “Almost killed me. The bastard that did it was the first D-grade beast I met after the trials. The thing was tough; it was exactly what I needed. This was the scar that helped me become ranked in the top ten! HAHA. And you know what? I think these new scars will be even better!”

A rush of energy that seemed to build stronger and stronger flooded out from Edwan Coser, ranked seventh on the planetary rankings, as he took several steps toward the royal guards. And the large man seemed to grow even bigger. Spikes protruded from his skin, and his bloodied mouth curled into a dangerous grin.

“He thinks he still has a chance?” The silver-haired royal guard bent his head.

“Seems like it, brother. We’ll just have to teach him another lesson.”

The two royal guards took a step forward, but when Edwan launched himself at them, they almost gasped.

They had already fought this guy, and while he was strong, he hadn’t been particularly strong compared to them.

But with the new scar?

In an instant, he was there, his spiked form barreling into them. But these were the two strongest royal guards, and even with a respectable power boost, Edwan Coser was just a man.

The air itself seemed to twist around the enraged man as he swung at them, but every attack was countered, and within seconds, wounds covered every inch of him.

“Blah!” Edwan coughed blood and staggered forward, clutching at his mounting wounds. “Damn you! These will be glorious–”

And just then, as Edwan was about to mock their triumph, a pointed hand shot toward his neck like a point of a blade, and his head was severed clean, and sent bouncing along the ground.

“What? My… my body! You bastards!”

“Huh, he can still talk without a body?” The silver-haired ant said, looking impressed.

“I can do more than talk!”

In an instant, Edawn’s head began to glow and then expand rapidly.

“Oh shit.”

An explosion big enough to topple cities rang out with a wave of destruction that destroyed both what was left of the settlement, alongside the ant swarm.

“Human!” Sneered the royal guard.

They were both covered in wounds, wounds that went beyond just their physical forms. The man had detonated his very soul, and it had taken a lot, even for them, to survive the blast.

“Your guts are leaking, brother.”

“So are yours!”

“Oh, right. They are.”

“What now?”

“Collect the corpse. Mother will want this one.”

“Corpse? You mean pieces?”

The royal guard shrugged at its brother, and the two began collecting the pieces of one of the world’s former top rankers.