Chapter 165: Chapter 114: Shocking deal and discoveries

No other soothing words were needed.

Kai drooped the words like a bomb, his voice scraping the skulls of the listeners.

“I want to visit the Temple of Hastur…”

One line. Few words. And Arlen bellowed like a dying man, losing all hope. “NO!” he shouted, standing up, throwing off Shae’s hand. “SHUT UP!”

Words, like fired arrows, couldn’t be called back, though. They were out and had already reached the ears, which should have never known them. Kai had expected a shocked expression, but this took him off guard. Shock was indeed there on Arlen’s face, but it wasn’t alone. Fear. Horror. Raw Terror. They all ran over his face as if ghouls were dancing a dance of death.

Arlen looked shaken.

For the first time, Kai doubted if he should have pressed Arlen hard to send Shae away. But he didn’t regret it. He brought it upon himself, Kai thought. It’s so satisfying to have been so right when he can’t argue that I have not warned him. Under the layer of doubt, Kai felt a joy that almost made him smile. He liked it. The way people just ignored the warnings that had been given to them.

Shae looked appalled. It was the first time for her to see Arlen like this, Kai could tell. The Baron was oozing sweat like a twisted piece of wet cloth, his chest heaving up and down from the broken breath. “Arlen…” Shae said meekly. “What’s this Temple…”

“NO!” Arlen again bellowed, dreading the words that could have come out of her mouth, as if that would have made the situation more devastating. “Go. Shae, go to your bed. Now.”

The finality in Arlen’s tone made the beauty tremble. She stood up, composing herself, and went away without looking at Kai.

Kai noticed everything, like an audience without intervention. He saw Arlen slumping back into the comforts of the fluffy sofa and covering his face with his hands. This was also a gesture Kai would have never expected out of him.

The moment Baron Arlen rubbed his face and took off his hands, Kai knew he was again looking at Arlen Willey, and not at Baron Arlen Silvas.

“You lack the wits to know what you have done,” Arlen declared. “How do you know this… Name.”

Kai smiled. “Does it matter?” he asked. “No. It doesn’t. What matters is the deal I…”

Arlen cut him off. “Don’t even think about it,” he snarled under his breath. “There can be no deal related to that. Do you understand me?”

“Haha!” Kai laughed. His hand flickered, taking a small glass vial. The marking on the glass said that its volume was only 10 ml. Inside, a transparent liquid undulated as a sign of its presence. Arlen gawked at the vial, his eyes widening, his mouth parting, and his nostrils flaring as realization dawned on him.

It wasn’t the end, though.

Kai’s hand again flickered, taking out another, but the same vial. It was also of the same size, and the same liquid joggled within it.

“This can’t be…” Arlen muttered, his hand reaching out, but ultimately held himself back. “You said you had only 3 drops…”

Kai shrugged. Before coming here, Kai had separated the contents of his almost 50 ml Light Neurotoxin into 5 small vials. Many small vials would shock Arlen more than a single bigger one, Kai had guessed. “So,” he said, leaving over the vials, “would you like to hear the deal now?”

“Are you pissing out this substance?” Arlen asked.

Kai took that question as a yes. He knew the Baron must have guessed something by now, but he didn’t care.

“Now here’s the deal,” Kai said. “I want to visit the Temple of Hastur, (-Arlen flinched at the name again-). 10000 Mission Credits or equivalent Items of my choice. All data that is available to the Thunder Faction on the various Random Worlds. A wand, false or real, I don’t care. And you will tell me why you haven’t ascended to the 4th floor yet.”

Kai had thought this through. Many times. 3 drops of Light Neurotoxin had made Arlen a Baron on the 3rd floor. The things a person like him could do on the 2nd Set with 20 ml of it at his disposal were a thing beyond imagination. Sure, the poison would lose efficacy given the Contestants’ enhanced Stats, but he could also be more extravagant with the poison.

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For Kai, what he had offered was more than fair. Well, not exactly fair, Kai thought. What’s the point of making a deal where I am not at the better end of it?

Arlen’s eyes had become red. Not because of anger but from the internal struggle he was going through. His pupils kept going in and out of focus, looking at the vials at one time, conversing with himself at others.

Then he shook his head.

“No.” One word and that seemed to seal the bottle of Kai’s prospects. “Let’s not even talk about why you think you will be allowed in… in the Temple. There isn’t a Temple below the 4th floor, to begin with.”

Kai knew what was going on. Not that Arlen couldn’t do it, but the stakes weren’t high enough compared to the risk. Alright, he thought. Suit yourself, then.

Kai reached into his Inventory, taking out another vial. Arlen’s eyes shook, his breathing becoming heavier. But Kai didn’t give him a chance to take control of himself. He took out the fourth vial, putting it beside the three others.

Arlen beamed. “Done,” he proclaimed, losing his sulky appearance. “I will take you to the Temple on the 4th floor.” His hand reached out for the four vials, but Kai was quicker. He put all of them back into Inventory.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Arlen asked.

“Don’t push me,” Kai said, narrowing his eyes. “You will get the vials when I am in and out of the Temple in one piece. Let’s talk about the rest of my conditions.”

“Humph!” Arlen snorted but leaned back on the sofa. “You can’t get a better Item than the one made from Great Redshank’s corpse below the 4th floor. You will have your 10000 Mission Credits. The data of Thunder Faction is not my property, but I will see about it too. The false wand? I can manage. And your last question is as foolish as yourself, bloody. What do you mean, why haven’t I ascended yet? It’s simple. I still have a point remaining in my 20 points quota of 1st Set.”

Kai was confused. So what if Arlen’s quota wasn’t finished?

“Haha!” Arlen guffawed. “Don’t tell me you think you can make up the remaining points on the upper floors. Fool! There isn’t an endless number of points. If you leave even 1 point behind from your quota, then that point is gone. You will never get it back. I still have 1 left, so I reset my Kill Count to attempt one more mission before ascending.”

It was Kai’s turn to become shocked. He knew there was a limited supply of Attributed Points, but never had he thought that not having them all would leave him incapacitated.

Kai gulped. “But why is it so important to have all the points?” he asked. “I have heard of many Contestants ascending the floors as quickly as they can .”

Arlen tsked. “That’s why I told you, bloody,” the Baron said, shaking his head. “That’s why I told you to join an organization. Let me tell you as a free charity. New Contestants like you make two grave mistakes. First, they think Grade E stands for Easy in the missions of 1st Set. Ask yourself, when has the System ever mentioned so? Never. There is no Easy mission in the Primordial Tower. The missions are only divided according to the Mission Credits and Attribute Points they offer, and nothing else. I have heard of an E- mission taking years to be completed and a D+ graded mission getting completed in an hour. So… Don’t Assume.”

Kai’s mind roared with understanding. It opened up a path to him which he would have missed altogether, otherwise.

“Second,” Arlen continued, “the Contestants you mentioned aren’t clearing the 1st Set because they are formidable, but because they are in a rush to clear them, at the cost of losing Attribute Points from their quota. Life above the 3rd floor is much more comfortable than below it. No powerful Contestant in his right mind would ever let go of even a single point.”

Kai could sense it. Something more was there to it, hidden behind the last statement. “Why?” he asked, holding his breath.

Arlen grinned at Kai. “Tournament of Worth,” he said. “Every 3 years, the two Systems hold this tournament in which Contestants from both sides take part. The only qualifying condition is that a Contestant must have got all the Attribute Points from their Set. That automatically eliminates all Contestants below the 4th floor.”

Kai paled, seeing the mockery written on Arlen’s face. “When is the next one?” he asked, gritting his teeth. “What is the reward?”

Arlen scratched his cheek, contemplating his next words, or enjoying Kai’s obvious ecstatic expression. “In 4 months,” he said, controlling back a laugh. “And the Reward…”

Arlen leaned forward, his face coming fatally close to Kai’s. When he opened his mouth, his breath smelled of peppermint.

“Tell me, bloody. Have you ever heard of… Glitches?”

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