Chapter 33: 33. Return of the Reaper

Alistair considered the possibility that Anthony was lying, since the sleazy man wasn’t the most trustworthy, but he decided that in the situation, it made more sense that he was telling the truth. He didn’t have any time to waste, and if he turned around to investigate, he would face Carmen’s wrath.

So, he ran. He spammed [Dash] after [Dash] in a mad rush to escape. He didn’t look behind him once, even after he heard the forest crash behind him, probably from one of Carmen’s giant crosses. After using about ten of his movement Skill, he went back to normal running to conserve his Mana. If he didn’t already have enough berth to escape his pursuers, he was screwed, no matter what.

He ran 1.5 kilometers in under twenty seconds, his face pelted by several branches along the way. As he fled, the only hope he clung to was that Anthony was correct, and that his sister and Alexandra had safely escaped by breaking their tokens. A sinister thought popped into his head — what if Anthony had lied about them breaking their tokens so that Alistair would run instead of fight? If they had died, he would have fought until his last breath, making Anthony’s own chance of moving on to the next round go down. Anthony didn’t seem like he had the mind for such a nefarious idea, but Alistair felt he had previously underestimated the third ranker.

After Alistair judged himself to be relatively safe, he took a look at his surroundings. He had jetted all the way into a valley, two peaks covered in snow towering over a grassy landscape dotted with occasional trees. He felt the golden key within his grasp. It was nearly the size of his palm, gold and weathered by time. The peculiar aura it emitted made him sure that it was the treasure that the host explained.

Alistair considered the options before him. Now that he had one of the ten treasures hidden on the island, it was in his best interests to stay hidden. He didn’t need to fight anyone else, he just needed to survive another six days. The problem was, Alistair was a fighter, not a hider. He didn’t know how he was going to remain undetected for nearly a week. It was also possible the producers would engineer a conflict for ratings, even if he tried to hide. But with his team gone, he didn’t have many options.

He found a nice, soft piece of ground next to the trunk of a large tree. It was a stupid idea, but he had nothing better, so he dug.

Trying to make as thin an incision as possible, he carefully but forcefully scooped up the dirt and grass with his hands. With his Strength and Agility, it was as easy as carving a cake. Alistair created a hole around the size of his torso, digging down until it reached up to his waist.

After completing the hole to that point, he slid into it, gathering the dirt and putting it back in the hole. He dug his fist as deep into the dirt beneath him as he could, and activated [Void Beckoning], instantly turning the ground beneath him into the void. The depths of the earth welcomed him further down, bringing him nearly three meters underground.

His [Void Beckoning] carved a conical area into the rocky layers beneath the soil, though Alistair saw only darkness. He navigated around by touch in the pitch-black environment, trying to get a sense of how big the area was. The drop was far enough that his outstretched arm felt only subterranean air.

That led to his next problem: oxygen. Or more in a more scientifically accurate fashion, he would die of carbon dioxide poisoning first. He didn’t know how long he could survive in his little man-made cavern, but he found it hard to believe it could be six days.

Another [Void Beckoning] brought him even deeper underground. Alistair didn’t want to be close to the surface, where his aura could be detected by a meticulous individual. Being clandestine was more important than preparing for carbon dioxide poisoning.

Satisfied his hole was deep enough, Alistair sat down cross-legged, closing his eyes. While it might not have seemed restful hiding ten meters underground with a limited supply of oxygen, Alistair felt more at peace than he had been in a long time. There was something innately calming about the lack of sensory input.

With no measure of time, he waited in his meditative state. He couldn’t have answered how long he was down there for his life, minutes blending into hours and hours blending into days.

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Alistair found himself more in tune with his body and the world than ever before. With his high Charisma, he felt tiny strands of Fate surrounding him, always changing. They were like tiny golden threads that delicately flickered around in his mind’s eye, avoiding the sunshine of attention. He realized they had always been there, and he was just too busy to see them before.

He wasn’t sure what to do with his 30 Upgrade Points. In his conversations with Alexandra, she told him she had focused more on the Body Cultivation Tree, while had had invested all of his in his Class Trees. His reasoning was that something available to everyone couldn’t be that good, but the standard Tree still had some uses. In the Body Cultivation Tree, under the Heart Branch he found a leaf that converted some of the body’s basic processes like the desire to eat, drink, sleep, and breath into Mana consumption, when desired. It was perfect for his situation, and unlocking it only cost 5 Upgrade Points.

Fifteen of the remaining points he allocated to unlocking a new Badge slot, and with the final ten points, he upgraded his [Fighter’s Instinct]. Upgrading a Skill was something he said he wouldn’t do before, but the value of reconnaissance and detection had been impressed on him by Alfred and Anthony’s impressive senses, and the fact that all of them got swallowed by a hallucinogenic turtle. At that point, Alistair figured it was by producer intervention that event occurred, since it would be weird to have such a powerful enemy for level 30 and below players.

The new Upgrade Points brought his [Fighter’s Instinct] all the way to Tier 3, increasing the range and specificity of the passive. He realized the light of the status screen could light up his man-made cavern, so he used it to his advantage. Not that there was anything to see, but after leaving his meditation, he preferred to not be in the pitch dark.

With his newly improved [Fighter’s Instinct], his [Ghost Whispers], and his Karmic senses, he was confident none of his peers would ever sneak up on him again.

Speaking of sneaking up, Alistair couldn’t believe someone hadn’t ambushed him. That no one had found his spot surprised him. If the purpose of Felons vs. Fellows was for entertainment above all else, him hiding underground was the most boring thing possible. He didn’t even know how many days had passed. All he knew was that it wasn’t over, since he was still down there.

Another few hours passed, and Alistair started detecting alterations in the fine lines of Fate that he had grown accustomed to. Slowly but surely, they all started pointing in one direction. As they turned, they grew darker and thicker, gaining a viscous quality. His more attuned sense of Fate told him that a threat was coming.

Alistair preemptively reacted to the current of Fate, climbing up to his original hole and using a [Void Beckoning] to blast away the dirt above him. The sky was dotted with stars and chilled air flowed down into his hiding place. He jumped up out of the hole, summoning his Terragen Wraps.

Nighttime enveloped Dragon’s Den island, though the thing Alistair was most focused on was the change in scenery. When he entered his lair, the grass and trees were a luscious green paradise, but the entire valley was charred and even partially smoking. Alistair wondered if the dragon that had attacked them before went on a fiery rampage.

His new and improved [Fighter’s Instinct] alerted him to a rapidly moving object at a further distance than it could before, letting him sidestep easily sidestep it. Behind him, the earth erupted in a crack that flattened a small hill.

“Oh, what’s this?” a woman said. She floated down from the air gently, like her density was just a tiny bit greater than air. “I wasn’t expecting a loner, and with a treasure at that.”

Alistair immediately used [Eyes of Truth] to scan the woman.

Name: Preta Meloi
Species: Human Variant
Level: 30
Class: ???

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