Chapter 18 – Trouble Comes in Threes (Patreon)

Hadron Riser knelt by the brown and darkened bloodstain on the second floor of the tower his brother was last seen entering.

He brushed his calloused fingertips against the stone. Dried blood flaked off at his touch.

Ben…

Fierce, cold anger welled up in Hadron’s chest. Without looking up, he said, “Who did this?”

A nervous voice cleared its throat. He was clearly afraid of what Hadron would do to him. Then again, the penalty for not answering was even worse than delivering bad news. “We don’t know, exactly. Some group that spawned here, sir.”

“Which one of you was hunting with my Ben?” Hadron snarled.

A whimpering muffled voice was suddenly thrust to its knees in front of the kneeling Hadron. He looked over at the pairs of steady hands holding the young boy to his knees.

The kid’s eyes were round with terror, twin tracks of tears ran shining rivulets across his dirty cheeks.

Hadron stood and looked down at the boy. He was solidly built, well into his 30s, but even before the uplift, he had been a fighter. Now, with actual stats and levels to juice him up, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Having the [First Blood] title didn’t hurt either.

It had launched him from unhinged killer to tyrannical overlord almost instantly. Anybody who tried to oppose him was swiftly and brutally put down.

And the boy in front of him knew it.

Hadron hooked a finger into the dirty rag tied around his mouth and loosened it so the boy could speak. “I’m going to ask you a question and you will answer me. You will not speak to me unless I ask you to. Do you understand?”

The boy nodded emphatically.

“Good, you’re smarter than the last guy from your group I asked. Did you see who did this?”

Another nod.

“Do you know his name?”

A terrified shake.

“If you saw him again, could you identify him?”

A nod.

Hadron grinned, though it did not touch his eyes. “Then it’s your lucky day, bub. For now, you’re still useful. See to it that you remain that way, and I’ll have no reason to wet my blade on you.”

Another very eager nod.

The boy is practically officer-grade material, he thought wryly.

“Do you know what way they went?”

Another nod.

“Then, for your sake, let’s hope you lead us to him.” Hadron clapped the boy on the shoulder and helped him to his feet. “If you give me the people who did this, then I’ll take Ben’s death out on their hide instead of yours.”

The boy, Hadron believed he was an Archer, shivered under his backslapping as Hadron added, “And you want me to take it out on them, because the alternative is you. And I want you to believe me when I say, you would not like what I will do to you if I can’t get my hands on my brother’s killers.”

It was a mark of credit to the lad’s nerve that he didn’t wet himself and pass out right there.

Hadron passed him off to his second-in-command, Thomas, who in turn pushed him ahead so the boy could lead the way.

The rest of Hadron’s group collapsed on them as they exited the tower’s bottom floor and into the ruins. They climbed atop piles of rubble, prodding their guide to make sure he knew they were always right behind him with sharp weapons.

“Do you really think we’ll find who killed Ben?” Thomas asked quietly when they were alone. “I mean no disrespect, Hadron, but you know what he was like. He ran off without an escort more than once. He wasn’t without skill but… maybe he ran into somebody who had more.”

“Then I’d very much like to meet this person,” Hadron said mildly. He didn’t really care that his brother was dead. Ben was an idiot. He was always having to chase after him and clean up his messes. But he was family, and you didn’t mess with the Risers and get away with it. “And then skin him alive.”

***

Luke made his way forward, intent on not turning back. He heard things scratching in the distance up ahead, so there was some sign of life. Likely monsters, which was both a good and bad thing.

He wasn’t in the best condition, but he’d rather face monsters than more humans at present.

It was what he wanted, after all. To hunt monsters out on his own. He just didn’t see it all going down like this.

A squat shape moved again, too distant and too quick for Luke to make out enough detail. He crouched low, moving alongside a stack of smashed boxes.

His arm burned where the Gladiator’s attack had cut him, but he was already on the mend. The makeshift bandage he used to stem the worst of the bleeding seemed to have done the trick. His body’s natural regeneration was covering the rest.

It was fortunate he didn’t need potions to mend every injury. His Vitality was slowly able to cover it. Maybe he would have to worry about infections down the line, but for now, he had to ration what little resources he had.

It occurred to him that he would have been blind in here without acquiring his bloodline. It suggested that it was something ancient and old but not able to be used by its descendants due to “corruption”. Did that mean his bloodline was evil or dangerous somehow?

Not that he had much choice. He couldn’t turn his eyes off. Even if he could stop using the rest of its abilities, he didn’t have any control over his vision.

And already the bloodline had saved his skin. He wanted this power, no matter its drawbacks.

Creatures scuttled about in the darkness. As he got closer to them, Luke could feel where they were with that strange extrasensory effect of his bloodline.

He gathered that while he and a creature were in darkness, he could sense them as if they were a part of him. Though he didn’t have a torch to test his theory.

The deeper he went beneath the bridge, the more it comforted him. It was unsettling, to say the least. He wasn’t alone. Even if the surrounding creatures were hostile monsters, he knew where they were.

It was a bit like playing a horror game with x-ray vision. Knowing where the monsters were took some of the fear out of the experience and made it tolerable.

Sliding up against a crumbling wall leading to another room, Luke drew out his new falchion. He closed his eyes so he could focus on sensing the large creature in the other room.

About the size of a German shepherd, the rat-like thing was sniffing around in the dark. It hadn’t spotted him yet, he was fairly sure, but it was big enough that its teeth and claws would be formidable weapons.

Normally, he could look at a monster and, if he was focusing on it, get the System to give up its name and level. But it seemed unless he was directly looking at it, the System wasn’t willing to do anything.

A quirk of his shadow powers then. That was fine by him.

Luke took a deep breath, used [Fleet of Foot] and [Lacerate] at the same time, and charged into the room. His SP trickled down, fueling his Rogue skills.

The moment his boot touched the crumbled stone, the rat creature turned and zeroed in on him.

Predictably, it lunged straight for him at the same time as Luke sidestepped with startling ease. He grinned. His 45 Dexterity was really showing its worth.

He stabbed once with the pointed tip of his blade and the rat squealed angrily. It lashed out with its whip-like tail, knocking Luke off his feet.

Twisting its whole hulking body, the rat pounced on him before he could even begin to roll away.

Luke tried to get his sword up to cut it, but only managed to block with the flat of the blade. The weight of the giant rat slowly began to crush him.

Even if the creature did nothing but rest there, Luke would eventually pass out. He could barely breathe. The frantic scrabbling of its claws against his legs sent hot lines of agony down his thighs.

Instead of trying to fend off the snapping teeth of the rat, Luke drove the blade as hard as he could into its forepaws, cutting them off. He nearly went deaf from the resulting shriek.

The momentary lapse was enough for him to wriggle out from beneath it. He cut its tail off for good measure, then finished it off with a stab to the back of the neck while it was flailing about on the ground.

You have defeated [Giant Rat - Level 4]. Extra experience gained for slaying an enemy above your level. 2 LP obtained.

Rubbing his tender chest, Luke looted more monster meat from the creature. After checking once more that the coast was clear, he leaned against a nearby wall and allowed himself to slide to the floor.

His legs burned, but they were little more than serious scratches. He had to hold onto his health potions until he absolutely needed them. There was no Healer here to bail him out.

He needed to get a handle on fighting alone. Fast.

That meant relying on every power he had at his disposal, including the “cursed” bloodline. If he didn’t learn to master it, he wasn’t going to be alive long enough to worry about the curse anyway.

“Okay,” he muttered to himself. “The rat was level 4, I’m level 7 Rogue… but it still gave me extra experience. I think that’s pretty conclusive that the System is comparing my race level to the monster’s level. Maybe the monster’s level is its race level?”

Which meant that, in a way, monsters might actually be a little stronger than people. Only, monsters didn’t seem to have any skills or powers, which gave humans like Luke an edge.

That and weapons.

If he had to fight that thing naked with only the implements he was born with, he’d be dead.

Maybe stronger monsters would wind up using skills. He didn’t particularly look forward to that, not unless he was better equipped for the challenge.

There was something else about his bloodline that was bugging him.

He already covered the extrasensory powers, which didn’t seem nearly as cool as being able to see in a full sphere around himself at all times. The farther out he focused, the narrower his awareness became, but at least he didn’t need a clear line of sight to tell what was in the shadow.

No, what really nagged at him was the reflex and reaction time thing. Weren’t they the same thing? More importantly, how did you test them?

He didn’t seem much faster. The constant improvement of his Dexterity seemed to have a much bigger impact on his speed and maneuverability than his bloodline.

Maybe that was because he wasn’t using it right.

After all, this was all magic. There had to be a trick to it, some kind of clue. He hardly knew what he was doing at the best of times, and a bloodline was something entirely alien.

Luke allowed himself to catch his breath and for his body to patch itself up a little bit before he got to his feet with gritted teeth and went in search of a giant rat to test his powers on.

It was time to see what his bloodline could do.