Chapter 37

“Or maybe the demon knows we stole the miracle and won’t present itself to us.”

The spider cocked her head as if deep in thought, then shook it vigorously. “No…no, that’s definitely not it. It would have arrived and killed you in the contract ceremony if it had any ill will against you.”

“It can do that?”

“Oh, yes, and frankly, I doubt I’d have been able to help you much against something this strong. It’s always a risk to take on summoned demons, and this particular breed is not known for their kindness. It would jump at the opportunity to eat you if it didn’t wish to bond with you.”

Riven’s eyes narrowed. “How the hell do warlocks survive if they risk dying every time they summon a new minion?”

Athela sighed. “There are different ways to contract with demons. One is by having a class that allows foreign contact at certain intervals or milestones. Another is by creating a miracle stone or summoning circle, which are more dangerous than the class-contact route, which is protected by the administrator of Elysium. Miracle stones and summoning circles are completely on your own, meaning the administrator won’t interfere if the demon tries to kill you. The demons you can bind with through the administrator’s system cannot harm you upon picking them. Usually demons contracted through a miracle stone like this are very rare until you reach well over level 100, especially with such a singular and powerful breed, so this is a unique opportunity. Dying is worth the risk for extreme gains and great power.”

“Is it, though?”

“It is if you want to live a fulfilling life! You’re a Novice Warlock, Riven! Warlocks are supposed to be risk-takers!”

He gave her a doubtful look. “Are we, though?”

“Definitely!”

“Uh-huh.”

“You took the risk to save me, didn’t you?”

He paused at that one, then gave the spider a small smile and a nod as she beamed up at him while happily tapping her legs on the floor in rapid fashion. “Fine. I’ll give you that one.”

Sighing and closing his eyes, he cupped both hands over the stone like Athela had shown him previously. He formed an image of the bauble in his mind and tried to channel mana into the gem by directing a spell—any spell—into the space it presented.

There was a connection, just like last night, with each of his three attempts…but nothing beyond that. The mana interlinked with the glassy, glowing orb…but he got nothing else. No attempt at contact, no other change, and Riven eventually gave up again after sitting there for fifteen minutes while slowly pouring his mana until it almost drained away completely.

He shook his head with a frown. “No good. Are you sure it’s really in there?”

Athela considered his words while pacing back and forth across the room, ignoring the sleeping man nearby and his sack of wealth, which he still hadn’t opened up to share yet despite Riven having saved his life. The spider eventually came to a halt, though, turned on Riven, and padded up to him. “I believe it is testing you.”

“Testing me?”

She nodded. “The brutalisk is likely watching you and waiting to see if it wants to bind with you or not.”

“So it can see me?”

“As long as you are within proximity to the stone, yes, it can.”

“I see.” He pulled up the information on the item again.

[Dark Arts Miracle Stone (Unique) (Filled): The prayers to Jograz Metz have been heard, the blood price has been paid, and he has answered with this gift. Using this particular miracle stone provides an infant B-grade demon species: Hellscape Brutalisk (Inherent to the Infernal Pillar) as a demonic familiar upon binding. Requirements: five thousand of five thousand souls sacrificed, ingredients for summoning met, favor for your chosen dark god complete. This familiar requires a contract prior to binding and must be contacted to agree upon a contract prior to use.]

Pushing mana into the stone did nothing. Not a single thing. Trying to touch it mentally also resulted in failure, and he turned back to Athela after reading it for the fifth time—shaking his head. “Will this Jograz Metz be angry that I stole his miracle?”

Athela burst into chittering laughter almost immediately, her legs tapping wildly as her abdomen bobbed up and down in amusement. Her laughter rose, and it took a little while for her to calm down until she settled into a low hum. “Jograz Metz will find it funny, if nothing else. He is a well-known elder god that we demons worship, and he enjoys acts such as thievery just as much as the sacrifices those Jabob demons took in making the miracle stone in the first place. They may have put in the effort, but Jograz Metz will certainly have no qualms with you stealing the stone he made as payment for their work.”

Riven couldn’t help but grin at that one. “Sounds good to me. And are you still sure you’ve never heard of Chalgathi before?”

Athela seemed to frown, though he couldn’t completely tell. “Riven, I have told you numerous times now—I have no idea who Chalgathi is. Perhaps he is simply beyond my knowledge, or maybe he is an archdemon of some sort. Few have the power to manipulate the administrator’s rules, though, and intervening with the tutorial is exactly that. Even his initial quest line was outside the administrator’s jurisdiction, so whoever he is…he must be both powerful and foolhardy.”

He raised an eyebrow, palming the warm orb in his hands. “Why foolhardy?”

“Because if he pushes the boundaries too much, the administrator of Elysium—what people sometimes call ‘the system’—will destroy him mercilessly. Even the gods must be careful not to tread outside the rules too often, as the last one to overstep too many times was publicly destroyed for all creation to see. It was a very one-sided fight, if you’d even call it a fight. It was more of an execution.”

“Wow, okay. Got it.” Scratching his head, he looked down to the amulet he was wearing with curiosity settling in. “Do you know what this is or does? I don’t think I’ve asked you yet. Have I?”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The arachnid had climbed up into his lap like a dog, but she turned her head to examine it. “No, you haven’t, and no, I don’t know what this is. You may need a professional identifier to glean information on it.”

“Damn. Well, it was worth a shot.” He reluctantly tucked the amulet away and huffed, leaning against the wall as his spider demon climbed up onto his lap again to snuggle in. Stroking her head, he let her play with the glowing bauble some more.

The spider eventually broke the silence and pointed over to Jalel’s sleeping spot. “We should kill him and eat him.”

Riven stifled a bewildered laugh, stopping his stroking pets as he did. “Excuse me?”

“I’m hungry.”

“That doesn’t mean you get to eat him.”

“Why not? We can take his stuff, too!” The spider excitedly got up to all twelve feet, salivating as the red mists from outside showing through the windows caused her eyes to gleam a similar red in the unnatural light. “He probably tastes really good…”

He flicked her thorax with a scowl. “Stop that.”

“Ugh. Fine. You’re no fun.”

Athela passively bobbed her head from side to side. Dim red light still trickled in through the open balcony window on her left, and she began gazing out into the fog with a distant look as she drifted into recent memory. “I’m looking forward to leaving and getting into Elysium’s mortal realms. I’m excited to see what your new world looks like! But this place? This hellscape dungeon?”

She held up her two front legs to either side. “I hate the nether realms, but the hells are even worse.”

Riven snickered, then put his chin in his hands. “You’ll have to tell me the difference between the two sometime.”

“It wouldn’t interest you. It’s rather boring stuff.”

Riven rolled his eyes and then frowned Jalel’s way. The sleeping man nearby had undergone a mental breakdown last night; he’d seen all his companions die, so Jalel really hadn’t been in a talking mood.

Or…at least that’s what Jalel had told him. Jalel had claimed to be upset about his comrades, but Athela was rather convinced he was upset about losing the other bag of loot. The one Riven had refused to take because he was carrying the spider. Often last night, Athela had caught Jalel giving her cold glares—and she’d wanted to kill him numerous times already.

Riven couldn’t necessarily disagree. The man seemed slightly shady and had guarded that bag of…stuff…without letting Riven or Athela take so much as a peep at what was inside.

Perhaps he should have left Jalel back in the cages to rot. Perhaps that was an overreaction. Only time would tell.

Then again, maybe Jalel knew a way out of here. Jalel had given him a little bit of a backstory—he was apparently from somewhere in the “core systems” of Elysium. He’d come here treasure hunting with friends before it’d gone terribly wrong and was wanting to make a big break by finding valuables to sell in the markets. When Riven had told him that he was undertaking the tutorial trial after his world had just been introduced into Elysium’s multiverse, Jalel had gone into a loud laughing fit…and had refused to explain why. He’d also given the same reason that he couldn’t talk about it to Riven that Athela had given Riven in the past—that if he told newly integrated people secrets of the system too early, he’d be punished by the system itself. The only thing Jalel had told Riven was that this dungeon might be a trial for Riven, but for other people it was a lucrative yet dangerous surface-level hellscape dungeon connected to numerous planes along a multiverse of innumerable different worlds. One of those planes of existence was Jalel’s home—another planet entirely.

Funnily enough, Riven took it at face value after all the ridiculousness he’d experienced thus far.

“Well, hopefully he can get us out of here. This isn’t a place I want to spend much time in…”

Standing and stretching his muscles, Riven yawned and wondered how Tim, Julie, and their mother, Tanya, were doing. He’d thought much on Allie and Jose, but not about the others until now. He hoped they were all right and wondered what they and Hakim were up to now. They’d probably already finished their own tutorial dungeon, if he had to guess, and from afar he wished them success in their future endeavors.

To his left and out the window overlooking the ruins, a silky black raven with glowing orange eyes flew by, then doubled back to gracefully land on the windowsill looking in. There was no glass here, and the fog was drifting through in minor amounts to coat Riven’s skin in a fine layer of dew. The bird was no different in that regard—its feathers were extra shiny as it ruffled its body to let loose some of the moisture that’d collected.

Putting his hands on his hips, he grinned at the odd bird. Those orange eyes were very…strange and gave it an almost alien vibe. Otherwise, though, it looked like just a simple bird. Ravens were supposed to be rather intelligent creatures, and he’d fed them as a kid with the spare bread he had—which often wasn’t much, considering how poor he’d been. “Kinda misty. Nice day for a passive shower, eh?”

The bird cocked its head to get a better look at him, then looked to Athela, who was eyeing it hungrily, but it didn’t move when Riven made his way forward to the edge of the large window a couple feet to the left of where it was perched. He looked down a steep drop in front of him, going down thousands of feet to the city streets below.

“Leave the poor bird alone, Athela.”

Riven ran his fingers through his chestnut-colored hair and over his ears, took in a deep breath to expand his lungs to the max, and exhaled with his eyes closed. The air just a few feet away was a lot less fresh than when he stood here on the edge of the tower, and it felt good on his senses to remain there in the morning light.

Athela sprang up and rushed over to the ledge with a hiss in the raven’s direction, but with a sharp look from Riven, she didn’t attack it and instead crawled up his back to peer over his shoulder. She looked over the stone ledge and whistled at the steep drop beneath, leaning into Riven and placing her head firmly against his arm. “I’m glad I bonded with you. Thanks again for saving me.”

He merely smiled back.

There was a long moment of silence as they looked out over the ruined, partially obscured city, where pools of fire glowed at scattered intervals in stark contrast to the mist surrounding them.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Riven eventually said while gripping the waist-high stone barrier. “I can say the same about how you saved me, back there in the duel. I know you were being self-serving, but you’ve been very helpful, and I know I wouldn’t have made it without you.”

She chittered a laugh and pointed at herself. “Without me? You’d definitely have died, silly human. Bask in my presence!”

He forced his smile back, not wanting to encourage her further, and pretended like he hadn’t heard anything she’d just said. Opening his eyes again, Riven scanned the obscured horizon as low-lying clouds and fog drifted across and through the jagged streets, catwalks connecting buildings, pools of fire, slews of strung-up bodies, and ruined gothic temples clustered around them. This tower was certainly not the absolute tallest in the area, but it was one of the tallest—and although it was narrow, there was another catwalk connecting this building to another just three stories down.

“This dungeon really is a maze…” Riven mused, catching sight of a large citadel partially obscured by the city’s mists farther in—and then straining to see a distant forest of dead black trees off in the opposite direction when the fog briefly parted. “Oh! Finally, something other than these damnable ruins.”

A groan from behind them caused Riven to turn, and the orange-eyed raven that’d been watching him took off with a squawk to soar up into the air and away from this blasted place…but it gave him one long, sideways glance before it made its final retreat into the fog.

Riven frowned as the other man got up and rubbed his eyes. “Hey, Jalel. Sleep well?”

Jalel, the silver-haired young man, glanced over to him warily and gave him an appraising look before sighing and shaking his head. He took a moment to regain his senses from the grip of slumber and stretched with a deep-set frown as he looked around the large tower room. “Not at all. This…this is the worst possible outcome.”