The building was a big barn with what looked like inventions. Probably where the Helpers gathered to brainstorm and make things, and with it, weird experiments involving those same inventions. Possibly testing them out on each other, or worse, unwilling participants.
Three [Guards] were on alert while the fourth went to call reinforcements.
Bel was giving hell to the Helpers. “Know that you hurt my dear friend and deserve repentance.” She was forcing them to smell rotten food. Found in a bin, if Astor had to guess. Not only that, but she was also tickling them with a feather, making it so that they would need to breathe in everytime they laughed. Basically harmless torture. In fact, the laughs might give her experience points; [Comedian] being a real class.
“Bel?” Cayn called her.
“Oh hey, aquamarine-eyes dudes, sup’?”
“What are you doing to them?”
She hid her tools of innocent torture. “Nothing.”
“Right.”
The [Guards] were discussing how to deal with these persons. Eventually, they started arguing on what the purpose of the inventions laying around could possibly be.
One thought they were meant to harm people, not far fetched as the black portal was the lady's doing. Another said that they were here to solve said issue, possible, as yet again, it was the lady’s fault. The third straight up told them to shut up. Probably the only sane person in the room, Astor thought.
Rambles came from outside the barn. Leander came crashing in. “Is everyone ok?” he said, before actually assessing the situation. “I’m a lil’ bit on the nerve with everything happening.”
[Guards] reported to him. Was he the chief? Now that Astor thought about it, he just might be.
Up to date, Leander leaned to the Helpers and scratched off the tape on their mouth. Indeed, they were silenced to prevent activation of skills by vocal means.
“So, tell me what’s happening here, Miss Sage.” He put his two glowing fingers on her neck, surely the [Silence] skill. He waited for an answer and she cannot use any skills.
“The black hole will absorb the Fourth Land in the next twenty-four hours.”
The barn fell silent. A mix of doubt and terror.
“That doesn’t answer the question, answer it,” Leander said with a firm unshakable voice.
She answered with more confidence. “I’m the only one who can stop it, and I need the help of my coworkers too.”
“What are your terms?”
“Full access to anything we need and total freedom.”
“I fear we cannot do that.” He was right, she probably wanted access to other items and maybe more, in the hands of her; that’d be dangerous.
“Then the Land will be lost, but it won’t stop here. The black hole will keep growing as long as I want it to.”
Did she plan this all along? To seize control of everything she wanted without setbacks? Holding the world hostage, in a sort of way. Or maybe she was bluffing, but the black hole was really dangerous, so that part must be truthful.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Leander stood up, letting go of his skill from her. “I fear you don’t understand your position here,” he said. “Let me draw the picture: three people gathered in this barn and started making things. What things? I don’t care.
“Then a young man, very dapper by the way, spied on them all night long. Why? I don’t care either. Fast forward, his friend found him with some [Guards]. They were just looking for him but jackpot! Miss Sage, who ran away, was found again!
“Now my question is,” he cleared his throat and looked at her directly in the eyes, “why would she run away in the first place? She could have just put her dilemma the first time, when we questioned her at the camp.”
The lady blushed.
Leander put the final nail in the coffin, “That’s because she’s bluffing and thought of the dilemma only after being questioned. Slow brain, I say. If it was me, I’d bluff from the get-go.”
“Does that mean we are all going to die soon?” Cayn said, afraid.
Leander panicked, “Wait—”
“We are all gonna die!!!” Bel dramatized.
“Wait, wait, wait, calm down younglings, haha, I got this.”
And as Leander desperately tried to calm them down, Astor used his brain to avoid the catastrophe. He inspected the inventions laid around, one by one.
Usually, when you equip an equipment, the System would tell you about its effects. The same couldn’t be said about items, as the System would only name them but not explain anything. There were also rules about whether they were legendary, the equivalent of a title for an item, or not. All in all, the System’s categorization was a mess; the [Administrator] did a poor job.
To know more about an item was simple though, like for any objects in the world: just tinker them.
So Astor started testing out every invention, hoping to find one that could save them all.
***
It went on for a long time, everyone in the barn was trying to find a solution for the expanding black hole. Reports came every ten minutes to Leander, who stayed here to investigate the inventions too.
Before long, a special arrival came: Hyakinth. “What’s going on here?”
Leander leaped at him, “Hyakinth!”
The [Appraiser] dodged. “I heard my services were needed here, but you already have Cayn, don’t you?” he pointed at said person.
“What do you mean?” Leander said.
“He is an [Appraiser] too, isn’t he?”
The whole room turned to Cayn, who was sitting on a chair the whole time, out of action.
“I am so sorry,” Cayn said. “I am used to healing in stressful situations that it slipped out of my mind that I had other classes.”
Leander replied, “Don’t be, it’s my fault for making you notice we were going to be doomed soon.”
Cayn stared at him, voided eyes.
“I mean— We are not doomed! I got this, haha!”
“What did you say to these kids?” Hyakinth said.
“I didn’t know they were on a Journey! They look like they already finished three of them!”
Not wrong, World Bosses fights do feel like that. Which made Cayn’s reactions all the more surprising, was he reaching his emotional capacity limits too? Like Astor earlier?
He didn’t think about it before, but saving the world multiple times does feel heavy, and being secretive as they were, it could only cumulate. Bel was probably near her limits too, although possibly further as she experienced death multiple times already.
How long could they go on like this? Was it time for them to be more open? Should Astor tell them about his past?
After everything would be dealt with, he should tell them everything. Less burdens, lighter minds. He just hoped they’d accept him as he is, and if not, then he would be sad. He prepared for that eventuality, better be safe than sorry.
The last invention to be tested was a ball, resembling the one which became the black hole. Was it the prototype?
By precaution, Astor tested it in front of the Helpers. By doing so, he hoped to decipher their facial expressions well enough to figure out how dangerous it could be.
Without even touching anything in particular, a Helper yelled, “Stop!”
“Idiot,” Sage, the lady Helper said.
So it was a black hole en devenir. Great, now Astor had every tool in disposition to solve the situation. Gathering his party, he told them his plan, or more accurately, his roadmap.
***
At the end of the day, when the black hole came closer and closer, the plan of action was being told by Leander.
“Alright, let’s do this,” he propped himself up, “First of all, good evening everyone,” he said to the whole camp, composed of volunteers and [Guards]: troops, for short.
“I present to you the important party of the day,” he asked the trio to come up on stage, and they did. “With their inventions, fully tested and approved in risky conditions, we will eradicate the menace once and for all. I will now let the brave Blueys explain the rest.”
Not a public speech. Wrong name too…
Astor reluctantly stepped forward and faced the mini-crowd.
“Just explain what the invention is about,” Bel whispered to him.
Cayn added, “I believe in you.”
Is it too late to abandon everything? Maybe the world being engulfed by a black hole wouldn’t be so bad after all.
