All this had to be done secretly, sometimes misleading Alchemy and pretending they had accidentally discovered some new things.
They sacrificed the Minotaur core for a quality catalyzer, but the cause was worth it. The first vaccine batch—a thousand pills—was ready on Friday early morning before the second trip of the week. On top of that batch, they made a hundred pills for themselves. Ariana wanted to test those on crazed beasts, trying to find a way to save the animals, and Alchemy indulged her request.
Peter couldn't wait to go in the fog again. When they arrived on floor three, he discreetly distanced himself from the other students and Warped for Redroar's village to tell her to prepare for another mission. In front of the billboard, instead of the Barbarian’s husband, was an elderly lion, half bald and full of wrinkles.
“Err... hi... is Redroar around?” Peter asked.
The lion at the desk forwarded him an envelope.
“Oh...” Peter exclaimed while reading.
Dear Friend,
Thanks for the opportunity, but the fog was too much for me. I have five kids. We’ll move someplace else and start anew. You owe me my part from the core and three gold coins (last time I checked, 1000/3 makes 333, not 330), but keep that against the training sessions I owe you.
Yours, R
The letter was a big hit to Peter's morale. Now, he had to find someone else to rely upon. But who was good enough to replace the formidable lioness? A tough question and one for which he held no answer. Kostel was out of the question, leaving Daniel as the only choice. And by happenstance, when he returned to the camp, the man was just passing by.
“Hey, man,” Peter saluted. “Do you have a minute?”
“Be short. I want to sneak out and see if I find bilghies to hunt. That hide sold really well.”
“What if we hunt treasures and artifacts for big money instead?” Peter displayed the bait.
As on cue, the cook bit it. “Tell me more,” Daniel asked, his eyes glinting with greed.
In the evening, when the two groups met, doppelganger Jack wore a mixed lamellar metal and leather armor, while Peter’s double was dressed normally.
Daniel stared at Peter and Jack from Two in amazement, moving his head back and forth between his friend and his double. "Amazing! It’s like you're twins."
"Yeah… and I'm the evil one," Peter from Two smirked. "OK, enough pleasantries. What are your roles?"
"Daniel is an off-tank," Peter said. "He has gun skills but switches to a polearm if we need it. I'm a hybrid DPS, and Regina's a healer with some shields. And she could raise a defensive Golem if we're on a last stand."
The doppelganger gave Regina a thumbs up. "Jack's an offensive tank," he pointed to Jack and his halberd.
"What role do you play?" Peter asked.
"Depends. We'll have to see what we’re going against first."
It was an evasive answer, but for now, Peter accepted it. Daniel and Jack opened the way. With Regina donning the crown between them, Peter and his double walked in the second line. Peter kept his HUD on, ready to jump in action at the slightest sign of double-crossing from the look-alikes.
There was a crab-rats bank just below the entry point, but as soon as the team appeared, the monsters ran away as fast as possible. The crown worked. They went toward the Minoan town first. It was in ruins. No monsters had respawned there. Peter would have moved on, but the doppelgangers insisted on inspecting the premises, searched a few houses, and returned with cutlery.
"It's Orichalcum," Peter from Two said. "Second best magic conductor after Mithril. Let's split around and loot every building."
Why didn’t you think of it, genius? Aren’t you supposed to be my assistant?
After an hour, about a hundred pounds of precious metal in various forms were gathered in a pile in the main plaza.
"That’s about a hundred grand worth of scrap metal," Peter’s look-alike said. "It's a good day. I can take your half from your hands and pay you fifty grand in gold."
"We're three and have the crown," Peter said. "So, the correct amount is sixty grands."
The Peter from Two shrugged and rolled his eyes, opening a pocket on his jacket. The metal was sucked inside instantly. Extracting a ten-ounce gold ingot, he threw it to Peter.
A lot of secrets around my doppelganger… Peter thought, putting the gold bar inside his backpack.
They exited the town through the other side and went straight. Fifteen minutes later, the plateau sank abruptly to depths unseen.
"No way to climb down… We have to stick to the plateau. Left or right?" the doppelganger asked.
"Left," Peter said, remembering the quest's direction.
They made a left, going further south. Various small monster clusters noticed them, and all ran. Unfortunately, the ocean floor didn't show more ruins or structures.
"Go scout, baby," Regina urged Peter before explaining to the others: "He has a sort of teleport to the line of sight."
Peter sighed in silence, grinding his teeth. His hopes of keeping Warp a secret, or at least presenting it as a short combat move, were dashed.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go," his double said.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
There was no other solution, so he moved away, jumping a few miles twice. The second Warp brought him under a dune's tip. On the other side, a few hundred feet from him, he found a circle of stone columns vaguely resembling Stonehenge, set on a patch of withered grass.
In the center was a sacrificial altar, surrounded by ten chanting priests. On the slab of stone, a humanoid shape, hard to distinguish from the distance. Approaching more was risky, so Peter ended his exploration there.
Returning to the team, he recounted his findings. "I bet the quest is to save whoever is to be sacrificed," he said at the end.
"Stonehenge means druids," Jack from Two opened his mouth for the first time. "You should take a caster role, Pete. That would counter them."
"I could go Journeyman Mage," Peter from Two nodded.
Peter furrowed his brows, confused, but before he had the time to ask what they were talking about, the shorter twin pulled out a syringe with a deep blue substance and injected himself with it. His body started to shake, but his friend came and held him. The spasms ceased soon enough.
"Our Resistance scientists researched the Tower’s Mana and developed a substance that can offer a temporary class. It holds for an hour," Peter from Two said. "Can you port all of us there?"
Peter shook his head. “It will take three trips.”
“Take this locator, go back to the temple, and I’ll open a portal,” the doppelganger offered Peter a glass bead.
"You can… choose your class?" Peter asked instead of Warping.
"Yes. I can be a Healer, Mage, or Warrior, no problem."
Thirty seconds after returning to the dune, a bluish portal appeared, and the rest of the party was there five more seconds later. "Do we attack directly or mount a diversion?" Peter asked.
"Hm…" the double pursed his lips, pondering. “I don’t really know.”
"You two go in their back but keep out of sight until I talk to them," Peter decided. "The last trial… whatever that was—"
"Had a few nasty surprises. We should gather information first. Regina and Daniel, stay a hundred feet behind me, please."
"Very well," Jack said.
They advanced carefully around the dune. The main group diverted to the left while Peter waited a minute, then continued straight on. The druids concentrated on singing their incantation and didn't notice him until he was a few steps away.
The doppelganger gestured frantically from behind a column, thirty feet behind the druids. His signs and moving lips didn't make any sense to Peter, and deducing from the silence, neither to the System. He frowned at his look-alike, waving his fist in the air, meaning: Let me do my job; you're distracting me.
"Err… hi folks. Is there any chance you're not evil, and this is a medical intervention?" Peter tried his luck.
All as one, the group turned to look at Peter. The druids wore white surcoats and capes over chainmail and leather and had open-faced bascinet helmets. Their eyes were all blue, and they stared through him. The vibe the group gave was… strange.
"The Ahnenerbe welcomes you, adventurer," one of the priests said, advancing toward Peter. "You have two paths in front of you: the path of friendship and the path of war. Which one do you choose?"
No vote?
"I come in peace?"
The druid unsheathed a dagger from his belt, offering it to Peter, handle first. "Slay Marianne to prove your allegiance and our power will be yours," the man pointed to the altar. From a closer point of view, the sacrifice was a middle-aged woman tied and gagged. She was struggling and moaning; hearing the man, her eyes widened in an expression of horror.
Since the dagger was there, Peter Warped forward and pushed against the handle, making the blade go into the priest's chest. There was resistance at first, but a Kinetic Impulse made the weapon penetrate the chainmail and strike the heart. The druid fell dead as Peter Warped backward.
Quest: Clear the Shrine and free Marianne.
A greatswords cut the air where Peter was a moment before. The nine remaining priests had unsheathed their weapons and tried to surround him. Four had greatswords, four crossbows, and the last a shield and a side sword.
Another Warp to the rear made Peter collide with a force field enclosing the area, likewise to the Minoan town. However, he wasn't hurt and remained on his two feet, unholstering his gun and shooting another foe dead.
From behind, the team attacked the unsuspected cultists. There was a flurry of electric bolts from doppelganger Peter, AR shots from Daniel, and a Jack rushing to cut the enemies on Peter's right. The electric bolts were not harming the druids much, but their stunning effect gave Peter the time to reload and shoot two more druids.
By that point, only two priests remained, and acting in consort, Peter's look-alike and Jack dispatched them easily.
"There must be another one, a boss!" Peter yelled. The following notification confirmed his words.
You have attracted the ire of the Master of the Teutonic Order. Vanquish your foe within five minutes, or you will be destroyed by his Ultimate attack. The Master will appear in 00.59… 00.58…
"Five minutes? Time for a coffee," Jack goaded.
"What was that about the Teutonic order?" Peter asked. "Are Druids related to—"
"That's what I was trying to tell you," his doppelganger screamed, his fists clenched. "They're not druids; they're Teutonic Knights. Didn't you see the swastikas?" he pointed to the signs carved in every rock.
"Oh… I thought it was also a Celtic motif… Well, no big deal, we kill them all the same."
"Dude!" the doppelganger grabbed Peter by the lapel. "They're magic resistant. If I'd known, I would have taken a melee class."
"Sorry…" Peter lowered his eyes. "And what about the Einherb stuff?"
"The Ahnenerbe. An occult organization that kills all French women called Marianne to curse the French national spirit."
"Nuts, huh?" Peter said. The tied woman was moaning louder and louder.
The boss appeared out of nowhere, swinging a great axe taller than himself. He looked like a mean dwarf from a video game. Jack avoided the weapon, but Peter's doppelganger wasn't so lucky. The General Commander Warped and almost decapitated him, the axe passing inches away from the double's head. Unfortunately, the young man instinctively raised a hand to protect himself, and the arm flew away, cut to the elbow. Screaming in pain, the other Peter collapsed.
"Sic'em, Pandy!" Regina yelled. The grigri doll grew to a bear's size and dashed at the knight. Indifferent to a swipe that sunk in his back, Pandy wrapped itself around the enemy, the same strategy from the Minoan town.
Jack ran and plunged the spike of his halberd into the General's back. Unfortunately, with him in the way, Peter and Daniel couldn’t shoot their guns anymore. The knight thrust his arm in a vertical backward arch, hitting Jack in the face and knocking him out cold. Then, he Phased, making the halbert exit his body and hit the ground. Catching Jack's body before it reached the ground, the Boss threw it into Daniel like a projectile, rending him unconscious as well.
Fuck…
There was only one way forward. Peter jumped at the knight, armed with his new spear. A game of cat and mouse ensued, both opponents trying to catch the other in between Warping and Phasing. Peter was better at moving around, but the Teuton's martial skills were superior. It felt like fighting against Redroar. At least training with the Barbarian had paid off; it was the only thing keeping Peter alive. And Pandy Panda, slowing the enemy.
"I’m out of Mana!" Regina screamed. The doll went back to its normal size, falling on the grass.
The panic in her voice rose Peter's hair. He Warped near the Boss, lunged, and lengthened the spear as he Phased, leaving the opponent only one choice: be skewered or retreat. Nevertheless, there were more options than he thought. The Teuton’s weapon flourished upward before the attack connected, diverting Peter’s spear to the shoulder instead of the torso and leaving a ten-inch long and two-inch deep cut in the youngster’s thigh.
There was excruciating pain, but all that mattered to Peter was to save Regina. His instincts told him he was in safe range. He activated Terravolt, putting all his will into strengthening his attack and keeping it restrained in as small an area as possible. An arc of electricity flew out of his spear's head, stunning the Boss and earth spikes shot up from the ground, entering the monster through the gap in the armor’s armpit. Grunting, he kept on his ability, channeling and expanding it. Bursts of rocks and earth shot out from every gap in the armor, and the Boss broke from the inside out in a cloud of dust.
You have unlocked Terrabolt, a concentrated single-target Terravolt attack. This ability will still inflict secondary damage in a three-foot circle around the target.
You have cleared the Anenherbe Sacrificial Temple. You have slain Ahnenerbe Teutonic Knights (lvl. 45) x10 and Master of the Teutonic Order (lvl. 60 Elite) x1. You have reached level 35. The rewards will be distributed when all your party members are awake.