Path of Transcendence 1: Ultimatum of the Nameless God (17 page)

As we set out, the valley is still shrouded  in shadows. With a full night to meditate and focus my ki on healing, virtually of the damage done by using the Od is healed. No pain remains, and I do not feel even the slightest hint of discomfort.

Entering the tunnel mouth, the stone closes around us, blocking out what little morning light there is. Only the weak light of our flickering torch illuminates the passage. Both Jinmu and I have five spare torches each, which should be enough to walk the length of the spider tunnel twice over.

While the walls are rough, the floor, like the path up the cliff to the goblin lair, has been worn smooth by the passage of countless feet. Averaging thirty to forty feet wide, with a ceiling more than fifty feet high, this is a veritable underground highway. About twenty-five or thirty yards into the tunnel, the type of stone making up the walls abruptly changes. As though cut with monofilament and joined together, not even the smallest gap can be seen between the red sandstone of the goblin lair and the grey granite of the spider tunnels.

“We're  in the Spider Tunnels proper now.”

Jinmu looks slight puzzled. “How do you mean that?”

I point at the division line in the walls, ceiling and floor of the cave, and Jinmu stands near the wall, peering closely at it. After a few moments, he stands on the red sandstone again.

“So now, we are talking across dimensions. Even if these are pocket dimensions, they are still dimensions. The distance between us can be considered to be infinite. The Urehara Group has a company that is researching cross-dimensional wave to transmit message. I wonder how the Chief Scientist would react, if he could see this.”

I almost smile. After I started teaching Urehara-sensei about ki, the way he acted around me began to change. Now that he has cast aside his original name and taken on the name Jinmu, he is showing an almost innocent joy with everything. His lust for battle, his fascination with the zone boundary, his open expression of emotions, I almost feel as though he is seeing the world through different eyes.

“We should hurry. I do not want to spend to much time in this tunnel. If the spiders swarm, we'll be fucked, without a strong AoE caster.”

“What is an AoE  caster?” Jinmu may have had a character, but he was not a real gamer.

I half smile. “AoE, area of effect, a caster who specializes in large area spells. A good one could fill a hundred yards of this tunnel with elemental damage spells that would lay waste to at least a part of a spider swarm.”

Jinmu frowns slightly. “Lead on.”

In less than fifty yards, we reach the first side tunnel, on our left side. A man would have to duck-walk to use this tunnel, like many of the side tunnels leading into the maze. I heard stories about players trying to explore the maze, supposedly no one ever found anything besides difficult to negotiate tunnels, spiders, and more spiders.

After another three hundred or so yards, the floor of the tunnel begins to be littered with scattered bones, both recent and ancient. The bones of the prey of the spiders who dominate this zone: humans, Alfar, goblins, orcs, animals, birds, bats. Conspicuously, the last time I was here, I never noticed a single Dvergar bone in the tunnel. Even the spiders might be smart enough to not try and prey on a Dvergar, which would make them smarter than orcs and goblins.

We walk at a far swifter pace than we would have been able to maintain, before we started developing out ki. Many of the tunnels we pass are too small to walk upright in, and some are too small to even fit in, but a few are nearly as large as the main tunnel. Still, time seems to drag, as we traverse the tunnel. Periodically, we hear odd scraping, scratching, and chittering noises from the side tunnels, but no spiders make an appearance.

We have been travelling for about two hours when I see the dogleg in front of us. I have an uneasy feeling. The entry to the dogleg is slightly more than ten feet wide and about thirteen feet high. It does not get any lager for more than a hundred and seventy yards, while twisting and turning generally to the right in relation to our direction of travel.

Jinmu has stopped next to me, staring toward the dogleg as well. “We need to be careful. There is something there. I am certain there is danger, but I cannot say how I know.”

“This is the dogleg. The whole thing is narrow and the spiders set webs and ambushes in there. I don't think they're really intelligent enough to plan one out, but several species in here are natural ambushers. Once we get past the dogleg, it's a straight shot of less than half a mile to the exit.”

Jinmu pitches his torch to the ground and draws his katana. With fire flickering along its length, he begins to advance into the dogleg. “I'll take point. Spider silk does not do well against fire.”

Picking up the fallen torch, I draw a sword in my right hand, and follow at a distance of fifteen feet. I can close to strike in a single lunge from this distance, and Jinmu will have room to retreat.

“There are only three large tunnels branching off the dogleg, all the others are no more than two or three feet in diameter.”

Jinmu does not acknowledge my words and continues advancing. His steps are not a normal walk, rather it is more of a fighting stalk, that alternates his lead foot.

I walk in relaxed posture, my sword's pommel against my forearm, with the blade pointed away. My eyes look toward the ground, without really focusing on anything. I am letting my body pick up all the sensory data it can, while not trying to interpret it. My reactions will be much faster, if I do not have to break a focus.  I will start to move, before I am consciously aware of the source of the danger. This is a habit I picked up in my years in my Half-Dvergar body.

Because of my time in Taereun, the game and the Lands of Despair, after the Great Fuck Over, our styles have become very different. Jinmu is a lethal combatant, a true master of the Urehara Style martial arts. In terms of mastery of his technique, he is probably the equal of almost anyone he will ever encounter. Still, in terms of power and potential, I believe my own fighting style is by far the superior one, but it would probably not suit Jinmu.

The exit from the dogleg is less that thirty feet in front of Jinmu, when the trap is sprung. Five giant trapdoor spiders spring out of side tunnels, that seem far too small to fit their bulbous bodies and near six foot leg span. A sixth drops from the tunnel roof, where it had been hidden by a downward projecting section of rock.

Stepping forward, his single step  covering more than ten feet, Jinmu's katana slices through the legs on one side of the spider to his front left. The rest of the spiders pounce on the empty space he vacated. Spinning counterclockwise, he slashes at the rear legs of the spider that attacked from his front right.

I lunge forward my right foot striking outward in a thrust kick. The spider's carapace is undamaged, but my ki transmits enough of the force of the blow to the spiders internal organs. It collapses to the ground, dead from the internal damage. The spider that dropped from above, jumps at me, and I continue forward dropping to one knee, My sword slashes upward, with a whip like motion that cleaves open the underside of the spider's carapace. It entrails fall to the ground narrowly missing me.

I remember the first time I performed a move like that, when Taereun was a just a game to me. A giant troll, an extremely rare monster to encounter, attacked me in a swamp, while I was searching for a rumored lost temple. I ducked low to avoid its club and slit its protruding belly open. Its forward momentum spilled it guts outward, covering me with the reeking mess. Cursing, screaming, and kicking the troll's corpse, I swore to never again open an enemies guts, where I could get a baptism of entrails.

The second spider Jinmu attacked spins on him a bit unsteadily, and his katana cleaves its head open, setting the hair on its body aflame. The eyes not sliced open burst from the heat of the flames. Spiders brains are not in their heads, but it begins to flail wildly, no longer able to see.

The fifth and sixth spider close in on me from either side; my slide carried me into the middle of them. The one to my left is closest. The spider tries to sink it mandibles into my shoulder, but I slam the torch into its eyes, lighting the coarse hairs on its carapace on fire. My sword lashes the other with a rising strike. Its body is split open for more than a third of its length, by the ki enhanced edge of my blade.

I glance at Jinmu, before scanning for other dangers. He has already put down both of the spiders he injured and is scanning for new threats as well.

“Clear.” Jinmu's voice is calm.

“Clear. We had best move quickly, before more spiders show.” I start moving down the tunnel again, this time, at a steady jog. I do not sheathe my blade. I can hear the soft padding of Jinmu's steps behind me.

Something is significantly off. These spiders were too easy to kill, as were the goblins. Initially, I thought that the iron wolves had been constructed more for speed than strength and combat, but now, I just do not know anymore. I am confused. Could I have misjudged the levels of Jinmu and myself? Are we actually much stronger than I thought? Only more battles will give me a definitive answer.

We pass a zone boundary, and the stone changes from gray granite to a brownish granite. We have entered the Swamp of the Lost. I am unsure of the actual nature of this zone. Other than in this tunnel, I have never heard of anyone finding a zone boundary. The only exits from the swamp are singly linked teleport gates, each one only connecting to one other specific gate. Except for the one leading to the Duchy of Andover, none has any known connection that leads outside of the cluster of pocket dimensions. The Badlands gate just takes you in a big loop that eventually connects back into the Duchy of Andover.

“We exited the Spider Tunnels zone, where are we now?”

I glance behind us and slow to a walk. We are past all of the tunnels leading into the maze. “The Swamp of the Lost, it's the zone where Bogwater is, but I don't know how big the zone is. It could be an entire world. Bogwater is only a few days walk, but we'll have to pass though Zavin's Hole, if we stay on the road. Most players just called it the Shit Hole.”

“The Shit Hole, why did it get a name like that?”

I shrug slightly. “It's a den of outlaws and outcasts. Most players went there in strong groups, looking for a fight with the trash gathered there.”

Jinmu has a more than slightly predatory grin on his face. “That sounds like fun.”

I cannot stop myself from laughing. I may not be the only one looking for battles to test myself and determine how strong I am.

The Spider Tunnel is in a cave at the base of the escarpment. This area is more jungle than swamp. A little over a mile from the cave a waterfall cascades over the edge of the plateau, more than two thousand feet above the lowlands. The pool at the base of the falls is the headwaters of the Bull-rush River, with flows into the Swamp of the Lost proper. Bogwater is at the mouth of the river, but before reaching it, we have to pass through Zavin's Hole, which is only a few miles from the tunnel.

The vegetation in this zone is more of a yellowish-green that a true green. The most common trees grow sort of like a banyan, but have leaves with a shapes similar to a maple. Other trees resemble swamp oak and swamp maple. Though, I never found anything similar to a conifer, when I was last here.

It takes until nearly sundown to reach the Shit Hole. Rising from the muddy ground, like a festering boil on the ass of one of its whores, Zavin's Hole probably started life as a military fort or outpost. Now, the decaying stone walls have gaps, filled with rotting timber palisades. The gate, if you can all it such, is hanging open on broken hinges, a team of oxen or powerful adepts would be needed to close it again. The most common job for its inhabitants is banditry, so they cannot be bothered to learn much else, and all the manual labor is done by slaves.

As Talon, I spent my time exploring and hunting monsters and humanoids. I avoided people and settlements as much as possible, but at times, I still found reasons to enter human or mostly human towns and cities. I have seen my share of places like the Shit Hole. The biggest  bully on the block will be the one in charge, and the rest of the trash will fall into an ever changing pecking order of who is stepping on who.

The last time I came by here, there were no gate guards, but now seven of them are clustered in front of the gate. The trash that passes for guards at the gate is dressed is a motley assortment of clothing and armor that has seen better days. Six of the seven stare at us, as we approach, with a mix of expressions. The most obvious being boredom, greed and hatred. The seventh guard is too busy digging in his nose with his pinkie, before inspecting the spoils of his venture and licking the finger clean.

Through the open gate, several dozen more of the trash can be seen loitering in the muddy courtyard. Drinking and gambling are their main interest, with raping a couple of dirty, rather unattractive, near-naked, female slaves being the runner up. Like the gate guards, they are wearing a motley mixture of clothing and armor. This place is even worse than the last time I passed by.

“Halt, in the name of Ravix.” The speaker is a tall, lean guard, with the most obvious aura of greed.

Jinmu glances at me. “Who is Ravix?”

“No fucking clue. He must be the latest rat at the top of the shit pile. Last time I came this way Zavin the Younger was the top catamite.”

“Possessed!” The greed on the guards face, twists into hatred, and he draws his sword.

At the lead guard's hissed word, the rest of guard hurriedly draw their swords as well. Even the nose-miner quickly wipes and pull his sword, a few seconds behind the rest. None of them show even a shadow of skill's bastard younger brother in the way they grip their hilts. These are simple trash, not adepts.

“What does he mean by possessed?” Jinmu is nonplussed.

“They called us The Possessed, when we played the game. We all thought it was just a part of the AI programming for the NPCs, but looking at it now, we must have seemed demon possessed or something to them.”

“Bro, are they here for them other Possessed?” Nose-miner's voice is easily audible, but considering his hunched forward posture and the hand in front of his mouth, he must think he is being stealthy.

“Shut up!” The lead guard glares furiously at the none-miner.

“Why do you not tell me about these other possessed?” Jinmu's demeanor goes from relaxed to sharper than his katana. Urehara Ryouske was the owner and CEO of a zaibatsu, but he was more like a feudal lord than a businessman in many respects. His companies provided above average pay and benefits to their employees, but he was merciless toward anyone who betrayed him. If he is really planning to build an empire, he will probably try to build it using players, and he will defend his future subjects against the threats of the Labyrinth of Yggr, or Taereun, or wherever his empire is located.

The guards, sensing the change in Jinmu, pale slightly, their hands nervously kneading the hilts of their poorly maintained swords. The guards behind the leader look at one another nervously, starting to back away from the gate. Only the nose-miner is standing firm, if you want to call shaking in his boots standing firm.

“I am still waiting for you to tell me about the other possessed. I will not wait much longer.”

I smile maliciously at the guards. “You faggots had better start talking. You're not even adepts, just trash. We don't need weapons to rip your limbs off.”

One of the retreating guards grabs a metal rod and starts beating on a metal triangle hanging just inside the gate.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The trash in the courtyard scramble to their feet, while more of them come running out of what used to be a crappy tavern. How a tavern owner would be able to do business in the Shit Hole without being robbed blind is beyond me, but last time I passed through, it seemed to be doing well.

“If they were not all trash, I would say were in trouble, but a thousand of them would not be a threat.” Jinmu's eyes bore into the lead guard's, while he makes his offhanded comment.

I move into the gate opening, and the guards flee like a flock of sheep running from a wolf. I do not even bother to do anything to them. How could trash like this ever be a real threat to any players?

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?” The bellow is loud enough to hurt my ears and shakes the walls of the ramshackle buildings around the edges of the courtyard.

More the half of the trash cower, looking toward the back of the courtyard. The rest shuffle nervously, their weapons halfheartedly pointing in our direction.

As the trash makes way, a man struts into the middle of the courtyard. He is not very tall, a couple inches shorter than I am, with pretty boy looks and blonde hair that probably lands him more pussy than he ever had in his old life. Wearing black leather pants and a dark blue silk shirt, he has a black, wide-brimmed hat, with a huge peacock feather, and a bulge big enough to be his entire sock drawer in the front of his pants,. A rune-carved rod is held negligently in his left hand. He appears to be humming, and a distortion, like a heat shimmer, surrounds him. He is a caster, who probably specializes in sonics.

On the the caster's left breast, he has an embroidered badge. A field of black offsets an erect dick and two balls. I have to keep a rein on my temper, as I stare at Thug Horde's guild badge.

Jinmu glances at me, with his eyes narrowed.

“He's a Thuggie. Shit lording it over trash.”

Jinmu's smile is the baring of a predator's fangs. “This one is mine.”

“He's a caster, so be careful. He'll probably try to keep you at range, so he can safely dismantle you with spells.”

“Even if I was not interested in them, I have had to face a few casters before.” Jinmu is not looking at me, as he is already moving forward.

“Another Possessed!”

“He's not like them others.”

“He looks strong.”

“Will Ravix win?”

“That one in black scares me more.”

The trash does not try to stop Jinmu, and their whispers are clearly audible to me. It seems odd, I was certain that my hearing was not this acute. How can I so easily overhear their mutterings?

“What the fuck do you want, asshole?” Ravix's face is twisted by his sneer.

“You are part of Thug Horde. I am going to kill you.” The katana is drawn so fast, the surrounding trash must think it teleported to Jinmu's hand.

“I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but I'm gonna have my boys skin you alive and hang you from the wall, until you're dead. FUCK OFF!” A cone of sonic waves projects outward from  the caster's mouth. He has an aberrant casting technique.

Jinmu, alerted by the tension in the casters throat, dodges to the side, and the sonic waves send six of the trash near his position flying. After flying nearly thirty feet through the air, before hitting the ground and rolling, the trash lie motionless.

Ravix moves away from Jinmu, but he is slow. Jinmu closes the distance in a flash. Jinmu's katana lashes out, slicing at Ravix's neck, but is deflected by the distortion around Ravix. Ravix backpedals rapidly, as Jinmu's katana strikes again and again.

“GO TO HELL! YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”

The cone of sonic distortion follows in Jinmu's wake, as he dives an rolls, coming up behind Ravix. Instead of using his katana, Jinmu steps in with an elbow strike that sends Ravix flying.

Clumsily falling on his face, Ravix scrambles to rise to his feet, but Jinmu does not give him the chance. As soon as Ravix reaches his knees, a powerful kick lands between his legs, and he flies through the air, flipping end over end. Even with his sonic field, the breath is knocked from his lungs, as he slams into the ground in a twisted heap. Immediately, more kicks land, driving him around the courtyard, until the field breaks.

Jinmu places the point of his katana under Ravix's chin. “You will tell me all about the other Possessed your minions mentioned, without doing anything to make me nervous. If I think you will attack, you will die.”

Ravix eyes rapidly dart around, as though seeking support. His terror makes an ugly mask out of his pretty boy face. The point of Jinmu's katana presses into his weak flesh, drawing a drop of blood.

“I am waiting.”

“They're in the cells under the old keep. I told you. Let me go! Please!” Ravix's voice is like the squealing of a pig, as he tries to press himself into the ground trying to get away from Jinmu's lethal katana.

“Brand, would you please go look. I will keep Ravix company.”

I walk toward the keep. “Watch yourself. I haven't seen a Thuggie running around by himself since the last Noobageddon War.”

Jinmu's eyes flicker in my direction, before he smiles at Ravix. “Why do you not tell me about your friends, Ravix?”

There are a couple trash, waiting in ambush inside the keep's door, but I enter too quickly for them to even follow my movement.

“Run.”

Their eyes wide, the trash slam into each other trying to be the first out the door.

The keep is not much more than a square tower, about fifty feet on a side. On the ground floor there is not much besides an open area for staging troops, stairs leading up, and a wooden hatch in the back corner. Pulling up the hatch, I find stairs going down. The first level underground is a storage room, and I continue past it. The bottom level has cells in three of the walls, with the fourth being where the stairway enters the room.

Two of the cells are occupied. In one of the cells are two men, apparently in the late twenties, dressed in nearly destroyed clothing. One is tall and rangy, being built more for speed and agility than strength. His long blonde hair, blue eyes, and rugged good looks, that are sure to attract female attention. The other is a little shorter, but still taller than I am, with broad shoulders and a powerful build. His swarthy features and lantern jaw would fit the role of the dark, handsome action lead.

In the other cell are three women, all of them naked and bruised. One is a bit of an amazon, her long blonde draped across her chest, somewhat concealing her broad shoulder, big tits, and pink nipples. Her face has above average looks, and she appears to be in her mid twenties. The second has brown hair, bobbed at her shoulders, not hiding her tits at all. Her body is all taught well toned muscle. While smaller tits than the blonde, she still has big tits, with dark nipples. Her face has too strong a jaw and nose to ever be beautiful, but she is on the better side of average too. The last has long raven hair, hanging down her back. That hair is long enough to reach her mid-thighs while standing. Her skin is flawless alabaster, and her moderate sized tits have pale pink nipples. She could be anywhere between twenty and thirty, maybe older or younger, her age is hard to judge. She does not have the air of an adept like the other two, she seems to be more likely to be a caster.

At first, none of them notice my presence, and I take my time staring at the women, especially the raven haired one. While the other two are attractive, she goes far beyond the realm of merely attractive. Even if I would have trouble finding a diseased whore that would fuck me, I am not dead or oblivious to women. Of course, with nano technology, there is no longer any such thing as a diseased whore in a first world Earth nation. They all have their diseases cured for free. By law, they have to receive regular medical care in America.

After the Great Fuck Over, women were more afraid of me, rather than disgusted by my appearance. I was an ugly Half-Dvergar monster that could kill a strong man, just by casually closing my hand on his throat. I was never particularly looking for someone to fuck, since my Half-Dvergar body was never driven by sexual urges like a human body. I considered raping one a few times, but in the end, not being driven by sexual urges, I never bothered.