Too Stubborn to Die

Book 4: Chapter 27

Once everyone cleared out, Aaron and the others got to looting. It was more of the same, really. And he was rather disappointed that the thunderous cloud had dissipated when Ramesses had died.

He really did like the thought of flying around on his own little cloud. He still would have wanted his own movement Skill, but it’d have been nice until then.

“What now?” He asked.

“Two options. We either go align the temple now, or find an extraction zone,” Talia said.

“Well, we’re already in the temple. Might as well go up and see what we can find. Besides, there are auction points to win, right? We might get the chance to win more additional ones.”

“Right,” Talia agreed. “Let’s go up. But we should keep an eye out. I’m getting a little worried with all of these powerful people joining the floor. Others might not be so nice. I’d feel terrible if something happened to our new recruits after we helped them reach this floor.”

“Yeah, good point. We probably should have told them to escape on the last floor.”

Aaron wasn’t the best when it came to the weaknesses of others. He had been so hardy for so long after the integration, it was something difficult to remember where most people sat in power relative to him. For those they had helped on floor 2, this was a leap above what they were no doubt capable of, and coming here had put them in harm's way for nothing.

“Alright, we'd better move fast then.”

Talia agreed, and they rushed off. The corridor they ran down connected to a winding passage that skirted around the massive construct, leading them up the floor.

Soohyun whistled absently as she trailed a little further back, resting on her sword as she flew through the air.

For all the destruction they had caused, the alien inhabitants of the temple hadn’t cleared out. And the moment they passed through into the next level, a fight broke out.

Once more, Aaron was reminded of their formidable teamwork, as the shield bearers defended ranged attacks that blasted beams at them.

But they were truly outmatched as the trio plus Zero slammed into defensive row after row, beating their way from one floor to another.

It was easy to get complacent. But the difficulty spike was real, and even Aaron found himself wondering how anyone would stand a chance at reaching the final floor of the dungeon if the difficulty kept climbing so fast.

They fought their way through several floors of the giant building, slowly climbing higher and higher before reaching a huge room that took up the entire floor.

If there had been impressive sights on the lower floors, then this took the cake. Paintings, murals, and sculptures filled the entire space, alongside cables, tubes, and flashing lights.

“Look, more paintings!” Soohyun said giddily as she rushed into the room, inspecting the walls. “They’re pretty good, huh?”

“Alien art seems to be the only thing that grabs her attention,” Aaron noted.

“Why am I not surprised Aaron Dober isn’t an art fan?” Talia said as she followed them inside.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Wait,” Talia said, turning as her attention was stolen by something. “Look.”

“Well, I’ll be. He did it. We found an extraction zone.”

In digital writing, a sign was clearly labelled extraction zone, with a machine at the far end of the room connected to what looked like a portal.

“Looks like the gate machines that Mo’han operated in the trials,” he commented as he strolled toward it.

“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? I guess that confirms what we should do next.”

“Does it?”

“What do you mean?” Talia turned to him.

“Well, there can’t be too many more floors to this place. Don’t you think we’re probably close to the alignment room, or whatever?”

“Right. We probably are. But we’re not in a rush. The longer we leave our friends out there, the greater the risk is to them.”

Aaron knew she was right. Perhaps he had been getting a little too caught up in completing quests. They had already claimed the temple, and so there was no rush to align it. And now that they had an extraction zone, they could go find the others and help them escape first.

“Hey, Aaron. You'd better check out the rankings,” Talia said. “We’ve got company.”

Aaron did as he was asked.

Aaron DoberRaksha Tiksus VakmalErnest SheridanErdek FoulbreathTalia RhineheartTerry CadillacKim Soohyun Vikran Takeshi UdonEmmy Sharp Joseph Lefiti Konrad Schneider Taiwo Okonkwo Teemu Pekkonen Nancy Kale Akrush Vivek Lordak Aju Varghese Kaltek Littleballs Lance Taylor Mark LittleIf you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Wow, there are a lot of them,” Aaron muttered. This list just kept going, not that he read all of it.

“Yep,” Talia nodded, her eyes distant as she was reading the list herself.

It was unfortunate, as Aaron didn’t have long to admire the fact that he had claimed top spot, as he immediately noticed something unusual about the list. Besides, it was only the top ranking for the dungeon floor, and he figured it was probably thanks to taking out the boss and gaining the additional points.

“So many, and yet…” his voice drifted off as he thought.

There were more people than he expected. Then again, since it seemed that parties could join the dungeon, he guessed that not everyone in the dungeon had actually reached the trials. For example, he doubted that all of Terry’s Desert Pythons had been in the trials.

It was obvious that as long as a party had at least one member with a dungeon token, they could enter. And since Terry had one, he was able to bring along his crew.

Aaron watched as more and more names populated the list. He hadn’t considered doing it himself, but it made sense. Why wouldn’t these top rankers bring people with them to assist if they were able to? Even if their team was much weaker than they were, they might still have decent support Skills assisting them.

Heck, he considered the last fight they had and the difficulty they had overcoming it. Aaron was so strong that he had gotten used to relying on himself. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it was his one most obvious flaw.

The boss by itself hadn’t been that strong. If not for the barrier created by the shieldbearer army, he’d have easily been able to kill it. Talia or Soohyun probably could have done it by themselves, too. And certainly would have been able to do so together.

But via teamwork, the boss had greatly improved its power. He had dismissed help from Dober when hunting the hive, but maybe that had been shortsighted. Perhaps there were Skills among the people that could have greatly aided them, even if their wielders were far weaker than they were.

Could they have perhaps filled out the ranks of their party, and in doing so, had more variety of Skills with which to counter their foes?

There was no turning back time now, but it was a thought Aaron considered as his mind returned to the real issue he had spotted with the rankings list.

“That’s pretty much the entire top ten of our world, isn’t it? Plus a bunch more. And then, why isn’t—”

“Darius on the list?” Talia finished his sentence.

“Exactly. Odd, isn’t it? He’s not just our world’s top ranker. Based on Ernest, he’s damn scary. So, what do you think is keeping him?”

“No idea. But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s intentional.”

“Yeah, I figured. But why? Surely he wants to complete the dungeon. He has a patron god, so they’ve likely at least hinted at why he should win it.”

“You're right, but I dunno what to say,” Talia said.

Time was all kinds of messed up. Aaron knew there was some kind of dilation going on. It was obvious that something like that was happening because of how much additional time they gained when leaving previous floors early. But he didn’t think it was a linear number, as he had previously. Instead, it was just plain old System fuckery, if he had to guess. Maybe the System could speed up or slow time as it pleased. It would make sense for the sheer number of people who were all entering the floor around the same time.

It didn’t, however, explain where Darius was.

“Fucking hell. Wish we had a better answer. But we'd better keep going.”

“Alright, you and Soohyun scout around. Make the place safe. I’ll message the others over chat. But we can’t just tell them to come here. Exposing them will make them targets. So we’ll have to be ready to support them as needed.”

“No worries. Securing the perimeter," Aaron said.

Talia was right, of course. From here, there was only so much that could be done to provide safe passage.

However, his thoughts had gone elsewhere. Thanks to taking out the boss and securing the temple, he shot to first spot on the rankings. That was nice, after all, the promise of auction rewards was tantalizing. But that wasn’t what got Aaron's thoughts churning.

What if he swung by and killed the other party’s bosses? He could steal their points. Not only would it give him more spending money at the auction, but he could hang onto his top ranking.

This thought wasn’t just for selfish gain. Remaining the top dog of the rankings would give them a lot of sway in their world. It was the perfect carrot to dangle before potential recruits for Dober.

Not only could they keep people safe by bringing them to Dober, but the more he thought about teamwork and crafters, the more he appreciated what value they might bring.

After all, maybe he could have his own shield barrier. Or crafters to turn the rare alien alloys they were looting into something magnificent?

The options were limitless and not necessarily restricted by the individual power limitations.

Yeah, that might not be a bad idea.

“They just messaged me,” Talia said. “They’re coming from the south. We’d better head out to meet them halfway.”

“Huh? More people?” Soohyun said.

“Were you paying any attention?”

“Attention? Yeah, some.”

“Our companions from the previous floor, Soohyun. We’re going to help them get to the extraction point.”

“Them? Oh,” Soohyun sighed. “Alright, let’s go.”

Aaron followed as they walked back down, looking for an exit. And as much as he wanted to help and ensure that their new companions made it back to Dober alive, he stumbled a step as a notification appeared.

Dungeon Announcement!

The first boss of the Third Temple has spawned!

10 additional auction points rewarded to whoever gets the kill!

“Looks like somebody else has reached the boss,” Talia said as they charged for the exit.

“Ah, Talia?”

“What is it?”

“Do you think you can handle saving our friends without me?”

Talia skidded to a halt as they passed out into the desecrated lands of ash.

“What are you talking about, Aaron?”

“Well, there’s a quest…”

“Wait, are you suggesting—”

“Why not?”

There was a small part of him that felt a little silly making the suggestion after spending so much time thinking about teamwork. But that was only one element of the multiverse. The other was pushing himself. And he could think of no better way than to charge out and claim more auction points, and retain his spot atop the rankings.

“What about our alliances? What if one of them is taking out the boss, and you come in and steal the kill?”

Aaron shrugged. “We’ve already secured our temple, and it doesn’t say anything about ruining the quest. So they should be able to keep doing it. I’ll just snatch up the points.”

“That’s not what I meant. What if they don’t take too keenly to it? What if you make an enemy?”

“Look, I’ll think about all that before I make a move. But I need to at least check it out.”

Talia bundled for fists, and Aaron wasn’t entirely sure if she was angry about him wanting to steal others’ points or if she wanted to do it herself.

“Fine. We’ll help the others. Keep an eye on your chat!”

“Gotcha!”

And with that, Aaron shot off toward the new quest marker for the recently spawned boss as fast as he could.

As Aaron blew toward the objective, he scrolled through the leaderboard again, looking for any more names that he recognized, and just as he did, he spotted something.

“Johan Svensson?”