Too Stubborn to Die

Book 4: Chapter 34

A tense silence fell over them. Raksha was still staring daggers at Aaron, but the deed had been done. Johan was dead, and there was no going back.

During the following seconds, the rest of the top rankers and their teammates who helped take out the boss arrived. And most of them didn’t appear to have any interest in a fight. They looked more like they were there to gossip.

Aaron glanced around and backed off from his confrontation with Raksha, putting his hands up by his sides as a gesture of good faith. “We need each other, right?”

“We needed him,” Raksha hissed. “We needed to convince Darius to join us until the tournament is done. Don’t you understand?”

“Now, now,” Ernest said. “Some things can’t be helped. Trust me, this is for the best.”

“We all want to work together, right? At least until we’re done in the dungeon,” Aaron said.

Raksha cooled enough to hear Ernest out. He explained what he had told Aaron. Raksha seemed far less convinced, but didn’t push the matter.

Her insistence on wanting to ally with Darius was getting old. However, Aaron did consider the fact that she was another species. It was one thing for him to take Ernest’s word, but her perspective was no doubt vastly different. In her eyes, they were all aliens, and trusting one over another was no doubt difficult.

Luckily, Ernest’s explanation went down better with the others. It turned out nobody was too keen on Darius turning their world into some corrupted undead crypt.

“I’m on your side,” Joseph declared and placed a hand on Ernest’s shoulder. Joseph’s declaration was clearly not just about Darius. The big Samoan’s gaze rested heavily on Raksha, and it was clear that he wasn’t too fond of the thal’kesh.

“We can pick sides later. For now, let’s just agree not to kill each other,” Aaron said, and received several cheers of agreement.

The situation was still a little tense, but gradually things calmed. As they did, Aaron learned that it was Erdek Foulbreath who had claimed the boss kill, and gotten a couple of levels for it.

It turned out that the flames from the goblin queen’s fireballs burned for quite some time after the spell had already hit its target. Apparently, it was quite a powerful Skill that she had upgraded twice. And part of that upgrade had caused the flames to burn persistently. But it was more than that. They weren’t just ordinary flames. The fire was empowered by a lot of mana, and could do serious damage even to very strong targets and could outpace even powerful healing abilities.

Aaron nodded thoughtfully and inspected the goblin queen. He was surprised by her level. It was higher than Ernest’s despite being a rank lower than him on the planetary rankings since he last checked.

With that thought in mind, he inspected a few others as they prepared to head back to the floor exit.

Erdek Foulbreath [ Level 138 ]

Titles: [ World Lord ] [ Mana Control Prodigy ]

Talia Rhineheart [ Level 129 ]

Titles: [ Tutorial Champion ] [ Shadow’s Embrace ]

Kim Soohyun [ Level 121 ]

Titles: [ Tutorial Champion ] [ Behemoth Slayer ]

Raksha Tiksus Vakmal [ Level 142 ]

Titles: [ Queen of the Depths ] [ World Lord ]

Joseph Lefiti [ Level 118 ]

Titles: [ At One with Water ] [ Tutorial Champion ]

If anything, Aaron was a little surprised to see how close the levels of the top rankers were. Then again, leveling undoubtedly got harder as one climbed levels.

Not just that, but it was also the beasts available to hunt. At their level, so soon after the integration, they were mostly pitted against the beasts of their world. And those beasts were mostly low D-grade at best. In other words, if you leveled too quickly, you might level above the beasts roaming your world, and would hit somewhat of a bottleneck, forced to wait as the rest of the world caught up.

He had a feeling that if stronger beasts, or better dungeons, started to appear, this dynamic would quickly change, especially if they managed to upgrade their world to an Alpha world.

Aaron’s gaze fell on Talia for a moment. Without other top rankers around, it had been hard to compare her to others. But her level seemed a little low for her ranking, and it made him wonder if he was somewhat responsible. After all, he had been a bit front and center, often getting the killing blow when fighting the strongest enemies they encountered.

“Watch yourself, Aaron Dober,” Raksha hissed as she stopped by, heading toward the exit to the next floor. “We’re not enemies yet, but if you think you can play this game with me, you’re sorely mistaken.”

“Ookay,” Aaron murmured as she stormed off.

She did have the second-highest rank. Perhaps that was the source of her sourness. After all, she might just want to set a precedent. He had interrupted her attack and basically put her in her place. And he doubted she wanted others to attempt the same.

I guess I'd better keep an eye on her, he thought, deciding to spare his final judgement for now. He decided he would make his mind up about the thal’kesh over the course of the dungeon.

“Don’t listen to the squid. You did good,” Ernest flashed a smile.

“I certainly hope so. Anyway, we better move on,” Aaron said, glancing around. "Let's get to the next floor before somebody else decides to start a fight.”

“Ha. Not a bad idea,” Ernest tipped his head and made for the exit.

Aaron watched as Joseph glared at Raksha. It was clear that the big man had a problem with the thal’kesh.

Yep, this is gonna work out great…

“Coming?” Talia said as she passed him.

“Woolf!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m on it,” Aaron said, stretching his arms as he started toward the exit.

To call it a tense peace was an understatement, and he really, really hoped that whatever the next floor had for them, it wouldn’t require such intimate teamwork.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

For now, Superearth’s top rankers needed a little space.

Turning his head just before leaving the floor, he spotted a group of weaker people who had worked as supports standing to the side.

“Soy boys leaving the dungeon,” Terry chuckled. “They lack the balls and decided to find an extraction zone.”

Aaron nodded and turned back for the exit. It was probably for the best. Maybe they had Skills that could be useful, but with how easily some had fallen during the boss fight, it made sense to flee now. They were out of their depth, and death was staring at them from around every corner.

Grand Dungeon, 4th Floor Quest: Keep the Lights On!

The Cursed Horde Approaches! Hold the horde back and keep the lights on for 24 hours to open the floor exit!

Reward: 40 auction points!

Stepping out of the portal, Aaron found himself in the middle of a stone courtyard. He glanced around and realized that it was some kind of medieval castle surrounded by high walls.

“At least it’s pretty.”

His chest immediately sank as he spotted all of the top rankers from their world who had entered the exit first.

Great. So much for getting some space.

“Hey, Aaron!” Talia called out, standing next to Zero atop the castle walls.

Aaron immediately bounced up the wall and landed beside her.

“Look,” she said, pointing out across the land.

Rolling green hills expanded out in all directions. And in the distance, they spotted identical castles like the one they were in. Each atop its own hill.

“The other worlds in our cluster?”

“Gotta be,” she said.

“Aaron! Talia!”

It was Soohyun calling out to them from the courtyard, and she was amongst the rest of the top rankers. They were huddling around as if making plans.

“Shall we?”

“Yeah,” Aaron groaned, hoping that he wasn’t going to be forced to stop a fight.

They had gathered in the courtyard right beside a giant crystal. The crystal was surrounded by twelve runes and a massive plaque detailing the instructions for the floor quest.

Aaron and Talia landed next to the group, and Raksha cleared her throat as she glared at Aaron.

Okay, it looks like she hasn’t totally forgiven me.

“Good of you to have joined us.”

“My pleasure.” Aaron flashed a smile, and Raksha snorted.

“We have gone over the instructions. They are rather straightforward. We must stand on the runes to light the crystal—”

First wave of the Cursed Horde coming in 5 minutes…

The System message appeared before everyone, interrupting Raksha.

“First wave?” She muttered. “Okay, let’s be quick. We don’t have much time. Let’s test the crystal out.”

Everyone was in agreement, and the group picked a few of the weaker members to stand on a rune. Immediately, the crystal lit up, and another timer started.

“Interesting,” Raksha said.

She was still testing the crystal and had the people move, allowing others to stand on the runes. The moment they stepped off, the light disappeared.

“Oh man, I feel tired,” one man muttered, rubbing at his eyes as he stepped off the rune.

There had only been three of them standing on runes, and Raksha stopped the second group before they stepped on, and added more people to it. When they were ready, there were six people standing on the runes.

A short moment later, she had them step off again, and they seemed far fresher than the first group.

Aaron was looking at something else. The timer.

Time until floor completion 23:58:34

“The timer stops when the light goes out,” Aaron announced. “The quest isn’t just about surviving for twenty-four hours against the hordes. It’s about keeping the light on for twenty-four hours.”

“Good observation,” Raksha said. “And from what I’ve gathered, the crystal draws in energy from those standing on the runes to keep it lit. It takes quite a lot of energy, but we have twelve runes to spread the load amongst multiple people.”

“So, it seems that we have to decide how many people will keep the light on, and how many people will man the walls against this so-called Cursed Horde?” Ernest said.

“Shouldn’t be too hard,” said Aaron with a shrug. “I mean, honestly, I could probably fuel it myself.”

He had been watching the energy drain from the others, and he was pretty sure that if he kept himself fed, his energy production would be enough to keep the light on indefinitely.

“Humy got good plan,” Erdek said. “Let him do the energy stuff if he good at it. We do the fightings!”

Shit, thought Aaron, realizing his mistake.

“Wait, that’s not what I–”

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” said Raksha. “As powerful as you are, against a horde of weaker enemies, having more people is more useful.”

“Maybe, but–” Aaron started.

“Hell yeah, brother!” said Terry. “Standing alone and strong against an unstoppable force is what a real man does!”

“I don’t know…” said Talia. “Does Aaron really want to do it?”

“I–” started Aaron.

“Humy said he wanted to!” exclaimed Erdek. “Let him! We fight, he sit!”

“Agreed. If he wants to power that thing, I say let him,” said the thal’kesh, Ikran Teshk Ungari.

Aaron scowled. It was obvious what everyone was doing. They wanted to go out and fight and get experience while leaving him stuck inside and useless. It was his own fault for voicing his thoughts out loud, but he was a little annoyed that Talia and maybe Soohyun, if she could speak loud enough to be heard, were the only ones on his side. Even Terry was in favor of leaving him here. He would have thought Terry would suggest leaving the women to power the runes and having the men go out and fight or something ridiculous like that to save his “brother.”

But as he thought about it a little more, he realized that maybe it wasn’t so bad. Fighting against an endless horde would get him experience… but did he really need it? His style wasn’t about leveling fast, and it didn’t require him to be out and fighting to get stronger.

Besides, he felt like he had been fighting hordes nonstop for weeks. First it was the ants, then it was the doppelgangers on the third floor, then it was the armies on the third floor… And when he got back to Earth, it would just be even more hordes, with the cleanup of the ants and then Darius’ zombie army. At this rate, his next Class Evolution options were all going to be about fighting hordes, and that wasn’t really what he wanted to specialize in.

If he stayed back while everyone else fought, he would have a bit of time to himself, and he could probably spend some time experimenting with his energy organs. He had made mana anchors for his feet, but he felt that there was more he could be doing with them. And not just with his Mana Anchors, but with his Stamina Veins and Vitality Heart too. And some peace and quiet was exactly what he needed to get started making those breakthroughs.

“I’ll do it!” he said loudly.

“Huh?” said Talia, turning to him. “Are you sure?”

“Why you so stupid, humy?” said Erdek. “He said he would.”

“Yeah, I’ll do it. I want to do it. I’ll be fine.”

“Good man!” said Terry, clapping him on the back. “I’ll see you on the other side, brother!”

“I’m glad you made the wise choice,” said Raksha in an infuriatingly condescending tone.

Okay, now I want to change my mind, Aaron thought angrily.

But it was far too late. The others were already starting to leave, only Talia, Soohyun, and Zero staying behind.

“It’ll be fine,” he said as he passed her on his way to the crystal. “I got this. Besides, what’s a few levels? I’ve always been a little behind, and it hasn’t slowed me down.”

“I hope you’re right, Aaron.”

He smiled and kept walking.

Zero bounced around as he walked, pressing his nose into his hand. “You go help with the defenses. I’ll be fine. Besides, they might need somebody with your speed.”

“Woof!”

Zero barked and zipped off, joining the other top rankers as they took positions around the castle walls, waiting for the first wave to come.

At least tensions had calmed a little, Aron thought as he watched them set up for the battle to come. With a new quest in front of them, everyone seemed a bit preoccupied, and hostilities had dampened for the most part.

Okay, so far so good. Only another twenty-three hours or so to go…

He sat down on one of the runes and began to meditate, ready to start sensing his energy organs, when he overheard something in the distance that suddenly reminded him of the castles in the distance

Oh, right. We’re not here alone, are we?

He had no idea how many castles there were or if everyone from their cluster had arrived yet or not. But what he did know was that everyone who passed the third floor in their local cluster should appear on this floor.

Aaron smiled and opened his System menu as the crystal lit up with his energy.

The cluster on this floor might not be everyone in their entire sector, but still, he was dying to find out if there were any names he recognized in the dungeon floor rankings.