Too Stubborn to Die

Thomas glanced across at his sneering companion as they finished reading the message response from Aaron.

“Nerds? Who’s a nerd?”

The statement brought back painful memories. His schoolyard… the boys, they were dreadful. And the girls, even worse. He remembered being held down as they tormented him, shoving their feet in his face.

“I…” Thomas gritted his teeth and clenched his fists so hard they went white. To have them bring back those memories… oh, he wanted to make them pay for such a thing.”

“I wanna make them bleed for that!” Yelped Arthur. “Yep, yep, yep. Tasty, tasty blood. Oh, how am I gonna like sticking holes in them!”

Seeing his overexcited companion bouncing around and calling for blood, calmed him though. He was the sensible one of the two, and he had to remind himself of that.

“Calm down,” Thomas said. “We’ll make them pay, but we’ll do it intelligently. Now, let’s see. The quest marker is directing us down. Assuming they’ve got the same quest we do, we should bump into each other if we head in that direction.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go already! Let's taste some blood!”

Thomas nodded slowly and raised a hand. He admired his companion’s eagerness, but it needed to be kept in check.

“Let’s think this through. We need to decide on an entrance to take first.”

He looked around. There were many options to pick from. Entrances tunneling down into the trash heap were dotted all across the ground.

“Oh, right,” Arthur scratched his head. “Good question. Do you sense thing.”

Thomas nodded and stepped forward. Then he reached out with his delicate hands and pressed them against the wall of compacted trash. In an instant, a wave of energy shuddered out from him as he activated his [ Thief's Awareness ] Skill.

The energy from the Skill spread out and traveled down through the tunnels. Its energy lined the ground and walls with a faint glow, and soon he could sense vibrations and energy fluctuations all the way down.

“Not this one. Or this one. Or that one…”

“Come on, come on, come on!” Arthur bounced impatiently as Thomas checked the entrances one by one, humming to himself with his eyes closed.

“Let me focus!

“Ooowww!” Arthur huffed and crossed his arms as he tried to keep himself from bouncing around.

“Not this one… Nor here. Now, I like this. Perfect. Come, we descend here.”

“About time! This is going to be delectable!"

“Remember, this is barely the start of the dungeon. Keep control of yourself.”

Arthur just rolled his eyes, practically bouncing off the walls as they descended into the tunnel of trash.

The awful that was everywhere got even worse as they delved deeper, making Thomas gag. And for the first time, he actually envied his companion. The feral little man had taken an unusual path, and it had prepared him for situations just like his.

It’s revolting! My stomach is churning!

But they couldn’t stop. The reward was too great. And he could sense the movement below. There was a battle taking place, and it was the perfect opportunity for them.

As they continued, he sensed the thuds of explosions reverberating through the walls. A cacophony of action was blasting its way across the lower chambers. He couldn’t actually tell who was responsible for the battle; his Skill didn’t work like that. But he knew roughly where they were and how powerful their attacks were.

“Something wrong?” Hissed Arthur as Thomas stopped for a moment.

“... No. I’m just getting a feel for our enemy. Keep your guard up.”

He couldn’t say he was surprised by what he felt, even if it was a little intimidating. He knew that Aaron and Talia were top rankers; it was exactly the reason they were chasing after them. And it stood to reason that they would be powerful. It was beyond stupid to assume otherwise, but sensing someone’s power for one’s self, was always different.

But he reminded himself that they were perfectly suited for taking on enemies stronger than themselves.

They had developed the perfect unity of Skills. Between Arthur’s [ Assassin’s Blow ], which could pierce through any defense, and his own Skill, [ Delusional Mayhem ], they had become an unstoppable duo.

It was all rather simple. Once an enemy became snared in Thomas’ trap, his opponents couldn’t tell real from illusion. It was a mind Skill, and a powerful one. But more importantly, it created the perfect opportunities for Arthur. Once their enemies were confused, and seeing things that weren’t there, they were easy pickings for the feral, little rogue who could end people in a single, unblockable attack.

A wrinkle creased its way across his forehead as he sensed another explosion rocking the caverns ahead, and trash juice dripped from the tunnel ceiling, splattering across his head.

“Disgusting,” Thomas gagged and wiped it off.

Luckily, he had just the tool for this situation. Delving into his spatial storage, he retrieved his trusty stash of worn socks. He had stolen them from the most beautiful maidens in his Tutorial, and he pressed them against his nose and inhaled deeply.

“That’s better.”

For a moment, his thoughts went elsewhere, but they were quickly dragged back to the reality of their situation as he felt another explosion further down.

“Let’s keep moving. I want to get off this floor as quickly as possible,” Thomas hissed, dodging drips from the leaky ceiling as they continued down.

Unfortunately, a certain degree of caution was necessary. His plan was simple: catch their enemy in the middle of battle and take advantage of that. But that didn’t mean he wanted to appear recklessly.

If it was done right, he would snare them in [ Delusional Mayhem ] before his enemy even realized they were there. And the battle would be over before it even began.

Ducking low, they continued down the tunnels as they grew increasingly narrow, up until they began to expand outward into a large chamber.

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The chamber had been burned badly, and there were still a few small flames burning in the surrounding trash.

“They were here,” Thomas said. “Eight passages, and they choose this one.”

One door had been blown to absolute pieces, while the seven others remained intact.

“Come on, come on, let’s go! Obviously, they went this way! It’s the only open door!”

But Thomas paused, inspecting the damaged debris of what had once been the door. It hadn’t just been blasted down. The trash door had been completely shredded, as if something had blown it up from within. Not only that, but as he kneeled down and grabbed a piece of debris between his fingers, he realized just how sturdy the material was. Not to mention the faint remnant of energy within it.

“Arthur, do me a favor and strike that door over there with your [ Assassin’s Blow ].”

“You want me to hit a door? Why? We know they went that way! It’s obvious!”

“Just do as I say! I want to test something. Hurry up. The longer you take, the longer it’ll take to catch up to them.”

“Oh, fine!”

Arthur walked over, and a deadly aura poured out of him for a second, and then he lunged forward. Visually, it wasn’t the most impressive Skill, but the aura from it was enough to terrify the strongest of warriors.

However, when the impressive assassination attack slammed against the door, it failed to pierce through it and was instead harmlessly deflected away.

“Huh? Stupid dagger!” Arthur growled, and he attempted the same attack again, and again, it was deflected. “What? How is this possible?”

“It’s not just a door,” Thomas said. “It has some powerful barriers protecting it. That’s why you weren’t able to pierce it.”

“Then how did they open the door?!”

Thomas thumbed the debris. “They attacked through the barrier.”

“Huh?”

“It doesn’t matter. Let’s keep moving.

So, they managed to find a way around such a powerful barrier. Impressive. Not that it will matter.

“You saw how they broke through that barrier,” Thomas said as they continued down the twisting passages. “They aren’t to be underestimated. That means you stay quiet and don’t move until I’ve caught them in my trap.”

“I know, I know. I’m not an idiot.”

Thomas gave him a knowing look, but didn’t push the subject as they stepped into the following chamber and were greeted by corpses. Well, chunks of them, at least.

“Eh, not bad,” Arthur said, licking his lips. “A bit rough, but I appreciate the handiwork. You know, I’m starting to like these guys.”

Thomas didn’t reply, focused on the corpses. They were a mismatch of junk and flesh. Or at least that’s what it seemed. They were in small pieces, making identification difficult.

“Hmph, so these are the strange denizens of this world.”

Even though the previous attempt to message Aaron and Talia had failed, he was growing increasingly desperate to touch base. He wanted to talk. To probe and see if he could get anything out of them.

Thomas Goldberg:@Aaron Dober, @Talia Rhinehart, Impressive work you’ve left behind. These corpses all your doing?

He waited a long moment for a response, but nothing came. Then again, another shockwave confirmed they were still fighting.

Annoying. It seems we won’t be getting a response. What a pity.

“What are we waiting around for?” Arthur bounced impatiently. “Let’s do some killing already! They’re getting all the fun!”

Thomas glared at Arthur, and he went quiet.

“Let’s move. Quietly.”

Continuing for barely a minute down the tunnel, it opened up into a massive, sprawling metropolis of trash. It was an absolutely gigantic cavern, with trash pillars dotting the expanse that appeared to be made of countless apartments, and a sea of lights covered it all.

Far in the distance, explosions rocked the land.

“I see them!” Arthur said. “Over there! Let’s hurry!”

“Wait. Look around. The denizens of this place watch us from their homes. Let’s move with caution. An ambush could await us.”

“Oww! You wanna go even slower?”

It wasn’t the locals that he sensed that really bothered him, though. There were four powerful beings he could sense. Two must have been Aaron and Talia, but who were the other two?

Hmm, either those two from the rankings, or some locals.

He hadn’t actually seen the two names on their planetary rankings, and so hadn’t thought too much about them when he first saw them. Then again, he didn’t focus too much on the rankings outside of the top twenty.

There are probably hundreds, or maybe even thousands of elites on our world. It would be stupid to assume those outside of the top twenty can’t be genuine threats.

“Unless you want to die, we take our time. Understood?” Thomas snapped.

“Fine! You’re such a buzz kill,” Arthur whined, but did as he was told.

There was another problem, though. He sensed something else. Something disconcerting. And it wasn’t the top rankers.

Did we let our guards down?

A sudden chill came over him. This was a serious dungeon, after all. It was designed for powerhouses. The damn tokens could only be found in the trials. And if it weren’t for the fact that they had managed to kill a couple of trial takers, they wouldn’t have made it here in the first place.

Just because the first floor wasn’t hard doesn’t mean the rest of this place will be easy.

He extended a hand to stop Arthur.

“What now?”

Then, before he could respond, everything went dark. It was as if the lights had been cut for the entire underground city.

No. It was more than that. His evolved eyes could see in the dark, but not through whatever this was. It had to be a Skill. In an instant, it had snuffed out all the light pollution from an entire city, and rendered his own vision useless.

But then, as fast as it had blanketed them in shadows, it dissipated, and light returned to the chamber.

Thomas swung around. He couldn’t see his comrade.

“Arthur? Arthur? Where are you?”

His eyes scanned the trash walls for any sign of the feral, little rogue, but saw nothing.

“Arthur! Get out of here already! Quit playing games and show yourself!”

“Haha, got me!” Arthur said, appearing from a tunnel. “I’m right here.”

“Are you serious? Don’t do that! Be serious. Our prey are top rankers! Not fools. If we play games, we’ll get ourselves killed!”

“Yeah, yeah. Calm down. I’m right here. Let’s go get them, boss!”

“Boss?” Thomas raised a brow. He had never heard Arthur call him that, but he had to admit, he liked it. “Right. Yes. Boss.”

He was still pissed off about the antics, though, and glared disapprovingly for a while, and then just sighed. “Let’s keep moving.”

They traveled down for a moment before reaching what must have been the settlement’s main thoroughfare, but it had been utterly destroyed. There were spots of fire all about the place, burning where explosions had gone off. They weren’t big, but it was obvious the trash down here burned easily.

Thomas walked forward, keeping vigilant as he kept an eye on their surroundings, but as he walked past the flames, he noticed Arthur wasn’t following.

“What are you doing back there? I thought you wanted to hurry?”

Thomas raised a brow. He had never seen such a strange look in his partner’s eyes. The feral little rogue was many things, but he wasn’t usually scared. Even when he should be. And yet, as he stared into the flickering flames, that was exactly what he looked like. A scared little boy frozen in place.

“Arthur? What’s come over you?” He demanded.

“Me? Oh, right? Boss, can’t we find another way around?”

“What? Another way around? Why? I thought you wanted to hurry up? What on earth has come over you?”

“I–I do. It’s just that I don’t think we should go this way. Why don’t we go that way over there?”

“Over there? Are you insane? We’re going this way because this is where our prey is. Now hurry up! I’m starting to get annoyed!”

But then, just as irritation was bubbling over within him at his companion’s strange reaction, everything went dark again.

“What the?” Thomas muttered as a shiver traced his spine.

What in the hells was going on in this place?

But no matter how useless his vision might have become, he still had his senses.

Thomas squeezed his eyes shut against his instincts and focused. A pulse of energy rushed out, taking note of everything around him, and pinged as he spotted something watching above,

Suddenly, his eyes shot open as a terrifying pang alerted his senses, and an aura of darkness came over him.

“Oh, so you managed to spot me, did you?” came a feminine voice, and Thomas choked up as he stumbled backward.

This wasn’t how the plan was supposed to go.