Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 60 - It's dangerous to go alone! Take these!

“Oh no, no, no, there is no chance! If you think I’m jumping into that hole before you do, you’re out of your mind!”

Mason couldn’t help but laugh at how worked up she had gotten. She turned the same shade of red when she was angry as she did when she was embarrassed, and he found it adorable.

Smiling fondly at the crazy woman before him, he cut her off mid-rant, “Oh hush, you know I was only joking. I have a few ideas, but none are particularly great.”

“Oh, you fill me with such confidence.”

Mason stuck out his tongue at her, closed his eyes and started to concentrate. His first idea involved using his expert-level Mana control ability.

Mana Control (Expert): Call upon your immense, mystical power. Let it pour from you and shape it to suit your needs.

Active effect: Focus a large portion of your Mana into a stream of kinetic energy, which you can shape and mould as you please. Mana cost increases with the complexity and size of creation.

He hadn’t yet had much chance to play with it, but he hoped to use it to create a platform and then slowly lower the objects down.

It took a lot of focus, but after a minute, a disc appeared big enough for the two of them to stand on. He gestured for Mayry to get on, and then he did the same. Experimentally, he moved them up and down, but he had to stop when he suddenly started feeling extremely tired. Checking his Mana bar, he saw that using the ability required a huge amount of Mana.

He quickly lowered them back to the ground, explained why it wouldn’t work, and then presented his second idea.

“I could send a clone down there while he’s invisible? Once it gets destroyed, I’ll get its memories, and we’ll know exactly what’s down there. It won’t help us get down there but will give us the lay of the land.”

“I feel kind of bad for the clone, but better you than me,”

Mason shrugged, “My last idea is we get in the trunk and have my clone throw it down the hole. The Trunk would probably be fine, but we would probably alert whatever is down there. At least the clone can try and be sneaky.”

Sighing, Mayry replied, “Okay, fine, clone it is.”

“Lovely, well then,” Mason looked at him with concentration until he split into two. In unison, both Masons said, “Shall we?”

The Mason clone was about to start his descent when the biggest grin spread across original Mason’s face as he said, “It's dangerous to go alone! Take these,” and handed him a pair of sunglasses, the Drake tooth dagger and one of the big flash spheres he had gotten in the market.

Wearable Item - Night Shades (Rare) - A pair of sunglasses found in the remains of an abandoned assassin’s guild.

Effect: Allows the wearer to see in the dark. Makes you look like a nob if worn inside.

Clone Mason

There was nothing to hold onto in the hall, so clone Mason resorted to punching into the wall and creating his own handholds as he descended bit by bit. It was pretty boring but at least he could see what he was doing, compared to what it would be like without the glasses.

He hadn't gotten a handle on the whole instinctively knowing the time thing yet, so he had no way of telling how long he had been scaling the wall.

With nothing else to do, his mind automatically came up with all sorts of horrible things that could be waiting for him at the bottom of the hole; giant moles that had drills instead of heads, worms that spat acid, and his mind being an asshole, half convinced him that he would find a dragon’s lair at the bottom of the hole.

His daydreaming was interrupted when his latest punch met solid metal instead of dirt. A loud crack reverberated through the hole. Pain spread as he realised he had broken his hand.

With one hand hanging on and one hand broken, he had no real choice. He couldn’t climb down any further and he couldn't climb back up. Looking down all he saw was more hole. If he dropped and died this would have been a colossal waste of time, he would be absorbed back into the original Mason with nothing but the memories of him breaking his hand. Ah well, even at half power he was still pretty resilient and might be able to tank the damage.

Taking a breath and activating Invisibility, he whispered, “Allons-y.” Then he let himself drop and instantly regretted it.

Instinctively, he began flailing his arms, causing his body to flip over. After a few agonising minutes, when he finally landed, his head inevitably made contact with the hard ground.

Mason

“He's been down there ages; if I could see through his eyes, this would be a lot easier; at least I'll know if he dies. How long should I leave it before I recall him?”

“Relax, it's only been like half an hour; you're so impatient.”

“It's only been half an hour? Ugh, I’m not impatient; I’m bored.” Walking over and looking into the hole, “What do you think is down there? I’m going with huge Moles with drill faces oo or worms that spit acid!”

“You’re such a child!” She laughed, “Acid worms have been extinct for decades.”

“Wait, what?”

Mayry kept laughing, leaving Mason unsure whether or not she was joking.

Mason frowned, “Did you hear that?”

“No, what did you hear?”

“I thought I heard a cracking noise… ah, maybe I imagined it.”

Clone Mason

Opening his eyes, he groaned in pain.

His head throbbed as he struggled to remember what had happened. Then, like a flood, the memories rushed back. He maintained that he had no other option, but still, he vowed to always have a metric fuck ton of rope everywhere he went from that point on.

Gingerly pushing himself up to a sitting position, he looked around and saw that he was in a dimly lit room with metal walls. The air felt heavy, and an earthy scent lingered. His night vision sunglasses had fallen off during the fall, so as his eyes adjusted to the low light, he noticed several metal doors leading off in different directions. He rested for a few minutes, waiting for his HP to refill. Once that was done, he made sure his Invisibility was still active, chose a door at random and opened it. Naturally, the first one was locked, so he chose another. As he was about to push the door, he heard a click from behind him.

He panicked for a moment, eyes darting around and looking for somewhere to hide before remembering he was invisible. Doors opened, and a head popped out. Its eyes darted around the room, looking for something. The man was slightly red in the face as if he had been running.

Could he have heard the noise that Clone Mason’s body had made when it landed? Hmm, possibly, or maybe they had some sort of alarm system.

Even in the dark, Mason recognised the man, the head belong to it was Aiden. Why the hell was he hiding in a hole? With all the drama with the Kethul Mason had almost forgotten about the ‘Other’.

The last time they had spoke Aiden had said that he was a support class but at half power he wasn't entirely sure he could take him on his own. He used identify and saw.

Aiden Salvadon - Level 29 - Aiden, healer and body guard to the late Gael. Why is he down here in a damp gross hole in the ground, well, that's not for me to say, but, for you to find out, I can’t do everything.

Rolling his eyes at the system being an ass, he considered what to do next. If he tried to fight the man, there was no guarantee he would win. He was at a higher level than Mason, and being a clone meant he was only at half power. The best thing to do now would be to follow him and see why he was down here; if he got an opportunity to slit the man’s throat, then… he would consider it.

Creeping forward slowly, he got a glimpse inside of the door and teleported behind the man. It was a very narrow hallway, so Clone Mason had to press himself tightly against the wall as the ‘Other’ was about to pass him. He was inches away from where Mason was standing when he stopped, sniffed the air and scrunched up his nose before continuing on.

Mildly offended, Mason sniffed himself and found that the slow climb down the hall had left him sweaty and gross. Apparently, the invisibility didn't extend to hiding his smell; that was good to know, at least.

He followed Aiden into a room and Mason was shocked to see multiple futuristic TV screens all over the wall. A few were showing mostly text, and some were playing what looked to be tv shows, none of which Mason recognised. He had never really thought about it much, but he had assumed that Ganehfrel was at a similar technological level as this world, but looking at the screens it was more likely they were even more advanced than Earth.

Aiden settled into a chair and stared at the screen’s. It didn't look like he was going anywhere any time soon, so Clone Mason left the room and went back to the room with many doors.

He could either kill himself and let his memories return to the original, or he could look around and see if there was another way out. The idea of killing himself felt wrong somehow; he knew he would do it if he had to, but it felt like more of a last resort.

He quickly checked each door and found only one of them to be locked. Clone Mason figured that if only one of the doors was locked then there must be something behind that door worth seeing. Holding the handle firmed he pushed down with all his strength, there was a creak but the door remained locked. Okay, it’s time for a more subtle approach.

In his years on earth he had been down many YouTube rabbit holes. During one of these he had found himself watching videos on how to pick locks, he never had any intention of learning how to do it but he had found the process interesting. Now that he had an gotten his intelligence stat to 55, remembering and even understanding the videos was now far easier.

While he lacked any tools for the job, he thought he might be able to use his Mana control to open the door. With another massive amount of concentration, a thin beam of Mana slowly seeped into the lock; he found that while the Mana was still attached to him, he got a general sense from the Mana, almost like touch.

For the next ten minutes, Clone Mason focused on using the Mana to push and prod at the tumblers inside the lock, trying to find the right combination to release the mechanism. The longer he tried, the more frustrated he got until he lost his patience and made the thin stand of Mana expand rapidly and burst outwards. The door creaked and clicked, and with a slight push from Mason, the door swung open.

Dammit, he shouldn't have lost his patience; now he was on a time limit. The moment Aiden discovered the broken door, he knew someone was there who wasn’t supposed to be there. Creeping into the room, he found a bed, a chest and a desk. This was probably Aiden’s bedroom.

He crept inside and scanned the room, knowing he had an uncertain amount of time before Aiden discovered the broken door. He quickly checked the desk for anything he thought might be useful and found a few papers with scribbled notes on them. With no time, he stuffed them into his pockets.

Moving on, he opened the chest at the foot of the bed; he found it mostly contained clothes but also found a small bag of coins and several books, most of which seemed to be handwritten. He opened one at random and started to flick through it.

As he skimmed through, he remained vigilant for any signs of Aiden's approach. The man had looked like he was content watching the screens but he had no way of knowing if this room was alarmed too. If he had had access to the inventory, he would have just taken everything in the room and left.

The book he was flicking through seemed to be a journal. He was appalled at the man’s handwriting, but it was still mostly legible. One of the latest entries caught his attention.

‘I’m in a lot of trouble. Gael is dead, and I’m scared the elders will use me as a scapegoat to appease her family. Once news reaches Ganehfrel, I’m sure an Elder will be sent to find me. If this happens, I’m dead. My last hope is they won’t be able to track me to this Trial cache. The guardian was already long dead when I found it, but the supplies remained. Maybe if I can get Gael’s real killer and bring him back through the gate with me, they’ll let me live.’