Apophis and Ceasar remained silent while the other three members of the party talked about how terrible of an idea it would be to accept the quest offered by the goddess Varda Elentári.
"I think we agree," said White, "that the penalty for failure is much worse than the reward for winning! Why are we even considering this?"
Hulk nodded. "Even though the unique Skill reward would surely be a mega-powerful upgrade… If you fail, you lose everything. This Dungeon has already given us some very worthwhile EXP.
"Even if one or two of us dies during the boss fight, the overall rewards will still be better for that player than if they'd never joined the Dungeon. But if we accept this quest and even one of us dies? Then it's not only all for nothing, but we essentially can't play the game for a month."
Chocolate spoke a few words in agreement, too.
Ceasar opened his mouth to reply to them—
But before he could speak, Apophis clicked "accept"
He was the leader of the group, after all.
He had that authority.
Everyone looked shocked as they received the notification of "quest accepted." They stared at Apophis with varying degrees of outrage and horror.
Even Ceasar felt annoyed, but said nothing. He'd agreed to follow Apophis's leadership, and so he'd follow, even if the penalty for failure was far greater in scope than Ceasar had predicted.
But his opinion of Apophis dropped significantly. No proper tactician would have ever accepted that offer.
What Ceasar had previously believed was Apophis's burning confidence was clearly nothing more than arrogance.
Well, perhaps things would turn out for the best. The party had managed to clean up all the floors of the Dungeon tower, after all, and that had seemed impossible at first, even to Ceasar. Apophis had proved himself to be a good leader thus far.
Was there something that Apophis knew about this event which Ceasar and the others didn't, something that he was unwilling to share with them all?
As Ceasar was thinking these things, White shouted out in anger, "Are you serious?! Why'd you make such a massive decision for us, Apophis? Didn't you read the quest text? If we fail, we lose a whole month of progress! Give me an explanation immediately!"
Hulk's voice was less furious, but that was only because he was a bit more disciplined and didn't let his anger show as much. "Are you fucking serious, man? You accepted a quest that has consequences way beyond this Dungeon without asking if we were okay with it. You pretty much turned this into an IronMan Dungeon. You'd better have a trick up your sleeve, or I'm gonna kick your ass when we get out!"
Apophis remained calm as he answered, though his heart was beating rapidly. "Look, this is a unique Rank X- quest. It might be the only quest of this rank you see in your whole life. We're the first team to try a Nightmare Dungeon, remember?
"You really want to play it safe just because you're afraid of losing a LvL 7 character? That's nothing! You agreed to follow my direction, so follow it! Anyway, I'm certain we'll be able to beat this quest, despite its difficulty."
Ceasar finally spoke up. "And how exactly do you know that, Apophis? The game's only been out for four days. We've had plenty of basic leaks for the game, but none gave any Dungeon details.
"I've been watching you since we started this Dungeon. You keep asking for my advice as we navigate the tower… but to me, you always seem like you know exactly where to go, and you're only asking me to cover your tracks.
"In addition, you've known the strengths and weaknesses of every encounter, and that spiritual skeleton you used in our duel is far more powerful than any other Skill I've seen so early in the game."
Apophis was caught off guard. He'd known that Ceasar was a skilled MMO player with a reputation for noticing details that other people missed… but hadn't expected that even Ceasar would confront him about his knowledge so soon.
Well, he could either deny everything or he could offer an explanation that made more sense than being sent back in time.
If anyone else had asked, Apophis probably would have just denied everything.
But with Ceasar?
Complete denial would only prompt Ceasar to investigate more and more, prying into everything Apophis tried to do in the future. It might even lead to Ceasar stealing some of the opportunities Apophis would try to take advantage of.
So Apophis gambled and gave an explanation that he hoped sounded plausible. "You got me. You know the conspiracy theory that ABC Games was releasing all the game leaks themselves for marketing purposes? Well, I have a relative who works in their PR department, and it's all true. There were a ton of proposed leaks, including some major content leaks.
"Eventually, the ABC executives decided they didn't want any content leaks, only game engine and feature leaks… but several of the PR people snuck the information home with them. Including my relative, whose identity I'm not going to share, for obvious reasons."
Apophis stared each party member in the eye, hoping his words were convincing. "So yes. I know a lot about the early game. Including this Dungeon. I know this quest in particular, and that we can beat it, and I promise that it's well worth the difficulty."
Apophis had, of course, lied in every detail.
This was a new quest, even for him.
Yet, this explanation seemed to make sense to the rest of the party. Apparently, Ceasar hadn't been the only one to notice how easily Apophis had adapted to every encounter in the Dungeon.
Now Apophis had to act quickly before anyone could raise another question and expose his lie. It would take a huge sacrifice, but one that he calculated was well worth it.
Because after seeing the effectiveness of this team, a level of group cohesion that was very uncommon, Apophis had realized that his ability to advance quickly in this game would be much greater with allies he could truly rely on.
With this in mind, Apophis withdrew the Skill Books he'd acquired from the Zetark facilities. He spread them—eight in total—on the ground between the party members.
"These are for you!" he said, trying to ignore the miserable feeling of wasted potential. In the short term, losing the books meant losing an immense amount of money. At least several million GC, he estimated.
Yet, the potential gain would far eclipse that in the long term. If nothing else, Apophis would gain a reputation for extreme generosity, and powerful players would be eager to obey him in the future for a chance at rewards like these.
But he had the feeling that such gifts would inspire a certain amount of loyalty that would make future play in Horus much more rewarding.
Despite themselves, the party's morale rose significantly at the sight of such rare and powerful Skills! They took these books with awe, learned the Skills within them, and there were no more complaints.
Once everyone had learned their new Skills, Apophis opened the huge double doors and prepared to fight the boss of Gravedigger Tower.