"You scheming son of bitch!" Bron yelled at Barnabas, he had that man by his neck in his arms. "What the hell did you mix in the drink?"
Barnabas vigorously shook his head, while trying not to choke, "I.. I.. I didnt… it.. Dont …. Kno.. didn.. Du… a thing.."
Bron was not having it, he scoffed at the futile attempt, "Really now? Do you think I am an idiot?" he asked, "I can tell when I am being poisoned…"
While on the other hand, Arun stayed glued to his place, watching the whole drama unfold. He was not nervous, just curious about the poison tolerance level of a high-level warrior.
Bron then threw Barnabas aside and turned towards him. "You!" he yelled pointing a finger at him, "What do you have in your hand?"
Acting scared, Arun spoke, "Th.. He… heart sir.. The heart of Pygilist." To evade suspicion, he also added, "Barnabas asked me to.. Bring.. it to him, as soon as it was harvested,"
The baldy who had just gotten up looked horrified hearing this, "No! I meant to check it myself whether there was a crystal in the monster's heart or not!" the bald man pleaded, "It was never my intention to steal it,"
Now Bron started looking a little bit disoriented, and yelled, "You fucker!" he said, "You wanted to steal from my family! I will have your head."
With that, Bron took out one of his swords and charged at Barnabas. The bald man started running, as fast as his legs could carry him. While running, Barnabas didnt give up on convincing Bron of his innocence, "Sir believe me! I have been working with you and your family for the past decade. I will not betray you for a mere crystal!" the words of Barnabas made Bron stop.
Then the man turned towards Arun, "Yes.. You are right. You will never betray me, you are too much of a coward to do anything," he said, and then pointed his sword towards Arun, "It must be this bastard. You were the one who mixed something to my wine!"
I know that this man is disoriented and all, but the fuck did his brain came to the conclusion that it was me? He is right, but still, how? And what is up with this bastard's vitality? How long would it take for the poison to make him pass out?
Bron charged towards him. From what he could see, after drinking poison, Bron's movements were sloppy and very slow. He had seen how those Earthlings moved, and if Bron was indeed a higher-level warrior than them, then he might have posed a big problem if he were on top of his health. If he had become this slow, Arun figured that there was some sort of effect of poison on his body. Which could ultimately help him.
Arun then immediately opened his status window, opened the common inventory, and took out the sword and shield that he had brought on his first day in the tower.
A heater shield appeared on his left hand, while in his right hand appeared a one-handed long sword.
Bron came towards him and swung his sword at him with a horizontal slash. Arun parried the attack with his shield, he then took a step inside Bron's attack range and shoved his long sword into the man's stomach.
With his hands grasping the hinge of Arun's sword, Bron couldnt comprehend what was happening to him. "You…" he tried to speak, but the shock from the wound, as well as the poison, was taking a toll on him. And soon Bron collapsed in his arms.
"You are a barbarian!" Barnabas yelled from the other side of the room, "You filthy mutt!" Arun simply turned around and looked at the woman holding the bow, "Do you mind?" he said.
"Oh," the woman mumbled, she then immediately knocked an arrow and fired it at Barnabas's head, killing him on the spot. Arun then gently put Bron's body down, in whose shadow he discreetly pocketed the heart that he had previously let go of.
He then took the black color baton from the man's belt and looked at the Earthlings, "Now… how do I use this thing?"
Sanjay came forward, "Touch our collars with it, and they will be unlocked," Arun tried the man's collar and sure enough it got unlocked and fell from his neck. And Arun went on and freed the other Earthlings.
Suzie started balling her eyes out as soon as the collar came off her neck, and she instantly hugged him, "Thank you… Thank you for coming for us…"
He could only chuckle nervously, "Your welcome,"
"You have my gratitude, my friend," Igor also added.
Sanjay also added, "Yes, thank you for getting us out of these…" Then he also started choking up.
"Yeah yeah yeah.. It is all good. But we still need to do a ton of things," Arun said, "First of all, you guys need to take this," he handed them over the black baton, ".. And help So-Young. She is hiding out there somewhere. She would only come out if she sees you guys,"
"Alright," Sanjay said, and then he took the baton off his hand.
"Secondly, can any of you create fire? I mean fire which could incinerate any organic material?" he asked. Arun thought that maybe one of these guys would surely know magic.
"No" Igor said, "But Suzie can buy a skill from the shop. She has a good amount of mana, right?" Suzie nodded.
"Alright, me and Suzie would go to the Dungeon shop… I need you two to go find So-Young. And then gather everybody from this place. And I mean everybody, including the Kongs, Bron, Barnabas, and the workers. Gather them in one place and destroy everything,"
"Why?" Sanjay asked, "We could just leave them here,"
"We should not do that," Arun said, "We are going to vanish from this place, surely some of your ex-employers would send someone to go look for you guys. Chances are, they would realize what had happened here and send some trouble our way,"
"And how does burning everything would help?" Igor asked.
"Think about it. When the men of your ex-employer would come, they will find remains of humans and meats from monsters.. They would think that someone ambushed their team. And when they realize that not even a pound of meat was stolen from the place, they would assume that someone did this out of vendetta. For revenge someone killed everything. And as they would find your collars in ashes, they would assume that you guys are dead. And they will not send trouble our way,"
"That sounds like a good plan," Suzie said.
"Alright then," Sanjay said, "Suzie, take my money and buy food and other supplies," Suzie nodded and shook hands with Sanjay.
So they could transfer money using a handshake. That is interesting. Arun thought. Igor also gave money to Suzie and then both of them were off.
"Hey!" Suzie suddenly exclaimed, "I forgot to ask you your name. What is your name?"
"Ah.. Arun. My name is Arun."
"Arun.. That is a nice name. Which batch do you belong to?" she asked.
What the fuck does she mean by batch? Considering that he was an anomaly, Arun decided that he should be vague about his identity, just to be safe, "I rather not say. There are some silent rules amongst free players like me, and one of them is to not divulge any information to strangers," he just said that to act cool.
But he didnt anticipate her response, "True. Considering what the people of the first batch had done, this is a very wise rule," she said, "And I am sorry. I shouldn't have asked such a question,"
"It's alright," he said while making a mental note that he should try to find out what these batches were, and what did the first batch do.
While talking they eventually reached the other end of the chamber of the cave. And it was then Arun saw, two thin glowing threads on the other end of the dungeon, extending from floor to the roof. The thread on the right was of golden color, while the one on the left was of blue color. These threads were so thin and barely visible from the other side, no wonder he couldnt see any clue about them.
"Why dont you go ahead?" She asked, "I will wait here,"
"No. You go ahead. Haven't you heard, ladies first?" She smiled and then went and touched the golden thread. And within a blink of an eye, Suzie vanished before his eyes. Confused about where she went, he looked around trying to find any clue about her. But couldnt find any.
Within a few seconds, Suzie returned. But this time, she had two jute sacks in her hand, all full of all sorts of stuff. " Sorry for the delay, I have bought everything I need," she said with a smile. "You can go ahead now," He nodded and went ahead and touched the golden thread, and just like he also vanished from the dungeon…
***
Arun found himself sitting on a comfortable bar chair, in front of him was an old man wearing a tuxedo. "Welcome to Dungeon Shop, how may I serve you today?"
Confused about what happened, Arun saw that he was sitting at a dilapidated bar, everything from walls to floor of the place was crooked and covered in a thick layer of dust. But the bar area was covered in red mahogany wood, it was shiny and didnt have a speck of dust on it. It was like, only the bar area was renovated of the place, the rest of it was left as it was.
"How may I serve you today?" the bar owner once again asked.
"Who are you?" Arun asked.
"One can refer to this one as Shop Keeper sir. I am the humble comrade of every player of Tower of Yggdrasil who visits the Dungeon Shop,"
"Every player?"
"Yes. I will and shall meet every player that opts to come to the Dungeon Shop,"
"Can you divulge information about other players?"
"I am afraid I cannot do that sir," he said, "It is against my code of conduct to divulge information to players about other players.. But I can divulge information to you." The man said.
"Me? Why me?" he asked.
"You are not a player." The man said with confidence. Arun was taken aback by the information.
Does this guy know that I am an anomaly? His heart started beating faster, and being vigilant he asked, "What do you mean by that I am not a player?"
The old man spoke, "I can sense that you are not a player sir. I can discern players.. But at the same time, your situation confuses even me, no sentient being could have entered the shop in the first place… so...….." It was then the whole bar started shaking as if an earthquake had hit the place. Arun saw the old man morphing as if it was glitching like a video game.
Within a second or two, the earthquake was subdued. The old man passed him a smile, "Welcome to Dungeon Shop, how may I serve you today?"
Arun was taken aback by the whole thing. It happened because was an anomaly, he knew it. And if he is right, then he could use this to his advantage. So he decided to test his theory out.
"Hm.." Arun said, "Can you tell me what Suzie brought from the place?"
"Certainly sir. She brought a Deluxe map of the First Floor Map, a cookbook for a healing potion, a cookbook of mana potions, two dozen empty potion bottles, twelve rations sacks, a Skill called Incenirate, and she brought a healing and mana potion combo."
Ah… He didnt know what any of that stuff was, and what they were used for. "Alright, now tell Shop Keeper. What can you sell me?" he figured he should first see what this Shop has to offer.
"I will be happy to show you, sir," the old man said a bunch of windows opened before his eyes.