Hidden Stage (3)

After cutting down the Chimera Rat without breaking a sweat, we tore forward like a storm. The creatures were wandering on their own now, which meant we no longer had to kill the flashlight and rely on ambushes.

"Hah!"

"Squeak!"

Aquaril's blade carved through the air, and a Chimera Rat's head hit the filthy water with a splash. Counting the ones from yesterday and the very first we'd killed, that made six.

How many of these even spawn down here?

I tried to pin down the number of Chimera Rats that appeared in the Hidden Stage, but the figure wouldn't come. No surprise there — the stage's difficulty scaled with your progress, and the monster count shifted right along with it.

The more, the merrier.

I glanced over at Aquaril. Chimera Rats were walking experience bombs. We hadn't even killed ten, and we'd already each gained a level.

Other Masters' fairies didn't have a Potential slot. When they leveled up, one of their seven stats simply ticked up by a single point at random. Even back when Aquaril belonged to Hwaryongwang, that column hadn't existed.

The moment she became mine, it appeared. I could raise whichever stat I wanted.

Is it because I still have my memories from my past life? Some kind of reincarnation perk?

I had no idea, and I wasn't about to lose sleep over it. From where I stood, there wasn't a single downside.

Status.

After checking Aquaril's window, I pulled up my own. Same as yesterday — another two points of Potential in the bank.

I'll sit on these for now.

Potential wasn't something you spent casually. Raising a stat required a Growth Stone that matched your rank.

1-Star and 2-Star needed Lower Growth Stones. 3-Star and 4-Star needed Medium. 5-Star needed Upper. From 6-Star on up, you needed Highest. Swallow a Highest Growth Stone at 1-Star and nothing would happen. And every time the stone's grade went up, the drop rate took another dive.

Lower Growth Stones dropped at twenty percent. Medium at ten. Upper at five. Highest Growth Stones? A miserable three percent.

Players had howled at the developers over that godawful drop rate for years. What they got back was a cash-shop bundle with Growth Stones stuffed inside.

The point was, Potential — the power to raise any stat you chose — was worth exactly as much as a Growth Stone of your current rank. Hoarding it until 6-Star was the only smart play. Spend it now and you were cashing in a Lower Growth Stone. Spend it at 6-Star and you were sitting on a Highest.

This place is fine, but we still need to hit a real dungeon.

The second we wrapped up the sewers, I was taking us into Hwaryongwang's dungeon for Growth Stones. His soldiers were camped on the entrance, sure… but our Aquaril would find a way through.

Help me, Aquaemon!

Not Aquaril. Aquaemon.

"Want some water?"

"Pardon? Ah — thank you, Master."

The back-to-back fights had worn her down, so I pulled a bottle from my inventory and held it out. She turned away with careful, almost shy movements, loosened the cloth covering her nose and mouth, and drank.

"Thank you, Master."

"It's nothing. Least I could do."

"Um… Master. There is something I have been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wondering about."

"What is it?"

I tucked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the bottle back into my inventory and looked at her. Aquaril was staring a hole through my empty hand.

"How did you do that just now?"

"Huh? Do what?"

"Making the water bottle vanish and then creating it again."

"The inventory? What about it?"

"Inven… what?"

We blinked at each other, equally lost.

Wait. No way.

"Hwaryongwang couldn't do this?"

"He could not."

"…Really?"

"Yes."

I just stood there for a second.

So I really am the only one who can use an inventory?

A laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.

If Hwaryongwang didn't have an inventory, neither did anyone else. Which meant that in this entire world, I was the only person who could use one.

I am going to lose my mind.

It was too good. Too much fun. I was still painfully weak, and I'd just been handed another weapon I could use to pull down every competitor already standing ahead of me.

"Huh. Is that right? I figured every Master could do this. Not that I know how I got it — I just can."

"Is that so? As expected… Master, you truly are remarkable."

"Ahem. Feel free to keep going."

"Master is the best!"

"Heh heh heh."

Aquaril shot me a double thumbs-up. I couldn't keep the grin off my face. My first fairy was just too damn cute.

"Shall we keep moving, then? Let's take out the bastard who made these things before the day is out. I don't want to come back here."

"Yes, Master."

We finished our short rest and started walking again. Leave this place alone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and I could keep farming it as an experience dungeon for a long time — but the stench had already talked me out of a return visit.

Thump—!

"What the hell was that? Another one burst?!"

The headless rat torso mounted on the wall ruptured, and the Chimera Rats' creator exploded with it. Four more torsos along the same stretch of wall had already gone the same way. Six rat bodies remained in the cabinet. Above them sat a single headless cat.

The man could track every Chimera Rat's life or death through those headless torsos. The rat heads stitched onto his creations had originally belonged to these bodies.

"Gaaah! I never thought they'd come back this fast! Goddamn it!"

He seethed, pacing, spit flying. He'd known Hwaryongwang's fairies would return to kill him. He'd been pouring everything he had into the traps. They'd arrived far sooner than he'd planned for. Barely half the traps were in place, and the ones that were set were running at less than half strength.

"Shit… I need to call back the ones still out there, at least. All of you, return!"

Thuck—!

He snatched the filthy knife off the table, barked the command meant for the Chimera Rats, and drove the blade into every intact rat torso. Out in the sewers, every Chimera Rat still wandering the tunnels turned and began making its way back to his chamber. Through the hexed knife, he held their reins.

"Damn it… now what? Do I run? Fuck! If I run, they will come after me… but that's still better than dying right here, isn't it? Yeah. I run… except they won't just let me go! Aah… what do I do?!"

He stamped his feet, gnawing his nails down to the quick, muttering without pause.

"Hoo… calm down. Hwaryongwang didn't come himself. That bastard never leaves the palace — why the hell would he drag himself into a place that smells like this? Which means the fairies who guard him didn't come either. So it's Aquaril and Ryona, then? I can hold Ryona with Nyomi, but that bitch Aquaril is the problem…"

Bit by bit, he settled. The mere fact that a fire mage — a natural predator if there ever was one — hadn't shown up was enough to scrape most of the fear off him.

"Wait. Would those two even move at the same time? They've got a prince and a princess to watch. There's no way both of them got pulled off that duty. So it's one or the other."

Confidence crept back in.

Aquaril and Ryona arriving together would have been a disaster. One of them alone? Manageable. Plenty of Chimera Rats had died, but six were still standing — and more importantly, he still had his masterpiece.

The Chimera Cat, Nyomi.

Nyomi plus six Chimera Rats. He was certain that was enough to kill one of Hwaryongwang's fairies.

"The aftermath is the real problem, though… Even if I kill the fairy, the moment Hwaryongwang summons her again, this place is blown. Damn it. I just have to hope he doesn't summon the same one. Yeah… all right."

He muttered his way to a decision.

"I'll ask them for help. Leaves a bad taste, but if I hand over a cut of Indigo's profits, they'll bite. And whatever I give up, I can take back once I become King."

He lived in the sewers where all of Indigo's filth collected, and he still thought of the city as his.

"Just in case, though… I should finish the traps."

What, already dried up? Did I get here too early?

We swept the tunnels and didn't find another Chimera Rat. I'd pushed into the Hidden Stage so soon that the Frustrated King apparently hadn't had time to build out his collection.

Still. This is the right call. Leave him for later and he becomes a real headache.

Plenty of players had uploaded Hidden Stage clears, and I'd watched every last one of them for intel. Every time the Frustrated King's rank climbed, the number of chimeras under his command exploded — and the elite specimens, the ones that made the regular chimeras look like trash mobs, multiplied right along with them.

Show up later chasing extra experience and you could walk into a nightmare. Better to end it now. The world was wide, the dungeons were many, and the monsters were more. Experience was waiting in every dungeon we cleared.

"Master — there. I see light."

"Light? …Yeah. I see it."

I'd been too deep in my own head. Aquaril's voice pulled me out, and I finally caught the glow bleeding through the dark ahead.

"Get ready, Aquaril. Their master's in there."

"Yes, Master."

Kill the man waiting at the end of that light and I would never set foot in this sewage-stinking maze again. The smell really was unholy.

A shield would've been nice.

I stowed the flashlight in my inventory, wrapped both hands around my sword, and started toward the light. A shield would have made the coming fight a lot safer. Shame I didn't have one.

We hugged the wall and eased our way in, checking the chamber before we committed. I wasn't about to charge in on game knowledge alone. This was reality, and there was no telling what the enemy might pull. Hwaryongwang locking down his dungeon, Princess Prisia stabbing me in the back — things I hadn't seen coming had already happened more than once.

It's huge.

This was where the branching waterways all came together. The ceiling soared, and the chamber itself could have swallowed two or three hundred people without trying. Along one side, water thick with every kind of filth ran like a river.

Six Chimera Rats… and what the hell is that? A cat? Ah. A Chimera Cat. Elite mob.

A Chimera Cat was in a different league from the rats. Let your guard down for a second and it would send you straight to the grave.

And that one… that's the future Frustrated King.

A gaunt man was crouched on the floor, drawing something. He clutched what looked like a human skull and kept rubbing it against the stone.

Give that man time to grow and he would become a 10-Star superhuman — the Frustrated King, commander of a chimera legion.

Right now, he was just a skinny, painfully ordinary human being.

Can we jump him?

His back was turned. Completely unguarded.

Tch. Too far, though.

Aquaril and I both sat at twenty Agility. Didn't matter. The future Frustrated King was well out of reach. We'd hit the chimeras long before we hit him.

Still worth a shot.

A sudden charge would rattle him. If we could drop even one Chimera Rat in the confusion, that was a win.

Aquaril.

Yes, my Lord.

I held up three fingers. Folded them one by one. On the last, we launched ourselves at the future Frustrated King together.

"Squeak-squeak!"

"Mrowrrr!"

"Huh? What— eek?! They're already here?!"

The chimeras' cries finally tipped him off. The man spotted us a heartbeat too late and went down hard on his ass.