Chapter 52: Saturation Point

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Saturation Point

Jared was alone.

If he didn’t act on time. The dungeon beasts could spawn again. The hadn’t even handled them all. Their objective was the destruction of the wall hoping it would destabilize the gate as it had the gate earlier.

It was uncertain but there was so much they didn’t understand about these barren gates.

’This isn’t going to go like last time.’

He knew that already. He could feel it in his bones.

Even in the volcano, he’d had a pit of fire. A roaring, boiling lake of molten rock, a heat source so vast it had practically begged to be lit. All he’d had to do was fill the air with gas and wait for the spark. The world had done the rest.

Here, there was nothing.

No overwhelming source of heat. Just dirt and dust and a thin, dry wind. If he wanted to burn this place down, he would have to do it the hard way.

And there were the lesser beasts to handle.

’He knew this.’

The thought slid in cold and sure.

’Karl probably knew all of it. That’s why he handed me a lighter.’

He pushed the thought aside and started to run.

All the while, his mouth was open.

He had stuck two fingers into his mouth. It poured out behind him in a long, drifting ribbon. His body was doing two jobs at once, clearing a path through the beasts, and feeding the air with a steady stream of the stuff.

He ran in a wide, looping arc, curling back on himself, crisscrossing the plain.

The gas spread. It drifted low across the cracked ground, pooling in the hollows, creeping up the sides of boulders. It floated in thin, pale veils.

’More,’ he thought. ’It needs to be everywhere.’

He had to make sure the entire sky was saturated. Every inch. Every pocket. A single clean patch, a single dead zone, and the whole thing could fail.

He ran on.

A hound lunged. He broke its neck. A scorpion snapped. He shattered its claw. A hunched, boulder shaped brute rose from the dust, and he drove his fist into its chest so hard the thing exploded.

[Dust Hound (lv6)] defeated!

[Sand Skitter (lv5)] defeated!

The notifications flickered and faded.

He kept running.

After a long while, his lungs began to ache. His legs were heavy. His head swam from the effort of gagging, running, and breathing.

He slowed, just for a moment, wiped sweat from his eyes, and glanced around.

The air looked the same as it had before.

’Is it enough?’

"System," he panted. "Is it enough?"

[Let me check.]

[Not yet.]

Jared groaned.

’How far?’

[Not nearly.]

’Give me a number.’

[Saturation, 12 percent.]

’Twelve?’

[Twelve.]

’That’s terrible!’

[It’s is.]

He put his head down and ran harder.

He couldn’t afford to stop.His fingers cramped from holding his jaw open. But he didn’t slow.

Minutes crawled by.

"Now?" he rasped.

[Not yet.]

He kept running.

A hound lunged. He crushed it. A cloud of dust swirled around his ankles. A scorpion tried to climb his leg. He flicked it away like a fly.

"Now?"

[Not yet. 31 percent.]

’That’s barely better.’

[It’s still not enough. I know. ]

He bent his head and went on. The sky had turned a darker shade of yellow, and the shadows lay long across the dirt. The wind had died. The air was thick and still and strangely sweet.t. His eyes stung.

"Now?"

[Not yet. 52 percent.]

’Halfway.’

[Don’t celebrate.]

’I’m not.’

"Now?"

[Not yet. 70 percent.]

"Now?"

[Not yet.]

"Now?"

[Almost.]

"Now?"

[Rex. Slow down. You’re going to pass out.]

"Now?"

[Yes.]

Jared skidded to a halt.

The gas dwindled to a trickle and stopped.

"Yes?" he gasped.

[Yes. Saturation, 96 percent. That’s as good as it will get. Any more and you’ll just be wasting breath.]

’Finally.’

He lifted his head and looked around.

The plain was ghostly and strange. The air shimmered faintly, as if a heat haze had settled over the whole landscape. It was beautiful, in an eerie way. And it was ready to blow.

’Okay,’ he thought. ’Now I run.’

He turned.

The gate was far away. A dim, faint shimmer on the horizon, barely visible through the haze. He’d run in so many loops and spirals that he’d lost track of the distance. It was at least a mile. Maybe two.

His legs trembled.

’I’m nowhere near the gate.

He had the light. He had the gas. He had the lighter in his pocket. But he was in the dead center of an exploding bomb, a mile from the exit. He had to cover all that distance, as fast as he could, before the spark.

’Go.’

He sprang forward.

He had gone perhaps 50 paces when the ground began to shake.

It started as a faint tremor, rolling up through his boots. Then a crack. A rumble.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the dirt. A plume of dust shot into the air. The ground bulged, split, and burst apart.

Something rose out of the plain.

It was huge.

It came up in a spray of gravel and sand, a vast, glittering mass, towering over him. It was a scorpion, or something like one, as tall as a house, its body a jagged mess of black glass and yellow crystal. Its tail arched high overhead, tipped with a stinger the size of a pickup truck. Its pincers snapped, each one wide enough to cut a car in half. A dozen cold, red eyes burned in its angular head.

[Glass Scorpion King,]

[B rank. Boss.]

Jared stared.

It was a boss.

A real one. The first he’d ever have to face. He’d been waiting for something like it all day, ever since the volcano. And here it was, rising out of the dust, exactly where and when he didn’t want it.

The air was flammable.

The thought hit him so hard he nearly staggered. Every breath he took, every inch of the plain, was saturated with gas. One spark, one flicker, and the whole place would go up. The boss didn’t know. It lashed its tail, clacked its claws, and let out a rattling shriek that echoed across the empty land.

Jared took a slow step back.

’Careful.’

He had to be careful, even with his strikes. Friction could set it off. A scraping blow. A hard punch. A spark from the boss’s glassy armor. Any of it could trigger the entire sky. He had to fight like he was walking on eggshells, gentle, precise, quiet.

[Why?]

’What?’

[Why are you being so careful?]

’Because the gas is...’

[You don’t have to be.]

Jared blinked.

[You won’t take any damage,]

[The gorilla suit will protect you. You’re in it. You’re wearing it. It’s fireproof, shockproof, blastproof, and wet. You could stand in the middle of the explosion and walk away with a singed eyebrow.]

’I know that. But my head’s exposed. ’

[Then punch the thing. Blow the place up. Run to the gate. Be done with it.]

’That’s not all there is to it.’

[It isn’t?]

’No.’ He shook his head. ’I want the gem. If I kill it clean, if I take it down without burning the whole place, there might be a gem. A B rank gem. A new beast.’

The scorpion lunged.

Its pincer swept through the air. Jared threw himself sideways, rolled, and came up in a crouch. The claw smashed into the ground where he’d been, spraying glass and dust. Jared held his breath.

Nothing happened.

[There’s no guarantee,]

’What?’

[There’s no guarantee that when you kill it, you’ll get a gem.]

’That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t....?’

[You seriously don’t know how gems are forged?]

’I know they’re...’

[You don’t.]

He ducked another strike. The tail whistled past his ear.

[Beasts don’t automatically turn into gems when they die,]

[It’s not a reward and it’s not random.]

’Then what is it?’

Jared had forgotten what the guide told him back then.

[It’s a last resort.]

Jared stopped. He had heard it before. In the void, from a voice that wasn’t quite a god. They choose it. At least that way they stay alive.

[Some beasts can do it,]

[A few. Not all. When they’re beaten and cornered, when they know they’re about to die, some of them can shed their bodies and become a gem. It’s a way to survive. They know that as gems they’d be useful to beast masters, and so they won’t be slain.]

’So it’s a choice.’

[It’s a very hard one.]

’And if it doesn’t choose...’

[Then it dies. And that’s all. No gem. No beast. Just a corpse.]

The scorpion screamed.

[Prideful beasts will never turn,]

[They’d rather die than serve. They’d rather rot in the dirt than wear a collar. What if this one is? What if it’s proud? You’d have wasted your time, and your effort, and your mana.]

Jared slid under a swinging claw and rolled to his feet.

[You have more gates to clear. You have three more of these after this one. You can’t afford to stand here playing games with a boss that might not give you anything.]

’But...’

[You have a team and more gates to...]

"You’re right," Jared said.

The system fell silent.

The scorpion towered over him, its eyes burning, its tail quivering. It was a magnificent creature. It was beautiful, in its way. And he was going to burn it.

He didn’t like it. He couldn’t pretend he did. But he’d made his choice.

He reached into his pouch.

He didn’t hesitate. He closed his hand around a tiny, weightless speck, a grain of light that floated above his skin like a spark of starlight.

He pulled it out.

He dropped the gem.

He needed the one beast that could make it look like he’d taken out this dungeon with flames. The only one that could burn the whole plain in a single blast and leave no trace of the true cause. The one that could pass as plain, ordinary, harmless fire.

The gem hit the dirt with a soft, bright chime.

Starfire was summoned.