"I present you the former conqueror of Atlantis," Peter said, pointing at the throne. Instead of the majestic old man, now it displayed a skeleton lying in a heap, dressed in military clothes. An ID tag was hung on its neck.
"Gunther Freidrihn. The heck? There’s a small svastika," Regina said after inspecting the item. "Earth-Two?"
"Probably… He must've beaten the Dungeon and got entranced by the core. It was cursed or something."
"How did you know?" Redroar asked.
"The image was flickering a lot, and then I remembered the Shaman told me the fog is not about violence, but wisdom... And of course, like Sherlock says, when you blah blah, truth."
"What do we have here?" Redroar exclaimed giddily, rubbing her hands.
A small chest had appeared next to the throne, filled with coins. A notification came:
Rewards for clearing the hidden city of Atlantis and destroying its Cursed Core:
1000 one-ounce gold coins.
Nano-Mithril coating for all your armor and weapons you have used in the fight. Extra 50% resistance and durability, and + 25% extra damage.
+2 levels.
The Main Quest is now unlocked. Clear two more trials to gain access to the secret of the Fog. Hint: search to the southwest of this place.
"I have a bespoke reward about Pandy!" Regina said, squeezing her fist in joy.
"I have some personal rewards, too," Peter said. A few more blue screens said:
Personal rewards:
+1 extra Level
+5 to Concentration; + 5 to Magic Power
Detect Curses and Lucky Intuition (25% chance to detect traps) unlocked and added to Inspect and Insight. Inspect and Insight have reached the Apprentice tier.
Warp has reached the Journeyman tier.
Spear of the Minotaur: bonded to Peter Hillden. It is a Mythical Rare quality weapon that can change its size and shape as long as it remains a spear type or a part of a spear element (head or shaft). Fully made of Mithril, it siphons Mana from the targets it hits after each empowered attack, restoring 15% of the resources spent.
Peter had a whooping fifteen points to invest. He thought about it briefly, then put eleven points into Magic Power to reach Journeyman and the rest in Concentration.
Name: Peter Hillden, age: 25, Class: Impulse, Lvl. 31
Strength: 61 / Dexterity: 72 / Constitution: 42
Intelligence: 31 / Will: 41 / Concentration: 30
Charisma: 41 / Luck: 41 / Magic Power: 41
"What do we do about this?" Regina pointed at the skeleton.
"I'll see if my doppelganger knew him," Peter said, storing the ID tag. As soon as he did that, the bone turned into dust. The crown fell on the throne. It was made of gold, but it also displayed a description on the HUD:
Protection artifact. Any roaming monster will ignore the wearer and their party as long they don’t initiate combat. Do you want to combine your lamp with the crown, adding a +5 level to the Artifacts deterrence?
“Sure… Can I have the lamp?” Peter asked. Regina put it into his hand, but immediately, it floated toward the crown, embedding itself in the front.
"It's useful for scouting and scares monsters away," Peter said, storing the crown and the gold. The only remaining item was a Cultivator's core, the skeleton's. After a brief hesitation, Peter put it into storage, too.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
"If this guy had family, I'll give it to them. So, what next? We're pushing on?"
"Are you mad?" Regina yelled. "We barely survived."
"Just joking," Peter lied. There was so much adrenaline in him he was eager to slay more monsters. "What will you do with your part of the money? Three hundred and some ounces… That’s over a million and a half bucks.”
“No idea for now,” Regina said. “We should put a tenth of our gains in a common fund to go toward… you know what I’m talking about."
"Do it for yourselves," Redoar creased her nose. She was not enthused by the idea; that much was clear.
"C'mon, let's go home, I'm tired," Regina pushed Peter's shoulder. “Beam us up, Scottie.”
The return was uneventful, and once back at the rendezvous point. Peter counted three hundred and thirty gold coins to Redroar, who put them into a leather sack and then into her backpack.
"It was nice to fight together, my friends," Redroar said with a curtsy.
"I'll bring you your part from the Minotaur core when possible," Peter said.
"Sure… Cya."
She started running, and her silhouette soon disappeared beyond the low hills. After the barbarian was gone, they started walking silently toward their camp, arms locked.
“We need more people," he said. "It was a tough fight."
"I know!" Regina gloated, raising the tip of her nose.
That reminded Peter that she had insisted on bringing the entire group on the adventure. "Yeah, but Naomi and Ariana could have died down there… The first is a geek, and the latter… well, her best weapon is Shredder… I won't forgive myself if something happens to them…" Mostly to Shreddi, he added in thought. OK, to both… he conceded a second later.
"What about those guys from Two?" Regina asked. “We’ll have to work together at some point.”
"You’re right. We’ll make a pit stop at their bar. We tell them about the crown, but not how artifacts protect us from the frog... sorry, fog... I’m tired..."
They returned on their tracks, with Peter Warping once to get to their objective faster, stopping behind a dune to inspect the resort. It was late into the night, yet the beach was lit, and many people were running around with fishing nets and cudgels. They threw the nets into the fog, pulled them out, and beat whatever monster they found inside with the wooden weapons.
I had no idea there was such a thing as a half-giant squid.>
OK, nice pun… shut up for a second now.
Many people were at the bar, and the facility's purpose became clear: after a hard night of work, the fishermen could spend their hard-earned money on booze. Only two revelers were of interest: doppelgangers Peter and Jack. Raising for a second when no one else was looking, Peter waved his hand to catch his double's attention. Seconds later, his alter ego left his chair.
"I'll walk to clear my head," he said.
"Cheersfl," Jack said, his tongue heavied by the alcohol.
The look-alike pretended to wobble and took his time. Peter was starting to curse in a low voice when the other arrived.
"Radiant beauty, I’m happy to bathe in your lovely presence," the other Peter bowed, taking Regina's hand and kissing it.
"Oh," Regina giggled, blushing.
I'll kill him, Peter promised himself.
"So? Why are you here?" the doppelganger asked. "Do you have news about what we talked about?"
"No," Peter shook his head. "I found a way to explore the depths."
"What?" the double yelled.
"All well, buddy?" Jack called.
"Yeah, it's nothing, just tripped," the look-alike answered. "For real?" he repeated.
"Yes… We went into the fog two hours ago. There's a big city south of here."
"I know, we went there during the day. Some went even the night… they never returned."
"Sweetie, remember the tag?" Regina said.
"What tag… Ah, that tag… In a moment… At night, it transforms into a Minoan city, a dungeon. We fought the Minotaur. I found this on a skeleton down there," Peter dug in his backpack and pulled out the military tag and the core.
"Our Sarge," Peter from Two frowned after inspecting the tag.
“You’re in the army?”
“No, I’m a freelancer guard, but everything in the Sixth Reich is under military rule. This guy was an asshole but with a family.”
“I have his core… Do you think they’d want it as a souvenir?”
“To remember how he beat them? I’ll sell it and give them the money."
“OK… Here, give them this too,” Peter said, giving his double ten ounces of gold beside the core. “
"I’ll double that,” the doppelganger promised. “You were saying something about exploring?" the doppelganger returned to the matter at hand.
"Yeah… we can avoid monsters with this." Peter produced the crown.
"So?"
"It repels monsters."
"This is big… What do you want for it?"
"It's not for sale. But we could use more people. People who could hold their own."
"How many?" the doppelganger asked deadpanned.
"Two or three, but reliable."
"Jack's one tough fighter," the double said. "He's eager to go for the fog. I'll figure some pretense about how I met you guys."
"We are here with the school. Why don't you say you just walked around and bumped into us?" Regina interjected. "We talked and befriended each other."
"Jack, come here!" the double yelled. "You won't believe who I met. Relax," he lowered his voice. "Everyone knows there is a One full of doppelgangers. No one cares."
"What's up?" Jack from Earth-Two arrived. "Whoa!" he jerked when he saw the couple, the movement sending him down, his buttocks hitting the sand with a mute thump.
"They’re from One and were nearby with their College’s field trip," Peter from Two explained. "What a coincidence, right?"
"You're beautiful," Jack sighed, getting up with his friend's help.
"Thank you," Peter joked. Regina laughed.
"I meant her, man; you're not my type," Jack said.
"Order a beer for me," Peter from Two slapped his friend's shoulder. "I'll be back with you momentarily."
"Uhuh," Jack said, walking backward to keep his eyes on Regina. He tripped and rolled down the dune, then learned his lesson and stepped on as normally he could in his inebriated condition.
"You have powers?" Peter asked.
"Yeah… I'm registered as a Wild Magic user and have a few tricks up my sleeve. When do you want to go?"
"Wednesday?" Peter asked. “The schedule returns to normal next week, baby, right?”
“Melinda said so, yeah…”
"Not poss, have something to do," Peter’s doppelganger shook his head.
"Friday?"
"Friday's great."
"Let's meet in between our camps. Nine evening One's time?"
"Works for me. Milady," the look-alike kissed Regina's hand again, making Peter grumble.