"Earth is very possibly planning to destroy the System via the portals it's using to keep the connection open," I told the inanimate door of the ark. It didn't respond. It wasn't as if I could help even if it let me in, but maybe it would at least understand my warning?
"And By 'Earth' I mean 'realm beta'," I added, just in case that helped.
I'd bet it would let me in if I said I intended to reattach all of Earth. In light of recent events, I'd never been more tempted. If it wasn't for the multi-year lag between System infection and the Law taking effect, perhaps I would have, but as it was, it wouldn't kick in in time to be useful. Reattaching them would do nothing but make them more desperate.
"Just... read my mind or something," I muttered, wishing I had some way of knowing if anything I said was going anywhere. "Or figure out a way to get the Law to take effect immediately on reattachment, instead of having a time lag," I added, before immediately feeling guilty about it.
"Hey, Peter!"
I jumped in surprise, taking a second to work out that the words hadn't arrived via my ears. Telepathy? Had the System just responded?
... No. Another second was sufficient to place the voice as not-Blobby.
"Hello?" I responded.
"Uh... Probably a weird question, but do you know someone called Maximilian?"
I'd mastered the art of ignoring any sensory stimuli coming from my slime-soaked finger, but the mere mention of that name was enough for me to drink in every drop of input I could get from [Mana Sight] and [Soul Perception]. Neither showed anything; the slime was alone.
"Where did you hear that name?" I asked with some amount of alarm.
"I'll take that as a yes, then. I thought he seemed weird enough to be acquainted with you."
"You've met him?!" I mentally yelled, my amount of alarm now exceeding safe limits. He'd crossed over?! When? How?!
"Hey, volume!"
"Sorry, but this is important. He's from... probably not Earth, but a third place, and he's been trying to kill everyone."
"Uh... He seemed quite amicable to me. Just, you know, weird."
"Is he still there?!"
"No, he was complaining about the monsters being too weak. He was quite impressed with me, though," she added, sounding somewhat smug about the fact. "He wanted to take some of my slime, the pervert. When I wouldn't let him, he left for the next floor."
I paused to give my brain time to reboot. Maximilian—the presumed designer of a plague that had killed ten centaurs and would have been massively worse had we not reacted so quickly and decisively—was here. Worse, he was in the great dungeon. Where not-Blobby had described him as amicable, which didn't quite mesh with designing world-ending epidemics.
And he was delving without System access. How? Would the teleport crystals even work?
How had he got here? A portal that hadn't triggered one of Serlv's administrative notifications? Or had he snuck through one of the open ones before me and Serlv arrived? But we'd searched the area around each one, and found nothing.
... Aside from one that had opened at sea. But that would be even more inexplicable; that whole sequence of portals had started only a week ago, so how could he have reached the great dungeon in that time?
And why the great dungeon? How did he know it existed, or where it was? I couldn't believe it was coincidence.
Did he have System access and a spatial mage class? But I'd detached everyone on Earth, and he hadn't shown up on any lists at that point. Could he have reattached himself?
If he was from a third world, was it one with mana? Could he do magic without the aid of the System? But if he'd been reincarnated on Earth, he shouldn't have the biological capability of processing mana, even if he knew how to use it.
There was only one way to answer the questions; find him. And fast.
Taking advantage of my seclusion in the ark entranceway, I swapped out my clothes for armour and teleported to Synklisi. The dungeon guards confirmed they'd permitted entry to someone called Maximilian, remembering him clearly due to his outfit, which wasn't at all appropriate for delving and had included a top hat and cane.
I'd had to wait years to regain access to dungeons, while he'd just waltzed straight in despite not being equipped or even a member of the delvers' guild. He'd given the excuse he was on his way to visit not-Blobby, and since he didn't suffer from the Peter-can-lie patch, it had worked.
How did he know that excuse would work?! He had far too much information!
I left a finger with the guards to alert me if he left again—even if the Law wouldn't let me convince them he was dangerous, they could at least accept that I wanted to meet him—and rushed in, teleporting to floor seven. There were a few delvers in range of [Mana Sight], but no-one acting alone. But my range was hampered by the glare of the dungeon, and even if it wasn't, I wouldn't have been able to see the entire floor at once.
How far ahead of me would he be? What were my chances of actually finding him? Would I be better off waiting for him outside, or did he have nefarious plans in the dungeon? Should I alert Serlv or Harry? Or the delvers' guild, and get a proper search party organised? If he was going for the core, I could wait down there.
I teleported through each lower floor I had access to, but didn't spot him on any. Should I wait on eleven, the deepest floor I could teleport to? Given the time since not-Blobby had contacted me, he couldn't have made it that far yet.
... Just like he couldn't have made it here from whichever portal he slipped through.
I waited on floor eleven anyway, while keeping watch with [Mana Sight] through the finger I'd left with the guards and the one in the core room. Should I leave fingers on other floors, too? I was very short on [Detach] links, but I still had one last one available for use. I left a tooth at the floor ten entrance, then sat down to wait, stewing in my thoughts.
Ten minutes passed, then twenty. When I'd been talking to the guards, why hadn't I asked them when he'd entered? It would have given me an estimate of how fast he was travelling through the dungeon. Had I missed him, or hadn't he reached floor ten yet?
I waited two full hours until he popped out onto floor ten, ambling slowly down a corridor with a smile on his face, as if he was on a casual stroll. No wonder it had taken him so long! But regardless of how nonchalant he was, I was in more of a rush. I dropped to the floor to teleport.
I saw him turn in response to my pounding footsteps, this time with my real eyes. The man looked like something straight out of the Victorian era, which I supposed was appropriate, given that he was. Top hat and cane were joined by a waistcoat and cravat. Who the hell went delving in a cravat?!
"Can I help you?" he asked politely, in perfect Common.
"Uh..." I started, my endurance stat meaning I couldn't even use getting my breath back as an excuse for taking time to think. He didn't look like a cold-blooded murderer. The way he looked at me seemed more full of curiosity. "Maximilian, right?"
He raised an eyebrow in quizzical fashion, and the look of curiosity only intensified, if anything.
"That is indeed my name, although one wonders why you would be looking for me," he replied. "It's true that this floor is below where I claimed to be visiting, but my understanding is simply that the guild keeps a record of entrances and exits, and not internal activity, so it's unlikely they would have sent anyone after me. Ah. A lone delver, with the appearance of a male, middle-to-late teenaged catkin, although we both know much of that description is inaccurate. And unlike everyone else I've met thus far, barring that highly interesting slime, you're capable of looking at a fellow human with suspicion. You must be Peter. Is Cluma not with you today?"
I was still hung up on the fact he knew Common. It wasn't the System; [Eye of Judgement] considered him nothing more than air. Likewise, [Mana Sight] showed that he was without any sort of mana circulatory system, and [Soul Perception] showed him with the same inactive System shard and loose chains of Law as any other earthling.
... It also showed signs of an old injury. His soul was cracked and scabbed over.
He also didn't show any signs of keeling over and dying, which was somewhat of a departure compared to Harry and his team. He really had found a defence against whatever pathogens we had here?
"Well, you must have stopped me for something," he continued when I didn't answer. "Take your time. I'm not in a rush."
"Sorry," I said, before immediately regretting it. Why should I apologise for reacting slowly to someone who probably killed ten people, and wanted to kill many more? Although it was hard to reconcile that with the person standing in front of me, smiling to himself. "Why are you here? How are you here?"
"Why? I simply wanted to see the source, although people tell me I'm too late, and that she departed several years ago. But no matter; there's more than enough samples here for me to continue her good work, not to mention how much easier it will be with a decent supply of mana. As for the how, I came in through the front door."
Continue her work? This guy wanted to set himself up as the new master of the Law? What samples, though?
"Oh, come now," he continued. "Why all the frowning?"
"Are you responsible for the plagued rats?" I asked, going for the direct approach.
"Oh, those little things? Just a little something I designed to pay for my transport here. Nowhere near enough to pose a threat. But don't worry; I was honest. I told them as much, and it isn't my fault if they didn't believe me."
"What?" 'What' seemed to be a word I was getting a lot of use out of today. He designed the deadly plague as payment? "People died before we stamped it out! And you just... don't care?"
"A few deaths are within expectations; it was somewhat virulent, after all. But insignificant in the grand scheme of things."
"No death is insignificant!"
Well, that explained the dissonance between his appearance as an amicable young man and his actions as the engineer of an evil death plague; he didn't see life as important.
"The struggle to survive is what makes us stronger. I know you can see that; this peaceful, carefully curated world has turned the locals into nothing more than pets, stagnant and never growing. Do such a half-people deserve to rule the world? But if a few deaths are enough to irritate you, please blame Harry instead of me."
"What?" I repeated.
"Isn't it obvious? I sponsored that team for decades to forge a path here, and the moment they succeeded, they sold out to the government and locked me out of it. How ungrateful was that? So it was entirely their fault that I was forced to find alternative transport. Well, I wasn't caught completely by surprise, so I thankfully wasn't too delayed."
It was becoming increasingly obvious that behind his smile, this man was dangerous. But what was I supposed to do with him? There was no police force I could turn him over to to face justice. I couldn't hide the fact he was human from Serlv, so she would be unable to believe he was linked to the plague. Throwing him back to Earth would be unlikely to achieve anything. I could let him go, or follow him and see what he was up to.
He had no mana circulatory system, so could I shove him into [Inventory] and teleport him to a prison of my own making? Would keeping him imprisoned forever be any better than just killing him? I could imprison him, relink him to the System and let him out once the Law had taken hold?
Or there was the other option I'd mentioned in passing. Kill him. If I did that here, would he respawn? He couldn't get the [Failed Delver] achievement, which could mean no respawn, or it could equally mean that he'd respawn without the penalty that kept him out of dungeons.
Whatever I was going to do, [Inventory] was the first step.
Except that to use [Inventory] I needed to touch him, and I couldn't move.
"I know I expressed the opinion that you should lose the frown, but must you replace it with an expression that scary?" he asked, still with the same unflappable smile. "I wouldn't mind another chat once you've calmed down, but for now, you could do with some time to cool off."
My status looked normal, even if I used [Eye of Judgement] on myself. I had no abnormal conditions, yet I was frozen rigidly in place. He hadn't done anything I could see, despite me keeping [Mana Sight] and [Soul Perception] trained firmly on him. Straining achieved nothing. My muscles simply didn't respond to my requests.
I kept my sensory skills on him as he turned away and resumed his slow amble down the corridor.
... I could use skills. If I could use sensory skills and [Eye of Judgement] I could use [Inventory]. I couldn't use my lightning glove, because I couldn't get it onto my hand. I could pull a flame grenade, and I could use [Expert Mana Control] to partially shape the explosion.
Maximilian didn't even have time to react as the fireball engulfed us both.
"Earth is very possibly planning to destroy the System via the portals it's using to keep the connection open," I told the inanimate door of the ark. It didn't respond. It wasn't as if I could help even if it let me in, but maybe it would at least understand my warning?
"And By 'Earth' I mean 'realm beta'," I added, just in case that helped.
I'd bet it would let me in if I said I intended to reattach all of Earth. In light of recent events, I'd never been more tempted. If it wasn't for the multi-year lag between System infection and the Law taking effect, perhaps I would have, but as it was, it wouldn't kick in in time to be useful. Reattaching them would do nothing but make them more desperate.
"Just... read my mind or something," I muttered, wishing I had some way of knowing if anything I said was going anywhere. "Or figure out a way to get the Law to take effect immediately on reattachment, instead of having a time lag," I added, before immediately feeling guilty about it.
"Hey, Peter!"
I jumped in surprise, taking a second to work out that the words hadn't arrived via my ears. Telepathy? Had the System just responded?
... No. Another second was sufficient to place the voice as not-Blobby.
"Hello?" I responded.
"Uh... Probably a weird question, but do you know someone called Maximilian?"
I'd mastered the art of ignoring any sensory stimuli coming from my slime-soaked finger, but the mere mention of that name was enough for me to drink in every drop of input I could get from [Mana Sight] and [Soul Perception]. Neither showed anything; the slime was alone.
"Where did you hear that name?" I asked with some amount of alarm.
"I'll take that as a yes, then. I thought he seemed weird enough to be acquainted with you."
"You've met him?!" I mentally yelled, my amount of alarm now exceeding safe limits. He'd crossed over?! When? How?!
"Hey, volume!"
"Sorry, but this is important. He's from... probably not Earth, but a third place, and he's been trying to kill everyone."
"Uh... He seemed quite amicable to me. Just, you know, weird."
"Is he still there?!"
"No, he was complaining about the monsters being too weak. He was quite impressed with me, though," she added, sounding somewhat smug about the fact. "He wanted to take some of my slime, the pervert. When I wouldn't let him, he left for the next floor."
I paused to give my brain time to reboot. Maximilian—the presumed designer of a plague that had killed ten centaurs and would have been massively worse had we not reacted so quickly and decisively—was here. Worse, he was in the great dungeon. Where not-Blobby had described him as amicable, which didn't quite mesh with designing world-ending epidemics.
And he was delving without System access. How? Would the teleport crystals even work?
How had he got here? A portal that hadn't triggered one of Serlv's administrative notifications? Or had he snuck through one of the open ones before me and Serlv arrived? But we'd searched the area around each one, and found nothing.
... Aside from one that had opened at sea. But that would be even more inexplicable; that whole sequence of portals had started only a week ago, so how could he have reached the great dungeon in that time?
And why the great dungeon? How did he know it existed, or where it was? I couldn't believe it was coincidence.
Did he have System access and a spatial mage class? But I'd detached everyone on Earth, and he hadn't shown up on any lists at that point. Could he have reattached himself?
If he was from a third world, was it one with mana? Could he do magic without the aid of the System? But if he'd been reincarnated on Earth, he shouldn't have the biological capability of processing mana, even if he knew how to use it.
There was only one way to answer the questions; find him. And fast.
Taking advantage of my seclusion in the ark entranceway, I swapped out my clothes for armour and teleported to Synklisi. The dungeon guards confirmed they'd permitted entry to someone called Maximilian, remembering him clearly due to his outfit, which wasn't at all appropriate for delving and had included a top hat and cane.
I'd had to wait years to regain access to dungeons, while he'd just waltzed straight in despite not being equipped or even a member of the delvers' guild. He'd given the excuse he was on his way to visit not-Blobby, and since he didn't suffer from the Peter-can-lie patch, it had worked.
How did he know that excuse would work?! He had far too much information!
I left a finger with the guards to alert me if he left again—even if the Law wouldn't let me convince them he was dangerous, they could at least accept that I wanted to meet him—and rushed in, teleporting to floor seven. There were a few delvers in range of [Mana Sight], but no-one acting alone. But my range was hampered by the glare of the dungeon, and even if it wasn't, I wouldn't have been able to see the entire floor at once.
How far ahead of me would he be? What were my chances of actually finding him? Would I be better off waiting for him outside, or did he have nefarious plans in the dungeon? Should I alert Serlv or Harry? Or the delvers' guild, and get a proper search party organised? If he was going for the core, I could wait down there.
I teleported through each lower floor I had access to, but didn't spot him on any. Should I wait on eleven, the deepest floor I could teleport to? Given the time since not-Blobby had contacted me, he couldn't have made it that far yet.
... Just like he couldn't have made it here from whichever portal he slipped through.
I waited on floor eleven anyway, while keeping watch with [Mana Sight] through the finger I'd left with the guards and the one in the core room. Should I leave fingers on other floors, too? I was very short on [Detach] links, but I still had one last one available for use. I left a tooth at the floor ten entrance, then sat down to wait, stewing in my thoughts.
Ten minutes passed, then twenty. When I'd been talking to the guards, why hadn't I asked them when he'd entered? It would have given me an estimate of how fast he was travelling through the dungeon. Had I missed him, or hadn't he reached floor ten yet?
I waited two full hours until he popped out onto floor ten, ambling slowly down a corridor with a smile on his face, as if he was on a casual stroll. No wonder it had taken him so long! But regardless of how nonchalant he was, I was in more of a rush. I dropped to the floor to teleport.
I saw him turn in response to my pounding footsteps, this time with my real eyes. The man looked like something straight out of the Victorian era, which I supposed was appropriate, given that he was. Top hat and cane were joined by a waistcoat and cravat. Who the hell went delving in a cravat?!
"Can I help you?" he asked politely, in perfect Common.
"Uh..." I started, my endurance stat meaning I couldn't even use getting my breath back as an excuse for taking time to think. He didn't look like a cold-blooded murderer. The way he looked at me seemed more full of curiosity. "Maximilian, right?"
He raised an eyebrow in quizzical fashion, and the look of curiosity only intensified, if anything.
"That is indeed my name, although one wonders why you would be looking for me," he replied. "It's true that this floor is below where I claimed to be visiting, but my understanding is simply that the guild keeps a record of entrances and exits, and not internal activity, so it's unlikely they would have sent anyone after me. Ah. A lone delver, with the appearance of a male, middle-to-late teenaged catkin, although we both know much of that description is inaccurate. And unlike everyone else I've met thus far, barring that highly interesting slime, you're capable of looking at a fellow human with suspicion. You must be Peter. Is Cluma not with you today?"
I was still hung up on the fact he knew Common. It wasn't the System; [Eye of Judgement] considered him nothing more than air. Likewise, [Mana Sight] showed that he was without any sort of mana circulatory system, and [Soul Perception] showed him with the same inactive System shard and loose chains of Law as any other earthling.
... It also showed signs of an old injury. His soul was cracked and scabbed over.
He also didn't show any signs of keeling over and dying, which was somewhat of a departure compared to Harry and his team. He really had found a defence against whatever pathogens we had here?
"Well, you must have stopped me for something," he continued when I didn't answer. "Take your time. I'm not in a rush."
"Sorry," I said, before immediately regretting it. Why should I apologise for reacting slowly to someone who probably killed ten people, and wanted to kill many more? Although it was hard to reconcile that with the person standing in front of me, smiling to himself. "Why are you here? How are you here?"
"Why? I simply wanted to see the source, although people tell me I'm too late, and that she departed several years ago. But no matter; there's more than enough samples here for me to continue her good work, not to mention how much easier it will be with a decent supply of mana. As for the how, I came in through the front door."
Continue her work? This guy wanted to set himself up as the new master of the Law? What samples, though?
"Oh, come now," he continued. "Why all the frowning?"
"Are you responsible for the plagued rats?" I asked, going for the direct approach.
"Oh, those little things? Just a little something I designed to pay for my transport here. Nowhere near enough to pose a threat. But don't worry; I was honest. I told them as much, and it isn't my fault if they didn't believe me."
"What?" 'What' seemed to be a word I was getting a lot of use out of today. He designed the deadly plague as payment? "People died before we stamped it out! And you just... don't care?"
"A few deaths are within expectations; it was somewhat virulent, after all. But insignificant in the grand scheme of things."
"No death is insignificant!"
Well, that explained the dissonance between his appearance as an amicable young man and his actions as the engineer of an evil death plague; he didn't see life as important.
"The struggle to survive is what makes us stronger. I know you can see that; this peaceful, carefully curated world has turned the locals into nothing more than pets, stagnant and never growing. Do such a half-people deserve to rule the world? But if a few deaths are enough to irritate you, please blame Harry instead of me."
"What?" I repeated.
"Isn't it obvious? I sponsored that team for decades to forge a path here, and the moment they succeeded, they sold out to the government and locked me out of it. How ungrateful was that? So it was entirely their fault that I was forced to find alternative transport. Well, I wasn't caught completely by surprise, so I thankfully wasn't too delayed."
It was becoming increasingly obvious that behind his smile, this man was dangerous. But what was I supposed to do with him? There was no police force I could turn him over to to face justice. I couldn't hide the fact he was human from Serlv, so she would be unable to believe he was linked to the plague. Throwing him back to Earth would be unlikely to achieve anything. I could let him go, or follow him and see what he was up to.
He had no mana circulatory system, so could I shove him into [Inventory] and teleport him to a prison of my own making? Would keeping him imprisoned forever be any better than just killing him? I could imprison him, relink him to the System and let him out once the Law had taken hold?
Or there was the other option I'd mentioned in passing. Kill him. If I did that here, would he respawn? He couldn't get the [Failed Delver] achievement, which could mean no respawn, or it could equally mean that he'd respawn without the penalty that kept him out of dungeons.
Whatever I was going to do, [Inventory] was the first step.
Except that to use [Inventory] I needed to touch him, and I couldn't move.
"I know I expressed the opinion that you should lose the frown, but must you replace it with an expression that scary?" he asked, still with the same unflappable smile. "I wouldn't mind another chat once you've calmed down, but for now, you could do with some time to cool off."
My status looked normal, even if I used [Eye of Judgement] on myself. I had no abnormal conditions, yet I was frozen rigidly in place. He hadn't done anything I could see, despite me keeping [Mana Sight] and [Soul Perception] trained firmly on him. Straining achieved nothing. My muscles simply didn't respond to my requests.
I kept my sensory skills on him as he turned away and resumed his slow amble down the corridor.
... I could use skills. If I could use sensory skills and [Eye of Judgement] I could use [Inventory]. I couldn't use my lightning glove, because I couldn't get it onto my hand. I could pull a flame grenade, and I could use [Expert Mana Control] to partially shape the explosion.
Maximilian didn't even have time to react as the fireball engulfed us both.
