Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 441: Ahead While Others Fall

Arriving above the main building, Thalion shifted back into his human form to enter. A few jumps later, he stood before the giant gate that was already open, with many of the sailors already inside. It was one of those chambers that had a lot of spatial manipulation going on, with the inside being a lot bigger than the outside. The sailors were eagerly ripping off any statue or treasure that looked like it was worth something. To Thalion, nothing in this chamber looked like it was worth anything. He needed millions of points, not just a few hundred.At the other end of the room was one stairway that was leading upwards and one that led down. Thalion decided that he wanted to go down first. If something fueled this island with power, it was far more likely to be as close as possible to it. From below, the sound of steel against steel echoed upwards, and Thalion sped up to help his fellow crewmates.

The stairs felt like they weren’t ending at all as he dove downward, and after running down the stairs for at least two hundred meters, he found himself in another chamber where the sailors were fighting against golems made from black obsidian.

Indestructible Guard Golem – Level 150

Those golems were over four meters tall and all made from black obsidian. The sailors dove between them and tried to cut them apart with their sabers, but nothing seemed to work, no matter where the attack hit or with what force. The golems, on the other hand, were extremely slow and held weapons made from the same obsidian.

It was always a version of a sword. Some had a broadsword as tall as their body, while others had more elegantly formed swords that were only a meter long. Every sword had a different ability, but the golems were so slow that it would take a miracle for them to hit someone—at least not when the sailors were on guard.

“Rid, what is this here?” Thalion shouted from the start of the corridor to the sailor that had gone the furthest.

Rid was currently standing on the shoulder of one of the golems at the other end of the corridor.

“Ah, Thalion, took you long enough. It’s going down over here,” he shouted back, waving his weapon before jumping off the golem’s shoulder, disappearing into some sort of hole.

Thalion’s form disappeared in red mist that shot forward, moving fast between the golems’ legs, evading all attacks that were blasting through the corridor until he reached the position where Rid had been before.

He reformed directly above the long, dark shaft, only to see Rid dropping further and further down. To catch up, Thalion used Mistform once again and shot downward. With mist form, Thalion bypassed Rid and reformed on the ground of a massive chamber in which the shaft ended.

Multiple obsidian statues were standing on small circular pedestals. They were a bit bigger than the golems from above, but otherwise, there wasn’t a real difference.

“Ha, that is quite the hall. I have never seen something like this,” Rid said out loud, landing beside Thalion.

Far more interesting than this chamber was the altar a few hundred meters in the distance. It was so dark in this chamber that Thalion decided to shift into the crippled eclipsari. Now everything looked to him as if it was in bright daylight. A rumbling came from the side, and a small stone fell to the ground as the statues awoke to life.

“Oh god, not again. You cannot damage them in any way,” Rid shouted, dodging the first swing of the statue next to him. “Damn, they are a lot faster than those above.”

Dodging was something Thalion was very good at, and he shot forward toward the altar. Something was lying on top of it, but he wasn’t sure what it could be. The statues had deflected a bunch of powerful E-grade attacks, but Thalion wasn’t sure if they could really handle it if he used the tendrils of the abyssal devourer to consume them. Against crystals, it was effective, and maybe it might work for those golems too. Yet most important was to get what was lying on the altar, since whoever found it first was allowed to keep it.

On the altar lay a black tablet made from the same black material as the island and the golems. Getting it was easier said than done. The golems down here were a lot faster than those above, and they also had some kind of shockwave skill.

The shockwave came out of nowhere, and Thalion was flung across the chamber. If he were still on Earth, his bones would have been broken, and he wouldn’t have managed to get up before the golem was there, swinging down with its weapon. Instead, Thalion was already up and shooting away with telekinetic dash. His ability was empowered by his bloodline, like all abilities in his human form, which gave him the extra speed he needed to get to the black tablet.

Jumping on the altar, he realized that it was some sort of map on one side, with multiple islands on it and a dot that was likely their position. Yet when he turned it around, there were the same runes he had seen on the outside of the island—or whatever this construction was. It was a bit annoying that he would have to give the map to the captain.

“Is that the map we need to get to the big treasure?” Rid asked after dodging another swing of the indestructible golems.

“Yep, looks like it. By the way, I am just noticing this now, but doesn’t the wall behind the altar look like a gate?” Thalion wondered out loud as his gaze moved over the pillars with the many inscriptions, both bent slightly until the tips touched.

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“Maybe, but let’s bring the map to the captain and get going. Every second matters, and we are already behind. There is also nothing to get from these golems. They don’t take any damage no matter how hard you hit them,” Rid argued before moving backward.

Thalion was still caught in his thoughts. It couldn’t be that the runes on the back of the map matched all the runes of the black monolith underwater, which basically was the island. Maybe the map was a key that would open a portal to the treasury of this island? On the other hand, it was probably too dangerous to search for, with the seawomen and Scarn around. There was also Rid’s point. Time was running out, and he couldn’t spend time here on this island just for a little prize.

The others on the leaderboard were gaining points like never before while he got nothing. No, he needed to get his thoughts together and bring the map as fast as possible to the captain so that they could take off.

Thalion shifted back to his human form and activated mist form to shoot upward and leave the chamber. It took half his mana pool until he was outside in the sun, where he reformed beside Rid, who was gaping at the captain standing right before him.

Wait, who was steering the ship when the captain was here? Thalion thought, panic rising. It couldn’t be that something had happened to the ship, right? Not now, when they had found the first map that would lead the way.

“I’m sorry. It looks like we are stranded here. They created a trap that destroyed the ship, with only half the good men and women on board surviving,” the captain said in a downtrodden tone.

For Thalion, it felt like his world was dying, and he only noticed now the wet sailors standing behind the captain.

<--

“Yeah, one more island and we should have enough pieces to find the main treasure,” Eric cheered, raising one fist in the air after getting another tablet. The indestructible golems had only been a small inconvenience. His first lightwave blasted them all against the wall, where they broke. It seemed that nothing the chosen’s skills or swords could hurt them, but the walls were of the same material, which meant that you could destroy them if you just threw them hard enough. In Eric’s case, a lightwave had been enough to do the job.

He was very well into E-grade with level one hundred and sixty. Now the experience points were only coming in a trickle. He was in levels above most things they met, which was why kills gave less experience, and you needed more experience points with every level. This made the last twenty levels in E-grade a nasty grind.

So far, this stage had been going very well. He and the full human elite of the chosen had taken command of the seven ships and went out to find the treasure. Every other ship had been destroyed, and in the last twelve days, they had made so many leaderboard points that they might even surpass the termites in the first two positions. Both had made a lot of points in the last stage, but now they were struggling while Eric and the others found ship after ship. Every ship had at least two trial takers, which were worth between three and ten million credits.

“If we find another ship, we even surpass them without the big treasure,” Felix grinned, looking down at the map in Eric’s hand.

“We should get back on the boat. I think Ethan and the others should be done hunting and revilling the proviant.”

Eric nodded and put the map in his spatial amulet. Wings made from pure light grew from his back, and he shot upward like a rocket.

Outside, their small army had killed everything that had lived on the island and was bringing it back to the ship. It turned out that the moment you put something dead into your spatial amulet, it not only tasted horrible but also didn’t still the hunger when entering the ocean. This was the reason why they needed so many helpers to carry the food.

On the cliff, the other chosen already waited for him and Ethan to observe the hopefully final piece of the map.

“This looks pretty good. Now we can already narrow down the area in which the final island should be,” Felix cheered after seeing the tablet.

“The grand treasure is not only worth so many leaderboard points, but in this area, we will not only find the treasure but also all the other trial takers with a lot of leaderboard points. I doubt that many of the other chosen have formed an alliance like we have. This can change everything.”

“I wonder why Thalion hasn’t gained his many leaderboard points. He always made so much in every stage, but now he is falling off big time,” Felix continued without stopping.

This, of course, piqued Ethan’s interest, who clearly disliked the man the most.

“Because he cheated, isn’t it obvious? The man is weak and just got incredibly lucky, like in the tutorial,” Ethan hissed with venom in his voice.

“You never told me why you dislike the man so much. What happened in the tutorial? Also, I thought that you dominated your tutorial, so how could he have made so many problems for you?” Eric asked. He had wondered for quite a while, but Ethan had never explained why Thalion must be hunted down.

At the moment, Eric was quite happy that Thalion wasn’t doing that well. It allowed him to ignore this part of their alliance completely, and in addition, he didn’t need to pay back his debt he owed to Thalion for saving his life. Good that Ethan was in the talking mood today.

“Yeah, he wasn’t in my tutorial; otherwise, that would have never happened. In his tutorial, someone from an old empire should have been revived, which was a big deal for all the undead gods. Since this tutorial had a relatively high number of vampires, my patron invested a great deal to send a special item there to make use of the special blood plant the strongest vampire is using. Yet Thalion stole the item and with it all chances the blessed of my patron had in this tutorial.”

This indeed sounded quite bad, Eric thought. It also sounded nothing like Thalion at all. Eric thought, remembering his encounters with the man. He brought a lot of people through the tutorial and didn’t really want anything from them in the first place. Here in the system event, he had saved his life too. So Eric really couldn’t say something bad about Thalion from his personal experience.

“So if the undead gods are all after this revived creature, shouldn’t we target it first so they don’t get the advantage?” For Eric, it simply was the logical solution to the problem.

“No, that guy died in the tutorial. But to defy my patron and steal an item like this cannot go unpunished. You know how the gods are. I also don’t want to let something like this slide. This Thalion will become an example of what happens when you work against the great Aeta and his blessed.”

Ethan swore, which almost made Eric sigh. It seemed that there was no way of talking the chosen out of it. He also kept the next questions for himself. Better not share too much information right now. There wasn’t really much he could do in this regard except keeping quiet. The alliance was too important right now. There were orcs, vampires, and elves who all wanted to dominate the planet. Eric would need every assistance against those adversaries, and nothing could be allowed that threatened the alliance.