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  As he slammed his pick into the embankment yet again, Tailyn found himself toppling forward. Instead of being pulled out by his tool, the block he’d been working on fell away from him, and the boy was stunned to see the space filled with a pleasant blue light. He leaned up against the hole and stared in surprise at a bright blue crystal. No, it wasn’t the kind he’d seen the first time. Instead, it was growing right out of the ground like some kind of flower, and it was big enough to reach his waist. The lix growled and pulled the boy back. There was work yet to do—they needed to be able to get through the hole.

  With their goal in front of them, the pair began working even faster. The lix took care of the few steel rods getting in their way with powerful blows from its paws, as time had not been kind to the iron stripped of its stone encasing. And after pulling out a few more stones, Tailyn was finally able to get through the hole and stop short a couple steps away from the crystal. They weren’t getting any further—the tunnel was blocked off by an ancient stone wall complete with steel rods. Even the lix wasn’t getting through.

  Ka-Do-Gir crawled in after the young mage. He hadn’t been wrong about the boy, who had in fact turned out to be a well-prepared fighter showing up there in search of booty. Actually, Ka-Do-Gir had been able to smell the boy in the air as soon as he fell in. Finally, it made sense why he’d been equipped with a shovel, a pick, an axe, and even torches—he was there for the crystal, too. Any other time, the lix wouldn’t have thrown away such a prize, but it was the only way to bridge the communication gap between them.

  The lix pushed Tailyn closer to the crystal. The boy stared in confusion at his foe, unsure of what it wanted. Fear awoke in his chest. All he could think about was how anyone caught in possession of a crystal was subject to the death penalty with no chance for appeal. But the monster’s threatening expression made it clear—the creature wanted Tailyn to take it.

  How, though?

  He was no miner, and he didn’t know what to do with crystals. Was he supposed to hit it with his pick?

  Ka-Do-Gir couldn’t figure out what the mage was waiting for. He was obviously there for the crystal, so what was the problem? Did he really not have the crystal miner skill? Suddenly, his stomach growled, as the food the boy had given him had all gone toward healing his legs. His inner animal was awakening yet again. And that couldn’t happen, not then, when they had a shot at surviving. Frustrated with the wait, Ka-Do-Gir decided to help the mage. His skill activated automatically, so all he had to do was smash the crystal and leave the small blue fragment to drop to the ground, the jewel everyone in the world cared so much about. Placing one paw on it, the lix clutched at the young mage with the other and summoned the god. It was time to learn.

  Crystal received.

  Would you like to teach human Tailyn Vlashich the Linguist skill?

  Of course, he did. The mage was obviously no orator if he didn’t even have that skill, and the boy began groaning. Everything was working exactly the way it was supposed to.

  As far as Tailyn was concerned, it was his first time going through training like that. While he’d been trying to figure out which side to hit the crystal from, the lix had just destroyed it with a single blow. And then…

  That’s when the training started. And it was incredible.

  Ka-Do-Gir, a level 3 lix, would like to use a crystal to teach you a new skill: Linguist—lix language.

  Would you like to accept the changes?

  He hesitantly agreed.

  Skill received: Linguist (1).

  Linguist. Description: a skill that lets you learn other languages. The skill level determines how many languages you can learn. The general tongue is not included.

  You learned a new language: the lix language.

  Tailyn pulled up his table to see the changes and realized he was going to have to hide that line, too. The interesting part was that you couldn’t upgrade the languages you learned, as they were apparently just learned once and for all.

  Status table

  General character information

  Tailyn Vlashich

  Alchemist

  Level

  1

  Age

  10

  Yearly tax (crystals)

  1 (beginning at age 16)

  Coins

  0

  Gold

  3185

  Main parameters

  Shield level

  215

  Mana level

  260

  Physical attack

  26

  Magic attack

  34

  Attributes

  Enhancement

  3

  Mysticism

  1

  Intellect

  1

  Armor

  1

  Wisdom

  1

  Skills

  Alchemy

  Points invested:

  9

  Herbalism

  Points invested:

  7

  Lix language

  *

  Linguist

  Points invested:

  1

  His head was spinning, his consciousness faded for a few minutes, and suddenly Tailyn heard a strange voice. It was gruff, heavy, somehow croaking, nothing like the way the lix had growled before.

  “I’m Ka-Do-Gir. Nod if you understand me.”

  A shocked Tailyn nodded, and the lix sighed in relief.

  “Finally! I need to go home. I won’t kill you; you don’t kill me, either. Partnership? The god controls.”

  Lix Ka-Do-Gir would like you to join Partners. While you’re in the group, you are not permitted to attack each other. The terms for dissolving the partnership: Tailyn Vlashich returns to Culmart, Ka-Do-Gir returns to his camp (name hidden).

  Would you like to join the group?

  Chapter 7

  “MAGE, WE NEED to decide right now how we’re going to share loot.”

  The lix asked his question as soon as Tailyn waved away the god’s messages. The boy frowned, not sure what he meant, and Ka-Do-Gir pointed at something. Turning, Tailyn could barely suppress a gasp of surprise—something was glowing underground. With the light from the crystal gone, and the darkness of the cave broken only by the torches, the remains of the ancient couldn’t have been more apparent.

  “I don’t…” Tailyn stammered, completely unsure of how the loot should be split. Generally speaking, whenever he got something, Master Isor, his son, or one of the older kids took it. And he never really got anything, anyway.

  “Let the god decide,” Ka-Do-Gir said when he saw the mage’s hesitation. Having shown up there in search of loot, the little person clearly hadn’t been planning on sharing it with a lix. But they were there. And they were partners. The split had to be fair, though the lix still expected the boy to push back. To his surprise, all he got was a nod.

  Loot division type selected for Partners group: divine will.

  The lix relaxed. When it came to loot stripped from the bodies of the ancients, he would have done just about anything, including killing the mage and eating the resulting penalty, but that was even better. They weren’t going to hide things from each other or have to keep an eye on each other’s work. Since the god saw everything, it knew who needed what. After glancing over at the smoky torches disagreeably, the lix leaped over to where the ancient creature had died and pushed away the soil.

  You found the final resting place of level 15 human Ecroleb Bala.

  Dividing loot…

  Ka-Do-Gir receives Virtual Inventory with 12 slots.

  Ka-Do-Gir receives body armor from BRO-I set.

  Ka-Do-Gir receives bracers from BRO-I set.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives OG-I flamethrower.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives Last Statement recording.

  Ka-Do-Gir always did his best to keep his emotions under control, but that time it was too much. The ancient who’d died there had been a great one. And even though he’d been human, he
’d made the lix one of the strongest in his tribe. The two items he’d just received decreased the damage he took by 10% and significantly boosted his shield level, both even giving him a strength bump of one. That was like getting two new levels. A new button danced in front of him, the same inventory their shaman was so proud of, and Ka-Do-Gir was positive he’d have it full before long.

  Tailyn felt a pang of jealousy when he saw the god’s decision. The lix had gotten all the ancient’s armor, not to mention his inventory, and all he, a human who’d made the whole thing possible, had gotten was a simple note and a strange piece of metal. Was that fair? Next to his inventory, another button appeared, that one two circles joined by an arc. Audio. It blinked invitingly, and the upset boy tapped it just so it would stop. A voice began speaking. Suddenly, Tailyn realized he was the only one who could hear it—while the voice wasn’t playing in his head, the lix didn’t so much as twitch an ear when it began speaking.

  The troops carpet-bombed the city, deciding to get rid of the mutants. The bastards didn’t even think someone besides me might have survived. Animals… They’re all animals… The monsters, the troops, the whites, all of them. Leah always said not to trust anyone. As soon as she started giving in, she was a goner. Like everyone else I know. Although… Wait a second… There’s someone here. I can hear voices. Is that a new kind of monster? But those animals don’t talk… They usually…

  Quick footfalls sounded in the background followed by unintelligible murmurs, a cry of pain that was quickly reduced to a gurgle, and a happy shout. Tailyn froze. It really did sound like speaking—the ancient had been killed, killed by someone intelligent.

  New mission: Ancient History. Description: dig into the events of the past and find out who the monsters, troops, and whites are as well as what they were fighting about. This is a secret mission, so you can’t discuss it with anyone besides level 3 lix Ka-Do-Gir. Note that most people have this mission, so be careful about asking questions in order to avoid raising suspicions. The punishment will be harsh.

  Tailyn looked over at his partner. Having slipped on his new armor, it was like the lix had leveled-up on the spot, becoming even more dangerous. The ancient armor had modified itself to fit the monster’s body and was hiding the green color. All you could see was red metal, six bare limbs, and the befanged head that gave away the scourge of the border lands. Sure that the god never did anything without a reason, the boy asked him a question.

  “Do you know anything about the war of the ancients?”

  Ka-Do-Gir stared closely at the mage, once again amazed by the person fate had linked him to. He hadn’t just gotten a message; he’d gotten an entire divine mission. The white glow around him spoke to that, something only his tribe’s shame could boast of. And that meant Ka-Do-Gir had no right to turn him down.

  “Not much. The ancients were the ancestors of today’s humans; we came from the monsters they fought with. Nobody came out on top in the war, almost everyone died, much more was lost. That’s all I know. I’m a soldier, not a storyteller.”

  Updated mission: Ancient History. Update: you found out that the ancients were the ancestors of humans, and they were fighting with monsters that were the ancestors of the lixes.

  Tailyn even found the strength to grin—he’d already known all of that. Before sending their kids out into the city, the adults told them those “secrets” in an attempt to scare them even more than they already were. But the worst part was that he couldn’t ask his mentor. The mage would have known immediately that his ward had the mission, after all. And what did that leave? It was hard to say… The boy began twirling his other piece of loot around in his hands, a long stick with a bulge in the middle, a hole on one end, and a button on the other.

  “Why torches?” The lix’s unexpected question pulled Tailyn out of his reverie.

  “What?” the boy asked in confusion.

  “Having torches in caves is too dangerous since different gasses can build up and catch fire. Also, they flicker and wave in the wind. They go out. So why did you bring them with you instead of a lantern? Lanterns are easier, safer, and brighter.”

  The boy’s face flushed scarlet. As he’d been getting ready for the trip, he hadn’t thought about the details on that level, and it wasn’t like he’d brought the torches along with him as a weapon, either. They didn’t do any damage—you couldn’t have beaten through the weakest insect’s personal shield with them.

  “We need to get out of here.” Ka-Do-Gir had realized that he wasn’t going to get an answer and moved on. Apparently, the mage had his own reasons for using torches, he wasn’t going to tell the lix, and he didn’t want to disappoint his partner with a lie. It was downright respectable, especially for a human.

  Feeling guilty, the boy quickly clambered up the embankment and ducked through the hole. He looked up once he was out in the main cave. The hole was high up—too high up. Materializing his ladder, he stared at it as if seeing it for the first time. He had no idea how to get it up there.

  “Grab the rope,” the lix said. Turning the ladder on its side, the monster braced himself and began lifting the enormous thing. Tailyn quickly understood what Ka-Do-Gir wanted him to do. Grabbing the rope, he began to pull in an effort to share the load. They were faster together, and a few moments later, the ladder was vertical, only Tailyn felt nothing but a pit in his stomach. The top rung was still a few meters short of the hole.

  “Whoever made this thing for you got it wrong.” It didn’t even occur to Ka-Do-Gir that the worker might actually have made exactly what the mage asked him for. “You’re going to have to punish him when you get back.”

  “If I get back…” the boy muttered, his eyes misting over.

  “There are plenty of rocks around here,” Ka-Do-Gir said, deciding to pretend he didn’t notice the mage’s emotions. “We’ll build up the embankment and stick the ladder there easy enough. I can handle that.”

  Hope kindled once again for Tailyn—meeting the lix really had been a stroke of good fortune. He never would have gotten the wooden giant up by himself, nor would he have thought to use the rocks. And they were such an easy solution, too.

  Ka-Do-Gir let go of the ladder, leaving it to crash down onto the embankment. But the lix was no longer paying it any attention. Instead, he was focused on the rocks crowded around the second cave-in. And while the enormous boulders were buried in soil, the lix took the mage’s pick and quickly pulled a few out. The two extra strength points were doing the trick. What had once seemed impossible was easy enough, and it was starting to look like they were going to make it out.

  Tailyn found himself left to his own devices. With his parameters, he couldn’t help the lix with the boulders—he would have just gotten in the way. But the mound was growing as it was, and the boy decided to keep himself busy on his own. After materializing meat for Ka-Do-Gir, he had some himself, after which he went back to the loot he’d gotten. While the recording made sense—he had to find information on ancient history—the flamethrower raised far more questions. What even was a flamethrower? Did it throw flames? If so, where was cold metal going to find the fire, especially millennia after the ancients had died out? Tailyn decided to figure it out while he had time.

  The boy sat down and began checking the device out from different angles. The one thing he could tell was that you were supposed to press the button, something like the ray pistol he’d gotten his hands on. But where did the fire come from? Was it really possible that it popped out of one of the ends? How? After glancing over at the lix, who had just wrapped up stacking the boulders they needed, Tailyn decided to give it a try. He held the device as far away from himself as he could, squinted, and pressed the button.

  A fiery column burst out of the small tube, growing and growing until it was a tornado of flame. It was suddenly light and warm, something smelled like ash, and the terrifying crackle of burning wood hit the boy’s ears.

  “What is that?! Stop it, mage!” the lix yelled as he go
t as far away as he could. But it was like Tailyn was in a trance. He pushed the button harder and harder, squeezing every last little bit he could out of the flamethrower. The fire bewitched him, warmed him, robbed him of his capacity to think for himself.