Free Web NovelChapter 12: Is life Precious
Kael stared at the screen when he saw the mission notification, the way you stared at something that should not exist. He was already on two missions and had used a huge chunk of his energy to make it come to pass. Another one would be too much for him.
"What the hell is going on?" he asked, but the system gave no answer as usual. It only showed him the mission that he had to complete, so with reluctance, he took a look.
[Preparation for your first Dungeon Break]
[You are required to unleash monsters from the dungeon into the world out there in sixty days. You currently lack the needed monster count]
[Gain an additional one thousand monsters in one hundred days]
[Monsters are born from absorbing mana, closest mana source: Adventurers]
[Absorb 100 points worth of mana from dead adventurers in the next ten days]
[Penalty: Forced reduction of rank and damage to soul]
Kael looked at the mission and all his happiness faded as fast as it had come. The tone of everything had just turned dark. He had been enjoying the ride all too much, and now something even worse than what he had been given before came. freёweɓnovel.com
"Hey, system." He called out, but there was no response.
He knew it could hear him, he could tell that it could. "Hey, you bloody bastard, stop toying with me and speak!" he yelled. It caused the walls of the dungeon to tremble.
"I have done what you have asked all through, but when do your games end?" he asked. "You think human lives are for you to toy with?"
[You were given a choice, complete the mission or suffer]
[You are free to choose otherwise]
[The system will continue to guide you until you become a proper dungeon]
"Choice my ass, where is the choice in it? It’s my life or all of theirs," Kael said in anger. He was seething at this point. "You want to turn me into a cold killing machine for your pleasure or what?"
Suddenly two screens appeared. Kael looked at one, and it showed how the goblin champion had killed the assassin and tank, all under the order of Kael. The second screen showed a group of kobolds feasting on the remains of a weak group that made it to floor three while searching for the maps to the treasure and more.
"What are you trying to say? I did my best to ensure that no life was taken. I can’t control everything," Kael yelled at the system, but there was no reply after that, only a cold empty silence. But that silence was loud enough, it reached Kael fast enough and it told him all it needed to.
"No, I’m lying to myself. I killed them to save my skin. This is what I am now, a dungeon, and as much as I want to remain human, I’m not. I cannot lie to cover up my evil." His tone dragged off into silence, but then he looked up.
"Even then, I refuse to become a puppet to your crazy game. I refuse to be the one that takes all the life needed for the dungeon break. I’ll find a way, I’ll find a way somehow to find mana."
[An average of 10 people die in ten days in the dungeon, that is 100 points]
The system decided to clear something up. It was exhausted with the pity party Kael was throwing and so it showed Kael that regardless of what he did, people would still die here.
Kael was forced to see this reality with his own two eyes.
He took a deep breath. "Fine, everything proceeds as it should, and those that die, we can absorb them. But you and I will never agree on the methods you choose to do things."
[You will learn humans are not worth protecting soon enough]
The system dropped one last message and then vanished. No more response.
In the same moment, Kael’s attention was suddenly pulled to floor three. In one of its dark corners, the scream of a lady cut through the air, but it was very quickly followed by the cackles of men.
"Hahaha, don’t run, your party is dead, so come and have some fun with us."
The lady was covered in dirt and her clothes were ripped to shreds as she ran. Behind her, three men chased eagerly. One had his tongue wagging out like a wild dog.
The lady’s face was filled with fear and horror as she kept running, but soon she ran into a dead end and there was nowhere for her to run to. She pressed her back against the wall and watched as the men came closer.
"Hahaha, finally done running? Now let’s have some fun," one of the men said. They made sure to block all her exits.
In her final desperation, she placed her palms together and an ice lance began forming, but before she could finish, one of the men rushed and slapped her clean across the face. She hit the ground hard and passed out for a moment, and when she snapped back, the men had already ripped apart all her clothes and were about to take off theirs.
They laughed and cackled like wild animals, eager to use her body like a toy for their satisfaction.
Kael watched, the words of the system rang in his mind, not all humans were worth it.
"To think I’d receive a live lesson a few minutes after the system told me that, what a joke?"
He realized that he could not value all life, because some lives were shit and should be extinguished immediately.
"There is no good and bad when you are a dungeon, the only right choice is what I believe is right," he muttered to himself as he used his operational energy to open a path from the other side of the third floor, allowing two fully armed hobgoblins to come through.
