Chapter 135: Hidden Plot
"So what is down is there?"
Hearing that question, the man realized something.
"Y-You are not sent by a Supreme Leader Voshak?"
Aidan raised his eyebrows. "Supreme Leader Voshak? What he has got to do with this?"
The man’s eyes went wide. And then, as if something triggered, his eyes turned completely red.
From his norse, ears, and then from his whole body, blood escaped.
He died.
[Jovan: Supreme Leader Voshak is one of the oldest. I did’t think he is still here. He should have ascended long ago to the major realm’s force connected to this alliance.]
"Intresting. But the conversation was weird." Aidan narrowed his eyes. "He assumed I was sent by Supreme Leader Voshak to destroy them. But why did he assume that?"
[Tom: That one’s hard. I did feel a thread, but it disappeard.]
[Anrita: I was unable to figure out how this person died. I apologize, my lord.]
"Don’t worry about it."
[Finn: I...did nothing.]
[Cameron: Me too...]
[Arthur: Who cares? It’s not our job.]
[Tom: Your job is to eat. We know.]
Ignoring their bickering, Aidan looked at the ground.
"Should I dig it?"
[Jovan: If whatever beneath is something belonging to Supreme Leader Voshak...]
Aidan grinned. "Fun."
Without hesitation, he started digging using his aspects by forming a powerful drill.
After drilling for five kilometers, he finally reached the place.
It was a darn hall. A flaring magic circle was active, and there were coffins.
Over a thousand coffins.
The thing being extract was liquid from a large container that likely this magic circle was producing.
Aidan inspected it.
[Divine Foundation Liquid]
> Effect: By drinking this liquid made by refining Divine-rank powerhouses, it can swiftly increase the progression in Divine-rank and also set a solid foundation.
"What the..." Aidan was shocked.
All the coffins are of Divine-rank powerhouses?
[Jovan: Well, damn. Someone sure is on a big recycling mission.]
Aidan decided to check some coffins.
"How did he get dead bodies of so many Divine-rank? And why are Terror-hybrid betrayers helping him?"
[Jovan: Or maybe he is helping the Terro-hybrids.]
Aidan rubbed his chin. "True. Voshak, an old monster, didn’t ascend but stayed here. If he became a Terror-Hybrid already, it’d explain, right?"
[Jovan: Yeah, it’d make sense. Because there are two types of ascension. One is that you ascend to a Major Realm’s specific place where you know someone, an organization, that this alliance knows. There is a bigger alliance in a Major Realm built by ascenstors of this alliance who ascended hundreds of years ago. The other is you ascend in one of the eight Major realms randomly.]
"And there is a chance that Voshak stayed here for a mission." Aidan’s eyes glinted. "Thousands of small realms are already destroyed by Terroreign. I suspect Voshak is aiming for the destruction of this small realm."
[Jovan: Destruction for us is production for Terroreign. There’s also a chance that Voshak wants to rise high in Terroreign Command by accomplishing this mission.]
A light bulb lit up in Aidan’s mind.
"Shit...if he is an old monster who had turned hybrid long ago....then there’s a chance that these dead bodies belongs to that Galactic Empire that is overrun by Terrors. Ordun told me about it."
[Jovan: True...Terroreign needs soul, not body. The dead bodies can indeed be used for other purpose. He must have been regularily transporting dead bodies from there to here with the help of Terrors and Terror-Hybrids to create this liquid.]
"And he is using this liquid to arm his personal army..." Aidan’s jaw clenched. "If the alliance is attacked from inside and outside together, it would be doomed."
[Jovan: Fuck. Such a big threat inside, and no one knows it?]
"Alright, I’ve decided." Aidan grinned and sat down.
"We are going to stay here."
Aidan summoned everyone outside. "Tom, take out the girls."
"Ok, folks. We are going camp here until all of reach peak Divine-rank."
"What?" Solenne blinked. "How? We need to enter the dimension for resources, no?"
"Nope. Look at that giant container. That’s our resources."
Aidan also planned to clear a raid or two.
Three days into camp, the Divine Foundation Liquid had already earned its keep.
Solenne’s control over her spirit lances had gone from half-formed to razor clean. Beatrix’s Tidereave Current answered her a full beat faster than it had before.
Even the summons, who technically didn’t need the liquid, had taken to lounging near the container out of what Aidan strongly suspected was simple curiosity about whether it worked on dragons too.
Aidan pulled up his quest log properly for the first time since arriving, and the main quest sitting at the top of it was new.
*****
[Main Quest: Clear three Raids of your choosing.]
[Reward: 3000 Transcendent Points.]
*****
Beneath it, the Terror Raids tab had refreshed with three unfamiliar names, none of them anything like the labyrinth crawl he already knew.
*****
[Terror Raids]
[The Wagering House (10 days left).]
[Hollowmask Carnival (8 days left).]
[The Bracket Eternal (15 days left).]
*****
"Huh." Aidan read through them twice. "New flavor."
[Jovan: Purely the program’s own design, by the feel of it.]
’Different game entirely, then.’ Aidan pulled the details on each one closer.
*****
[The Wagering House: An eternal casino that answers to no known owner. Every table is a different game. Every game costs something real. Win big, or lose more than you bet.]
[Hollowmask Carnival: A shifting carnival that studies its guests. Every attraction mimics something it has already seen you do. Beat your own reflection at your own tricks, or be replaced by something wearing your face.]
[The Bracket Eternal: A tournament that never closes its gates. Climb the bracket. Every round grows harder. The final matches are never against constructs.]
*****
Aidan grinned slow, something eager waking up behind it. "Well. That last one’s obviously the scary option."
[Tom: Which is exactly why you’re not picking it first.]
"Exactly why I’m not picking it first." He rolled his shoulders. "Let’s start with the one that sounds fun instead of horrifying."
...
The Wagering House didn’t bother with a slow build.
One moment Aidan stood on grey dust beside a container of pale liquid. The next, warm gold light wrapped around him, and when it faded he was standing on red velvet carpet under a ceiling that had no visible end, chandeliers burning with candlelight that cast no heat.
A chime sounded, and text unfolded.
*****
[Welcome to The Wagering House.]
[There is no entry fee. There is also no free exit. Every table you sit at, you must play. Winning advances you deeper into the House. Losing costs you something the table decides, not you.]
[Reach the final table and defeat the House itself to clear the raid.]
[Total Attempts on the House: 0.]
*****
’Zero.’ Aidan’s grin sharpened. ’Nobody’s even tried this one yet.’
The carpet stretched ahead of him toward a single lit table, green felt glowing faintly under a hanging lamp, a chair pulled out and waiting like it had known he was coming.
He sat.
A figure of pure shifting smoke solidified across from him, faceless, shaped only vaguely like a dealer, and a deck of cards rose off the table and began shuffling themselves without anyone touching them.
[First Table: High Card. Simplest game in the House. Draw one card each. Higher card wins. Ties draw again.]
"That’s it?" Aidan raised an eyebrow. "No skill involved at all?"
[The House does not need skill for the first table. The House needs to see what you’re willing to risk.]
The deck split itself and slid one card toward him, face down.
[Wager your stake. Any amount of Transcendent Points, Essence, or years of your own lifespan may be offered. Higher wagers draw better odds.]
Aidan went very still.
’Years of my own lifespan.’ A slow, humorless smile crossed his face. ’Cute. This place has teeth.’
[Arthur: Don’t bet the years! I like having you around!]
[Cameron: I agree. Please retain your years.]
"Relax." Aidan flipped his own card face up without touching his wager at all. "I’m not betting anything I can’t afford to lose. Points only."
He slid a modest stack of Transcendent Points onto the felt, and the smoke-dealer’s card flipped over beside his own.
His card: King.
The dealer’s card: Nine.
[Table won. Advancing to Second Table.]
The chandeliers dimmed once, then flared brighter than before, and a second table rose out of the floor beside the first, greener felt, taller stakes already glowing above it in the air.
"One down." Aidan cracked his knuckles, grin returning in full. "Let’s see how deep this place actually goes."
He crossed to the second table, and the smoke-dealer reformed across from him, patient as ever. This time a wheel rose out of the felt instead of cards, segmented into a hundred slim wedges, each one glowing a different shade.
[Second Table: The Turning Wheel. Spin decides your opponent’s identity. Some wedges summon House constructs. Some wedges leave the round empty, a free pass. One wedge, rare, summons another living player currently inside this House.]
Aidan’s eyebrows rose. "So this is where the actual game starts."
[Correct. Wager first. The wheel spins once your stake is placed.]
’No lifespan this time either.’ He weighed a heavier stack of points in his palm before setting them down. ’Let’s see what this wheel actually wants to show me.’
The wheel spun on its own, blurring into a single bright ring, and slowed by degrees until it clicked to a stop on a wedge glowing pale silver.
[Wedge selected: Living Player.]
The air across the table rippled, and a second chair pulled itself out, then a second figure resolved into it, solid and very much real, a woman with close-cropped dark hair and eyes that widened with genuine surprise the moment she registered where she’d been pulled.
"...Well." She looked around the House, then back at Aidan, wary but composed. "Guess I know what that wedge does now."
[Second Table: High-Stakes Duel. Winner takes both wagers. Loser is returned to the House entrance, wager forfeit.]
Aidan leaned back in his chair, grin sharpening into something far more interested than it had been a moment ago.
"Zero attempts on the House," he said, mostly to himself. "Guess that makes both of us the first ones dumb enough to actually sit down."
The woman across from him didn’t smile back, but something in her posture eased just slightly, like she’d decided, for now, that curiosity outweighed caution.
"Rules?" she asked.
[No rules beyond the House’s own,] the dealer’s voice answered for both of them. [Fight. The felt will not break. The room will not end the match early. Only a winner will.]
Aidan rolled his neck once, aspects already stirring quiet and ready beneath his skin.
"Alright." He met her eyes across the green felt. "Let’s find out who actually deserves that wedge."