Trial Of Redemption

It had been 5 and half years since this game of death began and nearly 11 months since the most tragic incident of my life, both inside and outside the virtual realm had occurred. Last year in the month of Vansant, I had caused the extermination of nine players due to a lie that I told them. Since then, even amongst the clearers it was noted that 'The Hoarder does not care about the life of anyone'. Many players who knew me before-hand tried their level-best to counter this accusation.

The front-line was now at Stage 300, and we were still in the process of discovering the GM's room in the dungeon. Technically, there were several dungeons and only one of them had the GM's room in it and we had no idea how to determine which one is it. As a result, the whole clearers' group was divided into several small teams; each having to clear a particular dungeon.

Two weeks have passed since this stage was unlocked and we were nowhere close to determining the correct dungeon. I decided to solo on a random dungeon that I thought to be the correct one. The previous GM levels had dungeon entrance on southern and eastern areas of the stage, so pre-determination was impossible.

I still remember the days following the worst incident of my life. I spent the next week under the watchful eyes of Asri and Neetto until my HP regenerated to its maximum. After that, I changed from my light and speedy cloth armor to the more sturdy leather armor and a sword-shield combination. Though I usually avoided all kinds of rumors amongst the clearers, this time my friends tried to shield away me from all sorts of rumors deliberately.

Liza even invited me to stay at The Golden Knights guild castle if I was feeling low, I refused politely. Yet, visits from all my friends and their motivational encouragements continued. These did help me to overcome the set-back from the incident. Arthur even suggested me to have a second profession and allowed me indefinite leaves from raid battles. Though I avoided the Field Masters, but soloed in every Stage Master battle.

The real motivation, something that gave me a sliver of hope came from one of the people who mostly envied me; particularly in the start. One day, I got a message from Chi the oldest information broker of Arcadian, 'Hi Naperjet! Wanna know about a way to undo your mistake. Meet me in the City of Starting at 21:00.'

I reached the rendezvous point at the exact same time. The Cat greeted me with a scorn look, "Its bad manners to keep anyone waiting." I giggled and replied, "Look who's talking Chi! Anyways what's the info?" Everyone in the front-lines knew about my mistake, so an information broker like Chi would know it anyways. "The GMs tend to drop a mysterious cube like item randomly; it is called The Restoration Cube. The item is rumored to be able to restore any dead player, but it seems that no one is able to figure out how it works." I wondered, "If the information is correct, then the difficulty to operate surely indicates that it's a GM's item. It must be special; can you get your hands on one?"

She nodded in negative and answered, "It seems that the players who managed to get it, either destroyed it or abandoned it. On record, there is no such item with majority of front-liners." "I anticipated that. Anyways, what's your fee?" I turned up my payment window, when she turned up a finger against me. "If you want to really pay, it would be 10k Dor. Or you can tell me about the thing that showed up in your available ability records." I entered the amount 10k in the payments window and hit the pay button. "Still hoarding information, Hoarder!" she smirked. I paid a smile and came up from there.

From then, I waited restlessly for the GM stage to come. I had to get that cube at any cost; I soloed for days in the dungeons leveling up intensively. Though I was avoided by the clearers, my level buffer was more than enough to hold me there on my own. I was at level 320, more than 30 levels higher than other clearers.

I entered the dungeon after refilling my supplies and maintaining the equipment, alone. Though Asri, Neetto and others wanted to always keep at least a tap on me; but Prof. Liza again lectured them about trusting me and my survival instinct. The dungeon seemed to be a special one, as per my information it was divided into multiple moving blocks like a geared mechanism. Sense of direction changed each time you exit a block and enter a new one.

The confusing maze got me and I lost directions in the dungeon. Apparently, I managed to get myself into a safe-zone built inside the dungeon. My HP regenerated to full and I called up my menu and tried to figure out the map. "This doesn't make any sense." I murmured to myself alone in the safe zone. The map is totally disorganized, but was 95% complete. "Which way to start now?" I wondered and closed my map. The safe zone had 4 exits, each going in the different direction. Despite the awkward sense of direction, I surely came from the southern entrance so going from the North one seemed useful.

But I had another problem, I was very hungry. Sure enough the food we ate there had no effect on our real bodies, but lack of eating would mean that fatigue can set in. Hunger depended on the amount of work done and if it exceeds a certain limit, you are hungry. I looked at the time it was 17:50, so I had some time before dark. I took out a sandwich from my inventory, noted its durability and was just about to eat when someone popped in my Search radius. Due to the nature of the safe-zone here, my radius does not extend beyond its walls.

I put down my sandwich and took my shield in the hand, yelling "Whoever is out there come out." On getting no response, I threw my shield towards the place where the icon popped. "Aah… It hurts." came a voice from the place and the veil came out. The shield rebounded and landed in my hand. Out of the veil came out Liza, I was surprised and asked "Were you following me all the way till now?" She pouted and replied, "Yes, you idiot! … But wait what on Earth did you do right now?"

"Oh! I was about to have my lunch. Want some?" I asked hurriedly trying to avoid the follow-up questions. Fortunately before she could answer, I received the answer as a roar from her stomach. She turned red and I offered my spare sandwich. She took my sandwich and ate it quietly, till the time I finished mine as well. "Your Cooking ability must be really high." She exclaimed. "Not exactly, I barely cook so…" I usually bought food from NPC shops, but the sandwich was an exception as I had made it as an experiment for the Cooking ability.

She asked, "How'd you hit me with the shield and it really hurt?" I thought of evading the question, but she gave a strict look which almost compelled me to abandon all plans. "It was um… an extension of the Throwing Knives weapon art." I smiled and moved forward, "Why did you follow me?" "Commander Heathway gave me orders to keep a track on you inside the dungeon as you chose the most difficult dungeon for yourself alone."

I sighed heavily and moved forward taking a mental note on watching out for hidden spies. I somehow came out of the dungeon, apart from the item drops and level-ups; my effort in the dungeon was useless. I retreated to the front-liners base and found Heathway waiting for me and Liza. I reported that our dungeon was a waste, he turned to me and said, "Five minutes after you entered the dungeon, we got the info that the GM's room has been discovered and scouted in a dungeon. I even sent Liza to track you down and give the message. But based on your expression, it seems like I should have sent a better messenger."

"I don't know if you sent a messenger or a…" I wasn't even able to complete the statement when Liza stomped on my feet and saluted, "I apologize Commander, but this fool was too busy with the exploration to even notice me. He only stopped to notice me when…" it was my turn to step on her. Heathway didn't seem to be much interested in our little quarrel but was enjoying it.

I called up my most trusted friends for a meeting at my home. It was Sakkara 17 and around 21:00, my home was filled by people having a variety of weapons and armor. We were 11 in total. "As you all know that the GM's room has been located in the dungeon and the assault has been planned the day after tomorrow." I began setting up the stage before the performance. "Okay! We all know that." Asri responded "So what's next?"

"Um… I don't know how to put it but I need your help in something." Everyone looked closer and I got really nervous, finally I closed my eyes and just let the words out, "I want you to help me tackle the GM…tomorrow." The relief that felt in the environment right before the last word vanished instantaneously. It was replaced by yells of "Are you mad?" and "This is idiotic." Fortunately, no matter how much noise is inside the house; no one can hear it unless they got some pretty good proficiency in Eavesdropping.

I slipped into a chair and waited for the noise to settle down. Even Liza was really surprised with the request; she gave me a little jab and asked, "Are you sure about this?" I simply nodded in affirmative, "You are a jerk. Try your best to explain them." And she tried to calm the crowd, "Let's hear his reason at the very least before judging." The crowd slowly settled.

I pulled out a holo-map of the GM's dungeon and pointed out towards lair of GM, "The GM's name is Shiva the God of Destruction." Rin interrupted, "Why do all GM's be named after gods from different mythology?" "I guess you should ask the GM himself why he chose that name." Andrew joked. "Anyways, he uses a trident and dons heavy metal armor. Wait… the description here doesn't seem to match the mythological descriptions. Anyways, the trident is a piercing type weapon and utilizes single targeted strikes."

"I have a question?" Joe stood up, "From where did you get this information. The Cat is supposed to publish it tomorrow." I stood silent for a while, "I managed to force Heathway to cough up the details. You know I can be very persuasive." "I can't believe that he managed to force the Commander to reveal all this. He used to say 'a secret shall always be a secret unless revealed at the right moment'." Liza added. We all had a hearty laugh and then I decided to wait for their response.

Neetto stood up and asked, "Why are you so much hell-bent in defeating this GM before others?" I never expected this question; I had always lived up to my name of 'The Rogue Swordsman'. It would be better if I just let them know about it, I won't repeat my mistake again. "The GM drops an item randomly, called The Restoration Cube that can revive any dead player. I want to defeat the GM first so that I can make appends to my mistake. And for that I need your help please."

Everyone began murmuring and the conclusion came "We'll let you know." Back in the real world, this phrase was usually used to politely refuse any offer; but here it wasn't so easy. The emotion recreation engine lets a person know if someone is telling a lie, mostly by a pale red face. Everyone left except for Liza. I sank back into the chair "I know it is really important for you, Naperjet. So I would be helping you on a condition. No matter what happens with the cube, promise me you will move on." I gulped and replied, closing my eyes "Okay! I promise, no matter what happens with the cube; I will move on."

Next day, it was nearly 12 in the noon and no response came from them. We could not wait for much longer, so I and Liza began to move towards the GM's room. A GM unlike an SM has no backup or accomplices, so technically we were in a good position against him till we manage to impart damage and defend ourselves.

A team of 2 members reached the lair of the GM, and the door opened. A sage like person was sitting inside right at the center of the lair, with the trident standing near him. We did not engage him directly, a lesson learnt from previous GM's. As we entered the room, he opened up his eyes and asked, "What shall you seek?" we blinked our eyes in disbelief, stunned for a moment. "We seek passage to the bridge." Liza summoned some courage and spoke.

"No one shall pass through without defeating me." He spoke and we saw his cursor change from neutral to hostile. He picked up his trident and a glow engulfed his full body. As if the trident was expanding to form the armor that protected his body. A HP bar appeared above the GM and he charged upon us. The trident glowed green, showing the initiation a weapon art the system identified it as Eternal Pierce.

"Fall Back!" I shouted, and we backed off. The trident managed to slide against my right arm, and it left a scar at the impact place. "Bleeding!" I looked up at my HP bar, blinked the debuff icon of Bleeding status. Bleeding was usually caused by slashing-type weapons and depended mostly on the location of wound. Mine was a small cut in the arm, so the damage it caused to my massive 71,500 point HP bar was negligible even if I left it open for the entire battle.

Yet taking no chances, I pulled out a status restorative potion from my pouch and took a sip. But to my surprise, the status debuff didn't go while the potion restored the damage caused by the status. "Strange!" I murmured and saw him charging towards me closing the gap with quite some speed. I raised my shield in a defensive stance and deflected the trident.

Liza began firing arrows from the distance, while I got his attention towards me attracted but even after a full 7 hour fight we had barely managed to deplete his HP bar by 10% while I had 60% HP remaining and Liza had 85% HP remaining. "This will take forever. Should I use it?" I murmured. The assault continued and we came nowhere closer to defeat it. Then we heard the voice of the boots of players running towards the room, I thought 'The main team is here too soon. Or did we fight here too long and didn't realize that it was time.'

The players came in running, one of them shouting, "I hope he doesn't get himself killed." Another one carelessly replies, "He is the highest level player here. He can take down the GM easily." At last the players emerged from the giant door and I finally breathed in relief, Neetto and Asri came at last with others. The GM began distancing himself to begin the preparation of Eternal Pierce.

"The trident is a low power weapon, only the weapon art he possesses is dangerous. It is called Eternal Pierce; the status conditions imparted by it cannot be healed." I managed to finish up the sentence when the GM charged; I blocked the trident with my shield but the impact was enough to send me flying. Hitting the wall behind, I lost some of my HP due to it. "Now! We must attack with everything we have. The cool down is approximately 15 minutes." I commanded and the now 11 member assault team hit the GM hardest we could have.

Spear, swords, maces and countless arrows rained upon the GM depleting his HP further and faster sending it into yellow and eventually in the red zone, before he back-flipped maintaining the distance and initiating the Eternal Pierce. We had successfully defended against the art multiple times, so the same strategy was enacted. The tanks with shields came forward while others assume supportive positions to avoid anyone get hurt due to impact. The GM charged, but this time he jumped above and then targeted the support units.

The sudden change caught us off-guard and the trident hit Achilles right in the shoulder. "What is this? This thing is now showing CPD and its not stopping." Achilles shouted. 'Switch out' came the response while Liza handed-over a status restorative potion to him. Another 15 minutes, this time we must not miss; the only factor that held us back was the fact that our HP was also red. "You can use the strange ability to finish him off, right." Asri joked. I was in no mood for it, "If that were so then I would have handled this one alone, yesterday itself."

"Guys, you better hurry. We can't take another hit from that art." Achilles complained, reminding us that we must dispose him off quick. Again the series continued, but this time we chained the most damaging arts in such a way that the GM must face at least one at a time. The last 10% HP went out very slowly but it was finished at last.

We got tons of XP, dor and items. "Thanks, if it weren't for you then we would have been fighting him out for eternity." I thanked everyone. "You are a complete idiot; you should not have come here alone." Neetto seemed to be quite angry. "When you all didn't reply, I thought that you were all busy in some other work." "Bro's always first, besides after your plan; we straight went to The Cat and asked her all about the GM and she told us about his low power weapon and high defense." The conversation between us never seemed to end.

As we turned to move on, I realized that we were missing something and I opened up my item storage and found out that it was not in my drops list. I turned around, "Did anyone find that restoration thing?" All faces were first blank and then nearly a dozen menus were opened up and everyone answered in a negative. It wasn't good, a revival item was a kind of lifeline in this game of death and it could make anyone to betray others.

I can force everyone to let me check their item storages, or can just put the blame on The Cat that she provided false info; yet both were out of question. I turned to them and pleaded, "Please guys, I know that the revival item is important for anyone of us and I do apologize for dragging you out in this battle and having you all nearly killed. But that thing is really important for me." Asri came forward, "You don't need to do all this…here you can have it. I am sorry that I hid this info that the revival item dropped in my inventory." He called upon his menu and materialized the cube. "Thank You. I have no complaints about this now."

I clicked the cube and hit the HELP button. A description of the cube came out in the familiar system font:

'By selecting the Use command from this pop-up window, the target player can be brought back to life during the brief period (roughly one minute) between death and the conclusion of the disintegration visual effect.'

"What the heck it is?" I murmured. One minute, this was the cruelest way to tell me that the 9 members were dead and gone forever. I grabbed the cube floating right over my menu and thrust it over to Asri, "You can have it. I don't need it anymore." Asri put a hand over my shoulder and replied, "No, this is yours. I think you can make better usage of this. Moreover, I have a spare one."

My eyes bulged out, "Why… Why didn't you tell me before? It would have saved me all the trouble I had today." I grabbed him by his collar, but he remained calm "Tell me, what could I've said? Would you have believed me, if I'd said that it's impossible to use?" I didn't believe him then and I told him, then I hit the use button. The cube floated over the air and began to change its appearance. The front side now had a type of holo-keyboard, similar to the one we use to type messages; while to top side got a depression and a giant screen appeared from it. I noticed closely and got some irregularly placed words and phrases, none making sense. "It's like a source code." I uttered and Asri nodded.

"This is why it's impossible to use? You would never know which part of code is supposed to be edited, within one minute after someone's death." The cube returned to its original state as Asri completed his words. I was mad in rage and grabbed the cube, throwing it towards the nearest wall. I even stomped it with my boots repeatedly as went on a rampage. The cube would not break in two, it wouldn't even scratch; the stark black color reflected my face: mad with rage.

Others tried to intervene, but Asri stopped them saying, "He must overcome this madness by himself." I even slashed it with my sword, but it ran into an invisible wall and I was thrown backwards. This shock helped me to snap out of the madness as I saw my others looking towards me with sympathy in their eyes. I saw Liza whose eyes told me, "Have you forgot that you promised me to move on no matter what happens." And then I saw the system warning on the cube popping 'IMMORTAL OBJECT'.

I stood up to my feet, de-materialized the cube in my item storage and walked up to the group apologizing, "I am really sorry about this. I guess you did the correct thing by hiding the info and the cube, Asri." "It's good to see you back, Naperjet. I first thought that hiding would be a better option, but when you began pleading; I realized that if I did so you will never get out of the incident. So I decided to let you face the reality of the situation… alone." Asri replied smiling.

"Well the main assault team must be headed here at any moment, so would it be wise to just move on to the next stage and later inform the assault team." Achilles suggested. "Good point, you all go up and I will remain here to tell the incoming group about the GM being defeated." I replied. Everyone walked off the bridge while I waited in the lair for the assault team to come. I closed my eyes and eventually thought back on my actions since the event in the 230th Stage and my struggle to cope up with it. But now I realized that even if I lost the first of my friends, life would not stop. Now I had a reason to fight, a reason to finish this game off.

Then I heard the footsteps of the main assault team entering the lair. The 60 player team stopped right before me when someone asked, "Where's the GM?" "Sorry! Just defeated him." Heathway made his way forward, "I was really wondering how you were not answering any messages about the GM raid. But I didn't have even the slightest idea that I would wind up finding you right here. Congratulations! Anyways, how much time it took for you to solo here?" The man with the battle axe seemed to know that I wasn't alone but I had promised my companions here that they would not be harassed for this.

"I came here, approx an hour after you gave up the information about the GM to me; two days back and happen to defeat it just half an hour ago." I replied yawning. "Anyways I am going to activate transportation to the next stage, wanna come?" "No, we'll go back to the base and let everyone know that stage has been cleared." Heathway replied and everyone moved back, I crossed the bridge and went on to find them awaiting me at the border of the safe zone and then we opened the transportation gate manually.