The Earth Online

42 Preparations for the Next World Part 12

“You can’t be serious about this, dude? It’s a f*****g legendary sword.” Kedrick was almost shouting at Thaleos’ ears.

Haya and Ygritte agreed with his opinion and tried persuading the beast tamer to just keep the sword for himself.

Thaleos could see how the crowd was reacting to this conversation, people hungrily stared at the legendary swords and were already counting the shekels they had in their bags.

“Like I said, I don’t need it, I think. What did you say its powers are?” Thaleos mulled over the decision and asked the lizard-man about the sword.

“Well, the Red Panther can slow down the enemies’ attacks by five seconds, increase bloodlust by 10 percent, and call forth a red panther familiar.” The reptilian man quickly responded, as he marveled at the sword Thaleos was tightly clutching.

Everyone within 20 feet were now paying attention to their conversation. Before the beast tamer could even continue his line of questioning, the lizard-man continued anyway,

“Yes, yes, and don’t forget its soul collection capabilities. Every time you kill a living being, you can store their heart in the sword itself to strengthen its powers or in a soul crystal for alchemy or leveling purposes.”

The crowds’ eyes glistened when they heard the last detail, within a split second, everyone started shouting prices,

“I’ll take it for 150 shekels.” An old man shouted from the end of the crowd, another gruff old man gave him a dirty look and responded,

“That’s way too low. I’ll take it for 300 shekels.”

“What the hell? Screw that, I can buy it from you for 800 shekels.” A woman who looked like an assassin screamed from across the crowd.

Thaleos’ crew felt slightly overwhelmed by the series of shouting, as the price just got higher and higher.

Soon enough, the price was at 10,000 shekels and then someone silenced everyone with a new offer,

“35 blood souls for the Red Panther!” Everyone was now shocked, since they know that each blood soul is equivalent to 5,000 shekels. They started going through their bags and wallets to check if they had any blood souls with them. Soon enough, another person offered,

“I can give you 45 blood souls for the legendary sword!”

“No, never mind that, I’ll give 65 blood souls!” A wealthy looking old woman volunteered, while reaching out to the sword.

Before her thin fingers could reach the sword, Thaleos slowly moved it away and shook his head.

“Heh, I’ll take it for 85 blood souls.” The whole crowd went quiet as one of the biggest guilds in the Haine bid. That many blood souls meant that they’ve killed over hundreds of elite beasts, since they seem to confident in bringing a large amount of blood souls.

But as soon as someone outbid them with a, “The Emerging Group will get it for 100 blood souls!” The said biggest guild quickly quieted down. Seems like they were all just faking being rich with blood souls, since they wanted to scare off other bidders.

After complete silence for three minutes, Thaleos loudly announced, “Looks like we’ve got a winner. The Emerging Group can get the Red Panther for 100 blood souls, but under one condition.”

The leader of the group, who was a woman dark curly hair and curvaceous figure, raised her left eyebrow—almost as if daring him to continue.

“You can get the Red Panther if you give me a free tour in your guild’s manor.” Thaleos muttered in a gentle voice, showing that he meant no harm with his condition.

Hearing the simple condition made the leader breathe in relief. She nodded her head and took out 100 blood souls from her utility backpack.

“Here you go.” A deep voice came out from the gorgeous-looking woman. The beast tamer just nodded his head and accepted the bag of blood souls. Soon after, he gave them the legendary sword with a smile on his face.

As soon as the crowd dispersed, Haya asked Thaleos in a confused tone, “Was it really worth it? Just for a hundred blood souls? We gave away a potentially strong weapon. A sword that could help us in the second world.”

The bearded man saw the berserker looking desperate and regretful. The beast tamer shook his head and clutched the younger man’s shoulder.

“Trust me, that sword only fits certain player types. The reptilian man omitted that part. Only Monks can wield the Red Panther sword. The malevolent panther spirit can only be controlled by monks and their enchantments.” Thaleos carefully explained to his group.

After reaching their car, he read James’ journal entry out loud.

Nightmare # 173

November 13

3:14 AM 

The gods seemed to have favorites. They called it the Godly Gambles for a reason, I suppose. They betted on certain species to see who the game’s winner would be. Everyone in the universe knew that no god, even minor deities, set humans as their bets.

Save for one, nobody knew who the god or minor deity was. They just knew that he betted on humans, even before earth was part of the game.

These dreams are weird. It’s like I’m walking from room to room and checking out different memories, but I can’t control which door to enter.

I just go where my feet takes me.

In today’s dream, I’m in front of a small door; it looked like one of those tiny storage doors. It had these golden engravings and was emitting these blue specks that made the whole scene enchanted.

It beckoned me to continue but before I could even make a move, someone else opened the door. It was Nirah and he was mischievously inviting a random human inside the door. The snake god whispered to the person,

“Come. This door will lead you to the second world. You can get a glimpse of it here. If you’re no longer a novice or NPC, you can get inside the door before the second part of the game starts.”

The ginger god was acting incredibly playful, as he was encouraging the strong looking human to enter the tiny door.

The human looked quite confident and nodded his head in agreement. He took off some of his heavy-looking weapons to enter the minute entrance.

Nirah quietly chuckled as he saw the human kneeling on all fours and entering the tiny door. Before the human could even fully enter the door, half of his body was suddenly cut off.

Suddenly, the snake god erupted in laughter as he saw the pool of blood and dead body on the door.

It looked like he was having the time of his life, clutching unto his stomach and shaking around the bloody floor.

As if sensing my disgust, he just rolled his eyes and looked straight ahead, “What? Humans are gullible. It’s funny! It’s like watching moths heading straight to the fire. f*****g idiots.”

“This merits no fun, Nirah. You just made a mess and designed an unnecessary death.” It turns out that Enki was directly behind his astral body.

The snake god just clenched his jaw in annoyance and whispered,

“Even the pesky floating human in front of you looked like he had a blast.” As soon as the god said the last word, I was pushed out of the dream and suddenly woke up.

“So you’re telling me that we’re gonna check out the door that might split our bodies into half? Dude, you’re f*****g insane.” Haya started while giving out a sarcastic laugh at the end. The tan man was feeling agitated as he knew that the second world’s start was near.

He felt like they could still prepare some things to make sure that they survive the new world.

“Dude, I have to agree with Haya. That decision is whack and I’m not sure where you’re going with this one.” Kedrick wholeheartedly agree with the berserker’s statement.

“Trust me on this one. Once we consume these blood souls, we’ll level up to become actual professionals, not NPCs or novices. We can enter through the door. James calculated that as long as you eat a hundred blood souls, we’d be fine. Based on my estimation, we’ve all had way over a hundred. Even Ygritte kept track of her consumption.” Thaleos carefully explained, as he watched everyone’s reaction.

He saw how their expressions shifted from being anxious to being reassured, but still being a bit cautious.

“Granted that your statement is true, does that meant hat we can all safely enter the tiny door?” Ygritte asked with a grimace on her face, as she was imagining being sliced in half.

“Yep, that’s right! We’ll be okay. Trust me on this. We just need to get to the Emerging Group’s personal gym.”

After assuring them a couple of times more, the three members finally agreed to Thaleos’ plan and decided to trust the man altogether.

“So, when do we plan to do that tour?” Haya asked as he was now cooking them some dinner.

“We’ll go tomorrow.”