A s Raven walked toward the sound, coming up from the depth of his soul, as though for a breath of air, was the hope that whoever was making noise was another player.

He was going to leave the shadow world once he approached them; not to provoke them but to test their principles.

Since the cave wasn’t deep, it didn’t take him long to reach the source of the sound. Like a monster lurking in the shadows, he watched a group of three players come within sight. Making sure that they were alone, he canceled Twilight Walker.

The strangers’ nicknames were unfamiliar, and he couldn’t see any clan symbols next to them. His figure emerged from the shadows silently, in puffs of black smoke. Right leg. Torso. Right arm. And head. To a bystander, he probably looked like a ghost appearing from a dense mist, his body taking shape gradually.

Had he come across them earlier, he wouldn’t have tried to draw their attention, but the fight with Ori-Tori and the Lions had awoken his greed. Now everyone that crossed his path with PvP intentions could potentially become his prey.

Since the trio was moving in the same direction as he was, he slowly caught up with them and passed them by, spearing them but a glance.

“Hey!” a demoness called to him before he could take another couple of steps. “Are you alone? Wanna join us?”

If the trio could see his face, they would’ve probably be confused by regret that crossed it. Raven had Lighting Copy and a few other skills at the ready, but the three players turned out to be not worth his time.

He contained a sigh of disappointment and picked up his pace, soon leaving them far behind.

“Thanks, but no.”

“Did you see his arm? Weird, right?” one of the guys asked, shouldered his sword, and stared in the direction the loner had disappeared to. “Is that a skin or some passive skill?”

“Whatever it was, it looked dope,” the other guy commented. Seeing the surprise on the face of his friend next to him, he added: “What’s the matter?”

“I’ve just checked the forums. One of the Lions described the player who recently attacked them as White Raven. There’s even a video of him summoning his pet.”

“Raven?!” both guys exclaimed. They knew well what kind of a player Raven was. “What did they write about him?”

“They promise a reward for his death. Them and other clans.”

“A reward? Wait. You don’t think we can kill him, do you?”

“Ahahaha!” The demoness laughed at hearing such a stupid question. She knew her group’s strength, and she harbored no illusions that they were strong enough to kill someone like Raven. “No, we can’t. But we can sell info on his whereabouts.”

“How?” one of the guys asked doubtfully. “I’d rather not mess with him.”

“He’ll never know. And we’ll get twenty Spheres.” She shrugged and looked at her friends. After hesitating for a while, they accepted her offer. Easy money was easy money.

“Okay. But let’s hurry or someone might claim them first.”

***

Raven moved on, encountering more groups of at least two players. Once he even saw a group of thirty people.

At some point, his surroundings became hostile. He was being attacked by more and more players, both by loners and groups. And although he couldn’t but commend their courage, he still killed them.

He would’ve probably remained unaware of why they were attacking him if it weren’t for Terror’s calling him to tell him about the reward. He was wanted, too, but the main target was Raven. The Lions’ Den’s leaders were so desperate to find and punish him that they had promised a reward not for his head only, but also for information on his whereabouts.

Who would think they’d get so pissed off? I wonder what got their panties in a twist... Losing their Spheres or getting killed by just two players? And Kharses. But it doesn’t count. I won’t get any farming or grinding done until I get rid of them... Well, if they’re so desperate to push their luck, who I am to get in their way?

He collected even more Influence Spheres by sending his coordinates anonymously to the bounty offeror. And when someone came to confirm them, he took theirs, too.

However, several failed attempts later, they fixed this by no longer sending out those players who had Spheres in their inventory. Fortunately, the bounty hunters who didn’t belong to any of the clans remained just as eager to kill him. The forums buzzed with rumors that the rogue was already carrying between five and seven thousand Influence Spheres, which made the bounty reward rise by one thousand.

Seven hours later, thanks to the unbridled enthusiasm of his “fans,” Raven’s inventory was two thousand one hundred and six Spheres richer. However, collecting them in this manner was growing more and more annoying as more and more players kept coming after him. If they continued to grow in numbers, someone would eventually succeed in killing him. Not even he could go against an army on his own.

Profiting from his reckless scheme, Raven stopped leaking his coordinates and used Stealth to change his course, wandering into some mysterious location.

In this event, players got no bonuses for discovering new places or becoming the first ones to visit a specific location. The message just said they had discovered a new area — or just the location’s name if they weren’t the first player to discover it.

You have discovered the Starving Thing’s Well.

He got this message when he came upon a glade with giant blocks of snow-white marble scattered all over it.

Climbing one of them, he saw the mentioned well atop an elevated platform. There was nothing special about it except its size of nine feet in diameter. But as he set off toward it, he heard a barely intelligible whisper. The closer he came, the better he could hear the eerie voice.

The whisperer seemed to move around, being close and far away at the same time. The voice was gaining new tones, timbres, and pitches, their numbers rising and rising until Raven began to feel like they’d drive him insane.

Avoiding the risk of coming too close on foot, he used Wings to soar over the well and peek in. He saw nothing but impenetrable darkness that seemed to be breathing. For a couple of seconds, nothing happened. And then all the voices stopped, only for the deafening silence to be disrupted by a shriek — and the darkness to be illuminated by dozens of red spheres.

The eyes were round, each the size of a serving plate, with black pupils and some signs around it. As they stared at Raven, he felt the world around him fade, losing its colors.

You have been trapped by the well’s owner.

Every minute you will lose 100 Influence Spheres.

Now I see what got this place its weird name.

Instead of panicking, he looked around for a way out. Since the monster was strong, the reward for killing it had to be considerable.

Taking out an AoE scroll, he summoned a large icicle above the well. Once it formed, it plummeted into the inky depths with a squish.

Another shriek came. This time, the monster sounded angry.

The well’s owner has been weakened.

Every minute you will lose 97 Influence Spheres.

What? Hardly any damage from a Gold-rank scroll? Still in the air, Raven pondered over why the mob appeared to be that resistant to such a powerful spell... just as the said mob moved.

The ground trembled to tentacles rising from the well, a dark mass pulling after them with a rumble.

Raven whistled at how huge and ugly the mob was. Its entire body was covered in eyes that darted in all directions, yet somehow staying focused on him.

“Damn, so many eyes and it still can’t see shit.” Raven shook his head and summoned Kharses with a wave of his hand. “I have a friend as big as you. I hope you two will have fun.”

Kharses dashed at the mob right away. If it weren’t for the loss of Influence Spheres, Raven would’ve loved to stay and watch this clash of titans. But he had to find a way out of the trap. Observing the two mobs, he seemed to notice a pattern.

It was the monster’s eyes. He wasn’t sure if there were exactly one hundred of them, but when a few of them were destroyed, he received a message that the monster had been weakened. It was probably the eyes that supported the magic. So as long at least one of them was open, he’d remain trapped.

He took out his crossbow and began to shoot at the mob. His task was clear, but not at all simple as the eyes kept hiding inside the dark ball of the monster’s body, avoiding his attacks.

Kharses was having trouble with the mob transforming its limbs at will. Moreover, the beast’s body absorbed much of the physical damage, squirting darkness back into Kharses’s body where it gnawed at its bones from inside, slowly eating them away.

With a loud crunch, two of Kharses’s ribs were covered with a web of cracks and shattered. It growled with pain.

Feeling that something was wrong, Raven checked the pet’s HP and was startled to see that this attack took about ten percent of it.

Is this thing THAT strong?!

The well’s owner has been weakened.

Every minute you will lose 69 Influence Spheres.

Raven got this message after destroying another eye. It was already three minutes since he was captured, and he regretted walking here. No longer sure about the lavish reward, he promised himself to never ever engage in a fight like this one unless he knew it’d be worth it.

To make things even worse, his crossbow was a bad choice of weapon against this particular mob as its eyes could see the approaching bolt and avoid it. The only thing that worked was Metal Rain, but its cooldown was too long.

METAL RAIN

Rank: Regular

Active skill: Apprentice (12.07%)

Description: Shoots 25 crossbow bolts at once.

Cooldown: 3 minutes and 45 seconds

He had already used Lightning Copy, Torture, Soul Seizer (that hadn’t worked at all, probably because of the mob being immune to something), and many other handy skills, but only destroyed less than a half of the eyes. Because of Wings’ short duration, he had to mostly attack from the ground where he was vulnerable.

“I’d better use that.”

He hid his crossbow and, checking how many Influence Points he had, dashed for the well, his body transforming into the Golden Dragon. Through the sounds of the battle and the roar of the two giants, came his soft voice.

“Leap. Deadly Storm of Storms.”

BOOM!

A series of attacks came upon the mob, distracting it from Kharses.

Clone.

Raven ran around, gnawing at the mob’s flesh, leaping, rolling over, and otherwise dodging the tentacles, piercing every eye that wasn’t quick enough to escape his blade.

As he jumped, a tentacle swished through the air under his feet, but once he landed onto the dark surface, another gripped him around the ankle, anchoring him to the spot.

A series of attacks from behind reduced his HP by over thirty percent before he broke free. Sliding down, he stuck his dagger into the inky flesh to break his fall and ran, leaving the blade in. As he drew a long crimson line in the monster’s body, he heard more and more messages drop in.

The well’s owner has been weakened.

...

The mob was down on the ground, panting, bleeding, and drained of strength, hiding its only surviving eye as Kharses was trying to raise its massive body.

Deadly Storm of Swords had already expired. Raven knew that the mob would stay alive until its last eye was destroyed. That was what Kharses was trying to do: expose the last one hiding on the creature’s stomach.

Five minutes later, the mob was dead — and Raven was really angry with the system.

“TEN?! TEN SPHERES? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?” he screamed into the sky.

Had he encountered this mob later, after it had stolen some Influence Spheres from other players, the reward would’ve been greater. But Raven was the first one to discover this location, so his hard work was rewarded meagerly.

“Never. Never ever again. Fuck this shit.”

Cursing his bad luck, Raven began to search the location, not really hoping to discover anything valuable. But once he reached the bottom of the well, his anger and resentment were gone.

What he saw was a familiar-looking chest covered with diamond dust and painted with mysterious runes. His heart raced as he saw the number of keyholes.

Ten.

He put his hand onto the lid without trying to open the chest and used Identification.

To open this chest you need 10 Diamond Keys (level 10).