Nightmare Realm Summoner

Edward wasted no time in heading out of the room to execute Alex’s request. He returned only a few minutes after he’d left, arrival marked with what was quickly becoming his signature knock. The butler stepped into the room the moment after Alex called out permission to do so.

“Room 4 has accepted your request,” Edward said. “Are you prepared to go now? If more than five minutes pass before you make a decision, you will have to request the meeting a second time.”

Must be to keep people from waiting to show up and trying to surprise or throw off the other group. That or someone somehow found a different way to abuse it in the past. Whatever. Hardly matters.

“Now works,” Alex said. “Take me, please.”

“As you will. Please follow me. Do not dally or attempt to head in the opposite direction. Any failure to follow instructions whilst we are outside of your room may result in consequences levied against your entire room by Bleak Night.”

Jeez. They seriously run a tight ship. But when you’re working with Outworlders… I don’t blame them. These guys are slippery snakes. Hell, their whole presence on 274-50 in the first place is entirely enabled by a loophole. One that the System clearly allows, but a loophole all the same.

“Sure thing,” Alex said. He adjusted his bone mask. “You’ll have no trouble from me. Lead the way.”

Edward didn’t say another word. He turned on his heel and started into the darkness. Alex hurried after him, stepping out from the room and getting his first look of the rest of Bleak Night’s auction house. It was surprisingly plain. All that greeted him was a long cobbled hallway. It was exactly like the one that one might have found in an old castle.

Compared to everything else that Alex had seen since the System’s arrival, it really wasn’t anything to write home about. He was actually somewhat disappointed.

The thud of the door closing at his back snapped him back into motion. He took several loping steps to catch back up with Edward. The butler hadn’t even slowed for a moment to check if Alex had been keeping up with him. It seemed Bleak Night weren’t really all that worried about someone trying to sneak off.

There wasn’t anywhere to sneak in the first place. The hall didn’t seem to have an end in either direction. It just looped slightly to the left. It likely just ran in a circle around the entire auction house, connecting all the rooms. There weren’t any doors in the walls on this side, either. All that rose on either side of him was plain stone.

Edward came to an abrupt halt after just a few seconds of his brisk walking.

“We have arrived,” Edward said. “Please prepare yourself.”

Then he raised his hand and rapped his knuckles against plain stone. Several seconds passed. Then a shimmering outline formed upon the rock. A doorway traced into being, and Edward pushed it open in a smooth motion, letting light spill into the hall from the room beyond.

Alex stepped into the light.

The room was laid out exactly like the one that Claire and the others were still in. A long table before a rectangular window overlooking the auction platform. Seated at the table were 5 people. Three of them had their backs to Alex and were focused on the auction below.

They wore a mixture of a few armor pieces and strikingly familiar clothes. There was something very odd about seeing a graphic t-shirt for some metal band he’d never heard of combined with spiked metal greaves. Whoever had outfitted the group clearly wasn’t much of a fashion designer.

The other two people at the table had turned their chairs to face away from the auction and were looking right at Alex. The first was a blonde woman in a crop-top and jeans with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She had two curved swords leaned against her thighs, with her hands resting on their hilts idly. She couldn’t have been much older than Alex.

If not for the weapons and the hard look in her eyes, she would have looked right at home at any college in the country.

And seated beside her was a tall, thin man clad in nothing but a ragged loincloth that was far too small for him. His hair didn’t look like it had seen a brush in about a month and stuck out in every odd direction. He had about a single dagger in his hand so small that it looked like it would have lost a fight to a butter knife. The thin man’s attention was completely focused on the laughably small weapon to the point where it didn’t even seem like he’d noticed that someone had entered the room.

At the sight of him, Alex nearly tripped over his own feet. It wasn’t just the absolute stark contract of walking in on a borderline naked man surrounded by relatively normal people.

It was that he’d seen this particular mostly-naked man before.

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I’ll be. This has to be TryFinger. I’d recognize that silhouette anywhere. He was on the Local Leaderboard, wasn’t he? Toward the bottom. Looks like things have been working out pretty damn well for him. I’m actually kind of proud that the Outworlders aren’t crushing everyone from 274-50… even if my fellow earthlings look deranged.

“Pleasure,” Alex said, inclining his head in greeting as the door closed behind him. “Thanks for accepting our conversation request. I know it seemed quite sudden.”

“Spare us the bullshit,” the woman said in a sharp tone. “You can tell Thorn and his dickhead cronies that they aren’t getting shit, and they’ll have to get in line to kiss my ass. They’re welcome to come try and take it by force if they want to.”

Whoa. Looks like Thorn’s negotiations here really didn’t go at all how he was hoping them to. Tough luck, bud.

“I’m not with Thorn,” Alex said with a small laugh. “He’s certainly not my ally.”

“Right,” the woman said. “The last ones said the same thing. We’re not dense, you know. The only reason we accepted your request to speak was so we could tell you where to stick it. We aren’t doing business with Outworlders. You can all rot in a ditch, you planet-thieving bastards. I’ve seen what happens to people that work with you. We all have. We aren’t interested. So if you want to take that point up with us, feel free to find us outside of the Auction House. You can follow the trail of corpses we left in our wake.”

Well, damn. Definitely no lost love for the Outworlders here. She seems to hate them even more than we do. Should I just reveal my identity? I don’t think this will go anywhere if I don’t.

“Look,” Alex said, raising his hands in what he hoped to be a placating manner. “I think you might find that we’re more aligned than you believe. I’m not with Thorn. At all. It’s more the opposite. I’m—”

“No fuckin’ way,” the thin man said, rising from his chair and thrusting his finger toward Alex as his eyes lit up. He’d finally looked up from his dagger. “It’s you!”

Both Alex and the blonde woman glanced to him.

“What?” the woman asked. “You know this guy?”

“Dude,” TryFinger said with a laugh. “No shot. Who would have thought we’d run into each other here, of all places? But maybe its a bit more expected than I would have thought. Where else?”

“Spit it out,” the woman exclaimed in exasperation. “If you know they guy, why didn’t you say something earlier?”

“I was contemplating,” TryFinger replied. “We saw each other at the Nexus Point. He was pretty high up there on the Local Leaderboard… and then he went and killed the first Region Boss as well. This is Ash.”

Alex blinked.

What? Even if he used the Looking Glass on me during the Local Leaderboard to identify what I look like, I’m wearing a mask and different clothes. There’s no way he’s got enough information to make that deduction… and my information should be hidden as well.

But there was no point denying it. Alex wasn’t exactly trying to keep his presence here secret anyway.

“TryFinger,” he said with a nod. “Glad to see you’re doing well. How the hell did you know it was me, though?”

“Movement patterns, man,” TryFinger replied, waving his hand dismissively. “Not to mention build and the fact that nobody else would be wearing a suit in the middle of an apocalypse.”

“This is a tux.”

“The fact you know the difference between them makes it even worse,” TryFinger informed him. “It’s good to see another Nativeworlder make it this far. The Outworlders are going to be pissed. We took two of their seats.”

“Wait,” the woman said with a frown. “How do you know he’s a Nativeworlder? Outworlders could have been present at the Local Leaderboards. We don’t know what they’re capable of. And Earth isn’t — wasn’t — the only world with suits. They could exist elsewhere.”

TryFinger glanced at her, his brow furrowing as if that was the dumbest question he’d ever heard. And though it wouldn’t have helped his case very much, Alex couldn’t help agree with her. TryFinger had made a pretty big assumption seemingly out of nowhere.

“Isn’t it obvious?” TryFinger asked.

“No. It isn’t.”

TryFinger sighed. Then he looked back at Alex. “You every play Dark Souls 4, man?”

“There isn’t a 4th. Not as far as I know. Stopped with 3.”

TryFinger looked back at his ally. “There you go, Tiff. Solved.”

“How does that solve anything?” Tiff asked.

“Why would an Outworlder know shit about anything in our world? Especially such a small detail?” TryFinger asked. “That’s proof enough, even if you don’t trust my senses.”

Tiff’s scowl lessened slightly. She looked back to Alex. “You’re a Nativeworlder? Seriously?”

“Yes,” Alex said. “Though, if I’m completely real with you, I have absolutely no idea how TryFinger managed to figure that out.”

Tiff snorted. “Yeah. You and the rest of us. Ash… hold on. Aren’t you really high up on the wealth leaderboard? How in the world did you get there?”

Alex scratched the back of his head. Anyone who had glanced at the Leaderboards at all would be able to easily guess exactly what had happened. Lying here would only make him look suspicious. “Killed the River King. He was a bastard. I promise you, he had it coming.”

“Like we guessed,” Tiff muttered. She squinted at Alex for a second longer. Then she nodded. “Fine. Sorry about the earlier stuff. Fucking Outworlders.”

“Don’t even apologize,” Alex replied. “I get the feeling the anger is justified. We aren’t much a fan of them either.”

“So what brought you here?” Tiff asked. “You’ve clearly spoken with Thorn.”

“Yeah. He swung by our room, but I don’t think he realized we’re Nativeworlders,” Alex replied with a shrug. “And it sounded like he was hoping we might be able to get you to sell us some fancy artifact you’ve got.”

Tiff’s eyes narrowed. “I see. So you’re here for—”

“Nope,” Alex said.

She paused for a moment. “What?”

“We don’t want your artifact thing,” Alex said. “Doesn’t sound like you’re looking to sell in the first place. We’re not trying to start a fight. In fact, I’m here for the opposite.”

“That so?” Tiff asked. “What exactly is it that you are here for, then?”

“We want to help you,” Alex replied. “After all, I’d say we’re on the same side. And I figured I’d start with a show of good will. If you want to screw Thorn over… I can tell you how.”

Both Tiff and TryFinger looked at Alex with a considerable amount of interest.

“How?” TryFinger asked.

“There’s an item he wants badly enough that he gave us a favor to keep us out of the bidding for it,” Alex replied. A grin split his lips. “But if you’ve got the funds to try to steal it from them… well, nothing we promised included keeping any information to ourselves.”