Chapter 20: From Poverty, Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families by Mark Fellowes – Part 1

When Aaron returned from the real world, the first thing he did was meet up with his friends at the Hunter’s Association and then explained to them what he had learned. Though Lucius and Riley were a bit skeptical of the story, ultimately, they concluded that they didn’t have much choice except to trust Virgil. With his friends on board, Aaron contacted Virgil and a meet-up was arranged.

About a minute after the message was sent, Virgil entered through the over-sized doors leading to Hunter’s Association and immediately made a beeline towards Aaron.

“Hello friends, hello,” Virgil said merrily upon his approach to the trio. “Lucius, Riley; nice to finally meet you. I’m Virgil, at your service,” he said before taking a bow.

“Hello,” Lucius and Riley said together.

“Wow, that was fast,” Aaron remarked.

“Portals, remember? And time is of the essence,” said Virgil. “Are you ready?”

Aaron looked at his old friends and they both nodded.

“Yeah, we’re ready,” Aaron confirmed.

“All right, then hold on to a part of me,” said Virgil. “Don’t be shy; any part will do. Well, maybe a little shy. Don’t touch me anywhere you wouldn’t touch a dog.”

“Wow,” said Lucius as he held Virgil’s left hand while Riley took a hold of Virgil’s right arm and giggled.

“Okay! Everyone ready?” Virgil asked.

“Yeah,” said Lucius.

“Mhmm!” uttered Riley.

Aaron walked until he was facing Virgil. Then, he placed his hand on Virgil’s right shoulder, looked the man in the eye and said, “I’m ready.”

And just like that, the 4 travelers instantaneously arrived at the Canto Mountains.

The Canto Mountains was a region dominated by mountain chains, stretching from Mt. Paradiso, the tallest mountain in the front to Mt. Inferno, the shortest mountain in the back. Currently, everyone was standing at the foot of Mt. Paradiso but even from there, strong winds and snow billowed wildly, delivering a chilly reminder about nature’s might. Ordinarily, it would’ve been very difficult to reach from New Haven as it would’ve required a 4 hour train ride but that wasn’t a problem with Virgil around.

“This is as far as we can go you with a portal!” Virgil yelled through the wind and the snow. “We’ll have to walk from here! Don’t worry; you don’t need to climb any mountains! We just need to walk along the trail until we reach the end – the shortest one is Mt. Inferno! Understand!?”

“Okay!” Aaron shouted. “Lead the way!”

The winding path leading to Mt. Inferno was cold and covered with snow. Trudging through it wasn’t exactly easy but it wasn’t too difficult either. For whatever reason, the Canto Mountains seemed to always be under assault by wind and snow, even during summer. After about 20 minutes of walking, Virgil stopped and pointed at what appeared to be Mt. Inferno.

“We have to go off the trail and walk along the mountain!” Virgil shouted before he led the way.

“Ow!” Riley yelped as she followed from behind.

“You all right!?” Aaron asked as he helped her up.

“Yeah! I just tripped over my own foot!” Riley replied.

“How did you manage to do that!?” Lucius remarked.

“I don’t know; I guess I’m just built different! One exaflop operations a second on only 20 watts of power and I can’t walk right!” yelled Riley.

Aaron looked like something had just bit him.

“What did you just say!?” Aaron asked.

“I said “One exaflop operations a second on only 20 watts of power and I can’t walk right!”! An exoflop is like, a billion billions (1 followed by 18 zeroes)! I’m saying I’m a moron!” Riley replied.

“...Oh,” Aaron remarked meekly and then trotted on.

Going off trail proved to be more difficult but not impossible and soon, everyone had made their way around a good portion of the mountain. Then, they discovered a cave from which an ominous incandescent flicker emanated.

“All right, this is as far as I can take you!” Virgil shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. “Only 1 party can enter at a time! Once you guys go in, that’s it, you’re on your own. You’ll have to make it out of the 9 rings by yourselves!”

“What happens if you touch the touchstone, reset your spawn point there, and then can’t make it out!?” Aaron asked.

“See, that’s the problem!” Virgil replied. “That’s why they stopped adding touchstones!”

“So if we can’t make it out, we’re just going to die repeatedly!?” Riley asked.

“The definition of hell, right!?” Virgil replied with a smile.

“This balance sucks!” yelled Lucius.

“Don’t worry; the dungeon will automatically kick you out after you die 10 times!” Virgil explained. “You won’t be able to take any of your loot with you, but you won’t be trapped forever!”

“So we’ll need to manage our resources!” yelled Lucius.

“Exactly!” Virgil shouted. “You need enough in the tank to make it up the 9 rings after you farm the Betrayer and the Betrayer only gets stronger! That’s what makes this dungeon hard! The closest settlement where you can restock is Collingwood, a few kilometers from the base of Mt. Paradiso! That’s going to be your circuit! It should already be on your map! Understand!?”

“Thank you!” Aaron cried out in appreciation while the others followed suit after.

“You’re welcome!” Virgil yelled. “Good luck!”

And with that, Virgil portaled out and disappeared.

“Okay! Let’s do this!” Aaron shouted as he made his way into the cave.

The 9 rings of Mt. Inferno were named this because a singular but massive helix staircase ran across 9 different floors with the only way between floors being through that staircase. While on that staircase, adventurers would come under attack by various demons, the names of which weren’t important. The point is, it was a constant battle going to and fro.

Fortunately for the trio, the encounters proved to be tolerable, not much more difficult to defeat than the monsters spawning outside the fields of New Haven. It would’ve been a lot harder had Riley not leveled up the day prior and just upgraded her gear today but with the difference in equipment and base stats, it was easy going.

The trio had only used about 10% of their healing supplies when they arrived at the 9th ring and the entrance of the glacial lake. The touchstone was a seemingly unimportant piece of black obsidian which jutted out of the ground. It looked just like any other background asset – there were no words or inscriptions that indicated that it was important in any way. But the trio knew what it was and after the trio touched it, a strong gust of wind reached out struck them from across the lake. That’s when they saw it – the Betrayer.

The Betrayer was a colossal monster that seemed to span 5-stories in the air. It was frozen in the middle of the lake from the waist down. Possessing both human and animal-like qualities, the monster exhibited a torso and arms that resembled that of a muscular man but covered in jet-black coat of fur. A great pair of giant, leathery wings flapped helplessly from its back. It’s head resembled that of a snarling lion, only with a black mane and red, glowing eyes.

“Okay, I’m not sure we can beat that,” said Riley.

“Virgil wouldn’t bring us here if we couldn’t beat it,” said Aaron.

“Don’t worry; size isn’t everything,” said Lucius.

“I want to believe that too but it has to matter at some point,” said Riley.

“Why don’t you just try shooting it?” Aaron asked.

“All right,” Riley replied nonchalantly, just before she unloaded a round from her anti-material rifle which struck the Betrayer straight between the eyes.

With a great, big, snarl, the Betrayer went down and started disintegrating before leaving a variety of drops and a Black Dahlia. The amount of EXP the Betrayer left was only 10 points, virtually non-existent and almost a greater insult than getting nothing at all. The amount of Zeni was appreciable though.

“Hmm. Guess I was wrong,” said Riley before she started combing though the loot.

“Well that was the easy part. It gets stronger with every defeat, remember?” said Aaron.

“I memba,” said Riley.

“All right. Let’s reset and do it again,” said Lucius as he started back towards the touchstone.

And so, they repeated the exercise and the cycle continued.

Though the battles began to take progressively longer, the first 15 rounds with the Betrayer proved easy to handle but it got noticeably more difficult, starting from a level 4 Betrayer. From level 5 onward, Aaron began to take real damage and healing became a problem. By the time it became a level 6 Betrayer, Aaron started taking durability damage on his armor.

At the conclusion of their 18th bout, Aaron took stock of the situation and did an inventory. Most of their heals had been consumed and his armor was now dangerously in the red. The trio only had 4 more DIY kits in total so now they were down to 3. Thankfully, the gacha gods were kind and Aaron’s armor was restored to 90%.

Realizing that now was a good stopping point, Aaron said, “We should probably head back,” and everyone else concurred.

The trio made their way up the 9 rings without much problem and so, ended their first foray into Mt. Inferno.