They had been drifting down the river for nearly an hour now, clinging to the massive log as the current pulled them farther from the ruins. Blood, soot, and exhaustion clung to their bodies like second skin.

The orcs hadn't followed. They'd fallen back the moment the Midnight Warden appeared.

Luke kept his gaze locked on the distant shoreline, where the remnants of a ruined city gave way to the dark sprawl of forest. Silence hung over them—heavy, loaded, inescapable.

"How did you know the orcs weren't with the Midnight Warden?" Allison asked, breaking the quiet.

"If they were, they wouldn't have backed off from the Wild Zone at night. They'd be out there, walking around like it was safe ground, right?"

"You're insane, Luke."

They laughed—short, dry. The first laugh since they'd fallen into that hellish part of the forest.

"There were too many Orc Captains," Luke said, his tone shifting as his thoughts returned to what they'd just survived.

"Yeah... at least twenty. And all those mindless brutes following them… made it feel more like a nightmare than a battle."

Luke exhaled slowly, the weight of it all catching up. "I get it now. Why some people have been stuck here for eight years."

Allison was quiet for a beat. Then she said, "Proportionally speaking... it's not that different."

"What do you mean?"

"The city and the forest around the Safe Zone are crawling with monsters—beasts, insects, giant freaks. All ruled by the Beast Lord. The difference is, they don't have structure. No tactics. That's why seeing the orcs like that, organized, marching... it felt wrong."

Luke nodded slowly. That actually made a lot of sense.

"How many orcs do you think there are? A thousand, maybe? Same with humans. But we're stronger. We can reach the level of an Orc Captain—go beyond it, even. Most of them are mindless."

She stared forward, expression unreadable. "Maybe fifty Captains. A few Generals... or maybe just that one. And at the top, the Orc Lord. It seems impossible when you see their army moving, but when you break it down... it's not."

Luke let that sink in. It was a good way to look at it. To keep fear from sinking its claws in too deep.

"I'm not staying in this tutorial," Allison said, lowering her head. "I need to go back to Earth. I'm still looking for something…"

The cliff ahead was lower now. Scalable. But none of them moved. The river was still carrying them farther away from orc territory—and that was worth more than haste.

Luke glanced over his shoulder, back toward the place they'd barely escaped.

"So... is a Midnight Warden stronger than an Orc General? Or does it just not care about fighting them?"

That second option didn't sit right. The Warden had butchered the orcs. No way there was some non-aggression pact.

"Midnight Wardens function like machines," Allison said.

"Yeah. I noticed that too. They're smart—but bound to a pattern. They have a purpose. Anything that gets in the way, they kill it. Then they return to their point of origin, like nothing happened."

"And those alarm crystals in the fortress…" she added.

"If we hadn't activated that thing, we could've bumped into the crystals when we really needed stealth. At least now we know that place is rigged."

Charlie shifted on the log and pointed to the cliffside on the right.

They turned—and froze.

"...Ropes," Allison whispered.

At the top of the cliff, several ropes hung down the rock face, swaying gently with the wind.

"Someone's already been through here," she muttered. "Or... orcs?"

The ropes were anchored at a bend in the river, where the current slowed to a gentle crawl.

Luke dismissed Charlie back into his soul with a thought. Then he and Allison slipped into the water and swam toward the ropes.

They were solid, tightly fastened at the top.

Gripping them, they began the climb up the cliff wall—each pull of muscle dragging them away from the chaos they'd escaped.

When they reached the top, they found themselves back in the ruined city—outside orc territory at last.

Relief hit them like a wave.

But neither lowered their guard.

It was still night.

And they knew what patrolled this place.

Midnight Wardens.

With no other option, they crept through the shadowed streets, sticking to the dark, moving with practiced stealth. Eventually, they ducked into a stone house, slipping through a half-shattered doorway.

And then they heard it.

The echo.

Metal footsteps.

Slow. Deliberate. Measured.

A Warden.

They pressed themselves into the rubble, barely breathing, hearts pounding in sync with each step echoing just beyond the wall. The sound lingered... then faded.

Only after silence returned did they dare move again.

They searched the house, eventually finding a narrow stairway that led to a basement. Down there, through a small, grime-smeared window, they could just barely see the empty street outside the city's edge. It was a decent vantage point. Safe. Hidden.

"We've got no choice," Allison muttered as she sat down. "We wait for sunrise."

Her stomach growled softly.

Luke sat beside her, touching the pendant at his chest. With a small shimmer, he pulled a handful of preserved fruits from his inventory.

"Hungry?"

"M-Maybe a little..." she said, trying to sound stronger than she looked.

They ate in silence, slowly, letting the exhaustion settle.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Luke summoned Princess Charlie once more and stationed her near the stairwell, eyes locked on the path that led back to the upper floor.

***

They spoke in hushed tones, trading ideas, unraveling what they'd pieced together. It was the kind of truth that could upend everything inside the Safe Zone. Which was exactly why they agreed to keep it secret.

"Bartholomew has one of the three mechanisms," Allison whispered. "If he ever finds out someone's figured that out..."

"He'd probably have them killed," Luke said without hesitation.

Revealing the existence of a second mechanism was dangerous. But worse than that... was exposing what Bastion truly was—and what Bartholomew had done to it.

A theory was forming between them. Sharper with each piece they added.

"The Safe Zone only exists because Bartholomew took Bastion," Allison said slowly. "Maybe he activated the mechanism there... and that created the Safe Zone."

They both recalled what Angelica had told them—how Bartholomew and his team had fought a Midnight Warden near Bastion. When the Warden fell, the patrols stopped. Only then were the survivors able to build something lasting.

"If that's true..." Luke began.

"It is true," she cut in. "Remember what I said about risk and reward? This whole place runs like a game."

Luke nodded.

"Three Lords. Each with a central domain. Their forces spread across the Wild Zone, but the strongest ones gather near their core. Probably close to a mechanism."

"But not inside a fortress," he added. "Logically, the Orc Lord should've taken that stronghold. It's the most defensible position. But he didn't. Probably can't. Must be a rule."

Luke didn't base that on theory alone. He had proof.

A special quest. A contract.

The assassination of the Orc Lord.

And he knew exactly where the target was.

Far from the fortress.

Out near the mountains.

"The quest statue in the plaza said there were three mechanisms," Allison said. "And that the path to each was filled with danger... because of the Lords."

She paused, thoughtful.

"It never said the Lords were inside the mechanisms."

"So the fortress really does belong to the Midnight Warden." Luke didn't answer right away. His gaze was distant, thoughts turning like gears. "If the Safe Zone only formed because someone activated the first mechanism... then that territory used to belong to the Midnight Lord? Was he defeated?"

"The Midnight Lord serves the King of this world," Allison said. "He's probably stationed at the castle. Far from the first mechanism."

She paused.

"It makes sense for the first mechanism to be the easiest. It's the beginning of the tutorial. If it wasn't manageable, no one would survive the first year."

Luke nodded slowly.

"They probably designed it that way on purpose—to teach humans how to seize territory by activating mechanisms. But Bartholomew never explained any of that."

"There are two people who might know," Allison added. "Besides him and his inner circle."

Luke turned to her. "Angelica and Paul."

"Exactly. They said they attempted some important mission in the past. What if... it was about the second mechanism?"

"Could be," Luke said. "But Angelica mentioned that everyone she went with died. Only Paul made it back. Whatever happened, it wasn't something they could talk about lightly."

"Was it the orcs? Or maybe they got too close to the second fortress... and a Midnight Warden showed up?"

Then something clicked.

"There's one more person who might know the truth. Someone besides Angelica, Paul, and Bartholomew."

"Who?" Allison asked.

"Marshall. Leader of the Renegades."

Allison fell silent.

"It's possible," she admitted. "That might be the real reason behind his feud with Bartholomew."

"But then... why hasn't Marshall exposed the truth?" she went on, frowning. "Why haven't the Renegades tried to take that second fortress in all these years?"

"The more questions we ask," Luke muttered, "the deeper the hole gets."

He leaned back against the cold wall.

"The real question is... why hasn't Bartholomew ever made a serious attempt to take the second mechanism? If he controlled another fortress, he'd gain more territory—more power."

"But the orcs are still a problem," Allison said. "If he sends too many men out, Bastion's defenses weaken. And with the fortresses so far apart, he'd be stretching his forces thin."

She continued, tone thoughtful.

"If the Renegades attacked while he was spread too thin, they could take one of the bases. And once that happens… they'd have weekly access to the Reward Event chests. Potions, gear, resources—everything falling into the hands of the people who've wanted him dead for years."

Luke nodded. It made sense.

Bartholomew was stuck in a strategic deadlock.

Push too far, and he risks losing everything.

"That's why he recruits new people so aggressively," Luke said. "Why he hoards healers like they're gold."

A constant tug of war.

Bartholomew had far more to lose.

"The problem," Allison said softly, "is that their little cold war is dragging everyone down with them. It's keeping the survivors stuck in this place longer than they should be."

Luke looked at the mission he was carrying — the assassination of Lord Orc — and started connecting all the dots he knew.

Piece by piece, everything was starting to fall into place.

"The territories are guarded by each Lord's elite forces. But the mechanisms..."

He narrowed his eyes.

"They're protected by Midnight Wardens."

A beat passed.

"If the tutorial wanted to make this truly impossible," he said, "they would've put the orcs in control of the fortress. But they didn't. Not even they go near that place."

He exhaled, the truth settling like cold iron in his chest.

Risk and reward.

He thought back to everything he'd learned so far—game logic, territory control, base-building, Safe Zones.

The system had been teaching them all along.

He remembered the mission orbs.

The very first one had asked him to kill ten wild boars. He'd completed it—but not alone. Charlie had helped.

And the orb still counted it.

As long as the final blow was his, the system didn't care.

That was when the idea struck.

Luke pulled an apple from his pendant, then gathered some stones from the floor and arranged them in a loose circle around the fruit. He placed one larger stone at the center of the ring.

"These stones represent the Lord's armies. This one in the middle is the Lord himself. And the apple… that's the fortress with the mechanism," he explained, glancing at Allison.

"Our mission is to activate the mechanisms—to reach the apple. And it looks like the system gave us two different ways to do that. Like the tutorial was built to accommodate different playstyles."

He pointed to the stones surrounding the apple.

"The first path is offense. We push through the orcs, weaken their grip on the region, and carve a path to the fortress."

Luke began removing the stones one by one, clearing the space around the apple.

"By doing that, we isolate the Lord. We force the Midnight Warden to fight without support. Just like Bartholomew did in the past. It becomes a war of territory."

Then he reset the stones into place.

"But there's another way."

Allison remained silent, watching closely.

"The stealth path. Most people think the Wardens patrolling at midnight is a curse. But... what if it's an opportunity?"

She nodded. They'd suspected that before.

"When the Wardens are out, their fortresses are left unguarded. Including the one that holds the mechanism. That gives us a window—midnight to six a.m."

Luke paused.

"If we can make it through orc territory and reach the fortress before the Warden returns... we could activate the mechanism. Without ever having to fight it."

A flicker of possibility passed between them.

"If we succeed," he said, "a new Safe Zone is born. One more foothold for humanity in this world."

Allison took a moment before responding.

"Stealth is the better option. It would save lives. But it would only work with a small group. You can't sneak in with a crowd without drawing attention."

"And then there's the alarm," she added.

Luke lowered his voice.

"Risk and reward…"

"The tutorial planned for that too," she said. "Maybe there's a way to disable the alarm. It triggered when we got close... but what if it can be destroyed beforehand? We'd just have to test it. Observe the pattern. Strike only when the time is right. Like an assassin would."

A small smirk formed at the corner of her lips.

Luke gave a short, dry laugh.

"But those ropes... who put them there? And what really happened to Angelica's group?"

"Too many questions…" Allison murmured.

And it was true.

The closer they got to the truth, the more the questions multiplied.

Then, without warning, a message blinked into view in Luke's vision.

[Special Mission: Artemis Invention has been updated.]

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