GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 7: []The Hostage Toll, The Vanguard

The Sunken Catacombs offered no mercy. Deep within the primary transit artery of the labyrinth, the rhythmic and desperate clang of metal striking stone echoed like a frantic heartbeat.

Sia Vance was losing ground.

Her silver-white hair was normally tied back in a neat ponytail. Right now it was matted with sweat and grime, clinging to the sides of her pale face.

Her silver-grey eyes darted back and forth to track the shifting shadows that seemed to bleed out of the cavern walls.

She gripped the handles of her heavy iron tower shield until her knuckles turned completely white. The muscles in her forearms burned with an agonizing buildup of lactic acid.

"Hold the formation!" Sia shouted. Her voice carried a sharp military cadence despite the exhaustion threatening to crack it.

"Do not break the line! Casters, I need suppressing fire on the left flank!"

"Shut up and just block them, Vance!" a panicked aristocratic voice shrieked from behind her.

Sia gritted her teeth and absorbed the impact of a massive shadowy claw that slammed into the center of her shield.

The kinetic force traveled up her arms, rattling her teeth and forcing her boots to slide backward across the slick cobblestone. She left twin grooves in the dirt.

Behind her cowered a party of six students from the Sovereign Military Academy. They were dressed in high-tier pristine starter gear funded by their wealthy families.

They had gleaming chainmail, intricately carved staves, and polished broadswords. Yet for all their expensive equipment, they were utterly useless.

When the pack of Level 12 Shadowstalkers had ambushed them, the so-called elite vanguards had broken rank and fled.

They left Sia, a commoner recruited for her defensive stats, to act as the sole barrier between them and a violent agonizing death penalty.

Another Shadowstalker materialized from the ceiling and dropped like a guillotine blade.

Sia raised her shield and angled it perfectly to deflect the creature’s obsidian claws.

The beast hissed a terrible sound like tearing silk as it bounced off the iron surface.

But there were simply too many of them.

Six Shadowstalkers circled her. Their forms blurred in and out of the bioluminescent moss light, waiting for her stamina bar to inevitably reach zero.

"My mana is empty!" one of the elite mages wailed. He dropped his staff and clutched his head in despair.

"We’re going to die! We’re going to lose a whole level! My father will kill me if I fall off the leaderboards!"

Sia ignored the pathetic display. She took a deep breath as her silver eyes narrowed.

’I am the shield. I will not break!’ Sia thought.

But the cold hard mathematics of the game interface floating in the corner of her vision told a different story.

Her stamina was at nine percent. Her health was steadily chipping away from the ambient dark magic the beasts radiated.

In exactly forty seconds, her guard would break and the monsters would tear through the backline.

She braced herself for the end.

"Your footing is too wide." A calm flat voice echoed through the cavern.

The sound cut through the chaos like a scalpel. Sia gasped and risked a fraction of a second to glance to her right.

Standing at the edge of the cavern was a tall young man with pitch-black hair and deep piercing purple eyes. He was casually leaning against a stalagmite.

He wore a coarse cheap brown commoner’s tunic. He was holding a bizarre pitch-black dagger that seemed to absorb the dim light around it.

He wasn’t in a combat stance. He wasn’t radiating an aura of intimidation. He simply stood there watching them with the mild detached interest of a scientist observing ants in a glass farm.

"Who the hell are you?!" the aristocratic mage screamed. His voice pitched into a hysterical octave.

"Don’t just stand there, you peasant! Draw aggro! Save us!"

Vahn Ryker didn’t even blink at the insult. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

His eyes flicked from the screaming mage to the six Shadowstalkers and finally to Sia.

He noted the heavy dent in her shield, the trembling of her arms, and the steadfast unyielding determination in her silver-grey eyes.

She was an optimal asset burdened by highly defective dead weight.

"I am under no obligation to intervene," Vahn stated. His voice was devoid of any inflection.

He pushed himself off the stalagmite and kept his posture perfectly relaxed.

"You trespassed into a high-level zone without adequate spatial awareness or proper aggro management. Statistically speaking, your demise is entirely your own fault."

"Are you insane?!" another student yelled. He was a heavily armored knight who was currently hiding behind a rock.

"We are affiliated with the Valerius family! If you let us die, they will hunt you down and wipe your account from the servers! Protect us, right now!"

Vahn let out a soft mechanical sigh. He tapped the flat of his Soul-Bound Shadow Blade against his thigh.

"Threats don’t work without leverage." Then pause. "My rate is one million credits."

Sia grunted as a Shadowstalker lunged. She was forced to drop to one knee to maintain her center of gravity.

"If you can fight," she managed to say between heavy ragged breaths, her military-grade tone returning. "I request tactical assistance! I cannot hold the perimeter for much longer!"

Vahn looked at her.

"I can clear this room in approximately four seconds. But my services require compensation. The toll is one million credits. Real-world currency transferred via the system’s binding contract interface."

A stunned silence fell over the cavern. It was broken only by the snarling of the Shadowstalkers.

"One million credits?!" the elite mage shrieked. His face turned purple with absolute rage.

"For a Level 12 mob pack? You’re trying to extort us! That is extortion! I could hire a whole mercenary guild for a fraction of that price!"

"Then I suggest you call them," Vahn said flatly.

Without another word, Vahn turned his back on the group. He didn’t hesitate.

He didn’t look back to see if they were bluffing. He simply began walking back into the dark tunnels. His footsteps were silent against the damp stone.

"Wait!" Sia cried out.

Her shield cracked loudly as two Shadowstalkers struck it simultaneously. The iron buckled inward and sent a shockwave of pain up her shoulders.

Her stamina bar hit three percent. The monsters were preparing for a synchronized strike. It was over.

"We’ll pay! We’ll pay it, you absolute psycho!" the mage screamed. Tears of sheer panic streamed down his face as the shadows loomed over him. "Just kill them!"

Vahn stopped. He didn’t turn around immediately. He opened his system interface with a flick of his wrist.

A glowing golden contract materialized in the air. It instantly multiplied and shot toward the six wealthy students.

The system recognized real-world currency bindings. It was a feature highly utilized by the corporate guilds.

"Acknowledge the prompt," Vahn commanded without looking at them.

The students frantically slammed their hands against the holographic ACCEPT buttons.

The system chimed in Vahn’s ear. It confirmed the secure transfer of one million credits into his external untraceable account.

Vahn turned around. His deep purple eyes seemed to catch the faint ambient light and glowed with an intense calculated azure hue.

The corners of his mouth twitched downward. The transaction was complete. It was time to clear the board.

"Contract validated," Vahn said quietly. "Target acquired."

He didn’t rush forward like a heroic knight. He merely shifted his weight.

The air around him seemed to warp and compress.

Sia Vance watched through the narrow viewing slit of her tower shield. Her silver eyes widened in absolute disbelief.

One moment, the strange man in the peasant tunic was standing thirty meters away. The next moment, the space between them simply ceased to exist.