The Systems Challenge-Chapter 465: Blade Against the Neck

Jonas sighed as he got up in the morning. He wasn't sure if his being tired at this point was an omen or anything, but he still had a bad feeling about it. Though, he figured that there'd still be enough time to rest a little longer. That by the time he finished eating breakfast that he'd be fully awake, as some mornings it was a slow start.

However, as he stepped outside his room, e felt a blade press lightly against the side of his neck. He didn't see who was holding the blade and so had to assume they were standing behind him.

"Give us the book and this won't turn ugly," Frank said, his voice low and menacing.

Jonas merely sighed in response. If Frank was here, then it was likely that Stanley had either placed others along the path to the dungeon, maybe even at the entrance of the dungeon, or had given up waiting at the entrance of the library. Regardless of which, he was confident that his life was in danger if he didn't either find a way out of this situation or if he capitulated to the demands.

Which in this case, he was pretty confident that the 'book' he mentioned was Blot. Although, Jonas had an idea of what he could do to avoid having to hand Blot over. He just had to hope that Stanley, Frank, and Thomas weren't going to be smart enough to realize the difference.

"Do you have a book to trade for it?" Jonas asked, as if they were having a casual conversation on the matter. As if there wasn't a knife at the side of his neck, feeling ready to slice into his carotid.

"I don't need to trade for it when I have you like this," Frank retorted.

Jonas didn't say anything else. He merely walked down the hall, letting Frank try to keep up on his own. Or not. Jonas wasn't that worried about Frank. Or the blade that he'd been holding at his neck.

"Don't think you're getting away!" Frank snapped as he rushed to catch up to Jonas, making it sound like Jonas was trying to run rather than merely walking.

To Jonas, it felt rather pathetic, Almost like Frank was trying to hard. Although, he did note that while Frank's tone and actions were intimidating on their own, it was clear he didn't yet have the resolve to follow through with his threat.

As it is, if he was really going to hand over Blot, he'd have gone back into his room. Instead, he had an idea that would allow them to keep Blot. At least for a little longer. Which he hoped would be all the time that they'd need.

"You're not getting away from me," Frank declared as he put the blade against Jonas' neck again.

"Does it look like I'm trying to do that?" Jonas asked rhetorically. He wasn't in the mood to banter or deal with Frank at the moment. If Frank wanted to play being a robber, he needed to get more serious about it or he'd feel like a joke in addition to looking like one.

It certainly wasn't Jonas' fault that he didn't expect Jonas to walk away when he did. If Frank was serious about the part, he'd have been more aware of Jonas' intentions so Jonas wouldn't be able to get out of the situation so easily.

"Then what're you doing?" Frank demanded.

"I'm getting 'the book' like you asked for," Jonas replied, just not sharing which 'book' he was getting.

When Jonas reached Kim's door, he knocked gently.

"Room service,' Frank called out before starting to chuckle at his own joke.

Jonas merely rolled his eyes at the remark. He was a little surprised that Frank was in the mood for jokes when he was the one who was supposed to be serious about what he was doing.

To Jonas, all it made him look like was more of a comedy relief than anything else. The kind of robber that would either end up getting killed himself, typically by the main villain, or be a kind of shield for the main characters in a movie when trouble came up.

"This better be good or someone's getting hurt," Jonas heard Kim grumble through the door.

"That someone would be me," Jonas replied cheerfully, wondering how much of a hesitation Frank would have if he decided to try and kill Jonas. If anything, he figured it'd be easier to play along with Frank's fantasy rather than giving him a rude awakening. While doing it this way would make it more likely that they'd get a little more time to make it to the dungeon.

Plus, with how Frank was, he couldn't help but not take him seriously at the moment. As killing another person wasn't as easy for most people as many think and Frank certainly seemed like the type who thought it'd be easy and wouldn't bother him while not ready to commit to the act in reality.

Jonas just hoped that Kim would understand what he planned on trying to tell her non-verbally so Frank wouldn't likely become aware of what he was up to, or at least suspicious of what he was doing.

When Kim opened the door a few minutes later, Jonas wasn't surprised to see that she'd drawn her sword. What did surprise him was how she'd dressed so quickly. He'd assumed she'd gone to bed without anything on. Not that he'd let her know about that.

"What is it?" she demanded, her tone and expression much more intimidating and frightening than what Frank's done so far.

"Frank here let me know that he'll kill me if we don't give him 'the book.' So, I came over to see if you were done reading 'the book,'" Jonas asked, putting special emphasis on the words 'the book' in hopes that she'd get what message he was trying to give her.

"I'm not done reading it," Kim replied, shutting the door without giving anyone a chance to say anything.

"Well, there you have it," Jonas remarked, doing his best to sound mournful. "She's not done reading it."

"B-b-b-but the words in the books in that library couldn't be read!" Frank sputtered, sounding almost like he was about to lose control of himself and run around like he'd lost his mind. "How'd she learn to read that language?"

"Well, from what we were told," Elwin answered from behind Jonas, "when we traded for any book in there, the book would become legible to whoever traded for it. So, when we traded for 'the book' we were able to read it."

Jonas felt the blade of the dagger, he assumed it was a dagger, press against his neck more firmly as he was spun around, as it to act as a human shield against Elwin. "Don't come any closer. I'll kill him if you do."

"Whatever," Elwin said disinterestedly. "I'm heading down for breakfast."

With the way Elwin said 'the book,' Jonas was confident he'd picked up on how Jonas had said it to Kim a moment ago.

Then before Frank could do anything, Elwin passed both of them by and Frank didn't do anything. Though, Jonas was getting tired of having the blade at his neck. Especially when it was held by someone who wasn't taking this situation seriously even though he was the one who'd set the situation up in the first place.

Maybe he wouldn't feel as annoyed by it if he really thought that Frank would kill him, but at the moment, he just couldn't take the threat seriously and the longer it went on, the less serious he felt the situation was.

"You know, I don't know how long Kim'll be on reading the book. If you'd like, we could head downstairs and get something to eat. I'm sure you're probably hungry yourself."

Jonas was only suggesting that to try and turn the situation around so he wouldn't continue to get more and more annoyed. Especially since as far as he knew, Kim might spend all day reading the book and Jonas knew he'd run out of patience before that point. When it wouldn't be as convincing for them to give Frank the book after Jonas had gotten himself out of this situation.

"You're just trying to escape," Frank accused Jonas, "Kim's in on it too. You had to have been able to say something to her to tell her what to do."

While true in a sense, it wasn't true in the way Frank seemed to be taking the situation. Which Jonas could only be thankful for.

"Yeah, well, Kim doesn't like men. So if you kill me, I'm sure she won't worry herself about it at all. Though, you're lucky you didn't try this on Elin. I'm sure Kim wouldn't take it very kindly, even if you tried to later put it off as a joke."

"I'm not joking. I will kill you, Franks reiterated.

"I'm aware of that," Jonas lied, feeling like if he could just get Frank to sit down for breakfast, they'd be able to get through this as Jonas still had planned in his mind. "I'm just saying that if Kim wanted to, you wouldn't be able to stop her. I mean, you have an archer system, right?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Frank asked, doubt starting to creep into his voice.

"Well, archers are better at ranged attacks, but here you'd be at a disadvantage given you have me as a hostage and Kim has a fighter system, so she's good at ranged or melee attacks."

Jonas wasn't sure if reasoning with Frank was possible, but he didn't see a reason why he shouldn't try. If anything, it'd at least let him know how long he'd have before he had to give up on his plan and take Frank down on his own.

"You know, breakfast sounds good," Frank said, taking the blade away from Jonas' neck.