Excise: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Ether Collapse Book 2)

by Ryan DeBruyn

-25% Intellect and Wisdom

  Duration: 11 hours, and 4 minutes.

  —

  Shattered Femur

  People say that a broken femur is the worst pain a human can suffer. What do you think?

  Set the bones to avoid them healing in improper alignments, or use a spell to straighten them.

  -25% Agility and Dexterity

  Duration: 1 day, 11 hours, and 4 minutes.

  —

  Broken Nose

  Don’t panic. It’s just that lump on your face. Set it or risk having it heal crooked.

  -25% Charisma

  Duration: 1 day, 11 hours, and 4 minutes.

  —

  Major Concussion

  Your brain has always wanted to meet new people, but the inside of your skull wasn’t what it had in mind.

  -25% to all stats

  Duration: 2 days, 4 hours, and 4 minutes.

  He grimaced at the major problems and checked his health to find it hovering at sixty points overall. Luckily, he had full Ether pool, though, so he cast Dark Mend as many times as that allowed him. The pain from his legs, nose, and skull all spiked up simultaneously, as the bones ground against each other because Dark Mend began rearranging them to their proper places. He passed out again.

  When he opened his eyes again, he was happy to see at least the Cracked Skull de-buff was gone, and he was sitting closer to half of his full health. He renewed the Dark Mend spells and then chugged a Health Potion from his bag. Another fit of pain struck from his femur, but this time it wasn’t enough to put him back out.

  The next thing he did was pull his light back out and turn it on, illuminating the space he was in as the de-buffs began blinking at him, letting him know they were about to expire due to Dark Mend speeding up his healing. The room was strangely different than it had been when he last saw it. Instead of black and white tile and stones, the room was now covered in dark black Dragon scale. The crevices between them were patched with a red pattern that pulsed when the light touched it; the effect made Rocky reach out and touch the wall to see if it was breathing. It wasn’t.

  Once the de-buffs flashed and vanished, he used the wall to climb back to his feet. It was strange to see the room so drastically changed around him, and he marveled at the unique pattern that it now made. In truth, it looked even more like a massive starship with the glowing red lines that appeared to be acting as mortar. He moved slowly through the room and looked at the first table he passed, now that there wasn’t a mad Necromonger trying to kill him or his Territory–

  His body broke into an instant cold sweat. Wait, where was Apothis?

  He ran over to the altar, ignoring the tables for now, and placed his hand on it, hoping to summon back the hologram. The table began to shine on its own, and a moment later, he was looking at his whole Territory. He blinked at the detail and realized that Apothis must have zoomed it in before. He did the same using his hands to help his mind direct the image to the proper place.

  The hologram was suddenly viewing the entire Grotto and highlighted in red were row upon orderly row of dead bodies. The one good piece of news was that he instantly saw Sela and Smith highlighted in the blue of the living but laying down and unconscious, still in the Guild Tent. Zippo was at their side which took another large worry off of his chest.

  At the bottom of the hologram, there rested a count of Territory citizens and casualties, and Rocky’s eyes were drawn to the red number. Two hundred and twelve flashed in red for him to see, and he felt his heart plummet. This probably didn’t include the military casualties that had been outside the Territory, either.

  He had brought these people here and promised them safety. Now look at them. He thought of all the people he had tried to save and failed: Alex, Oliver, Jack, Phil, Pat, Jeff, and now Joe; all of them dead. Could people have done better without him? Why did he bother trying?

  Rocky remembered the creatures he had seen and fought on the trip to the Grotto. He vividly remembered his promise to keep the travelers safe and the massive worm that hadn’t even attacked the group but killed thousands with its mere presence in the world. This world had become a meat grinder, and the contraption was designed for human beings. How could he seriously hope his family had survived out there?

  A tear formed in his eye. His vision blurry, he caught a glimpse of the living people moving around and collecting bodies into those rows, moving debris and cleaning up after the massive battle that must have taken place. On closer inspection, everyone avoided the group of three titanic figures who stood in the west field, examining the cave entrances in the Grotto walls. First was Tao, who was clear because of his massive longsword strapped to his back, he was kneeling and peering into the caves while Gamma, who had his axe shouldered, spoke to the third member, a Dragon. Bathilda sat crouched on her hind legs and seemed to dwarf the two Knights because of her moving and stretching neck.

  If you measured only to the height of her chest, the golems and her were around the same height, at least according to this hologram, but if you added her majestic, curving neck and tail, she should be near double them due to the added length. Right now, she had curved her neck up like that of a swan and was clearly looking over the valley with the two Ottawa Knights. To his surprise, Azoth was pouncing at her tail, which she swung around behind her. A surprised gasp escaped his lips followed by a chuckling, “Azoth, stop that! You are going to get pancaked,” he yelled at the screen, but the bird-brain just kept chasing and stomping on the Dragon’s tail.

  Over his maudlin for the moment, thanks to the strength of his people and the antics of Azoth, Rocky facepalmed and wondered how he would get himself another pet when he got back to the surface. He scanned the people and found that while many were cleaning up, many others were cooking dinner, and others were even trying to get back to construction. He zoomed the image back out and found a few more groups had gone back to hunting, and a few had gone to tend the few fruit and nut trees that they had bought and planted in the space across the river. Rocky was absolutely floored by the resilience of the people that was on display before him.

  It gave him hope and the push he needed to get his mind out of his own dark place.

  As he zoomed out, he saw only himself down in the tunnels far below the surface, and he tilted his head as he saw just how large and complex the tunnels actually were. In fact, there were levels far below him, but many of them were caved in or dark on the screen. He zoomed out to see the entirety of the network and almost screamed in frustration when he realized how the attack had gained access to the Territory.

  This must be why there wasn’t an alarm! Wish I had known it didn’t extend below ground…

  There on the northeastern edge of his Territory, a tunnel ran out of the screen and borders of his Territory. He estimated the direction and distance and had instantly realized that it was the same exact direction that they had found LFD. They should have gone back and explored all those other floors of LFD’s old body! Now he glared at the tunnel, which was shaded in orange, indicating itself in a different color than the blue tunnels and space he stood in.

  Vowing he would collapse that tunnel, he got back on track and thought about himself. He had truly been ready to die to buy them more time to live. He glanced around the newly furnished room and wondered what had happened to Apothis after his attack had knocked Rocky out.

  He checked his waiting notifications in hopes of answers.

  For killing 6,125 Undead Creatures: Level Apprentice 12-24: You as part of the party have been awarded 1,323,451 Etherience.

  For killing 34 Undead Summoned Creatures: Level Apprentice 18-22: You as part of the army have been awarded 1,422,200 Etherience.

  For killing 7 Necromancers: Level Apprentice / Journeyman 19-34: You have been awarded 4,255,312 Etherience.

  Your personal Etherience amounts to: 7,000,963 Etherience

  93, 935,480 Etherience remaining until level 24.

  —

  Congratulations! You have sa
crificed two epic level items to the Altar of Michabo.

  Due to the two associated Epic level items, the sacrifice has been upgraded to Legendary status. Altar of Michabo will now be considered a Legendary Place of Power.

  Legendary Place of Power Benefits:

  Access to Territorial Holographic Overview

  Access to Sacrificial Benefits for all Listed Citizens

  Access to Etherience Modulator Settings

  Access to EtherNet (Currently missing Interaction Module)

  Access to Territorial Growth Boon Options

  Locked Benefits x 25 (Capture other Territories or gain higher Territory level to unlock more benefits)

  —

  Reconfiguration of Tunnel Design Notification.

  Due to a more powerful material being sacrificed, the tunnels of Michabo will be reconfigured. During reconfiguration, everyone other than the leader will be removed from the area. For their own safety, anyone inside the complex will be teleported to a place that they deem safe.

  Number of individuals teleported out of the complex: 6

  Number of Dungeon creatures eradicated: 1012

  He blinked for a moment, trying to count numbers of living people down here when this must have happened. If he assumed that Sela, Zippo, and Smith were amongst the group down here, that made up three. Clearly, he knew Apothis was one of the numbers as well, but those final two made him a bit sick to his stomach. He walked out into the hallways where he had fought Frankie and found the corpses of the four Necromancers and the newly formed hallway where Frankie had been buried.

  Are you serious? It saved him from under a cave in… and it took his pet Geomancer?

  Rocky clenched his jaw and walked back to the operations room, as he had aptly named it in his mind. As he walked, he continued scrolling through his notifications.

  Congratulations! You have completed a Portion of a Chain Quest!

  Chain Quest

  Red Quest

  Party Quest - Druid

  Free Bathilda

  You and your party have managed to procure Bathilda’s contract item, the Pendant of Smog, and remove the compulsion trapping her in place. This quest was considered far outside of your level to complete. Due to its difficulty, Etherience was increased for you and your party.

  Rewards:

  Your party has been awarded 200,000,000 Etherience (Each)

  Your party has been awarded 1,000 Crystallized Ether (To leader)

  Territorial Growth Boon Awarded (See list)

  Your Greater Territorial Perk has been deferred until the quest chain is complete!

  0 Etherience remaining until level 25.

  106,064,520 Etherience banked.

  Stasis entered.

  —

  You have been offered a 3rd part in a chain quest!

  Chain Quest

  Red Quest

  Party Quest - Druid

  Cleanse the Land

  The land around your Territory has been infected by the Irradiated Ether and needs to be cleansed by fire. To ensure that this infection does not linger, remove its source, Apep’s Dungeon and its leader. Failure to completely eradicate this plague will result in future attacks on your Territory and erosion of borders.

  Rewards:

  Greater Territorial Perk

  Etherience

  Crystallized Ether

  Since this is a chain quest, it has been accepted on your behalf by Gaia.

  Rocky was shocked to see the list of rewards he had just received, and furthermore, he was pretty excited to see what sort of growth boons he might have access to. He also found it strange that he had entered Stasis again. He hadn’t seen that since his earliest levels. Why was it back this time?

  He opened his Character, hoping to get to the bottom of the reappearance of Stasis but placed a point in Intelligence, his emerging dump stat.

  Rockland Barkclay Level 25

  Class: Apprentice-Dark (Azrael) Revenant,

  Level 1 Strategist

  Class Skills: Dark Blade, Dark Mend, Soul Blade, Dark Cloak, Shadow Clone

  Health Points = 290/290

  Dark Ether Pool = 220/240

  You have 0 stat points and 0 skill points to distribute.

  Stamina – 29 (Strength of Body +8)

  Strength – 35 (Strength of Arms +5) (Strength of Arms +16)

  Agility – 41 (Speed of Arms +5)

  Dexterity – 33

  Intelligence – 24 (+1)

  Wisdom – 31

  Charisma – 33

  Luck – 10

  Weak Skills

  Non-Class Combat Skills: Combatant – 26 (+2), Ether Channels – 22 (+4), Ether Cleanse - 10 (+5), Ether Manipulation – 24 (+6)

  Common Skills: Barter – 8, Camouflage – 7, Endurance – 25, Tracker – 16, Trance Meditation – 19

  Profession Skills: Actor – 5, Butcher – 23, Cook – 2, Herbalist – 19, Miner – 1, Skinner – 22, Teacher - 18 (+6), Trader – 5

  Moderate Skills

  Non-Class Combat Skills: Stealth – 13 (+7), Swordsmanship – 9 (+4)

  Common Skills: Analyze – 14 (+2), Perception – 4 (+1), Sneak – 18(+2)

  Profession Skills

  He clicked first on his skills and placed his final point into Shadow Clone. Then he tried clicking the rank up option for his class.

  Warning!

  Ranking up to a new level can take seconds or it can take weeks. Ensure you are somewhere safe before you perform this action.

  Would you like to continue?

  Yes |

  Rocky selected no. While he really thought he could use the extra power that it would give him and probably even more so the new skill tree it would unlock, right now, he couldn’t afford weeks. They had seven days until Apothis would be back to full health, and Rocky didn’t intend to give the undead snake the time he needed.

  Be careful. It’s not like you beat him this time. A few hours ago, you were his little puppet.

  Rocky shook his head to stop that chain of thoughts and then stormed out of the room to begin his trek to the surface. He couldn’t sit down in the dark all day. It was time to see the butcher’s bill firsthand, and since his walk was already as angry as he could make it, he decided to turn it into a sprint to try to help clear his head.

  While the trip was drastically faster without enemies to fight and because of his pace, which he eventually pulled back into a fast jog, it still took close to two hours. When he reached the surface, he mentally asked Azoth for a lift and soon was trying to answer questions that seemed to have no connection to each other. “Azoth meet Dragon. Rocky know Dragon? Azoth kill lots of cloakies, did Rocky hear? Why Zippo, Sela, and Smith pop into Guild Tent? Where Joe?”

  The last one seemed to puncture a hole in Rocky’s chest, and in answer, he could only pat and pet Azoth, who grew distracted and forgot the question. When they landed in the Grotto, Rocky asked Azoth to fly directly to the shop. A few minutes later, they were flying again, but this time, they were headed to the previous Dungeon LFD occupied. Rocky had debated about waiting for Sela and Smith to wake up, but he truly did worry about how many new enemies could flood their subterranean passages if he did. Instead, it was only Zippo and him who made the trip.

  They entered the caverns cautiously but soon found out that as far as enemies went, the halls were nearly entirely empty. With just scattered Zombies throughout the myriad of levels and tunnels, Zippo and Rocky made quick work of each floor, placing plasma mines throughout the entire subterranean complex. It was on the fifth floor that they discovered the tunnel that connected back to Chalk River, and they didn’t follow it to its end. Instead, they placed a plethora of mines and kept searching for the tunnel Rocky knew existed.

  They did eventually find a tunnel that led to another staircase on the sixth floor. Once they saw how deep it went and how many floors it contained, Rocky chose to just plant mines throughout the connecting tunnel and across its roof. He had only purchased one hundred of the
devices, and they had cost him nearly three hundred crystals that he had paid for from the two thousand from the chain quest rewards. He had gained some other Crystals from looting Necromancers as well, but in comparison, that was pocket change.

  With no more plasma mines to deploy, Zippo and Rocky returned to the entrance and called Azoth back. He returned with blood coating his mouth and carrying the carcass of what looked to be a mutated cow. “This thing tasty. Rocky want treat? Is Rocky good boy?” Despite the role reversal and hilarity of Azoth’s clowning, Rocky did want some beef, but seeing the mutated remains of what used to be a domestic creature, he instead asked Azoth to show him the herd.

  Azoth obliged, letting Rocky butcher and store what was left of the cow before they took off. Once in the air, Rocky depressed a switch he had purchased with the mines, and the corrupted, black earth under them rippled like it was water, and they had just dropped a stone into it. A few heartbeats later, they were flying over two depressions in the earth that were hundreds of feet deep.

  Let’s see you dig that out before we come for you, Apothis!

  Approximately five kilometers away, a massive herd of cattle grazed on the edge of the black, corrupted grass. Not a single one crossed into the corrupted zone, but near on two hundred of the creatures grazed peacefully. At first, Rocky couldn’t understand how they had survived. However, a challenging half moo, half roar sounded from the herd, and three massive bulls trotted towards the area that Azoth, Zippo, and Rocky hovered.

  Rocky Analyzed the creatures and instantly knew how they had survived. While the cows themselves were Apprentice to Journeyman rank with levels near his own, the bulls were quite a different story.

  Bull

  Level 44

  Master-Gorer

  Health Points 5,750/5,750

  “How did you avoid those, Azoth?” Rocky asked, genuinely curious as to the tactics the Chimera had chosen for his hunting. In answer, Azoth mentally showed him a picture of a creature chowing down on a cow to the east, which had the effect of making Rocky look in that direction. Far off in the distance, a massive cat was head deep in a cow. As if sensing his look, the creature looked up and regarded him with purple eyes.