The greenish gloom looked ominous. It twisted in lazy currents, streaks of fog floating above, and occasionally the ghostly substance swelled as slow flares rose to dozens of meters.
The small, lifeless planetoid drowned in the murk. I could only see the large landforms on its surface.
Meanwhile, one of the flares headed in my direction. I threw up my shield instinctively, defending myself from a possible strike.
“Jeb, have you found anything?” I shouted without turning around.
“Not yet,” his voice came from afar. “There’s a crumbling stone staircase. I can’t climb it.”
“Come back here.”
The flare suddenly split up into many foggy streaks. I thought I could see ghostly figures followed by plumes of darkness.
My guess was instantly confirmed by the system message,
Wild (mad) Shadow, Level 43.
This was once a living, sentient being, but all that remains is a clump of mental energy in an ectoplasmic shell.
Shadows of the creatures devoured by the Abyss are very aggressive and dangerous. Normal armor can’t protect you from their mental attacks.
…
“Jeb, get back!”
The ephemeral figures were rapidly approaching. They were distorted beyond recognition. They moved in a zigzag, sometimes randomly rushing from side to side or ascending in a spiral.
“Are those Shadows?” Jeber_Arium took up a position behind me, cautiously peering from behind an outcrop of rock.
“Yes!”
“That’s why there are so many bones here!”
“The respawn is buggy. Several ruins are missing.”
“That’s for the best,” my companion muttered. “I wouldn’t want to get stuck here.”
“No sign of the portal?”
“I couldn’t find anything. It must be higher up! Shall we try and climb up?”
It was a good idea. Shame that we ran out of time to carry it out.
The clot of ectoplasm crashed into my shield. I sustained no physical damage from the blow but an otherworldly chill washed over my mind and the distorted ephemeral creature pierced me with its cold.
I took a step back. The Shadow spiraled upwards. I could hear an insinuating whisper coming from all around me.
Another phantom tried to attack me. I dodged and slashed at it with my sword, but the steel passed through the disembodied figure without encountering any resistance.
“Dan, it’s useless! We have to get out of here. Follow me!” Jeb shouted.
The greenish murk stirred. Hundreds of flares shot up into the sky. It had probably been a mistake to try and attack the ghost.
“Run!”
We went as fast as we could. The platform was getting narrower and narrower, passing over the rocky spurs as a treacherous, cracked cornice.
Shadows chased us. The mad clusters of mental energy drew intricate patterns in the air, slowly fading plumes trailing behind them.
We finally reached the collapsed stone stairs. We pressed ourselves close to the cliffs because the path was so narrow. We were basically balancing over the precipice.
The stone steps were crumbling. We couldn’t climb up them but what else was there to do? A little longer and we would be caught and cast down into that creepy darkness.
“Dan!” Jeb lifted his spear. “I don’t want to turn into a crazed Shadow!”
“What do we do? We can’t go any higher. This is a dead end!”
“Kill me! Please!”
There was no time left to think. I also had no desire to become part of this eerie green murk.
“Together! Crit here.” I lowered my shield, exposing my neck.
He nodded jerkily. Jeb and I struck each at the same time.
…
You have died.
You have lost 2,634 Exp.
Respawn in 19:59...
* * *
I woke up in the respawn circle, among the gloom and stench of the fire.
The underground was changed beyond recognition. The rough brick walls were covered in a layer of soot. The fissure in the vault had become wider, the tree roots hanging down having burned away, and the pile of rocks was higher. Part of the ceiling had obviously collapsed.
Jeb appeared beside me.
“How are you?”
“OK,” he was staring around him as well. “The Ifrit burned down everything in here!”
“I wonder where he went? And where are the Dark players?”
Distant screams were the answer to my question. It sounded like they were coming from the gap in the ceiling. A large city previously lay on the surface. After the invasion of the Abyss, only a small settlement had remained and now it had also been destroyed, as the interface immediately informed me,
You have gained the achievement ‘Culprit of the Disaster’.
Thanks to your actions, the above area has been turned to ashes and has become a home for the Ifrit. Achievement effect: +10 to Fame (a penalty of -10 to the attitude of small town inhabitants in the Dark Frontier).
…
You have received 13,750 Exp 1,375x10 (Fame).
…
You have gone up a level.
…
You have gone up a level.
…
You have received a new quest, Correcting Mistakes. Find a way to banish the fiery monster. Time to complete: unlimited.
Reward: experience, random item, improved relations with the inhabitants of small (up to 1,000 NPCs) settlements in the Dark Frontier.
…
“We’re not ready to take on the Ifrit just yet,” Jeb’s shoulders slumped when I told him about the so-called achievement and the related quest. “Dan, we have to get out of here, the Dark ones will come back for sure!”
“I have an idea,” I tried to cheer him up. “Can you keep an eye on the situation? I need to check the forums.”
Jeb nodded. I unfocused and the digital reality faded into the background.
I entered a search query: Portals, portal projections, secret paths, portal keys.
As I expected, there wasn’t much information. Most players noted that after the invasion of the Abyss, additional magical symbols had appeared on many of the teleportation stones, but nobody had yet figured out in what order they should be activated and what this would lead to. Those who had unraveled the mystery of the sequences either remained silent or had been killed. My personal experience had showed me that the latter could not be excluded. Jeb and I had been very lucky. We had managed to escape the Scorched Lands and the respawn circle had been damaged in the Deadly Crag so our anchor point hadn’t changed.
Portal keys were described only hypothetically on the forums, with a promise of large sums of money for credible information about these kinds of artifacts. There was an opinion that portals could now be used both in normal mode and in the Abyss Trail mode. The additional symbols were needed to open them.
Well, although indirectly, I had nevertheless confirmed my guesses.
“Jeb!” I called, returning to the underground.
Wait, where did my companion go?
“Jeb, where are you?”
“Over here!” his voice echoed off the stone walls and vault. “Look what I found!” He emerged from the shadows grimy, covered in soot and ashes but proudly showing me a few silver and copper coins. ”The Ifrit has burned away all the garbage! Do you know how much good stuff was left behind? I even found a ring!”
“Show me.” My interest in the nondescript, oxidized metal ring was genuine.
“Plus 2 to Charisma. Pointless in our situation. Why did you call me?” he glanced greedily at the piles of ash.
“I need the original rune sequence found on a normal teleport.”
“How would I know that?”
“You used to be Level 73. Try to remember, you probably started back on the Land of Chosen, right?”
He thought for a while, wrinkling his forehead. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Y
ou don’t have any records or pictures from that time?”
“I’ll have a look, maybe I still have something.”
Jeb soon sent me a picture of a teleportation stone before it had been altered.
How curious. I immediately began to compare it to the images obtained during the recent portal activation.
There they were, the Abyss runes! The magic symbols that opened the way to uncharted territories!
So, if we excluded them from the sequence, would the original script for instant transport work?
“Jeb, how do we switch off the extra runes?”
“I have no idea!” he responded, eagerly stirring the piles of ash with his spear.
I thought about it. I’d have to experiment a bit. What a puzzle... I suspected that my artifact simply gave me access to the last active route. At least, the system had never given me a choice.
“Jeb, let’s go.”
“Where and what for?”
“To the teleportation stone.”
“You want to release another Ifrit?”
“No. We need to activate the original sequence and then we’ll be able to get out of here!”
“Can you go over there by yourself?”
“What about you?”
“There’s a lot of interesting and valuable stuff here! The items didn’t perish in the fire since they’re content and not garbage. Look at this!” he showed me a usable, albeit torn in several places, chainmail shirt.
“What if the Dark ones come back?”
“I’ll hide. Just don’t teleport without me, okay?”
I could see that arguing with him was pointless. Jeb was overcome with gold fever. Quite understandable, given how much he’d had to endure. He knew the true value of every little trifle, even if it looked like nothing but could save a life. So, I went to the portal alone.
I made my way through the narrow passage and was back in the immured room. I stuck a torch into a rusty bracket, took the Soul Crystal out of my inventory and squeezed it in my palm.
The portal stone had melted and the symbols on it were dark.
I passed my hand over the runes but to no avail.
Maybe the key was the Guardian’s Amulet? Because I didn’t have the Thread of Time medallion when Wang had opened the teleport.
Okay, what if I did this? I clutched both artifacts in my sweaty palms.
Nothing.
I slowly moved my hand over the symbols. Got it! Suddenly, piercing crimson rays erupted from the stone surface.
I was recording what was happening. The runes were barely smoldering after activation. There were eight in total.
I compared them with the image that Jeb had given me.
These three were extras. I needed to ‘switch them off’ and then the teleport would start to work in normal mode. At least, I really hoped so!
I concentrated on the runes. I imagined them going out.
The Soul Crystal and Guardian Amulet vibrated perceptibly in my sweaty hands. Something was happening!
At last, my efforts were successful. The three ‘extra’ symbols went dark and the others remained glowing faintly.
Messages suddenly appeared before my inner gaze,
The local teleportation network is unavailable. To activate interregional mode, enter the missing symbols.
…
The portal obelisk is damaged. You don’t have enough mental energy to open the passage.
…
I returned to the respawn point, feeling absolutely exhausted.
Jeb was happy to see me.
“Check out all the stuff that I’ve found!” he turned on the Exchange option, allowing me to look at his inventory.
Two gold, fifteen silver and about fifty copper coins. Arrowheads, several daggers, a long sword, various pieces of armor, the latter highlighted in red since neither Jeb nor I have enough Strength to wear them.
“The Dark ones didn’t drop anything?”
“Here,” he pointed to one of the daggers. “It has a smoky aura but you need to obtain some kind of achievement to use it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It doesn’t say. I can only see question marks.”
“Anything useful among the jewelry?”
“The rings. They provide +1 to Intellect and +2 to Dexterity. What about you?”
“The Ifrit managed to damage the portal stone.”
“And?” Jeb raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t have enough mana. I managed to activate eight runes and even extinguished the extra ones but then ran out of steam. There’s another snag.” I told him about the local and the interregional transport systems.
Jeb’s shoulders slumped, “A short teleport is not an option. The portal in the dwarves’ cave would have suited us too, but it has already been used after you appeared here. We need to know the exact sequence that sent you to the Dark Frontier. It’s a shame that you don’t remember it.”
“But I know whom I can ask. Jeb, I’ll have to go out into the real world. Will you manage here without me?”
“I’ll hide. It won’t be the first time.”
“All right. Wait for me, I won’t be long,” I promised.
Chapter Eleven
THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS erased any sense of time.
You have played for 20 hours and 32 minutes.
Holy crap! That’s nearly a day in the VR capsule. A personal record, if I could call it that.
I felt utterly exhausted. The sensation of hunger was sharp and unpleasant. I approached the inbuilt screen, which automatically switched on, showing me a panorama of the night city. Obeying a command sent through the neural interface, the pneumatics hissed and a plastic bottle with cold mineral water rolled onto the opened tray.
I took a long drink, quenching my thirst and dulling my hunger. Rivers of lights flowed beyond the electronic window. From the height of the 110th floor, the metropolis looked like a flaming octopus.
The news information module suddenly switched on. I’d been here since yesterday but I had no idea which settings Maxim had set for the home cybernetic system. It was clear that the apartment was protected in terms of information security, so this had to be something really important…
I turned up the volume and allowed video.
“A large fire has occurred tonight in the South Megasuburb. The Mainstream Entertainment Center has completely burned down. According to unofficial data, hundreds are dead and even more are injured. The club’s VR capsules could not withstand the high temperatures. The fire safety system failed to activate...”
My mouth went dry.
Forgetting about secrecy, I dialed Max’ number.
We apologize but the call recipient’s device is currently switched off.
Damn it... Sasha had mentioned that Mongoose Castle was currently under siege by one of the Shadow clans. Could this confrontation have spilled over into the real world?
The idea that this was an accident seemed ridiculous. Mainstream’s security system was top notch. If not for the help of Sasha and Max, I would have never gotten out of the club. Arson, then. With so many fatalities, it must have been planned and carefully executed.
I dressed quickly and called a taxi. It was drizzling outside. The car arrived quickly.
“Mainstream Club!”
“Apologies, that district has been temporarily shut down,” replied the smooth voice of the autopilot.
“Any closest point.”
“Incorrect search criteria. Please specify the address.”
Oh, you electronic moron!
I climbed out of the automated taxi with irritation, went to the edge of the sidewalk and raised my arm.
After a couple of minutes, the driver of a silver SUV responded to my gesture.
“Where to?” he asked, stopping and lowering the side window.
“Mainstream Club! Where the fire happened today, if you’ve heard about it?”
“Get in.”
* * *
Sirens
howled in the cold morning air.
Edge of the Abyss (Respawn Trials Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 16
