Login Re:Coded: A LitRPG Novel (Incipere Online Book 2)

by R J Triveri

  ***

  “Gateway!” Holding his hands in front of him, the focus he usually held began to float as a multitude of questions flashed in his head.

  Please set parameters of your Gateway.

  Can’t be too big… No larger than two people side by side.

  Can’t be too tall… no taller than River.

  Must last at least twenty seconds.

  Confirm!

  Gateway confirmed!

  A moment later, the world in front of them began to shimmer and blink in and out of existence before the essence of the raid lord’s chamber spread like a curtain opening from center stage to reveal daylight streaming from somewhere else.

  “No!” Omnida’s eyes flashed a dangerous crimson, and the darkness on his body began to shimmer with starlight as he surged forward. His voice echoed with malice as he doubled his approach only to be thwarted by the bright light of elsewhere. “You are mine! No one escapes the Lord of Shadows! No one!”

  Gateway completed! Twenty seconds until the gateway ends.

  Skill cost extracted: Dante Rior - 46% Integrity Remaining

  Warning: You are nearly exhausted (Conditional).

  Your movement has been reduced by fifty percent.

  Your spell casting has been slowed by fifty percent.

  Find a safe place to rest while your integrity can defragment.

  Gripping his chest, Dante felt the toll being taken with each passing millisecond. His body felt as though someone had ripped out his heart and his mind had been put into a blender, but he had survived without the unconscious effect. It felt like a win to him as his legs wobbled under him. Unable to control himself for the moment, he started to fall forward to meet the flame-heated steel under his feet.

  ***

  River was more than ready as she saw his integrity fall.

  “Not today, Dante!” came her resounding voice as she ran at him. Without a thought in her head other than their safety, she barreled into him and flew like a bullet through the gate as the blade of the shadow lord’s scythe landed where the pair had been only a moment before.

  Despite the odd angle, River kept her sword drawn as the pair rolled against the ground. The impact of the flying tackle against the unyielding stone of the other side was rough, but not integrity-breaking as they continued tumbling to a stop until River was once again facing the gateway. The air shimmered brightly as Omnida howled a cry and rushed the gate. River feared the worst as her blade began to shimmer with blue energy for a charged strike until the air rippled when the raid lord’s hand collided with the entrance. With a violent pop of air, the portal shut as though it had never been.

  A moment after, the two had a new message appear in their vision, confirming their escape from Tenebrae.

  Raid Updated:

  Objective One: Kill Omnida, Lord of Shadows - Suspended

  With your party’s survival, World Logs have been updated to reflect new information concerning the raid dungeon, The Ruins of Tenebrae.

  Omnida, Lord of Shadows Wiki information has been updated.

  Unique Wiki Entry: The World Seal has been created and credited to Dante Rior and River Hexi.

  Trait: Historian of Incipere has been added as a reward to your current list of traits.

  With a heavy sigh, River was able to collect herself and not slump to the ground in exhaustion. It had been close, but close was all they needed to survive something like that. She smiled darkly as she looked over at Dante. Survival was enough for her to recover her wits, but her friend was a different story.

  Dante was a laughing mess as the stress and pain began to melt from him as reality set in. His laugh grew and grew as he realized just how close the pair had come to their own deaths. Tears grew in his eyes as he grabbed his stomach and nearly keeled over. He laughed so long and hard that River had to stand over his curled form and prod at him with her foot.

  “Dante, get it together, man!” hissed the woman’s voice.

  “River, do you realize what we just did!” Dante defended as his laughter started to die.

  “I do,” kind of… “but really. Get it together.” Using her hands to speak for her, River tried to emphasize the next fact as she motioned to everything around them. “We’ve got company.”

  Wiping the tears from his eyes, Dante got back on his unsteady feet, and it was River’s turn to laugh as she watched realization crash onto his face.

  They weren’t back at their room in The Comet’s Fall.

  The pair had returned to the Pits in all its, now silent, stony glory… with everything that had happened showing on every visible screen. The event protections might have ended, but apparently the master streams hadn’t despite the unexpected crash.

  Again and again, River and Dante watched what they had just lived: the pre- and post-game of the fight with Athos, the actual encounter and image of the man strangely absent, her excitement at the letter from Unum’s temple, the run through the second level, Dante learning Arc-Fulgoris, the golem’s assault, and their luck-laden survival against Omnida. Everything played in fast cuts complete with background music and extra effects that were added to heighten the tension. They even left in the cursing against the raid lord!

  Neither of them quite understood how the SIFS had gotten the shots it had. Dante wasn’t streaming, and River’s personal channel never recovered from the crash. Where had the footage come from? As if on cue, the screens all went dead for a moment before focusing on the surprised faces of the two combatants.

  A moment of silence between the pair followed before a familiar emoji of a head burst to life switching between at least ten different emotional faces at once. “Holy shit! Who else couldn’t believe that!” With a gesture of its hands, the roar of the crowd spewed forth as the announcer released the mute from the audience. The pair couldn’t even hear themselves think in the wash of noise and sound that came with the end of the mission. “If a random, previously unseen and unknown crash wasn’t surprising enough, these two didn’t even have the protection the game provided! I don’t know about you, but I’d say this was a well-deserved way to break in the main page for the day, right?” Giving credence to its words, the crowd grew louder and just a bit more wild before being given another offer by the announcer. “What do you think, folks? Should we reward them?”

  The roar of the crowd grew into a throng of hoops and howls supporting the pair, and River ate it up as she held her sword high to the audience. This was what she had been hoping for. Not wanting her friend to miss out in the glory, her free hand reached for Dante. Weakened but not out, he took the hand graciously and got to his feet. Looking at the pair, he was so small standing next to her, but he felt the same pride she did. Even if that pride was from running away with his tail between his legs.

  “You know I’d love to give them everything they deserve,” the announcer motioned for the volume to lower, and the audience reluctantly obeyed. “However, there’s a slight problem. Even with Tenebrae’s new status as a raid dungeon, that doesn’t mean the objective was completed.”

  The crowd turned on the announcer with those words, and, if it was up to River, it would have been next on her hunting list. “Oh, come on! There was no way we could have beaten him with all those challenges in place! How didn’t you know that Tenebrae was a raid anyways?! We could have been killed!”

  Cheers backed River’s position as the announcer tugged on the neck of its suit. “But you weren’t!” The announcer pointed out as its face turned from smiles to a more serious emoji of a thinking man. “The gods don’t just give out information, River. It must be discovered and paid for. No one had survived Tenebrae before or used the SIFS to fill us in.” Its face shifted to a wink for just a moment. “Speaking of, quick thinking, Dante, using that Gateway spell.”

  Dante simply shrugged a bit, but his smile told River and the crowd all they needed to know. No one can ignore where a river wants to go easily.

  “Don’t change the subject, Announcer!”
River pointed out as she reequipped her armor in a flash of light. Wrapped in her set of sapphire-blue steel, River was more than ready for another fight if it came down to it.

  A worried emoji popped to life and the announcer’s hands went up defensively at the woman’s scorn. “I’m simply pointing out I can’t give you the full reward for the run!”

  “You can’t give us the full reward, but that means there is something you can give,” Dante pointed out.

  The face shifted again into a smile and nodded to the more reasonable of the pair. “Exactly, Master Seeker! Now, the two of you hold out your hands.” It waited until the pair obeyed, and with a wave of its hands, their reward appeared before them. In each of their outstretched hands, a small crystalline egg compiled. A sapphire-blue egg for River and a shimmering obsidian rainbow of an egg for Dante. When their silence continued as if to say, “that’s it?”, the announcer took the initiative again. “I believe there is something you should say when someone imparts a gift upon you?”

  Staring at the egg, their reactions were mixed as Dante broke into a true smile and River gave it a confused glance.

  Familiar Egg

  Unique Variant - Challenger’s Reward

  Reward Class: Special

  Class: Unrestricted

  This familiar’s egg will act as an active party member and absorb the stimuli you present it with over the next three days. After this point, the egg will hatch into a familiar that complements the information it has been given.

  Rare Variant Attributes:

  Quick Hatch - Familiar’s Egg can hatch sooner if enough stimuli is presented.

  Hibernation - The timer will only reduce if the egg is selected as being active.

  Absorb - Familiar’s egg will absorb ambient Wild One Data as stimuli if it is defeated within range. This effect is not put on hold via Hibernation.

  Hatch Percentage: 0%

  Stimuli Percentage: 0%

  “Thank you, Announcer!” Unable to contain his excitement, Dante turned to his friend and grinned as if he were a child on Christmas day. “River, it’s a familiar egg!”

  “A mage thing?” River asked. Dante quickly shook his head in the negative, obviously excited before his friend simply shrugged, clicked the hibernation button, and put it into her inventory. “Thanks, but I’d rather have a weapon, Announcer.”

  Dante’s eyes went wide as the announcer’s head shifted again into a toothy smile. “Whether you’ll use it isn’t important, River. It’s a gift for a job well done.” The face flashed into a winking face before shifting back into a normal smile as it turned to address the crowd. “But with that, we’ve come to the end of the Midday Run. This extra-long midday stream is now over! Join us again tomorrow, loyal viewers, and we’ll see just who has the guts to take on the Pits’ challenges again! This is Announcer, signing out!”

  Taking that as their moment to leave, Dante and River gave one last smile and wave to their seen and unseen audiences before making for the nearest exit and a well-earned rest back in their room at The Comet’s Fall.

  Chapter Eighteen: A Night's Efforts

  Night passed quietly inside of The Comet’s Fall for the not-quite-successful raiders. After River supplied a rather expensive pair of wine bottles from Od’s private stash of epic loot and upgraded their room to a deluxe, the pair celebrated their unlikely victories with a gusto only the young could. In their rush to celebrate, River realized she had forgotten the glasses, but her spotty memory only stopped them for so long.

  Warning: You have been affected by the condition - Drunk. (Various)

  Warning: You have been affected by the condition - Drunk II. (Various)

  Taking turns, the pair drank deeply from the bottles in their hands, laughed, and shared their favorite memories of their new life as the drunken status effect took hold of their minds, but the conversation always went back to River, the Tenebrae run, and her dumb luck.

  Warning: You have been affected by the condition - Drunk III. (Various)

  When the bottles were gone well after nightfall, things finally began to settle down for the inebriated pair. Dante decided to wait out the drunken status and passed on the easy path of sleep in favor of tending to his familiar egg. Even under the status effect, his focus was like a laser, and River watched him burn through the drunken status with a soft, drunken pang of emotion. He had a dedication she had never seen before even put towards her, and it stirred something in her to the point of a blush. He caught her eye and cocked an eyebrow slightly.

  “River?”

  Her fascination was broken as her own status passed into a lower stage, and she realized how obvious what she was doing was. “Sorry,” she stammered, truly embarrassed for the first time in a long, long time by her ogling.

  He grinned, let out a soft chuckle, and went back to his tending as River nursed a dented ego.

  After another ten minutes, it passed the second stage back into a stage one status effect, and River decided to distract herself from her unknown embarrassment and began to work. Forcing the rogue romance from her thoughts, she took full advantage of the night of relaxation and began the arduous task of answering her tsunami of fan mail. Deep into the wee hours of the night, River responded to as many messages as she could, giving a little too much information at times due to the poor judgment granted from the lingering drunken effect, until she passed out in her newly minted, overstuffed, king-sized mattress.

  It wasn’t long before the sun began to rise that morning though, and in the other room of their upgraded three-room suite, River began to stir like a classical trash compactor tuning up to start its daily chores, much to the chagrin of Dante. While the groaning noises of the woman started getting louder and more common as she loomed closer to consciousness, he was busy tending to something more important than sleep. He was nearly to the point of tunnel-vision-attentive as he took the advice of another SIFS video on egg raising, turned a dial, and adjusted the temperature of his egg as its countdown reached twelve hours. A small light on the top morphed from a slow orange pulsing to a steady blue flash that seemed more in line with a normal heartbeat.

  “Morning,” River said simply as she walked from the room dressed in her simple, comfortable clothing. Opening her screens again, she went back to work on her mass of emails and messages as she plopped down next to him on the sitting room’s couch. For every one she answered, ten took its place. “This is insane, Dante.”

  He nodded, still engrossed in his video as he tapped the glass case of the holder. “You wanted to be famous.”

  “Yeah, but this?” she asked, opening another message and read, “‘UR Hawt!’ Really? We faced down a raid boss, an event boss, uncovered a divine quest, the divine quest mind you, became historians with bonuses towards learning ‘lost’ information, whatever that means, and the only thing that…” She checked the byline. “Greg42 could think was how my ass looked? Really?”

  “Well, take it as a compliment,” her friend quipped with just the right amount of snark.

  “I would have if it wasn’t so poorly written,” River said with a sigh, and picked another out. “This is one of my favorites, ‘What would it take to get you to do a real stitch-less stream?’ Dante, the ass-hat even put a freaking winky face! Really? Do you know how many of the messages were like this?”

  He knew she wouldn’t ask unless it was a high number, so he made a simple guess. “A lot?”

  She sighed. “A hell of a lot, almost half of them were something like that.” With a few flicks of her finger, River activated the keyword sorter on the SIFS message box and sighed. “A few suck-ups, a few real fans of what we did, but almost ninety percent of the messages were just assholes and used the word chest, ass, hot, sexy, or beautiful.” Another flick of her finger deleted every message with any of those keywords.

  It seemed that her comments were just a little much for her friend to keep a straight face. Dante tried to keep face for her but was eventually split between laughing and feel
ing sorry for her, but she had earned her messages. In his eyes, it served her right for tempting a darker side of the Internet at large. “Some people can’t see the real you when you’re just a face.”

  Another sigh, another groan, and she brushed the comment off. “Maybe…”

  “Besides, you could probably kick their asses if they came here.” Her face seemed to soften at his words, so he continued as he set the incubator aside. “We took the risks to come here. They aren’t even worth the thoughts while we’re the ones putting our asses on the line.”

  His words were awarded with her sitting down with a sizable thud on the chair nearby. “Maybe, but I didn’t think it’d be like this. I wanted fans, friends, people to talk to that aren’t you to see the real me. I wanted them to see that I was strong, not some sex doll for their viewing pleasure.”

  “Oh, I don’t count?” her friend joked as a part of the video caught his attention, and he lowered the ambient light of the egg chamber. “Friends stick together forever.” His tone lowered as he turned himself and stared deeply into her eyes like a predator watching its prey as he repeated himself. “Forever…”

  If only… River stared back into those open, intent eyes and once she processed his low, creepy tone repeated with the word again and again under his breath, she couldn’t help but laugh, and he followed quickly after. “Okay, fine! Yeah, I’m stuck with you—” she relented with only the smallest quirk of a smile— “but it’d just be nice to meet more people.”

  “And you have.”

  River shook her head and picked her words more carefully. “I mean, I just wanted to give people a good time and have a good community. I wanted to have company when I fought and trained.” Before Dante could interrupt, River beat him to the punch. “No offense, Dante, but you do hate how I train now.”

  He shrugged off the comment. “The field’s a better teacher than some boring simulation fight.”

  “That’s your opinion,” she pointed out as she shut her screens and leaned back to relax into the plush of the chair. “But the field doesn’t fight like people. Giant spiders and mermaids don’t fight like people. They fight like Wild Ones.”