Poor Cultivation (The Slayer of Heaven Book 1): A LitRPG Wuxia Series

by Alan Bard

  At that moment, an unusually blue icicle landed nearby, and the ground shook beneath us. Another landed right next to it. The columns were creaking and swaying, and the slab seemed to have started moving. There was an explosion, and we were covered with fragments of ice. I lay on the ground frozen with my hands covering my head and my eyes closed.

  Shards of ice flew over us, hitting the bowl and the columns. The air was filled with dust and debris. The clanging was loud and insistent, but a heart-wrenching scream managed to pierce through it.

  Silence followed.

  I raised my head, then got on my knees. The others were rising to their feet as well. I was afraid to see what had become of Ow. I could almost picture her little, blood-covered body, lying broken amidst ice and debris. Hands covering her frightened face...

  She was probably dead.

  If so, let’s kill the crazy bastard! suggested a voice.

  “Geez...” Eli moaned, touching his shoulder.

  A shard had hit him. However, he got away with only a bloody gash. But I didn’t really care about that. I slowly looked out from behind the column. Then I pressed my face against the cold stone so that I was no longer looking at the corpse, which had been cut up by shards and was reduced to a heap of bloody rags. He fucking killed her. Why did she follow us? Why didn’t she hide in the burrow?

  [Battle Mode] activated.

  I punched Bojan in the face, planning to take him down and finish him off once and for all.

  “Are you crazy, Nick?!” Rio shouted.

  My wrist throbbed with heat, and something in my head responded to it, making me feel like my brain had started to swell and float in a pool of magma.

  A moment before the hit, Bojan’s cheekbone had been outlined with a reddish dotted line. It was as if my body had acted on its own. I had control of it, but my hand seemed to have been guided by a higher force. Was this the next step of my development or just another element of this strange game?

  There was more to it. The familiar humanoid figure appeared in my peripheral vision. From the Proxy Core, that is, the golden ball in its head, a light pulse passed along one of the lines of Body Contour, over the shoulder—along the line running along the right arm of the figure. The hand I had struck with. Had that impulse guided my fist?

  I clenched and unclenched my fingers, and touched my elbow. It was still unnaturally warm.

  Bojan jumped to the side, jaw clicking. He was looking around for his spear. Mine was also lost somewhere, but I didn’t care. I had nothing against a fistfight. He stared at me, acting hurt and surprised.

  No one seemed to understand why I was doing this...

  “Why did you push her out of the shelter?!”

  He looked as if I had insulted him.

  “Me?! Quit freaking out,” he said, “Have you lost your mind? You crazy idiot!”

  He knows that Eli will stand up for the girl, and he stands no chance against the two of you, sneered Alpha’s cold voice.

  Why is he so sure that no one else saw it? Zeta was nervous.

  “You kicked her, and now she’s dead,” I said, pressing my hands together to keep them from trembling.

  “What?” came Eli’s voice from behind. “You did what?”

  “Nothing,” Bojan answered in a flat tone. “I didn’t touch her! Who else besides this lunatic saw me push her?”

  I was wondering why he was so damn sure that no one else had seen him do it. Had he become some kind of a rogue? Was this one of the paths that Green had mentioned? Or was it just my wild imagination? What was my path, then?

  We stared at one another in the middle of a silent world covered with shards of blue ice.

  “I didn’t touch her!” His eyes glittered as if teary, but he tried to make himself sound arrogant. He was very convincing. “You’re out of your mind, Nicky.”

  Yesterday, I would’ve rushed into a fight, not giving a damn about consequences. But something was different now. I could feel emotions of the voices in my head much clearer. They were unhappy with what was happening, as well as dissatisfied and angry.

  Let him go for now. You can’t prove anything at the moment. Just watch, learn, and wait, Beta said dryly.

  So many strange things are happening around us, and you put our lives in danger without so much as a second thought, Alpha sneered.

  I was ready to scream, punch them all in the face, and face this fucked-up world alone. Grinning, I almost made a step forward but managed to suppress my reckless desires. I sighed deeply and turned around...

  The ice was melting into bluish pools. Except for a couple of broken walls, nothing had really changed.

  “You’re a bold one,” Bojan snarled resentfully. “A psycho... It’s not surprising that you ended up here.”

  I wondered what he meant by that. Did he know something about this project?

  Jelena froze over the little girl’s body, her face pained. Shocked, Rio didn’t seem to be able to accept that the girl was dead.

  “I really don’t get it,” he babbled, his squeaky voice thickened by emotion. “What was that? How?! Such a cataclysm doesn’t happen in nature. The ice should’ve melted. And did you see how blue it was? And why the heck...?”

  “Shut your pie hole for two seconds and look,” Eli interrupted, pointing to the burrows near our shelter.

  As soon as the ice rain was over, something began to stir in their depths.

  “Now that the threat has passed, they’re going to get out. Whoever they are,” I said.

  “This whole place is cursed!” Bojan said, gripping his spear.

  Keeping my eye on the nearest burrow, I backed away. There was a crunching sound, as if someone was walking over branches and gravel.

  “They’re everywhere. Quickly, gather round,” I whispered.

  Nothing moved save for ivy fluttering in the wind on the mossy walls.

  The sound of steps stopped and then resumed. However, this time I caught a glimpse of a shadow. Or was it just my imagination?

  I thought it was something more. The others were also nervous and looking around. As we moved farther away from the center of the square, they gathered around me. A second later, creatures began to emerge out of the burrows. They looked like dirty, overgrown people with wild, unkempt hair and grins like wild animals. Text flashed before my eyes, but I didn’t have time to concentrate and read it. Howls rang through the deserted streets of the abandoned settlement, and a hail of stones rained down upon us from all sides.

  But then I noticed our way out—a narrow passage between the walls—and ran to it, shouting, “Let’s go!”

  Chapter 11

  ELIMINATION

  A stone hit my back and almost knocked me down. Another one grazed my left arm, making it go numb and limp.

  A [Mutant] has attacked you.

  Damage taken: 1.6%

  Damage blocked: 0

  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Turtle power... The lyrics of my favorite childhood TV series theme song came to mind. However, these creatures were far from being heroes in a half-shell.

  Jelena was following me, wide-eyed. Bojan was cursing and swearing as he ran. Eli was covering us from behind. We ran through the passageway and emerged at an intersection. Breathing hard and running next to me, Jelena was close to grabbing my arm to keep her balance.

  “Everyone all right?” I asked without turning around.

  The rest of the group muttered incomprehensibly in reply. I rubbed the bruise on my arm and wiggled my fingers. The pain was gone. Today, I had been bitten by Hyenas and hit with enough force to knock a man down, but my body didn’t seem to care.

  Eli rushed forward first, and we hurried after him. Bojan brought up the rear with a predatory smile on his face. A few seconds passed before a giant Mutant attacked us, jumping off a vine and knocking Eli down. Clutching the spear’s hilt near the tip, I rushed toward the creature. Parts of its body were highlighted with a blinking dotted line, and a higher force seemed to be pushing me in the
right direction. Piercing its throat with the tip of the spear, I easily knocked it off Eli.

  You have dealt a critical blow to the [Mutant].

  Damage dealt: 99% (weapon: unknown; strength: unknown)

  Damage blocked: unknown

  [Mutant’s] current HP: 1%

  It took me a second or two to realize what I had done. Eli didn’t even have time to become frightened; he looked up dumbfounded and confused, wiping away the blood that had spurted onto his face.

  The enemy lay at my feet, writhing in agony and gurgling, trying to close the wound by covering it with its hands. I fucking killed a man. It was a strange realization, and it was the greatest shock that I had ever experienced. There was melancholy music playing in my head. I froze, failing to notice another Mutant rushing at me. Fortunately, Rio came to my rescue. Masterfully swinging his spear, he hit the female Mutant from behind. She screamed and crawled back into her hole.

  The other Mutants didn’t dare attack us. But then came a sound that sent chills of fear down my spine: howling.

  We quickly turned into another alley, and ran until Jelena fell, gasping for air.

  “What the hell are you doing?! Get up and let’s go!” Bojan shouted, but she didn’t move.

  Cursing, he bent over her, helped her up, and, leaning on each other, they hobbled toward us. The back of Bojan’s head was a bloody mess. Jelena, luckily, had no visible injuries. I looked at Eli, who looked like Jack the Ripper, all pale and covered in blood. Rio seemed to be all right, tense and alert, with a strange look on his face.

  Are we all right? I asked myself.

  Dude, everything’s okay.

  Bojan sat Jelena down on the cobblestone road and put his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

  “As far as I can see, they aren’t following us. What’s with the long face, Jeco? Get your shit together!” There was something coarse and insolent in the tone of his voice.

  Jelena shut her eyes. She looked pale and scared of her brother, as if waiting for him to hit her.

  “It’s only until it gets dark. I bet that they’ll try to attack us then. So, we’ll all be dead soon,” Eli said. “Can you walk on your own?”

  The girl staggered to her feet, nodded, and glanced warily at her brother. This whole thing was obviously very hard for her, but she endured it all like a champ, knowing that if we left, she wouldn’t stand a chance alone.

  “Do you think we’ll get to the Base before dark?” I turned to Rio.

  He shook his head.

  “Not a chance. We need to find a place to sleep,” he answered, lost in his thoughts, and then changed the subject. “Any idea what these creatures are? They look like people, but they’re not the sharpest tools in the shed.” He waved his hand in front of his nose. “Do you also have these hints in front of your eyes? Like, about Mutants and being injured? I see the text, do you? Am I going crazy?”

  I told him about how the neural network worked for me, about a few hints and the unreadable characters, but said nothing about the Modes.

  “Shit, I have just a red mist,” Eli said grimly. “I wish I also had some messages. I saw only that Totem thing.”

  “I also had only a few messages and mostly the mist. Jelena has the same, I guess.” Bojan looked at his sister, who just nodded.

  Rio seemed to have some insights about this whole thing, but he remained silent. I also didn’t say anything, even though I was willing to bet that it all depended on one’s intelligence—the smarter you were, the easier the installation was. However, it’d be stupid to say that out loud and potentially offend and turn everyone against myself. I was also still thinking that some of them weren’t who they claimed to be...

  “I think that these creatures didn’t make it to the Base before the destruction of their neural network and... ahem... left the game,” I said, thinking it’d be good to share my thoughts on the matter.

  Dead silence ensued, save for the wind that rustled the bushes and the treetops. No one wanted to lose their mind and turn into that.

  “What about Ow?” Jelena blurted out.

  “What prevents the military from conducting experiments on children?” I asked coolly.

  “Let’s hurry. We have a little more than a day left,” Rio suggested.

  After he had beaten the shit out of that Mutant, we all saw him in a new light, and to be perfectly honest, I didn’t want to make fun of him anymore. He was doing his best to lead the team, thus proving that he was a tough guy.

  My brain felt like it was on fire as I analyzed the details that I had missed. It was as if it was choosing the best solutions and the right words in accordance with the situation. It even seemed to make a profile for each team member.

  Bojan was a sociopath with a killer instinct and the makings of a leader. He was somewhat like Archie, and I wanted to fucking kill him. As long as it was profitable for him to be on the team, he would stay with us, but I couldn’t trust him.

  Eli was a slumdog. I knew people like him very well, because I was one of them myself. He was dumb as a brick but a man of his word. If he said that he’d do something, then he would keep his promise.

  Rio wasn’t so much helpless as he was asocial. It was difficult for him to be around people, as he didn’t know how to behave next to them. Perhaps he was raised by a strict mother and bullied at school, as often happened to nerds.

  Jelena was always suppressing something and seemed somewhat detached from reality. Even she didn’t know that much about herself. She had been broken by her brother, and was afraid of him.

  I wonder how they see you, said a malicious voice. They have no idea just how much of a crazy bastard...

  Shut up, you fuck! I said. Was it appropriate to call your inner voices names? Well, it seemed all right to me.

  I used to think of myself as an ordinary guy from a poor family, not the smartest, but not stupid, with some issues, but now I didn’t know who I was. The struggle for leadership in the group was something new for me.

  When we reached the river, the last ray of sun had sunk behind the mountains.

  “It’s about ten miles from here to the Base,” Rio said. “We won’t make it so it’d be better to try and spend the night in a relatively safe place.”

  We didn’t face any more Mutants, but we did notice a pair of boot prints. I personally found that reassuring. If there were people walking around, maybe there were fewer aggressive creatures in this area.

  Yeah? Who, if not humans, is the most efficient predator on Earth? a voice inquired.

  After a while, we decided to spend the night in a rusty van that had somehow ended up here—a dubious shelter, but it was all we had. Jelena dropped on the floor and passed out immediately. It didn’t take Bojan long to fall asleep either. He tossed and turned, having nightmares. Eli, too, was exhausted, but he made sure to wash the blood off himself before going to sleep.

  Rio was restless and inspired, like he was burning from inside out. I felt the same way. I felt like I had taken Adderall—I wanted to run, do something, but my head was clear, and I didn’t have problems with a short attention span. It was a fat chance we would fall asleep, so we decided to stand guard.

  We sat on the roof of the rusty van. Rio tilted his head back, stuck out his tongue, and looked at the sky.

  “There are so many stars... It’s a pity that I don’t know anything about them. We could tell if we’re in the southern or the northern hemisphere. I can’t even find Polaris; I grew up in a big city. You can’t see the stars there, and my parents didn’t go much to the countryside.”

  “I don’t know either, Rio, so I can’t help.”

  About an hour later, Rio went to bed and I stayed alone on the roof. It was chilly, but I wasn’t cold.

  Somewhere far away, there were faint flashes of light. I shut my eyes for a moment, and I wasn’t sure whether I imagined it or not, but I heard a faint scream. I opened my eyes—something was happening in the sky above the center of the island. A gia
nt, vertical shadow was slowly swaying there.

  It was a dark, moonless night. Stars twinkled in the void above me. Frogs croaked. Leaves rustled.

  Far, far away, the dim flashes appeared again, growing brighter. I jumped up and looked in their direction. The light was pulsating, murky and mysterious in the darkness of the night... I thought I saw silhouettes in the sky. I wondered what kind of magic that was.

  Gandalf versus Balrog... What else could it be? Despite its usual malicious tone, Alpha was astounded and uncertain.

  The flashes went out and didn’t appear again.

  Is it really possible that we’ll be kicking some mage asses in real life?

  ***

  In the morning, Jelena and Bojan felt much better. However, when we tried to wake up Eli, he struggled to sit up, groaned, and sank back down. We had to wait for him to get his shit together.

  After a while, we were wading across a river, scaring away the fish. As I was putting on my shoes, a greenish flurry of strange symbols appeared before my eyes. I straightened up and looked around. Something glowed behind the trees. It was the system hinting that something important was hiding there.

  Eli didn’t seem to get it.

  “What is it?” he asked in surprise.

  However, Bojan thought faster than I did. He was like a bloodhound following the scent of his prey. He ran forward and crouched, wanting to get the thing at any cost. In the middle of the clearing, he got down on all fours, groping in the grass.

  Second Life

  If the unit’s HP is higher than 10%, the artifact heals any damage.

  One, two, he's coming for you…

  He rose, clutching the glittering stone. For some reason, it reminded me of a small gravestone.

  “I dunno what the heck this is,” he said. “But I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a clump of fog near one of the trunks. I elbowed Rio, who was standing next to me, and nodded at the hole in the space. The fog began to change its shape. There was a faint glow in it, and a short guy of about my age stepped out into the clearing. His face was mouse-like, pale, with a bruise on his neck.