Isekai Magus 3: A LitRPG Progression Saga (The Fantasy World of Nordan)

by Han Yang

  I lifted the paper up, unfolding it.

  My end of the bargain as promised. The key to defeating a god is to take them somewhere that the creator rules. ∞ Yuri the Don’tlevelpastnineteenwhateveryoudo.

  The note disintegrated, transitioning into nothing in a blink of an eye.

  “The hell?” I grumbled. “Thanks.”

  “Due to recent events, I cannot leave my church until the fabled battle has been resolved. Only the promise from Yuri to fulfill an oath is allowing me to greet you. I wish I could say more, but I cannot. I do wish you luck and want to thank you for taking me into the top half of the leaderboards.” Caitlyn patted my shoulder in appreciation before vanishing in a golden explosion of light.

  I paused, letting the stars fade from my vision before cursing her sudden departure.

  “That was odd. She seemed extremely tense. Normally, when she is drinking, she brags about odd god sex. It… it’s actually kinda gross. Anyway, what was in the message?” Bell asked.

  “I’ll tell you at our next stop. I was expecting that to take longer,” I said.

  We navigated the maze of ogres hauling trees towards goblins who stripped the limbs. Skeletons loaded wagons, and down towards the lumbermill, the laden beds rolled in complaint with their constant creaks.

  Bell slithered her arm into the nook of my elbow. She thrived on me not fighting her on simple gestures that could be misconstrued, and I simply didn’t have it in me to fend off her harmless interaction.

  I did pick up the pace, heading towards the docks down the main road and having to fight the growing crowds of people. Since the assassination attempt the first time, I’d taken risks because of him.

  I had no idea if I had made the biggest mistake of my life, or if I had created a way to win. The jury was still out, and Jasper was now helping me run my secret operation.

  I honestly knew it might not be my problem in a few days anyway. I watched Bell noticed my wave of concern and worried expression through a stiff frown and a long sigh.

  “That bad?” Bell asked, and I shrugged, not wanting to talk about it.

  The city teemed with people hustling to prepare for the evening meal, clean up the signs of battle, or help where the city needed labor. Chains of surrendered foes passed by in the hundreds. The long line of prisoners scanned the city in surprise.

  “I think they’re stunned by how normal we are,” I said.

  Bell inspected the prisoners who trudged towards the camps outside the city. A few of the men lingered on her beauty. It wasn’t that I didn’t think she was pretty, it was just that I didn’t see her that way.

  Unit commanders and ship captains tended to figure out who I was, hushing their soldiers as we passed. You might think a defeated enemy would taunt their captures. Not these troops; the necromancer and his white-haired guards were feared.

  Immense skeletons lumbered over them to ensure they stuck to their designated lanes, and that sealed their fate.

  “They fear you and desire me. Such power,” Bell said. “We make a great team.”

  I patted her arm with my free hand in agreement. The steady stream of surrendered troops never ended all the way to the docks.

  The closer we got to the water, the more boots sloshed and outfits dripped. A few thousand sailors and soldiers waited in the shallows for processing into shackles. One by one, they arrived on the docks, were stripped of valuables and weapons, then added to the chains.

  I suddenly stopped us, seeing a miscee missing an ear.

  “Halt!” I commanded, and the entire city froze at my bellowing command.

  Minions stomped their feet in a final thud, readying for violence.

  “Free the miscee and hurry to my side, or you die,” I ordered and kept walking.

  The clank of shackles opening echoed in the wide street with towering warehouses. The miscee ran to catch up, and the massive chain of prisoners continued marching towards their temporary homes outside my walls.

  When the pitter-patter of light feet neared, I said, “I saved you.”

  “Umm… You just did, I think,” he replied. “I didn’t want to become a skeleton.”

  His furled brows and scrunched nose spoke of confusion.

  I said, “Heal other.” His ear was repaired and he gasped. “Stow the theatrics. I watched you lose that ear before throwing you out of a sinking ship. I’m glad you can swim.”

  “Umm. Oh… You were the skeleton.”

  “Wise deduction,” I said dryly, heading to the estate with the hidden chamber below it. “How did you end up a slave?”

  “I owed taxes, a lot of them. I gambled my money away in the hopes of having enough to flee the Podoni Empire.”

  “The sweet, sweet irony. You lost and ended up free of the Podoni Empire. Trials and tribulations. Trials and tribulations. So intriguing. What’s your magic type?” I asked.

  “Illumination mage, my Lord.”

  “Perfect. Head to the keep, tell them Damien Moonguard sent you to find Nee for a work detail. You will be paid fairly and taxed minimally, if at all. We are a nation of conquest, not a labor farm,” I told him.

  Bell cleared her throat and tugged on my arm. “The King sent you,” Bell told him and pointed up the city towards the keep. “Get going.” Bell watched him run off, and when he disappeared into the busy street, added, “Surprised you healed him and sent him to see Nee. She’ll grumble.”

  “Nee is the most powerful goblin ogre on the continent. She has everything she wants, and she knows she wouldn’t be able to unify all the races if she stole my throne. I pay her in advance with everything she could ever desire. I love her just as much as I love you, just in different ways. That miscee deserved a chance at freedom. He might betray us, but I want to give him an opportunity at a new life,” I said proudly.

  “You’ve gone soft.”

  “I was never hard,” I countered.

  “Oh, I know,” she quickly said, and I groaned with an eye roll. “Sorry, you set that one up. I worry, though. Welcoming in slaves of our enemies will lead to enemies within.”

  “Good thing I have skeletons who can follow everyone around. The dead are starting to stack up,” I said, nearing the estate.

  “Oh, you’re taking me here,” Bell said in surprise. “You sealed this place up after you brought Caitlyn here.”

  “Not exactly true. Baroi’s dagger was in here, and I had Asha recording the images in detail,” I said, passing by towering dran guards. “We need to win, Bell, and more importantly, I need to think out loud without triggering the gods.”

  We passed through the courtyard, up the steep steps, and transitioned into the torture room. The door rested open, and a dozen orcs stood guard. Each of them wore robes with gnarled staves. At the tip, gems swirled yellow magic so condensed you could sense its desire to be unleashed.

  “I see Nee has elevated you already. Glad to see. How is the mission going?” I asked.

  “The first dozen died quickly, and they’re stripping the dead now,” an orc said in a gruff voice.

  Bell froze. “By the -”

  I clamped a hand over her mouth. “Do not bring their attention here willingly. We are stripping the dead from the sea battle down below, nothing more or less,” I lied. She licked my hand, and I jerked it off her mouth. “Gross.”

  She chuckled. “Ha! Your palm tastes like milk, oddly enough,” Bell said, and I blushed. “Oh, oh…feisty. You were squeezing milkers after the battle. Good for Tarla.”

  “I bottle fed Maggie and the damn thing dripped mother’s milk on my hands,” I said with a head shake.

  Before Bell could comment, I crossed the threshold, diving down into the cavern dedicated to the Creator. There used to be a flat area with a few pits on either side. Marbern expanded the area into something safer than mere sunken boxes.

  A single green portal crackled open with static energy pulsating until it raised the hairs on my arm. Jasper stared up at the creation. A dozen arcane goblins waited around a
thirty-foot deep pit.

  I walked to the edge, seeing a pile of dead in the bottom. The goblins gazed around in boredom.

  “Leo or Earth?” I asked Jasper.

  “Earth. They seem to hunger for fresh blood. They jump through in droves, eager to kill. When no victorious cries rally those behind them, the demons simply stop coming. They’re learning,” Jasper said.

  “So, shift the portal,” Bell said.

  Jasper scoffed. “I do. Every few hours. I have to let this one expire first.”

  The blank stares of the dead from below sent shivers down my spine. The horned demons were evil, plain and simple. No trading, no negotiations, just death. I yanked my eyes off the sight, noticing movement from a different immense pit.

  “Follow me,” I told Bell.

  We walked to a new area where the runes were devoid of coloration and no active portal. Korb used ladders to descend into a pit of dead demons. They wielded swords with arcane enhanced edges. Famo had built these, knowing what we might face one day.

  We had two gemology mages, and they had been working night and day to hone these weapons. Korb severed heads before hurling them up. Once on the surface, the eyes were plucked free and washed before being dumped in a bucket.

  “Does Tarla know?” Bell asked.

  I nodded solemnly. “I took her down here before I left. She needed to know. Back then, it was just a pit, Asha messing around, and those goblin trolls you saw at the entrance. Well, goblin orcs since recently.

  “Goblin ogres is an actual thing, and we screwed up the naming convention. Mostly myth is at fault, but I don’t want to call a thirty-foot tall ogre, who used to be a goblin, a goblin troll.”

  “Damien, who gives a shit what the upgraded goblins call themselves. You’re farming flipping demons. What the hell is wrong with you?” Bell asked in concern.

  “Oh, this is to help Earth,” I said. “Humans need our help. If the demons are dumb, charging recklessly, then great.” She saw right through my bullshit. “Fine, it's so we can get the gems to enhance our mages. The bonus is that I can pretend to be making a difference back on Earth.”

  “And if a Leo god or a demon-rog comes through?” Bell asked.

  I held up my hands defensively. “What the hell is a demon-rog?”

  “I swear, I love you as much as I love my dad, but there are times I want to punch you in the nuts. You have books on demons, yet you open portals without studying them,” Bell said with barely controlled anger.

  “Simmer down. All this is being taken one day at a time. These gems will help every mage we have. Who cares if there is an outbreak when we may not be alive in seven days?” I placed my hands on her shoulders, seeing her calm a smidge. “Plus, they even drop decent Zorta. When I saw them die on Earth, they dropped a yellow essence, but I guess they converted on the journey here.”

  “Every three hours you’ve been opening a portal?” Bell asked inquisitively.

  “Yes. Remember the elva who stormed the gate, when that shithead brought assassins?” I thumbed Jasper.

  “Yeah… Oh. You used those elva to start this atrocity,” Bell said. “Why is he here, then?” She pointed at Jasper.

  “If a demon-rog comes, I want him to be the one who dies. Unless they can mend stone, it’d be trapped down here, and based on the fact none have altered the pits so far, I doubt they can,” I said.

  Bell tossed her hands on her hips unhappily. “Did Caitlyn approve of this?”

  “Nope, she warned me against it, actually. Marbern expanded the pits and even created cages for demons. I was thinking about trapping some and sailing them to King Korbi with a note. Here is the necromancer and the undead offspring. Problem solved,” I said in a silly tone.

  “You’re dense.”

  “Aye, I know that. This room could hold the key to defeating King Korbi. Yuri’s note said, ‘to defeat a god, take them to where the creator rules.’”

  “But King Korbi isn’t a god,” Bell said in confusion.

  I shook my head. “Every single person has asked me if I understood how much of a threat he is without telling what he is. I think the elva gained something during the cataclysm. Something so holy no one talks about it. Maybe a regional divine being. It makes the most sense.”

  “What, they have unlimited magic?” Bell asked.

  I kicked a stone, sending it skipping across the smooth cavern floor. “Not a clue. I believe Asha when he says, ‘it's a mystery to even me.’”

  “Alright, so let me get this straight. You are killing demons for power at a great risk to your citizens?” Bell asked, and I folded my arms with a sharp bob of my head. “King Korbi needs to be brought into here to die?”

  “I believe so.”

  “How do you get him in here?” Bell asked.

  “We don’t. I plan on fleeing Moonguard City,” I said.

  Bell reached out to strangle me and clenched her fists tightly. “You - you - you what?”

  “I love these private talks we have, Bell. I think it helps our friendship blossom in new ways. Oh, and before I forget, Caitlyn said, ‘don’t level past nineteen.’ I’m assuming she means necromancy.”

  “But why?” Bell asked with a lip bite. “Actually, I might know this one. Ascension. Have you ever heard of the power curve theory?”

  “Uh, can’t say that I have,” I admitted.

  “When you reach level twenty, I bet you unlock a new skill. Maybe you can convert the wounded into the undead without ever touching an orb or something,” Bell said.

  “That’d be ruthless, gross, and also awesome,” I said.

  “Yeah, but it’d put you ahead of the power curve. Whatever you get at level twenty probably makes you too powerful for the area,” Bell said.

  “Bell, I think you’re wrong. A wurm lord let me escape. She literally defeated my army with a single spell,” I said.

  “Yeah, that is my point. You would end up fighting those type of creatures only. You’ve leveled beyond the curve. Who in the Garo Region can stop us?” Bell asked.

  I tilted my head in thought and tossed my hands up. “With the latest additions, leveled mages, and new gear? Likely no one.”

  “And Podoni?”

  I frowned. “I’d probably lose if they turned their full might.”

  “And if they fed you enough kills to reach level thirty or forty? And… And you can raise the already dead, or combine skeletons, or raise the wounded?” Bell asked.

  “I don’t like where this conversation is going,” I told her.

  “Damien.” She knocked on my forehead. “Play chess, my love.”

  “I’m listening,” I told her.

  “Yeah, but… play chess, Damien. Why did the player who controls the pieces just tell the king not to move forward past the fifth line?” Bell asked.

  I tapped my chin and said, “To warn me. If she put on an act, and hid her message, it will be for a good reason. Worst of all. Cecil is pushing me to level twenty.”

  “Ah, there’s your answer, my King. Extort the merman to find out why and refuse to advance. But if you do go forward with it, I wouldn’t be shocked if Moonguard City is suddenly moved to the interior of the planet. Or onto Ostriva where the challenges are far greater than they are here,” Bell said.

  We shared a moment of silence over these words. They worried me. Caitlyn was very discrete in her message. She clearly warned me for a reason, and that meant I had to stifle my growth or pay the consequences to whatever her warning alluded to.

  Bell said, “I can’t say it enough. Please, let us defend our home.”

  “I have to see how the battle report went, my skeleton inventory, the city inventory, the citizen tally, and then what the scouts from the southern region say before I reach a conclusion. I told you everyone would hate the current plan,” I said.

  She played with her toes against the floor, staring down in contemplation. “I love this city.”

  “I know.”

  “I love having a home,” Bell
said softly, as if pleading. “Tarb was always my mother’s home, never mine. I think about dad the most, and how he’d be happy here. If I do have a child, I’ll move heaven and soil to bring him to see his grandbaby. Do you get why I want to repel this invasion?”

  “I understand, I really do. I’d love to meet your dad also. I could go without seeing your mom again.” She smirked from my words, and I shifted the conversation. “I really think we need to run.”

  She scoffed. “You make me so happy it hurts, but then other times you simply infuriate me.”

  “Glad I can help you feel.”

  “Uh, shut it, Damien. I’m not loving this option, and that is what it is,” Bell said.

  I shrugged, offering my crooked arm to take her to the keep. “Like I said, it's just an option. How about we learn what we can, and you can be at my side, with Tarla, to figure out where our adventure leads us next?”

  “I - I - I’d like that. Maybe I can talk some sense into you,” Bell said with a big smile.

  We shared a light laugh, and I held in my smartass remark. She accepted my arm with a skip to her step.

  I just had to hope that the planning for the battle gave me wondrous news, because if not, I was going to be forced with a tough decision.

  CHAPTER 25

  Moonguard City

  “Clear the court,” Ike shouted when I arrived.

  Minions dragged out sections of a large table while nobles shuffled out. I waved and exchanged pleasantries with those exiting.

  In the background, a table for our meeting connected together. Nick hauled Tarla’s throne chair to the head of the table, plopping it down. I walked to mine and tried to lift it.

  I felt my back pop with the struggle, barely getting the damn thing off the floor.

  “I got it,” Nick said, helping me out. “You have some explaining to do.”

  “Ah, you saw the activity when you left the docks?” I asked. He nodded solemnly. “It is my personal secret, and I won't even discuss it here freely. If you want to talk about it, which I’m more than happy to do, we should do so there.”

  “Figured. You play dangerous games, my friend,” Nick said, setting my chair down.