The Luckless: A MMORPG and LitRPG Online Adventure (Second Age of Retha Book 1)

by A. M. Sohma

  “You mean you actually want to level? Vic…I’m so touched!” Cookie sniffled and let Vic lead her to the horses.

  Kit flicked her eyes back and forth between Cookie, Prowl, and Vic, noting the new party dynamics as Riko and Prowl started to meander toward the entry point.

  “Take care,” Riko called.

  “You, too! We look forward to hearing what our next task is.” Kit whistled, summoning Chester, then mounted the stocky pony. “Okay, is there a particular camp you guys think we should pull our targets from?” Kit’s spine stiffened when she heard the velvet sound of an arrow being pulled from a quiver.

  Reacting on instinct, she kneed Chester—who lurched into a canter just in time to avoid the arrow one of the elf guards had shot at her.

  She wove the pony around to make her a harder target, and spied Riko and Prowl passing through the entryway—unmolested by the guards who were scowling at her.

  “We’re right behind you,” Cookie shouted.

  Kit leaned closer to Chester’s neck and wove her fingers through his thick mane. “Great. Let’s get out of here.”

  Days later found Kit sprinting through the forest with a bobokin hot on her trail.

  The blue-skinned creature—which was similar to a goblin though it had more of a pig snout and bigger ears—released a bloodcurdling cry and threw a wooden spear at her.

  Kit dodged it by zooming around a tree. I think I finally am getting the hang of elvish athleticism! Her triumphant thought came too soon, for as she made a sharp turn to sprint up a dry creek bed, she almost overshot the turn and barely avoided running into a tree.

  She veered back into the creek bed, where the bobokin grabbed her by her veil and yanked her backwards. Kit flicked one of her fans open and swept its metal edge across the goblin’s face, slicing it.

  The bobokin let her go and grabbed its pig-snout-nose with an angry howl.

  Kit righted herself and again started up the creek bed. She glanced over her shoulder to see if the beastly creature was following, and kicked her speed up an extra notch when she saw it was not only following her, but it had removed its short sword from its leather belt and had somehow lit it on fire.

  I can’t believe this, even with my cowardly leader agility boost, this thing is just as fast as I am! Kit swallowed the gob of spit that threatened to choke her as she fought to breathe. “I’m coming in hot…very hot.”

  “We’re ready for you,” Gil said.

  Pebbles and silt crunched under Kit’s sandals as she ran, jumping the occasional large boulder that dotted the dry creek bed. She skidded to a stop only when she reached a dead end, where a massive boulder taller than she was had once created a waterfall.

  Cornered, Kit turned around and pressed herself against the boulder, her throat closing as the bobokin jumped at her with its flaming short sword.

  Kit winced, but at the apex of the bobokin’s jump, Gil leaped out of the bushes and slammed into the creature with his huge shield.

  The creature hit the ground and rolled, swiftly popping back to its feet with a growl.

  “Cry of Challenge!” Gil pointed his spear at the bobokin and shouted. The magic behind the skill slammed into the fallen bobokin, pummeling it back into the ground again.

  Gil crouched in a defensive stance, his shield held out in front of him, as the creature crawled to its feet. It jumped at Gil, slamming his shield with its broadsword, landing a small hit to the crusader.

  “Axel, Cookie, whenever you like,” Kit said.

  Axel needed no more prodding and jumped from the lower branches of a nearby tree with a shout. “Blade of fury!” His gigantic sword glowed white hot as he held it above his head, then swung it down, smashing it into the bobokin’s skull.

  Gil scooted back several feet. “Going up, Miss Kit?”

  “Yeah, thanks.” Kit took the hand the Crusader offered her. She climbed onto his back and jumped to the top of the giant boulder, joining Vic in the out-of-the-way location.

  Vic already held a glowing ball of fire in her hands. “Can I get started?”

  “Just give me a sec to get my dance up and boost your critical hit stat,” Kit said.

  Vic nodded and glanced down at her cat, which twined around her ankles.

  Kit took a deep breath, then balanced on one foot and twirled, beginning the sequence for her skill, the Luck-Luck Dance.

  Though the name is slightly dopey and the dance sequence makes me feel like a bobbing chicken, it is a pretty nice stat boost.

  “The buff is up,” Kit announced.

  Vic raised her hands to throw the fireball, but it was Cookie who attacked first.

  The night stalker stepped out of the shadows directly behind the bobokin—which was getting passed back and forth between Gil and Axel. Cookie’s usually bright and expressive face was a chilling mask of cold apathy as she crouched behind the bobokin, who had just delivered a good jab to Axel’s side and taken the warrior’s health bar down by at least 40%. When the bobokin staggered backwards after Axel threw him off, Cookie struck with her daggers.

  “Savage,” she said.

  Black flames danced around her blades as she cut into the bobokin’s back.

  “Fireball!” Vic shouted seconds later, releasing the magic attack she’d been holding onto.

  The bobokin howled as it hopped back and forth on its feet, on fire and sporting a bleeding de-buff from Cookie. It had only a sliver of health left.

  “He’s mine!” Axel shouted. He rushed forward and stabbed the creature in the gut.

  The bobokin screamed and babbled, then flopped to the ground and disappeared.

  The familiar rainbow-colored lights and white musical notes poured down on Kit as big, beveled, golden letters formed over her head. “LEVEL UP.”

  No notification of a new skill popped up, to Kit’s disappointment. (Though it wasn’t a surprise as at level twenty she—along with every other player—received the Safe Haven skill that let her set a save spot and teleport there when desired. That was going to be extremely useful in the future!)

  “Congrats on level twenty-one!” Cookie said.

  Kit smiled and glanced at the night stalker before she began sifting through the items the bobokin left behind. “Thank you.”

  “I would’ve thought you would catch up to us faster,” Vic said. (When they had separated to grind reputation items, Vic, Cookie, Gil, and Axel had gotten a few levels ahead of Kit. Now Vic was level twenty-three, Cookie twenty-four, and Axel and Gil twenty-five.)

  “Now that we’re partying together, we’re all getting the same amount of experience though,” Kit pointed out. “So technically it’s impossible for me to catch up as long as we party together. Plus, I’ve been dying a lot, and every time I respawn I lose one percent of my experience bar.”

  Vic picked up her cat and peered over the edge of the boulder. “I see.”

  “Would you like assistance down, Miss Victoria?” Gil asked, holding out an arm.

  Vic nodded and sat on the boulder before scooting over the edge, letting the crusader catch her and her feline.

  “We’re really starting to get a system down now!” Axel said enthusiastically. “Kit hasn’t died once during the last five battles!”

  “Our measure of success is slightly broken,” Kit said, “as normally we would only be dying in very dire circumstances.”

  “Such is life when we’re attacking monsters that are so much higher-leveled than we are,” Cookie said as she sheathed her daggers. “Speaking of higher-leveled, I wonder how much longer Riko and Prowl are going to take.”

  “Should we private message them?” Axel suggested.

  “No, we have no idea what they’re doing and might contact them at a very bad time,” Kit said. Using her elf agility, she leaped from the boulder and landed gracefully in the creek bed. She adjusted the hem of her skirt, which was riding perilously high, and gazed into the forest, which was turning purple with twilight.

  How long have we been playing
.... Not just since Riko and Prowl left, but since we were transferred to the corrupt backup server?

  Time was a tricky thing in the Chronicles of Retha. Days passed in mere hours of real life, but to those playing, it still felt like a normal twenty-four-hour day—sort of how dreams often felt.

  Though they had been in-game for days, possibly weeks, it had likely only been several hours of real life.

  “You know, Kit, even though you try to make Riko the party leader whenever you get the chance, you’re really good at tactics,” Vic said as she cradled her cat. “We never did anything half as fancy or worked nearly as well as your idea to drag the bobokin to us when we were item grinding.”

  Kit shrugged. “When I played as an echo of arcane, it was my job to take out the biggest threat first. So, I had to learn how to read a battle and take appropriate counter-measures. Any good echo would operate the same way.”

  “Uh-huh.” Vic rolled her eyes. “You’re horrible with compliments.”

  Kit was saved from responding when a trumpet sounded, and an information screen popped up in front of her.

  Congratulations! You have received: The Seal of the Elves.

  The Human Seal and the Fae Seal remain for you to claim.

  Axel whooped. “Pay dirt! Now we’re halfway through the questline!”

  Kit grinned and switched to party chat. “Way to go! You guys got it with just the two of you! What on earth did you have to do?”

  “We don’t want to talk about it,” Prowl said. His voice was extra flat and dead.

  Kit twirled one of her fans by its wrist strap. “Oh, okay. Should we meet up with you guys at the entryway you entered Lèas through?”

  “We’ll be there,” Riko said, sounding scarcely more alive than Prowl.

  Gil raised his eyebrows. “I hope they did not have to suffer horribly for the seal.”

  “Their health bars never dipped down,” Vic pointed out.

  “We’ll find out soon.” Kit whistled, and Chester appeared with a happy nicker and a mouthful of ferns. “Let’s go meet them!”

  Chester was in the process of yanking Kit’s arms out of their sockets so he could stretch his neck long enough to reach a white flower when Riko and Prowl staggered out of the city limits and passed the elf guards standing outside the wall.

  “Woah,” Vic said. “The elves must’ve really put them through the wringer.”

  The pair teetered along with rumpled clothes, mussed hair, and dark circles under their eyes.

  Kit bit her lip, but she didn’t dare slip off of Chester and veer into the elves’ sights. “Are you two okay?” she asked when they finally wobbled up to the party.

  Riko blinked slowly, then scrubbed her face with her hands. “That was awful.”

  “What did they make you do?” Axel asked with a frown. “Face a goblin army?”

  “Worse,” Prowl croaked. “We had to listen to them tell stories about the seal for three nights and three days.”

  Kit winced in sympathy. “Yikes.”

  “I think I will hear the elf lyre playing in the background for the rest of my life,” Riko said.

  Prowl gingerly nodded. “I think I didn’t remember it because it was so traumatizing—and boring.”

  “Sounds like torture,” Axel said.

  Vic rolled her eyes.

  Riko waved off their concern. “The first day wasn’t so bad. The elves are always gracious hosts and offer plenty of refreshments. And their voices and stories are beautiful, but halfway through day two…let’s just say it’s like listening to the song that never ends.”

  “I’m sorry it was so difficult,” Cookie said as she peered at Prowl in worry. “But I thank you for this great service you have done our party.”

  The praise put a little iron in Prowl’s spine, and he rolled his shoulders back and nodded. “We have the elf seal, and that’s what matters.”

  Riko snorted. “That’s not what you said this morning.”

  He ignored her and opened up his inventory. “Here it is.” He held up the seal, which resembled the dwarven one in that it was a saucer-size disk. The elf seal, however, was forged out of a platinum-like metal, and instead of bearing runes, it was covered with a curling script.

  Kit absentmindedly patted Chester while the pony scratched his front right knee. “I think you should hold on to it, Prowl,” she said, recalling Solus’ Miles warning about the shadow reaper.

  That’s right. The shadow reaper!

  Kit abruptly turned Chester and nudged him away from Lèas. “I think we need to get out of this area.”

  “What’s the hurry?” Axel asked.

  “Are you thinking of the shadow reaper?” Gil asked.

  “Yes. I suspect he’ll attack us soon, given that Riko and Prowl just got us another seal. I’d rather not battle near the wall where the elf guards might come and put an arrow through me.”

  Riko groaned. “You are right, but I’m so exhausted. And those stingy elves didn’t even give us a single coin! Ugh.”

  In spite of their groans, both Riko and Prowl whistled, calling their horses. In no time, their party quietly navigated their way through the woods, making a beeline for the transportation gate that was just outside the forest.

  Kit carefully combed the forest with her eyes, whipping around at every tree branch that snapped and any bird that took off flying. The hair on the back of her neck prickled again, and she could feel something dark draw near.

  It’s coming!

  Axel suddenly leapt off his horse and unsheathed his sword. “There it is!”

  Kit looked to where the warrior was pointing just in time to see the shadow reaper step out of the gloom.

  16

  Final Battle

  The shadow reaper cocked its head and laughed, a grating sound that made Kit shiver. “I see you managed to convince the elves to give you their seal, heroes. Well done. It would’ve been a difficult task to secure it for myself, so I praise your efforts. Now. Hand it over.”

  Riko snorted. “After what we went through to get it? Never!”

  The shadow reaper screeched in fury and swung its scythe in a crescent shape. The blade seemed to slice through their reality, opening a gap in the air from which black fire poured through. The fire spread faster than lightning, and hit them all in an area attack. It burned, but it also felt like talons clawing into Kit’s skull as it encircled her.

  The fire ate away at roughly 45% of Kit’s health bar. A glance at the other party members confirmed they all sported high damages as well—though hers was definitely the worst as she was also the lowest leveled.

  “I will not repeat myself, heroes. Hand over the seal, or face certain destruction!” The shadow reaper glided closer to them, its bare skull gleaming in the moonlight.

  Axel laughed and wiped a smudge of blood off his chin. “Destruction? How can you say that with a straight face when you told us you would kill us last time, too? You should probably think of changing your tactics as they don’t really seem to work.”

  The shadow reaper screamed with rage, and Kit used the few moments to review the situation.

  The shadow reaper was now a level thirty-two, so Solus Miles had been right. With each seal, it seemed that the shadow reaper’s power and level would grow.

  Unless we want to spend a lot of time grinding levels, we won’t be able to finish this quest without him wiping us out at some point, which means we would lose the seals.

  “He’s doing something suspicious again!” Vic announced.

  The shadow reaper raised its scythe again, and this time swung it in a vertical line. Seven spindly limbed creatures wriggled out of the gash he created. They were made entirely of shadows and were so skinny their leg bones were probably as thick as Kit’s wrist. Though they were tall, they crouched close to the ground, their clawed hands almost dragging through the dirt. They were ink black with no visible eyes, making them hard to see in the dim moonlight that managed to pierce through the tree canopy.
r />   Kit shivered as the creatures, unnaturally silent, crawled toward them. She had faced many of this particular monster with Azarel, and had died by their hands more times than she cared to remember as their speed was especially dangerous for an echo of arcane. “That’s an umbra-nox,” she said. “They’re fast and brutal.”

  “Any other words of advice?” Gil asked as he hefted his shield.

  Kit grimly flicked her fans open. “Don’t let them get behind you—their favorite move is to yank up your head and slash at your throat.”

  As if they could understand, one of the umbra-noxes zipped forward like quicksilver, sliding behind Gil with ease. It reached for his head with its talons, but Vic had already started sketching a symbol in the air.

  “Fireball!” The wizard shouted. She launched the glob of fire, hitting the creature in the back.

  It screamed like a dying rabbit and retreated, rejoining the others.

  “Your orders, party leader?” Prowl pointedly asked.

  Kit tensed. She knew this was the moment in which she should be barking out orders, but her nerves were too frayed. This is a dangerous situation. I don’t mind getting myself killed, but if one move is wrong, the entire party could wipe, and we’ll lose both seals!

  Another one of the umbra-noxes slunk close to the ground and ran at them. Axel, who’d been waiting with enough energy to power a lightning storm, smashed his sword down on the creature’s back legs.

  The umbra-nox whirled around, a clawed skeletal hand grasping for his face, but Riko was ready for it. “Nature’s Bindings!” Vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around the umbra-nox, holding it in place.

  “What do we do, party leader?” Cookie asked.

  Kit was frozen by her fear of failure and the nagging feeling that her place was not giving orders in the center of the battle, but hanging back like she always had. I’m not right for this—I’m not good enough!

  Unsure, Vic backed up while Axel veered dangerously near the six monsters that stood in a clutch.

  “Kit!” Prowl snapped. “Get out of your freaking head and just breathe! These things should be a breeze for you!”