by Arthur Stone
Ros looked at the cube and felt his hair stand on end. His hands felt like grabbing the treasure as tight as he could, and his feet would carry him to any safe place. What he had in his hands was worth as much as the Taj Mahal and gave him a window of opportunity the size of the Gateway Arch.
He studied the magical transmogrification topic on the forum, and saw descriptions of all sorts of cubes, including those of rare and ultra-rare class, but there was nothing remotely resembling this one. The most one could hope for was forty-five slots, and thirty or forty percent altogether, distributed between several parameters.
With this cube, even a noob stood a good chance of creating something valuable without wasting too many materials.
And with his stats…
“Why have you gone silent?” asked Tangh. “Is the cube OK?”
“This isn’t a cube. It’s a… It costs… It costs… I have no idea how much it costs, but parting with it would be like giving away a cornucopia. I’ll never give it away, no matter how much they offer me!”
“My shield is pretty cool, too. I can’t even believe it.”
“All the shields in the world combined are worth less than this cube.”
“In that case, my congratulations, Ros.”
“Thanks! What a pity I didn’t have this cube at the very beginning. We’d get equipped a whole lot better, and much quicker, too.”
“Never mind. The main thing is for your Luck to stay with you.”
* * *
Tardath Yrch returned in the evening, just like he had promised. He had company—two more named mobs that looked like him. The three heroes received some juicy bonuses just for seeing them for the first time.
“Warriors from the Outside Lands! The Supreme Council did not convene for long before we decided that the Outside Lands are worthy of respect if they can produce such valiant heroes as you. Now we would like to offer you a mission of honor. You must go to the ruler of the lands invaded by the wild hordes and deliver a message from us. I must warn you that it isn’t only a mission of great honor, but also one of great danger. Wild hordes are called wild for a reason. They do not care who they see in front of them. They are dim and impossible to control. You shall have to cross the lands where they roam and reach the supreme ruler known as the Emperor of the West. This knowledge was imparted to us by the heavens and by the tongues of the prisoners. If he agrees to see you and accepts our offer of friendship, a new age will dawn, and relations between us will enter a new phase. Our common world will change—for the better, as we would like to believe. The protective mists will fall, so your heroes will be able to visit our land, and we will have a chance to study your wisdom in your cities. This would be a blessing for everyone. So, do you accept, or should we look for other heroes who would fulfil this mission of honor?”
“What if my name and appearance change in the course of fulfilling the quest?” Ros hastened to find out.
The named “Yodas” exchanged glances, and Tardath nodded.
“If a hero needs disguise, it should not present a problem. Take this ring. We’ll always recognize you by it, no matter how you change.”
Now it was time for Ros, Tangh, and Danger Babe to exchange glances.
“Say something! It’s an Imperial quest! Accept it at once, you airhead!” The girl hissed through her teeth.
“My friends have no objections. We shall fulfil your request.”
“You receive a quest: Deliver a Message to the Emperor of the West. Quest type: global. Fulfilment of the quest may change the geopolitical map of the world. Quest duration: unspecified. If the party takes too long, the quest may be given to other parties. Reward: unknown. Attention! You cannot use stationary teleports, teleport scrolls, or teleportation abilities for the duration of the quest. You cannot change your current bind point, either. Attention! The quest will only be considered complete if the Council of the Locked Lands receives a reply from the Emperor of the West.”
Tangh studied the quest conditions, then asked:
“If we die, we resurrect here, at the mine?”
“That’s right,” confirmed Tardath. “The road that leads to the Emperor of the West is hard and fraught with many dangers. You have proven yourselves to be worthy of respect. Keep on proving it.”
The norder gazed at the resurrection circle, and came to the unpleasant conclusion.
“There’s a catch to this quest. If you die, you start again from the same starting point. And these ‘furries’ won’t wait too long. They’ll start sending other parties on the same quest, and then it will be a race to and fro.”
“We can do it if we keep out of trouble,” Ros replied. “The wild hordes aren’t as scary as they’re cracked up to be. I have already faced them. However, I only fought lone mobs.”
Tangh addressed Tardath again:
“If only one of us goes, and the rest wait here, will the mission be considered accomplished?”
“We need the Emperor’s reply. Who brings it and how they go about it is up to you. As soon as you decide on who goes, tell Agythric, and he will teleport you to a spot outside the mine. Once you get back, call him out loud, and he will open the portal. But remember: he’ll only do it once.”
“Ros, it would be best if you went alone. You move fast, and you’ll be able to get there three times faster than our entire group.”
“It will also be ten times more dangerous,” Danger Babe objected.
Ros shook his head.
“No, Tangh’s right. I can do it quicker and without much risk. I have a high Speed, and my Disguise is not too shabby, either. If I run into trouble, I can use one of my high-level crystals. Apart from that, getting an audience with the emperor is anything but easy. And I have a high reputation with lots of titles—that should help. There should be lots of mobs unknown to science in the vicinity of the mine. You can use them to level up while I run this way and that. You’ll get new bestiary achievements, too. The loot will also come in handy for crafting.
The norder nodded.
“Can you see Agythric teleport the captives over there? Must be someplace far away, in the human territories. We’ll have few competitors here. Or none whatsoever. I’ve never heard of anyone who would reach the Locked Lands. Although I believe there may be a few of those who don’t want to advertise and just spoon off the cream without making a ruckus.”
“A tank and a flighting buffer—you and Danger Babe are the ideal team for research and grinding.”
“We won’t be able to do much damage without you… and that’s putting it mildly.”
“Well, I can’t help you there.”
“Could you roast us some meat so that we’d have a good supply? I’ve noticed that Danger Babe’s bag can keep food fresh even longer than yours.”
“Sure. There’s plenty of meat—we were meaning to feed all those folks, but it turned out to be unnecessary.”
“Let’s get started, then. You’ll have to leave in the morning. It would be stupid to dally. A global mission is an incredibly rare series of quests. I cannot even imagine the kind of reward we’ll get.”
* * *
Ros barely managed to stay on his feet—the spot where he found himself after Agythric waved his paw was on a steep slope covered in trees so crooked that a corkscrew would look straight as an arrow in comparison. He looked around him, made sure no monster would swallow him whole or in parts, and then relaxed a little and tried to get his bearings.
He was surprised to find out that the map didn’t only show his current location, but also a small part of the surrounding area. An ideal straight line some one hundred fifty feet wide led northwest. It contained some indications, although in no grey detail, and the grey fog of uncharted territory lay to either side.
Ros traced the strange line, and wasn’t surprised to learn it led through the “grey lands” to the gates of the Western Empire’s capital. He was most kindly offered the shortest route.
The shortest didn’t necessarily have to
be the quickest, but any information would be useful.
Teleports were out of the question, so he’d have to walk. It would take him some seven or eight days. He could try doing it faster, but common sense told him he would invariably run into obstacles and get slowed down.
That was how it always happened.
There was the horde of wild creatures from the Locked Lands, and Ros would have to make his way through it. Then he would encounter thousands of players of various levels gathered to stop the invasion. His gaming experience suggested that the only way they were inferior to aggressive mobs was intelligence-wise.
They would invariably cause trouble.
Ros swung his staff. He had a few choice treats for whoever dared to stand in his way. Someone of his own level would be a pushover. He could handle higher-level adversaries, too. He even had something to counter the aggression of level 200 mobs and players. He still had a few soul crystals procured during the first day of the invasion. He could raise a high-level pet, buff it, enter the useful skills from the journal in the control menu, and use it to handle any problem whatsoever.
Something flashed red in the lower left corner, and he saw the text of a global system message.
What could it be? Was it a new hero whose deeds were so great that the whole world should know? However, in such cases the text appeared a little above one’s field of vision, far outside the chat area.
Ros was wrong. Heroic deeds had nothing to do with it.
Everything was much worse…
“Attention! Announcing a global change of the game’s mechanics! From this moment on, a pet’s level cannot be higher than the sum total of the summoning player’s level and Summoning stat! See the game’s technical log for more details. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
Ros fell down on his behind right where he stood.
Snuff enemies leveling upwards of level 200? Yeah, right. He had no access to high-level pets anymore. Given his Summoning stat, the highest level of a pet he could summon was 99.
He didn’t even have any crystals of that level!
The walk across the territory controlled by the wild horde and groups of overexcited players suddenly looked like a lot less fun and a lot more trouble. Especially considering that he would find himself back at the mine if he died. Murphy’s Law dictated that in this case the mobs would give the quest to someone else—perhaps, someone with better skills.
Ros couldn’t afford to die. But how would he accomplish it if his likely adversaries portended to be much stronger than him, regardless of his heroic achievements and abundance of stats.
He was really in it now…
So, what would happen next?
The first thing Ros did was laugh out loud. Not hysterically, but rather like a person who’d just made a fool of himself, yet in such an amusing way that he bore no grudge against fate.
There was no point crying. Did all his plans fall through? It didn’t matter. He would come up with something else.
He rose, swung his staff once again, scaring away the bright pink butterfly that was resting on the tip, and started to walk downhill, following the line on his map.
The calculator available to those with Voyager at 5 or more instantly told him that if he kept up at his present pace, resting twelve hours a day, he would see the capital on the seventh day, around noon.
Ros trusted the calculator. But he also trusted in common sense. And intuition.
He wouldn’t make it in seven days.
They wouldn’t let him.
Many thanks to my readers! To be continued.
Be sure to check out my new series coming out soon: STYX: The Humanhive.
Welcome to the Hive. A place where entry is easy - and escape impossible. Where mere survival is so daunting that nine out of ten new immunes perish before the end of their first week. Where reaching even the one year mark earns you the title of veteran. How long can you survive?
I would like to heartily recommend the books Play to Live by D. Rus, my good friend and one of the founders of the LitRPG genre. The Play to Live series is one of the finest works in the genre, and a must-read for any fan.
I would also like to recommend the book of Andrei Livadny, my good friend and one of the leading talents in the LitRPG and Cyberpunk genres in Russia.
I want to recommend my friend G. Akella's Realm of Arkon series. For the past few years it's been one of the top series in both LitRPG and epic fantasy genres, and deservedly so.
Оглавление
A Slave in the Locked Lands
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
* * *
[1] Damage over Time, generally abbreviated as DoT, refers to inflicting some damage on one's foe which will be applied at a regular interval for a limited duration.
