Realm of the Nine Circles: The Grind: A LitRPG Novel

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  The dwarf broke camp by dismantling his drying rack and adding the six sticks back to his inventory. He packed up the sleeping mat and the two pillows. His collection of loot and crafting items was adding up. His total carry capacity was 195, and he now carried 180 worth of stuff. He might have to drop some things to make room for more. He briefly considered using his single teleport round-trip credit to return to the town, sell off some things, then head back to his campsite. He thought better of it. Better to push through. He would sacrifice some raw materials and lower level loot if he found something juicy in the next couple quests. Following the chain with few breaks saved time and he might need the teleport credit in an emergency.

  Kalmond headed through sparse woods on his way to the quest marker, following a natural path along a burbling creek. Here and there, fish jumped up from the stream to catch insects. The heavy dwarven footsteps often startled frog-like creatures who dove for safety into the clear water.

  It wasn’t long before the woods gave way to grassy wetlands where tall, blue flowers stood swaying in the breeze of a large clearing. Sure enough, a quick check of his map showed a diamond-shaped marker dominating the view and pulsing bright red. This was the place to find Clothier’s flowers.

  Kalmond looked around, trying to figure out where the trigger was for whatever dangerous thing was sure to go after him when he went for the flowers. It was a little ritual with him, and he had a horrible track record. Some adventurers seemed to have a sixth sense of where danger might lurk. Not Kalmond. He never expected bees. As soon as he stepped out of the woods and into the clearing, they started buzzing.

  The bees made a shadow over him as they rose up like a dome above the clearing before forming a tight, black, buzzing ball of anger. Kalmond looked at his axe, then up to the swarm.

  “Nope,” he said. “Can’t chop down bees,” then he ran for his life back into the woods with bees covering his hands like fur.

  Luckily, the steel gauntlets and leather armor protected his hands and arms. His face and neck took the worst of it. It felt like hundreds of electric needles being shoved into his skin by a sadistic doctor. He was fortunate the bees didn’t follow him too far into the woods. When he turned around, most of the swarm receded. Only a few buzzed around the flowers.

  The attack didn’t take his health down too far, but the poison damage pained him, even after he was healed. He tromped back to the stream and splashed cold water on his face with great relief, then bent down low to the stream to drink from it directly. Two strong, blue hands reached out from the water and pushed him back from the stream.

  Kalmond did a backward shoulder roll and landed on his feet, axe ready.

  “You must not drink from this water!” said the water sprite as she rose from the stream. Kalmond recognized her as his opponent from the crazy game of catch.

  “Where did you come from?” Kalmond asked as he put away his axe.

  “I go where the streams go, Bear Dwarf,” she said.

  “I don’t know your name,” the dwarf replied.

  “I am called Maeral,” she said and curtsied in midair.

  “Is the water bad here?” Kalmond asked.

  “Not too bright,” Maeral said with a sigh. “Yes, dwarf. The water is bad here. Is this not what we have told you?”

  “Sure,” Kalmond said. “I guess I thought it’d be OK.”

  “Here,” Maeral said, raising her arm as she hovered higher. As she pointed her fingers downward, water flowed from her fingertips. “The water that flows through me is purified, but we cannot continue cleaning the water for much longer.”

  Kalmond walked under the falling water and opened his mouth to drink. The water was sweet, pure and refreshing. His head felt much clearer after he had his fill.

  “I need to get the flowers in that field over there,” Kalmond said. “Can you help me?”

  “Of course, Bear Dwarf,” the sprite said. “I owe you my life, but I will not harm the bees.”

  “Of course not,” Kalmond said. “I just want some flowers.” Then, as an afterthought, he added. “And I want to find their hive and gather honey.”

  “That is acceptable,” Maeral said. “Bees are discouraged by water and calmed by smoke. I can follow you into the field and spray the bees when they swarm. I can teach you how to make a smudge pot to make smoke.

  Maeral told him what to gather, and Kalmond collected damp bark, green moss and a large stone about the size of his head. He dropped the stone at Maeral’s feet trying to catch his breath.

  “What the hell is this stone for?” Kalmond asked, hands to knees.

  “This will be the smudge pot itself,” Maeral said.

  “I don’t have the tools to carve it,” Kalmond replied.

  “No,” Maeral replied. “But I do.” She directed a stream of water at the stone. Everywhere the water jet hit, stone melted away. She hollowed out the stone and drilled two holes on the side of the stone that was now a large bowl.

  “OK,” Kalmond said. “That was extremely cool.”

  “I am glad you like this,” Maeral said. “I can teach you this spell if you wish. Of course, it won’t be as powerful as mine. Not at first.”

  “Hell yes, water jet!” Kalmond exclaimed.

  “I am afraid you will need much higher magic to use the spell as I do,” Maeral explained, “but the basic spell will help push enemies back, extinguish fire, and other useful things.”

  “Lay it on me, water mamma,” Kalmond said, opening his arms. Maeral whispered arcane knowledge in his ear and suddenly, Kalmond just knew how to use the spell.

  He pointed his palm at a nearby tree, and a thick stream of water blasted out, removing some bark. The spell used a lot of mana, and didn’t go that far, but in a fight, it would be extremely useful.

  “Let’s go pick some flowers!” Kalmond said. He bent down to the pot, stuffed it with the bark and other items as Maeral directed, then used stone and flint to light the oily contents.

  Making a handle from a vine, he ran it through the holes in the pot while it smoldered. Already, the smudge pot filled the air with thick, greasy smoke. As soon as his foot crossed the invisible line between field and woods, the buzzing started again.

  “Stand still,” Maeral said. “Allow the smoke to surround us.”

  The bees flew towards them angrily but calmed immediately when they hit the smoke. Some of them landed on Kalmond’s outstretched arm and crawled around exploring it like a tree branch.

  “Hurry,” Maeral said. Kalmond hurried, but careful to stay within the protective cloud.

  The dwarf picked flowers until the quest item showed a check mark. He moved further into the field picking some extra flowers for himself in case they had value in terms of coin or craft. He didn’t notice that the smudge pot had stopped smudging.

  “Out of time,” Maeral said, and the buzzing rose up from the field once again.

  “What?” Kalmond asked. He’d almost forgotten the bees as a threat. When the first few stung him, he remembered well. “Run!” he yelled and turned back towards the woods.

  Maeral covered his retreat with wide jets of water. After a few paces, Kalmond turned and did the same. They took turns leapfrogging each other until they were safe. Kalmond was very happy with his new water spell that proved extremely effective against bees and just a whole lot of fun to cast.

  “It looks like the bees came from the far end of the field,” Kalmond said. “Let’s go find the hive. I have a friend who would love the honey.”

  The two set off and circled the field, being careful to stay in the woods. Along the way, Kalmond gathered more material for the smudge pot, jamming it full of damp bark and green moss. At the far end of the field, they came across a massive fallen tree, twice as tall as the dwarf and crawling with bees.

  “I bet there’s lots of honey in there,” Kalmond said. “It looks hollow. You cover me and be ready to spray water.” He lit the smudge pot again and let the smoke billow around him as he and th
e sprite walked closer.

  He found a gap in the tree where it fell and rotted into sections. Exercising great care not to disturb the bees, he slowly moved deeper inside the trunk. Golden-colored honeycomb dripping with sweetness glistened inside. He reached out and gently broke some away and added it to his inventory. Smoke filled up the hollow trunk, and he moved a little further in where the smoke was thinner. He paused to check his carry weight and saw that he had only 5 points left.

  “OK,” Kalmond said, turning to the sprite. “We can—”

  He might have said the word “go,” but he really couldn’t tell. The entire Realm seemed to buzz with a force that made his teeth chatter. In the very next instant, the tree trunk around him was simply gone. Bits of the tree and honeycomb flew up into the sky like an asteroid field around a massive bee that hovered in the air.

  “The queen!” Maeral shrieked.

  Both dwarf and sprite cast water spells. It may have slowed the queen down a bit, but it did not matter. She was angry. Kalmond barely had time to draw his axe. The speed with which the queen moved was almost as shocking as her size and the length of the singer that drove towards him dripping venom.

  Worst yet, he’d dropped his smudge pot. The swarm streamed forth from the tree much like the streams of water Maeral used to push some of them back.

  The queen dove again, and Kalmond held his ground. He chopped off one of her legs, then ducked to avoid the stinger. He turned back around, heedless of the electric stings. The insects covered every exposed part of him. Kalmond wore a suit of bees as he fought.

  The water sprite stopped casting spells and took up her water staff. The two faced the queen together as she rose up, focused on them and dove again. Kalmond darted to the left at the last second, scoring a solid hit to her abdomen. Maeral lashed out with blurring speed as the queen veered off. They were making progress. Kalmond was happy to see queen’s the health bar dropping, but so was his own.

  The smudge pot he’d dropped was still giving off smoke, so he rushed back over to stand by it as the Queen made another pass. Her stinger grazed his right side, taking half his hit points and making his vision blurry. Maeral covered him, jumping high into the air and striking at the queen’s wings, making her fly off at an uncontrolled angle.

  “That’s it!” Kalmond yelled. “When she comes back, aim for her wings with your water jet!”

  Maeral nodded gravely and joined his side by the smoldering pot. The smoke gave Kalmond some relief from the smaller insects, but he had no time to take any health potions. If he got stung again by the queen, he was gone for sure. The queen made a run for them again, and Maeral scored a direct hit to the right set of wings while Kalmond activated his power attack and jumped high, striking the other set of wings.

  The queen bee burned into the ground, wings crippled. Wasting no time, Kalmond turned and hacked away at her back as she spun. He pressed on with his power attack until his endurance bar was empty, then hacked more while Maeral beat away with her staff.

  When it was over, the bee simply keeled over to one side. A huge XP bubble rose from the body announcing that the kill earned Kalmond 575 points.

  The Dwarf gulped down his second-to-last health potion, then looted the body. The queen carried 325 circs, royal jelly, a queen bee venom gland and a pair of boots called “boots of the ox.” The boots gave him +10% to his carrying capacity, so he put them on immediately.

  “It was a good fight, but it was a shame to kill the bee,” Maeral said.

  “They’ll rebuild,” Kalmond said. “It was a strong colony.”

  Maeral agreed, and the two headed back into the woods in the general direction of Kalmond’s next quest, which happened to be downstream. When they reached the water, Maeral said her goodbye. She merged with the stream as Kalmond thanked her and made his way towards what he hoped to be the final link of this quest chain.

  The walk gave him time to think. Now that his mana level was higher, he resolved to take advantage of it by learning some new spells and working on improving the base sneak. Level ten opened up many possibilities. He mused over them at the expense of paying attention to where he was going. He tripped over a stone, falling flat on his face.

  When he stood, he noticed vine covered stones strewn around that appeared to be the remains of houses. A fire ring sat in the midst of the ruins surrounded by piles of bones, scraps of clothes and a haphazard collection of ruined household items. As Kalmond approached, he found scraps of bone and gristle in the fire ring. The coals were still warm.

  Motion caught his eye from the woods past the edge of the ruined town. At first, he thought they were shadows, but then, he made out slow-moving forms, so many they looked like a wall of moving shrubs. Ten or twelve kobolds shuffled out of the woods wearing mere scraps of clothes.

  Kobolds usually didn’t dress like that, and they were usually friendly unless provoked. They usually wore crude leather sewn together with thin leather laces. The things coming his way dressed more like villagers. They also did not look friendly. Could they be the villagers? Kalmond didn’t want to stick around to find out. At twelve to one, he wouldn’t take those odds at a level twenty, much less a level ten.

  “Time to run away,” Kalmond said and did just that. “Not getting to the quest that way.”

  He turned around to back the way he came, but another twenty or more kobolds had shambled up behind. He turned to the left and found the same. The three walls of creatures converged, but as Kalmond fled, he noticed that they weren’t heading for him, they were heading towards one of the vine-covered piles of stone. At a safe distance, Kalmond stood and looked closer. The mound of rocks was a well. At least, that’s what it once was.

  He stood and observed as the Kobolds mumbled and hissed a single word over and over again. “Drink,” they said, “Drink, drink, driiiink....”

  The dwarf crouched down at the edge of the ruined town and watched as fog boiled out of the well. The fog tumbled down and rolled across the ground. A horned creature with a long, sharp-toothed snout climbed out of the well and squatted down on the edge. It hissed and clicked as its body, covered in gray scales, dripped yellow slime down on the Kobolds. The stench of it was overpowering. Kalmond understood. This was the source of the poisoned water. The Kobolds were the villagers, transformed by the monster in the well.

  He didn’t see the first kobold until it sank its spiked gray fangs into his arm. It managed to sneak up on him while he stared, nearly hypnotized, at the water demon. Kalmond tried to grab it with his free hand, but another kobold latched on to his other arm. They seemed to come from nowhere, but then Kalmond realized the some of the rocks were not rocks at all, but gray-skinned kobolds covered in patches of dead grass.

  The dwarf couldn’t shake them. His improved melee skills did little good because, as soon as he kicked or punched one away and tried to reach for his axe, another grabbed him, biting and clawing. His increased weapon change speed did no good when he could barely move his arms. They pulled him to the ground and grew, so numerous they blocked out the light. His vision began to fade. The sound became muffled, but he heard one word repeated over and over again. “Drink, drink, driiiink…” they said, drawing blood from him and lapping it up. Many more voices drifted in as a pile of bodies pressed the dwarf to the ground.

  The darkness seemed that it had always been there. The word “drink” seemed to be the only sound in a new world. And then, another sound entered that strange universe, a roar. Some large and terrible beast raged against the pressing darkness. Something plucked the kobolds away one-by-one.

  “Friend!” a familiar voice tinged with unfamiliar fear and sorrow called out. “Friend don’t die!” the voice said.

  Through half-lidded eyes, Kalmond took in the old world made new again. His health bar blinked as a tiny red sliver at the bottom of his vision as he became weightless. His body was folded nearly double over a massive soft, furry shoulder.

  “Urseon?” Kalmond asked with gummy lips, th
en a new, far less terrifying darkness fell.

  Chapter 10

  Kalmond woke to the sounds of children screaming laughter outside. Outside where? He was in bed. His bed? No, this mattress was made from rough cloth and straw. He was in the Realm, on a quest. It all came back to him slowly as the dwarf opened his eyes. Bright sunlight filtered by rough cloth curtains made checker patterns on the floor. Morning light. Last he remembered, it was afternoon. An attack, his internal voice shouted.

  The dwarf shot bolt upright on a straw mattress. The sudden change in elevation made him dizzy. A few blinks later, he realized he was not under attack if he didn’t count the aural assault of screeching kids. Checking his stats showed negatives for agility, strength, and stamina. He was sick. But how long had he been out? Glancing down at the bottom of the screen told him everything he needed to know. It was early morning the day after he entered an induced coma. He’d lost full day of questing to the kobolds who nearly killed him. That meant he had but three days to reach level twenty. At this rate, he simply wouldn’t make it.

  He tried to look on the bright side. If the kobolds had killed him, he’d have lost most of his XP and not been so close to level 11 as he was now. Kalmond counted his blessings and stepped out of the rough cabin and into the village of Dundree.

  Urson thundered by with a pack of children screeching behind him. He stopped in the middle of the village square and plopped down on his haunches, raising his claws up to the children and giving a mock roar. Seven kids slammed into him, and he gently rolled onto his back and played dead. The little ones used him as a bouncy castle, jungle gym, and lounge chair. He didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, the bear looked happy and well fed.

  The dwarf signed and walked on stiff legs to the alchemist shop. A little man shuffled up to him and wrapped two hands that seemed like birds wrapped in sheepskin. “Oh, Bear Dwarf,” Alchemist said, “I am so glad to see you! Come here! It is time for your medicine!”

  “Medicine?” Kalmond asked, allowing himself to be towed into Alchemist’s shop.