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

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  “OK,” Kalmond growled, raising his fists. He was angry, but he took the gauntlets off because he didn’t want to kill the big man, just hurt him some. “Maybe I can beat some sense into you!”

  Arnie lunged again with a clumsy roundhouse that Kalmond stepped in to block. He followed through with a left-right jab combination to Arnold’s gut, punching just like his father taught him in the lesser realm.

  But the big man didn’t seem to feel it that much. He dropped back a few paces, then charged again, swinging hooks faster than Kalmond thought possible. The dwarf countered several, but several other punches rang his head like a bell. He couldn’t keep getting hit like this.

  Kalmond let Arnold work out his rage, blocking as best as he could. With each of Arnold’s swings, he rose up from is fighting crouch just a bit more. He came up to a normal standing position, made a fake jab, then ducked down and delivered a savage power-attack uppercut to Arnold’s crotch. Arnold doubled over with a squeak, and Kalmond delivered the finishing punches that included a brilliant left-cross followed by an equally damaging right hook.

  Arnold dropped to the ground like a sack of entrails and lay there bleeding. Kalmond knelt down and made sure he wasn’t dead. He lost track of Arnold’s health bar at the last part of the fight.

  “I’m sorry, buddy,” Kalmond said. “I didn’t want to fight you.” The dwarf set a healing potion by Arnold’s head as the big man struggled to his feet. He slugged the potion down and smashed the bottle on the ground.

  “It was a good, fair fight, that you won, so that means you did not lie,” Arnold said.

  “I’m not sure what kind of logic that is, but OK,” Kalmond said, shaking his head.

  At that, Arnold simply walked away. The fight earned Kalmond fifty XP, but it wasn’t at all satisfying. In fact, he had no idea what it was about. He walked back into the shop through the back door and straight into a swift slap across the face.

  The hit only took one single hit point, but the shock of seeing Claudia standing in front of him with hands to hips did more mental damage. “What the hell!” Kalmond exclaimed. “What was that for?”

  “Don’t you worry! He will get one, too! Fighting over me like a scrap of meat!”

  “You’re both crazy,” Kalmond said, hurrying through the store.

  When he reached the street, he nearly ran into Urseon, who stood outside, standing on his hind legs smoking a ridiculously large, pipe of carved Ivory. This time there was no mistaking it. Urseon looked at him and smiled. “Hello, friend Kalmond,” he said, in a low, growly voice.

  “You don’t call me ‘Bear Dwarf?’” Kalmond asked.

  “No,” Urseon said. “I am bear. You are dwarf.”

  “Thanks for saving me,” Kalmond said, as the two fell in together back towards Matriarch.

  Urseon lumbered along beside him walking much less like a bear and more like a portly man. Kalmond stopped and turned to the creature who, just a few days before, walked on all-fours. “Do you know what’s happening to you?” Kalmond asked.

  “No,” Urseon replied. “But I feel it. I know it is something. I change.”

  “They others don’t seem to know,” Kalmond replied.

  “No,” Urseon said. “The don’t know.” He slipped the pipe into his fur somewhere, then ambled away.

  Before Kalmond opened the door to Matriarch’s hut, he opened up a chat window.

  “Martin, are you there?” Kalmond said. The response took a few seconds, and Martin used voice chat to reply.

  “What’s up?” Martin asked.

  “Are you seeing anything strange with the system?” Kalmond asked goosebumps prickled his skin. It felt as if he was two people at the same time.

  “Strange is all we see on our end,” Martin replied. “Virgil is ramping up his game, appearing as Gideon in virtual space board meetings. He’s ordered teams to commit all of the reserve cloud computing to production. Holly is scrambling with Derek to make that happen. The game is expanding rapidly.”

  “How is Derek doing?” Kalmond asked

  Martin laughed. “The Plexcorp cloud was Derek’s baby. Holly did his job while he was on coma vacation. They’re getting the job done through mutual combat.”

  Kalmond shook his head and smiled. “That’s Holly. They’re both too smart for their own good. Anyway, I’m seeing unexpected changes in the game. Entire towns are forming in response to my adventure choices.”

  “We are seeing that too,” Martin said. “Some of the meat processors are starting to separate from the cloud. They’re taking on other attributes.”

  “Don’t call them meat processors,” Kalmond said. “If you were in-world, you’d understand that they are people, and they are alive.”

  “Sorry, kid,” Martin replied. “It’s my hangman humor. It’s how I deal with the really freaky stuff.”

  “It’s not right,” Kalmond said, “using human brains like this.”

  “I know,” Martin replied. “So does Najeel, and in his own way, so dos Virgil. We’re all working on it. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Everything you do gives us more information and more opportunities to fix this.”

  “Thanks, Martin,” Kalmond replied. He closed the chat window and entered Matriarch’s house.

  Chapter 11

  “Hello, Matriarch,” Kalmond said.

  “You may call me by my given name,” Matriarch replied, “which is Molly.”

  Kalmond sighed and replied, “Sure thing, Molly. What’s new?”

  “Our town still struggles, but we are getting better, thanks to you,” Molly replied. “I heard from Alchemist that you discovered the source of the poison water.”

  “And now I am on my way to kill the demon who poisoned it,” Kalmond replied.

  “To help you on your way,” Matriarch said as she rose from her easy chair, “I have something for you.” She moved through her little house to a back door to a small courtyard enclosed by high fieldstone walls.

  The center of the little courtyard was dominated by a forge, complete with anvil, hammer and dipping barrel. Beyond the forge, set against the back wall, was an enchanting altar. Matriarch swept her arm across the scene and said, “Both altar and forge are yours to use freely.” She turned to face the dwarf, with her arm outstretched, and from her hand, a scroll unfurled. “And you may choose between these rewards.”

  Written on the scroll was:

  Hefty Wielder Skill: use any two-handed weapons with one hand

  Swiftness Skill: double the speed of all armed attacks

  Blacksmith Skill: instantly raise smithing skill by one level

  Blacksmith Skill: improve bladed weapons

  It was a hard choice, as all the options were excellent. He stroked his beard as he considered each reward. The hefty wielder skill was extremely appealing. It meant he could use two-handed axes with one hand, keeping his other hand free to cast spells or punch, or better yet, use two two-handed axes like hatchets. Swiftness was another excellent option. He could be faster with two-handed weapons and stack the swiftness on top of gauntlets for even more speed. But being a stone dwarf already gave him more damage from strength than speed. A head start on the blacksmith skill would be excellent also, but crafting for XP took more time than killing for it. The ability to improve weapons was the least valuable bonus, so he didn’t even consider that. In the end, he decided to be a hefty wielder.

  “An excellent choice,” Matriarch replied, putting away her scroll. She left Kalmond in the courtyard.

  The dwarf went directly to the enchantment altar and placed Boris’s axe on it. He pulled up the enchantment menu and selected the next open slot on Boris’s axe, then applied the speed enchantment to it. The XP bubble announced thirty points. Not bad for a single enchantment. Kalmond skipped the forge, as he had no metal to feed it. He left the courtyard thinking of all the fun he could have with a two-handed axe in each hand.

  Back out in the village square, Kalmond noticed two other adventurers immediately.
They wandered in through the gate in the high stockade walls that now surrounded Dundree. Rather than approach them, Kalmond hung back and watched.

  One was an Ogre; the other was human. The Human was a female mage, and the ogre looked like a warrior. Both had some good-looking gear, and the Ogre wore a plate mail chest plate that looked custom-built. The mage spoke to one of the villagers, and Kalmond was glad to see there was no Mylos tag by her name. On the other hand, the others he fought and killed up north didn’t put on their tags until they went in for the attack.

  When the two disappeared into Arnold’s shop, Kalmond approached the farmer who spoke with them.

  “What did they want?” Kalmond asked.

  “They wanted to trade, so I welcomed them and directed them to the shops. Isn’t it wonderful? Dundree has more visitors now. We are on the way to prosperity and our food stores are full!”

  “There have been more?” Kalmond asked.

  “Yes,” replied the farmer. “Many more while you were adventuring. Some ask about you.”

  “Beware the ones with the horned icon by their names,” Kalmond said.

  The farmer cocked his head, puzzled. “I do not know what you speak of. Where will I see their names?”

  Kalmond realized the NPCs didn’t experience the Realm the same way as he. They couldn’t see name bubbles or icons.

  “Just be careful of strangers,” Kalmond said. “Don’t trust them.”

  “But that offends the wood spirits. We must welcome all,” the farmer said, then walked away.

  Kalmond decided to check out the adventurers. He found them inside Arnold’s shop with the ogre engaged in trade. The human mage noticed Kalmond first.

  “Sup,” she said in text chat. Her name was Runecaster

  “Adventuring,” Kalmond replied.

  “Town wasn’t here last week,” Runecaster replied. “Did you build it?”

  “Kind of,” Kalmond replied. There was a pause, and Kalmond cringed. When Runecaster finally did reply, it was as the dwarf suspected. Runecaster paused to look at Kalmond’s profile.

  “You’re one of the Noble Four,” Runecaster said, switching to vox. “Wish id’a fought in that war with you.”

  Kalmond eased up a bit. “Was fun,” he lied. It was an adventure, but he was playing for his life to keep people wit guns from killing him.

  “Thought the Mylos story arc was kind of lame though,” Runecaster said.

  The Ogre finished trading and joined the conversation. “You’re just jealous,” he said. His name was McCrushin.

  “Great name,” Kalmond said. When he chuckled, the Realm added a “LOL” face to the room that floated away.

  The Ogre bowed, and the move told Kalmond he had the custom poses and postures mod attached to his avatar. That was about the time Kalmond decided these two were OK.

  Now that his reputation was high enough with the town, and the villagers accepted him, he could give quests. He thought for a moment before making an offer.

  “This town could use some protecting. The Mylos douchebags are causing trouble again. They’ve been after me. If you use this town as a base and sell off your loot here, I’d sure appreciate it.”

  The two adventurers stood silent for a moment, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Kalmond dropped it. “Of course, there would be something in it for you,” Kalmond said.

  “Thought you were gonna make us ask,” the Ogre said.

  Kalmond pulled up the user quest menu and found he had enough reputation points with the town to offer a discount from vendors. Unfortunately, it was only 5%, but he hoped that might be enough.

  “Five percent?” Runecaster said, balking at the offer. “That’s not much.”

  “Yeah,” Kalmond replied. “I’m only getting started here. This would make a nice base for exploring the area. Not many people have discovered this part of the Third Circle.”

  “I like it here,” the Ogre said. “It’s kind of unusual.”

  “And you just blew my bargaining advantage,” Runecaster said.

  Kalmond laughed again, growing more at ease with the two adventurers. “Relax. Look, I’m not a cutthroat player. I’m old school. You take care of me. I take care of you. Favor for favor.”

  “Sure,” the ogre replied. “So, are you using the new VR rig?”

  “Dude!” Runecaster exclaimed, with a string of exclamation points after her text. “Look at his facial expressions. That was so cool.”

  “Virtual reality,” McCrushin said. “So cool.”

  “Ah, I can’t say too much about it,” Kalmond said, hedging.

  “Yeah, the press release said it was in beta. Should be out in six months, after FDA approval.”

  Kalmond played it off. This was all news to him. Virgil was obviously working fast in the Lesser Realm, directing Plexcorp to get the immersion VR tech to market. The question was: why?

  “That’s right,” Kalmond said. “So, you look over the town and explore the area. I have a quest chain to complete.”

  “We’ll go with you,” McCrushin said.

  Kalmond had to think about that for a moment. The offer was tempting, but with all the anomalies, he might find it hard to keep things hidden if more trusted people weren’t involved. These adventurers seemed cool, but he only just met them. He erred on the side of caution. The prime deciding factor was that questing alone meant he didn’t have to split XP and loot.

  “Thanks,” Kalmond said, “But I have to do some boring stuff to test the system. It has to be done solo, anyway.” It wasn’t too far from the truth, and the two new friends seemed to accept it readily.

  Kalmond said his goodbyes and headed back out of the shop. He jumped back as a large black streak darted past on all-fours trailing a plume of pipe smoke like a steam locomotive.

  “Urseon,” Kalmond said, staring after the bear. “What the hell…” The sight was amusing until he turned in the direction from which Urseon ran to find a very large Ogre walking past the village gates flanked by two nasty-looking trolls. All wore matching plate mail armor with the metal painted blood red.

  “Friends of yours?” McCrushin asked, sidling up to Kalmond.

  “Kind of convenient you gave us a quest to protect the village,” Runecaster said, taking her place beside her questing partner.

  “I swear I didn’t know these guys were showing up,” Kalmond replied, watching the new arrivals carefully. He knew baddies when he saw them. In the Realm, they were unmistakable.

  “I have come for my bear,” the Ogre said, holding out a thick leather leash with a spiked chain collar dangling from it. The spikes of the collar faced inward.

  “There is nothing for you here,” Kalmond replied.

  The farmer who greeted McCrushin and Runecaster walked up to the ogre. “Welcome to Dundree,” he said, opening his arms and giving a half turn. “You will find—”

  Thud! Without breaking eye contact with Kalmond, the ogre brought his bone club down on the Farmer’s head, smashing his skull like a tomato.

  “Oh!” McCrushin said in voice chat. “That was nasty! You give ogres a bad name.”

  “Where is my bear?” The ogre bellowed, raising his club.

  “This town is under our protection,” McCrushin replied, raising his own bone club and pointing it at his much larger kin. “You’ll have to go through us first!”

  “Always so dramatic,” Runecaster said, also over voice chat. She activated dual-wield fireballs, and her hands burst into blue flames.

  “Don’t bring me down. I’m in character here,” McCrushin replied.

  “If that’s your jam,” Runecaster replied, and without warning, fired. “Let’s get it on!”

  Kalmond and McCrushin burst forward with the same impulse, their shoulders brushing as the orc flew back from the fireball blast. Kalmond struck first, using his two-handed axe with one hand. He chopped the ogre across his belly, then dodged the return swing from the bone club, using the other hand to cast his water jet spell at the troll
to his left.

  McCrushin came down hard with his bone club on the ogre’s right shoulder. Before the ogre could recover, Runecaster hit him with another double fireball.

  By this time the two trolls recovered and both went after Kalmond. They hacked at him with poisoned scimitars. The initial hitpoints were trivial, but the poison damage was significant. As he charged in to return the attack, the toxin took hold, blurring his vision and slowing his reaction times.

  His two new friends proved themselves readily and ran in front of Kalmond to beat back the trolls. But the ogre recovered and scored a solid hit on the lightly-armored Runecaster, who had traded her spell for dual-wield lightning swords. The mage went down with the ogre standing over her. Kalmond moved in using his right arm to chop the ogre in the belly again and directed a well-placed jet of water to the ogre’s face.

  When Kalmond turned back to check on McCrushin, he found the friendly ogre turning away from two dead trolls. Kalmond wondered how McCrushin made such short work of the two enemies while they all turned to go after the ogre in the blood-colored armor.

  “You will pay for this!” the last remaining enemy bellowed, then ran.

  “That’s right!” McCrushin called after him. “You run!”

  Kalmond couldn’t help but chuckle at that. He liked these two even more.

  “Sorry about that,” Kalmond said.

  “Sorry?” McCrushin said. “No apology necessary. That just made the Realm a whole lot more interesting. The new baddies are so much better now when you manage to find them. Must be the new system.”

  “Sure,” Kalmond said. “Something like that.”

  “You can go,” Runecaster said. “The town is in safe hands.”

  “I have something to do first,” Kalmond said. He made his way back to Molly’s house, where he found the bear cowering in the corner of the sitting room with Molly sitting beside him rubbing his head.

  It seemed he’d reverted to being more of a bear again. Kalmond joined the petting and Urseon seemed a bit less scared.

  “Sorry,” he growled.

  “Nonsense,” Molly said softly. “You have a right to be scared after what the ogre did to you.”