Avarice Online: The Seven Realms Series: A Litrpg Novel

by Matt Ryan

  QUEST: Kill the Spider Queen and show piece of her heart to McFischer.

  I hated to admit it, but doing the quest chain with Trevor was kind of fun. He was pleasant the whole time, making jokes, and never once leading me to believe he might betray us. I even started laughing at his jokes near the end.

  “That’s the last of it. That map will lead us to the queen,” Trevor said. “We should all join party before we engage.”

  I pulled up my stats see if I had any attribute points to use.

  Magoton:

  Level 10

  Spec 1: Service

  Spec 2: Shadow Caster

  XP 1840

  (310 XP until next level up)

  HP 350/425

  Mana 100

  Stamina 100

  Attribute Points: 10

  Bank: $2,628.98

  Crit rating %8

  Attack Power 29

  Spell Power 10

  Agility 30

  Dash 15

  Leap 0

  Shadow Cast 0

  Charisma 5

  Intelligence 13

  Strength 0

  Service 20

  Merchant 5

  Perception 25

  Stealth 10

  Evil 25

  Good 0

  Weapon specialties:

  6 points in Spears

  9 Point in Daggers

  Companion:

  Dire Eagle

  I had ten points to distribute. Throwing them into shadow casting, I closed out and caught up with the group. KILLian had taken lead and set the party up, inviting Trevor and his two friends, MacGyver and Shatter. Shatter hadn’t said more than a few words the whole time and appeared to have some sort of tic that made her jerk her neck to the side every few seconds. I wondered if she had that in real life but didn’t want to ask her.

  MacGyver was an overweight young man, maybe sixteen. He had oily brown hair that clumped up on his forehead, hanging just to the edges of his eyes. He repeated Trevor’s words a few times and seemed to always laugh at his jokes. A fan boy, from the looks of it. Neither seemed all that bad, but I would still keep a close eye on them. No matter if he made me laugh or not, I didn’t trust him.

  We jogged through the jungle and Trevor told us it was right around this bend. We passed a large rock outcropping and saw a stone house nestled against rock walls. The dwelling rose to the height of several stories.

  A gigantic web was woven around the whole area, but not in the usual uniform neatness of a spider’s web; it was in a mangled mess of white cords the size of my pinky. One such cord was attached to a rock near our group. Gor stood on his tiptoes and touched it with a finger. It stuck. He pulled at it hard and freed it, causing the cord to vibrate like a guitar string.

  The sound rang out and shook the rest of the web.

  “You idiot!” Trevor threw his hands out. “Shit, she’s summoned. Okay, Gor you tank her. KILLian, see if you can’t get some heals off on him. The three of us will be entirely on spider control. And Josh, er Magoton, you use those daggers of yours and DPS the queen and any spiders that get through. Okay?”

  KILLian muttered about not being a healer but we all agreed.

  “Who dares interrupt me?” a woman said as she emerged from the stone house.

  She wore almost no clothing, save a few scraps of black lace that were strung together to cover the most delicate parts of her milky, white skin. Her raven hair hung down over her shoulders in thick strands, but even at this distance it was her eyes that stood out. They were black, except for a red dot in each center.

  She ran a hand along the cord Gor struck. It didn’t appear to stick to her. I inspected her:

  Spider Queen:

  Spec: Unknown

  Level 27

  HP 1750/1750

  Mana 400

  “Get closer, Gor,” Trevor pushed him toward the queen.

  “I am,” Gor protested.

  “I see you’ve brought company this time, my little morsels.” The queen tittered, looking to Trevor. “I’m surprised you could even revive yourself after my pretties sucked you dry. I liked your screams though. Thank you for that.” She breathed in deep, running her hands over her stomach and up over her chest. “It was beautiful. This time, I will make sure they don’t drink too much. We can keep you alive enough to be my wind chime.”

  “Go to hell,” Trevor replied, looking genuinely terrified.

  Hell, I was terrified. The last thing I wanted to be was some Spider Queen’s screaming wind chime. I had hearts to steal and castles to raid.

  Higher up, the web rattled, as a horde of massive black spiders descended upon the cords. The queen held her hand high and they stopped moving.

  Gor backed up, looking pale. “I don’t know, guys . . . did I forget to mention my arachnophobia?”

  “She’s engaging,” Trevor called out, and stepped back into a shadow, almost disappearing.

  An icon appeared to let me know I was in combat. The queen lowered her arm, then slapped the spider web with her hand, causing the loud sound to translate to all the strands.

  “There’s more of them!” Trevor yelled in warning.

  I looked on in horror as the web filled with black spiders. I used my shadow cast ability and created my own shadow. Moving next to Gor, I placed a hand on his shoulder. He jumped and nearly cleaved my head off with his ax.

  “I can’t do this,” Gor whined, looking up at the web.

  The spiders were inching toward us in a kind of dance. They stomped their legs onto the web as they moved, creating a rhythmic vibration that almost sounded as if they were trying to create music.

  I stepped back into a shadow and released my shadow casting. I’d need it for later, and didn’t have much mana to spare. “I’ll be right with you. KILLian will be right behind us.”

  “I don’t want to be a blood-bank wind chime, man. What if I can’t log out again? What if she turns out the lights like Jeffrey did? I can’t be trapped again.”

  “Gor, I promise you, we’re going to kill this queen, but we can’t do it without you. Now, give me that bad-ass war cry we all love so much.”

  He yelled with about half his heart.

  I gave his back a powerful slap. “Screw that, Gor. I want to hear a roar.”

  He yelled again, but it was obvious he wasn’t all the way there.

  “Are you going to let some half-naked bitch intimidate mighty Gorgon the Tardis God?”

  “No!” Gor screamed.

  “Are you going to get bad-ass enough to go back and kill that entire jail house?”

  “Yes!”

  “Then go get her, man.”

  Gor let out his true battle cry, before running toward the queen.

  The queen sauntered toward him with a smile that would make most people cringe. Her teeth were covered in blood and she had two large fangs I was sure weren’t there before.

  Gor used a nice jump attack and slammed his ax down over her. She gracefully moved to one side and produced a rod.

  She was a caster.

  She shot a web at Gor’s feet and jumped back, launching a series of blue orbs at him. They struck him in the chest and he struggled to free himself. I ran right past Gor and as soon as I was close enough, I used my dash and held my blood dagger tight. For a second, I thought I was going to get a clean neck slice, but she moved at the last moment and I delivered the blow to her shoulder.

  Spider Queen Has Been Hit!

  95 Damage

  + 30 XP

  Red blood trickled down her shoulder and my blade sucked it up. The red stood in stark contrast to her pure white skin. Looking surprised by my attack, and probably more surprised at my blades, she leapt up and into the web.

  “Cut the cords, Gor,” Trevor instructed, and I turned back to see what he was dealing with. A train of spiders were coming from behind us. The forest beyond appeared to be full of them. The music thrumming through the spider web had to be what was drawing them in.

  I
gazed up at the spiders above me, moving their legs in motion, creating a beacon to lead every one of their kind to come attack us.

  Trevor leapt and dashed straight onto a spider, sending his dagger through its abdomen. He yanked his dagger out, causing a yellow puss-looking liquid to spew from the now dead corpse.

  Frost shots were flying above me and striking the spiders on the web, and sometimes the web itself. I couldn’t even see the queen anymore. She must have retreated to safety.

  I leapt up and struck the cord. My dagger slid over it like it was a steel cable. Part of my shirt touched the cord and stuck to it, ripping off a patch as I fell back to the ground.

  “Hit the frozen parts,” KILLian said.

  This time, I saw the icy-blue sections and leapt to one, hitting it with my blade. It shattered like a chunk of ice. The pieces of the web came crashing down with me, bouncing around on the stone floor.

  The spider that had been on it fell next to me as well, then scrambled to get on its eight legs. I dashed to it and jumped, sliding my blade across its back, exposing its insides to the outside air. It fell on the ground.

  Good Job! Spider is dead.

  180 Damage

  + 30 XP

  Gor roared as he wacked against the cords. He was so involved in his destruction, he didn’t notice the queen sneaking up behind him with her rod in hand.

  “Gor, behind you!” I shouted.

  She touched the rod to the back of his head as he spun around. Before he could turn to face her, his body collapsed to the ground in a heap and I dashed to him while using my shadow casting spell.

  I sliced the queen again and she jumped, grabbing at her bleeding back.

  Spider Queen has been hit!

  134 Damage

  “How dare you!” she said, and thrust the rod in her hand at me.

  A burst of white came out in a cloud, surrounding me with its blinding light. Unable to see anything, I swung wildly, trying to find a target. That’s when I felt two teeth dig into my shoulder. My vision cleared and I realized I was face down on the ground with the queen on my back. Her teeth were digging into my shoulder. She felt unimaginably heavy, and right in front of me lay Gor.

  Magoton is Poisoned.

  -55 HP

  Damage over Time(Dot)

  HP 195/425

  And counting. Better hope you came prepared.

  “Blood for blood,” she said with a wet mouth, spitting my own blood on my face. “I’m going to take those daggers from you when you die. You disgrace them. They belong with someone like me.”

  My shoulder burned, as if two fire pokers were slowly working their way into my body. I scrambled to get my menu up as my vision blurred. I selected an antidote potion, then slammed back the vial. It tasted like mint tea and went down quick. My health stabilized, and the poison was gone.

  “Oh, someone came prepared, did he?” she said as she licked my face with her bloody tongue.

  I craned my neck to looked behind me, and saw a frozen cord above us. Then, as if KILLian read my mind, I saw a solid chunk of ice, like a blue blade, strike it and break it. The cord and the spider standing on it toppled toward us.

  The queen jumped away at the last second, allowing the large spider to crash against my back. During the collision, I felt its body shatter on mine. I couldn’t breathe at this point, and the yellow puss coming from the spider crashed over my face and most of my body.

  Magoton crushed by spider.

  -115 HP

  Stunned for four seconds

  Stunned, I couldn’t move.

  “Two down,” the queen said. “Trevor, don’t worry, I’ll save you for last. Your blood is the sweetest.”

  I wasn’t down though; she’d miscalculated. Pulling myself from the corpse, I hustled to kneel next to Gor’s prone body. He looked pale, so I pulled up my potion list and found the one I could use in combat—a poison antidote. I hoped it worked.

  Once I poured it into Gor’s mouth, his color changed almost instantly. He grabbed for the ax laying next to him.

  “Is she—” Gor cleared the frog in his throat. “Is she dead?”

  “No, we’re still in combat.”

  “Guys!” KILLian shouted and sent a golden shot at me, hitting me with a heal.

  Small Heal from KILLian

  +50 HP

  130/425 HP

  Gor and I jumped to our feet and spotted KILLian running backward from the queen. She launched her freeze attack and the queen froze in place.

  “Take her, Gor. I’ll get these spiders on the web,” I said.

  Gor nodded and I noticed more than half his HP was gone. He charged the queen with another one of his cries and used his new ability of the jump and hammer-down attack. The ax he wielded struck the queen this time, breaking the ice around her. She, once again, webbed Gor and ran toward the main web, laughing.

  Taking in my location, there were many cords frozen around me. I timed my jump and leapt into the air, striking three cords and sending them down in a shower of spiders and bits of ice. From there, I did a AoE whirlwind attack on two nearby spiders, slicing through the bodies but not killing them.

  Whirlwind Attack on Two spiders

  98 Damage

  98 Damage

  I stabbed at one as the other jumped on my back. I felt its teeth pierce into my back, and much like the queen’s bite, it seared like the fire of the sun itself had touched me, and I fell to the ground in pain.

  Magoton is poisoned.

  - 45 HP

  -5 HP per second

  Rolling over, I stabbed the thing in its hairy belly.

  Good Job! Spider is dead.

  81 Damage

  + 30 XP

  Covered in the secreted spider goo, with my back feeling as if it was on fire, I got to my feet and searched for another poison antidote. I took a quick swig, just as the world had started to get blurry.

  “Hit the rest of the cords,” Trevor called out.

  With the minty flavor on my tongue, the burn on my back went away . . . but I checked my health points and saw I was getting low. We couldn’t use HP pots in combat, so I’d have to be more careful.

  The strumming sound had lessened from the spiders, but there were still a few left playing their harmony and drawing in what seemed like an endless supply of spiders from the rear.

  KILLian kept running from a spider while trying to get her shots off on the cords. One such frost shot hit a cord near me and I ran to it, slicing through it. Two spiders crashed down near me and I used my dash to slice through them.

  Good Job! Both Spiders are dead.

  160 Damage

  155 Damage

  + 60 XP

  Then I used my shadow cast, checking my mana. I had 45 mana left, but my regeneration seemed almost nonexistent.

  Another frost shot hit a cord directly above me, sending sprinkles of snow over my face. I leapt and cut through it and dispatched the two spiders that fell with it.

  Just one cord left now, and the bottom half would be flapping in the wind.

  The queen, with blood dripping from her shoulders, back, and mouth, smiled a hideous smile as she tight-rope walked down the remaining cord. She drummed the cord with a stomp and cried out. “You think this is the end? This is just the beginning!”

  A piece of the cord was frozen and I leapt to it. In mid-jump, I felt something grab me and throw me like a rag doll, forcing me to land right into a thick section of the remaining web.

  Above me, smiling and dripping my blood from her mouth, the queen said, “I’ve decided to make you my trophy. I’ll feed you and take care of you for an eternity. I will let my pets suckle on you, but not too much, because I want to have my fun with you until the end of time.”

  “Screw you,” I said, wishing for something wittier to say as I pulled against the web.

  I used my dagger to cut the thinner threads, but every move I made seemed to make it worse. The threads stuck together and wouldn’t let go. I yelled as I tried to f
ree myself.

  Gor jumped up, but the queen was too high, and he couldn’t reach her. I watched as he struggled.

  A golden orb hit me and I felt better. My health increased and I looked back to see KILLian shooting out a few healing orbs to Trevor and his two people. That was when I saw how bad the back was getting. The longer we took, the more spiders would appear, and now there was a solid wall of black corpses the living ones were crawling over. KILLian split her time between running from the spiders and shooting at the queen.

  “Won’t be long now. But you guys put up a valiant fight,” she said.

  I cut more webs, but they kept sticking and rejoining with each cut.

  “KILLian!” I said. “Freeze me.”

  She nodded and sent a frost shot right at me as a spider jumped on her back, sending her to the ground. I watched the blue bolt coming straight at me. It struck my chest and burst around me, freezing the web.

  Magoton Hit by Frost Shot

  - 55 HP

  I used all my strength and pushed out from the frozen web. It shattered around me and I fell to the ground in a hard thump. I checked my HP because I knew it was low, as I’d slowed down in my movements. Dammit. I only had 30 health points left.

  The queen stood a hundred feet above me, and I wondered if I could even reach the cords. The sounds of it drummed in my ears, mixed with the screams and clatter of metal.

  With one deep breath, I dashed, running up the wall, then turned and leapt into the air. The queen shot a web at me, but I deflected it with my deflection spell and struck the cord below her feet, shattering it.