Redeemer of the Dead

by Tao Wong

  Redeemer of the Dead

  A LitRPG Apocalypse

  Book 2 of The System Apocalypse

  By

  Tao Wong

  License Notes

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Redeemer of the Dead

  Copyright © 2017 Tao Wong. All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 2017 Sarah Anderson Cover Designer

  ISBN: 9781775058700

  Chapter 1

  “This is a bad idea.” Ali, my two-foot-tall Spirit Companion floats next to me, staring at the cave entrance cut into the river canyon’s side.

  I crouch, glacial water flowing past my armored legs, summer sun highlighting the emerald greens and clear blues of the river. “Of course. What exactly in the last four months has been a good idea? Taunting a Salamander? Hunting a Drake? Clearing a monster lair? Ever since the damn System came into place, it’s all been one bad idea after the next. It’s just a question of how bad we want to make it.”

  I check the readings from Sabre, my Personal Assault Vehicle (PAV). Normal humans would just call it powered armor, or maybe a mecha. After all, a half-hour ago it was a bike. I got it nearly at the start when the System, the over-arching mechanism put into place by the Galactic Council, came into being. According to them, since “Mana” had finally reached significant levels on Earth, the System could now be put in place. Along with the System and Mana saturation came the destruction of all our electronics and the mutation of Earth’s ecosystem and spawning of monsters from lore. Cue the Apocalypse as civilization fell.

  In the end, what Ali and I are arguing about is the blue floating System window dominating my vision.

  Dungeon Located!

  Warning! The current dungeon has not been categorized at this time due to System limitations. All XP rewards are doubled. Successful completion of the dungeon by a System-registered individual will generate increased rewards.

  “You said it. These kinds of rewards can be quite good.” I stare into the darkness and heft my armored right arm, where I recently integrated a projectile weapon. While I love my beam rifle, good old solid projectile weaponry has certain advantages, including the option of using multiple ammo types to suit the situation.

  “Still a bad idea, boy-o. Could be a bunch of really high-level monsters in there,” Ali says as he spins around in agitation.

  “Yeah, yeah. Then we run. We still have a full charge on the QSM.”

  The Quantum State Manipulator, or QSM, is one of the first toys I acquired when the System kicked into play four months ago, bringing an apocalypse to Earth and shutting down all our higher-end electronics. When activated, the QSM phases me into another dimension, which makes it incredibly useful for running away. It has drawbacks, including a long recharge time and a short use period, as well as allowing high energy states—read explosions—to pass through, but it’s saved my life more times than I care to count.

  “Fine, fine. Light her up,” Ali mutters and I grin, pointing the barrel down the cave entrance.

  I cycle the ammunition in the barrel then open fire, embedding three glowing light sources into the cave walls. I learned my lesson about going into a dark cave a month ago. Even if Sabre and my helmet give me enhanced low-light vision, it’s still a better idea to light things up.

  The cave entrance shows me nothing new, but better to be cautious. I launch one of my drones to check things out, sending it to the ceiling to scan for potential threats, before I send it deeper and lock it in place a couple dozen meters ahead of me. Once that’s done, I walk in while shrinking the feed enough that I can watch it and my surroundings at the same time. I keep an eye on the mini-map that my Spirit and my Skill Greater Detection updates even as I do my best to stay hidden. I’m a pretty good sneak, if I do say so myself, though announcing myself with a bunch of lights probably takes away from the surprise factor. Can’t win it all.

  The first cave I find has nothing more dangerous than some mutated fungus. Fungi. Whatever. It shoots out spores that are probably poisonous, but I’m in a fully sealed armored suit with an independent oxygen supply so John 1, Dungeon 0. Sweat runs down my back as I walk farther in—cold sweat that even the environmental controls in Sabre can’t fix. Fear courses through me, but along with it comes excitement.

  Yeah, I’m screwed up in the head. I was before this started, and now I’m probably even more twisted. I actually like this—risking my life, dancing along the knife’s edge of danger. It wakes me up, thrills me in a way that nothing else ever has, and I’ll admit I take risks no one else would. That moment when everything tilts, when I could live or die, is when I finally feel truly alive. No more walls, no more compartmentalized and contained emotions, just moments of perfect control amidst the chaos.

  Crazy. Told you.

  “Picking up two. Nope. Three,” Ali mutters.

  A moment later, I feel them myself. Damn, even now he’s better than I am. Then again, if the Spirit wasn’t, I’d feel as though I wasn’t getting my money’s worth. Not that I pay him—not exactly, at least. He’s a Perk I gained for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the System pays for his upkeep. If it didn’t, I’d have slowed my Mana regeneration down even further and I’ve got enough Skills that do that already.

  I send a slew of new commands to the drone, launching it toward a higher point in the ceiling to check out the new threats while I lay down more light orbs. I wonder what I’ll find this time?

  The answer is ugly, ugly monsters. Quadrupedal creatures with faces like a mutated rat’s, spiked bodies, and whip-like tails that drip with acid. The creatures are dark green with blotches of black across their bodies, providing them an effective camouflage in the darkness of the cave.

  Kongorad (Level 28)

  HP: 480/480

  Status Effects: None

  I watch them for a few minutes in my feed, the creatures not noticing the drone. They don’t do much beyond strolling around in curious circles in the cave ahead of me, occasionally bumping into each other and play fighting. After I’ve watched them long enough, I sneak in and launch a single light orb into the cave.

  As they startle, twisting to stare at the orb, I take the opportunity to put a few rounds into them. I’ve staggered the rounds in the loading chamber, so I shoot high explosive, armor piercing, and normal in order. I then put a single round into each of my opponents. The high explosive projectile blows up the spine of the targeted Kongorad, the armor piercing drills all the way through, and my normal round smashes into but doesn’t pierce the monster I targeted. Armor piercing it is.

  Even as I make the adjustments to my ammo lineup, the surviving Kongorads are returning fire with their barbed spines. I duck behind a nearby outcropping, but the launched spines move so fast and cover such a wide area, I get caught by a few. They drill through the nearby walls, the outcropping, and my armor with ease, carrying their Mana-imbued barbed poison into my body. I grunt at the notification that lets me know I’ve been poisoned. There is no pain though, just a comforting numbness that slowly spreads.

  A light chime lets me know the gun is ready, and I t
wist around the corner of the outcropping to open fire, concentrating on slamming three bullets into one monster. Each bullet smashes through its body, splattering blood around it before I duck back behind the measly cover provided by the rock. Thankfully, after drilling through all the rock, the spines can’t completely penetrate my armor.

  “Can’t touch this,” Ali chants and literally dances as he floats in front of the Kongorad attempting to kill him. He might be visible, but he’s not corporeal, which means he’s a very good distraction.

  Grinning in my helmet, I charge the distracted Kongorad and slice down with the sword I conjure into my hand. My personal weapon might not look like much, but with my Advanced Class skills, I cut through the monster’s head with ease, killing it.

  Level 28 monsters are a cakewalk for me. While my own Level might be a measly 23, because I have an Advanced Class, my “true” level is about double that. About, since as Ali points out, the math gets fuzzy. Jumping directly to an Advanced Class without a Basic Class has given me a bunch of side benefits, including a higher resistance to most effects—like poison.

  Monsters dead, I scan for any further surprises before slowly sinking down. My body shudders slightly as it fights off the poison, heat washing over the numbness. I lick my lips, tasting the salt from my sweat while I wait for the effects to go away. It doesn’t take long at all, then I’m standing, walking over to the bodies, and putting the System-generated loot into my inventory before dropping the bodies into my Altered Space. The Altered Space Skill creates a dimensional pocket I can store objects in, a nifty little Class Skill that lets me store more loot and corpses than most parties can as a whole.

  Right, that wasn’t so bad. If that’s all I’m facing, this should be simple.

  “Ali, this cave seems huge,” I mutter, kicking the latest victim off my blade. I’ve been down here for a good hour, walking through caves and killing Kongorads, and there is no way this canyon holds such an extensive cave system. It makes no physical sense. If I’m going to be walking around here for much longer, I better get started recharging my beam rifle, since I’ve switched to using it as my primary ranged weapon.

  “Dungeon,” Ali answers.

  “That isn’t an answer.”

  “Yes, it is. The System designated this a dungeon, so it altered the physical space. It’s now bigger on the inside.” Ali pauses, awaiting a reaction. When he gets none, he mutters, “Goddamn muggle.”

  “I think I liked it better when you were watching reality TV,” I grumble while walking the cave.

  Normally my Skill gives me more of a heads-up about potential problems, but the increased Mana density in this dungeon is screwing with my Skill, reducing my ability to scan for threats to a bare ten meters. Ali’s got it better, but it still means we have to move carefully.

  The bat drops from the ceiling and I sense it just a moment before it hits. I twist, spinning around and conjuring my sword as I cut the Noxious Bat in two. Not its real name, but after my first encounter and a quick briefing, I had to turn off my oxygen tank. They’re extremely good at hiding, but they smell like the seven heavens—so much so that even through the environmental filtering, my best method of locating them is my sense of smell. Of course, considering how powerful the environmental filtering is supposed to be, the fact that I can even smell them makes no sense. Then again, it doesn’t have to make sense if the System decides to break the rules. Again.

  I loot the Noxious Bat’s corpse but don’t stick the body in my Altered Space, not wanting to contaminate my other goods. Then again, I’m not entirely sure the Bat would contaminate things. I have a theory that the System breaks many of the rules of physics because it’s trying to balance technology, magic, and skills. So if it gives a monster an environmental advantage, it wants that to mean something. Thus, the System breaks other rules to make it work. On the other hand, I can punch through walls without breaking the ground while doing so, so I’ll take the occasional weirdness. Not that I have a choice. The System is the System.

  After another half hour of walking, I finally come to the end of the first floor. And I say floor since I find a straight chute going down, leading to what I can only assume is another level. Arse.

  “How many floors do Dungeons have?” I frown. I’m confident, but if I’m looking at a dozen…

  “How long’s the Ether Serpent’s tail?”

  I point the gun down, firing another light orb, then call back my first drone so it can recharge while I send my second down. Hopefully it’s only these two floors—I only have two drones and their batteries take forever to recharge.

  Down, down, down we go. Wherever we go, that’s where we kill. That doesn’t work, does it? Fine, you put together a rhyme while fighting off spine monsters in packs. Here, I’ll wait. Actually, no, I won’t, because I’m fighting Kongorads.

  Ducking low, I grab a Kongorad and pick it up, power armor assisting the lift, and I use the creature to block the spines from its friends. I poke my rifle barrel around the twitching body, using the camera mounted on the barrel to target and fire. As I hear a distressed beep, I send the rifle back into my inventory and throw my improvised shield, following it to the last of the still-living monsters, which I stab in the head.

  Monsters dead, I squat as my head swims, my body shuddering as it fights off the poison and gives me back full control of my body. Casting a Minor Heal helps a little, so I do it again.

  The second level is taking forever. The Kongorads move in larger packs down here and they have a friend, a tripedal creature that skitters along the ground and releases beams of light that I have to dodge. Luckily, they aren’t that common, but between dealing with increasing amounts of poison and greater swarms, I’ve been having to take longer and longer breaks between each encounter.

  “John, you sure you can do this?” Ali asks again.

  I nod firmly, slowly standing and rotating my shoulders and knees as I check how far I’ve recovered. I check my projectile ammunition next, noting I’m down to less than two dozen armor piercing bullets. I queue up high explosives next, but I never bought that many of them—I’m a bit of a cheapskate and high explosive rounds are expensive. I kind of regret cheaping out now. Just another thing to lay at my father’s door.

  Tackling these monsters head-on isn’t going to work. I need to think of a new idea or pull back. I frown as another shudder crosses through me. I can’t snipe the monsters—I don’t have the line of sights. The monsters work in packs, so trying to drag them out to kill one by one doesn’t seem to work. So…

  “This is degrading!” Ali grouses.

  I chuckle, looking over the cavern I’ve altered. If I can’t kill them one by one, I’ll pull them into a kill zone and force them to fight me in smaller numbers. I’ve torn down some stalagmites and stalactites and piled them up to create a bottleneck by using some of the insta-cement grenades I carry these days. On the improvised wall, I’ve got a small perch that has a little extra padding to slow down spines, enough that I can shoot at the monsters in relative safety. I’ve also added light orbs as far as I can see to give me as much visibility as possible. After that, well, it’s all up to Ali to play bait.

  “Yeah, yeah, suck it up, buttercup.” I grin, leaning back and checking the map again.

  “Asshole.” Ali heads toward the nearest group on the map, fully visible and glowing ever so slightly.

  The kill zone works almost too well—pulling monsters to a fixed position and firing on them as they near me ensures I take out one or two before the swarm arrives. After that, most initially try a long-range duel. When that fails, they charge the opening I’ve left. It’s so tight that the monsters have to scramble and push to get through it, giving me more than enough time to whittle them down. The monsters are so blindly aggressive and stupid, they keep coming because they’ve got just that little chance to end me.

  After each group, Ali gives me a few minutes to rest and loot before we start the process again. Each break takes longer as he
searches farther and farther afield, drawing the monsters to me. The T’kichik are the most difficult, since they actually understand a bit about cover and sniping at long-range. Unfortunately for them, I can use magic and I’m more than happy to spam my Improved Mana Dart (II) at them till they fall over and die.

  I almost feel bad for the Kongorad Alpha when Ali finally locates it. It comes rushing forward, flanked by its guards, and I greet them with a pair of plasma grenades, one after the other. The explosions rip apart most of my improvised walls, but between the grenades and my Lightning Strike spell, the guards are so much crispy meat. Facing the Alpha, who’s just a bigger version of the Kongorads, after that is simple. Outside of the numbness in my body that slows me down and makes me feel as though I’m running through water, killing it isn’t difficult at all. I just have to keep ducking, cutting, and shooting the monster till it falls over. When I’m done, I finally get what I’m looking for.

  Congratulations! Dungeon Cleared

  +5,000 XP

  First Clear Bonus

  Having cleared the dungeon for the first time, you have been rewarded an additional +5,000XP +1,000 Credits. Bonus for being the first explorer +5,000 XP +5,000 Credits.

  Ingles Canyon Dungeon classified as Level 20+ and above

  Damn. That was a good haul. That’s a huge experience increase, especially at my level. Between the two bonuses, I’m nearly halfway to a new level. I loot the last body and drop it into my Altered Space.

  Pursing my lips, I consider the room around me. I always knew we’d be facing more and more dungeons—after all, we are designated a “Dungeon World” by the Galactic Council and System. Having finally run one, I’m thinking these will be a real problem. Running something that’s half my “real” level has me nearly out of ammo, tired, and just a little nauseated. Overall, I think it’s time to call it a day and head home. Home is good.