Gloominess +2: Congregation. A LitRPG series: Book 2

by Elian Tars

  I glanced at the sky. Because the Decay had consumed these lands only a couple of days ago, there were almost no acid-green vapors in the air. Any other person in my shoes would be glad to see that, but not me. My Eyes in the Dark could use that muggy dome, which didn’t let much light through.

  But there was none. Just like there were no more clouds in the sky.

  Not like I would get lost anyway. At least, I really hoped so.

  Suddenly a dim, barely visible light appeared about fifty yards ahead. The closer I got to it, the more distinct and brighter it became. It looked like, after my night vision skill had leveled up, I didn’t need to be in pitch-black to see the hidden, but I still had a range limit.

  Half an hour ago, while I was looking at the newly formed decayed lands, I came to a strange conclusion. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure but I had an impression that the Decay changed its way of spreading. If several days ago this part of it looked like an octopus’s tentacle, now it could be compared to a, well, a dandelion, perhaps. Or like a lollipop. Apparently, the reason was that it stopped spreading in a straight line. Most likely, when it reached a certain point — the “Beacon”, supposedly — it started growing in a circle.

  And I arrived to the center of this circle. The marker pointed at a rather unremarkable tree. It wasn’t standing on its own like the one under which the Quarter of Zurtarn was hidden, but surrounded with similar trees. Were not for Eyes in the Dark, I would never have been able to isolate this tree from the others.

  What should I do next?

  I looked around and went around the tree. I checked the nearby trees as well but there was nothing peculiar about them. Yes, everything was unique in its own way in this dark world, but it all it stayed within the frames of the accepted rules in one way or another. Just like the dead trees in this part of the forest did.

  The marker had never failed me before. I was sure it was right this time too.

  I started tapping at the trunk of the tree. I did the same with the nearby trees to compare the sound. There was no difference between them. So what, should I hack it down? Dig under it? Though, if there is something hidden beneath the roots, the marker would have likely pointed at them.

  The marker… How could I strengthen it?

  Sometimes when we reach a certain height, even a temporary one, we often forget about what we leave behind us; about the persons we were before and the things we had used. Such a thought flashed through my mind when I remembered under what circumstances I saw my first marker.

  The bedcover that I took from Ilsa’s parents’ house was still in my inventory. I materialized it and covered my head with half of it, and pressed the other half to the dry, black bark. The marker flashed brighter in the pitch-black. I stared at it, waiting to see what was going to happen next.

  I was right to upgrade the skill. If in the tower of Decay the glowing formed a shape of a boot, now it formed a spiral, the outer edge of which was barely visible, but which became brighter with each swirl. The center of it was shining like a star.

  For about a minute I examined the pattern; I then decided to touch it. Nothing happened. I thought for a bit, traced the whole spiral with my finger — the same result. I tried again, changing my tactic a little bit — at the beginning I barely touched the marker, but the brighter it shone, the harder I pressed at the pattern.

  “Damn…” I cursed through gritted teeth, realizing that this wasn’t working either.

  I threw the bedcover off of my head and stretched my neck. I fell into deep thought.

  The marker took this form for a reason. There had to be an explanation for it even though explanations weren’t always easy to find. But that was an entirely different matter…

  What did this all mean? Only one idea came to mind: the spiral was some kind of a lock or a seal. I needed a key. But I had no idea where to get it.

  I sighed heavily and scratched my forehead. What am I doing alone on the “Territory of Decay” at night?

  Right, I wanted to find out what it was attracted by. Actually, the proper question was: “What is feeding it?” How else could one explain the fact the Decay began to spread that after snatching this piece of land? Maybe it would have continued spreading even without that mysterious tree. But now it was like it was given some sort of a magical fertilizer.

  I could, of course, be wrong, but it seemed to me that I was standing near the source of its energy. How could I get access to it? In games and books back in the real world, it was often pretty hard to break through magical protection with physical force. You had to be more subtle, or use one kind of magic against the other.

  Holding my breath, I took out the bit of the dark stone disk that looked like a slice of pizza. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the legendary artifact for a couple of seconds. There was so much fuss and running about it, and I still had no idea what the Cradle of Gods was.

  I looked around one more time. There was nobody around me, but I still felt some tension. It was much easier when the artifact lied peacefully on the bottom of my conditionally safe inventory. Who knew who, or what, could feel the power of the Zurtarn? The piece contained almost one hundred and fifty thousand mana points, I saw them as numbers, but the Decay could be interacting with the world in some other way.

  I threw the bedcover over my head and saw the spiral again. I put the part’s tip to its tail and started moving the artifact in a counterclockwise direction.

  As soon as I finished, I put the treasure back into my inventory.

  The spiral-shaped marker started pulsating so brightly that it made my eyes hurt. I removed the bedcover at once, jumped back and started blinking. I then squinted and realized that it wasn’t the marker that was glimmering. It looked like the seal consumed the energy and became visible.

  The earth shuddered under my feet; there was a loud crackling sound of breaking dry twigs. I instinctively jumped several more steps back. Just in time. The part of the forest, about fifteen yards in diameter, together with the dead trees, collapsed with incredible speed. A moment later, a small lake appeared in its place.

  I materialized the trident and, just in case, stepped back again. Everything became quiet. Had I not known that there used to be a part of the dead forest where the water now was, I never would have guessed it to be so.

  Cautiously holding the trident with both hands, I waited for about three minutes. Everything was quiet. There weren’t many creatures of Decay on the new lands yet, and none of them bothered to check who was making noise.

  Slowly, step by step, I moved toward the lake. I stopped on the shore, gasping with delight. I had never seen such clear water in my life. I could see every tree that went down to its bottom, despite it being almost sixty feet deep.

  Standing on the edge, I realized that the lake reminded me of a huge well, the walls of which were mottled with big, dark holes.

  While I was looking at them, huge neon frogs with black and green dots jumped out of these holes. Moving through the water with incredible speed, they jumped out of the lake and landed onto the shore, forming a semicircle.

  The Tree Frog-Guardian Resisting Decay

  Level 51

  HP: 845/2540

  Twelve creatures, each the size of a rhino, almost the same level and with the same amount of HP left. The Frogs looked exhausted and what I first took for green dots appeared to be blisters made by Decay; some of them were dry, while some covered their skin with acid slush. Their eyes clearly shone with cerulean before; some of them still had one shiny eye, but most of them had white and muddy eyes like the other creatures of Decay.

  “Resisting” was not just a word. The Frogs were apparently fighting the disgusting disease that was trying to consume their bodies, and maybe souls too.

  “R-r-r-i-b-b-i-t… You-u-u… H-h-ave… Their p-p-o-w-w-e-r-r…” a Frog whose right eye was shining brighter than that of its brethren, managed to drawl with an effort. It made a step forward and continued: “We c-c-ant… R-r-ri-b-b-b-it… R-r
-re-sist… T-t-t-oo... La-a-ate… Please… Ki-i-ill… Us… A-a-a-ll… Sa-a-ave... Our... Ki-…”

  A wave of acid-green energy rushed past me, silencing the Frog. In a moment, the Decay covered the Frogs and started seeping into their bodies. The poor creatures squealed so loudly that I gritted my teeth so as not to shout myself.

  The power of Decay, like the one that the Mother of the Decayed took out of her “children” during the fight with Rugus, disappeared inside the Frogs without a trace. I saw no cerulean eyes anymore, only muggy whiteness.

  The Tree Frog-Guardian Changed by Decay

  Level 51

  HP: 3345/3345

  Twelve decayed creatures with more than three thousands HP each? What was I supposed to do now?

  Chapter 12

  The Powers of Darkness

  Three Frogs, jumping mightily with their hind legs, shortened the distance between us and appeared right in front of me.

  Aura of Darkness

  Trident of Darkness

  I attacked the nearest Frog before they had a chance to attack me. Yanking the trident out of the massive carcass, I ducked under its brethren’s front leg and jumped back. I glanced around quickly — I was surrounded.

  I noticed some movement with the corner of my eye; turning around quickly, and relying on my Acrobatics, I jumped, hoping to dodge the Frog’s front leg and jump onto its neighbor’s back.

  No such luck! The amphibians turned out to be more dexterous than I thought. They hit me in midair with a mighty punch. Drawing my knees to my chest, I was able to cushion my fall, but three of the decayed creatures immediately took a swing at me with their front legs.

  I was lucky, the effect of the Aura worked on one of the attackers, and the creatures slowed down considerably. I managed to dodge the attack of the second Frog, and strike aside the blow of the third with the trident.

  But two more attacked me right away. Damn, this won’t do! There were too many of them, and they were fast. I didn’t have enough physical abilities!

  “Upgrade Acrobatics by two levels,” I gave a silent order. I jumped, did a somersault and landed on the attacking Frog’s head. Much better! I was now much lighter and quicker; besides, better balance helped me remain standing on the head of the amphibian that was advancing forward.

  But when it jerked to a stop and turned around, I had to pierce its skull with the trident and Power Strike so as not to fall off. It screeched and rose onto its hind legs, trying to throw me off its back again.

  Holding the shaft with my left hand, I cast the black smoke of the Tranquility of Darkness with the right. Horror kicked in and the Frog underneath my feet became noticeably calmer. This was probably the first time that I was glad to see that the skill worked on a creature of Decay in this way instead of making it run away in panic.

  This seemed to be the perfect moment to kill my first enemy; the effect would last for ten seconds, and I could take away half of its HP in the meantime, cast Tranquility of Darkness once again, and finish the Frog off. But I wasn’t fighting just this one Frog. As soon as I pulled out the trident — the creature would have already died from such a wound in the real world — three Frogs jumped at me from both sides at once; the same amount of them were on their way to us.

  I jumped up high, did a somersault in the air and got onto the head of another victim.

  Power Strike

  You have dealt 205 points of damage.

  I had to jump onto the back of another Frog almost immediately, dodging the third one’s blow. I moved the trident to hit the new enemy, but noticed that something was approaching me very fast from the left.

  “Tree Frog-Guardian Changed by Decay” has used “Water Spit of Decay”.

  You have received 35 points of damage.

  The “Effect of Decay” has been weakened. You are in terrible pain. You can’t move for the next 0.5 seconds.

  “Ahhh…” I wheezed, falling off the frog and hurting my shoulder. In a second, the ability to move resumed. I jumped to my feet. I tried to close the distance between us with a few leaps.

  Damn it! I had a chance to tip the scales in my favor by leaping long and steadily from head to head, while the creatures helplessly swing their front legs. But after they demonstrated this Water Spit skill, the situation became much worse for me. It wasn’t spittle, it was a fill blown hail. I dodged most of the drops, but some of them hit my unfortunate shoulder and burnt through the armor. No big deal though; the armor will restore itself once I heal.

  Another leap and I was on the back of the nearest Frog once again. However, they didn’t give me a chance to strike this time. In my peripheral vision, I saw a leg moving fast in my direction. I jumped back…

  You have received 164 points of damage.

  Damn! I was knocked down in midair!

  I sprang to my feet in an instant and looked around. Running on solid ground still wasn’t an option; there were too many of them, I had to continue leaping onto their heads.

  Performing another leap, I managed to miraculously block the next strike. I landed onto the decayed grass again.

  It looked like the creatures, or whatever was controlling them so skillfully, had been analyzing my style of fighting, and had worked out a strategy against it. They wouldn’t let me jump freely anymore…

  Two frogs at once spat acid in my direction. Could I dodge?

  You have received 68 points of damage.

  The “Effect of Decay” has been weakened. You are in terrible pain. You can’t move for 1 second.

  I froze. A hard slap to my face took off 10% of my HP at once. I flew several feet backwards and found myself at the feet of two other Frogs. I managed to turn around, duck under the blow of the first Frog, and parry the blow of the second…

  …but four more attacked me from the left and from the right.

  What was I thinking about? What was I hoping to achieve? I didn’t have enough powers of Darkness to defeat them all. Should I use the Altar of Light? I still had an ace up my sleeve. This seemed like a good time to use it.

  “Woof!!! Woof!!! Woof!!! Grrrrr!!!” Low barking, changing into a threatening growl, mixed with the groaning of one of the Frogs.

  My heart started beating faster. Could it be…?

  I raised my head, trying to see what was going on behind the Frogs’ backs, but the Decayed — three this time — showered me with acid again. Just like before, I wasn’t able to dodge all of it. I froze for a second, watching the Frog’s leg reaching out to hit me.

  “Grrrrrr!!!” A black mass rushed past me with lightning speed, knocking down the decayed creature.

  She had grown gigantic since the last time we’ve seen each other — she was almost as tall as I was. Her muscular body became stronger; the black fur with greenish patterns was shining, and there was a plume of black smoke behind her. The dog turned her big muzzle to me and smiled amiably, showing her sharp teeth that were capable of biting my leg clean off in one bite.

  Vella the Dark Bullkorg

  Level 60

  HP: 3387/3534

  No words could describe how happy I was to see her. However, deep down, I felt guilty. After getting away from the baron’s people with the piece of the Zurtarn, the right thing to do was to put aside everything else and set out find her. But I didn’t do it, deciding instead to fulfill my God’s task, accumulate lives and deal with the spreading of the Decay. I even had the idea that I could “calm down” the forest predators on my way to Vella. But I immediately understood that that was impossible. Where would I go looking for the dog? Either not far from Ekheim, or near Ilsa’s house. But there was no guarantee that I would get the necessary amount of lives near Ekheim as there was much less animals there. And in the second case, I wouldn’t be able to spare anything or anyone, because I had already been there and no creatures that I had managed to “calm down” would become hostile again.

  Were there any excuses for me to abandon Vella? There were none; there was only my faith that the dog would b
e okay and that we would meet again. And that was what happened. Living without a master definitely did her good — she grew both in size and levels, and her name had changed from Glozeysk Bullkorg into something more personalized. And that word “dark”…

  Thank you I said to my Patron who was watching me fight, which meant that he could read my thoughts. I am certain that I owe the life and progress of my dog to you.

  The Old Man didn’t answer. Maybe he didn’t want to admit that he kept me under his constant surveillance, or maybe he just wanted to save my faith points.

  “I’m so glad to see you, my beautiful girl!” I shouted, ducking under the blow of another bold Frog.

  “Grrrr!!!” Vella roared; two Frogs jumped at her.

  I used the accelerated regeneration on the dog. I had to constantly duck under the enemy’s attacks and cast the black smoke. The effect worked only on the fourth attempt.

  A thought crossed my mind that I perhaps should further upgraded my Riding skill and look for some sort of a man-made harness for the dog — like the one they put on the Mueskan horses and that gave +5 to the Riding skill — so as to avoid upgrading the everyday skill by buying the expensive everyday points. Then I could use my abilities whilst sitting on the mighty dog’s back, and would really become a knight of Darkness.

  We could definitely do that. But this style of combat would constrain me when fighting against mightier enemies that took more than two strong hits to kill. Right now, Vella and I were on equal terms.

  To distract some of the Frogs from me, the dog, running around them, but anyone who got on her way, and the cloud of black smoke that covered her didn’t allow the disgruntled Frogs to “calm down” and kept taking away their HP. Though it dealt little damage to them, Vella seemed to be keeping those she aggroed around her. I wondered if this tactic would work on more intelligent creatures.