Ascend: A World of Ga'em LitRPG (The Chaos Emperor Book 1)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  ***

  The room I was in was dustier than anything I had ever seen.

  And I lived in the poorest parts of the city.

  A desk — a second, unbroken one — and a cot sat inside the room, and both of them were covered in cobwebs. I stepped forward and a puff of dust rose from the floor. I held my hand over my nose, and stopped breathing for a second. Sneezing right now would be the worst thing.

  Then again I’d also broken an entire desk, so maybe it wouldn’t be.

  I stepped to the door and turned the knob. There was no lock, and the door eased open. A narrow metal railing stood before me, and in the middle was a staircase that led downstairs. I looked down either end of the hallway and saw two doors. I walked towards the one to my right, and saw a nameplate on it.

  Jack and Ben.

  I grinned. Just what I wanted. I entered the room, and the scent of vanilla hit me hard. I shook at the strong essence, and then looked around. A candle was lit up on the desk before me, but no one else was in there.

  Leaving a lit candle in a house made almost entirely out of wood. You guys really ARE idiots. But I didn’t put it out. The Henways could handle their own issues. I picked up a book on the bed beside me.

  ‘The Path of an Elemental Swordsman.’

  The twins are reading this? I rolled my eyes. This is too advanced for you numbskulls. I noticed the few drawers under the desk, and tugged them open, rummaging through them all. But there wasn’t much of point though since they were all empty, except for the one that had a pack of blank sheets of paper.

  That was the only desk in the room too. Did they hide the scroll somewhere else? I wondered. Maybe I should search the other room.

  I stood for a moment and thought about what I would do if I was the Henway twins. I’d probably do the worst thing imaginable to the scroll.

  And then my eyes widened.

  “No,” I whispered softly.

  I darted out the room and my footsteps thumped down the staircase. No, no, no, no. My chest tightened. I looked around the lower floor, and noticed the kitchen a room across from the staircase. I rushed into it, my heart beating hard. A small metal basket stood in the corner of the room, probably for trash.

  I looked in, and I froze. Heat rose up the back of my neck, and the muscles in my face quivered.

  Pieces of old, worn parchment sat at the very top of the trash pile. I hesitantly picked them up, and looked at the writing.

  Dammit! My teeth grinded. These freaking lowlifes.

  They’d torn up my scroll and thrown it into the trash. I’d gone through so much to get this, and these idiots had ruined it all with their stupid bullying.

  “Damn you,” I hissed.

  A thud sounded through the walls. I jerked around, and instinctively tugged on my hood, just to make sure it covered my face.

  “Seriously,” a voice muttered. “Why did he have to send me all the way back just to grab his umbrella?”

  What? I blinked. I shook my head. Focus. I hid myself beside the doorway. Footsteps passed by me. I glanced to my side and saw a well-dressed lady walk past the kitchen door and deeper into the house.

  She must be Lady Henway. Images of Helen’s bruise appeared within my mind, but I closed my eyes, and quietly exhaled. Now wasn’t the time for anger.

  I needed to get out of here. And fast. The scroll. I knelt down to the trash bin and pulled up every piece of torn parchment I could see. I shoved them into my pockets and peeked out. No one was around, and I quietly strode over the wooden floor.

  Footsteps sounded again. Oh no. I jerked around, trying to see where the lady was, and found her standing a mere ten yards before me. She had the same grey eyes as her sons and looked at me in absolute contempt.

  “Who are you?”

  I threw the door open and dashed out. There were still no people in the streets and I just ran for it. The lady yelled behind me, but her voice was a fainting echo. A few seconds of running in I heard loud noises come from ahead of me. I ran around the curve, and my eyes widened.

  A plethora of people stood at an intersection, with their hands in the air and waving. Damn it! I gritted my teeth. I’d run to the procession.

  Wait, maybe this is a good thing, I thought. I can lose myself within the crowd. I pulled off my hooded jacket, and placed my knife in the middle. I crumbled the outfit into a ball, hiding the weapon, and carried the cloth with me as I ran.

  I glanced back a few times, but saw no one chasing after me. My running slowed to a fast walk as I neared the crowd of people. A file of Knights marched through the streets, and the people cheered loudly. I pushed myself through the crowd and stayed still.

  The veins on my forehead were throbbing now, and the realization of what had just happened hit me hard.

  The scroll was gone. Those freaking lowlifes had destroyed it. I had the pieces, sure. But that didn’t assure me anything. Those stupid Henway twins had torn it to shreds.

  Bloody idiots.

  “All bow to the royal princess!” A voice boomed.

  Everyone went down on a knee, and I followed suit. A large carriage rode from ahead. A man in silver armor stood at the front — another blonde. However, this one was actually capable, compared to those stupid Henway twins.

  The Knight’s cold blue eyes didn’t glance at the crowds and stared down the street. A scar sat on the left side of his face, striking down from his eyebrow, down to his lips.

  Elya Lambcost. The Captain of the Zevalon Knight force. I didn’t know him, but I’d heard enough to know how strong he was.

  Behind the man was a chair of silver, and atop it sat the princess — Valentine Goodman. She was a tall woman — maybe a year or so older than me — and had lightly-tanned skin. She wore a white gown with a wide neck that showed off her collarbone, and had a royal-red cape draped over her back. Her teal eyes looked through the crowds but she sat completely still, like some kind of doll.

  I held the bundled jacket tighter in my arms and quickly glanced back.

  Then I froze.

  Lady Henway was running up here. She hadn’t seen my face back then, but I certainly didn’t want to risk the chance being recognized. I stayed in my knelt position and moved a step forward.

  “Stop cramming the space, kid!” A man pushed me from behind. I tripped on another leg in the crowd, and fell forward onto the street, right into the path of the procession.

  I quickly picked myself up, and a slap struck my cheek.

  A man in silver armor stood before me, and stared with his eyes of intense black.

  Elya’s right hand man. I straightened. Joseph.

  “How dare you enter the procession route, peasant!” he yelled.

  I stared at the ground. Please don’t find my knife. Please don’t find my knife.

  “Get back in line.” He placed his hand on my chest and pushed me. I stumbled to the ground, still clutching hard to the wrinkled cloth in my arms.

  Joseph looked down at me. “Trash like you has no place coming to a procession like this.”

  Snickering sounded around me, and all eyes leered in my direction. My chest thumped louder than before, and I clenched my fists. I looked at the procession, at the high-esteemed Knights, at the rich families all around me.

  And as the snickering escalated to laughter, a sole thought yelled through my mind.

  This world is unfair.

  ***

  CHAPTER THREE

  Horace grinned at the young man kneeling before him. “Are you sure you are fine with this, Albion?”

  He smiled. “Do I really have a choice anymore?”

  “Well….” Horace’s grin changed to a smirk. “Not really.”

  “I understood the consequences of my request when I asked for it.”

  “It’s just—” Horace waved his hand through the air. “I did not expect someone to be so lax about accepting my terms. Usually when I tell them of what I want them to do, they all break down and cry. You, on the other hand, have been …
annoyingly calm. It’s quite disappointing.”

  “I have weathered much worse, Horace,” he said.

  “Anyway.” Horace cracked his knuckles. “Are you ready to do this?”

  Albion nodded. “What is the name of the place you are sending me to?”

  “The same one I sent your master to.”

  His eyes widened. “What?”

  Horace chuckled. “Now there’s that fear I love seeing.”

  “Wait!” Albion stood up. “But you said—”

  “Too late.” Horace snapped his fingers. A circle of runes emerged underneath Albion, and the man collapsed to his knees. His lips moved, but his words were drowned in the deafening hum that resonated through the hallways.

  A single tear fell down Albion’s cheek. A flash of light burst out, and then the man was gone.

  “There was no need to cry, Albion.” Horace exhaled and eased back into his throne. A wide smirk painted his face. “Both of you are going to have a lot of fun in Zevalon.”

  ***

  “Damn those twins!” I slammed my fist into the wall.

  Shreds of the torn scroll were scattered over the wooden floor. I picked up the ones that had floated over to my bed and put them back in the mess.

  Yes, this was a mess. I had tried arranging the pieces in many ways over the past few hours, but I couldn’t make out anything about the actual scroll.

  I clenched my fists. I’m missing a ton of pieces. Either I hadn’t picked them all up, or the Henway twins hadn’t dropped them all into the trash. Whatever the case was, it had resulted in the exact same thing—the scroll was gone.

  “Damn it.” My voice was soft, and a gentler echo came back from the walls.

  With the scroll gone, all these years of restraint, all these years of preventing myself from leveling up were all for nothing. Ten years I’d invested into this, and those years were now gone. If only it hadn’t been the Henway twins. Anyone else, and I would have clocked them out, then and there. Those twins, though … I couldn’t get away with just doing that.

  Well, at least I didn’t get caught stealing the shreds.

  With all the commotion that had happened because of the Second Knight—Joseph, he was called—Lady Henway hadn’t really sought after me, even when she had caught up to the crowd of people. Sure, she’d yelled “thief” at the crowd a few times, and some people had talked to her about it, but she’d never picked me out of the sea of people.

  I looked at the jacket lying on my bed. Good thing I had the hood on before. I picked up a few pieces of the torn scroll and slid them around the mess. So far, I could only make out one word from the whole thing. A small jumble of oddly-designed letters formed between two pieces of the scroll.

  “Aegil.” My voice was soft.

  That didn’t help me, though. I already knew that. I’d known that name even before I’d obtained the scroll. What mattered was the rest of what the scroll had to say. Sure, I had memorized parts of it, but I needed the whole thing now.

  I clenched my fists yet again. Those lowlifes. Images of the Henway twins filled my mind once more, and a piercing heat rose up the back of my neck.

  I need to calm down. I exhaled. A distraction. I put my hand up in the air, and swiped down.

  DING!

  A vertical row of five icons—the Ga’em menu—emerged yet again. This time, however, the topmost icon had a small square in the top-right corner, and a number showed within it.

  I frowned. What do I have notifications about? I tapped the icon and a screen slid out from behind it.

  Stats

  Items

  Equipment

  Skills

  The Stats option was highlighted, and the same square-enclosed number sat beside the text. I tapped on the option, and a new screen opened.

  Name

  Levi Ryder

  Level

  11

  Health

  100

  Constitution

  10

  Mana

  200

  Intelligence

  20

  Stamina

  150

  Endurance

  15

  Strength

  21

  Wisdom

  20

  Agility

  25

  Dexterity

  30

  Charisma

  4

  Luck

  4

  DING!

  You have suffered a penalty:

  Charisma reduced by 4 points.

  The events at the procession were an embarrassment to your identity. The rich and the nobles have deemed you to be a pathetic beggar boy. More people of the city will now identify you as the idiot that made a fool of himself at the procession.

  My shoulders tightened. Does this mean my reputation changed as well? I put my finger to my Stats screen and swiped to the side, pushing away the old data and letting a new set of information take its place.

  Name

  Levi Ryder

  Race

  Human

  Abilities

  None

  Resistances

  None

  Class

  None

  Alignment

  Neutral

  Titles

  None

  Reputation

  Level 0 - “Do you even exist?”

  I exhaled. Thank god. It’s still Level 0.

  “Levi!” My door thudded.

  I jumped up, and jerked my eyes to the doorway.

  “Levi Ryder, I know you’re in there!” Helen yelled. “Let me in.”

  Uh oh. I picked up the shreds of the scroll in a heap and pushed them under my bed.

  “Levi!” My door thudded again.

  “Coming!” I yelped and unbolted the lock. It swung open and I jumped back, letting the door miss me and hit the wall.

  Helen stood on the other side, and she did not look happy. Her hands shook, and she had them clenched into tight fists, her skin turning red. Her shoulders trembled, and her eyes narrowed as she glared at me. “I told you not to go next to the procession.”

  I stiffened. Damn it. I looked down at the floor. “Who told you?”

  “That isn’t the point.” She stepped into my room. “Why did you go there? I told you not to.”

  “It was … unavoidable.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Really? And what was the reason that made it so?”

  I stayed silent, and slid my feet over the floor in circles. It wasn’t like I could tell her I’d broken into another home and almost gotten caught. She’d beat me half-dead if she knew. And I wouldn’t resist either.

  “Does this have something to do with the Henway twins?”

  I frowned. “Why would you say that?”

  She sighed. “It’s always them. They mess with you and you do all these stupid things right after.”

  “They’re the ones that come after me,” I said. “It’s not like I go around looking for trouble.”

  Helen walked up to my bed, and sat herself down. “You’re a lovely boy, Levi.” Her voice was soft now. “But you need to change your behavior.”

  I played with my fingers, and didn’t look at her face. I’d heard this conversation way too many times. It was always easier when I didn’t look at her.

  “You need to change,” she said. “You need to find a nice set of people to be around, and learn from them, evolve with them.”

  “It’s not that easy.” My voice was quieter, now, as well.

  “Remember that group that came a year ago, asking if you wanted to adventure with them? You were so weak compared to their group, and yet they decided to help you. And what did you do? You refused.”

  “I don’t want to be a charity case,” I muttered.

  “They offered to train you, too, but you said you don't need it.”

  “Well, if I want to get stronger, sharing XP with someone is not really a good way to level up.”

  She sighed. “There's mor
e to the world than just individual strength, Levi.”

  No there isn’t. If there was, the world wouldn’t be this way. It wouldn’t be this unfair.

  “Eighteen years of your life,” Helen said, “and you’ve acted like a know-it-all almost the entire time.”

  “I’ve got millennia of experience right in here.” I pointed to my head.

  She looked at me, and a sad smile curled onto her lips. “You always say that.” Her voice was hoarse. “You don’t have to keep going after strength, Levi. If you’re always chasing something, when are you going to stay in the present and just live? This world is about more than just power.”

  That’s where you’re wrong.

  She rubbed her forehead. “If only Ken was here,” she whispered.

  But he isn’t, I thought, but said nothing.

  She sighed, and looked up at me. Her smile was wider now. “When I first saw you in that basket outside my door—”

  Not this again.

  “—it was the greatest thing I had ever felt,” she said. “You stared at me with those large, violet eyes, and I knew then that you were someone I would care for forever.” Helen stood up from the bed. “Just don’t do anything stupid, okay?” Her voice shook. “I can’t … protect you anymore.”

  I stood silently, and watched as the woman walked out of my room.

  And her sobs echoed through my walls.

  ***

  “Heading out to the forest again?”

  A different man in silver armor stood at the outpost now. He smiled widely, showing me his full set of teeth. I nodded to his question and walked out of the enclosure.

  I wonder who he is. Almost every Knight I interacted with treated me like trash—as very clearly evidenced by Joseph’s public humiliation of me. However, this one seemed different.

  I must have just not noticed his face enough times to remember, I thought.