Dragon Seed: A LitRPG Dragonrider Adventure (The Archemi Online Chronicles Book 1)

by James Osiris Baldwin

  [You have taken 144 points of impact damage! HP 70/320.]

  My heath drained to less than one-fourth of my HP as I came up in agony, gasping for air. For several minutes, I flopped around as my vision pulsed and throbbed, also very realistically, and then flailed for the nearest patch of land. I was almost within reach when something wound around my ankle and tried to haul me back under the surface.

  I was lucky to get one gasp of air before vanishing under the water a second time. I squirmed in the grip of the monster trapping me, trying to make out what it was even as I thrust my spear blindly. It was so dark I couldn't see much: a gaping maw about to engulf my leg; a tongue that lashed; blood spreading through the water as I sunk the point of the blade into flesh and twisted it. The shock of pain made the huge creature pull back and dart away, inhumanly fast. Even though I couldn't see it clearly, the HUD identified the creature for me: a [Stranged Giant Frog].

  ‘Giant’ was correct. On land, frogs were ridiculous croaking sacks of air. In water, they were slippery, fast, and terrifying. The ones in this underground lake were big enough to swallow me whole, and now that blood had been spilled, dozens of them were heading for me, their life meters gleaming in the darkness. Each mob ranged in size and level, from five to seven.

  I burbled whatever swearwords came to mind as I powered through the water back toward the shore. My Adrenaline Points surged as I reached the rocks, kicking a slimy shadow as it rammed into me. My boot hit a rubbery snout, and I pulled myself onto land belly-first, like a seal. Not graceful - not with armor weighing me down - but effective.

  “Fuck this goat-sucking bullshit piece of crap-!” Drenched, my HP throbbing down in the red, I turned to face the pool with my spear leveled, but the frogs in the water weren’t interested in following me out.

  “Yeah! Stay there!” I made a rude gesture at them, still catching my breath. I was about to straighten up when a thunderous croak rumbled the air of the cavern, and I realized why the frogs were so willing to let me go.

  Slowly, I turned. A bus-sized figure squatted in the shadows. Black slime covered a tank covered with rough green skin. Glowing crimson eyes with hourglass-shaped pupils gleamed in the light cast by the luminescent fungi on the walls. Each one of the creature’s eyes was larger than my head. But worst of all were the tentacles. Four barbed, black tentacles writhed behind and above the [Behemoth Aberration]’s warty back, hanging over its head like scorpion tails.

  It was Level 12. I was level 5 and at 21% HP, so I did what any experienced fighter would do.

  I ran like a little bitch.

  “Nope nope nope! That’s a nope!” The tentacles smashed down on the ground behind me. Pure instinct forced me to roll and dive just as a spew of slime streaked through the air just where I’d been. “Noooope!”

  I dashed for the first cave entry I could find in the gloom, diving forward as the mutant frog’s barbed, acid-coated tongue smashed into the wall beside the open door and sent chips of rock and moss flying. I scrambled in and down, running, skidding, and sliding over the rough ground as the beast hopped after me. It wasn’t particularly fast, but its legs could propel it in a leap that closed the gap between us and shook the ground when it landed, nearly throwing me off my feet.

  “Death by giant hentai frog is NOT my kink, okay!?” I shouted at no one in particular as the beast squeezed itself into the cave mouth after me, its flexible, squishy body sliding through the narrow space behind me.

  The tunnel narrowed. I folded my spear into my Inventory and kept running, but that second of slowing down put me within AoE range. A tentacle lashed out, and the tip sliced across my calf, sending me stumbling. The green Poison status alert flared to life.

  [You have taken 5 Slashing damage!]

  [You are poisoned!]

  Cursing and limp-running through the dark caves, I followed the blasts of cold, stale air coming from deep within the ruins. At any point, I knew I’d run into a dead end, and then I was going to get the full virtual reality immersion experience of being eaten alive by Frogger. Panting, I rounded a corner and found myself facing a wall of black… but a wall of space, not of stone.

  My salvation was a hole about four feet tall and barely a foot wide. It looked out over an ancient hall that was dimly lit by rows and rows of flickering, tired-looking mage lights. It was cavernous, hundreds of feet long, with marching rows of moss-covered columns receding into the darkness.

  Frantic, I squeezed myself through the gap, sending chunks of stone tumbling to the floor below. The limestone was soft, weakened by thousands of years of erosion and damp air. Once I was outside and able to find my footing on the rough surface of the wall, I threw myself from the precipice into a forward roll. It was a move I’d practiced over and over again during martial arts training, but not from a height like this... but it was surprisingly effective and carried me through to my feet so fast that I nearly fell onto my knees.

  The Aberration was apparently hungry, because he was right behind me. He squeezed through the gap, raining chunks of stone into the hall, and slithered to the floor with enough weight that the floor around it cracked and sunk. This was a boss-tier monster, well and truly aggro’d, and it wasn’t going away. I would have to fight.

  In the true spirit of RPG adventure, I stuffed a piece of beef jerky in my mouth, slapped two poultices on to lift my HP back into the yellow and yelled a garbled warcry. But then I dodged around a pillar with a short girly scream as the Aberration Frog went berserk, slamming its tongue around like a bullwhip. It hit the pillar and sent cracks running through the ancient stone.

  “You guys are meant to be on easy mode! Why do I have a goddamn XP penalty and a level cap and you don’t!?” Frustrated, I dodged and ran ahead as the ponderous frog hopped and wobbled its way toward me. Every time it landed, gravel and dirt rained down on us from above.

  A single solid hit from that tongue or those tentacles risked killing me. The food and poultices were regenerating my health, but not fast enough. It was only up to half, and I was going to be able to take one blow - no more than that. At least my AP were going to fill up quickly.

  Frogger wasn’t going to give me any time to think of a plan. It bounded forward, almost landing on top of me. On reflex, I stabbed it in the leg. The spear blade went all the way into its rubbery flesh. Take that, fucking frog!

  [You hit Aberration for 12 piercing damage! (HP 2478/2490)]

  “TWO AND A HALF THOUSAND?!” My shriek of rage bounced off the walls.

  All I had going for me at the moment was my speed - Frogger was slow and I was relatively quick. Panting, I zoomed to the side in a puff of shadow, turning invisible and invincible around the next tentacle smash. In another moment, I lunged forward with Whirlwind Butcher, striking as I spun past the mutated frog’s slimy bulk.

  [Critical hit! You hit Aberration for 34 damage! (HP 2444/2490)]

  That powerful attack still barely clipped its HP. I turned too slowly at the end of the sprint, and the tongue struck me a glancing blow that knocked me tumbling across the floor toward the far end of the giant room.

  [Abberration hits you for 103 damage!]

  That shitty little love-tap took me from 179 HP to 76, just like that. This monster was too OP for me to have a hope in hell in face-to-face combat.

  While the jerky regenerated hit points, I ran for the front of the room, where the pillars converged around a dais. It was overgrown with mutated plants that concealed a huge bronze door. That door didn’t look like it was going to open any time soon, but there was something to be said for the arrangement of pillars. The space between the crumbling supports was much narrower here. Even as I began to put my strategy together, the enormous frog tried to leap after me. Instead, it crashed clumsily into one of the pillars, shattering it and toppling the rubble all over itself. The giant frog half-croaked, half-roared as it slashed at the remaining stone with its tentacles... and then shoveled the broken chunks of rock into its mouth. Jeez. Whatever magic steroids it
had eaten to reach this size hadn’t made it any smarter than a normal frog.

  While it was distracted, I squinted up at the ceiling. Seams of luminescent moss glowed above the sputtering mage lights, shining off wet earth. Stalactites of varying sizes hung down like spears. Most of them were small, but a few of them weren’t. Bringing down the house on the frog meant bringing it down on me as well, but if I had to pick a way to die, being squashed like a bug was preferable to being eaten alive like one.

  I steeled myself, puffing and rolling my shoulders, then ran back out toward the boss monster. “Come on, fatso! Let’s dance!”

  The Aberration spat out the rocks it was trying to eat as it screeched, disturbed by my movements. It surged toward me with all four tentacles and its tongue. I triggered my Jump ability. A surge of power gathered in my legs, a thrill of raw energy that allowed me to spring off the ground like a cricket. I landed on Frogger’s back, bouncing off and rolling ungracefully to the ground behind it.

  The creature whirled around in place and stormed toward me, tentacles smashing the ground to help propel it forward. It blasted through another sandstone pillar like a bowling ball. Rock exploded in all directions, and a piece of shrapnel clipped me over the head. The world spun as I staggered behind the next pillar. There was no time to rest before it rumbled toward me, lashing out with its boneless tentacles in all directions.

  “You want my ass?! Come get it!” I wasn’t feeling the bravado any more. Dizzy and bordering on hysteria, I lurched out of way as the tongue swung wildly toward me, and clumsily led the frog around in a rough circle around one of the biggest stalactites in the room.

  The mutant creature charged tirelessly, but without cunning or strategy. It bust right through the crumbling stone in its efforts to reach me. My vision pulsed red as the frog, sensing victory, slapped the final pillar aside and opened its mouth wide to pull me in. Its mouth was still open as the ceiling collapsed on us both.

  Chapter 36

  The huge stalactite – and a good amount of the surrounding ceiling - plummeted straight down through the top of the mutated creature’s head. I watched the frog’s HP plummet into the red zone.

  “HEEEEEEEEEE!” the frog wailed, lashing out spasmodically at everything within reach. I ran around it, narrowly avoiding being brained by falling stone as I readied Jump and leaped up like a cat. I drove my rusty Spear through one of the Aberration’s red glowing eyes, causing it to scream again. “REEEEEEHH!”

  [Critical hit! You hit Aberration for 51 piercing damage!]

  “AHHH!” I roared back at it, twisting the weapon viciously.

  [You hit Aberration for 34 piercing damage!]

  The eyeball burst, and tentacles fell limp, as did the tongue. I viciously stabbed the spear in again, up and down, reducing the frog’s eye socket to bloody jelly as it struggled to free itself from the lance of stone pinning it to the ground. With every thrust and twist, it grew weaker. I ignored the blow from a fist-sized rock that bounced off my shoulder, and kept going until the monster stopped kicking its webbed, clawed feet across the floor and went still.

  [You have defeated Behemoth Aberration!]

  [You have gained 126 Combat EXP!]

  [You have gained an Achievement: David and Goliath (+150 Fame with Trophy, +100 Bonus Combat EXP)]

  [Congratulations! You are level 6!]

  “Fuck.” Teeth clenched, I stumbled off the corpse’s back and wobbled away to look back at it. Thick blood and slime pooled on the floor. It stank like rotten milk.

  The only explanation I had for the frog was that the game reset had screwed up the limitations the Devs had put on Archemi. Fortunately, that also seemed to have removed the EXP penalty - and in theory, my level cap. That was good and bad. On the one hand, I was no longer condemned to a life of noobery. Great. On the other, this game was about to turn into Lord of the Flies. I had to level, and I had to do it quickly. Not so great.

  Resigned to the stench, I searched the smelly body for loot and got a list of items. The trophy was good, but probably disgusting. I doubted that a Behemoth Aberration trophy was a gold cup with ‘Number 1 Frog Murderer’ inscribed on it.

  [Raw Meat x 5]

  [Infused Monster Hide x 4]

  [Behemoth Aberration Trophy x 1]

  [Venom Sac x 2]

  [Giant Frog Eggs x 4]

  [Frog Fat x 4]

  [Bluecrystal Shards x 3]

  [Greencrystal Shards x 5]

  [Strange Crystal x 1]

  When I stashed the loot in my inventory, it automatically sorted into different sub-menus. The raw meat was food – I wasn’t convinced I really wanted to eat it, given how the monster smelled, but it apparently regenerated 35 HP over 35 seconds – and nearly everything else went into ‘Crafting’ or ‘Alchemy’, except for the Strange Crystal. That was a Quest Item. Interesting.

  In a lot of games, cooking edibles listed as ‘raw’ tended to improve the regen rate, so I left the frog carcass and headed toward the big door I’d seen earlier. A lot of the plants covering the door and the dias were dead and dry, so I pulled them down, using a dagger to hack at the woody vines further back. After a few minutes of work, I had an armful of kindling and firewood, which I took out to the middle of the dias. After gathering some stones, I had a firepit, and shortly after that, a campfire. I threaded the raw meat on some skewers, and set them aside. The flames needed to die down so I could set them to cook over the hot embers. I knew enough about cooking – IRL and in-game – to know that if you stuck meat directly into flames, you ended up with charcoal on the outside and raw meat in the middle. You let the embers and hot stones do the cooking.

  While I was waiting for the flames to reduce, I went over to the door. The bronze was streaked with long green tongues of corrosion, but it was still strong. I pulled away more vines to examine the intricate reliefs on the surface. The images looked kind of Egyptian, except that the largest people had wings and were interacting with dragons and smaller, less important-looking humans had long, pointed ears. I was surprised to find that there was a seam down the middle of the door, which ended in a diamond-shaped depression at waist-height. A [Strange Crystal]-shaped depression.

  “Huh.” Curious, I pulled the crystal from my Inventory and tried it in the slot. It was a perfect fit.

  For a few seconds, nothing happened. I was about to remove the crystal and turn back to the fire when a low rumble froze me in place: the sound of gears grinding from deep inside the walls. I took a step back as the door cracked down the middle, showering me with dirt, and then slowly pulled back into the doorway on either side, revealing one of the most beautiful rooms I’d ever seen.

  It was a giant geode, an egg-shaped, uneven dome of pure crystal that arched like a cathedral overhead. The crystal spars were a brilliant, opalescent blue, the surfaces crazed with slick rainbows of color that shifted with the flickering of the fire behind me. It was warm in here, and I didn’t have to be a mage to know this place was lousy with magic. I felt it in my bones, thrumming, and smelled it in the eerie, earthy odor of electrically charged dust that hung in the air... and saw it in the girl frozen in the immense crystal at the end of the chamber.

  She hung as if suspended in water, her brilliant white hair floating weightlessly behind her. She was golden-skinned and painfully beautiful; slim and graceful and almost translucent by torchlight. She had wings, each feather perfectly sealed into the stone, and instead of ears, winglets that swept back from the sides of her head. All she wore was a sleeveless, thigh-length shift that clung to the slender curves of her body. The fabric had frozen in ripples, blowing out behind her.

  Fascinated, I stole closer, looking for the source of the power that had blown through the crystal. A gleaming pearl was imbedded in the stone. The girl’s hands were poised in front of where the pearl had been stopped, lips parted, as if she’d been casting a spell just as her mineral prison closed around them. As I drew near it, the Spear began to throb against my palm. I looked down at it.
It was glowing faintly, resonating with the frozen woman.

  Quest Updated: Restore the Spear of Nine Spheres

  Investigate the Ancient Shrine of Light (Part 1 of 3).

  Reward: EXP, Mental Skill EXP, Ancient Treasure

  I almost accepted on reflex, but then recalled what Matir had told me and held off, letting the window hang. This Spear quest… I really did think there was something weird about it. I called up the Glossary and looked up ‘Ancient Treasure’:

  Ancient Treasure

  An ancient jewelry box. Contains Gold Grade accessories.

  Market Price: 5,000,000 guilder (Ilia)

  My eyes bugged. Five MILLION guilders? This game didn’t have the crazy inflation that some games did. Five million was a lot of money. Too much money.

  I tried consulting the Glossary for the pearl imbedded in the crystal, but found nothing in there about it. I settled for walking around the room instead. Eventually, I found a golden plaque buried under a thin layer of crystal that was easily chipped off with my Spear. The surface of the plaque crawled with magical runes that blurred and leapt at me when I tried to look at them. They seemed to lift off the metal, like a 3D illusion. Even as I stepped back, the room around me warped, fading to blue, then white.

  …A rumbling round gate closes over a pit of boiling white mana, the doors sealing into a nearly perfect circle. Around it, a circle of robed, winged people: Aesari, chanting even as the radiating magic melts the flesh from their bones. Their feathers catch fire, and their singing turns to screams. New magi take the place of the fallen, sustaining the chant. Inch by inch, the gate closes… until finally, it is closed.

  A man steps forward, the Spear in his hands. He is the Paragon of the Nine, and the Spear is whole. The bluesteel is polished to a brilliant metal finish, crawling with a constant bloom of spirals and sigils. All nine holes are full, and as the Paragon brings his Spear down the seal the Gate of Light, one stone flashes brighter than the others. It is Taath La’Hah. The Pearl of Glorious Dawn. The key to the Dragon Gate of Light, tomb of the goddess Solnetsi…