Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2)

by J. A. Cipriano

  Dark Heart looked like her head was going to explode, but after a moment, she sucked in a deep breath and visibly calmed herself. “Fine.” She shook her head. “Let’s finish the quest. Leveling can wait, I suppose.”

  “Now, that that’s settled,” Two’ Manchu said, pointing at the decrepit stone door at the far end of the room. There were a couple unlit torches next to it but not a lot else besides dust and cobwebs. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” I said, moving toward the doorway with my army of undead and my metal golem. He’d fallen to about twenty-five percent health coming down here, but now that there were no more monsters, he’d regenerated to about fifty percent.

  “Glad everyone is so lovey, dovey,” George said, shaking his cotton tail as he bounced toward me. “It’s positively sickening.”

  Dark Heart responded, but I didn’t hear her because I was staring hard at my skill window. I needed more skill slots, but I didn’t have a lot left I could remove. Sure, I had the one vacated by Detect Lesser Trap, but at the same time, that wouldn’t be enough. I mean, I could retire Homing arrow and Concussive Arrow, but that’d leave me with almost no offensive abilities. Then again, it wasn’t like I had a really good bow or anything.

  “Elizabeth can you please retire Concussive Arrow and Homing Arrow,” I said as Two’ Manchu lit the two torches beside the door. As the skills disappeared from my active window, the door in front of us vanished into smoke, revealing a portal just like the one we’d used to escape from the dungeon after it’d been completed.

  “Woah, what is that?” Two’ Manchu asked, taking a step backward as he eyed the glowing pustule of space. “Did we miss what we came down here for?”

  “Could be,” Crash said, glancing back the way we’d come. “Maybe we needed to go through the zombie rooms?”

  “Or that takes us to the next place?” I offered, watching the waves of lavender energy that composed the portal ripple like someone had thrown a stone into a pond. “Maybe someone should just go in and see where it goes?”

  “That sounds like you’re volunteering…” Dark Heart said, turning to look at me. “Are you?”

  “Fuck it,” I said, glaring at her because she was supposed to be the goddamned tank, and as such, she was supposed to step into bad situations first. That was literally like her whole job. “I’ll go, and remember, I’m a necromancer now, so when I die, I will haunt your ass.”

  “Fair enough,” she said, nodding at me as I raised one hand and saluted my friends. “But don’t die. I’d hate to have to find a replacement for you.”

  “Wish me luck,” I said, kneeling down next to George and ruffling his ears. “Ready buddy?”

  “Yeah, boss. I’m all about jumping into things that are pink.” The rabbit grinned at me. “If you know what I mean.”

  “I think I got it,” I said, shaking my head at the bunny before I stood and turned toward the portal. “Bone Shield.”

  The words caused a whirling storm of bones to swirl around me, and as Elizabeth explained I’d gained another new skill that would absorb damage equal to twenty-five percent of my total health, I stepped through the portal.

  17

  As George and I appeared on the other side of the portal, my teeth chattered together, and I shivered in the crisp air. Even though I’d spent the last several hours trapped inside this fictional world, and I knew it wasn’t real, I still couldn’t help but feel the cold in the air.

  The room wasn’t really that different from the one I’d just been in, other than having various colors and symbols etched into the stones underfoot. I wasn’t sure what they were for, but I was reasonably sure it had to do with magic, probably to help whatever creature that lived here kill stupid adventurers like myself.

  A quick glance behind me revealed a solid block wall, and as I stared at it, I realized I had no way back. Part of me wanted to grab one of my teleport back to town scrolls and use it post haste, but that wouldn’t help. It’d either take me out of here prematurely or not work, neither of which would help me.

  Worse, I couldn’t call back to my party members.

  That left only one choice. I had to move forward, and not just because there was an archway that led to a path that snaked off into darkness ahead. No, I had to move forward so I could find the soul stones and get my godforsaken body back.

  “Well, this sucks,” George said, shaking his head at me as I walked forward. The broken cobblestones making up the floor crunched with each step.

  “It does,” I replied, trying to ignore how fucking stupid it’d been to go through the door by myself. It’d seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, well, it seemed really fucking stupid.

  “Maybe we should wait? I’m sure they’ll follow us inside soon,” George said, taking one long look at the moss-covered stone wall behind us. “Right?”

  “That sounds like sissy talk,” I replied, glancing back at the bunny. “But if you want to wait…” I let my words hang in the air as the bunny glared at me.

  “Not cool, boss.” George shook his head at me. “Ain’t no one calls me a coward.”

  “I don’ think you’re a coward,” I replied because, honestly, I didn’t. George was pretty damned brave for a bunny, and while I knew he wasn’t real, I sort of wished I was half as mouthy as he was. Then again, I was pretty sure he got away with half the shit he said just because he was cuddly looking. It’d be a lot different if he looked like one of those gremlins who had eaten after midnight.

  As I came to the edge of the room and found that the darkness beyond the hallway dropped off into a crater. Its lip was lined with jagged hunks of razor sharp glass, making me think whatever had exploded here had been hot enough to melt the dark stone into slag. The inside reminded me of a massive geode that had been cut open to reveal the serrated purple crystals within. Only this one was big enough to swallow me whole.

  “Do you think we have to go down there?” George asked, eyeing the glass-strewn path below. “Because my feet aren’t meant for something like that.”

  “I hope not,” I replied, and the wind whipped across its surface in response, filling the air with a high-pitched keening that made me think of blowing across a half-filled bottle, only sadder. Whatever had died here had left behind a hole filled with regret.

  “Um… boss, what’s that?” George asked from behind me, and as I turned toward him, I found myself looking at a statue of a woman in her mid-twenties that hadn’t been there before. She was pretty and dressed in chainmail with one hand clasped around a massive sword on her back like she was about to draw it.

  “Who is that?” I asked, taking a step toward the statue. I wasn’t sure why it’d just appeared, but its sudden presence didn’t bode well. Was she responsible for the crater somehow?

  Just the thought made a chill crawl down my back. If this girl could make a crater full of molten glass, there was no way I’d be able to stop her by myself. Even if my friends were here, we might not win. Speaking of friends, where the hell were they? Shouldn’t they have come through by now?

  “Are you wondering how she died?” a haggard, tired voice asked from behind me, and as I whirled around to see a translucent scarred old man, my heart nearly leapt out of my goddamned chest. It was the Zombie King, only now he was in ghost form, which honestly, I wasn’t sure was better. “I can tell you, if you’re truly curious. I probably can’t do it justice since I was unconscious when it happened, but then again, nearly everyone who was there is gone.”

  “Ghost zombie!” George cried, his furry body filling with frozen energy as he got read to blast the thing behind me. “Want me to blast him?”

  “Not yet,” I said, taking a huge step backward away from the apparition. Thankfully it didn’t follow me.

  “You don’t want to hear my story yet?” the ghost asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “I honestly was not expecting to be told to wait, but I suppose I can.” He clapped his hands together, but the movement elicited no
sound. “I have nothing but time.”

  “I, um, okay,” I replied, feeling my cheeks flush as he spoke because he’d mistaken me telling George to not blast him with me telling him to hold off on his story. “Sorry, please tell me the story. I was talking to my rabbit.”

  “Your rabbit?” George asked, hopping toward me with murder in his bunny eyes. “Who you calling your rabbit?”

  “You,” I said, ignoring his rage as it washed over me. “You’re my bunny. It says so right there in the pet window.

  “Oh, you think you’re sly what with your windows, eh?” George said, turning away from me and crossing his furry arms over his chest. “We’ll see whose bunny I am when I let your ass take a long walk off a short cliff.” He spun there and pointed one shaking paw at me. “No one owns George W. Bunny!”

  “Whatever,” I replied, smirking at the rabbit before turning to the spirit. “You may proceed, kind sir.”

  “Very well,” the spirit said, ignoring George as he floated toward the statue, leaving a trail translucent glitter behind in his wake. “Her name was Sabre, and she was a great warrior. One of the first to venture into Ruul in fact.” The ghost took his eyes off the statue and moved next to me before gazing into the crater. “We were attacked by a huge army of undead. Too many for us to have repelled even if we hadn’t been fighting an invasion nonstop for days. In short, my people were on the brink of destruction thanks to the Skeleton King.” The ghost waved his hand at the crater. “She sacrificed herself to stop them.”

  “Sounds noble,” I said, swinging my eyes from the crater to the ghost and back again. So she’d sacrificed herself to save everyone. It was amazing to think someone would do that willingly. I sure as hell wouldn’t have. Still, it made me wonder how many of the people she’d saved were real and how many were NPCs.

  “It was noble.” The ghost king shook his head. “It was foolish to try to take away her noble act afterward. To try to second guess her actions and say there had been a better way. Many people did that. It was dishonorable.”

  “Were a lot of people hurt in the blast?” I asked as a dark feeling settled around me. I was sure people had died when that chick made a crater like this. How could people not have died? The crater was monstrously huge. To think one girl had this much power, and it hadn’t been enough to stop her enemy without the ultimate sacrifice made my blood run cold.

  “Not as many died as you’d think.” The ghost took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The enemy had drawn most of our people away with a feint. This was a flanking attack we didn’t see coming and couldn’t defend because we thought we had an invincible barrier at our backs. If Sabre hadn’t been there to stop them from entering through this alcove, they’d have come through the Ravine of Despair and stormed the Town of Silver Gables from two fronts. Then a lot more people would have died.” The ghost knelt down and touched the purple glass lining the rim of the crater. “It was more that the attack on our town caused a lot of damage, and we were in no place to recover from it. We needed a scapegoat. She took that burden upon herself as well, and for a while, we were united.”

  The ghost king turned to look at me, and his eyes held something I couldn’t quite discern. Regret maybe? “She died to protect people who were not her loved ones. She sacrificed for us, and she wasn’t even really one of us. Not really.” He shook his head. “She was one of you, and it was something we never let her forget, no matter how strong she became.”

  “What do you mean she was one of you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the ghost.

  “She was an adventurer, like yourself.” The ghost poked me in the chest, causing most of his finger to phase through me.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I’d been fairly certain Sabre was a player and not an NPC before he’d started talking, but now? Now I wondered if she’d tried to stop the Skeleton King during a similar quest and failed. I really hoped not because if it was true, we were fucked. Still, that couldn’t be true… weren’t we the first ones to enter this dungeon, and as I had that thought, a bad feeling settled over me. I wasn’t in that dungeon anymore. I’d come through a portal. I could be anywhere.

  “Why are you telling me this?” I asked, the words slipping out of my mouth before I’d even realized I’d said them.

  “I’m not sure.” The ghost locked eyes with me. “If I knew why I did half the things I do, I’d never do anything.” He grinned, revealing ghostly teeth that glowed eerily in his own luminescence.

  “Okay,” I said, shaking my head at his non-answer. I mean, would it have killed him to actually give me helpful information? “Why do you think you’re telling me this?”

  “I’ve seen you and your friends fighting for the last few hours. I’ve seen questions sit on the tip of your tongue, but also recognized why you did not ask them.” The ghost swallowed hard enough for his adam’s apple to bob in his throat like an oversized fishing lure. “I offer you this story in exchange for something more I need you to do to stop the Skeleton King. And I feel bad asking you to do it.”

  A shiver of fear ran down the back of my neck, leaving icy pinpricks in its wake. If the ghost had come out here to ask me to do something, I was pretty sure it would be bad.

  “What?” I asked cautiously. “What do you need me to do?”

  “I need you to go to the frozen world of Frozenheim and recover the Medallion of Courage.” The ghost swallowed again and looked away, staring across the glimmering crater.

  “Wait… I’m pretty sure Frozenheim is where the frost giants live. That’s a really high level area, if I recall?” I gulped. That seemed like a pretty tall task for someone who didn’t even have thick fur armor to stave off the cold. In TG, my rogue had barely been able to solo around the outskirts of the place, and I was pretty geared. Normally, it took a five man party to get close to the oil fields so you could scavenge oil and pearls for resources. There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to complete any kind of quest there solo at my low ass level.

  “It is indeed the abode of the frost giants. Like the other two objects required to beat the Skeleton King, the medallion was lost to the elemental giants who inhabit the far world.” The ghost shook his head. “Thankfully, one has already been recovered, so only two remain, and one is in Frozenheim. After Sabre died, some of her friends sought to resurrect her. To do this, they recovered the Broach of the Fallen Warrior from Flameheim, thinking it would let them bring her back. It didn’t work because by the time they retrieved the item, they were unable to return here.” The ghost gestured at the statue.

  “Would it have worked?” I asked, watching the ghost for any hint of an answer. If it would work, that mean there might be a way to actually avoid death in the game.

  “That is not the items intended purpose, so it’s hard to say.” The ghost shrugged at me non-committally, and I felt the excitement I’d had at hearing about the item evaporate into vapor.

  “And its intended purpose is what, exactly?” I asked as George tugged on my leg.

  “You can’t be seriously listening to this guy, can you, boss?” George asked, but a quick glance from me silenced him. I remembered Dark Heart and Crash talking about both the medallion and the broach before. Maybe this was how we got them. True, we’d still need the sword, but we needed these items too… Still, going to Frozenheim seemed impossible. Hell, if you added my party’s levels together, I’d still be too low of a level to go there safely.

  “When combined with the ring and the broach, the Medallion of Courage allows one to wield the Sword of Infinite Sorrows and defeat the Skeleton King once and for all.” The ghost’s eyes lit up, and this time it seemed strangely comforting.

  “Okay… but you said her friends had the broach, and they were unable to bring it back here, and I have no idea how to get the ring either,” I said, trying his best to make sense of the situation.

  From the way it sounded, this object could be better suited for our entire party to retrieve. After all, what happened if I
went to Frozenheim and was immediately killed by frost giants with axes?

  “The one Sabre’s friends used was given to another player to bring inside, but that player was killed before he could reach Sabre, and so it was lost within the Wasteland of Chaos. You can find it there.” He looked sheepishly at me. “I’ll admit, I have no idea where to find the Ring of Strife, but the medallion can only be gotten from Frozenheim’s frozen wastes.” The ghost gritted his teeth hard enough for the sound to turn my stomach.

  “Are you seriously asking me to go to the frost giant’s home world and steal from them on the chance that I can find two other items and craft a magical sword?” I asked, my voice angrier than I’d expected it to be. Well, either way, I was pissed off. What this ghost said was impossible, and even if it wasn’t, I needed to find my friends and a lot more levels. No, it was just way too much for a newbie quest.

  The ghost stared sheepishly down into the crater. “If you do not have the sword, the broach, the ring, and the medallion, we will not be able to fight the Skeleton King. If you are not willing to retrieve them, you should go before it is too late.”

  “I need my friends to come too,” I said, taking a step back. It suddenly felt like I’d been punched in the gut because he was right. If we weren’t going to finish the quest, we should leave. What’s more, this quest wouldn’t be here if it couldn’t be completed. I mean, okay, maybe it would be, but I had to believe it was because if it wasn’t, well, we really were wasting our time.

  “Your friends cannot come. Only one adventurer may enter the portal to within the Ravine of Despair. The moment you stepped through, it vanished, revealing the next part of their dungeon.” The ghost waved his hand through the air, dismissing what he’d said like it wasn’t important when it seemed really fucking important.

  “What?” I cried, barely resisting the urge to pummel him to death. “What do you mean, the portal vanished?”