Player Reached the Top. LitRPG Series. Book V

by Rick Scar

  Level Up!

  The message was followed by a scream of joy and pain, then a howl, and then Hade’s voice.

  “Fuck you! GAAAAAAH!”

  Raven stopped wiping his blades against his pants and stared at her across the hall in astonishment.

  Did... Did she really kill a monster of a much higher level and rank?

  “Hade?”

  “Yes, master?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m… I’m fine, master,” she said through a mouth full of something as she wobbled toward him, holding a large piece of her opponent’s flesh in her hand. As she came closer, Raven noticed that she was missing her right arm down from the elbow, and that her side was marked by claw marks that would’ve ripped her apart if it weren’t for her armor.

  “Great job! Here, take this.” He rummaged through his inventory and gave her a Maxi Regeneration Potion that he had been saving for special occasions like this one. He then checked her stats and debuffs.

  Lost Limb

  Debuffs:

  Bleeding: -25% regeneration

  Debility: -30% physical damage

  Duration: 5 hours

  Broken Ribs

  Debuffs:

  Internal Bleeding: -50 HP every 10 seconds

  Damaged Thorax: -3 Agility

  Duration: 3 hours

  Broken Leg

  Debuffs:

  Limping: -20% speed

  Duration: 1.5 hours

  Wow. Almost a full set. Raven sighed as he watched Hade wince in pain each time she chewed her meal. Here come the consequences of her wish.

  Shimiraz had killed his enemy long ago and was now standing nearby, shouldering his club. If it weren’t for his head occasionally twitching from side to side, he could’ve passed for another statue.

  Having looted the dead monster, Raven took a closer look at his find: a small, five-pointed rune painted in black on a flat stone.

  RUNE OF DISAPPOINTMENT

  Collected: 1/21

  Description: A rune from the Chained Idols set. Complete the set to open the way into the Abode of Gifts.

  “Interesting.” As Raven approached the other two dead Idols, he discovered two more Runes, albeit with different symbols.

  Well, I know what I gotta do next...

  With Shimiraz and Khalapheer by his side, he got down to destroying the remaining statues.

  Having learned his lesson thanks to the first three Idols, this time, he was ready for the magic wave. Instead of trying to deflect it, he lay down and dug his blade into the ground so he wouldn’t be blown away. Once his hand touched the statue, Shimiraz smashed the Idol’s big head with his club.

  Critical damage!

  The monster was dead even before it shed its stone skin.

  In less than two hours, the four of them destroyed all the Idols except the largest one — the love child of a werewolf and a minotaur that was even bigger than Shimiraz. The Idol had the torso of a wolf and the hind legs of a bull. In its big paws, it clutched a sword made of bones.

  Name: The Idol of Wrath

  Rank: Baron

  Level: 150

  “Let’s show it what we can do,” Raven said.

  The battle lasted for good ten minutes.

  Another attack from the side sent the rogue flying several feet back, leaving a deep furrow in the ground, and suffering several hundred HP worth of damage.

  “Shit! Why won’t it die?!” Spitting blood and still reeling from the impact, Raven gulped down a potion and ran back at his opponent.

  The Idol was extremely agile for its giant size, and its skills had an almost instant cooldown. Its devastating attacks affected large areas, damaging everyone and everything within range. But the worst of its skills was the one similar to Raven’s Leap: except that it didn’t teleport the Idol’s body but its sword. It didn’t even have to point it at the target; the weapon would just disappear and re-appear in the air to attack the rogue or one of his pets. Be it for better or worse, most of the blows were aimed at Shimiraz.

  Getting annoyed, Raven activated Leap right above the Idol’s head. While the monster was busy attacking the Ogre, he teleported himself into the air and landed on the Idol’s back. With a grunt, he sank his sword deep in between its shoulder blades.

  At the same moment, Khalapheer sank its fangs into the Idol’s shin. The combined power of these attacks made their opponent collapse face-first to the ground.

  Without wasting a second, Shimiraz turned abruptly at Raven’s command. Using the momentum of the spin, he threw his club at the Idol’s head and hit it in the jaw. Like a baseball hitting a windshield, it smashed its mouth into tiny pieces.

  Critical damage!

  The Idol wheeled around. Raven and his freshly summoned Clone seized the monster by its arms. At the rogue’s command, Khalapheer bit down on the Idol’s neck with all its might.

  The battle ended with a soft rasp followed by a dying gasp.

  After Raven collected the last Rune and put it with the rest, a message came.

  Attention! All of the Chained Idols have been destroyed.

  You can open the way to the Abode of Gifts.

  If I only knew how to open it! Raven sighed and looked up at the floating columns.

  Chapter 278. Surprise, Bitch

  T he Kingdom of Hieral, Floor ???

  Hieral was a small country in the east, next to the Uklen Canyon, through which passed a long-dried river of the same name. Kim Steyson, known as Laughing Queen of Spades, had worked her way to this country’s crown by investing a lot of time and effort into developing her relationships with the local NPCs. Manipulating them subtly, she had eventually climbed to the throne.

  However, her first coronation ceremony had been interrupted by a coup. During the second, she was assassinated. And only the third, with all safety measures in place, had given a proper start to her rule.

  Her strategy was much different from Raven’s. She made no effort to level her relationship with Hieral as a nation, considering that too boring. That was why she was hated by many courtiers, and why their attempts at her life only stopped once she began to punish those responsible for them.

  “Greetings, Your Grace.” The young guard put his right hand to his shoulder and bowed to the returning queen.

  “Hello, Lones.” She smiled, her eyes gleaming with happiness. She enjoyed being greeted like this. She’d spend the whole day bathing in the admiration of her subjects if she could, but there were other things to do. “Where’s my husband?”

  “His Grace is having a talk with the nobles in the reception hall.”

  “With whom?”

  “Lord Rishe and Lord Avail.”

  “The lords of the lands next to the mines?”

  “Yes, Your Grace.”

  “Thank you, Lones.” She passed by the guard and, pecking his cheek, hurried to join her husband.

  Lones didn’t dare to look into her eyes. After she left, he ran his hand over the spot where she had planted her kiss. There were many rumors about the young queen. Some said that she had made her way to the throne by warming the beds of many influential people. Lones didn’t know it, but all rumors had within themselves a grain of truth. This one had an entire desert.

  Leveling up a relationship with a nation was hard, but it was much easier with individual NPCs. And Queen used that. Ascension was dubbed “the most lifelike game” for a reason.

  The door swung open for her grand entrance. Two men stood in front of her husband, one of them accusing another of sabotaging his mine. The monsters supposedly let in by the other man had killed a group of workers and escaped into the tunnels. Now he’d have to hire some adventurers to kill the monsters, and his mine would remain out of business until this problem was fixed, which would allow his rival to sell more ore to the local blacksmiths.

  Time to post a new photo.

  She waved at her husband, Roshakh “Homebody” Dorikan, and, taking a picture, posted it to her Instagram with
a caption: Royal routine and two peasants #sotiredsohappy #fuckyoukingmaker

  She added the #fuckyoukingmaker hashtag to each photo or video, reminding Mollie again and again that she had been outplayed. By a former member of her clan, no less, to make things even worse.

  Poor, poor Mollie. I’ve told you I’d have my revenge, she thought and almost immediately replaced the gloating smirk with her usual enchanting smile.

  New York. The Disaster Club, April 23rd, Sunday

  Evening of that same day

  One of New York’s most popular clubs had been long booked for the night of Mollie’s twentieth birthday. Her parents had booked it for her: their only, beloved child. They’d often spoil her like that.

  The whole clan had been invited to the party, and everyone who could make it had come to congratulate their leader in person, and hang out with their clanmates.

  “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Mollie! Happy birthday to you!”

  A huge cake shaped like a giant VR capsule with Mollie’s character inside it was brought in and placed in front of four hundred tipsy people chanting the birthday song.

  An hour later, Mollie was in the VIP room with Lily, Katharina, and Jake known to many as Koshie. The three of them knew that plushies were her guilty pleasure — a dramatic contrast to her in-game persona — so they weren’t surprised to see her holding a teddy bear while she told them the news.

  “…so that’s it,” she finished and, shifting her legs to sit in a lotus pose, reached for a glass of wine. “What do you think?”

  “For starters,” Lily had drunk her weight in wine, but her mind was still clear enough to share her thoughts on the new capsules that Mollie had just mentioned, “they’re damn comfy. We’ve talked about it before, and I… hic! And I… hic! Wait...” She paused for the hiccups to stop. The others smiled and waited patiently. Once she calmed down, she continued: “I like it! I like it a lot! I can’t… hic! …wait…”

  Everyone laughed.

  “I agree,” Jake said and leaned back in his seat. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you were the one who gave your old man this idea.” Tossing his head back, he stared at the ceiling. “No need to leave the game for a week! Ain’t that awesome?”

  “Two weeks! Or a month.” Katharina tossed a piece of chocolate into her mouth, taking it from one of the many packages scattered all over the table; a box of chocolate had accompanied each of the birthday gifts that were now piled up in the corner of the room.

  “You’re joking now, but...” Mollie looked at her. “Soon, that’ll be possible.”

  “When are you gonna start selling them?”

  “They’re currently in the testing phase. Dad said they’re doing great. Maybe in a month or two...”

  “Oh, I can’t wait!” Jake drawled as he moved away the drunken Lily who decided to take a nap on his shoulder. “You know what I think? If they somehow manage to slow down the vitals… Wouldn’t that solve the aging problem? Imagine being young forever!”

  “I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink!” Katharina laughed and threw a pillow at him.

  Ding!

  Katharina looked at the pop-up notification that appeared on Mollie’s phone, and instantly jumped up to cover it with her hand. But she was too slow.

  “Is it that bitch again?” Mollie asked and outstretched her hand, demanding her phone back. Katharina gave it up reluctantly.

  “Please, don’t let her ruin your mood...”

  “She won’t,” Mollie hissed and, clutching the phone, tapped the notification icon which instantly took her to Queen’s profile. “What’s that?”

  Royal routine and two peasants #sotiredsohappy #fuckyoukingmaker

  The silence lasted for mere seconds. Annoyed, Mollie closed the app and opened her mailbox.

  “Fucking bitch! I’ve had enough of her!”

  “What are you doing?” Jake looked at the birthday girl whose fingers were furiously tapping on the keyboard.

  “Oh, just asking a good friend of ours for a birthday favor.” Smiling happily, she sent the message. “Take this, bitch.”

  Floor 24, somewhere outside the map

  It didn’t take Raven long to figure out that the Runes and the flying columns were somehow connected. Once he took a closer look at them, he saw small openings at the top of each one.

  But which Rune matched which column?

  Through trial and error, he managed to figure it out. Though, it took him a bit longer than he would’ve liked. Having gotten no hint that he could follow, he simply went from column to column, trying out each Rune until he found the one that fit. Sitting on the column and using Without Barriers, he switched through Runes until one of them glowed and clicked into place, followed by the screeching of the mechanism being activated somewhere below him. Once the screeching stopped, the column would abruptly lose its ability to float and land into the round opening that had appeared in the floor.

  “Finally,” he said as he climbed down and squinted at the column’s bottom. “A bunch more to go.”

  He activated fifteen columns, climbing to the top of each one after his skill had cooled down. With each correctly-inserted Rune, his goal became nearer. The columns fit closely to each another, forming a set of giant stairs that’d probably lead him up to the Abode’s door.

  When he put the sixteenth Rune in and jumped off, he got a message. Sitting down to wait for Without Barriers to become usable again, he went through his inbox.

  “Hello, Will! It’s my birthday today! Gifts and wishes are welcomed. :) Speaking of which, could you, please, do me a favor? Consider it your birthday gift. Could you make your title visible? I know it’s a lot to ask for and that you have your reasons to keep it a secret, but me and my clan — we’d owe you one. Will you do it?”

  Raven read the message several times, but couldn’t for the life of him figure out why she’d ask something like that. Having no other option, he decided to ask her directly.

  “Hi yourself and happy birthday. Why do you need me to do that? I won’t be used as a pawn in your game.”

  While waiting for Mollie’s answer, he activated two more columns.

  “Fine, I’ll tell you. Do you remember our talk about that bitch, Laughing Queen? I was right about her. She’s a former member of my clan. In one of the past games, she was trying to take my place as the clan leader, sabotaging other players and framing me. Her name’s Kim Steyson. She’s a well-known socialite.”

  “Seriously?” Raven sighed. “Is she for fucking real?”

  “Sorry. But that’s dumb. I’m not doing it.”

  Putting a supposed end to their conversation, he was about to activate the remaining columns when another message came.

  “Pleeeeeeease, Will. Please! Please! I really, really need this. Can you help me at least this one time? I need your help. You don’t know when you’ll need a friend. I swear I’ll help you out whenever if you do this for me.

  I mean, it’s my b-day. =(”

  Staring at the message, he pondered about what to do. He needed no help at the moment, but her offer was still tempting. He could use their help at some point. When other players finally came to his Floor, for example.

  But there were also the consequences. He rubbed his temples and closed the message. There was a possibility that powerful individuals and clans would take interest in his Floor in the future. What if he crossed paths with someone who wouldn’t take no for an answer? For whom law was just a word, and who could resolve any problem by throwing money at it? That could put the life of his family in danger. Leah’s life…

  Is it worth the risk? Is her help worth putting my family at a risk?

  He huffed, about to refuse her, when a sudden idea crossed his mind. He could make a deal with her.

  “Okay. I’ll do it. But first tell me: which city do you live in?”

  At midnight, a shocking video was uploaded to White Raven’s channel, which was still being run by Emma. In l
ess than half an hour, it was shared on all the forums, and seen by millions. And although people knew that his every video would be a game-changer, they weren’t ready for something of this scale.

  The video was short: just ten seconds. But it conveyed a message powerful enough to leave everyone who cared about Ascension without breath or words.

  The rogue who had been known for keeping a low profile was now doing just the opposite. He stood silent by Kingmaker’s side in an empty arena. Several seconds passed without any of them saying anything. Then a title appeared over Raven’s head, blurry as though forcing its way through some kind of interference.

  The First King

  Kingmaker looked into the camera with a grin. When it rolled up, she slowly raised her middle finger and said: “Surprise, bitch.”

  The video ended with her grin widening.

  Kim sprung up from her bed at seeing the video, her sleep gone at once. Screaming with anger, she flung her laptop to the floor, breaking it. She was furious not with Raven but with Kingmaker.

  “You fucking bitch! You flat-chested brat! I’ll kill you! You’ll pay for this! Oh, you’ll pay!”

  The fury in her eyes would’ve made Mollie concerned about her wellbeing if she could’ve seen it.

  There was a knock before the door of her room was swung open. On the threshold stood one of the bodyguards hired by her parents. He took a quick look around the room. Seeing that there was no intruder, he bid her goodnight, apologized for the intrusion, and closed the door silently behind him, leaving Kim to plan her revenge.