Berserker: A LitRPG Urban Fantasy Adventure (Apocosmos Book 1)

by Dimitrios Gkirgkiris

  HP : 32/183

  MP: 24/59

  They’re not using weapons anymore. They’re enjoying it.

  “Run, Louie!” I shouted as another hit landed.

  This? This is the fucking end? 35-year-old man found dead in his bedroom in a gory pool of blood?

  HP : 7/183

  MP: 24/59

  “Run,” I said with the rest of my remaining strength as I heard a loud battle cry. No doubt the last thing I’d ever hear.

  I recognized the voice but it didn’t belong to any of the thugs. I had no power left in me to brace myself for the next and probably final hit.

  But in the end, it never came. Instead, the weight that was holding me down was lifted off me.

  Not that I could stand up. I could barely roll over. If I was to die here, today, I’d die with my eyes open. Looking at my killer. Spitting in their face.

  I pushed myself and managed to lie on my back, the move accompanied by the disgusting sound of liquids sticking on my shirt—my blood mixed with that of the mage. I opened my eyes, or at least tried to since my right one wasn’t able to follow my command, and looked at the person in front of me.

  “Rory,” I said, but the blood in my mouth made it sound more like a gurgle.

  The red-haired dwarf was holding what looked like a cross between a long sledgehammer and a war hammer. He was bringing it down on the head of one of the thugs who was already facing the floor. The weapon landed on its flat side with a wet squash: bones, blood, and brain matter. Rory spat on the corpse as he let his weapon fall on the floor with a thud.

  “I’m out of mana, Rory,” I heard Louie say. “Can you help him?”

  “I don’t have any potions with me,” he replied. “But I do have a solution I sometimes use while crafting.”

  The muscular man walked over to me and fell on one knee. “They really did a number on ye, lad.”

  “You should see the other guy,” I tried to say, though my head was too fuzzy to understand if I’d actually spoken all the words or if I just thought I had.

  Regardless, the dwarf smiled, the complete lack of mustache on his face looking even more unsettling now.

  “This here is something I use to fall asleep fast,” he said and produced a small pink vial from one of his pockets. “Sleeping increases your MP Regeneration Rate so I down this to restore me pool faster.”

  “Who gives a shit?” I said and tried to push myself up.

  “Shut up and down it,” he replied as he pinned me down and pushed the potion into my mouth. “Sleeping also increases yer HP Regeneration Rate.”

  I swallowed the sweet liquid, an aftertaste of vanilla and rum lingering in my mouth. Immediately the pain subsided a bit and exhaustion took its place. I tried moving my hand, but it felt like I was trying to lift a car after a long workout.

  “Let’s get ye outta here,” he said and he pulled my hand, hoisting me up on his shoulder.

  The pain was all gone now and I was feeling like I was in orbit around Planet Unicorn. Fluffy pink clouds brushed my cheeks as I floated. The Kingdom Hearts theme was playing in the background. Even Louie was there, floating around too.

  “Hey, buddy,” I said, but my voice sounded as if it was coming from the end of a tunnel.

  “Yer friend will be fine, Louie,” Rory told him.

  “Let’s just get out of here. We need—” were the last words I heard Louie utter before I entered the softest cloud I had ever seen.

  13

  Turn the page

  My bladder was full and a throbbing headache was pounding my skull.

  Have I been drinking?

  No, I hadn’t tasted alcohol in years. I tried to open my eyes but had a hard time, as if something was keeping them closed. I reached up to touch them with my fingers and realized there was a large amount of crust along the lids, probably dried tears.

  I rubbed it all away and attempted to stand, still half-asleep. I expected to see Louie watching something on the tablet or sleeping next to me, but all I could see were the naked walls of a room dimly lit by a lamp on the low ceiling. This wasn’t my living room. What the…

  That’s right. We were attacked.

  “Louie!” I tried shouting, but the dryness of my throat threw me into a coughing fit.

  Once my cough subsided, I got up off the mattress that had been haphazardly thrown on the creaking wooden floor and looked around me. The room didn’t look habitable, which immediately made me think I had been taken hostage by the people who broke into my apartment. The only other things in the room were a wooden chair and a small table with a notepad on it. I hoped this might give me an idea of where I was, who had taken me, or—most importantly—a clue about where I’d find Louie. But of course the notepad was completely fucking empty. Of course! Why would I get a fucking break?

  The room had no windows and the only door, on the opposite side of the room to the mattress, was a yellowish-white wooden thing that looked like it might have been more than fifty years old. Thinking about it, the walls also had a yellow hue, even though their original color was definitely white. It was the kind of yellow that walls adopt when the inhabitants are heavy smokers. Perhaps as heavy as Rory, who smoked like a chimney.

  The pieces now started to fall in place. The dwarf had come to my rescue. He killed them. And Louie was there. They gave me a potion that took the pain away. Which means…

  I sprinted to the door and opened it, finding myself facing the hallway of a run-down building. As soon as I turned my head left down the corridor, I saw Rory and next to him the most important being in all the worlds. Louie was holding a plastic bag in his mouth but dropped it as soon as he saw me.

  “Buddy!” I said and fell to my knees as Louie ran toward me, yelping all the while.

  “You’re up. You’re up!” he shouted between cries of joy while jumping into my lap and out again, running around in circles, and finally lying on the floor with his belly up and tail wagging. “We just went out to get you some food.”

  “Aye, but hush now,” Rory said as he picked up the bag Louie had previously been carrying. “Dogs don’t talk and neighbors are nosy.”

  “I’m so happy you’re okay,” I said, aggressively scratching his belly. “I told you so many times to run away.”

  “Get in the room, damn ye.”

  I wrapped my arms around Louie who was still shaking with excitement, picked him up, and headed back into the apartment. As I saw the room again, now knowing that Rory lived here, I just couldn’t imagine how he could. The place was smaller than a prison cell and, however impossible it seemed, more sparsely equipped than one. There wasn’t even a bathroom.

  How does he even live here, much less craft thousands of arrows?

  “Can someone tell me what happened?” I said when Rory placed the bags on the little table and started untying them.

  “Ye were out, so we went for some burgers,” he said and shuffled the aluminum-foiled goodness. “Here’s the bacon, boy.”

  He unfolded a brick of foil and placed it on the floor. It was filled with bacon, probably more than even I’d be able to handle. Louie rushed over to it, letting out an excited high-pitched bark.

  “Bitch, shut the fuck up,” a muffled voice said from the other side of the wall, followed by a couple of thumps on it.

  “Ye shut the fuck up, gods-damn piss-pot junkie!” Rory shouted and then smiled at Louie who was already munching on the first slice of crispy bacon.

  “That’s not good for you, Louie,” I said and immediately Rory’s expression darkened.

  “Ye better treat the dog to whatever he damn wants, half-Celt,” the dwarf commanded. “Ye were half-dead before he healed ye.”

  He continued to stare at me. I stared at Louie. Louie, being the ever-hungry animal that he is, didn’t stare at anything other than the bacon strips in front of him, trying to determine which one he’d attack next. Seeing it couldn’t be helped, I sighed and took a seat on the edge of the mattress while Rory resu
med shuffling through the bags.

  “So… what happened?” I asked.

  “Here’s yer food, lad,” he said and handed me a bag containing three burgers after having placed another five thick ones on the table, presumably for himself.

  “Did you order them without pickles?” I asked jokingly.

  “Yeh,” the dwarf replied, and seeing my surprised look, nodded toward Louie while taking a large bite out of his first burger. “Yer friend told me ye’re picky with yer junk food.”

  “Oh, this is so good,” Louie interjected, apparently wanting to let us know how much he was loving eating bacon with no limits.

  “Thanks,” I said, and only after I’d taken a bite did I realize how hungry I was. “I didn’t think so before, but I guess I’ll manage all three of them after all.”

  “Yeh, the sleeping potion has that side-effect,” Rory said, and started patting his pockets. “It makes ye real hungr— Fuck. Damn it.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked and even Louie paused eating to see what was the matter. “I left my tobacco at the burger place. I’m gonna go get it.”

  Before standing up, he put his thick right forearm on the table and swept the rest of his burgers into a bag he was holding with his left.

  “Eat. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

  “Don’t take too long,” Louie added just before the dwarf opened the door. “I’m thirsty already.”

  Rory nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him. We both returned to greedily devouring the feel-good dinner we’d been given. As seconds of silence passed, however—the only sound being that of the loud TV from a neighboring apartment—I started to feel more uncomfortable about what had taken place. So much so that I soon lost all my appetite for food.

  “What happened, Louie?” I asked as I wrapped my remaining burgers in their aluminum foil and placed them back in the bag.

  Louie, having picked up the change in the tone of my voice, lifted his head up and looked at me while licking his mouth. His tail, which had been wagging all the while he was eating, was now moving downward and headed between his legs. He didn’t like what had happened one bit.

  “What do you remember?” he asked.

  “We were attacked. They tied me up and then…” I felt at a loss for words when I thought about how they’d cornered him and the mage had attacked him. “I’m sorry buddy. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

  “No!” he shouted. “It’s not your job to protect me.”

  “Of course it is. I should have thought about this sort of thing. I should have prepared some defenses or something.”

  “It is I who failed to protect you,” he said, and his ears were pulled back apologetically. “If I had sniffed them earlier or leveled up more… Perhaps if I had invested in better equipment.”

  “Louie,” I said, trying to take him off that train of thought. The same one I was on. “We’re here now and that’s what matters. Tell me what happened after.”

  “Yes, I suppose,” he paused and stared blankly for a second. “You went crazy. You taught me I shouldn’t bite people, but you ripped into that guy’s neck.”

  “I… They were hurting you…”

  “They beat you down. It was awful, Alex. I don’t want to see you hurt ever again.”

  “I’m sorry, buddy,” I said and pulled him in for a hug. “It’ll never happen again.”

  We sat there, holding each other, or rather me holding Louie and stroking his neck while he kept his eyes closed. For a few minutes, nothing else mattered. Just the fact that he was healthy.

  “Rory came,” Louie continued as soon as we broke our embrace. “He killed them all and then gave you a potion to fall asleep so you could heal faster. He carried you to his car and brought us back to his apartment. I had to wait a bit before I finally had enough MP to heal you and I kept doing that until you were completely fine. Even after your HP was replenished you still looked tired, so we let you sleep and went for some food.”

  “I see. We’re in deep shit then.”

  “Do you think so?” Louie asked, and we heard keys in the door. “You think there will be more?”

  “Found it!” the dwarf exclaimed, his long pipe already lit and smoking.

  “I haven’t thought about that yet,” I replied to Louie and nodded at the smiling dwarf. “I’m talking about all the bodies in the apartment. The broken doors. Us missing.”

  “That’s been taken care of,” Rory said, producing a jug and a white bowl out of thin air.

  I had seen people use extra-dimensional inventories before, but I still hadn’t gotten used to it. He proceeded to pour water from the jug into the bowl and placed it next to the mattress for Louie to drink.

  “What do you mean it’s been taken care of?”

  “Well, naturally, some nosy moron called yer authorities,” he continued as he stored the items back in his inventory. “I don’t have any pull in this world. Luckily, yer thirsty lad here told me to call yer elf friend.”

  “Leonardo? You called him? Why would you do that?”

  “Well, we needed help with the police while it was still early,” Louie replied. “So we called Leo. I thought he’d know what to do.”

  “That was…” I began, but then considered how difficult it must have been for Louie with me out of it. “That was a good idea, buddy.”

  Louie wagged his tail and went back to quenching his bacon-induced thirst.

  “Yer friend’s family is quite connected. The whole place was sealed off in minutes and the officers left as soon as the company came.”

  “What company?” I asked. With each of his replies, new questions sprung up.

  “A cleaning company,” he replied, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “They take care of sticky situations like this. Ye know, disposing of bodies, actually cleaning up all the mess, repairing damages, and taking care of people asking questions.”

  “What do you mean taking care of people asking questions? Rory, did you have my neighbors killed?”

  “Hells no!” he said, offended that I had even suggested that. “What do ye take me for? They’re professionals, specialized in covering up Apocosmos-related incidents.”

  “How did they ‘take care’ of them?”

  “Ye really are a pain in the ass, lad. The company employs many different people and creatures. Ye know what a ghoul is?”

  “I mean… yeah. I guess? Undead monsters, right?”

  “Well, I’m sure Gary wouldn’t appreciate being called a monster. Ghouls are an ancient race, but they were mostly active in the Arab world. Anyway, Gary and his ghoul crew dispose of the bodies while sirens or vampires usually talk to witnesses so that no trace of whatever they might’ve seen would go public.”

  “That’s…” I struggled to find the right words. “…quite an efficient business they seem to be running.”

  “It is,” the dwarf agreed and relit his pipe. “They charge a hefty sum, but they do great work.”

  “How much do you—”

  “Forget about it! Do not insult me like that, half-Celt!”

  “But you saved my life. You saved Louie,” I said, and Louie barked softly. “And then you paid to take care of everything. I need to pay you back somehow.”

  “Ye don’t own me a damn thing,” he said and took a huge puff from his pipe. “Ye’d have done the same thing.”

  “I wouldn’t have,” I heard myself say.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate what he’d done for us. On the contrary, he’d done something that I would most probably never be able to repay. Which is why I owed him the truth. I would never put Louie’s life at risk, or risk having him live the rest of his life alone. Not for the sake of saving Rory.

  “Ye would, half-Celt,” the dwarf replied, looking me straight in the eye. “Ye don’t know it. Ye might not believe it, but ye would. It’s in yer blood.”

  “My Celt blood?”

  “Both bloodlines,” he replied and we sat in si
lence for a couple of moments. “Which reminds me. One of the people that attacked ye wasn’t pure humanfolk.”

  “His eyes were serpent-like,” I remembered. “And he looked like he had small horns on his forehead.”

  “He smelled all wrong too,” Louie added.

  “Looked like he was half-infernal. It seems like we got some tough competition if they’re using hells-people as muscle.”

  “There won’t be any competition anymore, Rory,” I stated. “I lost. This shit is too dangerous. I’m not going to put us through it again.”

  “Ye really thought the Apocosmos was gonna be easy, lad? Nobody ever got rich easily. It might not be as hard if ye’re clever, and ye are, but it’ll never be easy.”

  “Well, I don’t wanna be rich if—”

  “Ah, ye’ll come around soon.”

  “No! I will not! I’m out.” I stood up. “Thank you for saving us, but this is it for me. Louie, let’s go.”

  “What? Why? There’s still bacon,” he said, confused.

  “Sit down, lad,” Rory said, but I paid him no heed. “I said, sit the fuck down. If ye go back out there, ye’re as good as dead.”

  “I think I’ll take my chances,” I snapped at him. “But I know I’m not staying here, having you try to change my mind because you want to become rich and take back what was stolen from you.”

  “I won’t mention it again. If ye want out, ye’re out, but I’d dip my tongue in my brain before talking about things I don’t understand if I were ye.”

  If he was expecting an apology, he was sorely mistaken. It was enough of an apology that I hadn’t stormed out of his shithole of a place already.

  “Ye can live here for a while. Lay low for a couple of months. Show that ye learned yer lesson. Then we’ll get ye a new place and ye’ll be able to go on with yer life.”

  “My life? I can’t go back to my apartment, where all my stuff is, including my tablet by the way, which means they’ve got all my money. And since I can’t go back to work, I’m broke.”