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

by Dimitrios Gkirgkiris

  Physical Attack: 21

  Magic Attack: 21

  Special Ability: -

  Attack Speed: Fast

  Durability : 456/600

  Weight: 970st.

  Description : This sword is often used in interior decoration due to the unique ability of its blade to turn any kind of light into yellow hues. The technique used to instill this ability into the blade involves submerging it in a fungal liquid found under yellowstone mountains. This is the reason why the sword commands such a high price, even if it isn’t top of its grade.

  Name: Soul Separator +7

  Type: Polearm - Scythe

  Rarity: C Grade

  Physical Attack: 151

  Magic Attack: 94

  Special Ability: Soul Capturing (Weak)

  Attack Speed: Normal

  Durability : 22242/22650

  Weight: 2040st.

  Description : A scythe very similar to those used by shinigamis and soul reapers. This particular weapon doesn’t need to be approved by any of the soul-taking organizations and is thus popular among individuals in the soul-trading business. The weapon’s special ability creates a small chance for the wielder to capture a soul if they deal the killing blow to their enemy.

  These weapons were amazing. The +5 longbow held a faint glow, but the ominously described scythe held a steady unflickering white glow with hints of blue at its edges. It didn’t seem like any of us would be able to use the weapons, but they would definitely fetch a pretty penny on the market.

  Despite the lucky finds, thinking about the description of the last weapon made me feel uneasy. Not only were there organizations that regulated what happened to souls, but there were also people who stole souls for their own gain? I wondered what one might do with a soul, but I hoped I’d never be in a position where I would have to find out.

  On that note, I glanced at the various pieces of armor we’d managed to gather and realized that a couple of them too were rather special.

  Name: Abaddon Devout Full Plate Armor +8

  Type: Full Body Armor (Heavy)

  Rarity: B Grade

  Physical Defense: 288

  MP Increment: 0

  Durability : 7981/8400

  Weight: 9980st.

  Description : This incredibly powerful one-piece armor is used by the disciples of the abyssal angel Abaddon, who is also known as Apollyon. The armor is made of an alloy exclusively found in the abyss that constantly shifts its shape, making the engravings ever-changing. The shifting patterns of this armor are feared among mortals since the disciples of Abaddon are known for their desire to craft pain through loss. Creating widows and orphans, or killing children and letting their parents live with the pain of separation, are some of the tactics they are most known for.

  Name: Golden Elf Stockings +2

  Type: Lower Armor (Robe)

  Rarity: D Grade

  Physical Defense: 29

  MP Increment: 79

  Durability : 540/540

  Weight: 1010st.

  Description : This particular design of stockings is primarily used by golden elf spellcasters who, in their majority, live on beaches or by the sea. The stockings therefore carry a certain saltwater affinity and enhance non-damaging spells in that environment.

  These were the only two enchanted pieces in the whole pile of equipment. The golden elf stockings looked like something that Leo might be able to make use of in the future, but I had no doubt his clan would have the very best for him as soon as he upgraded his class, especially since he was the only spellcaster.

  The full plate armor on the other hand was disturbingly enthralling. Watching its metal engravings shift before my eyes was both beautiful and terrifying. Having absorbed the information in its description, I couldn’t help but feel small in a world where angels and demons had their own militias and spread fear and mayhem among mortals. What’s more, this beautiful armor, in all its +8 golden-glowing glory, was the single highest enchanted item in the warehouse and seemed to have been used for the vilest of deeds.

  “Faster, people,” Leo said as we threw all kinds of jewelry, rubies, aquamarines, and diamonds into our inventories as fast as we could. “The dungeon might collapse any minute now.”

  “Ye take care of this,” Rory said and stormed off. “I’m gonna check the locked room.”

  Out in the corridor, we heard the sound of the door at the end being smashed for the fourth time as we continued looting the last room.

  “By Dagda’s cock!” Rory shouted. “This is fucking incredible!”

  “What is?” I asked after I rushed to him. “More weapons?”

  “Take a look for yerself,” he said, holding up a scaly oval orb in one hand and a red leather-bound book in the other.

  Item: Dragon’s Reckoning

  Type: Greater Magical Artifact

  Durability : 7200000/7200000

  Rarity: S Grade

  Weight: -

  Description : ???

  Item: Return to Oblivion

  Type: ???

  Durability : 0/0

  Rarity: ???

  Weight: 40st.

  Description : ???

  “They look great,” I said, not sure what kind of reaction he was expecting. “But I have no idea what they are.”

  “I don’t exactly know either,” Rory said, “but I’ve never held an S-grade item in my hands before, much less a greater magical artifact. As for the book, I can’t even see its grade.”

  “You’re already so high-level, and you’ve never touched an S-grade item?” I asked.

  “Are ye crazy, lad?” the dwarf said, flustered. “S-grade items aren’t for mortals. This here is greater gods territory.”

  “Holy fuck!” was Leo’s delayed reaction to the two extraordinary items Rory was holding. “I hope you’re not thinking of selling them.”

  “We don’t even know what they are!” I exclaimed.

  “An S-grade item and a… whatever this thing is?” Rory responded. “Of course not.”

  “If these items appeared in the marketplace,” Louie said, “they would bring with them all kinds of unwanted attention. We need to sit on them and figure out what they are.”

  At that exact moment, a cold breeze rushed through the warehouse and the lights dimmed to their normal colorful neon hues. The air smelled of dust and the hum of electricity was suddenly louder in our ears.

  “The dungeon collapsed,” Leo noted. “Let’s get out of here and we can talk on the way back to Rory’s place.”

  “Make the call then, elf,” Rory said enigmatically and produced a small keg from his inventory.

  He looked at it lovingly and uncorked it. The word Fire Oak was written on the side and immediately I remembered Rory asking for this specific kind of whiskey the first time he’d visited me. He took a big gulp, and another, and then kissed the dark wood before rolling it along the ground.

  “Yes, hello?” Leo said into his phone. “I think there’s a fire in one of the old warehouses on my block.”

  “What the hell are you guys doing?” I asked.

  “Setting the place on fire, of course,” the dwarf said and produced an ember from the bottom of his pipe using a thick metal needle.

  “When did we agree on this?” I asked, a little weirded out that they’d decided this without consulting me first.

  “It’s standard procedure so that nothing will lead to us,” Leo said quietly, holding his phone away from his mouth. “Yes, officer. I can hear you.” He moved toward the roll-up door we entered from, waving at us to follow him.

  Without needing a second invitation, I walked out too, Louie running along next to me. By this time, the barrel had hit the other end of the warehouse, and it had created a trail of clearly flammable whiskey on the warehouse floor. Rory threw the ember onto the ground and jogged over to the exit to join us. The line of fire moved twice as fast as he did, though in the opposite directio
n. Once out of the building, we looked around and saw that nobody seemed to have noticed anything, so we were able to reach our getaway car without any problems.

  That was when we heard the explosion. The blast was so powerful that the car shook and Louie’s tail instinctively whipped down between his legs as he pressed his body against my ankles.

  “How the fuck can you drink that stuff?” I asked, picking up Louie who was doing his best to hide the fact he’d been scared by the explosion.

  “Don’t judge it till ye try it, half-Celt,” Rory said. He waited until we were all seated around the car’s hexagonal table before he spoke again. “We did it. We fucking did it.”

  “Did you ever have any doubts?” Leo teased. The car had already started moving.

  “I…” Rory seemed to have difficulty finding the correct words. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help with those people in the end.”

  “We all did great. But it looked like they were prepared for someone like you,” I said, not wanting him to feel bad about it.

  “A low-level human, like you…” Leo started and then looked at me. “No offense.”

  “None taken,” I replied.

  “…can’t craft level three recipes,” he continued. “Which means that you would have to have had someone else craft them for you. The item they used to take Rory out is pretty expensive and one use only. They went the extra mile to make sure they were protected.”

  “Well, it wasn’t enough,” the dwarf said, sticking the end of the long pipe in his mouth again.

  “I heard the spellcaster say something before you cut him off, Alex,” Louie said. “He said we’d pay for this once his… Did he mean once somebody found out?”

  “The loot we found is troubling me too,” Leo added. “Abyssal armor and soul-taking weapons. It’s not what you’d usually find on a dungeon run, even if the dungeon was created by powerful merchants. And those items were heavily enchanted. Not to be sold. They were enchanted like that because they were used.”

  “And then there are these…,” Louie said and nodded at the orb that shined in the middle of the table, next to the thick red book. “Did you see what the book’s about?”

  “Don’t you dare try opening it!” Leo warned. “Who knows what kind of—”

  “Already did,” Rory said and waved one hand dismissively. “It just won’t open.”

  “One day, good dwarf,” Leo said, covering his eyes with his palm, “you’ll need to start practicing caution when it comes to magic items.”

  “This way has served me well so far, hasn’t it, boy?” the dwarf said. I’m sure he intended it with some anger, but it was apparent nothing would be able to sour his mood.

  “So what are we to do?” I asked, confused. “Continue hiding?”

  “No. We won the territory fair and square,” the dwarf said firmly. “We continue working.”

  “He’s right,” Leo nodded. “But since these people only knew Alex’s information, he should keep those two items on him at all times. I fear that people will be looking for them.”

  “If people are looking for the orb and the book,” I said, “isn’t keeping hold of them the exact opposite of what I’d want to do?”

  “We don’t know what the book is yet, but it’s possible others can track it down,” Rory explained. “The orb, however, is an S-grade item.”

  “That much I know,” I said, though I was sure another explanation was coming my way.

  “All S-grade items provide their owner with protection from divination spells,” he said and then raised a hand to halt me from asking something more before he was finished. “It works even if you’re just holding on to it but can’t actually equip it.”

  “I really don’t know if I should be the one taking this loot,” I said, not sure if this would affect the way we divided the rest. “We haven’t even talked about how we’ll share the other things we found.”

  “Ye’re keeping both of them, half-Celt. Not only will it make it hard for them to locate you, but it’ll also keep this book away from prying eyes.”

  “I’d also strongly suggest you guys hold on to the special pieces of equipment for now,” Leo said. “At least until this whole thing cools off. And I think you should change your last name, Alex.”

  “Yes!” Louie exclaimed, jumping up from my lap and barking in excitement. “Alex and Louie Thunder!”

  “I guess I should,” I said, thinking it would be useful to have a new name appear in the market right after Abrathion Halciu suddenly disappears from it. “But Thunder is your last name. I don’t want to steal your… thunder.”

  “But it’ll show that we’re related,” Louie replied, oblivious to my pun.

  “Which might imply that you got the name from me rather than the fact that you aren’t afraid of thunder,” I said, thankful for my quick thinking on this. I certainly didn’t want to be stuck with “Thunder” as my surname.

  “You’re right,” Louie said and considered this. “But it’s so good. If not Thunder, then what?”

  “Tell you what. Pick a name, any name, and that will be my surname in the Apocosmos from now on.”

  “Rage,” Louie said in a monotone voice.

  “Rage?” I asked, flustered at how fast he’d found an alternative.

  “Ha!” the dwarf roared. “The little one got ye, half-Celt.”

  “Alex Rage,” Leo mused with a smile on his face. “I quite like the sound of it.”

  “Is this high intelligence stat of yours going to be a problem?” I asked, a bit annoyed by the fact I’d been played but amused all the same.

  “Not unless you fight it,” Louie said and wagged his tail playfully.

  “Great. Now that that’s out of the way, we can move to the fun part,” Leo changed the subject.

  “Just how much did we make?” Louie asked.

  “Not counting the gems, the jewelry, and the equipment…” The dwarf pondered over some calculations in his head. “I’d say around seventy million from those briefcases.”

  “Seventy fucking million?” I said and felt my jaw physically drop open.

  I wanted to shout that we were rich. Seventy million in cash. Even after sharing and without selling the extra loot, we could just retire now. But then I remembered the cost of the item I needed to bind Louie’s soul to mine. The cost of making him immortal for as long as I was alive was high, but we’d made tremendous progress today and I had plans to start dominating the arrow market in New York again pretty soon.

  “It was a good day today,” Rory agreed. “All in favor of dividing the loot three ways? One part per household?”

  “Fine by me,” Louie replied immediately. “As long as I get my share of bacon.”

  “Buddy, you won’t ever miss bacon in your life from now on,” I said to him while nodding in confirmation to Rory.

  “I disagree,” Leo said and all three of us turned to face him.

  “What do ye mean, elf?” Rory asked and I could tell he was holding his temper back.

  “I didn’t do it for the money,” he said. “I did it to help my friend. You can split the loot two ways.”

  “Mighty grand of ye, elf. I ain’t one to say no to such noble gestures.”

  “Out of the question,” I said and brought my hand up to halt this ridiculousness. “First you spent eight hundred thousand dollars on a quest item to help me communicate with Louie, and now you want to just give away millions? This is not going to happen. I’m not going to let this hover over our friendship forever.”

  Friendship. How foreign the word sounded coming from my mouth. I hadn’t used it for ages. But how else could I describe caring for anyone other than Louie?

  “It won’t hover over our friendship.” Leo reiterated my words, emphasizing the final one. “I want something in return.”

  “Name it,” I said, willing to grant him whatever he wished for.

  “I want you to level up,” he explained. “And when you’re level 19, I want you, Louie, and myself t
o upgrade our classes together.”

  “You don’t need to wait for me.”

  “I’ve been level 19 for quite a few years already, but being the first spellcaster in the family, you know… it’s daunting. Everyone’s expecting great things and I don’t know if—”

  “I’ll do it.” I cut him off. I could understand that he was asking for help. It takes a very brave man to admit they need help. And an even braver one to ask for it. “We’ll reach level 19 as soon as we can and we’ll do the leveling up quest together. Right, Louie?”

  “I’m already a level ahead of you, noob.”

  “This is what I get for having a gamer dog,” I said and Leo laughed while Rory simply smiled, no doubt confused by the reference.

  “Well, now that this obstacle is removed, do you plan to continue living in Newark, Mr. Rage?

  “Hell no,” I said without thinking and realized how this must have sounded. “I mean, no disrespect, Rory, but it’s kinda small.”

  “It’s just a place to sleep, so it’s fine for me,” he replied, oblivious to the fact that his room barely qualified even for sleeping.

  “I think I’d like one of the apartments your family owns,” I said and looked at Louie. “The one overlooking the park?”

  Louie’s ears immediately perked up and he fell on his belly, tail-up. “What park? Which one? The big one? With the squirrels?”

  “Central park, I think—” was all I managed to say before he exploded into barks and ran rapid turns around himself, chasing his tail with excitement.

  “It’s the best place in the whole world. We’re gonna have so much fun. Louie Thunder, the chaser of squirrels and lover of bacon.”

  “Yer dog’s lost it, half-Celt.”

  “That’s a significant upgrade,” Leo noted. “But I’m confident you can afford the rent. I’ll talk to my family and bring you the keys tomorrow.”

  It was more than a significant upgrade. It was the dream apartment of everyone who’d ever lived in New York: A penthouse on the west side of Central Park. If the real-estate jocks on YouTube could be trusted, the apartment would cost more than fifteen million dollars in the Cosmos. I had no idea how much the glyphs and wards would add to that value in the Apocosmos, but I was confident that even with my newly earned millions, I still wouldn’t be able to afford to buy it.