Labyrinth of Fright
a novel
by Alexey Osadchuk
Underdog
Book#5
Magic Dome Books
Underdog
Book #5: Labyrinth of Fright
Copyright © Alexey Osadchuk 2021
Cover Art © Valeria Osadchuk 2021
Designer Vladimir Manyukhin
English translation copyright © Andrew Schmitt 2021
Published by Magic Dome Books, 2021
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-80-7619-226-3
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.
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Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
About the Author
Chapter 1
“TEMPTING INVITATION, but I’m gonna pass”.
My response made the troll frown. “You must not have heard when I said you cannot simply leave.”
“Look, I don’t doubt that this is a nice place, but I still just have to go,” I said, staring pointedly at the gloomy stone parapet and cracked floor of the observation deck.
The Gatekeeper rolled his eyes back with a heavy sigh. “Not gonna happen.”
“I thought we had no quarrel.”
“That’s right,” the troll nodded. “And that’s the reason you’re still alive. Other contenders… ones like you, didn’t get so lucky.”
“Ones like me?” the Gatekeeper’s caveat caught my attention.
The troll winced. He must have said more than he intended. But nevertheless he responded, nodding at the floor beneath my feet:
“When someone kills an agent of chaos, then activates the manuscript, they come through this here portal. And I greet them.”
I took another look at the stone slabs underfoot. Here and there, I could make out faded writing on the time-weathered stone. It finally hit me. This whole viewing platform is itself the portal. But then why isn’t it reacting to me?
“Figure it out?” the Gatekeeper snarled.
“Are you blocking the portal?” I asked, dumbfounded.
The troll snorted.
“Not me.”
“Then who? Actually, just a sec… It’s the Great System!”
“Well then, took you long enough.”
“Are you trying to say that when I agreed to take part in this test of yours, I made it so I can’t leave?” Then, not waiting for the obvious answer, I asked another question: “Is there any way to remedy this?”
“Yes,” the troll nodded. “But why?”
“I’m in a hurry.”
The big guy snorted, puzzled.
“That’s odd. Lots of people would give half their life for the chance to come here and get stronger. But you just keep trying to run away. I don’t get it.”
“I’m in a hurry,” I repeated insistently, though the phrase “get stronger” did pique my interest.
The troll shrugged his shoulders lethargically. As if to say it was not his problem. And turned sideways and motioned at the door.
“You said there’s a way to remedy this,” I continued to insist.
Seeing that I was not going to budge, the Gatekeeper breathed a heavy sigh. Knowing how trolls could be, he must have been struggling to keep himself together. Just how long can my amulet keep this big brute’s fury at bay?
Having partially overcome his irritation, the Gatekeeper ran his wide hand over his eyes just like a person and said slowly:
“There are ways. For example, the magister of our faction can expel contenders for dereliction. To be frank, if I were magister, I’d do just that.”
Seemingly, my unwillingness to partake in the mysteries of chaos was frustrating him more than my stubbornness.
“In any case, you’ll come to know everything soon enough. The magister always has a personal conversation with every new contender. Let’s go.”
After he said that, the troll turned and headed toward a dark passageway. He took a few steps inside, turned his head a bit and said gloomily:
“There’s something I think you should know. You are the first newcomer to step through these doors in the last two hundred years.”
My indignance and anger retreated. But before apathy fully paralyzed my ability to reason, my brain started feverishly analyzing my circumstances.
My eyes bored into the troll’s broad back as he receded. No level, no figures. Just one laconic word hovering above his head: Gatekeeper. Just what is this troll capable of? In the two hundred years he’d been standing watch, his mettle had probably been tested a fair number of times. That combined with the fact that manuscripts are probably only given out for killing relatively high-level forces of chaos adds up to a pretty stark conclusion. This troll could probably easily go toe to toe with the Primordials. Thank the gods we didn’t have to fight.
With a heavy sigh, I followed after the Gatekeeper. If I had to meet the magister before I could leave, oh well ― so be it.
* * *
We came down a stone staircase and walked down a few darkened corridors, then stopped in front of a wide door.
“You’ll have to wait here for a bit,” the troll told me, opening the door and inviting me into a fairly spacious room. “I must inform the magister of your arrival.”
In no hurry to cross the threshold, I took a quick look around. Stone walls, a wide cot, a hefty crudely constructed stool and a table. The somber overall picture was completed by a narrow window fitted with a grate. Through it, I could see lightning flickering from the storm that had just reached the citadel.
“Looks a lot like a prison cell,” I said with skepticism.
The Gatekeeper scrutinized the room’s interior and shrugged his shoulders vaguely.
“Never thought about it like that,” he muttered in embarrassment.
The troll’s reaction caught me off guard. It was as if I had offended him. Then it suddenly hit me.
“One second,” I started, furrowing my brow. “Do you live here?”
The troll nodded and said:
“You are a friend to trollkind. I must be hospitable.”
I felt my face flare red. H
ow awkward.
“I didn’t…”
“It’s fine,” the Gatekeeper interrupted me. “I haven’t had guests in ages. Go in. Make yourself at home. There’s nothing to be afraid of in there. You have my word.”
Now in the room, I took a few steps in and turned.
Before closing the door after himself, the troll quietly added:
“You’re right though ― this place really is like a prison. I used to think so, too.”
I didn’t know how to react. Did that mean the troll had been brought here against his will or was it just a figure of speech? I didn’t really care. What matters is leaving this place as quickly as possible, though not without first determining my precise location. After all, I still don’t know what part of my world I’m in. As soon as I got myself back together, squirreling away all the sorrow in the deepest reaches of my subconscious, my brain started tossing out questions I should have considered earlier.
The first thing I did after clambering up onto the bulky stool was summon the harn. I greeted Gorgie’s arrival with a sigh of relief. My friend sensed my mood and, trying to cheer me up, poked his flat forehead into my shoulder and licked my cheek with his hot tongue.
“I’ll never see her again,” I whispered, squeezing Mink’s little doll in my hands, horrified at the words.
“Hrn…”
“You’re right, bro. This is not the time to wallow. Let’s make good use of this little breather. Something is telling me that we won’t get another chance like this anytime soon.”
I wanted to start tallying up my loot, but Gorgie unexpectedly gave a warning growl and, a second later, the door began to open. The Gatekeeper was back.
He’s quick. Somehow too quick.
All I had time to do before the door opened was recall Gorgie. I was not planning on showing off my pet just yet. But when I saw who was standing in the doorway, I instantly regretted not having him at my side.
The Lady of the Anomaly! Jorogumo! The Black Widow in the flesh. She was standing in the doorframe and smiling pensively, revealing a pearly white set of fangs.
I was about to activate my shields, but the troll chimed in from behind the Black Widow and stopped me.
“This is our magister,” he droned. “And this is the new contender. He…”
“Murdered my sister,” the woman finished his sentence and stepped through the door.
I tried to gulp, but my throat was too raspy.
A moment later, the troll’s hefty figure appeared in the doorway. His entire appearance indicated profound discomfort. Very soon I realized why.
“And you found him worthy?” the magister asked with a mocking edge, boring into me with her gaze the entire time.
“Yes, magister!” the Gatekeeper answered firmly. Meanwhile, he straightened up and splayed his shoulders.
“Curious,” the magister snorted.
I couldn’t say for certain what exactly she found curious – the troll’s response, or the fact she was not able to probe me with her mental magic. The system had faithfully reported that she had already attempted to use various spells on me three times.
“Well then, what do you have to say for yourself?” she finally turned to me.
The magister’s failures encouraged me. My Will had pulled it off. How could you not be encouraged by that?
“I’d like to leave this place,” I answered as calmly and politely as I could. “And I already know that I shouldn’t have activated the manuscript, but the way it all worked out I didn’t have much of a choice…”
Not letting me finish, the magister cut me off.
“He’s actually pretty tough, eh?” she asked the troll, continuing to bore into me with her eyes. And then she shot out: “So tell me, how were you able to take down my sister?”
“Me? I didn’t,” I answered curtly. I didn’t much like the way she was talking to me.
“And yet she is no more,” the magister frowned.
“Yes,” I nodded. “The Heart of the Forest tore her to shreds before my very eyes.”
When the magister heard mention of the Heart of the Forest, she gave a slight shudder, but immediately got herself in hand. I though was pleased by the effect my words were having. I was also amazed at myself deep down. Here I am standing two steps away from someone who’s sister I had a hand in killing, and I’m acting flagrant. Anyone else would be cowering under the stool in terror by this point, but I’m not particularly bothered. Where am I getting all this reckless abandon? Is it perhaps because I don’t feel threatened by either the magister or her Gatekeeper? In fact, they’re looking at me the same way. It’s like they’re sizing me up. Has the test maybe already begun, and they forgot to tell me?
“Heart of the Forest you say?” the magister asked thoughtfully. It was plain to see that the news of her twin sister’s death didn’t bother her in the least. More the opposite. I could hear notes of joy and seemingly relief in her voice.
“She brought it on herself,” suddenly tore itself from me.
“What do you mean?” the magister asked, curious.
“She was able to somehow subjugate the Heart of the Forest and create a dangerous anomaly. And it was starting to get bigger and more powerful. She transformed every creature that lived in the forest, turning them into hideous monsters. The Woodwose…”
“Did you say the Woodwose?” the magister shuddered and took a step forward.
“Yes,” I nodded slowly.
“Hm… Now I see… Still, keep going. I’m intrigued.”
“Well there’s not really much more to tell,” I shrugged. “The Woodwose used me as a distraction. And when hm… your sister lost control, the Heart of the Forest seized its chance.”
The magister chuckled:
“Sounds just like him…”
Even an idiot could tell who she was talking about. The old woodsman was a master manipulator. She must have known him personally. Another thing I realized was that she must have known where her sister was. After all, the old man had clearly led me to believe that there had been several of his kind once upon a time.
“So then, what makes you want to leave?” the magister asked unexpectedly.
“I’m in a hurry.”
“Explain,” she demanded shortly. “The thing is, I don’t understand what could be better than unity with one of the elements. Chances like this come but once in a lifetime, and only to a select few.”
I understood that whether or not I would get out of the test depended on her, so I tried to be convincing.
“My friends have been taken prisoner. I have to save them.”
“And who has taken them prisoner?” the magister asked.
“The Steel King.”
“Is that so?” her brows shot upward. “The more we talk, the more questions I have. And just how were you planning to break your friends out of his dungeon? I of course don’t mean to cast aspersions on your talents and abilities, but nevertheless… How could a zero such as yourself, unusual though you may be, stand up to one of the most powerful entities in this entire world? And that’s not the whole of it. I have reason to believe he also has several Primordials at his command.”
It felt like I had been living with a dusty old sack over my head. The world I thought I knew had just expanded from a tiny dot into a whole vast universe.
“I see you didn’t have the foggiest notion about the true might of the man Fortuna brought into your path.” The magister chuckled. “By the way, what’s in it for him? If he’s holding your friends in his dungeon you must be valuable to him. But how? I can see that you descend from the Ancients without any system info, but there must be something else. Right?”
My insistent silence brought a smile to her face which looked more like a predatory scowl.
The magister turned to the troll and said:
“Good thing you didn’t kill him. I still can’t figure out why though. But you can tell me that later. Looks like our faction has had the kind of luck that only comes aro
und once every few centuries. A very promising contender. Chaos has answered my prayers.”
“I’d like to leave,” I insistently reminded them.
“Ah, yes,” the magister snorted carelessly. “I almost forgot! You may go. Yeah, yeah. Don’t look at me like that. You’re free to go.”
To back up her words, a short text appeared before my eyes.
― Would you like to withdraw from the Unity with Chaos test?
― Yes/No?
I reread the system message two times and glanced sullenly at the magister.
Labyrinth of Fright (Underdog Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 1
