“How are you finding it?” the mage pointed vaguely at either the pub or what was going on outside.
“Hard to put into words,” I muttered into the mug.
“You can say that again,” the mage snorted. “Should we get acquainted then…?”
“Highlander,” I said, placing my half-empty mug on the bar.
“Pinebogey,” he introduced himself.
“Curious,” I said thoughtfully. “Dobbess called you Gred.”
“Well, yeah. He knows me as Gred,” the mage answered vaguely, ordering himself another beer.
For the record, my new friend was level forty-three, which made for a baffling combination with his relatively short mana supply of just two thousand points.
“You get any particles?” he questioned.
“Not yet,” I shook my head.
“Never fear, it isn’t evening yet,” Pinebogey waved it off.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just been a couple necromorph scouts so far. This is only the beginning.”
His tone was seemingly meant to reassure me. On the one hand, I was indeed somewhat annoyed by the fact that I hadn’t gotten any particles yet, but on the other the last thing he said put me on guard.
I wanted to ask him what exactly he meant, but Pinebogey got out ahead of me:
“By the way, have you seen that goblin anywhere?”
“No,” I answered. “I haven’t seen anyone since I came through the portal.”
“You will,” the odd mage “reassured” me yet again. “If the Guardians don’t take them down first of course. You and I will have an easier time. The snakes and goblin will have to spend mana on a disguise.”
Hm, now that I did not consider. I looked around warily.
“Don’t worry,” the mage reassured me. “There aren’t any here. And their disguises won’t fool you. As far as I can tell, you’ve made quite the investment into Will.”
I just shrugged my shoulders indefinitely.
“Modest,” the mage chuckled.
To be frank, his style of conversation was starting to get on my nerves. Yes, he was sharing information, but it was like he was leaving out important details.
“So does that mean this is all real?” I took a look around the pub.
“Absolutely,” the mage nodded. “The tables are wood and that shield over there is iron. The publican is flesh and blood. He’s as real as you or I.”
“How is this possible?”
“Nobody knows,” the mage shrugged his shoulders.
“Are we in our world in the past?”
“I’m not sure,” Pinebogey shook his head. “Most likely a fragment of it. But that is just a guess. Or rather, I find it easier to think so.”
Hm… The troll said something similar.
“And this stuff… If I buy something here…”
“No use,” Pinebogey forewarned. “The labyrinth will take what belongs to it in the end. You can only take what you had with you when you crossed over. The Labyrinth respects only faction seals. That alone is why we have the ability to gather particles.”
“So, have you been here before?”
“What makes you say that?” Gred/Pinebogey responded with surprise.
“You said this is just the beginning,” I clarified boldly.
“Yes,” he answered shortly.
“But what did you mean?” I asked, not letting up.
“Well, that this is just the beginning.”
I had to strain not to overreact.
“The beginning of what?”
“Beginning of the end,” Pinebogey shrugged his shoulders and, standing up off the stool, turned to the publican: “My friend will get the tab.” And turned back to me: “We are friends now, right? We got each other’s backs?”
Hm… Alright. I actually prefer it this way. Information for beer. An honest exchange. And neither of us owe the other a thing.
“Yes,” I answered and placed a silver coin on the table, which the publican snatched and stuffed in his pocket in the blink of an eye.
On the way out, Pinebogey turned and said:
“You did study history in school, right?”
“Yes.”
“That’ll make things easier then. Once you hear this city’s name, you’ll be able to guess what’s coming. As long as you weren’t slacking off in history class.”
After that, Pinebogey stepped out of the pub and disappeared into the stream of bustling townsfolk.
I scratched the back of my head and looked at the publican, who was no less surprised by what Pinebogey said than me. After that, my gaze fell on an old, slightly rumpled shield hanging on the wall behind the publican. This old man must have done his share of fighting. As soon as I realized what the design on the shield was, a cold sweat instantly drenched my back.
Well of course! The Guardians of the Wind! King Nidas! A manticore on the coat of arms! The Labyrinth of Fright had spat me out in the ancient capital of Darta, Solenholm…
“What do you want, kid?” the publican asked me guardedly.
I got up off the stool quietly, turned around and walked slowly to the door. The publican tried to say something else after me, but I didn’t hear him. I took another look at the alleyways and people going about their daily lives, the little stray mongrels rubbing themselves ingratiatingly on the door to the pub kitchen. All of this will cease to exist very soon. If history is to be believed, the necromancers will level this city to its foundations. And that will be the starting point for a series of historical events known as the Age of the Dead Wars.
Another round of alarm bells broke over the city from the north like a wave at sea. I wasn’t surprised, but it came as a shock to the townsfolk. This must have been the first time one attack was followed immediately by another. To me it was all exceedingly clear.
My mission was to find a defensible location where I could hold out until the labyrinth to let us go.
I checked my magic supply for the umpteenth time. An old habit from the otherworld, it was proving to die hard. Everything was fine though. The Labyrinth was generous with mana.
The bells were now ringing from every direction. Somewhere off to the right, I heard high-pitched shrieks on another street. The people exchanged fearful glances and ran for the hills. Things degraded into a stampede. I heard more whooping and screaming, but this time from every direction. Someone shouted out loudly from the pub where I had been peacefully quaffing a root beer just a few minutes earlier.
I saw the Guardians racing through the sky here and there. They dove between the buildings, attacking an enemy only they could see. Their arrival was again greeted by cries of joy.
But not long after, everything changed. The gryphons now had competition in the sky ― giant bats. Their levels were lower, but there were more of them. There were a full five or six of the flying brutes attacking just one rider. Like gigantic black inkblots, they were sticking to the warriors on all sides, preventing their gryphons from spreading their wings properly.
The elite guardians died one after the next. And there were more bats coming all the time. Very soon, there wasn’t a single gryphon left in the sky and the vile flying brutes turned their gazes on the little people darting around down below. The city drowned in human screams.
Quickly turning down a narrow alleyway, I looked around and activated canopy of invisibility. After that, I put on the Black Widow’s mask and threw on my Marauder hood. Spike in my right hand, Dragonfly in my left. Just five steps away from me, a formless hunk of flesh splatted down on the road and oozed blood, having very recently been one of those splendid golden gryphons. Three beasts instantly fell on its remains.
Just like before, no one was paying any attention to me.
“It’s time,” I whispered and struck the hideous morphs with lightning.
The system informed me I had incapacitated three level-forty-five necromorphs. I considered it briefly and lunged forward. Spike easily pierced the temples and
eye sockets of the undead, while the system faithfully reported my victory and dropped loot.
— You have killed Necromorph (45).
— Congratulations! You receive:
— Chaos Particle (50).
― Scourge of the Undead crystal (5).
― Attention! You have gathered sufficient Chaos Particles (100). Report to the nearest Citadel of Chaos to complete your mission from the Magister of the Chaos Faction!
Before I had even come to fully appreciate the Great System’s sense of humor, I had to get ready for another scrap. The toothed maw of a level-sixty necromorph poked out around the corner…
Chapter 5
DESPITE HOW MUCH the necromancer magic had warped its body, the monster had easily recognizable features of a big huge monitor lizard. However, instead of a tail, it had a stump dripping with a muddy green pus. Bits of rib were sticking out of its distended sides. Instead of eyes it had two gaping holes. Its curved teeth had pieces of fresh meat stuck between them. The brute had already treated itself to at least one townsperson.
The fact it did not have a tongue constantly flicking out to taste the air or eyes, led me to believe this dead creature was navigating based on its victims’ supplies. It clearly had not detected me yet, but it seemed to have “seen” its “buddies” fall. Or rather, it wasn’t exactly seeing anything, but whoever was in control of this brute was.
Time to summon Gorgie.
The harn appeared three steps to my right. When I saw him, at first, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was this really my pet?! First of all, he was quite a bit larger. He’d also grown stronger but, despite his new heft, there was a litheness and grace to his movements. Second, the scales… They had changed in ways I wasn’t expecting. The crest of bone going down his spine had also fully sprouted. The armor on his neck and stomach was darker and rougher. I must have been seeing the next stage in my pet’s gradual metamorphosis, which would end at a certain level. My Gorgie is getting a new suit of armor.
The harn’s claws and fangs had also grown longer and larger, while his mouth was bigger, too. It’s scary to even imagine how much chow he could scarf down now.
The finishing touch was that his tail had grown longer and was now tipped with a formidable bone spike.
“Hrn!” Gorgie commented happily on his new weapon.
“What say we test it out?” I asked, nodding at the approaching necromorph. For the record, despite it being level sixty, the dead monitor lizard no longer looked quite so scary with the harn for comparison.
Gorgie gave a fearsome growl and disappeared into thin air instantly. He had kicked the party off with a thorntail’s jump. And I understood why ― he wanted to test out all his new toys.
“Hit it in the head!” I shouted after him and cast my first ice arrow.
A second later, the dead monitor’s head gave a couple twitches and burst open like a rotten pumpkin. The beast lurched and fell clumsily on its side.
— You have killed Necromorph (60).
— Congratulations! You receive:
— Chaos Particle (70).
― Scourge of the Undead crystal (7).
Gorgie appeared from “invisibility” and glanced my way. I could read a question on his fanged face: “Well, how’d I do?”
“Great!” I mentally praised and gave him a thumb’s up. Unlike the others, the harn could see me perfectly.
With a disgusted tail flick to get off the dark green slime that had once been the poor monitor lizard’s brains, Gorgie looked up and sniffed.
“They’re everywhere,” he shared.
“I know,” I answered. “If we want to get stronger, we have to take down as many of these beasts as we can.”
As expected, the harn found that plan appealing. What was more, after killing the undead creature, he had unlocked a new characteristic ― Scourge of the Undead. I didn’t have time to figure out what it meant because a new cast of characters had come to “our” alley.
It was two Guardians. Pretty beat-up. Caked head to toe in blood. Based on the fact that one was missing a right leg, he had just a few minutes left to live but, despite how tired the second one looked and the wound on his shoulder, he was still insistently dragging his buddy along.
When the warriors saw the harn standing in the middle of the alley, they froze in place. The more intact one reacted with lightning speed. Despite the serious wound, his right hand grabbed a loaded crossbow off his back abruptly in a well-practiced maneuver and pointed at the scaled monster. The bowstring gave a dull thud, and the bolt went racing forward with a rapacious whistle. The guardsman was shooting haphazardly without aiming but, his level being forty, such tricks were not new to him.
I had seen his facial expression change a few times over a short span. From cold determination and self-confidence to disappointment and surprise. The unknown beast, just level twenty, easily dodged his shot and basically disappeared into thin air.
It all happened so fast that all I managed to do was take down Canopy, and loudly shout:
“Gorgie, no!”
After I appeared, the crossbowman’s face grew even longer. He followed my gaze, turned around and froze. The monster he had just been trying to shoot was already just a step away from him. The scaled tail with its bony spike hung just inches over his head. If I had wasted just one more second, it would have been too late.
“We’re friendlies!” I shouted. “And we can help!”
The crossbowman looked at me dumbfounded, then he looked down and saw the dead morphs. I had to give him his due though. He found his footing instantly.
“Forgive me, good sir mage!” he said, wincing in pain. “The city is overrun with beasts, and so I…”
“No need to apologize!” I waved a hand, quickly settling into the role. “I’d like to help you out, with permission.”
“Start with Agvid if you can,” the crossbowman requested, lowering his wounded comrade to the ground. He had already long since lost consciousness and looked like a ragdoll, his appendages hanging limp.
When I ran up and hunched over the wounded man, the crossbowman suddenly said quietly:
“It’s no use, good sir mage… Poor old Agvid is beyond help.”
“Too bad,” I said, looking at the dead man’s pale face.
“Looks like I’ve been dragging his dead body around this whole time,” the crossbowman breathed a heavy sigh, sitting down wearily next to his late brother in arms.
I silently activated Forest’s Blessing. The warrior shuddered and looked at me. I could see regret in his eyes.
“You have nothing to blame yourself for,” I tried to reassure him. “You did everything you could to save your friend.”
“Agvid was not my friend,” the warrior chuckled for the first time. “I’d sooner say the opposite. It’s hard to call someone a friend after they stole your wife…”
Both of the guardsmen looked to be somewhere over thirty. He was clearly referring to bygone times. I realized that his over-sharing was a consequence of shock, so I decided to try and change the topic to something more constructive.
“With whom do I have the honor of speaking?”
The crossbowman didn’t realize what I was asking at first, but then I saw him make sense of it. He looked around as if he’d just woken up and tried to stand.
“Sit down,” I ordered. “Give the spell time.”
“Leiv Vallin, city guard unit number five,” he quickly introduced himself and peeked at my gear and level.
“Eric Bergman,” I decided to use my real name. Why bother coming up with something now?
“You have a perfectly clean Solenholm accent but, based on your clothes, you aren’t from around here,” Leiv easily determined my outsider status.
“You are correct,” I nodded. “I am a Tarian. I’m here on business.”
I wasn’t afraid to name my country of origin. I was positive that my history textbooks said Taria and Darta had never gone to war. And whenever there were confl
icts, our countries had always been allies.
My response seemed to satisfy Leiv completely.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Where did all these beasts come from?”
“It’s all Udun,” Leiv answered, clenching his teeth in anger. “He conspired with the necromancers,”
“Just a sec,” I frowned. “Udun, the King’s younger brother? Are you sure about that?”
“Yes,” Leiv shook his head. He had gray almost white eyes like all Dartans, and they looked confident. “Udun was spotted outside the walls in the necromancer camp. He’s behaving like an invader. He’s the one that sold the maps and plans to our enemies, showing the strong and weak points in our defenses. They also say our King was poisoned…”
Labyrinth of Fright (Underdog Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 5
