Labyrinth of Fright (Underdog Book #5): LitRPG Series

by Alexey Osadchuk

  “So?” I put on some more pressure. “How should you know? You haven’t seen the things I have. A massive tree pulverizing the spawn of an alien magic. A whole sea of energy spilled. Or three little hungry seeds just about devouring a whole chaos spirit in one sitting like cotton candy at the fair. I have seen enough to know for certain what it takes to bring back a new Forest. Believe me, I’m not going to crawl on hands and knees to some elven prince like an abused dog, carrying in my teeth something that we ourselves could use to become powerful. There’s just no good reason to. I won’t argue, the elves could take good care of the seeds. But whoever said you would be any worse? As a matter of fact, after everything I’ve seen, I think they’re really gonna like the Stone Forest. Right now, there is more food for them there than you could shake a stick at.”

  “What are you talking about?” Pinebogey asked in surprise.

  “A dark portal I managed to close, but which will open again very soon. If it hasn’t already.”

  “But the only ones who could close…” the goblin whispered, dumbfounded, then asked: “Are you a monster hunter?!”

  “Yes,” I nodded, watching my companions’ chins drop. I looked Pinebogey in the eyes and said: “You sacrificed your reputation and went to join the forces of chaos in hopes of forming an alliance against darkness. But as far as I’ve seen, you haven’t been very successful. Year after year, you helped gather particles for the benefit of Nure-onna’s citadel, but you yourself have yet to make a single step of forward progress. I think you already know that is no coincidence. The Snake was simply using you.”

  Pinebogey looked sullen and angry.

  “And meanwhile, Darkness is rearing its ugly head,” I continued. “In the last year, I have had the chance to visit lots of places in our world. And the things I’ve seen frighten me. Orcs deliberately bringing sacrifices to the portal in the Stone Forest. Draks here on the Dark Continent doing the same. And that’s just the two portals I know about. I’m sure there are many more places like them.”

  “And we’ve been just racking our brains over what the Steel King wanted with you!” exclaimed the goblin. “He wants to use you to reach the secrets of the dead order!”

  “He’s amassing power,” I nodded. “And very quickly at that. Very soon the world as we know it will cease to exist. Are you sure the elves will want to help everyone else? I for one am not. And now that you’ve spent all this time in the Citadel of Chaos, I’m sure you aren’t either. Do you think that will change after they get the seeds? Do you really believe that?”

  Pinebogey shook his head sullenly.

  “So does that mean you have decided to become savior of the world?” the goblin smirked.

  “No,” I answered calmly.

  “Then what do you need all this for?”

  “I want me and my friends to be left alone. But I realize that I’ve gotten myself into a game with no way out. At first, I just ran away like a thief but then I got sick of it. Sooner or later, they’ll find me. And so I decided for my own sake I need to get stronger. So I can put up a fight when they come for me. And not simply beat them back, but slash into them with such force that they’ll never forget my name. Now do you understand why I’m not going to the elves?”

  Pinebogey and Dobbess exchanged glances.

  “As for our alliance…” I turned to the woodsman. “Things didn’t work out too well for you with the forces of chaos. So why don’t you see how it goes with the monster hunters? I for one figured it out a long time ago. And so this doesn’t just sound like empty words…”

  I took out the keeper summoning amulet and activated it.

  * * *

  We had been wandering the tangled pathways of the labyrinth for two hours already. Gorgie was slinking along in front of us, silent as a shadow. Dobbess ran behind him. The pair had really hit it off. The goblin would point the way and the harn would dart off to scout. Pinebogey and I were covering their backs.

  But even with Gorgie’s animal senses, we often had to stop to sniff and listen to what was happening around us. And because of that, we had left our pursuers in the dust. An angry and frustrated wolf howl would occasionally reach us, but they were getting quieter and quieter every time.

  When Pinebogey became Keeper of the Heart of the Forest, he changed a good deal. His magic supply was several times larger. Pinebogey’s shoulders had splayed, and his beer belly was practically gone. The biggest change though was the look in his eyes. I no longer saw any doubt in them.

  After using the amulet, I first tried to hand him all the seeds, but it didn’t work. The Great System informed us that Pinebogey could only become keeper of one Heart. But the woodsman was not mere fine with that. He in fact breathed a sigh of relief. The seeds proved quite hard to please, while the new keeper didn’t have quite as much Will as I did. I’d have to babysit them a little while longer.

  I had to go through my purchases from the citadel arsenal on the fly. But I decided I would first read through the iridescent tablet. When I read the description and realized what the spirit had given me, I tripped over myself and just about fell face first onto the tunnel floor. Based on the description, the tablet contained a legendary spell which could turn me into something called an avatar of chaos for a limited time. The transformation increased my strength, agility, accuracy and speed fivefold. Beyond that, all my offensive spells would be reinforced by chaos as well.

  This was the first spell I got that made me hiccup in fear. And not only because I could now transform into some unknown creature with a number of warnings in its description. First ― my minimum Will had to be over fifty, and second ― the avatar of chaos would quite literally suck my life bar down five points per second. In theory that meant that, with my supply, I could spend just over eight minutes as this avatar. To be frank, despite all the upsides, I wasn’t particularly eager to test the odd spell out in action. Still, deep down I understood that this dangerous sorcery could save my hide and, the quicker I started learning its ins and outs, the easier it would be to use in battle.

  I activated the tablet and started tossing ten into Will as usual, bringing it up to one hundred forty-four. The temptation to add ten to another characteristic I dismissed mercilessly. After a few attempts, the minor chaos spirit was eventually able to break through my Will and that spooked me. The will shield, which depended on my mana reserves, would not hold out for long. Essentially, my saving grace was those seeds and their ravenous appetite.

  After the tablets, I got to the scrolls. The Strength talents, to my eye, were less valuable than the Mind ones. And both of them were better suited to fist fighters. My neighbor, who used to partake in bareknuckle boxing matches down by the port, would definitely have been delighted to have them. The first talent was called Heavy Fists. It increased the damage of unarmed physical attacks by thirty percent. The second meanwhile, Blustering Blow, increased critical hit chance by twenty-five percent. Also for physical attacks, also unarmed.

  The remaining two talents from the mind branch were much more useful. One reduced mana expenditure by ten percent for all spells and twenty for chaos spells. The other meanwhile increased the duration of all spells by thirty percent and forty for chaos.

  After activating all the scrolls and watching them disappear into thin air, I turned to the pearls. The four fire-red balls yielded a total of forty points for my transformations. After some consideration, I decided to improve my alertness.

  I activated the pearls one by one, covering myself with Forest’s Blessing and holding a satiety potion at the ready just in case. But it went like a hot knife through butter.

  I invested ten each into the black lynx eye, blazefox senses, earth rat nose, and hawk eye.

  As soon as the transformations had their bonuses applied, the world around me changed. Everything grew brighter and acquired sharper dimensions. Hundreds of scents and smells came crashing down on me as if poured from a bucket.

  The darkness retreated. I could now make out
lots of animal tracks on the floor. Apparently, this place was teeming with life even though just a moment earlier I thought the opposite.

  The flood of sensations and impressions made my head spin. It was hard not to fall to the floor. Another thing I realized after getting myself back together was that there would be a huge cave at the end of the tunnel and in it there was a group waiting to ambush us. In fact, we’d already passed several such attempted ambushes but Gorgie had so far masterfully led us away from the unknown creatures. When I realized how blind I had been, a chill ran between my shoulder blades.

  And now, the harn ducked down a passageway, leading us around yet another potential hazard. After that, we found ourselves in an impressively large cave and he stopped dead in his tracks. The harn raised his head, gave a sniff and looked to me.

  “What’s up with him?” the goblin asked, alarmed. Furthermore, Dobbess’ anxiety seemed somehow strange. As if Gorgie’s behavior was getting on his nerves.

  “We’re being surrounded,” I answered curtly.

  “You sure?” Pinebogey asked.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “Gorgie can smell Ulf.”

  “But how did they pull it off?” the woodsman asked in surprise. “I thought we’d escaped!”

  “We should have stuck to the route!” exclaimed the goblin. “Your beast took us on several detours! That cost us precious time!”

  Dobbess was obviously on edge. And that put me on guard.

  “He was leading us away from danger,” I answered calmly, staring right into the goblin’s eyes.

  “Calm down, my friend,” Pinebogey placed a hand on the goblin’s shoulder. “If not for Eric’s beast, we might have landed ourselves in a trap several times already. No one knows how this place can be better than you. Better tell us where to go next. Are we still far from the portal?”

  “No,” Dobbess was noticeably calmer and, sneering in my direction, he said: “Forgive me, Eric. I’m sure you understand. I’m just a little bit nervous. I don’t really like being underground.”

  The words were right, but the tone… Either it was just me or the goblin had changed a lot over the past few minutes. Maybe he had always been like this, and I simply never noticed until I activated the pearls.

  “That way,” the goblin muttered and nodded toward another tunnel.

  The harn gave a warning growl.

  “We can’t go that way,” I said, not budging.

  “They’re everywhere,” Gorgie told me mentally. The scales on the nape of his neck stood on end.

  “What’s going on?” Pinebogey frowned.

  “Get ready for a fight!” I said. “They’re already here!”

  In confirmation, big huge half-transformed werewolves started emerging from every tunnel with dull growls. Snakefolk loomed behind.

  A dozen shapeshifters and around thirty serpentine guards ― the magister had sent a veritable army after us.

  “A pity we couldn’t take you by surprise!” growled Ulf, emerging from a tunnel. After that, he turned to the goblin and unexpectedly said: “Dobbess, you little punk, you really gave us the runaround! If not for that blood amulet, we’d have lost you!”

  The goblin winced as if he’d just eaten a sour plum and fairly quickly went closer to the snakefolk.

  “It was all his beast!” Dobbess shot out, nodding at Gorgie. “He was constantly taking detours around your ambushes! It was hard to slow him down by choosing the right tunnels.”

  Pinebogey and I traded glances. It pained me to look at the woodsman.

  Seeing his state, Dobbess said reassuringly:

  “You’re too trusting, old man. I feel sorry for you. What matters now is not to do anything stupid. She promised me she wouldn’t harm you. Now your life is more valuable than ever before! Believe me, the alliance we dreamt of for so long is now a possibility!”

  Despite the fact the goblin had betrayed us, he sounded quite sincere.

  Unlike Pinebogey, who was whipping himself into a lather before my very eyes, I was relatively calm. I even breathed a sigh of relief. Now at the least I was sure who was my enemy and who was my friend. And as for the magister, the only thing I really felt bad about was that Dobbess had probably told the Snake about Midori. Nothing else really mattered.

  “And what about me?” I asked, snorting. “Any instructions?”

  “She also said you should surrender and come back to the citadel,” nodded the goblin. “You are no less valuable to her. Especially in light of your discoveries. Surrender and she will forgive you!”

  I chuckled. Unlike Dobbess, I could see the werewolf alpha and a tall snakeman behind him trading glances.

  The goblin wanted to keep talking, but the snakeman standing behind him sharply waved a hand and Dobbess’ head was separated from his body, falling to the stone floor with a dull thud.

  That could mean only one thing ― Nure-onna was not seeking an alliance with anyone.

  Chapter 15

  I GLANCED at the goblin’s decapitated head and winced. There was still a condescending little smile playing on his lips, just like when he was telling us about all the good things the Snake had in store for us. He himself though was already dead, and blood was spurting from his neck stump, leaving an ample puddle on the stone floor.

  “So, you look upset that the blabbermouth is dead?!” Ulf barked out mockingly, mid-transformation.

  It was hardly the first time I had noticed it, but werewolves had an odd predilection for jabbering before a fight. Either it was part of some kind of warrior ritual, or simply a way of winning time to complete their transformations.

  “You are mistaken, cowardly mongrel!” I replied with a smirk. I decided to make him mad, as Happy had once done to Livid before their face-off. “Your wormy buddy has left us without a guide!”

  The head snakeman also looked wounded. He clearly did not appreciate being compared to a worm.

  “The dead don’t need guides!” he hissed out loudly and, squirming, spat a wad of dark lilac saliva at me.

  The time for talking was over. The fight was on. The head snakeman’s attack served as a signal for the others. The werewolves howled out in fury, dashed forward and a few balls of spit came flying at us from the snakefolk.

  Somersaulting to the right and dodging the first wad of spit, I blasted a ram back at them, then struck my first bolt of lightning at the nearest werewolves. My body was already covered by invisibility and muckwalker’s aura as always. My torso, arms and legs were encased in semitransparent serpentine coils, too. A sharp blow to the back sent me flying forward. The Ysh had taken several wads of spit to the back. Three thousand defense points down. Time to activate chaos shield.

  “Take care of them!” I mentally ordered Gorgie and, a moment later, the ranks of the spitting snakefolk turned into a grisly meatgrinder. As not to miss out on my share of the loot, I cast a dozen ice arrows their direction. The harn’s furious growling mixed with shrieks of pain and frustrated hissing told me that I did not need to worry about further attacks from behind.

  The spirit of the giant crusher beetle crawled upside down on the ceiling, emitting a magical fog which flooded the interior of the cave in the blink of an eye.

  Just a second before the cave was immersed in gloom, I caught a fleeting glance of Pinebogey, who had been suspiciously silent all that time. And what I saw made me shiver.

  The woodsman’s body had disappeared. And in its place, pulsating ferociously, was bright green magical cocoon that was growing in size. It was made up of dozens of taut tendrils which, in their turn, deflected all of the snakefolks’ magic attacks. Actually not quite… I was mistaken. They weren’t deflecting them; they were absorbing them!

  Based on the surprised looks on a few of the attackers’ faces, this didn’t seem to be part of the Pinebogey’s usual magical arsenal. Seemingly, the Heart of the Forest, using the Keeper’s reserves, was preparing to land a devastating blow on our foes.

  Based on the fact that none of them had tried to
disperse the fog yet, our adversaries must not have had the ability. It would not surprise me to learn that the air magess in the labyrinth had been using a legendary spell. To be frank, I would love a similar spell to fill out my arsenal.

  I tried to take full advantage of our adversaries’ disorientation. Rams, lightning and ice arrows rained down upon our foes. Thanks to my magical senses, I could see my victims’ supplies clearly.

  For the next few seconds, I raced from one stunned werewolf to the next, methodically chopping their bodies apart with Spike and Dragonfly. Unlike the youngbloods Gorgie and I had taken down in the labyrinth, these shapeshifters proved to be quite tough. Without Blade of Vengeance, it would have been hard going.

  The heart-rending yelps of pain and frequent surges of magic to the left informed me that Gorgie had made it to the retinue of the head snakeman. The chaos shield I was sharing with the harn sagged five percent but no more. Nure-onna’s guard turned out to be paper tigers, capable only of fearsome glares and menacing hisses. But Gorgie was a battle-hardened supermonster, so he broke through their defenses like a white-hot knife gliding through softened butter.