Player Reached the Top. LitRPG series. Book I Page 11

  The bear stood, open-mouthed and motionless. The captain watched the beast, marveling at what had been done by the boy. The bear roared, rose on its hind legs and began to break off as it tried to extract the shard from itself. The flash burst out and waves of cursed energy poured from it.

  “Lie down!” The captain warned Gikhor, jumping far away from the animal.

  A hooting filled the air, and the bear’s body swelled, unable to handle the cursed aura. It began to fall apart, as if it had been chopped by these waves. Pieces of meat fell off from its bones, baring the bear’s huge skeleton. Finally, the beast gave a long sigh, then fell forward on its muzzle.

  Congratulations!

  Chapter 33. Resident Gloom

  Some days before murder of the cursed cave bear by Will …

  …

  Light Terror stood in the company of his clan mates near a small cave. The local tribe called it “Resident Gloom.”

  Their people passed superstitions from father to son, and nobody would have paid attention to them if the player from the “Murderers” clan was not an ardent fan - collectors of the history of the fictional worlds. His name was Archeologist, and he liked to dig out old myths and legends. He had found incredibly well-hidden chains of quests in the other games, so it became his hobby. Thanks to this hobby, the top-ranked player of “Murderers” investigated the leads to the task connected with the Guardian of the Floor.

  Archeologist, who had recently joined this tribe, was examining old crypts and temples, in search of legends, when he heard the conversation of two dealers in the market. They were talking about a Headless Knight who appeared ten years earlier. The Locals had either had made it up, or someone else had seen the rider enter this cave, so it was named “Resident Gloom.”

  Having discovered what cave they had been talking about, Archeologist informed a friend who was responsible for scouting in his clan. Archeologist was a devoted player. He had many good friends, either in the clan or off side. Sometimes he even hung out with them in the real world.

  He did not even think to hide this catch, but would he stir things up. Some of the newcomers joining the clan might be spies from friendly and enemy communities.

  Gathering authorized representatives, the leader of “Murderers” inspected the group. He was a tall man, with a short, clipped beard, wearing a raincoat with a high collar. His face was ordinary, with two small canines that stuck out under his upper lip. Being a vampire-class player, he did not have the highest standing in the clan, but his melee skill of 25 was the highest level in their group.

  “I shouldn’t repeat what we have already discussed. We’ll go as we’ve decided. Don’t touch anything without Delliya’s permission! She’s a thief and she’ll collect all that’s necessary. Keep in mind that the trace, which Archeologist found, can raise us in ratings within several positions up. Ronni, God forbid, you’ll go forward and do the recording. Your task is to capture the entire picture. In extreme cases, we may ask you to film some fine details.

  “All in all, you are to stand in the center and turn your head slowly. As for the others, you are to remember how to click on the REC button, as all will be useful during film editing. It’s up to us all to determine what good sponsors our clan will have. So, grab a weapon, and let's get going.”

  Everybody nodded and entered the cave.

  “You’re entering the Oblivion Caves.

  You are the first player to visit this place.

  +3% Experience in this territory;

  +1% Speed of the character.

  The location is intended for 27+level players”

  Everyone in the group received a system message. Such a message flashed every time a place that had never before been visited was discovered.

  The players had a look at the leader. All depended on him, whether they would go further in the game or not. He frowned, considering their situation. The risk to wipe was increasing, but to miss a chance was nevertheless impossible.

  “I’m your leader, but in this situation, anyone who does not want to die and lose experience points may leave now. We’ll wait for others.”

  The players looked at each other and smiled. “Everything is all right,” Delliya responded for all. “Lead us forward.” The group of eight moved forward.

  “Light.”

  The mage reacted to the order and started a fire over their heads, lighting their way. Several minutes later, they heard the clanging of chains and sounds of something scraping on walls.

  “Flesh-sh-sh?” The group swallowed nervously. The voice was dark and terrible, as if they were going to be eaten by some unknown horror.

  “Lights out! Quickly! Sogrand, light a torch. Its flame is not so bright as the magician’s, and it may draw less attention. We don’t an aggressive mob following us.”

  The light went out, and their torch lit their road. Delliya moved ahead of the group, scanning for the presence of any enemies or traps. She returned minutes later. “Ahead of us there are four 26-level banshees. The cave is small so any noise will bring the others. I know these monsters, they scream like hysterical women.”

  The thief grinned. “Could you kill them one by one?”

  “Nope.” The girl shook her head. “I can take at least two of them, who are standing close together.”

  “Well, we’ll be able to seal two by “Silence”. Steady, ready!”

  Within half a minute, the group heard sounds of running. Before them, Delliya jumped out of “Stealth”. Ugly women chased her, moving on all fours as if they were animals. As they neared, two mages, a wizard, and a magician cast “Silence” and its analog “Hush” upon them.

  The tanks intercepted one monster each, distracting their attention from the thief. The fight took about three minutes. The banshees could not shout, and thus they died in proud silence.

  The company regrouped and resumed their journey, forgetting about the terrible voice they had heard earlier…

  Chapter 34. The Grave Mound

  For five hours, they had been killing monsters. Banshees, ghosts, barrow-wights, and skeletons of various monsters. The series of fights went on and on. The monsters’ levels increased with each step they went deeper into the caves. If they were at 26 level, they killed 29 level monsters. A few players leveled up too. And still, some of them lacked levels.

  Everyone knew the final fight was coming. Their emotions they felt earlier gradually amplified. The aura of despair and hunger, which chilled them to their bones, increased. What was it? Everyone asked that question.

  “There’s nobody ahead. No traps, no doors, no portals. Nothing but an empty room. But the aura we have felt for the last two hours is so thick that I have barely taken back my self-control. Though I play on low sensitivity and do not feel pain, the thought that I can be gobbled up there makes me feel ill at ease…”

  The Face of the thief went pale. She knew this was the truth. “We haven’t missed any secret doors on the way here, have we?”

  “None that I’ve been able to detect. If there were any other hidden entrances, they could only be found by a more skilled thief than I.”

  “I see. Let's rest then, and in ten minutes we start.”

  “OK.”

  Having rested and restored their energy, the group entered a spacious room. It was empty, but the aura, as the thief had said, was thick and heavy and pressed down on them.

  “It’s high time we get this over with; we've been out here a long time,” said the leader called Night. “Keep together, everyone. Delliya and Kraks, follow me.” He went to the opposite wall, which was decorated with old frescos. What they represented became clearer after Delliya had brought a torch closer.

  “Well, I'll be damned!” she whispered.

  The images caused her to shiver instinctively. Several huge figures were beating on people on big sticks, some victims were being roasted over a fire and being devoured. These giants were near a town where people looked at them with horror. Many people tried to escape or hid
e, but they were found and pierced with spears as sharp as needles.

  The wide wall was covered with similar images. Only the sizes of the towns differed. Several groups of knights tried to fight the giants, but the beast squashed them and ate them. Everything had been drawn so realistically it almost made them vomit.

  “That’s pretty hardcore,” exclaimed Kraks, whose melee skill had already risen up to the twenty sixth level.

  “If I am not mistaken, it’s the history of this world. That evil … that was told about in the background.”

  “But where are their Gods?” the thief asked, frowning.

  They looked over every wall, but did not see any representations of the Gods. Suddenly, they heard a gnashing sound above their heads. The players lifted their heads and peered into darkness. The ceiling of cave was high, and they could not see what was making such sounds.

  “St-t-t-tu-pi-i-id flesh-sh-sh,” a rustling voice hissed from the ceiling. They recognized it. Fear held them down, and even the leader could not speak. “You-u-u sssuppose you-u-u kno-o-ow hhhi-issstory, butttt ittt’sss a l-l-lie!!!”

  The beast jumped from the ceiling, drenching them in a cloud of dust and slime. “This-s-s h-h-his-s-st-t-tory is fals-s-s-se. The truth will caus-s-se your hooorrooor. DDD’you wan-n-na learn the t-t-tru-u-uth?”

  The monster’s name appeared in front of their eyes.

  “Grave Mound (Baron): Level 33.

  Health: 4,700.”

  The monster looked like it had been pieced together from several hundred bodies, with multiple hands, heads, and eyes. It had no form and was constantly flowing from one state to another. At the moment, it was standing still, looking at each of them in turn.

  “DDD’youuu?”

  “Nobody move!” Night shouted.

  All of them stared at Night, puzzled., not understanding what he was doing. He was known to be a competent leader, but this didn’t make sense. They could leave now, abandoning the quest with Dullakhan.

  But the vampire stared in space, reading another message.

  “You are offered one more quest of a bygone era.

  Accept? Yes/No.”

  No awards were offered. They hadn’t been told what the quest involved or what they might need to kill. But the man understood that this was connected with the guardian of the second Floor in some way.

  “Accept.”

  Сhapter 35. The truth to choose

  The “Murderers” players stood near the Oblivion Caves, their faces expressing horror. Two of them logged off, making the game inaccessible. One of them decided to quit permanently, which left the others thinking that everything they had seen so far was only the warmup.

  …

  When Night accepted that mission, the monster smirked with all his faces before turning around and drenching all the players with rings of smoke pouring from its body.

  “Attention! You have a unique opportunity to hear one more version of the events that took place a few thousand years ago. You are just observers. You will not be able to change history. You may not leave anything or take them away. History is merely the imprint of several days, years or centuries left by a man and like grains of sand through an hourglass. Who writes it? Winners? Or those who want to hide something? Have a look, but carefully…”

  The group appeared on a tower of one of the fortresses. Screams could be heard all around them. Soldiers ran everywhere, all with expressions of confusion, disbelief, horror, and despair. After looking at the castle’s walls, they understood why.

  The players were able to speak with each other, but nobody wanted to. The images they had seen on walls opened up before them. Everything on those damned frescos seemed so far away, but now, the real horror of those images were right in front of them.

  The giants, gathering hundreds of thousands of people nearby, were huge, a hundred feet in height. They had turned the village located near the castle into a bonfire. People, elves, half-demons, and many others were impaled on long sticks as if on a spit.

  On the walls, the players heard the screams as the victims burned. Delliya's face turned pale. She covered her ears with hands, then sat on the floor in order not to see the scene.

  Near them, the knight appeared with a helmet in his hands. He was accompanied by two soldiers.

  “It is the end … Gods … fie you, not gods but beasts!” His face was white with anger. His eyes blazed with hatred at the sight of this hell. He squeezed his helmet so hard his hand hurt.

  “Sir, some inhabitants have been taken away through catacombs. Only several hundreds. The others could not be rescued …”

  “I know!” The knight answered sharply. “Ours have been slaughtered. We are powerless against them.”

  The man standing nearby remained silent. He spoke softly, as if asking himself, “Are they really Gods? These monsters cannot be them, hungry, lifeless beasts of chaos … oh, no. The Gods, they are kind, honest, wise beings. I cannot believe I worshipped them only to have my family gobbled up one day … No, no, these are the intrigues of devils. Surely, surely!” Not one of the group of strangers had seen him or heard him. While listening to him, the “Murderers” shuddered.

  “Are they the Gods?” asked a girl, shaking with fear. She played for the archer. They watched this nightmare, with its rich historical background. Every episode had been colourful, heroically so. But here … here they were petrified with terror.

  The castle wall was replaced by the platform of the huge portal from the legend. Around it stood four men and three women. Their attire was of superior quality. They stood, with closed eyes, and speaking softly. They did this for several minutes, and then all seven opened their eyes and stepped away. Pak and the others followed after them. Now they saw the people look weakened and hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

  “Hey! Drang!” A woman called after a man with a sword. “Perhaps, you can explain why the hell we’re involved in this? Nobody knows about us, a handful of adventurers who have sacrificed their lives. Why?”

  The man did not look at her; he seemed to be waiting for something.

  “Cause of future…” he whispered.

  “Future?” The girl laughed. “What future do I have if I’m a corpse?”

  “If we done everything right, we have a chance to return. I’ve already told you this. Why do you ask again, Laysi?” the hooded man with the staff pondered.

  “I don’t know. Maybe I want you to calm down, Zaradius,” Laysi answered, smiling.

  “Stop it!” The man with the spear closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Concentrate! It isn’t over yet…”

  “P-f...” The girl put her hands over her breast and looked at the portal too. “I don’t believe anyone will be able to unite the world again,” she whispered.

  Ten minutes later, the portal began to shake, twisting into a funnel of terrifying size, and sucking in everything around. The giants’ furious eyes nearly popped from their sockets as they found themselves pulled in it along with pieces of the dismembered corpses that surround them.

  They clung to the earth, vomiting damnations at the seven. Night and the others did not, would not speak.

  “You?! Pathetic bastards!” one of monsters squealed. “We’ll gobble up your souls when you die. We’ll find them on the Forgotten Coast, and you’ll never regenerate as the damned spawns of heroes.”

  Their hands dug into the earth, but the portal continued to suck them in, one after another. Before long, every last one had gone.

  The spectators had been frozen in horror from being so close to death at the hands of the monsters. When the last of the beasts disappeared, they turned to the seven, only to see them vanish into thin air. Their faces bore no expressions.

  They had done it. Foreordained or not, the world would live on without them further.

  But when the last of them dissolved from view, the earth shivered, and the world began to change…

  Chapter 36. Come back and a reward

  “Congratulatio
ns! You’ve found the cursed shard.

  + 1 Luck;

  +5% Chance to find the hidden traps and hiding places.

  Level up...

  The skill ‘Double Attack’ has leveled up.

  +11% Chance to cause an attack resulting in double loss.”

  Will emerged from the shadows, staring at the dead King of the forest. It had been a long fight.

  “How are you doing?” he shouted to Gikhor and the captain, approaching Lekhor. The captain was weak, but still breathing. Four long slashes on its chest oozed blood, and he was clearly near death.

  Will ran up to the dying bear creature, extracted all he could and, without examining it, removed the integrated shard.

  “You were visited by good luck! Good luck seldom comes, but when it does, it brings all you beed. You have found a Potion of healing (Gold level).”

  “So that's how it works!”

  He brought the shard to tend to the wounded Horgh, absorbing the purple smoke before pouring a few drops of healing potion into his slightly open mouth.

  “You’ve saved the Horgh from death.

  Relations with the tribe of horghs 73/100 − neutral.

  The cursed shard (Unique).

  Load: 13/200.”

  “Now it’s clear why there are a lot of cursed places. How many shards are there? The only one who might be able to answer this question is Radermin, but he won’t answer without the Box... ah, damn it! I forgot to tell Pak about potions. At least I have money now, so buying them won’t be a problem,” Raven said to himself.