Player Reached the Top. LitRPG series. Book I Page 15

  With a final scowl at each other, Raven and Daltaro teleported to the capital of Adamarona, Kadil.

  Chapter 45. Mystery of shards

  “Congratulations! You are the first to visit the amazing capital of Adamarona. It was once one of the most powerful and splendid countries, but it has fallen into decline now.

  +25 Influence Points;

  +4% XP on this territory;

  +1 Strength.”

  Raven looked around, not understanding why it was described as being in decline. The city pulsed with life. Inhabitants with smiles on their faces strolled along the city, and there was the atmosphere of a constant holiday in the air. High spikes of a palace could be seen from the square they had teleported to. Bright stone two- and three-storey houses were situated like "circles on a watery surface" from the palace.

  “So, where should we go?” Will asked turning to Daltaro.

  “Pfft,” the archer sniffed and turned away from him.

  “You’re a grown man. Let’s consider that's one-nil to me. I’m sure you’ll win next time. But for now, show me the way.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Follow me.”

  They wasted half an hour zigzagging through alleys and side streets. An unpleasant thought crept into Will’s head, but he kept following Daltaro. After fifteen more minutes, Raven had decided this tactic was the archer’s form of revenge. After asking how close they were to the end of their route, the response came in a well-worn phrase. “A little farther.”

  Veins bulged on Will’s forehead, and his face reddened. Five more pointless minutes later, he cried “Damned charlatan, stop right there! One – one! Got it? That’s enough! Take me to the one who knows about this piece of glass!” He was close to grabbing the dagger and stabbing the NPC with it. But happily, reason prevailed in the end.

  “He-he-he,” Daltaro flashed a nasty smile and pointed at one of doors.—“We’ve been here for a long time. I was leading you in circles. Ah-ha, you ain’t able to walk in a wood on your own, you’ll get lost.”

  Raven looked doubtingly at the map, Only a small part of the capital was open to the general population. After seeing this labyrinth, the rogue understood why he had noticed nothing.

  “Okay, score is now a draw. But now it’s time to get down to business. What’s the name of this person we’re going to?”

  “Shalvar Horsus. Ten years ago, he solved the secret of the lost heritage of the Dolf race. He is very clever and knows almost about everything, if it was mentioned in any book.”

  “A librarian?”

  “Khm…”—Daltaro coughed in his fist. “Well, yes.”

  “You’re describing an ordinary librarian like he’s a relic of Gods’ times,” Will exclaimed.

  Daltaro did not answer, but knocked gently on the door.

  Then they heard sounds of locks being opened, and a the head of a thin old man appeared.

  “What d’you need?” he cried out. Raven, standing close, did not notice how his companion had backed up several steps.

  “Ah-ha-ha,” the archer burst out laughing. “Two-one, greedy brute.”

  Raven turned back, noticing Daltaro’s raised eyebrows.

  “You, stop it, laughing man.” He said with a frightening aura of barefaced irritation. “Time is short. You picked a bad time for one of your jokes.” Will faced the old man. “ Are you Shalvar Horsus?”

  “What? Speak louder.”

  Will bent next to the librarian’s ear. “Are you Shalvar Horsus?”

  “Yeah,” he replied. “What d’you want?”

  “May we come in and talk with you?”

  The old man touched his puny head, opened the door wide, and waved them inside.

  Will did not beat around the bush, believing their chat with the deafish man would not last long.

  He bent close to the librarian again and explained the situation, showing him the shard.

  What happened next took him by surprise.

  The old man began to roar and tried to snatch the crystal from Raven’s hands. He dodged the attempt and instinctively it back into his ring.

  “Messenger?! The Time has come? Now everything is clear to me… Just what's been missing. These accursed prophecies.” Saliva dripped from his lips. “The time, time, time…” he muttered, and the scrawny old man began to mutate in front of Will. His bones cracked, his skin delaminated and peeled, his eyes became faceted like a fly’s. His head twitched like he was possessed. Behind his back flapped small wings. After finishing metamorphosis, the librarian was revealed for what he was.

  Will skewered the archer with his eyes. “Jesus Christ! Daltaro, you want to win so badly that you palmed off the monster instead of your friend?”

  Chapter 46. A spy

  “Latian (Spy): Level 84.

  HP: 30200.”

  Daltaro retrieved his bow, but did not fire arrows. Monitoring their opponent for the slightest movement, he bellowed, “Where is Shalvar Horsus?”

  “Where-where? What's it to you, you piece of man? Where he was not matter, he has already been ended. He a good source of information. Who knew, that what we been looking for so long, would appear directly before my nose. The queen will be satisfied.”

  Latian…Latian…Something familiar…

  “So, that's what Latians are like! How is the Holy Land?” Raven decided to throw a match into the hay and see how quickly it would burn.

  “Where'd you come from, man? The Holy Land is been called the Holy Empire for more than ten years.”

  “And what’s happened with your association?” Getting more data would be better. He could come out fighting at any rate.

  “What?” the Latian spy asked sympathetically.

  “D’you wanna tell that you concluded no treaties on attacking that Shadow Order?”

  “Sh-shadow Order?!” the spy stammered. “Those damned adepts! Hate’em! Hate’em! Hate’em! ’Cause of them, my Queen lost the great opportunity to create the Cursed Nest. You …” Narrowing its eyes, the Latian examined Will, noticing the rogue’s ring…

  “You!!!” It squealed louder. His hands morphed into jagged blades, and he changed back into “warrior one”.

  “Oh …” The young man covered the ring, slowly dissolving into shadow.

  “The Shadow Order and the Latians have been feuding for years. All Latians, from workers to warriors, will attack you every time they see you. You are a priority target in any fight. Be careful. Being masters of masking, even an ordinary dealer may be a disguised enemy.”

  “I’ll kill you! My Queen is get your head and ring as trophy!” The spy rushed at Will, ignoring Daltaro until the moment arrows flew at him.

  “Damned magic! You only think you're tough. But we are always ready to fight against you!” He raised a hand, and light dust scattered through the room.

  “You feel an effect of the true light powder created by the Holy Earth against the adepts of the Shadow Order twenty years ago. Now you cannot use shadows for five minutes.”

  “Ouch!” Will exclaimed, barely evading the blade the Latian tried to swing into his head.

  Circumstances were against him. Fast footwork was the key to success in life. Will could use his opportunity to deal critical damage to the target while Daltaro killed the spy.

  Thanks to the archer’s arrows, the Latian’s movements had slowed. It realized too late that it should have killed the archer as well, but the blind programmed rage or fidelity to the Queen would not allow the spy to change targets. As if it was no more than a puppet, it continued to try to deal a fatal blow to Will.

  The Latian struck his enemy on the back when Will somersaulted away from the next wave of the jagged blade. This laceration earned Will a loss of speed of regeneration and a sluggishness debuff. He drank a potion when Daltaro shot the Latian in the back of the head, so he had to slow down. But the potion did not help and he had lost that debuff. Moreover, it restored only 100 Health Points per minute. These potions would not be enough for him, so he had
wasted a decent amount of gold coins on them. When their opponent trapped him in the corner, he damned everything and activated the skill "Without barriers".

  With that, Raven started running on the ceiling. He then activated “Soul Cry,” retarding the spy for three seconds. Then the young man drank the next vial of his potion. He was not going to die here, having just above 130 Life Points.

  Pierced by arrows like a pincushion, the Latian stared at the ceiling, cracked his neck, and spread its wings. That’s when it clicked in Will’s mind.

  “What ceiling?! It’s a fly! With wings, Damn it… the Queen…"

  “Latian (Spy): Level 84.

  HP: 1763/30200.”

  Will descended quickly, avoiding the furious Latian like the plague. It did not follow, but tried to attack the owner of the adepts’ ring.

  Will threw furniture from the most unexpected positions, hid behind the archer who was still shooting at the weakening spy. Daltaro used one of his “dirty tricks” such as throwing sand in its eyes, but the eighty-four level ignored it. And then, finally, it slumped to the ground, twitched, and lay still.

  “Congratulations! You have found and killed the Latian spy in Adamarona.

  Current attitude status:

  the Latian race -1600/100, irreconcilable hostility.

  the Citizens of Adamarona 35/100, neutral.

  The chain of tasks is offered "Secrets of enemies".

  Learn what the Latian spy was looking for, disclose the enemy’s plan to the captain of guardsmen.

  Reward:

  +13000 XP;

  Current attitude status:

  The inhabitants of Kadil +40

  Additional condition: Find Shalvar Horsus's body and learn the cause of his death

  Reward: Depends on the final results.

  Accept: Yes/No?”

  “Will I get to ever find out what these shards are?!” Raven asked no one in particular. He leaned on the wall, catching his breath.

  Chapter 47. Power over bodies

  After killing the spy, Will sent Daltaro to rent a room in the hotel. Raven warned him to wait till the next day before leaving. Then he logged off.

  It was 10PM. Will grabbed a bite of cottage cheese with jam, then read the forums and news on the game’s website. A recently posted video had been blowing up the forum entitled “Murderers”: One step to modern history.” It had to be the video Pak had mentioned before.

  He played the video and was stuck watching it for 15 minutes, along with dozens of questions reflected in the comments to this terrible movie. Where had they found someone with a sonorous name like Funeral Hole? Was the history being shown real? Who were these seven heroes nobody had found information about? And so on.

  But the main issue was: where the truth could be found? Fans philosophized, putting forward various theories while others gave counterarguments, but all of them agreed it was too early to draw conclusions. Such was the truth of the Third Floor. Who knew what stories would be shown on others…

  Under the Topic “Where can I find items 50+” there was something better. Judging by the comments, ufologists, theologians, fans of masons and other people with great imagination gathered there. Of course, there were others who only showed up to make fun of it or provide feedback in even more mysterious manner, provoking an enormous controversy.

  Only one topic was more popular: the rumors about Rollin’ Dice. According to them, the clan had accepted some large-scale chains of hidden tasks. As for the Fortuna clan, they had accepted an epic quest.

  It was obscure who was spreading these rumors, and why.

  After reading more forums, Will went to bed. But he couldn’t sleep, remembering the Latian’s words “…my Queen lost the greatest opportunity to create the Cursed Nest.”

  The cursed shards infected everything they were put into, lifting the dead and killing the living. So the Queen needed them to form her Cursed Nest. Why? Was it possible to control this energy? Will would have to learn about it, when he pieced together the crystal.

  Having washed and had breakfast the next morning, Will phoned his dad. They chatted about their last few days, though the son avoided speaking about the game. Will’s father reported that he would come back to the city soon. After their conversation, Will drank a cup of coffee, then nested in the capsule and logged in.

  “Devil!” Daltaro screamed. He had been standing three feet away from where Will logged off the day before. Now the adventurer saw the companion appearing from thin air, and he almost fell over.

  “How long have you been waiting for me?” asked Raven like nothing had happened.

  “For ten minutes,” the archer muttered. “Is it one of those prophecies, huh?

  “What d’you mean?”

  “Well, Messengers of Gods, yada, yada, yada, will not die until the gates are opened…”

  “Right. I am a Messenger of Gods!” The young man scratched his head. “And yada, yada, yada you will see the root of the matter. So have you found anything or jacked off?”

  “Nothing special, just a lot of books and a sketch of some bulky device. Here, have a look at them.” He showed Will a sheet of parchment featuring an illustration of a device that reminded him of a modern transformer.

  “Well… and what about the books?”—asked Raven, removing the drawing from his inventory.

  “One is about rituals and the Gods, a couple more were about the old myths concerning great people of the past. Another is written in an unknown language, possibly Latian. But the most interesting one is ‘The Damned World’, written by Zhor-Nal two hundred years ago. He described something named ‘Power over Bodies’. He did not write whether it was a skill or an item, but this ‘Power over bodies’ made one able to control both the living and the dead, making them execute any order as if they were puppets.”

  “What a striking resemblance to our situation! Only the cursed aura operates the dead, or morphs the living near the infected source into the dead. So the shards are uncontrolled. And if you have the whole crystal, it’ll be possible to use it on your own.”

  “It's all hypothetical. But I hope it’ll be true.” The archer replied.

  Chapter 48. There is nothing kept secret that will not come to… death

  You have a clue of the task Secrets of Enemies. Share the finding with the captain of Kadil’s guardsmen.

  They did not have to piece together the whole crystal but created the narrative of the events gleaning information about shards. Will closed the message and began to search the librarian’s apartment. It was small and, after fighting with the spy, looked like the dwelling of an unrestrained hysteric.

  The only thing he could find was a pendant.

  “Pendant (Copper).

  Description: Shalvar Horsus used it for solving the mystery of the Dolf race. This mysterious subject has its own history. But only the old librarian disclosed its true value.”

  …

  Raven examined this entertaining bagatelle, which was not as simple as it the description stated. Then he asked the archer, who was busy reading one of the found books.

  “You said once you knew some fellas who could tell us about the crystal. Where is the nearest one?”

  “Unfortunately, all of them are travelling now. We went to the old man ‘cause I knew he’d be at home.” Daltaro sighed, looking up from the book. “He was really a nice person. Knew so much…”

  “Which is why they targeted him,” Will continued. “Now, if we can just figure out what the Queen of these damned ‘flies’ wishes…”

  “By the way, listening to your dialogue, there was one thing I didn’t understand.”

  “How the hell were the Latians connected with the Holy Empire?”

  “Right.”

  “Well, I’ll tried to find out when I talk with him.”

  ….

  After a while, they waited for the captain in front of the barracks gate.

  The door of the small extension, used as a waiting room, opened, and the
guardsman exited.

  “White Raven, we cannot let you in the closed territory. Excuse us for delay. The captain’s waiting for you. Keytsur will escort you to the cap… Keytsur! How dare you doze?! I’ve told the lieutenant to send you to the borderlands, everybody loses sleep there. D’you hear me?”

  “Yes, Sir!” the dozing fighter answered, shaking himself awake.

  “Stop sleeping and take the visitors to the Cap!” the man said.

  “Yes, Sir! Gentlemen, follow me.” Keytsur turned about and walked away.

  “What a curious character!” Will smiled, recalling an army buddy who looked like Keytsur, and trailed after the soldier.

  After several turns they came to the high oak doors. The soldier entered, reported their guests, and returned to accompany them back.

  “Hello, Raven, and you…” the Captain’s eyes travelled over the archer, which then widened. “Famous Daltaro? You are said to have died! Ahem…” The captain coughed, then introduced himself. “I am the captain of the National Guardsmen, Emin de Folker. What is your objective here?”

  “Captain!” Will asked. “We require the answer to a question. What are the relations between the Latians and your country?”

  “Well… It’s not a secret, and everybody knows they’re not among our favourite peoples. We’ve had many conflicts in the past, but then they united with the Holy Land, nowadays the Empire. A little more than ten years ago, we were asked to sign of the Non-Aggression Treaty. The Holy Empire mediated. Our country was not able compete with both of them. They had numerical superiority and more opportunities than we had. Since then, our states have maintained a fragile peace. There never was a good war or a bad peace, but a patched-up peace is better than any war… so far, in any case. Now what about you?”