Unranked ascension a lit.., p.11
Unranked Ascension: A LitRPG Adventure, page 11
“I do,” the bearded man responded with a bit of hesitation. “You aren’t leaving us, are you?”
“Don’t worry. Keep leading the convoy in that direction. I’ll be right behind you.” Lucius was planning to follow a short distance behind to make sure that the goblins weren’t following them. With a few strong leaps and some scrambling, Lucius made his way to the top of a building that gave him a good view of the goblin village they had just escaped.
Gazing back toward the southern edge of the settlement, Lucius witnessed the final moments of the unfortunate creatures he had used to distract the goblins. Three large corpses lay in pools of blood, arrows and spears protruding from the bodies of the slain monsters. Bodies of dead goblins lay scattered around them. The largest of the four turtles was the last survivor, currently facing off against the village leader and his giant spider. The turtle lunged forward, attempting to grab one of the spider’s legs with its sharp teeth, but the spider nimbly skittered out of reach. The large turtle had the thickest armored scales, and the goblins had not been able to deliver a killing blow. Lucius watched as the Hobgoblin leader reached down to his waist, pulling a shrunken head off his belt and holding it up. He used his ritual dagger to cut his own palm, then he dripped a few drops of his blood onto the head. A magical green glow emit from the item as the Hobgoblin whispered something into its shrunken ear. The green glow exploded around the head, twisting itself into the silhouette of a ghastly creature. It looked like a translucent Hobgoblin, but unlike the living hobgoblins, this one was gruesomely transformed. It had massive, elongated claws and limbs, looking like it had been stretched out and lengthened. A red glowing mist emitted from its eyes as it turned, fixing its gaze upon its summoner.
The Hobgoblin pointed at the remaining turtle beast, and the ghost move in a way that would haunt Lucius’ dreams. It was like watching a living stop-motion film. The nightmare creature jolted and lurched from place to place with its spindly limbs, flickering in and out of existence. When it reached its target, the ghost launched itself at the turtle’s face, and Lucius was alarmed to see that the ghost left deep wounds in the turtle’s armor while the turtle was unable to harm the incorporeal ghost. The massive turtle swiped, lunged, and snapped at the ghostly figure, but all its attacks passed harmlessly through the apparition.
I’ve seen enough. I need to avoid fighting that thing at all costs! Lucius thought, his knuckles white as he clutched his own weapons tightly. He had been thoroughly frightened by what he had just seen.
Hopping down from the building, he quickly caught up to the group of humans, deciding not to head directly to their destination in case the creatures tracked them. Even though he knew how dangerous the city was, Lucius had been so scared by the Hobgoblin leader’s magic that he led the group in a wide arc, circling back on their own position to muddle their tracks. After all, if he had been able to track down the village using the tracks the spiders had left, what was preventing the remaining goblins from doing the same? Only when he was confident that he had done everything he could did he finally guide them toward Mary, Jack, and Patrick.
Chapter 23
A Place to Stay
Lucius had led the convoy on a twisting, maze-like journey through the city, something he could never have pulled off without Sense Danger helping him find a safe route. He had done this to deter any attempts at being tracked. After all, Lucius had led a group of monstrous turtles to ambush its village, stolen all their prisoners, and made off with half a dozen of their largest mounts. He had also killed two of the village’s guards. The hobgoblins had every reason to hunt Lucius down, so he was incredibly motivated to keep everyone from being found. About halfway through the journey, the convoy crossed over a bridge. There was a river running underneath, and that gave Lucius a final idea. Halting the convoy, he led everyone down to the bank of the river, then one by one they drove the spiders into the shallow water. The spiders didn’t like it, but Lucius didn’t care—a little water wouldn’t kill them, hopefully. The humans all had to dismount to get the spiders to walk into the water, so they held the reins and walked alongside the spiders. Once everyone was in the water, Lucius led them along the bank of the river for almost a quarter of a mile before finally allowing them to get back onto the shore.
“What was that for?” James asked. He had been confused about the entire maneuver but waited until they were back on dry land to ask questions.
“To hide our footprints and scent. If they can still track us after that, they deserve to catch us,” Lucius responded, finally feeling some confidence that the nightmarish Hobgoblin leader wouldn’t be able to find them.
The group made their way toward Jack, Mary, and Patrick. The boy was visibly excited at the prospect of being reunited with his family. Still, the rest of the journey wasn’t without issues. Lucius did his best to avoid danger, but the city was crawling with monsters, so sometimes it just wasn’t possible. Only a few miles from their destination, they ran into a group of oversized mutant rats. The creatures appeared to be in rough shape, with large patches of scarred skin blemishing their fur. The largest of them stood nearly the size of a fully grown male wolf. To everyone’s surprise, the spiders became excited at the sight of the creatures, apparently considering them to be prey. As soon as the rats came into view, the spiders went into a frenzy, rapidly skittering forward to attack the rats. James tried to pull back on his reins and stop his mount, but it was useless, so he just held on for dear life. Luckily, the rats were no match for the spiders, so the group simply needed to wait for them to be slain and eaten, then continued their journey.
A half-hour later, they finally reached their destination. After a long and winding trek, Lucius had returned James to same location from which he had been stolen. Even before the group reached the building where their companions were waiting, the three of them had seen them coming and rushed outside to meet them. Mary and Patrick ran up to James with tears in their eyes, and soon a heartwarming family reunion was underway.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” Mary looked the boy over from head to toe as she questioned him, as Patrick wiped his teary eyes and thanked Lucius.
“I brought it back in one piece,” Lucius said as he turned to face Jack, handing the magic shield back to him.
“I never doubted you, but could you explain who all these people are and why they’re riding giant spiders?” Jack asked with an amused expression on his face.
“Right, about that,” he mumbled, then proceeded to introduce everyone and explained what he had encountered at the goblin village, as well as how everyone had been rescued.
“Those monsters all deserve to die,” Mary fumed as she observed the rest of the people who had just joined them. They were filthy and starving and looked clearly traumatized.
“We’d better not stay here for long. The goblins might think to look for us here since this was where they kidnapped James,” said Patrick.
“We should find a place to settle down for a while. A lot of these people are in no condition to travel,” Lucius explained. “Somewhere big enough to fit the spiders too.”
The companions discussed their next move and decided to head toward the agricultural district just outside of the city. They could cover the distance relatively quickly, especially with the spiders. There were also large fenced-in areas and barns for animals, making it easy to defend and spacious enough to fit the spiders. Not to mention, there would be plenty of food if any of the crops still existed. Since everyone was in agreement, they waited for Jack, Mary, and Patrick to pack up their campsite before setting off toward the farm.
“He scared you that bad, huh?” Jack commented after listening to Lucius’s retelling of his encounter with the Hobgoblin leader. He could tell from the way he was speaking that the encounter had left the young man shaken.
“You didn’t see the creature he summoned. It was right out of a nightmare! I’d rather fight two Abyss Queens at the same time,” Lucius explained. “Anyway, let’s just hope we don’t run into him again.”
The group made their way out of the city to an area with far less human development. The roads were surrounded by dense forest and the area that was cleared was lined with fields, that had been used to grow various agricultural products like corn and wheat. They searched for a farmhouse and barn that was large enough to fit everyone, and stable the spiders, finally deciding on a large farmstead that looked promising. Lucius and Jack got busy sweeping the house for any Abyss creatures. Once they were certain the building was safe, they brought the exhausted freed captives inside to rest and get their injuries looked at by Mary. Meanwhile Lucius and Jack headed outside to check out the barn.
Lucius pushed the large sliding barn door open and glanced into the darkness inside. He couldn’t see much, but he was getting a faint warning from Sense Danger that something was off, so Jack reached in and pushed up a row of switches on the wall. Unfortunately, the electricity had finally stopped flowing in their world, and the inside of the barn remained hidden in darkness.
Near the barn, Lucius and Jack found a can of oil, some rags, and a thick enough stick to use as a torch handle. Lucius wrapped the rags around the end of the stick before soaking it in oil and setting the rags on fire with a match. It took a while to get the oily rags to start burning, but once they did, he had a stable flame. He made his way back to the barn door with Jack, casting the flickering light from the flame into the dark barn. Resting in the center of the building, wrapped around a stack of hay bales, lay a massive purple snake. It was at least 50 feet long, with a head the size of two large watermelons. Lucius instinctively activated his aspect the moment he saw the creature, his figure instantly fading away from the creature’s perception. Jack raised his shield and slowly backed up. The light from the flame had woken up the beast, and it wasn’t very happy about being disturbed either.
“I’ll draw its attention, you kill it!” Jack shouted as he began knocking his hammer against his shield to attract it’s attention. The snake slithered slowly toward Jack, sizing him up and deciding if it wanted to attack. The answer turned out to be yes, because it arched upwards as though preparing to lunge. “Get ready!” Jack shouted.
The plan worked a bit too well, as the snake instantly launched itself at Jack before Lucius could step behind it. Jack reacted quickly, slamming his spiked shield into the side of the creature’s head and activating its Mind Blast skill at the perfect moment. The ripple of telekinetic power left the snake momentarily stunned. Jack didn’t waste the opening, leaning back and lifting his sledgehammer up in an overhead swing, before smashing it down on the snake’s head with a tremendous THUD.
You have defeated Serpent Normalis level 5.
“Oh. Guess I don’t know my own strength!” Jack let out a chuckle at the snake’s anticlimactic death, as Lucius deactivated his aspect, reappearing with a smile as he let out a gentle sigh of relief.
“Looks like we’ll have plenty of food for the spiders. Let’s bring them in,” said Lucius before he and Jack led the group of spiders into the barn, locking the door behind them.
Back in the city, the Hobgoblin leader was leading a large war party. Dozens of goblins and hobgoblins walked along the city streets, all following behind a pair of goblins that each held the leash of a wolf-like creature. They were walking along the exact route Lucius, and the other humans had used to escape. The goblins had somehow found the strip of fabric that Lucius had ripped off his shirt and used to lure the tortoises into attacking the goblin village. How on earth they found the small strip of cloth and knew it was his scent was a mystery, but the goblins were obviously every bit as dangerous and crafty as Lucius had feared they were.
The wolves led the goblins on a roundabout route through the city, going in a large circle and ending up right back where they had started. This wasn’t enough to deter them however, and the creatures soon discovered the real scent trail leading away from the circular route. They followed the path straight to the riverbank, but after that no matter what they tried, they couldn’t pick up the scent again. The two goblins responsible for tracking Lucius began cowering on the ground in front of the Hobgoblin leader when they realized that they had failed. The leader slowly removed his stone knife from its sheath, the goblins beginning to beg and scream the moment they saw the blade.
Chapter 24
Anomaly
Returning from the barn, Lucius saw that Mary was still patching up the survivors from the goblin village. Some of them had infected wounds from living in such a filthy environment. On the plus side, she had gained a new talent from dealing with all the injuries and was now capable of something called Blessing of the Healer. It was a kind of aura that supercharged the healing speed and immune systems of everyone under her care. It worked just by being near her, which Lucius thought was quite a lucky thing. He had felt the miraculous effects of the talent himself when Mary stitched up the wound on his back for him. The wound he received while fighting the goblins had been quite fresh and painful, but once Mary worked on it, the pain quickly vanished and in only a few minutes it had visibly begun healing.
Behind Mary in the kitchen, he saw that a few older women had brought in some water from the well and were now stoking a fire in the wood stove, washing vegetables to prepare a meal for everyone. Wherever he went, people would stop what they were doing and come up to him, thanking him for what he had done. It was something that Lucius was certainly not accustomed to. Before the apocalypse, these people would have walked past him in the street without looking twice. If they had looked at him, it would have been out of disgust or pity.
Walking out of the kitchen, Lucius headed out the back door and toward a smaller building that had smoke coming from the chimney. As he neared, he realized that the loud clanging noises he heard came from inside. As he walked through the doorway, he saw Paul and Jack huddled around an anvil. There was a large forge in the corner, radiating tremendous heat.
“Lucius, Paul knows how to work with a forge! He’s going to teach me—maybe we can make some real equipment,” Jack said excitedly as he looked up from the glowing red metal that Paul was hammering into shape.
The older man, Paul, looked up from his work. “We’re going to make some proper spears first, enough for each person to have one! That way, everyone can help if we get attacked again,” he said. “I won’t let those bastards capture me again, I’ll die fighting next time, I swear it!”
Jack was nodding along to Paul’s words. “Patrick even offered to draw inscriptions on them to improve the sharpness of the blades!” he exclaimed.
Lucius was pleasantly surprised to see that the farmhouse they had chosen had something so useful. The woodstove, well, and forge would go a long way in helping them survive. There was even a large supply of firewood and metal. Unfortunately, the fields had already been harvested, so they would need to sow some crops of their own if they wanted to grow food. Lucius suspected that there might be some fruit orchards in the area that hadn’t been picked clean, but he would have to go scouting to find them.
Lucius made his way to the barn, where James, along with one of the younger girls named Sarah, was brushing the pink and white fur of the spiders. They had taken the saddles off the creatures and lined them up on the shelves of the barn.
“Are you sure it’s safe to spend so much time with these spiders? They still give me the creeps,” Lucius said as he watched James and Sarah happily brush the large creatures.
“Yes, it’s definitely safe!” James replied.
“And how exactly do you know that?” Lucius asked, resting his hands against his hips.
“Because I got my first magical talent!” James exclaimed joyfully. The boy had been obsessed with the various magical abilities of his companions since the day the Abyss creatures arrived. Lucius shared the boy’s happiness at finally having a talent of his own.
“Is that so? Let me guess—it has something to do with these spiders?” Lucius asked inquisitively.
“Yep, I got a talent called Beast Tamer! As soon as I gained it, I felt connected to the spiders. It’s like I can feel what they are feeling!” James said excitedly. “I can even make them do stuff. Look!” James waved his hand at the spider he was brushing, and the beast took off running, climbed up the wall, across the ceiling, and back down the other side, coming right up to James and looking at him expectantly. “Cool, huh?” James grinned as he resumed grooming the creature, patting it gently.
“Very cool. I guess I don’t have to worry that these things are going to hurt anyone with you around,” Lucius said, obvious relief in his voice. It had been something he worried about since they took the spiders. “Keep up the good work, maybe we can find some more Abyss creatures for you to tame!”
Lucius walked back into the farmhouse and went upstairs to the study, where he found Patrick sitting at a desk with papers containing various inscriptions spread out around him. “Ah, Lucius! Come here.” Patrick waved him in the moment he saw the young man in the doorway. “Take a look at this—tell me what you think,” he said as he handed Lucius a piece of paper with an intricate Latin word inscribed on it.
The word was exorcismus, and Lucius could feel a strange magical power imbued in the item. “This feels different from the other types of magical energy I’ve felt before. What does it do?” Lucius asked, curiosity clear on his face.
“When you told me about the ghostly creature that the Hobgoblin leader summoned, I started thinking about how I could create something that would cause damage to an incorporeal being. I believe a weapon imbued with this inscription could work. I intend to add the inscription to some of the spears that Paul and Jack are making, so the community will have a way to defend itself from such things.” Patrick explained.
“Incredible! Can you add it to this dagger?” Lucius pulled the dagger from his boot and eagerly handed it to Patrick. He had felt a constant sense of anxiety about the ghostly creatures since first laying eyes on them. The way Lucius was coping with the end of the world was by strengthening himself, it gave him a sense of power and control over all the chaos. The existence of the ghostly summoned monsters, who would be immune to his attacks, had robbed him of that sense of security.
