Open beta a litrpg fanta.., p.19
Open Beta: a LitRPG fantasy adventure (Pixelate Book 3), page 19
Izzy planted a kiss on his forehead, which must have been a novelty for her with them both standing. In-game, he wasn’t ten inches taller than her. “Babe, I’ll wit us a trial, if that makes you happy.”
Arnold licked his lips, unable to ignore the unfamiliar sensation of fangs. “Lucky man to have such a smart wife.”
The door to the Trial of Wit wouldn’t open.
Arnold even tried backing up and slamming into the door shoulder-first. He felt lucky when damage numbers didn’t accompany the sharp pain that rewarded him.
Izzy went around the chamber in one direction, trying doors.
Arnold headed in the opposite direction.
They met at the Trial of Birds. THAT door opened right up.
“Birds. We get a bird trial?”
Izzy shrugged. “The ghost suggested it would suit us. Let’s see what we get.”
TRIAL OF BIRDS
On the other side of the door, a pastoral country landscape spread before them. Rolling hills, covered in grass and clover. In the far distance, Arnold could make out a towering spire. They were miles from where they’d been a moment ago.
Before he could inquire about whether they’d been teleported or whether this was an illusion, a stuffy nobleman in slit-sleeves and knickers with green hose accosted them. “Oh, DO help me. One of these birds has a key around its neck. A key I need back quite urgently.”
“What birds?” Izzy asked.
“Up there!” The nobleman pointed, and a flock of crows that Arnold would have sworn wasn’t there until just that moment flocked overhead.
“That sure is a lot of birds,” Arnold grumbled. There had to have been over a hundred.
The nobleman held out a hand. “The bird who robbed me is a clever little chap. Make a fine companion if you could tame him. These arrows will allow you to fell it without harm. Once I have my key back, he’s all yours.”
Izzy grabbed for the stack of arrows in the guy’s palm, but they remained for Arnold to grab some as well.
RECEIVED: TAMING ARROWS
Arnold scanned the skies, shading his eyes with a clawed hand. “How do we know which one had the key?”
“I see it,” Izzy declared, pupils narrowed to slits. “One of the crows isn’t a crow. It’s a raven, and it’s holding a keyring in its beak.”
“Assuming we can’t both get it as a pet, you want it?”
“Sure.”
“Then go for it.”
Izzy took careful aim. She loosed a Taming Arrow.
“Squawk!”
“Wait, did it say ‘squawk’?”
The raven spiraled down toward the ground, limp but with wings outstretched to slow its descent.
Izzy caught it before it reached the grass. She handed over the keyring from its unresisting beak.
The nobleman beamed. “Well, fair play to that. A reward is still in order!”
A chest appeared.
The Trial of Birds faded, leaving the two of them in a small stone room with just the chest and a sleeping bird remaining.
8,000 XP
XP: 760/32,000
Both of them leveled in a swirl of golden dings.
>>>LEVEL UP!!!<<<
YOU GAIN
3 ATTACK
1 DEFENSE
20 HP
0 MP
1 SKILL CHOICE
The chest popped open. Izzy’s doing. Two rewards presented themselves.
WIND SLICER - 20 ATK
XPOT
“Well, XP is nice and all—” Arnold started to say.
“I already took the bow.”
“But I’m going to do the same,” he finished instead.
RECEIVED: WIND SLICER
Well, that was a nice 18 ATK boost.
Time to check on those sweet, sweet new skills.
PINPOINT SHOT - A special attack that ignored DEF of the target.
Back again, at his request, and just as tempting as last time.
RICOCHET SHOT - Bounce a shot off a wall, ceiling, floor, or other sturdy surface.
Gimmicky but sounded fun.
COVER FIRE - Miss intentionally to prevent an opponent’s attack. Only works on targets not actively attempting to attack you.
Great for team play from the sound of it.
Now, this is where Arnold registered for perhaps the first time consciously, but the UI elements had a sort of brassy, coppery look with the letters and numbers all finely engraved. This next skill, clearly courtesy of his Blood Tracker advanced class, was presented on rough-hewn wood, text scratched with claw marks.
VICTORY FEAST - Consume a fallen foe. Must be animal, dragon, or humanoid. Restores full HP. Only fresh kills count, though they need not be your own.
“Gruesome,” Izzy declared. “I for one, am not that into the RP scene that I’m willing to devour human corpses for HP gain.”
“Take Pinpoint, save Cover Fire?”
Izzy nodded. “I’d also have been fine with the reverse. I think that’ll eventually be a nice boss-lockdown strat if we can trade off. Cover Fire and whoever is actually getting attacked does real damage.”
Solid plan. She was on the same page from the get-go.
Into the character sheet went Pinpoint Shot, and Cover Fire got saved for next level.
TRIAL OF HEROES
They exited the chamber wistfully. Izzy looked back at the five doors they couldn’t open. “Imagine another 40,000 XP and five more treasures…”
“Probably why they don’t allow it. How’s the new bird?”
“Sleeping in my inventory. He’s got a cooldown timer if I Examine him. I’ve got another almost eight hours to find out what he can do.”
LESSER SPIRE CRYPTS
“Well, it looks like we’ve entered a real place,” Arnold declared. Now, torches lined the walls, and someone had been down here recently to light them. He sniffed. Eight someones. Why hadn’t he smelled them in the trial room?
Mysteries for later, or a bug. Who could ever tell for sure?
“Come on,” Izzy called from up ahead. “There’s nothing in here. No point loitering.”
Arnold didn’t need to be told twice. He bared his fangs and claws, issued a playful growl, and chased his wife up the winding staircase.
CHAPTER 35
NO, THE OTHER ONE
SPIRES OF FATE
Winds carried Arnold through the sky. At his side, Izzy flew a Gobo Glider like his. The White Gobos put up a stiffer fight than their green brethren, but their population was lower.
There was a trick to the gliders they’d looted.
Winds around the spire were finicky, but with a little practice, spotting the updrafts wasn’t too hard. The pair circled the spire, catching updrafts here and there, gaining altitude more and more as they practiced using the wind to ascend instead of their legs.
Other than the clunky vehicles, they hadn’t come out with much else for their troubles. Izzy had a pack rat thing going with a backpack that must have been chock full of hats and staffs and cooking pots. Shit Arnold didn’t want cluttering his inventory management. The real find in the place had been some Spiny Reef Fish Arrows. The +2 ATK was just another step up from starting gear.
“Look! A cave!” Arnold took one hand off the glider’s bar and pointed.
“I think we can get up higher,” Izzy replied. “Let’s catch one more updraft.”
There had been no visual indicators, but once you started memorizing them, the updrafts were in the same locations. Vertical columns of air, not terribly wide, but enough to give the gliders a boost.
Arnold followed Izzy into the one they’d been using primarily for their ascent.
Whoosh.
The tingle of exhilaration gripped him as gravity failed to secure custody of him yet again.
Izzy aimed for a different cave in a cliff wall sprinkled with them. Arnold followed her in and managed a smooth landing.
2,000 XP
ACHIEVEMENT - WHAT GOES DOWN - Land a Kawaiian Glider at least 100 feet higher than you took off.
Nice to know things like that were in the game. It made the little jaunt all the more worthwhile.
Both stowed their Gobo Gliders.
CLIFFS OF CLAVEN
Up this high, there weren’t many footholds. Their cavern entrance overlooked a sheer drop. Arnold stepped to the edge and leaned over. Then, he turned his head to gaze up at the rest of the spire.
“What would you say, 90 percent of the way to the top?”
“Maybe 90 percent of the way to the clouds. Who knows how much of the spire is still above them?”
“Good point. How’s about we see what—or who—is inside?”
“Probably start running into players soon. We should be ready.”
Both took that as a cue to adopt their Stalking pose. Feet spread wide, hips low, bows at the ready, they crept forward.
LABYRINTH OF LEGS
“Probably spiders,” Izzy suggested. “Be on the lookout.”
Killing spiders around the house was Arnold’s job. It wasn’t that Izzy was afraid of them or grossed out by them. She just couldn’t reach the ceilings without a stepladder. Any spiders they ran into in tunnels this size would be a job for their bows, not a tissue. And it would be a team effort.
But the first thing they ran into wasn’t a spider.
Or a player.
It was a pair of giant ants.
ANTAUR SOLDIER - Insect. Intelligent social hive dwellers. Exoskeletal.
The Antaurs approached at a leisurely pace. They reeked of a weird odor and waggled their antennae at one another. Neither seemed aware of the Stalking Blood Trackers.
“GET EM!” Someone shouted from the far side of the soldiers.
Instantly, the Antaurs whirled, skittering on four insectile legs. They leveled spears and faced into the darkness.
Torchlight flared as a pair of players charged into view, swords flashing. They set upon the Antaur Soldiers, dueling one apiece. A pair of knights by the look of them.
Arnold didn’t need the little smirk from his wife to know what she was thinking, but he matched it.
The Antaurs fell. First one, then as two humans ganged up on it, the second.
One of the knights knelt where the loot dropped.
It was time to try out Pinpoint Shot.
45
Izzy’s arrow dropped the guy.
“What the—?”
Arnold and Izzy took quick aim at the remaining knight. Their arrows flew side by side.
45
No XP popped up. The two corpses vanished.
“Wow, that was easy,” Izzy remarked as they looted.
RECEIVED: 13 EARS
“Let’s see where these two came from.”
“Which two?” Arnold asked. “The Antaurs or the players?” He gave a sniff and scent trails whiffed off in different directions. The Antaurs, in particular, were dead simple to track. It was the difference between reading a handwritten note and a highway sign.
“XP or Ears? I guess that’s the question.”
“Why not both?”
Izzy put her hands on her hips. This was her ‘no, you’re not being cute’ signal. “Because it’s a choice now. Eventually, sure. Both. But we need a direction, and since you’re waffling, I say we track the players. If we find where they came from, maybe we can source these guys wholesale.”
Both dropped back into Stalking immediately. The tunnels were nearly pitch dark. Widened to the point they nearly swallowed their irises, feral pupils managed to collect enough light to find their footing.
Those weren’t the first humans in these tunnels. Other scents, older, though not by much, they crisscrossed and wandered. No one had a damn clue where they were going. Antaur patrols wore scent trails like the warp and weft of fabric, regular and practiced, with additional trails overlaying previous ones.
They followed the trail until they came across…
The same two knights.
Chuckling, Arnold let fly with another Pinpoint Shot.
45
Izzy finished the guy off.
His partner, a man of stoic chin and noble breeding, shrieked and ran.
45
He couldn’t, however, outrun Izzy’s arrow.
They stepped forward and collected their prize.
RECEIVED: 13 EARS
“Are we the baddies?” Arnold asked. “I think we caught them on respawn.”
“Probably. I think the blood pact we made kinda pigeonholed us. And in case we needed reminding, we were offered cannibalism as a skill this past level.”
“Good point. BETTER point, there must be a checkpoint around here somewhere.”
They followed the more recent trail of the two knights.
Then, they spotted the pair for a third time. They’d been brash and brave against the Antaurs, confused and wary the second time around. Now, they might as well have been in a horror movie for how they cowered behind upraised swords and a lone, flickering torch.
Arnold raised his bow, but Izzy put a hand on his arm.
Still Stalking, they allowed the knights to slip right past them using only the edge of a side tunnel for cover.
Was Izzy going soft all of a sudden?
Then, she let go of his arm and aimed her own bow.
45
45
The two knights dropped within seconds of one another from two pairs of Pinpoint Shots.
RECEIVED: 13 EARS
“How long do you think we’ll keep getting credit for them?”
“I can only think of one way to find out.”
The pair backtraced the knights’ now multiple overlapping paths.
RESPAWN POINT UPDATED
MEMORIAL BARROW
“Well, I guess we found the place.”
“Lot shorter run than back on the Kawaiian Islands.”
Izzy scoffed. “Well, it’s not like we’re going to die or anything.” She jerked her head. “Come on. I’m sure we’re teetering on the edge of getting reported for griefing as it is. Let’s keep moving. Mow down anything that gets in our way.”
ANTAUR COLONY
On the far side of the respawn point lay actual Antaur territory. The scent of patrols was even stronger here.
This time, when they encountered a pair of Antaur Soldiers, no other players interfered.
45
One Pinpoint Shot took one down. Izzy’s arrow, already in flight, struck a corpse.
300 XP
Arnold let her finish off the second one.
300 XP
The soldiers didn’t carry loot despite CLEARLY being armed with spears.
“Not bad. If we find enough of these, it could work.”
“Seriously. There must be a civilization of them around here somewhere. That respawn point was definitely Antaur-themed.”
They backtracked one of the patrol routes and came face to face with another pair of Antaur Soldiers.
45
300 XP
300 XP
This time, they took separate targets without needing to coordinate.
“Think this game is smart enough to change their tactics on us?”
“That’s the whole point, isn’t it?” Izzy asked.
“I guess. But did they pull it off?”
Another patrol came and went.
45
300 XP
300 XP
XP: 11,560/32,000
It would be a grind, but there were worse ways to make progress.
Fortunately, the patrols ran like arthropod clockwork.
45
300 XP
300 XP
The lack of loot was mildly annoying.
45
300 XP
300 XP
Killing these was basically now just target practice.
45
300 XP
300 XP
XP: 13,360/32,000
The scents became a clogging, cloying, heavily intermixed muddle as they approached the Antaur city.
And what a city it was. Designed by some guy who got a kickback on the patent for ramps, there wasn’t a stair or ladder anywhere to be seen. Nothing so far indicated that these oversized ants could walk up walls, so at least there was some accommodation for the gravity-dependent among them.
The colony bristled with activity. Workers bustled on mysterious tasks, carrying blobs and bags and bundles. Craftsman fiddled with doodads and musicians plied their craft on plucked instruments that managed to sound like a harp or zither without actually being either.
And the Antaurs seemed utterly unconcerned that their soldiers out in the tunnels were being slaughtered out of hand. They kept about a routine that said, ‘I’m a worker, so I’ll keep working.’ They might not even have been aware of the shambles their outer defenses currently lay in.
Izzy and Arnold didn’t immediately open fire. They crept into the city, observing.
Whether their continued Stalking made the difference, or they simply weren’t anyone’s priority, no one reacted to their presence.
Antaurs converged at a communal fountain at one end of the main chamber but only seemed interested in drinking from it.
Sticking to the walls of the chamber, they made their way around to see what all the fuss might be about.
Was it merely the only source of water for the colony? Maybe. Did it have some cool bonus effect?
Arnold held out a hand to Examine.
COMMUNAL WATER - Potable. Not poisoned.
Rather than ask what he found, Izzy did likewise.
She raised an eyebrow, speaking without words. Should we?
He shrugged. What’s the harm?
She frowned. They could notice us, take offense, and attack.
He widened his eyes and spread his hands. Well, then why did you ask?
She turned her palms up. So you could agree it’s a bad idea.
He cocked his head. But IS IT a bad idea?
She nodded, jaw set. YES!
He sighed silently. Fine. Then, he jerked his head. Then we should get out of here before our luck runs out.
They backed away from the fountain of Communal Water.
Arnold cupped a hand around Izzy’s ear and whispered. “Should we exit out of here, start picking off the city from the entrance?”
Izzy paused a moment, then she mimicked his privacy bullhorn. “Probably the best plan.”
However, as they took an alternate route, exploring a little more of their minimap on the way to their intended starting point of a general sacking of the city, they both spotted something.
