Open beta a litrpg fanta.., p.8
Open Beta: a LitRPG fantasy adventure (Pixelate Book 3), page 8
“Guess it’s personalized.”
The words had barely left Konroh’s mouth when a ghostly figure sprouted from the altar. It wore the robes and pointed hat of a stereotypical wizard. Hollow eyes stared from a lifeless skull. Within those eyes, blue-white pinpricks flared like pupils.
“I know thee.”
“Good. Then we can skip the preliminaries. We’ve already learned stuff most people don’t know. But have you got anything… extra… for us?”
“Thy avarice does thy countenance credit. But nay, I have naught else to grant thee, only the threat of demise at the hands of the guardian.”
“We’ll take it,” Dyz declared without hesitation.
“What?” Konroh and the ghost asked in unison.
“Seriously,” Konroh continued. “Why?”
“You soloed it as a wizard, right?”
“Well… yeah…”
“And it was before you got all …” she gestured all up and down him. “Like this. But wizardy like this. I think we can handle this.”
Konroh couldn’t find fault in her logic. Besides, they knew the way back, had the key to sneak through the secret tunnel at will, and could wring any lost XP out of the Green Gobos if things went badly.
“All right, ghost. Summon your guardian to test us.”
“But… thou art worthy.”
Dyz cut in. “We’re also bloodthirsty, power hungry, and tired of getting the run around. Offer up a guardian to test us.”
“Very well…”
The altar slid back.
Belatedly, Konroh recalled the size of the creature they were about to battle. “Fall back to the doorway!”
“You worried about this one getting around you?” she joked. “If there’s only one of it, I think you can—”
“I’m worried about it stepping over me.”
Gargantuan hands grabbed the edge of the pit the altar had revealed. The Towering Mummy roared wordlessly as it pulled itself up and clawed its way out.
“Yikes!” Dyz exclaimed as she raced away from it.
Konroh put up his Ravager’s Sword and Parried for all he was worth.
“Just throw whatever you can. Don’t get close.”
A fist the size of his chest came at Konroh, and he did more Parrying himself away from it than diverting the course of the colossal battering ram on the end of the Towering Mummy’s wrist.
But it was working.
7
Well, it only stood to reason that this thing had higher DEF than its little cousins, but that was just going to make this all the more annoying.
Dyz’s daggers flew true, striking the Towering Mummy in the legs. She didn’t bother counting out their damage since Konroh hadn’t started them off. This was a marathon, not a sprint, and it definitely wasn’t a math problem.
Parry was Konroh’s new favorite skill, and he couldn’t imagine how he’d ever doubted taking Riposte to complement it. He owed Dyz their survival in this stretch of dungeon for convincing him to take it.
7
7
7
So long as his concentration didn’t lapse, Konroh could nickel and dime this thing to death.
Un-unaliveness? One of these days he was going to need to find an expert on the internet and get a good term for killing the already dead.
The daggers stopped coming.
7
7
>>14<< CRITICAL HIT
Even the crit didn’t feel special, since the monstrous mummy didn’t show any sign of pain or impairment from the telling blow.
Suddenly, a bright light approached from behind. Konroh, worried that they might have been flanked, glanced back to check.
19
Ow! The mummy’s blow sent Konroh reeling.
HP: 31/50
He couldn’t let that happen again, especially since undead were immune to all his life gaining.
“Eyes front, cowboy!” Dyz called out. “I’m pretty but I’m the same girl you brought along.” She launched a torch past Konroh, striking the Towering Mummy.
“Did that work?”
“Very much yes.”
7
“Great! Lemme see if I can maneuver him to let you get in there and pick up the—”
Another torch sailed past to scorch their undead foe.
7
Then, Dyz tossed one more.
“How many did you find?”
“All of them.”
In far less time than Konroh had feared, they brought the guardian low.
1,200 XP
XP: 1,900/8,000
“Nice work.”
RECEIVED: BOOK OF BLOOD MAGIC
Konroh held up the book beside the one chained to his belt. “Hah! I got another one.”
“I got the same.” Dyz held up her copy. “I think this is a quest item. It doesn’t have stats if you Examine it.”
Unable to resist, Konroh did just that.
BOOK OF BLOOD MAGIC - Property of Angelicus Marmalade, First Blood Mage of the Spire.
“Wonder if that’s the ghost’s name.”
“It was,” the ghost answered, since they technically hadn’t even left the room he was guarding. “Yet no longer. I am bereft of name, a mere shadow of my former—”
“Would we get any reward if we got you your name back?” Dyz asked.
“I have nothing thou wantest. Thy boons thee already possess.”
“What about information,” Konroh challenged. “Bet you know stuff we could use.”
“What wouldst thou learn?”
“What can you tell us about the Mountain Lord, his defenses, secret ways through the Spire of Fate. Anything like that.”
Dyz nodded greedily. “Also, any hidden treasures you might know about.”
“The Mountain Lord once spoke with me. He hath overcome mine guardian. He hath read from the book. You will find him familiar and foreign, straightforward and devious, mighty beyond measure and fragile as a leaf.”
Dyz jerked her head to the side. “C’mon. Let’s jet. This guy’s gone into ‘so cryptic he’s worthless’ mode. The dumb Gobo had better info, and all he had was a libelous painting.”
“Stay! Hear more!” the ghost called after them.
“Thanks,” Konroh said once they were away from the incorporeal distraction. “I’m such a sucker for that mysterious mumbo jumbo.”
“I love puzzles and hate them. I’m a freak about completeness, and unsolved puzzles bug me until I solve them. Sniffing out BS puzzles that aren’t real or aren’t solvable is a defense mechanism.”
They found the ladder that both knew would lead them up into the fog and the zombies, no matter what the zone was named. But before that, Konroh had an epiphany.
“I’m tired. You?”
“Now that you mention it. Yeah.”
“Should we rest here? We know it’s more or less safe.”
“From monsters, yeah. From players…? Who knows if that’s even possible.”
“Willing to risk it with me?”
Dyz pulled off her mask. Konroh’s heart skipped a beat. God, she was beautiful. “Yeah. Should we take turns on watch?”
Konroh swallowed. “This may sound dopey, but…”
She kissed him. Dyz didn’t make him say it. She knew because she wanted to sleep with him, too. Not, like, sexually. There was a time and a place, and this was neither. Just… curl up together on the floor of a dungeon, feeling safe even if maybe they weren’t, and drifting off to sleep together.
And so they did…
CHAPTER 16
THE HARVEST
WALKING HILLS
The pair emerged from slumber with full HP and a fresh day to face. The ladder in their makeshift bedchamber led up to a familiar spot on the surface, a little gap in the fog and a patch of ruins with a secret door that was much, much easier to find from underneath.
“I hate to bring this up…”
Dyz sighed. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“Care to make a game of it?” Konroh asked. By his reckoning, they were in for hours of tedious slaughter if they were going to level up on the Walking Zombies that clogged nearly this entire zone. 610 kills would get them to Level 5. Another 1,600 beyond that to reach Level 6. That’s all assuming that the XP chart, which hadn’t changed since the test version, and the gains from the monsters, which also hadn’t changed, all still held in the Open Beta version of Spire of Fate.
“I think we should check in at the respawn point ASAP,” Dyz countered. “Then we can worry about power leveling. As for games… I’d kinda…”
“Kinda what?”
“I dunno? Rather talk?”
They jogged until they reached their interim destination. Neither bothered the zombies along the way, and the zombies returned the favor.
RESPAWN POINT UPDATED
SECLUDED CEMETERY
The cemetery hadn’t changed a lot. But it had a little. The tombstones all showed names Konroh recognized as Anachronism Interactive employees, which was probably a fun little Easter egg for the few people who would notice. The shack had gotten the graphical upgrades that the rest of the game received, along with a few more nuanced details.
One of those details was a ratty old rug, plastered to the floor with dirt and grime and sadness.
Dyz got down on one knee and dug at an edge with her dagger. “We’ve got to, right?”
Konroh nodded his agreement.
To the surprise of neither of them, there was, indeed, a trap door hidden beneath.
“One sec,” Dyz told him before gazing off into nothing and making a few taps in the air. “There. Might not be a bug, per se, but someone’s gotta hear that this secret door isn’t much of a secret.”
They pried the hatch open, and a stone stairway led into a basement level.
Konroh caught Dyz by the arm. “Hold up. I’m all for venturing down there, but it looks more like a passage than a room at the bottom.”
“Your point?”
“We should level up, then wreck our way through.”
Dyz slumped. “No. You’re right. This is me. I’m the one who rushes through RPGs from major plot point to major plot point, taking side treks and sneaking through dungeons and getting brick walled by some boss I’m five levels too low to beat. I’ve had to restart or reload so many times because of that, and it’s probably my number one reason for DNF’ing games.”
“DNF’ing?”
“Did Not Finish. I get all caught up in a story, can’t wait for the next cut scene, plunge headlong into a dead end I can’t back out of. So many games I’ve just watched the major plot bits on YouTube after I got stuck.”
“OK. Stick a pin in this place, and we’ll come back in two levels.”
“Stick a pin in it? Really? You totally ARE an office worker.”
Dyz covered up the trap door, kicked dirt over the edge she’d cleared, and looked forlornly over her shoulder as the pair departed.
WALKING HILLS
The next few hours were…
… not as boring as Konroh had feared. It was a weird date, but the conversational vibe lined up. Sure, they were hacking up dead flesh of undead monsters that wouldn’t even fight back and didn’t drop loot. Sure, maybe the gloom would have befitted a goth sleepover camp. But the lack of real danger—aside from another player showing up to confront them—gave the opportunity to relax and chat.
A walk on the beach, except the sand was fog, and the seagulls were hoping to eat brains, not unattended French fries.
Konroh and Dyz talked about life, about personal philosophy, about hopes and dreams. The real world was getting a little fuzzy around the edges, the longer he spent in Spire of Fate. Faces flickered. Names hung just beyond reach. But the important stuff felt like it was all still in there.
At long last, and having snuck up on him as the combat took a back seat, the two of them leveled up in synchronized fashion. One zombie collapsed in a heap, and…
10 XP
XP: 0/16,000
>>>LEVEL UP!!!<<<
YOU GAIN
2 ATTACK
3 DEFENSE
25 HP
0 MP
1 SKILL CHOICE
OK, that was a nice HP bump. If he ever got a spell that was worth taking, that would be a nice buffer while he drained his health back.
As a reward for his patience in killing 610 Walking Zombies, he got to look over a new rack of skills.
BLOOD VISION - See in darkness, tinged in red. Creatures with blood can be seen clearly.
IMPROVED RIPOSTE - Riposte now deals full weapon damage instead of half.
MOUNTED COMBAT - Able to use weapons while mounted. Unlocks the Charge attack while mounted.
BONE SHACKLES - 20 MP - Render a creature immobile and unable to attack. Lasts until the subject takes damage, or you cast another spell.
OK, they specified how that one worked. Still sounded wonky, but potentially able to take something completely out of a fight. It might not help him kill something, but it might be great for killing something else.
He pitched the options to Dyz, and she had some simple advice.
“Take Blood Vision. Clearly, you want to. I have no idea how it’ll work any more than you do. It sounds cool. This is a game. Have fun with it. Bone Shackles is either the most broken shit in the galaxy, or it doesn’t work the way it sounds. The Riposte one is lame, boring, and you’re going to probably take it next level anyway.”
Fair enough. Konroh took it, and before he even tapped to store Improved Riposte for later, the world changed.
It was like looking through one lens from a pair of old 3-D glasses or how the Terminator sees things. The fog no longer blocked his view; in fact, he could barely perceive the fog anymore. But Dyz, standing beside him, took on new dimensions. He could watch her whole bloodstream from heart to lungs and back again, like she was hollow and transparent.
“Whoa,” Dyz commented, taking a step back from him.
“What’s whoa?” Konroh asked. She looked weird enough now.
“OK. I see everything in shades of purple. Like purple night vision.”
“Uh huh… go on…”
“Well, just now, your eyes turned red.”
“Like cheesy horror movie vampire red or demonic glowing with no irises red?”
“Not sure I can speak to the nuance, since, you know, everything else is just purple. But, like, I see someone just colored red where your whole eyes would be.”
“So, do I look like a monster now?”
“You look… intense.”
“Hot intense, or—?”
“Shut up. Quit fishing for compliments.”
“Well, I can see all your blood vessels.”
“Oh, that’s not creepy or anything.”
Konroh cleared his throat. “I could see I made you nervous. Your heart rate sped up.”
“OK. Hopefully this place has poker. You’re going to be a ringer. Super. Now, are we up for another, or are we cutting our losses at Level 5?”
Konroh shook his head emphatically. “Nope. All the way till these stop giving XP. You need any help picking yours?”
“Nah. I had a gimme. Took Surprise Throw and reserved Trap Sense for later. I’m good to get back to the grind. Wanna play ‘never have I ever’ while we kill stuff?”
“Sure. I guess.”
Over the course of the following 1,600 kills, the pair discussed favorite movies, classic games, all the stuff that really mattered in life. All too soon, that marathon ended as well.
>>>LEVEL UP!!!<<<
YOU GAIN
2 ATTACK
3 DEFENSE
30 HP
0 MP
1 SKILL CHOICE
Well, either Blood Knight was better about puffing up his HP total or the devs realized that the tanky class wasn’t much tougher than a basic Wizard.
IMPROVED RIPOSTE - Riposte now deals full weapon damage instead of half.
SPELL PARRY - Reduce the damage of an incoming spell by an amount equal to your DEF using the Parry action.
Oh, that shit again. How long was he going to keep that one kicking around this time? He lost track of how long he’d put it off his first experience as a Knight.
LEAP ATTACK - Jump and make an attack for double damage against a single foe. You take no falling damage during this attack.
Oh, a classic. If these Anachronism Interactive chuckleheads coded this like just about every other dumbass in the history of gaming, he could Leap Attack off the pinnacle of the spire and absolutely demolish some poor skeleton at the bottom of the Bone Moat without taking a single point of damage. That alone tempted him to take it on the spot.
DRINK SOUL - Remove the soul of fallen enemies to gain HP equal to your level.
Great. Another solid pick he couldn’t pick without setting something else aside permanently. They’d even given it a slight buff to scale with his level.
Instead of waffling endlessly, he pitched the selections to Dyz.
“Shit,” was her answer. “I don’t think there’s a bad pick there. We don’t take a lot of spell damage, but that’s one of those ‘famous last words’ scenarios.”
“Right? I know. Also, I’ve been thinking about how last game ended. I was alone. My Knight character—or someone clearly inspired by him—walked in from a back room. What if we play against our previous characters as Mountain Lord? I mean, if it’s you, we should be prepared to see Heretic Dizzy. If it’s me, it would either be Knight or, more likely, Blood Mage Connor. Two out of those three would be loaded up with spells to worry about.”
“Good point. Fuck. I can’t pick this time. I also don’t think you can go wrong. That Leap Attack sounds like gimmicky fun, but again, we know the location for the final battle. It’s indoors. You won’t be able to cheese a cliff jump out of it.”
“Good point. Well, I’ve got Improved Riposte as a solid option. I think Drink Soul loses out on overall HP gained. But Spell Parry… man, that just seems like a potential life saver.” He shook his head to clear the indecision, like an Etch-a-Sketch where he was drawing all his worries. “I’m just doing it. Spell Parry and Improved Riposte for later.”
“I’m stuck on Silent Motion or Cat Climb.”
As she explained it, Silent Motion would all but negate the sound of her non-combat movements, and Cat Climb would let her scramble up walls at a run.
