Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure (25 page)

Liar ...

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He backed up to let her read it.  She shook her head and
pointed to the south.  Neither one of them moved for a while and when she saw
that he wasn’t taking her bait, she knelt down on one knee and clutched
something to her chest before fading away into the wind.

IMMORtAL_Kalika Has Returned To Her Own Plane

Sam was left with an uneasy feeling.

“Just what the hell was that about?  That was so pointless,
I swear.”

He was more disappointed than anything, because his last
strategy would have actually given him a well needed victory over her.  He
couldn’t see himself catching her off guard like that again anytime soon.

“What a fucking waste.”

He sat there, under a tree, with no idea how to proceed. 
Kalika’s encroachment had shook him really bad.  Theoretically, he should’ve
been safe from permanent death, but he wasn’t one hundred percent sure his
theory about staying in human form was correct.  Maybe he could still die for
good in these battles.

As he was thinking, something caught his eye.  It looked
like another envoy message.  Strangely enough, it was in the same place that
Kalika had left her previous messages.  Sam got up and went over to read it.

Helpful Walker Ahead

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Just as Sam finished reading that one, some other bright
light caught his eye.  He walked over to the spot where Kalika had stood
earlier and touched the bright golden letters.  A bold question popped up on
Sam’s HUD.

Will You Summon The Charitable Walker, IMMORtAL_Kalika

Yes   No  

“No way!  She can actually do that?”

Sam didn’t think he stood anything to lose from summoning
her, so he did.  She came forth, out of the ground and greeted Sam with a bow. 
He looked at her and thought that she actually looked pretty cool with a golden
glow similar to King Herke’s emitting from her eyes and the mist surrounding
her.

She was currently wearing what looked like a replica of Ji
Susano’s robes and armor.  They were a lot smaller to match the shorter avatar
Kalika had chosen for herself.  Sam reluctantly bowed to Kalika in return.  He
wasn’t sure what she wanted from him.  Was she really trying to help him?

She beckoned him forward and started walking towards the
southeast.  Sam reluctantly followed.  Surprisingly, the area they were heading
to was new territory for Sam.  In his zealousness before, he had overlooked a
large swathe of the forest.  The path they walked dipped lower than the rest of
the forest Sam had explored so far.

She led him to a dark cave, not much different than the one he
frequented with the Soul Beacon.  Sam eyed her suspiciously when he saw some
nearly naked revenants nearby.  Their brown dried out flesh was on full display
with only the tiniest bit of soiled cloth covering their private parts.

When he neared, all three revenants arose and focused on
him, their eyes nearly hollowed out completely but for the small specks of fire
that they called pupils.  One brandished a knife, the others broken swords. 
They ran at him, all at once.  Sam took a few quick steps backwards, then put
up his shield to block.

The closest revenant’s knife bounced off of his shield,
leaving the poor wretch wide open.  Sam thrust his Rapier forward with great
force and pierced the creature’s chest.  It fell down to the ground and faded
into a cloud of souls that Sam quickly absorbed.  The other two approached with
their poor excuses for weapons.  Sam aimed and found the throat of the closest
revenant with a heavy thrust.  It dropped to the ground and Sam quickly
finished the remaining revenant with two quick thrusts.  He let out a nervous
breath and looked ahead at Kalika, who was giving him a thumbs up.

“I’m glad they were as easy as they were,” Sam said to
himself.

Despite saying that, his heart was still beating a mile a
minute.  The way he’d engaged them all at once had been foolish.  He had to
rethink his tactics now that his life was honestly in danger.  He was also
wondering where Kalika was leading him.  She hadn’t lifted a finger to help
while he was fighting.  Was she trying to get him killed?  Maybe she just
considered the enemies too weak to interfere.

“What am I doing?  Can I really trust her?” he asked
himself.

He didn’t have an answer yet, but he didn’t think she could
hurt him.  He resolved to keep his eyes wide open for any nasty surprises.

She led him down a long tunnel to the bottom of the cave
where it ended with a beautiful moonlit opening.  She stood there grinning and
pointing at a wooden treasure chest.  Then she knelt down to one knee, clutched
some kind of dark jewel to her chest, and faded away.

IMMORtAL_Kalika Has Returned to Her Own Plane

Did she expel herself?  Could she expel herself?  Sam was
very confused.  He was sure that he didn’t trigger anything to cause her expulsion. 
His interest in answering those questions was quickly waning with a treasure chest
sitting in front of his face.  There was also a nearly naked dead body nearby
that looked to be holding an item as well.  Sam kicked the dead body and
treasure chest to make sure he wouldn’t be hit by any sudden surprises.  He
opened the treasure chest first and got five Blightstone Pieces.

“Nice!”

He then knelt down and with trepidation picked up the
shining item from the hands of the revenant.  It was another scriber, this one
a Charity Scriber.  If it were anything like his other two scribers then it
would be a tremendously useful item.  He had a good guess as to what it did. 
He quickly read the descriptions of both items.

Blightstone Piece

Reinforces weapons with a poisonous effect.  +1 to
Weapon.

A poisonous ore, mined from deep underground.  It is said
that the ore was made when a foul archdemon was slain.  Its tainted blood
seeped throughout the earth and poisoned all that it touched.

Charity Scriber

Allows cooperation with other players.

One of the legendary writing tools crafted and enchanted
by the eminent linguist, scholar, and mage Letraym.  Letraym believed that good
relations could be fostered between two worlds if denizens from each worked
together towards a common goal.  To that end, this scriber was made to deepen
the bonds of kindred charitable souls.

When Sam was finished reading the descriptions of the items,
he noticed another message right under his feet.

“When did you get there?”

He knelt down and read the message.

Use Item and then Be Ally

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“Be ally?  To who?”

The message had to be from Kalika, but what did she want? 
Who did she want him to help?  Was it her?  But if she needed help, why didn’t
she just stay?  It was so frustrating.  All of this could easily be answered
with a simple voice chat feature.  Of course, Milner probably avoided putting
that into the game just to make it more difficult for the testers to
communicate.

“Whatever.  I just need to keep moving forward with the
game.  I don’t have any more time for multiplayer right now.”

27
Deadly Cooperation

Sam walked past a drifting Forest Barker, this one taller
than the rest.  There were two others just like it nearby and Sam was tremendously
glad that the creatures didn’t automatically aggro.  He had carelessly walked
right past one earlier after mistaking it for a small tree, but it hadn’t
attacked.  He wouldn’t make the same mistake of assaulting it as he did its
smaller cousins before.

He continued on, past them, until he found the path from
before.  He stopped and recalled what had happened on the path the last time. 
It was the first time he had seen Caesar and at that time Caesar had brutally
killed a huntsman right where Sam was staring.  Sam had been killed for the
first time, not far from that very spot.  He took a breath and pressed on, down
the side of the moonlit path.  The trees over the path were cleared leaving Sam
to wonder what had caused the clearing.  As he walked into more new territory,
Sam saw more Forest Barkers and rose men throughout the forest.  Then he heard
footsteps.  There were two pair.  One was heavy and gave a clinking sound with
each step.  The other was light, barely crunching on the dying forest foliage.

“Shit!  They’re coming from two different directions.”

Sam braced himself for combat, his back against a large
tree.

“There he is, over here!” yelled a familiar voice.  Sam then
found himself in a situation that he was only half prepared for.

“Both of them?  Seriously?”

His questions were as much to the gods of misfortune as they
were to Fulton Milner and his crew.  He was now face to face to face with the
merchant from the cave and Caesar the forest killer.

“It is just as you said, he is alone.” said the armor clad
killer.  Caesar, as before, was in his black and crimson plated mail.  The
bleached vulture skull adorned the top of his head with white feathers hanging
down to his upper back, while his crimson cape fell down to his calves. 
Caesar’s face couldn’t be seen at all, only the hollowed out eye sockets of the
vulture helmet.  Caesar’s greatsword stayed in its scabbard on his back, but
Sam knew better than to expect it to stay there.

“Of course.  I knew from the start that he wasn’t very
bright, but he’s outdone himself now, hasn’t he?” said the grinning merchant. 
Sam hadn’t trusted the man before, but now seeing him with Caesar showed him in
a completely different light.  He was a snake, plain and simple.  As before, he
wore the same Cutthroat armor as Sam.  He didn’t wear it to hide from other
Cutthroats as he had lied before.  He wore it because he was a Cutthroat.  Sam
just had to confirm his identity before he proceeded.

“It’s not that I’m not bright, Mr. Coward and Mr. Crazy. 
The reason that I’ve messed up so much so far is because I didn’t expect your
A.I. and voice recognition programs to be so sophisticated, meaning I expected
you to be much more stupid.  It’s more of an underestimation than anything
else.  I underestimated your creators is all.”

“You call us crazy, yet you speak nonsense,” said the
merchant.  Neither he nor Caesar had made a move yet, but they were blocking
the better escape routes.

“No, I called him crazy.  You’re just a coward, aren’t you
Rondo?  I mean, what else can you call an assassin hiding away in a forest
pretending to be a merchant?  Maybe I’d be scared too if I were you, given the
severity of your crimes against the king.”

The merchant smirked then seemed to ponder something.

“You must be proud of yourself, eh?  I could lie to you and
tell you that you got the wrong guy, but then again, there’s no point.  I think
it’s much more satisfying to kill you while you know the truth.  Innit that
right, Caesar?”

“I have to agree,” said the lunatic wearing the vulture
skull.  “Beauty is born from struggle, true art.”

“Yes fool, I am Rondo and in this forest I am king ... king
of assassins that is.  My word is law here and you have desecrated that law
with your meddling.  As for your ‘just’ king, he is a bigger fool than you. 
What I did, I did for coin.  He’s no better murdering me than he is murdering
some other stranger.  His hunt should’ve been for those that ordered my
services.  Those nobles that wanted him and his kin removed from the throne
because of his cursed bloodline.  We were both expendable in their eyes.  The
buggers killed me before I was even able to cash in on my contract.  Luckily it
turned out I was cursed.  Rose right out of that shallow grave they put me in. 
And they were right about the king as well.  Turns out he was just as cursed as
his foul son, the kin killer.  Now the mad king is right here with me, in the
land of the undead.  So why can’t he just let it all go, as I have?”

Was all that true?  Sam didn’t know what to believe.  Rondo
could just be playing him even further.  Whatever the case, Sam was determined
to put an end to the assassin.  He couldn’t stomach hearing him talk of killing
a man’s family like it were some random thing to cross off his to-do list.  He
realized that he was getting upset at a situation that wasn’t truly real, but
he couldn’t help it.

“That so?  So after the king kills you, he should go after
the douchebags that hired you.  Will you give up the names of those nobles?”

“Why?  They are long dead.  Despite that and the time that’s
passed, the foolish king’s anger hasn’t subsided.”

“That’s because his justice was robbed from him when he was
sent to this place.”

In truth, it was revenge that the king craved.  That was
easy to see.  Since he couldn’t punish those petty nobles who had sentenced him
to such misery, he’d have to take out all his anger on Rondo.  There was no way
around it.  The king would bring an end to Rondo’s existence.  Sam had no
problem with that.

“I don’t care.  Both he and his followers will be put to the
blade.  That includes you,” said Rondo.

He drew an ornate shortsword from the scabbard at his side. 
It had a golden lion’s head pommel and looked as if it had barely seen any use. 
He also grabbed a black dagger from a sheath on his lower back and twirled it
in his offhand.  Caesar drew his greatsword as well.

Not yet
, Sam thought, looking for his way out.  It
was all for show because he had no way out where his opponents were standing. 
He pressed his fingers against the tree at his back.

“What, you’re not going to fight back?  Caesar will be
disappointed, but a kill’s a kill to me,” Rondo said as he approached.

Sam spun around the tree trunk on the slower footed Caesar’s
side.  Caesar’s blade had nearly caught him, but a quick dodge had put the
needed distance between him and the killers chasing him.  Sam quickly
unequipped his weapons with a few thoughts to quicken his running speed.  He
stayed away from the path, but soon found himself chased by more than just
Rondo and Caesar.  He heard light footsteps closing in from all over.  He
looked to his sides briefly and saw four masked Cutthroats chasing him, two on
each side.  He looked back only briefly and saw two more masked Cutthroats
approaching from behind as he slowed to let his stamina refill.

“Damn, you guys are quick!” he said, huffing.

As they closed in even closer, he sped up after recovering
much of his stamina.  The forest soon darkened and up above Sam could see
various armor clad revenants tied up and swaying from the trees.  He knew if he
kept running that he’d be at the place he’d escaped from before, Caesar’s
cabin.  None of the Cutthroats had given up their chase, but Sam couldn’t see
Rondo or Caesar behind him.

“I’ll have to thin them out,” he said to himself while
running uphill.  He had completely outpaced everyone by the time he got near
Caesar’s cabin.  He looked back and didn’t see any of them.

“That was too easy ...” he said through ragged breaths.  “I
am tired as hell though.”

He swept his eyes around the whole forest surrounding him
and couldn’t find any sign of movement.  Had he really outran them that
easily?  He stayed low in the forest until a loud voice called out to him.

“You there, skulking in the forest!  Come out of the
shadows, why don’t you!  I don’t trust things that sneak!”  It was King Herke
and he was standing near the front door of Caesar’s cabin.  Sam stepped out of
the forest towards the cabin, quickly equipping his weapons and looking around
to see if any danger followed him.

“Oh, it’s you, with the burning soul.  Have you come seeking
to bring this killer to justice too?  This is his home.”

“Yes.  I’ve been here before.”

“That’s right.  You faced the fiend.”

“Yes, and I lost.”

Caesar didn’t even consider him strong enough to hang in his
collection.

“There is nothing shameful in a loss and when death doesn’t
keep you down, your opponents will find themselves in a regrettable way.  That
is the only blessing to come from this curse, unlimited persistence,” the king
explained smiling.  “Though seeing this sick parade of death all around us,
strewn from the trees, it reminds me why it’s so important to contain the
undead.  We can be truly monstrous.”

“They’re chasing me, king, both killers.”

“The forest killer and who?”

“Rondo.”

The king appeared taken aback for a brief moment.

“That Cutthroat is chasing you?  Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir.”

His shock quickly faded away, replaced by a new
determination.

“Then we will turn the chase back on them.  You cannot fight
two, but can you fight one?”

Sam thought about it.  He was much stronger than he was
before, but could he defeat Caesar?  He wasn’t so sure.  Not only was Caesar
overwhelmingly strong, but he attacked with extraordinary speed and range to as
well.

“I can fight Rondo.  I’m sure of it.”

Rondo didn’t seem as unbeatable as Caesar.  If he fought
with a dual wielding style, then Sam had some experience fighting against it
thanks to his skirmish with Justinian89Thrills.  And Rondo wore the same armor
as Sam, meaning their defensive values wouldn’t be too far apart.  He would
rather deal with a speedy Cutthroat than a greatsword wielding blood knight in
full plated armor.

“That won’t do.  I need to bring him to justice myself,”
said the king with ice in his voice.  Sam had considered that would be the
case.

“It’s the only way to fight them, king.  Otherwise, Caesar
will overwhelm me.”

“Then I will fight them alone.”

Sam had also considered that he’d say that.

“Not a wise course of action, sir.  Together they will
overwhelm even you.  The forest killer alone might match your strength.”

“I would be foolish not to consider your counsel, but you
must understand that I need to be the one to pass sentence on Rondo.  My
family’s blood is on his hands.  My wife, the young queen Mera.  My son, little
prince Philoke.  Two innocents, taken by his depraved hands.”

“I hear you, king.  We, however, need to be smart about how
we fight.  I’ll hold off on killing Rondo so that he may answer to you once you
are done with Caesar.”

The king considered it.

“You are capable of doing this?”

I’m not sure.

“Yes, sir.”

“Then that’s how we battle, but first we have to rid
ourselves of those who don’t belong.”

He reflected some moonlight from his greatsword into the
forest and revealed two Cutthroats hidden nearby in the dark forest.  Others
came forward, out of the dark surrounding them.  Sam counted ten in all, all
now closing in on him and the king.  He quickly drew his Rapier and dropped
into a fighting stance with his shield clutched in front of him.  King Herke
held his enormous greatsword in front of him in one hand and when three of the
Cutthroats approached him, he spun around three hundred and sixty degrees and
cut through his foes with tremendous velocity and weight behind his blow.  His
three attackers were killed instantly.

Sam baited two of the Cutthroats near him into attacking up
close.  They each attacked with the same Dagger that he started the game with. 
He held his shield up and watched the blows get deflected off of it. The two
Cutthroats attacked so fast that he didn’t have much of an opening to land his
own attack.

He backed up a little and skillfully parried a super quick
stab from the Cutthroat in front of him.  Instead of going for an easy opening blow,
Sam kicked his undead enemy to the ground.  It gave him a few precious moments
to engage the other Cutthroat one-on-one.  The other Cutthroat, identical to
the first, came forward with the same quick stab.  Sam had the attack scouted
and parried the blow.  This time, he went for the opening blow and finished his
opponent before hastily returning to the other grounded Cutthroat and finishing
him with a stab through the heart, which was called a grounded opening blow.

Sam turned around and saw the rest of the Cutthroats going
after the king.  He was being swarmed on all sides except his back, but one of
the Cutthroats was trying to maneuver there as well.  Sam ran up to help defend
the king, but had to quickly roll out of the way when he lashed out with three
wide swings of his mighty greatsword.

All of the Cutthroats directly in front of the king fell to
the ground dead and the ones to the side were knocked away.  There was still
the problem of the one approaching from behind, however.  Sam quickly ran in a
little closer and tossed a Fireball at the Cutthroat’s back.  His armor caught
fire and he writhed around trying to put out the flames.  He lost a fifth of
his health and his HP continued ticking down even more thanks to the burning
effect.

Sam quickly followed up with a leaping thrust, light thrust,
then a charged thrust which finished the Cutthroat.  With only two Cutthroats
left, Sam ran at the one closest to him, on the king’s right side and engaged
him.  The king turned to his left and dispatched the other one with a single
one handed slash, while Sam dodged then offered a quick then heavy thrust to
finish the remaining Cutthroat, whose HP had already been diminished by an
earlier attack from the king.