Class-A Threat (Disgardium Book #1) LitRPG Series

by Dan Sugralinov

"Wanna stand under my umbrella?" Eve offered.

  "We need to talk," Tissa said.

  "Eve, thanks. I'll be just fine," I said, turning to Shafer: "I also need to talk to you."

  O'Sullivan puffed up her face. I felt awkward, as if I had traded my old friend for new ones.

  "Can all three of us fit?" I asked.

  "I don't know... I can try turning up the airstream," Eve led a finger down the handle. "Okay. Stand next to me!"

  I got under the umbrella. Tissa squeezed in between Eve and me despite herself. So close... My heart sped up.

  "Okay," we all said at the same time and Tissa faded into the background.

  "Alex, are you going to play Dis today?" Eve asked unconfidently. "Shall we sit outside the tavern like before? If you want, we could level together. I decided to buy game currency so I can get some gear. Want me to get you some too?"

  Tissa wrinkled her nose mockingly.

  "It stinks here," she said. "Like grease. And overcooked food."

  "Cut it out," I said. "Eve, Tissa is joking. I'm going to be in Dis, but you'll have to level on your own for now. I'm level four already. I have my own quests. Catch up!" I encouraged Eve and tried to pat her on the shoulder.

  "Alright, Alex," Eve said quietly, her eyes welling with tears. "I’ll catch up. Then I can help you."

  I didn't feel this lousy even when my parents told me about their divorce. And that made it all the harder to answer Tissa when she then said:

  "Listen, Alex, I decided to bail on Dis today. I wanted to fly out to the southern district to a water park. Wanna come? It’ll be fun! And later we can go to Caramba! A friend of mine is a bouncer there, he'll let us in. We’ll be able to drink... What do you say?"

  "Of course," I nodded, keeping an eye on Eve. "Let's go, sounds like a good time."

  The umbrella shuddered and I barely managed to catch it when it left Eve's hands.

  Chapter Twenty-One. Tits and Dragons

  WE LET EVE take the first flying car, then flew off in the next one. And everything would have been great, if my childhood friend hadn't suddenly gone gloomy when she got into her vehicle with her head drooping and shoulders slouched. She couldn’t even hide her glistening tears.

  And it was only made worse by the fact that nothing came of it. Tissa had to go before we even got to the water park. As soon as we reached the southern district, she got a ton of calls and messages from her clan.

  If there's a gap, something will come to fill it. Crusher was gone from Gloomwood, but now his place had been taken by Punisher. And now, with him also gone somehow, out of the woodwork came Bloodsucker, a spider with attributes comparable to the alpha of the wolf pack.

  Infect accidentally found the new boss while trying to stealthily find and track the zombie wolf Punisher – a sort of non-boss boss, but still elite, so the Dementors had a certain interest. After a few hours of pointless wandering, he still couldn’t find Punisher, but he did witness the birth of Bloodsucker. The earth yawned and nauseating waves of crawling arachnids scurried out of a deep crack. And at the very end, the new boss crawled out of the hole with a creak and a squeal.

  To hear Malik tell it, that part of Gloomwood was unrecognizable now, quiet as the grave! Nothing was left alive, everything was covered in spiderwebs. Basically, gloom.

  When she heard that, Tissa abruptly rerouted the flying car toward home. And when she saw my downcast face, she explained despite herself:

  "Alex, I’m sorry! I just can't miss another First Kill! You can come with us if you want."

  I shook my head. I had my own stuff to do in Dis without overgrown spiders, and I didn't hear particular insistence in Tissa's voice.

  So I shook my head in silence and headed home.

  There my parents were in the kitchen eating. They were sitting opposite one another, discussing a project peaceably and seeing them this... calm was unbelievably nice. Especially after the scene with Eve and my ill-fated date with Tissa. What was more, the girl of my dreams had given me a plain demonstration of my position in her priorities. I think if Eve were in her place, she would have gladly traded an alien invasion and winning the lottery to spend a day with me. But her love was little solace. To me she remained a nice if somewhat plump girl. A friend.

  "You have a big appetite, Alex," mom said, stroking my head. "More?"

  "Uh... Yeah, another half portion, mom. Thanks!"

  Mom must have been in a good mood, because she didn't print our dinner tonight, she made it herself. She had roasted a chicken, all coated in spices and garlic, with potatoes underneath and swimming in her special sauce. It was unbelievably tasty! And I took advantage of that to eat my fill of tasty grub before a long Dis session. Then I spent a long time sitting with my parents, enjoying their placid company.

  Father, meanwhile, asked how I was doing in the game. And he had a real interest. After all, he and mom were virtual reality architects. At one point they even managed to have a hand in a few locations in greater Disgardium. I had already begun amply and vaguely answering, but then I followed a wild hare and interrupted them:

  "Hey dad, when you design a location, do you consider all the mobs that will live there?"

  "Of course," he nodded, setting aside the news on his tablet. "Developers closely track the balance of each location's ecosystem. They even consider potential migrations of individual mobs. The food chain must function like clockwork. Every unintelligent mob has a stat for exhaustion, thirst, hunger and satisfaction of base instincts. And if we don't provide, say, enough Jerway oak, the acorns of which make up the bulk of the diet of red-eared boar, those boar will either die out or be forced to migrate. And then, in their turn they serve as prey..."

  "Dad, I got it," I cut him off impatiently. "But I wanted to ask about hidden treasures. Like, let's say I pass an instance and find a chest in a room..."

  "Oh, wow! You get an epic?" my father's eyes lit up.

  But mom sharply brought him down a peg:

  "Mark! Don't start, please! Remember what tripped us up with the Space Harem project!"

  Dad cringed. He really had mucked up that episode. He was so entertained by Dis that he had even founded a clan and led raids. I was eight or nine then, and I used to count the days until I could go be a part of that world. Father hadn't found great successes there, but they did lose the Harem project at roughly the same time. Dad just didn’t have enough time or inspiration. He was up to his ears in the game.

  "Nothing good, no," I shook my head, "but here's my question, dad. Who places these treasures?"

  "It isn’t a person," He snorted. "The world of Dis is alive, it's constantly changing. Dungeons form and disappear of their own accord. All of them will be passed sooner or later and eventually they will all see their final run and will go away. But really, speaking of mysteries, Alex..." father stroked the back of his head. "The artificial intelligence of a boss picks up loot from dead players and hides it wherever it can. And that's all because nothing in Dis ever disappears or is created from nothing. Weaponry is forged by smiths from ore mined by miners. Buildings are made of lumber from the lumber mills and stones from the quarries. Food..." he shrugged, "well, you get the idea."

  "And what about legendaries?" I couldn't quiet down. "Those come only from smiths and armorers of a certain level..."

  "Well legendary items, as a rule, are unique and were woven into the fabric of the world when the game was first launched. They have their own place in Disgardium lore. By the way, where did you find a chest?" father asked.

  "In a locked empty room," I shrugged my shoulders as if saying something insignificant. "But the keys fell from the second skeleton I saw."

  "That means," father nodded in satisfaction, "the main boss never managed to complete its plan. It was probably going to get up to the mob slot limit and make some kind of guard. Maybe even a boss."

  "Aha! And the items themselves have a durability score and sooner or later they are destroyed and disappear from the world?"

>   "Exactly..." father suddenly laughed and extended a hand, expecting me to shake. He had taught me when I was one and a half, and ever since we had a secret handshake. "Exactly right, boy..."

  As I struck hands with my father, a wave of sorrow rolled over me. I suddenly realized he and my mom were getting divorced.

  He clearly remembered too and looked away. I stood up silently, gave a hug to him then mom and went into my room.

  * * *

  In half an hour I was in Dis and found Eve almost instantly. In a lather, she was darting about the city on a social quest as mail carrier. As Chief Councilman Whiteacre once said, “timely postal delivery is very important to our city.”

  And that was probably why she just gave a tiny nod to acknowledge me, not stopping to talk. I meanwhile managed to see that she was wearing a fine suit of leather armor, which meant she had in fact put some money into the game.

  My main goal for the day was to reach level five. That way, I would no longer be relegated to the crap gear Underweight sold, and could finally wear some greens with bonuses. But I still couldn't use anything I got from Gloomwood, so I decided to sell all my unusual stuff at auction or paw it off on a reseller. It would depend on what was more profitable.

  Holding onto it all was no use. The blue scale belt from Dargo the Lich would only be available at level ten. And the only thing I had any chance of using any time soon was the bronze amulet giving +5 endurance. It was easier to sell than wait.

  So then, before getting into yet another series of deaths, I decided to take care of some business in town: run to auction, level Cooking to journeyman, learn new recipes and do some quests. I didn't have any missions now, but I did have the quest item from Crusher. And based on the description, I needed to immediately find someone who knew the girl from the locket.

  And there was no better place to start my search than the Bubbling Flagon. So that's where I headed.

  Meanwhile, I took a peek at the city council bulletin board, but there was nothing interesting. It had all the same missions for weeding, sweeping and doing dishes in the tavern probably under infected chef Arno, and patrolling the border with Gloomwood...

  Walking past the auctions, I figured now was a good a time as any to go check out prices. Trading here was global. The market was shared with the world of greater Dis. Krauss the auctioneer handed me a catalog, the system brought up a window and I started studying.

  What I found was no consolation. Green stuff like I had was worth between two and five gold from official sellers. And whether or not they would buy an item was impossible to say. Yet you needed to pay fifteen percent commission on each item’s declared value to put it up for sale. I snorted skeptically and shook my head. This was definitely not my best option.

  At the same time, I took a gander at the price for a Whistle of Summoning. The cheapest possible one, which summoned a horse, was worth one hundred gold. And more advanced mounts cost more depending on breed and attributes. Still, I wouldn't say no to a creature like that – even a slow old nag gave +200% to movement speed. The riding skill was not required but very desirable and, in its turn, gave additional bonuses to speed and animal stamina.

  Overall, the variety of mobs impressed me so much it made my eyes spin. There were water mounts like sea turtles, and air mounts like gryphons and hippogryphs. Among the terrestrial mounts I found elephants, hippopotamuses, deer and boar... Basically something for all tastes. However, prices started at a few thousand gold, and that was for normal ones, not even rare. It was too early to think about any of that before level forty.

  I had heard somewhere that Horvac, leader of a top clan The Wanderers, bought the egg of a ghost dragon for a few million. But to me that was something beyond the realm of mere mortals, something as far away and removed from my real life as Denise Le Bon's space yacht.

  So I leafed lazily through the catalog a bit longer, didn't find anything I could even remotely afford and returned it to the auctioneer in disappointment. Then I walked to the resellers to unload my green junk.

  After one glance at my goods, Undy warned me honestly that they would have to pay me thirty percent below established value, but I would pay no commission and they would pay in advance. With a sigh, I asked them to pick me out a level five set with a slant toward strength and endurance.

  "Are you getting anywhere, Alex?" Rita asked while Undy looked over my stuff and, muttering to himself, calculated the value. "Level four already, come on! It hasn't even been a week!"

  "I'm really giving it my all. I wasted so much time before..."

  "That's for sure!" she treated me to a Sweet Joy and changed topic. "Someone took down Crusher, did you hear? You know that boss I told you about. All alone! Without a clan!"

  "Yeah, he must have gotten lucky," Undy sighed. "The loot must be unreal. And that achievement probably gave big-time bonuses..." He wanted to add something but unexpectedly an archer named Justasec cut in, digging through jewelry at the neighboring trader's stall.

  "I just so happen know who it was!" he exclaimed joyfully. "I saw him, a level-eleven boy with a pimply face. And I know what the loot was too..."

  He made a theatrical pause, and Undy jabbed him with the wooden end of his spear. He really wanted to know!

  "Well, don't sit on it! What did Crusher drop?"

  "A legendary mount!" he declared in celebration. I froze, overcome with sticky sweat. "A phoenix! A flying firebird," he continued, his eyes bulging. "And it has a thirty percent movement-speed bonus! I'd give my teeth to say he's waiting for offers from all the big clans right now..."

  "Sure, of course, what a crock!" Overweight squinted in disbelief. "From a low-level boss in the sandbox? You're such a liar, king of the jackoffs!"

  "Wanna bet?" Justasec lit up. "I bet five gold against your whole stall that it’s true!"

  Overweight and Underweight exchanged glances, and a competitive glimmer flickered up in the latter's eye.

  "Okay," the girl turned decisively to the archer. "Let’s see the five."

  The archer bared his teeth:

  "No worries," he drew out in self-satisfaction, "I have the money. So, here is how it went down..."

  Underweight glanced at the boy as he sang like a nightingale and gave a loud chuckle:

  "Alright, take a bath, you lost already!" he exclaimed, clasping his hands together with a clap. "You can read it right there in Disgardium Daily," the trader said as he weightily shook a folded newspaper in the air as evidence. "It says that an anonymous player has put a flaming phoenix up for auction, a unique legendary mount. He's already been offered seven million gold. But the lot was opened three days ago, and Crusher was taken down only yesterday."

  The archer's face broke out in further spots and pimples, and a brown shade came over him. Meanwhile I realized that selling my legendary spectral wolf might solve my money problems.

  "Well then?" he exclaimed in hot temper. But everyone already knew he lost. "Maybe it was a different phoenix?"

  "Are you an idiot?" Overweight snorted. "Does the word 'unique' mean anything to you? There’s only one," he said, repeating the last word for emphasis. "So that’s it. Give me the five gold!"

  "What?" the archer went sour. "We never shook on it!"

  "Wasn’t the bet your idea?" Undy chuckled in satisfaction. "It was. Overweight accepted. We have witnesses. Scyth?"

  "Hand over the coins, Justasec," I said, sincerely joyful. "You lost."

  For a second the archer looked around in confusion, blinking his whitish eyelashes. Then he gave a loud exhale... and took off! Like a cowardly rabbit, lifting his bony knees up high, he ran into town.

  And on his way, he managed to grab a handful of jewelry from the trader's table. That tricky little…

  Still, it wasn’t exactly a smart move. Cursing, the jewelry seller dashed off after him, and Undy after him. I watched them run, deciding whether to join in the race, but Overweight stopped me.

  "One witness is enough," Rita said. "The bot gu
ards will take him to court, and they’ll deal with him. They'll bring in a truth seeker, who will confirm the testimony. That Justasec is a moron. Idiotic nick for an idiotic guy. What was he hoping for?" she shrugged.

  I remembered the way the guardsmen treated those they brought to court and snorted. I didn't have to worry about that now. I looked at Rita in her revealing shirt. Its top buttons were undone. My eyes were drawn to the alluring gap like a magnet, and I just couldn't look away.

  "Hey, Alex!" Overweight shouted. "At least pretend you're looking me in the eye!"

  I shot up and exerted some effort. It was hard, but I managed.

  We spent a bit more time chewing the fat, then Undy came back shimmering like a gold coin and counted my money for the gear. The archer, pushed against the wall by the guards, scraped everything out of his pockets, and the weapons buyer came out ahead. Still Justasec categorically denied the theft and left the game.