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

by Dan Sugralinov

  "Trixie?"

  "Mhm," the tauren grinned. He pointed over my head, clearly at my health points bar. "You are so weird! Why don't you die?"

  Chapter Twenty-Four. Stopped in the Act

  "ALRIGHT," Trixie easily agreed with my suggestion to kill him. "Will you bring donuts? I like them! But they made my stomach hurt..."

  The tauren was still giving short broken phrases in a booming bass, talking about food, his grandfather, his hate for universal nutrient blends and other commonplace things he found important. Before that he expressed an eagerness to help me get through the jail and, in confirmation, he banged on the tunnel wall. That made a clump of seemingly living tissue fall off, splattering into a black slime. Then he showed his bull's biceps. I imagined what a joy it must have been for a little person like him to be so big...

  I refused his help though. First, it might cause him problems with the corporation, and second I was trying to keep witnesses to a minimum.

  I explained the fact that I had torn a pack to bits before his eyes with my bare hands and easily survived with one percent life by saying I had a special combat elixir. He just shrugged, which was a bit hard to see with his hefty torso and beefy neck. But I figured I should warn him one more time:

  "Trixie, don't tell anyone what you saw here, okay? It's a secret! Do you understand?"

  "Okay," he said and blurted out the longest thing I had ever heard him say: "I love keeping secrets! I collect them! If you tell someone a secret, then you have one less secret. That's a bad deal."

  "Good. Ready?" I was looking anxiously at my health bar. While we were talking, it had gone up three quarters. "Attack!"

  "Will you fly to my place?" He didn't hit right away, pausing his footlong claws at my neck.

  "Yes, I'll come. You and I need to have a talk. I'm not sure it'll be tomorrow, but on the weekend for sure. Do you know anyone else like you here?"

  He shook his head and slashed without warning. His claws went in under my clavicle. I howled in rage and slashed back.

  Altered Tauren Criminal has critically damaged you: 247!

  Damage completely absorbed by Curse of the Undead.

  Health points: 178/220.

  You have critically damaged Altered Tauren Criminal: 106!

  Health points: 634/740.

  As we agreed, the tauren kept swinging at me full force, but his blows weren't doing any damage. And meanwhile I just couldn't stop thinking about Clayton, who had died so strangely right after he simply let himself be killed in Dis. And so I decided to imitate a fully-fledged battle with Trixie.

  Before dying, he rasped out something about donuts. The loot he was Altered Ash, just like most of the mobs down here. It functioned as an alchemy ingredient. In the system's reckoning, it was worth a quarter silver, but I could get more at auction. The system only showed the guaranteed purchase price from nonplayer vendors.

  I needed twenty experience points more to reach level five – less than I’d get for a mob in this ins. So not wanting to waste any more time, I ran into the first boss room without preparation.

  At one time this was a cell for ten or twenty prisoners, but now it was the dwelling place of the altered gnome Wimpy, a level-twelve mad scientist and inventor. He was alone but, based on his appearance, he didn't need any help.

  Suddenly, the gnome raised his head and gave a sniff.

  "Hm..." he muttered. "Change in atmospheric oxygen content detected! Hm-hm..."

  Small, only up to my chest, the gnome was wearing a powerful exoskeleton of mysterious origin. Digging around in a pile of scrap metal, he suddenly got up, hit a button and... disappeared.

  I heard a clap in the other end of the room, revealing where he'd gone: to a strange looking machine powered by a clearly living semi-transparent intestine coming from the surface of the floor. And there were black clods of something wriggling around inside.

  What it actually was I didn't see. I was already flying across the inventor's lab. Pah! The attack went nowhere, the mana points burned for no reason. Meanwhile, a red beam hissed into my quickly frying skin. It was such serious pain that I stopped breathing. Tears filled my eyes. All that remained was to fall on the floor and squirm, trying to escape.

  Wimpy has damaged you: 142.

  Damage completely absorbed by Curse of the Undead.

  Health points: 178/220.

  Wimpy has damaged you: 134.

  Damage completely absorbed by Curse of the Undead.

  Health points: 178/220.

  Wimpy has damaged you: 158.

  Damage completely absorbed by Curse of the Undead.

  Health points: 178/220.

  New combat logs flickered up the whole time the laser was trained on me. Hiding behind some mysterious piece of machinery, I wiped the sweat off my face. What a relief...

  Pah! Sh-sh-shu-u-uugh-gh-gh! Son of a bitch! Nether! I couldn't hold back and screamed. I'd definitely have to dig into the settings of my capsule! This was an order of magnitude more painful than before!

  "Good news, old buddies!" the gnome cackled. "Tonight’s dinner will be served hot!"

  I rolled forward and aside and the beam burned into the slimy floor, heading for me. Screw it. It wasn't real, just visual effects. I ran over to the boss, but I only managed to hit once and not with Hammer because its cooldown time hadn't passed yet.

  You have damaged Wimpy: 4!

  Health points: 1196/1200.

  Pah! The boss teleported once again and turned on the hyperboloid in his exoskeleton. Zh-zh-zh-zhoo-oogh-gh-gh-gh-gh! I clenched my teeth and, despite myself, covered my eyes with a hand and dashed toward the boss.

  Resilience skill improved: +1.

  Resistance to all types of damage increased by 6%.

  Pain reduced by 6%.

  Current level: 6.

  Improve this skill by fighting enemies of your level or higher for additional bonuses and new special attacks.

  Stoneskin ability improved: +1.

  Cost to use: 3 mana points.

  Increases resistance to all types of damage by 11%.

  Duration: 5 seconds.

  Level six Resilience gave six-percent resistance to all types of damage and lowered perceived pain by the same amount. From there it logically followed that, at level one hundred, resistance would be maximum. But that had to be impossible! That would give complete immunity! Most likely the skill had a cap, some upper limit. Either that or here, as with damage and accuracy in Unarmed Combat, the numbers only applied to enemies of equal level.

  The Stoneskin level-up caught me by surprise. The ability's active time stopped growing at five seconds, but the resistance percentage was still going up.

  Basically, complete invulnerability made me feel relaxed. In a normal battle, players were always on edge, timing out their every move for maximum DpS while their tank and healer were alive, all while trying not to aggro the boss.

  But here I was calmly thinking and trying to distract myself; reading logs, mechanically trying to get a hit in on the boss after cooldown and trying to ignore the burning beam putting holes in the scraps of my rotting flesh and frying the nerve endings of my dying body.

  The battle just kept going. Wimpy kept gushing out stupid quotes like "I love the smell of fried meat in the morning!" and wouldn't let me land a series of blows longer than two. Every time he would disappear and come back with a “pah!” at the other end of the large room.

  When I dashed over to him once again, I gained another level in Resilience. Then it dawned on me. The laser beam dealt constant damage, basically a DoT that ticked with every second spent in the active zone. I curled up in the fetal position on the floor, trying to mentally distance myself from the pulsating burning in my back and get as far from here as possible.

  The laser burned constantly. And my Resilience progress bar slowly but surely went up. Meanwhile, the mad inventor began a scientific discussion with himself about the proper cooking level for human meat as I, gritting my teeth, wandere
d... or tried to wander in the clouds.

  Why was I doing all this? The answer was plain to see: I had dreams of working in space, and for that I had to finish university. Online classes in virtual space wouldn't be enough. Despite profession’s casual sounding name, beyond encyclopedic knowledge, a space guide needed a whole array of skills. And that included piloting a space shuttle and the required physical training.

  A space guide had to be able to pilot an interplanetary yacht and be a master aerospace engineer so that, if anything went wrong, they could fix it. They also had to feel comfortable in zero gravity and be able to do space walks... Yes it was a lot to know, that was why studying to be, in essence, captain of a space yacht took six years in university then the same amount of time as a cabin boy and junior pilot on an active vessel.

  And only the top ten percent of university graduates had their way paid by the taxpayers. Another one percent each were taken on by corporations and private sponsors. But for middling students like me, the only option was to pay.

  "Smells like... Mmm... Barbecue!" Wimpy shouted, knocking me off track.

  I clenched my jaw when the laser passed over my unprotected neck. This wasn't the kind of pain I felt a few days ago, this was much stronger! And that was strange, considering that my Resilience skill had gone up.

  So... No pain, I was just pretending. None of that existed, my body was safe and sound in a capsule back at home...

  So then, my studies. That would take money. Lots of money. And here was why.

  Twenty billion people lived on this planet and, in just a few decades, they had completely changed their conception of the value of human life. No one strove to "give everyone chance" or "support the working poor," as certain activist movements once called for. Every year there was a new crop of them from among the high-status citizenry. But all it took was lowering their citizenship class a level or two and they learned to keep their mouths shut. In fact, they all eventually came to sincerely repent for their ignorance.

  The planet was not capable of feeding this many people, and even our early colonization of Mars couldn't help. There were just two thousand people living there now and that would only double in a few years. They were less than a droplet in the ocean.

  But after concepts like "social value to society" were introduced, fierce competition took root. People strived to increase their class however they could, and the only way to do that was by raising social value. And that meant becoming useful to society.

  And that was possible only by having a high-demand profession which was only possible with higher education. No one wanted more competition for the small number of spots, and that was why the education had become so expensive. The needs of civilization were completely met by the ten percent of the population hardwired to be straight-A students so, collectively, we paid for their studies. The rest would either fall into the nether or have to pay out of pocket for further schooling.

  Even if I did pass the citizenship test, and got assigned the lowest citizenship status of L, all I could hope for was a wretched existence in a shoe box scarcely more spacious than the cubbies they kept noncitizens in, a miserable basic income and a strictly regulated ration of universal nutrient blend. Medical care, luxury items, which now included even underwear, entertainment and subscription to the public flying car service... All that had to be purchased with money, and money had to be earned.

  And without education, the only way to get any capital was in Disgardium. In the other worlds, wages for online work were lower and, due to lower popularity, their in-game items and currency were worthless. After all who would want some legendary set if there was nobody to show it off to?

  My parents' upcoming divorce would lower their status. It was a strange rule at first glance but, like everything the UN did, it was aimed at lowering the birth rate. No one said you couldn't get married again, or even have more offspring. Technically the "one child per family" rule wouldn't be broken. But you would certainly lose citizenship level. And along with that your income would fall sharply, as would your guaranteed basic income.

  I couldn’t believe my mother and father decided to do that! I mean no one would have said a word if they just stayed married, and got new partners on the side! But no, and it was all because of father, I was certain. He was too proud and proper to go against the system and his conscience. Clearly, he had fallen out of love with mom...

  My attention was drawn by the fact that my Resilience progress bar was stuck at 0% and had stopped going up, even though the mad gnome was still attacking. What was more, he had added stink bombs to the laser beam, which enshrouded me with impenetrable wisps of red smoke full of flecks of soot that curled around in the air.

  I looked at the most recent logs.

  Resilience skill improved: +1.

  Resistance to all types of damage increased by 36%.

  Pain reduced by 36%.

  Current level: 36.

  Stoneskin ability improved: +1.

  Cost to use: 3 mana points.

  Increases resistance to all types of damage by 26%.

  Duration: 20 seconds.

  My last skill-up happened more than a minute ago. Weird, what happened? Why wasn't it growing anymore? I focused on the bars but nothing changed. No hints, no warnings.

  Okay, sure. I'd have to wade into the encyclopedia. Skills... Combat skills... Defensive skills...

  Aha, here: "A skill will level in battle with enemies of your level and up, but only until that skill reaches three times the enemy's level." Everything was coming together: Wimpy was at level twelve, and my Resilience was at thirty-six. I couldn't squeeze any more out of this mad inventor. It was time to keep going.

  I stood up off the floor with a groan like an old man, hissed when the laser hit me in the eyes, then went blind for an instant and dashed at the boss. Stay where you are, pipsqueak! I’m gonna give you a real bop on the noggin for all that torture! This is an act of retaliation!

  Emergency exit has been activated by: external command from immersion pod!

  All progress in this dungeon will be lost!

  Remaining time: 3... 2... 1...

  "Son of a bitch!” I almost exclaimed as the intragel suddenly rushed out into the chamber walls. And good thing, because as soon as the capsule doors flew open, I saw my mom.

  "Alex! Sorry for the interruption, but we're late!"

  "To what exactly?" I bulged my eyes out, barely holding back.

  They had robbed me of my dreams, they were getting divorced. They were the reason I had to spend all this time in Dis levelling masochism instead of studying. And now what was this? Now they were having troubles and I'd have to run this ins all over again!

  "We're going to the O'Sullivans'. Did you forget? It's Eve's birthday!"

  Chapter Twenty-Five. Eve's Birthday

  "WHAT THE HECK, mom? Can you even do that?"

  "What do you mean?" she asked, dumbstruck. "What are you saying I did?"

  "I mean, you pulled me out of Dis while I was fighting a dungeon boss!" I kept objecting, but more out of inertia, still steeped in the fury of battle. "What's the hurry? The O'Sullivans live in our building, it takes two minutes to get there!"

  "Since when do you talk to your mom like that, Alex? And why are you shouting?" father said in surprise, entering the room. "Wasn't it you who said no virtual game was worth wasting time in real life? Especially if we're talking about your best friend!"

  Oh... Father was right. How could I forget? I flew back from school with her and talked with her after class. We spent so much time together, but she just left my mind like the wind. How could I not have wished her happy birthday? And plus that less than flattering scene with Tissa... Damn, damn, damn!

  I turned completely red, remembering all the embarrassing things I had done in the last day. My problems in Disgardium had pulled me in head first! Even in the real world I was thinking about stuff in the game... and about Tissa.

  "Sorry, mom..."

  She loo
ked at father. I noticed mom was wearing a nice evening dress with her hair coiffed and high heeled shoes... I hadn't seen her looking this pretty in a very long time. She looked younger. If you told someone now that she was twenty-five, they’d believe you. Dad was also dressed to the nines: cleanshaven, his hair was combed, and he had a suit on. Now he was leaning on the door with his hands in his pockets, spreading the tangy woody aroma of his expensive cologne.

  "I'm gonna pop into the shower and get ready quick," I said hurriedly, jumping out of the pod. "What gift did we get?"