PrimeVerse: Dose of Chaos: A GameLit / LitRPG Adventure

by R K Billiau

  I don’t know if it would have made much difference in the boss fight, but it certainly could have helped conserve resources while fighting all those tutelar.

  As I scanned my skills to make sure there weren’t any others I was forgetting to use, I wondered what I would do with my next reincarnation. Would I stay a Quaesitor or try something different? I wasn’t planning on hitting another hundred deaths anytime soon, but you never know.

  I pulled up an Illusory Map and inspected it, trying to get a better feel for where the Hunch was pulling me. I spun the map around and enlarged it, studying it intently. I was confident that it was leading me to the tree. If both my Hunch and the mayor wanted me in there, there must be something really cool in that portal.

  “What in the world is that?” a voice from behind me said, causing me to jump. I was getting real tired of being snuck up on. I spun around to see Carl looking at my map as it hung in the air. At least he wasn’t another archon.

  “Dang man! You startled me. How long have you been here?”

  “Not that long,” he said, “I just respawned. That was a terrible fight, we were doing so well until that boss.”

  “Yeah, it went south in a hurry,” I said. “Hadn’t you fought it before?”

  “No, I’d checked it out, you know, to try to complete the quest, but there were too many enemies for me to even try to mess with them.”

  “Well, we handled the tutelar pretty easy. But the boss getting stronger with each one we killed wasn’t any help,” I said.

  “How are we supposed to deal with that? We can’t just leave the tutelar alone or they’ll mob us when we activate the boss.”

  I was about to say something when Madison respawned next to us. “Hey guys!” she said as she stepped closer. “That sucked!” her smile was contagious, even if it didn’t match her words.

  “Yeah, that was a rough one,” I said. “On the plus side I got to meet another archon.”

  “How come you get to have all the fun!?” Madison asked. “Who was it this time?”

  “She called herself Minuitt, the Archon of Magic. She basically tried to get me to come to her side and get magic more widespread use.”

  “That’s awesome! I want some magic! Did she give you any? How do I get some?” Madison was positively bouncing in place, her manic energy almost harvestable.

  I shrugged. “No she didn't give me any, I don't think she could yet, but she did say we were probably close to finding some so...”

  Madison grinned widely and pumped the air. “Oh, I hope we find some soon! I’ve always loved the idea of magic like in the books about wizards and warlocks and spellblades and-”

  I rolled my eyes. “Ugh, not spellblades, I feel like every other story is about some guy who is a master of a weapon and magic at the same time. At some point it’s just too much.”

  “Don’t be jealous, Huddy. It’s unbecoming.” Madison winked at me. “So. How are we going to beat that boss?”

  Carl cleared his throat, “Uhm, what's an archon?”

  I sighed and launched into a brief explanation again, I almost wished my life had been captured in a book so I could just hand it to people to read instead of having to tell this tale over and over. Minuitt was onto something with that informational handshake thing. Before Carl could launch into the million questions I knew would come up, I tried to change the subject. “ANYway, I think if we don’t kill the tutelar the boss will stay weak enough for us to fight.”

  “If we do that though,” Carl said, “we’ll be mobbed by them for sure.”

  “Mobbed by mobs, hah!” Madison said.

  I made eye contact with her to make sure she could see me roll my eyes. “Laaaaame,” I said.

  “Whatever! You try spending all day with second graders, see how great your sense of humor is after that.” She grinned as she circled her pointer finger around her ear.

  I popped the mini-map into the group window and drew an arrow on it in the direction of the boss. “My Hunch has us going right through here. So we’re going to have to go through that portal no matter what.”

  “Your what?” Carl asked.

  “Hunch, it’s a skill. It helps me track treasure, and I have a quest going working in tandem with it and it's leading to the tree.”

  “So you’re just following some random skill to an unknown destination in the hopes that there’s a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow?” he said.

  Why did everyone else hate my Hunch so much?

  I shrugged. “We needed to set out anyway, so figured why not follow it?” I didn’t want to get too deep into it with him about my true class, or any of that stuff. I was getting tired of explaining that to people and certainly people I didn’t trust. Thankfully Kai respawned shortly thereafter, and we continued our mission. When we got close to the clearing, I saw that the tutelar had respawned.

  “Well damn. So you know how as we killed the tutelar, the boss, this… Genius Loci, got stronger, right?” I asked.

  “Yes, it appears they pass on some energy when they die,” Kai said.

  “Right,” I said, “so do you think if we pull all the tutelar out of here, then trigger the boss, he would be weaker?”

  Madison smiled. “Let me guess; you have an idea for that?”

  I coughed. “Well, I got a new skill I’ve been wanting to try. It’s called Conductor. Basically, it lets me attract mobs. Like, all of them. It puts me high on their hate list and they should all run out of here after me.”

  Madison let out a huge laugh and Kai grinned and shook his head. “That is the perfect skill for you, Huddy!” Madison said.

  “Hey! Anyone can learn the skill, it’s not unique or anything. I think,” I said.

  “Wait,” Carl said, “so you lead them all away, then what?”

  “Then you guys take out the boss! Then I can run back, if I’m still alive, and jump in the portal.”

  Carl looked at me like I was a two-headed alien from the fifth planet of Betelgeuse. “If you die, how will you complete the quest?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe if you complete it, it will complete in my quest log too because we’re in a group? I don’t know. I don’t know if that even matters, maybe it will just fade out of my quest log. If it’s complete, it’s complete, right? It’s not like we’re dealing with stupid AI here, it’s an actual person that gave us the quest. But if you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”

  Carl was silent for a minute, then sighed loudly. “Well, if it completes the quest, I guess I’m fine with whatever. I just want to get into the village and have some real food and real rest. I feel like it’s been forever, and this game’s starting to wear me out.”

  “Yeah, I know what that's like,” Madison said. “Honestly though, things can be tough, but there is a lot of good here.” She looked in my direction and laid one of her big smiles on me. “Don’t worry about Huddy, he has crazy ideas, but they seem to work out.”

  Kai placed his hand on my shoulder. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked. “We could try waking the boss and fighting it before we fight the minions.”

  I shook my head. “No, I’ll bet the boss has an ability that will call them in, then we’d all die again. I think it’s better if only one of us dies instead of everyone. Plus, I’m not vital in combat or anything. It’s debatable whether I’m even useful.”

  Kai nodded at me, his face as unreadable as ever. “Then we will try your way. If it fails, we will try something different.”

  “You guys are all so relaxed about all the dying and stuff,” Carl said. “Doesn’t it get to you? Doesn’t the pain bother you?”

  “Sure, it’s not fun,” Madison said, “but really, it’s much better than on Earth. At least here you don’t have to go into debt-slavery for medical care if you get an injury.”

  Carl opened his mouth to respond, but Kai cut him off. “We can debate the differences of both worlds another time. Let’s focus on the task at hand. Hudson, are you ready?”

  “N
ot quite. Madison? Boost?” I asked. She made the familiar gesture and I debated applying it to one of my Dodge skills, but in the end, I chose the Running skill. I hoped I could outrun them while keeping up aggro and not even have to worry about Dodging. “Now I’m ready.”

  I took off toward the first cluster of tutelar, swirling and dancing around. When I got close, I slowed and checked my mini-map. The individual units showed a red circle around them, indicating their threat range; something I had documented with my Archive skill. I smiled, pleased with myself. I got to the edge of the threat range, activated Conductor, and chucked a rock at the closest one. I knew my rock wouldn’t hurt it, but I hoped it would let it know I was here and ready to play.

  Bingo.

  It whistled like the wind through a rocky valley and came at me. As soon as its threat circle enveloped me, I saw a red bar appear above the thing; its health bar that I had estimated and also Archived. Sweet!

  “Come on you piles of rocks! Let’s run!”

  I didn’t know how smart these things were, but from what I had seen, I’d guessed not very. But hey, tossing out an insult couldn’t hurt, so why not? I chucked another rock at one of the others, and it too charged me with a sound like branches breaking. The last one in the cluster joined its buddies and I took off running, a healthy dose of adrenaline and my Boosted Running skill propelling me forward quickly. Keeping an eye on my mini-map, I distanced myself from the pack. It was going smoothly until I got too far ahead, and the cluster abruptly stopped following, turned around, and moved right back to their original spot.

  “Okay,” I said, “so it’s going to be like that.” I went back for them and repeated the process. This time I didn’t get too far ahead, and the cluster followed me a bit further, but after a certain point they gave up again.

  I tried again, and again, every time the cluster got to the same spot they turned around. This was frustrating, to say the least. I slumped my shoulders and sighed heavily. I wasn’t sure if it was time to call it quits and try something different. I was still a way off from my party, but I made eye contact with them to gauge their opinion with some weird baseball-esque whole-body sign language. Kai shrugged his shoulders and Madison gave me a thumbs up. Carl didn’t give me any indication of anything. I inhaled a lung full of fresh air and straightened up. I really wanted this to work, so I was going to give it the old college try.

  I went much slower this time; slow enough that one of the tutelar hit me, causing a small black chunk to appear in my HP bar. “Ow,” I said, even though the Pain debuff didn’t pop. This run, however, proved to be effective and the cluster followed me all the way to the next cluster. If they started to slow down, I would stop and let one of them hit me, and it would reignite their hate. This was going to be so much fun.

  I repeated this process with all the clusters, until I had a nice train following me, and a decent set of abrasions. Every now and then I’d stop and let them hit me to keep them interested, then I got to run some more. It was basically the worst game of tag you’ve ever played. As I led them all off, I got what I assumed was a thankful ping on the mini-map. I hoped that meant the team was going to engage the boss.

  In the meantime, there I was with a raging herd of weird elemental creatures chasing me, zig-zagging across the strangely naked forest, having to stop every so often and get hit in the face or wherever by a rock or stick just to keep their attention. I was having flashbacks of my chase on the way to the army of zombies Tim had gathered. The bison had wrecked me, and I’d had to die A LOT to make it through that mess. This time, thankfully, I just got to be mildly beaten every so often. Why did I keep doing this to myself?

  I was beginning to tire out, my Stamina not getting enough time to recharge in my brief stops, and I was really wishing I had some kind of teleport ability. Then I tripped and got to remember that I did have a teleport ability. It just required that I die first.

  The funny thing about being beaten to death by a tornado of rocks is that it’s not really funny at all. The Pain debuff flared like one of those people that calls themselves your friend, but you find them so annoying that you try to avoid and ignore them no matter how many times they text or call or come around. So that was nice.

  At least I got to see a very welcome message before I died.

  Your party has slain a Genius Loci!

  You are too far away to gain experience.

  Chapter 12

  The blackness of death faded to the Adjudicators temple; the main temple, not an antechamber, thank goodness. Nothing had changed. It was still dark stone cathedral walls stretching up into infinity, dotted with alcoves that were filled with lit sconces. The massive stained-glass window in the center of the building was lit once again with the light of galaxies, and there on the throne of black stone sat the Adjudicator.

  The Adjudicators features, which had shifted over and over the first time I had met it, were of the familiar ebony skinned man with piercing blue eyes. “Greetings my Quaesitor,” it said from its seated position, “you made it more than a week without dying. I believe that is a new record for you.”

  My plan was to play it cool, but I was already annoyed at not getting the experience for the Genius Loci kill, and looking at the Adjudicator reminded me of that little contest I had learned about. I felt the heat of anger rising in my face. “You lied to me,” I said.

  It pulled its head back, eyebrows arched, and stood up, the chair disappearing. “What did I lie to you about?” it asked.

  “You told me there was no war between the archons, but Minuitt, the Archon of Magic, told me you do have some kind of competition going. Where we are all just pawns in a sick game.”

  “Ah, yes, Minuitt. Ever the busybody. I did not lie, Hudson. There is no war between us powers.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Sure, you didn’t lie. You just answered my question. Is this how working with you will be?”

  “What do you mean?” it asked.

  “You’re going to play legalistic genie to my questions and not give me real answers. I’ll tell you right now, I won’t work for you if that’s the way it’s going to be. There has to be a level of trust, and you’ve already broken that,” I spat out. I hadn’t realized how mad I was until I started talking. I felt betrayed.

  It winced at my words and bowed its head. “It is as you say, I have deceived you. My apologies.”

  “Apologies are worthless unless you back it up with action. Why didn’t you tell me about this contest?”

  It stared at me for a long moment, its irises rotating through colors. I couldn’t tell if it was pausing to choose its words carefully or just for flair. “I did not tell you, because I... was afraid.”

  I screwed up my face in confusion. “Afraid of what?” I asked.

  “Afraid that you would choose to stop being my vassal and instead choose another.”

  Now it was my turn to stare. That was so childish. “Seriously? That’s why?” I asked.

  It nodded slowly at me. “Yes. Since the creation of our universe, all the archons have had a purpose. My purpose, however, was not realized until you viators arrived. I had hardly any power compared to the rest of the archons. I was ignored and shunned. Then you arrived and made it through the maze to find me. My purpose started to come to fruition, and I saw an end to my plight. Imagine, if you will, endless loneliness and disdain heaped upon you. I ask you to forgive me, I will not betray you so again.”

  I watched its face closely as its eyes dropped down. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be a powerful being of creation, surrounded by other powerful beings, yet pushed away. My anger faded a little. I guess even the powerful could feel excluded.

  Congratulations! You have gained a point in Empathy!

  Oh, I guess I did it right. “Okay, fine. I accept your apology,” I said. “But I want you to tell me what you can about this contest. What does it mean for us viators?”

  It raised itself to its full height and waved a hand, a chair appearing behi
nd me and a table laden with food before me. “I will tell you what I can, in the time we have left,” it said. I took a seat, prepared to listen, and grabbed a handful of red ripe strawberries, popping one in my mouth. I didn’t know if I would ever get used to how good the food tasted here.

  “The contest,” it began, “is part of our purpose. We must compete, and at the end of every year, a winner is determined. That winner is given reign over PrimeVerse until the next winner is chosen.”

  That didn’t sound good. “Wait, what do you mean ‘given reign’?”

  “That archons influence will be magnified, and any that seek to follow the path of that archon will see their powers enhanced and strengthened.”

  This was a whole new aspect to the game. A worrying one, to be honest. “So every year an archon wins this contest, and then their power is spread? So, let me see if I’m getting this right. Say that Minuitt wins, then what?”

  “Minuitt winning would be a good outcome for the viators. Each of you would have the ability to use magic unlocked, and magic would be much more powerful and easy to come by.”

  I gave that some thought, it actually didn’t sound to bad. It might be a little weird if everyone was some kind of wizard or whatever, but could also be realy neat to see. Besides, it was only for a year anyway.

  It continued. “Many of the archons having power would bring about unpleasant times. There is little to fear for the time being, however. The contest may only be won once there are one hundred archon vassals in the world.”

  “So at some unknown time in the future, enough of you archons will have vassals that this insane contest will begin and every year thereafter our world will go through a specific kind of crazy turmoil,” I said.

  “Yes,” it said, significantly less worked up about this than I was.

  “So what would it look like if you won?” I asked.

  “If I were to win, then for that year there would cease to be classes in the traditional sense. You would be able to swap whatever skills you wanted into your class skills every ten hours.”