PrimeVerse: Dose of Chaos: A GameLit / LitRPG Adventure

by R K Billiau

  I sprinted out and set the orb on the pedestal, smiling as the light transformed into a beam, then frowned as I noticed the rotation had started with the beam already past the glob. That was annoying. I picked up the orb, shifted it a bit, and set it back down, but the beam didn’t reset. Even more annoying.

  “We have to wait for the light to come back around!” I shouted.

  Then something I hadn’t thought of dawned on me, and I felt really stupid. I turned my baculus towards the giant glob and turned the red beam on. A lit up red spot appeared on the creature and I smiled.

  “Guys! Try hitting it where my light is!”

  Carl ran up with his dagger and slashed, scoring a direct hit in the light. Goo came squirting out and the glob lit up red for a fraction of a second, definitely less than with the beam, but better than nothing! This was going to be so much easier now.

  “It works!” I shouted, “Kai! Get in here and kick this thing’s butt… or whatever it has in its buttocks region.” Madison paused in her collection attempts and I waved her on to continue. May as well get the other orbs.

  Kai and Carl took turns attacking the glob while it ponderously slammed about with its titanic pseudopod. I was thankful for its plodding pace, as keeping the light on it while it moved proved fairly easy. Each successful attack from one of them was making the glob light up longer and longer and finally, after a solid hit from Kai, something different happened. The glob started rapidly flashing red and began expanding, just like the smaller globs had when we defeated them. That wasn’t good.

  “That’s not good,” I said. “Run! RUN! It’s going to explode!” I high-tailed it out of there back into the entryway, Kai and Carl hot on my heels. Keeping most of me behind the wall, I peeked through the doorway to look for Madison and caught sight of her just as the glob exploded veritably filling the large room with its inner gooey grossness.

  Madison hunkered down behind her shield just in time, but the force of the goo blast sent her rolling away. The shield had left a round dry spot on her body, everywhere else was covered in burning, slowing, poisonous ick. Her health was visibly draining in the party screen, dipping dangerously low before finally leveling off. I breathed deeply in relief.

  “We did it!” shouted Carl, punching the air, as he rushed out towards the large core of the glob. He slipped in a puddle of the giant glob’s insides and fell. It wasn’t quite a cartoon, arms wind-milling, straight on the face fall, but I had to stifle a laugh.

  “What the...?” His voice trailed off while his form was dragged across the floor by the puddle, as if he were a piece of luggage on a conveyor belt. “What’s going on!?”

  My eyes widened. First from surprise. Then from fear.

  In front of us, all throughout the big room, the piles and puddles of glob goo were sliding together, moving across the ground and coming together as if magnetically attracted, and like a glass of water being poured in reverse, forming more of the smaller globs. Less of them than had originally merged to form the giant glob, but still many more than we could handle. And still more than we should have to handle seeing as we already defeated the damn thing. Were they just going to combine and separate over and over until we’d used all our deaths?

  Madison finished collecting the two orbs and ran over to us as the globs were still forming.

  Carl, on the other hand, was now completely absorbed in a newly formed blue glob. He was flailing about within the thing as if he could try to swim out. The glob looked… happy, if a glob could look happy. It was dancing in place, vibrating and bouncing. Carl did not look happy, though we couldn’t make out his features all that well. I could tell his mouth was wide open. He must have been trying to scream. Poor jerk.

  We watched helplessly as Carl’s health dropped lower and lower until finally he died, his corpse disintegrating in the belly of the beast.

  Your party has a total of 1 death allowed before the dungeon is considered failed.

  Yikes. We were cutting it close. At least we knew how to defeat the boss, we just needed to survive long enough to do it. We had gotten into a good groove, though, so I was confident we at least had a chance.

  We all waited in the entryway, watching as the globs merged, continuing to combine until they were larger and larger, when the last two finally formed into the giant glob.

  Carl strolled up to us as we were watching, a sour look on his face. I wanted to continue our conversation from earlier, but figured his gruesome death might have tainted his mood.

  “So that was the worst death yet,” he said, his tone sharp. “I’m going to make that thing pay,” he slashed his dagger through the air in a menacing way, and his face had the same grin on it I saw when he watched me die in the other room. I shuddered.

  “Yeah, drowning sucks,” I said, “is that how it happened?”

  “Part of it. I drowned and burned and was poisoned to death. I bet you enjoyed watching that, didn’t you?” he snarled.

  “Whoa, calm down there man, nobody likes it when someone dies,” Madison said.

  Carl crossed his arms and stuck his chin out. I ignored him.

  “Anyway,” I said, “I think we can beat this thing without the orbs. I bet if we defeat it on the other two colors, yellow and blue, that will end it.”

  “Seems convenient,” Kai said. “There has to be more to it than that.”

  I shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

  I tapped the blue disc on the baculus sending out a diffused beam of light, then rotated the handle to tighten it up to a still wide but more condensed beam. I blasted it at the massive glob and it instantly reacted, sending out a pseudopod questing towards the light and moving toward us.

  We charged out of the room and got into range, attacking with no quarter given. We had fallen into our roles quite well now, Kai and Carl striking while Madison tanked attacks. Her blocking skill was still low, so she took damage often, but her expendables were regening fast enough to keep her HP up, while she kept an eye on everyone else’s too.

  Carl seemed to have quite a vendetta, as he was wailing on the poor thing. I was impressed with his moves, slashing where the blue light hit the glob with all his might, and keeping the blade in as he pulled his arm out and up to inflict more wounds per attack. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought he activated a Rage skill. It was intense.

  Since we knew what to do and how to do it- and Carl’s hulking out was helpful- it was a much smoother fight and we tore apart the glob, sending it into a shaking state quickly.

  This time we all ran, Carl jumping into a roll through the doorway as it exploded and narrowly avoiding getting covered in the goo. We had time to breathe and regen our expendables a bit as once again the globs formed and merged into the larger one.

  As an experiment, I turned the light red on and shone it on the glob. The red beam hit it, coloring it red where the beam landed, but not staying lit up, as if the light just disappeared within it.

  “Yeah, I think we are on the right track guys. One more color to go. Let’s do this thing!”

  I turned the light to yellow, and we repeated the process of our attacks, this time like clockwork, none of us even getting hit. It started quivering again and we took cover from the resulting explosion.

  “Good work everyone!” I said, handing out high-fives and walking towards the entryway to observe the results of our victory.

  “Ummmm….” Madison said, “is it supposed to be reforming again?”

  “I told you I thought it was too easy,” Kai said.

  Carl groaned. “I just want to be done with this place!”

  There was a loud rumble behind us, and we spun to watch as the walls of the foyer sunk into the ground like the pedestals and other walls had. We ran out from the foyer to avoid being crushed and observed the platform with all three pedestals on it also sinking into the ground, leaving a massive, flat arena. It felt like we were in a baseball stadium, playing against the worst team ever. Or the best team, dependi
ng on your perspective.

  When the final two globs had finished merging, the giant glob stood before us, but this time instead of white, it was black.

  “Aw man,” I said, shocked and annoyed. “That better be its final form!”

  “Battle positions everyone!” Kai shouted.

  “How do we damage it now?” Carl whined. “This is so unfair!”

  We stood our ground as the glob approached, significantly faster than it had been when it was white. I snapped my light onto an orb, igniting it with a bright yellow hue, and ran over to snatch it up. The glob was ignoring the orb this time and focused solely on my team as it charged in, this time two pseudopods coming out and flailing at them.

  Madison was struck on the shield, the blow not as powerful as before, as she was able to keep her footing. Then cried out as visible electricity arced from the pseudopod, zapping her and causing damage. This thing needed to die.

  With the yellow orb in hand, I ran towards a pedestal, plunking the orb down on it as it rose from the ground. I shot it with a yellow light, and it lit up and the beam started rotating, causing no effect to the black glob when it hit. Frustrated, I moved the light to put a different colored disc in, and to my surprise the orb stayed lit up yellow. It gave me an idea that I hoped was right.

  I ran to the next orb, shining the blue light on it and igniting it. I placed it on the pedestal next to the red one and clenched my teeth. If this didn’t work, I didn’t know what I’d try next.

  Sure enough, when the beam from the yellow orb touched the blue orb, it froze in place, turning the blue orb green and blasting out a green beam that once again had no effect on the black glob when it was struck. I was on to something though. As an experiment I turned the blue light from my baculus on the green orb, and it changed color again, to cyan. This time the black glob lit up when it was struck by the beam and I fist pumped.

  My team’s health was dropping but finally we had a target we could attack and attack they did. This glob was more dangerous, but only relatively. By the time they had brought its health down to the exploding phase, our health was lower than it had been at the same point with the white glob, but not out of the realm of recovery. I was confident we had this.

  Then it exploded. Not in a shower of goo like the previous glob, but in a nova of the stuff, with enough force to flatten all of us except for Kai. The goo electrocuted us, taking even more of our health, and I felt the power of new debuffs attacking my attributes.

  You have been afflicted with Confusion, you have a chance to attack the wrong target, or even yourself!

  You have been afflicted with DeBuff, your positive status effects have been removed!

  I gasped as my vision twisted, showing me doubles of everything in the room, then spiraling around and finally coming to a stop. Gravity felt heavier. I had no idea whether I was looking at the actual enemies or copies in my warped vision. My confidence began to waver. These debuffs might not be as damaging, but crowd control status effects are always effective at one important thing: buying time for the attacker.

  In my multiplied vision, I watched as the globs made their way back to each other, ignoring me and my team as we stumbled about. Madison resisted the Confuse and tossed out some heals. In a daze I made my way to Kai. “This really sucks,” I said to him or his multiple. I heard Kai off to my right in what appeared to be an empty spot of the floor.

  “Close your eyes, it will help,” he said as I felt his hand firmly against my shoulder. I closed my eyes, and instead of having multiplied vision, I was just blind. I guess that was an improvement, but not by much. I felt Kai squeeze my shoulder. “We can do this,” he said.

  I tapped the blue disc on the baculus and started waving it around at the orbs in my vision. Carl’s health was low and I watched him get smacked in the face with a pseudopod. It was kind of funny having kaleidoscope vision for that, but at the same time nerve wracking.

  Madison dove in front of Carl, raising her shield and taking the next attack square on. I was proud of her; she took to tanking so naturally. Kai, with his eyes still closed, made his way over to the glob, getting into his formation spot next to Madison. I shone the light, hoping to get the right orb, but the beam had no effect.

  Kai took a blow, knocking him to his knees and stealing another chunk of life. He was down to less than twenty percent now, and Madison turned to him to use her heal ability. That momentary loss of attention cost her, as a pseudopod came crashing down onto her and sent her sprawling, canceling the heal before it could finish.

  “Crap,” I muttered and picked an orb. This time I hit the right spot, as the beam of light hit and lit up the glob. Kai jumped to his feet and attacked, lighting the glob up like a pinball machine, while Carl swung his dagger, hitting only empty air.

  The world snapped back to normal for me, and I assumed the rest of the team, as Carl spun around to finally face the enemy. Before he could attack, he had to dodge a flailing appendage, which despite his attempt, swept his feet out from under him and sent him sliding away from the lit up target.

  Kai had stopped attacking and I couldn’t figure out why until I saw the core of the glob float to the surface. He performed a powerful kick, right on the spot where the core was, and it shattered, causing the glob to light up brightly for a moment.

  “Look out!” I shouted, “it’s going to explode!”

  I ducked down and put my head between my knees, covering my head with both arms, hoping the stance would prevent me from getting hit too bad. Instead of exploding however, the globs outer membrane dissolved, and the goo seeped out onto the floor in a slow and easily avoidable flood. Kai and Carl jumped back, making sure not to touch the foul stuff.

  I saw movement from the center of the room. I tensed. I watched as a pedestal slowly began rising from the floor, with a gleaming treasure chest sitting on top.

  Chapter 27

  This pedestal was different from the previous ones; it was grandiose in the extreme, with swirls and fancy things all over it. The chest it held though, put it to shame. It was beautiful, the kind of thing you’d expect to find after a pain-in-the-ass dungeon with a never-ending boss fight. I was ecstatic.

  “Wow,” Madison said, “that is so pretty! I hope beautiful things come in that beautiful package!”

  She wasn’t wrong. The chest was a decent size, easily three feet wide, two feet deep and two feet tall. It was made of a shiny gold-like substance with delicate swirls carved into the sides. It wasn’t glowing with magic or anything, but it was so shiny it was nearly hard to look at.

  We all walked toward the chest and I swear my heart skipped a bit. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I looked at Madison and her eyes were gleaming with excitement, too. This was the kind of thing that really got me going. Sure, learning skills was great, exploring the world, and all the cool reincarnation stuff… but loot? Loot was where it was at.

  We stood around the chest, all of us eager to see what was inside. I reached for the lid, stretching my fingers out and filtering my desire to hum a treasure-y tune, when Carl stopped me. I was so focused it made me jump a little.

  “Hey, wait a minute, why should you get to open it?” he asked.

  I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Why shouldn’t I?”

  “Well, shouldn’t we draw lots again or something?” he said.

  “Why is this even an issue?” Madison asked. “We’re going to split the loot.”

  Carl sneered. “Is this going to be another one of those times where you guys all team up against me again?”

  “Excuse me!?” Madison shouted. “Look at that dagger you’re using, how is that ‘teaming up against you’?”

  Carl shrugged. “All I know is that you guys have been keeping me out of your little group, letting me die and be used as fodder.”

  “That is not what happened,” Kai said. “You are a part of our team, we would not sacrifice you.”

  Carl spun his head towards me. “He would,” he said as he shov
ed a finger in my face. “I’ve seen his face when I die, he enjoys it.”

  “What!?” I shouted. “What is wrong with you, man? I just-” I threw my hands in the air in exasperation. “Dude whatever, if it’s so important to you to open this chest, then just do it. But we are splitting the loot, then after this dungeon, we are splitting up. You can go on your own. I just can’t with you anymore.”

  This guy, I couldn’t tell what was up with him. One moment he seemed fine, then in another he was this spastic, selfish jerk. I could not wait to be done with him.

  Without any hesitation, Carl reached over and flipped the lid to the chest. Light cascaded out as it opened, forcing us all to shield our eyes. To my pleasure, a soft little tune played, and a system message popped up.

  Congratulations! You have completed the dungeon!

  XP gained 100

  You have gained a level!

  Dungeon completion 90%

  When our eyes adjusted, we looked inside to see that it wasn’t as deep as it appeared on the outside. Inside was a shallow area lined with dark velvet, like a gigantic jewelry box. In the velvet were six divots, each holding a beautiful colored stone: one of red, yellow, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow.

  I didn’t know what they were, but they were beautiful. Palm sized and incredibly smooth, each color was bold and pure.

  Carl grinned and turned to us. “Woah, those are cool. How are we going to split-” He cut off as his jaw dropped and eyes widened, pointing to something behind us. We spun around, my hand instantly gripping my baculus, ready to fight whatever Carl saw.

  But behind us was nothing at all. I scanned the room again, confused. I turned back around to see Carl’s hand leaving the velvet, having snatched as many of the gems as he could.

  “Hey you piece of-” My words were cut off as he elbowed me in the face, hard. The Pain debuff kicked in right to yellow as I felt my nose crunch. There are a lot of sounds that are terrible to hear. Fingernails on a chalkboard, rubbing a balloon, the word moist. But the sound of hearing my own nose break is way up there. I dropped to my knees holding my face as my palms filled with blood, and was just barely able to see Carl fleeing through my watery, blood-tinged eyes.