PrimeVerse: Dose of Chaos: A GameLit / LitRPG Adventure

by R K Billiau

  “No you don’t,” I heard Kai say as he took off after him. I saw the white light from Madison’s hand as she healed me and got the joy of hearing my nose un-crunch, which was almost as bad as hearing it break in the first place.

  “Ugh, thanks,” I gasped, wiping my face onto my shoulder. “Should we go after them?”

  “I think Kai’s got this,” Madison said as she peered into the chest. “That slimy bastard got all the stones but this one.” She held up the cyan stone between her thumb and pointer finger. It was an oval shape, roughly three inches tall and as pure a cyan color as possible. It was so cyan it seemed like it would absorb all the cyan in the air into itself.

  “Can I see it?” I asked and held out a hand. She gave me the stone and I examined it.

  Pure Cyan Globstone

  Consumable

  Crafting Material

  Consume to permanently learn the spell; Dispell

  “Consumable?” I asked. “How do you consume this thing? It’s a rock!”

  Madison chuckled. “Is anything ever as simple as it seems here?”

  I smiled at her and winked. “Nope.”

  She took that for the pointed jab it was. “Hey now, don’t go there. You know where I stand.”

  “I know, I know, I’m just teasing,” I said. “So, this thing grants you a spell with the effects from the black glob, I wonder if all of them granted effects from the globs. That confuse ability was particularly annoying.”

  “I sure hope Kai can bring that bastard back,” Madison said.

  I looked from her to the chest, and my place on the floor gave me an interesting angle to spot something strange on the inside of the lid. Something looked off. I stood up and ran my fingers over it but couldn’t find anything. I ran Assessment and a minute later I had my answer. A glowing spot appeared inside the lid. I pressed on the spot and the velvet lined tray slid up a small amount until it could be removed. Which is exactly what I did.

  Removing the tray showed another velvet lined section, this time a white velvet and an indentation in it the exact size and shape of the baculus.

  “Huh,” I said, “why doesn’t this surprise me?”

  “What?” Madison asked.

  “In the last dungeon I was in, the tutorial zone, there was a place to deposit items I found, a way to sacrifice them. Doing so opened up a secret room that gave me access to the Treasure Hunter class. And this.” I showed her the Dungeon Core in my accessory slot.

  “What’s that do?” she asked.

  “I don’t know yet. Anyway, I think we have to sacrifice this thing and maybe we can get more loot.” I wiggled the baculus at her.

  “But then you won’t have your cool magic weapon anymore!” she said.

  “Yeah, well, we don’t have to sacrifice it. In the last dungeon I could have completed it and kept all the items I found, but I would not have gotten the class or this core, which I am hoping is something awesome when I figure out how to use it.” I looked at the velvet lining again. “We should probably wait for Kai though, it would be rude to not let him see what happens.”

  I checked the party screen and watched, hoping for some indication of what was going on. After a moment Kai’s health bar moved a small amount; he must have taken damage somehow. Then Carl’s health took a huge hit and the two bars were slowly moving down. Finally, Carl’s health bar dropped low and stayed there, and I thought the fight had ended. Then Carl disappeared from the party menu.

  “Carl just left the party,” Madison pointed out.

  “Yep, I hope Kai has him,” I said.

  We didn’t have long to wait until Kai came running back, skidding to a stop in front of us. Alone. Holding Carl’s magic dagger.

  “What happened man?” I asked him. One look at his face told me whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

  “He killed himself and escaped out of the dungeon,” Kai said.

  “What!? He killed himself?!” Madison asked. “How?”

  “When I caught up to him, we fought a little. He stabbed me with this damn dagger.”

  “Oh! Hold on!” Madison said and used her healing ability on him, the Bleed effect fading from his health bar in the party window.

  “Thank you, Madison,” he said. “He stabbed me, but it didn’t prevent me from grappling him. I tried to get him to drop the gems, but he wouldn’t, and I didn’t have any way to get into his inventory. It would have been easy if I could just wrench them from his scrawny hands. I was going to bring him back here, but before I could disarm him, he ripped the dagger across his throat and bled out almost instantly.”

  I shuddered. I mean, I had died plenty. More than anyone else in the game so far judging by the Prime skill I had earned by, well, dying a lot. I had even killed myself by means of suicide-by-trampling, but I had never died by my own hand like that. To cut your own throat with a magical dagger that makes a wound that never stops bleeding? I’m not saying I wouldn’t ever have to kill myself like that, but at this point it felt real ballsy.

  “Did he say anything?” Madison asked.

  “He said, ‘gurgle gurgle gurgle.’”

  Madison and I stared blankly. “Uh…” I said as it was all that would come out.

  “Oh come now, lighten up,” Kai smirked. “He did not say a thing. I tried to run back to the entrance to see if I could get him when he respawned, but he was not there when I arrived.” He frowned.

  “Why do you think he did that? We would have split them up,” Madison said.

  “Why wouldn’t he? The dude’s a jerk,” I said.

  “To me, it did not feel as if it were an impulse move. He was so pleased with himself it seemed as if he had been planning on stealing the treasure the whole time,” Kai said.

  “Well that’s lame,” Madison said. “We were nothing but helpful to him. Why would he plan to screw us over?”

  “I do not know,” Kai said. “I wish I had gotten more out of him.”

  “Think he was working for the mayor? Maybe she wanted to make sure she got the treasure for the village and thought we might steal it?” I suggested.

  “Mmm, I don’t know,” Madison said, “I got the impression she was a straight shooter. Plus, she had only just met him too. I don’t think so.”

  “It is a possibility, though, perhaps we should keep our guard up around her,” Kai said.

  “Well, he didn’t escape with everything,” I said, and showed Kai the cyan gem. “Plus, there’s more here I think.” I pointed to the baculus and the slot in the chest. I moved to put it in the slot and Kai stopped me before I could put the stick in.

  “You picked up the skill of fighting with the sticks quickly, do you really want to give up a magical weapon?” he asked.

  “Picking up skills quickly is kind of my thing now, being a vassal of the Adjudicator and all, so that’s not a big deal. And, yeah, it may be magical, but I think its use will be restricted to this dungeon, unless there are more globs outside in the greater world. Or if we want to host a disco night.” I busted a super sweet disco move. Kai was unimpressed. “Anyway,” I said. “I think it will be worth it. Besides, the last time I sacrificed items, I got an awesome class, who knows what kinds of things we may get from doing this.”

  He got out of my way with a nod, and I placed the baculus in the velvet lined spot in the tray. Nothing happened. Thinking for a moment, I closed the lid and a brief light shone off the chest, blinking red, yellow, then blue. I opened the lid again and instead of the tray with the baculus, there was one holding a single beautiful white gem and a single dark black gem in it. I inspected them.

  Pure White Globstone

  Consumable

  Consume to permanently learn the spells; Frost, Flame, Poison and Light

  Pure Black Globstone

  Consumable

  Consume to permanently learn the spells; Spark, Confuse, Dispell and Darkness

  I showed it to Madison and Kai with a smile. “This is nice, I think it’s a worthy trade, don’t you?” />
  Kai inspected it, then shrugged. “I have not seen any magic yet, perhaps it will be worth it, or perhaps not.”

  “I think it’s awesome!” Madison said. “I hope this isn’t what the village wanted though, it would really suck to get through this whole dungeon and not get anything for the village out of it.”

  I didn’t know the answer to her question, but I also hoped that the treasure wasn’t what the quest was for.

  When I picked up the gems, a system message popped up as well.

  Congratulations! You have 100% completed the dungeon!

  For completing 100% of the dungeon, your XP reward will be doubled!

  XP gained 100

  Congratulations! You have gained a level!

  Would you like to exit? YES/NO

  Chapter 28

  “Did we just level up twice from one dungeon!? At this rate Hudson, you’ll gain levels faster than you lose them!” Madison said.

  “Hardy har,” I responded. I was really excited about it, though. I wondered if 100%ing all dungeons had this kind of bonus or if the bonuses would be different.

  “Why don’t we head back to the village? I’m ready to get out of this place,” I said.

  “Sounds good to me!” Madison said.

  “Yes, let’s see if we can complete the quest now. I am ready to see the village,” Kai said, and with that we all selected YES.

  At once, it felt like the gravity was pulling sideways. You don’t really notice gravity when you’re so used to it, but when it’s pulling in a different direction? You notice it. It was as pleasantly unpleasant as a ride at the fair you couldn’t quite pull yourself away from. The kind where you get off wanting to puke, but the fun was well worth it. The world swirled around, shifting to the bright light of the respawn tunnel, then faded out quickly, leaving all of us standing in front of the massive tree with the portal in its trunk.

  The portal was swirling with its purple hues brightened, then the energy contained within it suddenly pulsed and expanded, filling the entire trunk like it was being colored in with a magic marker. A literal magic one, not one of the, you know what, you get it. The color rose up the trunk higher and higher and we craned our necks to watch as every branch and leaf was filled with the purple energy that then exploded outwards like the acid rain that comes down over what was once Chicago.

  The tree, still bursting with the energy, changed colors, flipping through all the colors and finally settling on a bright white. So bright it almost hurt to look at. Shielding my eyes, I heard a booming crackle, and peeked through my fingers to watch as the crown of the giant tree collapsed in on itself, the energy pouring into the trunk and plummeting down at a tremendous speed. Before I could even react, the tree had completely collapsed in on itself, and then pausing as if to take its final breath, it exploded out, filling the entire clearing with a coalescing pure white shimmering energy.

  Someone screamed. It may have been me, but there’s no need to name names. As it exploded, I thought it was some final nefarious trap by the designer of the dungeon, but we were unharmed. In fact, we were better than unharmed. The energy ripped through me, tingling and giving me goosebumps, and all my expendable pools started glowing and pulsing, each one gaining a small heart icon. I selected the icon:

  Regeneration 1,000%

  Now would be a great time to fight some more monsters, but of course, there weren’t any around. I found it odd that the tutelar and the Genius Loci were all gone, but maybe they had fulfilled their purpose as protectors now that the dungeon was destroyed.

  The coalescing energy hung on everything like frost, then in an instant turned to a water-like liquid, if water was even more reflective. Like silver water. I’m trying to say it was shiny. So shiny.

  Suddenly we were floating in the middle of a silver pond where the clearing had been, as if all the energy had melted and pooled there.

  Quest Complete!: Seek the Power in the Forest – You have discovered the source of power in the forest, a Mana node!

  Now that was interesting. Could the villagers have known this would appear? Is this what they were after? Hopefully it meant we wouldn’t have to give up our loot after all.

  You have entered a Mana node! Unlocking Mana connection!

  Congratulations! You have gained 10 points in your SuperConscious attribute!

  I was just starting to wonder what a Mana connection was when suddenly I could feel changes in my mind. It felt like my brain had just finished doing yoga; it was all stretched out and burning, wearing too tight of leggings, but in a good way, like I was ready to put on my Uggs and get a pumpkin spice latte.

  Congratulations! You have unlocked Magic.

  Magic in PrimeVerse is different than skills. While skills may gain levels through use, spells do not. Through the use of Mana Manipulation, however, spells can become extremely versatile, and new spells are always waiting to be created.

  Congratulations! You have learned the skill Mana Manipulation.

  Mana Manipulation grants you the ability to shape your spells. The higher the skill, the more you can make your spells do. Your attributes play a role in how effective your spells can be.

  Audeo – Your Mana Manipulation skill has been increased to level 10

  Congratulations! You have achieved a milestone ability in Mana Manipulation – Friend from Foe: if you wish, your spells may now differentiate friend from foe for an additional Mana cost.

  Congratulations! You have learned the spell Mana Orb.

  Mana Orb – The first spell any spellcaster should learn, creating an orb of energy from Mana. Once created, the orb can be shaped through manipulation.

  Congratulations! You have increased your Audeo skill!

  Woah. And cool. But woah. This was a lot to take in, but it wasn’t even the end of what was going on. Treading in the liquid... Mana... I guess, of the lake, I snapped my head around worried that Madison might sink with all her heavy armor. But there she was, laying on her back, floating. Kai, too, was floating on the liquid as if they were both made of Styrofoam. I tried to go under and when I put my mind to it, I could swim like normal, but as soon as I stopped concentrating, I floated up to the surface. No drowning, I guess. Can’t complain about that.

  When my head broke the surface, I noticed a towering statue on a floating island the size of a small dock. I frowned as I instantly recognized the statue. Minuitt, the Archon of Magic. The biggest difference was that this time, instead of the smart business attire she had worn in the Adjudicators temple, she had on a plunging neckline dress that ended right above the knee. It was eye catching in a way that made you wonder why you felt attracted to stonework.

  I remembered her showing me the nodes of Mana on the globe and supposed this new Mana lake had to be one of them. The statue moved, its hand coming up and drawing the three of us to it as if we were fish on a line.

  When we got to the small island, the water spat us out onto it, facing the statue. Or maybe it carried us? Whatever had happened, it was a comfortable, albeit strange and forced, ride onto the land.

  The statue looked down at us and spoke. “You have completed the dungeon and unlocked the Mana node, for this you will be rewarded.” I would have been way more enthusiastic at the prospect of a reward, but I was taken aback as the voice did not come from the statue itself but was directly in my ear as if I was wearing an earpiece. It then waved its hand and a screen popped up in my field of vision.

  Your reward:

  Prestige class: Core Mage

  Requirements: Core Manipulation skill, Magic unlocked.

  Class skill – Core Mastery: This powerful skill grants its owner the ability to use more powerful and rare cores and grants them more abilities when using cores. Upon learning the skill, the owner will now have a chance that a core will not be destroyed when used to summon a creature, depending on the level of Core Mastery and the level of the creature.

  Do you accept? YES/NO

  That was quite the reward. But before
I could get too excited, I needed to know what a prestige class was, and if it would interfere with my vassalhood.

  “Minuitt, if that’s you, I, uh, have a question about this reward.” I waited a second, then continued. “Will this new class disrupt my connection with the Adjudicator? Even if it’s not you, I’m sure you’re watching through it somehow. Tell me what a prestige class is. Please.”

  “Uh, Hudson, wha-” Madison said, but the statue moved, waving its hand and another screen popped up for me, and I assumed based on the silence of my friends, for them as well.

  Prestige class – A prestige class may be earned when meeting certain criteria, the right combination of attributes, skills, and/or spells. A prestige class exists in addition to a base class and may be removed at a future time. If a prestige class is removed, the prestige class skill is lost, and cannot be recovered unless the prestige class is obtained again. If this happens, it starts back at level 1. Prestige classes grant a special prestige class skill, a skill unique to that prestige class in addition to an additional Class skill slot, an additional Personal skill slot, and an additional Secondary skill slot.

  “Thank you,” I told the statue. Then I freaked out a little. I did one of those little sprinting in place numbers and jumped up and punched the air. Prestige classes were awesome! Getting a unique skill was great, but to get that and an additional skill slot for Class, Personal and Secondary skills was way more than I could have hoped for. I mentally slapped that YES button as hard as I could.

  Congratulations! You have gained a prestige class!

  For unlocking a prestige class you have earned a free skill rearrangement, would you like to use it now? YES/NO

  Audeo: Your Core Mastery skill has been increased to level 10.

  Milestone ability unlocked! Effective Summoning – You may apply any status effect you have learned through spells or abilities to your summoned creature.