The Scout of Artemis (LitRPG Series): Press X to Loot Book 1

by Gregg Horlock

  “Maybe this is what the bookseller meant,” I said. “He told me ‘go where eyes cannot see’. Is this what he was talking about? It’s like we’re in a maze made by a giant.”

  I heard something scraping on the floor behind us. I turned around, but at first I didn’t see anything. Then I heard the noise again, this time coming from the direction of the library. The figure we had seen on the floor had somehow gotten to its feet, and now it was walking toward us.

  Golem – Level 11

  The scraping sound grew, and it was joined by others. We watched in horror as dozens of the stone figures stood up and walked in our direction. Their feet made scratch marks on the paving as they staggered. Although they looked in our direction, their eyes were encased in rock. Their mouths made no sound as they lurched our way.

  “East or west?” said Jack.

  “What?” said Rex.

  “We’re can’t fight all of them on our own. Pick a path, and we’ll take it.”

  I looked at the choices before us. As a scout, this was where my abilities came into play, but I needed to think about it. Someone had turned the town into a maze by squashing the buildings together. Whether that was through magic or by brute strength I didn’t know, but both possibilities were equally as terrifying.

  Either way, every maze had an exit. And I guessed that whoever had built this maze, must have walked through it themselves to test it.

  The stone figures moved closer now. The scraping of their feet sounded like chalk on a blackboard. I held Death Bringer in my hands, though I didn’t plan on using it. We needed to flee before the dozen or so jumped-up statues reached us.

  “Time to send you back to the museum,” said Jack, looking at the golems. He raised his weapon and ran at one of the figures that had gotten closer than the rest.

  “That was such an awful line,” said Francis.

  Jack swung his stick at the head of the golem. Although the cracking sound it made was impressive, the blow didn’t seem to deter the creature. It reached out for Jack, but it barely touched his neck when the gambler slipped away and joined us again.

  “Yep. Fighting is definitely out of the question.”

  “So, Mr. Scout,” said Francis. “Left or right? Deal or no deal?”

  If the person who had made the maze had walked through it to test it, they must have left a track. At first glance, both paths looked the same. Grey cobblestones, cracked in places, weathered from years of use. Buildings that had once seen daily traffic from the city dwellers now stood lonely.

  When I looked closer, I started to see something else. Faint markings on the stone that appeared on the left path, but not on the right.

  Tracking Level up to level 3!

  “Follow me,” I told my friends. I turned to see that the golems had gained ground now, though being made of stone, they were never going to be sprinting after us.

  We soon discovered that speed didn’t matter for them. As we took the left path, we saw more golems emerge from decayed buildings, their blocky feet screeching on the cobbles. Their faces looked in our direction, but their mouths were sealed by stone.

  As we ran by a bakery, an overweight golem lurched out from beyond a crumbled wall. Rex swung his sword, and as his blade met stone, he shouted out.

  “Bloody hell that hurts!” he said. The blade of his sword wobbled, and he shook his hand in pain.

  More golems emerged from our left and right. What they lacked in speed they were gaining in number. The castle looming ahead was closer now, but still too far away for my liking.

  “I’m petrified,” said Jack.

  “Don’t worry,” said Francis, soothingly. “There’s nothing to panic about. We’ll be out of here in no time.”

  “I don’t mean that I’m scared! When the golem touched my neck, it must have put an effect on me. My legs are seizing up.”

  Jack’s feet had turned into stone, and the effect was slowly working its way up his shins. I looked away, aware that if Jack saw his feet, he’d be worried.

  I turned to Gabriella. “Can you do something?” I said.

  The witch studied Jack. “They taught me a low-level petrify removal spell in year 1, but I haven’t used it in a while.”

  “Just try,” I told her.

  “Use the force,” said Francis.

  Both Rex and Gabriella looked at my brother as if they didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. At least Gabriella had an excuse.

  “Here comes the screaming again,” said Jack, looking at the witch.

  Gabriella focused on my brother. A glow gathered around her head. It was a blue mist that seemed to leave a dusty trail on her hair and her skin, but the witch made no move to wipe it away. She opened her mouth and started to make a strange sound; something between a gasp and a scream.

  The blue mist shot off in a plume. It headed in Jack’s direction, but stopped halfway there and evaporated.

  “Drats,” said Gabriella. “It failed. I’ll need to wait a while before I can use it again.”

  “What’s the cooldown time?” asked Rex.

  “She won’t know what that means,” I told him. “Cooldown is a word gamers use, not NPCs.”

  We couldn’t just stand around looking at our watches while Gabriella’s cooldown ended. Sixteen golems headed toward us from different directions. Even if we had weapons capable of smashing through their rock necks, there were too many of them. One by one, each of us were going to be petrified.

  “I’m petrified,” said Francis, to my left.

  “They touched you too?” I asked, but I couldn’t see a golem close enough to have touched him.

  “No, I mean I’m scared. This game’s too bloody realistic!”

  In the corner of my eye, I saw one of the Golems stumble over part of a broken wall. Its foot must have snagged on something, and I saw its leg snap away. Suddenly the golem lurched forward head-first and smashed onto the floor, cracking into hundreds of pieces.

  “Their ankles,” I told my party. “That’s their weak point. Aim for the ankles, and for God’s sake don’t let them touch you. Gabriella, how are you doing?”

  “A few more minutes,” she told me.

  “Want me to use one of my Leader skills?” said Francis.

  “Save it,” I told him. “If I know RPG games, we’re in for a much tougher fight when we reach the castle.”

  While Rex and Francis focused their melee attacks on the golems’ ankles, I set some mobile traps. Swords smashed at feet, traps snapped shut and shattered legs. One by one the golems fell and broke into pieces on the ground, rewarding us with the tinging of EXP being added. Messages flashed on my screen throughout the battle.

  Level up to level 8!

  Level up to level 9!

  Trap level up to level 6!

  I batted the messages away and focused on the fight. I had only a handful of traps now, and I felt I should save them. I pulled out Death Bringer and helped Rex and Francis take down the last golem.

  Gabriella moved closer to Jack. She made her spell sound again, and this time the blue mist wrapped itself around the gambler. I heard Jack splutter as it smothered his face, before working down to his legs, where it spread over his feet. When the mist evaporated, the stone effect was gone.

  “Well done,” I told the witch.

  She smiled. “I’m surprised I could still remember it, it was so long ago since I learned it.”

  I was struck with a thought. It couldn’t possibly have been a long time ago that Gabriella had learned the spell. Artemis had only been released a few days ago. Sure, it would have been a long time in the making, but still…The makers of the game had really gone all-out in creating backstories for the NPCs. Maybe the guy who wrote the story for Artemis wasn’t so bad after all. If he ever released a book, I’d definitely buy it and leave it a glowing review.

  “Save your congratulations for later,” said Francis. “We better move.”

  More golems had lurched out from the surrounding shop
s and businesses. I got the sense that if we stuck around, we’d have the entire population after us before long.

  We hurried along the city streets. At first, we ran down them, but I quickly put a stop to that when I received a text display.

  Trap check successful!

  After this, I began to see traps dotted around. My Trap skill was high enough for me to detect them, but only when we went at a slower pace. That said, we were still too fast for the golems to catch us. I just hoped that there was nothing else waiting for us in the maze.

  Francis walked beside me. He was a foot taller than me in the game, though in real life the difference wasn’t so great. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched him walk. I knew that at the same time, it wasn’t really something to be happy about. In real life, Francis’ accident had left him with a limp. Here in Pana Reborn, he strode along just like the rest of us. I wondered if he missed being able to walk without a limp, or whether it was something that had become part of him now.

  “I’m glad you left a message for me,” he said. He didn’t look at my face, and instead stared straight ahead, where the end of the road loomed into view. “I might not have gotten out of the house otherwise.”

  “The place was really starting to smell,” I said. “I thought it could do with an airing out.”

  “Seriously, Chris. I know what I’ve been like for the last…well… for years, now. And it can’t have been easy for you to see your big brother wallowing. You’re meant to be able to look up to me.”

  “I do look up to you,” I said.

  This time he turned to face me. “Really? Even though I’ve been a loser for years?”

  “You lost almost everything, Francis. And you got through it. You coped with it a damn sight better than most people would.”

  “It’s going to be different from now on,” said Francis. “As soon as we finish this and save Ledfield Tours, I’m going to help you with the business.”

  We came to the end of the street, and we were faced with a choice. Before us were four paths, all seeming to branch off into different directions. I knew that we had to be careful. Since this was a maze, it was likely that two or three of the paths would be dead ends. The last thing we needed was to get cornered by the golems. Although we were capable of fighting them in open spaces, getting trapped would prove deadly.

  “Where now, scout?” said Jack.

  Gabriella stood looking at the paths. “They all look the same,” she said.

  At first glance, she was right. Sure, the buildings at the sides of the path were different, but the pathways themselves seemed identical.

  As I looked closer, I saw it. On the second path, one that went northwest, something stood amongst the rubble of a building. Just across from it, on the opposite side of the road, was another.

  “Statues,” I said. I turned to the group. “There are statues hidden in the buildings on the second path.”

  Jack shrugged. “So?”

  “’Go where eyes watch but cannot see.’ Remember? It was the clue the bookseller gave us after we finished the village quest. The statues are watching the road, but they can’t really see it.”

  “Columbus,” said Jack. “You’re a genius.”

  Awareness increased by 25%! (75% until level 5)

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” I answered.

  Jack nodded at me. “Neither would I, really. I was just being nice.”

  With the sounds of the golem’s feet scraping on the road behind us, we fixed our sights on the castle on the hill. The second path would lead us there, I was sure of it. And there, I hoped, we’d finally find Helder’s Bane.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  We climbed up a hill beyond the city and reached the castle. A fifteen-foot-high black door stood in front of us, though it was open all the way. Beyond it was a courtyard. The roof was marked by holes, and rain fell and stained the grey stone flooring. A smell of dust drifted out from the castle, and I got the sense that the structure had been around for centuries.

  “This is it,” I said. “Whatever happens, Helder’s Bane has to be here. If you’ve got any attribute points, now’s the time to use them.”

  “If we had an ink ribbon, we could use it to save our progress,” said Jack.

  “Different game,” I answered. “Francis, can you use one of your leader skills to boost our stats?”

  “Sure thing.”

  “What about Coin Flip?” said Jack.

  I shook my head. “We can’t risk it going wrong. We don’t need a stat drop now of all times.”

  I checked my character screen. I had 8 attribute points left to spend. It was more likely than not that we were about to face a battle, and I needed to be ready. There was no point levelling my strength since it was already so low that it wouldn’t make a difference. Instead, I loaded the remaining points into agility and endurance. At least I’d have more speed and energy.

  “What the hell?” said Rex.

  I closed my character screen. A shock awaited me. Gabriella, Francis, Rex and Clive stood in front of me, but Jack had gone. I looked around to see if he’d wandered away somewhere, but I couldn’t see him.

  I brought up party chat. It showed Rex and the others as available, but Jack’s name was greyed-out. I didn’t have anything to lose, so I entered a message.

  “Hello?” I said, into the chat.

  I waited a few seconds, and then I heard a chiming sound. A message appeared.

  Rex: “Hi”.

  I closed the chat. “You’re stood right next to me, Rex. You don’t need to type anything.”

  Rex: “Lol.”

  “I see you’ve found a sense of humor.”

  “What’s going on?” said Francis.

  Before I had time to answer, Rex and Francis’ outlines became faint, and then they too disappeared.

  Gabriella looked around in shock. I opened my mouth to say something, but I found that I couldn’t speak. A light feeling flooded through me. I raised my arm in front of my face, and I saw that it was transparent.

  Gabriella stepped toward me. Before she could reach me, a message flagged up on my screen.

  Warning – Your subscription has been cancelled.

  And then everything went dark.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  I found myself strapped into my capsule in the gaming centre. Without even talking to the techies, I left and drove back to my flat. When I opened my front door, I found that Cal and Francis had let themselves in. Another man was stood with them. At first I didn’t recognize him, but there was a familiar look to his face, and I realized that it must have been Rex.

  “What the hell happened?” I said.

  Rex was the first to answer. “Father cancelled our subscriptions.”

  “Why?”

  “You know why, Columbus. Ellis Taunton and his party were ahead of us, and they’ve almost found Helder’s Bane. Father wanted to teach me a lesson, and now he feels that the lesson’s over. So, he cancelled our subscriptions.”

  “We need to get back in,” I said.

  We stood in silence. Jack paced the room, clenching and unclenching his fists.

  “I’ll go talk to him,” said Rex. “You never know, I might be able to convince him.”

  I knew that there was no way Terence would listen to his son, but right now, I just needed to be alone.

  “Fine,” I said. “Can you guys go with him?”

  Francis nodded, and he and Rex left the flat. Cal made no move to leave. Instead, he walked over and stood next to me.

  “There’s always the company emergency fund,” he said.

  There was GD sitting in a bank in town. It was nowhere near enough to pay for the Gossard Forest license, otherwise I would have considered it. It was barely enough to pay company expenses for a month or two. The fund was only to be used in the direst of circumstances.

  “We can’t,” I said. “It’s too much of a risk. We’d be left with nothing.”

  Cal said nothing for a while
. And then he looked at me, and he seemed older than his years.

  “You’ve always played it safe, Chris. That’s why you let Dad force you into running the business. It was familiar ground. I know you didn’t want to take over. You had other things you wanted to do, right?”