Earthdom: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Ether Collapse Book 3)

by Ryan DeBruyn

  The orb vibrated in his hands. “We would prefer a new location if that occurs. This area has no more humans that we can sense.”

  That must have been the reason for the core's choice. If it needed creatures and humans to challenge its depth to gain strength, it wasn't going to get many this far north.

  He agreed, and they made the short flight back to the Territory, where Rocky left the core near Maximus first. He wasn't sure LFD would make the best first impression, as the Little Friendly Dungeon seemed eccentric, even when compared to other cores.

  ***

  Rocky joined Smith, Zippo, and Sela by the Military Barracks. He relayed his morning's activities to the group as a large group of people filed into the starship. Smith sent a runner to wait on the Dungeon core's conversation to finish and transfer the heart to LFD's entrance. If the Dungeon wished to remain, the runner would place it on the western Grotto wall.

  “Smith has picked up all the quests he could find from this Toronto. There are quite a few, and I had to turn off my location guidance. Want me to share them with you, and show you how to adjust that setting?” said Sela.

  Rocky agreed and found the setting as Sela instructed him. He discovered that he could toggle on one or multiple quest trackers under his quest tab. Smith shared a whopping three hundred and twelve quests with him. Toronto had a very large number of suburbs, named in the quest titles, most of which he’d never heard of.

  They brought the Golem Knights, but planned to keep them in reserve. If they used the Master Class golems, survivors might see it as an invasion. The Knights would act as a safety net if another Territory existed in Toronto. The quests, picked up from the Atlantean Net, indicated a large number of groups in the Toronto area.

  Arriving in Toronto in less than ten minutes, they hovered over a single building, and Rocky, Sela, and Zippo mounted Azoth and flew down. People stared at them with open-mouths from the school grounds and the roof. They were alive, not starving.

  Rocky scanned the grounds and didn’t see a single golem surrounding the school. As soon as they landed, the fifteen survivors happily joined his guild. Azoth ferried them back to the ship, further highlighting the need for some sort of dropship. Amelia could probably provide him with one. But he wasn’t ready to face her yet.

  If I am honest with myself, I still don't know where I fall on that issue.

  The people ferried by his pet didn't look happy or comfortable to ride Azoth. Alright—from now on, they would land The Scourge. It wasn't like it saved time performing multiple trips on Azoth.

  When Rocky landed on the next school, hostility greeted him. He analyzed the man training a shotgun on his group.

  Viscilli Fairbanks

  Apprentice-Warden

  Level 19

  Health Points 230 / 230

  A few people peeked out at him, hovering in the doorway leading into the school.

  Rocky held up his hands and called, “We mean no harm, Viscilli. We are only here to offer aid. Even if you do not wish to come with us, we can leave some food for you.”

  Viscilli growled at him and fired the shotgun. The slug left the barrel and impacted into Azoth’s side. His pet roared in outrage, and a buff appeared on Rocky's interface.

  He cursed and jumped at the man who was pumping the fore-end, bringing the next cartridge into place. Rocky could not cover the ten feet between the man and himself before the next shot.

  He used Dark Cloak in anticipation. If nothing else, he hoped it would guide the next shot away from a vital area. Black vines burst from the roof and pulled the muzzle of Visicilli's weapon down. The next shot boomed out, and gravel flew in all directions. Rocky closed the distance and knocked the man out.

  Azoth poised himself to kill and eat Viscilli, but Sela and Rocky managed to calm the Chimera down. Rocky cast Dark Mend on his pet, and once the wound healed, Azoth's bloodlust subsided. Slightly.

  The people behind the door burst forth.

  “Are you all okay?” asked Rocky.

  Each individual was red in the face, and their eyes were wild. Some even had spittle and froth surrounding their mouths. He was thankful none of the people had weapons. They attacked Sela, Zippo, and himself with their fists.

  “Do not kill them! Azoth, fly away now!” Rocky yelled.

  Rocky and his group incapacitated everyone on the roof. This was eerie and far too familiar to Rocky. He looked over Viscilli first, spotting a glowing red handprint on the shooter, and gasped, “Snollygoster! I think we just found Frank.”

  What in the heck is a Snollygoster?

  They placed the group of survivors, including the ten downstairs who hadn't participated in the attack, in cells aboard the starship. Rocky, found marks on all of them. Even the ones downstairs who appeared to be in control of themselves. He ordered the military to make them members of the guild, then teach them Ether Manipulation.

  “You look like you are going to punch a hole in the ship. Calm down for a second, and let's discuss the options,” said Sela.

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a minute, steadying his breath. “I just know that psychopath is headed toward the downtown core or a large group of survivors.” He didn't have full control of his anger, and his voice shook

  Sela looked at Zippo, and Victoria, outfitted in her golden armor and fur cape, who all stood in front of him. None of them seemed shocked or upset by his tone. He guessed they understood his rage at Frankie, the man who had controlled Corsair from the shadows for Apep. The man who was back to his devious ways.

  “I went to school at York University. It is the closest option and likely to have the most survivors.” Victoria motioned for them to follow her down the loading bay door. Once outside, she pointed in the direction of two golden threads. “York is that direction, and there are two schools on the path, plus a few more in the surroundings. Should we make those priorities?”

  Sela gripped Rocky’s arm hard, and he realized his jaw was painfully tight. He forced it to relax and opened his mouth wide to stretch it. He nodded his agreement.

  Frank had also infected the next two schools. This time, they were more prepared and had flown ahead of the starship on Azoth. Victoria had joined Zippo and Rocky, riding the Chimera, while Sela returned to the ship for a time. Azoth didn't struggle at all with the armor-clad woman, but a sharing the ride with a plate-wearing individual was far from comfortable for anyone.

  At the next school, Rocky had summoned his Shadow Clone as soon as they touched down. His second self had entered Stealth instantly. If Rocky hadn't felt the connection, he would have thought the skill hadn't worked. Zippo had used his Barrier skill, and Victoria had taken the lead.

  This group of survivors had multiple handguns, shotguns, and even a few M3's. Azoth stood behind Zippo, and when they opened fire, the bullets pinged off the barrier spell in front of them.

  Victoria raised an arm in front of her visor, and the bullets flattened themselves on the armor before dropping to the ground. The force and momentum of the shots died, absorbed by some skill of the tank.

  One after another, the gunmen slumped to the ground. Rocky’s clone flashed into view behind each one and ragdolling a target for a brief second before vanishing again. Fixated on Zippo, Azoth, and Victoria, none of the survivors noticed the Clone, until only two remained.

  The two remaining gunmen ran dry on handgun ammo at the same time. They looked around, eyes wild. One of them spotted Rocky's clone as it drove a fist into the shooter’s jaw. The other one pulled out a grenade as his friend collapsed.

  Rocky sent a single Dark Blade stack at the man's arm. He had tracked the fighting and attempted to condense the attack, so as not to hit any of the fallen fighters. His blade sliced through the man’s arm with ease, and continued to remove a large triangle out of the doorway. The concrete and metal door slid, as if in slow motion, and a section threatened to fall on three people lying unconscious beneath it. Victoria and Zippo made a motion and the sliding stopped.
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  “Hurry up and move those people. This thing is heavy,” yelled Victoria.

  Zippo is likely using his barrier skill again. What skill is Victoria helping with?

  Rocky and his clone dragged the unconscious forms of the two men and one woman from under the debris. Rocky cast a double stack of Dark Mend on the screaming, armless man who had thrown the grenade. His screaming didn't lessen, but the wound closed over and stopped bleeding.

  “Victoria, stay with them until the ship arrives. Zippo and Sela, with me. Let's clear inside.”

  They found four scared survivors, still in control of themselves, huddled together in a walk-in freezer. It had long since warmed to room temperature without power.

  “Where did you get all the weapons? How long ago was Frank here?” asked Rocky.

  None of them admitted to knowing Frank. The group stammered out responses to his questions, occasionally talking over each other.

  “We have four police officers with us. They had raided their precinct right after waking up—Who is Frank?—The others grew more and more aggressive—they kept saying that we needed to go attack the University—Cecil came by and saved us from the golems—he said the nearby University was killing humans for food.”

  That was all Rocky needed to hear. He remembered Frank's ability to change his class name and assumed he had done the same with his name. The group had confirmed that they knew the Analyze skill.

  Once the ship landed, he found out that the other school had been visited by a man named George, who had told them similar stories. Rocky’s jaw tightened again, and he forced himself to relax it.

  At least they had arrived early enough to save these people. The man's arm may not grow back, but it was better than blowing himself up.

  They found eight more schools in the area. Frank hadn't visited three of them. Of the five remaining, three of the groups attacked them. Two schools had met a traveler within the last two days and were still cognizant. They were marked but hadn't yet succumbed to Frank’s machinations.

  He just hoped that Frank hadn't infiltrated their next stop—York University. If that happened, they were about to fly into something very different than a rescue.

  Rocky vibrated with impatience as he discussed possible strategies to deal with potential large-scale defenses at the University with Victoria, Sela, and Zippo. “What if we bring the Golem Knights with us? They should easily be able to withstand all attacks, right?” Zippo asked.

  “They would be able to withstand attacks, but there are two issues with that. First, that looks like an invasion of golems, which puts them against us, even if they aren't Frankie’d. Secondly, the Golem Knights can't respond to an attack without completely destroying the individuals doing the attacking. They are just too strong,” Victoria said.

  The same problem existed with bringing the military with them. There were just too many unknowns, and avoiding being labeled as hostile was prudent. Rocky chose to go with Victoria, Zippo, Sela, and Azoth.

  The flight to the York University campus was interesting. It was a vast complex, and several of the educational buildings still stood, but because the University had also contained numerous residences, massive bare patches also existed. Likely the result of student housing converted to Golems.

  The saving grace for the inhabitants seemed to be the campus size. While golems attempted to surround the space and 'protect' the humans inside, there were huge gaps between the skyscraper-sized creatures. Battle had marred the concrete, wooden, and earthy surfaces of some of the golems.

  They landed on the Lillian Meighen Wright Centre, as indicated by the sign in front of the most central building that Rocky could see. Four two-person teams stood watch over the four cardinal directions on the roof. When one pair noticed the massive Chimera, a few ballistic shots rang out. Zippo flung up a prepared shield, causing the bullets to ricochet. Using his dual casting, he simultaneously shot a fireball into the air. They hoped this would signal the individuals to stop firing, but other groups had run over, and a few ionized bolts from laser weaponry joined the ballistics.

  Zippo ignited his skill into a firework and shot off two more fireballs as sweat broke out on his forehead.

  Worried for the young man, Rocky whispered, “Come on, get the message. Notice none of the fireballs are hurtling at you.”

  One of the later arrivals ran through the line, lowering the muzzles of the others, and Zippo sighed with relief. That same relief washed over Rocky’s shoulders, raising goosebumps on his skin. First part completed successfully. He crossed his fingers, hoping the next would go as smoothly.

  Azoth landed on the roof, and the weapons trained back up. The humans slid off his back with their hands raised, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

  One of the survivors yelled, “Who was setting off the fireworks? Our enemies are going to think we are fighting! You might have just instigated an attack.”

  “Umm, we are sorry—we were hoping to show you we meant no harm. What enemies?” asked Rocky.

  Chapter Thirty

  Rocky and Sela stood in a large meeting room. They were the only ones standing, and were surrounded by strict-looking older men and women. The group of elders sat quietly at a hollow open square desk in leather business chairs. Dana Farth, former President of York University, took his position as head of the meeting and sat in the centre of the front table.

  Within seconds of meeting each other, Dana Farth had instantly upset Rocky and Sela by insisting that they use his full name. He had further been the only person in the boardroom that spoke. Yes, an entire boardroom of smarmy executives still in charge of the survivors at York University. The fact that the highest level amongst them was eight spoke to how idiotic that notion was.

  How can you lead people, if you don’t even know what it was like outside?

  “How do we know that you and your ship aren’t with the other factions?” The white-haired mousy looking man, Dana Farth, asked for the third time.

  Rocky ground his teeth together. “Wouldn’t your enemies just bombard you from the sky with a weapon like that?”

  Dana Farth was either senile or so paranoid that he kept hoping to catch Rocky in a lie.

  At least he’d gleaned a bit of information from the exchanges, frustrating as they were. There were three factions within Toronto. One for each University—Ryerson, University of Toronto, and York. Multiple smaller factions resided within hospitals, local schools, and libraries, but the big three players were the extensive campuses of survivors. If he wasn’t mistaken, they also were the most violent toward each other, and many of the smaller groups tried to avoid them.

  Dana Farth constantly repeated himself, like a true politician, spewing empty words. It was painful to extract anything worthwhile from him, and Rocky had to string together the bits of information as best as he could. York was the weakest, or perhaps the least active in the conflicts. Damaged golems outside the campus walls suggested that other factions had attacked and failed. It was more likely that they avoided defeat through golem intervention. Sheer luck.

  York held on by a tenuous thread instead of grabbing the one Rocky offered to escape this situation.

  “Well, thanks to your firework display, an attack is likely already on route. The only way you can fix this problem is to provide support. Leave your starship here for a week—”

  “A week!” Rocky exclaimed.

  The next hour was far less exciting. The Board of Directors had tried to pull the ‘go big and pare down’ tactic of negotiations. Unfortunately for them, Sela was pretty good at this.

  He exited the meeting hall, and looked for something to hit. Those old men were willing to be his allies? He was trying to save people, and if they didn’t need his help—why would he leave his starship here? He found a concrete pillar.

  Now my fist hurts.

  Sela pointed at the door, her face flushed. “Those pompous politicians are trying to blackmail us? We can just leave at any time. We don’t
need to stay.”

  Twenty thousand people resided on campus. Rocky wanted to abandon the morons from the meeting. But he couldn’t bring himself to abandon that many innocent lives, if an attack really was coming.

  Additionally, the Board of Directors claimed they could convince Ryerson to ally with them—with Rocky’s support. And Ryerson had even more survivors.

  That was the real reason for them wanting the starship on display. It solidified their position, allowed them to bargain, and even collect some of the surrounding outliers. According to the discussions, they would advertise the ship as an escape to safety over the next week.

  A Territory sat in the middle of the downtown core. It was situated where the Gardens Conservatory used to reside, and it complicated matters.

  “It sounds like the University of Toronto is being aggressive in its expansion. I don’t buy all the nonsense about an imminent attack, but I do think that the presence of the starship may entice small groups of survivors to come here. We can make quick night trips back to the Grotto for anyone who wants to join the Guild,” said Rocky.

  “Zippo has gone to check on their food stores, as well as spread the word about Algonquin Grotto. At least they are willing to let the Non-Power Classes leave to safety for the most part. Do you think we can capture this Territory?” Sela slowed down her walk, forcing the assigned guards to adjust their pace. She whispered, “I’ve got a feeling that the massive collection of exotic animals from that ‘Zoo’ is also a Territory, just that no one has gotten close enough yet.”

  The starship touched down as they exited the double doors into the courtyard. Most of their military exited. However, the silhouettes of the Golem Knights behind the military caused a problem. The shouts of fear and raised weapons surprised everyone, and Rocky ran forward with his hands raised high. “Don’t fire! They are friendly!”

  The ship's landing drew a massive crowd, and the Golem Knights stood frozen on the docking bay. He didn’t think the basic weapons could have hurt them, even though no one fired. Rocky continued to walk forward, and Epsilon whispered, “We can’t exit the ship—we are not permitted to enter designated learning areas. We will stay aboard for now.” Everyone heard him, first because the entire crowd had gone silent, and secondly, when a three-to-four story converted building whispers, it's usually not as quiet as intended.