The Road East (Epic LitRPG Adventure - Book 2) (Fayroll)

by Andrey Vasilyev

  I don’t think our three really had to put much effort into the fight, and they barely used their swords. All they had to do was smack the nagas in the head with their steel-encased fists. The crowd was gone in all of a minute, leaving us to walk forward around the bodies I had been so nervous about.

  “Hey, kiddies, don’t forget to pick up the trophies,” said Milly Re, speaking down to us. “Don’t be lazy; you’ll get something out of it, too!”

  When were we ever too lazy to collect goodies? Especially when there were that many of them! Gold happily tinkled into our pockets, and every third dead naga had some kind of item. After the first fight, I found myself with a very nice shield I didn’t really need but knew I could sell. Judging by the faces of my compatriots, they were pleased with the turn of events, as well.

  As we collected the trophies, our lethal force tramped onward and, judging by the noise they made, came up against a new wave of snake people.

  “Hurry, catch up,” said Milly, turning back and barely missing a sword swinging at her. One of the nagas had managed to wriggle between the giants and slither over to her.

  “Oh, really?” hissed Milly, sounding more snakelike than the nagas. She exploded in a blindingly fast succession of strikes. By the time we got to her, the body of her foe lay spread-eagle on the ground.

  “That’s exactly what I’m talking about—keep an eye out,” Milly said. She jabbed at the naga’s body with one of her swords for emphasis.

  The corridor wasn’t that long, and soon we got to the entrance to a room.

  “This is the first one,” I heard Milly’s voice say. “There are only nagas here; in the second and third, there are officers, too, and Sviss is in the fourth. Okay, we’re going in, you four stand by the entrance. I’ll tell you as soon as it’s safe for you to come in. Healer, be ready in case anything happens. Who knows…”

  We formed a rectangle near the entrance of what looked to be a pretty big room. None of us risked sticking a head in, though we could still sort of see and could definitely hear what was going on.

  Our titans ground nagas into oatmeal, their yells and shouts echoing back through the tunnel where we were waiting.

  “Oh, hey,” Dix said, pointing a finger in the air. “I leveled-up!”

  “Nice,” we all said, nearly in unison.

  “Fantastic. I haven’t even done anything.” Dix’s face split into a smile, though right then, a naga flew into the corridor and knocked him over.

  But that was all the naga was able to do: knock over Dix as he happily and serenely announced his piece of news. The next second, it caught a blow in the left side from me, a flash of flame in the chest from the mage, a slash below the waist from Dix’s short blade, and a hit in the right side from Tregen.

  That wasn’t enough to kill him, but we didn’t stop there. Thirty minutes later, our impudent opponent lay dead at our feet. I picked up some gold and an excellent helmet that immediately replaced my old Ice Helmet.

  Jolly Hangman Helmet

  Protection: 340

  +18 to strength

  +10 to stamina

  +15% protection from fire

  +3% life energy boost

  Durability: 350/350

  Minimum level for use: 42

  “Hey, are you guys still out there?” called Milly Re. “You can come in.”

  We walked into the room to see our high-level friends killing the last of the nagas at the other end. The walls were decorated with some kind of unsettling paintings showing nagas slaughtering all the free races of Fayroll: humans, elves, dwarves, and bug-eyed creatures also walking on two legs that I’d never come across before.

  “Watch where you’re walking, there are traps here,” warned Milly again. “Those oafs triggered most of them, but still be careful. You, over there, get to work. Only worry about the traps on the way to those chests.”

  She pointed the scout in the direction of two chests standing up against one of the walls. Tregen gathered himself and walked toward them in careful, measured steps. By that time, the nagas had been killed off and the warriors had walked back to where we were.

  “How are we going to decide who opens the chests?” asked Dix, drooling in anticipation. “And, what can you get from them?”

  “It’s completely random,” boomed Nox. “You never know. As far as opening them, there are four rooms with two chests each—eight total, so we each get one.”

  “Without trading or showing off,” added Milly immediately, “so we don’t have any arguments.”

  “What arguments, baby?” smirked Erador. “I’m more worried about the order—who’s first, who’s second? Rock-paper-scissors?”

  “That takes too long,” I said.

  I was more concerned about how long we were taking than any of the others, given the fact that I was hoping for that extra bonus.

  “Oh, come on. The scout is first, of course. And then…” Milly grimaced and rattled off the rest, pointing at each of us in turn. Eeny, meeny…

  She counted off everyone using a different rhyme each time. How does she know so many of them? I ended up with the third chest.

  “Okay, they’re ready,” said Tregen, who had been too busy to participate in the conversation and negotiations. Instead, he’d removed the traps and opened the chests.

  “Go for it,” Milly said. “Yours is the one on the left, Turok gets the one on the right. Empty them, and let’s go. We spent seven minutes on that whole thing.”

  I glanced at the timer: 01:04. Oh boy, and that was just the first room.

  Everything happened faster from then on. Our thugs cleared the corridor of yet another crowd of nagas, which was enough for both me and, I thought, Tregen to level-up. There was no point in congratulating each other at that point, however. The next room was a carbon copy of the first, though it had an officer who held out longer than his troops and was even able to do electric damage. I thought he did some to Turok, though the latter barely noticed it. He was too busy finishing the officer off with his sword and fist, talking to him as he did. “Sweet dreams, sunshine. See you in the morning.”

  The second chest in that room belonged to Nox, who glanced at Tregen as he was about to get to work. “Hey, little guy, just worry about Hagen’s. Don’t waste time on mine.”

  “But what about the lock? It’s closed!”

  “The lock? Oh, right, the lock…”

  The giant lumbered right up to the trunk, blinked when a fire trap flared up around him and took off a faint sliver of his health, looked at the chest, and slammed his sword into it. Lightning flashed—yet another trap—but the lid flew off into a corner. Nox dipped his hand in and grunted approvingly. Then, he looked back at Tregen tinkering around across from him.

  “Oh, come on, enough of that.” He walked over to the other trunk, which was supposed to be mine, and sliced it open, as well. Something green flashed and enveloped him in an acid-colored cloud.

  “Seriously? Poison? I hate this stuff,” he grumbled, pulling a vial full of brown liquid from under his armor and downing the contents.

  “You don’t mind using the potion?” asked Erador in surprise. “Maybe we should just let the guy do his job.”

  “We’ll be here all day if we do that,” answered Nox. “See for yourself: this is just the second hall, and we’ve been here for 33 minutes already. And, we still have to deal with that monster Sviss.”

  “What are you waiting for?” Milly shoved me. “Go check your chest!”

  I cautiously checked to see if the poisonous cloud had settled. If that gargantuan needed a potion to get rid of it, there had to be enough poison to kill me outright. Everything looked fine, so I carefully walked over to the chest.

  Reaching my hand into the dark opening left by the sword, I hoped for something really good, especially given the fact that I’d collected three new items for my bag in that room. Sadly, I didn’t really need any of them, though I knew I could get a decent price for them.

  You received
the contents of the chest

  2500 gold

  An ancient scroll

  A two-handed hammer

  Five health potions

  I was happy with my haul. It certainly wasn’t bad, although there wasn’t anything incredibly unusual. I decided to check everything out later. Judging by the crashing in the corridor, our troop was already moving out.

  Once again the tunnel, once again a room. That time, the officer put on a bit of a fire show, though a few smacks to the head ended it fairly quickly. He wasn’t a bad fellow, though, as I got a ring from him. It was a good-looking little thing in the shape of a snake eating its own tail.

  Ring of Equilibrium

  +18 to stamina

  +9 to wisdom

  +12% chance of immunity to poison

  +3% faster leveling-up for class abilities

  Durability: 220/220

  Minimum level for use: 42

  I was thrilled to see that last attribute. Three percent wasn’t that much, but still!

  As Erador paved the way to and opened the chests, I pulled out the hammer. It turned out to be elite.

  Two-Handed Hammer of the 16th Hall

  Damage: 169-216

  A weapon forged by the mountain masters of the past.

  +24 to strength

  +20 to stamina

  +26% chance of doing 55 bleeding damage for 30 seconds

  +18% protection from piercing and cutting weapons

  When used with the Strength of Ancient Masters ability, 50% chance of doing double damage

  Race limitation: only dwarves

  Class limitation: only warriors

  Minimum level for use: 48

  It was incredible and matched my class, but I wasn’t a dwarf. Still, I knew I’d happily pocket the tidy sum I’d get for it.

  “Okay, kiddies, listen to me,” said Milly, clapping her hands. “Sviss is in the next room. These nice gentlemen will take care of him, and you three will stay out of it. You, however, Hagen, will have to help kill him.”

  “Wait, what?” I asked. “He’s strong as it is, but now… He’s going to be a monster!”

  “Of course,” agreed Milly. “Still, you have to. If you don’t land at least one hit, we’ll fail the quest. Ta-da!”

  “It’s true.” Erador nodded. “Don’t worry about it, though. After the third wave, we’ll pin him in the corner and make sure you can get in close enough to poke him in the stomach with your toothpick. Milly, you coordinate everything and give him the green light when he can jump in.”

  “Sounds good,” Milly said.

  “What waves are you talking about?” asked Tregen.

  “We’ll start killing him,” explained Milly, “and he’ll call for his servants once we knock off 30 percent of his health. That will summon a bunch of nagas for us to kill, and there’ll be three rounds of that. Each time there will be more nagas. You just wait in the corner and make sure Hagan is okay. We’ll take care of the rest. Boys, take your time with him so we don’t get more than one wave at once.”

  The three warriors nodded together.

  “Maybe it would be better for us to wait in the corridor?” asked Dix apprehensively.

  “Nope, the corner,” Milly Re said firmly. “We’ll only trigger him once everyone is in the room. Okay, let’s roll; we only have half our time left.”

  It was true. My timer said we had exactly 45 minutes left.

  The three giants walked into the corridor.

  You failed to complete the quest in half the time allotted and will not receive the bonus.

  Well, that was a shame. The bonus would have been great, but there was no time to dwell on that, as steel rang out in the corridor and I leveled-up before we even walked out. Level 45! Hurray! I relaxed, knowing that if the monster in the next room killed me, I’d still have the loot I’d picked up and two more levels. Not to mention that scroll. Maybe it’s one of the abilities Gerv mentioned way back when? Although, wasn’t he talking about temporary dungeons?

  Our trip down the hall was a short one, and a minute later, the guards were dealt with and we were in the main room. It was round, in contrast to the rest, and featured a throne on the far wall. On the throne, was seated a short, slender naga with a golden crown on his bald head. I figured that was Sviss himself, king of the nagas.

  He was an odd sight. I’d expected a muscular, long-tailed serpent rather than the little creature in front of us.

  “Pe-e-eople,” hissed Sviss, slithering off his throne. “You’re ba-a-ack! How you love coming to your dea-a-ath. You a-a-ache for it…”

  “Oh, he talks!” I said, impressed.

  “And we’ve had enough of it,” boomed Nox. He leaped forward, sword whirling in his hand. Erador and Turok swung around to approach the throne from the right and left flanks.

  “In s-s-such a hurry!” Sviss’ lipless mouth curved upward as he stared at the onrushing warrior. “Your death be on your own heads-s-s!”

  With one smooth move he pulled a trident out from behind him, stuck it into Nox, and hissed a spell. “Petrify-y-y!”

  Nox froze, though Turok and Erador picked up speed and caught Sviss between them.

  Milly Re stood in the middle of the room and anxiously swung her head back and forth like some sort of pendulum.

  “My s-s-servants!” hissed Sviss a couple minutes later. Almost at the same second, Nox was freed from his spell. “Come to my ass-ss-ssistance!”

  Two opening appeared in the wall, and out poured a dozen nagas slithering toward Sviss. Halfway there, they were met on one side by Nox and on the other by Milly Re. Steel rang yet again.

  “Flar, give them some fire!” I shouted at the mage, who stood frozen watching the battle. “There’s no killing that one, but Milly’s in trouble!”

  It was true. Regardless of her skilled defense, technique, and obvious experience, she was just holding her own. Seven nagas was a lot for one girl to take on all at once.

  “Milly, I’m coming!” bellowed Nox, crushing yet another naga skull with the hilt of his sword. A couple other nagas tried to penetrate his armor, but they weren’t having much success; the giant’s health was in no hurry to leave the green sector. The two other high-level players were completely focused on the hissing, foul-mouthed, spitting, and writhing Sviss.

  “Got it,” said the mage with a nod in my direction. He waved his staff and barked a spell.

  A flame shot out of the end of his staff, flew halfway across the room, and sizzled its way into the body of one of the nagas. He looked down at the fire in surprise, glanced in our direction, and set off toward us.

  “Damn it! He said ‘help,’ not attract it,” said Dix with displeasure.

  “You think we can’t take one of them?” chortled Flar.

  “Of course we can,” answered Dix. “There’s just no reason to go looking for trouble.”

  The discussion ended before it began as we met the onrushing naga with our blades.

  At the same time, Nox finished off his group and wheeled around to join forces with Milly.

  “S-s-servants!” hissed Sviis. “S-s-save me! They’re killing me!”

  A new and noticeably larger wave of nagas rushed out of the holes in the wall.

  “Turok, we could have used some help,” bellowed Milly. “This is getting pretty bad; I told you not to hurry!”

  “If I jump over there, he’ll debuff me,” answered Turok, slashing Sviss with his sword.

  “Screw that. He already used Petrify, and the rest just poison you or do a little damage,” boomed back Erador. “Go. I’ll hold him.”

  Suddenly, Milly missed two strikes that took out half her health.

  “Heal her!” I screamed at Dix. “What are you waiting for?”

  “She said she’d tell me who to heal,” he replied cantankerously.

  “Are you kidding me?” Tregen was just as surprised as I was.

  Dix waved his arms, healing Milly. In the meantime, things were under control again. Turok and
Nox had regained the upper hand by beating down a few of the nagas with their steel fists. Still, they were starting to feel the pressure. A glance at their health showed that neither of them was still in the green.

  Just then, Sviss twisted away from a cut by Erador and hissed a spell, his trident pointed at the center of the room. A gray cloud that looked like myriad insects enveloped the clashing, shrieking, cursing melee.

  “Damn. Infection,” I heard Milly say.

  “I told you he’d debuff us. Now, we’ll lose health for a minute!” answered Erador.

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Nox calmly, his metal-encrusted foot lashing out and finishing off the last naga. “There’s just one wave left. How much health does that reptile have left?”

  “We’re a couple hits away from the next wave,” Erador answered.

  Milly and Turok took what must have been health potions and their health jumped up quickly.

  “Okay, I don’t want you making a single sound,” Milly said, turning to us. “The third wave is brutal, so we have to make sure you don’t attract any of them. We’ll all be screwed then.”

  “S-s-servants!” cried Sviss for the third time. “Where a-a-are you? These pe-e-eople are killing your lo-o-ord! I’m dy-y-ying!”

  The mob that leaped out of the holes in the wall terrified us four low-level players. There were at least forty of the nagas facing the three warriors in the center of the room, and maybe even more. The trio fought back to back. It looked cramped, but there was nothing we could do. At least, that’s what three of us thought.

  A fireball threw four nagas in different directions. Two of them didn’t get up, but the other pair pulled themselves up and slithered toward our huddled clump in the corner. Another naga, this one with full health, also headed in our direction.

  “Didn’t you hear what they said?” whined Dix again.

  “Why are you such a coward?” asked Tregen. “You’re first in line when it’s time to level-up gold and loot, but you never want to fight.”

  “Where are you going?” Flar said sharply, seeing that I was about to jump in front of one of the nagas.

  “With you. They’ll kill you, and I’ll have to deal with this bugger alone. How do you think that will go?” I replied just as sharply. “We have a chance three on three.”