Soulstone: Awakening (World of Ruul Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  Agony shot through me as I stumbled and crashed to the ground. I hit hard enough for stars to whirl around my head but somehow managed to roll through it and come up on my feet. I tried to take a step, but my leg gave out, and I crashed to the ground as the goblin’s rushed me.

  “No!” Madagascar cried, standing there unable to help me because I wasn’t close enough.

  “Just get ten steps closer and we can help you!” Marth yelled, reaching desperately out toward me.

  Unfortunately, he may as well have been a mile away. I’d never make it there since the closest goblins were only a few steps away.

  No, it was time to get the hell out of here. As my life started to flash across my eyes, I grabbed my own scroll. More swords flew through the air, so many, it seemed like they’d blot out the sun.

  I shut my eyes, ignoring my impending death and invoked the scroll. Burning pain exploded across the entirety of my being, and then… nothing. No death. No dismemberment. No more pain. Well, no more new pain.

  Slowly, I opened one eye and found myself sitting in the square beside the fountain. The warrior stood there checking himself over with a dumbfounded look on his face.

  “Where did you get that scroll?” he asked, swallowing hard. He was visibly shaken by his close call with death. Truth be told, so was I, but I didn’t want him to know it. Instead, I calmly glanced down at my knee and cast Heal on the wound. Golden light wrapped around my limb, causing the damage to disappear as my health refilled.

  “I bought it from Dora,” I said, gesturing to the west. “She’s a vendor over there.”

  “Wait, you have money?” he asked, looking me over in surprise. “Of course you do, look at all your gear. I have exactly zero stuff.” He took a breath as he gestured to his underwear clad self. “Actually, I have this now.” He showed me the sword he’d pulled from his leg when the goblin had stabbed him. “So thanks. I should be dead.”

  “It’s not a problem, really.” I shrugged, feeling suddenly embarrassed and responsible because he’d have probably made it if I hadn’t been there. Still, after seeing what happened, I began to wonder how many adventurers had died from the goblin horde. A shudder went through me. While this may have been a game, it could also get me killed. Expendable or not, I’d have to be more careful. “What level are you, anyway?”

  “I’m only level two. I’ve been hitting scarecrows for a while. I had a friend, but he left me until I was level five. I decided to explore, clearly it was a mistake.” He hung his head. “I cannot believe I almost died. First my brain goes in a box and now I nearly died an hour in. Some expert gamer I am.” He glanced at me. “Say, how did you get here?”

  “Is the guy who left you named Ivan?” I asked, ignoring his question. Maybe this guy had been recruited like I was. If so, maybe he knew how to get ahold of Ivan.

  “Yeah, do you know him? He said he’d just left a recruit there and seemed surprised the place was empty.” Zangief shrugged. “I cannot believe they got me with a drink full of rohypnol. I was chatting up this fine honey, and next thing I know, I’m a brain in a fucking box.”

  “Yep, same thing happened to me,” I muttered. “Except they stabbed me with a hypodermic needle, which seems totally unnecessary in comparison.” I held out my hand. “I’m Aaron, I played Kahn in Titan Gate.”

  His gaze darkened, and the grin fell off his face as he glared at my hand for a minute. Then he shrugged, his huge shoulders moving up and down.

  “Two’ Manchu,” he said, and the name made me smirk. He was the guy I’d beaten during the semi-finals. The same guy who knew Crash Overdrive. A laugh I couldn’t help burst from my lips as I shook his hand. “Thanks for saving me by the way, but I still don’t forgive you for cheating in the tournament.”

  “It’s cool,” I said, slapping him on the shoulder. “So why do you look like Zangief?”

  “Um, we get to pick our appearance so I wanted to look as bad assed as possible. In real life I’m not so big.” He flexed, making his muscles bulge. “There’s no one more badass than a guy who wrestles fucking bears.”

  “Fair enough,” I said, shrugging because I’d never thought to so drastically change my appearance. It made me wonder if that’s why there was no charisma stat. In most games, charisma affected how you looked, but if you could just visualize how you wanted to look, I guess most people would model themselves after Brad Pitt.

  “Say, could you help me out with some gear?” he asked, suddenly wary. “I feel bad for asking, but I really don’t want to die. I’ll pay you back tenfold when I’m a higher level.”

  My inner greedy pig squealed at the thought of giving him my hard earned loot, but at the same time, it’d be nice to have a partner, especially since I had a quest for Gereng. Maybe he could help me and not die in the process? Still, we couldn’t go right to imps then. We’d have to level a bit at the gnolls first, which probably wasn’t a bad idea, anyway.

  “I’d be happy to give you some gear, but I’m on a quest and could use a hand…” I let my voice trail off as I stood there staring at him. “So you’ll have to help me with it as payment.”

  “Could I die on this quest?” he asked, eyes huge and wary.

  “It’s possible, but I’m assured there will be epic loot. Besides, Gereng will teach you some spells if we win.” I smiled. “And I’ll help you level up a bit first. After all, it’d be nice to have a partner.”

  “Like spells matter. I have a four in wisdom. I have five mana.” He flexed again, reminding me of Alex Louis Armstrong in Full Metal Alchemist. “But I do have eighteen strength and fifteen dexterity so I’ll do well now that I have a sword. Say, what did you roll?” He glanced at me again. “I saw you using Heal so you must have put your stats into intelligence and wisdom, right?”

  “I did okay, nothing to brag about. My character is fairly balanced, but not too good at anything,” I replied, brushing it off because I didn’t want him getting jealous. “So you up for it?”

  “Yeah,” he sighed and looked up at the sky like he was praying. “What else am I going to do? Kill dummies for the next day and a half? That shit is balls.”

  “Cool,” I said, and even though it hurt me deep inside my soul where I kept my love for money, I gave him the gear I’d been meaning to sell to Dora, including the Big Ugly Club. Besides, in the end it was better because I didn’t want to look at him in that itty bitty speedo any longer.

  15

  “So, uh, how did you do Blade Rush?” Two’ Manchu asked me as we exited the gate and stepped onto the grassy plain outside the Town of Silver Gables. I’d managed to get Gereng to haste him when I’d told Gereng he was going to help me with the quest. The old man had just sighed and done it. Evidently, he didn’t think much of the barbarian. That made two of us.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, glancing at him. He was nearly a head taller than me and looked totally ridiculous dressed in kobold robes, gnollish chainmail, and leather boots. I, unfortunately, hadn’t had a second goblin helmet to sell him. Still, hopefully the Big Ugly Club would make up for it. That and his muscles.

  Then again, I was physically stronger than him thanks to stats. I still hadn’t told him about my all twenties, and I wasn’t sure I was going to. It wouldn’t do to make him pissed at me this early on. After I completed the quest for Gereng, I’d think about it. Then probably not decide to tell him. It was always good to keep your strengths on the down low, anyway. There was less chance of you dying horribly to an ambush that way.

  “How did you use the skill Blade Rush? I saw you using it. That’s the rogue move from Titan Gate, right?” he asked, the big club leaning against one shoulder as we stepped onto the battlefield. Amazingly, he made the weapon look small with his bulk. Only, as we did, Marth glanced at me from his perch by the gate.

  “Hey, Kahn,” he said, looking at me like he wanted to tell me something. “Hey, uh, big guy who Kahn saved.”

  “Hey,” I replied, and as I turned toward him. “What’s up?”<
br />
  “Oh, nothing.” He grinned at me. “It’s just that I saw a gremlin sneak up and take your goblin drops. He went through the bushes. You might be able to catch him if you’re quick. You’re probably twice as strong as him, but gremlins are fast buggers so try to sneak up on him or you’ll never get close. He’ll be gone faster than a bunny after Easter morning.”

  “Sweet!” I said, waving at him as I moved off in the direction he’d indicated. If we could recover the drops, that’d mean more loot for me and a helmet for Two’ Manchu.

  I was a bit wary because the last few times I’d gone hunting, I’d nearly gotten owned by a random boss monster, but Two’ Manchu could really use the helmet, and I wasn’t going near the goblin horde if I could help it. At least, not until I was way higher level.

  “Weird. I didn’t know the NPCs were friendly,” Two’ Manchu said, glancing at me as we headed into the forest. “That’s the second time they treated you like you guys were old drinking buddies.”

  “Yeah, I decided to be nice to them, and now they help me out.” I shrugged. “Kindness, who knew?”

  “I tried talking to that guard by the scarecrows when we first arrived, but Ivan made me feel dumb for talking to an NPC so I mostly just ignored them after that.” He shook his head, and I could see annoyance fill his features. “I’m starting to think Ivan isn’t the best handler. I mean, who just shows you your body is gone and you’re a brain in a jar. I mean, good job at making me scared shitless. If he hadn’t done that, I’d probably have been more gung ho. Now, I’m worried I’m going to die to rabbits.”

  “Yeah, Ivan’s definitely an acquired taste,” I said, shrugging it off because while sort of agreed with him, I needed to focus on finding the gremlins and not getting jumped by God knows what. “And don’t fuck with the bunnies. Seriously, they’re a bit insane.”

  “All right,” he looked at me for a long time, rolling over what I’d said in his mind before shrugging. “Anyway, so how’d you do the Blade Rush skill? Is there a place you learn skills here?”

  “Actually, I just did it. I sort of thought about what it looked like in Titan Gate, and it worked when I tried to do it. Sidestep worked too.” I smirked at him. “I’m not familiar with the Barbarian tree, but I’m sure there’s some newb skills you could try out and see if they work.”

  “So…” He looked at me like he thought I was lying. “What you’re saying is I just do them and they work? Because that sounds really stupid.”

  “Well, that’s how skill discovery worked in Titan Gate too,” I replied, glancing to my left where the bushes rustled curiously. I held my hand up to get him to slow down as I began to sneak up on the bush.

  “I guess so. Would you believe I was about to say Titan Gate is a game and this is real life,” he acknowledged in a low whisper. “Crazy, huh?”

  He had both hands on his club and was gripping it so tightly his knuckles were white with effort. He looked so scared, it really made me feel bad for him, but he’d need to man up. I was scared too, but being scared wouldn’t help us get our bodies back. No, kicking ass and finding the soul stones would be the only way to save ourselves.

  As I approached the bush, I envisioned myself using the stealth skill like I had in Titan Gate instead of trying to use the skill discovery dialog box. With every step I took, I envisioned myself growing invisible and shadowy. I willed the surroundings to blur me and cover my approach. I moved as quietly as I could, relying on my faux ninja skills to creep up on the bush.

  When I finally got to it what felt like forever later, I saw a small green, lizard like creature that had clearly eaten after midnight. It sat on its ass amidst the branches and was busy chewing on a goblin helmet. Green saliva dripped down the metal, soaking into the fur lining used to pad the interior of the helmet. Strewn around the creature were a few other goblin items. I wasn’t sure where it had stashed all the stolen gear when it had picked it up since it was totally naked, nor why it felt like it was a good idea to make a nest out of swords, but I wasn’t going to argue with the game.

  Being as quiet as possible, I ambled around the bush, trying my best to circle behind the creature. It didn’t seem to see me, and as I raised my scythe to attack, a horrific cry filled my ears.

  “Banzai!” Two’ Manchu cried, leaping through the air and slamming his club down on the brush and splattering the gremlin into goo.

  I stumbled backward on my ass as the barbarian raised his club in triumph. “It worked! It actually worked.” He danced a bit. “I used Heroic leap, and it totally fucked that green dude up.”

  He brandished his club as the dead gremlin evaporated into multi-colored shards. Amazingly, even though, I hadn’t hit the monster, I got about three percent experience. Was that because the game had grouped us together? I was pretty sure it was, but I hadn’t remembered actively joining a group with him. Interesting.

  “I told you it would work,” I said, getting to my feet as Two’ Manchu gathered up all the loot strewn about the bushes.

  “Hmm, none of it is identified. Can I still wear it?” he asked, glancing at me. “Man, where do you even get stuff identified?”

  “Yeah, you can wear unidentified gear, but it’s not as good as when it’s IDed. There’s a guy in town who can identify things, but I learned identify, so I can do it myself. Trust me when I say this, learning identify is not something I recommend doing,” I replied, picking up the helmet the gremlin had been gnawing on. I concentrated on the item and invoked my identify spell. A glow surrounded the item as it became identified, but like all the other goblin helmets I’d scavenged, the stats didn’t change. I offered it to the big lug. “Here you go.”

  “Wow, you’re pretty useful to have around,” Two’ Manchu replied, taking the helmet and putting it on his head. “Say, how much experience did you get when I smoked the gremlin? Because I got like five percent. That’s pretty good considering how sucky the scarecrows were. I’m thinking monsters are way quicker to level than the training dummies are.”

  “Three percent,” I said as we began making our way out of the brush. “I think experience is split between the party members, which is neat so it probably would have given you ten percent otherwise.”

  “Heh. Well, I guess since you’re higher level, that means I can stand back while you lay waste to monsters, and I’ll still level up.” He smiled cheekily at me before knocking on my helmet with his massive fist. “Just joking. I plan on trying out some new skills. Although Heroic Leap used one mana and I only have five. Guess, I’ll just have to level up with a fatness.”

  “You’re so not joking about making me do all the work,” I muttered as we broke from the clearing and headed toward the gnoll path. I wanted to get him up to level five as quick as possible so we could go after the imps, and he’d actually be of use to me. The sooner we did that, the better because then we’d both level faster. Either way, I figured I’d be around level eight by the time he reached level five which would be perfect for taking on imps.

  “Wait, I had a thought,” Two’ Manchu said, stopping me as we passed by the gate. A mischievous smile filled the whole of his being, making me think of Snidely Whiplash after he’d tied Nell Fenwick to the railroad tracks.

  “What’s your thought?” I asked, watching him carefully. He had stopped moving and was now standing there looking at me. There wasn’t an actual lightbulb blinking over his head, but there might as well have been.

  “Well, in Titan Gate, you level your skills by using them right?” he asked, eyes growing wide as an insidious seeming thought passed through his eyes. “Then they get stronger. It’s why some players spend a month wailing on training dummies even though they don’t get experience.”

  “Yeah, seems the same here. My Blade Rush is about ten percent leveled from general hunting.” I shrugged. “So all the more reason to go kill us some gnolls. Unless you want to be level two forever.”

  “No, you’re not understanding me.” He pointed past me. “The town is a
safety zone so I shouldn’t be able to kill you there, right?”

  “Okay?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. I hadn’t noticed it myself, but now that he’d said it, I realized it said “Normal Zone” in the bottom left of my vision. I had little doubt that if I stepped through the gate into town, it’d change to say “Safety Zone.”

  “So what if we go inside and practice our skills on each other until they level up?” he replied, triumphantly. “Neither of us will take damage, and we can level our skills up. Then we’ll be way stronger than players of our same level.”

  I stared at him for a long moment, unsure if it was genius or not. If it worked, that meant we could level our skills up really fast because we wouldn’t have to search for mobs to use them on. It would also mean we would be spending time leveling skills instead of our general level, but that might be fine since it would make us much stronger relatively safely.

  “Okay, let’s try,” I said, changing course to head back into town. “If it works, I’ll forgive you for taking my club. I’d been wanting to try it out.”

  “See, I’m smart too. Don’t forget I’m a pro gamer.” He tapped his head with one finger as we moved back into town and found a nice empty clearing. Then he decked me in the fucking face. “I take that scrub shit to heart. Always find the quickest, fastest way to be the best and exploit it to the fullest potential.”

  “Ow!” I cried, staggering backward covering my mouth. It hurt just like it would normally, but my health hadn’t dropped. I guess he was right about the whole no damage in town thing. Still, I couldn’t help but think that while I might not die, this could lead to some terrible torture. What if someone cast firewall on you inside town? Ugh.

  “Did you get hurt?” he asked, excitedly eyeing me as I rubbed my jaw.

  “Yeah, you fucker. That hurt!” I snapped, glaring at him. “How would you like me to deck you without warning?”