Soulstone: Awakening (World of Ruul Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “So you don’t know a damned thing about Ruul?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. It’d been bothering me ever since Ivan mentioned it before. He’d said Crash had helped develop the game, and I’d wondered if that meant he knew about Ruul too. Only, he’d said he’d gotten abducted too, which made me think he’d been innocent. Now it was obvious, he was just some schmuck who had worked on the wrong game.

  “No. I mean, sort of. I know a lot about TG, and I remember a lot of the dev notes I was given, even stuff that didn’t make it into the release version of Titan Gate, but yeah… this is all new to me.” He made a fist. “Wish I knew more. Honestly.”

  “Well, that’s just great,” I said, racking my brain for clues as I turned away from our now useless genius gamer/developer. Every wall seemed the same, and I was pretty sure we didn’t want to go through the floor. The ceiling wasn’t on fire or anything, but it was way high in the air, so I doubted it was that way. Still, there had to be a way out, right?

  “Is there like a find hidden passages skill?” the barbarian asked, looking at me and Crash in turn. “Something like that?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Crash said, shaking his head. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t, though.”

  “You make an excellent point,” Two’ Manchu said, nodding to himself before looking straight up at the ceiling. “Hey, DM, I want to roll my perception and try to find the way out.” As he spoke he got a look on his face that I think was supposed to be concentration but that actually looked a lot more like constipation. As he slowly turned in a circle, a grin spread across his face.

  “Did you find something?” Dark Heart asked, staring at the barbarian.

  “Yes. Well, no, but sort of.” He pointed at me. “It says I didn’t find anything, but I have low intelligence.”

  “You said it, Tubs of Fun,” George added, patting the barbarian on the leg. “But we love you, anyway. It’s good that you tried though. I mean, even Yoda says that’s worthless, but…”

  Two’ Manchu shook his head at the bunny. “No, you don’t understand—“

  “You’re a genius!” Dark Heart exclaimed, cutting him off in mid-sentence, which was annoying because I didn’t understand. “He’s saying he may have failed to find the way out because his stats suck.” She pointed at me. “You try mister twenties in everything.”

  Understanding dawned on me. By trying to roll perception and failing, Two’ Manchu had learned we could, in fact, make the roll. Now, all we had to do was have someone succeed, and of the four of us, I had the best chance at success.

  “Well, I will then!” I glowered at them. “Honestly, you guys are making me feel like the GM’s character who just gets added to the party to progress the plot.”

  “Snappy, snappy,” George said, and while he couldn’t actually snap his non-existent fingers, he made a good show of trying. “No one wants to hear you whine about being too OP. That shit’s for sissies. Now, roll perception! It’s getting hot in here, and while I’d like to see Fun Bags over there take off all her clothes, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to see the rest of you naked.”

  “I feel like you should be nicer to Dark Heart. Just because you’re a rabbit, doesn’t give you the right to be rude,” Crash said, glaring at the bunny.

  “Dude, shut the fuck up,” George replied, turning pointedly away from the priest and staring at me. “Seriously, I can’t believe I even hang out in a group that has someone as losery as you.”

  On that lovely note, I shut my eyes and took a deep breath as I counted backward from ten. Then I opened my eyes and tried really hard to look around for a secret escape hatch. Only, I still didn’t see anything different. I sighed.

  “Um… I’m not sure it’s working,” I said as I slowly turned in a circle.

  “Say the words,” Two’ Manchu responded staring at me hard. “Do it!”

  “Fine!” I said because what was it going to hurt? “I want to roll my perception and try to find the way out.”

  As the words left my lips, the world around me erupted in a flare of green light that reminded me of the Detect Trap skill only much faster. The scenery became ensconced in emerald, and while most of it faded away, a single brick in the far corner remained illuminated.

  “Well, did you find anything?” Two’ Manchu asked excitedly. “Because you have that same look in your eye that you did after you learned the Detect Trap spell.”

  “Yeah, there’s a glowing brick in the corner,” I said, pointing toward it. “I suggest we investigate it.”

  “I’ve got it,” Dark Heart said, casting a glance at George before murmuring something. As her blue light shield returned, she continued. “Just show me where it is. This spell transfers damage to my mana bank, so I should be able to reach in without getting hurt. If not, well, you guys can heal me.”

  I swallowed hard as a realization hit me. The hit she’d taken had been strong enough to reduce all her magic and most of her health? It’d been stronger than I’d thought. Holy fuck was she lucky to be alive.

  “I’ve never liked spells like that,” Crash said, shaking his head as I led the way to the brick. “It’s all fine and good until you get your mana reduced to zero and you can’t use your skills or magic anymore. Then you just die.”

  “Then you die because you’re squishy,” Two’ Manchu said, glancing at him. “Seriously, there’s lots of skills that use health instead, and we don’t have classes here. You could just use those.” He nodded to me. “I even saw Twinkle Toes over there use Body to Soul. You should get on that Crash.”

  “Wait, is that what you did?” Crash said, his jaw dropping open. “And you have Heal…”

  “It’s not a big deal,” I said as I pointed at the brick. Other than the emerald glow cast from my perception check, it looked the same as all the other ones. “That’s the brick by the way.”

  “Okay!” Dark Heart said a bit louder than necessary, which was probably good because it had looked like Crash was going to launch into a non-helpful diatribe about Body to Soul.

  The paladin wiggled her fingers a bit before sucking in a huge lungful of air like she was steeling herself. Then she plunged her hand into the fire. As her fingers touched the brick’s surface, the sound of grinding stone filled my ears.

  I spun to see the far wall slide into the ground. Darkness spilled from the corridor beyond, and as I stared deep within it, several pairs of crimson eyes appeared within.

  “Fuck,” I muttered as a dozen wendigoes came charging out of the darkness.

  27

  As the wendigoes came charging out from the darkness, my heart sped up in my chest. Sure, Two’ Manchu, George, and I had taken on three of them, but this was four times that number. They surged onto the grating, claws glinting in the firelight of the room. Unlike the ones from before, these wendigoes were bigger in every way and decked out in glinting black scale mail. They clutched twin-bladed silvery axes in each hand, and as they surveyed the room, their gazes locked on me.

  “Kill the healer!” the leader cried, pointing his blood-red, glowing-green axe at me in a way that made me think they meant me. That wasn’t good. I most certainly did not want to be the healer, the tank, or any member of the party that got hit a lot because that made it more likely I’d die in battle.

  A cry that shook the room erupted from his followers’ lips as they surged toward me like a wave of death. I braced myself, dropping into a fighting stance because there was nothing to do but fight my way out. Strangely, I wasn’t scared. While I knew dying was a possibility, I was determined not to let that happen. No, I was going to fight, and if I went down here, well, I just wasn’t going to go down here.

  “How do they know he’s the healer?” Crash asked aloud as I gripped my scythe. I wasn’t sure it would do much good against this many people, but I was damned well going to try, anyway. “I mean, I’m the priest. I should be healing.”

  “They must have learned based on our fight with the ghoul! Kahn is the only one who
used a heal spell,” Dark Heart said, glancing at me. The implications of that were pretty crazy. I mean, okay, I’d used Heal during the fight, but I was pretty sure both Dark Heart and Crash had healing spells too. And they looked like healers. I didn’t.

  “I guess it doesn’t matter,” Crash said as he stepped in front of the charging horde and raised one hand. “Time to show them they should have come for me first. Killing Tempest!”

  Black light exploded from his outstretched hands as sapphire flame leapt across his skin before surging outward in a rush. Crash’s health and mana both dropped to one as veins of black smoke rippled through the fire as it crashed into the charging wendigoes.

  Their feet left the grating as they were swept up into a sapphire tornado of flame and death. Bolts of black lightning erupted from within the swirling winds, turning the whole group into charred husks that hit the ground and fell to ash leaving bits of armor scattered everywhere.

  “See, no big deal,” he said, turning toward us, right before he collapsed to the ground unconscious. Part of me was amazed at what he’d done because it’d killed almost all the monsters, but most of me was pissed off he’d not actually killed them all and was now unconscious and had to be protected. Of all the useless…

  “I cannot believe you used Killing Tempest!” the only surviving wendigo said as it got slowly to its feet. The last of the spell burned out around him as he surveyed the remains of its party before settling his eyes on Crash. “Ballsy. Too bad your valor will be rewarded with death!”

  A shiver of fear for Crash ran through me as the monster charged the priest’s unconscious body, scarlet axe raised high, and as he did, Two’ Manchu leapt through the air. As the barbarian landed between the monster and Crash’s unconscious body, his club slammed down into the space in front of the wendigo.

  “You think you can take me, barbarian?” the wendigo said, shifting his axe from hand to hand. “Your audacity astounds me. I’m way stronger than you can possibly imagine.”

  “Pal, I’m audacious enough to think I can take anyone,” Two’ Manchu said right before the wendigo swung at him with his axe. Only the movement was so quick, I could barely follow it.

  Two’ Manchu didn’t hesitate though because he was too busy charging forward into the attack. As the blade cut into his side and his life dropped, he moved through the monster and came up behind him.

  “Power Strike!” he cried and slammed the club down on the back of the wendigo’s head. The creature’s skull crumpled like an aluminum can struck by a sledgehammer before the monster exploded into glittering iridescent shards.

  “Did you just use Sidestep?” I asked as blue light wrapped around the barbarian, indicating he’d leveled up. A quick glance to my experience bar revealed that while I’d gained experience, I wasn’t even halfway. Sigh.

  “Sure did. You’re not the only one who can mix and match.” Two’ Manchu said as he bent down and collected the wendigo’s glowing axe. As soon as he touched it, the green glow faded away. He swung the axe through the air once and smirked. “Wanna ID this for me?”

  “Yeah, okay,” I said, shaking my head. The battle had been won so easily, it was almost a joke. I mean, okay, monsters were supposed to be killed billions at a time, and Crash had been insane enough to unload Killing Tempest in a game where using it could get you killed for real. I mean, outside of duels, it almost always resulted in the death of the user because there was almost always someone you didn’t see coming.

  As I made my way over to Two’ Manchu, Dark Heart knelt down beside Crash and put one hand on his chest. Golden light streamed from her fingers and wrapped around him. As her mana dropped to half, Crash’s life bar refilled completely, and he opened his eyes and smirked.

  “How’d it go? Did we win?” he asked, and as he spoke, she smacked him hard across the face. His life bar dropped slightly.

  “Don’t you ever do that again, you idiot. You can die here. Like really die.” She gathered him in her arms, pulling into a hug that seemed to surprise him as much as it did me. Tears welled in her eyes. “Don’t die on me, okay?”

  “Sure,” Crash said, looking like he wanted to push her away. Instead, he took a deep breath and resigned himself to the hug. Watching her hug him made me uncomfortable in a way I didn’t want to explore, so I turned away from it and made my way toward the barbarian who was busy gathering up the lead monster’s armor.

  As I approached, he offered both the axe and the armor to me. “Do your thing, party monkey.”

  I sighed and held out my hand toward the pair of items and cast identify. Light surged around the axe and armor, and as it did, the green glow returned to the axe before spreading over Two’ Manchu. As it did, I instantly knew why the monster had been so fast. A quick glance at the corner of my HUD confirmed it.

  My haste had faded away and that axe cast permanent haste on the user.

  Identifying his armor, revealed something similar. He’d survived because his armor had magic resistance.

  “Sweet,” Two’ Manchu said, and then his chainmail disappeared, replaced by the wendigo’s scale mail. The look of its dark plates on his massive body was a bit overwhelming, and not just because he now had an axe in one hand and a huge club in the other. He smashed them together. “Let’s try dual wielding.”

  “Say, why does he get all the gear?” Crash asked, getting to his feet. Dark Heart stood next to him, her face flushed in what was probably embarrassment. As Crash came toward us, she caught me looking and turned away while wiping her eyes with the back of one hand. It was curious since I hadn’t gotten the impression her and Crash had much of a relationship, but then again, what did I know. Chicks were crazy.

  “I killed the boss. I get his drops.” Two’ Manchu said, crossing his massive arms over his chest. “Besides, this armor has magic resistance, and you use a lot of magic skills, it’ll affect you badly. You know how MR works. It reduces the strength of magic cast on a person and by a person.”

  “Fair enough, but maybe I want the axe?” Crash said, sighing. “I might like to be hasted.”

  That’s when I realized the stats of the newly identified items were visible to everyone in window labeled party drops. Was that so no one could say they were something they weren’t? Interesting.

  “Then you should have killed the boss instead of passing out like a weak-kneed girl,” George said, hopping to Two’ Manchu’s defense. “I say Tubby gets it.”

  “You two sort it out,” I said, turning away from the two of them and moving to check out the drops from the other eleven wendigoes. Unfortunately, none of it turned out to be special or better than the items I had.

  “I don’t need any of it, and neither does Crash.” Dark Heart said, and I realized she was standing over me while Crash and Two’ Manchu argued about who had made the bigger contribution. “Just sell the lot of it, and we’ll split the Rhuvians at the end, okay?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I said, making the whole kit and caboodle disappear into my inventory. My weight gauge lurched up, but not by enough to make me overweight. “How did you know Crash doesn’t need the armor?”

  “If he did, you’d see his picture next to the name of the item in the party window with a green up arrow, indicating it is better for him than what he has.” She tried to point at something, and I realized she was pointing to a window only she could see. A flash of color filled her cheeks. “I’m not sure how to show you.”

  “It’s cool,” I said, looking at the items more closely in the overview window where they’d shown up after I’d identified them. Sure enough, all four of our faces were there with red down arrows by them. Well, that was neat.

  “So, what’s through there?” George asked, hopping up alongside me and pointing at the newly opened room.

  “I’m not sure—”

  “It doesn’t matter what’s in there!” George cried, cutting off Dark Heart in mid-sentence. “Because the guy with the hasted axe is going to kill everything and no pansy ass priest is
going to stop him.”

  “The bunny has a point,” Two’ Manchu said, swinging his new axe through the air. “We have to move forward to, well, move forward.”

  “Fine. Keep the axe, but dude, when this is over, I’m buying you a thesaurus,” Crash said, glancing at the barbarian as we stood in front of the new room, and while they were right in the sense that we had to go in, it’d have been nice to know what was inside. Still, it’d have also been nice to not be in the dungeon at all or to have my body back instead of being a brain in the box. Fucking hell.

  “Ladies first,” I said, glancing at Dark Heart. “Unless you need a big strong man to make sure it’s safe?” I cast Detect Traps, but nothing was revealed so I just shrugged.

  “Fuck off,” she replied, shaking her head at me. “Misogyny is never funny.”

  “Yeah, well, neither is carving open my skull and sticking my brain in a fish tank,” I snapped in a sudden flare of anger I had to work really hard to tamp down.

  “Okay.” She nodded to me with a sad look in her eyes and she stepped out in front to make her way toward the darkened entrance, and man, even in armor, it was awfully nice to watch.

  28

  The room beyond the ghoul lord’s lair was filled with effervescent moss that clung to the nooks and crannies between the stone so that while it wasn’t bright as day, it definitely wasn’t the darkest night. As I followed Dark Heart further into the room, I used Detect Lesser Trap again, but it showed nothing of interest.

  “Seems empty,” she said, glancing at me over her shoulder. “You see anything I should be worried about?”

  “No, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to worry about.” I took a step closer to her and leaned in close, which caused her to stiffen at my sudden proximity. “Did you try to teleport immediately after the boss fight because you thought we’d kill you once it was over?”

  “Yes,” she said, simply. “I did. What I did to the three of you is terrible, and while I understand the need to keep me around for the fight, well, sometimes it’s best to leave before, well, you know…”