The Eternal: Dragonborn - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 2)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  The darkness suddenly shifted, and immediately, a beam of black shot from it, straight into the sky. It lasted but half a second and when it cut off, I saw the enemy in front of me.

  A massive Skeletal Warrior, at least twice the height of the average house in the village.

  “What in the world?” Nyx exclaimed, a little surprised himself. I quickly used my Analyze skill on the creature, and the screen popped up.

  DING!

  Race

  Skeletal Giant

  Level

  216

  Health

  2190

  Mana

  100

  Stamina

  3670

  He’s pretty strong, I thought. At least compared to most other creatures we met.

  “He’s stronger than I am,” Freya muttered from next to me, a little annoyance in her tone.

  I silently realized that this was the first time in a while that she had to go up against an enemy that was leveled higher than she was. I wasn’t too worried about it but it sure was an interesting thing to think about.

  Meanwhile the Skeletal Giant had noticed us and was already making his way forward. He held a massive sword of rustic grey in his hand, holding it up high, and ready to swing down on us. I was about to dodge when my eyes darted to the adventurers beside me, their reflexes too slow to avoid such a strike.

  Dammit! I cursed as I stepped forward and held my blade above me, just as the attack came hurtling down.

  The weapon smacked against mine, the force of the thrust enough to push me down to the floor, cracking a part of the stone tiles beneath me.

  “This thing is stronger than even its level implies,” Nyx said. “Seems like it has a pretty high strength stat.”

  Well, it IS a giant, I muttered.

  A flash of black appeared from the corner of my vision and I noticed Freya use one of the roofs as a launching point and jump straight for the beast. Her longsword lay in her grasp as she shot to the creature’s head. The elf twirled around and sunk her blade deep into the Skeletal Giant’s skull in one fluid motion.

  The beast froze for a second, and then convulsed, wailing as it tried to pull out the sharp weapon from its head. Freya held on tight, twisting the hilt and the blade for all she was worth. I watched the warrior’s health bar sink fast, but not fast enough.

  The giant swiped at Freya with his hands, but she hung on. However, she was taking on a significant amount of damage, and I knew I had to end this before she got too much on her. I used her distraction well, and shot forward, slashing my blade hard against one of the skeleton’s legs before going straight for the other. The beast instantly crumbled down, its body no longer connected to its legs.

  I rebounded from my slide and quickly shot back, slicing its arms off in one motion and sliding myself to a stop right before the head of the amputated warrior.

  “Game over,” I said and swung my blade hard down its skull, splitting it into two.

  And just like that, we’d gotten rid of the beast.

  DING!

  You have defeated Skeletal Giant (Lv 216). Reward: 30000 XP. Reward: Sword of the Skeletal Giant.

  Nice, I grinned, thinking about how massive such a sword would be.

  “You and your swords,” Nyx sighed.

  Hey, let me have this moment okay? I chuckled.

  “Are you okay?” I heard Freya behind me and turned around to see the elf re-sheath her sword and kneel to one of the fallen adventurers. I put away my weapon as well and reached out to the lady nearest to me.

  Thankfully, they all seemed perfectly fine, although a little shook up. But that was expected.

  “That was…astounding,” one of them said, completely taken aback and what she’d just seen.

  “Who are you?” another asked.

  “Just your everyday adventurers,” Freya smiled.

  I looked to the least shocked of the adventurers, the man I had talked to before. “What happened to you guys?” I asked. “Why did the skeletons come after you?”

  “I do not know,” he said. “We are simple adventurers heading to the Kingdom of Aingard. We were looking for food and water and were hoping to find it in the village here.”

  “Wait, you were able to see this village from afar?” I asked.

  He blinked. “What do you mean?”

  “Diablo, it seems like they did not have the same invisibility problems we did,” Nyx said. “I suggest we keep this to ourselves for the moment.”

  Fine, I looked to the man. “Please, go on.”

  He nodded. “As I was saying,” he continued. “We just headed into the village when all of a sudden a swarm of skeleton surged to us, and the rest you know.”

  “I see,” I said, thinking hard. It seemed odd that an enemy would suddenly attack them like that. What were the Skeletal Warriors even doing in this village? It didn’t make any sense to me.

  I turned around, looking at the scenes around us. I felt a certain odd sensation come when I looked at the fountain. I stepped up and walked over to it, curious about why I felt that way. My fingers brushed the stone surface nonchalantly, stopping cold when I felt an inscription close to the main spout.

  I knelt down and looked at it, rubbing the dust caked around it to see the wordings better. It was quite worn out but I could still read it with some effort.

  “Ikarius.”

  The fountain suddenly started making weird noises, and water gushed out of the sprouts, wetting both me and everyone else next to me.

  “What did you do you idiot?” Freya chuckled, shaking her hands to get the water off.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “All I tried was to-”

  DING!

  I looked at the screen in front of me, and the widest of grins immediately curled onto my face.

  Congratulations! You have purged the Skeletal warriors from the streets. In doing so, you have claimed this village. Ikarius is now yours, Village Master.

  ***

  CHAPTER THREE

  There was only one phrase that could describe how I felt.

  “Hell yeah!” I punched the air, unable to contain the excitement within me. I read my screen once again, unable to believe what had just happened.

  “What’s going on?” Freya walked over to me, confused. One look at the text on my screen and her eyes immediately widened. “Did you just-” she stopped, excitement reverberating within her as well.

  “Yeah,” I nodded, a wide smile on my face.

  “Holy hell!” she exclaimed. “This is amazing.”

  “Calm down, you two,” Nyx chuckled.

  DING!

  A screen popped up before me.

  Congratulations! You have earned a new title: Master of Ikarius. You are now Master of the Village, Ikarius. New options have been activated in your Ga’em Menu. New Benefits have been made unlockable.

  Congratulations! You have unlocked a new menu: Base Building. You are now able to possess and upgrade your own personal base - Ikarius village.

  TRING!

  A new map has been added to your Map Menu: Ikarius Village. You can now use your map menu to navigate through the village paths.

  DING!

  Congratulations! Your new title: Master of Ikarius, provides you with additional stat bonuses. +1% to all stats while within the vicinity of your village. +1% Health Regen while within the vicinity of your village. +1% Mana Regen while within the vicinity of your village.

  “Whoa,” I looked at the screens, basking in the glory of what I’d just earned. A part of me was amused. I was a level 500+ Eternal with the title of Phantom Lord, and here I was, happy that I’d become master of a small village out in the middle of nowhere.

  Of course, everything else around me was normal at the moment. The adventurers from before still seemed to be easing out of the situation they’d just been in, and Freya had moved next to them without me even noticing, chatting for a bit and taking care of them too. I was about to go join them but my plans were interrupted
by the voice in my head.

  “By the way, I should let you know that your Ga’em menu seems to have changed now too,” Nyx said, and that reminder excited me enough to drop everything else. I quickly swiped my finger through the air, sliding my Ga’em menu open. However instead of five icons showing up, there was now a sixth one, one with a castle design placed right below the first one which was my Player menu icon.

  I tapped on the castle icon and a new screen popped open. It had the word ‘Base’ at the top, and beneath it was a list, though only option had text on it.

  Ikarius Village, I read and tapped on it, summoning another screen in front of me.

  Status

  Upgrades

  Mass Inventory

  Special Skills

  I tapped on Status and a new screen, similar to my own status screen, popped up.

  Base Name

  Ikarius

  Level

  1 (0% to next level)

  Defenses

  5

  Mana Reservoir

  5

  Population

  1

  Happiness

  None

  Reputations

  None

  Special Effects

  +1% to all stats

  +1% to Mana Regen

  +1% to Health Regen

  Place of Power

  None

  Allies

  None

  Enemies

  None

  Founder

  Zoran Diablo

  Assigned Leaders

  None

  “Happiness. None,” Nyx chuckled.

  Well that’s because I don’t even have a proper population right now, I mumbled.

  “Excuses,” he scoffed playfully.

  Yeah yeah, I smiled as I closed the screen and went into the ‘Special Skills’ screen instead.

  Skill Name

  Level

  Buffs

  Mirror Shield

  Level 1 (9% to next level)

  Renders village invisible to enemies. Effect wears off if any damage is inflicted on it

  That’s why we weren’t able to see the village before, I realized, recalling the place had become visible only after I’d attacked what we’d dubbed an ‘invisible wall’ back then. I thought of how the adventurers had said they’d seen the village from afar and decided to come in.

  “It seems to me that was probably because the Skeletal Warriors had already taken down the shield,” Nyx said. “The barrier must have regenerated between when the Skeletons took it down and when we arrived. That’s why it was up when we got here.”

  That would make sense, I thought. I still found it super neat that villages could have these sorts of things embedded into them. I couldn’t help but wonder what other kinds of skills a base could earn, and my mind immediately started fantasizing, getting excited about the untold possibilities already.

  “Village Master, are you done being a giddy child?” Freya chuckled as she walked up to me, the adventurers right behind her.

  “Fine, fine,” I smiled, closing the screen in front of me.

  “We just wanted to say thank you once more before we headed off,” the man said.

  “Ah, you’re leaving already?” I asked.

  “Yes,” the lady beside him responded. “We must get back to the Kingdom soon. And we do not wish to impose on you any longer.”

  DING!

  You have been offered a quest: Journey with the Adventurers. Accompany the adventurers on their path back to the Kingdom of Aingard. Ensure that they reach their destination safely. Reward: ???

  I stared at the screen, confused for a second, and turning even more confused when I saw what my reward was.

  Question marks? I asked.

  “Well that’s certainly new,” Nyx said, a tad concerned himself.

  “What happened?” Freya asked, leaning over to glance at my screen.

  “I just got a quest,” I said.

  “Well, that’s nice. Why do you look so confused then?”

  “Because look at the reward I’m supposed to get,” I said, shifting a bit so she could see my screen better.

  She read through the text. “Okay, that’s weird.”

  “What’s weird?” the man asked, peering over our shoulders.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I sighed, closing down my screen and turning around to face him and his companions.

  “Soo...Do you want to take up the quest?” Freya asked me.

  I sighed. “Normally, no, but that reward section has me very curious now.”

  “That’s understandable,” she smiled, as though she knew all along that this is what I’d say. “Although,” her face changed a bit, and her voice went into more of a hushed whisper. “Are you sure you want to go back to Aingard? We’ve spent weeks avoiding that place.”

  “I know,” I paused. “But I think it’s worth doing it if I’m this curious about the quest screen. Either way I think I’m strong enough now to be able to take care of myself in the event the Kingdom does attack me. Plus, I could always run away if something bad did happen.”

  “Do you really want to go that bad?” she asked. “We came all this way because Ijyela finally had a breakthrough after three months. Remember? She said this place might help us with breaking the second part of your Seal of the Eternal. Maybe we should just focus on figuring that out for the time being.”

  “Ah,” I looked at her.

  Since my battle with the Dark Lord, Ijyela, I and Freya had spent countless hours trying to figure out this entity called the Seal of the Eternal. This seal was something that I’d been bound by, to restrict me from gaining my true power, and as one would imagine, it was something I wanted to get rid of. Especially if I’d have to end up facing the Dark Lord’s full wrath sometime in the future.

  Right now we still didn’t know much about the seal, other than for the fact that it seemed pretty hard to find out how to break it. The seal I was under had five parts, and each one was broken by finding what was called a Spectral Spirit.

  I’d found one of the spirits about three months ago, but since then, I’d had zero luck. We hadn’t even come up with any guesses about where we might find the spirits. We were basically clueless at the moment.

  And that wasn’t really preferred.

  “Ugh, I have to choose between working on breaking the seal and going on this quest?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Freya said.

  “I mean it won’t hurt to put the seal stuff on a break for a little bit, right?” Nyx said. “How long is this quest going to take anyway? A day or two at most?”

  Probably, I said.

  “Fine,” the elf said suddenly. “I can already see your decision in your eyes. You should just go on the quest.”

  “What?” I blinked. “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. “To be honest, I’m quite curious about what that quest rewards section means as well.”

  “Fine then,” I grinned.

  “You all seem to be lively,” one of the male adventurers walked up to us.

  I grinned. “Do you have space in your company for another person?” I asked.

  He looked at me for a second, and then a smile curled onto his face. “Of course!” he said. “Definitely!”

  “Well, that’s good to hear,” I chuckled. “You are leaving immediately, correct?”

  “Yes, sir,” he said. “To a small town a few minutes past the border of the Kingdom.”

  Good, that means I won’t have to travel too far deep into Aingard, I realized, feeling a bit better about this.

  “Wait if we’re gone who’s going to take care of the Village?” Freya asked.

  “I’m going,” I said. “You’re staying here.”

  “What?” she raised an eyebrow.

  “I mean, the alternative is to leave this village alone. I don’t think either of us wants that.”

  “Fine,” she groaned. “You can go on your adventure. I’ll take care of this place for you.
”

  “Thanks,” I grinned. “You’re the best.”

  “Yeah yeah,” she chuckled.

  I turned to the man. “So…”

  “Joseph,” he said, smiling.

  “Joseph,” I said. “I’m Zoran. Would you like to leave?”

  Joseph looked at his small group of people, and they all nodded, smiles on their face.

  “We’re good to go,” he looked at me.

  “Sweet,” I said.

  And just like that I had begun an adventure with a group I just saved, all because the Ga’em was being suspiciously weird to me again. I turned around as we walked and glanced at Freya, watching her wave to us until we turned a street and lost sight of her.

  I wondered if I could just leave my village to someone just like that. It didn’t seem like it was the best way to do it, but I didn’t feel like any problems would arise from this either.

  “You probably might have to make her an assigned leader for the place before you leave,” Nyx said. “Right now you’re the only person that the Ga’em considers a resident of the village. If you leave I think the village becomes abandoned or something, and that means someone else could take over.”

  Who’s going to want to take over this village? I asked.

  “I just think it’d be safer to assign her as a leader.”

  Fine, I said. I’ll search for the menu option then.

  I quickly opened up my Ga’em menu, and navigated to my Base menu. I opened up my Stats sub-menu next and noticed that the ‘Assigned Leaders’ section was empty. I tapped on the header text, not really sure if that’d work.