Realm of the Nine Circles: A LitRPG Novel

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  +4% Damage resistance

  +9% Fear resistance

  “It seems appropriate for the situation,” Keerna said. “I’ve only got two, though. Thuglar, do you want mana or agility?”

  After a moment’s thought, the centaur chose mana. “The area effect bombs really suck it out of me… oh, thanks!” He held up two small blue mana potions before pocketing them, then leaned forward to accept Keerna’s Blessing of Wonder.

  “We set?” Kalmond asked and received three grim nods. “Ok. Fast, quiet. One-third of the way in, just in case the far wall isn’t triggered with the whatever else is lurking. If it is, we stay close and push for the centre to make our stand.”

  Kalmond’s stomach twisted. The last fight had been hard, and he knew that the further they progressed, the worse it would become. In a normal game, a fight like his would keep him careful, make him nervous. Stuck in a game and with the realm at stake, it was downright terrifying. He took a deep breath and stepped out into the chamber, and the horde descended.

  In a rush of snapping claws, the cave crabs poured from the walls like water cracks in a dam. By the time the first wave hit the floor, the walls writhed with the movement of a thousand speckled shells.

  “The back wall is triggered!” Kalmond yelled over the clamouring crustaceans.

  The Noble Four raced to the centre of the room, coming head to head with a wave of angry, snapping.

  “Shield!” Kalmond called and barely a moment later, a sparkling white dome enveloped the players, landing several metres ahead of the dwarf. It cut the front wave of crabs off, though a few severed claws and one lone soldier landed inside. Kalmond dispatched it quickly with a single blow, careful not to disrupt the precious shield.

  “Three seconds,” Keerna said, her voice tight but even.

  A white glow sprang up to Kalmond’s left as Thornbark nocked an freezing arrow. A thought occurred to the dwarf.

  “That trap you sprang on me, back in the blood forest?”

  Thornbark shook his head quickly. “Four seconds to lay it down.”

  That was far too long to be of use now. Kalmond would just have to trust the younger player to fend of the mass of enemies while he and Thuglar took care of those that posed the most risk to their small party.

  “And…. Go!” Keerna barked.

  Two arrows burst forth from the elf and the centaur, at the same time Keerna and Kalmond launched twin fire attacks. The sorceress blasted a path through the mass of crabs, leaving a scorched path before them that was quickly filled with tumbling mobs. Kalmond’s hit further back, a fireball that exploded in a wide circle, decimating anything it touched. The ring of fire simply wiped out whatever ran through it for a good five seconds.

  Kalmond ignored the scrolling notifications as best he could, but guessed he’d taken out a few dozen enemies. As he spoke the words to cast another fireball, more arrows streaked past. Behind him, the rumble of more detonations trembled on his skin. Then, pain streaked Kalmond’s ankle. He kicked, but the vicious little crustacean held tight. Its tenacity was rewarded with a dagger through the posterior shell.

  The text hovering above the dead crab read:

  Cunning Stab : 15 Damage + 12 Critical Hit Bonus.

  “Never get those damn things when they’re useful,” Kalmond muttered.

  He flipped the daggers around and slipped them back into his belt, dragging his axe out in the same motion. Stepping away from his friends he swung it once, then dropped to one knee, sweeping the axe around in a wide circle. The sweeping blow killed half the crabs it hit, covering the dwarf in fishy-smelling bits.

  Kalmond unleashed the axe again, felling the brainless mobs that continued to dash forwards. A yelp caught his attention and he flicked a crab off Keerna’s skirt, crushing it under his boot while she wielded her flaming chain, catching three or four crabs with its tail and using them as a counterweight while she swung it to one side. In a single move she took out nine crabs, but it wasn’t enough.

  “Bombs away!” Kalmond yelled, then pulled a small canister from his belt. He hurled it into the seething mass and ducked, covering his face with one arm. A boom deadened his ears as bits of ichor and shell splattered him. The notifications scrolled by too fast to count. He had three of those bombs, and they’d been hard to come by. Though the blanket of enemies had thinned, he didn’t bet on getting out with any of his grenades unused.

  A wall of fire sprang up and pushed back towards the cavern wall, fizzling after a few meters but giving him space to move. A glance at Keerna showed sweat on her pale face as she put a hand to her mouth and tipped her head back, then threw a tiny glass bottle to the side.

  Keerna wiped her mouth, then blew out a slow breath, eyes closed. The power roiled inside her, brimming with life as the mana potion took effect. Her eyes flicked open, searching for the perfect spot… there. She focused on a tight mass of mobs, tracing a circle with her eyes as she pulled the magic forth. A crack split the air as tiny bolts of fire rained down, sprinkling hot death over the nest of crabs.

  Keerna ignored the rolling text announcing significant damage to the enemy. It didn’t matter how many she’d killed, only how many were left. The horde had rolled back up to her feet now, snapping and stabbing with their sharp appendages. She used a life-draining attack to blast off those that touched her, coupled with a slow-regen spell to keep her health steady. It was a risky move, but one she’d perfected some time ago.

  Keeping a half eye on her stats to make sure they all stayed where she needed them, Keerna cast another firestorm and this time, the numbers of their enemies weren’t enough to fill the space she left between the bodies.

  “Heal, heal!” The frantic yell came from Kalmond’s elven friend and she turned. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the crabs clawing at the thief’s face. His hands spurted fire, a spell she’d seen once before. It couldn’t be disengaged without a huge mana loss, and it wasn’t safe to turn it so close to his body. Keerna didn’t miss a beat, severing the whip she’d been summoning and replacing it with a healing spell. A white beam shot down from the cavernous roof and hit Thuglar’s head.

  Healing Light : 72 hitpoints replenished.

  The crabs on Thuglar’s body crumpled and dropped away as Keerna sucked down another mana potion. She was burning through them dangerously fast, but letting a party member fall as not an option.

  Thuglar nodded a thank-you as the flames pouring from his hands finally dissipated.

  Man, that was close, he thought. The broken bodies on the ground were finally beginning to outnumber the living, but he was perilously low on mana. He threw one last dual fireball into the frey, then grabbed his spiven daggers.

  “Time to get real, chowder,” he muttered. He followed up dual wielded fireballs with his new dirks, scoring spinning stab bonuses and extra frenzied attack points. His endurance drained quickly, but Thuglar pulled out all the stops.

  He fought, cursing the wasted attacks that would have taken out a beast twice as strong, but unable to access anything that would allow him to use an area damage effect.

  Something twitched in the corner of his vision. A bundle of arrows briefly popped up in his inventory. Not just any arrows, either.

  “Thanks, bro!” he called to Thornbark as he drew one and sent it plunging into a group of crabs, then roared with delight as they burst into flames.

  “I got you, man!” Thornbark called back with a grin.

  He tried to hide his uneasiness. He only had a few enchanted arrows left, no mana, and not enough health even after burning through a health potion and a healing scroll. He nocked another arrow, sending a flaming explosion into the distance, then eyed the battle field. It was a mess. The crabs picked their way through the mess of broken, oozing bodies but they were too spread out to target properly. The area based spells he had would only affect a small section of the room and using one on just one or two crabs wasn’t efficient enough. At the same time, there were still too many to fight hand-to-hand.
Growling in frustration, he pulled out his throwing daggers and flicked one at an approaching crab, watching its legs curl under as it died. The knife vanished, then reappeared in his hand as pain stabbed at his back leg. He shook off that attacker, crushed it, then speared another that had grabbed his tail with a spare arrow.

  “Thornbark, you good?” Kalmond called.

  “For now,” he answered, using his battle strike to crush two crabs under his hooves. “We need to group them up. I can’t fight like this.”

  Kalmond let out a curse. A moment later a crab flew through the air and splattered on the stone floor several feet away.

  “Keerna,” the dwarf called.

  “What?” she snapped, exhaustion clear in her voice.

  “Light me up.”

  “What?”

  “Just do it!”

  Thornbark watched with half an eye as the dwarf began to glow. He knew the spell—it was a low level blessing, usually reserved for raiding parties. It did no damage and replenished no points. It simply made the recipient a very attractive target. Kalmond began to edge away as the crabs, scattered throughout the room, began to frantically hiss and snap their claws. Kalmond backed up slowly, dispatching a couple of them easily with his axe as more flooded to him. Then, he ran.

  The dwarf raced away, short legs pumping and drawing him from one side of the room to the other. The crabs picked up speed, drawn by the sparkling light. They skittered to him, tripping over each other to get to the enticing target just one step ahead of them. Thornbark aimed a flaming arrow and fired, but Kalmond drew them away before it landed. Thornbark cursed, worry rising in his gut as the snapping crabs inched closer to their prey.

  Kalmond stopped. The wriggling mound flew to him, claws snapping desperately as they crawled over him like a deadly blanket. “Attack, ATTACK!” he yelled over the clamouring cave beasts.

  “Kalmond!” Keerna screamed, firing rapid blasts in his direction. A white beam reached down in his direction but snapped off before it reached him. The mound collapsed.

  The room fell silent. Thornbark stared, chest tight, unable to grasp what he’d seen. Had Kalmond…

  “Attack! Now!” Thuglar screamed, launching a flaming arrow at the concentrated pile of confused crabs.

  Keerna screeched, her fury rebounding off the cavern walls as a rain of fire fell on the seething mobs. Thuglar sent volley after volley of arrows, some chilling, some flaming, others just pointed sticks. The notifications scrolled by impossibly fast as the smell of scorched seafood permeated the air. Then, it slowed.

  The damage notifications slowed. The pile stopped moving. Fire continued to pelt down from above but Thornbark held back, waiting to spy movement before launching a standard arrow to take it out.

  “Keerna?” Thuglar called. “They’re done.”

  The sorceress stopped abruptly. Her hands dropped to her sides and she swallowed, staring at the spot Kalmond had last stood.

  “That was one hell of a fight.”

  Keerna whirled around to face the dwarf that had materialised behind her. She landed a solid punch in his shoulder.

  “Dammit, Keerna! You can heal that, thanks.”

  A beam of healing light struck Kalmond a moment before Keerna threw her arms around him. “You idiot,” she said, still sounding angry despite the brief hug that left the dwarf slightly pink-faced. “We thought you were dead.”

  “What? Oh no, I didn’t mean for that… I had a vanish enchantment.”

  Keerna slapped her face into the palm of her hand. “Of course you did,” she muttered.

  Thornbark clapped Kalmond on the shoulder. “Good save,” he said. “I wouldn’t have thought of it.” A warm glow settled in his stomach, an appreciation for the company he was in. He’d never seen such an unbalanced fight go so smoothly.

  “I almost died,” Thuglar said. “Do I get a hug like that?”

  Keerna rolled her eyes. Kalmond took a running leap at Thuglar, wrapping his short arms around his friend. “Here’s your hug!” he yelled, as Thuglar collapsed under the unexpected weight. The cavern, once still, echoed with laughter.

  Chapter 15

  Mighty Lord Mylos hit the ground shoulder-first, burning in like a boulder thrown from a volcano. The laws of inertia and momentum were much the same in this world as the one to which his was born. His bull horn caught the mound of soft, fertile earth that piled rapidly before him like a plow trail. His head stopped, bending his neck until he thought it would snap, then his cloven hooves pointed out the crystal blue sky as he cartwheeled into the air.

  The monster managed to stick his landing on shaky ram’s legs. His haunches trembled with the strain, and bent deeply into his effort. He stood slowly, rising to his full height with great force of will. The forced teleport took his hitpoints down to 60% and his manna down to 50%.

  He growled as he brushed the stats away, too depressed to read them all. He had not been this low since the second-generation game. Fighting panic, he tried hard to focus on where he was, and not how he got there. There would be time later to think about how his creation seemed to have turned against him. Right now, he needed to focus.

  In a weakened state, the Monster Mylos would make a very tempting target from passers-by. The First Circle was the oldest, and most-developed of his realm. Known among gamers as the “slow circle,” more politics than fighting went on here.

  A local chat bubble popped up before Mylos’ vision. “WTF, dude,” StuckMonkey2000 said.

  Mylos turned towards the chat arrow indicator and found two adventurers about a hundred feet distant. In his weakened state, they were beyond striking range. The one called StuckMonkey was a swamp ogre wearing dwarven armor and carrying a giant’s thigh club. The other was a human Paladin clad in elven armor. The paladin carried no weapons and did not bother to activate one even as Mylos turned towards them both.

  “I heard Mylos was around a lot. Looks beat up,” the paladin replied. The name, Paratrooper67 appeared by his text.

  “Virgil,” Mylos said. “Give me these player’s stats.”

  “WTF!” StuckMonkey exclaimed. “I knew Mylos cheated!”

  This time, the paladin did activate a weapon. Before Mylos could move, the paladin activated and fired a long bow. The arrow struck Mylos in the shoulder. He stepped to the side, waiting for Virgil to reply. The sorcerer did not answer. Instead, Mylos took a poisoned arrow from the Evil Paladin.

  “His stats are low,” Paratrooper said. “He’s also not an NPC.”

  “Huh?” StuckMonkey replied, slow on the uptake.

  “He fucked up,” Paratrooper said, nocking another arrow. “NPCs don’t reveal stuff like that. Attack him, dipshit.”

  The fact that both players could see Mylos’ stats meant they were aligned. The attack let Mylos also see that the players were aligned evil. He saw a chance not to vent his frustration, but to gain an advantage.

  The ogre charged with an overhead power lunge. Mylos activated the spell of iron skin and launched at the ogre with all tentacles. The ogre, a mere level 27, was foolish. Mylos took a 2% HP loss for a successful melee grapple.

  Mylos held the ogre above his head. He tried to levitate, but his mana was far too low. Instead, he used his remaining strength to squeeze the life out of his opponent. He had little time, as the ogre struggled mightily inside the nest of tentacles.

  “Fire that arrow, and your friend dies! Fight me and take your chances, or join me and realize riches beyond your wildest dreams!”

  “Shit, dude,” SuckMonkey said, his struggling paused while he typed, “Guess I’m living up to my name.”

  “LOL,” Paratrooper replied. “Yah. Let’s take his quest.”

  “Lord Mylos, I accept your quest,” Stuckmonkey said.

  The instant both players accepted, a Red Bull’s head icon appeared over their heads.

  “Not sure I like the tag, though,” Paratrooper said.

  To demonstrate dominance, Mylos threw Stuckmonkey to the ground, delive
ring another 5% damage.

  “Asshole!” Stuckmonkey said.

  “Weird!” Paratrooper replied. “The quest shows up like it’s from an NPC.”

  “New AI?” Stuckmonkey replied.

  “If so, it’s next level,” Paratrooper said.

  “Silence!” Mylos bellowed. He downed a potion quickly, even as his mana recharged. He rose above the two and spread his tentacles out like a fan. His bull’s head changed to its human form as he did so.

  “Rad!” Stuckmonkey said. “I never seen his human face.”

  Now that both players allied with Mylos, he was able to see their full stat sheet.

  Paratrooper67 Level 35, Human, Evil Paladin

  StuckMonkey2000 Level 27, Swamp Ogre, Evil Warrior

  But why Virgil would not answer was still a mystery. Somehow, the AI assistant had cut Mylos off from the administrative functions he enjoyed. The situation was worrisome to say the least. The part of Mylos that was Gideon reveled in the challenge. He’d built this world, after all. Whatever was going wrong, he had full confidence that he would fix it. In the meantime, he found the challenge intriguing.

  “Wait,” Paratrooper said. “The quest just says ‘join me.’ There is no payoff or other instructions.”

  “Obey my commands and you will have riches and rule at my side!” Mylos said, rising higher. In the distance, he spotted a caravan rolling across the plain, heading for a small settlement known as Condor Town. Mylos flew off towards the caravan. “Follow and see!”

  Two human Paladins at the rear of the wagon train spotted Mylos first. They raised the alarm, and the three wagons broke from their line and formed a defensive semi-circle. The merchants driving the wagons dismounted, each armed with identical crossbows. Mylos assumed that they were part of a clan. He was not so sure about the two humans guarding the caravan. He focused his efforts on them first, launching two fireballs that purposely fell short, causing little damage. The attack revealed the humans were aligned good.

  “Now is the time of Lord Mylos! Join me, or suffer!” Mylos bellowed, swapping out his human head for the bovine form with glowing eyes and flaming nostrils. His answer was three crossbow bolts and two arrows of light. The attack revealed all characters were aligned good.