“You guys think the giant is inside?” Ladyjane said.
“Got to be him,” Rajahard said.
But just then we head scrambling noises coming from the hole. In a few seconds the man I had earlier seen emerged from it in a state of utter panic. He pushed us aside and fled outside the hut. The lot of us exchanged looks with each other. The next moment all our questions were answered as the very ground cracked and a giant hand came out of the earth. Lovebird slipped and fell as we rushed outside the hut. I pulled her up and we escaped out.
The giant tore the ground and came out of the earth. There had apparently been some kind of an underground chamber that the giant had totally destroyed. He wiped his great face covered in dust and looked at us. The other perma player too stood just metres away, wielding one of those swords of 50 gold. Had he really thought he could defeat the giant with that sword?
The giant muttered something and the next moment flames leapt from his eyes and hit the ground such that the very ground melted.
“I think we have eaten more than we can chew, guys,” Ladyjane said.
“Keep hope!” I barked at everyone. The giant was powerful, but with teamwork we could defeat it.
“Right,” Rajahard said. He muttered a spell under his breath. The giant suddenly fell backwards, destroying a hut in the process. But it got back up in no time.
“The blast spell is not working on him at all!” Rajahard cried.
“Paralyse him,” I said.
The giant meanwhile had become really furious now. He began to throw his flames at us, so that we had to run around, the flames of the giant following us wherever he went. The ground was all covered in lava now. I had a sudden idea. Perhaps we could make the giant fall on the lava of his own creation? Rajahard’s spell did make him fall even though it couldn’t blast him to pieces.
But the problem now was that Rajahard had fled to the other side and I was quite a distance from him. With all the noise the giant was making, it was impossible to get my plan to Rajahard.
Wait a minute.
I could just message him.
“Hey, use your spell to make the giant fall on the lava.”
Rajahard received the message and he nodded at me. He casted his spell. At the same time I pointed my sword at the giant. Electricity leapt from my sword and hit the giant, and Rajahard’s spell also hit him. The giant fell on the lava.
His health went down by 600. But he still had 900 health remaining. The giant got to his feet, his anger multiplied. It became difficult for me to stand at one place and throw the electricity at him, since he was throwing his own flames at me. I tried to hit him with electricity even as I ran, but missed him every time. Rajahard was having the same problem.
Then suddenly I saw a stone flying up and hitting the giant. The perma player had thrown the stone. It made the giant’s health go down by just 10. The perma player was hiding in the bushes and attacking. He had distracted the giant enough to give me and Rajahard time. We did the same combination of spell and electricity again. The giant fell on the lava. Another 500 health of his went down. His fall on the lava made the liquid splash and I barely escaped a thousand droplets of lava coming my way.
As the giant was getting back up to his feet, I messaged Rajahard to use the paralysis spell. He did. For just a single moment, the giant froze. I saw some ground between me and the giant that hadn’t been turned into lava and leapt onto it, and from there I leapt onto the giant. At that very moment, the giant sprang back to life as the effect of the spell ended. He grabbed my neck, but with brute determination I buried my sword into his chest. The health of both of us rapidly fell, but the giant was the one with the greater injury and he died before my health reached zero. The giant disappeared, dropping a ton of gold besides other loot. I landed on the ground, lava inches away from my boot. I breathed a sigh of relief as I maintained my balance and prevented myself from falling face first onto lava.
The four of us cheered. It had been hard killing the giant. Danavma and Danav hadn’t come of much use this time, and they had their faces fallen. I told them to cheer up.
“We wish if we could have helped you,” Danavma said.
“You helped us kill the other Raks. This quest would have been so much more difficult without you.” They smiled and then disappeared.
“All’s well that ends well,” Rajahard said. The four of us were picking up the loot when the perma player showed up again.
“Why did you do that?” he demanded. Just then I had a fuzzy feeling about myself as I levelled up.
Quest Completed!
You have successfully killed the sleeping giant!
You have unlocked a new spell!
Just say “Freeze up” to paralyse people
I would have gone jumping about having unlocked my first spell, but because of the glare with which the perma player looked upon us, it was impossible to be happy.
“You can take some of the loot,” I told him. He had helped us to slay the giant by throwing the stone. If he was angry that we wouldn’t share the loot with him then that should settle it. He was a middle-aged man. And yes, he did have wrinkles. Mostly the players preferred not to put wrinkles on their avatars, but this one was apparently of a different mindset, perhaps preferring realism over other things. He had black hair and he still wielded his sword of 50 gold.
The glare still on his face and venom dripping from his eyes, he came towards me.
“Why did you kill the giant?” he asked. “I wanted the spell you got. I need it!”
“You couldn’t have killed it with your sword, my friend,” I told him. I would have liked to speak to him in friendlier words, but with all his anger I felt myself get angry too.
“Shut up,” he said. Then he stomped to me and grabbed my neck. I would have used my sword on him, but decided to go with the new spell. “Freeze up,” I said.
And he became paralysed.
I removed his hands from my neck.
“What kind of a dork is he?” Rajahard said.
“Let’s go from here before the giant respawns,” Ladyjane said.
“Wait a minute,” I said, “if the giant respawns, he can kill it again with his cheap sword, can’t he? He’ll get the spell then.”
“Nope,” Rajahard said, “this giant is not going to respawn. But the other Raks will. It’s just that way. It was hard to kill the giant. And it dropped 10,000 gold. Any mob that drops one thousand gold or more doesn’t respawn.”
So we decided to go. Looking at the paralysed man, I almost felt pity. The lava all around him was slowly cooling.
And then the effect of the spell ended.
“How dare you use that spell on me!” the man cried. He came running towards us, lost in his anger. We were four and he was one. How on Prithvi did he think he could do anything to us? So it happened that before I could use my spell on the furious man again, Rajahard did. The man froze. His mouth wide open in a fit of anger and his eyes bulging. It was actually comical.
Rajahard laughed out loud and went over to the man. With some effort he raised the man onto his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Ladyjane asked.
“Just watch me and have fun,” Rajahard said with a wide grin. He took the man to a tree. There were many aerial roots hanging from the top. Rajahard cut some of these roots with his sword (he finally seemed to have realised the best way to use his sword) and then tied the man to the tree trunk using the roots as rope.
“But how will the man free himself?” Lovebird said, “He was just angry. I don’t think we should do that.”
“No need to worry,” Rajahard said. “I have tied the roots loosely. It would take him a minute at most to free himself. Now let’s get away from this blasted place.
We ran the way back to the bank and crossed the river on one of the boats.
“I have got lots of free time today,” Rajahard said.
“So do I,” Ladyjane said.
“Me too,” Lovebird said, “my
brother is away.”
Apparently Lovebird hadn’t meant to speak about her brother and she bit her lips, her eyes going wide.
“My brother is away too,” I found myself saying, “always away.”
A moment of silence passed as the three of them seemed to wonder what I actually meant. I decided to break the silence.
“Let’s try out the best foods in Kapilpura,” I said, “what do you say?”
“Not a bad idea,” Rajahard said. “But I don’t want to eat the best foods.” He winked mischievously, “I want to eat the most unique foods Kapilpura has to offer. Come along, I know a great place.”
Monster Foods
That was what the name of the inn was. The board of the inn had pictures of heads and tails of monsters (which looked quite like dinosaurs) on plates.
“Are you serious?” Ladyjane said, intense irritation in her voice.
“Of course,” Rajahard said, “oh wait, so you are a vegetarian in your real life. Is that so? Now I know another detail about your real life.”
Ladyjane turned to me and Lovebird.
“Are you really interested in eating dinosaurs?”
I shrugged.
“Won’t be a bad idea to try,” I said. Ladyjane’s eyes went wide.
“It’ll be a unique experience surely,” Lovebird said. Ladyjane’s eyes went wider.
A few minutes later we found ourselves sitting at a table inside the inn, checking the menu.
T. Rex Egg Omlet
Diplodocus Steak
T. Rex Burger
Archaeoptryx Fried Heads
Noodles With Brontosaurus
Mixed Dinosaur Eyes
And so on.
There were at least eighty dishes to choose from, and I didn’t know what to pick. I handed the menu to Rajahard. He began saying aloud the dishes names with a morbid fascination, occasionally bursting into laughter. Ladyjane was the only one in our group who frowned really hard listening to the names. She had told us that she wasn’t a vegan in real life, but at the same time it was clear that she hadn’t eaten dinosaur in her real life.
As if the rest of us had.
So it happened that we ended up ordering different dishes. I ordered the Eyes dish, which turned out to be an interesting stew-like dish containing at least fifty eyes, large and small of different dinosaur species. It actually looked more appetizing than you would imagine, and had a sweet and tangy aroma. Besides this, I ordered a small part of a pterodactyl head and a T. Rex Burger. Ladyjane just ordered noodles that contained bits of Diplodocus meat. Rajahard ordered four dishes: The Eye dish, Archaeopteryx fried heads, Noodles with Brontosaurus and fried slices of a T. Rex tail. Lovebird ordered a burger and the fried slices of a T. Rex tail.
All of us then jumped into our meals— except for Ladyjane. She looked like she was about to have a glass of the gooey liquid that was required to be consumed before entering the world of Prithvi.
I found everything delicious. I wished only if dinosaurs had existed in the real world so we could eat them. I was thankful Prithvi existed. However, I was half way through the burger, when someone laid a hand on my shoulder. I turned around, my mouth full with burger.
It was the perma player.
Yes, the one Rajahard had tied to the tree.
There was an expression of fury on him unmatched by anyone’s I had ever seen in life. He hit me on the face. I choked. Lovebird cried out and thumped my back, while Ladyjane and Rajahard gave me water.
It was a long time before I could breathe properly again. The perma player just stood there. His fury had subsided a tad, perhaps having realised that he shouldn’t have hit me the way he did. My health had dropped significantly because of his action. Even the other people began to talk about us. Perhaps they thought that the perma player had hit me accidentally which is why they didn’t say anything to him.
But I was angry now. Very angry.
I stood up. Ladyjane had told the perma player to make a run if he didn’t want to die, but he had just stood there, despite everything, enjoying watching me suffer. I had tried my best to be good to him. Hell, I had even offered him part of the gold.
I pulled out my sword, the one I had taken from Ravana. I plunged it into the perma player’s stomach before he could evade it. Everyone gasped.
“Stop it!” Rajahard yelled at me, “He’ll die.”
But I didn’t care if the man died. I felt great as all the anger from his face went away and was replaced by an expression of utter pain. And then he died. He slumped to the floor, my sword red with his blood. His listless eyes stared up at me. And then he disappeared, and so did his blood on my blade.
“You killed him,” Ladyjane said in shock.
I did not say anything. I just looked at my sword. I would have never done anything like this in the real world, but here I could do it. I was sure the man would respawn wherever he had kept his birthstone. He would be back to level one. I didn’t think he would ever come after me again fearing that I would kill him a second time.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Rajahard said. “Why didn’t you just paralyse him? You knew the spell, didn’t you? Now the soldiers will come for you.”
“The soldiers?” I said.
“To take you to the jail,” Lovebird said with a tear in her eye. Why was she crying? What had she to do with me?
I then remembered that the soldiers more or less existed to take those players to the jail that had killed other players. A chill overcame me. I regretted killing the man now. Maybe I should have just paralysed him like Rajahard had said.
I looked at my three friends. There was no way to undo my deed now. I sighed. The soldiers would take me to the jail, and then subject me to everything that is subjected to a prisoner. I looked at the burger that I had half eaten.
I sat down on the chair.
“Enjoy the meal,” I said to the others as I began to stuff the burger into my mouth. Good food shouldn’t be wasted, right? Even if next moment you would be dragged to jail.
Rohan.
Class: Multi-tasker
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Level: 4
Strength: 300
Health: 641/650
Mana: 287
Intelligence: 90
Karma: 100
Chapter 9
And the soldiers did come. Five of them came in an official looking horse cart. They asked who had committed the crime, and before anyone else could point me out, I told them that I was the criminal myself. Thankfully, by now I had finished the burger and the other two dishes, and washed them down with water. Rajahard, Ladyjane and Lovebird had just watched me eat.
I bid them bye. I was really beginning to feel like some psychotic criminal now. A strange calmness had come over me. I thought there was nothing I could do to undo my fault, and I went with the soldiers in a carefree way.
In about an hour we reached the prison. It was five kilometres outside the town of Kapilpura to the South. It was a big structure spread over a large area. In half an hour, I found myself locked behind the bars in a prison cell. The corridor outside was relatively dark, though I had a small window in my cell through which I could see the Blood River in the distance, and the Rak lands beyond it.
“You will stay in the prison for a total of three days,” I had been told. “Nobody can bail you out because you must realise the seriousness of the crime you have committed. This is the year of Death, and once Death strikes whenever a person is killed they would never respawn. Make sure that you never do anything of this kind again in the future.”
Prison life, at least in Prithvi, was boring at best. I gazed out from the window from time to time, looking at the waters flowing in the great Blood River. I wondered if the events due to which the river had gotten its name had really happened. The entire history of the game world was written by humans. I reckoned that even though the great battle between the humans and the Raks had never really occurred, as long as I was in the g
ame world it was best to believe that it had or I would lose my mind.
Even in the real world, I had come across many questions of a similar kind, and I had realised that it was best not to ponder too much over them, or I would lose my sanity. What if the universe really was a game world, created by beings much superior to humans? That had been hinted in some films, but was it true?
I could see the sun of the game world shining over the horizon. If I went towards it in a rocket or a spaceship, would I actually reach it?
Or would I just reach a point in the sky beyond which I couldn’t go any further?
The second one was the likely scenario. The game world was spread across thousands of miles, with many hundreds added every new day as the developers created new areas in the game world. But it was only so big. The sun in the game world wasn’t real. It was just a two dimensional image in the sky.
There was a single bed in the cell, and there was a mirror and a basin. No toilets since nobody required to poop in the game world.
I sighed, looking at my feet.
The confinement sucked for sure. There was an NPC guard stationed outside my cell. He kept standing like a statue. Being a guard was really a boring job, I thought.
Nah, all jobs were boring. Jobs were meant to be boring. I went to the basin and washed my face.
To pass the time, I began to make different hairstyles using the water. It was not something I could do in the real world since I had so little hair. For a short while I forgot all about being in a prison cell as it became interesting to play with my hair.
However, I tired eventually and plopped back onto the bed. I thought about what my friends were doing. Wait a minute, I could just ask them! Despite being in the prison I could still message them.
“Hey,” I messaged Lovebird, who was online.
“I am so sorry you had to go to the prison,” she replied.
“Yes, it’s kind of boring here. No quests of any kind.”
“You shouldn’t have killed the man.”
“Not a wise move on my part, I agree. Are you guys still in the hotel?”
Perma-Death Online: A LitRPG adventure: Book 1 Page 9