Realm of the Nine Circles: The Grind: A LitRPG Novel

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  Kalmond remained invisible until he reached the large boulders again where he slithered up on his belly to survey the town. It looked like they’d killed more than half the occupants. The action happened so fast, he lost count of the XP he’d earned, but he guessed it had to be close to a thousand. He resisted the urge to open up the menus and check.

  The bottom line was that the enemy was in chaos, badly wounded and frantic. The two Nameless didn’t need invisibility to slither back down the boulder and pick their way carefully through the underbrush and back into the village.

  They crept between the huts as the enemy thrashed around outside in the jungle looking for them. They split up for the looting, Driskroll taking the bold path by going invisible again to cross the courtyard. Kalmond stayed visible and used the back of the huts as cover.

  He slipped into one but only because it was farthest from those searching for him. It was hard to tell which hut might hold treasure, as they all looked the same. This particular dwelling held only a bed, a table and a few trinkets not worth taking.

  Kalmond explored three other huts with similar results. As he drew closer to the armory, hope grew stronger for the big score. The armory had to be it, Kalmond decided after the fifth dwelling brought nothing but disappointment. He cast invisibility to hurry the search along as more villagers gave up their search in the jungle and returned. Driskroll was already inside.

  “Nothing,” Driskroll said over voice chat, risking detection.

  Kalmond wasted no time. “Let’s go,” he said, and they both made a quick exit to take cover, without invisibility, behind the buildings again.

  “Where are they keeping all the good stuff?” Driskroll said via text.

  “Gotta be here somewhere,” Kalmond replied, making sure to use text.

  “Oh shit,” Driskroll said, using voice. “Statue. Gotta be the statue. Notice how at least two or three don’t go far from it?”

  Kalmond knew Driskroll was right. “How do we take the rest out?” Kalmond asked.

  Driskroll answered by drawing his longbow, jumping up onto the roof of a building and firing. Kalmond wasn’t ready. He took another health potion to top himself off, and didn’t bother casting invisibility as he fired at the nearest mylos devotee. He didn’t score a critical, but the dividend in anger paid off.

  The enemy was far enough away for the two Nameless to plink at them without much danger of getting hurt. One of their victims realized she was being baited and stopped to cast a high-level ice bolt spell that missed but gave Kalmond some healthy respect. He ran for distance after casting invisibility.

  The ploy worked. The angry elf mage ran in opposite direction as Kalmond conserved his mana by releasing the spell to hide in the shadows two huts away and closer to the statue. Another mage appeared around the corner of the building where Kalmond crouched. The dwarf wrapped him up in a sinister one-armed embrace to cover his mouth with one hand as the other hand plunged a dagger into the mage’s heart.

  Double critical sneak attack kill. And the XP bubble floating away announced 368 XP. He took the time to loot the mage of his magically-armored robes and three mana potions along with an herb satchel and a health potion. He dragged the body behind the building and moved away. He met up with Driskroll behind one of the larger huts.

  “Did you check this one?” Kalmond asked.

  “No,” Driskroll replied, and both moved at the same time.

  Inside the building, they found one of the armory guards standing ready. The evil human paladin wasted no time coming at Driskroll with an overhead swing of his bastard sword. Driskroll dodged, but not quickly enough. The only thing that saved him was Kalmond’s roundhouse kick to the paladin’s chest.

  The move bought some time for Kalmond to draw his war hammer, using it with two hands to maximize damage and speed as Driskroll drew his flaming sabers. The combined attack took the paladin down, but not before Kalmond lost a good 1320 hit points to the skilled warrior.

  A large chest dominated the hut as its central feature. All other furniture was arranged around the chest. Kalmond swept the myriad of votive candles from the chest lid and crouched down by the lock.

  “Damn,” Kalmond said over voice. “It’s a level ten lock. Not there yet…”

  Driskroll pushed him aside without a word and removed his lockpick kit while Kalmond covered the door with cloudsplitter in one hand and the water cannon spell in the other.

  “Hurry up!” Kalmond hissed.

  “Rushing me won’t help me move any faster,” Driskroll said, voice shaking.

  “I thought you were good under pressure,” Kalmond replied.

  “Pressure yes, anticipation, no,” Driskroll replied. “I have a hunch about this.”

  The chest popped open, filling the hut with blood-red light. Kalmond turned in surprise to find Driskroll with a glowing, red portal sphere in his hands.

  “It’s called ‘Mylos’ gateway,” Driskroll grinned as two questers burst into the cabin.

  “They’re in here!” the first elf warrior shouted as Kalmond’s axe slashed her face.

  Driskroll finished her off by running two flaming sabers through her midsection while Kalmond blasted back the second character against the door with the water cannon spell. The dwarf mage recovered quickly, hitting Kalmond with a burning mace that removed 800 hit points. The level twenty-one character was no match for a combined attack. The mage fell, earning Kalmond 200 XP for a shared kill.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Kalmond shouted.

  They stepped through the door to find eight characters facing them, weapons drawn. They barely made it back into the hut, but not unscathed. Driskroll was on fire, and Kalmond had three arrows protruding from his back.“What do we do now?” Driskroll asked as he healed himself with a spell while Kalmond swigged a health potion. “We’re not getting to that statue.”

  “I don’t know,” Kalmond replied, bashing the skull of an evil human paladin that burst through the door.

  This one was a level twenty-two wielding a mace in one hand and a broadsword in the other. Kalmond swept the paladin off his feet with a leg sweep, then brought the hammer down with two hands, driving the spiked end through the paladin’s chest plate. The hit scored a critical of 3000 hit points, taking almost half the questers health in the process.

  That would have been a good thing, had the paladin stayed down. Instead, he was on his feet in an instant and flailing away with the mace and sword. Kalmond could only block in dismay as 5000 hit points left him. His vision turned red as two more questers burst through the door.

  “Fuck this!” Driskroll shouted, and the room filled with the blood red light again. “Through the portal!”

  Kalmond turned in the direction of Driskroll’s voice to find a swirling vortex of blood. Even though the portal read “Pit of Despair,” Kalmond jumped through.

  Chapter 20

  At first, Kalmond through he’d gone blind. In the absolute darkness, the random ploit, ploit, ploit of dripping water somewhere close seemed like all there was. The next sensation was the clammy cold that reeked of wet decay. When Driskroll cast a light spell, he recoiled from the brightness as if darkness was all he’d known.

  “What is this place?” Driskroll asked, tossing the light globe from the palm of his hand where it hovered above his head.

  “Pit of despair,” Kalmond said. “That’s what the portal label said, but the orb said something about Mylos.”

  “It’s the pit of ‘save your ass’ for us,” Driskroll said. “Closed the portal just in time.”

  “When did you get the portal casting ability?” Kalmond asked.

  “Last level,” Driskroll replied. “I’ve been pursuing that skill for a while now. Hard to do as a merchant Orc.”

  “No shit,” Kalmond replied. “But how do we get out of here. “The other side of that portal is the village.”

  “Good news is that this is probably the only one they have handy, otherwise, we’d be fighting them all
right now.”

  “Yeah,” Kalmond replied. “They were all higher than level twenty. I’m surprised we made it.”

  “You seem to bring luck with you,” Driskroll said. “Or maybe that harness thing does more than I thought.”

  “Who knows,” Kalmond said. “But let’s get moving.” He looked left and right. The high-ceiling passage extended straight into the blackness in either direction.

  Kalmond cast his detection spell on a whim. To his surprise, a bright, blue trail led down one side of the passage to Kalmond’s left. “Well…” Kalmond said, and Driskroll finished his thought.

  “Good stuff’s gotta be that way,” the orc said.

  “Let’s hope,” Kalmond replied as Driskroll cast another light spell.

  They walked along the perfectly straight passage for a long while, time marked by Driskroll’s repeated light spell casting. They paused only for the orc’s mana to recharge. When Kalmond offered a potion, Driskroll refused, citing the need to conserve as they didn’t know what they were up against.

  “Why no light?” Driskroll asked. “Never seen that before.”

  “Beta area,” Kalmond replied.

  “There you go with the bull—” The orc stopped short.

  A new light flickered in the passage ahead with streaks of silver in an otherwise red hue that danced along the craggy black stone. Kalmond pushed past Driskroll and drew the axe of warding and cloudsplitter. He crouched low and cast sneak as he inched forward.

  The passage curved left and widened. The two adventurers stepped into the open space where a river of thick, red liquid flowed silently along a dusty path. Branching veins of silver ran through the liquid, giving off the eerie silver glow that seemed to reach out to paint the walls.

  “If you could see my face right now,” Driskroll said. “It would probably look like yours.”

  Kalmond raised a hand to his numb face to discover a slack jaw, and he pushed it closed with the back of his fist wrapped around cloudsplitter.

  “Freaky,” was all he could say. “No sound.”

  “Well, it is a beta area after all,” Driskroll said snarkily.

  Kalmond cast his detection spell again and was shocked to see the blue path branched off and led directly into the underground river of blood. Driskroll backed up and released his light spell, exchanging it for his burning sabers.

  “Good Idea, “ Kalmond said, moving downstream as close as possible to the cavern wall.

  The dwarf moved along slowly as the passage turned into one, long cavern that opened up to resemble the esophagus of some mammoth snake-like beast. The blood river, with its silver veins, broadened as well, and all the while flowed downstream while the ground remained level. Still, the liquid made no sound.

  “How is it moving?” Driskroll asked.

  “It’s the Realm,” Kalmond replied, knowing that was sufficient.

  They moved on a while longer, and the cavern remained unchanged. Kalmond paused, stepping closer to the flow and looked left then right, following the stream with his eyes.

  “What do you see?” Driskroll asked nervously.

  “It’s straight,” Kalmond replied. “Perfectly straight.”

  “Yea, but like you said, it’s the realm. Could this be some kind of loop?”

  “Not sure,” Kalmond said. For the first time, he decided to check his map. The only thing he found was a single red dot representing him on a field of perfect black.

  “Uh, oh,” Kalmond said. Then, aloud, he said, “Open channel to Martin.” No response. “Are you getting a chat screen, Drisk?”

  “Yup,” Driskroll replied. “You want me to contact someone?”

  “Yes,” Kalmond said. He sent Martin and Holly’s contact information via text message. “Tell them to check my signal. They’ll know what that means. I really don’t like this.”

  Motion caught his eye from the river. The silver flashes increased as the veins of light in the blood pulsed and raised up from the thick liquid. Lumps formed beneath the surface and still made no sound.

  Driskroll said via text, “Sent message to your peeps.”

  A bubble formed in the river, then another. Seven domed shapes rose and stretched as something beneath pushed out and grew long. The silver veins draped down as the liquid grew thin and sloughed off to reveal hovering human brains from which the veins hung like tentacles that brushed against the surface of the liquid sending off blue static arcs.

  Driskroll lunged forward with his sabres, but Kalmond stayed his hand by jumping in his path. “Wait,” the dwarf said. “Don’t harm these.”

  “Why the hell not?” Driskroll said. “They might have good loot.”

  “Just don’t,” Kalmond said. Driskroll put away his weapons and stepped behind Kalmond.

  “I’ll let them kill you first, then,” the orc said.

  Kalmond chuckled and replied, “I have a hunch we don’t need to worry about them.”

  The branching tentacle-veins trembled, and the brains bobbed gently up and down, adding blue light to the passage walls where the rate of static discharge increased. Kalmond heard the footsteps first and drew his two axes. Driskroll followed suit with his flaming sabers. The echoes made it impossible to tell from which direction the sound came., so the two pressed their backs together and waited.

  Rapidly bobbing red dots appeared in the blackness and shadowy forms emerged to soon reveal themselves as hunched human forms. The passage rapidly filled with perfect copies of the same pointed-toothed, long-faced parody of Gideon Thistlethwhaite.

  “You gotta be kidding me,” Driskroll said as the forms slowed, then stopped a good distance away. They were close enough to hit effectively with arrows but numerous enough for both questers to understand they were well and truly screwed.

  “What do we do now Kalm—”

  The river itself reached out for Driskroll first in one long, red string that slapped against him like a frog’s tongue snatching a fly from the air. The collective shriek of rage from the Gideon things in the chamber kept Kalmond’s ears ringing long after they stopped screaming and charged forward again.

  The anger displayed by the running things made Kalmond think that the river’s kidnapping of Driskroll might not be a bad thing. He also wondered where his frog tongue blood river rescue thing was as he activated his rage attack and swung at the closest doppelganger. They attacked him furiously with claws and teeth. The dwarf felled them by taking off their heads, their arms and splitting them down the middle. He kicked them, punched them and broke them over his knee with weapons in hand. They fell easily, but they just kept coming, taking his health down steadily as the numbers flashed before his eyes: 100, 500, 300, 600 points at a time.

  Well, Kalmond thought, if the river won’t come to me… He fought harder still to reach the edge of the flow, and clawed hands pulled him back. A final kick and a chop from his axe removed a hand at the wrist, and it still clung to his forearm as he let himself fall to the side. He hit the surface and sank down, but not in. As he was carried along, he witnessed the frantic dance of the Gideons as they shrieked and howled for his blood in some nonsensical language that was all-too-clear. They wanted Kalmond the Dwarf dead. They wanted to annihilate him or worse. As the river carried him along, he had no doubt that if they’d succeeded, it would not only be Kalmond who would die.

  The big questions in his mind were just where the hell he was, what happened to Driskroll, why didn’t the Gideons just come after him in the river and most of all, where the hell was he going?

  The liquid was very much like a waterbed. He pushed himself upright and sat cross-legged atop it as if meditating, bringing visions to mind of a Buddha-like dwarf in a painting somewhere. He shrugged and took the opportunity to down a health potion and for good measure, one of his last rejuvenation potions. The silent river or blood or flesh, or whatever it was meandered through the wide passage with the toe path forming its border unchanging in its pattern. He realized that Driskroll was correct. He was i
n some kind of loop.

  “Virgil,” Kalmond said. “Where are you?” The lack of response made him nervous and brought him back to reality. Having almost died, his relief that he hadn’t divorced him temporarily from the direness of his situation.

  With great difficulty, he decided to get off the river. Trying to stand on the gelatinous surface sent him stumbling and tumbling around no closer to the toe path. He ended up on solid ground again by crawling like a baby.

  Dusting himself off, he stood in the flickering, silvery light wondering what to do next. The sound of running footsteps made the decision for him. The red embers glowing in the darkness popped up again, and Kalmond dove back to the river just as two streams of identical Gideon monsters showed up clawing the air bordering the river as if there was some invisible barrier.

  “It is a barrier,” Kalmond thought aloud. “What the hell…”

  Kalmond extended both middle fingers to the Gideons as he drifted steadily away. A long while later—he had no idea how much longer—the stream finally opened up into a cathedral-sized cavern that formed a perfect dome from the black rock. The light here was supplied by some undetectable source of the same silvery hue as the glowing river veins.

  Kalmond crawled awkwardly again from the flow as it reached the center of the cavern where it formed a perfectly round pool. As soon as he touched solid ground again, the sound of stampeding feet reached his ears.

  With nowhere to go, Kalmond readied cloudsplitter in one hand and his last fire bomb potion in the other. A wet squelching sound drew his eyes back to the flesh pool. Another lump formed slowly, then shot upward and burst out with a splash.

  To his shock and amazement, Driskroll shot out of the flow and landed squarely on both feet. Only this wasn’t Driskroll. It looked like him, but his face was completely animated and full of expression as he said, “Let’s go, Dante,” and drew his flaming sabers.

  “Who are you?” Kalmond asked as the Gideons neared.

  “It’s me, kid,” the orc said as he ran towards the oncoming tide of Gideons who spread out into the cavern screeching and screaming. He said something else but was drowned out by the din of the gibbering attackers.