Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1)

by Arthur Stone

  You receive:

  Unknown Method

  Superior Symbol of Chi x5

  Superior Standard Attribute Mark x2

  Superior Standard Talent Mark x1

  Superior Personal State Embodiment, Measure of Order x1

  Superior Standard Universal State x2

  Kote Defeated!

  Lesser Symbol of Chi x15

  Personal Attribute Mark, Agility x2

  Personal Attribute Mark, Stamina x3

  Personal Attribute Mark, Strength x2

  Lesser Standard Attribute Mark x1

  Talent Mark, Scent of Blood x1

  Talent Mark, Detect Poison x1

  Lesser Standard Talent Mark x5

  Personal Talent Mark, Fishing Instinct x1

  Unknown and known methods combined!

  Greater Symbol of Chi x3

  Greater Standard Attribute Mark x3

  Greater Standard Talent Mark x3

  You have crafted an unknown item. You have used an unknown item. You have successfully used an unknown item. You have earned an Invention: Unknown Item.

  Crafting an Unknown Item

  Lesser Symbol of Chi x13

  Personal Attribute Mark, Agility x1

  Personal Talent Mark, Novice Mechanic x1

  Successful Use of an Unknown Item

  Greater Standard Talent Mark x3

  Greater Standard Universal State x2

  Discovery of an Unknown Item

  Superior Symbol of Chi x7

  Superior Standard Attribute Mark x4

  Superior Standard Talent Mark x2

  Superior Personal State Embodiment, Chi Shadow x1

  Superior Standard Universal State x3

  You may now name your Unknown Item

  You have discovered an unknown fishing talent. Talent Rank: 2. You must name the new talent.

  Taking in each and every number awarded to me, I decided not to postpone the choices I had before me.

  Two choices.

  You are naming your unknown item: spinning rod with inertia-free reel.

  You have named a new item. You receive:

  Superior Standard Talent Mark x3

  Superior Standard Universal State x1

  You have given your unknown fishing talent a name: Trolling with Spinning Rod.

  You have named your new talent.

  You have acquired a free, unbound talent: Trolling with Spinning Rod. Talent Rank: 2. Talent Level: 10. Talent Requirements: Stamina level 2, Agility level 1. You are the discoverer of the skill. For you, this talent does not require any bound attributes. It is provided to you and fully learned at no cost. Learning further branches of this talent, once unlocked, will require attribute bindings.

  Superior Standard Talent Mark x2

  Even cursory calculations showed me that today would be profitable based on these rewards alone. For now, though, I had to catch more fish. The kotes moved away from the shore, but they often came within forty yards or so. With the help of my new spinning rod, casting the spoonbait at them was no great difficulty.

  And perhaps no small difficulty, either. If I understand correctly the essence of life in the world of Rock, the talent I had just been awarded would allow me to fish with a spinning rod much more effectively. I didn’t even have to allocate any attribute levels to it. In other words, there was no reason to delete it in order to clear up space for a more useful talent. It was costing me nothing.

  In addition, I didn’t have to pump it. The ORDER had generously given it to me at maximum value. It had no progress branch for me to pursue. This world simply didn’t know what else could be squeezed out of my discovery—no specializations existed yet.

  I was sure I could think some up. This was how the world worked: discover something new, develop it, refine it and diversify it.

  Perhaps I would pursue that someday. Later. For now, I needed to do one thing and one alone: fish. I should be better at it now. It was a low-ranking talent, but it was something. Now my spoonbait should fly further and more accurately. I would also get extra bonuses for the first 10 times I used the spinning rod and the new talent successfully. Perhaps I would hit the jackpot with these bonuses.

  This invention had, after all, given me a lot more goodies than the invention of the spoonbait. That was logical, since the spinning rod was so much more complex. Would the ORDER continue rewarding me as fairness might suggest, then?

  I wanted to use all of the rewards right now, as quickly as possible, but I was not as naive as I had been just a few days before. Developing one’s character could have negative effects. I might suffer weakness—and even faint. It would take hours for me to fully adapt to the new changes. Even a day later, the echoes would still reverberate through my bones.

  I’ll do it this evening, then. Immediately after a thoroughly satisfying dinner. With spices, of course. The spices must flow. My rapidly developing flesh needed them desperately.

  Chapter 27

  Old Friend, New Art

  Degrees of Enlightenment: 0 (192/888)

  Shadow: 192

  Attributes:

  Stamina: level 2, 112 points

  Strength: level 0, 31 points

  Agility: level 1, 83 points

  Perception: NA, 50 points

  Spirit: NA, 50 points

  Talents:

  Fishing Instinct (tier 2): 10/10

  Cure Wounds (tier 2): 10/10

  Free Talents:

  Trolling with Spinning Rod (tier 2): 10/10

  States:

  Equilibrium (6.31): level 6

  Enhanced Enlightenment (0.5): level 0

  I continued terrorizing the kote community, even after the ORDER stopped giving me extra bonuses for doing so. As I expected, they had been dished out not only when I successfully used the spinning rod but also when I used my new fishing talent.

  Its very first use had earned me the largest reward. This was comparable to what I had received for the manufacture of the invention and the first catch.

  Few large kotes—five or six pounds—were to be found near the shore. The monster kotes had disappeared entirely, but this didn’t make me very happy, since the moderate kotes vanished, too.

  I did catch more than forty smaller kotes, though—over two hundred pounds. An ordinary fisherman working with nets wouldn’t catch that many in a week.

  It was enough fish that I could afford to spend part of the time strengthening my mutual understanding with Beko’s long-time enemies. Each of the Carps received a whole fish. There was a reason that the boys had become a veritable pack of wolves. Misfortune had taken their families’ breadwinners—and little Tatai had been left an orphan. He and his sister who was younger still had been sheltered by a distant relative—who had mouths enough to feed already. The trading post gave the kids menial jobs, but they paid menial sums, of course.

  I had seen Tatai’s sister once. She was a mess. Thinner than some I had seen in wartime films from concentration camps. It was no surprise that the boys were cruel beyond their years. Not only were they chronically malnourished themselves; they also had to see the hunger of their loved ones. Once I saw this, I decided that I would help as much as I could from the next catch.

  Even with the Carps’ help, we couldn’t bring the whole catch back to the trading post in one trip. Thankfully, Romris was down by the water, fiddling with his nets. And so, with his help, we made it up with all of the baskets. He didn’t even ask for payment. Not that the fisherman was suddenly taken with love for us. No, he was working for his own interests.

  After all, along the way, I explained to him the gist of a task I had for him, for which I was more than willing to pay. I would even pay more than agreed if this task was completed by noon the next day.

  Before we had finished with the fish, though, something occurred which we could not help but notice.

  We had front row seats, after all.

  * * *

  Beko noticed it first. I was completely absorbed by the river,
calculating my expenditure of each and every shadow point—and rejoicing that my new free talent did not require me to consume any. The spinning rod really did work at greater distances and accuracies, and for all of the idiosyncrasies of its construction, it no longer seemed rough to wield. I grew more and more comfortable with its use. It was much inferior to real spinning rods from my past life—but even in this form, it made me orders of magnitude better a fisherman.

  Thirteen years had passed since I had held one in my hands, but I now recalled how light, responsive, and accurate they were. It looked nice, too.

  I could have certainly afforded some better line to match.

  Now I would spend lasciviously at any fishing store I encountered.

  “Ged, look: the boats are returning!” the ghoul exclaimed, yanking me from my dream world, where I was looking into a shop window at coils of fishing line that were strong enough to raise a tank from a swamp.

  Without comprehending, I instinctively turned to look the same way Beko was looking: towards the left bank of the river. Two boats emerged from the reeds, one after the other. Fifteen men and women sat within—and a leader, clearly stronger than the rest. Ash. Next to him, clad in dark leather armor, was Hugo the Ambidexter, the trading post’s enforcer.

  “It’s our people, returning from their search for the Emperor of Pain and his crew.”

  Beko nodded. “But something happened.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know. They said that fifteen ventured out, though. I see fourteen. Can you count them too, Ged? I always try to count everything, just like you taught me, but sometimes I miscount.”

  I was the one who had miscounted. I ran over the rowers and passengers and nodded. “Fourteen, just like you say. One is missing.”

  “But people make mistakes. Maybe the people who told me their starting number were wrong. It could have been fourteen.”

  I reeled in my line so that the others would not gape at our secret machines. “Let’s take a break. Go and see what news they bring back.”

  The party rushed up with a stretcher bearing, we realized, the missing fifteenth man. His face was covered in dried blood and the flies it brought. The shaft of a broken arrow was protruding from his right eye socket. At a glance I could tell that my limited talents and recent experience in simple field surgery would not be sufficient here. Even a university-trained healer would be unable to help.

  It was time for an undertaker.

  “What happened to him?” Beko gasped.

  “Caught a head cold, can’t you tell?” Hugo the Ambidexter replied lazily as he proceeded up the path.

  “The hell are you staring at?” Ash snapped. “Beat it!”

  It was unwise to disobey the leader of the trading post. We stepped aside without question. Beko whispered to me in agitation, “I’ve heard of this kind of thing before. There’s a bandit out there who always shoots his targets in the eye. Did you see that, Ged? He killed Zash!”

  “Yes, I saw. I’ve seen him kill others, too. Some of the arrows whistled right by me.”

  “What? When?”

  “On the way here. The caravan was attacked.”

  “Right. At the Redriver crossing—I heard about that, but forgot. It’s far from here, after all. So, Bloodshot Eye has drawn close to our post. That’s bad. He’s a dangerous bandit.”

  “You call him ‘Bloodshot Eye’?”

  “Sometimes. They say his real name is Atto. And that he is a deserter from the Emperor’s army. Or even, according to some reports, from his personal guard. I doubt those reports are true. Why would a guardsman desert? His accuracy is legendary, and he always puts his arrows right into his targets’ eyes. A gang of plunderers follows him. Last year, they nearly overwhelmed a village near Second Stone.”

  “It sounds like this sniper is in league with the Emperor of Pain,” I remarked.

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Ash went out to catch the emperor’s henchmen. He returned with Zash, dead, shot in the eye. The Emperor of Pain arranged the events of yesterday in conjunction with this killing today, in order to intimidate the trading post. He knew Ash would launch a retaliation campaign. So, he set an ambush somewhere, along the tracks his own people had left from the day before. Either that, or the archer’s band is relocating here from Redriver, and the Emperor of Pain has nothing to do with this second killing. In that case, perhaps the boat was a copycat attack—an act of the band in imitation of the emperor’s style. An act to lure our people out. Something must have gone wrong, though. They only killed one. No matter who was behind it, they might have intended to inflict heavy losses. Or not. Perhaps one kill is more useful, as intimidation. One arrow, one corpse, and now our people will think twice, or thrice, before crossing the river again. We don’t have enough capable people to defend everyone. Not that it would help. This was a party of fifteen warriors and hunters, and they were thwarted by a single bandit. I believe this year’s hornflower season is now at an end. It was cut short, very intentionally, by our enemies.”

  “I’m sorry to say it,” Beko shook his head, “but you’re right. The worst hornflower season in known memory.”

  * * *

  Jadiro the innkeeper paid for our catch without too much bargaining. We had done business with him before and so had an understanding. I hardly ever tried to weasel a little extra out of him, and vice versa. He was the most convenient buyer, too, since he would also purchase the spices dropped by the slain kotes. After the transaction was complete, Beko and I had only to take one basket to Megaera, and our fishing trip would be concluded.

  It was a great catch. No one had ever caught close to this many fish. My spinning rod invention was worth it. However, it still had not paid for itself. Kote spices are of little value, especially in the smaller specimens. The fish themselves were worth even less. But as long as I caught an equal amount the following day, I would be able to repay the blacksmith and carpenter in full.

  About three hundred and fifty people resided at the Blackriver trading station, nomads and visitors not included. If half of them were well fed by the town, times were relatively good. The rest were not in permanent employment and received, at most, a meager ration for services rendered such as wild leek harvesting. If I kept bringing in so much fish, though, there would be a surplus. The people ate more than just the gifts of the river, after all.

  Jadiro had hinted at this as he counted out the money. However, he did not see it as too much of a problem. Some of the catch could be salted and smoked, and then sold to the residents of the free villages and outposts situated on the right bank of Blackriver. As long as the brains were suctioned out from a neat hole cut in the back of each fish’s head—and not using the crude manner in which we usually cleaned our catch.

  I told him we would do exactly this. We wanted our catch to earn maximal profits. I even hinted that we might catch more the next day. Or the day after.

  The innkeeper was so inspired by our success that he offered us a loan, in exchange for a percentage of the catch that he claimed was “fair.” He knew that I was in debt to a couple of craftsmen. I politely declined the financial assistance, but said that if I changed my mind, I would know who to turn to.

  In actuality, the terms of the loan were sheer usury. The condescension of the man’s offer left me torn as to whether to laugh or to cry. Or to spit in his face. As contradictory as it might sound, in this world where numbers were all-important, mathematical literacy was rare. This fat man was likely certain I would put two and two together and make five, and that, consequently, he could rob me blind-minded. He had learned his multiplication and division to a fourth-grade level. Impressive, I thought, and I was serious: this was quite the accomplishment for a commoner here.

  Beko and I ate so much that night that he asked to be excused from his lessons. The only thing he could manage to do well on a stomach that full, he claimed, was sleep until morning.

  I eagerly assented. Swinging and flingin
g the weighty spinning rod around all day had tired me already, before the gluttony of the evening. I had other matters to attend to before bed, as well: distributing the rewards of the day. Any such changes in my ORDER numbers would cut down my strength significantly for a time. Utter relaxation during and after this process was strongly recommended.

  My invention of the spinning rod, my discovery of the new talent, and the various associated achievements had earned me many valuable perks unknown during standard kote fishing. I could crush my way through several stages of progress in one fell swoop. Perhaps at the end I would match Beko—or even be stronger than him. Although I had never made such leaps before, I suspected this would have serious physical consequences.

  Consequences that were at once terrific and terrifying.

  First, I reclined as comfortably as possible. Calming my racing mind, I realized that with straw in short supply, I could make a softer bed for myself by drying some reeds. But with my stomach full, even the bed I had now was very pleasant to lie on. But a comfort upgrade would go a long way.