Human: A LitRPG Novel (Tower of Gates LitRPG Series Book 2)

by Paul Bellow

  I concentrated on the road ahead. We carried on in a comfortable silence, both lost in our thoughts.

  Two hours south of Westwood, we stopped to make camp. Sarah stayed in the wagon, transferring the rest of the new scrolls to her list of spells.

  I walked over to Josh, still hoping for some help.

  "You want to spar?" I asked as he stood and watched the others gathering firewood.

  He said nothing.

  "Josh?" I asked.

  "What?" he responded, turning.

  "You said you'd spar with me back in Westwood before the hill giants attacked. Are you still interested?"

  "Sure," he said. "Let's go over there, away from camp."

  We walked a few hundred feet away from where the wagons were parked in a field.

  "I haven't forgotten what happened in Westwood," I said. "Before the hill giants showed up."

  "Neither have I," Josh said. "But I've been thinking. We need to work together."

  "You're not out to kill me now? I'm supposed to believe you?"

  "Believe what you want, Eric."

  He raised his Club of Confusion. I drew my long sword.

  "I'll take it easy on you," he said.

  With a scream, I rushed forward and swung my sword. He knocked the blade out of the way with his club then raised it to hit me. I dodged to the left and thrust.

  He jumped back just in time. My blade missed his body by a few inches.

  "Watch it," he said.

  "Can't take it?" I circled around him. "Now that I have use of my legs, I can take you on."

  "I thought we were sparring," he said. "I don't want to kill you anymore, but I will do it."

  "You can try," I said then stepped forward and slashed.

  He blocked with his club again.

  Your Weapon Craft (Blades) skill has improved.

  It is now Advanced Level 1 of 5

  You have a new skill.

  Weapon Craft (Dual Wield) Basic Level 1 of 10

  "Nice," I shouted with a smile.

  Josh raised his club into the air.

  "I'm done," I said. "Stop."

  He brought the wooden monster down anyway.

  I dodged out of the way.

  Your Dodge skill has improved.

  It is now Basic Level 3 of 10

  "Cut it out," I said.

  "What's going on over here?" Axelrod yelled as he walked up.

  "Nothing," Josh said while staring at me angrily.

  "We were sparring to improve stats," I said.

  Axelrod stopped a few feet away.

  "Did it work? Looks like you're both out here messing around instead of helping with camp."

  I grinned.

  "Picked up dual wield," I said.

  "About time. You should've had that a few levels ago if you ask me."

  He shook his head then turned and walked back to the others.

  I glanced at Josh, club still in his massive hand.

  "Are we good?" I asked.

  "Yeah," he said. "This game is getting to me in so many ways."

  Did he just admit a weakness?

  "Me too," I said. "At some point, we'll find someone who can help us get out of this game. We need a higher-level player."

  He nodded. We walked back to the emerging campsite together. Ewen crouched on the ground, trying to light a fire with flint and Evan's old dagger.

  "Don't break it," he said.

  "I'm not breaking it, bozo," Ewen replied.

  Bernard, Sheldon and Ryu sat on a log someone had pulled close to the fire pit.

  "Let's rest up and get ready for tomorrow," Axelrod said. "There's no telling what we'll run into when we enter the mines."

  I wandered over to a wagon, not even checking if it was the one Sarah was studying inside. As the others prepared for dinner, I sat down with my back against the giant, wooden wheel.

  After closing my eyes, I fell asleep, meaning to wake up in a few minutes after I'd rested. My body craved more sleep, and I didn't wake up for a while.

  ₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

  I stirred as someone touched my arm.

  "Wake up, Eric. It's time to go."

  I opened my eyes and saw Sarah standing over me.

  "You slept through the night," she said.

  "I must've needed the rest. Where are the others?"

  As I struggled to my feet, I glanced around.

  "They're all in the wagons and ready to go."

  She smiled.

  "It's not even daylight yet," I said, stretching.

  "Axelrod said he wants to get moving now and arrive at the stone giant's cave around sunrise. I think it's a good idea."

  "I've been having second thoughts about making him our leader."

  "Oh?" She scrunched up her nose. "Why?"

  "I don't know."

  "You better not say it's because he's a dwarf of color."

  I rolled my eyes.

  "You know I'm not like that, Sarah."

  "I do, but this game is changing all of us."

  "Yeah, I've noticed..."

  "Let's go," Axelrod called from the front of the wagon.

  "We're coming," Sarah called over her shoulder then turned to me. "Congrats on dual wield."

  I smiled.

  "They told you?"

  "It was the talk of the camp last night. They think you should step-up and take a more active role in battles."

  "We'll see," I said. "Did you get your new spells memorized?"

  "Yup. I now have Lances of Lightning, The Blessed Calling of the Sacred and Villainous Cold Auras, not to mention the wand of suggestion."

  "And the wand of summon monster. You haven't used that in a while."

  "It's so random," she said. "You know I loathe chaos."

  "Come on," Axelrod yelled.

  "I'm in the other wagon," Sarah said. "We can talk later when we reach the mines."

  "You know it," I said, hoping to sound cool and casual.

  She smiled with her perfect elven features then walked away to the other wagon. I went around to the back and climbed in. Bernard, Evan, and Ryu sat in the back.

  "You slept long enough," Bernard joked.

  "I wanted to rest up before taking out this dragon."

  "That dragon is as good as dead," Evan said, thrusting his dagger into the air in front of him.

  The wagon lurched forward, sending us all scrambling to keep our balance.

  "You ready for this, Evan?" I asked the brownie.

  He nodded, forever smiling.

  "You've been doing great," I said.

  "Thanks, Eric. I'm just being me."

  I smiled then glanced over at Ryu. His expressionless face stood out. Was he meditating with his eyes open or something? If Axelrod and the others trusted him, I figured I should too.

  "You still happy you joined our party, Bernard?"

  He smiled and nodded his head.

  "It's been great not being alone. Weird how some don't remember everything."

  I followed his line of sight back to Ryu. He sat motionless, hands resting in his lap.

  "Good to have a real cleric," Bernard added, trying to break the ice. "Has anyone told you about me pretending to be a cleric?"

  Ryu shook his head but said nothing.

  "Are we there yet?" Evan asked like an impatient child.

  "No," I said. "A little bit longer."

  I smiled, remembering how many times my parents had told me the same thing when traveling around the world or to our time-share on the moon.

  Silence filled the back of the wagon as if someone had cast a high-level spell. I flipped through my stats then looked up the dual wield skill to learn more.

  Weapon Craft – Dual-Wield

  You're adept enough with a single weapon, you can train to use two weapons. The sword or dagger in your off-hand must be smaller than your main weapon. You will receive two attacks per round instead of the usual one.

  "Do you have an extra short swo
rd or dagger?" I asked Bernard.

  "Yeah. Why?"

  "I need to practice my dual-wield skill, and there's no telling what we'll run into when we get to the mines."

  "Bad things," Ryu said.

  I turned my head to look in his direction.

  "Yeah? What do you know about the Mines of Oriam?"

  "Only the legends," he said. "We'll face dangerous enemies and deadly traps."

  "My disarm skill is getting better," Bernard said. "Maybe I'll get to use it more."

  "You will," Ryu said. "Don't worry."

  The wagon hit a bump in the road, sending Evan to the floor.

  "Ouch," he said, still smiling.

  I stood, crouched over, and stepped to the front of the wagon. Pulling the sturdy cloth aside, I saw Axelrod on the front bench. He looked over his shoulder.

  "Everything okay?" I asked.

  "It's dark, that's all."

  "Mind if I join you?"

  Before waiting for an answer, I crawled to the front and sat next to him.

  "I guess not," he said, staring at the dirt road ahead.

  "You know the way, right?"

  He glanced over long enough to frown.

  "Are you a side-seat driver?"

  "What?"

  "Are you going to tell me how to work the wagon the entire way? You think dwarves can't get a wagon from point A to point B? Huh?"

  "Settle down," I said. "You're touchy about the dwarf thing, aren't you?"

  "Didn't you notice you can't even select dwarf as a race when starting the game? Someone told me it's not even an option anymore."

  "It's not," I said. "You've talked to other players, then?"

  "Plenty of them," he snorted. "Didn't I tell you about my companions?"

  "No, you never got around to telling the story."

  He took a deep breath and ran his free hand over his mohawk of curly, black hair.

  "I'm not sure I'm ready to tell it," he said.

  "That's fine. I'm curious about the roguelike game. That's all."

  "Fine," he huffed, sounding like he wanted to get something off his chest. "After wandering around the game on my own, I learned about the Temple of Magictology wanting to get rid of all the non-human races in the game. A couple people approached me to help them stop Magi Inyontoo and his crew."

  "They were dwarves too?" I asked.

  He shook his head, still staring down the road.

  "No, a human and an elf. Alex and Regina were their names." He paused for another deep breath. "They were both great. We had fun times together and got far in the game. At least we thought we were doing well."

  "What happened?" I asked.

  "I'm getting to it," he snapped. "Maybe we need to get all the humans out of the game."

  "Well, I'm only half-human, so that wouldn't help you."

  "Half-human?" he asked, glancing over at me briefly.

  "Yeah," I said. "Apparently, I've got goblin blood in my character."

  He looked over at me, face scrunched up in confusion.

  "I've never heard of that before," he said.

  "Well, it's what the game told me." I paused a moment. "What about that roguelike game? Did your companions play it, or something?"

  A frown fell over his face like a dark storm cloud.

  "Yeah, they went into the roguelike. I waited around for a year, but they never came out. By that time, all the other dwarves had been driven to higher levels in the game."

  "That's insane," I said. "We'll stop Magi Inyontoo and anyone with him."

  "Good," Axelrod said. "I told my companions not to enter the roguelike game, but the temptation was too much for them both."

  "Temptation?" I asked.

  He sighed.

  "If you make it out of the procedural generated dungeon with the Amulet of Yendro, you can use the artifact in the main game."

  "There's always a small chance you can win a roguelike," I said, remembering the hours I'd spent exploring brand-new dungeons every time I played.

  "What do they do about permadeath?" I asked.

  "That's the problem. You have countless lives to win the game, but it's so hard, and If you don't..." He tossed his head back and forth as if thinking. "No one knows what happens. I think it is permadeath which is why I didn't play the stupid thing."

  "Maybe it's a way out of the Tower of Gates?"

  He shrugged. I turned to the front as the entrance to the stone giant's cave came into view.

  "We're here," Axelrod said.

  Josh brought the second wagon up, stopping next to us.

  "We'll leave the wagons here and let the horses go," Axelrod said as he sat down the reins then climbed down to the grassy ground. "We won't need them where we're going, and I don't want them to die."

  "I agree, but what are we going to do about all our stuff?"

  "Pack it up and get ready to carry as much as you can," he said.

  I climbed down from the wagon and stretched. The sun peeked over the top of the mountain range. Something sparkled at the entrance of the stone giant's cave in the distance.

  "Look," I said, pointing to the hill with the entrance to the Mines of Oriam.

  "What?" Axelrod asked.

  The others scrambled out of the wagons and walked around to the front.

  "It's a fire giant," I said. "Possibly a teen by its height."

  The twelve-foot-tall misshapen beast lumbered forward, looking in our direction.

  "We can handle a fire giant," Axelrod said, grabbing his battle-axe from the wagon.

  As the words came out of his mouth, three other fire giants walked out of the cave along with seven hellhounds sparking flames as they growled.

  I smirked.

  "You were saying?"

  "Battle positions," Axelrod shouted, ignoring me.

  The tallest of the fire giants pointed a knotted hand in our direction and growled.

  "For the dwarves," Axelrod screamed as he ran toward the hill to meet them.

  Josh squatted, club in hand, and went into a barbarian rage.

  "We got this," I said, turning to Bernard. "You got that extra sword?"

  "It's in the wagon," he said then ran toward the approaching three fire giants.

  The tallest one, their leader, stood near the entrance of the stone giant's cave with four of the hell hounds by his side. I ran around to the back of the wagon.

  "Hold on," Sarah said as I came back with a sword in each hand.

  "What?" I asked. "They need me up front. Do the best you can."

  "I want to give you a buff, dummy," she said then cast two spells.

  You feel protected.

  You feel blessed!

  Glorified Cloaks of Bronze

  +10 Armor Class

  Blessed Webs of Gold

  +2 to hit / +2 damage

  I grinned.

  "Thanks. Get the other fighters too."

  "I know," she said. "Go, go, go..."

  As she ran to the front of the wagons to cast more spells along with Sheldon, I took a deep breath then took off toward the three massive adolescent fire giants rushing down the hill.

  Axelrod and Josh reached them first, tearing into one each. The three hell hounds flanked them while the third fire giant lumbered toward the wagons and our spell casters.

  "Not on my watch," I muttered as I shot past Sarah, Sheldon and Ryu.

  Ewen and Evan teamed up to take on one of the hell hounds as I rushed forward. The fire-dog stood taller than them both. I hoped they could handle their fight.

  As I ran past them and toward the fire giant barreling toward the spell casters, the hellhound spat fire. Both brownies screamed in agony. I dodged to avoid most of the flames.

  The hellhound's breath GRAZES you for 6 damage.

  You have 98/104 health remaining.

  I stopped and stood my ground as the ten-foot monster approached. Two weapons felt comfortable. Dual wield was one reason I loved playing rogues.

  Concentrate, I scolded my
self as the fire giant slowed down and laughed.

  A giant arc of lightning whizzed by me and hit one of the other two smaller fire giants that Axelrod and Josh were fighting.

  "You'll pay for killing Herb," the beast bellowed, raising its immense, steel greatsword.

  I rushed forward and attacked.

  Your slash MAULS the fire giant adolescent for 29 damage.

  Your pierce MISSES the fire giant adolescent.

  The fire giant adolescent is not impressed.

  This will be tougher than I thought.

  Another laugh filled the air as several golden bolts whizzed by.

  The fire giant brought down its greatsword, hitting me in the arm.

  The fire giant adolescent's greatsword DECIMATES you for 33 damage.

  You have 65/104 health remaining.

  As the battle-stats flashed in front of me, I worried we might lose our first battle.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Evan run by, smoke still coming off his burnt clothes.

  I went in for another attack with both weapons.

  Your slash WOUNDS the fire giant adolescent for 17 damage.

  Your pierce INJURES the fire giant adolescent for 12 damage.

  The fire giant adolescent is severely damaged.

  Your Monster Lore skill has improved.

  It is now Basic Level 6 of 10

  I dodged as the greatsword swung for me again.

  The fire giant adolescent's greatsword MISSES you.

  Your dodge skill has improved to Basic Level 4 of 10

  Now we're talking, I thought as adrenaline raced through my virtual veins. My mind?

  As I prepared my next attack, Ewan appeared behind the fire giant and stabbed it in the back of the leg, scoring a direct hit. The fire giant growled in pain then twisted around to find its attacker.

  I used the opportunity to aim for its neck and a killing blow, jumping into the air as it looked around.

  ** Critical HIT! **

  Your pierce DECIMATES the fire giant adolescent for 35 damage.

  Your stab DECIMATES the fire giant adolescent for 37 damage.

  The fire giant adolescent is slowed down!

  The fire giant adolescent is dead!

  Your Weapon Craft (Dual Wield) Skill has improved.

  It is now Basic Level 2 of 10

  Evan grinned triumphantly as the fire giant wriggled a few times before dying.