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

by Paul Bellow

  "Me too," Bernard said.

  "I'll just smash all the mirrors," Josh said.

  "Noooo," I said. "You've watched too many classic Conan movies. We've got to be smart about this."

  I glanced into the massive, domed room of mirrors.

  "We have to step on certain mirrors to get across to the other side," I said. "Easy."

  "Yeah, but which ones?" Axelrod asked. "There's so many of them."

  "Let me think a moment," I said.

  "We don't have time." Axelrod looked up at Josh. "You serious about bashing all these mirrors?"

  "Don't do it." I stepped in front of Josh to block him. "Please?"

  He laughed.

  "You think you'll stop me?" he scoffed.

  "Cut it out, you two," Bernard said. "It's the game turning us against each other again. Maybe that's why alignment is so important? We're not, well, aligned well together according to alignment."

  Axelrod tilted his head at the torrent of words that came out of the other rogue's mouth.

  "That's not my fault," I said.

  Josh stepped forward, invading my space.

  "Are you blaming me?" he asked.

  "Hold on," Bernard said. "I think I've got it."

  Both of us turned to him as he peered at the mirrored tiles on the floor.

  "What is it?" I asked, stepping toward him. "Do you notice a pattern?"

  "I'm not sure." He continued staring. "There's something off about some of the reflections. Do you notice it?"

  After bending down, I gazed into one tile then shifted my focus to another.

  "I'm not seeing anything, but it's odd." I continued staring at my reflection. "There's something wrong. Losing that intelligence earlier isn't doing me any favors."

  "The first trap will be the simplest," Axelrod said. "If we can't figure this one out, we're doomed."

  "I've got it," I said. "Check this out."

  "What?" Bernard asked.

  I pointed to one of the floor tiles.

  "Check out your reflection. Normal, right?"

  "Yeah..." he said.

  "Now look at the one next to it. Focus."

  Bernard peered closer, concentrating.

  "Something's different, but I can't figure it out," he said.

  "It's not reversed," I said.

  "Oh, wait. You're right. It's projecting the image back, but it's not reversed. That's so...odd."

  "What are you two nerds talking about?" Josh asked. "I notice nothing different."

  "Don't worry about it," I said, standing up. "Now, we need to know if we step on the pure reflections that are reversed or the ones that aren't."

  I took a deep breath, pondering the puzzle.

  This is the easiest one? How many will we face?

  As the questions piled up, I turned to Bernard.

  "What do you think, buddy?" I asked.

  "I can see arguments for both being the safe steps," he said then frowned.

  A man's voice with a distinct British accent said, "Hello? Can you tell me the way to the gift shop?"

  I looked up along with the others and saw a middle-aged man wearing Khaki shorts and shirt. He wore a weathered fedora on his head and had a camera hanging around his neck.

  "What the..."

  My voice trailed off as the tourist stepped forward, carefully choosing which mirrored tiles he stepped on. Is this what Axelrod meant by the game glitching?

  "That's the first boss," Axelrod said in an unconvincing tone.

  "You're not sure?" I asked. "We can't attack an innocent man."

  "Excuse me," the tourist said. "I can hear you. Why do you want to attack me?"

  His perfectly phrased English caught me off-guard.

  "Who are you?" I demanded in a menacing tone.

  The deep scar on my face helped my intimidation factor.

  "It's the tourist from Nethack, a very old ascii dungeon crawler," Bernard said. "I'm not seeing a PC flag, so it's gotta be a mob."

  "Mob?" The tourist lifted his camera. "Oh dear. What are you talking about?"

  "Wow, that's an old game," I said. "What's the tourist's special power."

  "That camera," Bernard said. "Watch out for the camera."

  At the mention of the real-world item, I turned to the tourist as he flashed a picture, emphasis on the flash. My vision disappeared, slowly returning.

  "I can't see," I said.

  "Me either," Josh said.

  "I'm trying to see what tiles he's stepping on," Bernard said. "I closed my eyes in time."

  "Good for you," I said. "That doesn't help me any."

  "He's on the non-reversed image mirrors," Bernard said.

  "Point me to him," josh said, raising his club and hitting me in the back.

  "Hey, watch it," I snapped.

  "You two stay back," Axelrod shouted. "Bernard, let's get this guy."

  Axelrod yelled and ran forward. I saw him as a short, blurry figure with many copies in all the mirrors throughout the domed room.

  "We need our healer for my eyes," I shouted.

  "Stay there," Axelrod said. "I got this."

  I saw a blur move forward.

  "Did he step on the right one?" I asked.

  "Yeah," Bernard said.

  "I can bloody hear you planning," the tourist said. "Stay away, or I'll use this weird wand I found on the ground next to a quaint fountain with bubbling water sounds."

  "Get down," Bernard said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

  I crouched lower, my sight still sharpening into focus.

  "He better not..."

  Before Josh finished his sentence, he cried out as a thin stream of yellow liquid shot out of the wand I saw the tourist holding.

  "Get out of the way," I said, shoving him.

  The liquid hit me, dissolving a hole in my armor.

  The Tourist's Wand of Liquid Acid HITS you for 8 damage.

  You have 120/128 health remaining.

  I looked down and saw the liquid disappear.

  Weak wand, I thought as I looked up.

  Axelrod had crossed half the room. The tourist had retreated to the other side.

  "We need to help him," I said, stepping onto a mirror without a reversed image staring back. "All of us."

  I hoped Bernard and Josh followed as I stepped from one safe mirror tile to another, slowly gaining on Axelrod. He was having problems as the tiles got smaller in the center of the room.

  "Blast this," he shouted in frustration.

  "Take that, vile dwarf," the tourist shouted then shot his wand.

  A thin stream of liquid acid shot out and landed on Axelrod's favorite battle-ax, damaging the head.

  "You'll pay for that," he shouted as he threw the broken axe at the tourist.

  It hit him in the leg, causing the mob to drop to one knee on the floor. He was on the larger tiles near the outer edge of the other side of the room. I need to train for a ranged weapon.

  The mental note took a back seat as I drew a small dagger and flung it at the tourist, hoping for the best.

  ** Critical Hit! **

  Your dagger MAULS the tourist for 29 damage.

  The tourist is dead!

  You have a new skill:

  Throwing Dagger: Basic Level 1 of 10

  You get 4,000 xp divided by four party members

  You get 1,000 xp

  You have 76,981 xp

  You need 29,109 xp for Level 10 Rogue -> Bounty Hunter

  Sweet! It's moments like a critical hit on an unlearned weapon that made me love gaming so much.

  The tourist laid on the floor, unmoving.

  "Nice job," Axelrod said. "Better than my axe throwing."

  I smiled then turned to check on Josh and Bernard. They had stopped in the middle of the room where the mirrored tiles were the smallest.

  "Are you guys okay?" I asked.

  "My eyes hurt," Josh said. "But I'm okay."

  I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand.

  "Mine too
," I said. "But we've got to keep going."

  "The traps and monsters will get harder," Axelrod said.

  He hopped to one of the wide mirror-tiles on the far side of the room.

  Bernard and Josh both moved from tile to tile.

  "How many more traps and monsters?" I asked.

  Axelrod shrugged.

  "No telling," he said. "Blame it on the glitch."

  I had a bad feeling about Axelrod in that moment, but I brushed it aside. We needed all four left in our party to defeat the Wight Mage and have a chance at rescuing Sarah.

  The others made it to where Axelrod and I stood. He turned and looked out an open double-door. A brick-walled hallway lit by flickering torch-light led into the distance.

  "Come on," he said. "We have to keep moving. The AI is fast on its feet."

  "How did you defeat it last time?" I asked, hoping to get more of an answer.

  "No time to talk about it now," he said then stepped down the hall.

  With his battle-ax gone, he held the hatchet of Mini Pulgasari Slaying.

  Did we even have a chance or would we be forced to re-spawn as NPCs?

  "Speaking of LitRPG novels," Bernard said. "It's kinda suspicious you had that hatchet of Mini Pulgasari Slaying when we needed it the most."

  "Right?" I grinned despite the dire circumstances. "Had my friend gone the bard route or something?"

  "Knock it off," Axelrod said. "This ain't over til the black dragon is dead."

  Everyone quit talking as we moved down the brick hallway.

  ₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

  The tunnel continued for an unreal length. After two hours of the same repeating hallway with a torch in a sconce every ten-feet, I stopped.

  "Hold up, guys," I said. "Something isn't right."

  "No kidding," Josh said, shaking his head.

  "It's the glitch," Axelrod said.

  Bernard stepped over and stopped by my side.

  "Yeah, but if we keep walking, we'll run out of food and water and die," he said.

  "Nonsense," Axelrod said.

  "Have you faced this trap before?" I asked.

  "No," he said then touched his beardless chin.

  "Well, we need to figure this out. It's another puzzle."

  "Maybe it's something to do with the repeating torch," Bernard said.

  Josh walked over to a wall and took the piece of burning wood out of the sconce.

  The never-ending hallway shrunk in an instant.

  I saw an opening in the side of a round, smooth bored tunnel.

  "I did it," Josh said triumphantly, waving the torch in the air.

  When the last of us walked into the new tunnel, the ledge and hallway behind us disappeared.

  I heard a loud rumbling coming from one direction of the tunnel.

  "We're trapped," Bernard said.

  Axelrod took off in the opposite direction of the sound.

  "Let's run the other way," he shouted over his shoulder.

  "We'll never outrun it," I said. "There has to be another way out."

  "I'm running," Axelrod said, still scurrying down the tunnel.

  "You're an idiot," I said, walking over to Josh and pushing him.

  "What do you think you're doing?" he asked.

  "You can't even go into a barbarian rage when we need it, can you?"

  I pushed him again.

  "Knock it off," he said, his brow furrowing.

  "You're as stupid as this plan of Eric's," Bernard shouted.

  "Shut-up!" Josh yelled.

  He lifted his club and swung it.

  I deftly leaped aside to safety.

  "You can't even hit the wall of this cave, can you?" I taunted.

  "What are you doing?" Axelrod asked.

  I glanced over and saw him stopped in the tunnel.

  "He'll never be able to bash dwarven worked stone," he continued.

  I didn't doubt he couldn't, but I hoped he'd make short work of the huge stone rolling toward us. While it wasn't in sight, the loud rumbling let me know it was colossal.

  "There it is," Axelrod shouted as he pointed down the tunnel.

  I turned and saw a perfectly round boulder bearing down on us.

  "Now it's time to run," I said, heading off toward Axelrod.

  The dwarf turned and ran down the hall. I glanced over my shoulder, hoping Josh in his frenzy could stop the boulder. While it wasn't a perfect plan, I couldn't think of anything else.

  Josh let out a primal scream. I stopped and turned as he firmly planted his feet and lifted his club, waiting for the boulder. There's no way he'll stop that rock, I thought.

  He continued screaming nonsensical phrases then dashed forward. The distance between him and the giant rock closed quickly. I wanted to close my eyes, but I kept them open.

  Right before they made contact, Sylvar appeared out of nowhere and raised a gnarled staff into the air. As he shouted in an unknown tongue, the rock stopped instantly.

  This threw Josh into even more of a rage. He turned and directed his fury toward the ranger who'd just saved our entire party from being squashed.

  "My rock," he yelled then brought the club down on the unsuspecting Sylvar.

  I ran forward, shouting, "Nooooo..."

  By the time I reached the two, Sylvar laid lifeless on the floor of the tunnel. Josh, fire in his eyes, turned and raised his club. He shouted something indecipherable then rushed me.

  I dodge to the left and rolled a few feet away as his massive club hit the stone floor. The miss made him even more upset. He turned, white foam coming out of his mouth.

  "You die now," he grumbled then stepped forward.

  "Over here, big oaf," Axelrod called out.

  Josh stopped and turned, confused on where to direct his anger. I slinked backward to the huge boulder, pressing my back against it as I pulled a sword and waited.

  "We need to go get Sarah," Bernard yelled. "Remember her, big guy?"

  Great idea, I thought, still prepared to fight Josh. I'd helped him go into a rage, but there was no way I'd let a person like him kill me the first time.

  Josh bellowed in frustration but lowered his club.

  "Sarah?" he asked, tilting his head. "Where is she?"

  "We need to save her," Bernard continued, walking closer with his hands lifted, palms out.

  "Sarah wants you to help her," I said.

  Josh's shoulders slumped as he calmed down, his barbarian rage falling away.

  The tunnel dissolved like a bad North Korean holographic image. I glanced around and saw we were in a rectangular room about a hundred-feet across on the short-end.

  "What's going on?" Josh asked, confused.

  "You tell me," I said, drawing my second weapon.

  "Over there," Axelrod said, pointing behind me.

  I turned and saw two men in armor standing next to an ornately carved door.

  "They're not moving," I said. "Should we try to talk to them?"

  "Are they holding, Sarah?" Josh asked. "I'll get them to talk."

  He rushed forward, heading toward the two guards stationed at the door.

  I sighed then took off after him, hoping Axelrod and Bernard followed.

  Our party had shrunk so much. We needed to stick together.

  "Where's Sarah?" Josh yelled as he slowed down, club in the air.

  "Hold on," I said, also slowing. "There's no one in those suits of armor."

  "Attack," Axelrod shouted as he rushed past me with his hatched in his hand.

  The two animated suits of armor turned and raised rusty swords.

  I better not get poisoned again, I thought as I circled around.

  Josh and Axelrod battered and smashed the empty suits of armor, keeping their attention. As I snuck around to flank them, I saw Bernard standing by with his wand of healing.

  Where to aim my blows? I wondered as I crept forward to attack. At the last moment, I decided on sticking both blades into a joint in the armor.

>   Your back stab attempt fails.

  Your pierce HITS the animated suit of armor for 8 damage.

  Your pierce MISSES the animated suit of armor.

  Not good.

  I stepped back, hoping the one I'd hit didn't turn around.

  Axelrod delivered a massive blow, knocking off its helmet before it could.

  The rest of the armor fell to the ground as Josh connected his club to the other empty helmet. It flew a few feet away, landing with a clank on the stone floor.

  Combat is over!

  You get 2,000 xp divided by four party members.

  You get 500 xp.

  You have 77,391 xp

  You need 27,609 xp for level 10 Rogue -> Bounty Hunter

  "They weren't very weak," Bernard noted as he walked over.

  "You've got to quit rushing into battle whenever we see something," I said.

  Josh turned.

  "Oh, so it's okay for you to get me in a barbarian rage to stop a massive boulder, but now I'm not doing a good job?"

  "You kinda killed Sylvar too," Bernard said.

  He backed away as Josh turned to glare at him.

  "Knock it off," Axelrod said. "This isn't over yet. We've got to find that glitchy Wight Mage and defeat him."

  "I'll knock his head off too," Josh said then laughed.

  He's getting into character, I thought, saying nothing.

  Axelrod stepped over the suits of armor and pulled the handle on the door.

  Brilliant white light shot out of whatever laid behind it.

  I braced myself for anything while hoping for a break.

  ()xxxx[:::: Chapter 22 ::::>

  Blame a Black Dragon

  SARAH

  I opened my eyes and saw Ryu standing above me on the floating platform.

  "We're going down the pit," Charlotte said.

  "I can see that," I said out loud.

  Ryu cocked his head to the side.

  "You can see what, dear?"

  "First, don't call me dear. Second, where are we going? Are the others okay? Did Sylvar put you up to this?"

  Ryu chuckled.

  "Calm down," he said then held up the glowing ball of light in his hand.

  "This whole underground kingdom is magnificent," he said, not looking at me. "Did you know there are warp-zones to higher levels?"

  "No," I said as I struggled to stand.