Gloominess +2: Congregation. A LitRPG series: Book 2

by Elian Tars

  “Stop!”

  He frowned, and then nodded. By this time, a small glowing ball of frightening bluish energy had formed at the girl’s forefinger.

  I glanced at the description of this couple once again.

  Mara, the Highest Wight

  Level 67

  HP: 2998/2998

  Kane, the Master of Death

  Level 67

  HP: 2112/2112

  “Why should I spare your life?” the guy asked indifferently.

  “Because I can make your companions lose their desire to fight. But you have already realized that, haven’t you?” The “calmed down” familiar was turning its head, looking at the decayed lands with interest and a smile on its hairless muzzle.

  So what if the dead animal couldn’t attack us? Vella and I had almost no HP left, and Kane could probably finish both of us off on his own and then point his zombies at the new targets.

  But it wasn’t as simple as it seemed. Before this, I had only ever “calmed down” wild animals, and human allies when healing them. But I had never used this ability on controlled enemies. Seems that I had discovered a new aspect of Tranquility of Darkness… How else would one explain the fact that Kane still hadn’t called the fox back? I was sure that he had already tried to do it. This must’ve meant that the zombie had been “calmed down” to such a degree that it was too lazy to fulfill its master’s orders.

  I removed the Aura as not to provoke my opponent and continued examining him. He was wearing a dirty, grey shirt, belted with webbing, and faded pants. If it weren’t for his travelling cloak, he could’ve passed for a usual villager. His companion, on the other hand, looked like a nun in white robes except that her head wasn’t covered.

  “Horne, come!” ordered Kane after a moment of thinking.

  “Vella, come!” I ordered without turning away from them. The dog sat beside me, tongue hanging out of her mouth. Scratching her behind the ear, I noticed that if our skirmish had continued, I would have had to make my little dog flee. She had little HP. She must’ve been aware of it, too, as she had spent most of the time running around the huge bull, but not really attacking. At the same time, she didn’t leave herself open to attacks.

  “So, can we talk now?” I asked without lowering my arm. I was ready to “shut down” his strongest companion at any time.

  “I think so,” Kane answered, putting his hand onto Mara’s wrist and looking her in the eyes. She nodded obediently and releasing the energy that had gathered around her forefinger, turning the trunk of the nearest tree into matchwood.

  “Why did you attack?” I decided to ask the first question.

  “I’m interested in that sac.” he pointed at the unusual artifact.

  There was no need for asking anything else. I was also interested in that thing. The system couldn’t identify it. Maybe it considered the sac to be the Shaman’s internals, as the system didn’t identify such things.

  “Will you give it to me?” Kane continued calmly.

  “What are you going to do with it?” I asked off the cuff, expecting him to start beating around the bush.

  “I’ll use it to increase my strength,” he shrugged.

  Did he suppose that everybody knew what the sac was needed for?

  “Well?” he asked indifferently. “Will you give it to me?”

  “I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “You have no idea how much trouble I had getting this thing.”

  “I have, actually,” Kane nodded. “I was watching your fight through its eyes,” he pointed with an indifferent nod at the zombie-fox that was still observing the “beauty of the local landscape”.

  It took great efforts to keep calm and not curse. This jerk had been standing aside this entire time, waiting until I had defeated all of the enemies to waltz in here and demand my loot? And he had the nerve to talk about it so casually! Maybe I should “calm down” his entire group?

  Stop, enough. Emotions won’t do me any good now. We were standing on the Territory of Decay now and discussing sharing an unknown, but very powerful artifact. The Decayed will soon realize what had happened yet, and hordes of creatures will swarm the area.

  I had to decide what to do. Should I continue talking with this guy? I could learn a lot of new things. Besides, and let’s face it, I probably would’ve done the same. Why would he be helping a stranger in the decayed lands? What’s more, my fight benefited his plan on getting his hands on the artifact; it didn’t matter who would win: me or the frogs. Either way, the winner wouldn’t be in best shape.

  If he had helped me, and I turned out to be a Follower of his God’s enemy…

  After all, we weren’t in a town where everybody managed to live in peace and where the Patron’s will was theoretically above all of the laws.

  “Kane, how long are going to chit-chat with this guy?” Mara suddenly spoke, gaining my attention again. She was very different from the other zombies. It wasn’t that she seemed to have her wits about her, but that she looked quite fit and healthy, brushing aside her unnatural complexion and the cold, bright-blue pupils. “You do feel that the decayed beasts are coming, don’t you? We should hurry up. Let me finish them off,” she made a step in our direction, raising her arm again.

  “No!” the guy said firmly, stopping his zombified girlfriend. Staring at my face, he spoke: “You got it right, I don’t want to risk losing her,” he pointed at the scowling zombie, “but if you do to her what you did to Paw, I’ll just kill her and create her again, though it would take some efforts. So, don’t test my patience and give me the energy source.”

  So I was right about the sac. I wondered who this fellow’s Patron was. There was no mention of any God of necromancy in the Small Encyclopedia; just like there was no mention of my Old Man.

  As for the approaching decayed beasts that Mara had mentioned… I didn’t hear any unusual sounds, nor was Vella looking around. Was she bluffing? Or did the strange couple really have an ability to feel the Decay from a long distance?

  “I’m going to count to three,” getting no answer from me, Kane said. “One… Two…”

  “I’ve heard enough, young man,” a familiar voice spoke. A levitating figure clad in a black, smoking robe, appeared between me and the necromancer.

  “Call of the Patron” has been activated.

  You have spent 50 faith points.

  The Old Man, having spent my faith points, was blocking my view. I had to move a bit to the left to see the frowning necromancer. Kane was looking above my Patron’s head, at the spot where the info window usually was, then shifted his gaze at the sac and then back at the God of Darkness.

  “Who are you?” the guy asked, tensing up. “You’re not a God.”

  Honestly speaking, I thought my Patron’s appearance a vision before. Usually it was individual, except that one time, when the Old Man made Berg his Disciple, when it was collective. I blamed the illusion for there not being an info window above the Patron’s head. But now I had other thoughts about it.

  “I’m not like the God you have denied, young man,” the Old Man spoke. “My power is different from theirs. And it will help you overcome the obstacles that have impeded your progress, young man. It will, not the energy source,” he waved at the sac with the tadpoles which I still hadn’t hidden in my inventory. I could do it at any moment, but I wanted to clear some things up first.

  “Are you Bale’s Patron?” Kane inquired.

  “Yes, I am, young man,” he answered calmly. The forest was plunged into thoughtful silence for a few seconds. It thought I heard rustling, but it was still very far away.

  “I’m very pleased with you, boy,” the Old Man didn’t turn around to face me, deciding to use a mental speech. “You’ve done a great job; you have found one of the ancient sources and the one who had unlocked ancient powers inside him. This young man is just like you, boy. You couldn’t have found a better Disciple. I won’t have to inculcate my powers into him, as I had to with my first Disciple. He already has t
hem, and with my help, he will be able to increase them further.”

  “Are you offering me to trade the energy source for the right to become your Follower?” Kane asked, grimacing.

  “Disciple,” the Old man corrected.

  “Kane, don’t you feel it?” Mara whispered, cuddling up to her necromancer. “This shadow, it… Its power … I can’t find words… But it can help you! It can help us! Don’t you understand that?”

  “I do understand.” The guy nodded and firmly said: “I agree to become your Disciple, for I feel real, unconfined power in you. However, only one color dominates it — black.”

  “Pay no mind to that, colors change depending on the lighting,” my Patron answered, waving his hand. “I name you, Kane, the Disciple of the God of Darkness. Spread my will among the people together with the other Disciples, support the Gleam.”

  I attentively listened to their conversation, making my own conclusions. For a while now it had been clear to me that my God differed from the others. The difference wasn’t only in his behavior, but also in the type of power he wielded. My God had an ancient power, like me and Kane. Right? But that was a bit odd… What did I have to do with it? It seemed that I had stopped perceiving everything as a game, but rather like a real world. So did I arrive from Earth into some other world? If that was true, then these “ancient powers” were within me from the very beginning. But how was that possible? Even if the transfer between the worlds was possible, there was no magic like that on Earth, right?

  “Boy, I’ve settled the dispute between you,” the Old Man said, turning to me. “Take the energy source and go with the new Disciple. The Decayed are very close. I can’t buy you much time.”

  A system message about getting another quest that I couldn’t physically decline flashed before my eyes. Accepting it, I put my hand on the sac and mentally sent the artifact that brought so many troubles to my inventory. This had been the quickest quest that I had received so far.

  Quest complete: “The Source of Energy”

  XP received: 100,598 EXP

  Level up.

  Current level: 60

  You have reached level 60. All negative status effects have been removed. All the stats have been increased by 40.

  I had no injuries, and the Effects of Decay were counted separately from others, so the first part of the notification was useless to me. But I was glad to see those forty points.

  However, another system message appeared right after the previous one.

  You have reached level 60. Your bond with your Patron has entered its 2nd stage.

  Chapter 15

  Kane

  Sitting on the bull and holding onto its monstrous horns, Kane reminded me of a biker. Mara, sitting behind him with her arms around him, made the resemblance even stronger. Though, it would’ve looked much scarier if the zombie-girl was riding it alone. Still, the necromancer gave the impression of a sleepy klutz.

  The Old Man stayed behind to cover our backs, as he had promised. As much as I wanted to see my Patron fighting, I couldn’t take such a risk because of my low HP.

  “Thank you, boy,” his voice sounded in my head, when Vella and I broke into a run. “You’ve done a great job today. When it’s time, you’ll know and understand everything. But now you should concentrate on Rugus’s request, as well as on recreating the source of energy. The new Disciple will help you. So long as there are people like him and you around, this world still has a fighting chance. If you meet other people who possess the ancient power on your way, you must convince them to join us at all costs, boy.”

  We were far from the Old Man now. Looking back, I could see the calm, dead forest. Looking ahead of me, I could see Mara’s back, who had thrown hostile glances at me a couple of times.

  This expedition had definitely been beneficial to me though it wasn’t clear what exactly I had gotten just yet. The God of Darkness gave me two quests: to find people like Kane and to recreate the energy source, without giving any clue about what exactly I should do.

  Despite that, I was slowly beginning to understand some aspects of this universe’s laws. A few not, very coherent theories, were gradually forming in my head, but they needed to be verified, of course. Let’s take, for example, the sac with the tadpoles. Kane and the Old Man called it an “energy source”, which only confirmed my theories about it. But that was surprising, because my mind, molded by books and games, imagined such sources to look like a well, or a giant, glowing obelisk, or some sort of a fountain, but definitely not like a bunch of frog babies.

  The information about deepening the bond with my Patron also bothered me. What could it mean? I remembered being constantly blamed for being weak, so they were not in a hurry to reveal some secrets to me. Was that the reason? Did a low level bond mean that it was easier to betray your God and change it for another? If that’s the case, the Old Man’s worries seemed a bit more understandable. But I wasn’t going to change him for another God; neither then, nor now.

  While I pondered, it had begun to dawn. We crossed the conventional border that separated the dead part of the forest from the living one. Getting a few miles away from the Territory of Decay, Kane slowed his bull.

  “I’m suggesting we make a stop here,” he said as soon as I rode up to him.

  A couple of minutes later, we dismounted and stood, looking at the decayed forest from which we had just run away.

  “Is anybody following us?” I asked.

  “Our Patron was able to send them in a different direction,” the new Disciple replied calmly.

  “How do you know?” I asked, trying not to sound astonished.

  Kane shrugged. “I saw it.”

  And that was all, no more explanations. Didn’t the Old Man give him the task to explain to me even the most obvious of things? I hadn’t noticed him looking back during our crazy ride, so that meant that he couldn’t have seen the God of Darkness’s battle with his own eyes. He probably got information through other means. I remembered how during our raid for the part of Zurtarn Berg and Una got pretty worried at the sight of a bird in the sky…

  I couldn’t help but wonder how the Old Man’s first Disciple, and the Gleam of Rugus and her friends were doing. We separated under rather unpleasant circumstances, but I had a feeling that we would meet soon. If everybody lived till that glorious moment, that is.

  “Were you watching through the fox’s eyes?” I made a guess out loud.

  He shook his head. “No. Your skill rendered Paw useless, so I had to cut connection with it. I sent Wing, my crow.”

  Horn, Paw, and Wing; the guy had really poor imagination for names.

  “Kane can see and hear everything we hear and see,” Mara declared, puffing her chest proudly.

  “Are you watching the lands of Decay right now?” I inquired.

  The necromancer nodded. “I ordered Wing to watch a big group of the Decayed.” Materializing a piece of raw meat in his hand, he gave it to the girl. “Eat, please.” Then, looking at me again, he continued. “But right now, I’m not using United Vision on Wing.”

  “But you can do it at any moment?”

  “I’m tired and we’d better get some rest,” the fellow answered indifferently, walking up to Horn. “Eat, eat,” the necromancer muttered, taking out a chunk of what it seemed to me to be beef. The zombie-bull happily started eating his meal. His teeth, designed to chew grass, easily coped with the flesh of his kin. Horn murmured with pleasure and munched loudly.

  Unlike the bull, Mara nibbled her meal without forgetting to wipe her mouth with a handkerchief.

  Cleaning his hands against his pants, the necromancer sat on the grass and took out a wineskin, some bread, jerked beef and a piece of cheese from his inventory — a standard meal of a traveler. I did the same.

  “As long as we are on the same side, I’d like to know more about you,” I began, having eaten a piece of bread. “Where did you get this power to raise the dead? How did you find out about the location of the ener
gy source? How exactly do you sense the Decayed? And, most importantly,” I made a pause, “do you really need the patronage of the God of Darkness?”

  I tried to speak calmly and confidently in order to set the tone for our further cooperation. But one, not very alive, lady didn’t like it.

  “You should just thank your Patron that Kane joined you, and not bug him with such arrogant questions,” Mara snorted, sitting down beside the necromancer.

  Kane caressed her hair. “Calm down, honey. We’re on the same side, and Bale is right,” turning to me, he frowned and gritted his teeth. And here I thought that this fellow had some emotions left in him.

  “Things are rather simple,” he said flatly, regaining his composure. “About a year ago, Mara and I were members of Baron Geryon’s troops. Mara was seriously wounded in one of the battles. Nobody would spend a Highest Healing Potion on a common soldier, and there were no healers capable of healing such a wound in the troops. I begged Healissa to give me more power. I promised to pray every chance I got, to get her new Followers, but she didn’t listen to me.”

  So, Kane was a healer who prayed to Healissa, the Goddess of Health. Since he was ignored he must’ve been just a common Follower. Could a Gleam or a Disciple have saved Mara? There were no such people in the baron’s squad. Were they rare then? What did I know about injuries? I considered myself lucky, having dealt only with a Minor Injury at the beginning of my journey, which healed when I reached level 10. Starting with level 30, every tenth level removed any sort of injury. However, as it was close to impossible to level even once if you legs were, say, missing, this wasn’t a very effective method of healing.

  The God of Darkness gained another Disciple today. Was I ready for brining even more people to our little “cult”? I obviously wasn’t. Was I to take the responsibility for them? Was I to be the one to face any upcoming troubles? Including injuries?

  “Mara suffered for twelve hours and died,” Kane continued his story, interrupting my thoughts. He was talking in a calm and even tone, but he couldn’t hide his pain completely. “I don’t know what got into me. That night, I stole her body and ran away from the baron’s field camp. By some miracle, I wasn’t caught and I managed to hide in the forest. For twenty four hours I walked wherever the road took me, carrying her and cursing Healissa for having turned her back to me. I wanted Mara to come back to life. I really did. I cried at the sky till my throat became dry… And I was heard. The world told me that I broke the bond with my Patron and unlocked the Death element.