Soulstone: Awakening: A LitRPG novel (World of Ruul Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Okay,” I said because I had no way to respond to that. I wasn’t about to forgive her, even if she was a hot chick. No, she’d basically put me on a suicide mission. Sure, she may have had a reason, but you know what, people do horrible shit all the time for good reasons and that doesn’t justify doing so.

  “You didn’t say, you wouldn’t kill me,” Dark Heart said, staring at me like she was trying to read my thoughts.

  “You’re right, I didn’t,” I said, turning so she couldn’t search my face with her blue eyes.

  “That’s all you have to say?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at me.

  “Yes.” I nodded to her. “We’re not friends. Hell, we’re not even allies, but right now, I feel like I need you to get my body back. I could kill you, but if I did, I might not get back out of this. So no, I’m not going to go out of my way to kill you until you prove useless.” I narrowed my eyes. “Do not prove useless because the moment you do, I will make putting my brain in a box feel like a trip to fucking Disneyland. Are we clear?”

  Before she could respond, I turned pointedly away from her and waved at Crash and Two’ Manchu who were standing on the other side of the doorway. “Coast is clear, guys, come on in, and bring a couple torches.”

  “Okay,” Two’ Manchu replied as I looked around the room. It seemed weird for there to be another empty room, but then again, this one had been filled with wendigoes, and there had been another room with nothing but time to kill you…

  “Fair enough.” Dark Heart took a deep breath as Two’ Manchu, Crash, and George the bunny came into the room.

  “Anything interesting?” the barbarian asked as he handed me one of the lit torches. “Because it doesn’t look interesting.”

  As I took the torch from him and moved forward into the room, I was inclined to agree. While the marble floors and carved columns inside the room made it seem like it had once been nice, age and decay had turned most of the furniture to rubble, and the paintings on the walls had long since crumbled into useless heaps on the ground.

  Worse, there were no obvious exits, and no bookcases or furniture along the walls. No, it was another empty room. Was it another perception check?

  “I want to roll perception,” I said as I stood there in the middle of the room. Like before, the emerald wave spread out through the room, but unlike last time, nothing in particular lit up. Sigh.

  “You have failed to detect anything out of the ordinary,” Elizabeth told me as I moved toward what looked like a dining table in the center of the room. It was scarred and battered, and one of the legs had broken off so it was half collapsed, but it was the only piece of furniture in the room that didn’t look like it’d been at the epicenter of a hurricane. It was curious, but it was also thicker than my thigh, so it had that going for it.

  “I’m guessing you didn’t find anything when you rolled,” Crash said as I circled the table trying to find any discernible clue as to what to do.

  “You’d be correct.” I glared at the table. “Well, this is stupid. Another fucking empty room? Where’s the damned portal?”

  “I’m guessing our portal is in another part of the dungeon,” Crash replied, unhelpfully. “If I knew, I’d tell you, but in TG all the dungeons were randomly created, and I’m guessing this one is too.”

  “I feel like your answer to everything is to tell us you don’t know,” Two’ Manchu said, making his way to the far wall. “I mean, I get it’s not your fault because you really don’t know, but you need to step up.” The barbarian began running his free hand over the brick like he was searching for one to press like in the fire room.

  “I don’t know what you all expect from me.” Crash snapped his fingers as he spoke, and the room lit up, which made me feel dumb because I’d not even thought about trying the light spell again. Sigh.

  “They’re just frustrated, Crash,” Dark Heart said, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Not even with you really, but with me.” She huffed out a breath. “Try not to take it personally.”

  “Fuck, babe, you’re lucky I haven’t waxed your ass yet,” Two’ Manchu said, looking at her over his shoulder and drawing his thumb across his throat.

  Dark Heart sighed. Loud. “You can all hate me, if you want. That’s fine, I can take it. I’m a big girl, but there’s something I didn’t tell you.” Anger flashed across her face. “If I die, Ivan has been instructed to terminate you all. So go ahead, kill me.” She marched toward the barbarian. “Man the fuck up and do it.” She bared her throat.

  “Are you being serious right now?” Two’ Manchu asked and his face had gone white. “Do you mean to tell me that not only do I have to worry about keeping my ass alive, I have to keep you alive too? You’re the fucking Devil.”

  I was inclined to agree with him. I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth or not. That curious bit of information seemed like it would have come out at the beginning. It hadn’t, and that made me think she was lying. But at the same time, while I wanted to smash her skull into paste for what she’d done, I wasn’t going to call her bluff. Not when we’d all die because of it. No. I’d wait to find out for sure, and if I found out she was lying, well, let’s just say you couldn’t die in town…

  “Well, glad that cat’s out of the bag. I’d wondered when she’d tell you,” Crash said in a way that made me think he already knew about it and had been on her scheme to get me stuck here. If that was true, there was nothing that said we couldn’t kill him…

  “Did you know?” Two’ Manchu asked, turning to glare at his friend. “Because if you did…”

  “Why do you think I’ve been defending her? Because she’s hot? Man, I’ve fucked girls ten times as hot as her.” He began to pace the room, his feet clomping angrily on the stone.

  “That is an excellent point.” I kicked the table, and it shattered beneath the force of my blow like a rotten log. As its remains crumbled to the ground, I growled. “So not only are you responsible for this situation, Crash knew and didn’t say anything.” I shook my head as I fixed my eyes on the priest. “I mean, fuck man. You should have told us that.”

  “I asked him not to tell you guys. I didn’t want you doing something stupid.” She shook her head. “Now you’ll be worried about me dying.”

  She was right. She’d been in a Catch 22.

  “Fine.” I turned away from her because this argument wasn’t helping anything. “Hey Crash, you helped develop TG, right? You say you don’t remember anything of useful because it’s so different, but surely you remember some GM commands or something? That would help a lot and go a long way toward my wanting you to stay alive.”

  “Yeah, I know the administrator commands, but those won’t help us since we’re players.” He shrugged. “And none of those commands would help us find the way out of a puzzle room. They might let us walk through the door, but we’d still have to know where it was.”

  I had a moment where I wanted to scream at him to tell me what ones he knew so I could see for myself, but I thought better of it. Using GM commands might work, but it’d probably piss off the AI who had already given me one warning, and right now, we weren’t that desperate. No, there had to be a way out, I just needed to think.

  “Fine,” I said, sitting down on the stone floor. “Anyone else got any ideas?”

  “You know, there’s a lot of bricks to check,” Two’ Manchu said, casting an angry glance at me. “You could do that instead of sitting there.”

  “It’s probably not a brick,” Dark Heart said, shooting him a “look, I can be a team player,” smile as she began to check bricks too. “I mean, it was last time, so the chances it’s the same are slim.”

  “Who knows?” George said in a voice that was remarkably similar to Crash’s voice. I smirked, but Crash just scowled at the bunny. “Hey, if the shoe fits…”

  “Great, now the fictional bunny is making fun of me,” Crash exclaimed, smashing one palm against the wall. “How do you think this feels for me? I went from being one of th
e best TG players in the world to being the worst guy in the party. I should be taking names and kicking ass, but instead, my synchronization rate is lower than everyone else’s by a huge margin.”

  “That’s your own hang up, man,” Two’ Manchu said, turning to look at the priest. “I mean, you could learn Body to Soul right now, but you were all like ‘that’s impossible’ blah, blah. You’re in the fucking Matrix. There is no spoon, bro.”

  “I know, and it’s pissing me off,” Crash replied, spinning on his heel and glaring at Two’ Manchu, only as he did, the light spell he’d cast shifted, causing the moss in the cracks to shimmer in a wave. Only, there was something weird about it. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

  “Wait!” I cried, leaping to my feet. “Spin around like that again, Crash.”

  “Why would I do that?” he asked, eyes widening in confusion. “Are you just making fun of me again?”

  “No, I thought the moss looked weird when your light spell hit it.” I gestured to the moss. It had mostly lost its glow under the glare of the spell.

  “Fine,” Crash said, and he spun in a slow circle. As he did, the moss darkened in places where the light hit it while the rest flared brighter as it fell into darkness. “Happy?”

  “Yes,” I said, nodding at him. “I think the moss is the key. I’m not sure how, but it seems to react to the light. It goes out when the spell’s rays hit it and flares back when it’s in darkness.”

  “Well, since it started in darkness, I’m guessing that turning the light out won’t do anything,” Crash said, and as he did, he snapped his fingers. “That’s it!”

  “What’s it?” Dark Heart asked, stopping mid-brick as she turned to look at him. “What’d you think of?”

  “There was a mechanic we’d scrapped because it was too hard for players to figure out. See, most of the monitors were so bright, darkness wasn’t really an issue. Because of that no one really used the light spells, torches, and whatever.” He made a dismissive gesture with one hand. “It was stupidly frustrating in beta players when they ran into light traps because they couldn’t tell where the light ended.” He smirked. “I’d totally forgotten about it.”

  “What the fuck is a light trap?” I asked, looking at him carefully. “Explain in exquisite detail please.”

  “There’s no point in doing that.” He shook his head. “It’s better to show you.” He gestured toward Dark Heart and me. “Can you two cast your light spells?”

  “Um… sure,” Dark Heart said, extending her hand outward. Instantly more light filled the room. I followed suit, and soon the room was lit so well, barely any of the moss was glowing.

  “So, uh, what’s supposed to happen?” Two’ Manchu asked, and I could tell he was annoyed he didn’t know basic magic. He hadn’t been high enough to learn when we’d set out to kill ghouls. Man, that felt like a long time ago.

  “We need to position ourselves so that all the moss goes dark. When that happens, the door will open.” He grinned. “See, almost no one could actually tell how to do it because of technological limitations with monitors, systems, and lighting, but I’m guessing that particular mechanic was based on something like this.”

  “Okay, I’m willing to admit, you might be slightly better than useless,” George said as he looked at the three of us who had cast light. “Well, what are you waiting for, space yourselves out accordingly.”

  “I cannot believe I’m being ordered around by an NPC bunny,” Dark Heart said, and while I agreed, I’d long since given up on following that particular train of thought. It wouldn’t be helpful. Instead, I moved away from the other two so we could position ourselves as best we could.

  “One more step to the left,” Crash said, pointing to Dark Heart, and as she moved to the left, our three spheres of light overlapped in the center like a crazy triple Venn diagram. There was a moment of silence as the last of the moss winked out and then the sound of stone rumbling filled my ears.

  I turned my head to look toward the direction of the rumbling while being careful not to move enough to disrupt the moss. The bricks along the wall behind me had crumbled to dust, revealing a small tunnel. And when I say small, I meant we’d have to crawl through it on hands and knees. Hell, Two’ Manchu might not even fit.

  “Um… that looks ominous,” George said, staring into the darkened tunnel. “I’m definitely not going first. It’s bad luck to go into viper holes, and that’s even if you are a mongoose. I’m a rabbit.”

  “Wait, viper holes?” Dark Heart asked, tearing her gaze from the tunnel and turning it on the bunny. “Do you mean there’s snakes in there?”

  “I’m not sure,” the bunny twitched its nose as it moved a step closer. “But it smells like snakes.”

  “Fucking awesome,” I muttered as the sound of rumbling stone faded. “I hate snakes.”

  “Dude, everyone hates snakes. Even the people who say they like snakes, hate snakes,” Two’ Manchu said, moving toward the tunnel. “Say, can you guys come or are you stuck standing there?”

  “We should be good,” Crash said, and then took a step forward. As he did, the moss behind him lit up, but the darkened tunnel remained.

  “Guess we all get to go into the snake pit,” Dark Heart said, launching an energy bolt down the tunnel that failed to illuminate it very much. “Must be our lucky day.”

  “It’s a good thing I’m really good at going into holes,” I said, trying to keep my fear at bay as I summoned all my courage and peered into the dank tunnel. “I’m way better at it than I am at drinking beer, and I’m pretty good at drinking beer.”

  29

  “So, uh, who goes first?” Two’ Manchu asked as we stood in front of the tunnel looking dumbly at each other. “I mean, I’ll go second if Dark Heart goes first…”

  “I don’t really want to go in there first,” she said, swallowing hard as she took a step backward. “And that’s not because I’m worried about you staring at my ass.”

  “It’s fine,” I said, glancing at the two of them. “I had thought about maybe drawing straws, but I’ll just go first.” I smiled at them as I touched my chest. “I have the most health so if something happens…”

  “So if something happens, you’ll die first. Got it, boss,” George said, glancing into the tunnel. “Well, better you than me. Get a move on.”

  I thought about trying to come up with a snappy reply, but too much time had passed. Sigh. To be fair, I was scared of going into the tunnel first, but someone had to do it. I’d kind of wanted it to be Dark Heart since she was the highest level, but if she died, we’d all die. If it wasn’t her, it should be me. Sure, Crash was higher level, but his health was a lot lower than mine.

  “If I die, tell my mom I was awesome, okay?” I said, getting onto my hands and knees and crawling into the tunnel. “She’d like that. Maybe a plaque too.”

  As I inched my way forward on my hands and knees, I realized the entrance to the tunnel was a lot smaller than I’d initially thought. The rocky surface bit into my knees, and the walls felt like they were closing in on me as I wormed my way inside. The smell of dust combined with moss grew stronger with each inch forward.

  Worse, my light spell only served to illuminate a few feet in front of me, which while better than nothing, was a lot less than I’d hoped for when I’d started. It’d give me just enough time to see whatever it was before I died horribly.

  “Sure, she can have a plaque. I’ll let Ivan know the next time I see him,” Dark Heart said, from behind me, and I realized she was following me. I wasn’t sure why, but something about that made me feel better. I mean, I knew she wouldn’t be able to help me if something happened, but by coming second, she was almost assured of dying too.

  “Thanks,” I muttered. The idea that Ivan would do anything useful was completely crazy. I mean, what kind of handler puts four players into a situation like this and then vanishes without a fucking word? Surely, there had to be some kind of explanation, but as I mulled it ov
er, I couldn’t think of one that made any sense.

  Either he and everyone he worked for was completely incompetent, or they were sadistic evil bastards. Neither of those spoke well of our chances for survival, let alone success.

  “It’s the least they could do,” Two’ Manchu said, and he sounded pretty far away. That was fine though. Even though he was sort of a tool, I sort of hoped he wouldn’t die in this tunnel if something happened. I guess the big lug had grown on me.

  “Seriously,” I muttered, turning my attention back toward the tunnel. “Now be quiet, I want to listen for horrible monsters.”

  No one responded, which was both good and disheartening. As silence descended upon me, the only sounds I could hear was my own breathing and the pounding of my heart. As I plodded forward, the tunnel grew narrower, and the ceiling got closer and closer.

  “Goddammit,” I muttered as I dropped onto my belly and began pulling myself forward in a weird Spider-man type crawl. My legs and arms began to burn from strain almost instantly, and as they did, a scowl crossed my face. I had always hated doing exercises like this at the gym. I was really more of a bicep curls kind of guy, if, you know, by bicep curls you meant raising a beer bottle to your mouth.

  This was definitely beyond my purview. I shut my eyes and took another breath that smelled like musty basement and tried to focus on ignoring the pain. Then I collapsed to the ground flat on my stomach in exhaustion. My muscles ached, and even though I tried to remember I didn’t have a damned body, it was a lot harder than I’d expected. Part of it was because I had to focus so much on doing each movement. Maybe, if I could naturally move horizontally on my tippy toes and fingers, it would have been different, but it required so much concentration, I couldn’t help but feel every muscle in my virtual body twinge with effort.

  “Hey, did you hear that?” Dark Heart hissed from behind me.