Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “What does any of this have to do with finding the Medallion of Courage?” I smacked my chest with my palm. “Because right now, this is making no sense.”

  “An excellent point,” Freyr replied, taking a step forward and putting one hand on my shoulder. “Which is exactly why I present you with the Medallion of Courage. All you need to do is take it.”

  “Great, where is it?” I asked, looking around, but the scenery hadn’t changed.

  Freyr dropped his hand and knelt down by the stream. “I hope you’re able to take it, adventurer.” A look of pain crossed Freyr’s face as he got back to his feet and stared at the crystal clear sky above. “You’ll have to do it soon because you haven’t got a lot of time left before the Skeleton King arrives.”

  He was right. The quest timer was ticking down, and I had to get the medallion and everything else in time to stop him. If I didn’t we were fucked.

  As those thoughts flitted through my brain, the scenery vanished, leaving George and me standing before a pedestal of silver. Only the rabbit still wasn’t moving. It concerned me, but not as much as the emerald sitting upon the pedestal. It was the size of a softball and bathed in rainbows like a platinum star, a mini god. The glare of its sheer magnificence was almost too much for me to behold.

  I covered my eyes with one hand and approached cautiously. When nothing smashed me into atoms, burned me to cinders, or shattered me into dust, I reached out toward the tiny glowing god from its pedestal.

  System Message: You are about to pick up the quest item: Medallion of Courage. If you do, all stats will be decreased by five. Bonuses accumulated thus far will be retained. Do you wish to pick up the Medallion of Courage?

  I snatched my hand back in an instant, and as I did, the brilliance of the gemstone died in an instant, fading into a lifeless hunk of green rock. The emptiness of it made a chill run down my spine as I stared at it in disbelief.

  “You can’t be serious?” I said, staring at the Medallion of Courage. “I can’t honestly be expected to lose that many stat points.”

  There was no response to my question as I shook my head. This was crazy. This was insane. This was not how a game should work… Only… only, it was a game, and we needed this item. Yeah, it would hurt me, and hurt me bad. I’d lose what amounted to twenty-five levels worth of stat points. Sure, I could try one of those rerolling potions Dark Heart had talked about, but damn. This sucked.

  At the same time, taking the medallion had to be worth it, right? It had to be. Otherwise the quest was stupid as fuck.

  “See, this is when life pisses me off,” I growled, but as the words left me, I snatched the gemstone off the platform. It was warm in my hand and throbbed there like a beating heart.

  System Message: You have chosen to pick up the Medallion of Courage. All stats have been reduced by five. The Medallion of Courage cannot be traded to another player.

  A tingling sensation filled the back of my mind as I opened my stats window and saw each of my stats were now highlighted in red and displayed the number fifteen instead of twenty. A surge of rage rushed through me.

  The medallion in my hand pulsed once and spoke. It spoke as if every word carried the power of the entire universe, and as I tried to respond, to make words come out of my mouth, it vanished into my quest items tab as everything went blurry, and the scenery merged into itself like a psychedelic hallucination.

  19

  I sucked in a breath that tasted like of vanilla and sage even though neither of those things were in the wind as I reappeared next to the crater. The ghost stood only a few feet away, staring down into the crater full of glowing purple glass. I wasn’t quite sure if the ghost even saw me because if he did, he gave no indication of it.

  “I recovered your stupid medallion,” I growled, glaring at the Spirit King. I mean, okay, it wasn’t his fault I’d lost stats, but I was still pretty pissed about it.

  The ghost started at the sound of my voice and turned toward me with an eyebrow raised. “Excellent,” he replied, steepling his hands together like Mr. Burns. “I never doubted you for a second. Now give me the medallion.” He extended one translucent hand toward me. “Now.”

  “That’s all you have to say?” George asked, hopping forward and stamping one foot. “Because this is where I expect you to dole out some phat loot, not give you ours.”

  “Oh, I shall reward you,” the Spirit King cackled, an eerie smile settling across his lips as he reached out toward me. “With death!”

  Emerald light exploded from his outstretched hand as he spoke, shattering my Bone Shield and flinging me backward across the room. Agony made my vision go dark as my health dropped by an additional six percent. I lay there, too stunned to move as little arcs of electricity flitted across my body.

  “I knew we should have lit you up when we first saw you!” George cried, launching a frozen projectile at the Spirit King, only instead of striking him down, the blast moved right through the apparition and smacked into the far wall, covering it in a flurry of sleet and snow.

  “Give me the medallion, and perhaps I will not destroy you,” the spirit said, drifting toward me as more energy crackled around his hands like he was Emperor Palpatine.

  “Pass,” I snapped, reaching out toward him and using my Control Undead Spell.

  System Message: Your spell has failed. Your intelligence is not high enough to control this monster.

  A curse lit from my lips as I glared at my newly reduced stats. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to control him even if they hadn’t been reduced by the Medallion of Courage, but it sure as hell wasn’t helping.

  Either way, there had to be a way to beat this guy. I mean, I was a necromancer, and he was undead. He should be my bitch. Still, as I cycled through my list of spells, I couldn’t figure out a way to stop it. My spells were all about animating corpses and such, not dealing with ghosts.

  “I dunno what to do, boss, I can’t hurt him!” George cried, hopping from foot to foot nervously.

  “I’m not sure how I can be clearer,” the ghost said, glancing at the rabbit. “Give me the medallion.”

  “No!” I snapped, getting to my feet and glaring at the ghost. Then as my eyes settled on the crater glittering on the other side of the apparition an idea struck me. A lot of necromancer spells required the use of ingredients to work. Usually it was corpses, sure, but crystals could be used to bind a spell. Usually they had to be specially crafted for the purpose or the captured spirit would have a much lower level, but I didn’t care about that. No. I just needed to get rid of this guy.

  “Then die!” the ghost king shouted, sending another arc of green electricity toward me.

  I dodged to the left at the last second, and as the emerald lightning tore a smoking hole into the cobblestones where I’d been, I dove through the creature, hit the ground hard on my forearm, and rolled toward the crater.

  As I came up on my feet, a blast of electricity struck me in the small of the back, dropping my health by a full thirty percent and flinging me forward into the glassy maw of the crater.

  “Boss!” George cried as I landed hard on the serrated surface at the bottom of the crater, causing another fifteen percent health to vanish in the blink of an eye.

  “Roll perception,” I said, staring out at the crystals surrounding me. As I spoke a green wave went out around me, causing certain crystals to glow, signifying they were items I could use.

  As the Spirit King appeared at the edge of the crater and glared down at me, I grabbed the largest crystal and hurled it at the monster.

  “Bind to Crystal!” I shouted as the glittering gemstone sailed through the air. As the words left my lips, a mass of black tentacles exploded from the crystal and wrapped around the Spirit King. My mana began to drop as they pulled the struggling spirit toward the crystal.

  System Message: Bind to Crystal skill activated. Progress twelve percent.

  “No!” the Spirit King cried, straining to pull free of the tentacles as m
y mana continued to drop. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I had enough mana to channel into the spell, but I had to try. If I didn’t, I wasn’t sure how to kill a ghost without a blessed weapon. Any other attacks would just pass through it, which was why the creatures were both annoying and frustrating, even for necromancers.

  System Message: Bind to Crystal skill activated. Progress twenty-five percent.

  “Yes!” I cried as I looked around for something, anything that could help. Only, I couldn’t find anything. Worse, my mana was below half, and the king was only a quarter of the way captured. “Mana Drain!”

  The Spirit King shrieked as mana tore out of his body in a cloud of blue fog and hit my hand, giving me another twenty-five percent mana. It wouldn’t be enough, but it’d be something.

  “Boss! Take mine!” George cried, appearing on the rim of the crater. “I’ve got lots!”

  System Message: Bind to Crystal skill activated. Progress forty-five percent.

  “Thanks, buddy,” I said, reaching out toward him as my mana dropped back to the fifty percent mark. “Mana Drain.”

  More mana surged out of the rabbit and hit me, refilling me to nearly my max. Better still, George had so much mana, I could probably refill my bar another time.

  “This will not be the end of me!” the Spirit King cried, turning and unleashing a blast of lightning at the rabbit. As the crackling energy tore into George and flung him out of view, a scream of rage tore from my lips.

  “George!” I cried as the urge to tear the spirit apart with my bare hands and then stomp on his grave filled the whole of my being. I threw all my willpower behind the channeling spell, causing it to flare like star fire as nearly all of my mana was consumed in a single instant.

  System Message: Bind to Crystal skill activated. Progress eighty-five percent.

  “I’m okay, boss!” the rabbit mumbled, his voice faint and weak as the Spirit King shrieked in anger and turned his attention back toward the binding spell.

  “You’re next!” the apparition hissed, raising a hand to Kentucky fry me. Only, as he did, I cast Mana Drain once more.

  Whatever power he’d gathered, dissipated into a few emerald sparks that died as they leapt from his translucent skin. My mana gauge increased by ten percent, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough. If George was in sight, I might have been able to drain him and finish this guy off, but without being able to see him, I couldn’t risk it. Besides, being Mana Drained hurt like a son of a bitch, and while I couldn’t see his numbers because the bunny was too far away, his health bar was already flashing red in my pet window.

  No. If I wanted to seal the deal, I’d have to get some more mana, and there was only one way to do that if I couldn’t steal some from George. A smile creased across my lips as my mana dwindled to nearly nothing. Well, that was fine.

  System Message: Bind to Crystal skill activated. Progress ninety-five percent.

  “Prepare to be my bitch,” I said, making eye contact with the Spirit King. “Body to Soul.”

  As a chunk of my health evaporated to fill up my mana gauge enough to keep the channeled spell going, horror flitted across the Spirit King’s visage. As the crystal drew him closer, I used Body to Soul again.

  More mana filled my bar as my own health bar began flashing red, and as I glanced at it, I realized I’d dropped below fifteen percent.

  System Message: Bind to Crystal skill activated. Progress ninety-nine percent.

  As I stared at the message hanging in front of my eyes, I knew I didn’t have enough mana to do him in. Almost enough, sure, but almost wouldn’t work. It would be all or nothing, and the second my mana ticked empty, he’d come kill me and George both.

  So I did the only thing I could. I gritted my teeth and used Body to Soul one last time.

  As my health dropped to nearly nothing and mana filled my tank, my eyesight went blurry. I started to fall into unconsciousness as the last of my newly generated mana surged into the spell. Then my face crashed into the crystal-strewn ground and everything went black.

  20

  Something moist and slimy was touching my face, and as I tried to move away from it, George’s voice sounded really close by.

  “Thank God you’re awake, boss. I totally thought I was going to have to stick my dick in your ear again,” and with those words, I sat bolt upright. I was alive. Huzzah!

  George stood next to me in the crater, and as I pushed him away from me, he gave me a cheeky grin. “Be nice, or I won’t give you the gift I got for you while you were napping.” He leaned in close and covered his mouth conspiratorially. “Well, the second gift I got for you. You already got the first one good and hard.” Then he thrust his hips in my general direction while swatting the air in front of himself with one paw.

  “George, I swear to God if you humped my leg while I was unconscious, I’ll…” I trailed off as the bunny slapped me on the thigh.

  “Sure, leg,” he said before holding one paw out to me. “Let’s go with that.”

  I was about to respond, but sitting upon his paw was a glittering crystal the same color as the ones surrounding me. Only this one was filled with a vaguely human shadowy form.

  “Is that what I think it is?” I asked, taking the crystal from him and holding it up to the light. While I couldn’t make out the form of whatever was inside, a quick look at the dialog box revealed what it was.

  Kingly Soul Gem

  Material: crystal

  Contained: This Soul Gem contains the spirit of a departed king. When used, will summon the creature to do the user’s bidding. If the user’s dominion over the trapped monster is not sufficient, it may rebel.

  “It worked!” I shouted, barely able to contain myself as I pumped my fist in the air. “It totally worked.”

  “Yep,” George said, a pleased look on his face, “and better yet, I picked up all the other usable gems.” As he spoke, an inventory window appeared next to his body, displaying fifteen unused soul gems of various quality. While none were as good as the one I’d used to contain the king, there were a few medium ones which I knew from experience could hold pretty good monsters. The downside would be they’d have reduced stats. Still, if I worked on my crystal shaping, I would be able to increase the stats of the creatures contained within them.

  “Thanks,” I said, selecting the items in George’s inventory and moving them into mine. “With these I’ll be able to collect all sorts of spirits.”

  “Great, so you’re going to play ghost Pokémon.” The rabbit rolled his eyes. “Sounds awesome…”

  “It is awesome, you jerk,” I said as I glanced at my skill window, and sure enough, I now knew the Bind to Crystal Skill. Elizabeth had probably told me about it, but I’d no doubt been too unconscious to hear her lovely voice.

  Hell, I had no idea how long I’d even been out. All I knew was that I must have regenerated enough health to wake up because my health was sitting at just over twelve percent.

  With a flick of my wrist, I cast Heal on myself. What little mana I’d regenerated during my time being unconscious vanished as healing light surrounded me. Another ten percent health filled my bar as I sat there looking for an obvious way out.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t see any. Well, that was going to get lame fast.

  “George, how did you get down here?” I asked, glancing at the bunny who was busy licking himself like a cat.

  “I jumped. You made a nice cushion.” He went back to licking himself.

  A sigh escaped me as I looked around once more and decided to roll perception. I wasn’t sure if it was because I failed the roll or not, but as the green light spread out around me, I saw nothing that looked like an exit.

  “I think you’ve got to do this the hard way,” George said, cracking a lascivious smile at me. “And I know you love the hard way.”

  “Fuck off,” I said, moving forward. Part of me wanted to wait until I had more health before I clambered up the razor-sharp mountain of glass, but I figured I could just
stop if my health started to drop, or you know, fall to my death. So, good points all around.

  Still, after forty minutes of alternating between resting and climbing, I was ready to just teleport home. Part of me still wanted to do it, but now that the Spirit King was defeated, I wanted to see what was at the top. Part of me was annoyed with the whole encounter because it seemed like a poorly written plot device, and it would have been easier without having my stats decreased, but there was no use complaining about it. No, I just needed to get to the top and find a way back to my friends.

  As I pulled myself back onto the platform at the edge of the crater, relief filled me to the brim, and I flopped on my back, sucking in gulps of fresh air that I knew weren’t real, but were still goddamned satisfying.

  “You made it,” George said, moving over to me and sitting up on his hind legs. “Took you a while.”

  “Sorry,” I wheezed as I got into a sitting position and stared at my bloody hands. Like magic, the wounds vanished as my health regenerated, making me glad I was in a virtual world because otherwise I’d have had to heal the old fashioned way. “Not all of us are able to leap out of a crater in a single bound.”

  “As long as you’re sorry,” George replied, hopping around me before stopping abruptly and raising one paw. “Um… boss, was that how it was when we left?”

  I turned my head and my mouth nearly fell open. The statue of Sabre was glowing with soft blue light.

  “Nope,” I said, pushing myself to my feet. “It most certainly was not.”

  I only had fifty percent health and ten percent mana, but I figured walking toward it would be safe enough. I mean, if something wanted to kill me, it’d had its chance during the fight with the Spirit King, when I’d fallen unconscious after said fight, or when I was climbing out of the glass-filled maw of a crater.