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

by J. A. Cipriano

  “What do you think is going on?” George asked as we approached the statue. As we got closer, the faint glow cascading out of it fell over me, covering my body like warm bathwater.

  System Message: Spirit of Savior has been cast upon you. Health and mana regeneration will be increased by 15% for the next 30 minutes.

  “Cool,” I said, instantly glad that it was a buff and not a doom curse, and not just because I could use the regen. No, it was more that things tended not to buff you before they killed you. Something told me that if this thing was helping me, it wasn’t out to kill me. At least not yet.

  Unfortunately, before I could take another step forward, the eyes of the statue began to burn with sapphire flame, and it turned its head to look at me.

  “Who are you?” it asked in a voice that slammed into my senses like a freight train. It sounded almost exactly like my mom. Or, I mean, it sounded like how my mom had likely sounded when she was twenty-five.

  “Um… I’m Kahn,” I said, swallowing hard. “Who are you?”

  “If you don’t know, then I suppose I’ve been forgotten,” the statue mused as more flame filled the surrounding space, lending both color and detail to her features. Then as, her body became completely lifelike, she stepped off the platform and looked at me. “That’s fine. I never expected to be remembered.” As the flames writhing around her dissipated, she held one hand out to me. “I’m Sabre.”

  “I thought you were dead,” I said, reaching out and taking her hand. It was warm and felt as real as anything else.

  “I wasn’t dead.” She sighed. “Frozen, sure, but not dead. Well, at least I wasn’t. I probably am now.” She tapped her head with one finger. “That’s what happens when your synchronization reaches one hundred percent. Your mind gets trapped within this world forever.” She shook her head. “Guess there’s no going home for me because even if that hadn’t happened, my body is probably toast now. Even if the game hadn’t fried my brain when I got frozen, I doubt they’d keep it around this long…” She glanced up at me. “Say, what’s the date?”

  Her words hit me all at once, and the nonchalance in them stunned me. She’d been frozen in game and lost her body, and she didn’t even seem to care much about it. That was weird. Really weird.

  “Wait, what the fuck is going on?” I replied, taking a step back from her and making a time out gesture with my hands. “What do you mean you’re dead?”

  “I ‘died’ when the Spirit King turned me to stone.” She glanced around. “Obviously he’s been defeated, or I wouldn’t have been freed from his curse.” She clapped her hands together and smiled in a way that very nearly made butterflies flutter in my gut. “So thanks for that.”

  “Wait, he said you died protecting the town,” I replied as confusion swirled inside my brain. Had the Spirit King lied about all that stuff, and what’s more, if that was true, where was the broach? What had happened to it?

  “I guess…” she said, looking away from me and fumbling with her broach. “See, when I returned with the Broach of the Fallen Warrior, he asked for it. Obviously I refused, at which point he turned me into a statue. My connection with the game skyrocketed, and as it hit one hundred percent, I felt myself delink from my body. No doubt the surge broke the hardware.” She looked me up and down. “I’m also guessing no one has found all the soul stones, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, right?”

  “Um…” I shook my head as I turned that bit of knowledge over in my brain. “When did you come in here?”

  “Let’s just say, I knew Reagan really well,” she said, moving closer to me, and as she did, her armor gleamed in the low light. “So, who’s president now?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief. Reagan hadn’t been president for a long fucking time. “How could you be in here this long?”

  “Science?” she responded, raising an eyebrow at me. “The conversion was never very good. We couldn’t get more than one or two percent sync, but you work with what you have, am I right?” She touched me again, and as she did, a message flashed in front of me.

  System Message: Sabre has requested to join your party. Do you accept? Y/N

  I stared it for a bit. This chick seemed ten kinds of off-kilter, but at the same time, I wasn’t sure what the harm in having her in my party would be.

  “I dunno if you should trust her,” George said, interposing himself between us and sniffing at her. “Something about her isn’t right.”

  “Aww, what a cute little bunny,” Sabre squealed, ignoring his comment as she knelt down and pulled him against her chest. George squirmed for a moment before realizing where he was and then he nuzzled up against her and winked at me. God damned traitor.

  “Never mind, boss. She’s good,” George said, and I shook my head at the bunny before glancing at the confirmation hanging in front of me.

  “I accept,” I said, and as I said the words, her information appeared in the corner of my screen beneath Dark Heart’s name. Only unlike my other party members who were too far away for me to see their vitals, hers filled in.

  Character: Sabre

  Alignment: Neutral

  Level: 15

  Health: 276

  Mana: 103

  Synchronization: 100%

  Strength: 15

  Dexterity: 17

  Constitution: 21

  Wisdom: 16

  Intelligence: 4

  “How the hell do you have twenty-one constitution?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

  “When I created my character, one of my friends gave me an elixir to increase one of my stats. It gave me a bonus of one to any stat I wanted. I chose Constitution, so I’d have more health.” She peered closer at me. “I should ask you a similar question mister all twenty for stats. That’s a wicked cheat you must have used. Only looks like you’ve got an item decreasing them… Guess we need to head to town and get that lifted, eh?”

  I waved off her question while filing away the information about the elixir for later. Getting my hands on a bottle of elixir could be really helpful.

  “So you have the Broach of the Fallen Warrior?” I asked, taking a step backward. She was a bit too friendly for someone I’d just met, especially since she was the first player I’d met who wasn’t in the group. Sure, she’d been frozen for a long fucking time, and her mind was supposedly stuck in the game forever now, but something wasn’t clicking. I mean, shouldn’t she be cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?

  “Yep,” she said, taping her chest lightly. As she did, I noticed the broach in the shape of a skull and cross bones pinned there. It glowed with eerie red light, and as I stared at it, a bad feeling settled over me. “When I got it, the damn thing reduced my stats too. I had to have the curse removed. Now it makes spells and skills cost half as much mana.” She waved her hand at me. “Which is what we should do for you. I bet the Medallion of Courage does something awesome.”

  “I don’t have time to go to town for that,” I said, shaking my head. “My friends are in the Ravine of Despair, and I need to find a way to them.” I was about to say more when Elizabeth cut me off.

  “Your party member has initiated an instanced boss fight. The boss will spawn in sixty seconds. Would you like to join the fray?”

  Sabre squinched up her nose. “You mean they sent you in a group?” She shook her head. “How is that possible? Our hardware barely supported two players at a time… it’s why I assumed no one came to rescue me…”

  “A lot has changed since you got frozen,” I said, reaching out to take her hand because I didn’t have time to explain everything before the boss timer expired. Honestly, I was just thankful, I’d seen the message at all. What if I’d been too far away to get it? Would I be trapped here, or have to go back the long way to the Ravine of Despair? Neither option seemed particularly fun.

  “So it seems,” she said, taking my hand. “I guess we go kill a boss.”

  “I guess so,” I replied as I mentally selecte
d the join fight option.

  21

  As Sabre and I materialized in the boss chamber, I sucked in a surprised breath that tasted like clam chowder. Standing in the far end of a room made from polished white crystal was the Zombie King. Only now he was wearing gleaming armor and had a broken sword clutched in one hand.

  “So you think you’re worthy to take this from me?” the Zombie King snarled, raising his sword and pointing it at us. “Because let me just say, I’ve scraped worthier things from beneath my boots.”

  “Dude, of course we’re worthy. That’s like the whole point of this whole quest,” Two’ Manchu said, and as he turned to smack Crash on the shoulder, he caught sight of Sabre and I standing behind them. “Kahn!”

  “Sup, bro,” I said, raising my hand for a high five as the boss counter continued to count down in the far corner of my screen, indicating we had fifteen seconds before battle. “Miss me?”

  “Not really,” he said as his gaze slid over to Sabre. “Who’s the hottie?”

  “Sabre,” she said, offering him her hand. “Kahn saved me.”

  “He does that,” Two’ Manchu said as Dark Heart narrowed her eyes at the female adventurer. “Hopefully you won’t be like the last chick he saved and be part of a nefarious scheme.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Sabre said, giggling as she fluttered her eyes at the barbarian. “Nice avatar. I’d like to spend some quality time with that, if you know what I’m saying.”

  “You should be dead,” Dark Heart said, glare hardening into stone. “I’ve seen the tank full of formaldehyde where they keep your body.”

  “They still have it?” Sabre squealed, practically bouncing with excitement. “That means they might be able to put me back together again.” She turned and grabbed my wrists, shaking me with excitement, which yes, was a bit weird because we weren’t really close enough for me to be in the “please shake me when you’re excited” stage of our relationship. “Man, I can’t wait to see my nephew, John. He was three when I got trapped here…” Her face seemed to go vacant for a second before she turned it back to me.

  “Yeah, something tells me getting your body back is totally not in the cards if its stuck in formaldehyde,” Crash said, ignoring the girl as he focused on the boss as it stood there at the front of the room.

  As he spoke, Sabre’s face fell, probably because Crash was right, and as she swallowed hard and looked at her feet, I suddenly felt bad for her. Hell, half of me wanted to tell her it would probably be fine, that having your body preserved in formaldehyde was no big thing, except, you know, it was a big thing. It meant that beyond this virtual world, she was no more alive than those bugs my science teacher had in jars behind his desk.

  Dark gray smoke coiled around the Zombie King. I watched his cloak flutter behind him as he lumbered back and forth a bad feeling settled over me. The Spirit King had been tough, how tough would this guy be?

  “You never know. I never thought I’d get unpetrified, but here we are,” Sabre replied, stepping away from me and glancing at my three friends before settling her gaze on Dark Heart. “Are you the tank?”

  “Yeah,” Dark Heart replied cautiously. “I’ve been tanking while Two’ Manchu does DPS and Crash alternates between support and heals.”

  “LOL,” Sabre said, shaking her head. It was a little weird because I’d never heard someone actually say LOL before, and not only that, but I was really sure people didn’t even say LOL when Reagan was around. “All right. How about you tank, and I’ll play assist?” She pointed at the boss. “He has a stacking debuff he applies, so once it reaches five stacks we’ll have to switch.” She raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’re a stun tank and plan on keeping him down that way?”

  “No, she’s not,” Crash said, admiration filling his face as he turned to look at Sabre. “How the hell do you know so much about this encounter? I mean, I’ve studied the TG dev notes and never heard of this quest.”

  “I don’t know what TG is, but the compendium back home was pretty extensive.” Sabre touched her chest with one hand. “We never did manage to complete the quest and defeat the Skeleton King though. He always won, but getting the sword? We’ve done that a few times.” She forced a smile across her face.

  “That makes no sense,” I said, shaking my head. “The system said we were the first ones in this dungeon.”

  “Yeah, that dungeon first stuff resets every patch.” Sabre shrugged like that was common knowledge. “Maybe no one has done it since this patch came out.” Her eyes went vacant indicating she was looking at a menu. “What the fuck?”

  “What?” I asked as the counter began to count down from five. “What is it?”

  “This says we’re on version 37.6.” Sabre swallowed hard. “I was playing in 1.4…” She turned her eyes on us as the boss timer finished. “How long has it been?”

  “Um… lady, it’s twenty seventeen,” Two’ Manchu said as the boss roared. Light flashed as he took a step forward, his boots throwing up sparks as he strode toward us like an avenging god.

  “I got trapped in June 1983… That means I’ve been gone…” she trailed off as the boss raised his arm to attack.

  “A long time. Now get it together,” Dark Heart cried as she stepped in front of the attack and threw out her shield. The broken sword crashed into the shield, throwing her backward in a spray of sparks. As her feet slid across the slick, crystalline ground, a dark cloud began to weave around her.

  “That’s the debuff,” Sabre said, absently looking at the boss. “Every time he does a big swing like that, it’ll stack.”

  Part of me was impressed she was able to focus when she’d just learned she’d been frozen in the game for over thirty years, but at the same time I was almost more in shock that the game had been around that long. It seemed impossible. I mean, did we even have internet that long ago?

  “Got it,” Dark Heart replied, stepping forward and smashing the Zombie King in the chest with her Living Shield. The blow staggered the creature, and as it stumbled, George unleashed a blast of pure ice.

  The magic missile crashed into the boss, frosting over his armor as Crash sent his spectral blades out. They whipped through the air, slicing into the monster and keeping him off balance. Part of me had no idea how much health the creature had, but if it was like this, other than the stacking debuff, the fight seemed fairly easy because he was damned slow.

  “Bone Shield,” I said, summoning the bone armor that would give me extra defense before extending my hand toward the creature. “Weaken Armor.”

  As my curse hit the boss, and a broken shield icon appeared over his head, Two’ Manchu leapt through the air, crimson light spilling off his axe as he buried it in the monster’s chest before ripping it away in a spray of ichor.

  “What the hell are you guys doing?” Sabre asked, looking at me like I was insane. “Use Chaotic River.” Her eyes flitted to Crash. “And why aren’t you using Sparkle Death? You’re a priest, right?”

  “I promise you lady, I have no skill called Sparkle Death,” Crash replied as the spectral blades tore into the boss, eliciting a shriek of pain from the undead king.

  “Oh my God, you guys are fucking newbs.” She glared at me so hard, it almost hurt. “Don’t you know the end game skills? You only need level ten to pick them up.” Then without waiting for a response, she shook her head and stepped forward like she was going to attack. Her huge sword glimmered like spun gold as she drew it from her sheath and pointed it at the boss.

  “Star Scream,” she said, and as the word left her lips, a torrent of crackling energy erupted from the hilt of her weapon and exploded outward, shearing through the boss and filling the air with the smell of burning meat. The world around us seemed to wrench sideways, and the graphics holding the Zombie King together seemed to warp as Sabre sprinted forward and smashed her two-handed sword into the boss’s face. “Stun Shock.”

  As she spoke golden lightning erupted from the sky and slammed into the boss before wrappin
g him in golden chains. His eyes went totally vacant as he staggered around like a punch drunk sailor. Only before the Zombie King could recover, Sabre hit him again.

  “Skull Shatter!” she said, and her sword blazed with magenta fire as she slammed it into the boss’s cranium. A loud crack reverberated through the air as the monster toppled backward, collapsing to the ground and laying there.

  “Woah, where the fuck did you find Xena?” Two’ Manchu asked, swallowing hard. I was with him. That was insane. She’d just done two stuns in a row and knocked a boss on his ass, and that wasn’t even the crazy thing. No, what was crazy was that I’d never seen any of those skills before.

  “Well, what are you waiting for?” she asked, glancing at us. “This isn’t rocket science. Hit the guy while he’s down. I’ll keep him stunned.” Then she pointed her sword at the boss again. “Star Scream!”

  22

  “And thus ended the most ridiculously easy boss fight ever,” Two’ Manchu said as he picked up the broken piece of the sword, causing it to vanish into his quest tab. He shook his head. “I mean seriously, those skills are way overpowered.”

  “They’re normal skills,” Sabre snapped, glaring at him. “You should all have your top four skills.” She waved her hands. “The ones you guys are using are trash skills. I mean, what do those Spectral Blades do? Like twenty-five percent weapon damage per swing or something?” She shook her head. “I don’t think anyone uses that after level five.”

  “Fifteen percent per blade, per attack,” Crash corrected, but before he could say more, Sabre waved him off.

  “That’s even worse. Sparkle Death does one hundred and twenty-five percent weapon damage and hits six times.” She shook her head. “How can you even think of using anything else?” She rubbed her chin. “I mean, okay it doesn’t have the extra modifier until skill level five where it adds your intelligence to the attack, so maybe you’d want to use Shadow Blade, but either way both of those skills are way better than those stupid Spectral Blades. I wouldn’t make my worst enemy use that skill, and you’re using it on purpose.”