Player Reached the Top. LitRPG Series. Book V

by Rick Scar

  Passive Skill: Apprentice

  Description: Thanks to the alliance you have made, you are getting more XP.

  +5% XP earned on the territories of your allies

  Just what I need. Raven closed the messages and checked the list of ongoing quests.

  Safeguarding the Worlds

  The demon of insanity will be free in: 8 days, 19 hours, and 36 minutes

  Having resolved his conflict with the Swarm and the Holies, he was now ready to deal with the damn demon. Even if his level was high enough to subdue Farris, he dismissed the idea of doing it.

  I’d better get going... He glanced at Nanel who was surrounded by the guests, and made his way through the well-dressed crowd toward her.

  The crowd was large. By the end of the third day of negotiations, more and more people arrived from both empires, and from other nearby countries, to attend the celebration and mingle with the elite.

  Nobles, clerics, governors, dukes, lords, renowned merchants, warriors, and members of wealthy families — all of them were attracted to the event that could potentially benefit everyone who was anyone in the military, agriculture, or any other industry.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like a word with my wife.” As his calm voice resounded behind the backs of the guests, they dispersed like a school of small fish, immediately finding another business to attend to and leaving the royal couple in private.

  “Thank you.” Nanel smiled and took his arm with a tired sigh. “I hate this.”

  “I know. You’ve mentioned it before.” Raven smirked, leading her past the tables into a quiet corner.

  “So what did you want to discuss?”

  “Our journey.”

  She gave him a confused look.

  “A journey? What journey?”

  “To the place where I’ll fight the demon. I’d love to have you by my side, if you don’t mind.” He waited for her response, watching a variety of emotions show on her face. “Emin will stay here to deal with state affairs in our absence. I think we can do it – leave Adamarona for a week or even two.”

  “Is it because of the Crystal?” she asked after a pause. “You want me to follow you because you don’t want to take it away from me? You don’t want me to feel used? Am I right? Or do you have some other reason?”

  Raven considered his response carefully. She was right. Almost right.

  When he learned her real story, he faced a tough choice between taking the Crystal, which was hers by birth, and leaving it to her.

  This choice wouldn’t have been so difficult if it weren’t for the Crystal’s power. But he couldn’t just toss away all his respect for freedom and human rights, having lived most of his life protecting civilians from those infringing on the said freedom and rights.

  Knowing that Nanel needed the Crystal to be her most powerful self, he was going to leave it to her, but he couldn’t give up the idea of using it in battle. The problem, however, was that he couldn’t always take Nanel with him. She could die, unlike him.

  “I know it might sound as…”

  “Stop, please.” Nanel put her finger to his lips and, removing it, cast a quick glance around the hall before she continued. “You’re not the only one who’s changing, Raven. When I first merged with the Crystal, I was intoxicated by its power and did what is now my greatest regret… And what can’t be undone.” She looked up at him. “Our first meeting was hardly a pleasant one, but still… I still came to fall in love with you.”

  Raven listened to her attentively, feeling her words warm his heart. He’d like to keep hearing them forever, even though he knew they were some computer-generated nonsense.

  “Take it away from me. Please. You once told me that our past matters. That it’s a part of us. Of who we are. But I no longer want this part of me. I don’t want this power. It’s mine, yes, but it’s alien at the same time. You know it caused so many of my people to die. It reminds me of the blood I was born in. I… I no longer want it.” Clutching his hand, she looked up into his eyes.

  He could see determination in her gaze. This decision was sudden, but he could relate to it. Nodding, he touched her chest, and the Crystal slowly appeared in his hand.

  Nanel cuddled up to him, burying her face in his chest, and remained silent until he spoke.

  “Are you coming with me?”

  “I’d better stay at home this time,” she whispered. “This is your battle. Your duty as a messenger.” She stepped away and smiled. “And I’d rather not leave my country.”

  Was it the system or something else, Raven didn’t know but neither Nanel nor any Order member would follow him into the battle with Insanity. Daltaro was still away on his quest, and Emin and his soldiers… He preferred not to have them face the demon.

  After the celebration, Raven said goodbye to Nanel and left to prepare, followed only by Hade, Khalapheer, and Shimiraz.

  Less than nine days remained until the demon would be free of his prison. For this battle, Raven had picked a spot next to Shamtan-Kragh. It took him several hours to reach it, but he didn’t mind. He had enough time to prepare and to visit the tablet.

  As he flew over the abandoned walls for the second time, he thought of how the castle would make for a great base during his kingdom’s further expansion.

  But no matter how much he wanted to get down to that, his current task was no less important.

  Congratulations! You are the first player to visit the Raging Heavenly Snakes Plateau.

  +25 Influence Points

  +7% physical damage over the next 5 hours

  Lightning bolts rarely reached the place where he now stood. The sight was spectacular as ever: branching flashes of lightning and peals of thunder hit the ground without stopping, gnawing at it like furious snakes trapped in a deep pit. However, he couldn’t see the tablet that they were supposed to be guarding.

  I should’ve known that this wouldn’t be easy... All the other tables he had discovered — the Order’s, and that on the Floor Three — were hidden by some sort of a complicated puzzle. And here, in front of him, was another puzzle to solve. It pained him to think how none of his successors would encounter these hurdles.

  Having put on the bracelets that’d protect him from lightning, he entered the heart of the storm to look for clues. He no longer needed his Golden Dragon form for that; his stats were high enough.

  How should I find that which isn’t here? he wondered, looking at the burned stones and cracked ground that stretched all around him. That which is hidden in plain sight?

  If it hadn’t been for Zal’Sscar’s spirit confirming his guess about another tablet being on this Floor, he would’ve probably abandoned his search after the two fruitless hours.

  How is it hidden? The Revelation Sphere showed nothing even though he was sure he had activated it each time he took a step. He realized that the tablet could be underground, but he hoped that he was wrong. He even flew up into the air to search for clues there, but found none.

  It also crossed his mind that there could be another place where lightning lashed the ground all the time, but he liked this idea as much as he did the underground one.

  Where is it?! He moved slowly, almost crawling on the ground in search of anything that could get him somewhere. Any lead. But no matter how many times he combed the area, he found nothing.

  Tired, he sat down on a safe spot of land and stared into the void, watching tiny, sparkling creatures flutter merrily among the bolts of lightning.

  He listened to the storm, hoping for an answer — until he remembered what Lily had told him. According to her, this place had been visited by many.

  Even the lightning couldn’t have destroyed their weapons, gear, and bones completely. But where are they? Where have they gone? Who could’ve removed all traces of them?

  Inspired by this sudden idea, he stood up and looked down. What if the tablet wasn’t under the ground but inside a monster living there? That’d explain the absence of remains on the surface.


  Now he needed a way to provoke that monster.

  Through a Wall was useless because of its long cooldown. There was no point in using any attacks either; he had no idea at what depth the tablet’s supposed guard was hiding.

  The only appropriate choice was Nirvana, but its range was too small to cover this whole area. Still, even that was better than nothing

  Coming out of the lightning-affected area, he summoned his pets. Having them guard his body, he sat on the ground, and activated the skill. His soul immediately left its mortal shell, sinking into the ground. Nirvana was making this process much easier than Through a Wall ever could.

  Finding his bearings underground would’ve been troublesome if it weren’t for the map, and the system warnings that he could move no further because of the skill’s range limit.

  In order to examine as much of the location as possible, he had to activate Nirvana several dozen times and in various places. After his search yielded no results, he dismissed the pets, saved at a nearby spot, and went into the storm to try his luck there. Leaving his body unattended was a risk, but he had to take it; his pets weren’t lightning-proof.

  After another half an hour in Nirvana, he suddenly got cast out.

  -50,000 HP

  The damage was tremendous but before he could fully realize what had happened a message popped up.

  Skill activated: One Foot on the Flip Side. No postmortem debuffs will be applied.

  Duration: 3 seconds

  Congratulations! You have survived an attack by the Guardian of Heavenly Gifts.

  You can now enter the Abode of Gifts.

  Attention! You have been offered a quest: The Key to the Gate

  Description: Find the key opening the way to the Abode of Gifts.

  Reward:

  +35,000 XP

  Accept: Yes/No?

  “Sure, this is normal,” he muttered, glancing around.

  Snap!

  Something crunched beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw a lot of bones. He squatted for a better look, and saw rusty pieces of armor, and a variety of blades scattered around.

  Looks like I finally found it.

  He got up and dusted his hands off against his pants. The darkness in this place was unnatural but, thanks to Observer’s Eye, he could see his way instead of groping it.

  Someone killed me. That’s bad. Having gulped down a Health Potion, he waited for it to take effect before moving on.

  Checking the map, he saw nothing. Just as I expected. He took out the Light Scroll and activated it, spending some mana.

  Once the space around got illumined, he gave a delighted whistle.

  The sight was breathtaking. Placed all around him were statues of monsters of different races, builds, and sizes. Grinning, barking, roaring, and hissing, they silently observed him.

  Floating about thirty feet above the ground were numerous small columns made of some kind of black stone. They danced in the air to a weird, pulsating rhythm, but never collided.

  Raven knew better than rush to explore this place. The monsters weren’t (yet) alive, but they had to have been placed here for a reason. Maybe they were guarding a gate of some sort, waiting for a careless traveler to make a mistake to attack them.

  He had to keep his guard up.

  After waiting for the save option to cool down, he tried to save again, but the system told him to get lost.

  “At least this place is lightning-free,” he said aloud and, summoning his pets, began his search for the key.

  Chapter 277. Idols

  A s Raven passed by the eerily lifelike monsters, he kept his hands and feet to himself. He preferred not to take the risk of starting a potentially devastating chain of events by touching anything. If he fucked something up, he’d have to wait ten days for One Foot on the Flip Side’s cooldown before he could try to reach this place again.

  He counted twenty-one statues while making a full circle around them. Identification was of no help, which only made him more determined not to touch anything. Interestingly, the number of the floating columns was exactly the same as that of the statues.

  Another interesting thing about this location was the absence of walls. Instead, it was enveloped in a black, swirling mist. As with the statues and the columns, he had no intention of touching that either. Once he approached the veil to take a better look, it shot thin tentacles at him that tried to grab him and drag him into the darkness. Not to mention that he didn’t particularly like the rustling, whispering sounds coming from the mist (or maybe from beyond it).

  “Lord Raven,” Hade addressed him as she strolled by his side in her human form.

  And although he had told her to call him Raven many times before, she seemed slow to listen to him. Then again, “lord” was much better than being called “master”.

  “Yes, Hade?”

  “We’ll be fighting them, yes?” Her finger almost touched one of the statues, making his heart miss a beat.

  “Be careful,” he scolded, grabbing her arm, and pulling it away from the sculpture. “Yes. I think we will. Why are you asking?”

  “I want to fight one of them alone. May I?”

  The last request he had granted her had bestowed upon her a new trait: Will, which she was now using to ask for another thing.

  Your pet’s future depends on the extent of your permissiveness. Raven recalled. Was that it? Would letting her do this be a good thing?

  “Why do you want to fight it alone?” he asked, hoping that her answer would help him decide.

  “I just want to.” She shrugged and smiled an innocent smile, baring her white, sharp teeth.

  “I see. Well, I can’t promise anything. We’ll see how things go.”

  Having dodged her request, he stopped next to a smaller statue, and prepared for battle by drinking a number of speed, defense, regeneration, energy, and HP potions. Then he told the pets to retreat, and touched the humpbacked, wrinkled creature that looked like an armadillo with butterfly wings.

  Before he could realize what was going on, a powerful blow hit him in the chest, sending him flying back through the rows of columns and statues.

  -403 HP

  Two small flashes of light illuminated the air and three statues came to life, their stone skin cracking like an eggshell, revealing skin, scale, fur, and ruby-red eyes that lay beneath.

  Name: The Idol of Disappointment

  Rank: Baron

  Level: 104

  Name: The Idol of Enslavement

  Rank: Baron

  Level: 97

  Name: The Idol of Sorrow

  Rank: Baron

  Level: 73

  Raven couldn’t believe his eyes. Three Baron-ranked monsters! Something like this couldn’t have been a mere coincidence. Knowing his luck, the remaining eighteen were probably Barons as well.

  “All of this to protect one tablet?” he grumbled as he stood up. “Hade. Attack the lowest-level one.”

  The Idol of Sorrow was strong, but not as strong as the other two, which made Raven hope that Hade could deal with it. After commanding Khalapheer to protect her in case something went wrong and Shimiraz to attack the Idol of Enslavement, he flung an Air Knife at the last opponent to get the Idol’s attention.

  I’d rather not touch any other statue. I really don’t want to find out the hard way what else could happen if I’m not careful... He had already made a mistake; the last thing he wanted was to make things even more dangerous for himself and his pets.

  He had enough Influence Points to subdue the three Idols, but he’d rather keep those for his battle with Farris, and for developing Hade. Besides, he’d need them to take the heroic item.

  Taking out his Dice, he dropped them to the ground, and ran to the side where he’d have more space for maneuvering.

  Strength up by 8.

  Duration: 30 minutes

  Leap. Double Jump. Lightning Copy.

  He targeted his opponent’s five eyes, but their retinas were too st
rong to be pierced. His attacks were wasted, having done very little damage.

  Oh, this is going to be a tough one...

  Raven kept stepping aside as if he were dancing, and leaping away like an acrobat. The Idol’s long tongue kept aiming at his legs, leaving deep cracks in the ground as it kept missing its target.

  Shock. Cut.

  The Idol’s chest was dripping red, but its heart was protected by a strong armor made of such dense bones that even the Heart Dagger failed to reach it.

  As he dodged after another failed attempt to reach the heart, the Idol’s eyes flashed with a weird gleam as it activated some skill. Having no time to retreat, Raven became a victim of a pressure so strong that it almost pinned him to the ground. His bones cracked as they threatened to break under the weight.

  The invisible giant palm was about to crush him like a bug when he activated Twilight Walker. Shadows, after all, couldn’t be crushed.

  Feeling relieved, Raven opened his mouth slightly and activated Soul Cry. The ghostly jaws meandered through the air, looking for their prey like a hungry wolf until they eventually reached the Idol of Enslavement. Already half-dead, it was reeling on its three remaining legs. As always, Shimiraz was good at what he did best — fight.

  Raven smiled at the sight, but he still didn’t dare lower his guard even for a second. His figure blurred, appearing and disappearing, confusing his opponent who had only three eyes left. This fast-paced battle had already been going on for four minutes and had made him use all of his stamina and best moves.

  Clone. Stealth. Attack. Twilight Walker.

  Raven finished the combo with a sharp, strong blow targeting the Idol’s stomach.

  Haha! Critical damage!

  -6,240 HP

  Balancing his attacks with staying clear of the other statues, he worked his way toward victory.

  Torture. A series of attacks rained down on the wounded Idol, chopping off its tongue. The thick piece of flesh fell to the ground, twitching like a lizard’s tail. Raven activated Double Attack and sank his dagger up to the hilt into the mauled chest. His short sword soared into the air. Grabbing it with his free hand, he drove it into the monster’s heart like a stake.