The Second Betrayal: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Divine Apostasy Book 2)

by A F Kay

  Volume: 36 cubic feet (per charge)

  Weight: 0.01 lbs.

  Effect(Contact): 1-6 damage per second for the duration of contact.

  Effect(Inhaled): 3-9 damage per second for fifteen seconds.

  Description: Minor acid has weak initial damage but will dissolve almost any material if given enough time.

  It made him nervous to have this acid in his Inventory, but he didn’t want to dump it here, and it probably wouldn’t hurt the dimension the Void Band was connected to if Bliz stored lava in his. Plus, this gas might come in handy. For now, he would just leave it.

  He looked at the experience clock. Between the discussion in the beginning, the walk down the tunnel, the realization of the trap, and the walk back, they had already consumed ninety seconds. Nine hundred experience had disappeared just like that.

  Ruwen sprinted down the good tunnel and yelled over his shoulder. “Let’s get to the next set of tunnels. We have to figure out the pattern, or this level will be a big waste of time.”

  Chapter 33

  Ruwen calculated the values at the next intersection of tunnels.

  “Left tunnel is 8, 33, 41, 67, 86, 98, and equals 333. Right tunnel is 17, 23, 25, 31, 45, 70 and equals 211,” Ruwen said.

  “Maybe the short and long refers to the number of letters in the spelled out number," Hamma said.

  “Another good idea, Hamma. I want to believe it’s simpler than that. I feel like we’re missing something,” Ruwen said.

  “What about adding up the summed digits themselves,” Sift said.

  “A sum of a sum. I like that,” Ruwen said.

  Using Sift’s logic, they entered the right tunnel. They moved at a slower pace to give Ruwen’s Find Trap time to discover any issues.

  They were all smiling when they came to the next split in the tunnels.

  “Left tunnel is 2, 10, 13, 31, 49, 51, and equals 156. Right tunnel is 9, 19, 17, 75, 78, 95 and equals 293,” Ruwen said.

  “So by Sift’s logic, we should take the left tunnel,” Hamma said.

  They strode down the left tunnel a bit faster than before, their confidence growing in their solution. Ruwen scanned for traps but didn’t detect any. The tunnel widened to fifty feet, and the floor had an unusual number of stalagmites. They slowed to move through them.

  “Something’s wrong,” Hamma said. “My Sense Harm ability just triggered.”

  They stopped and looked around. Ruwen gripped his shovel and slowly turned. The experience counter continued to tick down.

  “There is something in here,” Sift said.

  “That means this is the wrong way. Let’s head back before we trigger whatever it is,” Ruwen said.

  Stalagmites shot off the ground like spears, and Ruwen realized they were stone-like creatures. Two of them struck Hamma’s shield and bounced off. Something hit Ruwen in the back, and his cloak icon appeared by his buffs. The Hooded Pacifist’s Cloak of Wandering’s shield had triggered. He didn’t have time to turn because another of the stone spears had thrown itself at his face.

  Without thinking, like he had done a thousand times in practice with Sift, Ruwen brought his left forearm across his body like he was blocking a punch. Pain exploded in his arm, and his Health dropped by ten, but he’d blocked the creature from striking his face.

  As the creature fell, Ruwen slammed his shovel into the stone crust of the creature’s body, but nothing appeared to happen. Instead of striking it again, he channeled four Energy into Leap and jumped to Hamma’s side. The creature that had hit his cloak attacked again, but Ruwen’s sudden movement made it miss. It struck the wall instead, and its sharp stone head stuck there.

  Ruwen folded his shovel away and removed the pickax. It had a sharp pick on one end and a hammer on the other. Ruwen slammed the pick into the stuck creature, and stone chips flew. He struck it three more times, and it snapped in half.

  Despite the damage, the bottom half still twitched and it remained alive. Since Ruwen had so easily hurt the creatures, they must be low level, probably around Ruwen’s. His Perception should be providing him information. Since it wasn’t, it meant these attackers had some special ability to hide. Which made sense since they sat in plain sight before attacking.

  Ruwen cast Bleed on his baton even though it didn’t look like these creatures had blood. Hamma had backed up against the wall and swung the Staff of Chimes in front of her, keeping two creatures away. The one Ruwen had blocked hopped over and joined the other two. They stood there in front of Ruwen and Hamma jumping in place. They didn’t appear to have legs but instead powered their movements with blasts of air.

  Ruwen glanced at Sift, who danced between three of the creatures. It looked like some weird juggling act, with the four of them all moving past each other.

  “These Hoppers have hard skin,” Sift yelled.

  “Flying stone spears, and you call them Hoppers?” Ruwen shouted back.

  “Well, they hop a lot,” Sift said.

  “Their outer layer is too hard. The staff doesn’t do much,” Hamma said.

  Ruwen studied the Hoppers. They were only a couple feet tall, and they didn’t seem to have any eyes or ears. He wondered how they tracked their prey and guessed it had something to do with vibrations.

  Two Hoppers jumped at Hamma. They bounced off her shield and hopped away before Hamma could strike them. Ruwen stepped forward and swung his pick at the one in front of him, but it backed away.

  “They’re fast, too,” Hamma said. “As fast as they jump, they don’t do much damage.”

  “It’s because they want to delay us first. Killing us is probably secondary,” Ruwen said.

  Ruwen folded the pickax away and brought out his saw again.

  “I don’t think that will work on stone,” Hamma said.

  “I’m trying something,” Ruwen said.

  Ruwen knelt, never taking his eyes off the Hoppers, and sat the baton on the ground. He removed his hand and channeled Energy to the baton. Immediately the baton’s saw vibrated and spun around in a circle as the saw gnawed at the ground. The Hopper in front of him stopped hopping straight up and down and instead veered sideways. Ruwen smiled, stopped channeling, and picked up his weapon.

  “I have some ideas,” Ruwen said to Hamma. Then he shouted at Sift. “First, I’m not dropping my weapon, this is on purpose. Also, please come over here, I want to group them up.”

  Sift weaved his body through the Hoppers and sprinted to Ruwen and Hamma. Sift’s Hoppers followed.

  As soon as Sift arrived, Ruwen tossed his baton in front of the Hoppers.

  “See what I mean about his weapons,” Sift said.

  “I told you –” Ruwen started to say before he saw the smile on Sift’s face.

  Ruwen shook his head and channeled ten Energy per second to his baton. It went crazy, spinning in a fast circle and flipping itself off the ground every few seconds. This had an immediate effect on the Hoppers. Every time they hopped off the floor, the saw’s vibrations caused the Hoppers’ trajectory to change, and they crashed into each other.

  Ruwen’s second idea would hopefully weaken the stone skin of the Hoppers.

  “Sift, do you have wax left over from level three that we could use?” Ruwen asked. “And maybe put your goggles on.”

  “This is a terrible idea, and I haven’t even heard it yet,” Sift said.

  Ruwen retrieved his goggles from his Void Band and put them on. Sift handed Hamma and Ruwen wax.

  “Shove it in your ears,” Ruwen said.

  The Hoppers still crashed into each other. The three of them could run now, but Ruwen would have to leave his baton behind. It kept the Hoppers from attacking, and if picked it up, they would launch themselves at the group.

  Hamma’s shield would block any small rocks, and Ruwen adjusted his goggles.

  “Cover your ears,” Ruwen yelled.

  He covered his ears and cast Distract. A ten flashed on his Mana bar, and Ruwen willed the noise to be as loud as possible
. He knew that sound was a vibration, and that vibrations could shatter rock. He hoped it would be enough.

  A thunderclap exploded in the middle of the Hoppers, and three of them fell over, either stunned or dead. The other three sat on the ground, not moving.

  “Run,” Ruwen yelled.

  Sift and Hamma sprinted back down the hallway. Ruwen stopped channeling Energy to his baton and knelt down to pick it up. Immediately the three Hoppers jumped again. He directed Energy back to the baton and dragged the tip along the ground as he backed down the tunnel. The Hoppers followed him, their movements still a little erratic. Cracks had appeared on their bodies, but Ruwen didn’t want to take the time to fight them. He just wanted to flee.

  Two of the Hoppers shot themselves at Ruwen but missed. Another idea occurred to him, and he dropped his baton, letting the full vibration of the weapon penetrate the floor. He turned and dashed toward his friends.

  After a few seconds, he skidded to a halt. The Hoppers hadn’t followed him and still hopped crazily around his weapon.

  “You can’t leave your weapon there,” Hamma shouted.

  “I’m not,” Ruwen shouted. “Keep running!”

  Then he pictured the icon of a reaching hand. His Mana dropped by fifty as his Retrieve spell activated.

  The spell only worked on items ten pounds or less, and his baton weighed twelve pounds. He didn’t even know if Retrieve would work.

  Instead of the weapon flying through the air to his outstretched hand like his staff and dagger had, the baton didn’t leave the ground and dragged itself toward him. Another idea popped into his head, and he skipped backward a few feet. The spell remained active, and the baton still tried to reach him. The Hoppers attempted to follow Ruwen, but the vibration from the baton’s saw thwarted their attempts, and few of their jumps ended up in Ruwen’s direction.

  After about thirty seconds, Ruwen entered the tunnel they’d come from, and joined Hamma and Sift who were waiting for him. The Hoppers stopped pursuing, and a few seconds later his baton scraped its way to his hand. Ruwen stopped channeling Energy to the baton, picked it up, and folded the saw away.

  Ruwen removed the wax from his ears and pulled off his goggles, putting both in his Void Band. Hamma and Sift had already done the same.

  Hamma handed Ruwen back the Fastidious Dagger.

  “Thanks,” Ruwen said. “Let’s go.”

  Without another word, they sprinted down the tunnel they now knew was safe. In moments they reached the end of the tunnel and found another split. But this time, there were six tunnels.

  “Oh, no,” Hamma said.

  Ruwen ran to the first tunnel and calculated the sums. “First tunnel, 18. Second, 27. Third, 120. Fourth, 988. Fifth, 401. Sixth, 357.” Ruwen closed his eyes and whispered the previous three correct answers. “367, 211, 293. What do you have in common?”

  The experience clock continued to tick in Ruwen’s vision. The false tunnel and the fight with the Hoppers had cost them valuable time, and another three hundred forty seconds had passed. Three thousand plus experience lost because he couldn’t see what he knew must be a simple pattern. Sift and Hamma stood silently behind Ruwen.

  He took a deep breath and reread the quest.

  There Can Be Only One

  A maze like every other,

  with one tunnel after another.

  Left or right, right or wrong,

  the sum results in short or long.

  The shortest path is what you seek,

  so the route must remain unique.

  The key is here, no time to waste,

  now take the clues and make all haste.

  Blapy even told him the clues were there. The first three lines were filler. The first clue he believed referenced the sum. He definitely needed to add something up. The next clue probably meant the maze only had one correct path. All mazes had one shortest unique way to the exit, which was what Ruwen thought the title of the quest referred to. The last two lines were more filler.

  Thirty more seconds ticked by as Ruwen ran the words through his mind. His body wanted to get up and run down a tunnel, but his mind knew that would be self-defeating. Sift looked relaxed, but Hamma kept shifting her weight between her feet. The timer probably made her anxious as well.

  367, 211, 293 had all been good numbers. One of his six current choices, 18, 27, 120, 988, 401, 357, was a sibling of the first three. But which one? He wanted to slam his head into the tunnel wall. What was he missing?

  Ruwen took a deep breath and sat down. He cleared his mind and pushed away all the anxiety of the diminishing experience and the need to rush. Without trying to tie them together in his head, he let the following words and numbers float through his thoughts: one, sum, unique, 367, 211, 293.

  A cold thread arced through his mind, but he ignored it. His subconscious had picked up on something, and he didn’t want to smother it. Keeping his mind free of any thoughts but the six items, he waited.

  His mind grew cold, and he shivered. Still, he didn’t focus on it. The only method he knew to activate his Cleverness attribute was this. Basically, ignoring it. Or, maybe, clearing everything else out of his head to give it room to work. Regardless, it worked best when he acted like it didn’t exist.

  Ruwen groaned as his brain froze solid. At least that is what it felt like. Then, like the snap of a finger, the coldness disappeared, and a sequence of numbers floated across his thoughts. Ruwen groaned again, but this time at his own stupidity. The clues had been there, and he felt like an idiot for not connecting them.

  2

  3

  5

  7

  11

  13

  17

  Ruwen opened his eyes. He looked at the timer. Another ninety seconds had passed. The experience timer had ticked down to fourteen thousand three hundred fifty. They would drop out of the epic reward shortly. Now that he knew the key, they would make good time, but he didn’t know the size of the maze. They would be into the special item quality soon.

  He stood.

  “Well?” Hamma asked.

  “Primes. The safe tunnels all sum to primes.”

  Chapter 34

  “So which one then?” Hamma asked.

  “401, the fifth tunnel,” Ruwen said immediately.

  They ran.

  “What is a prime?” Sift asked.

  “It’s a unique number. It’s only divisible by one and itself,” Ruwen said.

  They came to the next fork in the tunnels. This one had three.

  “The middle tunnel, 41,” Ruwen said.

  Tunnel after tunnel, they sprinted down. 449, 97, 373, 271, 269, 7, 139, 19…

  Ruwen thought the tunnels would never end, and when they burst into a large cavern, he almost tripped in shock. Had they finally made it? He looked at the experience counter and saw it had frozen at seven thousand nine hundred fifty. His clock read 4:48 AM. They had missed out on a special item, but would still get a rare one. He kicked himself again for not figuring the pattern out faster.

  On the far side of the room, two leather bags appeared. One had a brown aura around it and the other white. Their loot for completing the quest. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and scattered across the floor were small stalagmites, rocks, and occasional boulders.

  Ruwen moved forward.

  “Wait,” Sift said.

  Ruwen stopped and turned to look at his friend.

  “There is something here,” Sift said.

  “Is there usually something here?” Hamma asked.

  “No, but I’ve never gotten here this fast. Even when I’ve had other people with me,” Sift said.

  “You think getting here early actually made it harder on us?” Ruwen asked.

  Sift raised his hand and pointed. “Looks like it.”

  Ruwen turned around to see a creature’s head emerging from the far wall. It jumped out of the stone and landed in front of their quest loot. A cat, six-feet tall and made of gems, stretched and purred before faci
ng them. Its eyes were blue sapphires, and its teeth were made of rubies. Its body appeared to be made of diamonds sprinkled with topaz.

  “Beautiful,” Hamma whispered as she stared at the cat.

  The cat dipped its head to Hamma as if it understood her.

  The glow from Hamma’s Light Guardian reflected off the creature’s gems, and shards of light turned in a hundred different colors, painting the wall behind the cat.

  “Wow,” Ruwen said.

  “I want one,” Hamma said.

  “That’s not the way it works,” Ruwen said.

  “I am naming you Sparkle,” Sift said.

  Ruwen stared at Sift. “You are done naming things.”

  “What? It does,” Sift said.

  “Sparkle doesn’t really capture the foot-long ruby fangs,” Ruwen said.

  “Do we have to kill it?” Hamma asked.

  “Uru help me, what is it with you two?” Ruwen asked.

  “Nothing really dies here,” Sift said. “Blapy resurrects them with their memories. She is like you, I guess. A priestess of her pyramid.”

  “That makes me feel better,” Hamma said.

  Ruwen’s Perception had absorbed enough information that details appeared above Sparkle’s head.

  Name: Unknown (Level 12)

  Health: 339

  Mana: 140

  Energy: 419

  Spirit: 0

  “Fire me up,” Sift said. “I never had a chance to charge up on the way.”

  Sparkle hadn’t moved, so Ruwen focused long enough to create a Campfire. Sift immediately jumped into the middle of it.

  Hamma gasped, but when Sift’s Health didn’t change, she just stared at him. “Your clothes aren’t burning either.”

  Sift pulled at his shirt. “It is so nice not having to pack so much underwear now.”

  Hamma’s brow furrowed, and Ruwen changed the subject before Sift could go into any details.

  “It’s level twelve, so Hamma and I are going to be pretty useless offensively,” Ruwen said. “It will be too difficult to hit, let alone harm, something that much above our levels.”