by R. A. Mejia
Name: Armon Ellington (Clone)Age:19
Level: 5 Class:Artificer
Exp points gained:0Titles:none
Unspent Stat points0
Health: 5Mana:6
Stamina: 6Mana Regen/Min 0
Stamina Regen/Min: 0Health Regen/Min 0
Str:1Int:2
Dex:1Wis:1
Con:2Cha:1
Clone Armon shook his head. “Oh, jeez. No wonder I feel so weak. I have a strength of 1. I’m surprised I can walk.”
“Yeah, you only have an intelligence of 2 too. You shouldn’t be able to talk either, but maybe the magic of the ability bypasses that little restriction? After all, it would be a stupid ability if you were too dumb to understand my orders or talk back.”
Looking over his character sheet, it was kind of hard to figure out what to use him for. I mean, his health was only five, so he’d die from a single attack. His mana was too low to cast even the simplest spell. The poor guy couldn’t even run for long, his stamina was so small.
“Maybe I can deliver packages or something,” Clone Armon said.
I laughed sadly. “That’s too funny. I was just thinking the same thing.”
My clone’s expression dropped, and he tapped the side of his head. “Yeah, I have your memories. Including this hair-brained plan. I know what you want me to do, and we don’t have a lot of time. Be quick and hand over the mana bomb. You need to sit and meditate so that I don’t disappear.”
I opened my inventory and handed clone Armon my everyday clothes and the mana bomb. He looked down at my feet, and I realized I’d have to give him my sandals too. I unequipped them and handed them over as well. He equipped the gear and then swallowed the mana bomb. It’s been programed with an hour-long timer, and just I hoped he could get into position in time.
I knew my mana was dropping by a two units a minute, and I needed to meditate to bring it back up, but just as I got into my meditation pose, I heard the clone say, “For the record, this is a very stupid plan, and please expect our friends to be very pissed off that we didn’t tell them about this. But I can’t come up with anything better.”
I heard a guard call out, “Gladiator, is everything alright in there?”
My clone shook his head, walked out of the locker room, and I heard him respond, “Yes, sir, everything is just fine. I heard you tell my friends about the need to turn over their items and weapons, so I was just securing everything in the locker room.”
Then I closed my eyes and focused on meditating to bring my mana back up. My mana regeneration rate of eight mana per minute is doubled by meditation, and that meant I only had to sit there for about ten minutes before my mana pool was full. Time flew by, and before I knew it, my mana was full, and I was walking out of the Colosseum. I’d made sure to change out of my gladiator gear and into the old robes I wore through the desert. I mentally chuckled that my pack-rat mentality had actually paid off for once. Gaming taught me that you never know what you’ll need, so I keep everything. At least until your inventory is full.
By my estimation, I needed to arrange for a way out of the city and country and then meet my group at the secret tunnel. All within an hour. So, I ran. I ran on my poor sore bare feet through the streets of Attilius. Thankfully, the city is kept relatively clean, so I never cut myself. But my poor feet were aching by the time I reached George at the smuggler’s shop. I flashed him Pauline’s ring, and he quickly cleared out the shop, and I laid out my problem. George smiled like it was his birthday. He offered me the premium smuggler’s package to get me, all my friends, and the kobolds out of the country for the low, low price of one-hundred gold. My jaw dropped at the amount. That’s enough to set up a man for life. It would take the average worker two-hundred years to make that much money. I tried to negotiate, but he just wouldn’t budge. Cornered and running out of time, I offered him something that could make him more than a hundred gold over the course of a few years: our ice making business. I laid out our monopoly on the ice market and explained that he could even make more money if he expanded to other cities. Within a few years, he could be making more gold than he’d ever be able to spend in a lifetime. He said he’d agree to the deal, but only if I threw in the signet ring from Pauline. I agreed, just happy that I’d worked it all out.
George closed up shop and took me to the entrance to the tunnel that led to the governor’s mansion. It was hidden under the floorboards of a small abandoned shop only a few blocks away. He assured me that he’d be ready to take us away as soon as we showed up. I had to pry up the floorboards to get to the tunnel and meditated once more before my mana ran out, but I soon made my way through the dark tunnel and all the way under the city to the exit point beneath the Governor’s mansion. According to George, it ended in the kitchen basement, but I didn’t want to break through if the staff was preparing dinner. So, I sat in the darkness, meditating and making sure that my clone had plenty of mana to pay his upkeep costs.
________________
So, here I sit. Waiting. My mind is only partially aware of the world around me. My mana is already full, but I can’t do much else to help my friends. There’s a noticeable boom from above, and a notification lets me know that something has either gone right or terribly wrong.
Your clone has been killed before successfully merging. Clone existed for 63 minutes and 4 seconds. No stats gained. 150 XP gained. No transfer benefits due to clone death before merger. Permanent stat loss: Str: 1, Dex: 1, Con: 2, Int: 2, Wis: 1, Cha: 1.
A part of my mind groans painfully at the permanent loss of those stats. That’s almost two levels worth of stats lost, just like that. I’m going to have to do so much XP grinding to make up for that loss.
Still, while part of my me is upset about the loss of stats, another part is intrigued about the bit in the notification pertaining to XP gain and transfer benefits. I mean, if my clone can earn XP, does that mean he can increase his level too? Or maybe even increase his stats? And what happens when we merge after? What are those benefits the notification was talking about?
I have no real answers, and my clone is not around anymore to test out any theories. So, I just continue to wait.
While it seems like forever, it’s likely only another fifteen or twenty minutes until I hear movement on the other side of the wall I’m sitting in front of. I try to shift, but my legs have gone all tingly from sitting in this position for too long. There’s a click, and the whole wall opens up. My friends are all standing there, and I am happy to see that they’re all alive. Sonya looks like she could use some healing, but everyone else is whole and healthy. Even the kobolds that were slaves are there. I can’t help but smile, happy that my impromptu plan worked out so well.
At least, I’m happy until Mary screams out, “Rip his throat out, Mr. Snuggle Butt!”
I hadn’t noticed, but Mary had summoned her pet wolf and just sicked him on me. The ferocious beast darts through the people standing in front of the tunnel entrance and leaps at me. His body crashes into mine, and I fall over backward. I remember Mary’s command and just raise my arm in time to prevent my throat from getting torn out.
Damage received: 9
Yes. I’m quite aware that I’m been damaged. Thank you, stupid notifications. The sharp teeth in my arm were the first clue. I cry out in pain and yell, “Mary! What the hell? Get Mr. Snuggle Butt off of me!”
The sound of my voice must do something to the fairy because she immediately calls off the beast and flies down from the ceiling at an incredible speed and crashes right into my sprawled form. The hood on my head falls off, and I find Mary standing on my chest. Her hands reach out as if she’s afraid to touch me, and her eyes filled with tears. With a plaintive cry, she grabs my face and starts to kiss and hug it all over. Between hugs and kisses, I hear her say, “You were dead. I saw you die. Why did you leave me? How are you here?” Then, as if a switch is turned, her tone goes from hurt to angry. Her fairy hugs turn into fairy punches, and she yells, “You’re alive, you je
rkface?! Who the heck did I see die then, you sorry excuse of a Slytherin reject?!”
Mary’s low strength score means she’s never going to hit me for damage, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I push her back and get to my feet. Keans’ tense voice cuts off any explanations I can give my friends as they stare at me. “Boy, I’m very glad to see you alive, but the guards in this compound are likely finding the governor’s body as we stand here. If possible, can you explain everything as we escape? Please?”.
Of course, the man is right. Everyone pushes into the tunnel, and we race down the passageway. While we do so, I explain everything the best that I can: how I was pressed for a new plan when the guards showed up at the Colosseum, and how I figured out the perfect way to smuggle in the mana bomb but couldn’t tell any of them or risk ruining the already-shaky plan. I also mention how I sold off the ice company to pay for our escape from this country. This makes Mary very angry. After all, she’s the one that put the most time into managing it. But I point out that we’re leaving this whole country and that she couldn’t run the business as a fugitive anyways. My words don’t seem to calm her, and I have to promise to start another business and let her be CEO before she calms down.
The group also clarifies what happened on their side while I was running around the city. By the time we catch up on our divergent experiences, we’ve reached the tunnel exit. We pop out of the hole in the floor of the abandoned shop and find George there waiting for us. He gives us all long robes to hide our features, and I even snag a pair of sandals for my aching feet. George leads us through a series of alleyways, secret rooms, tunnels, and safe houses in the darkest parts of the city, and we’re thankful that tonight is a moonless night, which helps hide our frantic flight. Alarms have already gone off, and soldiers seem to be everywhere looking for us. But, the smuggler knows his work. He has us hiding in a large wagon and leaving the stables before too long, and then soon after, we’re past the city walls.
As we travel for the next few weeks, we are always on the run, and always hiding, but I’m unusually happy. Yes, I know I should be scared witless because I have an entire nation after me for killing one of their governors. But I’m happy. I’m with my friends, who have really become my family, and I finally fulfilled my promise to rescue the members of my adopted tribe. If we escape, I can finally start building us all a real future.
Epilogue
The beings that exist in another dimension, a spirit realm, communicate in a way among themselves that would be hard for mortal ears to understand. But their message is no less clear amongst themselves. Each entity, if released upon the mortal plane, could destroy it utterly.
“He’s escaped again. Do we send out others to pursue?” asks the shadowy entity that embodies the values of cruelty.
A spirit more in tune with nature and the forces of life responds, “No, the shadows of possibility keep his fate murky. Each step we take to bring him to us only pushes him farther away.”
Another spirit, which crackles with electric energy, asks, “She’s made contact with him. Should we be worried?”
“No, she is one of us, if not of the same persuasion. She will have the same difficulty molding him as we do. We can still make him our agent of transformation. Already, he’s stirred up the mortal kingdoms around him. He’s caused ripples of change with every person he meets. Even now, we can peek into his mind and see glimpses of his plans.”
“Oh, and what are those plans?” asks the electric spirit.
“He plans to create something that will make the nations around him tremble with fear.”
“Then our own designs are not affected?” asks the shadow.
With a chuckle the entity connected to life and death says, “No, he even helps us towards our goals without knowing it.”
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This ends Book Three in the Adventures on Terra Series.
From the Author
Thanks for reading Adventures on Terra: Beginning. It’s taken me a long time to write and edit the story. I hope you enjoyed it!
If you liked the story, you may also like my other series Project Alpha.
Also, please do me a favor and leave a review. Even if it’s only a couple words, it helps a self-publishing author like myself tremendously. Plus it helps other readers find the book.
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Some of the great Patreon Supporters even got put into the novel. You might recognize some of these names in some form. Thanks guys for your support on Patreon.
Arknon
Jason Hamilton
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If you liked this story you might like others in the LitRPG genre. For a list of recommended LitRPG books, you can visit http://www.geekbytespodcast.com/lit-rpg-novels/
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If you want to read something that combines RPG mechanics, crafting, lots of combat, and a love of beer and bacon then you should give War Aeturnes a try.
I can also whole heartedly recommend The Divine Dungeon series written by Dakota Krout. You know all those dungeons that adventurers go into to fight monsters and get treasure? Well, this story is told from the dungeon’s perspective. Yup, it’s as cool as it sounds.
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