Arcane Kingdom Online: The Fallen City (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 3)

by Jakob Tanner

  Ability: Push back a foe with a deadly gust of wind

  MP Cost: 7

  Electric Blink (Level 1)

  Ability: Teleport up to six meters away

  MP Cost: 20

  “You done over there?” asked Theobold. “Before we start our lessons, I want you to attack the rat over there. I wanna see how much you know already.”

  Theobold walked over to a corner and jumped up to a ledge.

  “That rat?” I said, pointing to a fat one in the middle.

  “Any rat.”

  I turned to a rat at the opposite corner to me. It was off on its own and would hopefully not attract the other rats to fight me.

  I gulped and then ran to the rat and stretched out my arms, casting lightning cage. A purple burst of lightning whipped out of my palm and encircled the oversized vermin. It squealed in pain as it squirmed in the paralyzing electric cage. Next I gathered both my hands together to create a molten-sized fireball. I unleashed the blast, burning the gray hairs of the creature. The electric bars of the lightning cage faded away and the rat scurried towards me, leaping with its jaws wide open. I triggered flame dodge, sliding across the sewer floor, leaving a trail of flames. The rat was so aggroed, it ran through the flames towards me, stacking up burning debuffs along the way. It died, collapsing on the floor, burnt to a crisp at my feet.

  +350 EXP!

  I turned towards Theobold and bowed. Pretty decent. I killed the creature without it landing any hits.

  “What do you think?” I said.

  Theobold made a face. “Not great.”

  My stomach sunk. “What do you mean?”

  Theobold shook his head and contemplated for a moment. “You really have a lot to learn.” He jumped off his pedestal and walked towards me. “You’re treating your spells as individual moves. Wielding magic isn’t just summoning different abilities to do stuff for you, but rather conjuring the elements and manipulating them together to create awesome results. There are hidden abilities, combos—one’s that won’t ever appear in your HUD—but once learned, open whole new possibilities for your class.”

  I stood dumbfounded. There was always so much more to learn, so much to do. “What combos can you teach me?”

  “Well for starters, I don’t know why you attacked one individual rat. Your strengths as a mage are both ranged damage and AoE-style attacks. I liked your blunt use of fire blast, but you’d be better served casting earthquake at your enemies and then using fireblast on top of your earthquake spell.”

  “You mean, attack them while they’re being damaged from earthquake?”

  “No,” said Theobold. “Attack the crumbling earth and you’ll create burning ground, adding extra damage and a chance of burning debuff on the entire AoE.”

  “Sounds hardcore.”

  “Exactly. Try attacking the rats again.”

  Theobold returned to the pedestal in the corner, standing watch over the sewer environment.

  Four rats lingered in the center of the room. My fingers twitched with giddy excitement. I’d take them all on this time.

  I stretched my arms out and pulled at the ground beneath the group of rats. The floor shook and crumbled, stone cracking apart, turning into jagged spears, stabbing the group of rats. They jumped off their feet in panic. I wasted no time, conjuring a fireball in both my hands and whipping them at my AoE spell. The fire blast smashed into the jagged rocks and all the stones in the AoE turned ember hot, smoke emanating off the rocks. Cripple and burning debuffs stacked underneath the rats’ health bars. Their eyes flared and they gathered their balance on the stone. They ran towards me.

  Shit.

  These rats were higher level than the one I first attacked. I’d managed to take out half of each of their HP—so cumulatively two full rat’s worth of HP—but, so long as they were alive and coming for me, none of that mattered.

  I triggered flame dodge, shooting myself across the chamber’s stone platform. It was the perfect opportunity for earthquake but I had another thirty seconds on the recast buffer.

  “Here’s another combo,” yelled Theobold from up above. “Frozen ground plus air blast.”

  I ran from the gang of rats, kiting them across the chamber in a ridiculous zigzag pattern. I didn’t understand Theobold’s suggested combo. Was he telling me to freeze the ground and then push them off it? Oh wait. I got it.

  I spun around and pushed both my arms out in front of me. My fingertips turned icy cool as I created a big circle of ice right behind the incoming rats. They leapt in the air, claws drawn and teeth barred. A gust of wind blasted forth from my hands. The propulsive air flung the rats through the air, their bodies slamming and skidding into the new plate of ice. Their legs trembled as they attempted to gain balance, lifting their feet with a frosted slowness.

  Perfect.

  “Now for the combo again,” shouted Theobold.

  I summoned earthquake, destroying the field of ice, the jagged stones tearing into the flesh of the weakened rats. Next I conjured a ball of flames in my hand and whipped it at the AoE spell, igniting it with fiery power.

  The rats screamed and experience from their deaths came rolling into my HUD.

  +455 EXP!

  +455 EXP!

  +455 EXP!

  +455 EXP!

  I breathed heavily in and out. Oh man. So much power. So many experience points. I would level super quickly in no time.

  I went through the same motions again until I had cleared the chamber of all the rats. Theobold said more would respawn or find their way into the room in a minute or two. While we waited, Theobold told me other counterintuitive ways to use my powers to full effect. Flame dodge, for instance, was a defensive move but there was a way to make it offensive. If I kept my back to my target opponent when I triggered flame dodge, I’d launch myself in my enemy’s direction. Another cool combo was healing mist combined with air blast to create a healing projectile to cure my fellow party members at range. Finally, Theobold showed me how lightning cage was able to cancel incoming attacks if cast at the right second.

  So the lessons went, hour upon hour, until the sewer chamber we were in reeked of blood and rat carcasses. I was leveling up by the hour. As the time passed, it had become rote memory: earthquake, fireblast, flame dodge, ice wave, air blast, repeat. I was learning a powerful rotation to handle multiple mobs at once and soak in experience. It was a risky combo for sure though. If Theobold wasn’t there to watch over me, I’m not sure I’d have the balls to take on five or six rats at once. If they got anywhere close to me and all landed a hit, I was a dead man.

  The stone embers burnt the flesh of the rats to death, their skin melting off their bone and another wave of experience points stacked up in my HUD.

  +490 EXP!

  +490 EXP!

  +490 EXP!

  +490 EXP!

  +490 EXP!

  Congratulations! You have leveled up (Level 20)

  You gain +4 HP

  You gain +1 MP

  You have (3) unused attribute points that can be applied to any of your five base stats.

  You have (8) unused class skill points that can be applied to your class skill tree to unlock new moves or level up existing ones.

  Holy shit. My arms ached, my head pulsed with pain, every part of my body felt sick and tired. I put the three attribute points into magic attack power as I had been placing most of them into my spirit over the last few levels to increase my pool of MP. My new stats were very satisfying.

  Clay Hopewell

  Level 20

  Race: Aeri (Eldra)

  Class: Apprentice Mage

  HP: 176

  MP: 90

  ATKP: 3

  MTKP: 74

  TGH: 5

  SPIRIT: 66

  LUCK: 3

  I can’t believe I’d gotten to level 20. The possibilities from here were endless: Level 20 abilities I was now able to unlock, tier-2 classes to explore, new armor sets available in the Trader’s Forum. This w
as awesome.

  “What level 20 abilities should I acquire? Are you going to help me pick my tier-2 class?”

  “Slow down,” said Theobold, walking up to me. He held out his hand. “Congratulations on getting to level 20. That was my goal. The level 20 abilities are extra powerful and will amp your survivability by quite a bit. Your tier-2 class can wait. When the time comes for you to learn your next class, you won’t feel the need to ask permission.”

  “Okay but what abilities do you think I need to learn?”

  “You have enough to learn at least two. I wouldn’t spend all your points until you know what next class you’d want to be. You’re safe to pick two. I can’t guide you with this. You need to decide for yourself.”

  I opened my class skill sheet in my HUD and reviewed the level 20 abilities available to me. The two available to me were conjure ice blade and skull shock. I had enough points to unlock the others, but I would have to spend points on the earlier spells in the skill tree first to unlock them. Even still, I reviewed the level 20 abilities open to me.

  Supernova

  Ability: Create a massive meteor in the sky that crashes down on your opponents

  MTKP: 300-700

  MP Cost: 50

  Summon Phoenix

  Ability: Summon a deadly phoenix that will fight on your behalf. Spell duration: 2 minutes.

  MP Cost: 50

  Conjure Ice Blade

  Ability: Create a blade made of the ice so sharp it can cut through anything. Spell duration: 2 minutes.

  MTKP: 250-450

  MP Cost: 50

  Restorative Storm

  Ability: Create an AoE storm that heals all of your party members

  MP Cost: 50

  Plasma Beam

  Ability: Shoot a destructive laser blast from the palm of your hands

  ATKP: 400-600

  MP Cost: 50

  Skull Shock

  Ability: A fully paralyzing stun ability on any monster. Duration: 15 seconds

  MP Cost: 50

  Gravity Tremor

  Ability: An AoE earthquake with a horizontal and vertical radius

  MP Cost: 50

  Summon Rock Golem

  Ability: Summon a powerful rock golem that will fight on your behalf. Spell duration: 2 minutes.

  MP Cost: 50

  These spells were all wicked. They would also cost more than half of my available MP, meaning I’d have to save them for special occasions. I’m sure they had a long re-cast time too. The choices I ultimately settled on were not the choices I would’ve made a few days ago. Earlier in the week I would’ve gone for the flashiest moves in the arsenal: supernova and summon phoenix—maybe rock golem to change things up from the fire spells. Yet, after today’s training session with Theobold, I was starting to realize how important complimentary abilities were. So in the end, I spent two class skill points, learning conjure ice blade and skull shock. The choice conserved the most amount of class skill points I had for later and also meant I was in a position to unlock the mage tier-2 class quest.

  But I’d save the trial for another day.

  “All done?” asked Theobold.

  “I think so,” I said. “But I have a few questions.”

  “A few questions! How about, ‘Thank you kind Theobold.’ I just helped you gain five levels and increase your DPS and general fighting ability. What more can I offer you?”

  “Well I was wondering some logistics. Why aren’t there more players coming down here and power leveling like this?”

  Theobold nodded his head and brought his hand to his chin. “Good question. One I’ve asked myself. Honestly—I think it’s the difference between Arcane Kingdom Online being a game and it being one’s life.” He paused. “As you’ve told me, the world outside is no more. A.K.O. is people’s lives then. It’s also hyper realistic and immersive. Look around you, we’re in a dark sewer surrounded by bloody rat corpses. This is disgusting. Most people aren’t going to venture down on their own and do this.”

  “Shit—are we total sociopaths then?”

  Theobold laughed. “No. There’s features of the game like pain and violence the engine purposefully dulls one senses to. If we had it any other way, people would suffer too greatly from PTSD inside of here. Early testing showed that to us. We’re not down here right now because we’re insane—though I do have an ongoing bet with Archades concerning your sanity—but because we have a mission to accomplish, a home to protect. In an older game, someone would happily come into a sewer and grind kill a bunch of rats, but in this world—where you can become a master chef, a craftsman, an explorer—why bother with grinding and leveling up? Unless, of course, you’re doing it for a real worthwhile purpose.”

  Damn, Theobold was coming at me with inspirational stuff. It raised another question though.

  “You keep saying we. Why aren’t you coming with us to Ariellum? Why aren’t you out there on the battlefield? I remember back in Arondale seeing your stats. You were level 99!”

  Theobold sighed and rubbed my shoulder.

  “I didn’t earn those levels, Clay. I used the Prophetic Seal to make myself more powerful. When I found out I was trapped in this game, I used the special mark to level up faster than normal. The artificial leveling screwed up my build and weakened my stats. I’m level 99 in pretty much name only. My power level is nowhere near there. I have many powerful skills unlocked, but they are considered weaker than the “level one” version of the spell. My level 99 status is a curse I bear for manipulating the game for my own benefits. At the time I told myself I was doing it to help the others trapped inside here, but now I’m not so sure. Heed my warning Clay.” The Rorn wizard looked me straight in the eye. “Many terrible deeds done in times of crisis are rationalized with good intentions, but that does not make them right.”

  7

  After leaving the sewers with Theobold, the next thing I had to do was find Shade. He had left the throne room pretty pissed off with the whole idea of seeking out Ariellum and I didn’t blame him. The fallen city was mythical to Lirana, their lost mecca. It was blasphemous after its destruction to go seek it out, and yet we needed him on this quest. He was our thief, our rogue, our melee DPS, the man who broke down all the hidden traps on all our quests, and, last but not least, he was the ship’s resident drunk and if that wasn’t important to morale I didn’t know what was.

  I started with his favorite pub, The Crooked Bell. I found an empty hole in the wall with one Haeren barmaid polishing glasses while one patron fell asleep at his stool, pint in hand. I went to the Pauper’s Pump Room next. No dice. The same thing happened with the Raven’s Room, the Artful Alehouse, and the Knight’s Brewery.

  Where the heck was Shade?

  I had one last idea.

  As I strolled up to the Haeren Church of the Nine’s Orphanage, I found a group of children huddled in a small circle. I heard a voice coming from beyond the children, speaking at their feet.

  “You see it’s all about misdirection. Have the mark’s attention focused elsewhere as you slip your fingers into his pocket, or her purse, or their luggage, or you know—if you’re really talented—straight out of his or her hands. What I’m trying to say kids is this: I believe in you.”

  What was I overhearing?

  A cute little Rorn boy, raised his hand. “What if they catch you with your hand in their pocket?”

  “Sorry mister my hand slipped.”

  “What if they don’t believe that?”

  “A devilish pixy jumped into your pocket and I wanted to stop it.”

  “Or that?”

  “Over there!” Shade pointed to me and all the kids turned. He then clapped his hands, “And in a snap of fingers you’re gone. See, misdirection again. Alright, now scram. Don’t tell the nuns what I taught you.”

  The kids ran off, leaving Shade and me in the street.

  “I was looking everywhere for you,” I said. “I practically searched every pub in the city.”

 
“I'm a changed man, Clay. You see—”

  “Were you literally not just teaching a bunch of little kids how to steal?

  “—look, if you insist, fine, you can buy me one—no, two pints—of ale. I know just the place.”

  Shade and I strolled away from the orphanage and wound our way down the streets until we were standing in front of a brick building, sandwiched between two other buildings. There was a lone black door without any advertisements on it. He opened the door and we stepped into a quiet pub.

  Ah, this was a proper Shade establishment. He drank everywhere but this was like the first inn he’d ever taken me to back in Arondale. A thief’s pub. It smelled of cheese, wine, and sausage rolls. A crackling fire glowed from a hearth in the center of the room, while quiet cloaked individuals sat at wooden tables alone, drinking from their pitchers of ale. A group of Lirana were playing cards in one corner.

  Shade sat down at one of the bar stools and I did the same.

  The portly Haeren man poured himself a glass of whisky and asked, “How can I help you?”

  “Two ales please,” I said.

  Shade coughed.

  “One for me, one for you, no?”

  Shade made a disparaging face.

  Oh, right. “Sorry—make that three ales.”

  The bartender smirked, took a sip of his whisky glass and got to work. He bent down and pulled three pint glasses from a cupboard and one by one pulled a metal lever and let amber liquid pour into the glass. My eyes glazed over with delight and soon enough, the glorious pint with the top rim of foam was sitting in front of me. I jealously looked over at Shade who had gone for two pints. He may have been skinny but he had an amazing constitution.

  Shade took a long sip of his first pint, draining half of it in a single gulp. He swallowed, slouched his shoulders and let out a relaxed sigh. He stared across the bar into the glittering reflections of the bottles lining the wall.