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

by Jakob Tanner

  “Here goes nothing,” yelled Serena, charging towards the bone dragon, sword raised. Bullets from Shade’s pistols zoomed past her shoulders racing to hit the ghastly creature ahead of her. The bullets bounced off the bone, barely dealing any damage, but Serena didn’t let it slow her down. She leapt in the air, sword raised, and unleashed crushing blow right where the wings sprouted from the dragon’s body. The blade crushed through the bones, snapping the wing off with ease.

  The bone dragon roared. It lost its balance as one wing fell into the ruins of Ariellum. It still dragged and attempted to escape the grasp of my chain lightning. I was still hanging onto it tight. Yet the spell was coming to an end. I only had thirty more seconds until I’d have to cast it again.

  I threw out my other arm and let a new rope of electricity burst forth from my hands. The spell was met with a shrill cry from the bone dragon. The monster shot out a blast of purple flame. The two spells clashed with each other in the air and cancelled one another out.

  Damn.

  Now I was locked out of the move for another thirty seconds. The dragon had more than enough time to fly off. Or hobble away given it was missing a wing.

  My lightning chain dissipated and the bone dragon wasted no time in flying away. It landed further up the platform of stairs. It curled up like a dog licking its wounds. I was about to suggest picking up the Ultriga Weapon again when the magical force that had manipulated its bones went to work, repairing its broken wing.

  “This thing is operating like the skeleton warriors we fought before,” I said. “What about healing magic?”

  “Already tried,” said Kari. “It didn’t do anything.”

  With its wings repaired, the dragon flew towards us. It hissed and shrieked. The bones rattled and knocked against each other with every flap of its wings or craning of its neck.

  We all retreated down the steps. The bone dragon swooped down. Serena stood at the front our party, holding her sword up horizontally, triggering sword shield.

  The bone dragon didn’t attack us though. It swooped down and clawed the Ultriga Weapon and flew away.

  “Wait what,” said Serena.

  “This goes against all my previous burglary experience,” said Shade. “Guard dogs usually care more about getting their supper than actually capturing whatever has been stolen.”

  “If we want to keep the Ultriga Weapon,” said Jackson. “We have to fight the bone dragon. The question is: how badly do we want it?”

  “I can’t believe you guys,” I said. “We jumped through an interdimensional warp while fighting the spirit warden to get this thing and now you’re ready to give up at a mere bone dragon.”

  “I mean, I wouldn’t say ‘mere’,” said Shade.

  I shook my head and materialized an MP potion. I uncorked it and guzzled it down. “Do we want to save Illyria or not. This is the only way.”

  I ran after the dragon, electric blinking into the air. Then again and again. I shot off lightning cage which grabbed hold of its leg. I swung through the air attached to the dragon. It squealed and shook from the pain of my lightning whip. In it’s pain it let go of the Ultriga Weapon. The device fell through the air and smashed into the staircase. I let go of my lightning grip and fell back to the ground, cushioning my fall at the last second.

  I stood in the crumbling stairwell, beside the Ultriga Weapon. The rest of the party ran up to me.

  “We need to fight for this thing,” I said. “Even if its against a monstrosity like the bone dragon.”

  The rest of the party readied themselves for a fight once again.

  The dragon swerved in the air and set its deadly purple eyes on us. It flapped its wings and glided downwards across the wretched gray sky of the bottom world.

  Serena ran up the steps ready to meet its attack. The dragon whipped out its clawed arms, swiping them across the sky at the warrior. Serena leapt and initiated blade tornado, spinning through the air, cutting into the bone structure of the dragon.

  Jackson ran and leapt towards the dragon, doing a spin kick into its skull, knocking out its crumbling bone teeth.

  Kari enchanted both of them with defensive and offensive buffs.

  The bone dragon craned its neck upward, letting out a shrill wail. It then whipped its head down, hot breath gusting out of its mouth and knocking all of us back a step. A massive blast of purple flame shot forth from its throat . We were surrounded by the arcane flames. The hair on my skin melted away. My flesh warped from the heat of the blast.

  I lifted up both my arms and shot out waterblast from my palms, drenching and suffocating the surrounding flames. The dragon took a normal breath and arched its head back. Residual flames lingered on the stone steps of the acropolis.

  We were all in the red and the dragon was about to unleash another blast.

  Serena turned and ran from the dragon. “Everybody run,” she yelled.

  “But—“

  “Enough is enough,” said Serena, body tackling me and sending the two of us rolling down the steps. The stones banged into my back and shoulder blades, bones painfully clapping against the cold ancient steps.

  We stopped rolling and I stood up. “What the hell Serena?”

  “I’m not going back for the stupid bloody weapon anymore. It’s only going to get us killed. Don’t you see that Clay?”

  The dragon flew down to where the Ultriga Weapon was and picked it up with its claws and flew away with it.

  I ran after it again, but Serena gripped my arm, halting me.

  “I know you want to save everyone, but don’t you see this isn’t the way? You care so much about protecting everyone you’ll do anything to do it. You’re blinded. You want to save everyone so badly you’ll let yourself and the rest of us get killed because of it. How can we help anyone then? Don’t go after the weapon. We don’t need it. There’s gotta be another way.”

  The dragon flapped its wings, taking the Ultriga Weapon deeper into the sky with it. If I ran now I had a chance to catch up with it. Any further and it was gone. It was now or never.

  Serena’s sharp blue eyes locked onto mine. I had almost lost her in the battle with the spirit warden. I honestly thought I had. I didn’t want to ever go through such pain and misery again. My shoulders fell. She was right.

  “Let’s go everyone,” I said. “We’re aborting the current mission.”

  Everyone’s faces fell. No one wanted to fight the dragon anymore. No one believed we were strong enough to beat it.

  We’d placed all our hopes of salvation in the Ultriga Weapon. What were we going to do?

  The bone dragon was nothing but a speck in the sky now.

  31

  The mood was somber onboard the ship. We had walked back from the ruins of Ariellum empty-handed. Now our enemy awaited us right beyond the gates.

  I checked the ship’s stats and the crew morale was still in the defiant category. If we hadn’t been trapped inside this DLC content, I imagined they would’ve potentially sailed away without us. This level of negative morale would impact us in any upcoming battle. The crew would operate slower, cannons wouldn’t reload as fast, we’d be more prone to making mistakes. I had gambled on the morale boost the Ultriga Weapon would have given, but instead we had come back empty-handed. We had sought hope and returned with despair.

  The crewmen watched us come aboard the ship, eagerly waiting to see if we had what we’d gone looking for.

  “Captain’s quarters,” I said to the party. “Now.”

  We went into the large chamber room and I sat down behind the desk in the center. I steepled my fingers and leaned my head on them as if I was praying. But I wasn’t. I was thinking. We needed to come up with a new plan. The Ultriga Weapon was to be our diplomatic bargaining chip and our weapon of mass destruction if it came down to an us or them scenario. Yet, that was the situation we were in: Arethkar wanted to conquer Laergard and all of Illyria. They wanted to enslave and destroy The Chosen. The solution to our problem laid, as Seren
a had put it, in the alternative unknown option. The other way.

  Was it really us versus them?

  I sighed. I checked my HUD to see if any of my abilities or stats offered some kind of solution. I had numerous status updates. Stats of mine had leveled up: Fireblast had reached level 4, Lightning Cage level 3, Electric Blink level 2 and Status Cure level 4. The final ability level caught my eye. I focused in on it.

  Status Cure has leveled up (Level 4)

  Status Cure: Remove debuffs ailing you and your party members. Removable debuffs include: poison, confusion, slow, weakness, stun, and frozen (new!)

  Every time status cure leveled up, I gained a new debuff I was able to cure. I grinned. It was like a light bulb had gone off in my head. I had been so focused on destroying the Arethkarian fleet, I had ignored any alternatives to winning this fight. It was more complicated than “us versus them”—mainly because “them,” Arethkar, were using us, enslaved Chosen, to fight.

  “I have an idea,” I said.

  “Now this is why we made him captain,” said Shade. “He sits down, clasps his hands, and—poof—our asses are saved.”

  “Stop sucking up,” said Serena. “I’m still first mate.”

  “I’m not so sure,” said Shade. “Clay—what is your brilliant idea?”

  I grinned. “Sorry to say it doesn’t involve promoting you Shade, but it might save our bacon.”

  “Go on,” said Jackson, crossing his arms.

  “Back when I played RPGs as a kid, there was always a room before the big boss. It usually had a save point. I was in such a rush as a kid I always ended up being severely underleveled. The great thing about this room though was you were able to stay in it as long as you wanted. It was even possible to backtrack to earlier areas you’d been to. The room allowed you to grind and level up and make the necessary arrangements needed before fighting the big boss. Right now—here in the bottom world—is our version of that room. We’re not ready to exit and face our enemies. Yet.”

  “We only have three more hours left down here before the bottom world sickness overtakes us. Plus, I don’t know if grinding levels will be enough,” said Jackson.

  I shook my head and smiled. “Neither do I. I specifically want to grind just one of my spells. It might be the key to winning the fight against Arethkar.”

  “I’m just supposed to stand here and take it,” balked Shade, standing alone and isolated on the black desert sand.

  “All of us are,” said Jackson, a good few meters away from Shade. Serena stood even further out.

  “I don’t see Kari or Clay doing this bloody fool’s work,” complained Shade.

  “C’mon Shade,” said Serena. “You know why we’re doing this.”

  Shade sighed and pulled out his pistol. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s get this started.” He fired his pistol out into the desert floor. Within seconds, sand sharks sensed the movement and were coming our way.

  “Just because I understand why we’re doing it, doesn’t mean I have to like it,” said Shade, squirming.

  “Just close your eyes and let it happen,” said Jackson calmly.

  The ground shook as the sand sharks made their approach. They jumped out of the sand and whipped their tails at our frontline.

  Jackson, Shade, and Serena all fell back, purposely not defending themselves. A little icon for “stunned” flickered beneath their status bars.

  Here we go. I electric blinked closer to the battle field, then stretched out my arm. I shot off a bright light of crystal energy towards Shade. Then Serena. Then Jackson. The status debuff disappeared from beneath their status bars. Kari followed up my spell with cure magic of her own.

  “Okay guys,” I said, panting. “Again.”

  We did this loop, over and over again for another two hours. By the end of the grind, we’d leveled up Status Cure to level 10. I was now “medically trained” to cure: poison, confusion, slow, weakness, paralysis, chilled, fear, burning, crippled, shock, bio, and berserk.

  Loads of potential debuffs but not the one we wanted.

  “We’re running out of time, Clay,” said Serena.

  She was right. We only had forty minutes before the gates sealed shut forever. It was also taking more and more time to level up the skill. It would take at least twenty-five minutes to level it up again. Were we wasting our time here? No. We had enough time to level up status cure once more. I was feeling lucky.

  “We’re trying one more time,” I said. “Everyone stay in positions, let’s go.”

  The sand sharks returned and knocked Shade back, stunning him for the two hundredth time. I ran and healed him from the attack. Kari brought his HP back to full after I cured him of the debuff. I ran over to Serena next, then Jackson. We continued this dance for another twenty minutes. The whole time I worried what if the next level—level 11—didn’t unlock the debuff we needed. What then? I shook my head. I had to believe. I had to hope, even if I knew unlocking the ability did not ensure the success of the plan. Part two—if we ever got so far—would solve the remaining issues.

  I cured Serena from her stunned state, the bright crystals of the spell seeping into her skin and removing the debuff. A message flickered in my HUD.

  Status Cure has leveled up (Level 11)

  Status Cure: Remove debuffs ailing you and your party members. Removable debuffs include: poison, confusion, slow, weakness, stun, chilled, fear, burning, crippled, shock, bio, berserk, and enslaved (new!)

  I grinned. We had done it.

  “We did it,” I yelled.

  “Hurrah!” said Shade. “Can we stop being practice dummies and finish off these sand sharks?”

  “There’s no time,” said Serena. “Let’s retreat and they’ll eventually give up on chasing us.”

  “Fine,” groaned Shade.

  Jackson did a spinning kick and sent an incoming sand shark meters across the desert floor. He landed and dusted off his trousers. “I hate to be the barer of bad news but I’m not sure if this spell is going to be enough. If I were still wearing my slave’s bracers, even if you cast the spell on me and removed the debuff, it would only last a millisecond, not even that. The bracers would constantly keep the debuff active.”

  “I thought of that,” I said. “That’s why we need to initiate part two of my plan.”

  I was going to unlock my tier-2 class.

  32

  I’d been avoiding doing this for a long time. It was easier to wait and figure out later what the best class was, what the sweetest moves were, but really all I’d been doing was procrastinating. Here I was: about to face the battle dictating Illyria’s future and my future in it and I was hoarding class skill points. WTF. I was being idiotic. It was time to pick my next class. They were all interesting and I had enough to unlock any of the four available to me, but I needed to pick based, not on some future where I leveled up and found cool unique moves, but what was going to save our asses right here and now. That made the choice a lot easier.

  We needed allies. We needed more fighters. If I could somehow get more of them, I had to do whatever was in my power to do so.

  I was going to become a Summoner.

  I placed four class skill points to unlock the two prerequisite moves for summoner class. I put two points into the utility branch of Fire magic, learning “Ring of Fire” and “Summon Phoenix.” Next I put two points into Earth magic utility branch, learning “Spike Field” and “Summon Rock Golem.”

  As soon as I learned “Summon Rock Golem,” a message appeared in my prompt.

  You’re now eligible to embark on quest trials for: mage and summoner. Select at any time.

  “Okay guys,” I said, looking at my team. “Wait right here. I will be back in a second.”

  I opened up my class screen and selected the summoner quest trial.

  Would you like to embark on, “Summoner Quest Trial”? Y/N?

  I selected yes and instantly everything went black. I opened my eyes and I was somewhere else. The black des
ert sand cushioning against the sole of my boots was replaced by the cold stone floor of an ancient temple. The whistle of the harsh wind was replaced by the gentle rustle of green vine leaves against the stone windows of the ziggurat. The temple was similar to the one I’d visited when I had unlocked my apprentice mage class. A whole bunch of messages stacked in my HUD.

  Summoner Class Kit Temporarily Unlocked

  A student of spirit and eternal essences, you summon creatures to fight and battle on your behalf.

  Effect 1: +500 MP

  Effect 2: 10% Faster MP Regeneration

  Effect 3: Bind Summon Skill Unlocked

  Effect 4: Summon Bound Spirit Unlocked

  Effect 5: Summon Elemental Spirit Unlocked

  Effect 6: Summoner Arsenal Slot 1 Unlocked

  Effect 7: Summoner Arsenal Slot 2 Unlocked

  Effect 8: Summoner Arsenal Slot 3 Unlocked

  Holy crap. This was a lot to take in. I wasn’t even sure where to start. Before pouring over the skill tree, I took in the bonus effects for unlocking the class. 500 MP! That was seriously a truck load. I bet it was because summoning would cost a lot of mana, but still, the bonus MP was worth it enough to unlock this class and then switch to another. How many classes were you allowed to unlock?

  Dynamic Class System – Primary and Sub Classes

  A player can only ever have the abilities and status upgrades of two classes at once. However, classes that are sequentially linked via tiers, such as “Apprentice Mage” (Tier-1) and “Summoner” (Tier-2) are considered only one class. Thus a player could have “Summoner” (with “Apprentice Mage” abilities falling under that class) and another class like “Warrior” or “Paladin”, thus effectively controlling three classes at one time. However, only one branching tier-1 and tier-2 class count as one (i.e. it would count as two classes to have both summoner and medic-mage open at once).