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

by Jakob Tanner

  Interesting. You weren’t able to have three separate classes open at once. Yet, theoretically you were still able to have loads of classes and their abilities at your disposal so long as those classes were sequentially linked. So it was possible to have up to five or six classes at your disposal if you had multiple tier-3 classes unlocked. But how did you unlock tier-3 classes? I waited for the HUD to display a prompt explaining this to me, but nothing came up. Huh? I guess going from tier-2 to tier-3 would be different than tier-1 to tier-2. I’d have to ask Theobold or someone about this later.

  I looked over the skill tree; I currently had unlocked the first set of three skills on the tree. Judging by the skills there were two clearly distinctive play styles for this class. There was a zerg-style available, meaning summon-as-many-small-creatures-to-overwhelm-your-enemy method of fighting. Or, alternatively, a more familiar-based curated Summoner who had a limited amount of creatures to summon, but were all significantly stronger than the zerg-minions of the other play style.

  I liked the sounds of the familiar-based summoner over the zerg-style, but I didn’t have any bound creatures. I did have the ability to summon an elemental spirit though. I also had the two summon abilities from my apprentice mage class I had yet to try out.

  Hmm. If I did like familiar-based summoner style, I had to make use of the bind summon spell. Only then could I cast “Summon Bound Spirit” as well. Pretty self-explanatory. I currently was allowed to bind up to three different creatures into my arsenal and would unlock more arsenal space at higher levels. Was it possible to bind any monster I came across? This was super cool. The combos and possibilities were endless.

  So what did I do now exactly? I was at the foot of a tall stairwell. I guess I had to utilize the summoning skills and get through the different rooms until the final room. Made enough sense. I checked the timer in my HUD and saw that even though I’d been here for five minutes, the time hadn’t changed. I was in a different temporal zone from the ship in the bottom world. I could take my time in here.

  I walked up the steps and reached a platform. There was a caged door with steel bars. Beyond it was a room with a lever and another door. I bet the lever would open up the steel bars. But how was I supposed to get through? I understood I had to use my summon abilities but there wasn’t anything to bind. I did have the elemental spirit though. Might as well try it. I lifted my hand up and let my fingers intuitively dance in the air and call forth the elemental spirit. A silver wisp emerged from my hands, a swirling ethereal cloud of bright white energy. Two beady eyes formed a face within the swirling blob.

  “Hello!”

  I was taken aback by the ghost’s friendliness.

  “I’m an elemental spirit. I’m level one. Meaning you must be a new summoner. Congratulations on choosing summoner. You must be so excited!”

  “Uhh—I guess so,” I said.

  “You guess!? But you now can summon me, your new bestie. Let’s see here, let’s check out my stats. Yikes, sorry. Didn’t realize. At level one, you can only keep me summoned for a duration of 2 minutes, but level me up and I’ll be able to stay out longer and you’ll be able to summon more elemental spirits. They’re like me! They’d love to meet you!”

  He saw his own stats? Or was he a she? I shook my head. I didn’t have time to worry about that kind of shit. I checked my HUD to see the elemental spirit’s stats.

  Elemental Spirit

  Level 1

  Summon Duration Remaining: 1:38 seconds

  Main Ability: Spirit Blast—shoots a projectile energy blast at opponents.

  “Okay, time is running out. Uhh—do you have a name?”

  “My name is Elemental Spirit!”

  “Hmm. Okay. Is that what you want to be called? What will happen if I learn how to summon more of you? Won’t it get confusing?”

  The spirit shook its head. “Nope. You can call them Elemental Spirit 2, Elemental Spirit 3, Elemental Spirit 4, Elemental Spirit 5, Elemental Spirit—“

  “Okay, okay,” I said. “I get it.”

  “Congratulations!”

  “Are you being sarcastic?”

  The spirit frowned. “Did I upset master? I didn’t mean to!”

  “Agh, okay, never mind. You didn’t upset me. We’re running out of time before you disappear. Speaking of which, how long will I have to wait to recast you again?”

  “Great question, new master summoner! At level one, I believe it will be five minutes.”

  “Wow okay. I don’t want to waste any time. Can you do me a favor and go over there and pull that lever.”

  “Sure,” it said and squeezed through the bars and floated across the room to the lever. “This one right here?”

  “Yes!”

  The spirit spun around the lever and pushed it to the other end. The bars lifted. There was still thirty seconds on the clock. This spirit—despite its pathological over enthusiasm for everything—was super helpful already. It gave me an idea.

  “Hey! I might need your help throughout the rest of the trial. Is it alright if I bind summon you so you can stay out here and help me for longer?”

  The elemental spirit was taken aback. “Really? You’d do me such an honor. You’d place me—a lowly elemental spirit—in your prized arsenal?”

  “You’d be the first. What do you say?”

  “I accept!”

  Elemental Spirit has joined your summoning arsenal. You now have 2 out of 3 arsenal slots remaining.

  I checked the elemental spirits stats and they had changed.

  Elemental Spirit

  Level 1

  Summoning Duration: 24 hours

  Oh wow. A bound creature was able to stay out much longer than the lesser summons. This was perfect. I’d need this enthusiastic spirit’s help if I were to complete these trials. Speaking of which, it needed a new name.

  “Hey, what if I gave you a nickname?” I said. “How does Chip sound? Because, you know, you’re so chipper.”

  “Wowee! First you bound me to your summoner arsenal and then you gift me personal nickname of friendship,” said the spirit, swirling around me. “I love it. Call me Chip, master summoner!”

  I stepped into the new room now that the bars were gone. The elemental spirit spiraled around my person, chanting some kind of song.

  “Master and Spirit working together / Solving Puzzles / Having a great time!”

  “Yeah I’m having a great time too. Can you stop singing please?”

  “Sure thing master. I’ll be silent. I’ll do whatever. Say the word and I’ll do it. Like right now: you asked for quiet and I gave it to you. Zipped it. Shut it. Not a peep. Not a whistle. Not a sound—“

  I crossed my arms and stared at the spirit. It stopped talking.

  “Do you have any idea what’s behind this door?”

  The spirit shook its head.

  “You actually don’t know or are you hoping to please me by staying quiet?”

  The spirit nodded its head. Then shook it. Then frowned in confusion. “I don’t know what’s behind the door,” it finally said.

  Okay. It was time to find out then I supposed. I pushed the wooden door opened and entered the new room. It was full of mechanical spiders, clicketing and clacketing along the room. At the other end was a door. I took another step and the floor in front of me completely disintegrated and fell, opening a big gaping hole to the sky. The clickety-clacking mechanical spiders all fell through the air with the floor.

  I turned to the elemental spirit. “Hey, you can fly, can I hold onto you?”

  “I wish you were able to master but you can’t because I’m immaterial!”

  “Will you do me a favor and float to the other side where that door is? Come back and tell me what you see over there.”

  The spirit nodded its head and flew across the empty air to the other side. It paced across the floor, taking everything in and flew back to me.

  “What did you see?”

  “A platform like this one with a
door,” it said.

  “Was there a lever or a switch like in the other room?”

  “I didn’t see one. Did you want me to check again?”

  I shook my head. It wouldn’t be useful. I rubbed my chin in thought. I jumped off the platform. I smashed into an invisible wall. The force field wouldn’t let me go forward. This was a test to become a summoner, so using my other abilities wasn’t what I was supposed to do here.

  A clickety-clack came from nearby. The only two surviving mechanical spiders were climbing across the wall on the vertical end.

  Interesting.

  They crawled along the wall until they reached our platform and slowly clawed onto the horizontal flooring.

  “I think I found my way across,” I said.

  “Yay!” said the elemental spirit, spinning around me.

  I approached the spiders. Binding the spirit had been easy, but I’d faced these spiders before. They were hostile.

  “How do I bind hostile things?” I said, turning to Chip.

  “You have to earn their respect through a variety of combat and fear. If you get them below 20% HP, you will be able to bind them easily.”

  “Great, thanks Chip.”

  “No problem. I don’t know why they’re so hostile. You’re the best!”

  I smirked. Chip was growing on me. “You need to teach my other pals how to be more supportive.”

  “Sure! I’d be happy to.”

  My joke had flown over the spirit’s head.

  “Alright, we’ll talk more later, but right now, wanna help me weaken these mechanical spiders?”

  “Sure!”

  The spirit flew towards the mechanical spiders and unleashed its energy attack. The spiders crawled towards it and jumped in the air, but flew right through it.

  “Ha! Silly spiders,” said the spirit. “I’m immaterial!”

  I stretched out my arms and threw my hand out, letting a lightning whip emanate from my palm. The blue lightning streaked across the platform, wrapping itself around the mechanical spider, caging it in its coil. The mecha spider squirmed in the lightning grip: both paralyzed and damaging itself as the electricity throbbed into it.

  “You can conjure lightning!?” said Chip with awed disbelief. “That’s so cool!”

  I grinned, conjuring a fireball in the palm of my hands. “Want to see more cool spells?”

  I whipped the ball of molten lava at the paralyzed mecha spider. It squirmed in pain from its paralyzed state.

  “Whoah! Amazing!”

  The other spider jump attacked Chip again. The spirit shot another projectile blast at it, knocking it against the wall.

  I threw out more standard fireballs and the creatures both fell below 20% HP. I ran up to the first one and waited for a prompt to appear.

  “Touch its head Clay,” said Chip. “Then it will sense you want to bind with it.”

  I put my head down on the mechanical spider and a prompt appeared.

  Would you like to use bind summon on this mecha spider? Y/N?

  I selected yes and the spider disappeared in a silvery essence.

  You now have one remaining spot in your summoner arsenal (2/3)

  I went over to the other mecha spider, scurrying away. I placed my hand on its head and repeated the process again. When I was finished a prompt appeared telling me my summoner arsenal was full.

  “Alright, I gotta get both those spiders back out here. They’re going to help me cross this chasm.”

  I stretched out my hands and cast summon bound spirit. A silver air glowed at my feet and the mecha spider reappeared. I did it again and both were there. I checked their stats.

  Mecha Spider

  Level 1

  Abilities: Claw attack, jump, grapple

  Duration: 24 hours

  I picked up both metal spiders with my hands, gripping onto their abdomens. I then placed them on the walls. Their metal feet dug into the stone and gripped themselves there.

  “Perfect,” I said and pulled them out. “Now let’s see if they can carry my weight.”

  I jumped up and placed one spider up and it dug into the wall. I dangled half a foot off the ground. I swung my arm with the other spider and had it latch onto the wall. “Alright, here we go,” I said. “Spiders crawl along the wall to the other side.”

  The spider moved their pincer legs across the wall, sticking to it and dragging me across.

  “Chip,” I said. “Meet me on the other side. I don’t want you distracting me while I’m hanging over the middle of empty sky.”

  The spiders crawled along and I gripped on their abdomens. Don’t look down, I kept telling myself. I didn’t feel too panicked about my current state, with death waiting below me if I were to fall. No—I had the curious satisfaction of solving a dungeon puzzle.

  When we got to the other side, I let go of the spiders.

  “Yay, you did it!” said Chip, spinning around me.

  I looked over the long chasm I’d climbed across and sighed. Yeah, I had. My stomach dropped. I didn’t want to think of it anymore.

  On to the next room. Chip spun around me and the little mecha spiders clicked and clacked behind me following along.

  I entered the next room and found a familiar face. The floating spirit from my apprentice mage trial. It was a skinny spirit figure with a cloak hiding its face. It grinned, revealing a set of small pointy teeth.

  “So you’re done being an apprentice then?”

  I didn’t speak right away. Was this the final room then? I’d met this guy before in the final room of the apprentice mage trials. He had tested me on my philosophy of magic. Only when I had answered his question correctly had he allowed me to pass and unlock my class.

  “A summoner is a powerful class,” said the ghost. “You can raise whole armies or lead a band of powerful legendary creatures. If it is indeed your choice, select one of the three mystic companions to begin your journey as a summoner.”

  The spirit faded away and in his place appeared three different amazing creatures. There was a lion-like creature with red hair and sharp claws. A massive translucent blue spirit wolf. The third creature was a large alligator-like monster.

  “Which one are you going to pick, Clay?” asked Chip. “I like the lion!”

  The lion was cool. I approached the beast. It didn’t move or roar. It stood calmly like a toy animal.

  A prompt appeared in my HUD.

  Mystic Lion

  Level 1

  The mystic lion is renowned for its strength in battle. If you seek a companion to fight at your side, you’ll find a no better warrior in the mystic lion.

  Sweet. So the mystic lion was a battle companion. I moved over to the spirit wolf.

  Mystic Wolf

  Level 1

  The Mystic Wolf is known in legends for its great speed. If you wish to travel across great swathes of land, the Mystic Wolf is a strong choice for travel companion.

  Wow. So the mystic wolf was like a really cool summonable mount then. This was exciting.

  I walked over to the alligator creature. I had already discounted it in my head because in appearances it was the weakest and oddest of the three companions.

  Mystic Croc

  Level One

  The Mystic Croc is king of the swamp. If you seek treasure or worlds hidden in the middle of lakes, seas, and oceans—the mystic croc can help you get there.

  Oh nice. So this was a water-based mount. I didn’t think it would let me breath underwater or anything, but it did traverse big seas which sounded pretty cool.

  “Claaaay! Which one are you gonna choose?” said Chip, spinning around the room. “I can’t take the suspense.”

  I wasn’t sure. Was I missing anything? The freaky spirit wizard had left me to make my choice. I was only allowed to pick one.

  It also meant I’d have to let go of one of my three summoner arsenal. I was obviously keeping Chip so it meant bye-bye to one of the mecha spiders.

  Beyond the three crea
tures was a crack in the wall. I walked over to it. I winced and peered through the division to see what was on the other side. There was another room.

  What the hell?

  “Hey Chip,” I said. “Do you mind slipping through this crack here and seeing what’s on the other side?”

  “I’d love to,” grinned Chip, floating through the air and then slipping between the walls. Seconds later, he re-emerged.

  “There is another room with a door with a weird symbol on it,” said Chip. “Also there’s a lever in there like in the other room.”

  My eyes widened. “Really? Chip can you go back and pull the lever.”

  The spirit nodded eagerly and went back to the hidden room. The walls moved apart, creating a passageway.

  This was amazing. I’d stumbled onto a secret area most players didn’t normally reach. It must have been a small reward for bounding Chip to my arsenal. Most players probably summoned him and let him disappear and didn’t have the patience to wait around to resummon him again.

  I walked down the newly formed hallway and approached a large brown wooden door. My stomach dropped when I stood face to face with the entrance to the secret room. I was no longer sure if I’d entered a secret area for savvy players or rather accidentally stepped into a forbidden zone, not meant for anybody.

  Etched on the doorway was the same symbol branded on my wrist.

  The Prophetic Seal.

  “I’m not sure if we should go through here Chip,” I said.

  “Really?” said the spirit, spinning in a wide circle around me. “Aren’t you curious what’s in there? I know I am!”

  I mean, who was I kidding? I really wanted to know what was in there, but how did I open this thing? Did I need a special line of code like the other Prophetic Seal skills?

  Whatever was beyond here must have been really special. It was already hidden from behind those walls plus it had an extra layer of defense only programmers of the game had access to.