Edge of the Abyss (Respawn Trials Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 27

  Not so. I had become very angry at my nephew’s words but he was ultimately right. I had nowhere to go in the real world. Either I learned how to survive in the Edge of the Abyss or my interest and abilities would soon run out, and then I would truly be left with nothing.

  These expensive purchases that I could currently afford were an investment in my future. André was right. A reliable outfit, weapons, additional bonuses from rings — they all counted for the sensory realism.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I DIDN’T REACH the forest hill until five o’clock in the evening. It tended to get dark at nine o’clock so I would have enough time to climb to the top and test the lizard statue for durability.

  My arsenal now boasted a war hammer, a long sword enchanted for Chaotic damage and two identical sets of rings providing +3 to the main characteristics. I had paid a tidy sum for them but felt no regrets. If Jeb and I had possessed such rings, surviving in the dungeon of Noogard would have been a lot easier. In addition, I had bought a wide, comfortable belt with pockets for three vials of healing potion.

  I approached the excavation site cautiously, observed it for a while from afar, but there was nobody around. The undead raised by the Aura of the Abyss had long disappeared since these creatures couldn’t stand the light of the midday sun.

  The archway was closed. The tunnel leading into the bowels of the hill was still inaccessible to me, since the lizard would appear as soon I placed the crystal into its intended recess.

  ‘What if I can sneak inside in time?’ came the stray thought. ‘The beast has to descend from the top of the hill and that takes several minutes!’

  No, I wasn’t going to risk it just yet. I would try and smash the statue into pieces first.

  Armed with the war hammer and wearing the Stamina, Strength and Accelerated Regeneration rings, I began to climb the slope. Unfortunately, I could only use three rings at one time, according to the number of slots in the character’s outfit tab.

  I reached the statue in about twenty minutes, having carefully examined several ravines along the way, carved out by the flowing rainwater. I was hoping to find an access hole of some kind, but to no avail.

  Fine. I’d stick to the original plan.

  I circled the enormous sculpture. The sign on the pedestal drew my attention again.

  Watch the sun. Think.

  I looked to the west. The sun had not yet touched the tops of the trees. I understood that the inscription was there for a reason but what could it mean? Yes, sunlight inflicted damage to the undead, burning through the Aura of the Abyss. I knew that already.

  Perhaps Jeb wound find something in the library? After all, he had spent the whole day among the ancient manuscripts. It was a pity that the invisible border of the instance blocked all types of communication, leaving me alone with the Secret of Forest Hill.

  ‘Well then, creature,’ I approached its head, took aim and slammed my hammer as hard as I could between its eyes.

  The metal bounced off the granite with a sharp clang. Well, nobody said it would be easy. Drenched in sweat, I landed blow after blow, aiming for the same spot, until the first crack appeared in the stone surface.

  Yes! I could do this, even if I had to return here day after day, chipping pieces off the statue!

  I was on the right track to solving this puzzle.

  Another blow! And again!

  The surface of the huge statue suddenly rippled with distortions.

  There came the sound of rumbling and a crash. A cloud of dust shot up into the air as if the giant had come to life, shaking off pieces of its stone shell.

  It had!

  I retreated and switched weapons. My hammer went back into the inventory and now I held the shield and the enchanted Chaotic sword.

  The dust slowly settled. The lizard shook its head. A bleeding indentation could be seen in the place where I had struck it repeatedly with the hammer and the creature appeared to be stunned.

  Its frame popped up:

  …

  Havl. Shadow Warrior. A creature from the Abyss. Cursed guard. Level 62.

  …

  To say that I was surprised was an understatement. Yesterday, I could only see question marks in place of his level. Did that mean that he used to be 3-4 times stronger than me but today was only twice as strong? Had I leveled up somehow?

  The lizard rushed at me with a roar, not bothering to use auras or magic. He was enraged but his movements remained hesitant, as if a debuff was affecting him. The blood continued to ooze from his split forehead, obscuring his vision.

  I managed to roll out of the way and deliver several strikes to his legs. I had read in the guides that this was a proven technique against large monsters. I had to stay out of the way of his weapon, roll between his legs and inflict damage from the side and back.

  Havl howled in pain. Fury swamped his mind and his movements grew more abrupt. Never mind. I was doing quite well. The huge blade whistled through the air over my head and I blocked his staff with my shield, losing almost all my Stamina in the process. However, the Accelerated Regeneration ring quickly restored my Stamina so I had time to circle behind the creature, accumulate a little Strength and use the Rage ability, which gave me +5% to absorbing damage and the same to my attack. Now, if only I could find the armored giant’s Achilles heel, I would stand a chance!

  The lizard growled and spun around. I didn’t expect such deft and rapid movements from its hulking body and almost went into respawn. At the last possible moment, I managed to use my shield to block the blow from its massive sword.

  My Stamina dropped to zero. I was knocked down and thrown several meters. My Life bar halved. I got back up and threw myself under the lizard’s feet, using up the pitiful crumbs of my slowly regenerating Stamina.

  My sword dealt not only physical but also random elemental damage, flaring up with fire or icing over, then stinging with lightning. But Havl’s armor and skin were thick and his resistance to damage was high, so the attacks only served to aggravate him.

  During another risky roll, I noticed loose folds of skin on the lizard’s neck. It was a vulnerable spot! One of the armor joints was poorly fitted.

  I increased the distance between us, drank one of the healing potions, pretended to lunge to the left and then rapidly rolled closer to the lizard and drove my sword into the narrow gap.

  …

  You have been hit by Crushing Roar. Effect: all types of armor is reduced by 50 hit points.

  …

  I was thrown back again. The attack failed. The beast had finally regained his senses and was using his abilities again.

  I mustn’t miss these attacks! I drank another healing potion and approached from the side, hiding behind my shield. I had only wiped out half his Life points. My Stamina had recovered sufficiently for a roll and a sharp thrust.

  I was going to get that brute!

  I almost couldn’t feel the pain in the heat of the battle. I was dragging my foot for some reason and something hot and sticky flowed down my thigh.

  The lizard raised his staff, intending to stun me with a murderous aura. It was the perfect moment. The lizard was built in such a way that his massive, elongated head was always held parallel to the ground. Now, to roll closer and crit it! It wouldn’t kill him, of course, but it would interrupt the casting and inflict significant pain...

  The creature laughed wildly.

  The staff never lit up with an aura, instead, he unexpectedly struck with his whip-like, spiked tail.

  Reality spun before my eyes, losing its clarity.

  “The Guardians have been destroyed! So it is and so it shall be!”

  …

  You have died.

  You have lost one level.

  Item lost: war hammer.

  Item lost: torn leather breastplate.

  Access to virtual reality is temporarily blocked. Emergency exit initialized for medical reasons.

  …

  I spent the rest of th
e evening and the following night in the real world. I had a normal meal, sent Jeb a message so he wouldn’t worry and went to bed.

  I had nightmares. The enormous lizard was constantly on my heels, sending me into respawn again and again. I would wake up in a cold sweat, think, ‘It’s only a dream’ and gratefully sink back into sleep.

  * * *

  The real world.

  Early morning.

  I wasn’t asleep any longer. I simply lay in bed and listened to my body. I didn’t feel exhausted and depressed after all those nightmares, which was surprising.

  Oh, so there was the answer. As I had previously mentioned, the neural interface was now always with me, only the active icons changing depending on where I was.

  …

  The third metabolic correction has been successfully completed. You can now remain in the VR capsule for up to seven days with no risk to your health.

  …

  Such ominous but compelling technology.

  My muscles ached. True, I had traveled a lot in recent days, performed heavy physical labor such as digging and shifting boulders, fought with a lizard, and all the while, the ‘smart’ sensory gel changed its density, sending microcurrents to my muscles and making them contract. This was called electrical myostimulation. Basically, the VR capsule was not only a transmitter of realistic sensations but a complex medical device that maintained the body in good shape.

  To date, the record for continuous immersion in virtual reality was one hundred and fifty-seven days. Wow. We used to talk about how long a human could stay in space, and now we were conquering the depths of fictional cyberspace...

  I kept thinking about the lizard. Why did his level decrease? What was the reason?

  Watch the sun. Think.

  The sentence scrawled on the pedestal kept running through my head. I was sure that it held the answer to the Secret of Forest Hill.

  It was clear that pummeling the statue with a sledgehammer was not an option.

  The bed was crumpled. I threw the sheets into the laundry chute, ordered breakfast and went into the shower. I stood under the hot jets of water for a long time, until I heard the beeping of the delivery service.

  The VR capsule had unblocked itself by this point. I didn’t feel overly hungry. I picked up a juice, mentally activated the huge wall screen and it immediately lit up, showing me a view of the metropolis.

  The city was drowning in a haze of fumes. The clouds floated by at different heights. The sun’s morning rays could hardly break through the stone jungle.

  What would our future look like? A couple more metabolic corrections and I’d be able to fully entrust my mortal body to the life support system and plunge into the digital world forever.

  Only recently, such a possibility would have repulsed me but now, staring over the metropolis, I asked myself, ‘Where would you go now and what would you do?’

  What had happened to me? It was like my life had been crumpled up and replaced with a different reality. Which world did I belong to now?

  ‘There are no more open spaces here. No new emotions. No wildlife...’ whispered my imagination.

  ‘But nothing is real there, in the dream world!’ my common sense protested.

  The sun rose majestically over the city, carving long shadows from the buildings.

  The shadows!

  I felt like I’d been electrocuted.

  The lizard was a Shadow Warrior! But how can there be shadow without light?

  Watch the sun. Think.

  I immediately remembered the town square of Anchor and the sundial at noon.

  This was the solution! I didn’t know what happened at dusk or at night, but in clear weather, shadows were longest in the morning and evening but shortest around noon, when the sun passed through the zenith.

  My thoughts raced ahead.

  I had first met the lizard at around nine o’clock in the evening, when the shadows were long and deep. Yesterday, I clashed with him at about six pm, when the sun was higher and the shadows shorter. My adversary’s power, expressed in levels, had been significantly lower.

  So, the higher the sun and the shorter the shadow, the weaker the lizard?

  Could it really be so simple? I had to use the Soul Crystal closer to noon. Who would come to me then? A small lizard?

  I didn’t think so. The Secret of Forest Hill was not an easy quest. I would bet that even at noon, the lizard would be a worthy opponent, probably equal to me in levels.

  I had to thoroughly prepare and kill him. I already knew my enemy’s approximate range of magical and physical attacks, and this would give me a significant advantage. Although I still had to test my hypothesis about the relationship between the position of the sun, the length of the shadows and the lizard’s current level. I could be mistaken, just like when I thought that I could smash the statue into pieces.

  It was decided. There was no time to waste! I had to rejoin the Edge of the Abyss.

  I hastily ate my breakfast, transferred 3,000 credits to Sasha’s treatment account, received a confirmation of payment and climbed into the VR capsule with a clear conscience.

  * * *

  Because of my character’s death, I appeared in one of the respawn circles on the town wall.

  “Jeb, where are you right now?”

  “I’m having breakfast at the tavern,” my companion responded at once through the group voice chat.

  “I’ll be there soon. Did you find anything useful in the library?”

  “Yes, there are a couple of elemental damage spells that can be scribed on a scroll. They’ll definitely break granite!”

  “Forget about them. I longer need them. Can you look for any information about an ability called the Crushing Roar?”

  “Sure.”

  After speaking to Jeb, I opened the auction tab. The lots hadn’t yet been sold. Nobody was interested in the ‘Hunt for the Ifrit’ while ‘First Pass’ had increased slightly in price. It meant that people were beginning to fight over the information about the dungeon but not very eagerly.

  Fine. I still had time.

  I had to visit Master André so I descended the stairs and turned into a side street.

  A sign caught my eye at the entrance to a vast estate surrounded by a towering wall.

  …

  The Arena of Long-armed_Kyle.

  We prepare fighters. Expensive.

  First consultation is free. Find out what you’re capable of, right now.

  …

  I couldn’t resist and knocked on the gate.

  A player opened the door.

  …

  Goodnatured_Bolg. Warrior. Level 35.

  …

  “Here for training or a consultation?”

  “Consultation.”

  He looked me up and down, led me inside and pointed to the grounds surrounding a modest house, “Coach is over there.”

  I decided not to pester him with questions and proceeded down the stone path. A familiar picture. The house had suffered significant damage and had only recently been restored. The cobblestones also showed evidence of repair, and the round sandy training areas had been created on top of ruins. I could see the remains of foundations overgrown with grass in some places. This was clearly one of the sites where the Abyss had invaded. The manor house had been destroyed, the place was considered unlucky, and the current owner had probably bought the ruins at a bargain price, as soon as the town mages had succeeded in destroying the portals.

  There was Long-armed_Kyle, a tall, muscular Level 75 Warrior.

  Seeing me, he beckoned invitingly. “Here for a consultation?”

  “Yes.”

  “Excellent. Straight from respawn?” Kyle asked, noticing the deplorable state of my incomplete set of leather armor.

  “Yes.”

  “The shield’s a good one,” surprise flashed in his shrewd gaze. “I would say the affix is unique. Have you been to the Dark Frontier?”

  “Unfortunately.”

/>   “Did you get out on your own?”

  “Together with a friend.”

  “Respect. Show me your weapon.”

  I pulled out my sword.

  “Nice toy,” the coach chuckled, glancing at my Chaotic blade.