Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2): LitRPG Series Read online

  “I just… His pulse…” Tailyn started, though he fell silent. There was nothing to say.

  “Keran is dead, and that’s that. I suggest we say he was killed by the red lixes, and we dragged his lifeless body off and destroyed it after paying our respects. This hole became his grave. As the god is my witness, that’s the version I’m going with. Forian would be awfully upset if he found out that you killed his childhood friend, don’t you think? We can’t let your mentor give up on you. Valia?”

  “I swear!” the girl said fervently. “Tailyn, you have to get into the academy.”

  “Tailyn?” Valanil asked, looking back at the boy.

  “I swear,” he replied with a heavy heart. “That’s the only version anyone will ever know.”

  “Good. Okay, like I said, I had two pieces of news. You heard the bad news; now it’s time for the good. Tailyn Vlashich, do you agree to take on a personal servant? Ka-Do-Gir isn’t going anywhere with us unless it’s like that — I’ll kill him myself, otherwise. And yes, you can come at me with your stick. It’s okay, just stay away from my head, all right?”

  “A personal servant?” Tailyn stared at Ka-Do-Gir in confusion, attacking the herbalist the last thought on his mind. “I don’t get it…”

  “Just say yes,” Valia hissed excitedly. “I’ll tell you everything. This is amazing!”

  Chapter 10

  “THAT’S HOW I came across the camp, and you know the rest,” Tailyn said as he wrapped up his long story. The boy had decided it wasn’t right to keep the rest of their little group out of the loop when it came to his adventures. Valanil was his trainer, and who else would help him sort through everything that had happened? Valia was his girl, which meant he could trust her completely. And Ka-Do-Gir… Having taken the oath, the lix had become Tailyn’s second shadow, incapable of betraying him or running off, not to mention going back on his word. It was a lifetime of slavery until the creature had paid off his debt. At that point, the god was going to take him out of the world. Those were the terms, and Ka-Do-Gir had agreed to them. Of course, Tailyn was saddled with the job of equipping and protecting his servant, but that was nothing compared to the benefit he was getting out of the arrangement. Valanil had put it well: Tailyn was a trinity. He was the mage, his lix was the berserker, and his dragon was their protector. Together, they made a complete group, whatever that meant.

  “So cute,” Valia said, finally letting the dragon go. It swooped over to Tailyn’s wrist, in a hurry to get away from the girl who hadn’t stopped cuddling or petting it for the previous half hour. Valanil wasn’t even surprised when the boy showed off his legendary card. She wouldn’t have expected anything else.

  “Do you all have clothes?” Tailyn asked as he glanced at the time. The sun was about to come up, marking when the dark tunnel would close. And while they needed to hurry, running off in just their underwear wasn’t the best idea.

  “Not all of us,” Valanil replied as she pulled out her old outfit. After the OGM-I, going back to clothes that didn’t give her a bonus was difficult, but Tailyn was right — she couldn’t wander around the mountains naked. But neither Valia nor the lix had anything.

  “Before they chained me up, Halas demanded I hand in my equipment and clothes,” Ka-Do-Gir explained. “My cards, the protective barrier, my claws… The blacks took everything.”

  “That’s no good… Okay, try this on.” Tailyn materialized the adviser’s outfit and held it out to the lix. “What do you think?”

  “I think it’s level four, Master,” Ka-Do-Gir said sadly. “The attribute requirements are all twenty or higher, which is beyond me. You can’t get them that high until level twenty.”

  Master… The lix was surprised saying the word didn’t engender anything like a feeling of resentment. The young mage really was a master, having proven on many occasions his right to govern the lix’s life, both there and in the City of the Dead.

  “Yes, I already found that out,” Tailyn replied thoughtfully, having come across a new problem. As it turned out, the rest of the advisor’s equipment had the same issue, which put them out of reach for the coming few years. And was it worth hanging on to them that long? He wasn’t sure.

  “Valanil, do you need something else, or are you good in that?”

  “It’s just simple leather, no bonuses. Do you have something to offer? Another OGM-I?”

  “Hold on. Valia?”

  The girl just sighed and threw up her arms. Right then, Valanil realized Valia was standing naked in front of Tailyn without feeling the least bit self-conscious. Sure, she was wearing the underwear she wouldn’t be able to take off until she turned eighteen, but most girls felt uncomfortable in it when they were around other people. Boys, especially. What could have happened between them for her to feel so at ease? Back in the cage, for example, she’d wiggled and tried to cover herself even tightly bound.

  But that was when Tailyn made his decision.

  “Okay, got it. Give me a minute, and I’ll figure this out.”

  The boy headed over to the store after checking out his equipment. Yes, he had the OGM-I Valia had used to wear, but he knew she was going to need something better if she wanted to survive. The good news was that the combat status had disappeared. Berad had apparently lost them completely in the dark, and that let Tailyn charge his cards. Before he did anything else, he wanted to know how many coins he could raise if need be.

  CARDS:

  Fireball-II card valued at 950 coins.

  Dragon card valued at 2500000 coins.

  Electric Strike-I card valued at 260 coins.

  Enhanced Shield-I card valued at 260 coins.

  Wave of Fire-I card valued at 300 coins.

  EQUIPMENT:

  Complete set (OGM-III + OHM-III) valued at 20000 coins.

  Booster-III amulet valued at 1500 coins.

  Bag with 36 slots valued at 500 coins.

  Matilda personal weapon valued at 1200000 coins.

  Alchemist’s Bag valued at 4000 coins.

  INVENTORY:

  Complete set (OGM-I + OHM-I) valued at 2250 coins.

  Complete set (advisor’s helmet and armor) valued at 70000 coins.

  Steel Claws-IV valued at 30000 coins.

  Booster-IV amulet valued at 15000 coins.

  3 Strength-IV rings valued at 45000 coins.

  3 Agility-IV rings valued at 45000 coins.

  That was the entirety of what Tailyn could get coins for. None of his practice dummy, potions, mountains of ingredients, herbalist’s bag, old staff, or the rest interested the god. But that was the information he needed.

  There were 70,163 coins left in his account. A complete level three outfit cost 60,000, meaning he definitely didn’t have enough for three and was going to have to sell something. And he knew what. But that wasn’t all — the other three all needed Booster-III amulets, which bumped the total up another 4,500 each. What drove Tailyn crazy was that the prices for him were exactly three times higher than what the store was willing to pay, though there was nothing he could do about that.

  Moving on, Ka-Do-Gir needed a weapon. The lix would have been weak and useless without one. Valia and Valanil could also do with staffs, more for the attribute boost than anything. The prices there were fairly simple — 9,000 coins for any level three weapon.

  And that meant it cost 73,500 coins to outfit any of the three, 220,000 for all of them. The numbers were crazy, but Tailyn didn’t have a choice. If his group didn’t have what it needed, they wouldn’t get back to Culmart.

  The claws were gone. The six rings were gone. The amulet was gone. Tailyn frowned — that wasn’t enough. Even with what he had in his account. He was well short, too, and so he parted with the advisor’s complete outfit with a heavy heart. He’d been hoping to hold on to it for himself.

  But just as he was about to leave and distribute the goodies he’d picked up, the boy stopped. He had money. Why not spend it? It was time for a visit to the card section.

&nb
sp; While a fully charged Wave of Fire-I card cost 900 coins, Wave of Fire-II cost 3,000, obviously more than three times as much. Tailyn didn’t bother checking out level three — there was no reason to inflict that kind of pain on himself. Anyway, the same was true of the rest of the magic items, with three level one cards costing less than one level two card. And while that was strange, Tailyn both figured there had to be a reason and didn’t care right then. He needed more powerful cards, preferably different kinds. Relying on electricity and fire alone didn’t always work out well.

  You combined 3 Wave of Fire-I cards into Wave of Fire-II.

  You combined 3 Electric Strike-I cards into Electric Strike-II.

  You combined 3 Enhanced Shield-I cards into Enhanced Shield-II.

  You combined 3 Cold Ring-I cards into Cold Ring-II.

  You combined 3 Icicle-I cards into Icicle-II.

  Tailyn took his time looking over what he’d come up with. Finally, he had something strong enough to wheel out against powerful opponents. They could try to take him on, but it wasn’t going to work.

  Wave of Fire-II. Description: an ordinary magic card that can be activated to create a wave of fire in the shape of a right sector with exact edges. Sector angle: [magic attack] degrees, though no more than 45. Range: [magic attack] meters, though no more than 100. Fire does [magic attack * 1.5] damage every second. Slows opponents by 20%. Duration: [magic attack / 10] seconds, though no more than 60. Includes 150 charges. Charges remaining: 150. Each use costs: 1 mana. Requirements: Wisdom (4). Can be recharged.

  And finally, Tailyn spent 35,400 coins, almost everything he had left, on a purchase Valanil definitely wasn’t going to like. He could have gone without, of course, but the more time he spent in the Gray Lands, the more he realized that you didn’t get very far by being stingy.

  Alchemical Lab-II. Description: an expansion of your terminal that integrates with the store to give you access to an alchemical workshop. Does not include other workshops. Working in the Lab-II gives you a bonus: +1 to Alchemy.

  Full Regeneration Potion. Description: completely restores any creature’s organism so long as there is any life left in it. Time to full regeneration: 8 hours.

  3063 coins remaining in your account.

  What surprised Tailyn was that there was only one full regeneration potion. He’d been looking to buy a good ten and hand them to Valia, but the store had let him down. There wasn’t anything else with regeneration in the name even when he cleared all the filters.

  “Here you go.” Back in the real world, Tailyn handed out his purchases. Valia and Ka-Do-Gir started putting theirs on right away, the lix’s set even modifying to fit him, but Valanil just stared thoughtfully at what she was holding. Level three was impressive. And it was made all the more so by the other goodies Tailyn had bought. If she accepted it, she was going to be in his debt, and did she really need that? It was hard to say.

  “Where did all this come from?” she asked.

  “Halas’ advisor. I was able to loot him when I grabbed the key to the cage.” One thing Tailyn had decided not to mention was the fact that he had his own store.

  “And it just so happened that he had three complete level three outfits, weapons and amulets included?” Valanil asked, eyebrows raised. “Who do you take me for, my boy? I saw the logs with the loot you got from him. Why don’t you stop making up stories and just admit that you got your own personal store? The only thing I’m wondering is when you were going to mention it, or if you were going to mention it at all.”

  Tailyn blushed, caught in the act. How could he have forgotten that everything was logged for the whole group? Nothing he picked up or did really got by them.

  It took an enormous effort for Valanil to keep her expression impassive when she saw Tailyn’s reaction. Impossible — he’d gotten his own store? How? How had the little street urchin gotten something that rare? It wasn’t just expensive; it was absurdly expensive. There were dukes who couldn’t afford them.

  “What are you on his case for?” Valin asked. “He has a store, he doesn’t — what does it matter? Get dressed, and let’s go. We’re wasting time. The sun’s going to be coming up soon, and that’s when the gate will close. Are you with us or not?”

  “Let’s just not hide things that could change the fate of other people, okay, my boy?” Valanil said as she began getting dressed. Everything in her was revolting. It had been a long time since she’d owed anyone anything, and she hadn’t even felt like that after the City of the Dead. Tailyn had just been doing what he was supposed to do. But in that moment, he was going above and beyond. And that was different.

  The lix took the lead. Since all four had scanners, they didn’t need any light, and they could see that the path ahead was straight, even, and incredibly narrow. In some places, they had to crawl with arms wedged against the walls and their back against the ceiling. Those spots didn’t last more than ten meters each, but they were still just about enough for the little squad to turn around. Nobody wanted to get stuck in the mountain. But soon enough, they were used to spitting on their fear and getting down on their hands and knees every hundred meters.

  Hours went by, and the end of the tunnel was nowhere in sight. The pinhole the entrance had turned into had disappeared when the sun came up exactly as Keran had said it would. And while it felt like they’d been going forever, Tailyn kept pulling up his map and knew they were just halfway through.

  The cave appeared so suddenly that everyone froze. After four hours spent cooped up in the tunnel, the open area was a dream come true, though it was more the fact that there were living creatures in it that made everyone freeze.

  “Not a move!” Valanil barked on their internal channel. There were two people still alive, both wearing the snow-white robes of the academy, and they were so engrossed in their work that they didn’t notice the new arrivals. Tailyn peeked out from behind Valanil in an attempt to get a better view of what the pair was toiling over — it turned out to be a simple door in the cliff equipped with a panel of buttons. One of the mages was tapping away; the other was writing in a notebook. The latter was so quick and confident, in fact, that he didn’t even need any light. There was an uncountable pile of notebooks on a nearby table. Every time the mage hit the enter button, a little red light by the panel lit up, nothing happened, the second mage made a note, and they started over.

  Meney Ortis (human). Mage. Age 43. Level 27.

  Main parameters: shield level: 5778; mana level: 8557; physical attack: 355; magic attack: 644.

  ***

  Zagarad Vala (human). Mage. Age 37. Level 32.

  Main parameters: shield level: 6880; mana level: 10557; physical attack: 420; magic attack: 940.

  “What, are they trying to figure out the code to open the door?” Valia asked. “We have a system like that in the palace.”

  “Yes, and judging by the number of notebooks and how long the combination is, this isn’t their first year working on it,” Valanil added. “They didn’t just happen here, either — they might have portals. Lix, you take the one with the notebook. I’ll get the one by the door. Tailyn, you cover us.”

  “Do you need their parameters?” Tailyn asked just in case, not really expecting an answer. Valanil stopped suddenly, however. For a little while, she stared straight ahead, berating herself for not thinking to ask about something as simple as the boy’s perception level. But after getting herself back under control, she replied shortly.

  “Go ahead.”

  Tailyn was surprised to hear that not everyone could see what he was looking at, but he just read off the numbers without asking questions.

  “They’re going to be tricky,” the lix growled. “That kind of shield doesn’t just drop away with the first hit, so they’re going to start shooting magic.”

  “Quite,” Valanil said darkly. It was a good thing Tailyn had warned them.

  “Should I start?” the boy asked naively. “A fireball or an electric strike would stun them for two
seconds… The electricity would probably be better — it won’t catch any of you.”

  “Great idea. Do it!” Valanil yelled as she dashed forward. But the mages were good. Despite how focused they were on their work, they whirled around and met the onslaught with something less than open arms as soon as they heard the noise coming at them. Both the lix and Valanil caught icicles. They weren’t enough to take out their shield, though both found their progress slowed drastically — the mages were firing off level two cards at least. Not only that, but two night terrors appeared next to them. As soon as the creatures materialized, they dashed forward to shield their masters.

  Bukamonster. Level 30.

  Tailyn was only taken aback for a second. Seeing the number of opponents you have to deal with suddenly double could do that to you, but he took a deep breath to find his center once again.