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

  “Circle the wagons; horses in the middle!” Berad barked, quickly taking charge. “Prepare for battle!”

  The caravan began moving. The wagons circled; the fires were put out. A few wagons were set right in the middle, and the numericals were all stuck under them. After making sure everything was well in hand, Berad went back over to the troublemakers.

  “Why the hell did you launch that?” he asked ominously. Tailyn kept a guilty silence, leaving the guard to reply for him.

  “He noticed Sloan, thought he was a monster, decided to show us.”

  “And why the hell didn’t you tell him our guy was out there? That we have a protective dome over the camp and can’t breach it?” Berad exploded. “He’s a kid! A useless idiot just like all the rest of them. You know what, Zaril? Right now, you’re taking your position, but once this is over, you’re going to be the one to dig our waste holes until we get back to base. Go!”

  “Is there anything we can help with?” Valanil asked.

  “I’d tell you, but it’s not the time for that,” Berad replied angrily. “I wanted this to be nice and easy, but no, there’s always an idiot. Okay, let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Berad Gor is inviting you to join Atrium.

  Nothing changed for Tailyn. Without access to the functionality, he couldn’t see anyone else’s frames, though Valanil grunted enviously. Berad did, as well — he hadn’t known how useful Tailyn could be.

  “You take the southern sector. Don’t let the animals get close to the wagons. Sloan! Get your ass over here!”

  Tailyn jumped when the stone straightened up and turned into one of the caravan’s fighters. How high was his concealment if level two perception coupled with level thirteen enhancement was powerless against him?

  “Tailyn, follow me!” Valanil ordered, and a few moments later they were on top of one of the wagons. A couple other fighters were on the neighboring wagons, so the southern flank was covered.

  “How are your cards?”

  “Maxed out.” Just in case, Tailyn checked them all, and another lix howl broke out right then.

  They’re on the old road! I can sense crystal fences!

  Valanil cursed. It was quiet enough that only Tailyn could hear her, but she didn’t hold back.

  “Is something wrong?” Tailyn asked with a frown.

  “We need to make a break for it as soon as the battle’s over,” the woman replied softly. “Here I am, trying to figure out why Isor sent you out on a campaign, and with a group like this, too. The old bastard! And I knew Valia wouldn’t be this easy to get back. Shit!”

  “You understand the lixes,” Tailyn suddenly realized. “You know what they said!”

  “Of course,” Valanil said as if it meant nothing. “And don’t even ask me what that took. But it was worth it — one kidnapping was enough. Now, I need to know what those animals are saying. If I’d understood your Ka-Do-Gir back in the City of the Dead, maybe I’d have been able to give you a warning.”

  That explanation made enough sense that Tailyn relaxed. It was true — understanding your main enemies was important in the borderlands.

  “But what’s so dangerous about crystal fences?” he asked as he looked around. The fighters were nervously peering into the dark, and the boy had no doubt most of them were using scanners that could see well beyond a hundred meters.

  “They’re not taking us into lix territory to find Valia. That was just an excuse to safely get out of the city without raising suspicion. No, they’re here to trade the numericals for crystals.”

  “But we destroyed the city! What would they need people for?” Tailyn asked in shock.

  “Who said One was Halas’ only master? That lix is too strong to only have one. No, he needs new victims, and they’re carrying us to slaughter. And I jumped right in like an idiot…”

  “Lixes!” someone shouted, and the air around them filled with screams of pain. But they weren’t human; it was the monsters. The attack had come from the eastern flank, the side Berad was guarding. Tailyn watched the whole area turn into a fiery carpet. The red lixes were very different from their black and green brothers, looking more like animals than intelligent creatures. Wild and unrestrained, they rushed fearlessly on ahead despite the fire in their path.

  Tailyn’s attention was drawn by movement in the south — a dozen lixes were trying to flank around them. Apparently, not all of them wanted to die that idiotically. Tailyn decided to wait for them to get close enough to make his fire a sure thing, only they were in no hurry to approach the caravan. Not only that, but they were right at the edge of his scanning range. Neither his wave of fire nor fireballs were going to reach them. His electric strike might have, but there was no reason to spend charges yet as Tailyn wanted to see what the lixes were up to.

  The creatures had bunched up and were discussing something, their arms gesticulating wildly. The boy looked around — Berad was still bathing the lixes on his side with fire. Still coming, they couldn’t care less about the losses they were taking, though the silence on the other sides of the caravan was unsettling. The reds couldn’t be that dumb. There was no such thing in a world as harsh as the one they lived in.

  Tailyn’s attention was once again captured by the lixes on his side. Their meeting over, and they were setting up some kind of device. It was hard to tell from that distance what it was, though it spoke to the monsters’ intelligence regardless.

  “Something’s about to happen,” the boy whispered to Valanil. “The lixes are setting up — ”

  “Catapults!” one of the fighters shouted above the lix screams.

  “Tailyn, shield! This is real!” An iron-reinforced rectangle the size of a door appeared in Valanil’s hands. Tailyn had never seen a shield that big — it would have been enough to shelter an entire wagon, let alone a person.

  “Sloan, get to work!” Berad barked, unable to pull himself away.

  “On it!” came a response from somewhere outside the circle, but that was when the enemy machines unleashed their fire. Tailyn’s scanner showed something like alchemical flasks flying in their direction, and his chest tightened. There were so many of them.

  “Alchemical fire!” Valanil yelled, and Tailyn froze. A shield appeared in his hands, if not as big as Valanil’s. Still, it was plenty for him. There was no running from alchemical fire — when it hit the ground, it spread in every direction, scorching everything it touched. The only thing you could do was hide behind a shield and let it take the hit. Of course, the shield would be useless after that, but it was enough to survive. You just had to throw away the heated metal in time.

  Tailyn pressed his shield against Valanil’s the way they’d practiced, in that moment realizing that actual battle was much simpler than the way they trained. His scanner worked hand in hand with his perception, which meant he knew what was coming their way even before the herbalist yelled it out. But those labels hadn’t been there during practice. It wasn’t fair.

  Something hit their shields, glass shattered, and Valanil yelled at the boy.

  “Get rid of it!”

  The burning shields flew away from the wagon. Sadly, not everyone had been as lucky, with half the wagons burning brightly. Two mercenaries screamed as they rolled around on the ground. Nobody went over to help them, however — it was almost impossible to put out alchemical fire, and it didn’t look like anyone had the thick cover it would have taken.

  “They’re reloading!” Tailyn saw the lixes fiddling with the catapults yet again. “It’s no good!”

  Ka-Li… Ka-Li… Ka-Li…

  Ten electric strikes rained down, and the lixes convulsed, no longer able to do damage.

  “Where are you going?!” Valanil screamed when Tailyn leaped lightly down to the ground and ran off toward the enemy. Less than a hundred meters meant they were at most twenty seconds away, so the boy hit them yet again to give himself another thirty. What interested him were the five shimmering red flasks the lixes had dropped in the catap
ult. The creatures were all at level ten, so dealing with them quickly was out of the cards, and that left an awfully foolhardy move. Tailyn dropped the flasks into his inventory and pulled out his next card.

  Ka-Li.

  The wave of fire engulfed the lixes and told everyone else exactly where he was. And while he couldn’t wait forty seconds for the flames to burn themselves out, Tailyn at least got lucky in that the lixes died quickly and left their loot behind. There hadn’t been a message about loot in the group, so the boy held his breath and ducked quickly into his own fire. Placing a hand on a body, he dashed back out and brushed himself off, stunned as his own power. How long had he been in there? A second? Two? And his shield was almost a quarter gone. Opening his visor to let fresh air into his costume and get rid of the heat, Tailyn couldn’t suppress a grin. His plan was a success.

  Loot received:

  Alchemical Fire potion x15.

  Acid Spittle potion x15.

  Accelerated Growth potion x3.

  Lesser Armor x8.

  Intellect Ring-I.

  Lesser Staff.

  Turning around, Tailyn sprinted back toward the wagons only to just about trip and fall when the night sky was lit up with a red star Berad launched. That was immediately followed by the sound of a trumpet and a happy cry from the lixes.

  Fall back! They’re friendlies! Move out!

  Friendlies?

  “You lost, kid?” Sloan appeared in front of Tailyn, who had stopped. “You picked the wrong time to start throwing fireballs around…”

  The fighter held up a closed hand and blew into the boy’s face. Tailyn was surprised to notice he wasn’t holding a card, though that was the last thing he saw that night. His eyes rolled back, his legs wobbled, and he crashed to the ground.

  The lotus pollen had worked instantaneously.

  Chapter 2

  “SO WE MADE a mistake. Happens to the best of us! We were expecting a caravan from Larunda, also a bunch of fences. But different ones! We saw the signal and figured you were them.” The red lix’s guttural voice pulled Tailyn back into the real world. He groaned, his head splitting, only he found that the groan was muffled by the gag in his mouth. But as soon as he broke out in a sweat, figuring his headgear had been stolen, he realized the card interface was still in place. He cursed to himself. Why had he pulled the visor back? The pollen wouldn’t have gotten through his hermetic seal.

  “And that’s what you want me to tell Halas?” Berad replied rudely, and Tailyn’s attention switched entirely to the conversation. That name was too familiar. Not only that, but Berad was speaking with the lix in the creature’s own language, making yet another person who could understand them. It was getting to be a crowd. “That I wasn’t able to deliver the goods because of a tribe of reds?”

  “Why would you tell him that?” the lix asked indignantly. “A human here, a human there, and the supreme leader won’t notice. But the reds will remember Berad’s kindness and reply in kind.”

  “What do I care about your kindness?” the crystal fence asked with a snort. “I was taking Halas fifty bodies in exchange for five crystals. Now, I have twenty left, and half of them are just about burned to death. They might not live out the day. And it’s going to take us another week to get to the meeting point! This is a problem, Shaman Mu-Ro-Div. Honestly, I don’t know what to do.”

  “Human, you’re great and powerful! Help us capture the caravan from Larunda, and you’ll get all the people they have. That despicable Finnie Elor is in charge — he doesn’t want to work with red lixes, thinks we’re stupid. And we want to get back at him for that.”

  “Sloan?” Berad asked instead of replying.

  “A serious player,” came the reply. “Ten fighters, all twenty-five or higher. Well-equipped, well-trained rangers. It won’t be easy.”

  “We’ll overwhelm him,” the lix said. “We have lots of inferiors, and they don’t have anything to eat. They’ll go in first to attract attention. In the meantime, you can sneak in and take them out. Great loot. Great revenge. New slaves. Lots of slaves.”

  “Finnie is at capacity,” Sloan replied in confirmation. “Seventy at least, enough for seven crystals. Plus ours…whoever’s left.”

  “Okay, Mu-Ro-Div, let’s hear your plan.”

  The voices dropped, and Tailyn couldn’t pick out a single word no matter how hard he tried. Finally, Berad laughed as he boomed out.

  “Deal! I like your plan, Mu-Ro-Div. it should work, though I do have a problem — there are two mages in with my slaves. They need special treatment. I was paid well for the boy’s head, so he can’t make it back to the city, though he also needs to survive until our meeting with the blacks. Halas is going to give us two crystals for him. Got it?”

  “How could I not get it, Berad, my friend? Your slaves are in good paws, their hands tied, their mouths shut. What are they going to do? Plus, one’s still tiny, and the other’s a female. Don’t worry! My best apprentice, one blessed by Halas, will keep an eye on them. Actually, he’s barely an apprentice — I’ll be learning from him soon enough! We can have your slaves back in our den within two days, and it’s just one more day to the Forest of Desire.”

  New mission: Isor’s Betrayal. Description: you found out that your guardian, Isor Barka, paid a crystal fence to get you out of the city and have you destroyed. However, Berad Gor decided not to kill you, and instead sell you to the black lixes for two crystals. Go back to Culmart and accuse Isor Barka of attempted murder. You are permitted to ask for divine intervention in order to prove your innocence.

  Divine intervention… Tailyn already knew what that was thanks to Valanil. There had been a paragraph on it right at the beginning of the book, too. As it turned out, not everyone was born with the same rights. Their opportunities depended on the family they were born into, with more doors open to them at higher ranks. For example, they could ask the god to settle arguments or punish wrongdoers. That was what Valia had been trying to do, only she’d made a mistake — despite everything he’d done, there had been nothing to punish Dort for. Tailyn, of course, thought death was too good for the other boy. But Valia had known what the consequences were, as they were beaten into the head of the highborn from day one. Her emotions had gotten the better of her, however. And she’d paid for that, the divine intervention turning around to bite her.

  Tailyn’s nose tickled, and he lost his train of thought. An attempt to scratch it reminded him that his hands were tied. Almost as if on cue, his muscles began to ache, his body itched, and the tips of his fingers started going numb. Tailyn tried wiggling around to alleviate the discomfort, and that was when he saw Valanil. She’d been tied up far more rigorously than the boy had. With ropes wrapped around her entire body, and not just her arms and legs, she’d been turned into a completely immobile cocoon.

  A light shone, and clawed paws grabbed the prisoners. Before he was thrown roughly into one of the wagons, Tailyn noticed the procession of bound numericals. They were standing there meekly, having resigned themselves to their fate, ready to follow the wagon the moment it started moving.

  A plump lix sat down next to Tailyn and placed a spear against his throat. Feeling the cold metal, the boy just about lost whatever was left of his courage — it isn’t every day you find yourself a hair’s breadth away from death. His personal shield was gone. But after pulling himself together, the boy took a look at his opponent, checking out his attributes.

  Lu-Vir-Div (red lix). Shaman. Age 32. Level 17.

  Main parameters: shield level: 1544; mana level: 2149; physical attack: 244; magic attack: 266.

  Tailyn grunted when he realized his perception was high enough to see the lix’s hidden parameters. Of course, there wasn’t much use in that, but he liked the direction things were moving in. He’d only been able to see numericals previously.

  The wagon bumped along mercilessly, and the spear pierced the boy’s skin a few times, keeping his shield from regenerating. But no matter how slowly the proc
ession was moving, the lix spent the entire day with his eyes fixed on the boy. Tailyn’s body was stiff, almost completely numb by nightfall, and the ropes were tied so tightly around his limbs that a ten- or fifteen-minute regeneration timer popped up every hour or so. His outfit was great, on the other hand. For a long time, Tailyn held everything in, doing his best not to soil it, but a pothole ended up being the straw that pushed his bladder beyond the breaking point. It turned out that his OGM-III had a built-in waste disposal system, however. Judging by the description, it was only enough to last a week, but that was going to be plenty.

  The procession stopped in a field for the night. Whatever the red lix’s hideout was, it was more than a day’s journey away. The wagons lined up, meat was roasted over a fire, and the fat lix was distracted for the first time. Tailyn did his best not to wonder who they were cooking. The lix disappeared, and the chilled night air was filled with the annoyed howl of hungry lixes. They all wanted to eat and sleep.