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

  10 damage received.

  Shield reduced. Remaining: 6556.

  Apparently, there was acid in the air, too, and it was slowly eating at his shield. Tailyn looked around and shivered. If the stomach was that big, it was terrifying to think how big the monster itself was. The two sides were thirty meters apart if not more. And finding out where the lower intestine was and where it emptied out was nothing something Tailyn was the least bit interested in. He’d barely made it out of the acid as it was.

  Speaking of which, the boy hurled a flask of it against the wall and cursed a moment later. The glass shattered, and the contents splattered against the stomach lining, but there was no effect. The lining handled the damage without a problem. Next, a flask of alchemical fire followed suit, but it didn’t give Tailyn what he was looking for, either. The fire was dull and weak. Not only that, but it slid down the lining like a well-oiled frying pan only to dissolve in the acid below. All it did was light up the area, revealing the goo’s sickening dark green color. The stomach walls were white and slimy, and while thick chunks of flesh kept falling off, they were immediately replaced by new expanses that in turn began to slough off. It was an eternal process. In fact, it was almost like the creature was digesting itself. The high ground Tailyn was standing on turned out to be a skull belonging to some enormous animal, time and the acid having had no effect on the tough bone. The boy bent over the goo, his scanner showing that the bottom of the stomach was also littered with bones. The unknown creature had left a legacy behind.

  Next, the boy began trying his cards out on the creature. His electric strike did nothing. A fireball did cut out a chunk of the wall, but it quickly regenerated, the charred piece falling into the acid and quickly dissolving without a trace. Tailyn checked his shield. Over the previous ten minutes, the air had just about knocked him out, dropping him to 556.

  You used Enhanced Shield-I 5 times.

  Your shield was enhanced by 2235 (2791).

  Charges remaining: 45 of 50.

  He had 3,620 mana remaining. Each complete charge of his card cost 350, while each full card bought him thirty-three minutes of life down there in the nightmare he was living. After adding in the twenty mana he earned every hour, he could calculate exactly how much time remained before his story ran its course — seven hours. In that time, he had to figure out how to get out. If that was even possible…

  * * *

  Right then, Sloan was deactivating the protective barrier around the camp and dumping his load down in front of the commander.

  “Where’s Faro?” Berad knew the mercenary and his group were dead. It wasn’t the worst of news, but as the commander, he did need to know what had happened. Feuds in the detachment were not to be tolerated even if it was Sloan who started them.

  “They were eaten,” Sloan replied, retelling what had happened in the cave. Berad sighed in relief. His second-in-command hadn’t been involved in their deaths, and his reputation wouldn’t suffer.

  “What about the kid?”

  “Same story,” Sloan said, exhaling as he did. “That thing ate him, too.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I saw it happen with my own two eyes. If you want, I’ll ask the god to witness to it.”

  “Keep that for the black lixes.” Berad quickly refocused, leaving that ace up his sleeve for the future. It wasn’t a great idea to go back to the well of divine intervention too often. The god didn’t like getting involved in the lives of people, and it was prone to punish abusers of the privilege.

  “I need to see this for myself,” Berad said. The ancient monster was intriguing, and the crystal fence was going to take a risk. If he didn’t, he would regret it well into his old age. Touching a legend… It was an amazing opportunity. “Is the fire still burning?”

  “It was when I left.”

  “Lead the way! Elrn, you’re coming with me. Get Angela ready,” Berad said.

  “She’s always ready,” the tubby fellow said as he leaped to his feet. Compared to the other fighters, all of which looked as sleek as cheetahs, Elrn was more of a hippo. Fat, chronically short of breath, and unwieldy. But he did have one advantage that made him an invaluable member of the team: Angela, a personal weapon. Hidden under that charming name was a wind lance that was two meters wide — as Berad referred to it, the group’s closing argument. Angela made short work of armor through level four and barely paid any attention to personal shields. The impact was so strong, in fact, that even if the target somehow survived the initial hit, they vomited up their insides just a few moments later. Since Angela could only shoot once every ten minutes, Berad tried to save it for special occasions, and that was just such a case.

  “Load up!” he ordered as he cased the cave opening. If it hadn’t been for the story he’d heard from Sloan, someone he trusted implicitly, he never would have believed it was a trap. It was a welcoming fire, an empty cave, and not one single hint that they were looking at a monster.

  “Ready,” Elrn said. “Where should I shoot?”

  “Aim for the wall right above the fire. Take the shot.”

  The fat warrior chuckled and hit the button. One flash later, and the spear swept through the wall like it wasn’t even there.

  “Hey!” Elrn exclaimed in disappointment, having been expecting a fire show of stone and wood, but that was instead the end of his time in the world. The area around the trio erupted, and they all clutched their ears in an attempt to keep the deafening roar out. And while they didn’t get a debuff where they were standing, that didn’t mean they got off scot-free. The mountains quivered, rocks rained down, and the monster replied instantly. The long, black spear pierced both Elrn and his wind lance, yanking them both back into the mouth.

  The fire was gone. Still, Berad’s scanner told him there was a hole the size of a human leading deep below right where they’d been aiming the spear. And the spear itself was jutting out at the edge of his range. The ancient monster, having tossed Elrn into its stomach, was using its tongue to try and pull the irritant out, only it wasn’t really working. The rockfall intensified as it grew even angrier. Berad felt a slight bit of elation as he thought they’d taken out a monster they’d be well rewarded for, only it was at that moment that the tongue managed to wrap itself around the spear. Yanking it out and tossing it to the side, the creature chose to let the wound heal rather than cutting loose another roar. But that didn’t keep it from counterattacking.

  “Move!” Sloan yelled, sensing something was wrong. Shoving Berad to the side, the ranger jumped after him, and a thick, tooth-like appendage sprouted out of the ground right where they’d been standing. It smacked of death. There was goo smeared over it, and the smell hit their nostrils with a tang — poison.

  “Let’s go!” Berad jumped up and dashed off, unwilling to see if his personal armor was capable of standing up to the poison. Completely trusting Sloan’s sixth sense and barely dodging the spikes that kept popping up, the pair sprinted down the mountain.

  “Horses!” the commander yelled as he leaped from boulder to boulder. “We have to get out of here!”

  His troops had been trained well. Nobody asked what the hurry was about, instantly following orders the second they heard them despite knowing it could have just been a drill. Berad liked to run them, kicking out anyone who didn’t make it in time. And that was why his group was considered the best in the region — they were always ready for anything.

  The poisonous teeth stopped shooting up out of the ground as soon as they got far enough away from the mountain. Apparently, the monster only controlled a limited amount of area, so Berad led the group another couple kilometers away just to make sure before stopping their wild gallop and giving orders to dismount and set up the security system. By way of apology, the lix shaman had handed him a one-time portal scroll, so they were going to be able to jump right back to the lix hideout the next morning without wasting time on a long ride. But the job right then was to figure out how to maximize what the b
lack lixes were willing to give them in exchange for news about Tailyn Vlashich’s death. Berad also needed to figure out a good excuse for why he hadn’t been able to get his hands on the boy’s body…and maybe even pin the failure on someone else.

  * * *

  Tailyn right then was enjoying some peace and quiet. He’d already begun to panic about not being able to get out of the trap, and that was when he was deafened by yet another roar coming from the monster. Happily, he didn’t get slapped with a debuff. Just about sliding into the acid, he was barely holding on to the skull by an eye socket when a body holding something in its hands plopped into the stomach and almost instantly began turning into an ugly splotch. That elicited a shocked yell from the boy. A few moments later, he was once again cheered by his OGM-III’s waste removal system and the fact that nobody was around to notice his shame.

  But the most important part happened a little while later when the passageway leading down into the stomach opened and let in clean air. The ten damage he’d been taking every second stopped. Tailyn wasn’t sure how long that was going to last, so he savored every moment. In the meantime, the monster shook and gurgled, almost like it was annoyed about something, though it finally fell silent and returned to its centuries-old state of rest. The phantom fire was lit to attract new victims, but the key for Tailyn was that the creature’s throat remained open. And the damage was in no hurry to resume.

  Group renamed. New name: Survive! I don’t know how, but survive! They have Valia!

  Valanil was alive. The audio connection wasn’t working anymore, so renaming the group was the only way to communicate — and even it was only one-way. A warmth spread through Tailyn, who’d been very afraid the crystal fences had killed the herbalist as soon as they’d caught her. He laid down on the skull, figuring he needed time to think, and a moment later was fast asleep. But his dreams were filled with anything but rainbows and ponies. Five hours later, Tailyn sat up with a sudden yell. His face was drenched in sweat, and the nightmare receded, leaving only a painful sensation of helplessness in its wake. All the boy could remember was how he’d been wrapped in vines that tore him into pieces and dropped those pieces from a tremendous height.

  But that problem paled in comparison to the new timer that had popped up. Tailyn’s OGM-III had just thirty minutes worth of oxygen remaining. The automated system had turned off all supporting functions, explaining why Tailyn had been dealing with the nightmares. And as the air grew thin, the boy’s head felt heavy. Hence, the vines.

  Suddenly, his eyes widened. Bingo. It was a tip from the god — not vines, but plants. He had three flasks of accelerated growth, and the alchemist’s bag presumably had some saplings or seeds. If there really were vines, they’d grow up through the open passageway, giving him a way to climb out.

  There weren’t any better ideas, at least.

  The boy began digging through the list of materials in his alchemist’s bag. Flowers, powders, and stones were all set aside immediately — they were pointless right then. And with them out of the picture, Tailyn found himself staring at the only thing that might work: an oak stalk. His subconscious told him alchemists didn’t use the stalk itself, just harvesting the leaves that grew on it, and that meant they needed to be fresh and clear of any other processes. But it was the stalk itself Tailyn needed. Whole and intact.

  He was going to have to act fast since the plant might quickly die in that kind of air. With that in mind, Tailyn placed three flasks of accelerated growth on the skull, cleared the acid out of an empty eye socket, and took a few deep breaths the way Valanil had taught him. The nerves disappeared, replaced by firm resolution. As soon as the stalk had materialized in his hands, the boy deftly pulled the cork out of the first flask and dumped the contents on the plant. The empty container was sent flying into the acid and replaced by the next one, but the process had begun. The plant began to thicken in Tailyn’s hands, and by the time he’d poured the second flask, he couldn’t even hold onto the quickly growing trunk. That wasn’t enough, however. Tailyn threw away the second flask and poured the third accelerated growth, the roots burrowed deep into the acid, and while steam began to pour up, the plant continued to sprout higher. As the trunk widened, Tailyn found himself just about shoved off the skull, which forced him to grab a branch, hang in the air above the acid, and begin soaring high above it.

  The mountain shuddered like never before. The oak roots had cut through the creature’s stomach juices, not to mention the thick layer of lifeless flesh, and had found their way to the other organs — all they represented to the tree were sources of growth and energy. The oak began to greedily devour the monster, who screamed in pain but couldn’t do anything. Soon enough, its entire stomach and open esophagus had been surrendered to the crazed tree. With its triple helping of enhanced growth, the oak was showing itself in all its glory, the branch Tailyn was clutching cutting through the stomach wall and continuing upward. The boy could barely breathe. Still, there was no stopping, as the oak was being fueled by the ancient monster’s organs. Everything around Tailyn shook — the mountain housing the giant monster could no longer hold back the oak, and the tree burst into the open. The sun was shining overhead. Tailyn kept flying upward, his arms squeezing the branch for dear life.

  Finally free and feeling the glorious sunlight on its leaves, the tree lost it for good. It stretched skyward as it did its best to break completely free of its stone prison. The roots probed even deeper, cutting through monster and stone alike, and finally reached the soil below only to instantly suck the juices out of it. The underwater stream dried up, all the plants within a few kilometers shriveled up and died, and it was only then that the oak decided it had had enough.

  It stopped growing, its crown half a kilometer wide.

  Tailyn opened his eyes before quickly shutting them again. His head spun when he saw how far away the ground was.

  Survive! I don’t know how, but survive! They have Valia! destroyed G’Rul, an ancient monster spawned on the first day of the release. It remained on the planet after the exodus, having escaped the cleansing. You earned a generous reward by freeing up significant resources.

  ***

  Enhancement +3 (16)

  Attention! Error detected…

  Returning to previous state.

  Enhancement -3 (13)

  Humans prior to level 20 cannot boost their base attribute and skill levels past 15…

  Finding a solution…

  Solution found!

  ***

  Enhancement +2 (15)

  As compensation for the levels you were not able to receive, you were given a named weapon corresponding to your class.

  ***

  You destroyed a creature at least 1500 levels above you.

  All your attributes and skills were boosted by 2.

  Status change: combat complete.

  The air around the boy began to shimmer as the god materialized its gift. Twisting around, he grabbed it before it could drop toward the ground, finding himself holding a rough, gnarled staff with a bulge in the shape of a sphere at one end. Really, it was just a branch pulled from the oak Tailyn was sitting in. But it was the description that was the interesting part.

  Matilda. Defensive alchemist’s staff belonging to player Tailyn Vlashich (cannot be stolen or used by anyone else). Current Matilda level (ML): 1. When held, restores [10 * ML] mana and personal shield per hour. While in a workshop, boosts Alchemy skill by [5 * ML]. Reduces damage taken except of an energy or physical nature by 2 * ML% but no more than 50%. Additional parameters: physical attack +100 * ML, magic attack +100 * ML, mana +100 * ML. Requirements: Strength (5), Agility (5), Intellect (5), Mysticism (5), Armor (5), Resilience (5) (Note, you do not meet the requirements and therefore cannot use this item).

  Tailyn’s face turned into an impenetrable mask. He wanted to curse, but he couldn’t find the right words to describe the situation — his vocabulary just didn’t cut it. Even after his parameters had all jumped tw
o points, he still didn’t meet the requirements. And he didn’t have resilience in the first place. With no other options remaining, the disappointed boy tossed Matilda into his inventory and hoped he’d be able to come back to it at some point. The table of contents at the beginning of the encyclopedia Valia had given him mentioned something about named items, only that was at the very end of the book. It was going to take him a few years at best to get that far.

  Once he was sure the tree had stopped growing, the boy looked down to gauge how high he was. Something tickled unpleasantly in his stomach, and he felt his armpits growing slick — it was a long way down. Turning around somehow, he crawled carefully over to the trunk, where he began the long journey down to the ground. One thing that really helped was how thickly the tree’s branches grew. Wherever you stepped, there was going to be something there to support you, and Tailyn even had to step away from the trunk just to find room to climb lower.

  But the problem was that the branches ended about fifty meters off the ground. Below them, there was just the bruised, deformed, and warped trunk. Tailyn was saved by the rope he’d learned to always carry around with him — wrapping it around a thick branch twice, tying one end around his waist, and holding the other in his hands, he stepped off into nothingness. Motar had taught him how to get down from a height without leaving his property behind. The only difference there was that Tailyn’s three strength points made it much easier than it had ever been during practice.