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

  The wolf howled, and the pressure on the boy’s neck relaxed. His back freed up, too. Turning to put out the fire there and meet his opponent with one of his cards, Tailyn flipped over only to find that the animal was nowhere to be seen. He was looking up at Sloan’s surprised face.

  “Damn, you’re crazy!” he said a moment before the boy convulsed and went limp. Shocker worked great even through the OGM-III, sending Tailyn into dream land for thirty seconds. The ranger looked out across the field of battle. The leader he’d taken out was burning a few meters away, the rest of the wolves littering the area around them — his team had worked quickly and effectively. Having each been personally selected and trained by Sloan, the trio was already setting up the protective barrier as if they hadn’t just taken out twenty creatures between levels fifteen and nineteen. The group had pushed their horses hard, pumping magic into them to arrive just a few hours before at the spot where the ancient monster had met its demise. And words weren’t enough to describe the way Sloan had felt when he’d seen the lake in the mountain — the power it had taken to make something like that happen was incredible. As it turned out, Berad had been right. Tailyn really had survived, and they’d found his tracks right away. The boy hadn’t really taken any pains to conceal them. But when they’d been joined by the wolf tracks, the group had increased a pace they’d thought was already their fastest. And they’d been just in time. The animals had already attacked, though the boy had some tricks up his sleeve — not many adults would have thrown fire on their back even if they knew their life depended on it. While his men were busy taking care of the pack, Sloan had kicked the burning animal away, finished him off with a crossbow bolt to the head, and blocked Tailyn. It occurred to him that the best option would be to kill the boy and deliver his body to the black lixes, but orders were orders. Berad wanted him alive. Pulling out a rope, Sloan got down to his usual business, looking around at the ancient ruins as he did. The city wasn’t on the map the reds had given them, which was strange. Lixes generally scoured their territory. On the other hand, they might have just not wanted Berad to know about the location, one of many they probably preferred to keep hidden. Sloan made a mental note to let his commander know so the latter could leverage that information.

  “Done,” one of the fighters said. “That’ll work until morning. Commander, can we look around?”

  “At your own risk,” Sloan replied the way he usually did. After waiting for two of his men to disappear into the night, he activated the protective barrier. The spot suddenly looked empty and somehow terrifying to any creatures who happened across it. Even if they accidentally ventured across, they’d be turned around without even realizing what had happened. The squad’s third member stayed where he was to tend to the horses. They’d had a rough go of the insane ride, and they needed their wounds closed and their internal organs regenerated before they could go back and be fed to the lixes. And there was nobody better for that than Vaxol, who was also a healer, having completed three courses at the academy.

  The ranger finished wrapping up the boy. All that remained was keeping him from using his cards, and Sloan decided to go with a sleeping powder. Tailyn’s willingness to sacrifice his body was unsettling, and he was liable to pull out some kind of acid, burn through the ropes, pull out the gag, and start raining down his damn magic. Sloan had seen what he was capable of — the shaman’s promising apprentice was testament enough to that. And since the boy was wearing simple clothing, the powder was perfect. Blowing into Tailyn’s face, Sloan promptly forgot about him, his attention fixed on the hole the boy had been digging. The ranger had assumed he’d been scared and looking for somewhere to spend the night, but that hypothesis was looking less and less likely. Something drew him inside, and Sloan had grown to rely on his gut feelings. He pulled out his knife and began digging through the rocks to widen the hole. The boy had been looking to find something, and he wanted to know what it was.

  Tailyn opened his eyes. His whole body itched from the shocker, but he couldn’t do anything about that with his hands tightly secured. The same was true of his legs — Sloan had been thorough. But after running his tongue over his parched lips, Tailyn froze. He wasn’t gagged. His mouth was free, and he glanced over to see the ranger’s hunched back. But almost immediately, he disappeared — Sloan could sense there was something valuable down in the hole, and he ducked in as soon as it was wide enough. There was another enemy outside working with the horses. Judging by the way his hands were glowing, he was a healer, and Tailyn closed his eyes and played dead just in case. He needed to get his shield back up first. Five charges were plenty.

  Ka-Li.

  Your shield was enhanced by 2235 (2735).

  Charges remaining: 45 of 50.

  Tailyn tensed up in anticipation of a warning cry, but the healer was too busy with the horses to keep an eye on him, too. It also helped that the sun had just dropped beyond the horizon. The mountains were bathed in darkness. That was great, of course, which meant his next move was… But the boy didn’t get that far. A heart-rending scream filled with immense pain filled the air.

  “No-o-o!”

  The cry died away, leaving nothing behind but a terrifying echo. Sloan bounded out of the hole. In one hand, he was holding his dagger; in the other was an odd one-handed crossbow. Paying no attention to Tailyn, he straightened up and began turning around as he used his scanner to find the enemy. But there was nothing out there besides the rocks.

  “Vaxol, calm the horses down!” Sloan said as he crouched and got ready to leap forward. Everything inside him was yelling that there was a dangerous enemy hiding nearby, that he needed to take off running. But he didn’t know where to go. And he wasn’t going to abandon his men, either. They’d been through quite a bit together, only one of them wouldn’t be having any more adventures. His frame was grayed out.

  “Run! No-o-o!”

  The second scream was much closer, but it died away the same as the first. Shivers ran down Tailyn’s spine — he recognized the voice. It was a fighter from Berad’s detachment, an experienced, high-level ranger who had apparently just met his end.

  “Calm the horses down, I said!” Sloan barked angrily at the healer. He still couldn’t tell who was taking out his men, and that infuriated him. “Put them to sleep!”

  “They’re going crazy!” Vaxol replied as hung clung to the bridles in an attempt to bring the hobbled horses to the ground. “It’s like they had too much to eat…”

  But it was hard to say what the horses had had too much of. Right then, there was a deafening crash that sounded like glass breaking, the horses whinnied for the last time, and all of them were turned into mincemeat. Six long tentacles wrapped themselves around the crazed animals, Vaxol, and even the nearby tent, sweeping their prey off into the night.

  “No-o-o!”

  Yet again, there came the pained cry, and Sloan finally saw his opponent. He’d seen plenty in his lifetime, but he still felt a pang of deep, primal, all-consuming fear. The creature in front of him looked something like an enormous elephant. Both the build and size were similar, only it moved around not on four legs, but on dozens of short stumps. And instead of a trunk, it had a whole clutch of long tentacles that yanked its prey into the bottomless pit it called a mouth.

  Mean Truka Guard (creature). No class. Age 2350. Level 205.

  Once it was done with the horses, the guard went to work on Vaxol. At least, what was left of him — the healer had been ground into a pulp. And with no doubt in his mind that he was next, Sloan went into action. He grabbed Tailyn, showed no surprise when he saw the boy’s open eyes, and dove into the hole he’d just opened up. The knife flashed, and the ropes holding the boy fell to the ground.

  “If you want to live, we’re going to have to work together. Cover me!” Sloan barked as he began clearing the second passageway, the one leading deeper underground. Just then, the guard realized its prey was making a run for it, letting everyone in the area in on its annoyance
with a thunderous roar. Tailyn dropped to his knees. There may not have been a debuff, but his head was splitting from the noise, and so he squeezed it with both hands as if expecting it to pop while he watched his death approaching. Moving quickly over the rocks with its stumpy legs, it hurried toward the tunnel so it could slip its tentacles inside and pull out the juicy bits of meat.

  “What are you waiting for? Go!”

  Sloan’s cry snapped like a whip. Everything in front of the boy blurred, and he wanted to collapse and go to sleep, but he used his last scraps of consciousness to suck in air and whisper as long as he could. Ka-Li…

  You used Wave of Fire-I 23 times.

  Charges remaining: 27 of…

  Tailyn didn’t have time to finish reading the last phrase before the guard yelled so loudly the boy’s eardrums burst. The earth shook, a crack opened up right below him and Sloan, and the pair dropped into the darkness.

  Chapter 7

  THE IMPACT hurt even if the drop wasn’t far — Tailyn’s scanner told him the collapsed ceiling was just some three meters up. Groaning, he pulled himself to his feet and staggered. His regeneration had yet to deal with the burns on his back, and there he was throwing a bunch of new problems at it, that batch in the same spot. There was another roar overhead as the guard categorically refused to die. But it also didn’t want to give up on its prey, as a tentacle appeared in the hole against the light cast by the fire and began feeling its way around the upper room. The boy backed away, tripped over a stone, fell to the floor, and scrabbled further backward.

  That saved him. Right where his head had just been, something long and incredibly fast whizzed by. The creature slammed into the opposite wall and laid there stunned for a few seconds, which let the shocked boy pull himself together and prepare for battle.

  Viper (animal). No class. Age 12. Level 18.

  Tailyn had never liked snakes. They were nasty, revolting, unpleasant. They made his stomach turn, though he’d never really been afraid of them. It would have been silly to be afraid of a simple animal. But the one that had just tried to kill him was incredibly long — its body meandered across the entire room, its tail somewhere on the other side of the door. It was thick, too, its body the same size as the boy’s torso. Really, it was a surprise the creature was even able to get through the narrow opening. But that was beside the point.

  Ka-Li.

  The boy didn’t take long to respond. Without even taking the time to stand up, he sent a fireball hurtling at his attacker, having finally found out the kind of creature that made its home in the local catacombs. It was just a shame they hadn’t all burned up when he’d hit them with that first wave of fire. The fireball slammed into the snake’s head, and it hissed, instantly forgetting about Tailyn and the plans it had for his destruction. That made sense — it was just your everyday snake without a bit of protection. Its age and level made it a good guess that its shield barely exceeded 1,800, and the boy had just taken out 757 with a single strike. Having missed its shot, the snake decided to head back where it came from to lie in wait for a second chance. Only Tailyn wasn’t about to give it that second chance. Two more fireballs whizzed out of his helmet, and the underground resident found a new home off in the great nothingness.

  However, the combat status was in no hurry to change. The guard had finished its noisy exploration of the upper room, hadn’t found the fugitives there, and had lost it, getting to work widening the passageway down. Feeling the need to hurry, Tailyn jumped over to the snake and placed a hand on its body. The fact that there wasn’t a shimmering box meant the reward for killing it was inside its body. If there was a reward.

  Loot received:

  Concentrated Poison (18).

  Snakeskin (18).

  Snake Fang (36).

  Viper Eye (18).

  Tailyn was stunned to get a haul that rich from a single snake. Stones came pouring down from above him — the guard was intensifying his punishing assault on the tunnel. Suddenly, something long and wrinkled fell down. The boy’s perception told him it was part of the world and didn’t have a name, only his scanner showed very clearly a mouth frozen mid-scream. Yet another viper, only dead and fried to a crisp. Finally, the whole thing made sense. The first waves of fire had killed seventeen of the creepy-crawlies, he’d just taken out one more, and the god had given him all the loot at once. That was the loot gathering principle as the book Valia had given him called it.

  The boy went over to the tunnel the snake had fallen out of. It had once had a door, but time had turned it into a narrow passageway, Tailyn’s scanner showing that there was another room on the other side. Three dead snake bodies lay on the ground; Sloan was sitting up against the far wall.

  “Come on in; it’s safe,” the ranger said with difficulty. One of the guard’s tentacles found the hole Tailyn had disappeared into and hurried after him, leaving the boy with no choice. The snake he’d killed lurched and suddenly was sucked away — the guard had found it and clearly was looking forward to a quick snack.

  Tailyn ducked into the second room and glanced up at the ceiling. There should have been a hole where Sloan had fallen through, and the guard should have been working its way through it. But neither was the case. The ceiling looked whole and intact.

  “A slab fell down and covered the hole,” the ranger said before interrupting himself to cough. “Do you have any light?”

  Tailyn pulled a lamp and some flint out of his inventory. He may have been a bastard, but Ka-Do-Gir had given him some good advice. Lamps really were better than torches for spots like that. One spark later, and the room was filled with light. And it was only then that Tailyn realized what had been bothered him — the ranger’s body had been cut in half. He had no legs. Not only that, but one of the dead snakes had latched its teeth onto one of the stumps. Judging by the wheezing and heavy breathing, the poison was doing its work.

  “Ridiculous way to go out.” Sloan could guess where the boy was looking. “Spent so long running from death only to find it in some miserable basement. The slab… My shield didn’t hold out long… Then the snake… Ridiculous… The poison got to my heart, so I don’t have long… So, your outfit is concealed? Well done, didn’t expect that… Didn’t think a kid would have anything serious when your trainer only had the level one version…”

  Tailyn wasn’t about to react to any of that. The only reason the ranger had shown up had been to capture him and take him away to be sacrificed, so there was no reason to show the least bit of sympathy.

  “It’s a shame I can’t move. I’d definitely take you out,” Sloan continued, showing off the kind of person he was. “But since you’re going to live, remember to unlock the marauder attribute for yourself before you loot my body. You’ll like it. Just don’t take my Rialla — it’ll be useless to you. Burn it with the rest of me, and if you see Berad, tell him I fought to the en…”

  Foam trickled out of Sloan’s mouth as the ranger fell silent forever.

  For a while, Tailyn couldn’t make himself go anywhere, at least until he heard a crash from above him and an unpleasant hissing coming from the next passageway. The snakes had seen the light and were rushing toward it. Light meant food. Really, it was when it occurred to the boy that Sloan had just been buying time as he waited for the poisonous little bastards to attack that he made his move.

  Ka-Li.

  The wave of fire burst into the tunnel, and there wasn’t a ricochet that time. Apparently, there was enough space for the fire to feel right at home. It felt its way into every crevice, every opening, as it burned the mess of snakes to death.

  You destroyed more than 50 creatures at least 10 levels above you.

  You received a level-up for two random attributes.

  Strength +1 (4).

  Perception +1 (5).

  But the combat didn’t end there as the guard wedged its enormous body into the tiny room. Tailyn wasn’t about to get any closer to Sloan, unsure of what surprises his body held — what if he h
ad some kind of poisoned needle waiting for marauders to get close enough? He’d presumably had a good reason to tell Tailyn to pick up that attribute. The guy was unpleasant.

  The fire in the next room over died away, and Tailyn was able to get out of the oppressive space. He didn’t like being in the same room as Sloan’s body in the least. And even though his scanner had already built a three-dimensional model of the main hall, Tailyn still held his lamp aloft. Charred vipers were everywhere. They’d been in such a hurry to find where the light was coming from that they’d shown up from all sides, and Tailyn was able to pick the nearest one to place a hand on.

  Loot received:

  Concentrated Poison (79).

  Snakeskin (79).

  Snake Fang (158).

  Viper Eye (79).

  4883 gold.

  533 coins.

  You don’t have the Marauder attribute, so you can’t loot Sloan Tur’s body.

  The boy’s eyebrows shot upward — Sloan had been telling the truth. He really did need a new attribute. But that didn’t seem like it would be an issue, as the map was pointing toward a terminal that was supposed to be in the very center of the hall. It looked exactly like the black stones One’s minions had used to sacrifice their victims, and it took Tailyn a while to head over to it. The associations in his head weren’t the best. Finally, when the cracking ceiling told him he needed to hurry, he ran off to find cover from the guard.