The Book of Dungeons - A weak to strong litRPG epic

Fabulosa rested her hands on her hips, waiting for me to explain.

“I’m so sorry about leaving you out of the loop. Greenie taught that deceiving allies could be as useful as fooling enemies. You know, for the greater good?”

Fabulosa arched an eyebrow.

“Okay, I thought I might need it if we got to the final two. From now on, you and Duchess are going to check the contest interface to verify my death.”

Fabulosa crossed her arms but said nothing. “But how did you cheat the combat log?”

“If Bircht put you in a vacuum, then I’d have a different play, but as it turned, my neck was on the line. For my trick to work, I needed you to sell it. Thanks for the tears, by the way. If Bircht lingered for a few more seconds, I’d be out of the game, and possibly you after me.”

“Don’t overplay your hand. How did you do it?”

“Okay, I’ll tell you. But I just wanted to say I’m sorry I put you through that. I knew how painful it would be—but I didn’t think you’d want to go with a complicated trick like that.”

“I’m still waiting.”

“Okay, but apology accepted?”

Fabulosa rolled her eyes. “Men are the worst at apologies. You don’t even know when not to apologize. I get that you needed to fool me—but not how. Yes, yes—whatever—apology accepted. How did you cheat the game?”

“Let me introduce you to my newest friend.” After casting Familiar, a small whiff of green vapor appeared in my palm. A cockroach with a tiny nameplate bearing my name scurried to the edge of my fingers. “I panicked when I first saw Beaker die in the combat log—when you and Labrat fought. Even though I’d seen Familiars die before, it freaked me out.”

Fabulosa smirked. “I remember that. I didn’t enjoy seeing it either.”

“Exactly. This game conditions us to react to the combat log.”

I pointed to the green potion lid lying on the ground where I played possum. “Remember this?”

I tossed her the lid with the mouse engraving.

“You didn’t die, you shrunk. You’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days.”

“I opened my interface to slow down time and unequipped everything—my cloak, sword, and void bag. I did this an instant before drinking the potion and shrank before my giant-sized Cossack of Rewind hit the ground. On the way down, I opened my interface and crushed poor Apache here—who was in my hand before the fight. Everyone saw his death message in the combat log.” I turned over my palm to prevent the cockroach from falling to the ground.

Fabulosa squinted while she followed my logic. “What if they’d checked the contest interface? Your name would still be there.”

“That’s why I let go of my sword. I expected them to make a mad dash for it. Who’s going to double-check to see if I’m in the game while a celestial item is available for the taking? With Duchess occupied, I figured Bircht would stake his claim on Gladius.”

Fabulosa snorted, nodding with approval. “I love it. Death by finders-keepers.”

“Your tears needed to be real. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have given you so much attention.”

“You forgot to drop out of the contest chat. And there’s no way to remove you from the battle standard chat.”

I shrugged. “No plan is perfect, but it worked.”

At the mention of the contest chat, I checked to see everyone’s reaction.

Bircht leaves channel.

Audigger Whoa. Bircht is gone. Who killed him?

Flagboi It was Duch, Apache, or Fab. Either way, we’re in the final seven.

Duchess Apache has figured out a cheat in the game. He died and somehow came back.

Flagboi What? How?

Toadkiller That’s called stealth, knucklehead. Everyone has it.

Duchess No! I’m talking dead, as in knocked out of the game. It even showed up in the combat log.

Toadkiller That’s impossible. He’s still on the list of contestants.

Flagboi You obviously didn’t read your combat log carefully.

Audigger How is that possible?

Flagboi I don’t believe it. She’s playing an angle.

Toadkiller Fab, can you confirm?

Flagboi She’s not going to say anything. She’s his partner.

Toadkiller There’s no log of Apache leaving the channel. It’s probably a feigned death ability.

Duchess I don’t know how, but he cheated the combat log. I don’t think Toadkiller’s the number one threat anymore.

Toadkiller Agreed. I say we all gang up and get Apache.

Flagboi If you’re right, then Crimson will disqualify him—which means, we’re technically in the final six. But I think you’re wrong. Maybe he phased out of Miros again.

Duchess I’m not wrong. I’m seeing it in the combat log. He died, and we would be killing Fabulosa right now. That fact that she’s not saying anything is proof they’re in on it.

Flagboi Well, if she’s cheating too, that means we’re in the final five. Whoo-hoo!

Audigger If she is, Crimson won’t catch it until the contest ends. It’s been only a couple of hours since we’ve been asleep. It’ll take weeks, if not months, to review the contest footage.

Flagboi It won’t be that long, will it? I want to watch it.

Audigger Reality shows have long waits until someone releases them. There’s lots of editing and postproduction.

Toadkiller They ought to have bots or something to review the footage. You know—to jump to the good parts.

I laughed. “That’s hilarious. I wonder if there’s a way to exploit this. Should I say anything?” As funny as it was to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes, I checked the contest to make sure Bircht hadn’t done the same thing. The contest interface listed seven names, and his wasn’t among them.

“Let ‘em stew. Come on. Let’s see if Duchess made off with the shrunken head.”

“You didn’t bring it with you?”

“A cursed item? No way, but I got his other goodies. I’m calling dibs on his Mantle of Fortune. It upgrades my armor unless you want to swap it for your rewinding cloak.”

I shook my head, smiling. “No way. Grats.”

“Here’s a +3 willpower ring and a +8 agility headpiece. Do either of these work for you?”

“I have an empty ring slot, and the headband makes sense if I’m trying to catch someone. Otherwise, I’m sticking to my Helm of Peripheral Vision.”

He had a belt I hadn’t noticed before.

Item

Band of Light and Dark

Rarity

Rare (yellow)

Description

Level 25 waist slot item

5 armor

If last spell cast is dark magic, wearer casts next light magic spell at 10 ranks higher. If last spell cast is light magic, wearer casts next dark magic spell at 10 ranks higher.

Epic (yellow) Core Bonus

Boss Bonus 1 Symmetrical

The item potential increased two schools of magic by 10, although its contrived conditions somewhat tempered the effect. Still, it made me glad to remove this item from the world, as it had no downsides.

“I’ll stash this in my void bag.”

“Works for me.”

We quickly shuffled down the hill. When Fabulosa pointed in which direction she and Bircht ran, I cast Detect Magic to locate Bircht’s shrunken head. “Nothing is glowing here.”

Fabulosa searched the ground for points of familiarity while I combed the area with Mineral Communion. The stones and dirt had only scattered fuzzy images, but some exposed rocks glowed with recent passages.

Ignoring our footsteps down the mountainside, I counted four trails. Fabulosa’s first trip down and return counted for two sets of tracks. Bircht made the third. I called to Fabulosa. “I picked up a fourth trail. Was it this way?”

Fabulosa followed my gaze, grimacing with uncertainty. “Maybe. I’m not sure. I can’t believe I was so stupid to leave the head alone.”

“Believe me—you coming back to make sure I was okay is a compliment.”

Fabulosa arched her eyebrow. “You think it’s flattering that I came to save you?”

I shrugged. “It shows you care.”

The trail of glowing footprints ended at a broken core. A single set of footprints veered west down the mountainside.

“This is where I killed him. I got him with a Lightning Bolt. There’s his core.” Fabulosa bent to retrieve the worthless item.

We didn’t see the shrunken head.

Ignoring her, I followed the glowing footsteps until they disappeared in a blanket of pine needles and grass. “The trail stops down there. It looks like she’s heading toward Heaven’s Falls.”

Fabulosa thumped her forehead. “I’m so stupid. First, I almost let you die, and then I let her snatch Serik’s Head. Now we need to fight against that stupid vacuum again.”

“Bah. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”

“Why not?”

“Think about it. Bircht and Duchess barely challenged us. Now that she’s picked up the shrunken head, she won’t be able to channel Stasis while operating the head.”

“She needs a partner to pull off the combo with Stasis. The head by itself isn’t a big deal.”

Fabulosa considered the issue. “You’re right. But it gives us another reason to go to Heaven’s Falls. If she teams up with Flagboi, they could try the same trick. Audigger’s still coming north, and Toad is, too. She doesn’t even need another player. She could just hire an NPC to help her.”

“I doubt it’ll work.”

“Why not?”

“Serik’s Head is cursed, so she can’t give it to anyone. And besides, she thinks the Stasis-vacuum combo doesn’t work.”

Fabulosa thought it over. “That’s true. But if she can’t pull off the same trick—you’ve got no reason to worry about her. Also, if she goes to Heaven’s Falls, she’ll be easy to catch. You said it yourself. We’ll have Jasper once we hit the road. We’ll get there first.”

I grunted. “I said that, didn’t I?”

“Don’t look so glum. We can knock her out on the way there. You can check your mail, and then we’ll see what big surprise Flagboi has in store.”

Armed with the formidable Writ of Passage, we marched west through deep elf territory, a direction taking us into rolling foothills and valleys. The elevation lay at a happy medium between the Grenspur Family mega-mountains and the lowlands of Blyeheath.

After half a day’s hike, Duchess detached from our dot on the contest map to become one of her own, veering north into the vapor-choked fens of Blyeheath.

Fabulosa showed no inclination to follow. “She’s got a gasmask, or her survival skills are off the chart. There are supposed to be ruins up north, but unless she has coordinates, she’ll end up getting her feathers trimmed. Blyeheath makes for dangerous exploration.”

I grunted at the news. “I take it you’ve never been there?”

Fabulosa shook her head. “No. It’s not easy fighting solo. I miss your heals—that’s why I stuck to farming undead in Ul Itor. Other travelers in town gave me the lowdown. I spent a lot of time in taverns and pubs. Aside from settlements on top of the Gray Manors, the entire coast is desolate.”

We made good time cutting west, and our vantage made spotting roads easier . When we spotted one, we headed for it.

Our encounter with Bircht and Duchess unlocked my first tier 5 power.

Power (spell)

Mind of Stone (tier 5)

Prerequisites

Arcane magic rank 28, Mineral Mutation

Cost

60 mana

Cooldown

1 hour

Cast time

6 seconds

Description

For five minutes, caster deals structural damage with bludgeoning weapons and reduces incurred physical damage by 67 percent.

It somewhat disappointed me that Earthquake duplicated Mind of Stone’s offensive potential, but the defensive bonus effectively tripled my health against weapons and monsters. Was I still worried about fighting monsters anymore? It was hard to say. Gladius Cognitus delivered such a wallop, I felt ready to trade blows with anything bearing claws.

The Brass Dragon Bone paired with this power. Delivering over 50 structural points devastated architecture not fortified by Hawkhurst’s innate protection bonus. Coupled with Aggression, I could batter most buildings to dust in a minute. After a little math, I determined this magic to be more versatile and powerful than Earthquake, and 5 minutes lasted a long time in combat.

I unlocked a second spell.

Power (spell)

Divine Will (tier 2)

Prerequisites

Arcane magic rank 28, Heavenly Favor

Cost

40 mana

Cooldown

1 hour

Cast time

6 seconds

Description

Give caster +20 willpower for 10 minutes.

As someone whose 74 resting willpower saved them from dark magic, laying on another 20 points made me more resistant to spells. I liked the spell’s passive nature—I just needed to cast it and forget about it. Divine Will lasted long enough that I could cast it before combat like Presence and Heavenly Favor.

The Book of Dungeons didn’t explain how spell resistance worked. Did willpower need to pass a threshold to make it significant? I rarely resisted debuffs, or if I were resisting them, the game wasn’t telling me. But I resisted illusions cast by the anomalocaris. I’m pretty sure if Duchess weren’t Invisible, I would have seen through the Mirrored Images. On the other hand, I had a hard time spotting her Invisibility. Did higher-level spells factor into the equation?

Another +20 seemed worthwhile—especially against players specializing in dark magic, but I couldn’t be sure.

Part of me wanted to spend my last power point on Mind of Will before our encounter with Flagboi, but I knew I wouldn’t. Having a safety net was too vital—and if he had a surprise in store, I doubted resisting spells would make a difference.

With only six remaining opponents, I felt no impulse to share information about new spells with Fabulosa. She used something called Air Jump in our last battle, and I hadn’t inquired about it. It seemed inappropriate this close to the finish line.

The group chat had already shown countless times that information was power and loose lips could mitigate advantages and surprises. The circle of trust grew tighter and tighter as the contest’s conclusion neared.

I had only one power point, but taking out Bircht gave me 60 experience, edging me closer to level 31. If I could acquire only 121 experience points, I’d have another—the obstacle to reaching it rested with the lack of monsters. Gnomes, dwarves, and deep elves have long since tamed the countryside.

When we reached a road, I summoned Jasper, who easily accommodated two riders. The road switchbacked up and down a relentless series of hills. It increased the journey’s distance, but riding a horse ultimately sped up our westward progress.

Homestead holes made by gnomes, deep elves, and dwarves pockmarked the hillside, and we didn’t explore any because they seemed lived-in. The passage to Heaven’s Falls looked quaint but boring.

After a few days of travel, Flagboi complained about the dot containing Apache and Fabulosa moving away from Duchess.

Flagboi Oh, come on. Why is everyone coming after me?

Audigger You’re the one bragging about your big surprise. We all want to see.

Flagboi Well, they obviously haven’t been to Heaven’s Falls. They’re never going to find me here.

Audigger They might scry you. Cover your windows so they can’t see what you see.

Flagboi I’m pretty sure no one left has scrying. Otherwise, they’d tell everyone what I’m doing.

Toadkiller Darkstep might send letters, although you and I are the only ones in settlements to receive them.

Flagboi Alright then, I’ll prepare for guests.

Toadkiller What does that entail?

Flagboi Oh, you know—the usual. I’ll put out some chips and salsa. But it’s BYOP.

Toadkiller Let me know when it’s going down. I want time to get my popcorn ready.