Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure (18 page)

19
Cheap Cheap Cheap

Sam found that he couldn’t exit the gated barrier behind
him.  Just like in the previous Death Planes game, once you crossed the
barrier, you had to defeat the boss to make the barrier disappear.  Though, he
could always use his Phoenix Floo to escape back to the Soul Beacon if things
got too hectic.

“What did they call this thing before?  A soul barrier?”

He quickly checked his items for something useful that could
help with this fight.  He read the descriptions for both of his new items.

Warrior’s Soul

Souls of this nature can be broken down into usable soul currency.

A fierce warrior’s soul.  Oftentimes clarity can be
gained on the battlefield.  Struggle breeds greatness and there is no greater
struggle than life or death combat.  The warrior’s soul is strengthened through
such conflicts.

Decoy Soul

Lures simple minded enemies to the location where it was
thrown.

Cursed men, curious minds, demons, and those who thirst
for power are all attracted by souls.  It has been a fact of life since history
has been recorded.  A decoy soul is a weak soul that has been given false
properties to make it more appealing.  Those who aren’t finely attuned in the
soul artes can be easily fooled into thinking that these are the highly coveted
prizes that they’ve been seeking.

Stim Plant

Aids in the regeneration of stamina.

A very useful plant that resourceful warriors and
soldiers use to enhance their performance in battles of endurance.  It is said
that this plant lets even old warriors and soldiers fight as if they were in
the prime of their lives.  There was a rumor long ago that some famous
Alchemist was responsible for creating these wondrous herbs though many saw
such a man-made triumph as an affront to the supreme ones.

It was just as he suspected.  The Warrior’s Soul and the
Decoy Souls wasn’t something he’d get any immediate use out of, but the Stim
Plants that he’d collected from the Stumpies should come in handy here.  He put
them in his Quick Select slot along with everything else he had there including
his Soul Fire, Torch, Bandages, and Absorption Herbs.

His gear was the best and only gear that he currently had
and his Rapier was his best weapon by far, especially now that it was upgraded. 
He was as ready as he’d ever be for what was to come.  He inhaled deeply then
let it all out in a long breath.

“Alright, here we go.”

Sam held his shield up and stepped forward into the open. 
The dew coated grass covering the ground was laid flat by each of his
footsteps.  He looked around for the expected threat, but found himself blanketed
by a sudden shadow.  Something had eclipsed the sky above in mere moments.  Sam
felt a rush of air and friction crash into him and break him.

The force had knocked him flat to the ground.  He didn’t
have enough words to currently describe any of the pain he was in.  It all felt
brand new and his body felt nearly useless.  Perhaps this was what getting hit
by a truck felt like.  Like all your bones were ground into mulch.

Luckily, or unluckily, he was still alive and possessed a
barely visible sliver of HP.  He had the presence of mind to instinctively get
up to his feet so that he could move out of the way and heal his damage.  Once
on his feet, he held his shield up again and looked for whatever the hell had
hit him.

The first thing he noticed was a tree, a really tall one
that wasn’t present before.  This one was wider and had thicker bark than many
of the others in the forest.  But that wasn’t all, there were three other tall
trees nearby that weren’t there before.  He noticed that they swayed frequently
as if blown by the night wind—no—not only that but they were moving forward and
bending at certain sections.  They were legs.

Sam glanced upwards and caught sight of the beast’s body.  The
sight made him wish that he had stayed on the ground.  It was enormous, massive,
and terrifying.  The upper parts of each of its legs as well as its body was
green and purple, same as the forest leaves.  Its body was thick, seemingly
engorged, with a round center and a long and thin neck.

Sam could currently only see one side of the creature.  It
had a bulbous head with bulging red and yellow eyes with a purple procession of
leaves covering much of its head and cascading down part of its neck.  They had
completely redesigned it and made it even bigger than the Forest Dragon in the
Death Planes.

How the hell was he supposed to kill something that was the
size of a whale?

He didn’t have time to get a good look at it before it
started attacking again.  It reared its head back at him and Sam prepared to
roll out of the way, even though he felt like he would fall over at any moment. 
Instead of chomping at him, like he expected, it blew a thick crimson mist all
over Sam and the rest of the battlefield.

The mist was hot, enveloping Sam like a shower, and it
quickly brought relentless pain with it, some burning sensation.  Sam was blown
to the ground by the force of the spray and as he lied there, he watched as the
grass all around wilted into a dead field of brown.  His own health, what
little he had, was swiftly ticking down from the instant poison and bleedout
status that the attack had inflicted.  The only good thing about this
encounter, Sam thought, was the fact that he had at least outlived the grass. 
His screen faded to black followed by some familiar words painted in red.

YOU HAVE DIED

Sam regained consciousness along with a splitting headache
at the Soul Beacon in Barrington’s camp.  He was lying down when he came to. 
He sat up and looked over at the startled bear and blacksmith.  He ignored them
and sat up in front of the fire.  Oh how much he missed its warmth!  The cold
air and loneliness of his journey was always negatively amplified whenever he
died and this feeling of home brought forth by the Soul Beacon and his
proximity to two characters that he trusted for the most part, it all felt ... safe. 
Sam sat there rubbing his hands and extending them into the fire somewhat
mindlessly.

“That didn’t go well, now did it?” Barrington asked.

“Not how I would’ve liked,” Sam answered back.

He would’ve liked to at least have gained some more info
about the monster and its attack patterns before he was killed by it.  It was
definitely a poor performance, but Sam didn’t completely blame himself for his
loss.

“That was so fucking cheap.”

He stared into the fire thinking of everything that happened
in the lead up to the boss fight.  His anger grew hot as he thought of all the
trials he had to go through just to get to the boss gate.

“Cheap ass Stumpies everywhere dropping down all the time!  Then
you have to take a fuckin’ thin ass path to get to through the damn forest and
avoid them—oh—but guess what?  There’s a huge ass zombie fuckin’ bear that
needlessly parks its fat ass down the trail that I need to go down to fight the
mother of all shit-holes.”

Sam’s rant had seemingly only just begun.  His next lines
were delivered in a voice reminiscent of a certain cartoon bear with an
affinity for picnic baskets.

“Eh Sam buddy!  Imma not your average bear!  Imma big ass
zombie bear and I don’t want no pic-a-nic basket, I want your brains little
buddy, hoohoohoohoooo!”

Sam’s thoughts turned from the journey, to the boss fight
itself.

“Oh and once I finally do power through all that bullshit,
there’s still the cheap ass hippie dragon!  ‘Oh, I’m a dragon, but I’m made out
of trees and other dumb shit.  Flowers and rainbows yall!  I’m a dragon that’s
good for the environment har har har.  Save the trees yo, see I don’t even
breathe fire.  I breathe peace and love and by peace and love, I mean murderous
poison that inflicts fifty different status ailments including athlete’s foot.’”

A familiar voice interrupted his rant.

“Sam, Sam, Sam, stop it please!  You’re killing me here!”
Alex explained.

“You guys are shit designers, you know that!  How the hell
was the player supposed to know to avoid an attack as soon as they stepped on
the field?”

“Calm down, cowboy.  Do you kiss your mother with that
mouth?”

Sam was losing his patience.

“Is there a reason for your call, Alex?”

“I just wanted to explain the method to our madness here.  We
wanted to see how quickly you testers could react to that kind of ambush.  Only
you and a few others have made it to that boss’ Soul Plane so far, but you’ve
given us some great data on player reactions,” she explained.

“Let me guess.  You’ve learned that your boss kills all your
players almost instantly?” he asked.

“All except for two and only one of them beat the boss on
the first try, but it took her a really long time to do it.”

Sam wondered if it was the crafty opponent he had faced
earlier, the IMMORtAL_Kalika or if it were some other hotshot female player who
had proven so skillful.

“Now Sam, stop bad-mouthing our boss.  We worked really hard
on its design and the mechanics for the encounter.”

“I liked the old one better.”

She gasped cartoonishly.

“Now you’re just being spiteful Sam Nathaniel Nagai!”

He grinned and shot her back a response.

“What the hell?  That’s not my middle name.”

“I needed something to express my matronly disappointment
and that was all I could come up with on the spot.”

“Fine, Alex.  Call me whatever you like.  And thanks by the
way.”

“For what?”

“For the laugh.  I needed it.”

“I uh ... I should be thanking you for that.  Things have
been pretty tense on my end.”

He wondered why.  Had the alpha test taken a wrong turn? 
Maybe the testers weren’t uncovering the right kind of data, the data that
Milner and his crew were looking for.  Or maybe they were turning up too much
of it.  While Sam did have a lot of fun in the game, he had already discovered
three glitches in it.  Well, he found two, to be truthful.  But more and more,
his increased pain felt like the worst glitch of them all, constantly
threatening to take away all of his enjoyment out of the game.

“How so, Alex?  I thought you sounded a little tense last
time.”

“I can’t really talk about it, well I shouldn’t.  It’s
company policy.  I just want you to stay safe in there, okay?  I want you to
win this contest and beat this game.  You’re one of the best players in there,
Sam, but I need you to get even better.”

Stay safe?  That was a weird thing to say to someone playing
a videogame, but they both knew his pain receptors were glitching out.  She was
completely right about him improving though.  He also wanted to win the contest
and beat the game, so he needed to get even better and he needed to stop
complaining.

“Okay Alex, thanks for the pep talk, doll.”

“Doll?  What year do you think this is, Sam?  Nineteen
thirty?  Nobody says sexist stuff like that anymore.”

Sam chuckled.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.”

“What, that you’re a misogynist?”

“Come on, give me some more credit than that, Alex baby.”

“Oh, you think you’re funny, well you’re not Samuel
Nathaniel Yoshinori Nagai!”

They both laughed at their combined ridiculousness.

“Ah, the old stereotypical Japanese middle name trick.  I
must say that I approve.  We’re both pretty horrible people.”

“Speak for yourself.  A tip for you though, before I go.  If
you have any Quintessence, use it to go human form whenever you can.”

“Any particular reason why?  I know you get a health boost,
but is there any other reason beyond that?” he asked.

“There’s more benefit to it than you’d know.  I’ll just keep
it at that.”

It was weird that she was helping him out all of a sudden,
but he wasn’t going to turn down free help.

“That’s cheating you know.  I’m sensing some favoritism
here.”

“So are you going to cry about fair play now too?  Just go
and remember what I told you.  Keep your eyes peeled and don’t play like a
fool.”

She cut the communication, but Sam had one more thing to
add.

“Doesn’t matter how I play, your game still has cheap
bosses.”

He sat at the Soul Beacon looking at his items, reading more
descriptions, and forming a strategy for the next time he’d face his favorite
hippie tree dragon.

20
Big Mid-Boss

“Stim Plant, Ignition Powder, I have the Skyward Thrust in
my free slot, all my rings are equipped, my sword is upgraded, my armor is
upgraded, and I can fight the boss with a full Soul Fire container if I avoid
all the enemies, so yeah ... I should be good.”  Sam let out a breath as he
thought out loud.

He lingered at the blacksmith’s camp Soul Beacon for a
little longer, debating whether or not to use his Quintessence item to turn
human again before the fight.  He could use the human form health boost.  He
needed to avoid dying again though since his stock of Quintessence items was already
low.  He had much more loose Quintessence contained in his Death Mark in the
boss area, so he didn’t want to waste his Quintessence items which were much
more permanent.

“Fuck.  I need that Quintessence.”

Sam contemplated playing without it, despite Alex’s warning,
since he didn’t want to lose any more of it.  He just knew that the cheap ass
dragon would take many of his lives before he managed to beat it.  As soon as
he rose up from the Soul Beacon without turning back into human form, he got a
call from Alex.

“Sam, what are you doing?  Have you already forgotten what I
told you?”

“Of course not.  I’m using my brain and conserving my
resources if you hadn’t noticed,” he snidely answered back.

“Listen, this is no time to play like that.  Have you
already forgotten the rules of that game you’re always mentioning?”

“Are you talking about The Death Planes?”

“I can’t say, Sam.  But in whatever game you’re always
talking about, what kind of bonus did you get for killing a lot enemies before
the boss was defeated?”

“You got loose Quintessence added to your stats.  It used to
be the best way to farm it, well outside of destroying people in PVP (player
versus player).  I’m surprised I forgot that.  It still doesn’t help me though,
if the boss kills me.  I’ll have to run to my Death Mark all over again to pick
it up, which will be trapped on the other side of the Soul Barrier.  See the
problem with that?  If it’s over there, that means I can’t use it to turn back
to human form at the Soul Beacon.  Big problem.”

“Just be smart about it, Sam.  That’s all I wanted to tell
you.”

She cut the line, ending their conversation on a somewhat
solemn note.  Sam wondered why she was so concerned with him staying in human
form.  Her voice had held a note of lingering gloom.  He couldn’t help but feel
more on edge thanks to her odd mood shifts and inconsistent intrusions.  He
thought that maybe she was trying to keep him safe due to some new issue with
his pain receptors.  Maybe they couldn’t actually fix them and perhaps his real
body could actually be affected by his virtual injuries.

“Alex.”

When she didn’t answer, he yelled out to her.

“Alex!  Where the hell are you?”

The line remained silent and the armored clad bear and his
master stared at Sam with wide-eyed expressions.

“Ya see apprentice?  Once these undead folk die more and
more, they lose their damned minds.  Ay crazy, move it along why don’ cha?”
yelled Barrington.

Sedwin stood up on his four legs and bared his teeth at Sam.

“No, no, no.  I’m fine guys.  I’m only calling for a
friend.  Though, it seems like she’s ignoring me.”

Sedwin sat back down on his rump but continued to stare at
Sam.  A tiny text message popped up in front of Sam when tried to send a
message to Alex via the Alpha Build menu.

Alex Madura, Designer: Unavailable

Why are you acting so damn strange, Alex?  Why won’t you
answer me?

Sam got up and moved on forward with the game.  He left
Barrington’s campsite and moved further north to the forest where the Stumpies
were.  Before he went too far, a brilliant idea hit him.  He opened his
inventory and equipped his Flexile Wooden Bow.  He read its description and
stats again when he couldn’t recall how strong it was.

Flexile Wooden Bow

A flexible bow often used by farmers chasing vermin.  Its
widespread popularity is due to its low cost, resilience, and reliability. 
It’s not rare to catch a thrifty adventurer using such a weapon.

ATK  55

     Weapon Damage  15

     S ATK  E = 8

     D ATK  D = 32

     M ATK  F = 0

     B ATK  F = 0

     F RAT  0

     L RAT  0

     D RAT  0

     P RAT  0

     B RAT  3

Weight: 1.6 lbs

Overall, it was less than stellar, but at least it gave him
more offensive options.  It appeared on his back as soon as he equipped it.  He
also equipped the Wooden Arrows he had bought from the merchant earlier.  He
had sixty of them in all.  He looked up into the trees and found the evil
coconut Stumpies that ambushed him before.  He pulled out his bow and loaded
his arrow.  His dad had taught him the basics of archery when he was a kid. 
Getting into his square stance felt surprisingly natural even after so many
years.  He lifted his bow and nocked his wooden arrow.  He aimed at the closest
target and loosed his arrow.  He missed miserably then cursed and did it over
again.

He focused deeply on his next shot, mainly the distance
between himself and the enemy, then he loosed another arrow.  He missed again,
but this time he fared much better.  His arrow had flew only a little to the
right of the target.  He took aim again and this time considered the trajectory
of the arrow.  He now had a good feel for it, and so his next loosed arrow
sailed right into the body of the closest Stumpy.  The Stumpy fell down after
being struck by the quiet arrow and landed on its tiny blue head.  Sam heard a
cracking sound and the creature lost nearly all of its health.  Sam took its
remaining health with another arrow shot and proceeded forward along the trail.

******

Sam ventured around and
managed to kill twenty-nine more Stumpies with his bow before he began to get
low on arrows.  There were still a ton more Stumpies near the exit, so Sam
opted to return to the Barrington to buy some more arrows.  Each Stumpy he
killed gave Sam two hundred souls.  With five thousand eight hundred souls, he
was able to buy the Soul Bound Refinement Kit for five thousand souls along
with one-hundred and sixty Wooden Arrows from Barrington.  Sedwin gave Sam a
perplexed look as he patrolled around the camp.

“Going hunting, are we?”
Sedwin asked.

“You can say that.  I
need to safely clear a path to the north,” Sam replied.

“Ahh, well sorry I can’t
join you.  I’d love to clear out some of those nasty forest beasts, but my
place is here, at my master’s side, protecting him from all threats.”

“I understand Sedwin. 
It’s a shame though.  I could use an ally against that dragon.”

“That giant forest beast?”

Sam nodded his head.  Sedwin’s
eyes widened cartoonishly.

“Ach, that’s a bad idea
anyway you tear it.  I wouldn’t go against that thing even if I were inclined
to do so.  It’s a beast beyond approach.”

“You wouldn’t understand
Sedwin.  I come from a different world.  As a gamer, this is a fight I have to
win.”

“Sounds like more of that
undead babble to me.  Try not to die anymore, lest you lose any more of your
wits.”

Sam had a laugh at that
and took his leave of the camp to kill the rest of the Stumpies.  There weren’t
many that remained around the middle of the trail, so he decided to skip them and
went near the end of the trail to clear out the ones hanging there.  He wanted
to hold on to as many arrows as he could in case he died against the dragon
again or maybe even the bear that waited for him up ahead.  His whole purpose
for clearing the Stumpies at the end of the trail was so that he could
challenge the undead bear without any interruptions.  He had seen some of its
attack pattern when IMMORtAL_Kalika had dodged two of them before.  He would
need room to dodge its slashes.

He tested to see how fast
he could switch from his bow to his sword and back.  It took two seconds
between each switch.  It was slowed from The Death Planes where it used to
switch almost instantly.  Now he had his plan.

He took aim at the undead
bear and shot an arrow.  The arrow plunged into the bear’s eye and Sam could
tell that he landed a critical hit from how quickly the red life bar above its
head had fallen, though the damage itself was pitiful.  The bear roared to life
and rose to its hind legs, even at a distance Sam could see that the thing
towered over him.

He shot another arrow that
struck the bear’s upper body.  It went to all fours after that and charged down
the trail towards Sam.  He had enough time and space to take one more shot,
that he unfortunately missed, before he had to roll away into the part of the
forest that he cleared.

The bear was right behind
him by the time he recovered.  Sam rolled away twice, back towards the trail. 
As soon as he recovered, he changed to his sword and shield, praying that he
would swap over in time to defend himself from the charging bear.  He put his
shield up in time to block a wide swipe that drained much of his stamina gauge
and tired him out.  He had to roll away again or have his guard broken.

The bear continued to be
unrelenting in its pursuit.  Sam wasn’t even able to completely regain his
stamina before his guard was nearly broken again.  At this rate, he would
definitely be hit by one of the bear’s attacks.  He quickly rolled away one
more time and ran as fast as he could back along the trail to the beginning of
it where he cleared out the first few Stumpies.

He stopped right before
his stamina had completely run out and consumed one of the Stim Plants from his
Quick Select slot.  His stamina quickly refilled itself.  He managed to block a
vicious claw slam from the bear as well as another claw swipe.  The Stim Plant
had worked wonders, now he could fight without having to worry about his guard
being broken in only a few hits.

He rolled around the bear
and peppered it with light stabs when he could.  He got a few in before the
bear lashed out with a wild backwards slash.  Even with the Stim Plant active,
the blow still nearly drained Sam of all his stamina.  Sam could feel his heart
beating swiftly as he moved away from the beast so that his stamina could regenerate. 
He knew that blocking another attack like that would leave him wide open.

“Phew.  Okay, okay. 
Gotta finish this.  He has an opening that I can exploit.  I just have to time
it right.  If I keep going for the little attacks then I’ll bet that my Stim
Plant will wear off before I kill it.  I have to go big.”

Sam clutched his sword
tightly and waited for the savage creature to approach.  His heart was still pounding
in his chest.  He tried to calm his nerves before reengaging.

Sam jumped backwards when
the bear swiped at him from its left.  When it raised its right paw, Sam rolled
to its right side as it launched its second attack.  The burning feeling
started from his toes then quickly engulfed his whole body in an instant.  The
power traveled into his Rapier as he thrust it three times, up into the beast’s
upper body then released all his power with the final fourth blow of the
Skyward Thrust.

The damage from the
attack was enough to put the bear down to nearly half its health. 
Unfortunately, Sam’s Skyward Thrust lacked the power to push the bear away.  It
retaliated with a quick slash that Sam was barely able to block, then a nasty
swipe that managed to break his guard.

“Crap!” he yelled,
powerless to stop whatever would happen next.  The bear raised both of its paws
in the air for some kind of incoming attack.  It came down with a forward claw
lunge, but Sam’s stamina had recovered in enough time for him to avoid the
charged blow.

He strafed and lowered
his shield so that his stamina would recharge sooner.  He stabbed the bear
quickly and rolled away.  The roll was needless and the bear was only now
approaching to attack.  It went into a fury with both of its claws.

Sam wanted to get around
to its other side, but wasn’t sure how, so he just moved the hell out of the
thing’s way and hurriedly equipped his throwing knives.  He managed to plant
two knives in the bear’s head which stopped its thrashing and made it recoil.

He quickly rolled to its
back and charged a heavy thrust.  His attack landed as the bear started to
recover and did massive damage.  It still wasn’t enough, but the bear had
staggered again and Sam found another opening.

“That’s it!  Just DIE!”

Sam built up the heat in
his soul and delivered another rapid stab Skyward Thrust.  The tip of his sword
glowed red as the bear’s soul mist enveloped Sam’s body.  He was rewarded with
a single Quintessence item and fifteen hundred souls.  Sam let out a sigh of
relief as he watched the bear disappear.

“Damn you were tough! 
I’m gonna call you Big Mid-Boss from now on.  At least you dropped something
good.”

Sam patted himself on the
back for managing not to get hit during that whole ordeal.  His shield took a
beating, but at least his HP was intact.  He hoped that Alex was watching to
see that he had indeed gotten a lot better at the game.  He didn’t have much
time to celebrate though.  His next obstacle was still just up ahead.

******

Sam was as ready as he’d
ever be to face this boss.  He stood on the inside of the Soul Barrier and
stared at his Death Mark right in front of him.  It looked like a huge blood pool
with a similar neon crimson glow as his Walker form whenever he encroached upon
other Planes.  As soon as he stepped out to pick it up, he knew he’d get
destroyed just like he had before.  He needed to be smart about it.  He had
concocted an idea of how to hurt the beast too, even though it seemed
impossible before.  Now, it was time to put all those plans into effect.