Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO ON KINDLE SEPT. 2)

A deep gloom hung over the skeletal forest, casting the barren trees in flickering shadow. Only the scarcest glimmer of light penetrated the darkness from above, which, rather than providing much-needed illumination, only served to create a more malevolent atmosphere.

Elijah stood at the edge of the forest, his heart beating wildly as he clutched a ridge of stone at the mouth of the tunnel. He’d been subconsciously following the sense of corruption for some time, though he only now understood the full breadth of the truth staring him in the face.

There was a rift nearby, and one that seemed far stronger than the one he’d found in the middle of Central Park. The corruption itself didn’t seem any thicker, but it was far more ubiquitous, and in a way that made his skin crawl. He’d yet to even enter the forest, but he already felt dirty.

He’d once worked to help clean up after an oil spill. The disaster itself wasn’t as widespread as some more high-profile events, but even then, it was an ecological tragedy. For his part, he’d been tasked with cleaning birds who’d become coated in the vile substance. The process was tedious, and they ended up losing more than they’d saved, but as Elijah felt the corruption wash over him, he felt like one of those poor birds.

It was like he was coated in oil, and he didn’t have a kind volunteer to meticulously clean it away.

The forest itself was dead. He knew that from the second the first tree had come into range of Soul of the Wild. There were no animals – corrupted or not – around, either. Elijah wasn’t certain what that meant, but he knew that he had a responsibility to do something to remedy the situation.

If not as a resident of Earth, then as a Druid.

So, he stepped forward, summoning his scythe to hand. The ground gave way beneath his foot. It was like treading on rot incarnate, and the oozing remnants of decayed life squished between his toes. Never before had he wished he’d worn real shoes, rather than the simple wraps that left his toes bare.

His foot came away with a wet squelch that seemed to echo in the eerie silence that had overtaken the forest. He paused, sure that something would respond. But there were no attacks. No angry Voxx. Just more silence.

As Elijah lay his hand on one of the trees, it crumbled like soft charcoal, filling the air with dusty blackness and more corruption. In a second, it was gone, leaving nothing behind.

It was nauseating, like the very life had been sucked out of it. No ethera remained either. Nothing to suggest that it had ever really been alive.

He proceeded further into the forest, careful not to brush against any of the other trees. In a way, it reminded him of walking in the wake of a forest fire. But even those had left life behind. This was something different. Something far, far worse. And as much as Elijah wanted to stay on track, he needed to find the source.

It was his duty.

After a couple of miles, Elijah encountered something different but ultimately expected. He knelt, running his fingers along the black tendrils of corruption. They were thick and pulsed with malice and hunger, ready to consume anything they contacted. Even as Elijah withdrew his hand, he felt them trying to drag the life and ethera from his body.

But he was no passive or innocent tree, and he maintained the integrity of his own system without issue. He stood, taking a deep breath before he continued toward the center of the forest, where he knew precisely what he’d find.

A few miles later, the ground was practically covered with those thick black vines. They writhed, ready to consume anything they could find. Elijah avoided them where he could, but after a while, he realized that he could progress no further without treading upon them.

He chose another tactic.

His Mantle of Authority burst free, spreading the boughs of his soul in every direction. He didn’t use the generic version of the mantle. Instead, he let it take shape according to his essence, and in doing so, he bathed the area in vitality while eradicating all corruption.

With every pulse of his ethera, the tendrils of corruption withered. However, they did not go out without a fight. They writhed, often erupting into the air and searching for something to consume. He allowed them no purchase, funneling great torrents of ethera through the branches of his soul. In doing so, he destroyed the abyssal tendrils.

It would not last, though. Elijah knew that. And as powerful as his Mantle of Authority was, it was far too small to affect more than a tiny fraction of the fallen forest. If he truly wanted to do some good, he needed to reach the center of it all and conquer the rift that was the source. Only then could he get down to the business of cleansing the effects.

With that in mind, he slowly carved a path forward. The tendrils rebelled. They tried to fight back. But his Mantle of Authority was too potent to be denied, and in his wake, he left a withered swathe of wasted wickedness.

Then, at last, Elijah saw his goal.

And he was floored to realize that there wasn’t a single rift there. Instead, there were three, arranged in a roughly equidistant triangle. Alone, none of them were as strong as the rift he’d encountered in Central Park, though the gap wasn’t as wide as he would have liked. And their collective power far exceeded that singular rift.

Seeing that, Elijah had no difficulty imagining why the forest had so thoroughly fallen.

As he stood before them, Elijah took a second to prepare himself. From an equipment standpoint, he was already as prepared as he could be. His Vespid Raiment glistened, new and largely untested. The set was powerful enough, and as Griff had demonstrated, extremely durable. However, what really interested Elijah was the attribute bonuses. Briefly, he recalled the description he’d received when he’d taken ownership of the set:

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Vespid Raiment

Composed of six pieces (Bracers x2, Gauntlets x2, Chestguard, Pants). Total attribute bonuses:

+65 Strength

+40 Dexterity

+50 Constitution

+35 Ethera

+55 Regeneration

Unfortunately, it didn’t come with any handy traits. He’d also decided to forego the belt in favor of his Sash of the Whirlwind, mostly because he felt that the bonus to his reaction times was far more important than a handful of attributes. Still, he couldn’t help but think that the Sash of the Whirlwind had become slightly outdated.

Not that he could do anything about it. From what he’d discovered, Haste was a trait unique to system rewards. So, unless he got lucky, he wasn’t going to get an upgrade anytime soon.

In any case, Elijah was as prepared as possible.

He stepped into the first rift.

Immediately, he found himself facing a hulking voxx. The creature was roughly reptilian, though with four arms, six eyes, and enough incongruencies to label it an entirely alien creature. It also attacked immediately.

Elijah reacted without thought, sidestepping the thing’s clumsy charge. The Verdant Fang lashed out, the blade cutting through the monster’s legs without even a hitch. It tumbled to the ground, skidding across the uneven surface for almost a dozen feet before coming to a stop. It tried to rise, though Elijah never gave it the chance.

Instead, he lopped the unsuspecting monster’s head off.

Two more voxx climbed free of the ground. Elijah saw a shimmer of ethera that suggested magic was involved, but he didn’t get the chance to study it further. Nor did he truly register the environment, with its purple lightning, dark skies, and barren terrain. Instead, he shifted into the Shape of the Master and attacked.

If his Sash of the Whirlwind was valuable, then the similar buffs that came with Shape of the Master and Lupine Reflexes was absolutely unfair for his enemies. The voxx looked like they moved in slow motion, suggesting that they were underleveled for the fight. That suited Elijah just fine, and he dismantled them, one limb at a time. They never even came close to hitting him.

But instead of ending the rift then and there like he’d expected, he soon found himself facing off against three creatures. He killed them too, and they were replaced by four just like them. Then five. Six. Seven. It was a similar situation to the prerequisite to the Desolate Reach, where he’d battled waves of fighters before facing off against a master.

But in this instance, there was no master. Just an endless horde of voxx.

It went on for nearly an hour until, at last, the notification of completion flashed before his eyes. He’d lost count of how many waves he’d fought, but he’d long since passed fifty. Unfortunately, the creatures weren’t powerful enough to give him much experience.

The reward was a simple recovery potion.

Disappointing, but maybe it would prove useful. Either way, Elijah wasn’t there for rewards. He just wanted the rifts closed. Without hesitation, he stepped into the next rift and found himself facing off against a full group of voxx. He’d encountered something similar in the past, so it didn’t take him long to recognize their roles. There was a Healer, a Warrior, two Rangers, and a Sorcerer.

Unlike the first time he’d faced a similar situation, Elijah was well prepared to finish them off. He’d not used his charges of Heart of Fire, so before the creatures even had a chance to attack, he unleashed Incinerate, burning three of them to a crisp. Among that group of dead Voxx was the Healer and the Sorcerer, and the others were so badly injured that he didn’t have any issues dispatching them.

That awarded him another recovery potion, which he slipped into the Arcane Loop.

For the final rift, he decided to enter in the Shape of the Scourge. Using Guise of the Unseen, he slipped into the portal, where he found an enormous voxx standing in the distance. It was at least thirty feet tall, and it pulsed with enough ethera to tell Elijah that it had at least two-hundred levels under its nonexistent belt.

This time, Elijah took his time with his approach. When he drew close enough, he used Lurking Swarm, then leaped upon the monster’s back. His tail lashed out even as he used Phantom Shift, then Spreading Blight. The stinger at the end of his tail pierced the voxxian monster’s thick and scaley hide, spreading Ethereal Sepsis. Even as a dozen phase spiders leaped into the attack, Elijah repeatedly bit the monster. He raked its back with his dagger-like claws, ripping through its natural defenses and piling on the afflictions.

Of course, it didn’t take the attack idly.

With one of its four arms, it reached back, and far more quickly than Elijah expected. He tried to dodge, but it managed to grab hold of him. Thankfully, Phantom Shift was still active, and suddenly, he shifted to one of the six copies that came from the ability. Knowing he’d overstayed his welcome, Elijah leaped high into the air, used Cloud Step to gain altitude. It was just in time, too, because the monster barely missed another swipe.

Elijah used Cloud Step two more times before initiating a shift into the Shape of Thorn. He fell, covering hundreds of feet in a second or two before hitting the monster like a missile. He didn’t hesitate to activate Domain of Vines and Thornbound Legion. Tiny mites leaped free of his body to burrow into the monster before hundreds of black vines erupted from the ground below, only to snake around the voxxian creature’s legs. More roots grew from Elijah’s arms and shoulders, enveloping the thing in a cocoon of vegetation.

He squeezed, thorns digging into his enemy.

And then, his roots writhed like chainsaws, ripping through its flesh. Even as that happened, Elijah repeatedly snapped out his jaws, tearing away hunks of meat and scale with every bite. Meanwhile, his thorn-like tail jabbed into the thing like a sewing needle, filling the air with black blood and flesh.

The all-out assault combined with the cascade of afflictions was too much for the monster to endure. It tried to fight back, but Elijah’s efforts had weakened it to the point where those attempts were wholly ineffectual.

Finally, when Elijah ripped its face off, the thing’s vitality was exhausted. It fell, hitting the ground with a dense thud. Elijah sprang free, barely having had to exert himself.

It was just further evidence of how far he’d come. Once, he’d struggled with rifts. Now, he’d done three in only a few hours. And he hadn’t even bothered with some of his more powerful abilities.

Disappointingly, the reward was yet another rejuvenation potion. The only bright spot was that he came close to gaining another level. That would push him to two-twenty and another ability. He wasn’t certain how he knew he was close, but he felt certain of it.

Given how much experience it now took to level, that was an impressive thing.

But as much as he wanted to dwell on that, he knew that his job was only half done with the task at hand. With that in mind, he stepped out of the rift and immediately extended his Mantle of Authority. Flooding the branches of his soul with ethera, he embarked on the long process of cleansing the fallen forest.