Tower of Avarice: A LitRPG story

Chapter 10 – Floor 1: Part 2

Mathew came to two critical realizations before dawn arrived.

First, Emily wasn’t on this floor. As far as he could tell, no one from his Earth was there. He didn’t know why, but it seemed that there were many variations of the first floor, and he was on one of them.

Mathew wasn’t sure if every floor was like that, but his hope was that there would be fewer deviations as they progressed and he would be able to find Emily.

The second and more immediate realization came to him as the sun fell. Night on the first floor was terrifying.

It started with a wail by the treeline, a loud screeching sound that came from thousands of throats, rising and falling on the wind. It put a chill in Mathew’s bones, and an icy feeling spread from his stomach.

Even the veteran ‘players’ around him who had experienced this before had grimaces and fearful looks on their faces as they gathered atop scaffolding along the wall’s interior. Gripping weapons in hand, they all stared in the same direction, where Mathew was told that the city of August lay.

The wails were soon accompanied by the sound of stomping feet and the rustling of trees and brush, the crackling of fallen branches and the scuffing of dirt and rocks by boots.

The night was pitch black; clouds covered the moon and the stars, and the light of the torches and fires along the wall didn’t extend very far. But he had no trouble spotting the first of the undead as they emerged from the forest.

Their eyes shone with an eerie red light, forming an extensive line of rubies in the night. There were thousands of them, moving forward with a shambling gate.

As they came closer, Mathew saw the first as it entered the torchlight. It was a man, his body decayed and rotten. The clothes that it was wearing were covered in blood, long since dried, black and flaky. Its expression was twisted and hateful, and its red eyes stared at the defenders along the wall with the hunger of starvation.

To match its red eyes, another light shone from its chest above where its heart would be. It pulsated in the night, beating to provide the undead with a mockery of life.

“Just like a horror movie, you need to destroy their heads and pierce their hearts to put them down.” Maria advised him, watching beside him from atop the wall.

“This is insane. This can’t be real. How in the hell are these things possible?” Mathew whispered back in horror as he gripped the top of the wall with a white-knuckled grip to steady himself.

“Don’t know, don’t care. They always come back every night, no matter how many we put down. When the sun comes up, the bodies burn away. Something in August is recreating them.” Maria explained, letting out a huff of air.

“No one knows? Don’t we have to clear August to go forward?” Mathew asked, and Maria shook her head.

“Groups have cleared August before and moved onto the second floor. It doesn’t make any difference to these things. They just keep coming so another group can fight them. Like an endless game, we’re just here to grind them out until we’re strong enough to clear August.” Maria clarified.

“Grind?” Mathew asked, unfamiliar with the gamer RPG slang.

“Kill them, gather Aether and level up. Rinse and repeat while trying not to die. Stay here, Firstie, I would rather not watch you die on your first night. The best time to grind is before they mob us.” Maria said, patting him on the shoulder before seizing her spear.

By this time, the first line of the undead had nearly reached the trench in front of the wall. A few were stumbling on the loose ground, righting themselves before moving on. Mathew estimated there were at least a hundred and more on the way. It was a sea of glowing red eyes and hearts.

With a shout, Maria leapt off of the wall. Clearing the top, she sailed through the air, her spear already pointed downwards as a dozen more people followed. With superhuman strength, she passed the trench and landed in the midst of the undead, her spear already piercing a zombie’s heart.

With another guttural yell, she tossed the body into a group of others to clear some space.

Mathew was stunned by the display. How strong was someone of a higher level? It was astounding. Maria must have leapt at least a dozen feet without breaking a sweat. The others were the same. A man with a sword and shield was hewing through the undead like he was cutting wood, methodically and without slowing for a moment.

Flights of arrows sailed out from the behind the wall, and Mathew heard a loud ‘bang’ as someone loaded an antique, gunpowder rifle that blew a hole through a line of zombies, taking limbs and gouging chunks of flesh.

Even more surprising were the shouts of strange names that Mathew assumed were Blessings.

“Firebolt!”

“Frostbite!”

“Lightning Lure!”

Streaks of reddish-orange fire, bright blue ice and crackling white lightning shot down from the wall toward the undead. Several caught on fire, flailing wildly as they crashed to the ground. Others, frozen in ice, had limbs and body parts cracked off from the brittle cold. A flash of lightning struck a zombie’s heart, piercing the red glow and smothering it.

Everywhere that the undead fell, a misty blue glow would suffuse the area before gathering into a single point and dispersing. He watched as those who killed most of the undead seemed to have the same blue glow around them.

He had seen something similar in the rulebook. Was this the vaunted Aether that could be used to grow stronger and purchase more Blessings?

Even with their superhuman strength and abilities, the undead outnumbered them more than 10 to 1. They were soon surrounded by grabbing hands and gnashing teeth.

Mathew watched as one warrior who was using a club to bash in the heads of his enemies slipped on a loose patch of earth. In a second, he had three of the undead figures clinging to him, trying to wrestle him to the ground. Only the timely intervention of one of his companions saved him, but he didn’t come out of the conflict unscathed.

Drenched in blood, the man stumbled back toward the gate.

“That’s enough, fall back!” Maria shouted. The group slowly retreated as they continued to slaughter everything in their path. The gates opened a crack to allow them entry before closing once again.

Maria and the others who had gone out to fight were panting from the exertion when Mathew came upon them. Straightening her back from where she was hunched over, she lifted her spear again across her shoulder as she met him on the stair leading back to the top of the wall.

“What happens now?” Mathew asked, gesturing to the gates where he could hear the horde of undead banging their fists and bodies against them. It was a frightening sound, and Mathew worried that the gates wouldn’t hold and they would be forced to fight them in the streets.

Maria merely shrugged, jerking her thumb toward the top of the wall.

“Now we pick off a few until dawn. They won’t get through the wall or the gate. That hasn’t happened in a while, not since we dug the trench outside. You’re as safe as houses here, Firstie. Come on, let's go see what you can do. Give you a chance to strut your stuff unless you don’t have a Blessing that can kill an undead?” Maria asked curiously.

They walked to the top of the wall, and Mathew could see an ocean of undead spreading out from the town.

Some appeared to have just recently died, their bodies almost intact and untouched by rot, but many of them were nearly skeletons, whatever force keeping them together still propelling their bodies forward despite the lack of flesh.

Everyone on the walls was fighting them off with long spears, arrows or even rocks that they had gathered. Several people were lifting large stones they had collected during the day to drop on their heads, an effective way to kill them.

Unlike the slaughter that had occurred when Maria and the others were outside the walls fighting, things were slower now. He could see why she went out there. The amount of Aether they were gathering now was nowhere near the amount from earlier.

“So, are you just going to stand there and let everyone else get that Aether?” Maria asked, knocking him on the shoulder with her hand. Shook from the sight of the endless horde of zombies, Mathew nodded before looking around for a target.

“Alright. Let’s see how this works.” Mathew whispered, trying not to think about the undead gathered below, ready to devour him.

“Um…create flames?” Mathew muttered, pointing at an undead below him. He waited a second before frowning. Nothing was happening, and the silence stretched awkwardly.

“Woah, impressive. You really are a Charlatan.” Maria commented sarcastically. She patted him on the shoulder before walking away with her spear.