Overlord of the Dungeon (In the System Book #4): LitRPG Series Read online

  Overlord of the Dungeon

  by Peter Zhgulyov

  In the System

  Book 4

  Published by Magic Dome Books

  in collaboration with

  1C-Publishing

  In the System

  Book #4: Overlord of the Dungeon

  Copyright © Peter Zhgulyov 2022

  English translation copyright © Sofia Gutkin 2022

  Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2022

  Published by Magic Dome Books in collaboration with 1C Publishing, 2022

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-80-7619-434-2

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the shop and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.

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  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1. Losses

  Chapter 2. The Sea Convoy

  Chapter 3. Reconnaissance

  Chapter 4. Preparation

  Interlude. Tactics

  Chapter 5. Tokyo TV Tower

  Chapter 6. The Hospital

  Chapter 7. The Underwater Operation

  Chapter 8. Old Acquaintance

  Chapter 9. An Easy Mission

  Interlude. The Chaos Knight

  Chapter 10. Risk

  Chapter 11. Bribery (1/2)

  Chapter 12. Bribery (2/2)

  Chapter 13. Rats and Cockroaches

  Chapter 14. The Slaughter

  Chapter 15. Competitors

  Interlude. The Elder

  Chapter 16. Kill!

  Chapter 17. A Pause

  Chapter 18. No Mercy

  Chapter 19. The Heart of the Dungeon

  Chapter 20. The Search

  Interlude. The Choice

  Chapter 21. Overlord of the Dungeon

  Chapter 22. The Minor Altar

  Chapter 23. The Hunting Zone

  Chapter 24. Spiritual Parasites

  Chapter 25. The Gold Star

  Epilogue

  Appendix No. 1. Table of the Hero’s Stats and Achievements

  Appendix No. 2. Timeline of Events

  Appendix No. 3. The Dungeon

  Appendix No. 4. Formula for Obtaining Experience

  Appendix No. 5. List of Characters

  About Petr Zhgulyov

  Chapter 1. Losses

  Attention! Access granted to the Server. Sync completed…

  THE FAMILIAR EMPTINESS, decorated with dozens of interface icons. The standard steps: look at the timer, check the body’s condition… Everything is fine, I have fifteen minutes.

  Access to the Server was relatively useless this time, since I’d spent almost all my experience points earlier (3/220). My first impulse was to simply get out of here, but I forced myself to calm down and, having emptied my mind, spent the allotted time exploring the possibilities on offer. It would come in handy in the future. I could probably dig around here for years and still find something new… Especially when it came to skills.

  This function was significantly reduced for most players. There was no access to the list of skills, and when acquiring a new one, they could only specify the rank, pay the required price, and hope for the best. Nevertheless, it was useful to consider other people’s capabilities, so the abilities were recorded and documented by all interested parties. It would also help if I found something for the future. The main thing would remembering the number.

  Attention! Your time is up. Connection severed.

  I was cast back into my real body. I lay still for a while, thinking about the completed mission. It wasn’t even that I’d made a mistake somewhere, I had simply acted within the framework of the available information, and it hadn’t been enough. The results weren’t exactly pleasing. Legion had disappeared, although I’d gone into the Heresy menu and made sure that he was still listed, and therefore alive. I doubted the raven had been late on purpose, so I should be able to get him back if nobody bumps him off. However, I had no idea what had happened to my allies, and Tokyo had been practically destroyed. I certainly hoped the catastrophe was localized. I remembered the crumbling skyscrapers.

  “That was some real shit…”

  Opening my eyes, I peeled my face off the floor. I really needed to put a rug in here. There weren’t many options for what to do next, so I went to the “sacred stool”, on which stood the box with the phylactery. I took the second one out of the bag and joined them together. Nothing happened for a few seconds…

  Attention! Do you wish to merge the fragments?

  Yes/No

  As soon as I confirmed my wish, the stones flowed and merged into a single whole. My vision went dark with a mixture of pain and pleasure, and it was a while before I discovered that it was over. The box contained the same stone, only larger, and a haze swirled inside it. Interesting…

  Phylactery

  Rank: 1.

  Fragments: 2/10.

  Features:

  — Condenses the Nascent Soul.

  — Chance of attracting a soul: 1.5%.

  — Chance of resurrection: 0.001%.

  — Chance to dedicate a stone to one of the deities.

  — Can be improved.

  — Can be used to create a Minor Altar (2/10) (Heresy).

  — Binding.

  Saturation (Heresy):

  0/100 SP

  Owner:

  — Vasily

  Right, so the chances of resurrecting had increased, but only slightly. On the other hand, the merger didn’t disable the possibility of creating a Minor Altar in the future. I didn’t really know what it meant, but it sounded attractive enough to try. Pfft... Despite all my cunning, I couldn’t see a way of collecting eight more stones. Although it wasn’t that many, I only had luck to rely on. Fragments appeared only after the first mission and, in most cases, either went immediately to one of the gods, or remained in the personal room.

  The most realistic option was to get them from one of the gods. They should have enough fragments, including empty ones. Provided, of course, that they could be separated from the altar. I wondered if already charged stones would work. And would those who gave them to me be able to resurrect in my personal room? Also, was it just me, or had it become a little bigger?

  No, I wasn’t imagining it. It was a small increase — the walls had expanded by ten or twenty centimeters — but quite real. Apparently, the crystal’s growth was accompanied by an increase in my personal room’s area. Perhaps other changes would appear when a certain level was reached?

  There was another oddity. The portals to the gods, which were usually open after a mission, remained inactive this time. Personal disfavor? Or were they not up to receiving visitors? An alarming fact. Although I disliked the gods, I assumed they did a lot to protect our world from all kinds of creatures. I hoped they hadn’t been killed over there. If someone managed to bump off all the gods at once, the planet would face som
e hard times.

  I came closer to check that the gate looked the same as before, and automatically touched the stone.

  Do you want to open the Gate of Guan Yu by force (500 SP)?

  Yes/No

  Didn’t it only cost 100 SP to open the gate last time? Had the cost of the service increased? I touched the next gate, but Hera’s abode was ready to open at the old price. Just like all the others. I checked. Did that mean that the Chinese god had become stronger? Or had he upgraded the gate? I didn’t know enough about it to seriously speculate. It was another detail to add to my piggy bank of facts.

  As far as I understood, the general public couldn’t open the God Gates by force. I certainly hadn’t seen any mention of this fact in reports or open sources.

  Time remaining: 0 hours, 32 minutes and 23 seconds.

  — Fine, to hell with them.

  Leaving my personal room ahead of time would be wasteful, so I unloaded everything I didn’t from my bag. The room was located outside the other worlds, so objects from here could be freely carried to either side. It would be stupid not to use this opportunity.

  We planned to arm the reserve units based on a similar principle. It was relatively easy to create a Level 2 bag, so I would pass some of the equipment over to a fellow fighter with a similar artifact, and they, in turn, would leave it in their personal room. In the future, they’d be able to bring these supplies on a mission even if I wasn’t there. It was a pity that we didn’t have time to drag the reserve group through using this method — the idea was just forming during the third mission, I was alone on the fourth mission, and it turned out to be too late after the fifth one.

  I finished, sat down with my back against the wall, and realized how tired I was. Not only mentally, but also physically. I had been on my feet for more than a day, and although I wanted to continue farming, I was relying on the combat cocktails and Second Wind becoming available again. There were a little more than eight hours left until that moment... or a little less than nine, depending on how one looked at it. My eyes were closing, but I shook myself awake and stood up.

  Stats were accumulating, and players learned more and more with each mission. We now knew for certain that players who didn’t leave the room through the portal on time were returned to a random location on our world. It could be almost anywhere and there was no guarantee it would be safe. At least one person had fallen from a considerable height, broke his leg, and had to crawl for half a day until he was picked up. Another one had to shell out on a plane ticket. The stats didn’t reveal how many couldn’t share their experiences because they had died. It was the last resort if the road back was closed.

  Time remaining: 15 minutes and 46 seconds.

  Should I wait another ten minutes? To hell with it. I had nothing left to do in here. Plus, my allies may need a healer upon their return. Too bad this thought came to me quite late...

  * * *

  I appeared above the foldout bed and barely felt the drop. The portal was very accurate, returning the player to where they had left from. Unless the exact location was occupied by something else, and then the player appeared nearby. Still, it was a portal and not a teleport.

  I sat up, allowing the medic who entered to check me over for wounds and other injuries. By the time the examination was over, the major had entered the room. I’d have said ‘burst in’, except that he looked like a newly created zombie. I didn’t think he’d slept at all today.

  “What happened in Japan?”

  “Another tsunami?”

  “A simple tsunami wouldn’t cause such destruction. We’re getting more details, but I’m not sure that the country still exists. Do you still have the black box?”

  I nodded and took it out. Now was not the time nor the place for tricks, although I’d initially considered leaving the spy box in my personal room. I had taken two from the warehouse, and one of them was empty.

  “Certainly.”

  “I’m sorry.” Vladimir passed a hand over his face. “This is really very important, a personal request from the President. You understand.”

  “I do.”

  Well, yes, it’s not every day that the capital of a powerful neighboring state goes under water, so ‘upstairs’ must be a frenzy right now… Which meant a lot of orders and demands for answers coming down, regardless of the circumstances.

  “Have the others returned yet?”

  “Only you have come back so far. Extra medical teams are standing by. I’ve ordered the rest of the players to go to bed. We’re on high alert, so everyone is staying here.”

  I looked at my watch, knowing what I was going to see. It was after 3:00 am in Moscow.

  * * *

  I stood by the wall, looking at an empty cot. This was probably why I preferred to return as late as possible, to avoid this anxious waiting. According to the mission stats, the losses were 37% this time. Nothing was certain, but the chance of other group members returning was quite high. I just needed to wait… The situation was even more complicated this time. If someone didn’t return after an hour, there was still a chance that the punishment for “desertion” hadn’t let them reach the portal. It meant a little more hope. If Eva had been in my cult, I’d know for sure, but for now, I just had to wait. It was easier with the raven: although I couldn’t tell if he was still in one piece, Legion would be able to continue as a ghost even if the body perished…

  The air rippled, leaving behind a girl on the bed. Eva. I took a step forward to check that she was alright, but judging by her bitten lips and blood flowing from her eyes, she was far from it. She was also swearing, holding nothing back.

  I put my hand on her head and activated Healing. Her wounds were unlikely to be serious, but I didn’t want to risk it. The young woman went limp. I nodded reassuringly to her, let the medics enter and left the room, twirling a crystal between my fingers. No matter how I felt about her, I needed to check two more members who’d returned.

  * * *

  There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. This time, theoretical calculations had nothing to do with reality. Imp returned to base a few minutes later, and he didn’t even need medical help. Tatra, whom I’d mentally written off, appeared in the last few seconds. She certainly wasn’t fine. She was curled up into a ball, trembling and not answering questions, so I immediately drained my newly restored mana. Nevertheless, her return left me with a ridiculous feeling of a miracle. There had been no losses this time. I could finally let myself rest. As soon as I finished the reports.

  “Hate this... I hate this.”

  Chapter 2. The Sea Convoy

  DO WHAT YOU MUST, come what may… I’d never liked this motto because it reeked of fatalism and hopelessness, and beautiful words were best left on the pages of books. Nine times out of ten, nothing good awaited the hero. These words tended to be used when the hero couldn’t see a way to victory and was preparing to die uselessly. One always needed to see when it was better to fight, and when it was time to look for a retreat. My gut hadn’t let me down so far. I was still alive, right?

  I spent the next few days recovering, observing and resting, as much as I could at a military base during martial law. Despite our victory, the situation was critical. The gigantic tsunamis that had washed away Tokyo were followed by a series of incredibly strong earthquakes, reaching as far away as Vladivostok. Part of Honshu Island was now submerged, and hundreds of salt lakes had formed in other places. The infrastructure was destroyed, the death toll was incalculable, there was practically no communication, and rescuers couldn’t cope. To top it all off, a typhoon was raging in the region, preventing planes from flying in and delivering any significant aid at all.

  This was where the ‘good’ news ended and the bad news began: there were seventeen nuclear plants on the islands, most of which had been critically damaged or had cooling problems. It seemed that they were going to explode, despite all the precautions, since they hadn’t been designed to withstand disasters of this magnitude. A
leak soon occurred at Tokai Station, the closest one to the epicenter.

  The situation was hardly better at Hamaoka and Fukushima. Despite the efforts of the maintenance staff, it was impossible to shut the reactors down quickly, and no help was coming. The typhoon prevented the rest of the world from doing anything, and Japan’s own government had died almost in its entirety. The other countries provided wise advice, trained a team of specialists and waited…

  The Chernobyl disaster alone had created an exclusion zone, so if ten stations exploded in Japan, only the remote Okinawa would be left. It would be uncomfortable to live there, and the whole planet would suffer the consequences, not to mention Japan’s nearest neighbors.

  President Clinton announced almost immediately that his country was not responsible for the tragedy, and called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Whether they believed him or not, there were no accusations. Governments were trying to find a solution to the problem. Some of the bases on the islands remained whole, which meant they had a way to influence the situation…