City of Goblins (In the System Book #1): LitRPG Series Read online

  City of Goblins

  by Peter Zhgulyov

  In the System

  Book 1

  Published by Magic Dome Books

  in collaboration with

  1C-Publishing

  In the System

  Book #1: City of Goblins

  Copyright © Peter Zhgulyov 2020

  English translation copyright © Sofia Gutkin 2020

  Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2020

  Published by Magic Dome Books in collaboration with 1C Publishing, 2020

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-80-7619-166-2

  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:

  Prologue

  Chapter 1. Activation

  Chapter 2. All You Need is to Kill

  Chapter 3. The Failed Alliance

  Chapter 4. Blood

  Chapter 5. The Escape

  Appendix. Character Table No. 1

  Chapter 6. The Return

  Chapter 7. Preparation

  Chapter 8. The Goblin

  Chapter 9. Chance Meetings

  Chapter 10. The Duel

  Chapter 11. The Gathering

  Interlude. The Ninth

  Chapter 12. The Circle

  Chapter 13. Plans

  Interlude. The Renegade

  Chapter 14. The Bone Horror

  Appendix. Character Table No. 2

  Chapter 15. The Retreat

  Chapter 16. The Ambush

  Chapter 17. The Spoils of War

  Appendix. Character Table No. 3

  Prologue

  EVERYTHING ONCE CREATED will someday die. Our world is no exception. The heat death of the universe. For most, this fact is too far into the future and too doubtful to worry over. Having accepted one’s death, it is much easier to accept the destruction of all and sundry. There were god-like beings, however, who could survive until this moment and who had no desire to obediently await the inevitable. It seemed that one of them had found a solution. If the problem was that energy gradually disperses in space, would it not be better to gather it all himself? A desire of madness, even for a deity.

  The Devourer began a war, consuming star system after star system, waging battles against his own kind and taking their power... Slowly, too slowly. The universe is enormous and most of its inhabitants had no desire to be consumed, and so it came about that everyone took up arms against him. There came a moment when the Devourer realized that he was bound to lose, but he did not admit defeat. Instead, he destroyed himself and created the System. The Great Game, which drew in countless worlds and continued to constantly spread. A Game in which his enemies continued what he had started.

  A System that would allow the universe to come to its end, and then, using the energy absorbed over billions of years, create the world anew.

  * * *

  Attention! The System has granted you the status of one of the seven First Gods of Order. Please select your incarnation from the regional list.

  Europe. France. A young woman, casting a regretful glance at Aphrodite, picks the one slightly higher on the list.

  Attention! The Greek Pantheon has been generated. Hera has come into this world!

  Eastern Asia. PRC. An elderly Chinese man makes his choice.

  Attention! The Asian Pantheon has been generated. Guan Yu has come into this world!

  Africa. Nigeria. A youth barely out of childhood...

  Attention! The African Pantheon has been generated. Great Set has come into this world!

  North America. USA. An office clerk grimaces, picking uncertainly among the local gods. Maybe he’s heard of this one before?

  Attention! The North American Pantheon has been generated. Quetzalcoatl has come into this world!

  South America. Brazil. A tourist lounging on the bed...

  Attention! The South American Pantheon has been generated. Inti has come into this world!

  Southern Asia. India. A monk in one of the numerous temples in this land.

  Attention! The Indian Pantheon has been generated. Shiva has come into this world!

  Europe again, northern this time. Denmark. A minor official...

  Attention! The Scandinavian Pantheon has been generated! Odin has come into this world!

  Chapter 1. Activation

  THERE ARE PLENTY of good things in life, and one of them, undoubtedly, is sleep. There is a reason that people say you should ‘sleep on it’. If you’re sad, afraid or lonely, go to sleep and it will all pass. At least, until you wake up again. This method had always worked for me before, cutting off my problems better than alcohol or drugs. Besides, I never had much interest in the latter, and it’s not like I had money to splurge after being recently fired. Hmm...

  This dream was different from the thousands I’d had before, not least because I clearly remembered everything that came before and knew that I’d definitely gone to bed. I knew this a bit too clearly for a dream. A standard menu appeared before my eyes,

  Start Spiel?

  Ja/No (Die)

  [0] — I have read and agree with the Terms of the Contract.

  Why the mix of languages? Bad localization? Man, my mother did say that nothing good would come of these games... Ten or fifteen years ago. Who would have thought that it wouldn’t happen immediately, but many years later?

  This thought didn’t stop me from agreeing to the terms of the contract without reading the text, by moving the cursor left and choosing the first option. Yes.

  * * *

  In the very same minute, thousands of people around the world saw a similar menu, although it varied slightly for each person. Different languages, slightly different phrases and fonts...

  Start Game?

  Yes/No?

  A man who was president of a large company didn’t like to rush important decisions and his intuition told him that this decision was important. And urgent. However, experience told him never to agree to the terms without checking everything first. It took him only a minute to skim through the Agreement but when he finally, prodded by a vague anxiety, reached for the left button, he found that it had already disappeared. The remaining option glowed and shifted into the center, transforming from the brief ‘No’ into the frightening ‘Death’. What?

  Trial failed. The Player’s position has been taken.

  This message was the last thing that he, and three other candidates, saw before they turned into clusters of energy and information. The creation of a player was an energy-intensive process and the System preferred to save its internal resources, concurrently adding new information about this world to its database. Only one person passed in a pool of 5-6 candidates – the one who first accepted the offered terms. Perhaps it was unfair, but the mechanism couldn’t care less if it didn’t get in the way of reaching the
Goal.

  The man died in his sleep, from severe exhaustion, the doctors later said. Around five thousand such deaths took place that night. A drop in the ocean of humanity, and so nobody noticed the loss. A drop from which the first one thousand players were born.

  * * *

  Attention! You have passed the preliminary trial!

  The System (75%) is active. Connecting to the Server (50%)… Status obtained: Player!

  Creating database for the new world… Scanning character. Checking parameters. Please wait.

  I floated in emptiness with no awareness of my body and no idea about what was happening. About a minute later, when I was getting seriously worried about being stuck here forever, a table popped up.

  Ivan V. Susanin

  General ID: unknown.

  Local ID: Z-8.

  True Name: Ivan V. Susanin.

  Age: 24 years (8954 days).

  Race: human (97%).

  Gender: male.

  Level: 1 (0/20 System Points).

  Available: 0 System Points (SP).

  Parameters*:

  Strength: 6/10.

  Agility: 7/10.

  Intelligence: 7/10.

  Vitality: 6/10.

  Stamina: 6/10.

  Perception: 7/10.

  Luck: 2/10.

  Race Parameter:

  Intuition: 9/10.

  *For the human race, 10 is the maximum possible natural value. First Barrier.

  System Skills:

  Player (F)

  — Intuitive interface (F, 1/1).

  — Help (F, 1/1).

  — System Language (F, 1/1).

  Achievements and Titles:

  Eighth (personal, unique) — sometimes ill-luck is so great, that great fortune passes close by. Special skills are hidden.

  It was like in a game. The slowly growing panic retreated slightly. I glanced over the text and fastened my gaze on the last line. I wasn’t given time to study what was written, however, as a new message appeared.

  Attention! Do you wish to change your tag?

  Yes/No?

  (60, 59, 58…)

  A timer? I confirmed my ‘wish’ immediately and mentally erased my surname and middle initial. This didn’t seem sufficient so I erased my first name, too. Right, now my tag... Eighth? A chill ran down my spine. No, better not use my achievement as a name. Or is it a title? OK, whatever...

  (52, 51, 50…)

  Despite my decision, the timer remained and continued its countdown, so I had to hurry. Just Ivan? No. Even ignoring the fact that half the villains in Hollywood movies were called that, it was my real name. Should I pick a foreign one? That felt fake. Something flashy like Superman or Night Shadow? I’m not a twelve-year-old boy.

  It will be... it will be... Vasya. Well, why not? In that case, let it be Vasily. Confirm

  System Name: Vasily

  Truly an ‘intuitive interface’. The controls were straightforward, reminding of a standard OS.

  The System accepted my decision without even trying to add a couple of numbers to my tag. Which wasn’t that surprising, considering the number assigned to me. If I was indeed the eight, it was unlikely that the others have already taken the most popular nicknames. Of course, if there was even a restriction on originality. My real name didn’t disappear, it simply dropped one line down and was labelled ‘True’. What was the point of that?

  Attention! Do you wish to hide your True Name?

  Yes/No?

  Of course. The System thought for a moment and the word ‘hidden’ appeared in brackets next to my name. I felt instantly calmer and finally returned to studying the table. Well, was there a help menu?

  There was. As soon as I focused on one of the parameters, a brief description appeared.

  Strength (6/10) — corresponds to physical fitness.

  Helpful... They might as well have written “strength corresponds to strength”. Although, if this was a dream, I had nobody to blame but myself for the puny description. But the more things unfolded, the less I was sure of my initial conclusion. The question wasn’t even if it was a lot or a little, but rather how much it corresponded to reality?

  If one assumes that only a few people in the whole of humanity had a 10, then world athletes could only get 8 or 9. Perhaps a couple of years ago, I would have scored a solid 7, but I’d become less active since I’d returned from the army and started working. I didn’t have the time, nor, to be honest, the desire for regular training. Still, you wouldn’t call me a weakling...

  Agility (7/10) — corresponds to overall mobility.

  An equally useless description, but the number was acceptable. I hadn’t gained any extra weight, after all, and remained quite, um, mobile. Plus, I’d done a lot of stretching in my childhood.

  Intelligence (7/10) — corresponds to memory, processing speed and brain development.

  Seven. Almost too much. I’d finished university but couldn’t boast of any high marks, and I’d done plenty of stupid things during my life. Nevertheless, according to the System, I was a long way from a genius.

  Vitality (6/10) — corresponds to wound healing, immunity and life expectancy.

  Well, a 6 for vitality looked rather poor. If I took 120 years as the maximum, 1 point was equal to roughly 12 years. Hence, the System predicted my death at around seventy years of age...

  Bloody hell, why was I taking these numbers seriously? Although... why wouldn’t I? It was a strange situation but right now, all I could do was keep calm and wait for events to unfold. Why not take the situation seriously in that case? If this was reality, I would be at an advantage, and if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t lose anything by it.

  Stamina (6/10) — reduces the accumulation of fatigue, determines the time required for proper rest and sleep.

  There was nothing surprising there, it was the obvious consequence of my past year of sedentary work.

  Perception (7/10) — responsible for the senses and attention to detail.

  A 7 was quite good, I’d never complained about my powers of observation. Perhaps it was due to my little hobby? It’s well known that as people get older, they become more and more absorbed by their own thoughts and pay less attention to their surroundings. Once I’d noticed this tendency in myself, I consciously forced myself to note minor details. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll always spot something interesting. And it will be harder for a person to spring something on you.

  Luck (2/10) — corresponds to probability.

  I only had a 2 here... Hmm... All my life, I preferred not to believe in luck, considering it a kind of compilation of events that couldn’t be predicted. All our problems are the results of our actions, and blaming them on the powers that be or something similar is not a good habit. Nevertheless, I was hard put not to admit that I was suspiciously unlucky at times. For example, I would randomly pick the most difficult question in an oral exam, and then pick the same question when I was retaking the exam. Such things didn’t always happen, but they happened often enough. Still, I’d never slipped on a banana peel and had somehow survived almost a quarter of a century. And two was more than zero.

  Intuition — allows decisions to be made based on ambiguous facts. Maximum for the human race — 10.

  Unlike the previous parameter, this one was close to maximum. Which was surprising, considering the example with the exam questions. Perhaps I had drawn out the unlucky piece of paper again not by chance, but because it had seemed vaguely familiar? After being handled by students, the papers lost their anonymity. One acquired a slight crease, another had a barely noticeable spot. Perhaps it wasn’t even bad luck? After all, even if it had been a difficult question, I didn’t give into the temptation of not studying it, and eventually passed the exam. Hmm...

  I didn’t know what to make of that, I had to keep going. But where? Surely, I wasn’t going to remain here forever, in this emptiness? The System unfroze and reminded me again of its existence.

  Attention! Select a primary sk
ill (74%).

  — Minor magical ability (F, 1/5).

  — Sword fighting (F, 1/5).

  — Dagger fighting (F, 1/5).

  — Axe fighting (F, 1/5).

  — Mace fighting (F, 1/5).

  — Spear fighting (F, 1/5).

  …

  — Hand-to-hand combat (F, 1/5).

  I skimmed through the list. There were plenty of options, covering almost all bladed weapons. It was hard to miss the fact that all the skills were combat ones. There were no offers of teaching me to grow flowers or play chess with great skill. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the game would focus on fighting. Not the cheeriest conclusion to make.