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

  “Show me...”

  I closed my eyes and an image of a huge scarlet slime popped into my head. Judging by what I saw, it had been much smaller initially, but it had killed a lot of people after climbing into the observatory, and had then digested their bodies. While the Slime could squeeze through almost any gap in its basic form, it had acquired a shell during its evolution, and could no longer fit through the small spaces. It could probably squeeze through the window, but it clearly didn’t want to fall two hundred meters down, and the stairs were inaccessible to it. This didn’t stop it from hovering by the stairs and catching anyone who wanted to go down. This was the main reason for the plight of the people upstairs. To reach the neighboring buildings, they had to not only descend the technical stairs and slip past the tentacles, which reacted to movement, but also to swim several hundred meters through the cold water. Even if a strong adult man could manage the task with some luck, there was no way to return.

  “Well, did you find out anything?” The captain asked.

  “Yes, I’m done. There is a large Slime in the lower observation deck, and several dozen people in the upper one. Let’s complete the reconnaissance and head back.”

  As I’d expected, the raven didn’t need urgent rescuing, and the creature below was too dangerous to attack alone and without proper preparation. After all, I needed to use the available resources wisely. If I had correctly estimated the Slime’s level, we had to finish it off, and I wanted to do it personally.

  * * *

  The helicopter shook suddenly, and the engine sounded a little different. A few seconds later, the unpleasant sound disappeared. I hate flying…

  “Damn it,” swore the captain.

  “Are we all going to die?”

  “Minor technical issue. The helicopter is old and not used very often. It’s okay, we’re almost done, and the wind is getting stronger. Time to go back, I think.”

  I nodded, noting that the flight mechanic was clearly nervous. I remembered that the interaction between modern technology and magic was still under question. There had been no obvious conflicts so far, but in many works of literature, such interaction resulted in various problems. All the way up to shutting down any complex equipment. It would be sad to learn that the science fiction writers were right, with our helicopter serving as the example.

  Pulling out my smartphone, I made sure that it was working. Well, as much as it could, considering the lack of mobile reception, not to mention the internet. We had to use radios. I felt reassured — it would be strange if the technology deterioration began with engines, and not something more delicate. All this was nonsense anyway. The Americans had been here for days and would have shared such information. Hopefully. So, if we dropped out of the sky, it wouldn’t be because of magic, but because someone had scrounged on maintenance. How comforting…

  “I see survivors! On the roof to the right. Twenty or so.”

  “I’ll record their position on the map. Son of a...”

  Yes, exactly. The people hadn’t clambered onto the roof for no reason. A huge Slime crawled after them, driving them to the edge. Jumping wasn’t an option — the roof was high up, it was cold, and there could be several krakens floating in the water below. The crowd was armed, but they had little chance against a monster. A survivor in familiar clothes stepped forward and raised a sword... a player. One of the people who was initiated during the cataclysm?

  “Can we help them?” I asked.

  “We don’t have anything suitable,” the pilot replied. “We could launch a rocket, but I doubt the civilians will survive it. Can we shoot it with rifles?”

  “Didn’t you read the instructions?” the navigator interrupted. “Shooting Slimes is a waste of bullets.”

  “Are you short of bullets?” I snorted. “Let’s get closer and try.”

  I tried to guess if I could jump down on the roof if we flew closer. Probably, but the risk was considerable. The wind was quite strong, and the slightest mistake could lead to a crash. Unless I jumped from about five meters away, which I could survive in combat form. But how would I get back? No, I had to make sure we couldn’t do it in any other way first...

  * * *

  Slime, Kraken type. Rank F. Level 9.

  I took out my rifle and aimed at the creature. Unfortunately, my Magic Vision was practically useless from such a distance. The creature glowed in its entirety and I couldn’t tell where its heart was. Plus, the helicopter refused to hang motionless, constantly messing up my aim. Which didn’t prevent me from shooting, of course. It was impossible to miss such a hulk. The creature stopped, sensing a new threat, but couldn’t understand where it was coming from. The distance was to our advantage, since its senses couldn’t reach us.

  “Do you think the guy has a chance?”

  “It’s hard to say…”

  I didn’t want to spend mana on Identification, so I saw the bare minimum of information. The player had the fourth level, so he was far from green. But there were too many unknowns, such as acquired skills, baseline physical parameters, possible injuries…

  The swordsman started running, accelerating rapidly. Tentacles darted toward him, much less swiftly. The kraken’s body was clearly adapted for action underwater. The player dodged one tentacle, met the second with his blade, cut it off, then slipped past the others, slashed at the monster’s body and... swept past the creature and dived down. Down to where the creature had come from. Perhaps it was a distraction, but the Slime didn’t fall for it. It hesitated for several seconds, but then decided that a bunch of defenseless people on the edge of the roof were much more interesting than nimble and aggressive prey.…

  “Shit, it’s going to kill them all!”

  The bullets didn’t seem to bother it any longer. I dropped the rifle and sat, unhooking the safety line.

  “I need you to hover over the roof. Right now!”

  “Are you crazy, man? Don’t do anything stupid. Try shooting it again.”

  “That’s an order,” I insisted. “Do you want them to die? You have no idea of my abilities. Don’t worry, I can handle this thing. I’m going to shift into combat form, so don’t freak out.”

  The captain was senior in rank, but there was no need to remind him who was in charge of this operation. The days of rest had not been in vain. I loosened the straps on my armor, and then, closing my eyes for a moment, transformed into the combat form. A second of disorientation. Although the increase in each individual characteristic was small, the total effect was quite impressive.

  “Holy crap!” said the navigator. “Good thing you warned us...”

  “Just a little longer...” the pilot said tensely. “Now!”

  I made sure that the helicopter was low enough and jumped, rolling as I landed. I immediately leapt to my feet, a spear appearing in my hand. I didn’t activate Invisibility since I needed to attract the Slime’s attention.

  “Hey!” Shouting was pointless since the creatures were deaf, but I felt like it anyway.

  Taking a gun out of my bag, I fired several shots at the kraken. It inflicted minimal damage, but it certainly didn’t go unnoticed. I put the gun back in the bag, shifted my grip on the spear and confidently headed towards the monster. Magic Vision. There was the heart.

  “Gotcha.” I wasn’t afraid of the creature. Its tentacles were thin and dangerously long, with impressive claws on the ends, yet they were quite slow. If the swordsman had managed to dodge them, I wouldn’t have any trouble. Plus, I’d already attracted the creature’s attention, so there was no point in pretentious gestures. It was time to use another trump card.

  Slipping into Invisibility, I easily dodged the tentacles and was soon within striking distance. The spear sank into the flesh, and I fired mana down the shaft. Only a little, so that the gelatinous body wobbled from the internal explosion, but the heart cracked and burst. Or should I call it a cocoon? The mucus leaked inside, dissolving the inner ‘worm’ and the kraken went limp.

  Attention! You have gained 22 SP! (25/220)

  I walked around the half-digested body and took a card from the air. An emptie. Despite its ninth level, the creature’s rank was quite low. Its stats were disappointing too. Slimes never really dropped anything good.

  * * *

  “Mom, is that a monster too?” a girl of about five whimpered. “He’s going to kill us, isn’t he?”

  “Of course not, Eri-chan. He must be a hero. He killed the monster, didn’t he?”

  “More importantly, he arrived by helicopter,” a man added, adjusting his glasses. “Even if I’m right and there has been an alien invasion, they would be using something else. Flying saucers, for example…”

  Pfft... I exhaled and deactivated my combat form, allowing everyone to see that I was just a man. Despite the briefness of the fight, I’d used a bunch of abilities and had spent about a third of my mana. The bruises I’d acquired started aching, and my nerves sang with the stress of combat. No matter how weak the enemy was, it was still a fight...

  Attention! Would you like to accept a local rank F mission? (0/1)!

  Yes/No

  Time remaining: 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

  I wrinkled my nose. These messages appeared quite regularly and usually disappeared before the timer ran out. At a pinch, a player on duty on one of the islands would accept the task in the last seconds. I could thus safely ignore the risks — on the contrary, a free mission even expanded my capabilities, giving me another way out.

  “Don’t worry,” I returned to reality. “I’m a member of the rescue mission.”

  “Why did it take so long?!” another man was indignant. “We’ve been here for a week…”

  “Shut up!” I snapped. “The whole of Japan is in ruins! Too many people need help. You are in the epicenter of the disaster, so we only got to you now. Are there more creatures down below?”

  “I don’t think so,” replied the man in glasses. “We only saw the one. Yuki planned to draw the monster away from us, but if it didn’t work... Well, we were supposed to scatter and try to break through on our own.”

  “How did the creature get you all here in the first place?”

  “Toshi overslept. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t blame him, but he paid the price. He was eaten, which gave us a head start.”

  The girl burst into tears again, clinging to her mother. A slightly older boy also started whimpering. When I looked at him more closely, a sign appeared above the boy’s head:

  Nameless Human Unit. Level 1.

  What the hell? I checked the others and discovered that almost all the civilians had been initiated, even if they weren’t players. No wonder the Americans were so keen to take care of those they’d rescued. I was probably being excessively harsh here, as they would have assisted their long-time allies in any case. Yet they had hid this information from us.

  “Can you see the numbers?”

  “Yes,” the boy was the first to admit it. “Does that mean we have to fight monsters too? Yuki said that… If... If you give me a sword, I’ll kill it myself next time!”

  “No, you won’t have to. Only players are summoned to missions, and your status is too low. So, don’t worry. On the contrary, consider yourself lucky that you now have new abilities.

  They could certainly level up using System weapons. Of course, they first needed to get their hands on said weapons…

  After answering several questions and quickly wrapping up the conversation, I summoned the ghost again.

  “You called me, boss?”

  “Check the building for Slimes.” I didn’t even turn around, showing no indication of the ghost’s arrival. “And there must be a player here. Find him, I want to talk to him.”

  The fact that the swordsman had abandoned the civilians might seem outrageous, but only if one forgot that the players themselves weren’t soldiers. Yes, they had weapons, but so did the crowd in front of me, who were armed with sticks, knives and axes. Yet they didn’t try to fight the creature. A smart move, for they had little chance of winning, but still... you can’t demand from others what you’re not willing to do yourself.

  * * *

  I passed on the news and let the helicopter go. I couldn’t leave the group after saving it. It wasn’t such a big sacrifice. I had no doubt that I’d survive even if new monsters appeared, and I still had time. Nor could the helicopter pick me up unless the pilot risked landing on the roof.

  The landing pad needed to be twenty by thirty meters in size. There wasn’t enough room here, and I wasn’t even sure the roof would hold. Jump straight into the helicopter? We weren’t in a Hollywood blockbuster and, considering the wind and engine problems, I preferred to wait for the boat.

  We had to get the survivors out of here somehow.

  * * *

  The mission soon disappeared, making me suspect that I wasn’t destined to meet the swordsman. Yet Bri returned from reconnaissance to report that not only were there no monsters in the building, the player was also nearby. He was probably grappling with remorse. Was he planning to come back? This was bad. It was better to make a choice right away — if you abandon people to be devoured by a Slime, then keep running, don’t wait for it to finish its lunch and crawl after you. The building was quite large, so if he locked himself in one of the apartments, he could play hide and seek for a while…

  “Hello.” I showed my empty hands. “That was a pretty good fight…”

  “Save it,” the swordsman grimaced. “Who are you?”

  I suddenly realized what had puzzled me from the start. Yuki was a girl, not a guy. Young, flat as a board, dirty, with short-cropped hair, but definitely a girl. Not that it really changed anything.

  “Vasily. Have you heard of me?”

  “Kawakami Yuki.” The swordswoman bowed slightly. “You killed the monster, I saw it. My task is also finished.”

  “That’s right,” I hesitated. “How long have you been in the Game?”

  “A week? It’s hard to say. This is my fifth mission.”

  I didn’t ask stupid questions. The girl was clearly local, initiated a week ago, and had been sent on one mission after another this whole time. If the monster had been her target, she could leave at any moment.

  “Are you going to leave?”

  “Do I look like an idiot?” There was sudden exhaustion in her voice. “All I want is to find a safe place, where I can wash and get a good rest. It’s a miracle that I’m still alive. You’re taking me with you, aren’t you?”

  “I let the helicopter go, but they will take us away from here soon.”

  “Then the people should head downstairs. It’s much more comfortable in the apartments, and if we put a couple of people to watch the stairs, they won’t get us. Let’s go.”

  The girl slipped past me. Well, even if she was grappling with remorse, she wasn’t showing it.

  Chapter 4. Preparation

  THE RADIOS MADE IT POSSIBLE to stay up to date with the situation, while a conversation with Yuki, whose name was the same as her nickname, revealed a lot of interesting things. First of all, the selection of the Tokyo Thousand was much more complex and rigid than usual. The girl skimmed over the details. She probably didn’t completely trust me right now and didn’t want to reveal too much. However, there were enough hints — she had returned to the destroyed city as a Level 3 player, with a second rank bag and, apparently, an impressive range of weapon cards.

  She spoke more openly about the events here, explaining how she jumped from mission to mission — there were a lot of them at first — protecting civilians and waiting for help, which didn’t come...

  It helped that her brother was also a player, so Yuki knew many aspects of the Game. The guy hadn’t kept the situation a secret from his family. It was a disturbing coincidence, frankly. I had previously believed that the chance of my family being drawn into the Game was extremely small. However, for Yuki, her player status had saver her in an absolutely hopeless situation. Her loved ones were somewhere in the city at the time of the disaster, but Yuki hoped that they had survived. What else could she do? I even remembered her brother, River Serpent. We had crossed paths a couple of times in the fortress, and the guy had apparently become a pretty strong player. One of the strongest in Japan. Nevertheless, the chances that he had survived the disaster were small. Unlike the others, Ryu had ended up in Tokyo not because of the mission, but because he lived here and worked for the government. His fate depended on where he had been before the impact…

  In the end, we had to evacuate by air, with a helicopter sent for us. Not the one I arrived on, but the KA-29 transport helicopter, designed for such things. It was large enough to take everyone at once. The wind had subsided slightly, and thanks to the presence of fasteners and a lifting mechanism, the loading took place without any problems. I didn’t get a chance to slack off.