Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure (20 page)

“You have some of the
king’s fire in you, I see, but you also have something even greater within,
some greater purpose and power.  For good or ill, I wish to assist you just as
I have the king.  I would like to give you this, the biggest piece of me that I
can give.”

She extended her hand
which shined with a white glow, obscuring whatever item she intended to give
him.  Sam took the item and got a message displayed across his HUD.

You’ve received an
Ignitor.

“I am a pyromancer from
the eastern lands.  What I just gave you is a precious piece of my soul, a
piece bathed in living flame.  For us cursed with immortality, the soul and
fire are intricately intertwined and can never be separate again.  By sharing
that with you, our fates have become intertwined just like the flames and our
cursed souls.  If you choose to take the flame within you and make it grow,
there will be no limit to your power.  This is the right of a pyromancer, one
who is attuned with the true nature of cursed humanity.”

Sam opened his inventory
and looked at the description for the Ignitor.  In his excited haste, he passed
over it several times before finally finding it.

Ignitor

Allows the use of
pyromancies.

A shimmering orange
and red gemstone that exudes a gentle warmth.  It is to be embedded in one’s hand
to grant access to the cursed flames of a human’s soul.  Once embedded, it is
said that it cannot be removed only extinguished.  This particular flame has
its origins in the eastern lands where fire is treated with reverence and is a
great spectacle.  The fire feels calm, but deep within there is a great and
terrible power not unlike a sleeping dragon.

ATK  45

     Weapon Damage  20

     S ATK  E = 8

     D ATK  F = 0

     M ATK  E = 12

     B ATK  E = 5

     F RAT  100

     L RAT  0

     D RAT  0

     P RAT  0

     B RAT  0

Weight: 0

Oh boy, oh boy, oh
boy, oh boy!
  By equipping this, Sam could officially add Pyromancy to the
list of badass skills in his repertoire.  There was literally no reason to NOT
do this.  Learning Pyromancies had no drawbacks and had no special stat
requirements to use them aside from the five spirituality points needed to learn
one’s first Spellcrafte.  That was what made the Prophet starting class one of
the better classes to start the game with despite its poor looking stat
distribution.

Sam selected the Ignitor
from his equipment menu and equipped it to his left hand.  Equipping it meant
that he had to embed the thing into his hand.  He clutched the shimmering jewel
in his left hand as tight as he could.  He somehow knew that he was doing the
right thing.  It was confirmed when the jewel began to burn his hand.

While instinct told him
to drop the burning stone, his inner voice told him to hang on to it and endure
the pain.  The pain in his hand blazed hotter and hotter, causing tears to well
in his eyes.  In this moment it all felt all too real, the pain, the tears, and
the promise of new power coursing through his veins.

Finally the pain began to
subside and Sam slowly opened his hand.  He looked at it and immediately saw
the scar burned into his flesh.  It was discolored, inflamed, and puckered
where the jewel had entered the center of his hand.  The redness of the flesh
began to quickly heal itself however as he watched on.

“What the hell?” he
whispered.

The scars healed almost
all the way, leaving only a small circular burn mark on the back of his hand
which looked more like a strange birthmark.

“It is done.  You have
your mark now.  That piece of me will stay with you forever.  Don’t misuse it,”
Ji told him.

“Speaking of using it,
how do I activate it?” Sam asked.

“You can only activate
your Ignitor by learning a proper Pyromancy.  I can teach you some of the
basics ... for a price that is.”

Sam gave the woman a
cynical look.  He had to have a laugh at that one.  He didn’t mind that she was
profiting from his excitement.

“You’re a slick one Ji. 
What do I have to pay for these lessons?”

She gave him a smirk and
began her explanation.

“I offer a basic lesson
in crafting a Fireball, the easiest of the Pyromancies.  That costs a mere two
thousand souls.  My other Pyromancy is one that is my specialty.  It is the Dragon’s
Breath and it is much more complex.  As such I recommend you learn it when you
have mastered the basics of Pyromancy.”

“You didn’t say how much
it costs.  How much is it?” he asked.

“This lesson is worth
fifty thousand souls, but I wouldn’t yet recommend it even if you can afford
it.”

Dragon’s Breath sounded
like it would be a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, Sam didn’t have near that amount
of souls at the current moment.  Maybe he’d have close to enough once he
defeated the next boss.

“Please teach me the
Fireball Pyromancy!”

He gave up the two
thousand souls required for the spell and watched as Ji stepped over to him and
took his palm in her hand.

“To call forth your
flame, you must summon your Ignitor.  Remember, it’s a part of you now.  Feel
for it,” she said, her voice a whisper.

It wasn’t hard to feel
the Ignitor’s power within him.  It was all he had felt since he had placed the
fiery orb inside his palm.

He turned his palm up and
watched it glow the color of fire.  A black symbol appeared in the middle of
his hand.  It was a perfect circle soon surrounded by dark orange rays of light
in the shape of wispy flames.  It looked like a symbol for an eclipse and the
black spot on his hand looked like an endless void.  But when he stared deeply
into it, he could see something more.  Deep inside, he saw the terrible power
of the flames.

“Yes, that’s it.  You’ve
awakened that power, the power of the cursed fire.  Now use it.”

Sam clenched his left
hand, the source of his Pyromancy power, an act which made the flames inside of
him grow hotter and wilder.  All of the power built up inside of his hand then,
with nowhere else to go, it burst forth up to his palm.  Sam quickly used his
instincts to give solid form to the wild flames, an act which managed to calm
him a little.

He opened his palm wide
to accommodate all the power then condensed the flames as he closed the fingers
in around it and formed it into a sphere roughly the size of a softball.  Sam
grinned with overbearing pride once his new Pyromancy was ready to go.  He
looked over at a felled tree that was nearby and threw the Fireball right at
it.  The orb traveled at a mild pace and once making contact with the tree,
exploded spectacularly.  There was nothing left of the tree once he was done.

New Pyromancy Learned,
Gained Fireball.

Replace Current Skill?  
Yes   No

He could hardly think
with all the power coursing through his body and mind.  He quickly chose to rid
himself of the Sword Uppercut, in favor of the Fireball.

“Are you freaking
serious!  Woooow!  That felt so good!  Hahahahaha!  Oh, the power!  The
POOOOOOOOOWEEEEERRRRRRR!”

He laughed like a madman
for about a minute as he chucked Fireball after Fireball throughout the
forest.  Luckily it was a videogame and not real life, otherwise he’d he
getting a visit from Smokey the Bear and the forest rangers for forest arson.

“You have a lot of energy
don’t you?  You’ll need it for what lies ahead.  Now pay attention to the path
ahead of me.  There is good fortune there for those who choose to follow the
indomitable king.  Look for your fortune.”

Sam gave Ji Susano a
respectful bow.

“Thank you very much,
Ji.  Thanks to you, I’m a lot stronger now.  I’ll see you around.”

“You may not see me
again, but what matters is to bring some justice to this accursed land. 
Remember that.  It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

She gave him a bow then
returned to her seat under the tree.  Sam followed her advice and strolled down
the path she recommended.  He hadn’t visited this part of the forest before
because of all the Stumpies in the trees.  He looked for more up above and ffound
some hiding in strategic places high up.  He pulled out his bow and used his
last two arrows to pull two of them down.  He dispatched those two and rolled
under the others, one by one, to bring them down.  He cleared the area of all
the Stumpies he could see, before continuing down Ji’s path.  Behind a tree up
ahead, there was a glow.  The golden light brightened as Sam came closer.  Once
behind the tree, Sam could now see the glowing message very well.  It was a
symbol of a crown and below it were the words Royal Summons.  Once Sam stepped
up to the symbol, his whole body was covered in the golden glow.  He touched
the golden crown and a message popped up in his HUD.

Will You Summon The
Charitable Walker, King Herke?

Sam didn’t think his
jubilation from earlier could be improved upon or that his grin could be
widened any more than before.  But he was wrong.

22
The Will of the Forest

Will You Summon The
Charitable Walker, King Herke?

“Oh Alex, baby!  You guys are magnificent assholes aren’t
you?  I can’t believe you hid this beautiful golden ticket to victory all the
way over here, surrounded by all those annoying Stumpies.  On second thought, I
can believe it knowing that you all learned game design at the Troll Institute
of Design and Technology.  I could cry right now.”

His gaze shifted from the symbol to his nearly depleted Soul
Power gauge.

“I’ll have to pass for now, king, but once I get my SP back,
I’ll return.  Don’t go anywhere.”

Sam returned down the path towards Ji Susano.  He had a
start when he saw that she wasn’t beneath the tree anymore.

“Damn, I thought you’d stay a little longer.  I hope you pop
up again.  That Dragon’s Breath sounds like a badass Pyromancy.”

He continued on, back to Barrington’s camp.  He immediately
went to where King Herke had been moon gazing before, but the king wasn’t there. 
Sam let out a sigh.

“Doesn’t matter, I can still summon him, at least.  I hope.”

He made his way back around to the Soul Beacon and sat down
in front of it.  The warmth from it engulfed his body and replenished his SP
over time.  He sat and tweaked his stats in the level-up screen.  He leveled up
his speed twice and finally got it to twenty-five.  He put his remaining point
into dexterity to up it to twenty-one.  Once he was done with that, he bought
more arrows, including two-hundred Wooden Arrows and one-hundred metal tipped
Army Arrows, from Barrington and set off down the northern forest trail once
again.

******

Sam’s heart was pounding
the whole time as he again cleared his path of Stumpies and Big Mid-Boss.  He
didn’t want to get hit even once before going into the boss fight and he
succeeded in doing just that before he made his way over to King Herke’s
Charity Sign.  Once at the golden glowing sign, he knelt down and put his hand
on it.

Will You Summon The
Charitable Walker, King Herke?

Yes   No

Sam chose yes and took a
step back once the sign began to glow much brighter.  The golden rays from the
sign cascaded outwards, blanketing everything nearby in a brief radiance.  The
light dimmed as it took the form of King Herke’s Walker.

The king sprouted up from
the ground like a plant yearning for sunlight as he embraced his new awakening
by stretching his limbs and flexing.  Sam was impressed by the sight of the
king in his Walker form.  Herke’s eyes cast a golden glow and his whole body
was surrounded in a thin golden mist that moved like fire.  Sam wondered which
was cooler, the King’s gold or his own crimson.

Sam gave a bow once he
saw that the king was fully formed and alert.  Golden Herke returned his bow
with one in kind.

“Welcome back to the
forest, king.  How’s it feel to be a Walker?”

Golden Herke remained
silent and stone faced.

“Dumb question, I
suppose.  Well, I’ve prepared everything for this battle.  We’re going straight
to the beast’s lair.  Are you ready, sir?”

The king didn’t utter a
word.  He only stared at Sam with his golden eyes.

“So not even NPC Walkers
can talk?  That’s a strange design choice, but whatevs.  As long as you can
kick some ass like the real King Herke, that’s all that matters.  Wait!  Are
you the real King Herke?”

It wasn’t as if the
silent Walker could answer, but Sam wondered it nonetheless.  It most likely
was the real king, since Sam was his real self when he was a Walker.  The king
confirmed his question with a nod.

So you can at least understand
me.  That’s good,
he thought.

“Now, it’s time.  We’re
going to crush this giant beast.”

The king couldn’t hide
his excitement and pumped his fist into the air.

“Let’s go.”

Sam walked back through
the forest and down the trail to the giant Soul Barrier at the cliffs.  He
stopped in front of it, with King Herke behind him and contemplated his
victory.

Nothing would stop him
now, not even a stupid glitch.  He knew he wouldn’t have to worry about that
though.  He trusted Alex.  If she said she fixed the problem, it was fixed. 
She hadn’t failed him yet, and it was because of her quick fixes that he was
able to enjoy the game.  He probably wouldn’t have even won the glitch contest
without her assistance.

He tried to clear his
mind before he walked through the Soul Barrier.  He did a final item check and
decided to remove his torch from its Quick Select slot.  He put Ignition Powder
in its place.  He only had three of them left, so he’d make them count.  He
also didn’t think he’d get the chance to use his bow, so he unequipped it and
lowered his equipment burden down to twenty-four percent.  He figured the added
quickness from a lowered burden would be more useful than the bow anyway in
this fight.

Once he felt he was
focused and prepared enough, he went through the mist and waited for the king
to come through behind him.  When he saw the king step through, he conferred
his strategy with him before the monster could spawn.

“We have to run through
here.  Follow me and only stop when I stop.”

Golden Herke nodded.  Sam
ingested one of his Stim Plants and wasted no time before running forward.  He
stopped further ahead of where he stopped before so that the king had some room
to dodge the beast’s plunging attack as well.

The beast’s attack kicked
up a blanketing dust like before, but Sam didn’t waste any time before
attacking.  He focused on the leg closest to him, thrusting at it rapidly and
pausing to regain his stamina before he fatigued himself.  He wondered why
Herke wasn’t nearby assisting him, but he dared not take his eyes off of the
opponent in front of him.

Just like before, the leg
began to cast spiky wooden tendrils at Sam which he expertly dodged this time. 
Once he got the wooden armor on the creature’s leg to a low percentage of HP,
he moved on to the next leg.  His strategy was simple this time.  Damage each
leg as much as could before breaking it.  That way he’d have an easier time
breaking them once the creature sped up.

As he ran, he briefly
glanced over to his left and saw King Herke at the rear right leg of the beast,
hacking it to pieces with his tremendous greatsword.  Unfortunately for Sam,
the King had hacked the armor restricting the creature’s movements right off
and now it moved faster thanks to its free limb.  It managed to catch the king
with one of its stomps and took down a nice chunk of his health, about a sixth
of it.  The king was also knocked to the ground.

“Damn it!”

Sam was caught in a bind
now.  He wanted to continue with his strategy, but if he did then there was a
chance that the king would be vanquished in the meantime.  He made up his mind
there and ran over to defend the king.

He landed a flurry of
stabs on the beast’s exposed leg before he was forced to dodge one of its
stomps.  The king was now up and managed to dodge as well.  They both recovered
and attacked it in tandem, Sam with his quick thrusts and the king with his
powerful slashes.  They crushed the limb in no time, sending blood flying
everywhere when it exploded.  Sam quickly moved on to the next part of his
strategy.

“Leave the wooden armor
on each leg, in critical health,” Sam ordered.

The king didn’t seem to
comprehend what Sam was telling him and attacked the same as he did before. 
Sam couldn’t figure out what got lost in translation.

“Fuck it!  We’ll just
have to take this one limb at a time.”

He followed behind the
king and together they broke through the bark armor of the left front leg.  Sam
got the sense that the creature was up to something, so he moved from under its
leg and beckoned the king to quickly follow.

Just in time!

The creature plunged its
gigantic reptilian body down where they had stood previously.  Sam moved back
around to the first leg he was working on–on the right—as the creature rose up,
back to its feet.  He quickly broke through the bark and began thrusting away. 
It was a risk to leave the king alone with the unrestricted left leg, but Sam
had come up with a new strategy on the fly that he felt would make the fight
much easier.

He quickly put his shield
on his back and wielded his Rapier with two hands.  He attacked with only his
most powerful charged heavy thrusts.  He was in a hurry to destroy this leg
faster than Herke could destroy his.

“I need more power!”

He selected his Ignition
Powder from his Quick Select slot and imbued his sword with the power of fire. 
The Rapier lit up brilliantly with flames and Sam continued stabbing the
creature mercilessly.  The leg fell to pieces when Sam finished it with his Skyward
Thrust and he hurriedly moved out of the way, with a huge grin on his face as
the beast toppled over on its right side.  His improvised strategy had paid
off.

“Yes!  Now to rip you to
shreds!”

Sam quickly ran up to its
belly and started stabbing at the soft flesh underneath.  Each stab drew forth
blood that was both deep purple and cold despite his fiery attacks.  The blood
hissed and dissipated as soon as it touched Sam’s flaming sword.

King Herke came forward
and attacked the beast with a massively powerful Sword Uppercut.  Sam followed
suit with his own Skyward Thrust, doing even more damage than the king thanks
to the additional fire damage from his still active Ignition Powder and the two
handing of his weapon.  The beast howled as they continued attacking and took
down about a third of its total health in one barrage.

Sam stopped attacking the
creature once he felt it move only a little.  His instincts told him to move
the hell out of the way.

“Move out of the way!” he
yelled, warning King Herke.

The massive creature
rolled over on its side, the same side Sam and King Herke were attacking it
from, and tried to rise up with the two legs that it still had on its left
side.  It, of course, struggled and failed to do so.

Its bulbous iguana
looking head was low to the ground and Sam thought to quickly capitalize and
attack it.  He wasn’t able to get to it before the creature started thrashing
around again, slamming its head, body, and legs everywhere it could.  The king
was once again clipped by one of the attacks and sent flying.  Sam stayed
safely out of range as he watched the creature’s thrashing.

He could now see the its
full body and he found it more horrendous than before.  It was mainly the
addition of its tail.  Its tail was its strangest and most disturbing feature by
far.  It was long and coiled like a rattlesnake’s tail, but at the end there
looked to be the head of another creature.  It mostly looked like a fly trap,
but had huge red froglike eyes that were disturbingly focused on Sam and Sam alone. 
Sam had an idea now, how the beast could attack through his defenses so easily
last time.

Finally the beast stopped
its thrashing, but afterwards it did something peculiar.  It leaned on its left
side on its remaining two legs and seemed to be applying more and more pressure
on them.  Then it used the rest of its weight and rolled over onto the legs,
breaking them apart in the process.

The sound of cracking
wood reverberated around Sam like a tree being felled in a forest.  Blood and
wood pieces littered the ground beneath the beast along with the two massive
legs it shed.  The creature fell onto its side, then rolled to its back then
belly.  Once there, it seemed to be back in control of itself and focused its
malice onto Sam.

Now Sam had two pairs of
bulbous eyes looking right at him.  If he could, he would’ve probably vacated
his bowels right there.

“Alright, round two
then.  Let’s go freak!”

Sam held his shield up in
front of him and braved his way forward towards the creature.  Now it looked
like what it actually was, an extremely fat snake.  If this was really the will
of the forest, then the forest must’ve had an insatiable hunger.

The serpentine beast slithered
forward and charged at him.  It clipped Sam’s shield and he quickly lost half
of his stamina.  He quickly rolled away before being clipped again and taking
damage.  Thankfully, he saw King Herke running up to give him some assistance.

Quickly, while he had the
chance, he ingested another Stim Plant since the effects of the first one had worn
off.  He was tempted to reapply some Ignition Powder to his weapon as well, but
he felt it would just be a waste if he used it now.

Once it reached the edge
of the cliff, the Will of the Forest made an impossibly quick U-turn.  Sam was
hit by its unexpected charge and knocked back.  He quickly took a swig of his Soul
Fire once he got up, healing all the damage that the monster had inflicted with
just that one attack.

It stopped its charge
right near him and lashed out at him with its tongue.  Sam blocked and saw his
stamina diminish greatly as it lashed out again and again.  Golden Herke
approached it from the side and did some damage with a huge horizontal slash
followed by a charged downward slamming attack.

Sam rolled to the side to
avoid another tongue lashing then closed in on the other side of the creature’s
body.  He managed a single thrust before the creature swung its body around and
knocked both he and Herke down.  He lost a third of his health and reactively
blocked once he got up.

Herke continued his
attack, doing light but stable damage and Sam followed suit after healing.  The
front head of the creature attacked Herke with a headbutt, which he managed to
block with his greatsword.  Unfortunately he still took some sizeable damage and
was greatly pushed back since swords weren’t the best thing to block with, even
greatswords.