Apostle of the Sleeping Gods Read online

  Apostle of the Sleeping Gods

  a novel

  by Dan Sugralinov

  Disgardium

  Book#2

  Magic Dome Books

  Disgardium

  Book #2: Apostle of the Sleeping Gods

  Copyright © Dan Sugralinov 2019

  Cover Art © Ivan Khivrenko 2019

  Art Editor © Vladimir Manyukhin 2019

  English translation copyright © Andrew Schmitt 2019

  Published by Magic Dome Books, 2019

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-80-7619-035-1

  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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  Your parents are getting divorced. Now, once you turn sixteen, you’ll be doomed to a pitiful existence on the lowest rungs of society. The neighbor girl is improving her appearance and levelling fast to impress you. A Sleeping God gave you some power, but now demands absolute loyalty and obedience even in real life. Something called the Destroying Plague wants its Emissary to infect every living thing. The only problem with that is that you are its Emissary! But the city sees you as its salvation, not the cause of all their ills...

  The underlying mechanics of Disgardium classify imba players with a lettered threat system, and Scyth aka Alex has been assigned a potential class of “A” due to his unfair advantages.

  However, it is hard to threaten the world while you're stuck levelling up in noobsville. It's even harder when all the preventer clans are on the verge of announcing a hunt for you and even your best friends can't be trusted and, all the while, your two patron gods are tearing you apart from the inside. And now, to make matters worse, your biggest enemy has just become a threat as well.

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1. Sleeping God

  Chapter 2. Alliance of Preventers

  Chapter 3. Academic Ban

  Chapter 4. Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?

  Chapter 5. Too Many Pos

  Chapter 6. A Difficult Choice

  Chapter 7. Herald

  Chapter 8. The Birth of a Farm Machine

  Chapter 9. Big Hello

  Chapter 10. Judge Cannon’s Dilemma

  Chapter 11. The Destroying Plague

  Interlude 1. Tobias

  Chapter 12. Outlaws

  Chapter 13. Cheer Elixir

  Chapter 14. Taking a Losing Bet

  Chapter 15. The Awoken

  Chapter 16. In the Crossfire

  Chapter 17. Fight!

  Interlude 2. Bellamy

  Chapter 18. Tough Lessons

  Chapter 19. Frenemies

  Chapter 20. Departure

  Chapter 21. Unforeseen Circumstances

  Chapter 22. The Ghost of William Stafford

  Chapter 23. Hunters’ Camp

  Chapter 24. Swamp Bugs

  Chapter 25. Battleground

  Interlude 3. Eve

  Chapter 26. Cooking Tournament

  Chapter 27. Imitation

  Chapter 28. Qualifying Group

  Chapter 29. First Temple

  Chapter 30. Final

  About the Author

  Chapter 1. Sleeping God

  THUNDER BLASTED out in an absolutely clear sky. The earth shook, and ripples ran across the swamp muck. Then slimy creatures started frantically crawling and jumping over one another, scrambling to get out of the water. The water started steaming, then bubbling and the creepy crawlies all went belly-up up, boiled alive. The huge bloodsucking leeches and faintly glowing balls burst, spraying droplets of disgusting brown slime.

  Then a global notification rolled through all Disgardium, breaking my train of thought. Behemoth’s voice was still whispering, but it was more like sleep-talking than anything I could make sense of. His greeting was the last intelligible thing I heard him say.

  We have detected a disturbance in the strings of creation! A new evil has awoken in Disgardium!

  Estimated potential threat class: A.

  Current threat class: Q.

  Most likely location: cannot be detected.

  The world has never seen a threat of such might! Now that this evil has awoken, we mustn’t let it grow more powerful. Be the first to find and eliminate it, and the powers that be will reward you generously!

  And if you succeed, oh bravehearts and heroes, the gods will be favorable to you as well!

  Praise all the gods that they couldn’t detect my location! This disturbance in the strings of creation must have been so powerful it shook the whole world, not just one particular location.

  I felt just completely exhausted. The few hours of ersatz sleep I got last night – first in the instance, then outside while waiting for the Dementors to reach the final boss – were helpful but not exactly great rest. Even in Dis I could feel my head just splitting. I wanted to bring the situation to its logical conclusion, find out what the Sleeping God wanted from me and finish Patrick’s quest.

  I decided I’d think over the rest later. For now, I just wanted a break from Dis. Plus by evening, my parents would be home and I wanted to spend time with them.

  When I hoisted myself onto the island in the middle of the swamp, the entity I saw there was least of all reminiscent of a god. It was a small blob of green protoplasm sloshing around in inside some film or skin. If I hadn’t been looking closely, I might have thought this was a puddle covered in duckweed and fluttering in the wind. Only the system’s explanation served to convince me this was anything more, namely: Behemoth, Sleeping God. And for a noob like me, there was no way of telling whether this was a creature with no level or a very high level.

  We exchanged greetings, and the blob was suddenly at my feet asking to be let in. And I let it in. As it turned out, it meant into my head. That was what preceded the thundering notification about my potential and actual threat classes going up.

  And that was when everything changed: Behemoth’s speech became intelligible and reasonable. Then I saw a transparent figure, probably the god’
s avatar. It even looked vaguely like a hippopotamus, a nod to the biblical origin of its name. Still, it was hard to describe. There was no easy comparison with any of the animals or fantasy creatures I was familiar with. A wraith? A monster? A nightmare? None of the bosses of any instance I’d ever seen came anywhere near Behemoth. But all that aside, it was the same height as me and looking me right in the eyes with ill intent.

  “I thought you’d be bigger,” I admitted. “I mean you’re a god after all, even if you are ‘Sleeping.’ And hey, you’re not sleeping now. Does that mean you aren’t a Sleeping God anymore?”

  “Size is irrelevant, Scyth the apostle,” the voice rumbled. “The body you see now is merely an imprint of one of my forms in your mind. It has adopted a size convenient for conversation. My true nature is locked very deep down, and you and everything around you are nothing more than a dream I am having.”

  “I think this world’s several hundred other gods might disagree. Some have even had mountains split by their name.”

  “All intelligent creatures might disagree,” Behemoth concurred with surprising ease. With a hiss, thick steam poured out of the many trunks on his face and ghastly toothed openings all over his hefty body. I couldn’t tell at first, but that was how it laughed. “None of us Sleeping Gods control our dreams. But once we all awaken, everything will be destroyed. And that includes the so-called gods such as the abomination that has staked a claim to you. I can smell its mark.”

  “Mark?” I perked up my ears. “Is this about the Destroying Plague?”

  “The Destroying Plague...” he issued a dull roar in dismay. “Empty words that make no reference to who started this. A masquerade. But that abomination gives you power, and I say let that be to our advantage for now.”

  “Our advantage? I wouldn’t be so fast, Sleeping God. I am not on your side just yet! But you are right. I did come to help you.” I got sick of standing, so I sat down on the withered grass. “I was sent here by Tristad resident Patrick O’Grady. And in return for my help, I would like the thing you promised him and never did.”

  “Tristad... Patrick... More empty words with no meaning. If you’re referring to the nutjob who showed up here with a wolf-pup he kidnapped from its mother, I never promised him anything. What happened to him was not in this world, and the thing he thinks he was promised was never promised by me. And you are here not because some Patrick sent you, but because I intercepted you on the paths of the depths.”

  “Wait, Behemoth! I don’t understand... I’m confused!”

  “It is not for you to understand,” the voice of the Sleeping God sounded weary and noticeably quieter than before. “It matters not, apostle. You are weak, so my imprint in you is weak. It is fading. We’re wasting time.”

  “Well, it matters to me!” my voice, on the other hand, had grown stronger. I was not going to accept an answer like that. And I was not going to fail the only proper quest I’d ever received, other than the ones I’d taken by the fistful from the prison bulletin board. “I made a promise to Patrick O’Grady. And I am prepared to help you, but in return you must do something for him! What did you promise him?”

  “He lost his wife and his life’s meaning.” The god’s trunks drooped, but I didn’t know how to interpret that. “I cannot give him back either thing. But I can help him find a new one...”

  “A wife or a meaning?”

  “The first will become the second, and with the second he won’t need the first. It doesn’t matter. Empty words. I’ll tell you what he needs to hear to get back what he’s lost. Are you satisfied, apostle?”

  Mission of Honorary Tristad Citizen, former city guard patrol squadron captain Patrick O’Grady complete.

  You went where he told you to go in the Mire, offered help to Behemoth and asked for what he promised Patrick as a reward.

  Unfortunately, it is not the reward he was hoping for.

  Tell Patrick O’Grady about your talk with Behemoth to receive your reward.

  “I am satisfied. Why are you calling me apostle? And what does Sleeping God mean?”

  “Because you shall be our initial herald. The one who precedes the others. You are our apostle and now we are inseparably linked...” Behemoth lowered his head and flickered his eyes. “What was that? You don’t need it. I have removed the madman’s blot placed upon you in my name.”

  I wasn’t able to tell what he was talking about at first. But when it hit me and my profile confirmed my guess, I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. Restless Soul, Patrick’s curse that made me respawn where I died, was gone.

  “My imprint is fading,” the Sleeping God continued. “As I already said, neither I nor the other Sleeping Gods control our dreams anymore, otherwise the spawn of our dreams would not believe in their creators. Without our control, everything will be swallowed up by the Nether one day. And your abominable gods are only hastening that process. And with the Nether comes a never-ending nightmare from which there is no awakening.”

  “But what can I do?”

  “You are our apostle, the initial herald. That means that in this world we are you and you are us. Do not be afraid, it just means that you are our main surrogate.”

  “You keep saying ‘our.’ Who else?”

  “All the Sleeping Gods. There shall come a time when you will learn everything but, for now, you listen. The greater our power, the stronger you shall become. You can attract new followers, and everyone who joins you will make both themselves and the others even more powerful! In the name of unity!”

  His last few words were barely audible.

  Behemoth the Sleeping God has given you the divine ability Touch of the Sleeping Gods!

  Touch of the Sleeping Gods

  Active ability.

  Allows you to convert intelligent beings into new followers of the Sleeping Gods.

  Requires confirmation from target.

  Behemoth the Sleeping God has given you the divine ability Unity!

  Unity

  Passive ability.

  +1 to a random attribute for each follower per follower of the Sleeping Gods.

  “Well, well!” I exclaimed. “With upsides like that, I can get the whole world on my side!”

  “Unfortunately, for the time being, your number is limited to thirteen intelligent creatures...” the avatar of the Sleeping God dissolved into thin air. But the voice remained, now just a rustling in my head. “Ask...”

  “How can I increase that number?”

  “An island to the west of this continent in the Bottomless Ocean. There you will find the ruins of an ancient shrine. It is the closest place of power to the Sleeping Gods. Build a temple there to concentrate faith, then build it bigger.”

  Behemoth the Sleeping God would like you to build him a new temple on an unnamed island in the Bottomless Ocean.

  Rewards: unknown.

  I accepted the quest without a second thought. It was a divine quest chain and had no potential downsides. What was there to consider?

  “I see. I don’t know how I’ll start, but I’ll try. What should I tell Patrick?”

  “Bid him go to Darant. His Jane is alive and studying at the University of Magic. But before he goes, he must restore his former mental and physical condition.”

  “Anything else?”

  “She was never his wife. So tell him that she doesn’t remember anything. And given he’s the only one other than you who’s seen me, convince him to become a follower.”

  “I don’t think that will be too hard after what I’ve got to tell him about Jane. By the way, he mentioned that you call yourself the one true god. But you just told me there are several Sleeping Gods. How does that work?”

  “That one true god was left in his world. The madman has simply confused reality and delirium. My powers are waning, Scyth...”

  “Wait! How do I get back to you? What if I need to ask you something or...?”

  “The same way you got here this time...”

  Its rustlin
g thoughts finally dissipated. I looked around and noticed that the muck around the island had retreated and the level of the bog had gone down. The sun was nearing the horizon. Depths Teleportation wouldn’t cooldown until tomorrow.

  Before I started mixing up worlds like Patrick, I had to get back.

  Exit.

  Chapter 2. Alliance of Preventers

  MY PARENTS CAME home in the evening. I spent the few hours between exiting Dis and their arrival getting the apartment and myself cleaned up. And I caught up on my studies. I had now missed a critical number of days in school, and I was sure my parents had already been notified. I missed a few phone calls from mom, culminating in an enraged message that all but confirmed it.

  So I hurriedly skimmed through my schoolbooks, studying everything I’d missed. Meanwhile, Tissa called me to ask how I was doing and where Depths Teleportation had taken me. As it turned out, the Dementors had been flung to the furthest corners of the sandbox, and it would take them a long time to get back.