Apostle of the Sleeping Gods Read online

  Punisher, level 16

  Undead

  Local boss

  Vassal of the Destroying Plague

  I was the only one that could see the last line. It was “visible only to the emissaries of the Destroying Plague.”

  “Son of a bitch!” Crawler shouted full throat. “This is a wipe! Scyth, if you’ve got any tricks up your sleeve, now’s the time!”

  “Gotcha,” I answered and ran over to the wolf, gaining speed. “Punisher is mine!”

  Ed shouted something, but his words were drowned out by someone else’s thoughts in my head:

  “Greetings, herald. You called and I came.”

  It didn’t sound like words as such, but it led me to believe Ghastly Howl could summon Punisher at a short distance, and he perceived me not as a master, more like an ally.

  The description might give the impression this all took a long time, but in fact less than two minutes had passed since the start of the battle.

  The wolf came up and gave me a friendly nuzzle to the shoulder. No additional control buttons showed up in the interface, and I didn’t understand how to give him commands. He didn’t react to mental commands, so I tried vocally:

  “Kill the Lich Hermit!”

  The massive wolf was at the boss’s side in one jump, latching into a dangling tentacle. The lich perceived this new threat as the most dangerous and turned to Punisher. His palm hovered over the wolf’s large forehead, darkness gathered and Punisher gave a heart-rending whimper.

  Taking advantage of the opportunity, I slammed the lich in the face with a powerful Hammer and broke its arm with a second blow, stopping it from working its black magic on the undead wolf.

  You have damaged the Lich Hermit: 635.

  Health points: 1541/2300.

  You have damaged the Lich Hermit: 37.

  Health points: 1504/2300.

  The spirit started to worry, forgot about the wolf and went to retreat, but it wasn’t fast enough. Punisher latched onto a tentacle and shook his head, trying to tear it off.

  After slamming the boss with another Hammer, I looked behind me. The banshee, a disgusting old lady dressed in rags with absolutely savage hair, was in Bomber’s grasp and Tissa and Crawler together were taking down the last bits of her health. The old crone gave a wail, falling to dust.

  The rare mob started another AoE spell. A bubble appeared in the ground, spreading a brown toxic smoke around the battlefield, but the cast didn’t last even two seconds. Infect got behind the boss and gave a Kick, breaking the spell and sinking his teeth into the lich’s back. Next came Bomber, charging the boss and rendering him motionless. I landed another Hammer, and a beam of light gave way to a heavy Hand of Nergal, flying down from the sky after Tissa’s cast. That made the dead wizard begin to smoke, then it caught fire when Crawler cast Ignition. A Laceration from the wolf rounded out our explosive group damage. Then, with a rustling hiss, the Lich Hermit popped like a balloon and turned into a puddle of tar on the ground.

  Lich Hermit is dead.

  Experience points received: 70.

  Experience points at present level (12): 5760/10100.

  The wolf stuck his snout into my chest. I pet his somehow wet head with both hands. He smelled of rotten meat. One of his eyes was rotten and I saw a worm wriggling around in it, diving deeper. I could barely resist the urge to vomit, thinking no one in their right mind would choose voluntarily to play a faction like the Destroying Plague.

  “Thanks,” I said, looking the wolf in its good eye.

  “Call if you ever need help, herald,” its thoughts came in my head again. “Within the forest, if I am nearby, I will come. Happy hunting in the name of the Destroying Plague!”

  Licking my face with a cold slimy tongue, he disappeared behind some trees in a few leaps and bounds.

  Bomber looked at Infect, coughed and asked:

  “Is that big wolf your pet? And... What’s up with your face? Your skin is falling off and I can see part of your skull!”

  “Wait!” Crawler said sharply. “Not here and not now. Tomorrow after school you can tell us everything, Scyth. Who’s gonna pick up the loot? I say we leave it to Bomber. He has almost two hundred slots and a high carrying capacity. Scyth?”

  “Agreed. Especially because I have a slight problem there. I can’t...”

  Crawler raised a hand and I understood. Tomorrow.

  “And we can solve the Big Po issue at the same time. I say we go our separate ways. My sister’s waiting. She missed me when I was at the hospital.”

  “Yeah, I’ve gotta get to Alex’s, too,” Tissa agreed.

  Our tank leaned over to pick up the loot.

  “So, in the banshee dust there’s white trash and a bit of silver. And the lich... Oh, looky here. A blue!”

  Hand of Vecna

  Rare

  Wand.

  Damage: 11-15.

  +13 Intelligence.

  +4 Endurance.

  +3% critical damage.

  Durability: 150/150.

  Requires level: 15.

  Sell price: 11 gold coins, 49 silver coins.

  Chance of losing after death reduced by 50%.

  “Can I take it?” Tissa asked. “It’s better than the green I have now and hopefully I’ll be able to use it soon.”

  No objections followed.

  “So then Scyth, is that all for today?” Crawler asked. “Before we talk everything through, it’s best not to do anything.”

  “We could farm the forest...” Infect drew out.

  “No,” I shook my head. “Crawler and Tissa need to log off, and I’ve got stuff to do.”

  We shook hands goodbye then, one after the other, exited Dis. But a moment before the timer gave its last tick, I changed my mind and canceled.

  I had time before Tissa would be back, and I realized there was something I needed to do.

  And when I activated Depths Teleportation, it brought me right where I wanted to go.

  * * *

  I looked everywhere and there was no one around. On the edge of my vision was the wall of a dense dark forest, its mossy trunks looming. Everything else I could see was endless swamp. The depths skill did have its flaws, spitting me out not on Behemoth’s island but a short distance from it, though fortunately on dry land.

  Depths Teleportation skill improved: +1.

  Cooldown time reduced from 24 to 16 hours.

  Current level: 2.

  I turned around, watching my marker spin on the map until I knew where to go, then waded into the muck, stepping on the butt ends of desiccated trees, jumping from boulder to stone and balancing on a sagging carpet of moss and duckweed. My cloth shirt, bedraggled by the skeletons, zombies and Lich Hermit, was soaked in sweat and the damp of the swamp. Nearer the Sleeping God’s tiny island, I had to walk through very deep muck that came up over my head, getting attacked by ruthless swamp creatures. But that was a good way of filling my plague pool to the brim and nourishing Behemoth at the same time.

  “You came...” a weak voice rang out in my head just as I was getting up onto dry land.

  When I came up, the puddle of protoplasm wriggled and ran in circles.

  “What is your purpose, apostle? The temple hasn’t been restored yet...”

  “Something has changed, Sleeping one.”

  “Come closer and let me in,” came the voice, settling down.

  I walked up to the puddle and planted a leg next to it. It flowed into me, and I saw the avatar of the Sleeping God, a projection in my mind. A nightmare in the flesh.

  “Thank you very much for the new followers,” Behemoth said sincerely. “It is but a dewdrop in the ocean of faith we need to gain back control over our dreams, but now we can communicate once again.”

  “We?”

  “Yes, us, the Sleeping ones, whose names have been completely forgotten by the intelligent creatures of this dying world. Their names are Leviathan, Kingu, Tiamat and Abzu.”

  The developers clearly weren
’t all there when they thought up those names. All five were considered evil spirits in various ancient cultures.

  “What would you like to discuss, apostle?” Behemoth droned. “Projecting an avatar is a waste of energy, hurry up!”

  “The Destroying Plague, whose mark you see on me, has tasked me with helping it conquer Tristad. It is the only large city for a hundred miles, and taking it over...”

  “No, you must prevent this takeover!” the Sleeping God barked. “Though that spirit presents itself as an unthinking force of nature, it is nothing of the sort! In fact, it is an expression of the dark side of the One with true knowledge of the Power, an abominable entity which you call a god. Making it more powerful will only hasten the outbreak of the Nether!”

  “Who is this abominable force, oh Sleeping one? To whom do you refer?”

  “One of the new petty gods. They have grown too numerous for the limited energy of this world to sustain. The one who marked you... Its brand is tainted by the corruption that plagues it. It is the way the Nether engulfs worlds, tempting the highest powers with even greater might. What do you stand to lose if the Destroying Plague’s demand goes unheeded?”

  “I will lose all the abilities it gave me, Behemoth. The invulnerability, when...”

  “I can see!” the god interrupted me. “I wove an impression when first you came to me, and now I have done the same. You have become stronger. You can now control when the infection takes you... Well, well, well... Impressive! It is primitive, crude but effective flesh magic, multiplied by the infinitude of the Nether. And I’m not surprised it works only on newcomers to this world such as you. Any native would be devoured by the curse in a matter of days, becoming a thoughtless beast fully subordinate to the Destroying Plague. But not you. Your natural ability for regeneration is more powerful than the curse...”

  “But if I lose this primitive ability, my life will get harder.”

  “You won’t lose it,” Behemoth proclaimed. “Restore the temple and I will have the power to give you something similar.”

  “I cannot reach it for the next three months, oh Sleeping one. The island you spoke of is beyond the bounds of where I, as a newcomer, may visit. And the Destroying Plague’s mission has a time limit...”

  My whining went unanswered. In fact, it was directed at nobody in particular. Behemoth had disintegrated, leaving behind just a peaceful puddle of protoplasm and an open quest.

  Behemoth the Sleeping God would like you to stop the Destroying Plague from conquering Tristad.

  Reward:

  — 10000 experience points;

  — skill Invincibility of the Sleeping Gods;

  — skill Vengeance of the Sleeping Gods.

  Penalties for not completing mission:

  — lose the status Apostle of the Sleeping Gods.

  Of course, I had no way of refusing the mission. And now I would have to make up my mind: either rotting corpses that threatened the world with a deadly epidemic, or the mysterious Sleeping ones, whose name put me on edge, which was to say nothing of Behemoth’s appearance.

  * * *

  After Behemoth left me, I decided to spend some time on farming before Tissa came over, because there were lots of nasty, fat mobs in that muck. Sticking to my well-rehearsed scenario, I sunk into the swamp and spent about an hour on the genocide of amphibians, reptiles, enchanted balls and a myriad of smaller life forms, like blood-sucking leeches as long as my forearm.

  The curse of the undead, as always, didn’t let me down. I waited for my health to drop into the orange, then activated invulnerability and the spilled blood attracted hungry mobs galore. And that provided enough farming to level up.

  You are now level 13!

  5 free attribute points available!

  I put the five points into endurance, my lowest attribute. No interesting loot dropped, just various alchemy and leathercrafting resources, plus some strange cooking ingredients.

  Toxic Filet of Bighead with Blood

  Cooking ingredient.

  Value: 27 copper coins.

  I filled two inventory slots with that. Nothing more fit, because the third slot was occupied by the epic bow. I wanted to experiment with Cooking, but it was a challenge without fire and a pot. I’d try concocting something in the tavern, if Chef Arno would let me.

  After level up, I got onto dry land and finished off the creatures that followed me, then waited for combat mode to expire so I could exit.

  I left my character on an island in the middle of the Mire and exited Dis.

  And when the pod doors slid aside, Tissa was standing there, shaking her head in mockery:

  “Tsk-tsk, Alex. Trading a girl for a toy!”

  “Have you eaten, girl? Because I’m as hungry as a wolf.”

  “Speaking of wolves. Is that part of your threat?”

  “To be honest, I don’t think so. It isn’t my pet, I cannot control it and, as it turns out, I can only summon him in Gloomwood and only if he’s nearby. Anyway, to hell with Dis. We can talk about that tomorrow with the guys...”

  I got dressed, peeked out of my room and shouted:

  “Mom! What’s for dinner?”

  Dad wasn’t with us at the table, he was spending the evening with a client. In our age of virtual conference halls, when people from various parts of the world could meet anyone they liked without leaving home, simply by using a pod, speaking face to face had become as rare as it was pointless. But when it came to secret projects, serious people preferred the security and confidentiality of meeting in person. And that was just what father had flown off to do.

  Tissa and mom immediately found a common tongue. Tissa talked about losing her mom, started crying and I didn’t have time to even blink before the two members of the fairer sex started whispering about girl stuff, then went into a different room to tell secrets. I scratched my head, thought about what to do and chose to study.

  When I finished up, I’d go get Tissa. But she came back before that. After she entered my room, she closed the door and giggled in embarrassment. She had my t-shirt on again, and there was an element of intimacy in that. Yesterday she was all sopping wet, but what about today? Seeing where I was looking, she tugged down on the hem, walked up and gave me a hug.

  “Thanks, Alex. For everything. Yesterday was a horrible day. I thought my life was ruined, and it would only get worse from there. Well, you understand, right? I had no perspectives In Dis, and IRL… I mean, to be honest, I had no hope that you and your parents would just let me stay so easily. We haven’t talked in so long... But you went above and beyond! Deciding to help us without even knowing what it could do is one thing, but...”

  “Not a word about Dis!” I raised a hand in protest.

  “Okay, okay!” she chuckled. “And another huge thanks to your mom! She’s just awesome! She’s so easy to talk to...”

  She fell silent but I understood what she meant. There were some topics girls could only discuss with a mother, especially if all their friends were boys. Well, and if you didn’t have your own mother... I thought about that, continuing to hug Tissa, and my heart sang for joy, because she wasn’t backing away.

  “By the way, why did you call yourselves ‘the Dementors?’“ I decided to break the awkward silence and change the topic.

  “A little random sure, but I’ll answer.” Tissa smiled. “Did you know Ed was a fan of Voldemort? He thought Harry Potter was basically cheating with his invulnerability to the dark Lord’s magic. Like, the poor guy runs out of horcruxes and suddenly it was all pointless... Not fair! Anyway, because of that we decided that, when we went into the open world, we’d join the dark races. The Death Eaters was taken, so we chose a different name.”

  “That’s so... dark.”

  “You’re one to talk! Have you seen yourself in the mirror with that curse of the undead? Haha! I mean, light gods, good races... There’s no such thing as good and evil Alex, especially in Dis where every race has its own truth. Just tell me one absolute
ly evil race!”