Blood for Power: A LitRPG Apocalypse

The putrid smell of the sewer wasn’t something we got used to. It lingered with us every step of the way, like an unwelcome guest. Though it was more fair to say that we were the unwelcome ones who were eager to leave.

The sewer tunnels were dark, dank, and utterly maze-like. I had no idea how Gren was navigating them. Yet he strolled confidently through the darkness, only stopping briefly at certain intersections to consider the best route.

He had used these tunnels before, which made me wary of goblin patrols. But when I asked him about it, he assured us that we wouldn’t find anyone and anything else down here during the day. The extra emphasis he placed on the day part didn’t make me feel much better.

“So how is it that you know these tunnels so well if goblins avoid them?” I asked.

Gren shrugged. “I know a few goblins who will still trade with me but are too afraid to leave the safety of Goblintown. The sewers make it easy to sneak in without being seen.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Hugo asked.

“Of course it is. I’m dead if I get caught, but with a baby I don’t got much choice. There are certain things she needs for her diet that I can only get from there.”

Hugo: Lucas, we should pay him more money for helping us!

Lucas: Agreed. It might be useful to keep a friendly relationship with someone who knows how to sneak into Goblintown.

Hugo: No, not that! I meant for his family.

Lucas: Do not give him all of your money. Roan advised us that we should buy better equipment while we’re here, and that’s what we’re going to do.

Hugo: Have you seen me? I’m already perfect. I don’t need to accessorize.

I suppressed a sigh.

Lucas: Look, we’ll compensate him well and then check out the merchant stores. If there’s nothing there that you want, then we’ll return to Gren and give him the rest of your money.

Hugo: Deal.

Since we were paying for Gren’s time, I figured that this would be a good moment to learn as much as I could about this city and the strange goblin we’d first encountered with the spirit killer device.

“Say Gren, have you ever heard of a goblin named Dratch?”

He stopped. “Where did you hear that name?”

Gren already knew that I’d killed other goblins before. He didn’t seem to care. In fact, he didn’t seem to care for other goblins at all outside of his family. So I had to just hope that they weren’t related.

“He attacked us as we were entering the city. So I killed him.”

Gren frowned. “That’s peculiar. I only asked because Dratch too was exiled from the community, though for a different reason than myself. Only the goblin elders know why he was punished. It was quite the talk amongst all of us back then. Everyone was trying to guess what he could’ve done, but no one ever figured it out.”

That wasn’t of much use to me. So I pressed on.

“The System said something about him being an engineer? What did he do before he was exiled?”

“He worked on generators in the hydroponics section. Everyone in the crew who’d worked with him back then said he was a stand-up goblin. Always worked hard and was responsible. The only odd thing was that a couple of months before his exile, he became more quiet and withdrawn. That was about it.”

“So you don’t know about him building anything in his free time?”

“Not that I can recall.”

Damn, it looks like solving this quest is going to take more work than I thought.

“What about magic?” I tried.

“Err, no.”

“Anything to do with spirits?”

“I don’t… think so.”

Hugo: Careful, you’re practically interrogating him and he’s doing us a favor.

Lucas: We’re paying him.

Hugo: Just let me try. You’re being too harsh to Triple G.

Lucas: Triple G?

Hugo: Yeah, Gren the Goblin Guide.

Lucas: Just ask your questions.

I gestured for him to go ahead.

Hugo was sat on Archer’s shoulder. He urged her to speed up so that they could walk beside each other.

“Apologies for my companion. He gets testy when he hasn’t eaten in a while. So Gren, we’re new to the city and were wondering what you can tell us about it.”

Gren pondered for a moment.

“Well, I suppose the main thing about this place is that it's broken up into factions. There are three factions that control most of the city. The goblins, the humans, and the Grayskins. As you already discovered, Goblintown is the lower east side, half of the industrial part of town. The north-east side is mostly abandoned because it gets too many monster encounters. Humans live mostly in the city center and the Grayskins control the entire west side. Humans and Grayskins also have an agreement where they trade with one another and can move between districts freely.”

Hugo wanted to ask about who the Grayskins were, but it was difficult for him to get a word in edge-wise. Once Gren started talking, it was hard to get him to stop.

“Okay so…” Hugo began.

“The problem is the fighting,” he continued. “The Grayskins are the wealthiest of the bunch. The humans do all right, and the goblins are left fighting for scraps. The Tower compensates the leaders of each faction for how much territory they hold. This was meant to encourage infighting and competition, but the humans and Grayskins figured out a way to sidestep the whole thing with an alliance.”

“So the goblins are fighting the humans and the Grayskins?” Hugo asked.

“What? No, haven’t you been listening? Goblins and Grayskins are fighting each other. Humans trade with the Grayskins and they tolerate us. When it comes to fighting though, they mostly stay out of it. I think it has something to do with their religion.”

“Religion?”

“Yeah, don’t know much about it though. I usually steer clear of the holy roller types.”

We reached another intersection. A crossroads of sorts, with three directions to go down. Our guide paused, as if trying to remember something.

Gren shrieked and jumped back. A small brown shape floating in the water had bumped into him. The little creature squeaked in response and swam past him.

“Relax, it’s just a rat,” I smirked.

It darted towards me and I shooed it away with my foot.

*Beast identified* [Brown Rat (Common)] Level: 10 – A regular sewer rat.

“See, it’s harmless,” I said. “Although level ten is impressive. I guess you gotta be tough to be a city rat.”

The rat squeaked again, almost like it agreed with me, and then swam deeper into the tunnel until it disappeared into the darkness. That should’ve been the end of it. But it kept squeaking somewhere in the dark until more squeaks joined in. Hundreds of them. A cacophony that spoke only of danger.

I drew my sword and braced for it. The squeaks stopped, and then a thunderous roar shouted out from darkness as a challenge and the creature heavily thudded into view.

At first, I thought it was a giant rat monster, but upon closer inspection, it was a monster made up of rats. Thousands of them being loosely held together by some kind of magnetic energy source. All of the rats were still alive, writhing and rippling across the creature’s mass. A mass that comprised only of a torso, two arms, and two legs.

It roared again. An unnatural voice coming from all the rats in unison.

*Beast identified* [A Rat King (Uncommon)] Level: 120 – No, not a fake tourist attraction born from animal cruelty. This here is the real deal. A Rat King is the spirit of a dominant rat. A rat who fought and bled their whole life. One who's known nothing but violence and dies angry. This angry spirit lingers, gaining power until it can control the minds of living rats. Eventually, it becomes strong enough to build itself a new body. At which point, all it wants to do is feed and fight.

Gren’s face turned a paler shade of green. He turned and ran past me while muttering, “oh crap, oh crap, oh crap,” to himself.

Hugo shook his head in disappointment. “I can’t believe Three G would leave us like this.”

“He did warn us that he was like this. Technically, he’s just being consistent. Also, I’m revoking your nicknaming privileges. Three G, seriously?”

“Aww man. Fine, but who takes this one?”

“How about we take turns? One attack each and I let you go first.”

Hugo nodded. “Sounds good.”

At his command, Archer drew her bow and fired. The arrow went through the mass of rats, killing 3 and pinning a fourth one to the wall behind it. The Rat King quickly replaced those rats with new ones and seemed unaffected by the loss. There were even stray rats in the water behind it, ready to replenish its numbers.

Archer moved back, and I stepped forward. We needed something more powerful to take out this creature.

With my sword, I made a vertical slice in the air and a wave of power shot out down the tunnel. It hit the creature's center mass and blasted it apart in an explosion of blood.

Hugo cheered in celebration, but it wasn’t over until I got the confirmation message.

A few seconds later and more rats came pouring down the tunnel so that the Rat King could rebuild its body.

“Huh, maybe Gren had the right idea?” Hugo suggested.

We started to back up as we considered other abilities.

The Rat King’s left fist lunged at us, its arm stretching impossibly long, and large enough that it slammed into me and Archer. The three of us were knocked back into the shallow water. Quickly, I scrambled to feet and picked up Hugo.

He sputtered and spat. “Ergh. Now it’s going to take forever for my feathers to dry.”

I did sympathize, but we had bigger problems.

The Rat King was still growing taller and wider until it had blocked the whole tunnel. I glanced behind us and saw only a wall. We’d been knocked into a dead-end. This was its plan all along. It was a slow and heavy creature. By trapping us, it took away our speed advantage.

“Alright, no more games. Let’s throw everything we have at it,” I said.

I went first and launched a series of Air Slashes, hoping to cut us a path free. But the rat king reformed too quickly and was tougher than before. The mass wouldn’t even break apart now.

My only other thought was to trap it in my Crimson Domain, but it would use up most of my power and if I missed any of the rats, something told me that this thing would just rebuild itself again.

After my attack, I had to back off and catch my breath. Hugo summoned Ostorox and threw it at the Rat King. We were both hopeful at first. But despite their similar size, the void spawn was much weaker than the Rat King. As the pair wrestled together, I noticed that the individual rats were biting into Ostorox’s flesh.

We only had maybe a minute or two before this thing devoured enough of Ostorox for the spirit summons form to break down.

“Any ideas?” I asked Hugo.

“I could throw my new bug spirit summon at it?”

I shrugged. It was worth a shot.

“Don’t look so skeptical. It’s at a good level,” he assured me. “This thing will be dead before you can say bingo bongo.”

Just as Ostorox was ripped apart and dissipated into mist, Hugo threw his bug spirit summon. It was almost too big to fit into the tunnel and its weight knocked the Rat King over. The bug collapsed on top, crushing some of the rats to death.

“Yeah! Take that!” Hugo whooped.

But the surrounding rats who’d survived began eating the giant bug.

“No! Stay down!” Hugo cried. He had Archer shoot arrows around the bug, but it seemed to have little effect.

Some rats broke off from the mass and attacked Archer individually until the spirit’s form was destroyed along with the bug.

The Rat King reformed itself and thudded closer to us.

Hugo, however, wasn’t done. He flew toward the creature and the sound of a church bell loudly rang out.

It was his Bell Toll ability. A psychic attack that inspires fear in other creatures. The Rat King shuddered and collapsed into individual rats before reforming itself. We couldn’t get past them in time, so Hugo sent out another Bell Toll to keep the creature from attacking us.

“Lucas, what do we do? I can’t keep this up for long,” he panted.

I thought about what I had left to use. It was only Crimson Domain which might not work. But what did Hugo have left? Some spirit crows and his ghost hand ability?

That was when the realization hit me. We’d killed hundreds of rats. More than enough for Hugo to qualify to use the ability.

“Hugo, use Irascible Dirge!” I yelled.

“What? There’s no way that would work.”

“Just do it!”

Irascible Dirge was the last ability Hugo had gotten on the last floor. He hadn’t been able to make it work there, as it needed certain specifications to activate. Instead of Hugo capturing a single target's spirit to summon and control, Irascible Dirge was a temporary mass summoning of dead spirits. It was designed to be used on battlefields, so we just had to hope that this situation qualified.

A somber horn sound played out and all of the rats we’d killed came back to life. Their spirits solidified and became indistinguishable from the other rats.

I thought Hugo would order them to attack the Rat King, but he did something even better.

The spirit rats were joining the mass, intermingling with it. The Rat King seemed unable to tell the difference at first, though it couldn’t control them. Hugo urged his rats to eat. Biting through the necks of rats who died, and then rose again to join Hugo’s army. More joined and more died. The spirit rat army kept consuming and growing until they were the only Rat King left.

*DING!* You have slain [Rat King (Uncommon)] Level 120 – Experience Points and Currency Acquired

Hugo dismissed the rat spirits and having fought well; they went in peace.

“Man, I can’t believe you don’t get to keep the rats,” I said. That would’ve been an incredible spirit summon to have at his beck and call.

“I know, right?” Hugo sniffed. “I tasted the power of a Rat King and now they’re gone forever. Never even got the chance to name them.”

“Are you crying?”

“No, shut up. It’s moist in here.”

Hugo stopped flapping his wings and settled in the dirty water. It was something he would have only done if extremely tired. I scooped him up and put him on my shoulder to rest. We had to get out of here. We’d only survived due to Hugo’s ability, and there was no way he’d be able to cast it again anytime soon.

“Come on,” I said. “We should go find our cowardly guide. That Rat King might not be the only monster down here, and I have no idea where we are.”

With my heightened awareness ability, I enhanced my hearing to the point where I could hear Gren gasping for breath. He’d tired himself out from running and was hiding behind a corner, trying to catch his breath.

As soon as we got close, I called out to him. “You can come out now. It’s over.”

Gren sheepishly stepped out and smoothed his rumpled clothes over. “So… I … uh…”

“You still want to get paid?” I asked, cutting him off. He nodded. “Then get us to the city center. We need to find the silver elevator.”

He nodded again and took over leading us, though this time he didn’t try to make conversation.

Hugo: Damn, that was harsh.

Lucas: Did you really want to stand here and watch him try to justify his cowardice, or did you want to get out of this place and get your feathers dry?

Hugo: The second one. But G-man isn’t a Tower Climber. He’s a family man. You can’t expect him to fight monsters with us.

Lucas: I didn’t. I expected him to impotently cower behind us where we could’ve better protected him.

Hugo: Well, he knows that now. Next time will be better.

Lucas: There’s probably not going to be a next time. You were right about us putting him in danger. We’ll pay him well for his time and hope it helps with his family situation.

We walked a little further until Gren stopped at one of the ladders. I looked up, but it looked like any other manhole.

“Are you sure this is it?” I asked.

Gren looked a little offended. “I’ve been counting my steps. This is right in the city center.”

Before I could thank him, he started climbing up first.

“You’re coming with us?” I asked, surprised.

He grunted. “The city center is probably one of the safest areas, but especially during the day. Grayskins have to protect their investments.”

I didn’t know what meant, but he opened the manhole cover and disappeared into the light before I could ask any more questions. Hugo shrugged and urged me to hurry up.

I grabbed the first rung and began climbing up into what I hoped was a better part of the city.