BladeDust Online: A LitRPG Adventure (Book 1) Page 13

  Sonny locked up his tent and began to prepare for his travels with us. Then, he reached to the ground and grabbed a small wooden cage. “Get inside of your home,” he said with a slap. “We are going on a journey. Isn't that exciting?”

  The cage was brown and had 3 wooden walls. But on the front, there were little bars. Almost like a mini prison cell. “Does he like it in there?” I asked.

  “No,” the creature replied. “I hate it in here. He doesn't care though. All he cares about is that stupid yellow robe he wears.”

  “That's not true. I gotta wear it because I'm a mage. It signifies my importance in this world.”

  “It's too tight,” the creature replied with both hands around the tiny bars that contained him. “Don't you know people are laughing at you? How many times do I have to tell you that?”

  “I think that pet of yours is right. You should probably get a new robe because that one is kinda tight,” Tommy said.

  “See,” the creature eagerly replied. “It's about time someone spoke up and told him the truth. Thank you for that.”

  “You're welcome,” Tommy replied with a bashful tone.

  Sonny tucked the cage under his arm and began to walk ahead of us. “What did you guys need me for again? Am I just going to heal you whenever you get hurt?”

  “Yes. That is all we need from you,” Cosmo replied before stopping in front of another merchant tent. “Better stock up on some bread. We will need to feed the peasants if we are going to want them to battle.”

  I wondered how much gold Cosmo had. And why was he helping me so much? In some ways, it just didn't make sense. “Why are you helping me so much? Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate it. But, why are you helping someone so new like myself?”

  “Because that's part of the fun in this isn't it? The chance to meet other players and go on crazy adventures. That's why I played the game in the first place. Some people play for money, I play for both. Besides, I have always wanted to start an army from scratch. Seems much more rewarding that way.”

  I guess it made sense. I suppose since I was playing for money, I had lost sight that some people only viewed this as a game. But, this wasn't a game. It was too real to be a game. Still, I understood where Cosmo was coming from.

  Sonny seemed frustrated as we waited for Cosmo to pay for the bread. “Hurry. My time is gold,” he said with a foot tap to the ground.

  I rolled my eyes. I knew we needed a healer, but this guy was already starting to annoy me. We left the village and made our way into an open field. I took in a deep breath. This was going to be a long trip to the peasant village. Minutes turned into hours as we made our way towards the village. After going in circles a few times, we finally arrived.

  Chapter Seventeen

  When we arrived at the village, most of the peasants were inside of their crappy homes. But a few were outside drinking water. One of the peasants stopped drinking mud puddle water. Then, they all stopped. Slowly, they stood up. I waved at them. “We have brought you gold, food, weapons and armor.”

  A few peasants emerged from their homes. “Give us some food,” one of them yelled.

  Cosmo pulled out a loaf of bread. The peasants scrambled closer to him. Their hands quivered with eagerness. Shit, these guys were hungry. “Let's go inside one of the homes and eat a proper meal,” Cosmo said with a smile.

  We walked inside one of the poorly constructed wooden homes. Against the far back wall, was a long wooden table. All of the peasants sat down and twitched uncontrollably. “Put it down,” one of the peasants squealed.

  Cosmo put eight loaves of bread on the table. “Enjoy yourselves.”

  One of the peasants leaped on the table while another bit his arm. “You're biting me,” he screamed before slapping the offending peasant.

  Several of the peasants stuffed the bread into their mouths as quickly as they could. One peasant in particular ate two loaves so quickly that it appeared he was going to choke to death. After several moments of pounding on his own chest, the bread seemed to go down. Within three minutes, all of the bread was gone. “Feel better?” Cosmo asked.

  “Yes. But we want more,” one peasant replied with an intense look on his face.

  “You will have plenty more. But first, we must get to training. After that, I will get you more bread.”

  The peasants all looked at each other as if they were unsure about joining our army. But then, I think they realized their lives were too shitty to deny any offer at all. One peasant stood up as if he was representing them all. “It is a deal. We will fight for your army.”

  Sonny crossed his arms with disapproval. “This is going to waste a lot of my precious healing magic. How do you expect me to keep these subpar humans alive?”

  The peasants all looked surprised at how Sonny viewed them. But, they didn't say anything. Cosmo swatted his hand into the air. “Your job is to heal. Just do your job, and everything will be fine. Understand?”

  Sonny left the table. “I need some air. I'm starting to have second thoughts about this whole situation.”

  On the table, the small container holding Sonny's pet began to rattle. “He's gone,” the creature whispered. “Quick. Someone unlock my cage. Please, this is a rare opportunity for me to escape.”

  A peasant sitting next to his cage seemed concerned. “You shouldn't be in a cage. I will set you free,” he said while reaching to open the cage.

  “Wait,” Cosmo replied with a slap to his hand. “That's not your property is it?”

  “Property?” the creature hissed. “I'm not that idiot's property. I have a life to live too. He captured me against my will. It was just like any other day when he captured me. I was busy basking in the sunshine when he suddenly threw a net on me. Could you imagine that? I was living such a good life before this idiot came along and ruined it for me.”

  “How long ago was that?” I asked.

  “Long enough. My life was good before he came along. I had dreams. Dreams of becoming a world traveler. But no, this guy came along and ruined it all. He stole my life, and I will make him pay for that.”

  “Pay for it? But how?”

  A devious look came to the creature's face. He peered out of his cage just to make certain Sonny was not around. Then, he rubbed his little paws together. “I'm gonna kill him. That's how. Just wait and see. I will get the last laugh, that I know.”

  Damn, this little creature wasn't kidding. I could see it in his eyes. He was thirsty for revenge. “How are you gonna do that though?”

  “Yea. You live in a box,” Tommy replied.

  “Oh I will,” the creature replied. “I will get him when he least expects it.”

  The creature opened his mouth real wide and revealed his razor sharp teeth. Shit! His teeth were really white. How did he manage to keep them so white? Was it possible that he was brushing his teeth? In my mind, I couldn't really imagine him holding a toothbrush. It just didn't seem to fit him. As the creature closed his mouth, Sonny waddled back into the room. “If too many of these peasants die, I will be leaving. Do we have a deal?”

  “Wait. What do you mean?” I asked. “I thought the whole point of having a healer was to heal the wounded. If they die, doesn't that mean you suck as a healer?”

  “Don't blame their deaths on me when it happens. I can only do so much.”

  Cosmo stood up. “Let's stop all of this negative talk. Nobody is dead yet. And that's the way I plan to keep it.”

  The peasants around us began to chit chat with each other. Lots of sneaky little whispers were being exchanged as I knew they were worried. One of them stood up. “We will be safe won't we?”

  “Probably not,” Tommy replied.

  “Of course you will,” I replied. “I will make certain you are all safe to the best of my ability.”

  Cosmo walked to the home's exit. “Let's go. No time to waste.”

  Once we got outside, Cosmo tossed gold, weapons and armor on the ground. “First come, first serve.”
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br />   The peasants went into a frenzy as they scrambled around trying to get as much gold as they could. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ronald picking up a coin. “Hey?” I asked. “What are you doing?”

  “I need gold too,” he replied. “I can't just work for free. It's only fair isn't it?”

  Before I could answer him, a peasant stabbed him in the back. “Die,” the peasant mumbled.

  Ronald screamed. “He stabbed me! Why? Why did you do that?” he asked while falling to his knees.

  The peasant turned around to the other peasants and displayed a pleasant look. “I killed the human named Ronald. He stole my gold, so I killed him.”

  The peasants all smiled. What the hell? These were some cold-hearted little guys. Hopefully this was a good indication of what they would be like during the bandit raid. My eyes drifted down to Ronald on the ground. “Help me. Please,” he mumbled.

  I gripped the handle of the sword and yanked it out of him. Then, I realized something. We had a healer. What the hell? What was Sonny doing? “Sonny! Heal Ronald.”

  “Me? You want me to heal Ronald?” Sonny nervously asked. “Yes. Yes of course. I will heal him. That's what I will do.”

  Ronald didn't look healthy. In fact, he looked to be on death's doorstep. His face was the color of milk and he was leaking blood. Sonny placed his hands over his body, but nothing was happening. “Do it! He'll be dead any moment,” I screamed.

  Sonny closed his eyes and his body started to shake. His hands began to glow with green. “I see it,” I yelled. “I see your healing energy!”

  His hands were green, but Ronald wasn't waking up. Sonny began to cough. Then, he fell to his side. “Sonny?”

  I ran over to him and began to shake his body. “Are you okay?”

  His face was beat red. “My healing energy is too impressive,” he muttered.

  Too impressive? It looked like it didn't do shit to me. I pointed at Ronald as I knew death was only moments away. “Ronald's not okay. He's about to die. You need to start healing him again before it's too late.”

  “What about me?” Sonny asked with a roar. “What about my health? Have you ever thought about that?”

  I looked at Ronald's body as it shriveled up and disappeared. It was official, Ronald was dead. I felt bad for him. How could his life have come to this very moment? Death by a peasant. It didn't sound like an impressive way to die. I shook my head.

  “I'm not really happy he died,” Tommy said from behind me. “But, I never really liked that guy. There was just something about him. But, I wish he was still alive. I mean, I kinda do.”

  “Yea, Ronald wasn't much of a talker,” Cosmo replied while throwing some dirt on the ground where his body was located. “I hate to see him leave us. But what has happened, has happened. We cannot mourn his death forever.”

  Mourn his death forever? It had only been like 30 seconds. How could we be mourning his death forever? I scanned the ground just to make sure Ronald didn't leave behind any gold at all. Nope, he had nothing. Only his red leather outfit was left behind. I examined it and realized it was worthless.

  I looked at Sonny. He was still on the ground. “What happened? What happened to this great healing magic of yours?”

  Sonny huffed and puffed before he climbed to his knees. “Damn. I got my robe dirty. Can you believe that? How the hell am I going to get this dirt out of it?”

  “Why didn't you heal him?”

  Sonny brushed his bowl cut straight down with his hands. “Because I channeled my energy too quickly. If I am going to heal someone, I am going to need a warning period. You know, like some sort of alert system. Kinda like how they got tornado watches on the weather. Well, I need a tornado watch before it becomes a tornado warning. Understand what I am saying?”

  “What the fuck are you talking about dude? What you just said makes no sense at all. People die instantly. Like, there's no warning for it.”

  “I need a system. You need to alert me before a blade hits someone. That's all I'm asking. If you can do that, things will be a lot better.”

  “Dude, that's pretty much impossible.”

  “Does my robe still look bright yellow to you?” Sonny asked while sticking his stomach out. “I mean, it didn't lose any of it's brightness did it?”

  “It still looks as crappy as ever,” Tommy replied.

  “Are you being serious right now?” Sonny asked with a scrunched up face.

  “Okay, let's stop arguing,” Cosmo yelled. “Let's congratulate the peasant that killed Ronald. I know Ronald shouldn't have been killed, but this peasant still showed a lot of motivation. We want to encourage that motivation don't we? I mean, that could be good for the army.”

  “Congratulations,” Tommy said as he walked over to the peasant. “I want to shake your hand.”

  The peasant looked surprised as he shook Tommy's hand. “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

  What the hell was going on here? Was I the only sane person here? Thank him for killing Ronald? That was pure psychopathic behavior. How the hell did he justify killing Ronald for picking up a gold coin? And why was Tommy thanking him? “What are you doing Tommy?”

  “What? I kinda miss Ronald, but the past is the past.”

  “What happened was a tragedy,” Cosmo said. “But, you gotta make the most out of every tragedy in life. You can't just sit around and cry all day. You gotta pick yourself up and get back at it.”

  I guess that was one way to look at it. Suddenly, I got an alert:

  Friends Request

  Ronald The Great wants to add you as a friend. Accept? Yes/No?

  Wow! A friend's request from Ronald? I almost didn't want to accept it. But, I was curious to see what he had to say. So, I accepted it. Then, a message alert popped up. It was from Ronald:

  “OMG!! What the hell happened to me? Please help!!!! I am with all of these other ghost characters and some guy with a light is looking for us. Everyone says if he finds us we are finished. They said only the living players can help us. Everyone is messaging everyone they know on their friends list. We are all waiting! Come and get me. I am at this place called UnderDead.

  Ronald.”

  “Ronald just sent me a message. He says he's in UnderDead and someone is looking for him. I don't understand, who is looking for him?”

  “Yep,” Cosmo replied. “Those are Soul Flies looking for him. If they capture his soul, they will take him to the lowest level of the game world. This level is known as ZeroDust. People don't like to talk about the dark side of BladeDust Online. But, there is a dark side.”

  My heart began to race. “What do you mean?”

  “Once your soul is captured by a fly, you are sent to ZeroDust. The place is basically a labor camp. They make you work down there until you can no longer work. You only get fed if you earn more than the meal cost. If you get sick or cannot work at a productive level, well they will actually seal your soul.”

  “Seal your soul?”

  “They put it into a capsule. From what I have heard, it's terrible. You are stuck in a space of “nowhere” where nothing exist except your own thoughts. Minutes feel like days. All you have is blackness, and your thoughts.”

  Was he serious? How could I had never heard about this? I knew being a “lost soul” was bad, but I never knew it was this bad. Now I understood why Todd wanted us to find him so badly. “So what happens then? I mean, you can get “unsealed” right?”

  “It's possible. But it's not easy. You'll have to get another lost soul that is willing to actually get sent to ZeroDust. The only motivation for that would be really good pay. After all, the player would risk getting stuck in the underworld too.”

  Crap. That alone was scary, but it was even more scary considering the glitch. “So what if this “no exit” glitch isn't fixed? Players will just remain in a dark space forever?”

  “It's possible. Everyone has to be extra careful now. Some players log out and quit the game when they get to ZeroDust. But
, things are different now. It would be literal hell to get stuck at ZeroDust with this glitch going on.”

  Damn. That would suck. Now I realized saving Todd was more important than ever. But what about Ronald? It just seemed like too much saving for me to do. I could only save Ronald if I saw him on the way to save Todd. If I didn't see him, then I just couldn't save him. I mean, maybe it was possible. But, Ronald wasn't cool like Todd was. I knew that for sure. And I had to remember how evil Ronald really was when I first met him. Yea, I wouldn't save him unless it was super convenient.