BladeDust Online: A LitRPG Adventure (Book 1) Page 16

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “You don't know? We are headed to FlatFall.”

  “FlatFall? What's that?”

  The character gave me an odd look. I looked at his name and stats above his head:

  Luke The King368 – Level 61

  Human - Warrior

  Luke ruffled up his blonde shaggy hair. “How did you get here?”

  “I don't know. We raided a bandit village. Well, someone I trusted betrayed me. I think that's what happened anyways.”

  “It must have been an inside job. They do that sometimes. They go looking for noobs and set them up. I bet the organization pays him to lure in new players.”

  “The organization?”

  “Yea dude. They are called the Handlers. They take players against their will and send them here. They use different methods to do it. Sometimes they seriously injure a player, other times they use a potion that literally paralyzes them.”

  “That's what happened! Cosmo poured something into my mouth.”

  “Yea. It's called TimeMist. It's a potion that was created by them. If they pour it down your throat, you are gone.”

  It was all starting to make sense. My mind began to play back the memories of Cosmo getting the potion from the old man. I remembered how odd he was acting at the time. Then it hit me! He must have been getting the TimeMist potion. That bastard. How could he do this to me? I trusted him, and even looked up to him. Then I realized, I was a fool to trust him. I would never make that mistake again. The line began to move as we moved with it. “Now what? What's going to happen to us?”

  “I don't know. I have never known anyone who has actually been to FlatFall. From what I understand, most players never come back. They stay here for good.”

  What the hell? Was this guy serious? How could we stay here forever? That kinda sounded like a nightmare. “I'm sure you can leave,” I replied.

  “Dude. That's not what I've heard.”

  “But what if you die? Won't you become a lost soul?”

  He laughed. “Yea, you do. But, once someone finds your body, you respawn right back here. Not only that, you lose everything when you die. So dying is even worse here. It just sets you back even further.”

  That did sound pretty shitty. The line moved forward. Then, there was a sudden jerk. The ship had come to a stop and Luke was next in line. The captain mumbled something to him while writing on a piece of paper. Then, he patted Luke down. “Leave me,” he yelled with his thumb behind his back.

  I step forward. The captain looked at me. I couldn't help but notice how ugly he was. “Name?” he asked while revealing the most crooked teeth I had ever seen.

  “Walker. My name is Walker.”

  He began to write my name down on a dirty piece of paper. I examined his teeth. How could he be happy with them? And why had he not fixed them yet? Was he really satisfied with the way he looked when he looked in the mirror each morning? I seriously doubted it. Still, the captain continued to write my name. What the hell was taking him so long? It was a very short name. Finally, he was done. After that, he began to pat me down. “Leave me,” he yelled.

  Leave me? That was the same thing he had yelled to Luke. This captain dude was on a serious ego trip it seemed. I walked slowly. Where was I headed? In front of me, I saw a long narrow wooden board that led to a dock. Every step I took creaked while I walked down it. Not far from me, I saw Luke. “Wait up,” I yelled.

  Luke slowed down and let me catch up to him. “Dude, I think they are taking us to a dungeon.”

  “What? Are you serious?”

  “That's what the other characters are saying.”

  “But, we aren't chained up. It doesn't make sense.”

  “Look ahead of us. There's a guy chaining hands I think.”

  It was another line. This time there was a large well built man at the front. Luke was right. He had chains. “What the hell? What are we going to do?”

  “What can we do? Look around you.”

  I looked around and saw what Luke was talking about. Several NPCS were fully decked out in armor and carried large swords. “Crap. This can't be happening. How did this happen?”

  Luke didn't answer. The lined moved up as I got closer to losing my freedom. Suddenly, an alert popped up in front of me:

  Friends Request

  Tommy The First wants to add you as a friend. Accept? Yes/No?

  I couldn't believe it. That little traitor was sending me a friends request? I shook my head. He had left me to die. For that, I wasn't sure I could ever forgive him. I didn't want to accept his friendship, but I wanted to see what lame excuse he had. Screw it. I was too curious not to accept his friends request. I accepted it. Within thirty seconds, I had a message from Tommy:

  It's me Tommy. How are you? First, I want to say I am sorry that you died. Second, I want to say something else. Well, I want to say that I hope you are okay. Are you okay? Let me know.

  Tommy

  What the hell? What sort of pathetic little message was this? The lined moved forward as I began to give him a piece of my mind:

  “You left me dude. How could you do that? I saw you. I saw your cowardly ass running off. You didn't even look back. Now I am at this fucked up dungeon place called FlatFall. I am actually waiting in line to get my chains. Yea, they are gonna chain me up! All because of you. How could you not even help your best friend? You say we are best friends, yet you didn't help me. Don't message me again! I don't even want to see you again!”

  I closed my messages and looked ahead. Crap. I wasn't far now. The guy in front of Luke was getting chained up. “Looks like we are next,” I yelled to Luke.

  Luke took a step forward and the large man wrapped a thick metal chain around his wrist. He pushed Luke forward. “Next,” he said while pointing at me.

  The cold metal went around my wrist. He squeezed the chain and I felt a sting. “Next,” he said with a quick shove to my back.

  I ran closer to Luke. “We have to escape.”

  “Keep your voice down,” Luke whispered. “Who knows what they'll do to us with that sort of talk.”

  We walked down a long hall way with torches mounted on the walls. Damn, this did look like a dungeon. How was I going to survive such a depressing life? I continued down the hall until my feet hit something. I stumbled and nearly fell to the ground. Beneath my feet, a skinny old man coughed. “Water. I need water.”

  “This guy needs some water,” I yelled.

  Within an instant, the line stopped moving. A tall bald muscular man walked towards me. “We don't waste water on his type,” he said.

  I didn't say anything. Then, the man spat on the old guy. “There's your water. How did you like it?”

  Crap. I felt bad for the old guy. But, I didn't want to say anything because I had a feeling it just wouldn't go over well. “Drag this slug to the hole,” the man demanded.

  The hole? That sounded like a terrible place. Were we all headed to the hole? Two men rushed over to the old man and grabbed both of his arms. With a burst of energy, they ran as fast as they could while dragging him behind them. “It burns,” the old man yelled.

  I shook my head. It seemed the old man was suffering from some severe carpet burn type symptoms. The guys that were dragging him were super quick. Did they get up in the morning with the sole purpose of training for this job of theirs? I didn't know, but it all seemed so fucked up. That poor old guy was about to die and I couldn't do anything about it.

  Luke looked back at me with terror on his face. We didn't say a word, but I knew we were both thinking the same thing. The line resumed moving as if nothing had just happened. I guess it was just another day at the dungeon? We went further and further down the hall until we arrived at a large room. A short older man wearing a black robe stood in the center of the room. His hair was white and so were his eyes. “Welcome to FlatFall,” he said with his hands together. “I am the Emperor of this wonderful establishment.”

  He made it so
und like some sort of resort. Who the hell was he trying to fool? This wasn't an establishment, it was a dungeon. I saw what they did to the old man and I didn't approve. “These chains around your wrist are temporary,” he said with a pleasant tone in his voice.

  A few of the prisoners around me actually got excited. “Despite what you may have heard, FlatFall is not a dreadful place.”

  What a load of crap. It was dreadful. They could give me cookies and milk every day and I would still think this place was terrible. The little man was trying to slip rose colored glasses on to my head, but I wasn't allowing it. He turned around and began to pace back and forth. “Many players are very happy here. We offer you a rare opportunity. An opportunity to become a very powerful character.”

  I had to admit. That last sentence caught my attention. The man continued to speak as I began to listen more closely. “You will work here for us. We will provide you food, shelter and leadership. If you work hard enough, you will live a very good life.”

  One of the prisoners raised his chained hands into the air. What the hell? Did he think this was high school? The small man in black pointed at him. “Excellent. Do you have a question?”

  The prisoner seemed a bit shy. But, he asked his question. “Yes. How frequent are our meals?”

  “That's an excellent question. You are usually fed once a day if you work hard enough. We make sure no stomachs are empty here at FlatFall.”

  Once a day? Did this little piece of shit really think that was enough? The man put both hands into the air. “No more questions for today,” he said while taking a few steps back.

  Everyone became quiet as the man walked back and forth. Nothing was said. Then, he scanned the room. “Everyone here will fight around three times a week in the coliseum. You will also participate in some group quest so that you will grow stronger, and make more gold for FlatFall. More gold for FlatFall means a better life for you. Just remember that.”

  The coliseum? We were going to be fighting in a coliseum? I didn't know why, but it excited me. The thought of actually battling in front of a crowd seemed really cool. But the thought of being forced to battle scared me. The small man said one last thing as he looked like he was ready to leave. “Now, take this time to get to know each other. Also, be sure to enjoy the live entertainment.”

  The small man left the room and was replaced with an elf. The elf began to play a flute. While he was playing, he spun around in circles. Did anyone really want to see this? I for one didn't want to see some elf playing a flute. This live entertainment sucked. Luke elbowed me. “Maybe this place isn't so bad.”

  “Dude, you saw what they did to that old guy. What the hell is the hole?”

  “Maybe they had a good reason,” Luke replied.

  “What? Because he was thirsty?”

  The elf continued to dance for many minutes. Some of the prisoners actually seemed entertained with his flute playing skills. Two heavily armored men walked into the room and began grabbing prisoners. One after another, the prisoners went into another room. It wasn't long before they got to me. “Let's go,” they said while leading me into the room. Once in the room, I realized the cold reality of the situation. It was a room full of prison cells. “In you go,” the men said with a kick to my back.

  I stumbled into my cell. “Hello. Welcome to my home,” a voice said.

  The door slammed shut. This was my cell mate? I was expecting some huge built up character, but instead, it was a skinny little troll. His face was round and his skin was green. On top of his head, he had around ten to twenty strands of yellow hair. In fact, it almost looked like someone had glued some hay on to his head. His outfit pretty much sucked. He only wore a brown shirt and some dirty blue shorts. I looked around at my living area. There were just four brown walls with one small barred window. The window wasn't much of a window though. There was just another wall outside of it that I could see. I looked at my cellmate and he smiled. “My name is Douglas.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I replied.

  Douglas seemed nervous. He put both of his hands together and spoke with a quiver. “It is nice to meet me isn't it?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Yea. That's what I just said.”

  He sniffed the air in front of him. “It already smells different in here. Don't you love change?”

  Okay. This dude was acting kinda strange. “Yea, I guess. I enjoy the change of seasons.”

  He began to laugh uncontrollably. “That's funny. That's really funny.”

  I didn't answer. The laughed dragged on until it finally came to a stop. He twisted his head to his side. “How do you like this place so far?”

  “It pretty much sucks.”

  “You won't be saying that for long. This place is great. It forces you to reach your potential. Can you imagine how jealous my friends will be once I am the new Grand Champion? They will finally respect me won't they? And do you know why? Because I won't stop until I reach the top. I just won't!”

  I sighed. The poor troll was delusional. I knew a potential champion when I saw one, and he wasn't it. There was something odd about him though. He had this desperate energy he put out into the air. This desire to be successful. In a way, I guess it was naive of me to say that he had no chance of being a champion. I guess it was possible if he worked hard enough. But maybe he was right. Maybe I needed to view this experience from a positive viewpoint. This was a chance for me to level up quicker. Truth be known, I was really going at a slow pace. There were so many distractions in the main game world. It was hard to stay focused on leveling up when there was so much to do. This was a chance for me to actually become powerful like I wanted.

  Then, a sinking feeling came to my stomach. What happened to Todd? It just hit me. I had not talked to him in a while. And now I had no chance of actually taking his soul to his body. I made a mental note to send him a message. But for now, I needed to question the troll. I squinted my eyes and got straight to business. “Have you had any fights in the coliseum yet?”

  “Oh yea. I beat the crap out of this elf just a few days ago. Everyone thought I was going to lose. But guess what?”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “I won!” he yelled way too loudly.

  I took a good look at Douglas. He was small. Really small. I guess size didn't matter though. “Is it exciting in the coliseum?”

  Douglas walked over to the bars that contained us. He leaned his head against them. “It's the most exciting thing in the world. I feel like a king out there. Everyone cheers my name.”

  I smiled. That did seem pretty desirable. Douglas paused before he said his next sentence. “They want to be me. Every single last one of them.”

  “Who? Who wants to be you?”

  He spun around. A fierce look came to his face. “The crowd,” he said with his fist into the air. “The cowards are living their dreams through me. And, I can't let them down. I can never let them down.”

  Okay. This troll was definitely delusional. I seriously doubted anyone wanted to become an imprisoned troll. “Maybe they just want to be entertained? Have you thought about that?”

  He pointed his skinny green finger at me. “Don't be so blind,” he said with a chuckle.

  I didn't reply. But, I quickly checked out his level. Wow. He was a level 39? I was surprised. “Did you level up a lot after you got here?”

  “Yea. I pity my previous self,” he mumbled. “I was only a level 9 when I first got here. I was just like myself in the real world back then. Now, I don't care who I kill. I'll kill anyone they tell me to. I don't care anymore. I just wanna kill some stuff.”

  Okay. Yea, it was worse than I thought. This troll had some serious metal issues. Could I even trust him if I fell to sleep? I didn't know. But, one thing he said did interest me. “There's a champion here?”

  “You'll see. I don't want to ruin it for you,” Douglas replied with an odd look on his face.

  I sat down on the dirty ground. Suddenly, a new message alert popp
ed up:

  “Hey. It's me Tommy. I just wanted to say that I have done a lot of thinking. You were right. I was a coward. I ran because I was scared. But, I'm gonna save you. I'm gonna save you and also save Todd. Don't worry, I will take care of it all. Even if it means I gotta die! Let me know how I can get to the place they took you. Oh, and our army died. But...I am gonna start a new one. I will be there soon.

  Tommy.”

  I laughed. How was he going to save me? My eyes drifted down to the ground. I was mad at Tommy, but I knew he meant well. If he said he was going to save me, he would try his best. It was true. He could sometimes be a coward. I couldn't forgive him for what he had done to me. In fact, the only way I would forgive him is if he was to save me. I quickly wrote him back: