Yggdrasil Fallen, LitRPG Series
Book 1, Part 1 Obsidian
Prologue, Everglow
Dense fog settled onto the charred, windswept field as night fell around a dirty, worn cloaked figure hurrying to finish setting up a temporary refuge against the rapidly encroaching bone-deep chill. The shadowed figure traced a large circle, using their feet to stamp flat any plant life that protruded from the ground until a reasonably sized clearing had been pressed out. Raising both hands pointed slightly down towards the center of the clearing the figures drapery began to flutter gently as a writhing mass of dimly glowing smoke began to coalesce about a foot above the ground. The undulating smoke began to swirl slowly at first, then faster and faster still as the dim light grew in intensity until the once amorphous mass had become a dense orb of flickering light. With a shower of smokey sparks the orb shattered revealing what appeared to be a Victorian carriage lantern constructed by a mad modern machinist hell bent on overcomplicating a once simplistic design with extraneous gearworks and translucent piping. Darkness reclaimed the clearing as the device hovered for a moment before settling on the ground. The figure snapped their fingers, quickly followed by the slowly accelerating gentle clicks of well-oiled gears clicking together.
The warm light that flooded the clearing revealed the cloaked figure to be a slender pale skinned man, weary eyes tempered to a hardened gaze despite his otherwise youthful appearance. Basking in the warmth of his conjured lantern the young man produced a pack from underneath his cloak and proceeded to remove a waterskin and a loaf of bread. Returning his pack to its place the young man sat close to the lantern basking in its dry heat that pushed back damp night chill as he slowly chewed his bread, drinking occasionally from the waterskin.
“It’s been almost two weeks since I landed here and there’s still no sign of that bastard! Something that huge should be much easier to track!” He muttered to himself as he took the last bite of his bread.
“Damnit Andre would you just have some patience, we really don’t want to go rushing into a fight with this thing. It’d be better to be fully prepared and hunt it rather than find ourselves hunted by it.” Replied a deep growling voice.
Glancing back over his shoulder towards where he knew the plains met dense swampy forest Andre uttered a deep sigh, took a deep swig from his water skin then returned it to the pack.
“When you’re right, you’re right. With these short nights I should try and get some sleep, or at least see if I can get some meditational recovery done. Can you keep watch?” Andre spoke quietly into the dark.
“Of course, you know you can always count on me.” The deeper voice replied. With that Andre stretched himself out on the ground and fell still.
Sometime later as he lay there on the cold, damp soil; his shallow breath swirling into the now frigid night air of the hellish landscape Andres eyes’ fluttered open, transfixed by the dim glow of the lantern laying a few feet away: Its gears and rods moving in a slow repetitive manner, the thick viscous fluids swirling through the pipes around the white stone within producing the only light and sound in the otherwise inky darkness. He knew better than to get much closer to the lantern while it was working as the comfortable warmth that radiated his body now could seriously burn if he did much like stepping into an actual bonfire. While the everglow stone construct conjuration was his most versatile ability; it was far from his favorite.
“I can’t believe this is my life now. The absolute absurdity of magic being an actual thing, even though its absolutely not how I could have ever expected it all to be!” He laughed to himself as he continued to watch the rhythmic workings of his lantern. This mad machinists wet dream was the only thing that seemed to keep the creatures of the night at bay, providing him warmth and light until daybreak.
As he learned this world had three suns. The first sun to rise didn’t bring warmth or much light, but it would illuminate his surroundings and suppress his lanterns effects. The second sun, rising an hour or so later, brought the warmth to this scorched plane, with the third close behind, he knew he had to be back into the thick canopied woods, or risk burning away with the small amounts of moisture that had fallen the night before.
The white stone while not much bigger than a child’s fist in the heart of the construct was called “everglow”, named for his ability to conjure the various tools required for his survival had awoken in him. While the tools varied the stone remained the same, always at the center of whatever he’d called up. Andre knew he had only just scratched the surface of his potential, what it all meant, and what he would need to see it all through to the end. What end he had no idea but an end that would take everything he had and more if he had any hope to survive.
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Andre sat up stretching away the cold and damp that seemed to have seeped into his bones, settling into his very core. As Andre blinked sleep from his eyes the lamp flickered; dimming slightly, the gears started clicking slower, the plungers not driving as deep, the viscous fluid slowing its flow and the light from the everglow stone stuttering, ultimately going out just as the horizon was pierced by the fires of the first sun.
“Damnit, just how long was I out?!” he grumbled to himself, not ready to move. Standing Andre waved his hand, dismissing the lantern in a silent shower of sparks much like those that heralded its conjuration. Pulling his cloak tighter around him, now his only barrier to the cold, Andre surveyed the landscape, the first light washing everything in muted, non-descript coloring. Andre spun in one quick motion unsheathing his machete as a quiet rustling came from a bush behind him. Electricity danced across his blade as he leapt towards the offending movement. In a single sweep of his weapon, bolts of energy shot off the blade stunning a six-legged lizard that had been waking with the sun.
Andre stopped himself from cleaving its head off, he hadn’t made a habit of indiscriminately killing innocent creatures regardless of how hideous they were. He sheathed his weapon as the lizard recovered from the sudden burst of energy and skittered away.
“It wasn’t long ago that I would have been completely unable to act, that noise would have stuck my ass in place like a scared rabbit!” He laughed to himself, watching as the first sun continued its slow path across the sky.
“You need to move, NOW. There’s something huge coming and I have absolutely no idea what it is.” A voice growled nearby.
“WARNING: extreme risk to life has been detected in your imminent vicinity, it is highly advised that you remove yourself from the area in very short order.” A rather panicked voice rang through his head.
Andre felt the ground beneath his feet begin to shudder, shaking; as though it were coming to life he moved. Andre leapt into a blurred dash away from his site, making for the swampy forests edge.
“What the fuck?!?” Andre yelled as the ground under his feet began to crack and crumble to soft sand. Deep crevices formed around him as he continued his well-practiced sprint towards softer ground.
“If I can just make it to the forests edge, I shouldn’t have to worry about these damned pit trap vines.” Andre thought to himself as rushed across the ground. He leapt into long acrobatic spiral across a chasm that split the ground in front of him. He hit the ground hard and fell into a roll, launching himself back to his feet he continued the sprint.
“What are these things doing here anyways?!” He growled to himself as he leapt from rock to rock as the ground around him began to cave away. “It’s been two fucking weeks and I didn’t see a single sign of these jerks existing in this world!”. Andre absolutely detested pit trap vines, while he was well versed in dealing with them, they always presented a tremendous challenge due to their sheer size and unpredictable nature. Encroaching light lit the landscape in front of him as the sun rose higher; he froze as dismay and terror from what he saw before him rippled through him. The once dense soil had become a minefield of writhing masses surrounded by deep chasms.
“The hell you think you’re doing kid!? Get your ass moving!” The growling voice roared, waking him from the haze he’d been pulled into, setting his nerves on fire. Drawing his machete Andre backed up a few steps and launched himself forward, the tree line just a hundred meters or so away. He slashed as a barbed vine thicker than his torso erupted from the ground in his path. It was sent spiraling away from the force of his attack. Jumping to the vines stump Andre launched himself again, wind whipping around him as he hurdled forwards. More vines shot from the ground around him as he landed, breaking the ground and causing it to give way below his left foot. He stumbled forwards hitting the ground hard, only his momentum having saved him from falling into the pit.
“Just 50 meters to safety, I have to move!” Andre panted, his muscles and lungs burning from the sudden extreme exertion. Scrambling to his feet he cut down several more vines that were closing in to capture him before continuing his sprint.
“25 meters, almost there!” He panted out, his arms a proverbial blur as he ripped through the rapidly emerging vines.
“10 meters!” he thought to himself with optimistic relief. As though in response to his thoughts the ground gave way underneath him, dropping him deep enough to slam his chest into a wall, then plunging him thigh deep into thick, sludgy acrid muck. The force of the impact had knocked the wind out of him and caused Andre to drop his weapon, which quickly disappeared into the sludge, which he now realized was the worst thing that could have happened as he felt several vines snaking their way around his ankles and up his legs pulling him deeper into the mess. Andres hands scrambled against the wall of the pit, fingers ripping away large clumps of soft, rich, cold earth without gaining purchase.
“DAMNIT, NO! It cannot end here!” his thoughts roared.
The vines pulled hard on his legs, snaking now wrapping around his midsection and working their way up his torso, pulling him deeper into the muck.
“CALCULATING POTENTIAL ESCAPE PATH: . . . . . . . . . . . no path found, likelihood of eminent demise: 99.999999%.” Rang a voice deep in his head, as the frigid muck rose to his chest the vines pulling him downwards with such force he felt as though he may tear in two. His mind racing; Andre thought desperately to find a way to escape his rapid descent into the pit trap vine, but as the muck reached his chin all he could do was look up to the mouth of the hole and accept defeat. Andre felt the life being squeezed out him as he struggled against his final gasping breaths. With the world fading to foul muck, he saw the second sun, just peaking its way into the hole, his grave, its fire warming his face as he was pulled down, losing consciousness.