Desire: A LitRPG Adventure (Volume 2), page 16
“This chain is weird…” Ace said as he took a step towards it.
“Wait!” Vincent clasped Ace’s shoulder and prevented him from getting closer. He glanced at the chain as he said, “Send some qi over to it first. Make sure its detached from your body.”
“Good idea.” Ace did as Vincent said. He created a ball of qi and sent it flying over to the chain. As soon as it reached the vicinity of the chain, Ace felt a terrifying force grab onto his qi. Shockingly, his control over the qi was completely severed. The ball of qi broke down and entered the chain, disappearing within.
“Uhh...” They took a step backwards as they witnessed this. They wondered what would happen if they physically touched it, but they didn’t want to try it out.
“Ah!” Vincent suddenly exclaimed, “Is this the reason why no life can grow on the planet? What if this chain runs through the entire planet, sucking up any energy it finds. So far we know it absorbs light, lifeforce, and qi. What about other abilities?”
“Damn,” Ace’s face paled as he imagined the thought, “this chain is completely overpowered.”
They fell silent, imagining all sorts of possibilities. A minute later, Vincent pointed the flashlight in a different direction, “Look, the chain exits the planet and continues further down the chasm.”
“Should we follow it?” Ace glanced at Vincent.
Vincent shrugged, “What else do we do?”
They traveled even slower, following the chain deeper into the chasm. Hours passed, and they figured they should be at the center of the planet by now. In the distance, a faint light appeared. Ace frowned as he asked, “That shouldn’t be the sun, right?”
“No, if the chains are on each continent, then light from the sun should be absorbed. This is something else.” Vincent responded, his face solemn.
They grew even more cautious as they approached the light. After what seemed like an eternity, the cliff beside them ended, signifying that they were at the center of the planet. They staggered backwards in shock as they took in the sight before them. The center of the planet was different than they imagined. It was like someone had carved out the center, creating a big open room. The only reason they could see was because light was being emitted from milky white stones on the bottom of each continent. They couldn’t count all of them, but there had to be billions of them. Not even the chains could absorb that much light. Tens of thousands of chains exited out of the continent beside them. They formed together and created a massive chain. It was the same on the bottom of the other three continents. They followed the chains, and saw… an orc.
Wrapped around each limb of the orc was a chain from one of the continents. As there were four continents, there were four chains. Ace and Vincent looked at each other in bewilderment, they didn’t expect to find an orc here at all.
“He looks like… he’s imprisoned…” Ace muttered, finding the sight reminiscent of shackled criminals.
“Yeah…” Vincent agreed as tried to regain his calm, “Who is he?”
“I don’t know,” Ace shrugged as he glanced at Vincent, “let’s go ask him?”
“You’ve got balls,” Vincent muttered under his breath. They flew forward, approaching the orc from the front. The orc seemed to be sleeping, they could tell because of the loud snoring that rang throughout the chamber. As they got closer, they could see all features of the orc. If one word was used to describe him, it was perfection. The only thing the orc was wearing was a loincloth around his waist. His muscles looked as if they were chiseled by a god, the proportions perfect. His body was unscarred, and his skin seemed to be seething with vitality. His body was even glowing. He wasn’t old, and appeared to be in the prime of his life.
Suddenly, the eyelids of the orc twitched. They froze in shock, wondering if they woke him. The orc slowly opened his eyes and looked straight at them. A terrifying aura suddenly surged past them, threatening to destroy their very existence. They felt like they were naked, like the orc could see every secret they had. Just a moment later, the feeling passed as the orc opened his mouth. His voice was deep as he said, “Would you scratch my back?”
Chapter 92
Vincent and Ace didn’t know what to say. They were in the center of a planet, a destroyed planet, and they happened to find an orc chained up. The orc was unfathomably powerful, that was for sure, and the first thing he said was that?
Ace tilted his head as he questioned, “What did you just say? I must have heard wrong.”
Vincent nodded at the side. The orc looked them straight in the eye, his face serious, “Kid, you know what I said. Can’t you have some sympathy for a fellow brother, huh? Don’t you know how irritating it is to have an itch you can’t scratch? Especially when you’ve been locked up for as long as I have. I can’t move a muscle, yet this damnable itch won’t go away. Every day it gets worse and worse. It grows in strength as it saps away my will. I have never faced such a monstrous foe…”
The orc prattled on and on, and it seemed like he would go on for hours. Ace decided he would do it just to shut the orc up, “Alright, alright. I’ll do it, okay?”
The orcs face lit up, and stars even seemed to appear in his eyes, “Kid, I knew I could count on you. You really know how to help a brother out of a pickle.”
Ace approached the orc cautiously, he was prepared to run at a moments notice. The orc reminded him, “Kid, watch the chains. If you touch them, you’ll die instantly.”
Ace froze as he looked at the black chains in a new light, “Really?”
“Yeeeeeep,” The orc responded nonchalantly.
Ace gulped loudly as he gave the chains a wide berth, making sure not to touch them. He safely arrived at the back of the orc. The orc said, “Kid, just underneath the right shoulder blade.”
Ace’s face was solemn as he reached out his hand. Just as his hand made contact with the orc’s skin, the orc screamed out in pain, “AHHHHHH!”
Ace’s face contorted in fear and he jumped backwards to safety. Vincent was confused, “What’s wrong!?”
The screams turned into laughter, “Hahaha, kid, you should have seen the reaction on your face… hahaha, priceless!”
Ace’s heart had dropped to the bottom of his stomach, only for it to rise back up in anger. He roared in fury, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The orc would be clutching his stomach in laughter if he could. A tear even fell from his eye because he laughed so fiercely. Vincent had started to fly over when he heard the scream, but he paused once he saw the look on the orc’s face. He even let out a chuckle as well, causing Ace to get even angrier. Ace flew back to Vincent as he muttered profanities on the way.
“Wait!” The orc’s face fell as he called out, “What about the itch?”
“Get it yourself, brother.” Ace emphasized the last word. Vincent figured he would be holding this grudge for a long time.
“Ah, ah, kids these days have no sense of humor.” The orc let out a long sigh as he shook his head in disappointed.
Ace turned his head, suddenly finding the chasm to be extremely interesting, while the orc was shaking his head, muttering about the disappointments of the next generation. A few moment passed, and Vincent found the situation to be a bit awkward. He let out a cough, “Ahem, why do you keep calling us kids? We’re adults where we come from.”
The orc glanced at Vincent as he snorted, “You’re all kids to me, just little babies who’ve just entered the world.”
Ace’s eye twitched at being called a baby. He questioned, “Oh yeah, and how old are you?”
“Hmm?” The orc tilted his head as he tried to feel out the passage of time, “15,592 years old? No, 15,594? Wait… shouldn’t it be 15,580 years? Bah, I don’t know exactly, but it should be around 15,590. It's hard to tell how many years have passed down here.”
“Uhhh?” Ace and Vincent glanced at each other, “Surely that isn’t possible, right? Nobody could live that long.”
Vincent turned to look back at the orc as he asked, “Wouldn’t that mean you were alive even before the tattoo arrived on this planet?”
“Ahhh,” The orc’s eyes became unfocused as he recalled the day the tattoo arrived on his planet, “That’s correct.”
They couldn’t believe it. They knew that the elderly people who arrived in their territory grew younger as their stats improved, but to live thousands of years.... That seemed like such a long period of time.
The orc focused back on them, “Let’s introduce ourselves, yes? My name is Grom the Titanslayer. Just call me Grom.”
“That’s quite the title,” Vincent remarked, “My name is Vincent.”
“Ace,” Ace muttered.
They decided to use their real names when facing such a terrifying and unpredictable character. They felt it wise not to lie to him. Grom nodded as he looked at both of them, “You two must have slain Mogtar, huh? To be expected, he wasn’t the brightest one.”
They staggered backwards at the mention of Mogtar. Ace frowned as he said, “How did you know that?”
Grom raised an eyebrow, “It doesn’t take an idiot to figure that out. Mogtar signed up to be a mercenary, and not even two weeks later, two humans arrive on the planet. The only way outsiders can arrive here is through the tattoo or from space, and I went through a lot of work to hide my solar system from prying eyes. For two humans as weak as you, there’s no way you arrived from space. It must have been through the portal Mogtar left behind.”
“Oh,” They nodded in understanding, “That makes sense.”
Vincent didn’t know if Grom was trying to belittle them, or if he was being sincere. Even so, he couldn’t help but blurt out, “Why do you call us weak? We’re pretty strong, you know.”
“Yeah,” Ace agreed, finding the orc to be a little rude, “How strong are you?”
“Sheesh, kids these days get provoked by the littlest things,” Grom let out a long sigh, “As for how strong I am.... You two wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me,” Ace called out, trying to provoke the orc.
Grom looked at Ace as he said, “Look at these chains, see how taut they are? If it wasn’t for my body, all four pieces of this planet would be flying apart from each other. Try and imagine how stressful that would be on your body.”
Ace and Vincent suddenly felt like their minds were about to collapse. Right, wasn’t the four continents pulling on Grom’s body from each direction? How many stats would that require to resist? 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? They couldn’t figure it out. Grom chuckled as he looked at their dazed appearance, “See?”
Vincent looked at the chains wrapped around Grom’s limbs. He couldn’t hold back his curiosity as he asked, “What’s going on here? At first, I didn’t believe it when I learned that this planet was destroyed, but after seeing the great chasm I had to. And worse, we found these black chains in the center of the planet holding an orc prisoner.”
“Mmm,” Grom looked at the chains, “I suppose that is quite confusing for kids.”
They no longer felt insulted when Grom called them a kid. They were currently facing a being that was over 10,000 years old and had unimaginable strength. It was only correct for someone on Grom’s level to call them kids and weak. In fact, it would be strange if he didn’t.
Grom looked down, his eyes focusing on an invisible enemy, “Long story short, I made a mistake. In the past, I served a, uh, very powerful creature. As punishment for my mistake, he severed my planet into four pieces and used the All Devouring Demonic Chains to imprison me. As a result, I have to focus all of my strength into resisting its power. If I die, the planet I devoted all of my resources into raising will be destroyed by its power. In addition, he cursed what you call the great chasm so that none may travel to see me, apparently it only works on orcs. Thousands of years have passed since then.”
“That’s… twisted…” Vincent looked deeply at Grom, wondering what mistake he made to warrant such a punishment.
Ace took a step forward, “You were the leader of your planet?”
“I…” Grom hesitated for a moment, “I don’t deserve to be called that anymore.”
Ace took another step closer as he appraised Grom in a new light. Grom must know a lot about the tattoo and being a leader. He felt like he had found a kindred spirit. Ace suddenly bowed as he shouted out, “Please train me!”
“Hm?” Grom looked at Ace’s figure, wondering what overcame the kid. He shook his head, “Why should I train you?”
Ace straightened his back as he became filled with resolve, “Vincent and I are the leaders of our planet. We’ve only had the tattoo for three years, and already our planet has come close to destruction multiple times. When I battled Mogtar, and looked at the orcs on this planet, all of them are superior to me in terms of qi manipulation. Considering how strong you are, you can make me stronger, right?”
“Oh?” Grom looked deeply at Vincent and Ace for a moment as he considered Ace’s words. These kids have something Mogtar didn’t. Perhaps there is salvation afterall?
Ace looked calmly at Grom as he waited for a response. Even though he was calm, there was an aura around him that signified he wasn’t joking around. Grom opened his mouth to speak, “You said you’re the leaders of your planet?”
“Eh,” Ace suddenly realized that wasn’t entirely correct. He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as he said, “There are two others who are around our level, but we’re allies and get along well.”
“Hmm….” Grom looked deeply at Ace, and once again Ace felt that terrifying aura surround him. This time, he mustered his courage and continued to stare back at Grom.
The aura disappeared a moment later. Grom spoke slowly as he said, “On one condition…”
“Anything!” Ace said, clenching his hands in anticipation.
Grom began to explain, “When you conquer this planet and return home, a gateway will be permanently opened between the two planets. As long as you agree to bring all of the orcs to your planet and grant them a safe haven, I will train you.”
At this time, Vincent flew over to Ace’s side as he said, “What if an orc decides to disobey the rules of our planet?”
“Kill them, I don’t care.” Grom said without hesitation.
“Deal!” Ace held out his hand for a handshake, but realized that Grom couldn’t move his hands at all. He chastised himself as he said, “Let’s sign a contract?”
“No,” Grom responded instantly, “A contract can be easily broken without repercussion. I have your word, and that’s all I need.”
“It can?” Vincent raised an eyebrow at this new piece of information.
“There are many ways,” Grom explained patiently, “The laws of karma can easily destroy the mediocre contract sold by the rewards shop, for example.”
Just as Ace was about to open his mouth, Grom spoke first, “Enough questions, we begin training now.”
“Now?” Ace blurted out, weren’t things moving a little too fast?
“Now.” he repeated.
Chapter 93
Grom looked Ace up and down, examining every part of his body. Ace shivered, once more having that feeling of being seen through. Grom grunted, “Gravity and qi, huh? Not a bad path, but it takes a lot of work.”
Vincent and Ace looked at Grom with surprise, they never told Grom Ace’s abilities. Ace questioned, “How did you know I used gravity manipulation?”
Grom rolled his eyes before explaining, “Its imprinted on your soul, and you don’t even have the slightest control over it. Your soul is like a house with transparent walls, open windows, and the door left wide open, inviting all outsiders inside.”
“Eh? Really?” Ace scratched the back of his head, “How do I fix that?”
“Two ways,” Grom began to explain, “Purchase the soul awakening ability, or learn it yourself. What do you want to chose?”
Ace and Vincent opened their hologram and went to the rewards shop. They entered into the search bar ‘soul awakening’ and found that it was a new stat, with a starting price of 1 billion points. Ace’s eyes nearly popped out, “That’s the most expensive stat I’ve ever seen! Is that even worth it?”
Vincent looked up from the hologram, giving Grom a quizzical look, “You can learn things without purchasing them from the rewards shop?”
“Yes, didn’t I tell you that my species was proficient in qi manipulation before the tattoo arrived?” Grom let out a deep sigh, realizing that these two newbs didn’t know anything at all. It was to be expected, their heritage was nonexistent. However, that feeling of impatience was nothing towards the goal of saving his people, and to do that, he had to start from the ground up with these two kids. Grom looked down at his body as he said, “Tell me about your planet, was it technologically based? Mana based? Do elementals, sprites, magic beasts, etc live there?”
