The Mad Immortal: A LitRPG Adventure, page 5
“Here it is, a new—what’s this?”
A thick book had landed beside Harold and kept nudging at his arm. The ludicrous sight reminded Nate of a small dog begging for attention. At first, Harold tried to shove it aside. When the book persisted, he finally sighed and pulled it to him.
“Alright, alright. What do you want?” He read over the page the book had opened to, then looked up at Nate and frowned. “It would seem you’re behind again on your dues.”
Null and nil! Nate had completely forgotten. The guild demanded a monthly stipend of drops from each of its members to offset its expenses. No doubt Commander Grisham took a hefty chunk herself; yet another reason to consider ditching the Riftwalkers.
Harold gave him a stern look, the effect ruined somewhat by how clearly unaccustomed to it he was. “I believe we’ve had this conversation before, Nate. And as I told you then, it would be an easy enough matter to set up a link for automatic payment.”
“Thanks, but I’ll pass.” The thought of anyone—especially Commander Grisham and her lackeys—siphoning off essence directly from his soul made him nauseous.
“In that case, you can settle the debt now. Two hundred drops should suffice.”
Nate chewed on his bottom lip. No way could he spare that much, not when he was so close to the next rank and his ascension to Journeyman.
“Can’t you just carry this over to my dues for next month? I swear I’ll pay up then.”
“I’m sorry, Nate. I would if I could, but the guild’s coffers are light as it is. Commander Grisham has made it quite clear that we need every drop we can get.”
“Please, Harold. I…” Nate racked his mind for any excuse he thought Harold would accept, but came up blank. Instead, he settled for the truth. “I really need it right now. How about two weeks? I’ll even add in fifty drops for interest.”
Harold tapped his chin. “Saving up, huh? Alright, alright.”
Nate grinned as a pen scribbled a quick note in the open ledger. The book snapped shut, flying back to its perch on the shelf in the scriptorium.
“Thanks, Harold,” he said. “You’re the best!”
Harold held up a finger. “But I expect prompt payment this time: two hundred and fifty drops, on my desk in fourteen days. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to get the guildmaster involved.”
Nate winced, picturing what Commander Grisham might do to him—or have Bastion do to him—if she found out he was shirking his dues. He’d heard plenty of horror stories about Bastion’s particular brand of pain veristry, and had no intention of ending up on the receiving end.
Somehow, he’d need to earn an extra two hundred and fifty drops of essence in just two weeks, all while also getting enough to finish his advancement to Apprentice Rank 5, and while stuck here at base running errands. Speaking of…
“So, what is my new assignment, anyway? The commander was pretty vague.”
“Well, let’s see…” Harold carefully read the topmost page from the original stack, nodding slowly. “Doesn’t look like anything too difficult. You are to escort a group of new recruits to Tabula Rasa for a shopping trip and ensure their safe return.”
Nate crossed his arms. “I assume if they’re in the Riftwalkers, they’re all at least Apprentice tier. What do they need me for just to travel to the city?”
“It says here the group is composed of binders and forgers ill-suited for combat. They’ll have spent a good deal of time in the city by now, but they took a direct portal to reach our sector, so they’ve never had to make the journey on foot. It says here that Commander Grisham wants you to ensure they arrive safely, as well as to help them acclimate to the guild and answer any questions they may…”
Harold trailed off when he noticed the expression on Nate’s face. He chuckled ruefully. “I’m assuming you didn’t exactly ask for this duty, hmm?”
Nate sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Not even a little. This is the commander’s way of punishing me for messing up on a mission. You can expect a lot more assignments like this. For the next month, I have a feeling I’m going to be little more than a glorified babysitter.”
The papers before Harold gathered themselves back into a neat bundle and tottered away. The notebook Harold had been working in before Nate’s arrival returned to its place of honor. Harold ignored it, reaching over the counter to pat Nate’s shoulder.
“Whatever you did, I’m sure it’ll blow over. In the meantime, I suggest you try to make the best of this. So far as I know, you don’t get to Tabula Rasa often. Think of this as a chance for you to build out your own personal contacts. Who knows? Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise.”
I seriously doubt it. Still, Nate nodded along numbly. He knew there was wisdom in Harold’s suggestion; buddying up to the right vendors or artisans could lead to plenty of lucrative side jobs or translate to sizable savings on gear.
But that would take time. At the moment, all he could think of was the opportunity cost of lost essence. He doubted the Immortals would be impressed by a hero doing busywork.
With one last bow to Harold, he wandered away, leaving the scribe to his ledgers and ceaseless paperwork. If he hadn’t been late before, he definitely was now. Time to go meet his new charges.
Chapter Six
Three verists stood in a tight cluster when Nate arrived at the front of the sector. He immediately recognized a pair of earthforgers recruited to provide the guild with fresh materials for crafting and binding. Both were tall and well-muscled, with matching dark skin, curly black hair, and hazel eyes. Twins, he thought.
Their forger manifestations floated up beside their shoulders, one cracked and pitted stone, the other a brass-like metal. Progressing in verigenesis would eventually shape the tiny roiling spheres of elemental power into more distinct forms, but for now, their forgelings remained in constant flux.
Nate didn’t remember either of the twins’ names and didn’t bother to ask. He nodded at them in greeting, then turned to the member he didn’t know. She was thin, shorter than the others, with a pair of oversized goggles perched on her brow.
What drew his attention, however, was the shimmering aura she exuded. Everything it touched glimmered as if embedded with minuscule flecks of crystal. It gave the grass, her clothes, and even the twin earthforgers an ethereal, almost glassy quality. Nate had grown used to binder auras, but this one was unlike any he’d ever seen.
The group fell silent when they noticed he had joined them. He couldn’t help but wonder if they’d been discussing him before he arrived. Had they been told who would lead their expedition?
The twins glanced at one another nervously, but the woman smiled and stepped forward, offering her hand. “Name’s Ellie. Nice to meet you, Nate.”
Nate took her hand reflexively. “Yeah, same. Welcome to the Riftwalkers. Is this everyone? I’d like to get this show on the road.”
To his astonishment, Ellie rolled her eyes. He’d expected these recruits to be intimidated by him, especially given his reputation. So far, the twins seemed to live up to that expectation; Ellie, not so much.
“You’re a little late for a welcome,” she said, ignoring his question. “This is my third week here. What’s up with the name ‘Riftwalkers’ anyway? I mean, doesn’t pretty much everyone in the Nexus walk the rifts out of necessity?”
Nate just shrugged. He tried to turn away to search for any stragglers, but Ellie clearly wasn’t finished.
“I’m excited we got you for our escort. I’ve been looking for a chance to talk to you since I joined.”
“Oh, yeah?” he said absently. “About what?”
“All sorts of stuff! Like what really happened in the Precursors’ Trials.”
“You’ve heard about that, have you?”
He shouldn’t be surprised. In a way, that had been his and Wes’ first proper mission for the guild…even if they had been disobeying orders when they entered. They’d been woefully unprepared for the challenges they’d faced, especially the nightmare they’d found at the end.
Nate thought everything had ultimately worked out for the best. Commander Grisham hadn’t agreed. And thus had begun their long and fraught relationship, as well as his burgeoning infamy within the Riftwalkers.
“Mhmm. I’ve heard a lot about you from the others.”
“All good things, I hope.”
Ellie grinned and shook her head. The crystalline flecks from her aura left shining trails in their wake as she shifted. “Nah. Mostly bad, actually. They don’t seem to have a great opinion of you. They say you’re brash, arrogant, and a pain to work with.”
She had his full attention now. He stared at her, unsure of how to reply. The twins shifted nervously as they glanced anywhere but at the two of them.
Nate searched for any hint of mockery or disparagement in Ellie’s expression, but found none. If anything, she looked like she was enjoying herself. This was not going at all as he’d expected.
Thankfully, he was saved the need to respond by another figure approaching. So, there had been at least one straggler, after all. Nate turned, opening his mouth to greet the newcomer, then froze.
Wes stood there, shuffling in the grass. With how much time they spent together fighting or training, it always felt strange seeing him without his Ice Skin active. His eyes shone with azure energy, and his skin had a distinctly blue tint to it. His hair stuck up in spikes, made brittle by a thin sheen of ice.
By his downcast gaze and pale—well, paler than usual—face, Nate judged he was still suffering from a bit of lingering soul sickness. He had at least found the equipment Nate had left for him, donning his usual simple clothes along with his Shirt of Slipperiness and Gloves of Might.
“Hey, buddy,” Wes said, managing a weak smile.
“What are you doing here? Did you come to see me off?”
“I’m actually your fifth for this trip.”
“Aw, man, don’t tell me the commander punished you, too. How is that even remotely fair?”
Ellie’s eyes narrowed, and Nate realized it might not have been the smartest idea to admit he considered this reassignment a punishment. Well, whatever—she could take it as an insult if she liked. This might be exciting for her, but for him, it all amounted to lost time he could’ve spent training or farming for essence.
Wes, though, just shook his head. “Nah. I actually requested to tag along. Thought it might give us a chance to talk. Besides, after that last fight, I could use a break from the action, you know.”
Nate clapped him on the back. “Well, glad to have you with us. I told the commander that reclamation wouldn’t be able to keep you off your feet for long.”
An expression passed over Wes’ face too quickly for Nate to catch, and he felt his friend’s muscles tense beneath his palm. Then Wes relaxed, giving him a quick nod and stepping away to join the others.
Nate frowned, noting Wes’ continued downward gaze. Yup, definitely soul sickness. Better wait to bring up what had happened, then.
“Assuming we’re not waiting on anyone else,” he said, “let’s get going. The city might be close, but it’ll still take us about two hours to traverse the rifts.”
Ellie looked like she wanted to say more, but he didn’t give her the chance. He strode quickly over to the barrier that enveloped their sector. The others fell dutifully into line behind him: Ellie just at his back, followed by the twins, and then Wes taking up the rear.
Each sector of the Nexus consisted of its own little pocket reality, varying in size and nature, yet all sharing the same fundamental disconnectedness. Short of spatial veristry, the only way into or out of a sector was through one of its linked rifts.
Nate always found it disconcerting to stand near a sector’s open edge. The churning essence there was an intrinsic part of the Nexus, immutable and indestructible, but knowing this didn’t stop his nightmares of somehow tumbling through the barrier, falling forever into the infinite void of the Null.
By comparison, the rift carved into the barrier seemed almost mundane. It shimmered with a scintillating miasma of color, tendrils of energy swirling around themselves in an endless vortex of essence that had condensed naturally into wild spatial vera.
Assuming the others would follow his lead, he stepped into the rift. His stomach lurched, streaks of light obscuring his vision. Then, less than a second later, he emerged from a similar rift into the adjacent sector. Though of course, calling anything ‘adjacent’ in the Nexus was misleading since everywhere you went technically existed in its own micro-reality.
Nate spared the landscape a cursory glance. There shouldn’t be any verabeasts here that could threaten them, but when you were dealing with the Nexus, it was always better to be safe than sorry.
This particular sector was smaller than the guild’s. It had been classified as an Aquatic biome thanks to the shallow pink lake that covered most of the space, despite the water only coming up to about a person’s ankles.
Some sectors had day/night cycles mimicking that of Earth. Here, however, a starry sky perpetually twinkled with rose-tinted light, the only visible landmarks the vibrant anemones that sprouted from the water like trees. They added their own faint luminescence that, together with the stars, provided enough light to see clearly.
He waited until the others were through the rift, then started down the gentle slope to the pristine water below. The faded violet ground squished as he walked, strangely spongy beneath his feet.
He didn’t bother to check his Registry for stored information on the sector; he knew from experience that the rift they needed sat almost directly across the lake from them. They’d make much better time cutting through the lake than navigating all the way around. And their boots shouldn’t get too waterlogged in the process.
They were halfway across the lake when he noticed that Ellie had suddenly fallen silent. She’d been keeping up a steady stream of questions as they walked, thankfully directed mostly at Wes when she realized she wouldn’t get much from him.
“Hold,” he said, raising a hand.
Wes and the twins came to a halt nearby.
“What is it?” Wes asked. “Something wrong?”
“We lost Ellie.” Nate let his eyes rove over the surrounding area.
The water wasn’t deep enough to easily conceal even someone as small as Ellie, but this far from the shore, the anemone stalks had grown as dense as a forest. That meant plenty of places to hide out of sight.
Wes shrugged, gesturing back the way they’d come. “I think she’s fine. I saw her step off the path back there. Something probably just caught her interest.”
Nate sighed, trudging in the direction Wes had indicated. The last thing he needed was for one of the recruits to get themselves reclaimed on his watch.
He found Ellie pressing her hands against one of the largest nearby anemones. She’d pulled her goggles down over wide eyes, her mouth hanging slightly open.
“Come over here and check this out,” she said, not looking up. As if she feared taking her eyes off the anemone, even for a second.
Nate gave the anemone a cursory glance. “Whatever it is, you can study it on your own time.”
“But these creatures are fascinating! I can’t get a read on the specific binding they’re using, but they’re definitely converting the surrounding air into droplets of water. Look. You can see some condensation on their—”
“Wait, bindings?” He eyed the anemone with renewed interest. “That means they have vera, right?”
“Yes, but don’t get your hopes up. It would be so little to an Apprentice as to be inconsequential. The Riftwalkers have got some essence traps set up throughout the sector to catch what ambient essence they can, and every once in a while, they come through and harvest any particularly juicy specimens. But it’s hardly worth the effort.”
“How the Null do you know any of that? I thought you just joined a couple weeks ago.”
“I pay attention to the world around me. You should try it sometime.” He scowled, but she flashed him a grin. “Plus, Harold is a font of useful knowledge. Just make sure you have a couple hours set aside when you ask him a question.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he grumbled. “In the meantime, can we—”
“Yes, yes.” Ellie rose, brushing off her hands and stowing her goggles. “Don’t get your vera channels all in a knot. We can keep moving.”
She started back toward the rest of the group. Nate trailed after her, jaw clenched. He didn’t need a high Insight to suspect he and Ellie weren’t going to get along.
The next several hours proved his intuition correct. He tried everything he could to keep her moving, but all he ever got in return was an eye roll or a smirk. She had insisted they stop and study every creature, shrub, or strange rock formation that caught her eye.
He was half-convinced she was doing it just to torment him. All the sectors they’d traversed were well-traveled, none above Initiate-class. There simply couldn’t be that many wonders worthy of her attention.
The twins hadn’t been much better. Following Ellie’s lead, they’d seemed perfectly happy gawking at the series of impossible landscapes they traversed. As far as Nate was concerned, once you’d seen one floating island or desert made of polished glass, you’d seen them all.
Only Wes had been content to match the brisk pace Nate had tried to set. His friend had been quiet on the journey, though that wasn’t all that unusual. He was certain they’d get a chance to talk soon. In the meantime, he just needed to corral the others a little longer.
“What is it now?” he asked, glaring down at Ellie.
They stood in the sector before Tabula Rasa, known as the Great Plains. Knee-high yellow grass blanketed the perfectly flat zone, stretching uniformly for miles in all directions. As usual, the grass swayed gently from side to side in the breeze.
Twelve suns burned in the sky overhead, and though the temperature remained comfortable, the light felt almost blinding. Nate much preferred the sector at night when a good half of the suns had fallen below the horizon.
