Hack, Slash & Burn 2: A LitRPG Fantasy, page 41
You have 10 attribute points to apply.
The flames dissipated. Calder looked down, found his armour pristine. Found himself completely undamaged, when moments ago, he had almost been dead.
You have reached level 76!
Your health, mana and adrenaline are now restored in full.
You have 10 attribute points to apply.
Calder couldn’t help but let out a roaring laugh.
The dragon was dead. He lived and the dragon was dead.
With one second left, he had done exactly what he needed, and somehow, gained three levels out of it!
A weakness overtook him. One he hadn’t expected. Though he realised it wasn’t actually weakness, rather a lack of strength, as Last Ditch had worn off, no longer boosting his attributes.
More text flashed across his vision.
Living Sword second name unlocked!
You have slain an enemy over two hundred levels above your own. And not just any enemy, a Legendary Black Dragon. This feat has earned your Living Sword the name of Legendary Dragon Slayer. Your Living Sword will now inflict concentrated and area-of-effect Inferno damage and has received a Magic Attribute Boost in relation to its level.
Living Sword upgraded:
Living Sword – Bringer of Mass Destruction – Legendary Dragon Slayer (Bonded) – Level 76
1st Name Bonus - Bringer of Mass Destruction: Inflict 10% of a strike’s full damage to foes within a five-meter radius of the wielder. Does not harm those designated as allies.
2nd Name Bonus - Legendary Dragon Slayer: Inflict +200 Inferno damage against a direct target. Inflict +50 Inferno damage against targets within a five-meter radius of the wielder. Does not harm those designated as allies. This name also adds a Magic Attribute Boost to the Living Sword.
Imbued spell: Shield Shift
This sword grows in strength beside its master. Its strengths reflect those of its master. A portion of all Proficiency gained by the wielder feeds into the sword to keep its strength and levels growing.
Further names of this weapon shall be gained in a moment of great conflict.
Elemental Damage - +200 Inferno
Elemental Damage - +50 Inferno (5-meter radius)
Elemental Damage - +22 Fire
Elemental Damage - +22 Lightning
Elemental Damage - +22 Ice
Attribute Boost - +22% Base Magic
Attribute Boost - +22% Base Strength
Attribute Boost - +32% Base Agility
Living Armour first name unlocked!
You withstood the flames of a Legendary Black Dragon over 200 levels above your own not once, but twice. This feat has earned your Living Armour the name of Legendary Dragon Armour. Your Living Armour will now have advanced resistance to fire damage as well as added physical defence.
Living Armour upgraded:
Living Armour – Legendary Dragon Armour (Bonded) – Level 76
1st Name Bonus - Legendary Dragon Armour: Adds +200 fire resistance and +200 physical resistance.
This full-plate armour set grows in strength beside its master. Its strengths reflect those of its master. A portion of all Proficiency gained by the wearer feeds into the armour to keep its strength and levels growing.
Further names of this armour shall be gained in a moment of great conflict.
Physical Resistance - +200
Elemental Resistance - +222 Fire
Elemental Resistance - +22 Lightning
Elemental Resistance - +22 Ice
Attribute Boost - +102% Base Stamina
Calder could barely take in everything he was reading. His Living Sword and Living Armour had both just gained insanely helpful names, and now his sword would actually boost his Magic attribute as well, which he had found perhaps more important than his Agility at times.
Legendary Dragon Slayer? Legendary Dragon Armour? And the dragon had been 200 levels above his own? That made it roughly level 280!
Gods, no wonder it had been so damned hard to kill.
He was a little surprised he had seen the notification for his Living Sword, as it wasn’t even in his hands anymore—currently, it was stuck inside the dead dragon.
A war still rages, Calder thought. I better keep moving.
Now that he had been fully restored by gaining those levels, Calder Dream Stepped over to the dead Legendary Black Dragon.
It was time to harvest its soulstones. Once the dragon disappeared, it would be much easier to find his sword.
~
Calder had recovered his Living Sword from where he had slain the black dragon—which, from the number of soulstones he had harvested, had been level 300. When he had picked up his Living Sword, he had found the blade different than it had been before.
The steel had turned pure black. Black like the dragon he had killed. It wasn’t only the sword, either. When he had teleported back up to the battlements, Peter—after congratulating him on killing the dragon and saving all their asses—had remarked on his armour.
Looking down, Calder had found his full-plate armour to have changed as well. It still had somewhat of a blood-red tinge, but it too had been darkened.
And now it was made from interlocking scales that resembled the scales of the black dragon almost completely.
Living steel indeed.
The orc army still lived. Killing the dragon had weakened them, and they had taken down perhaps a fifth of the army’s number, but there was still work to be done.
The work, however, was manageable.
Calder saw no way the enemy would be able to breach their defences. Not anymore. Especially as each hour passed, the number of defenders they possessed only grew, while the invading army’s numbers were steadily reduced.
It seemed as though all of the army’s main leaders had been upon that black dragon. All the “elites.” Once Calder had slain the dragon, he, of course, hadn’t been the only one to gain a large influx of levels. In fact, everyone gained far more levels than he had, enough that Peter, Luceen and Yesna were no longer needed atop the wall.
Calder had portalled them down to the ground.
Together, Calder and his party had hunted down every single one of the so-called elites that remained, as they hadn’t all perished when the dragon’s head had been severed. After having gained as much power as he had, and having killed that Legendary Black Dragon, Orc Destroyers didn’t seem so scary anymore.
The army’s leaders were dead, and it had been left bereft on another world. Orcs, for the most part, were a foolish race. All they knew was violence and destruction and aggression.
And so they kept throwing themselves at Kashan’s walls.
And they kept meeting their death.
Since he had taken out the dragon, Calder hadn’t spotted any human Darktouched. Nor had he even spotted any minotaurs. Peter mentioned there had been sightings of portals far-off in the distance, outside of the city’s radius of protection. The other races must have abandoned the siege of Kashan, knowing that for them, it was a losing battle.
Looking at his Advanced Proximity Scanner, Calder knew the Darktouched threat still lingered in Halanor. This may have been the strongest force they had rallied in this world, but that didn’t mean defeating it would be the end of the invasion.
There were dozens of cities—including Dranador itself—that had been turned to the darkness. Dozens of cities that would need to be liberated and reclaimed. Peter’s father, the emperor himself, had been transformed into a Darktouched, and Calder got the feeling the man had not been idle.
How many more humans in the world might that have happened to?
On the third day of the siege, Calder sat, resting against the parapet. He had actually managed to get a few hours of sleep—for the first time in who knew how many days—and felt more rejuvenated than ever.
He hadn’t been going out into the enemy army as much as he had before, even though he knew he could take out the enemy threat faster if he was a larger part of the battle.
But he wanted the new Touched of Kashan to get experience fighting. They may have gained an ungodly number of levels simply by being a part of the defence of the city, but they needed to gain far more fighting experience than they had if they were truly going to liberate Halanor.
Considering there appeared to be no threat of the army ever breaching the walls, this was the perfect first training ground for their “new recruits.”
And once we have liberated our world of the Darkness, we will move onto the next.
Calder stood up, turned his neck from side-to-side with a satisfying crack and smiled, drawing his Living Sword with the two names: Bringer of Mass Destruction and Legendary Dragon Slayer.
The new Touched might need battle experience, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t create some havoc in the enemy forces.
Calder leapt off the wall, then Dream Stepped straight in front of an orc, running it through with his Living Sword, thinking: I’m still alive.
Kashan, Halanor’s last bastion, stands, and I’m still alive.
The End of Book Two
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Afterword
Thank you so much for reading Hack, Slash & Burn 2! I had a blast writing this book, and am so happy to get it to people two months early!
If you enjoyed the book, I would greatly appreciate it if you left a review on Amazon. And feel free to check out my other works below!
~
Connect with Todd Herzman:
Patreon (pre-release chapters) - https://www.patreon.com/toddherzman
Discord - https://discord.gg/KsSneGYDPj
Newsletter - https://www.toddherzman.com/newsletter
Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/ToddHerzmanAuthor
~
If you’re looking for some good places on the internet to chat about books like mine, check out the Facebook groups below:
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Also by Todd Herzman
Surgecaller (Progression Fantasy)
Oathbound (Book One)
Knighthood (Book Two)
Honourbound (Book Three)
Champion (Book Four)
Legendary (Book Five)
Immortality (Book Six)
Celestial (Book Seven)
Soulblade (Book Eight)
Hollow Fate (Epic Fantasy)
The Seeker and the Sword (A Hollow Fate Novella)
A Dark Inheritance (Book One)
A Darkness Beckons (Book Two)
A Darker World (Book Three)
Short Works
The King’s Assassin: A Fantasy Novelette
The Dreamer: A Fantasy Novelette
Seed of Humanity: A Short Story
Thomas Godfrey Breaks Time: A Short Story
Outside: A Short Story
Todd Herzman, Hack, Slash & Burn 2: A LitRPG Fantasy
