Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO ON KINDLE SEPT. 2)

Elijah flopped onto his back with an audible groan. “Remind me again why I came into this hell?” he complained. Without waiting for an answer, he said, “Oh, right. Because I’m an idiot. That’s – yech!”

His complaints were cut off by one of the dogs attacking his face with an enthusiastic barrage of licks. He pushed the dog – Sophie, as it turned out – away with mock annoyance, but the animal’s antics had brought a smile to his face. He said, “I love you too.”

The rest of the pack barked in agreement, then leaped onto him. In truth, it was a welcome distraction from the numbness that had come from trekking across the frigid tundra surrounding the water trial. They’d only made it about a mile through the elemental maelstrom before taking refuge in one of the area’s many caves. It wasn’t that much warmer than outside, but even a little respite from the cold was a welcome change.

Having a bunch of dogs piled onto him like a blanket made it much better.

Still, Oscar had it worse. Thankfully, Escobar was more than willing to fill the cave with the warmth from his corona of fire. As impressive-looking as it was, wreathing himself in fire only took a trickle of ethera to maintain. So, he could keep it up almost indefinitely.

Slowly, the cave’s atmosphere warmed. The rime covering the interior walls melted, leaving puddles in the corners. A few drops rained down as well, but those were easily ignored.

In the meantime, Elijah finally took a few moments to undress and shower – a necessity, given the blood and salt covering most of his body. Exiting the trial had been just as onerous as the way in, with the only real difference being that they’d been forced to bypass the whirlpool by finding another island on the other side of the sea. Of course, that meant almost two weeks of enduring the manta rays’ slashing attacks. It also highlighted the fact that by diving into the whirlpool, they’d taken the hard way in.

Never had that been clearer than when they returned via a staircase within a large tower. That would have been much more pleasant than being thrown into the middle of the sea.

In addition, there were plenty of trees about that could have been used to craft a boat – or at least a raft. The reality was that Elijah’s straightforward personality meant that he’d never even considered an alternate path. He’d just taken the first one that presented itself.

Had that been the case in previous Primal Realms? Could he have gone about the Chimeric Forge in a more appropriate way? Probably. Even now, he wondered if immediately setting out for the Elemental Maelstrom had been the best idea. Perhaps there was more information to be gained in Stillstone. Or there could have been an alliance on offer with the giants.

“What are you thinking?” asked Oscar, scrubbing Jackson with some of Elijah’s soap while taking advantage of the rain from Blessing of the Grove. As it turned out, the dogs loved being pampered. Oscar clearly didn’t enjoy bathing, but even he acknowledged the benefits of the soap. Not only did it hasten healing, but it was a well-established body cultivation aid.

Elijah had just finished showering, and he sat nearby, leaning against the wall of the cave with his eyes closed.

He opened them, answering, “Just considering that we’re probably going about this in the most difficult way possible.” He explained his reasoning, then added, “By all rights, we should probably go back to Stillstone and see if we missed something.”

“I don’t want to go back there.”

Elijah wasn’t surprised by that revelation. If there was one thread of consistency with Oscar’s behavior, it was that he eschewed civilization. It didn’t matter if a city was populated by humans or giants, he preferred to avoid it.

But in this case, Elijah agreed. Going back felt a little bit too much like a retreat. What’s more, they’d already proven that they could handle whatever the Elemental Maelstrom threw at them. They just needed to keep going, endure the inevitable damage coming their way, and finish the task at hand. Doing so would almost assuredly reward them quite well.

To that end, he asked, “You get a bunch of levels, too?”

Oscar nodded. “Eight since we left the Crucible of Fire. But I usually lag behind the pack.”

“Really?”

“If I don’t physically participate, yes,” he answered, still scrubbing a very satisfied Jackson’s back. The dog tilted his head back, his eyes barely open as Oscar continued, “I get a full share if I attack. The tradeoff is that even if I’m nowhere near them, I still get something when they kill.”

Elijah frowned. To him, that felt a bit cheap. It wasn’t difficult to see how a Tactician could advance fairly quickly and without much direct effort. The problem was that they needed to form some sort of bond with their subordinates. With the guild leader back in Seattle, that meant signing a contract that allowed him to sacrifice everyone else for personal power, but Elijah wasn’t certain if that was a common ability.

Maybe.

But the idea that Oscar would sacrifice anyone in the pack was ridiculous. The opposite was far more likely to be true.

In any case, Elijah had progressed as well, and for the first time in a while, he checked his status: