Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

The smell was the first thing that hit Elijah, and he was reminded of the few times he’d visited a local landfill back home. Thankfully, those trips had been infrequent – just when he’d had to help his parents clean out their storage shed or garage – but the memories had stuck with him. And they came flooding back into his mind as he beheld the challenge of Mortalum.

“Is this what the system thinks of civilization?” he muttered, staring at mountains of discarded trash. Even from a distance, he could recognize bits and pieces – like what appeared to be a fully intact ship built in an unfamiliar style – but for the most part, the composition of those trash mountains trended more towards stray parts, each one rusted or rotting. He saw giant gears, wooden beams that were as big around as redwoods, and millions of other items he couldn’t even begin to recognize.

The message was clear, though. The first challenge had represented Aesira, the realm of air. The second had similarly been tied to Pruina, the realm of ice. And the mountains of trash were meant to symbolize Mortalum. The implication was a slap in the face for anyone who called that realm home.

But once Elijah got past the shock of it, he couldn’t help but acknowledge its accuracy. He had no experience with other worlds, but on Earth, humanity had destroyed its environment, wasting countless resources in the pursuit of progress. Theirs was a legacy of detritus, a trail of trash they’d left behind as they reached for ever higher peaks.

Elijah was no environmental warrior. Despite his status as a Druid – and as a biologist before that – he’d never been blind to the benefits that came from humanity’s constant pursuit of progress. Millions of lives had been saved by technological advances that ruined their environments. However, when he looked at what the system clearly thought of civilization – and not just that of humans, obviously – he was forced to wonder if the universe might have been better off without it.

Maybe that was the point.

Or perhaps there was no point, except the one he created in his own mind. After all, according the corrupted ka’alaki Druid, the system was merely a machine. It hadn’t been created to make points, but to achieve a specific goal.

Elijah wasn’t sure which way he preferred. A system with an accusatory agenda meant that, perhaps, civilization wasn’t so bad as the biased system portrayed them. But a completely neutral system? That would mean the impact of various societies was probably worse than the mountain of trash suggested.

“I don’t know, bro,” Dat said.

“I read the dossier, but I didn’t expect this,” Sadie breathed. “Where do you think it all came from?”

“Every civilization has trash,” Elijah said. “That’s what this is.”

“One dwarf’s trash is another dwarf’s treasure,” Kurik said. “Might we can find somethin’ useful in there. Even apart from the reward, I mean.”

“Maybe,” Sadie agreed with a neutral expression. Clearly, she didn’t savor the notion of digging through mountains of trash. Elijah wholeheartedly agreed.

“Well, the sooner we get to it, the sooner we’re finished,” Ron pointed out.

Everyone echoed his statement, and after double-checking that they were all as prepared as possible, they pushed through the last vestiges of the jungle and into the no-man’s-land surrounding the mountains of trash. Upon approach, Elijah saw that the majority of it was inorganic and often metallic. He couldn’t begin to guess where most of it had come from, but he likened it to seeing piles of old and discarded refrigerators and washing machines.

Or maybe that was due to his memories of visiting landfills back on Earth.

Regardless, they soon passed the ephemeral line that quarantined the challenge, resulting in a notification that flashed before Elijah’s eyes. Presumably, the others saw a similar message: