The Land: Swarm: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 5) Read online

  Seeing Richter’s bemused expression, the man continued, “Well, I feel like this is a bit self-explanatory, but I am who you could become if you choose the path of an Item Specialist. You will be able to make much stronger rings, bracelets and other magical items. My powers are not as straightforward in a fight as a Battle Specialist, but you will be able to affect a wider breadth of enchantments. I, or put another way, you when you become me, could serve your people well to make them strong rings of health or goggles of true sight.”

  Richter thought about it for a moment then asked the most relevant question, “Are you who I should pick?”

  The man on the pedestal cocked his head and looked back at Richter with a, ‘Really, dude?’ look on his face. It was a particular blend of derision, condemnation and mockery. Seeing it, Richter finally understood why people in his past had always been quick to call him an asshole when they were in a fight. It was ABSOLUTELY an assholey look.

  Rolling his shoulders to let go of his irritation with… himself, Richter asked another question, “If you were me, would you choose you?”

  The man on the pedestal looked at him a bit longer but the expression changed to one of grudging respect, “I am not allowed to tell you who to choose. I can’t say whether you should go left or right.” As he said that last statement, he raised first his left hand, then his right. It seemed like he motioned just a bit with his right hand though. “I wish I could be of more help.” The man’s neck straightened and he began to look off into the distance again. Repeated questioning didn’t get any further response. The man had once again become as still as a statue.

  Before Richter could walk away, he received a prompt.

  Do you wish to choose the Specialization, Item Enchanter? Yes or No?

  Richter backed away and the prompt disappeared. Immediately to the Item Specialist’s right were one of the shrouded figures. Richter tried to approach it, but his body locked in place and, try as he might, he physically couldn’t take another step.

  You lack the prerequisites to know or choose this Specialization. Seek your future elsewhere or wait to improve.

  How the hell am I supposed to know how to improve if I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be working towards, Richter thought with some irritation. For the thousandth time, he wished there was a wiki of The Land. There was so much he didn’t know.

  He set his emotions aside and walked over to the next figure in the line. This version of Richter held a radiant sword in one hand and a fiery axe in the other. The figure was outfitted with black, full plate armor that was studded with spikes. As Richter walked up, the man broke his statuesque immobility. He extended a hand and said, “Not too close. My armor gets a wee bit jealous of my personal space.”

  “What?” Richter asked, confused.

  “My armor,” the man said again. “If you get within five feet of me, the spikes might attack you. This is all happening in your mind, but it still probably wouldn’t be fun for you.”

  “Good safety tip,” Richter said, stopping ten feet away. “I’m guessing you’re the Battle Specialist I have heard so much about.”

  The Battle Specialist gave a haughty laugh, “Well it’s nice to know you’re not just an incredibly gorgeous face.” Definitely too meta, Richter thought. “Yes, if you choose my path, you may one day be able to make the strongest weapon and armor enchantments in The Land. Some of the things I can do are wonderfully horrifying.” The man gave a dark chuckle, then kept chuckling for a bit longer. A bit too long in Richter’s opinion.

  This guy is a little bit off, he thought. It was honestly disturbing to see his own face contort like that. On the other hand, there was no denying that making stronger weapon enchantments had an obvious benefit.

  “Is there anything else I should know about your Specialty?” he asked.

  The man on the podium gave a coy smile, “I can tell you that I have a few talents that could be… quite useful in battle. Besides, look at my power!” He flipped both his axe and the sword high into the air. The sword fell back down first, the pommel slapping into the man’s right hand. The axe fell a second later. The handle almost slipped through his fingers and the man had to reach out to catch it. It left him in an awkward position, and somehow his sword was left pointing horizontally to the right. The man straightened, gave Richter another cocky smile, then resumed his original stance, looking over Richter’s head into the distance. Once again, there was no response to further questioning.

  Decidedly weird, Richter thought, looking at the Battle Specialist. Are my potential future selves finding a way to cheat the rules here, he wondered. With a faint smirk, he realized that was probably exactly what he would do. In the words of papa smurf, get’er dun! Both of the Specialists had indicated that he should go to their right, his left. He decided to test his theory. Richter took a step back, dismissed the prompt asking if he wanted to be a Battle Specialist, and walked to the lit figure that was farthest to his left.

  This version of Richter held a staff that had a ghostlike, green light writhing up and down it. He also wore a crown and gauntlet that had identical, green lights pulsing within them. Richter hadn’t really taken the time to examine the stats of the items on the other Specialists, but he couldn’t help himself this time. Unfortunately, all it said was Magic Staff and Magic Crown respectively. The man on the column turned to look at him and spoke. It was still Richter’s voice, but every word was enunciated with a surprisingly regal tone, “Let me help you with that.” The man’s free hand waved in a spell pattern and he spoke a word of Power. Richter could suddenly easily see each item’s stats.

  You have found: Staff of Hyira-kur. Damage: 44-52. Durability 1712/1712. Item Class: Legendary. Quality: Masterwork. Weight: 6.2 kg. Traits: Item 1 of 3 of the item set: Wraith Mage Hyira-kur. +231% attack vs non-Death creatures. Fires a beam of necrotic energy with a range of 103 yards. Charges: 1034/1034.

  You have found: Gauntlet of Hyira-kur. Defense: 79. Durability 1543/1543. Item Class: Legendary. Quality: Masterwork. Weight: 3.7 kg. Traits: Item 2 of 3 of the item set: Wraith Mage Hyira-kur. Can siphon health, mana and stamina from enemies upon touch at a rate of 50/sec. Charges: 1769/1769.

  You have found: Crown of Hyira-kur. Defense: 63. Durability 1611/1611. Item Class: Legendary. Quality: Masterwork. Weight: 2.0 kg. Traits: Item 3 of 3 of the item set: Wraith Mage Hyira-kur. +30 to Intelligence and Wisdom. -10 to Charisma. +113% to total defense against Death creatures or Death magic.

  Know this! You have found the entire item set: Wraith Mage Hyira-kur. With this item set, any foes killed by the wearer of this item set have a chance of converting to a spirit, undead or living dead creature. If this occurs, they will be placed directly under your control. Killing one thousand enemies within a mile radius will desecrate that space. From that point on, Death creatures will regularly arise from this location and guard it against any intruders. They will follow your every command.

  Richter blinked in shock. Someone with these items was capable of great evil… but they also could forge an empire! “Where did you find this?”

  “Ha,” the man on the pedestal scoffed. “Why would I settle for the crap I could find, when I can make items like this?” The man laughed at seeing Richter’s mouth drop open. He took a small bow and said, “I am a Synergist. I specialize in making item sets. Mine is the highest expression of the Enchanter Profession. Only Synergists can make the strongest enchantments.”

  “Why would anyone choose anything else?” Richter asked.

  “Hahaha,” the man chortled. “It’s easy to say that when I’ve got this badass gear right in front of you. The road of a Synergist is not easy, however. You don’t want to know how many high level souls it took to make these. You don’t want to know about the other… components that I needed.” He paused for a second before continuing, “An item set also can’t be made of just any common material. This set is named Wraith Mage Hyira-kur because it is made from the bones and essence of a five-thousand year old
lich king.” The man’s face became clouded for a moment, “Tens of thousands died to defeat his armies and vanquish his evil. Even after all of that, you see that his malevolence endures in these objects that I have created.”

  “How could you make things of such evil?” Richter asked with a tone of recrimination.

  The synergist fixed him with a stare and a smile to match, “You know the answer to that. Don’t you?”

  Silence hung in the air between the two men until Richter looked away and admitted the truth, “For power.”

  The man nodded, “Of course, the first thing I wanted to do after they were fully formed was to destroy them. In the end… I just didn’t have the heart. I could never see them callously cast aside any more than a mother could sacrifice her own child. Synergy is the path to the greatest enchantments, but it is an arduous and time-consuming path. This entire set took ten years to create, and the materials cost as much as a palace. Choose wisely. I wish you luck, but cannot offer you any further guidance.”

  Right after the man finished speaking, he yawned expansively. He raised his hand to cover his mouth and Richter couldn’t help but see that the man’s thumb pointed strongly to the left. He made eye contact one more time and Richter could see laughter in his eyes before the figure froze back into immobility, staring into the distance.

  Richter smirked and nodded in appreciation. He dismissed the prompt asking if he wanted to be a Synergist. He liked the sound of it, but definitely wanted to know what the other options were first, and he had just been given marching orders. He walked to the next figure.

  Rather than standing on a simple column, this figure sat in the lotus position. This wasn’t that interesting, but the fact that he was sitting on top of a miniature floating castle and was flanked on either side by humanoid figures made of water and fire respectively was pretty fucking cool!

  Just like the rest, the man focused on Richter as soon as he started getting close. He saw the chaos seed admiring his setup and made eye contact. Both arms flexed up in a body builder pose and in the cockiest voice imaginable, he said, “That’s right! This is how I roll!”

  And just like that, they became besties.

  Richter ran up looking at the golems and the castle and said, “This is amazing! Enchanting can do this?”

  The guy put his arms down and broke into an easy grin, “It can if you are a Macroenchanter. My Specialty focuses on creating monuments to the fantastic. Everything from simple, elemental golems like these, to great underwater cities or floating citadels so high that you could see the curvature of the world. You need another enchantment to help people breathe if you build that last example, but hey, small price to pay for being awesome! Our works can inspire people for millennia and can bring true majesty to this world of magic.”

  Richter smiled at hearing the joy in the man’s voice. He could definitely see the appeal in devoting his life to making wonders. To actually change the face of the world. Richter knew that this was not his path, though. Maybe one day he could have the inner peace and patience required to slowly build the fantastic, but today he and his people needed something with a faster yield than however long it would take to make an enchanted fortress. The man in front of him read his face. He just smiled and raised his left hand in farewell. Then the macroenchanter’s face looked off into the distance and froze into immobility.

  Richter dismissed the prompt that appeared as he walked away and moved onto the next pedestal. Strangely there didn’t seem to be anything enchanted about this figure. The man was just a perfect copy of Richter, standing barefooted and bare chested, wearing only simple white linen pants. Around his neck was a brown leather cord with a plain circle of white stone at the end. The pendant contrasted against the man’s chestnut-colored skin. He smiled as Richter approached and the chaos seed couldn’t help but smile back. The man’s expression was one of peaceful serenity. He opened his mouth and in a strong, sure tone, he said, “Welcome. What do you think of my Specialty?”

  Richter paused for a moment looking over the man again, but couldn’t see evidence of what his specialty could be, “Uhhhh…”

  The man laughed again. The sound had no derision or ridicule, it was simply an exaltation of life and the man’s place in it, “Sorry. I was teasing you. More than anyone, I’m sure that you understand why our sense of humor has been accurately described as ‘dickish.’ I am what is called an Ambient Specialist. My power is not focused on making a magic ring or enchanted sword, though I can still do that. Instead, a portion of my magic is diverted to affecting the world around me. I cannot fully control what this change is, but the people, things and events around me are… twisted slightly to better suit the needs of my true self.”

  The man had placed a slight emphasis on ‘true’. “What do you mean?” Richter asked.

  “I mean that the core of ‘what’ you are is served by my Specialty. Your conscious will can sometimes nudge this change, but the true guiding force will be your soul. In exchange for this unconscious change in the environment, you will have a reduction in your total mana. Initially you will experience a 20% reduction, but you can purchase upgrades to increase the amount that is channeled to your Specialty. The greater the amount of mana utilized, the greater the change in your environment.”

  “Why would I ever want to reduce my own mana pool? What possible benefit could be worth that?” Richter asked, confused.

  Rather than answer, the man’s face grew speculative. He regarded Richter for a full minute before speaking again, “I cannot know for sure, but I feel that my specific path may not have been offered in The Land before, or at least, not offered in a very, very long time.” He paused again before once again adopting an expression of peaceful amusement, “Of course, that seed of chaos in your soul makes you special. Different from almost anyone else in The Land.”

  Richter’s eyes widened, and he began to ask a question, but the Ambient Enchanter just shook his head slightly while maintaining his smile. He cupped one hand and there was a rumble in the red sand under Richter’s feet. A stream of crystal clear water shot to the Ambient Enchanter’s left and a generous amount splashed into his curled fingers. The spout disappeared and the water already in the air fell down to the ground, leaving a rough line of damp sand pointing to Richter’s right. The man drank from his hand, gave a satisfied ‘ahhh’ and then resumed his original position, completely still and staring off into the distance.

  Well I wish he would have answered my question, but that was some impressive, mystical shit, Richter thought with respect. He dismissed the obligatory prompt and followed the surreptitious directions of the enigmatic figure, moving on to the next avatar. This time, he wasn’t exactly sure what to make of what he was seeing. The Specialist was as strange as the Ambient Enchanter had been normal.

  This version of himself was also wearing only pants, but they were ripped like the hulk’s. For the umpteenth time, Richter wondered what type of super spandex Bruce Banner must be wearing 24/7. There was no way the khaki’s he normally seemed to rock in the movies could have stretched from a size thirty-two to a size sixty-four which was at least what the hulk’s waistline had to be. If you went back to the 70’s show and took the fact that he was always wearing bell bottoms into account, forget about it! Richter acknowledged that it wasn’t exactly family friendly to show a set of gamma-irradiated cock and balls flailing around while a green, rage monster killed your loved ones, but hey, at least it would have been realistic!

  He came back from his mental meanderings to see the ‘man’ staring at him. He only loosely used the word, because the figure he was looking at seemed like an amalgam of different monsters. Both hands ended in claws and his arms and legs were insanely muscled. His skin was thickened and covered in thick scales. The mouth was elongated and lined with sharp teeth, the ears were long and rose up like a bat’s. Even stranger, there was a barbed tail behind the figure that moved randomly and seemingly of its own volition. The only body part that Richer recogn
ized of himself was the right eye. The left was slitted like a lizard’s with a red cornea.

  “Are you done staring?” the figure asked in a guttural voice.

  Richter’s attention snapped to the here and now. His body tensed instinctually, the same reaction any animal with survival instincts would have when confronting a predator. Richter couldn’t stop himself. He asked, “Are you me? A me that I might become?”

  The figure growled, a deep, low rumbling, “I represent the distinguished Specialty of Flesh Enchanting. Few if any Flesh Enchanters exist. It requires not only the Enchanting Profession, but also another skill. You meet the requirements with Beast Bonding, though your skill in that is quite pitiful. Despite your weakness, you have the potential to understand the beasts and monsters of The Land. Through that appreciation, you can start to incorporate their unique powers into your own body.”

  Richter could see the appeal of having skin like a rock giant or being able to have a venomous bite, but as he looked at this amalgam of creatures in front of him, he felt only revulsion. He wanted power, but he wasn’t prepared to become this monstrosity to do it. The growl coming from its chest deepened. He clearly had not done a good job of hiding his disgust because the thing said, “Not all have the strength to sacrifice for power. Be gone!” It swiped one of its claws from right to left, then resumed its immobility.

  Richter eagerly rejected this Specialty and moved onto the last lighted figure. Each of the others seemed to have been guiding him here. The man stood tall on his column of rock, lights floating around him. Eight rotated around him in a circle of different colors. Countless more of various colors floated around in shifting patterns, though some seemed to follow a discernable course as they moved. Others flashed in and out of existence at random intervals. The man looked at him steadily, not speaking.