The Fourth Secret: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Divine Apostasy Book 4) Read online

  Rami hugged Ruwen, the feeling like a warm blanket wrapping his head and chest.

  “Fractal can understand tokens,” Blapy said. “I’ll have Fluffy work with your city’s quartermaster once you get organized.”

  “Fluffy’s here?”

  “Yes, and he grumbles about it constantly. As if the pyramid will fall apart without him there.”

  Ruwen smiled. He’d spent hours with the Black Pyramid’s quartermaster as Ruwen had cleaned an armor set that belonged to the Black Pyramid’s deceased Ink Lord. Ruwen now had the questline to become the new Ink Lord, but he was only an Ink Warden at the moment.

  Blapy stopped, and Ruwen looked around. To the west, the mountains were close, blotting out the stars. The pine forest continued north, rising and falling with the foothills that pushed up against the mountains. The city of New Eiru lay to the south, the tall walls visible in the distance. A vast lake sat to the east, surrounded by more forested foothills.

  “We’re a long way from the city,” Ruwen said.

  “It seems that way now, but you’ll be surprised how fast it spreads. Plus, because of the mountains and lake, you can only easily expand north and south. The city will engulf this area in no time.”

  That was hard for Ruwen to imagine, but he didn’t argue. “What do we do now?”

  “This portal and Fractal both reside in Uru’s Blessing, so that simplifies things. But, you need to plan for the future. Eventually, Fractal will attract adventurers from all over the continent. Many will come through this portal. To make Fractal really desirable, I would recommend two things to you as the ultimate decision-maker for New Eiru. And to make Fractal happy, I would recommend two things to you as the Dungeon Master.”

  Ruwen frowned, worried about Fractal’s well being.

  Blapy continued. “Most major cities set aside small areas for the other deities to construct temples. This allows foreigners to synch to their deity while far from home. Obviously, this is even more important if you’re about to go somewhere dangerous, like a dungeon. It would increase Fractal’s value considerably if you allowed these foreign temples.”

  “Wouldn’t that also make it easier for spies?”

  “Yes, but also easier for diplomatic relations and trade. You won’t always be at war. There’s no consensus on this, and your City Council might fight you on it. Certainly, it will have to wait until after the current invasion.”

  Ruwen winced, as Blapy reminded him of the other task Uru had given him: defending the southern border.

  Blapy pointed her stuffed centipede at Ruwen. “The second item for you and your City Council to decide is how much area to give the portal. I recommend an area much larger than the portal needs.”

  “How much space is required?” Ruwen asked.

  Blapy shrugged. “A ten-foot circle.”

  “Then why do you want so much more?”

  “Now I come to the Dungeon Master part. First, the easy one. I recommend you allow a mechanism for adventurers to determine the quality of the loot they receive. Before they enter the portal, each adventurer would offer an item. If the item is of ‘common’ quality, then their loot quality is penalized, ‘uncommon’ has no effect, and starting at ‘fine’ the loot quality increases. This will quickly allow Fractal to gain high-quality items.”

  Ruwen nodded. “That’s a good idea. We’ll do that for sure.”

  “Now to the second item, space. When you found Hamma at the wedding reception, you glimpsed what life is like in the Black Pyramid.”

  “I know,” Ruwen said. “And it started before that. I found a travel book written by a big hairy guy talking about the other worlds he’d visited. The library and chapel made me wonder, too. It made me realize the creatures in the Black Pyramid are living lives just like the rest of us.”

  “Exactly. And just like everyone else, they like to see new things, drink and eat different foods, and meet others.”

  “How does this affect Fractal?”

  “It makes it easier for you and Fractal to keep morale up. Being able to leave the dungeon for dinner and some drinks is a huge bonus. Having someplace other than the dungeon to spend the money you earn will make it easier to recruit creatures to your dungeon.”

  “We have to recruit?”

  “Yes. Until Fractal can make his own decisions, you need to take care of everything. Eventually, you’ll just need to bring him new adventurers.”

  Ruwen rubbed his eyes as he realized how much responsibility he’d taken on, all without realizing it. But another thing dawned on him. The creatures in dungeons suffered discrimination far worse than the Class discrimination Ruwen had seen. They were only viewed as things to kill, not as opponents to overcome. But he had seen how wrong that view was.

  Ruwen looked at Blapy. “When will Fractal be able to revive his inhabitants with their memories?”

  Blapy smiled. “Excellent question. We are working on that now. It will be a critical step in his ability to recruit high-level creatures. For now, I’m handling it.”

  “What problems will I face if I give the dungeon inhabitants space here?”

  “Uru’s people are quite tolerant. But humans are tribal at heart, and you can expect a lot of conflicts. For sure, it will cost you extra city guard.”

  Ruwen looked around the area again. They were probably two miles from the city walls, and the lake sat at least a mile to the east. Two thousand feet to the west, a mountain started, its base climbing steeply upward.

  “We could put the portal here,” Ruwen said. “For now, Fractal can take the area five hundred feet on each side of the portal, and the entire way back to the mountain.”

  “What about the mountain itself?” Blapy asked.

  “Like inside it? Sure.”

  Blapy nodded. “It’s a start.”

  Ruwen felt pressure against his Core, and his ears popped. The pine trees fifty feet around them had changed. Now, large thick columns of quartz stood, all angled different directions. Smaller pieces of clear gems littered the ground, absorbing the moonlight, amplifying it, and giving the area a twilight feel eerily reminiscent of the Spirit Realm.

  Fractal finds you. Happy it makes. Fractal said.

  Ruwen didn’t know if it was the additional levels of Hey You that made Fractal more understandable, or if Blapy’s influence and mentorship had leveled the Dungeon Keeper enough to make him more intelligible.

  Smiling, Ruwen responded. I feel the same, Fractal. It’s good to hear your voice.

  Hi, Fractal! Rami said.

  Greetings, little dragon. Fractal shatters in joy.

  Rami laughed, and Ruwen smiled. Fractal was definitely more excited about Rami being back.

  Blapy reached out and touched the nearest quartz column, and it turned black. “Let’s go see the work I’ve done while you two were playing in other realms. You need to help Fractal pick his ‘Dungeon Focus’ so we can continue his expansion.”

  “Dungeon Focus?” Ruwen asked.

  But Blapy had already disappeared into the dark crystal. Ruwen sighed and stepped through as well.

  Chapter 2

  Ruwen stepped into a cavern twenty feet to a side. Quartz crystals, like the one he’d just walked through, filled the room at crazy angles. A six-sided prism stood ten feet tall in the center of the room and glowed brightly.

  “Fractal, it’s time to decide your focus,” Blapy said.

  The prism darkened, and the crystals in the room pulsed with light. The strobing stopped, and a four-foot crystal next to Ruwen grew brighter. A moment later, Fractal appeared on top of it.

  The last time Ruwen had seen Fractal, the Dungeon Keeper had been the size of Ruwen’s index finger. Fractal still looked like a mass of crystals smashed together into a humanoid form, but the creature had doubled in size, and now stood as high as Ruwen’s hand.

  Fractal bowed to Blapy and then held out a crystal fist toward Ruwen. Ruwen formed a fist and lightly tapped Fractal’s.

  “Welcome home,”
Fractal said out loud. His voice seemed unnaturally loud here, as if the crystals amplified the sound.

  Ruwen grinned. “It’s good to be back.”

  “How are the new levels coming?” Blapy asked.

  “Excellent,” Fractal said.

  Blapy looked up at Ruwen. “You’re lucky Fractal is such a hard worker.”

  Light swirled inside Fractal, the room filling with fractured light like a storm of rainbows. “Fractal, lucky.”

  Blapy got on her tiptoes to look directly at Fractal. “Remember what we talked about. The Dungeon Master works for you. It’s his job to make sure your needs are met.”

  Fractal bowed again. “Remember I do. Bring you he did.”

  Blapy’s mouth twisted, and her brow furrowed. “That’s true. I guess he did do something right.”

  Ruwen felt like he did more than one thing right, but let the comment slide. “What was this focus you mentioned?”

  Blapy rested on a chair of crystal that had appeared as she sat. “Yes. There are hundreds of varieties, but in general, there are three. A dungeon can focus on loot, experience, or resources. Obviously, it will have all three, but a focus on one will bring a certain type of adventurer.”

  “By resources, do you mean things like gems and plants?” Ruwen asked.

  Blapy nodded. “Plus metals, elements, essences, rare creatures, basically anything a crafter, merchant, or alchemist would need.”

  Ruwen thought about the mobile alchemy lab in his Inventory. The idea of an entire dungeon filled with rare ingredients excited him. “So if Fractal focuses on resources, then we’ll get a lot of Collectors and Gatherers.” That made Ruwen think of Bliz.

  “Exactly. The early levels will have creatures a single person can manage. But as a Collector goes deeper into the dungeon, they’ll need a group to protect them. This is good for the dungeon, as a typical group of five will only have four experienced adventurers, since Collectors rarely fight. This increases the death rate and benefits Fractal.”

  “That seems good,” Ruwen said.

  Blapy nodded. “It will also affect the area around your portal. You will have more merchants and alchemy shops and fewer bars and inns. Tax revenue will suffer at first until the shops get established, and people travel here for rare merchandise.”

  “What is the experience focus?” Ruwen asked.

  “Each dungeon level will contain far more creatures that are all easier to kill. This encourages area of attack spells and generates experience quickly. These types of dungeons are very popular with adventurers.”

  “But if the risk is low, fewer die,” Ruwen said.

  “Yes,” Blapy said. “Not only that, but reviving all those creatures is expensive for the dungeon. Most area of effect spells waste a lot of Mana, which the dungeon Harvests for free, and this offsets some of the costs. But for the dungeon, the experience focus has the thinnest margins.”

  “But it’s great for the city isn’t it,” Ruwen said as he thought it through. “And not only for taxes. If I want to level my own people, that would be quickest.”

  Blapy nodded. “The area around the portal will be filled with inns, taverns, and merchants, all catering to the massive groups of visitors there to grind out levels. Tax revenue for the city will be the highest of the three, although again, the added need for city guards and judges offsets these profits a little.”

  “What about the third one, loot?” Ruwen asked.

  “These are also popular,” Blapy said. “But with a different crowd. Loot seekers are usually higher in level and more careful, which means they die less often. Dungeon levels will have fewer creatures, and that makes them more cost-efficient.”

  “Since there are fewer high-level groups, my guess is there are fewer inns, shops, and taverns,” Ruwen said.

  “Yes, but offset some by the higher quality of the establishments,” Blapy said. “

  Ruwen rubbed his forehead. “I didn’t think a Dungeon Master needed so much business knowledge. I should have picked the Worker’s Steward path.”

  Blapy gave him a sympathetic look. “You have no idea what’s coming, do you?”

  “What? The invasion? I know about it,” Ruwen said.

  Blapy shook her head. “No, I meant the difficult part. Managing your city.”

  Ruwen shook his head. That would be easy. He planned on reviving the old city leaders so they could guide him. “So if I have this right, the options are resource, which benefits Fractal the most, has the lowest initial tax revenue, but eventually might be the most profitable. Or experience, which I could use to level my own people and has the highest tax revenue, but benefits Fractal the least. Lastly, there is loot, which fits between the other two.”

  “That’s the basics,” Blapy said.

  Ruwen looked at Fractal, who had listened quietly. “Do you have a preference?”

  Fractal didn’t have a neck but moved from side to side. “Fractal not know.”

  Ruwen remembered the prairie dog looking creatures called Stone Diggers that he’d fought here with his camping trip group, and the main cavern had contained some sort of grass. “Do you like making Stone Diggers or grass.”

  “Grass,” Fractal said.

  Assuming Ruwen and the other Champions successfully repelled the invasion, New Eiru would grow, and would benefit significantly from the tax revenue associated with an experience focused dungeon. It would help the city even before that, since Ruwen could train his own people in the dungeon, quickly leveling them.

  An experience focus also posed the most risk to Fractal, which Ruwen wanted to avoid. The loot focus seemed like a good compromise, and Ruwen would have immediately chosen it if Fractal had answered with Stone Digger. But he had preferred the grass.

  Ruwen thought of Fractal as a sentient crystal. It made sense that it liked simple living creatures or inanimate things like crystals, gems, and rocks. The resource focus would be the least beneficial to the city, at least in the beginning, but Ruwen didn’t care about that. As Dungeon Master, his obligation was to Fractal.

  Ruwen looked at Blapy. “What if we want to change our mind later?”

  “It’s possible,” Blapy said. “Dungeons evolve over time, and the longest living ones are a mixture of all three. But initially, it’s harder to change, because levels are constructed to support the focus, and changing them is difficult and resource consuming.”

  Ruwen faced Fractal. “I think we should focus on resources. It benefits you the most, and I like the idea of crafters surrounding your portal.”

  “Agree you,” Fractal said.

  “I do, too,” Blapy said. “Now that we know the focus, I’ll create a proper entrance for Fractal’s portal, and a mechanism for you to provide items to Fractal there. It is much easier to reproduce something than for Fractal to research it on his own. So the more things you feed him, the better.”

  Ruwen opened his Void Band, removed the three Dimensional Bladed Blue Iris plants he’d taken from the Spirit Realm, and handed them to Blapy. “How about these?”

  Blapy looked up at Ruwen. “You had time to pick flowers as you escaped the Spirit Realm?”

  Ruwen shrugged. “Seemed like an opportunity.” He removed the five clumps of Divine Sweetgrass and placed them on top of the flowers. “Those might be useful too.”

  A basket appeared, and Blapy placed the items in it. She shook her head at him. “Do you steal from every realm you enter?”

  Ruwen’s cheeks warmed. He hadn’t ever considered himself a thief. “Well, lately, I have spent time with some questionable people.”

  Blapy narrowed her eyes, and Ruwen concentrated on not smiling.

  “I’ll admit, those are both extremely rare plants. It’s a good start,” Blapy said. “Anything else?”

  “Actually, yes,” Ruwen said. He reached into his Void Band and dropped one of each item into Blapy’s basket.

  Flash Seed

  Burning Wheat

  Blind Nightmare Tear

  Via
l of Purified Rod Spider Blood

  Rod Spider Webbing

  The Burning Wheat Ruwen had gathered after killing the goblins in the Black Pyramid was still alive, and he realized it answered an important question. Before he’d killed himself in Uru’s temple, he’d removed all the living things from his Void Band. Or he thought he had. He realized now that the Burning Wheat, because its Energy consumption was insignificant, had remained in his Inventory.

  That meant living things in Ruwen’s Void Band survived his death. Bliz had told Ruwen the opposite on his Ascension Day. He’d have to ask Bliz about that the next time they met.

  The Rod Spider Webbing was difficult to give up because it only left Ruwen one. But he hoped Fractal could reproduce the fantastic substance that stopped all Bleed effects. It had saved Sift’s life when Juva had ambushed them.

  Getting rid of the iris plants and divine grass freed up eleven Energy per second, which had been a huge drain on Ruwen’s Energy. Now he just needed to get rid of those six boxes that contained the divine Class amulets.

  “Okay, that’s it for now,” Ruwen said.

  Blapy rolled her eyes. “Now, you two need to name your dungeon.”

  Ruwen faced Fractal again. Good names were hard. “Is there anything consistent in your levels?”

  Fractal bobbed back and forth in thought. “Rays.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Ruwen asked.

  “Move I can. Sunshine be,” Fractal said.

  “He means the crystal veins that run throughout the dungeon. He uses them for light, spying, and travel.” Blapy rubbed Fractal’s head. “He is very clever.”

  When Ruwen had first entered Fractal, Big D had placed a bright shaker against the crystal embedded in the wall. It had lit up the entire cavern in a crisscrossed mass of brilliant threads, as if from a hundred tiny suns. Or maybe like one sun that had splintered into a hundred pieces.

  And Ruwen had given Fractal his name because the crystal creature loved the rainbows created from fractured light, which gave Ruwen an idea for a possible name.

  Ruwen let variations of his idea race around his thoughts until he settled on his favorite. “What about, Shattered Sun.”