Evolution - A Fantasy LitRPG (Beast Realms Book 2), page 1
Beast Realms
Book Two Evolution
R. P. Jones
Contents
1. Caged Beasts
2. What goes up
3. Escape to Monkey Island
4. Reining in the Troops
5. Big Trouble and Little Cheena
6. Legends of the Beast Riders
7. A Step Too Far
8. To Hold a Mirror
9. Fight or Flight
10. I’ve Got No Strings
11. What a Dive
12. Good G-reef, Urchins!
13. Troubled Waters
14. Blood is Thicker
15. Breaking Tides
16. Crashing Waves
17. What goes down
18. Companions
19. Old Shadows
20. New Dawns
21. A Flight to Remember
22. Airs and Graces
23. Moving on Up
24. The Glorious Laboratory of The Collective
25. Seeded Questions
26. Red Alert
27. An Appetite for Destruction
28. Aftershocks
29. A Full House
30. Loose Ends
31. Yellow Peril
32. Preparations
33. The Best Laid Plans
34. Crashing the Party
35. Honor Guards
36. Unbalanced Scales
37. Parts of the Jigsaw
38. A Royal Flush
39. The Big Bad
Epilogue
From the Author
Portal Books - Newsletter and Group
More LitRPG from Portal Books
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Join the Group
For Pakkun (my Beast) and Jo (my teammate)
One
Caged Beasts
Art’s claws scraped the iron bars as he clambered up to gaze through the prison window. The wooden airship hadn’t entered the clouds yet, so he had a clear view of the Giant Eagles – dozens of the gold-beaked birds flew in unison, raising the ship through the sky on tethers. Swirling blue winds danced around them, magically aiding their flight.
Far below, the deserts, mountains and plains of the Beast Realms were warmly lit by the Beast Realms’ two sinking suns, and the wild Beasts which roamed during the day were turning toward home. In their place, black cats with silver manes crawled into the growing shadows, hunting for the firelit eyes of Owlights among the trees. Packs of savage Ice Wolves stalked hulking Dreadeer through tall grass, circling them to attack. Luminescent Beasts of the night twinkled like earth-bound stars.
Despite having played Beast Realms for a while now, Art was still in awe of the vastness of the world. His zoological studies at university, while helping him to understand the Beasts’ behaviors and skills, hadn’t quite prepared him for the sheer variety of Beasts he’d encountered or might encounter. From the airship’s altitude, it was hard to clearly identify the Beasts, but he counted at least five large species he hadn’t seen before.
Art lowered himself from the barred window, balancing with his tail. He wondered what distant land he and his teammates, Team Venom, were being taken to and, perhaps more importantly, why they were being taken there.
“At least they gave us a room with a view,” Nux said, scratching her neck. Her prisoner’s collar crackled with blue light and she retracted her hand slowly.
“Careful, these collars have a nasty bite,” Art said, keen not to set off his own collar again. The first shock he’d received wasn’t deadly, but it was enough to fry his green scales to black. As a Lacerta his burns healed quickly, but Halflings like Nux didn’t have his species’ inbuilt Regeneration ability.
“Alright, lizard breath,” Nux said, standing woozily, the top of her head reaching Art’s waist. “I’m not fully recovered from the crap they pumped into our lungs. How are you doing?”
Art checked his condition:
Level: 10
Health points (HP): 165/165
Mana points (MP): 165/165
“Fully recovered,” Art said.
“Your species’ passive Regeneration saves the day again, huh?” She tapped Art on the elbow. “Lift me up, I want to see where we are.”
Art hoisted Nux onto his shoulders and supported her back with his tail. Her little legs felt childlike around his neck, and her Thief’s silks were smooth on his scales, but he knew she could choke him out if she really wanted to.
I’m just glad she’s on my side, Art thought.
“It’s getting dark,” Nux said. “But I think we’re flying east: we’re headed away from the Camel Hump Mountains. Do you know what that means?” Her question seemed tinged with dread.
“No.” Art gulped. “What?”
“I’ve no idea. I was hoping you’d know.” Nux stood on Art’s shoulders and backflipped, landing softly and silently on the floor.
Art stuck out his forked tongue. “You made it sound ominous.”
“Well, we have been kidnapped and collared, and placed in a prison cell aboard a wooden airship which is being pulled by Giant Eagles and magic. Our weapons have been confiscated. Our Beasts are locked up somewhere else. I’d rate this pretty highly on the Ominous Scenario Scale.”
Nux put a brave face on, but Art was sure she would be concerned for Shadow Weaver’s safety. He didn’t want to think about what their captors could be doing to Nails, either, and it felt like he was missing a limb without her sitting on his shoulder or hovering above his head.
“Fair point.” Art walked to the locked door of the small wooden room. “Can you pick the lock?”
“They took my tools. A Halfling Thief and her tools should never be parted – I feel naked. I’m guessing you can’t use one of your Gray Knight skills, right?”
“No, this collar’s making my skills completely unavailable somehow.”
Nux slumped against the wall. “As gaming experiences go, this part isn’t getting a five-star rating from me. Maybe we should just log out and study for next week’s seminar?”
Art wasn’t about to give up so easily. While he enjoyed Nux’s company outside of the game, where everyone on their zoology course at university knew her as Xun, he had preferred her company as a Halfling Thief. She felt much more relaxed, much more herself in-game as Nux than she did as Xun outside of Beast Realms. They’d been through a lot together, and he’d come to really value her friendship.
Art examined the handleless prison door but could see no weakness. He leaned his head against it and listened for their captors, but he could hear nothing other than the rush of wind or the occasional screeches of the Giant Eagles outside. He ran the clawed tips of his fingers around the edge of the door, hoping to find a hidden latch or button. Nothing.
“It’s useless,” Nux said. “I already took a look at the door but my Reveal Traps and View Mechanics skills aren’t available with this collar on. It’s just a simple, heavy door without a handle. If we were stronger, maybe we could smash through, but without the gems of power we’re low on muscle power.”
Art sighed. He’d almost forgotten that their captors had taken the gems of power from them while they were incapacitated. After all that hard work, after so many battles and refusing to hand the gems over to the King, this was a proverbial kick in the crown jewels.
A loud caw sounded at the window, followed by the clunk of talons gripping onto the iron bars.
Art turned to see an envelope hovering in the yellow beak of a large, almost transparent bird. The bird blinked and its white feathers shimmered into view. Art stared at the bird for more information, and details hovered above the Beast:
SeeBird – Bird Type
Nux’s eyes lit up. “The plot thickens…”
The SeeBird dropped the parchment through the bars, and the document landed with an unexpected thud. The bird cocked its head and vanished.
Art picked up the envelope. It was surprisingly heavy in his hand. More worryingly, it squirmed. He hesitated, imagining a plague of lizard-eating locusts bursting out.
“Give it here!” Nux said. She leapt into the air and snatched the envelope from Art’s grip so quickly that he’d barely felt the theft.
Nux turned the envelope over to reveal writing. She read it aloud: “Place near door. Open. From The Alliance.”
Nux shrugged and placed the envelope at the foot of the prison door.
“Are you sure we should do exactly what the random, squirming envelope tells us to do?” Art asked. “I suppose we don’t have any other options, though. Do it.”
“Better than sitting here all day,” Nux said, tearing open the envelope. “It’s filled with larvae.” She stepped away, rubbing her hands on her black silk trousers. “They’re hungry little grubs, look at them go!”
The larvae were each no bigger than a garden worm, but they chomped through the wood of the door as hungrily as Nux chomped through horse pies. Within thirty seconds the bottom half of the door had been completely consumed. The grubs fell to the floor, swollen after their banquet.
Nux knelt and peered through the gap. “The coast’s clear. Next stop: vengeance.”
“Should we look for our weapons first, or our Beasts?” Nux asked, peering down the empty wood-paneled corridor.
Art opened his User Interface and checked his maps. Most of the airship was blacked out since they hadn’t yet
Art closed his UI. “Nails and Shadow Weaver aren’t far away. We should rescue them first.”
Nux nodded and her outline blurred as she entered the shadows, sneaking silently toward the storage room. The corridor was lined with light wooden panels, with firefly-lit lanterns hanging from the curved wooden ceiling which, Art assumed, was the barrier between the interior and exterior of the airship. Alcoves and maps littered the long narrow walkways, with wooden doors closing off other rooms.
Art placed his hand on the corridor’s wooden wall and the scales on his hand mimicked the rough texture and dark-brown color of the wood, camouflaging it.
Footsteps sounded ahead. Nux pulled Art into an alcove, where her skin and clothes turned completely black among the shadows. Art pressed himself against the wall, allowing his entire body and his robes to adopt the wall’s wooden appearance. He held his breath.
A tall figure wearing a yellow face mask exited the storeroom, their body seeming to shrink and expand underneath their black leather armor.
Nux’s voice sounded in Art’s head: Art. Does our Telepathic Link still work with these collars on?
Yes, Art responded.
Should we kill this guy?
No. Let’s do this quietly. Whoever they are, they captured us easily. I don’t think we could beat them without causing a commotion, especially without our Beasts and weapons.
Damn. Okay.
Art squeezed his earlobe to cut off the Telepathic Link. He stared at the yellow-masked captor, hoping his UI would reveal more information about them, but it instead delivered an error message:
Information unavailable.
Weird, my UI’s never said that before, Art thought, slightly unnerved at the mystery.
Art and Nux watched in silence as the figure walked away, examining parchments.
Nux raised a hand and ushered Art to follow her as she crept into the nearby storeroom, closing the door gently behind them as Art’s scales returned to their normal green and his robes returned to their familiar gray.
The storeroom was stacked high with crates and boxes, with dozens of maps pinned to the walls. Several wooden chairs – with iron shackles attached to their armrests and legs – were placed around the room. The airship lurched to the left, and the fireflies in the ceiling lanterns buzzed angrily, growing brighter.
How does this thing fly? Art wondered. The airship was unlike anything he’d seen in the rest of the Beast Realms, which had felt so archaic previously. Players rode on the backs of Beasts, carts were dragged through stone-cobbled streets using horses and bulls, the city perimeters were patrolled by guards mounted on three-horned rhinos. Just how much of this world is there to explore if flight travel is possible? What kinds of species, Beast or otherwise, are out there?
A chirrup sounded from the rear of the room, breaking Art’s train of thought.
“That’s Nails!” Art whispered excitedly, rushing forward to find his Beast among the labyrinth.
“I’ll look for Shadow Weaver,” Nux said, wandering in another direction and slipping between two towers of crates.
Art followed the chirps and gnashing sounds of Nails, before finally finding her squashed in a rabbit-sized iron cage. Her ethereal black wings poked out between the bars, reaching for Art as he approached. Her dark grub-like body was curled up, with her spindly legs tucked in tight. Her black eyes widened when she saw Art, and she clicked her mandibles as he knelt beside her.
“Shh, I’ll get you out of here,” Art said, trying to reassure her. He tugged on the cage bars, but they were much too strong for him to break with his bare hands.
Nails’ body uncurled and her wings widened. She latched her black teeth around one of the bars and gnawed at it, but only left a small indent in the metal.
“Let me try again,” Art said.
Art placed the sharp metallic tip of his tail against the bar, dragging it back and forth like a saw. Flecks of iron fell away where the bar thinned.
“It’s weakened. I’ll pull, you push,” Art said. “Now!”
Nails stretched out with her legs and her black carapace pushed against the inside of the cage. Art tugged at the weakened bar, but it only bent a little.
Art was dismayed at his inability to help. He’d grown used to solving problems using his abilities, and felt hugely disadvantaged without them. I might not be able to use my skills, but Nails can still use hers!
“Screw this. Use Density Shift to shrink,” Art said.
Nails squeaked. Her armored body shook briefly and she shrank down to the size of a moth. She flew between the bars of the cage and landed on Art’s shoulder, returning to her regular ferret-like size.
Art stroked Nails’ carapace and tickled her antennae. Reunited, he felt as though a missing part of him had returned, like the lost piece in a jigsaw had been found.
“Glad to see you two back together,” Nux said as she and Shadow Weaver approached from behind.
“Is Shadow Weaver alright?” Art asked.
Nux smiled. Shadow Weaver ran to Nails and scuttled onto her back, his bulbous body smoldering with black shadows. He raised two of his eight legs into the air and two web bombs shot from his feet, stuck to the walls and exploded. Shadow Weaver bared his fangs and hissed, jumping down to join Nux.
As much as Art appreciated Shadow Weaver as a companion, and knew that he was a softy deep down, the Giant Arachnid was an intimidating Beast on looks alone. He was almost as tall as Nux, had dagger-like tips to his legs and his torso was protected by black bone armor.
If I didn’t know him well enough, he’d be a Beast of nightmares, Art thought, stroking Shadow Weaver’s head in greeting.
“Yeah, giant shadow-bound spiders are tough. And now this one is pissed off,” Nux said.
“Good,” Art replied. “I don’t know where we’re being taken, but I don’t intend to go peacefully now we’re back together. Team Venom, get ready to move out!”
“We need to find a way out of here,” Art said. “And we need to retrieve our weapons. Lightning hammers and crossbows with self-loading shadow bolts aren’t exactly available from every good street vendor.”
“I want to know who captured us and why,” Nux added, gritting her teeth. “And who helped us escape the cell.”
“Something fishy is going on, and I don’t mean the tuna salad I had for lunch.”
Nux rolled her eyes. “Do we need to talk about banning puns again?”
Art pouted, scratching the scales beneath his electrified collar. “No.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
Nux led Team Venom quietly toward the airship’s navigation room at the front of the ship, where the exit was also labeled on Art’s map. Shadow Weaver lay several nearly invisible silk trip wires behind them, so that any pursuers would be tangled in his webs.
They waited outside the navigation room and peered in. The curved wooden room was fully enclosed and, at its center, contained a wooden globe surrounded by a shifting blue mist. The large curved window at the front of the navigation room was fogged in white clouds.
A slender man wearing a black robe and a blue face mask was sitting cross-legged near the window. His hands were surrounded by swirling winds and were positioned as if holding an invisible wheel. He turned his hands and the airship swerved, avoiding a flock of birds.
