DIE TRYING [A Roguelite Extraction LitRPG]

"A lootbox?"

Wade half expected this to be a joke. But the other half of his head knew better. This was THE GAME. Of course there'd be a gacha system going on.

"Aye. System gave me a notification that a lootbox spawned near me. Took a while to find it, but it was this giant gold looking chest and inside all I found a tiny scroll."

"A scroll? Could you read what was on it?"

Illy shook her head. "Nah, not a single word written on the thing. Had itself a fancy design and picture, but it was the system that gave me info on how to use it."

She waved a hand, as if clicking buttons in the air. Wade couldn't see any of it, but he could tell she was reading something right in front of her eyes. "Said 'Soulbind one randomly selected combatant follower of your sponsor. You may summon your follower once per round at will.' And that's it. No info, nuthing. Used the scroll first thing, and bam. Selena appeared right in front of me."

Wade's phone buzzed.

Oh buddy, good news here. You should scroll up on your notifications.

Well. That was ominous.

"What did the god say?" Leon asked, trying to look over the small screen.

Wade handed him the phone while he opened up his notifications log from the system and started trying to see. Play didn't outright help him like this unless it was important, at least that's the vibe he'd gotten from that menace.

Mostly all he saw were the notifications of dead skeletons and quest compl- wait. There was something he hadn't seen before. A single one right after he'd climbed out of the manhole.

THE GAME recognizes your accomplishment. You are the first player to defeat fifteen enemies in the same battle.

Silver Lootbox spawned nearby.

"Holy shit." Wade re-read the notification.

The two stopped looking over the phone and turned to Wade. "What'd ye find?"

"I've got a lootbox. Too much happening earlier so I didn't get time to notice the notification. Says a silver lootbox spawned nearby here, right after we were out of the manhole. Got it for being the first to kill fifteen enemies in the same battle. Did you guys also get one?"

They both looked at him for a moment, then shook their heads. Leon looked over to Illy, and she shook her head. "I'll wager the system's saying you're the first one to land fifteen killing blows in a single scrap. So it don't count fer us."

"We looking for lootbox now da? If Wade pulls a second Selena, is very good."

Illy gave a sharp nod, hand yanking up the leather backpack off the ground. "Well, that's it then. Everyone, pack bags, we gotta get to the street fast before the golem comes back."

"What, why on the street? I didn't see any chest there, wouldn't it have spawned out in one of the houses here?" Wade asked, following through as the group immediately got battle ready. Selena had no idea what was being said, but she recognized a march out order when she saw one.

"Fer starters, when it spawned on me, the first thing that dropped right by me feet was a compass, not the actual chest itself." Illy said, tightening the straps and giving the backpack a tap to check it held. "Had to use that to find the bloody thing and it was hidden up in a building attic. So where'd ya get the drop? Was it by the ladder or out on the street?"

"Uhh, right after we were on top of the street. I think after I nailed two skeletons trying to climb up through." Wade said as Leon lifted up the doorway, everything packed and ready to go.

"Right, makes it a tad bit easier then." Illy said. "It'll be small, handheld metal thing. Mine was golden, since the lootbox was a gold one. Guessing yours might be a silver?"

The Scot grabbed the railing and jumped, feet landing on both ends of the ladder letting her zip straight down with practiced ease. Wade and Leon both climbed down it like normal people, and Selena outright skipped the entire process by jumping past the entire process, landing on the alley ground level with a short gust of wind that was absolutely unnatural.

"Where are the humans going?" Selena hissed out at him, keeping right behind Illy. "Is there an enemy sighted?"

"I left something behind with the skeletons on the road, we gotta recover it before the golem returns."

"Is it that important?"

"Could be something that summons another person with combat abilities like you. We're not sure yet."

Selena was a paladin, Wade wasn't sure if she'd have moral objections to yanking some poor soldier out in her world down into this hell, but whatever her thoughts about it, she stayed silent and focused on following behind Illy. Perhaps not the holy light paladin archetype then? Or the goddess Nox wasn't a kind goddess. Drow did exist in fiction, and not all gods were good ones.

Play was a perfect example of that come to think of it.

He'd need to ask more about who Nox was. That would tell him more about Selena, although right now all that mattered to Wade was that she wasn't trying to kill him. At least not anymore.

And speaking of the devil, he could feel his phone buzz in his pants. He didn't quite have the time for this however, the group was in a full on sprint and keeping up with them was difficult. Both because of his limp coming back, and that the three ahead were in absurdly better shape than he was. None of them even so much as looked winded.

They did come to a stop to wait for him right before the street opened up. "Golem's not here yet." Illy said, hand waving them forward. "Go go go."

Wade looked ahead and saw the problem: All the skeletons had been pummeled down by the Golem, which left a massive graveyard of scrap all over the place. "Shit, it's going to take time to find this thing."

"Aye, that's why I'm tellin' ye all to get a move on!"

"You hurt your leg?" Leon asked, jogged behind Illy who sprinted like a hellion up the street.

"Not a cut, just a limp I've had for a long while now. I managed it well enough, it's just flaring up from overuse." Wade said, "Debating if I should put a level up point into vitality. But strength directly helps the damage out."

"I recommend strength." Leon said. "It help in more than damage."

"Hurry it up ladies!" Illy hissed out, now kicking over bones and scrapped pickaxes by the manhole.

Selena was right next to her, looking down at the ground. "What are we looking for human Wade?"

"Small compass thing, could be gold or silver." Wade said, catching up with the rest of them. "Hand-sized. Could have been knocked just about anywhere during the fight with the skeletons."

"Feck, it's nowhere near where ye were standing earlier bampot." Illy whispered out, trying to keep it low. "We ought to split up and mark out quadrants, do a proper search."

Leon hummed, pushing over debris with his hammer, eyes searching. "May need to do a few passes, come back each time golem patrols away."

Even the elf was getting into it, trying to look around in a spiral away from the manhole. "Are you certain this is worth the risk?!" She hissed out. "If that thing sees us, it will certainly hunt us down without mercy."

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"No, I'm not fucking certain of anything." Wade hissed back. "But any advantage is an advantage."

THUMP.

"Feck, bastard's coming back." Illy said, turning to Leon, an unworded question in her eyes.

He nodded back. "Is time for running back then."

"Wait. What if it's coming back to sweeps the streets?" Illy said, standing back up. "It might just take the compass. We'd lose it completely."

"Then we in same situation as before, but still alive. Is not worth life."

THUMP.

Wade's head went into overdrive and the answer felt obvious to him all of a sudden. "Wait. Shit, I'm stupid. Identify."

Nameplates came up and he shifted it to the mass identify. And then focused further. The System was a game right? Games wanted to be played. There had to be some kind of filter for this identify ability, else it would be giving him a few million tags for bacteria or something.

Bone. Bone. Broken Pickaxe handle (Low Quality). Bone. Frayed Leather Belt (Low Quality).

Nope, special pleading wasn't working.

THUMP.

He tried to double down on the thought pattern. Filters usually had categories right? He didn't need anything low quality, he just wanted a system dropped item. He focused on that instead.

The nametags vanished around him. And only one remained.

THUMP.

On the other side of the road, out in the middle of nowhere. Wade pointed at it. "There!" He started to half-sprint at the fastest his bad leg could take him. A hand grab him from the back and wrap around his torso, then lift him clean up, advancing forward all the while. Leon then went into a sprint, holding Wade like a sack of potatoes. "If you cannot run, I can be legs. We make it work."

Selena nearly screamed murder at them on the other hand. "Human Wade, you have goddess damned blackrot, what in the missing moon are you doing?! Put him down!"

The decorum was definitely gone from her voice there.

Leon didn't hear her, sprinting straight for where Wade was pointing at.

Silver Lootbox Compass (System Quality)

THUMP.

The golem must be right around the corner now, slowly coming up.

And there was the little silver colored bastard. Kicked away during the fight, until it had rolled all the way on the other side of the street. Fitting perfectly among a few scattered bones. It looked like a small blurred metal thing at this distance, but the system tag above it was crystal clear.

Illy spotted it a moment later, going into a manic sprint, jumping into a slide, hand out to grab the thing. Her hand wrapped around it and she yanked into a dead stop as if the compass was nailed down into the ground. "Feck, says I can't take this!"

Leon redirected his run, lowering Wade closer to the ground. The plan was immediately obvious. Wade held his hands out as the little silver compass came into focus. His hand reached out and yanked it off the ground and Leon continued his full on sprint into the alleyway. "Got it!"

THUMP.

The four sprinted into the darkness between the broken down housing here, and didn't stop sprinting until they'd taken at least four turns in the narrow alleys. The ambient lights in the alleyways here didn't work, and they'd passed by multiple ruined buildings all the while. No enemies yet. Deep in that darkness, they turned one more corner, and then lifted up a random entryway.

The doorway slid down to a close behind them, Illy locked it with a solid click while Leon was busy chucking the small automatic light into some forgotten room where it wouldn't illuminate anything.

THUMP.

The golem was now clearly patrolling back in the streets, windows rattling with each of it's steps. And it was taking it's time, like a lazy shark in an ocean it knew it was king within.

The four of them hugged the wallsides, hiding down in the dark room. Selena sat on his right side, keeping herself between him and Illy, shield turned like a barrier between them. Leon sat to his left side, eyes glued on the entryway. The house's window didn't have a clear line of sight to the street, none of them bothered to give it a look.

THUMP.

"The golem is in sight and approaching the street." Selena said. "It does not seem to be angled in our direction, only following the curve of the road."

"You can just tell?"

"The wards I placed in our prior hiding spot are showing me a clear line of sight."

"Wards?"

Selena sighed, "I forget you are not a native. Wards are simple free magic spells, they offer eyesight from a distance. At least the ones I am using."

Illy and Leon both turned to him, and he relayed what the elf had told him, and Selena added a few caveats to her skills.

"I imbued the wards with very little power. They will fade in under ten minutes." She shrugged. "I wasn't certain we would remain in the area, mana is a resource to conserve."

"None of us are being critical at all," Wade said, "Rather, pretty happy to hear we have sight over it."

She nodded. "I will keep you informed if it changes patterns. As of this moment… I believe we are safe again. That item still had better have been worth it."

Wade looked down at the little silver thing in his hand that they'd all risked their life for. It was an ornate compass with delicate silver design work over the entire thing, depicting small stars and comets connected by geometric designs. Very much hand-crafted. Wade wondered if the System had generated this thing wholesale, or if it had grabbed something that already existed in Azdrial and tossed it here, like Selena had been. At the very top, there was a small button.

"Is it okay if I click this? Or will it make some giant noise or something?"

"That just opens up the compass." Illy said. "It's safe, at least mine had no issue. Go for it."

Very slowly, he pushed it down. The compass clicked once, then opened. Inside was an ornate black crystal-like needle, surrounded by strange runes where the cardinal directions should have been. It twitched and moved like an insect, as if it was powered by an unseen force, pointing right at him.

Turning the compass around in his hands, Wade realized with a deepening dread that the needle wasn't aimed at him, but rather past the wall. Somewhere past the building they were in. Wade had a sinking feeling in his chest.

"What?" Illy said. "Don't tell me the fecking thing is on the side we just left."

"Is fine." Leon said. "We going across after it patrols past. We waiting here, tell a few knock knock jokes, rest, and then we running again to other side. Lootbox will wait."

The thumping footfalls had grown loud enough now that the window started rattling with each step again.

"BORDERS SECURED. ALL WORKERS RETURN TO STATIONS IMMEDIATELY."

"What if it doesn't move?" Wade asked, translating for the group what the golem had screamed out. "What if the fat thing decides to just sit by the skeletons instead now that it's got the parameter secured?"

"We'll sort that when we come to it," Illy said. "But I ain't too worried about that problem. Golems get right distracted if ye chuck a big enough rock at 'em. And I've got somethin' far better than any rock."