DIE TRYING [A Roguelite Extraction LitRPG]

The scroll had only two components to it when Wade cut it down to the semantics.

Restores the soul. Reanimates the body.

From the wording, Wade was mostly certain what the spell did was heal the soul back to it's prime state. Because what would the soul be restored from?

The body on the other hand, that didn't sound like it would be restored to it's prime state, just reanimated. That could go any direction really. He'd need to check Leon's body and how the golem had left it.

It was going to be a gruesome sight, and Wade was mentally preparing himself for it. He'd seen horror movies, there'd be bone chips and a slurry of red fleshy paste all over the alleyway. The scene would be terrible, and he didn't want to puke out his dinner - that's the only source of calories and energy he had right now. Puking it out would be a waste of funds.

But despite all his mental preparations, when he rounded the final corner and got to see the alleyway, he was still caught by surprise.

"Play, where the fuck is Leon's body? Am I on the wrong alleyway?"

Leon wasn't there. Worse than that, there was no trace of the man anywhere. No blood, no gore, nothing. All he could spot that even hinted at the giant Russian was a discarded hammer off to the side. Not even his boxers were left behind.

Nope, looks the same to me. ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

This was a problem. The scroll required the body to target. No body, no raise death. "Did something get here faster than I did and clean it up? What the fuck, I was gone for like, thirty minutes, tops."

The only janitor Wade knew that moved that fast was himself when there was a bonus at stake. No way could that be a thing here, since the skeleton bodies on the main road were still untouched hours after they'd been smashed up.

"This is ridiculous." He muttered, running a hand through his hair, then instantly jerking away when he realized his fucking hands were filled with blackrot, while his head wasn't. So goddamn stupid, he was rolling the dice each time. No more scratching his nose with his fingers or anything, he had to do it all through proxy with a stick or a stone now. He shook his head focusing.

Why're you asking me?

"That's a great question." Wade rolled his eyes, "Why am I expecting anything from you?"

I think what happened here is pretty obvious, but since I'm useless, I shouldn't help you out at all i guess (눈_눈)

"That's bait, you have no fucking idea what's going on here either."

Oh yeah? What happened to the mimic's body?

"It dissolved into those… red embers." Wade paused, his brain finally catching up. "Wait."

Ding a ding ding (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

When Leon was killed, his blood faded to ash just like the mimic's. He'd just been so shellshocked at the time he hadn't really processed it. "But the mimic's body was a system generated body. It's a special ca… ahh fuck. We're players."

Ayy, now you're getting into the flow of things.

Wade looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. "This is some kind of System construct? Not my actual body?"

Was he the actual Michael Wade, or just a copy as well? Fuck.

That one's more a wild educated guess on my part, but the main thing to prove here: Not so useless now, am I? ヽ(•‿•)ノ

If Leon's body wasn't real in the traditional sense, where was the actual Leon? Was his soul trapped somewhere? Or did the System have mercy and sent it back to earth? And what did that mean about Wade's own body? Was his real one back home still in bed?

Was his soul itself a system construct as well?

Some part of his head was still spinning the hamster wheel, adding the new info into stride. At least if he died here, he wasn't technically going to miss his shift as earth-Wade still existed and would continue doing the work there.

Maybe he should be horrified he might not be the real Michael Wade anymore, but the thought just… gave him some peace.

It meant his sister's hospital bills were still being paid. And that once those were more managable, there'd be someone to help Catherine pay Jason's healthcare debts. Few years more and that little family of two would be free from the fuckery Wade had brought upon their lives. He'd make things right again.

Wade walked over to a wall, sank down into it, and started laughing to himself in relief. He stayed there for some time, just setting his mind back into place.

Did it actually matter if he was the original or just a copy sent out here to suffer? This was his reality. The copy discovery just meant the stakes weren't as high as he'd feared. And when he got back to earth?

What was happening here wasn't a tragedy. It was an opportunity: Two Wades working together would mean double the retail jobs and double the income after all. That'd be awesome.

Yeah. That's how Wade would handle this existential revelation: He'd find a way to exploit it for profit. Who said mania was a debuff? The System was wrong, it was his superpower.

With that settled in his head, he nodded happily to himself, got back up on his feet, dusted off his hands and pants - making sure not to touch his face at all - and got back to thinking how he'd get out of this place.

First, reconnect with Illy and Selena. Then deal with the golem or run off back into the sewer and find a way out.

This part of the slave section he was running around in was absolutely the rich neighborhood. Or at least the part that wasn't overrun with giant spiders, since nothing here was barricaded, and no skeletons were wandering around anywhere. Which meant nobody had died here, just packed up and left instead.

So he found a nice little vantage point where he could look over the road and the golem sitting in the center of it, then watched for any signs of his friends. One of the upper buildings, reachable via ladder rungs, had a great sight over the roadway and the golem's shadow.

No sign of movement came from the other end of the road, they were hiding underground looks like. Or waiting for a sign.

He looked down at the little scroll the System had given him, summoning into hand with a thought. If he wasn't able to bring back Leon, who else could he restore?

He could bring the mimic to work for him. But ultimately it wouldn't be as effective against skeletons and golems. No way the venom would work on those, and that was the mimic's main strategy. Plus it was only level 19. Selena was higher level than that thing, and she was having a rough go at this place already.

No, he needed something higher level. Like those spiders. Could he kill one, and then use it as a minion?

But that level fifty something monster that came to pick a fight had been outright shot to death by the golem in under a few seconds. The other one that had been chasing them escaped just by sheer chance the golem had seen the bigger spider first. And that was them empowered with blackrot. If he brought them back to life, very high chance they'd be returned with their normal body, which would be far weaker already.

No, he needed something that could stand toe-to-toe with the golem itself.

…

"Play, do golems have souls?" He asked, pacing around in the small room.

Wowowow you're seriously crazy.

"I have mania in my debuffs Play, part of the package. Now, do the golems have a soul or not?"

idk, but it'd be fun to see you kill it. Think of all the levels you'd get out of that (((o(°▽°)o)))

Plus, think you're on the right track here. No better minion out there to soulbind than a Nathir Security Golem. Imagine riding that thing around.

"Still need to kill it first." Wade said, walking past the living room. He could see its shadow from the window vantage point he had from this higher up building.

There wasn't a way out of the slave district besides the main roads and that's in full view of the golem. Sewer tunnel down had a manhole cover over it, and Wade would need a few seconds to pry it up. That golem would shoot him dead from a mile away.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that's probably the exact reason the golem was standing where it was - complete view on the entire area here. "Shit. I really am going to have to fight or outrun it."

Was that thing intelligent? Or just programmed to be tactical?

It hadn't looked particularly fast, so outrunning it might be the play here. On the other hand… that ranged machine-gun slab thing. Even with blackrot in his body, his head was still human. If he got shot through the head, he'd be meeting up with Leon in whatever came next.

Hang on before you start anything, let me fix myself a drink. Popcorn dries the mouth out you know?

He rolled his eyes at that, "Laugh it up all you want, I've got a plan."

Okay, okay, I'll skip the drink, this sounds pretty good

"First, we break it's gun so it can't shoot us."

Starting off with impossible right off the bat, I like it ( ˘ ³˘)♥

"It's not impossible, it's already been done. That thing had two guns it used, and one is already broken because a skeleton managed to throw a pickaxe at the slab. Whatever that magic thing is, that part is fragile."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was made of straight rock. The rest of the golem was armored up, but the guns? Maybe it was a modular setup and needed to be replaced often, that's why they had slaves excavating slab after slab. Whatever the reasons were - pickaxes were designed from the ground up to break through rocks. And that meant the rock slabs could be chipped at, which meant damage.

If it could be damaged even a little bit, Wade was going to make it start looking if it has a warranty.

"After the gun's broken, it's only got melee attacks and it moves slow. We draw it into the housing units away from the manhole, and then I juke it and go down through the sewers before it can catch me."

Plus, with that much commotion, Illy and Selena would see and hear it from anywhere they were hiding and come out. If they saw Wade make a sprint to the sewer, they'd get the idea.

As he looked out the window, he realized something else. The more likely reason why he hasn't seen any movement on the other end - Illy and Selena couldn't do anything to escape. The streets ends were guarded by the giant, the other end of the city that went deeper into the gloom was infested by giant spiders and skeletons, and the sewer entrance was actually sealed - that heavy manhole could only be opened by someone with a bunch of points into strength, or blackrot all over the body. Both of which they did not have.

Which meant they were waiting for him to make a move. All he had to do was follow the plan to distract the golem, and the other two were probably ready in action to leap out and follow after him.

Would have been more fun to see you fight the golem for real-real, but this works out too. Not like that thing is going away anytime soon lol

With Play not explicitly telling him it was a bad idea or that something would go wrong, Wade committed.

Out the unit, and up the narrow alleyways, he climbed a ladder until he could peek over the flat roof at his final enemy, crawling up until only his eyes peeked over.

Level 122 Nathir Security Golem - 81%

The golem remained waiting, a giant blocky spider with its hands folded up at the sides. Two rock slabs remained holstered at the abdomen, sticking a little out. One had cracks in it, and the other was still pristine.

That's what he had to break. The win condition for this fight.

He did have some information to work with. For one it came out here wounded. Wade suspected that meant the golems didn't have anyone to repair them. Any damage he did would likely be permanent.

It didn't bring out the hands for the spiders, only for the skeletons and him when they got too close. Might be that it's programmed to always open fire first and rely on that, then chase down in order to get line of sight.

If he got far too close, it would stomp him with its feet.

Its vision wasn't perfect. That Wade could take a peek at it in between alleyways and over the lip of the roof like this without being detected meant it wasn't some kind of hyper-terminator that noticed a single hair out of place. Good.

"All right Wade," He whispered to himself. "You can do this. You don't need to win, just make it down the manhole. Buy enough time so that Illy and Selena can sprint out. Don't even need to close the manhole behind me."

So long as he was methodical and careful, he'd win. After th-- something exploded outwards within himself, spreading from his chest outwards across all his body. Not in pain, but in… health. Everything once more felt even sturdier, more resilient.... Like he'd leveled up vitality one more time.

"Stats." He called out.

Health: 325/325

Vitality: 13 (7-2+8)

He'd gotten another point into vitality. And he knew the likely culprit.

Blackrot - Anti-mana entity expanding within host tissues. Causes enhanced biological functions and loss of control as total mass increases.
70% of total mass infected.

The blackrot had expanded out to seventy percent of his body mass now, instead of sixty eight that he'd last seen. And now instead of giving him +6 Vitality, it was giving him +7. So every ten percent it increased, it gave him more vitality?

"You're the little curse that keeps on giving." He muttered, looking down at his hands. Black veins were spread all over, but the skin itself didn't look black and grey yet. The blackrot was internal, within his blood.

If this body wasn't his actual body, then would the blackrot follow him back on earth? "No way to find out until I actually do it."

He turned, then raced down the ladder, head in the clouds thinking about how to test this body out.

That testing started earlier than he expected, as his leap down onto the ladder ended up flinging him farther than he expected, hands and feet betraying him with unexpected strength.

What ended up happening was him throwing himself against the other side of the alleyway wall, landing back first with a thud, then falling the rest of the way down into the ground.

The only luck Wade had was having the good sense not to scream.

The landing was harsh, unprepared, and he landed directly on his knees and hands. Both of which clearly broke in the fall.

No pain. Nothing at all. He collapsed on the floor, knowing he'd broken his shins and hands in the process, but was back on his feet without any issue. His body felt a little stiff now walking around, the blackrot itself must be taking the position around the bones to mimic their function or something.

None of the damage mattered. In under a minute, it had all healed up like some kind of insane superpower.

It wasn't just a healing factor or super strength either. He remembered something else Leon had told him. Agility didn't increase his running speed. It was strength.

And strength was clearly multiplied by the blackrot. Which he now had in both legs. How fast could he actually run?

Finding a clear stretch of alleyway between buildings, he crouched into a runner's stance, fingers pressed against the dirt floor. "Alright, let's see what this parasite can really do."

He pushed off, expecting his normal pace, the same sluggish movement he'd grown accustomed to after years of chronic pain and retail exhaustion.

Instead, his legs exploded forward like pistons, launching him with a giant leap forward. His other leg was flailing around looking for ground that wasn't coming up at the expected interval, until it did, and he felt the impact shake through his leg upwards. That forced him to push forward again or fall flat.

"Holy shit!"

Too fast. Way too fast.

It was like he'd decided to sprint downhill, forced to keep pumping his legs or hit the stone ground. Any attempt to slow down felt more or less doomed.

The end of the alley rushed toward him like a freight train. Wade's brain hadn't caught up to his body's new capabilities, and there was zero possible chance to stop at this speed.

He threw his arms up at the last second and slammed into the wall with a thunk.

Between ancient cement walls and one blackrot empowered but squishy human, the wall won without a shred of damage.

Even with his arms out to absorb the impact, it still jarred through his entire body, his cheek slamming against rough stone as he bounced off and landed hard on his ass. He felt his hands snap, bones inside break. Maybe he'd given himself a skull fracture too.

Wade sat there dazed, then slowly got back up. Blood filled his mouth from a split lip. He knew better than to touch the wound with his blackrotten fingers, so he spat on the ground to assess the damage. He was right. A thick stream of deep red saliva dripped from his mouth, forming a small pool on the ground between his hands.

Every other part of his body felt perfectly fine, but the sting of pain in his head and mouth was crystal clear. No blackrot there, no heali-

Wait.

He felt something in his lips tingle. He spat back on the ground again to clear his mouth further, seeing the saliva look more pink now than red now. Another twenty second, and some more spitting showed next to no blood anymore at all. In fact, his mouth felt perfectly fine again.

"Stats."

Health: 319/325

He saw it tick upwards again, every other second, until it hit 325 health. Then he spat on the ground one last time. Nothing. No pain in his mouth or his skull either.

A dark chuckle came out as Wade realized where the System had messed up. "Blackrot heals the body, but in my body, it's categorized as a buff. And it didn't mention anything about location of where that buff applies."

The System was applying his blackrot regeneration globally. Even on parts of his body that weren't infected with blackrot.

"This is fucking AMAZING!" he half-shouted half whispered to himself, scrambling back to his feet. No fatigue. No pain. Just raw, unbridled power like when he'd fought the mimic in the half-mania adrenaline fueled rampage.

Wade flexed his hands, watching the dark veins pulse beneath his skin. For the first time since arriving in this nightmare world, he felt far more then fear and desperation.

He felt dangerous.