Rise Of The Worthy [LitRPG System Apocalypse]

"Shelby… Shelby. Sheeeellllbyyy. SHELBY!"

I jolt upright in a cold sweat, whatever dream I was having lost to the dark reaches to my mind. Pearl taps the side of my face over and over with her tiny hand, desperately trying to get my attention. She hums to herself as I run a hand through my hair and breathe deeply through my nose.

"Good, you're up. We have problems, obviously, but they can wait for a few minutes. Have your eyes adjusted yet?"

"Adjusted?" I groan as I stretch my arms over my head. "What're you talking about? I can see just fine."

Pearl frowns and purses her lips. "You can? And you're not at least a little freaked out?"

With a smack of my lips I look around. We're not in the tombs anymore, but I expected about as much. Jumble's smart enough not to let the quest end while we still have people in danger. No reason for me to be there and unconscious on the floor while everyone else hashes out the fine details. All that said, though…

Where the hell am I? Everything squirms around me like it's all alive, but all my senses say that it's the same stone as before. Room's fairly small, too; about the size of my apartment back before everything happened. Nobody else here either. Makes sense that everyone wouldn't be crowded in, but I can't imagine Jumble or Illumisia letting me lie here alone without anyone watching.

"Clutter? You here buddy?" I ask. A few moments of silence give me my answer. "Nobody, then. Okay Pearl, I'll bite; where are we?"

Pearl shrugs. "I don't know. It's probably something to do with the Quest, though. That master–servant coin has to do a lot of weird things to both of you."

Ugh, that coin. Wish it hadn't come to that, but apparently the Quest needed to accept it for everything to work. I'm still not quite sure what happened back there, but it ended with a pretty damn good outcome all things considered. No lingering pain, either, which is a massive plus. Means I'll pay for it in a few hours, though.

I grunt and rise to my feet. "You know anything more about what's happening with the quest?"

"Nope," Pearl says instantly. "I woke up about fifty seconds before you did–and I was outside of your head. Whatever's happening here might be all in your head. Our head? Our heads?"

"My head. Just because you're using it as a vacation home, doesn't mean you own the… hrm." I pause and look down at Pearl. "Actually, considering what you've done to my DNA, maybe our head is the right way to put it."

She nods in agreement. "Our head it is. So! Relocate out of here?"

"Mh."

I latch onto the sensation of the coins I have left out there in the city… but they're all dull. Clouded over. Can't even make an attempt to flare the spell inside, and I could do that across a universe's worth of distance. Something's stopping it. Maybe Pearl's right about this all being in our head.

My awareness prickles, and I turn to see the Quest slurching out of a wall. It raises an eyebrow when it sees us and walks right up to me.

"I didn't think you'd be awake yet. Good thing you are; you're about to wake up in real life, too, and I wanted to try this out before you did. Shellraiser awarenesses are damn multipurpose, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they are," I agree. "So you're like the heretic, then. How long have you known?"

The Quest shrugs. "If I knew, I'd be happy to tell you. Before you ask, I have no idea how I became the physical embodiment of a quest and a fake-shellraiser at the same time. The idea itself sounds like a really bad joke."

"It really does," Pearl says seriously. "How much does the system know?"

A sense of grim understanding emanates from the Quest. It carries with it the knowledge that the system might know, but that it isn't sure enough to do anything just yet. Not until it has the resources to try and replicate this again… which it can't do without this facility.

"We have time. But the system has even more; eventually, it will figure things out. It's our job to make sure the countermeasures are in place long before that," I say with as much confidence as I feel. "So what's the situation outside? You haven't let anyone complete you?"

The Quest shakes its head. "The live paindne tried to kill himself twice. Nah… that gives off the wrong impression. He's got a contract written in him that someone's trying to invoke. Guy's beyond loyal to the horizonguard, though, so he's not really fighting the urge to bite his tongue off and drown in blood."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

That's an unpleasant image. One with a major issue staring right at us. "Illumisia murdered the horizonguard. Who's invoking the contract?"

"That's the issue; Illumisia didn't kill the horizonguard. She did something that's, in her words, 'so far worse that he constantly wishes for any way out'," the Quest says with a shudder. "Until you're there to tell her to stop, she's keeping him alive. Jumble insists, too, much to my surprise; something about a transfer of power? She's backed by a good half-dozen higher ups from the horizonguard's company–you know something about that?"

Ah. The whole 'new boss' thing. Can't say I'm excited about that prospect… but it's much better me than anyone else, I guess. I wipe a hand down my face and come to terms with what's gotta happen. Pearl laughs dryly, but there's no hint of actual humour in it.

"Alright; I'll get that done. Anything else?"

The Quest hums in thought, then shakes its head. "The heretic wanted to talk with you, but that's just about something we're not even sure is going to happen. Oh, and I'm the first construct Jumble made a long time ago to destroy the city the first time around."

My eyes widen in surprise, but before I can say anything, the squishy room disappears around me. The tombs reappear as the Quest steps away, allll the stone from a moment ago siphoning back into its body. Jumble turns, annoyance written on her face, which is joined by surprise at the sight of me.

"Shelby? Already?"

I shrug. "Already. How long has it been?"

"A little over four hours. I thought you'd be out for days, but this is way better! C'mon, I need your help; Illumisia's being hard to deal with."

She turns and walks towards a clouded storm of noise and magic. I can feel Illumisia in there, but there's a hint of Ebb and some of the other people I've seen in this place. Plus more than a few unknowns I've never felt. Jumble steps up to the edge of it and puts a hand against the mass of words, twists to the side like she's opening a door, and walls right into it. She turns back to make sure I'm following and holds the door open for me.

I nod in thanks and step into the mass of words. Somehow it's not as loud inside as it was outside, and there's even more people in here than I thought. Slice, Click, and the liquid construct stand in one corner along with some constructs I recognize from the apartment. Ebb, the mask buddies, and some stonestep solutions people I don't recognize stand in another. Then there's all my people; Sawyer, Gnash, Llaliu, Shatterhand, and Wojkmi sitting uncomfortably in the protective embrace of Illumisia.

Leaving Gil and Agathe to occupy the last corner for themselves. I feel all their attention fall on me the moment I step in, and an invisible hand on my shoulder confirms that Clutter's here too before I can ask. Whatever they were talking about dies on their lips, and from the varying states of contentedness, not all of them are happy about this outcome. Mostly from stonestep solutions.

"Here she is; the savior," someone mutters.

Another woman scoffs as I walk over to Illumisia. "Can't even spare a glance for us, and we're just supposed to work for her now? What if she messes with our benefits package?"

"My kid just got braces, and she has class-implementation sickness," yet another of them adds. "If our benefits go, I go."

A murmur of agreement spreads through the group. I honestly can't believe what I'm hearing; none of them seem to give a shit about the fact that Illumisia just took out their leader. They're just worried about their jobs. Weren't these people the board of directors? Doesn't that mean they have more than enough to make it through?

I turn and make eye contact with a gruff old paindne whose fur is almost as grey as the stone. He stares at me, eyes full of experience and an easy willingness to resort to violence. Yet… none of those people feel like the billionaires back at the party on Earth. Maybe I'm making an assumption here.

"You people are the board of directors?"

"Dissectors," Ebb corrects me. "We're the strongest stonestep has to offer, but we're not… decision makers, if you get me."

The old man snorts. "That's an understatement. Everyone with a stake in the company wouldn't set foot out of their house for a quest that's guaranteed to pay out. So even if you wanted in, 'new boss', you'd have one titanic struggle to convince the decision makers to go for it."

Ebb holds up a hand before anyone can speak. "Or–and I'm just spitballing here–what if we just killed all the directors? Our contracts die with the horizonguard. Just saying."

"Hmm…" the old man leans back as a dangerous glimmer shines in his eye. "I have a few grudges I'd like to settle. But why that woman? Convince me, Ebb. Convince everyone who's not on your side already."

"Alright. First off–"

The group explodes into very serious discussion. Benefits, time off, work-life balance, and many other things I'd expect to see in a union meeting get thrown around more than any moral or strength objections. Jumble sighs and shakes her head, then herds me towards Illumiisia and the others, who've all gathered from their respective corners as far away from the stonestep people as possible.

Gil grins and smacks the back of my shoulder the moment I'm in range. "Congrats on the new position. The resort doesn't have any conflict of interest things for us Worthies, so don't worry about that at all. Noland's got the whole company, you know."

Illumisia knocks him away with a massive paw and lowers her head to meet me head-on. "I missed you again, pup. Whenever you want to deal with that enemy inside my gut, just give me the notice."

"Thanks," I say and reach out to pat her nose. She makes a noise deep in her throat, but leans into it and refuses to let me stop. "So there's a real chance I might be able to bring you to Earth when I go back. Would you want that?"

"Yes," she instantly and excitedly says. "When are you going back?"

I look over my shoulder at the Quest. "Whenever I get the go-ahead to teleport this place out of here. To the only place the system can't make use of it. Before that, though… Jumble, do we have any easy way to repair those anchors?"

She shakes her head. "All we can do is slowly put them back together. Apparently the guy who keeps trying to kill himself is a jeweler? Maybe we can convince him to help?"

Clamber's dad? Yeah… I think I can convince him somehow.