The Glass Warrior [Weak to Strong LitRPG]

At first, Lucas figured the monkey couldn't be all that bad. After all, it had emerged from a mysterious orb that had existed for at least a thousand years, surely it had some tricks up its sleeve. What he didn't expect was that those "tricks" would involve blatantly stealing shit right in front of furious onlookers.

For a moment, Lucas couldn't help but wonder if he'd somehow influenced this… behavior. During the orb's evolution, right up until it "hatched," he'd been doing pretty much the same thing, looting and pissing everyone off.

Was this one of those cases where bad parenting shaped the child?

The thought sent a chill down his spine. Because if that were true… then that deranged monkey was technically his son.

They definitely shared some strange connection, he couldn't deny that, but up until now, Lucas hadn't even been sure they were on the same side. And after the monkey pulled that little stunt, popping up on his shoulder with that annoying grin after stirring up all that chaos and turning every eye in the room toward him, Lucas was now leaning heavily toward not on his side.

He barely had time to consider strangling the damn pest before a barrage of spells from the mage forced him to move.

He counterattacked whenever he could, using his aura and speed to keep the pressure up, but fighting that many alone was damn near impossible, especially with the caped goblin around, cutting off his escape routes and making sure he couldn't just outrun them all.

Bruises and cuts would've pilled up by now, likely making him unable to keep going, after several attacks, if it wasn't for his life aura working overtime, making sure he stayed in top shape despite it all.

Of course, there was a limit for how much he could heal, and judging by the way he grew slower and slower as his stamina was drained, this limit was fast approaching.

As he twisted away from yet another attack, one of the mage's spells slammed into a nearby column, cracking it wide open. The impact echoed through the chamber, and everyone felt the tremor that followed, dust rained down from above, pebbles clattering at their feet.

For a split second, everyone froze. If the room's structure gave out, that roof was coming down hard essentially burying everyone with the lord's remains.

"Stop casting those spells, leave him to us!" the Hive leader barked at the elven mage.

Now that Lucas and the monkey were together, his priorities had finally aligned. He needed to kill that damned monkey, and Lucas was standing right next to it.

The melee fighters didn't wait for another cue. The warrior elf lunged forward with a horizontal slash that could've split Lucas in two, while the caped goblin vanished and reappeared with a blur, aiming for his flank.

Lucas barely ducked the blade and spun away, his aura flaring as he countered with a swift kick to the elf's ribs, he'd yet to use his foot blade, and the elven warrior was caught off guard as the glass edge pierced his torso.

The enchanted armor he wore did its job, however. The blade cracked and broke shortly after impact, the wound failing to be fatal, but it was enough to stagger him and buy Lucas some space.

Before the goblin could follow up, something flashed in the corner of Lucas's vision. The monkey.

It burst from the shadows with uncanny speed, meeting the goblin's blade mid-air with a sharp clang as dagger met steel. Sparks flew, and the goblin snarled, trying to press the attack. But the monkey had already vanished again, laughing in his eerie, mocking way.

He reappeared an instant later above the goblin's head, tugged at his hood just to piss him off, and flipped away, landing nimbly on Lucas's shoulder like it was all part of a rehearsed routine.

Lucas shot him a sideways glance. Show-off.

The monkey bared his teeth in a grin, smug and proud as ever.

That brief exchange gave Lucas just enough of an opening. With the elf wounded and the goblin temporarily occupied, he turned and bolted toward the altar.

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As he sprinted, he glanced at the monkey still perched comfortably on his shoulder. Clearly, the little bastard wasn't useless in a fight, so the fact that he chose to ride along like a parrot only made him more annoying.

You could at least make yourself useful, Lucas thought with a scowl.

To his surprise, the monkey seemed to catch the thought, maybe through that strange connection they shared. It gave a little nod and vanished, reappearing seconds later with a box in hand, waving the recently stolen dagger at it like a lunatic.

Huh. Wasn't expecting that, Lucas thought, watching the undead monkey get to work. Even more surprising was what happened next, the little devil actually opened the box and instantly grabbed whatever was inside.

"Hey! Look, he's taking the treasure from the boxes!" Anthony shouted, pointing as the monkey scurried toward another.

There was no doubt—the dagger had made the difference. He hadn't been cracking boxes open before, not like that, and everyone who saw it knew the weapon was the key.

"My dagger!" the elven warrior spat, halting mid-chase as rage and indecision pulled at him.

That distraction was all Lucas needed. With a clear path, he sprinted the last few meters and skidded to a halt in front of his destination: the coffin.

One of his reasons for coming here was the chance to get a powerful corpse to kickstart his undead army. He didn't fully have the skill yet—but he would. Eventually. And to get there, he'd need a proper body.

Standing beside the coffin, he could feel the power radiating from within. Whoever was buried with the tomb's lord had to be important—and strong. No way he was letting that opportunity slip.

How should I do this? Lucas wondered briefly.

The altar boxes couldn't be stored until opened, but that didn't necessarily apply to coffins. No one had tried storing one yet. It was uncharted territory.

With that in mind, he grabbed it and tried to lift. It didn't budge.

He gritted his teeth and channeled everything he had into the effort. With a low grunt, he finally got it off the ground, and the moment it was airborne, he stored it straight into his new spatial ring.

Lucas almost laughed out loud in triumph, and probably would have if not for the caped goblin lunging at his throat.

"Fuck off!" Lucas snapped, voice sharp with irritation as his death aura surged outward, forcing the goblin to falter, its speed dropping like a stone.

He followed up immediately, slashing with both blades in a flurry of attacks that drove the creature back until it vanished from sight once more.

This goblin really is a problem, Lucas thought with a frustrated sigh. I never know when the damn thing will strike.

He wished he could just stop everything and kill every single one of them. Maybe with the monkey's help he could actually pull it off. But time was against him. A quick glance upward showed debris still raining from the cracked ceiling, and the tremors beneath his feet weren't getting any gentler. That place wasn't going to hold much longer.

Worse yet, his health and stamina were draining fast. The constant back-and-forth between death and life aura was taking its toll, burning through his reserves at an alarming pace.

He threw a glance at the monkey nearby and realized something else: most others had broken off their pursuit.

The mage, unable to risk launching any more large-scale spells without collapsing the chamber on all their heads, had turned his focus toward opening a box and succeeded. That alone was enough to pull everyone's attention.

For a brief, beautiful moment, they all remembered they weren't on the same team.

And just like that, a full-on brawl erupted again, people turning on each other for treasure, shoving and scrambling over boxes like rabid dogs.

Amid the chaos, Lucas spotted the invisible goblin reappearing to snatch some loot, more interested in treasure than him for now.

Good. With that nuisance busy, Lucas headed straight for the next coffin.

After lifting the first one, the second was easy, he just needed the right angle, and voilà, off it went into his ring.

Next up was the most valuable-looking of them all: the golden one, the lord's coffin. The aura inside wasn't particularly strong, and Lucas wasn't sure if the corpse would make for a decent warrior, but odds were there was something valuable buried with it. That was reason enough. No hesitation, he stored it too.

Then came the boxes. He hadn't opened a single one himself so far, even though his monkey was looting them like the world was ending.

It took him around ten minutes to crack his first box:

Shield Bracelet

Unfolds a medium-sized metal shield in front of the user when activated.

He'd seen the Forcefield Bracelet back at the Exchange Center after leaving the Tower, but didn't want to burn through his precious points on something so niche. Still, a free shield was a free shield.

It didn't compare to a force field, of course, but its portability meant it could pair nicely with his fighting style.

The description wasn't exactly thrilling either, but if it could block a few attacks, that alone could make his life easier. Without wasting time, he equipped it.

A quick glance around the chamber and Lucas reassessed his situation.

Sometimes life was like poker, you had to know when to fold.

Most of the treasures were gone. The room was unstable, dust and debris falling from above. It was almost time to bail.

And once all the loot was gone, he had no doubt where everyone's attention would go: him and the monkey. Together, they'd grabbed more than anyone else in the expedition combined.

There was no chance they'd just let him walk away. And if he somehow made it out, they'd take their complaints to their clans, families, wherever they crawled from, and he'd become public enemy number one.

He wasn't afraid of backlash, if he was he wouldn't have done any of this in the first place. But if there was a way to avoid it…

Lucas smirked, his eyes drifting toward the towering figures scattered across the room.