Tower of Avarice: A LitRPG story

The jungle was eerily still as if the air itself feared to move. Towering trees loomed overhead, their trunks were wrapped in thick coils of vines. Massive roots jutted from the ground, their surfaces slick with moss and the sheen of moisture. Strange flowers in a variety of colours released a heavy, cloying scent that mingled with the damp earth.

The serpent, whose death was the objective of this Floor, reared up as its body emerged from the jungle's depths like a living river of precious gemstones. Its scales shimmered with an unnatural brilliance, shifting from sapphire to ruby to gold.

Each plate of its armour-like hide was sharp and polished, catching the dim light of the sun seen through the forest canopy as though the monster was carved from gems rather than flesh. Its head loomed high above, with twin emerald eyes that burned with an inner light. Its forked tongue flickered from its maw as it tasted the air.

The monster was hunting an intruder, someone who had entered its lair without making a sound but had been unable to mask its scent.

Aliva stood poised like a coiled spring, her sharp gaze locked on the monster without wavering for a moment. Her long brown hair, damp with the jungle's humidity, tumbled past her shoulders as it framed her face and was set with a look of determination.

She wore magical armour made of soft leather that was as dark as midnight clung to her body tightly, and was reinforced with arcane etching that shimmered faintly. It was the most expensive armour available in the Shop, and she had spent hundreds of millions of Aether units on it.

But most of her gains had gone into the deck of cards that she held gripped in her right hand. Their edges were worn, and the cards themselves looked plain and ordinary, but those with keen senses would find they pulsed with dormant power.

With subtle movements of her fingers, the deck would be shuffled and fanned out, only to close again as the process repeated. So often, she performed this action, and it was ingrained in her, and she did it without thinking.

'Just a little closer, you bastard.' Alivia thought.

The Jeweled Glimmerfang was an ancient monster that had inhabited this jungle for Millenia, growing bigger and stronger from the Aether it consumed. Alivia didn't know why the Tower let it get so unmanageable, but it was her job to kill it and harvest its scales.

But the Glimmerfang was nearly impossible to kill, especially when it was in its lair, so Alivia had purposefully drawn it out to better hunt it.

The monster's emerald eyes swept through the undergrowth, looking for her. Its glow illuminated the foliage around it, and she could see its dark red tongue tasting the air. For a moment, there was only stillness until its eyes locked onto the tree where she was hiding.

Alivia saw the Glimmerfang tilt its head ever so slightly, and then, with terrifying speed, it lunged at her. Prepared, Alivia used one of the abilities contained inside her armour to phase out of existence temporarily as the Glimmerfang struck.

The impact was cataclysmic. The tree exploded into splinters; its ancient trunk snapped like kindling as the serpent's gigantic head crashed through it. There was a shockwave of force that sent leaves and debris hurtling outward, and vines snapped as the giant tree fell.

As the tree collapsed, the serpent reared its head back, and its burning gaze locked onto the figure, which was now visible in the wreckage. Alivia, still out of phase from reality, grinned as she saw that the Glimmerfang's soft underbelly was exposed.

"Alright, let's go all in!" Alivia shouted as she grabbed the top card of her deck and drew it with a flourish.

As a Drafter, all of Alivia's powerful spells and abilities were contained within her cards, which she gained through rewards from the Tower or through the shop.

It was an incredibly powerful and unique Discipline, but it came with a downside. It was expensive, leaving her desperately poor at all times. She also couldn't choose what card she drew; she had to rely on her high Luck Attribute to draw the right card at the right time.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Yes!" Alivia yelled as she saw what was depicted on the card. It had a crude, almost childlike drawing on its front, with jagged lines of orange and red that crisscrossed in a chaotic swirl. The flames were uneven, and in the center was a stick-like figure standing with their arms raised as they summoned the storm of fiery magic.

"Firestorm!" Alivia pumped her mana into the card, and the card left her hand. The air around it shimmered, and for a brief moment, the crude drawing on its surface moved. The stick figure twisted around in triumph.

Then, reality tore open around her with a deafening 'whoosh.'

Flames erupted from the ground in a swirling inferno that devoured the surrounding jungle in an instant. The air ignited with a searing heat, turning the damp, mossy forest floor into crackling embers. The vines above shrivelled and blackened and the trees that had stood for centuries were swallowed whole.

The monstrous Glimmerfang was wreathed in the storm of fire and let out a furious, earth-shaking hiss. Its jewelled scales glowed like molten gold beneath the scorching heat, and it began to thrash violently.

The flames slowly died down, and the swirling inferno quickly lost its fury. The air was thick with the smell of charred wood and scorched earth. But Alivia cursed when she saw that the Glimmerfang was unscathed by the flames.

Aliva felt the magic of her armour fade, and she returned to normal with a faint 'pop.' Turning around, she scrambled to run away.

With a sudden, deafening hiss, the serpent's massive form uncoiled in an instant and the ground trembled under the sheer force of its movements as it thrashed wildly, tearing through the remnants of the wood in its rush to devour her.

"Stupid, piece of shit deck! It's immune to fire!" Alivia screamed as she barely dodged to the side, avoiding another lunge from the serpent. Regaining her feet, she grabbed the next card in her deck and muttered a quick prayer to the god of Fortune Probability.

"Something good. Come on, something good. Alright, I can work with this!" Alivia cheered as the next card was revealed. The card gleamed with a shimmering light, and its surface was covered in shifting colours and swirls. The image depicted a wall of force protecting a person inside.

"Radiant Veil!" Alivia commanded the card to activate, and she felt the mana surge inside her body. As the card flared to life, crackling energy erupted from its edges and swirled around her in a flash of radiant light. A massive, translucent shield of pure mana formed before her.

The serpent, its massive body humming with fur, launched itself forward with frightening speed. Its fangs were bared and ready to tear through her, but when it made contact with the shimmering shield of mana, it met an overwhelming force of resistance.

The serpent's strike was rebuffed with a violent 'clang' that echoed through the jungle. The shield shimmered and pulsed before fading.

"Yes! See how you like this one!" Alivia shouted, and as she was just about to draw another card, something unexpected happened.

A blinding pillar of pure, radiant light descended from the heavens and cut its way through the smoke and floating debris like a divine sword. The earth trembled as the light surged downwards with unstoppable force. It was a searing column of energy that split the sky open and bathed everything in its glow.

The Glimmerfang, still recoiling from the strike against the barrier, was struck by the divine energy. The radiant beam pierced through its jewelled scales like they were nothing more than glass. Its enormous body was split in two with a sickening crack.

A surge of Aether erupted from the point of impact, and fiery tendrils of pure mana shot out in all directions. The Glimmerfang's body struck the ground with a tremendous crash, and its once-glowing scales dimmed to a lifeless dullness.

And then, just as quickly as it appeared, the burst of energy faded. Alivia watched as the Aether was drawn to a single point like flecks of iron being drawn to a magnet.

Across the clearing in the jungle formed by Alivia's magic stood a young man with a strange sword held in his hand. Handsome and young, Alivia recognized him immediately.

"Mathew! I could have killed that one on my own, you know. I told you not to interfere!" Alivia scolded him.

Pouting slightly, she shook her head and walked towards him as the pair heard a faint 'ding' ring out in the air around them, signifying that they had completed their objective.

"I know you could have, but I thought I would save you the hassle." Mathew replied, his lips curving slightly into a grin. He had been pleasantly surprised to find that he wasn't alone on this Floor. It had been a long time since he had the opportunity to talk to an old friend.

"Hmph. And you took all the Aether. You're a greedy hog, Mathew." Alivia replied, only for Mathew to smile widely.

"That's not very nice, Alivia. Especially after I went to the trouble of getting you a gift." Mathew teased. Placing the Godslaying Blade of Wrath back in his inventory, he pulled out another object. It was a chunk of Crystalized Ather as big as a grapefruit. Alicia could feel the energy swirling inside of it, and she shivered slightly in response.

"Where did you find that?" She asked. Mathew pointed behind him as he held out the Aether to her and dropped it into her outstretched hands. It felt far heavier than she expected.

"In that thing's lair. I figured there would be something good in there, so I took a look while you were playing around." Mathew responded. The pair chatted for a moment before the Elevator arrived, carrying the pair to the next Floor.