Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

The turtle instructed him on what sounds to make. It was easy with his intelligence, just weird. The space monster language was unique. It involved all sorts of sounds ranging from clicks, to howls, to actual letters. It felt like tongue yoga.

He made the right sounds anyway—or, at least, the closest he could come to them. It took some practice.

“WHAT INFORMATION?” the horse asked, all business. “WILL YOU NOT KILL US?”

“If I wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead,” he replied, still butchering their language.

The horses glanced at each other. “WE ARE NOT DEAF.”

“That’s not what I— Anyway. Just don’t try anything stupid, okay?”

“OKAY. WE DO HAVE EARS, BY THE WAY. THEY’RE UNDER THE FUR.”

“Cool. Can you stop shouting?”

“I AM NOT SHOUTING.”

Jack suddenly felt the urge to go find other space monsters to interrogate. But maybe they’d all be shouting. Oh god.

“Tell me about this world,” he said. “Where are we?”

“THE ASTARION PROVINCE.”

“Okay. How many provinces are there?”

“I DO NOT KNOW. MORE THAN ONE.”

“Very helpful. Who’s the strongest space monster here? Do you have A-Grades?”

“PROVINCE MASTER ASTARION. HE IS VERY STRONG.”

“How strong?”

“VERY. STRONGER THAN US. STRONGER THAN YOU.”

“Would you call him an A-Grade?”

“WHAT IS THAT?”

“Space monsters are not familiar with the System’s Grades,” the turtle explained to Jack. “They use different classifications. From D-Grade to Archon, they call themselves dukes, counts, barons, autarchs, and overlords.”

“That’s fucking stupid. It’s the reverse order of British royalty.”

“I don’t make the rules.”

Jack sighed. “Is your province master an autarch?” he asked.

“YES.”

“Okay. Does he have, like, a faction of autarchs?”

“NO. THE ASTARION PROVINCE IS AN OUTER PROVINCE. AUTARCHS ONLY COME OUT HERE TO BE PROVINCE MASTERS.”

“So there are outer provinces. That’s good to know. I suppose there are inner ones as well?”

“YES. OUTER PROVINCES, INNER, AND CORE. ONLY TWO CORE PROVINCES. THE OVERLORDS.”

“That makes sense. So the space monster world is separated in provinces, with each province master being an autarch, and the innermost you go, the higher the level of people. Correct?”

The horse thought for a moment. “YES. BUT NOT ALL PROVINCE MASTERS ARE AUTARCHS. SOME ARE BARONS.”

“But not in the inner provinces?”

“NO. ALL AUTARCHS THERE.”

“And why do you call the provinces core, inner, and outer? Is there a center?”

“THE WORLD IS RINGS. THE DARK CANAL IS AT THE CENTER. WORSHIP THE DARK CANAL.”

“What’s the dark canal?”

“I DO NOT KNOW. BUT IT MUST BE WORSHIPED.”

Jack turned to his friends and relayed the information he’d received.

“Ask it for directions to that dark canal,” Brock suggested. “The inner and core provinces will be located that way as well. If we want to farm space monster cores, that’s where we’ll find the good ones.”

Jack nodded in agreement. He asked the horses, which pointed him in a certain direction—the exact opposite of the one they’d been following before.

“Nice guess, bro,” Brock said, giving Jack a thumbs-up.

“Well, we have our directions,” Jack said. “Should we leave? I think these horses are pretty stupid, to be honest. We’re better off finding someone smarter on the way.”

“I agree. We should kill them, too, or they might spread information about us being here.”

Jack turned to the horses. He stared at them. “It’s a shame,” he said. “I know they tried attacking us first, and that we have to kill them, but they’ve been pretty obedient since we subdued them.” He sighed, raising a fist. The horses neighed sadly and closed their eyes. “I guess if I have to.”

“Space monsters submit completely to the stronger party,” the turtle explained lazily as Jack’s fist came crashing down. “If the stronger party isn’t clearly indicated, they fight on sight. However, if you don’t want to kill them, why not take them as your mounts?”

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Jack’s fist stopped an inch away from the leading horse’s muzzle. The wind ruffled its mane of dark flame.

“Go on,” he said.

“Space monsters submit completely to the stronger party. If they wish to become your followers, they can spit out their core into your care. That way, you can kill them anytime you wish, meaning they will never betray you.”

“Hmm.” Jack frowned. “That sounds a bit extreme.”

“You can always ask them, but they’d certainly prefer it to dying. Becoming the mount of a powerful individual is no shame in the Space Monster World. It can even be a kind of honor. Every high-status space monster has a mount.”

“Why would I take them as a mount? I’m way faster.”

“You don’t need to ride them. If you have their core, you can store the entire monster in your inner world. Just take them out as you reach a city to show your status.”

Jack hesitated. He then spoke out, saying, “Do you guys prefer to die or become our mounts?”

The horses glanced at each other. “YOU ARE OUTSIDERS. WE MUST FIGHT YOU TO THE DEATH.”

“Don’t be like that,” Brock said, stepping forward. “Just because we come from outside this world doesn’t mean we need to be enemies. We’re not so different, after all. Let’s work together instead of being brainwashed to kill each other. Let’s be bros.”

He extended a hand. The horses visibly shook, their mental barriers evaporating to liberate their free will. They could now think clearly.

“HE HAS A POINT,” one of them said.

“I AGREE. LET’S BECOME MOUNTS.”

“YES.”

Both horses turned to Jack. “YOU ARE A STRONG MASTER,” they said. “WE WILL SERVE YOU WELL.”

He raised a brow in amusement. “Even though I am an outsider?”

“IT MEANS NOTHING. YOU DEFEATED US. OUR LIVES BELONG TO YOU.”

He shrugged. “Alright, guys,” he said, turning to Brock and Starhair. “We’re now friends with these bad boys.”

Brock looked at him weirdly. “They’re female,” he said. Starhair still seemed out of sorts. He just shrugged and nodded.

“Cool,” Jack said.

The two horses shook as if about to vomit. Then, with a dry heave, a solid gem emerged from each of their throats. They were dark red and with swirling flames inside—pretty, if not particularly powerful. When Jack touched one, he felt a connection to a different being, an entity of chaos. The hell horse.

The sense of complete control was fascinating.

“WE BELONG TO YOU, MASTERS,” the horses said, bending their front feet to bow.

Jack laughed. “Don’t be like that. We’re friends.”

“FRIENDS?”

“That’s right. Friends, bros. As long as you don’t betray us, we’re all in the same team.”

“BUT YOU’RE STRONGER.”

“That’s alright.”

The two hellhorses still seemed confused, but they’d get used to it.

Jack took one core into his inner realm, while Brock did the same to the other.

“Do you have names?” they asked the horses.

“I AM DOLPARTAZOL THE HARBINGER OF DOOM,” the leading horse replied. “AND THIS IS EZAQUIL THE ETERNAL DAWN.”

“Okay. Then, I will call you Dolly,” Jack told it.

“And I will call you Eza,” Brock said to the other one. There was no third horse for Starhair.

Suddenly, Jack realized something. He reached into his space ring and removed a carrot. He’d had it there since the last time he visited Earth. In fact, he had entire boxes of vegetables. They didn’t go bad in space rings.

“Do you want a carrot, Dolly?” he asked. “The horses on my planet like it. They’re significantly less infernal than you, but we might as well try.”

Dolpartazol, the self-appointed harbinger of doom, ate the carrot. “IT IS VERY TASTY, MASTER. THIS IS NOW MY FAVORITE FOOD. CAN I HAVE ANOTHER?”

“Just one, okay? No more until we reach…whatever destination we’re planning to reach.”

“OKAY MASTER.”

As Dolly enjoyed her second carrot, consuming it in small bites to make it last longer, Jack turned to the others. “There’s one more thing we gotta do,” he said. “We can’t be walking around like this in civilization centers. They’ll attack us on sight.”

He reached into his space ring again and took out a shining blue liquid. It resembled a sea of stars. Even from inside the bottle, this potion radiated power intense enough for Dolly to stop mid-bite and stare at it.

They had known they’d need disguises. The Arch Priestess had gone to great lengths to secure three transformation potions of the highest caliber. They would remain active no matter how hard they fought or exerted themselves, and the disguise would fool anybody unless they came face-to-face with an Archon.

They originally had three potions—one for Jack, Brock, and the Arch Priestess’s clone, the people who were supposed to enter the Space Monster World. Unfortunately, the Arch Priestess clone had kept hers on her person, so it was destroyed. Jack now only had two potions for three people and no way to create another.

“I’ll be fine without,” Brock said. “I’m a brorilla. I can fit in.”

“Are you sure?” Jack asked.

“No. But we can try.”

Jack nodded. They had no other choice. He gave one potion to Starhair, but before using them, they had to find suitable forms. Once they ingested the potions, the disguise could not be changed or taken off.

“Show me the most common race of humanoid space monsters,” Jack asked Dolly, connecting his mind to hers. She projected an image to him. Jack ingested his potion.

He felt his body change. Bones snapped into place. Some shattered while new ones grew. His flesh was torn apart as his entire form was restructured. When the transformation was done, Jack was a hulking humanoid, pale green in color. He stood nine feet tall, with short horns sticking out of his forehead and lines of spikes trailing his spine and limbs. Two bat-like wings spread from his back, though he could easily fold them if he wanted to, and a thick tail extended from his lower back. His hands and feet ended in sharp claws. Thankfully, he could still make them into fists. He’d also changed his facial structure a little bit—after all, the overlords had seen his face during the summit, so they might recognize him from afar.

Overall, Jack’s new form looked like a green devil. Completely bad-ass. The only problem was that he, apparently, possessed two sets of male genitalia, one hanging above the other. That change alone felt so damn weird.

Good thing his magical shorts had changed to fit his new size.

Brock observed the transformation with interest. Starhair, however, was shaking. “That looked like it hurt,” he said.

“A little bit,” Jack confirmed. His voice had gotten deeper and guttural. “But it’s just for a minute. Come on. Drink your potion.”

“...I don’t want to.”

“Then we’ll have to leave you here. We can’t carry around an outside with us.”

Starhair gulped. He looked at the potion, observing the blue stars inside it, then gulped it down. “Okay. It’s not that—” He instantly started convulsing. He fell to the ground and started writhing as he screamed in pain.

Jack scratched his head. When he said it only hurt a little bit, he hadn’t been lying. It was just that his pain perception was apparently skewed by everything he’d experienced.

Oh well, he thought. He’ll be fine. A little bit of suffering builds character.

Two minutes later, Starhair lay on the ground, panting in his new body. It looked exactly like Jack’s, except with a different face. They also had other minor differences, but overall, Jack thought they would easily pass as two members of this space monster species.

“What are we called, anyway?” he asked Dolly.

“DOUBLE DEVIL,” she replied. “AND I HAVE TO SAY, MASTER, YOU LOOK DASHING. YOU WERE HIDEOUS BEFORE. ALL FLESH AND NO ARMOR. NOW YOU’RE A PROPER SPACE MONSTER.”

“Thanks…” he replied, then turned to the others. “Okay, everyone. We’re ready. Let’s head for the inner provinces—and maybe find someone smarter to interrogate.”

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