Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Empty Star City was abuzz with activity. Jack surveyed the crowded space around him, the main square of the city—unimaginably called the Empty Star Square. Everything here was named like that. He assumed creative space monsters were shunned.

Speaking of creative space monsters.

“GET OUT OF MY MASTER’S WAY, YOU CONSTIPATED TURDS, OR I WILL DEVOUR YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES!” Dolly bellowed into the crowd, sending terrified space monsters fleeing left and right. They were creating a huge scene. Jack wanted to cringe and tell her to take it easy, but this was how dignified space monsters acted—what would be distasteful in human society was the norm here, and vice versa.

It wasn’t just them. Several mounts of important individuals were loudly announcing their presence across the square, forcing the less powerful space monsters to huddle in the space between them like packed sardines. Of course, they didn’t enjoy that. Jack saw multiple fights break out and end with the death of one party. The square floor was already awash with blood.

Tomorrow was the day of the Empty Star Auction, a centennial event held in Empty Star City. Several A-Grades had gathered, according to Jack’s information, so the entire city was in a festive mood. To further this excitement, the city officials had decided to publish a list with some of the auction’s high-end items a day early. That was right now.

A space monster which looked like a floating human mouth appeared over the central stage. It licked its lips. Then, its voice echoed over the square, passing over everything like a thunderclap.

“Greetings, everyone! Welcome to the Empty Star Auction’s item presentation!”

Its voice was terrifyingly loud. Some weaker space monsters bled from the ears and had to flee the square. The earth shook like an earthquake. Thankfully, all the buildings were constructed of sturdy materials, so they held—which wasn’t a coincidence.

Jack resisted the urge to clasp his ears. As annoying as the voice was, he was a space monster now—he couldn’t show a single scrap of weakness. He only made his tail swish loudly—he remained transformed into a Double Devil—to express his irritation.

“The Empty Star faction would like to especially welcome two esteemed guests,” the floating mouth continued. “Elder Puerto of the Great Silver faction, and Elder Crownbeast of the Fiend King faction. Hosting you is our great honor.”

The crowd went quiet. Everyone turned towards two godzilla-like monsters. Jack had noticed them before—they easily towered over everything else in the crowd—but hadn’t realized who rode them. Now, he knew. Two Elders, each from one of the Space Monster World’s overlord factions.

Elder Puerto was a humanoid, old-looking woman with a wrinkled face and long red hair. She stood quietly on top of her godzilla monster, which nobody dared to approach. Her aura blazed with the power of an early A-Grade.

Jack struggled to find Elder Crownbeast at first. It took him a moment to realize that the head of the massive beast had no one standing on it because the Elder was the godzilla-like beast. It easily towered a hundred feet into the sky, covered in hard gray scales and with a line of spikes cascading its back. Vertical irises split its eyes, which surveyed the crowd with cold indifference.

“These bros are crazy,” Brock whispered. Jack and Starhair nodded in agreement. The two Elders belonged to opposing factions, and one’s mount was from the same species as the other Elder. Basically, one was riding the other. If this wasn’t a deadly insult, Jack didn’t know what it could be.

Yet, Elder Crownbeast seemed unbothered.

“I will now proceed with naming some of our most precious items,” the floating mouth continued. “First up is a Crimson Orchid, tempered in the blood of hundreds of thousands of monsters!”

The crowd cheered. Jack had no idea what that was, and given that the floating mouth wasn’t using any props, he remained clueless. He cheered regardless.

“Next is the tail scale of a Cretan Fay.”

The crowd cheered again.

“The third item is…”

It kept going, Jack not recognizing any of the items. They sounded precious, but not too much, since none of the higher-level monsters seemed to be responding. The only exception was Jack, who’d tried to fit in during the cheers for the first item. Whoops.

It wasn’t until the sixth item that he recognized something.

“Our next item will be a late Autarch core,” the floating mouth said. It was the simplest name so far, yet the one which drew the most violent response. The square rocked from excitement. Even the two Elders of the overlord factions raised their heads.

Jack had to admit he was intrigued. The best core he’d consumed so far had been at the early A-Grade. A late A-Grade core… If it was compatible with him, just how many levels would it give him? Could it push him straight to the late B-Grade?

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

He only had thirty years before his duel with Elder Hero. Any items which could increase his strength in a short time were extremely important. He had to get this core.

As Jack considered that, however, he came to a sad realization. He had no money. The Space Monster World used monster cores as currency, and while he did have a couple from the journey here, there was no way he could compete with any of the high-rollers in such a massive auction.

“Feels like we’re back in the D-Grade,” Jack muttered. Brock laughed.

“Don’t worry, bro. There is more to life than money.”

“But I need money.”

“I don’t get the joke,” Starhair said, his voice warped by his Double Devil transformation. “D-Grade resources are well-priced for their level.”

Jack and Brock glanced at each other, then smirked and didn’t respond. If they used level-appropriate resources, they’d still be E-Grades. The D-Grade was when Jack had started his Life Stone business in the Cathedral to earn infinite money and accelerate his cultivation.

The floating mouth was still going. In the time it took Jack’s group to make some quippy remarks, it had already rattled off several items, none of which seemed particularly interesting or recognizable.

“For our nineteenth item,” the mouth continued, “we offer an incomplete Dao Manual recovered from Entropy Mountain. Its name is fractured, but it seems to contain the worlds “black hole.” Our experts believe it is an ancient, peak A-Grade, Space-Death Dao manual.”

Mild excitement came from the crowd. Incomplete Dao manuals weren’t an new concept. In the long history of the Space Monster World, there had been many outstanding monsters, most of which passed down their legacy in the form of Dao manuals—a device similar to the snow-globe items Jack had seen in the Black Hole World.

However, the Space Monster World was nowhere as peaceful. Inheritances and legacies were constantly lost. An incomplete manual was a manual damaged by the shockwaves of some battle, and their contents were often far too fractured to form any meaningful conclusions. Acquiring one and studying it was a gamble. They weren’t considered too valuable—the only reason this one made the cut for a high-end item was its possible peak A-Grade level, but that also meant it was thoroughly incomplete. Otherwise, only an idiot would sell it.

The two Elders of the overlord factions didn’t react to the name of this item. They had complete peak A-Grade inheritances at their factions—why would they waste time on an incomplete one? The rest of the crowd was equally uninterested.

But not Jack.

Black hole… Space-Death… he thought, eyes shining. This is…an opportunity!

Incomplete Dao manuals were generally useless. However, Jack already cultivated a very similar Dao. One of his two main pursuits at the moment was exactly the workings of a black hole. Even if the manual as a whole was unreadable, there had to be some intact parts. With a little bit of luck, he could use them to glean insights into the questions which troubled him!

Even better, this wouldn’t be too expensive an item. He might be able to get it!

The mouth kept naming items, but Jack wasn’t too interested. “Hey,” he said, using his understanding of gravity to pull a random space monster from the crowd into his open hand. It was humanoid, D-Grade, and scared shitless.

“Y-yes, Master,” it said.

“What prices do you think these items are going to fetch?” Jack asked it. He also isolated sound around them.

“I… I am not sure, Master.” The monster tried to gulp, but Jack’s grip around its throat made that difficult. Its voice came gargled. “For the cheapest of these items, maybe a few B-Grade cores would be enough… But for the most expensive, even a dozen early A-Grade cores might not make the cut!”

Jack’s eyes darkened. He let the monster drop, and it hastily scurried away through the crowd.

A few B-Grade cores… I’m poorer than I thought.

He didn’t even possess one of them. B-Grade monsters were rare, let alone A-Grade ones. It appeared that even the black hole-related incomplete manual would be hard to get… Especially since he only had one day.

How do I go about it? he wondered. He cupped his chin, looking over the rest of the crowd. Stealing it would be difficult with all these A-Grades. Could I kill a few B-Grades and take their cores?

This was the Space Monster World. Such things happened often, but not necessarily amongst high-level people. If he created too much trouble, he might get kicked out of the city—or accidentally start a war. He definitely didn’t need an overlord on his ass right now.

“And now, the last high-end item we present today,” the mouth said. “Something truly special…” Jack paused his train of thought and looked over—if this item had an intro, it was probably something interesting. The two Elders of the overlord faction perked up as well.

The mouth coughed once. “Two months ago, one of our Elders was exploring a hidden realm at the edge of the Inhospitable Zone. They almost lost their lives several times. Finally, however… They chanced into an incredible treasure. Something left behind for eons, the item which had inadvertently birthed that entire danger site. It was a corpse. The body had long degraded, but its core remained strong. It is this core we offer today. An Overlord-level core.”

The crowd fell silent for a moment. Then, all at once, they erupted. The square shook. It was pandaemonium. Even the two Elders were animated, laughing into the sky.

“This core will belong to the Fiend King faction!” Elder Crownbeast roared, his voice overwhelming the square. Elder Puerto, however, coldly laughed back.

“This is my faction’s territory, Crownbeast. If you think you can come here and run wild, think again!”

“This is an auction, Puerto. Only cores speak here. Let’s clash tomorrow, and see if you or I brought more!”

The red-haired old woman smiled. “I look forward to it.”

Jack was also shocked. Overlords were the space monster equivalent of Archons. It was the highest level of existence. The core of such a space monster was an unbelievably rare and precious commodity. If he got it, it would accelerate his cultivation by a hundred times!

Unfortunately, he was doomed to only watch, never touch it. He could never raise enough money by tomorrow. As for taking it by force, that was also impossible. Maybe he could take one of these Elders, but he wasn’t dumb enough to think he could overpower every A-Grade in Empty Star City at once. Even if he did, one of the two Overlords might come after him over such an item… And, after barely escaping Archon Summer Noon, Jack had deeply realized how inadequate his current strength was against an Archon. He wouldn’t make such enemies until he was ready to face them.

But he still wanted that damn core.

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