The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series, Dan Sugralinov [the read aloud family TXT] 📗

Meditation level increased: +1. Current level: 2.

Spirit: +20. Total: 120.

Inspired by the level-up, I concentrated my attention again. A few deep breaths took me so deep into the trance that even the interface paled to almost complete transparency.

The ‘long hours’ to the next skill level turned into long minutes. It took almost an hour to get it, but it was worth it.

Meditation level increased: +1. Current level: 3.

Spirit: +30. Total: 150.

The bonus to spirit increased with each level of Meditation! That happy discovery nearly broke my trance.

Then time started to fly by unnoticed — I saw nothing, not even the logs, just the web of channels and the core of my spirit, which had grown ever so slightly. It was like I dissolved into space, became a part of it, observing the birth of tiny particles of spirit within my core and their calming movement through the channels. I began to see the meaning in the fine threads. I saw that the particles of spirit were crowded. They wanted to break free, but the laws of creation allowed them to move only within this closed chain, and the narrowness of the channels prevented them from picking up speed. Like people clustering in a narrow street where they could only just pass through one at a time. Understanding came — my total spirit was defined by both the size of the core and the width of the channels, and the broader they were, the greater my capabilities…

A warning popped up and knocked me out of my trance:

Contestant! The first day of the Demonic Games nears its end!

To avoid character death, it is recommended that you leave enemy territory.

Leaving Cursed Chasm in: 09:59… 09:58…

Such bad timing! When my meditation ended, the interface reappeared. The system messages on my progress came up:

Meditation level increased: +1. Current level: 4.

Spirit: +40. Total: 190.

Meditation level increased: +1. Current level: 5.

By meditating, you now speed up your spirit restoration by 20%.

Spirit: +50. Total: 240.

It was pointless meditating further. The interrupted trance had reset the progress bar. That must be why Oyama was so angry when I set off Armageddon in the Lakharian Desert and knocked him out of the astral plane — the higher the skill level, the more time required to level up.

Ghastly Howl, my most useful ability for the time being, was leveling up successfully. I’d been using it whenever it came off cooldown:

Ghastly Howl level increased: +1. Current level: 18.

The quit countdown was coming to an end. There were a few seconds left, in which I tried to test out Clarity. Now I had enough spirit to not only activate the skill, but also to channel it for a second.

Entering Clarity, it was as if time itself slowed down. Outside sound stopped coming in and I heard only myself, surrendering to the rush in my ears. My heart thundered, blood rushed through swelling veins, my vision suddenly caught incredible detail. The smoke rising from a red-hot crack in the ground froze.

My basic Hammerfist cost no spirit and cooled down instantly. I dealt nine strikes before Clarity faded. Shame I had nobody to hit. I wanted to see what it was like to be able to foresee the enemy’s movements.

The strategy I’d thought up the previous night was built on assumptions; I hadn’t yet tested the skills from Oyama, but now I was starting to get some… yep, some clarity. The Hammerfist with Rindzin’s Ghostly Talon took 2% of Alpha Ryukitsu’s health — and it was a good thing the Talon didn’t count as a weapon, but as a part of me, which meant it fit into the mechanics of Unarmed Combat. So I needed an amount of spirit that would let me kill a boss before Clarity ran out. Fifty Hammerfists would take around five to six seconds. I’d have to level up Meditation…

The first day of the Demonic Games is over!

…a little longer. I finished the thought after I was back in reality. It took a few seconds for my brain to adapt and recognize that I was back. The intragel slid off me and I saw Kerry’s blurry figure through the darkened doors of the pod.

She gave me my clothes and turned around. While I got dressed, my assistant started jabbering at the wall:

“I watched you every second! That start made the whole internet go crazy! Even the ones who were against you at first started carefully saying that it was unfair of the others to gang up on you and not give you a chance to prove yourself in the games. As one viewer put it, he was discouraged both by the behavior of the other contestants and your own. He feels like he was deprived of a good show!”

“Bread and circuses,” I chuckled, remembering Ian’s words. “So I let them down, is that it?”

“By spending almost the entire day at the bottom of the Pitfall? Oh, yeah! What were you doing down there anyway? At first I thought you were just recovering your health, but then…”

“What, don’t the viewers see the players’ logs?”

“Nobody does! All the contestants’ stats and profiles are blocked. There were issues with streaming them. The data always ends up online, then contestants study their opponents’ stats… Basically, no, nobody knows what you were doing down there except Octius and a few of his administrators. Not even I know.”

“Well, then I won’t tell you either.”

“Exactly right!” Kerry said encouragingly for some reason, then cocked her head to one side and gave me a barely noticeable nod.

“Are we live even in here?” I asked.

“Yep. And in your room too. Alliances and conspiracies begin in private rooms. So…”

“Got