Path of Spirit (Disgardium Book #6): LitRPG Series, Dan Sugralinov [the reader ebook .TXT] 📗

the Arbiters were above even the gods in the hierarchy: they had the power to disincarnate any sentient, or to send him into Banishment, into the great nothing. That punishment was a nightmare for any player. There was no way to ‘wait out’ your sentence by just not logging into Dis. Only time spent actively in the game counted as time served — in the dark of a cosmic vacuum, with no feeling in your hands or legs, the interface fully disabled. And, worse, Banishment was placed on the owner himself; even deleting your character didn’t solve the problem. Banishment could last years.

Hinterleaf’s mouth was still open in amazement at the full assembly of the Celestial Arbitration.

“Why has the entire Arbitration appeared?” he said. “Is not a single Eye capable of ensuring that the agreement is kept?”

“It is seen: the fates of many sentients will be touched,” the chief Eye answered impassively. “Including the higher beings whom you call gods. Tracking the causal and consequential connections will require the full might of the Celestial Arbitration.”

The Arbiters’ AIs have just admitted that they’ll need all their processing power, Hinterleaf wrote to me in a direct message.

“That is correct,” the chief Arbiter said as if he’d seen the message, although that was impossible. Wasn’t it..?

The contract procedure went as usual. I added the clarification that the agreement covered not only me, but the entire Awoken clan and the Sleeping Gods. Nobody objected.

“We won’t complicate anything on our end,” Hinterleaf said. “We have a bunch of subsidiary clans, allied and partner clans, a few divine protectors… What if you accidentally hit someone? Let’s not give the Arbitration an excuse to banish our main ally.”

The Celestial Arbitration registered the agreement. The Arbiters began to disappear, but one remained. He floated over and hovered before me. Text flashed up:

Oaths that affect you have been registered!

 

Human Oliver, level 338 Chef, gnome Barry, level 340 Chef, and elf Nobu, level 346 Chef, have sworn to do you no harm through word, deed or inaction.

 

Registered on: April 29, 2075.

 

The message disappeared as soon as I finished reading it, along with the Eye. Hinterleaf and Pecheneg nodded in understanding. Apparently, they’d encountered this before.

“The Eye told you of some oath that affects you?” the Modus leader asked. “I see your fan base is growing! Ha-ha!”

I turned to him and said the first thing that came to mind: “No comment.”

“Of course, of course,” Hinterleaf nodded sagely. “You’re clearly very mature for your age. You know the value of information. And as for your fans, it is fully possible that another clan may be joining them today. The Travelers, as I mentioned earlier, will gladly join our secret alliance.”

“Alright. Another question… What do you know about the Travelers’ progress on Holdest?”

“They made progress?” The gnome feigned surprise. “If so, I know nothing of it. What do you need from them? Speak, don’t be shy.

The group chat flashed with questions from my concerned friend: was I alright? When was I coming back? The first bosses in the instance were down and my clanmates were waiting for me before they finished off the last one. I told them I’d be some time, then answered Hinterleaf, frozen in expectation:

“I want to know whether they have anything that helps with the frost debuff. Anything at all — food, potions, balms, gear, artifacts. You asked why I need the essence. I want to put an end the Destroying Plague. But to reach the Nucleus, I have to somehow beat that frost.”

The faces of my newly minted allies turned serious.

“I’ll talk to Horvac,” Hinterleaf promised, then suddenly offered me some sort of flask. “Take this, ally. It won’t save you from the frost, but it’ll make the desert seem like Perfetto.”

Heat Resistance Potion

 

Epic potion.

 

Use: grants 100% immunity to heat and burning sunlight.

 

Crafted by: Amra.

 

I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. I drank it right down, one excited thought in my head: Here I come, Grand Master Oyama, your new student!

“My pleasure,” Hinterleaf murmured.

“Oh, Nether, sorry,” I stumbled. “Thanks! Got a few more? For my…”

“Not on me, sorry,” the gnome spread his hands. “I’ll send you some in the mail. Now that we have all this figured out, I suggest we not waste any time. We need to share our information on Mogwai and his abilities.”

“Take us back to the castle, Scyth,” Pecheneg demanded. “Maybe it’s all the same to you, but we’re used to comfort. And I have a map back at HQ…”

 

 

Chapter 10. Surprise

THE FINAL BOSS of the instance on Kharinza, Uros the Lich, was not overjoyed to see me. He recognized me, grinned and called me a traitor right away. It reminded me of Shazz’s voice chasing me all around the island, rattling out the worms will eat you from within! Suppressing a momentary feeling of sympathy for the lonely lich, I took out my bow and entered the fray.

Bomber was tanking, taking barely any damage from the lich’s attacks. Patrick and Irita wailed on Uros from the sides, dealing most of the damage. Irita cut a fine figure with her legendary morningstar, taken from the preventer loot. Crawler cast elemental shields on our low-level friends, and Infect inspired them with his war chants. There wasn’t much point in all this, but Trixie, flailing around in fury, was leveling up his two-handed axe skill in record time. The dwarf had a huge choice of weaponry, and I think he chose the axe because it was so similar to a hoe.

We let Uros live for five minutes, but when Hinterleaf messaged me, I thought better of it and ran to the boss, sent him back to wait for his next life in the lair of the Destroying Plague. Maybe he’d have