Atlas Rising a LitRPG gaming adventure by Blake Severson (top 10 books of all time .txt) 📗

good pace and didn’t tire. Three hours of near full speed running brought them to a massive wall of stone. The cliff top was over a hundred feet high and loomed over them, casting its shadow across the landscape. Most of the terrain was grassland with the occasional scattered tree.

Standing in the shadow of the monstrosity, Stomper slowed to a walk and looked around the area. Atlas couldn’t figure out what he was looking for. Originally he thought the man was trying to figure out where we were so we could find this dungeon, but then he remembered the minimap and knew that was foolish. Surely the guy had the location marked on his map.

“Something wrong?” Atlas asked.

Stomper swung his head toward Atlas, “Stay as quiet as you can. Someone else is out here looking for the location.”

Atlas nodded and walked over to the warrior. He gestured toward the ground, and Atlas could vaguely make out footprints in the crushed grass. The toes of the feet pointed toward the west, and Atlas followed them for a dozen yards before Stomper stopped him.

“They are headed the wrong way. We don’t want to follow them.”

Atlas turned to the group and saw them moving the other direction. He walked behind and kept his eyes on the surrounding area. They followed the rock wall until Stomper stopped and scanned their surroundings again.

“So, what is in this dungeon?” Atlas whispered to Shade.

“Don’t really know. We only got into the first part and died. Oddly, it was a similar encounter to the trial we did with you. Just a mad rush of mobs.”

“Then how do you know it’s a secret location? You didn’t make it far enough to find anything.”

“You’ll know as soon as we walk in,” the rogue said with a wink.

Stomper ceased his scan and walked to the cliff face. He felt along the edge of a large boulder for a few seconds before looking at the rest of the group and nodding. A soft click sounded and the stone opened up like a doorway. The group shuffled through and he closed it behind him as he entered. As soon as the door clicked shut, a message appeared.

You’ve discovered a hidden location! You found Secret Dungeon *#&$*%&#.

What the hell?

“Uh, is there something wrong with the game?” Atlas asked quietly.

“Saw the message, huh? Yeah, that’s how we knew this place was something special. We just needed a healer to get through. I heard Shade tell you we failed before, but we should be fine with you here,” Stomper told him.

Instead of pestering the guys with more questions they probably wouldn’t have the answers to, he just lifted his staff to a ready position and followed behind.

A stone tunnel was the only path, but there was an ambient light to the place. The odd thing was, there was nothing that showed where the light came from. It almost looked like the soft yellow glow of old incandescent lights back home.

The rest of the party all drew their weapons as they neared the end of the small tunnel. Atlas could see a larger cavern ahead of them through the strange lighting. Just before stepping into the open space, Stomper turned around and looked directly at Atlas.

“This is going to be a strange fight. I want to warn you now because the creatures are both funny and terrifying, assuming the same ones show up. We really don’t know. Last time we tried this, chickens swarmed us.”

“Chickens? Do I need to throw on my green woodland garb and grab a Hylian shield or something?”

Shade snickered at that but Stomper only smiled and shook his head.

“If only it were so simple. It was a large group of chickens, but they are also six feet tall with blades on their legs and wings.”

“Well, that’s terrifying,” Atlas agreed with a nod.

“That’s why I wanted to warn you. It was pretty comical at first when we saw them last time until we noticed the blades and they swarmed us. Even then we almost beat them. Now, let’s get this party started.”

The group rushed forward into the open area and they formed a loose circle around Atlas. Shade stood on the side near the entrance they’d just come from and quickly vanished into stealth. Loud clucking noises echoed off the stone walls and sent chills down Atlas’ spine. When the first one came into sight, he couldn’t help but agree with Stomper’s assessment.

The creatures were both terrifying and hilarious. Six feet tall white chickens with dark red combs appeared in front of them, emerging from three doorways on the far wall. Light reflected off of metal blades on their feet and from the edges of their wings. As they came closer, Atlas noticed their beaks were serrated on the edge. A quick inspection of them made him chuckle. Fighting Cocks - Level 19.

Yep, someone did that on purpose.

He got little time to reflect on that as they crowed in unison and charged. Stomper rushed forward to intercept them with Carhein behind him on his left. His shield met the beak of the first chicken and a crunch echoed through the space.

The fight quickly devolved into craziness. Stomper took turns slamming shields into chickens and slicing with his sword. Carhein was playing things much safer and sticking to the warrior’s flank while reaching around the edge of the shield to bury an axe in a neck or shoulder as the opportunity presented itself.

Atlas appreciated his careful approach because it meant he could focus on healing Stomper and not trying to work on multiple people. He cast Harmony to get a rolling heal over time started on the warrior.

You healed FaceStomper55 for 17 HP with Harmony.

Stomper had incredible skill as a tank and did a marvelous job at deflecting most of the damage aimed for him. Naturally little slices and cuts made it through his defense, but he was also fighting multiple enemies at once. It was almost impossible to fight that many and not take