The Fourth Secret: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Divine Apostasy Book 4) by A. Kay (best fiction novels of all time .txt) 📗

forehead and wondered what was wrong. Rami’s findings had confirmed his own suspicions. He knew this was right. But how could they communicate with Shelly? Maybe if Sift could show Shelly on his map, the turtle would understand.

Rami, there must be a spell or ability in the Commander Sub Class that can form groups. Can you find it for me, please?

A picture of five people appeared in Ruwen’s head. They all stood facing a castle in ruins, and the man in front pointed toward the castle with his sword. Ruwen concentrated on the picture, and it slowly dissolved away. He felt a tension in his mind and then what felt like a pop. Opening his mouth wide, he relieved the pressure on his ears and read the new notification.

Ping!

You have learned the Ability Ringleader

Ability: Ringleader

Level: 1

Class: Fighter

Sub Class: Commander

Effect: Create one five-member group per ability level.

Ruwen closed the notification and focused on Sift while holding the five-person symbol in his mind. Sift frowned and then looked at Ruwen. A moment later, Sift’s portrait appeared on the right side of Ruwen’s vision as Sift accepted the group invitation.

Ruwen opened his map, found the mine, and then willed the location to Sift.

“Open your map,” Ruwen said.

Sift had the basic interface Ruwen had grown up with. Sift would be stuck with that interface his entire life since he refused to Ascend, but it had the essential things, including a map.

“Do you have the location?” Ruwen asked.

“Yeah, but how did you do that?” Sift asked.

Ruwen waved the question away. “I’ll explain later. Focus on Shelly, our group, and that location. Can you hold that much in your head at once?”

“Ha ha ha, you’re so funny. I haven’t had a chance to check this lake out. Shelly better not get eaten by a toad or something.”

“I don’t think anything can harm that turtle. Just do what I asked.”

“Fine. I am. Just admit that—”

The water roiled thirty feet from shore. Like an island emerging from the sea, a shell appeared. It kept growing as a giant turtle rose from the water. The women both gasped, and Sift was blessedly silent for once.

“Amazing,” Tremine said.

When the head finally appeared, Ruwen guessed the turtle was three hundred feet long.

“Shelly?” Sift whispered.

“Flip my wagon,” Bliz said.

Shelly glided across the water toward them, covering the thirty feet in just a blink. When she reached the shore, she turned so her side faced them. Where her top and bottom shells met, just behind the front leg, a square opening was visible.

It looked like a doorway.

Chapter 10

Sift walked up to Shelly as she put her head on the ground. He rubbed the side of her neck, and Shelly closed her eyes.

“Check out that opening,” Ruwen said.

Sift turned. “How do we get up there?”

Ruwen studied Shelly, and only one way made sense. The turtle’s leg looked almost like a ramp to the door.

“Walk up the leg,” Ruwen said.

Sift frowned and turned back to Shelly. “If this hurts you, smash the sour-looking one.”

“He’s joking, Shelly,” Ruwen said a little too loudly. If Shelly was anything like Lir, Ruwen could easily get killed.

Sift carefully stepped onto Shelly’s flipper and then walked up the leg. The folds in the turtle’s skin acted like stairs and Sift made good time. He paused at the dark doorway seventy-five feet above the beach and then disappeared through it.

The doorway turned from black to white, and Ruwen stepped forward to help Sift, only to realize an internal light had come on inside Shelly, and nothing terrible had happened. Half a minute later, Sift reappeared.

Sift waved his hand and shouted down to them. “Come look at this.”

Everyone started for the flipper, but Ruwen hung back. He yelled up at Sift. “I’ll go later. If she senses the entire group inside, she might take off.”

“What do you mean take off?” Sift asked.

“Oh, that’s the other secret. Shelly can fly.”

“What?” Sift asked and almost fell out of the door.

“Who knows what else she can do,” Ruwen said. “But a flying turtle ship is one.”

As everyone began their climb, Ruwen sat in the sand to wait. He’d already gone through all the Fighter abilities and spells the amulet had given him, but he didn’t know what the higher levels offered.

Ruwen ran a query against the bookcase Rami had provided him, this time for information on the Fighter Class. He’d already picked the Commander Sub Class and the Warlord Specialization, and he added that to the criteria. Hopefully, he could find some books that described the higher level Fighter spells and abilities.

The query returned with hundreds of results. It looked like Fighters were a popular subject. Since Fighters had so many Sub Classes, it made sense that there were a lot of books. The first book Ruwen took from the bookshelf had what he needed.

At level six, Ruwen could invest in the Fighter ability Demoralize.

Ability: Demoralize

Effect: Shout decreases enemies damage by 10% per ability level by 10ft per Ability Level for 2 seconds per ability level.

At level eight, Ruwen had this option.

Ability: Flurry

Effect: Attack target with multiple blows to interrupt spell casting. Target unable to cast spells for 1 second per ability level.

The abilities were decent, but Ruwen already knew he didn’t have enough ability points to take everything. He skipped to the section on the Commander Sub Class. There were five abilities listed.

Ability: Ringleader

Effect: Create a five-member group per ability level.

Ability: Fearless Leader

Effect: Increase the Health Points of everyone under your command by 10% per ability level.

Ability: Chat

Effect: Telepathy between group members. Each ability level doubles the distance group members can be separated.

Ability: Draft

Effect: Add 5 members to all groups (excluding Primary) per ability level. Merge and resize groups (excluding Primary) in each layer, but not between layers.

Ability: Battlefield Promotion

Effect: Grant one member from each group the ability to create their own group. Each ability level extends this power to another layer.

Ruwen had already taken Ringleader, but the other abilities looked great as well. Chat would allow the group to communicate without