Path of Spirit (Disgardium Book #6): LitRPG Series by Dan Sugralinov (best free e reader .txt) 📗

tricks, and let his grandson try it. You can swing a pickaxe, right, Veratrix? he asked. Not yet understanding what this all meant, Trixie joyfully agreed.

The world that opened up to him was a thousand times more exciting than the real one. Even just the food in Dis was a miracle! It was there that Trixie, spending his bonus gold piece for registering, first tried real meat — insofar, of course, as virtual meat could be called real. Snowstorm claimed that their capsules provided one-hundred-percent identical tastes and smells, so an experience had there should be the same as the real thing.

The neighbors helped the little hunchback sign up for work at the same company where most of Cali Bottom worked. In a few years, they had fully exhausted the mine, after which the company sent them to the Olton Quarries.

The new mining spot was in the Tristad sandbox, which was a great disappointment at first to Trixie and the other miners due to the lack of adult entertainment. However, the market soon satisfied the demand: a House of Pleasure appeared in the town, and alcohol began to be sold at the local tavern — the AI managing the city had adapted. The women were too expensive, but the alcohol at least helped to brighten up gray nights after a shift.

A year and a half before, Trixie had gotten a strange letter. He could read, but the letter was written in a language he didn’t understand. Although the words had meaning on their own, the sentences fell apart in the dwarf’s head. Clayton helped him understand, explaining that Snowstorm was inviting non-citizen Veratrix Ribeiro Furtado to enter the experimental HCMO program.

“You’ll control a mob, Trixie, and hide that you’re a person,” Andrew explained. “And they promise to pay you twice as much as you’re getting now. But you can’t tell anyone about it, got it?”

Trixie heard ‘twice as much’ and broke into a grin, nodded and started repeating in trembling tones:

“Trixie got it! Trixie make more money! Got it! More!”

By chance or design, Trixie’s character, a Brainless Zombie, ended up in the instance called Crypt of the Temple of Nergal the Radiant, controlled by none other than Andrew. Clayton had gotten the job as the dungeon’s boss — Dargo the Cursed Lich.

Then he had met Alex Sheppard — first in the dungeon, then in real life, on a roof in Cali Bottom. That same day, Andrew took his last flight out the window, and Trixie’s new life soon started — he and a number of other non-citizens began working for the Awoken.

* * *

Trixie remembered his night spent in the district of forbidden pleasure for the rest of his life. He had spent the preceding day changing his craft and strolling through Darant with Scyth, but even that adventure paled in comparison to what he had experienced after dusk.

As soon as Scyth left him alone, the little man had rushed there, to the red lights behind a translucent veil. Some of Trixie’s acquaintances had been there, and their tales of what went on inside reddened his ears and clouded his eyes. He had never dreamed of seeing it all with his own eyes, but the clan raised Trixie’s status by making him a gardener.

The system was satisfied that Trixie was not underage and was allowed to visit the district. He went through the veil almost instantly. All his organs rejoiced with the glut of colors, smells, sounds. To the little man, it seemed as if the hands of thousands of tiny fairies caressed him — his skin raised in goosebumps, his breath caught.

Stunned, he stood not knowing where to go or what to look at. The lights of adverts, colorful images of beautiful naked women of all races, gambling dens, watering holes and restaurants, pet battles, ‘all-inclusive’ private rooms — his eyes darted back and forth and his money burnt a hole in his pockets.

An ornately dressed troll drew Trixie’s attention, muscular, broad-shouldered, but in a skirt and high heels. “How’s it going, bro?” Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that the troll was female. “First time in the district?”

“Yep,” the dwarf grinned and nodded. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh…”

“Uh-huh, got it.” The troll woman smiled too and winked, batting her long thick eyelashes. “Got cash?”

“Uh-huh,” Trixie nodded even more emphatically.

“Wanna fly away?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then take a look, bro.” A magical display unfurled before Trixie. “The forbidden achievements of culinary confectioners and alchemists! Made in Kinema! Fresh! Lucky Toffees, Flyaway Lollipops, Sweet Joy, Chocolate High… The toffees are so strong, you’ll be out of your mind with happiness, if you know what I mean. The lollipops only work while you suck them, but you won’t get a buzz like it anywhere else… Woah, woah!”

Trixie reached out for some candies in a red packet, but the candy saleswoman’s hand darted out to stop him.

“Not so fast,” she shook her head. “Cash first. A hundred for one, one-fifty for two.”

Even Trixie had enough sense to know that Scyth wouldn’t be overjoyed at that expense. In the old times, the little hunchback would have had to work ten weeks for that kind of money. The friendly smile slid off his face, and a second later he exploded with multi-story swearwords in the finest tradition of Cali Bottom. The offended troll woman repaid him in kind. The rules of the district prevented her from laying hands, on punishment of permanent exile and a ban on visiting.

This encounter with the pusher of forbidden confections jolted Trixie out of his initial shock, and now he stopped in at a bar to look around, listen to the people and decide where to go next.

The establishment was unusual. A little too unusual, even. Girls writhed and swung their hips enticingly on something like a stage. There were elf girls, gnome girls, fluttering fairies. A half-naked busty brunette