A Black Market LitRPG

“The Oracle has been with us since the beginning of time,” Sahusa explained as he put on the dead hobgoblin guards’ gear, having healed up to full with another of Kyle’s health potions. “But Osir is no easy foe; he is one of the strongest hobgoblin there is, which is how he maintains his position as leader of the Howling Wind Tribe. In order to defeat him-“

Another group of patrolling guards spotted Sahusa and Kyle in the open, prompting Kyle to charge them without hesitation, easily dodging their swords and killing them with multiple strikes to the head and body.

“Where is the Oracle?” Kyle wiped the blood splatter off his cheek, walking back to Sahusa. The former Goblin King gulped internally as he watched Kyle approach him, his mind finally comprehending how strong Kyle was.

“I need to go the armoury to pick up my armour set first,” Sahusa explained. “This way, I can also assist you… a little.”

“Fine by me.” Kyle nodded. He wouldn’t say no to some more arctech armour. Perhaps he would find something that could help him even more.

Kyle finished off the crippled guide in the prison in one clean swing before moving quickly through the palace with Sahusa as the guide. Sahusa was half-expecting Kyle to meet up with another group of humans, but as they neared the armoury, he did not see any others there. Weird, did he enter the palace alone?

The armoury was unprotected, completely empty. All of the weapons and armour had already been taken and distributed among the rebel soldiers. Sahusa was crestfallen at the disappearance of his armour set. “Osir seems to have taken everything of worth in here.”

“Then you stay put here. Tell me the way to reach the Oracle.”

“No, I’ll go with you. I can handle my own.”

“No.” Kyle gripped Sahusa’s shoulder tightly, forcing him down onto the ground. “If you don’t stay here, I’ll tie you up. I can’t have you dying on me.” Kyle did not want a liability tagging along with him – the death of the former king would make it even harder to consolidate the area with legitimacy.

Sahusa tried to get up, grabbing Kyle’s wrist. However, he did not have enough strength to overpower Kyle, realising how weak he was compared to Kyle. “Fine, I’ll stay hidden here. The Oracle stays in a grand cave far behind the palace. Simply head further into the mountain, and you will find it. I doubt Osir managed to make it past the entrance.”

Kyle nodded, barricading the armoury to make sure they couldn’t easily reach the former king. He sprinted through the palace in a general direction, killing a few more hobgoblin guards along the way.

Soon, he reached the end of the palace, with the cavern extending further in. As he ran further in, he noticed the bodies of hobgoblin warriors fallen onto the ground, their chests gouged out by a searing wound that went straight through their hearts.

Kyle instantly recognised the type of wound, having seen it far too often in the Galactic Era. Particle beam guns? They exist here?!

He was not too surprised at the fact that Galactic Era technology was present in this world. He had already seen an ancient exosuit spine as well as a personal energy shield from the Ilysian Punks. But he did not expect such technology to be hidden under the primitive goblins.

Kyle had been trying to pin down what was the history behind the world that he was in, and how he had awoken here. Plenty of theories swarmed in his head, but the existence of the particle guns forced him to reconsider the validity of most of them.

More and more goblin corpses were appearing with increasing frequency, leading up to a large broken metal door. Kyle noticed that there were mechanical turret stands left in the ground, apparently ripped out by something.

The door was recognizably of Galactic Era technology, but Kyle could see a few signs that it was not the same level of technology that he was used to. The Galactic Era did not imply that every single sector in the galaxy had the same level of technology, with the time taken to perform FTL travel from the center of the galaxy to the rim being more than ten years.

This led to the stunted growth of technology in the sectors on the outskirts, which was where Kyle’s criminal empire used to thrive, far away from the reaches of the Council.

As such, technology grades in the Galactic Era was split between ‘classes’, with Kyle’s previous domain being C-Class. The difference in exotic material concentration also inhibited technology adoption – even if a C-Class force knew how to make a B-Class technology, it did not mean that they had the materials to do so.

The turrets and door were of A-Class technology, two grades above what Kyle knew. The door was also far too big to be an entry point of a crashed ship.

Kyle entered the doors, noticing a large lab-like hallway, except the walls were dark blue and the ceiling was immeasurably high. It felt more like a temple of sorts, with a single delineated path running down through the middle.

Countless bodies of robotic drones were smashed and broken apart, some entangled with dead hobgoblins who fought to the end. It was clear that Osir had forced his way in with his forces, utilising the king’s armoury.

Installation 12? Kyle became even more curious. He had never had a system message for entering a new area before, not even when he entered the Culdao Peaks area or different parts of Raktor.

For the System to react like this to such an area, it seems like it could hold the answers as to what exactly is the holographic system interface that Kyle has.

He picked up the pace, moving through the large hallway. However, he immediately spotted something that forced him to stop and deviate, running towards the wall.

Kyle leaned down next to a deformed skeleton, one that had two horns jutting out of its skull. However, it was wearing a completely destroyed exosuit, the particle beam rifle in its hand completely shattered by what seemed to be a bullet.

It was not the only monster skeleton piled up along the side, with multiple different types of skeletons of varying shapes, sizes and form. Only a few were actually human, and they bore a different type of exosuit compared to the monster skeletons.

Kyle was not an expert in determining the time of death, but for the exosuit to have decayed this badly over time indicated it could have been more than a thousand years or so. The time scale gave his heart a sinking feeling, the possibility that whatever he knew of the Galactic Era could have been long gone by now.

He tried to salvage some equipment, but all the working guns and weapons were already taken, no doubt by Osir’s forces. This is bad – if they are armed with particle beam rifles…

Kyle decided not to move ahead any further, quickly salvaging as much as he could find, hoping that the hobgoblins did not take everything. Soon, his keen eyes managed to find a working personal energy shield, though the battery strength was degraded over time. Picking up the energy shield, the system surprisingly did not give him any indication of what the item was, and it’s statistics. Weird; it’s getting even weirder now…

[Warning: 10% charge left. Proceed to the nearest employee charging station.]

Kyle did not complain too much, equipping the personal energy shield to his body, which latched itself onto its back, generating a skin-layer forcefield around his body. This should be good enough unless I have to fight the automated defence turrets. He chuckled slightly as he continued down the hallway.

He had spent the majority of his criminal empire attempting to hustle for highly controlled B-Class technology, yet here he was, wearing an A-class personal energy shield.

As he approached the end of the hallway, a large hissing sound was heard as the pneumatic doors on the end opened to reveal five hobgoblin guards exiting the hallway.

Kyle noted that they still had their weapons sheathed, taking advantage of surprise to rush at the hobgoblins, firing his entire arctech handgun clip at two of them, killing them instantly.

One of them roared, but none of them had the time to react as Kyle charged them down, closing the gap in four short leaps, and pummeling the hobgoblin.

The hobgoblin roared just as Kyle sank his fist into its face, crushing the entire skull in one fell swoop. A sword swing came in too fast for Kyle to react to, causing the A-class personal energy shield to flare up and deflect the sword.

[Warning: 5% left. Proceed to the nearest employee charging station immediately.]

Kyle grunted as he swivelled to grab the attacking hobgoblin by the neck, snapping it with his grip and flinging him aside as the third hobgoblin stabbed towards him, forcing him to dodge and take a step back before speed reloading his handgun.

The final hobgoblin fell, the point defence vambrace unable to react at such close range. Kyle noticed that there wasn’t any system messages for him killing the hobgoblin as well.

Determined now to find out the truth, he headed past the open pneumatic doors, entering a large circular chamber where a lone hobgoblin was in the middle, surrounded by numbered doors all along the circumference. Each of the doors had a countdown clock over them, with thirty seconds left.

The hobgoblin was the largest he had seen yet, towering at nearly 2.4 meters in height. It roared as it slammed the command console in front of it, the orange holographic interface illuminating his green muscles.

The large hobgoblin roared to the console.

[Error: Voice Pattern not recognised. Please repeat the question. Note: Due to the destruction of defensive systems, following Protocol 138A, all relevant data has been erased from the databanks.]

The large hobgoblin gripped the command console, ripping it off its stands and the connected wires, causing it to fray as the console was tossed to the side.

The large hobgoblin glanced at Kyle entering the chamber, his eyes widening.

“I take it that you’re Osir.” Kyle brandished his handgun, aiming it right at Osir and firing three shots. Instead of hitting Osir, a personal energy shield on Osir glowed purple, blocking the shots and dissipating them.

Osir barely flinched, instead glancing towards the countdown clock and grinning The doors around the chambers hissed as residual green gas began to waft out, with nearly two dozen hobgoblins stepping out of their individual chambers, all clearly improved hobgoblins armed with swords and shields.