A Black Market LitRPG

Dungeon? Kyle had never seen such a system message before – not even when he entered the Oracle lab in the goblin kingdom at Culdao Peaks.

“Boss?” Feldon stared warily at Kyle. “Are you feeling better now?”

“I’m fine.” Kyle knew that he wasn’t.

He hasn’t gotten a system message yet that the debuffs have been removed. The Debilitating Poison and Agent Black were still active in his system. He did not know the duration of the debuffs either, unsure if they would last forever. Agent Black was subsidising, but the Debilitating Poison was not, the same sluggish feeling still plaguing his body.

Furthermore, Kyle’s entire action plan had just collapsed on itself, with the deadly chemical weapon now sweeping across the catacombs. He had half-expected such an incident to occur after interrogating Lady Yona and finding out about the full-scale of Nest but never anticipated such a fast reaction.

The capture of Lady Yona and the military buildup on the border must have pushed their limits… Kyle did plan for evacuation, marking out bases that were much further away from the city centre, the old tunnels leading far away. However, he was unsure if he could even get out of wherever this was to regroup his forces.

“You don’t look fine.” Feldon noticed the pained expression on Kyle’s face.

“Don’t worry about me – let’s focus on getting out of here and regrouping everyone.”

“Only one direction to head in.”

Kyle nodded, walking slowly and conserving his energy as his body continued to suffer minor damage from Agent Black, each step’s echo bouncing off the small passageway. He clenched his fist in anger as he thought about how all his hardwork had just been swept away, rage building slowly within him. Feldon did not say anything more, himself also solemn about his men dying.

Kyle hated when things did not go his way. Usually, he would have a way to recover from such a setback, but this one was truly far beyond what he had expected and not accounted for. Fuck! The same hatred burned within him as it did when he first woke up in Raktor, fresh from the betrayal in his former life.

I’ve been far too complacent. Thinking everything would go my way in a low-tech world. Kyle took a deep breath, the stabbing pain from the poisons still coursing through him. He knew being angry would have close to no effect - what he needed was to channel all of this energy into action, not resentment or regret. I must do better next time.

Kyle began to contemplate how on earth did this outcome even come to be. He knew that Nox was not a transcendent, nor was he a system user - Nox was utilizing arctech engravings externally rather than called from within. His armour was top of the line in terms of functionality, something Kyle envisioned for himself in the near future.Yet Nox’s armour went against the technological development of this world.

Nest has far too much Galactic Era technology and concepts… He did not truly believe when Lady Yona mentioned that Nest had transcendents leading them, assuming that she must have seen it wrongly or used another term for it.

However, now that he had seen how much technology Nest had in control, he was much more inclined to believe Lady Yona was not mistaken.

Transcendents were enhanced humans in the Galactic Era – but not in a conventional scientific way, such as artificial combat enhancements or cybernetic implants. Instead, they were effectively superhumans, with abilities integrated into their body through natural training.

Each transcendent was attuned to a unique exotic material found in the galaxy, obtaining the properties of the exotics and further bending them to their will.

It was hard to find them – less than a billion of them existed when Kyle was still alive in the Galactic Era. It was immensely difficult to become transcendent, requiring dedication and training over multiple decades. Not even S-Class states could artificially create them, despite their advancements in genetics.

Now that Kyle consider it more carefully, the way that humans and goblins internalised arcia energy here seemed to border on transcendence. If I follow the assumption that arcite itself is an exotic material, does that mean that nearly everyone on this planet is a fledgling transcendent?

Kyle could feel the truth of his resurrection as well as the history of the planet nearly at his fingertips. He just needed one more clue to pick a correct theory. As of now, there was still nothing concrete connecting all of the different threads that were hanging in front of him.

A System that physically engraves arcia lines into the body, a research lab dedicated to improving the goblin physique, Galactic Era tech from ruins, and now a dungeon. What made it even more confusing was that the carvings on the wall were not of human make. Why are they here?

The luminous green gemstones illuminated their path as they walked slowly. They travelled for what felt like an hour, though it was hard to tell the time when underground. It felt like an eternity before the passage began to slope downwards at a gradual pace, causing Feldon to worry slightly.

“I don’t think this is going to lead us out; maybe we could use the arctech pickaxe to dig our way out.”

“We’ll die of exhaustion first if we do that. Keep moving.” Kyle couldn’t tell Feldon that this was a dungeon, which meant that there was clearly something of value within. Naturally, Kyle was not about to leave until he found out what it was. It should give me the final clue as to what exactly this planet is.

As they walked further, the sound of skittering and mechanical limbs could be heard, slowly increasing in intensity. Kyle got Feldon to pause before taking stock of what they had on hand. “We’re not alone down here. You still got a handgun with you?”

“What? Yes, I do.” Feldon became warier as he squinted his eyes, staring further down the passage.

“Okay. How many pellets do you have?”

“Three magazines. What about you?”

“I don’t have one – I dropped my rifle in the workshop area. Only got this.” Kyle checked the arctech pickaxe he was using, never really fully inspecting it while he was escaping the workshop.

“Better than nothing, I guess.”

“Might not be enough for what we’re about to face.”

“Huh?”

“Stay behind me, and don’t panic. Got it?”

Feldon nodded. With Kyle taking the lead, the duo moved as silently as they could, approaching the skittering sound slowly.

To their surprise, there was a dim yellow light shining out through a doorway, spilling out into the passageway. Kyle held his hand up and motioned for Feldon to stay behind while he crept up to the edge of the doorway before peeking inside.

What the fuck?! Kyle wasn’t usually astonished, but this time, the sight truly left him utterly confused. The room was a storage area, with shelves lined up as though it was a supermarket. However, nearly all of the goods that were meant to be displayed were already missing, with only a few remnants being left behind. Kyle spotted a few metal tins of preserved food rations along with ample packs of water. The dim yellow light was from a different gemstone, providing the bare minimum of light needed to see.

He gingerly stepped into the room, keeping an eye out for any traps. For all he knew, this could be a trial of the dungeon, one that was aiming at using the rations to lure him.

“Is it clear? Can I come in?”

“Not yet, wait.” Kyle continued to examine every nook and cranny, ensuring that there was no one else there. As he took another step forward, there was a clanging metal sound, causing Kyle to freeze up immediately and hold his pickaxe at the ready, prepared for anything.

Instead, it was an old rusted piece of metal armour, fallen off from a skeleton body. Kyle bent down to pick up the armour, noticing that it was of a similar make to that of the exosuits that he had found in the Oracle’s lab. Is the dungeon the work of the same A-Class state, or perhaps another one?

He noted the skeleton’s structure to be humanoid yet with clear signs of cybernetic tampering, with a few bones having long spoiled implants inside. The skeleton had a nerval jack implanted into the spine as well, but it was no longer usable either, rusted and degraded over time.

Kyle took a few more minutes to scan the storage room, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He noticed the walls were heavily disfigured, with multiple layers of graffiti over it, though it was barely visible under the dim light.

“Clear, you can come in.”

Feldon stepped in and was amazed at the layout too. “What the hell is this, a store of some sort?”

“I don’t know, but what’s more important is that we have food and water now. Let’s rest for a bit first.”

Kyle grabbed a can of the rations off the shelves, noticing that it was a tin of kaya butter. Weird. I don’t recall anyone in Raktor or Versia eating kaya…

“What’s that?”

“Something nice. You should try it next time when we get back to the surface.” Kyle tossed the tin to Feldon.

“Ka-ya… what? Isn’t this from Proco?”

“Proco?”

“It’s a country on the other side of the Yual Dominion – maybe you’ve never heard about it before because it’s so far, but my granddad used to be from there. Ex-wife too.”

“Interesting. What’s it like?”

“Don’t know.” Feldon shrugged. “Never been there before. Apparently, it takes close to a month of travelling to even get to the port; then, you got to take a ship across the channel. Too expensive for me. The fast residual current from the Great Waves makes it dangerous too.”

Interesting – perhaps I can trace back the origin of this tin to that location. Kyle decided to keep the tin on his body for now.

They took a good rest, sleeping in turns as they rotated watches, keeping an eye out for anything moving out and down the passage.The poison began to decrease in intensity as it reacted with more of Kyle’s body, becoming a harmless chemical product. I just need to wait out the chemical reactions. Poisons don’t last forever.

After having slept for five hours each, Kyle and Feldon packed up what they could carry before moving out. Kyle already felt much better, with Agent Black and the Debilitating Poison no longer affecting him as much as they were before. However, they still had to find the exit.

The skittering sounds could be clearly heard now, with Kyle and Feldon trying to make their footsteps as silent as possible. Kyle could see a white speck in the distance, a stark difference from the green light that surrounded them.

Feldon spotted it as well, nearly jumping for joy. “It’s the exit! We’ve made it out!”

“Stay vigilant. If Nest are here too, we’ll be dead in a minute.” Kyle did not have This is My Turf available this time round, which meant he would not be able to block Agent Black if it was deployed here, too as well.

As they reached the end of the passage, a vast looming cavern illuminated by clusters of white gemstones on the ceiling appeared before them.

The layout of the cavern was clearly manmade, with seven obelisks laid out around a central square stage and staircases leading up to it.

They exited the passage and hugged the wall, unwilling to go right into the centre of the cavern. Looks like a sacrificial altar. Kyle was even more confused now, as none of the architecture that he had seen so far matched the carvings on the passage. They don’t build anything like that – this is clearly a human design.

“What the hell are these holes?” Feldon suddenly pointed out, prompting Kyle to follow with his eyes upwards along the wall.

Thousands of holes separated by a uniform distance could be seen pockmarking the entire cavern. Feldon stared down one of the holes, unable to see its end. However, as he stuck his head inside the hole, he could hear the skittering sound clearer than ever.

“Uh, boss? You hear that?”

“Get away from the holes. Now!”

The intensity of the skittering sound picked up tremendously as Kyle and Feldon backtracked. Kyle’s eyes darted around the cavern. “Head back to the passage; it’s easier to defend there than in this open cavern!” He ordered Feldon.

Just as Kyle said that a large rock spider suddenly emerged from the passageway, blocking the exit. “What the?!” Feldon exclaimed, brandishing his handgun and aiming it at the large rock spider.

The three red beady gem-like eyes on the front of its head glared at the two of them before one of the eyes glowed blue instead.

“MOVE!” Kyle roared, shoving Feldon out of the way as a blue energy beam slammed right into Kyle’s chest, sending him flying and tumbling across the cavern, separating him from Feldon.

As Kyle was knocked down on his back, he could now see a legion of rock spiders of varying sizes, all climbing out of their holes that were spread out across the cavern. Their red gem eyes all ignored Feldon, instead locking onto Kyle with clear intentions.