A Black Market LitRPG

The rock spiders rushed at Kyle as a legion, their numbers overwhelming as Kyle quickly swung his arctech pickaxe at the nearest one, smashing through its legs in an instant. They were many, but they were easy enough to break as long as Kyle did not get swarmed.

The tip of his pickaxe smashed through the weak rock surface, with the sound of glass shattered. Kyle did not have time to figure out why there was glass as he continued to swing non-stop.

Feldon yelped as he sprinted for a rocky outcrop near the walls of the cavern, using it as an elevated viewpoint. The sea of spiders was nearly about to engulf Kyle from all directions.

Kyle also noticed where Feldon was. Good idea – moving to the centre would have me swarmed in an instant. He began to back away to the walls of the cavern, carving his way through with a pickaxe in hand and a broken rock spider’s leg in another, dual wielding wildly to stem the incoming tide.

Each kill gave him a system message, but he ignored it and focused on the task at hand. A jabbing pain arced through his body as a rock spider leg stabbed his thighs. Necklace of Healing!

The wounds and hits on Kyle’s body began to build up tremendously, the small healing of the Necklace unable to keep up.

Feldon began to use his arctech handgun to fire into the spiders, but most of his arcia energy had yet to recover from the use of the mortar back in the workshop area, limiting his shots. The moment he fired at the first spider, who was still locked onto Kyle, the projectile tore through the weak armour but did not kill it. The spider immediately turned to face Feldon, lunging at him. “AHHHH!”

Feldon was not as strong as Kyle, using his armoured arms to fend off the hits of the spider that pounced on him. With a strong knee to the base of the spider’s body, he barely managed to dent it while the spider’s leg stabbed right at his face, forcing him to roll out of the way to dodge.

His eyes darted around, trying to find the weak spot of the spider, but it was completely encased in normal rock. If he were stronger, it would be a cinch to simply rip the legs off like what Kyle was doing. Instead, Feldon used the handle of the arctech handgun and smacked the joints of the legs once before blocking another leg strike with it, the force pinning him to the ground.

With another targeted blow to the same joint, the leg of the spider gave way, revealing the interior where there was a glass-like internal structure with a pulsating red glass sphere inside. Feldon instinctively aimed the handgun right into the hole, firing a single shot that shattered the core and killed the spider immediately.

Feldon heaved a large sigh of relief but still noticed that all the remaining spiders continued to ignore him while charging blindly at Kyle, who was slowly becoming more injured.

Like hell I am going to wait! Kyle was definitely not going to trigger the race evolution right now, as he suffered yet another hit from the rock spiders. Despite their weak armour, the tips of their legs were as sharp as a dagger, stabbing deep into his flesh.

The adrenaline thrummed in his veins, the blood thumping in his ears as he dodged another three stabs and jabs, jumping on top of a spider while fending off the legs. He hopped from spider to spider, riding the wave as he continuously swapped out the rock spider leg in his hand, the tip worn out after a certain number of stabs.

Kyle’s instincts suddenly screamed at him, prompting him to duck low as a blue energy beam soared past where his head was, fired by the large rock spider who was still blocking the passageway and charging up for yet another shot.

The rock spiders on the ground began to clamber on each other, reaching up to Kyle and aiming for his feet. Kyle continuously leapt around, never staying still to let the spiders surround him. As he jumped up high into the air, he noticed that the spiders seemed to be avoiding the circumference formed by the seven obelisks.

Weird. Why aren’t they crossing through the centre of the cavern? Kyle began to make his way over while still dodging blue energy beams that were coming in.

As he crossed the invisible threshold of the seven obelisks, a refreshing wave of energy enveloped him like a calm, soothing song.

The horde of spiders suddenly did not lock onto to Kyle, but instead turned to attack Feldon, who had still been lying low, trying to avoid attention. “Shit!” Kyle rushed right out of the rest area, fighting through the wave to reach Feldon.

Penchant for Violence!

The burst of energy brought him near to his original strength, sprinting as he used his pickaxe to smash the rock spiders in his way, covering the distance with twelve long leaps before landing right next to Feldon,

This is My Turf! The skill instantly shoved the rock spiders who were dogpiling on Feldon aside, allowing Kyle to quickly hoist him and run back to the rest area with the swarm hot on his heels.

They entered the rest area again, with the rock spiders suddenly pausing and no longer trying to attack them. Instead, they spread out around the barrier, moving slowly as they kept an eye on the two of them inside the Rest Area.

So we can only stay in here for a while – not forever.

Kyle rechecked the trial conditions, which barely gave any information. Survive? But for how long? And until when?

Feldon winced on the ground as he panted, the wounds on his body slowly healing up as the regeneration effect of the rest area took effect on him.

“Stay in here,” Kyle ordered, sprinting out of the barrier again, right for the large rock spider at the passageway. As soon as he left the barrier, the surrounding spiders all charged at him while the large rock spider began to charge up a shot.

Kyle nocked back his right arm and hurled the pickaxe in a strong throw, the pickaxe spinning through the air as it hit the large rock spider right in the eye, disrupting the charging of the energy beam.

With a lunge, Kyle stretched out his hands to grab the pickaxe to rip it out of the damaged crystal eye before pivoting to deliver a left swing to an incoming front leg stab from the right, the fragments of rock ricocheting off the walls of the passageway as the leg shattered.

The spider reared up, supporting itself on six legs while it used it’s remaining front leg to swing at Kyle from the left, forcing him to jump to the right and perform a recovery roll before attacking with another right swing, targeting the body.

Instead, the pickaxe swing was blocked by a small rock spider who launched itself into the air, taking the hit in a sacrificial move while the large rock spider fired an energy beam right at Kyle at point blank, impacting right onto his chest plate and sending him flying back, the wind knocked out of his lungs when he smashed into the wall.

The effects of the Penchant for Violence began to taper off as one minute had passed, with the debilitating effects of the poison returning. Kyle weaved and dashed around the large rock spider getting around to his back as he dodged a myriad of leg jabs from the rock spider, who could not turn fully in the enclosed passageway.

Finally getting the flank, Kyle hoisted his pickaxe high before slamming it right into the back of the rock spider, piercing through the core in one fell swoop.

Kyle was about to try and return to the rest area but spotted a glint in the cracked rock shell of the dead large rock spider’s body. He quickly reached in to pull it out, revealing a warhammer with an arctech engraving along its entire handle and head.

The smaller rock spiders were already beginning to pile up around Kyle, reminding him to rush back to the rest area. Swapping the pickaxe to his left hand while the right hand held the pulveriser, he charged outwards, swinging the pulveriser freely and smashing through the rock spiders apart easily.

Making it back to the rest area, he panted as the poison still took its toll on him, though the regeneration effect began to heal his body rapidly. He could feel the arcia energy restored within him as well, albeit slowly.

Weird, the duration didn’t decrease when Feldon was in here. It should be eight minutes now. Feldon was now crosslegged on the ground, patting his entire body over. He had never experienced full healing before, so the feeling of new flesh in his body felt unique.

“Feldon, you okay?”

“Oh yea, I feel even better than before! My arcia exhaustion is completely gone too!”

That’s because you only have 5 MP. Kyle looked out beyond the barrier before picking up a pebble and throwing it out at the rock spider.

Right, let’s not piss whoever owns this cavern off. However, Kyle realised that Feldon did not seem to be counted as a trial taker. The rock spiders had initially ignored him until Feldon attacked them or Kyle entered the rest area.

Even when Feldon was alone in the rest area, the duration did not decrease, only decreasing when Kyle was within the rest area. “Feldon, can you try shooting a rock spider now?”

“What? Are you serious? What if they start charging in here?”

“I’ll handle it if it comes to that.” At most, we could run down the passageway now that we came from.

Feldon wasn’t convinced but still aimed his handgun at the nearest spider and fired a single bullet, the bullet hitting the rock spider right in the eye and killing it.

Kyle glanced around the seven obelisks that surrounded them, not receiving any notification at all.

“Fire five shots.”

“FIVE?! I don’t have that much arcia energy in me!”

“Just do it.”

Feldon grimaced as he squeezed the trigger, firing a few times before the arcia exhaustion started to kick in. As he stopped, the regeneration effect of the rest area kicked in, restoring Feldon’s meagre arcia energy back up slowly.

Kyle grinned, tossing the arcia pickaxe to Feldon as he lifted his new warhammer. “Time to train.”