Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

to respawn the monsters, and then repeat. Even if they didn’t bother to rest at the Pyre, it would take them a long time to flush out all the monsters.

Killing them would net a large number of Souls. That wasn’t the issue, it was that while those players were busy killing the tanky monsters, others were slipping ahead of them.

It put pressure on the players to try and press on for fear of others doing the same. If everybody agreed to grind as much as possible in order to reach the final boss with as much strength as they could muster, things would have turned out very differently.

He explained as much to Camilla. The confusion on her face was evident but she accepted the explanation. “Humans are weird.”

Jacob couldn’t disagree.

The canyon narrowed quite a bit the deeper south they progressed until they were within striking distances of those deep pits that belched forth noisome black fumes.

“We’re going in there?” Camilla asked.

“I am,” Jacob said. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to breathe in there.” He replaced his [Antediluvian Ring] with the [Ring of Broken Vows], which would allow him to navigate the Smog Rifts and survive their choking fumes.

After a moment of hesitation, Jacob handed her the [Ring of Covetous Breath]. “Take this, it should help. If you still want to come.”

Camilla arched a black brow at him, her lips quirked into a wry grin. “I’ve seen what happens to you when you are left on your own. I’m coming along.”

Turning to the curtains of flowing black smoke that drifted toward the night sky, Jacob took a step forward. They parted before him, turning translucent like a thin gray mist once he entered.

Smog Rifts

The air reeked of burning oil and sulfur.

It burned his lungs but didn’t seem to cause any actual damage or ill-effect aside from the mild discomfort. He was a little jealous of Camilla’s ring. A swirl of clean air kept the smoke away from her, though her visibility seemed to end at the edge of that bubble.

All around them were small depressions in the ground that gushed forth gouts of oily black smoke. Touching the stuff directly burned a few points of Health off.

The thick miasma that hung in the air was - relatively, speaking - harmless with the ring equipped.

Jacob took the lead, navigating around small pockets of spewing smoke while avoiding the larger rents that were too large to jump over. They made slow, but steady progress through the Smog Rifts.

There was a lot more platforming than he thought there would be. No creatures reared up out of the pits to fight him - yet - but he kept up his guard all the same. Camilla kept one hand pressed between his shoulder blades as he led the way forward.

Jacob had no idea how any player ever managed to navigate through the Smog Rifts up from the south of Weslyn’s Watch. Especially not without the [Ring of Broken Vows] or, at the very least, the [Ring of Covetous Breath].

And by all accounts, there did appear to be some players that made the journey somehow.

The Smog Rifts was a maze of cracks and pits that would easily swallow any other player without the ability to see. Even Camilla’s borrowed ring severely limited her perception to only a foot or two around her.

While her ring pushed away the oily miasma and allowed her to breathe, Jacob’s made it harmless and translucent. To Jacob, the thick black miasma appeared as light fog with thicker patches bursting forth from the cracked ground.

Without Jacob guiding her, she would have easily fallen into a pit. Jacob nearly tripped into one that yawned open in front of him. The ground was more soot than soil, coming up to his calves and shifting like sand.

Worst of all was the sound. Every time the vents that littered the canyon floor poured forth their oily smoke it sounded like a deep guttural roar from within the core of the planet itself. Like some ancient demon was trapped below their feet, straining to break free and the smoke was its breath.

That felt a bit too close to the truth for comfort.

If not for Camilla tugging at him, he would have missed the Pyre. It was coated in the same black soot but to Camilla, it must have been a more noticeable Cairn.

“Thanks,” he tried to say, but his words were swallowed by the roar of a nearby vent sending black oily smoke into the air less than three feet away.

Never had Jacob seen a Pyre so near to danger before.

Camilla came around him at the same time as Jacob knelt at the ashes. He brought forth his ruby flame to reignite the Pyre and Kindle it at the same time.

Pyre Ignited.

Your respawn location has been set to the Smog Rifts.

The Fire Oppa stokes the embers of your conviction.

Health, Stamina, Ampoules, and Spell Gems restored.

You Kindle the Pyre.

The fire caught in a flash and its blaze pushed back the smoke in a ten-foot radius. The air immediately warmed and smelled cleaner.

What cracks and pits that invaded on the space closed up and the oily soot was turned into floating embers that drifted all around like fireflies.

It was a beautiful sight.

But not more beautiful than the beaming grin of the Fire Oppa or the way his fur seemed to burn white-hot with excitement. Camilla’s face brightened and her lips moved but he could make out no words.

She looked so much better than when he found her. No longer gaunt or thin, she filled out with strength and resolve that had been stretched to the breaking before.

It struck him then how disastrous it would have been had she accompanied him into the Desecrated Catacombs. She wasn’t strong enough then and, as she said, she had her own battles to fight.

Battles, it would seem, she won.

“Well,” Jacob said, removing his helm and grinning at the Fire Oppa. “I said I’d be here.”

Stirring a paw idly into the ash,