Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1) by Arthur Stone (top 5 books to read TXT) 📕

wisp could make it much farther, it met its death at the end of my spear.

I crouched down to hurriedly grab a third knife and place it back in its sheath, then anxiously moved to Beko. All humming noises now were in the distance, but at the speed those creatures moved, that could change rapidly.

The ghoul was alive, but his face was whiter than ever. He lay on the ground, clasping at a bleeding wound in his left shoulder.

“Let me,” I commanded, placing my hand on it.

“Kill the wisp!” Beko started. “Kill it. The one who stung me. Otherwise we’ll both die!”

“Calm down. You didn’t see me kill it immediately?”

My talent stopped the bleeding, but Beko groaned, his voice quavering as he asked, “Can you remove the poison?”

“Poison!?” I thought through what I knew about my talent.

I didn’t think I could.

The ghoul understood the look on my face. “You have to run. I can’t. You go.”

“Why can’t you?”

“My legs are all locked up. This is wisp poison we’re talking about.”

“Are your legs the only thing it paralyzes?”

“That’s what they say. Wisps want their prey alive but immobilized.”

“To hell—er, to Chaos with them. We’re not prey. We’re winners! Oof, Beko, you need to start eating a little less!”

I had trouble carrying my comrade. Not just because he was heavy, but because I had to stay alert in case any new wisps arrived. It seemed like we had killed the entire swarm that attacked us. The humming of others was heard in the distance, but it was fading.

I didn’t realize immediately that we had broken through. Adrenaline continued to push me mindlessly forward until I felt puddles under my feet. Then, I kicked the pace down a notch. I had to; running in mud quickly is dangerous.

After a few minutes, the outline of the same large, flat stone appeared. I had no idea how I had ended up in the swamp again—why hadn’t we broken out?—but all I hoped for now was that the wisps wouldn’t chase us this far.

We needed to rest.

Chapter 37 Talents of Chaos, Talents of ORDER

No Stat Changes

Despite the poisoned stab he had endured, Beko was not going to die. I had a rough idea of how much poison could have been delivered.

The ghoul also recovered his spirits, realizing that the threat of the wisps was gone. In fact, he was almost having fun. Though still pale and immobile, he did not have the look of a man with one foot in the grave.

“No one dies of wisp poison, Ged. I don’t think so, anyway. But it can lay you flat for a day or two.”

“That’s all? Alright, well, rest up then.”

“This place could be dangerous. Everywhere is dangerous out here.”

“I didn’t see any other tracks in the swamp, just ours. And in all of our time scouting this area, I heard none of that buzzing. It looks like the shore is cut off from the Grove by the wisps. They don’t let anyone this way—but neither do they come here themselves.”

“The waterfall might be keeping you from hearing them. It’s not that far.”

“Beko, you yourself told me that wisps only fly where cystos grow. They won’t come after us here. Relax. Now, I’m going to make us some moss beds on this rock and put the tarp over them. We’ll make camp. I don’t think it’s safe to build a fire, sadly, so we’ll have to eat raw fish. I’ll catch some from the raft.”

“Why don’t we just camp on the raft?” Beko suggested. “We can push off a ways from the shore and wait there.”

“No anchor.”

“Chaos! How could I forget that?”

“No worries. We could try to lodge the raft in some driftwood on the river, but I don’t see much point to that. Are you sure that poison isn’t fatal?”

“They say that everyone the wisps sting survives, as long as you get them away from the wisps quickly. Otherwise there will be nothing left of the man stung. Sometimes even experienced hunters die this way.”

“Why do they even go into those places, then?”

Beko smiled nervously and raised a shaking hand. He unclenched his fist to reveal two ugly mushrooms. Their stems were corkscrew-shaped, and their conical caps were red with black dots. The fungi looked terrifically poisonous to me. I wouldn’t even so much as avert my foot to avoid squashing one. But the ghoul had, apparently, been collecting them when the wisps came our way.

For Beko, greed was a force stronger than fear.

“What’s that for? Finishing yourself off before the wisps could?”

“No, these are hups. Not the beer flavor stuff. Magical mushrooms that bring hunters from all around to the realms of the cystos.”

“So they’re valuable,” I concluded.

“More valuable than garpike caviar,” Beko said as the madness grew in his eyes. “And they’re mine! Mine!” Then, looking at me greedily, he corrected himself: “Ours. There were more there. I saw them. A whole field of the mushrooms, a king’s ransom. We have to get them.”

“Let me look at one,” I asked.

I rolled the mushroom around in my fingers. Despite its unsightly appearance, it smelled nice. “Can you eat these raw?”

“Yes. Or dried. Or cooked or fried. It’s a rich spice, after all.”

“Perfect,” I said as I tossed the whole hup into my mouth.

It was pretty small. Easy to swallow whole, if I wanted.

Beko’s eyes blew up like balloons. I had not thought it possible for his face to become more pale, but it did. “You ate a hup! Ate it whole!”

I began to morally prepare myself for an emergency stomach purge, but first clarified. “What, can you not eat them whole? Are they poisonous?”

“Poisonous? Hah! Do you know how much those are worth? We