Berserker: A LitRPG Urban Fantasy Adventure (Apocosmos Book 1) by Dimitrios Gkirgkiris (phonics readers .txt) 📕

This moment right here was a moment I’d longed for for so long. As heartbreaking as it had been watching Hachiko on “A Dog’s Tale”, it was nothing compared to the gut-wrenching feeling of watching Louie stare under the door in case she returned. Every night. For three years.

“I’m sorry, Alex,” he said, still underneath my arm. “I’m so sorry I did this to you. I’ll be better.”

“What are you talking about?” I said, surprised, and pulled him in front of me. “You did nothing wrong.”

“But I did,” he continued. “It’s my fault.”

“Louie! Don’t be stupid,” I said, reverting back to the verbal commands that used to work so well when he was being stubborn. “You weren’t even there. You couldn’t have saved her, even if you were with her.”

“Not her, Alex,” he said and turned his head downward, putting his short tail between his legs. “I should have saved you. I was selfish.”

“Save me?” I said, confused. “If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve…”

Louie jumped up on my knee and pulled at my wrist with his jaw as if to try and stop me from thinking about it.

“I’m so happy I can talk to you,” he continued as soon as he released my hand. “We have so much to talk about.”

“We do,” I said and stood up. “But first, let’s get out of here.”

The fairy, upon seeing this, let herself fall from the tree and floated toward us, though her long glittering wings didn’t move one bit.

“You have taken the first step in strengthening a bond that can’t be compared to anything,” she said. “You, Louie, are blessed with the gifts of complex reasoning, consciousness, complex language, and introspection. You are your own individual, yet you are one with Alex.”

“Thank you,” Louie responded and barked, which took me by surprise. Ultimately, I just added it to the list of things I’d have to get used to.

“You do not need to thank me, for this was not of my doing,” she continued. “Now tell me, Louie, as a dog of your own with intellect and all that this entails, what do you want to do with your life?”

Without even thinking about it, Louie barked and gave his answer.

“I want to save Alex. I want to be with him at all times and help him through all of his difficulties.”

“Then let it be known,” the fairy said, raising her hands to the sky, the fungi suddenly increasing in brightness tenfold, “during this day of Louie’s birth and baptism in Dark Energy, he has decreed his path in life.”

As soon as the words escaped her lips, the light around us started traveling upward like strings of smoke and converged on the little corgi in the midst of it all. For a second, I was worried, but his tail-wagging quickly put my worries to rest.

Once he’d absorbed the last of the light wisps, his outline briefly flashed purple, a telltale sign of magic if there was ever any. I focused my eyes on him, thinking that he’d been given some kind of blessing. What the text prompt revealed, however, had my jaw drop open.

Name : Louie

Race : Dog (Corgi)

Class : Mage

Level : 1

HP : 98/98

MP : 59/59

XP : 0.00%

STR : 22

DEX : 21

CON : 27

INT : 41

WIS : 20

MEN : 39

Louie is a mage? How the hell is this possible?

I tried to say something but… what was there to say? My dog had just started talking and now he had a class. A mage! His intelligence stat was almost double what mine was. I wasn’t sure if this meant I was dumb and didn’t know it, or he was just a rocket scientist of a dog.

“Wait,” I said, out loud this time. “Does this mean he’ll be able to cast spells?”

“The path he has chosen is one of empathy and willingness,” the fairy replied. “This is but the first class on his journey.”

I continued staring at her, not sure if she was finished, since she hadn’t answered my question yet.

“Yes, child,” she said eventually. “He will be able to cast spells.”

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I said and took her hands in mine.

Immediately I felt a warmth spreading from my palms to my elbows, all the way to my chest. The happiness I was feeling was amplified and as tears filled my eyes, the fairy pulled me up to my feet before breaking contact.

“Go, children,” she said and took a step back, slowly changing her form.

Before I was able to say another word, her body had completed its metamorphosis back into the majestic tiger I’d met initially. She turned her back to us and walked away between the thick trees and full bushes.

“What now?” I said, talking to myself.

“Let’s go back to Leo,” Louie replied and put his short legs to use, walking back toward the forest’s entrance.

“Wait, how come I can see all of your stats?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s because I set it up that way,” he responded as if this was elementary for him. “You can see all my stats.”

I momentarily focused on him again and found that I could see the rest of the information about him.

Battle Stats

Max HP : 98

Max MP : 59

Physical Attack : 1

Physical Defense : 48

Accuracy : 28

Critical : 40

Attack Speed : 242

Magic Attack : 7

Magic Defense : 54

Evasion : 28

Speed : 121

Casting Speed : 166

HP Regen. : 1.9/minute

MP Regen. : 1.3/minute

“Your Physical Defense is really low,” I said once I’d absorbed the information, a bit worried about what we might encounter on our way back. “Let’s be extra careful for the time being and we’d better get you some equipment as well. You don’t have the Fortitude spell yet?”

“I’ve got…” he started, his eyes losing focus momentarily as he looked at me. “I’ve got three passive skills and two active ones. The first is Self Care, which is a healing spell for myself, and the second Gale Blast. I guess that’s the one… the one Leo used before.”

So he could remember everything that happened before