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

he ate that magical bacon, and from his pause, I suspected that he also remembered the first person who’d used this attack on me. It made me wonder…

“Louie, what else do you remember before today?”

“Everything. I can remember everything, but it’s all a bit foggy until I try to recall something specific. Then the fog clears and I understand a lot more about what’s happened. I guess that’s due to the gift of understanding.”

“Please stay close to me this time,” I said to him as we made our way back. “This world is quite weird and complicated with all these stats, skills, and levels.”

“It’s not too bad,” he replied, and I wondered if his intelligence was already giving him an advantage. “But I know this is just the beginning. I woke up only minutes ago, and I don’t know how uncomplicated life was before we knew about the Apocosmos. So I just need to learn all of those things too.” He smiled.

I had always imagined Louie’s outlook like this. I liked to believe that he always looked on the brighter side of life and it felt good to see that this was true.

“I can’t wait to talk to Leo,” Louie said enthusiastically, “and listen to that music you always nod your head while listening to. And watch that series that made you laugh and cry.”

“I never…” I started saying, but I quickly realized there was no point or reason to hide my feelings from Louie. “The show is called Critical Role and the type of music I nod my head to is called metal, but there are so many other genres.”

“Metal? Why would it be called that?” he said confused. “Is there a genre called bone? Or better yet, sausage? Bacon?”

I smiled and petted him above his tail. He wagged it twice, but then froze solid and began growling, his eyes focused forward. A pair of yellow eyes glimmered in the dark as a cobra reared up between two trees and stared at us. Without wasting a second, Louie stepped back and the now familiar wind sphere appeared in front of his snout. Leaning forward, his Gale Blast was launched and hit the snake’s body.

The cobra wasn’t disintegrated as it had been under Leo’s attacks, but its HP bar dropped by a third. Not bad for his first attack. Holding my swords ready, I stepped in front of Louie, to block any attacks that might come his way. Before the snake managed to reach us, Louie had already positioned himself between my legs and a second Gale Blast sent the snake’s head flying, as its body fell limp on the illuminated forest floor.

“Critical!” Louie said and barked in excitement. “And I got a new level. Groovy!”

“Critical? On a spell?” I asked, surprised. “Also, ‘groovy’? Where did you hear that word?”

“Oh, man. I didn’t get any new skills,” he said, sounding a bit disappointed. “I need to ask Leo what level I need to be before I learn more spells.”

“Now hold up, buddy,” I said, a bit more harshly than I’d intended. “We’re not leveling or getting any more involved in this world than we need to. We’ll just get better at making money out of it, so we can have an easier life.”

“But why?” he asked. “Isn’t this fun? I thought you liked things like this?”

“I did, and it used to be fun.”

“Then I don’t understand why you…”

“Louie!” I shouted, exactly how I always did when he was being stubborn or sticking his face in the garbage can.

He didn’t say anything more and simply walked forward, shoulders dropped at first, but his tail soon started wagging again when we saw the light of the open fields. As grateful as I was to be able to communicate with him, it didn’t change the fact that I… that we didn’t belong here.

Perhaps we didn’t have any choice anymore, but if we limited our interactions with the Apocosmos to those that targeted monetary gains only, we should be fine for the limited amount of time we’d need to do it. Just long enough to end our debt. Maybe a bit longer so that I’d have some more funds in case of an emergency.

“Louie, buddy!” Leo shouted as soon as he saw us. “Gods! You’re a mage now!”

“Thank you so much, Leo!” Louie shouted between barks, as he jumped around a few inches from the ground in front of him. “I already got a level, but didn’t get any spells. It’s okay though, because Alex said we’re not going to be raising our levels anymore anyway because…”

Louie stopped talking as soon as I reached them. There were no words that would accurately express the gratitude I felt toward Leo for his gift. I wasn’t a man of many words, or more precisely I wasn’t a man of many words anymore. Words were cheap and came easy. Actions spoke louder.

I opened my arms and hugged him, a whispered “Thank you” escaping my lips. It was my first hug in years. Excluding accidental shoulder-bumps, and my getting beaten up a few days ago, this was actually the first physical contact I’d had with another human in three years.

Normally, I would barely be able to stand another person talking to me—yapping about their own little egos and their insignificant, completely blown out of proportion problems—much less let anyone touch me. But this was different. This was a gift that warranted intimacy.

“Oh!” Leo said at first, but then closed his arms around me as well. “We haven’t done this in a while. You’re welcome, man.”

Once our embrace ended, Leo took another brief look at Louie before looking back at me.

“You know he needs different equipment than you,” he said, “being a spellcaster and a dog.”

“I do?” Louie barked again in excitement. “Can I wear armor made of bones? No, I’ll probably eat each piece one by one and then I’ll just need new ones.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said, in an attempt to ease his spirit.