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

the kind that wasn’t worth much around here. You needn’t look further than yesterday for proof. Sending me on a suicide mission to recover spices from a ford teeming with kote had seemed a perfectly reasonable request to Kashik.

No master for me, thank you very much.

Serfs weren’t technically slaves. These were people who had partially lost their freedom, but had the opportunity to gain it back. Some fell into this state for a particular stretch of time, others potentially forever. But their freedom was always there for the buying, whether by a third party or by independently accumulating the required amount.

A master had no right to kill his bondservant or subject him to serious bodily punishment without valid cause. It was well within his power, however, to make the lives of his subjects unbearable. Or to set them up by sending them on deadly missions like the one I had miraculously survived. Besides, regulations outlining a master’s obligations toward his bondservants were like expiration dates—more suggestions than hard, enforceable laws. And the farther you were from civilization, the less weight they carried.

And you couldn’t get any farther from civilization than this dump. Here in the Wild Wood, a master could do whatever he wanted with his bondservant. Especially if the latter was weak and without protection. Like me.

Had I been given a choice, I would keep far away from this place. But I was without an alternative. I wouldn’t survive in the forest on my own, and persuading Kashik to take me back south was doubly risky. By the end of the trip he would stick me with a bill I’d have no chance of repaying, making bondage all but certain. Besides, I shouldn’t forget about the events at the homestead. The killers had come to put a bloody period in the annals of the Crow Clan, and for as long as I lived, their task remained unfulfilled. Chances were, the clan’s enemies were scouring the area thoroughly, and my return would not go unnoticed.

Kids my age weren’t in great supply, and especially those that looked like me. Moreover, wherever I went, I would be without friends or family, which would draw instant suspicion. Finally, as the amulet’s charge expired, I would become completely immobile, only adding to my infamy. The local world might be free of the Internet, but news of unusual developments spread quickly enough. It would be a toss up as to how I would die: a cripple unable to provide for his basic needs, or at the hands of those thirsting to finish the job by snuffing out the clan’s last scion.

After weighting all my options, the clear winner was to lie low in the boondocks somewhere. Practically speaking, that meant sticking to the fort.

So, my immediate objective would be to gain entry. As the caravanners and their loaned workers unloaded cargo before the bridge, all the bondservants and free men in search of work were herded off to the side. These were all the people intended to remain in the fort, and I was among them.

For the next half-hour, we were largely ignored as the caravanners and the locals were more concerned with the cargo. The latter were especially concerned with the fact that some of it was missing. In response, Kashik was putting on quite a show, yelling dramatically and flailing his arms as he relayed the story of a deadly sniper striking his targets in the eye from a distance of one hundred paces, the wagon stuck in the ford, and the pack of kote set upon the caravan by some wicked magic. Going by his gesticulating and the scraps of phrases I was hearing, we had been beset by none other than a pack of monsters from the movie Jaws, and fired at from the bushes by a special ops division of Robin Hoods and William Tells. And that if it hadn’t been for the incredible heroism of his right hand, Atami, the caravan would have suffered losses far greater than one sorry wagon. Besides, some of the valuable cargo from the wagon had, in fact, been recovered. (To no one’s surprise, my own role in making said recovery happen was omitted.)

Our collective neglect didn’t last overly long. Having disposed of the cargo, the movers and shakers of the local world turned and headed our way. There were three of them, not counting Kashik, and they all looked completely different. One was so tacky, it reminded me of a pimp wannabe. Despite the warm weather of a late spring evening, he wore an expensive fur coat and a big bushy hat heavy with massive gilded ornaments. And he might have had more rings and signets on his fingers than actual fingers.

This must have been Ash himself, the face of the Three Axes and the top dog in the Blackriver fort. Everything I had gleaned from conversations with Rycer and Krol on the way here suggested this walking fur store shop-window could be no other. The man flaunted everything he had with the fervor of a cheap whore turned runway model.

As for the other two, I had no idea. My former companions hadn’t been overly generous with information, assuming they even knew themselves. Being part of a caravan meant long stretches on the road and scant knowledge of the fort’s internal affairs. One thing was certain—these were people with authority. One was a hulk of a man, the other a plain-looking craftsman in his middle years. The former could be a bodyguard, but the latter? He didn’t look like a person with power. A closer inspection quickly changed my mind. The man had a heavy, intense stare that belied his nondescript appearance.

Looking at us the way one might look at the most revolting sight in the entire Universe, Kashik began to speak, scorn dripping from his voice.

“Listen up, worms. Your life of leisure is over. From now on you’re