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

died after he used a [Minos Horn], not to mention the time, he would be sorely disappointed. He immediately chastised himself for the thought.

Was he really criticizing a woman who was chained up and left to die?

Even if she wasn’t directly tortured – he didn’t see any wounds on her – being imprisoned and left to starve to death would be a horrible way to die. And it would, by its very nature, be its own kind of torture.

I’m kind of turning into a dick, he thought sourly. Was I always this selfish?

Maybe being back in this time period was causing him to revert in some subtle way to the person he was before the literal and figurative trial-by-fire that was the Collapse.

The notion didn’t sit well with Jacob as he equipped both the shield and sword. He summoned the [Kite Shield] with a flash of ash, and accompanied it with the [Longsword] in his right hand.

Both weapons were familiar to him. The weight of each was a comfort. He inspected them quickly.

[Equipment]

Kite Shield [Standard Shield]

Physical Damage: 66

Type: Blunt

Balance: 65

Physical Reduction: 100

Arcane Reduction: 30

Fire Reduction: 50

Water Reduction: 30

Earth Reduction: 70

Harmony Reduction: 20

Chaos Reduction: 20

 

Durability: 600/600

Guilt: 1

 

Longsword [Straight Sword]

Physical Damage: 80

Type: Slashing, Piercing

Scaling: STR [B], DEX [B]

Requirements: STR(8), DEX(10)

 

Magical Damage: 0

Arcane: 0

Fire: 0

Water: 0

Earth: 0

Harmony: 0

Chaos: 0

 

Status Infliction

Bleed: 70

Poison: 0

Curse: 0

Stagger: 10

Break: 5

 

Durability: 500/500

Guilt: 1

With a glance over at Camilla in the corner, he rolled the [Longsword] in a smooth series of practice motions.

It felt right to hold a sword again, particularly his favorite type.

Jacob flowed through the Sword Forms that were so deeply ingrained in his mind. Alice was wrong, he remembered them just as vividly as before.

Wind Parts the Grass transitioned into Stag Rushes Through the Field, he put a foot down to slow his rush and twisted around, taking a two-handed grip on his sword and drawing sparks along the stone as he swept the blade upward in Sunflower Faces the Sun. He ended with a swift downward chop of Lightning Cracks Stone.

His labored breath and the quicker drop in Stamina with each Sword Form told him he was at least at tier 2 of Guilt, meaning he was losing 10% more Stamina and moving that much slower as well.

Checking his Guilt shed some light on the matter. Swapping out his [Bladed Whip] for the [Kite Shield] and adding the [Longsword] brought him up to 3 Guilt. At 33% of his TMP, he was well beyond the first threshold of 25%.

The difference was still curious, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. After ten straight years of nothing but bad luck, he wasn’t going to complain when he couldn’t precisely anticipate how much Guilt he would have.

“Impressive,” Camilla said, raising a dark brow at him.

Jacob shrugged and said, “Thank you for these. It’s been too long since I held a proper sword and shield.”

Feeling more confident in his chances now that he was properly outfitted, Jacob ascended the stairs. Once more in the watery sunlight, he looked to the north toward the last quarter of the massive bridge.

Dozens of creatures milled about, mostly Vacant of varying types, but there were a few strange beasts among them. In the distance was the start of another mountain range, this one taller and wider than the one he came from. Its peaks wrapped in a thick mantle of snow.

And sitting like a squat toad upon the first mountaintop was the Asylum of Silent Sorrows. A staggeringly large set of buildings with broken spires and narrow bridges between the aging structures.

The nearest Vacant turned to regard them as Jacob’s armor made more than enough noise to draw attention. He needed to keep that in mind, the element of surprise would rarely be on his side anymore.

But that hardly mattered when he had a proper shield, a sword, and full armor. All of which – despite the Guilt burden – was exactly what he was most comfortable in.

Years of training and fighting in very similar armor and weapons gave Jacob the confidence to wade into the nearest group of three Vacant.

One shambling corpse stared at him with glowing red lights in the darkened pits where its eyes should have been. Without any armor and wielding a simple broken sword unlike its two fellows, most players would count it as the weaker threat.

It was weak, but it was fast.

Jacob took one more step then leaned his weight on his back foot, raising his [Kite Shield] preemptively, knowing what was about to come.

The Vacant twitched, the inhuman motion never failed to send a shiver of revulsion down his spine. In the blink of an eye, the creature twitched through the space between them.

There was no other way to describe it. Like some monster from a horror movie, it moved too fast for the eye to see. It was suddenly in front of Jacob, its club raised.

With his shield already in place, Jacob swept his left arm up and out, catching the club just as it fell. One of the downsides of moving so fast was the creature fully committed to each attack.

If you knew what you were doing – or had years of practice as Jacob had – you could block the blow and retaliate. In Jacob’s case, his mind was so used to the automatic parry-and-riposte motion that he found his arm moving before he made the conscious decision.

Years of combat experience drilled into him paid dividends as he exploded into action. The familiar weight of the armor resting on his shoulders – lighter than it should be but familiar all the same – the shield strapped to his left forearm and the balanced weight of a [Longsword] in his right hand evoked combat routines and Sword Forms.

Around went the club, thrown it out wide. Jacob pulled back on his sword even as he shifted his weight to his left leg, raising his right like a crane standing in water.

His sword thrust out, hips twisted to put his