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

wasn’t looking good. I tapped on the message and the filter screen appeared. I removed the Ratings filter but still got the same message, which probably meant that there were none available for the price I’d input in my state. For the sake of being sure that the tablet was working well, I added New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. It turned out it was working fine but the results were far worse than I’d hoped for. There was only one result that met my price range, recipe availability, and area selections.

Name : Rory Battleforge

Level : 43+

Max Rec. Level : 5+

Realm : Cosmos

Area : Newark - New Jersey

Available Rec. : Click to expand [+]

Rating : 2.1/5.00 (97k)

I knew I didn’t have any choice either way, but this guy’s stats seemed extremely peculiar. For starters, his level was high and he had a lot of reviews under his name, but the average rating of his reviews was concerningly low. And then, there was his name. Suspicious and slightly excited about what kind of person might have such a last name, I tapped on it for more information.

Name : Rory Battleforge

Race : Dwarf

Class : Mastersmith

Level : ???

Holy fuck! A real-life dwarf. In fucking Newark, of all places!

I tried to cool my head for a moment and recalled his crafter stats page. Just because he was a dwarf, that alone wasn’t reason enough for me to choose him, especially with such a low review score. I tapped on his rating and started to read the reviews there. The most recent reviews were overwhelmingly positive, with the occasional mention of the dwarf’s social skills as a negative. For the most part, however, his crafting skills were impeccable. It wasn’t until I scrolled down to much older reviews that the one-stars appeared. And there were a lot of negative ones.

Most of them had no text attached to them, though the few that did, didn’t help me understand much. They were mostly cryptic and aimed at the crafter himself rather than future potential buyers, with phrases like “you know what you did”, “we will never forget”, and others calling him a traitor and a coward. It seemed to me like these reviews might be quite personal, especially since some of the reviewers had the same last name as the crafter himself. Battleforge. This looked a lot like the guy got review-bombed for whatever reason.

Not having any other choice, and making a mental note to mention his low score, I tapped the contact icon to open up a text field and wrote him a message.

Dear Mr. Battleforge,

My name is Alexander MacFie, and I’m contacting you as I would be interested in working with you on crafting level 3 recipe items. However, before we can commence our collaboration, I would like to inquire about a topic that has troubled me as I looked at your crafter profile.

Should you be interested in this business opportunity, and wouldn’t mind answering a couple of questions, please get back to me.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Alexander MacFie

I tapped the Send button and waited idly for a few seconds before I realized that the dwarf might not be available immediately, so I decided to make myself a cup of coffee. A frozen glass of freddo espresso would be just what I needed to wake my mind up. Yet before I was even able to fill my glass with ice cubes, the notification light started flashing on the DEM tablet. I set my glass to the side and tapped on the tablet. The dwarf had already replied.

Are you a Celt, son?

I don’t like talking business over texts.

I’ll be at your place in an hour or so.

My place? As if I’d be stupid enough to send him my address. If I’d learned anything about the Apocosmos, it was that it was a dangerous place where the strong preyed upon the weak. Meeting in person in a public place would be a far better idea. And I would probably be able to judge his character better than simply through reading his texts. Perhaps I’d even answer his question about my ancestry. But first, I had to think of a safe place to meet and talk. I imagined a dwarf would attract other people’s attention and that was the last thing I wanted. Not wanting to keep the man waiting any longer, I drafted my reply.

Mr. Battleforge, I think it would be best that our first meeting is held in a neutral, public ground. I can see you are living in Newark so perhaps you would like to meet half-way? I am sure you can understand why I would prefer not to meet in my private residence.

Looking forward to your reply.

I tried to keep my response honest, but still formal. I knew nothing of the man and this being a strictly professional conversation, I wanted to respond with that in mind. This might very well be a test to see how naive I was as a businessperson. I was definitely wet behind the ears when it came to Apocosmos business—the Apocosmos in general for that matter—but I was determined not to let this show.

I heard Louie howl as I turned on the coffee mixer.

“Can you possibly be any louder?” he shouted from the bathroom and I heard the door shut behind him.

“Sorry!” I shouted and for the first time felt how my parents probably felt in my teenage years when hiding behind closed doors was one of my favorite pastimes.

The notification light on the tablet was blinking again so I picked it up right after I put a straw into my masterpiece of a coffee. Upon reading the message, I almost dropped my glass.

If you didn’t want to meet at your place, you should have made your address private, son.

See you in less than an hour.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I shouted.

My address has been set to public all