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

but he figured with the shortcut they found through the catacombs, he was ahead enough. It took Alec 3 days just to clear the asylum.

With a glance across the Pyre to Camilla, he saw that the elven woman was already fast asleep. Jacob shrugged, shut his eyes, and joined her in peaceful slumber.

No dreams of Kim came to him, just restful sleep. He felt revitalized and full of energy when he awoke to see Camilla stretching and yawning.

September 1st, 2035 – 12 days remain before the Collapse.

So, with 9,505 Souls left, Jacob stood up.

Camilla caught the motion and looked at him curiously. “I’m guessing the Cairn dispels the enchantment. What are you doing?”

“I’m going to die,” he said brightly. “Want to come watch?”

This is going to suck.

17

“This is ridiculous,” Camilla said, struggling to keep up with Jacob’s determined stride. “You know this isn’t a game right?”

She kept up the constant talk ever since they left the Pyre.

“I’m aware,” Jacob said. Even though he knew he would be fine, dying was still going to hurt. But he needed to know how much damage those things did and so he donned his knight’s armor and descended into the upper levels of the Desecrated Catacombs.

An area that most people sprinted through, going so far as to shed their armor so they could run faster and longer.

“You’re going to willingly die, just to learn how much damage they deal to you?”

“That’s the gist of it,” Jacob agreed. As the sloping path evened out, Jacob found what he was looking for in the distance. A plain pile of bones lying on the ground, not too dissimilar from the ones that marked the entrance to the Pyre.

Except, Jacob knew that these bones weren’t harmless decoration.

“Just stay over there,” he warned. “I’ll be back in a moment to pick up my wisp.”

Swallowing hard, he dismissed his shield and took his [Longsword] in a two-handed grip. He had to quell every survival instinct as alarm bells rang in his head, warning him of impending danger.

Teeth grit, knuckles white beneath his gauntlets as he strangled the grip of his sword, Jacob walked forward onto the dark cavern floor.

The first thing he noticed was how oppressively dark it was. His body, which naturally gave off a small radius of illumination was severely weakened. Darkness held fast even five feet away and at double that all he could see was a blanket of black velvet.

As he approached the bones he saw several loculi, shelves roughly hewed out of the cavern walls to house the remains of the dead. Just as he thought, the bones in front of him began to quiver.

Normally, he would have enough time to run past before they reassembled. But his goal wasn’t to run into the warren of twisting, confusing tunnels with as many dead ends as fatal drops into the abyssal darkness. He was here to die and to learn.

Rattling bones gathered together and formed a complete skeleton, its bony hand already gripping a rusted saber. Foregoing any Sword Forms, Jacob bashed his [Longsword] against the thing’s ribs.

Several cracked, the blade swept through the creature’s spine and broke apart the thing before it could bring its saber to bear. The two halves hit the floor a moment later, breaking apart into disparate pieces.

It only took a few moments for them to rattle again, rejoining faster this time. The skeleton was back on its feet and more eager than ever to visit some revenge on Jacob. It cut sideways with the saber, a blow he instinctively parried with his blade.

The ring of steel on steel echoed in the chamber, waking up more skeletons. Jacob cursed himself and dismissed his blade, spreading his arms wide. He was terrified but remained resolute.

No matter how many times he might die in Pyresouls Online, it would hurt every time and was a truly frightening experience that nobody in their right mind would want to repeat.

In sacrificing himself this once, he would prevent further deaths. That thought alone gave him a measure of solace that instantly evaporated like fog before the noonday sun when the skeleton’s saber took him in the throat.

The brief spike of fear and pain was blessedly short as the rusted blade of the saber severed his spinal cord and everything went dark.

You Died.

Jacob awoke at the Pyre with a start, his hands immediately flying toward his throat. The Fire Oppa gave him a curious expression. “Find what you were looking for?”

“I did,” he said shakily, pushing to his feet. “I’ll be back soon.”

Camilla was where he left her, from her vantage point she watched as he approached the emerald wisp that held his Souls. Jacob leaned forward to grasp it and the wisp suddenly attacked.

It shifted between two different forms, the harmless wisp ahead of him and this strange puffy thing with sharp teeth.

“What the fu-”

“Jacob, hurry up!” Camilla cried.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw her point. His gaze traced the source of her distress to the rattling pile of bones that had reset in his absence.

The two images of the wisp shifted and shimmered, and Jacob reached forward regardless. The second image of the wisp faded into a puff of smoke and he felt the reassuring presence of his wisp as it was absorbed.

Souls Retrieved.

He beat a hasty retreat soon after, running up the sloping ramp of stone all the way back to the Pyre. Even if the skeleton followed him, it couldn’t enter the immediate safe zone of the Pyre so long as Jacob was there.

“Did you find out what you wanted to know?” Camilla asked, crossing her arms and staring at him. It was clear she was trying to decide whether or not he was crazy.

Bringing up his log, Jacob saw that he wasn’t that far off from preventing a one-shot. The skeleton dealt 148 damage to him, well over double what the Graceful Penitents did and they hit pretty hard. And back then he was wearing the robes with horrible defense.

No wonder