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

“Get in. Get in!” Leo called to us from the inside of a black van.

Of course, knowing Leo, I didn’t expect this to be any normal kind of transportation. Even though the entrance to the vehicle was a simple sliding door, inside Leo was sitting behind a huge hexagonal table in the middle of a large brightly lit hall.

“What the fuck, Leo?” I said as I lowered my head to walk into the van, only to realize that I absolutely didn’t need to crouch to fit in there. “Just how much did this thing cost?”

“What is it even?” Louie asked as he levitated himself into it.

“I don’t know how much it cost, because it isn’t mine,” Leo said in all his bright blue pride. “It belongs to the clan, and it’s mostly used as a mobile command center. That’s kind of why we need it tonight.”

“Aye, Firenzian. Nice ride,” Rory said as he pulled himself into the room as well.

Leo pressed a button on the large table and the door closed behind him. The moment the door locked, the car started moving, no doubt being driven by one of the DiFiore’s personal chauffeurs hidden in the driving compartment next to the room we were in.

A few steps led from the floor up to the table. I took a seat at the table and paused to marvel at the extra-dimensional space inside the vehicle. The table in front of us was massive, made of dark wood, with one large screen covering its entire surface. The technology looked a lot like a normal television, but this had to be some kind of custom Apocosmos product.

The walls surrounding the space were filled with bookcases and maps of places I had never heard of, while the ceiling was completely white. It felt like we were standing in the middle of a factory.

“Talk about spacious, Leo!” I said and my eyes fell on the layout of a building being shown on the screen.

“It is great, but we need to be back before dawn,” he said and clenched his teeth awkwardly.

“Did ye steal yer parents’ car, boy?” the dwarf managed to say before he burst out laughing.

“Don’t worry about that. Let’s focus on what we’re doing tonight.”

“What did you find out?” I asked. “Or rather what had you already found out?”

“The people who attacked you are using an LED sign warehouse in the Bronx as their center of operations, but there’s more to it,” Leo started explaining. “They’ve merged the interior of the place with an extraplanar realm.”

“A fucking dungeon in New York?” Rory said, surprised, which was already a bad sign. Rory was never surprised. “They must be crazy thinking they can keep up with having a plane open for so long.”

“That, or they’ve got enough pull to keep everyone away,” Leo replied.

“What are you guys talking about?” I asked, confused at how casually they were throwing the word dungeon around.

“Dungeons are a complicated thing, lad,” Rory replied. “Ye see, extra-dimensional spaces, much like this one, don’t need to exist exclusively within the confines of a strictly defined space. They can travel within the Cosmos. Dungeons can’t do that, but they can meld with the Cosmos.”

“It’s an instant dungeon, Alex,” Leo interjected. “If you’re a passerby, you’d continue through the Cosmos space as normal, but if you’re one of us, elements of the Apocosmos will be visible.”

“Oh, that’s simple,” I said. “Why couldn’t you say so, Rory?”

“The fuck is an instant dungeon? I was trying to explain to ye how the two realms are merged but it seems ye’re too daft to get it.”

“So what are we dealing with here?” Louie put us back on track.

“There are three more people in the group. You said there were five who initially pulled you in, minus the three that broke into your house leaves two. So the third one must be their boss or whatever. But that’s the least of our problems,” Leo continued. “The place is festering with monsters. I wasn’t joking when I said it’s an instant dungeon.”

“Just how were you able to get this information?” Louie asked. “And how strong are these monsters?”

“I have a guy who regularly goes into all kinds of places and people don’t mind him at all,” Leo said, wearing a suspicious smile. “And I don’t have a list of the monsters, but he said that it’s nothing we won’t be able to handle ourselves.”

I had a pretty good idea of who Leo was talking about and I was more than happy to trust any information Leo himself felt he could trust. However, he still hadn’t mentioned anything about the layout we were seeing on the screens.

“So a monster-infested neon light warehouse, with three people at the end of it?” I tried to summarise the facts. “Is this a map of the place?”

“Yes and no,” Leo replied with pressed lips. “Dungeons that merge with the Cosmos take up the same actual physical space but in multiple layers. You can think of them as dungeon floors. Once you reach the end of the first physical warehouse, you’ll transition to the next one, starting from the entrance of the warehouse again. All of those layers use this exact layout I got from the real-estate agency that sold this place to them.”

“How many layers are there?” Rory asked.

At the same time, Louie threw in a question of his own. “What do you know about these three people? One of them was half-infernal.”

“Three layers at least that I know of. Though, I’m not sure if there are more and I have no doubt that once we reach the first, they’ll know we’re coming for them,” Leo replied to Rory and then turned to face Louie. “Your guess is as good as mine. My source has only heard the sixth person, but never seen them. Let’s put a pin in that for now, ’cause I don’t like unknown variables.”

“The warehouse plan seems pretty straightforward,” I said. “How do we proceed then? Head straight