Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (black authors fiction txt) 📕

“Thank you,” I said, kissing her quickly. “Keep your hood up and come back quickly.”

Eris helped Oscar’s wife to Lacuna and set off back to the farms. All right, someone left in a hurry, so let’s see if they left anything I can use to find out where Darren went.

I had no proof, but Darren had bragged about his boss, someone who was incredibly wealthy and was buying up things of value. I had a hunch that they were connected to the attack on Gloom-Harbor. The Order of the Dawn weren’t cheap, and there can’t be that many faceless people throwing around that kind of money. My gut is telling me they’re connected.

But despite my hunch, I couldn’t find any evidence to support my theory. All of the papers I went through were nothing of import, just bills of sale for several slaves. Though the prices were a little high.

“Damn.” Nothing here. But it’s a lead of sorts. Maybe throwing Darren’s name around will scare up some info.

I finished going through everything and sighed in defeat. Laying back on the bed, I waited for Eris to return. A blinking notification told me when she’d returned the kidnapped wife.

Quest: Find Oscar’s Wife

Completed!

Reward: 3500 Exp!

 

Wait, what?

I could have sworn that it was only three hundred and fifty experience for the quest. Just to double-check I hadn’t misread the quest, I pulled up my interface logs and went to the original quest. Yep, it says three-fifty all right. What the actual fuck?

I thought back to whatever presence took hold of Eris. It said I wouldn’t survive as I was. Is this its way of helping me?

 

Exp: 4800/4800

Level Up!

10 Stat points available.

Level: 49

Exp: 1000/4900

 

I wasn’t in the mood to deal with my stats, and I quickly assigned them to both Strength and Constitution, bringing them both to one hundred. My head was reeling from the implications of what I should have realized much sooner. The only thing that can affect the world like this is the governing AI. The serpent which devours itself? Ouroboros.

Why Ouroboros wanted to bend the rules of the game world to help me, I couldn’t fathom, but I didn’t like it one bit. I don’t have a clue, but guess I shouldn’t complain. I’m leveling faster than anyone else ever has before, so why does it leave a pit in my stomach?

Eris returned while I was grappling with myself, trying to make sense of everything and failing. I was missing too much information, and what little clues I did have weren’t enough to make any headway. Whatever, figure it out later when I have more info. There are other things I have to deal with right now.

Eris walked in with a big smile, carrying two rabbits. “Hello, love. I brought dinner,” she said, glowing with pride.

“Excellent, I’m starving.”

I prepared the rabbits in the unused kitchen. This was a safe house of sorts, but the utensils in the kitchen were spotless, and the rather impressive spice rack was completely untouched. I grabbed some fresh logs from the woodpile just outside the house and got a fire going in the woodstove. Next came cleaning the rabbits.

Eris watched me as I carefully peeled the skin from the meat and removed the organs. The pair of rabbits were plump, and even if rabbit wasn’t my favorite, they’d both make good meals.

“I’m impressed. I didn’t know you could hunt.”

“Well, it’s not that impressive, unfortunately. I took control of a few of my little ones, and it was easy to find the rabbit den. After that, I used a few of my wandering spiders to sneak in and bite the rabbits.”

I was still impressed. Her magic really is incredible. Her only downfall is how weak she is right now. As soon as she gets stronger, she’ll be amazing.

Once the rabbits were cleaned. I discarded the offal and rubbed a blend of herbs into the meat before I threw them on the skillet to fry.

“Eris, could you peel the potatoes, please?”

“Of course,” she said, beaming.

She got to work on the potatoes and veggies while I coated the cast iron skillet in a mixture of butter and animal fat. The grease popped as the pan heated up. Eris hummed while she worked, and even though there was plenty of room in the kitchen, she kept close enough that her arm rubbed against my own several times.

I cooked the meat and boiled the potatoes while I threw in the carrots, onions, and a half clove of garlic to the pan along with more butter and a dash of flour to make the roux. When it was done, I mashed the potatoes and poured the thick roux over them with a fried rabbit for each of us.

While I got the table ready, Eris went outside and brought back a wineskin half her size. She set it by the kitchen counter and went and retrieved two tankards in one of the cabinets.

“Oscar gave it to us after I brought Mira back to him.”

“Well, all things considered, it was the least he could do.”

She smacked my arm. “Don’t be rude.”

“The man helped set us up, yet I’m the rude one?”

Eris laughed and sat down next to me. “Of course, you are, love. Now let’s eat. I’m famished.”

Without waiting on me, Eris tucked in with vigor and devoured the food. Even if Oscar betrayed us, his beer was almost worth it, and I drank half my weight in it before my stomach begged me to slow down.

Halfway through dinner, I began to feel a little off. I chalked it up to the copious amount of alcohol I drank and slowed down, but the feeling persisted. By the time dinner was over, I was certain something was off; my breathing increased, and