Crossroads: A LitRPG Cultivation Series (Towers & Rifts Book 3)
CROSSROADS
©2021 NEPHILIM NIGHT
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the authors.
Aethon Books supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact editor@aethonbooks.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Aethon Books
www.aethonbooks.com
Print and eBook formatting, and cover design by Steve Beaulieu. Artwork provided by Fernando Granea
Published by Aethon Books LLC.
Aethon Books is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead is coincidental.
All rights reserved.
ALSO IN THE SERIES
BEGINNER QUEST
CRAFTING DEATH
CROSSROADS
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Epilogue
Thank you for reading Crossroads
ALSO IN SERIES
LitRPG stuff!
LitRPG
Chapter One
“If you only had listened to me, you wouldn’t be in this predicament, now would you?” Melina nagged. “Men! So hotheaded and annoying at times!”
“Say what? It was you who insisted on coming with me, you damn woman!”
Melina stormed up to me and hit me with her closed fan. It bounced off my shoulder, but I had to be honest and admit it hurt.
“You don’t get to call me a damn woman!”
I sighed and waved her off, not interested in arguing anymore. Sure, what could go wrong if you took your woman out camping in the middle of a dangerous zone with an infinite number of monsters, and to top it off, you didn’t have a shower, a toilet, or any of the other things that made life easy?
“Sit still and wait for me. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“Fine! You jerk! I want to go home!”
“Alright! I’ll take you home when I’m back!”
The issue wasn’t getting home; well, it was in a way since we couldn’t get past a monstrous creature that had taken it upon itself to prevent us from going back. Sure, I would be able to kill it if I got the damn towers to work, but even then, with Melina around, it would be hard.
She had changed over the last weeks, even more so than I had. It would have been an easy thing to say that I had the bigger reason to change with all that was resting on my shoulders. Even more so after all the horrible things I had done since we got the ultimatum, but she was the person I depended on most to keep my sanity, so she felt all my pain in an almost equal measure.
The main problem was that every single person affiliated with me had an important task, including taking care of the rift base, keeping a presence in the city, and providing order in the tower. Ordinary hunters had been coming through the rift, and we were always filled out with strangers, which only made me want to get out even more. For longer periods at a time.
I was short of ore and all kinds of ingredients to try to finalize the first tower. I had no idea how the previous owner had managed to make four of them in such a short time, or maybe they had come already constructed. Not that it mattered now.
I sat down after walking for several minutes and opened the requirements to double-check one last time. My mind wandered so much over the last several days that I was becoming forgetful, and I didn’t like that at all.
NAME: Fortress – Tower Nr 1
Requirements:
Enma Crystal Rank 1: 200, Enma Crystal Rank 2: 20
Monster Bone Rank 5: 10, Monster Bone Rank 6: 5
Shilien Ore Rank 1: 20, Shilien Ore Rank 2: 10
Module: 1/0
I had everything but the module, which in turn was very hard to make. I didn’t have any real recipe for creating one, so all I could do was fool around and try to put different things into the crafting window that popped up whenever I selected the Module.
NAME: Fortress – Module: Requirements:
???: ??
I let out a frustrated sigh and shook my head slowly. Things just hadn’t been going well lately. I’d killed one of the two other rift holders, and now two remained. I found another, but the damn creature wouldn’t come out even after I camped for a week straight in its backyard.
I pulled out my trusty halberd and made my way down the steep, steep slope. We’d set up camp atop a small hill, but it had a tall slope, and the clearing was set on a rocky outcrop. At least she’d be safe and would be able to see me pretty far out.
I farmed ore around the craggy area, stashing anything from rank one to rank three into my pouch, and yawned, annoyed by the constant and repetitive things I had to keep doing. It would have been better if someone else did it for me, but most of the people I could send this far out were doing much more important things.
“Veles!” I yelled. Sure, we’d made a bet that I would figure it out on my own, but time was ticking, and every day Melina had to stay here, she was going to nag more and more. “You got a minute?”
A flash of thunder announced her arrival. She appeared in front of me while sitting on Scar, my damn lightning wolf. He and Lana, my wife from a previous life, had joined her permanently. It was a big loss for me, but something had changed after I killed my first two rift holders, and our links to them became much weaker. According to her, they would disappear unless they stayed around her in whatever domain she lived, so we did the best possible thing that we could do and let them go.
“Are you ready to ask me the dreaded question?”
I let out a deep sigh and nodded reluctantly before I took all of her in. She must have had a look at Melina before she dropped by, since she was dressed the same, in a short black sleeveless kimono with lilies painted on the back. She turned her back to me and pointed at her back.
“What? I know what her kimono looks like, Veles.”
“Oh, okay. So what do you want?” she muttered. I must have spoiled her little game or something.
“Where do I find the ingredients for the towers?”
“Hah! I knew you’d give in!” She laughed with that high-pitched tone of hers, which I hated. She’d become more conceited the stronger I got and the better my chances of winning became. They gave me thirty percent now, according to her, and at the start, I had been at a mere one percent. I guessed that some of it should have rubbed off on me as well, but it didn’t.
“I need you to tell me what kind of configurations I can get and where I can find the necessary ingredients.”
“Sure, I will tell you. But keep in mind, you have to do something for me in return.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll make love to you if you’re already so insistent,” I muttered in return.
“Hah! Make sure she doesn’t find out, or you might lose something important down there.” She chuckled. “Jokes aside, the configurations are as follows.
A pop-up appeared before me, and I could clearly read whatever the towers could do at this stage.
NOTICE
Fortress LEVEL 1
Fire Element Level 1
Ice Element Level 1
Lightning Element Level 1
Earth Element Level 1
FORTRESS LEVEL 2
Fire Element Level 1–2
Ice Element Level 1–2
Lightning Element Level 1–2
Earth Element Level 1–2
Cloaking Field Level 1–2
“There are higher-level configurations, but you can’t see them yet. Once you’re at level two, you’ll be able to see what’s available at level three and so on.”
“And to get to level two?”
“You need to have all four active and at level one. Once you do that, you’ll be able to start upgrading them to level two using ingredients.”
I nodded thoughtfully. Now it remained to be seen what the best possible start would be and where to get them. Again, I had to ask her.
“What would you recommend I do? And where can I find the ingredients for the modules?”
She smirked and winked at me. “You’re pretty close, you know. This is the last third-level zone before you enter the fourth-level ones. You’ll have to go inside and explore the caverns. They’re full of elemental ingredients that will also be used for upgrading the towers’ modules.”
“Where is the zone exit?”
“Over there,” she replied and pointed toward an incredibly tall tree. “The fourth zones start past there. And speaking of there, I gotta run now. Be sure that I’ll come to get my reward once you’ve done your first tower.”
She snapped her fingers and disappeared into thin air, leaving me standing there in an even worse mood. I had no idea if she was being honest or if she was just fooling around, but whatever it was, we never knew with her since she was so—no, you couldn’t call her foolish, she was far from that, but she was strange in a way.
I turned back toward the rocky outcrop and started climbing back up. There was no way I could leave Melina by herself up there since I had no idea when I’d be back, and the safest place for her was to be with me anyway. No, that was a lie. Being around me was the most dangerous place.
I sighed as I kept putting one foot before the other and thought about how to tell her the great news. Well, it was great news for me, but for her not so much. I stopped next to several more ore spots and gathered the shilien ore. I was going to need tons of it for all four towers, but at least I’d have something to keep me busy.
Once I arrived at the camping site, the first thing I noticed was Melina sitting there and pouting. She glared at me before I could even say a single word.
“Did you call her, or did she visit you herself?”
“Veles?” I asked innocently.
“Who else? Did she want to ride you again?” she asked with that mocking high-pitched tone. Now it was my turn to glare.
“Enough. I’ve been taking this for the last ten days, but not anymore. If you think I’m not good enough for you or that we need time apart, then tell me. Just stop with the bitching and annoying attitude.”
She looked away as tears started rolling down her cheeks. She looked genuinely hurt, and I could even feel the sadness radiating off her. Shit. Was it because of my harsh words? I didn’t think so, but they might have just pushed her over the edge.
I let out a deep sigh and walked over to her. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind.
“I’m so sick of this!” she screamed once I sat and put my arm around her. “I’m sick of the killing and the hunting! Why can’t we just live our damn lives in peace?”
“Because I made a deal, Melina. We would have all died if I hadn’t,” I replied calmly, but I knew it wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
“I know! It’s just that—I’m so sick of it! Why can’t we take a week off? Enjoy ourselves and behave like an ordinary couple?”
“I didn’t want to give you this thing just yet, but here,” I said and handed her something I’d been working on for two weeks. It needed so many ingredients that I had almost given up on doing it.
“What? Another ring or something?”
I shook my head and pushed the insult aside. Sure, I’d gotten her some jewelry with good stats over the last days, but she wasn’t interested in them. This gift was something else though.
“Do you remember the bunny that dropped the fur?”
“Eww! Yeah, I do. That thing was a monster!”
“Well, I managed to kill four more and combined all their furs into one, along with a heap of other ingredients dropped in the tower. Here, this is for you.”
I stared at the fur pelt and checked its stats one last time before I gave it away.
FLUFFITAUR COAT OF LIFE
HEALTH: 500
ENMA SHIELD: 500
DEFENSE: 100
REFLECT: 10%
“What is—oh my God, that thing is so beautiful!”
“It sure is.” I chuckled. “Put it on and see what it does.”
Melina got hurriedly to her feet and pulled the coat around her shoulders. The edges pulled together and wrapped her in it from head to toe. Only the face was still visible.
“What did you do now, Viktor? I can’t move like this!”
“But look at the stats, silly. And if you want to unequip the thing, just do so. There’s no need to pull it off physically.”
She frowned but did as I instructed, and only then did her eyebrows and the corners of her eyes rise slightly.
“I’m like a tank in that thing.”
“Yeah, you sure are. Do you think we’re ready to have that kid now since you can protect it in there as well? Like a kangaroo?”
“Say what? A kangaroo?”
“Yeah, I mean, you know. It’s like a turtle’s shell, and it will never get dirty.”
She let out a sigh and shrugged.
“If you want to bind me to the inn by getting me pregnant, I’m not interested.”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Then what is it that you’re saying, love?”
I closed my eyes and counted to five before I spoke again.
“She told me where to find the ingredients to finish the first tower. Do you want to come with me? But it could take a while until we’re back home again.”
She shrugged. “We can always use our skill to get back to the inn no matter where we are, right? So does it matter?”
“I guess not,” I muttered. “We’ll be going underground to gather elemental… things. Cores maybe? She said we’ll know once we got them.”
>
Melina stretched her arms and legs before she bent down and started gathering our stuff, stashing most of it into her subspace. Before I knew it, she was ready and stood there with her battle fan in her hand and the white fur draped around her shoulders.
“This thing has several modes, Vik. Don’t tell me you didn’t know about them.”
“Oh, I did. I just thought I’d let you find it out by yourself.” I laughed while having no idea what the hell she was talking about. It did look like a cape of sorts now that it hung down her back. And suddenly, it became much smaller and draped itself around her neck, resembling a shawl.
“Ahh, this one’s best. Now, how about you lead me to our new playground?”
Chapter Two
The craggy layout of the land was starting to get on my nerves by the time we reached the upper third of the zone. Having spent the last few days out here with nothing but ore spots and the occasional monster to kill, I didn’t have much else to do.
We stopped right after passing the invisible boundary that separated the zones. It wasn’t something that was announced in notices, not for a while now. I looked around carefully, studying the layout as we stood beside the tall tree Veles had showed me earlier. It was at least five paces in diameter, maybe slightly more.