In Service of the Pharaoh (League of Losers Book #2): LitRPG Series Read online

  The veyer froze in place, tiring and unable to keep hold of the backpack, which was heavy even for me. He hovered in place for a moment, then dropped his loot with clear unwillingness. The backpack fell to the stones by my feet.

  “Meow! Meow!” Whiskers continued his hysterics.

  In fitful jerks, the winged boy kept trying to climb higher toward the safety of the window, but his strength seemed to have completely left him. Spreading his wings, the veyer began to slowly descend, gliding and trying to make it beyond the fortress walls. A strange whine caught my attention. I lowered my eyes and saw six new pets rushing to my aid. Five of my own, plus my sister’s crested white female, which jumped down from Julie’s shoulder and rushed to bring the fight to her masters’ enemies. Now we’d see what this lounge of lizards could do.

  “Get him, gang!” I shouted, feeling my blood rise, pointing my axe at the descending thief.

  All six razor-toothed reptiles launched toward the target, some running on four legs and some rising up onto two as they chased toward their prey. They moved with incredible agility, much faster than a man. I wouldn’t want to go toe to toe with that mass of teeth!

  “Stop them, brother! They’re going to eat him!”

  I turned to Julie, about to object that the thief just tried to take everything we had and deserved no mercy. My sister just kept objecting:

  “Come on, please! Don’t kill the kid, brother!”

  “Alright, if you insist…”

  I ran to the veyer’s crash landing site on the fortress wall. He came down hard, rolling across the stones before coming to a stop. He looked badly hurt. I chased off the lizards as they impatiently stretched out their reptilian necks to the fallen prey, licking their lips and whistling in excitement. Just in time! I saw just two or three bites on our unlucky Icarus. Serves him right!

  “Ari unto no tori! Ari tori! Un yava!” the frightened boy jabbered, raising his arms and showing his empty hands.

  “Yeah, I see you don’t have anything now,” I muttered and looked closer at the would-be thief.

  Avir Tan-Hoshi. Veyer. Male. Level 35 Thief.

  He was a young kid, looked between thirteen and fifteen. Emaciated, all skin and bones. Dirty rags that even a homeless man down on his luck wouldn’t have worn. Mussy dark hair, big gray eyes, a sharp face. And two big leathery wings at his back, half-open. It was the wings that I remembered him by. It was the same veyer that I saw in a cage when I met the traveling Cartographer! He must have escaped. Or the Cartographer decided that the thief had been punished enough, and released him from the cage.

  In the meantime, the kid kept on babbling in his own language. He was trying to show me something with gestures, but I couldn’t get what he was saying. Then my sister ran up, crouched down next to the thief and, without a word, began to treat his bites and scrapes with a healing ointment. Our ginger kitten limped over on his three good feet too, settling down to watch the winged creature with interest. He even sniffed him and shook his head with disgust a few times. The stink from Avir Tan-Hoshi was incredible — an acrid bouquet of an unwashed body, rotten food, sweat, musk, piss and a dozen other no less repulsive scents that I couldn’t identify. Even the rain couldn’t overpower the stench. I tried taking a couple of steps back from the source.

  The thief kept jabbering on, pointing a long clawed finger at a sack on his ragged cloth belt and trying to explain something to me. Then he untied the belt and poured out a handful of long bright gray berries. Was he planning to eat them?! They were stinkberries — the same ones I’d been asked to taste-test on my first day at Pan’s Landing. They were disgusting, but they quickly recovered Stamina Points. It seemed Stamina was just what the winged boy was missing. He immediately smiled in satisfaction, bowed low to my sister, who was now done binding his wounds, and then… made a sharp lunge and grabbed my ginger kitten around his belly! He jumped up, spread his wings and began to gain height fast. A frightened “meow!” drifted down from the rain-filled sky, along with a sinister laugh from the treacherous thief. A few seconds passed, then the self-satisfied veyer disappeared through the dark yawning window in the tall tower…

  Chapter 3 [Kitten]

  On the Edge

  A SECOND OF PANIC gave way to extreme surprise. I’d been kidnapped? But why?! Could it be the bonus from my Everyone’s Favorite ability, which made people of all sentient races feel tenderness toward my little fluffy kitten self? But the bonus mostly affected women. And how could this smelly birdbrained moron think that this cute little kitten would stay with him, and not escape at the first chance it got?

  Or was Avir Tan-Hoshi acting on orders from the Cartographer? That traveling merchant sniffed me out right away. He knew I was no pet, and he took an interest in me. Could he have ordered his caged veyer to kidnap me, as a condition for his release? The Cartographer himself couldn’t kidnap me; he had to remain neutral on the face of things, so he could keep passing through the barrier from the wider world into the sandbox and back again.

  In the meantime, the winged veyer had already risen to the upper floors of the old tower, nimbly landed on a narrow ledge and crawled through the window hole, folding up his wings behind him like two fans. My kidnapper laughed and danced a jig, holding me above his head in outstretched arms like I was a cup for winning a game. A madman of some kind… and rotting away in a closed room so stuffy it made my eyes water.

  “Amonti unto!” the veyer announced, placing me on a large and dirty wooden table and holding me down with his hand. While I whined and tried to break free, the winged kidnapper covered me with an old woven basket and then weighed it down with a heavy fire iron, to prevent his weak little prize from escaping the prison.

  Laughing and jabbering away in his own language, the veyer grabbed a rusty old axe leaning against the wall and started to cut firewood, throwing kindling into the almost dead hearth and fanning the fire back to life. It seemed unlikely that my kidnapper was cold — it was a hot summer’s day, and it had been warm and stuffy all evening until the rain began.

  I looked through the rather large holes in the woven basket. Old clay dishes, rusty scissors, a blackened iron pot and a spit for roasting meat. We were in a kitchen. It was starting to look very much like the smelly winged boy was about to cook up a hearty meal. Did that mean I was the main course?! It seemed so. The veyer kept glancing at me hungrily and muttering away excitedly as he chopped some long stems of something that smelled a lot like garlic and some bundles of blue herbs. Preparing the spices for the meat. Once done chopping, he threw the herbs into the empty pot and licked his lips, looking at me like a predator.

  Was I scared when I realized he wanted to eat me? No. More disappointed — I’d been thinking up all kinds of wild scenarios, imagining that I was being captured as a slave, but the truth turned out far less exciting. I even surprised myself — as I watched the veyer cook, I felt no fear, but distant curiosity instead, as if it didn’t concern me in the least. The kidnapper had had his chance to kill me when he held my kitten body in his strong clawed hands. All he had to do was snap my fragile neck and be done with it. But the veyer missed his chance. Now, despite the fact that Avir Tan-Hoshi was a whole sixteen levels above me, I had no doubt that I could deal with him. In addition, my kidnapper carelessly left me alone in the room. He ran off upstairs somewhere with an empty birchbark basket in hand — apparently rushing to fetch water for the pot.

  Well, time to escape. I could turn into an arachnoscorp — in that form, I could even hold a human in my strong chitinous legs, let alone move the basket. But I did something else instead. Transform into snake!

  Transformation Magic skill increased to level ten!

  Now a two-foot-long emerald snake, slender and flexible, I slithered through a gap in the wicker basket, dropped from the table to the stone floor and crept behind some big jugs and pots standing by the wall. Transform back into cat! Stealth! And finally, translucent mode! Of course, I could have crept into another room or even flown o
ut the window in my beetle form, but I wanted to see what would happen next. And a good thing I did — the sight really was entertaining.

  Avir Tan-Hoshi returned to the kitchen with water and poured it straight into the pot. Then he threw in the chopped herbs and even added a pinch of roughly ground salt from a pot on a nearby shelf. Salt!? A valuable resource! I heard from Ashot that there was a serious lack of salt in the river village — they were down to their last crumbs from the old world, so the cook was sparing with it. Avir Tan-Hoshi mixed the water with a wooden spoon and hung the pot over the fire. Finally, it was time to add his hard-won portion of cat. The winged chef picked up his knife, turned and… stared wide-eyed at the empty wicker basket.

  “A mi tur ka vara?” he laughed, baring sharp teeth and picking up a fine piece of kindling. He stuck it through a gap in the basket and started waving it around inside, feeling for the cat who he thought must be hiding in stealth.

  Gradually, the satisfied smirk slipped from the winged thief’s face. With all the care in the world, the veyer slightly lifted one edge of the basket and stuck a hand into the trap. Finally, it got through to the hapless cook that his dinner had slipped away. Oh, how he swore and rampaged around the kitchen, smashing pots and rooting through corners! He wrung his hands, wailed and cried to the heavens for this grievous affront to justice — the kitten, you see, had failed to be eaten! In his despair, the would-be cook threw a knife. It bounced off the stone wall and nearly hit him. The veyer dropped to his knees, emitted a long drawn-out howl and beat his fists against his head hard, damning himself for his carelessness.

  Stealth skill increased to level twenty-one!

  Tireless skill increased to level eleven!

  I glanced at the system messages, then went back to staring at the cringing veyer. He was putting on quite the scene. I would have understood if he really was starving to death, but the thief had downed a whole can of stew only minutes ago when he suddenly landed by the fire. He’d devoured the whole contents of the can in three seconds, stuffing the meat into his mouth with his dirty hands and growling in pleasure. I must admit, I was so surprised by the sight when he landed that I did nothing at all to stop him.

  Well, enough was enough. I was sick of this show. Time to teach my little kidnapper a lesson. In the beginning I’d been preparing myself to fight for my life against a fearsome high-level foe, but now I felt only disgust and pity for this creature. He was a harmless loser. I changed my mind about killing him. But he certainly had to be punished for kidnapping me, so he wouldn’t try it again.

  Curse Magic. Slow! Slow! Slow! Weaken! Weaken! Spending my mana carefully so that I had enough Magic Points to do everything I had planned, I dropped curses on the veyer from stealth. There. Now the little thief was no danger. I carefully slid from cover and slithered toward the bereft chef from behind. Transform into arachnoscorp! Attack! I could easily kill the winged boy with a bite, but instead I decided to paralyze him with a strike of my venomous stinger to his neck. And then, still in my large arachnid form, I wrapped up the veyer’s helpless body in thick sticky thread. All done! Just in time before I turned back into a cat!

  Transformation Magic skill increased to level eleven!

  Mysticism skill increased to level twenty-one!

  Your character is now level twenty!

  Reward: three skill points (total available: six) and one mutation point (total available: nineteen).

  ATTENTION! You have reached level twenty. You can now choose another three skills.

  Finally! I’d been waiting so long for the chance to add some variety to my skillset!

  Thanks to my sensitive ears, I was already sure that the veyer was alone in the tower. I was out of danger. That meant I had a spare moment of peace to think of how best to level up Whiskers. It was worth some careful thought — my next chance to choose more skills was at faraway level fifty. Judging by other players I’d seen, I had to survive at least another half a year in this world full of danger to get there.

  Alright, what did we have to play with?

  Whiskers. Kitten. Male. Sergeant’s pet.

  Class: Hexxer, level 20.

  Character stats:

  Strength 8 (-30% damage dealt in close combat)

  Agility 18 (+20% movement speed, +20% reaction speed, +20% action accuracy)

  ** Due to an injury, Agility is temporarily reduced to 16, bonuses received from Agility stat reduced

  Intellect 22 * Your high Intellect gives your character special abilities

  Perception 18 (+20% range to vision, hearing, sense of smell)

  Physique 15 (No bonuses)

  Luck Modifier -2 * Your low Luck gives your character special abilities

  Character stats:

  Health Points: 187 / 187

  Stamina Points: 381 / 381

  Magic Points: 79 / 79

  Carrying capacity: 2.2 lbs * Inventory unavailable

  Mutagens used: 1 (10 points spent)

  Fame: 1

  Character skills:

  Hand-to-Hand Combat 5

  Curse Magic 70

  Radar Ear 22

  Mysticism 21

  Stealth 21 * Translucency ability

  Soothe 24

  Transformation Magic 11

  Dodge 2

  Tireless 11

  Bookworm 2

  10 of 13 possible skills at level 20 chosen

  Attention! 6 unspent skill points available

  Attention! 19 mutation points available

  I saw right away that there were three skills I practically hadn’t been using, so they hadn’t leveled up. I had no regrets at all over my choice of Bookworm, despite its current low level — I suspected that it would come in handy many times again by allowing me to gain new spells. But Hand-to-Hand Combat and Dodge bothered me. I’d started the game with Hand-to-Hand Combat. Nothing to be done about that. But I’d clearly made a mistake with Dodge — with my playstyle, the skill practically never activated and just took up a valuable slot that I could have used better. I hoped those skills would disappear when my character reached level twenty-five and its class was finally confirmed.

  Alright… What did I need to get stronger? A third type of magic, that was most important right now. Illusions? Healing? Elemental Magic? An easy decision — Elemental Magic, of course! I really needed a way to deal damage — my little kitten couldn’t fight with its puny claws and teeth!

  Level one Elemental Magic skill learned!

  Fiery Spark. Icy Touch. Stoneskin. Wind Blast.

  11 of 13 possible character skills at level 20 chosen.

  Not bad, not bad at all! I tried Stoneskin on myself at once. The buff lasted ten minutes, made my skin tougher and added a +1 bonus to armor. Not much, but it was just the start! Now for Fiery Spark!

  A tiny red flame flickered into life, flew roughly four feet through the air and then went out. Not exactly hellfire and brimstone. But still, I was glad to have the skill.

  Elemental Magic skill increased to level two!

  Hmm, what was this? A game hint told me that I could combine spells of different schools to create new spells by mixing multiple elements, but to do that, I needed the Conjurer skill. Very interesting indeed. I’d need to learn more about that skill!

  But I wasn’t allowed to sit quietly and study the game manual — a strange repeating sound began to carry up from the courtyard beneath, cutting through the sound of the rain. As if someone was periodically coughing, groaning and dragging iron across stone. And the strange noise was coming closer. Light flashed in the window, then an ominous dark form overshadowed a narrow arrowslit. Just in case, I made myself invisible and quickly moved behind the jugs and pots by the wall.

  First a huge arm ending in a claw appeared in the window space. Then I saw a man. Sergeant?! My master had climbed up the rain-soaked wall of the tall stone tower on the Marsh Mistress! The man was risking his life to save his kitten! Truly, I never expected such self-sacrifice from my master; until now, Ser
geant never seemed to care what happened to me.

  Gasping for breath, the big human squeezed through the narrow window and jumped down to the stone floor, torch in one hand and axe in the other. He looked around, tense. Julie climbed through the window after her brother, armed with a harpoon and also ready for decisive action. Of course, they immediately noticed the body wrapped up in spider silk lying by the kitchen table. Damn it! If I’d have known the humans were coming to rescue me, I’d have just played for time. I could have stayed in cat form and let the thief chase me around the old tower, without revealing my skills. Now it would be tough to convince the humans that the winged veyer had somehow just wrapped himself up in spider silk and gone to sleep. This was it. I’d have to own up, admit to everything.

  “Meow!” I said, coming out of hiding.

  “Whiskers! There you are, you mangy thing!” Sergeant said. He breathed a sigh of relief, picked me up and set me on his shoulder. “You’re lucky the spiders didn’t get you too, silly kitten!”

  Sergeant looked around, casting light into the corners of the room with his torch, then turned to his sister.

  “Be careful, Julie! There are giant spiders in the tower! Looks like we arrived just in time and scared them off. And saved this flying thief at the same time.”

  My jaw dropped in surprise. What, I’d gotten away with it again? Even with such clear evidence of my activities? I thought my master was beginning to suspect something back in Orshi-Ur, with Badass, but apparently not. Oh, Sergeant, Sergeant… How much Intellect do you have again..? At least a little more than a plank of wood, right?

  On the other hand, perhaps I was judging too my ‘other-me’ too harshly. The human had courageously climbed up to save me, and never mind that his critically low Luck could have caused him to fall from the arachnoscorp’s back and crash down to the rocks below. So I’d be grateful to him. And just like before, I’d keep saving the big moron’s bacon in my disguise as a fluffy little kitten.