Lost Portals Read online

  Czarzakian Multiverse Online:

  LOST PORTALS

  LitRPG Omniverse 1

  By Bruce X. Brown

  Copyright © 2019 by Czarzakian Press

  Cover art by Alin_winter (sketchmob) & germancreative

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Czarzakian Press

  www.bruceXwrites.com

  [email protected]

  “Dedicated to those who dare to explore the wall and the frame holding the picture of reality.”

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: Artifact of the Lost Portal

  Chapter 2: The Gatekeeper of the Lost Portal

  Chapter 3: Noob Scavengers go Into the Lost Portal

  Chapter 4: Priest’s Lost Memory

  Chapter 5: Classified // Lost Portal Files

  Chapter 6: His Ex-Wife is a Player Killer

  Chapter 7: HMB While I Make a Plan

  Chapter 8: This is a LitRPG novel.

  Chapter 9: Gina’s Surprise

  Chapter 10: Simulated Family Cult

  Chapter 11: Sam’s Car is Gone

  Chapter 12: The Detour

  Chapter 13: Lady Blades’ Gang

  Chapter 14: Portal Mage 1 (tutorial)

  Chapter 15: Welcome to First Town

  Chapter 16: Welcome to First Town Jail

  Chapter 17: Priest the Cleric & Game Master

  Chapter 18: Save Your Friends

  Chapter 19: Attack on First Town

  Chapter 20: Fate of Xavier

  Chapter 21: The Personal Reality Subset

  Chapter 22: Lady Blades Audio Log 1

  Chapter 23: A Warrior Training

  Chapter 24: Lady Blades Audiolog 2 - Escape

  Chapter 25: Fire Mage Training

  Chapter 26: Lady Blades Audio log 3

  Chapter 27: First of the Mana-Born

  Chapter 28: Whining Bitch Recon

  Chapter 29: Plan & Preparation

  Chapter 30: MedBay 5

  Chapter 31: Director Giordano’s Advice

  Chapter 32: Nothing to Lose

  Chapter 33: Pip’s Lunch Break

  Chapter 34: Warriors are idiots

  Chapter 35: The Alley Behind the Seamstress shop

  Chapter 36: Warrior vs Laundry Lady

  Chapter 37: Training Module For the Portal Mage

  Chapter 38: Meeting the Governor

  Chapter 39: A Portal Diverted

  Chapter 40: Seek Refuge

  Chapter 41: Battle in the Forsaken Sands

  Chapter 42: Pawns of a Queen

  Chapter 43: To the Celestial Parasite

  Chapter 44: Chosen by Her Holy Infestation

  Chapter 45: Queen’s Checkmate

  Chapter 46: Consumed by Wyrm Herself

  Chapter 47: Grandma Snitch

  Chapter 48: Like Family

  Chapter 49: Priest’s GM Suspension

  Chapter 50: Angel’s Face

  Chapter 51: System Credits at The Cross Roads

  Chapter 52: 30 Pieces of Silver

  Chapter 53: Candle in the Wind

  Chapter 54: Leaving Elven Reich

  Chapter 55: Memories from the Lost Portal

  Chapter 56

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About Bruce X. Brown

  Chapter 1:

  Artifact of the Lost Portal

  He remembered his fiancée saying: “Don’t do it. If you go on that quest, I’ll lose you. How is it even a game if you can go into a coma?”

  He wanted to take her by the shoulders and tell her, “Debra, it’s more than a game. It’s a simulation of all variations of reality. We make scientific discoveries there. We experience cosmological events there. And we explore the boundaries of reality. I am an explorer enlisted in the Game Master Corps.”

  “You could have gotten engaged with a scientist who logs in to the system to study the space-time near a star. You could have gotten engaged with a National Game League pro who logs in to seek glory in eSports in the system. But you chose a serviceman who explores the system’s interpretation of reality. I explore parallel dimensions in the multiverse. I explore infinity.”

  He wanted to say all of that. But those were all things she already knew. So, he stood there watching her cry. He couldn’t blame her for caring about him. The job took a huge toll on family and friends.

  She shook her head, “I can’t watch you go into a coma by playing this game. I want a husband, not a ‘lost hero’.” It was the last thing his fiancée said before she walked out. Her words kept playing over and over in his mind.

  The user, Phaze6, considered this as he looked down at the key embedded in a dingy metallic alien Pharaoh sarcophagus. His heart was beating. He tightened his black gloves and checked his stealth armor to prepare for the quest. Normally, he would grab the key and try to use it to get in the door on the other side of the room. The “Gatekeeper” would guard that door.

  It sounded like an easy quest, but so far, the Gatekeeper had proven to be impossible to beat. She was “level unknown”. She was too strong and too fast. But Developer 161 had an idea to get around the “Gatekeeper” problem.

  The developer moved in closer to examine the key. The bow of the brass skeleton key was shaped like a dream catcher so the members of the Game Masters Corps called it the ‘dream catcher key’. She moved an eyepiece over thick spectacles to get a closer look at the source code behind the simulation, “It’s a portal device,” she said adjusting the eyepiece and looking at Phaze6, “the Artifact of the Lost Portal quest description seems more like a riddle. It offers no specific direction on how to have success. It implies opening a door with the key. In previous lost portals, system users walk through and their physical body’s go into a coma. So, just stick to my plan. Do not open a portal with the key. Just get the key to the Developer Lab.”

  Phaze6 nodded, “Got it. Don’t stand and fight the Gatekeeper. Just grab the key and run. For the record, this will be my 42nd attempt on this quest. The Gatekeeper usually kills me before I get to the door. I’m kinda tired of dying here. For the sake of our brothers and sisters who are still stuck in those lost portals… I hope this works.”

  Developer 161 said, “The Gatekeeper is too strong for any of us to fight head on. My theory is that the system did it on purpose. I don’t think we are supposed to fight the Gatekeeper. And if you create a portal and walkthrough, you may end up in a coma. And the door on the other side of the room is either a decoy or another lost portal. So, get the key and run.”

  Phaze6 stared at the key and thought about his fiancée. He missed her a lot but, as a level 20 portal mage, he had become one of the only players in the Game Master Corps good enough to take on this quest. Phaze considered some of his friends who had taken on these high risk classified “lost portal” quests. The “lost heroes” is what they called them. If they went into the portals, their minds did not return. Their body remained comatose in a sustainment pod. There were seven of them total with the longest victim in a coma for almost a year now. They had left grieving parents, spouses and children. For their sake, he wanted the satisfaction of “beating the boss of the level” as old gamers would say. They didn’t even know if beating the Gatekeeper would free those trapped in the lost portals. Developer 161 was right, no one could beat this creature. Hopefully, this new p
lan would be enough to get the dream catcher key to the lab. On the brink of taking on the hardest quest of his career serving in the Game Master Corps, the risk of being in a coma was real.

  Phaze6 thought about her words, “I can’t watch you go into a coma by playing this game. I want a husband, not a ‘lost hero’.”

  Developer 161 put a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry... we’ll figure it out. Just get the key to the lab.”

  Phaze6 closed his eyes and clutched her hand, “Thank you.” The developer stepped back into the darkness and let him take over. He stood there alone with the key and the sarcophagus.

  Through small gaps of the stone walls, the Czarzakian moons cast a dim light over the ancient alien catacombs. The silver light in the darkness made the beads of sweat on his forehead look like glimmering pebbles. Elite gamer units from the Game Master Corps lined the circular wall awaiting his signal. User Phaze6 had been on the Artifact of the Lost Portal quest many times now and he still could not make out the sculptures on the walls. It seemed like the stone figures were beings from other worlds whose reward for defeat was to become decorative trophies of the lost portal catacombs.

  Phaze looked over at the twenty users of the Game Master Corps lining the walls and nodded. Then he grabbed the dream catcher key and ran to escape through the maze of catacombs.

  When Phaze6 lifted the key and the eyes of the sarcophagus glowed green and the catacomb lit up. The light showed a floor littered with bones, skulls and the refuse of decaying corpses being attended to by mutant millipedes and green worm cockroaches.

  The system provided the quest to all participants in the catacombs. They could access a full description in their peripheral vision via their system interface and they could also hear the system tell them:

  New Quest: Artifact of the Lost Portal

  Have you ever asked, “what is my purpose?” “what is the meaning of this life?”

  There is a key to these existential questions.

  By taking the key, you have accepted the Artifact of the Lost Portal Quest. Any sentient life who holds this key holds access to the burden of awareness. Your access must be earned.

  Reward: Open a door of awareness for your species.

  Failure: The death of all quest participants in the catacombs.

  Difficulty: Very Hard

  A beam of light came from a keyhole across the room. The lid of the sarcophagus slid free and black smoke billowed out. Without hesitation, a Game Master Corps serviceman leaped off the wall and plunged his weapon deep into the guts of the sarcophagus. The spear went into the casket, but the point of the spear came out of a portal across the catacomb room right next to Developer 161. The point went right through Developer 161’s stomach. She gripped the pole and went limp. The portal had not been there before. It disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

  A system message informed them of the first of many casualties:

  Critical hit! Death_Night Spearman impaled Developer 161 for 120 points of damage!

  Death_Night Spearman killed Developer 161.

  The developer would respawn back at the lab in Universe Set .000. Her role in this quest was over for now.

  Something yanked the spearman inside of the sarcophagus down into what sounded like a bottomless pit. The Game Master Corps units heard his scream fade out into a sickening Doppler effect telling the story of a long and lethal drop.

  Phaze6 was weaving his way around traps and avoiding dead ends but was still within range to hear the screams of his companions. Just ahead of him, a portal opened in the ceiling and a body shot out. The body hit the uneven stone floor with a loud crack as the skull split open like a coconut. Phaze covered his face from the goo of brains spraying out painting the ceiling, floor, and walls. The distorted face on the flattened body looked familiar, but Phaze jumped over it and kept running. He could not use his portal gun until he was out of the catacombs. Once he was out, he would go straight to the Developer Lab. Hopefully, the Game Master Corps units could hold the Gatekeeper long enough to allow him to escape.

  The system notified the players:

  Death_Night Spearman takes 2796 points of fall damage.

  Death_Night Spearman has died.

  The Gatekeeper leaped out of the sarcophagus. She was a creature with no discernable stats or class.

  Gatekeeper, level unknown

  Role(s): Unknown

  HP: Unknown

  Mana: unknown

  Strength: unknown

  Stamina: unknown

  Dexterity: unknown

  The Gatekeeper was a bald monk in a simple drab maroon robe. Bright neon tattoo fractals covered her dark skin. She was casting portals without a portal device, which was something the Game Master Corps and Developers did not know was even possible.

  Three soldiers ran at the Gatekeeper emptying a clip of hollow points on full automatic. The Gatekeeper opened two more portals: a portal input received the rain of bullets, and a portal output on the side of the soldiers returned their bullets to their flank.

  Soldier Jonas Other has committed suicide.

  Soldier 689 has committed suicide.

  “This is a portal discipline known as standard in,” the Gatekeeper waved a hand and seemed to throw a portal beneath the fallen soldiers. “And standard out,” she finished waving a hand again to drop the bodies of the soldiers somewhere far away within the catacombs.

  “RaaaAAAaaagh!!” A Game Master Corps dreadnought class tank charged the Gatekeeper. She was over 2 meters tall made of solid muscle at level 50 with over 4000 in health point capacity. The Gatekeeper ducked the tank’s huge fist. She smashed a stone statue into dust.

  The second punch would have connected to the Gatekeeper’s face but she opened up a small portal for the dreadnought’s arm to fit through. She yanked her arm out of the portal cauterized to the bicep, “Aaaaah!” The dreadnought yelled and stumbled back staring at the charred stump.

  Dreadnought Balar is in shock after she lost her arm and 23% of her health.

  “That portal discipline is ‘standard error’,” the Gatekeeper said as she drop-kicked the tank through a portal she’d cast just behind the giant. The Game Master Corps units rushed the Gatekeeper all at once.

  Phaze6 could see the light of the exit just ahead. He stowed the dream catcher key in his cargo pocket and pulled out his portal gun to double check the settings. The coordinates were set for the Developer Lab, Universal Set .000. He was so close. In 42 attempts, this was the furthest they’d ever gotten in the quest. He’d had his doubts but Developer 161’s plan was the most successful yet.

  Phaze jumped through and rolled out of a room booby-trapped with swirling flames. As he ran, he found he could barely see. Something dripped from the ceiling and into his eyes. He wiped the liquid from his brow and blinked it away as he ran. His palm came away red. Blood? But it wasn’t his blood. His health was at 100%.

  The blood trickled and then pour from the ceiling until the floor was slick with it. He slipped on the blood and fell on his back. A severed arm fell from the ceiling then a bloody leg. A storm of severed limbs and organs rained down from portals in the ceiling. A human head dropped in his lap. It was Developer 161. Pain contorted the once peaceful motherly face. He shoved the head away.

  “Oh, shit!” The parts of bodies kept coming down until they blocked the light of the exit. He slipped on the bloody floor and fell back in the prone position buried in the dismembered corpses of the best the Game Master Corps had to offer. They were a GMC Special Forces unit known as team MarySue. They were strong, beloved and seemingly able to do all quests. But now they were ‘bodied’ by one boss. Phaze6 was crawling through their dissected remains toward a pin-prick of light.

  Chapter 2:

  The Gatekeeper of the Lost Portal

  Phaze6 pulled himself out of the tangled pile of bodies drenched in the blood of his fellow servicemen. The fine dirt of the exoplanet clung to the gore on his face making a dark reddish paste. Exhausted, he laid
flat on the ground and took a deep breath outside of the catacombs. He sucked in bits of black dust and coughed. He looked up from the ground and saw the leather boots of the Gatekeeper.

  “Congratulations,” the Gatekeeper said. With an expression that was unblinking and void of mirth, she gave a slow clap. Phaze’s heart was pounding as he realized the quest was not over. The Gatekeeper continued, “This is the first time the Game Master Corps has gotten the key out of the catacombs of the Czarzakian exoplanet. But we don’t think you or your version of sentient life is ready.”

  Phaze jumped to his feet and opened a portal to the Developer Lab but the Gatekeeper kicked him backward through a different portal. When he went through, he was falling up head first into a gaping valley. The walls of the valley had long sharp black spires that curved away and disappeared into the sky. The valley floor was a flat plane of vast white. He slammed on to a spongy wet ground. His portal gun fell out of his hand and slid away.

  Phaze6 has lost 3% of his health points from fall damage.

  The Gatekeeper was already there, hands tucked behind her back waiting for him, “Humanity is not ready for what lies within the lost portal. It might damage them if they saw it too soon. We cannot even give them a peek because it’s something they cannot unsee.”

  He blinked hard, shook his head, and the world went right side up. Phaze got to his feet. He glanced at his portal gun. It was in between him and the Gatekeeper.

  “We just want our people back,” Phaze said. He walked slowly forward with eyes locked on the Gatekeeper hoping to distract her with conversation as he moved closer to the gun. “We have people who’ve gone into those lost portals and they haven’t come back. In our world, their physical bodies are in a coma. We think the game has some kind of glitch. We’re just trying to fix it.”

  The Gatekeeper said, “The humans of this story don’t realize the scope of their own reality. They THINK they know but they really do not understand.”

  Phaze6 walked closer, “You are not making any sense right now, Gatekeeper. Who are you talking to? This could be part of the glitch we need to fix. That’s why I have to hold on to the key.”