Unbalanced a litrpg adve.., p.1
Unbalanced: A LitRPG Adventure (Class Shift Book 2), page 1
UNBALANCED
CLASS SHIFT BOOK TWO
SEAN OSWALD
UNBALANCED
©2022 SEAN OSWALD
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CONTENTS
Also in Series
1. Broken Dishes
2. Uninvited Guests
3. Regret Makes for Poor Decisions
4. All That’s Necessary
5. In the Light of Morning
6. Preparations
7. Chaotic Build-Up
8. Three Patrons of Christmas Present
9. Signs in the Dirt
10. The Root of the Matter
Interlude 1
11. Holes in the Air
12. Into the Abyss
13. A Frenzy of Ice and Blade
14. Running for It
15. Traps and Dreams
16. A New Build
17. What Goes Bump in the Night
Interlude 2
18. To the Wall
19. Before the Council
20. Mercantile Thoughts
21. Catching Up
22. A New Skill Rod
23. No Rest for the Changing
24. Nothing for Free
25. Tests
26. What Was That?
27. Back Inside the Guild
28. Team 2.0
29. Light Dungeon
30. Letting Loose
31. Doubt and Horrors
32. Can’t Unsee That
33. As an Angel of Light
34. A Fiend of Darkness
35. Truth in Dreams
36. Lewtz
37. Price Multiplied
38. Mouse Cuddles
Interlude 3
39. Next Steps
40. Wrath of Man
41. Betrayal on the Team
42. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Hell Gate
43. Evolution
44. Saying Goodbye
Thank you for reading Unbalanced
Groups
LitRPG
ALSO IN SERIES
Uncontrollable
Unbalanced
CHAPTER 1
BROKEN DISHES
Tim groaned internally. He was not off to a promising start. Cal-Dakota had tasked him with keeping Cecelia close to himself. He’d agreed, because, well, one didn’t argue with god-like beings any more than one had to. But now Cecelia had seen him kissing another woman, and he felt like he’d been caught red-handed.
The thing was, Tim knew he hadn’t done anything wrong. He considered Cecilia a dear friend, but she was like ten years younger than him. She might have a crush on him; heck, it might just be that she expected him to be some mystical messenger of the patrons, whom she worshipped like gods. But either way, Tim expected her to grow out of it.
The broken bowl of chicken noodle soup and now-soggy bread on the floor outside of Kayla’s room said otherwise. She had thought enough of him to bring not just the bowl of water he had asked for to help clean Kayla’s wounds but also food for him. He had only gone up here to heal Kayla. Emotions ran high, and one thing led to another, and soon their lips had been locked. Not that Tim really had time for Kayla either. There was so much more to do.
His current home since arriving in Iocusinte, New Rome, the capital of the Terran nation had just nearly been overrun by a massive army of myemar. The myemar were a literally crooked, humanoid-type monster who seemed intent on killing or capturing and torturing all the humans they encountered. They were on Tim’s shit list from the moment he found a half-chewed bone with one of them. The bone had belonged to a human infant. It was a stark reminder that this was not the type of enemy you could parley with.
If it was a simple as that, Tim would have preferred to be out in the streets fighting the remaining myemar who had not yet withdrawn with the army. Most of them presented no challenge for him. It was one of the perks of being level 19. Not that he had a handle on all of that; it was still something he was growing into.
Instead, the myemar army had mysteriously withdrawn when he had blunted their first attack. Combined with the way the myemar shadow had spoken about Tim like he was some type of chosen one, and Charles’ insistence that all the higher-level sojourners hide for their safety until a council meeting in the morning put Tim’s nerves on edge.
He told himself it didn’t have anything to do with the mark of blood on his hand. He’d tried to wash it off, to no avail. Even magical healing didn’t remove it, although that had been a long shot, since it was more of a tattoo and less of a wound. Still, having a blood-colored mark in the shape of a howling wolf’s head on the palm of his hand was unnerving.
Each of the four patrons of Iocusinte had their own symbol. His own patron, Cal-Dakota, was the patron of gambling, amongst other things, but his symbol was a white rabbit. The myemar didn’t worship any of the four patrons but instead followed someone or something they called Quint. It wasn’t lost on Tim that in a world governed by the Rule of Fours that Quint sounded an awful lot like The Fifth.
So far, the puzzle pieces were too vague for him to put them together for sure, but there was more at play, and Tim felt like a chew toy at the local animal shelter, with each of the dogs taking a turn pulling on him. It didn’t help that the symbol on his hand came when a myemar shadow had allowed itself to be killed, offering its blood to empower him.
Tim pulled up that notification. A part of him had hoped it would fade because then he wouldn’t be forced to make a decision.
Quest: The Crucible of Consumption
A myemar shadow has offered its life in sacrifice to you. It wished for you to take the power of its blood. Do you wish to accept?
Yes or No
Reward: Gain the power of Consumption (1). This will enable you to absorb a small portion of the power of your foes. As you develop the power further, you will take on their aspects, and even their traits.
“Crucible” would seem to imply that it was a test. But a test of what? And perhaps more importantly, a test applied by whom?
On one hand, accepting this offer was obvious. Anything that made him stronger was all right with Tim. And the description did say foes, so it didn’t imply that he was going to go around sucking the blood of friends. Further, it was only a level-one ability, so it had room for growth. That was the best type of ability.
It felt equally obvious that he should turn down a power offered by a creature who killed itself to offer the power to him. That was pretty dark. Actually, who was he kidding? That was pitch-black, like a moonless night. Did anything good ever come from that?
None of his ponderings answered the question as to whether he should accept the power. If he was back home, he could have messaged some buddies about it. Of course, they would have all been more interested in hearing about Kayla, and then told him to take the power. So maybe his situation here wasn’t any different. He trusted a number of people here. Charles and Simon he trusted, but there were limits. The same could be said for Kayla. She had already shown herself to be less than 100% reliable when she reacted to his last transformation. Although she had apologized for that.
That left Atticus and Cecelia. Tim trusted both of them with his life. For people he had only known for a short time, there was an implicit level of trust. What he wasn’t so sure about was their motivations. They saw him as something more than a person. And now it was clearly complicated by whatever crush that Cecelia had on him. Or maybe not a crush. Everyone kept telling him she was an adult here; it was just that she was so much younger than him. On Earth, she still would have been in high school.
In the end, he decided that he needed to trust someone, so Tim leaned into Kayla. Of course, she had been giving him the stink eye ever since Cecelia had dropped the plates. He could only wonder why he dreaded this conversation more than he feared going out and fighting monsters in the streets….
Kayla was down on the ground, clearing up the broken pottery. Her wounds were entirely healed by Tim’s magic, and sojourners were tough enough to bounce right back. He finally tried to break the ice. “I suppose you want to talk about that?”
“Look, Cecelia is a sweet girl, and gorgeous to boot. I can’t blame you for being interested in her. What I don’t appreciate is being lied to.” She never made eye contact with him but instead studiously scrubbed the floor.
“I never… lied, that is. I told you that I thought she had a girlish crush on me. I also told you that I thought she was too young for me,” Tim reminded his friend.
“I remember. I guess I never thought to ask if you were interested despite her being too young. I should have known; you are a guy, after all. Always the newer, younger model. And as a 1st-gen, you will eventually be able to have your pick of the litter.” There was a bitter tone in Kayla’s voice that cut Tim to the quick, even if he didn’t think she was being fair in her characterization.
“Look, I’m just a person, not a gen, not a level, not a class. I’m just a person. And for the record, I like you. I’m not saying I’m in love with you. I’m saying I like and respect you. We had fun together both in this room and out of it. Why does there have to be more to it than that?”
She sighed. “It’s never that simple.” Then she shook her head. “Okay, you’ve been through a lot lately. I’ll take your word for it. But I think you and I need to chill the… uh… extra-curricular activities till this gets sorted out. I’d sooner cut my hand off than hurt Cecelia. She’s already been through enough with the death of her mother.”
Tim wanted to ask for details but figured it wasn’t any of his business. Besides, he had enough on his plate. More than enough, really. “What I need more than anything is friends. The rest can sort itself out.”
“I’m your friend. I’m pretty sure that Simon is your friend, but keep in mind that he is wound up pretty tightly with the guild. And barring any incidents of misleading young girls, I’m certain that Atticus and Cecelia are your friends.”
“Then can we sit down? I need a friend to talk to.”
She looked around the disheveled room she slept in. Half of it was taken up by her large bed. Then she replied, “Yeah, but let’s go talk in my study. We can have Atticus and Cecelia join us if they are willing. And I could use a bite to eat. I’m sure you could. Fighting and healing take it out of you.”
“I’d rather it just be us for this conversation,” Tim admitted as he shuffled his feet.
She arched an eyebrow. “In my experience, with stuff like this, it is better to pull the bandage off before it gets stuck too hard.”
“It isn’t that. It’s that I want the opinion of a sojourner on this, not a…”
She frowned. “Not what? Not a flat? You know how I feel about that word.”
Tim blushed, remembering the time he had slipped up and said it in front of her. “That wasn’t what I was going to say. I was going to say not a Patronite. But mostly what I want is the opinion of someone who understands the price of power.”
Kayla stared at him for a moment. Her expression was unreadable, but Tim just kept his mouth shut, waiting for what she would have to say. “Oh, so ask the assassin because you figure I know about the price to be paid for having power.”
“It was more just that you are level 16 and at your max level, but now that you mention it, that might give you some extra insight.”
She shook her head and said, “You really know how to show a girl a good time, Stein. Well, go to my study. You remember the way, I’m sure. I’ll arrange to have some food brought to us, and I need to check on the guys guarding the doors and windows. We can’t take it for granted that this is over with. There were too many myemar loose in the city, to be sure.”
Tim nodded and headed to the study. When he sat down, he ran through his other pending notifications.
Success: Enemies of Humanity IV: Standing in the Gap
You have turned back the army of myemar who were attacking New Rome.
Rewards:
1) 500 XP + 346 XP (2 per myemar killed)
2) Newly rewarded Elite Quest
New Quest: Enemies of Humanity V: Pulling at the Roots
The myemar attacked New Rome in unprecedented numbers. Worse, they did so without their approach being detected.
Objectives:
1) Rid New Rome of any myemar who remain within its walls.
2) Determine the means used by the myemar to reach the city.
3) Close or otherwise prevent the use of such routes.
4) Kill as many of the myemar elite as possible, in order to limit their future ability to make war.
5) Rescue or avenge any humans captured by the myemar.
Rewards:
1625 XP + 1-5 XP for each chopper, shaman, lasher, champion, or goliath slain.
One piece of epic gear or a permanent stat bonus of +4 to the stat of your choice for both you and your familiar.
New Elite Quest: Can there be only one?
The relationship between patrons and sojourners is troubled at best. Neither side really likes the other very much. It might be worth discovering the reasons behind that.
Objectives:
1) Learn what you can about the history of which patrons have selected 1st gens from the various races.
Find out the history of traits and learn about others who may have possessed more than one trait.
Determine if it is possible to change patrons.
Rewards:
A new beneficial trait.
Possible patron transfer.
Possible trait exchange for existing trait.
Tim stared at those quests. The XP for pushing back the myemar was nice; it put him up to 156,961/192,000. That was a valuable jump. Fighting the higher-level myemar had also helped Mischief. He had managed to reach level 7. He’d need to check in with him later, but he had been napping since the battle ended, and Tim didn’t really want to wake him.
Just when Tim was about to close the notifications, another line popped up.
She isn’t half as smart as she thinks she is.
Just that. No insults aimed at him. No demands for entertainment, but there was little doubt the source of that statement. Tim almost wondered that he didn’t give him a quest that conflicted with the ones Semona was handing out. Oh, well, what did a mouse do when cats fought over it? Hmm… maybe Tim could ask Mischief when he woke up. He might actually have a useful perspective.
For now, Tim was leaning toward accepting the Power of Consumption. Mostly, because he didn’t trust either Cal-Dakota or Semona. They simply weren’t giving him any reason to do so. One liked to play at not caring, but it was obvious he cared very much about something. Then there was Semona, who acted like sugar wouldn’t melt in her mouth. As if. Tim was more inclined to trust the one who was frank about using him.
Then there was this new player, Quint, for lack of a better name. He clearly wanted something from Tim. Tim was not favorably disposed toward him, not with the way he treated humans, or rather, the way his servants treated humans. Then again, Tim was using the power provided to him by patrons he didn’t trust, so why should this be any different?
