Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Jack and the monkey army prowled through the morning forest. The pleasant chattering of birds, the last drops of moisture rolling off leaves, the vivid colors, these all formed a joyful mood that contrasted the soberness of the situation.

They had chosen the morning because wolves enjoyed hunting at night. Also because Jack was getting tired of all the monkey business in his cave.

A howl cut through the forest. Their bones rocked, their eyes narrowed. This howl hid fury and determination. The wolf was no longer playing around. It was out to get them.

Unless they got it first. It didn’t sound like the wolf was sleeping, as they’d hoped, but maybe it was still in its cave—placing the howl’s origin was difficult. With any luck, they could ambush it; if not, they would just wait for it to return.

The dungeon’s final battle was arriving, swiftly and unavoidably.

Harambe led them through the trees until they reached a rocky hill in the middle of the forest. It stood only a few dozen feet tall but many dozen wide, and its back hid a shallow cave.

Fun fact: When the System arrived, Jack was on a tour to inspect two caves. If the coin had just flipped the other way, it wouldn’t be a Level 2 goblin spawning beside him, but an Elite Level 49 Black Wolf.

Jack and Harambe walked ahead. They found a hidden alcove in the rock and crouched to watch.

“Wait, Harambe,” Jack whispered, “the wind is blowing towards the cave. It may smell us. Let’s circle around the hill and approach the other way.”

Harambe growled. They retreated, took the monkeys and approached from the north-east, where the wind wouldn’t betray their presence. Again, Jack and Harambe went ahead to scout. They hid behind a large rock.

The wolf’s cave was a gaping maw in the side of the hill. It was pitch-black inside as the towering rocks blocked the sun rays, giving the impression that the cave was endless. It could lead anywhere from two feet deep to China.

That they couldn’t see inside was a bummer.

“It’s probably empty,” said Jack. “Why would the wolf howl from inside its cave? Let’s see if this hill can hide forty monkeys, Harambe.”

However, the big brorilla shook his head. His nose twitched, and he mimed jaws as he pointed in the cave.

“It’s inside?” Jack raised a brow. Harambe nodded. “Very well. Then, we go with the original plan. We can’t ambush it, but we can smother it. Let’s fill the cave with gorillas.”

They retreated to prepare. Two minutes later, the entire monkey army stood arrayed with the gorillas at the front, watching the cave’s opening from just where they couldn’t be seen.

“Get ready, everyone.” Jack commanded. “We go quietly, and when I give the signal, we run. Got it?”

The monkeys nodded. He took a deep breath. Memories of his struggles passed through his mind; the goblins, the bears, the wolf that insta-killed anything it wanted…

“Let’s go.”

A gentle rocky incline led up to the cave’s mouth. The monkey army crawled over it, trying to stay silent so as not to spook the wolf. They wanted to reach the cave before it noticed them and exited. In the open space outside, the advantage would belong to the wolf. In the narrow cave, to them.

Jack was first, with the big brorilla further behind due to his large size. He leaned on a rock and peeked over it. He was only fifty feet away from the cave now; close enough to notice the two yellow eyes glaring at him from the darkness.

Jack froze for a single moment, then jumped forward like a spring. “Charge!” he shouted, initiating the battle, and waves of monkeys rose behind him.

The wolf didn’t expect the monkeys. It released a low growl and stepped outside its cave, making to escape.

Unfortunately for the wolf, the cave mouth was preceded by a short corridor of rock. Under normal circumstances, a few feet were nothing. But right now, Jack was bounding forth with long steps, jumping over the rock at speeds that would make any Olympic athlete jealous.

The wolf wouldn’t make it in time. Its gaze landed deep inside Jack’s eyes, who stared back. They’d met twice in the past; this was the third and last.

Name: Jack Rust

Species: Human, Earth-387

Faction: -

Grade: F

Class: Pugilist (Elite)

Level: 25

Strength: 79

Dexterity: 79

Constitution: 79

Mental: 9

Will: 7

Skills: Fist Fighting (II), Drill (I), Pugilist Body (I), Calamitous Punch (I)

Titles: Planetary Frontrunner (10)

Black Wolf, Level 49 (Elite) (Dungeon Boss)

Black wolves are mostly solitary creatures. They are also territorial, proud, aggressive, and infamous for being a scourge at the peak of F-rank. If a Black Wolf is spotted, experienced hunter squads should be dispatched quickly, or all big game of the surrounding area will disappear.

Yesterday, Jack might have been scared. He was charging at a superior opponent by himself. Today, however, he was a fist. This charge was his nature.

He slowed down slightly as he approached, keeping himself close to the ground so he could react quickly. The wolf, realizing it couldn’t escape, threw its head back and released a loud, drawn-out howl.

Hearing it from up-close was an experience. His ears rung and his vision swam for a moment. The sound penetrated his soul and shook it, but something fought back. The Dao Root of the Fist reacted as if it had met a worthy opponent, and it quickly extinguished the wolf’s attack.

Jack regained himself only to find the wolf’s claws inches away from his face. He ducked on instinct, letting himself slide on the rock and gaining a long, bloody gash on the top of his head. But he’d survived.

It has a Dao Root! he realized, paling. Shit!

He quickly rolled upright and pivoted to face the wolf, which hadn’t stopped running. It was charging the monkeys, who were still dazed, like a dark arrow.

“HARAMBE!” Jack roared.

A massive form stepped in the wolf’s charge. A large fist shot at its face with the power of an elephant, forcing the wolf to slow down and sidestep before lunging for Harambe’s throat. A day ago, the big brorilla couldn’t have dodged this, but the High Speed Bush and the Ice Pond had raised his speed tremendously.

He leaned back, barely dodging the wolf’s jaws, then managed to slam a heavy uppercut into its lower jaw, sending it flying.

The wolf wasn’t injured. It somersaulted in mid-air and fell claws-first right where Jack was waiting. He danced away as the rock under his feet was sliced into pieces. The wolf’s claws weren’t joking.

It landed on all fours and shot at Jack, chasing him down. His eyes widened. It was too fast. He managed to dodge the claws, taking only a small graze on his forearm, but the wolf smashed bodily into him and sent him flying into a tall rock. He slammed into it, cracking the stone, then slid to the ground.

The wolf stared him down from ten feet away, its eyes colored by nothing except hatred, menace, fear, and animalistic fury. Jack stared straight back.

This wolf was stronger and faster than him. More durable, too, since Harambe’s uppercut had seemingly dealt no damage. But Jack wasn’t alone.

Monkey cries echoed over the hill. Thirty brown shapes surrounded the wolf from a distance, holding stones at the ready—Jack had convinced them that poop was mostly harmless. Jack faced the wolf from the front, Harambe from the back, and the seven brorillas had formed a loose circle around them, ready to intervene or slow down the wolf with their lives.

The wolf looked around, realizing it was surrounded. It growled. Jack grinned and cracked his knuckles. “Come,” he said. “I’ll show you who’s the boss around here.”

It lunged sideways. Apparently, it still sought to escape, solidifying its relative weakness in Jack’s mind.

The wolf charged between Jack and Harambe, trying to escape the encirclement from the side. However, there was a brorilla there. His name was Herom.

Herom opened his mouth and screamed at the approaching wolf. He stood on his legs and balled his fists, ready to box. His heavy eyes scowled under that wide forehead.

The wolf fell on him like a wrecking ball. Claws flashed and jaws snapped shut. Herom was sent flying in two pieces, but he’d achieved his goal. To kill him, the wolf had slowed down. And that was enough for a massive hand to wrap around its tail, jerking it still. The wolf looked back and shivered.

Harambe had arrived, and he was fucking pissed.

With a massive roar of rage, he swung the wolf from its tail and smashed it into the ground, showering the approaching Jack with gravel. He raised the wolf, then slammed it down again. And again. And again. Harambe had just seen one of his bros get killed; his rage could not be put into words.

He howled as he planted the wolf deep into the ground with each strike, making its bones groan. It couldn’t do anything; it was getting swung around by its tail. Finally, Harambe reached a boiling point. He smashed the wolf into the ground a final time and let go of its tail to beat it up with his bare hands.

A rain of punches and kicks landed on the wolf amidst gorilla growls. Harambe had turned into a beast; Jack didn’t dare approach.

However, in the end, the wolf was stronger. Despite getting smashed like an octopus, it could still fight, and its claws glinted in the sunlight. Its fangs were bared, and it growled while showing all of its teeth. Harambe was sliced by the right, then a pair of jaws wrapped around his left leg and broke it.

He screamed, letting the wolf squirm out of his grasp. It was bloodied, panting, injured, and with multiple broken or cracked bones, but it could still fight. In fact, as it was cornered and near death, this wolf was currently at its most dangerous.

However, it still tried to escape. It charged to the side, smashing head-first into Raza, a brorilla, and sending him flying, thankfully without other injuries. It then headed for the group of gymonkeys, who fearlessly showered it with stones.

Stones thrown by gymonkeys were nothing to scoff at. They were heavy, fast, and precisely aimed. The wolf received two in each of its eyes and many more all over its body, aggravating its wounds, but it didn’t stop. It barreled into the monkey army and started ripping them apart, clawing blindly at all sides.

A few monkeys were bisected and many more were injured. The rest ran away with screams, letting the wolf claw away at nothing for a moment. Just as it was about to escape, a heavy fist slammed into its side. Its hard fur was useless against this fist; its skin shook, and the broken ribs underneath sent burning pulses all over its body.

The wolf howled in pain as it flew sideways to land on a heap of rubble, and Jack was already upon it.

He’d seen what it did to Harambe, Herom, and the monkeys. His rage was boiling, but he wouldn’t repeat Harambe’s mistake. He wouldn’t give the wolf a chance to fight back.

As it lay in pain and defenseless, Jack clenched his right fist. He reared it back, gritted his teeth, and as he was falling from the sky, smashed it into the wolf’s face. It recovered from its pain just in time to see the fist landing.

“Calamitous Punch!”

There was an explosion. Rubble flew everywhere, along with blood and pieces of fur. The wolf’s head was mangled, its body unmoving. It was dead.

Jack stood beside it, panting like he’d just run a marathon, and his fist was shivering. It wasn’t broken like last time, when he’d calamitous-punched solid ground, just slightly injured.

But he’d done it. The wolf was dead. They’d won.

“We won!” he roared. Some monkeys cheered; others, not so much. It was a pyrrhic victory. Harambe was out of commision, Herom had died, Raza was injured, many monkeys were killed or wounded, and the army was disorganized. Ironically, Jack was almost fine.

But they’d won.

Level Up! You have reached Level 26.

Level Up! You have reached Level 27.

Level Up! You have reached Level 28.

Level Up! You have reached Level 29.

Jack roared again.

A terrible, soul-stirring, wolf’s howl answered him. His eyes widened as he looked down, but the wolf’s corpse was still unmoving. He looked up.

Beyond the injured gymonkeys, beyond the mourning brorillas and Harambe who was nursing his wounds, beyond the other half of the gymonkey army, stood another wolf. It looked identical to the first one, with two key differences; it was completely uninjured and absolutely furious. And its yellow eyes were trained only on Jack.

Black Wolf, Level 49 (Elite) (Dungeon Boss)

Black wolves are mostly solitary creatures. They are also territorial, proud, aggressive, and infamous for being a scourge at the peak of F-rank. If a Black Wolf is spotted, experienced hunter squads should be dispatched quickly, or all big game of the surrounding area will disappear.

There wasn’t one dungeon boss. There were two. And Jack’s army was not ready to deal with the second one.

Oh, fuck me.