I’d had a lot of time to think on my trip back to town.
No matter who Havl was, he had spoken sincerely. What did I need this heavy sword for? I doubted that I could wield it even if I spent all my time leveling up my Strength. It would be a shame to sell it. At least the mysterious hill would have a guard this way.
I’d go and talk to him again tomorrow, but today I just wanted to eat and sleep. I was very tired.
The revealed story arc of the Guardians would require me to painstakingly gather information. Whose statues stood in the enormous hall? What exactly had they been holding in their hands and where was I to look for these undoubtedly powerful artifacts? And most importantly, with what forces? Jeb and I alone wouldn’t be able to handle this quest but did I have any other friends in the Edge of the Abyss? Oh yeah, Sasha would join us soon, but it still wasn’t enough. I needed a group of at least five people.
Was I getting too carried away with this game?
I couldn’t shake the feeling that life has spun me around like a twig and was carrying me in the current of somebody’s invented storylines. Where would this raging torrent of game events spit me out? Wasn’t it time to take a break, sort out my business in the real world, take a good look around and think things through?
Jeb wasn’t in the room, so I went down to the tavern’s central hall. Yep, there he was, sitting at a table with a weird person swathed in black. His frame was hidden but it appeared as soon as I came closer, Alexander_Lourier.
“Hey, Jeb. Sasha, what are you doing here? You still have a few more days of rehabilitation left, right?”
“I have news, Andrey Dmitrievich.”
“Go on,” I sat down at the table, winked at Weasel and pounced on the food.
“I received a message today.”
“From whom?”
“From Max.”
I nearly choked on a piece of meat. I chewed and swallowed, then looked up at Sasha, “Tell me. What does he say?”
“It’s not clear at all. That’s why I came here,” he passed me a piece of parchment with letters and numbers scribbled on it.
“Where did you get it?” my stomach dropped when I saw the clumsily scratched line of letters and numbers. No wonder Sasha had no idea what it meant, but I understood at once.
“I entered the game in the morning because I had some stuff to sort out. A beggar handed me this piece of paper in the marketplace, whispered ‘from Max’ and disappeared into the crowd. I thought it was some kind of joke.
“No,” I said hoarsely.
“Then what does it say?”
“The first group of numbers is Lieutenant Maxim Pekhov’s personal number.” I underscored it with my fingernail. “This here is an alphanumeric code meant for communication, and it says ‘have been wounded and captured’. The last group of numbers is probably coordinates.”
“Let me check,” Lourier caught on straight away. “They don’t match anything in the real world,” he said after a minute.
“Check the Edge of the Abyss,” Jeb advised.
“I’m already on it. Got it!” Sasha ran a hand over the table, and the wooden surface changed to look like a map. “Here,” he pointed to a mountainous area dotted with question marks.
“Where exactly is this?”
“The Half-blood Gorge. It’s deep inside the Dark Frontier. None of our people have ever reached it. There are no known portals there. I took the information from public maps uploaded by the Guild. They tried to fly around the territory on mounts but then abandoned this risky activity.”
A multitude of thoughts flashed through my mind in those seconds.
Max was a prisoner. Nothing else mattered now. We had to rescue him but how?
“We know where his avatar is,” my voice sounded hollow. “But where is he in the real world? How did he end up with the Shadow Clans?”
“Don’t you remember what was going on around Mainstream Center?” Lourier asked. “The wounded were transported to nearby hospitals, often right in their VR capsules. The ambulance doctor told me. It would have been easy to capture Max on that night,” Sasha summarized and sighed. “Especially if it had been planned, like the attack itself. He was privy to many clan secrets.”
“What are we going to do?” Jeb asked, bewildered.
“The ravine is a week’s travel from Noogard,” I replied sharply. “Sasha, can you find out the real location of Maxim’s VR capsule when we free his character?”
“Yes. I can.” Lourier answered confidently.
“Dan, but you’ve already been there!” Jeb exclaimed. “A whole army won’t be enough to break through!”
A heavy silence descended for a moment.
“Sasha, I’m withdrawing the ‘Hunt for the Ifrit’ lot from auction.”
“Why?” Lourier looked surprised.
“I know whom to offer it to in exchange for help.”
Jeb’s eyes held nothing but poorly suppressed fear. He asked quietly, “Do you really want to return to the Dark Frontier?”
“Yes. Not with an army but with a small, powerful team. Participation is voluntary. Each person must decide for themselves. I have to go Forest Hill now,” I stood up. “We’ll meet here again in a day.”
End of Book One
January - July 2018, Krasnodar Krai.
The Dark Frontier (Respawn Trials Book #2) is currently being written.
The Abyss Portal (Respawn Trials Book #3, working title) is under development.
Author’s website: https://livadny.ru
VK group: https://vk.com/club84398682
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About the Author
Andrei Livadny is a popular Russian science fiction author. Born on May 27 1969 in the city of Pskov, he was an avid reader from an early age. But it was the Russian translation of Robert A. Heinlein’s The Orphans of the Sky that decided his choice of future occupation. The story has become a pivotal moment in the boy’s life, leaving a lasting impression on him.
Andrei wrote his first book at the age of eight. Since then, he’s never stopped working on new books. His passion for science fiction has gradually become his career.
In 1998, Andrei debuted in Russia’s leading publishing house EKSMO with his novella The Island of Hope. Since then, he has penned over 90 books that have enjoyed a total of 153 editions.
Andrei has created several unique worlds, each unlike the previous. He wrote The History of The Galaxy with humanity itself as a protagonist. This sixty-book series creates a history of our future civilization and its contacts with alien races, forming a convincing and logical picture of humanity’s development for two millennia from now. The English translations of the first books of The History of The Galaxy are now available worldwide.
Andrei’s recent involvement with the bestselling genre of LitRPG - books set in online roleplaying games - inspired him to create his two most intriguing series to date, The Neuro and Phantom Server. Merging virtual reality with cyberpunk and dark fantasy, these two series prompted a reviewer to call Andrei “one of the best new authors in American Sci Fi translated from Russian”.
Besides hard science fiction, Andrei Livadny also works in cyberpunk genres which allow him to focus on human relationships and raise questions about artificial intelligence and identity uploading, describing cyberspace as humanity’s future environment.
* * *
[1] Stands for 'kill on sight'. Basically, a personal enemy list.
[2] Scaling Damage — Bonus damage due to higher scores (above the minimal weapon requirements) of one or more characteristics of the player.
[3] Rekill — a player's death immediately after respawning.
[4] Flooding - irrelevant posts on online forums and chats that are often very long.
[5] Crab (slang) - a player engaged in collecting resources.
[6] Burin - a steel cutting tool used for working with metal, wood, bone, stone and leather.
[7] Stats - the main parameters of a player's character.
[8] Affix (from the Latin 'affixus' meaning attached) — the additional property of an object.
[4] Dryads — in Greek mythology, forest nymphs that protect the trees. They could control plants and subdue all flora.
[9] Sandy loam — loose rock or soil, consisting mainly of sand particles
[10] Gnomon — an ancient astronomical instrument, a vertical object (obelisk, column, pole) that allows the angular height of the Sun to be determined using its shortest shadow (at noon). The shortest shadow also indicates the direction of the true meridian. The gnomon is also the part of a sundial, whose shadow indicates the time.
[1] Lich — an undead mage.
Edge of the Abyss (Respawn Trials Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 31
