Star Paladin: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 1)

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “I’m not leaving until I find . . . my best friend.”

  “Guy?”

  A gasp. “You know him?”

  “He left, recently.”

  “No . . . I don’t believe you.”

  “Well, I could be wrong. I did not see Guy depart, only knew that he traveled to this city before I did. He planned to leave on one of the two star-dweller ships here. By the time I arrived, one had already left—the Seraphim, as I recall.”

  “The Seraphim . . .” Rachael looked away, her face lost in deep thought. She turned back. “How did you know it was the Seraphim?”

  “Because the Seraphim was the same ship that brought me here, so I recognized it. As for the second ship, I know not of its name, just that your friend Guy was not on board it.”

  “He’s probably looking for me. The crew of the Seraphim, too. They have to be.”

  “If Guy were smart, he would have asked the Seraphim to take him off-world. The empire wants his head, and they had their soldiers here not long ago.”

  Rachael clenched her fists and shook her head. “Guy wouldn’t have left me behind!”

  “Why?”

  “Because . . .” She paused and looked away, wincing. “I . . . I wouldn’t do it to him . . . And he knows that.”

  “I suppose you do not know him very well.”

  “And you do?” Rachael snorted.

  Xanthe’s thoughts drifted backward in time, back to the other night when she had wrapped her hand around Guy’s hard, long cock, stroking it up and down, eagerly waiting for him to gush his seed over her pleasuring hand. Then she had climaxed, her body quivered and wished that Guy was deep inside her.

  She stored the private memories away and looked at Rachael while expanding her smirk. “I know a thing or two about Guy that you do not.”

  Rachael hissed like a feral cat and inched her reddening face toward Xanthe. There might have been a hint of jealousy. “If he left me . . .” Rachael backed away, eyes shut, a deep sigh passing her lips. “Damn, how am I going to get home . . . There has to be another ship!”

  “Both left.”

  “No . . .” Rachael opened her eyes as her tone grew more pleasant. “I saw four ships on the horizon just before we docked.”

  “Four starships . . .” That was new information, and it threw Xanthe into a pause. “The sentinels . . .”

  “Sentinels?”

  “They have starships similar to the ones you star-dwellers use . . .” Xanthe said. “Okay, I was wrong. There is a way off this planet. You would have to steal a sentinel ship.”

  “How?”

  “They seem to have an alliance with the Autumnfall Empire. Perhaps we will find a ship or two at the imperial capital of Tanashia.”

  “Where is that?”

  “Across the sea, to the easternmost continent.”

  “The captain of the boat I rode here on owes me a favor,” Rachael said. “Guy and I saved his son, just before the empire attacked Muruai. I got his family, and the others you see here, aboard that boat.”

  “Ask him nicely to take us there,” Xanthe said. “At least to the eastern continent, and we can travel the rest of the way to the empire.” And Tanashia’s the imperial capital . . . Leafblade might be there, and if so, I will pass my sword through his gut. Bless you, White Dragon. You have once again guided me to where I need to go.

  A Voyage to the Autumnfall Empire

  Objective: Travel across the ocean to the eastern continent to infiltrate the imperial capital Tanashia and help Rachael hijack a sentinel ship.

  Issued by: White Dragon

  Reward: 1500 Experience Points

  Accept quest? Yes/No

  Just in time, too. Thank you.

  Xanthe went to accept the quest at the same time Rachael did on her own screen. Rachael had received the same quest, and the two watched each other, shocked.

  “You’re like Guy and me,” Rachael said.

  Xanthe tapped Yes. “Indeed . . .” Her screen vanished. “And it would appear that I have to guide you there.”

  “What’s in it for you?” Rachael asked while accepting the quest. “Other than XP.”

  She smiled. “I have a unique reward for this.” She opened her menu, then found and selected the option to invite Rachael to her party. A healer at her side when it came time to fight Leafblade would be a massive help. “Well then, Rachael, step one of this quest is to get to the boat.”

  Xanthe and Rachael leaned against the boat’s railing as they peered at the endless blue waves around them. They had set sail from South Town hours ago, having convinced the ship’s captain to depart with them. Rachael was right about the captain and his wife owing a debt. They had told Xanthe the story of how Guy and Rachael landed their ship in Muruai and rescued their lost boy in the jungles.

  Though, Xanthe knew star-dwellers could not care less of the problems land-dwellers faced. Guy and Rachael came to Faeheim to trade, then got caught up with everything else afterward. Still, their good deed had led to this, a free and direct boat ride to the empire, and according to Rachael, the White Dragon had told Guy to come to Faeheim. Xanthe wondered if Asteria was real and was using the name White Dragon to guide everyone to where they needed to be, to play out some role in a world bending to the will of strange game rules. At least, that is what Guy and Rachael believed was the reason for the affliction, rules to a game that originated from the mysterious human home planet, allegedly called Earth.

  A rush of sea winds scattered Rachael’s cherry-red hair and white dress with red stripes. It was a nurse uniform from what Rachael told Xanthe. Rachael remained standing and looking over the ship’s railing for hours. She had missed dinner, strawberries with a dollop of cream on top. Xanthe held an extra bowl after coming up from below decks. She watched Rachael observing the ocean and setting twin suns shining on the water. Xanthe stood with her and nudged her slightly with her elbow.

  “You have been here for hours,” Xanthe said while handing her the bowl. “Eat.”

  “The ocean . . .” Rachael said in a hypnotic tone. “I’m sorry, I just . . . I can’t get over this sight.”

  “Is there something wrong?”

  “I’ve never seen an ocean,” Rachael said. “Or a beach, or a sun set from the surface of a planet . . . let alone two suns.” She gazed up, the winds continuing to blow her red hair, one lock of it tickling the side of Xanthe’s cheek. “And the clouds.”

  “First time on a planet, I see.”

  “I almost fainted when I got off the ship. I looked up . . . and it didn’t seem right. There was no visible ceiling above my head. I was honestly scared for a moment.”

  It was odd listening to a fae, of all people, talk about that. Fae were born with wings, learned how to fly at a young age, and often built their homes in the treetops or towers just because they could. But there she was, right next to Xanthe, a fae who spent her entire life living on star-dweller spaceships, trapped within the confines of its corridors where they used machina to simulate the experience of being on a planet. Rachael could not handle the reality of a world’s openness, like Faeheim and its natural wonders.

  How did the star-dwellers not go mad while building their machina in such environments?

  Rachael stepped back from the rails, brought up a screen, scrolled down the menu, and tapped one option. When the screen faded, a fishing rod materialized in her hands. “I’ve had this quest for a while,” Rachael said, holding the rod and casting a line into the ocean.

  Xanthe placed the bowl on the deck, sat, and watched as Rachael fished using the magical rod. “I do not believe there are any fish out here.”

  Seconds later, Rachael’s rod shook. She caught something and wheeled it in. Rachael had hooked a decent-sized trout on the line, yanked it free, and held it before Xanthe while its stats appeared in their eyesight.

  “The affliction has corrupted the fish, too,” Xanthe said.

  “It’s changing the entire planet,” Rachael said. “Se
ems like fish just magically appear if we approach a body of water.”

  Rachael made the fish vanish into her Inventory screen, retook the rod, and cast another line into the ocean. A minute later, she caught another. She repeated the task, and according to Rachael, each successful catch increased her fishing level. After five catches, her Quest Completed window opened. Rachael accepted the reward and experience points, and the screen vanished.

  “Okay, that’s done,” Rachael said. “And if we run out of food, we can cook the fish I caught.”

  “Or you could eat the berries before I help myself.”

  They laughed, and Rachael sat with her to feast on the strawberries covered in white cream. Once finished, she showed Xanthe where the Gathering, Mining, and Fishing menus were, and from there, guided her to the Crafting screens. Rachael was right. There was an option to use the magic the affliction gave them and turn items touched by it into something else. One could turn the fish she caught into food to eat through cooking by combining certain items together—no need for a hot pan or actual culinary skill.

  Xanthe frowned when she viewed her cooking level.

  Cooking Skill: Level 0

  “I do not have that leveled.”

  “Neither do I,” Rachael said. “Let’s take the time to learn it.”

  Leveling crafting was easy. Just make sure you had the right level, then produce an item following the screens as directed. Each item synthesized boosted your skill ever so slightly. Xanthe checked the ingredients list for something simple to synth, vegetable stock.

  Vegetable Stock

  Cooking level required: None

  Thermal Crystal x1

  Onion x1

  Celery x2

  Carrot x2

  Garlic x1

  Thyme x6

  Bay Leaf x2

  Water x2

  The first ingredient caused Xanthe to wince. “Crystals . . .” she said. “The imperials are obsessed with these.” Why does the empire focus their time on collecting crystals from the dead? Was it to craft a lot of stuff for themselves? Xanthe viewed the soul crystals she had gathered.

  Slather’s Soul Crystal

  The crystallized soul of a land-fae named Slather.

  Class: Ranger Level: 1 Rank: D

  The soul crystals of the imperials killed in South Town had similar information on them when she examined them.

  Soul crystals differed from crafting ones. And if she were to guess, there were different crystals out there. Some crystals were for crafting, some were soul crystals, and asteriarite were tiny crystals when she thought about it. The soul crystals were what the empire was after and were also on Averyl’s necklace.

  Was sending Averyl into space with a soul crystal around her neck a good idea?

  Ulysses piloted the Seraphim down into the ocean of Mennaze, making the starship-turned-sea-ship drift across the water. They were sailing to the landmass Guy and his uncle had last visited, a large valley where the city of Coldhorn lay, along with its impressive six-story castle where the town held its militia. If the Seraphim had been a smaller ship, they could have landed where Guy had parked the Blue Star days ago. But it wasn’t, so they had to sail to the beach.

  Guy revealed what he knew and experienced to his friends over a microwaved meal of spaghetti and meatballs, pulled from the freezer in the Seraphim’s galley. It felt like ages had gone by since Guy sat on a chair produced in a factory with ceiling lights above and a radio on the counter playing star-dweller electronic music.

  The meatballs were something too.

  He wiped his mouth clean with a napkin, then finished the last of his story to the nodding heads of Ulysses and Arm sitting on the opposite end of the kitchen table. Kam and Zuran sat at the other end, picking at the food that was alien to their land-dweller tongues.

  “So, you’re a Paladin with 18 charisma . . .” Ulysses said.

  “No, it’s 23 charisma.”

  “Whatever.”

  “And Faeheim,” Arn added. “It’s being changed by this affliction?”

  Guy stood to place his bowl and fork in the sink. “Pretty much.”

  The Seraphim made landfall idling near the closest beach. The door slid open, and Guy stepped out with Zuran and Kam at his side. Arn and Ulysses followed behind, hoping to score a few deals from the locals. The five traveled across the valley, making their long journey to the city of Coldhorn. Then stopped.

  Two wild beasts blocked their path—bodies like men, features of a mole, hands wielding primitive stone daggers.

  Kobold | LVL: 14 | Rank: D | HP: 100%

  Kobold | LVL: 14 | Rank: D | HP: 100%

  “I take that back,” Guy said, reaching for Asteria’s Sword on the back of his trench coat. He pulled it free. “It’s happening here too. Which makes sense. This is where I was afflicted.”

  “Let us take care of this,” Ulysses said, aiming his laser rifle at the monsters.

  It only pissed the Kobolds off, making them roar and sprint to him. Ulysses pulled the trigger. Guy watched the Kobold’s HP dip.

  Kobold | HP: 99%

  And that was after six shots. As for the second Kobold . . .

  Kobold | HP: 98%

  That one took thirteen laser shots to the face.

  Ulysses lowered his laser rifle. “Oh, fuck. What have I done!”

  Guy stepped ahead of him, grinning. “Let us take care of this!”

  Experience Points: 2207/2593

  And I’m about to level up too!

  Guy’s party met the two Kobolds. By now, Guy, Zuran, and Kam had gotten used to the setup. Guy runs into the fray, assaulting hostile targets with Asteria’s Sword and building AP to use Provoke, now that he returned to that sigil setup. During which, Zuran began casting Fireball to stationary targets and Fire to those that were mobile. Zuran also took the time to play with his new light elemental spells, Solar Beam, and a spell called Light. Kam’s abilities as a Spell Lancer were impressive. His standard AP skill, called Astral Swipe, allowed him to swipe the empty space ahead of him and discharge a wave of magical energy in his wake. Anything that got hit took non-elemental damage.

  However, the Spell Lancer’s real bread and butter was the Elemental Attunement, discovered when Kam equipped the Water sigil. With Elemental Attunement, Kam’s lancing strikes dealt extra damage based on the element he attuned to—water in today’s case. Spell Lancers were basically a hybrid mage and melee attacker, blending magic and physical attacks. Kam’s Astral Swipe also changed after he used Elemental Attunement. Now when Kam used Astral Swipe, he would cleave the open air and create a small tidal wave of boiling water. Because of that, monsters like the two mole creatures they fought fell over dead real fast. So did the other monsters inhabiting the valley, from the beach all the way to the human settlement.

  Guy and his party took the lead, systematically clearing a safe path for Arn and Ulysses to Coldhorn since their lasers weren’t affective versus afflicted monsters. Because of the higher levels of the monsters in the valley, Kam gained one level quickly, allowing him to catch up slightly. Zuran and Guy gained one each, bringing them to 9 and 12, respectively. After that, Kam reminded them of his second tutorial quest. Guy sighed, Zuran too, and the two took the time to get that one done, spawning the three wolves and multiple information screens around Kam.

  “This defies physics . . .” Ulysses said with disappointment.

  “That’s why I haven’t bothered using my pistol,” Guy said. “My sword is way stronger than it.”

  “What happens if afflicted attack non-afflicted?” Arn asked.

  He shrugged. “You’ll probably die quickly since you don’t have our powers, protection, or HP.”

  After hours of walking, the five entered Coldhorn, looking like mysterious wanderers led by a trench coat swordsman. Ulysses and Arn left to search and trade for the tools Guy and his uncle had sold the town in the past. Guy, Zuran, and Kam stood still, wincing at the townspeople.

  The land-dweller humans of
Coldhorn all used floating screens to trade or check their stats.

  The affliction had spread to them too.

  “A Paladin,” one of the townspeople said, a man in his early twenties wearing blue overalls. He came up to the trio, looking at their classes, levels, and ranks. “Never seen anyone with that class.”

  Guy crossed his arms. “So you experienced the changes too, huh?”

  “We can’t explain it,” the man said. “But it changed our lives. Some for the worse, others for the better.”

  “When did it happen?” Guy asked.

  A familiar voice answered. “Right after you left, star-man!”

  Guy turned to the voice and saw the lovely gaze of Dianna, the farmer’s daughter he met during his last visit, her blonde hair covering the left shoulder. “You returned to our world! I’m so happy!”

  Guy looked at her information.

  Dianna (Bard) | LVL: 8 | Rank: D

  Behind stood her brother, carrying a watering pail, likely on his way back to the farm. Guy glanced at his information.

  Dave (Assassin) | LVL: 9 | Rank: D

  Fuck, did I spread the affliction to this planet?

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  It took a few days, but Xanthe and Rachael made landfall, stepping foot on the docks of a tiny fishing village sitting on the eastern continent’s west coast. The Blade Dancer and Medic duo waved goodbye to the captain, his wife, and the child Guy and Rachael had rescued.

  “Teach them a lesson, girls!”

  “We will,” Rachael said, waving back. “Thank you.”

  “And, if you see my daughter, Rain, please tell her to come back home.”

  Rachael nodded. “Sure.” Then grumbled to herself, “Not that I know what she looks like . . .”

  Xanthe and Rachael left the fishing town, hoping their arrival did not alert patrolling sentinel ships. There were many mysterious spaceships seen flying to or from the continent, most heading toward Tanashia. It made it easy to get their bearings once they left the fishing town—just follow the direction of the silver- and gray-colored objects in the skies.

  In the grass fields outside the town lay roaming afflicted monsters. It had spread to the continent, too. Xanthe wondered if the imperials would slay their own people to take their soul crystals. Probably not. Autumnfall would likely force afflicted citizens into their army.