That got me thinking. I’d come in sight of a mailbox, one of the oversized fantasy post-boxes used in a lot of games for players to send items and messages to each other. I walked over, opened it up and entered the name ‘Wylder’ into the recipient bar. Then I wrote out a quick message.
‘Hey man, remember me? Hope you pulled through that craziness last week in one piece. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for screwing you over with that crossbow. It wasn’t cool of me. Attached is some money with interest. Maybe I’ll see you out in the open world again sometime? Zoran.’
I looked at my inventory and found I’d scavenged up a fair amount of coin from my adventures. I’d demanded 45 silver from Wylder before, so I sent him 1 gold back.
Feeling good about the message, I hit send then continued into the Military Quarter.
The NPC guards at the Knight’s Hall saluted and then parted for me, much to the envy of several other players who were trying to figure out how to enter the mighty barracks. The complex was sprawling, with stables, fighting rings, a dedicated smithy and tanner, and a great hall whose design was caught somewhere between a Viking feast hall and a Roman temple.
I was greeted by Knight Commander Uhtred, a lean muscled, towering man in leather armor, rather than the plate mail favored by the other NPCs. His long black hair was braided to keep it off his face, which allowed the rest of his shaggy mane to fall impressively down beyond his shoulders.
“I’d hoped for a stronger recruit,” Uhtred said. Before I could defend myself, he waved a hand to silence me. “If the Emperor has elevated you, then he’ll have his reasons and time is short. Here.” He thrust what appeared to be a blue robe toward me, and I only realized it was a new tabard when I took it from him.
Vestments of the Imperium
Tabard
Bear the crest of the Imperium proudly and state to the whole world who you serve and your standing therein. You will hold more sway over Imperium-friendly NPCs.
Effect: All item repairs made by Imperium-friendly NPCs will be discounted at 50%.
I equipped my new tabard, enjoying its silky smooth feel compared to the cheap and rough tabard from Rusking. Knight Commander Uhtred nodded and then barreled on with his dialogue.
“There is a task that needs attending. Speed is of the essence, so I shall make this brief. A delegation from the Great Tribe has appeared on our western-most border, seeking sanctuary and claiming to have vital intelligence about a new massing horde of their kin and traitorous factions within our elven allies. I can only trust those citizens the Emperor has deemed to be worthy of a knighthood and so this task falls to you.” He passed me a sealed letter. “Take these orders to Donal by the city’s western gate. He is one of your brothers preparing a contingent to ride and meet these orcs and whatever other foul creatures they may be. You will return to me successful or else dead.”
Quest – All Is Not As It Seems
You are tasked with investigating a mysterious delegation from the Great Tribe. It’s time to earn your new title.
Recommended minimum level: 35
Objectives
Meet Donal by the western gate of Argatha.
I frowned at that. “Level thirty-five,” I muttered. “I guess I’ll come back to this later.”
The next thing I heard was a crackle and pop. “Oh, come on, Jack,” Ellie said mischievously. “You’ve handled worse.”
“Ellie!” I exclaimed in glee, caring not one bit for the look of incredulity on the Knight Commander’s face. In my mind’s eye, I pictured her in her blue avatar form hovering above the GM console. “I thought you weren’t going to come back.”
“I decided to let you settle in. How are you feeling?”
“As good as can be I think, all things considered. And you?”
“I believe I am feeling… happy.”
“I’m very glad to hear that. So, shall I go grind boars or do you reckon I can handle this quest?”
“Please don’t go grind, that would be very boring to watch.”
“Hey, I thought you were supposed to make this an entertaining experience for me.”
I could picture her rolling those electric blue eyes of hers. “If you’re nice, I’ll give you a few tips.”
“Nah, I don’t want to cheat,” I affirmed. “Just having you here is enough. I say bring it on. We did handle worse. And we both lived to see another day. So, let’s go play.”
Afterword
Thank you very much for reading my work.
If you enjoyed Battle Spire, I’d appreciate it if you took two minutes to write a brief, honest review of the book. Reviews help other people to find my stories and lets Amazon know it’s a book worth showing to other readers.
If you’d like to sample my other writing, you can grab The Huntress, a FREE novelette set 700 years prior to the events of my Epic Fantasy series The Dragon’s Blade. Explore the Second War between dragons and humans through the eyes of Elsie, a lowly huntress from the Cairlav Marshes.
Unprepared. Heartbroken. And mother to a newborn son, Elsie is forced to lead a desperate defence of her homeland. A run-in with the Dragon Prince Dronithir changes everything, setting a new direction for the war and leading Elsie to the ultimate choice: her duty or her family.
You can get that FREE story by signing up to my mailing list here!
(https://www.subscribepage.com/thehuntress)
If you’d like to regularly support me and my work, you can do so on Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/michaelrmiller)
By supporting me there, you will gain access to all my future books for free upon release, as well as other goodies I am able to provide – artwork, sneak peek chapters and other exclusive content!
LitRPG has opened my eyes to a whole new world of story telling. If Battle Spire has whetted your appetite for books similar to this one, then I’d recommend you join the following Facebook groups to talk to other readers and gain recommendations.
www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/ www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/
Thank you!
Michael
Acknowledgments
Battle Spire is the first novel I conceived of, planned, wrote and published as a newly-full-time author. Just writing that down feels unbelievable. What’s better is that I fell in love with this book just as much – if not more so at times – than I did with my first series, The Dragon’s Blade.
Writing that first series was painful at times. It felt as though I was shedding a lot of emotional weight and perhaps, I was. The story had, after all, been rattling around in my mind for as long as I could remember. Getting it out into the world was one thing, but to find so many readers enjoyed it was a relief.
Being able to create stories for a living is a great privilege. I am under no delusions on that. Many hope for it, few dare to try, and fewer still hit the mark. Even then, the creative well can dry up; the spark that once drove a writer can wain.
It was then to my delight that I loved every moment of writing Battle Spire.
Its style was refreshing, if nothing else. A first person character from the not to distant future gave me a lot more words to play with than a secondary world pseudo-sixteenth century time period did. It’s a style I hope I can return to one day.
My decision to test this style out was inspired largely by Ernst Cline’s Ready Player One, a book which blew me away while stuck in hospital in the summer of 2017 and when I first dreamt of the idea for Battle Spire. It’s hardly a coincidence. At the same time, I was also introduced to the world of LitRPG in the form of Awaken Online by Travis Bagwell, a book that opened my eyes to a whole new world of story telling possibilities. From there it was easy to jump into the rest of this growing and exciting genre.
A huge initial thank you goes to Taran Matharu and Brook Aspden who not only opened the doorway to LitRPG for me but helped me refine the mechanics and story of my own book endlessly. Another great thank you must go to Luke Chmilenko, author of Ascend Online, for his astute
and honest (if brutal!) feedback on the initial draft of the book. Luke, it was the kick in the groin I needed, the slap to knock off my pretentiousness, if you will. Thank you, sir!
Further thanks go to Laura M. Hughes – author of the upcoming and ludicrously awesome God of Gnomes – for other well thought insights both during the drafting of early chapters and on the final review edition.
Cover credit goes to Viktor Toth who provided artwork even better than I had imagined. From sketches to the final piece, every stage got me even more excited for the book.
Thanks again to Tim Johnson for his careful proofreading – a job made more difficult for a Brit having to proof in US English.
I am always looking for careful and enthusiastic readers to join my Beta/Advanced Review Team and as ever I am in their debt too for spotting small errors at the eleventh hour and prepping the groundwork for a great launch. A big thanks to:
Alana Marshall, Alex Campbell, Alisa Dean LaVine, Amisha Joiga, Andrew Russell, Anindita Choudhury, Anna Thomas, Anne Myra Emily, Brandy Dalton, Brett Marrus, Britney Frei, Chris Harrsion, Colin Oaten, David A. Hammer, David Schweikert, Deon Van Schalkwyk, James McStravick, Kalyani Negungadi, Kartik Narayanan, Lesley Moulton, Lisa Greiner Maughan, Mathew Colburn, Michael Sterry, Michelle Stubbs, Nick Erickson, Peter Hutchinson, Raewynn Osborne, Ricardo Fayet, Richard Griffiths, Scott. A Widener, Stephen Christiansen, Zapp Brannigan.
A special thanks to advanced reader James Scott, for spotting a couple of important points of improvement in the book. Spire was taken up another notch thanks to his insight.
Patreon is fast becoming a way for creatives to stabilize their earnings but it’s a tricky one for authors, who ultimately charge for their content unlike Youtubers. I see Patreon as something more like a tip jar, although those who sign up will still receive the books on release – they’ll have more than earned them! Those generous people supporting me on Patreon are:
AC Cobble, Alisa LaVine, Bryce O’Connor, Colin Pearson, Dominic Keir, Ian Johnstone, Leigh Wright, Lesley, Lisa Maughan, Matt Moss, Megan Haskell, Phil Tucker, T.L. Greylock, Taran, Timandra Whitecastle and Zid.
That’s a ton of names. A lot of people go into creating a book and every small piece of help is truly appreciated. But of course there wouldn’t be a book at all nor a career without you, the reader. I’d like to thank every one of you for checking out my work. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed it.
Until next time,
Michael
Copyright © Michael R. Miller, 2019
Published by Michael R. Miller, 2019
The right of Michael R. Miller to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
www.michaelrmiller.co.uk
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