Neck-Deep In It: A LitRPG and GameLit Series.

by Jason Cheek

  With a heavy heart, Zeven climbed to his feet and headed to the line of Dwarven corpses that he’d laid out nearby. Tying his make-shift kilt back into place, he looked down at Thilaelydd Flintgrog and Borear Hammertoe’s corpses and let out a heavy sigh. This next part was truly going to suck, Zeven silently thought, as he emotionally prepared himself, before carefully kneeling down to cradle the half-dissolved bodies into his blood-smeared arms.

  Approaching the pyre, Zeven saw that the three children were quietly talking amongst themselves as he walked up. To his surprise, the pyre was basically finished, except for a final level of wood that was waiting to be filled with the last set of bodies. As the children turned around to face him, he silently came to a stop as he held out his arms.

  “I found your mother,” Zeven said, nodding to Doufalynn before turning to Mutoline, “and your grandfather.”

  The look of anguish that came to both girls’ eyes hit Zeven like a fist to the gut. Doufalynn’s innocent blue eyes instantly teared up as her face turned pale as a sheet, while Mutoline sucked in a ragged breath as her dark-brown eyes took in both half-dissolved lumps of meat in his arms. Beside them, Lokuth watched with hooded eyes while silently clutching his mother’s blade to his chest as Zeven nodded towards the pyre.

  “Here, I’ll lay them together here,” Zeven said, stepping up to the pyre, “before going back for the others.” As he leaned over to slide the bodies onto the bed of wood, he was once again surprised to see the children hurrying over to give him a hand with laying the bodies out even as the tears streamed down their faces.

  Zeven silently waited for Doufalynn to finish her grieving as Lokuth came to stand silently by his side. The emotion was thick in the air as both girls took a moment to mourn for their loved ones while the Dwarf boy let the tears freely run down his cheeks. Even though Zeven tried to keep himself apart from their shared anguish, he couldn’t stop his own eyes from tearing up at the choking sobs coming from the young girls. In a silent farewell, Mutoline gave her grandfather a heartfelt hug before stepping away to join them, while Doufalynn gave her mother a kiss on her ruined cheek before stepping back from the pyre.

  As Doufalynn came to a stop next to him, Zeven knelt down beside her while pulling out Thilaelydd Flintgrog’s two-handed hammer. With tears streaming down her face, the young Dwarf girl accepted her mother’s weapon with the grace of a lady much older than her current age. Giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze, Zeven stood back up as a system window popped open before his eyes.

  Congratulations! You have successfully completed the Secret Quest Respecting the Dead II!

  Your personal actions and choices greatly affect how you are perceived by the people in The World. Due to respecting the heritage between a fallen Dwarven mother and her surviving daughter, you have gained 100 points to Reputation with Doufalynn Flintgrog, along with the Clan of Hammertoe and the Dwarves of Aeroch Nor once the story of Kragrock’s fall is retold to the Dwarves there. You have earned 1000 Experience Points. Your title of Honorable Wanderer will now give you a six percent chance to receive a positive reaction when meeting new races.

  There was nothing for Zeven to say. Giving Mutoline a silent squeeze on her shoulder, he turned away and went back to work. Taking two bodies at a time, he brought the remaining dead to the pyre in nine trips. Each time, the Dwarven children silently helped him with the gruesome task. As Zeven laid them down, the children straightened out the bodies the best they could. Mostly, that was folding the corpses’ arms across their chests or saying a kind word or two. Not that he stayed to watch. It was just a little too emotional for him to take.

  Having brought the last body up, Zeven stood silently back to watch the children work as Bright Claw silently padded up to his side. The look the two of them traded was all that needed to be said. From their fledgling link, Zeven could feel that the Grizhawk understood all too well the loss the Dwarven children were feeling. As the children returned to his side, he cleared his throat to catch Mutoline’s eye.

  “Do any of you want to say any last words?”

  “We’ve already said our farewells,” Mutoline answered in a tight voice filled with emotion, as both Doufalynn and Lokuth silently nodded in agreement.

  “Okay, then,” Zeven said, feeling somewhat uncomfortable as he faced the pyre of dead Dwarves. Feeling like a ceremony for those passing deserved something a little more than just setting the pyre on fire, he raised his voice offering his own words in farewell. “People of the Mining Town of Kragrock, sleep in peace knowing that your deaths have been avenged and that those who could be rescued have been saved.” As Zeven pulled out a torch to light the pyre with, Mutoline stopped him.

  “I have this,” the young girl simply said. Stepping forward, she placed her hand on the wood. A few seconds later, flames flared from the wood.

  By the time Mutoline stepped back to stand next to them, the fire had quickly spread throughout the rest of the pyre. Zeven could only shake his head at the efficiency of how flames in general spread within The World. For anyone who’d ever had to light a bonfire or a fireplace, fire didn’t spread anywhere near that fast. It must be something special within The World’s physics, Zeven thought, as the flames began to burn high or maybe something simply with pyres. As he stood there waiting and wondering when it would be appropriate to turn away, Mutoline turned to him with a drawn face.

  “Zeven, can you please escort us to Aeroch Nor now,” the young Dwarf girl asked as Doufalynn and Lokuth turned to look at him questioningly, “I don’t think any of us want to watch Kragrock burn to the ground.”

  “Or stay in a place where we’ve lost so much,” Lokuth said in a hoarse voice as Doufalynn and Mutoline nodded in agreement.

  “Let’s see what we can do,” Zeven thoughtfully said, calling up his internal map to try and gauge the length of time it would take for them to reach the Dwarven capital. If they were forced to walk at the speed of the younger children, it would take them two days to reach Aeroch Nor, but if they ran. Zeven thoughtfully churned over the problem in his head, before looking over at Bright Claw.

  “Think you’re up to carrying Doufalynn and Lokuth?” Zeven asked Bright Claw, only to pause in surprise as he did a doubletake. “Holy crap, BC. How much did you just level up?”

  “Bbbwaaa grrr baaaa,” Bright Claw confidently answered, as Zeven realized that the cub was now the size of a terrestrial bear.

  “How much did you freaking level up with that last kill, BC?” Zeven muttered under his breath as he mentally selected Bright Claw’s avatar on his HUD and opened up the Grizhawk’s Character Sheet.

  Combat Mount: Bright Claw of the Azure Sky (Grizhawk)

  Level: 26

  Strength: 36

  Intelligence: 36

  Spirit: 36

  Agility: 36

  Stamina: 36

  Charisma: 36

  Attack: 82-87

  Speed: 0.5

  Weight-Carrying Capacity: 120 lbs.

  Special Abilities: None

  Shared Experience: 10% (up to a max of 50%)

  Additional Information: Your mount is bound to your soul. Unlike regular mounts, this mount can participate in combat alongside its owner like a summoned creature or tamed pet. At each fifth level, combat mounts can choose additional feats. To access the feats available for your combat mount, open the properties of your pet to choose from the available selection. Should your mount be slain in your service, your mount will lose all of its current level experience and remains unsummonable for the next twenty-four hours.

  You currently have three feats available. Please chose from the following selection below:

  Intimidating Roar – (50 Mana) - instant cast – Causes all enemies within five yards to cower in fear and all enemies between six to ten yards away to flee for up to 5 seconds or until attacked. Enemies within 5 yards of Combat Pet are disoriented for another 5 seconds and at fight had half their combat skill and power level. At the end of the fear, the Combat Pe
t goes to the top of the affected enemies’ aggro list. Cooldown is 5 minutes.

  Ferocious Bite – (20 Mana) A powerful bite that does an additional 200 points of piercing/crushing damage on top of a Combat Pet or Combat Mount’s regular bite. The Feat has a fifteen second cooldown.

  Claw Strike – (10 Mana for every claw used) A powerful slash that does 50 – 60 points of slashing damage per Claw used. The Feat has a five second cooldown.

  “Sweet, BC,” Zeven exclaimed, seeing that the Grizhawk had shot up a total of thirteen levels from his fight with the Mini-Boss, “your level 26!”

  “Bbrrraaahh brrr gggaaahhh,” Bright Claw proudly stated as he sat back on his hindquarters to look Zeven in the eyes.

  “So that’s why you think you can carry the smaller kids without too much of a problem,” Zeven thoughtfully mused, as he started going through the available information for his Combat Mount's stats. How could he have missed BC nearly doubling in size again? Zeven mentally berated himself as he started going through the available feats. He knew the fight and corpse clean-up had seriously distracted him, but damn, he should’ve been more aware than that.

  A thirty-six strength might be decent for an Advanced player just starting out, Zeven didn’t know if that was truly going to be enough for carrying children though. While the feats were interesting, nothing here had anything to do with mount capacity. As Zeven’s eyes read through the information again, his eyes focused on the “At each fifth level, combat mounts can choose additional feats” line of the additional information. If a new feat became available at every fifth level, maybe this would work. With a flick of his eyes, Zeven mentally selected the feat “Ferocious Bite” for Bright Claw.

  Zeven was surprised to see the Grizhawk’s maw noticeably change before his very eyes. In a flash of growth, the cub’s head nearly doubled in size as Sabertooth-like fangs sprouted from its thick-black lips with a knife-like edge that was large enough to take Zeven’s head right off in a single chomp. While all of those changes came about on his Combat Mount, Zeven glanced through the available feats that were listed again, silently fist pumping as he saw a new feat become available.

  Enhanced Health – A permanent buff to the maximum hit points of the Combat Mount that doubles the base Stamina. This is an excellent feat for increasing the survivability of your Combat Mount.

  With a shrug, Zeven mentally selected the new feat that became available, while silently hoping that he didn’t lose access to Claw Strike. As he watched, Bright Claw once again began to change. This time, the Grizhawk’s whole body seemed to grow larger as he truly became twice the size that he’d been at level 13. That was somewhat expected since the same happened with his own increases to Stamina, Zeven thought, as he verified the doubling of the stat while confirming the new listed feat. The part that was a big surprise was the doubling of the Grizhawk’s carrying capacity.

  Enhanced Natural Armor – A permanent buff to the base natural armor of the Combat Mount that reinforces its defense rating. This is an excellent feat for increasing the durability of your Combat Mount.

  Hmm, Zeven thought as he read through the new available feat. There was nothing else available for increasing the carrying capacity of his Combat Mount. With a shrug, he decided to select the “Claw Strike” so that he didn’t lose the option. While it was possible the selections never went away, Zeven didn’t want to risk it and give up a powerful attack like that. Curious to see if a new list of available feats would display for level 30 or not, he selected “Claw Strike” as the list of available feats disappeared from Bright Claw’s Character Sheet.

  The change to Bright Claw was immediate as the natural bear-like claws of the cub turned into truly formidable weapons. They were more like something you’d see on a Lion but with a Grizzly Bear’s length and thickness. The change didn’t just occur there. The Grizhawk’s hind talons had noticeably grown longer and more deadly too like the talon’s that you’d find on a Predator bird like an Owl or a Falcon … if they were the size of a small bear. It was a truly impressive transformation that gave the previous bleating cub a deadly ferocious look that went well with his new size and silently thrilled Zeven while he gave one more last look through Bright Claw’s overall stats.

  Combat Mount: Bright Claw of the Azure Sky (Grizhawk)

  Level: 26

  Strength: 36

  Intelligence: 36

  Spirit: 36

  Agility: 36

  Stamina: 36(x2)

  Charisma: 36

  Primary Attack: 182-187 (Bite)

  Secondary Attack: 53-63 (Claw – can be up to four separate attacks)

  Speed: 0.5

  Weight-Carrying Capacity: 240 lbs.

  Special Abilities: Ferocious Bite, Enhanced Health, and Claw Strike.

  Shared Experience: 10% (up to a max of 50%)

  His base stats would be even higher after his Essence Shaman buffs too, Zeven thought, thoroughly pleased with the changes. Closing the Grizhawk’s Character Sheet, he looked around in surprise to see the three young children still patiently waiting for his decision.

  “Sorry about that,” Zeven said, feeling somewhat self-conscious at losing himself in the moment as he gave the younger children a meaningful look, “I was trying to see if I could buff BC up enough to carry you guys.”

  “We can walk on our own,” Mutoline said, obviously wanting to get moving as soon as possible as Doufalynn and Lokuth both nodded in agreement.

  “While that’s true enough, traveling at a walk doesn’t quite fit my personal schedule,” Zeven flippantly said, as he began walking over to the front of the smithy, “Let me grab a few things and clean up and then we can head out.”

  Ignoring the unhappy look the Dwarven children shared with one another, Zeven hurried inside the smithy. Going to the old Dwarf’s room, he gathered up the journal on the desk and the chest at the foot of the bed, stuffing both into his rucksack of holding. While he was able to get the entire chest of stuff inside, a quick glance at the Rucksack of Holding’s status confirmed his fears, it was nearly full. Standing back up, he slipped the rucksack back over his shoulders, before heading back out of the door.

  Dropping his gear on the ground next to the water barrel, Zeven dunked the upper half of his body into the nearly freezing water. Holding his breath for a long minute, he scrubbed his furry arms, face, and chest clean as much as possible, before standing back up. As the water began running down his body, he took a moment to scrub away the remains of the bloody goop dried to his fur the best he could with an old rag that was hanging next to the barrel. Zeven couldn’t help but sadly smile to himself as he pictured the old Dwarf doing something very similar at the end of a hard day of smithing.

  Zeven dunked himself three more times before he felt clean enough to re-don his gear. Not that he had much to wear besides his kilt, equipment belts, and rucksack. Drying his fur off the best he could, Zeven headed over to the Dwarven children that had been silently watching his antics. Stopping in front of Doufalynn and Lokuth, he mentally called Bright Claw over to him.

  “BC thinks he’ll be able to carry the both of you easy enough,” Zeven said, ignoring their weak protests as he snatched Lokuth off his feet and swung him onto the Grizhawk’s broad furry back.

  “I can walk on my own-” Doufalynn let out a short yelp as Zeven swung her behind Lokuth’s back.

  “How’s that?” Zeven asked, after both children had a moment to adjust to the Grizhawk’s back.

  “Umm, it’s actually okay,” Doufalynn admitted.

  “Surprisingly comfortable,” Lokuth added as he laid his face against Bright Claw’s neck and gave the Grizhawk a comforting pat.

  “I’ll do my best to keep up,” Mutoline said, as she came to stand next to Zeven’s side to give her friends an encouraging nod.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Zeven said, as he began casting his regular buffs. As Mutoline began explaining that she would do her best to keep up with the rest of them, he cast Spirit Armo
r, Might of a Bear, Agility of a Squirrel, Stamina of a Wolf, Bark Skin, Speed of a Hare, Nature’s Protection, and the Strike of an Adler on both him and Bright Claw, before finishing up with Spirit Armor and Spirit Biter for himself.

  “Okay, let’s move out,” Zeven said, as he bent down and scooped Mutoline up in his arms before she realized what was happening.

  “I can run on my own two feet!” Mutoline protested as she kicked her feet to be let go.

  “Calm down, Mutoline,” Zeven soothed, as the young Dwarf girl looked up at him in annoyance, “We’ll do that if needed, but the plan is for us to reach Aeroch Nor tonight.”

  “But that’s a day’s travel away,” the young Dwarf girl protested.

  “If we were walking,” Zeven agreed, as he took off at a run with the Grizhawk and his charges following after. Glancing back, it looked like the young Dwarf children were doing fine as Bright Claw matched his pace. While Zeven truly didn’t know if he and the Grizhawk could keep up the grueling pace needed to reach the city or not in one evening, he was going to do his best to make it happen. Besides, it was safer than trying to find a place to sleep in the wilds for the night.

  Chapter Fourteen

  (Jodi Tempest (Thomas’ IRL Sister) logging back into Requiem.)

  Running Pod Diagnostic – Complete

  Synchronizing controller units - Complete

  Neuro Synchronization - Complete

  Initializing virtual environment …

  Jodi’s eyes opened to the darkened room that she’d been given to sleep in the night before. Sitting up, she grumpily gave the barren space, that was little more than an oversized walk-in closet, a critical onceover as she shook her head. It was amazing how one simple video could completely alter her perspective so completely from one day to the next.