Legends of Tarthirious : Books One-Four of Kylia's Story (Legends of Tarthirious (A LitRPG))

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  End of Conflict Report:

  Grand Gerry the Good: 3x Level 10 Risen Undead (Vulnerable).

  Armelia Fireheart: 5x Level 10 Risen Undead (Vulnerable).

  Total experience awarded:

  Grand Gerry the Good: Max Level Reached.

  No Experience Points awarded.

  Armelia Fireheart: +1250 XP.

  Level 11 Completed!

  Level Up!

  Level 12 Progress: 1030/4000.

  5 Skill Points awarded.

  “Gods that’s a lot of text…” I groaned as the entirety of my vision filled up with status updates, “How even?”

  “Always the way, innit?” Gerry laughed as he shook off the last of his armour, “Nothing for ages then ‘boom’! Everything at once. You gonna be okay though?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, just gonna quickly get the SPs out of the way before we keep on keepin’ on.”

  HP upgraded!

  HP: 4000/4000.

  Attributes upgraded!

  41 Strength

  41 Dexterity

  41 Intelligence

  44(+5) Wisdom

  “Right, good, ready to go.” I turned to the exhausted looking Vilor and Lyrias, “Are you alright?”

  They both nodded weakly and Lyrias heaved out “I just feel so… drained.”

  Gerry chuckling at the dead bodies by his feet distracted me for a moment, but I couldn’t really blame him. He was the one who went in front of the portal and whaled on the undead as they came through like a coked-up maniac tree monster, the others landed a lot of finishing blows, sure, but it was Gerry who weakened them.

  But I wasn’t about to give up on the quest and join him in mocking the overacting mages, “I think it’s this place. Do you know where we are?”

  Lyrias didn’t even bother looking around before saying “We haven’t a name for it, but it’s the plane between ours and the Hells. Magic folk like faeries, gnomes, and the others similar to them have supreme power here, and have been known to have the ability to warp reality.”

  “What about the necromancers? Could they alter the reality here?” I asked anxiously, waiting for Shadow-Stal to show up in knight’s garb again.

  Vilor shook his head and started talking before Lyrias could as they both came to stand up straight, “They’ll be as powerless as us here, but it does explain why they were able to get through the defences in Girit. They’d have to have someone on this plane helping them, but it could definitely be done.”

  “I bet whoever’s in there probably had something to do with it.” Gerry said, pointing to something behind me.

  It was a fort, a big one at that, and when I turned to face it I must admit shivered a bit. The jutting black and gold spikes that covered it's twenty foot high walls, the beautiful but horrifying fort itself made of a mix of what appeared to be metal and flesh, it all culminated into a sight that would stay with me for life.

  “I… Isn’t this place supposed to be empty?” I asked as Gerry came to stand beside me.

  “Maybe it was in a new updat…” he stopped himself from leaving character, clearly my liberalism hadn’t rubbed off on him yet, “Maybe the necromancers came here? Forced whoever it is that works for them to build it?”

  “Nice save,” I laughed, “I think it’s more likely the devs have just decided to finally utilise some of this empty space.”

  “I think we should go to the fort, but I can only carry two of you at a time.”

  “Shadow-Stal?” Gerry asked in shock when we both turned to see my horse standing roughly where the portal had been, thankfully on all fours.

  “Yes,” he said, “it would seem something about this place allows me to communicate with you.”

  It was weird. It’s weird. I didn’t like it, so I did the only thing that made sense to me in that situation and changed the focus to Lyrias, “Lyrias, do you think that an attack is the wisest approach?”

  She seemed unconvinced, but at the same time she clearly knew that the responsibility to make the choice landed on her shoulders, “I say we should go, but we must do so with caution. We can’t be sure that the necromancers don’t know we’re here.”

  “Very well, Gerry and I will take Shadow-Stal to the rear of the fort, see if there’s an entrance there, would you like to see if there’s another way in?”

  Vilor pointed toward the fort, “I believe I can see a tunnel on the right side, could be used to flush out water and waste. We can take that route.”

  Lyrias nodded, a smile playing on her lips after Vilor took charge, “Armelia, are you ready?”

  “Born so.”

  Mission Started: The Hidden Fort.

  Objective added: Infiltrate the Hidden Fort.

  Armelia: Chapter 16

  Shadow-Stal remained quiet for the ride, and it seemed his ability to speak was more or less a one off thing, which meant the wide journey we’d had to take to avoid being seen had been pretty boring.

  “So,” I said tiredly, “you still wanna move in?”

  Gerry stayed silent for a few seconds, then piped up with a concerned “Are you sure you want to talk about real world stuff?”

  I chuckled and gave a shrug, “I’ve only a short amount of time before you have to bugger off again, and we won’t exactly be able to have a phone call.”

  “We can text though. I did reply, promise, but I guess you jumped straight into this. Which is fine by the way, I promise, but, if you’re happy to break character, congratulations on the interview! I’m so proud of you.”

  I smiled and made a very lame face that I thanked the Gods Gerry couldn’t see, “Thank you. Doesn’t answer the question though.”

  “Always quick to shift off praise, huh?” Gerry laughed, “Fine, but I get to do a big congratulatory thing when I get home.”

  I liked the way he said ‘home’, made it all seem so much more real, “I don’t think you could go down on me for anywhere near long enough with the amount of time we’ll have ‘til the guys come to pick me up.”

  Gerry scoffed and undoubtedly rolled his eyes, “Glad to hear you’re getting back to your old, perverted self. And no, I meant like a cake or something you weirdo. And yes, of course I’m sure I still want to move in. Half the reason I started dating you was to get into that place.”

  “Ha, sure thing, it had nothing to do with getting into my pants.” I said, deflecting from how much I wanted to giggle with joy that he hadn’t changed his mind about moving in, “Anyway, let’s focus, we’re almost at the fort.”

  The Hidden Fort discovered.

  Journal entry made.

  The closer we got to the fort, the more my skin crawled, wherever we were was not meant for druids. We dismounted close to the rear of the fort, a place that was drenched even more in shadow than the rest, and left Shadow-Stal to wait by the wall, something that he grumbled and groaned about.

  As we made our way around the wall we discovered that, as expected, there was a back way, some kind of secondary gate that appeared to be for traders and the like to pass through with ease.

  A single guard stood posted by it, a hefty creature that appeared to be made of darkness covered in thick armour that could just as easily kill a man as the mighty axe he held.

  “You think we can take him?” Gerry asked hopefully.

  I thought on it a moment and then gave him an unsure look, “I’ve got my sword and bow, and I’m sure the blood sigils like Heavenly smite and Ky-Len’s heal would be just as effective here, but at the same time I don’t think wasting our time on one guard is a great idea.”

  Gerry nodded in agreeance, “True, and I reckon the second we lay hands on him the fort’ll go into lockdown and we’ll be eviscerated before we get through the gate.”

  “Agreed, so… what’s the plan?”

  “I guess we could… shit, I don’t know. Have you got anything you can throw?”

  I shook my head and somehow got an idea loose, “You think you could make something sprout?”

  “Yo
u mean like a tree under his feet? No way, it’d require too much juice.”

  “No, something small, like a bush or something, just so we can distract him.”

  Gerry looked from me to the guard, out to the desolate fields that continued behind the fort, then back to me, “I’m sure I could pull off something like that, but what if he sees us?”

  I gave a shrug and smile, “Then we adapt, now get casting, all this time in shadows is giving me a vitamin D deficiency.”

  Gerry chuckled and then got to work, focusing as hard as he could on a spot a few dozen feet ahead of the guard and, after a few seconds, up popped a shrubbery.

  The guard went into defensive mode and started slowly shuffling toward the strange new life in front of him while we wasted zero time in bolting for the gate, slipping in and hiding behind the cover of the internal wall as he turned around to return to his post.

  My heart was in my throat and I found myself struggling to breathe as I waited for the guard to spot and absorb us, or at the very least sound the alarm.

  But he didn’t.

  The guard, upon reaching his post, turned on his feet and waited as he had been.

  “That was close.” I said as I started taking in my surroundings, “Too close.”

  We were in some kind of large room, something that I guessed was usually a bazaar during the times of light, whatever they were in the plane we were in. It took a few seconds of trying to remember the layout I’d taken in when Gerry had first spotted the fort, and deduced that we were actually directly beneath the fort.

  “You see a door anywhere?” I asked as I started walking around the room, my hands tracing the damp walls looking for a passage out.

  “Not so far, no.” Gerry said from the other side of the room, “Maybe this doesn’t connect to the rest of the fort?”

  “No way,” I said, shaking my head, “what would be the point of it then? I doubt the guy who runs this place would want to have to go all the way around just so he could get in here.”

  Suddenly a high pitch alarm went off and Gerry was pulled from the world.

  Kylia: Chapter 4

  I jumped out of the game but left my headset on, “Gerald, you okay?” I asked in a panic, fearing for the worst.

  “Yeah,” he said in a pained voice, “sorry, just a reminder to get back to work. You can keep playing if you want.”

  A relieved sigh escaped me before I could catch it, and I shook my head with a smile, “Nah, I think… I think I’ll stop for a bit. You head back in, I’ll talk to you in a bit.”

  “Alright, love love.”

  “Love love.”

  The tone that signified he’d shut down chat pinged and I took off my headphones. My eyes felt like they were on fire, and as I stood I discovered that I had the hunch of a woman in her seventies.

  With a loud grunt, I straightened up and rolled my shoulders for a bit until they made a satisfying crack and the dull ache was gone. I’d clearly been sitting for a few hours, at least, and when I went out to the clock I was proven right.

  It was half three, and I hadn’t had lunch yet, and my first instinct was to get something delivered. Guilt kicked in though, and, after having a quick look at the slight amount of softness I’d gained around my belly, I decided it was time for a jog.

  There was a nice sushi place not far from home, maybe a mile or two, and the idea of having something that wasn’t fried or slathered in cheese made my stomach sing with joy.

  As I got into my jogging clothes, which was just a pair of grey trackies and a hoodie to match, I took note of how much the weather had died down outside. I’d still have to be careful of course, but I didn’t have to wear a raincoat either.

  By the time I’d set up my glasses so they didn’t simply fall off, was fully dressed, and had a pumpy song coming through my phone’s headset I discovered that I didn’t actually want to go for a jog, which pissed me off to no end.

  I pushed passed the urge to sit back down though, and forced myself out the door, though once I’d made it out of the building I accepted that it was past the point of no return and started my jog.

  It seems kind of boring, I know, but it was the first time I’d been able to do anything close to going for a leisurely walk beyond the tube station in weeks. Sure I’d gone for a walk in the city before I was hospitalised, but it was a bit different in my opinion.

  With the tunes pushing me on, I smiled at the fact that I was still able to maintain what was my original level of exertion, push it a little even. I felt like a proper human being again.

  However after the first mile I started to notice my breathing was getting heavier, and when I started to get close to the two mile mark I was straight up heaving. I’d used to be able to pull off five mile runs, and all of a sudden I couldn’t do more than a mile and a half without feeling the need to throw up.

  I attributed it to the hours of gaming with no warm up, and when I finally reached the sushi place I gave myself a little cheer, which may very well have been a big, wheezy cheer, having earphones in usually messes my volume up a bit.

  I turned down the music and took off the headset as I approached a lovely young girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen, who was manning the front counter of the mostly empty sushi shop, “Afternoon, could I get the teriyaki chicken and the tuna and avo?” I asked without throwing up even once.

  The girl smiled and punched in my order, “Would you like a drink with that?”

  I nodded as I pulled out my wallet, “Just a water, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome, that comes to £5.25.” she said, pulling out an older model pin-and-chip machine when she saw me pull out my card.

  I pushed my card to the machine, and while the old device tried it’s best to communicate with the servers the cashier went and got me my drink and sushi, putting the two seaweed wrapped delights along with two small fish shaped soy sauce packets in a small plastic container that she sealed with a rubber band.

  The machine beeped and the girl handed me my order, “Come again soon.”

  I gave her a polite nod, feeling slightly racist for doing so, before leaving the shop and looking for the park I was pretty sure was nearby.

  It was a few minutes before I realised I had put my earphones back in, and by the time I did I’d already found a nice park bench which was mostly dry and faced the park I used to go to back when it was a bit sunnier.

  I decided to turn off my music for a while and enjoy the sounds of nature that surrounded me, birds, wind, it was good to get out and remember that it wasn’t just Tarthirious that had the beautiful vistas.

  The sushi filled me up pretty quick, and when I was done I internally joked about having Full health restored which somehow reminded me that Gerald had texted me.

  Gerald –

  That’s great! What time do you go on? Hope you’re having a good day. xoxo (P.S. Thx for the pics, but I just got in trouble for trying to send you some in the middle of the office. Sexism at its finest. LOL.)

  – You

  Thanks <3 Pretty early, will probably leave before you get up xxx Sorry for messaging at work, I just had to tell you. And awwww, that sucks ;)

  Not even a few seconds went by when my phone vibrated with a message alert, something that I normally found irritating, but with him actually felt pretty great.

  Gerald –

  No way, I'm gonna be up with you from the minute you get up. You think they’ll let me come along?

  I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to get his hopes up and have it not happen, but at the same time I really wanted him there, if only so I had someone to keep me company other than the MPs.

  – You

  Should do, if not I’ll just throw a hissy fit, force them to let you come. LoL.

  Gerald –

  Haha. I dont want to be any trouble though, are you sure?

  – You

  Positive. Now get back to work so you can hurry up and come home. I miss you xox

  Gerald –

&nb
sp; Sure thing. Love <3 xox

  – You

  Love love <3 I’ll see what I can scrounge up for dinner before you get back.

  With that I stuffed my phone back in my pocket and headed back home.

  Life was finally back on track. I had Gerald, I was looking forward to going back to work, I was getting a healthy amount of gaming in, but at the same time didn’t feel like it was completely dominating my life.

  I’d done it.

  I’d achieved balance, and nothing could ruin it.

  Kylia: Chapter 5

  “Bollocks.” I growled at the empty kitchen cupboards.

  “Double bollocks.” I snapped at the mostly empty fridge as I slammed it shut.

  I’d become so used to the single life that it hadn’t even registered to do a halfway decent grocery shop in what felt like forever. The local shops would still be open, but I didn’t want Gerald to come home to discover that no one was waiting for him. I felt like I was an absolute fuck up, and was sure that Gerald was going to leave me.

  I was emotional, okay? And as balanced as I thought I was, I was still waiting for things to go tits up at any second. The best I could do was some sort of Irish herbal soup made from tea bags, the bottle of scotch Will had given me, and water.

  The other option was, of course, to simply chug the bottle and get alcohol poisoning so that Gerald would be so distracted from me dying that he wouldn’t care if I didn’t have food waiting for him.

  I swear I don’t have Munchausen’s, at least I hope I don’t.

  I was about to give up and pull some classic sitcom trope where I went and got Italian food from a restaurant and pretend I cooked it, but then I heard a knocking on the door.

  A big part of me considered going out the window and pretending I wasn’t home, but that part was quickly shut down by the other parts of me who wanted to see Gerald.