Drake's LitRPG Megabundle (7 Books)

by Adam Drake

  Rob was struck with a realization. “Did you arrive here from the south?”

  “Yeah,” Trenton said. “Appeared to be the only way into this place being it has just the one road, according to the maps. Why? Should he have come by sea?”

  “Did you pass any people on the way here?”

  “None on the road, no.”

  Rob said, “Did you see anyone at the trading post?” His hope was that maybe some of them may have escaped and gone to the trading post for safety.

  Trenton shook his head. “Nah, just the Trog and some of his workers. Nasty looking lot that bunch. You deal with him a lot?”

  “Never met him,” Rob said. “Haven't had a chance to get that far south.”

  “But it's in your kingdom, ain't it? The trading post?”

  “I guess,” Rob said. To be honest, he had no idea how far his kingdom's borders extended, now the walls were gone. Or whether anyone within them knew who he was, or cared.

  Fenton pointed his staff at Rob's bare legs. “Don't they have pants in your kingdom?”

  Before Rob could muster a response Trenton reached over and cuffed Fenton on the ear.

  “Don't be rude!” Trenton said, his face getting red. “This here is a king and you don't talk in such a manner to one of royal blood.”

  “It's alright,” Rob said. “I had a rough time of it yesterday. I'd gone out to do some questing, but when I returned everyone in the camp was gone.”

  “Gone?” Said Trenton, dumbfounded. He looked at the empty buildings. “Where'd they run off to, then?”

  Rob tried not to roll his eyes. “I don't know. That's why I asked if you saw anyone at the trading post. I think they've been abducted.”

  The three men suddenly tensed up, raising their staffs and eyeing the buildings with naked suspicion.

  “Abducted? By who?” Trenton said, wary.

  “I don't know. Look. I'm running out of time here. I have to go find them, can you help?” Rob asked, hopefully.

  Trenton cast a glance at his two sons, then shook his head. “Sorry, but we're builders, not adventurers. Castles we can help with, mysterious abductions... not so much.”

  Rob felt crestfallen. This was going to be a task he'd have to tackle on his own.

  “How do we know those that took 'em won't be coming back?” Fenton said.

  Trenton barked a laugh. “You daft boy? Come back for what? Look at this place. Other than the people who were here there's nothing else of value.” He realized what he said and looked to Rob apologetically. “Sorry, don't mean any offense.”

  “None taken,” Rob said. Truth be told there really was nothing else of value here. His subjects were what was important. Without them around, the place looked even more decrepit. “I don't think anyone is coming back. They snatched up everyone and are taking them... somewhere.”

  Benton brightened at a thought. “Pech slavers! That must be it. They snatch folk up all the time.”

  “Pech?” Rob said. “Who are they?”

  “Nasty characters,” Trenton said. “Usually slink out of the Blighted Wastes to steal hard working people from their homes. Sell them back in their capital. If your folk have been taken by them, then that's where they'd be headed. May the gods grant mercy upon them, too.”

  “May the gods grant mercy upon them,” both Fenton and Benton said in unison.

  Rob blinked at this information. Slavers? Damn. That would explain it, then. His people were being whisked off to be sold as slaves. He had to find them. “Where are the Blighted Wastes?”

  “Far from here. To the west,” Trenton said.

  Rob couldn't help but feel exasperated. “Are you sure you can't help me out? I'll pay you. Whatever treasure or money we find you can keep.”

  Trenton didn't even give it a moment's thought. “Sorry, but like I said, we're simple builders. Chasing slavers would be for adventurers like yourself. We're just common folk.”

  Rob knew he couldn't press them further. “Okay, well I have to go,” he said as he picked up Jace's axe. His disappointment from not getting them to join him was only tempered by the fact he now knew who most likely took his people.

  As he turned to leave, Trenton raised a hand. “Wait, what about the castle?”

  “Castle?” Rob said. “It'll have to wait. I got bigger priorities at the moment.”

  “We could start the foundation while you're gone,” Trenton said, sounding a little eager. “Wouldn't cost much.”

  Fenton said, “Would we have to stay in this place?”

  “Shut up,” Trenton barked at him then smiled at Rob. “Say we could work a week, first. After that, if you've returned by then, we could reassess.”

  This gave Rob pause. Right now there was no progress being made for both his character levels and the kingdom's. Getting the ball rolling on the castle would certainly help out.

  Hoping to keep Rob thinking, Trenton said, “Why don't you show us what you've got to work with? Can't hurt.”

  Rob glanced up at the top of Castle Hill. It would be nice to know that something was being done. And with these guys working here, maybe the Kingdom wouldn't be technically abandoned, if that meant anything to the rules.

  “Okay, fine,” Rob said. “Follow me.”

  He led the builders through the camp and up the side of the hill, his mind jumping around. Slavers. Damnit. How many would there be? Had to be a lot if they took everyone. Twenty? Thirty? How could he possibly face down such a large group by himself?

  “Can I ask you something?” Fenton said, yanking Rob out of his thoughts.

  “What?”

  “How did you lose your pants, anyway? That's got to be a story.”

  “Leave the man be,” Trenton said. “He's got things on his mind other than answering your stupid questions.”

  Fenton said, “I'm curious, is all. It's not like we get a chance to talk to many adventurers.”

  “No, it's all right,” Rob said. “It was goblins, bog dogs, monstrous crocodiles, shambler hordes, angry gnolls, a house sized spider and a giant, mutant rat-queen. That's what happened to my pants.”

  The builders gave each other looks of disbelief and Rob couldn't help but smile.

  They stopped at the top of the hill, next to the hole with the cornerstone. Rob could make out the impression his body made where he'd slept. Down at the bottom of the other side of the hill, spread out in neat piles, were all the stone blocks, wooden beams and other building materials.

  Trenton gave it all a quick look and nodded. “Typical phase one assembly,” he said. To Rob he asked, “Do you have any deeds?”

  “Deeds?” Rob said, confused. “For land?”

  “No, for bonus buildings.”

  “Uh, no. I don't think so,” Rob said, a little mystified. “What are they?”

  “Bonus buildings can be added to your base castle. Like double-sized walls, or a trebuchet tower, or a dragon roost. That sort of thing.”

  “Dragon roost?” Rob said, surprised. “I can have one of those?”

  “If you had the deed for it, sure.”

  “Where do I get these deeds?”

  “You find them while adventuring. Or you buy them for insane amounts of gold from the Builder's Guild. As a representative I could offer you a hefty discount.”

  “You have deeds with you?”

  Trenton coughed a little. “Well, no. They're too valuable to haul around so they'd have to be delivered by an armed courier. Should I start the paperwork?”

  Rob sighed at the tough sell the man was giving him and made an effort not to get angry. He needed these guys to start his castle. “Thanks, but I'll just stick with the basic castle for now.”

  Trenton shrugged, looking disappointed at the loss of a commission. “Suit yourself. But if you ask me, having a dragon roost would really spice up the place. Now, shall we get started for you?”

  “How much?”

  “Like I said, he'd work a single week or until you returned. And since you appea
r to be in dire straights at the moment, perhaps we could go as low as ten gold pieces?”

  Rob looked at Trenton a little baffled. “Is that a good price?”

  “Yes, very good,” he said with a hint of sympathy. “You're new at this, aren't you?”

  “You have no idea,” Rob said. Then he nodded. “Okay, ten for a week.” As he fished out his money purse from a bag of holding he looked back down at the road to the south expectantly. “When will the other builders arrive?”

  “Other builders?” Trenton blurted, and all three men suddenly burst into laughter.

  Rob watched them in confusion. “Yeah, there's only three of you. Won't you need more?”

  Recovering, Trenton wiped a tear from his eye. “Ah, that was a good one, King of Anika. No, there are no other builders coming. We represent a full certified team from the guild. Anymore and we'd be tripping over each other.”

  “How the hell are you guys going to move and place all of that by yourselves?” he said, waving at the building supplies. “How is that possible?”

  Trenton's smile widened, and he nudged a friendly elbow into Rob's side. “Why don't we show you by shifting the first block? Then we can put your kingly mind at ease.”

  Rob was too curious to tear himself away from this. Yes, he had people to rescue, but he was too intrigued to leave.

  He followed the three men down the hillside to the supplies.

  Trenton went over to a set of stone blocks, stacked two high. “A-1, A-1, where is it? It's never placed up front, gods be damned.”

  “Here it is, pa,” Benton said pointing at a block on top of a different row.

  Trenton went over and gazed up at it. “Ah, A-1. Good.”

  Rob noticed that at the top corner of the stone was carved 'A-1'. Blinking in surprise he looked at the other stones. They, too, had letters and numbers carved in their top corners. G-15, R-31, T-5.

  Trenton clapped his hands at his sons. “Okay, quit gawking and grab the beams!”

  The two men quickly ran off to return hauling a heavy wood beam, each. They placed them evenly on the ground next to the bottom block. They then ran off to come back with another two beams. These were placed at the ends of the first two, like rails on a track.

  Trenton stood next to the double stack of blocks and raised his hands. Suddenly, the block labeled A-1 rose several inches in the air. With intense focus, Trenton stepped to the side, and the block moved along with him.

  Rob stared in wide eyed amazement as it cleared the bottom block and hovered above the ground some eight feet in the air.

  Then Trenton lowered his hands and the block slowly descended to gently land on the two beams. Finished, the man sighed and sagged against the block. “Always takes a lot out of you, it does. But if feels good to be working.”

  Stunned, it took a few moments before Rob could speak. “How did you do that?”

  Breathing heavily, Trenton said, “Levitation spell. Only issued to certified members of the guild. Unfortunately, it costs energy as well as mana to cast, so you end up working up quite a sweat doing it.”

  So this was how they could build castles on their own. No need for teams of hundreds of laborers to shift and raise tons of materials. Just spell it into position.

  Recovered from his ordeal, Trenton pointed at the next set of beams. “I'll shift over to those, then the lads will move this set in front of it. Then I'll shift again. Over and over we'll do that until we get it up the top of the hill.” He wiped sweat from his brow. “If I don't drop dead first, of course.”

  Benton handed his father a waterskin which the man guzzled from.

  “How long do you think this will take?” Rob said.

  “To build the first phase? Hard to say. It's never the same each time. What, with weather factors, general topography, and needing to recover after each move, I can't rightly say. But I can tell you we'll make good progress while you're gone. Mark my words.”

  Impressed, Rob dug out ten gold coins and placed them in Trenton's sweaty palm. “I look forward to seeing the end result.”

  “So do I,” Trenton said with a laugh. Then he turned away to bark orders at his sons.

  Rob watched them for a few moments, still feeling heady from seeing the multi-ton block hovering in the air. Magic. That was what he needed more of, and as much as he could get. Not just his Light spell, or a healing spell. But all of it. Everything he could learn.

  He left the men to their work and headed around the hill to his manor. Fenton's talk about his missing pants made him reconsider just running off without a fresh change of clothes first. And maybe he could wash, too. The crusted blood on his skin was starting to itch.

  The door to the manor was still open from when he'd run into it the evening before. He went inside and stood in the middle of the small room, giving himself a moment to process things.

  His people had been taken by slavers and he knew the general direction they were heading in. That was more than he had less than an hour before. He could work with it.

  Quickly, he removed all his gear and the remnants of his clothes until he stood naked. He stank like an animal.

  He grabbed the empty water-basin and the lump of yellow soap Fumi had given him and went back outside. There was an open barrel nuzzled up against the back of the manor he'd seen before. It was filled with rainwater fed by a spout from the roof. He dabbed a finger in it and found it ice cold. Good.

  For the next twenty minutes he did nothing but scrub and wash his entire body several times. The cool morning air along with the cold water made his movements quick. Whenever he thought he was finished, he kept finding more spots of dirt or blood. As he cleansed his body, his eyes darted toward the line of trees to the west. His people were out there, somewhere.

  Inside the manor he went to his trunk of goods, the Royal Holdings, as Saif referred to it. He pulled out the cloth shirt and pants he'd worn when he left the tutorial island and put them on. Not as warm as wool, but it was better than nothing.

  From his sling-backpack he transferred the steel sword to the trunk, but kept the Sword of Pain in case he managed to get the strength to use it while traveling. Grudgingly, he placed Jace's axe in the trunk. It was far too heavy and bulky to carry.

  Then he put on the leather jerkin and helmet. He slipped the rusty dagger into his belt, slinging his Axe of Blood from a loop.

  As he was putting the sling-backpack on he noticed something at its bottom. An empty waterskin. It must have been there from when Jace had carried it around.

  Finally, he slipped on the leather gloves and picked up the shield. Everything felt lighter than before. To be expected considering the items he'd lost.

  As he was about to step outside he noticed the broken mirror was gone, no longer shattered on the floor where he'd left it. Someone had taken it away, probably Saif. He ran a gloved hand over the short stubbly beard on his face. At some point he'd shave it off, when he had the time.

  He thumped the manor door closed and returned to the rain barrel to fill the waterskin, taking large gulps as he did.

  Finished, he crossed the field north, circumventing the hill. In minutes he found what he was looking for, a wide swath of trampled grass and he followed it to the western treeline. The damaged grass ended at the beginning of a path that disappeared into the forest. He could plainly see many footprints in the shallow mud.

  He cast a final glance back and saw Trenton and his sons moving the huge stone block up the hill. They were a third the way up its incline.

  At least someone was making progress, he thought. Up until yesterday afternoon he'd been doing the same. But he was slapped with yet another setback and a major one, too.

  Such is the life of an adventurer king, he heard Saif's voice say at the back of his mind.

  For a brief moment he yearned again for a mop and bucket and a simple spill to clean up. But he quickly pushed the thought away. That was the old him. He couldn't afford to think like that anymore. He had fought and bled an
d suffered more in the last few days than he'd done over his entire life.

  In all honesty he could say he was a changed man, now. A different man.

  But was he better for it? He didn't have the answer to that.

  Turning back, he entered the dark forest and into the unknown.

  He had his people to save.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  As soon as Rob crossed through the treeline, the world darkened. Above, the sky was replaced by a thick green canopy of rustling leaves and branches.