The Dead Fortress: A LitRPG Epic (World of Samar Book 3)

by LitRPG Freaks

  “Speaking to my counterpart I believe,” Tavin explained as if she was not an NPC at all. “Do not worry, you will see them in a few moments.”

  Bishop frowned and was about to back out of the camp, but what was the point? Dennis told him the game chose him for a reason. Even Calista seemed to think there was a purpose to all of this, so he hunkered down on a nearby stump by the fire and waited silently for them to speak. Willy didn’t sit by him, though. He sat beside Tavin, nudging her with his nose until she continued to scratch behind his ears and under his chin. A silly grin stretched across his face and Bishop frowned.

  “Let me guess, you go to Tavin when you’re not with me,” he said to the wolf who thumped his tail in return. “I see how it is. I’m gone for days and you go to Tavin?”

  Willy huffed and sidled over to sit beside Bishop.

  “That’s better.” Willy snorted into the leaves and Bishop laughed as the great big beast leapt onto him, smothering him with licks and knocking him off the stump into the dirt.

  “Your wolf is quite an amazing beast,” Tavin said through her laughter. “He comes to me with updates on your progress through Samar.”

  “He what?” Bishop asked surprised, finding his way back to the stump.

  “I have many eyes throughout Samar. The wolves of course are everywhere. They come to me with news, tell me of Demons in the woods, what certain heroes are up to.”

  Bishop wasn’t sure if it comforted him to know he was being watched by his wolf, or freaked him out more to know the game took such an interest in him since he knew of no other player with a companion like Willy.

  “I’m assuming you both have a plan of some sort?” he asked, wanting to get this conversation over with.

  “We wanted to be certain you were well, first,” Tavin said. “You were gone for several days.”

  “I had to tend to some matters at home,” he said and Tavin smirked. “What?”

  “You were ill. We overheard your friends speaking of it.”

  “Yes, I was,” he said slowly, the creep factor growing again. “But it was a fever, nothing more. I’m back now and that’s what matters.”

  Tavin and Winston nodded in agreement. “Yes, yes that’s what matters.” She studied him long and hard and a warning bell went off in his mind that she was going to push for answers about him hearing voices, seeing things, but instead she placed her hands on her thighs and nodded to Winston.

  “Winston will be traveling north,” she said. “He’s meeting up with the Order of the Fallen Knights to aid them in clearing out several Demon camps and their masters. I will be accompanying you soon when you reach the Dead Fortress. Bronson will be joining us as well.”

  “Bronson? Why?”

  “They have a history together,” Winston told him darkly. “A horrible history.”

  “How do you know Mortagh if he’s a Demon Lord?” Bishop asked, confused.

  Tavin picked up a stick and stoked the fire. The flames grew and popped, filling the silence left in the wake of Bishop’s question. “Mortagh,” she finally said, “deals in souls. He collects them, uses them. When you face him, you will be entering his domain and it will be far worse than any you have seen thus far.”

  “How much worse can it be?”

  The sudden dead look in her eyes told him exactly how much. “You must remember you are there for a purpose. Kill Mortagh. You cannot focus on anything else. His Fortress is filled with souls collected over the centuries, but you cannot aid them. Mortagh is the one you must kill.”

  “We can’t save the souls?” Bishop asked uncomfortable with leaving people’s souls behind.

  It’s just a game, you idiot. Focus on the game. Don’t get caught up any more than you already are.

  “You risk killing yourself and your companions if you do.”

  “You still haven’t answered my question.”

  Tavin met his gaze and said so quietly he nearly missed it, “He holds my soul, stole it after Valenastrious attacked. He once held Bronson’s as well, but he managed to retrieve it at great cost.”

  “He has your soul? Why aren’t we trying to get it back?” Bishop asked.

  “I have survived many years without it,” she pointed out. “Our hope is if you kill him, the souls will be released.”

  “And what happens if they’re not? What happens if they’re all destroyed?”

  “That is a risk I’m willing to take.”

  “I’m not!” he raged, jumping to his feet. “You’re going to be Queen again, right? How can you be a queen without your soul, Tavin?”

  “Carefully,” she replied.

  Bishop took a deep breath and tried to get his thoughts in order. His mind raced with notions of Tavin without a soul this whole time and Valenastrious, also soulless. What else was going on in this storyline he didn’t know yet, or understand? What was the reason for it all?

  You are chosen, Bishop, a voice whispered in his mind, but this time he couldn’t tell if it was Valen’s voice or another. Tavin? You have been chosen for a reason.

  “No, no if we go in there, we’re getting your soul back.”

  Tavin frowned, but Winston grinned and patted Bishop on the arm. “I like this one. He has heart. You have chosen well, my Queen.”

  Tavin glowered at Winston. “Not Queen yet, and he is a fool.”

  “Perhaps, but aren’t we all to think we can win this war? I must be off. Bishop, my friend, I will see you again soon. Until such time, I ask you seek out those loyal to me throughout the land and aid them any way you can. They will also give you news of my whereabouts. Should you have dire need for me, blow this horn, and I will be by your side.”

  He handed over a sleek white and silver horn to Bishop. He took it and the prompt appeared: You have received: Horn of Weston. “Thank you. I have a feeling it may come in handy soon enough.”

  “That suits me fine. I am spoiling for a fight with these green-eyed devils.” He bowed his head and two of the wolves saved from the encampment took off after him.

  Bishop flipped the horn over in his hands as he slowly retook his stump. “Tavin, can I ask you something before I go?”

  “Of course. You may always ask, Bishop.”

  He hesitated, but had to ask. “Do you know that I’m not real? That this world isn’t real?”

  Tavin frowned. “What do you mean not real? Of course we are real. We are here in Samar, fighting a war against the greatest evil to exist,” she said. “Bishop, do you still have a fever perhaps? Maybe you are not well if you believe this world is not real.”

  Inwardly, he sagged in relief. “No, no I’m fine. I just…I had strange dreams these past few days.” He stood and Willy, thankfully, followed him. “I will see you again at the Dead Fortress?”

  “I will be there to fight by your side,” she assured him.

  Bishop turned to walk away, waiting for the others to appear before him, when her next words followed him.

  “And Bishop? Tell Daemyn he is much missed in our world.”

  He froze, heart hammering, but when he whipped back around, Tavin and the tiny camp were gone. A hand landed on his shoulder and he jumped in surprise, but it was only Calista. “Hey, you alright?”

  “Yeah, sorry, I just…that was a weird instance.”

  “Interesting though. Winston’s heading north and we get to go rescue souls from Mortagh.”

  “You saw Tavin, too?”

  “No, she’s your half-breeds guide, remember? We elves saw Harlorn. He’s our guide.”

  “Right, yeah of course,” he muttered, glancing back over his shoulder. “Where did the camp go?”

  “No idea. Are you sure you’re alright?”

  He grinned. “Perfect. I have Willy back and we have an idea of what we’re going to be facing in the next dungeon. Everything is just perfect.”

  They walked a few feet away to wait for the others to appear while Willy sat by his side, leaning into him. Bishop absently ruffled his fur, pondering over T
avin’s words. She knew Daemyn. It wasn’t completely unbelievable. He was the creator of the game and it made sense the NPCs would know who he was, but her words, why did they sound so familiar?

  One by one, the rest of the guild appeared from the trees and, once they were together again, they checked their maps and started towards the closest road. They had three levels to go before they would be able to tackle the dungeon and all of them were damn close to having enough Demon Shards to purchase their next tier. They decided to do some good old fashion Demon hunting and grind out some XP along with getting more of those Shards. Bishop kept the words Tavin spoke to himself, but by the time the end of the day came around, he hadn’t made up his mind if he was going to tell Dennis yet, or keep that secret as well.

  Chapter 04

  The last Demon fell dead to the ground and Bishop, along with the rest of his guild, cheered as they looted the bodies. They all had at least 50 Demon Shards now and could head back to Hillside as soon as they turned in these quests back at the slightly larger village in the Veiled Valley. Once they did, they would hit level 30 and be ready for the next dungeon against Mortagh.

  Bishop sent a quick message to Trajan to check in and see how his half of the guild progressed so far and if they would be ready to tackle a dungeon in the next day or so.

  Their gear needed upgrades and Calista had been harassing Bishop for the past week about heading back to Weston. He agreed last night he would go with her, but if he got arrested, she would have to get him out of the dungeon.

  “I can’t wait to turn these in!” Jimmy said.

  “You already know what you’re going to do?” Bishop asked.

  “Hell yes. The Exorcist ability has a crazy upgrade for Tier 2. It’s going to be incredible!”

  They stepped over dead bodies of Demons in the camp they wiped out, chatting about their next level abilities. Willy trotted ahead, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. Now that Bishop knew where his wolf went sometimes, he found a strange comfort in the fact that Tavin was keeping a close watch on him and his guild. Part of him said he should be creeped out by it, but he would rather be watched by Tavin who seemed to have his good interests in mind instead of Valen who wanted him to kill his guild and join her.

  At the village, they turned in the final quest and dinging sounds echoed around them as they leveled one by one. Bishop grinned when his level marker hit 30 by his name, hovering in the far corner of his vision. They made it to thirty. He wished he could say they made it without dying, but still, they made it mostly in one piece and now had the most successful guild in the game.

  “Right then, Hillside first?” Maverick asked.

  “I’ll transport,” Giles offered, and everyone gathered around except Willy. He backed away and with a wag of his tail, ran off into the trees. “Is he not coming?”

  “Nah, he’s got someone he has to go see,” Bishop explained.

  Everyone frowned at him, but he waved them off and Giles used his ability to move the guild back to Hillside. Bishop half-expected it to be under attack or in some other form of dire circumstances, but the village bustled along, NPCs going about their day and other players milling about. He sighed in relief and walked towards the Training Hall. He and Giles made their way to the Hunter Trainer in the back of the hall and he let Giles go first. He disappeared through the door behind the elf and, when it closed, the elf turned back around and waited for Bishop to approach.

  “I have come to use my Demon Shards,” he said.

  The Trainer bowed his head. “Enter the room and choose what Tier 2 ability you would like to move to. Remember, you can only undo this choice and reset your stats with 500 Demon Shards. Do you wish to enter?”

  “Yes,” Bishop announced, and the elf pushed open the door. Thanking him, Bishop stepped inside the dark room and waited for the skill trees to appear as they had before.

  The room glowed as first his Talents appeared, followed by his main skill tree. He walked over and read through the upgraded abilities again, even though he was confident he knew which one he wanted. Having a longer range for shooting would give him a chance to be farther away from the action and stay out of the chaos of the fight. He enjoyed doing damage but, lately, it seemed the farther away from a fight he could be, the better he did. He reached up towards the Fiery Arrow option and selected the Tier 2 upgrade: increase shot range by ten yards. It wasn’t much, but it would still help.

  Are you certain you wish to select upgrade Tier 2 Fiery Arrow: Increase shot range by ten yards?

  Bishop read the prompt and selected yes beneath it.

  The Tier listing on the skill tree lit up and the others darkened. His Demon Shard count shown at the bottom where he could see it easily decreased down to 5, but he was alright with that. If they were doing a dungeon in the Demon world, then he had no worries about getting another 50 Demon Shards sooner rather than later.

  He couldn’t choose another Talent until level 40, so he left the room behind, walked past his trainer, and found Calista near the forges working away on a new mace.

  “You chose already?” he asked, sitting down on a stack of crates by the forge.

  “I did. Wasn’t a hard choice really. I run on fury, so I chose what will increase it.” She held up the glowing orange mace and grinned. “You should probably get yourself a new bow before we hit this next dungeon.”

  “We all should upgrade our weapons, but I need materials from the house.”

  “See, told you we needed to go to Weston.”

  He rolled his eyes as she cackled manically, hammering away on the mace. “Yes, yes, I get it.”

  A message icon flashed in his view and he pulled up to see a short message from Trajan, asking to meet at the tavern in Hillside that afternoon.

  “Looks like we might not get to Weston until tomorrow,” he said and showed her the message.

  “Huh, wonder what they found out. He says they’re all about up to level though, so that’s good. We should be hitting the dungeon tomorrow afternoon?”

  “Hopefully.” Bishop brought up his bags and found a vendor close-by to sell the junk he picked up and had no need for. He didn’t have enough materials on him to craft anything of use, so he waited around for the others to finish up with their upgrades. Jimmy bounded towards him a few minutes later. “I’m not sure I like that smile on your face.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because whatever you just learned, you’re going to practice on me, aren’t you?”

  “Actually I don’t know if it would work on you or not.”

  “What is it?”

  “I can now take the Demon scourge of any player or target and turn it into a disease that spreads to nearby targets! Isn’t that awesome?”

  Bishop grinned with him. “How many targets can it hit?”

  “I have no idea yet. Guess I’ll get to test it once we’re in the dungeon.”

  “Guess so. Do you have mats to craft or are you going to wait?” he asked, excited, but wanting to keep them on track. “Dungeon by tomorrow afternoon, hopefully, but Trajan wants to meet us at the tavern here first.”

  “Did he say what for?”

  “No, but the way this game’s been going, I’m not sure if it’ll be good.”

  “Nah, I don’t have anything, but I do have a nice chunk of gold. Might check out the auction house and see what materials I can buy while I’m here.”

  He saluted and said he’d be over at the Auction House, a separate room connected to the main Crafting and Training Hall. Bishop considered going with him; he had a decent amount of gold, too, but another message appeared in front of his face. This one made him pause and he stepped out of the way of passersby and other players to read it.

  “Governor Bartholomew of Chesterville, that’s unfortunate,” he mused with a smirk and opened the message.

  It was a quest requesting Bishop’s aid and that of his guild in dealing with a Demon problem in Chesterville. After which, he would be given a reward he coul
d not turn down. Bishop brought up the map, keeping the message open before him, and searched for Chesterville. It wasn’t in the territory they came from, but south in a small area that seemed to surround a strange, circular formation in the center. “So, Godfrey’s mother is there. I guess I’ll accept,” he said to himself.

  The reward for completing the quest was a map to the witch, hidden away in the southern swamplands along the coast. He hurried to Calista and filled her in.

  “Good. I was worried we hit our max for this area and hadn’t found her yet,” she said, wiping sweat from her forehead. “So fourth dungeon and then straight south? Guess we’ll be with the LongBeards again.”

  “Looks like it. Probably a good thing. Going up in levels means bigger bad guys and we’re running short on healers.”

  “Trajan message you yet saying they’re here?”

  “No,” he said and frowned when a message popped up announcing log out for lunch. “Guess we’ll try and find them in the cafeteria and see what’s going on.”

  They logged out and, as Bishop closed his eyes on Samar, Harrison opened his eyes back in the lab. He was happy knowing at least today had been an ordinary day of gameplay, or so he thought. As they moved to the cafeteria, he searched for Trajan, TJ in real life, but he didn’t see the man with the bushy red beard, or any other players from the LongBeards. He walked back to the lab when they were twenty minutes in and saw several players still at their stations, logged into the game. Tyler was on his way out and Harrison stopped him.

  “What’s going on? Are they alright?’

  Tyler glanced over his shoulder. “Oh yeah, they’re in the middle of a really long instance, so Dennis said to let them stay in until it was finished. Interrupting it by logging out might mess it up and glitch the system.”

  “What instance are they doing?” Harrison asked, curious as to what they got into up north.

  “Something about the Order of the Fallen Knights,” Tyler told him. “Dennis created it to be almost one full instance in that territory.”

  “Damn,” Harrison murmured, half wishing he’d gone north instead.