Terramyr Online: The Undiscovered Country: A LitRPG Adventure

by Sam Ferguson

  Brian saw a group of seven more running toward them.

  Before anyone could react, Chris bolted straight at the group. He cut down two of the seven in a single blow, dodged under the third’s dagger, and came up with his sword through the assassin’s chest. Pushing the assassin off, he equipped a pair of shortswords.

  The fourth assassin came in hard and fast. Chris blocked with the right sword, then left, then landed a front kick that stunned the assassin, giving him just enough time to spin right and stab the fifth assassin in the chest with both swords before ripping them free and turning back around to slice the fourth across the neck.

  The sixth and seventh charged in from the sides, but Chris dropped to his knees and held each sword straight out, allowing the assassins’ momentum to impale them both. Once they were dead, he stood and yanked his swords free.

  “HA!” He shouted. “Now what, you stupid little—”

  Ka-SNAP!

  The dragon came out of nowhere and chomped Chris.

  “CHRIS!” Mike shouted.

  Brian was stunned. Chris was gone. There was no save point to revert to. This battle was their last hope, and they had just lost another one of their team.

  The rage sparked Brian into movement again. He turned around, dashed for the vulnerable foreleg, and jumped up to stab his sword into it. The strike flashed yellow. The dragon’s HP bar dropped to half.

  Still not good enough!

  The dragon recoiled its leg, throwing Brian loose and flopping him on the marshy ground.

  Mike sent bolt after bolt of lightning at the thing.

  “Mike, your storm giant,” Brian called out.

  “What about your poison?!” Mike shouted back.

  “It didn’t work,” Augustin said. “He struck the dragon once, but it didn’t take. Maybe the dragon is resistant to poison.”

  Brian almost corrected him, but the dragon’s roar drowned him out as its foot came down. Augustin and Mike dodged, but Krestin was impaled through the head with a thick claw and crushed into the ground as if he was made of paper.

  Rhonda pulled a silvery bottle from her inventory and launched it. It struck the open flesh and exploded. Bubbles hissed and popped as the skin began to ooze. The dragon hissed and shuffled several steps toward the cliff.

  “What was that?” Mike asked.

  Rhonda shrugged. “Acid,” she said. “I have one more.”

  The HP bar flashed and dropped about ten percent.

  The field was not as heavily populated now, with most of the warriors either dead or dying, but there were still about two hundred rushing in toward the beast. Brian had an idea pop into his head.

  “Rhonda, toss me the other bottle of acid.” He ran up to her. She gave him the bottle and he charged off toward the dragon. The choke berry poison was still at the top of his inventory list, but Brian wanted to make sure he saved it for the most extreme need. First he had something he wanted to try.

  The dragon blasted a pocket of twenty soldiers with a massive fireball that exploded dirt and muck all around as bodies flew in every direction.

  “Time to put all that hopping to work,” Brian told himself as he ran toward the tail.

  The dragon stomped on a group of Fang warriors, then bit down and killed four minotaurs a moment before exhaling its poison at centaur archers.

  The tail rose up, then thumped down, smashing a few fang warriors that were too slow to move out of the way. The dragon’s HP bar dropped to about thirty percent as another volley of magic, catapults, arrows, and ballista bolts struck it all over. It staggered into the cliff wall, striking its head and then slumping down to the ground.

  “This should make Mike proud,” Brian said as he leapt atop the tail, then turned and ran up to the beast’s rump. The scales were hard and rough, giving plenty of traction as he sprinted between the ragged wings and up the neck.

  The dragon lifted its head to turn and breathe fire at a group of warriors, forcing Brian to hold onto the lip of a neck scale or risk being thrown off. His fingers strained to hold on as the neck pulsed and quaked from the force of the fire flowing through it. When the breath weapon was finished, the dragon snarled and leveled out its neck as it surveyed the damage. Most of the remaining warriors were archers or mages firing from a distance now. Brian used the brief pause to sprint the rest of the way to the head. He covered Tontt’Hul with the acid and then stabbed down into the dragon’s right eye.

  The dragon screeched and stumbled back into the cliff. Its head again slammed into the stone, nearly throwing Brian off, except his sword was still in the dragon’s ruptured eye. Brian yanked the sword free and then crossed the dragon’s brow. The large eye flicked upward, and the pupil narrowed angrily as it caught sight of him.

  Brian plunged the blade down into the left eye. The dragon gasped and staggered backward this time, and then it fell to the ground. The jolt was too much to stay in place—he was flung out to bounce across the marshy ground. His stamina emptied and his HP dropped to barely five percent.

  He quickly used both healing potions to get back to full HP.

  The sword was still embedded in the dragon, so he equipped Flaming Death and jumped to his feet.

  Shouts and praise rose up across the valley. The dragon hissed one last time and then rolled to its side.

  [QUEST COMPLETED: BEWARE THE DRAGON]

  [+ 42,000 XP]

  [You are now level 40]

  Brian didn’t waste any time. He turned to the others and waved them onward. “We have to reach the cave!” Rhonda, Freya, Augustin, and Mike sprinted across the valley with Little Man guarding their flanks. Brian turned and ran for the cave, as were all the remaining warriors in the valley. A dead dragon meant unguarded treasure, and soon it was going to be everyone for themselves. He wished he ‘dhad time to grab Tontt’Hul, but with Morr’Tai assassins already nearly caught up to him, he couldn’t take the risk. Fang warriors and satyrs might remain loyal, but they were already ahead of him as well. Granted, Brian had the keys, but that only meant he’d soon become the target if he remained in the valley.

  Reaching the base of the cliff, he started flying up the wall as quickly as he could identify handholds and pull himself upward. Leveling up another seven times certainly helped. His stamina bar hardly took a hit as he climbed now. He remembered when even the troll cave had been too high of a climb to complete.

  Clack!

  An arrow ricocheted near his face as it struck the stone.

  He turned to look down and saw a trio of Morr’Tai footmen aiming crossbows at him. His friends got to the trio a moment later and cut them down. He almost cheered, but then he noticed that his friends were being chased as well.

  “Behind you!” he screamed. He must have been too far away for them to hear, because they just resumed running toward the cliff. A gang of five Morr’Tai assassins astride brutish bear-looking animals plowed into his friends. Augustin took the first hit and was able to down the rider and beast that had struck him. Rhonda and Mike were hit at the same time. Rhonda’s HP bar dropped to ten percent, but Little Man leapt in and killed the rider and beast before they could finish her off.

  Mike was able to blast his attacker with a lightning bolt. He followed that with a fireball that blew the rider several yards through the air and sent the mount scurrying away as flames ignited its fur. Rhonda summoned her astral wolf. It and Little Man took down the fourth rider and beast as a team, but the fifth rider was able to leap down and plunge a dagger into Rhonda. Her HP bar emptied and her body went limp.

  “RHONDA!” Brian shouted.

  Mike hit the assassin with four bolts of lightning, and the two wolves made short work of the final mount. Augustin pulled Mike’s arm and pointed to the cliff.

  Brian sighed as the summoned wolf disappeared and Little Man stayed with Rhonda’s body, standing over it as if expecting her to get up.

  Brian realized then that he hadn’t seen Freya. He surveyed the battlefield and saw her off farther back fr
om where he’d left the group. She was busy fighting three Konnon Stonefists. She’ll never survive that. He knew she was not long for the world of the living, but he couldn’t bear to watch her death. He turned himself back to the task at hand and went up the cliff.

  When he reached the top, there were two dozen satyrs waiting for him, as well as Sonji and Hagatha leading another twenty Fang warriors.

  “Took you long enough,” Hagatha commented.

  Brian snarled at her. “I killed a dragon and watched several friends die.”

  She growled something back at him, but he didn’t care to hear what it was. He walked past her and went deep into the tunnel. About two hundred yards inside, he came to a chamber that was just large enough for Uz’Bogrog to curl around a large mound of gold and jewels. He surveyed the pile of treasure, ignoring all of it until he found a rectangular box made of silvery metal. He dug it out of the gold coins and set it on the ground.

  “Is that it?” Mike asked as he and Augustin approached.

  “Yeah,” he answered. He closed his eyes and placed his hands on the box. Please... let Khefir be wrong. He just wanted everything to be over.

  “Open it, what are you waiting for?”

  Brian took out the keys and slid them one by one into the holes on the front of the box. After the last one clicked into place, they all began glowing and humming. A green light encapsulated the box itself and it slowly released the lid. Inside was a crystal about the size of his fist. The outer portions of the crystal were white, and the inner heart was forest green.

  A quake shook the cavern as cracks split the granite walls and fractured the floor.

  He tried to remove the object, but there was a strange, invisible force the pushed his hand back. The harder he tried to reach it, the more his stamina drained.

  [ONLY ONE MAY POSSESS THE CRYSTAL]

  Brian sighed.

  “I told you,” a creepy voice called from the shadows. Brian looked up to see Rored coming around the treasure pile with three Morr’Tai assassins. “Only a champion can wield this crystal and restore the world to order. You are my champion, outlander.”

  “Let’s kill him!” Mike snarled. He whipped a firebolt across the chamber, but one of the Morr’Tai assassins stepped in the way and took the spell to the chest.

  “You know what you must do,” Rored said to Brian.

  Brian stood up and whipped out Flaming Death.

  Rored can’t die.

  He leapt into action, killing the first satyr that tried to run past him to get at the Morr’Tai.

  “What are you doing!?” Mike shouted.

  Rored laughed from the back of the chamber. “The champion rises!”

  Brian cut down another satyr and then dodged a crossbow bolt. “Mike, help me! We have to trust Khefir!”

  “He follows the Collector of the Damned!” Sonji yelled.

  Kyra’s Fangs rushed to the offensive.

  Augustin drew his sword.

  Mike summoned his storm giant.

  Enemies closed in all around him, but Brian couldn’t give up now. He cut down another satyr, and then dropped a Fang warrior. A crossbow bolt struck him, but his HP bar was still more than seventy percent full.

  The storm giant swung at him with a heavy club. Brian somersaulted away, catching a glancing blow from a Fang warrior’s sword.

  Augustin rushed up behind Mike and cut the wizard down.

  Brian looked up. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Mike’s HP bar drained to zero as Mike cried out for help.

  “You know what to do!” Augustin said. He then pulled his sword free and turned it on himself.

  There was a brilliant flash of gold and white light. Six circles appeared on the ground around Brian. Those circles emitted columns of light that forced everyone else in the cavern back. Another flash of light, and there were six Valkyries guarding him.

  Kyra’s Fangs rushed in, as did the last of the satyrs.

  The two remaining Morr’Tai assassins were cut down by satyrs, but the Valkyries didn’t let anyone through the defensive ring. Everyone who rushed to attack was hewn down by sword and spear, until Brian found himself kneeling in the center of the glowing warriors with only Rored standing near the shadows.

  Brian grunted and stood up as the Valkyries vanished, their work done.

  “You have done well,” Rored said. “Now, take up the crystal and restore order to this world! Then, once you experience it for yourself, you can help me take it back to your home.”

  “And after that you will go back to visit the land around the volcanoes, right?” Brian asked.

  Rored narrowed his eyes. “How would you know of the volcanoes?”

  Brian smiled. He interfaced with his inventory and was filled with satisfaction as he saw the highlighted tag for the bottle of choke berry juice. “Not if I have anything to say about it,” he said, holding it out to Rored as though toasting him before consuming the contents.

  “What?!” Rored’s composure melted for once. The master assassin rushed forward as Brian fell to the ground. His HP bar was draining quickly.

  “No-no-no!” Rored snarled. “You weren’t supposed to sacrifice yourself. I cannot be the champion. It is not in my program!” Rored poured a healing potion into Brian’s mouth. His HP bar jumped back up but immediately fell again.

  “NO!” Rored spat. He administered Brian’s other antidote, but it had no effect.

  Brian’s HP bar emptied as the alien AI sat there screaming helplessly. The crystal shone brightly. Brian saw it float toward Rored as it pulsed and hummed rhythmically.

  “No-no-no-no! This isn’t orderly!” Rored wailed.

  Everything went black.

  Brian felt a wave of cold wash over him.

  As had happened before when he had died in the game, the blackness seemed to last forever. There was no sound, no light, and no warmth. It was an empty, dark tomb.

  Just as he reached the point of self-doubt, wondering if he had sealed himself and his friends to a long, torturous death of starvation while strapped to the VR system, a pinpoint of light appeared in front of him. It grew slowly at first, and then washed over him all at once.

  The original game menu shone brightly before him now.

  [NEW GAME? EXIT?]

  Brian logged out without hesitation.

  23

  Save and Exit

  His body was stiff and achy, but his real eyes could see now. Brian reached up and removed the VR headset. His back and elbows popped as he shifted and swung his legs over to the floor.

  “We made it!” Rhonda exclaimed. Brian smiled and looked at her. Her beautiful dark skin seemed to make her eyes shine all the brighter as she smiled back at him. “We did it!”

  “Brian, I hate you!” Mike snarled. He started to rise from his chair, but then he put a hand to his head, sighed, and sat back down.

  “Careful,” Rhonda chided. “We’ve been sitting in this same position for a very long time. If you stand too quickly, the blood will rush from your head.”

  “I noticed,” Mike snapped.

  “Mike, it was me that stabbed you in the back,” Augustin said.

  Rhonda’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, what happened?”

  Mike pointed at Augustin and then Brian. “These idiots went with Khefir’s plan.”

  Chris started laughing, but another less pleasant voice joined the discussion.

  “What was Khefir’s plan?” Meredith asked.

  Brian looked at her and smiled. “We just saved your life, Meredith, so all I want to hear from you is a ‘thank you’ and that’s it.”

  She closed her mouth, but her eyes threw daggers at him.

  “Well, the plan worked,” Augustin said.

  Chris was already up and checking the professor. “Not for him,” he said as he held his fingers along the man’s neck in an attempt to find a pulse.

  “So, ripping that book apart killed him,” Mike commented.

  A quietness hit the room.

 
Chris turned and disconnected the wires leading from the Professor’s computer to the alien computer. “So, if Khefir was right, then Rored is now trapped in that thing, correct?” he said, pointing to the alien pod.

  Brian nodded. “Yeah. The crystal was corrupted—”

  “Oh no,” Meredith cut in. “I’m going to stop you right there. Nothing in my game was corrupted until you all—”

  “Meredith, you aren’t really going to try to pin it on us when you are the one that let the professor hook an alien computer up to the game, are you?”

  Meredith huffed and folded her arms. “Well, he wasn’t supposed to let it reach the game. It was just supposed to give him computer access to run diagnostics. I didn’t really...” her voice trailed off.

  Augustin rose and took a few steps. He groaned and put a hand to his head, then stumbled a bit and reached out to catch himself. His hand landed on the front of the alien computer.

  Lights began to glow and then increase in brightness.

  Pop!

  A bit of smoke rose from the back of the computer.

  “What was that?” Rhonda asked.

  The same holographic projection they had seen before appeared in the cavern, only this time it was faded and missing sections of its projected body. The oracle pointed accusingly at Augustin and opened his mouth, but only a garble of electronic sounds emerged.

  The lights flickered and the projection vanished for a second, then reappeared.

  “You!” the oracle shouted. “What have you done!? My code...”

  He blinked out again and reappeared, but his projection was distorted, skewed to the side as if his head and shoulders were being stretched.

  “You corrupted my code!”

  “Whoa,” Chris said. “I think Khefir’s crystal plan worked. This guy has been fried.”

  “I... was sent... to create order!”

  Krack!

  A nearby pillar broke apart as yellow and orange sparks erupted from within.

  Augustin backed away as a small tendril of electrical energy whipped out from the main terminal and gave him a small jolt. “We should leave!”