Veil Online - Book 2: An Epic LitRPG Adventure

by John Cressman

This caused her to blush even redder and Diana laughed melodiously. “You youngsters are so adorable.”

  “Whitecliff is a capital city,” he told them. “It will have quests of all levels. Just be very careful about what quests you accept. Make sure they’re of a level you can handle. Guild quests should be good since they scale to your level.”

  Mika nodded. “I will be careful.”

  The older woman stood from the table and winked at Jace. “I’m going to ply my trade and see what trouble I can get into. I’ll meet you here.”

  “Hold on,” Jace stood as well, disturbing Luna again. “Let’s get the room first and then we’ll agree to meet back tomorrow morning, but it will at least give us a place to return to.”

  “That is a good idea,” Mika agreed.

  “Smart and cute,” Diana said, running a finger along his jaw. “My kind of man.”

  Jace shuddered despite himself. The woman literally oozed sexuality but he had the impression that it was all some act. He wondered if this was the real Diana or if she were roleplaying one of the characters from her books.

  The three of them, plus Luna who had finally finished napping, found the dwarven innkeeper and requested a large room. The stocky, gray-bearded dwarf, who Jace’s HUD identified as Vaddatum Barrelshield, eyed the three of them. “How many beds?”

  Diana spoke up before Jace could answer. “Just one. A very large bed.”

  The dwarf looked surprised briefly and then glanced from the two beautiful women to Jace and gave him an appreciative nod. “Very well. Three keys?”

  “Four actually,” Jace said, feeling slightly embarrassed. “We have another woman joining us.”

  Vaddatum raised an eyebrow and glanced over the three of them again before nodding. “Four keys it is. How many nights will you be staying?”

  “Let’s start off with a week,” he told the dwarf. “But we may need to stay longer.”

  The dwarf coughed, trying to suppress a grin. “All… uh… four of you… staying a week?”

  Jace nodded. “Yes, maybe longer.”

  “Excellent, good sir. That will be 20 gold a night for the room, so 140 gold for the week for our honeymoon suite, it’s the largest room we have with the um… largest bed,” the man shot a glance at Diana who just winked, while Mika tried to disappear behind Jace. “Payable in advance.”

  Jace handed the dwarf the gold, leaving him with 4 gold to his name. Barely enough to buy breakfast in the morning. He’d need to earn some serious money and soon.

  You receive 4 keys from Vaddatum.

  He handed out the keys to the girls and stashed his and Charlena’s in his inventory. “I’ll see you both back here for breakfast tomorrow.”

  “Ta ta!” Diana blew him a kiss, while Mika just nodded to him and hurried away.

  Jace needed to find the thieves guild here in Whitecliff. The problem was, he had no idea where to look. This was the capital of Zushor, the human kingdom. It would have the heaviest guard population of nearly any city in the game. That meant the thieves guild would be hidden well, though possibly in plain sight.

  He needed to find it. And the sooner the better so he could do some quests and make some money. He needed to find another Rogue and he had an idea of where to find one.

  He left the Dwarvish Fork Inn and headed towards the docks. For some reason, Jace noticed that docks tended to attract Rogues. He guessed it was the ships. Ships meant cargo, cargo meant money and money meant Rogues.

  The city was large, and it took him a half hour to get to the docks. When he finally did reach them, he realized that they spanned nearly the entire length of the city. It was an impressive sight. As he walked the length of the docks, he kept a wary eye out for Rogues.

  Jace’s vigilance was rewarded before he’d walked halfway down their length. Movement along the periphery of his vision attracted his gaze. He saw a female halfling pick a dock worker’s pocket as the man carried a large barrel from one of the ships.

  Jace smiled and brought up his HUD to examine halfling.

  Name: Justina Pockets

  Race: Halfling

  Class: Scout

  Level: 1

  The thief was a player, though by her level she was a new player. Still, she might know where the guild was, so it was worth trying to talk to her.

  He looked back to see the halfling cross the street and duck into the alley. Jace rushed after her, hoping she knew where the thieves guild was in the capital. As he reached the entrance to the alley, he peered in, realizing how dark it was outside the range of the oil lamps.

  He mentally toggled on his Cat-Vision, an ability he gained from having a cat familiar, so he could see in the dark. With his enhanced vision, Jace looked down the alley but didn’t see her. Had she already left the alley? He walked in a few feet when the little halfling stepped out from behind a barrel that seemed too small to hide her.

  It was the same halfling he’d seen before but close up, he was able to see more details. The first thing he noticed was the halfling's spiky black hair, tipped in red. It wasn’t exactly period, but players could generally customize their characters however they saw fit - within reason.

  Her garb was a similar anachronism. She wore tight, black leather pants and a form-fighting, low cut sleeveless leather shirt. She wore high leather boots and matching leather bracelets. Around her neck she wore a spiked leather choker. Her make-up was all blacks and dark reds, giving her a very goth/punk look.

  What really got Jace’s attention were the two throwing knives she held, poised to throw at him. Just like elves got bows as a bonus skill, halflings received thrown weapons as a bonus skill.

  “Reach for the stars ya filthy copper,” said the punk halfling.

  Jace wasn’t really worried. Despite her bravado, they weren’t in the player versus player (PvP) area, so she couldn’t just attack him outright. They were also in the same faction. That meant, she’d need to duel him, and he’d have to accept the duel request. He guessed she was roleplaying, so he decided to play along. Maybe he could get on her good side.

  “I ain’t no copper,” he said. He had recognized the slang from old vidstreams, a copper was old slang for a police officer. He idly wondered if she was a fan of the retro vidstreams like him. He thought for a second before he remembered some other old slang. “We’re in the same line of work dollface.”

  She tried looking menacing for a moment, but he saw the corners of her mouth curve up as she fought to control a smile. Apparently, she hadn’t expected him to play along. “The big guy has some moxy, I’ll give you that.”

  “Alright, ya big palooka,” she said as she lowered her throwing knives. “What do you want from Justina?”

  He thought it interesting that she talked in third person, but some people did when referring to their character. He guessed they needed that separation between who they were and who their character was. Or she was crazy.

  At the thought of crazy people, he suddenly remembered another player he’d encountered who had been trapped in a monster body. He’d called himself Big Cheese and had gone completely insane. Instead of letting Jace help him, the crazy goblin had killed him.

  Remembering Justina, he asked, “Do you know where the thieves guild quest starts?”

  She eyed him. “The Hideout, huh? I ain’t no rat, see. But, if a certain person was to go to a certain place near the docks and do a certain thing to some certain people’s pockets, a certain thing might happen to him. Capiche?”

  “Um… no…” he muttered, not understanding her at all. He did enjoy retro vidstreams and books, but this was one genre he wasn’t familiar with.

  She gave an exasperated sigh and her voice changed from an old time gangster accent to a more modern accent. “Geez! Go down the docks, pick a few pockets and then leave the dock area. When you do, someone will show up and offer you the starter quest. Got it?”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  She seemed to catch sight of Luna then and her eyes opened wide.
“Is that a cat? Oh my god, you have a cat! How’d you get a cat? Can I get one?”

  Before Jace could answer, the halfling had rushed forward and grabbed Luna. Luna started to protest but the little halfling was stroking her fur and giving her scratches and the little cat began to purr.

  After a few minutes of petting Luna, she put Luna back on the ground and looked up at Jace. “Where did you get your cat? Is it a prestige pet?”

  Jace shook his head. “She’s my familiar.”

  “Your familiar?” the halfling looked at him skeptically. “Wait, you’re a wizard? And you’re looking for the thieves guild?”

  “Mage actually. I’m multi-class,” he explained. “I’ve got some levels of Rogue.”

  “Rogue? Not Scout?” she looked confused. “Mage and Rogue? Are you hardcore or something?”

  Hardcore players were those who only believed in only playing the race and classes from the original game, before WorldCog introduced the premium races. That meant only human and only the base classes: Fighter, Rogue, Mage and Priest. Coincidentally, that was the only race and classes Jace had available. He guessed he was involuntarily hardcore.

  “Something like that,” he said.

  “To each his own,” she shrugged. “Not this little girl. I was born to be a halfling.”

  “Thanks for your help,” he told her.

  “Sure, thing goon,” she said, reverting back to the gangster accent. She looked around conspiratorially. “Now get your ugly mug out here before coppers come along and drag me to the big house in bracelets.”

  With that, she whirled, skipped to the end of the alley and disappeared around the corner. Jace watched the strange little thief go and shrugged. She was odd, but definitely not the most unusual person he’d met.

  At least she’d been helpful. If he understood her correctly, he just needed to go down to the docks and pick a few pockets and then leave the dock area and that should trigger the starter quest. Seemed easy enough but then again, it was a starter quest. It was supposed to be easy.

  “Time to pick some pockets,” he told Luna.

  Chapter 3

  Justina had given him what he needed. He knew from experience that some of the most rewarding quests were the class guild quests. Of those, the thieves guild quests were the best in his opinion since they offered the best rewards. They also offered the most risk, but he’d deal with that.

  But first he needed to actually join the guild. Each guild had its own starter quest for membership. Some were as easy as walking into the guild and talking to the guildmaster. Unfortunately, the thieves guild starter quests were never that easy.

  If he were back in the real world, he would have just looked up the quest details on the internet. There were sites devoted to all aspects of VEIL Online. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option at the moment. If Charlena was on, he could have asked her, but she was sleeping off her night of frivolity.

  Jace reached the dock area and almost turned back. The smell of rotting fish was overwhelming to his maxed out sensory feedback. It made him want to gag and he wished he could turn down his sensory level like regular people.

  Trying to breathe through his mouth, he entered Stealth. Pickpocket wasn’t one of the skills he was able to train in yet, so he needed to pick a very easy mark or two, or he’d risk getting arrested or fined. Neither of which he could afford.

  Jace crept around the dock area, but the hour was growing late and most of the workers were heading off to the taverns. The only people out were a few sailors here and there either returning from or heading off to a tavern and the few guards who patrolled the docks.

  He crept up further down the docks, trying to find a lone sailor that he could attempt to Pickpocket but there were none to be found. The sailors were moving in groups, probably because they knew there were safety in numbers.

  Frustrated, Jace turned to check out the other end of the docks when a sound caught his ears and he paused to listen. It sounded like yelling. Or was it really bad singing? Sensing he may have found his marks, he followed the sound several berths down to a long stretch of dock that ran between two ships.

  As he looked down the expanse of the dock, he realized the yelling really was singing. Then Jace amended himself, it was supposed to be singing but it was like really bad karaoke. With his enhanced Cat-Vision, he was able to make out two figures leaning against some crates at the very end of the dock.

  The pair seemed to be very drunk and Jace decided they would be perfect. He made sure no one was around and then crept down the dock towards his marks.

  Getting closer, Jace recognized them as dock workers, probably recently off duty. One was a short, fat dwarf and the other taller, skinny human. The two were passing a bottle between them and belching out the lyrics to a song loudly and quite out of tune.

  “What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  So early in the mornin’!”

  The pair were sprawled out against a stack of crates, which actually made the perfect spot to hide behind and try to pick their pockets. Jace slowly maneuvered behind the crates as the two finished another stanza.

  “First you spin him, then you dunk him.

  First you spin him, then you dunk him.

  First you spin him, then you dunk him.

  Early in the morning.”

  There was a pause in the song while one of the dock workers hiccupped loudly. Being careful to stay hidden, Jace inched his way around one of the crates, towards the skinny human as the inebriated duo resumed their song.

  “What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  So early in the mornin’!”

  Jace moved within inches of the oblivious worker and waited. The next time the worker leaned over to grab the bottle, he deftly reached into the skinny man’s pocket and grabbed the first thing he found.

  Pickpocket successful.

  You have stolen 1 gold piece.

  Your Pickpocket skill has increased by 1.

  Smiling, brought the coin back to his side and put it into his inventory. That was a success, in more ways than one. He got a gold piece and a skill up. Jace moved his hand back into position and waited again, while the two drunks bellowed more lyrics.

  “What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  So early in the mornin’!”

  Once more the skinny drunk leaned over to get the bottle and Jace’s hand snaked into his pocket. He pulled his hand out and this time he held a knife.

  Pickpocket successful.

  You have stolen an item.

  Your Pickpocket skill has increased by 1.

  You receive bundle of pipeweed.

  Jace shrugged and tossed it into his inventory. He didn’t smoke in-game or out but maybe he could sell it. Besides, he’d gotten another skill rank and that made it worth it. He got back into position for one more attempt. He remembered that there was a limit to how many times you could Pickpocket an NPC but couldn’t remember what the number was.

  “Next you dress him, then you feed him!

  Next you dress him, then you feed him!

  Next you dress him, then you feed him!

  So early in the morning!”

  Making another Pickpocket attempt when the time was right, Jace was rewarded with a folded piece of paper and another skill up. He slipped the paper into his inventory and made a mental note to read it later.

  Not wanting to press his luck, he crept around the crates behind the dwarf. He repeated the same thing he had before on the dwarf, slipping his hand in the fat worker’s pocket when he leaned over to grab the bottle.

  Pickpocket successful.

  You have stolen 1 gold piece.

  Your Pickp
ocket skill has increased by 1.

  He stashed the coin in his inventory and reset his position as, yet another chorus of the song continued.

  “What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  What do you do with a drunken halfling?

  So early in the mornin’!”

  Once again, he waited and reached into the dwarf’s pocket, but the dwarf shifted, and he felt his hand rub against the dwarf’s leg.

  Pickpocket unsuccessful.

  Target alerted.

  Your Pickpocket skill has increased by 1.

  Jace swore silently. He’d pushed his luck too far and now he might need to make a run for it. As he thought it, the dwarf stopped in the middle of taking a swig of whatever was in the bottle and looked down at Jace’s hand, inside his pocket.

  “Is that your hand in me pocket, laddy?” the dwarf slurred.

  Jace said the first thing that came to his mind and snatching his hand back, he blurted out, “No.”

  No? He actually said no. He wanted to face palm himself. Really eloquent, he chided himself. But then he remembered his Bluff skill. Had that come into play here?

  The dwarf eyed him suspiciously. “Then what (hiccup), what do you be doin’?”

  That was even more interesting. The dwarf wasn’t attacking him. Did that mean his Bluff worked? Or was the dwarf just too drunk to raise the alarm. Possibly both.

  He noticed the dwarf still waited for him to answer. Thinking quickly, he produced a coin in his fingers from his inventory. “I thought such a hard working dwarf like yourself deserved a drink, so I wanted to give you this gold so you could buy yourself some more… um… whatever it is you’re drinking.”

  The dwarf eyed the coin suspiciously for a moment, then smiled a broken smile as he clumsily snatched the coin from his fingers. “Thank you kindly, stranger.”

  You gain +1 faction with Kostell the Dock Worker

  “You’re welcome,” Jace said.

  The dwarf suddenly looked up at him. “Wait just one (hiccup) minute! How do you be knowin’ (hiccup) I’m so hard workin’? Do I know ya?”