Veil Online - Book 2: An Epic LitRPG Adventure

by John Cressman

  “I would like that,” said Mika.

  “It’s got to be better than what I had to deal with last night,” Diana agreed.

  Charlena looked over at him. “Group quests sound fun.”

  Jace scanned his friends with his HUD.

  Almedha Pressalor

  Race: Elf

  Class: Scout

  Level: 4

  Raajoget

  Race: Human

  Class: Priest

  Level: 3

  Mizzlethain-galliegarde

  Race: Human

  Class: Mage

  Level: 2

  Apparently, Mika had kept her yeti name of Raajoget, and Diana had kept her mechanical spider name of Mizzlethain-galliegarde. Jace no longer felt so bad with his kobold name.

  Jace also saw that Diana was only a level 2 Mage. Because Jace had just hit 6th level, he was now 4 levels higher than she was. She would get no experience if they grouped. She couldn’t even gain quest completions. That complicated things.

  “What is it?” asked Charlena.

  “Diana is too low,” he told them. “I hit 6th level last night so I’m too high to group with her and get any experience. Diana, you’ll need to do some solo quests and gain a level before we can group.”

  Diana made a face. “Do I have to?”

  Jace nodded. “You need to hit level 3 before we can group together.”

  Diana pouted. “Can’t I be like… the team mascot or something?”

  “The higher level you get,” he told her. “The more powerful you become and the more you can help us. Right now, it’s just us four. We need to stick together if we’re going to get in there and get WorldCog to set things right.”

  “Fine. Fine,” the older woman said. “Where should I go to get some quests?”

  Thinking back to when he’d been a newbie vampyre, he tried to remember where he’d found the easiest quests. “Try your guild or the guards at the gate. Usually there are some beginning quests in one of those two areas.”

  “What are we going to do?” asked Charlena.

  “We’re going to learn all we can about the Noble District and the Royal Palace,” he told her.

  Chapter 9

  Diana had complained about having to do quests but had eventually left to go find the mages guild. Hopefully, she’d be okay. Normally, the first few quests for a guild were non-combat quests. If not, Jace had told her to come back and either Charlena or Mika would help her.

  Meanwhile, the rest of them spent the morning asking around about the Noble District and how to get in. They talked to different people without success until Mika finally suggested following people who were leaving the district and asking them.

  They’d done exactly that and found out some interesting facts. Unfortunately, what they learned wasn’t promising.

  The first thing learned was that the Royal Guard were responsible for security in the Noble District. Entry was only by a pass from the office of the captain of the Royal Guard. Jace had immediately thought about forging a pass - after all, that’s what they always did in the vidstreams. Then, another person they questioned had informed them of how the mages guild had enchanted the passes, binding it to a particular person. So much for forging them.

  They also learned that other than guards and workers with passes, they normally only allowed nobles in - which seemed obvious considering the name of the district. Local nobles presented signet rings that were likewise enchanted for just them and acted as passes.

  Jace knew it was possible to buy a noble title, but that cost millions of gold. Plus, the title was mostly for show. Other than allowing a player to have a house in the Noble District and attend the various balls and parties, it really had no other game function. It was a waste of money in Jace’s eyes.

  Visiting nobles and dignitaries were given temporary passes by the Royal Guard themselves. But they were escorted to, from and during their visit to the Noble District by royal guards. And the guards who served in the Noble District also had bound passes in the form of necklaces stamped with the seal of the Noble District guards.

  After finding out about the passes, Jace had walked around the perimeter of the Noble District. The more he looked, the more impossible the task seemed. The district was a city within a city and completely walled off from the rest of Whitecliff. The walls that surrounded it were over 30 feet tall with no easy handholds or footholds like he’d found in the bandit fortress.

  Not only were the walls tall, but they were also manned. Jace could see guards stationed every 100 feet. Although they looked relaxed, they also looked alert. Given the sheer height and lack of handholds, Jace wasn’t even sure if Mordred would have been able to scale it. Jace certainly had no chance.

  Somehow, he needed to find another way in. That meant he would need the help of the thieves guild. If anyone knew a secret way in, it would be them. It was more important than ever that he build up his faction with them. He’d need to do more quests. As many as he could.

  “I’m going to have to gain more faction with the thieves guild,” he told Charlena and Mika. “And hope they know a way in.”

  “I can join too,” offered Charlena.

  Jace considered that. “All of the jobs they have given me are at night. I’m not sure you’d have time to do more than one a night before you needed to log.”

  Charlena made a face. “Well, that’s not fair!”

  “No one ever said the game was fair,” he shrugged. “The original designers tried to make it as ‘realistic’ as possible. I guess they figured thieving jobs were done at night. Or the game AI adapted to that pattern. Sometimes it’s hard to know which.”

  “It still stinks,” Charlena told him.

  “I know,” he said. “But there should be a scout’s guild in the city. You could join that.”

  “But they’re not going to know a secret way into the palace,” she replied.

  Jace had to agree. From what he remembered of the scout’s guild, it dealt more with exploration of things outside the cities. It was highly doubtful they’d know or care about a secret way to anything in the city.

  “I can join the thieves guild if it would help,” Mika spoke up. She’d been silent for most of the walk, only responding to direct questions. “I can switch to Rogue, like you.”

  Jace smiled at her. “Thanks Mika but honestly, I don’t know if having two people with thieves guild faction would be any better. It’s all about getting a high faction as quick as possible. Plus, if we’re going to do the adventurers guild quests, we’re going to need a healer.”

  The girl nodded. “I understand. But I must switch to fighter. I wish to use a katana and that requires the two-handed weapon skill. I can switch back later.”

  Jace raised an eyebrow. “A katana?”

  She gave him a defiant look. “Yes. I wish to use a katana. I have studied kendo since I was a girl. Now, I wish to use a real katana.”

  “You can do whatever you wish Mika,” he told her. “Plus, even as a fighter, you’ll have access to your priest spells.”

  She gave a nod and then went back to staring ahead. “Yes, I do not mind healing. But I want to fight too!”

  Jace smiled. “Good, because I think we might have to pick up a little slack from Diana.”

  They all had a chuckle at that. The older woman didn’t really seem to understand the game or its mechanics. Doubtless, she’d thought she would be a game socialite.

  Thinking about it, Jace realized that may have been exactly what she’d planned. After all, the woman had millions of dollars. She could have afforded a title and then spent the rest of eternity doing nothing but attending parties and gossiping with the NPCs and player nobility.

  Jace shuddered. What a boring existence. For him, there were always new things to explore. New quests to do. That’s what had made the game so fun. Sitting around gossiping was not his idea of the perfect eternity. But maybe it was for Diana.

  They checked in at the Dwarvish Fork at lunch,
but there was no sign of Diana. He hadn’t intended to order lunch, but a certain little orange tabby cat had insisted. In fact, the cat stubbornly refused to leave the place until she had fish.

  Ignoring the amused looks of the cat, he ordered some lunch for himself and the girls did likewise. As the dwarven barmaid dropped off their order, Charlena spoke up. “So, what are you going to do when you wake up?”

  Jace started when he realized she was talking to him. “Wake up?”

  “From your coma,” she retorted.

  “Assuming it’s me,” Jace told her. The fact that he might be alive had been weighing on his mind since she told him yesterday evening. He was both excited and frightened of the prospect. He felt like he’d just started to come to terms with being dead only to keep having pieces of hope dangled in front of him.

  “It’s gotta be you,” she told him.

  Jace only nodded. It did seem like too much of a coincidence. He really could be alive. And that frightened him almost as much as being dead. What if he were in a coma? What if he never woke up? Or worse, woke up but had serious issues.

  He pushed the morbid thoughts from his mind. He couldn’t deal with them. Not yet. He wasn’t going to get himself worked up until he knew for certain. Right now, he needed to focus into getting to the Help Desk so they could fix him and the others.

  “You should eat chocolate cake,” Mika offered in an uncharacteristic outburst. “That’s what I would do if I was dead and then came back to life! Eat chocolate cake!”

  “You know,” Jace couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe I’ll do just that!”

  She grinned and went back to eating her food.

  Charlena smiled at him suggestively. “I’m sure we can think of something for you to do when you wake up.”

  Jace blushed but also felt excitement. He’d entertained notions of what it would be like when they met in the real world. Mostly he’d felt nervousness. Would she even like the real him, assuming his body was fully functional after the accident?

  He noticed suddenly Mika became much more interested in her food at Charlena’s comment and remembered Diana saying that Mika had feelings for him. For some reason, that made him feel even more awkward.

  Jace wished he could be more confident with women, like the vidstream stars. They always knew the right thing to do and say. Then again, if he had a screenwriter, he would know the right things to say and do.

  At that moment, he caught sight of Diana, coming into the inn. She sauntered over to their table and slid into the seat next to Jace once he picked up Luna. He took that time to see her progress.

  Mizzlethain-galliegarde

  Race: Human

  Class: Mage

  Level: 3

  “If I ever have to deliver another packet of herbs,” she said as she sat down. “Or retrieve another borrowed dusty tome from a Mage who forgot to return it, it will be too soon.”

  Jace smiled. Beginner quests were boring but usually had multiple purposes, like giving the player a lay of the land. He remembered his own beginner quests back in Sinking Springs. He’d had to find a lost dog, fetch stones from a lake and all sorts of other mundane things.

  Then Jace remembered that Sinking Springs had been destroyed by the dragon and his heart grew heavy. Even though they were all just NPCs, they had been very real to him.

  “It’s not that serious,” Diana said to him, probably mistaking his sullen expression as a reaction to her statement. “But I did learn of some serious news from the mages guild person.”

  The rest of the team looked up at Diana expectantly and after a pause, the woman continued. “It seems there’s a black dragon wiping out entire towns at a time. It’s become such a problem that the king has turned to the mages guild for help.”

  Jace, Mika and Charlena exchanged looks and Diana picked up on the inside knowledge. “Do you all feel like sharing?”

  “The player’s a dragon,” Jace told her. He hadn’t mentioned it to Diana before because he hadn’t thought it was relevant. He hadn’t realized the dragon was rampaging around the country destroying other towns.

  “Oh dear,” the woman responded. Diana looked thoughtful for a moment. “I wonder if that’s related to that extremely irate - and if rude, I might add - gentleman I tried to entertain last night.”

  Jace raised an eyebrow and the other girls stopped eating and turned to her.

  “Now,” Diana said, raising her palms. “I don’t pretend to understand all this game talk, but he said something about a raid against a dragon and losing his body and some sword or another because the dragon dissolved their bodies.”

  If he understood her, Diana was telling him that a raid had already been called, most likely by the adventurers guild. Players had tried to raid the dragon but died - no surprise there. Not only that, it had dissolved their corpses so they couldn’t retrieve them.

  Whoever was inside the dragon was exploiting all of his or her game knowledge to… To what? What was the dragon’s purpose? Were they trying to get WorldCog’s attention? That made sense. Do something so disruptive that it could get the company’s attention and force them to take a look at them. Jace thought he might even do something like that.

  Another possibility was that the player enjoyed being a dragon and didn’t want to be killed and thrust into a different, much weaker, monster body. After being killed so many times, Jace could understand that too. Much better to be the apex predator than the prey.

  Jace thought of another possibility, but he hoped it wasn’t the case. He remembered Big Cheese, the player in a goblin chief body who had killed him. The player had gone insane from all the monster jumping. If someone like that had control of a dragon body, who knew what they would do. They could bring the entire game down, just to watch it burn.

  Chapter 10

  “So, what does this mean for us?” Diana asked.

  “That’s a good question,” Jace replied, this mind whirling at the possibilities. “It might not mean anything. Even if the dragon wanted to take on Whitecliff, there are so many high-level NPCs here, he probably couldn’t do it.”

  “Probably?” Charlena asked, her face worried.

  Jace shrugged. “There’s a big difference between 40 players of high-level and a few hundred NPCs of high-level. Plus, you’ve got the main temples here. Don’t discount that. The gods and goddess have appeared in the world before. Any one of them can probably bring down a dragon.

  “Will the dragon acting differently get WorldCog’s attention?” asked Mika. “Maybe there is no reason for us to attempt to get into the palace.”

  “No,” Jace shook his head. “I used to work for them. I’m sure, even now, they’re going through the monster AI code with a fine-toothed comb. The problem is, the issue doesn’t lie there. It lies in player consciousnesses being used in place of AIs. It would take them months or years to figure that out.”

  “Won’t the players complain if they lose their bodies?” Charlena wondered.

  Again, Jace shook his head. “It’s not as bad for high-level characters. Most of their items are soul bound, so they respawn with the person. All they’d really lose is any potions or non-bound items they were carrying, plus any gold they were stupid enough to have on their body. It’s more of an annoyance for them.”

  “Last year,” he told them. “There was a red dragon who had settled inside a volcano. During the battle, quite a few people were knocked into the lava and lost their bodies. They whined and complained but WorldCog didn’t do anything. You play at your own risk.”

  The table was quiet for a few minutes before Diana spoke up. “Well, as asked, I did run a bunch of tedious errands and got myself up to level 3. So, can we go do whatever it is that we’re going to do together?”

  “Yes,” Mika said. “But first I must change to fighter and get a katana!”

  Diana raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

  “All right, let’s go,” he told them. “To the adventurers guild!”

  They
left the inn and hailed a passing guard for directions. It was located inside the Merchant District, to the south. To the east of the park. Jace had remembered seeing the park on his way to the docks last night was able to lead them to it.

  Once they were at Merchant District, they found the adventurers guild on the eastern side of the park, closer to the docks. It was a large tower which rose above the smaller Tudor buildings near it, standing out in its simplicity and intimidation factor.

  Jace took note that the Central Market was just south to them by the sounds and the smells. If it were like the street markets in the other cities he’d been in, they sold almost anything you could imagine. He hoped they could find a katana for Mika there.

  “Are you members of the guild?” said a middle-aged warrior in plate armor as they walked in. The man sat behind a large oak desk as they walked into the adventurers guild. He had shoulder length graying hair and a large mustache. His face had a large scar that ran from the upper left of his face, across his nose and down to the right side of his chin.

  “No,” Jace answered for the group. “But we’d like to join.”

  The man smiled, making his scar stand out even more. “Good! We can always use fresh meat!”

  Jace didn’t know how to respond to that so he just smiled.

  “Do you wish to register as a band or a company?” he asked.

  From his previous experience, Jace knew a band was a group of four players and a company was a raid of forty. Ignoring the puzzled looks on his companions’ faces, he answered. “A band.”

  The man had taken out a parchment and was scribbling something on it with his feather quill. “I see. And who is the leader of your band?”

  The girls were all looking at Jace, so he took the hint. It did make sense considering he had the most experience in the game. “I am. Ja… Dedrurrurth.”

  “Dedrurrurth,” the man repeated, writing it down on the parchment. “And what is the name of your band?”

  Jace turned to the girls. “What do we want to call ourselves? We have to give our group a name when we join the guild.”