He wanted to go check out Tiebaut’s home. No, not Tiebaut’s. It was his home now. He hadn’t gotten a good look at it the last time. Now he could remedy that and go explore his new house.
“Girls worried,” came Luna’s voice in his mind and he started.
Taking a moment to gather himself, he realized the house would need to wait. The girls had been worried, and he should meet them and explain what happened. “Coming back. I’ll explain to them.”
“Girls happy,” his familiar replied.
Jace couldn’t suppress a smile as he walked through the gates of the Noble District without challenge. After all that time of trying to figure out a way to get into the Noble District, now he could just walk freely in and out whenever he chose.
When he made it back to the inn, the girls were waiting for him. When Mika saw him, she practically tackled him as she threw herself onto him and embraced him in a tight hug. She seemed about to kiss him but then her eyes flicked to Diana and she hopped down.
“Good to see you’re still alive, dear one,” Diana said from her chair. “And not in prison, oh, I guess they call it the dungeon here.”
“Yes,” Mika agreed, obviously still excited. “We were worried about you!”
Jace motioned her to sit down and then did the same. Luna hopped up on his lap and began purring and he stroked his fur as he related his story. He started from when he’d left them to the moment he’d returned. When he finished his story, he sat back and continued to stroke Luna.
“So, it’s Sir Jace now is it?” Diana teased.
Frowning, Jace shook his head. “Actually, it’s Sir Dedrurrurth, since they took my character name.”
“Oh my,” Diana said. “That’s a mouthful.”
“I know,” he agreed.
“I think it’s wonderful!” Mika interjected, her eyes bright with excitement. “You are a brave knight in one of the stories now!”
“I don’t know about that,” he shrugged. Then he relented, giving into Mika’s excitement, and grinned. “But it is pretty cool!”
“But we common folk can’t come see your new château?” Diana pouted.
“Sorry,” he apologized. “I did ask but apparently, that’s not allowed. It makes sense from a game standpoint, if WorldCog allowed guests, it would lose its exclusivity and they wouldn’t sell as many.”
“I don’t begrudge them making money,” Diana agreed. “It’s just inconvenient for us.”
“Jace can get inside the Noble District,” Mika said. “But we need a way in. And we both need a way into the palace.”
“That about sums it up,” he told them. “Although, Webley still owes me a favor, so I can get you into the Noble District, but you’d have to stay in my house or risk getting arrested and fined or imprisoned. That’s something we’ll need to wait to do until we have a way into the palace.”
“I hate to be a Debbie Downer,” Diana said. “But do we have ANY idea how we can get into the palace?”
They all looked at each other for a moment before Jace sighed. “No. But my thieves guild faction should be high enough that I can ask Webley about it next time we’re there.”
“What do we do in the meantime?” Diana asked.
“Kill monsters!” Mika said, her hand on her katana...
Checking his timepiece, he saw that it was almost 3pm. His little misadventure had taken up most of the day. There wasn’t really time to do a quest before Charlena logged in. Jace struggled to think of what to do for only three hours.
Once again, he considered leaving the girls to do their own quests and going to visit Tiebaut’s home. After all, it was his now and he’d only really seen in the dark the time he’d broken in. He felt like someone who had just received a Christmas present, but couldn't open it.
“We can kill beetles!” Mika offered.
Jace winced, remembering the last time they’d fought the Beetle Queen. He really didn’t feel like losing more items. Maybe if they just stayed with the smaller beetles and avoided the queen. “Sure. We can kill beetles.”
As they got up to leave, Mika touched his arm. She looked up brightly. “Don’t worry, if you get dissolved again, I will make you more armor!”
Chapter 37
Whether it was because they were high-level, or the better weapons Jace and Diana had received, the beetles were much easier this time. It took them only 5 minutes to kill one and then recover. In two hours, they were able to kill a total of 19 of them.
Once they turned them in the beetle eyes for the repeatable Beetles quest, Jace was only a few hundred experience away from 6th level. Mika and Diana gained levels, bringing Mika up to level 4 in Rogue and Diana to level 5 in Priest.
They met Charlena at the adventurers guild and related the events to her. Jace told her about the visit to the castle, the encounter with the king and becoming a Baronet.
“Wow, your lordship,” Charlena said playfully. “Do we curtsy for you now?”
Then she threw her arms around him and kissed him. “This is great! Now we can get into the Noble District.”
Frowning, Jace shook his head. “No visitors apparently.”
“That’s not fair!” Charlena backed up and crossed her arms.
“I know,” Jace agreed.
“Can we sneak in?” Charlena asked. “You did it right?”
“No,” he told her. “I was only able to get in with the help of the thieves guild contact. I have another favor, but it’s a one-time deal. I could get you in, but I couldn’t get you back out.”
“So, you have this cool house and stuff,” she said. “But none of us can come visit?!”
“We’re plebs, dear one,” Diana said. “Sad but true.”
“Grr!” Charlena growled. “That’s too much like real life.”
They were all silent for a time before Charlena let out a breath. “Well, whatever. Let’s go kill something.”
“I checked the board, there are no quests for our level,” Mika chimed in.
Charlena glared at Mika, who looked down. Then she turned back to Jace and seemed about to say something, but Diana cut in.
“Can we kill more beetles?” the older woman said loudly. She glanced between the other two girls and then looked pointedly at Jace.
Charlena closed her mouth and then opened it but this time Jace spoke up with a different idea. “With Charlena, maybe we can handle some of those higher level orcs. What do you think?”
Jace wasn’t experienced with much jealousy from women. It was rare enough that one woman had wanted him back in reality. Suddenly having two women who liked him felt good but also made him feel guilty. He felt like he was betraying both of them.
The worst part of it was, he didn’t really have time for either of them. Not until they got things sorted out. He needed to get to WorldCog’s support so they could fix the bug in the code. Now that he was about to get confirmation that he was alive and stuck in a medical pod, it was even more important to him. He needed to be able to wake up and exit the pod properly. If he didn’t, then on top of whatever physical injuries he had sustained, he might end up with brain damage as well.
Jace hated to think about what injuries he had sustained in the car accident. He started to go crazy as he imagined the possibilities. He kept trying to put it out of his mind by thinking of anything else. He’d been doing it since he first appeared in the game. But now that Charlena was just days away from seeing his body, he found it harder and harder not to think about.
And now, having Charlena acting out at Mika, he wasn’t sure what to do. He literally had zero experience with two girls interested in him at once. This was something Damian might have experienced - if he was to be believed.
Thinking of the senior programmer he worked with, Jace once more thought of the code and Damian’s reaction. The more he remembered it, the more the programmer’s reaction seemed extreme, even for Damian.
He’d known the senior programmer since he’d started working there. He was a jerk a lo
t of the time, but he’d also helped Jace out with various problems he’d run into. Could Damian be involved in this somehow? Or was he working to fix the issue before news of it hit the net?
“Orcs?” Charlena asked, snapping Jace back to the moment. The red-headed elf looked intrigued. “Like the ones we fought on the mountain?”
Jace shook his head, glad she was thinking about the game again. “No, these would be tougher. But then again, we’re tougher too. Plus, they’d be much better experience and might drop some decent loot.”
Now, all of the girls were considering the idea.
“I’m game,” Diana said first. “Anything’s better than those dreadful beetles.”
“I am game as well,” Mika said, hand on her katana. Jace saw her eyes flit to Charlena while the other girl wasn’t looking.
Charlena nodded. “Sure, let’s kill some orcs!”
The group marched on in mostly silence, other than the occasional outburst from Diana about something she’d see in a shop they passed.
Jace didn’t speak either. He was wondering what Charlena would think of him when he woke up and they finally met in person. Would she still like him? Would they get together in real life? Would he even be able to get together with her? Or was his body too mangled from the accident?
Finally, the group reached the gate. Jace talked to the guards and received a repeatable quest to kill Ironfist orcs and collect their tribal gray sashes. He also received a quest to find and kill the Ironfist Warlord. Considering they’d barely managed to take down the Beetle Queen, he wasn’t sure he wanted to run into a more powerful boss.
He and the girls followed the guard’s directions past the beetle area, to that road that led north and south from Whitecliff. It was the road he’d traveled to reach Whitecliff as part of the caravan. He knew that was only a few days ago, but already it seemed like weeks. Much had happened in those few days.
From one of the hills looking down on the road, his group could see other players battling orcs. As they watched, Jace could see that the orcs were coming from the forest and would run towards the players on the road. Several players would fire arrows, crossbows, spells and, Jace thought he saw, stones and throwing stars at the creatures. They’d keep firing until the thing dropped and Jace knew whoever had done the most damage would get the experience and be able to loot the body.
“That’s a lot of players down there,” Charlena said.
“Are they all grouped?” Diana asked as another orc broke from the trees and was cut down before it had gotten halfway to the line of players.
“No,” Jace shook his head. “They’re camping the area and whoever gets in the most damage, gets the credit for the kill. They get the experience and the loot.”
“No one is cooperating?” Mika asked.
Glancing down, he could see the chaotic storms of arrows and other missiles as they rapid-fired the incoming orcs. “No. They just burn it down as fast as they can and hope they get in more damage than everyone else.”
“Is that really what we want to do?” Diana frowned.
Jace looked up and down the road. The northern branch of the road entered the woods about a half mile further up. He wondered if they would have better luck north. He almost thought of going south but his caravan hadn’t encountered any orcs. Was that because of the sheer numbers of people in the caravan?
“I don’t feel like competing with a bunch of other players,” Charlena told the group. “We’ll be expending a lot of effort for only a chance to get experience.”
“No,” Mika corrected. “We would get most of the kills. They are solo, we are a group. All of our damage would count for a group kill.”
Charlena gave her a cool look but said nothing.
Jace shook his head. “It would work for a bit, until the people around us realized we were grouped. Once they do and see that we’re getting all the kills, they’ll PuG it and we’d be working against other groups.”
“Pug?” Diana raised an eyebrow. “Like the dog?”
Jace chuckled. “No, as in ‘Pick up group’. It’s what they call a bunch of random people who get together to do something. They even have pick up raids. Both tend to end up in disaster since people aren’t really working towards a common cause. They get greedy or jealous and then everything falls apart.”
The mention of PuG reminded him of the dwarf, the rabbit-kin, and the succubus he’d grouped with to get the Sash of the Kobadera. It seemed a lifetime ago and maybe, in a way, it was. He’d thought he was dead. But with Charlena’s help, he’d found out that he wasn’t dead. He owed her a lot.
“So, what do we do, dear ones,” Diana yawned.
It was obviously a fake yawn since neither he, Mika or Diana actually seemed to require sleep. She was just being melodramatic. But she did have a good point. He looked back to the north.
“Let’s go north. Towards the forest. There doesn’t seem to be many players over there,” he suggested, pointing towards where the road met the forest. The girls followed his finger and glanced to the north.
“North is good,” Mika grinned.
Charlena glanced at the Japanese girl and shrugged but Diana looked thoughtful. “Why is it that there are no players in that direction.”
“Maybe they’re lazy,” Charlena muttered.
“They’re loss is our gain,” Jace said and started down the hill to the north. “Let’s go hunt some orcs!”
His small band made their way the half mile where the forest overtook the hills. It was almost an unnatural division between green grass and then suddenly a dense line of trees. They followed the edge of the forest west to the road.
As the group approached the road, a huge orc burst from the forest on the far side of the road and bellowed a war cry. “You trespass on our lands! Die humans!”
This orc was two feet taller and about 50 pounds heavier than orcs Jace and Charlena had fought on the mountain, near Skystead. As the orc charged his group, it got close enough for Jace examined the huge thing in his HUD. Then he understood why no other groups were camping this area.
Chapter 38
“It’s level 20!” Jace yelled and immediately cast his Air Armor, bumping up his Defense to 12. He looked at the stats again, just to make sure he hadn’t misread them.
Ironfist Orc Brute
Level 20
Unfortunately, he had been right. The creature was level 20, making it a tier 3 monster. That meant its armor and weapons were 2 tiers above their own. And because it was a level 20 warrior, it had at least 200 health. It was formidable, but it was still only a solo monster and they were a group of four. Maybe they had a chance.
Jace unsheathed the Kraken’s Claw and Ardmore’s Bane, bathing the area in soft white light. With his magic and the items, he had, he had an amazing Defense for his level. But would it be enough to keep him alive from this hulking brute?
“Come get some!” Jace shouted his Taunt as the orc lumbering into range. The creature veered toward him and raised its huge, two-handed club over its head.
At that moment, the twang of a bowstring sounded, and an arrow soared at the approaching monster.
Almedha Pressalor Precisely shoots Ironfist Orc Brute for 0 damage.
The arrow glanced off the orc’s breastplate but was immediately followed by a Flame Bolt that hit the creature’s neck, sizzling the exposed skin.
Mizzlethain-galliegarde burns Ironfist Orc Brute with Flame Bolt for 8 fire damage.
The brute was on him and it brought its huge club down at Jace.
Ironfist Orc Brute crushes YOU for 12 damage.
He managed to deflect some of the blow with his buckler, but the massive club still took 15% of his health with one swipe. But now it was his turn. He sliced and stabbed with his weapons, aiming at the unprotected parts of the orc. At the same time, Mika moved to the side and slice at its thigh with her Bloodstained Katana.
You stab Ironfist Orc Brute for 3 damage and 3 acid damage.
You slash Ir
onfist Orc Brute for 6 damage.
Raajoget slashes Ironfist Orc Brute for 11 damage.
Ironfist Orc Brute is Bleeding.
Mika’s magical katana was doing a good amount of damage, nearly as much as both of his weapons combined.
Charlena moved around back for her precise strike while Mika circled as well. Diana took several steps to the side, making sure she wasn’t near the creature’s front. No doubt, they’d all learned from the queen Beetle’s acid attack that standing behind the tank wasn’t a good idea.
Charlena disappeared and then snapped back into view as she let another arrow fly.
Almedha Pressalor Precisely shoots Ironfist Orc Brute for 19 damage.
The orc ignored the arrow that lodged itself in its back and brought his club around for a backhanded blow across Jace’s body.
Ironfist Orc Brute crushes YOU for 17 damage.
Ironfist Orc Brute Bleeds for 3 damage.
Pain exploded in his left arm as the blow struck him and he grunted in pain. Mika and Diana struck at nearly the same time. The katana sliced across the back of the orc’s leg even as a Flame Bolt burned its bare shoulder.
Mizzlethain-galliegarde burns Ironfist Orc Brute with Flame Bolt for 7 fire damage.
Raajoget slashes Ironfist Orc Brute for 6 damage.
Ironfist Orc Brute is Bleeding.
“I’m going to need some healing,” Jace croaked and then it was Jace’s turn. Using both blades, he attacked the brute’s unarmored hip.
You stab Ironfist Orc Brute for 10 damage and 3 acid damage.
You slash Ironfist Orc Brute for 0 damage.
Kraken’s Claw sank into the muscle of the creature’s hip, causing it to snarl in pain. Unfortunately, it twisted, and the sword skidded along the bottom of the breastplate without doing any harm.
Veil Online - Book 2: An Epic LitRPG Adventure Page 24
