Overworld (Dragon Mage Saga Book 1): A fantasy post-apocalyptic story

by Rohan M Vider

  You have gained in experience and are now a: level 18 Trainee.

  Your spellpower has increased to: level 8.

  You are the first human player to have slain a creature champion on your own. Creature champions are monsters that have evolved to assume command of their brethren. For managing this task without the aid of your companions, you have earned the Feat: Lone Slayer, rank 1.

  At rank 1, Lone Slayer provides you with the slayer’s boon, and tenacious Techniques.

  Slayer’s boon: When fighting a creature champion on your own, you are blessed with an aura that increases your damage by: 2%.

  Tenacious: When fighting a creature champion on your own, you are blessed with an aura that reduces the damage you take by: 2%.

  Your party has vanquished the lair’s occupants. Find the lair core, and claim ownership of the warren. Your party is the first to have vanquished this lair. For this achievement, you have been awarded the Trait: Spider’s Blood.

  Trait: Spider’s Blood. Rank: 1, common. This Trait increases your resistance to all toxins by: 10%.

  Your party is only the seventh human party to clear a lair. This achievement has earned you the Feat: Lair Hunter, rank 1.

  At rank 1, Lair Hunter provides you with the lair sense Technique. Lair sense: You become aware of any lair within 10 yards of your location.

  Stupefied, I sat back down on the queen in shock. Well, you wanted rewards, Jamie. Now you have it.

  “Three levels, two Feats and a Trait,” I murmured. It was much more than I’d expected, yet I couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. I had not been given what I had hope for: a Trait that granted more Attributes.

  You can always try finding another dungeon or lair.

  I doubled over, overcome by mirth. Not even I was that crazy. My laughter faded as I gave the matter serious thought. Well… perhaps I am.

  Lying backwards, I stared upwards while I considered the possibilities.

  “Jamie! Jamie! Where are you?” shouted Tara.

  “Down here with the queen,” I called.

  Casting lay hands, I healed myself before wearily standing again. I couldn’t see the others. From the sounds of their voices I could tell they had climbed down the ledge and were in the cavern, but the sagging mass of silk overhead blocked my view. Tentatively, I poked at the cocoon, which at its lowest point hung less than a foot above my head.

  “How do we get through this stuff, Jamie?” John shouted from the edge of the hole. “My spear can’t pierce it.”

  “Give me a second,” I said. Stepping gingerly across the queen’s corpse, I made my way to the hole’s rim. “Stand back, I’m going to try burning my way through.”

  Casting flare again, I set my hands to the silk. The coils of silver gave way immediately. Tara and John’s worried faces peered through the ragged hole I had created.

  “You alright, Jamie?” Tara asked.

  “I’ll live,” I said with a chuckle, grasping the arm John shoved at me. The big man pulled me out with little effort. “Thanks, John,” I said, dusting away clinging bits of web.

  “I can’t believe you did it, you bugger,” he remarked.

  I gave him a lopsided grin. “Me neither.”

  Tara gazed down the hole again. “What was the queen doing, there at the end?” she asked. “We saw blue light streaming outwards.”

  “I’m honestly not sure,” I replied. “It seemed as if she was trying to encase herself in some sort of protective shell.”

  “Well it doesn’t matter now, whatever it was,” said John, clapping me on the shoulder. “The lair is ours!”

  “Not yet,” I said, shaking my head. “We still have to find the lair core.”

  “This must be it,” said Laura from behind.

  I turned around to see the hunter and Michael walking up to join us. Laura was holding an egg-shaped object with a luminous blue sheen.

  “The moment I touched it, I got a message from the Trials,” she said. “It asked if I wanted to claim the lair.” She smiled. “But it didn’t seem right for me to. That honour belongs to you.” She held out the lair core to me.

  I glanced at John and Tara. “Go on, take it,” Tara said.

  I nodded and took the glowing egg from Laura.

  You have acquired: A Brown Spider Warren lair core. If unclaimed, the warren and core will be destroyed in: 1 hour. Do you wish to claim the lair and become its settlement liaison?

  Warning: You are not a resident of any settlement. Lairs can only be owned by a settlement. To retain this lair after claiming it, you must become a settlement resident within: 4 days.

  I studied the Trials’ message quizzically. “Did you receive the warning too?” I asked Laura.

  She nodded.

  I pursed my lips as I considered the implications. I hadn’t known it was necessary to be a resident of a settlement to claim a lair, but that only made the need to establish the Outpost more urgent. And then there was the part about being a ‘settlement liaison.’ I turned the core over in my hands, hesitating.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Tara.

  I shoved the core into her hands. “You do it.”

  She looked at me blankly. “Why?”

  I shook my head, not wanting to explain. What I didn’t say was that I hadn’t made up my mind about becoming a resident of the Outpost. I knew from the Infopedia that residency—like citizenship—was no simple matter.

  Becoming a resident bound a player directly to a settlement and its leadership, and I didn’t know Jolin well enough to be comfortable placing myself under her thumb.

  Breaking any binding or oath of service in the Trials always came at a cost. Joining and leaving settlements were not something one did arbitrarily. There were consequences.

  What the exact consequences would be for the Outpost, I didn’t know. Each settlement was different. But it didn’t seem wise to take the risk just yet.

  Better not to be bound in the first place…

  As I continued to hold the core out insistently, Tara took it. “Alright,” she said. Closing her eyes, she interacted with the core.

  I watched with keen interest. A few seconds later the core disappeared from Tara’s hands and she opened her eyes. “What happened?” I asked.

  “It’s done,” Tara replied. “The core has returned to its place in the lair.” She looked at me. “And in four days, if we still haven’t formed the Outpost into a settlement, or if the core is found and claimed by another, we will lose ownership of the lair.”

  John looked thoughtful. “The commander will have to post a guard here.”

  I nodded, then glanced at Tara. She was still gazing inwards. “Something wrong, Tara?”

  “I got a new Trait,” she said, surprise colouring her voice.

  I bit back a spurt of envy. “Oh?” I asked.

  “Spider Captain,” replied Tara, her eyes unseeing as she read the Trait description. “The Trait changes the attitude of all brown spiders towards me—whether of this lair or not—to neutral.”

  “Wow,” said Michael. “That’s useful.”

  I nodded. It certainly was. And Tara deserved it. I looked down on the queen’s corpse and the wealth of silk spun across the hole.

  “Now,” I murmured, “how do we take all this back with us?”

  Chapter 27

  390 days until the Arkon Shield falls

  4 days until the Warren is destroyed

  There was no way to remove the queen’s body from the lair without cutting it up, and none of the bladed weapons we had were suitable for the task.

  After burning free the silk cloth covering the hole, I ended up climbing back down and using flare to burn off the queen’s body into smaller parts. The spell the queen had attempted in her dying moments had dissipated with her death, and while my task was back-breaking, it was not inordinately difficult.

  It was gruesome and bloody work, but necessary. The Outpost desperat
ely needed resources. The queen’s hardened carapace hide alone was worth the effort, and that wasn’t even counting the silk and other toxins we harvested from her corpse. By the end, I and Michael—my assistant—were drenched in ichor and gore.

  It had taken hours, but finally we were done. I looked down ruefully at my blood-soaked clothes and armour. I would never wear any of it again, I knew. Our grisly work, however, was not without benefits.

  You have uncovered a brown spider queen’s Technique: paralysing bite. Your skill in anatomy has advanced to: level 3.

  You have uncovered a brown spider queen’s Technique: transformation chrysalis. Your skill in anatomy has advanced to: level 4.

  You have the discovered a: champion core. The special properties of this item are: unknown. Your lore skill is insufficient.

  Transformation chrysalis? I thought, eyeing the Trials message speculatively. So that was what the queen was trying to do. But transform into what? I suspected it was a good thing that we never got to find out.

  I looked down at the object in my hands. The champion core was no larger than my fist, and after being scrubbed clean it resembled a large diamond. It looked quite unlike the lair’s own core. I turned over the crystallised object in my hands. I had not seen any mention of champion cores in the wiki and hadn’t even known they existed.

  I pursed my lips in thought. While I didn’t know what purpose the cores served, I could guess. The Trials had to have a means of controlling both lairs and their ‘bosses.’ Looking down at the core I held, I thought I had figured out how it was done.

  I shivered as another unpleasant thought occurred.

  Was the Trials core in my head similar too? Could I also be controlled by the Trials? I didn’t think so. I could see no reason the Trials would want to control players, not after going through all the trouble of giving them such freedom of choice. But I can’t be certain, I thought, disturbed anew.

  Raised voices—lots of them—caught my attention. I stilled, listening intently. Tara, John, and Laura were in tunnels above, transferring our spoils to the sleds outside. It seemed like the three had company. Friendly company, by the sounds of it.

  “This way,” I heard Tara say. “They’re back here.”

  “I still can’t believe you managed to clear the lair,” replied whoever accompanied her. “They are supposed to be—” The voice broke off and fell into a stunned silence.

  “Good God, what is that?” asked another.

  Looking up, I saw a blonde head had appeared over the hole. It was Captain Marcus. I smiled. The commander had finally sent help.

  ✽✽✽

  Marcus had two dozen players with him and, thankfully, many more sleds. There was no way we could have transported everything we’d harvested from the warren back to the Outpost without them.

  We managed to get all the sleds loaded and moving before nightfall. Four men—miserable about drawing the short straw—were left behind to guard the lair.

  I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. They would be the first players from the Outpost to spend a night outside the camp, and the four were clearly afraid. But both Marcus and Tara were certain the men would be safe within the lair. I wasn’t so sure, but I couldn’t argue with the need to guard the area.

  After scraping off the worst of the filth and grime covering my armour, I took a last long look at the queen’s cavern. It turned out that the queen had not been lying idle all the time she was in the cavern. She had been laying eggs.

  In small, neatly dug shafts beneath the original spot the queen had been occupying, Laura and the others found thousands of glistening, pale-yellow orbs.

  Many were still unbroken. Marcus and I had both agreed it was best to leave them undisturbed, in the hope that once the Outpost’s claim to the warren was cemented, the new-born spiders would be friendly, or better yet—allies.

  ✽✽✽

  The journey back to the Outpost felt much longer than the one to reach the lair.

  Marcus just would not stop talking.

  It turned out that the blonde captain was one of the enthusiastic gamers who had entered Overworld early on. Even though he had known of the existence of the Trials Infopedia, Marcus hadn’t taken the time to study it. Choosing instead to be a pioneer, he had placed his trust in his ability as a ‘pro gamer’—his term, not mine—to figure things out as he went along.

  To his credit, Marcus had since come to regret that decision, and after arriving on Overworld he’d searched out and interrogated all those in the Outpost who had read the Infopedia.

  In this case, me.

  Marcus seemed to believe he had struck gold in finding me. It seemed no one else in the Outpost had studied the wiki to the extent I had. Over the course of our two-hour trip back to camp, the slim captain did his best to wring out every useful piece of information from me that he could.

  While I was happy to share what I knew, Marcus’ questions were tiresome. Finally, as we crossed the open trenches of the Outpost, I pleaded exhaustion and fled.

  I saw that the others were splitting up. Each was likely heading to their own tent or chores. My gaze caught and rested on Laura. I had not forgotten about my wider plans, and I realised the hunters were the ones most suited to aid me.

  I called out to the red-haired woman before she disappeared. “Laura, can you hold up a sec.” She paused in her steps and swung around to face me. I limped to her side. “I meant to ask you earlier, but didn’t get a chance: how much of the surrounding area have you and the other hunters scouted?”

  Laura looked surprised by the question, but answered all the same. “To the east and south, we have explored everything within a day’s journey. To the north, our scouting ended at the foothills. And no one has been foolish enough to attempt crossing the river to the west yet.” She gave me a quizzical look. “Why?”

  “The proximity of the warren to the Outpost has made me wonder about the positioning of the gate exit locations. Perhaps they aren’t random after all. Perhaps each is carefully chosen by the Trials and the area around appropriately seeded. If we found one resource nearby, there may be others close by too.”

  Laura nodded, following my reasoning. “What are you looking for?”

  “An obelisk structure,” I answered promptly. “Made of obsidian, about twenty feet tall, and covered in glowing runes. It should be impossible to miss.”

  “From your description, it certainly sounds that way,” Laura agreed. “What is it?”

  “The entrance to a dungeon,” I said. Most dungeons in Overworld were supposedly clearly marked and easy to find—deliberately so. There were hidden ones as well, disguised in the far reaches of the Dominions, but I couldn’t expect to find any of those, not yet.

  “Hmm,” said Laura. “I won’t pretend to know what that is, and I haven’t come across anything like you’ve described myself, but…” She looked away, frowning in thought. “I do remember one of the other scouts mentioning an artefact like that.” Laura turned back to me. “Let me ask around.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “And please, let me know the moment you find out anything. It’s important.”

  She nodded agreeably before walking off.

  Tara caught up to me. Watching Laura’s disappearing figure, she asked, “What was that about?”

  I shrugged. “A hunch. There may be other resources nearby that we can exploit. I’ve asked Laura to find out what she can.”

  Tara stared at me. “Our experience in the young warren was bad enough. Please tell me you’re not hoping to find another lair?”

  I remained silent. A dungeon, I imagined, would be an even harder challenger than the Brown Spider Warren. But I didn’t think now was the time to tell Tara that.

  Tara’s expression twisted, seeming to take my silence to mean she had guessed right. But she let the matter lie, doing no more than shaking her head at my folly before turning to other concerns. “Anyhow, I came to tell you the commander�
�s conference starts in an hour.” She wrinkled her nose. “You should take the time to clean up before then. I’ll have someone bring fresh clothes to your tent.”

  I looked at her in surprise. The skies had darkened and night had fully fallen. “Oh?” I said. “I thought we would have missed it. Wasn’t it supposed to have happened in the afternoon?”

  “The old lady postponed proceedings when Cass brought news of our find to her.” She fixed me with a mock glare. “You’ve already delayed the meeting once. Try not to be late the second time too.”

  ✽✽✽

  Before heading to my tent, I stopped by the temple.

  The day’s venture had been wildly profitable. Aside from the spoils, Traits, and Feats I had earned, I had also advanced six player levels—far more than I had expected.

  I knew my quick return would not please my temple guide, but there was no helping that. I maintained my earlier conservative approach and spent my Marks and Tokens only where essential. It kept my time in the temple to a minimum, but sadly this didn’t lessen Aurora’s ire as much as I hoped.

  As I limped out of the temple, I read and dismissed the Trials message confirming my changes.

  Your constitution, vigour, and channelling have increased to: level 18.

  Your skill in dragon and life magic has advanced to: level 18.

  Marks remaining: 14. Tokens remaining: 141.

  I frowned. Keeping three different Attributes maxed was fast draining my surplus of Marks.

  I had to find another source of Marks soon, and not just to keep my health, mana, and constitution increasing, but also to invest in my other much-ignored Attributes.

  A problem for another day, Jamie, I told myself as I entered the camp.

  After I reached my tent, I bathed quickly. Tara, bless her, had managed to get a tub hauled to my tent. It was a cold bath, but still a far greater luxury than I expected. After changing into my new clothes, I hurried to the commander’s tent.

  I was still late.

  Outside, I found Tara. The black-haired captain didn’t look pleased. Her foot was tapping impatiently. “Finally!” she said. “I was just about to send someone looking for you. Come on in. They’re waiting.”