Luck Stat Strategy (Secret of the Old Ones Book 1)

by Blaise Corvin

  It turned out he didn’t even need to suggest they all log out; they came to that decision on their own. First Brutus, then Minerva, and finally Bartholomew all left, leaving Vale alone.

  He slowly got up and walked outside. It didn’t take long before a nondescript man approached him. Vale looked at the man’s physicaldex, which read 5/10. Figures.

  The man stopped next to Vale and leaned against the wall of the inn. He said, “Did you get our message?”

  “How do I know you are who you say you are?”

  “If you don’t comply, they will not be around anymore within ten minutes.”

  Vale felt like he weighed a million pounds, even his eyeball felt heavy. His heart dropped into his stomach.

  “What do you want?” he whispered.

  “Give me the Monarch Stone, the Secret of the Old Ones,” the man instructed. He held out a hand.

  Vale had never been so angry, scared, or ashamed in his life. It felt like his entire life had been leading up to this moment, this act of ultimate powerlessness. He was watching evil rear its ugly head and leer at him without any repercussion at all.

  Vale almost asked about the World Tree but held his tongue. He numbly reached into his inventory and produced the dark, pulsing crystal. “You’ll leave them alone?”

  The man looked at him levelly before saying, “If you feel that anything bad could happen soon, this thing will not happen if you hand over the crystal.” Vale realized the man was avoiding saying anything that could incriminate him. It was clever, and exactly the kind of professional behavior that made up Vale’s mind for sure.

  He handed the crystal over and the man smiled. “Nice doing business with you,” he said before casually walking away. Vale watched him numbly until he was out of sight. He had no idea how they’d found him, but for all he knew, he’d been stalked for weeks.

  He shook himself and felt a seed of something growing in his heart; something hot, something angry. How dare these motherfuckers threaten his mama!

  The seed grew, erupting into a blazing inferno of rage and hate. Vale went back up to his room in the inn and sat down to think some more. He could go back to the real world, but with the slight time dilation, he actually had more time in SOO to get his head straight.

  He thought about all his options and several courses of action until he settled on what he had to do.

  He logged out of SOO.

  ***

  Colors and strange sounds assaulted him. He felt like he could see sounds and taste color. The experience muted his growing fury.

  ***

  Trent was back in his body, and the full force of his rage returned and then some. How dare they threaten Mama! He gnashed his teeth in anger and took action.

  Trent worked via his persocomp as he left his room and headed towards the little armory by the nearby shooting range. When he’d been shooting there before, he’d realized how few rules and regulations were in place at the Rainbow Ranch. At the time, he’d been surprised, but now he was glad.

  He picked up a 9mm pistol and two boxes of ammo to bring back to his room. He also sent an email to his parents and told them to take his little sister and get out of town…immediately. He sent them the reservation he’d made her at a nice hotel two cities over, paid. Included with his message was an FYI that he’d put a large sum of money in his mother’s bank account.

  He had remembered he was rich-ish now.

  Trent had a quick back-and-forth with a bodyguard company before signing a contract and sending a down payment to protect his family. He instructed someone to immediately go to his parents’ house and accompany them to the hotel.

  By this time, he was back in his room. He quickly loaded two magazines for his pistol and put it somewhere safe he could grab quickly. He’d never been into guns, but now he was going to get good with this pistol. He swore it to himself.

  Last, Trent sent an email to all his SOO group members. The next day, they were all logging in together and he was taking everyone to the World Tree. Michelle would just have to wait another week until Abigail resurrected, then he’d take her too.

  He had been dragging his feet, procrastinating about the World Tree. He hadn’t been sure what to do, who he could trust. However, he’d just had his face rubbed in how stupid his issues really had been. He had to protect his family, and the best way to do that was to make as much money and be as powerful as he could—in SOO and out of it.

  Nobody threatened his family and got away with it. For the first time in his life, Trent was honestly, truly enraged.

  He wanted to hurt someone. Someone had to pay. If he could, he’d kill them.

  Trent sat on his bed in a daze, alternating between dismay and anger. He skimmed through entertainment channels on his persocomp. He ignored stories about himself, ignored rumors about what had just happened outside Innsmouth, and he ignored a new price set on his head by the Lords of Finality.

  None of it mattered.

  After a few hours, he found what he was looking for. Breaking news. Someone had used the Secret of the Old Ones, the Monarch Stone, to unlock the First Things race.

  The player wasn’t well known, but the name had popped up in the system menu. Miguel Veneno, either the person pulling the strings, or someone being pulled. But it was a lead.

  Miguel Veneno. There were a few questions on the message boards about how this player had gotten the Monarch Stone from Vale dePardon, but they were quickly drowned by the rest of the community’s excitement. The assumption seemed to be that Miguel had bought it.

  Now Trent knew the name of his enemy. He wasn’t sure how yet, but he was going to make the sonofabitch pay.

  Nobody could threaten Trent’s mama and get away with it. Nobody.

  Trent began planning who in his group would get what element from the World Tree. He was going to make his group the strongest, most badass force in the game by far. He was going to make tons of money. And he was going to make those fuckers pay for threatening his family!

  Time for War

  A few days after the boss fight with Hygon, Trent was talking to Mr. Vermillion in a simulated room. The Vermillion Entertainment CEO had set up a meeting time, and Trent obliged by Diving and joining the call. As with his old classroom programs, Tent was dressed exactly as he was physically as he reclined on his bed in Nevada.

  Jacob Vermillion had found out about the threat to Trent’s family. Trent wasn’t sure what he was more surprised about, the big man apologizing for the oversight, or his offering to pick up the tab for the security company, effective immediately.

  The little virtual meeting room wasn’t as lifelike as SOO, but it was close. Jacob paced his side of the table; the man’s arms were folded and he was scowling. “Like I said, Trent, I’m really sorry that any of this happened in the first place. The person who is responsible for indirect streamer welfare has been terminated. I’m not trying to point a finger, I’m just telling you this so you don’t think that my company didn’t care.”

  “Yes, that’s what you sai—” began Trent.

  Jacob held up a hand. “No, this is a serious matter. We may be one of the larger streaming companies, but something you may not know is that until you came along, we didn’t have any high-profile streamers. By that, I mean the top five in the world. You and your group are obviously on that level.

  “My employee did not touch base with my security team about your family’s situation. I think a lot of people had just assumed it was taken care of. So as I said earlier, I want to pay for the service you’ve already hired to protect your family, and volunteer a Vermillion Entertainment asset as well.”

  Deep down, Trent still felt some anger and resentment towards Vermillion Entertainment, but he had to admit that Jacob seemed sincere. From the beginning of the meeting, the big man had seemed legitimately upset. “How did you find out about all of this in the first place?” he asked.

  Jacob stopped pacing and sighed. “Your mother called and told us. She called customer
service and spent all day on the phone. Believe it or not, she did finally get through to me. I think she’s the first person ever to do that. Now she has my cell phone number.”

  “What?” exclaimed Trent. He knew his mama could be fierce, but to think she had browbeaten an entire business? He wasn’t sure whether to be horrified or amused.

  “Yes. It’s not every day that a streamer’s mother tells me directly how lax my company has been. The worst part of it was, she was right. She immediately understood what must have happened when you moved your entire family. It’s why she said she didn’t argue with you.”

  Trent felt his head spin. It was the strangest sensation ever to be in his early 20s and still feel like his mom was talking to adults over his head. “So, what now?”

  “Well, we obviously can’t make up for the Monarch Stone that you gave up.” Jacob looked incredibly embarrassed. “I actually had a meeting with some of my executives about this matter before meeting with you, Trent. I want you to understand that this issue has shaken my company from the top to the bottom. I want you to know how personally I take this. Not only would I be appalled as a person if anything happened to your family, but could you imagine what it would have done to my company?

  “How many streamers would want to join a company that can’t even keep its employees’ families safe?”

  “Okay, you have a point,” said Trent. “Wait, are you trying to say I should have contacted Vermillion? Who could I have even talked to?”

  Jacob sighed. “That was one of the issues my leadership team and I have been hammering out. The short version of the changes we made is that Florinia, your asset coordinator, basically got another promotion. She’s been elevated to a level she can contact anyone in the company. If anything like this happened again, you could contact Florinia and she’d be able to take immediate action directing any appropriate resources in the company.

  “This will never happen again, Trent. We’ve asked your family to live in a secure Vermillion Entertainment house as long as you’re a streamer. Your mom said she’s considering it. We’re making sure that your family won’t be otherwise inconvenienced.”

  “Wow, I’m impressed,” said Trent. And he was. The fact that Jacob wasn’t trying to deny the tough spot he’d been in was actually going a long way. “What about this asshole, Miguel Veneno, though? And how did you know about the Monarch Stone?”

  Jacob grinned and said, “You are still a streamer, Trent. As soon as your mom spoke to me, directly mind you, on the phone, I’ve had a number of people getting to the bottom of this entire mess. As for this Miguel person, we still don’t know who he is, which is strange, to say the least.”

  “Will you keep me posted?”

  “Yes, absolutely. And while I can’t make up for the Monarch Stone you gave up, I doubt you would have wanted to use it anyway.”

  “Yeah, I really didn’t want to become a barrel monster with wings and tentacles and no real head anymore,” said Trent. “But I’m still furious that those rat bastards got a hold of it after threatening my family.” The old, familiar heat started rising in his chest again, but he pushed down on it. Now was not the time to let the rage rise up. There’d be time for that later.

  “True, the First Things race is pretty hideous-looking. I am actually not sure how the game would even work for a human player in the body of a creature like that. But regardless, that in-game item was worth a lot of money. You lost it because our company had an oversight. I want to make it up to you.”

  “What do you mean?” Trent said warily.

  Jacob beamed. “As one of the larger entertainment companies in the world, we have access to information the general public doesn’t. We have a direct relationship with Yggdrasil Entertainment, and they sometimes tell us things ahead of time.

  “To celebrate their one-year anniversary and the fact that several Monarch Stones have been used, Yggdrasil is launching a patch in a week.” Jacob smiled, obviously excited.

  “A patch?”

  “Yes. Official PVP is coming to SOO—something to do with the First Things players wanting to take over the game world. Basically, factions are being implemented.”

  “Okay, but we have player-versus-player fighting, now,” Trent said. He didn’t understand where the conversation was going.

  “Ah, you don’t get it!” said Jacob, practically bouncing on his toes. “There are going to be official, country-level war quests. Parties are going to be expanded from five players to six, and Yggdrasil is introducing airships.”

  “Airships? Seriously?” Trent had not expected that.

  “Yes, airships. What’s more, to help make up for your loss of the Monarch Stone, I’m putting you in charge of our company’s airships. We got two of them from Yggdrasil, and we’re giving them to you and the other streamer team living in your compound.”

  “Wait, what?” Trent shook his head and said, “This is all a lot to—”

  “Oh, but that’s not the best part,” said Jacob, grinning. “While on PVP quests or in PVP status, players will have chances for great rewards, more XP, and, most importantly, death lockout times will be an hour per day. This means you’ll only be out for seven hours if you die.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Trent.

  “Look, as a human character, you normally get locked out for seven days if you die, right? That will now be seven hours if you die while fighting a war. The Abyssal Ones have a lockout of two days, right? So they’ll be locked out for two hours if they die in official PVP combat.”

  Trent’s jaw dropped. With respawn times of less than half a day, players all over the world would play in a completely different way.

  Jacob Vermillion laughed out loud. “In addition to the ships, I have one new player in particular I would like to join your team, if you’re okay with it. I think you’re going to like him.”

  Trent blinked and leaned back in his virtual chair. He had a lot to process, but from the sounds of it, his group was going to war.

  After a few moments, he decided he was fine with that. If the First Things leader was involved, he’d gladly join the fight.

  Nobody was allowed to threaten his mama in the real world and just get away with it.

  End of Luck Stat Strategy

  ---Book One of Secret of the Old Ones

  Please read on for a note by the author.

  …And don’t forget to review this novella!

  SOO Classes:

  Occultist

  Technician

  Apothecary

  Armsman

  Burglar

  Priest

  About the Author:

  Blaise Corvin served in the US Army in several roles. He has seen the best and the worst that humanity has to offer. He is a sucker for any hobby involving weapons, art, or improv.

  He currently lives in Texas with a woman who somehow puts up with him, a house full of animals, and enough geeky memorabilia to start a museum.

  He likes talking about himself in third person within author biographies.

  It’s all very eccentric.

  A brief warning: If you engage Blaise in any conversation about swords, guns, video games, Fantasy/SciFi book, or mantis shrimp (seriously), he won’t shut up for a while.

  Cheers!

  To Readers,

  PLEASE, PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! You are wonderful and reviews are amazing for all authors, but especially indie authors like me.

  This was my second published book.

  story. I add content and the entire story goes through a couple revisions before before I publish.

  1. My website

  If you’re interested in checking out my website, the URL is http://blaise-corvin.com/. You can find news, Delvers artwork, and advanced (rough draft) chapters for what I’m working on.

  I also post the rough draft of my stories on Royal Road Legends, a writing website that allow people to post stories to read for free! Royal Road has helped several well-known LitRPG authors get their start!
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  http://royalroadl.com/

  2. My LitRPG group

  I am the leader of a LitRPG group (LitRPG Society) on Royal Road Legends. This is the link: http://royalroadl.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=8049

  3. These is my social media accounts you can connect with me at!

  Twitter - @Blaise_Corvin

  https://twitter.com/Blaise_Corvin

  Facebook - Leave me a like on facebook!

  https://www.facebook.com/BlaiseCorvinWriter/

  LitRPG Facebook Group

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/

  4. Recommendations:

  If you liked this book, you may like other LitRPG stories too! Some authors I interact with often and can recommend are:

  Edward Castle (Unbound Deathlord):

  https://www.amazon.com/Edward-Castle/e/B01M3YK1TR/

  Luke Chmilenko (Ascend Online):

  https://www.amazon.com/Luke-Chmilenko/e/B01LZ2769R/

  Michael-Scott Earle (Lion’s Quest):

  https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Scott-Earle/e/B019QSNVA2/

  5. My email

  If you want to drop me a line for any reason, you can email me at:

  Blaise.Corvin.Art@gmail.com

  6. Until next time (and please leave a review!)

  Thank you for joining me on this new adventure! I wanted to try something new with a novella, and it was a lot of fun.

  :)

  -BC