Lord of the Flame: A LitRPG novel (Call of Carrethen Book 2)

by Stephen Roark

  “We came from Stoneburg,” I told him. “But that’s not really an option anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  “Towns are pretty messed up,” Kodiak told him. “Glitched out, missing NPCs, sometimes entire buildings. Cragrock was almost as bad as Stoneburg.”

  “I’m starting to think maybe I should have just stayed as the Bishop,” Curafin joked.

  “What about that sword of yours?” I asked him. “You can still use it until we get you a wand, right?”

  “Yeah, but my Sword skill is only 350,” he replied. “I feel like at this level it should be a lot higher.”

  “Yeah, my dagger skill is 390,” Kodiak told him.

  “Well, once I get my level 6 buffs I won’t be that far behind,” he said, shrugging. “But I’m also wearing a robe with 40 armor level…”

  “What’s the stats on that sword?” I asked him.

  He opened his inventory and read from the item description. “Flaming Sword of Chilgrave. Damage 600 to 670.”

  “Wow, that’s pretty good,” I said approvingly.

  “Also, it has a chance to set the target on fire!” he added. “Now that’s awesome.”

  I had to admit, Curafin looked like a total badass with his Bishop’s robe and flaming sword, and I was excited to see how powerful he ended up once he learned his spells and was able to buff himself. But of course, we had to find a place to buy those spells first.

  “Okay, so we’re not going back to Cragrock or Stoneburg,” Kodiak said, as though reading my mind. “Where do we go then?”

  “You don’t know this area?” I asked him. He shook his head glumly.

  “Why don’t we follow the river?” Gehman asked. I turned to him.

  “Huh?”

  “The river back there,” he repeated. “There’s always stuff around the rivers, at least in real life.”

  I shrugged and looked around to see if anyone else had a better idea. No one did.

  “Okay,” I replied, making Gehman’s eyes light up. “Follow the river it is.”

  Gehman was thrilled to have made a helpful suggestion, and we quickly made our way back to the river and began to follow it downstream to the southwest, making our way deeper into the main continent of what had once been Carrethen.

  Keeping the water on our left, the forest flanked us on the right as we progressed, and we stayed as close to the shore as possible to try and avoid being ambushed by any monsters hiding in the shadows. The Dark World being what it was, there was no telling what we might run into.

  A couple of times we passed something massive moving through the trees, and had to wait by the shore as it pathed away from us, watching as the treetops swayed as it made its way through the woods. We never got a good look at what it was, but it was pretty safe to assume it wasn’t anything low level.

  “Maybe a region boss,” Kodiak suggested.

  “Yeah, let’s not fight one of those until I have my wand,” Curafin said as we pushed on, following the river as it curved and sloped down before tumbling over a long set of rapids. The sound of the water was peaceful, a sharp contrast to the thunder and lightning overhead.

  After the rapids, the terrain began to flatten out and the grass started to get some of its color back. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d gotten used to the muted colors of the Dark World, but seeing a bit of the old Carrethen beginning to poke through was definitely lifting my spirits.

  “Look at that,” Gehman said cheerfully. “Real grass.”

  “Sort of,” I replied, cracking a lame joke. Kodiak made a “womp-womp” sound. I guess he wasn’t as much of a fan of corny humor as I was.

  Even the trees started to get some of their color back as we continued on, creating a sharp contrast of color between the ground and the thunderous sky. The forest changed from the skeletal trees near Chilgrave Castle, to larger trees with thick trunks of a deep healthy brown, covered in patches of blue-green moss.

  The ground on the other side of the river was swampy, covered with pockmark pools of slimy water. Vines hung from the branches and I could already hear the sounds of insects swarming about.

  “Which way?” Gehman asked. I didn’t even have to think about it.

  “Not that way,” I said, nodding in the direction of the swamp.

  “Not a fan of swamps?” Kodiak asked.

  “You could say that.”

  “The forest looks promising,” Curafin added. “At least much drier. Or do you want to follow the river more?”

  “Eh…” I muttered, looking about. Then, far in the distance above the trees, something caught my eye. A plume of smoke, barely visible and almost lost in the clouds.

  “Look,” I said, pointing in its direction. “See that? Might be a town down there.”

  “Could be,” Kodiak replied. “But, if it’s anything like Stoneburg, could be a waste of our time.”

  “Curafin needs spells,” I told him. “I don’t know where else to get scrolls besides towns, do you?”

  “They drop off monsters sometimes,” Gehman suggested.

  “Yeah, that’s a great idea,” I snapped. “Just find some mobs that drop scrolls and farm them for days until he’s got everything he needs!”

  Gehman looked like I’d just ripped his heart out and I instantly felt guilty.

  “I’m sorry, Gehman,” I told him, patting him on the shoulder. “I’m just—this place is pissing me off, ya know?”

  Gehman nodded and smiled. “I understand, Jane. It’s fine.”

  “Let’s check it out,” I said. “Seems like our best option at this point.”

  With that, we started off into the forest. It was denser than it appeared from the river, with thick branches creating a dark canopy above us that blocked out any remaining moonlight that had been able to break through the clouds. But as we ventured deeper into the trees, the blue-green moss I’d seen from the river began to glow, providing just enough light for us to progress.

  “This looks awesome!” Gehman said from beside me, a bluish glow across his smiling face.

  “Like Pandora,” I replied.

  “Does that make us Sully and Neytiri?” he asked, almost hesitantly. I forced an awkward smile, wishing desperately I was back in D’s avatar.

  “Easy, Tiger,” Curafin said from beside me. “Leave the e-girl be.”

  “It was just a joke!” Gehman grumbled, stepping over a large root in his path.

  The woods were quiet, seemingly devoid of any threats, so we pushed on. The sound of thunder was muffled beneath the canopy, and for a moment I was able to pretend I wasn’t in the Dark World, but was back in Carrethen on my way towards a quest objective with a new group of friends. Unfortunately, if that were the case, Jack would be with me.

  It was killing me that I didn’t know where to find him, and hurt even more to think of him out there somewhere, sunken and lost, his memories—his soul fading with every death. He’d given his life so I could defeat The Ripper, and I owed him everything. All I wanted to do was rush to wherever he was and rescue him, but I didn’t even know where to start. The world was a mess, I barely had my equipment together, and I was only half way to max level.

  What a mess.

  Kodiak stopped beside me, his nose raised to the air. “Do you smell that?” he asked.

  I sniffed the air, and at first picked up nothing, but then the faintest smell of cooked meat drifted into my nostrils.

  “Someone’s cooking?” I wondered out loud. “Do monsters cook?”

  “Nope,” Kodiak replied.

  “Maybe a town,” Curafin suggested.

  “The smoke from before,” I added. Kodiak nodded and smiled.

  “Let’s check it out,” I told them, drawing my crossbow. “But keep quiet. Any sign of trouble, we beat it.”

  We continued on through the forest, making our way by the soft glow of the moss on the trees, following the scent to its source. Eventually, I spotted something through a break in the trees.

  “There!�
� I hissed, dropping low and taking cover behind a tree. Everyone else crouched down beside me as we looked out at a small break in the trees with a cluster of buildings.

  It sure looked like a player town, but the architecture was different than Stoneburg and Cragrock, with green tiled sloping roofs and Japanese style woodworking. There was no sign of movement.

  “It looks like one of the Southern towns,” Kodiak remarked. “Only…in the North.”

  “More backup corruption,” I muttered. “But I don’t see any monsters.”

  “Me either,” Gehman added.

  “Maybe they’ve got scrolls,” Curafin said hopefully. “Do you see a mage hut?”

  “I can’t tell what any of them are,” Kodiak said, shaking his head. “But it looks empty. Might be safe.”

  “Yeah…” I replied hesitantly. “Or it could be a town full of PKs with a kill on sight policy.”

  “That sounds a little paranoid,” Gehman said slowly. I turned at him and frowned, then remembered he hadn’t been with us for the majority of our time in Carrethen. He wasn’t there for Daric, the Crimson Catacombs or Fort Keth. He may have died early on, but that also meant he missed out on everything the rest of us went through, so in a way, I could understand his confusion.

  “Trust me, Gehman,” I told him. “If you’d seen what we saw back in Carrethen, you’d be paranoid too.”

  I glanced back at the town, trying to see if I could spot any players or monsters to give me a better idea of what we were walking into, but I couldn’t see anything moving.

  “Okay, let’s move in a little closer,” I said finally. “If it turns out to be trouble, just run for it and we’ll meet back at the rapids.”

  “Got it,” Curafin said with a nod.

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  We moved forward. I had my crossbow in hand, loaded, just in case we ran into any surprises. I tried telling myself that everything would be okay, but I couldn’t help but feel the same way I’d felt when Jack insisted on going into Daric. We just didn’t know what was going to happen, and that made us vulnerable.

  I heard a noise behind me to the left, and whirled around, crossbow held high, only to see a small flock of some sort of bat-like creatures swooping through the air, their wings pulsing slightly with a purplish glow. I sighed and turned back towards the town.

  It looked empty as we grew closer, the only sign of life being the thin plume of smoke coming from one of the huts. The architecture was different enough that I couldn’t tell the buildings apart, but guessed it was either a smith hut or a fire for cooking. Behind the town, hovering gently between two enormous trees, was a Bindstone. The branches had twisted together, forming an arch above it.

  I glanced over at Kodiak, but he’d already spotted it. We nodded and started to form up again as we pushed into town.

  “Oh, yeah!” He grinned. “Finally, a place we can all bind together.”

  Weapons drawn, we stepped into the center of town, where the buildings all clustered around a small well. I spotted a General Merchant’s hut, with an open counter and an actual NPC vendor. To my right was the Healer’s hut, a Mage shop and an NPC blacksmith’s that didn’t appear to have a forge usable for players.

  “Looks empty,” Gehman remarked as we fanned out across the town square.

  “Mmmhmm,” I replied skeptically, checking the hill above town for signs of danger. The town was in perfect condition, and that was what made me uneasy. A place like this should have been bustling with activity, but it was completely empty, as though no one had discovered it yet.

  Was it possible that the Dark World was almost uninhabited, with the majority of the population trapped in Sheol? Kodiak was one of the Unchained, but how many of them were there? Maybe we were more alone than I thought. But then, a voice hissed behind me and I felt something sharp press against my neck.

  “Move and you die.”

  23

  The Red Devils

  In front of me, Kodiak spun around, his dagger raised at my attacker, but before he could do anything, the ambush happened.

  They’d been hiding behind the Mage’s hut, which had its back to the hill and was out of our view. There were three of them, a mage in a yellow Werren robe, an unarmed combat warrior with a set of Bronze Nekode and an enormous man in full plate with an enormous halberd that would have made Xavier jealous.

  I knew it, I cursed, fuming at the enormous mistake I’d made. The old D would have never walked into something like this, but the Dark World had twisted my mind, made me take risks I never would have in the old Carrethen. Of course this town would be guarded! Things that looked too good to be true always were.

  “Just wait a second—” I said, having flashbacks of when Jack and I were first captured by Xavier and Cavey back in Stoneburg.

  “Shut up!” the voice hissed back.

  “Calm yourself, Gwin,” the mage said with a commanding tone. He was obviously the leader. “Give them a chance to speak. Now, what brings you to Cara?”

  “We saw the smoke,” I told him, wondering what the sharp metal against my neck was from. “We’re just looking for a Mage so my friend can buy his scrolls. As you may have noticed, the other towns aren’t in great shape right now.”

  “You’re pretty high level,” the mage replied. “What’s with the junk gear?”

  “It’s a long story,” I told him.

  “Hey, we’ve got time,” he said, leaning arrogantly against the worn roof of the well.

  Every instinct I had was telling me to draw my daggers, spin around and attack the player behind me, but I hadn’t even been able to inspect the three in front of me, let alone the one holding some kind of weapon to the back of my neck. Although doubtful, they could have been level 250 for all I knew.

  “This is Jane!” Gehman blurted out before I could speak. “She killed The Ripper and now she’s here to save Carrethen!”

  My eyes went wide. I understood now how Jack must have felt when someone recognized him, instantly eyeing him as a prize, their ticket home.

  “Is that so?” the big guy with the halberd said. “Killed The Ripper, huh? If that’s true, then why are you here?”

  “I came back for my friends,” I told him. “And the others.”

  He took a step forward, twisting his halberd in his hand. He was sizing me up, running his own personal lie detector on me. He had short blonde hair and a chiseled jaw like Dirk the knight from Dragon’s Lair.

  He looked me up and down skeptically, then scoffed. “Came back, huh? How exactly did you do that?”

  “It’s—it’s complicated,” I muttered.

  “Try me,” he replied.

  “I was contacted by an A.I.—”

  “An A.I.?” the guy with the nekodes asked. “Like, an artificial intelligence?”

  “That’s right.” I nodded. “Named Wintermute. He backed up the world to save everyone from dying and sent me in here to get them out.”

  “Uh huh.” The guy with the halberd nodded, not buying it. “So then why the lack of gear? Why aren’t you max level?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted, shaking my head. “A glitch or something…”

  “A glitch!?” He laughed. “By an all powerful life saving artificial intelligence?”

  “It’s true!” Gehman shouted. “She’s telling the truth! I was one of the Sunken and she brought me back! We came from Stoneburg, then Cragrock, and then the graveyard and Chilgrave Castle! We met a girl named Anwi on the way!”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” the mage said, stepping forward. “You ran into Anwi?”

  “You know her?” Kodiak asked.

  “She passed through this way,” the mage replied. “We tried to help her, offer her refuge here, but she wouldn’t stay.”

  “She’s looking for her friend,” I told them. “Hectar.”

  The mage took another step forward and gave me his own once over. He glanced over at the rest of the group and then back to me. “Put your bow down, Gwin. They�
��re not a threat.”

  “Are you sure, Lock?” Gwin hissed from behind me.

  That’s what it is, I thought, realizing what the metal pressing against my neck was. An arrowhead.

  “Are you here for trouble?” Lock asked, raising his hands to my group. Everyone quickly shook their heads.

  “Just scrolls,” Curafin said quickly.

  “Well, we have more than just scrolls here.” Lock smiled. “Gwin, put your bow down.”

  Gwin sighed behind me but I heard the sound of him releasing the tension on his bow and felt the steel fall from my neck. He moved around in front of me and I finally got a good view of him.

  He was short and skinny, but fierce looking, with shaggy black hair and thin eyes. In a way, he reminded me a bit of my character D back in Carrethen. He had a recurve bow made from some kind of light wood with a heavy grip. It looked like it could seriously do some damage.

  “This is Gwin,” Lock explained. “I am Lock, that’s Lambert over there, and the big fella with the halberd is Sabotenda.”

  “Sabotenda?” I asked, making sure I heard correctly.

  “Is that a problem?” he replied with a frown.

  “No, not at all,” I replied quickly. “Just a bit of a long name…”

  Sabotenda raised an eyebrow at me like The Rock in one of his movies. I quickly changed the topic.

  “What is this place?” I asked them. “You said it was called Cara?”

  “That’s right,” Lock replied. “The only surviving player town in this area that we know of. We’re doing our best to keep it a secret, but Gordon Ramsay over here had to do his cooking.”

  Lambert, a scruffy looking guy with dark brown hair and a beard, grimaced. Several small braids on the left side of his head swung as he shook his head.

  “Excuse me for trying to get my cooking up so we can have some stat buff food,” he grumbled, picking a piece of dirt from the blade of one of his nekode.

  “Well, we were lucky this time.” Lock smiled. “Thankfully it wasn’t Sinful or someone like that.”

  “Sinful?” I asked. “Chaucey and those guys? Have you seen them here?”

  “No,” Lock replied. “Thankfully. But they were the ones who killed me back in Carrethen. Me and Lambert.”