Shadow For Hire: Books 1-4 (A LitRPG Series)

by Adam Drake

  I took the stairs which immediately emerged onto a viewing balcony. A quick look around showed no one else was present. A low ice wall formed the balconies railing. Keeping low, I scooted up to it, the risked a peek over its edge.

  A massive ice chamber presented itself. Vast walls curved upwards to form a rounded ceiling far above. Looking down I could view the chamber's floor and was stunned at what I saw.

  Dozens of clockwork guards were assembled in orderly rows, standing at attention. The group I'd followed joined them and fell in line. Before them was a startling sight.

  Ogden Trite was there, standing next to an empty wagon. He watched as several clockwork men maneuvered the obsidian statue of the pointing woman along the floor. It was the same statue I'd seen Ogden bring through the Guildhall travel gate.

  A short distance past Ogden, placed against the chamber's massive wall, were two large blue pillars. Even from my vantage point I could easily see that the pillars were made from glowing blue ore. The same ore I'd come across a while back in my near fatal encounter with the Demon King.

  None of this was what chilled me to the bone, though. That was reserved for the star-filled blackness which seemed to stretch out and fill the space between the two glowing pillars of ore.

  A massive Void Portal.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I stared at the Void Portal in amazement.

  Ogden had acquired the knowledge to create one, here in his own guildhall. But how? Thinking on it, I realized it wasn't much of a stretch.

  The tale of my previous adventure, fighting the Demon King, had now circulated far and wide. Included in the tale were the blue ore pillars which somehow allowed the Demon King to maintain a portal to his own Demon Void. The blue ore had become quite sought after, as a result, but no one had figured out how to make a portal from it.

  Until now.

  I have to admit I felt a little disappointed. My Cloak of Shadows gave me the incredible ability to create a portal on command. Now Ogden could do it as well.

  Which would explain the existence of Wally's Womp. Ogden had managed to capture and enslave the Void Titan with the use of this portal.

  I looked down at the gray owl avatar as he screamed and hollered commands at the clockwork men. What was he going to do with it now? Try to capture another Void Titan? Crazy.

  Out of curiosity, I queried the game about the statue of the pointing woman. Whatever it was, it appeared to have something to do with the portal.

  Item: Siren's Call (Ultra-Rare), Uses: Dark Magic, Summonings, Ensnarement (Various). Value: Unknown.

  Do you wish to query for current auction house prices? Y/N

  I selected Yes.

  Querying. Item not found.

  It confirmed my suspicions of the statue's importance, but in what way? I shook my head. Stay on point, Vivian. Ogden's ownership of a Void Portal was not the mission. Killing him was.

  Of course, killing Ogden would present an immediate problem. His legion of clockwork guards. Yes, the bounty on my head would be negated once I took him out. But if his guards killed me while I was in his guildhall, then all my inventory would drop here. Including the Cloak of Shadows.

  I frowned. It was worth the risk, and to a certain extent I knew losing the Cloak would be a possibility when coming here.

  But, in my mind, killing Ogden was worth losing it all. If I couldn't chance losing the Cloak trying to eliminate my mortal enemy, I'd never leave a safezone, or even bother playing anymore.

  And besides, I was having too much fun.

  Resolute in my mission, I decided to get closer to Ogden.

  Not wanting to risk being detected by dropping from the balcony railing, I went back down the stairs.

  After checking to see if there were any approaching guards, I darted across the hall and up against the chamber's curving wall. Keeping low, I followed the wall toward Ogden and his little army.

  Satisfied with the positioning of the Siren's Call, he dismissed the clockworks men with a wave.

  “I'm waiting!” Ogden suddenly shouted, causing me to stop. Was he yelling at me?

  “Coming! Coming!” a voice called back. From a secondary entrance a man entered. He wore a black robe which he hitched up so he could run without tripping over it.

  The material of his robe made it feel like I stared into a Void itself. Only one type of class could wear it.

  A Dark Mage.

  The mage ran up to Ogden, panting from his exertion. “Sorry I'm late,” the mage said. “But you didn't tell me you'd found another Siren's Call.” The dark mage gazed at the statue with naked avarice.

  “The reason I didn't tell you, is because I don't have to explain myself to anyone!” Ogden blustered. “I tell people what to do, and they do it without question!”

  The mage nodded, his mouth twitching with a nervous tic. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

  Ogden wasn't finished with his little tirade. “And I'm telling you to activate it now. There are more Titans floating around in there and I want them all.”

  “Yes, sir,” said the dark mage. “Right away.” Ogden took a few steps back from the statue as the dark mage uttered an incantation.

  The statue of the woman began to glow, its obsidian surface shimmering with a dark light. From her pointing finger, a black beam shot out and into the Void Portal.

  After a few moments of nothing happening, Ogden frowned, a cartoonish expression on an owl avatar. “You are certain this is a good spot? I don't need you wasting any more of my valuable time. Otherwise, I am paying you too much!”

  The mage nodded. “Yes, this is a good spot. My scrying detected a flurry of recent activity in this area. If there is something here, we will find it.”

  Ogden didn't respond, instead he watched the portal with barely mollified impatience.

  So this is how that stupid owl caught Wally's Womp, I thought. With the help of the dark mage, and this statue, he was able to find, catch, and enslave Void Titans. I had to hand it to the guy, he didn't think small.

  Still, I needed to stay on point. It didn't matter what he was up to, I was here to kill him.

  I eased closer to where Ogden and the mage were standing. Their attention was fully on the Void Portal, backs to me.

  Estimating I was close enough, I paused. Ogden was maybe two dozen paces from me. His little army of clockwork guards were assembled an equal distance away. I needed to be positioned so that when I fired an arrow, I could still make it back to the chamber's entrance without getting cut off.

  Deciding this was a good a spot as ever, I summoned my bow and another magma arrow, which had become my go-to-projectile of choice recently.

  I nocked the arrow and aimed at Ogden's head.

  I grinned. Good enough, I thought, and pulled back the drawstring.

  “There!” Ogden suddenly shouted, pointing at the portal. “I see something!” My view of Ogden's head also had the Void Portal in front of him. From its dark, starry depths an object appeared. I blinked at it in recognition.

  Wait a second, I thought, and lowered my bow. That can't be. Is it?

  The dark beam which projected from the statue pulsated, and the distant object got closer.

  “Pull it in!” Ogden commanded.

  “Yes, sir,” said the mage.

  In moments, the object was close enough that its details were clearly seen.

  Wide-eyed in amazement, I nearly let out a laugh which would have spoiled my Shadow form.

  No way!

  There, floating just beyond the portal, trapped within his Orb of Oblivion and looking very ticked off, was Kragg.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Ogden was just as surprised as I was.

  “What the FILTERED is this?” he said with a scathing look at the mage. “That's not a Titan!”

  The mage shrugged. “The Siren's Call will pull to it anything that is within range, regardless if it is a Titan or not.”

  Kragg waved, and shouted, but no sound came through the portal.<
br />
  Ogden squinted at the encased Ogre-Bezerker. “Is that Kragg? How does a bounty hunter end up snagged on my Titan's fishing line?”

  “Perhaps if we pull him in, we can find out,” offered the mage.

  “Nonsense!” Ogden barked. “He's nothing but a minnow at best. Throw him back and try again.”

  Kragg could see that Ogden was not rushing to help him and the ogre raged within the orb.

  “If you toss him back, he will only be caught up in the Siren's Call, again,” said the mage with a worried expression. He knew that wasn't an answer Ogden wanted to hear.

  I, on the other hand, was enjoying this bizarre little show. What were the odds I'd ever run into Kragg again? Slim to none. Well, more like none. Yet here he was. As I watched the bounty hunter bounce around the orb in a tantrum, I started to feel sorry for the guy. But only a little.

  Ogden made a visible effort to control his temper. “Fine,” he finally said. “Pull him in, if only to keep him from getting in the way.”

  With an elaborate serious of gestures, the dark mage manipulated the pulsing black light.

  Kragg's orb moved closer, passing through the portal and into the chamber.

  “Well, it's about FILTERing time, you FILTERED!” Kragg screamed. “You know how long I've been out there?” His expression was hot with rage.

  “Don't yell at me, you idiot!” Ogden screamed back. “I'm not the one getting in the way of another player's gaming session!”

  “Your gaming session?” Kragg countered. “What about my gaming session? I've spent hours and hours floating around without a hope of getting out. How fun a gaming session does that sound like to you?”

  “I don't care!” Ogden shouted over Kragg. “You are nothing but a piece of FILTERED, anyway. Beneath my attention!”

  “What?!” Kragg sputtered. “What did you call me?”

  Ogden moved closer to the floating orb. Kragg leaned down to eye-level with him. Despite the orb's barrier they were practically beak to bulbous nose.

  The owl spoke, emphasizing each word as if speaking to a child. “You are nothing less than a green piece of FILTERED that just doesn't flush.”

  I had to cover my avatar's mouth with a hand to keep from letting out a peel of laughter. Oh, by the gaming gods, this was entertaining.

  Kragg's eye twitched, then his mouth, followed by the rest of his body. Then his bezerker-rage kicked in and he flailed violently against the orb.

  Ogden barked a laugh, and with a smug expression, crossing his wings in front of him while he waited.

  Kragg's rage eventually petered out, and he slumped in his prison. “You're a FILTERED,” he said.

  “Oh, yeah?” said owl. “Well I'm not the moron who got himself trapped in a Void.” Ogden thought a moment. “How did you get stuck in there, anyway?”

  I tensed up. Ogden didn't know. Kragg hadn't told him. I thought for sure he would have sent Ogden a chat explaining that I was hunting for information on his guildhall's location. But he hadn't. Why not?

  Kragg scoffed and made a show of looking at his fingernails. “You've made it apparent that telling you anything would not be worth my while.” The ogre's eyes briefly shifted from his fingernails, to me. Then he looked away.

  I tensed up in alarm. Did he just look at me? Can he see me? Does he know I'm standing right here? No, that was impossible. It had to be a coincidence.

  Still, I switched my bow to my sword, just in case. If Kragg could see me, all he had to do was point. Ogden's paranoia would handle the rest.

  Ogden snorted. “You're wasting even more of my time.” To the clockwork guards who stood close by he said, “Put this glob of smelly FILTERED away somewhere. I'll deal with him, later.”

  A trio of clockwork guards pushed the floating Kragg away and back out of the chamber.

  I watched them with great interest as they disappeared through a side entrance.

  Ogden had already forgotten about the incident, and yelled at the mage. “Cast the line again. And this time, I want a Titan on the other end.”

  More gestures from the dark mage and the black beam from the statue grew in intensity.

  I looked between Ogden and the entrance Kragg had been shepherded through. An idea hit me. This presented an opportunity I could not pass up. Maybe there was a way to kill Ogden and increase my odds of escape.

  With great care, I eased away from Ogden and his group. When I reached the side entrance, I peered around to look inside.

  The three clockwork guards were returning, and I jumped back, pressing my back to the ice wall. They marched past and returned to their assembly.

  With another cautious glance I darted inside. A large room, with walls sectioning it along one side, stretched out several hundred paces. Boxes and items were stacked up everywhere. A storage area.

  I quietly padded down, checking each section in turn. Near the end, I saw the unmistakable curve of an Orb sticking out from behind the next wall.

  Not sure what to expect, I slowly walked around the wall with sword in hand.

  There was Kragg, sitting in the orb. As I moved in Shadow form to stand before him, he looked right at me and smiled.

  “Well,” the ogre said. “We meet again, little Shadow.”

  “Hmph,” I said and dropped my Shadow form. “So you can see me. How, exactly, do you manage that?” Until now, I'd never heard of such an ability existing in the game. Kinda takes the fun out of being a Shadow.

  Kragg grinned. “Now, you didn't sneak into Ogden's lair in hopes of running into me just to ask that question. You are here to kill that stupid owl and free yourself from that bounty. Right?”

  Okay, I can take a hint.

  “Yeah, true,” I said. “Sorry about Mudhoof knocking you into the Void. That was not part of the plan.”

  With a dismissive wave, Kragg said, “Me and that minotaur will have words at some point. But I hold you no grudge. It's all part of playing this game.”

  “Actually, I wanted to ask you something.”

  “Yes, little Shadow?”

  “Why didn't you tell Ogden I was after him? You had plenty of time while floating around out there.”

  “Ogden is notorious for issuing bounties, and as a result, I've gone on many hunting trips he's paid for. If he knew I told you about Wally's Womp, he'd blacklist me from any future bounties.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “But it doesn't look like you two are on good terms now.”

  Kragg got a little angry. “Yes, he can be quite a detestable character. Any respect I had for him is now gone. He doesn't have to treat me this way, yet here I sit in a storage room because he's a little FILTERED.”

  “Is that why you didn't tell him I was standing right next to him?”

  “Partly, but to be honest I was more than surprised to see you here. That alone is a task worthy of respect and one I wouldn't spoil. In fact, if you are interested, I'd like to help.”

  It required a lot of self control not to cheer.

  “Okay,” I said. “What did you have in mind?”

  Kragg knocked against the orb with a large green knuckle. “Cancel this orb, and I'll help you get at Ogden. He's got a lot of protection out there, and you'll need a distraction.” He gave me a hopeful look. “You do have the cancelation orb on you, right?”

  I grinned. “Wouldn't be talking to you if I didn't.” From my inventory I brought out a little white orb. It floated a few inches above my palm.

  Kragg sighed with relief. “Thank the gaming gods!”

  “So we have a deal, right? I let you out, and you help me kill Ogden.”

  “Deal,” Kragg said seriously.

  Guess I'm going to find out real quick if this guy can keep his word.

  I raised the white orb and brought it down hard against Kragg's enclosure.

  Like a large soap bubble, the orb popped, and vanished. Kragg dropped to the ground.

  The huge ogre stretched out his arms and laughed. “Ah, that feels good.” He eyed me a m
oment.

  Thinking he might attack I raised my sword.

  Kragg chuckled. “No need for that. I'm not a deal breaker.” He reached into his tiny leather vest and pulled out a Teleport Token.

  Dang! I thought, he's just going to leave. Figures.