Travail Online: Resurrection: LitRPG Series (Book 2)

by Brian Simons

  “Ivan,” Daniel said, “help protect Sybil while she sings?”

  Ivan readied his sword and stood at the elf bard’s back. His nostrils flared slightly, but he didn’t push back against Daniel’s instruction. Ivan may not think highly of elves, but he’d know better than to disregard an order from a Knight. Especially one that was paying him.

  Sybil opened her mouth to sing when blood shot out of Ivan’s throat. He slumped forward and hit the ground, a long bloody slit evident across his neck. His HP had hit zero. His body was still for only a moment before it began to fade away. Only Januar would know if Ivan would respawn. If so, he’d have to live with the memory of dying, a painful fate that Daniel knew all too well.

  The realization that this was Daniel’s fault hit him like a wrecking ball. If he hadn’t dragged Ivan on this journey, he’d be safe at home in Havenstock. There was no time to grieve, and no time for Sybil to summon a windstorm with her voice. They had to get out of there. They couldn’t fight what they couldn’t see.

  “Run!” Daniel yelled, and the three took off to the north. Daniel’s wound throbbed with each footfall, but they couldn’t stop. If it were a mob attacking them, it would only follow them for so long before returning to its natural environment. If it were a player… they’d have to make it all the way out of the Sand Barrens to get away.

  The Fleet-Footed skill Daniel had unlocked as a Scout provided him additional speed and stamina regeneration, helping to counteract some of the penalty he incurred for wearing heavy armor. Still, it would be a long way to run before they escaped any PK’ers. Daniel doubted he had the stamina to pull that off.

  He also hoped Coral and Marco weren’t already dead.

  When he looked over his shoulder again, he saw someone trailing them. She had a dagger in one hand and a small shield in the other. He wanted to Surveil her to see how strong she was, but that would require staring for a long time. Instead, all he could learn was:

  >> KnackForChaos. Level 19 Thief.

  Daniel stopped short. One thief was no match for the three of them, now that they could see what they were up against. “She’s visible!” he yelled.

  Sal and Sybil stopped running. So did Knack. She looked down at her hand, alarmed. She had an impressive array of rings. One of them must have made her invisible, but only for a short time.

  Knack started treading backward, the toes of her slim gray boots digging into the sandy soil. Daniel didn’t want to fight with her. He wanted to reunite with his friends and heal his painful stab wound.

  “Get out of here!” he yelled.

  “Give me all of your gold and I’ll let you live!” she said. She would have sounded full of herself if her voice weren’t quaking.

  “You’re outnumbered,” Daniel said. “Go find something productive to do instead of ripping off other players!”

  Knack thrust her arm out and pointed her pinky at Daniel’s group. Her pinky ring started to glow yellow. “I warned you,” she said, as a yellow light bathed them all. Daniel was suddenly very, very tired. It took all of his energy just to stay on his feet. Sybil and Sal looked similarly dazed.

  No, she wouldn’t do this to them. Put them to sleep and rob them blind. Daniel fought to keep his eyes open, struggled against the oppressive urge to lie down and drift away.

  >> Congratulations! You have improved your Focus ability to 2. +7.5% total resistance to mental debuffs.

  He took a step forward toward Knack as Sybil and Sal collapsed on the ground. Knack’s eyes widened. Daniel had been able to resist her attempt to lull him to sleep. Now he had to stop her, even if his HP was almost gone.

  At Level 19 she’d have around 300 HP minimum, maybe more if the Thief class gained Constitution at a decent rate. Her gear likely increased her Constitution further, adding even more HP to her max. Daniel only had 220 HP left after Knack’s last Backstab attack. It would have been a lot less if he didn’t have his iron armor equipped. He did, however, have all of his 70 MP intact.

  It took three skill points and a quick review of his skills and attributes menu, but he was able to unlock Sword of Ploughshares while he and the Thief faced off. Lucky thing those elves had attacked Havenstock that morning. Fighting them off had improved his Swordfighting combat ability to 3, which was the minimum requirement for unlocking Sword of Ploughshares.

  He extended his sword at her and felt it pulse in his hand. His MP was starting to drain away, but the sword was doing its job. He was pacifying her ability to fight. A small peace sign icon appeared above her head.

  Each time he took a step toward her she took one back, constantly eying him for her opportunity to strike. She must not have realized that she had a Pacify debuff. Daniel lunged, aiming his sword at her center.

  It was a feint. Thieves move quickly and he knew the chances of hitting her were slim. He also knew that lunging at her would leave him vulnerable to a counterattack, which he welcomed.

  Knack dodged out of his way and then spun around, holding her dagger out and aiming perfectly for Daniel’s open side. She didn’t connect though. Her arm stopped short of hitting Daniel and went limp at her side.

  As long as that Pacify debuff was in place, she couldn’t make contact, no matter how true her aim was.

  Now was Daniel’s chance. He knocked into her with his shoulder and slammed her to the ground. He jumped on top of her. She pushed up at him with her small shield, but his suit of armor made him too heavy. He had her pinned. It was a simple matter of yanking the dagger out of her hand, throwing it ten feet away, and lining his blade up against her neck.

  “You can’t do this anymore,” he said.

  She began to cry. Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes glistened as she whimpered, “Please don’t kill me. I don’t want to do this, I’m just so hungry. It’s my last resort.”

  Daniel knew how desperate people could be. He knew what it was like to worry that he might not pull in enough gold in Travail to buy real life groceries after his mother blew all of her money at the track. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for taking a player out of the game, and possibly forcing her to starve to death IRL.

  His hesitation was all she needed. Daniel’s Sword of Ploughshare ability had worn off, and Knack was free to attack again. She kicked him between the legs with the sole of her boot.

  >> You’ve been hit! 17 Damage.

  It turns out, sufficient pressure to the groin is an effective tactic, even against someone in a full suit of armor. Daniel rolled off of her and clenched his legs together.

  “Idiot,” she said as she dove for her dagger, snatched it up, and ran off.

  Daniel stayed on the ground for a minute before he crawled over to his friends. It took a lot of coaxing, but he was able to shake them both awake.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said. “She may come back, I just don’t know.”

  “You didn’t kill her?” Sybil asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

  “No, I had her. But then I felt bad. She’d have to start over from scratch. I couldn’t do it.”

  “That’s good,” Sal said through a yawn. “Killing her wouldn’t have been very knightly.”

  Sal was right. The Regent had warned him not to do anything “dishonorable.” Killing a Thief that had attacked him may or may not have been acceptable for his class, but he’d have to think carefully about his actions from now on.

  >> Construction update: The restoration of Sagma’s tower is 3% complete. Donate gold to the god of wisdom through your status window to restore his temple to glory. Gold needed: 969,987,113.

  “Did you guys see that?” Daniel asked. “This must be what Coral was talking about. It looks like players are chipping in more gold for Sagma’s temple.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense,” Sybil said.

  “I know,” Sal said.

  “We should veer further away from the river,” Sybil said. “Just enough to give us some breathing room if there are other PK’ers. We can still keep an eye ou
t for Coral and Marco.”

  “You’re right,” Daniel said. They cut a diagonal path northwest, keeping the edge of the river in sight. It amazed Daniel that such a powerful body of water sat so close to the desert without mitigating the heat and aridity of the Sand Barrens. It was one of the most unwelcoming places in all of Travail — and that was without factoring in the PK’ers.

  The afternoon sun beat down on them, warming Daniel’s armor and sapping the whole team of strength. As they trudged slowly across the flat, hard surface of the desert, Daniel wanted to unequip his armor to cool off. He was afraid more dangers were waiting for them up ahead though, and with his HP still low, he couldn’t afford to leave himself vulnerable.

  Something moved in the distance. Daniel blinked hard and looked again to make sure it wasn’t a mirage. “Guys,” he said. “There’s someone out there.”

  Sybil and Sal stopped walking while Daniel peered into the distance. It took 28 seconds, but his Surveil skill kicked in. He was too far from the person to learn specific information, but he was able to get a clearer image. It was a small woman with dusky gray skin. He continued staring, sweat rolling down his forehead and starting to pool at the creases of his squinted eyes.

  The image improved again. She had a scimitar in her hand. The long curved blade came to a sharp point at the end. The woman poked her sword into the ground, then crouched down to inspect it. She did this twice more as Daniel watched. Finally, he zoomed in close enough for his Surveil ability to add some detail.

  >> You have Surveilled Lyla: Level 7 Orc Healer, 260 HP.

  >> Congratulations! You have improved your Surveil ability to 4. Stare at something for 26.5 seconds to discern additional information.

  “She’s a Level 7 Orc Healer,” Daniel said. “I don’t think she’s a threat.” He changed course to walk toward her.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Sybil said.

  Daniel didn’t want to scare the orc. He didn’t know anything about orcs, and he didn’t want to cause an unnecessary fight. He also didn’t want to yell across the desert to her. That would attract all sorts of unwanted attention.

  Since she hadn’t seen him yet, he activated Sneak and ran ahead. His Sneak ability was at 5 so far, which reduced his visibility by 18%. It had gotten him past Otto once, though that was in a dark cave. It also helped him trail Sybil through the purple mountains of The Ersatz, though any drow on the lookout would have trained their attention on Sybil and missed him.

  As he jogged toward the orc, he realized that 18% might not be enough out here in the open, under the bright sun and without a decoy to divert her attention.

  The orc stared at the ground as Daniel approached. When he came within a few feet, she said, “I’ve seen Ice Golems better prepared for the desert than you.”

  Daniel was sweltering in his metal armor. “I am a bit warm, now that you mention it. What are you doing here?”

  “That’s your first question?” she asked, standing up. She was elf height, but that’s where the similarity ended. Her dark gray skin was leathery, her ears were large flaps of skin that draped halfway down her jawline. She wore her black hair in a bun, pulled tight against her scalp. “Your health is in the red, and your first question for a healer is what she’s up to?”

  “Ok,” Daniel said, “would you please heal me? Is that better?” Sal and Sybil approached behind him.

  “Sure, if you help me with something,” she said.

  “Do I get to ask what it is first?” he said.

  “Of course not.” A smile curled up one side of her face.

  “I won’t do anything destructive or devious,” he said.

  “I can accept that,” she said.

  “Ok, then. Fine. I’ll help you,” Daniel said, “but only because helping others is what Knights do anyway.”

  The orc put a hand over her face and closed her eyes. She pointed her scimitar at Daniel’s chest and a thin strand of green energy left its tip. It bathed him in a cooling sensation, like his body had been dipped in a vat of mint ice cream. Just as quickly, it was gone. The warmth of the desert felt worse by comparison, now that his body remembered what it was like to be cool.

  “All done,” she said. “My name is Lyla.”

  “I know,” Daniel said, then hastened to add, “I’m Daniel. This is Sybil, and Sal.”

  “I’ll ignore the fact that you Surveilled me,” she said. “Do you see the small holes in the ground here?”

  Daniel stooped over the ground and saw them, each less than an inch wide and perfectly round. “What are they?”

  “Wormholes, I think,” she said. “We haven’t had likeworms in this part of the world for ages. I’ve been searching these holes for hours, but I still haven’t found any.”

  “I assume these aren’t your average earthworms?” Sybil asked.

  “The likeworms themselves are small, but their skin is very flexible. They can stretch a great distance. If one latches on, it can envelop your entire body. It suffocates its prey, and then it uses its body to animate itself. It essentially becomes a second skin and a puppet master at the same time as it digests the corpse inside.”

  “That’s terrifying,” Sal said.

  “Which is why,” Lyla said, “we need to find out if they’re back. I need you to stick your finger in that hole and lure out a worm, if there is one.”

  “Absolutely not!” Daniel said.

  “I healed you,” Lyla said. “You have all of your health back, and three people here watching. If you find a worm, you’ll be fine. We’ll make sure of it.”

  She said that as if she knew how to dislodge a likeworm, but she couldn’t have any experience with this. According to her they had been missing from the desert for ages. It was equally as likely that these holes came from geological forces at work, right? Maybe the tectonic plates were shifting and the sand was settling.

  Daniel crouched over the ground and probed one of the indentations with his finger.

  “More,” Lyla said. Daniel wondered what would happen if he just refused and walked away. Reneging on his offer to help her, however, seemed like a surefire way to dishonor himself.

  Let’s get this over with, he thought. He jammed his pointer finger into the ground as far as it would go. He was surprised he didn’t meet resistance. The hole must have gone deeper than he anticipated.

  “If the worms have been gone for ages, how do you know they ever existed?” Daniel asked, with his finger still buried in the ground.

  “The orcs have passed the stories down generation after generation,” Lyla said. “From back when we were held in the same regard as the other civilizations. When we had our own kingdom, our own language, our own god. The likeworms made the pilgrimage into the desert a very dangerous journey. If the legends are true, their return signals a deadly shift in the desert.”

  Daniel felt something graze against his finger. Dirt? Sand?

  “So what happened?” Sybil asked.

  “Orcs were skilled in magic, among other things. We worshipped Sagma, and in return, he offered us experience, spells, skills. When he vanished, the desert died. So did the flow of knowledge. Our magic withered, our skills got rusty. The other civilizations stopped believing we had anything worth trading. We stopped believing it too.”

  Something was definitely nuzzling against Daniel’s finger now. He curled his toes inside his iron sabatons, bracing for something to eat his finger, but still nothing.

  “Our people fractured,” Lyla continued. “We roamed the desert at first, looking for a new god, or a new home with some signs of life. Then the fighting started. No one could agree where to settle or what rules should govern our people. We split up into clans and settled the Dour Scrub just north of here, but by then we were separated. None of us believe we will ever come together again. Abandoned by god, separated by ire, and bereft of ability. This is how orcs live now.”

  “Aaargh!” Daniel yelled and clenched his teeth together. It felt like someone had p
robed a handful of needles into his fingertip. He yanked his hand out of the ground.

  “Likeworm,” Lyla said with a look of despair on her face.

  “Get it off me!” Daniel yelled. The worm had bitten his finger, but its body was alive with rapid peristaltic motions, swallowing his whole hand. Soon it would be up to his wrist.

  Sybil and Sal stepped back. They likely had no idea how to help in this situation. They should have discussed the plan for removing the likeworm in the event it showed up.

  Daniel shook his hand vigorously, but the worm would not shake loose.

  Lyla placed a finger on Daniel’s arm. “Be calm,” she said.