Darkness Fallen
Page 44
Alexander and Jules mingled with the celebrants for a while. Pollock introduced them to several players from Antalia that he thought would make good recruits. Martin and his people had set up several tables to one side of the courtyard and were healing citizens with cuts and scrapes, mainly from over-celebrating.
Brick, apparently oblivious to the dual attentions of Kimberly and Thea, was leading another century-old song that he’d just taught a large group of inebriated dwarves and human soldiers. Alexander heard part of the lyrics “NO time fer losers, ‘cause WE… are the champions!... o’ the world!”. He shook his head. Some songs were destined to live forever. At least this one was appropriate.
Fibble was once again atop Lugs’ shoulders. He had a drink in one hand, and his stick in the other. He seemed to have trained Lugs to respond to directional commands. Tapping the left shoulder for a left turn, the back of the ogre’s head to move forward or stop. Both were drunk, and the combination was quite entertaining to the crowd.
After a few hours, Jules made it clear she was ready to head home. Alexander put out a call out in guild chat. “Opening the portal in 5 min for anyone who wants to head home for the night.”
Kai and Fitz had already promised to shuttle the soldiers home to Broken Mountain and Stormforge in the morning. Any of the Greystone people who didn’t return to the keep could sleep safely in the protected guild house until tomorrow.
He opened the portal and smiled as most of his people stumbled through. Sasha, Max, Lainey, Pollock’s group, Dayle’s group, Helga and Beatrix. Lugs and Fibble staggered through as well, much to the disappointment of their fans. There had been a betting pool going on when Lugs would eventually fall, and whether he’d squish the goblin.
Unsurprisingly, the dwarves had all elected to stay and continue the party.
Back in the keep, Jules dragged Alexander to the kitchen for a late-night snack raid. Then they made their way upstairs and collapsed into bed.
Epilogue
Morning found Alexander once again waking up entangled with the snoring pink bunnymonster. He was now convinced that she somehow equipped her jammies in her sleep. Kissing her and giving her a boop on the nose, he waited for her eyes to open. She made a few grumbling noises to indicate she was awake, so he said, “You have two choices. Get up and change, and we’ll go get pancakes. Or… I will tickle you into submission, then teleport you down for breakfast in your jammies.” He gently poked at her a side a bit to make his point.
“Grrmmph!” She made a half-hearted shooing motion with one hand. Alexander grinned evilly. “SO…it’s option two, then? I was hoping you’d say that!”
He pounced upon the bunnymonster, tickling mercilessly and straddling her legs as she struggled to escape. “Nooooo! Stop! Too early for tickles! Pancakes!” The words came out between gasps.
He let her escape, and she made a dash for the bathroom. He waited patiently as she showered, taking a look at his stat sheet to fill the time.
Mage: Alexander Level 60
Build: Ranged magic/Melee dps
Health: 21,000Experience 112,000/400,000Attribute pts avail: 15
Mana: 24,000Skill pts avail: 5
Stamina: 14(27) Dexterity: 6 Armor: 240 Heath Regen: 130
Strength: 12(28) Wisdom: 70(99) Defense: 150Mana Regen: 220
Agility: 12(22) Intel: 70(99) Phys Attack: 65Magic Attack: 180
Luck: 14(22) Charisma: 12 Stam Regen: 28Race: Elf
He decided to assign another point to Stamina, to raise his health bar a bit. Then he put a point each into Strength and Agility. As someone responsible for a whole kingdom, he decided a little luck wouldn’t hurt, so he added two points there. That would do for now.
Jules emerged in her usual black leather, a smile on her face. “Pancake time!” she grabbed his hand and practically dragged him downstairs to the kitchen. He stood back as she piled two plates with stacks of pancakes. Rather than hand him one when she turned around, she scooted around him and headed for the door, saying, “Bring syrup.”
He shook his head as a couple of the cooks laughed at Jules’ antics. He quickly dished up a few pancakes for himself, along with some eggs and sausage, grabbing a jar of syrup on his way out the door.
Taking a seat next to Jules, he surrendered the syrup. She’d barely finished pouring the syrup with her left hand before she was cutting into the first stack and shoving sweet pancake goodness into her mouth with her right.
Silverbeard, who was sitting across the table from them, said, “Good morning, lad. I hear yer adventure went well yesterday!”
Alexander nodded, taking a moment to swallow his own mouthful of syrupy mana. “It did. We killed a bunch of drow, defeated the Chaos Nation guild, and took their house. Which reminds me. I’d like to sit with you after breakfast sometime to talk about a few things. For instance, I was given the option of designating the newly captured house as an embassy. I don’t know what that entails.”
Silverbeard nodded. “Aye, I can help ye there.”
Sasha sat down on Alexander’s other side, her plate just a pile of scrambled eggs. She looked as if she’d had a rough night. “Too many shots of dwarven spirits?” he asked.
“Ugh. Too many several things. There was this cute longbowman who kept handing me drinks…” she trailed off and shoved a forkful of eggs in her mouth.
Jules paused in her pancake inhalation to ask, “Just how long was his bow?” with a grin.
Sasha blushed. “I’m sure I don’t know. I didn’t even get his name, let alone touch his bow.” She defended her honor, as she stole a piece of bacon from Alexander’s plate. He sighed.
The women in my life. Just one day I’d like to eat my own breakfast and go a whole day without being called an idiot. Or Dorkboy.
“So… dorkboy,” Sasha began. Alexander rolled his eyes. “You busy? Cuz I was thinking you and me could work on a little project…”
“I’m meeting with Silverbeard to discuss kingdom business after breakfast. What did you have in mind?”
“It’s a surprise,” she said around a mouthful of eggs. “Come find me after you and Silverbeard are through.”
“Alright. You’ll be in your lab?”
Sasha thought about it for a moment. “No, let’s do it in your sitting room.” She finished off her eggs and got up. “We might need Fitz, too. I’m not sure,” she added before walking away.
Alexander looked at Jules, who just shrugged. She was just digging into her second stack of pancakes. Silverbeard looked curious, too.
****
Sasha wandered aimlessly around the keep. The sun was up, and the normal morning activity was underway. For most folks, anyway. A few were moving slowly and squinting at the light in their eyes. She was one of them.
Bacon greeted her with a happy sounding grunt as he exited the stables and made his way toward the dining area. He had developed a habit of mooching fruit and other goodies from gullible citizens as they ate. And he happily accepted all leftovers. Sasha patted the battleboar’s head as he trotted by. “Good luck, buddy.”
She laughed out loud when she spotted Lugs laying on his back atop the stable roof. Fibble and Rufus were curled up together on the ogre’s belly, rising and falling as Lugs snored loudly. Deciding to let the ogre and her goblin protector sleep it off, she went to find Fitz.
****
Alexander sat in Silverbeard’s office, the two of them having just finished breakfast. They’d left Jules in the kitchen where she was debating another helping of pancakes.
Silverbeard started off. “Ye want ta know about the embassy. It be pretty simple. Normally ye petition the ruler fer permission to establish a embassy. Then ye purchase a property, or are give’d one by the king or queen. Ye declare the embassy, and it be yours. Often there be agreements about what business ye can carry out on embassy grounds. Whether ye pay any taxes, ‘n’ such.”
Silverbeard paused a moment when Alexander asked, “Business?”
“Aye. Some nations j
ust use embassys as a place to conduct business not normally permitted in the realm. Slavery, black market trade, gambling, and the like. An embassy be technically sovereign territory o’ the nation what owns it, so the laws o’ that nation apply inside the walls.”
Alexander nodded his understanding as Silverbeard continued.
“In yer case, ye already captured property in Antalia. Twice.” The old dwarf grinned at him. “And ye’ve been declared a Friend o’ the Realm. Not ta mention the alliance the dragons ha’ proposed. The queen won’t be deny’n ye an embassy. But it’d still be proper ta ask nice. Ye did right by not acceptin’ last night.”
“Thank you, Master Silverbeard. I don’t suppose you or Lola would be available to call upon the queen and work out the details?”
“Aye, lad. It be my job as yer new Chancellor. And the reason yer payin’ me so much more gold, now.” He winked.
“Ha! Worth every copper! Thank you. I’ll open a portal for you later this morning. We’ve got some hungover dwarves to retrieve, anyway. I have one more question. As you pointed out, we have two properties there now. As it happens, they sit back to back. I was thinking about just removing the dividing wall and making it one large compound. By making it an embassy, as you said, it becomes the property of Elysia. But if for some reason I and my guild were to separate ourselves from this kingdom, we would lose control of the compound, right?”
“That be a good question, lad. I’ll need to consult me law books. I’ll have ye answer before we finalize terms with the queen.”
Alexander thanked Silverbeard again and took his leave. He headed upstairs to his sitting room, where he found Sasha trying to pour coffee down Fibble’s throat. The poor little fella looked pathetic. His eyes were bloodshot and redder than usual, and his ears drooped.
Alexander took pity on him, handing him one of the new enchanted health potions. “Here, buddy; try this.”
Their tiny Minister of Demon-killing and Cookies gladly slurped down the potion. “Yummy!” he grinned at Alexander, obviously feeling better.
Sasha looked at Alexander. “I couldn’t find Fitz. So we’ll have to try this on our own.”
“Fitz went to his tower in Stormforge to question the drow we captured. What is it we’re trying to do?”
Sasha got a look on her face that Alexander knew all too well. He called it her ‘mission face’. She got it every time she decided that the two of them were going on a mission. When they were kids, it was, ‘We’re making a tree fort’ or ‘We’re going to stay up and catch Santa’. As they got older, it was ‘We’re baking cupcakes to sell to raise money for orphan puppies’. It took three hours to clean the kitchen after that one.
“Well, after you logged back in the other day, I had an idea. I sat down with your dad, and we figured out a way to see Fibble’s stats, and to help him assign them…”
Alexander’s jaw dropped as she grinned at him. “So Fibble can level up and choose his build just like we can?”
“Yes. And no. He doesn’t have the background to understand a lot of it. We’re going to have to explain some things and ask him what he would like to be. Then help him from there. And not just him. Pops says we’ll be able to assign points for our other pets and companions soon. With some input from them.”
Alexander’s mind was racing through all the possibilities for Fibble. Should we give him a strength build? Or an intel/wisdom caster build? What were his automatic points for each level? How many free points did he have to assign? What would be most useful for-
“Wait a minute! I smell a rat. You are perfectly capable of doing this on your own. You’re better at skill trees and attribute-based builds than I am. What do you need me for?”
She gave him her sweetest, most innocent smile. “This is the part I was hoping Fitz could help with. But since he’s not here… You’re going to teach Fibble to read!”
End Book Three
Acknowledgements
As always, I must thank my family for their encouragement, patience, and untiring service as alpha readers. Several friends, readers, and family members found their way into this book as characters. My apologies to you all. You know who you are. Except Bobby and Jake, who deserved what they got. And thank you to my friends and guildies who gave me ideas and feedback to help me improve the final product.
Thank you to Paul Martin at Dominion for your editing and feedback. And much appreciation to Richard Sashigane for the amazing cover art and formatting.
Please check out my Greystone Guild page for information on upcoming books https://www.facebook.com/greystone.guild.7
You can also get great information and reviews from Ramon Mejia’s LITRPG Podcast at https://www.facebook.com/litrpgpodcast/
I’d also like to recommend you check out some of my favorite authors within the genre.
Daniel Schinhofen https://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Schinhofen/e/B01LXQWPZA
Michael Chatfield https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Chatfield/e/B00WCAOQME
Ramon Mejia https://www.amazon.com/R.A.-Mejia/e/B01MRTVW3O
Dawn Chapman https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Chapman/e/B014A0RUBC
Eden Redd https://www.amazon.com/Eden-Redd/e/B00I8X8BCK
Aleron Kong https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0176S6G6A
If you enjoyed this book, or even if you didn’t, but you DO enjoy the LitRPG and GameLit genre, then I recommend you check out the following Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RPGGamelitSociety/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GameLitSociety/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGBooks/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GameLit/
Also, the first of the LitRPG groups that I joined (and was promptly kicked out of for misbehaving) after reading the first of the Chaos Seed series, “The Land” which was my first experience with LitRPG. I followed a link in the back of the book and found some of the strangest, and coolest, folks.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/