Eloria's Beginning: A LitRPG/GameLit Epic (Enter The louVRe Book 1)
Page 42
“Not the filthy Tau’raj, nor the witch pretending to be Spiritfather.”
He stood, the branch on which he sat pulling back slightly to allow him to walk away. He took two careful steps to the right, bringing him closer to Celdia.
“This is a very troubling report. If you had not passed the trials, I would be inclined to disagree with you, and throw you from His Graces.”
She bowed, trying to hide her anxiety. “Of course, Skyweaver. I understand. I would not lie about this.”
He pursed his lips and spun on his heel, pacing back and forth at the end of the table.
“I find it interesting that you bring this to me directly, rather than to the council.”
How should she respond to that? Was it even a question?
All she had been put through, all he had done for her … done to her … didn’t make the decision easy, but she had her goals, and he had helped her attain them. Now wasn’t the time to turn her back on him. She was in too deep. Quitting now was not an option.
Better to avoid the question.
“Skyweaver, this Tau’raj is not stupid, he was reported to be the one to wipe out the Nagos invasion singlehandedly. But he seems to be under the spell of the one calling herself Spirit. The witch has her claws in him, but she told him to trust me, to work with me, so I am confident that I will be able to get the truth out of him.
“If I play along with her little games, I will be able to find out what she has done with Spiritfather. I might be the only one who could learn what has happened to Him.”
He mulled over this for a moment.
“You have proven yourself worthy so far, I will allow this.”
He grabbed her upper arm, wrenching her closer to his eyes, those terrifying eyes. His fingernails cut into her flesh, welling blood around the wound. It didn’t hurt. Nothing he did to her hurt anymore.
His hot breath tickled as he lingered at the nape of her neck, then he whispered into her ear. “Do not fail me. Not again.”
Celdia Moonrunner shivered. Her God was gone. The Dendrants were on their own, and she would have to do whatever it took to kill the witch who called herself Spirit, and the Tau’raj named Matuk Scarhoof.
Anonymous Eagle: I knew this was going to be a problem.
Anonymous Tapir: We don’t know that it’s a problem yet. Patience.
Anonymous Eagle: Not a problem? You heard him the same as me. You know what that will entail.
Anonymous Tapir: Relax. While this might not be our initial plan, the data we are getting on it more than makes up for it.
Anonymous Eagle: How am I supposed to relax when he's still loose? Do we have a containment plan in place?
Anonymous Tapir: Containment? Yes, but we’re also using this opportunity to collect data.
Anonymous Eagle: Oh, Jesus, are you talking about protocol X?
Anonymous Tapir: Don’t worry. Everything is monitored and he’s contained inside the datacenter. The firewalls won’t let him out.
Anonymous Eagle: And if they don’t keep him in?
Anonymous Tapir: I have a team assigned. It is outside certain purviews for obvious reasons.
Anonymous Eagle: And when were you planning on telling me?
Anonymous Tapir: Telling you? I haven’t. You know nothing and trust me, it’s better that way.
Anonymous Eagle: If you were in it as deep as I am, you wouldn't be so smug. These are people’s lives we’re talking about here. We shouldn’t be so cavalier.
Anonymous Tapir: People’s lives? I find that interesting coming from you. Trust me, the future is here. Once we get the data, there will be people lining up around the block to participate.
Anonymous Eagle: That’s what scares me the most.
Anonymous Tapir: What? That it’s the way of the future?
Anonymous Eagle: No, that people will be lining up.
Anonymous Tapir: Again, interesting coming from you.
Anonymous Eagle: Just get a lid on it. Double up your team, triple if you have to. I don’t want to hear about Project X anymore. Just promise me that containment is the first priority here.
Anonymous Tapir: Of course. Containment first, research second.
Anonymous Eagle: Good. Now we just have to figure out how to keep the 37 alive till this it solved.
Anonymous Tapir: Oh, you didn't hear?
Anonymous Eagle: Hear what?
Anonymous Tapir: It’s thirty-six now. One of them was just killed in-game, one of ours, on the 9th floor.
Anonymous Eagle: Jesus. And they had no idea it was just a game?
Anonymous Tapir: None.
Anonymous Eagle: Quadruple your team. We can’t have any more mistakes.
Chatroom has closed.
THE END
Afterword
Hold onto your butts!
I read Jurassic Park shortly before the movie came out and, as a teenager, I watched the movie multiple times. I was fascinated by the world Michael Crichton had invented, and the immersion we got on the big screen set my teenage imagination on fire.
I’ve always been fascinated by epic stories. Jurassic Park was the first movie that really swept me away, and it came at a good time in my life. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was 16, and despite a 20 year detour as an IT professional to provide for my family, I keep coming back to my first passion—writing.
LitRPG/GameLit has been a thing since 2013, when authors in Russia first penned the term. I learned about it in mid 2016, and fell head over heels in love with the genre. I already had a YouTube Let’s Play channel, and I loved writing, so it was the perfect marriage of gaming and writing.
I started writing my first LitRPG in August of 2016, got about 25% of the story written, and realized I was telling the wrong story. So I re-invented The louVRe, Eloria, and turned it from a technothriller into an Epic Fantasy. I spent nine months working up the gaming mechanics, world, and characters. I then wrote, revised, polished, and finally published.
As epic as Jurassic Park was for me, I hope Eloria’s Beginning was for you. I am grateful for you sticking with me thus-far. It means a lot when readers tell me how much they loved my stories, or a specific character.
Seriously, I spent a lot of time on this book and I’m quite proud of it. If you loved it, please share it with someone. The best way for people to be introduced to my book is through someone they trust, and they are more likely to become a fan of mine.
And, because I’m nothing if not long-winded: Here are four things I hope you do after you have shared this book with someone:
1. If you loved it, please Leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. As an indie-author, it helps more than you know. Reviews mean more people discovering it, reading it, and the more people that read it, the more time I can spend writing more books in the series. I have to complete with the Big Dogs on Amazon, and reviews help me stand out.
2. Pre-order the companion novella to this book! Eloria’s Beginning is the first book in a new series called Enter The louVRe, but I have a companion series that I’m writing along with the main series. The series is called Becoming Death, and the first novella, Mightier Still, is already available on Amazon for pre-order!
The story follows a certain character you have already met, and I have some fun with memes, the AI, and game mechanics.
3. Sign up for my LitRPG/GameLit Newsletter, so I can send you a Free short story! The story is called The Curious Case of Brendalynn Bobbins. Does that name sound familiar? It should if you read Eloria’s Beginning! It’s a bit spoilery, so I recommend reading Eloria’s Beginning first, but as soon as you do, you can get it for free by signing up for my newsletter!
4. Finally, let me know what you thought of Eloria’s Beginning! Send me an email or find me on Facebook! All my contact information can be found on the last page of the ebook, under About the Author.
Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next time!
-Tom Hansen
February 2018
&nb
sp; Acknowledgments
It always surprises me how much work goes into a book, and not all of it is done by me either! This book was the culmination of nine months of work and I have many people to thank.
Thank You:
To my sweet wife, Jennifer: Yours is the only review I care about.
To my writing groups: Scrawl Club, Super Writers, Indiepub. Your constant support, reviews and honest critiques of my stories keeps me on track, and continually encourages me to do better with each pass.
To my beta readers: from the ones that sat at their jobs reading my book all day to the ones who cursed my name in the middle of the night, thank you. Your valuable insight helped me create a better book.
To my copy editor: Lucas. You kickass!
To my cover artist: Sean. Every time I look at the picture, I get a smile on my face. Thank you for your patience with all my changes.
To my cover designer: Cover by Christian. Amazing work with the cover!
To everyone else: Various friends, family members, authors, and the writing communities that I trolled over the last six years have given me the knowledge, confidence, and gumption to plow forward into the scary world of indie publishing.
To my readers: You took a chance on an unknown author writing in a fairly new genre. I hope I did not let you down.
-Tom Hansen
February 2018
About the Author
Tom Hansen lives in Arizona with his lovely wife, four teenage children, and two cats. Systems Engineer by day, and writer by night, he also finds time to run a Let’s Play gaming channel on YouTube.
A Moonlit Task was his first published novel and he recently released Eloria’s Beginning, his first foray into LitRPG. He has many more stories left in his aging noggin so follow him to know when they release!
If you wish to read more of his books, check out the Also by Tom Hansen on the next page.
To follow Tom, check out one of these locations:
www.scarhoof.com
scarhoofwrites@gmail.com
Also by Tom Hansen
LitRPG/GameLit:
Enter The louVRe Series:
Eloria's Beginning
Becoming Death Series:
Mightier Still
Urban Fantasy
End Gate Series:
A Moonlit Task
The Korrigan Chronicles:
The Sacking of Gildebrand Manor
That Dammed Berehynia
Moloch’s Twisted Menagerie
Freya’s Wild Hunt
The Roswell Incident
Short Fiction/Anthologies:
Into the Void: A Steampunk Short Story
Glimpses: an Anthology of 16 Short Fantasy Stories
Futurism & Fantasia: Volume 1: First Chapters
Press Start to Play: An Anthology of LitRPG Shorts (Coming Spring 2018!)
Newsletter Exclusives:
Splashes of Wine (Urban Fantasy)
The Curious Case of Brendalynn Bobbins (LitRPG)
RPG GameLit Society
To learn more about GameLit and hang out with awesome fans (me included), check out the RPG GameLit Society on Facebook!
LitRPG Group
To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group.