Lion's Quest: Dual Wield: A LitRPG Saga

by Michael-Scott Earle

  Zarra was right when she’d said I’d barely scratched a scratch in this game.

  The next slope of the hillside was at less of an angle than the first part of the walk, and the avenue was lined with the first array of mansions. Each of them was roughly four times the size of Artus’ large home, and they had their own small gates and guards patrolling the front.

  I walked up the street, then the next, and looked for the cream-colored mansion with the strange spiral metal roof. After a half an hour of walking the streets, I finally made it to the top of the cliff area and found a side street that I figured would lead me to Yinnia’s home. I’d been correct, and I found it nestled there with three other large mansions.

  Baron Yinnia’s house had looked large and impressive from down in the main valley in the city, but it was even more impressive from the front. It was a good five stories tall, as wide as four football fields, and just as deep. The gate was more ornamental than protective, only four feet tall and covered with ivy. From my position on the street, I could tell that the place had a front garden area along with two side orchards.

  The house had a Tuscan design with the light cream colored stucco on the sides of the walls, dark wooden support beams, and metal accents on the veranda railings. It wasn’t quite the largest house on this cliff side, but from what I had seen, it was in the top third.

  At the front of the gate was a covered wood awning where a pair of guards leaned on polearms, and they watched me walk toward the house with mild interest.

  “Greetings,” I said with a smile. “Is this the home of the Yinnia family?”

  “Yes. What is your business here?” Both guards looked to be in excellent physical condition, and their chain armor was well polished.

  “I’ve recently returned from exploring one of the paths in the Iron Crypt. I have retrieved a crown that is named after an ancient Queen, Dorni. The crown gives the user only half fatigue from using Shadow abilities and it also cuts any negative durations in half. I also have acquired a staff titled The Darkest Death. It could be one of the most powerful weapons in the city at the moment. It grants the user three new shadow abilities and creates undead skeletons from the corpses of enemies that are killed. Rumor in the city is that Baron Yinnia wants to see items like these, so I’m here to see if he will meet with me.” I’d practiced the speech in my head a few dozen times on my walk here, and I was happy when I got it all out with confidence.

  The two guards looked at me, at the wrapped staff I held, back at my face, and then down at my sword.

  “Please wait here… sir?”

  “Leo Lennox,” I said with a smile.

  “Sir Lennox. Yes.” The guard nodded he looked to be the older of the pair, and his brown eyes glanced up at the wrapped staff again with some trepidation. “I’ll go check and see if the baron can receive you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Wait here.” The guard leaned his polearm against the wall, turned, and walked through the doorway of the short gate.

  I nodded to the other guard, and we stood in silence for a few moments.

  “Nice day,” I said.

  “Sure,” he grunted.

  “Is the baron a good employer?”

  “He’s the only one I’ve known. Tried my hand at adventuring, but then decided to get a stable job guarding. That was my uncle, he got me the job. Been here for ten years. Hours are long, but the pay is decent, and the training is excellent.”

  “That’s good. I heard that the baron has a lot of rare magical items and artwork.”

  “Yep. He’s got three large showrooms.”

  “Great. I’m hoping he’ll want what I bring him,” I said.

  “I dunno about such things, but you’ll have to let his Mind sage look at them.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be impressed.”

  “It’s a she. Lady Feeyaz Tyth, and she isn’t impressed with anything. She’s also not one to cross, so my advice is to not argue with her if she doesn’t want your items. Just smile, thank her for her time, and leave.”

  “I understand,” I said with a smile. I guessed that the woman would be interested in what I was bringing her.

  “Ha. I hope you do friend. We guards have a ‘don’t anger Lady Feeyaz’ rule in the house.” The man let out a short laugh, and then he nodded back over his shoulder. The older guard had stepped out of the front door of the mansion and was striding through the front garden toward us.

  “They will see you. I’m to bring you into the waiting room. Follow me,” he commanded.

  “Sounds good.”

  We walked across the garden, and then he held the door to the mansion open for me. The inside foyer was very impressive, with a long double stairway on each side that spun up the entire height of the five floors. The tiles were a dark gray slate with darker black and crimson streaks. Rich brown wood beams supported all the corners of the walls and braced the ceiling, and the banisters were made of a decorative iron. The whole mansion just screamed tasteful money, and I hoped that I’d be able to afford a house this nice in the game some day.

  The idea made me smile. Astafar Unlimited had a home mechanic in the game, and you could get your own place in each of the cities. The homes were instanced, though, and while you could let your party members visit the inside, there wasn’t a limited property set up. There was no “Mansion on top of the hill” that would make the other players jealous. I had a bunch of cool virtual possessions and artwork in my home there, but it was the same standard “Castle” layout that anyone else could buy with enough in-game gold.

  I predicted that Ohlvar Quest would have its own interesting real estate market, with adventurers competing against lords, kings, merchants, and other players for choice home locations, much as it was in real life. The idea was really cool, and I was excited to see what other players would do once the game went live.

  “This way,” the guard gestured to me to follow him past the staircases.

  The space beyond the foyer looked like an art gallery, and there were dozens of sculptures and paintings in the room. The far wall was made of mostly glass, and the back of the mansion showcased a small field of perfectly manicured grass. There was also a swimming pool and a wood balcony area that sat on the edge of the cliff side. I could see the south half of the city and bay past the railing of the balcony, and I imagined that I’d have an even better view standing on the platform.

  “In here,” the guard said as he pointed to a small alcove. Inside was a black leather couch, a wood coffee table, and some hanging emberbrands.

  “Thanks,” I said. Almost as soon as I sat, I heard footsteps outside of the alcove, and a black haired elven woman poked her head inside of the waiting area.

  “Greetings, sir. Would you like some refreshment? We have water, wine, juice, beer, cider, or mead.”

  “Water would be fine.”

  “Cheese or fruit?” she asked with a flutter of her eyelashes.

  “I don’t want to impose. Water is fine.”

  “Very well, Baron Yinnia will be with you shortly.” The woman disappeared almost before she finished speaking, and she returned with a pitcher of water and glass half a minute later.

  The woman stepped fully into the room to pour my water, and I saw that she was wearing a conservative servant’s outfit. Black, billowy pants, white dress shirt, and a black tuxedo style coat completed the look. The elf woman gave me a shy smiled while she poured, and then she handed me the water. She was very pretty, but I thought Allurie was significantly more beautiful, and then I almost got mad at myself for thinking about my friend in that way.

  “Thanks,” I said after I took it.

  “If you need anything else, let the guard know. Have a nice day.” She made a small bow, and then was gone from the room before I could thank her again.

  Then I was alone, except for the guard that stood outside of the waiting room.

  I waited.

  And waited.

  And then waited some more.


  I opened my UI a few times to check on the clock that was on the status tab. Two hours had passed, and I was beginning to think that the baron was fucking with me. Then again, I had shown up to the man’s house without an appointment, so I shouldn’t have been that upset with the delay. The man probably had a lot of shit going on, and while Astafar Unlimited had set up NPCs to work around the in-game players, Zarra was trying to create an ultra real VR experience here. The players were going to be part of the NPC’s world.

  Almost as soon as I finished my thoughts, I heard footsteps approaching. I cleared my throat quietly, took a deep breath, and prepared myself to pitch the baron.

  Who ended up being a gnome.

  “Sir Lennox?” the small and incredibly well-dressed man asked as he turned into the alcove.

  “Yes. Are you Baron Yinnia?” I asked as I stood.

  “Yes. Pleasure to meet you.” The man didn’t make any sort of movement to greet me besides a small nod, and I made a deeper bow. His clothes were a dark shade of green, trimmed with gold, and perfectly tailored to his body. His hair was long, black, and tied back in a lengthy braid. He had a long mustache that threaded into glittering emerald jewelry at each end of his cheeks, and his long goatee also had a matching bead braided into it. The man looked kind of like a leprechaun, but his eyes had the hardness to them that I recognized from most of the businessmen that I socialized with.

  “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice,” I said. Quest Completed. You have been awarded 1 attribute point appeared on my UI, and I made sure that my eyes focused on the short man instead of the letters.

  “I generally don’t meet directly with adventures. My… people do that for me, but my man out front gave me a brief description of your items, and I was intrigued.” His accent sounded like northern UK English, like either Brummie or Geordie, but it also had a bit of the strange New Zealand type feel that Artus’ did.

  “I think you’ll be more than intrigued. Would you like to see the pieces now?” I asked.

  “Ahhhyye, but let us go to another room. My Mind sage looks at all of these pieces, and her meeting area is below.” The short man gestured for me to follow him, and I walked out of the alcove.

  The guard from outside followed us, but then two more human guards joined him. These men weren’t wearing armor and didn’t carry any visible weapons, but their stroll was catlike, and I guessed that they were capable warriors.

  Perhaps I shouldn’t have come here alone.

  “Down here,” the gnome said when he came to the end of the gallery. There was a wide set of stairs on the inside wall of the room, opposite the long window showcasing the cliff view, and the man began to walk down the steps.

  I thought about my options if things went sideways. I still had my swords, and I had my abilities. I didn’t feel that I was in a ton of danger from just three men, but I wasn’t the only one with magical talents in this world, and any of these guards could have superior powers. It was tough to know for sure. I considered declining to head down the stairs, but I guessed that would probably have ended our conversation immediately, and I wouldn’t be able to get the relic.

  I followed him down the spiraling stairs for a good twenty feet, and felt the tension in my shoulders grow. There had been emberbrands on each side of the wall every few feet at the top of the stairs, but they had become less frequent now, and my eyes were struggling to adjust to the darkness.

  The bottom of the stairs opened into a large room with a tall ceiling. There was a hanging chandelier lit with tiny glowing amber stones, paintings of gorgeous landscapes lit by more of the stones, and metal sculptures that looked like a cross between buildings and spider webs.

  “Lady Feeyaz, I have brought the adventurer, Sir Lennox, to you.”

  “Ahhh, thank you Baron Yinnia.” The voice came from the darkness at the far corner of the grand room, and I saw that there was a canopied bed there. The men standing around me shifted their stance a bit, and I guessed that they were nervous to be down here.

  “He is handsome,” the woman said, but I still couldn’t see her in the darkness. Her voice was almost as sexy as Zarra’s though, and I squinted my eyes in a futile effort to pierce the darkness of the canopy bed.

  The woman strolled into the light, and I felt the air leave my chest with surprise.

  She was a drow.

  I knew all about the typical fantasy lore. Drow were the “dark elves” who lived deep in the underdark, worshiped spiders, and were all sorts of evil. Plenty of games had spun the lore around, but the major themes were almost always represented. Then again, Ohlavar Quest had really changed around how normal “Surface” elves were in this game, so maybe the dark elves weren’t actually evil.

  I was pretty sure I was going to find out in a few minutes.

  The woman moved like a panther, each step was a silky advance toward me, as if she were stalking prey. Her skin was a dark black color and seemed to have a touch of red to it, though that could have been the light from the small stones that decorated her room. Her hair was white and flowed over her shoulders in an array of loose curls and tight braids. Half a dozen red velvet bows tied off each of her braids, and the locks of her mane looked incredibly thick and healthy.

  She wore a dark crimson cloak, and beneath the thin silk fabric was an outfit that hugged her athletic body as tightly as a second skin. I could see every shapely muscle of her thigh, the bones of her hip, the flatness of her stomach, and the swell of her breasts. Her nipples pushed hypnotically against the thin material of her outfit, and I could see the dent between her legs where her entrance lay. The woman might as well have been naked, and I forced my eyes up to her face as she approached.

  “For a human,” she signed, and then held the back of her hand out to me bent with her palm facing the floor. I stared at the hand for half a second with confusion, and then stared into her eyes. They were the typical almond shape and just as large as Allurie’s. This woman’s irises were a strange light green color. It was like a mint green, only a few shades brighter and with maybe a touch of blue.

  “Well. Kiss it, human, and then bow before your better.” The woman’s voice made a shiver of pleasure roll down my spine. She was wearing extremely high heeled black shoes, and it accented the shape of her long muscular thighs.

  Before I even questioned what I was doing, I was holding the woman’s hand in mine and pressing my lips against her skin on the back of her hand. It felt like I was kissing warm satin, and the sensation was almost euphoric.

  “And bow…” she prompted, and I lowered my head before her. It had seemed like a good idea, but I wondered if I was being controlled by some sort of magic. Or if it was just because she was stupid beautiful. Damn, I thought I was immune to good looking women, but this drow had this sultry dark passion wrapped around her that was making my mouth water. I didn’t really think I liked bad girls, but I’d been attracted to Zarra, and this woman was making my head spin.

  I looked up from my bow, and our eyes met again. The woman blinked at me slowly, and then licked the back of her dark hand where I had kissed her with a slow dragging movement of her light pink tongue. It was just a single lick, but she ran her tongue over her red lips once she finished and then made a soft purring sound of satisfaction.

  “You three can leave,” she said as she raised her finger to the guards.

  “But—” the gnome began to say, but the drow shook her head at him.

  “This man intends us no harm. Also, he intrigues me.” She fixed her bright mint colored eyes on the three guards, and they bowed before retreating to the stairs.

  “Soooooo. Your name is?” Her voice trailed off as she asked her question.

  “Leo Lennox.”

  “Ahhh. So, Leo Lennox, what have you brought for the baron and me to drool over. He said I would be impressed.”

  “I have the Crown of Queen Dorni and The Darkest Death,” I said as I pointed at the wrapped staff.

  “I have heard of Queen Dorni.
Where did you find her crown?”

  “I recently completed exploration of a branch of The Iron Crypt, I found them there.”

  “Alone?” she raised a white eyebrow.

  “No. I had a party of adventurers.”

  “Who?”

  “Bylem, Wicum, and Mirea. Do you know them?” Something in the woman’s tone made the hair on the back of neck stand on end, and I realized as the words left my mouth that I might be putting my friends in danger. So I didn’t mention Cornalic.

  “No, but Baron Yinnia’s people know all the adventures, and we didn’t hear news of the Iron Crypt being completed.”

  “We just finished it yesterday morning. That is why I am here. To give you first pick,” I said with my trademarked Leo “the Lion” smirk. I was starting to recover from meeting the woman, and I felt my body begin to relax.

  “And you came out with the crown as well as a staff? I wonder what your companions found.” She glanced at the gnome and made a small nod.

  “A few other items, but I am here to talk to you about these two. What would you like to examine first? I heard you are a Mind sage. Does that mean you can identify items?”

  “Yessssss,” she kind of half growled, and half purred. Then she gestured to a table on the side of the room. “Set the staff down there. I will look at it.”

  The three of us moved to the table, and I tried to keep my eyes off of the drow woman’s ass as she moved. I pretty much failed, and felt my mouth begin to water as I watched her hips sway a few inches under where her red cape ended.

  My arousal was somewhat disturbing, and I tried to grapple with it while I occupied myself with unwrapping my staff. Part of me felt that I was beginning to form a relationship with Zarra, but then I realized that we hadn’t really committed anything to each other, or really even began the courting process. I’d slept through our last attempt at having dinner, and both of us were more concerned with me finishing the game. So I shouldn’t have felt as if I was being unfaithful to Zarra by checking out Feeyaz’s incredibly sexy and practically naked ass, but then again, this was just a video game, and I didn’t think it was healthy to have relationships with something virtual. This was my job, and while I was having a lot of fun playing, I didn’t need to have that much fun.