Eden's Gate_The Sands_A LitRPG Adventure

by Edward Brody

  “Come quietly, slave,” he barked.

  “Ha! Why don’t you come quietly?!” I yelled cockily. Even while I was saying what I said, I wasn’t sure why I said it. It just came out, and it immediately made me laugh. I started chuckling and dropped to my knees laughing and grabbing my stomach. I was still there and aware of what I was doing and saying, but I wasn’t totally in my right mind.

  The slaver snarled, raised his staff again, and hammered it into the ground. A light wind started circling all around us, and as it started picking up and moving faster and faster, grains of sand from the ground below grabbed at the wind, and in no time at all, it felt like we were standing in the center of a mild tornado or heavy dust storm.

  I reached my hand out and touched the sand as it flew around me. I was still amused at something, but my laughter stopped. I was still there enough to know that there was danger. I raised my hand and cast Divine Sight on myself. It didn’t do much, but I wanted to make sure that whatever spells he cast didn’t limited my visibility.

  Again, the slaver lifted his staff and right when I thought he was going to slam it into the sand again, he tilted it sideways and dropped down into a crouch, pressing both of his hands flat on the ground. There was a loud boom that emanated from where he pressed his hands, but other than kicking up a bit of sand, there was no explosion.

  But within seconds, grains of sand started slowing rising from the ground a few meters in front of me, and as the sand circling us passed, it honed in on the rising earth, all binding together to form a loose humanoid-like creature. It was tall as me with thick limbs and a dark vacancy for mouth and eyes. Sand poured off its body as it moved but was just as quickly replaced with new sand that was constantly binding to it.

  Name: Sand Element

  Race: elemental

  Level: 20

  Health/Mana/Stamina: 220/0/200

  Status: aggressive

  The elemental’s head twitched, and it let out a single moan as it took its first step towards me.

  Without much thought, I immediately lifted my palm and cast a Fire Curtain in its path, thinking it would slow the beast down, but it marched right through the flames as if they weren’t there.

  I began to step into a backwards walk, feeling the sting of each grain of sand that was still swirling around us as it struck the side of my face.

  I cast a Fireblast at the beast that landed on its shoulder and caused it to twitch back a little but didn’t affect it otherwise and then followed up with an Arcane Missile. Each spell seemed to burn a bit brighter as they left my hands and had a slightly more intense feel, which I accounted to the increase in my stats from kroka.

  The blast from the Arcane Missile was more effective, causing the sand elemental to jerk back, groan, and touch its wound as it continued to move forward. But as soon as it moved its hand back away from the area of impact, it appeared to be healed.

  Despite my ineffectiveness, I felt overly confident in my ability to win, and when I glanced at my stats, I noticed that despite casting three spells, my mana was almost completely replenished already. I guess that’s what an incredibly massive wisdom boost will do for you.

  I stopped stepping backwards, and instead ran forward towards the sand elemental, dodging a slow right-hand hook that it threw at me as soon as it was in range. When I raised up from ducking its blow, I swiped my dagger ahead and sliced it right through the side of its abdomen, causing sand to fly everywhere.

  It swung at me again, and I jumped back, landing on my ass, and barely missing the blow.

  The elemental hammered down, and I was forced to scoot backwards in the sand to avoid getting hit, and then again it stepped forward and swung, leaving me no option but to roll sideways as its heavy hand slammed into the ground, spraying a small wave of sand in every direction.

  You have gained 1 point of Dexterity!

  I shot an Arcane Missile at it while I was still on my back, and it twitched at the impact. Then again, I shot a missile and then a third time, each blow causing it to jerk and twitch, slowing it down more than anything.

  I was definitely doing damage to the elemental, based on the groaning noise that emitted from its hole of a mouth each time it was hit, but it didn’t appear to be going down anytime soon. Every attack knocked sand off its body, but a few seconds after being struck, the sand was replenished.

  I continued shooting Arcane Missiles at it as I scrambled to my feet, but I couldn’t exactly shoot them in rapid succession. I wasn’t sure the exact cooldown time of the spell, but no matter how fast I thought to focus a shoot a missile, I could only manage to fire them off about a second or two apart.

  With my one palm straight out, shooting Arcane Missiles as fast as I could, I tucked my dagger in its sheath and held out my other hand to add Fireblasts to the mix. The cooldown of Fireblast seemed a little bit longer than Arcane Missile, but the two spells combined allowed me to lay the maximum amount of magic damage onto the beast in as short amount of time possible.

  The elemental jerked and seemed unable to move forward with the continued onslaught of magic. With blow after blow slamming into its body, I seemed to be tearing sand away from it faster than it could replenish.

  Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom! came a sudden sound.

  Small pillars of sand shot up from the ground and raced towards me from the slaver that had been hanging out in the distance. The pillars appeared fast and dissipated no sooner than they appeared, but the speed of them gave me no time to dodge out the way.

  A pillar rose right under my body, slamming hard into my ass and knocking me several feet in the air before it softened and fell back to the ground. I was rocked and disoriented while in the air, and groaned as I landed in the sand.

  Another pillar rose, right under me this time, slamming into my back. It caused my neck to jerk and my body to do a backbend in the air. The pillar dissipated, but before I fell back to the ground, a heavy, sandy hand slammed into my stomach, forcing me down rapidly and knocking everything out of my lungs as I smashed into the sand.

  I gasped for air and choked a little as sand flew into my mouth. If I hadn’t been high on kroka, the pain from the impact would have been enough to end me right then. I would’ve been too disoriented and in too much agony to do anything but die, but with the drugs in my system, I regained my senses as soon as I had a gulp of air.

  My hands dug into the sand, and I started to push myself up to my feet when I saw another trail of pillars rushing for me. I did my best to roll out of the way before they hit me, but one of the pillars still managed to clip the edge of my backside with its speed, tossing me into a half spin. I managed to land on my hands and feet, but I still felt the blow.

  I scrambled forward quickly, knowing that the elemental was behind me, and I didn’t have time to turn around. I heard a pound on the ground and sand splash on my back, which indicated that it had probably tried to strike me and missed. When I was a few feet further forward, I quickly turned and began unleashing a barrage of Arcane Missiles and Fireblasts.

  The elemental still looked strong, and I saw the mage raise his staff in the air and slam it once again into the ground, causing pillars to rise in front of him and trail at a tremendous speed towards me. I glanced at my health and could see that their attacks had put me at a little below 50%. The only way I was going to dodge the pillars and survive was to use Boiling Blood—my last resort spell that increased my speed, attack speed, willpower, and physical attack power.

  I closed my eyes, focused on the spell, and I could feel a strong heat course all through my body. When I flicked my eyes open, a pillar was just about to hit me, but with my increased speed, everything seemed like it was moving a lot slower, and I was able to speedily jump out of the way.

  With all the ducking and dodging, I was backing closer to the canyon wall and had to dash forward towards the elemental to avoid getting in a position where I’d be pinned. I pulled out my dagger, and as the monster swung a heavy hook towards me, I jumped
several feet in the air and released an Arcane Missile onto its neck, and the moment my feet hit the ground, I sprang forward at an incredible speed, slipping between its thick sandy legs and winding up behind the monster before it had a chance to react to my moves.

  I sprang to my feet and lunged at the monster with a backstab, and a massive heap of sand came pouring down from its body.

  Battle Alert: Critical Hit!

  You have reached level 3 in Small Blades!

  The elemental seemed confused and swung its hands forward rather than back at me, and as it did, I focused an Arcane Missile blast down at its leg, jumped back, and fired another Arcane Missile. The elemental tilted over as sand started falling from it but managed to support its remaining body with its hand.

  I could hear the sound of sand pillars rushing towards me from behind and turned around just in time to dodge the slavers attack before it hit. I held my hand out and shot an Arcane Missile towards the slaver, but he dodged it easily, ducking in dexterous fashion.

  There was a groan, and I turned back around to see that the sand flying around us was slowly rebuilding the missing sections of the sand elemental, and it was rising back up to two feet. I knew then that in order to survive, I was going to have to take out the slaver, rather than the wasting time beating down his resilient summoned monster.

  I dashed through the sand as fast as I could towards the slaver, and I could see in his eyes that he was frightened of my speed, but no sooner than I was halfway towards him, I slowed down and when I looked up at my status bars, I saw that Boiling Blood had fizzled out. My mana was more than halfway gone but refilling slowly, so I had more than enough to cast it again. I focused again on Boiling Blood, and whilst doing it, the slaver started twirling his staff around his head and protective bars of hardened sand started slowly rising up all around him.

  He was trying to prevent me from getting close.

  The heat came fast, and I rushed forward even faster, jumping as hard and as high as I could as his wall of sand was forming. My feet clipped the top of a sand bar, causing me to lose my balance for a moment as I rolled forward, but I still managed to clear the top.

  As I turned to the slaver, I could see the distress and confusion in his eyes. He clearly had no idea how someone at my level was moving so fast or managed to survive so many of his attacks, and based on his fighting style and attire, I had to guess that he was at a disadvantage now that I was close.

  He swung his staff at me, but I ducked, and when I rose up, I slashed my dagger vertically, cutting into his clothing and creating a wound on the exposed portion of his neck. The man jolted back and gasped, grabbing at his throat and looking down at the blood that had transferred to his hands.

  He looked up at me with wide eyes and raised his staff in the air, looking like he was preparing to cast some spell or another, but I shot an Arcane Missile at his hand, knocking the staff out of his grasp, and then I shot a Fireblast at his chest, and he screamed as the flames sizzled through his clothes.

  Despite this, he toughed through the pain and made a jump for his fallen staff, but I was just too fast. Before he had his hand on his weapon, I was right behind him, driving my dagger deep into his spine.

  You have reached level 2 in Backstab!

  He screamed like an animal, and the sandy bars that had formed walls around us started to slowly fall, and I could hear a low groan in the distance. When I turned, I saw the sand elemental melting like a candle, gradually into the ground.

  You have gained 3200 XP!

  Advancement! You have reached level 17 and gained 3 ability points. To assign your ability points, open your status page. You can also increase any of your known skills by 1 level. Choose wisely, as your choices cannot be undone.

  You have gained 10 HP!

  The man slumped into the sand with a thud, and when I yanked the dagger out of his back, I began laughing. I was happy that I had survived, but I wasn’t sure what compelled me to laugh. Generally, the sight of a dead human rather disgusted me, but at that moment I just felt numb to it all. It was like I was in a dream, like I was the king of the world.

  Basically, kroka was some seriously strong shit.

  I bent down and started searching the slaver for loot.

  You’ve received: 5 Gold Pieces

  You’ve received: Summoner’s Staff. 12-20 Attack Damage. Durability: 9/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 2.7. +15 Wisdom

  Five gold? I started laughing as soon as I saw that was all he is carrying. The slaver was one of the hardest enemies I had ever fought in Eden’s Gate, but gave me lemon loot? What a rip off!

  I rubbed my hands over each piece of the slaver’s clothing and there were a couple of items that were better than the ones that I was already wearing.

  Summoner’s Gloves. +3 Armor. Durability: 4/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.2 kg. +2 Wisdom

  Summoner’s Belt. +4 Armor. Durability: 8/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.3kg. +1 Wisdom

  I pulled off the old gloves and belt, replaced them, and stuck them in my bag with the slaver’s staff. I figured I might be able to sell them in the guild store if I ever made it back to Edgewood.

  Getting back to Edgewood…

  I sat down on the ground and looked up the keep far in the distance. To get back to Edgewood, first I needed to get to the keep. The stolen horse had run off somewhere, and again, I didn’t want to risk summoning Sora due to rumors that I heard about the Bloodletters’ savagery.

  The scorpion had disappeared as well, but I was so high on kroka that I might have attempted to ride it had it still been around, so maybe that was a good thing.

  I’d have to walk.

  And I still needed to figure out a plan when I actually made it to the keep.

  I looked at my ‘drug enhanced’ indicator, and I still had forty minutes left before the effects would wear away. I guessed that if I ran most of the way, it would only take me about thirty minutes or so before I’d make it to the keep.

  “My name is Gunnar,” I said aloud, comically waving my hand in front of me. “I’m here to join your mercenary gang!”

  “But why do you want to join the Bloodletters?” I said back to myself, pretending that I was an actual other person.

  “Because...” I trailed. “Because… I’m the best… no… because you’re the brutal-est… because I’m the... ah, fuck!”

  I shook my head and randomly started laughing at how ridiculous I sounded. Actually, the whole quest itself seemed ridiculous in my intoxicated state.

  I rubbed my chin as I thought of everything I knew about Dryden and the Bloodletters. Jax and Satorin said they were ruthless and the won battles based on how merciless and brutal they were, doing things that were totally unthinkable. I imagined that it took a special kind of person to be in their guild—a killer, an absolute savage.

  I looked down to the body of the slaver that was sitting beside me and I suddenly had an idea. It was so dark and twisted, that I’m certain I would’ve never even considered it if I hadn’t been under kroka’s influence.

  But I had to do what I had to do.

  I pulled my dagger from its sheath and got to work.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  1/22/0001

  I should have felt something as I approached the Bloodletter’s keep—dread, repulsion, fear… something other than the cold, unconcerned numbness that consumed me.

  The gray, stone keep rose high above the rolling sands, and there was nothing around it to protect it from intruders. But what was around it were stakes—hundreds of them. And on each stake was a head, a skeleton, sometimes a full decomposing body and even one body that was still dripping thick blood onto the sand; it couldn’t have been more than a day old.

  The sand in the Sands was always a medium, yellowish tan with the occasional hue of orange, but the sand that immediately surrounded the Bloodletter’s keep was several shades of brown, having only a few patches of sand that hadn’t been satura
ted with color.

  There was one obvious, large entrance into the keep, and from that door, an empty path stretched out through the sand and stakes of dead bodies. At the path’s entrance stood a single man, dressed in a full set of dark grey, almost black chainmail armor. A black crest with a dark red cross design was attached to the front of his chest piece, and a long sword that almost touched the ground was draped at his side.

  You have failed to inspect your target!

  His arms were crossed, and he didn’t move or say anything until I was right in front of him.

  “No horse?” the man asked.

  I still had twelve minutes left of my kroka high, so I felt no intimidation from the stranger. If anything, I was trying my hardest not to mindlessly burst out laughing at what he said. I shook my head. “No horse.”

  The man shrugged and held out his hand. “So, what do you have? A new date for the slave auctions?” He must have thought I was a slaver based on what I was wearing.

  “I’m here to see Dryden,” I said confidently.

  “What?” The man tucked his chin and raised an eyebrow.

  “Dryden Bloodletter,” I said coldly and looked him fiercely in the eyes.

  The man stood stunned for a moment and then turned back towards the keep’s door where another man was standing guard. He waved his hand at the man, signaling for him to join us.

  The other man, dressed in the same gear as the first, strode through the sea of dead bodies until he was right beside us. “Yeah?”

  “He says he wants to see Dryden.”

  The new guy creased his brow. “What does a slaver need with Dryden? We’ll send an agent to your auction as soon you get your shit together.”