Table of Contents
Title Page
VEIL ONLINE
Copyright © 2020 John Elijah Cressman
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Epilogue
Join the Adventure
LitRPG
More LitRPG Books
About the Author
VEIL Online
VEIL ONLINE
Book 1
An Epic LitRPG Series
Written by John Cressman
Copyright © 2020 John Elijah Cressman
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author, subject “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address below.
ISBN: 978-0-9844087-3-3 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9844087-1-9 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0-9844087-4-0 (Amazon Kindle)
ISBN: 978-0-9844087-5-7 (Audiobook)
Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s twisted imagination.
Front cover image by Karen Dimmick from www.ArcaneCovers.com.
Book design by Rebecka Yaeger of Becka’s Best Author Services.
Printed by Maverick-Gage Publishing in conjunction with IngramSpark, in the United States of America.
First printing edition 2020.
Maverick-Gage Publishing
Allentown, PA
[email protected]
www.maverick-gage.com
John Elijah Cressman
www.johnecressman.com
To my biggest fan and mother, Diane Cressman. For all the stories she read to me at bedtime that helped me dream big.
To my dad, John P. Cressman, who taught me the value of hard work and pushing through obstacles to get the work done.
To my wife, Angela, who allowed me to sequester myself away in my office to write my books.
To my brothers and sisters who are the only ones who I can exchange movie quotes with and understand what I’m talking about.
To my nieces and nephews, who bring laughter and joy into my life whenever I see them.
And to my orange tabby cat Luna, who allows me to take care of her, feed her and be her undying servant.
Chapter 1
Mordred Blacklock’s heart skipped a beat as part of the stone he’d been using as a handhold crumbled under his right grip, sending stone tumbling to the moat below. He experienced a moment of vertigo and a sensation of falling and then suddenly he was dangling from only the fingers of his left hand 50 feet above a frozen moat.
Mordred knew it was only a game. At this moment, he was Mordred Blacklock, a level 95 Vampyre Assassin in a fully immersive virtual reality game called Virtual Emulation Immersive Landscape, or as most people called it VEIL Online. But back in his apartment, he was just an ordinary human named Jace Burton, who was lying in a virtual reality pod in his living room. But that wasn’t his reality right now. Right now, he was in VEIL and he was seconds away from falling to his death in the game.
Dying would mean he’d have a death penalty for days. If that happened, it would lower his skills and experience gain for four days. He’d have to wait until it ended before he could attempt the keep again. Now that the other members of his group knew about the brigand fortress and the named items the boss would drop, they wouldn’t wait. They’d either find another rogue or one of them would sell the location to another group. So, he had to get it right the first time if he wanted the last piece of his set gear.
Getting the last piece of the Assassin’s Mantle set, the Sash of Kobadera, would give him the boost he’d need to be considered for the top-level raids.
The top-level raids were by invite only and to be considered they had a minimum standard of gear. The sash would complete the set and he’d finally be eligible to raid. It had taken him months to get the other pieces and tonight he’d finally get the last piece. But not if he fell.
Pulling himself back into the moment, his right hand scrambled around the stonework of the fortress wall trying to find purchase. Finally, his slim vampyre fingers finally closed on a seam in the mortar. After a moment of testing it, he dug his fingers in and took some of the weight off his aching left hand.
“You okay up there pointy-teeth?” came a voice in his head, nearly startling him. It was Krogan, the Dwarf Paladin he’d recruited to help with this adventure. Their warlock had cast a Far Speak spell on the group earlier. The high-level spell allowed players in the same group to communicate with each other mentally. The spell was perfect in adventures and raids since players could always hear each other over the sounds of battle. It also allowed group members to communicate up to a mile away.
“Just a little loose mortar,” Jace mentally responded to his team, still trying to slow his racing heart.
“Did they hear the rock?” asked a worried voice that Jace recognized as belonging to Dharci, their Rabbit-kin Healer. Rabbit-kin were one of the furry neutral races. And just like a rabbit, Dharci seemed to be a bit skittish. He wouldn’t have invited her but she and Krogan were a package deal.
Tilting his head up towards the parapet, Jace scanned the top of the wall for any signs of movement. He knew some guards patrolled the walls, but they were humans and their hearing shouldn’t be acute enough to hear a rock hitting the iced-over moat, all the way down at the bottom of the wall.
“Did they?” she asked again, a little more urgently.
Jace gritted his teeth at the impatient healer and tried to hide his annoyance when he answered. “Give me a second. I’m checking.”
Three minutes passed until Jace heard the two guards walk nonchalantly past him. Their casual banter and unhurried steps told him they hadn’t heard anything. “We’re good. Give me a few minutes to reach the top and then another few to make it to the gate.”
“Yeah, yeah,” responded the dwarf in a bored tone. “Then come in with axes waving and kick some bandit bu
tt!”
Jace chuckled to himself. He knew Krogan probably said something more vulgar, but his profanity filter was on and the game was translating all vulgarity into more family-friendly language.
He appreciated the enthusiasm from Krogan. The dwarf seemed particularly bloodthirsty which Jace thought was ironic considering dwarves were supposed to be one of the “good” races. Still, a player could play their character any way they wanted. That was one of the great things about VEIL, you could be anything you wanted.
The sound of the guards’ footsteps fading into the distance brought Jace’s attention back to the game and his purpose. He moved determinedly to the top of the parapet and then peered over. As expected, the guards were on the opposite side of the keep. Just as he had planned.
Moving as silent as the night, Jace slipped over the parapet and shimmied to the edge of the wooden walkway. From his perch, he looked down on the interior of the fortress, his keen eyes soaking in every detail.
“We have three interior buildings,” Jace sent to his group. “I think the one to the left is the barracks, the one to the right is probably the mess hall. The center building is got to be where the boss is.”
Jace made a quick count of the guards as he swept his eyes back and forth across the courtyard. “I count two roamers on the wall, two at the gate, four by the fire and another two at the boss’s door.”
“How many do you think are in the barracks?” asked Lucy, their Half-demoness Warlock. Half-demons were one of the “evil” races, just like vampyres. And while Jace played things down the middle, Lucy was utterly ruthless. She wanted what she wanted and anyone who got in her way was an obstacle. He’d made a mental note not to get in her way.
Jace considered the size of the barracks and how many people it could hold. “If they’re using bunk beds, it might hold 40 people total, otherwise no more than 20.”
“Great,” Lucy replied. “There’s either 10 more plus the boss or 30 more plus the boss. That’s a big difference.”
Jace noticed that the wall guards were starting to make their way back his way. “Just stick to the plan and we’ll be fine. The guards are almost back, I need to get in position.”
With that, he turned his attention to the guards who were getting closer. Jace drew his twin daggers and used some of his mana to activate his assassin ability Shadow Stalk. As soon as he did, his body went invisible for the next 60 seconds. He stood and stepped to the edge of the walkway to make room for the two guards who were now only a dozen steps away.
He held his breath as they passed and then stepped silently behind them. In a single fluid motion, he plunged his daggers into the unsuspecting brigands and saw the system message flash across his screen.
You backstab Blackcoat Brigand for 1,269 damage.
Blackcoat Brigand dies.
You gain 450 experience.
You backstab Blackcoat Brigand for 1,401 damage.
Blackcoat Brigand dies.
You gain 450 experience.
Jace caught the brigands’ lifeless bodies as they began to collapse and eased them onto the walkway. He retrieved his daggers and wiped the blades on the clothes of the two dead men before replacing them in their sheaths. So far, so good.
“The roamers are down,” he told his group. “Moving to the gates now. Get into position.”
He didn’t wait for the others to acknowledge him and quietly crept towards the ladder that led down to the gates. His stealth skill was high enough with his assassin gear, that he didn’t really have to worry about being seen unless he walked right in front of a guard.
As if the universe, or game universe in this case, had read his mind, a brigand guard poked his head up from the ladder near the gate. “Hey, Brock, where’d you hide the keg?”
Jace froze as the brigand’s head began to swivel towards his position. Even with the triple moons hidden behind the clouds, the man was only ten feet away. There would be no way he could miss Jace’s silhouette, even with his poor human eyes.
Not for the first time, Jace wished he had some sort of ranged attack. If he was a dark elf, he would have gotten the ability to use hand crossbows, as a vampyre he had no such option. He was limited to daggers.
Cursing under his breath, he rushed the guard just as the man caught sight of him. It took the brigand a second to process the figure darting at him, and then another second to decide what to do. Unfortunately for the man, that was a second too long. Just as he opened his mouth to raise the alarm, Jace thrust one of his daggers into his eye as he slashed the other one across the man’s throat. He activated his Dark Critical ability, guaranteeing the strikes would do maximum damage.
You critically hit Blackcoat Brigand for 603 damage.
You critically hit Blackcoat Brigand for 621 damage.
Blackcoat Brigand dies.
You gain 450 experience.
Just as Jace was about to congratulate himself, the man’s body went limp. As he died, the corpse slipped from the ladder. Jace watched in horror as the brigand’s limp form fell away towards the ground. It crashed noisily into a small table far below where the brigand must have been eating, sending plates and mugs clattering in every direction.
“Frag it!” Jace sent over the link as he moved to the ladder. He slammed his daggers into their sheaths and began descending as quickly as possible. “It looks like we’re going in loud.”
“Oh shoot,” he heard the dwarf mutter over their link.
Jace tuned out the other team members as he focused on the scene below. Two guards from the gate were coming out from the gatehouse to check out the noise.
As they checked on their companion, Jace continued to descend the ladder as quickly as possible.
One of the brigands looked up and Jace immediately kicked off the ladder. His acrobatics skill was so high, he instinctively did a somersault in midair and landed gingerly behind the two men.
The guard who had been looking up was starting to whirl around to face him while reaching for the sword on his hip.
Jace side-stepped towards the second brigand, who still had his back to him and stabbed one his daggers into the man’s back.
You backstab Blackcoat Brigand for 1,496 damage.
Blackcoat Brigand dies.
You gain 450 experience.
At the same time, he used more of his mana to activate Paralyzing Strike and stabbed his second dagger into the other man’s side.
You pierce Blackcoat Brigand with Paralyzing Strike for 127 damage.
Blackcoat Brigand is paralyzed for 10 seconds.
The strike hadn’t done much damage, but it served its purpose. The guard wouldn’t be able to attack or raise the alarm for 10 seconds and by then it wouldn’t matter. Hopefully.
Spinning, Jace dashed into the gatehouse door the two men had emerged from. He quickly found the drawbridge mechanism and yanked the lever to release the chains holding up the drawbridge.
“Drawbridge is coming down!” he mentally shouted over their link over the noise of the thick metal chains lowering the drawbridge.
“Good,” he heard the dwarf’s voice in his mind. “It’s time for some action! Butt kicking for goodness!”
Chapter 2
The drawbridge slammed into the ground with a bone-jarring thud. The sound was immediately followed by the dwarf’s war cry and the sound of armor-clad boots clambering across the wooden drawbridge.
Just then, the guard he’d paralyzed stepped into the doorway with his weapon drawn. “You’re dead!” he snarled.
The brigand advanced into the cramped gatehouse and slashed at Jace with his sword. Jace danced aside, trusting his dodge skill to help him avoid the strike and then stepped in towards the guard and Feinted toward his head while using more of his mana to do a Crippling Strike to his exposed left leg.
You pierce Blackcoat Brigand with Crippling Strike for 119 damage.
Blackcoat Brigand has been Crippled.
The brigand’s left leg buckled and the man barely kep
t himself from falling. Jace took the opportunity to roll to the right as the guard fell to the left and came up behind the man. He stabbed both daggers into the man’s back.
You backstab Blackcoat Brigand for 1,421 damage.
You backstab Blackcoat Brigand for 1,371 damage.
Blackcoat Brigand dies.
You gain 450 experience.
The guard dropped noisily to the floor but it no longer mattered. Between the sound of the drawbridge and the dwarf shouting, stealth was no longer an option.
If the enemy hadn’t been aware of them before, they would be now. Jogging outside the gatehouse, he joined his companions.
“I thought you were supposed to be stealthy,” the dwarf muttered, speaking now instead of using the link.
“Some random brigand looking for a keg,” Jace shot back.
“Ah,” sighed the dwarf. “A brigand after my own heart!”
Jace shook his head and took in the devolving situation. Brigands were starting to pour out of the mess hall and the barracks.
“Oh shoot! Oh shoot!” Dharci squealed. She was cowering behind the paladin, who in real life was her boyfriend. Her large rabbit ears were down, flattened against her head.
“We’ll be fine,” Jace said. “As long as Lucy does her job.”
The half-demoness glared at him with yellow eyes. She was the tallest one in the group with a sexy, buxom hourglass figure that rivaled that of any of the real-life model. But unlike Earthly models, Lucy had deep red skin, small black horns on her temple, small bat-like wings and a five-foot-long pointy tail. “I can do my job better than you did yours.”
Jace flashed her a grin. “I never doubted it for a moment.”
Lucy’s expression didn’t soften but she did begin her incantation. She performed some complicated hand gestures and then pointed a finger at the assembling mob of brigands. “Pila Immanis Ignis!”
Lucy Furr casts fireball.
A small glowing sphere appeared at her fingertip and then shot towards the group of brigands near the barracks. When it came in contact with the first brigand, the sphere detonated, and the area exploded in a huge fireball. System messages scrolled across his screen as every brigand in the blast range was damaged but none of them had died.
VEIL Online - Book 1 Page 1
