Perla Online, Book One: Toris (A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure)

by Shawn Wyatt

  "Are there any others?" I asked. "Anyone else that didn't make it inside for shelter?"

  "Aye. About six more. You needn't look for two of them. I saw them fall myself, devoured by those awful beasts. The other four could be anywhere within this complex." He paused. "Here, this may be of help."

  The man handed me a rolled piece of parchment. When I opened it to examine the contents, I saw a map of the entire airship landing. The area we had already cleared glowed with a faint green light. The rest remained a murky red.

  "It's the best map we have. If you're going to keep moving forward, maybe it can help you."

  "We are. We're going all the way to the top. When we're done here, travel should be reestablished between Toris and the other realms."

  The man nodded his approval. "Aye, the world needs more fighters like you. Godspeed to ye. I'm going to take these people and get out of here, head back to the city. I've had enough dried jerky to last a lifetime."

  "Good luck," I said. "The men and women outside will see you safely home."

  I watched the survivors leave the room. I wondered how much longer they would have lived if we had not opened the door. The map the man had given me at least showed what we had to look forward to.

  A commotion to one side of the room caught my attention. The other Marauder in our groups Sharpshooter named 420NoScope--shortened to Scope--shouted at P!xel. "He brought us in here for no reason than to rescue some stupid NPCs! It was an unnecessary risk, and our lives are at stake.

  "What's the problem?" I asked.

  Scope glared at me. "You are the raid leader. Your job is to clear this raid and lead us to victory, with all of us in one piece. Completing side missions like rescuing those NPCs aren't part of it."

  I bit my tongue before I responded in a way I regretted. "My 'job' includes whatever I damn well feel like," I said. "And those 'stupid NPCs' have just as much worth as you or I. Ever talked to one? They've got dreams, ambitions, families. You want to be the one to tell them they aren't real?"

  Scope gave a sullen look, but it seemed my words had some impact.

  I turned to the rest of the raid. "Listen up! If you want to continue from this point forward, you will treat all entities as though they are flesh and blood. In this world, there is no distinction."

  Apoc, another Prophet of Truth, raised a hand. "Scope does have a point, Ren. And do you really think we can't tell NPCs from real people?"

  "No, I don't," I said. "I know for a fact you can't tell one from the other."

  "And how is that?"

  I turned to Cathbad. "Care to explain?"

  He cleared his throat and stood. "I am of Nyfedian birth," he said. "One of what your kind calls non-player characters. I confess I don't understand what the words mean."

  Apoc and Scope both had shocked looks on their faces. I had seen them toast Cathbad the night before the raid. I leveled my gaze on them. "Think about it. Every player was forced to a human reskin when the beta ended. Cathbad is a Sylvan, yet it didn't occur to any of you that he was an NPC. He's real. He's valuable. And he's a friend. If any of you have objections to this, leave now. I'll find someone to replace you."

  The room had fallen silent. I kept my gaze leveled on the raid, but I saw Bastion and Evey nod with approval. When no one spoke, I nodded. "Good. Then let's take some time to rest and recuperate here."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: CALM BEFORE THE STORM

  We remained in the storage room for several hours. Tempers needed time to cool, and I needed to gather my thoughts before the next section of the raid. "So far, so good," I said. I peered over the map the man had given me. "We know that owl-demon is in here somewhere. If I had to guess, that fight will be here." I pointed at the map.

  The next floor contained the inn. Called Windfall, the inn had ten rooms for guests and a dining hall with a balcony attached. The balcony overlooked the forest below, and I suspected that's where the owl-demon would reside.

  "Do we know anything about its strategy?" LeeRoy asked. She stood behind me and looked over my shoulder and absentmindedly rubbed her right arm. Since the Mimic attack, she had favored it. LeeRoy didn't say that it hurt, but the way she kept a hand on it unless in combat bothered me. Whether physical pain or psychological trauma, both could be a problem.

  "It's a bird," Bastion said. "Clip its wings and bring it down."

  I shot him a droll look. "If only it were that easy," I said. "All of these rooms along the way likely contain enemies. If we don't clear them before we engage the boss, they might come out as reinforcements."

  One room on the right side of the floor contained stairs that led to the next level. Evey pointed at those. "If the floor is empty, why not skip it and move on? It's possible to skip bosses in other games."

  "Maybe," I said. I rubbed my chin. Perla Online was a game, but in every scenario where it should have behaved just like any other VRMMO, something had been slightly off. There always seemed to be a twist that made it almost game-like, but different enough to throw us off. "I don't like the idea of leaving enemies in our escape route."

  BunnyGurl74 had approached us during the conversation and spoke. "I may be able to help," she said. She looked down at the floor and wrung her hands. "I can send Hoppers ahead to see what the next floor looks like."

  I raised an eyebrow. "You can see through your pet's eyes?"

  She nodded. "He helps me scout out areas to find safe routes," she said. "I can also smell what he smells when I use the trait."

  "I can't do that with Boris," Evey said. "Is it based on the type of pet you have?"

  "I don't know. I think it's a special ability of some kind? I haven't met anyone else who can do it."

  Wish could trap souls in stones. BunnyGurl74 could see through the eyes of her pets. Some players had abilities that others of their class did not, but there didn't seem to be any consistency or explanation as to why. I would have to look into it more later. If I could unlock an ability like that for the Marauder, it would definitely help. "Do it," I said. "Is there anything you need from us while you do?"

  BunnyGurl74 shook her head. "Just keep my body safe here." She sat cross-legged on the floor and called her pet over to her. The rabbit hopped its way across the floor. I hadn't taken a good look at it until now, but this rabbit was the largest rabbit I had ever seen--yet it moved without a sound. "Okay Hoppers, I need you to check a path for me." The rabbit flicked its ears. She put her hands on its head and closed her eyes.

  Her arms fell limp. The rabbit looked up at us, and I sensed an intelligence behind those eyes. Beast Keeper's pets were smart, but this was something more. Had she actually transferred herself inside the rabbit? Hoppers bounded across the room and to the staircase, then disappeared from sight.

  Evey looked closely at BunnyGurl74. "I am a bit jealous," she said. "Although if I could do that with Boris, I would probably never smell anything except honey. That bear has a one track mind."

  Boris raised his head and stared at her. He had been asleep, napping after the fight.

  Evey raised a hand. "Back to sleep, big guy. I just said the word. Doesn't mean there's any here."

  I looked around the room. The raid group had spread out in an attempt to get comfortable, and some members still slept against their packs on the floor. To my surprise, Cathbad sat embroiled in deep conversation with Apoc and Scope. My ultimatum to the raid had ruffled some feathers, and I understood why. If someone hadn't spent much time around NPCs, it would be easy to dismiss them as nothing more than AI.

  But again, Perla Online was different than any other game out there. And so were they. I couldn't blame a player that put their own safety first, but as long as I remained raid leader, that would not be the focus here.

  Scope noticed my stare and looked down at the ground. A moment later, he stood and walked over to me. "Hey, Ren? I want to apologize."

  "What changed your mind?" I asked.

  He shook his head. "I drank with Cathbad before the raid started. And
I had a long chat with him just now. You're right. If I didn't know he wasn't a real person, I mean, a human player, I wouldn't be able to tell he was an NPC. There's no noticeable difference." Scope sighed. "Since we were trapped here, all I've been able to think about is getting out and going home."

  "I understand," I said. "We all want that. We all want to leave. Don't worry about it. Apology accepted."

  Scope nodded and started to speak, but stopped, shook his head, and walked back to Cathbad.

  BunnyGurl74 sat up straight with a gasp. "Hoppers!" She jumped to her feet and started to run for the stairs.

  "Wait!" I said. "What happened?"

  "He threw me out," she said. "We were attacked. I have to help him." She darted out of the room and up the stairs to the next level. Alone.

  I cursed under my breath. "Come on, folks. Break time's over." I ran after her. Evey and Boris fell in behind me. The rest of the raid would need a few seconds to get their gear together. I hoped they would catch up before whatever monster was up there overran us.

  I topped the stairs in time to see a quill of some kind embed itself in the wall beside where I stood. Bunny stood over a wounded Hoppers, her bow drawn. She had already downed one enemy and had an arrow in-flight toward another.

  Boris pushed past me and roared. Four enemies turned their gaze on him and answered his challenge. I heard the twang of Evey's bow beside me. Three arrows hit three different enemies. Bunny's shot hit another. I brought my pistols level and targeted the creature Bunny had been fighting, a coyote-like creature with dozens of razor-tipped quills sticking out of its back. Its nameplate read Latrans. The two shots I fired put holes in it, and the creature slumped to the ground.

  An explosion sounded beside my ear. I turned to see Scope, his musket leveled at an enemy. His shot hit the creature and sent it tumbling against a wall. "I hadn't walked far away when I saw you run out the door," he said. "I used my Dash skill to catch up."

  "Much appreciated. And it's nice to see the other Marauder subclass in action."

  Scope grinned and fired another shot. Two of the Latrans remained. Boris fell on one and sank his teeth into its neck. The creature thrashed, but could not escape his grip. Boris lifted it into the air and tossed it across the room.

  Evey's last arrow pinned the remaining monster to the ground, and Boris' claws made quick work of it. I glanced around the room to make sure we had caught the attention of no other monsters and turned to Bunny. She knelt on the ground and held Hoppers in her arms. He gave a weak squeak. Bastion came up the stairs, took one look at the room, and threw himself into healing the rabbit. I watched his mana drain to nothing, but the bites and claw marks that marred Hoppers' skin vanished. The rabbit closed its eyes and began to snore.

  Bunny breathed a sigh of relief, and turned tear-filled eyes to Bastion. "Thank you," she said. "He's been my only friend since this all began. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to him."

  "Wait. Can't you just resummon them once you tame them?" Evey asked.

  Bunny shook her head. "You could in the beta. Since then, if a pet dies, it's dead for good. There's no coming back."

  Evey turned to look at Boris. "You hear that? You better be careful, you big lug. If you die, I'll make sure there's no honey at all in the afterlife."

  I had never seen such horrified expression on a bear's face before.

  "Why did he throw you out?" I asked.

  Bunny hesitated. "When I use that ability, I kind of become a passenger in his body. So if he dies, so do I." She stroked Hoppers' head. "He threw me out to protect me."

  "It's a risky ability," I said. "But I can see the utility of it."

  While the rest of the raid group caught up, I looked around the room. Four pillars supported this hallway, just like the one below. I assumed the same pillars ran through each level; the staircases wound up and around, so we now stood directly above the bottom floor. A large piece of petrified wood hung from the wall between two lanterns. On the wall opposite that, a series of pictures showed a smiling family. The innkeepers?

  More monsters mulled about farther into the room, but they were far enough away that we didn't pull them. Large windows at the end of the room let light in, and I could see the balcony beyond that. Tables and chairs sat empty on the balcony, no guests left to fill them. This floor looked, for all intents and purposes, like an inn, but one that had lain empty for years. The corruption had set in only a bit over a month earlier. It should not seem this abandoned.

  When everyone had arrived, I looked at Bastion. "How's your mana?"

  "Around 45%," he said. "Take it slow and we should be okay. No boss fight yet."

  "Right. We'll clear the room." I turned to the raid group. "No one approach those windows in back. I have a feeling that's where the boss fight will take place. Before we engage him, we're going to clear out each of the rooms on this floor on the off chance the monsters inside any of these rooms attack when we go after the boss."

  The first door sat directly behind me. "LeeRoy, want to go first?"

  She nodded and opened the door. The room sat in almost total darkness. The single window had the drapes pulled shut, but the snarl that sounded from within spoke volumes. Another Latran leapt out of the room, only to be knocked onto the floor by LeeRoy's shield. It died in less than a second under the concentrated attack power of the entire raid.

  "Hey, these guys aren't disappearing," P!xel said.

  "They aren't Withered. Only Withered creatures vanish when killed. The others remain on the ground. We'll loot in a minute." I lit a torch and tossed it into the room. No other monsters waited inside, and the room itself did not have much room for anything else. It was small, maybe just ten by ten in size. A door led into the room to the left.

  LeeRoy walked inside first and braced her shield in front of the door. I picked up the torch and held it over her head as she opened the interior door. The light revealed bookcases along the length of one wall and a dust-covered desk in the center. Long-dead plants sat on either side of the desk. She moved forward, her shield in front the entire time, but there proved to be no need. No monsters waited in the darkness. The room had belonged to the innkeeper. Records and ledgers sat on the desk, along with a strongbox full of gold.

  We left and went back into the main hall. "Nothing to speak of in there," I said. "Let's clear the rest of the place out."

  Each room held one or two monsters, but none were elite. The beasts would land one or two hits if they got lucky before the raid wiped them out. When the first four rooms on either side of the hall had been cleared, I held up a hand. "The next two are close to those windows. There's a doorway that leads onto the balcony. Do not go through it," I said.

  The last room on the right seemed to be a deluxe suite of sorts. Cathbad had swapped out with LeeRoy, but since he had to tank in his bear form, I opened the door. The room was much larger than the previous ones, and contained two Latrans and another creature I had not seen before. It walked on four legs, hunched in the center of its body, and spines protruded from its back. A long tongued weaved through the air at our entrance.

  "Get back," I said. "Pull into the main room."

  The monster's nameplate read Buliden and had the same silver around it as elite creatures. Cathbad and I backed up just in time. The monsters charged out of the room. The two Latrans went down with ease, but the Buliden curled in on itself and shot spines in all directions. I heard several cries of pain from the raid group. Only five people had escaped the attack unscathed, but it hadn't done life-threatening damage.

  Cathbad danced around the creature with an agility that belied his size, but the Buliden's tongue was faster. It struck Cathbad and knocked him from his feet. The point where the tongue hit him turned purple and began to ooze. Cathbad roared and slashed at it with his paws, while Jenkins charged in and pinned the monster with a blade through the tail. Light flowed from the sword to Jenkin's party, and Bastion threw a healing spell on Cathbad.
<
br />   "Watch out for the tongue," I said. "It inflicts a poison debuff when it hits."

  The raid focused its attack on the Buliden. Despite the monster's power, it died quickly. The room opposite was identical, except this time Cathbad baited the Buliden to strike--and P!xel slashed its tongue off. We made short work of it after that.

  I looked out the window. In the trees beyond the balcony, the owl-demon sat, its beak twisted in a sadistic grin. It knew we had to fight it, and it waited for us. The raid group had returned to full HP and mana across the board. "Everyone ready?"

  At their nods, I opened the door.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: SPEDIS

  The owl-demon turned its head and watched the raid group move onto the balcony, its blood-soaked beak still open. Its massive talons wrapped around the truck of a tree. "So you made it this far, humans." It moved, and deep gouges marked where its talons had sank into the tree. "That means you solved Nachea's riddle."

  The demon's nameplate read "Spedis," and was ringed with gold. Level 27.

  There would be no puzzles to solve here. This would be a fight to the death. When no one answered Spedis, the owl turned its head again and lunged from the tree to the balcony. It did not spread its wings, but slithered through the air like a snake. The impact shook the balcony and scattered the tables and chairs around.

  "No matter. You go no farther than here."

  I heard the faint strum of a lute, and my body began to glow with a soft green light. I glanced sideways, and Finn gave me a small smile. "Staying Song," he whispered.

  Evey scoffed. She had an arrow nocked in her bow. "Hey, Ren. Think his feathers will make good fletching for arrows?"

  "Depends," I said. "Are you trying to outfit an army? That's a lot of feathers."

  "Maybe they smell better than the Night Raven's. I've washed those things four times and they still stink."