Eden's Gate: The Scourge: A LitRPG Adventure

by Edward Brody

  It was a discreet low-rise commercial building not far from the Nexicon offices to which she had been summoned in order to provide information on the workings of Eden’s Gate. The people from the CIA, FBI, and DoD wanted to know anything and everything they could about the game. It seemed odd to her, as she couldn’t imagine why they’d care about the leveling system or blacksmithing if they had no plan to enter the world, but she was happy they had flown to her rather than her having to fly to another state like she had on previous rounds.

  Kendra walked down the street a few hundred meters to a fast-food restaurant where she had a chicken sandwich and fries. It wasn’t much of a meal, but there weren’t many offerings around the building, and she wasn’t the type to cook and pack her lunch.

  Once she was finished, she made the march back to the building where they had been meeting. She headed straight for the elevator, stepped inside, and when she pressed ‘four’ for the floor she was returning to, she felt nature’s call.

  The door to the elevator opened, and she stepped into the hall. She followed the signs hanging from the ceiling towards the restroom.

  She passed numerous occupied office rooms for businessmen and companies she had never heard of until she landed at a small hallway that housed only the restrooms. A men’s restroom was on the left, and on the right was a women’s restroom with a yellow ‘wet floor’ stand in front of it.

  Kendra maneuvered around the obstruction and pushed open the women’s restroom. Once inside, she headed for the first stall. When she pushed the first stall open, she noticed right away that there was no toilet paper inside. Not only that, but the water in the toilet was floating near the top and spinning ever so slightly; clearly the toilet was clogged.

  She exited the first stall and headed towards the second one, but she was disappointed when she opened the door to see cling wrap swathed over the toilet basin and a white sign on top reading ‘Out of Order’ written in marker. The toilet paper dispenser in that stall was empty as well.

  Kendra groaned, rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She really needed to go and didn’t want to go on an adventure to find a working toilet.

  She stepped outside of the women’s restroom, peeked around the corner to see if anyone was coming, and when it was clear no one was around, she pushed open the door to the men’s restroom.

  “Hello?” she called softly. “Anyone in here?”

  When no one replied, she whispered, ‘fuck it’ and marched inside.

  She was surprised at the general cleanliness of the men’s bathroom as she had always been told that the men’s bathroom was unkempt and disgusting, but she found the room to be a little better than the women’s. At least the trash cans weren’t full of tissue and there wasn’t the scent of a thousand perfumes mixed in the air.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when she opened one of the stalls and saw that it was in order and fully stocked with tissue. She closed the door behind her, locked it, and sat down to do her business.

  As Kendra was relieving herself, the door to the bathroom clanked open and she tensed up when she heard the voices of two men entering.

  “She’s kind of cute for a MILF,” the first voice said. It sounded like Jeff.

  “A MILF?” a voice identical to Todd’s questioned. “I don’t think Kendra has kids.”

  Kendra’s jaw dropped open. She wanted to pull up her pants, jump out of the door and give Jeff a piece of her mind. She didn’t have kids yet, and while her maternal clock was ticking down, she was definitely not a mom or MILF or whatever he was calling her.

  Jeff laughed. “Either way, she’s got that weird, boxy body type I like. I’d hit it.”

  Boxy? Kendra thought. What the fuck?! She wasn’t ‘boxy’!

  “Keep it professional, man,” Todd scolded. There was the squeaky sound of the sink faucet being opened and water pouring out.

  Jeff sighed. “Well, I don’t really see what the point of us learning about the Eden’s Gate mechanics is. I mean, we’ve already sent our team in there, so there’s no way it’s going to help us now.”

  Team? Kendra wondered. She leaned forward and put her ear closer to the crack of the stall to make sure she didn’t miss anything they were saying.

  Todd farted then let out a groan as if no one else was around. “Well, when we get an update, we need to be as informed as possible, so we can give them instructions for the next course of action.”

  “Next course of action?” Jeff asked. “Do you really think they’ll be able to execute? I don’t think we’ll ever hear from them again, personally. We should’ve studied all this stuff before sending a team inside.”

  “I have hope,” Todd said. “And if they don’t succeed, that’s even more reason for us to be schooled in Eden’s Gate. Let’s say Crylight fails. We might try to send in another group of misfits or maybe someone more professional.”

  “Another group?” Jeff laughed. “I mean, sure… yeah. We can find someone else, but how are we going to find anyone with their skills? And someone we can blackmail at the same time?”

  “With the popularity of Eden’s Gate, we might find volunteers,” Todd answered. “A lot of ‘em.”

  “They’ll volunteer to go in, but they’ll go in to play, not work.”

  “Maybe,” Todd said.

  “And everyone will be leveling, right? If this first team can’t do it, it’ll be even harder for the next team starting from scratch.”

  Todd groaned. “Have faith in them. If they deliver, we won’t have to worry about a new team.”

  Jeff made a smacking noise with his lips. “So, if we don’t hear from them, when can we assume the mission was a failure?”

  “It’ll be a while,” Todd said. “Give them time to get up to speed and put in their work.”

  Jeff sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I just can’t wait to catch that scumbag.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll get Rupert eventually. You can’t hide from justice, even in another world.”

  Kenda’s body tensed. They were trying to catch Dr. Winston?

  There was the sound of a urinal flushing, then a second one.

  “Karma is a bitch, right?” Jeff snorted.

  There was the sound of faucets opening again.

  “Yep, and stop spacing out during these presentations, so you can absorb as much information as you can. Next time we get an update from the squad, we need to be prepared. Kendra is giving us a lot of good information on Eden’s Gate.”

  “Milfalicious,” Jeff said. He made a kissy noise. “Bow chicka bow wow! I’d like to open her gate.”

  Kendra gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to jump off the toilet and throw hands. Milfalicious? What the hell?!

  “Settle down, young buck. Settle down.”

  There was the sound of laughter, a faucet squeak, then the door opening and closing.

  Kendra wasn’t sure what to think, but she was shocked at the new revelation. Someone had been sent into Eden’s Gate to ‘catch’ Dr. Winston? What justice could they possibly achieve by doing that? Dr. Winston was in another realm and catching him would do no real-world good.

  Not only that, but she had been working in tech since college. No matter how well Dr. Winston had built his game, there would ultimately be bugs and updates that would need to be made. So early on after the launch, Eden’s Gate would suffer without him at the helm. The millions of people logged in might be affected. The government, once again, was essentially trying to sabotage Eden’s Gate and ruin people’s lives.

  She was a bit offended too at how crude and unprofessional Jeff and Todd were as well. Milfalicious? Boxy? Fuck them, she thought. And fuck them for leading her to believe that all the information that they were requesting from her was for ‘national security’ purposes. It had nothing to do with security; they were on the offense. Fuck them.

  She wasn’t the biggest fan of Dr. Winston after what he had done, but she still had a soft spot for her old boss. She had worked for him for years—lo
ng enough to know that deep down he wasn’t trying to be an evil villain, even if what he did on launch day was wrong.

  The government, on the other hand? After having her house turned upside down, her personal hard drives seized, and questioned repeatedly about her involvement in Eden’s Gate, she wasn’t particularly enthused about working with them. Maybe she could feed them a few lies about the mechanics of Eden’s Gate as payback. It might throw their little plan for a loop if they ever made contact with whatever team they had sent into Eden’s Gate.

  And how? she wondered. How would they ever contact any players in Eden’s Gate? Were they expecting it to happen after they captured Dr. Winston?

  She’d have to keep her eyes open for any more information, but most of all, she needed to notify Dr. Winston whenever he opened up communication with her again. That could be months, and based on their last conversation, it might not happen again until the next scheduled presidential meeting.

  She hoped he’d be okay until then.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  2/22/0001

  I woke up the next day feeling like I hadn’t slept. The uncomfortable, smelly hay, Rithnar’s snoring, the worg’s random barking, and the whistle of the wind coursing through the barren Wastelands had kept me up most of the night.

  Rithnar dismantled the tent once he was up and tucked it away in the crate beside the worg as we set off for our mission that day.

  “We head straight north,” Rithnar said. “If all goes well, you should be able to level up your Beast Lore to 10 today. Level 8 to 10 is the rough minimum for a blight beetle.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “That seems like a lot for just one day.”

  “It’ll be all we do for today,” Rithnar said. “We may only have a day or two before the catapult is ready and King Ergoth makes his move.”

  During the morning, there wasn’t more to see in the Wastelands than I had seen during the night. The ground we walked was flat, barren, and landmarks were sparse aside from dead trees, rocks, and patches of dried grass.

  We walked a good five minutes without interruption before I saw something flying around aimlessly in the distance. It hovered slow, and at first seemed like nothing more than a large bird.

  “Do you see that?” I said, pointing ahead. “What is that?”

  Rithnar placed his hand over his eyes and nodded. “It’s a rotwing. Let’s hope there aren’t too many.”

  As we continued closer, the rotwing grew bigger and bigger until I realized that it was merely the distance that had made it look so small. Its wrinkled brown flesh was just as big as Rithnar’s worg, and at least six fly-like wings lining its back fluttered rapidly as it carried its slow-moving body. Six long legs that ended in pointy talons dangled below. Its mouth drooped open, showing pointy yet rotten teeth, and it had two beady eyes right above its mouth that were grey and absent of pupils.

  It was possibly the ugliest monster I had seen in Eden’s Gate thus far.

  Name: wandering rotwing

  Race: monster

  Level: 30

  Health/Mana/Stamina: 260/100/180

  Status: unknown

  Two other rotwings were flying a hundred meters or so away, and not too far from the first rotwing was a large, rotting corpse with flies buzzing over it.

  Rithnar reached for a heavy grey battleaxe with thick wooden handle that was holstered at his side, which he had gone out and purchased the night of our trip. He had told me he was skilled in many weapon types, but like most orcs, he was most skilled with an axe. “You can stand back if you wish.”

  I grabbed my staff, wanting to contribute and not miss out on any XP. “Anything I should know about these guys?”

  “When they’re threatened, they release a gas behind them that can burn your skin—you’ll see it. Avoid the gas, and you should be fine.” He reached down, grabbed a small pebble from that ground, and pulled his arm back to throw it at the monster.

  “Wait,” I said, holding my hand up. I tilted my staff from side to side. “Let me pull.”

  Rithnar nodded and lightly tossed the rock to the ground.

  I raised my staff, focused on an on-cast effect, and a rock cluster began forming in front of the staff’s head before rocketing forward and slamming into the side of the rotwing.

  The rotwing lost its flight balance for a second, but after recovering, it turned to us and started flying rapidly our way. Like Rithnar had said, a green powdery gas was released from its ass as it moved.

  I fired an Arcane Missile at the monster, which the monster swerved away from, but when I fired a Fireblast, it connected right on the rotwing’s horrid face. Surprisingly, the rotwing barely flinched from the attack and continued running straight for us.

  “It’s highly resistant to fire,” Rithnar yelled, pulling his weapon back for an attack.

  The rotwing flew for Rithnar, and when in distance, it pointed all six of its legs at him, seemingly not trying to hurt him, but rather trying to wrap its pointy, taloned legs around him.

  Rithnar ducked and simultaneously swung his axe at the rotwing, connecting with the monster’s underside. Its belly was torn open, and a yellow, gel-like ooze came dripping out of the wound.

  The rotwing came crashing down from the assault, but almost seemed to ricochet off the ground like an injured fly with how quickly it recovered. Rithnar dropped into a prone position and covered his mouth, trying to avoid inhaling or touching the green cloud the rotwing had left behind.

  The rotwing flew further away as I cast an on-cast from my staff and an Arcane Missile, both of which it dodged. When it flew back in range, Rithnar was already up, away from the cloud, with his axe at the ready.

  Rithnar spun when the monster zoomed up to him and connected hard with the side of the rotwing, but this time, it somehow managed to wrap two of its legs around Rithnar before it fell, pulling him to the ground as well.

  The monster and the orc tumbled and rolled over each other, and the rotwing jolted its legs out frantically, seemingly trying to wrap itself around the orc rather than piercing him.

  Rithnar roared loudly as the rotwing snapped its mouth at his back, trying to get a good angle for a bite, but Rithnar jerked his head back, repeatedly headbutting the monster. He followed up by throwing elbows with both his arms.

  I ran up to the two and started smacking the head of the rotwing with my staff, and after several strikes, the rotwing released its grip and tried to zoom away.

  The monster gained a moment of flight, before falling down, bouncing off the ground, then entering the air again. Two of its wings were broken, and it couldn’t seem to manage its balance in the air.

  The low and awkwardly flying creature turned around after flying just a few meters away then started back for us clumsily. As it closed in, I shot another Arcane Missile, which connected right between its eyes and sent it skidding across the ground.

  You have reached level 18 in Arcane Magic!

  The rotwing’s wings flapped rapidly but ineffectively, and its legs rattled aimlessly against the ground as Rithnar ran up to the fallen creature. He slammed his axe down on the side of its body once, which caused its wings to slow, and then again, which caused all movement from the monster to stop. More ooze seeped from its wounds and formed a nasty, yellow pool on the ground.

  You have gained 2400 XP!

  Rithnar hopped back from the monster and ran towards me, still trying to avoid the last of the poison cloud that had been released.

  “Good job,” I said.

  Rithnar nodded. “You too.”

  Bzzzzzz

  I turned my head to see that one of the other rotwings had closed in and was flying right for us. “Look out!”

  Rithnar’s eyes went wide when he saw the other monster approaching.

  The rotwing plunged down, trying to wrap his legs and talons around Rithnar, but Rithnar ducked and rolled athletically. When he rose up, he ran towards me to avoid getting harmed by the creature’s trail of poison ga
s.

  Rithnar groaned in pain when he was beside me and pointed towards the side of his arm. “Careful! This is what the rotwing gas will do to you.” Part of his skin was pink, bubbly, and raw as if he had suffered a burn.

  I held my staff up, cast an on-cast effect at the monster, knocking it to the ground momentarily. When its body bounced back up off the ground, I stomped forward and sent an Arcane Slash its way.

  The Arcane Slash missed the center of its face where I was aiming, but ultimately grazed the monster’s back, severing its wings and causing it to fall.

  The legs of the rotwing kicked out as it scrambled to return to the air, but its legs were useless without its wings. Rithnar started running for the creature with his axe raised, but I called out for him to stop.

  “What? What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Let me try something.”

  I started to channel a Firebomb as I approached the fallen beast, and when I had an apple-sized bomb, I waited for the monster to open its rotten-toothed mouth and flung the bomb inside.

  I jumped back to get some distance, but the Firebomb detonated fast, throwing rotwing guts everywhere.

  You have gained 2400 XP!

  “Resistant to fire but not Firebombs, I guess,” I said with a grin.

  I held out my hand towards the other rotwing that was flying nearby but had yet to attack us. I hit it with an Arcane Missile, and when it bounced off the ground, I started charging another Firebomb.

  “What are you doing?” Rithnar said, tensing and raising his axe. “We didn’t need to fight that one.”

  “Just some quick experience,” I replied, “now that I know how to kill them. Let me take care of it.”

  I held a Firebomb in my hand as the rotwing flew straight for me, and when it zoomed down to snatch me in its arms, I tossed the bomb in its open mouth and rolled to the side.

  The rotwing zoomed past us, and a second later, it exploded, sending yellow ooze and chunks of flesh everywhere.