Veil Online - Book 3: An Epic LitRPG Adventure

by John Cressman

  Jace pulled up short, just shy of the bridge and waited for the girls to get to the other side before adding his weight to it. Then the golem burst through the trees and turned its head to look down at him. “RETURN WHAT YOU HAVE STOLEN!”

  The thing started towards him, but Jace was already running across the bridge. Sprinting as quickly as he could, Jace was about two-thirds of the way across when the enormous golem reached the edge of the ravine and started across the tree bridge, causing it to shake and vibrate.

  The girls screamed at him, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying through the sound of the thunderous footsteps of the golem. He had almost reached the other side when he heard a loud crack and then lurched as the bridge snapped in half and began to fall.

  Jumping for all he was worth, he sailed towards the girls. In mid-flight, Jace watched himself soaring closer and closer to the edge of the ravine. But his arch was wrong. He wasn’t going to make it.

  Jace hit the side of the ravine and his hands scrambled to find something, anything that he could grab onto. His right hand closed around what felt like a root and he held on as he began to fall.

  Behind him, growing distant he still heard the voice of the golem. “Return…. What…. You … Have….”

  As his full weight was put on the root, he felt it tearing away from the side of the ravine. Just before it gave way, he felt a slim but strong hand grip his wrist.

  “I have you!” Mika yelled and he felt himself being pulled up. As soon as his other hand reached the edge, Diana caught his other hand and together two girls pulled him onto the edge as a huge crash sounded from far below.

  Lost Temple Guardian dies.

  You gain 2000 experience.

  Once on firm ground, he turned over on his back while the girls collapsed to the ground. They were all breathing hard, unable to speak for several minutes while they’re heart rates slowly went back to normal.

  Finally, their ragged breathing returned to normal and Diana spoke. “Making friends I see.”

  Chapter 46

  “What was that thing?” Mika asked, still panting.

  “A stone golem,” Jace retorted, trying to get his breath back under control. “It objected to me prying out its eyes.”

  Both girls looked over at him, confusion and shock written on their faces.

  Jace brought out the two large gems and held them up. Both girls gasped in surprise at the sight of the fist sized rubies.

  “Those were its eyes?” Mika asked, her own eyes wide as she stared at the gems in the light of the sword. Even Jace noticed that they seemed to sparkle more in the light.

  “How’d you get them out?” Diana asked, her brow furrowed and her eyes fixed on the huge gems.

  Jace sat up and put them gems back into his inventory. “The golem wasn’t moving until I pried out the eyes. Then it came to life and tried to squash me.”

  “And almost succeed!” Mika said. Her voice was light, but her eyes held concern.

  Jace knew she cared about him and he gave her a lopsided grin as he shrugged. “I didn’t know it was going to come to life.”

  “How much do you think those things are worth?” Diana cut in.

  Jace thought back to the various gems he’d looted as Mordred. As he sorted through his memories, he scratched his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never found anything this large. The biggest ruby or diamond I found when I played Mordred was maybe a twentieth of this size.”

  “How much was it worth?” Diana pressed.

  “I think I got about 50,000 gold for my share, so I guess around 200,000 gold,” he said.

  “200,000 gold?” Diana repeated. “And it was a twentieth the size? So, one of those could be worth twenty times as much? That’s 4,000,000 gold!”

  Grinning, Jace nodded. “One of these is more than enough to pay for the scroll.”

  “So, we don’t have to go after any other treasure?” Mika asked.

  Jace shook his head and frowned. “I’m not even sure there IS any other treasure to go after. I don’t think these are treasure maps for buried. I think this is a list of places that the late captain found out about that he thought might have treasure.”

  “And monsters,” Mika added.

  “And monsters,” Jace agreed. “Powerful monsters. Bob could have killed all of us, the entire crew of the Wyvern’s Tail and destroyed the ship without even blinking. And that golem was a level 50 boss. One solid hit and it would kill any of us.”

  He let his words sink in before continuing. “Who knows what could be at the other locations. As far as I can tell, this list of locations is a high level dungeon list, or at least, monster list. I’ve seen and heard of similar things in the game. Tablets that lead to abandoned ruins. Scrolls with the descriptions of lost fortresses. Usually there’s some sort of quest chain involved but not in this case. We probably missed the quest start because Drakkar killed the captain instead of us.”

  “And that prevents a quest?” Mika asked with some confusion. “That’s not fair.”

  “It happens.” Jace shrugged. “I’ve read a few instances where quest chains have been broken because another group found a dungeon first and cleared it, effectively ending the event that would have led to the next quest.”

  “So,” Diana broke in. “About the huge gems… What do we do now?”

  “Back to Nynymmost,” he replied. “Avoid Damian. Buy the scroll. Contact Mordred and Charlena. Trap Damian.”

  “Is that all?” Diana smirked. “You make it sound so simple.”

  “How do we lure Damian out where we can use the scroll on him?” Mika asked.

  Frowning, Jace stood up. “That’s the question. We need to get him somewhere other players won’t find him and be able to release him easily. Otherwise, the scroll will be a waste if someone dispels it.”

  “But he can’t dispel himself, right?” Mika questioned.

  “No,” Jace replied. “The sphere is immune to all damage and magic from the outside. Technically, it could be destroyed by enough damage but that would take a full raid an hour or more. Most people just use a Dispel Scroll. They’re fairly common and used in many raid boss fights to debuff the boss.”

  “So even if Damian has one of those dispel thingies,” Diana asked, “he can’t use it to get out?”

  “No,” Jace shook his head. “Not from inside. And he can’t teleport out of it. Until someone lets him out, he’s effectively trapped.”

  “For how long?” Mika asked.

  “The sphere lasts indefinitely,” he told them. “But my guess is, Damian will log off and hop on the forums and offer a million gold or some ridiculous amount for someone to come and let him out.”

  Diana threw her hands up. “Then what’s the point?”

  “The point is,” Jace explained calmly. “That we lure him someplace out of the way, that can only be reached by ship. It needs to be someplace about a week away. That should give us enough time to get to find the Help Desk in Nynymmost.”

  “Which should be easier is we can buy a noble title with the gold from the second gem,” Diana said.

  “Exactly,” Jace agreed. “It should make it so much easier. If we have four million gold, we can buy a decent title. That should allow much better access to the parliament building. I would hope we can find it within a week.”

  “And then what?” Diana asked. “I mean, we’ve already talked to them, right?”

  Jace shrugged and deflated a bit. “I don’t know. I’m hoping they’ll have an update for us, a timetable for when they think it will be fixed, something. I don’t know what else to do.”

  “That will be enough,” Mika stood and placed a hand on Jace’s shoulder, giving it a little squeeze.

  Diana rolled her eyes again as she stood too. “How will it be good enough if they don’t help us and we have some lunatic in the game assassinating us every time we step into a city?”

  “What else can we do?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Diana sigh
ed. “Maybe we just sail off somewhere and have them leave us on some tropical island until those idiots fix us.”

  “Don’t forget about Mordred,” Jace said and then corrected himself. “I mean, the real me. He’s having to play dead in the real world, and he’s lost everything he ever had. The longer we prolong this, the longer he has to hide out.”

  “Fine,” Diana let out a breath. “But after we talk to support this time, then can we go to a tropical island?”

  “If support doesn’t give us good news,” he replied. “We may have no choice. We may have to hide out somewhere.”

  “Let’s go,” he said, motioning the girls to follow him.

  The three of them walked through the night without a word, each of them apparently lost in their own thoughts. As for Jace, he was thinking of places where they could lure Damian. He briefly thought of Bob’s island. If they could enlist his help, Bob would make a perfect guardian for a trapped Damian. Bob was a raid level monster, so a single player or even a group would have no chance against the dragon turtle.

  Eventually he decided against it. Bob had made it clear that he just wanted to be left alone. If Jace trapped Damian on his island and Damian tried to hire players to free him, Bob would get lots of unexpected visitors. They might not prevail against the dragon turtle, but they would bother him. No, Bob’s island just wasn’t an option.

  Other than the pirate haven, he really didn’t know any other islands around the area. He’d need to talk with Colette when he returned to the ship. Hopefully she would know of an isolated island about a week away from any ports.

  He frowned, the action hidden from the girls behind him. Jace didn’t know if the week would be enough to find the Help Desk in the gnomish parliament building. Since they’d been assassinated in the gnomish capital, Damian would know they’d been there. He could already have moved the Help Desk to the most obscure area of the building.

  Jace hadn’t told the girls about the possibility because Diana was already anxious about it. He knew she just wanted this to be over with and move on with her afterlife. Jace couldn’t blame her. He was sure he’d feel the same way if he’d lived as long as she had. And now, knowing she’d been unhappy in life, she had probably just wanted to sit back and be pampered for a few hundred years.

  But Jace wasn’t in such a hurry. He knew it was a very real possibility that this situation would end with him being deleted. And he’d come to realize it really wasn’t a comfort to know that his real self would live on.

  He was surprised to find that he actually envied his real self. Not only because his real self could go back and forth from the game to the real world. It was because his real self would get to live.

  Was that selfish? Was he selfish to want to live? He understood he was a mistake. That he shouldn’t have been inserted into the game since his real self hadn’t died. But he had been inserted. And he’d lived in the game. Created new memories. Memories that were unique to him.

  He thought of Mika and how she would feel if he were deleted. How long would she remember him once he was deleted? A month? A year? Ten years? A hundred? He wanted to be remembered. Maybe he was vain, but he really wanted to be remembered and not just fade into oblivion. Was that so wrong?

  With his mood as dark as the night around him, Jace continued in silence through the forest. Luna was leading the way home and he’d learned to trust her nose. She was a good cat. And a good companion. His frown deepened when he realized that when he was erased, so would Luna.

  That wasn’t fair. Even if they had to delete him, they should at least keep Luna alive. But he knew that was impossible. She was his familiar. She was bound to him. He silently cursed the unfairness of it all. When he went, so would she.

  Looking ahead at Luna as the cat led them back to the ship, he felt something on his cheek. He reached up to find it wet. He hadn’t cried when he’d found out about his parents and his sister being killed. But now he was shedding virtual tears for a virtual cat. Ironic. Wiping a hand across his eyes, he followed Luna through the forest and back to the beach.

  Chapter 47

  They made it back to the shore just as day broke. Jace was glad to see the Wyvern’s Tail was still moored in the same place they’d left it. He’d been worried that they might weight anchor and leave them stranded. They were pirates after all and it wouldn’t be the first mutiny.

  He wondered if the fact that he had taken possession of the ship in-game had anything to do with it. Having never owned a vehicle in VEIL Online , he had no way of knowing. But he was glad it was still there.

  Jace cast a few Flame Bolts straight up into the air to get the attention of the ship. Within a few minutes, the sailors had launched a small boat to come pick them up. Twenty minutes later, they were onboard the Wyvern’s Tail.

  “Find what you were looking for, Captain?” Colette asked.

  “Maybe,” Jace replied, purposefully vague in front of the crew. “We’ll have to see.”

  “Good,” Colette grinned, flashing Jace white teeth. “I don’t want no dark elf chasing us around, threatening to destroy the ship.”

  “Make ready to cast off!” the first mate yelled, and the crew burst into action. She looked to Jace. “Where to captain?”

  “Maybe you can help me with that,” he replied.

  Colette raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

  “I’m looking for an out of the way island,” he told her. “At least a week from any major port. Someplace isolated and not well known.”

  “You planning to become a hermit?” the woman chuckled.

  Jace had spent the walk home wondering what he should tell Colette. He had considered keeping the truth from her but he gave up on the idea and just decided to go with the truth. “We’re going to trap that dark elf in a magic prison and I need a deserted island to do it on.”

  “Why does it have to be deserted if it’s a magical prison?” she asked, her expression curious.

  “The prison can’t be broken or dispelled from within,” he explained. “But someone from the outside can break it open. We want to make sure no one finds him anytime soon.”

  The first mate turned her head and barked some more orders before turning back to Jace. Her face was somber. Her lips pursed. She was quiet for a long minute before finally speaking. “I might know of a place. It’s out of the way. About a week from here. Very isolated. Not on any map I know.”

  “Great! That sounds...” Jace started her but the woman’s expression made him trail off. “What’s wrong?”

  Colette’s expression was serious and her brow was furrowed. She made a warding sign in the air before speaking. “Bad for ships. Some have gone there and not come back.”

  Jace raised an eyebrow. “It’s dangerous?”

  “That’s what the stories say,” the first mate bit her lip.

  “What’s there?” he asked. “Some sort of monster?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged, her expression haunted. “But anyone who’s been there doesn’t want to go back.”

  “Why?” he prodded.

  “It’s called the Demon’s Grin,” she said finally, lowering her voice. “It’s a cursed island.”

  “Cursed how?” he asked. He could think of several cursed places he’d run into during his adventuring days as Mordred. In every instance, he’d gotten a solo or group quest to remove the curse. Could this be the same? Some out of the way quest?

  “I don’t know,” she said, throwing up her hands. “That’s just what the stories say.”

  “But you know how to get there?” he asked.

  She was quiet for a long moment before nodding slowly. “Aye. An old lover had been there with his crew. He’s not one to be afraid of anything. But he was afraid of the island. He told me where it was so I would never go there.”

  Jace nodded and stayed quiet as a range of emotions played across the first mate’s face. After waiting patiently for several minutes, Colette looked up at him. Her face was set in a hard mask.
“It’s dangerous, aye. But, if this dark elf is as bad as you say, then it’s the perfect place to imprison him.”

  “So, you’ll take us there?” he asked.

  She sighed. “Aye. I will take you there.”

  “Good,” he grinned and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I know you don’t want to, but the Demon’s Grin sounds like the perfect place to leave him.”

  “Aye,” she said quietly, her eyes distant.

  “I need you to give me the coordinates so I can send him a message to meet us there,” he said. “And then we need to head back to Nynymmost.”

  “Back to the gnome city? Why?”

  “We’re going to pick up some people who are going to help us imprison him.”

  “If this dark elf is as powerful as you claim, it must be someone even more powerful,” the first mate said and raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Maybe not quite as powerful,” Jace replied. “But very sneaky. Plus, we also need to send a raven message to the dark elf, letting him know where to meet us.”

  “And you think he’s going to just come by himself?”

  He remembered Damian relating various adventures he’d been on. His former co-worker always bragged about how much smarter he was than the other players. Plus, Jace knew Damian wouldn’t risk him blurting out his secret in front of anyone else. “Oh, he’ll come by himself. He’s too paranoid and arrogant to bring anyone else.”

  Colette eyed him before nodding. “I hope you’re right.”

  “Me too,” Jace admitted. He was sure Damian would have some surprises for them, but once he was imprisoned, none of those would matter. No magic would operate in the sphere. And with Mordred’s Stealth skill, sneaking up on him should be no problem.

  “So, then we go back to Nynymmost?” the first mate asked.

  “Yes,” he nodded.

  “Fine,” she said. “Then let me get us on the way and I’ll come bring you the coordinates.”

  “Sounds good,” he told her and spun to walk away.

  “And you’re sure this plan of yours will work?” she asked.

  Jace stopped and looked over his shoulder. “It’d better. Or we’re all in a lot of trouble.”