The airship had left a day later, apparently no longer willing to wait for Damian. Sunsday evening, the Wyvern’s Tail appeared off shore. Jace waited until the next morning and reluctantly rowed himself back to the ship.
As he climbed aboard, Colette was there to greet him with a frown. “Where are your two wives?”
Jace scowled. “I don’t know. They disappeared.”
Colette’s eyes widened. “Disappeared? You mean by magic?”
“I don’t know,” he muttered. If they had respawned somehow, he knew where they’d be. “But I want you to sail back to Nynymmost. If they were transported somewhere, it was most likely there. If I can’t meet you in a week, I’ll contact you by raven messenger.”
Colette nodded solemnly. “What about you, captain?”
“I’m going to stay here for a few more days,” he told her. “I just need some more food.”
“Aye, captain,” the first mate said.
He went down to the kitchen and took several days worth of fish for himself and Luna. Going back to the side of the ship, Jace turned to climb down to the boat. He locked eyes with Colette. “If you find them, tell them to send me a raven message, letting me know they’re okay.”
“I will, captain,” the first mate nodded and Jace climbed back down to the boat. This time, there were two sailors with him so they could row the boat back. Jace wouldn’t need it. When he was ready to leave, he’d use the ring to get back to the gnomish capital.
***
Three days later, the girls had not appeared. Reluctantly, Jace decided to leave the island. At this point, he didn’t think the girls would be returning. He was certain the emergency patch had done something to them. The timing was too coincidental.
He had an idea of what might have happened, but he needed to verify it. At least, verify it as much as he could.
“You ready to leave the island?” he asked Luna. The cat had been his only companion through the last few days but even she was getting stir crazy.
“Ready,” the cat replied quickly.
“Me too,” he sighed and took one last look around. Focusing on the ring, he activated the teleportation spell and chose Nynymmost as his destination.
The world blurred and bent around him and suddenly he was in the graveyard of the gnomish capital. He didn’t hesitate but ran through the gates and back to the raven messenger office. He burst in the door, startling the gnomes in the office.
“I… need… to… send… a message,” he managed, out of breath from his run. His stamina was low, but he knew it would regenerate.
“Oh, uh,” the closest gnome seemed to come to her senses. “Of course. And who would you like to send it to?”
“Mika Knightly,” he said, giving Mika’s avatar’s name.
The little gnomes eyes went vacant for a second before she shook her head. “I’m sorry, there’s no one by that name.”
Jace sighed. “How about Diana Knightly?”
Once again, the gnome’s eyes went vacant briefly and then she shook her head again. “I’m sorry, there’s no one by that name.”
Jace frowned but then snapped his fingers. “How about Mordred Blacklock?”
“I’m sorry, there’s no one by that name,” the gnome told him.
“Alalorn Shadegazer,” Jace said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He didn't really care about Damian, but if his avatar was somehow back in the game, Jace needed to know so he could watch his back.
“I’m sorry, there’s no one by that name,” the gnome told him.
Jace let out a breath and forced a smile. “Nevermind.”
“Understood,” the gnome said. “Come back again if you need to send a message!”
Jace walked out of the shop and leaned against the wall. All of their avatars were gone. Mordred and Damian weren’t a surprise. Whatever virus Damian had created had destroyed both of their characters and not even a system restore had brought them back.
He also wasn’t surprised that Diana and Mika’s avatars were gone. If he were right, and he hoped he was, the emergency patch had sent them back to their original avatars. He couldn’t remember if Mika had told him the name of her cat-kin character, but if she had, he’d forgotten. He had no way to contact her.
Diana hadn’t had a character. She’d hopefully be creating a new one. He wasn’t sure if she would get her money back but unless she reached out to him, he had no way of finding her either.
He was starting to feel down when a raven dropped out of the sky. He saw Luna tense, her tail twitching back and forth. He smiled and put a hand on her head.
“No eating the raven messenger,” Jace told her and the cat actually pouted. He scratched behind her ears and lowered his voice. “At least, not until it delivers the message.”
Luna perked up and narrowed her eyes at the incoming raven. The thing must have sensed the danger of landing too close to the large cat and it opted to land on the roof of the raven shop. The thing looked down at Jace and began to speak.
Message from Mimyeni Kohni
Jace,
This is Mika. I am in my cat-kin again! I have my former items but not my grandmother’s money. I will make my way to Whitecliff as soon as possible but I must work on my faction. You know where! See you soon!
Love,
Mika
Jace smiled as he listened to the raven. As soon as the bird finished, it hopped away from the ledge and out of view of the hungry cat.
Turning to Luna, he dropped down and gave her a big hug. “They’re alive Luna! They’re alive!”
Chapter 56
Two months later, Jace, Mika, Diana, Charlena and his real self, were all in the Dwarvish Fork. Anyone who knew them from previously would only have recognized Jace and Charlena. It was a very different looking group now.
Jace had survived the system restore. He’d also survived the subsequent patch that reunited the players affected by Damian’s hack with their original avatars. He wasn’t sure exactly how he had survived. Had been because Damain had deleted any record of him? Was it because of the Null Sword, as he was calling it, that he’d taken from Damian?
Damian had said that the Null Sword was “outside” of the normal code. Was there some sort of polymorphic encryption that protected it, and possibly him, from the normal patch code? It was impossible to know for sure.
The real Jace and Charlena’s avatars had been destroyed and irretrievable. They’d both lodged complaints with WorldCog but had to join the class action lawsuit that was currently underway against the company if they wanted any sort of compensation for the “incident” that had occurred.
Now, they were both playing elven rangers. Charlena looked almost identical, with her red hair and pointed ears. The real Jace, who was now called Mortolius Darkbow, had created a new elf avatar so the two of them could play together.
The real Jace had gone to the police about the attempted murder. After revealing to the authorities and WorldCog that he had been in a coma and that Damian had been the responsible person, an official investigation had started. Or rather, another official investigation had started.
When Jace had destroyed Damian’s avatar with the Null Sword, it had destroyed the admin account while it was signed out to Damian. WorldCog had easily traced it back to the senior programmer and whether he panicked, or just decided to cut his losses, Damian had disappeared that same night.
There was currently a local and federal investigation into Damian for embezzlement, fraud, hacking, sabotage and a host of other crimes. All of his assets had been seized but they suspected he had a number of offshore accounts.
Mika, who was now a level 50 cat-kin, was snuggled up next to Jace as she purred softly. She looked very similar to her human body except slightly thinner. Oh, and there were the cat ears, little pink nose and the tail. Of course, Luna had instantly taken a liking to her. Go figure.
The cat-kin had set out for the good faction the day she’s respawned in her avatar. She’d sent a rav
en message and then jumped on the first ship to the Whitecliff she could find. She spent the next two weeks killing orcs and gnolls, building up enough faction to be able to walk into the city.
Their reunion had been steamy, especially once they realized that as long as Jace initiated the intimate contact, Mika could consent. That made their reunion much more enjoyable. It was one time when Jace didn’t mind his sensory level at maximum.
Diana was no longer a human. She’d been able to create her elven character who wasn’t quite as voluptuous as her human had been, but still a knockout. It had taken her two weeks to scrap together enough money to get on with a caravan that was coming to Whitecliff. Then it took another six weeks for the caravan to actually make it to Whitecliff.
Like Mika, Diana had none of her previous money, although WorldCog continued to let both of them know it was under investigation and how it wasn’t the companies fault but the actions of a single individual, yada yada yada.
Neither of them really believed they would get their money back. Most likely WorldCog would find some legal loophole to get out of compensating them for their lost money. Not that it really mattered. None of them really ever had to work again. Least of all the real Jace.
After getting the message from Mika, Jace realized that all of the players affected by Damian’s insert code had most likely been restored. As soon as he learned that, he took the money he had and two chests of holding and the fastest mount he could buy at his level.
He then rode as fast as he could to the swamp where the epic dragon had made its lair. It had taken him a week to get there and three more days to actually find the lair. When he did, he found something that startled him but made sense when he thought about it.
Scratched on the wall of the dragon’s cave were the words “I am Big Cheese.” Jace wasn’t sure how, but that insane goblin leader must have died and hopped into the body of the dragon. That helped explain some of the dragon’s bizarre behavior. He briefly wondered what would become of the insane player but then that was a problem for WorldCog to deal with.
The crazy dragon had collected an enormous amount of treasure and loot. Perhaps it had taken the loot from the towns it destroyed or perhaps some of it was from the raiders who had sought to kill him. Either way, there was millions of gold and dozens of magical items.
No other players came near the lair after the horribly failed raids, so Jace had the place to himself. He made several trips, filling up the chests and haversack each time and then dumping the treasure into his bank.
He had no idea how much treasure he had now, but he’d had to upgrade to the largest bank vault they had offered and it was filled. And that was after he’d divided most of it up between Mika, Diana, Charlena and his real self.
“What are you two going to do now?” Jace asked Charlena and his other self.
“I don’t think we’ll be in the game as much in the near future. With the money you gave us,” Charlena said, glancing at her Jace. “We were thinking of traveling.”
“Oh,” Diana cooed, “I love travelling. Where are you planning to go?”
Charlena giggled and the real Jace grinned. “Everywhere.”
“Good for you two!” Diana said and they all drank to that.
“We’re also thinking about adopting this orange tabby cat,” the other Jace said and looked at Charlena. “We’re going to name her Luna.”
Luna perked up briefly but then went back to eating her fish and everyone chuckled.
“How about you, Diana?” Charlena asked.
Diana shrugged. “I bought that vineyard I wanted and now I’m going to go and enjoy it. Thank you, Jace.”
They all drank to that.
“With Bob,” Mika said loudly when she put her mug down.
The older woman’s face went beet red and they all laughed. Diana had let it slip that Bob had been restored as well and had run into her on the caravan. The two of them had hit it off and were now spending time together at her vineyard.
“What about you two?” Diana asked, looking at Mika and Jace. “What are your plans?”
Jace started to speak but Mika cut him off. “Jace needs to power level so we can adventure together!”
“Did you ever figure out why you stayed a beta character while everyone else reverted?” his alternate self-asked.
Jace shrugged. He was 99% sure it was the sword, but still didn’t know for sure. “It must either have to do with the fact that I was inserted by accident and maybe Damian deleted the records of me. Or, something with carrying the Null Sword. Either way, I’m not complaining.”
“Not now that Mika can consent,” Diana teased and Jace and Mika both turned red.
“To Jace and Mika,” Diana said, raising her mug.
“To friends,” said Charlena, raising her mug.
“To brothers,” Jace’s real world self said.
Jace held up his own mug, “To family.”
And they all drank to that.
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Acknowledgements
I'd like to acknowledge all the members of the LitRPG Authors' Guild who helped me in so many ways! Without your help, I could never have gotten this far!
About the Author
John E. Cressman is an author, magician, mentalist, hypnotist, programmer, and longtime lover of roleplaying games and fantasy/sci-fi books.
As a teen, he wasted long hours creating D&D fantasy campaigns for his friends to play. He has tried several pen and paper roleplaying games from the original Dungeons and Dragons, Traveler and Star Frontiers to the new Pathfinder games.
He still enjoys computer RPGs and MMORPGs, with his current favorite being Elder Scrolls Online. He used to play Skyrim, but then he took an arrow to the knee.
John has published two books on hypnosis and is now trying his hand at the fantasy LitRPG genre with his new LitRPG trilogy, VEIL Online.
Veil Online - Book 3: An Epic LitRPG Adventure Page 35
