Eden's Gate: The Ascent: A LitRPG Adventure

by Edward Brody

  As much as I had tried to stay composed, the dragon was no dog, and it was impossible to hide my fear. I turned in an attempt to run as hard as I could, but it was a futile effort. The dragon snatched me into its jaws just as easily as I had seen a dragon do to Solomon.

  I tried to scream as its teeth crushed my ribs, but it barely made a noise as my face was smothered by a thick saliva on the roof of its mouth.

  It opened its jaws then clamped down again, and the bottom half of my body went completely numb. I wasn’t sure if it had just severed my spine or completely split me in two.

  When it opened its mouth and chomped a third time, its teeth completely crushed my head, and thankfully, the indescribable pain shooting through my body lasted only a few more seconds. The last thing I heard was the sound of my bones being ground to bits before everything went black.

  YOU HAVE DIED

  All of your current level’s progression has been reset to 0% and any unused attribute and level points have been lost.

  You will respawn at your last bound location in approximately 2:00:00

  Take this time to reflect on your choices.

  Chapter Forty

  2/12/0001

  I manifested at the runestone near the Edgewood mine wearing only my boxer shorts and immediately started walking towards our village. I was terribly disappointed but had done enough reflecting on my mistakes while in the void.

  It had all been a waste. All the deaths my guild and Donovan had suffered. My death. It was all a waste.

  I completed my walk of shame back to the village, and Aaron stopped what he was doing when he saw me enter the clearing.

  He raised an eyebrow and lowered the piece of wood he was carving. “Uh-oh! This doesn’t look good.”

  I tilted my jaw to the side and didn’t reply as I marched straight for my home.

  “What happened, homie?!” he asked. “You died, huh?”

  “Yeah, just give me a minute, and I’ll tell you,” I said as I stepped up to my door. It hit me as soon as I was about to pull on the handle that I no longer had my keys. I bit my bottom lip and slammed my fist again the door.

  “You okay?” Aaron asked.

  I nodded and took a deep breath, then headed for our guild shop.

  When I pushed open the door, a female dark elf was inside looking at bows. Her eyes went wide, and she took a step back when she saw me—a near-naked human.

  “Sorry,” I said to her. “Just ignore me.”

  She bit her inner lip and swallowed before turning back to the goods.

  “Where’s your clothes?” Gerard asked.

  “I died…” I said. “Got anything I can put on?”

  The dark elf turned around and pooched her lips in curiosity. I didn’t care to hide the fact that I was a Reborn, because I figured all the dark elves in Edgewood knew about it by now.

  “What kind of clothes do you need?” Gerard asked.

  “Just about anything is fine,” I said. “Got any mage robes?”

  Gerard stepped out from the counter and walked me across the room ‘til we were at a shelf with several up layers of cloth on top. I wouldn’t have imagined that they were robes, but when he pulled the top one of the stacks, it unfolded into a long, reddish robe with a dark blue cape slung across the back. “How’s this?”

  You've received: Simple Traveler’s Robe. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 2.0 kg. +10 Stamina

  I slid the robe on, and it fit much looser than the robe that I had gotten from the Mages Guild. I didn’t like it nearly as much, but it was better than being naked. “It’ll do.”

  I looked up and noticed a stack of staves in the corner and went over the check those out as well. I placed my hand on several of them, inspecting their details. Most of them were very low-level, and some of them didn’t have any on-cast abilities. Those that did have on-cast effects were almost out of charges. I found one that was a little below what I wanted but had enough on-cast charges that it would work.

  You’ve received: Sparking Staff. 10-21 Attack Damage. Requires 5 Dexterity. 12 Intelligence. Durability: 6/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 3.0 kg. On Cast: Spark: 70 Charges Left.

  “I’ll take this too,” I said.

  He nodded before pulling out the store log and writing down the two items I planned on taking. “Anything else you need?”

  I glanced down to my feet. “Shoes?”

  Gerard raised his chin to an area against the wall where there were numerous shoes, boots, and sandals laid out. I checked a couple that were low level, and not wanting to waste any more time, I grabbed the next pair, simply because they were light and had a decent AR rating.

  You’ve received: Hardened Wrapped Cloth Boots. +6 Armor. Durability: 6/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.3 kg

  Gerard noted the shoes, and I said my goodbyes before heading back out the door.

  “Well?!” Aaron yelled as I stepped back out and over to the area surrounding the fire pit. “You going to tell me what happened?”

  “I made it to the top of Dragon’s Crest,” I said as I crossed my arms. “Even found the Heaven’s Shroom while I was up there.”

  “Oh, hell yeah!” Aaron stopped what he was doing and ran over to give me a high five.

  I ignored his raised hand and shook my head. “Nah… It was bad, man.”

  “Why?”

  “We had five deaths—six including me.”

  “Oh shittt…” Aaron cursed. He shook his head slowly. “Don’t tell me the others are…”

  “Nah,” I said. “The others are alive. Or at least they were before I died. Rina resurrected them. Hopefully, they’ll all be back here soon.”

  “Well, why didn’t she resurrect you?” Aaron asked.

  “I went ahead alone,” I explained. “After our group was nearly wiped out, I continued solo to see what was up there.” I took a deep breath. “I found a dragon’s den, a shit ton of loot, and I had my hands on Tymrial’s Blade.”

  “And then?” Aaron asked.

  “And then I was eaten by a dragon. I’m sure it was watching me the entire time.”

  “Ew,” Aaron said as he cringed. “That must have been a bad way to go.”

  I creased my brow. “It was terrible.”

  He leaned over and patted me on the shoulder. “That’s why I like staying in the village. No deaths. No poison. No bleeding.” He tilted his head from side to side. “Occasionally, I’ll get my nip my finger with a tool or something, but that only knocks off a few HP.”

  I snarled at him then looked down to the ground.

  “What’s wrong man?” Aaron asked. “You know where an ancient weapon is now!”

  “Yeah…” I said slowly. “But we can’t get it. It’s a deathtrap at our levels.”

  “Send Jeremy up there,” Aaron said. “Have him sneak in there and snatch it.”

  I shook my head again. “The floor is covered in gold. Every step would make a noise. And that’s beside the fact that the dragon is so high level that he’d probably detect him. And that’s assuming you could get past this sound detecting, blind ass drake in the level before it.”

  “If you made it up there alone, you can make it with the whole guild.” Aaron leaned back, scratched the back of his head and smiled. “Excluding me, of course.”

  “The dragon snatched me up in a split second. I wouldn’t risk taking any NPCs up there—not at our levels.”

  “Take just the Reborns. Ozzy, Jeremy, and Sung.”

  I took a deep breath, growing a little frustrated. All his suggestions were things I had considered when I was in the void. “I can’t because…” I trailed.

  “Because why?”

  “Because it’s suicide,” I said. “I’ve been there now. I’ve seen the dragon’s power. I’ve died. I know that if we go up there, there’s zero chance we’ll survive. I don’t know if Dr. Winston told you, but—”

  “Ahhh,” Aaron groaned. “I see. The game prevents R
eborns from doing irrational shit or committing suicide. The intrinsic fear of death forces us to act like sensible human beings.” He raised his eyebrow. “It was that bad? Like no chance at all you could get past the dragon?”

  “No chance,” I said, shaking my head. “At least at the levels where we are now. And I only saw one dragon. Who knows how many others are in there.”

  “Well fuck,” Aaron cursed. “What are you going to do about Adeelee? Wait for the Queen’s orders?”

  I lowered my eyes. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

  “Sorry brotha,” Aaron said as he patted me on the back. He glanced down a moment then looked up at me intently. He waved his hand towards a nearby log. “Have a seat over here.”

  I sat on the log, and Aaron pulled up beside me.

  “I know you care about Adeelee, Gunnar, but umm…” He paused a moment as if unsure what to say. “Just remember that she is an NPC.”

  I smirked and glared at him out of the corner of my eye.

  “Don’t take it the wrong way,” he explained. “NPCs are very much like us in this world. They’re practically like real people, and in some way they’re just as human as us. But they aren’t immortal either.”

  “I know that, dumbass,” I said.

  “Yeah, but you’re going to meet a lot of Adeelees in your time here.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  Aaron shrugged and dipped his head from side to side. “Maybe not just like her, but even elves die eventually. I know it’s hard to put immortality in perspective, but even an elf living a long, long life will die, especially if they’re out fighting shit from day to day. If you start developing feelings for an NPC, you have to accept that she…” He cleared his throat. “…or he is going to die eventually.”

  My heart sank, but I understood what he was saying.

  Tsarra had passed, but Adeelee? Even if I knew I would live beyond her years, it was hard for me to accept and Eden’s Gate without her. Even if I didn’t have feelings for her, I hoped that I would know her forever. She was a remarkable girl.

  “Maybe I’ll just turn aging on,” I groaned. “Then I won’t have to think about all this shit.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Aaron said and punched me lightly in the shoulder. “Don’t talk stupid. You need to learn to just have fun. You know, I’m dating an NPC myself now. I’d be crushed if she died tomorrow, but I know it’ll happen eventually. And she’s a human… It’ll be one hell of a situation when she turns fifty, and I’m still the same age.”

  I hadn’t fully considered the complications of dating an NPC human. Hell, even having NPC friends in Eden’s Gate was going to be hard. One day, Jax, Rina, and Gerard were going to grow old and eventually die.

  Immortality was an incredible perk, but it did have its downsides—the repeated horror of death and watching every non-Reborn entity around you pass away.

  I took a deep breath, stood up, and looked towards my door. “My keys are gone now. How the fuck do I get in my house?”

  Aaron tucked his chin and said, “Yikes. The locks installed on our homes are pretty strong, so unless your lockpicking is great—”

  “It’s not that great,” I interrupted.

  “Then we’ll have to break it down.” Aaron looked out to the surrounding forest. “I can get our guards to all come attack carefully, and we’ll either need to replace the lock or replace the door entirely depending on the damage. I’ll take care of it.”

  “How long will it take to replace?” I asked.

  “Best case a few hours,” Aaron said. “Worst case, all night.”

  I huffed and nodded. “Alright. Let’s do it. I need some time alone.”

  Our village’s guards were eventually able to break the door of my home down, and when I walked inside, I was both thankful and concerned when I realized that I had left the door to the crate in my room unlocked. It was a blessing at the time, but had someone else managed to enter my home without my permission, they would’ve had free rein to take everything I had.

  Not that I really had all that much.

  Once inside, I closed my broken door and lay down in my bed as I thought about my discussion with Aaron. He had made a lot of good points that I couldn’t dismiss. I wasn’t going to be able to keep Adeelee alive forever.

  But at the same time, he was one of the people who told me to stop looking for Rachel. Maybe he had been right at the time, but now that I knew she was in the game somewhere, I had every intention of finding her. I wasn’t going to give up on Rachel entirely.

  And I wouldn’t give up on Adeelee either.

  Not yet at least.

  There was still time. There had to be another way.

  Chapter Forty-One

  2/13/0001

  I spent most of the evening in my bed, and eventually the entire guild and Donovan made it back to Edgewood. There was a combination of both relief, surprise, and disappointment when they found that I was already there.

  I gave them a rundown of exactly what happened after I continued up Dragon’s Crest on my own, and the Reborns seemed in awe while the NPCs seemed terrified.

  Everyone was exhausted—including myself—and we all headed to bed early in the night. As soon as morning rolled around, I woke up to find my door repaired and a key lying beside my bed—Aaron was pretty much the bee’s knees. I pocketed my key and immediately recalled to the Mage’s Hall.

  I walked down the tower’s stairs and asked the first mage I saw if he had seen Darion. He seemed unimpressed and commented that I wasn’t wearing my belt. Thankfully, he had seen before and knew that I was a part of the guild, and eventually pointed me in the right direction.

  I found Darion in a small wing of the Mage’s Hall that seemed to be a dedicated library. He was walking around, browsing books. When he saw me enter the room, he sort of half smiled and half smirked as he scanned me up and down. “You’re not wearing your belt. Either you lost it, or you have zero respect for the Guild.”

  I took a deep breath. “I died.”

  Darion chuckled and shook his head. “Let me guess. That little note you received was a trap. They killed you as soon as you showed up.”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “It seemed to be exactly what the note said. They had Adeelee, but they didn’t want a ransom—I mean, they did want a ransom, but not gold.”

  “Not gold?” Darion asked. “Then what the hell did they want?”

  “An ancient weapon.”

  Darion tilted his head back and started laughing hysterically. “Of course, they wanted an ancient weapon. As if you can simply make one fall out of the sky for them, right?”

  I shrugged. “They knew I stole the Fellblade, so they thought I could deliver something similar to them.”

  Darion rolled his eyes. “At your level, that’s absolutely ridiculous.” He paused and tilted his head to the side. “Wait. If they didn’t kill you, how did you die?”

  “A dragon…”

  “A dragon?”

  I went on to explain to Darion what happened at Dragon’s Crest, the deaths, and the fact that I had indeed found an ancient weapon.

  “Idiocy!” Darion said, shaking his head. “You’re lucky you didn’t get your healer killed!”

  “I know,” I said with a sigh. “But I thought maybe you can help me…”

  Darion’s eyes went wide. “Meeeeee?”

  “You’re strong,” I said. “Stronger than anyone in my guild, I’m sure. If I could get you and Eanos to—”

  “Eanos?!” Darion shouted. “I’m about to laugh in your face at the idea, but Eanos would more likely slap you for the suggestion.”

  “But there’s really an ancient weap—“

  “Of course, there is!” Darion interrupted. “Because no one in their right mind is going to enter a dragon’s den to get it. The chance of death is astronomical. Have you forgotten why we were so anxious to get you into the Mages Guild?”

  I shook my head. I still remembered.
<
br />   “As a Reborn, you have the unique ability to respawn, which means that, with the right training, you may one day stand a chance again Ancient Beasts.” He waved his hand out in front of him. “But not now. You’re not even close to ready. The dragons may be weakened now while the Old Ones are still restraining them, but even a master mage is not dumb enough to risk their life at Dragon’s Crest—ancient weapon or not.”

  “Then what do you suggest I do?” I asked.

  “I suggest you give this up,” Darion said. “Focus on your training, and forget about the elf. The elves will help the elves.”

  I wanted to bang my head against the wall at the racial disregard that NPCs had in Eden’s Gate. The High Elves could care less about the humans in Highcastle, and it seemed the humans in Highcastle could care less about the elves of Mist Vale. And everyone could care less about the dark elves, of course.

  “Alright,” I said pointedly and turned to walk away.

  “Hey, wait,” Darion said. “Where are you going? Aren’t you going to train?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m going to look for someone else who can help me.” I wasn’t sure who could, but there were a couple other powerful people I knew—Commander Eldrich for one.

  “Wait,” Darion repeated.

  “What?” I asked as I turned.

  “You’re not going to give this up, are you?”

  “Not until I save my friend.”

  Darion’s shoulders slumped, and he huffed. He looked off in the distance and shook his head as he thought. Eventually, he said, “Well, don’t go to Dragon’s Crest. You have no chance of success there. Try another red area from the Omnicron.”

  “I can find an ancient weapon on a red area of the Omnicron?” I asked.

  “It’s possible,” Darion said. “There’s no guarantee of what you’ll find, but at least you won’t have to deal with an Ancient Beast.”