The Accidental Mage Serial:
Death’s Chasm
Constantine Noble
Copyright © 2017 Herrin Enterprises LLC
All rights reserved.
The next book in The Accidental Mage Serial will be released in early March 2017. If you enjoy reading, we’d love for you to leave a review on Amazon! k12
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The Accidental Mage Serial: The Orb of Agner (Episode 1)
January 2017
The Accidental Mage Serial: The Kobold Thief (Episode 2)
January 2017
The Accidental Mage Serial: Death’s Chasm (Episode 3)
January 2017
The Accidental Mage Serial Episode 4
Coming March 2017
Chapter 1
Darkness and silence enveloped him. The only thing he could feel was a falling sensation that never seemed to end. He couldn’t move his limbs, and wasn’t sure if they even existed. All sense of time was lost, and he had issues remembering anything.
Was he dead?
He felt like this wasn’t the first time he had that thought, but couldn’t be sure. The only thing he was confident in was that he had his own consciousness. Memories of his childhood passed before his eyes. He remembered playing catch with his family, his first day of school, playing with his friends, and finally logging into Hyperion’s Keep.
Was he dead?
He couldn’t remember if this was the first time he had that thought.
Breaking this endless chain, a brilliant light temporarily blinded him. Struggling to see what happened, he was barely able to squint and see where this light was coming from. In giant white letters directly in front of him was written:
Shell (“Shutdown -r -t 10”)
Was this… code? He read through it a few more times. His father had been a programmer, and taught him a few things. He believed this was saying that something was going to be shut down in ten seconds, and then restarted. What could that be talking about thou-
The light disappeared, and darkness surrounded him yet again.
Was he dead?
Suddenly the feeling of falling intensified, like an airplane coming in for a landing. His breathing became more and more forced, as if he was vigorously working out. He glanced below him and saw the small light of a camp fire and the brown floor of a cave. As he fell, he was getting closer and closer to the floor. His looked around in a panic as he began to realize he was going to slam into the ground. He desperately held out his arms in front of him, embracing for impact.
“Huuuuuuuh!” he sat up quickly, gasping for air.
He sat on the floor of a cave, next to the fire he saw while falling. Where was he? He patted at his chest, limbs, and head. He was alive? Was it all a dream?
“Ah, you’ve finally Awoken…” said a voice from the shadows.
“Who are y-“ was all he could say before he was struck by a coughing fit. His throat was as dry as the desert of Lorgatha, and he was hit with a sudden, extreme thirst.
“There’s a canteen with water next to you,” replied the voice, ignoring his question.
He looked around frantically for the container, not worrying if it was poisoned or not. When he spotted it, he chugged it down, soothing his hoarse throat. After clearing his throat a few times, he turned back to the shadows.
“Thanks… where am I?”
“Just some cave a little north of the city of Inganno. I didn’t have much time to find a place to Awaken you, so I had to make do with this.”
“Awaken me?”
“Yes. My associates and I have discovered a way to reboot the life of dead players in The Game.”
He thought back to being in that dark place, continually falling. So he had died, after all.
“How did you find me?”
“About that…” The man stepped through the shadows and into the light of the camp fire. He had on a black cloak with the hood up, and a glowing blue dagger in his belt. “I was the one the killed you in the first place, Jacob.”
Jacob’s eyes widened as the last minute of his life played out before his eyes. He was walking back to Drax with Lorcan, when they ran into this prick. He grabbed for the sword on his back, but only found air in the scabbard.
“You didn’t really think I was going to tell you I was your killer, and let you have your weapon, did you?” asked the man with a shake of his head.
Jacob tried to stand up. “Fine, I’ll fight you with my fists.” He got his footing, and then immediately lost it again.
“Calm down,” said Jacob’s murderer as the Warrior fell back down. “I brought you back, didn’t I? It wasn’t to just kill you all over again.”
That was a good point.
“Although I can, if that’s what you really want.”
“Speaking of which, what do you want?” asked Jacob, doing his best to relax.
“Truth be told, I would like for you to join us,” said the man with a smile. “My colleagues and I have found a way to Awaken -or revive- players that have died within one week, so long as we still have the body. While you may be understandably upset with me for killing you, you’ve now witnessed our secret first hand. This may be an… unorthodox… way of convincing new recruits, but it’s effective. We’ve all been through it.”
That didn’t make Jacob feel any better. So there were more of them. “That’s all well and good, and not to sound too blunt but, what’s in it for me? Why should I join you?”
“Ah, a man with self interest. You will fit in well,” nodded the man. “Fair question. Until you achieve the rank of captain in our group, you will not be able to log out at the designated zones. You also will not have access to your friends list or map options. Once you attain the appropriate ranking in our system, we will permanently unlock all of these things for you.”
“So you are keeping me captive?”
“No. You can absolutely walk away right now, if you’d like. I won’t stop you. There are many people who effectively live in The Game full time, and do not feel as if they are being held captive.”
That still felt like being trapped to Jacob.
“When you killed me, I was with my friend, a Mage. Where is he?”
The man looked into the flickering fire. Maybe he was remembering what happened, but Jacob had a suspicion that he was stalling for time.
“Unfortunately, the bandits I was working with went savage and tried to attack me. I was forced to flee, and sadly your friend didn’t make it. I couldn’t go back to retrieve his body.”
Jacob bit his lip. Could this be true? Could Lorcan really be dead? He tried to think back to that day. There was this hooded man and six or eight thugs with him. They didn’t appear very strong though, and backed off as soon as he and the man squared off. Surely this guy could have taken them all out if he wanted to. Plus, Lorcan had that Orb of Agner, which could probably kill all of them in one go.
The man was probably lying, Jacob decided. He should pretend to work with him for the time being, and then ditch them once he reached the captain rank, or thought of something else.
The cloaked man walked over to him. “Joining us would be the greatest tribute to your Mage friend. If we succeed in our goals, then people like him won’t die in the real world when the die here! Hyperion’s Keep will become a Utopia!”
He reached out his hand. “What do you say?”
Jacob looked at the out reached hand. How badly he wanted to break it. He would train hard and be the one to take this guy out, once and for all.
Jacob took the man’s hand and shook it. “Seems reasonable.”
“Good. The name is Felix, by the way,” said the man while taking his h
and back, and producing Jacob’s sword. He handed it back to the Warrior, and continued. “Now, we are going to head up to Base 504 and make sure that everything is as it should be there. A despicable, crazy man who goes by the name of Gamebreaker is hunting down our men and taking them out. He used to work with us once upon a time, and was believed to have been killed on an operation. Instead, he has gone rogue. He is extremely dangerous. If we run into him, we need to focus on getting away. The two of us won’t be able to take him out alone.”
Jacob wasn’t too concerned. He had died before.
Chapter 2
Lorcan and the others entered Inganno, and took in the scene. Everyone walking by diverted their eyes from all the other passerbys. Even though people were afraid to look at one another, Lorcan and his group couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. The residents of Inganno all wore an assortment of hoods, cloaks, and masks, all of which were used to hide their faces. The sky was grayed out, and Lorcan wasn’t sure if that was because of the smoke coming out of all the buildings or if the game programmers had set it up this way. All of the buildings reminded him of the Lame Duck back in Drax: broken down and poorly lit.
“Stick close together,” mumbled Kurt to the group. “Just because we are in a city doesn’t mean we are safe. This is still a PvP area, don’t forget that.”
“Aye, this place has quite the reputation,” added Gilnar. “Even we in the Klariz Region have heard the stories of this town.”
Lorcan wanted to ask more about where Gilnar was from, but decided to table it for another time. He felt increasingly uneasy in this town, and wanted to find the Kobold and Orb of Agner as quickly as possible.
“This is our first time here and it’s… not the friendliest of places,” said Sandy, who looked more uncomfortable than she was probably realized. “David and I will stick with you guys until we all leave, if that’s okay. Having a Warrior and Cleric could come in handy, you know?”
“The more than merrier,” cheered Gilnar with a big smile and a pat on her back. Kurt seemed less than pleased, but didn’t say anything.
“Hey Kurt,” asked Lorcan, “Are you still able to track down that Kobold with all of this foot traffic?”
Kurt nodded. “It’s not easy, but I’ve still got it. I’ve done this job through worse circumstances.”
This comforted Lorcan, who began thinking of the next steps. Even if they found the thief here, they were still going to have to move forward to higher level content. Not being able to heal was becoming an issue, and even though he had Gilnar and Sandy around, he wanted a little more assurance.
“Are there potions shops in this town?”
“I recommend we spend as little time here as possible,” advised Kurt. “Even the shops around here have a rough and questionable reputation. We should probably wait until we get to another town before shopping.”
“Actually, I agree with the lad!” exclaimed the Dwarf. “There are a few items that I’ve been meaning to pickup, and didn’t get much a chance during my time in Drax.”
“Weren’t you there for a while, just wasting time at that temple?” asked Kurt.
“Hey now, one can’t waste time when in the presence of Myra! I was busy helping the staff out with questions and chores!”
“I’m sure they appreciated your expertise…”
“Oi, what was that?”
“I said, we should split up. It’ll be faster to hit up multiple shops if we go in two groups.”
“David and I wouldn’t mind going with Gilnar,” chimed in Sandy, sensing the mild animosity building between the Paladin and Tracker. “We all wear heavy armor and use similar weapons. Where should we meet up when we are done?”
While the sky seems to be an eternal gray here, it does seem to be getting darker, thought Lorcan as he looked up. They probably weren’t going to catch the Kobold before the end of the day.
“How about an inn?” asked Lorcan.
Kurt grunted his approval. “Not a bad idea, kid. You’re starting to finally use your head. If memory serves me right, there is an inn a few blocks to the left of here called the ‘Sticky Leaf’ or something like that. Let’s meet up there for the night.”
With that, Lorcan and Kurt split off from the group in search of some potions.
After a few minutes of wandering around and asking for directions from some sketchy residents, they finally stumbled upon a potion shop. When they entered, a bell rang, notifying everyone inside of the new visitors. The ‘everyone’, in this case, being just the store keeping Gnome.
“Oooooh patrons! Come in, come in!” said the Gnome with an excited bounce.
As they approached the counter, Lorcan noticed rows and rows of tiny bottles and containers across the tables. None of them were labeled, and many had a thin layer of dust over them. Lorcan was getting the vibe that the Gnome was not used to getting too many customers.
“Interested in some potions, are we?” the Gnome asked while shaking.
“Uh yeah, I was looking for-”
“How about a polymorph potion, hmm?” interrupted the Gnome. “All you’ve got to do is convince the enemy to take a sip, and POOF! You’ve got yourself a new frog for a pet.”
“O-okay, that’s good to know. However we-”
“Not much of a frog person? I know, I’ve got just the thing, just the thing! How about a potion that allows the user to breathe fire? Now tell me that isn’t impressive. Tell me!”
“No, it’s impressive. I just don’t think that it’s what I’m looking fo-”
“Potion of height gain? Potion of cure acid reflux?”
Lorcan was starting to worry the Gnome only had potions for sale that were useless.
“Enough,” interrupted Kurt, firmly. “My friend is looking for a healing potion or two.”
The Gnome looked as if he just found out a relative had died. A close relative.
“Oh… that’s boring. Really boring. Fine, I’ve got a couple laying around here somewhere…”
The shop owner hit over some bottles as he looked for the customer’s disappointing choice. “Ah here we are. I have four remaining. Two for 20 gold each, one for 100 gold, and the last for 1,000 gold.”
Well, that made this simple, thought Lorcan.
“Okay, I’ll take the two 20 gold ones, please,” said Lorcan as he placed 40 gold on the counter.
The Gnome handed over one blue and one green potion as he pocketed the gold. A tiny smirk had returned to the Gnome’s face, but Lorcan didn’t think much of it.
“Oh, do they heal different amounts?” asked Lorcan, confused by the different colors.
“Maybe, I can’t remember,” replied the Gnome with a shrug. “It has been a few years since I made both of them, and I can’t remember their stats, or after effects.”
“After effects…?”
The Gnome smirk grew. “Good luck on your journeys, and don’t be afraid to come back the next time you are in Inganno!”
Lorcan and Kurt left the shop and made their way to the Sticky Leaf.
“Do you think these potions are safe?” Lorcan asked the Tracker.
“I would recommend you only use them as a last resort. Even then, maybe don’t.”
The Sticky Leaf didn’t have a gathering place inside like most inns Lorcan had seen before. Kurt explained that most businesses within the city limits of Inganno avoided becoming a public meeting place, as brawls tended to break out more nights than not. The Sticky Leaf instead just had a front counter, and all of the rooms were accessible from the outside of the building. Kurt further explained that this was to keep the number of eyes on the comings and goings of guests to a minimum.
The two had arrived before the others, and Kurt offered to wait outside for them. Lorcan could get some rest, and the others would be quiet when they came in. The Mage took him up on that offer, and promptly fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow.
Chapter 3
It had been a few hours since the rest of t
he group had arrived and fallen asleep, when Kurt quietly got to his feet. He glanced around as he made his way to the door, being careful not to wake anyone up. He had gotten accustom to making it through the day on just three or four hours of sleep a night during his younger years, and figured now would be the perfect time to get the jump on Darrion. He could get the orb back and get some information on the thief’s contact. He made it to the door, and glanced back at the sleeping Lorcan.
The kid had saved him from the enemy Tracker who got the jump on him while he himself was laying a trap to take the Mage out. When Lorcan was captured and it looked like it was the end for him, the kid was telling Gilnar and Kurt to run away and save themselves. This changed something in Kurt, and the Tracker was growing fonder of the stupid Mage. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but he saw a bit of his wife and daughter in Lorcan. They had similar, caring hearts, even if it was a detriment to themselves. He had decided to help the Mage recover his friend, as that’s what his family would have wanted. Now, getting the orb back was another story. There was money to be made there.
The Tracker pulled up his hood as he walked out of the inn. They had passed an alley earlier that Darrion had definitely gone down, but Kurt didn’t want to say anything at the time. His plan was to take the orb from the Kobold and sell it to the contact himself. He would explain to the others that by the time he caught the thief, the Orb of Agner was gone. He finally arrived at the alley he passed earlier, and the disgusting scent was just as powerful as before. Glancing around and not seeing anything out of the ordinary, he followed the trail.
The scent was getting stronger as Kurt made his way down the alley. It was very cramped, with crates lining the side of each building. An occasional door populated the alleyway, and the trail lead him to a blue tinted one about half way down. The Tracker contemplated his options. He was fairly certain the Kobold was inside, so one option was to just barge in. He was confident that there was no one else in the room with him, so the two would be alone. From there, he was positive he would win in a 1 on 1 fight, or even in just intimidating Darrion into giving the orb to him.
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