Travail Online: Transcend: LitRPG Series (Book 3)

by Brian Simons

  The fire went out immediately. Tawn leaned forward on his desk with one hand. “The ring is a myth. A holy grail among relics.”

  “We have it, deep underground,” Rumin said. “I would need two days to extract it from its location at the heart of a labyrinth we have continually built and improved. We have protected it for hundreds of years from people like you. My highest duty, however, is to protect my people from extinction. I offer the relic in exchange for our lives.”

  Daniel wracked his brain but he couldn’t remember ever hearing of the item. It must be powerful if Tawn had an interest in it.

  The mountain rumbled again. A book fell from Tawn’s bookshelf as bottles of potions and poisons rattled against each other. Daniel dodged past a large rock that fell from the ceiling and shattered against the floor.

  “This mountain doesn’t have two days,” Tawn said. “Pity. It will be impossible to unearth the ring after the tunnels collapse. If only you had come sooner.”

  Tawn pushed past Rumin and opened the door to his office as Daniel stepped aside.

  The dark elf Sage walked toward the archway that led to the large meeting room, standing at the midpoint of the corridor that led from his office back to the door to the underground. “The time has come!” Tawn yelled. Daniel stepped closer. NPC and player drow gathered around the archway to listen to Tawn. There was no running back into the tunnels now, not with Tawn and an army of drow standing in the way.

  “Which among you will fulfill your birthright?” Tawn asked. “Today we march toward Diardenna and take what is ours. Today we reclaim the forest and kill the queen!”

  Dark elves cheered all around. “The mountain is crumbling. Before we leave, we must seal the door to the underground so that the earth swallows the farm animals beneath. And we must kill their king, who has come here to stop us!” Tawn pointed back toward his chamber, directing everyone’s attention to the large minotaur standing there.

  “As for the human,” Tawn said, “gouge out his eyes before you kill him or they will vanish with his body. I caught him trying to Surveil me. Those eyes will make a fine a potion.”

  17

  Daniel gulped. He really wanted to keep his eyes. He sent a quick message to Sybil.

  To [Sybil_in_Shrouds]: We failed. Not gonna make it back.

  A few intrepid drow stepped forward, raising bows and short swords as they apprised their new enemy. Rumin narrowed his eyes and raised his mace, no doubt ready to die here as his ancestors had in the first major battle with the drow. Daniel was understandably less ready to die.

  Just then, the door to the underground swung open. Onik burst through on the back of a giant rockmander, followed by dozens of minotaurs on similar steeds. Others charged down the hall toward Tawn with maces and flails.

  Tawn fled the corridor and ran into the meeting room ahead. His drow underlings closed ranks, blocking the doorway.

  The word Initiative appeared above Onik’s head and a large golden die rolled from his hand and onto the ground. Onik smiled and his rockmander charged through the throng of drow before any of them could act.

  Sybil ran forward amidst the bovine onrush and stood in the archway as Daniel pushed his way toward her. Sage Tawn stared at her for a moment, as though he recognized her. The last time she was here, she had been one of his race. Now her skin had the faint yellow glow of a true elf.

  “There are players here,” Daniel said to her. “We should protect them.”

  “If they take aim at our new allies,” Sybil said, “they’re fair game. I won’t be the one to stop the minotaurs from attacking them.”

  Tawn leapt onto a platform in the room’s center and pointed at Sybil. “Sivona has conscripted the minotaurs!” Tawn yelled. “Kill every last one of them!”

  Daniel’s War Cry ability automatically activated now that his allies had selected to join him in the fight. Judging by the bonus, there were at least 50 on his side.

  >> Buff added: War Cry. +10% to Strength and Spirit in combat.

  NPC drow charged at the herd of minotaurs with melee weapons in full swing while others readied bows and scattered toward the edges of the room. A few raised their hands in the air, casting magic spells that would take a moment to materialize.

  Players scattered in every direction. Only a few were Level 10 or higher, and most still wore beginners’ rags. If Tawn thought this influx of drow would turn the tide against Sivona, he was sadly mistaken. They cowered from the fight while their NPC brethren threw themselves into battle.

  As Daniel and Rumin pressed through the opening Onik had made in the crowd, Daniel swung into motion. “Target the higher level drow first!”

  >> Buff added: Bark Orders. Combat speed hasted by 15%.

  If it were possible to avoid killing dozens of new players, he’d prefer to let them go. If they were here, they were just as desperate as anyone else playing Travail. He didn’t want to be responsible for more player deaths.

  He activated Fog of War while rockmanders swiped at dark elves and arrows flooded the air. Daggers glinted in the low light as dark elf Rogues tried to pick off minotaur warriors one by one. Daniel’s ability couldn’t debuff other players since this wasn’t a PvP zone, but Blind and Slow status icons did appear over many of the NPCs as Daniel’s fog washed over them.

  The high ceiling in the room was lined with glowing moss, but it was too far away to help Daniel see much more than the bare outlines of players and NPCs. He took the vial Petra had given him and uncorked the bottle.

  A wave of bright green light erupted from the bottle’s mouth and bathed the room in its glow. The floor, the walls, and the ceiling absorbed the energy and radiated it back. The room looked like the inside of a green LED bulb.

  Two large minotaurs flanked Sybil as she sang a song Daniel didn’t recognize. Castrato appeared above her head. The song had long, slow vowels drawing out some of the words. Ulthor must have taught it to Sybil while they prepared underground for the siege. He was not only a minotaur prince, but a Cantor with a songbook of his own.

  Oh sing, my choir castrato, for I am your maestro.

  Your protest cries now neutralized, my docile musicos.

  One cannot escape what fate dictates, there’s nowhere else to go,

  So take your place and keep my pace in your sweet falsettos.

  Many of the nearby drow NPCs took on Rooted debuffs, preventing them from moving from their current positions.

  Daniel drew his sword just in time to block a dark elf attacker. The warrior pushed Daniel with his shield and then swung his sword around, clanging it into the armor under Daniel’s cloak.

  >> You’ve been hit! 28 Damage.

  Good, this drow was weak. Daniel kicked the drow in the stomach and lunged forward with his sword as the dark elf fell, catching the warrior in the neck with his blade.

  >> Dark Elf Warrior takes 1034 Damage [CRITICAL].

  >> Dark Elf Warrior dies. You receive 62 XP.

  >> You’ve been hit! 180 Damage.

  Daniel spun again and saw a stronger warrior with his eyes trained on him. He leaned in for another attack, which Daniel parried with his sword. The warrior’s feet were frozen in place from Sybil’s spell, but that didn’t stop him from trying to take Daniel down.

  All Daniel had to do was step backward, out of the warrior’s range. The elf wasn’t a potted plant though, he would hack and slash at any minotaur or rockmander that swung past him. Daniel resolved to end that drow before he did any more damage, but a crash of fireballs distracted him.

  Fire rained from the ceiling, drenching minotaurs and their mounts in flames. A few minotaurs fell into bloody heaps on the ground. The fiery deluge spooked the rockmanders, who ran uncontrollably toward the room’s outer edge.

  Low level players cowered in some of the corners while Tawn filled the room with fire. Rumin had already beheaded two players. The terrified newbies couldn’t log out now that battle had begun, and they rightfully seemed to fear having their own heads chopp
ed off.

  “King Rumin!” Daniel yelled. He pointed toward Tawn, and Rumin nodded. Daniel was happy to move the monarch away from the harmless players and toward their real threat.

  Daniel shouldn’t have turned his back on the Rooted drow behind him. A hand grasped the collar of his breastplate from behind and pulled, forcing Daniel to stumble backward and crash into the immobile drow. The man threw an arm around Daniel’s neck and brought a dagger to his face.

  Daniel turned his sword around and thrust behind him, sinking the blade into the drow’s thigh.

  >> Dark Elf Rogue takes 240 Damage.

  The drow was injured, but unfazed. He pressed the blade of his dagger into Daniel’s cheek. Daniel grabbed the drow’s arm with one hand and pulled down while his enemy tried to push up, aiming his blade into Daniel’s face. If Daniel let go, that dagger would slice into the space behind his eye, freeing a macabre potion ingredient that Tawn was after. What type of potion Tawn could make with human eyes was anybody’s guess.

  Daniel let go of his sword, letting the blade dangle from the drow’s bleeding leg and used both hands to pull the drow’s weapon away from his face. He doubled over, forcing the dark elf to bend with him, though his feet were magically glued to the stone floor. Daniel wondered what would happen if he sprinted, taking the top half of the drow with him while the bottom half was immobilized.

  Then the drow bucked backward and cried out in pain as a mace landed in his back with a thunk. Daniel retrieved his sword and thanked the minotaur that had ended the drow NPC’s life.

  Sybil continued to sing, flanked by burly minotaurs that soaked up damage for her and fought off attacking drow. Rumin, meanwhile, sank his mace deep into the chest of a drow that stood in front of Sage Tawn. He was the last guard that stood between the two leaders. Rumin lifted his mace in the air to attack Tawn next.

  Tawn just smiled and pointed a crooked finger at him. It took only a split second to send a powerful lightning bolt directly at Rumin’s chest. The minotaur flew backward, landing on his back while the arcing light from that spell continued to electrify him.

  Daniel ran toward Tawn, hoping to stop the assault on Rumin, but a drow stabbed at him from the side, forcing Daniel to turn his attention to the new threat. The minotaur king pushed himself up from the ground and began to trudge toward the mage, absorbing electric damage with each step.

  “Not now!” Daniel yelled, striking the drow in the shoulder with his blade.

  >> Dark Elf Warrior takes 409 Damage.

  The drow aimed a short sword at Daniel’s face, but Daniel ducked to the side.

  >> Miss!

  “Not the eyes again,” Daniel muttered before stabbing through the drow’s torso. He watched the NPC’s health meter plummet.

  Then Tawn whipped a wand from the bundle that hung at his side and illuminated a green circle that covered the floor beneath Daniel and half the players and NPCs in the room. Daniel braced himself for some terrible magic spell, but nothing struck him. Instead, all the drow within the spell’s area of affect were healed to maximum health, including the one Daniel was trying to kill.

  “For crying out—” Daniel reached up to stop the sword arm of the fully healed drow and then stabbed the man in the chest. He buried the blade in the drow, pushing until the hilt pressed into the man’s flesh and Daniel’s hand warmed with blood.

  >> Dark Elf Warrior takes 991 Damage. [CRITICAL].

  >> Dark Elf Warrior dies. You receive 389 XP.

  >> Congratulations! You have improved your Swordfighting combat skill to 12. +15% damage when using a sword.

  The light from Petra’s potion began to fade. Daniel raised the second bottle of lichening, but stopped. Tawn had one hand outstretched, pouring electric energy into King Rumin as he took small, halting steps toward the wizard. Tawn’s other hand pointed a new wand at the ceiling. A torrent of fire erupted from its tip, splashing against the room’s high ceiling and lighting the ceiling moss on fire. If the moss were dying further below ground, it was alive and well here. And highly combustible.

  Small pieces of burnt moss fell on the room like black snow while larger clumps of it fell like bombs, releasing all of the moss’s energy in a fiery blast wherever it hit the ground. The rest of the moss raged in a ceiling fire overhead, threatening to rain explosions on them all. In the meantime, it provided a brilliant source of light.

  Daniel put Petra’s second potion bottle back in his bag.

  A deep, low cry roared from the center of the room as Rumin, now inches from Tawn despite the electric current between them, sank his mace into the mage’s shoulder. Tawn stumbled backward and stopped his spell. Then Rumin dropped his mace and fell backward himself, tumbling from the room’s central platform and landing on his back with a thud.

  At the same time, a system notification signaled that Daniel’s army was less than 50 strong. War Cry had been downgraded, though the room was still teeming with drow. They were losing.

  >> Buff reduced: War Cry. +5% to Strength and Spirit in combat.

  Onik’s hand was in the air, poised to throw dice that he didn’t release. Rockmanders halted at their riders’ commands. All eyes were on the king. He didn’t move.

  Emboldened by Tawn’s battle against the king, the player drow that had cowered at the edges of the room stepped forward, charging at minotaurs and sending a fresh wave of arrows into the room. Rockmanders bucked and ran, minotaurs took arrows in the arms and chests, and Sybil continued to sing as her two minotaur bodyguards took up arms against warriors that only just entered the fray.

  Tawn laughed and raised another wand. Daniel didn’t pause to think. His people were busy, but he had a clear path to Tawn if he made a run at him. Daniel charged at the wizard, his dull iron longsword aimed for Tawn’s stomach.

  The mage looked right at Daniel and pointed the wand at him, drenching Daniel in a torrent of icy water.

  >> You’ve been hit! 603 Damage.

  >> Sage Tawn takes 30 Damage.

  Tawn seemed confused. He must not have noticed that Daniel’s kobold armor reflected 5% of magic damage back on the caster. Perhaps because Daniel still wore a cloak hiding his brilliant set of red platemail.

  Five percent wasn’t much though, and Tawn kept casting the same watery magic, freezing Daniel to his bones. A few arrows knocked into his back from drow archers Rooted in place along the room’s periphery.

  >> You’ve been hit! 31 Damage.

  >> You’ve been hit! 35 Damage.

  >> You’ve been hit! 26 Damage.

  The archers likely didn’t care that they couldn’t move, since they were as far from the heat of the battle as possible. Still, some of the dead minotaurs had arrows in their own backs, and Daniel knew they would just whittle down their forces further.

  “Onik!” Daniel yelled. “The archers!”

  Onik had just stabbed a dark elf mage in the eye with a dagger of his own, knocking out the last magic caster besides Tawn. “I’m on it!” he yelled, and drove his rockmander toward the archers. Other mounted minotaurs followed him.

  The sound of animals being slaughtered and small elven voices screeching in pain filled the room. Daniel turned back toward Tawn, and got a face full of hot magic.

  >> You’ve been hit! 642 Damage.

  That was a doozy. He only had 555 HP left. His HP bar wasn’t blinking red yet, but it didn’t matter. Another hit from Tawn could be the end.

  >> Buff removed: War Cry.

  Daniel froze. The only reason War Cry would vanish is if he had less than 25 allies on the battlefield. Sybil continued to sing, forcing a handful of warriors to stay frozen in place. Onik rushed the archers. Dozens of minotaurs lay on the ground like Rumin, dead or dying.

  There were still dozens of dark elves, fighting minotaurs two to one. Drow had incapacitated Sybil’s bodyguards, and she was forced to stop singing and defend herself in hand-to-hand combat. Without her song, dozens of previously Rooted drow could now move freely.

  Perhaps
the stars hadn’t foretold a second battle because there should never have been one. Daniel had just led the last members of a mighty race into a war that more than halved their population and would eradicate them soon.

  Daniel charged at Tawn and rammed his shoulder into the wizard, knocking him off the dais in the middle of the room and halting his casting for a moment.

  Daniel needed to turn the tide of this fight, and fast. It didn’t matter that he had some MP left. None of his abilities would buy them the time or the power they needed to make this a fair fight.

  Instead, he tore off his cloak, screamed, and bashed the hilt of his sword against his breastplate to create as much noise as he could.

  It took the room by surprise. Even drow players stopped to see what he was doing, pausing their attacks on the minotaurs. The light cast by the burning ceiling moss had reflected off of his kobold armor. It gleamed in all its glory, the brilliant red of fresh blood on white linen.

  The remaining minotaurs in the room went into a fury. Their eyes beamed red with rage and they charged at Tawn, at dark elf archers and fighters, and at terrified players. Daniel waited for them to crash into him and try tearing him limb from limb, but they never touched him.