Dream Stream Reality: Publisher's Pack Books 1-2: (A LitRPG Adventure)

by Derrick Burke

  “Maybe I can help with this,” states the Guardian while starting to walk off into the forest. The rest of us shrug at each other and follow it. “You are currently on the continental island called Altoria. This is the Glade of Everhein, which used to be the deepest seat of power, where the royal family would retreat to for winter when the snows came. Alas, they stopped coming centuries ago and the guards slowly died out. Since then, the fortress has decayed into disrepair. The royal family must have perished, however no one has come to claim this land, so it currently sits stagnant. Many creatures have come to call this land home since then.”

  I glance at my clock on the interface. 13:08. All this stuff has happened and it’s only been an hour? Damn, if this game keeps going like this, I may never want to stop playing it. Now that I mention it, I don’t really have to stop for long periods since we are going to be getting paid for a year to play it. We still need to go and register with the DSR Corporation after we log off.

  I love my life right now!

  “So how far is the fortress? And will there be clothes there? I’m getting tired of running around free willy style,” says Kazzrak as he trudges through the forest with us behind the Guardian. Ezekial has stealthed and gone ahead but keeping in sight of us so he doesn’t get lost.

  Without pausing a beat, the Guardian rumbles, “It is only a three-hour walk at this pace.”

  “Three hours?” exclaims Ifalna. “That’s not a small glade. It must be huge!”

  “On the contrary,” replies the Guardian. “This is the smallest forest on the continent. Or it was the last time I had visitors. The largest forest I am aware of takes many weeks to traverse through. If, that is, you don’t get eaten by the denizens of that forest first.”

  “This continent must be huge,” Dosan whispers with a glint in his eye. “And we have it all to ourselves!”

  As we are walking along, I mentally slap myself for not thinking of this earlier. I type in party chat so that Ezekial can still hear me.

  Sybaal: Guys, I’m going to list off my skills so you know what I have so we can plan better for future encounters. After I know what you all have, I’m going to work out the best way to distribute my attribute points.

  Ifalna: That is an awesome idea. I can’t believe I didn’t do that before. You start, Sybaal.

  Sybaal: Ok, I won’t bore you with the specifics, but I’ll put the gist of it in if not self-explanatory. I actually forgot to use my racial ability in that fight, haha. This is what I have:

  Sybaal: Fire Ball: Chance to proc fire DOT (damage over time).

  Sybaal: Frost Spear: Chance to proc 25% slow.

  Sybaal: Mage Armour: Mana regen and elemental resist.

  Sybaal: Dual Wield: Well, duh. No debuff though.

  Sybaal: Sweeping Strike: Hits three targets for 100% dmg (damage).

  Sybaal: Furious Strike: 300% dmg on next strike.

  Sybaal: Spell Sword: Elemental spells I know, can be made into elemental swords or enchanted into weapons I use for equivalent dmg and effects.

  Sybaal: Racial – Heritage: Transform into my Dragonkin’s true form. Increases my damage by 200% and allies by 50%. Reduces damage taken by 25%. Lasts thirty seconds in combat and five minutes out of combat.

  Dosan: Damn, dude, no wonder you were doing so much damage! You don’t require a physical weapon to go nuts! Here’s my dumbed-down version. There was seriously a lot to read through:

  Dosan: Bone Armour: Minus 10% dmg taken.

  Dosan: Reanimate: Any dead creature can be made my bitch. If it dies again, it’s dead, dead. Doesn’t level up. Requires 30 Int and 20% mana per bitch.

  Dosan: Shadow Bolt: Yep.

  Dosan: Bond: Creature needs to be below 15% health. Can’t Bond if their level is higher than my Int. Thirty-sec channelled cast. Don’t interrupt me. Levels when I do.

  Dosan: Commune: Can telepathically tell my bitches what to do and talk to creatures I’m trying to Bond.

  Dosan: Summon Creature: Can play with one Bonded at a time. One-hour cool down if dismissed. Eight hours if kicks the bucket.

  Dosan: Mass Effect: Thirty sec of 200% dmg from me and minions. Heals minions for 10% of dmg.

  Dosan: Racial – Acid Spit: My spit melts shit and does an acid DOT.

  Kazzrak: Goddamn, that is a lot of text to read. Ugh. Least I only have to read it once. Never post that much of your massively overworded skills again. This is mine:

  Kazzrak: Eye for an eye: A big hit on me gives me plus 10% dmg for thirty sec. Stacks three times.

  Kazzrak: Cleave: Harder hit on two idiots.

  Kazzrak: Retaliation: Thirty sec to smash stuff, which heals me 10%.

  Kazzrak: Hold the line: Minus 25% incoming dmg.

  Kazzrak: Slam: Hits real hard. Interrupts casting. Stun proc.

  Kazzrak: Challenge: Tunnel vision on me. Ten-sec cool down.

  Kazzrak: Enlarge: Enlarge myself by 100% of my size, increasing Strength, Stamina and Armour Rating by 100% for thirty sec.

  Kazzrak: Racial – Toughness: Reduce all damage by 90% for thirty seconds.

  Ezekial: Ah, I was wondering how you doubled in size earlier. That is an awesome ability! Check these out though:

  Ezekial: Tricks of the trade: Pickpocketing, lock picking, perception, distract and disarm traps are 75% more successful.

  Ezekial: Stealth: Invisibility to non-party members. Extra dmg while stealthed. I will unstealth if they see where I attack from.

  Ezekial: Vanish: Good luck finding me and move a bit faster for five sec.

  Ezekial: Fade: Reduces my threat level.

  Ezekial: Haemorrhage: Bleeds a lot for thirty sec. Stacks three times.

  Ezekial: Eliminate: Hits a bit harder. When target’s health is at 25% or lower, hits real hard.

  Ezekial: Shadow Step: Stand in shadows. Disappear. Reappear within ten yards within shadows.

  Ezekial: Racial – Swiftness: Increase speed by 200% for fifteen seconds.

  Ifalna: If you had a blade or bow and didn’t have to kite those adds, Ezekial, you would have been doing some serious DPS. That Shadow Step coupled with Vanish will be devastating. This is what I have:

  Ifalna: Aura of Constitution: Everyone within fifty yards gets 10% extra health.

  Ifalna: Holy Barrier: Absorbs dmg. When it’s gone, can’t cast it on you again for ten sec, so practise dodge ball more.

  Ifalna: Divine Light: Heals us or does dmg to enemies.

  Ifalna: Fade: Same as Ezekial.

  Ifalna: Haemorrhage: Same as Ezekial.

  Ifalna: Eliminate: Same as Ezekial.

  Ifalna: Mark of Vengeance: I choose an enemy. Increase dmg to that enemy from everyone by 25%. Allies within fifty yards get 50% extra heals. Lasts thirty sec.

  Ifalna: Racial – Meditation: Spells cost 98% less and hit a lot harder.

  Sybaal: So that’s how we all did so much damage. Damn. Serious abilities there, guys. We need some weapons and armour; then we will definitely be a very powerful force. Ok, I’m going to use up my attribute points. No sense in not being as powerful as we can be, right?

  Ifalna: You realise that with all those server firsts we just completed, we are now sitting at level 42 with our attributes. Seriously overpowered. No wonder we couldn’t catch up to some of the fast progression of players in DSR1. If completing a server first gives out such nice goodies, we need to keep it up so we don’t let anyone catch up with us.

  Sybaal: Agreed.

  Not wanting to waste time, I open up my character screen while I’m walking and focus on adding up the points into something that resembles a tailored build.

  After crunching the numbers on the inbuilt calculator and coming up with several different combinations, I eventually settle on a gradually increasing build with max Intelligence and Wisdom. The reason for this is that even though I’m a warrior and use physical weapons, I can enchant my Spell Sword ability to them, which then deals both types of damage anyway.

  If I had chosen to max Strength and In
telligence, I would be doing more damage in melee, but I wouldn’t be able to fling out spells for as long, due to low Wisdom not being able to keep up with the number of spells I’m casting.

  I still want to be able to pack a decent punch from afar and keep it up if I need to, instead of standing around twiddling my thumbs because I can’t reach whatever I’m attacking.

  Well, I’ve locked in my attributes and grimace a little as my mental finger hovers over the ‘Accept’ button. Releasing the breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding, I finally decide to take the plunge and press the button.

  Character Statistics

  Name: Sybaal

  Race: Dragonkin

  Class: Spell Sword

  Level: 16

  Health: 370

  Stamina: 370

  Mana: 800

  Attributes

  Strength: 30

  Dexterity: 37

  Constitution: 37

  Intelligence: 80

  Wisdom: 78 (dual class + 40)

  Luck: 20

  Charisma: 20

  Resistances

  Holy: 25%

  Shadow: 25%

  Fire: 25%

  Frost: 25%

  Nature: 25%

  Lightning: 25%

  Poison: 25%

  Disease: 25%

  Instantly I feel better, not just better, but full of vitality, full of life itself. A feeling of euphoria sedates my entire body for a good thirty seconds before I come to, finding myself on my hands and knees in the damp leaves of the forest floor. I can’t even begin to recall a physical feeling that intense.

  Imagine the most powerful feeling of release you’ve ever had. Now double it. Then double it again. That about covers it. I didn’t even know it was possible to feel that amazing. Endorphins are flipping awesome!

  I finally notice that scattered around me are the others; only Kazzrak is still standing. The rest have face-planted in the dirt and are starting to come to. The Guardian is bending over Dosan with a puzzled look on its bark and moss face.

  The after-effects are still hanging around in a ghostly manner and affecting my motor function. I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head a couple of times to clear it. Damn. Just remembering it still feels good.

  Standing up slowly, I take a look around and can’t seem to find Ezekial. He was ranging up ahead and in stealth, so that makes sense.

  Sybaal: Yo, Ezekial, where are you at, bud?

  Ezekial: Mmm? What? Uh, I think I passed out after I input my attributes.

  Sybaal: Yeah, we all nearly did the same thing.

  Kazzrak: What are you talking about? That wasn’t enough to put me down. You are all pansies if that was too much for you.

  Sybaal: I don’t even want to know what you’ve been getting up to in your spare time.

  Kazzrak: That’s fine. I don’t kiss and tell, do I, Dosan?

  Dosan makes the effort to get up and waves his hands in front of himself before giving Kazzrak a glare.

  Dosan: Woah! Don’t drag me into this. I’ve got no idea what you’re on about.

  Kazzrak: Hahaha. Sure you don’t.

  I hear Kazzrak let out a few chuckles. By now we are all up and ready to keep going, even if we are blinking a few more times than usual and shaking our heads, trying to clear them.

  “Have you all finished flopping around like fish on land?” asks the Guardian. “We still have another hour or so left before we reach the fortress.”

  I plant one foot in front of the other and start moving in the direction that we had been going beforehand. The Guardian moves up to take the lead, and off we trot again.

  Roving a critical eye over my party members’ icons on the left as we walk, I notice that everyone else’s health is between 300 and 350 except for Kazzrak, who has a whopping 820 health. Well, he is the tank, and I guess he wants to stop getting almost one-shotted by bosses. Ifalna has 800 mana, the same as me, while Dosan has the boss amount of 1000. The other two have 200 to 300 mana, but they don’t really need it because they are physical attackers.

  Now that I think about it, Dosan must be preparing for having most of his mana locked up in reanimating corpses with his necromancy. Each one reduces his available mana pool by 20% until it dies or is dismissed. With a high mana pool, he will be able to go further with just 20% if he has four minions.

  Ezekial must be throwing his stats into Dexterity or Strength to utilise his damage output. Although with his stealth capabilities, I’m sure he has it in Dexterity, as that would increase his ranged attack and small blades damage. This way he could stay stealthed and deal more damage without taking any from afar. Assassin and thief really do go well together.

  Ifalna looks to have kept to the healer spec and probably has high Wisdom so she can pump out the heals without worrying too much about mana conservation. Though she also has melee abilities, so that will be an interesting turn of events on how she builds her character.

  Looks like our usual make-up, but just a couple of hundred levels lower. I also now have magical ranged abilities to add to my melee prowess.

  This game won’t know what hit it!

  Eventually I can see Ezekial making his way back to us from up ahead. When he reaches us, he motions for us to stop without even bothering to come out of stealth.

  “We are only a short distance away from the fortress,” he says. “You guys wait here till I come back after scouting the area, seeing as how I can hear you all clomping around like a herd of buffalo. I’ve already seen some sentries on the walls. However, there are few places where the trees don’t butt right up against the walls. Not a safe thing to do if you want to see things trying to get in. Good for us though.”

  With that, he turns around and starts jogging back the way he came, not making a sound.

  “The twat was bloody well looking at me when he said buffalo,” grumbles Kazzrak. “I’m no buffalo, I’m a bleeding dwarf! We make much more noise.”

  The rest of us chuckle at Kazzrak’s antics as we sit down to wait for Ezekial to return. I glance at my interface clock when I first see Ezekial again, and the time is 17:30. He’s been gone for quite a while now as we were just sitting here twiddling our thumbs.

  Ah, I can’t count the amount of time wasted doing nothing while waiting for our sneaky friend to scout the way for us in the last few years. But it’s better than falling prey to traps and surprise monsters that now aren’t a surprise.

  Having a thief in the party is always a must. I pray for those that neglect this role in a party. Oh, how they must love activating even the most benign traps.

  When Ezekial reaches us again, he motions for us to get up and follow him.

  Ezekial: Until further notice, no audible sounds if you can help it. All chat to be done in here. Also, Kazzrak, how the hell are you making so much flipping noise when you don’t even have any armour??

  Kazzrak: It’s probably the 95 Strength I have. I’ll try to be quiet…

  Ezekial: Just step where I do so you don’t go breaking every branch in the goddamn forest. When I stop, I want you all to stand directly beneath the tree we stop at, as close to the trunk as you can but still able to see the wall.

  Ezekial starts moving off and we all follow suit. Kazzrak next, then myself and Ifalna, with Dosan taking rear guard due to his Bonded.

  Ezekial: Dosan, do you have to give audible commands to your Bonded?

  Dosan: No, it’s all mental. I have a separate abilities bar for him, yes, him, and can bring up his character sheet if I wish to, though I can’t allocate attributes.

  Ezekial: Interesting. Good to know. We are coming up to the tree that overlooks what I believe will be the easiest way for us to get up the side of the wall.

  Kazzrak: I have to climb the bloody wall? I ain’t no spritely elf.

  Ezekial: Yes, you do have to climb. Unless you want to go through the iron-bound oak gate with an iron portcullis protecting it. Along with the boatload more sentries that are around the gate. We will be going
up a section that seems to have fewer guards up the top.

  Sybaal: Ugh, can the dwarf go last? I don’t want to have to see up his hairy crack any more than I already have to.