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

by Derrick Burke

  Ezekial: I didn’t do that much. The skeleton was only behind a walled-in section of crates that I had to climb over to get to. The keys slipped under the crate next to it though. The chest itself happened to be in the crate above the key. Pretty simple, really.

  Looking like a smug old bastard, Ezekial finishes equipping his gear, leaving the weapons I set out for him where they are, as the ones he already has are the same. Twirling the set of keys on a ring, Ezekial walks back over to the chest now that we are all decently attired and looking like actual beginners of a MMORPG of old.

  He slides the first key into the lock and gives it a twist. We all hear the slight click of the mechanism being released, and the lock pops open.

  Ifalna: Elementary, hmm?

  Ezekial: Exactly, good sir. We all ready for what’s on the other side?

  Kazzrak: Just open the bloody thing already.

  Ezekial looks back up at Kazzrak, then hops over to the rear of the box and gives him a pleasant look while motioning for him to stand in front of the chest.

  Ezekial: By all means, how about you do the honours, then?

  Kazzrak: Pfft, don’t be daft. If you aren’t doing it, then it’s obviously booby-trapped.

  With that, Kazzrak moves back and stands off to the side, and the rest of us follow his lead. Ezekial just grins and ties one of his ropes to the hilt of a short knife he must have found somewhere, then reaches over the top of the chest and slides the thin blade slowly under the lid to the hilt.

  Taking his length of rope, he moves further away from the chest and gently lifts the lid by pulling on the makeshift hook. At about the forty-five-degree angle mark, I hear a slight click, followed by a rush of air and two solid thunk sounds from one of the wooden racks on the opposite wall.

  The wooden rack is now the proud owner of two darts filled with a bright red substance that is slowly draining into the wood. Quick as a flash, I pluck the darts out of the wood before all the liquid is emptied into it. I try to identify the liquid; however, it comes up with ‘unknown’ when I do.

  The wooden rack, on the other hand, has started melting from the point of impact. How one melts wood, I have no idea whatsoever, but there is now a reddish-brown pile of goop on the floor and two large chunks taken out of the rack.

  Sybaal: Damn. This shit is nasty. Looks like some sort of acid. I’m going to keep these for a rainy day unless anyone else wants them?

  Dosan: You can keep your alien saliva, thanks.

  Ezekial is the only one who ponders before shaking his head like the others. More for me, then. I slide the darts carefully into two of the slots available on my belt, anxious if they will actually hold them safely or if I’ll have to whip off my belt quickly. Guess that would be a funny action to make in the middle of a fight.

  They slide in without a hitch, and opening my character screen, I see that I now have two of the slots on the belt filled with ‘Unknown Dart’. Sweet loot, I must admit. Definitely wouldn’t have wanted to stand in front of that chest while opening it.

  Would have been respawn time, and I really don’t want to find out where that is.

  Moving back to the chest, the lid is now all the way open, and Ezekial is searching the inside of the chest for any more surprises.

  Ezekial: Clear. No more surprises. However, there is a metal lockbox that doesn’t have any discernible way to open it that I can see right now. Just a glyph on the top and smooth metal.

  Peering into the chest, I see three rings and a large uncut purple gem of some kind. I pick up each item in turn and look at the descriptions.

  Sybaal: Interesting. Soul Stone of Plasma Wolf: On use, summons a Plasma Wolf the same level as the item user. Single-use item. Here you go, Dosan.

  I hand the Soul Stone to Dosan carefully. He takes it, gives it an inquisitive look, and then stares at it really hard.

  Dosan: I just cast Bond onto the Soul Stone and it actually let me do it. Let’s see if I can net myself a new minion instead of just a single-use item.

  We all stare at the Soul Stone until it just vanishes from Dosan’s hands and a massive grin appears on his face.

  Dosan: It worked! New rule, all summoning items I get unless they are mounts or pets or something like that.

  Sybaal: Meh. I can agree to that. Just remember you can only have one out at a time though. Now let’s see here. Ring of Healing: Plus 5 to all healing. Ifalna, that’s yours.

  I toss the ring to Ifalna, who shrugs and equips it without any fanfare.

  Sybaal: Next is Ring of Bulwark: Reduce damage taken by 5%. Kazzrak, you’ll be needing that the most, I think.

  Flicking the ring at Kazzrak, I pick up the last ring.

  Sybaal: Ring of Shadows: Increase Stealth by 5%. It’s almost like everything here is tailored for us, and the AI in charge of item distribution is dropping stuff for our party make-up. Ezekial, here you go. Let me have a look at that box, eh?

  I swap the ring for the lockbox and realise that the glyph is the same design that was on the Beta Chest we received our Beta Coins from. I gently touch a finger to the glyph, and the box disappears from my hand to be replaced with a ring. I stare at the description for a second before equipping it.

  Sybaal: Well now. Ezekial, you are one lucky fella, that’s for sure. Check this out. Ring of Party

  Leader: Cast Recall on all party members to your location with a twelve-hour cool down, or cast Recall on all party members to a specific party member with a twenty-four-hour cool down. Now that’s a useful item.

  Kazzrak: This is great! It means that if I get sloshed one night and we don’t have a spell that will help us out like in DSR1, then I can sleep the day away while you continue onto our destination. You can just summon me later. ;D

  Ifalna: Seriously, Kazzrak? That’s the way you want to use it? What about if Ezekial can stealth past some impassable place and summon us to his location when he has found a safe spot? That’s more feasible.

  Sybaal: Definitely going to be able to hack a lot of places with this ring. I wish the cool down were shorter though. Twenty-four hours sucks. Well, what else did you guys find?

  Ifalna: I found a small stack of travel journals from a chick called Patricia Jones. She travelled all over the place, from the looks of things. Just flicking through the books, I was able to create the mini map on my interface and add the castle and the surrounding areas to it. It’s greyed out, so looks like old info, but old is better than nothing. Especially since there are a couple of journals that look like they are from dungeons, as specific points come up on the map. Could be interesting to check out when we are finished here.

  Kazzrak: More places to smash stuff? Bring it on! All I found in the crates was off food.

  Sybaal: Everyone read the books to create your mini maps and update them. That sounds like a good plan.

  We all flick through the books that were stacked next to the door, and our maps become updated with each book. At least we don’t have to sit there and study every page. That would have sucked.

  Kazzrak: Are we done looting now? Can we explore some more yet? We have a quest to complete for a fella who’s dead but just doesn’t know it yet.

  Hefting his axe and shield, Kazzrak walks out of the room and moves towards the stairs at the end of the hall. Shrugging, I follow suit and we all file out of the armoury. We all wait at the bottom of the stairs while Ezekial fiddles around with the lock on the deadbolt.

  Ezekial: Yeah, this is completely seized up. There’s no way I’ll be able to open it without smashing it with something hard, but that will make too much noise.

  Dosan: Actually, I think I have just the ticket for this. Check this shit out.

  Walking up the stairs to the door, Dosan sizes up the lock and then spits on it, which causes the metal and wood to melt with a low hissing sound. The deadbolt is now completely detached from the door.

  Dosan: Acid Spit. The darts reminded me I had that ability. Pretty useful. I think I might wait down below with the others now
.

  Before Ezekial opens the door, Dosan comes back down the stairs, and we wait as Ezekial slips out, bow equipped with an arrow nocked and ready to go. It’s a tense few seconds with our weapons drawn and ready to spring into action before we all receive the message:

  Your party is the first to discover the Glade Fortress Dungeon and will receive extra gold and better-quality items from all enemies until completed.

  Ezekial: Ok, so. First off, we are in a dungeon. Well, it looks like a dungeon. It’s a pretty large circular room. There is a massive metal grate sunk into the middle of the room. Five corridors branch off from the main room, not including our entrance.

  Sybaal: Any sentient beings or anything alive at all?

  Ezekial: Nothing yet, but I’m staying out of the middle of the room for now. I don’t want to trigger anything. You guys can come up and hang around the entrance inside. Just don’t go into the middle of the room yet till I clear all the corridors. The updated map says there are a lot of cells in here, so I’ll have a look at what’s in them.

  We all move up to the inside of the large circular room. Stone brick walls and enough space to fit a basketball court with the height to boot, and it is one spacious room. The grate in the middle looks like the bars are wide enough to fit an arm through but nothing larger. I watch my semitransparent mini map and the blue dot that is moving from room to room in the corridors.

  Ezekial: I can’t find anything worth picking up, to be honest. Especially since I don’t have a bag that can hold everything. I’ve been able to pocket a few silver and a few coppers, but that’s usual fare. There are, however, quite a lot of skeletons that have been chained up and shackled in the cells. I don’t think these rooms have been touched in quite a while.

  Ifalna: I wonder what happened to everyone.

  Ezekial: Well, not sure about everyone else, but in the opposite corridor from you guys there is a door at the end that is locked, but I think one of these keys will open it. I can see into the keyhole, and there are what looks to be two were-creature guards playing cards. They are wearing leather armour and have short swords. I can’t understand their growling though, if they are even speaking. I’m going to check the rest of the corridors before I open that door.

  6

  We wait patiently until Ezekial finishes his rounds and comes back to the main door whilst sticking to the outside wall the whole time. Now that we are prepared, Ezekial moves to the centre of the room.

  Ezekial: Aww, hell. This is pretty lame, guys. Come see for yourselves.

  Giving each other curious looks, we all walk over to the middle of the room and look down into the grate. Hundreds of yellow eyes look back at us from the depths of the room below. However, after a closer inspection, I see humanoid felines attached to those eyes. Men, women, children—they are all cramped down there, looking back at us.

  One of the slightly older males jumps onto the shoulders of a tall, muscular male and then jumps up to grasp the grate and hold himself up.

  He whispers softly, “Good evening, gentlemen. I couldn’t help but notice that we haven’t seen you around our humble abode before. Are you perchance new to the area?”

  I stifle a laugh before whispering just as quietly, “Ah, a fine evening it is, isn’t it? Yes, we are quite new to the area, just ported in today, in fact. What about yourselves? You look to have been here a while.”

  “Today, you say? Well, we have been here for a godawful amount of time. Quite a few months, actually. I would offer you a seat as a proper host; however, to my utter shame, there appears to be none left. Alas, if you were to perchance open the front door I’m so eloquently holding onto, I’m sure we could make room.” The feline raises an eyebrow at me.

  I glance around the edging of the grate and spread my hands with a questioning look. “I don’t seem to be able to locate the handle, I’m afraid. Is there some special way we would be able to open this here door? I hope there would be some remuneration involved?”

  The feline grins. “Ah, well, that is the crux of the situation now, isn’t it? There happens to be a mad sorcerer in the fortress above. His death will undoubtedly release the magical lock on this here door. How would you like to help a man and his family out, hmm? And I’m sure we could come to a suitable arrangement indeed.”

  Hidden Quest: Free the Goldeneye Clan.

  Rarity: Unique.

  Details: The Head of the Goldeneye Clan requests your aid to release himself and his family from captivity.

  Conditions: Defeat the mad sorcerer.

  Failure: Death of the Goldeneye Clan.

  Refuse quest: Death of the Goldeneye Clan.

  Reward: Unknown. Life debt from the Head of the Goldeneye Clan.

  Accept quest?

  Yes/No

  Dosan: Aw, hell yes! Accept it, Sybaal. We get double the prize for the same boss kill.

  I accept the quest without waiting any further. This could definitely help us out. Life debt, hmm? Well, reputation was extremely important in DSR1, so why wouldn’t it be so in the update as well? So why not do exactly as Dosan says and get two prizes for the price of one. Not to mention, dungeons usually have two or more quests attached to them.

  “What are we to call you, good sir?” I ask politely as I watch his facial expression become extremely relieved after I accepted the quest. “What can you tell us about the mad sorcerer and his henchmen?”

  “Han Goldeneye, at your service.” Han takes a quick glance toward the hallway with the guards behind the door. “Quickly now, listen up before one of the patrols comes through to take another one of us away for experimentation. There will be two or four guards behind the door down that corridor. They used to be my family members, but they were taken and their memory wiped. The mad sorcerer experimented on them, and now they have a variation of the were-virus.

  “The worst part is that the mad sorcerer even took women and children to see if gender or age made a difference. He said in one of his spiels that he is creating a stronger version of the regular virus. However, he hasn’t yet been able to get it right, and the majority of my family that have been taken are mutated into stronger beings, but incapable of transforming back. Although they may appear to be lucid and like their old selves, that is only a front, as they are now completely insane.

  “It’s like a switch just randomly turns on and they become salivating beasts with an unquenchable thirst for violence. Some are unable to even quell the rage within them and attack everything in sight unless chained like rabid wolves. I… I don’t even want to talk about the children.”

  The sorrow in Han’s eyes is like a never-ending well, and I can’t help but fall in for a moment.

  “We will spare your family where we can, although I cannot promise anything,” I say, astounded by his story and still struggling to process the information.

  Taking a deep breath, Han puts a little steel in his words. “No. They have completely wiped all aspects of our family from them and have committed atrocities that must not go unpunished. Slay them all. If you leave a single one standing, then the mutated virus that has been created may be released into the world, and that is a fate we must stop at all costs.

  “My eldest son, Solos, was taken yesterday. He made me swear to kill him with whatever means necessary if they managed to turn him into one of those abominations. I don’t know how long the process is, but if he has not already been tainted, please help him!”

  Hidden Quest Update: Free the Goldeneye Clan.

  Rarity: Unique.

  Details: The Head of the Goldeneye Clan requests your aid to release himself and his family from captivity. Free his son Solos if he isn’t tainted. Slay him if he is.

  Conditions: Defeat the mad sorcerer. Free/kill Solos Goldeneye.

  Failure: Death of the Goldeneye Clan.

  Refuse quest: Death of the Goldeneye Clan.

  Reward: Unknown. Life debt from the Head of the Goldeneye Clan.

  I nod solemnly. “We shall grant your request. Pe
ace to you upon our return.”

  Han inclines his head towards me before dropping back to the depths with his brethren.

  Sybaal: Well, gents, we have ourselves another quest to finish. Let’s hop to it.

  Kazzrak: Aye, aye, all this standing around talking is making me bored. Let’s go smash those guards.

  Ifalna: Let’s do it with some stealth and finesse though. I’d really hate to have the entire fortress against us from the get-go because we couldn’t be quiet with our first kills in here.

  Kazzrak: Ugh, fine.

  We all make our way to the door the guards are stationed behind. Ezekial looks through the keyhole so we know what we are dealing with.

  Ezekial: Now I understand why they are so ugly. And there are now four of them. It could be a shift change. Would be a good time to get in there and take out a group. The door on the far wall is closed, so hopefully not a lot of noise will escape. All four are level 20.