Yep, definitely blood, she decided as she thought back to her nightmare. She gingerly lifted her other hand and placed it on her chest, just below the collar of her gray tunic. She pulled away a bloodstained hand.
With a sigh, she focused on bringing her magic to the surface and whispered, "Vokrii Hass—"
A faint white light surrounded her hand and she pressed it to her wound. She hissed in pain as the magic took effect and pure life energy flowed into the wound, causing her body to accelerate the healing process, clotting the blood, knitting together the muscles, and finally sealing the skin. When all was said and done, only a faint white scar in the shape of a sun remained.
She sighed in relief as she climbed out of the bedroll, folded up the blanket, and headed for the tent flap.
Hopefully, I can get this cleaned before they wake up—
"Bad dream?" the person in the leftmost bedroll asked.
Too late for that, apparently. The elf girl sighed and turned to the voice.
"Yes, I—I had a nightmare," the elf girl admitted.
"Want to talk about it?"
She shifted uncomfortably, "No, it's over now and—and I'm fine." She tried to play it off as nothing, but her voice sounded weak even to her own ears.
The other elf girl was silent for a few moments then said, "Okay, well I'm going back to sleep. Wake me if you want to talk about it."
"Will do." She quickly agreed as she turned and fled the tent.
Outside, the elf girl glanced briefly at the surrounding tents, then made her way to the nearby river. It was about two hundred feet from the camp—close enough to be useful, but far enough away that no one would mistakenly fall into it in the middle of the night.
The elf exhaled a sigh of disappointment as she knelt on the grass and shoved the blanket into the cold water.
"Gaar sos," she whispered while concentrating on the blood stain. After a few seconds, the blood began to release its hold on the blanket and drift away on the gentle current. Oh, how far I've fallen, she snorted to herself as she pulled the blanket from the water and placed it on the grass to dry. "An upper tiered life goddess reduced to cleaning bloodstains with cheap parlor tricks." She laid on the grass and looked up at the stars. "What happened to me?"
"You mean besides you becoming a power-hungry bitch and ruining lives?"
The elf girl rolled her eyes and looked at the skeleton leaning against his cane a few feet away.
"Amaar," she mumbled and made a sour face.
"Birdbrain," he replied.
"What do you want, Amaar? You've already given me a fate worse than death, so what more could you want from me?"
"Worse than death?" He smirked. "You would've preferred I simply wipe you from existence?"
She shrugged. "Don't I deserve it?" She stared into his abyss-colored eyes. "I—I've done horrible things in the name of justice. I let my rage blind me to the fact that I—for all my good intentions—had become just like him."
Amaar watched her with narrowed eyes. "How mature of you to finally admit that you were a hypocritical piece of rhinix excrement."
She glared at him for a few seconds—then cautiously let her eyes drop. "I suppose I was," she mumbled.
Amaar walked over and stood at her side, causing her to flinch in anticipation, but he just sat down cross-legged and chuckled. "While I am glad that you seem to have finally come to your senses, I'm curious what brought this on?”
She shrugged, "Being stuck here, in this body, with these people I—I've had a lot of time to think about it." She sat up and slightly turned to him. "When you first sent me here, I was so angry. Angry at myself, at the gods, at Niabus." She threw him a glare. "And most definitely at you."
He smirked. "Join the club. I hear they give all new members a jacket and the donuts are delicious."
She stared at him in bewilderment, then shook her head. "Yes—Well—Be that as it may, after spending a few years with these people I—I don't know. I guess at some point I just realized that it was no one's fault but my own and I guess I got over it?" she said with confusion clouding her eyes.
"Got over it?" he asked.
She just nodded her head and fell onto her back.
"Yeah, it surprised me too."
"I guess this vacation of sorts has done you some good after all," Amaar said, breaking the silence after a few minutes.
"Vacation? Is that what this was supposed to be?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes."
She hopped to her feet and stared down at him.
"Does—Does that mean I get my powers back!?" she asked excitedly.
"Hell no," Amaar snorted. "Making progress, you are. But fucked up, you did. Yes, hmm," he replied in a weird accent while stroking his chin.
She frowned. "So, I'll never be a goddess again?"
"As you were, no," he said while continuing to stroke his chin.
She narrowed her eyes in annoyance and growled, "Amaar, stop talking in that stupid accent. This is my life we're talking about here!"
He stopped stroking his chin and frowned at her in mock consternation. "Hey, don't disrespect the accent! A long time ago on a far, far away branch of Yggdrasil, this accent was used by a very wise man-thing."
"Yeah, whatever you say," she said while rolling her eyes.
She stood up and gathered her now barely damp blanket into her arms and said, "Goodbye, Amaar. Since I won't be getting my powers back, I hope to see you again only after I die," she said coldly and stormed off towards camp.
"That may be sooner than you think, Forna," Amaar chuckled, then vanished in a gray light.
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Looking for more litRPG adventure, and need it right this minute? Check out: Zero.Hero Book 1. Or keep reading to take a sneak peek.
The greatest Heroes have already fallen...Now it’s up to Claire and her ragtag crew of Zeroes to save the city.
LOW-RANKED CONTRACTORS Claire, Elise, Norah, and Piper dream of making it to the top twenty with the Stewards of Light, but their weird RPG powers have them trapped near the bottom instead. Balancing college, part-time jobs, and family matters leaves the girls without much time to fight crime and grind out the experience they need to climb the ranks.
When a new threat emerges, the gamer girls are left standing in a city turned upside down with no hero to save them. The underclassmen are outclassed, but they're also the only ones who can stop the spread of chaos. Claire and her friends will have to unravel the mess with clever teamwork and determination, and find the top-rank heroes in themselves to save the city before it falls into darkness.
From J.D. Astra, author of the LitRPG Epic Viridian Gate Online: Firebrand, comes a new universe of heroes and monsters. If you loved Super Powereds by Drew Hays, I Alone Level-Up, or you crave more anime like One Punch Man and My Hero Academia (with a healthy serving of
RPG elements) then Zero.Hero is for you!
Note from the Publisher: Zero.Hero Book 1 was previously released under the title Neon Dark: Zero.Hero 1. This new version has undergone a major rewrite of the first act, though the rest of the story remains largely unchanged. If you've previously purchased Neon Dark and would like to read the updated version, please contact the Publisher at ShadowAlleyPress.com.
Prologue
NOVEMBER 17th, 2012...
We raced across the dark grassy yard, my school bag slapping against my back and jostling the pieces of the game board inside: Terra’s Heroes.
I’d gotten it the weekend before. My mom always took me to The Dragon’s Horde after she’d done something she felt guilty for. This time, it was forgetting to get me from school. Not like I’d been upset; I’d just gone to Elise’s house and we played Halo. But the reward for Mom’s forgetfulness was a brand-new RPG. Elise, my best friend since age four when I saved her from being pushed off the slide, was more into the FPS, but she indulged me with my tabletop needs, especially when it was something new and shiny.
Elise and I were neck-and-neck as we approached the cellar door. We skidded to a stop, planting our hands against the wood. She grinned, her white teeth stark against her dark skin.
“I think you beat me,” she said, though I was pretty sure our hands touched at the same time.
Norah, our feisty strawberry-blonde friend, was still running. She seemed determined to beat Piper, the short, buck-toothed girl who was the newest addition to our friend group. She was taking it slow, munching on a cookie, completely unconcerned about being last to the hideout. Norah’s mom did make the best chocolate-chip cookies, though, so I didn’t blame her.
Norah panted as she put her hand against the cellar door. “You’re the rotten egg, Pipe!”
“Yeah, but I’ve got the cookies!” she yelled back, holding up the container of freshly baked goods.
Norah grabbed the lock with one hand and inserted the old, rusted key with the other, then jiggled it around.
“So cool that your parents are letting us sleep over in the cellar,” Piper mused with a bit of chocolate on her lip.
“Yeah, it’s pretty much my room anyway. I set it up earlier today just for us!” Norah said as the lock came free. We hauled open the heavy doors and stared down into the darkness. With a flick of the switch, the stairs illuminated. I took the steps down two at a time to the bottom and surveyed the space as Norah and Elise closed the doors behind us.
There were four sleeping bags lined up on the right wall, canning shelves on the left, and an old box TV next to a round table with four chairs. An overhead chandelier lit the table well, and tie-on pads looped around the back of each seat. There was a plush, round rug under the table that looked like it was from a different planet, but whatever, it was still awesome.
“It’s perfect,” I whispered.
“I’m so glad Claire approves, but what does everyone else think?” Norah asked. A fake-innocent grin spread across her face as she batted her eyes.
My cheeks warmed and I opened my mouth to retort, but Elise jabbed my ribs and gave me a knowing glare. Norah and I didn’t get into it that often, mostly because of Elise’s moderating, but for some reason it always felt like a competition between us. Now there was one more thing that put Norah above me. My place was pretty meh, and there was definitely no private space for us to play games together.
“It’s great,” Piper said as she sat at the table, placing the cookies directly in front of her.
Elise grinned and pulled out a chair. “Ready to play?”
The heat in my cheeks disappeared, replaced by excitement as I remembered Terra’s Heroes in my backpack. I put the ruddy bag down on one of the chairs and I pushed past bags of dice, play mats, and full notebooks to pull free the new, cellophane wrapped box. I hadn’t wanted to let the smell of fresh cardboard and paint out until I could share it with my closest friends.
Norah clicked the tiny space heater to life, then joined us at the game table. I slid my fingernail between the box and the lid, cutting the thin clear wrapping and ripping it off. My fingers traced the art on the front of the box. It was stunning.
The characters’ backstories were all amazing, too. At the forefront was the character I wanted to play: Raven Gressahla.
She was a half-demon Skro, with horns that snaked down to her cheeks, decorated in gems, metal cuffs, and the teeth of her defeated enemies. She could see into the minds of others and wielded the truth of all things. She was the spiritual leader of a village destroyed by the war of two neighboring cities. Her people, the Skro, were destined to lead nomadic lives, unwelcome in either kingdom.
Behind Raven was Groff, the giant Tree Ogre. He was cursed to live a dual life, one of light and the other of darkness, paying for the crimes of all those who came before him. Flanking Raven and Groff were two other females: Xebaria Dark-Dancer and Penelope Denetore.
Xebaria sported daggers to the teeth, tight black leathers, and a mask that obscured everything but piercing blue eyes and tall, pointed ears. She was a Sky Elf, dubbed as such for the floating islands on which her people made their home. The Sky Elf lore went deep on the internet, and I hadn’t had time for all that...
Then there was Penelope Denetore, the character I knew Norah would nab. Penelope was decked out in gold and bronze bandoliers, a short skirt exposing orange-tinged legs and a fluffy tail sprouting from her behind. She was a Foxian, and kinda cute, but I thought it was just a cheap ploy to reel in the Manga readers.
But that wasn’t why I thought Norah was going to pick her. I knew Norah had also done her research on Terra’s Heroes, and I could tell that throwing grenades, whacking enemies with lightning rods, and shooting pistols was going to be right up her alley.
The cast went on and on, about six other playable characters with their own story arc and potential resolutions, but those were the highlights.
I pulled the lid back with a fthp fthp fthp as the air slipped past the tight seal. At the top was the manual; crisp and pristine. I grabbed it as the other girls went in after the figurines.
Terra’s Heroes: The Master’s Guide.
This was one of the first games that provided a basic guide in the box, and then over six hundred pages of lore and story information online. It allowed us to play together, without a game master, since we’d be using one-part chance and two parts internet.
We didn’t need a computer to get started tonight, so I pulled open the first page to the table of contents and scanned over it, then moved back to the box for the next goodie. Under the character sheets was the Encounters, Enemies, and Creatures handbook, but I could look at that later.
“I want to be Xebaria Dark-Dancer!” Piper declared as she slammed her game piece down on the table. It was the black-clad Sky Elf. I wasn’t sure a high DPS, low health class was for her, but she was almost eleven now; it was time for her to make her own choices.
“I will be Penelope Denetore,” Norah said as she grabbed the Foxian figurine, and I smirked.
Something, fear maybe, made my hand reach out and snatch up Raven Gressahla and put her out on the table. Elise looked up at me, her mouth slightly open. I couldn’t guess if it was the character she wanted... but I wanted her. She grimaced and grabbed Groff.
“I’ll be the ugly ogre, I guess,” she said, her voice downtrodden.
I put the booklet aside. “There are more girls, you know.”
Elise nodded. “Yeah, I know. But you idiots are always getting in trouble, and you’ll need a character like Groff in your party. He has healing magic and can harden his tree-person skin to be strong as stone, like a tank.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Elise seemed to hate my tabletop fascination, but she’d actually done some research on the game. She knew, the same as I did, that two DPS and a Mentalist hybrid would be doomed without some muscle.
“Thanks, Elise.” I gave her a fist bump.
Norah followed, then Piper, adding, �
�Way to take one for the team.”
The energy in the room was palpable as Elise smiled, happy to be the martyr this time. We’d all taken turns being “the boy” since so many games didn’t provide enough female characters for an all-girl group to play.
There was a knock and one of the cellar doors creaked open. “You girls want to watch the meteor shower?” Zack, Norah’s dad, asked. He and Beth were amateur astronomers, and very excited about the rocks falling from the sky. Apparently, there was some big deal on the news about this meteor shower, but who cared about space when Terra’s Heroes just released?
I mean, sure, there were some worrying reports of one of Jupiter’s moons “disappearing,” but it reappeared five days later and lots of people on channel five thought it was something wrong with the telescope equipment. There were other reports of some weird storm showing up on Mars, but that died down a week ago. Some quack scientist said there was an invisible “event” happening in space, headed towards Earth this very weekend, but there wasn’t any real evidence of that, and I certainly wasn’t going to let it ruin the game.
“We’ll catch the end of it,” Norah yelled back.
There was a pause, then, “Alright. Don’t stay up too late.”
“We won’t!” we all chimed in a singsong tune, then giggled as we looked at one another, knowing full-well we certainly would.
The door closed and I sat down, pulling the game booklet closer. “Alright, nerds, let’s lay out the board.”
We got to work setting up the first campaign. There were dungeons and cities and groves, but our main home base would be The Tower of Zewan. There we would train, upgrade our skills, and get quests. We could do all of those things out in the world too, but it was mostly for specialized training, or quests outside of the main campaign.
The board was placed. Markers set. Characters poised for entry.
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