Reborn as a Baron Lord (Light Novel) (A Steampunk LITRPG Light Novel Book 1)

by Han Yang

  I shook my head in dismay, mostly at what I was seeing. “Can they get out?”

  “From a prison of the gods? No, not likely. The only way to do that would be to close the portal which is not an option. I’m growing in power to expand the portal. But when I leave, and close the portal, your servitude will be rewarded and you’ll be free to go,” the being said, again expressing itself in a manner that was condescending.

  “How did that portal open?”

  “I realize I need to woo you to my side. Fine. I opened this after a sacrifice to Alrin, so I could grow in power. Where I come from, consuming the hearts of the dead increases your magical reserves. Here it gives blue shapes and makes you... fat,” the fiend said with a blech.

  “Uh… So we shut down that portal and the block is removed. I’ll just -”

  The portal shimmied with activity, brightening the cavern. Two gray creatures exited with clubs. They saw the vile being, charging it.

  My assessment of the large headed slug being immobile was partially accurate. Where I was wrong was the fact that it was lighting fast with two hidden pincers. Their arms shot out, diving into the trolls, and impaling them in a flash.

  Once second the gray skinned humanoids are the running, and the next their plucked high into the air.

  The head atop the body was not where the dying trolls were sent. A fold in mass opened, revealing a billion tiny teeth.

  The trolls screamed as they were inserted. I winced as the body mouth silenced the muffled cries of panic. A moment later and there was a buzzing sound. Over the next ten minutes bones cleaned of flesh were spit out and onto the pile.

  “Delicious. Do be a dear and come closer,” the head atop the slug said.

  I slung Darcy over my shoulder, and removed the long rifle from my back. There wasn’t a ton of aiming needed.

  ZING!

  I shot the fiend. Now… I was being an asshole. So far this creature who said it was from another planet, that it was trapped by another god, and had done nothing wrong besides put my friends asleep.

  I also wasn’t a fan of the mind that rested inside the body. I sure as hell was creeped out by the abomination. As my shot zoomed forward the head tucked down.

  ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING!

  If it was going to tuck into its fat, I was going to take shots.

  There was a muffled shriek as the first round landed high, sinking into the fat, and oozing out a thick puss. Unfortunately, the lighting was poor, so I couldn't tell if that was puss or blood that trailed down the body.

  There were four quick splats in rapid succession as the second salvo slammed into the abomination.

  A scream so awful erupted from the being. I casually removed my necklace, and reloaded my long rifle. Four days of hunting had me stocked up.

  Then here were the ghouls, the ogre, and all the spare hydrox the others brought. I didn’t need it.

  “It's over,” I said confidently.

  There was a grunting lurch from my opponent. It moved less than an itch, creating massive tears along its lower... foot or bottom half.

  While my foe cried in anguish I smiled. I had shot both the pincer arms, ruining them. There might be more and I’d patiently wait for time to tell.

  I retreated higher into the tunnel, ensuring I wouldn’t be seen by the next trolls, ghouls, or small ogre who stepped through that portal.

  I reloaded my long rifle until it hummed happily.

  There was an ability for the monstrosity to speak through the pain. “Save me and I’ll spare your friends,” it pleaded. The voice was so human, and so male.

  “Did you mutate yourself?”

  “Alrin requires sacrifices for power. Yes. I was a lowly mage on a planet where humans are little more than fodder. We serve Ikrian as troops in a never ending war that splits our continent. I… changed to get this powerful. My sleep spell goes for miles now,” the beast seethed. “Enough to turn the tide of battles. The power… it is glorious.”

  “I need your power more than Alkrin needs it,” I said and there was a shriek of anger.

  The body tried to slide forward, only renting the tears in its torso further. I leveled the long rifle.

  “How dare you defile -”

  ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING!

  The moment the barrel trailed magical smoke I reloaded. I hummed a happy tune, not bothering to watch where my five rounds splattered. I heard them all sink into the lard. They may not be overly effective, but I had thousands of them to deliver.

  “For all that is holy stop,” it pleaded.

  “You die. The how is your choosing,” I said without a care. “End your spell and die quick or -”

  “Blast you infernal Almerian!” the abomination moved, but not in a good way.

  There was a tearing sound so loud it echoed. The top half of the body ripped free of it’s anchor. Instead of feet, or slime; there was only blood, fat, and guts left behind. I could see the shimmy of hydrox in what was left behind.

  I realized what I was watching. The body stuck to the ground again.

  A magical process created a seal, binding the body into a new home. A smaller, raw foot formed. It looked so flipping angry.

  I lined up the bottom half and fired.

  ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING!

  The screams were music to my ears. I reloaded while my foe wailed in torment. The portal shimmied and two spear wielding trolls materialized onto Gearnix.

  I… I don’t know if I’m a bad person, or if I will have regrets later, like I did with the leopards, but I enjoyed hearing it plead and cry out in pain.

  Watching the new arrivals I knew that the way I found the abomination had it perfectly set for defense.

  Now, it had no arms, the head was up high, and there was no way to stop the jabs of the trolls. They executed a death by a thousand cuts for me. Literally.

  I sat there with fully loaded weapons and watch, eventually growing bored of the ordeal. About two hours into the torture and the abomination weakened. I heard vomiting.

  I kept my observation spot, knowing my allies would find me. Sure enough, ten minutes later Corvo moved like a ghost to my side.

  “A demon. How did you defeat it?” he asked.

  Joana wanted to hug me so badly but held it in, staying professional. Ginli didn’t care and wrapped me up. Corvo slowly pulled her off me only to have Joana latch on.

  “This is why Tessa never hunts with me. How did you defeat it?”

  Ginli scoffed in the slighted of manners, “He had the trolls do it.” Corvo eyed her with disappointment. “Oh, there’s thousands of troll corpses. Hmm… how did you defeat it?”

  “Removed its defenses. I… I’ve been letting the trolls bleed it to death. It is much easier this way. That is a human,” I said and they shook their heads no. I nodded that it was. “A magic distorted its purpose, but not its mind. It still sees validity in becoming an abomination for power.”

  “It's so pitiful,” Joana said sadly.

  I shook my head. “It is a monster. Whatever power it sought, it gained through death, decay, and destruction. Do not pity it. It has a battlefield advantage in sleeping its enemies for miles. I… I still don’t trust it and we shouldn’t get any closer.”

  “We tried to get to Leon and Lei and there is a shield,” Corvo whispered. I nodded, pointing to the portal.

  “Don’t want to try to destroy that, until the beast is dead.” I sat back down, to watch the slow death unfold.

  The others joined me in the morbid view.

  Ten minutes later, two more trolls came out of the portal, shrieking a battle cry. Whatever reserve the slug abomination was holding back for was unleashed.

  A wave of power burst from the creature. An explosion of fat shot out in a widening circle around the creature. The trolls splattered against the wall, bursting from the sheer power unleashed.

  From our point we were pushed up the incline. We raced back down to see that the portal had cracked.

  The
voice whined with misery.

  “Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!” A human stepped out of what once was the massive slug. His arms were disfigured, a ruined mess. His body withered and corroded. “All my power.” There was so much anguish in that statement.

  The portal was consuming itself. The frail mage ran for the portal that was eating itself from the damage.

  ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING!

  A shield protected the mage who cackled with a mad laugh. “Pitiful vile humans. I’ll return in due time, more powerful than before. You’ll pay for your torture. Your demise is inevitable!”

  The mage had monologued for too long, leaping into the portal. His foot sliced off, thumping down to rest on the cavern’s floor. The portal winked out existence and unleashed a wave of air when it exploded.

  A silence settled over the areas.

  I sighed and finally said, “I’m so flipping glad the steambots are the ones cleaning up this mess.”

  “Right!?” Corvo chuckled, eyeing the disgusting mess with disdain.

  “I need to check on -”

  “You guys okay!?” Leon shouted down.

  There was a grateful reunion. The bots sense an all-clear moment, flowing down the cavern trail to get to work cleaning up the cave.

  I left the cave, sighing in relief when we passed through the magical wall line that no longer existed. My primary focus was rebuilding the dying fire.

  With the flames roaring, I retold my tale the others had missed.

  When I finished a steambot brought me a bucket. Inside were large heptagons shiny bright with powerful blue energy inside. “We’re these inside the slug?”

  “Yes,” the venturebot said in a dry retort.

  “More?” I asked and he nodded. “One per set of bones?”

  “Likely.” The venturebot deduced.

  Corvo fidgeted, clearly not liking the venturebots capabilities.

  “Fill yourselves up, as a thank you for the hard work,” I said encouragingly.

  The venture bot went to a storage section on Ginli’s carriage and started dumping hydrox. “Oh, what’s in the mine,” I asked.

  “Stone and granite,” a steambot said.

  “Well, maybe the next one will have iron ore,” I grumbled.

  Corvo shrugged. “Granite sells five to one to iron ore pound for pound. A losing trade but not as bad as a thousand to one that stone is.”

  “Do we want to talk about the portal?” Joana asked.

  “We know there are mysteries to Gearnix. We know there are unexplainable things. Ghouls, ghosts, abominations, demons, and now we can add humans from other planets. I don’t like it, but after a hundred years of doing this, I’m not surprised,” Corvo said.

  “Don’t look a day over forty one,” I teased.

  Corvo grew somber leaving his seat. He kneeled before me and said, “Hear my confession, and then my pledge. I came out here for excitement. I also came out here to spy on you.

  “A human that mutated its body to become a super mage, not a shocker. Nor is it a surprise he didn’t abandon all that power until he truly lost. What is a surprise is that a Baron Lord saved my life today.

  “For saving my life I swear that for the next ten years forward I will do everything in my utmost power to make your rule successful. From this day to that, I’m your man.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “I accept your fealty and you’re welcome… sort of. Spying on me?”

  “Yeah, I mean. Hexpa has been my world for a long time. I traded them extra resources to my old units. So… so… less die. In return I tell them you're a gifted warrior. I feed them bullshit. Look, kid. I came clean, but hear me now. I’m not doing the double spy thing,” Corvo said with a warning finger wag.

  He had done me a solid by being honest. “Alright, I’m not a council. I can still use you and have you isolated from information. We both win. Now, Mr. Ninety-plus rating. How about we go clear a real mine and this time you show me how it’s done.”

  “Tomorrow. The spell has me woozy,” Corvo said and the others agreed.

  That worried me. Worried me enough that I stayed up when they all went to sleep early.

  The next morning was a break in the gloomy gray and flaky snow. The clear air brought harsh bitter winds. More importantly everyone else woke up feeling amazing.

  I finally laid myself down, only to have Joana join me as others prepared a morning camp. The interior of the carriage was warm and cozy from the vacated bodies. More so when she snuggled into bed with me.

  “Lullaby?” she asked and I yawned out a nod.

  “What do you think that portal was made of?” I asked.

  “What portal?” Joana replied sweetly.

  I went to the tiny table in the carriage. There was an alcove that held pencil and paper. I wrote in a hurry as if the memories would die before I could transpose them. Joana watched over my shoulder.

  Early winter, first year of Norn. I fought a slug that was a man. The man said he was trapped in his cavern because of his portal from another world. The man broke free of his twofold prison, vowing revenge as he fled. My allies saw this. My lover denies seeing it the next morning. What game do the gods play? Will this not vanish? Add this to the annuals of Sir Bradley of Norn - The Baron Lord.

  “You’re serious?” Joana asked. “You slew a slugferra who had a troll and three ghouls as defenders. The slugferra is exceedingly rare and its body houses -”

  “All false. Thank you, for telling your side. In the notepad you wrote my forgotten memories in. Do you remember that?”

  Joana nodded. “It's in our room, assuming the cubs don’t eat it.”

  “Add this to it. Trust me. That is what happened. There was no slugferra, but Joana. No point in telling the others,” I said and she nodded.

  A yawn escaped my lips and she forced me back into bed. I had to wonder, when I awoke would I forget too. Joana’s signing was as good as her cooking and in minutes I was asleep.

  CHAPTER 29

  “Antlent?” I asked for clarification

  Leon grumbled, nodding his head. “They literally are the story yer parents tell ya about to clean up yer mess.” He shook his head in dismay. “They’re basic critters. Tin legs and pincers. They do nothing to augments and everything to flesh. Slow and easy to kill.”

  “A hack and slash,” Corvo said with a smile. “A good way to raise your melee stats if you’d want. This has been cleared repetitively by tourists. What they don't clear, and is brimming from the veins, is the dark purple iron ore. This is what ya wanted.”

  I nodded. We had bypassed a gem and a tin mine. Obviously, we’d go back later for those but for now. This is what Norn needed.

  My fingers cinched around the hilt of my steam blade, pulling it free.

  “Is there a boss?” I asked.

  “Yeah it’ll be an ant queen about double the size of the small ones. Fun fight, with your natural abilities it should be a breeze. We’re going to kill the spiders in the gem mine if that’s okay with you,” Ginli said with a smile.

  “Yeah, works for me. Gems are great.” I replied.

  Joana patted my shoulder. “Just you and me pretty boy. Well us and three venturebots.”

  “Alright, have fun sniping spiders. Can always import what we don’t mine,” I said encouragingly.

  We parted ways with Joana readying her long dagger. She triggered the dual edged blade with hydrox. Bluish power sizzled in the cold air.

  A perk of cave diving in the winter was, the caves were at least out of the wind. We walked for the entrance, snow crunching underfoot. There was a fissure in the mountainous terrain barely wide enough for two abreast.

  Steambots were smacking picks into stone, widening the opening. A team was laying outlines for a minecart track. It’d be another few weeks before we had additional woolies or oxen arrived. Our supply lines would be pitiful until then. For now it was securing the objective.

  The steambots backed up, halting the
ir word so we could pass through.

  Once inside the narrow tunnel, Joana placed a device behind her that was basically a small cart. She indented the button atop a hydrox illumination cage, dragging the wheeled platform behind us.

  “I want to get an eye augmentation. I was… I was waiting until after, you know,” Joana said hesitantly.

  “The baby?” I asked.

  “No the one month. I’d be… very distraught and a new augmentation can take time to adjust. Best to avoid traumatic events,” Joana said.

  I started counting on my hands and she chuckled. “26 days, Bradley. Only a few more to go until I’m clear. Few more after that and we’re into eleventh month.”

  “Just an eye piece?” I asked.

  “Um… for now. I was thinkin about what ya said earlier,” Joana said, tugging on her braid. She was nervous, a rare thing. “Remember?”

  “Maybe, gotta be more specific, darling.”

  She blushed, rolling her eyes. “The one about paying us. The biggest upgrade or purchase a human can do is for their augments. Corvo has a fortune invested in his body and I… I don’t.”

  “Are you saying you want to change a few things?” I asked.

  Her braid tug ended and she grew confident. “I want a single eye and at least one leg like you.”

  “Joana, I adore you… You don’t need my permission and I support you,” I said.

  She leaned over kissing my cheek. “Thanks for being you, Bradley. My dashing Baron Lord.”

  “Your happiness means my happiness. I’ve been thinking of getting my left hand done too. There is a distant tug on a forgotten memory that screams of horror of thinking about removing my arm. Then the Gearnix side tells me not only is it okay, it is preferred,” I said with a grunt of confusion.

  “You okay. You were distant when you woke up?”

  Our conversation at the tunnel opening triggered a single skittering ant. The creature crawled the side of a wall, seeking us.

  There were clacking pincers as the odd machine creature went into attack mode. Joana was swift, slicing the antlent in two. The body withered on the cavern floor.

  I bent down, seeing the tin legs continue to kick in death throes. The front half was chitin, with robotic legs. The screws to assemble this little foot long creation probably required a monocle to see.