by Dean Henegar
“Tremble, go cut those two out!” I gestured toward the two wounded soldiers bound by the webs. If he could cut them out that was two more fighters that could help. I continued to run to each of the other four soldiers, getting them back to their senses as quickly as I could. Freeing the last man, and sending him toward Vhareax, I could see that the creature had finished off the Honor Guard as well as all the other soldiers fighting him. The last soldier I sent was stabbed through the stomach by a leg and tossed to the side. Vhareax grinned at me as he scurried toward the last of us. I readied my sword and shield taking position next to Tremble and the other two newly freed, but heavily wounded, soldiers for what was sure to be our last stand.
“You lead the meat; your life will taste that much sweeter,” Vhareax taunted as he closed the distance to us, focused entirely on me. Saliva and poison dripped from his fangs in anticipation of the meal when his head snapped back with a small throwing axe imbedded into it. Vhareax hissed in pain and anger as a wave of crossbow bolts hammered into its abdomen. Crossbow bolts designed to punch through a knight’s armor had no trouble breaking through the spider’s tough exoskeleton.
Looking back to the cave entrance, I could see two squads of soldiers being led by a huge, one-armed half-orc. The half-orc was yelling taunts at Vhareax as he waved a two-handed axe easily in one hand. Behind the advancing soldiers was another squad quickly reloading their crossbows. I let out a cheer when I saw their name. My advanced troops had finally arrived.
Scouts: Advanced Soldier: These soldiers are picked from the most capable ranks of the Imperium and given specialized training. Scouts are used for reconnaissance, infiltration, and as an elite ranged unit.
But the one-armed half-orc leading them was a player, not an NPC!
Sergeant Ty, Scout team leader: Level 3.
Wait, why did he look familiar?
You have been critically hit by Vhareax for 395 damage.
You have been poisoned, taking 20 damage per second for the next 20 seconds.
You are immobilized.
While I was looking at the reinforcements, Vhareax used my distraction to close the distance and grasp me in his jaws.
“I take you to the nether with me…your soul shall feed me and my brood for eternity,” Vhareax taunted as he activated an ability.
Vhareax used the Rend ability for 225 damage, you have died.
Chapter 31
You will respawn in 30 seconds, 29,28,27…
Thankfully, it looked like I would respawn shortly…and not be forced to feed Vhareax and his brood for eternity.
I respawned in front of the townhall. Patting myself down it looked like I had my clothes and armor, but was missing my sword. I now remembered that you had a chance to drop non-soul-bound items and some coin when you died. A few townspeople looked at me strange as I appeared. Only thirty seconds had passed, so the fight must have still been on! I ran as fast as I could toward the mine, finding no one save for the townsfolk and workers hammering at some houses they were building. I ran past our barracks, seeing the building had been completed…that explained where the advanced soldiers and replacements came from. What it didn’t explain was who that other player was. I hit the tunnel entrance and began to move as quickly as possible toward the main chamber. I was forced to reduce my speed due to the poor lighting and I also noticed that my health was only a little above half. Respawning must not reset health to full once you made it past your starter quest. Sprinting into the main chamber, my sudden appearance startled Phineas and the newly crowned Chief Bugtug. I didn’t stop to chat, quickly crawling through the stinking webbed opening in the wall. Just when the cavern opened enough for me to stand again, I received a very welcome notification.
Server-wide announcement: The first unique elite foe (Vhareax the Fangweb Sire) has been defeated by Raytak the Commander and Scout Team Leader Ty. Lore on this creature has been unlocked for all players. Seek out powerful foes for greater rewards.
Wow, a server-wide announcement…I didn’t know that was a thing. I breathed a sigh of relief as I entered the portal chamber and saw the great spider laying in a pool of its milky blood. Several of its legs had been hacked from its body, and crossbow bolts were lodged everywhere in its corpse.
You have defeated Fangweb surrogate rank 5, 500 experience gained.
You have defeated Vhareax the Fangweb Sire: 5000 experience gained.
You have reached level 4. Please open your character sheet to review.
I minimized the notification and moved toward the survivors of the battle. All the advanced troops survived and fourteen of the standard troops were still alive, as well. Thankfully, Private Tremble had survived. He had been with the unit since the beginning, and it would feel wrong without him around. The one I was most confused with was the one-armed half-orc player, Ty, that was heading my way with a stupid grin on his face.
“Once again, the Marines have to bail out the Army. I guess things don’t change, even in a game. Good to see you outside of a hospital, Colonel!” Ty reached his one hand toward me to shake…could it be? But, how?
“What the…don’t tell me they put you in here as well. I guess there wasn’t an IQ test to play, otherwise there wouldn’t be any marines allowed,” I joked while shaking Ty’s hand, tears streaming down my face. My friend from the VA hospital had made it into the game as well. We both stood there for a minute, overcome with emotion, before Ty began to explain.
“I was in about the same situation as you, according to what the AI said… all used up and about to die. They decided to add another of us into a medpod for testing and I made the cut. I woke up in my childhood room and was talking to some civilian named Clio, who said she was an AI. She gave me the option of re-living comforting memories while I healed, or to go into this game and save your skin. I knew you’d need a Marine NCO to tell you what to do, if you wanted to survive here. I was never a game player but this…” Ty waved around him. “Doesn’t really seem like a game does it?” Ty said.
“No, it seems real enough, and I could sure use your help. Looks like my brain was mush, and by playing this game, the AI can map my mind and eventually help me recall memories. I’m assuming you’re in a similar situation, Sergeant Ty?” I asked.
“Yes, looks like I’m in the mush brain club as well. I guess we just get on with it and play the game as well as we can? I’ll defer to your leadership since I’m new to gaming. What’s next?” Ty asked.
“Well, it looks like, thanks to the timely arrival of the Marine Corps, we killed that thing.” I gestured toward the corpse of Vhareax. “Get the men working on freeing any survivors from the webs and gathering any loot. Once that’s done, we’ll peek behind that to see where it leads.” I pointed to the swirling blue vortex I assumed was a portal. Ty began shouting orders to the men, falling right back in to the position of senior NCO that he had held in the real world for decades.
“Sir, what should we do with them?” Private Tremble asked, while pointing toward the Fangweb Surrogates. I walked over to the helpless and pitiful forms. The three that had just recently given “birth” to spiders were unconscious and near death. The one that had just had a spider implanted in her was awake and looked at us as we approached.
“Kill us…we cannot be saved…kill us before another of these things uses us to grow,” the surrogate said as it looked over its shoulder to the small, but growing, spider feeding on her back.
“I’m sorry this happened to you. I’ll put you out of your misery. I hope you will find peace in whatever afterlife you find yourself in,” I said, as I drew my knife.
“Sir, I’ll take care of it,” Private Tremble said, as he drew his sword. I placed my arm out to hold him back.
“No. Thank you, soldier, but this is something I have to do myself.” I stabbed the pleading surrogate in her back killing the growing spider, as well as the surrogate. The surrogate let out a last breath whispering, “Thank you”, as she died, a look of peace finally settling over her
features.
Quest Complete: Eliminate the Spider Threat. You have killed Vhareax and his brood. The mines are safe for now.
Reward: 250 experience, 10 gold, improved morale in the village, improved relations between Hayden’s Knoll and the Bugtug tribe.
You have reached Level 5. Please open your character sheet to review changes.
I opened my character sheet to level up, while the soldiers finished their tasks. Luckily, I was able to set a filter so that my character sheet would show only things that have changed or new abilities to review, I could check out my soldiers’ current stats at a later time.
Player: Raytak
Class: Commander (Imperium) Rank: Lieutenant
Level: 5 (90/5000)
Attack: 5 Defense: 11
Health: 675
Class Ability Upgraded:
Command Presence: Creates an aura in a 25-yard radius that inspires troops and allies under your command. +2 to attack, +2 to defense, and improved morale. The commander must concentrate on inspiring his forces and takes a penalty to attack and defense while the aura is active. Toggled passive ability/30 sec toggle cooldown.
Class ability Upgraded:
Advanced Honor Guard: Improve your existing Honor Guard ability by summoning 2 copies of your advanced troops instead of standard troops.
Unit Ability Unlocked
Thrust: Soldiers will automatically activate the Thrust ability once every 30 seconds in combat. Thrust adds a +5 bonus to the next attack and has a 10% chance to cause a bleeding wound for 1 damage per second for the next 10 seconds.
It looked like my abilities were upgrading nicely. The damage increase from the new thrust ability would be a big help as dps continued to be our weak point. I also hoped we could find and afford some better weapons soon.
You have looted 5 gold, 22 silver, and 44 copper pieces.
You have looted: Goblin mining pick x12, goblin shovel x12, copper ore x33, tin ore x4, Fangweb spider carapace x14, Fangweb fangs x2, spider silk x11, ribbon (unidentified).
While I gathered the loot, the rest of the men had cut the victims from the spider webs. Most of the victims, including the villager Jimmy, were dead, but we were able to save four more very sick goblins that should be okay once the spider venom wore off. I sent some of our soldiers to escort the wounded goblins back to their people. I also had them tell Bugtug that he could have the mining picks and shovels. The tools were crude, and nearly worn out, but the goblins might find some use for them. Sergeant Ty detailed another group of soldiers to carry the rest of the loot back to our barracks.
You have returned wounded goblins back to their tribe and have given back the mining tools. Reputation with Bugtug tribe is now Neutral.
Sergeant Ty looked at the blue vortex in front of us.
“I guess there’s just that left. Where do you think it goes?” Ty asked.
“I don’t know. Only one way to find out…” With that, the both of us and the remaining soldiers, walked into the portal…
Chapter 32
Qualitranos Medical Division Server Room
“Hey Lou, remember the anomalous power usage from the first medpod that we recorded?” Dave, Lou’s assistant, asked while looking at the latest readings on his screen.
“Yeah, Dave. What about it? It was an issue with Clio’s early calibration, everything should be fairly stable now…doesn’t take much processing horsepower to project a comforting environment and replay memories, does it?” Lou answered.
“Well buddy, the new pod has been doing it for the last hour, and the first pod is showing it again, too. It’s still miniscule amounts of processing power, but I knew you wanted us to keep an eye on it,” Dave said while swiping his screen over to Lou’s device. Lou read the data, then ran a few queries.
“No way…it can’t be. Dave get the Limitless Lands VR gear we have stored in the back and load up full admin privileges on it, pronto!” Lou said, and looked at the data again one final time before placing the helmet over his head. The light turned green, showing Lou was in game. The admin privileges allowed the user to monitor any other gamer’s activity. It was rarely used and was one of the few non-AI controlled features that allowed the company to police potentially harmful activity. After ten minutes (nearly an hour in game) Lou logged out. He had a blank expression on his face as he activated his phone.
“Phone, dial Trey Raytak, indicate it’s an emergency.” Lou waited for the call to connect while Dave stood there stunned, not sure what the emergency could be.
“Trey, it’s Lou. Sorry for waking you up but this is important. Remember the anomaly with CPU usage and the medpods? We found the source tonight. The extra CPU usage is from Clio porting the medpod patients into the game. Trey, Mr. Ty and your father are both in the game right now…”
Afterword
Thank you for taking the time to read Limitless Lands. I hope you enjoyed your journey and, if so, look for book 2 in the series, which should be out soon. Limitless Lands is the product of time I spent in the waiting room of the VA hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee. If you ever want to see real heroes, you need to go no further than the waiting room of a VA hospital to find them. While listening to the old war stories from some Vietnam veterans, I thought about what we were losing as these men aged and died. I had just found litrpg as a genre and was intrigued with what would happen when you sent an old combat veteran into a game. I finally, one day, sat down and started writing…this book is the result.
I wanted to also take a moment to thank my family for supporting the time I spent away from them while tapping away at the keyboard, Renee Kelly for her excellent editing work, and finally Charles M Province for allowing me to use his inspiring poem in the forward.
If you enjoyed the book, please take the time to leave a favorable review. Doing so helps the authors more than you know.