Drake's LitRPG Megabundle (7 Books)

by Adam Drake

  The tiger swiped at him from either side of the buckler, growling and hissing.

  With renewed determination, Rob swung the mace over the top of the buckler striking the top of the creature's head.

  You have learned a new skill: Maces

  Advancement in this skill will allow you to do more damage with maces as well as to swing them faster.

  The tiger shrieked in pain as the mace's spikes punctured one of its eyes. It pulled itself away from him and thrashed on the ground, swiping at its injured eye with its paws.

  Not one to miss an opportunity, Rob stepped forward and brought the mace down, catching the big cat at the base of its neck.

  A Critical Hit message appeared in the combat log.

  The tiger collapsed to the ground, twitching, its spine crushed.

  Rob stepped back for a moment, realizing what the hit had done. The tiger couldn't move, but its eyes were locked on Rob, angry and fierce.

  He stepped closer, raising the mace. “Sorry, kitty, but you started this.” He slammed the weapon down on the tiger's head.

  You have killed a Sabretooth Tiger. You have gained 300 experience points toward your next level.

  Rob fell back to lean against the cave wall, panting heavily. He looked at the bloody mace. Tufts of fur and bits of bloody flesh hung from its spikes.

  “Oh, I like you,” he said.

  After taking a few seconds to catch his breath, he managed to drink another medium mana potion. Then he cast Heal on himself.

  Fully recovered he stood straight and looked over his jerkin. It had been torn almost to shreds as well as the shirt underneath.

  He looked at the tiger, its head caved in. That had been a tough son of a bitch. Without his buckler, Rob knew he wouldn't have survived the encounter, mace or no mace.

  Still, he was alive. He knelt beside the tiger and checked for any loot. Nothing appeared, and he frowned. “You kidding me? After all that? Why not a new shirt at least?”

  He went over to the skeleton, its torso covered in the moldy tatters of a shirt.

  “Hey, thanks for the mace, buddy. Really appreciate it.” He flicked at the tattered shirt, trying to see if there was anything beneath it.

  A message appeared.

  Quest completed: 'Fair Warning'

  You have found the remains of Tyric, although it appears his animal charming days are over. Perhaps you may still benefit from his knowledge.

  Quest complete: 500 experience points.

  Huh. So this was the guy the bandits had put a bounty on.

  Beneath the shirt he found a money bag.

  You have taken an item: Money Bag

  35 gold pieces, 80 silver pieces, 65 copper pieces

  Wow! Nice. A lethal mace and a bunch of money. This certainly made up for the lack of loot on the tiger.

  But as he was about to leave, he noticed the skeleton had something in its other hand. It was perfectly round and the size of a softball. With an effort he wrestled it from its skeletal grasp.

  You have taken an item: Greater Stone of Charm Beast.

  Uses: 1/1

  Can charm any animal (non-human) or beast, bringing them under your control for a 90 minute duration.

  Value: 25 gold pieces

  Oh, sweet! Rob thought, reading the description. But what good was it to him now? He glanced at the dead tiger. Had the thing lived maybe he could've used the stone to charm it. What if he could find another tiger? He shook his head. Then what? Even if he waltzed into the pech camp with a Sabretooth Tiger by his side, the both of them wouldn't last very long. The stone was useless.

  Somewhere outside the cave, he heard the distant roar of the dragon.

  Holding the stone, a sudden realization dawned upon him, and a huge shit-eating grin spread across his face.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “This is a crazy idea,” Rob said for the thousandth time. He was scrambling up the side of the mountain, looking for a way to get higher.

  The lack of boots and socks made the effort more difficult, and he had to continually stop to pull out a pebble or twig that got caught in the soles of his feet. But he was making progress. Checking his map gave him a good idea where he should be headed although he knew getting back to the trail would be more ideal.

  When he initially left the little cave, he had tried to sling the large mace from his belt loop. But the weapon kept thumping heavily against his thigh, cutting through his pants and biting his flesh. Against his better judgement, he put it in his backpack, as it was too wide to fit in his bags of holding.

  Several times he stopped when he thought he heard the dragon's roar, but it didn't appear.

  “I can't believe I'm doing this,” he said, pulling himself over a large boulder that blocked his path.

  His heart beat rapidly in his chest, but not just from his climb. If he couldn't pull this off, he'd most certainly be dead. But the prospect of success was also terribly exciting.

  He kept climbing, and his skill eventually increased to 5%. If there was a skill for slipping and sliding, or falling to his knees, he'd be close to 100% by now.

  Below him, the river had long since vanished. All that he could see was the apron of the mountain, with rocks and trees. His people were still down there and he hadn't forgotten them.

  “This is a crazy idea,” he said, moving through a copse of trees.

  Suddenly, he caught a hint of movement in the bushes far ahead. Something was coming in his direction. Pech? He couldn't tell.

  Quickly, he found a spot to hide up on a rise, and behind a large tree surrounded by thick bushes. He removed his backpack and placed it on the ground. From within, he took out the mace.

  As soon as he was armed something trotted out of the trees a dozen paces away, and Rob's eyes widened at the sight of it.

  A massive wolf-like creature emerged and stopped. It was easily the size of the Sabretooth tiger, maybe bigger. But it wasn't its size that stunned Rob.

  Its flesh had rotted away, exposing internal organs and patches of matted fur. Tendons stretched and flexed as it moved its legs. Its tail was nothing but a reed of exposed bone that it held low to the ground. As it tilted its head up to sniff the air, Rob could see maggots crawling in the rotted flesh of its snout. The lips on one side of its face were gone, exposing a ragged line of fangs, many missing. When it turned its head a little in Rob's direction he could see it no longer had eyes, just pits of festering maggots and other carrion insects.

  What in the Many Hells is that?

  Creature: Corpse Hound

  Hit Points: 250, Mana: 100

  Armor: 15, Speed: 15

  Abilities: Unknown

  The thing had a ton of hit points and a lot of mana. And its speed and armor were the highest he'd seen on anything else he'd encountered.

  He didn't want to tangle with this abomination under any circumstances, especially now.

  Not wanting to be detected, he slowly pulled back behind the tree, only watching it from around the trunk with an eye.

  The horror continued to sniff the air as if its nose still worked. Perhaps, it did. Rob felt wind blowing around him and he became fearful it might catch his scent.

  Thankfully, the thing lowered its rotted head and continued on in the direction he'd come from.

  Once it was out of sight, Rob sighed, relieved.

  Corpse Hounds and Bog Dogs. What kind of idiot makes up this stuff?

  He moved on, but this time holding the mace. If that thing caught his scent trail it might turn around and follow. Sweet lord, he didn't want that to happen, but he needed to be ready.

  A few minutes later, as he was passing through some bushes, he heard the distinct roar of a dragon. He looked up, but couldn't see anything through the thick forest canopy. Hurrying, he searched for an ideal spot. Suddenly, he popped out of the forest and into a small clearing. At its center was a tall cluster of boulders.

  Perfect.

  He raced across the clearing, looking up at the sky
. To the north he saw the dragon scudding low over the treetops. It hadn't seen him.

  Cursing, Rob ran to the boulders and climbed up. Reaching its tallest point he looked around again.

  The dragon was making a slow turn away from him and across the deep valley.

  “This is a crazy idea,” he told himself. Then he raised his arms and waved. “Hey! Over here!”

  He jumped up and down waving and shouting as loud as he could.

  When it appeared the dragon would fly out of view it suddenly whipped its massive head around to look back down the length of its body. It spotted him.

  “Okay, here we go,” he said. He didn't have time to put the mace into the backpack, so he slung it on his belt.

  As the giant creature flapped determinedly in his direction, he pulled out the Greater Stone of Charm Beast. His entire body tingled, making his lips feel numb. There was no way to tell if a dragon fell under the category of Beast, but he was about to stake his life on finding out.

  The dragon reached the edge of the clearing, but instead of barreling at him, the thing angled its wings and flapped into a hover. It seemed perplexed as to why he wasn't fleeing in terror.

  Rob judged the distance between him and the dragon. Too far. “Come and get it!” he shouted. “Dinner time!”

  A deep gurgling growl came from the creature's belly. Was it dragon-ese for 'What the Hell?'

  Uncertain what else to do, Rob could only stand there and watch. He needed the thing closer.

  Reaching a decision, the titanic monster flapped lower then dropped to the ground on all fours with a tremendous thud. It walked toward him like a cat stalking its prey, its great wings held out to both sides.

  The full realization of how stupid this was hit home. Rob found himself trembling, holding back tears. This had to work.

  The dragon stopped and sat back on its haunches, still too far away. It started to beat its wings faster and faster, rearing its head back. At the same time, it began to inhale, deeply.

  Oh, damn! Rob thought. Regardless of how far it was, he had to throw the stone. Quickly, he pulled back his arm and threw the stone at the dragon as hard as he could.

  Several factors effecting the success of the throw happened at the same time. First, the wind generated by the wings was incredible. Second, the weight of the stone was almost equivalent to a lead shot-put. Third, Rob's weak and pathetic throwing ability.

  All this resulted in the stone arcing a dozen paces through the air, then plummeting to the ground with a thud.

  And that's exactly when the dragon belched out a flaming inferno.

  Screaming in surprise, Rob fell backwards off the boulder just as the flames blasted over him. He tumbled down to land hard on the ground.

  Dazed, he stood up on wobbly legs to notice the buckler and backpack were aflame. Shrieking, he hurriedly flung the buckler away and yanked off the backpack.

  The dragon skulked around the side of the boulders and roared.

  Panicked, Rob turned and ran, careening off the side of a boulder. It was then he noticed his gloves were on fire.

  “Crap! Crap! Crap!” he said, running around the boulders and smacking his hands together to put out the flames.

  Trying to keep ahead of the dragon, he circled around to the other side. Quickly, he scanned over the clearing, looking for where the stone had dropped. But the field was covered in rocks and stones of various sizes.

  “Where is it!?” he shouted as he bumbled about, checking the ground. Behind him the dragon appeared and stopped. It roared at him.

  Suddenly, he spotted the stone sitting in a thick patch of grass. As he hurried over he heard the dragon thumping across the ground toward him. Reaching down, a huge shadow passed over him, blotting out the sun and making him cry out.

  He grabbed the stone with both hands and spun around with it. The head of the dragon was already descending upon him, colossal jaws wide, rows of teeth glistening in the sun.

  Rob pitched the stone up and away from him, aiming at the body of the dragon.

  The lunging head of the dragon was all Rob could see. It was his world, it was his universe, it was his final destiny.

  But he could only throw the heavy stone so high, and it arced downward. Yet, the descending dragon's head made contact with the stone at the tip of its chin with a distinct clinking noise.

  Rob found his eyes were closed in terror, but when he didn't die horribly, he opened them.

  Above, within arms reach the dragon stared down at him. The great beast blinked several times. It tilted its head left and right.

  Suddenly, it snorted from its nostrils, blasting Rob with hot air and tearing the helmet from his head.

  Then the dragon sat back slowly, hunkering down on its legs much like a lounging cat. It folded its wings inward to its back and watched Rob. Waiting.

  Rob blinked wide eyed at the dragon, too stunned to move.

  Suddenly, a little icon appeared at the top right of his vision. It was of the dragon, accompanied by a huge health bar.

  A message appeared.

  You have successfully charmed a Rock-Cliff Dragon. It will remain under your influence for 90 minutes.

  Commands:

  Stay

  Follow

  Attack

  Burn

  “Oh, my god,” Rob whispered. “It worked. It really worked.”

  He stood up under the watchful gaze of the Rock-Cliff dragon. His Rock-Cliff dragon.

  Suddenly, to his right, something burst from the treeline and ran toward him. Surprised, Rob turned to see the Corpse Hound barreling at him at top speed. The creature had picked up his scent after all.

  Rob blinked in surprise. The undead thing appeared not to notice the giant dragon which took up most of the space in the clearing. Its focus was entirely on Rob.

  The dragon glanced at the Corpse Hound, then back to Rob, expectantly.

  “Oh, hell, yeah!” Rob said. He pointed at the approaching horror and shouted, “BURN!”

  The dragon barely inhaled as the Corpse Hound bounded into range. Then, it shot out a short intense column of flames.

  The Corpse Hound was incinerated instantly. One second it was charging at Rob, the next it was a large pile of burning cinders blowing apart.

  Rob's eyes were wide in amazement. “Holy, shit,” he said, almost giddy. “I have my very own dragon!”

  His eyes were drawn to a timer next to the dragon's icon. It was at eighty-nine minutes and counting down.

  “Okay,” Rob said, trying to get over his euphoria. “We need to get you to where you can be more useful.” He double checked his map and found the location of the camp. It was far from his current position. He had no idea how long it would take to get there before the dragon's timer ended.

  He was struck with another crazy idea. “Oh, hey,” he said to the dragon as he walked toward it. “Think I could ride you?”

  The dragon suddenly cringed back and hissed, its tail whipping back and forth.

  “Oookay,” Rob said, backing away with his hands up. “That would be a definite no. Fine, then. We'll do this the hard way.”

  Quickly, he retrieved all his dropped items. The buckler was badly charred, but its durability was fine. He donned his helmet and slung the backpack placing the mace inside.

  Finished, he stood before the dragon and said, “Follow!”

  The dragon stood and stretched its wings. Then it took off up into the sky, buffeting Rob.

  Rob ran in the direction of the camp, mindful of the dragon which circled him above. “That's one hell of a guardian,” he said. He felt sorry for any more Corpse Dogs or Sabretooth Tigers that got in his way.

  As he ran he couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. He felt like a child on christmas day who'd received the most incredible gift imaginable.

  A dragon.

  This was the chance he'd been looking for. There was nothing that could stop him from doing what needed to be done. Freeing his people.

  And a
s for the pech, there could only be one outcome.

  Those slaver bastards were going to burn.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The descent down the mountainside took far longer than it should have.

  Despite his best attempts to navigate the dangerous terrain, he could only physically travel so fast. The result was reaching the slaver's camp when the dragon's timer had dropped to fourteen minutes.