The Goblin's Shadow (A LitRPG Series)

by Kyle Vauss

  With the bolt back, I opened the door. I reached out and grabbed Dagnor. The wizard jumped back in shock. I stepped into the cage and leaned in close to him.

  “It’s me,” I said.

  He tried to look in my direction, but he couldn’t see me and he ended up facing the other way. It seemed like he could hear my words, but not well enough to know where I was.

  [Warning – 5% mana left]

  For a few seconds, I deactivated Shadow Form, letting Dagnor see me. The wizard’s eyes widened.

  “Tamos? What-”

  “Here’,” I said, pulling him toward me. “There’s no time for questions. We need to run while Crawford’s distracted.”

  I pulled my second vial of snail slime and threw it on the fire, sending the flames shooting out. Crawford jumped back and shielded his eyes. Both mercs stood up now, swords drawn.

  “Grab my sleeve,” I told Dagnor. “And run.”

  I activated Shadow Form and then fixed on the distance. With my mana depleting and the wizard holding my sleeve, I left the camp. We ran into the darkness of the rocky plains and then cut a wide arc so that neither the mercs nor Crawford could see us. We needn’t have bothered. The fire had spread away from the confines of the stones surrounding it, and it threatened to reach as far as the neeves’ cage.

  Crawford was so preoccupied with freeing them that we were able to disappear into the darkness. We wouldn't be rid of him for long, but at least we had Dagnor back.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The town was two miles north-west. It took us a little off course, but we had no choice. As we walked through the town gates, I looked around. It was like a medieval town, but with a steampunk edge to it. Glowing lanterns hung from wooden lampposts. To our right there was a blacksmith’s shop, and the smithy worked his forge outside it. At the end of a narrow road that stretched out before us, was a tavern. A generator was outside it. It was a mechanical contraption that ran off mana and powered something inside the building.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” said Gabber.

  I looked at the goblin. After fleeing Crawford we’d taken a rest, since I had no stamina and Gabber was looking pale. After two hours my stamina bar was full and my mana had risen three-quarters. Gabber had looked just as awful as he had before.

  “I think the slime poisoned me,” he said.

  “It damaged me too,” I answered. “But I wasn’t poisoned.”

  “Goblins have delicate immune systems,” said Gabber. “We need to get me a potion; it’s the only way.”

  “But where?” asked Dagnor. Since we’d rescued him, he’d been unusually quiet.

  “A town. Any town. There will be an apothecary, and we can bribe them into making me a potion.”

  With no other choice, we’d decided to go to the nearest town on the map. It was a little out of the way, which meant that although there would be some players there, there wouldn’t be too many. Still, we couldn’t just wander through the town gates with a goblin. We needed a plan to get by without drawing suspicion.

  And so it was that the three of us strolled through the town gates two hours later. In order to get Gabber into the town without someone wanting to hack his head off, we’d come up with something.

  “I look ridiculous,” said Gabber.

  I looked at him, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Dagnor had reluctantly peeled off his fake beard and given it to Gabber. It was so big that it almost covered his whole face, but that was just as well. To complete the disguise, I’d also convinced Dagnor to lend Gabber his robe. It was so oversized that it trailed on the ground, and Dagnor grimaced as it became encrusted with dirt.

  With Gabber disguised as a wizard, Dagnor had taken his old barbarian armor from his inventory. He looked visibly uncomfortable as he wore it, but it couldn’t be helped.

  A man walked by us along the town road. He led a horse by its reins. He nodded at me, then glanced at Gabber. My heart pounded, and I wondered if the disguise would fool him. When the man tugged on the reins and walked by, I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “The apothecary is over there,” I said, pointing at a shop with a potion sign outside it. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Dagnor looked around. “I’m going to see if there’s a class changer around here. It doesn’t hurt to shop around a bit.”

  I nodded. “Okay. We’ll meet you at the gates in an hour.”

  I wandered over to the apothecary with the goblin wizard hobbling beside me.

  “Why are you walking like that?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “To add to the illusion. This is how wizards walk.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  A few NPCs gave us strange glances as we walked through the town. To the west, near a weapons merchant, I saw a player warrior swinging a sword he’d just bought. I hurried Gabber along. The last thing we needed was to talk to a player.

  We reached the apothecary and walked inside. It was a small shop with a wooden counter. Shelves were nailed into the walls. They were lined with vials of different shapes and sizes, each containing liquids of various colors. One shelf was lined with jars filled with the dried-out bones of critters.

  The alchemist who stood behind the counter wasn’t what I expected. I thought he’d be a small man dressed in robes. Maybe he’d have a beard, and he’d have an intelligent look about him. Instead, the man in front of us towered over the counter. He had a hulking figure, with a bald head that was almost block-shaped. He looked like a bare-knuckle boxer.

  “What can I do you…” he said, then looked at Gabber. “…gents for?”

  I didn’t know how to start this conversation. Gabber’s disguise had gotten him through the town, but there was no way of us asking the man to brew a goblin healing potion without giving Gabber away.

  Gabber was the first to speak. “I’ll be straight with you,” he said. His words were muffled by the beard.

  The man put his hand to his ear. “Sorry?” he said.

  Gabber sighed, then ripped off his beard. The man craned his head back in surprise.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” said Gabber, holding his hands up in the air.

  “I’m thinking, ‘what the bloody hell is a goblin doing in my shop?’”

  “Just hear me out,” said Gabber. “I’m hurt, and I need a potion.”

  “And now I’m thinking, ‘what’s a talking goblin doing in my bloody shop?’ I’m calling the guards.”

  I stepped forward. “Don’t do that,” I said.

  “Why shouldn’t I? He’s vermin.”

  This irritated me, but I didn’t want to get into a fight. “Listen,” I said. “We’ll pay. We’ll give you GD for the potion, and GD for pretending this never happened.”

  “How much have you got?”

  I looked at Gabber expectantly.

  Gabber shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I gave you my last valuable item. Everything else is in the vault that I told you about.”

  I looked at my inventory. I still had a hand axe and around 250GD. “How about this?” I said, offering the item and the GD to the man.

  He smiled, as though my offer was ludicrous. “That’ll buy you an empty vial. You’ll still need GD for the potion, and then GD for my eyes to close and my memory to suddenly become fuzzy.”

  “And how much would that cost?” I said.

  “200 GD for each eye, 400 for me to pretend this never happened, and 500 for the potion.”

  “Another 1100?” I said. I couldn’t believe it. No potion was worth this much.

  “Supply and demand,” he said. “I’ll supply the potion, and then I’ll demand you get the hell out of my shop.”

  This wasn’t good. I could pawn the helm that Gabber had given me as a reward, but I’d only get a measly trade price for it in-game. The only other option was for me to transfer real-life GD into my Infarna account. The whole point of me playing Infarna was to save up enough to pay my debts and then leave everything behind. I couldn’t do it.

>   Then I looked at Gabber. Without the potion, he’d die. And without my help, he’d die. Could I really live with that? Over the course of our journey our relationship had changed. At first, he was an annoyance, but what was he now? A friend?

  Wow. It had been a while since I’d had once of those.

  “Damn it,” I said.

  I quickly accessed my Infarna account and went to my payment details. With great reluctance, I transferred real money to my Infarna account.

  “Take the damn GD,” I said.

  “A pleasure doing business,” said the man.

  He disappeared into a room behind him. I heard him hum a tune as he brewed the potion, and I smelled a spicy odour drift out from the doorway. Five minutes later, he returned with a glass vial in his hand. A greenish-brown liquid swished inside it.

  “One vermin healing potion,” he said.

  “Less of the vermin,” I said, grabbing the potion off him.

  I handed it to Gabber. The goblin unscrewed the cap, drank it down, and then put the vial on the counter. He rubbed his stomach and then let out a loud burp.

  “Better?” I said.

  He nodded. “Fresh as a marsh toad.”

  “Then let’s go find Dagnor.” Then I turned to the man behind the counter. “And remember, this stays between us.”

  The man pulled his fingers across his lips, imitating a zip. With that, we left the apothecary.

  As soon as we stepped outside, we found a crowd waiting for us. It wasn’t the townsfolk NPCs. If only it had been.

  Instead, it was Crawford.

  “What the heck is with this guy?” said Gabber. “Are there five of him? He’s everywhere!”

  We were backed up with nowhere to go. I turned to Gabber and went to move him away, but one of the mercs stepped forward and grabbed him. Gabber tried to kick out, but his flailing limbs didn’t accomplish anything.

  I looked from left to right. Crawford had his neeves with him, and he’d hired three extra mercs. Although Crawford wouldn't be able to hurt me, his hunting creatures and NPCs could. There was no way I could take them all on at once.

  But still, I wasn’t going to let them just take Gabber. I drew my sword.

  Crawford laughed. “Do you have a death wish, Thomas?” he said.

  At first, I thought nothing of it, but then I stepped back in surprise when the implication hit me.

  Crawford’s grin spread wide across his face. “That’s right, Tamos. Or Tom Amos, as you’re known in the real world. When I realized you weren’t going to give the goblin up, I paid an Infarna dev to pull up your profile for me. I thought I might be able to reach out to you in real life and offer a bribe. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that you work at my father’s company.”

  “How did you find us here?” I said.

  “With a little help from my friend,” said Crawford.

  And with that, a man stepped out from behind the group of mercs. As he moved forward, I saw that it was Dagnor.

  “You?” I said.

  Dagnor looked sad. “I’m sorry, Tamos. He offered me GD enough for the class change if I’d help him. And you know how much I want it.”

  Crawford folded his arms. “The plan was to use the wizard as bait and catch you at the camp fire. But you were too smart then. Luckily, I’d used a tracking spell on our barbarian friend here.”

  “I’m a wizard,” said Dagnor.

  “Not yet you’re not.”

  Gabber squirmed in the merc’s grasp, but he couldn’t free himself. I held my sword and wondered whether to attack, but then I made myself stay calm. Fighting would be stupid, I realized. If I started a battle here in the square, Crawford would just kill Gabber there and then.

  If I stayed calm, I had a chance. The one thing I could rely on was Crawford’s vanity. If he only needed to kill Gabber to get his achievement, he’d want to make a spectacle of it. He’d announce it on his live stream. He’d want people to tune in as he did it.

  “Money can solve everything, you see,” said Crawford. “You’re good, Tom. You managed to get away from me a few times, and you were more ingenious than I’d expected. But money always wins out in the end.”

  I wanted nothing more than to start hacking and slashing, and it took all my energy to rein in the impulse. I looked at Gabber, and I nodded to him. I hoped he knew what it meant. I wouldn’t leave him. I had to let Crawford take him for now, but I’d come up with a plan.

  “You might want to start looking for a new job, by the way,” said Crawford.

  And with that, he and the mercs walked away, taking Gabber with them. Dagnor trailed behind. As he reached the town gates, he turned and looked at me. I shot him an expression of disgust.

  They’d all get what was coming to them.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I headed toward the town tavern. I needed to clear my head and come up with a plan, but I also had to rid myself of the anger gathering in my chest. There was just so much to think about. Would I lose my job? Would I be able to get Gabber back?

  If Crawford got me fired and killed Gabber, he’d won. There wasn’t much I could do about my office work, since one word to his father, and I was gone. But I could do something here in Infarna.

  Despite that thought, I couldn’t help a feeling of desperation coursing through me. I walked into the tavern and headed to the bar. I pulled out a stool and sat on it.

  “What can I get you?” asked the barmaid. She was tall, with curly red hair. She had a world-weary expression, as if she’d asked the question thousands of times before. A tattoo of a wolf with a man’s head was on her left arm.

  “A beer please,” I said. I took out a 2 GD coin and placed it on the counter.

  Drinking beer in Infarna was ridiculous, I knew. It did nothing except give you an agility and perception debuff. But I felt like I needed something to drown out my thoughts.

  Over in the corner, two mages played Geledar, an Infarna card game which people gambled on. One of them smacked a card down on the table and cried out triumphantly.

  The barmaid put the beer in front of me. I took a sip. I’d never bought beer in Infarna before, but I wasn’t surprised to find that it tasted like the real thing. I held the glass and twisted it on the counter.

  Everything had gone wrong. I had let Crawford get Gabber, and I’d been betrayed by the stupid wizard. I was sure to lose my job soon. If that wasn’t enough, the deadline for selling my character was getting close. If I missed it, I’d get bad feedback, and that would put some people off ordering from me.

  It had all been for nothing. I had nothing to show for the last few days other than a measly helm. I had been stupid. I’d let myself grow fond of Gabber, and that had made me do things I otherwise would have avoided.

  I thought about logging out. I could go online and check the job ads. Then I could get my shadow walker to level 10 and sell it on. Get rid of it, and move on with my life. After all, I was out of allies, and I was almost out of time.

  “You okay, honey?” said the barmaid.

  The sunlight shone through the tavern window and made her hair glow. That reminded me of something. Or, more specifically, of someone. Maybe I wasn’t out of allies, after all.

  I wouldn’t let Crawford win this.

  Full of energy, I stood up. I left the tavern. I ran out into the town square and then followed the road to the gates. Out of the town, and in the distance, I saw Crawford and his party leading Gabber away.

  I couldn’t let them see me, but I couldn’t let them get out of sight, either. Keeping a healthy distance between us, I hung back and followed them across the plains.

  They walked for hours, never stopping to rest. My stamina bar kept steady since I was walking at a slower pace to remain unseen. I wondered how long I’d have to keep this up for. I just needed Crawford to stop for a while. I needed to know where he planned on killing Gabber and getting his achievement.

  As darkness fell over the sky, Crawford finally drew his party to
a halt. He crafted two cages – that must have been one of his hunter skills – and put his neeves in one, and Gabber in the other.

  Casting Shadow Form, I crept close to them. The world turned grey around me. I walked forward into the shadows, getting a close to Crawford as possible. When I was near enough to hear him speak, I stopped.

  Crawford was stood up. His mercs were on the ground in front of him. One of them had taken off his boots and was rubbing his feet, while another had his eyes shut. Despite how tired his men were, the hunter seemed unaffected.