Avarice Online: The Seven Realms Series: A Litrpg Novel

by Matt Ryan

  “Another mistake. A pity too. This fight was almost fun. Out there, you had a smidgeon of a chance, but in here, in my house, you have none.”

  There is always a chance. “Moonchild! Come to me.”

  The Dire Eagle screeched and flew into the room, dodging the black liquid as she landed on Jeffrey’s face. While Jeffrey was busy having his face clawed, I activated my only caster spell—deflection—and knocked over the jar of light.

  It crashed onto the stone floor and exploded with a bright light, blinding me and knocking all of us onto our backs. The constraints were gone and I jumped to my feet, but all I could see was a white light.

  The silhouette of children, men, and women floated around. A single child in beige clothing walked barefoot closer to me and reached out with her hand and a warm smile. Her hand shined brighter than the rest of her skin, much in the same color as the jar.

  She reminded me of Cora, a girl I had been friends with at my first orphanage. Both had a sweet innocence to them that you wanted to wrap up and never let out into the cruel world. When Cora had been put into a foster home, she’d begged them to not send her. She’d known something was up, but wouldn’t say what it was, not even to me. I had hugged her goodbye and her sweet innocence had already begun to fade as the foster dad put a firm hand on her shoulder, guiding her to his truck. Not long after that, they’d found her dead at the edge of a river bank, naked and bloated from being in the water for too long. She was nine.

  I touched the girl’s glowing hand and I was struck with a vision.

  Jeffrey is stalking her in the woods. I can feel the fear in her and then, he catches her and traps her in a box. I can’t see, but I hear his chanting and I feel everything in me being drained away. The good, the bad, all of what makes me human is ripped apart and compartmentalized into the various jars around the room.

  I float out of the girl’s body and hover over Jeffrey as he handles the light of life from the girl with gloved hands. I can see the fear and amazement in his face as he injects the light into the jar and quickly wraps it back up. I don’t know how, but I know they are all in that jar. All the people Jeffrey has ever taken are stuffed into a single, glowing jar, so their essence can be used by his dark magic. And, as long as they are in there, they will never be free.

  The vision leaves and I’m left standing in the shack, staring at the small girl. A shiver runs down my spine, and I want to cry. It was so much worse than I ever imagined. This man was more than a killer, he was a monster from hell itself. She encountered the same monster in this world as Cora had in mine. I had searched many times for the man that fostered her, but all records were sealed and I never found him. Now, I had Jeffrey right in front of me.

  The girl flashed a brilliant smile that made me forget much of what I’d seen. She let go of my hand and said, “Thank you.” Then floated up and out of the ceiling.

  The monster Jeffrey was still alive. He rolled around on the floor, screaming in pain and asking for mercy. Moonchild had attacked him while he was down. She flew up and landed on my shoulder. The scratch marks and gaping wounds on his face brought me joy.

  “I have so much I can give you!” A particularly large laceration on his chin split apart with every syllable he uttered. “There are treasures and powers beyond your comprehension. This world isn’t what you think it is. I can show you, though. There is a world within this world. If I’d known you were a Shadow Caster, I would have offered this first. We are in the same field of dark magic. I can show you so much, and you will be the most powerful caster in all the realms.” He squirmed on the ground and KILLian held an ice sword over him.

  “What you’ve done here cannot be forgiven.” I stabbed him in the chest and twisted the dagger for good measure.

  Good Job! The Dark mage Jeffrey Jones is dead.

  187 Damage

  + 100 XP

  Quest complete! Kill Jeffrey Jones.

  + 165 XP

  Congratulations! Level 10 Unlocked:

  + 2% Crit Rating

  -40 Evil

  Maybe you aren’t that bad of a guy after all . . .

  + 3 Attack Power

  + 5 Attribute Points

  + 1 Specialization in Daggers

  Unlocked Ability:

  Enhanced Inspect:

  You can now view higher level beings.

  Unlocked Ability:

  Shadow Cast:

  Create your own shadow for 1 Mana per second.

  2-minute cooldown.

  I wanted to be excited about leveling and getting new abilities, but Jeffrey’s dead body lay at our feet, with his lifeless eyes staring up at me. Gone was the wild, golden glow, and now they were just Jeffrey brown. His flesh turned from a pale white, to a dark reddish-purple, to black. His body began to melt into a black liquid, almost like a candle set too close to the fire. It seeped out of his clothes and his face sunk in like a snowman in summer, before completely liquefying and spilling onto the wooden floor. The liquid flooded the cracks in the floor and disappeared. His clothes and loot remained behind.

  “Crap. Gor!” KILLian ran out of the shack and I followed her.

  Gor looked dead on the ground, but upon inspecting him, I saw he had 7 HP left. KILLian slid to a kneeling position and poured a small vile of red liquid into his mouth.

  Gor sat up, coughing. “Damn, girl. You can’t just throw that down my throat.” He leaned forward and hacked up a lung, holding his throat.

  “You’re welcome.” KILLian went back to the shack, and I stayed with Gor.

  “You guys kill him?” Gor asked.

  “Yeah, come on.” I helped Gor get to his feet and led him into the room.

  “Hell yeah! Looks like Magoton just got some epic loot,” Gor said, pointing where Jeffrey’s remains were. “And thanks, KILLian, for saving me. I was fading fast back there.”

  “Anytime.”

  Gor was right though. Jeffrey’s two red daggers laid on the floor. I picked them up and inspected them. A long description displayed on my screen and I read it out loud.

  “These daggers come in a pair and cannot be separated. They were forged from the twins, Bask and Malt. Two people that hated the world so much they went around killing people and drinking their blood. They’d become so engorged with human blood, they were summoned to court, but couldn’t appear before the queen. They were stuck in their cabin, unable to move. Offended, the queen sent her best mage to cast a confining spell on them and melt them down, but they had so much blood iron in them, what remained from their melting was a heap of red steel.

  “The queen had the steel forged into two daggers, but once she realized what they were, she scoffed at the idea of having such evil things in her empire. She ordered them to be separated and cast into the deepest parts of the ocean. The young man in charge of the blades took them, and while he did dispose of two daggers into the ocean, they weren’t the ones that dripped red. No, this young man went into the forest with his findings and every day he held onto them, his evil grew until it consumed him entirely and once again, the blood twins of Bask and Malt were able to feed on the blood of others.”

  Red Twin Daggers:

  180 - 240 damage

  For as long as you hold them in your inventory, Evil will increase by 2 each day.

  Damage over time (DOT) Special ability. Daggers will drain the blood of your foes for as long as it impales them or they run out of blood. This can have a stacking effect. These daggers are thirsty. Kill enough and you may understand their true power.

  + 10 Attack power

  + 10 Agility

  + 10 Spell Power

  +10 Evil

  “You’re actually keeping those things?” KILLian looked at them in horror.

  “If you don’t, I will.” Gor said. “Those are amazing and freaking match your red cape.”

  I raised the daggers up. “I can do good with these.”

  KILLian frowned and left the shack.

  “She’ll get over it. I think th
ey look awesome on you. Freaking glowing red daggers . . . red cape. You’re going to look as cool as me soon.” Gor looted the rest of Jeffrey’s remains. We got a terrible amount of money each, $16.13. “Dang, no epic loot for the Gor . . . once again.”

  I left the shack and was happy to see the ground outside had turned to a normal shade of brown. I expected before too long, the grass would take it over and the earth would reclaim the ruined soil.

  “I think we should burn it,” KILLian said. “Did you get shown what he’d done to those poor people? A little girl showed me things.”

  “Yes, I saw.”

  “Saw what?” Gor asked.

  “I agree, let’s burn it down,” I said.

  We took the coals from under the steaming, smelling cauldron—which was no easy task. The smell coming from the stew made me want to throw up, not because it was unpleasant, but because it reminded me of a beef stew I was served in the orphanage. Beef stew Saturday, and the thought of it in my mouth made me heave once again.

  KILLian fared better, scooping the coals up with a nearby shovel and throwing them on a wooden desk. It burst the papers on the desk into flames quickly.

  “Wait,” I said and rushed to the drawers.

  “What are you doing?”

  “He said he had information.” The fire raged on top of the desk, while I tried to shield myself from the flames and pull open the drawers. Most held teeth and bones, but near the bottom, I found two scrolls. I grabbed them but couldn’t open them. The seal held a language I wasn’t familiar with.

  KILLian grabbed me by the shoulder and yanked me back. “You trying to get killed?”

  Her voice signaled panic, and I saw that the flames had grown much larger while I was in the drawers. She continued to pull on me, and we both ran from the flames. Jumping out of the front door, we landed next to Gor on the dirt.

  “You guys are total pyros,” Gor said. “Look at it burn.”

  The roof caught fire and before too long, we had to stand all the way back to the forest’s edge to keep from taking heat damage. Moonchild flew down and landed on my shoulder.

  “I think we owe her a thanks,” KILLian said, then petted Moonchild’s back. The eagle went to bite KILLian’s hand, but she pulled it back quick enough to avoid it.

  I reached back and smoothed her feathers in long strokes. “Thank you, girl. We couldn’t have done that without you.”

  She squawked and rubbed her head against mine.

  “I guess we know who she favors,” KILLian muttered.

  I looked up at Moonchild. “We’re heading into town now, so I’m going to put you back in the cage. Okay?” I selected the cage from my inventory and she hopped right into it. I put her and the cage back into my inventory, making a mental note to let her out as soon as I could. She needed to eat a proper meal and to stretch her wings.

  While we walked back toward the city, I checked my stats and was happy to see I was back down to twenty-five in Evil. It wasn’t the best, but it wouldn’t hinder me from interacting with the world.

  KILLian and I didn’t talk much as we walked. I wasn’t sure if she didn’t like the idea of me taking the weapons, or if the ghost girl was haunting her thoughts. Gor didn’t have any problem telling us all about how awesome he was in the battle, as if we hadn’t been in it alongside him. Gor was also excited as he had hit Level 10, and he had a new ability—a jump strike that doubled his attack damage. He went around using it, and it seemed to be a skill made just for him, as it was the kind of attack he’d done before he got a bonus for it.

  When we reached the gates, I stayed back a bit, hesitant to the reaction I might garner. But the guards welcomed us to the city with open arms, and said, “Glad you redeemed yourself.” One even went as far as patting me on the back.

  Once inside the city, we walked down the street, huddled close as players and NPCs walked by.

  “Okay, so we got Mago back from the edge of having a villainous mustache, but we are right back to where we started. How much money do you guys even have?” KILLian asked.

  I pulled up my stats. “I have $189.”

  “$326 here,” Gor said.

  “I have a $640,” KILLian said. “We’re not even half way there.”

  “I’m sick of running errands for these merchants. They’re making a killing, while paying us nothing,” Gor said. “We need a freaking quester’s union up in this place.”

  “We just stick to the plan and grind,” KILLian said. “We’ll get the money, but it will take a bit of time. With Magoton able to do actual quests again, we’ll be pulling in more money.” KILLian paused and stared at me. “What’s with your face? You having a stroke or something?”

  “Oh dang, I know that face. He’s wetting the VR chair,” Gor said.

  “No,” I said and shook my head. I had an idea, but I wanted think on it more, so they wouldn’t think I was crazy. “I have an idea.”

  Gor wasn’t wrong though. Recommended bathroom break alerts had been coming across my screen. An alert popped up again. I had already swiped it a few times, but it flashed red this time, rejecting my swipes. I needed to log off now. As good as full immersion gear was, it couldn’t drain my RL bladder for me. I’d read that the full immersion gear paid attention to the body’s cues. Bathroom breaks, dehydrations, sleep deprivation, pain, and smoke inhalation.

  One player had died in a house fire, a couple years back. Poor guy had just gotten a legendary weapon on a rare boss drop too. He just froze in the game when he died in Day’s End. The makers of the game decided to erect a stature right where he stood when he died, holding his Legendary Staff over his head in triumph. At least he went out happy. But after that, they changed the full immersion gear to warn players about such RL dangers.

  “Dang it. My real-life alarms are pinging me,” I said. “KILLian, I assume you’re not logging off somehow.”

  “You’re going to shit the bed, or blow a freaking O-ring, KILLian,” Gor said. “I need to log out as well. Screen says I’m going to shit myself in a countdown of five minutes.”

  It didn’t actually give you that kind of detail.

  “I keep telling you guys, my body is being taken care of. Go ahead, log off. I’ll just grind while you’re gone.”

  “Okay, we’ll be back in thirty,” I said. “And then we can talk about this idea I have.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  I sat up in the VR chair and set the equipment on the side hooks. My muscles felt stiff, and it took a bit of effort to stand up and stumble to the bathroom. As I relieved myself in what might have been the longest pee in recorded history, I briefly thought maybe an adult diaper wouldn’t be that bad of an idea. At least then, I could just let it go and stay in the digital world a bit longer. What if we’d been in the middle of that fight with Jeffrey and the alerts started shining on my screen? Or even worse, with the Spider Queen?

  Making a trip into the kitchen, I found nothing but junk food and a half a can of Mountain Dew. I sighed and headed for the door. If I made it quick, I could get back and help KILLian.

  I dashed down the stairs, annoyed at my incredibly slow speed and lack of stamina. Just the small run across the street had my muscles seizing up. My real-life agility sucked. I should stretch more.

  I pushed the door open to Gamer’s Fuel and stopped. The door swung closed and hit me. I pushed it back open when I realized I wasn’t going to get attacked.

  “Trevor,” I said.

  He stood there, taking me in from top to bottom. His eyes were bloodshot with dark circles around them. His skin looked pale as well, as if he’d come down with something. He adjusted his grip on his pile of snacks and a twenty-four pack of Bomb Energy.

  “You get the money yet?”

  “Not yet, but we’ll get there soon. You kill the Spider Queen?”

  His lips thinned and he looked away. “You just get your ass to the island. Then we’ll see what’s what.” He shoved past me and exited the store.

  What did
that even mean? Whatever was on the island, it sure seemed to have Trevor beat. If he’d beaten the Spider Queen, he would have rubbed it in.

  I gathered up some real food this time, and headed back to my room. After a quick burrito dinner, I went to the bathroom again. For a moment, I considered taking a quick nap, but I knew KILLian and Gor would be waiting for me, and I couldn’t wait to see if my plan would work. If it did, we’d be rich in no time.

  With the gear on, I settled into the chair and logged in.

  I woke up in my room at Tommy’s Inn, but wasn’t alone. Trying to remain silent, I made no movements, hoping she wouldn’t notice me until I could get my weapons out.

  Chapter Thirty

  Abigail turned to face me with a warm smile. She was at the foot of my bed, in all her celestial glory.

  Yelping, I scampered away, hitting the headboard with my back. Just the shock of seeing her waiting in my room startled me. I tried to regain some of my masculinity, but Abigail didn’t seem to care one way or another. She was a bit translucent as well, as if she wasn’t all there.

  “Hello, Magoton. Sorry for the intrusion, but there is something we need to discuss.” She gave me a sultry look over her shoulder and stood up from the bed. Her thin dress clung tightly to her body, and I went to inspect her. Her level and spec appeared just as before—four question marks.

  So much for enhanced inspect.

  “What do you want to discuss?” I asked and glanced at the window. If I was fast, I might be able to get to it, and leap/dash my way out of there.

  “I’ve looked further into your anomaly, and now know you were lying to me. I checked your account and you ordered a G14 semi-emersion unit that would have put you right at the bottom of realm seven. But then you get a BallzD, G1 setup? A full emersion rig.”

  “I saved up.”

  “No, I tracked your pattern of payments from players and it would have equated to maybe a thousand dollars.” She walked toward me and her body itself glowed from under her dress, as if her skin was shining. The thin fabric accentuated her nipples and they seemed to be pointing right at me. I did everything possible to avert my eyes and failed. Her beauty was hard to take in, and I hadn’t found the will to look away.