Temple of Sorrow: A LitRPG and GameLit Adventure (Stonehaven League Book 1)

by Carrie Summers

  The shock pounded her, stiffening her body, setting fire to her limbs. Light flashed behind her eyes as sparks arced over the snake’s body. Moments later, it was over, leaving her dazed and gagging. She bent over her stomach and retching. The shadow was already gone, vanished when her orb did.

  Her health was down 20%.

  The snake was down to half.

  Devon tried to summon the courage for another lightning shadow attack, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Better to die and wake up in Hezbek’s cot than go through that again. Instead, she circled, swinging halfway around the clearing so the snake was forced to twist awkwardly. Setting the ball of her foot into the muddy ground for purchase, she sheathed her machete and jumped.

  She snatched hold of the snake like a climbing rope in elementary school gym class. But thicker. And this rope smelled like dead skin and decaying wood. She wrapped her legs around it, held on tight, and started shimmying up the beast’s body. The snake flailed like a vertical jump rope, but Devon clung with every ounce of strength she had.

  It tried to bite but couldn’t bend far enough. Slowly, the beast began to coil up. Above her, a loop formed and started descending, ready to slip around her shoulders and crush the life from her.

  Devon started bouncing like she was trying to unhook the rope from the gymnasium ceiling. Each time she dropped her weight onto the snake, the coil loosened a small amount. Still, between yanks, the python wound tighter.

  Finally, she heard a groan followed by a loud crack. Above, the branch bent and broke with a bone-jarring snap. Devon and the truck-sized snake came crashing to the ground. She jumped free just before the heavy body smashed her flat. The beast took another 10% damage. She growled in frustration. She’d never win at this rate, not unless she could handle electrocuting herself a couple more times.

  Beside her, another branch crashed down, sending twigs flying. She leaped aside and looked up to see her followers high in the trees. Another limb detached, knocked free by Bern’s quarry mallet, and plummeted for her.

  Should have mentioned not to drop the branches on my head.

  She ran, planting a foot on the dazed snake’s skull, and leaped. The heavy branch crashed down behind her. While she was in midair, another branch snapped.

  A bright beam of sunlight lanced down, bathing Devon in its golden glow.

  She kicked out and smacked a tree trunk with her foot to stop her forward progress. As she landed, she caught sight of her shadow in a pool of sunlight. All harsh edges and finely-cut lines, the shadow rose from the ground at her command. The snake raised its head, eyes squinting against the glare.

  On instinct, Devon formed her shadow-creation into a spear. She hurled it into the snake’s eye, sharp black edges slicing through with no effort. The snake hissed and recoiled, and its health bar dropped to 20%. Moments later, the shadow shattered.

  Devon staggered at the sudden knockback. At least it didn’t hurt.

  Her mana was getting low. Just a couple casts left. She stomped forward, summoned another dark form, and speared the python as the beast turned to flee. The lance glanced off the beast’s spine but still scored a 10% hit before shattering and setting her stumbling again.

  The snake slithered toward the undergrowth. Fast. She watched in desperation as the front half of its body vanished into the thicket.

  She was not going to lose this XP. Still stumbling from the knockback of her shattered shadow, she sprinted a few clumsy steps before getting her balance. Feet pounding the earth, she sprinted for the snake, stepped on its tail, and ran along its back, crashing through brush. When she neared its head, she reversed her grip on her machete and clubbed it hard with the hilt.

  The python went limp. Planting a foot on top of its skull, Devon crouched and plunged her machete through the eye socket she’d pierced with her shadow.

  Coup de grace: kick them while they’re down, why don’t you…?

  You have slain a Corrupted Python.

  Quickly, she scanned her combat notifications. A couple things caught her attention.

  Your Shadow Puppet shocks A Corrupted Python for 542 damage. (+100% chance to hit, +200% damage due to Bravery score of 5)

  Your Shadow Puppet shocks YOU for 23 damage. Nice going…

  You have gained mastery in Shadow Puppet – Tier 1: 10%

  You have gained mastery in Glowing Orb – Tier 1: 2%

  You have gained mastery in Incapacitate – Tier 1: 5%

  Devon sank to a crouch to catch her breath and slid the tip of her machete across the snake’s skin. The body disintegrated into loot. She glanced at the items, and her brows drew together. The Gigantic Snakeskin wasn’t a surprise, but the 5 x Snake Meat, Tainted was unexpected. Why tainted? In any case, she left those items on the forest floor and picked up the final piece of loot.

  You have received: Stomach Contents (open to examine).

  Devon grimaced. Did she really want to do this?

  With a deep breath, she held up the white and red mass and touched the point of her knife to it. The stomach burst open, goo flowing down her hand. She fell backward from the cloud of stench and wiped her hand in the mud. The slime soaked into the ground, leaving a small, grime-covered object. Devon dug through her bag until she found her Everfull Waterskin and poured lukewarm liquid over the thing until it was clean. Finally, she picked it up with her thumb and forefinger and inspected it.

  You have received: Strange Bauble of Carved Bone - unidentified

  She blinked. It looked just like the bauble she’d looted from Uruquat, only the first one hadn’t come from inside a stomach. Thankfully. She dropped it into her bag as a test. Indeed, the baubles were the same. Or similar enough that the game stacked them in a single slot.

  Deld had made it out of the tree, and he stepped up beside her.

  “That snake… It was like the boar.”

  “How so?”

  “Red eyes and ten times normal size… During our first week in the jungle, Uruquat claimed to have slain a similar beast, a red-eyed parrot the size of a small child. He saved a bone charm that he’d cut from the bird’s innards—looked a lot like that trinket you just stuffed in your sack.”

  “That is strange.”

  “I hope this isn’t going to become a bigger problem for us,” Deld said.

  A quest popup appeared.

  Deld is offering you a quest: What’s Wrong with the Wildlife?

  Seems strange to have run across two rabid, glowing-red-eyed, oversized beasts in the same area of jungle. Everything else around here seems pretty normal as far as cursed ruins of lost civilizations go. Your settlement would probably be safer if you tracked down the source of the problem and dealt with it.

  Objective: Find the source of the Strange Baubles of Carved Bone.

  Reward: Unknown

  Accept? Y/N

  Devon shrugged. Sure, why not. Before standing, she tried to stuff the Gigantic Snakeskin into her bag. No luck. But not a huge loss. The snakeskin vest Gerrald had made was a nice gesture, but eventually, she’d meet other players. A full snakeskin suit would be awfully 1980s hair band.

  After a few minutes rest to recover hitpoints and mana, Devon checked with her followers to make sure they were ready. Before leaving the scene of the fight, she stopped in the small pool of sunlight and summoned another Glowing Orb. She stood on the edge of the golden pool and held her arm out so that two shadows spread from her feet, each cast by a different source. She focused on them, one after another, and raised a pair of dark figures from the ground.

  Devon nodded. Just as she’d hoped.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  THE SUN NEARED the horizon, making it harder and harder to see without darkvision on the jungle floor. Devon’s fatigue bar was nearing three-quarters full, and her feet felt leaden. For the last hour or two, she’d been casting Glowing Orb over and over. Each time, she held it in her hand until her mana refilled from the cast, then dismiss
ed it and cast the spell again. Tactfully, her followers had made no comments about this behavior. Her efforts had earned her a whopping 89% mastery in Glowing Orb – Tier 1.

  As the jungle began to brighten ahead, suggesting some sort of clearing, Devon glanced at her mini-map. It looked like the quarry was close. As if confirming the suspicion, Hazel slipped from the undergrowth like she’d materialized from thin air. Devon jumped in surprise and lost control of her Glowing Orb. She sighed. Gotta keep practicing. Or maybe try putting some points into the Focus attribute. As Hazel stepped closer, the map in the corner of Devon’s vision flashed to indicate new information. The scout’s explorations had revealed an area three times as wide as the narrow path Devon and her little party had followed.

  Devon greeted the woman with a handshake. “That’s a lot of ground to cover. You’re fast.”

  Hazel gave a little bow. “And my cartography improved quite a bit. The map should be at least 50% accurate.”

  Devon suppressed a groan. She wasn’t sure whether 50% accuracy was better than no knowledge at all. In a few spots, Hazel had made notes about more ruins and caves—could be interesting to check out. But maybe it would be better to have the woman go back over the area as she gained skill before Devon mounted a dungeon-crawl expedition.

  As Hazel greeted the two men, raindrops began to spatter on the canopy, knocking aside leaves and continuing their fall onto the group. Devon sighed and wished for a cloak. At least the rain wasn’t frigid like it could be in a cooler region.

  She gestured to the lighter area of trees that should lead to the potential quarry. “Did you check out the limestone, Hazel? I’m hoping for caves.”

  Hazel nodded as she squinted into the sky. “Yes, thank Veia. Big enough to keep us dry. Let’s go.”

  Devon was no mason or quarry worker, but to her untrained eye, the massive fists of limestone that punched through the jungle did indeed look promising. Hazed by the falling rain and dusk-darkened light, the stones loomed to four or five times her height, and a knot of rock behind the first set was even taller. An area of flat stone slabs and rubble separated the group from the outcroppings, even from a distance the dark holes pocking the area around the base of the escarpments looked like caves. Hazel led the way as the party dashed across the flat area to reach the nearest opening. They ducked beneath the overhang and sighed with relief.

  The floor of the cavern was glassy smooth, polished by trickling water over the years. Though not large, the cave was deep enough for them to fit comfortably and stretch out bedrolls, though the men had to stoop to move about. All in all, it was a cozy niche, and once everyone had laid out their bedding, Devon settled in to grind out the rest of her mastery in Glowing Orb.

  The closer she got to the next tier, the sparser her mastery updates became. But with 3% remaining, she decided to blow through her mana to try to reach the next spell. She was beginning to regret it until the last cast gained her the final percentage point, and she got the notification for access to Glowing Orb – Tier 2. She waited patiently while her mana filled back up to the 12 points she needed, then cast the spell again.

  The little ball of lightning still fizzed in her hand, but now it seemed to dance. It wasn’t quite so stuck. Carefully, she placed the glowing ball against the wall of the cave, willed it to stick, then ever so slowly pulled her hand away.

  The orb remained, and she grinned. Most level 1 sorcerers probably complained about having such a “stupid spell.” But sitting in the comfortable glow of her conjured light source, she had to disagree.

  The others seemed to enjoy the light as well, and on a whim, Devon moved it to the floor in the center of the cave, sort of like a campfire. Faint smiles appeared on her followers’ faces.

  Thinking of the age-old ritual of sharing food around a campfire, she reached into her bag and pulled out the steaks. She unwrapped the linen and handed out the slabs of meat. She had to admit it felt a little strange holding a one-pound steak in her hand rather than on a plate, but with the first bite, she forgot all about it. Even cold, Pepperleaf-spiced Sabertooth Flesh was the best thing she’d ever eaten. Her followers fell to eating with gusto, rolling their eyes with pleasure.

  The rain fell in a calming rhythm, a curtain of wet beyond the mouth of the cave.

  “Does it rain often?” she asked. With all the growth in the jungle, she was surprised it had been dry as long as it had.

  “I was beginning to think you were our good luck charm when it came to weather,” Deld said. “We hadn’t had a streak of sunshine like the one you brought since we arrived.”

  Between bites, Bern set his steak on his knee and looked at the Glowing Orb with faint concern. “By the way, Your Gloriousness… I don’t mean to question, but that thing’s not going to shock us is it? My mother always told me to stay out of the watering hole when the thunderstorms were on the loose.”

  Devon smiled and ran her hand through the orb. “It’s harmless.”

  But his question did get her thinking. Though it hadn’t rained since she’d entered the game, the ground was still slick and muddy. Could that explain why the shock from her shadow had lashed back at her? Ground currents? She chewed her lip. Maybe. But she didn’t really want to test the theory.

  She finished her steak and lay back on her elbows. It was nice to have gained level 6 earlier in the day. A quick look at her experience bar showed her she had 6,452 of the 39,600 she needed for level 7. As she stared at the numbers, a small tooltip appeared.

  Experience gain set to 60% of normal due to dual class advancement.

  Devon’s head flopped back. Great…

  That was a bummer, though she supposed it was probably balanced. She did have spells from two classes, plus an oversized mana pool. Still, pretty annoying.

  As she rolled onto her side to watch the flickering of the orb, the quarryman, Bern, started telling Hazel about their encounter with the python. He built it up, creating suspense about the dark jungle and their slow march and the rustles in the undergrowth. His flair for the dramatic gave Devon an idea. As he spoke, she sat up and focused on her shadow. She pressed mana into the cast, but kept her shadow low to the ground, slipping it around behind Bern and toward the mouth of the cave. Catching the eyes of Hazel and Deld, she pressed her finger to her lips. As Bern described them walking into the small clearing owned by the python, Devon molded her shadow into a snake. The darkness slithered across the floor and rose up behind Bern. A diamond-shaped head hovered in the air behind the big man’s shoulder. Devon imagined her shadow hissing, and to her shock, a loud SSSSS emanated from her creation.

  Bern whipped his head around, shouted, and scrambled across the cavern.

  Devon quickly dissolved her casting and joined in Deld’s and Hazel’s laughter. After a moment, Bern’s booming belly laugh shook the cavern.

  A notification popped up.

  You have learned a new spell: Ventriloquist – Tier 1.

  Your illusions can make a variety of noises at medium volume. This includes voices and many mundane sounds such as doors closing, swords being drawn, and so forth. Sounds that you can personally make have a higher chance of success.

  Cost: 10 mana

  Requirements: Deceiver class

  Devon smiled as she dismissed the notification. Yeah, it might be nice to know what spells and abilities she would gain as a Deceiver, but it was also fun to discover them. She lay back down and pillowed her head on her arm as Hazel started telling a story about the time Uruquat freaked out when a tree viper slithered into camp. The others joined in, adding to the tale.

  Devon sank into the comfort of their companionship, enjoying their laughter and their stories. Her eyelids grew heavy and sleep washed over her.

  ***

  A rumbling brought her bolt upright, shaking her head in confusion. She’d never fallen asleep in a game before—unless she counted the forced loss of consciousness while fleeing the Stone Guardian.

  Appa
rently, it was just another feature of Relic Online.

  The orb had gone out, no doubt fizzled when she’d fallen asleep. Outside, weak light painted the area around the outcroppings. The storm must have moved off, leaving light cloud cover. The front edge of the cave still dripped, but it didn’t seem like any rain was still falling.

  She stiffened when another rumble came from outside.

  Moments later, a frustrated shout split the night.

  Devon scrambled to the front of the cave. What the hell?

  She peered across the open area, her darkvision augmenting the faint glow of the cloud-veiled moon. There, past the open area of bare stone, a mule-drawn wagon cut a shadow from the jungle behind. Around eight figures clustered around the vehicle, one tugging on the mules’ halters.

  “Come on ye damn beasts. Pull!”

  The animals tossed their heads and strained against their harnesses, but the wagon scarcely rocked. Devon shook her head in amazement. What kind of idiots would try to take a wagon through this jungle? She slipped out of the cave and edged through the rubble, staying low to avoid being seen. It appeared that one of the wagon’s wheels had gotten mired in some particularly deep and sticky mud. No doubt, the heap of canvas-covered cargo in the wagon bed only made the mules’ task harder.

  Devon slipped closer still and noticed that the figures were shorter and stockier then she’d first gathered. Full beards bushed out over their chests, and they wore a mixture of chain mail and heavy leather.

  Dwarves. Other than the ogre patriarch formerly known as Uruquat, they were the first non-human race she’d seen.

  Two of the dwarves held torches high above the scene. In the glow, Devon tried to make out what might be covered by that tarp, but it was lashed down tight. She considered offering help but decided to watch and wait a little longer. An attempt to inspect them with Combat Assessment returned a noncommittal statement about the idiocy of attacking eight dwarves by herself.