Escape to the Fringe (Fringe Chronicles Book 1)

by Adam Drake

  But before disappointed set in, I received a message on the bottom of my screen. 'Bank Deposit of 1,000,000 gold pieces received.'

  “Oh, that's nice,” I said with a grin. Add that to the deposit money, even after splitting it with the others, and this made for a good haul.

  An object then formed within the chest. It looked to be dark clothing of some kind, folded neatly into a square. A piece of parchment covered in writing was pinned to one corner. I unpinned it and read the writing with anticipation.

  'Adventurer,

  With this item you will become one of seven great champions. Each champion will be tasked with protecting the Realm from the coming Darkness, a blight which seeks to annihilate all. You are now responsible for the incredible power it will give you. Use this wisely.'

  Seven great champions? The coming Darkness? What the heck was all that about? A new phase for the gaming universe? The prospect was equal parts exciting and terrifying.

  I put the parchment into my inventory and looked at the folded cloth. Its color shifted and changed like chameleon's skin. One second blue, the next black. I reached down and picked it up.

  It felt as light as air, and with a silky texture. Carefully, I unfolded it.

  A hooded cloak.

  I crooked an eyebrow. It didn't appear special. “What's so Legendary about this?” I asked.

  The game answered for me and brought up an identifying label.

  'The Cloak of Shadows.'

  “Whoa,” I said. I'd never even heard of anything similar to this in the game lore.

  When I brought up the cloak's list of traits and abilities my jaw hit the ground.

  The Cloak of Shadows – Traits & Abilities (Shadow Class Only)

  Summon Shadow Steed (Mount).

  One teleport per day to a Recall Point.

  Shadow Ability Upgraded to Full Invisibility.

  Phase ability unlocked.

  Create Void Portal.

  I was stunned. Shocked. Amazed. This was absolutely incredible!

  Any one of the listed abilities would be cool, but to have all of these together on one item? I found myself drooling. This lived up to the label of Legendary.

  Whoever wore this would become one of the top tier players in the game. Heck, maybe the single most powerful Shadow.

  And, according to the parchment, six other Legendaries now were waiting to be found out there in the game universe. My mind boggled.

  But there was a problem. I'd signed a contract to give it to Ogden Trite. He'd get to keep the Cloak or auction it away.

  I was conflicted.

  Suddenly, the air around me grew very cold. In an instant ice formed over my hands, covering the Cloak of Shadows, and traveled up my arms and encased my body.

  I was frozen in a block of ice.

  Feign appeared, walking into my frozen field of view.

  “Well, well,” the ice mage said. “What do you have there?” He looked at the Cloak in my frozen grip. “Cloak of Shadows? Interesting. That will be worth quite a bit of money. Too bad you won't be collecting it.” He grinned.

  I couldn't speak with my face frozen solid. Feign attacked me?

  Feign gave a hurtful look. “Oh, you think I'm going to sell it? Now, now, I'm a man of my word. I signed a contract to take the item from you. I was offered a tidy sum, too. But you don't have to take my word for it.”

  He pulled up a chat screen, then angled it so I could see who was on the other end.

  The familiar gray owl visage of Ogden Trite grinned at me.

  “Hello, again, Miss Valesh,” Ogden said. “Glad to see you managed to pull off the impossible. A worthy investment on my part, hmmm?”

  Angry, I wanted to respond but gave up trying. This was a screw-job? Ogden betrayed me? But why?

  Ogden chuckled, “Oh, I know what you are thinking, why take the item from you if that was your contractual obligation, anyway? Now, it would be foolish of me to think you'd keep your word once the item was finally in your hands. It is a Legendary, after all, so the temptation to keep it would be overwhelming.” His owl face lost its smile. “But if I took it from you first, then I wouldn't have to pay you a thin copper piece.”

  Feign chuckled at my look of rage. But still I could not move.

  Ogden continued. “I'd done my research and I'm aware of the seven new Legendary items which are being brought into the world. Now I have this one. Soon the rest will be mine by whatever means necessary. And, when in my control, these seven items will help put the entire realm under my reign.”

  “What do you want done, boss?” Feign asked. His manner had completely changed. He'd been putting on an act the entire time.

  “Send Miss Valesh to the newbie zone, then bring the item to me.” The owl grinned.

  Feign withdrew his knife and smiled. Side by side, the two traitors grinned at me.

  What was I to do? I was frozen. Feign would kill me, and worse, Ogden would get the Cloak of Shadows.

  As Feign approached my eyes flew over the icons on my screen. Then I saw one. My only hope for salvation in this time of need. I selected it.

  Phlixx winked into existence and leapt through the air. “My love! You have summoned me again! It fills my heart -,” his eyes went wide once he took in my predicament. “What is this?”

  Feign whirled on the ferret. “Stupid rodent!” He cast a spell at Phlixx, but the companion bounced away before a block of ice formed where he'd stood.

  “What is going on, Feign?” Ogden demanded, trying to see. “Kill that thing!”

  Feign was trying to keep up with the quick movements of Phlixx, casting an ice spell at him but missing each time. “You FILTERED rat!”

  The ice around my face and throat had melted a tiny bit. Enough for me to sub-vocalize the only special arrow that would be of use to me in my frozen state.

  A magma arrow appeared in my quiver. The effect it had on the ice encasing me was immediate, and it started to quickly melt.

  Meanwhile Phlixx was firing his little fiery crossbow bolts at Feign. “You dare attack the love of my life! You shall pay!”

  Annoyed, Feign swung his dagger when Phlixx got close enough. But the ferret bounded away unharmed.

  The ice around me melted faster, and although my legs remained encased with solid ice, I managed to wrench my hands free. The Cloak, still in ice, clunked to the ground.

  Ogden spotted my sudden movement. “Feign! You idiot, look out!”

  Feign turned in my direction, a snowball in his upraised hand. He was going to freeze me solid again, and then I was doomed.

  In one motion I summoned my bow, snatched the magma arrow and fired.

  Feign reacted by creating an ice pillar in front of him. But the magma arrow cut straight through the pillar with ease.

  The arrow lodged in the ice mage's chest. Feign tumbled backward, lava beginning to spew from his mouth and ears. Behind him was a chasm in the floor. He pitched over it and vanished from view.

  “What is going on?!” Ogden raged from the view screen, before it too was pulled over the edge to catch up with its creator.

  When Feign hit bottom the remaining ice around me shattered and I was free.

  Phlixx bounded over to me. “Are you okay, my sweet? Did I do well?”

  I laughed and gave the ferret a hug. “I'm fine, and yes, you did very well.”

  Little hearts bubbled above his head and he swooned.

  I retrieved the Cloak and held it in my hands. Guess I should put this on, I thought and slipped it over my shoulders, tying up the lacing at the collar.

  “It makes you even more beautiful,” Phlixx said with a tear in his eye.

  It didn't make me feel more beautiful, or any different for that matter. But when I looked at my own ability list, I saw that I now had access to everything the Cloak offered.

  Void Portal? Interesting.

  Phase? Wow!

  Teleportation? Amazing!

  A chat request appeared. At first, I thought it wou
ld be Ogden wanting to scream at me, but then I saw who it was from and opened it.

  “Muddie!” I said.

  The first thing Mudhoof said as he appeared was, “Did you get my stuff?” Then smiled. “Just kidding.”

  I laughed. “Where are you? Minotaur Warrior Newbie zone?”

  Mudhoof angled the camera so I could see behind him. Half-naked minotaurs ran around a grassy field chasing little boars with wooden axes. “Yup,” Mudhoof said and showed me his own wooden ax. “This is the end result when you're punted by an angry god.”

  “Sorry about that,” I said. “It was a tough encounter all around.”

  “No worries, I'm a power-leveling fiend. I'll be back up in no time. Oh, and congrats on the Legendary Cloak!”

  I furrowed my brow. “Thanks, but how did you know? I just put it on.”

  Mudhoof said, “Yeah, and when you did, the game updated the database with its existence and all the news-feeds picked up on it. Now everyone knows what you got. You're famous!”

  I frowned. “That's to be expected, I guess.” This was something I hadn't considered since keeping the item wasn't originally my intention.

  “Uh-oh,” Mudhoof said, looking at something on his view screen.

  “What is it?”

  “Looks like Ogden Trite has put a bounty on your head, and a reward for the return of the Legendary Cloak. Claims you reneged on a contract to give it to him.”

  “What?” I said. “He's the one who reneged on the contract. Tried to kill me, too!”

  “Well, it's all over the bounty hunter boards now, and there are lots of them signing up to go after you.”

  “How many,” I said, swallowing.

  “Oh, a couple hundred thousand.” Mudhoof gave me a mournful look. “Might want to think about going into hiding, Vee. That's a lot of people looking to get you to re-roll.”

  I sighed. Wasn't owning a Legendary Item suppose to make things easier instead of harder?

  Mudhoof said, “Hey, no worries. Once I power-level up, I'll help you out. Bounty hunters beware.”

  “Thanks, Muddie,” I said. “I'll be in touch.”

  I closed the screen and frowned. This was going to suck. As a new owner of a Legendary item I should be over the moon with delight. But things became a lot more complicated.

  In an effort to make myself feel better I tried one of my new Cloak abilities.

  Summon Shadow Steed.

  A beautiful black horse appeared complete with full tack and saddle. The beast was tall and majestic. A sight to behold. When I ran my hand over its skin I noticed the animal was transparent as smoke.

  “Cool,” I said and jumped up on my new mount.

  “Pretty horse!” Phlixx said as he jumped up to sit in front of me.

  A request appeared on my screen. 'Name of Mount?'

  I thought on it for a moment, but only one answer seemed appropriate. “Smoke,” I said.

  Name assigned, the request closed.

  A gate irised opened in the air in front of me. A forested landscape covered in snow could be seen within. The exit.

  I stared at it for long moments. Now I had a Legendary item and six others had been created in the game world. Ogden would be after them. And what of the growing Darkness the parchment mentioned?

  I also had a huge price on my head, thanks to Ogden's treachery. Every bounty hunter and cutthroat would now be on my tail looking to take me out. I touched my new cloak. I guess this Legendary item, and its incredible abilities, will be useful in keeping me alive. However long that may be.

  My life got much more complicated than I ever imagined it would before taking this silly quest.

  I kicked at Smoke and my steed ran forward.

  But as we jumped through the gate, my mind heavy with all these thoughts, I found myself grinning from ear to ear.

  This was going to be fun.

  END.

  Shadow Hunting

  The most powerful player in the gaming universe wants me dead.

  Now I have a price on my head with tens of thousands of bounty hunters out to kill me. But I can only run for so long. I need to put an end to this madness once and for all.

  If I'm going to die, it will be on my own terms.

  The tables must be turned.

  Time to go hunting.

  CHAPTER ONE

  I was busy looting the corpse of a goblin raider when the unicorn attacked.

  I'd pinned the goblin with arrows up against a large oak tree. It wore a mismatched set of armor, no doubt taken from pillaged victims, which gave the humanoid a scarecrow-like look. But it was the handmade leather-armor vest which had my interest. This specific type was currently in high demand by leather workers on the auction house. These leather vest mats – or materials – were desperately sought after for a new type of armor leggings.

  I have no idea why they are so valuable, but I knew it took a lot of goblin raiders to farm – or kill – to find one.

  Anyways, the unicorn. I was distracted while trying to estimate the best way to remove the vest without touching the vile goblin. My back was turned to the forest, so I was caught unawares when the equine beast burst from the tree line.

  Greed has always been my undoing. I've died many times because of it, and have become quite familiar with the newbie zone to know that avoiding death for as long as possible would help me keep my sanity.

  Yet, now, it looked like I was about to be sent there in quick fashion.

  I heard the rustle of branches and the clomping of hooves, and whirled around, surprised.

  Head tilted down, with horn (uni-horn?) pointed right at me, the creature closed the distance between us in less than three frantic heartbeats.

  Had it been two heartbeats I would have been killed. Thankfully, that extra bit of time allowed me to select an icon on my view-screen; the only icon which might have saved me at that moment.

  Use Phase Ability

  I swear, even now, that I felt the tip of that horn press against my chest. But I can be dramatic when recounting near-death experiences.

  My phase ability kicked in at that instant and my entire body, armor, weapons, and inventory became as corporeal as a ghost. Wisp-like as smoke.

  The unicorn, large pink eyes wide with triumph, didn't have time to realize what had happened and passed straight through me like a steam-train in a fog.

  Instead of skewering me, and presenting me with the joy of leveling yet another new character, the unicorn charged into the dead goblin raider, and plunged its horn straight into the oak tree.

  For a few moments both I, and the unicorn – participants in this sudden little drama – were too shocked to move.

  I took in the sight of the animal. It was most definitely a unicorn but there were odd things about it. First, it was yellow. Bright yellow, almost offensively so. Second, it had a large saddle strapped to its back.

  I blinked in confusion. A mount? A yellow unicorn mount just tried to murder me?

  While the being was stuck, I queried the game to pull up its statistics.

  Species: Unicorn

  Subspecies: Unknown

  Level: Unknown

  Hit Points: 680

  Mana: Unknown

  Armor Class: 10

  Attack Rating: 80

  Damage Range: Unknown

  Weapon Type(s): Horn, Hooves, Bite

  Abilities: Charge, Animal Rage, The Prance of the Pony

  Special: This creature has been trained as a MOUNT.

  Owner: Unknown

  My eyes stuck on the final line. Owner: Unknown.

  I looked to the tree line from where the unicorn appeared, but no one emerged. Where was the owner?

  The unicorn pushed against the tree with its front hooves, desperate to pull loose. One large pink eye locked on me with rage.

  My Phase ability timed out, and my avatar became solid again.

  Time to go, I thought.

  I spun around to run away and make some distance, but was bloc
ked by a wall. No, not a wall. A massive humanoid who towered over me.

  I think at that moment I squeaked in surprise, but I'm not admitting it now.

  Before I could react to this new menace, the humanoid scooped me up in two massive arms and lifted me. I struggled, but the opposing strength was greater. My body became wedged between two huge green pectorals.