Perla Online, Book Two: Shella (A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure)

by Shawn Wyatt

  “So this item ties into the lore of the world?” Evey asked.

  Scarlet nodded. “Long ago, during the War of the Realms, a Shellan general used it to spy on the other realms. That’s why it enables you to get such a ground-level view. And it’s also how I was able to know when you were approaching this realm.”

  “But how did you know to look for activity at the airship landing?” I asked. “Or did you get lucky with timing?”

  Scarlet laughed. “You don’t know, do you? The effect of cleansing Foscor’s influence from Toris?” She gestured to the sky. “You know that purple light the realms have at night? When you cleared Toris, the entire realm shone like a solar flare. Everyone could see it, even in the middle of the day. I started to keep an eye on the realm then.”

  I shook my head. Her approach seemed reckless. “Why kidnap us? Why not ask for help? If you watched us, then you know we wanted to defeat Foscor.”

  “Leadership isn't easy, Ren. I told you, I know the lore of this world. And a woman does not rise to power within the ranks of the pirates without ruthless brutality. Somewhere along the line, I forgot that a simple approach is also an option. Also, I did not know what kind of players you were. I knew you were strong, but I didn’t know whether you wanted to beat the game or take it over.”

  “Like you’ve done here?” Scarlet flinched at my question, but I couldn’t find it in myself to be sorry.

  “I deserved that,” she said. “But you have to understand, I had a reason for doing what I did. The men under my command are humans. Real players. They aren’t brutal by nature, and many of them are older than you. They’re family men, with wives and children. They just happened to get caught up in this mess.” Scarlet sighed. “I had already started to claim power for myself—to ensure my own survival—when I heard some members of my crew talking. And then I started to offer protection to anyone that joined my crew.”

  “So you’re like a charity of pirates, yet you took over a city?”

  “Based on the lore of the game, Tarawi is the target of pirates,” Scarlet said. “There's a quest line around it. Without us being there, that quest line would not be available.”

  “You took over the city for the sake of the game?" I asked. "Are you kidding me? Perla Online AI-controlled. It can modify quests when it needs to."

  Scarlet shook her head. “Not this one. This quest is hardwired into the core of the game. It’s part of the storyline of the game, so to speak—but the AI altered everything when it trapped us here." At the skepticism on my face, Scarlet sighed. “I swear I’m telling the truth. I want to help you beat this game, to clear this world. I like it here, but I want to give my men the chance to go home."

  "I believe you," I said. "But you can't take over a city for the sake of a quest. If it's necessary to have pirates, at least treat the townspeople well. Don't occupy them. And you also need to speak to Quinn."

  The Swashbuckler in surprise. “What?”

  I shrugged. “We promised we would help you find your missing lady friend. She’s got to be a human player, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Then she owes you an apology, as does Scarlet. The two of you, talk it out. If we’re going to work together, there’s no room for in-fighting.”

  With those words, I walked out the door. I felt a headache forming at the base of my skull, and the last thing I wanted to do was be involved in some talk about Quinn’s relationship.

  Evey and Bastion followed me out the door. “Do you think that will work?” Evey asked.

  “I don’t have a clue, but we’ve at least solved our pirate problem for now. The last thing we need is Quinn screwing it up because he’s angry. Let them talk it out, and then we’ll go from there.”

  Quinn and Scarlet talked for over an hour. Quinn's "lady friend" introduced herself in that time.

  Chrystal was a level 21 Prophet of Deceit, and I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. No way would Rune miss that little tidbit—we'd be stuck listening to his terrible puns for weeks. But she was a skilled player with high amounts of DPS. She would be a strong ally at the final battle.

  Quinn locked eyes with her when he stepped out of Scarlet’s quarters. “Chrys.”

  “Willing to speak to me now?” she asked.

  “I suppose.”

  "Don't take too long," I said. "We have an island to get to, and we’ve wasted enough time already. Let’s make our way over there and anchor for the night. We’ll start exploring it first thing tomorrow morning, so be well-rested. You know what the Great Turtles said.”

  I woke before dawn and donned my gear. Clint and Eastwood each claimed a shoulder and hissed. I wondered if they anticipated the battle to come. Their bodies exuded a soft, welcome warmth in the cool morning air.

  Something moved in the darkened sky above me. Nova peered at me with an evaluating gaze, the uncanny intelligence there putting me on edge. “I haven't figure out whether you like me or not,” I said.

  The falcon screeched in reply and turned her gaze away. I stared up at the dark shapes of other realms in the sky, the now-familiar purple light pulsing around them. It looked like the sky on Perla.

  Why had that single spire shone a different color? And what effect did it have on the corruption around it?

  It could only be the effect of clearing Toris. When we purged the realm of Foscor’s influence, it set something in motion on Perla. So the other three spires that surrounded the central tower represented Shella, Riven, and Horus.

  I sometimes felt like we had been trapped here for ages, but our mission wasn't even halfway complete.

  Nova screeched again, this time in challenge. I turned my eyes toward the island. We had anchored several hundred feet from the shore, but even at this distance I saw strange shapes and lights moving in the jungle. Shadows slipped over shadows as creatures with too-large eyes peered at us, their gaze accompanied by a palpable malice.

  None of them could reach us. At least, I didn’t think they could. I kept one hand on my revolver anyway.

  Rawaki and Banabi said the item we needed to find—Tempest, a legendary bow—was split into two pieces. Each piece could be found in a different temple on the island. No doubt that meant each piece a particularly nasty mob guarded the pieces.

  I could split the party to save time, but that seemed like a bad idea—especially if there were actually max-level monsters on the island.

  Playing it smart had worked out for us so far, even when it wasn’t the most obvious solution.

  Boris yawned, sleep not yet gone from his shaggy face. His nose twitched, and he tilted his head upward, then growled—he had caught the scent of something on the breeze. “You’ll have your chance to fight,” I told the bear. “And to stretch your legs. No doubt you’re ready to be off the ship for a while.”

  A huff of air was my only answer.

  Scarlet and her crew left the area the night before, but promised to meet us at the Sunken Labyrinth. It felt strange without a fleet of ships around us.

  The rest of the crew emerged from their quarters and joined me on the deck.

  Quinn walked out of the captain’s quarters and tossed us a grin. “Mornin’, mates. Ready to see what’s waiting on Tuvalu?” He prepared the rigging, whistling as he did so.

  Bastion scowled. “Last night, did he…”

  “I don’t want to know,” I said. “I really don’t.”

  “Bow-chicka-wow-wow,” Rune whispered. I rolled my eyes. If we didn’t need his strength, I would have tossed him in the water right then.

  "Is everyone ready?" I asked. "We should attack when most of the monsters are still, hopefully, asleep."

  ***

  The blade hummed with power. It cleaved the shadow-beast in twain with ease, and the girl spun it with a flourish.

  The ability had come to her out of nowhere. She just knew how to use. Her stats remained unreadable, but she felt new power course through her. She had grown stronger in this world, even if she didn’t know
how. Level-ups didn’t seem to work the same way here. There was no flash of light, no sense of strength and relief.

  No, relief here came from survival—from living another day through this nightmarish realm. In the past week, the world had become even more unstable. The cascading collapse had ceased, even though portions of the world fell into the void at random. The world around her glitched and twisted in on itself, and more powerful monsters appeared by the day.

  But even as the monsters grew stronger, so did she. The light from the blade had been a boon, a beacon of hope in what was otherwise a world of near-total darkness.

  The appearance of more portals lent strength to that hope. She saw more and more portals with each passing day, even if their appearance also grew more random. But that didn't matter. Each portal was an opportunity, a chance to escape this place.

  She dropped to a knee and examined the blade. The runes danced around the blade, distorted and distended like all text in this world. The girl huffed in frustration. The rules of this world made no sense, and she found no consistency in them.

  She tied back a loose strand of jet-black hair and settled the blade into a more comfortable grip. The monsters avoid its light. When she shoved it into the craggy soil, the light formed a protective barrier around her. It gave her a rare chance to rest. She needed to move forward, and that meant she had to be ready for whatever irrational creatures might emerge from the shadows.

  When she had first arrived in this world, the monsters had at least fit the laws of physics. Heads were where heads should be. Arms and legs manned their respective posts. As time had gone on, even that base-level logic had vanished. Now the creatures would appear without heads, or their heads would be in the center of their torsos—eyes and teeth in the center of a concave chest.

  The uglier and more grotesque, the more powerful the monster. At least, that had been true so far. Some of the beasts did not even have limbs to attack with, and she almost felt bad for the easy kills.

  Almost. But after a group of the beasts had dropped out of the sky above her and almost taken her arm off, that small bit of sympathy died with them.

  Light flared twenty feet ahead, and the girl shielded her eyes against the glare of the portal even as her heart skipped and her pulse quickened. This was the closest she had been to one in weeks.

  No longer did the portal show a solid image on the other side. It flickered between sea, sky, land, and the shadowy interiors of buildings, with such a speed and intensity that she could not guess the timing.

  But she knew the portal would take her out of this world and into what lay on the other side. That’s why she had to reach it.

  A fifteen-feet-tall monstrosity blocked the light of the portal. Six legs and seven arms, arranged by the mind of a madman, raised in challenge.

  The girl narrowed her eyes and brought her blade to bear.

  Chapter Twenty Six: Tuvalu

  The jungle fell silent as Bastion and I pulled the small rowboat onto the pristine white sands of the beach. Bastion scanned the tree line. “That’s not ominous or anything.”

  I grunted and strained against the weight of the row boat. “Ever been camping? This is normal. Animals always do this when anything new and unknown shows up in their area.” I gave one last pull and fell back into the sand. “Come on, Rune. This would have been easier with you out of the boat.”

  “Look, I know I have enchantments on this armor, but I still would prefer to test it in as shallow water as possible. Drowning in four inches of water would be embarrassing.”

  I rolled my eyes. The sun had only crested the horizon, but already heat beat down on us in waves. Insects swarmed in the stifling jungle air, biting and stinging any exposed skin.

  A sloped mountain of rock and stone towered above the trees. Thick clouds of onyx smoke billowed from its peak. The earth rumbled underfoot, a growl of warning to any that dared walk too close. Deep within the jungle, an echoing screech answered the growl—another warning. Another threat.

  “That is ominous,” I said. “Everyone be on their guard. Wish, can your wolves blend in well enough with the jungle to serve as scouts?”

  The Invoker nodded. “I’ll send them out in different directions. That way they can cover the area all around us. We’ll know something’s heading our way, if anything does.” She shrugged off her leather jacket to the black tank top underneath. “Why did I think leather was a good idea?”

  I grinned. Wish’s eccentric personality and taste in clothing definitely set her apart from the rest of us.

  Boris lumbered forward, and a few dozen feet above Nova scanned the jungle for danger. Rune took up the rear guard, and the rest of us arrayed ourselves in the middle of the pack.

  “Does someone need to stay behind to guard the boat?” Quinn asked.

  “If the monsters on this island are as dangerous as the rumors say, no one person could handle them. Better for us to stay together,” I said.

  No one had any desire to speak. The soup-like air made even breathing a struggle. We moved in silence, cutting a path through thick foliage and undergrowth. The forests of Toris had been lush and vibrant, but this jungle was a different kind of beast.

  Huge insects skittered across leaves, arthropods and arachnids the likes of which I had never before seen. Lizard-like creatures blinked huge eyes at us in curiosity before they disappeared into the leaves. The canopy grew thicker the deeper into the jungle we traveled.

  Nova dropped altitude and skimmed through the trees mere feet above our head, banking from side to side to avoid the thick trunks. A limb or paw would dart out of the canopy cover and try to snatch the falcon from the sky, only to be met with a defiant screech and a rake of razor-sharp talons.

  Despite the presence of life all around us, nothing made a move to attack. Boris kept his nose upturned to take in the scents all around us, but he never paused or growled to warn of an attack.

  The jungle teemed with life, but none dared show itself.

  The undergrowth vanished into a small clearing with a pool of water in the center. Water bubbled from a spring in the ground before it tumbled down a small outcropping of rocks. More of the lizard-creatures darted out of sight as we broke through the trees, and after a moment to evaluate the clearing, we moved forward to the water.

  “Drink up,” I said. Under my armor, sweat soaked through my clothes and my shirt clung to my chest. “Don’t get dehydrated.”

  “Ladies first,” Bastion said. He fanned his face and pulled the heavy robes away from his body. “Any idea where these temples are?”

  I shook my head. “No. The only clue we have to their location is that one is in the north, the other in the south. Since we landed on the southeastern side of the island, we shouldn’t be too far from the southern temple.” I looked around the thick tree coverage on all sides. “In theory, anyway.”

  Evey dunked her head under the water where it cascaded off the spring. “I’ll send Nova to look,” she said. She closed her eyes, and a moment later, the bird shot into the sky. The clearing meant a break in the canopy, and that meant Nova could get a better look around.

  Everyone took their turn to drink, and we all refilled our water skins while we waited. A few minutes later, a screech from above signaled the falcon’s return. Nova landed on Evey’s outstretched arm and stared into her eyes, chittering at the Beast Tamer.

  “Seems like the temple is about a mile to the west of here,” Evey said. “Or at least as best as I can figure out the mental images Nova is sending. The view is a bit distorted through her eyes.”

  I plunged my head under the water and let the cool liquid trickle over parched lips and wash the sweat from my eyes. Never had plain water felt so good. “Then that’s the direction we go,” I said.

  Wish sat upright, her expression turned grim. “Might have to wait on that,” she said. “Company’s on the way.”

  “What kind of company?”

  A thud and a crack sounded in the distance, and Wish
winced. “The kind that can take out of one my Spirit Wolves in a single hit. Looks like a big monkey.”

  “Well, we expected some resistance,” I said. “Everyone get ready. If it’s too strong, we run. Use crowd control at will. If we can take it, then we kill it here.”

  The ground trembled as huge feet carried the monster closer to us. Only the shaking of the trees gave away its location.

  “Ren, for the record, I don’t like this,” Bastion muttered. His grip around his sword tightened, and I couldn’t blame him. Whatever this monster was, it was big.

  Really big.

  The monster's roar shook the air as it tore a tree from the ground, tossing aside the trunk like so much kindling. In place of the tree stood an oversized, roided-up gorilla. The beast leaned on its arms, muscles rippling up and down its body with each movement. Steam rose craggy fissures in its flesh where molten lava flowed.

  [Lavaback, Level 28.]

  The Lavaback locked eyes with me an roared a challenge. I cursed. “Hit it with ice attacks. It's strong, but we can take it, but try to avoid getting hit.” Its hands were the size of washing machines.

  The gorilla charged, intent on expelling the intruders from its territory. I fired a Freezing Shot from each pistol. The first shell slammed into the gorilla’s hand but did nothing. The second exploded on its chest and scattered ice around its body. The gorilla roared in fury, but ice slowed it down.

  Not for long enough. The Lavaback seemed to have resistance to ice attacks, because the effect lasted half as long as it should have. A twang beside my ear signaled Evey’s attack, and an Anchor Shot slammed into the gorilla’s foot.

  Thankfully, the monster did not have resistance to sharp, pointed projectiles.

  “He’s down for three seconds,” Evey shouted. “Hit him hard and fast.”

  Rune sprinted past me and drew both of us his curved battleaxes from his back. The oversized ape lashed out with a vicious strike, its fist a wrecking ball propelled by muscle and fury. Rune ducked under the blow with surprising agility and leapt into the air and brought both axes down into the Lavaback’s shoulder.