Dragon World Online: Inception: A LitRPG Adventure (Electric Shadows Book 1)

by S. R. Witt

  Then she stood up, brushed the pine needles from the seat of her pants, and adjusted the quiver on her hip. Without another word, she walked over to the city wall and climbed to its top.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, unsure of what I’d done wrong.

  She gave me a small, sad smile over her shoulder. “I’m a barbarian. If I spend too much time in the village I’ll lose my Wilderness bonuses.”

  I wanted to say something, anything, to get her to stay. Instead, I gave a little wave and said. “Okay, I’ll see you around?”

  Lyr stepped off the wall and vanished without another word.

  I spent the next half hour finishing up my arrows, only losing five more hit points to clumsy dagger work. What can I say? I was distracted.

  “Stop being stupid,” I grumbled to myself. I wasn’t here to make friends.

  And, yet, I felt lonelier now than I had before I met Lyr. I noted her name in my in-game journal and hoped I’d see her soon.

  Unfortunately for both of us, our paths did cross again.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  With some arrows in my backpack and a target in mind, it was time to make some real money. Stealing from adventurers was a step up from honest work, but the risks were still too high and the rewards too low. Getting caught by one of these sword-wielding murder hoboes would not end well for me, and I couldn’t afford to get killed until I made it to fifth level. After that, I could change tactics, but until then I needed to be careful and make a butt-load of money at the same time. Which only left one option.

  I headed back across town, and hid in an alley near my new target. It was good to get back into my Shadow gear, which did a much better job of keeping the cold wind off my tender bits than the cheap wool clothes I’d been wearing as part of my “woe is me” disguise.

  I had to be very careful to avoid being seen while wearing my ninja gear, but I was getting better at that all the time. It only took me a couple of minutes to get from my hiding spot to the shadowed alley hidden behind the pawn shop.

  The warehouse-style building was huge. And yet when I’d been inside it I’d only seen the cramped front portion in use. The dwarf had gone through a door into the back to get the gear for me, which led me to a simple conclusion. Everything other heroes brought into this shop was stored back there. The whole building had to be filled with all manner of goods, which an enterprising thief such as myself could put to good use.

  It was a risky plan, but there was a lot of money to be made if this worked.

  The pawnshop’s back door was big and heavy. A stout padlock and thick iron hasp stood between me and untold riches. Time to get thiefy.

  A quick examination of the lock revealed which picks I should use. I flexed my left hand and plucked the right pair from the pouches on the back of my glove. To a casual observer I’m sure all of the picks looked much the same, but not to an expert like me. I kneeled in front of the lock and went to work.

  FAILURE! The difficulty of this lock may exceed your Pick Locks skill. Continued attempts may damage your equipment.

  Awesome. Just what I needed. Why couldn’t anything ever be simple?

  I examined the lock again, but couldn’t glean any new and enlightening information from it. The dull black iron remained inscrutable and impenetrable. If I kept messing around with this thing, I’d end up breaking a pick. Since I didn’t know where to get any new ones, that was a setback I couldn’t risk. I needed some way to level up my skills.

  And the only way to increase my skills in picking locks was to pick some locks. I needed to find one that was challenging, but not so beyond my skills I’d end up busting my gear.

  I knew of one lock that would fit the bill, but I didn’t know how to reach it. The trap door leading out of the Maze of Shadows would be perfect. Problem was, that lock was on the inside of the door and I didn’t know how to get there. Other than walking around and hoping the Shadows would kidnap me again, I had no way to use that lock. I needed to find something else.

  I thought about breaking into a few houses, but none of the ones I passed had actual locks. They must be barred from the inside, which was of no use to me.

  I skulked around town, moving from shadow to shadow as I tried to think of a lock I could use for practice.

  Then I saw the church.

  The alms box had a lock on it. I’d been able to pick it with a makeshift tool, which led me to believe I wouldn’t have any trouble practicing on it. I creeped up on the church and circled around it. It only had the one door, which was going to make this a little trickier.

  I waited for 10 minutes to make sure no one else was coming to the church. It was isolated and off the beaten path, which worked in my favor. No one seemed to know about the place. Now was the time to make my move.

  If anyone saw me, I was screwed. But it was a chance I had to take if I wanted this plan to work. I needed to improve my skills and this was the only lock I could find. There might be others hidden around the village, but I didn’t have time to search for them.

  I ran across the open ground between my hiding place in the front of the church. The sun shining through the winter clouds overhead felt like a spotlight tracking my every move. I wondered what it would be like if I was discovered. What would happen to me? Would the whole town arrange some kind of lynch mob to tear me apart? Or would I be banished from the village and spend the rest of my time in-game wandering from place to place like a bum?

  No one cried “thief!” and no guards materialized to stop me at the church’s doors. The door was unlocked and I wasted no time slipping inside.

  The place was just like I left it. Candles burned in holders along the wall, but there were no priests or nuns here keeping an eye on the place. Things were going my way, for once.

  The alms box was where I’d left it. I flipped it over and found waxy residue still in the lock. There were no coins rattling around inside it, which led me to believe that no one else and found this place. Interesting.

  A quick examination of the lock told me everything I needed to know.

  This lock looks like it will pose a moderate challenge to your skills.

  Perfect.

  I bent my wrist and selected a pick from the pouch on the back of my glove. The lock gave up its secrets to me within a few seconds. The lid popped open but no coins fell out. And I gained no skill.

  Dammit. This was going to take a while.

  I took a seat on one of the pews and closed the alms box. Locking it was no more difficult than unlocking it, and I gained no skill doing that, either.

  It took me five minutes and another 10 tries before I got what I was looking for.

  SUCCESS! You have increased your mastery of the Pick Locks skill. (Rank 3)

  Finally. If every attempt took 30 seconds, and it took me 10 tries on average to increase my skill, I’d hit my max for this level in 35 minutes. It wasn’t ideal, given that that was 35 bucks down the drain, but it would be worth it in the end if I could get into the pawnshop’s back door when I finished.

  I hoped.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t quite get to my max skill before I was interrupted.

  “Put down the box, and I won’t bash your skull in.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The priest didn’t look like I expected. Sure, he had a robe and his haircut was an unflattering bowl job, but he also held a warhammer and wore enough armor to shame a tank. Every move he made was accompanied by a grinding, clanking noise that led me to believe there was even more armor that I couldn’t see hidden under his dirty robes.

  I put the box on the floor and raised both hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—“

  “To come into this house of worship and steal from the poor?” The priest hefted his warhammer as if trying to decide the best way to kill me. “Things are hard enough around here without thieves making them even harder.”

  My heart dropped at his use of the T word. I thought about denying his accusation, and realized how silly tha
t would look. I was sitting in his church with the lock pick in one hand and my entire body wrapped in Shadow gear. Lying wasn’t going to make things any better. “Please, let me try and make amends.”

  The priest rubbed his chin. I couldn’t tell if he was an NPC or another player. The AI was just that good. I wasn’t sure which I would prefer. If he was a player, then I could probably convince him to keep my secret. On the other hand, a player would want something in return. Probably a lot of something, and on a regular basis. Being in the pocket of a blackmailer didn’t bode well for my future money-making enterprises.

  If it was an NPC, then it might not even be possible to convince it to keep the secret. How much computing horsepower would the Devs waste on a priest that almost no one would ever see?

  I slipped my lock pick back into the pouch on my glove and waited to see how this was going to shake out.

  After a few seconds that felt like an eternity the priest hooked the strap of his warhammer through a loop on his belt and motioned for me to follow him.

  “The Priests of Hoald are a militant order.” He tapped his warhammer to emphasize the point. “Our church does its best to help protect the village and tend to the poorest among us.”

  He stopped in front of a door on the wall behind the altar. “The heroic members of our order spend a great deal of time purging evil from the wilderness around our village. The treasure we find is used to support the order and provide for the poor.”

  The priest ushered me through the door and closed it behind us. We were in a long, narrow hallway lit by pale blue stones embedded in it ceiling. Any hope I had of escaping vanished. There were no other doors that I could see and no windows. The light was too bright for me to find a good hiding spot, which left me in the unenviable position of having to bide my time and pray the priest didn’t decide to splatter my skull as punishment for my transgression.

  The hallway descended and in a few minutes I realized we had to be below street level. What was it with these folks in this village and their secret underground passages?

  We arrived at a stout, iron-bound door and the priest put a hand on my shoulder. “In our travels, we have uncovered some items that leave us perplexed. Perhaps your trespassing and thievery were guided by the hand of Hoald, who sent you to aid us.”

  The priest put his hand on the door and a dull golden glow encompassed it. The door opened with a faint click to reveal a small chamber lined with wooden shelves. The shelves bowed under the weight of the boxes they held.

  “You need help cleaning this place up?” I asked, trying to keep the mood light.

  The priest chuckled, which I took as a good sign. “No, we need your help opening these chests. We could bash them apart, of course, but that might damage the goods they contain.”

  “And what do I get out of this?” I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth.

  The priest’s hand landed on the haft of his weapon. “First, I won’t kill you. Which I would be well within my rights to do, given your actions in my church. Second, if you are able to aid us, then your secret will be safe with me.”

  That was a relief. A reward would’ve been nice, but I suppose it was a bit much to expect when we’d met under such unpleasant circumstances. “All of these?”

  The priest nodded. “We’ll start with these.”

  I sighed and looked around for a place to sit. There were no chairs or other furniture in the room so I found a clear spot on the floor and made myself as comfortable as possible. Which was not very. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  You have accepted the quest, “Opener of the Ways.”

  Oh, that was interesting. So he was an NPC.

  The priest took a box off a shelf and handed it to me. “Good luck.”

  It didn’t take long for terror to give way to boredom. None of the chests had challenging locks, but I didn’t have time to even see what they contained before the priest pulled them from my hands. I’d pop a lock, he’d take the chest and replace it with another one just like it.

  Meanwhile, my timer was running down. I didn’t have time for this. If I didn’t get some money soon, I’d end up getting booted out of the game. What, exactly, happened after that was anyone’s guess. Would the priest decide to just off me because I hadn’t lived up to my end of the deal? Or would he have mercy on me and wait patiently for me to return?

  It wasn’t a question I wanted to answer. After my twentieth box I hit my maximum skill rank for this level. Any time I spent here now was just wasted. I had to get out of here and get over to the pawn shop before my timer ran down. There was less than an hour remaining, now, which was barely enough time to do what I needed to accomplish.

  I flexed my fingers and looked up at the priest. “I need to take a break. Can we finish this later?”

  The priest frowned, but offered me a hand up. My legs tingled with pins and needles and I had to catch myself on a shelf to keep from falling over. Sometimes, the Game was entirely too real. Did we really need to have our legs fall asleep if we kept them crossed too long?

  After I’d steadied myself, the priest motioned toward the door. “Let us return to the sanctuary and we can discuss the terms of our agreement.”

  Agreement? Extortion was more like it. Sure, I’d stolen a few things from the church. But he’d already gotten more than a great deal from me. Who knew what was in those boxes? He’d probably made a fortune off my hard work. And he still wanted more.

  We stopped at the altar and the priest placed his hand on its surface. He motioned for me to do the same and I complied.

  “Please repeat after me. I swear by my name and bond that I will return each week to this church to aid the Priests of Hoald until I have been released from my duty.”

  “That seems pretty open-ended. I mean, you could—“

  The priest’s eyes took on a menacing glint. I rolled my eyes and repeated the words. Big deal, I’d make a promise, and then I’d decide how to get out of it later.

  A shock spiraled up my arm and dropped me to my knees. A blazing symbol I didn’t recognize flared before my vision. Excruciating pain held me in a barbed-wire fist.

  “This is what you will feel if you try and avoid your obligations.” The priest helped me back to my feet and the pain faded to a dull ache. “And, I’ll make sure everyone in the village understands that you are a thief.”

  “All right,” I grumbled. “I’ll be back in a few days to deal with your lousy treasure chests.”

  The priest laughed and I left the church with a burning desire to make sure he paid for what he’d done to me. He might have the upper hand now, but I wasn’t going to be weak forever.

  One day, he’d get what was coming to him.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The return trip to the pawnshop was a nerve-racking nightmare. I’d had plenty of time to carry out my mission before being apprehended by the priest. Now, every minute counted, and they were ticking away at an alarming pace. The timer in the lower right hand corner of my vision moved inexorably toward the end of my game time, and I was forced to spend far too many minutes hiding and waiting during my trip.

  I could have stripped out of my Shadow gear, but then I would have just had to get back into it before I could carry out the job. One way or another, I had to burn that time, and I felt more comfortable wearing the dark garb. So, hiding it was.

  When I made it to the pawnshop’s back door at last, I held my breath and examined the lock.

  This lock is a moderate challenge for your skills.

  I let out a long breath and retrieved my picks from the back of my glove. Here goes nothing.

  The tumblers were heavy and resisted my prying. The thin wire of my tools flexed and stretched under the strain. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead and dripped into my eyes, despite the freezing temperature. This had to work. If I failed…

  The heavy base of the lock dropped into my hand. I worked it free of the hasp and the door was open.

  I�
��d done it. I resisted the urge to shout in victory as I moved the latch aside and hung the open lock back on the latch.

  The door opened easily and did not creak as I slipped inside. The interior of the building was lit only by a few lanterns mounted along its walls. The shadows were thick and covered most of the big room. This was going to work.

  I just had to find where the goodies were hidden. Most of the shelves I could see overflowed with ratty pelts and crappy gear and weapons. I could, in theory, gather a bunch of that up and sell it off to other merchants. But doing that would take a lot of time and wouldn’t net me much cash. I’d end up wasting a lot of steps carrying a lot of garbage all over the village, which might not end up turning a solid profit.

  No, what I needed was the stuff the dwarf got from the more experienced adventurers. The gems and jewelry and fancy items that would fetch a premium price from other merchants in town. I just had to figure out how to find it.

  I took a deep breath and let my focus drift. It would take forever to try and analyze every item on the shelves to see what I thought it was worth. I had to trust my subconscious observation skills to guide me in the right direction. I crossed my fingers and prayed this work.

  SUCCESS! You have learned the rudiments of the Search skill. (Rank one)

  That was interesting. Bright green outlines formed around several objects on the shelves. I found a fancy necklace, a silver bracelet, a pouch containing some gemstones, and a bunch of other nifty and obviously valuable items. I loaded them into my backpack until every inventory slot was filled.

  My hands were shaking by the time I finished. This was more treasure than most adventurers would see in a week of work and I’d just ransacked it in less than 15 minutes. I didn’t know if this was a sustainable way to make money, and I didn’t care. Right now, I needed the money to replace my mother’s rebreather. I could worry about the future when it arrived.