Veil Online - Book 1 (a LitRPG MMORPG Adventure Series)

by John Cressman

  Jace sent Luna to scout down the trail to give them some advance warning in case the ogre caught up to them. Once she was in place, he took out the axe they’d looted from the orcs and began chopping trees. Almost immediately he received a system message.

  You have gained a new skill: Woodcutting

  The only crafting skill he’d used as Mordred had been Poisonmaking. At low levels, he’d also used gathering to collect his own herbs to make the poisons, but after a while, he just bought them from the auction house. He shook his head. Now he had all sorts of skills.

  As he cut down a dozen trees, his skill went from rank 1 to rank 10. On reaching rank 10, he’d received the Logger ability that halved the time to cut down a tree. Once he reached character level 10, his skill cap would increase to 20 and he’d be able to cut down tougher trees. With his improved woodcutting skill, it took him less than an hour to cut down all twelve trees. By the time he had felled the trees, Charlena had returned. She explained the basics, which seemed fairly straightforward.

  The design she’d found called for 10 logs. First, they use four logs to create a frame. Once the frame was complete, they would lash the remaining logs to the frame and to each other. It sounded easy. But it was not.

  Using the axe, he was able to cut the logs to uniform size, more or less. The problem came when they tried to tie the logs together. The logs were heavy. Positioning and then holding them together was difficult and required both of them.

  “You really think it will float?” Charlena asked as they put another log into place.

  Jace considered her question and realized he had no idea. Jace knew nothing about rafts, let alone building a raft. He didn’t even know if it would float if they built a similar raft in the real world.

  “Let’s hope so,” he grunted as he tied another log onto the frame. “Only one way to find out.”

  Working together, it took them over an hour to get the crude raft assembled. It looked crude, but it floated when they tested it. The next test was to see if it floated with one of them on it. Jace got into the water to pull the raft out and learned that it was ice cold.

  “What?” Charlena asked in concern when she saw the face he made.

  “The water’s cold,” he said sheepishly.

  “You and that 100% sensory thing!” she shook her head. He had to agree. This entire experience would be much more enjoyable if he could just turn down his sensory level like she could.

  Wading out into the water, which was up to his hips, he held onto the raft. “Okay, hop on.”

  She gave it a dubious look and then hopped on. The raft sank slightly when her weight hit it, but then rebounded. He stood there for a moment, shivering, but the raft held. “Looks…. Good… to… me…”

  Jace pushed the raft back to shore and then waded out. His pants and boots were soaked but he knew a little trick he’d learned as Mordred. He unequipped his pants and boots, letting items go back into his inventory. Then he re-equipped them. They were completely dry. He wasn’t sure exactly why that worked, but he was glad someone had shown him back when he was Mordred.

  “Giving a girl a show?” Charlena teased. She’d obviously seen his clothes disappear momentarily, leaving him briefly in his loincloth.

  “It... uh... dries them off,” he told her, feeling the heat in his cheeks.

  “Neat trick,” she smiled.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It dries them off instantly.”

  “Oh,” she grinned wickedly. “I meant the disappearing trousers.”

  She giggled, walked over and kissed him. “You’re so easy.” She broke the kiss and stepped back.

  “I’m sorry, Jace,” she pouted. “I have to go. I have to do a little studying for an exam tomorrow. I already stayed longer than I should have, but I wanted to make sure we got this done.”

  “Thanks,” he told her. “If you hadn’t stayed, I don’t think I could have gotten it done on my own.”

  “I know,” she said playfully, then her mood turned serious. “Can we auto-follow on the raft?”

  Jace looked down at the raft. “It should.” Then it was his turn to give her a wicked grin. “But I think I need to tie you up!”

  Before she logged out, Jace had her lay spread eagle on the raft and then he tied her to the corners of raft as she snickered.

  “I must REALLY like you,” she told him. “Because this is the first time I’ve let anyone tie me up.”

  Jace couldn’t help the grin on his face. “If it’s any consultation, I’ve only tied one or two other girls up like this.”

  She glared at him until he burst out laughing. “Just kidding. I can honestly say I have never even thought of tying a girl to a homemade raft before.”

  When he was done, he nodded to her. “Okay, set yourself to auto-follow and then logout.”

  Her eyes went glassy and Charlena’s body struggled briefly against the restraints before giving up. That was good, he’d been afraid that the auto-follow would try to make her stand up. There was no way she’d stay on the raft standing up. He needed to tie her down to prevent her from standing, and it seemed to work.

  Charlena’s eye came back into focus and she tested the restraints. “Did it work?”

  “Are you still in auto-follow mode?”

  Her eyes went glassy for a brief instant as she looked at her HUD. “Yes! So, it worked!”

  Jace smiled. “Looks like it.” He bent over her and kissed her. “You know, I could get used to this.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” she warned teasingly. “See you tomorrow!”

  And with that, she was gone. Her body struggled against the twine briefly and then stopped, staring glassy eyed into the night sky.

  “Ogre coming,” Luna’s voice came in his head.

  “Run back as fast as you can,” he told her. He could have dismissed her, but he didn’t want to lose his Cat-Vision now that it was dark. Especially not with an ogre coming after them.

  Jace scrambled up to where he’d cut a long sapling about 10 feet long. Since he had no idea how to rig a rudder, he’d had to think of another idea. He’d finally thought of the stick when he’d remembered gondolas and how some of them used a long pole to help navigate. He wasn’t sure it would work for him, but it was the best he could do.

  He grabbed the pole and hopped back onto the raft. Luna came streaking down and stopped at the edge of the water. He cat-eyed the raft.

  “Go water?” the cat asked him warily.

  “Yes,” he said urgently. “Come on.”

  “Get wet?”

  “Maybe a little,” he told her. “Come on! Or do you want to stay with the ogre?”

  Luna seemed to consider that and then hopped onto the boat and settled onto Charlena’s stomach.

  Immediately, Jace pushed off from the shore and steered them to the middle of the river. The raft moved slowly at first but quickly picked up speed. He’d gone maybe two or three hundred yards down the river when he heard noise behind him.

  There, where they had been only a few minutes ago, was the ogre. Even over the sound of the river, Jace heard it cry out. “Come back kitty!”

  Chapter 47

  Jace watched the ogre disappear behind him as the river made a turn. He had no idea if the creature would follow them. All the time he’d played as Mordred, he’d never known an ogre who tracked players. This one seemed intent on finding them. Or at least, it was intent on finding “kitty.”

  Sitting cross-legged in front, he could see the incoming rocks and then use the pole to steer them away. He could also push off left or right to keep them in the center of the river where it was deepest. It seemed like Charlena’s white-water rafting idea might work out.

  The river began moving more swiftly, carrying their raft along with it. Jace had to stop glancing behind them and focus on pushing them away from large rocks in the river. It was tense work. Not only did it keep him on his toes, it also tested his balance. The constantly shifting raft kept him struggling just to k
eep from being thrown off.

  Your Acrobatics skill has increased by 1.

  Your Acrobatics skill has increased by 1.

  Your Acrobatics skill has increased by 1.

  Jace barely had enough concentration to see the system messages and stay on the boat. Apparently, the act of trying to stay balanced on a moving raft was enough to increase his Acrobatics skill. At least he was getting something out of the experience.

  Somehow, he managed to avoid the rocks and stay on the raft. Luna managed to stay on as well by digging her claws into Charlena’s leather armor.

  Unfortunately, that didn’t prevent her from getting drenched. Her fur was soaked and slicked back against her tiny body.

  “Sorry,” he apologized. It seemed even virtual cats hated water.

  Luna just glared at him.

  “But it is better than being eaten by the ogre,” he offered.

  She continued to glare.

  The water spared no one. Looking down at Charlena, she was still strapped down and was thoroughly drenched like him. Water splashed her and occasionally some would go into her mouth. When that happened, her character body involuntarily coughed it up. Jace was amused that the developers had added that level of complexity to their avatar’s reactions.

  Jace shivered. He was as soaked as Luna and Charlena, and the cold was starting to get to him. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably. That part, at least, he could have done without the developers adding. But then again, they probably didn’t expect people to endure it on the highest sensory setting.

  Luna’s ears perked up and twitched, then her head came up. She looked back up the river. “Ogre come.”

  “Are you serious?” he said through clenched teeth.

  How was this ogre following them? And why? Why the single-minded determination to find them? Or was this the way ogres were, and Jace had killed them too quickly as Mordred to notice? That seemed as good a reason as any. Not that it mattered at the moment. All that mattered was keeping away from it.

  Keeping his focus on the swirling water, Jace continued to navigate a path down the middle of the river. After what he thought was an hour, the river widened, and the current slowed. Jace was able to relax somewhat. He took the opportunity to equip and unequip his gear to dry it off. That helped warm it up slightly, but he wished he could build a fire.

  Despite, or perhaps because of, the lull in the current, Jace kept looking over his shoulder to look back. He didn’t see the ogre, but that didn’t mean anything. He looked down at Luna. “You still hear it following us?”

  “Stomp! Stomp!” the cat replied.

  Jace ground his teeth in frustration. He didn’t know how to stop the ogre. Or even stop it from following them. He was out of ideas. His character was just too weak to take on the ogre, even with Charlena’s help.

  It was an unfamiliar sensation for him, feeling this powerless in the game. He’d worked hard building up Mordred to be a powerful character. With his vampyre, he would have had so many options. But as a low level human, he had none. He didn’t like this feeling of helplessness.

  The worst part was knowing the consequences of being killed by the ogre. They’d lose all their equipment and money and end up naked all the way back in Sinking Springs. That would mean trying the journey again, only with even fewer resources.

  It wasn’t a pleasant prospect. He needed to get to the capital and find the Help Desk. And it wasn’t just himself he was concerned for. There was Duglas, Diana, Mika who had lost all of their assets and who knew how many others who were still trapped in monster bodies. He needed to get WorldCog to fix them all. And fix him.

  The raft shifted, bringing his attention back to his current predicament. The current was picking up in speed, and he focused all of his attention on steering the raft. He was trying his best, but the raft slammed into several rocks. Luckily, it held together.

  Ability gained: Safefall

  The rougher current maxed out his Acrobatics skill and he received the Safefall ability. It was a fun ability he’d enjoyed as Mordred. It allowed you to fall an additional foot per Acrobatics rank without taking any damage. He had loved to jump off buildings and land without a scratch. Unfortunately, it did not help him in his current situation.

  They smashed into another rock and the raft groaned in protest. He was doing his best to avoid the larger rocks, but they were hitting the smaller ones more and more often. How long could the raft take this pounding?

  The river suddenly dipped several feet. Jace suddenly found himself momentarily airborne and his stomach did a flip-flop. Then he dropped hard onto the raft and was nearly thrown overboard. At the last minute, he used the pole to push himself back onto the raft and ended up sprawled over Charlena’s legs.

  He resumed his position at the front of the raft just in time for the raft to smash into a rock. The force jarred him and caused the raft to spin around. Jace was now on the wrong end of the raft. He scrambled over Charlena to the opposite side, which was now the front.

  The new position was awkward because Charlena's head was on this side. He barely had enough room to sit, making his perch even more precarious. One good jolt or another dip and he’d tossed off the raft.

  Jamming the pole into a passing rock, he spun the raft around. He once again climbed over Charlena to get to the new front. Or was this the old front? Either way, he had much more room sitting between Charlena’s legs than trying to fit next to her head.

  The current slowed once more, giving Jace a respite. The waters calmed, allowing them to drift lazily down the river. Jace dried off his clothes once more but still couldn’t get rid of the lingering chill. He wished the sun was out, but sunrise was still hours away.

  He checked on Charlena and Luna and both were wet but were otherwise okay. While he could dry his own clothes by equipping and unequipping them, he couldn’t do anything for Charlena. She would have to do that herself when she logged back in.

  Jace looked back the way they had come. There was no sign of the ogre. “Is it still following us?”

  The wet cat lifted its head up. Luna looked utterly miserable. He wished he could dismiss her, but right now he needed the Cat-Vision. If he couldn’t see the rocks, they would be torn to pieces.

  Luna’s ears twitched and moved, and she sniffed the air. “No hear. No smell.”

  Had they finally lost the ogre? Or had it given up? Or had they just outpaced it? It was impossible to know. He would have to stay vigilant. “Keep an ear out.” He looked back down to Luna. “And a nose.”

  “Yes.”

  The river continued its leisurely pace, allowing them to ride the current westward. If he remembered correctly from the map, they could take this all the way to the bridge at the crossroads. There the river turned to the south. Once they reached that point, they’d no longer be able to use the raft. It would be back to walking.

  Jace shivered. Walking didn’t seem so bad right now. At least it would be warmer. He had enough of freezing and being soaked to the bone. If this were real life, he was sure he would have died of hypothermia. As it was, he had to keep enduring the mind numbing cold.

  Something changed just then and Jace wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but Luna’s head perked up. Whatever he’d picked up on subconsciously, she’d picked up on it too.

  “Quiet,” Luna said.

  Jace listened then. He hadn’t realized it at first, but she was right. Other than the sound of the river, he couldn’t hear any other sounds. Even the crickets and frogs had grown quiet. He gripped the pole tighter. Was it the ogre?

  “Is it the ogre?” he asked Luna.

  Luna sniffed, her head moving back and forth, trying to get a scent. Finally, she looked over at him. “No.”

  If it wasn’t the ogre, what else was it? He scanned both shorelines but saw nothing. Was there something out there hiding? Was it some sort of ambush?

  He looked down to Charlena strapped to the raft. If there was an attack, he’d n
eed to defend her and the raft. And he’d need to keep the raft from capsizing.

  And stay on the raft himself. He smirked. And he was thinking it was going to be too easy.

  The raft continued to drift down the river and Jace could make out vines hanging across the river up ahead. He could also see that it was darker ahead. There was no reflection of the moons on the water.

  Jace was getting a bad feeling about this situation. Something wasn’t right. He checked the shorelines again, but there was nothing. Then something thin brushed against him. He jerked back from it and looked, but there was nothing there. Then it happened again. This time it brushed against his hand and disappeared. What was it?

  Then something brushed against his face. It was like a fine piece of thread and broke apart immediately. Jace’s breath caught as he realized what it was. It was strands of spider web. He looked around with new realization, and things fell into place.

  His heart pounded in his chest as he looked over the section of the river they were headed into. Those weren’t vines hanging down. They were huge spider webs. He looked up and realized with horror that those weren’t stars he was seeing above him. They were eyes. Lots and lots of eyes - all staring down at him.

  This was a spider’s den. And they were floating right into the heart of it.

  Chapter 48

  Jace tried steering the raft to the shore, but now that he knew what to look for, he saw that the shore was webbed up as well. If they got too close, they would get caught in the webbing. At least in the water, it might be harder for them to come at him.

  He looked up. He could see them now. There were dozens of them crawling around a web canopy that stretched above him. They were watching him with those alien looking eyes. He had flashbacks to the spiders he’d had to kill in Sinking Springs except each one of these spiders was larger than the final spider had been in the attic. Much larger.

  One of the spider’s descended towards them on a thin line of webbing. It came faster than Jace would have expected and he barely had time to equip his weapons. He stood up, rocking the raft, and stabbed at it with his rapier and fang dagger. He’d considered using Feint first, but with so many, he decided to conserve his mana for the moment.