Eden's Gate: The Sparrow: A LitRPG Adventure

by Edward Brody

  Bruno swallowed hard as he handed the die over to the man. “You’re up, sir.”

  The man smirked and shook the die in his hand, causing a clanging sound as it bounced around against the metal of his gloves. When he released the die, it landed on a 6.

  Several people cheered.

  He quickly scooped up the die and rolled gain—another 6.

  Sully clapped his hands together and proudly showed his missing front teeth. “It’s getting hot in here, boys!”

  “Oh, do settle down, now,” the roller said. “I’ve still got 13 to go.”

  He rolled again and hit another 6.

  The crowd cheered again, and more patrons from around the inn were gathering around to watch the show.

  “Hey!” Aaron barked. “Three sixes in a row? What the hell? The chances of that happening are—“

  “A game of chance,” the armored man said calmly. “These things can happen.”

  Aaron’s face twisted, and I could see the skin in his cheeks turning red.

  “This is why you shouldn’t gamble,” I whispered.

  The man with the insignia picked the die back up and started rattling it around in his hands while the surrounding crowd started cheering, “One more six! One more six!”

  I couldn’t believe people were so invested in such a simple game.

  When he threw the die again, you could almost hear the onlookers holding their breath, waiting for what the man would score.

  Unbelievably, he hit another 6.

  The crowd cheered wildly and started clanking their mugs together and drinking. It was like they were already celebrating even though there had yet to be a winner.

  “There’s no fucking way…” Aaron said low, shaking his head.

  The man only had to score a two or greater, and he would win the game. The only way that Aaron could win at that point was if the man happened to roll a one.

  I placed a hand on Aaron’s shoulders and squeezed. I could almost feel the heat of anger rising from him as he stared at the lion across the man’s chest. While the man gave no indication that he was cheating, I could see why Aaron thought he might be. Rolling four sixes in a row was pretty much miraculous.

  A bearded man who was watching started up the, “One more six!” chant again as the man rattled the die around in his hands, and then the other onlookers slowly started to join in.

  “One more six! One more six!”

  The man flung his hand forward, and as the die rolled across the table, the crowd held their breath. For a split second, the die almost looked like it was really going to land on another six, but that could have been my eyes playing tricks on me.

  After its final patter against the table, it settled on a 1.

  The crowd moaned loudly then immediately switched to congratulating Aaron. Aaron let out a huge breath of air. “Whooo!”

  His opponent seemed unaffected by the loss. He just grinned and said, “Well, it seems I’ve been beaten by the Sizzler. Another round for show?” he asked.

  I squeezed Aaron’s shoulder a little harder, hoping he would get the hint to stop.

  “No, I think I’m okay.” He started picking up the gold pieces and turned towards me. “Dude, help me gather up this gold.”

  I squeezed in between the patrons at the table and started helping Aaron gather all the gold pieces off the table.

  “Another time then,” the man said. “I look forward to getting my redemption.”

  Aaron and I grabbed handfuls of coins, and as I was trying to drop them into Aaron’s bag, several of them fell onto the ground.

  “Fuck,” I spat. “All these damn coins.”

  “I think you mean, “Woohoo! All these damn coins!” Aaron said enthusiastically.

  I picked up the fallen gold and placed it in his bag. “No, I mean ‘All these damn coins.’ I like money, but I sure as hell am sick of counting it.”

  Aaron stood from his seat and pointed to an empty table in the far corner away from the crowds. As we walked towards our new area, he continued with, “Nothing more enjoyable than counting your gold.”

  “Yeah, but when you have hundreds of gold, it’s annoying.”

  “How so?”

  I shook my head. “What do you mean ‘how so’? I feel like a walking piggy bank with all these little coins in my bag.”

  Aaron laughed as we sat down on our bench-style seats. “Are you stupid, dude?”

  I glared at him. “Why? What’s your problem?”

  Aaron rolled his eyes. “Did you not turn on gold compression?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Open your settings menu, dumbass.”

  I willed my settings menu to appear, and my eyes immediately focused on the logout button. It was pretty much the only thing that I had paid attention to on the settings menu since I had been in game. I mean, I saw the other options there—even the tiny checkbox at the bottom of the screen that read ‘gold compression’—but I ignored it, since I had no idea what it did and had nothing to do with me logging off.

  “How’s this work?” I asked.

  “Just turn it on!” Aaron barked.

  I clicked the box, and almost immediately, I heard a few low ping sounds ring out inside of my bag. It sounded sort of like quarters dropping into the mouth of a Vegas slot machine but a bit more muted. Ching, ching, ching.

  “There you go,” Aaron said.

  “What the hell?” I reached into my bag for my coins, but it seemed like I had a lot less than I had before. I grabbed a few of them and pulled them out.

  The standard gold coins were small and flat, roughly the size of an American dime. They were a shiny, yellow gold with a single number “1” printed on each side. Someone could carry hundreds of them in their bag if they wanted, possibly even thousands, given how lightweight they were, but counting them out was annoying.

  Several times, NPCS had given me coins of the same dimension with a “10” or “100” printed on them which we much more convenient. The 10 gold coin had a slightly darker hue, and the 100 was even darker, but for the most part I ran into many more singles.

  In the handful of coins I pulled from my bag, I noticed a new variation. It was an even darker gold color, and when I flipped it around, both sides were printed with “500”. I hadn’t seen that before.

  “Pretty easy, right?” Aaron said.

  “Are you kidding me?” I asked. “This whole time I’ve been counting out all the single coins I got when I could’ve just clicked the checkbox?”

  “So long as you have currency compression on, your gold can be compressed into higher value coins of 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000, and even 100,000 denominations. The higher the coin value, the higher the density of gold.”

  I shook my head. “Well, good thing I found out now. I’d hate to be dragging around 10,000 pieces of gold at higher levels.” I pursed my lips together. “Why only gold? Why are there no copper or silver coins in Eden’s Gate?”

  Aaron shrugged. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Dr. Winston about that one. I didn’t work on the currency system.”

  I smirked and snapped my lips.

  “That’s a very good question, actually,” a voice said from behind me. I turned to the side to see Dr. Winston suddenly walking up beside our table. “First off…” Dr. Winston grunted as he sat down beside me and smiled.

  Neither Aaron or I spoke. Both of us were stunned to see the doctor come out of nowhere.

  “First off,” he said again as he scooted in, “I got to thinking about dragons. Would a dragon want copper or silver coins?” He crinkled his nose and shook his head. “I don’t think so. Dragon dens are usually filled with gold, right? Same with orcs, goblins and other monsters. When I imagined money hungry monsters, I thought of them thirsting for bright yellow coins or slabs of golden bricks, not silver or copper dung pieces.”

  “What are you doing here, Dr. Winston?” Aaron asked low. I didn’t know why he was speaking so quietly, but he looked like he
was concerned that people around would hear what he had to say.

  The doctor held up a finger as if he were putting a hold on Aaron’s question. “And in a real world, when you have different types of currency, you create something equivalent to a stock market. One day gold is worth 10 silver and another day it’s worth 100 silver. A fluctuating market would be bound to happen, and who wants to deal with such things?” The doctor smiled. “A single currency type keeps the economy streamlined, and while I considered calling money ‘credits’ or another unique name for a while, I went with one of the oldest currencies familiar to man... gold.”

  I smiled and wanted to say something, anything, but Dr. Winston’s presence made me awestruck. He had this air of genius around him at all times.

  “When I made Eden’s Gate, I wanted to make a better world than Earth. While much of here is like our Earthly counterpart, remember that a different set of rules apply. That’s why I added ‘compression’ as well. It would spoil the fun if you couldn’t complete a trade because whoever you’re trading with doesn’t have change or had to run back to a banker to change up or change down your coins. A minor annoyance eliminated. If you gather 500 gold coins, compression allows it to automatically be changed to a single coin of the same value. No copper, no silver, and—”

  “No Forex markets,” Aaron cut in with a grin. “Good thinking.”

  Dr. Winston winked. “As you gain wealth, just remember that a 500 gold piece is easier to steal than five hundred 1-gold pieces, so keep that in mind before you compress your coins.”

  I cleared my throat and lifted both a 1 gold coin and the single 500-gold coin I had in my fingers. “So I guess the higher value coins have more purity? What is the gold mixed with in the lower value coins?”

  The doctor chuckled. “They’re mixed with code, Gunnar.”

  “Code…?”

  “A 100-gold coin is hundred times purer than a regular gold coin, but that’s because the rules of Eden’s Gate dictate so. Just put the ideas of past realities behind you. Gold is valuable here, but it’s not Earth gold. It’s Eden’s Gate gold. It may be hard for you to get your head around now, but eventually you’ll just accept it.”

  “You thought of everything…” I said.

  “Not everything,” Dr. Winston replied. He looked across the table to Aaron. “And to answer your question, I’m here exactly for that reason.”

  Aaron gulped. “What is it, boss?”

  I found it comical that Aaron still felt obligated to call him ‘boss’.

  “Well, I got to thinking about your little portal into my castle.” He lifted a hand and cupped his chin with three fingers. “It made me wonder… If you did something so extreme without it getting noticed, could there be bugs or exploits I might have missed?”

  I raised an eyebrow to Aaron, but he didn’t say anything. He just sat there in silence, his eyes glued to the doctor.

  “I didn’t program my laptop into Eden’s Gate so that I could spy on people or make communication calls with Earth. I included it in so that I could keep the game running at maximum efficiency, patch things if ever necessary. I thought I may never need to use it, but you already proved me wrong.”

  “Yeah?” Aaron asked.

  I gave a nod just to be polite, but I really had no idea where the conversation was going.

  “With a world this big, there’s the possibility of issues that may have gone unnoticed. I hope not, but it’s possible.” He paused as he looked at Aaron and then turned to look at me. “I’m technically the one and only ‘game master’ in Eden’s Gate, but I’m not a God. I can’t see everything. And since there’s no way for anyone to contact me, that’s only now hitting me as slightly concerning.”

  “So what do you want us to do?” Aaron asked.

  Dr. Winston smiled and let out a slow puff of air. “Nothing right now. But if you happen to encounter any bugs or errors that need addressed, I’d like for you to report them to me. Both you and Gunnar, if you will.” He looked at me again. “I’ve added a ‘page GM’ [game master] button in both of your setting menus. If you come across something game-breaking, I’d like for you to page me. Is that something you can do?”

  Aaron shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Sure,” I replied.

  “Good,” Dr. Winston said. “And sorry for dropping in on you so suddenly. I’ll leave you two to whatever it was you were doing.”

  I expected Dr. Winston would cast some crazy spell that would make him vanish instantly, but instead he just stood from the table and walked out the door, just like he were any other customer.

  I looked at Aaron and he shrugged.

  “Didn’t you call him an asshole before? You were awfully polite when he showed up.”

  “He is an asshole, but I have no ill-will towards him. He just—” Aaron shook his head slowly from side to side. “What he did at the keynote was selfish… but generous at the same time. He changed the lives of a lot of people without their permission, but there’s hundreds of millions, probably even billions who will eventually benefit at some point…” He shrugged again. “I’m not sure how I view him, really.”

  “I know what you mean,” I said with a nod. It was silent for a moment, but I leaned forward on the table and tried to change the subject to something less intense. “By the way, I met another reborn today.”

  “Another reborn?” Aaron raised his eyebrows.

  “Some Texan named Ozzy… He’s a big fella, wears plate and carries a shield. Judging by his playstyle, I think he’s going for a tanky build. Seems like a nice dude.”

  “Guild material?” Aaron asked.

  “Hard to say,” I said, “but I think you’ll like him.”

  “How old?”

  “I’m guessing that he’s mid-to-late thirties.”

  “You should’ve brought him by for drinks.”

  “He’s coming, actually,” I said. “He told me he wants to grind up to level 9 and then he’d make his way to Thorpes.”

  Aaron smiled. “Well then I look forward to meeting this guy. He would be the first reborn I’ve met since you.”

  Aaron and I sat in the inn the next few hours, drinking ale, chatting and waiting for Ozzy. As the night wound down and it started getting late, the big guy never made an appearance, and we eventually resolved that he was a no-show. I had no idea what happened to him—Maybe he had better things to do—but eventually, we called it a night and headed towards our rooms on the second floor.

  That time, I made sure to get a room without a hole in the roof.

  So much for what I thought might be the third party member needed for our guild. The role would have to go unfulfilled a while longer.

  In the meantime, we both needed sleep. The next day was going to be a big event for us.

  If everything went as planned, we would finally have our homes.

  Chapter Seven

  01/09/0001

  “Everything taken care of?” I asked.

  “Yep,” Aaron cooed. “A forge and anvil is going to be delivered to Edgewood.” Aaron started latching two bundles of tools on his horse’s back—everything from a saw, to a hammer, to tongs, and a pickaxe. “But after buying all these tools, I’m broke as a joke.”

  I had given Aaron 500 of my gold to help pay for it all, and after drinking and another night’s stay at the inn, I was left with only 22 gold in my purse—just enough for me to eat and get another room if necessary. I had planned on making a little dough from the animals that Sora killed, but I woke up with the smell of death in my bag and had to toss the corpses after leaving them in there too long. Basically, I needed to learn skinning if I wanted to ever make money from pelts. “I’m almost broke now too.”

  “It’ll all pay off,” Aaron said. “I’m sure of it. Once I’m deep into crafting, the gold spent for all this will look like chump change.”

  “I hope so.” I swung my leg over my horse, and Aaron and I started back for Edgewood.

  Anticipation rose
in my stomach as we trotted through the forest, and when we entered the clearing where our homes were being built, I was not disappointed.

  Three elves were still at the site, clearing away rubbish from the area, and the home that they built for me was pristine. It was basically just a plain wooden cabin with a single window and a fireplace, much like Jax’s home, but it still looked amazing in my eyes—maybe just because it was mine.

  Aaron’s home was a duplicate of mine, only half the size and without a fireplace, but I would have been just as happy to live in his. It was big enough to sleep in and had plenty of room to store his tools and necessities.

  I turned to Aaron. “Looks awesome, right?”

  Aaron nodded. “It’s a good start. That’s for sure.”

  We jumped off our horses, tied them to a nearby tree, and went to inspect our new compounds.

  One of the elves was waiting for us, and when we approached, he handed us both small, silver keys. “All yours now. Be careful not to lose your keys or have them stolen. If someone gets ahold of your key and knows where you live, they could loot anything you have inside.”

  You’ve received: House Key. Durability: 100/100. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. A basic, silver key used to lock and unlock a home.

  The elf pushed open the door to my new house, and I stepped inside. It was pretty much empty, save for a blanket and pillow laying on the floor.

  “You’ll have to furnish it yourself, but we brought you the pillow and blanket so you can sleep here right away.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  I closed the door after a quick walk-around and went to have a peek at Aaron’s home. His also had the same pillow and blanket, but it was otherwise empty. Although there were no amenities in either one, the shells were nice nonetheless.

  “If you’re okay with everything, we’ll take the horses and return to the Vale,” the elf said.

  “Everything looks okay, but is it okay for us to keep the horses for another day or two?” I asked.