Nightworld: A LitRPG adventure

by Jesse Wilson

  He pushed the blue button that was above it and scanned it. The read out appeared as it always had before. ‘Level Fifty Heavy Siege Ion Cannon. Designed for breaking level forty-five shields and walls made out of obsidian or lesser materials. Best used as stationary weapon attached to mobile towers and heavy armored units of all kinds. Manufactured by Area Seven Cyberdrones. Will you add it to your inventory?’ it asked him on a white screen. Derek pressed yes and the thing disappeared. With that Derek deactivated his plasma cannon and got out of the tower.

  Now he was going to see what the rest of the mountain range had to offer. Maybe this game world wouldn’t be so bad after all. He opened up his menu and tried the log out button. As expected though, all that came out of pressing it was the red error message he’d gotten this whole time. “Well, at least it’s consistent,” he said to himself and shut it off. With a sigh, he started marching down the path, that despite being blocked off for that many years looked surprisingly well traveled.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The bleak landscape wasn’t much to look at. For being an open world game, it sure seemed pretty linear so far. He looked up the high cliffs and realized that he could have easily tried to scale them and see what was up there. He thought about doing just that when suddenly he came to a large and round area. “Yep, this doesn’t look like a combat arena at all,” he said to himself and looked around. One surprise attack and he was sure he would end up back in Pick’s Town.

  He had no idea how long the server downtime lasted but if he reappeared there and was the only orange player in town, it wouldn’t take too long to figure out who stole all the stuff.

  He opened his inventory and selected the Obsidian Armor, pressed the button to equip it. Soon he was encased in the same black armor that he saw before. This time it was form fitted to him. No longer was it some hulking behemoth of a gladiator. Now it was sleek, shorter and resembled a ninja more than anything. He could see what he looked like on his armor screen and liked it.

  Derek wasn’t interested in sword play. He selected his plasma cannon and it appeared in his hands. “Now, this is more like it,” he said and looked around as he walked forward. Any time now there was bound to be an enemy coming from somewhere.

  Nothing happened. “Are you kidding me right now, this is so perfect for an ambush, you couldn’t have made it anymore obvious,” he said and looked around but still nothing. Derek was disappointed and was about to leave when something caught his attention. Something metal glinting in the moonlight. “Oh,” he said and walked towards it.

  It was a silver skull embedded in the rock, the glint of the moonlight was an objective light. He was familiar with such things in games, highlighting where to go next. He reached out and touched the light. The skull’s eyes began to glow red and it started to talk.

  “I am Tadium. I was the Predator’s Captain before it crashed in these mountains. I need your help. My power level is low and I need time to recharge, but the Balefire golems feed on my power. I do not know how long I have been stuck here. There are twelve more members of the crew. If you help me regain my power, I can aid you in finding the others, will you help me?” Tadium asked him and a familiar yes or no box appeared in front of him.

  “What the hell,” Derek replied. He had no idea what a Balefire golem was but he was about to find out, he pressed the yes button. A red box appeared with a warning message ‘Balefire Golems are extremely challenging, are you sure you want to proceed?’ it asked, as if the game knew he was only a level two. Derek took a breath and pressed the yes button again. “Thank you, warrior, I wish you the best of luck,” Tadium said to him and Derek turned around.

  From the far side of the arena a swirl of shadows burst out of the ground and came together. The beast that was formed resembled the Bone Golem from before, but it was burning with deep red fire. “I should have expected that,” he said and pointed his weapon in the monster’s direction. Before he did he remembered to quickly scan it. The read out came to him.

  ‘Balefire Golem. Level 35. 3200 hit points. Weaknesses: Holy Magic. Light, Water. Immunities: Shock, Poison, Fire, Physical Damage.’ The read out said and Derek couldn’t help but smile under that black helmet.

  “I doubt too many people come up here with plasma rifles,” he said and hoped that energy damage was different than physical damage, then he wondered if this was why the clan was blocking it all off, so newer players wouldn’t be stupid enough to wander out here on their own and die. The idea of them doing a public service, though, that didn’t feel right with him.

  The golem screamed into the air, its mournful howl sent shivers down Derek’s spine. Then it ran forward. Derek was too busy in his own head with his thoughts and the deep red flames to be ready. He blinked and dove to the left at the last minute.

  The burning axe hit the ground and sunk deep into it. He was grateful he had his armor on but he didn’t want to test its strength out right now. He rolled and stood up. Wasting no time, he fired his cannon into the creature. He never changed the settings from the last time he used it and it let loose a solid blue beam.

  It hit the burning golem in the back; the thing stumbled forward. Derek watched as that green life bar shrank down, but only by a tiny margin. There were no red numbers this time. “Critical hits,” Derek said to himself and waited for the thing to turn around. He didn’t care how dead this thing looked. Everything’s weakness was usually the same. Point blank obliteration to the face.

  The golem turned around and rushed him. Derek fired and watched as the thing used its oversized, burning axe as a shield. The plasma energy struck it and deflected in all directions. Then something occurred to Derek he didn’t think about before. The quest giver mentioned golems. More than one.

  Without turning around to look behind him he ran to the right as fast as he could, a second later another burning axe slammed into the ground, deep. “Alright, at least there is more than one, I was going to get bored,” he said to himself and watched as the two monsters began approaching him.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The two monsters looked identical to one another. He was glad he didn’t have to care about telling the difference. The first one ran at him as fast as it could in its case; being a lumbering behemoth, it wasn’t that fast. Derek knew he had to get out of the way, however, he also knew it was a trap. The other one wasn’t moving an inch. This was clearly programmed to happen. However, if he didn’t move he was going to be trampled to death. Well, as dead as he could get here in the pit. He had bigger concerns now.

  He had no choice but to get out of the way. He ran to the right and watched the golem fly right on by and run straight into the rock wall. The second it did this, a shockwave of red fire rushed back at him. Derek ran from the fire, right into the arms of the golem that were wide open to receive him. “I don’t think so,” he said and dived to the ground, sliding between the thing’s legs.

  “Impact detected. Armor integrity one hundred percent,” a voice said into his head. “Thanks,” Derek replied, truth was he never bothered to look and see just what his armor was capable of doing, what it was resistant to or anything. Things that could have been useful in hindsight, he didn’t have time to worry about now.

  All he really knew was that Tavon said that nothing in the pit could break it. All the while thinking about this, he turned around after he came to a stop and fired again. The beam struck the golem in the back, and again just a sliver of green disappeared.

  The wave of red fire passed through the golem he just shot and to his annoyance that green life bar filled straight back up to full then the red flame fizzled out. “Come on,” he groaned and figured out where the challenge of this part of the quest came from. He stood up and decided that this had gone on long enough. The golems turned around and looked at one another, almost as if they were confused that this stranger was still alive. Derek didn’t waste any time, he took advantage of the pause, aimed at the one on the right and fired at its head.

 
The burning thing started to lift its axe to use as a shield but it was too slow. The blast sailed over the axe and struck it in the face. The impact was enough to blow off half of its black, burning skull and send it crumbling to the ground.

  Derek watched that green life bar slide into the red, but just barely. The other one spun around and threw its burning axe at Derek. It was fast, faster than he could react. That spinning blade caught him in the middle, just below his arms.

  The force of the attack threw him back into, and embedded him partly into the wall. ‘Armor integrity, ninety nine percent,’ the voice said to him and Derek laughed. Tavon was right. Nothing could break this armor in the pit. He took aim with his plasma rifle as the other Golem opened its mouth and let loose a cone of red fire.

  Not wanting to risk losing his weapon, he dropped the plasma cannon just before the balefire blast covered him. He could feel the heat around him, but just barely. “Damn stealing this was a good idea,” he said as the flames died out.

  The second they did, he grabbed hold of the black handle of the axe and pushed it. The blade moved out and him and the weapon fell to the ground. He never let go of the axe as he ran forward with it in his hands. He leaped through the air and brought the blade through the burning torso of the half-headed golem from the head straight to the ground. The fire went out and the bones crumbled into dust, the axe went with it.

  Wasting no time, he outstretched his hand and his plasma cannon flew to it, he enjoyed this automatic setting a little more now as he grabbed hold. The golem swung its axe at Derek, who in turn didn’t bother to avoid it this time. He braced himself. The axe blade shattered into countless pieces as he put the plasma cannon under the burning chin of the beast and pulled the trigger twice. That green life bar disappeared in an instant. “And that’s how it’s done,” he said as a menu popped up automatically.

  ‘You’ve gained eight hundred experience points. One Balefire Axe. Six Bone Shards. Two Elixirs. You’ve leveled up to level five, congratulations.’ It read and Derek smiled, closed the menu and opened his own. There was a new option flashing yellow in the corner. He pushed it.

  ‘Hello, Devon. It appears you haven’t leveled up in a while. It’s time for a refresher course just in case you’ve forgotten anything. Remember there are six stats you can increase. Strength, Perception, Charisma, Agility, Power and Luck. There is no level cap in Night World. You may customize your character however you want,’ Derek read and it kept going.

  ‘Strength allows you to hit harder in melee combat, carry more things and have more endurance. Perception allows you to detect secret items, see hidden paths and have better aiming and a steady hand for ranged weapons. Charisma allows you better speech options with NCP’s and ability to talk with boss monsters, demons and artificial intelligences. Agility allows you to be stealthy, harder to hit and an increase in overall speed. Power increases a vampire’s natural talents. Flight, Shapeshifting, Invisibility, Night Vision, Regeneration and Blood Rage. The more power you have the longer you can use these powers. Luck increases your chances of finding rare items and getting better items after killing monsters and completing quests. Good luck, Devon,’ it read. That whole power entry got him interested in many other things.

  After this the stat allocation menu opened up. He had two points already assigned. One point in Strength and the other in luck. In waiting, he had three more points available to increase the stats. He stared at the menu. He knew what he needed to do. He quickly added a point to power, agility and charisma. As soon as he did, the do you accept menu popped up. He pushed yes. The second he did he felt a rush of energy and alive. Now he was beginning to understand the appeal of these games. Leveling up felt great.

  After all that had happened, he almost forgot he was on a quest at all. “Oh right, the talking skull,” he said and started to make his way over to it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Derek walked over to the silver skull and it started talking to him again. “You, you actually did it. You beat the Balefire demons that plagued me for all of these years?” it asked him. Derek was pretty sure it was trying to sound excited. It wasn’t doing a very good job at it but, he ignored that. “Yes. Tadium. I killed them,” he replied.

  The wall began to shake, the earth shifted and arms broke out of the rock, then in seconds the rest of a silver skeleton attached to the skull freed itself. “My power returns,” he said as he shook the grey dirt off of his body. “For your aid, I will highlight on your map the rest of my crew. If you can find, and free them, we can make the airship fly again, and I will allow you to be its captain. But beware traveler, you are in for a great challenge. The balefire golems will not give up their power sources without a fight,” Tadium said to him and Derek looked at his cannon.

  “One free airship,” he said with a smile. Then he looked up in the air and saw a red line in the sky. He narrowed his eyes to try to get a better view and suddenly he realized that it wasn’t a line; something was coming in his direction. “Oh, what is it now?” he asked and was tempted to run away. Derek didn’t have time. What once seemed very far away was now pretty close, then to his surprise he saw that it was another player.

  “I’m not sure how you did it, and I don’t care,” the lady said and she crossed her arms. Derek felt nervous all of a sudden, but it was worse, a creeping dread inside almost. She was wearing deep red armor that covered her from head to toe. “You stole that armor. What, you’re surprised. You didn’t think that there was a reason no one took it. It has a tracker on it,” she said and Derek took a step back, he didn’t know quite what to say about any of them.

  “It is pretty nice. I guess. A little generic on the looks but what do you expect from a game called Night World,” Derek replied and lifted his plasma cannon.

  “Oh, you stole from the cops too, wow. I’m really curious. Before I kill you, how did you do it?” she asked him and wasn’t impressed with the weapon. He pointed it at her anyway and fired.

  The solid blue beam hit her in the chest and the plasma energy shattered on impact. She walked forward into the beam and Derek, up until now, thought he was pretty much invincible in the pit. The woman was tired of this and flash stepped through the energy. In a second she had her hand around his neck and picked him up, knocking the weapon to the side. “I’m going to ask you again, bottom feeder. How did you steal this armor?” she asked him with a hiss behind the helmet that made him feel slimy inside.

  “I just took it, okay? I walked up to the thing and just took it,” he replied and she didn’t understand what he meant. “I don’t know, I can’t log out. The server shut down, everyone left but I was left alone,” Derek replied and she didn’t believe him.

  “No one stays during a shutdown, you’re lying. Do you work with the Loric Clan, are you a Smorf?” she demanded to know. “What’s a smorf?” he asked having no idea what that could be.

  “It’s someone who’s a high level player with a low-level account, they use the low level account to commit crimes like this, then transfer their loot to a higher level account,” she explained, annoyed. “No, nothing like that I swear. I told you the truth. I can’t log out. If you put me down I can show you,” he replied in a hurry as her grip increased around his neck.

  “Okay, no. You’re going back to the town, I’m throwing you in jail. Taking my reward, the armor and any weapons you might have gotten,” she said and Derek didn’t know what the reward was, but he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

  “Okay, fine. But if you’re so interested in taking me in, you might want to look down,” Derek said and she did.

  “How did you?” Derek thought she was asking too many questions and pulled the trigger on his ion siege cannon. The green beam was powerful enough to knock her straight back across the arena and into the wall. “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to take everything you have. You shouldn’t have attacked me like you did,” he said to her.

  Her armor began to crack and splinter under the ion sie
ge cannon. Whatever she was wearing, it was as tough as a wall at least. “Guy, please, don’t kill me. If you do, you’ll have people hunting you for as long as you are inside the game,” she pleaded with him. Derek narrowed his eyes, this ploy in any game was a trick. The minute you let your guard down was the same minute they stabbed you in the face.

  “There isn’t much time, choose carefully,” she said again and Derek shut the beam off against his better judgement. She collapsed to the ground as Derek opened up his menu. He pressed the button to log out, and the red error message appeared again. “Well, look at that. You weren’t lying,” she said and stood up. “What reason did I have to lie?” Derek said and her armor disappeared.

  “You’d be surprised the things people say and do to get out of trouble,” she said and brushed the dust off of her. She was a vampire too, taller than he was but not much. Same pale skin, black eyes and long silver hair. “I’m Lucy. Owner of the Bone Yard and Delwrath clan Bounty Hunter,” she introduced herself and Derek remembered her, he figured it wouldn’t be good to say he’d seen her before.

  “I’m Devon. Level Five nobody,” he replied to her. “Don’t be so sure. You just killed two Balefires all on your own. Sure, you had to steal weapons and armor to do it, but you did it. You activated the airship quest too,” she said and looked at the skeletal figure. “Don’t feel too special though, we’ve been trying to win this quest for years,” she said and Derek couldn’t quite understand that.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “What do you mean, you can’t do this? All I’ve heard about this clan is that you guys can do anything,” he said and she smiled. “Yeah, we know where the airship is but there is a huge problem,” she replied. Derek couldn’t imagine what kind of problem could give the players so much trouble. That just didn’t make much sense.