“Shit…”
“Ahhhhh!” We looked up just in time to see Vayde hurtling towards us. He was flailing wildly like he had missed his jump, and I could see by his trajectory that he wasn’t going to make it.
“Shit, hold onto me!” I told Baltos and D, stepping out as far as I could and reaching my arm out to Vayde as he came soaring down. Baltos snatched my other arm and D grabbed onto him, forming a human chain for Vayde to grab onto.
“Grab my hand!” I shouted to Vayde, stretching myself as far out as I could. I was hanging precariously over the edge. If Baltos’ grip faltered, even for a second…
It was like slow motion as Vayde extended his arm, his hand open for mine as he soared through the air. I could see the terror on his face as he reached for me.
Get it, get it, get it!
His fingers missed mine, and I gasped as he kept falling.
“No!” I screamed as I reached down. His robe fluttered as he fell, and I snatched a piece of his sleeve and closed my hand tight. The impact almost took my arm off, but I got him. His body slammed hard into the cliff face beneath us, but I had him.
“Pull!” I shouted. “Pull us up!”
D and Baltos pulled and backed up into the cave, pulling Vayde and me with them. Safely back on solid ground, we collapsed onto our backs and just stared at each other, trying to process what had just happened.
“Holy… shit…” Baltos muttered.
“Let’s hope we never have to do that again!” I joked, trying to add a little levity to the situation.
“Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to have to,” D said from behind us. There was something in his voice that made me turn around, and when I saw what he was looking at, I understood.
35
Portal Tie
In front of us, set back in the darkness of the cave, was a portal, its countless rings spinning a few feet above the air.
“No way!” Vayde gasped. “Is that—?”
“The Crimson Catacombs!” D laughed, patting me on the back. “We found it!”
“Yeah, no thanks to you,” I replied. It was just a joke, and he knew that. We were all just thrilled to have arrived at our destination.
“We found it…” Baltos said, almost with amazement.
How could anyone have found the portal without already knowing it was there? If we hadn’t run into the Stone Giant or Bleed, we probably would never have found it.
“I guess we owe that Stone Giant a thank you note.” Vayde laughed, getting to his feet.
“A thank you note?” D laughed. “You sound like my mom.”
“Hey, what held you up back there?” I asked, noticing he was missing about a quarter of his health.
“Those Bleed assholes,” Vayde replied through clenched teeth. “A mage hit me with some kind of stun, and two of their archers started shooting me.”
“They must not have been too high level,” D remarked. “Otherwise you’d be dead.”
“They’re not.” Vayde shook his head. “I’d bet their entire horde isn’t much higher than 20, maybe with one or two outliers. They’re just zerging that Giant down and will probably be at it for another hour the way they’re going.”
“Anyway, can you portal tie to the dungeon now, Vayde?” I asked. “And summon us back here from Stoneburg?”
“No problem,” Vayde said excitedly. He flourished his wand in front of him like a magician. A glowing pink ribbon shot out of his wand and coiled itself around the portal. Slowly, it phased into the rings and with the sound of chimes, vanished. Vayde’s wand pulsed slightly and he turned around, a triumphant grin on his face.
“Done it!”
“Thank God!” Baltos said with a massive sigh. He was exhausted—mentally. We all were, but we’d made it. We’d made it to the Catacombs. The first leg of our journey was complete, but we still had a long way to go. We had to get to the exploit spot, fight off whoever was there and take it from them, level up, protect Stoneburg and then, after all that, go up against The Ripper.
“Do they have ice cream in this game?” D laughed.
“You wish,” I replied, pulling out my Bindstone Shard from my inventory.
“I could kill for some Chocolate Fudge Brownie,” D whined.
“Yuck,” I grimaced.
“What?” D looked at me with concern, almost like I’d said the most sacrilegious thing imaginable. “You don’t like Chocolate Fudge Brownie?”
“Noooo,” I replied. “Cookie dough. Girls like chocolate ice cream.”
“Sexist!” D laughed, waving his hand in my face.
“Okay, let’s get out of here,” I said.
D and Baltos activated their Bindstone Shards and I watched as their bodies turned pink and then slowly dissolved into an infinite number of tiny little dots, and then disappeared.
We made it… I thought again with pride as I looked at the portal to the Crimson Catacombs as it spun in the air in front of me. There was no knowing what dangers lay in store for us inside, but I wasn’t afraid. I couldn’t afford to let myself fear. Not anymore.
“You did well, Jack,” Vayde said approvingly.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Getting us here,” he replied. “We wouldn’t be here without you.”
I was never good at taking compliments and looked down at my feet.
“Well, I’m flying by the seat of my pants here,” I admitted. “And praying everything works out.”
“It will,” Vayde nodded.
I hope so, I thought as I activated my Bindstone Shard.
The sound of rushing water filled my ears as I spun through portal space. The tunnel twisted around me, spinning pink and blue as I was carried back home.
Home… did I really just say that?
As the walls of the portal began to peel away, I realized that Stoneburg was the closest thing I had to a home anymore. It was the only real base I had, the only place where I knew I could return to and find friendly faces. Slowly but surely, Carrethen was becoming my reality.
I smiled as my feet hit the ground, but as I turned around and looked out over the town, a chill came over me.
Stoneburg had been raided. Several bodies lay on the ground in the town center by the blacksmiths. A fire arrow was still burning in one of their backs.
Chaucey…
My stomach churned, and I felt the pain in my heart as I thought about what had happened back in Daric. We’d had him—we’d had both of them. We could have dealt with them both right then and there, but we didn’t.
I didn’t.
I’d made a decision I thought was right. I didn’t want to become a murderer. I didn’t want my friends to become murderers. D had warned me they’d come back to Stoneburg, or another town, and he was right. They’d come back and killed more people, and it was my fault.
I felt like throwing up as I looked out across the town. A few more of Cavey’s men were standing guard, and I saw more scouts posted on the outskirts. I turned around to face the rest of my group, but before I could, I heard the sound of a bow being pulled back.
“Don’t move!” a voice hissed from behind me. I froze and turned only my head to see a grim faced archer, less than five feet away, with an armor piercing arrow drawn back and aimed straight at my head.
I could tell by his gear that he was too low level to really hurt me, but he was one of Cavey’s men and I didn’t want to start a fight.
Behind him, Baltos and D were all on their knees, with three of Cavey’s men standing above them. They’d been disarmed, gagged and bound with their arms behind them.
“We’re not here to fight—” I began to say but was cut off instantly.
“Shut up!” the archer roared. “Get down on your knees!”
I heard the sound of Vayde portaling in behind me.
“Shorros, wait!” he shouted. “It’s okay! They’re with me!”
Shorros turned and relaxed slightly when he saw Vayde. “They’re with you?”
“Yes,” Vayde replied. “Ask Cavey or Xavier. They’re friendly. They helped us fight Sinful.”
Shorros hesitated a moment, still suspicious. I could see the results of the most recent attack in his eyes. It must have just happened for them to be on such high alert, and if he’d lost any friends in the raid… well, I could understand how he’d be feeling.
Finally, he lowered his bow. I felt myself relax and extended my hand to him.
“Jack,” I told him. “Like Vayde said, we’re friends of Cavey’s.”
He took my hand and shook it. His grip was firm, and I quickly inspected him.
Shorros—level 19.
He motioned to the rest of his men and they began to free D and Baltos from their bindings. Once his hands were free, D yanked his gag from his mouth and leapt to his feet.
“Gee, thanks!” he practically shouted at them. “Give me my stuff back—now!”
“Relax, D,” I said softly. Cavey’s men were still obviously on edge and weren’t taking kindly to D’s anger. “Sorry, guys. We’ve had a long and dangerous journey. We’re all a little wound up.”
Baltos stood up and removed the gag from his mouth.
“Can I have my cestuses?” he asked.
Cavey’s men didn’t move. They were still eyeing us with suspicion. Vayde’s word wasn’t enough for them to completely trust us.
“You don’t believe us,” I nodded. “Okay. Let’s go find Cavey and Xavier. They’ll vouch for us. And then you can give my friends their weapons back.”
The men looked at each other, then slowly nodded. D started to open his mouth again, but I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from the group and headed down the slope towards the center of town.
“It’s not worth it,” I said quietly. “What are you going to do? Take on the whole guild? Make enemies of the only friends we have on the server?”
“I hate this,” D hissed. “If this was just a game, I’d PK those idiots so fast they wouldn’t know what hit them!”
Vayde came rushing up behind us as we reached the town square.
“Who was that guy?” I asked him. “I’ve never seen him before.”
“Relatively new recruit,” Vayde replied. “Must have not been here last time you were.”
As we rounded the corner of the general merchant, I saw a sight that made my stomach turn. Four bodies lay before us. Four more of Cavey’s men—dead. Normally, it would have been an easy thing to ignore. It would have been just a game, and people die in games all the time. But no longer.
This is on you, I thought miserably.
“Jack!” It was Cavey’s voice, and I turned to see him and Xavier walking over to us. I inspected them.
Cavey—level 19.
Xavier—level 18.
I felt bad when I saw how little they’d progressed. They were probably hesitant to leave town for too long and that was limiting their ability to level. The rest of my group had come so far in the same amount of time, but Cavey and Xavier still hadn’t even hit level 20. Sinful had a massive level advantage over them, and I was amazed they were even still trying to hold onto Stoneburg.
“Cavey!” I said, shaking his hand as he came over. He’d managed to upgrade his gear a bit and was wearing a long purple robe with a red plate helm. In his hand, was a tall white staff, twisted at the top like it had been plucked straight off a tree.
Xavier had a new halberd with a wrapped blue handle and silver blade, and was wearing basically the same plate as before, but with a new pair of boots and shoulders.
“Perfect timing,” he said sarcastically, doing his best to inject some humor into the situation.
“I’m—I’m sorry we weren’t here,” I told Cavey, seeing the pain in his eyes.
“Don’t worry, Jack,” he replied, shaking his head. “We made a plan and committed to it.”
“You seem to have gained a lot of levels,” Xavier remarked. “How’d the journey go?”
“Well that’s a long story,” I said with a slight laugh.
“Come on,” Cavey replied. “Let’s go to the Inn and you can tell us all about it.”
36
Preperations
Call of Carrethen didn’t have food or drink requirements, but you could still partake if you wanted to. Certain foods had stat bonuses, and some of them were pretty powerful, especially if cooked. But none of that was available at a starter town of course, so we were all just sitting around a table having a few drinks as we updated each other on what had been going on.
I’d gone over our journey, from the Hollow Warrior and meeting Baltos, to the Witching Woods and The Necromancer, to Bleed and the Stone giant, but I’d deliberately skimmed over what had happened in Daric.
I’d felt D’s eyes on me as I did, but I couldn’t turn to face him. We both knew why I wasn’t bringing it up. If Cavey and Xavier found out I’d had Chaucey and let him go, there was no telling what they would do. I didn’t think they’d actually attack us, but at the very least, we’d never be allowed back into Stoneburg again.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to slam my fist against the table, log out of the game, and make everything go away. But I couldn’t.
Those bodies outside…
They were a poison inside of me, and as hard as I tried to push them out of my mind, I couldn’t.
What was I supposed to do? I was in this impossible situation The Ripper had put me in, and as far as I could tell, how I was feeling was exactly what he wanted. But why?
What was so special about me? Why had he called me out that day, and why had he given me those 20 levels? We’d just succeeded in the first leg of our journey, but returning to Stoneburg, and seeing what had happened while we were away, had taken away any sense of satisfaction I’d had and replaced it with pure hatred and fear.
I wanted to defend Stoneburg. I knew what we had to do, but did that really mean more people had to die?
“It was Sinful again,” Cavey said grimly. I knew immediately what he was talking about.
“They didn’t even catch us off guard,” Xavier said slowly. “Our scouts called out a warning and were killed instantly. Downed four more of us in the square before we swarmed them. They ran before we could get them below half health.”
“You couldn’t catch them?” D asked. It was a bit tactless, and I could see Xavier didn’t appreciate the question.
“They jumped off the slope at the base of town,” he replied. “Used that Bindstone recall bug to portal out before we could get to them.”
“Bonecrusher and Chaucey?” D asked.
“That’s right.” He nodded.
“We found the Crimson Catacombs,” I interrupted, anxious to get off the topic. “The place they’ve been using to level so quickly. If we go and take it, and use it to level up, we’ll be able to protect this place for when they come back.”
“And what—chase them off again?” D asked, directing his question to me. I stared back at him and could see the anger in his eyes. He was still upset with me for what happened in Daric—angry for letting Bonecrusher and Chaucey go. For a second, I thought he was going to expose me, tell Xavier and Cavey what I’d done, but I took a sigh of relief as he simply took a sip of his drink and turned away.
“Trust me,” Xavier said grimly. “I have no issues running my halberd right through either of them at this point.”
“And I’ve got no problems blasting them to Hell with a Frost Bolt,” Cavey added. “Peace will not work on these people, and some drastic measures are going to have to be taken.”
I couldn’t help but cringe when I heard that. He was probably right, but at the same time, did he really know what it was like to hold another person’s life in their hands? To know that you were about to make a decision that carried with it a finality that most people would never have to face in their lives?
If what The Ripper said was right, no one in their family would even know the difference? Back in the real world, the bodies of their loved ones would c
ontinue to exist as they had before, but their minds would be lost—lost forever in the Electronic Void.
Would they be able to read the change in brain activity with an EEG or something? Could doctors tell the family that their son or daughter, mother or father, brother or sister was brain dead and never coming back to them?
It was just too disgusting to think about, and I clenched my fist into a ball beneath the table, wishing for just a moment that Call of Carrethen allowed players to experience pain, so I could do something to distract myself from these thoughts.
The Mercenaries. Sinful. Their bizarre guild war, fighting for control over the world, cutting down anyone who got in their way, and taking what they pleased. How could my thoughts, my feelings, be so different from them?
They were heartless.
Soulless.
They had to be.
But everyone around me was right. Things were ramping up and something was going to have to be done.
“It’s all so horrible,” Vayde said from his seat beside me.
“Come on,” Cavey said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Let’s take you over to meet Kattenschind.”
“Kattenschind?” D asked, obviously more interested in the oddity of the name than who the owner was.
“Yup,” Cavey replied. “Our new blacksmith.”
37
Kattenschind
I thought our trip back to Stoneburg would bring some sense of relief from the hardships of our journey, but when I heard Cavey say the words, “new blacksmith,” my heart sank.
Gehman…
We’d come back to new dead, and old memories, in a town torn apart by raids and violence. The bodies of Cavey’s men had disappeared from the town square, most likely having vanished after being looted by other members of the guild.
I looked away, up to the slopes above town, hoping to see Og racing down the hill towards us, wearing nothing but a loincloth, ready to harmlessly punch at us while shouting, “Give Og fish!” But I saw nothing.
A plume of smoke billowed out of the chimney on the blacksmith’s hut—Gehman’s hut. It instantly brought back memories of the day he died.
“I hope you two decide to stick around. We could really use you—”
The last words out of his mouth, and they were said to me. Right before Chaucey’s fire arrow slid into his back. A shot in the back from a coward—a coward who I’d let live. As we walked towards his hut, I couldn’t help but feel as though I’d made the wrong decision.
Call of Carrethen: A LitRPG and GameLit novel (Wellspring Book 1) Page 16