“Okay Allurie, I’m going to go home,” I said as I gestured to the bed. “Don’t let anyone but Cornalic into the room. I’ll come back tonight or tomorrow morning.”
“Okay! I can’t wait to see you again. Do you think there will ever be a time when you don’t have to leave us?”
“Ha. Probably not. I’ll see you later.” I lay back on the cot, and half expected her to try and lay on top of me. She didn’t though, and I made my count to 20 with my eyes closed.
Chapter 26
I heard the cheering as soon as I took the headset off my skull. The sound kind of surprised me, and I stared around at the people in the VRIU with confusion.
“Leo, you found the first one!” Zarra’s face was a big smile, and she clapped her hands together along with Ky and Jennifer.
“Yeah! It was fun. This game is great!” I motioned to the black water of the VRUI, and the pair of women walked back behind the dimmed observation room glass. I stepped out of the pool, walked into the privacy alcove, grabbed my robe, and wrapped it around me before I returned.
I knew the drill, so I sat on the stool by the pool. As soon as I was settled, Ky stretched out his hand.
“Great job, Champ. I knew you could do it,” he said as we shook hands.
“I didn’t think you would be able to get the first one so fast,” Zarra said as she stepped from behind the alcove. “They called me in as soon as you got it, and I didn’t get to see how you retrieved it from the baron’s possession.”
“Cornalic took it. I thought the guy was going to betray me, but it worked out.” I noticed Ky turn away from me, and he begin stirring the liquid of the VRIU. The sudden action seemed kind of odd, but I was feeling a bit over anxious. It always felt like I’d just slammed two espresso shots after I got out of the game, and I took a few deep breaths to slow my heart down.
“Did I miss breakfast with my father? How did his treatment go yesterday?” I asked.
“It went great. Better than your mother’s actually. You will be very pleased. It is six in the morning now, and I had the breakfast set for nine.”
“Great. Plenty of time,” I said as I closed my eyes and leaned back on the stool.
“Any feedback on the game?” Zarra asked. “Was it easy to get the relic? Do you think we should have the AI make it harder?” Her eyes sparkled like amethysts in the light of the room, and her smile looked wonderful.
“Ha, no. It was plenty hard to get. You, ahh, said that you haven’t seen my session footage?” I opened my eyes to stare at the beautiful woman. Now that Zarra was sitting next to me, my infatuation with Lady Feeyaz really twisted my stomach. I shouldn’t have been feeling such lust after someone that wasn’t even real, especially when Zarra and I had such a great connection.
“No. I’ll review it later today,” she said with her usual charming smile. “I came in when you were at the harbor. So I didn’t even get a chance to see it, but Jennifer said it was the left gauntlet.”
“Yeah. It looks like strange armor made for a woman. Can you give me any hints about who the pieces belonged to?” I asked as I winked at her. My heart was slowing down a bit, and my shoulder was starting to relax.
“Haha, maybe we will over dinner tonight. You stood me up last time.” She winked at me.
“You are on. I’m sorry I slept through—”
“That is fine, I’m just glad you got the first piece,” she said.
“It would be cool if there was some sort of music when I got it, and a world message that went out to all the players. Getting one of the relics is a big deal, so there should be more pomp and circumstance to the feat,” I said.
“We can do that, although a world message might not be the best idea,” she said as she sat back a bit in her chair and made a tapping motion on her chin. The movement looked a lot like the one Lady Feeyaz had made when she debated saving my life, and a sudden shiver descended my spine.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Then other players will know who has it, and they might try to steal it.”
“Could they?”
“The way the game is now, sure. We have free for all PvP planned in the game. Players can kill each other, and then take what they want from the body.”
“But when we log out, our possessions are not in the game, right?” I thought about my small room on the ship. If my stuff was still sitting on the bed, someone could just come in and take it all. Sure, I had told Allurie not to let anyone in, but if Cornalic was up on the top deck of the ship puking, the elf girl wasn’t going to be able to stop anyone.
“Yes. Anything on your body when you log out is taken out of the game. Do you have your clothes on when you log in?” her mouth formed a delicious half smile.
“Yes. I think I told you that it was fixed a few days ago. Thanks.”
“That was Jennifer’s work.” Zarra gestured over her shoulder to the lovely blonde woman, and Jennifer gave me a shy wave.
“Oh, and the description for my bracelet is wrong. I just noticed it before I logged out. It said I can only block missile attacks, but it worked on melee also.”
“Jennifer, can you look at that?” Zarra asked.
“I will, Ms. Zerne.”
“That is all I can think of. I know that I have said this before, but I really love this game. I’m very happy to be part of the team,” I stood from my stool and then stretched my arms over my head.
“I am very happy as well, Leo. So, you’ll have breakfast with your father in a few hours. Then dinner with me?” The woman glanced around at Ky and Jennifer, and then stood from her stool. “Sorry we’ve missed each other.”
“Yeah. I’ll grab a quick nap after breakfast, and then we can do dinner.” I stepped toward the door to my suite, and then flashed her a quick wave.
“Great. I am looking forward to it,” she replied before I entered my suite.
Half a minute later I was taking a quick shower. The hot water felt good after the long game session, but I was in a bit of a hurry, so I didn’t spend a lot of time enjoying the experience. As soon as I was done, I dried myself off and threw on a pair of underwear and workout attire.
I stepped into the hallway and glanced around. I didn’t see anyone, and I made my way toward the gym that I had found Zarra in a few mornings ago. Or was it nights ago? I was starting to get confused with the game and real life times.
I reached the door to the gym and pushed it open. As I had hoped, Chip was inside, and I saw the man working with a pair of heavy dumbbells. He nodded at me as soon as I entered, and then I moved over to stand next to him.
“Just getting warmed up. Glad you could make it,” he whispered.
“No problem. Uhhh—”
“Hold on a moment, let me turn on some music.” The ex-SEAL reached into a gym bag and fiddled with something inside that I couldn’t see. A few seconds later I heard some screaming metal music coming out of the duffel. I wasn’t much of a music aficionado, but this stuff sounded just terrible. It was mostly screams, off-beat and out of tune guitars, and strange static noises. I raised my eyebrow at the man after he grabbed his weights from the floor, but he just nodded his head toward the rack of dumbbells.
“What’s going on?” I whispered as I grabbed a set of fifty-pound dumbbells. They were light for curls, but I wanted to be able to talk to the man while I pretended to work out.
“What do you think about my message?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I thought you said that this place had average megacorp security?” I started my curls, and my friend paused his set to rest.
“I did, and it does. Okay, maybe it is a bit more robust, but they have a super-advanced video game, and an effective cure for Alzheimer’s, so I get it.”
“Chip, a lot of these software companies have cult-like atmospheres. They don’t really have a product that they are selling yet. They need to get everyone bought into the belief that they are going to make a lot of money so that they will work harder.”
; “I get that, but I am telling you, Leo. My spider sense is tingling. I say ‘hi’ to people, and they say ‘hi’ in return, but there is no chatter between them. No water cooler talk. They are all working their asses off, and that is fine, but you would think they would have more team building, or whatever activities to help with moral.”
“You think moral is bad?” I asked.
“No, that is the weird part. I’ve been trying to find anyone disgruntled. I haven’t. I think it is kinda weird. Could be nothing. That is why I wanted to ask you.”
“I haven’t really noticed anything, but I’ll keep my eyes open,” I whispered.
“Ahhh. Leo, you gonna take a rest? That is one hell of a set,” Chip said as he looked down at my arms.
“What do you mean?” I asked as I glanced down at my weights. I’d been doing a few curls as we talked, but my arms weren’t even tired.
“What weight is that? Fifty?” he asked
“Yeah. A little light for me.”
“Yeah, but that means you do a set of thirty. I’ve lost count of your reps. Gotta be over seventy now.”
“Huh? No way. I’m not even tired,” I said as I looked down at my arms. I hadn’t actually been paying attention to them as I talked and I increased the tempo of my curls.
I counted to thirty and I didn’t feel even slightly fatigued.
“Okay, you are freaking me out. Stop for a second,” the man said.
“I haven’t worked out heavy in a few weeks. I’m just really rested,” I said with a shrug.
“Yeah. I guess that could be. Want to do some presses?” he asked as he pointed to the bench. It was already loaded with a bar and looked ready to go.
“Sure,” I said, and Chip picked up his screaming duffle bag.
“What about Zarra?” my friend asked as I settled down on the bench.
“What about her?” I asked.
“Do you notice anything weird about her?” his voice was an even lower whisper and he leaned over the top of the bar a bit to speak down to me.
“Besides her being unbelievably hot, driven, smart, and charming?” I smirked at my friend and then yanked the weighted bar off of the support arms.
“She is always working, Leo. I’ve seen her around the compound in all hours of the day and night. I even greeted her on one of end of this wing, and then immediately moved to the far side of the campus to ask one of the other security managers a question. She walked the other way down the hallway, as if she’d somehow beat me there.”
“Chip, are you saying that she has magical teleportation powers?” I tried not to laugh as I pressed the bar, but a small chuckle escaped my throat.
“No. That’s crazy. I think there might be an underground rail system, though. There might be more going on here than we think. Hey, that’s enough,” he said as he moved to touch the center of the bar.
“I’m good. Feel like I’ve got another ten in me,” I said as I lowered it to my chest again.
“You sure?” he asked with open eyes.
“Yeah, dude. Zarra is great; I really like her and the game she has made. I appreciate you looking at this, but I don’t think there is anything weird going on. I’m not surprised that she is all over the place. She is really motivated to make this game work. The only thing I think is kind of weird about her is her eyes, and that she’s one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.” I finished the ten reps and still felt good, so I decided to do another ten.
“I agree with the most beautiful woman statement. She is really hard to talk to, but what do you mean about her eyes? Seem normal to me. Jeez, how much more you gonna do?”
“Almost done, and there!” I said as I let him help me slide the bar back into the support arms over the bench. “Her eye color. You don’t think it is weird?” I asked him after I had taken a deep breath.
“No? What do you mean?” he asked. Then he looked at the plates on the bars and gave a low whistle. “I think you need more rest days if that was all it took for you to lift this. I’d set up to go a bit heavy.”
“How much?” I asked as I stood from the bench.
“Take a look,” he said, and I glanced at the plates closer.
Three hundred and sixty pounds.
It was a weight that I could bench typically, but not for as many reps as I just did. Not even close. Not even a quarter of what I had just done on my best of days. I’d just done a good forty reps, and it had felt as if there wasn’t even weight on the bar.
“Uhhh. Okay, that is kind of weird.”
“Yeah. Really weird. What about Zarra’s eyes?” he asked.
“The purple color. It is strange, but I really like it. Makes a great contrast to her tan skin. Want me to spot?” I asked as I gestured to the bar.
“Leo, she doesn’t have purple eyes. I’ve never seen such a thing.”
“What are you talking about? It was one of the first things I noticed about her. When I first met—”
“Leo,” Chip interrupted me as he looked to the door of the gym. “Her eyes are beautiful for sure, but they are a light hazel color. Lots of green, but a little brown in there. She’s Middle Eastern. I can’t tell if she is Persian, or Egyptian, or Emirates, or what, but even having green eyes is rare.”
“Dude, are you fucking with me?” I asked, and I felt my anger flare in my stomach.
“No man. I’m not. Are you sure they are pur—”
The door to the gym opened suddenly, and a cute girl with a short haircut poked her head in.
“Hi Leo!” she said, and it took me half a second to recognize that it was my mother’s VRIU tech, Daisy Camilo.
“Hey, Daisy, what’s up?” I asked, and Chip shot me a sideways glance.
“So sorry to interrupt you ahhh… working out, and getting all hot and sweating and… uhhh. Ms. Zerne said you might be in here since you weren’t in your room when I rang.”
“Yeah. You found me. So what’s up?” I asked as I crossed my arms.
“Oh, well your father is awake, and said he was hungry. He wanted to see you. Can you do breakfast a bit early? I can take you there now.”
“Sure,” I said as I gave Chip a quick glance. The man nodded to me slightly and then moved to take the spot on the bench.
“Great! You know where the cafeteria is, right? I mean, of course you do, but can I walk with you? I mean, you can walk with me, and I’ll take you there. We can swing by and get your dad first.”
The cute girl’s face turned all sorts of red as she spoke, and I found myself smiling. As much as I wanted to believe my friend, Daisy was definitely not the minion of some criminal mastermind. Still, I did want to know why I was feeling so strong, and Chip thought Zarra’s eyes were hazel. I knew that some people saw colors differently, but how could there be that much of a difference in perception?”
“I’d love to walk with you, Daisy. Lead the way,” I said as I moved from my spot on the bench.
“Great!” she pushed the door open for me, and then I followed her through the gray colored halls of Arnacript to have breakfast with my once lost father.
End of book 2
Thank you for reading this novel. Leo’s adventures will continue in Lion’s Quest Book 3!
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Editing by Ginger Earle, Nick Kuhns, Diane Velasquez, Deborah Haggitt, Jacqueline Miles (who also edits my audio books), Debbie Elholm, Holly Lenz, and Anthony
DePaolo
Cover art by Hector Sevilla
Typography by John Poh
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Michael-Scott Earle
Destroyer Book 1
Chapter 1-Kaiyer
When I dreamed, it was always of floating green islands. Slow waterfalls tumbled off the sides of rocky earth and disappeared into smoky blankets of mist and unpainted clouds. I jumped between the floating islands with a lazy, drifting bounce, somersaulting amid endless blue sky, punctured by the occasional flock of giant white birds.
In the far distance, sailing ships passed through the azure air like it was water. Often I attempted to reach these vessels, but even my greatest leaps fell short and left me to land on another lush island, conveniently placed to catch my fall. In this dream paradise I never noticed anything living besides the trees, birds, and the distant ships.
Perhaps it is wrong of me to say when I dreamed, as if I only did it sometimes.
I was always dreaming.
I had dreamed of islands for so long, I knew no other life. Then an awakening began. A soft, orange glow peeled back the colors of blue, green, brown, and white, like a sun rising in the morning. The light came from torches which lit the cavernous mausoleum where I had been kept. I don’t remember smelling anything in my dreams, but as my crypt was illuminated, my nostrils filled with the aroma of dirt, dust, death, and terror.
Fear emanated from those who awoke me. The delicious scent of their terror filled the cavern like the light pouring from their torches, reflecting off the stone floor and around the group. The five stood twenty feet from me, three males and two females.
Lion's Quest: Dual Wield: A LitRPG Saga Page 42