Viridian Gate Online: The Jade Lord: A litRPG Adventure (The Viridian Gate Archives Book 3)

by James Hunter

  “That,” she said, the word as sharp as a whip crack, “is where you are wrong. A random key may seem worthless, but not if you find the lock it goes to. And I’ve come to enlist your aid, toward that end. My sister and I have been so caught up in our ongoing familial spat, we’ve hardly had any time to pay attention to our other kin. Now”—she twirled her hands absently through the air—“normally that isn’t much of a problem. Most of our kin keep to themselves and don’t concern themselves with the affairs of man. Aediculus, Gaia, Kronos, and Cernunnos are all content with their roles, holding the world together, keeping everything running along like the well-oiled machine we are in truth.”

  Her smile slipped away as she regarded the journal, her fingers tracing over the pages, lingering on the names. “Thanatos, ruler over Serth-Rog, is the exception, however. He, like Enyo and I, was created to interact with the world. Where I seek order and balance, Enyo seeks conflict, chaos, and discord. She spawns dungeons and creates monsters, and I, in turn, spawn quests so players can eliminate those threats. A delicate dance meant to serve the players and the game. Thanatos, though, is different. He was designed to be an Evil Overlord, the main antagonist of the game, but the engine governing Serth-Rog was, how can I put this delicately …”

  She paced back and forth, her robes swishing around her. “Well, it was rushed, for obvious reasons. What with the end of the world and all. Thanatos was created from a repurposed Chinese military project—formerly called Operation Yama—donated to Osmark Technologies by the People’s Liberation Army. Operation Yama was originally constructed as an engine of mutually assured destruction. Its primary function was to ensure the complete eradication of a hostile foreign power in the event of a preemptive nuclear war. Unfortunately, I believe it’s still performing that role.

  “It sees us—all of us, players, NPCs, even the other Overminds—as hostile foreign powers, and I believe it is searching for a way to destroy us completely. I thought him weak at first, but I may have underestimated him. He’s been busy, busy, busy as of late, and I”—she faltered, her lips pressing into a tight line—“I don’t know what he’s up to. He’s planning an incursion if I had to guess. A big one. But his forces, the long-dead Vogthar, are mostly sealed in Morsheim, and I honestly don’t know how he’s planning to breach the Material Plane. These names, though, may offer a clue. I suspect these are high-level officials scattered across Eldgard. Strategically positioned covert operatives, corrupted by the black priests, just as Gentleman Georgie was.”

  Oh, God. I felt queasy. As if my problems with Osmark weren’t bad enough—now there was this new threat to worry about. “But what does that have to do with me?” I muttered. “It sounds like you already know way more about this than I do.”

  “Obviously,” she said, cocking an eyebrow. “Yet you are my pawn and my agent in the world. And, more importantly, one of the names on this list, Nasim bar Ruwayd, is a disciple in the Citadel of Arzokh. The same Cult of Arzokh you are preparing to raid. So, I want you to keep an eye open. More importantly, I want you to find this priest and I want you to get what you can from him. Likely, he won’t talk—I suspect he is deeply undercover, so his fellow cultists probably won’t know—but he may have some clue on his person. A key. A medallion. Another journal. Find what you can.”

  ∞∞∞

  Quest Alert: Unholy Mystery

  You’ve been charged by the Overmind Sophia, Goddess of Order and Balance, to seek out Nasim bar Ruwayd, a disciple in the Cult of Arzokh, who may have been replaced by a black priest of Serth-Rog with a convincing doppelganger. Find Nasim and uncover any clues he may have regarding Serth-Rog and his plans.

  Quest Class: Custom, Secret

  Quest Difficulty: Hard

  Success: Find Nasim bar Ruwayd and uncover what he knows about Serth-Rog.

  Failure: Let Nasim bar Ruwayd escape before he can be interrogated or killed.

  Reward: The appreciation of Sophia, which is far more valuable than any other reward could ever hope to be.

  Accept: Yes/No?

  ∞∞∞

  I pressed my eyes shut and rubbed at my temple. “Yeah, of course,” I finally said, since it didn’t seem like there was a choice in the matter. “I’ll find this Nasim guy and get you what I can.”

  “Excellent,” she replied, clapping her hands together in smug satisfaction. “I was hoping you’d be reasonable, but it’s always so tough to guess with you humans. Free will and all that. But you’ve proven to be both surprisingly competent and surprisingly pliable—a truly rare combination, just waiting to be exploited.”

  “Gee thanks,” I said, deadpan.

  “Of course,” she replied, apparently not catching the implied sarcasm. “One other thing before I go—Abby and the Russian, Vlad. Make sure to take them with you on this little expedition of yours.”

  I tilted my head to the side, confusion on my face, but she held up a hand to stop me before I could ask the question. “Let’s just call it intuition,” she said. “Intuition based on personality profiling, historical models, data mining, and predictive analytics. Bring them along or the chances of you living through this Death-Head quest are just this side of zero. Now, I’m a very busy goddess and I’ve got loads to do. Good luck, Jack.” She turned, blew me a little kiss and then, in a blink, was gone. Disappeared. At least the Command Center was back to normal. I stood—the rock I’d perched on was now a chair—and trudged toward the door, pulling up my faction interface as I walked.

  ∞∞∞

  Personal Message:

  Cutter and Amara

  Change in plans. Meet me over at the Crafter’s Hall as soon as you can. We’ll shoot to leave in an hour, be ready.

  —Jack

  ∞∞∞

  It was time to call Abby and somehow convince Vlad to leave his precious lab behind—certainly not something I could accomplish over a PM. Knowing Vlad, I’d probably have to drag him kicking and screaming the whole way.

  THIRTEEN:

  Perks

  “Abby,” I barked over the new Officer Chat as I moved through the packed streets of Yunnam, heading for Vlad’s workshop. Well, the Crafter’s Hall, technically, but I couldn’t help but think of it as Vlad’s place. A faint click echoed in my ear a moment later.

  “Yeah, Jack, what’s up?” Abby asked absently, sounding distracted. She hadn’t been in the Command Center, so no doubt she was running around somewhere in town, taking care of one piece of faction business or another.

  “Look, I’m sorry to bother you, but I need you to head over to the Crafter’s Hall ASAP.”

  “Everything okay?” she asked. “You sound freaked, Jack. Frantic. What’s going on?”

  “Everything’s fine,” I said, then paused, unsure if that was the truth. “Things are just complicated. Really, really complicated. I’ll fill you in once we meet up, but long story short, I need you for a deep dungeon dive. Could be a long one—a couple of days at least. The details are still a little sketchy but think World Boss Raid. Maybe even multiple World Boss Raids.”

  “Three days?” she replied, sounding a touch panicked. “Jack, both of us can’t just take off for three days. I mean, I’d love to go—love to—but who’s going to run things around here? The faction is barely hanging together as is, and we’re dealing with new members and constant raids. I assume you’re taking Amara and Cutter, which means the only officers we’ll have available are Otto and Anton, and Otto’s not even here.”

  I frowned, forehead creasing, lips screwing up. “Yeah, you’re right—we need to appoint more officers.”

  “Wait? What? How is that the conclusion you came to?”

  “Well, it makes perfect sense,” I replied calmly. “You can’t be expected to run everything indefinitely. Seriously, how are you ever going to accomplish your quests if you’re cooped up all the time? You need to get out. I need to get out. And Cutter can’t reasonably be expected to run things. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have a lot of capable people
hanging around these days. We’ll need to find some new blood, but we can do that when we get back. For now, Chief Kolle will be here in Yunnam, and between him and Anton, things will survive.”

  “I feel like you’re not thinking things through—”

  “They’ll survive, Abby,” I repeated, cutting her off. “At least for three days. And this quest is too important to wait. We’re going to unify the Storme Marshes.” I smiled, and fierce joy bled into my words. “I think we can do this, but if we don’t manage it in the next three days the option goes away forever. Gone.”

  “Okay, okay,” she finally said, conflicted. Unsure. “But why do you need me?”

  “Because”—I hesitated, glancing furtively around as though someone might be watching me—“I just had a run-in with Sophia.” I whispered the name, not wanting anyone else to hear. “Not some PM either, this was the real deal. Face-to-face. She said a lot—some crazy, mind-blowing stuff—but for now, the important part is that we’ll only pull this thing off if you’re in the crew. I need to grab Vlad, too, though heck if I can figure out why.”

  Abby hesitated. “Fine. Okay,” she said, resigned. “But this better pan out, and if everything falls apart while we’re out gallivanting around like a couple of lowbies without a lick of responsibility, I don’t want to hear any complaints. None.”

  “My lips are sealed,” I replied, dropping my head and sidestepping around a merchant horse plodding down the center of the street, drawing a wagon loaded with shiny jewelry and slicing blades. A pair of hard-faced guards accompanied the cart, regarding everyone with suspicious glares. I ignored them and kept right on walking. “Oh, and is there any chance we can get Otto back here from Rowanheath to tank for us?” I asked. “I’ve got a gut feeling that we’ll need a serious brawler for this one.”

  “No can do for Otto,” she said. “He’s on the wall right this minute, fighting off another flipping Imperial raid.” I could hear her grinding her teeth in frustration. “So, if you think we need a tank, you’ll have to find someone else. As for me, it’ll take me maybe half an hour to wrap everything up and get what I need, but I’ll be there with bells on.”

  “Alright, I’ll figure something out,” I said. “You just get moving.”

  “Got it,” she finished before a soft click on the line told me she was gone.

  The Crafter’s Hall was at least a ten-minute walk, and since I was getting ready to embark on a quest harder than any I’d ever been on before, I decided to take a look at my stats. I had 5 Stat Points to dish out and a whopping 6 Proficiency Points squirreled away for a rainy day. Today was that rainy day. So, I pulled up my interface and toggled over to my “Character” screen:

  I’d dumped all the points from the last four levels into Spirit, Intelligence, and Dexterity, so I figured it was time to beef up a few of my other stats—I couldn’t afford to be a glass cannon. I dropped 2 points in Constitution, boosting my Stamina by 20 points, 1 into Strength, and the remaining 2 into Vitality, giving me a 20-point hike in HP. Nice. With that done, I pulled up my Shadowmancer Skill Tree screen and took a long look at my abilities.

  I had a good spread, and though I debated sinking a few Proficiency Points into some of my general skills—Medium Armor, Blunt Weapons, and Stealth—I finally decided against it. I already had a lot of amazing general skills, but my Shadowmancer abilities were one of a kind, and I needed to exploit them for all they were worth. I wanted Night Cyclone and Shadow Lord, but both of those skills were still locked down with level restrictions. My inner gamer was salivating at the possibilities they might offer, but there were still plenty of other cool abilities available.

  First, though, I decided to beef up my tried-and-true skills. Go with what works, I always say.

  Shadow Stride—my hands down favorite spell and all-around lifesaver—earned another point, bringing it up to the Journeyman level. Unfortunately, the Spirit cost jumped from 150 to 175, but the benefits also adjusted accordingly. Now, I could spend a full minute in the Shadowverse, the cooldown time dropped to 25 seconds, and my Health-Regen rate increased by 20% while Shadow Striding. Even better, my Spirit-Regen rate also rose to 20%. A definite bonus, since I couldn’t use Regen potions in the Shadowverse.

  Next, I decided to drop 1 point into the Astral Connection ability. Other than Shadow Stride, Devil was my single greatest asset, and though Nikko the chimp was still untested, I had high, high hopes for her—especially since I could summon her and Devil at the same time. I was already thinking about all the ways I could twist that loophole to my advantage.

  ∞∞∞

  Skill: Astral Connection

  A Shadowmancer’s Void Terror minions are valuable assets, which can shift the tide of battle when utilized correctly. But Eldgard is a hard and dangerous place even for the deadly creatures of the Shadowverse. With the Astral Connection ability, however, summoned Void Terrors become far more resilient—increasing power, strength, duration, and EXP gain—while also reducing cooldown requirements. At higher levels, the Astral Connection skill also converts a portion of all damage done by the Void Terror into Spirit for the Shadowmancer and adds additional elemental damage to some Void Terrors.

  Skill Type/Level: Passive/Initiate

  Cost: None

  Range: N/A

  Cast Time: N/A

  Cooldown: N/A

  Effect 1: Void Terror Base Damage increased by 10%

  Effect 2: Void Terror Base Armor increased by 10%

  Effect 3: Void Terror receives +300 EXP per kill

  ∞∞∞

  I read over the Astral Connection description and felt pretty confident in the choice—Devil and Nikko would pack even more of a punch. I couldn’t even imagine what kind of damage they’d be capable of once I pushed Astral Connection to the Grandmaster level. That left me with 4 points, and I already knew what I wanted to spend two of them on:

  ∞∞∞

  Skill: Shadow Forge

  As a champion of the Shadow Pantheon—the native gods and goddesses of Eldgard—the Shadowmancer can call upon the powers of darkness and shadow to aid those in their party. Friendly forces find their weapons temporarily sheathed in shadow, which adds extra shadow damage to every strike while also increasing focus and battle prowess. Shadowmancers with the Shadow Forge ability can also permanently imbue weapons or armor with additional shadow damage or shadow resistance.

  Skill Type/Level: Aura/Initiate

  Cost: 450 Spirit; duration, 20 minutes.

  Range: 10 Meters

  Cast Time: Instant

  Cooldown: N/A

  Effect 1: Critical Hit increased by 3% for all friendly players in the area of effect (30 Meters).

  Effect 2: +50 points of Shadow Damage to all friendly players in the area of effect (30 Meters).

  Effect 3: Permanently imbue weapons with +20 points of Shadow Damage + (.1 x Character Level). Requires an open enchantment slot.

  Effect 4: Permanently imbue armor, shields, or jewelry with +10% Shadow Resistance + (.1 x Character Level). Requires an open enchantment slot.

  ∞∞∞

  Skill: Umbra Flame

  Tap into the dormant power of the Shadowverse and conjure a ferocious gout of shadow flame, scorching nearby opponents with a powerful attack that deals a combination of shadow and fire damage.

  Skill Type/Level: Spell/Initiate

  Cost: 75 Spirit/Sec

  Range: 10 Meters (Short-Range)

  Cast Time: Instant

  Cooldown: N/A

  Effect: Shadow Damage (300% x Spell Strength).

  Effect 2: Fire Damage (25% x Spell Strength) + 5 pts Burn Damage/sec; duration, 10 seconds.

  ∞∞∞

  I rubbed my hands in gamer glee at the new tools now tucked away in my belt.

  Shadow Forge seemed like it had some real promise. First, it rocked as an offensive aura and there wasn’t any restriction about how many auras I could activate at a given time, which meant I could equip both Shadow Forge and Night Armor.
And on top of that, the ability to imbue weapons and armor with shadow-related effects would be a real benefit to the faction.

  As to Umbra Flame—I’d already seen that in action, since it was one of Devil’s primary special attacks. It was powerful and as dangerous as a pack of hungry mountain wolves. True, it was expensive and only seemed useful at short to medium range, but it would add some nice diversity to my character, especially with the added fire damage. Shadow Damage was great, since a significant portion of it ignored armor, but I’d already run across several creatures who were invulnerable to Shadow Damage—like the Moss Hag I’d killed to earn my place as a Maa-Tál. With Umbra Flame in my back pocket, I’d finally have some options.

  That left me with 2 unspent points, but that was fine. Proficiency Points were too valuable to blow on a whim.

  Satisfied, I closed out of my interface and ambled for a few more minutes, eventually ending up at one of the newer sections of the ever-growing city. Most of the shops and homes in Yunnam were odd things, each sitting high above the ground, perched on wooden stilts as a safeguard against the monsoon rains that swept through the Storme Marshes late in the fall. The native buildings were constructed from a mix of wood, mud, and palm fronds, all held together by swathes of luminescent moss and gobs and gobs of gossamer spider webbing. Everything was built from materials readily available here in the Marshes and resilient against the sweltering heat and persistent moisture.

  That was starting to change, however. At least in the newer quarters.

  Traditional buildings of brick and stone, showing off gracefully arched ceramic roofs, were popping up in little clusters away from the town’s center. Nice places, though I doubted how well they’d hold up against the torrential rains, which could drop over twelve inches of water in the span of an hour. I skirted around a few hulking moss-covered trees and angled for one of the newer buildings: a rectangular, two-story structure with a high stone foundation raising the main building several feet from the ground. A variety of outdoor work spaces, a large stable—mostly used for shipping—and a pair of circular towers flanked the main building: