VEIL Online - Book 1

by Cressman, John

  “Jace,” he told the man. “Call me Jace.”

  “Thank you Jace,” he said with a smile and held out his hand. Jace shook it and then bid each other good night and then Ernald let Rusty into the house and shut the door.

  Jace turned to see Luna looking up at him. He sighed. “I know. Food.”

  He could have sworn he saw the cat smile.

  Chapter 13

  Jace went to the tavern, fully expecting that he wouldn’t be able to buy anything. He was pleasantly surprised to find out his 1 gold would get him a plate of fish and chips. Then he remembered, this must be a newbie area. The prices were probably set to allow new players to purchase food and items.

  No sooner had the fish and chips been placed on the table when Luna jumped, grabbed one of the breaded fish fillets and dragged it onto the floor. She began devouring it with gusto.

  Chuckling, Jace turned back and took a bite of the remaining fish. He froze. It tasted incredibly delicious and a low moan escaped him. This had to be the best fish he’d ever tasted. Then he remembered, his sensitivity was set at maximum. He was experiencing the tastes as if they were real. And he had to admit, the flavor and textures were wonderful. In no time at all, he’d finished up the entire plate.

  “I guess you were hungry,” said the buxom barmaid.

  Still chewing his last mouthful, Jace nodded. “That was the best fish and chips I’ve ever had.”

  The barmaid smiled broadly. “I’ll let old Wimarc know you liked it.”

  Jace desperately needed money and since he didn’t have to logout, he should be able to work through the night. He just needed to find some quests. Taverns were usually a good place to find work in cities, but he wasn’t sure if that was the case in a newbie area. “Excuse me, he said to the barmaid, but do you know anyone around here who could use some help?”

  The barmaid looked thoughtful and then pointed to a table in the corner with three men playing cards. “You might ask Maurice, Ralf, or Odo. They always have some odd jobs they need done.”

  “Thanks,” he told her. “I’m sorry I can’t leave a tip. I gave you my last gold.”

  She flashed him a smile and darted her eyes down his mostly naked body. “It’s no problem. The view was my tip.”

  Jace felt heat rushing to his face and knew he must be beet red. The barmaid just giggled and then walked away to help other patrons.

  Now acutely aware of his lack of clothing, Jace was suddenly self-conscious. Running around in a loincloth wasn’t an uncommon thing, but many NPCs would react to it. Apparently, that included barmaids in newbie areas.

  As casually as he could, he walked over to the table with the three men the barmaid had pointed out. “Excuse me good sirs, but I was wondering if any of you needed any help?”

  Generally, asking a NPC if they needed help or need anything would trigger any quests they might have. Occasionally, there was something special that needed to be done or a condition that had to be met. And sometimes the NPC would approach you.

  The three men looked up from their card game at him. One of them gave him a glance up and down, obviously noticing his lack of clothing.

  “I think you’re missing something boy,” said the man who had eyed him.

  “Yeah,” chimed in the one to his left. “Some clothes!”

  The three men began laughing and Jace was once again aware of being in nothing but a loincloth. To take his mind off of his embarrassment. He viewed each man in his HUD.

  Maurice

  Race: Human

  Class: Peasant

  Level: 1

  Ralf

  Race: Human

  Class: Peasant

  Level: 1

  Odo

  Race: Human

  Class: Peasant

  Level: 1

  Jace quickly came up with a story to both explain his lack of clothing and possibly garner some sympathy. “I was waylaid by bandits on the east road. They took everything I owned.

  Your Bluff skill has increased by 1.

  Then men fell silent perhaps even looking a little guilty and Jace smiled inwardly. His story had worked better than he thought. Plus, he’d gotten a rank up in the Bluff skill.

  “Sorry stranger,” apologized Odo. “I’m not normally one to laugh at another’s misfortune.”

  “Me either,” agreed Maurice.

  “We're awful sorry,” chimed in Ralf.

  Jace gave them a smile. “I’d consider it forgiven if any of you have some honest work I could do to earn a little coin so I can buy myself some clothing.”

  Ralf spoke up first. “Actually, I do have a problem with some rats down in my cellar. If you could get rid of them, I’d pay you 2 gold.”

  “I need 10 flat rocks from the lake to the west so I can put some steppingstones in my garden,” Odo added.

  “I fixed Ascilia’s pipe,” Maurice told him. “If you deliver it to her, you can keep the other gold she owes me.”

  Jace nearly laughed out loud at the almost comical way they stumbled over each other to give him their quests. He quickly agreed to all of the quests and took the pipe from Maurice, as well as got directions to Ascilia’s house. He also got a key to the cellar from Ralf.

  “Thank you, kind sirs,” Jace told them. “I will take care of your tasks as quickly as possible.”

  Jace and Luna left the tavern and stopped just outside to think about the quests he’d been given. Maurice’s quest seemed like a standard delivery quest. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any combat involved so it should be fairly easy. He should be able to do that one quickly and get the gold.

  The second was a collection quest. He had to get 10 rocks and bring them back to Odo. It didn’t seem difficult, assuming there were no monsters at the lake. It would just be time consuming to haul stones.

  The last quest, Ralf’s rat problem, would be the more difficult quest. He’d have to kill monsters - howbeit tiny monsters - with only his spells and very little mana. He opened his HUD and then found his Spellbook section. Since he’d never played a magic-user before, this was all new to him.

  In his spellbook, he found one spell for each of the skills he’d gained. He took a moment to read them over. There was a Fire Bolt, an Ice Blast, a Earth Grasp and Air Armor spells. Unfortunately, they all used 4 mana, which meant he could cast one spell before being completely out of mana. His mana would regenerate but it would take him four minutes to get back to full mana after casting one of the spells. He’d definitely need to save the rat killing until last and hope he could find a weapon before he tried it.

  Jace quickly dropped off the pipe to Ascilia, a tiny frail old woman who was extremely grateful. She dropped a coin in his hand and then began stuffing some sort of pipeweed into the pipe. He asked her if he could help her with anything and she gave him a letter to take to the innkeeper.

  Leaving Ascilia, he found the lake Odo had mentioned and found him 10 flat rocks to use as stepping stones. There were no monsters waiting for him at the lake. With no monsters, the job was easy but time consuming. During the first trip to Odo’s house, he dropped off the letter to the innkeeper, gaining another gold. It took him another 30 minutes to finish carrying all the stones but, in the end, earning another gold, bringing his total to 3 gold.

  Completing the first two quests, plus Ascilia’s quest, had also netted him some faction with the individuals involved and some additional faction with the residents. Jace had also received an additional 25 experience from each, putting his total experience at 100. That was a long way from level 2.

  He paused after the second job and thought about the rat killing job. It had been a long time since he’d had one of those sorts of quests, but generally there were a number of little rodents you had to kill.

  They could only do a little bit of damage and you could kill them before you died of their little wounds. But that assumed you had a weapon and some armor. He had neither.

  The more he thought about it, the less confident he felt. If only he coul
d get some armor. Perhaps he should wait until Charlena logs in. As he thought about Charlena, he remembered the goblins he helped her loot her body from. If they were still there, he just might be able to kill one with a spell. If he did, he could loot it and maybe get a weapon or a piece of armor. The other one might kill him, but he could respawn, go back and kill the other one.

  “What do you think?” he asked Luna, who was the only other creature around. “Should I try to kill the goblins?”

  Luna seemed to consider the question before answering. “Yes.”

  Twenty minutes later, he was reappearing in the graveyard. The goblins had still been there. He’d fired off his Flame Bolt spell and hit one of the goblins, but it hadn’t killed it. With no weapons and armor, they caught him and killed him in short order. If he could just get one more spell off, he could have at least killed one and then maybe he’d have a weapon! At least he’d earned a rank in Fire Magic, so it hadn’t been a total loss.

  He looked around for Luna but didn’t see her. As he was looking around, Jace realized it was oppressively dark and that he no longer had Cat-Vision. Scrolling through his logs, he saw that she had been banished as soon as he had died and he’d lost the Cat-Vision ability. That meant he had to resummon her.

  Cringing as he thought of the pain he’d experienced before, Jace debated whether he should go through that again but realized he had no choice. Without the Cat-Vision, he couldn’t see well enough in the dark to do anything. He needed that ability. Plus, it was nice having her around.

  Steeling himself, Jace sat down and summoned her. This time, he chose the maximums for mana and health and completed the summons. This time the pain was even worse but since he was ready for it, he managed to grit his teeth through it and stay upright. When it was over, Luna had appeared and he felt completely drained.

  “Summoner die?” asked Luna as she reappeared. Not waiting for him to reply, she began grooming herself as she didn’t have a care in the world.

  Shaking his head, Jace activated Cat-Vision and considered what to do next. He needed to go back to the hills and retrieve his corpse, that was a given. Unlike his previous death, where he had nothing, he now had 3 hard won gold pieces that he wanted back. Plus, he had the key to the cellar for Ralf’s quest he needed to get back.

  But, would the goblins be waiting for him? If they were, how could he hope to kill even one of them with the tiny amount of mana he had. Then it hit him. He still had his Rogue skills. He could sneak in and get his corpse.

  Thinking about his stealth skills made him pause. He wondered if spells worked like regular weapons when it came to attacking from stealth. Having played Mordred for so long, he was familiar with stealth attacks and backstabs doing far more damage than a normal attack. He brought up his HUD and looked at his Rogue abilities. At first level, he only had one ability: Critical Eye I. It had been a while since he’d read the description.

  Critical Eye I

  Rogue Ability

  Description: You are trained to spot weakness in others. When you strike from stealth or opportunity, your strikes are always critical hits.

  Note: This does not stack with Backstab.

  Jace smiled. If his idea worked, he now knew how to take out the goblins. If it didn’t, he would be back in the graveyard shortly. He started to jog towards the hill and called back to Luna, who was still grooming.

  “Come on Luna,” he told her. “We hunt goblin!”

  Chapter 14

  Jace stalked silently across the crest of the hill desperately trying to spot the goblins. His body was 100 feet in front of him, very close to where Charlena had died. He wished he’d paid more attention to where the goblins had come from that time.

  He’d taken the time to smear dirt on his bare chest and as much as his back as he could to prevent his pale skin from reflecting the moonlight. He wasn’t sure if it would work. Some things that might work in real life didn’t work in the game. Of course, in the fantasy world of VEIL, there were many things that worked that didn’t work in real life.

  Next to him, Luna crept along with the practiced grace of a feline. She looked up at him as if to say ‘What’s so hard about sneaking?’ So far, he’d received two ranks in his Stealth skill, which meant they were nearby since you could only advance the skill by hiding from an enemy. But where were they?

  Luna suddenly tensed and went deathly still, except for her tail which slowly moved back and forth. She’d sensed something he hadn’t. Good girl. He followed her gaze but didn’t see anything even with his enhanced Cat-Vision active.

  “Goblin,” came a voice in his head. Jace almost jumped out of his skin but stopped himself just in time from breaking stealth. It almost sounded like Luna. Wait! Did they have some sort of way of talking like the Far Speak spell?

  Tentatively, he directed his thoughts to her like he would using the Far Speak spell. “Luna?”

  The cat looked up at him with an expression that told him she was not impressed with his deduction. “Yes.”

  “We can communicate telepathically?” he asked in astonishment.

  If cats could roll their eyes, that was the expression she shot him. She looked at him in an expression that said “obviously”.

  He got over his shock and focused back onto the task at hand. He followed where she had been looking and tried to make out the shape of a goblin. Try as he might, he just couldn’t see the thing. “I don’t see it.”

  “Not see,” the cat shot back silently. “Smell.”

  As if to emphasize her point, she sniffed in the direction she was looking. Now it was Jace’s turn to roll his eyes. How the heck was he supposed to smell it. He didn’t have a supernatural sense of smell like some animal-kin. This complicated things. Luna could smell the goblin from behind the rock but Jace couldn’t see it. And if Jace couldn’t see it, he couldn’t target it with a spell.

  “Do you know where the other one is?” he asked her.

  “No smell,” she replied, still fixated on the same spot, her tail swishing back and forth.

  He knew what they needed to do. They’d have to circle around behind it. But that was a long way to go. If his Stealth skill failed, the goblins would see him and that would be the end. He glanced down at Luna. “We need to circle around until I can see it. Then I can cast the spell at it.”

  “Yes.”

  The two of them made a slow, quiet arch around the large rock Luna had pointed out. He was especially careful because somewhere out here was the second goblin. If Luna didn’t smell it, they could blunder right into it and then they’d die again.

  Jace received 2 more rank ups in Stealth and was just congratulating himself when Luna froze. He stopped himself in mid-movement and followed her gaze to a spot ten feet from them on the left.

  He saw it. There was another rock, this one not as large as the other one. Lying on this his side of the rock was a goblin who was currently engaged in picking its nose rather vigorously. He froze, afraid to even breath. The only movement was the slow swish of Luna’s tail.

  Now was the moment of truth. Could he cast a spell from Stealth? If not, it was going to be a short, painful trip back to the cemetery.

  Luna glanced up at him as if to say, ‘What are you waiting for stupid human?’

  Jace began casting, his hands moving on their own accord with the gestures of the spell. At the end, he whispered the words to the spell as quietly as he could. “Minima fulmen ignem!”

  The flaming dart streaked through the air and hit the goblin in the side of the head.

  You critically burn Forest Goblin with Flame Bolt for 7 fire damage.

  Forest Goblin dies.

  You gain 10 experience.

  It had worked! Jace was elated. But he was also out of mana and casting the spell had knocked him out of Stealth.

  “I kill you!” cried the second goblin as it charged towards him.

  Wasting no time, Jace rushed to the dead goblin’s body and looted it.

  You receive
Torn Leather Jerkin.

  You 1 gold.

  Jace dropped to his knees. The goblin hadn’t dropped a weapon and he wasn’t going to defeat its partner with a torn leather jerkin. A few seconds later, the goblin reached him, and two dagger strikes later he was back in the graveyard.

  He hadn’t really expected to live through that encounter. It would have been great luck had he gotten a dagger drop from the goblin. If he had, he might have had a chance. As it was, he had killed one of the goblins. That meant there was only one left. Since he knew he could cast a spell from stealth, he just needed to get into position, and he could kill it.

  After summoning Luna, the two of them raced to the hill. All of the sneaking around had cost him precious time and he didn’t have long until his corpse expired. Once that happened, he’d lose the gold he earned. He needed that gold!

  They reached the hill and Jace dropped into Stealth. Steadily, he worked himself in the opposite direction as last time, hoping the goblin would be in the same place. He earned himself another 2 ranks in the Stealth before he made it to a position where he saw the goblin. It was exactly where it had been before, and it still hadn’t spotted him. Without any hesitation, Jace cast his spell.

  You critically burn Forest Goblin with Flame Bolt for 8 fire damage.

  Forest Goblin dies.

  You gain 10 experience.

  The bolt hit the goblin in the chest and the thing topped over. Wasting no time, he ran over to his body and looted it.

  You receive 4 gold.

  You receive cellar key.

  “Whew,” he said aloud to Luna. “We got our gold back!”

  Luna gave him a disinterested look.

  “4 gold is 4 servings of fish and chips,” he told her.

  The little cat perked up. “Fish?” she asked hopefully.

  Jace shook his head. “Not yet. We need to get the loot from the goblins and hope there’s a weapon.”

  Jace went to the first goblin and found his second corpse. He retrieved the torn leather jerkin and equipped it. He looked completely ridiculous. Now, he was wearing a ragged leather vest and no pants or shoes. He shook his head at himself as he walked back to the second goblin. He stopped in front of it, crossed his fingers and looted the corpse.