Eden's Gate: The Scourge: A LitRPG Adventure

by Edward Brody

  Rithnar looked aside. “What about the war? The Gilgaroth? My bloodline’s future? The future of the Scourge?”

  “We will figure it out in time,” Mordok said. “Let’s hope for the best. No matter what happens, I consider you a brave orc.”

  Rithnar pressed his lips together hard, took a step back and snarled. “Shall I meet you two here tomorrow?” It was clear by his demeanor that simply getting his child back and hoping for the best was no longer enough.

  Mordok sighed and nodded. “Yes, we’ll meet you here tomorrow.”

  “For the Scourge,” Rithnar muttered before turning again and heading for the door.

  Mordok groaned loudly after Rithnar left. “I meant what I said... He’s a brave orc.”

  “He is,” I acknowledged.

  “By my calculation, there’s a twenty or thirty percent chance he’ll survive,” Mordok said.

  “That low?”

  He nodded. “Ergoth may become unhinged when I bring you to him, but if he stays rational, you’ll need to somehow move behind him and get your beetle to bite him without being noticed.” He lifted his finger into the air. “And even if Ergoth becomes affected by the beetle’s blight, I’d still wager there’s only a slim chance Rithnar would actually be able to defeat him. Ergoth is a higher level and much more experienced fighter—a King killer. I imagine that the Fellblade is locked up after it was stolen months ago, but if he’s carrying his ancient weapon around, Rithnar’s chances drop to nearly zero.”

  “Maybe you should’ve explained all of this to him,” I said.

  Mordok laughed. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I could say to him that would make him back down. He has his mind made up. Orcs are stubborn and stupidly brave sometimes.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  Mordok took a step towards the door. “I can show you a room for the night.”

  “Room?” I asked. “I can’t stay here tonight.”

  “Why not?” Mordok asked. “I promise you won’t be harmed.”

  I tapped my unburdening bag. “I’m carrying too much gold. I can’t risk losing it if I’m going to help you tomorrow. I hate to be greedy, but my guild is in serious need of this.”

  “It’s unlikely that anyone would steal your belongings,” Mordok said. “The only reason you’d have your gold stolen is if Ergoth kills you. And in that case, what happens to your gold should be of no concern to you.”

  I raised my chin and swallowed, realizing that my desire to stash my loot in case of death made little sense to him, since he didn’t know I was a Reborn. “Um… just to be safe. I can’t trust all orcs, you know? And um… I want to make sure my guild mates get the gold I worked so hard for even if I end up dead.”

  He took a deep breath and raised his eyebrows. “Right… It’s noble for you to consider your guild.”

  “But I’ll need to get back here easily.” I grinned shyly and scratched the back of my head. “Any chance I can borrow your rune?”

  Mordok furrowed his brow. “My rune is in a runebook, and I can’t just give you a rune that leads into the Wastelands. I do trust you to some degree, but you could bring others. I don’t think that you’re a spy, but I’m not going to pretend that I’m right all the time.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” I said. “I just need it to get back here quickly. I’ll return it to you…”

  “How do I even know you’ll come back? We’ve given you all the loot from Mount Ardorflame. You may run off, eager to spend your gold, and then there’ll be a rune to here, out there in the human lands, compromising our security.”

  I tugged at my belt. “Don’t look at me as human but rather a member of the Mages Guild.”

  Mordok relaxed his shoulders, blinked his eyes, and after several seconds of silence, nodded a bit. “You’re right… I should be able to trust that a faction member will do no harm if recalling here into the Mages Hall. I suppose sometimes racial distrust gets the best of all of us.”

  “I understand,” I said with a nod. “And besides, I’m already here. If my inscription was high enough, I’d just mark a rune myself, right?”

  Mordok raised his chin. “You’re a scribe as well, huh? You already have a Mark scroll?”

  I nodded then quickly shook my head. “Yes, I’m still working on it, but I don’t have a scroll yet.”

  “Hmmm…” Mordok said. “Very well. Then I’ll give you an incentive. I’ll give you a rune, but you have to return it. And so long as you come back, return the rune, and accompany me to help Rithnar, I’ll give you a Mark Rune spell scroll from our reserves here. Another payment for the help you’re giving the Scourge.”

  You’ve received a quest offer: A Master’s Incentive!

  Mordok says that if you return the rune to him and accompany him to help Rithnar, he will give you a Mark Rune spell scroll from the Mages Guild reserves in the Wastelands.

  Reward: Mark Rune spell scroll, 2,000 XP

  Do you accept this quest? Accept/Decline

  I grinned. “Hell, yeah, I’ll do that!”

  You have accepted the quest: A Master’s Incentive!

  “Good,” Mordok said. “I’ll mark a rune and give it to you. You can meet us again here tomorrow. And while you’re gone, I’ll do some scouting to see if I can find where Ergoth is now.”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  2/23/0001

  The dark was just beginning to break as I approached the border of Edgewood Village in sneak mode. I had been gone a couple days, which meant that the orc child was being cared for a lot longer than anyone had thought, and there were a few people in particular who might not be happy about that.

  I peeked over a bush and saw a loose line of dark elves looking outwards in my direction. I scanned the area, making sure no High Elves were in range, but from what I could see, they were all on the other side, closer to the razed area nearest to Highcastle.

  The sound of a bowstring tightening caused me to turn my head.

  Shal was standing by my right shoulder with an arrow pointed straight for my head.

  “Wait!” I said, straightening my knees a bit and raising my hands. “It’s me, Gunnar!”

  Shal creased his brow and lowered his bow. “Gunnar? Why are you sneaking around at this time?”

  “The baby is still here, right?” I questioned.

  Shal nodded.

  “That’s why. I didn’t want to get any hassle from the High Elves… or Jax.”

  “Your guildmates are likely still sleeping,” Shal noted. “It’s quite late… or early, depending on how you look at it.”

  “Yeah, well I don’t want to wake them up, and I’d rather not get questioned by anyone else.”

  Shal turned, looking towards our village. “Follow me. I’ll lead you so that none of the other elves kill you by mistake.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Shal trotted along towards the center of our village, and I followed him in sneak mode. He raised his palm to each dark elf we passed and used a combination of chin gestures and hand motions to quietly let them know that he knew I was following him.

  “Thanks again,” I said when we finally reached the village center without any of the High Elves noticing.

  “Of course, Gunnar.”

  As I hoped, the clearing where my gang usually congregated was empty, so the first thing I wanted to do was check on the baby and get a quick update from Aaron.

  I snuck up to his house and gave a subtle knock on the door. After a few seconds of no answer, I knocked a little harder and longer, trying my best not to be too loud. I still didn’t want to alert the High Elves that I had returned.

  “Who is it?!” Aaron finally yelled in a groggy voice.

  “Gunnar,” I whispered low, feeling there was little chance he could hear me but if I made my voice any louder, I’d draw attention.

  I knocked again.

  “Who’s there?” Aaron continued.

  I said nothing and knocked again.

  Finally, t
he door to Aaron’s home swung open, and Aaron was standing there shirtless. “Oh hey, dude. You’re finally back.”

  “Yeah,” I said and took a step forward, trying to encourage him to let me in.

  Aaron opened the door further, and I stepped aside. There was the intense smell of joojak hanging in the air, and to my surprise, there was no sign of the baby orc.

  “Where’s the kid?” I asked, surveying the room.

  “He’s with Keysia,” Aaron said.

  “Keysia?” I questioned.

  “Yeah,” he explained, “I wanted to do some crafting and a little more work on fixing our houses up.” He pointed toward an area on his roof where there had previously been a burnt-out hole. “You didn’t notice? I patched both our homes up.”

  “Yeah, that’s great,” I said, “but why’d you pawn the baby off to Keysia? From what I remember, she and Jax wanted to kill him.” I rattled my head as I thought of the possibility of Keysia actually doing just that. “She didn’t kill it, right?”

  “Nah,” Aaron answered. “She volunteered to take care of him herself, and she’s damn good with him too. I’ve got to feed the little shit food rations and blood constantly or it’s crying, but it seems to just calm right down and relaxes anytime Keysia’s playing with it.”

  “Really? And she’s okay with taking care of him?”

  “Yeah.” Aaron shrugged. “Whether she likes to or not, she just stepped up to do it. She wanted to make sure the little guy was in good hands until you got back.” He placed his palm on his hip and shook his head. ”Keysia’s something else, I’ll tell ya…”

  “Yeah…” I agreed.

  “Oh, and you should’ve seen the other day. Keysia cooked an absolute feast! There was drope meat, mushrooms, vegetables, fish. It was delicious too. The dark elves gobbled it up. Feeding our—” He put his fingers up and made quotation symbols. “—'citizens’ was a great idea. I’m sure a lot of the dark elves who left will feel like coming back when they hear about it.”

  “Nice!”

  “Anyway, where have you been?” Aaron asked. “Everyone’s been worried about you. Did you find another female orc? Maybe a little orc-on-human action?” He flicked his eyebrows up and down a couple times.

  “Oh, c’mon,” I groaned, rolling my eyes. “I found trouble is what I found.”

  I proceeded to tell Aaron about my infiltration and exposure in the Wastelands—how I eventually found Rithnar and narrowly avoided death with help from Mordok. I explained to him Ergoth’s plans to take Highcastle, Rithnar’s reasoning for wanting to unseat him, the Gilgaroth behind his sudden push for new land, and our failed attempt at retrieving an infinite mana shard.

  “Don’t tell me you joined the Scourge’s faction,” Aaron said.

  “Of course, I didn’t.”

  “Well, be careful,” Aaron warned. “I was there when you factioned-up with the High Elves of Mist Vale, and I don’t think they’d like to hear about all this meddling around with orcs.”

  “I know, I know,” I said. “But the orc baby will be gone soon enough, so don’t worry about that. I just came to drop off the gold I got from the Wastelands, and I’ll finish up everything I have to do soon, for sure.”

  “How much did you make it out with?”

  A grin crept up my face. “Around 50,800 gold.”

  Aaron’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit, bro! What a haul!”

  “Yeah, exactly,” I said. “I wasn’t about to go any closer to Ergoth without getting this money back to the guild.”

  Aaron held out his hand, and after I gave him a quick low-five, he proceeded to make multiple random slaps at my hands, which I attempted to mimic. After he was finished with his sloppy celebration handshake, he grabbed my arm and jumped into me as we did a shoulder bump.

  He snapped his fingers. “That gives us a little bit of a cushion now, but we still need more before we start building dark elf houses. I was thinking that maybe we could build a fence around the burned-out area so there is at least some sort of barrier between us and the Freelands. We really need to get the stable back up, or we could just throw it all towards the castle build… There’s so much to do!”

  I hummed and crossed my arms. “Yeah, there’s a lot, but let’s decide after the kid’s gone.”

  “Alright,” Aaron said. “And don’t forget to take some gold for yourself.”

  “I’m okay,” I said.

  “Nah,” Aaron said. “You pulled in the gold, so you should take a little to get you an upgrade. A new robe or staff or something. The stronger you are, the more likely you’ll be able to bring in more gold later.”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, maybe. I guess I can take a bit of the gold to buy a spell at the Mages Guild. They still owe me a discounted spell, actually two now that I’m level 33.”

  “33?! Holy hell, you’re leveling fast!”

  “The quests the orcs gave me offered a lot of XP. Actually, one of the orcs is selling some items in the Wastelands for me, so I’ll be getting more gold tomorrow… err today. I haven’t slept, so my time is messed up.”

  “Nice, nice. Well do it, man,” Aaron said. “Get yourself something nice. You’ve earned it.”

  “I just think I will,” I finally said. “I’m going to go give Gerard the gold and take a quick nap before heading back to the Wastelands.”

  “Good luck, homie,” Aaron said. “And be careful engaging Ergoth. A King with an ancient weapon isn’t someone to fuck with, even if you won’t be the one fighting him directly.”

  “Yeah, I get it. Too bad that damn stone wasn’t an infinite mana shard. It would’ve made things a lot easier.”

  “I don’t know about mana shards and all that, but if Mordok said he got his from the omni-thingy in the Wastelands’ Mages Hall, why don’t you just… I dunno—” He rattled his head and shrugged. “—just steal one from omni-thingy in Highcastle?”

  I chuckled at the idea. I wasn’t a thief, and while he had just told me to be careful getting on the wrong side of the High Elves of Mist Vale faction, he was basically telling me to rob the Mages Faction, which was contradictory. But he said it with such nonchalant naivety that it got the gears in my head spinning.

  “Yeah, anyway, I’m going to head out,” I said after a moment of thought.

  “Take it easy, bro!”

  I slipped out of Aaron’s house and silently crept over to our guild shop. I peeked inside and when I saw only Gerard inside, I entered.

  He was kneeling on the ground, sorting through a pile of weapons, armor, empty potion bottles, and ore. “Oh hey, Gunnar!”

  “Hey,” I said. “I’m glad you’re up.”

  He stood up, brushed his hands together and smiled. “Oh yeah? Where have you been?”

  “Trying to complete a quest. It’s still not done, but I’ve got some gold for you.” I pulled out all the gold I was carrying and sat it on the counter.

  “Whoa, nice!” Gerard said. “This is uh… uh huh huh… this should hold us over for a while.”

  “Actually, let me swipe 6,000 from that,” I said as I leaned over and started separating the coins. “I’m going to buy a spell from the Mages Guild.”

  Gerard took the rest of the gold, noted it in the guild log and added it to our treasury.

  “What’s all this?” I asked, pointing towards the pile on the ground.

  “Items that the dark elves traded in for food the other day.” He smirked a little. “They don’t have much right now, but they rustled up what they could.”

  “Are we getting any business yet?” I asked.

  “Not a peep,” Gerard said. “Our sales have basically flatlined. Jeremy brought back 4,500 gold from his run to Thorpes, but we haven’t made much of anything since. After the gold you’ve dropped off, we have 73,167 gold.”

  “Okay, we’ll just hang on to as much of it as you can,” I instructed. “No more buying items ‘til this stint is over and Edgewood is back in shape. We’ll only accept equal trades and trades for food
.”

  “Sounds good,” Gerard said. “We should really open an eatery here. Keysia’s cooking is—” He placed two fingers to his lips and made a kissing noise as he pulled them away. “—magnificent! She’s getting better and better every day.”

  “Maybe one day,” I said with a chuckle. I pulled out all the loose items I had collected from the dungeon in Ardorflame and sat them on the counter. “Add these to our cache as well. They might fetch a good price once business is rolling back in.”

  “Ohhh,” Gerard cooed as he started lifting and inspecting each item. “These aren’t half bad. A step up from most of the low-level stuff we’ve been seeing.”

  “Anyway, I’m going to head to my house and get some rest. I need to get back to the Wastelands soon.”

  “Good luck with your quest,” Gerard said. “I look forward to seeing what other goodies you bring back.”

  “Thanks,” I said as I headed for the exit. I pushed the door open a little and paused before glancing over my shoulder. “Do you know where Keysia is staying exactly? She’s in one of the tents, right?”

  Gerard lifted his index finger and bobbed it forward a couple times as if he were counting. “I believe she’s in the tent two over from the left right behind this shop. Jax and Rina are in the one directly behind me, then Jeremy is one over from the left, then Keysia. The other guildmates are to the right.”

  “Thanks again,” I said as I slipped through the door.

  I crept behind the guild shop and looked up to the sky, noticing that it was getting brighter and brighter by the minute. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I was certain that my guildmates would be waking up soon.

  Immediately behind our guild shop were a line of tents where everyone had been camping since most of our village had been destroyed. They were all basic ridge tents, just spacious enough for a couple of people and tall enough to stand but only in the center. They weren’t a full small house-size like the tents that the orcs in Morgsgorg had, or anything I’d want my guild to stay in for a long time, but they were comfortable enough for temporary housing.