Eden's Gate: The Scourge: A LitRPG Adventure

by Edward Brody

He eyed Sora cautiously and rubbed his fingers together as if his palms were sweating. “Well, we shouldn’t linger. Things are cooling down, but there’s no telling what someone could assume if they see us loitering together.”

  “Right,” I agreed. I lifted the baby from the center of my lap, leaned over and handed him to Mordok.

  The baby immediately started crying as soon as Mordok cupped him in his arms.

  “Settle down, young one,” Mordok said softly. When the baby didn’t stop immediately, he placed his face closer and made a hideous growling noise.

  The baby laughed, made a childish growling sound back, and started cooing.

  “Wait,” I said with a chuckle. “Did you just calm it by scaring it?”

  “It is not scared, Gunnar,” Mordok said with a smile. “We are orcs.”

  I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. “Well, okay. Take good care of him, okay?”

  “He won’t be staying with me,” he disclosed. “With no mother or father, he’ll have no place in the Wastelands until he’s grown, and Ergoth would likely throw him into the Cataclysm if he found out he was his challenger’s child.”

  “Where are you taking him?” I asked.

  “To someone special,” Mordok said. “A mage…”

  “A mage? Like a shaman or a warlock?”

  Mordok snorted. “Perhaps you should come with me, and I’ll introduce you.”

  “I’d love to, but I promised my guild I’d hurry back,” I said. “I’m starting to get a reputation for going out for short errands but not returning for days.”

  “Perhaps next time then.” Mordok took a deep breath and glanced down to the child. “If Rithnar was here, he would thank you.”

  I groaned. “I feel like I failed him. He wanted to get his child back, but he ended up dead in the end.”

  “No,” Mordok said. “He wanted to continue his bloodline, and he will. Rithnar died with honor and in battle, the same as any other orc would want. Trust me, if he were here, he would thank you. But since he’s not, hopefully my thanks will be enough.”

  “I should be thanking you,” I said. “We ended this war for now.”

  Mordok smirked. “You don’t realize how much you’ve done for the orcs. Had Xurrak remained in power, it might’ve taken years to negotiate with Highcastle. To think we’ll also maintain a stronghold in the Freelands… You and Rithnar are heroes to the Scourge.”

  I laughed. “Don’t tell anyone else that, please. I tried to return the kid because I’m a big softy, and everything else was for me, my guild, and Eden’s Gate in general.”

  “Whatever you say, Reborn.” The baby squeaked, and Mordok looked down to him. “What is the child’s name?”

  “Name?” I questioned. “I don’t know. His mother never mentioned a name. Rithnar didn’t tell you?”

  Mordok shook his head. “You had the child. He would’ve told you before me.”

  “I’m a human. He was more interested in putting his fist down my throat than talking names when we first met.”

  “Hmmm…” Mordok mumbled. “He must be given a name. Perhaps…” He glared at me. “Perhaps, we could name him after you, the hero who saved his life.”

  “Me?” I pointed to my chest and chuckled.

  “Gunnag, Gunnrag, Grinnar…” He creased his brow. “Actually, Gunnar would be a decent orc name.”

  I continued to laugh and shook my head. “Don’t name it after me. I’m not his hero.” My shoulders slumped and my tone softened as I thought about his mother whom I failed to save and his father who had fought so hard to get the child back. “I think his father is the real hero. Let’s name him after his dad.”

  Mordok smiled. “Fair enough, but I’ll make certain the child hears stories of the Reborn who saved his life once as he grows older.” He pursed his lips. “Rithnog… Vithnar… Rith…umm… What is similar?”

  “Just name him Rithnar,” I said. “Rithnar wanted him to carry on his bloodline, but he might as well carry on his name too.”

  Mordok looked down to the baby and nodded. “Very well, Reborn.” He lifted the baby back above his head and grinned at him. “Rithnar Narfug of the Narfug Bloodline! You’ll make your father proud someday.”

  The baby cooed then belched, and a runny brown liquid jetted out of its mouth and onto Mordok’s face.

  Mordok jerked and grimaced as he lowered the child. “Oh my god! That’s repulsive. What have you been feeding him?”

  I snarled and backed Sora away as I could smell the child’s putrid barf even from where I was sitting. “Probably just food rations and a little bit of blood.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Mordok cursed. “Food rations?” He swiped the barf from his head and turned away. “I’ll be going now. I need to clean this stench off.”

  “Take care, Mordok,” I said.

  “And you, Reborn.” He walked away for the entrance of the Wastelands. “Come, little child. I bet you’re dying for some meat.”

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  2/24/0001

  “Wow, you’re back so fast!” Aaron yelled when he saw me ride Sora back into the village. He was standing near his home talking to Keysia.

  I jumped off Sora, patted her on the head and projected, You may go. I’ll see you again soon.

  See you soon, Gunnar.

  I turned to Aaron and clapped my hands. “I’m back and ready to get down to business. Is everyone here?” I scanned the area and saw most of the guild sitting around the center of our village.

  “Do we need Gerard?” Aaron asked.

  “Yep,” I answered.

  Aaron yelled at the top of his lungs, “Gerard!”

  The guild and the guards nearby all turned towards him.

  “Jeez, dude,” I scolded.

  “What?” he asked with a shrug of his shoulder. “It’s effective.”

  “We don’t even have trees surrounding us anymore,” I said. “That probably echoed all across the Freelands. You sound like someone’s killing you.”

  “Aaron?” Gerard asked as he poked his head out of the guild shop.

  “Come out for a chat, homie!” Aaron yelled.

  Gerard nodded, stepped outside, and proceeded to lock the guild shop.

  “We’re just missing Ozzy,” Aaron said.

  “Oz still isn’t back?” I questioned.

  “Not yet,” Aaron explained, “but I’m sure he’ll be back soon, now that the Scourge has withdrawn from the Freelands. We’ll fill him in later.”

  “Alright,” I said. I was standing in an open area in front of Aaron’s house and started waving the guild towards me. “Everybody over here if you can— Jax, Rina, Sung, Jeremy… You too, Tryn.”

  “Guild meeting?” Jeremy asked. “Not going to sit by the fire pit?”

  “No need,” I explained. “I’ve got big news, but it should be quick.”

  “Ohhh…” Aaron moaned and rubbed his hands together. “I like the sound of this.”

  I reached into my bag and pulled out Urzyla’s Mallet that I had looted inside the Gilgaroth’s seal.

  “That looks special,” Jax said. “Don’t tell me you’ve somehow found another ancient weapon.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “This is just a legendary weapon, but over the last couple days, I made quite a bit of gold. Gerard, what’s our treasury sitting at after my deposit last night?”

  “I deposited some gold today too,” Sung spoke up.

  “You did?” I asked.

  “I’ve been sneaking off and solo farming a bit around the beach,” Sung clarified. “A crab there dropped a giant pearl that I sold in Thorpes for 3,500 gold. I kept 500 and gave the rest to Gerard.”

  “That’s nice,” I said.

  “Jeremy made a run to sell off some pelts that I skinned that Aaron wasn’t able to use too, and turns out we were able to collect some of the charcoal around here and sell that off as well,” Jax said. “That fetched a couple thousand.”

  “After all the random deposits
from the guild, and the gold Keysia brought in from selling her meals to the dark elves, we’re sitting at around 71,000 gold. I don’t have the log with me, but that should be about right.”

  My jaw dropped. “We have 71,000?” That was way more than I thought, considering the daily gold we were spending on guards.

  “Jeremy sold off some of the Vorporite ore as well,” Aaron said. “I still can’t make anything with it, and that fetched a pretty penny.”

  “Holy shit,” I said with a smile. “You guys are pretty much maintaining the village without me now.”

  “Mayor Sizzler at your service,” Aaron said with a bow.

  “Well, I’m impressed,” I said, nodding my head and scanning my friends. “By all of you.” I stopped when my eyes met Keysia’s. I wanted to stare at her longer, but she darted her eyes to the ground.

  “Impressed by us?” Jeremy asked and pointed to the center of my robe. “Yellow belt, woot, woot! And from what I heard through the grapevine, you helped push the orcs and goblins back into the Wastelands.”

  “Enough talk about me,” I said, waving a dismissive hand. “We went from going broke to 71k, and from what I’m told, this hammer can fetch us another 50.”

  “Whoa!”

  “Whoa-ho!”

  “50,000 gold?” Jeremy asked as he stepped forward and took a closer look at the hammer. “Are you sure that’s not an ancient weapon?”

  I shook my head. “Nope, just a high-level legendary, compliments of King Xurrak.”

  “Xurrak was killed long ago,” Jax said.

  “That’s what they say,” I gloated. “But that’s a story for later. If I find a buyer for this, that’ll bring us to around 130k gold, which means we can rebuild what we’ve lost. Not only that...” I pointed toward our one standing stone wall. “It should be enough for us to erect the first section of our castle.” I turned to Aaron. “Right?”

  “A hundred thousand should be enough for one or two big, open rooms, unless building prices have changed,” Aaron said.

  “Hell yeah!” Jeremy cheered. He stepped forward and threw me a high five then turned and did the same to Aaron.

  “Nice,” Sung said with a grin, rubbing his hands together.

  Everyone was smiling at the news, and I joined in with Aaron and made the rounds, giving everyone high fives and shoulder bumps.

  I unfastened my staff and slammed the bottom tip down in front of me. “I was excited today, because I thought we could squeeze together enough for the next phase of our castle, but I think we’ve got enough now to really make this place shine.” I lifted the staff and pointed towards the outer perimeter where the forest had burned. “Do you think we can build a fence around that outer edge?”

  Aaron nodded. “I’m sure we can. A few thousand gold should get that done.”

  “So, we fence it in,” I said. “That’ll create a clear barrier between us and the Freelands.”

  “Nice,” Jax said. “That might make us stand out more, but it should also make it clear that Edgewood Village is still part of Edgewood.”

  “And since I’ll be staying in the castle, my house will open,” I added.

  “Oh, you’re giving away your old cabin to one of us, huh?” Aaron asked.

  “No,” I explained. “I was thinking all of you will be staying in the castle with me.” I turned to Gerard. “With the exception of you, Gerard. We still need you to run the shop.”

  “Understood, Gunnar,” Gerard said. “I’m quite a bit more comfortable living alone anyway.”

  “Does anyone not want to stay in the castle?” I asked. “We might not all have separate rooms to start.”

  “Anything is better than tents,” Rina said.

  “That’s for sure,” Sung agreed.

  “Well then, Keysia. I was thinking… or we were thinking…” I turned to her and bit my inner lip. She had been relatively quiet, and I was worried what her response to what I was about to say would be. I had slept on all my ideas, and this one was the one I was most worried about. I was afraid she wouldn’t like it or think I had come up with it in an effort to win back her favor, but really, I just thought it was a good choice for her and the guild in general. “I was thinking that my house could become your eatery… or um… an eatery run by you. What do you think?”

  “My eatery?” Keysia questioned, furrowing her brow.

  “Only if you want,” I said. “So far, the colonization seems to be working out, right? Since we’re going to have our castle there—” I lifted the bottom of my staff and pointed towards the stone wall. I turned back around and waved the staff in a wide circle outside my home and near the campfire. “—I was thinking this could be sort of a ‘market square’. Once the castle is up, we can have all our meetings indoors, so we won’t need this little fire circle anymore. We can put some seating outside in the center here—maybe a fountain. People can pick up some food at your eatery and stop at the general goods store on their way back home.”

  Jeremy whistled loudly. “Holy hell. I like the sound of that!”

  “Yes, it sounds great,” Keysia said, shaking her head. She glanced to the ground. “I’d love to do that, but I’m not sure I can work in an eatery every day.”

  “Of course not,” I said. “The plan is to make this into a real village now. You can find a couple dark elves who need a job and put them to work for you, so you can still come and go as you please.”

  Keysia grinned widely, and I could tell she was excited, perhaps more so about giving jobs to her people than the actual eatery idea. “Yeah… yeah, that’s great!”

  “What about my house?” Aaron asked. “I’ll be staying in the castle too, right?”

  “Maybe a new shop?” I suggested. “Maybe storage? We’ll figure it out. And of course, you’ll be able to stay in the castle.” I pointed towards where our stable used to be. “Do you think we can afford a new place to store our mounts?”

  Aaron tilted his head. “After everything else, we might be able to squeeze that in with the gold we have...”

  “A stone one,” I said, pointedly. “The homes we build for colonized citizens can be wooden, but I want any other new buildings we put up to be made of stone or something stronger. Next time we get hit with fire arrows, I want to make sure we aren’t totally wiped out.”

  “It’ll be more expensive,” Aaron warned.

  “Well, it’s more expensive to rebuild,” I countered.

  Aaron smirked. “I know, I know. Just sayin’.”

  “And any gold over a few thousand reserves, we’ll immediately put towards building citizen housing.” I lifted my staff towards the sea of tents set far behind the castle wall. “We need to get them out of tents too.”

  “Damn, you’re going full throttle,” Sung said.

  “Hell yeah, we are,” I said. I turned to Aaron. “Did you get all that?” I pointed my staff towards the perimeter again. “Fence over there.” I sat my staff down in front of me. “Market square here.” I lifted it towards my house and circled the area behind it. “Eatery and stone stable.” I turned and motioned towards the castle wall and the dark elves’ tents. “And of course, the first order of importance is our castle, and our last measure is some basic citizen housing with any leftover gold.”

  “Got it,” Aaron said.

  “Okay, Mayor Sizzler,” I said. “Let me know if you need anything from me.”

  “Oh, I’m mayor now?” Aaron asked.

  I raised my eyebrow to the other members of the guild. “I think he’s been filling the role pretty well, so far. Anyone opposed to making it official?”

  “Trynzen mayor!” Trynzen shouted. He pointed his claw towards my home. “Gunnar there!” He stomped his foot and pointed towards the ground. “Eat here!”

  I laughed. “Maybe Tryn can be your assistant, Aaron.”

  “Oh, hell naw!” Aaron scoffed. “Sorry, Trynzen. Love ya and all, but you’re gonna have to be uh… um… How about my security guard?”

  “Smecruritity
?” Trynzen shook his head. “Trynzen not understand!”

  “Trynzen take care friend!” I said and pounded my fist onto my chest.

  Trynzen mocked me, stood up straight and pounded his chest with his claw. “Trynzen care friend!”

  I smiled. “Alright, Aaron. I guess no one is against it, so you’re now the Mayor of Edgewood Village.”

  “Hell yeah,” Aaron said. He held his hands out to the side and started swaying his hips. “I’ll leave the hard…” He raised his eyebrows. “Oh wait… I just got a new title too. Mayor! Siiiiick! Anyway, I was going to say I will leave the hard decisions up to you.”

  I leaned forward and threw Aaron a fist bump. “I trust you, bro.”

  “We’re gonna be huge!” Jeremy said, slamming his fist into his palm. He turned to Sung. “How does our guild compare to Crylight?”

  Sung bobbed his head from side to side. “Comparable. A lot less militaristic, that’s for sure, and I like how we keep things fun.”

  Gerard rubbed his chin. “Those are big plans, but business might be stagnant for a while. If we’re spending all our gold, we’ve got to figure out a way to draw customers back so we don’t miss any guard payments.”

  “Yeah,” Jax said. “It’s still going to look pretty unwelcoming over here with all this destruction—the burned trees and blackened ground. This will take years to turn green.”

  “Any suggestions?” I asked.

  Jax shrugged. “We can plow the ground and start planting new trees. It’s a lot of work and a long wait for payoff, but it might speed things up.”

  I sighed. “Well, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. If it’s our only option, let’s do it. Maybe we can look into that salve I remember Rina talking about.”

  “Just plan on us running at a negative income or close to zero for a while,” Gerard said.

  I pursed my lips and bobbed my head a moment as I thought. “One more thing…”

  “More?” Jeremy said. “Holy shit, Gunnar. Rome wasn’t built in a day!”

  “It’s not something in Edgewood,” I said. “It’s Highcastle… I have a risky idea, so I’ll need everyone’s approval before I take the chance.”