Veil Online - Book 3: An Epic LitRPG Adventure

by John Cressman

Charlena gave them a defiant look. “Can’t we just go to the police? I mean, he’s stealing money and trying to kill people!”

  Jace was about to answer her but Mordred beat him to the punch. “We’d sound like crazy people. We have no proof and the police won’t do anything against WorldCog without major proof. They probably own the police, at least in Philadelphia.”

  “Why don’t you go kill him, or seriously mess him up?” Diana said matter-of-factly. “Consider it self-defense. He’s already tried to kill you once.”

  Everyone turned to look at the older woman. She merely shrugged. “It would be better than waiting for him to come for you.”

  “I’m not killing anyone,” Charlena said adamantly. “I can’t believe you would even say that.”

  Diana shrugged again. “I’m just saying. If it’s him or us, I go with team us.”

  “Even if we wanted to do it,” Jace said and then caught Charlena’s angry glare. “Which we don’t. But even if we wanted to, it’s very risky. It would have to be you and the, um, other me, and if you miss or get caught, you could go to prison. And if you do manage it, that’s something we’d… I mean you’d have to live with.”

  They all got silent again until Jace had a sudden flash of insight. He looked at Mordred. “What about a scroll of imprisonment!”

  Mordred grinned. “That would work. He’d be bound until someone released him with a dispel scroll.”

  “What’s an imprisonment scroll?” Mika asked.

  “It’s a special scroll that used to drop as monster loot,” Mordred answered. “It casts a bubble of pure energy around a target that is completely impenetrable from the inside. You can’t even teleport through it.”

  “It was really good at separating bosses, especially in epic raids. If you ran into a double mini boss situation and had an imprisonment scroll, you could cast it one of the bosses to isolate them until you dealt with the other boss. Once the first one’s dead, you release the second and kill it. Made things much better.”

  “But like everything else,” Mordred continued. “It got abused. People began to use them in PvP. A thing used for capturing epic monsters, used on a player. Needless to say, it caused a lot of trouble, since the person was permanently trapped if no one let them out.”

  “So they took it out of the drop table,” Jace chimed in. He and Mordred seemed to be completing each other's thoughts, which was kind of cool. He wondered if that was how real twins were. “But some still exist. They’re worth a lot of money. Millions of gold.”

  Mordred frowned. “Do you think you’ll get enough gold from the treasure to buy one?”

  “I don’t know,” Jace responded. “But even if we did get one, he could potentially just get someone to free him. Then he’d be free in a day or two.”

  “Unless we take him somewhere where no one will find him,” Diana offered. “Like one of the islands. Maybe even Bob’s island. No one would find him there.”

  “And how would we get him there?” Charlena asked.

  Diana rolled her eyes. “Don’t you people ever read books? Or watch movies? Once again, I weep for the youth. We lure him there and then we trap him.”

  “And how do we lure him there?” Mika asked, curious now.

  “By offering what he wants,” Diana replied. She looked pointedly at Jace. “You.”

  “No!” Mika said and grabbed his hand again.

  “Relax,” Diana said soothingly. “I didn’t say we give him Jace. I said we offer him Jace. Then when he shows up, you use the scroll thingy on him and he’s trapped in the middle of the ocean with no one to free him.”

  They glanced around at each other and either nodded or shrugged. Jace looked at Diana. “I like it. But he’ll probably be expecting a trap.”

  “Maybe,” she admitted. “But we have two things in our favor. One, we have the element of surprise. He expects you and Mika at the bare minimum because of that nasty business with the ear cutting. He might expect me, perhaps even Charlena. But he won’t be expecting the real Jace, I mean, Mordred, right?”

  Mordred nodded. “Mordred’s fine. Two Jace’s is confusing, even for me.”

  “So we’re the bait,” Diana explained. “And he’s the trap. We’ll distract him with some offer and Mordred will use the scroll and that will be that. Or do one of you have a better plan?”

  Everyone looked around the table and each of this shrugged. Finally, Jace turned to her. “Fine. We’ll go with that plan. But first, we’ll need to get the treasure. If it’s not enough, then our plan won’t work. If it is, we’ll take it from there. In the meantime, as we get the treasure from the various islands, we’ll see if we find one with some out of the way cave or something, he can lure him to.”

  They all nodded in agreement.

  “Okay,” Mordred said. “Now that we have that settled, I really need to log. Sorry, I just don’t have the strength right now to stay in-game.”

  “We understand,” Jace told his other self. “Take care of you, or us, or whatever.”

  Mordred grinned. “We’ll try to log in here once a day around this time. Just meet us here or send a raven message. We’ll get that the next time we log in.”

  With that he and Charlena faded away. They all watched them go and then Mika spoke up brightly. “You are mine Jace Burton!”

  Chapter 33

  After Charlena and his alter ego logged out, Jace and the girls ordered some food. They would be heading back out to sea and it would be nothing but dried or pickled fish for some time. Mika, who moved her seat closer to his, ordered waffles, while Diana ordered a bread and cheese plate. Jace ordered the fish and chips and a large tuna fillet for Luna.

  The group ate slowly, knowing it would be the last good meal they had for sometime, then they left the tavern. Jace had barely taken two steps when he felt a pain in his back. And then he was dead.

  Alarine Palerest uses Surprise Attack on YOU for 863 damage.

  You have died.

  Do you wish to respawn at your last spawn point? (Yes or No)

  As Jace suddenly found the world gray as he emerged into spirit form, he saw a female assassin clad in black had already killed Mika and stabbed Diana through the heart even as he watched.

  Around their bodies, NPCs were running. The assassin didn’t seem phased. She calmly bent over their bodies and cut off one of each of their ears. Jace couldn’t help but flinch when she cut his ear off, despite the fact he couldn’t feel pain in spirit form.

  Having collected her trophies, the assassin ducked into a nearby alley and disappeared into the shadows. Jace cursed soundlessly as he watched the alley a moment longer. Unable to do anything else, he clicked Yes and respawned.

  You have died recently.

  Your experience gain has been decreased by 14% for 14 hours.

  Your skills have been decreased by 14% for 14 hours.

  Your maximum health has been decreased by 14% for 14 hours.

  Your maximum mana has been decreased by 14% for 14 hours.

  He had appeared in the graveyard next to Mika and Diana. Jace blinked and read the message in his HUD. He groaned. Once again, he had a death penalty. He would need to avoid fighting for a while or he’d be at a disadvantage. Mika and Diana were over level 10, so they’d have penalties as well.

  Kraken’s Claw and his haversack were on him and he equipped his saber, just in case. That was when he noticed Diana was clutching her chest and her ear. “Diana, are you okay?”

  “I hate that!” the older woman spat. “I FELT that knife in my chest. It was like having a… heart attack. And my ear! That assassin cut off my ear!”

  “At least you have it back!” Mika pointed out. The older woman glared daggers as she stood up.

  “I take it I just joined the assassinated club?” Diana asked, brushing the dirt off her mostly naked body. Jace hadn’t really seen her in just a loin cloth and bra before and he had to admit, she had an incredibly voluptuous body. Once again, he had to remind himself that she was
old enough to be his grandma and looked away.

  “Let’s get our bodies and then get out of here,” he told the two girls and jogged off towards the gate.

  “What about Luna?” Mika called from behind him.

  “I’ll summon her when we get back to the ship,” he yelled back and kept jogging.

  Luckily, the tavern was just inside the gate, so they didn’t have far to go. With the assassin gone, the NPCs had gone about their business and resumed their normal routines, stepping over their dead corpses.

  “That’s disturbing,” Diana said, looking at where their bodies lie. “Our bodies are just lying there and people are just walking over them like we weren’t even there.”

  “In their minds, we don’t,” Jace reminded her. “It’s part of the AI. They purposefully don’t notice certain things that players do, like dying. Otherwise, someone would probably come, collect our bodies and bury them. Then we’d spend the entire day hunting down where they took them and digging them up.

  “I guess that makes sense,” Diana conceded. “But it’s still disturbing.”

  Jace bent down and quickly looted all of his items. He equipped his items and then waited for Diana and Mika to do the same. Once they were all ready, the group headed back to the ship.

  “Does this mean Damian knows where we are?” Mika asked as they jogged back.

  Still running, Jace shook his head. “Not yet. If he’s still in Whitecliff or even Lasthaven, then it will take a day or so to get back to him. But once he gets it, he’ll know we were here.”

  “Does this mean changing our names again?” Diana asked.

  “No,” he replied. “By time he gets the ears and realizes where we are, we’ll be gone.”

  “What about the other Jace?” Mika asked.

  Jace skidded to a halt and the two girls following him slammed into him. All three of them went down in a tangle.

  “Ow,” Diana said pointedly. “You could have warned us you were stopping.”

  “Sorry,” he apologized. “But Mika’s right. We need to warn Jace and Charlena that Damian might be here.”

  “How?” Diana asked.

  “Raven messenger,” he replied.

  After asking several gnomes for directions, they found a raven messenger. Jace sent the message to his counterpart, letting him know that an assassin had killed them and Damian would most likely be coming to the town. He recommended they change the meet time to noon on weekdays, when Damian would be at work.

  He sent it and then they went back to the Wyvern’s Tail. They climbed up the gangplank and found Colette on the deck, ordering sailors around as the loaded provisions aboard the ship.

  “How soon can we leave?” Jace asked.

  “Trouble?” the woman asked and then she turned to bark some orders as two sailors nearly dropped a crate.

  “You could say that,” Jace replied. “Let’s just say I’d like to leave the gnomish capital as soon as possible.”

  Colette looked to the sky and then out to the ocean. “Storm’s coming. We should weather it in harbor and then sail with the tide tomorrow morning, assuming it’s let up.”

  “Make it so…” Jace started but then simply said, “Aye. Make sure we have extra guards posted.”

  “Serious, is it?” Colette asked.

  “Let’s just say there may be a dark elf who wants to kill us and destroy this ship,” he replied. He wasn’t quite sure the last part was true, but he knew Damian wouldn’t hesitate to destroy the ship if it meant putting an end to Jace, or even just greatly inconveniencing him.

  “Aye,” the first mate nodded. “They won’t like it, not with the storm, but I’ll double the guard tonight.”

  “Thank you,” Jace told her and then he, Diana and Mika retired to the captain’s quarters. Once inside, Jace took the time to summon Luna back. As he grimaced through the pain of the summoning, he saw Diana watching him.

  “Summoner die?” the cat asked as she appeared.

  “Yes,” he told her. “Assassin killed me.”

  “Assassin bad,” the cat replied.

  “Yes,” Jace chuckled. “Assassin bad.”

  Luna hopped up on the bed and after rubbing herself against Jace, found a spot on the bed to knead and then laid down.

  “I can’t believe you can do that,” Diana said. “How do you tolerate the pain?”

  Jace shrugged. “It’s not that bad once you get used to it. And she was my only companion for a long time. I can’t really imagine not summoning her back.”

  Diana looked thoughtful but didn’t reply. Mika went over to the bed and began stroking Luna’s fur. As she did, she looked over at Jace. “We have to hide out here until it’s time to leave?”

  Jace shrugged. “I’m not 100% sure. He may still be after me. But the assassin in Lasthaven got both of our ears. So he may have put a contract out on you too.”

  “But not me?” Diana asked. “Am I free to roam about?”

  “Probably,” Jace admitted. “For now. But the assassin got all of our ears this time. Damian must still be paying to kill me and everyone around me so he can see who my friends are. Now that he has your ear, the next time he puts out contracts, he’ll include you too.”

  “Isn’t that just wonderful,” Diana said bitterly. “He’s a real jerk.”

  “Yes,” Jace and Mika said at the same time and then looked at each other. They both smiled.

  “Well then,” Diana said. “I’m going to run out. Do you want me to bring you back anything?” Mika opened her mouth but Diana held up a hand. “Other than waffles, which I will bring you.”

  Mika smiled broadly and shook her head. “Just waffles!”

  “I don’t need anything, “ Jace leaned back in the captain’s chair and frowned. “Unless you happen to come upon a scroll of imprisonment lying around.”

  “Somehow, I doubt it, dear one,” Diana told him. “Things that like that are never easy in the stories. And even more difficult to come by in real life.”

  “But Jace is the hero,” Mika protested. “Good things should happen to him. He’s been helping others. It is karma.”

  “Mika, dear,” Diana said. “I hope you never lose that innocence. And no, that’s not really true. Not in books and not in real life.”

  “That’s not fair,” Mika crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, which Jace found incredibly adorable. Now that Charlena had made her feelings clear and seemed to like the real him, he was less conflicted about being attracted to her.

  Diana shook her head and reached for the door handle. Before she did, Jace remembered that they might need to communicate with her. “Luna, can you go with Diana so we can communicate?”

  His familiar opened one eye and glared at him. Apparently, his interruption didn’t even qualify as important enough for her to open both eyes.

  “She’ll buy you a fish,” he bribed her.

  Bribe or no, it was enough to get her attention. The orange tabby got to her feet, stretched and then hopped off the bed. She padded over to Diana and rubbed up against her leg.

  “Come on little Luna,” Diana said in baby-talk. “I’ll buy you a nice big fish. How’s that?”

  His familiar’s tail began to shake and she began to purr as she rubbed herself against Diana’s leg again. “Fish!”

  Jace chuckled. He wondered how life would be if his biggest worry was finding a place to nap and waiting to be given food. It must be nice to be a cat.

  “Ta Ta,” Diana waved. Then, opening the door, then she and Luna left the cabin and headed back into the city.

  That left Jace and Mika alone in the room. And although he’d been alone with her before, now there seemed to be a certain tension in the room. He glanced over to see that she was looking at him.

  She got from the bed, where she had been petting Luna, and walked over to him. Stopping in front of him, she looked him in the eye. “Charlena wants the other you now, so now you are free to care for someone else.”

  Jace was about
to reply when she climbed into his lap and before he knew what was happening, she was kissing him hard. It only took him a moment to realize that he was kissing her back just as passionately.

  Chapter 34

  Jace quickly learned Mika was a fantastic kisser. Whether she had a lot of experience or was just a natural, he didn’t know and wasn’t about to ask. This time, he felt no hesitation or guilt because of Charlena. Before, he had been torn between his conflicting feelings for the two girls, but Charlena had wiped that away now that she had chosen his alter ego.

  As their kissing session continued, their hands had naturally roamed each other's body only to be abruptly stopped by an invisible force. A mood breaking red message appeared in his HUD.

  You have initiated intimate contact with player Mika Knightly.

  Mika Knightly has declined intimate contact.

  Note: Repeated attempts at declined intimate contact will result in expulsion from the game.

  Jace looked at Mika in confusion as to why she would decline but then he immediately received another red message.

  Player Mika Knightly has initiated

  You have automatically declined intimate contact.

  Note: You are currently set to automatically decline intimate contact. This setting can be changed in your HUD menu.

  Both of them looked at each other, their passion quickly fizzling away at the unexpected pop-ups. Jace quickly looked for the menu option but he knew what he would find. Like the sensory control, the menu option to change his intimate contact setting was missing. In that moment, he was sure of it: God hated him. Or maybe just WorldCog.

  “What is all of this about declined intimate contact?” Mika demanded.

  Jace growled in frustration. “Have you ever tried doing anything intimate with someone in-game?”

  Despite being already flushed, Mika’s cheeks colored slightly, and she shook her head. “No. You are the first.”

  He gave her a reassuring smile. “To keep people safe in-game, they implemented a consent system. As soon as contact becomes… sexual in nature… the game registers it and the consent pop-up appears. Once you consent, it lasts for an hour or until you revoke it.”