Dagger of Doom: A LitRPG Adventure (Beta Tester Book 5)

by Rachel Ford

  Even though a dull throb of pain still radiated through his real body, he was incredibly grateful for Jordan, William and – yes – even Richard’s efforts to reset his brain. He couldn’t imagine how painful it would have been to be picked apart by razorbacks for hours on end.

  As it was, the process frustrated him immensely. He had to regularly dole out healing spells for himself and healing potions for his party – just so they survived the trek back to the city.

  But they did, arriving in the mid-afternoon. Arath once again headed off toward the shops. Karag tagged along on the errand run, though he couldn’t fit into any of the dwarven businesses. And Grimlik and Grem’tha clung to Jack the whole way.

  He started with Olksana. The crone cackled as he entered her shop. “Well, well, dearie: I didn’t know if I’d see you again. You looked a little green when you heard my list. But you’ve got a man’s stomach after all.

  “And your little friends look in fine spirits too. I’ll bet they had more fun with it than you. Didn’t you, darlings? Here, hold on.”

  She got up and hobbled over to a shelf. Pulling down a jar of – something – she joined them. “There you are, my little loves: a present from Auntie Olksana.”

  Grimlik stretched a hand hesitantly, and Jack glanced at the jar – then, recoiled. It was full of worms – writhing, wriggling, grotesque worms. “Ugh,” he said.

  “Ohhh,” Grem’tha said, smacking her lips. “Nice lady. Sweet lady.”

  The goblins pulled the top of the jar, reaching their big hands inside to pull out fat, pale bodies, and chattering excitedly among themselves. Jack shivered. “Thanks, I think.”

  She cackled. “They’re for the little ones. You don’t have to eat them, Jack.”

  “I know. Still…” He shook his head.

  She quirked a snow-white eyebrow at him. “You brought me enough innards to build my own animal, and you’re going to complain about a few worms? Come now, dearie: you’re a big lad. You’ll be fine.”

  Jack pulled a face at her patronizing tone but said nothing more. He fished through his pack and retrieved her requested items instead. The game updated his quest accordingly.

  She clapped her bony hands and took them. “Well done. Very well done. Ohh, look at those entrails: so fresh.”

  Jack thought he might gag. The old woman went on rhapsodizing about the quality of the various animal parts he’d collected. Then, though, she returned her attention to him. “Old Olksana kept her end of the bargain too: here’s your black bone quill.

  She handed over a quill that looked exactly as he expected it to look: thin, dark and made of bone. A disturbing energy passed through his hand as he touched it. The game objectives updated, but he hardly noticed. He was too busy frowning at the quill, and shivering.

  The crone laughed. “Don’t be alarmed, dearie. It won’t hurt you.”

  “Is it…supposed to feel like that?”

  She nodded. “It’s meant for breaking black curses. It’s made with dark magic, because only dark magic can defeat dark magic.”

  “Oh.”

  “But wait. I’ve got one more thing for you.”

  “Oh?”

  The old woman handed him a ring. The game identified it as a Ring of Hunter’s Prowess. Its stats included:

  +10% accuracy with ranged weapons

  +25% boost to all attacks against beasts of the air, land and sea

  +75% armor boost against beast attacks

  “That’s for your help collecting the critter bits I needed,” she told him.

  Jack thanked her but was scowling on the inside. This ring would have been perfect for his dealings with the razorback. Indeed, he had no doubt that that was why it was part of the quest already. Except, he’d decided to collect everything before collecting his rewards. Son of a…

  “Well, I should get to work. You run along and save the world now, dearie.”

  He took his leave, and the goblins thanked the old woman profusely. Then they moved on, heading for the priest’s church. Tigvi seemed to have been waiting for them. He greeted Jack warmly. “Well, well: good to see you, Adventurer. Did you find the items I requested?”

  Jack said that he had and handed over all the grasses and leaves and blossoms, and the eggs and mushrooms too. The game ran through the usual steps, letting him know that items had been removed from his inventory, and marking the corresponding quest objectives complete.

  Tigvi clutched his bounty to his chest with a smile. “Nicely done. Nicely done. Well, why don’t you all wait here, and I’ll go get to work on this.”

  He had nothing better to do, so he nodded and plunked down in one of the visitor’s seats. The goblins remained on the floor, still eating from the jar – a most disgusting take on fast food, Jack thought.

  “Good, good. Take a minute to contemplate the gods, why don’t you? Quiet moments are the best for reflection, I always say.”

  Then the priest disappeared into a room beyond. Jack caught glimpses of him working – cracking the eggs into a bowl, dicing the mushrooms, and so on. It was only when his nose started to twitch as the smell of food cooking wafted into the room that he pieced together what he’d seen. And even then, he had to walk into the other room to confirm it.

  But sure enough, the priest had taken the ingredients he’d spent so many hours, so much blood and sweat and effort, collecting…and whipped up an omelet with them. He stared, slack-jawed. Finally, he collected himself enough to sputter, “An omelet? A gosh darned omelet? You really sent me out to tangle with razorbacks so you could make a flipping omelet?”

  Tigvi glanced up long enough to ascertain that he’d been found out. Then he shrugged, most unapologetically. “Can’t work on an empty stomach, can I? Now, why don’t you run along and let me eat. And when I’m done, I’ll brew up that holy water you need.”

  The priest shooed him out of the room, and Jack left before he said – or did – something he’d regret. He wanted to wring compensation for every razorback bite, every wasted second, from the other man’s neck.

  So he decided to sort out his gold shortage issue instead. He had two hundred and forty-nine pieces of gold to his name – four coins short of what he and Kagil had agreed upon. So he headed to one of the general stores nearby, and engaged the sell menu of the cheerful woman behind the counter. This brought up his own inventory, and information as to what the merchant would pay him.

  The problem was, Jack hadn’t picked up any loot lately. He’d lost everything he stole the other night to the thieves’ guild initiate. So he hemmed and hawed and eventually settled on his blow gun and death bramble darts. It pained him to see it go. He hadn’t even had a chance to properly put it to the test. “Ah,” he said aloud, “parting is such sweet sorrow.”

  The merchant stared at him, with an expression that seemed to indicate she thought he might be a little daft. But she took his goods and paid out gold in return.

  Jack decided at that point to restock what he could. It wasn’t much. The entire collection of darts and the weapon itself had yielded just over three hundred coins. But it was enough to add a few more arrows to his quiver, and two more healing potions to his inventory – all while reserving the coin he’d need for Kagil.

  Then he took his leave of the merchant, and returned to Tigvi. The priest had finished breakfast. Now he had a cauldron of water burbling away over the fire, leaves and petals floating around inside it.

  “Ah, Traveler,” he said.

  Jack scowled at him. “You have a good dinner?”

  “The best. Nothing beats razorback eggs. Especially not with silver caps.”

  Jack’s scowl only deepened.

  “But your timing is impeccable. I just finished your holy water. Here.”

  The game alerted him,

  Added to inventory: vial of holy water

  At the same time, it marked that particular objective complete. Jack grunted – not quite a thanks, but better than nothing.

  Tigvi turned bac
k to his work, calling over his shoulder, “If you happen upon anymore of those mushrooms or razorback eggs, I’ll be willing to pay handsomely for them.”

  Jack bit down on the uncivil responses that threatened to escape his mouth, and departed. His next – and last – stop in town was Kagil.

  He reached Kagil’s Magical Wares just before closing, and handed over the items and gold required. As with Tigvi, the other man told him to wait while he worked. Unlike the priest, though, he set to work immediately. And within half an hour, he had the scroll Jack needed. “There you go. And good luck to you.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Jack wasted no time delivering the goods to King Delling and his council of mages and workmen. The king offered the same kind of grunt of thanks he’d given Tigvi, but that was it – no gold for his trouble, no offer to compensate his costs. Heck, not even a passable thank you.

  By time Jack realized nothing of the kind was coming, his lingering had got awkward. Moinn dismissed him with an, “We’ll let you know when we have something for you. You and your companions should go get some rest in the meantime.”

  So, scowling to himself, Jack did exactly that. He marched himself back to the south wing, ignored the usual snippets of conversation along the way. People were still going on about Wild Wegin, still asking for help to locate missing valuables, and still gossiping about each other’s love lives.

  If he ever got out of the game, if he ever could bring himself to play it – in a non-VR mode; he knew for sure he wouldn’t be able to revisit the virtual reality version of Dagger of Doom – he figured he would make time to figure out what, exactly, Wild Wegin had got himself into.

  He fell asleep thinking this, and he dreamed he had to partner up with a rough and tumble, six-shooter wielding, whiskey drinking, chain smoking cowboy…dwarf. Named Wild Wegin, obviously. Their mission was hunting down cattle rustlers, but they spent their entire time dodging rattlesnakes. It was a strange dream, and he woke feeling more annoyed than when he’d gone to sleep.

  He woke early, though, as the boy Berling had come for him. “Sir, the king requests your presence at your convenience.”

  Jack wiped the sleep out of his eyes and assured the messenger that he’d be on his way directly. Directly…but, coffee first. “Speak to supervisor,” he said.

  A moment later, Richard’s voice came on the line. “Yo, Jack, good to hear from you. How you doing? No long term damage from your beating?” He laughed awkwardly at that, and Jack rolled his eyes.

  “Not that I can tell.”

  “Oh, well, that’s good.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What can I do for you?”

  “Well, I was…actually trying to reach Jordan.”

  “Jordan?”

  “That’s…what I said.”

  “Yeah, sorry dude, but you just missed her.”

  “Sugar.”

  “But hey, maybe I can help?”

  “Will you spin me up a coffee?”

  “Oh…yeah, no. Told you before –”

  Jack waved him away with a brush of his hand. “Yeah, yeah, I know: you’re not going to risk your precious internship.”

  Richard made the usual apologies and excuses, and he tried to show a little good humor. He must have missed the mark, though, because the intern seemed as glad to go as he was to see him go.

  So he returned to his companions, scowling a little more than he had been earlier. He pushed to his feet with a gruff, “Alright, let’s get a move on it.”

  The goblins moaned about being tired. Arath wasn’t much better. He complained about a sore back and poor rest. Karag just yawned.

  Jack ignored them all and turned toward the door. He’d taken three steps when he put his foot down on a wooden plank. Grem’tha hissed out a warning, but it was too late. He’d stepped on the end of the plank, right where it joined the next board. All his weight bore down on it – and it seesawed straight up with the force of a flying anvil, clocking him hard against the side of the head.

  Jack staggered. His hit points dropped by ten percent. He spun around, not quite understanding what had just happened. He saw the plank, and watched it clatter to the ground a little ways away from its starting position. He saw the floor joists underneath, and the spaces between them – and piles of shimmering gems and gold tucked into the spaces.

  Things started to make a little more sense – but not all of them. He got why and how he’d been clocked on the side of the head. Somehow, the floorboard had come loose, and he’d applied all his weight to the end of it. Like someone sitting on one end of an unoccupied seesaw, the floorboard pivoted on the joists, and flew up – straight for his head.

  That part made sense. It was just a matter of physics – a little enhanced by the game, perhaps. But he followed, at least.

  What didn’t make sense was how the floorboard had come loose in the first place, and why the space underneath was packed with treasure. Or why, for that matter, Grimlik averted his eyes, and Grem’tha covered her face – and Arath steadfastly refused to look at him.

  It didn’t make sense, but he had a very strong feeling that it was all connected. So he turned on the trio, demanding, “What in fluff is going on here?”

  Grem’tha started to squeal. “Don’t yell. Don’t yell, Good Jack. Not at poor Grem’tha. Tried to warn you, I did. Tried to warn you, before you stepped.”

  “Not her fault,” Grimlik said. “Blame Arath.”

  And on some level, he did. So Jack turned fierce eyes on the ranger, demanding an explanation.

  The other man shifted and shrugged. “Look, you weren’t supposed to step on the board, mate. It’s not my fault you don’t know how to walk.”

  “Why is there treasure down there? Where did it come from?”

  “Treasure? Nah. That’s just a little loot is all.”

  Jack gritted his teeth. “Where did it come from?”

  Arath shook his head. “No clue, mate. Why don’t you ask the goblin? All I know is, she gave me a bunch of shiny things, and I needed a place to store ‘em. That’s the truth.”

  Every snippet of conversation, every passing phrase about missing baubles, came rushing back to him, and Jack groaned. “It was you – all this time, it was you robbing the palace, wasn’t it? And the jeweler people were talking about in town? Was that you too?”

  Arath shook his head adamantly. “I told you, old bean: I didn’t rob anyone. I just accepted Grem’tha’s gifts, so as I didn’t hurt her feelings none. You know how she is: very sensitive.

  “How was I to know she was stealing from people?”

  This sent Grem’tha wailing, and Grimlik hissing and threatening. Jack swore that Arath was a plague on their group. Karag volunteered to “heal the infection, for the good of everyone concerned.”

  They went round and round for a quarter of an hour, with recriminations and sobs and justifications. Arath didn’t see himself in the wrong at all. Grimlik blamed the ranger entirely, and Grem’tha wept openly for the trouble she’d caused.

  In the end, Jack decided that the treasure must be returned. This job he tasked to the goblins, whose stealthy method of acquisitions he hoped could be reversed. Grimlik agreed with a sneer the ranger’s way. “Grimlik make right. Happy to make right.”

  Arath protested that he was being penalized for Grem’tha’s crimes, and Karag scoffed, and offered to show him what it felt like to actually answer for his wrongdoing.

  Then and only then, Jack headed to the council chamber. Delling and the black mages and the great smiths were all still there, all seated exactly as they had been.

  But this time, the king smiled. “Ah, Jack, I have news for you. Good news. We have discovered a way to unwork the curse set upon the heroes of the many worlds.”

  Jack loosed a breath of relief. Finally. “That’s great.”

  “Yes.” The king produced a scroll of papyrus – the same scroll Jack had bought in the marketplace, and brought to Kagil. The same scroll to which Kagil
had applied holy water and a dove’s feather and the teardrop of a wicked thing. Now, it was covered in a script he couldn’t read – no doubt, inscribed by the black bone quill. “You will need to open this scroll in the presence of one of the victims – one of the heroes who has been turned to stone.

  “When you do that, the spell will begin to unweave the dark magic across all worlds.”

  Jack nodded and took the proffered scroll. His quest log updated:

  Objective complete: Work with Delling to reverse the curse, and discover how to free your companions.

  Objective added: use King Delling’s spell scroll to free your companions

  Jack started to thank the king, but Delling hadn’t finished. “I have more news for you. Some of it good.

  “We have confirmed your claim about Kalbidor. We know now that you were not lying.”

  The game alerted him:

  You have gained goodwill with King Delling.

  You are well-regarded by the people of Ivaldi’s Hall.

  “Which brings me to the bad news: the demon horde is at our gates.

  “Quite literally, I’m afraid. We will need to defeat them before you can leave.”

  His quest log updated as the king spoke.

  Objective added: defeat Kalbidor and the demon horde

  Delling went on, “But never fear: the finest troops in the land are on it. I’m sure you’ll be on your way inside an hour.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Jack wasn’t on his way within an hour. On the contrary, an hour in, and he was up to his eyeballs in demons.

  Despite Delling’s confidence, the battle started hard, and got worse from there. The demons came with Kalbidor at their head, riding a pitch-black dragon. A cutscene showed the first wave – and none of it went the dwarves’ way.

  Kalbidor’s dragon beat down the front gates. Meanwhile, demons rappelled into the dwarven realm through the Crimson Vale. Within seconds, the battle already existed on two fronts – with demons marching in from the north and streaming through the busted gate.