Spawn Campers: A LitRPG Adventure (The Crucible Shard Book 2) Read online

  Spawn Campers

  The Crucible Shard: Book Two

  Skyler Grant

  Copyright © 2017 Skyler Grant

  All rights reserved.

  This novel is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictional.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or with written permission of the publisher. Inquiries may be addressed via email to [email protected]

  Cover designed by Grace Zhu (gracezhuart.com)

  Formatting by Polgarus Studio (www.polgarusstudio.com)

  Electronic edition, 2017

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  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  I took the goblin’s swing on my shield and delivered a quick stab with Intemperance. Flames wreathed the blade and I felt a pulsing hint of madness from it as the goblin screeched before falling back dead.

  I took a moment to look around for the others. What had been a quiet walk through the woods had suddenly turned into madness. Goblins were around three feet high, greenish, liked to ambush—and they were unpleasantly good at that last bit. Well, to be fair they were good at the ‘being short and green thing’ too. Individually weak, they became dangerous as a swarm.

  Ashley had four on her, two looked to be in heavy hides with one wielding a two-handed sword and the other a sword and shield. The other two were less armored and carried bows. I quickly checked their stats.

  Goblin Brute

  Level 5: Type: Goblinoid HP: 100/100

  Goblin Brutes are the strong and brutish with a tendency to charge right at their foes.

  Goblin Ranger

  Level 5: Type: Goblinoid HP: 50/50

  Goblin Rangers are stealthy and usually prefer to attack foes from afar with bows.

  There were two of each and I swiveled around to see what Walt was up against. Three brutes for him and another carrying a feathered staff.

  Goblin Shaman

  Level 6: Type: Goblinoid HP: 65/65

  Goblin Shaman are both healers and offensive spell casters with a wide array of nature oriented magic at their disposal.

  Well, that settled that. Ashley would have to hold her own, taking out the healer was always a priority in a large engagement like this. I channeled a smite spell and felt a euphoric rush as the power coursed through me and a pillar of flame surrounded the shaman.

  To my unhappy surprise he seemed quite unfazed as the flames faded, although I noticed a shimmer in the air surrounding him. Magic. Right. Magic was a jerk.

  Curse of Lethargy

  My movements felt a good bit slower and I saw the shaman looking at me in satisfaction. Oh, this was so not done. I began to charge at him, a decidedly slow-motion charge to be sure, but I figured that I would get there eventually.

  In Plain Sight

  Backstab

  Ashley, engaged in her more one-sided fight, blinked into stealth and then emerged with her daggers having decapitated one of the rangers from behind.

  Planar Disruption

  That was Walt who gestured and caused a sphere of warped-looking space to appear in his hand, flinging it towards the shaman. One of the brutes raised his shield and blocked the spell, or at least he tried. Twisted space¿ which made me nauseous to simply look at, surrounded the brute and with a wet squelching sound he was torn apart.

  Still in slow motion I approached the shaman, who raised his staff defensively. I slammed Intemperance down on it and there was only a brief moment of resistance before the staff shattered into splinters. A blast of magical force knocked me backwards and I sprawled into a pile of leaves—which Intemperance instantly set alight.

  The Shaman was knocked backwards as well and we stared across at each other. Smart for a goblin, he moved to make his escape and I worked myself back upright. The burning leaves were already creating a fearsome cloud of smoke and I didn’t even see the goblin charging me until his sword bit into my side. I brought Intemperance down on the brute’s shield as it landed another strike in my side.

  I was only down by about 40 HP, which at my current level was barely anything, still I was getting beaten in swordplay by a lower-level goblin. With renewed focused I lashed out with Intemperance and felt my Double Attack kick in. With blinding speed my sword delivered two blows that slipped past the shield. With a scent of burning meat another goblin was down.

  Ashley was surrounded by three corpses, Walt had killed another and we looked to be alone. The rest of the goblins had fled.

  A notification came up. I’d hit a level. Really? Killing a king hadn’t pushed me over, but this little goblin encounter did. Levels were strange.

  Congratulations!

  You have reached level 8

  You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Persuasion. As the Chosen of Yvera you have further gained 1 point of Charisma. Due to your attunement you have an increased presence in the physical world and have gained 1 point in both Power and Endurance. You have further gained the abilities…

  Zealous Blow: You can now land a melee attack fueled by divine fury. As a Paladin of Yvera this attack will be especially devastating in fights you feel very passionately about.

  Fueling the Flame: In addition to previously granted benefits fueling the flame will now help you to more quickly recovery from disease and curses.

  Holy Object: You can bless an object to contain any spell that you can cast to be released later. At this level you can only manage one object and one spell at a time.

  There wasn’t anything too earth-shaking this level, but I was pleased to see the Zealous Blow. Currently the only offensive spell I had was ranged and while I appreciated the options that gave me, it was nice to have one when I was up close and personal.

  I added a point this level to awareness. I wasn’t using bows or dodging blows, so dexterity seemed something of a reliable dump stat for me. And while I didn’t need to be high in Awareness a little more alertness in combat might do me good.

  Name: Liam Ottani

  Class: Paladin of Yvera

  Deity: Yvera

  Titles: Chosen of Yvera, King of Genea

  Level: 8

  HP: 160/340

  Stamina: 140/140

  Mana: 70/70

  XP: 275 of 1000 to next level

  Alignment: -1000

  Stats

  Power: 14 (+6) Endurance: 14 Dexterity: 2

  Intelligence: 7 Awareness: 4

  Charisma: 1
2 Luck: 6

  Skills

  Long Blades: 80

  Blunt Weapons: 16

  Hand to Hand: 11

  Mounted Combat: 15

  Light Armor: 15

  Medium Armor: 22

  Heavy Armor: 17

  Persuasion: 30

  Seduction: 33

  Meditation: 4

  Barter: 15

  Shield Use: 9

  Arson: 5

  Double Attack: 2

  Blademaster: 1

  Spells

  Smite

  Sense Virtue

  Lay on Hands (2 uses per 4 hours)

  Bless Water

  Bless

  Divine Steed

  Divine Power

  Zealous Blow

  Holy Object

  Innates

  Blessed Nature

  Fire Resistance: 50%

  Sense Alignment

  Fire Within

  Fueling the Flame

  Aura of Destruction

  It had been a week since I took the throne and this wasn’t our first encounter. The local countryside was swarming with monsters. They were a bit below our level, so we weren’t rolling in experience, but at least they helped to trickle points into our skills and even those small amounts of XP added up.

  I snapped out of my menus and found Walt and Ashley madly pelting me with dirt. The leaf fire had become a large blaze and I was standing in the middle of it. Even with my fire resistance it was peeling off my HP. I hastily stepped clear and helped them put out the flames. It really was past time that I invested that point in Awareness, this was just silly.

  “You with us now?” Ashley asked.

  “Yeah. I just…”

  “We know what you were doing. You were checking your sheet while standing in the middle of a fire,” Walt said. “That was foolish even for you.”

  “Could have burned the loot,” Ashley said unhappily as she went off to raid the corpses.

  I doubted that she would find much, maybe just trash gear good for a few coins. We’d done quite a few patrols, cutting down the monster presence near the castle, and it hadn’t taken us long to find a nearby village—where we were headed today. When Ashley finished picking the bodies clean we continued on our way.

  Sarville was mostly farmers, although there was an unusually large inn and crafting hall. The village was a place of thatched roofs and simple architecture that in other times might have seemed almost idyllic.

  These were not idyllic times. When I’d taken Elsora as consort, the curse stopped trying to take over the castle—in a way it had succeeded anyway—and now the mists that once filled those halls had risen into the sky. We’d been living in almost perpetual darkness. Already the villager’s crops were dying and while we were working to make the people safer, the darkness was another problem we faced.

  “Majesty,” Bol said, as we made our way into the village commons and Ashley began to unload scavenged equipment from her bags into a pile. We were hoping with the reopening of the castle a merchant would arrive, but none had yet. We weren’t giving the village everything we took, but figured we owed them plenty for pretty much destroying their lives. Taxation should go the other way, but we hadn’t got there yet.

  “We took out some more goblins,” I said.

  “Did you find a way to bring the sun back?” Wil asked.

  All of the villagers had three letter names. I’d yet to figure out if it was local culture or something the game did for mysterious reasons of its own. It was a pain to keep track of anyone. The only villager I could really remember so far was Kat, but that was because I flirted with her regularly at the inn.

  “Not yet, Ben,” I said, and delivered my best reassuring smile.

  “Wil,” Wil said with a glower.

  “Well, of course I will,” I said, and caught Ashley rolling her eyes at me.

  “My name is Wil,” he said, with the long-suffering patience of someone who had been through this conversation several times.

  “Right, Wil.”

  My Charisma must have kicked in, because he looked mollified.

  “Crops are almost gone,” Bol said. “We don’t get the sun back, we won’t eat.”

  “We’re working on solutions,” I said, glancing hopefully towards Walt.

  “Artificial sunlight is proving impractical with our mana reserves,” Walt said. “But fungus farming is looking quite promising.”

  The villagers looked about as thrilled at the thought of farming fungus as I was at the thought of having to eat any more of it.

  A few handshakes and more assurances that things would get better, and I started us back towards the castle. After I took the throne we’d decided that, before heading off elsewhere else, we needed to thin the monsters nearby first and try to stabilize the local situation. So far, it was only the killing of monsters that was going well.

  It wasn’t a long trek until the castle came into view.

  Castle Sardonis was more a ruin than any castle these days, undead soldiers manning the walls and servants equally as life-deprived scurrying about the halls. The perpetual darkness was less of an issue here. Illumination wasn’t really a problem when the state religion worshipped a Goddess of Fire and braziers, torches and anything else that could be set alight filled the air with a constant, ruddy glow.

  I know it sounds like every evil lair ever, but what is a guy to do when his alignment has hit bottom? At least the undead army wore cheerful masks (a habit that despite my best efforts they refused to abandon). To date, my impression of being King was that it at least beat being thrown naked into the dungeon. Nobody would ever accuse me of not being a social climber.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Being a King did have its advantages and a nice bed was one of them. I had to figure out what the thing was padded with, but whatever it was, I think I slept better here than I ever did back in the physical world.

  There was a stirring beside me and I caught a glimpse of blonde hair and a bare thigh exposed by the falling sheets. That would be Elsora. I hadn’t quite figured out if the curse that created her truly required her to become the consort of the King, or if she was feigning that particular detail in the quest for power. I probably should resolve such questions before winding up in bed with girls.

  “Morning,” Elsora said, sounding incredibly cheerful. She always did in the mornings, it was a terrible trait.

  It might have been. It was impossible to tell. The slanted windows facing the courtyard showed only the deep darkness of eternal night.

  “You sure about that?”

  “I’m quite punctual,” Elsora said with yet more brightness. Just how did a powerful evil curse get such a sunny disposition?

  “Is part of that coming from being created to be the perfect, corrupting Queen?”

  Elsora leaned over to brush her lips to mine, a lingering sort of contact as she moved to curl up against me. She was a petite woman, pretty and looked to be about a decade older than me. Age was a bit of lie, a manifestation of the curse that struck the castle. She’d been here for centuries.

  “People will allow you to get away with the most dreadful things so long as you are timely and cheerful,” Elsora said.

  “I wonder if taking away the sun hurts or helps my reign then, if everyone is as confused about the time as I am?” I said with a chuckle, returning the kiss.

  Elsora played her lips against mine for several long moments before she pulled away. Her tone stayed sunny. “It hurts you and it helps you. People aren’t happy about it, but you can’t say it doesn’t make an impression.”

  “Isn’t that rather bad planning? How does a perfect Queen destroy the kingdom she is there to protect?”

  Elsora sat up in bed, the sheets dropping around her waist. I found myself quite distracted.

  “It’s not the whole kingdom, although that is worth considering. It wasn’t expected, I was crafted to tempt and corrupt Leosi, and you are a very different man,” Elsora said.

  I
felt my muscles tense and not in the good sort of way. It was a comparison that got made a lot. Leosi the great conqueror, Leosi the hero, Leosi the King who didn’t blot out the sun. Elsora had loved him, and he’d loved her. For all that, he’d never given in to that love, because that would have opened himself to the evil she represented. She didn’t love me in that way, but we had an intimacy they never shared.

  Elsora kissed me hungrily. I know what it was—she’d gone a bit too far and was correcting course by distracting me. I’m not a complete idiot, I can usually tell when I’m being played. It doesn’t mean I put a stop to it, although life would probably be less complicated if I did.

  A pleasant half hour passed without another mention of Leosi, then she was standing before the mirror and I was helping her into a dress. It had become something of a ritual, helping each other get dressed, and although I found it funny her finery was even more of a struggle than my armor.