DLC: A LitRPG Adventure (The Crucible Shard Book 6) Read online

  A hole briefly appeared in reality and a blasting bolt of heat erupted to catch my shoulder, burning away my armor and flesh, and sending me staggering backward.

  I used to have passives that gave me an exhilarating rush whenever I got hurt. I didn’t have them anymore, but if I pretended hard the first stages of shock were almost as good.

  I pivoted on one foot and drove my fist upwards catching Ashley in the midsection. I was boasting enhanced strength these days and she was left gasping for breath as the blow flung her back.

  Ashley was quick though, too quick and too dangerous to be dispatched in one blow, and she surged forward with her daggers flying.

  Fist of Destruction

  Walt swung with the Death-hand towards the deck just as Lea was closing on him. The wood shattered, splinters exploding in all directions, some cutting deep enough into the seer’s flesh for wounds to begin seeping blood which cut through the lines of her runic tattoos, causing several to go dim.

  Slicing Portals

  Lea countered by sending blue disks of energy soaring in his direction. One buried itself in Walt’s leg and left a massive rent showing flesh and blood.

  Fist of Destruction

  Walt lashed out with a second punch to the deck. This time the wood gave way completely and he and Lea fell through to the deck below.

  Yve stumbled past with her eyes closed and swinging her two-handed sword wildly. It seemed to be going about as well as expected.

  This wasn’t working. I couldn’t do anything to help Yve while Ashley was still standing, but right now I was barely holding my own against her. I was pulling my punches and trying not to hurt her, but she was doing her best to kill me. I had to get more aggressive—she’d heal.

  Ashley lunged in with her daggers again to slash my chest and I leaned into it so that I could deliver a fierce kick to her knee. I didn’t pull anything this time and with my full enhanced strength behind it I heard the bone crack and she dropped to the deck.

  “Stay down Ashley,” I said.

  Of course she didn’t.

  Incapacitate

  Ashley threw a dagger. It drove through my hand, pinning it to the mast behind me. I tried to wrench it free, but the blade stuck. Ashley was dragging herself towards me. I lashed out with my foot again, catching her in the jaw even as her remaining dagger tore apart my knee. Ashley went sailing backwards to fall in an unconscious heap.

  I seemed to be shedding an alarming amount of blood.

  I caught a glimpse of the Eye from the corner of my vision. It was down by about a quarter of a HP, Yve must have landed some blows with something, but it wasn’t enough. The Eye just seemed to be toying with her.

  I focused on the deck. Below, Walt and Lea looked to be unconscious amid the splinters. Riggs was kneeling and checking on Lea’s pulse.

  “Riggs, how are the engines?” I shouted, my voice weaker than I would have liked.

  “Lad, you sound half-dead. The engines are fine. Do you need me up there?” Riggs called back.

  “Need you below. We need some rapid upward movement.”

  I give Riggs credit for not asking any questions. The dwarf moved out of view and, less than a minute later, the engines roared and the ship bucked violently as we lurched upwards.

  Yve stumbled to the deck. I screamed as the sudden force wrenched my hand free of the dagger, tearing flesh and bone apart. The Eye, which moments before had been floating above the deck, suffered a far worse fate as the ship plowed into it at high speed.

  Its flesh ripped apart on contact, and with a wet, squishy plop it was no more. That was my last gruesome sight before everything faded to gray, then black, from blood loss.

  I didn’t know how much time had passed until my world exploded back into light. Another scream tore from my throat as my abused flesh knitted back together. I had Yve’s Lay on Hands to thank. She had crawled over to me and put a gauntleted hand upon my leg.

  One of our masts snapped, a massive column of wood and rope swinging past as it flew off into the sky beyond. The ship wasn’t made for such a rapid climb. Fortunately, it couldn’t keep it up for long and with a tremble the engines soon gave out.

  “That sucked,” I said.

  Yve gave a dark chuckle as she pushed herself to her feet and made her way over to Ashley.

  Lay on Hands

  Ashley howled as the injuries I’d inflicted were undone.

  “Lea and Walt are down below. He punched a hole through the deck,” I told her.

  “You broke my jaw,” Ashley said mildly. “Nice punch.”

  Yve said, moving towards the stairs,”Through the deck? Walt is such a badass now.”

  “Did you see what we were fighting before it mind-zapped you?” I asked Ashley.

  “Yeah. One of the greater evils we left behind in the desert. How many do you think are left?”

  Not many, I could only hope. But really, I feared that we’d be cleaning up messes for a long time to come.

  Chapter 3

  After the fight nobody was eager to rush back to bed. We wound up doing repairs on the ship through the morning.

  The Vainglory made quick time crossing the glass expanse below—what remained of the desert after having been blasted by not one but two starships crashing.

  We were soon hovering over a village nestled in a pass between two mountains. It was populated, a small crowd gathering to look up towards the airship.

  “They’re probably afraid we’re going to attack them,” I said to Lea.

  “It’s the Village of Seers. They know we’re not a threat,” Lea said.

  “Looks nice. Why did you leave?”

  “Wanted to see the world through something other than a scrying portal. Why does anyone leave home?” Lea asked.

  It was weird, Lea was usually so forthright and honest, and yet I heard something in her voice. I didn’t think she was quite being truthful.

  “More to it than that? Isn’t there?” I asked.

  Lea gave me a rueful smile. “Isn’t there always? Let’s go, I’ll try to keep this layover quick.”

  There was nowhere suitable to land the Vainglory, so instead we dropped a rope ladder and made our way down. It was as Lea said, we seemed to be expected, and there was no hostility or wariness.

  Lea was being hugged a rather alarming amount. From the snippets I overheard I guessed she must be with her family.

  A heavyset and cheerful woman pulled me away from the group. “King Liam, welcome. We don’t see much in the way of royalty here. We’ve set a meal out for you and your companions. Lea will probably be busy for a time.”

  Lea did seem well and truly in the grip of her family. I signaled to the others and the woman led us to the largest of the buildings in the small settlement.

  Inside a table had been set with pots of steaming tea and bowls of a thick, pungent stew.

  “This is nice,” I said.

  “I’m Burma, by the way. We try to set a good table,” Burma said, making motions for us all to sit down.

  “Everyone seemed happy to see Lea,” I said.

  “They’ve missed her. It was quite the surprise when she left. There wasn’t much warning,” Burma said, pouring out several cups of tea.

  I took one and had a small sip. It had a surprisingly woodsy flavor that I couldn’t quite identify.

  “She doesn’t talk about it at all. I didn’t even know her home was here until she suddenly wanted to visit,” I said.

  Ashley kicked me under the table. Right. I should probably be more subtle about that.

  Burma didn’t seem to mind. “People don’t tend to look back on the places and things they’re running away from. And she’s picked a difficult time to return.”

  “Can you tell us more about Lea?” I asked.

  Burma gave a sigh as she took a seat. “You’ve met her. Bright, brave, she is just the sort of child every village hopes to have and rarely gets to keep. She was the strongest seer of her generation.”

&nb
sp; “Everyone here is a seer?” I asked. You’d assume so in a place called the Village of Seers.

  “Almost. You’ll get a rare child without the gift, but most have some trace of it. Lea’s family has always been strong in it.”

  “Is her runic magic also local to your village?” Walt asked.

  “It is. Go back a few thousand years and several armies once joined here to defeat a great and terrible evil. The few survivors stayed to make sure it would not rise again. Our magical traditions are born of theirs,” Burma said.

  I winced. I’d had quite enough of great and terrible evils lately. “You’re quite certain it’s dead?”

  Burma chuckled. “The evil? Oh my, yes. Dead and buried, risen once or twice more and vanquished for good. It took us a long while, but we finally got it right.”

  Good. I had quite enough trouble cleaning up my own messes without having to tidy up those of a thousand years ago.

  “So, what was Lea running from?” It earned me another kick from Ashley, but I wanted to know.

  “She was set to become our next Keeper of the Sight. Think of it as something like a head priestess, our ultimate magical authority. Traditionally they marry the next headmaster of the village. Lea was less than eager to adopt either role,” Burma said, suddenly sad.

  That made a lot of sense. I’d spent enough time running away from any responsibility myself that I understood the temptation. As for running from marriage, yeah, I understand that too.

  “And it surprised you when she left? How does that happen in a village full of seers?” I asked.

  “The Sight doesn’t tell you everything. It almost never tells you anything useful. If a prophet ever promises you useful predictions I suggest you punch them straight away,” Burma said.

  “I’ll stab them, Liam. You know—if you want me to,” Ashley said. When it came to sociopathic hobbies she was so very helpful these days.

  “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind. So, she just took off?” I asked.

  “Without a word. The village waited a year for her to come back—a year for her to return and do all the things that she was supposed to do. When it didn’t happen, life went on. Her cousin Sarelle is now Keeper and married to Leif, who was to be Lea’s husband,” Burma said, with a note of discomfort.

  “What’s wrong?” Yve asked.

  “Tragedy of late. Leif murdered Cara, who was the former Seeker. It’s shaken the whole village,” Burma sad.

  I could already feel my head starting to pound. This was supposed to be a quick and pleasant diversion, and a chance for Lea to reconnect it, and now sounded like it might be anything but.

  Ashley must have caught my expression, because she leaned over. “Do you think Lea knew and that is why we came?”

  I couldn’t rule it out. Lea had been talking with Lake, who had the knack for making one consider what was really important to them. Besides that, she was a seer in her own right.

  “Do you know exactly what happened?” I asked.

  “Leif denies the killing, but evidence was found that proves him the killer. We all have ritual knives that are gifted to us upon adulthood. We never let them out of our sight. One was the murder weapon, and everyone in the village but Leif has been able to produce theirs,” Burma said.

  I considered it all. How much did we want to get involved here? This wasn’t our problem, we were on a mission to save Earth and time could be critical. Still, these were Lea’s people and now that I was King of the Crucible Shard they were my people as well. I couldn’t ignore that.

  “I’d like to do my own investigation,” I said.

  “You do not need to trouble yourself,” Burma said.

  “And you’re not exactly a master detective,” Ashley added.

  “I’ve got a new power that should let me see within Leif’s mind. If he is guilty I may be able to tell, and if not, I might be able to get some insight who the killer is,” I said.

  The door swung open and Lea stormed in looking determined.

  “Liam, I need a favor,” Lea said.

  “You want to figure out what is going on with Leif,” I said.

  “Yeah. I can track down Aria. I know Leif, he wouldn’t have done this. Whoever the killer really is, they are keeping this a secret, right?” Lea said.

  It was a good idea. Aria knew all the secrets and she would be able to point the finger towards the guilty party. Unfortunately, we had no idea where Aria was.

  “I’ve got something else we can try. Can you take me to Leif?”

  “This isn’t outsider’s business,” Burma said.

  Lea wasn’t listening. She grabbed my hand and was already tugging me out of the cottage. We headed towards one of the other buildings.

  A musclebound young man got in our way. “You can’t see him, Lea. None of this is your business anymore.”

  The runes on Lea’s flesh glowed a brilliant blue. “You do not want to get in my way. He’s in there, Liam. Knock down the door if you need to. I’ll make sure you aren’t disturbed.”

  Right. Not quite a jailbreak then, although certainly we were breaking in. The door to the cottage was locked. That was solved with a firm punch.

  Inside was a man who appeared to be about Lea’s age and looking rather alarmed at my unexpected entrance. That was fine, perhaps his being startled would work to my favor. I’d never used my new mind games power, but I reached out for it and tried to form a connection between me and him.

  Everything went dark.

  Chapter 4

  I was inside a cottage much like the one I’d entered. It clearly belonged to the same village. There was a corpse on the floor, an older woman. She lay sprawled on her back in a pool of blood, a dagger with a yellow gem in the hilt protruding from her heart.

  Was this an admission that Leif was guilty? I didn’t know how else the murder scene would be here so perfectly preserved within his mind.

  I had to think. My mind games power wasn’t just there to help me explore people’s memories. It was somehow constructing a gameworld based on their thoughts and the situation that they were involved in.

  Leif was on trial for murder, so he had to be obsessing over it. Thinking about it and trying to figure out what really happened.

  I had an idea and checked my pockets. I was right. I found a small spiral notebook and pulled it out.

  Victim: Cara Nystral

  Age: 73

  Crime Scene: The victim was found sprawled on her back, a dagger in her chest bearing a yellow gem. There was no sign of struggle.

  Evidence

  Clues

  I wasn’t inside Leif’s memory of a murder that he committed. I was in a detective game and attempting to solve the crime of which he was accused.

  The prompts were right. Looking around I didn’t see where anything had been knocked over. That and the fact that she’d been stabbed from the front and in her own home meant she probably knew and trusted her killer. The village didn’t seem that large though, she likely knew everybody that lived here.

  I knelt next to the body and pulled the knife free so that I could study it more closely. Runic symbols adorned the blade. They didn’t mean anything to me. If the runes identified the owner I wouldn’t be able to read them. There was no other indication of anything that might be of value. No name, no year. I did notice that when I held the gem up to the light I could see faint green impurities in the stone.

  The knife wasn’t telling me much. That left the body itself. Although I’d looted many corpses it felt strange to search this one. I never thought of those enemies I’d killed as people.

  There wasn’t much to find, just a small gold coin pouch in one pocket and a bundle of herbs in the other.

  That meant robbery wasn’t the motive. If the killer wanted cash they would have taken it, and if they intended to steal anything else—rather than the gold—they would still have emptied out the purse for the sake of thoroughness. I would have.

  There weren’t any other stab wounds. As
someone who had been pissed off in more than a few fights I knew you didn’t settle for stabbing your victim just once, if you’re enraged, you let it go on for a while. So the killer hadn’t been angry. They’d been methodical, and they’d made sure to land a single, killing blow.

  I wish I had some kind of list of suspects. More information would help a lot. On the plus side, no one would create a detective game with a mystery that couldn’t be solved. I hoped that meant everything I needed was here somewhere in the room.

  I searched the rest of the cottage. The door to the outside wouldn’t open, but I was able to go through everything inside. I didn’t find anything that seemed directly connected to the murder.

  There were several bookcases filled with scholarly tomes and scrolls, largely dealing with the history of the area, as well as books on the local geology, flora, and fauna.

  After half an hour of this I stopped. I wasn’t getting any closer to solving the mystery. I was overlooking something.

  Of course, the knife.

  Everyone in the village was given one of these when they came of age. Leif was a prime suspect because he couldn’t produce his.

  I’d just turned this cabin inside out and I hadn’t found a second knife—the one that must belong to Cara. That left two possibilities. Either the blade used in the murder belonged to the victim, Cara, or it belonged to the killer and they had taken Cara’s knife with them.

  I searched through the bookshelves again, flipping through pages, this time looking for anything on these ritual knives. It wasn’t long until I found a relevant passage.

  The stone used to adorn the blade shall be chosen based upon the recipient’s planned role as an adult. Those expected to take a position of leadership within the village will have knives adorned with yellow glimmerstone to indicate the foresight and wisdom needed. Defenders of the village will have knives adorned with red hardrock to demonstrate their strength and determination. Those who will support and care for the people of the village will have knives adorned with blue sapphire to demonstrate compassion.