Trojan: An Epic LitRPG Adventure (Afterlife Online Book 3) Read online

  He coughed up a bloody mess but clutched his dagger tight. In and out again. This time I managed to squirm so it only found my shoulder. Still, the damage on both ends was compounding faster than the 401k I could no longer use. This was a war of attrition.

  My eyes flitted to Kyle. Just an upturned heap with an arm yanking at the net. Still struggling, I retreated backward across the tavern, dragging the assassin with me. My dash, my deadshot, and my tornado spin were all still in cooldown, and my weapon had been neutralized by a sacrificial blow. He twisted on my spear and pressed the attack.

  "What are you doing?" I hissed. "You're gonna kill yourself."

  His eyes locked with mine as he croaked through bloody teeth. "Sometimes the path to victory requires death."

  My eyes widened at his determination.

  Poe angled his blade toward my neck. I released the dragonspear, hoping to shove him away, but I'd waited to long. He was too fast.

  At least, he was nice and fast until a sword the size of a picnic bench crushed him into a ruined heap. I flinched backward as Lash hefted her Final-Fantasy-sized cleaver for another blow. The follow-up wasn't necessary.

  Surprise!

  [Lash] dealt 104 damage to [Poe]

  [Poe] is dead!

  "How's that for a path to victory?" she chortled.

  The white-washed full plate of my savior stood mighty and tall. Her helmet swiveled to me, eye slit cold and dark. "You really should watch yourself, boss. I mean, seriously, what kind of faction leader gets killed in their own guildhall?"

  1090 White Knight Chronicles

  I feigned calm and retrieved my dragonspear, blinking at the broken body on the tavern floor. "Thanks, Lash. It's good to have you on my side for once."

  I was being dramatic, of course. While the knight and I had often butted heads in the past, she'd since sacrificed herself for the founding of the Black Hats. Lash was one of us now, without question.

  Which wasn't to say managing her was a cakewalk.

  I pointed to the assassin. "That's your loot. You deserve it."

  The knight eagerly dug into her spoils. Her excitement was short-lived. "This is crap. Barely any silver. No items worth a damn."

  "Too bad he didn't drop that needle knife. It packed quite a sting." I chewed my lip. "No possessions, last words about victory through death, an assassin behind enemy lines—he expected to die. I guess your reward is the satisfaction of saving your fearless leader."

  The stocky woman snorted and pulled off her helmet. Her hair was freshly bleached and she wore especially thick black liner in points outside her eyes. "You don't look so fearless at the moment." She turned and whistled. Her crew filed in the door.

  Where Lash was a large and menacing figure, her healer Glinda was gaunt and frail. The priest was one of the older players I'd seen in Haven. Thankfully, she was quite talented. With the danger safely neutralized, she cast a spell that surged my health and spirit to maximum. I sighed in relief.

  Conan filed inside with a greataxe. Unlike Glinda, the barbarian was disappointed he'd missed the big show. He stomped around the public house flexing unnecessary muscles.

  Newer to Lash's party were the twins, Crux and Hex. The brother-sister duo skewed toward the antihero look. Dark hair and dark eyes, Crux was a fellow explorer who wore full black leathers—I'd actually picked up his raiding tips from the wiki before we ever met. Hex went for a cuter Hot Topic ensemble.

  "Good awareness, Bravo Team," Lash told them.

  "We didn't even do anything," complained Hex. "Why do we always need to wait in the back?"

  "Because you're a necromancer and your brother's a thief. You both have glass jaws."

  Hex pouted but her brother only watched with sharp eyes. The quintessential silent type, it was hard to get to know him. They made a dark and brooding pair. Not only was that a good fit for the Black Hats, but their skills fleshed out Lash's party.

  [Lash - Level 9 Knight]

  [Glinda - Level 7 White Witch]

  [Conan - Level 7 Barbarian]

  [Crux - Level 6 Thief]

  [Hex - Level 6 Necromancer]

  Lash's level was new, and it was impressive. Besides me and my party, she was the only player I knew so high, no doubt due to her work ethic and brutal grinding.

  Now fully refreshed from the ordeal, I admired my own character sheet.

  Talon

  Level

  9

  Class

  Explorer

  XP

  64985

  Kit

  Scout

  Next

  74950

  Strength

  17

  Strike

  337

  Agility

  24

  Dodge

  400

  Craft

  6

  Health

  261 / 261

  Essence

  10

  Spirit

  227 / 227

  My XP was concerning. Due to recent events and administrative woes, the devs had vastly strangled the circulation of XP in the Haven ecosystem. Many blamed me for killing a titan and forcing permanent progression—two acts I would never apologize for. The end result, nevertheless, affected everyone on the server. Leveling was slower of late.

  I needed to hit 75,000 before dying, otherwise a month of grinding would go down the drain. It almost had just now. The encounter with Poe revealed how vulnerable I really was.

  I swiped to my expanded skills.

  Skills

  2

  Spear

  3

  Crossblock

  3

  Deadshot

  3

  Tornado Spin

  1

  Spinshield

  1

  Awareness

  Exploration

  Tracking

  Darkvision

  Survival

  Navigation

  Cartography

  Traversal

  Dash

  Vault

  Scale

  Stealth

  Sneak

  Subdue

  It was an impressive list, made more so by recent additions that hadn't cost me skill points. During the skirmish with Poe, I'd experienced my first-ever skill evolution. Not just a new skill parameter—I'd achieved that before. This time I'd earned a brand-new skill.

  Spinshield

  A spinning block that counters attacks from all directions while dealing modest return damage.

  Spirit Cost: 44

  Cooldown: 120 seconds

  The new block had come from my contextual use of tornado spin in conjunction with crossblock. In other words, a prepackaged skill combo. The actual ability itself didn't seem especially novel, however. Lash had something very similar if not identical.

  I chewed my lip and opened up last week's patch notes.

  Haven version 0.9.26

  - Reshuffled quest opportunities.

  - Rebalanced mob aggression.

  - Expanded skill and spell notifications.

  - Tweaked reputation maximums.

  - Folded proficiencies into skills. Proficiencies have been underused and underpowered. Their adaptability has been carried over.

  That explained why I had so many skills now. Exploration and tracking were now considered passive skills. The proficiency list was gone altogether. Interestingly, current speculation was that all skills could improve with use now. I continued through the patch log.

  - Starting at level 10, no more skill points will be awarded on a per-level basis. This is necessary to rebalance the adaptability aspect.

  That note worried me. It was why I still had 2 skill points left unspent. Once I hit level 10, I wouldn't be receiving any more. Those 2 points were a finite resource.

  - Isolated naturally occurring skill evolution events and added appropriate UI markers.

  Here was the one I was looking for. A throwaway line about skill evolution events. While the comment had spurre
d discussion among the community, I'd assumed functionality would remain the same. Skills could sometimes have their parameters tweaked to behave differently, like using dash in midair. I hadn't heard of new skills sprouting into existence before. With Haven's genetic algorithms being initiated by player inputs, it made perfect sense. I wondered what else we could control.

  Regardless, I was only able to manage what I knew about. That currently meant dealing with more possible assassination attempts. Poe had caught me totally unprepared, and I couldn't risk that happening again. I was finally ready to spend one of my skill points.

  Intuition

  Uncanny recognition of immediate impending danger.

  The description of the awareness skill left a lot to the imagination, but the player wiki reported good things. Having a sort of virtual Spidey-sense would very much keep me on my toes. I purchased the skill and closed the menu, satisfied.

  "Uh, guys?" peeped Kyle from out of sight. "Can anyone help a brother out?"

  We all turned and found the brewmaster crawling out like an inchworm from behind the bar, glowing net still tightly wrapping his body.

  Lash stomped over. "I like the new look. Doormat-chic."

  "Seriously?"

  "Nah, you're right. You probably can't pour a beer like that, can you? I'll get you outta there, but you're comping my first bar tab." The knight brought her fist to her chest and muttered.

  [Lash] cast Essence of Will on [Kyle]

  The buff was an instantaneous nullification of minor magical afflictions. A warm glow washed over Kyle and the net dissolved into nothing.

  "You guys need to up your magic resistance," remarked Lash.

  The brewmaster stood and brushed his clothes. "Tell me about it. Thanks."

  "How're your kegs in the back?" I asked.

  His eyes flitted to the assassin's corpse as it faded away. "So it was sabotage. Sneaky bastard. No permanent damage, luckily."

  I nodded and stepped outside. It was a bright morning with modest activity. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Lash and her team joined me.

  "What do you think?" she asked.

  I saw the hunger in her eyes. She wanted action.

  The Mexican-born stalwart was brash, headstrong, and had grown up with two older brothers who became Marines. That pretty much explained all anybody needed to know about her. Her induction into the Black Hats was a no-brainer for both of us. She liked to play on the winning team and, after the crusaders moved on, my faction was the only game in town.

  I'd initially wanted Lash to be my army general. Her knight kit was excellent for tanking while buffing nearby allies. What could be better for morale? Unfortunately, the opportunity presented a couple of problems. The first was she didn't want anything to do with army, digital or otherwise. The second reason was more practical. Lash wanted agency and excitement, which translated to a tactical team not bogged down by training and corralling large groups of soldiers.

  In a way I admired that. Lash knew what she wanted and didn't stray from the path. It's not that I didn't find administrative faction duties fascinating, but it was definitely a full-time gig. It's partly why I was still level 9 and she'd caught up.

  Anyway, Lash was a formidable combatant who inspired others. I would've been stupid to let her go. So I gave her a special position of her choosing: the command of her own elite Marine Recon. Even the name she came up with, Bravo Team, made her the undisputed Bravo Leader, a clear claim of second-in-command of the Black Hats. That wasn't the reality, of course. While I was the head of the faction, I trusted Kyle and Izzy more than anyone in the afterlife. They undoubtedly led things in my absence, and Lash had thus far respected that.

  "Fan out," she ordered her team. "Search the alleys. Stay close." They did as ordered. With Kyle cleaning up inside, it left us alone.

  "When did you finally make level 9?" I asked.

  "A week ago."

  Damn. That was a long time for the competition to slip my notice. I gave her a belated thumbs up.

  The average Haven player was level 5 at this point. Anyone lower was new or not trying hard enough, and anyone good skewed closer to 7. The problem was a few of us had more XP than the world state could support, with gains partially coming from glitches and hacks. Now our level thresholds were exponentially larger than the average player's. Without the introduction of advanced quests, I foresaw a time when most people's levels would even out.

  "Any idea what that assassin was about?" asked Lash. "I thought people around here liked you."

  "I haven't seen Poe around," I admitted, "but he was too high level to be a noob."

  My reputation in Stronghold was better than it had ever been, but that didn't mean there weren't some who objected to my presence and influence. The catechists still wanted a piece of me, and I couldn't discount the stray goblin hater. The Black Hats had agreed to an armistice with the pagan faction. Despite assertions that the peace would never last, it hadn't been breached in four weeks.

  Not that I was ready to sing Kumbaya over the momentous accomplishment. The peace was a mirage. The pagan-killing quests had dried up with the bishop's defeat. Goblin populations were now fractured but elusive, no longer easy XP. Their main base was in Shorehome, half a world away. The lack of goblin clashes could entirely be attributed to the lack of goblins.

  "Well," noted Lash, "the asswipe is dead now. If he was paid for the job, he'll probably come back. Then I'll kill him again."

  "You're a real go-getter. It's too bad, too. I would've loved to snag someone like Poe for that coveted 50th member."

  I opened my faction status.

  Black Hats

  Faction Level: 1

  Members: 49 / 50

  War

  Catechists

  Armistice

  Pagans

  "We'll get there, boss."

  I nodded and turned to start my rounds. Surprising as it was, the assassin wasn't the only exciting thing happening today. I made my way down the street and was surprised to find Lash on my heels.

  "What's up?" I asked.

  She shook her head.

  Another moment of walking. "Was there something else?"

  "Nope."

  "I'll take it from here, then."

  The overgrown woman stuck to me like glue. "No can do, boss. Assassins sometimes travel in groups."

  "I'm sure I'm safe now. I've got faction duties to attend to. You know, that stuff you didn't want to deal with."

  "I'll deal with it." She cut off my objection. "You gave me full autonomy to lead my team as I see fit, and I just assigned us as your new bodyguards. At least until we get a better understanding of where he came from. Get used to having us around."

  Ugh. I didn't relish the thought. At the same time, she'd earned the right to call this.

  "Fine, let's do the rounds together. But don't say I didn't warn you. This is what being the boss really looks like."

  1100 Town Life Stuff

  We trudged down the main strip. Which, being Oldtown, was a euphemism for a walkway unobstructed by rubble.

  This ancient neighborhood was the original heart of Stronghold. In the shadow of the megacity's grand architectural feats, Oldtown hadn't held up. Aside from a single magical tower, the rest was squalor, a field of ruins downed by the brutal combination punches of invasion and time. A lifeless district relegated to the history books.

  All that had changed when I declared it Black Hat territory.

  Oldtown was no longer abandoned. Nowadays it was tough to keep tabs on all the locals. A flood of Shorehome immigrants had set up a tent city over a month ago. Many had since moved on, whether back to their city or into new housing in this one, but Oldtown was still in transition, scummy and filled with transients. Then again, some of them were Black Hats now. In the interest of growing the faction, I couldn't afford to reject any who applied.

  My experience thus far in Haven had taught me a lot. Topping that list was the amazing strength to be found in unity, even ag
ainst the developers and saints themselves. All my focus was on driving toward the ambitious goal of creating something greater than the sum of its parts.

  During the dramatic formation of the Black Hats and the ensuing battle for the city, membership had immediately skyrocketed to 48. The faction had practically leveled up in its inaugural hour. Unfortunately, the following hours and days saw a decline as members parted ways.

  There were no hard feelings. Many players and friends had joined to support the battle but didn't want long-term obligations. Others were ignorant blowhards who took principled yet misguided stands against the goblin armistice and my agreement with the Wild King—players had grown fat off the pagan quests and those days were over.

  More pressing was the rogue catechist faction the Black Hats were at war with. Cleric Vagram used guerrilla tactics against faction members in the deep wild. After brutally slaying select players for their association with us, it spurred some of our membership to go independent.

  Then came a possible misstep on my part. My friends and I were cash rich, but that could only go so far after so many investments. I'd instituted a mandatory 10% tithe on all player earnings toward the collective faction. The idea was for everybody to contribute. In hindsight, the move was too early.

  All things considered, being a Black Hat lost its luster. I was an infamous player with a cool tower, but those things didn't exactly trickle down. Low-level factions were simple and as yet offered no real benefit to members aside from inclusion in an exclusive club. Basically, we were getting away with not providing a whole lot because we were the only game in town. I intended to fix that before it became a problem.