Otherworlder - A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure (Epic Blade Book 1), page 1
Otherworlder
EPIC BLADE, BOOK 1
DAVID J. VANBERGEN JR.
Copyright © 2022 David J. VanBergen Jr.
All Rights Reserved
Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. All people, places, names, and events are products of the author’s imagination and / or used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Cover Design by J Caleb Design
Contents
1. Dungeon Dive
2. Pie: The Meal of Champions
3. Puzzling Portal
4. A Dark Web We Weave
5. Weird Science
6. Sharp Dressed Man
7. Feel the Fury of My . . . Oh Crap!
8. What the Heck Just Happened?
9. Settling a Score
10. If I Had a Nickle for Everything I Don’t Know
11. My Place in This World
12. A Dirty Job but Somebody’s Gotta Do It
13. One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure
14. Taking It to the Next Level
15. Is That a Wand in Your Pocket?
16. An Adventurer’s Life for Me
17. A Little Magic Never Hurt Anyone
18. I Wanna Be a Knight So Bad It Hurts . . . Literally
19. So Much Fun I Had to Do It Again
20. Magical Delights
21. Dress For Success
22. You’ve Got the Wrong Guy
23. When You Play With Matches
24. Grim Determination
25. Where There’s Smoke
26. Battle and Bonding
27. A Hard Pill to Swallow
28. Somebody Set Me Free
29. Still Waiting for That Rescue
30. An Unexpected Reveal
31. Did Someone Call a Goblin Exterminator?
32. Monster of Epic Proportions
33. Black Robes
34. Time to Be Professional
Epilogue: Electriterra
Thank You
Acknowledgments
Dedication
There are so many people who helped make this book possible, and I wanted to publicly thank a few of them.
First of all, there is my beautiful and talented wife, Shannon VanBergen. She is an amazing author who is very good with character development and really helped me bring the characters in this story to life.
Next is my awesome editor, Leslie Copeland. She helped me both as I wrote the story and once it was completed. We’ve had many conversations on how to craft a good story, and I’m sure there will be many more.
Once the story was done, I had two great proofreaders who helped me identify holes in the story and catch the last few mistakes. Thanks so much, Josh Schaeffer and Matthew Selle.
I would also like to thank Jake Caleb at J Caleb Design for creating some amazing artwork for the covers.
Last but not least, I want to say thank you to Pavi Proczko for bringing this story to life with an incredible audio narration.
Each and every one of these wonderful people helped make this story better. I am truly grateful for their assistance, and I hope you enjoy what we have created.
Chapter 1
Dungeon Dive
Tobias led his team down the dungeon corridor, light from the magical orb conjured by Garrett lighting their way. They had spent hours clearing the dungeon of lesser monsters and were approaching their goal.
As the passageway curved to the right, they got their first glimpse of their final objective. A huge archway was carved in the stone, and magical runes glowed an ominous red. Behind the arch, they could see a horned creature that easily stood twenty feet tall and had brownish-red skin. It was basically humanoid and had huge bulging muscles that would make the Hulk jealous.
The monster roared a challenge and pointed at them with a black-clawed finger.
The corridor leading to the archway suddenly began to fill with an undead army, summoned to protect their master from unworthy adventurers.
Dozens of mummies groaned, reaching out as they shambled toward Tobias and his team. A Mummy King led the way, hatred of all things living radiating from his glowing, red eyes.
It was the largest resistance they had faced since entering the dungeon, but they were an experienced team, and Tobias had no doubt they were up to the task.
Real2Be—Tobias Martin, Level 20 Knight
DefconOne—Matthew McKinney, Level 19 Paladin
Garish1—Garrett Cromwell, Level 20 Wizard
2Smart4U—Tasha Smart, Level 19 Ranger
KitKat533—Kateryna Volkova, Level 19 Assassin
They had been in countless battles and had faced overwhelming numbers before and instinctively knew how to handle the situation.
Matthew, who had the strongest defensive armaments, stepped forward. He extended his enchanted shield, creating a temporary barricade to give Garrett time to start casting and Tasha time to start shooting. Both did so immediately.
The Mummy King reached out a hand that now glowed orange, and a whirling sandstorm materialized in front of him. With a push of his hand, the whirlwind hurtled toward the group of adventurers.
The tornado of sand slammed into the Paladin’s shield and flowed around it into the rest of the party.
Mummy King attacks Real2Be with Sandstorm for 5 Health points damage.
Armor decreases damage by 40%.
Total Damage: 3 Health Points.
Sandstorm causes Temporary Blindness.
Temporary Blindness resisted and does not take effect.
Sandstorm was a particularly nasty spell, not because of the damage done, which was minimal, but because of the high probability of causing blindness. Tobias had resisted, but not everyone in the party had been so lucky.
“Damn, I’m blind now,” Matthew called into his headset.
Everyone else quickly called out that they had resisted the blindness. They were fortunate that only one person had lost his sight.
“Stay here. Keep the shield up and protect Garrett and Tasha,” Tobias replied. “Kateryna and I will handle the rest.”
A huge fireball suddenly erupted from the Wizard’s hand and sped toward the oncoming undead army. The Mummy King swiped a hand in front of himself, sending the fireball veering off to the side, leaving himself unscathed. The mummies on the left side of the tunnel were not so lucky, and half of them began to burn.
Tasha had also been busy during the first exchange. Half a dozen mummies were shuffling forward with arrows protruding from their animated corpses.
Tobias drew his sword and stepped around Matthew’s shield wall, intent on getting to the Mummy King before it could cast another spell. His sword, Epic Blade, was the perfect weapon for this task with bonus damage against undead creatures and the chance for a critical strike every time he swung the sword.
Name: Epic Blade, Longsword
Condition: Excellent
Damage:
32–48 Health points base damage.
+ 20 Health points versus dragons, demons, and undead creatures.
50% chance of critical strike versus opponents with 100 Health points or less.
25% chance of critical strike versus opponents with 200 Health points or less.
10% chance of critical strike versus opponents with more than 200 Health points.
Requirements:
Strength: 15 or higher
Agility: 15 or higher
Attack Cost: 5 Vitality points
Arrows continued to fly overhead, each one thudding home in a mummy, causing it to stumble backward before shambling forward again.
Kateryna was only a step behind Tobias and broke to the side, rushing into the mass of low-level but highly numerous mummies. The Assassin dodged and spun, her dual swords leaving a trail of death—well, second death, as the mummies were technically already dead.
Tobias used his Analyze skill as he approached the Mummy King to see exactly what he was up against.
Name: Mummy King
Level: 15
Size: Medium
Health: 310 / 310
Vitality: 235 / 255
Strength: 18
Stamina: 17
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 12
Wisdom: 18
Charisma: 15
The Mummy King stretched out his hand again and unleashed another spell before Tobias could reach him. This one slammed into the Knight, staggering him for a moment.
Mummy King attacks Real2Be with Death Stare for 50 Health points damage.
Armor decreases damage by 40%.
Total Damage: 30 Health points.
Death Stare causes Fright.
Fright resisted and does not take effect.
“Grrr!” Tobias growled as he stalked forward, sword held out to the side, ready to strike.
The Mummy King stepped forward to meet the Knight and punched out with his right hand. Tobias dodged to the side then swung his sword forward with one hand, striking a glancing blow. He grabbed the hilt with his second hand and swung forward with all of his strength. The two-handed strike hit the Mummy King in the midsection, cutting through the desiccated body.
Mummy King attacks Real2Be with Punch. Attack dodged. No d
Real2Be attacks Mummy King with Epic Blade for 36 Health points damage.
Strength 20 increases damage by 50%.
+20 damage against undead creatures.
Total damage: 74 Health points.
Real2Be attacks Mummy King with Epic Blade for 48 Health points damage.
Strength 20 increases damage by 50%.
+20 damage against undead creatures.
Total damage: 92 Health points.
Tobias stepped back, sword held in front with two hands, ready to strike again. Before the Knight could attack, two arrows struck the Mummy King in rapid succession, and he stumbled backward. A second later, a lightning bolt slammed into the monster’s chest, and the Mummy King exploded in a shower of rotting bandages, decayed flesh, and bone fragments.
Tobias looked to the side just as Kateryna drove both of her swords into the last remaining mummy. It crumpled to the ground as she withdrew the swords and with a twirl, slammed them back into their sheaths. A quick glance around the corridor confirmed that the battle was over.
Your party has been awarded 13,500 experience points for slaying Mummy King.
Your party has been awarded 34,200 experience points for slaying 38 Mummies.
Experience points will be divided amongst all participants in the battle.
With the battle over, Matthew’s Temporary Blindness expired, and the Paladin could once again see.
The party gathered near the fallen body of the Mummy King, and Garrett cast healing spells on those that needed it then drank a Vitality potion to recharge himself.
They looked toward the archway with sinister glowing runes and the dungeon master beyond. This was the moment they had been working toward since first entering the dungeon.
They stopped just before the archway which was the boundary of the monster’s range, and Tobias used Basic Analyze to assess the threat.
Name: Marduk, Demon Lord
Level: 23
Size: Gigantic
Health: 480 / 480
Vitality: 460 / 460
Strength: 20
Stamina: 20
Agility: 19
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 15
Charisma: 10
Higher levels of the Analyze skill would have provided more information, but he didn’t need higher levels of that particular skill to know that the Demon Lord was powerful and could end them all very quickly.
He’s a big one, Tobias thought to himself.
To be precise, the Demon Lord was the largest and highest ranked monster they had come across in the six months they had been playing the game.
He glanced to the periphery of his VR goggles, which showed that his Health bar was full, as was his stamina bar. A bar at the bottom showed the full Health level for the monster. No other icons were present.
Looking down at his wrist, he tapped the back of his left gauntlet, and a holographic screen popped up showing his inventory. He scrolled through his potions, weapons, armor, and special items.
Magic wand, no. Strength potion, no. Stamina potion, nope (this won’t be a long battle, one way or another).
He eventually found the items he was looking for and repositioned them to the top of his inventory for easy access.
Satisfied his items would be quickly available when needed, he swiped to the left, bringing up the map of the region. Several tunnels led into the chamber behind and to the side of the demon. The map also showed him the position of his team as well as the monster they were about to face—the Demon Lord, who was apparently named Marduk. Each member of his team was represented by a blue dot on the map while the monster was a red dot. Below each blue dot was each person’s game handle.
Their strategy would be similar to the one employed against the mummies, at least to begin with. Matthew would lead the way, his enchanted shield creating a defensive barrier while Garrett and Tasha began casting and firing arrows. Tobias and Kateryna would then rush into the room toward the two nearest side tunnels, one on each side. As soon as they were clear, Garrett would charge the demon, attempting to draw his attention—and hopefully deflect blows long enough for the rest of the team to do some serious damage.
The goal was to keep the demon distracted while Tobias waited for the right moment to finish off the monster. That’s what the Level 20 Knight with maxed-out strength and the most powerful weapon in the game was good at doing.
Tobias smiled, looking forward to his part. He hadn’t told the team he was going to try something new.
The item he had moved to the top of his inventory wasn’t a strength potion or even a defensive potion.
Name: Wayward Traveler potion
Effect:
Increase speed of travel across the landscape.
200% increase on roads.
100% increase on flat land.
50% increase in forest, hill, mountain, and swamp terrain.
Duration: 30 minutes
Cooldown: 30 minutes
This wasn’t a combat speed potion that would give a ten percent boost to speed. The travel speed potion was designed to let you move around in the game rapidly. It was an extremely useful potion for rapid travel through familiar areas. Using it in combat was not recommended, though, because it was hard to do anything but go forward in a straight line. He would never try using it in combat if he was using a standard gaming rig and controller, but he really thought his top-of-the-line gaming system would give him the control he needed to make it work. Tobias owned one of only one hundred made.
Time to see if I’m as smart as I think I am, Tobias thought as he gripped his sword—Epic Blade, the game’s namesake—in his right hand.
It was time to take this demon down. “Matthew, give us a barricade. Tasha, Garrett, light him up.”
Matthew stepped forward, leading the team through the archway. Once on the other side, the Paladin quickly raised his shield, creating the barricade they hoped would absorb the demon’s first attacks. Tasha and Garrett began shooting and chanting as soon as they entered the room while Tobias and Kateryna burst in, heading for the tunnels on either side of the demon.
Once the Knight and Assassin were clear, Matthew rushed forward, intent on taking the brunt of the Demon Lord’s first attacks.
Marduk reacted quickly, but not as expected. He stretched out a hand at Garrett, and javelins shot out from each finger.
The entire team froze, watching helplessly as three javelins impaled the Wizard before he even finished casting his first spell. Garrett turned to smoke and vanished.
“Ahhh, dammit,” Garrett’s disembodied voice came across the team’s headsets.
That was the thing about Level 23 monsters. They frequently had instant-death level attacks, especially if you didn’t have high-level armor. By the time Garrett rematerialized at the entrance of the dungeon—where the last checkpoint was—and found his way back, the battle would almost certainly be over.
They were an experienced team, though, and the loss of one person didn’t mean all was lost. Tasha had continued to launch arrow after arrow into the demon, ducking behind the archway when Marduk turned his attention—and his lethal javelins—on her.
