Arcane Knight: An Epic LITRPG Fantasy, page 1
ARCANE KNIGHT
AN EPIC LITRPG FANTASY
ORDER & CHAOS
BOOK 2
TIMOTHY MCGOWEN
ILLUSTRATED BY
RICHARD SASHIGANE
OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED ALL TITLES ARE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND KINDLE UNLIMITED.
Haven Chronicles
Haven Chronicles: Eldritch Knight
Short Stories/Novellas
Dead Man’s Bounty
Exiled Jahk (https://dl.bookfunnel.com/c10uz8peaf)
Silver Hawk Clan
(Can be read at the end of Arcane Knight Book 2)
Last Born of Ki’darth
Reincarnation: A Litrpg/Gamelit Trilogy
Rebellion: A Litrpg/Gamelit Trilogy
Retribution: A Litrpg/Gamelit Trilogy
Order & Chaos
Arcane Knight Book 1: An Epic LITRPG Fantasy
Arcane Knight Book 2: An Epic LITRPG Fantasy
Copyright © 2022 by Timothy McGowen
All rights reserved.
Arcane Knight Book 2: An Epic LITRPG Fantasy
Order & Chaos
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-956179-13-2
First Edition: February 2023
Published By: Rising Tower Books
Publisher Website: www.RisingTowerBooks.com
Author Site: AuthorTimothyMcGowen.com
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For permission requests, email to timothy.mcgowen1@gmail.com . This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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SPECIAL THANKS
I wanted to give a special thanks to those that helped bring this book to its current state.
Candace Morris - Alpha Reader, Beta Reader, Editor, and Proofer
Dantas Neto - Editor, Proofer
Sean Hall - Proofer
To my all those who seek an escape from reality, may this offer you a bit of adventure.
CONTENTS
Prologue - Laid Down Low
1. Mundane Living
2. Ares the Stubborn
3. Korthak Region Investigation
4. That’s no Wolf
5. Wolven Die Hard
6. Meet the Neighbors
7. Arcane Asylum
8. Gifts to Friends
9. Not so late Afterall
10. Upgrading Abilities and Titles
11. Private Meeting
12. Beth & Adathin
13. Fred & Fran
14. Watchful Eye
15. Training with the Sword
16. Emory and Ismene
17. On the Road Again
18. A Dark Crypt on a Dark Night
19. Rest Disturbed
20. Liches Get Stitches
21. Cleansing a Mana Shrine
22. Blackridge Keep
23. Lord of Blackridge Keep
24. Dreams
25. Favors Asked
26. Drinks on Me
27. Galt’s Ire
28. Mana Shrine
29. Shopping
30. Prepping
31. Travelling to the Crimson Crusaders Dungeon
32. Crimson Crusaders Dungeon Part 1
33. Crimson Crusaders Dungeon Part 2
34. High Magistrate Teresa
35. Drinks, Relaxation, & Grinding
36. The Least I could do
37. Infiltration
38. A Simple Task
39. To the Dungeon
40. Wildheart Dungeon
41. Diving Deeper
42. Nightmares in the Dark
43. Chaos Knight
44. Purging the Core
45. Family Time
46. Ares & Caldor Hunting
47. Reports Ignored
48. Breakthroughs
49. The Great Maze
50. The Great Maze Part 2
51. One Horned Minotaur
52. Blackridge Preparations
53. Blackridge Keep Established
54. Meeting the Mayor
55. Under Attack
56. Seek the Blade
57. Farewell & Goodbye
58. Shadow Council
59. Warrick and his Tower
I. Heading to a Dungeon Run
II. Entry to Carnival Galoon
III. I respect you, but also you need to die
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PROLOGUE - LAID DOWN LOW
The ivory sword must control the blasted mechanism, I decided. While I suffered pain and anguish, my captor prattled on with her tirade of questions. Soon the pain would become unbearable, even for me, and there would be little choice but to bend in my determination to remain silent. But for now, I was satisfied that my minimal resistance would suffice. I took in the room around me in a vain attempt to identify where exactly I was being held.
My head was strapped against a rough-cut stone table, so I had limited ability to survey the room. What I could see was rock and if I really strained my eyes to the left, I could make out the circular ring that worked to do the impossible against me. The table I’d been strapped onto could be moved and rotated; my captor had done it on occasion when questioning me.
The few times that I’d been moved into an upright position I saw very little past a few feet, the darkness of Chaos smothering my senses. And there was no doubt about who held me captive, it was a Chaos Knight. Back in my younger days, Elkor and I had slain a great many of them, so I recognized the signs. When I promised to look after his child, Caldor, I thought my days of adventuring were done, but the signs of unrest in the beastkin lands, incursions into Newaliyn by Southlanders, and the note that I’d received was too much to ignore.
Even now, weeks after being captured, I marveled at how I’d been lured, almost as much as how fully I’d had my magic suppressed. It took a great power to quell a level 62 Wizard such as myself. If I hadn’t gone looking for Sneal before setting out to the Southlands I might have avoided capture. It wasn’t that I thought he had been apart of my capture, but trying to find him had taken me to several questionable places.
Sneal had several poor qualities that I remembered fondly, but his loyalty had never been something I questioned. Though he hadn’t been tasked with watching over the Miles family, on several occasions I sensed his presence in the area. I believed that it was one of the reasons that Creeshaw was losing much of its adventurers. Sneal must have been making a point to scour the land clean of roaming threats and monsters, going so far as to eliminate threats that even I couldn’t anticipate. However, in the last year his presence was lacking, and I silently hoped that he hadn’t succumbed to the same fate as me.
Five years back he killed a party of power-hungry adventurers who’d happened upon Elkor’s secret, his family. From what Sneal told me that night when he came to me for help to dispose of their bodies, they’d hoped to find a vast treasure trove hidden away by Elkor’s kin. They’d wrongly assumed that Caldor or one of the twins had Sparked and had access to Elkor’s Arcane Asylum.
I’d made sure that Caldor hadn’t Sparked, keeping to the promise I’d made, but it pained me to do so. It was a difficult thing to accomplish, and without the knowhow of Elkor’s own alchemic recipes and my arcane knowledge, it would have been impossible. All that had surely come to an end by now and I found myself wondering about Caldor.
We’d grown close over the years, in almost everything he did he reminded me of his father. Had it not been for the boy, grief would have likely taken me years before. Elkor had been more than a friend or companion, our bond was deeper than blood.
“You will listen!” The harsh female voice cried out suddenly, followed by an increase in the pull on my very core. The pain defied description and had I been able, I would have lost consciousness. But that was one of the many tortures I’d been under over the past weeks, no sleep, no food or drink, just the constant pull of essence away from my core.
Even with my high attributes I knew that eventually my body would succumb to the lack of nourishment and sleep, but the blasted machine that held me made me doubt that even that release would be within my grasp.
The rough stone bed on which I lay was suspended inside two rings that moved and hummed, rotating so close that they ought to hit each other but never did so. It was of ancient Ordu design, that much I knew for certain. But only recently did I discover by mere observation that the sword this Chaos Knight held, was the controlling device.
It was difficult to truly see what lay beneath the misty black glow of the sword, but twice now I’d seen the blade through the Chaos corruption, and it shone with the light of Refined Mythril, the Ordu’s chosen metal for crafting their incredible devices. The pain subsided into a steady ripping and pulling, my breath quickening as I struggled to take in air once more.
“Warrick,” the Chaos Knight said, moving forward and brushing her black armored
Her voice softened, and I could almost believe that she cared for my wellbeing, but I wasn’t so far gone to fall for such tricks. Focusing my mind, I reinforced it against the subtle Chaos magics that worked to worm their way into my head.
“You will have to be patient,” I said, coughing to clear my dry throat. “There are many mysteries in this world and the best are discovered in time.”
My ability to say nothing while stringing together sentences was quite adept, if I did say so myself. It had the desired effect to anger her, and the pain returned. When the worst of it came, I found myself unable to breathe, which made staying silent easy.
“Tell me what you know of Ley Lines, Ordu Dungeons, and Mana Shrines?” She asked, her voice like oil running over the surface of water. “If Mana Shrines and Dungeons can be corrupted, then so can the Ley Lines. You will tell me what you’ve discovered!”
Her anger had loosened her tongue and her plain words revealed her true intentions. Did she truly mean to poison the veins of essence that traveled deep below the surface? Had the forces of Chaos abandoned their push and pull game? Did they seek to end the balance and plunge the Wyrd into pure Chaos? With Elkor missing there were few that would be able to stand against such a terrible act. Myself being among them, but with this new Ordu weapon at their disposal I would be sucked dry of any ability to act.
Level by level the impossible was being done to me. This Chaos Knight had figured out how to strip the power the Ordu provided to Sparked and with it our last chance to stand against the Chaos.
With the waning threads of my magic, I concentrated on pushing my conscious mind to make contact with someone, anyone. It was a tricky spell but one that I’d performed so many times and at a relatively low level that I was able to do it without any signs or verbal commands. But like the many times I’d tried to lash out against the Chaos Knight, I felt something funnel the power away. Nevertheless, I kept at it, picturing Caldor in my mind as I repeated the attempts to call for help.
Caldor had been a dear friend that helped in ways I couldn’t have predicted after the disappearance of my greatest ally, Elkor. Caldor was every bit as caring, strong, and determined as his father had been. I didn’t know how he could help, but someone had to before I let slip some information that would further the Chaos Knight’s agenda. Caldor would take up his father’s mantle as an Arcane Knight, I knew this with a certainty that defied conventional logic. An Arcane Knight would rise again to defy the darkness and cast down those that threatened the balance. That beacon of hope was Caldor, he just needed to grow strong enough to face the coming darkness.
CHAPTER 1
MUNDANE LIVING
For the third night in a row my dreams were filled with cries for help, but finally I thought I understood the voice I’d heard. Sitting at the edge of my bed, sweat dripping freely from my forehead, my thoughts turned to Warrick. He’d been missing since he’d left and while I was worried after his Tower turned to rubble, there wasn’t much I could do. Now I felt like I had to do something.
In my dream I’d heard my name being called out over and over again, but until tonight I couldn’t make out the voice. Did Warrick have some magic to reach into my dreams or was I overthinking it and I simply wished for the return of my friend enough that it was causing me nightmares? I decided that the latter was most likely and stood to get ready for the day.
The sun poured in from my open window and I could hear the chatter of voices beyond. It wasn’t the idle chit chat of Grace and Gregory, but the sound of the half a dozen farm hands I’d hired. In the four days that I’d been home I’d saw to a great number of things. The least of which was painting the exterior of the house after I spent an entire afternoon mending several loose wooden planks. It was simple work, but it needed to be done.
I felt a tingle press against my mind and recognized it as Ares returning from her hunt. She’d preferred to roam as of late, sometimes even going so far that I couldn’t sense her surface level thoughts. On at least one occasion she’d left to check on my mother, having grown fond of her over the last few days.
“Ferdel,” I called out to the overly tanned man. “Ares is returning from a hunt, could you check to make sure my saddle has been oiled. If she’ll let you, try to get the saddle on her as well.”
“I’ll see it done,” Ferdel hollered back from just outside the barn.
He’d sold us all but a small portion of his fields back for more than a reasonable price, along with the promise that he could have his old job back. Even going on in years as he was, not nearly old enough that it impeded his work at all, he wasn’t ready to give up a life of farming. Though if he ever decided to, he now had gold aplenty to do so.
It was good that Ferdel had agreed to step in and help, otherwise my mother or I would need to vet each of the new workers ourselves, which would have taken time we didn’t have to spare. He was a life saver and one of the hardest workers around.
A series of tents had been set up for the new workers, while a workhouse was being constructed, a process that should be finished soon, as I’d paid for a rush job. Meanwhile, Gregory had given up his room to bunk with me, so Ferdel had a decent room to stay in while the construction continued. He had his own place not far, but he wanted to keep an eye on the workers he claimed, so we had no problem giving him a room.
I hadn’t gone completely domestic, as I did still have a life of adventuring that needed tending. We’d hired on several locals to help around the orchard after purchasing back all our prior trees and a bit more from our neighbors, the Heddals. They helped us so much over the years that it felt right. With them growing older and their daughter Jill wanting to move to the city to learn a trade, they gladly accepted my offer to buy their fields several gold coins above what would be considered a fair price.
Despite the large fortune Regina Clockstein had given me and the additional smaller fortune I’d discovered inside my father’s Arcane Asylum, I wanted to set up my family with land enough to prosper without additional gold supplementing their income. To accomplish that feat, my mother had left to meet with a contact in Variyn about selling at a larger scale now that additional fields had been acquired. I’d thought to offer my help in the matter, flying to and from Variyn atop Ares would be a simple matter, but I knew better.
This would be my mother’s first major outing since she’d started taking the tonic that kept the mind sickness from overtaking her and she needed this win to help her feel normal again. Upon my suggestion, I had her take the twins and a sizable load of kelt fruit. I then argued the importance of hiring an adventurer or two for protection of life and goods. She’d begrudgingly accepted, and I personally posted the notice and picked the two adventurers. They’d been given a quest, something that was fairly common when you posted things to the Adventurer’s Hall’s quest board, and my gold offer was supplemented by a reward of essence from the system.
