Warbreaker's Risk: A LitRPG Apocalypse Adventure (The Connected System Book 2), page 1
WARBREAKER’S RISK
©2024 TROY OSGOOD
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Contents
Also in series
Disclaimer
BEFORE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Interlude One
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Interlude Two
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Interlude Three
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Interlude Six
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Thank you for reading Warbreaker’s Risk
Afterword
Groups
LitRPG
Also in series
THE CONNECTED SYSTEM
Warbreaker’s Rise
Warbreaker’s Risk
Warbreaker’s Rage
Check out the entire series here! (Tap or scan)
Disclaimer
This story takes place in the real town of Northwood, New Hampshire. The characters are not representative or based on anyone, living or dead. Places and locations are somewhat accurate but have been altered to fit the story. Things change after an apocalypse afterall.
BEFORE
Lochlan Brady and his family were on their way home from a camping trip when the Connection struck. The Connected System had arrived on Earth, changing the entire planet and everyone on it.
Those that survived at least.
Most of the population, along with things like cars and some buildings, were taken to fuel the Worldcore which produces the Spirit that the planet and the survivors now use. Loch awakens to find he has been Adapted, his body changed by the Connection, and he can now use Spirit to perform great and magical Abilities. His two daughters, fifteen year old Harper and thirteen year old Piper, were also Adapted.
But his wife, Kelly, is missing.
Words appear in front of them, hovering in their field of vision.
Before Loch can come to grips with what has happened, two beings straight out of myth appear. An elf and a giant. Misheal Silver Bark is being pursued by a member of the Hillgrowl Clan. The elf is gravely wounded. Loch, through sheer luck, manages to make the giant fall down into an enormous chasm that had appeared in the middle of Route 4. The giant dies, giving Loch a huge amount of Spirit, which causes him to Level up.
When he goes to check on the elf, Misheal attacks. Loch is forced to kill him. This causes more Level ups for Loch as the elf and giant were of much higher Levels. Loch becomes the first human to reach Level Five and unlock the ability to gain a Class.
Loch is given options ranging from Common to Epic. He chooses the Class of Warbreaker, an Epic one that promises to be an equal mix of offense and defense. It feels like the best way for Loch to be able to protect his girls.
Warbreaker also gives Loch the Ability to summon a Soul Weapon. This weapon cannot be lost or permanently destroyed. It has its own Abilities that will grow as the weapon Ranks up. It can even gain new Abilities. Loch’s Soul Weapon takes the form of a large axe with a hammer head. It is called Onyx.
Taking equipment and weapons from the elf, along with what camping supplies they can carry, Loch and the girls set off for their home in Northwood. It was close by car, Loch figuring it won’t take that long to get there by foot.
Except the world has been changed. Route 4, once a major road through central New Hampshire has been mostly destroyed. The pavement has been torn up, cracks appearing and parts pushed up to form mounds. All of it makes travel slow.
Staying overnight in an empty house they break into, Loch is awoken in the middle of the night. Piper is talking with someone. Loch is shocked to discover a glowing green fairy sitting on the bed chatting with his youngest daughter. Cerie is a Bonded Spirit, connected to a bracelet called a Codex Band. She is the equivalent to Google, used by the Silver Bark Clan of elves as a source of information.
Loch isn’t sure about the fairy, but the Codex Band that summons her has been bound to Piper. She cannot remove it. They have no choice but to accept the fairy, who proves to be a good source of information on the Connected System as well as the various worlds and races that are part of the Connection.
In the morning, as they are about to leave the home, a monster attacks. It’s a Mutated Tick. Loch manages to kill it using some of his new Class Abilities.
The Bradys and Cerie continue their walk up Route 4. When the reach the intersection of Routes 202, 43 and 4 they encounter more monsters.
A group of hobs, vicious humanoid creatures wielding clubs and swords, are coming out of the drive to the town’s only grocery store. In a panic, Loch and the girls run under a stone arch into a nearby cemetery.
They are bombarded with notifications.
The family has entered the Chelsey Cemetery Dungeon.
It’s a Challenge Dungeon, which according to Cerie means they have to complete the entire Dungeon and its quests in order to be able to leave. Loch tries to walk out and hits a barrier. They are trapped.
That’s when the first monsters in the Dungeon appear. A wave of zombies and skeletons attack. Loch is able to fend them off, with the aid of Harper, allowing them to enter the rest of the Dungeon. Loch is not happy that Harper has to fight, but there is no choice. He cannot do it alone.
They fight zombies, skeletons, shadow wargs, spiders, giant frogs and eventually the boss monster which is a Lich. They manage to defeat the boss monster. During the time in the Challenge Dungeon, Loch earns a full suit of leather armor that grants him more Abilities on top of the ones granted by his Class.
Loch is angry at the Connection for taking Kelly away and for forcing his girls to fight in the Dungeon. Each has seen combat and killed monsters. Both girls gained Classes. Harper became a Shadow Dancer and Piper got the Ink Summoner Class.
Cerie is surprised because both girls are underage. It isn’t until a Connected, as those that have been Adapted and live within the Connected System are called, hits the age of maturity that they can start gaining experience, called Spirit. The equivalent age of maturity on Earth is sixteen and neither Brady girl is that.
Loch believes it might have to do with a Trait that he has, which apparently the majority of Connected do not have a Trait. His is called Unfettered.
During the Dungeon, Loch somehow creates his own Ability, Defiant Rage. This is not something he should be able to do, but Loch manages to make it happen d uring a time of stress when he’s pushed to his limits and believes he and the girls will die.
Loch also gains a Patron, another thing he should not be able to do yet.
The Divine Beings are the greatest of the Connected. A handful of people that have Advanced (Leveled) so high and gotten so powerful that they have become like Gods. Each Divine Being embodies a Concept, an idea that defines their power and to an extent their personalities.
They gain their power through their followers. The Connected System feeds off the Spirit generated and used by the Connected worlds and the Connected people. The Divine Beings are able to take a small part of the Spirit of their followers and use that to increase their personal power.
Loch takes Thor as his Patron. Well not the Thor of myth, the Divine Being embodies the concept of The Storm and for the newly Connected world of Earth, he takes on the persona of Thor. Other Divine Beings have become Freyja, Loki, Odin and others. Some Divine Beings are more Concept than sentient being, embodying such things as Hunger and Death.
It is through Thor that Loch learns that his Trait, Unfettered, frees him and the girls from some of the rules of the Connected System. The Connection is rigid, its rules taking on the form of game-like mechanics familiar to Loch.
Which he learns was intended.
The Connection has been adapting Earth for a very long time. Video games were created to be used as tutorials to get the people of Earth used to the rules the Connection would bring. It’s also revealed that many of the creatures and people of mythology are real. They are from other Connected worlds and visited Earth on scouting missions, knowing that someday it would join the Connection.
But unlike many of those worlds, Earth is designated as a Resource Planet. This means that there are an increased number of Dungeons and other Natural Resources spawning on Earth. It’s not a planet meant to grow a population but to provide a place for other Connected to Level and gather Resources.
The Bradys defeat the Dungeon, finish all the quests and are allowed to leave. Once back on Route 4 they see two humans being attacked by the hobs. The three rush in to defeat the monsters and save the survivors, who are revealed to be a father and son. Peter and Davis Millman, who Harper went to school with.
In the interludes a series of events and people are introduced. Divine Beings, The Hunger and Hel, create two monsters: a Wendigo from a hungry homeless man and a Dullahan that resurrects others to start the formation of its army. An elven member of the Silver Bark Clan, Elora Seedspear is sent to find her missing kinsman. She discovers an alliance between the Hillgrowl giants and a Si-Te-Cah. Little River Stone, a Sasquatch, returns to Earth with some of his people. The Sasquatch left Earth centuries ago to wander the universe. He is sent to find someone very important to the future of Earth and the Sasquatch. Poor Theodore Kincaid’s mind is invaded, setting him on a dangerous path. Ed Turner, a former Northwood selectman, finds himself in charge of a group of survivors, working with his family and others to keep themselves alive.
And Kelly Brady finds herself back at her place of birth, Martha’s Vineyard, with a handful of other survivors. They are forced to fight each other and the monsters in what they discover is called a Proving Ground. One of the few to survive, Kelly is offered Patronage by Freyja, the Divine Being Concept of Life. She accepts, knowing it’s the easiest and best way to get back to Northwood to find her husband and daughters.
Chapter One
“Dad!” Harper shouted.
Loch turned away from the father and son, ignoring the swirling multi-colored sparks of light that drifted up as the bodies of the hobs disappeared. Harper was pointing down the entrance drive to the grocery store parking lot. Their brief fight had drawn attention.
“There are too many of them!” Peter Millman cried, his voice full of fear.
A large group of hobs was charging their way. The humanoid creatures, only standing about four feet tall, were yelling war cries. Gray-skinned, the things were bulky and heavily muscled, with long arms and short legs. They wore mismatched leather armor or just simple kilts, carrying rusty swords and clubs. Round heads with large, pointed ears, yellow eyes, pig snouts, and two tusks growing up. They were closer, running across the cracked and pitted pavement.
There were no cars in the parking lot, the first time that Loch could remember seeing it completely empty during the day. The lot itself looked like Route 4, the pavement torn up, large chunks pushed into the air. It was rough, causing the hobs to have to run around the chunks or climb over them.
Harper was rushing forward, her bladed tonfas held to the side. Her body turned a light gray, melted, and disappeared into the shadows along the ground.
“Did she just disappear?” Davis Millman asked.
Loch didn’t bother answering. Activating Bulwark, the green energy shield appeared in front of his left arm.
He cursed; he hadn’t wanted Harper to rush ahead. There were too many hobs. It was hard to count the group as they kept running around and in front of each other, but there had to be at least twelve, probably more. And there could be more, deeper into the lot. This wasn’t like the Dungeon, where the mobs’ movements were somewhat restrained, and they could dictate how many they fought at once.
There was nothing he could do about it now.
The first hob was ten feet away, the distance closing fast as Loch ran at it. He Activated Windstep, one of his Challenge Armor’s Abilities. He hadn’t gotten to use it yet, this felt like a good opportunity.
The world blurred as Loch shifted. He didn’t know how else to describe it. One second he was running at the hob, the next, he was directly in front of it. The hob’s eyes widened in surprise, seeing the large human with the even larger axe descending.
For Loch, it was just a step. He’d never used the Ability before, but it had imparted the knowledge onto his mind and body. He knew what to expect. Which is how he was ready with Onyx.
The axe swung down, cutting into the shoulder of the hob, slicing into its chest.
Loch’s momentum was not stopped. He kept running, using Bulwark to knock the dying hob out of his way. Onyx was ripped out of the monster, light red blood spraying into the air.
He got the translucent shield up in time to block a swinging club, shifting his feet and avoiding a descending sword. He got Onyx up, blocking another attack, kicking out, and slamming the hob in the chest. It slid back, Onyx following up the kick, biting deep into the hob.
A bright flash of silver slammed into the first hob, knocking it aside. A second blast knocked it down. A third kept it down.
Loch kept running, huge swings of Onyx knocking aside weapons, cutting into hobs.
Harper appeared behind the creatures, bursting from their shadows. Her tonfas, the blades crackling with lightning, cut into the neck of one hob, then burst through the chest of another. She pulled them out, ducking and dancing out of the way of wild swings from other hobs. Two more fell as she danced around their swings.
It looked like the hobs were moving in slow motion, with feet of space between them instead of inches. Harper was graceful, her movements perfect. Blades and clubs coming close but never touching.
Her blades did. Each swing of a tonfa scored a hit on the enemy. They didn’t do massive damage. It was death by a thousand cuts.
Loch was just brute force.
He overpowered the smaller hobs. They were strong creatures but not a match for Loch.
More blasts from Piper’s wand took out two more, the flashes of silver bright in the late afternoon sun.
Loch came to a stop, no more hobs in his way. He looked toward the grocery store as Bulwark caught an attack. There were no more monsters. At least not that he could see. The club slammed against the shield.
And again.
And again.
Loch planted his feet, adjusting the angle of the shield. He could barely feel the pounding, the attacks were that low damage compared to what he’d faced in the Challenge Dungeon. He was also Level Sixteen now. What would the hob be? Four? Five?
Shifting his body, he sliced Onyx horizontally just below the edge of the shield. The hob didn’t see the weapon until it was too late.
Kicking the dead hob out of the way and shaking Onyx to get the blood off, Loch looked around for the next target. There wasn’t any.
