Stealthcaster Read online
Book One – StealthCaster
By
J. Donald and M. Kraus
© 2019 Muonic Press Inc
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www.JustinBellAuthor.com
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www.MikeKrausBooks.com
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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the permission in writing from the author.
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE - Previously on Shyft
Chapter 01 - Sacs to be You
Chapter 02 - Not out of the Woods Yet
Chapter 03 - Return to the Village
Chapter 04 - The Journal
Chapter 05 - Practice Makes Perfect
Chapter 06 - Hidden Talents
Chapter 07 - Audience with the Queen
Chapter 08 - Council Meeting
Chapter 09 - The Ambush
Chapter 10 - Ranging
Chapter 11 - Snakes in the Grass
Chapter 12 - Revelations
Chapter 13 - Weaponsmiths
Chapter 14 - In Search of the Harefolk
Chapter 15 - Spies Like Us
Chapter 16 - Kobold Chaos
Chapter 17 - The Wreckage of Draeslamere
Chapter 18 - Scavenging the Ruins
Chapter 19 - Darkness and Light
Chapter 20 - Return to Thorathon
Chapter 21 - The Favor of the Fae
Chapter 22 - Magic Energies
Chapter 23 - The Voyage North
Chapter 24 - Behold the Harefolk
Chapter 25 - Strength in Numbers
Chapter 26 - End of the Line
Chapter 27 - The Woods Thicken
Chapter 28 - Ancient Illusion
Chapter 29 - Danger comes in Trees
Chapter 30 - Many Unpleasant Returns
Chapter 31 - Together Again for the First Time
Chapter 32 - Off to the Races
Chapter 33 - Clash
Chapter 34 - Prisoners of the Serpent Queen
Chapter 35 - The Evil Within
Chapter 36 - So Begins the Great War
Chapter 37 - From the Mouth of Darkness
Chapter 38 - What Are We Without Hope?
Chapter 39 - One Foot in the Grave
Chapter 40 - Turning Tide
Chapter 41 - The Spoils of War
Chapter 42 - What Comes Next
PROLOGUE - Previously on Shyft
* * *
In the desolate urban wasteland of modern day Earth, there’s little for citizens to look forward to, especially citizens like eighteen-year-old Solomon Herrick, an orphan who lives alone, making his way through life with a surprisingly carefree attitude and general distaste for structure or authority. When two of his best friends, Ella and Megyn convince him to check out the beta of Shyft 2.0, a new MMORPG from APEX Industries, he jumps at the opportunity - after all, what is there to cling to IRL?
But Megyn’s brother Brockton hasn’t told them everything… he hasn’t told them that the beta isn’t open, he just has secret access to an APEX research and development station, and when security guards find them and open fire, the world is drowned in a whirling cloud of smoke and ash.
The real world, anyway…
Solomon awakes inside Shyft, a virtual reality game set in a world of fantasy and magic. But perhaps the most fantastical is the fact that Solomon is… happy. It’s a bright new world that seems fresh and full of promise. But also full of danger.
It doesn’t take long before Solomon is approached by Wiscilla, an ancient Dryad, a forest nymph who is the essence of Gallowind Wood. She warns him of encroaching evil, a deep and threatening darkness, and asks for his aid, aid he is only too willing to give. Working alongside his new Harefolk friend Woodland “Woody” Roundtail, Sol confronts and dispatches a growing horde of imps and demons on his way to the Tomb of the Stone King. There, he and Woody face off against a nefarious Warlock - a magic user from the nefarious Sharak-Ku, an ancient race of snake people. The warlock sends stone golems after the two young and inexperienced warriors and they’re forced to retreat - to live and fight another day.
Making their way through the deeper, darker parts of Gallowind, they reunite with an old friend, and make it to a village of Amazons. Led by Queen Soracia, they discover their original island was destroyed by shifting weather patterns and they came inland, suddenly forced into a conflict with the Sharak-Ku. The mention of this conflict triggers something in Solomon and Woody, and they tell the Amazons of their quest to expunge the evil from Gallowind. The Amazons are willing to help on one condition - Solomon, Woody, and their reunited friend Ella assist the Amazons in ridding the jungle of a dire wolf who has been hunting their livestock and injuring their people. Not knowing what else to do, they agree and move into the trees to hunt down the nefarious predator.
What they find is a large, but more or less docile beast who suddenly comes under the protection of Megyn - Solomon’s other IRL friend who takes them all by surprise. Joining hands, they start venturing back to the Amazon village…
…but instead they run into G’Lorath, an evil and menacing Pit Fiend who reveals himself to be the source of the evil threatening Wiscilla and the forest at large. The battle is joined, but G’Lorath is too powerful, defeating the party and killing Solomon, sending him back to respawn.
Scattered and broken, the party struggles to make sense of what happened, but both sides come to the same conclusion - the Tomb of the Stone King must still be breached. The threat is real.
Solomon departs from his respawn point as Megyn, Ella, Woody, Tyson the wolf and the Amazons head north, both for the same target. Striking from both directions, the two sides converge on the Tomb, engage in a vicious battle with G’Lorath and the Sharak-Ku warlock, and just barely emerge victorious.
Along the way, Solomon discovers a mysterious magical tome The Journal of Kremjak, and commits to reading it to find out more about this mysterious world. Meanwhile the Amazons let them stay while they all plan the downfall of the Sharak-Ku empire…
Chapter 01 - Sacs to be You
* * *
“Okay, this is totally gross,” Megyn said as she took a long, cautious step over the murky green mud, her leg crossing over a haphazard scrawl of dull, green grass.
“And you call yourself a Ranger,” Solomon replied, shaking his head.
“Actually, no, I don’t call myself a Ranger,” Megyn replied. “That was your brainstorm, Rogue.”
Solomon shot her a nasty look. “I’m not a Rogue, dammit. I don’t even know how to backstab. I don’t want to know how to backstab!”
“And yet here we are,” Megyn replied. “You’re a rogue.”
“I’m gonna push you down in that mud,” Solomon snarled.
Megyn chuckled. “Correction - you’re going to try to push me down, and I’m going to kick your ass and push you down, because I’m a fighter and you’re… a rogue.”
“Plus, she’s like… got more experience than you now, doesn’t she?” Ella asked, walking gingerly behind them, ducking under an outgrowth of dark, wood trees.
“Maybe I should push you in the mud?”
“Try it, tough guy,” Ella replied. “I’ll shove an ice dagger up your—”
“Hold up!” Megyn hissed, ducking down low, using one hand to balance herself against a nearby tree. “I hear something.”
Solomon narrowed his eyes, tilting a head slightly to see if he could hear it, too. Ella crouched, pulling her cloak of containment around her, which was primarily used to manage inventory, yet also had some serious stealth buffs, too. The wizard who gave it to her mus
t have been a supreme bad ass. That wasn’t the kind of thing you just gave away unless you had something better stashed somewhere.
Or unless you were on the verge of death. Which he had been. Then he went over the verge.
Over the verge? Was that even a thing? Sol scratched his head, then looked back in the direction that Megyn was looking, peering through a thick growth of trees, this particular group even more tightly clutched together than the thousand other trees out here in the Greenmurk Swamps.
“I don’t see anything,” he whispered.
“Be glad,” Ella replied. “The Shellback Monitor Lizards are small, you wouldn’t see them. If you do see something, it’s probably a Troglodyte, which, from what Locratia tells me, we really don’t wanna run into.”
In the days and weeks since they’d defeated the menace within the Tomb of the Stone King, the three party members (along with Tyson and Woody) had spent a lot of time at the hip of the Amazon Warriors of Thorathon Village. Ella in particular spent almost every hour of the day with Locratia, the Amazon’s chief sorceress, who had really helped the young girl explore her magical abilities.
It had been, and continued to be, a real challenge for Ella. With her innate connection with nature, her control and manipulation of elemental magic was a completely different animal than what Locratia could do, so Ella found herself constantly adapting her lessons. It wasn’t helping her gain XP or skills very quickly, but it was helping her grasp what it really meant to be a magic user.
Ella was currently wearing her cloak of containment, the hood pulled tight over her head, the pale blue/gray skin of her face barely visible in the low light of the surrounding trees. She wore a unique armored outfit of woven leaves and tree bark, an organic assembly of uniquely Druid armor that looked as if it were built from scattered material in the forest, yet held up remarkably well.
Solomon also wore a cloak, though his hood was pulled down, revealing his lengthening sandy brown hair and squinting, alert eyes. Beneath his own cloak he wore leather armor, the same stuff he’d gotten from the Harefolk several weeks ago, along with a unique pair of wrist gauntlets he’d pulled from one of the many demons he’d killed along the way. It was a mismatched collection of armored components, but gave him just enough buffs to his defense to be worth it. Still, he dreamed of finding something better. With his dexterity, he needed something light, he wasn’t going to be wearing any plate armor any time soon, but he was still sure he could find something better, and if what the Amazons had told him was true, if he found an entire matching set, he could get even more defenses and perks.
That was the problem with living in a town full of warrior women, finding armor and outfits that fit him had proven to be impossible.
Ducking low next to a thick tree, Megyn had her own hood pulled over her braided hair as well, parted at the neck, revealing her layered Amazonian armor underneath. Mostly a dull, brushed metal, the armor wasn’t exceedingly thick, but did its job. She had a wooden bow curled over her shoulder, tucked in next to a sewn quiver of straight, flocked arrows. The sheath at her right hip bumped against the ground quietly as she moved, trying to get a better view.
“Troglodytes don’t scare me,” Solomon replied. “I mean what is that anyway? It’s like a real dumb person, right? Isn’t that what it means?”
Ella rolled her eyes. “No, dummy. A Troglodyte is a lizard man. Probably a little taller than you, really tough skin. Smells nasty.”
“Kinda like her?” Solomon pointed to Megyn, who shot him a look that would have certainly killed a lesser man. He chuckled at his own joke.
“Yeah, you’re hilarious, Sol,” Ella replied, though she’d had to stifle a little laugh herself.
“Laugh it up, both of you,” Megyn quipped. “When the six foot lizard warrior charges from the trees, I’ll just step back and let you guys handle him.”
“I thought the goal was to not find a Troglodyte?” Ella asked. “I mean, yeah, the monitor lizards are his buddies, but… can’t we catch them without waking him?”
“Let’s hope,” Sol said.
Life with the Amazons had been quite the ride so far. Along with the constant training and combat, there had also been relentless preparation for war against the Sharak-Ku. As they’d returned to Thorathon after defeating Rulaaz and G’Lorath, they’d retrieved the broken carapace of the Ankheg insect they’d killed along the way. For a week now, the Amazons had been smithing the Ankheg shell and turning it into armor and weapons.
“Remind me what’s so great about these monitor lizards?” Ella asked. “And why we have to kill them? Remember, I don’t like killing animals.”
“These little demons spit acid, Ella,” Megyn said. “Review your quest details if you don’t remember.”
Quest Alert - Preparations for War 02
The Amazons are refining Ankheg bile for poisonous acid to tip their arrows. Each Amazon Archer will need a durable sac to store this acid. Shellback Monitor Lizards in the Greenmurk Swamps store a similar acid in their neck sacks to use as self defense.
Quest Class: Uncommon
Quest Difficulty: Easy
Success:
Kill and retrieve 25 Shellback Neck Sacks.
Current Status: 0/25
Rewards:
1200 XP
Gold x 10
Penalty:
Decreased Reputation with Amazons
Ella nodded. “Oh, right. Not just kill twenty-five little innocent lizards, but cut their neck sacs off and bring them back to Thorathon Village. That’s not at all disgusting and immoral.”
“Just think,” Solomon interjected, “we get to store them all in your cloak.”
“Don’t forget about your fanny pack of holding,” Megyn replied, gesturing toward the small sewn pouch tied around Solomon’s belt. He bit his lip and scowled at her. Man, if this little bag wasn’t so damn convenient, he’d have thrown it in the Forked Tongue River by now.
“Anyway, shhhhh,” Megyn hissed, turning back toward the trees. Solomon listened this time, dropping down lower so he could peer through the branches. Ella placed her palms in the dirt and closed her eyes, preferring to ‘feel’ the natural world around them. In the clearing just beyond where they stood a trio of small, four-legged lizards trudged slowly through the dirt and mud. They were a mottled green with blue markings of various patterns along their narrow spines and the contours of their trunk and legs. Small protrusions on top of their head held narrow, beady, black eyes, and each one of them had a bulbous, dangling sac of reptilian skin dangling from underneath their lower jaw, shifting gently as they moved.
“Spitters,” whispered Megyn. “Not corrosive like the Ankheg bile, but really hot. If we can get those sacs off of them, they should be strong enough to carry the bile into battle so our archers can dip their arrows into it.”
“Again,” Ella said, “gross.”
“Fine,” replied Solomon, “you sit here, Megyn and I will complete the quest on our own.”
“No chance.”
As Ella and Sol spoke, Megyn straightened and pulled out her bow, slipping an arrow into its string and pulling back toward her ear, aiming for the small group.
Shellback Monitor Lizards
(Acid-Spitting Swamp Dwellers)
Level: 6
HP: 45/45
MP: 00/00
Skills
Acidic Mucus
“Twenty-five of these things?” Solomon asked. “This is going to get messy. You guys do know they have a skill called ‘Acidic Mucus’ right?”
Megyn released with a soft twing and the arrow screamed, impaling one of the small creatures, who squealed briefly as it was pinned to the soft dirt underneath it, HP sprinting from it, the full 45 hit points screaming to nothing in a second. The two others hissed wildly and spun at them, sacs inflating, eyes widening, and mouths prying open. Almost immediately, thick gouts of rust-colored mucus ejected from them, the sacs compressing as it launched. Sol darted left as the projectile struck the mu
d with a muffled sizzle and Megyn already had a second arrow nocked and firing. One more monitor lizard caught the broad tip of the weapon in its left side, thrashing as it was stuck to the ground as well. Already Solomon had his throwing axe out and in hand, sizing up the third lizard as four more appeared at the edge of the clearing, walking in strange, wide gaits, growling softly.
His axe tumbled forward and drove hard into the back of the third creature, sending it spasming and slumping to the ground, the entirety of its sparse pool of HP depleted, while Megyn fired a third arrow and narrowly missed her target.
“Nice shot,” Ella laughed, her hands glowing a soft green.
“Acid Arrow, really?” Sol asked. “Gonna be tough to salvage those neck sacs if you’re toasting the entire lizard to a crisp!”
“You underestimate me,” Ella said with a wink. “We’re not all stuck on level four, you know.” She shot her arm out and a narrow spear of solidified, green acid shot from her open palm, striking one of the lizards in the left shoulder. It popped the green skin like a grape, then the acid sprayed the back half of the creature, drowning out its angry, spitting screams with a low, sizzling burn.
“Wait, what? You’re above level four?” Solomon shouted, but Ella just grinned at him.
Already, Solomon was moving forward, dodging yet another spitter launch, ripping his axe free and whipping it back out again, only this time it soared over its target and lodged in a tree several yards behind it. The creature pried its mouth wide open, seeming to smile, and prepared to launch, but an arrow drove through both of its parallel shoulders, sending it slumping to the dirt.
For several minutes the three hunters made quick work of approaching spitters, narrowly dodging attacks, slashing, shooting, or blasting the creatures as they appeared. The creatures were dying so swiftly, there was an almost permanent parade of flashing red numbers in the air as hit points spent with wild abandon.
Quest Status - Preparations for War 02
Current Status: