The Stone Tree: A LitRPG Adventure (Kingmaker Saga Book 1) Read online

  Terran held his thumb and finger apart. "Almost got it, Newt. Almost."

  "I think we should probably get the hell out of here," said Zara. "Find a way to climb back up if we can. Does anyone have pitons or rope?"

  As they were deciding what to do, a hag appeared in the shadows of the hovel. The old woman had green skin, fingers as long as daggers, and yellowed teeth for ripping flesh. Before Terran could leap away, the hag grabbed his arm. Her flesh was cold and slimy, but she was so strong he couldn't move from his spot. As the others moved to his aid, she thrust a rusty dagger against his throat.

  "You ruined my tincture," she hissed. "I've been nurturing it for weeks, and it took many trials to find those rare herbs. So much time has been wasted."

  "We're very sorry." Flynn held up the skull in one hand. "Skully is sorry too. It's her fault we fell on your hovel."

  "Yes," said Zara, who had set her warhammer onto the sandy ground and clasped her hands together. "Please. We didn't mean to do it. Can we make it right somehow?"

  "Time," said the hag. "Time is the ultimate equalizer here. If I kill you all, you'll just respawn, come back when you're ready, and kill me then. I must give you a reason, for all of you, never to trouble me again."

  The hag's awareness of her danger put a stone in Terran's gut. He wanted to speak, but the dagger against his throat made even breathing dangerous.

  Then the hag whispered softly in a foreign tongue, and fell energies built around them. Terran had no doubt that she was going to kill him, he just hoped that it wasn't too painful. The instructors explained the first death was the hardest, because it was hard to wrap your mind around the fact that you'd be coming back.

  When she finished her incantation, she leaned forward and placed her wrinkled lips against his cheek. The smell of death clung to her breath like rotting flesh.

  "Leaf and stone, a life regrown, take these bones and give them life again, far from here," she said, breathing so close to his face.

  When she finished, she placed her finger against his forehead and, before he could move, shoved the dagger into his neck.

  You have died!

  Chapter Two

  Terran awoke on hard ground with a splitting headache and a searing pain in his neck where he had been stabbed by the dagger. His entire body hurt. The instructors had warned them about death in Kingmaker Online, but he didn't feel like their descriptions did justice to the actual pain. Terran kept his eyes closed and took slow, deep breaths before rolling over to evaluate if he had lost any experience. To his surprise, instead of the dry desert aroma his nose was filled with the heavy scent of pine and rotting leaves. Come to think of it, he heard birds twittering all around him.

  His eyes flew open to find he was surrounded by tall pine sentinels standing watch over him. His hand squished into damp earth as he pushed himself into a sitting position, trying to get his bearings. A trickle of panic entered his thoughts as he pulled open his world map to try to find out how far away this respawn point was from where he had died.

  Nothing on the map was recognizable, leaving his heart thundering in his chest. They had been in the Winding Canyons fighting the hag when he died, but his map indicated he was now on the continent of Belavar in the Rockpine Forest.

  His heart labored in his chest. He was on a completely different continent than his friends. The severity of the situation was only made worse when he zoomed out on the map and scrolled around looking for a reference point, but the only part of the map he found exposed was a small circle around his current location. Everything else was unexplored and therefore blacked out.

  The quick idea that he might purposely die again, and get sent back to the starting settlement, ended when he read the text right beneath his death notification.

  You are now bound to your location.

  [Moving to a new continent provides instant rebinding]

  The logic of it made sense. It would be tragic to make it to a new place, only to die upon arrival and have to repeat the journey, but in this case, the rule had just stranded him alone in a place that was likely higher level than him.

  At the sound of a twig breaking, Terran jumped to his feet to spy what had made the noise. He let out a breath when a small rodent the size of a squirrel but striped like a racoon ran in front of him clutching some kind of nut in its mouth. He continued scanning the forest, looking for signs of his friends. He wasn't even sure if they had died, but he thought it was likely they would have fought the witch in retribution for his death. So it was possible they would be nearby if she had defeated them.

  A slight breeze rustled the leaves, bringing a stronger pine scent with it. Terran really did prefer the forest to the high desert, but seeing no signs of his friends worried him. Maybe if he could get a better view of the land, he could find a way to get back to them. Terran picked up his bow, dusted off his tattered linen clothes, and wiped his hands on his now grimy pants. He would have to find a tree to climb and hope he could see more from up high.

  After about a hundred yards Terran spotted a suitable tree to climb. Its bottom limbs were only about five feet off the ground, and it looked sturdy enough to hold his slight frame. He reached up to grab hold of a limb that was at neck height. The rough bark scraped his hands, but the sticky sap helped a little with his grip. He tried to jump and pull himself up onto the branch, but his low Strength score made it impossible to heft even his small frame.

  He didn't like playing the strong tank type, but right now he wished he had Zara's beefy arms. He imagined her doubled over with laughter watching him continue to fail to get into the tree. Finally, with quivering arms, he collapsed to the ground and leaned against the thick trunk. Being a newb sucked sometimes.

  Terran sat in frustration, missing his friends. They had been waiting so long to finally be old enough to play Kingmaker Online together. This was so unfair. He hoped his friends had made that hag pay with her life for separating them. Terran felt some satisfaction imagining Zara smashing the green-skinned woman in the face with her warhammer while Newt managed to pull his nose out of a book long enough to crisp her with a fire bolt.

  The thought of his friends brought renewed dedication. Terran found rocks large enough to stack, which he used to create a stepping stool.

  [You have gained the skill Improvisation]

  Skill: Improvisation 1 (INT)

  Maybe you aren't dumber than a pile of rocks.

  Terran tested the strength of his improvised stool by easing his right foot onto the rocks. When only a tiny amount of shifting occurred, Terran grabbed the branch at his neck and stood completely on the pile of rocks. He pulled himself up onto the strong limb and watched as the rocks tumbled away when his weight was removed.

  After several minutes of climbing, Terran noticed his stamina was almost fully depleted, so he straddled the branch he was on and leaned back against the trunk to take a rest. He had been so focused on safely climbing that he had not noticed how much progress he had made.

  Terran opened his world map and allowed the transparent overlay to line up with his view. The map expanded as he took in all the sights around him. It seemed like he was in the forested foothills of a never-ending mountain range. A few miles away stretched a lazy river winding its way through a small valley. On the far side of the river mountain peaks covered in snow reached for the sky, almost touching the clouds. The game details were so real that it was hard to believe this was an artificial world inside a quantum computer sailing through the stars.

  As he studied his surroundings, he realized that the never-ending verdant forest wasn't as uniform as he'd first thought. Within the green were patches of gray, or worse yet, empty tree limbs as if there'd been a blight. Further out, there was a whole hillside that looked like it'd been razed by an explosion. Only a few trees still stood, and those had lost their leaves.

  After several moments of bewilderment Terran brought his focus back to his current situation. If he was going to survive and get back with
his friends he would need help. The instructors had told them there would be NPCs in towns that would be able to assist in some tasks, so he needed to find his way to one. The only problem was there was no town in sight even from his vantage one hundred feet in the air.

  Terran licked his dry lips and realized finding a town was the least of his worries. The task of surviving on his own weighed on him like the distant mountains. He had spent his whole life preparing for this game with his friends as teammates. They each had their roles and worked fairly seamlessly together, but thanks to that hag it had all fallen apart.

  A loud rustling from below brought Terran out of his angry thoughts. He watched in silence as a giant white bear the size of a grizzly plodded into the clearing below. At first Terran thought it was a polar bear based on the white fur, but the analyze ability told him it was a Spirit Bear, and the red skull reminded him to stay as still as stone to avoid detection. Spittle dripped from the bear's giant teeth as it sniffed the rocks around the base of Terran's tree. He forgot to be silent as he breathed a sigh of relief watching the bear amble further into the forest away from his tree.

  The close encounter with the Spirit Bear reminded Terran of the task at hand. He needed to find water, food, and shelter if he was going to make it to a town. With a renewed sense of purpose, Terran took stock of his surroundings.

  "That river is the key," Terran mumbled to himself. "Towns are often found along rivers because it makes trade easier. I need to make my way to the river and follow it in a direction until I find a town. Plus, having access to food and water won't be an issue if I can figure out how to catch fish. The river is to the west, so as long as I keep the mossy side of the tree on my right, I should get there."

  [You have gained the skill Nature's Lore]

  Skill: Nature's Lore 1 (INT)

  You probably won't survive the night, but at least you know which way is west.

  As Terran put his feet back on solid ground after lowering himself out of the tree, he scanned the ground, making note of the footprints the Spirit Bear had made, heading in the opposite direction.

  "Man, I wish I had prestidigitation. This sap is everywhere," Terran lamented as he tried to wipe off his hands. "I guess I'm just going to be one of those crazy people wandering around talking to themselves in desperate need of a shower now. But at least I'm not carrying a skull with me," he added, thinking of Flynn.

  He noted more signs of decay as he traveled. Even the dirt seemed thin, little clouds kicking up at his steps. The place was missing a vitality that he would have expected in such a lush environment.

  After several hours of traveling, Terran heard what he assumed was a stream in the distance. When he finally reached the stream, he fell to his knees and quickly sunk his hands into the freezing water to remove some of the dirt and sap before he took a drink.

  "Shit that's cold," he muttered as he attempted to scrub the sticky sap off his hands.

  Searing pain shot through his fingers as he struggled to clean himself off in the icy-cold water. To his surprise his right hand rubbed against a small, pumice-like rock about the size of his palm. The gritty surface of the rock was scraping the sap off his hand. He cupped the rock between his hands and vigorously rubbed them together as the sap seemed to melt into the crevices of the rock. He added the helpful rock to his inventory. When all the sap was gone, he dunked his hands one final time to make sure they were clean, then greedily slurped at water he brought to his mouth.

  Terran opened his inventory and with a thought brought out his flask to refill in the stream. The flask had been dry since the hag had stuck her dagger into his throat. After filling his flask, he took stock of what he had available to him.

  Water flask

  2 rations

  Banana

  Bedroll

  25' rope

  Rusty dagger

  Longbow

  10 arrows

  Flint

  Pumice rock

  It wasn't much, but no one started a game with a lot of items, and since he and his friends had gotten most of their experience from exploring rather than killing level 1 creatures, there had been nothing to loot except a banana from a tree they had passed early in their adventure. He would have to change that if he was ever going to make it to a town.

  Terran bent down to top off his flask, but a strange noise caught his attention. He quietly crept away from the water and stood at high alert trying to discover the source of the disturbance. His ears were finally able to pick out a low mewling sound that seemed to be coming from the west.

  [You have increased the skill Nature's Lore]

  Skill: Nature's Lore 2 (INT)

  You will probably still be eaten by a bear, but at least you will know which direction it came from.

  After about a hundred yards, Terran caught a slight movement in the corner of his vision. He froze when he saw what looked like a gray lioness with tuft-filled ears crouched about seventy feet away from him. His analyze ability named the creature a Rock Leaf Lynx [Unique], and Terran's shoulders relaxed as he noticed her yellow status bar with a fancy gold frame around it. She would put up a good fight, but he stood a chance of at least surviving the encounter.

  The stone-gray lynx with her pointy black ears was crouched, looking ready to pounce, but she remained still even when Terran blinked, losing the staring contest. He couldn't figure out why the lynx had not moved until he noticed her back right foot was caught in a trap. A small whine emitted from her as she tried to shift her weight and move backwards. Terran was deciding if he should free her from the trap when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Seconds later, his ears were accosted by the ominous roar of a giant bear.

  Chapter Three

  Terran froze, emitting a whine of his own he turned towards the sound and discovered the bear was about two hundred feet from him. Standing on its hind legs, the Spirit Bear was as big as a truck. Its white belly fur was caked with mud, while a strange star-patch marked its shoulder. Even from a distance the size of its claws and teeth turned his knees to water. Terran was pretty sure the bear could fit his whole head in its mouth, and one crunch of those teeth would be the end of him.

  Although he could just respawn, dying in Kingmaker Online hurt terribly, and Terran's sense of survival was too strong to just give up. He knew from the red skull icon and his lack of arrows that he would not be able to take on the bear and win. He didn't think his rusty dagger could penetrate the bear's hide even if he had wanted to get that close to those claws and teeth. Panic was setting in as his mind raced through the options.

  With a quick thought Terran opened his inventory, trying to find anything that would help. His eyes stuck on the icon of the banana, which he had briefly confused with a boomerang. Too bad he didn't have a real boomerang. Then maybe he could throw it and the bear would want to play fetch. His mind was certainly not helping him get out of this situation.

  The bear ambled towards Terran, stopping every few feet to rear up on its hind legs and growl at him. Terran opened up his ability tab, hoping to find something more useful than the items in his inventory. Although Improvisation could be of use, it wouldn't help without an idea, so Terran quickly switched to his spell tab and saw the single spell he knew: Stone Touch. Terran knew he wouldn't survive the casting time trying to turn the bear to stone.

  He grabbed the banana from his inventory and cast Stone Touch on it. Within seconds the yellow banana became gray and hard, taking on more weight. He felt ridiculous holding the slightly phallic stone fruit in his hands, so he threw it at the bear. The stone banana spun through the air, cracking the Spirit Bear right above the right eye, resulting in a grunting roar.

  [You have increased your skill Improvisation]

  Skill: Improvisation 2 (INT)

  Kudos for your banana-tossing skills, but next time pay attention to the "Do not feed the bears" sign and you might live.

  Terran wasn't sure what reaction he had intended to get from the bear, but runni
ng full speed towards him with teeth bared was not what he'd had in mind. Terran ran as fast as he could back to the stream, sucking in air as he pumped his legs, but not watching where he was going, he fell off the edge of a ravine, down the steep slope to the shore of the fast-moving stream below.

  He stepped under the overhang when the white bear came tumbling overhead and down into the rushing water. This part of the stream was deeper than Terran had thought—the bear had to frantically paddle to stop from floating downstream.

  "Come help free me and I will help you escape the bear," said a voice in Terran's head. He was confused until the voice added, "I know you saw my foot stuck in this trap."

  The lynx was communicating with him.

  [You have gained the skill Commune with Nature]

  Skill: Commune with Nature 1 (CHA)

  Now that you can talk to animals, maybe other things in nature have something to say.

  Terran blinked the notification out of his vision while he made his way back up the ravine. The bear was winning his fight against the stream, so Terran knew he had little time to escape. He grabbed one of the exposed roots from the tree above him and scrambled up the embankment, relieved that the one he'd picked hadn't snapped in his hands. He needed to get back to that lynx quickly, but his feet had a hard time gaining footing on the loose soil. He frantically cast Stone Touch on the dirt around his feet to give himself a better launching pad, and with a strong heave from his arms finally managed to make it the rest of the way up.

  Terran didn't even bother to look back as he sprinted towards the lynx. Once he reached her, he discovered her foot was stuck in a sticky trap unlike anything he had ever seen.

  "Smart human. You will never survive that bear without help. Now free me and we will escape together," the lynx purred.