P 03 trial by magic, p.1
P-03. Trial By Magic, page 1
part #3 of PrimeVerse Series
PrimeVerse
Trial by Magic
R.K. Billiau
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief direct quotations in a book review.
Copyright © 2020 R.K. Billiau
All rights reserved.
Follow me at www.rkbilliau.com or the Facebook group.
Join the LitRPG Adventurers Guild!
To God the Father.
Chapter 1
“So.” I nudged Chief Arnold with my elbow. “Tim’s still here. And he has a friend.”
“You came to us for help, remember Hudson?” Arnold responded. “I’m not taking any crap from you.”
“Right,” I said, “I guess I’ll start at the top.”
He nodded. “That would be appreciated.”
“When we first left, we followed my hunch through the forest. That place was a beast. Like, a humongous, dead beast. It went on and on and on, nothing to eat, nothing to even see. Trees and dirt. Dirt and trees. An exposed root here or there to switch things up. But otherwise...”
“Hudson,” Arnold interrupted. “I can appreciate your knack for storytelling, but I think we need to speed it up. Maybe get to the part where you pissed off Cora and she went after these poor kids and their parents.”
I side eyed him. “Well, that’s not exactly how it happened. After four days in the forest, we eventually found a village. It was crazy! They had houses and shops, farms and a blacksmith. Even a bar. They wouldn’t let us in, though. Not until we completed their quest. We were nearly naked-“
“You were,” Madison interjected.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “This is going to take forever if you keep interrupting.”
“It was already taking forever the way you were telling it,” she said with a smile.
“Could someone please finish telling me?” Arnold said, crossing his arms.
“Okay, okay,” I continued. “There we were, starving and exhausted. We didn’t really have a choice but to complete this quest. The villagers gave us what we needed and sent us back to the woods. It ended up being this weird dungeon with a bunch of puzzles and slime monsters. When we finally defeated it...”
“Wait!” Madison chipped in. “Don’t forget about Carl.” She spit his name out like it actually tasted bad in her mouth.
“Oh! Right. We met some other guy there, Carl, who crawled the dungeon with us, but screwed us over in the end. Anyway, when we came out, there was this massive pool of silvery water stuff- it looked like liquid mercury. We learned it was a Mana node and our HP and expendables regenerated at 1000%. The system asked if we wanted to claim it, but we figured it was what the town wanted, so we left and went back to tell them. That’s when we learned they had these kids they were desperate to protect. They were born in-game and nobody has any idea what happens if they die.”
“What?” Arnold asked, his eyes wide.
“Yep. Anyway, Kai and the town security guy, Graham,” I pointed at Graham who nodded his head at Arnold, “took the mayor to find the node. But it said they couldn’t claim it unless the entire town was there. So we packed everyone up and headed out the next day. This guy, Ryan here,” I pointed to him, who also nodded at Arnold, “was kind of leading the way. He was the scout for the village, and familiar with the forest. Then his face melted off. He was Ryan one second and Cora the next.”
“Wait, are you telling me Cora can shape-shift?” Beads of sweat had formed on the chief’s forehead. It was a lot to take in, and Cora being a recent ex-lover couldn’t have made it any easier. Poor guy.
“Yep. Before anyone could do anything, she claimed the node. That’s when all hell, er, all chaos, I guess, broke loose.”
“What happened?” he asked, his mouth turned down and his eyebrows shoved together.
“The silvery water turned into a staticky, black ball of energy. It moved up into the air like an angry cloud, leashing everyone to itself. Except the children, for some reason they weren’t harmed. It was awful, Chief. The screams of the poor villagers as their bodies mutated while Cora laughed.”
Chief Arnold physically flinched.
“I’m sorry, man. She’s gone absolute nuts. Turns out she became a vassal for the Archon of Chaos. I had the displeasure of meeting him once... he’s no fun. Anyhow, all the villagers turned into gromlins,” I shoved my thumb towards them, “which Cora could zap with some crazy Chaos energy and make more gromlins out of. She had about 30 of them at one point. Ryan and I did our best to hold them off while Kai, Madison, and Graham took the kids and ran. She’s powerful now. Between her Chaos Bolt and her gromlin army... she’s going to be hard to stop.”
“How did you get away?” he asked, his face as pale as Tim’s zombie’s.
“Painfully,” I said. He looked at me like a teacher does at a student who failed a test. “When I talked to the Archon of Chaos, he had to give me a power, since I had been in the Mana node, which thanks to Cora is now a Chaos Node.”
“You aligned with him?!” Chief Arnold spat, his cheeks flushing.
“Woah.” I held up my hands, placatingly. “No, it’s just a thing. A game rule. He asked me to take over Cora’s position, but I turned him down. I don’t want anything to do with that insanity. None of us should.”
His face softened a little, but he still looked annoyed. I couldn’t decide if it was the situation or me that was annoying him.
“Back to how you stopped her.”
“I figured she would come back to the village, and I was right. The power I got from the Archon of Chaos let me attach it to my other abilities. I would summon a creature or cast a spell, and depending on how much of my expendables I added, something majorly chaotic would happen to it. I finally...”
“Wait, what?” he asked.
“If I added like 50 expendable points, something crazy would happen, but if I added 100, then something even...”
“No, no, go back. You said you cast spells now?”
“Ooh. I forgot that little tidbit. Oops. Before Cora claimed the node, it gave us magic.”
“You have MAGIC?” His jaw dropped open.
I cast a Mana Orb and held it in front of him for a few seconds before throwing it as hard as I could and watching it explode in the grass.
His eyes were enormous. I won’t lie; it was fun to show off.
“We can teach you!” Madison added. “We can teach everyone in the tribe.” She, too, cast a Mana Orb and stretched it into a shield in front of her.
Arnold’s face lit up like a kid in a candy shop. “Okay, we’ll come back to that. But… Cora. Where is she now?”
“I reflected one of her Chaos Bolts and it disintegrated her into ashes. I imagine she respawned somewhere in the forest.”
“Will she follow you here?”
I swallowed hard. “I mean, she doesn’t know we were coming here. But I can’t imagine it’ll take her long to figure it out.”
Tim made it up to us with his zombie in tow, and we all stood a little straighter and more guarded. I guess we were a little on edge. Or maybe brutally dying at the hand of those things over and over left a little mental scarring.
“Hey Tim!” I said, cheerfully. “Hey Tim’s zombie.”
The zombie stayed behind him by a couple feet and didn’t wave. It wasn’t someone I recognized. It could have been because I didn’t know them, or maybe because this poor zombie was so broken down I couldn't even tell if it was a girl or guy.
“Hey,” Tim said. A man of many words.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
“Good.”
“I see you didn’t reincarnate.”
“Nope.”
“And you have another zombie.”
“Yep.”
He kept eye contact with me during the awkward silence that ensued. This guy was so strange.
“So, uh,” I said, searching for something, anything, to say, and wondering why no one was rescuing me from this painful encounter.
“Tell me all about the tribe!” Madison, my hero, chirped. “I can’t wait for a tour.”
“Yes,” the chief said, “we truly have come a long way. And in no short thanks to you guys,” he added. “Attunement has been night and day in our tribe. We can hunt and gather resources without being attacked.”
“Probably helps that when people do die, they can come back instead of being stuck in a death trap,” I said. Madison gave me the stink eye. “What, too soon?”
“I don't use zombies against players anymore, Hudson,” Tim said seriously. “Chief Arnold agreed to let me have them if I followed his rules. And I do.”
“Seems fair enough. I have to hear about this, though. How did you get another one? Who is it?”
And just like that, Tim opened up.
“Well, corpses still turn into zombies if people aren’t attuned. That hasn’t changed. We’ve had some new players upload since you guys left, and some of them died before we could get them attuned. That’s how I got this guy here.” He pointed to the dead guy behind him. “But besides that, there are still a few of them around from before. We run into them now and then.”
“I see. So what convinced Arnold to let you keep him? And better yet, what convinced Arnold to keep you?” I asked, looking at the chief.
“Well.” Arnold watched his foot toe at the dirt. “You were right. As bad as Tim was, we just couldn’t, er...” He stopped talking and looked at Tim. “Are you okay to be here while
Tim shrugged. “I don’t mind. I know what I did.”
“Well then, as bad as Tim was, we just couldn’t keep killing him. At first we had volunteers, a couple of them anyway, after the third kill we started drawing lots. By the sixth time or so, no one wanted to do it anymore. We were tired of manning the respawn points, and it just didn’t feel... right. So, we offered to let him join the tribe again and be part of the team instead of against us.”
“Oh yeah?” I said, smiling widely. “And how are you doing with that, Tim?”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I mean, it’s kind of nice getting to be with everyone and having real company. I wish I could play the game a little more, but I guess that will happen someday.”
“Maybe sooner than you think,” I said. “Cora could show up.”
“Cora?” Tim’s face moved through emotions like a flipbook. Anger, sadness, lust. “She’s alive? She’s coming here?” I mentally slapped myself. I probably could’ve been a little more gentle. But come on! How was I supposed to keep track of all Cora’s lovers?
“Sorry, man. I spaced that... well, anyway, she aligned with this Chaos god-thing and is pretty evil. She has an insane manipulation skill that you have to be careful of. She nearly got me and I hate the lady.”
“Oh yeah?” Madison asked, smiling but definitely not joking.
“Oh yeah,” I repeated. “She tried to seduce me, but she failed. I mean, who wouldn’t want all this?” I rubbed my hands along my sides, jutting out my hip like a supermodel. “But alas, I’m a one woman man.”
My one woman rolled her eyes.
“So you two are finally official?” Arnold asked.
Kai let out a short laugh. I ignored him.
“Depends on who you ask,” I said and pointed to Madison. “She really, really likes me, but I’m just not quite there yet.”
Madison rolled her eyes.
“ANYhow, can we go see the tribe?” she asked.
I looked back at the kids and gromlins who had been waiting rather patiently. They were sitting in the grass, eating some snacks from Graham’s bag.
“We should probably get these guys settled. Their lives have been upended, and we just drug them through that god-awful forest, and I’m sure they’d love to rest and just be kids.”
“Of course, of course,” Arnold said. “Are you sure those... gromlins, did you call them?”
I nodded.
“Are you sure they won’t cause any issues?”
“Positive,” I said, “they are still players. I know it’s hard to imagine, and they seem to have lost much in the way of communication, but they are still people that have been uploaded to PrimeVerse inside those creepy little gromlin suits.”
“Well then,” he said, speaking loudly, “everyone, welcome to The Ascendants. We will have to put you up in the cave for now until we can build more tipis. We’ll get some food on the fire and start working on some more bedrolls. Please make yourself at home. Any friends of theirs,” he gestured to Madison, Kai, and I, “are friends of ours and welcome here.”
Everyone stood and we started walking down the hill. Toward our old home. Er, new home. Toward the Ascendants.
Chapter 2
I had to admit, the place was impressive. Considering it had only been about two weeks since we left, it was a completely different tribe vibe.
The air was alive with chatter. It seemed to stop as we approached, and faces I recognized, and some I didn’t, stared. Some looked amazed, some looked terrified.
I smiled and waved; we may as well have been on a parade float with all the ogling we were getting. People hadn’t quite lined our path, but they had stopped and gawked. A handful came closer for a better look, but most seemed happy to keep their distance.
Despite the lack of voices, the little tribal village was not silent. Chickens dotted the grass, pecking at the ground and clucking contentedly, their big, fuzzy butts wiggling in the air. Directly in the middle of everything was a significant firepit, crackling loudly with large flames lapping at the sky. There was a carcass of what must have been a bison roasting above the flames, the heavenly smell filling the air and rousing my stomach.
We walked along a crude stone path that wound around the central firepit, through the different tipis, and off toward the cave.
“This is totally rad! How’s it going, man?!” A grunt escaped my lips as Steve collided with me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “I knew you’d be back, but I gotta say, man, this is like, way sooner than I thought.”
“Happy to see you too, Steve,” I said, patting his arm and slipping out of his grasp as slyly as I could.
“So where’d you find the little goblins? And those creepy gray guys, too?” He winked.
“We found Cora,” I said. “These little guys were in a village with their parents. Cora turned them into those little guys.” I pointed at the children, and the gromlins, respectively.
“Woah, totally wicked! That Cora chick is like, bad news, man.”
“Yeah, well, she aligned with the Archon of Chaos so that should tell you everything you need to know about her. She’s even badder news now.”
“Madison!” a familiar, kind voice rushed past me and threw her arms around Madison.
“Oh, Sarah!” Madison responded. “I’m so happy to see you!”
Kai watched them for a split second, then began talking with a man I didn’t recognize. I wondered how many new people had joined the tribe. It felt like I only recognized every other person.
Graham and Ryan stayed back with the kids, who were getting restless. The two men stood with their backs to the kids facing out in opposite directions and watched the crowd.
The ladies in front of me pulled apart after a few seconds. “What’s going on?” Sarah asked. “You have quite the... group there,” she said, whispering as if she didn’t want to offend anyone.
“Yeah, we’ve been busy,” Madison said. “But look at you!” She gestured around the camp. “You’ve been busy too! It looks amazing here!”
“Things have definitely been much smoother. Enjoyable, even. But you have to tell me about the kids. Who are they? Are they players?”
“They... were born here,” Madison said, lowering her voice to a hushed whisper. “We don't know much about them, but we know we have to keep them safe.”
“Well I’m glad you brought them here. We have a bunch of new tribe members and everyone’s been pretty good team players. I think you’ll like the new energy.”
Madison touched her shoulder and smiled. “I’m glad to be back, truly.”
“Let’s get these guys into the cave,” Arnold said, nodding toward one of the little boys who was being hauled away from the firepit by Graham. “Kayla?” he shouted, looking around on tiptoes.
“Yeah, Chief?” a sweet voice sounded. She walked over to Arnold, long and lanky, with well-tanned skin and lengthy, blonde braids. Instead of the standard class apparel, she had on what looked to be a thin fur dress, that fell loosely from her shoulders and stopped mid thigh, where her legs seemed to continue for another five feet.
“Would you and some others get to making more bedrolls? We want our guests to be comfortable,” Arnold said.
“Sure thing,” Kayla said. “How many are we talking about?”
Arnold looked at us and Kai spoke up first.
“There are 16 of us, though we would be thankful for any you can provide and will make do.”
“I’m on it!” she said, more to Kai than Arnold. She batted dark eyelashes at him before bouncing off, calling out names I didn’t recognize. I didn’t know if Kai had ever had so much as a crush, but I was pretty sure he blushed.
We passed the largest tipi, and it was even bigger than it had seemed from up on the hill. It towered at least 20 feet tall, the creamy white leather pulled taut around the many wooden poles. The door flap was closed but parted slightly and I caught a glimpse of a small firepit in the center, with an elaborate sleeping cot off to one side. Most of it was empty, though it could have held at least another half-dozen cots. That must have been Arnold’s place.
The other tipis were decent sized and by the looks of it held five or six much simpler bedrolls each. I wondered why they slept out here, instead of in the cave. The cave had to be more secure, though the smell that seemed to penetrate the floor, walls, and air could have been a decent motivator.
