Arcane Kingdom Online Read online

  ARCANE KINGDOM ONLINE

  BOOK TWO: DARK MAGIC

  Jakob Tanner

  Copyright © 2019 by Jakob Tanner

  All rights reserved.

  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.

  Contents

  Dedication

  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

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  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

  A.K.O. Book 3

  The Chosen Reading Group

  Join the LitRPG Group on Facebook

  Join the GameLit Society

  More Places to Hang Out!

  Dedicated:

  To my mom and dad, who have encouraged and supported me in everything that I’ve done.

  Special Thanks to:

  Richard Sashigane for the awesome cover art.

  Joseph Gisini for help with the cover typography and design.

  Andrew Smith for sage advice.

  Everyone who picked up book 1 (seriously, you’re all amazing!)

  Thanks to my beta readers and their amazing feedback:

  Frank Albelo

  Ailsa Bristow

  Elias Dantas

  Ezben Gerardo

  Zach Goza

  Jo Hoffacker

  Ben Warren

  This book wouldn’t be what it is today without you guys!

  1

  I hid in the bushes, spying on my next target. A large green plant with a drooling carnivorous mouth. Its hot breath undulated across the woodland, prickling against my skin. A nameplate hovered above its head.

  Vine Mother

  Level 10

  “This is the last one, okay?”

  Crouching nearby was a muscular warrior with long blonde hair and a massive sword sheathed against her back. It was my old college friend from back home, Serena. She kept one hand on the hilt of her sword and the other placed gently on the ground for balance.

  “Sure,” I replied, even though I had said the same thing before killing the last monster and the one before that.

  I called up my stats on my HUD.

  Clay Hopewell

  Level 11

  Race: Aeri (Eldra)

  Class: Apprentice Mage

  HP: 140

  MP: 67

  ATKP: 3

  MTKP: 61

  TGH: 5

  SPIRIT: 52

  LUCK: 3

  “The key here is to take it out before it has a chance to react and ensnare us with its vines,” I said. “Are you ready?”

  Serena nodded.

  A scream echoed across the woods.

  It pierced through the trees. Frantic footsteps followed. Twigs cracked. Bushes stirred. Running straight towards the vine mother was a young fifteen-year-old girl equipped with level 1 starter gear.

  This was not part of the plan.

  Serena leapt off the ground, sprinting towards the plant monster, unsheathing her blade and dragging it through the air behind her. She jumped and triggered her whirlwind blade ability, spinning in the air like a tornado. Bits of the plant’s fleshy gums flew in all directions. Her ability cooled off and Serena then shoved her blade into the vine mother’s mouth. She lodged the sword upright so biting down would only cause the creature even more pain. The monster writhed in agony, shaking its head in all directions.

  I came in next. I jumped in the air, creating an airy platform of energy allowing me to jump again. Now I was face to face with the vine mother’s gigantic mouth and razor sharp teeth. I flicked my fists open, fingers outstretched. Both my palms ignited like a Zippo lighter: balls of flame forming between my fingers. I brought my arms together to combine the individual fireballs into one mega sphere of molten lava. The sheer amount of fiery energy made my hands shake. I let the burning hot magic go, unleashing a massive blast of flames into the vine mother’s open esophagus. Fire ripped through the inside flesh of the monstrous plant, burning a hole right through its neck.

  The monster squirmed in pain. Its HP fell below 5%. The residual burn debuff my fire blast had dealt chipped away at its remaining health. With one last freakish wail, the vine mother screeched, shriveling into a dried husk.

  +175 EXP!

  The young girl fell to the ground and Serena and I took positions around her. She was running away. We had to prepare for whatever had been pursuing her.

  Nothing emerged from the trees around us.

  The girl screamed again. My shoulders jumped and I turned towards her. Her whole body shivered. Her skin was pale with fear.

  “Help me,” she panted.

  She ran her fingers through her hair, massaging the top of her head.

  “Argh…agh…”

  I crouched down to face the girl. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

  Tears welled up in her eyes and she shrieked in even more pain. Her mouth jerked and moved in odd contorted ways. She stopped stuttering and spat out the words: “What’s happening to me?”

  I materialized a health potion from my inventory. I pulled out the cork from the glass bottle and raised it to her lips.

  “Here take this,” I said. “It’s an HP potion. I don’t know what’s happening to you either. But this might help. It’s going to be okay.”

  The player’s lips had gone purple. I tipped the potion gently so the healing liquid poured slowly into her mouth. She swallowed the red syrup, depleting the glass bottle. I rubbed the sick player’s back.

  “Do you feel any better?”

  The player tilted her head up towards mine. Her brown eyes shivered, filled with desperation and panic. She shook her head.

  She leapt back to her feet, screaming.

  She swung her fists towards us. Her face darted in every direction.

  “Get away from me,” she yelled. “Leave me alone!”

  The level 1 player thrashed, throwing fists in the air, fighting an invisible foe.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I said again. “You don’t need to fight us. We want to help.”

  “Get away from me,” she screamed.

  She didn’t look at either Serena or me when she spoke.

  A pit of dread formed in my stomach.

  She wasn’t speaking to us.

  The girl went completely still. Her shoulders and neck jerked into a straight posture. Her eyes went blank. A black dot appeared in the center of her chest. It grew outward, the girl’s flesh disintegrating and disappearing as it did. I saw the shrubbery right through her stomach. No blood or organs fell from her massive wound. Instead her insides were filled wit
h black shadow.

  “I haven’t died in here,” the girl cried. “Is this what it feels like?”

  She knew our answer from the horror written on our faces.

  Tears fell down her cheeks. Her upper and lower body dismembered. The encroaching disintegration continued upward until her neck was floating on its own.

  “I don’t want to go,” she screamed. “I don’t want to—”

  Her scream was cut off, her mouth and nose disappearing. Her pupils widened and strained. Her eyes bulged with terror until they vanished as well.

  The girl was gone. Nothing remained.

  We stood there in shock, staring at the empty patch of forest where the girl had been. It was nothing but a spot of dirt now. A forgotten grave.

  The flesh-eaters on Earth had found us.

  2

  “If I had to guess, the girl entered the game less than twenty-four hours ago and had yet to complete her cognitive upload,” said Serena. “The zombies outside found her unconscious body inside a TriCorp neuro-VR capsule, smashed open the glass roof and feasted on her flesh. The black dot of disintegration was how the game system chose to render her death from exterior forces.”

  “Fucking hell,” I said.

  “But maybe it has nothing to do with the cognitive upload process,” said Serena. “There’s a chance she’d been in here for days. Such a death might be awaiting us all. It’s just a matter of time before those flesh-eating creatures find our own capsules and tear our bodies apart.”

  My stomach lurched. A threat from outside the game. No way to protect ourselves from it either.

  “This is why we can’t hang out here, slaying monsters over and over,” Serena continued. “That won’t solve anything. It’s not going to answer whatever happened in front of us. We need to make a plan.”

  “You keep talking about making a plan. But what plan is there to make? The world. It’s—”

  I shook my head. I wouldn’t say it. Not out loud, at least. As far as we knew, the world we came from was gone. But our evidence was one shoddy video clip we had received two hours ago of a TriCorp employee being torn to bits by ravaging zombies. Did such a clip prove the rest of the world had fallen as well? Was my family—my mother, father, and brother—all gone too?

  I shook my head. Screw that.

  “Not only do we have the zombie nightmare to worry about, but there’s this virtual nightmare as well,” said Serena. “You’ve been branded Clay. The dark mark on your wrist—I’ve looked it up. Illyrian history books refer to it as the Prophetic Seal, worshipped by a cult called the Dark Protectorate. For better or worse, the mark has you—and me, by extension of one day being your girlfriend, if you play your cards right—embroiled in very dangerous affairs. Players, NPCs, hell even gods are going to be coming after us. We need to be ready. If only we knew more about what we were dealing with. I have so many questions and hardly any answers.”

  “Did you just say you were my girlfriend?”

  “Be serious.”

  I moved towards her and held my hands out. “As you said, we need to make a plan. So let’s make one. Let’s find out exactly what happened on Earth and what’s presently happening in the game. We know far too little to plan beyond that.”

  Serena’s shoulders tensed. She glanced over to the patch of ground where the new player had stood only moments ago.

  We needed to find out the truth.

  Our lives depended on it.

  A muffled voice shot through the forest. “Stay right where you are.”

  We turned around and emerging from behind the trees were two knights, clad in high-level armor, plated in gold and etched with shining blue runes and sigils. Both wore sleek helmets concealing their faces.

  “Clay Hopewell and Serena Wharton—you two are under arrest.”

  The knight who spoke had two golden battle axes, hanging from his waist. His partner carried a one-handed silver sword.

  Serena reached for the hilt of her blade and I put my hand on her wrist to stop her.

  “Um,” I said. “Who are you exactly?”

  The head knight straightened his shoulders. “I am Sir Archades, the captain of the Kingsblood. The elite military order that serves the Royal King of Laergard. This is—”

  The other knight raised his hands and pulled off his helmet. Beneath the metal armored face was a rugged older man with long black hair and the fading remnants of a scar across his left eye. I recognized him instantly.

  “—Edward Silver. Our newest recruit. Promoted to the highest order after valiantly saving Arondale from a world boss. He is—”

  “We know each other,” Serena interjected.

  Edward nodded.

  “Ah I see,” hissed Sir Archades. He gripped his gauntleted hand around the battle axe hanging at his waist. “Now you may come with us willingly or not. It’s your choice.”

  There was no way we would beat these guys in a fight. It only left us with one option.

  “Run!”

  We spun around, dashing away.

  Edward spoke in an arcane language and an intense sensory experience overwhelmed me. I felt the minutiae of my body at work. Blood flowing through my veins. Muscles stretching. Joints cracking. My heart beating. My foot was barely off the ground. I hadn’t moved an inch.

  A caption popped up in my HUD.

  Slow (Debuff): Slow and steady wins the race. Except when you’re fighting to the death. Movement speed decreased by 50% (Duration: 1 minute).

  Sir Archades walked around our slow-moving bodies until he was facing us. He pulled out his two axes and approached Serena. The knight lifted one arm high in the air, the axe looming over all of us. He swung the axe down.

  A great metallic clamor echoed through the woods.

  Even with 50% less movement, Serena had managed to initiate sword shield, protecting herself from the axe attack with her sword. She gritted her teeth as she struggled in the face of the powerful knight.

  Sir Archades shook his head. He lifted his other axe and swung down at the undefended side of Serena’s ribcage. The metal sliced through her skin, blood spurting across the clearing and drenching a nearby bush in crimson. She screamed. Her HP plummeted. He dug the metal deeper into her flesh, as blood and guts leaked out the side of her. She collapsed to the ground. Her head lolled to the side as the red bar above her plummeted to 0%.

  A Party Member Has Fallen!

  “You bastard,” I screamed, the words coming out in a rushed torrent of air, the slow debuff finally releasing me of its hold.

  I infused my feet with raw innate mana, speeding up my movement. I pushed off the ground and flew at the Kingsblood knight, throwing out a mana-infused fist. It crashed into the powerful knight’s armor. Zero damage dealt.

  “Impossible,” I said. “What kind of freak are you?”

  “This is not bizarre or out of the ordinary young man,” said the knight. “We live in a world based around cold sterile stats. Numbers. Yours are merely much smaller than my own.”

  He loomed over me. His arms hung at his sides, each hand still gripping one of his axes. Crimson liquid dripped from the blade, Serena’s blood smeared across the metal.

  “You’ll pay for this,” I said.

  He peered down at me. His helmet was an apathetic and empty face.

  “Will I now?”

  He swiped his axe in the air, ripping it across my chest, cutting through my armor and flesh. My HP dropped by 100 points. Blood gurgled from my mouth. The other axe crashed into my neck, slicing my head right off.

  You are dead!

  I emerged from the swirling darkness of death with the taste of dirt in my mouth. I spat out the mud. I was on the forest floor where I’d been killed. A message appeared in front of me.

  Death’s Punishment (Debuff): You feel the horror and pain of death. You lose all EXP gained towards your next level (1,870 EXP). You gain 30% less EXP on kills (Duration: 6 hours). All ATKP and MTKP damage reduced by 10% (Duration: 6 hours). HP and MP reg
eneration 10% slower (Duration: 6 hours).

  A sharp metal pricked my wrists. I moved my arms to discover they were stuck. Another debuff popped up in my HUD.

  Handcuffed (debuff): Cannot access inventory or engage in combat. Maybe next time, you’ll stay out of trouble.

  “You’re under arrest, remember?” said Edward.

  “You waited hours for me to respawn?”

  “Gods no. Archades raised you both. You’ve been dead no less than a minute.”

  Serena stood nearby, alive and well except for her wrists cuffed behind her back.

  “Get up,” said Edward.

  I lifted myself up and followed Sir Archades through the woods. We all walked in single file. Serena was behind me and Edward behind her. We trudged through the mud until we arrived at the beginner level field. A gust of wind greeted us upon exiting the woods. My hair blew back and my eyes teared up from the sheer force of the propelling wind. The strands of grass at our feet all bent to the wind’s will.