Arcane Kingdom Online: The Fallen City (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 3) Read online

  Arcane Kingdom Online

  Book Three: The Fallen City

  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.

  Created with Vellum

  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

  A.K.O. Book 4

  Author’s Note

  The Chosen Reading Group

  LitRPG/GameLit Recommends

  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 and 2 (seriously, you’re all amazing!)

  Thanks to my beta readers and their amazing feedback:

  Frank Albelo

  Ailsa Bristow

  Ezben Gerardo

  Jo Hoffacker

  Ben Warren

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

  1

  The sails of our ship bloomed, propelling us across the sky ocean. The wind whistled over the deck. The crew worked the yards in a hushed silence. Their eyes twitched and their teeth chattered. We were closing in.

  The whole world teetered from up top on the crow’s nest. The sky was crystal clear. The air was brisk and fresh. Seagulls dipped and dove, catching sky trout with their beaks. I lifted a brass spyglass to my eye to get a closer glance at our target: an enemy supply vessel. The large floating piece of hulking metal housed wares and supplies we desperately needed. Food for the hungry. Medicine for the sick.

  Our current mission was to commandeer the ship and take the supplies back to the Laergardian capital of Land’s Shield.

  The plan, however, was more easily said than done.

  There were six fighters on board, patrolling the deck. They were the standard Arethkarian air soldiers: ranging from level 10 to 15, decked head to toe in heavy iron armor. They wore metal helmets with glowing green slits for eyes and air-purifier tusks concealing their mouths. They appeared less than human. Robotic. Tubes of purple mana travelled from their back armor and into their spines. It was special Arethkarian magitech designed to pump mana into their warriors, genetically enhancing their strength and power.

  A guard patrolling the deck approached a scrawny and pale crew woman. She was washing the deck, vigorously scrubbing the floor with a small rag and soapy bucket beside her. The guard stopped his patrol, towering over the woman. He arched back his foot and kicked her in the stomach. He pointed to the side, telling her to get out of his way.

  I pulled the spyglass down to my chest and shuddered. Don’t worry lady, we’re coming.

  I shrunk down the scope and dematerialized it back into my inventory. I jumped out of the crow’s nest, grabbing hold of the rigging and descended back down to the deck.

  “We ready to go?” I asked, approaching my party.

  “Almost ready,” said Shade. “But one quick question. Serena here believes she’s first mate of this ship, when I would obviously think the honorable position belongs to me. Tell us the truth, captain?”

  The Lirana, clad in a white tunic and black breeches, turned to me, his pointy cat ears perked up, his eyes wide as possible. He kept a dagger and a pistol on both sides of his waist. His fingers twitched, ready to whip either set out in the event of an undesired answer. Call it a negotiating tactic.

  “O captain, my captain,” said Serena, shaking her head. She crossed her strong warrior arms and smirked at me. Her long blonde hair fluttered in the wind, while a giant sword was sheathed on her back. “Tell him.”

  I looked Shade directly into his silver eyes—the same eyes partially glazed over from the three pints he’d already guzzled down that morning, the same persuasive eyes that coupled with his 55 stat points in Luck allowed him to get away with pretty much any cheeky idea he ever considered—and, with a hint of guilt in my stomach, delivered the disappointing news. “Serena’s my first mate.”

  “Hah!” Serena said, snapping her fingers and doing a victory dance in front of the rogue.

  “C’mon,” said Shade, frowning. “What ever happened to bros before hoes?”

  I balked. “Where are you learning this crap?”

  A little fox girl in white robes, holding a silver staff, politely raised her hand.

  “My bad,” said Kari. “He keeps pestering me to learn more phrases of The Chosen.”

  “What can I say?” said Shade. “It’s a pretty great party trick at the pub.”

  An ostentatious cough cut through the conversation. Our helmsman for hire, a mustachioed mercenary, stood by the ship’s steering wheel, grumbling. “Just because the enemy ship isn’t picking us up on their radar doesn’t mean you can sit around and twiddle your thumbs. I took this job to make money, not to die. Are we going to proceed?”

  The grumpy NPC navigator was right. We were currently burning as little mana fuel possible to stay afloat, relying on the sails and the wind to keep us moving forward. Standard Illyrian radar detected ships based off mana usage; so as long as you used less than a certain threshold you were undetectable, at least until the enemy spotted you the old-fashioned way.

  “Crank the engine and get us close enough to board,” I yelled to the helmsman. “It’s go time.”

  The curmudgeonly sky pilot nodded his head and turned away from the wheel and adjusted the levers of the crystal mana engine. The ship shook and sped through the air. The wind whipped our hair back. The motor roared.

  “Alright guys,” I yelled. “We’ve done this before. The ship will swoop in and we’ll board, taking out the fighters. We have to keep an eye on the turret, making sure none of the crew members play hero and go for a Hail Mary, taking us and the ship with it.”

  Each of the party members nodded along.

  “Lastly, and most importantly, we stop fighting as soon as the crew surrenders. We’ll let them leave on their escape vessels. We’re fighting a battle on two fronts here: the physical war and the mental war. Arethkar has enslaved the players who spawned on its continent out of fear they would harm their way of life. We need to show them The Chosen aren’t pur
e evil. We need to show them we are capable of compassion and empathy like them. Got it?”

  Everybody nodded once again. Perfect timing, as the Horizon’s Dream was flying directly over the supply vessel.

  “Now comes the fun part,” grinned Serena. She bent over and let Kari get onto her back. “See you two down there.”

  The warrior ran to the deck and, with Kari clutching onto her shoulders, jumped into the clouds.

  “As someone without a double jump ability,” Shade yelled over the wind, “I have to say I find this whole process rather unappealing.”

  I picked up some rope tied around a metal cleat, and handed it to him. “Who needs a special jump skill when you have rope?”

  “Says the Aeri who can cushion all of his falls!”

  “I got a great new phrase from my world to teach you. Perfect for this very occasion.”

  “Oh yeah?” he said, his eyebrows raising. “How does it go?”

  I walked to the edge of the ship and looked back at my Lirana companion.

  “It goes like this—” and, as I jumped off into the sky, I said, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

  I dove through the clouds, the wind lashing against my freefalling body. I barrel flipped so I was falling feet first. Next I channeled my mana towards the bottom of my feet. At first I was falling so fast, the ability was unable to fully break the fall, but it did lessen the intensity. I was gliding more than descending to my demise.

  Serena and Kari landed on the deck with a loud thud, kick starting the battle beneath my feet. Soldiers yelled. Rifles fired.

  I created a puddle of mana under the soles of my boots, forming a strong enough platform for me to break my fall and jump again. I created a stairway of mana platforms until I landed on the deck.

  I was greeted with a beam of light shooting past my head. It was a soldier across the deck. Serena lifted her leg and pounded her foot into the chest of the soldier, pushing him back. The warrior regained his balance and rushed at her with his battle axe. With both hands gripped tightly on the hilt of her massive sword, she thrust the blade forward denting the soldier’s metal plating and taking a wallop of points off his HP.

  Another warrior came at her from the opposite end and Serena swung her sword, triggering her favorite ability, blade tornado. Spinning on one foot, she rapidly swirled her sword, becoming an indecipherable and deadly blur, protecting herself from any incoming melee attacks. She did more than simply defend herself: the spinning blade cut through the throats of the two warriors coming at her on either side. They collapsed to the floor at her feet.

  “Aieeeee!”

  Right on cue, Shade swung from his rope overhead, dropkicking a guard on the ship’s sentry tower as he landed. He pulled out both his daggers and ferociously dug his knives back and forth into the warrior’s back with the same intensity of a professional masseuse. He was providing stress relief through destruction.

  The thief twirled his knives and sheathed them at his sides. He crouched down on the stairwell of the control tower and pulled out his guns, blocking the enemy crew’s ability to call for reinforcements. Shade fired off pistol rounds from his higher position, offering support from a distance.

  Two soldiers ran at me with bayonets. I stretched out my arms and opened my hands. I unleashed ice wave: two frozen shards flung through the air and knocked the soldiers back. A crippling frost crackled up their legs, stiffening their bodies as they moved forward.

  I slid across the deck with my flame dodge ability: thrusting myself back, leaving a blazing line of fire at my feet. Next my hands heated up. Two molten fireballs formed in either palm. I whipped them across the deck at the frosted soldiers. Two headshots. The warriors lifted up their hands to their metal helmets, smoke pouring out of their eye slits. They collapsed to their knees, screaming in pain. I whipped more fireballs at them, watching the burning debuff stack beneath their status bars, eating away at their HP until they were finished.

  +105 EXP!

  +105 EXP!

  “Is that it?” I asked.

  A soldier poked his head out from behind a group of barrels with his finger on the trigger of a rifle. He pulled it. The laser blast came straight towards me. I clenched my fists, triggering my stone skin ability, but the spell’s cast time wasn’t quick enough. I was about to get a burning hole right through my chest, but the excruciating pain didn’t come. A golden glow washed over me instead. The laser smashed into my chest and I stumbled back. The hit to my HP wasn’t dramatic.

  “You’re welcome,” said Kari, from across the deck, holding up a cute peace sign with her fox fingers.

  Serena ran towards the final soldier, blade raised. He screamed, “I surrender!”

  She stopped and pointed her sword over the Arethkarian warrior, ready to strike his neck at a moment’s notice.

  “I think that’s all the soldiers covered,” I said, walking over to Serena and the fallen warrior. “Where’s the crew?”

  “They’re below.”

  “Good. Now get up.”

  We found the crew operators, sky pilot, and laborers all below deck. The cleaning woman from earlier was also there. She looked as terrified as she had been when facing the Arethkarian soldier above deck. They were all this way, solemn and fearful. As players with the ability to come back to life after death, we were practically demons to them. Letting them go would be the first step in making them see us as the opposite to the tyrannical monsters their kingdom made us out to be.

  “We’re not going to hurt you,” I said. “We’re taking this ship and its supplies back to our kingdom, but we’ll let you guys leave on your escape ships.”

  The crewmen nodded hesitantly.

  “I’m serious,” I said. “We’re letting you go.”

  We guided the crew of about fifteen onto two different escape ships. They huddled and squeezed into the tight platforms. I slammed the door and gave them a thumbs up. Their engines rumbled and they puttered out into the sky.

  I turned to congratulate my team for a job well-done when something shuffled behind me. An Arethkarian soldier appeared out of nowhere. He must have been hiding on the other end. He leapt through the air with two knives, ready to backstab Serena.

  Lightning shot forth from my palm, wrapping a paralyzing cage around the attacker. I ran up to him and charged a fireball in my hand and formed a flaming fist. I cocked back my arm and punched the fighter until he was at the edge of the ship. Then I kicked him off. His screams fading into the endless sky.

  I took a deep breath and turned back to the crew. They looked at me with pale, solemn faces.

  Serena crossed her arms against her chest. “So much for compassion, huh?”

  She caught my eye and I looked to the floor. “I had to make a quick decision. You or him. I chose you.”

  She was about to reply when a shadowy metal airship emerged from the clouds heading straight for us.

  “Oh crap,” said Shade.

  It was exactly what we were hoping wouldn’t show up.

  Reinforcements.

  2

  A giant dreadnought flew towards us in the sky. The menacing ship was overloaded with offensive weaponry: gun towers across the deck, turrets lining the edges, and cannon holes dotting across the massive metallic hull. Tendrils of black smoke spiraled around the enemy ships as well. Shadow Wraiths. They were horrifying creatures formed of black shadow and glowing red eyes. Monsters the Arethkarian armada used as foot soldiers and cannon fodder. They weren’t normal game monsters either; they were players equipped with horrible necklaces full of passive debuffs like enslavement and demonic transformation.

  “Serena,” I said. “Go to the navigation quarters and take control of the vessel. Everybody else, it’s time to cause a distraction.”

  Right on cue, the Horizon’s Dream puffed out of the clouds and emerged right beside the Arethkarian supply vessel. The mustachioed helmsman was less than pleased. “You told me we were doing light privateer work, not fighting t
he Arethkarian armada on our bloody own!”

  There was no time to argue with him so I shrugged. “Shit happens.”

  He grumbled and turned back to the steering wheel, keeping his eye on the approaching enemy ships.

  Shade and Kari hopped across the deck of the supply vessel and back onto our ship. I took one last glance over to Serena. She looked up from the mana engine and gave me a thumbs up.

  I ran across the deck at full speed, jumping onto the metal rails first, then jumping again across the small but deadly gap of air between our two ships. I landed on the deck of the Horizon’s Dream. I stumbled and was about to face plant into a barrel when Shade caught my arm.

  “Close one,” said Shade, pulling me back to my feet and helping me regain my balance. “To think you may have fallen and hurt yourself before our big battle. It’s a good thing you have someone like me around to stop you from making—”

  “Dude, this doesn’t make you first mate.”

  The Lirana shook his head and crossed his arms. “I should’ve let you bloody fall.”

  Something pulled at my leg. Kari tugged on my trousers, looking up at me with her big hazel fox eyes. “What’s the plan, boss?’