Neck-Deep In It: A LitRPG and GameLit Series. Page 5

  “Yeah, I figured we’d be seeing some Emergency Hot Fixes about that,” I said with a disappointed shake of my head. “I just wish the assholes would’ve waited a few days before gimping them back down to normal. I swear every time we get a hand up on our enemies those assholes just knock us back down.”

  “That shits starting to get old,” Phoenix agreed, stifling a yawn. “Not that there’s much we can do about it.”

  We shared a knowing look. It wasn’t like the game developers were going to be overly concerned that they screwed over a pair of gamers. I swear Rani was really starting to get on my last nerve. Shaking my head in disgust, I nodded for the Barbarian to continue her story.

  “The ship set sail shortly after that. I followed them back to the site of the battle, but by then everyone had taken off for Palnisdale. Rani and the crew hung around for a little bit to inspect the sheared cliff face before heading off again. At first, I thought they were headed towards Palnisdale too, but the ship detoured to a small wooded valley a couple of miles outside of the city,” the Barbarian’s face hardened, “where a mini-army of Orcs were on the march towards the city’s gates.”

  “Honestly, I didn’t really see how such a small force was going take on an entire city the size of Palnisdale, but I figured something was up or the ship wouldn’t be watching them so closely. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any way for me to warn you ahead of time since I lost my Flying Squirrel Eterna earlier in the day,” Phoenix said, the frustration clear to hear in her voice. “The only plan I could come up with was to attack them from behind once the siege started, but by the time I caught up to the group, they were already being slaughtered by a mass of naked players and being pushed out of the front gates.”

  “Yeah, I started a Naked Raid by accident,” I explained, understanding her confusion.

  “By accident?” Phoenix’s eyebrows went up as she mockingly said. “What? Did you accidentally happen to run down the city’s main avenue naked or something?”

  “More or less,” I said, embarrassingly rubbing the back of my head. “I’ll tell-”

  “Me about it later,” Phoenix said, cutting me off. “It sounds like I wasn’t the only one who had an interesting night.”

  “Far from it,” I agreed, “now I just need to find out where my ladies went off to.”

  “That shouldn’t be an issue. From what Rayne and Brenna said, Helgath is doing rounds with Neysa to make sure there are no more Dil-Hilths in the city … whatever that is,” Phoenix explained, as she looked over at my companions before lowering her voice. “Personally though, I’d suggest having a talk with your girls.” Standing up in one smooth motion, the Barbarian silently stretched to her full eye-popping length before continuing. “They seem to think you no longer need their help or want them around.”

  “The fuck?” I asked in confusion.

  While I hadn’t had much direct time with any of my companions but Neristhana over the last few days, all of them had been essential in coordinating the new troopers. Without their direction, the battlefield tactics I preferred to use would’ve failed even with all of General Dell’s hard work. If they were starting to doubt their place as my companions, I needed to snip that shit in the bud real quick. Sometimes there just wasn’t enough time to play with everyone that I wanted to.

  “Thanks for the heads up,” I said, serious as a heart attack. “While I’m talking things over with them, you might want to go ahead and pick up a mount this morning if you haven’t done that already.”

  “Get a mount?” Phoenix asked, calling up her Character Sheet. “I thought you had to be level 40 to ride …” Her voice died away as I excitedly grinned back at her.

  “I guess you missed those last few level ups while you were fighting?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow at her as she excitedly began waving her hands in front of her face. Obviously, she’d gotten some new skills and was excitedly flipping through her Character Sheet.

  “Alright … alright, just slow down their girl,” Phoenix said out loud to herself, forcibly calming herself down and lowering her arms, “you’ve gotta think this through before applying anything.” Glancing up at me, she gave me a shit-eating grin. “Meet you at the main gate?”

  “You bet,” I shot back, as she began heading towards the bedroom door. “Who knows, I might head down there myself to see if they have any barding for Neysa.”

  “Barding?” Phoenix asked, coming to a stop with her hand on the door latch.

  “Last night jealousy there was much,” I said in my best Yoda voice. Seeing the questioning look on the Barbarian’s cute face, I succinctly explained. “I rode Neysa into Palnisdale at the head of our column.”

  “That sounds sick as fuck,” Phoenix said with a laugh. “Though, I bet that didn’t go over so well with everyone.”

  “Never does,” I said, giving her a knowing wink. “Let’s just say everyone sent me a bunch of screenshots this morning of the horses they picked up last night along with their matching barding.”

  “So, you’re saying I need to pick up a sweet-ass mount to be one of the cool kids,” Phoenix playfully shot back.

  “More or less,” I agreed, “unless you don’t mind running while the rest of us are riding.”

  “Screw that jazz,” Phoenix said, standing up straight, “a girl has to keep the haters hating.” Giving me a two-finger, she headed out the door. “I’m outy.”

  Shaking my head as the door closed behind the redhead, I headed to the table where Rayne and Brenna were silently watching me. The troubled looks in their eyes spoke volumes to me as I sat down in Phoenix’s previous seat. It was obvious that they were unhappy at the perceived distance that had grown between us. Taking a deep breath, I considered how best to address their concerns.

  Being a Guild Leader was a punishing job. Most gamers didn’t realize how they put the responsibility of their fun and enjoyment on their leader’s shoulders. If something didn’t work out for a dungeon, quest, or if they simply didn’t want to play with anyone else, they refused to accept the onus of their decisions.

  Looking back and forth between my two companions, it was obvious this aspect of human nature wasn’t only a quirk for players. In truth, I was a little disappointed that I’d allowed this to catch me by surprise. I just hoped that the game had left the method open for how I kept my people of The World happy.

  Games had been adding in digital people’s happiness across the board in both strategy and RPG style games for a while now. Each game tried a number of different ways to force gamers to play in a certain way in order to keep their people happy. Mostly, it seemed to be structured around the philosophies of how the game developers thought a lord, country, or civilization should be structured. The spectacular mistakes of the Stellaris and Civilization franchises most especially came to my mind. At first the games let players build as many cities as they wanted and keeping people happy seemed quite realistic, but then those games slowly started to penalize players that liked to expand. More and more, the developers created random penalties for growing larger by conquering your enemies, while giving bonuses for creating mutual beneficial alliances between independent sovereign city-states, nations, and civilizations. Expelling the breath that I’d been holding, I turned to Rayne.

  “Phoenix suggested that we should talk,” I said, sitting down as both women eyed me unhappily. “Something about feeling like I wasn’t interested in having you around as my companions since I’ve been spending so much time with my newfar friends.”

  “Your Barbarian friend has a big mouth,” Rayne angrily said, glancing over at her lover. Seeing her girlfriend’s lips press together in annoyance, she looked at me unhappily. “We should’ve known the newfar wouldn’t keep our secrets.”

  “Perhaps because she thought it was important that we talked through your misconception,” I said in an easy-going tone, as both women glared at me.

  “What misconceptions?” Rayne asked, as the look on Brenna’s face turned grim. “You haven’t
teamed up with us since BrokenFang Hold!”

  “Did we regularly team up with each other before you swore to be my companions?” I asked without any anger in my voice. The question seemed to catch both of my companions by surprise as I continued unperturbed. “Have I stopped working for the betterment of the House of Kayden, BrokenFang Hold, or not utilized all of you to the best of your abilities?”

  “You haven’t even been teaming up with Ulia or Keela,” Rayne said as if that meant something.

  “Only that Gnomeling Neristhana,” Brenna added, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “And is that a problem?” I asked the Huntress with a raised eyebrow.

  “Well, no, but-” Brenna uncomfortably stuttered out, before I cut her off.

  “And what does Ulia or Keela have to do with anything,” I asked, blushing slightly. It was obvious that my companions had been kissing and telling. “Both of them unequivocally stated that our time together was just about having some fun.”

  “Look, all of you know that Neristhana is somewhat special,” I said, trying to get the conversation back on track. Discussing my various sexual escapades wasn’t going to help anything. “After I saved her life from the Mortician Twins, she now considers herself my bodyguard.”

  “She’s not the only one of us that you saved from death,” Brenna disgruntledly muttered.

  “I guess that’s why she joined you in the baths,” Rayne quipped, as I gave her “the look” before continuing.

  “Would it matter if we were sleeping together?” I asked in exasperation.

  “No,” Rayne and Brenna said in unison before the Swordswoman continued. “But it would be some juicy gossip.”

  “We’re not sleeping together,” I growled, slapping my hand over my eyes in annoyance. Taking a deep breath, I focused on my two companions and tried again. “Look, all of you are my officers amongst our people, especially our new soldiers. I trust you to lead them into battle and to keep them alive. While General Dell is ultimately in charge of directing our forces, it’s you,” I nodded to both Rayne and Brenna, “and my other companions that are my representatives on the battlefield. I trust all of you with the power of the House of Kayden as trainers, to speak with my voice, and to do your best for our people.”

  Speaking of trainers, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to setup trainers for Kyarina back at BrokenFang Hold. While giving out training rights for the House of Kayden’s Dark magic was a little bit risky, I figured if anyone deserved that trust, it was Kyarina and Thomas. Signaling my companions to hold up for a moment, I quickly pulled up the Land Management Tab. Finding the area for Dark magic, I assigned Kyarina and Thomas as trainers along with Lady Chiara and Theric Farestrider since I needed some of my own people to be able to give out training too.

  I was just about to close the window when I remembered what Kyarina had been saying about the friction they’d been having between the Valkyrie and Devil Dog players. Who was that woman Kyarina had been saying was their leader? Looking through the list of allied players, I finally found the name I was looking for and quickly gave her training rights too. Hopefully, Ashley Duchenson was a trustworthy individual, I thought, as I mentally dismissed the window.

  “Is everything okay?” Rayne suddenly asked, seeing a startled look on my face.

  “It’s fine,” I said, waving her concern away and quickly explaining what I was doing. As Rayne and Brenna finished reassuring me that Theric and Lady Chiara would be aware of their additional abilities, I looked into their eyes. “Are we good to go now?”

  “Yes, milord,” Rayne said after trading an embarrassed look with her lover.

  “Our apologies for doubting you,” Brenna quietly added, giving me a rueful smile, “and don’t worry, we’ll explain everything to Ulia and Keela.”

  “I’d appreciate that,” I said, thankful that the misunderstanding had been so easily cleared up.

  While a part of me was frustrated as all get-out, another part of me accepted the basic truth. There was little actual difference between players and the people of The World. To be a successful Lord or Guild Leader, both positions required having the flexibility to balance out the various personalities within a group. Mostly that came down to knowing how to smooth out the hurt feelings and personality conflicts that everyone tended to have at one time or another. Smoothing those situations over was sometimes as easy as letting people bitch and complain … even if it meant that I ended up taking a rash of shit, while other times, it required knowing when to lay down the law.

  Obviously, dealing with my companions would now require some of the same levels of juggling that I had to do with many of the in-real-life players in the guild and alliance. Oh joy, I sarcastically thought, doing my best to not let the frustration show on my face. While I was used to that on the player-side, this was the first time I’d ever had to worry about meshing those types of personal conflict with people who were essentially a part of the gaming world. Giving Rayne’s shoulder a final squeeze, I rose to my feet as my eyes were unconsciously drawn to the massive windows at the back of the room.

  I hadn’t really paid any attention to the heavy lead windows or the view beyond them when I’d logged out the night before. Mostly, that was due to the heavy curtains that had covered the darkened windows and my desire to log out to get a decent night of sleep in the real world. Now though, with the curtains thrown open and rays of the rising sun streaming into the room, I could see for miles down the frozen slope and across the Plains of Atoll. While I couldn’t make out any details of the raging battle occurring between the Royal Cavalry and the Orc’s vanguard off to our east northeast, I could see the thin line of horsemen and women fighting for their lives to hold back the advancing darkness that seemed to cover the land itself.

  Were they five or ten miles away? I couldn’t say for sure due to the hill the city sat upon and my inability of judging such distances with just my eyes. All that I could say for sure was that we had to gather up our forces and leave before the enemy reached Palnisdale’s walls or we’d be trapped in the city fighting for our lives with no way to reach BrokenFang Hold. As I watched the Royal Cavalry continually fall back to reform their lines and charge the enemy’s forces again and again, I began casting the spell Manifest Giant Squirrel as Rayne and Brenna silently stepped up behind me.

  ‘Hey Tengsly, it’s good to see you too,’ I said to the happily chittering ball of fur that appeared on my shoulder and began rubbing his forehead against my chin. Taking a moment to scratch the top of his fluffy little head, I waited until he sat back on his haunches and looked me in the eyes. ‘We don’t have much time, little man. I need you to deliver a message to General Dell. Let him know that the horde is approaching the city and we need to get the troops on the move as soon as possible. An update on the Royal Cavalry’s ambush and the time frame for when they think the Orcs will reach the city’s gates would be greatly appreciated. Also, I’ll be in the courtyard as soon as I’ve had a chance to talk with Queen Isolde.’

  ‘Hold up a moment,’ I thought, noticing a blinking highlight around Tengsly’s name on my HUD. Without hesitation, I mentally selected the glowing name only to have a system window pop open before my eyes. Instead of displaying the Flying Squirrel’s Character Sheet, a list of Available Feats appeared first.

  Choose One of the Available Feats:

  Increase Speed – Permanently doubles the flying speed of manifest pet. Allows for quicker delivery of messages and improves the chance of dodging physical attacks.

  Increased Range – Permanently doubles the maximum range of manifest pet. The base range is five miles at level 10 with a one-mile increase per level thereafter. This feat will permanently increase core range to ten miles and each increase per level to two miles.

  Phase Through Walls – Allows manifest pet to phase through solid objects like walls or doors when delivering messages. This feat does not allow for dodging physical melee or ranged attacks.

  Now this was inter
esting, I thought, surprised at discovering that my manifest pets also received their own set of special feats as I perused the list. It made sense on one level. Otherwise, how effective would a base manifest pet be if it didn’t have any special attacks or abilities? If Tengsly had these, then what would my other two manifest pets, Shadow Fang and Kitano, get? Mentally dismissing the random thought, I focused on the choices at hand.

  The Increased Speed immediately caught my eye due to the improved chance to dodge physical attacks. Losing Tengsly’s abilities had definitively been a huge problem during the running battle yesterday. Having a way for him to survive heavy combat was a definitive plus. The only problem, most of those deaths had been due to magic and not physical attacks. Not that Increased Speed wouldn’t help to dodge magic spells to a point. Frowning, I read the next option.

  The Increased Range feat wasn’t really anything to write home about. At least, not until Tengsly acquired a lot more levels. Even if he was level 50, Darom would be beyond his maximum range. Hopefully, the option would continue to be available for future upgrades and I could grab it later, I thought, going to the last feat on the list.

  Though the last feat of Phasing Through Walls was what really grabbed my attention. It just got better and better as I read through the entire description. While buildings and doors hadn’t been an issue out in the wilds, inside any city, it would’ve definitively proved to be a huge issue in contacting my people and canceled out much of Tengsly’s usefulness. While the feat didn’t add any dodging of physical attacks, I wondered if its upgrade would give that option or not. Without hesitation, I selected the feat as the rest of Tengsly’s Character Sheet popped open.