Viridian Gate Online: Embers of Rebellion: A litRPG Adventure (The Firebrand Series Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Summary

  Shadow Alley Press Mailing List

  Eldgard

  Secret Passage

  On The Run

  Mob Rush

  Eisen Mungal

  Rebel Rally

  The Underground

  Qat’ig Gual

  Renzik’s Plight

  Sulfur Secrets

  Chores

  Pyro Master

  Irrefutable ReQuest

  Breakfast Before Burglary

  Bushwhacked

  Death Dream Damnation

  Trial by Combat

  The Illusion of Threat

  Scrivener

  Dark Alley Activity

  Fireworks

  Leader’s Bandolier

  Risi on the Road

  The Grand Archive

  Smash and Grab

  Belly of the Beast

  Hundun, Archive Guardian

  Backstabbed

  Rebels in Need

  Chaos Preparations

  City Ablaze

  Battle of the Babes

  Lift the Veil

  Slave Pits

  Fury of a Firebrand

  Freed

  Jack’s Message

  The Swamps

  Guilds and Goddesses

  Books, Mailing List, and Reviews

  Viridian Gate Online: Expanded Universe

  Books by Shadow Alley Press

  litRPG on Facebook

  GameLit on Facebook

  Copyright

  About the Author

  About the Publisher

  Summary

  A single spark begets an inferno.

  THE THEFT OF THE DRUG lord Carrera’s Faction Seal has set Osmark’s empire-to-be ablaze with the hunt for Abby and Otto’s heads, but her quest to discover the truth about the ultra-rare item won’t wait. There’s only days left to Earth’s destruction and the Faction Seal plays some role in Osmark’s plan to rule over Viridian Gate Online, the immersive VRMMO game turned humanity’s lifeboat.

  With nowhere left to turn in Harrowick, Abby and Otto have no choice but to flee to the rebel undergrounds of Alaunhylles—a fading light that was once a beacon of hope in the Imperial aligned city. They come seeking answers in the Grand Archives, but the rebels have their own problems, and their own priorities... Priorities that might just get Abby and Otto killed before they can find the answers they need.

  The enterprising rebel Firebrand will have to dig deep to complete her quest, or see all her hopes go up in flames in this next installment of the Firebrand series: Embers of Rebellion.

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  Eldgard

  Secret Passage

  TREMORS RATTLED THE cup in my hand as Sandra’s goons searched the tavern above, the Boar’s Head. I chugged the liquid down, trying to combat the pounding in my head. Not my head, my avatar’s head. My IRL head was very likely already incinerated, and some stranded stranger outside the gates of Osmark Technologies was strapping into my old capsule.

  I had fully transitioned into V.G.O., the massive virtual reality game I’d helped build. But a game it was not. It was a safe haven for humanity, allowing them to survive the apocalypse to come, at least in some way. Astraea 213 would slam into the ocean bedrock of our little Earth, killing ninety percent of all living organisms in seconds, then ninety-nine percent in months.

  I didn’t know what would happen after that, but I had a quest timer in the corner of my vision counting down to the very second Astraea would hit Earth, and a former boss, Robert Osmark, who seemed hell-bent on ruling over this ark for however long it floated. The timer ticked from 9 days 2 hours to 9 days 1 hour 59 minutes and 58 seconds. With nothing to do in the darkness but wait, I opened the quest and looked it over one more time.

  <<<>>>

  Quest Update: On the Edge of a Blade Hangs Balance

  You have traversed the secret dungeon and opened the fabled chest to discover an Imperial Faction Seal.

  The item will not reveal its purpose to you, and your local companions have never encountered such an item, so you will need to do some digging. But be wary in your dangerous travels, the Imperial Faction Seal can be stolen off your person both when you’re alive... or dead.

  Quest Class: Unique, Personal

  Quest Difficulty: Infernal

  Success: Gather your resources and discover the purpose of the Imperial Faction Seal.

  Failure: Fail to identify the Imperial Faction Seal’s purpose, or lose the item.

  Reward: 50,000 XP, +20 to all base stats, not including Luck, and Sophia’s Favor.

  <<<>>>

  “They’re still here. Find them!” The frantic voice of Sandra, Osmark’s right hand, reached me through the cracks in the ceiling and I closed my quest menu.

  Otto’s hot breath tickled my ear as he whispered, “We’ll camp out another few hours until they’re gone and then find another spot to lay low a few days.”

  My eyes flicked to the countdown in the darkness, my HUD illuminated with a soft orange glow as not to blind me. As a Wode, I couldn’t see shit in this pungent onion pit, but I bet Otto, my NPC companion, had some racial ability that allowed his pupils to dilate wider. I could tell the ceiling was low, something about the way the sound traveled, it was cramped.

  Pain shot up my spine from the tap-dancing porcupines in my gut, and I doubled over, slapping my hand over my mouth to stifle a groan. I’d known there would be pain from the transition, but I hadn’t expected anything like the stomach-rending sensations I was experiencing. Damn it, what a great freaking time to go kick the hornet’s nest, Abby, right before you transition!

  The night before, Jack, my old college buddy, his NPC Cutter, Otto and I had raided a dungeon we had no right raiding. Well, it had no right existing, but I had hacked the code to get myself a copy of the dungeon scroll that belonged to the Columbian drug lord Aleixo Carrera.

  Carrera and many other corrupt pieces of garbage all around the world had made dirty deals with my boss, Osmark, to get exclusive dungeons made to power-level them. It became clear after a few pokes around in Osmark’s private email that he was building a court of nobles over which he’d be king, and everyone else would be his serfs. I couldn’t let that happen, and now, I had a quest timer and a powerful need to understand what a Faction Seal was.

  Otto placed a massive mitt on my back and rubbed in big, rough circles. The calluses of his battleworn hands scratched the insatiable itch of my burning skin. I focused on the feel of it, and the agony in my insides dulled to an angry throb.

  “Will you be able to walk?” he hissed as chairs and tables crashed above.

  I nodded instead of speaking. The intense pain made me bite down, and I knew if I opened my mouth to say anything, I would scream. The carafe of water Meredith, the barmaid, had brought was nearly empty, so I drank straight from it instead of pouring any in my cup. The fastest way to recovery was to eat, but I wasn’t desperate enough to start gnawing on raw onions, at least not yet. The flagon of water ran dry, and finally, the stabbing agony subsided to something tolerable.

  “Otto.” My voice rasped out of my raw throat. He pulled his ear close to my mouth. “We need to get to Naitee.”

  Naitee was my sorceress trainer, and excellent at making teleport scrolls among other things. We couldn’t w
ait until the coast was clear to leave Harrowick. I didn’t know when Sandra’s patrol would ever let up, or if she’d burn the town to the ground to find me. More importantly, we had a quest timer that was tied to a raging inferno ball headed straight for Earth.

  “She can’t hide us—” Otto started, and I cut him off.

  “We’re not staying here, we need to get to Alaunhylles. The Grand Archive.”

  I could hear Otto shaking his head in the blackness. “You’re not well enough to travel that far yet.”

  “We’re not traveling—”

  “Where are they, you worthless fool!” Sandra’s heels clicked and clacked on the ceiling as she stormed across the tavern floor.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about! People pay, they come and they go!” An older man’s voice replied with very convincing fear in his tone. But I knew Patel, the tavern owner, wasn’t scared of Sandra, or her goons.

  We were lucky there was a secret onion compartment in the pantry basement. It hadn’t always been for onions, Patel told us. He used to harbor Bleak Bandits, which was what the Imperials called the rebels back in the days where Imperial ships sailed from Harrowick to get Wyrdtide under its boot. Many of the skirmishes ended in blood, sunken ships, and great losses for the rebels until their presence was nothing but whispers in dark alleys. Otto and I had encountered many rebel-friendly citizens in the last few days, so it seemed the resistance was still alive, just... burnt out.

  I grabbed at my bandolier, then my staff, and finally checked my inventory. Still well stocked with Health and Spirit potions. I didn’t want anything to get crazy, but if it did, I trusted that Otto and I could at least escape intact.

  “We know they were here,” Sandra continued, quieter than before. It was hard to make out all the words. “Transitioned... know she’s limping... tell us... the reputation.”

  Otto’s hand tightened to a fist on my back. I could tell it was eating him up to let Sandra parade all over his stomping grounds, threatening his friends.

  “If you won’t tell me...” Sandra growled, and her clickity clackity shoes moved across the room again. A young woman screamed and Sandra went on, “Maybe she will! C’mon, sweetheart, where’s the big ugly Risi and his little tagalong wench?”

  “I,” Meredith whimpered, “I don’t know! They were here, but they disappeared! Maybe—” She cried out.

  “Maybe what?” Sandra demanded, and the crashes of thrown tables and tossed rooms quieted.

  Meredith sounded as though she were struggling, perhaps in a choke hold. I knew she was just an NPC, but Sandra’s treatment of the girl who’d shown me kindness set my blood boiling.

  “Maybe they used a port scroll,” Meredith squeaked.

  Clever girl. Sandra hadn’t been thinking of that. If I’d been smart, I would’ve thought of it, too. I rubbed at my burning eyes, the onion stench really getting to me.

  “And where would they have gone, do you think?” Sandra’s tone shifted from fuming to frustrated. I relished the thought of her cheeks red with embarrassment, her brain clicking into overdrive as she chastised herself for missing something so simple.

  “They talked about New Viridia, some collective they were going to talk to about something they found. I don’t know more than that, just what they said when I was at their table.”

  There was a thump like knees hitting the floor, and Meredith coughed.

  “Let’s move it!” Sandra declared, and the trudges of many heavy plate boots stomped toward the door. When the last of the footfalls quieted, Sandra spoke again. “I will be watching you, old man. If you hear any news from your Risi friend, I will know, and if you don’t tell me, it’ll be more than broken tables and chairs to deal with. Don’t. Mess. With me.”

  The door slammed shut. Otto and I sat in trepid silence, his hand returning to the rough circular motions on my back, and I trembled from the red-hot pain searing my chest. I wished dying IRL wasn’t so excruciating down in the game. I wished the Devs had found a way to code out the pain in time.

  If wishes and hopes were planks and ropes, you could build yourself a ladder out of this hole. The sound of my father’s voice in my head was a kind reprieve from the all-consuming thoughts of agony. He had said that any time I’d said “I wish” or “I hope.” He’d remind me that nothing happens by chance or by miracle, and I would have to get through this with what I had and who I had with me.

  Patel and Meredith spoke quietly for a few moments before I heard them making their way to the onion storage and moving the camouflaging shelf. The door stuck as someone on the other side tugged once, then twice, before Otto gave it a good shove.

  Blinding light assaulted me and I groaned as I squinted. My gaze fell first on Meredith: neck bloodied from a superficial cut, braided brunette hair frazzled and pulled from the tie, eyes wild with a mixture of fear and fury. Over her shoulder, I made out a tall pantry with shelves from floor to ceiling, all covered in produce.

  Patel poked his thin gray-stubbled face around the small opening. “We should hurry. They’ve left two men up in the rooms looking for you.” His warm hand gripped my wrist, and he pulled me from my straw bed.

  “Do you have anything to eat?” I held my stomach as I stumbled into the shelf of turnips that once blocked the small door.

  Patel chuckled darkly. “Don’t like onions, eh?”

  My gut turned and I shot him my most menacing glare as I clung to the rack of tubers. The ball bearings bashing around in my head mixed with the feeling of napalm in my veins was enough. I didn’t need a few strings of code back-talking.

  “Guess not.” Patel grabbed hold of Otto’s hand and braced himself against the small doorframe as he hauled the massive Risi out. “Meredith,” the old man grunted, “grab her something for the road.” She gave a quick jerk of her head and disappeared into the kitchen.

  Otto’s head nearly touched the ceiling as he stretched up to his full height. He’d been trapped with me in that tiny closet for at least a few hours, and the cracks of his neck and spine were a testament to how cramped it had been.

  A muffled thump and breaking glass, followed by sinister laughter from upstairs, alerted us to the present danger. Patel mouthed “This way” and motioned for us to follow as he stole into the kitchen. For as big as Otto was, he sure could move quietly when he wanted to. I trailed behind, doing my best to pick up my feet and stay upright.

  The tan stone walls of the kitchen were covered with hanging pots, pans, lids, cutlery, and more. It almost looked like a toolshed. The massive wood-burning stove at the center of the room was surrounded by counters littered with half-prepared foods, and hot tongs leaned against the red brick chimney.

  Meredith was wrapping something up in a brown towel, one hand grabbing at chopped apples and the other at slices of cured meat. I salivated at the thought of mixing the two together, and resisted the urge to rush to her for a bite.

  Patel guided us from the kitchen down a short corridor, then down another to the bathing room in the back of the tavern. “Help me,” he whispered to Otto as he pulled on the massive circular wooden tub. The metal-bound wood planks whined as they scraped along the cobblestone floor, and Patel cringed with each loud sound.

  Finally, he put his hand out to Otto to stop. Patel crouched down and placed his hand, fingers spread wide, on the waterlogged stone floor.

  Patel whispered, and with each syllable the floor came alive with blue-white runes. “Lamintante ogrosah imvaltue.”

  With a frump, the towels hanging along the south wall dropped to the floor as the wall itself disappeared. In the dark I could see five or six steps leading down, but I knew it went much farther than that.

  Meredith ran to my side, passing the satchel of food to me with a wink “Good luck.”

  I held her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I won’t forget what you did for us.”

  “Travel safe, my old friend,” Patel whispered as Otto stepped into the darkness.

  “May the gods
bring you prosperity for all you’ve done.” Otto bowed his head and turned back to me, shadows elongating the marks of fear in his features. “Are you ready?”

  Acid roiled in my empty stomach and my pulse thumped in my temples. I didn’t feel ready to walk down a pitch-black staircase into the unknown, but I was going to, damn it. I nodded, held tight to my sack of food, and passed Patel into the old blackened archway.

  On The Run

  AFTER WHAT FELT LIKE an eternity, the passageway dumped us off at an old drainage ditch, complete with repugnant standing water and vagabonds. Their semi-lucid gazes followed us out from the opening and up the hill, bloodshot eyes searching us for goods. I worried for a moment that one might be lucid enough to remember our faces, but Otto waved them off.

  “They’re addicts,” he grunted, helping me over the last boulder to get onto the dirt path. “Even if they did remember us, no one would believe them if there’s a gold reward on our heads.”

  “What are they addicted to?” I panted, bending at the hips and placing my hands on my knees.

  Otto clicked his tongue. “You remember that potion that unlocked the magic for you when we were doing your sorceress quest?”

  I breathed deep through my nose and let my pounding heart settle. “Yeah, it tasted like crap.”

  “Yes, but do you remember how you felt?” Otto quirked an eyebrow.

  “It felt great.” I nodded. “I felt powerful.”

  Otto gestured to the layabouts among the pigpens and grazing fields. “They failed every path of the Sorceric quest, every branch of magic closed to them. They drink the potions for a taste of power, but forcing energy as strong as that through the body has costs. The mind, the flesh, the soul... after time, their fortitude dwindles until it’s gone.”

  I locked eyes with a gaunt woman with hollow cheeks smeared with brown and red. Her long fingernails dug into the paper-thin skin on her arm until she scratched it away. Bloody cracks on her pale white lips hid gnarled too-few teeth, and her bony legs screamed of starvation. Why did we build a world where this could happen? V.G.O. was supposed to be a new haven, not a repeat of the same mistakes.