Unexplored - Rise of the Crimson Kingdom Read online

  There was a chill on the early morning wind. The sun was still red in the eastern sky and the grass was bent with shimmering droplets of dew.

  Padwin and Estelar logged on before the sun rose. Neither one could sleep much the previous night and wanted to get an early start to their adventuring career. Both left the city and found a tree with several large, loose branches. They pulled a few down and tested them before they found a couple large, steady, and smooth enough to use as clubs. After that they walked west for about an hour looking for something to do before they came across the goblins.

  “How many?” Padwin mouthed.

  Estelar held up three fingers and his partner nodded. He looked over the crest of the hill again and the goblins were still intent on their breakfast. They hadn’t been spotted. A thrill worked through the elf’s stomach, tinged with a bit of fear. He and his new friend both set their respawn points in the city, so if one of them died, they could just come back. But how bad would it hurt if they did die? He recalled the humanoid dragon’s excitement in getting a splinter. Was he ready to face real pain?

  Of course he was ready to face pain. Estelar took a deep breath and steeled his nerves. He was an adventurer, and adventurers had to risk pain if they wanted to make a profit. It was part of the business. He cringed a little. Still, the thought of getting a blade shoved in his gut wasn’t the most pleasant.

  He looked down at Padwin and the human nodded. Whether he was ready or not, his adventuring career was about to begin. Estelar’s feet sprang to life. He raised the club above his head and rushed toward one of the goblins tending the fire.

  Estelar was surprised at how quick he was. Then again, he was a nimble elf.

  One of the goblins said something in it’s guttural language. Estelar’s target turned in time to see the club crash into his wrinkled head. There was a crack and the goblin fell.

  Behind him Padwin gave a shout. He leapt at one of the goblins and brought his club across its face. A crunching of bones and a smattering of blood escaped the creature’s nose as it clutched its face and fell to the ground.

  The remaining goblin reached for a dagger in its belt. It never got the chance to draw it. Padwin and Estelar brought their clubs down on it and quickly beat the life out of it. They finished off the remaining goblins. When the last was dead a screen popped up in front of the elf.

  Your skill with small clubs has increased to 1!

  You’ve made it to level 1! You’re no longer a newb. Good job!

  “Woohoo. I’m not a newb anymore,” Estelar said sarcastically.

  “I guess they start you at level zero, a literal nothing,” Padwin said.

  “Fitting. Let’s see what we can do to get further from zero.”

  The pair ate the roasted squirrels and searched the bodies. There were no coins on the goblins, but two of them had roughly hewn bone daggers which they took.

  They continued on their travels for half-an hour before they heard talking coming up ahead. The pair snuck into the trees and looked into a small clearing. Two creatures with brown scales, long tails and doglike heads were angrily talking to each other.

  “Kobolds,” Padwin whispered to Estelar, who nodded.

  There was a rabbit caught in a snare between the two and they seemed to be engaged in a heated argument in their language about who should get the creature. The adventurers looked at each other and nodded. They rushed from the trees and, before the kobolds had time to react, both were stabbed multiple times and fell to the ground dead and bleeding.

  Your skill with daggers has increased to 1!

  Estelar closed the screen in front of him. They searched the bodies and found a meager three copper pieces between them. Padwin placed the dead rabbit in his inventory and they moved on.

  The pair travelled for another hour before they reached the treeline of a forest. After some searching, they found a gap just big enough for them to squeeze through. It was dark and thick with hanging vines. The two looked at each other and pushed through the opening.

  The path was overgrown with vines and shrubs covered in little spikes. Several times, the vegetation caught and tore their garments. Each asked the other if they wanted to turn back, but they refused. This difficult path had to lead to a great treasure of some kind. So they continued on, gritting their teeth and bearing the sharp little vines snagging on their clothes and skin.

  Soon they heard some talking ahead. Estelar craned his head and listened. The words were rough and guttural, just like the ones spoken by the goblins they encountered earlier. The adventurers took two cautious steps ahead and reached a point where the path widened. Ahead, six goblins carried the carcass of a deer. The two parties saw each other and instantly reacted.

  The goblins dropped the deer and reached for weapons while Estelar and Padwin gripped their daggers and rushed forward. They swung at the front two creatures. One of the goblins ducked Estelar’s blow but Padwin’s attack was true and he stabbed the goblin in the heart.

  Padwin moved on to the next who drew a rusty short sword. The goblin parried the human’s attack and countered with one of his own. The goblin’s attack was clumsy and Estelar sidestepped it. He kicked the goblin in the side and it fell to the ground.

  The downed goblin soon found a dagger penetrating its throat. Black blood poured from the room as its eyes closed.

  There was a twang. One of the goblins loosed an arrow that struck Estelar’s shoulder. He let out a long hiss as pain shot through his body. Another goblin knocked an arrow and shot it. Padwin dodged aside and the missile missed his head by centimeters.

  Estelar was pushed back as he fought two goblins. They darted around him and scored small nicks and cuts on his legs with worn boot knives. His character screen opened. With each cut, his hit points fell by one. The elf backpedaled, trying to get away from his assailants, but the little green devils were quicker than him.

  His heart pounded in his ears and his breathing came in short gasps. There was no way he was going to stop these things. They were going to kill him.

  One of the goblins lunged in and stabbed him in the leg. Estelar screamed and fell to the ground. The other goblin leapt onto his chest and leered at him. It struck at the elf’s chest.

  Estelar’s brain pumped endorphins in his body and saw a swirl of colors. Without thinking, he quickly grasped the goblin’s slender wrist. He spun his body around and the goblin was lifted into the air. The creature cried out as its body crashed into its attacking partner’s. The elf released the little creature and it sailed through the air, landing a few feet from the archers.

  The archers glanced toward their fallen comrade. Padwin took advantage of their momentary lapse of concentration. He picked up the rusted short sword of one of the downed goblins and rushed at the bow wielding goblins.

  Before he reached them he dropped to the ground and quickly stabbed one of them. The creature dropped its bow and slid forward on the sword. Padwin brought its body around and used it as a shield to block the other goblin’s arrow.

  Estelar stabbed the attacker he felled with his own kinsman and picked up its boot knife. After the second goblin bowman’s arrow was loosed and sank into its already dead compatriot, the elf hurled the dagger at him.

  The knife wasn’t balanced for throwing, but the elf put enough force behind it that when the hilt struck the small creature in the kidney, it went to the ground.

  The battle was over. The two remaining goblins were quickly ended by Padwin and his sword. Breathing heavily, the two adventurers drug themselves over to a tree.

  Your skill with daggers has increased to 2!

  You’ve made it to level 2 congratulations!

  You’ve made it to level 3 congratulations!

  Estelar closed the message windows and saw the arrow sticking out of his friend’s arm. Using his dagger, he dug into the human’s flesh and drew out the missile. Padwin screamed into his free hand as searing pain hurdled through him. The open wound oozed blood, but the arrow was gon
e. Both men cut strips from their tattered breeches and dressed their wounds.

  Your skill with Wound Treatment has increased to 1! Estelar saw when he was done applying the last impromptu bandage.

  They sat for several minutes and allowed the throbbing of their wounds to subside before they looted the bodies. Other than the barely serviceable small bows and poorly made arrows, all of the weapons were rusted and of little use. On all of the goblins they found a grand total of eight copper pieces.

  “Eight copper? You have to be joking.” Estelar said.

  “Nope,” Padwin said, “this sucks.”

  “Guess the designers weren’t kidding when they said this game would be hell.”

  “At least I leveled. I just made three.”

  “Same. Let’s take all of the goblins’ crap with us. If we’re lucky we might get a few more copper for it.”

  “Let’s see if we can skin that deer and eat it first. Maybe eating heals wounds in this game.”

  Padwin dug a small fire pit while Estelar attempted to skin the deer. The designers said there were many different survival skills that could be obtained in the game. Maybe he could skin this deer and boost a skinning skill or something.

  He took his dagger and cut into the flesh and attempted to scrape the skin off. However, he only succeeded in getting his hands and trousers bloody. Padwin came over to help, but after a few minutes, both of them realized they weren’t going to get anywhere.

  They cleaned their hands off the best they could with some leaves, gathered some twigs and loose branches and made a fire. Both men stared into the crackling flames and wondered if they would become the adventurers they wanted to be.

  SEVEN

  Four hours and five more encounters later, Padwin and Estelar found themselves back at the gates of Caspadel. Their clothes were torn and bodies covered with muck and dried blood. The guards would have turned them away, but quick words from Estelar got them inside.

  Estelar was rewarded with the message. Your skill with bluff has increased to 1!

  They slowly trudged down the street, carrying backpacks full of rusted weapons from the enemies they killed. None of them were very useful. They tried to make use of the bows they found but their small size and lack of experience made it hard to fell an enemy. They managed to get a few coppers, fifteen apiece, but other than that there wasn’t any treasure to be found on the low level mobs they fought.

  “At least we levelled up,” Estelar said as he and Padwin made their way down a side street.

  “Yeah but if this goes on we’re never going to progress,” Padwin said. “We could be level one thousand and still be a couple of schmucks.”

  “Things will turn around once we sell this crap we found and get some decent weapons.”

  “What about some good clothes and armor? What about food?”

  “One step at a time.”

  Padwin and Estelar stopped in front of a stooped building with a sign in front that read, “Ramar’s Oddities: General Store.” They walked in and found an elderly human male with a long white beard organizing items on a store shelf behind the counter. The elf leaned against the counter and cleared his throat. The old man turned around and smiled. His teeth were cracked and yellowed.

  “My, my, it looks like you gentleman have seen rough travels.”

  “No shit. We’ve come to trade,” Padwin said.

  “Very good.”

  The man’s dark blue pupils went white and an inventory screen appeared showing what the shop had in stock. Estelar and Padwin reached into their backpacks and an inventory screen opened in front of them. They took some of the items in their packs and place them in the shopkeeper’s inventory screen, but they wouldn’t go. A red message appeared each time they tried.

  Shopkeeper doesn’t want this item.

  “Even the game knows this is all crap. Maybe we can buy something,” Padwin said.

  They scrolled through the items but even when they combined the small amount of coin they had, they could only afford one pitiful looking dagger.

  “We could get a couple of iron rations,” Estelar said in mock enthusiasm.

  “Or three low quality bars of soap,” Padwin said. “Oh, maybe we could buy some whetstones to throw at our enemies.”

  They closed the inventory screen and the shopkeeper waved his hand in front of his face. “Might I suggest you gentlemen invest in the bar of soap. I mean no offence, but you reek.”

  “My good sir,” Estelar said in his elven voice, “I would invite you to stuff it.”

  “You should do something. Maybe you can pay a few coppers to take a bath at an inn.”

  The adventurers plodded out of the shop with the miserable items they collected on their travels in tow. They walked to the Galloping Gryphon, but were turned away by the owner because of their foul stench. This happened at three more inns until they found a small ramshackle establishment called the Putrid Lyre in a part of town filled with broken down buildings and many people wearing sad looks and dirty rags.

  The proprietor of the Putrid Lyre, an ogre with a sour face, allowed them to take a bath for five copper. When they were clean, they put on their tattered clothes and sat back in the main room. A rough looking orc serving wench gave them two mugs of ale that tasted like watered down sewage.

  The orc woman brought them a menu and they found that the only thing they could afford was gruel. It was cold and tasted like cardboard, but it was enough sustenance to hold them. When they finished, they spotted a rough looking humanoid tiger female sipping ale at the bar. They tried to talk to her but received a cold shoulder. They tried their luck with a tall, humanoid hyena called a gnoll and an orc but this went south. Their last attempt, a small gaggle of homely halflings and kobolds, ended when one drew a knife and threatened to “cut off their manly parts.”

  Slumping in their chairs, Padwin and Estelar sighed and looked at the bottom of their empty ale glasses.

  “Even ugly women don’t want anything to do with us,” Estelar said.

  “Can you blame them, we’re pathetic. We’ve been adventuring all day and all we have to show for it are torn clothes and a bunch of useless items.”

  Estelar rubbed his last two copper together and sighed. “It seems, good Padwin, that we must do something quick. Otherwise we’re fated to be the dregs of this wonderful world.”

  “Maybe we can hire ourselves out as mercenaries. I’m tired of fighting weak mobs.”

  “Or as soldiers. Our employers would have to provide our equipment and training.”

  “I’m not holding my breath on that one.”

  The smashing of glass and a loud thump had the pair turn toward a tall, muscular ogre pressing a tall human with broad shoulders and crimson robes against the wall.

  “Where’s my money,” the brutish figure said.

  “I gave you the agreed upon payment,” the small, auburn haired man being pressed against the wall said.

  “I think I’m worth more.”

  “Then you should have asked for more during our negotiations, and I likely would have paid it. But, you set the price, so you have no reason to complain.”

  “I’ll pull more silver out of your ass if I have to.”

  The ogre pulled back a fist and the red robed man lifted his hands. Estelar quickly rose from his seat and grabbed the ogre’s arm. The red robed man looked down at him with surprise.

  “You looking to die?” The ogre said.

  “My good sir, what seems to be the problem? Surely this is a dispute that we can settle with words,” Estelar said.

  Grasped by the neck, the elf was lifted from the floor and pressed against the wall. Padwin rose from his seat and picked up his club.

  “You looking to get your ass beat too human?” The ogre scoffed.

  “Put them down or I’ll jam this stick in your ass,” Padwin said.

  “Hah, you wish.” The ogre looked back at the robed figure. “When I get through turning these two pathetic punks inside ou
t, I’m coming after you.”

  A hand came from out of the crimson robes and pointed at the ogre’s crotch. “Vim Fulminus,” the robed man growled.

  Bright blue shot from the outstretched hand and shot into the ogre’s privates. The large creature’s jaw fell open in shock and he dropped the two men he held to the ground.

  Padwin quickly brought his club over the ogre’s head while Estelar withdrew his dagger and drew several cuts over the being’s chest. The massive creature bellowed and drew a very big sword from his hip. The red robed man smirked and held his hand up to the Ogre’s face.

  “Luminos,” he said.

  A bright white light sprang to life in front of the creature’s face. He squeezed his eyes shut. Estelar grabbed his wrists and wrestled the sword from his hands.

  The ogre growled and stumbled back. He clumsily reached down for a dagger in his boot, but this only gave Padwin the perfect opportunity to grab an empty mug from the bar and bash it over the ogre’s head.

  It thumped off the large creature’s skull and dropped him to the floor. Other patrons of the inn rose to join the fray but the ogre behind the bar brandished a nasty spiked club. This was enough to get everyone to sit back down.

  With calm demeanor, the red robed man searched the ogre and withdrew a leather pouch from the downed creature’s pocket. “Thank you for your services, but I don’t pay mercenaries that attack me.”

  The red robed man smiled and bowed to Estelar and Padwin. “Gentlemen, I would like to thank you for your service. It wasn’t required, but I appreciate it nonetheless.”

  “It was our pleasure to help someone in trouble, or at least someone who seemed to be,” Estelar said.

  Padwin nodded.

  “If I may offer you some advice, I suggest you change that aspect of your world view,” the red robed man smirked and tossed the pouch to Estelar. The elf opened it and was greeted with eight shining silver pieces.

  “But there need to be some that hold chivalry in high regard in this world,” Padwin said.

  “There are also those that need to die,” the robed man said, “and I have seen quite a few chivalrous souls give up the ghost. Look after yourself, because no one else will do it for you.”