Crystalfire Keep Read online

  Crystalfire Keep

  Elements of Wrath Online Book 3

  J. B. Garner

  J. A. Cipriano

  Copyright © 2017 by J.B. Garner & J.A. Cipriano

  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

  Also by J.B. Garner

  Also by J.A. Cipriano

  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

  Thank You for reading!

  Author’s Note

  Glossary

  Litrpg

  Also by J.B. Garner

  Dwarf for Hire

  Rune Service

  The Push Chronicles

  Indomitable

  Indefatigable

  Incorruptible

  Three Seconds to Legend

  The Opening Bell

  The Tale of the Tape

  The Twelfth Labor

  The Inspector Redmane Mysteries

  The Songstress Murders

  Clans of Shadow (With J.A. Cipriano)

  Heart of Gold

  Feet of Clay

  Fists of Iron

  Elements of Wrath Online (With J.A. Cipriano)

  Ring of Promise

  The Vale of Three Wolves

  Crystalfire Keep

  Also by J.A. Cipriano

  World of Ruul

  Soulstone: Awakening

  Soulstone: The Skeleton King

  Bug Wars

  Doomed Infinity Marine

  Doomed Infinity Marine 2

  The Legendary Builder

  The Builder’s Sword

  The Builder’s Greed

  The Builder’s Pride

  The Builder’s Wrath

  The Builder’s Throne

  The FBI Dragon Chronicles

  A Ritual of Fire

  A Ritual of Death

  Starcrossed Dragons

  Riding Lightning

  Grinding Frost

  Swallowing Fire

  Elements of Wrath Online

  Ring of Promise

  The Vale of Three Wolves

  Crystalfire Keep

  The Shaman Queen’s Harem

  Ghosts and Grudges

  Kingdom of Heaven

  The Skull Throne

  Escape From Hell

  The Thrice Cursed Mage

  Cursed

  Marked

  Burned

  Seized

  Claimed

  Hellbound

  The Half-Demon Warlock

  Pound of Flesh

  Flesh and Blood

  Blood and Treasure

  The Lillim Callina Chronicles

  Wardbreaker

  Kill it with Magic

  The Hatter is Mad

  Fairy Tale

  Pursuit

  Hardboiled

  Mind Games

  Fatal Ties

  Clans of Shadow

  Heart of Gold

  Feet of Clay

  Fists of Iron

  The Spellslinger Chronicles

  Throne to the Wolves

  Prince of Blood and Thunder

  Found Magic

  May Contain Magic

  The Magic Within

  Magic for Hire

  Witching on a Starship

  Maverick

  Planet Breaker

  1

  If there’s one thing I have learned from my time in Elementalis Online, something that took me a long time to understand, it was the value of friendship. A cheesy sentiment, but true. It was interesting then that it was a friend’s request that landed us in this particularly sticky situation, waist-deep in the brackish waters of Tamiroth, one of the more dangerous dungeons in the Ocean Kingdom.

  What made it such a difficult place to delve was twofold. First, of course, was the instance boss, Lavindre, the Black Daughter. The eldest and most powerful daughter of the second Ocean Mother, Lavindre was possessed of an arrogance unknown to most Nix and had thought she could turn back the Waters of Strife on her own. No one person, no matter how powerful, could stop the Elements of Wrath, something that the Elohjin, ancient beings of immense power, couldn’t.

  Needless to say, those dark waters had infected her instead, twisting her into a living tool of the Darkness. Add a few hundred years of perpetual servitude atop all the power the Black Daughter already possessed, and you had a recipe for total group wipes.

  The second was the waters that half-filled every inch of the twisting underground reef that was Tamiroth. Not quite thoroughly tainted, the still pools and channels impeded movement and, more importantly, were under the command of Lavindre directly. What this meant as far as game mechanics was the potential for all manner of sudden traps. Whirlpools to hold avatars in place, sudden floods to try to drown them, and sudden surges to separate or direct them into even greater danger were possible and likely.

  My heavy Craggar body and thick plate armor boots made me even slower than usual as we pushed through the mire in the main entrance hall. Before her fall, Tamiroth was the Black Daughter’s home, an immense place worked from the pearlescent shell of some ancient sea beast. The entire thing was set deep into the coastline of the Blighted Cove, the source of the waters flowing through the various chambers. What once had been curved, polished shell surrounding us now had ‘cracks’ of darkness shooting through the pearly surface, a visible sign of the corruption seeping through the place.

  “It won’t be that difficult, right?” Wazif, our friendly Ember miner, suggested as we pushed forward. A member of our merry band’s ‘fan club’ guild, the craftsman was the reason we were here. Even if the slightly rotund Mystic wasn’t so friendly, Kayla and I owed him for all his help in finding the Vale of the Three Wolves a week ago.

  “At least we don’t have to go all the way through,” he continued. “The nodes I need are in the Swollen Gallery, not too deep into the instance. I wouldn’t have even bothered you guys if Elementium wasn’t found entirely in dangerous dungeons like this. It’s the only type of mining that even budges my skill anymore.”

  I wasn’t too knowledgeable about the crafting system, but I did know one of the common complaints among pure crafters was Wazif’s issue, that they could only harvest certain rare ingredients in amazingly dangerous places. Elementium was one of the highest tiers of mining nodes, and the refined metal was used for the highest tiers of various crafting disciplines.

  Burndall gave his Basalt Blade a few practice swings. “Dude, as long as you get enough to make me a sweet new Spellblade on the side, I’ll do whatever.” The Ember Sorcerer shot me a sidelong glance. “Especially for our fans, right, Shale?”

  Yeah, it was apparent the kid was still a bit peeved that I had disappeared for a few days when he had been counting on me to sweet talk the FFC guild folks, as much for my own benefits as his. “Right, Burnie,” I nodded, hoping to soothe his annoyance. “All the FFC are our friend
s and Wazif here more than the rest. We’re happy to help.”

  Kayla’s vague frown was born more of thoughtfulness than annoyance as she nodded. “Exactly, Max.” Since we had unlocked the power of the Rings of Promise, we discovered that the Filter would garble any personal information we shared with each other in the ears of other listeners. Selective security, I guess you could call it. “Let’s focus on the task at hand. Tamiroth is just within my and Max’s level range, so you two are going to have to work overtime to pick up the slack.”

  Crysta was right behind the Nix Sorceress, giving her oversized compound bow a few practice pulls. The willowy Aurum Ranger smiled brighter than I had seen since our little victory at the hospital last week. Facing down Dr. Fontaine to make her reconsider pulling her institute’s medical charities keeping her comatose fiancé treated had taken a significant burden off of Crysta’s shoulders.

  “Don’t worry,” she assured us. “Consider me your ringer. I won’t let anyone die as long as everybody follows the plan. All we really have to worry about is the first boss, and I’ve done that a dozen times with Sisters groups.”

  I was happy that she was getting some in-game time; she needed the relief between her work and the constant vigils at her fiancé Maria’s bedside. We had a few more chats since then over the shallow internet, and I wanted to think the worst was over for Wynona. If only I could get her to cough up some more details on how this whole Trust system between Mina and me worked. We hadn’t been lying to each other or anything, but it had only crept up ever so slowly.

  I was wrapped up in my own thoughts to the degree that I barely noticed the swollen, rotten door that marked the actual start of the dungeon. Half-rotten whale ribs and barely intact, tarnished metal bands held the gate. Before Lavindre’s fall, it must have been glorious. What brought me back to the moment was Crysta and Kayla’s exchange behind me.

  “I know I’m a bit out of the loop,” Crysta mentioned as she was finishing a round of preparatory buffs, “but don’t you usually join in on the weekly Guild Crucible match?”

  Kayla’s flinch at that was so small, I doubted anyone other than me noticed it, especially as it was hidden behind a casting of Ice Shield on me. “Usually, yeah.”

  I was watching now, masking my concern behind the act of invoking both a Water-modded Elemental Aegis and an Entrenching Call. If Burndall and Wazif noticed, I would have been surprised as Burnie helped the miner with a Gem loadout that would better suit the dangerous place we were about to enter.

  Crysta’s reply sounded vaguely disinterested in that particular way someone who sucks at hiding their emotions fakes that same sentiment, something emphasized as she looked down and away from Kayla as she did so. “Well, uh, isn’t that today? Like, in ten minutes or something?”

  “Yes, but those happen every week.” Kayla shook out her gently waving blue hair and brandished her staff. “This is more important.”

  Keeping up the idle chat veneer, the Ranger adjusted the Gems on her bow, exchanging the shining diamond of a Light Gem for the aquamarine of a Water Gem. “Okay, sure, but this is, like, the second or third week you’ve missed it, right? I mean, I don’t care, I hate PvP myself, but ...”

  Kayla responded to the artificial mood with the same. “It’s fine. Amethyst knows, and besides, Crystalfire goes live soon. She won’t care about the Arena rankings while the raid is going on. Who is going to bother doing PvP matches when there are hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line in the contest?”

  Crysta just nodded as she distracted herself with a summoning incantation. I was pretty sure I knew exactly who Amethyst was, even if I hadn’t taken the time to learn a bit more about the Sisters of Artemis since our adventure in the Vale of the Three Wolves. She was the Sisters of Artemis’s guildmistress and acknowledged as one of the best Battlemasters on the server, topping charts in PvP content and leading the Sisters to be one of the most successful raid guilds as well. If I understood what I had seen during the trials in that same valley, Amethyst was one of the Shades that had accosted Kayla when I had been in the driver’s seat of her avatar.

  With that in mind, I swapped over to a direct channel to Kayla. To no surprise, the final act of becoming Promised, the Elementalis Online equivalent of marriage or adoption, had created a permanent, private connection we could access at any time between us.

  Shale: We can probably handle this, Mina, if the Sisters are going to give you bubbles for skipping again.

  Kayla: They probably aren’t … but if they are, I don’t care. Like I said, this is more important.

  Shale: I won’t ever argue that helping your friends isn’t a good idea, but we could probably cover this without you. I don’t want you playing the martyr card or anything when you don’t have to.

  She frowned a bit at that, her brows knit in thought for a moment before she replied.

  Kayla: No. I’m staying. I … we … owe Wazif this and … to be totally honest, I think I’m starting to understand what’s really important to me. It’s not guilds; it’s people.

  I smiled at that.

  Shale: Okay, but if you do have to do something in-game, with or without me, don’t hesitate to let me know. We can make anything work if we plan ahead, right?

  Kayla: You got it, Max.

  You have gained Trust with your Promised! Your Trust is now at 24 points!

  Well, if anything confirmed she wasn’t covering up her feelings, that was it. You know, it’s amazing (while also creepy in its invasiveness) to have an AI continually playing relationship nanny. Still, I couldn’t help but remain a little worried. If anything I heard from the Shades was true and not just manifestations of Mina’s anxieties, her willingness to buck her guild might turn into a problem.

  Once Crystalfire Keep started, we would need help to run the raid, an instance that required ten players, and the Sisters of Artemis would be our best bet to recruit those extra six people. If there was bad blood between Kayla and Amethyst, she might be far less inclined to help us.

  That was for the future, though. Right now, we had a job to do.

  Everyone else had finished their preparations. Burndall’s Basalt Blade glowed with Explosive Runes, Wazif gripped his pickaxe nervously, and Crysta had finished summoning her ever-faithful sprite, Loi. This time, instead of the warm, glowing form of a Light Fairy, he was in the body of an ever-air-swimming Water Weird, a tiny creature made of water with the shape of a merman.

  As Loi swam a lazy circle about the Ranger’s head, I turned back to the entrance door, my eyes flitting over the updated group status HUD, concentric circles around the center of my view detailing the specifics of our full group.

  Shale, 45 Craggar Warlord, Tank

  HP 4020/4020 EP 3000/3000

  Kayla, 45 Nix Sorcerer, Damage

  HP 2520/2520 EP 3720/3720

  Burndall, 26 Ember Sorcerer, Damage

  HP 1570/1570 EP 3220/3220

  Crysta, 60 Aurum Ranger, Support

  HP 6730/6730 EP 8100/8100

  Wazif, 17 Ember Mystic, Support

  HP 1020/1020 EP 1340/1340

  Loi, 60 Sprite Mystic, Support

  HP 2732/2732 EP 3200/3200

  “Okay, team,” I announced as I raised my banner high. “Let’s do this.” With a nod to the back lines, namely Wazif and Burnie, I added, “Remember, guys, do what you can to help but stay well out of the way of the front lines and watch for tidal surges! Let the rest of the group do the heavy lifting, okay?”

  Wazif nodded emphatically while Burnie smirked. “Dude, don’t worry! This will be a cakewalk after what we’ve been through!” He rested his ensorcelled sword, still a size or two too large for him, over his shoulder like a grade-school kid going up to bat.

  Kayla gave me a pat on the shoulder as she sent me a message over our private link. Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye out for him. She gave me a wink as I sighed and pushed the door open.

  The first segment of the dungeon was composed of local beasts from the Bli
ghted Coast that had found its way into these corrupted halls and were twisted by them. Waterlins (the regional Ocean Kingdom variant of Pyrlins), Coral Crabs (the name says it all), and Sand Vipers (combine your worst fever dreams of venomous snakes and weird ocean invertebrates) made up most of the packs, the Waterlins sometimes using the Crabs as mounts. No matter the kind, the creatures all showed signs of the Darkness starting to seep into them, tendrils of black creeping through their veins, twisted limbs, or jet-black eyes, but nothing that manifested as a full Elemental reclassification.

  That also meant that there was nothing too difficult in the opening chambers. Typical tank-and-spank monster placements, even when the occasional water surge would try to disrupt the group. Wazif was right, though. It was fortunate we didn’t have to go too deep because I could already tell that these first fights were taking too long. Not to disparage Burndall or anything but this wasn’t scaling content, and the average starting MOB level was 41 and was only going to increase as we pushed on. The massive level gap was biting hard into the DPS he could throw down range, not to mention Wazif’s complete inability to add anything to that.

  To give our miner credit, he did play as smart as he could, staying clear of the main fighting without being so far removed that an errant surge of water could throw him into another clump of monsters. While letting Crysta do the primary healing, Wazif even threw out a couple of Warm the Soul spells (a Fire-based Heal over Time) and other minor heals, trying to patch what errant damage he could. With that kind of smart head on his shoulders, I started to wonder if it would be worth the time to try to coax him out of just being a craftsman.