Soulstone: Awakening (World of Ruul Book 1) Read online

  Soulstone: Awakening

  World of Ruul #1

  J. A. Cipriano

  Contents

  Want to get this FREE?

  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

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Thank You for reading!

  Skills

  Character Sheets

  Character Sheet - Aaron

  Character Sheet - Two’ Manchu

  Character Sheet - Crash

  Character Sheet - Dark Heart

  Want to get this FREE?

  Curious about what to read next?

  Cursed

  Copyright © 2017 by 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.

  Want to get this FREE?

  Sign up here. If you do, I'll send you my short story, Alone in the Dark, for free.

  Visit me on Facebook or on the web at JACipriano.com for all the latest updates.

  Also by J. A. Cipriano

  The Thrice Cursed Mage

  Cursed

  Marked

  Burned

  Seized

  Claimed

  Hellbound

  The Half-Demon Warlock

  Pound of Flesh

  Flesh and Blood

  Clans of Shadow

  Heart of Gold

  Feet of Clay

  Fists of Iron

  The Spellslinger Chronicles

  Throne to the Wolves

  Prince of Blood and Thunder

  The Lillim Callina Chronicles

  Wardbreaker

  Kill it with Magic

  The Hatter is Mad

  Fairy Tale

  Pursuit

  Hardboiled

  Mind Games

  Fatal Ties

  1

  A war cry burst from the barbarian’s lips as he ambled toward me. His leather boots kicked dust up from the arena floor as he moved in a slow circle, trying to get his back to the sun and diminish my line of sight. It was a good trick, but there was just one problem with that. I knew what he was trying to do.

  Even if I could keep him from blinding me, that hulking axe of his would do some major damage. If he hit me with that, no amount of blocking would keep my head from getting caved in like a casaba melon. Unfortunately, I was only good up close. I’d have to engage him sooner or later, and since his arms were longer than mine, I’d have to be quick. Even a cursory blow from him would mean trouble since the wardings on his gauntlets let me know he had ogre strength.

  That said, I’d done this dance a million times before. The key was to not get frazzled. No, I had to stay calm. If I was calm, I could win. At least in theory. Unfortunately, it was always easier to tell yourself to be calm than to actually calm down. On the other hand, it was always a lot easier to piss the other guy off.

  “Have you heard the one about your mother?” I asked, a grin melting across my face as I stepped back, trying to put space between me and his big axe. The muscles in his legs twitched as I spoke, letting me know he was about to attack. “You probably have, it’s huge.”

  Another snarl tore from his throat as he leapt toward me, huge twin bladed axe cleaving through the air in a shower of red energy. I stepped to the side, slipping into a shadow as the axe passed through where I’d been and reappeared behind him, driving my daggers into his back before following up with a quick kidney punch.

  He stumbled forward, stunned from the blow as I unloaded everything I had left, stabbing him in the back with my dragon bone daggers and sending him flying across the arena floor like a comet of fire and blood. As he crashed to the ground lifeless, the crowd went wild. I grinned as I sheathed my twin daggers and took a bow.

  A cry of outrage exploded from the computer station across from me as the angry form of my opponent, Two‘ Manchu, leapt from his seat and flung his headset at the huge movie screen displaying our match in fury.

  “You cheated, Kahn!” he snarled, calling me by my character’s name as he marched toward me. It probably would have been a little more intimidating if he wasn’t a five-foot-nothing Asian guy with spaghetti arms, but you work with what you’ve got, I guess.

  To be fair, I wasn’t much better since most of my time was spent in front of a computer screen or in an arcade. Let’s just say I didn’t consider working out a productive use of my time. Still, as he came charging toward me across the stage at the EpiX! Games! PVP World Championship, my heart beat like a hammer in my chest. I didn’t want to get into a fight with anyone if I could help it, let alone in front of an entire crowd of people.

  “It must be hard for you, not being able to rage quit in front of all these people, eh?” I asked, standing up and trying to appear bigger than I really was while running a hand through my short black hair. “Besides, hitting you in the back is hardly cheating. Haven’t you heard? Rogues always do it from behind.”

  Before I could say more, a too cool for school guy in his mid-twenties wearing expensive shades and a blue muscle shirt came walking toward me with his hand out. My jaw nearly dropped. It was Crash Overdrive. The reigning Titan Gate PVP champion, and the guy I’d face in the final round now that I’d just beaten Two‘ Manchu.

  To be fair, I’d never expected to get this far, and I was still in sort of a daze. I’d mostly just played back at my dorm with a bunch of other drunks, and I’d joined the contest on a lark. Then I started winning.

  “I guess I’ll be seeing you in the finals,” Crash said, offering me his hand. Two‘ Manchu had stopped in his tracks, and I wondered if it had something to do with Crash having acted like he didn’t exist. The two were in the same guild and had been buddy, buddy right before the match.

  “Guess so,” I said, taking his hand. He squeezed hard, like he was trying to prove something.

  His gaze darkened as he leaned in close to me and whispered into my ear. “Don’t get too comfortable winning. That shits about to end. I’m not afraid to sweep the leg.” He heaved a breath that smelled like Doritos and Red Bull into my face as he stood back and raised my hand into the air like I was the reigning WWE champion.

  I wasn’t sure how the hell he planned to sweep my leg. I mean, we were in a video game tournament, so unless he was going to hack the entire contest, I wasn’t sure how he could cheat.

  Still, Crash had been one of the developers of Titan Gate. It was possible he knew some secrets I didn’t. If that was the case, I might be in trouble. That said, I still doubted he’d cheat. While he was known for being a slightly underhanded player, no one got this
far in a tournament like this and reigned this long as champion based on anything other than skill.

  “I look forward to playing against you, Crash.” I flashed him the grin my mother always described as cheeky, but which was just normal for me and pulled my hand away from his grip. “It’s always nice when you see legends fall.”

  “I doubt that’s going to happen for you, but it’s always nice to dream, kid.” Crash scowled at me, but before he could say more, an absolute diva stepped in front of him, and I suddenly forgot he even existed.

  She was dressed like Tifa Lockhart and had long brown hair and blue eyes that made me want to fall into them and never come out again. The rest of her was nice too, but I knew if I started looking her over too much, she might get the wrong idea.

  I wasn’t the type to start slobbering at the sight of a pretty girl, but as Tifa stepped up to me and smiled, I forgot how to breathe. My vision tunneled so all I could see was her as her lips parted into a smile that could launch an armada.

  “Hi,” she said, and I was already planning our wedding. We’d have three kids and a dog, but not a really big dog. Something smaller, like a Jack Russell. It’d have a lot of energy so the kids would have to walk him.

  “Hello,” I replied pleased I’d remembered how to speak. “How are you?”

  “Good,” she said, moving close to me and gesturing toward a big burly guy wearing a nametag that said “Frank.” He was holding a giant television camera, and as my vision moved to encompass both him and her, everything clicked into place, and not just because her badge said “Press.”

  “So, you’re a reporter?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “How’d you guess?” She socked me lightly in the shoulder, and I rubbed the spot despite myself. “It was the badge, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” I said, trying to play cool, which was hard because I wasn’t cool enough to talk to reporters. Truth be told, I was really new to the whole “make money playing games” thing. As I said before, I’d joined on a lark. I never expected to get past the first round, let alone to the finals, and OMG I was in the fucking finals. I was so screwed.

  Then again, I’d watched thousands of YouTube videos. I’d seen Crash play before, and while the bastard was good, he always hesitated when using his Night Elf’s endgame skill. I never understood why, but there was definitely something off with his micro when he transitioned from Night Stun to Killing Tempest. If I could exploit that and execute my rogue’s Revering Vendetta, I could win.

  Glee shot through me, and I must have looked stupid because Tifa tapped me on the shoulder with one red-gloved hand.

  “Aaron, are you listening to me?” she asked, one eyebrow quirked in confusion.

  “Sorry, I just realized I can beat Crash.” I smiled, wanting to jump on my private rig and test out what I thought I’d discovered.

  “Care to tell me about it?” She gestured to Frank who looked bored. “We can go somewhere more private and do an interview for IGN.”

  As much as I wanted to say no, I couldn’t. I hated when I upset people, and it wouldn’t take that long to do the interview. Besides the final match wasn’t for six hours. We had plenty of time.

  “Sure,” I said, and she practically squealed with delight as she took my hand and led me toward a room at the far end of the stage. It had a big sign over the top that said “Press Room.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to ignore how good her hand felt in mine, nor how long it’d been since I’d touched a live girl. At least three months. That’s when my girlfriend had left me for that douchebag on the football team. I was still pissed about how it went down, but she was a bitch, so good riddance. She’d had great tits though…

  “Just through here,” Tifa said, opening the door for me and ushering me inside. I stepped into the darkened room and before I thought to ask why it was so dark inside, the door closed behind me, leaving me stranded in darkness.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, whirling around to find Tifa silhouetted against the darkness.

  “Nothing,” she said, reaching up and touching my face with one hand, right before she used her other hand to jab me in the neck with a hypodermic needle.

  “Why?” A small squeak leapt from my throat as my vision went hazy, and I started to collapse to the ground. As my head bounced off the cheap carpet, Tifa knelt down next to me. She caressed my cheek as everything faded to black.

  “Because Aaron. You’re our only hope.”

  2

  Something was petting my cheek, and as I lay there, trying to brush it away because I was more tired than I’d been after that week long Red Bull fueled D & D bender, a surge of realization shot through me. I’d been drugged by a really hot chick, and oh my god, I was probably in a motel room bathroom with my organs cut out.

  I sat bolt upright, my eyes wide with terror as I looked around for Tifa. She wasn’t there. In fact, nothing was there. I was not in a motel bathtub filled with ice, nor was I still in the news room. I was quite simply nowhere, and as I looked around at the blank, empty whiteness spreading out before me in every direction, a sense of horrible vertigo made the contents of my stomach take the express elevator up my throat.

  While I hadn’t been quite sure why the floor beneath my feet was solid since it was just as continuous as any other direction, my puke very much splattered across the surface with a sound like someone dropping a bucket of slop on concrete.

  Fortunately, there wasn’t much inside my stomach since I hadn’t really eaten in a while, but that didn’t stop my stomach from convulsing like it had an eight-course dinner to evacuate stat.

  “Yeah, it’s a little weird here at first,” said a gruff angry voice from behind me moments before something patted my head.

  “Who’s there?” I asked cautiously, whirling around to find myself staring at a two-and a half foot pixie that looked a lot more like that flying bug guy Watto from Star Wars the Phantom Menace than it did Tinkerbell. “Oh, my god, what are you?” I swatted at him while crying out in a very manly little girl squeal.

  “I’m Ivan, and honestly kid, this is going to go a lot easier if you just let me do all the talking, okay?” He raised an amused fleshy ridge where his eyebrow should have been and snorted through his trunk-like nose while fluttering easily out of my reach.

  “What the fuck is going on!?” I cried, taking a step back as I ran my hands over my body to make sure all my bits were still there. They were, which was good. I wasn’t ready to have my junk go missing if you know what I mean.

  He tried to smile at me, but just managed to reveal a bunch of yellowed teeth. When I didn’t immediately respond, he pulled a flask from the sling around its bare chest and took a huge gulp. “Man, I know I’m not actually drinking this, but man is that the good stuff.” He held the flask out to me. “Want some? Helps with the vertigo.”

  “No! I want to know what’s going on.” I took a deep breath and tried vainly to calm myself. When that didn’t work, I thought about flipping the fuck out, but decided it wouldn’t be super effective either.

  “You’re in the priming zone for Virtual Reality immersion. See, right now your pod is acclimating to your body, getting all the nitty gritty ready to go for full immersion into Ruul.” Ivan the bug creature crossed his blue arms over his chest and smiled again, but this time it was even creepier if that was even possible.

  “Virtual Reality isn’t even a thing.” I shook my head angrily and glared at Ivan. “I mean, okay there’s that crappy Facebook one or whatever, but it’s definitely not this.” I gestured weakly at my surroundings like that would somehow make them less real or virtual or whatever.

  “Yeah, like I said, kid. This will be easier if you let me do the talking.” He took another swing of his drink and his eyes went visibly glassy.

  “I’m supposed to be preparing for the final round against Crash, not here doing this.” I glared at the bug, but it didn’t seem to affect him.

  “Funny story. Crash is in the pod next to
you. He’s actually been immersed for about a day now. You’re a bit behind because we had to get your pod setup and then there was getting you declared legally dead, and man, oh, man have you talked to your mom…” he trailed off into muttering as my eyes went wide.

  “If you hurt my mom, I swear—”

  He cut me off with a wave. “Relax kid. I’m just joshing with you. We told your mom you’d been recruited by the government because you possess a particular set of skills.” I opened my mouth to interrupt, but he shot me a look that made me keep my trap shut. “See, we created Titan Gate to find the absolute best players in the world. Admittedly, it was less fair because Crash helped us develop the game, but we needed two more of you.” He pointed at me. “The tournament was the way to find you guys.”

  I took a deep breath, wondered if it was even air I was breathing now, and decided to go with it. “You mean to tell me the EpiX! Tournament was a lie?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. “Why?”

  “It wasn’t a lie. It’s a real game that makes billions of dollars, but it was modeled off of Ruul.” He waved his hand like we were getting off track. “Anyway, the important part for you to know is that you won.” He gave me a tiny clap. “And because of that, we’re going to send you to Ruul.” He clapped again. “Congratulations.”

  “What the fuck is Ruul?” I asked, glaring at him. I had half a mind to swat the weird bug guy, but I didn’t because if I was really trapped in a virtual reality, I wasn’t quite sure what it’d do.

  “See, you’ve heard of the Maelstrom right? The computer virus?” he asked, buzzing back and forth in a way that made me think he was pacing.

  “Yeah, that’s the one taking over portions of the internet. Originally the Russians thought it was the US, and the Koreans thought it was China, but it’s like some weird AI virus.” I shrugged. “So?”

  “Well, do you know why it hasn’t been stopped?” he asked, taking another slug of his flask. It made me wonder both how drunk he was going to get and how much was in it.