The Vale of Three Wolves: A LitRPG Adventure (Elements of Wrath Online Book 2) Read online

  The Vale of Three Wolves

  Elements of Wrath Online Book 2

  J. A. Cipriano

  J. B. Garner

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

  Contents

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  Also by J. A. Cipriano

  Also by J.B. Garner

  Quote 1

  Chapter 1

  Quote 2

  Chapter 2

  Quote 3

  Chapter 3

  Quote 4

  Chapter 4

  Quote 5

  Chapter 5

  Quote 6

  Chapter 6

  Quote 7

  Chapter 7

  Quote 8

  Chapter 8

  Quote 9

  Chapter 9

  Quote 10

  Chapter 10

  Quote 11

  Chapter 11

  Quote 12

  Chapter 12

  Quote 13

  Chapter 13

  Quote 14

  Chapter 14

  Quote 15

  Chapter 15

  Quote 16

  Chapter 16

  Thank You for reading!

  Author’s Note

  Glossary

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  Also by J. A. Cipriano

  The World of Ruul

  Soulstone: Awakening

  Soulstone: The Skeleton King

  The Thrice Cursed Mage

  Cursed

  Marked Burned

  Seized

  Claimed

  Hellbound

  The Half-Demon Warlock

  Pound of Flesh

  Flesh and Blood

  Blood and Treasure

  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

  Found Magic

  May Contain Magic

  The Magic Within

  Magic for Hire

  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

  Quote 1

  The more intricate and dynamic quest structure we are pushing with Patch 2.0 and the road to Crystalfire Keep has its roots in certain bits of older, special content. Many of our raid guilds saw these roots as we attempted to design complex raid encounters in previous patches, but there are other inspirations we took from our previous work. Certain very special world quests use prototypes both of AI-driven quest steps and primitive scaling technology.

  Kyle Patruski, Elementalis Online lead developer

  1

  They say that if you can’t find it in the bazaars of Kalaam, the Fire Sultanate’s capital, it isn’t worth your time to find. It was there, among the sand-swept streets of the biggest Bazaar of the Bizarre, Kayla and I found ourselves searching for the Ring of Promise.

  On the surface, the Rings were simply the only way for deep-dive VR players in Elementalis Online to break the Filter separating virtual lives and real ones. For anyone searching for them, ourselves included, the Rings meant much more. They represented the promise of a relationship, no matter the exact nature of it, and maybe that was why the devs gave them that name. More specifically, this was all about the promise I made and, maybe a bit selfishly, that bit of hope that I could be worth enough to be, well, loved … at least in a romantic way.

  You would think that such a crucial quest item would have more direction toward finding it. There wasn’t, though. Thanks to that same Filter, Crysta, Kayla’s guildmate in the Sisters of Artemis, one of our groupmates that unlocked Crystalfire Keep, and the one Promised player we both knew, could only tell us one thing.

  “Find Alizhard in Kalaam.” The Aurum Ranger dabbed at her eyes, her thoughts more focused above the dive, back in the real world wherever Vanni, her Promised, was. “Ask him about the Vale of the Three Wolves. That’s all I can say.”

  Kayla nodded despite the questioning look in her watery blue eyes, but I couldn’t help but press a little more.

  “Can say or will say?” Shale’s deep, Craggar voice had more force than my own real one, but I was deep enough in immersion that it kept the measured tone I wanted.

  Crysta’s puffy white hair flowed as a hint of lightning flashed in her eyes. “Can, Shale. I know it sounds freaky but you’ll understand if … when you guys become Promised.”

  And that was that. At least Burndall, the last of our merry band, had been more than happy to speed us on our way with a Teleport Gem synched to Kalaam’s Life Crystal. “I’d go with you guys,” he grinned, “but now that we’re famous and all, I’ve got some stuff to do up a level.” The Ember prodded me in the shoulder with a long finger, not that it budged my rocky body an inch. “You still need to talk to me about managing stuff, dude. You know, allowing me to guide you on your epic rise to gaming fame and fortune? It could really help out, right?”

  “It’s only been a couple of days,” I countered. Maybe it was the kid’s over-eagerness about the whole thing that had made me waffle. It wasn’t the idea of making more money, that was for certain. The $5,000 prize for being the first to get to the end of the Patch 2.0 quests was only a balm for my family’s financial needs. “I’ll get back with you soon.”

  With that, Kayla and I stepped through the burning circle in the air from the cool, mountainous climate of Cragholm, the largest city in the Mountain Kingdom, and into the dry, blistering air of Kalaam’s Crystal Hall. In almost every way outside of the immense Life Crystal itself, this hall contrasted Cragholm’s.

  Sandstone surrounded us instead of granite, wind-worn slabs bearing ancient carvings instead of smooth, perfectly fitted stones. Thin windows barely larger than arrow slits ran along the perimeter and instead of a solid roof, vibrantly colored canvas formed a tent-like spire to shield us from the blazing sun above. The other thing the two Crystal Halls shared was the gaggle of vendors, both player and NPC, hawking their wares to the constant flow of travelers coming to and fro.

  Even after the few moments it took to mentally call up the Life Crystal’s interface and link our souls to this point, I was already feeling the heat as we walked out into the heart of the bust
ling city. Craggars are notoriously vulnerable to fire despite our stone skins, which led to the curious dual sensation of Shale’s skin heating while my own real skin out of the dive started to sweat. I shielded my eyes with a gauntleted hand and glanced around the maze-like avenues.

  It was like a whole new world. I had avoided doing much adventuring in the Fire Sultanate (too many Fire Elemental monsters for my comfort, what with Craggars natural weakness to them) and what few jobs I had accepted that brought me there were ones I had been directly teleported or summoned to. Instead of the tightly-packed roads and straight avenues designed to maximize space that marked Craggar cities, this metropolis sprawled, erratic streets winding with all the chaos of racing flames, overpasses and alleys cast about haphazardly.

  In this central part of Kalaam, there were vast palaces and multi-storied towers grasping for the skies, rivaling any vista I could draw from the Arabian Nights or any Prince of Persia game from the One and Twenty.

  There was an endless bustle of bodies, a colorful array of Embers forming the bulk of the crowd. Flowing robes, brightly colored silks, and elaborate turbans adorned fire red bodies, none of whom seemed to be nearly so bothered by the oppressive heat as me. Most of the traffic was NPCs, and their constant chatter made it hard to hear anything clearly. So, few players spent time in Kalaam as it was a labyrinth as vast and confusing as any dungeon in EO.

  “What I want to know is why something that is a core feature of the game is hidden,” I muttered, shielding my eyes with a gauntleted hand.

  Kayla’s eyes had been focused on what had to be one of her UI panes, but as I spoke, she turned her attention toward me. “There’s nothing on the internal wiki, that’s for certain.” She chewed her lip as wisps of her blue hair floated around, framing her face. “I guess it’s so people don’t frivolously pursue something so important. I mean, imagine if some slimeball crook manipulated someone into getting Promised then used all the RL information to steal or blackmail or even brainjack? That would be horrible.”

  I smiled at her despite the miserable weather and our current lack of direction. “Well, at least that’s something we don’t have to worry about.”

  I’d never pegged myself for someone who would fall for someone online and I was still a bit lost as to how to handle it.

  Heck, given my disabilities, I’d never expected to meet a woman that would be interested in me. My mood threatened to sour for a moment at that thought. If we succeeded in recovering the Ring of Promise, Kayla would know exactly how bad my real life was. I was poor, the only job I had was selling my services in a video game, and I was my injured sister’s guardian. Add to that, because of the Filter’s proclivities, Kayla still didn’t know I was confined to a wheelchair.

  What kept that bit of pity at bay was the knowledge that it was, in fact, pity. There was no time for that and, as my many therapists over the years had told me, it simply wasn’t productive, especially since there was no way for me to warn her. If we succeeded in becoming Promised, the chips would fall where they may.

  Kayla laughed, not a whit of concern in her voice. “We won’t have to worry about anything if we can’t find this Alizhard guy!” The Nix took a moment to adjust her blue-and-silver arena armor, and even that movement showed fluid grace. “We should split up, I think. Kalaam is huge and despite the head start Burnie’s portal gave us, we only have less than two hours left to get this started.”

  “Yeah, we don’t want to waste our whole play session,” I agreed. Trying to make some sense out of the ever-moving masses, I nodded toward the south where the noises of the crowd seemed the strongest and spotted the peaks of the Bazaar of the Bizarre. “I’ll start that way, where the main market is.”

  After I had bit the proverbial bull and agreed to go for the Ring, Kayla and I had precisely synched up our play schedules. Now more than ever, I felt the burn of those precisely calculated two-hour login limits. We could get so much more done if we had more time to focus on the task. Every log out and forced break threw off our momentum and slowed our quest but hey, no immersion addiction for anyone, so said the powers that be!

  Kayla followed my nod and smiled. “Okay. I’ll start in the royal district. Maybe this Alizhard is the same one that pops up in some of the in-game lore as part of the Sultan’s court.” As she turned to go, she hesitated a moment before turning back to me. “Shale?”

  I stopped myself in mid-stride and glanced back at her. “Yeah?”

  “Be careful. I know we’re in town, but that doesn’t mean that something dangerous can’t happen.” Kayla’s smile was confident, but her eyes betrayed a hint of concern. Even if it was a game (a deeply immersive one, to be fair), it warmed my heart and put a smile to my lips to see that.

  “It’s okay.” I flashed her a thumbs-up. “The worst that can happen is I’ll take some lumps and pop back to the Life Crystal.” That wasn’t as pleasant as it sounded; the Neural Sensing And Functioning (NSAF) headgear plugged into my brain ensured I felt a good bit of the lumps my poor avatar took.

  “Or,” Kayla riposted with a raised finger, “maybe … just maybe … you could pop an Escape Crystal and not die this time?”

  She presented a good point. Sure, in a group, it was my job as the tank to go down first, to take as much of the punishment off my allies so they could mop up the MOBs, but this was just finding information. It couldn’t hurt to actually not die for once.

  “Understood.” I smiled. “But I don’t think that’ll be necessary. We’re in town. There can’t be anything too nasty. Think of all the dead noob Embers there would be!”

  Kayla’s only reply was a sour look. She nodded before turning back to run off into the throngs around the Sultan’s Palace. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so cocky. It would be my luck as a level 42 Warlord to get killed in the middle of a capital city.

  Well, I guess that if that happened, I wouldn’t complain when Kayla said, “I told you so!”

  Plunging into the busy market, I began my search with gusto. Within moments, the immensity of my task hit me like a ton of bricks. The bazaar was no less a tangled mess than the rest of Kalaam, open air stalls tucked into every open space between established shops.

  The center of each small square was dominated by pavilions every color of the rainbow, forcing traffic to move in tight snarls. The space between the market squares was no better, each tight roadway lined with rugs showing the wares of all manner of smaller merchants too poor to afford a proper stall or shop. That didn’t even include the countless beggars and street hawkers, all vying for the attention of any passer-by. It was amazingly realistic as I truly felt I was in the middle of a bustling market … and that was a big problem when I needed to find one particular Ember.

  The next hour passed in a continual, repetitive cycle of parsing out which vendors were NPCs and which were players in each little plaza before moving from NPC to NPC and going through the same queries in the interaction interface. Do you know anyone named Alizhard? and Have you heard of the Vale of the Three Wolves? came out of my lips again and again and again. I learned two things over the course of all those questions and many interactions.

  First, no one had any idea what the Vale of the Three Wolves was, yet alone where it was.

  Second, Alizhard was apparently one of the most common names in the Sultanate. I wound up speaking to Alizhard the alchemist, Alizhard the cook, Alizhard the blacksmith, Alizhard the beggar, and a good dozen more Alizhards of every size, shape, age, and occupation.

  Not a single one of them the man we were looking for, well, as far as they would say. Therein was the problem … was there something else I was missing in these questions? Was there some hidden quest trigger we needed? If there was something I had learned from our efforts to unlock Crystalfire Keep, it was how well the dev team could conceal something when they wanted it to be a challenge.

  The constant beat of the sun on my head didn’t help one bit. Seeking shade under a tattered overhang alongside a toothless old beg
gar, I brought up the Herald UI, the main social pane containing everything from mail to the various chat channels, and sent out a message to Kayla over group chat.

  Shale: I have good news and bad news.

  Kayla: I was about to tell you the same thing! So, who goes first and with what?

  Shale: Ladies first. How about the good news? I could use some after all this mess.

  Kayla: I haven’t run into any danger for one thing but more importantly the only Alizhard anyone in this district refers me to is that royal scholar. The bad news is that no one will direct me to him or start a quest. He’s apparently out in the Western Desert doing research about something.

  Shale: Well, that’s better than how I’ve been going. Just a big run around here. Still, like you, I’ve stayed out of trouble. I am a bit sick of NPCs asking me to buy their stuff, though!