Kingdom of the Dead Read online

  Kingdom of the Dead

  a novel

  by Pavel Kornev

  An NPC’s Path

  Book#2

  Magic Dome Books

  An NPC’s Path

  Book # 2: Kingdom of the Dead

  Copyright © Pavel Kornev 2018

  Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2018

  English translation copyright:

  Irene and Neil P. Woodhead © 2018

  Published by Magic Dome Books, 2018

  ISBN: 978-80-88295-66-2

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is entirely a work of fiction.

  Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.

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  Table of Contents:

  Chapter One. The Doldrums

  Chapter Two. The Raid of the Dead

  Chapter Three. A Deadman in a Strange Land

  Chapter Four. The Dead Burglar

  Chapter Five. The Kingdom of the Dead

  Epilogue

  Chapter One. The Doldrums

  1

  THE TOWER OF DARKNESS was impressive. Overpowering, even.

  No amount of advertising could impart the sheer splendor and magnitude of that pitch-black obelisk which towered over the bay. In reality, it looked much more-

  In reality?

  I cussed and shuddered.

  In reality! Dammit! I already considered the game a reality! Having said that... that’s how it was for me now, wasn’t it?

  I couldn’t press the logout button. I had no hope of ever waking up in my virtual reality capsule . My character’s dead body had already become part of the local scenery. It had ensnared me like the Devil’s own net and would keep me so until the day I was reborn.

  Reborn in the game, that is. Or until I was dead in real life. There was no other way. Sad, but that’s how it was.

  As soon as I realized it, I felt free from the Tower’s suppressive illusion. I didn’t feel like looking at it anymore. I even wanted to go back to my cabin. Still, I forced myself to stay on deck. Dammit! I’d been striving to get to the capital now for too long to cower in a dark corner and miss all the interesting bits.

  The barge glided down the Azure river whose far banks disappeared into the morning mist. Small islets emerged out of the milky fog that hovered over the water. The river’s navigational lights flickered everywhere I looked.

  Soon the river bed began to split into a multitude of narrow gullies. The current grew faster. The orc crew lined the decks with long poles in their hands, preparing to guide the boat around any eventual obstacles.

  On top of the mast, my undead pet spread his wings and filled the air with a thunderous Craah!

  Wretched bird! The problem was, the game didn’t recognize me as a bona fide player, and therefore I couldn’t control my own pet. The bastard did what he wanted.

  The orcs raised their heads, scowling at the bird. Still, none of them wanted to be the one to climb the mast. They’d already known from experience that they wouldn’t be able to shoo him away for too long.

  In any case, soon they had more important things to do: the helmsman couldn’t control the current, leaving the other crew members to fend the boat off from the numerous jetties and breakwaters.

  According to the latest figures, there were up to half a million players in the city at any given time. Even the sky-high local prices couldn’t scare them off. The capital of the dark world had been prudently built on a plethora of small islands which helped to somewhat contain its restless inhabitants. There were even rumors circulating about banning entry to the city to all new players below level 25. But this was still in the preparatory stage.

  I caught a glimpse of the stone embankments peeking out of the mist. Then the barge surged through into the open. The wind blew away the murky fog. The rising sun’s rays glittered on the rippling waters.

  Immediately my Perception dropped. I pulled the hood down.

  A dark shadow fell from behind me. I turned round. The side of an impossibly high galleon loomed over us. It overtook our boat in seconds as it headed out into the open sea, the players on its upper deck not even trying to conceal their contempt for us.

  The orcs hurried to raise the sail which immediately caught the wind, pushing the barge into port. The enormous back of some sea monster flitted amid the waves, then disappeared into the depths.

  I loosened my white-knuckled grip on the rail. Some monster that was! What if it had swallowed us whole?

  Still, I forgot about the leviathan as soon as I glimpsed a giant golden dragon take off from one of the islands. Two gryphons trailed in his wake, blindingly bright sunrays reflecting from their riders’ polished armor. And to top it all, a three-masted flying ship appeared from behind the Tower of Darkness.

  I picked up my dropped jaw from the floor and shrugged. This was all virtual. It was only a game.

  Still, these attempts at self-persuasion didn't help me much. The capital of the Dark Side seemed so boundless that my mind refused to contemplate it. Where was I supposed to go? How? And what for? This was a huge world which didn’t give a damn about some deadman’s problems.

  Stubbornly I ground my teeth. I didn’t care! This was no different from any other time I’d had to follow a new map. It always felt incomprehensible. I knew that I’d work it out, given time. I might not even have to, provided Isabella hadn’t wasted her time and had managed to approach the right people.

  A cold shiver ran down my spine. I had too much at stake to wager all my hopes on a casual acquaintance. I didn’t even know how she was going to react to my arrival after such a prolonged absence. The priestess had never been known for her patience.

  I forced myself to dispel any doubt. The level gap between us wasn’t that big anymore. She could no longer smoke me with a single blow from her staff these days.

  I chuckled. This time I’d be able to make myself heard. I'd make her see things my way. Everything would be just fine.

  I had no doubt I’d see Isabella in the very near future. We were bound by a quest, after all. We could track each other’s position on the map. And if her marker was to be believed, she was already waiting for me on the pier. Perfect opportunity to talk things over.

  THE PORT TURNED OUT to be absolutely enormous. It was bigger than the entire island that housed Stone Harbor. On one side, it was lined with deep-water quays for sea-going ships; on the other, with jetties for smaller river craft. The harbor was absolutely packed but miraculously, there were no collisions between any of the boats.

  Miraculously? Oh no. That was navigational magic at work. The orc helmsman stared almost unblinkingly at the ghostly sorcerous sphere that was his pilot.

  Gradually, other passengers came up on deck. There weren’t very many of them, though. Few players had managed to coincide their login with their arrival in the capital. They had no need to: the moment the ship moored, their respective
respawn points were transferred automatically to the vicinity of one of the local Towers of Power. There was no shortage of them in the capital. Minor places of power were located on every even remotely important island.

  Neo had come up on deck, too, and frozen open-mouthed. The other players cast sideways glances at our white monastic habits embroidered with silver phoenixes. Although they knew better than to ask questions, their attention made me cringe.

  You had to face it: arriving at the Tower of Darkness wearing the robes of a god of Light wasn’t a very good idea. What was the point of going Incognito if every Tom, Dick and Harry regarded me as potential quarry? The sooner I discarded those robes, the better.

  A few larger boats which resembled Chinese junks sailed past. Our helmsman let them through, then steered our barge into the farthest corner of the port toward a lopsided jetty which was occasionally washed by the wake of other vessels.

  Here, the picturesque buildings with their stained-glass windows gave way to squat warehouses, the bustle of the port replaced by silence in its deserted narrow lanes.

  Not far from where we were about to moor, some fishing boats were bobbing on the waves. My Night Hunter’s refined sense of smell made me cringe from the sharp stench of rotting fish.

  The side of our boat collided softly with the wooden trestles of the jetty. I felt a slight jolt. As soon as the sailors had laid down the gangplanks, the fanged captain began screaming at the top of his voice,

  “Everyone off! Quick! Move it!”

  The passengers hurried across the unstable gangplanks onto the jetty. A loud group of stevedores moved toward the barge past them, adding to the unruly crowd of players who’d already bought tickets for the return voyage.

  I struggled out of the heaving mass of people and stood in the middle of the fishscale-covered jetty. I rearranged the swords behind my back and looked around, searching for Isabella.

  The Elven girl was waiting by the nearest warehouse. Much to my surprise, this time she was clad in a modest cloak, long and shapeless, instead of her usual eye-catching combat armor.

  Neo tugged my sleeve, “Auntie Bella!”

  “Please keep your voice down,” I said as I headed toward her. She’d already stood up straight, staring at us in disbelief.

  In disbelief? — you could say that! Her eyes had very nearly popped out of her head!

  “What the hell?” she cussed the moment we approached. “What have you done to the boy, Kitten?”

  I shrugged. “It just happened.”

  “It just happened?” she hissed, furious. “Just happened?”

  Neo hurried to hide behind my back.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “You can’t be left alone for one minute!” she scowled. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you reply to my messages?”

  “Eh,” I faltered. “How about I tell you everything as we get going? Okay?”

  She shook her head. The teeth of the skull topping her staff started to chatter. “I don’t think so! Come on then, out with it!”

  A few heads turned to the sounds of our exchange. I tapped a finger on the silver phoenix on my white-robed chest,

  “I’m afraid our clothes aren’t the best choice here. We’ll have to change first.”

  Isabella sized me up with her glare — but luckily, she must have decided to leave it be for the time being. She pointed at a dark passage between the two windowless walls of the adjacent warehouses. “Screw you, Kitten. We’ll see about that... later...” she’d managed to inject a lot of meaning into the last word.

  I shrugged and led them off the jetty. A long desperate Craah! followed in my wake as the undead black phoenix left the boat’s mast and took to the sky. His tatty wingbeats didn’t strike one as particularly graceful but they kept him aloft. When a curious seagull got too close to him, he gave it an almighty whack with his beak, sending it tumbling straight into the water.

  “Get a move on!” Isabella snapped. “Where on earth did you get those stupid clothes from? What happened to the boy? No, belay that! Start from the beginning! Why didn’t you use the portal?”

  “It’s a long and sad story...”

  Isabella turned round to me, scowling. “You’d better not test my patience, Kitten!”

  I replied with an equally malicious smile. Not that she could see it behind my mask.

  “Okay,” I heaved a sigh, unwilling to strain our relationship any further. “I was late because some bad dude had started hassling me at the worst possible moment. And by the time I’d sorted him out, the portal had already closed.”

  ‘But why didn’t you reply to my messages?” she demanded, fuming.

  “My PM box is glitchy,” I lied. “I can read messages but I can’t reply to them.”

  “Very useful!”

  “Listen, why should I lie to you? You still have the shard of the Sphere of Souls!”

  This last argument calmed her down a bit. “Okay,” she grumbled. “So what have you been up to all this time?”

  I didn’t get the time to reply. The passage between the two walls had led us out onto a wide square so busy with players that our ears rang with all the clamor.

  “Cheap power leveling services!” shouted a knight in full armor with a huge halberd slung behind his back. “I can rush you from level 25 to 50 in a week!”

  “Join us for a raid on the Lights!” one of Isabella’s Elven compatriots screamed, theatrically brandishing his longbow. “PM me for details!”

  “An island quest!” a blue-skinned pirate with golden earrings hollered. “The Treasure of the Corsair King! Piles of gold just for the taking!”

  “WTS full Amber Cross set!”

  “A Gray Mountains raid! Dwarven mithril!”

  “The sword of the Star Destroyer! Half-price! I need money urgently!”

  “Strength runes to order!”

  I felt lost in all the cacophony around me. Isabella tugged on my hand, forcing me out of the way of a demonologist who towered above the crowd, pale like death itself. A hell hound on a leash trotted subserviently behind him, its smooth coat oozing black infernal flames.

  “Portals to Infernal planes, I’ll send you and bring you back, but I don’t lay claim to any loot,” he murmured occasionally under his breath.

  Strangely enough, he seemed to be one of the most popular, constantly hassled by other players who asked him about his fee.

  Humans and elves made up the majority of the crowd but there were enough dwarves and orcs amongst them too. Occasionally my eye chanced on some truly strange creatures. And as for armor and weapons, the choice was mind-boggling. My flamberge sword paled into insignificance next to them.

  As we skirted the outside of the crowd, Isabella warned me, “Keep your eyes peeled. The local pickpockets go after noobs like you.”

  Indeed, the place seemed perfect for thieves of all kinds. Most new players arrived in the capital by sea. Many of them didn’t have enough patience to even make it to the shops, spending all their hard-earned cash right here in this impromptu junk market. Some never even got the chance to spend anything.

  I stopped gawking around and hurried to check my inventory. The wretched skull was still there. Big sigh of relief.

  Isabella swung round to me again. “You Kitten, and you... whatever you are... move your backsides!”

  We followed her into a side lane and soon left the noise and clamor of the crowd behind. Isabella led us via some dark deserted alleys until finally we rejoined the motley stream of players. After a short while, we found ourselves on the square behind the port’s main building.

  “Wow,” Neo whispered, unable to conceal his delight.

  I too slowed the pace, studying the wide square in front of me. Beyond it flowed a canal, with a temple towering on its opposite bank.

  Its dome topped with a spire, the majestic building seemed to grow straight out of the water which somehow added to its mystery and charm. A flying carpet floated from behind it. I shook my head, forcing my
mind to reject the illusion.

  This was only a game. Just a bunch of pixels evoking an image in my brain. Virtual reality made all kinds of things possible.

  “Come on, Kitten, move it!” Isabella called.

  I followed after her, pulling Neo by the hand. He looked just like any other provincial boy would, stunned by big city life.

  The realization of this made me cringe. This boy too was supposed to be a bunch of pixels. A combination of ones and zeroes. Just part of a program code.

  I caught up with Isabella. “Where’re we going?”

  “Somewhere away from here,” the Elven priestess replied. “You two with your white robes might just as well have targets on your backs.”

  You couldn’t argue with this. I kept receiving new messages about others’ interested stares. All sorts of unpleasant whispers followed in our wake. I pretended I didn’t hear anything even though some of them made me wish I could sort out some of the jokers with my flamberge.

  I’d have loved to but I couldn’t. The burly city guards in their black armor wouldn’t hesitate to chop any potential troublemaker to pieces. If I made the first move, they’d immediately send me to meet my Maker. And even if they weren’t strong enough, I’m sure the city wizards would give them a helping hand. Other players wouldn’t just stand aside looking on, either. Anyone would be eager to earn some XP and boost their Reputation by smoking a couple of outcasts.

  “Should we hire a gondola?” I suggested as Isabella ignored the rentals wharf and headed for the bridge.

  She snorted. “Is your name Rockefeller or something? You don’t even know their rates!”

  I cussed under my breath.

  Immediately an agonizing pain pierced the base of my skull. It felt as if I’d been pierced with a red-hot poker.

  Or had I been?

  I swung round just in time to see my undead phoenix drop into the canal, struck by an arrow. My pet!