Dungeon merchant, p.1
Dungeon Merchant, page 1
Dungeon Merchant
Written by
Ian Grey
Author's Notes
Welcome back, for those who have read A Hero Reborn, and hello to those who are new to my writing! This book will be the first in a line of novellas/light novels themed around lit RPG/Isekai. As with all my stories I loathe filler and much prefer story, action, and of course romance. Filler gets in the way so I tend to write shorter books that are jam packed with only the good stuff.
If you are not entertained then I have not done my job as a storyteller, and I hope you'll love this new series that will focus on the adventures of a girl named Sarah who is in her early twenties who loves gaming and staying in more than anything. However an odd encounter with an unregistered NPC in her full dive RPG will offer her the opportunity to possess powers beyond her mundane normal existence…but at what price? At what cost will this new freedom come at and will it have been worth it in the end? There's only one way to know, follow Sarah on her journey and find out in this first instalment of Dungeon Merchant!
Chapter 1
E
den's Dogma. The title might sound like a middle school edge lord thought it up, but the game itself is amazing. Apart from its Souls-like difficulty it offers a rich world full of life and character. Eden's Dogma was a testament to the idea that virtual gaming is dangerous due to the possibility that one might forgo the real world in favor of the more enticing digital one.
For a borderline shut-in like Sarah the dangers of deep dive VR gaming were only all too real. Sarah had always had a deep love of videogames with an obsessive focus in RPGs. Partly due to her passion for staying in and gaming she didn't have a great many friends let alone a girlfriend or boyfriend though she certainly wouldn't have said no. Socializing just didn't reign high up on her list when compared to her treasured creature comforts. Perhaps one day she would meet the right someone who shared her love of all things nerdy and of solitude but in the meantime her only love interest was tucked away in the nightstand draw.
As Sarah logged into the game, she felt herself being drawn back into her favorite virtual world. The soft hum of the computer was drowned out as the title screen music filled her ears. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and fully immersing herself in the experience. The world around her was breathtaking as always; the lush greenery and the chirping of birds made it feel like a true paradise.
However, this game was far from a cute fantasy farming simulator, although you could play it like one if you were so inclined. That was the beauty of Eden's Dogma while technically being an RPG a player could make it into any type of game they desired. For her part, Sarah was a collector and completionist style gamer. Grinding out dozens if not hundreds of hours for rare items, secret boss encounters, hidden gems, or just random trophies were what she loved in games. The only thing she couldn’t do was open her own unique store to sell her rare finds. This limitation was the biggest short coming in the game for her but she was able to overlook it.
Killing mobs and grinding bosses was also never dull for her which paired nicely with her completion fetish. The combat in Eden's Dogma was much like the rest game, in that it was what you made of it. You could be any class at any time and fight in whatever way suited you. Anything from spamming cheese spells while drowning in mana potion to going in swords and bows blazing or setting nasty taps—it was all fair game.
Sarah liked a bit of all the above, she enjoyed assessing a fight before engaging and finding the most methodical approach to slaying her targets. One time she had managed to pull off a mob kill by setting up a barrier spell around a camp of lizard men and then mixing fire and water magic to steam them all alive at once. Lots of cooked meat and no damaged gear, win, win!
The creatures she encountered now were more challenging than the previous season. The bosses were nearly impossible to slay 1v1 which sucked because she hated teaming up with randos. Sarah gritted her teeth under her VR helmet, determined to succeed in tonight's session. There was a skeleton king that supposedly had a rare drop, normally boss rares had a ten percent chance but if you had the bone ring it increased to over thirty with this one boss.
She had been playing for hours now, and her eyes were beginning to feel heavy. But she couldn't tear herself away just yet. There was something about this place that had always made her feel alive. It was a source of guilt in her life that she often found this game to be far more enticing than the real world- what her friends and family would think if they really knew.
As the night waned on, Sarah knew her morning meeting was going to suffer heavily if she tried to pull another all-nighter. Her boss had nearly fired her the last time it had happened. A couple more minuets and she would have to log off for the night and get some rest. Hard to enjoy a perfect virtual world if you couldn't pay rent in the real one.
Not that she hated her job it was in sales and she was good at what she did. Her only wish was that she could be selling something a bit more exciting like magic potions or gleaming armor fit to take a punch for the burliest of trolls. She had waisted many an hour fantasizing about being in a world where that was possible which was silly but she couldn't help it.
As she continued on her grind, she took a random path to kill some time while the boss respawned. Without really meaning to she stumbled upon a poorly concealed cave. The gapping entrance was shrouded in darkness, and she could feel her heartbeat quicken somewhat with excitement. With a deep breath, she stepped in and looked around her weapon at the ready should a goblin or kobold lunge out.
The air inside was damp and musty, with poor visibility. As she made her way deeper into the cave, she heard a faint whisper. She stopped in her tracks, straining to hear what it was saying.
"Come closer," the whisper urged. Against her better judgment, Sarah cautiously approached the source of the voice. She could barely make out a figure in the darkness, but as she drew closer, she realized it was an old man with a long white beard that reached all the way to the dirty ground of the cave.
The man was hunched over, his hair matted and his skin was ghostly pale. He looked up at Sarah with calm eyes, and Sarah felt a chill run down her spine in spite of the measured gaze. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice shaking.
The old man smiled, revealing rotten teeth. "I am the keeper of this cave," he said. "And I have a proposition for you."
Sarah hesitated, unsure of what to do. But something about the man's voice was alluring, and Sarah found herself drawn to him. "What kind of proposition?" she asked.
The man's smile widened. "I can offer you power beyond your wildest dreams," he said. "Adventures and companionship you have never known in this life. But more than this your heart's deepest desires be realized." he paused to let that sink in before adding. "However, you must sacrifice something first. After all, something can never come from nothing."
Sarah's brow furrowed in thought as she considered the offer. She knew that making a deal with this person would be crazy if not for the fact that she was in a virtual world. Events like this were fairly common in video games, "It's dangerous to go alone!" that sort of thing. Odds are this was the first step in starting some obscure side quest.
Sighing with a small measure of lingering reluctance Sarah nodded and asked, "very well what must I sacrifice for this power?". The old man chuckled, his eyes gleaming in the dim light. "Ah, a wise decision," he said. "You must sacrifice something dear to you. Something that holds great meaning in your life."
"I don't understand. What do you mean?" She asked the NPC.
The old man leaned in closer, his eyes narrowing. "I mean that you must give up something that will cause you great pain. It could be anything - a person, an object, a memory... a life. But it must be something that you cherish deeply, even if you do not yet realize how cherished it truly is."
Sarah felt her stomach drop. This was starting to sound less and less like a game and more like a nightmare. She tried to back away, but the man grabbed her arm with surprising strength, pulling her closer.
"You must decide now," he said. "Will you accept my offer, or will you leave this cave empty-handed?"
In her mind, Sarah saw her friends and family, aspects of her life that could never exist in a world like this. They were sacrifices she made on a near daily basis when she opted to game instead of visit and socialize. Could the old man mean that she would need to metaphorically "sacrifice" her social life to grind for some rare item? That was a little deep even from a highly advanced game like this one. Then again maybe one of the writers felt like poking fun at the player and suggesting that they were wasting their life away by indulging in escapism.
The old man was holding out his hand which now held a bright red apple.
"If you deem the sacrifice worthy, then touch the apple and all will be revealed in time." His calm gaze never broke as he watched Sarah eye the apple.
This is stupid, she told herself after a few moments went by. It's just a game, it wasn't as though she was really about to trade something precious to this old geezer who was really just made up of lines of code.
It was a jaded line of thinking but one that offered comfort as she reached for the apple and touched its cool surface.
The last thing she saw was the old man's beaming smile as she was teleported from the cave and back to the village she had started the night's session from. Frustrated Sarah sighed and left the village, determined to make up the lost ground before logging out and going to bed. What a waste of time.
As Sarah continued to play, however, the lines between reality and the game were in fact beginning to blur. She found herself feeling as though she were truly in Eden's Dogma, fighting for her life in the dungeons and tombs. The adrenaline pumping through her veins made it all the more real. She could swear the combat was starting to feel more real, her muscle ached after a battle if she used her melee weapons, and her mind swam after casting strings of spells. She chocked most of this up to an overactive imagination being fueled by the hyper realistic game play that was deep dive VR.
Days swiftly turned into weeks since the odd encounter with the old man, and Sarah found herself spending more and more time in the game. Her life outside of it began to suffer. Without ever realizing what had happened she got up and walked over to her gaming PC for what would be the last time. She couldn't know that something otherworldly was about to take place in her small one-bedroom apartment.
She paused by the bathroom mirror to take a quick glance. Her long blonde hair was a frizzy mess, a shower with added conditioner would be in order soon. For someone who seldom worked out her physique was still holding up from her college days. She didn't really have abs or anything but with a little effort that could have been fixed. One aspect of her body that she had always appreciated was the way it stored her fat chiefly in the butt and hips, it gave her a curvy almost mature look that one might see on a mom who frequents the gym. Behind her glasses bright blue eyes shined in spite the fatigue from her job.
Satisfied with her examination she continued over to her gaming corner. After booting up the game a strange prompt appeared before her eyes, one she had never seen before.
Congratulations!
You have been selected for our virtual expansion/escape program! New lands, monsters, people, and adventures await in the brave new world! Participation is simple, select YES to begin or NO to opt-out. This is a 1-time offer so act now.
Sarah assumed that this was some sort of closed beta to test out the next game the company would be working on. Eden's Lament had been out for a number of years now so the timing would make sense. Satisfied with that reasoning
She hit YES and everything went dark. When Sarah opened her eyes, she found herself in a completely different place than her last login. The scenery was drastically different from Eden's Dogma; the sky was a deep shade of blue with volumetric clouds boasting an insane level of detail she hadn't yet seen before even in deep dive gaming. A cool breeze moved her hair and it carried the scent of a changing season. How was that possible?
Sure enough, as she looked around, not only were the trees different they were also turning as though fall were drawing near. This level of heightened sensation would have been a breach of deep dive gaming law. Was this a bug? Or were the devs aware of some new loophole that they could exploit to add this tech to their games?
As she was busy spacing out about the weather and trees Sarah hadn't noticed a slime had spawned nearby and was advancing towards her.
"Ow! The fuck!?" She yelped suddenly as a white hot pain seared part of her right foot. She looked down and saw the blue slime as it dissolved part of her armored boot nearly exposing her toes.
On instinct she equipped one of the swords she often used for trash mobs like this one and with a single blow obliterated the would be assailant.
"Little bastard, that actually hurt!" She grumbled. Then the anger drained from her as it dawned. "That...actually hurt. But that's hardcore illegal, you're not suppose to feel damage in these games. Geeze it's almost like they really tried to make this..."
Wait, was this real? No, that was stupid, this was a game. A game that the devs had gone way overboard on but a game none the less. She needed to get a grip and find an inn or some neutral area that would be a safe zone from monster spawns and their aggro.
As she walked around, trying to find some form of shelter, Sarah noticed something peculiar. She couldn't feel her real-life body. It was like her body IRL was some kind of memory now because this body that she was in felt perfectly real. How was that possible?
After what felt like hours of aimless walking Sarah saw a woman coming along the simple dirt road she had been following. The woman was dressed in a flowing gown that seemed to shift and move as she walked. Sarah could see the woman's face, but it was obscured by a mask that covered her face.
"Are you alright?" the woman asked. "I'm sorry if I startled you. My name is Annika. Are you lost?"
Annika looked like she was in her late twenties, and Sarah wondered if she was a princess. The way the woman carried herself and the real tone of her voice seemed to indicate that this woman had to belong to some branch of nobility.
"I'm fine," Sarah replied. "I'm just trying to find somewhere safe. Is there an inn nearby or a tavern?"
In Eden's Dogma inns and taverns were one of the few places a player could sleep soundly without the worry of being attacked or messed with. Had she opted for a nap in the bushes along this random road there would be no telling what manner of danger she would find herself upon waking up. VR was creepy that way and it invited a number of unpleasant players she'd rather not deal with.
Now that she thought about it this particular area was entirely unfamiliar to her. She had never seen and NPC like the masked woman standing before her. What was going on? This must be the closed beta the prompt had mentioned earlier. Maybe this was a demon for a sequel to Eden's Dogma, if so the team had a lot of work ahead of them.
Annika nodded, then extended a hand towards Sarah. "Come with me. I will take you to a nice little inn where we can talk more. There is a good deal to discuss and much of it is not fit outside safe walls."
Sarah hesitated but decided it was for the best. The odds of her being an enemy were there but she has a hunch that this was more of a peaceful event than an ambush setup. If nothing else she needed to find out more about this new area and if she was even still in Eden's Lament at all. There were too many unknowns to not accept a helping hand.
Sarah took Annika's hand and followed her to a nearby building. They passed through a large wooden door and into a room that was filled with the smell of freshly baked bread. The walls were painted a warm yellow and the ceiling was high enough to allow for the sunlight to shine in. A fire crackled in the fireplace and a table sat in the middle of the room with two chairs.
"Please sit," Annika said, gesturing to the table. "Would you like something to eat?"
Sarah nodded and sat down, hoping that she wouldn't regret it later. "Yes please," she said. "I haven't eaten since yesterday morning."
Annika returned with a platter of fresh bread, cheese, and a steaming bowl of soup. Sarah thanked her and began eating. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until she started tasting the food.
"This is delicious," Sarah said, taking another bite. "Where did you get this?"
It wasn't that the game had never had decent tasting food before but the program could only do so much. Normally a player could guess at the general flavor of the in-game food.
This however was radically different. Not only was the flavor far superior in every way Sarah could also feel the heat of the liquid on her tongue - a feature that had certainly never been in Eden's Lament. It was becoming increasingly clear that this was a sequel and had to be the closed beta.
"I'm glad you like it," Annika said. "We have many things to discuss and I believe that you will enjoy them."
Sarah nodded and continued to eat, savoring the taste of the food. Now this was on hell of a way to start an intro to a game. Her inner foodie was in paradise, and the company wasn't half bad either though she did wish the woman would remove her mysterious mask.
She watched as Annika took a seat across from her. The woman seemed to be struggling with something and Sarah wondered what it could be.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
