Dawnshaper a litrpg adve.., p.1
Dawnshaper: A LitRPG Adventure (System of Nil Book 3), page 1
DAWNSHAPER
SYSTEM OF NIL
BOOK 3
TIM PAULSON
Copyright © 2024 Tim Paulson. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission excepting brief quotations for use in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by Mark Smith Illustration
Internal illustrations by Mark Smith and Aidan Andrews
First Edition: July 2024
Ikkibu publishing
OTHER WORKS
Arcane Renaissance series:
Path of Ruin
Betrayal at Goliath Gate
Wrath of the Risen God
Bone knight series:
A Grim Demise and Even Worse Resurrection
A Doomed Fight and Not So Great Landing
A Hard Truth and An Unwise Decision
A Lost God and A Hostile Land
A Daring Plan and A Cold Shoulder
An Agonizing Day and A Dread Knight
An Impossible Task and A Vile Solution
A Brutal Clash and A Bitter Rival
A Grave Threat and Ultimate Illumination
Join Tim's mailing list at www.paulsonwriter.com to receive updates on all his new projects.
CONTENTS
1. A Dark Plan
2. Bad Choices
3. The Forgotten Mountain
4. A Slimy Opponent
5. Consolation Prize
6. Under Control
7. New Directions
8. Shaded Leaves
9. Preparations
10. Dual Objectives
11. Fetid Squalor
12. A Poke in the Eye
13. A Lich To Die For
14. Evil’s Dark Heart
15. Two Sharp Turns
16. Angelic Justice
17. Broken Chains
18. The Spire of Lore
19. Earthbound
20. A Tough Cookie
21. Going Dark
22. A Bad Day
23. Misery Loves Company
24. Pizza Party
25. New Wings
26. A Watery Grave
27. The Way of the Fist
28. A Terrible Bargain
29. Fireworks
30. Over the Line
31. No Going Back
32. Dual Threats
33. The Center
34. Time to Croak
35. A Charred Message
36. A New Hope
37. Old Friends
38. Sleeping Beauty
39. Kisses and Smoke Bombs
40. Ugly Feelings
41. Up We Go
42. A Parting Gift
43. A Second Chance
Acknowledgments
1
A DARK PLAN
Obscured by blowing dust and sand, the rising sun burned like a great ball of glowing flame. Yet despite the swirling winds, long shadows still splayed across the desert. A lone figure stood atop the tilted bow of his damaged ship, taking in the scene.
Towering in the distance, the Spire of Bhaktiri still stood. The blackened, pitted surface made the damage the tower had taken plain to even the most casual observer, but it hadn’t been destroyed and the lion archon within had assured Nathan it would soon be repaired. He folded his arms and looked out across the desert to the piled remains of fallen drakes, werewolves, and the carcasses of the three monumental beasts he’d defeated. The battle had been messy, that was certain, but the result was what mattered. The dark had been routed.
Nathan turned back toward the rising sun, staring into the shifting sands as they swirled along the dunes. Above all the skeleton Rod was now banished forever along with the scheming Dark King Gazric and his counterpart Cerathia the traitorous empress of light. Both sides had been deprived of their all-powerful leaders. As far as he knew, there was no precedent for this achievement. This world had always been dominated by the constant struggles of light and dark, of legions of angels and demons led by undying gods. They laid waste to each other's works, over and over, causing untold misery in the lives of the living and the dead.
If he had anything to say about it, that cycle was now over. Nathan had been tasked with building something bigger and better, a civilization that would endure far into the future. He’d learned a lot in the years he spent back on Earth. He’d accomplished several development projects of considerable scope. He was aware that making games and remaking a world would be different, but here he was effectively immortal and could take the time to learn everything he needed to know and do things right. Nathan would not shy away from a little effort, besides he still had Emily’s observations and recommendations to draw on.
The sun was rising on a new day. It was time to get started.
“Ah, here you are,” Shan said, her bare feet touching softly to the deck beside him.
He looked over, raising an eyebrow as a tiny smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “You’re getting the hang of that levitation spell pretty quickly.”
She smiled, tossing her long blonde hair to the side. “I flew for a long time, remember. It feels weird doing it with only one wing, I’ve got to use my mind instead of my body, which is weird, but I’m getting used to it.”
Nathan glanced at the single white feathered wing tucked behind her back, the only evidence of her new status as a Pari, a half-human half-angel. She’d been his companion here since the very beginning but her classification had recently changed and now a new kind of relationship was required.
Nathan turned toward Shan and wrapped his arms around her waist. “That reminds me,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
Her blue eyes looked up at him, expectant. “What?” she asked softly.
“Now that you’re not a creature, you can’t be my companion.”
She looked hurt. “I can’t? Then… what are you suggesting?”
“Want to join my party?”
She frowned.
“You don’t want that?”
She looked away. “No… well… Yes, I do. I just…”
“What?”
“I thought you were going to ask something else.”
“Ok,” Nathan said as he let go of her and brought up his display, pressing the plus sign. He was already thinking about Ryan, also listed on the screen. It was time to break the kid out of the party and let him make his own. He was certainly powerful enough, and it wouldn’t be bad for him to shoulder some responsibility. Not to mention that now that Shan was back, Nathan wanted to spend more time with her, quality time.
His display responded instantly.
Add party member? Yes/No.
“Yes.”
Who?
“Shan,” he said.
Shan looked down at her display, frowning. “This is so odd. It just hovers over my arm.”
Nathan nodded, knowingly. “You get used to it.”
“I’d like it more if I could watch cat videos on it,” she said, a sad tinge to her tone.
Request accepted. Party formed with Shan, level 46 Arbiter.
“That’s an interesting class,” Nathan said. “It’s a rare one.”
“Really?” Shan asked. “What does it mean?”
“It’s a magic class, halfway between a cleric and a mage. You’ll be able to cast spells like always, but you’ll also be able to modify some spells on the fly, both yours and those of others. It’s not bad,” Nathan replied. She could eventually unlock the class upgrade to Gatekeeper, or any of the other magic classes… He frowned. “Shan, can I see your status screen?”
She looked at him, worried. “Why?” she asked, but showed him.
“Huh,” Nathan said. “So the system chose your bent for you and it already has you on the higher resolution. Nice.”
“What’s a bent?”
“It’s a setting that modifies your character. It’s like a class, but more general and you only get to choose it once.” From her skills, it looked like Shan had been given the Seeker bent. In his opinion, it wasn’t as good as Ascendant, the one Nathan had chosen for Ryan and himself, but it wasn’t bad either. Shan would receive bonus experience whenever she learned or experienced something new, and the skills from the bent would make adventuring with her a little more rewarding, which was certainly welcome.
However, Seeker did prevent her from unlocking any classes in the purity or devotion tiers. Those affinities, known to the light as Suddata and Bhakti, respectively, included most of the combat classes. That was just fine with Nathan. He could handle the combat.
“Your level is a little higher than your class level but that’s not a big issue. Our biggest problem is that you need some equipment. I’d rather not take you into combat with just a robe. I’ll get you something, though. Trust me.”
She beamed at him. “Ok.”
Even with the shifting sands blowing strands of her long light hair across her face, Nathan was captivated by her infectious smile.
“Nathan.” It was Ten’s voice echoing across the deck of the Adamant. The golden automaton had been supervising the repairs.
“
“The Adamant can rise again into the sky, but that is not all I have to report. Please join me in the command section and I’ll explain the rest.”
That meant the news wasn’t good. “I’ll be right in. Go ahead and get her up.”
“Acknowledged,” the automaton’s voice replied. Immediately the ship began to shudder beneath them as the deck started to straighten and rise but very slowly. Despite all the repairs, the Adamant seemed significantly worse for wear.
“Come on Shan,” he said. “Let’s go hear the bad news.” He didn’t care what it was, it couldn’t possibly dent his enthusiasm for moving forward with his project to rebuild the world. He was wrong about that.
Nathan and Shan went below, passing through multiple levels of the Adamant’s interior including the hall outside the kitchen where lines of shabbily dressed elves stood waiting for their turn to get breakfast. A few noticed them and thanked Nathan for saving them, but most stared blankly ahead, looking shell-shocked. That wasn’t too surprising given what they’d been through. Nathan didn’t care about thanks. He wasn’t in this to feel like a savior. He was here to leave a lasting legacy of peace and stability. If nobody remembered his name in a thousand years, that would be just fine.
“I feel bad for them,” Shan whispered from behind him as they descended the stairs into the command section. “Their city was so beautiful. They lost everything.”
“Yeah,” Nathan said. “But they still have their lives. Stuff is just stuff,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder. “It can be replaced.”
“I guess,” she replied, looking down.
“Tell me you aren’t thinking about your smartphone,” he murmured, smirking a little.
She grumbled. “Maybe.”
The golden automaton was waiting for him inside the double doors to the command section.
“Alright,” Nathan said as they entered and the doors closed behind them. “I’m here. Tell me.”
Ten led them into the command room. “The Adamant has risen to five hundred feet and is holding there. We can go no higher.”
“Is the ship still damaged?”
“Yes. The flight system is only functioning at thirty-three percent effectiveness, the core reactor is only providing forty-two percent of its nominal output, but the corebound spatial siphon is completely non-functional. I don’t know how, but that dragon knew precisely where to attack the Adamant.” Ten gestured toward the display to Nathan’s right where the damage was shown on an outline of the ship. “As you can see it ignored the kitchen, crew quarters, hangers, and cargo areas, going straight for the ship’s core systems.”
“That’s terrible!” Shan said.
“I know how,” Nathan said. Rod said he was familiar with the dwarves and their technology. The skeleton was still a major pain in his ass, even after he was gone. The spatial siphon being down was a big problem. That was his primary means of moving the Adamant and its cargo freely around the world. “Can you fix it?”
“Not at the moment. My automatons cannot fully repair this damage without a dwarven hard dock with a functioning engineering bay.”
Nathan frowned. Had there been a bay at the city he’d found in the far south? He didn’t think so. “Do you know where we can find one?”
“Any dwarven mountain stronghold would have the necessary facilities,” Ten said.
“But I thought the dwarves were all gone,” Shan said. “That’s what Emily thought. She said they killed each other.”
“What about the city where I found you?” Nathan asked.
“There was no hard dock there,” Ten replied. “It was not a true dwarven mountain stronghold, but a fallback hold for waiting out a conflict.”
“Are there any other strongholds nearby?” Nathan asked.
“The nearest was Dainar,” The automaton explained as she stepped toward the Adamant’s map, pointing toward a hammer-shaped symbol in the line of mountains to the west of their current location.
Nathan frowned, leaning in. There were several other hammer symbols on the map, even one on that southern continent. He was pretty sure that was the same continent where the elves had shipped off the people from Sildran. Unfortunately, that was on the other side of the globe, and the broken spatial siphon couldn’t take them there.
“What?” Shan asked, stepping closer to the map. “What are you looking at?”
“Ten, how long would it take us to get to the closest hammer symbol at our current maximum speed?”
“That is the dwarven fortress city of Morinar, stronghold of clan Towerglass. It would take us two hundred and seventeen days at our current best speed,” the automaton replied. “However, that is only if power does not continue to drop, which I cannot guarantee. I should also note that there are now many more mouths to feed, and the strain on the ship’s resources is significantly greater. I’m already concerned that the Adamant’s resources will be exhausted.”
“And the city may not even be intact when we get there,” Nathan said, rubbing his chin.
“That is correct,” Ten replied. “We should not begin the journey without verifying the destination is intact.”
“But how are we going to do that?” Shan asked. “I might be a mage, but I’m on the light. I can’t learn teleportation magic. That’s dark magic.”
“How long do we have before the Admant’s engine gives out?” Nathan asked.
“I can only guess. It could be weeks or hours,” the automaton replied.
“That’s not good!” Shan said.
“It’s fine,” Nathan said. “It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, problems always crop up. We’ll deal with them.”
“Your mount could fly to Morinar, as could a smaller airship,” Ten suggested.
“That dwarf city is all the way at the southern edge of the continent. It would take at least three days to fly there, maybe more,” Shan said, frowning.
Nathan brought up his map.
“What are you doing?” Shan asked.
Nathan surfed around, moving the map on his display over to where Ten’s map showed the dwarven city of Morinar. “I had a chance to use an elven magic crystal that revealed the entire map. I wonder if…” He found it. Morinar was there, what was left of it anyway. The site looked remarkably similar to Dainar: the mountain had been completely blown open leaving a huge hole and many ugly craters. “No dice. Morinar is gone too.”
“Then where can we go?” Shan asked.
“I don’t know,” Nathan said. He tried every other dwarven city, moving farther and farther out. Each one was destroyed. It was always the same too: a huge ugly crater, easily visible from above. The dark had been very serious about exterminating the dwarves. “Doesn’t look good. They’re all gone.”
“How terrible!” Shan said. “Those poor… short people.”
“Oh… they weren’t all innocent,” Nathan said, “Emily wasn’t wrong about them, but I don’t know if they deserved this.” On a hunch, he zoomed his map over to the other side of the world. Maybe a dwarven city so far away wouldn’t be targeted as harshly by the dark? It was worth a look. He triple-checked before he said anything. “I think we have a winner.”
Shan leaned in. “Really? Where?”
Nathan looked up and pointed at the map. “The mountain for that one looks intact. I don’t know why, but there’s no big hole.”
“That city is Zerendar,” Ten said. “It is a city of dwarves who refused to take sides in the clan wars.”
“Pacifists?” Nathan asked. If that was true, the dark might not have seen them as a threat.
“In a manner of speaking,” Ten replied. “The word Zeren was often used among dwarves of other clans as a synonym for coward.”
“I see,” Nathan said. “Would they have a dock to service the Adamant?”
“Much trade came in and out of Zerendar, especially grains for making spirits. They likely had adequate facilities for servicing the many trade allus that came and went from their hold,” Ten replied.
“Then that’s where we go,” Nathan said.
“Unlikely,” Ten said. “The chance that the Adamant will survive a journey of that considerable distance is less than one in seventeen-thousand six-hundred and twelve.”
