It was another four hours, six Void Terror skirmishes, and three smaller ore deposits later—putting me at ninety pounds Raw Darkshard Ore—when we rounded a snaking corner and found ourselves at a dead end. The tunnel went no further, but there was an elaborately carved archway, decorated with swirling script in an unreadable language, on the left.

  Most of the rooms we’d explored so far had been tiny things—not much bigger than a bedroom—and largely devoid of furnishings or other items that might’ve given us some insight into what this strange place had once been. But the room on the left was different. It was a cavernous space with vaulted ceilings and filled row after towering-row of book cases loaded down with dusty tomes. Dark stone columns, studded with enormous wrought-iron sconces, marched along the sweeping central hallway, eventually vanishing back in the darkness of the enormous library. Each sconce held a ball of unnatural, purple flame, staining everything with hazy, flickering light.

  “Now,” Cutter said gleefully, rubbing his hands together, “this is where I thrive. So far, this place hasn’t been much fun, but this room”—he swept an arm out—“screams loot and gold and treasure. Amara,” he said, turning back to the huntress, “why don’t you secure the door while Jack and I have ourselves a little look around, eh?” He didn’t even wait for her to reply. Instead, he strode off into the murky gloom of the library like a kid bound for the tree on Christmas morning.

  I glanced back at Amara. She rolled her eyes at me, and shooed me onward with a flick of her hand before squatting down and setting to work on her wards. I trusted Cutter to find any chests or secret panels that might contain gamer goodies—if there was one thing that truly motivated him, it was free stuff—so I decided to turn my attention to the endless books filling the shelves. Even if the dusty tomes didn’t actually provide any tangible benefit, learning the lore of Eldgard would be a reward in itself. Reading up on game history and lore had always been one of my favorite RPG pastimes; knowing all the backstory always deepened the experience and immersion for me.

  I headed into the stacks, absently running my fingers along book spines, reading the title of each as I went.

  Stonecutters Primer … History and Culture of the Svartalfar, Book 3 … Letters of Makdir the Mad, v. 1 … Anthropological Treatise of the Shining Plains … The Golem Chronicles … The Viridian Accords, 892 AIC, Vol. 7 …

  On and on they went, so many titles. Some were eye-wateringly dull, others instantly piqued my curiosity, demanding I pick them up and flip through their ancient pages. But I didn’t even know where to start, the sheer volume of information was overwhelming, and since each book weighed in at a whopping twenty-pounds apiece, I didn’t really have room to grab more than a few. So, instead I meandered aimlessly—treading down one isle then up another—until eventually I found my fingers lingering on a title called Taming the Void: A Shadowmancer Primer …

  That sure got my attention in a hurry.

  The book itself seemed to exude a cold power, which I was quickly coming to associate with the shadowy energy of the Umbra. I slipped the volume from the shelf, letting its hefty weight settle comfortably into my hands, before carefully cracking the cover. The book uttered a soft moan followed by the fluttering of paper, which sounded like a stiff breeze rustling through dry fall leaves. Open me, that fluttering demanded. Read me. Learn my secrets. I felt my mouth go dry as my eyes landed on the first page of text:

  Wow. This was potentially huge.

  I’d seen both the Void Terror and Astral Connection spells in my skill tree, but the ability descriptions had been largely generic and unhelpful. Almost purposely vague, as though the Devs hadn’t wanted to disclose too many details about the skills. I also hadn’t been able to find much information on the available Wikis—though whether that was because Osmark Tech was suppressing info to prevent metagaming, or because no one had gotten this far, I couldn’t say. Because of the restrictions on the spell, I wouldn’t be able to spawn a minion-army like a Necro or a Warlock, but something inside me screamed to pay attention. That this was important.

  I flipped the page, and was presented with a spell:

  “Yes,” I muttered into the empty air, eyes still fixed on the book in front of me. Another prompt popped up below the spell page:

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said again, nodding my head.

  There was an audible pop accompanied by a brilliant flash of light as a small tornado of violet light swirled around me, brushing over me with arctic air. The book dissolved in my hands, turning into a pile of dust, caught up and carried away by the slapping wind. In the same instant, my head began to throb, a deep dull ache building behind my eyes as if my skull had been caught in a vise grip. I dropped unceremoniously to the ground as the whipping wind died and began to grind my palms into my eye sockets, furiously trying to release the mounting tension in my head.

  Then, in a blink, knowledge bloomed in the back of my mind—it vaguely felt like recalling some fact, half-forgotten ages ago—and the pain was gone. Vanished as quickly as it had come.

  Since I was already seated though, I sprawled my legs out in front of me and leaned back against one of the stone bookcase behind me, stealing a brief moment of well-deserved rest as I pulled up my user interface. A life-like image of myself floated in the air, slowly rotating, showing my gear. I had gun-metal gray skin and a short-cropped beard lining my jaw. I absently gave my gear a once over. My medium armor, covered in swaths of ebony chainmail, glowed with swirls of shadow purple power. My leggings and boots were dark leather and finely made. I had a black cloak, pinned shut with a silver brooch, around my shoulder—the thick cowl pulled up, to conceal much of my face.

  I grinned. I had to admit, I was looking pretty badass these days. Then, with a sigh, I toggled over to my Character screen, wanting to review my stats before I made any significant changes or point investments.

  After killing the Moss Hag and earning my Class Kit, I’d crawled up to level 23, but the progress had crept along at a glacial pace since then. That was sort of to be expected, though; there really wasn’t much point in designing a game as sweeping and immersive as V.G.O. only to let players power level to 100 in a week. I closed out of the screen and quickly flicked through a few additional menus until the Void Terror Ability description lingered before me:

  At this point, I still had 8 Proficiency Points waiting in reserve, so I didn’t hesitate to invest a point into the Void Terror ability, unlocking the skill, and allowing me to bind (1) Void Terror to my will.

  Satisfied, I dismissed my interface, gained my feet, and brushed my dirty palms along the front of my trousers, preparing to resume my scan of the library. A bellowing roar stopped me dead in my tracks; the noise was so loud it rattled tomes from their shelves—a rain of hefty books suddenly hit the floor. A second later I heard the urgent slap of running footfalls, and watched as Cutter bolted from behind a bookcase, sprinting for all he was worth toward the archway.

  I didn’t know what was happening, but it couldn’t be good, so I broke into a run, tearing after him. “What did you do?” I hollered as I pulled up alongside him, my legs pumping and churning.

  “I found a secret passage,” he wheezed, not bothering to look at me. “Whole shite load of Raw Darkshard Ore—the absolutely motherload, I’d wager—but there was something in there with it. Guarding it.”

  “What is it?” I called, stealing a brief glance over my shoulder. I saw nothing but encroaching darkness.

  “Not sure,” he huffed, “but it’s big and very, very, very pissed off.”

  ***

  Hey everyone, so V.G.O.: Crimson Alliance will be available for purchase on Amazon for $4.99 (USD) as of Friday, February 24th! Whoot, whoot. Because I’ve enrolled it in Kindle Unlimited (KU)—which makes it “free” for all subscribers—I’ve had to take down the vast majority of the content from Royal Road (due to Amazon’s competition clause). With that said, I’ll be posting chapters for book three, The Jade Lord, soon, so please continue to follow Jack's epic adventures. You can buy V.G.O.: Crimson Alliance here, , and please consider leaving a short, honest review on Amazon or Goodreads (or both).

  Reviews are the lifeblood of indie book-sellers like me. Those reviews are so helpful, in fact, that I’m happy to give away free books to get them. If you’re willing to leave an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads (or both), I will give you your next book on the house. Reviews don’t need to be long or difficult—it’s not a book report—just leave a sentence or two on either Amazon or Goodreads, telling folks what you enjoyed about the story. After leaving your review, PM the link along with the title of the book you’d like to receive (you can check out a full list on my website ).

  Now—before you all stone me to death and tank my rating here on RoyalRoad—I understand that a lot of the people on this site don’t have access to KU or Amazon in general; I also understand the economy is bad and money is tight … so, even though the book is available for sale, I’ll still happily provide you with a free copy if you need one. It would be great if you’d buy my stuff and support me—since I pay my bills by writing—but if you can’t, shoot me a PM, give a brief explanation of your situation (ex: “I live in ____________ where Amazon isn’t a thing.”) and, in turn, I’ll send you a copy. Easy-peasy. As always, thanks for reading!