《Divine Quest》Chapter 9
Advertisement
Fatty and Skinny took positions behind the group as Bandage led them off the road. There was a tense silence, for all of 30 seconds.
“My name's David, but you can call me Dai.” David began. “What are your names?”
Bandage grunted his response where Fatty and Skinny didn't respond.
“The alternative is I call you what I have been calling you in my mind. I will warn you, it isn't flattering.”
“And what are you calling us in your mind.” Skinny's words promised violence.
“Well you're Skinny,” David answered, pointing at each as he named them. “Then there is Fatty and Bandage.”
Quiet was all that answered him as David felt six pairs of eyes on him.
“What?” He asked the group.
“You call me Bandage. Because my hands are bandaged.” Bandage's tone spoke of incredulity at David's brilliance. “That is what you focus on?”
“Its distinctive.” David defended.
“MY HEAD IS ON FIRE.” Bandage roared back. “I thought I would have been hot head or fire hair or something.”
They watched as the reality of it dawned upon David. He quickly looked between the group.
“Dai...what did you see initially?” Bill calmly asked.
“Three humans, a goblin, you, and a dog.” David replied.
“And was there anything special about them?” Bill continued.
“Well Princess's tail is hairless and that's pretty unique. Mist is pointy, but all the other goblins were pointy too.” David started to squirm under the intense stares. “I swear! I didn't notice the fire for hair or the hair or the skin color.”
“David,” Bill directed Princess close enough so that he could place his hand against his friend. “You need new eyes.”
“My eyes are fine.” David snapped. “I just don't notice the same things you do.”
A soft laughter started before transforming into a full belly laugh. It was Fatty, whose deep basso voice tickled the inside of David. Skinny and Bandage soon joined in, where Mist just continued to stare at the crazy man she had roped herself with.
“Boy, I don't think I have ever heard a bigger one in all my days.” Fatty said as soon as he could speak. He smacked David on the back, causing him to notice how large the man's hands were. “My name is Rognar. Skinny, as you called him, is Bells . Bandage goes by Pyr but his name is George.”
“Now why did you go and tell him that?” Bells demanded.
“Because this guy is so oblivious I doubt he'd notice if he wasn't wearing pants.”
“Now that's not fair.” David said. “I notice if I am not wearing pants.”
That caused George to laugh harder. “You really don't get it.”
“You really only see me as a goblin?” Mist asked. “You don't see anything else?”
“No I don't see anything else. I guess I am blind. Princess, fetch me a stick.” David finished gesturing towards one of the trees. The crowd went quiet at that.
Advertisement
“Why do you need a stick?” Bill asked.
“Because blind people use sticks to help them walk! Because I guess I can't see what's directly in front of my face.” David ran his hands down his face. “Right, time to actually take you guys in.”
The first thing that David notice was that Princess was not a dog and barely resembled a dog. The goblin-dog stood about waist high through its long legs. Otherwise it looked like a massive rat with its claws instead of paws and alert rounded ears. It would be best described, David decided, as a cross breed between a dog and rat where the rat won. He also noted that the hair that coated Princess was thin and she seemed to be suffering from dandruff.
“Ah, that's what causes the goblin-pox.” David told the incredulous crowd. “Dandruff from the goblin-dog.”
Bill slapped at his face before turning towards George. “We might as well keep moving. If we wait for this idiot to catch everything he's missed we'd be here till next week.”
“He seriously didn't notice the fire?” George asked.
“I am almost certain.” Bill agreed. That just caused Rognar to start laughing again.
Rognar wasn't fat, as David first thought. The man stood two meters tall and was easily that wide. The best way to describe him would have been square. And the man was hairy. Nearly every inch of the man's exposed skin was covered in a thick, wiry hair. His beard descended low enough that it was tucked into his belt and thick enough to hide his mouth. The rest of his hair wasn't much better, with the benefit of being braided. Otherwise David was positive he's have a mane rather than simple hair. The only clear patches David could see were Rognar's hands and nose.
“I should have called you Hairy.” David told the man.
“Most do.” Rognar replied.
“You seriously just saw me as skinny?” Bells asked.
“You are skinny.” David said. “You're the same height as me and half my width.”
“My skin is the color of amber.” Bells countered.
“To be fair, that's really the only distinctive thing about you, besides your weight.” David replied. “I mean you look like a normal human, except for your caramel skin. Two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth, no beard or mustache, arms down to your knees, legs less than half your body...”
The walked in silence as David continued to look at Bells. The skin did really look like fresh caramel with an unnaturally bright brown. The fingers were also long and looked skilled. He had a long torso to match the short legs, and his feet were massive relative to the rest of him.
“Okay, there might have been a few noteworthy things about you.” David conceded. He turned to focus on George. “All of you.”
George had more than just flaming hair that seemed to move with the wind. His skin was ashy, both in color and texture. His eyes matched the red of his hair and also seemed alight. He was smaller than David, but easily as wide. Focusing more, David swore that the man was a consolidate storm just waiting to escape.
Advertisement
“You guys are humans, aren't you?” David inquired. “And you are a goblin?” He asked Mist.
“Yes, I am a goblin and these are humans.” Mist replied in a huff. “I doubt you'd notice anything special about me.”
“Besides being pointy?” David began as he looked at the girl he saved. Her skin was a molted gray and her body was best described as 'short stack.' In fact, outside of the ears that ran the entire side of her head there wasn't a lot pointy about her.
“She's not like the normal goblin.” Bells pointed out. “Gray skins are rare. They also tend to be curvy than the average goblin, matching a halfling in proportions.”
“Wait, halflings are a thing here?” David focused on Bells. “I didn't know that. I knew of humans, goblins, dwarves, some sort of giant, and Kalastar. What else do you have here.”
“How do you not know of the oppressors?” George began.
“We're not oppressors.” Mist snapped. The tension immediately rose as David saw Bells begin to reach towards his belt.
“I'm less than a day old, give or take.” David said. The tension snapped at his words.
“You're joking.” Rognar replied.
“He's not.” Bill answered. “He was summoned by the gods to do something with the classes. He chose to become an Alchemist and Morty had him choose me as his first mark.”
Silence returned to the party. It stood for nearly a minute before Mist broke it. “What's a class?”
“The first mark. The mark all of the chosen are born with, indicators of the blessing the gods will grant them as they grow and adapt to the magic of the land.” Bill answered. “They are formed from the wills and understanding of beings who brought you to this land mixed with the land itself. They grant you the powers that you use to defend yourself and others.”
“They're something you raise through the use of clerics.” David finished.
“I don't know what you think you're saying, but there's nothing like that here.” George replied.
“Poppycock.” Bill waved away the statement. “I looked at Mist's back. I don't understand her class, but she's got one. Its the one next to the bloodline.”
“The shame humanity inflicted on the great races.” Mist declared. The three humans tensed again, but before words could be exchanged David looked down to Bill.
“What are you talking about?” He asked.
“You have two crests on your back. The first represents your class and the second your bloodline.” Bill explained.
“You seriously don't know this?” George asked.
“I just told you I a less than a day old.” David said.
“You're awfully articulate for a new born.” Bells stated.
“And you're awfully thin for a human, but you don't see me making a big deal of it.” David snapped back.
“You literally called me skinny.” Bells growled getting up in David's space.
“Because you are skinny! How are you so skinny? Seriously, I want to know. Back where I am from people would have killed for that information.”
Bells paused at that before pushing past David. Rognar remained behind their four prisoners while Bells took point.
“And you,” David began, looking at Rognar. “What is your workout plan? You look like you could lift a house by yourself.”
Rognar grinned at that before replying.
“You should treat Bells with more respect, sort of like how you treat me.”
“But I do respect Bells.” David countered. “When we fought before he was handing me my ass after he got it from a sale, gift wrapped.”
“What?” Everyone except David and Princess replied.
“Sorry, phrases from home. Bells could take me and Mist down by himself.”
George frowned at that as he looked at his companion. “You're saying he's stronger than me?”
“To be fair, you didn't fight that well last time. You just tried kicking things before Rognar fell on you.”
Bells and Rognar chuckled at that before noticing George's mood, which caused them to laugh harder. That was until George's entire body froze.
“We got a gate nearby.” He told the crowd. Rognar and Bells swore while Mist looked worried. George looked towards David. “We need to know what you can do.”
“Without a bottle or some time to prepare, basically what I did when we first met.”
“Throw some punches and wiggle on the ground?” Rognar's tone had mirth even if his face remained neutral. He constantly scanned their surroundings.
“You are seriously pulling that right now?” Bells demanded. “What sort of fool needs a bottle to fight.”
“I need a bottle to use my infusions.” David growled back.
“No, you don't.” Bill replied, standing on top of Princess's head. “You can make mutagens for yourself.”
It was as if that word caused a light to turn on. David looked around, tracking the plants nearby before realizing he needed something more particular. Noise started coming from their left as David dashed to the right, collecting different plants before shoving them in his mouth.
“I need something from a beast.” David garbled. Everyone but Bill was preparing for whatever was coming their way so they ignored the strange man. For Bill's part, he looked down at Princess before shaking his head.
“Lets hope these guys have something” Bill commented before creature's from David's nightmares descended upon them.
Advertisement
- In Serial64 Chapters
Wildling
Blurb: Silas--a scavenger living off the ruins of humanity--has spent his entire life fighting tooth and nail to provide for himself and his crew. But when a scavenging run goes awry and he's snatched up by an android patrol, he finds himself thrown into a cage and priced to sell as a pet. And when a suitor comes calling, he fears the worst: that he'll be turned into a Domestic, a human lapdog brainwashed into total obedience. Instead, he discovers an equally disturbing truth: that the creatures who stole his world have created a videogame the likes of which Earth has never seen; a sprawling, game-like theme park where humans are the Avatars and androids are the players who control them. And to make matters worse, his android guide is as hopeless as they come, having gotten all of her previous Avatars killed in record time. So if Silas wants to regain his freedom, he'll not only have to fight his way through a world that was specifically designed to murder him in brutal fashion--he'll also have to convince his android guide that he should be the one calling the shots. FAQS: Q: Who are you, handsome stranger? A: I'm Kyle Kirrin, the author of Shadeslinger, book 1 of The Ripple System, published by Portal Books, and I write crunchy LitRPG. Q: What is Wildling? And is it complete? A: Wildling is a crunchy LitRPG mash up of Fantasy and Science Fiction. And yup, Wildling is already complete at 64 chapters, or about 120,000 thousand words. You're looking at something like a third draft here--it's fairly polished, but it hasn't been picked over by a copy editor yet nor has my developmental editor seen it. Q: Upload schedule? A: 5 initial chapters today (2/15/2021) and one chapter a day for the next month. After that I'll probably slow down to 2 or 3 chapters a week until the story is complete. Q: How crunchy is it? A: It's pretty crunchy. I'd put it on the same tier as Ascend/The Land/RSSG, but it might be a bit crunchier than those three? Q: Is this the first book in a series or a web novel or what? And what are your plans for it? A: It's currently a standalone with series potential. Full disclosure: this story may head the way of my publisher eventually, but will be available on RR for quite a while no matter what. Likely several months after it's complete with plenty of warning before/if it's taken down. Q: What kind of build does the MC create? A: Sword and board! Q: Crafting? A: Plenty! Crafting isn't as center stage as it is in The Way of the Shaman, but it's close. Q: Base building? A: Two fully separate, distinct bases, both of which play a major role in the story. Q: VRMMO? Portal? Reincarnation or what? A: This one's a bit tricky. Basically an advanced race has created a game-like world that closely resembles a theme park. Think Westworld but with copious amounts of loot. And the MC has to fight his way through that to earn his freedom. Q: Permadeath? A: Nope! The MC gets 3 lives to play through the entirety of the game world, and death is extremely punishing, but not fatal. Q: Harem? Or romance? A: No and no. Q: Cursing? Blood? A: Quite a bit of cursing, yeah. There's blood, too, but it's not a gory book by any means. Q: How can I support? A: Instead of a Patreon/donations etc, I'd ask that you consider giving my debut LitRPG Shadeslinger a chance. It's free on Kindle Unlimited and the audio is already out narrated by Travis Baldree. It's an epic fantasy VRMMO where the main character gets 3 days of exclusive access to a new game plus a snarky, talking axe to guide him through it in exchange for agreeing to become the target of a serverwide manhunt once the Head Start period ends. Q: How's it similar to Wildling? And how's it different? A. The crunch level is very similar, but Shadeslinger is a much lighter, epic fantasy take on the genre. It's also VRMMO, but without any real world components aside from the first chapter. The MC is very different--he comes off as a bit of a jerk early on and can take a bit to warm up to, especially before his backstory is revealed--but he's also got a talking axe that constantly puts him in his place. Shadeslinger's a much more humorous story in general, and it's a great deal more polished as well. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy Wildling!
8 346 - In Serial20 Chapters
Shadow in the Snow
To live in a circus, to run away to one; this is the dream of many. The shining lights and the music and the cheering of the crowds are appealing to some. How little they know! This is the story of two brothers who were raised in a circus. One, a slave to the Master -- his most brilliant performer and a boy of pure white who has never been allowed to see the sun, nor feel the grass beneath his feet, nor the touch of rain upon his skin. The other, a slave to his brother -- a guardsman, trapped there not by chains but by love and loyalty. When fate proves unexpectedly kind to them on an otherwise cruel day, they find themselves free along with the girl they have been raised with and must find their way in a broken world, all the while being hunted without pause and without mercy. The Master has lost his prize. He is determined to reclaim it.
8 221 - In Serial17 Chapters
Emperor of the Demon race
In the western realm, an old man sits silently on his throne. Tired and exhausted from a lifelong pursuit of power and glory, he peacefully awaits his timely end. But, before he can take his final rest, he will make his presence known one last time and guide his youngest three descendants towards the glory of his race. Unfortunately for him, his three descendants have been basking in the glory of their ancestor for too long, ignoring the path of cultivation and gradually bringing ruin to their family...
8 169 - In Serial14 Chapters
Mythron Chronicles
Savo is an accomplished man in the business world and seeks to build his urban empire. At age twenty-four, he has succeeded in creating one of the most prominent brands in the country. Wearied by his daily work and responsibilities, Savo finds asylum in tinkering. His leisure trips and vacations had led him to discover an object which would proceed to redirect his life plans. Transported to another world, left to witness its wonders and horrors, and staying true to his ambition of returning home, Savo traverses the world of Mythron in hopes of returning home. Yet, how is he to do this? It seems that the world is somewhat set on sabotaging his plans yet again.
8 201 - In Serial106 Chapters
LEUR: The Unsung Tales
In the kingdom of Zorhana, one adventuring team rises to the top as they come to terms with their pasts and uncover a plot to destroy all they hold dear. Together they'll learn to trust each other, to love each other, and grow strong enough to overcome any challenge. This is the tale of unsung heroes, filled with daring adventure and powerful bonds, vicious monsters and shining redemption. Come, sit, stay awhile and listen. This story contains violence, budding romance, friendships forged in fire, and fantastical racism. I'm writing this story using the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the legendary tabletop roleplaying game. I first began posting this story on my personal Facebook page and on Tumblr under the username "valoroflight". I only put a few chapters in before moving to Wattpad to finish posting the full story. Unfortunately, my story has begun showing up on NovelHD without my permission, so I am moving to RoyalRoad in an attempt to get away from that.
8 112 - In Serial58 Chapters
Star Wars: Imagines, X-Readers, One shots, Etc. REQUESTS CLOSED
REQUESTS ARE CLOSED!!!Sorry for the Inconvenience!!Different Star Wars characters with different scenarios!« Anakin Skywalker »« Obi Wan Kenobi »« Luke Skywalker »« Han Solo »« Kylo Ren » or« Ben Solo »« Poe Dameron »« Finn »
8 125

