Goblin: a LitRPG Novel (Tower of Gates LitRPG Series Book 1) Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Newsletter

  LitRPG Reads

  Chapter 1 - Eric - Never Split the Party

  Chapter 2 - Sarah - Elf Mage Spawns in Thyananore

  Chapter 3 - Josh - Half-Orc Warrior Spawns in Mang

  Chapter 4 - Eric - Human Rogue Spawns in Harrisburg

  Chapter 5 - Sarah - Does it Taste Better than it Smells?

  Chapter 6 - Josh - Magi Inyontoo and his Father

  Chapter 7 - Eric - Quest: Join Party is ... Successful?

  Chapter 8 - Sarah - Take as Many Maps as You Want

  Chapter 9 - Eric - Can we negotiate my payment now?

  Chapter 10 - Sarah - A Hunting We Will Gnoll

  Chapter 11 - Eric - A Gong and a Strange Note

  Chapter 12 - Sarah - This New Quest Sounds Too Easy

  Chapter 13 - Eric - We're Gonna Need a Bigger Party

  Chapter 14 - Sarah - She Was in a Class by Herself

  Chapter 15 - Eric - A Maze of Twisty Little Passages

  Chapter 16 - Sarah - That’s No Ordinary Wax Golem

  Chapter 17 - Eric - Rogue and a Ring of Spider Climbing

  Chapter 18 - Sarah - Hold On While I Destroy the Pendant

  Chapter 19 - Eric - At Least We Got the Pendant, Right?

  Chapter 20 - Sarah - Resource Gathering Side-Quest

  Chapter 21 - Eric - How Does Benji Know This Guy?

  Chapter 22 - Sarah - Are Overland Encounters Random?

  Chapter 23 - Eric - When Heroes and Villains Die

  Chapter 24 - Sarah - How Long Were You an NPC?

  Chapter 25 - Eric - Old Friends and New Enemies

  Chapter 26 - Sarah - I Think the Scar is Kinda Sexy

  Chapter 27 - Eric - More Like Sylvar the Stupid Sylvan

  Chapter 28 - Sarah - Two Wizards Walk into a Bar

  Chapter 29 - Eric - There’s No Place Like Gnome

  Chapter 30 - Sarah - Should We Use Summon Monster?

  Chapter 31 - Eric - Westwood Side Story Letdown

  Chapter 32 - Sarah - Never Trust a Ranger with a Weasel

  Chapter 33 - Eric - The Tower is Bigger on the Inside?

  Chapter 34 - Sarah - Bringing Out the Evil Dead

  Chapter 35 - Eric - The Inconceivably Botched Ambush

  Chapter 36 - Sarah - Please Don’t Spill the Acid, Guys

  Chapter 37 - Eric - Entering the Forbidden Kingdom

  Chapter 38 - Sarah - We Should Probably Leave Now

  Chapter 39 - Eric - Goblin-Style Soup for the Soul

  Chapter 40 - Sarah - Back On the Road Again

  Chapter 41 - Eric - Escape is a Bittersweet Word

  Chapter 42 - Sarah - Are You Two Following Us?

  Chapter 43 - Eric - Do You Monde if I Join Party?

  Chapter 44 - Sarah - You think this happens every day?

  Chapter 45 - Eric - Preparing for the Chong Monastery

  Chapter 46 - Sarah - Too Early to Suck up to the Boss?

  Chapter 47 - Eric - I Want my Father Back you SOB

  Chapter 48 - Sarah - What Can I Say? I'm Thrilled

  Chapter 49 - Josh - Damage Inc: Circa 842 CE

  Reviews

  LitRPG Reads

  Newsletter

  GOBLIN

  TOWER OF GATES

  BOOK ONE

  A LitRPG Novel

  By Paul Bellow

  Copyright © 2017 Paul Bellow

  All rights reserved.

  For gamers.

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  ()xxxx[:::: Chapter 1 ::::>

  Never Split the Party

  ERIC

  I stared at my father as he stood behind his desk. He swiped the screen of his tablet, ignoring me as usual.

  “Why can’t I play the game a few minutes to test it out?” I asked. “You said it’s safe, right?”

  He looked over and frowned.

  “It’s perfectly safe, but I don’t want you playing it.”

  Using my mind, I moved my hover-chair toward the door.

  “Why aren’t you using your legs?” he asked.

  “They give me headaches, remember?”

  He frowned.

  "Neuroplasticity takes time, Eric. If you don't wear the exoskeleton enough, your brain won't have time to merge correctly with the hardware."

  I watched as he peered back down at his tablet as if the conversation between us were over.

  “You can go to your meeting, Dad. It’s not like I can get into the gaming cabinets myself.”

  He sighed as he lowered the tablet.

  “Come on, Eric. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Time to make something of your life. You spend so much time in your games already.”

  “That’s why I want to play yours."

  “I’ve said no, and that’s my final decision. You stay out of trouble this evening. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

  That’s more than enough time, I thought, hiding my excitement.

  “We’ll talk more about it at dinner tonight, okay? I haven’t told you everything there is to know about the Tower of Gates project.”

  “It’ll be the hottest game ever if it’s as immersive as you say, especially for people like me.”

  “We’ll talk more about your exoskeleton tonight too. There’s no reason for you to be wallowing in self-doubt because you’re paralyzed from the waist down. You’re eighteen now, and you need to take better care of yourself.”

  “Fine. I’ll talk to you later,” I said as I whisked out of his study and up the stairs to my bedroom.

  Living in 2042 had perks, but science hadn’t given me back full use of my body. Well, if you didn’t count the new Tower of Gates game. My father had been working on it for years.

  The immersive Virtual Reality Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) used cryogenics to aid in connecting a brain to the VR game world.

  I made it to the top of the stairs and headed into my bedroom to wait for him to leave. As I watched out the second-story window, my father got into his land-speeder and left.

  He had programmed the androids to not help me get into the gaming cabinets, but he didn’t realize I had at least one friend in the world. Sarah would be over any mine.

  I turned my chair in midair and headed downstairs. On the way, I pulled out my tablet and sent her a message. “He’s gone. Come quick.”

  “On my way,” she responded.

  We didn’t hang out as much as we had in our younger years, but I occasionally saw her in one of the online games I frequented.

  At the bottom of the stairs, I stopped at the front door. With another few swipes and taps, I sent the androids to their charging stations and turned off the cameras in the house.

  If my father caught me sneaking into his Tower of Gates prot
otype gaming cabinet, he would know I had control of the house’s security system–root privileges.

  The doorbell rang. Another tap of a button, and the door opened. I smiled as I saw Sarah’s curly black hair bouncing so fresh and free. My expression changed as I noticed Josh, her boyfriend.

  “What’s up, brah?” he asked, already looking and sounding the part of a frat boy.

  “Hey,” I said, looking at Sarah. “You made it… and you brought him.”

  “I’m her boyfriend,” Josh said, looking around the entrance of our ten-thousand square foot house. “This is a great pad you have here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sarah said, putting her hand on the edge of my hover-chair.

  “For what?” I asked, moving away a few inches.

  “She meant me,” Josh said. “But don’t worry, you’re in a hover-chair and not the man for Sarah.”

  I took a deep breath and smiled while biting my tongue.

  “There’s no way I could've lifted you on my own,” Sarah said.

  Josh stepped forward, still looking around.

  “Your dad invented some kind of video game or something?”

  “He works for the company that’ll be releasing Tower of Gates.”

  “Stupid games. Luckily Sarah don’t play them anymore.”

  I stole a quick glance in her direction.

  “Yeah, I’ve missed her.”

  “Let’s do this,” she said. “We don't have much time, but I want to check this game out quickly."

  “You can’t stay and play?” I asked.

  “We’re going on a date," Josh said. "You know, like normal people.”

  He snickered.

  “Cool," I said. "It's set-up in the basement.”

  “Lead the way, fly-boy.”

  I ignored the insult and floated past him toward the stairs leading downstairs. They followed behind.

  In the back basement, I used my security code to open the special room with the gaming cabinets.

  “Prepare to be amazed,” I said as the door slid open.

  Six metal boxes big enough to fit one person covered most of the room. Three ran end to end on each of two long walls.

  “What kind of game is this?” Josh asked as he glanced at one of the game cryogenic units.

  “The best kind,” I muttered.

  Excitement raced through my mind as I floated over to one of the units.

  “Help me, Josh?” I asked. “Once I’m in, you two can get in the other ones on this side.”

  "What? You're kidding, right? I'm not getting in one of those coffins," Josh said.

  "Come on," Sarah pleaded. "Please? For me?"

  He sighed but said, "Okay."

  “Why are there six of them?” Sarah asked.

  “I think parties are supposed to be six people, but we should be okay if we’re just checking it out.”

  She nodded.

  “Josh, help him in.”

  He walked over.

  “There’s a helmet, but I can put that on myself. Once you two are inside, there’s a button to close the unit and start-up the cryogenics. That’s when the game starts.”

  Josh lifted me in his arms.

  “How do you know all this?” he asked.

  “It’s a long story.”

  “Whatever,” he said, setting me in the padded interior.

  I reached up and slipped on a helmet attached to a thick cable.

  “That should do it. I’ll see you two inside the game.”

  “I have no idea what’s going on, but okay,” Josh said.

  He stared at me as I pressed the button to my left. A tempered glass top slid out of the wall. The hiss of gas escaping filled my ears. My heart beat faster.

  Everything went black momentarily. When I could see again, I found myself standing in a curved hall with walls made of stones.

  A heads-up display with a notification message floated in the air a few feet in front of me.

  Welcome to the Tower of Gates

  I swung my head around, but I didn't see the others. The cold stone walls curved to the left and right.

  Unlike the real world, I found myself with a body that worked. A smile came over my face as Sarah then Josh flickered into existence.

  This is amazing so far, and we haven't even started.

  As the other two appeared, I noticed bricked up doors spaced evenly along the outer wall.

  "Whoa," Josh said. "This is cool."

  Character Generation

  Please choose a race:

  Elf / Human / Gnome / Half-Orc / Hobgoblin

  What an odd combination.

  “Character creation seems simple enough,” I said, reaching out to select Human with my finger. “Are you getting the HUD, Sarah?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I’m going with an Elven Mage build.”

  “Surprise, surprise,” I chuckled, remembering old times.

  “I still have no idea what you two are talking about,” Josh said. “Can we quit the game now?”

  “Not yet,” Sarah said. “I want to see the game world at least.”

  “Fine. I’ll be an Elf too.”

  “No, you should go with human,” I said. “We need a tank.”

  “What did you call me?”

  Josh walked over, stopping inches from my body.

  “He said we need a tank, a fighter, someone to do the heavy lifting.”

  “Oh. That sounds like me. I’ll go with a half-orc.”

  Idiot, I thought then stared at my next prompt.

  Character Generation

  Please choose a Starting Class:

  Mage / Cleric / Rogue / Warrior

  “I’ll go rogue. We can hire a healer if necessary.”

  “We’ll not be playing long, but okay,” Sarah said.

  I tapped the word Rogue.

  Character Generation

  Congratulations. Your character is ready.

  Further customization will be available in the game.

  “What now?” Josh asked.

  “Exploring,” I said.

  With another tap, I turned off the HUD and glanced around, noticing a massive metal portal set in the outer wall.

  “Maybe this is the gate of the tower?” I asked, walking over and placing my hand on the cool metal.

  “There’s another one further down the hall,” Sarah said.

  “Okay, I’m back to thinking this game is stupid. Aren’t we going to become our characters?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Anxiety reared its ugly head as I scrambled to maintain control.

  “Look at this,” Sarah said, saving the day once again.

  “Good job, babe.” Josh put his hand on her shoulder. “That’s what I call a gate.”

  “It looks like it’s from Stargate,” I said, joining them in front of the massive wall of energy surrounded by metal. “There’s writing up top.”

  I stepped back and read, “Isles of Grabisco – 1240 Common Era.”

  “This must be the first level.”

  “Yeah,” Sarah said. “And the others open once we clear the level.”

  “Screw all this talk,” Josh said. “I’m going in.”

  “No wait…” I cried out, too late to stop him.

  Josh walked through the energy and disappeared.

  Sarah smiled and said, “See you on the other side,” before stepping through.

  This will be over way too quick.

  I took a deep breath then followed the others. At least I thought I would spawn in the same starting location. I should’ve figured different races would begin the adventure in different parts of the world.

  Oh well, I thought. One little mistake won’t kill us.

  ()xxxx[:::: Chapter 2 ::::>

  Elf Mage Spawns in Thyananore

  SARAH

  I emerged in a tidy room with wooden walls and floor. A bed to my right and desk to my left looked unused. Where are the other two?

  A notification popped up in the air.
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  New Quest – Join Your Party

  You have a new quest.

  Travel to Fishguard on the Southern Coast to join a band of adventurers.

  You have four (4) days to complete this quest.

  On completion, you will receive 1,000 xp.

  That's cool. Might as well enjoy a bit of gaming before Josh wants to go do something else.

  I suddenly realized how much I had missed gaming with Eric.

  War of Spellcraft had eaten hundreds of hours as we leveled to obscene levels, having fun every step of the way. Excited and nervous, I thought a command.

  > Stats Spells

  Spells: Level One

  Fish Slaying (1mp) - Slay fish in ten-foot radius.

  Golden Bolts (2mp per bolt up to 4+ lvl of caster) - Golden bolts of energy shoot out of your palms dealing 1d4 damage per bolt + INT modifier.

  Glorified Cloaks of Bronze (2mp per armor adjustment up to 4+ lvl of caster) - Golden energy surrounds the target of the spell, improving their defense by 10%

  Tip: At you gain levels, you will have access to more powerful spells. Some, like Fish Slaying, are requisites for higher level spells.

  Tip: Armor Class in Tower of Gates runs from 0 (naked) to 100+ (magically armed)