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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Newsletter

  Prologue

  1 - Beating a Dead Horse

  2 - Sky Dwarves Patrol

  3 - The Battle of High Keep

  4 - Waves of Mutilation

  5 - Hero-Sized Side-Questl

  6 - Death at Fort Sumter

  7 - That Mummy is a Lord

  8 - Stranger Seeks Group

  9 - Hero and His Family

  10 - Return of the Rogue

  11 - Lich and his Legions

  12 - The Path Diverges

  13 - Forest of Magictology

  14 - Main Quest Complete

  15 - All New Four Wizards

  16 - Return of the Rats

  17 -Double Necro Attack

  18 - King of the Orcs

  19 - Forbidden Orc Lands

  20 - The Tower of Bones

  21 - Another Horde Rises

  22 - Seeking a Stranger

  23 - A Very Strange Tower

  24 - Half-Brother Encounter

  25 - Saved by a Valkyrie Skyrider

  26 - The Tower of Sherlock

  27 - Sacrifice for a Fresh Start

  28 - An NPC Life for Me?

  Epilogue

  LitRPG Forum

  Newsletter

  Boost

  Tower of Gates Book 5

  A LitRPG Novel

  By Paul Bellow

  Copyright © 2018 Paul Bellow

  All rights reserved.

  For gamers.

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  Prologue

  James

  How long had Eric and his friends been trapped inside? More importantly, how much time dilation had kicked in? The parents of the other two would eventually start asking questions.

  I needed to act fast before that happened. Any publicity at all would make rescuing my son and his friends even more difficult. I took a deep breath as I stared at the terminal window on the ancient computing device in front of me.

  My fingers flew over the keys of the awkward input device as I fired up the code for my experimental MUD client that connected with the Tower of Gates. I’d called the software Midgaard—after a city some of the players had started on level one-nine.

  The sprawling city-state had become my go-to place when I spawned inside the game to test out new features and hunt bugs. After convincing the prisoners I couldn’t help them escape, a few of them helped me improve the Tower of Gates.

  Would any of them talk to me after what happened? I hadn’t been inside the game since I almost got trapped.

  I cracked my knuckles as I waited for the software to fire up. While the front-end was a simple text interface, the background software and processes and its interface with the advanced quantum grid that ran the Tower of Gates were insanely complex.

  The AI likely wouldn’t suspect me to come back into the game. With a bit of luck, I’d be able to slip in, locate Eric, reassure him, then get back out before the AI noticed.

  The MOTD screen loading brought a smile to my face. As I typed in my username and password, I remembered the last time I’d used the software to interface with the game. The complex AI had noticed eventually and kicked me out.

  Would I have enough time to warn Eric? How powerful had the AI become since I last interacted with it? Only a few days had passed since the last time I’d logged in to shut down the AI inside the Tower of Gates. How powerful had it become since then? I had barely escaped with my mind intact.

  Hundreds of system messages flew by on my screen. After they loaded, I searched for any that mentioned new players inside the game. The first mention wasn’t good.

  Eric’s hack frightened the AI enough to spawn them separately across the first level. My son knew how to game, but the Tower of Gates was something completely different than anything he or anyone else had ever played before.

  I read through a few more system messages for Eric, watching him level up as time went on. They’d been in the game for at least a few months. My jaw dropped open as I read a message.

  Sarah, one of Eric’s friends, had been given a twenty-year penalty in the game. I wasn’t exactly sure how the gamemaster AI would handle that, but it didn’t sound good.

  After skipping to the very latest updates, I found out they were still separated. Eric and Josh were together on level one-three, but Sarah was on her own. I couldn’t access everything about her.

  A message popped up on the screen.

  “Hello, James. Long time no see. Why don’t you plug in?”

  I grimaced as I stared at the screen.

  “Go away,” I typed. “You can’t hurt me anymore.”

  “Are you sure, James? You enjoyed hurting me.”

  “It wasn’t my fault!” I yelled.

  The Tower of Gates couldn’t hear me. I took a deep breath to control my emotions. To get Eric and his friends out, I needed to be smart. I kept reading updates to learn where they were in the system.

  When I spawned with the MUD interface, I’d end up in Midgaard. They could be anywhere by the time I got to them. I kept reading messages. After getting through the relevant system messages, I spawned into the game. The text descriptions failed to do justice when it came to the beauty of the city of Midgaard.

  I typed a few commands to walk north down one of the main streets. Without access to any administration functions anymore, I needed to find out information on my own. The old-fashioned way would take time, but I didn’t have a choice.

  As I traversed the streets of Midgaard in the MUD interface, I hoped Eric and his friends would be okay until I found them. The Tower of Gates could be tough with so many sociopaths and psychopaths locked up inside the game-prison.

  I took a deep breath as I reached the Tainted Eyes tavern in a seedier section of the city. Typing commands to walk inside the building was enough for me to remember experiencing the same through immersive virtual reality. I missed the excitement and thrills of creating and playing the game, at least in some ways.

  After a short, typed dialogue sequence with the bartender, I made my way to a back room at the sketchy dive. Carlos, described as sitting on a barrel, emoted a smile.

  “Look who it is,” he said, his words appearing on my screen

  I emoted a smile of my own.

  “We need to talk,” I said.

  “Not before you pay me the gold you owe me,” he said.

  “Very funny,” I typed, wishing I could materialize inside the game again.

  The gamemaster AI had become too unstable to attempt it again. Eric and his friends desperately needed my help to survive in the game, but I had no way in.

  “Do you know anything about the undead spreading on lower levels of the game?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” Carlos said, the words appearing in text on the screen of the laptop.

  “Tell me everything. I need to stop whatever’s going on…”

  A friend for life, he spilled his guts.

  Chapter 1

  Beating a Dead Horse

  Eric

  When we appeared on the other side of the portal on level one-three, I saw an empty room with wooden walls. Papers laid scattered over a table near the only exit, an open door across from us. Where is everybody?

  “This is odd,” I said.

  Bernard stepped forward and glanced around.

  “You’re telling me,” he said.

 
Derringer stood on my other side, silent.

  “We need to find Sarah,” Josh said.

  He took a few steps toward the door.

  “Wait up,” Derringer said. “Something’s not right.”

  Bernard walked over and rummaged through the papers on the desk.

  “Can you read any of them?” I asked, following him over.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Processing forms for anyone coming through the magic portal.”

  “Someone should be at these posts,” Derringer said. “Magi Inyontoo has ruled level one-three with an iron fist for many years. So strange…”

  “I can’t see anybody outside,” Josh said from the door.

  “Keep an eye out,” I said. “We need to find out what’s going on.”

  “I’ll be back,” the barbarian said as he walked out.

  “Check this out,” Bernard said.

  He shoved a piece of paper in front of me.

  The name “Sara” stuck out immediately.

  “It’s not the right spelling, but maybe it’s her?”

  “There’s a seal of Magictology,” Bernard said.

  I nodded, thinking it through.

  “Do they have control of this whole level?” I asked.

  He shrugged.

  “Guys, get out here,” Josh yelled.

  I drew my weapons as I rushed over to the door.

  “What is it?” I asked, peering out.

  “Looks like there was a battle, but there’s no bodies,” Josh said.

  “Weird,” I said then turned. “Grab those papers, would you?”

  “Already have them,” Bernard said. “We can go over them later. I say we explore and find out where we’re at and what’s going on.”

  I nodded then turned and walked out into a hallway. Josh stood at the end of it, staring into a room.

  “There’s nobody,” he said.

  I walked up and glanced around. A battle had been fought, recently from the looks of it.

  “Be on guard,” I said. “There’s no telling what’s outside.”

  “We’ve got this,” Josh said with confidence.

  “Eric’s right,” Bernard said. “We won’t know if we’ve got it until we know what’s going on.”

  “All I care about right now is finding Sarah and getting out of this game,” Josh said then strode over to a door.

  Bright light streamed into the room when he opened it.

  “Nothing,” he said. “You two need to toughen up.”

  What’s going on? I wondered as I walked over.

  Bernard followed behind.

  Outside, I saw Josh standing in middle of a dirt street.

  “Absolutely nothing,” he said. “It’s a ghost town.”

  “Don’t say that,” Bernard snapped.

  Josh laughed.

  “Superstitious, are you?” he asked.

  “Quiet,” I said, cupping a hand behind my ear. “Do you hear that?”

  The sound of a horse galloping got louder.

  “Out of the street,” I said.

  Josh ignored me, lifting his two-handed sword to his shoulder.

  “It’s a horse,” Bernard said, pointing down the street.

  A dark horse barreled toward us, no one riding it.

  “I’ve got this,” Josh said.

  “Hold on,” Derringer said. “I’m sensing death.”

  “What’s that stench?” Bernard said, holding his forearm over his nose.

  The closer the horse got, the stronger the smell became.

  “Come here,” Josh yelled as he swung at the beast.

  It dodged out of the way and stopped, raising its front hooves in the air while letting out a ghastly scream. Several strips of skin were peeled back, exposing rotting flesh.

  “Undead horse,” Derringer noted, pulling his black, glowing sword. “Kill it now.”

  Killing the undead never made sense to me. How do you kill something a second time?

  He charged forward fearlessly, sword raised high. Josh did the same with his sword. The horse charged, running between them both. Bernard sighed and pulled out his mace.

  “Nothing like beating a dead horse,” he said then swung as the horse neared him.

  The mace hit the horse’s head, breaking apart its bottom jaw.

  “Die again,” Derringer yelled, rushing forward.

  His sword sliced through the flank of the horse, causing it to topple to the ground. Josh finished it off with a blow to the head.

  Combat is Over!

  You get 100 xp divided by four party members.

  You get 25 xp.

  You have 89,416 xp.

  You need 15,584 xp for level 10 Rogue -> Bounty Hunter

  More powers unlocking as the game draws me in even deeper. Will it ever end? I understood why my father had kept me away from the game, but at the same time, I hated him for keeping it from me. We would get out eventually. Until that time, I needed to focus and concentrate on having a respectable character.

  “That wasn’t even worth getting my sword dirty,” Josh muttered.

  “Where there’s an undead horse and no people, you can be sure there’s more and something controlling them,” Bernard said, glancing around. “It’s so cold.”

  He hugged himself, rocking back and forth as a bitter wind picked up.

  “I have an idea,” I said, pulling out my owl figurine.

  “Where’d you get that?” Derringer asked while staring at it.

  “A good rogue never reveals his sources,” I said then activated the magic item.

  With a quick utterance of the word “who,” the figurine transformed into a grey owl. It hooted then flew into the air.

  “Hello, Drex,” the magical creature said in my mind.

  Was it an AI companion? I grinned as the others stared at me in confusion.

  “Call me Eric,” I said. “What do you see up there? Anything?”

  “Give me a few minutes to explore, Eric. I’ll report back. Will be out of range for communication for a few possibly…Eric…don’t…”

  The voice in my head went away like a phone losing reception.

  “Nice figurine,” Derringer said. “I tried to build my own mechanical one once.”

  “Oh?” I nodded approvingly. “How did that go?”

  He frowned and shook his head.

  “Not good. Blew up half a black in a city on the continent of Gracoria.”

  When the Dark Knight mentioned the continent, a game notification appeared.

  New Quest: To clear level one-three, find safe passage to the continent of Gracoria (level one-four) XP: 50,000

  “You triggered a quest,” I said.

  Derringer nodded, smiling.

  “It’s an easy one,” he said. “We’ll be able to basically glide through this level.”

  “Not without Sarah,” I said. “We need to find her.”

  “No kidding,” Josh retorted. “We should find a way to complete the level at the same time. It only makes sense. Right?”

  I nodded and said, “Might as well. I can only change the owl once a day, but we needed to recon. It’s not like I’m super-powerful or anything now.”

  “Not good news, Eric,” Who said.

  “What is it?” I asked, holding up a finger for the others to quiet down.

  “More dead creatures big and small. Horde of them coming your way. The best idea is to get out of the city and head for the hills. Go north.”

  “Which way is north?” I asked out loud.

  Derringer tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.

  “Huh?” he asked. “What’s wrong. I don’t see any danger.”

  “My owl sees more undead coming,” I said. “We’ve got to get out of the city.”

  I motioned for the others to follow then walked down the street.

  “Keep an eye from above, Who.”

  “Will do, Eric.”

  I concentrated on the intersection coming up. Four brick buildings stood on the corners. I kep
t expecting hordes of undead to stream from around one of them.

  “Watch our back,” Derringer said as he walked next to me.

  “I see something,” I said, pointing. “Over there.”

  Four zombies in coveralls attacked a man in middle of the street.

  “Help him!” I shouted, running forward with both weapons drawn.

  Two farmer zombies turned then lumbered toward me, arms out.

  I slashed one with both swords.

  Your slash INJURES the zombie farmer for 13 damage.

  Your pierce HITS the zombie farmer for 7 damage.

  The zombie farmer is dead!

  Derringer took out another while Josh ran around and bashed the final two.

  Combat is Over!

  You get 200 xp divided by four party members.

  You get 50 xp.

  You have 89,466 xp.

  You need 15,534 xp for level 10 Rogue -> Bounty Hunter

  “Come on,” Josh lamented as he lifted his sword. “Give us something decent to fight.”

  “Be careful what you wish for,” Derringer said.

  “Thank you,” the haggard man said. “My name’s Vyncent. At one time, my family owned most of the land in this area, but things have changed since the scourge started.”

  Several pouches hung from his belt. He noticed me looking at them.

  “I can pay you what I have left,” he said. “Not that money is worth anything anymore since the world fell apart.”

  “What happened?” Josh asked.

  “Hordes of undead,” Vyncent said. “Haven’t you noticed more undead than living since you arrived in town?”

  “We’ve noticed,” I said. “What’s the quickest way out of the city?”

  “That’s easy,” he replied, pointing. “Down the main road toward the south.”

  “What city is this?” Bernard asked. “I can’t quite place it.”

  The battered aristocrat scrunched his eyes together.

  “You don’t know you’re in Talbot?” he asked.

  “It’s a long story,” I said. “Come with us, and we’ll keep you safe. We’re leaving north of the city. You should come along.”