Dragon Kings of the New World Read online

  Dragon Kings of the New World

  Dante Doom

  Contents

  Dragon Kings of the New World

  Dante Doom

  The Star Dragon

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  End of The Star Dragon

  The Black Dragon

  Blurb

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  End of The Black Dragon

  The Iron Dragons

  Blurb

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  End of The Iron Dragons

  Thank you!

  Sneak Peek

  Dragon Kings of the New World

  The Star Dragon

  The Black Dragon

  The Iron Dragons

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, OCTOBER 2017

  Copyright © 2017 Relay Publishing Ltd.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  www.relaypub.com

  Dante Doom

  Dante Doom didn’t touch a videogame or fantasy book until his 23rd year on Earth. He started working at an old-school arcade—hired primarily, he was told, because of his “badass ridiculous name”—and from then his education began. They started him on the classics, a strict diet of Pac-Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Dig Dug, Street Fighter, and Rampage. Freakish proficiency. Beginners luck, they said. He was given well-loved copies of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern.

  Devoured in days. Finally, he was invited up to the arcade owner’s private gaming room: Battletoads, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES), and Ghosts ‘n Goblins followed. Defeated, at last—maybe he wasn’t such a wunderkid, after all. But he didn’t give up. And that earned him a seat at the group’s D&D table. Many a happy day has passed since—he even beat TMNT’s Dam level and its health-draining pink seaweed.

  Then a year ago, that same group introduced him to the new Fantasy-LitRPG genre—what Dante saw as the final stage in his education. Because, for him, it doesn’t get any better than LitRPG. The combination of an immersive fantasy world, gaming objectives and levelled progression makes for a fascinating storytelling experience. Inspired, he took two weeks holiday from the arcade, sat down and wrote the Dragon Kings of the New World series.

  Find out what Dante is up to next at:

  www.DanteDoom.com

  www.facebook.com/DanteDoomBooks

  Blurb

  When the real world is threatened, it’s up to the players in a virtual one to save it.

  Van Vanyushin doesn’t see the point in ever leaving the beautiful digital world of the game he loves—and for good reason. In the industrial wasteland he calls home, it is often the only way people can experience life’s simplest pleasures. But his allegiance to the game is tested when an ambitious CIA agent named Sang Ngo calls upon him to help as she goes undercover in the game to investigate Draco—the corporation responsible for creating the massively popular role-playing game Dragon Kings of the New World.

  Sang is a gifted hacker who feels nothing but contempt for those who waste their lives in what she sees as a false reality…but when people start dying in the game, she must find out why. Van, a talented gamer, is her guide to navigate the world, level up their newbie characters fast and get into some of the most dangerous areas of the game. He dreams of becoming a pro gamer sponsored by Draco one day, but his partnership with Sang threatens to expose secrets from his past that could jeopardize those plans.

  Now, they will have to put aside their differences to discover whatever—or whoever—is killing players, but the truth they find is darker than either of them imagined….

  1

  Sivlander, slayer of thousands, warrior of the highest regard, trudged up the mountain. His arms were aching not from soreness, but from the jumpy energies that came right before a fight. His companions—an archer, a paladin, and an explorer—followed behind him, but not too closely. Around him, the snow was falling from the upper reaches of the mountain and he could feel each snowflake landing upon his face. Yet, the cold wind’s blowing was somewhat refreshing, considering the fights that they had overcome in order to reach this part of Vemor Mountain. There’d been many a Troll, fiend, and brute waiting for them along the broken and jagged crags of the terrain, but Sivlander was not a man to be easily stopped by his foes. No—he wielded his great sword comfortably, easily cleaving through the hordes of beasts on his way to the top of the mountain... but Sivlander wasn’t here for them. Rather, he was here for the greatest foe that the Vemor Mountains would ever know. He was here for Crieagg, the Chief Ogre of the Mountain.

  Sivlander turned to face his companions. He could see their faces of fear, and he grinned. “Comrades, we are not here to grimace at fate; we are here to slay Crieagg and reap the greatest rewards there are!”

  The archer shook his head at the comment. “But, sir, it’s—”

  “But what? We aren’t strong enough? Bold enough?” Sivlander interrupted the archer. “We’ve got our weapons, our wits, and most of all, our experience! He’s just around the corner, friends. Raise your weapons and let’s do this!” With this, he abruptly swung away from the complaining archer. His companions for this part of the adventure weren’t particularly the best people that he had been able to find, even if they had seemed motivated enough by the potential coin and plunder, but the closer they’d gotten to Crieagg, he’d heard all the more whining and worrying from them. Still, he refused to be daunted by such talk.

  Sounds of shouts suddenly greeted him from the distance. “We found him!” cried a voice, this followed by t
he loud balooooo of a hunting horn.

  Sivlander turned to face his allies, “The scouts! We must move quickly!” And with this, he drew his great sword and began to run toward the sound of the hunting horn. The scouts weren’t supposed to have engaged—they’d only been supposed to scout ahead and find the Chief Ogre—but it would be just his luck if they were slaughtered so needlessly.

  Sivlander and his party rushed up over the snow-covered land to find two men in leopard skin battling against a massive Ogre. The creature was nearly three times Sivlander’s size, and it was hideous, fleshy and bulbous. The yellow eyes of the massive beast glared at Sivlander as it roared out, “Feast upon the flesh of the mountain crawlers!” The scouts were quickly clubbed by the Ogre Chief’s huge wooden club and then the beast turned to rush toward Sivlander. Now, Sivlander could see that the Ogre Chief was Level 78, armed with a Club of Severe Crushing, and had a Health of nearly 1,000 hit points!

  “Archer! Shoot the beast in the arm!”

  “I have a name,” the archer grumbled. “It’s Kalifer.”

  “Shoot it, now!” Sivlander screamed as the massive creature lumbered toward him. He braced for impact, as he was a fighter and wasn’t exactly the type to dodge a blow. Immediately, the massive club crashed against his body, but he held himself firm. Pain shot through him, but he knew it was just an illusion. The mind of the fighter needed to be steeled against all pain. Holding fast after the blow, he raised his great sword and hacked away at the legs of the Ogre Chief. He heard the swiff swiff sounds as arrows flew over him, striking the beast in its right arm and causing it to stagger and reel backwards. It tried to lift its arm to slam the heavy club down atop Sivlander, but its injuries slowed it down enough for Sivlander’s blade to block the blow and push it backward. The beast was strong, but so was Sivlander.

  “Come on, men, slay the beast! Together!” Sivlander shouted. The paladin had been busy healing the two injured scouts, but he leapt up and grabbed his righteous silver sword so that he could rush to flank the Ogre. The Ogre was clever enough of a creature to see this coming, though, and while it continued to strike away with its club with one hand, it reached out its other to grab the paladin. Sivlander saw this momentary distraction as the perfect opportunity, and with a deep breath, he leapt up with as much strength and speed as he could, and climbed up to set himself atop the beast’s right arm. The creature’s height was staggering, at nearly twelve feet tall, and Sivlander held on tightly in the hopes of avoiding falling.

  “I’ve got it!” the paladin cried as he leapt aside and began to slash at the creature’s massive arms. The arrows kept peppering the air, striking into the Ogre’s flesh, but Crieagg’s body was so thick that many of them didn’t even draw blood.

  “Our weapons aren’t working!” cried the hapless explorer as his twin axes failed to even cut through the flesh of the beast.

  “We needed something magical for this!” Kalifer cried. “I told you it would fail!”

  “Enough whining!” Sivlander yelled out as he held onto the side of the creature’s arm for dear life. The Ogre Chief didn’t seem keen to be climbed, and it was violently struggling to throw the warrior off. “Ogres are dumb enough—we just have to be smart! Archer, stop shooting it in the chest and aim for the joints! Knees, elbows, eyes! Anything vital! Paladin, keep it busy while I climb it!”

  “Aye, sir!” cried the paladin as he ran in front of the massive creature, throwing a stone at the thing’s head. Crieagg cried out in a rage at this taunt, and began to focus primarily on clubbing the plate-clad man to death. Even as he went after the paladin, though, more arrows flew through the air, this time striking areas that were weak and unarmored.

  Sivlander used the diversion as an opportunity to hoist himself up atop one of the creature’s shoulders, as the shoulder alone was wide enough for more than one man to be stationed atop of it. The beast was far too busy fighting the others to respond in time, as Sivlander buried his great sword into the neck of the Ogre Chief. It roared as blood began to spray from it, but even this blow didn’t seem to slow it down. Instead, it bucked wildly and threw Sivlander off of it, throwing him right into the ground, which he came down upon with a crashing noise.

  “Are you dead?” Kalifer shouted as he continued to fire arrows and strafe the monster.

  “No!” Sivlander responded as he leapt up. He instinctively went for his great sword, but remembered that it was currently lodged in the side of the horrific Ogre’s neck. He grabbed his back-up longsword from his side and drew it. In turn, the description popped up, reading:

  Longsword:

  Quality: B

  Damage: 144

  Durability: 87%

  The Ogre Chief had gone into some kind of berserker rage now and it was violently crashing after the paladin, who had wisely made the decision to back up.

  “It’s frenzied! We can finish it off!” Sivlander cried out as he rushed to the creature’s back. It had lost all sense of reasoning and was just hammering on the paladin with all of its might. Still, the paladin was a tough lad, and his shield was empowered with divine might, making it resistant enough to the clubbing, so Sivlander didn’t worry about bailing his ally out. Rather, he took another deep breath and managed to run up the Ogre’s back and scramble atop the creature once again. The Ogre Chief’s ragged excuse for clothing served as a decent enough foothold for him to be able to get back up to the top, now that he knew the layout of the beast and it was moving more predictably. Astride the Ogre now, Sivlander grabbed hold of his great sword and pulled it out, causing the beast to roar in agony. Before he could stab the creature again, though, it reached up with its massive hand and grabbed Sivlander, hard. Its fleshy fingers wrapped around the warrior and began to crush him in his own armor.

  “Anytime you want to shoot the damn thing would be great!” Sivlander shouted as the archer fumbled to grab more arrows from his quiver.

  “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” Kalifer screamed as he aimed his arrows at the creature’s hand.

  “Careful with where you’re aiming!” Sivlander yelled out as an arrow narrowly zipped past his head. The Ogre Chief roared and continued to squeeze. “Shoot it in the wrist! The wrist!”

  Just as Sivlander’s command was issued, an arrow flew from Kalifer’s bow and nailed the chief in the wrist, causing the thing to reflexively open its hand. Sivlander landed on his feet, thankfully, and charged the creature’s belly with his great sword, slashing at the exposed, soft area with an intense force. The beast had already been staggered from the blow to its neck, and now, with the great sword rearranging its insides, the pain was too much for it. Crieagg roared out a single, hoarse roar of defiance and then fell over onto its back, blood pouring from its neck and stomach.

  “Is it dead?” cried one of the wounded scouts. He was laying on the ground, clutching his severely wounded leg.

  “It better be!” Kalifer said as he shot a few more arrows into it, just for good measure.

  “Haha, see?” Sivlander shouted triumphantly. “I knew we could slay it! Never underestimate the power of a team!”

  “Never underestimate the power of pissing that thing off into a rage,” the paladin grumbled as he examined his badly dented shield. “You know, this thing wasn’t cheap.”

  “Fame and glory never is,” Sivlander replied as he felt the wind blow through his hair and he gazed up into the sky. The cool mountain air was just what he needed to cool him off from the burning heat of battle. He had taken some blows, but he was alive, and that’s all that mattered.

  As Sivlander stared at the mountain, basking in the glow of winning another excellent battle, he saw something rather curious. One of the crags of the mountain, the rocky formation, was morphing a little as a face began to emerge from it. The face was stranger than anything he had ever seen before—it had three glowing eyes and no nostrils. The face shifted and contorted for another moment before it vanished again.

  “Alright, well, this Ogre Chief better have O
gre Treasure in his cave,” Kalifer fussed as he and his companions trudged toward the large mountain. “Come on, Sivlander, you can tactically distribute our loot.”

  Meanwhile, Sivlander’s experience had increased enough to allow for him to level up. He glanced at his stats as they increased...

  Intellect: 10

  Constitution: 16 > 17

  Strength: 18 > 19

  Charisma: 8

  Agility: 12

  Longsword Skill Increased: +5 (40)

  Climbing Skill Increased: +5 (35)

  “I’ll catch up with you guys in a moment,” Sivlander said as he stepped back. “There’s something I have to do first.” And with that, the rest of his party moved onward into the cave ahead of them.