Sigil Online: Hellions Read online

  Contents

  Title

  Jeff Sproul

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: Adjustment

  Chapter 2: Business As Usual

  Chapter 3: The BBs

  Chapter 4: Knock Knock

  Chapter 5: Pain

  Chapter 6: Scraping By

  Chapter 7: Cleaning Up

  Chapter 8: Power

  Chapter 9: Get Some Sleep

  Chapter 10: Spider City

  Chapter 11: Dread Fortress Alpha

  Chapter 12: Trust

  Chapter 13: Powering Up

  Chapter 14: Nice Weather We're Having

  Chapter 15: Underground Shadows

  Chapter 16: Heroes In The Dark

  Chapter 17: Crash

  Chapter 18: Defend

  Chapter 19: Surrounded

  Chapter 20: Unexpected Consequence

  Chapter 21: On the Mind

  Chapter 22: Rookbane

  Chapter 23: The Plan

  Chapter 24: The Pale Ones

  Chapter 25: Crimson

  Chapter 26: The Deal

  Epilogue

  Newsletter

  LitRPG

  RPG GameLit Society

  Special Thanks

  About the Author

  Sigil Online: Hellions

  Jeff Sproul

  Text Copyright © 2018 Jeff Sproul

  All Rights Reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced in any form or medium without the express written consent of the author.

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

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  Prologue

  A hooded figure ran through the dark streets of Gargantuan City. Night had fallen within the virtual game world of Sigil Online. Lamp posts shone, but light had difficulty reaching the many alleyways between the large and numerous structures that stretched into the sky.

  The figure’s footfalls splashed as they dashed down an alley. The rain was still falling, pattering against the figure’s shoulders and covering everything with a glistening sheen.

  A flash filled the night sky as a bolt of lightning streaked miles away. Thunder boomed seconds later, followed by another flash of lightning and another rumble.

  Fingers made of pale white bone curled around the edge of a nearby roof. An avian skull lifted and a pair of dark purple glimmers of light peered out from hollow eye sockets.

  The skull turned slowly, those purple specks following the hooded figure’s movements. Another boney hand lifted to brush along the balcony it was peering over. Its movements were fluid as it was spurred into motion, moving swiftly along the roof. Long bone-tendrils clicked quietly and propelled the creature along. The tendrils looked almost like a human spine, ending with a sharp clawed tip. The monster’s appendages hovered inches away from a humanoid central rib cage.

  As the hooded figure slipped down another alley, the bone-creature pulled itself from over the ledge of the roof. The taps of its tendril tips were drowned out by the sounds of rain and thunder. Each bolt of lightning illuminated and shined off the monster’s form, but the figure below didn’t appear to be aware of its presence.

  After another lightning strike, the creature leapt from the side of the brick wall. Silently, it plummeted. Then, with a multitude of loud cracks, its clawed tendrils pierced and broke the concrete ground as it swung a lengthy arm out. Its fist closed and smacked the running figure toward a wall.

  The runner didn’t have any time to react as the monster assailed him. His body thudded against the bricks. He grunted with the impact and fell to the wet ground. His hood fell back, and his head lifted to see his assailant.

  The monster’s bone-tendrils clicked against the concrete as it stood before the fallen young man. The tendrils extended out, closing him in.

  “Nowhere to run,” a screeching voice said. “When I was a player killer, I would’ve at least tried holding you up to see what loot you’d give me for not killing you. But as a monster, killing you is just so much more rewarding for my progress.” The monster cackled as it brought one of its many tendrils back into the air, prepared to strike the rising player.

  The young man slowly rose from the ground. Another lightning strike lit the alleyway and illuminated his face, showing off his longer black hair and his soft androgynous features.

  Just behind his hip, his fingers moved rapidly in a predetermined pattern.

  “You think you’re a monster?” his voice rose, in defiance to the creature surrounding him.

  With one final movement of his fingers, a small white sphere materialized in his palm, outside of the monster’s line of sight.

  The young man stood upright and stared into those purple pins of light in the avian skull.

  “You have no idea what it means to be a monster.” With that, his hand clenched and shattered the translucent white sphere. The ensuing sound of breaking glass was hidden behind another roar of thunder.

  The young man’s body changed rapidly. His clothes and skin seemed to meld together and transform into a chitinous hide, almost like the bleached bone of the monster before him.

  The bone-creature let out another horrendous screech and drove that readied tendril into his chest.

  But the transformation only needed a matter of seconds to complete. The clawed bone tip clattered back and rang off the impossibly hard exoskeleton of the being that now stood before it.

  Instead of a young man wearing a hoodie, something else entirely was standing before the bone-creature.

  A pair of dark eyes like black holes stared back at those pinpoints of purple light. It was still humanoid in appearance, but with its chitinous exoskeleton, it resembled something between a man and an insect. Its appendages were elongated and the pale white matched that of the bone-monster.

  There was no mouth. But he didn’t need to speak.

  “You’re a monster too!” came the screeching voice of the bone-monster. “But why were you—” Its voice cut off as its form noticeably shifted back and away from the humanoid insect before it. “No!” it screamed. “I thought the White Weevil was—”

  A clenched fist smashed into the avian skull, cutting the sentence short. The bone-monster’s body crashed into the nearby wall. Dust and bricks fell as its large body broke into the structure, but it wasn’t finished yet. Not by a single attack.

  The White Weevil, who had come to light as 'Arbiter,' dropped to the ground after leaping and smashing the monster in the face. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he darted for the bone-creature.

  The monster pulled itself out of the wall with its many tendrils. It swung at the fast-moving insect-like player. Its large fist—easily the size of the other player’s torso—was deflected by Arbiter's arm. Arbiter's fists clenched and one after another, they pummeled the bone-creature’s ribcage as its tentacles thrashed around in an attempt to deflect and pull away from the insect.

  Arbiter didn’t relent. He landed blow after blow upon the monster while also managing to deflect the oncoming tendrils.

  As Arbiter's arm pulled back for another swing, the bone-monster managed to pull away, digging its clawed tendrils into the brick wall. It propelled itself upwards, its purple eyes brighter than they’d been before. Those sharp bones crunched into the wall, but it su
ddenly came to a halt and was pulled back to the wet ground below, as long white fingers clutched one of its spiney tendrils and yanked it back.

  “No!” the monster screeched as it came crashing down.

  Arbiter leapt upon the fallen monster and drove his fists into that avian skull.

  Crack crack, crack crack, crack!

  As the last blow landed, the beak broke off. A second later, every bone that comprised the monster’s body broke apart into thousands of glimmering white particles.

  Arbiter dropped through the defeated monster’s body. His feet smacked against the wet stone ground. Another lightning strike lit up the alley, followed by a thunderous boom a second later.

  In front of Arbiter’s feet rested an item left by the dead monster-player.

  He bent over and picked it up with those long thin fingers. He held it up to his eyes, turning it over and side to side. It looked as though it could've been one of the avian hellion's glowing purple eyes, but it was hard like a rock.

  Above the item, a readout appeared for the Arbiter’s eyes only. It read:

  -

  Gem of The Pale Impaler

  ?

  ?

  ?

  -

  Arbiter’s shoulder’s slumped. He shook his head and gestured with his fingers to bring up an inventory screen. After a couple taps to various buttons on the overlay, the claw dematerialized and a new icon appeared within his inventory.

  He turned his head and looked around his surroundings. There didn’t appear to be anyone else around. He turned and continued running the way he’d been going, before the monster had jumped him.

  The rain pattered against his exoskeleton as he darted through the alleyways. Eventually he reached a larger street, but he remained in the shadows out of sight. He lifted his hand and brought up a status-screen for his character. He tapped several times at miscellaneous icons. When he was finished, the screen disappeared. A moment later, his chitinous body began to fragment. The pieces broke and fell away like the shell of a hatching animal. The white bits of exoskeleton dissolved on the ground, leaving no trace of what he’d just looked like. He was now an unassuming young man with a hoodie. He pulled the hood back over his head and went into the street. The closest pedestrians were dozens of feet away. He was confident that no one had been watching him.

  He was surrounded by tall buildings, but ahead of him was a pair of doors with blue neon lighting. Above the doors, a neon orange sign read ‘Neon Nest.’

  He reached the door and pulled the metal handle.

  Inside the Neon Nest were various piece of comfortable furniture, anything you’d find in a social bar and lounge. There was a long counter with a bartender standing behind it. He was a bald man with bright pink eyes, and was chatting with two people sitting at the counter. There were at least a dozen other people conversing quietly amongst themselves.

  No one paid Arbiter any mind as he went to a doorway that led to a stairwell that descended. He went down about two floors before he reached a door. He opened it and went down a short hallway. At the end of the hall was a simple blue door surrounded with blue neon lights. He opened it up, seemingly not needing a key of any sort.

  Once inside, he pulled his hood back. There was a bookshelf with only a dozen or so books upon it. There was also a simple bed across the room, along with a desk and other bits of furniture. He went right for the bed and laid down. He lifted his hand and gestured to bring up another holographic display screen, then tapped a button that said ‘menu.’ Then, he tapped the one that said ‘logout.’

  The screen disappeared. In its place was the number ten.

  It changed to nine, then eight.

  He closed his eyes and waited.

  “Now I’m going to be late,” he murmured in a soft voice.

  The countdown reached zero and the game world faded away.

  Chapter 1: Adjustment

  A young man with dark hair and fair skin sat alone in a booth in Paragon Cafe. The cafe was located at the end of a street with a one-way street passing by it. There was plenty of foot traffic, as it was local to many apartment complexes and a larger shopping plaza.

  Paragon Cafe was the young man’s usual real-world meetup spot for him and his best friend, but the time of day had changed recently to evenings and nights, instead of their morning meetups.

  Riley sat on his usual side of the booth. His elbow rested on the table while he held his head up with his palm. He glanced through an open menu and read over the descriptions for the various items.

  He flipped another page on the menu. The offerings at Paragon Cafe seldom ever changed. Sometimes there was a special item for the day or week, but the owners didn’t do much to change away from the norm.

  Riley yawned and flipped another page. He stared at the imagery for blueberry and strawberry glazed pancakes with bits of chocolate strewn throughout. He turned the page and was greeted by a selection of sandwiches. One was on multigrain bread with crisp lettuce and a succulent slice of tomato. The description said that it was a turkey sandwich, but the amber slices of bacon made him think it was a bit better than your regular turkey club.

  He wasn’t sure why he was even looking through the menu for the fifth time.

  Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He looked up just as another young man entered his view.

  “Sorry, got held up,” said the boy with soft androgynous features and shoulder-length black hair. He sat down across from Riley and sighed. His chest rose and fell beneath his hoodie, which wasn’t too dissimilar from the one his virtual character had been wearing earlier in Sigil Online.

  “No worries,” said Riley. “I’m just sitting here decompressing. Was a really weird day in-game.”

  “Tell me about it,” said Aaron, who reached over and grabbed the other menu that was laying on the right side of the table. “It was a rough day, even with the regular monsters. But once you throw in all the player-monsters, it just… ugh, makes me tired thinking about it,” he grumbled. “I didn’t even think about what I wanted to order,” he said as his gaze ran over the selections. “Everything looks delicious right now.”

  A dark-haired waiter in uniform walked up to the table, carrying a large plastic tray with two plates and drinks. He stopped beside the table and set a plate in front of Riley.

  “Chili cheese fries,” said Paul, the waiter.

  The savory aroma of the fried food wafted up to their noses. Riley took in a slow, deep breath.

  Paul set two glasses of water down before placing a plate in front of Aaron.

  “And here’s your double chocolate blueberry pancakes with bananas.” Paul then looked between the two of them. “Anything else I can get you?”

  “This is good, thanks Paul,” said Riley.

  Aaron just sat there, staring at the pancakes before him.

  A thin slice of banana—covered in blueberry syrup—slowly slid down the edge of the dark, fluffy hotcakes.

  “Paul said they’re short staffed today, so the food would take longer to prepare. So I went ahead and ordered for you,” said Riley. “Was that a good choice?”

  Aaron’s jaw had lowered, still staring at the plate. He closed his mouth and swallowed. “This is perfect!” he said as he grabbed his fork and began cutting into the pancakes.

  Riley took a sip of water and began pulling out french fries covered in meaty chili sauce and nacho cheese.

  No words were exchanged as the two of them dug into their respective plates.

  “Mmm,” Aaron murmured, chewing a bite.

  Riley crunched on one of the crispy fries and swallowed it before finally speaking. “So it was a rough day?”

  Aaron took several long seconds to finish his bite before speaking.

  “Yeah,” he murmured, then swallowed. “The monsters in the enchanted asylum are really mobile. I kept getting patrolling monsters that wandered into where I was fighting. So I’d be controlling one and having it fight something a little smaller
, only to have something even bigger wander over. I had to reposition and waste stamina to deal with it all. It was just… I dunno, it felt really unproductive. Then, on my way back to logout, I got jumped by this crazy looking bone monster.”

  “A player?” asked Riley, before crunching on another fry.

  “Yeah,” Aaron confirmed. “I had to use my bug form to get rid of him, and he dropped one of those usual monster-player items.”

  “That’s a pain,” said Riley. “Did you already identify it?”

  Aaron shook his head. “No, I was too concerned with getting here. I’ll see what it is tomorrow. Hopefully it’s something with elements I can use.”

  “Was the player strong?” asked Riley. “Is that why you were so late?”

  Aaron took a moment to get another bite of pancake. He took his time and chewed it before swallowing. “Kinda,” he said. “I was already late, because my last encounter with the monsters in the asylum was taking way longer than I expected. I couldn’t queue a cheap taxi near the portal location, so I decided to run back. That’s when I got jumped. It didn’t take long to get rid of him. I don’t think he was even a tier-two hellion yet. But he sure had that ‘air of superiority’ about him that most of the monster-players seem to have.”

  “I know what you mean,” said Riley. “But there weren’t any cheap taxis? Has there been a lot of monster-player activity in your area? I heard that over in Tall City, a bunch of the districts have had issues with taxi services due to the amount of monsters there. They keep targeting the local vehicles and NPCs to increase their progress. It was on the news a few minutes ago,” he said, gesturing over to one of the televisions that was always on a channel that had Sigil Online news.

  Aaron shrugged. “It’s been the same as most of the other cities, I guess,” he said. “We’ve been keeping their nests to a minimum. Well, I guess I should say, the players in my city have. I’ve been delving into that enchanted asylum to see if there’s any sweet loot from all those new regular monsters. If I can find awesome things to sell to the players in my area, then I’m helping keep the city safe from the monster-players.”