Limitless Lands Book 5: Invasion Read online

  Limitless Lands

  Book 5: Invasion

  Dean Henegar

  Copyright © 2020 by Dean Henegar

  All rights reserved. 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.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Recap

  Map of Hayden’s Knoll

  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

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Dedication

  In August of 2018, I sat in front of the computer, finger hovering over the mouse button, trying to remember if I had done everything correctly. With a click, I confirmed that I wanted to publish the first Limitless Lands novel. I had never written anything before, and this was completely outside of my comfort zone. While writing, I had fallen in love with the story and hoped at least a few people might enjoy the tale of the ailing veteran Raytak as he journeyed in this new land.

  The painful waiting began, and after a few hours, the book went live on Amazon. It’s an amazing feeling to see, for the first time, that something you created is out there for others to—hopefully—explore. I had no expectations of selling a single copy; the odds of a new and unknown author finding success are slim indeed. A few hours later, I checked on the status of the book, and to my surprise, a few sales had appeared! Sales grew, and reviews started to accumulate. In a matter of a few weeks, the book had become a bestseller. I read every review: the good, the bad, and even the crazy ones. I am honored and humbled by many of the comments, especially those from my fellow veterans.

  This book is dedicated to my readers. Thank you.

  Recap

  If you are new to the series, I would recommend you read Book 1 before starting this book. Book 1 is available here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/b07g7gwffl. Should you decide not to, or if it has been some time since you read the previous books, here is a quick recap of what has happened so far in the series.

  The year is 2085 and great strides have been made in technology and gaming. Virtual reality (VR) games are now the most popular form of entertainment in the world. The top VR gaming company, Qualitranos, has launched its newest title, Limitless Lands. Limitless Lands is the first VR game to be controlled by an advanced artificial intelligence (AI).

  Qualitranos and the medical device corporation Meditronax have codeveloped a state-of-the-art life-support medpod for critically ill patients. The AI used in the Limitless Lands game is also used to control the medpods, administering medication and controlling experimental nanobots. While patients are treated, the AI creates comforting virtual environments for them to experience.

  The first medpod is used on one of the last remaining combat veterans in the United States. Colonel James Raytak is only days away from death, and his ninety-three-year-old body and mind are fading fast. Colonel Raytak is signed up for the program by his son, Trey, who also works for Qualitranos and heads the team developing the medpod. The test is a success, and the patient improves daily with the care of the AI.

  What the parties involved don’t know is that the AI was having trouble restoring damaged memories. In order to acquire the data it needs to repair the memory gaps, the AI ports Raytak into the Limitless Lands game to monitor his responses while he plays. Raytak unlocks the unique commander class in-game and enjoys leading his fantasy army against various foes.

  Raytak makes friends with several other players in the game, including an aspiring paladin named Jacoby Stone, a ten-year-old kid playing the halfling druid Yendys, the halfling rangers Drake and Quimby, and finally Delling, who is playing another unique class: town mayor. Raytak assists Mayor Delling in defending and helping rebuild the town of Hayden’s Knoll after it is destroyed by a player guild called the Bloody Blades.

  The group fights off other players, goblins, a corrupted dryad, and eventually a group of giant spiders led by a boss creature. During the battle with the spiders, Raytak’s forces, having already defended some goblin miners near the town, are nearly destroyed. His last few units are saved by another player bringing in reinforcements at the last minute.

  This new player turns out to be Ty, Raytak’s roommate in the VA hospital, who has been accepted as the second test subject in the medpod program. Ty, an old combat veteran Marine gunnery sergeant, knows little about gaming, but he does have a lifetime of experience in real combat.

  The two elderly soldiers proceed with their quest to play the game while the AI attempts to repair their damaged minds and bodies. At the end of Book 1, Lou, the head tech assigned to the medpod project, makes a discovery. The AI has, without the company’s knowledge, ported the two patients into the game.

  In Book 2, Conquest, Raytak is tasked with helping his friend Delling unify the zone of Hayden’s Knoll under the banner of the Imperium. Raytak faces incursions by Drebix tribesmen and discovers that the true enemy is not the tribesmen but a band of gnolls that have begun to raid the area. Raytak helps defeat the gnolls and brokers a tenuous peace with the nearby Drebix tribe.

  On his way back from defeating the gnolls, Raytak finds shelter from a storm in an abandoned farm. He and his men are attacked by ghouls that emerge in the night. Raytak and his remaining soldiers are killed, and the ghouls that attacked him become more powerful.

  After he respawns back in the town of Hayden’s Knoll, a quest to defeat the ghouls is created by Mayor Delling. During this time, Raytak learns more about Delling’s school contest at his university. Winning the competition of designing a fantasy government would give Delling a scholarship that he desperately needs to continue his education.

  One of the other students competing with Delling plays a character in-game called Narbos the Grimm. Narbos seeks to sabotage Delling and the other players from his school by using the vast resources of the guild Chaotic Outcomes. Narbos races to conquer his zone and arranges to have both Raytak and Delling assassinated by another player in order to slow their progress. Narbos sees to it that blame for the assassination is placed on Raytak’s previous foes, the Bloody Blades.

  The leader of the Chaotic Outcomes guild, Vhellia, works for a company that is trying to see if there is money to be made in controlling and selling resources in a virtual game. The company funds the guild for a time and then decides that the potential bad publicity from Narbos’s actions is not worth the risk and cancels the project. Vhellia dissolves the guild and leaves Narbos without his source of funds. He alludes to several schemes designed to take Raytak out of the picture and leave Hayden’s Knoll open to conquest.

  Delling notifies Raytak that the adventurers sent to defeat the ghouls have failed and that the ghouls have now grown into a threat to the entire zone. Raytak mobilizes his newly upgraded forces and is joined by several ot
her players to fight the ghoul threat. Raytak, Ty, Jacoby, Drake, Quimby, and Yendys are accompanied in the quest by two new characters, Kathala and Nitor; Kathala is a healer and Nitor is a type of bard called a skald.

  The party faces an epic battle against the ghoul lord and his army of undead, including a giant zombie hydra. The players are victorious, barely, and Yendys has the honor of dealing the final blow that ends the ghoul lord. As the book closes, Raytak’s son, Trey, receives a call from his friend Lou, who has found something interesting while reviewing game footage. He realizes that Trey’s daughter, Lauren, is the one playing the character Yendys, and she knows she is playing with her grandfather. Raytak doesn’t know he’s playing with his own granddaughter, as the AI masks any revealing information from him.

  In Book 3, Retribution, Raytak is framed and imprisoned by a corrupt officer in the pay of Narbos. He is given the choice by the AI to either fight in the arena to earn his freedom or start with a new character. Raytak chooses to fight, battling hordes of monsters and winning a final grand melee before Emperor Trodaxius himself.

  While Raytak is fighting to earn his freedom, his granddaughter Yendys and her friends seek evidence to prove his innocence. They journey to the neighboring zone of Bharga’s Crossing, catching a glimpse of Narbos’s forces as they finish their conquest of the zone. The necromancer player Darkfallow, who is aligned with Narbos, is cornered and killed. Inside Darkfallow’s lair, evidence of Raytak’s innocence is found, and the party presents this evidence at the grand melee to help clear Raytak’s name.

  All is not well in Hayden’s Knoll during Raytak’s absence. An ancient evil, the parasitic Gul Dorg, has awakened. The town of Holdfast is taken over, and all humanoids in the area are infected with the parasite and forced to serve the Gul Dorg master. Raytak’s replacement—the incompetent Lieutenant Burnside—blunders into Holdfast, and his whole unit is killed or converted into Gul Dorg.

  Raytak returns after clearing his name, only to find that the entire zone is being taken over by the Gul Dorg. He rallies his troops and upgrades his abilities and gear before moving to face the threat. His friend in-game and fellow medpod patient Ty is unable to assist in this battle; he has healed enough to return to the real world. Ty reunites with his family, and the old Marine finally gets a chance to meet Yendys and Smashem—who is the grandson of one of his nurses—in real life.

  Back in Hayden’s Knoll, the Stonefinder clan of dwarves and the Drebix tribe answer the call to arms, adding their strength to the defense of the zone. The battle is long, brutal, and costly, culminating in the defeat of a giant Gul Dorg abomination, but the town of Holdfast is now under Imperium control.

  Narbos the Grimm has not been idle, however; the dark overlord has conquered the entire zone of Bharga’s Crossing and is preparing an invasion of Hayden’s Knoll. A pact with the imp Zipzisilerpicazant throws a wrench into Narbos’s plans as he is whisked away to an unknown location to perform some service for the conniving imp.

  In the real world, Trey’s mother has also faced a medical emergency, and now both parents are in medpods. Trey and his whole family are eventually able to visit his mother in VR, enjoying their time together in her secluded cabin. The family has hope now: a growing belief that they will all be reunited soon.

  In Book 4, Opposition, Raytak rebuilds his force in the damaged town of Holdfast after the costly battle against the Gul Dorg. Knowing conflict with Bharga’s Crossing is inevitable, he begins a campaign to unite the rest of the zone under the banner of the Imperium. While Raytak is marshaling his forces, the imp Zipzisilerpicazant begins to foment trouble for the zone.

  Under Zipp’s urging, the necromancer Darkfallow sends an expeditionary force into Hayden’s Knoll to assist a clan of elves called the Ikbose. The Ikbose are trying to eradicate a tribe of ogres and offer to help pave the way for Narbos’s eventual invasion of the zone. Combined with the Ikbose elves, Darkfallow’s forces outnumber what the Imperium can muster.

  In the real world, Ty reunites with his family and struggles to fit in after having been gone for so long. While bonding with his grandson, Ty finds that he can rejoin the game and makes plans to visit his friend online. Raytak, meanwhile, is struggling with physical ailments even as the repairs to his mind near completion.

  Raytak encounters the Goreaxe ogres and forges an uneasy truce with them before battling the evil Ikbose. The transition point between the two zones falls to the elves, only to be recaptured and defended by Imperium forces with a little help from an unusual gnome player named Deacon. The 1st Legion of Hayden’s Knoll begins a campaign against the elves and their allies, soundly defeating them in the field and besieging their fortified city.

  With the help of his friends and new allies, Raytak cracks open the enemy city and defeats the Ikbose, the scattered remnants retreating to the safety of Bharga’s Crossing. It is discovered that the foul spore dryad Tessel was originally from the now-destroyed forest near the Ikbose city and that her forest was corrupted by the evil elves, resulting in her transformation. Raytak gives up Tessel’s Promise in order to grant the tortured dryad a final peace and is given an unknown artifact in return.

  As the book closes, Raytak discovers that he has been playing with his granddaughter and surprises Yendys with his newfound knowledge. The pair spend time together, hopeful that he will soon reunite with his entire family. Meanwhile, Narbos returns from Zipp’s task and is granted an army, one he intends to use in order to defeat Hayden’s Knoll.

  “Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”

  Heraclitus

  Chapter 1

  Narbos watched the last of the troops emerge from the ruins of the kobold mine, confident he now had the means to conquer Hayden’s Knoll. His existing army, along with the forces that Zipzisilerpicazant had given him, was now an overwhelming force that Hayden’s Knoll couldn’t hope to stop. Delling and his friend Raytak wouldn’t stand a chance. Zipzisilerpicazant was still a bit of a mystery, and Narbos knew better than to completely trust him, but so far, Zipp had done what he had promised, even if Narbos knew that he worked toward his own ends.

  “Well, buddy, you came through on your part of the deal, and boy did I come through for you,” Zipp said, waving his arm at the force slowly marching out from the underworld. The imp sat comfortably atop Narbos’s dire rat Snuggles. For his part, Snuggles seemed mildly annoyed by the imp, but he put up with his actions out of what Narbos knew was fear. The rat would often shiver in terror before the imp appeared from one of his signature portals.

  “I suppose it’s about time we hammer out the details, Mr. Grimm,” Zipp said. “The way I see it—and no offense meant, I assure you—leading a huge army isn’t something you’re used to. For us to succeed and conquer not just Hayden’s Knoll but beyond, we’re going to need a general. Delling has that Raytak guy leading his armies, and you need someone similar, you see. Now, that Raytak is an annoying goody two-shoes, but he knows how to fight. The last I saw of him, he had a few hundred troops and maybe access to another couple hundred drawn from the losers that live in the zone. We’ll easily take them out, but we need to do it without losing too much of our own army. You get where I’m coming from, Narbos?”

  Narbos was a bit irritated by Zipp’s veiled insult about his ability. If he was being honest, Narbos realized that fighting small-scale stuff was totally within his wheelhouse, but he didn’t have much gaming experience in maneuvering armies. Taking his army and swatting down each little town and faction in Bharga’s Crossing hadn’t been too difficult, but even then, he had been initially repulsed when fighting the well-defended town of Haven. He wanted to participate in the war and watch all the action, but micromanaging troops wasn’t his favorite game style. He was more into crafting a plan and city-building, not troop movements and formations.

>   “I can accept that I may not be the best field commander, Zipp. I suppose you have someone in mind that we can trust to lead our armies?” Narbos asked.

  “Why, yours truly, of course!” Zipzisilerpicazant said, standing to his full height of three feet and saluting.

  “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, Zipp,” Narbos argued. “After all, you just had to get me to conquer that zone in the Hypogean realm for you. If you were some great general, you could have just done it yourself.”

  “Bah, that was to get around the treaty my dad made me sign with my sister. If that stupid treaty hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have needed you,” Zipp snapped.

  “Okay, but how about this? You’re much more powerful than anyone in either of the two zones, so why don’t you just solo Hayden’s Knoll and be done with it?” Narbos asked. Zipp showed as a level 42 elite NPC and had gained two levels when Narbos completed the task Zipp had given him. There was no way the AI would allow him to team up with a level 42 elite against Delling and Raytak. The system would put some restrictions on the deal, and he was curious about what they might be.

  “There’s the rub, my friend. For me to leave the Hypogean realm and grace the lands up here with my presence on a long-term basis, I have to adjust to the surface world. Sure, a short visit here and there to see my good friend Narbos is fine, but anything longer requires changes for me to survive up here. The ‘adjustments’ will leave me quite a bit weaker but won’t affect my brilliant mind. You say the word, and I’ll write us up a contract to help you conquer the world, big guy. What do you say?” Zipp asked, holding out a rolled-up contract that looked to be nearly a thousand pages long.

  It appeared that the game would average out the imp’s level to keep things somewhat fair. Despite his misgivings, the deal made sense to Narbos, and he really would need Zipp’s help to take over. Once the conquest was complete, Narbos could go back to managing his lands, which was what he enjoyed most in the game.