Dreadfortress: A LitRPG Adventure (Badges of Dorkdom Book 2) Read online

  DREAD FORTRESS

  ©2022 THEO HODGES

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  Print and eBook formatting by Steve Beaulieu. Artwork provided by Luciano Fleitas.

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  also in series

  Dreadlord Wizard

  Dread Fortress

  Dreadwar

  contents

  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

  Epilogue

  Thank you for reading Dread Fortress

  From the Author

  Groups

  LitRPG

  To all those who love me despite my legendary dorkdomary. Your patience and support mean the world to me. And now, mmmmagic!

  one

  Initial stage of Dreadfortress – Complete

  The screen lit in the dark and blur of Crucible’s sleepy gaze. He inhaled and stretched against the fortress blanket, and the layers peeled away, retreating into the gap surrounding his bed-stone. Despite having slept on bare rock, he felt better than he would have in a five-star hotel bed. A quick check of his stats showed full health and magic points. He couldn’t see much in the dark beyond the UI text, and he rubbed at the sleep in his eyes to remove the blur.

  Something skittered along the stone beside him. His nerves tensed and he grabbed his staff. The source—a strange, glowing blue beetle the size of a large cockroach—climbed onto the slab of stone opposite his bed-stone. It twisted its head to glance at Crucible, then flitted open its wings and took flight, hovering closer to him. He charged a fireball.

  Don’t!

  Jerry spoke into his mind, the game master apparently waiting until Crucible almost crapped himself, again, before letting him know this bug wasn’t a threat.

  Look at it. Like, with your mind

  Crucible squinted at its flapping wings and elongated body like it was a Pokémon card, and he had to read its attack description.

  Active effect: Provides light within the fortress and tunnels.

  Gargol Beetle – HP: 25

  AOE: 1-2 meters of moderate light.

  Trainable to follow the Dreadlord. Requires diet of Mince Bugs to retain glow.

  The insect shared its blue glow like a camp-light. Crucible glanced down at his naked legs and, before he swept his robe back down, was surprised to see the filth of his accidents the night before cleaned and gone. The putrid smell too. Well, maybe not all of it.

  Yeah, definitely not all of it. You still need to brush your teeth and bathe, but that blanket—it’s actually called a tunica—combined fortress aura with healing to at least clean up the exposed parts.

  Fortress aura?

  A throat cleared behind Crucible, startling him. He spun to see Demy propping herself up on a bed made of soft white buds. His first thought was, how did she get cotton and I got stone? He brushed that complaint away with a single look into her eyes. Hair lay flat against her face and her focus waned as she appeared to be newly woken. Still so beautiful.

  “Sorry to startle you,” she said, and brushed a strand away from her eye. “I came to check on you and didn’t know what was going on with that… blanket, thing.”

  She yawned and pushed herself to a straighter seated position. Was that embarrassment? Crucible was flattered she’d come to check on him, then slept at his bedside as though he were a patient in a hospital. That was more girlfriend territory than anything she’d done before.

  “Thank you.” He sank to his knees, ensuring his robe was covering himself, and now painfully aware his pants were around his ankles. It was his turn for embarrassment, and his face flushed. “Would you mind, uh…” he looked to her side and nudged his chin in some awkward gesture produced by a lack of words and blurted, “I’m not wearing pants.”

  Oh, I just got a new idea for a badge!

  Demy chuckled and scooted around to face the other way. An emblem shaped badge matching the others appeared in Crucible’s mind, depicting him with his robe pulled up and cinched at his side, bare butt exposed, addressing a crowd with a half wave and an “I’m not wearing pants” quote bubble—Badge of the Uncomfortably Obvious.

  But I won’t. You’ll run out of room if I make one for every dumb thing you do or say. I could make you a sash…

  While Jerry went on about Den Leader Dummy and his many merit badges, Crucible hiked up his pants and tied them at his waist. His robe had holes where the lava from his Volcano attack had burned through. He reached back to touch the hood and confirmed worse damage.

  Durability 2/10

  The middle section appeared like fresh cloth, and his chestplate showed 9/10 durability.

  Resume notification?

  From what?

  Stage one Dreadfortress completed… You know, that last good thing you did, aside from not hanging ol’ Larry out for everyone to see.

  Crucible chuckled. Did you just name…

  I don’t know. Sounded like a stupid name you’d give. Ugh… I think being in your head has made me dumber in ways that’s truly frightening.

  Am I the only one? He didn’t think so, but the amount of time Jerry gave to his thoughts made it hard to imagine the game master working so intimately with anyone else.

  No, you’re not, and I can’t say much more than that. Like your questions about where I am, stop right there. I’m replaceable. And as much as we tease, I have to request, don’t do that to me.

  How would—

  Just leave it, okay? Now do you want your notifications now or do you need to scratch your butt first?

  Crucible paused for effect, then scratched
his butt. With a wide grin, he picked up his staff. “Okay. Thank you.”

  Demy turned back around. Her bare toes curled in the soft tendrils of her bedding.

  “What is that?” he asked, pointing his staff at the cottonlike carpet.

  Demy smiled as though proud. “Elven fleece. Part of the druid’s gifting. It took a little more out of me to get a root down, but,” she tilted one of her feet to show a slit and the tip of a green root. “That’s one reason why we need our sleep, to replenish our roots. One bonus, I guess you could call it, is the ground produces a bedding in response to our shared resources. My root distributes minerals into the soil in return for what it takes, and grows this as part of the process.”

  She shrugged it off. “No big deal. What was that?” she asked, indicating the coffin-like slab of stone he stood on. A six-inch gap surrounded it, with a deep enough hole, the light from his beetle didn’t reach its end.

  It reminded Crucible of a vampire’s coffin without the box. “Jerry calls it a tunica, or… that’s the thing that covered me. I don’t know, a bed-stone?”

  Good use of your first-grade vocabulary

  I’ll— Crucible stopped and forced a smile, addressing Demy. “Would you like to walk with me? I want to clean up before we start the day.”

  “Sure,” she said, pleasant as ever.

  Jerry, can you share the notifications with Demy?

  Yesh, me’lord

  Jerry’s voice perfectly mimicked the human peasant’s voice from Warcraft 2.

  Whoa. That was actually kinda cool. It made him wish he could take a break from being Dreadlord to game some old school Warcraft with Caleb. Can you do an orc, too?

  Oooh. Dabu

  Jerry’s voice was the perfect mixture of Orcish gravel and the peon’s innocence. It sounded so close to the game, Crucible wondered if it was straight out of his brain like some kind of mystical download.

  Not bad. In time, you could become a good little monkey.

  I could stitch those badges to your forehead if I want. I was being nice and only sewing them to your chest.

  My wha— Crucible checked his robe’s chest, gasped, slammed a hand on both patches and shot a gaze back up at Demy.

  Trying not to smile, Demy said, “I was going to ask you about that. Is that…” her attention drifted behind him. “On my way down, I noticed a mess on the floor. It was pretty terrible.”

  Crucible’s heart sank.

  Jerry cackled.

  Demy kept her humor at bay with such grace it made Crucible want to kiss her on the spot… after he brushed his teeth.

  “That was part of the reason I stayed with you last night. I was going to take care of you if you got sick. When I got here though, you were tucked like a kid in a blanket.” She chuckled lightly and her yellow-orange eyes penetrated him with their beauty. “Did you know you talk in your sleep?”

  Crucible’s heart spun once again. Caleb had laughed plenty of times at the things he’d heard Kenny say in his sleep.

  “Uh, yeah.” Crucible glanced backward, but couldn’t find the trace of his butt slide or long-distance crap shower, and thus the sources of his two badges.

  “Creatures that live in this cavern cleaned it all up for us. It was really quite the sight,” Demy said. She offered a hand to encourage him to step off his bed-stone. “Come on. I’ll walk you back.”

  Crucible started with her toward the stairs etched into the wall leading up in a switchback toward the surface. His head felt like he’d slept longer than a few hours. Like a fist squeezed so long the muscles fatigued. What time is it?

  9:14 Am

  Is it the same day?

  No, next day. You didn’t ask that the first time, but I’m also not sure how you want to keep track of days. Do you want days in InterRealm, or do you want the local calendar?

  Can we just keep my calendar and days? That’ll be too confusing.

  Sure. Your kingdom. Typical American… You have been in InterRealm four days. That would make today Thursday.

  Great. Totally normal. I usually wake up in the middle of a Dreadfortress cavern on Thursdays.

  Right, with a hot elf at your side and a handful of city notifications left unchecked. Har, har… you gonna check those yet?

  Yeah. As he and Demy climbed the stone steps, a wide block of text opened up in their UI.

  Initial stage of Dreadfortress – Complete

  Crucivania has reached Level 1!

  +500 XP

  Items gained: Jesoth seeds x4, Wheat seeds x50, Blast furnace x1, Anvil x1, Xathil x10 (Pur-x), Skuathil x10 (Teal-k)

  Coat of Arms (boosts bravery +1 for citizens of Crucivania)

  Business license (to house safe zone for trading)

  “Wow… okay,” Crucible said, finishing the list with somewhat of an idea of what he’d gained.

  He remembered pur-x was required for smelting waykyt. While he didn’t have any teal-k, he knew that mineral was needed to craft teal picks, the strongest kind beneath waykyt, and necessary to mine purple minerals.

  “Those wheat seeds will be useful for our horses,” Demy said.

  Crucible scrunched his brow. He might not be a farmer, but a fair guess would venture toward assuming months would be needed to grow wheat. Plus, they’d already had their first frost and snowfall.

  Demy looked at him like she didn’t understand why he was concerned.

  May I? Dear Demy, Crucible’s realm takes longer to grow crops. To his credit, this one time, I’ll excuse his dumb face. Just this once!

  “He’s so kind,” Crucible told her.

  More than I should be. In InterRealm, crops typically take one week to grow to harvest height, wheat included. You can cut that time in half with bone meal.

  “Oh, do we have any of that?” Crucible asked.

  While you were sleeping, your druids hunted three deer, but the bones haven’t been boiled yet.

  “Okay.” That sounded like a good plan to discuss when he reached the surface. “What’s a Jesoth seed for?”

  Demy shrugged and shook her head.

  Jesoth trees are critical to the ecosphere of your Dreadfortress. Plant them at the four corners of your territory and water them with twenty gallons of water, while speaking the appropriate line from your Dread book. They will spread roots and grow a small tree on top of the surface to collect sunshine, oxygen and water—so make sure it’s not hidden in shade or somewhere where it can be stepped on.

  When it grows downward to break through the ceiling of your Dreadfortress, it will form a bark as hard as stone, and plentiful enough to support your initial levels of city growth. You’ll need a teal level axe to chop its wood, but the products you’ll make from it will also be a purple level of Durability and Strength.

  The Jesoth tree creates a sap that glowworms nest on. Once you get those going, you’ll have a beautifully lit ceiling. They’ll also fertilize other crops that will grow from the ceiling and down the walls and stalactites.

  The Jesoth tree is the foundational crop to a healthy Dreadfortress ecosystem and economy, especially with how you don’t want to harvest too many trees around the city for fear of being discovered. Already, your initial logging has been forced to spread out, and will soon reach the edge of Nuldreyin’s Vanishing spell.

  “Thank you.” Crucible chalked that down as a mental note to plant those today, if possible.

  “From the look on your face, I thought Jerry would be less pleasant than this,” Demy said. “He sounds quite nice.”

  Crucible caught his mouth hanging and Jerry laughed in the background.

  You don’t deserve her. Not for one second.

  “I was just kidding, Jerry,” Demy said. “You’re a total jerk.”

  “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about.”

  But… I… You know, I was going to ask if Demy would do the honor of choosing your Coat of Arms, but now I think I’ll ask Emerald.

  Jerry’s pretend shock bled through in a hint of humor.


  “You two deserve each other,” Crucible said, pairing the dragonborn’s cold attitude with Jerry’s. “If Em’s like an unexpected rock in my ice cream, what would that make you? The—”

  “Vilera weed,” Demy threw in and shuddered.

  Before Crucible could ask what that was, Jerry said,

  That is actually quite gross. You have a dark side, dear Demy.

  She smiled as though the joke paid off at least half as well as she’d hoped. To Crucible, she said, “It’s a poisonous plant bowler snakes nest around. They carry the poison on their scales and rub it on their prey. The acid burns the skin, making it easier to eat larger animals, like bears.”

  That, was a longer explanation than Crucible anticipated, but he still dug that girl like crazy. Enough that it made him feel giddy and vulnerable in equal parts.