ScaleGuard 4: We Were All Isekai'd to a GameLit Fantasy World

  ScaleGuard 4

  We Were All Isekai’d to a GameLit Fantasy World

  By

  Seann Barbour

  Contents

  The Map 3

  The Troll Bridge 4

  One Night in Locent 7

  The Godsway 11

  Here There Be Dragons 16

  Path to the Dungeon 19

  Champions 25

  Dungeon Delving 29

  Of Bosses and Battles 34

  The High Priestess 39

  Deep Below 47

  Through the Fire and Flames 54

  The Dungeon Core 59

  Reunited 64

  Tower of the Dragon 67

  Thirteen Adventurers 71

  The Dragon Lord Cometh 76

  Legendary 81

  Call It a Draw 87

  Epilogue 91

  STAT CARDS 92

  Thanks 95

  The Map

  I

  The Troll Bridge

  I stood on a little hill, leaning against a tree, and looked down at the quaint stone bridge below.

  At first glance, there was absolutely nothing special about this bridge. It was made of gray stones, had roughly four-foot tall railings running along both sides of it, and was held up by an arch that stretched over the stream below. The whole thing was maybe about fifteen feet across and about ten feet above the water.

  There were a million bridges just like it. Especially here in Crucible, the fantasy world that I had found myself transported to following an unfortunate incident involving a rainy night and a car with busted brakes.

  "Are we sure that's the bridge?" I asked.

  "We followed the road south until it turned West, then followed that to the stream," Lyra pointed out. "Unless our information is wrong, this is the bridge."

  "It just looks so… ordinary," I said. "And where would a troll even hide under it?"

  "Trolls have a mysterious ability to hide inside the shadows between bricks and stones," Vaingloria replied. She was human, like me, with short black hair and big round spectacles. Honestly, she was so damn cute that it was sometimes easy to forget that she was a powerful necromancer. "It only works for materials that have been used for transitional structures. Bridges and thresholds mostly. Things you cross."

  "Really?" I asked. "They can hide in those tiny little cracks? Are they super small or something?"

  "The opposite," Vee said. "They're actually really big. That's what makes the ability so mysterious."

  I opened my mouth, then I closed it again. Damn, she had me there.

  We were the ScaleGuard, a party of adventurers that had just that morning been hired by the good people of Locent to take care of the troll that was causing trouble for travelers outside the little village. Our party numbered at four, maybe five if you counted the crocodile. Which, really, you probably should.

  Ignoring him might hurt his feelings.

  I glanced down at the crocodile in question, whose name was Riverjaw. He was my Animal Companion, one of the features of the Beastmaster class and also my buddy. I’d bonded with him shortly after coming to Crucible. The god Sobek had sent me here and gifted me with the power to summon crocodiles, you see, and I’d been sure to take advantage of that.

  “Do we need fire or anything?” I asked. “Will the troll regenerate otherwise?”

  “What?” Lyra, the elven paladin of our party, blinked in confusion. “No,” she said. “Do… do trolls do that on your world?”

  “Not really,” I said. “But there are stories.”

  Kono snorted. “Dumb stories,” the foxgirl said.

  I feigned hurt. “Personally, I always thought they were pretty cool.”

  Our foxy thief rolled her eyes. “Can we deal with the bridge troll already? I want to get paid.”

  “And make the road safer for travelers,” said Lyra.

  “Yeah, that too.”

  I shrugged and drew my axes. “Fine. But if it regenerates I’m gonna be mad.”

  After some more assurances that the troll wouldn’t regenerate, I headed down the hill toward the bridge, Lyra and Riverjaw accompanying me. Vee, being a spellcaster, hung back out of range of any big angry monsters that might pop out of the bridge, and Kono?

  Well, Kono just straight up disappeared. She does that.

  As I reached the edge of the bridge, the structure rumbled. Then, the troll just… emerged from it. I don’t even know how else I could describe it. It was almost as if the troll had phased through it like it wasn’t there, but that’s not quite right. The creature was…. incomplete before it was fully standing on the bridge. It was like the damn thing was made up of dozens of little gooballs that all oozed up from between the bricks and formed together to make a big green ugly man.

  And a big green ugly man it was indeed. The troll towered over us, which was impressive given how squat its legs looked. It had a long face with four big curved tusks and ape-like arms bulging with muscles I didn’t even know existed that hung down knuckles to the ground. It turned its beady red eyes on us and growled.

  “You cross this bridge,” the troll said in a voice like nearly dead truck rolling over a gravel road, “you pay the toll.”

  “Cool,” I said. “What’s the toll?”

  “Meat.”

  “I mean, I got some jerky in my pack…”

  “Big meat!” the troll grumbled, and the twelve-year-old in me tried not to giggle. “Goat-sized, at least. No meat, no cross.” It pointed at Riverjaw. “That will do.”

  I sighed. “Now, see, that’s where we got a problem.” And then I threw an ax at it.

  Now, my axes are very special axes. They should be; after all, I looted them from an undead headless orc king. When I throw them, they come back.

  So the troll was, at first, quite surprised to suddenly have an ax flung at its face. Then it was surprised to have an ax embedded in its forehead. But I think what surprised it most of all was that the ax then dislodged itself from its forehead and flew back into my waiting hand.

  Being a troll, it chose to express its surprise by bellowing in rage and trying to crush me into paste.

  I saw the oversized forearm cutting through the air at me and jumped backward just as Lyra stepped forth and swung her sword. The big broadsword made contact with the troll, and the monster screamed as thick globs of green blood splashed all across the stones below.

  “Want! MEAT!” the troll cried, and grabbed at Lyra with its uninjured arm.

  Lyra wasn’t having any of that, though. With a shout of “Holy Smite!”, the paladin spun around and slammed her blade into its grasping fingers. There was an explosion of light, and the troll recoiled, shouting in even more rage and even more pain than it had a moment ago.

  Before it could rally itself for another attack, I threw both my axes at it with as much force as I could muster. The axheads both buried themselves in the troll’s chest before spraying free in a fountain of more green blood and flying back into my hands.

  I grinned. “This is too easy!”

  Then the troll swept its arms wildly back and forth. Lyra tried to parry, but the limbs were too strong and too fast. She was knocked back and went flying off the side of the little dirt road.

  “Oh,” I muttered. “Me and my big mouth.”

  Bellowing in uncontrollable fury, the troll charged forward, murderous intent in its eyes. I didn’t like that-- especially since the eyes in question were focused squarely on my person. I braced myself.

  Kono was suddenly on the troll’s back, stabbing her daggers into its throat. The big beast stumbled and cried out
in surprise, flailing about as it tried to dislodge this new attacker.

  But Kono was much faster than the big guy. With a smirk, she hopped off the troll’s back and rushed past its legs, cutting a deep green line into its tendons as she did so. The troll stumbled and fell.

  But it wasn’t dead yet. It slammed a fist down on Kono, and then was surprised to see the fist pass harmlessly through her.

  The foxgirl just laughed as she hopped out of its reach, her body resolidifying as the Ghostform Ability ended.

  Kono had recently leveled up out of the Thief Class and into a special Advanced Class called Ghostwalker. Being able to become intangible three times a day was the first ability she’d received from the class, and there was nothing that seemed to amuse her more than using it.

  Less amused was the troll, who grumbled in annoyance as it started climbing back to its feet. Its wounds were, I noticed, steaming.

  And getting smaller.

  “Oh god damn it,” I muttered. What did I say? It was fucking regenerating.

  “Kono!” I shouted a warning as the troll swung out at her again. Luckily, Kono still had her once-a-day Perfect Dodge, which kicked in when she was subjected to a surprise attack. Her body jerked to the side, just out of reach of the troll’s blows.

  *Pop!*

  A crocodile appeared on top of the troll’s head and, clearly concerned about suddenly finding itself sliding down a big monster’s body and falling to the ground, it bit down hard on the troll’s neck and refused to let go.

  As the troll tried and failed to shake the panicked reptile off, a bolt of energy flew from the woods and splashed against its face. Growling, the troll looked up to where Vaingloria was emerging from her hiding spot. The necromancer glared at the troll and held out a hand, purple symbols appearing in the air before her palm.

  The troll made an attempt to rush past us to get at the spellcaster, but it hadn’t counted on Lyra recovering and jumping back into the fray. The elf stabbed her sword directly into the side of its shin, and the troll found itself once again toppling.

  “Firebolt!” Vaingloria shouted, and a bolt of red-hot flame shot forth from the purple symbols and slammed into the troll’s face. It howled in pain and fell backward.

  Lyra wasted no time. She ran forward up the troll’s body and, just as I dismissed the latched-on crocodile, she slammed her sword directly into its neck, decapitating the monster.

  I waited for it to get back up, but the troll remained still and dead. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

  “Did anyone else notice that it was regenerating?” I asked. “I thought you said trolls couldn’t do that.”

  “I didn’t say they couldn’t,” Vee insisted as she approached us.

  “They usually don’t,” Lyra said.

  “It was just that this one did.” Vee came to a stop next to the troll’s body and gave it an experimental kick. “So this specific one could, but trolls don’t regenerate in general.”

  I shook my head. “Whatever. I’m just glad it’s dead. Let’s get back to Locent and collect that bounty.”

  II

  One Night in Locent

  Locent was a town that held a lot of sentimental value to me. Located between the great city-states of Heliosor and Basilar, it was a quaint little trading hub with a decent mix of travelers from all over. It was also near where I’d first arrived on Crucible and where I’d first met Lyra and formed the ScaleGuard. So returning to Locent was kind of like returning home in a way.

  Just, you know, without the family. Or the childhood memories. Or a bed that I could call my own.

  But other than all the actual home stuff, it was just like returning home.

  I hadn’t met the mayor during my first visit to Locent a couple months ago (I was just a random level 1 adventurer who was still figuring out this new world after all), but it turned out she was the type of middle aged woman that people describe as “handsome” and who possessed an incredible no-nonsense personality with zero sense of humor to go along with it.

  She didn’t like me very much.

  Luckily, Lyra was good at the whole professionalism thing, so she handled the business of collecting our reward for killing the troll while I hung out in the tavern with Kono and Vaingloria.

  “Where to next?” Kono asked. “I haven’t seen many other jobs available here.”

  “I travel the road of destiny,” Vaingloria replied. “I walk the shadows and the darkness, honing my dread skills all the while. Where my journeys take me is of no consequence.”

  I smirked. Vaingloria would hate to hear me say it, but she was really damn cute when she was trying to pass herself off as a scary dark sorceress. “Right, well, where our journeys take us is of consequence.” I settled into my seat and tapped the mug of ale in my hands. “Maybe Heliosor? Been a while since we were there.”

  Vee smiled. “I would love to visit Raggius again.”

  “In the sewers?” Kono asked. “Ugh. No Heliosor, thank you. Last time I was there, I was almost executed by the Thieves’ Guild.”

  “Me and Lyra got you out of that,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah, and into an underground ziggurat full of doomsday cultists.”

  “That’s just called an exciting adventure,” I said.

  “It’s also how you met me,” Vaingloria added.

  I nodded. “Exactly. You saying you’d rather not have met Vee? How could you say that, Kono?”

  Vee blinked. Then she seemed to realize I was teasing our resident foxfolk and attempted to play along. “Yes, um… how could you be so cruel and wicked?”

  Kono rolled her eyes. “Fine, we can go to Heliosor,” she said. “But if the Thieves’ Guild gives me shit again, I’m blaming you.”

  “Fair enough.” I took a drink of ale. Then I summoned my Stat Card to my hand.

  Crucible was a world that functioned using RPG logic, and Stat Cards were essentially character sheets. I could summon and dismiss mine at will, as could everyone else, and use it to check my abilities and attributes, as well as make new selections whenever I gained a new level.

  Speaking of which, I had a new level now.

  No new Abilities this time, unfortunately. But I did have the two points to put to my Attributes. Normally, I would ignore Luck, but a while back I fought a racist elf in an arena that could temporarily buff up our stats and I’d discovered that Luck was potentially OP as hell, so I’d made the decision to focus on it recently.

  I assigned the points and nodded in satisfaction as I examined my current card:

  Level 13

  Class: Beastmaster

  Experience: 13/800

  Strength: A (⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨)

  Agility: C (⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨)

  Endurance: C (⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨)

  Intelligence: B (⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨)

  Wisdom: A (⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨)

  Charisma: B (⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨⬨)

  Luck: C (⬧⬧⬧⬨⬨)

  Special Ability: Blessing of Sobek

  Class Abilities: Animal Empathy, Ax Proficiency, Survivalism, Animal Companion, Herbology, Call the Swarm

  Special Equipment: Hand Axes of Returning (Skill: Dual Wield, Enchanted: Recall)

  Next level, I’d be able to raise my Luck to a B. I wondered how much of a difference that would make. Would I suddenly become immune to pratfalls? I doubted a jump of one letter grade would suddenly make my life infinitely easier, but a guy can dream, you know?

  “Level up?” Kono asked.

  “Yup.”

  She summoned her own State Card and frowned at it. “I still got like 600 experience points to go.”

  “I have over a thousand,” Vaingloria said.

  “That’s because you’re like five levels higher than us.”

  “Yes,” Vee said, “but I thought we were sharing how much experience we have until our next level?”

  “Well, if we are,” I noted, “then I have just under 800 points to go
.”

  “You just leveled up!” Kono cried.

  “Oh, Gids leveled up?” Lyra slid into the chair beside Vee. “So did I. I have a new prayer too.”

  “Cool,” I said. “What’s the new prayer?”

  “It’s called Divine Challenge, and it causes one foe to focus all its attention on me.”

  “That sounds awful,” Kono said.

  I shook my head. “No, that’s a sound strategy.” It was basically the ability to draw aggro, except focused on one target. So… maybe it was more like a Marking mechanic? Regardless, Lyra was now able to effectively tank for us. “Just so long as we keep her safe.”

  Vee grinned. “A simple matter for the Mistress of the Dark Arts!”

  Lyra just smiled and took a sip of the ale we’d saved for her. “Anyway, here’s everyone’s cut of the bounty,” she said, tossing a coin purse over to each of us. “Any idea what our next job should be?”

  “We were just talking about that actually. Me and Vee want to go to Heliosor, but Kono doesn’t.”

  “Heliosor?” Lyra asked. “It’s been a while. I wonder how Rast and Trisha are doing?”

  “Fuck me,” Kono muttered. “We’re gonna end up going to Heliosor, aren’t we?”

  I finished off my ale. “Seems like it.”

  We did not, in fact, go to Heliosor.

  *

  Stumbling into my room at the inn, I collapsed into the bed.

  I probably shouldn’t have had that second mug. I almost certainly shouldn’t have had the third. And I definitely shouldn’t have had the fourth. But Kono kept calling me a lightweight and I needed to prove her wrong.

  Yeah. That didn’t quite work out how I’d hoped.

  “Notta lightway…” I mumbled into the pillows.

  “Um, sure,” said Lyra from the doorway. She’d graciously offered to help me navigate to my quarters. “Get some sleep, Gids.”

  “Notta lightway!” I insisted one more time, and then I passed out.

  At least, I was pretty sure I’d passed out. So I was a bit concerned when I opened my eyes a second later to find myself floating in a void.