Rising Tide: A LitRPG Novel (Age of Steam Book 1)

  Rising Tide

  A LitRPG Novel

  Mitchell T. Jacobs

  Xiphos Press

  Contents

  Special Thanks

  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

  Epilogue

  The World of Age of Steam

  Appendix - Engineer

  About the Author

  Also by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Xiphos Press

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Special thanks to the LitRPG group for constant entertainment and pointing out all the various shapes in the map (I’m never going to be able to unsee the pair of kissing monkeys).

  Chapter One

  Shane counted the coins, counted again, and sighed. All that work and travel, and all for a relatively pitiful sum. A different day, the end of a different journey, but for the same result.

  “Not good, huh?” Bailey asked.

  Shane shook his head and looked around at the other three seated at the table. Brandon, tall, lanky and pale with black hair, Bailey with her long brown hair and small stature, and Kelvin, dark-skinned, short-haired and towering, his body impressively muscled.

  “No, it's not good,” he said. “Same story as usual. We make a trade run and we get almost nothing.”

  “That's not all that surprising,” Kelvin said. “We had to go through a lot along the way.”

  Shane frowned. “This is getting ridiculous. The Iron Guild is squeezing us dry. We have to pay fees to access the shipping, then we have to put up our own cash to get fuel and supplies for the trip, then we have to buy the goods, and by the time we get back to port and sell them they take a cut of that too.”

  “All for their plan,” Brandon said.

  “I don't see what kind of plan they have that's going to make this worth it.”

  Bailey shrugged. “It sucks, I know. But what else are we going to do? The guild pretty much controls all trade around this area, and that's not changing anytime soon.”

  Shane looked away toward the harbor front, watching the ships go in and out of port, players loading and offloading cargo, talking, going through business deals, the normal bustle of the city and this virtual world.

  Only, the Iron Guild had its claws in every bit of business that went on in this place. Beylan was the starting city for Age of Steam players, but its size and scope made it one of the most important places in this world for all players, even the experienced ones. It was a trade hub, a city bustling with activity.

  And that made control of that city very important, especially to an organization like the guild. The Iron Guild had started out as a small player organization, trading and exploring this vast world alongside many others, but their power had grown, and somewhere along the way their attitude changed. Instead of just acting as a small part of the world they wanted to dominate it, and the way to do that was through trade.

  The commerce routes, by land, but especially by sea, were the lifeblood of all activity in the virtual world. Save for a few essentials that could be gathered from the immediate area around Beylan, all other resources had to be bought or gathered at other locations. Beylan was also the only place where manufacturing could take place, making the steady supply of rare goods and materials invaluable. Traders would cross the seas and lands across Age of Steam to get their hands on them, and they'd get a good price for them as well.

  That was when the Iron Guild had made its move. First they built their forces, leveraging their position to gather contacts, allies, materials, ships, and coin. Once they had those they moved onto the next phase of their plan, controlling the seas around Beylan using a combination of bribes, incentives, threats, and outright violence.

  They couldn't exercise complete control, at least not near the city. Beylan's NPC guards had revenue cutters patrolling the waters around the harbor, and they'd attack any aggressors. But past a certain point they couldn't respond fast enough to a distress call, or they wouldn't even respond at all. That was where the Iron Guild dominated, using their ships to control the trade routes and extort other players. Either they had to pay their taxes and tariffs, or their ship was blown out from under them.

  Some resorted to smuggling, but that carried great risks. Most had grumbled to themselves and paid their fees, but times were changing. Now the Iron Guild had decided to install a licensing system, only allowing their most loyal allies to trade in certain goods. Once again, others were forced to either smuggle, suck up to them, or take on jobs that paid a pittance.

  Shane hated it. He hated being restricted, and hated that one organization had been able to grab so much control. He hated that their actions had caused many other players to quit in frustration, many of his friends among them. Age of Steam still had a vast player base, but the thought still made him angry.

  And though the game managers might intervene at some point, that didn't sit well with him either. If that happened it meant the guild had won, had become so dominant that only an act of god could stop them. They couldn't depend on it either. The developers had publicly stated they wouldn't intervene, since the Iron Guild had done everything within the rules. Who knew if they might change their mind, but at this point he wasn't hopeful.

  “You look pissed,” Bailey said.

  “Well, I am. Aren't the rest of you?” Shane asked. “Do you really want to keep messing around with this?”

  “So, do you want to quit?” Kelvin said.

  He looked down. “No. No, I really don't. This game was fun when I first started, and we made a lot of friends through it. I'd like to get them back into it if we could, but...”

  “It's not happening,” Brandon said. “Not with the way things are right now. The Iron Guild has a stranglehold on all the trade going in and out of Beylan, and it's affecting everything. We can't escape it.”

  Shane looked back toward the docks. So many people going about their business, and yet, they were all under the thumb of the Iron Guild. The thought made him clench his fists. If only there was something to do, some way that they could strike back, weaken their power just a little bit. He knew that while most were willing to go along with guild enforcement because they had little choice, many resented it and would take the opportunity to fight back if given an opening.

  But the Iron Guild was powerful, too powerful for them to even think about that. They had fleets of ships, thousands of players either in their ranks or allied to them, agents all over the world. What could anyone do against something of tha
t power and magnitude? Shane knew they had come to power completely within the game's rules, but it still seemed so unfair. They had won, and there was no way to fight back.

  Unless…

  “I can't do this anymore.”

  “Are you quitting?” Bailey said.

  Shane stood up. “I'm quitting following the guild's orders anymore.”

  “You do realize how crazy that is,” Kelvin said. “Unless you want to be a smuggler, which is still pretty crazy. You want to sink all your coin into a ship that gets blown out of the water with you on it?”

  “What else is there to do? Keep following their orders and picking up small handfuls of coin? Remember when a run to Edissa would leave you with heaps of cash?”

  “Everyone remembers that, especially the guild. And they know how to stop it,” Kelvin said. “That's why they're so successful. What are you planning on doing, fighting a one man war against them?”

  Shane shrugged. “Is that really all that crazy? Be honest, do you really think this is fun anymore? Or at least how it was compared to the past?”

  “I don't,” Kelvin said. “But I still enjoy the sailing, going on the inland adventures. That's why everyone hasn't quit.”

  “But don't you want to have more? To go back to when the trade routes were open and we could actually make a profit off of them?” he insisted.

  “Of course everyone wants to go back to that,” Brandon spoke up. “You'd have to be crazy not to. But the Iron Guild did its job right. They have control over the trade routes, and that's not going to change anytime soon.”

  “Not if everyone keeps thinking that way.”

  “Again, what are you going to do?” Kelvin asked.

  Shane was about to say something, but he thought better of it and stood up. This wasn't the place for it, not with so many eyes and ears hanging around. It was an open secret that the Iron Guild paid players for information about possible rebellion, and while he didn't think anyone had heard him, Shane wouldn't take any more chances.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let's-”

  Bailey held up a hand. “If you want to talk about something then why risk it? Do either of you two have anything going on tonight?”

  “I don't.”

  “I don't either,” Brandon said.

  “That works. Why don't you guys come over and hang out? It's been a while. Kelvin and I would be happy to host.”

  “We would,” Kelvin agreed.

  “That sounds good,” Brandon said.

  Shane nodded. One advantage of the virtual reality was that they could log out and discuss important topics without anyone listening in on their conversation.

  “Alright then, we'll see you then. I'm feeling lazy, so we'll spring for takeout. And we'll pay, if you bring drinks,” Bailey said.

  “Any preferences?” Shane asked.

  “Beer.”

  “I second the beer request,” Kelvin said with a smile.

  “Sounds good. What time do you want us over?”

  “I dunno. Six? Seven? We're free anytime.”

  “Let's say seven,” Bailey spoke up. “That'll give us all some time. Plus, it's not like we all have to get up tomorrow morning, so...”

  “Hangover here we come,” Brandon laughed.

  “You guys can crash with us, of course, but you have to fight over who gets the guest bed and who gets the couch,” Kelvin said.

  That made Shane smile just a little. “See you guys later,” he said. He pulled out the guidebook from his pocket and flipped to the correct page.

  Log out

  “So,” Kelvin said after they had eaten and settled down in the living room, “what did you want to do?”

  “You heard what I wanted to do,” Shane said. He reached down toward his beer on the coffee table and took a drink.

  “I mean, more specific. I know you don't like the guild.”

  “Not exactly a novel concept,” Brandon said.

  Shane set down the bottle and sighed. “What the heck happened? How were they able to get so much power?”

  “You know the answer to that,” Kelvin said. “They were organized, and they were smart. They knew how to manipulate markets and people. And they used their economic ability as a weapon. Forget their ships and guns, it's their money handling that won them that fight.”

  “Plus everyone was too fragmented to fight back,” Bailey said. “Too many arguments, and too many opportunists that wanted to take advantage of the situation for their own benefit. I know it worked out for a few of them, but the rest really just screwed themselves.”

  “And that's not changing anytime soon, not with the stranglehold they have on the trade,” Brandon said. “So what is it that you're planning on doing?”

  Shane leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. “I… it sounds dumb, really. I want to try something. To do something, anything to change the situation. I'd like to make it so that we can go back to when AoS was fun. And I'd like to have it so that some of our friends will come back as well.”

  “There's always petitioning the developers to step in.”

  “Do you really want that?” Shane said. “That's just admitting defeat.”

  “Of course I don't. But this might be an issue of game balance, and the Iron Guild found the exploit,” Brandon said.

  “But the developers haven't stepped in yet. Which makes me think that there's some other way to deal with this. Something that we're missing.”

  “And what about it? What do you want to do?”

  “I want to break up their monopoly,” Shane said. “I understand them charging the tolls, because they do provided escorts when asked. But the licensing thing is way over the line. That's it.”

  “So what do we do? Smuggle?” Kelvin said.

  Shane nodded. “I think that's what we do. We try to make a clean break from the guild and go our own way. We smuggle stuff into Beylan, and we start building our fortune from there.”

  “And that's it, is it?” Brandon said. “We're stuck as smugglers, permanently blacklisted if they catch us and a target for anyone that wants to take shots at us. And we're not going to make a profit. Smugglers always lose their ships eventually. Even if we make good money we're going to lose out ship eventually, and then we have to replace it. And if that happens while we're carrying valuable cargo, can we afford to take that kind of loss? There's no crawling back to them if we fail.”

  “Plus there's other things to think about,” Kelvin said. “We need a ship, and once we fit it with a good engine and leave enough money for buying cargo there's no way we can insure it. If we get shot up then that might be the end of us. We'd have to spend months grinding before we could get the money for another try.”

  “It's tough,” Bailey agreed.

  Shane took another drink before responding. “Do you really want to keep going the way we are?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then we're going to have to do something. Anything to break out of this.”

  “What's one ship going to do? There's already smugglers, but they can barely make a dent in the Iron Guild's monopoly,” Brandon said. “Is one more really going to do that much?”

  Shane thought about it for a moment, trying to come up with a solid answer, a strategy they could use. He had been so frustrated at the time, still felt the resentment toward the Iron Guild, but what could they do against them, just a four-player crew against an entire organization, in effect a mega-corporation?

  But then an idea popped into his head.

  “What a trade good that's being held under license?” he said. “Something that's driving up the price.”

  “I dunno, vanthum?” Brandon said. “It's relatively cheap to buy.”

  True enough, but it was also very valuable, used in manufacturing many of the more advanced pieces of technology in Age of Steam. Without it players either had to buy the finished products at a huge markup, or purchase it at inflates prices. Anyone found trading it without a license was dealt wi
th harshly.

  “You want us to start smuggling vanthum?” Bailey said. “That's not a terrible idea. It's really risky, but if we can pull it off then there's a ton of profit to be made.”

  Shane shook his head. “That's not what I'm thinking of. Not exactly.”

  “I'm not following you,” Kelvin said.

  “It's simple. If we just start smuggling vanthum we're like everyone else trying to avoid the guild's attention, and nothing changes. We might make some money, but like Brandon said, we're going to get caught eventually. And it's really not worth the risk of getting blackmailed. But there's another way.”

  “Another way, huh?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. And it's pretty simple. We smuggle vanthum, we put it on the market. But we put it up for sale at a reasonable price.”

  “It'll be gone before you know it. But that's just a drop in the big ocean that's the Beylan market,” Brandon said.

  “It won't do much if we only do it once,” Shane agreed. “But I don't want to just make one run. If we keep it up we stand to make a decent profit, and people will take notice.”

  “Which will then have the guild trying to shut us down.”

  “They'll try that anyhow. But what I'm hoping is that other dissatisfied players will take notice, and they'll be willing to risk running goods past the guild. It's a risk, but I think that it's worth it.”

  “If we can get a few more, then we might be able to cause problems,” Kelvin mused. “Well, that's not the craziest idea I've ever heard. But our chances of success is probably low.”

  “I know,” Shane admitted. “And I know we're probably going to come out on the losing end. But the balance of this is so unfair, and I don't want to wait for them to fix it. Not when we might have the chance to do something.”

  “So we're going to have to pool all of our money for this,” Bailey sighed. “We've spent months building it up.”

  “It should have been a few weeks at most, if the guild wasn't controlling everything. And don't you want to pay them back for that?”