The Fantasy Soldier: A LitRPG Adventure (The Sniper series book 1) Read online

  The Fantasy Soldier

  A LitRPG Adventure

  Patrick March

  Copyright © 2021 Patrick March

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN-13: 9781234567890

  ISBN-10: 1477123456

  Cover design by: Art Painter

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  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

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Excerpt from the next book

  About The Author

  Chapter 1

  They took the bait.

  The group spotted the carriage. They slowly advanced under the cover of the forest, edging ever so closer. My left hand rested on the switch, waiting for the right moment. They had to get closer.

  The monsters’ silhouette grew more defined as they moved out of the bushes. Their naturally brown skin and hairy bodies aided in the camouflage. The ugly faces, long ears and eyes that were always looking for their next meal.

  A dozen of them emerged from the bushes. The Quest didn’t say anything about a dozen, it only said there were five, but that doesn’t matter right now. There must be a dungeon nearby, but that was not my problem. I watched the group close in on the carriage, now most of them were in the open. Giving me a clear view of the monsters.

  The group wore leather armour, if you could call it that.

  The armour was so tattered and crudely made that it would be better to call them rags at this point. Some wore rusted pieces of metal as armour, but the rust was so advanced that edges flaked away just from the monster's movement.

  Among themselves they sneered at each other, saying something I couldn’t hear. Thankfully from this distance it worked both ways, they had no chance of spotting me.

  Once they were out in the open, all but one went for the carriage, the rest started searching through it to find the meat I planted. The straggler seemed to be warning them about something, motioning for them to get back. So that’s the leader, or the most intelligent one. It was wearing brown leather armour like the others, but it’s movements were more refined and confident, he had leveled up. He is the biggest threat right now.

  Slowing my breathing, my heart rate followed. Not sure if the group was going to listen or not to the straggler, it didn’t matter. This group killed a few villagers and it was my job to eliminate them.

  Aiming directly at the stragglers chest, I gently squeezed the trigger of my rifle. It recoiled with a sharp crack echoing through the forest. It took me a split second to get my sights back on target, the Goblin was knocked to the ground. The group knew something was up, they yelled and looked around for what killed their leader, but it was already too late. My left hand triggered the switch.

  BOOM!

  The explosion sent a ripple through the trees nearby and sent all the nearby animals running. Cycling the action on my rifle, without even having to look, I knew the brass hit the ground and vanished, that’s what always happens. Peering over the iron sights at the ambush downrange, nothing moved. Waiting for another minute for any movement at all. There was none. Knowing if I let the bodies sit for too long, the smell might bring more monsters. Slowly getting up from my perch I had used my body felt sluggish. That was no surprise, I hadn’t moved for a few hours.

  I made the trek down the mountain to the ambush. My teachers would say that I should keep my guard up until my ass was back in my bunk. But realistically the Goblins were blown into bits and they were not the smartest monsters on the best days.

  Almost at the ambush site, I looked back at my cloak, it had melded perfectly into the area around my hiding spot. With tree branches and bushes seemingly painted onto it, I forgot to change it back. Thinking ‘Green’, the cloak’s colour changed to an olive green. A smile crept onto my face at the change. Pushing through the last bushes to the ambush, none of the Goblins had moved.

  As I looked over the ambush site, my eyes rested on the carriage. It was destroyed, the remains were still burning with what little left turning into charred ash. Well, thankfully I didn’t pay much for it. Looking back over the Goblin corpses, their bodies were strewn through the area, thankfully most of them were in one piece, I can’t get the maximum amount of coin for the job without them.

  Walking around the site tapping everything to do from the ambush with my foot, they all disappeared in a soft white light. This still feels weird to me. Having used my inventory consistently for almost everything in the last two months. Supplies, food, even storing my coin when going through a bad part of town. Only now I was starting to shake the feeling if anything.

  It allowed me to store anything I could touch in a menu for me to pull up at any time. The convenience it allowed me was amazing. Finally reaching the Goblin leader there was a small hole on the lower right side of it’s chest. Sighing, I tapped him with my foot as he disappeared into my storage as well.

  Overall I can’t complain about the ability to effectively store everything I need just by touch, it is a pretty sweet power. Unsurprisingly it allowed me to stay extremely light and only pack what was needed on my person. Pulling from my inventory, I only had to open a menu with a thought and select something from the list to have it appear in my hands.

  In comparison, the use and storage of my weapons was even more convenient.

  With just a thought, it appeared, which was extremely convenient. The problem was it was slow depending on the size, for my pistol it was quick, but my rifle took twice as long.

  Overall, these abilities were one of the benefits of being here now. Soon after everything was stashed and I made my way to the closest village, it was hours away and night would likely fall before I arrived.

  A bright moon loomed over me as I entered the Village. With a thought my rifle disappeared in soft white light. This land I found myself on is Eleon, it is a weird fantasy world with a wide variety of species. Thankfully none of which seemed to have anything like modern firearms. Not wanting to stand out, I kept mine mostly out of sight, and out of mind.

  Having just received my guns, I tried as much as possible to avoid questions about what the weird metallic stick in my arms was. If no one saw it, no one could question it. That went mainly for the rifle though, my pistol was much smaller and always on my hip. Under my cloak, always ready.

  Entering the village there was no one in the streets except for some guards, the lights from the house's windows lit the dark dirty cobblestone path. It looked like most other villages, simple, a bit dirty but most people were happy with their lot in life, something I could understand. This all was if anything a second chance for me.

  Walking into the Inn it was an old building barely maintained past looking serviceable. A rotund man sat behind a small desk. He gave me a curious look.

  “Are you here for the dungeon?” His face wanted a yes.

  “No, I was just after some Goblins.”

  The innkeeper shook his head, his jowls taking longer to keep up. “You took the Quest, right?” The man’s tone was accusing.

  “Yes, I took one to kill Goblins near this Village.”

  The large man became even more animated. “That included the Portal! Where’s your group?”

  “No it doesn’t, and it’s only me.” I replied.

  The innkeeper started pointing at me with a rising anger in his tone. “The Quest was to get rid of the monsters in the area. There is a dungeon with monsters near the Village, that counts!”

  Cursing under my breath the bastard was right. Worry creeping into my voice. “The quest never said anything about a Portal in the Area”

  “We didn’t know until a night ago.” Not responding for a second realizing how up shit creek I was, he spoke again. “So are you going to go back to Geases and hire a party or what?” The innkeepe
r put on a shrewd look as he leaned back on his small stool that creaked with the movement.

  This changes everything. With the Quest being linked to a portal, it’s now my job to take it out. It would take a full party of newbie Adventurers to even reliably clear it, with a few of them getting injured, if not killed. If I don’t clear the Portal then my chance of ranking up is in serious danger, if not stopped for a few months. Meaning more terrible Quests like this. If it doesn’t kill me in the process.

  Knowing there was no way around it, this is why no one took the Quest. Bad pay for dangerous work.

  “Fine. Tomorrow I will clear the Portal. Where is it then?” My tone was annoyed and worried at the same time.

  The Innkeeper smiled, “We don’t know.” He then leaned against the wall behind him, the little stool he was sitting on creaked even louder. “Somewhere in the forest, it’s not my job to know where it is. It's yours, Adventurer.”

  “Fine, tomorrow.” Holding back as much of my anger as possible. I got a room and stormed out before saying something that would make this situation even worse. Fucking hated working D ranked jobs.

  It was simple, a bit dirty, but it was better than outside. Pulling my pistol out of its holster on my hip, I placed it on the bed and started cleaning all my gear. Even though whenever it was stashed for a while, it came out spotless and in full working order, it didn’t matter. Doing it helped calm me down most nights enough so I could actually sleep. Looking over the weapon it was practically new. Having kept it on my hip for most of my journey it had gotten dirty and banged up a few times but for a service pistol, this was exactly what it was designed to handle.

  It was a weird mix of a hi-power’s frame and a m92’s slide. Having no idea why it was effectively two different weapons cobbled together, it didn’t matter to me. It worked flawlessly every time I needed it to, and that’s all I wanted from it.

  Releasing the magazine from the weapon, it fell into my waiting hand. It was fully loaded with fifteen 9mm rounds, way more than the five rounders in my bolt action rifle. This little guy had saved my life once already in the short time I've had it. Even in a village like this where it’s generally safe. I always keep it on me with some grenades and my knife. Having only been on Eleon for a little while, I never know what’s going to happen.

  I let out a sigh and fell back onto the bed, finally taking a rest from all that had happened today. But upon opening them in the corner of my eye there was a blinking ‘!’ Unsure of what it meant, I thought about opening my Status Menu. A popup filled my vision.

  Status Menu

  Name: Mark

  Class: Soldier

  Level: 2

  Mana: 2/2

  Might: 1

  Reflex: 1

  Fortitude: 1

  Magic: 1

  Unused stat points: 2

  Oh, I leveled up. Having played video games and a number of role playing games for most of my high school life, this is one of the other nice things in this world. When arriving on Eleon, one of the first things I found out about was the menus.

  After looking around in the Menu, I found out what every stat did by tapping the name itself to make a popup appear. Without any Idea what to do with the points I put them both in reflex tapping a little plus sign next to the stat. The ability to react to any threat faster than they can would be a safe bet, better than the other ones right now. My body felt lighter and smoother as the points were spent. Looking down the character sheet my eyes stopped on Magic.

  All of them were self explanatory except for Magic on a soldier. That one confused me at the start and still does today. Tapping it a popup appeared.

  ‘The magic stat power’s all spells the user casts. Two Mana capacity is gained per stat point spent. Regenerates completely in one hour.’

  It never said how spells were gained or used just what it does with them. Whatever it did I would have to find out later as my eyelids started drooping, reminding me of the hour, I closed the menu.

  Taking a few minutes to make sure everything was stowed except my pistol and knife. One under my pillow the other laying beside me. I finished settling myself in and drifted off to sleep right after.

  Chapter 2

  On the road again, my bolt rifle appeared in my hands. It was a straight pull bolt action rifle that used 5.56 rounds with a small five round magazine. It had adjustable iron sights that supposedly could hit up to 600 meters. Even though the chance of me hitting anything with it at that range was very unlikely. The rifle was a recent addition to my load out.

  I finished pulling out my vest and getting it on me. My vest had no armor of any kind. It was really more just a wearable holding rack for my magazines and grenades at this point. Thinking about putting silencers on my guns, they appeared on the end of each of the barrels as a thin black can. They will hopefully let me keep the element of surprise a little longer.

  When I first arrived on Eleon all I had were the clothes on my back and my knife at my side, somewhere out in the woods like this. Scared, afraid and alone. Now I am just alone, so overall, things are looking up!

  Travelling around the region had been an interesting treat. Seeing all kinds of races, some were similar to Orcs, humans and elves of fantasies on Earth. Others, I had no idea about, like a race of intelligent, high class floating squids and multicolored, lizard people. This world is a bit weird.

  It was mid day when I arrived at the site of the ambush. The little Goblin footprints were easy to find, and they had never cared about being tracked, it was their mistake. Following it back the air in the forest was getting dirtier, there was a trail of smoke into the sky. These little bastards wanted to be found and killed it seems.

  A short while later the tracks lead to an archway in the middle of a field made of rough stone with a bonfire nearby. There were five Goblins around the fire, they were cooking meat of some kind. As I watched the monsters for a second, another one Goblin walked out of the portal, it looked around for a second then joined the group after seeing them.

  I had no idea how many rounds it would take from my pistol to kill a Goblin. Hopefully not many, I don’t have that many rounds. The problem was one would usually yell alerting all the other Goblins to my presence, but this group was all tightly packed that it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Seeing no other way around it, the Goblins were only a few meters from the archway and would absolutely see me sneaking into it.

  The Goblins were wearing ragged leather armor with stone axes and spears. While I am not worried about their weapons for the most part. There was always the chance one could close the distance.

  Seeing no other option than to attempt a head shot on them, it was risky, but the best option to start off with at least. My bolt rifle would be too slow to deal with them fast enough before they got to me. Also, since the area around the Portal was dense forest one of them might sneak up on me, making use of the much longer rifle a bad idea.

  Moving through the forest slowly, I was still a ways away from the monsters. The monsters said something to each other as they all reached for the cooking meat. Getting closer, what the meat was became apparent. It was a Goblin.

  As the little monsters chowed down on their meal, moving closer and closer, they didn’t have any idea I was there. None of them seemed to have any care about keeping watch for intruders.

  Having gotten so close that the bonfire’s light might reflect off my pistol, I took aim for the closest Goblin and started shooting. One shot to the Goblin's head dropped it quickly. The Goblins immediately turned towards me and the dead Goblin. Already aiming at another one, three of the five remaining Goblins ran at me, their mouths still bloody from their meal. They grabbed their axes and spears as the furthest Goblin threw it’s spear at me, missing barely but buying the others time as I was forced to dodge out of the way.

  Taking aim at one of the charging Goblins it yelled, “Kill the human for its meat!”