Framework of the Frontier

  Framework of the Frontier

  Ruinland Ranger - I

  By Sain Artwell

  Ruinland Ranger by Sain Artwell

  © 2020 Sain Artwell. All rights reserved.

  Contact the author at sain.artwell@gmail.com

  Visit the author’s website at sainartwell.com

  Sign up for the author’s mailing list at http://landing.sainartwell.com/signup

  Cover Art by Cheunchin

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  Afterword

  About the Author

  1

  William Adams had scheduled their adventure with hot babes, gargantuan monsters, and treasure filled dungeons for Friday at eight p.m., or whenever the pizzas arrived. Back in highschool, these grease flaps had been the veritable heaven on dough. Now, the scent of oily cheddar was about as appetizing as the cardboard it was packed in — which is to say not very. But damn if it didn’t bring back memories of epic days. Of simpler days.

  William drew a long steady breath.

  “Sir, if you’re trying to cry. Don’t,” said Jake with the bored glare of a jaded teenage delivery man. “It’s sixty bucks plus tip. No pity discounts.”

  “Right, right…” William counted the bills. Damn, that’s two weeks’ groceries. “Sorry, I’m a bit tired. Spent a cozy eight hundred miles on the highway only to find grandpa’s flat looted by my mom, but thank God Cheesus Deliveries never changes.”

  “No dying of cancer or fifteen orpahns to feed? Man, you’re weak at this.”

  “Here you go, sixty-six.”

  “Thanks. Enjoy,” Jake said without meaning either and left.

  William locked the door. Climbing upstairs, he was careful not to trip on the missing steps. The plan was to get them redone the moment he got a mortgage figured out for the renovations, or found some way to scrounge up the cash for materials. Despite the building being in its late seventies, it was, for the most part, in decent condition.

  Sure the carpet smelled of mold and old people, the paints had long since faded into brown pastel shades, and it had no fiber connection, but the place was close to downtown, and the foundations worth repairing.

  Just like the old gang.

  Four familiar strangers turned his way when William entered the kitchen. Dice, books, and bottles were shuffled to make room for the pizza stack.

  Mitchelle was quick to open hers, jiggling excitedly as she tittered through her nose. Though the smile in her russet eyes and lilty voice were still those of the ‘Mini’ he remembered, the decade had quadrupled the rest of her up to a point that made William wary of saying her old nickname. Once upon a time the girl had been crushed on by all four of them. Part of William felt a sting of guilt for thinking she was off putting now, but he knew he probably wasn’t much better off than her in the eyes of Abraham and Daniel.

  The former was the same calm giant, only with several dozen pounds of muscle, a trimmed full beard, and, based on his website, made a comfy career as a database architect. William didn’t know what else Abraham had been up to, or how he used his money. Probably on something clever. He gave the pizza a content nod, folding it into a roll.

  Daniel on the other hand made no downplay to hide his success. All evening, he’d been grinning at William with the same look of condescending pity he gave Mitchelle and Thomas. His short blonde hair was styled in a trendy sidecut, his teeth whitened, and his casual attire tailored into the ‘I’m a winning businessman’-look as perfectly as his social media feed of perfect girlfriends and luxury vacations. Not that he didn’t deserve it. He’d been a leader since middle-school and climbed up from shit that made William’s family look like the dream.

  It boggled William’s mind how he’d actually even read the invitation in their old group chat.

  Guess it doesn’t matter how distant they seem. Old friends are always waiting for you to reach out to them. Even if it’s only to remind them there’s someone worse off than you…

  If Mitchelle was the flaking paint on the walls, Thomas was the missing stairs. He had a long thin stubble that matched his unkempt black hair, a gaunt body, and a lazy arrogance of a delusional tweaker who thought he was still the school’s rich kid.

  “Sweet yo. Pizza and booze. It’s gonna be a blast am I right?” Thomas laughed, trying to exchange glances with everyone while popping open his third can of storebrand. He slurped the foam.

  “How much were they Will?” Abraham asked while opening his wallet.

  William dismissed him with a wave. “It’s fine. My treat.” Jesus, does he think I’m that poor?

  Daniel placed a hundred dollar bill in front of William, rubbing him on the shoulder, giving him and Abraham his networking smile. “Let me take this one. Keep the change.”

  “Sure.” William clenched his jaw, concealing his shame as he pocketed the ‘change’ worth three hour shift as mall security. “Thanks.”

  “Anytime. Anytime. Let me know if you need anything else. I’m always happy to do small favors to old friends. You never know when we might end up collaborating on a project together.” Although Daniel faced William, his eyes remained on Abraham — the only person in the room he’d actually collab with.

  “Oh, sorry! Should I pay? How much is my share?” Mitchelle asked as she rummaged her purse.

  Daniel shook his head, giving her a casual wink. “Don’t worry Mini, I got you covered.”

  Mini. Really dude? Come on.

  “Hehe, thank you Dan.” Mitchelle put her purse away with a fussing embarrassment of a girl with a crush. It hurt to watch almost as much as her comments on Daniel’s social media updates hurt to read — she had one on nearly every photo. None of them had replies.

  “Oh, hey. Yeah, lemme pitch in too man.” Thomas lit up a joint and took a deep drag that he let dribble out his nostrils. “Want some? Puff for each or something. I don’t have that much weed left right now, so that’s all I can afford.”

  “Thomas.” William shed the fake cheer from his expression and raised a finger. “No smoking in my house.”

  “Your grandpa’s.” Thomas pulled in another quick inhale. “Seriously dude, what’s the problem? You’re not a cop.” He looked around the table for support, chuckling nervously. “It’s gonna be legal soon anyway, right?”

  “Not the issue. You can put it out or get out. My house, my rules.” William’s jaw tensed. Thomas’ insults stung.

  “I’m right though.” Thomas’ laughter grew increasingly uncomfortable under William’s glare. Huffing out his last puff, he extinguished the smoke on an empty can and wrapped it into a small bag. “Well, fuck you man. I thought it was supposed to be a party. Don’t say I didn’t offer nothing later.”

  “Now Thomas, don’t be an ass or I’ll nerf your character’s wisdom,” Mitchelle said, raising her voice.

  “A devastating punishment,” William observed.

  Abraham’s lips moved. “Heh.”

  “Yea whatever…”
Thomas shook his head, continuing to drink.

  “Right, let’s try to enjoy tonight,” William said.

  Instead of an apologetic nod he received Thomas’ all too familiar petulant muttering. There wasn’t even an attempt at respect in his behaviour, though that should’ve been obvious. Can’t expect a loser with no respect for himself to even begin to respect others.

  “Well then.” Daniel clapped his hands together, raising his brows with a diplomatic smile. “We can catch up during the game. What kind of campaign do you have planned for us Mini?” He pulled out a leather binder, opening it to reveal a neatly printed character sheet and a tablet for browsing rulebooks.

  “You’ve prepared!” Mitchelle stifled a squee of joy.

  William blinked in surprise. For a moment there he had assumed Daniel was here to lure Abraham into some kind of business venture, but no. He actually came to game? Maybe I had misjudged the guy, William thought, or more likely projected my own shitty mood on them. God, I need this break. He popped open a bottle and drank of the refreshing golden lager to begin fixing the mood issue.

  “Sort of prepared.” Daniel tilted his head from side to side coyly. “I may have been waiting for an opportunity to play again for a while. Unfortunately, there’s only so many days in a single lifetime. You just can’t do everything.”

  “Word.” Abraham shuffled his margherita and ciders to make room for his electronics. “I haven’t found time to actually play the game either, but here I am with eighty-something optimized character builds. Heh. Funny how that happens.”

  “Sweet.” Thomas pulled out a crumpled paper and old sticky dice. “Hey, wanna give me one? Can’t remember the rules too well, and kinda donated my books to this guy.”

  “Sure. What do you want to play?” Abraham asked, moving over to show his screen to Thomas.

  “Kill, loot, and do cool shit. Duh?”

  “I have a rather straightforward warrior build that might work.”

  Mitchelle coughed. “For your reference, we start at level one with the bonus trait available. Plus, you get an NPC that’s played by me who is level five and a little stronger to help you get through the start…”

  William’s groan was shared by Daniel. Why, oh why the fuck does she have to push in her own character when she was already the game master?

  Mitchelle never stopped talking, “…I have a little bit of backstory prepared if you want me to read it so you guys get an idea of who my character is and how you might relate to her.”

  She pulled from her faded red backpack four copies of three hundred page manuscripts and handed them out.

  A glance at the title ‘Shadow Queen’s Saga’ confirmed William’s worst fears. Every page he flipped through only deepened it. This was the same highschooler’s fan-fic level writing of the same self insert character she had injected into every single story throughout their school days. Given the pagecount she had clearly been looking forward to this way too much. William cringed at the thought of stomping on that excited beaming face she was making.

  “Thanks, I’ll give it a read later and let you know what I think,” he said.

  Her grin widened. “Please do. I’ve been coining the idea of tossing it to a publisher one day. I’d appreciate honest feedback.”

  Okay, walked into that mine all on your own champ.

  “My condolences,” Daniel whispered to William, while covering his mouth with a whiskey glass.

  “Your build has some inconsistencies that don’t abide by the rules.” Abraham inspected Mitchelle’s character sheet at the back of the manuscript, while letting Thomas use his tablet. “These race combinations are illegal. Also, I think the game would be a better experience if you level her down, or us to five. Otherwise we’ll have to pick builds that abuse the game mechanics to even keep up with you in combat.”

  “What? But the plot needs her.” Mitchelle shrank behind her notes.

  “Mm-hm, the bonus trait wouldn’t feel like a proper power-up if there’s an overpowered NPC with us,” Daniel said in a conciliatory tone. “We’d need to be able to keep up with her.”

  “Okay. Okay! Everyone is level five. But, I have to keep the Soul Eater trait and the sub-races on her. Maybe you’ll discover why if we get far enough in the plot,” she said.

  “Fine by me. Can we ignore racial requirements for traits too then?” Abraham asked.

  She shrugged. “Eh, why not?”

  A dangerous smirk squinted the corner of Abraham’s dark pale gray eyes as he leaned over to Thomas and pointed at the screen, murmuring some technical advice to the smaller man.

  William pulled his phone out, closed the chapter of Isekai Gamer three he was reading, and quickly scrolled over online forums for a ready-made build. Thank God for the community. He did not have enough brain left to do numbers. All he wanted was to play some clever front-line rogue and kick ass with cool tricks.

  He kept on browsing, alternating between a bite of pizza and a sip of beer, enjoying the quietude. At some point, a soft drizzle had begun to drum against the window. Only now, sitting in the emptied house, William noticed how loud the sounds of traffic were, or rather how many cars rumbled past his front door. Rather than annoying him, the steady rumble of engines and wheels was oddly comforting and the flicker of headlights on the window almost hypnotizing.

  It’s not perfect, but it’s a good foundation. Best that I’ll ever get.

  “…Will. Hey Will, are you ready?”

  “Huh?” He blinked out of it, realizing everyone was staring at him.

  “How is your character coming along?” Daniel asked. “We’re all ready.”

  Crap.

  “It’s… Damn.” William dragged a palm over his face. “I’ll play… Uhh… What are you guys playing? I’ll pick whatever the party needs, preferably rogue.”

  “I’m playing Shadow Queen,” Mitchelle said. “She’s a half-dragon, half-undead, half-dark-elf, Ghost Blade Ninja, so she can deal a ton of damage, sneak, but also take hits, and use Soul Magic via Soul Eater trait. It’s important for the plot so she needs it. The party doesn’t need another sneaky character.”

  “Aha…” William breathed in his groan.

  “I picked a Script Arcanist build that’s based around exploiting how spell memorization work in conjunction with the Soul Palace trait. It technically allows access to every single spell in the game eventually.” Abraham clutched an invisible ball of power in his hand, lowering his voice to a bear-like baritone, “And the world shall tremble before I, the god of magic.”

  Daniel cackled, shaking his head. “Fantastic Abe. Well, my character is basically the face of our party. In combat I use demon pacts and that kind of stuff.”

  “Me, I’m a warrior,” Thomas said, “Melee with swords.”

  Abraham interject. “He’s playing a tweaked Weapon Master build, which exploits the Recall Death trait. It’s a great trait all around, but with Weapon Master it unlocks some almost disgustingly overpowered synergy. But, I think it’s fine, given Thomas’ playstyle.”

  “Fuck you man.” Thomas laughed. “I’m not dumb. I had a better grade in math than you.”

  Yeah, in the junior year.

  “Riiiiight,” William nodded again, slower. He had no idea of the specifics of Abraham’s spreadsheet magics for creating his builds, but he understood the gist of it. “You’re saying, we need a heal slut, buff boy, or some other support. I don’t know. Priests are boring…” He punched in a search query on the forums for a ‘fun support build’.

  “You don’t have to pick a support,” Mitchelle said.

  William shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. I’ll play one. Gotta find a fun one…” His eyes darted to a new tab with a cool picture of a plate armored hero surrounded by light, which set the monsters around him ablaze.

  Radiant Paladin: A flexible support tank with the ability to channel Divine Energy to powerful blessings, aura abilities, and minor divine magic.

  Scrolling down to later levels, W
illiam could see purifying auras, damaging auras, healing auras, crowd control auras, and pretty much auras for everything. The blessings available right off the gate were equally varied buffs, both temporary and permanent, which the paladin could grant to his allies. It seemed like the class somehow allowed you to swap out abilities, though only allowed a limited amount of them to be available at any given time. It sounded fun. Not quite a rogue, but certainly more entertaining than a generic priest.

  “Okay, I’ll play a Radiant Paladin,” William decided.

  Mitchelle scribbled it down. “What trait do you want?”

  Aw damn, a bonus trait. Quick, quick, search for traits.

  A page with a list as long as Mitchelle’s character’s background popped up. William stared at it for a while. Ugh, too many options. “You know what, if it’s alright I can continue browsing while we play and pick later.”

  “That’s fine,” Mitchelle adjusted her voice, organizing her notes for the game session. “This will be fun. I found the original idea from this tumblr collage post my friend shared, ‘Eden’s Gate’ but it’s adapted a bit.”

  William distributed his attributes evenly. Now what trait to pick? A thimble of God’s Blood, Divine Bond, Divine Boldness? Who comes up with these?

  Mitchelle flicked her wrist and assumed a flamboyant game master voice, “Wherever you were, whether at home or on an adventure slaying goblins, you heard a mysterious incantation…” Reciting a chant from her notes, she dropped her tone into an ominous murmur while her eyes scanned through the four of them. ”…AND BOOM!” She slammed her palm on the table. “In an instant you find yourselves sitting face to face with a pale beautiful woman with ethereal topaz hair and eyes, both of which flickered in the light suspended over her palm. Adventurers, describe yourselves!”

  “So, is this like an isekai or what? Am I supposed to be from a fantasy world?” Thomas asked. “What am I supposed to do, huh?”

  She pursed her lips with smugness. “Anything’s fine. You decide, for you see, this spell has the power to summon souls across dimensions, at the cost of wounding them, but you don’t need to worry about it. Okay, I’ll start. The woman before you radiates power and her voice tingles with an ethereal beauty which fills you with admiration. She says: Welcome heroes from distant lands, I am Shadow Queen, the one who has called you across the realms.”