OutRanked (The Weight Of It All): A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure Read online

  OutRanked

  The Weight Of It All

  A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure

  Book 5

  J.J. Thorn

  OutRanked: The Weight of it all

  Copyright @2022 by J. J. Thorn

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are fictional.

  This book is dedicated to my readers.

  Thanks for your reviews and sharing the story with others, whether on Facebook, Reddit, Discord, or in person. It all means more than you’ll ever know.

  Seeing people’s positive feedback is incredibly humbling and pushes me to continue.

  Even the negative constructive feedback helps me improve as a writer.

  I really hope you enjoy this book.

  Thank you.

  Table of Contents

  Recap – A heavily cut down version of the story so far

  Chapter 1 – Arrival

  Chapter 2 – Desperate

  Chapter 3 – Interlude – Raise

  Chapter 4 – The Capital

  Chapter 5 – Nightmares

  Chapter 6 – Alchemist

  Chapter 7 – G-Rank Dungeoneer

  Chapter 8 – Gerard the Red

  Chapter 9 – A Troll and a Bhino walk into an axe

  Chapter 10 – Push (Yourself)

  Chapter 11 – Interlude – The Nest

  Chapter 12 – Recovery

  Chapter 13 – Reunion

  Chapter 14 – Interlude – A Day in the city

  Chapter 15 – Between a Rock and a

  Chapter 16 – Hard Place

  Chapter 17 – Choices

  Chapter 18 – Interlude – Duty

  Chapter 19 – Mother

  Chapter 20 – No.

  Chapter 21 – Agraht’s Den

  Chapter 22 – Spiders

  Chapter 23 – Times up

  Chapter 24 – Times Up Pt. 2

  Chapter 25 – Interlude – Captain

  Chapter 26 – Running

  Chapter 27 – Set Sail

  Chapter 28 – Interlude – Turtling in Evitra Pt. 1

  Chapter 29 – Interlude – Turtling in Evitra Pt. 2

  Chapter 30 – Interlude – Turtling in Evitra Pt. 3

  Chapter 31 – Go.

  Chapter 32 – Yarda

  Chapter 33 – Dead Weight

  Chapter 34 – Interlude – Perspective

  Epilogue – Boss

  Thank you for reading

  Glossary of Characters

  Recap – A heavily cut down version of the story so far

  On the Continent of Terna, the Goddess is real. By her power, a small percentage of the population receives Affinities in the year they turn sixteen. With Affinities, they are given a Skill and a Rank. As they progress with their Skill, through effort and use, they can Rank up, earning new Skills and more energy.

  Book 1 follows Terrence Stine as he receives the WEIGHT Affinity and the ability to view people’s weights. Dismayed at the oddness of his Affinity and Skills, he is still thrilled to find he received an Affinity at all. As an Affinity user, he is sent to Prep School in Krader, where his journey begins.

  At Prep, Terrence ‘Ren’ Stine, spends most of his time with his new friends Zane, Jen, Britta and Cassie. Each bestowed a unique Affinity, with Zane’s proving the most like Terrence’s. They create a quick friendship and spend most of their time together. Zane is also the son of a wealthy businessman on the Continent, whose wares range from everyday items to more sinister activities. As such, he is a household name, who kicks out his son Zane ‘Golden Child’ Teller when he learns his Skill is not suited to a merchant’s lifestyle.

  Terrence’s goal is to learn more about his Affinity, hoping to become a Dungeoneer.

  In Book one, we’re also introduced to Terrence’s uncle Tom. Tom is a more veteran Dungeoneer, whose team consists of Griff, Holly, Lin and Rana. After spending some time with Terrence, Tom and his team are given the chance to enter a dungeon in the north called the ‘Ring of Mountains’. There they hope to find treasure, in the way of orbs, and progress in their own Affinities hoping to Rank Up. Prior to the Dungeon Dive, Tom’s SWORD Affinity Ranks up after several years of trying and receives the ‘Talon’ Skill.

  Book one ends with Tom’s team entering the dungeon and Terrence being asked to join Britta in their first monster hunting expedition, sponsored by her father.

  Book two picks up the story and Terrence agrees to the Monster hunt to find Skinks. Terrence learns that he’ll be travelling with his perpetual bully and cousin John, who is also Tom’s son. John is being mentored by a man named Gavin and has his own Affinity: ICE. Through a series of trials, Terrence finds that his Affinity progresses faster than those of his friends and he Ranks up on the journey, reaching Rank 2 and earning the Skill ‘Increase Weight’.

  Simultaneously, Tom and his team are also fighting the Dungeon up north and eventually come across a lair. The lair proves troublesome, and Rana loses her life as a result of the lair’s boss. They eventually defeat the monster, earning more Skills from the lair’s rewards, but are heartbroken at the loss of their friend and teammate.

  Through the course of book one and two, the king of Prost – the kingdom that Terrence is in – has determined that his son did not receive an Affinity from the Goddess. As a result, he tasks a team of high-Ranking Affinity users to retrieve a Dungeon core, which can bypass the Goddess and granting an Affinity.

  Sadly, the procurement of the core means collapsing the dungeon and releasing all its monsters throughout the nearby lands. The king knows the risks, and orders the mission otherwise, eventually killing thousands to provide his son Emmett with the SAND Affinity.

  Eventually, it is found out that 1) the collapsed dungeon was on the border of Prost and its neighbouring kingdom to the south Tamber. Tamber believes, rightfully, that Prost orchestrated the collapse, and tensions rise behind the scenes to an upcoming conflict.

  Book three takes Terrence and team into their first ever dungeon – Everwood. In the Everwood, Emmett (who joined the Krader Prep after receiving his SAND affinity) attacks them, forcing them to jump into a lair of their own. The lair is troublesome, but their team eventually prevails and receives an Inventory Satchel, which will help them tremendously in future dungeon dives.

  Meanwhile, Tom’s team is transported to another part of the dungeon after leaving the lair. Further in, they must fight even more monsters to leave, and the trip takes longer than expected to return. After losing Rana, they are all forced to push themselves and Tom earns the General Skill ‘Bloodlust.’ After finally reaching the exit, the dungeon expedition leader Omar coerces Tom to re-enter the dungeon without his team in search of an Alpha in the dungeon. They find a unique monster instead, named a ‘Dreelon.’

  Book four does not include Uncle Tom at all as he races back to his friends and family after leaving the Dungeon in the north. Instead, the whole book follows Terrence through a series of large events. A tournament is held where Terrence and Jen both earn high positions after well fought battles, but as the finals are approaching, a dungeon collapse happens in his new town of Krader. And in the collapse, Terrence learns that his mother, sister and friends are stuck in the chaos.

  The second half of the story follows Terrence, Zane, Jen and Cassie as they break the rules to find their family and friends. Once found, Terrence learns that his mother and friends have been killed and they, too, are almost killed by the same monster. Terrence’s father, Wally, comes to their aid with some of Tom’s team, and they make their
way out of Krader.

  The collapse in Krader prompts the king of Prost to initiate war on the kingdom of Tamber, believing that the collapse was done as a retaliation for the mission that occurred in books one and two. We also learn through a series of interludes that merchants, run by Stewart Teller, have caused both dungeon collapses – directly or indirectly.

  Terrence’s friends and family decide to head to the capital of Prost, in the hopes that they’ll find resolution among the chaos happening around them.

  And so, our story begins, with Terrence and friends heading to the capital and a war on the horizon.

  If you enjoy any of my stories, I’d love if you could leave a review. If this recap was helpful, please let me know.

  Hope you enjoy,

  J.J.

  Chapter 1 – Arrival

  “On your left, Ren!” Cassie yelled from her position behind me.

  I immediately glanced to my left, where a G-Rank Monkin jumped down towards me from the tree. Brushing aside its tail with the shaft of my axe, it missed me entirely and landed with a crash on the ground. The Monkin snarled as it glared at me but did little else as I brought my axe down towards its body.

  Jumping away at the last minute, I only nicked its arm as it stumbled back in an even greater rage. Bleeding and angry, it snarled again as it nursed its injured arm, readying to jump again. That never happened as Zane came from behind and stabbed the beast in its neck, finishing it.

  The Monkin fell to the ground as Zane looked around to see if any others were in our immediate area.

  “Thanks, buddy,” I said as I turned my head to look around. This obviously wasn’t fast enough, as Griff yelled for us to get moving.

  “Enough standing around, Terrence! Focus up!” Griff yelled as he watched us fight.

  I groaned but took the advice as I focused again on the fight happening around me.

  Twenty minutes away from the road, we were all taking a brief break from sitting and riding as we got closer to the Capital. Travelling, meditating, and talking only got you so far after all. Griff hadn’t been the keenest to leave the comfort of the wagon, but the number of attacks on refugees on their way to the Capital was more than enough to convince him.

  A couple of weeks after the Collapse, I still couldn’t believe how many people we saw traveling on the roads. Most by foot, unable to afford the costs of a wagon, but the Collapse and war meant everyone was on edge and eager to reach a place of safety.

  Honestly, I couldn’t blame them. I’d lost my mother, several friends, and one of the places I grew to call home. Krader would rebuild, but I would never see my mother or friends again.

  And somehow, I was one of the lucky ones.

  Re-focusing on the fight around me, we’d walked into the woods looking for some monsters to fight. With Griff behind us and knowing most of these monsters would only be around G-Rank, we weren’t too worried. Still, we knew better than ever how deadly a group of monsters could be.

  The current group included eight we could see. We’d already killed four, including the one Zane had just killed. Britta and Jen were both holding off two each.

  Neither looked hurt by the low-Ranking monsters, but that didn’t mean I shouldn’t help.

  Rushing into the fight again, I decided to go after Britta’s pair first.

  “Push, Britta!” I yelled to Britta as I came from the side.

  Taking the hint, Britta used her borrowed shield to push back one monster, causing it to stumble and lose its footing. Unable to catch itself, I brought down my axe. While effective, my Skill took too much energy, so I didn’t feel these low-Ranking enemies warranted me using any.

  My axe alone was more than enough as I caught the Monkin in the side of the head, catching it off guard and finishing it.

  Prying the axe out of its head, I worked with Britta to bring down the last monster attacking her shield. With the two of us working together, things went quickly, and we soon found ourselves helping Jen.

  She’d finished off one of the Monkins by the time we came to help. The other was on the ground, bleeding from cuts across its body as the three of us surrounded the last remaining Monkin.

  I felt slightly bad for the beast as it screamed in reaction to the three humans prowling towards it. If not for how often they went out of their way to kill humans on the road, I might have felt slightly worse. Attacks had only grown worse as the Monkins ran as fast as they could from the collapsed dungeon to the nearest towns. It was hard to tell, but as far as we knew, these could have been Monkin native to the area that had been displaced by monsters coming out of the dungeon.

  Another thing for Trish to research, I guess.

  The monster didn’t last long as Zane once again came to finish this one off as we corralled it towards a tree he was hiding behind.

  “If I’m not careful, I’ll have to watch my own back. You’re scary, Zane,” Britta joked as she put away her sword.

  “You have a Skill that gives you more stamina than all of us combined, can augment your arms to inhuman proportions, and somehow I scare you?” Zane scoffed, wiping the blood off his daggers.

  “I never said it made sense. You’re just getting great at that sneaky business. Don’t worry, though. Don’t sneak around behind Cassie’s back and I’ll be fine,” she said again, winking and patting him on the back.

  Jen rolled her eyes but chuckled as I looked over to see her dismissing both of her swords. Any blood falling to the ground.

  Looking around at the bodies on the ground, it really was a marvel to think I’d only met these people less than a year ago. I trusted them implicitly, and I knew they felt the same about me.

  “We’re heading back. That’s enough. I played along, but I want to get home now. Don’t forget to harvest first,” Griff ordered as he motioned to the bodies on the ground.

  I didn’t grumble this time as I borrowed a knife from Zane and went to work on one corpse.

  “Any of these look like they have an orb, Zane?” I asked as I worked.

  “Not that I can see, no. We’ll have better luck when we’re in one of the dungeons in the Capital,” he answered, working on his own.

  “If they let us in, that is,” Jen said.

  That lowered the mood as we all worked on the bodies as quickly as possible.

  Still, Jen was right. We hadn’t officially graduated Prep.

  That was one of the first things we needed to figure out once we got to the Capital.

  “We’ll be fine!” Cassie said as she joined us. “Besides, we’d look good as fugitives. We’ll just use Jen’s money and power to keep us safe,” she said as she threw her arms up in celebration. The blood on her daggers splattered all over, causing us to groan more and glare at Cassie.

  “Sorry, guys. I guess the money and power got to my head….” Cassie cowered, re-focusing on the body in front of her.

  We all laughed, even Jen.

  “Yeah, all that money and power,” Jen said, depositing the harvested parts into the satchel on her hip.

  We didn’t take too long and were soon on our way back to the wagon. Things had changed, but I knew I needed to move forward for the sake of my mom and my friends. The Capital was less than a day away at this point.

  I was more than eager to become a Dungeoneer. And if people’s stories could be believed, the Capital’s Guild Hall would work just fine.

  *****

  “And then the wolf monster jumped back towards the biggest among them. We were all stunned when the two monsters merged, and the wolf stood in front of us with two heads!”

  “Two heads!” Elise exclaimed excitedly.

  “Yeah, two whole snarling heads!” Lin yelled back as she told the story of their fight in the lair for Elise.

  “What happened next!”

  “Well, we fought the two-headed monster for a long time. And eventually, we found out there was a third Talon… I made a mistake and—"

  “We all made a mistake, Lin. Why don’t we switch up
the story for Elise,” Holly said, cutting off Lin. Elise didn’t seem keen to hear the rest of the story as it reached its tragic climax. Of course, I knew how the story ended, and I’m guessing everyone else was thankful she’d stopped.

  Elise was slowly getting back to her old self. We found we could distract her with stories or things we’d learned at Prep, which got her through. Of course, now and then, we’d mention something that would remind her of mom, and she’d be out of it again for an hour or two. But I was thankful to see her feeling a bit better.

  “What about another story about the giant monsters that exist all around the world? Like the Kio and the giant sea monsters that exist in dungeons around the world?” I jumped in, trying to change the subject.

  “We don’t need to hear about another huge turtle, Ren. Elise wants a story about something magical!” Britta said, turning her head to see Elise’s reaction.

  “Yeah, the big monsters are cool, but don’t you know any stories that involve magic?” Elise asked.

  Before Elise could complain too much, Britta jumped in with a story of her own.

  “Okay, I’ve got one for you. This one we learned in mythical creatures. Jump in if I’m telling it wrong, Ren,” Britta said, scooting closer to Elise in the cramped wagon.

  “Will do,” I said, waiting to hear which story she was going to tell.

  “So, there was this old man, like, really old. And apparently, this old man lived by himself for a long time in the woods. We don’t know why, but yeah, old man, woods, by himself in this nice-looking cabin.”

  I chuckled at the way she was already telling the story. I didn’t remember the professor going into so much detail about the cabin. I guess Britta had really taken to this story.

  “Anyway, he’s chopping wood one day, and he hears ruffling in the nearby trees,” she continued. “He hasn’t seen anyone for months, mind you, so he yells out, thinking it might be someone lost or a bandit looking for an easy place to hide. No one answers, so he goes back and grabs the sword he used when he was younger.