Devil in the Deep Blue Sea Read online

  SUCCUBUS 6

  Devil In The Deep Blue Sea

  A.J. Markam

  A LitRPG Series

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  Copyright © 2019 by A.J. Markam

  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.

  Also by A.J. Markam

  Ex-Superheroes #1

  A Superhero Harem Series

  Succubus Christmas Special

  Succubus

  (Kindle and audiobook)

  Succubus 2: Hell To Pay

  (Kindle and audiobook)

  Succubus 3:

  The Good, The Bad, And The Crazy Stupid Hot

  (Kindle and audiobook)

  Succubus 4:

  Gnome Place Like Home

  (Kindle and audiobook)

  Succubus 5:

  Hardcore Dungeon Core

  (Kindle and audiobook)

  Dead Man Gaming

  Zodiac: Operation Zodiac

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Also by A.J. Markam

  Recommended

  1

  Ever heard the saying, The devil and the deep blue sea?

  It’s actually a shortened version of Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, which is the nautical version of Caught between a rock and a hard place.

  Nobody really knows where the saying came from, though one theory is that the ‘devil’ was the name for the seam around the ship that kept it watertight. If a sailor fell out of the rigging for the sails, he might hit the devil and break his back – or miss the ship, fall into the ocean, and drown.

  Good times.

  I faced my own dilemma involving a devil. Well, a devil lady. Actually, a smokin’ hot succubus named Alaria – the woman of my dreams and the love of my life. Even if she was a character in a videogame.

  My dilemma also included the deep blue sea. Specifically, the quest to kill Alaria’s evil ex-masters. Our next target would take us down into the depths of the ocean.

  So, more of a Devil IN the deep blue sea sort of situation.

  Mostly, though, the dilemma involved my job as a quality control tech on the virtual-reality videogame OtherWorld.

  It all started when the company I worked for released OtherWorld’s adult expansion pack…

  And everybody started fuckin’.

  And by everybody, I mean EVERYBODY.

  Well, 18 and over, anyway.

  Most people – at least most of our customers – loved it. LOVED it.

  And why wouldn’t they? They continued their quests in the most popular videogame on earth, but now they got to bang hot elves. And lovely dryads. And females of every race in the game.

  Including gnomes and dwarves and orcs and goblins and trolls, if you were into that sort of thing. (Which I am NOT. But no judgment.)

  And if you were a straight woman or a gay dude, you could have your fill of sausage, too.

  And everyone lived happily ever after, right?

  Ha.

  Not everyone.

  The adult expansion pack pissed quite a few people off. Mostly folks who liked to thump Bibles, carry signs, and who had nothing better to do with their time than police what other people did in the privacy of their own bedrooms. (Or videogame consoles.)

  And so the scene was set for the biggest showdown I’d ever faced, inside the game or out…

  …and I hadn’t even logged in for the day yet.

  2

  We were in Westek’s largest conference room for an all-hands-on-deck meeting of the quality control department. My boss, John Perkins, was addressing me and my coworkers about the new expansion pack.

  The problem was, he kept getting interrupted.

  “The good news is that monthly subscriptions are up 198% from last quarter, and we’re seeing – ”

  “SEX IS FOR MARRIAGE, NOT VIDEOGAMES!” a giant crowd yelled outside. “SEX IS FOR MARRIAGE, NOT VIDEOGAMES!”

  John looked out the conference room’s bay windows in annoyance. “For fuck’s sake…”

  “Literally,” one of my coworkers piped up, and the entire room burst into laughter.

  The first couple of protestors had shown up outside company headquarters the day after the expansion pack was announced. Within a week, the total number had increased to several dozen.

  Fearing a potential public relations disaster if they slow-walked it, Westek released the expansion pack months early, at which point the crowd outside our building swelled into the hundreds.

  I felt bad for my coworkers, who had to deal with the Bible-thumpers as they came to work in the morning and left again at night. Me? I spent four to six days at a time inside an experimental long-term immersion rig. I only had to see the self-righteous busybodies once a week at most.

  It wasn’t their physical presence that was the worst, though. Even though Westek had secured a court order and the police had cordoned off the protestors 200 feet from the building, they still had megaphones – which they pretty much used 24/7.

  They shouted dozens of different slogans, but some of my favorites (if you can call them ‘favorites’) were…

  “The sin is virtual, but Hell is real!”

  “Read the Constitution, no gaming prostitution!”

  “Don’t tempt God’s hate! Thou shalt not fornicate!”

  What the protestors lacked in creativity, rhythmic meter, and grasp of Constitutional law, they made up for in volume. As in, This one goes to 11.

  As the shouting continued outside, John grimaced and raised his voice. “As some of you have already reported, we’re starting to see protestors inside the game now. Ironic, since they have to pay for monthly subscriptions and they’re just adding to our profits. If they all started playing OtherWorld and left us alone in the real world, that would be fine by me. However, if you encounter protestors inside the game, do not engage. Do not feed the trolls.”

  “Hey!” a guy shouted out in mock indignation. Everybody knew that his QC character was a troll.

  Everyone laughed.

  John smil
ed. “Except for Ken over there. You can feed him. All right, people, we should probably – ”

  A new chant started outside.

  “IT’S ADAM AND EVE, NOT YOURSELVES AND ELVES!”

  “Oh, shut the fuck up!” John roared, and everybody cheered.

  He turned back to us with a hangdog look.

  “Look, guys, I know this is annoying, but everybody just soldier through. They’ll eventually get tired of it.” He paused. “I hope.”

  John didn’t have to worry about us, though. Morale had never been higher. And why not? Once they realized that they were sitting on a goldmine, Westek had shifted 90% of the QC department over to the adult servers. Now all the workers – guys and girls – could bang hot elves and get paid hourly for it. What had formerly been a cool gig had turned into a dream job.

  Although I’d been lucky enough to be doing it for months.

  After the meeting, I returned to the experimental lab and hooked myself back into my rig.

  Time to go bang a certain smokin’ hot devil lady.

  Well, at some point, anyway. There were other issues I had to solve first.

  No matter how awesome the sex was in the game, I was still on a long-term quest, and there were still all sorts of pesky little problems that went along with it.

  Like how to breathe underwater.

  3

  I came to inside The Blowhole.

  I know that since the adult expansion pack, that name might have a very different meaning – but it was actually just a grubby seaside bar with a décor and clientele straight out of New England in the early 1800’s.

  So, basically Moby Dick. Captain Ahabs and Queequegs everywhere, although some of them were orcs and goblins.

  I was sitting in a booth flanked by Alaria and Stig, my succubus and imp. Alaria was basically a devilish version of Playmate of the Century, with red skin, black wings, horns, and a tail. Stig looked like an anorexic grey cousin of Yoda in a nudist colony, though with no dangly bits to betray he was a boy.

  Across from us sat a shifty-looking guy in a striped sailor’s shirt and white cap, with a bushy neckbeard of black whiskers. A dozen empty beer steins filled the table between us.

  “What happened, matey?” the sailor sneered. “Not enough sleep?”

  In OtherWorld, when you signed out – even temporarily, like I had for the 30-minute QC meeting – all the NPCs (non-player characters) were programmed to ignore the fact that your avatar just sat there all dopey-eyed and non-communicative.

  On the other hand, they might make a comment like Sailor Guy… or like Stig.

  “Can’t hold his liquor,” my imp chortled as he downed his fifth – sixth? Seventh? – beer.

  Stig liked his grog, Stig did. A little too much, if you asked me.

  “He was up all night doing important things,” Alaria cooed. “Like me.”

  I looked over at my girlfriend, and she winked.

  I smiled back.

  The sailor just seemed weirded out, though.

  “Yes, well, hrmph, back to the matter at hand,” he grumbled. He pulled out a silk baggie and placed it on the table in front of him. “As I said, this is the best bet you’ve got to breathe underwater… and it’s gonna cost ya.”

  “Let me see them,” I said.

  The sailor opened the bag and spilled out seven silver rings onto the table.

  We had tried everything to breathe underwater. Special potions, magical spells, you name it. The problem was that even the best potions wore off after 30 minutes. I didn’t want to be locked in battle underwater when the potion ran out. And spells could be counteracted and broken by an enemy attack. Also not very convenient.

  No – if we were going to be underwater for days or weeks at a time, I needed something I could count on. And apparently these rings were it.

  “Salvaged from the Lost Temple of Baloq, the sea god,” the sailor said. “We found some natives out in the Dark Archipelago sellin’ ‘em. They got ‘em from the temple ruins on the sea floor a thousand feet down. Guaranteed to make ya breathe underwater.”

  I eyed him suspiciously. “For how long?”

  “As long as ya wear the ring.”

  If this guy was on the level, these rings would solve all our problems.

  …IF he was on the level.

  “How do I know you’re not just scamming us?” I asked suspiciously.

  “I ain’t a liar, boy. Go take a swim ‘n try it out. I’ll go with ya.”

  The bar was only a hundred feet from a sandy beach. It would be simple enough to go take the rings for a spin.

  “Alright… how much?”

  “A hunnert gold.”

  I nearly choked. “A HUNDRED GOLD?!”

  After purchasing a bunch of crappy half-measures, I only had 105 gold left.

  “I can’t afford three rings at that price!” I snapped.

  The sailor frowned. “Why would ya need three, matey?”

  “Are you forgetting about my friends?” I asked, irritated.

  Alaria raised one eyebrow at the sailor.

  Stig ignored us completely as he tipped his beer stein all the way back and got foam all over his face.

  “Yer a warlock, aintcha?” the sailor snorted. “I hear tell that anything that affects you affects yer demons, too.”

  “So… you’re saying I wear the ring, and they’ll be able to breathe underwater, too?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Like a fish,” the sailor grinned.

  “I don’t feel like a fish,” Stig burped.

  “He’s gotta put it on first, ya strange, wee little man.”

  “I’m not a man,” Stig said indignantly.

  Guess he didn’t mind being called ‘strange’ or ‘wee,’ though.

  “Let me try them on,” I said.

  The sailor slid the pile of rings over to me, and I went through them until I found one that fit. I selected it and read its properties:

  Ring of Baloq

  Grants bearer the ability to breathe underwater.

  Ability extends to all of Warlock’s demons.

  Okay, so the guy apparently wasn’t lying. Either that, or the game was now pushing counterfeit products with bogus stats.

  I was already wearing two rings, each with magical properties. The game would only allow me to get benefits from two rings at a time, though, so I had to remove one of them.

  My Ring of Tharos gave me +60 Intellect, +40 Stamina, and +20 Haste. I wasn’t about to take it off. So I took off my generic +4 Intellect, +6 Critical Strike ring, dropped it into one of my bags, and slipped on the Ring of Baloq.

  “Feel like a fish yet?” I joked to Stig.

  “Nope.”

  “Ya gotta get in the water first, matey,” the sailor said.

  “Alright, let’s go try it out in the – ”

  “AHH,” the sailor grunted as he held out his hand, palm up.

  “I’m not going to pay you until I know it works.”

  “An’ I’m not lettin’ you anywhere near the water wearin’ that thing, lessin’ you swim away with it. So gimme my money first, landlubber.”

  I sighed, reached into my purse, and pulled out almost all of my remaining gold. “If this doesn’t work, and you try to run off with my money, I’ll kill you.”

  “Aye, ‘tis to be expected,” the sailor said as he pocketed my money. “Let’s go try her out, then.”

  We left the bar and walked out into the sunshine down to the sandy beach.

  To be accurate, Alaria, the sailor, and I walked. Stig stumbled drunkenly.

  As the waves lapped gently at the shore, I started taking off my boots.

  “What’re ya doin’?” the sailor asked, bewildered.

  “Taking off my clothes.”

  “What, are ya gonna be swimmin’ around stark nekkers? I thought ya wanted to go questin’, not skinny-dippin’.”

  He had a point. Probably wouldn’t do to go into battle with no armor on, even if it was cloth armor.

  Ok
ay, fine.

  I walked into the crystal-clear water fully clothed. My pants were immediately soaked through, and I felt my cloak float on the water around me.

  At least the water was warm – a nice Caribbean-style 80 degrees.

  I got up to neck level and looked back at Alaria and Stig.

  The first breath underwater always sucked – especially if you’d bought a bum spell and ended up drowning instead. As I had on a previous occasion.

  Once I’d resurrected in the nearest graveyard, I hunted down the bastard who’d sold it to me and killed him on general principle.

  I nervously sucked in my potentially last breath of air. “Here goes nothin’.”

  “Don’t die, honey,” Alaria said sweetly.

  “Yeah, don’t die, boss,” Stig echoed.

  “Really useful advice, guys,” I said sarcastically.

  I ducked my head underwater, blew out as much air as I could… fought every last survival instinct I had… and inhaled.

  Warm, salty water flowed over my tongue and down my windpipe.

  Just as I was anticipating choking to death, a warm feeling of peace came over me – and I started to breathe underwater.

  IT WORKED!

  I jumped up out of the water and shouted, “Blb blrk!” as saltwater poured out of my mouth.