Difficulty: Legendary (LitRPG Series Book 1) (Difficulty:Legendary)

by Gregg Horlock

  My pulse raced. I took a step forward but the movement felt slow, and I thought I was going to fall down. I wondered why such a simple thing as movement was so difficult, but then I realised that as a paladin, my character was probably taller than I was in real life. I spent a few minutes going back and forth, gradually getting used to walking in a body that wasn’t my own.

  I looked around me. There didn’t seem to be anybody else nearby, and for miles beyond all I saw were fields of yellow grass. For a newbie map, this didn’t seem too welcoming.

  Location discovered! The Plains of Jordan.

  25XP Gained!

  25XP until level 2.

  The Plains of Jordan? Where the hell was that? Wasn’t I supposed to be in Blundow? I had seen images of Blundow on the net, and I knew it was a little hamlet with a few shops and NPCs. The kind of place you saw on the front of Christmas cards. There were no shops in the fields in front of me, and certainly no people. There wasn’t even a single Christmas tree in sight.

  I turned and looked behind me. A hundred meters behind was the edge of a mountain. Cut into the rocky cliff was a cave. The mouth of it was wide and dark, and it couldn’t have looked any more uninviting. I would give that a miss, I decided.

  I turned back around and looked at the fields. As I scanned across them, I saw movement above. Something swirled in the sky in the distance. It was a large creature with a slinky body and flapping wings. Spikes were ridged across its back, and as it dove and swooped I heard it give a cry.

  It looked terrifying, and something told me it was a creature way beyond the means of a level 0 newbie. Why would the developers put a monster like that so close to the spawn map? No wonder 30% of people died without reaching the main map.

  I needed to check my gear, but how did I do that? I knew I should have read the game manual when Dad told me he’d bought me a game pass, but I had just been too excited. I was so stupid sometimes. I always used to let my excitement get the better of me and rush into things without thinking about them. Before he went, Thomas had given me the nickname ‘Mr. Naïve.’ Luckily, he hadn’t told anyone else.

  I hit my chest in frustration. As I did, a screen popped up. It showed a drawing of my character, and next to it was a list of all my equipment. As I scanned through my gear, I felt my heart sink. All I had was a cloth shirt, cloth boots and a bronze sword. Certainly not enough to fight the winged creature with. That was the first thing I was going to have to do; get better equipment. Maybe I would get lucky and come across a chest, or maybe there would be lower-level creatures around that dropped loot when killed. I knew that in-game you could find or make weapons and armour to improve your stats. Sometimes, if you were really luckily, you’d kill a boss and a rare item would drop. It was a long time before I’d find anything like that.

  I was a paladin, so I knew I would start with some basic spells. But the same problem resurfaced – how did I access them? I patted my chest again and the inventory screen came up. I patted it twice in quick succession, and the screen closed and then reopened. There had to be some way to access my spells.

  I rubbed my head and got nothing but irritated skin. I jumped up and down, and just felt stupid. Even the birds in the sky seemed to be laughing at me. Then I stoked my arm, and got lucky. A screen appeared with over fifty brown squares filling it. Forty-nine of them were empty, but the first square showed a white back ground with a yellow halo. I focused on it, and a name appeared.

  Spell: Bless. Increase the attack points of allies in a fifty-metre radius by 5%.

  Well that wasn’t going to be much good against the winged creature unless I wanted to bless it to death, and looking at the barren fields, it seemed I was fresh out of allies. Where the hell was everyone? Shouldn’t there have been newbies like me running around, and NPCs stood there waiting to chat?

  I opened up my inventory screen again. In the corner was a tiny drawing of a map. Focussing on it, the map unravelled and then opened, making a crinkling sound as it spread across the screen. The map was completely black, save for a tiny section where I stood. It looked like I was in the furthermost corner of the right hand-side of the world. I felt lonely.

  I heard a flapping sound across the plains beyond me. I tried to close the map, but in my panic I brought up the spell list. The flapping sound grew louder until I realised what I was hearing. It was the sound of giant wings beating in the air.

  A shudder of fear ran through me. I forced myself to stay calm, and I closed the map screen and stared across the plains. My suspicions were confirmed. I stared ahead of me and had a sinking feeling as I watched the winged creature heading in my direction.

  How had it noticed me? That didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was that as the creature got nearer, I saw text gradually appear above its head.

  Flying Gologoth – Level 76

  Fire Elemental

  HP: 5000/5000

  Level 76? What the hell were they thinking putting creatures like that near the newbie camp? And that was when the realisation finally hit me; I wasn’t in Blundow. I was nowhere near the newbie point. Something had gone wrong, and the game had deposited my level 0 character in the darkest reaches of the map in a place where I was too weak to be.

  It was clear I couldn’t fight. A bless spell and a bronze sword were no match for a level 76 beast, and for all I knew, it breathed fire. My cloth shirt suddenly seemed all too flammable for my liking, and I wondered if human torch was a selectable class.

  I turned around. There was only one place I could go; the cave that was cut into the mountain. The mouth was so dark that not a single beam of light penetrated it, and it made me shiver when I thought about what might be waiting for me inside. There was a phrase that people used quite a lot – ‘better the devil you know.’ It wasn’t true in this case. The devil here was a level 76 Flying Golgoth, and that devil would kill me with the slightest of effort.

  I ran toward the cave. My steps felt heavy and clumsy, and I heard the flap of wings behind me. The creature roared, and the sound sent a shiver through me. Just as I heard it swoop down, I reached the mouth of the cave and ran inside.

  I felt cold close all around me. The cave was made of stone. The wind reached the mouth and then made a whistling noise as it blew through the eerie tunnel. I decided I needed to go further in to make sure I was safe, so I took tentative steps along the stone floor.

  As I walked, I became aware that my footsteps were too loud, and they seemed to echo off the walls. The hairs on my arms stood up. I stopped. With my footsteps silent, I heard something else.

  Voices. Someone was in the cave, somewhere deep in the middle. I needed to be quiet. I crouched down as low as I could and then I took careful steps forward, making sure I didn’t make a noise.

  New Ability learned: Sneak. Your feet make no sound as your prowl in the shadows. Sneak is a crucial tool for any thief to have. Do you accept?

  I didn’t have any desire to be a thief, so I declined. With only three abilities slots to spare, I couldn’t waste one of them on the first ability that came my way. Once I declined it my slots stayed empty, but I felt something change inside me, and a warm glow spread across my forehead.

  I put my hand to my head, and a screen loaded in front of me. It was my character information sheet, and most of it looked as it had when I created my paladin. There was one addition. Under ‘Skills’, there was one entry.

  Sneak – 1 (0% toward next level).

  So it seemed that even if I declined an ability, I could still gain a skill. That was good to know.

  As I crept through the cave, I felt better when I heard that my footsteps were quieter. Sometimes I lost my balance and put my foot down harder than I intended, but I guessed that was because my sneak skill was low, and that it would get better the more I used it. Maybe it was something I could work on, and I could become the rarely seen Ninja Paladin, or Ninjadin, as I’d call it.

  I went further into the cave. As I walked through, I started to find th
e carcasses of monsters that had already been killed strewn on the floor. I focused on one of them.

  Cave Bull – Dead

  Loot – Empty.

  Someone had been through the cave before me, and I realised that the voices I had heard must have been theirs. Maybe they would be able to help me. Perhaps one of them would be a mage, and he’d be able to cast a spell to send me to Blundow.

  I walked toward the voices, hearing their volumes grow louder the deeper into the cave I went. Eventually I saw a glow ahead of me. I realised it was the flames of a torch flickering in the pitch black, and I saw that a figure held it. I crept closer.

  Sneak increased by 10%!

  Warm pleasure surged through me. Was this how it felt to improve your skills? It was like I had just drunk a pint of beer, and that a pleasant glow had settled in my stomach. If this was how it felt to improve a skill, I couldn’t imagine how amazing levelling up would be.

  As I neared the torches and the voices, I stopped. Suddenly I felt nervous. I remembered what the techie had told me before I had gotten into the cocoon. It was dangerous to be on the main map without a guild, and player killing was allowed everywhere. I needed to be careful. I would have to listen to these people and see what they were like before I tried talking to them. I crept forward as close as I could until finally I could see them.

  The cave beyond opened up into an oval room. In the centre of the room was a stone spike that jutted up from the floor. Green lines glowed on it, running across its surface like veins. Three people stood around it.

  One was a mage with a cloak that shimmered gold in the darkness. He had a beard that was pointed and reached down to his chin, and his eyes were cruel and seemed to be full of dark secrets. A name flashed above him.

  Battan555 – Mage Level 79

  Next to him was a small man with a hunched back. He wore a belt with daggers fastened across it, and the tips of some of them seemed to drip with poison. His face was a sneering one, as if he was always looking for a way to cause mischief.

  Dyzmal – Thief Level 82

  Finally there was the third man. He was taller and thicker than the rest, and seemed to bulge with muscle. He wore metal armour that doubled his size, and I wondered how he could even move with that much steel on his body. A great sword hung over his beck, the hilt of which shined with gemstones. His face was pale and his gaze was stern. From his stance, I knew immediately that he was the higher ranking of the three. Something about him sent a chill through me, and I knew straight away that under no circumstances should I speak to him.

  Herelius Rouge – Warrior Level 106

  Wow. For a second, all I could do was stare in astonishment. How had Herelius become so powerful? He must have played the game for years, decades even. I had the strong urge to back away and leave the cave, but I knew that the winged creature waited for me outside. Instead I leaned further back into the shadows.

  I watched the men, and I realised that next to all their names, was a symbol. It was a black serpent with its mouth open, and blood dripped from its bared fangs.

  Herelius crossed his arms and spoke to his companions. His stare was so strong that even the other high-level characters couldn’t look away from it.

  “Is it possible?” said Herelius. “Can we bring Necrolor back?”

  The mage stroked the surface of the spiked rock in front of him. The green veins seemed to glow brighter at his touch.

  “It’ll be tough, but it can be done.”

  “And what would we need?” Herelius’ voice had an air of impatience about it.

  “When the Halons defeated him,” said Battan the mage, “His soul was spread throughout the map. If we can find the pieces, we can bring him back.”

  The thief, Dyzmal, adjusted the weight of the bag on his back. It looked like a loot sack, and the possessions inside it bulged against the leather.

  “The Halons aren’t going to let us.”

  Herelius spat on the floor. “I’m not asking for permission. Damn the treaty. How dare they tell us who we can and can’t kill? Do they think that just because Necrolor is gone that we’ll stay quiet?”

  Battan stoked the stone again. “What about Ozreal? Think he can be bought to help us?”

  Herelius gritted his teeth. “I don’t buy help. I demand it. But I doubt it, anyway. I wouldn’t trust him. Never trust a man who won’t join a guild.”

  I decided that I’d heard enough. Whatever these guys were talking about, they’d travelled all the way to a lonely cave in the remotest part of the map to do it. They obviously didn’t want prying ears, and I doubted they’d like me being there.

  I decided to call tech support. There had to be a way to talk to the techies in FuzeTek and tell them what had happened. I could get in touch with them, and they could fix whatever bug had sent me here instead of Blundow. I longed to see excited newbies running around, and NPCs standing by with gentle smiles.

  The question was, how would I summon the techies? Like everything else in this game, it wasn’t easy. Why the hell hadn’t I read the manual?

  I started pressing different parts of my body, pinching my earlobes, prodding my temples, scratching my knees. As I patted my leg, I must have made too much noise, because the thief turned around and snapped his eyes in my direction.

  “What’s that?” he said.

  Sneak failed! You have been detected!

  A chill ran through me. I felt the blood drain from my face, and I thought about running from the cave. If I stayed they would kill me. The winged creature was outside, but maybe I’d have to risk it. Perhaps the phrase ‘better the devil you know’ really was true after all.

  I stood up. Just as I was about to sprint away, the mage pointed his arm in my direction. A shock of blue light flew from his fingertips. It hit me and knocked the air out of my chest. I felt it wrap around me like icy cold vines. As much as I tried to struggle, I couldn’t move an inch.

  Herelius turned to face me, and I felt the heat of his stare on my skin. His face was horrible to look at. His skin was pure grey, and his bones pressed against his skin as if he was hundreds of years old.

  “What’s a level 0 doing here?” he said.

  I knew then that I had stumbled across something that I shouldn’t have. I wanted to run but the mage’s icy vines held me in place. I thought about trying to plead my way out, but I knew it wouldn’t help. I hadn’t bothered to allocate points to my charisma skill, and my real-life charisma wasn’t nearly as good as I liked to think.

  As his two friends watched, Herelius walked toward me. His heavy footsteps boomed on the stony floor.

  “I’d order you not to tell anyone what you saw today,” he said, walking toward me. “But I don’t have to, because you won't get the chance.”

  And then he stood in front of me. I heard the screech of metal as he pulled his great sword out of the sheath on his back. The gems in the hilt turned red, and the glow of them threatened to blind me. He raised the sword over his head. In the second before he struck I had time to stare into his eyes, and I saw nothing but hate in his gaze.

  I blindly cycled through menus, seeing the character and inventory screens switch in front of me. There had to be something I could do. Anything.

  But I knew there wasn’t.

  His sword carved through my shoulder and sent a pain through me that was so strong that it blinded me, and I couldn’t help but scream in agony. Fire flowed through me, burning me from the inside and sending me into a fit of suffering.

  The game world faded around me and the sounds disappeared. Gradually the pain wore away, and everything around me faded to black.

  Chapter Three

  “Unlucky, kid,” said the techie, when he helped me out of the cocoon.

  As he pulled the tube out of my throat I wanted to retch, but I held it in. At first I was dazed at the jarring sensation of being back in real-time, but the feeling quickly gave way to something else. I had never in my life been as angry as I was then. What the hel
l were they playing at? How could the techs have let this happen? I didn’t know who I should direct my fury at; the incompetent technicians, or the over-powered Herelius Rouge who had so remorselessly killed a level 0.

  The tech patted me on the back and guided me away from the tube. I shrugged him off.

  “You’ve got to let me back in,” I said. I felt my cheeks start to flush with blood. I looked up and saw that everyone was watching; the long-haired man who had only recently been taken out of his cocoon, the technicians, and worse, my parents. My dad stood there in shock, his eyes wide as if he couldn’t believe it.

  “What happened, Eric?” he said.

  “It’s not fair,” I answered.

  The tech smiled. “Deaths are permanent. I thought I warned you about that?”

  “But you said I’d be in Blundow. I don’t know where the hell you sent me, but it wasn’t a newbie map.”