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

by Gregg Horlock

  15 exp gained.

  This was great! I started to wonder about what other abilities were waiting for me, when an image filled my screen. It was a long brown table with rickety legs, and on it were the armourer’s items. He had laid them out neatly with their price tags below them.

  As I scanned along the items, I was dismayed. Most of them required a strength ability of at least 2 to use them, and I only had 1. The only weapon I could use was a pair of sharpened daggers, which had double the attack rating of my current ones. They would have been enough to allow me to kill the mousekin without having to rest. When I looked at my own inventory screen, I saw that I had no CR. The sharpened daggers cost CR75, which left me quite short.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Pretty good selection. I like the look of the sharpened daggers, so keep them on hold for me, please. You’ve done a good job with your weapons.”

  The armourer smiled, and stuck his hand out toward me. I took it, and we shook hands.

  Guardian point gained!

  Total points: 1

  (99 to next level: Pretty Good Guy)

  As good as it was to gain a new ability and a Guardian point, I couldn’t help feeling downcast as I walked back to the Killing Fields. It felt like a long way to go until I would either level up enough to increase my stamina, or earn enough CR to buy a weapon.

  I stood in the Killing Fields and waited for a mound of soil to shake. The forest around me was silent, and moonlight shone through the gaps in the leaves on the trees. The mud in front of me exploded, and a mousekin jumped out.

  I looked around me, and this time I couldn’t see any sign of Reebus and her hood-covered, sneering face. The mousekin ran at me, and I quickly dealt three sharp stabs to its abdomen. I sat back and let my stamina refill, watching as the blood dripped down its fur.

  Finally my stamina filled to a third. This was it. Time for my first kill. The idea of it filled me with excitement, and I readied my daggers. As the mousekin made a final charge, I waited for the inevitable fire ball to burn through the forest and incinerate my kill. When it didn’t come, I lurched forward with my blade and plunged it deep into the heart of the creature.

  The mousekin squealed in pain and then collapsed onto the floor, where it gave a final death rattle from its throat. When it died, it’s body slowly started to evaporate, leaving nothing but skin and meat. I picked them up and put them in my bag.

  15 exp gained!

  Total: 30 (20 more until level 1)

  Mousekin meat x1 added to inventory

  Mousekin skin x1 added to inventory

  It had taken way too long between seeing the mousekin and killing it, and it was clear that it would take me weeks to level up this way. At this rate, Herelius Rouge would be walking with a cane by the time I was powerful enough to face him. In some ways that would have worked in my favour, since age often weakened those who relied on their physiques. That wasn’t what I wanted though. I wanted to face him as equals, and for him to know that I had fought him at his best, and won.

  I sat back against the trunk of an oak tree and let my stamina bar make its painfully-slow rise. As I did, I found myself start to doze off. The wind was chilly, but I was so tired that I knew I could sleep through it if I wanted to.

  Suddenly the forest was alive with the sound of something thumping on the ground. It was so loud that it was like an earthquake, and it made my skin tingle with fear. I looked around me and wondered what monstrous creature had awoken in the forest. Knowing how incompetent the techs were, I wouldn’t have put it beyond them to let loose a level 50 basilisk in the Killing Fields.

  I got to my feet and readied my daggers. A shape started to form in front of me. It was a mass of shadow that grew larger the nearer it got, blocking the forest behind it from view. I backed against the tree trunk and prepared myself, feeling like a sardine squaring up for a fight with a great white.

  “You won’t need those,” boomed a voice.

  A lamp lit up at the side of the shadow, closer to the ground. As it illuminated the area of the forest, I realised that a giant and the dwarf stood before me. I had seen them earlier in the day in the Killing Fields, but I hadn’t wanted to approach them. My experience of other players, even in Blundow, wasn’t good so far.

  Both of them had their names written in blue above their heads.

  Brian – Giant – Tinker Level 3

  Smoglar – Dwarf – Warrior Level 4

  The dwarf frowned at me. At first I thought he was looking at me with contempt, but then I realised that it was just his normal expression; he had mean, rocky features like the face of a mountain. The giant smiled, and straight away I saw the intelligence behind his eyes.

  “Pardon me for interrupting,” said the giant, his voice so loud that it shook the leaves on the tree behind me. “But I’ve been watching you use those daggers. And then resting. And then using them again. Then resting…It’s enough to put someone to sleep.”

  “Why are we helping him?” said the dwarf.

  The giant held out a hand to silence his friend, and then looked at me.

  “Take this as a tip, from one tinker to another. Check your skills.”

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  “Just check them.”

  Smoglar shook his head at his giant friend. “Always with the tinkering. I thought you’d choose something else when they….”

  “Don’t say it,” said Brian. It sounded like anger hovered on the edge of his booming voice.

  “I just thought you’d choose a different class, that’s all, you great big lump.”

  “We agreed not to talk about that,” said Brian. “You know how upset it makes me.”

  With that, Brian and Smoglar turned and walked away from the forest and toward the village, leaving me alone next to the tree. As soon as they had gone, I checked to make sure no mousekin had spawned near me. Seeing that none were around, I brought up my character screen and checked my skills.

  Explosives – Level 1 (0% toward next level)

  Knife Play – Level 1 (0% toward next level)

  Blade Sharpen – Level 1 (0% toward next level)

  All well and good, but what did they mean, and how could I use them? I focussed on the skills, but a description didn’t appear. And then I imagined a question mark in my head. I dragged it over the ‘explosives’ skill and released it.

  Explosives – With the right materials, you can really make a bang.

  Now I was getting somewhere. I applied the same method to the other skills, and read their definitions.

  Knife Play – your chance of a critical hit is increased by 1% with every level of this perk.

  Blade Sharpen – If you have the proper tools, you can make any blade stronger.

  The Knife Play skill didn’t appeal to me, since I wasn’t a fan of passive skills on the other RPG games that I had played. Blade Sharpen, on the other hand, was much better. If I could improve my own daggers, then I wouldn’t have to use the armourer. All I needed now were the right tools.

  I thought about it. How did someone sharpen knives? The solution was clear – a whetstone. But where would I find one of those? In the village, was the obvious answer. From the armourer. Damn, so I did need him after all.

  As I thought about how everything in this game ran in a vicious circle, I felt pain explode on my neck. I put my hand to my skin and felt wet blood on my fingers.

  25 HP lost!

  Total: 60/90

  What the hell had just attacked me? I couldn’t see any mousekin anywhere, but I felt the agony in my neck all the same. I stood up and backed away from the tree. As I moved, my shoulder burned with fresh pain.

  25 HP lost!

  Total: 35/90

  I turned around and saw not a mousekin, but something else. It was a snake, its body thicker than a log and coiled all the way around a branch, hiding its true length. Venom dripped from its fangs, and its tiny black eyes regarded me with suspicion.

  Ashenhall Whipsnake – Level
6

  I backed away from the tree. As soon as I had gone three steps I heard a thud. I turned and saw that the snake had plopped down to the ground and was slithering along the grass toward my cloth-covered feet. Three more thuds joined it, and soon four of the jumped-up pieces of string were chasing me.

  With 35 hit points, the stamina of a moth, and armour made of cloth weaker than my grandma's curtains I knew I couldn’t kill one snake, let alone four. I had to run. I fixed my sights on the crest of a hill in the distance, and I ran. I heard the snakes slide across the bracken behind me and I knew I had to pick up my speed, so I started to sprint.

  “What’s the matter?” I shouted to the snakes as I ran. “Don’t you know I have Snake Tongue? I thought we were friends.”

  I couldn’t keep up the faster pace for long. Soon I felt a pain in my gut as if I had just been winded.

  Stamina Drained!

  5HP lost

  Total: 30/95

  I wheezed, desperately trying to suck in air that seemed reluctant to come. This was it for me; I was done for. I couldn’t fight the snakes and I couldn’t run from them. So what now?

  I looked forward, gritted my teeth and launched into one more run. I managed three steps before a message appeared.

  Stamina Drained!

  5HP lost

  Total: 25/90

  I stopped and let myself flop on the floor. I looked up, ready to meet the venom-coated fangs that would send me back into the real world. I didn’t see the beady stare of the snakes. Instead, I watched as they slithered back through the forest to their tree. I looked up and saw that dawn was starting to break, and sunlight dribbled into the sky like an egg yolk. The snakes must have been nocturnal.

  With the snakes gone, another problem faced me. I only had 25HP, and that wouldn’t be enough to see me through to reaching level 1. I had to increase it, but how? I knew that potions were for sale in the village, but the NPCs wouldn’t sell to me until I was level 1. The other option was to speak to Reebus, the kill-stealing mage, and see if she had healing spells, but my faith in her generosity didn’t make that option appealing.

  So what, then? Why had the makers of Re:Fuze made even the newbie village of Blundow such an unforgiving place? Was it to weed out people like me, the ones who were too naïve to screw over other players? Maybe I was going about things the wrong way. Perhaps I should have found someone in the forest and hovered near them while they fought a mousekin, and then rushed in for the final, kill-stealing blow. No, I couldn’t do that. I would just have to think of something else.

  I raised my fist in the air and then pounded the grass in frustration. As I did, I noticed something. I had seen them before but I hadn’t paid them any attention. Spread across the forest floor were little grey mushrooms with bulbous tops. Maybe they were edible, and perhaps they would restore my HP. At this point, anything was worth a try.

  I stretched across and ripped one out of the ground. I was about to close my lips around its grey, scaly skin, when I stopped. What if it was poisonous?

  I opened my inventory. A new slot had been filled by the mushroom.

  Forest Mushroom

  ?????

  Well, that wasn’t much help. I imagined a question mark in my mind, and then I dragged it over the mushroom and released it. I heard the sound of something tinkling, and then the text changed.

  Forest Mushroom

  Restores 15HP

  0.005% chance of poison when consumed.

  Now I was in business! Screw buying potions, screw Reebus, I could find my health for free. I decided that I would pick enough of them to fully restore my HP and to have a surplus, and then I would pick even more and sell them. There was a chance of poison, but it wasn’t high enough to worry about. The cylo-smokers back in the real-world gambled with higher health odds than that.

  New Ability Learned: Forager. You can tell which plants are good to eat, which are poisonous, and which have magical properties. Do you accept?

  As much as I wanted to fill my ability slots, I didn’t want to be a forager. I was already a tinker with the Snake Tongue ability, and I felt like I should have something that was at least a little bit combat-driven. I was already getting the idea that my time in the world wasn’t going to be one full of battles, but I had to be able to defend myself. I refused the ability.

  I opened up my character sheet, and I saw that ‘forager’ had now been added to my skills list, and that it was at level 1. So what, then, was the difference between ability and skill? I formed a question mark in my mind and applied it to the ability section of my character sheet.

  If something is chosen as an ability, it becomes an inseparable part of your personality. It grants a greater chance of success, and at a higher level, may give new powers that you otherwise would not have gained.

  Basically, a skill was a weaker version of an ability. That meant that at some point I should get some kind of power from my Snake Tongue ability.

  Over the next hour I picked enough mushrooms to restore my HP. When I first ate the bitter fungus, I didn’t like its taste. It was sour and tasted like the earth, and I found it hard to swallow them down. After a while it became easier, and I realised that I was actually hungry. I ate the final mushroom and watched my HP bar rise.

  15HP Gained!

  Total: 95/95

  As much as I liked filling up the bar, 95 was still pathetic, and I couldn’t help feeling that I had the HP of a kitten. I needed to sort that out quickly. But then, I also needed to improve my stamina. And get better weapons. And work on the core skills of my class. So much to do. How on earth was I ever going to be strong enough to face Herelius Rouge?

  With my HP and stamina restored I was able to find and weaken some mousekin. This time there were no annoying mages around to incinerate my kills. As I plunged my blade into the second mousekin, I heard the sound of trumpets around me, and a beautiful, yellow message appeared.

  Level Up!

  Next Level: 2

  Exp to next level: 55

  A glow rushed through me. It was like standing under a tropical sun and feeling its rays stroke my skin, warming me to just the right temperature. I started to feel light-headed with the euphoria of it, and I had to sit down on the forest floor.

  Bringing up my character screen, I saw that I had two attribute points to allocate.

  Please allocate 2 core attribute points:

  Strength: 1

  Agility: 3

  Intelligence: 3

  Endurance: 1

  Charisma: 3

  I knew that I needed to be able to kill the mousekin quicker, so the obvious answer was to increase my endurance so that my stamina went up. The problem was, if I tried increasing the ‘warrior’ stats like endurance and strength, I would forever be playing catch-up with the players around me. The best thing to do would be to emphasise the advantages of my class, and that meant improving my intellect and charisma.

  I knew I could spend forever debating where to spend my points, so I loaded 1 into my intelligence and 1 into charisma, and then confirmed it.

  Intelligence increased to 4

  Charisma increased to 4

  With that done, I picked up the skin and meat from the mousekin, and I spent a while plucking mushrooms from the forest floor.

  Foraging skill increased by 15%.

  As the midday sun hung in the sky and sent yellow light over the forest floor, I headed back to the village centre. Something about the volume of chatter pleased me, and I didn’t feel quite so alone. I strode over to the armourer.

  Quest Complete – Become a somebody!

  You are now a level 1, and the NPCs will finally talk to you.

  Reward: 20xp

  I walked over to Curves the armourer and gave him a big, and hopefully patronising, smile.

  “Hello, Curves. Ready to do business?”

  “Now that you’ve got rid of your level 0 smell, you bet.”

  Again I saw Curves’ armoury table stretched out in my min
d. I walked to the end and ignored the swords and battle axes that I could never hope to wield. I saw the pair of sharpened daggers, but I decided not to buy them. Instead, I wanted the whetstone that was at the end of his table. The price was CR75.

  Before doing anything else, I showed Curves’ my own wares. I had 4 lumps of mousekin meat, 4 mousekin skins and eight mushrooms. After offering them all to him, I came away with CR52. Added to my current amount of CR, that gave me…CR52. Damn.

  I knew that I could just go back to the forest and spend the afternoon picking mushrooms again, but I was dimly aware that the guilds were in town, and I needed to impress them at some point. Reebus had told me that she was auditioning to join the Serpents. I needed to look into that.

  Until then, I couldn’t waste time. I decided that rather than go foraging, I would try and use my Snake Tongue.