God Mode: A LitRPG Adventure (Mythrune Online Book 1)

by Derek Alan Siddoway

  I quietly got my feet under me and reached for my axe.

  The cave ghoul continued munching down on its brethren. From where I stood, I could at least confirm that.

  I pulled my weapon toward me, and the stone axe-head made the slightest scraping sound against the cavern floor. I froze.

  My entire body tensed up as the monster lifted its head. A snarl escaped its fanged mouth and it glanced around the area immediately in front of it. Like its smaller cousins, this guy wasn’t the sharpest tool in the ghoulish shed. Or maybe he was just really hungry? Nonetheless, I stayed completely still. If I attacked while the cave ghoul was alerted, the backstab effect wouldn’t do as much damage.

  The beast gave one more loud snort before lowering its head and continuing its lesser feast with even more gusto. Briefly, I wondered if there were more of these beasties in this cavern and it was worried about someone taking its meal.

  Best not to even go there, I told myself.

  I crept forward as close as I dared. Widening my stance, I lifted my axe overhead and brought it down with all my might.

  The cave ghoul shrieked in pain as the axe sank into its back. In an instant, its health fell to around two-thirds, the bar turning from green to yellow in the process.

  Backstab damage dealt!

  Underground Pursuits Unlocked!

  Sometimes the low road is the only road. We’d all like to think that the entire world operates above the table, but we know better. From smuggling illegal goods to assassinations and pickpocketing, there is no limit to the dirty deeds you can do.

  Congratulations! You have unlocked the Assassination Pursuit Sphere! Open your Pursuits Menu for more information.

  +1 Assassination Skill Point

  I barely had time to glance at the information and swipe it away for later. Dark blood gushed from the axe wound in the monster’s back, and the creature lost another sliver of health. I pulled my weapon free, a steady stream of blood flowing from the wound.

  Predicting retaliation, I jumped backward, but I wasn’t quite fast enough. The cave ghoul snarled as it spun and slashed at me. I took a glancing blow, but it was nothing compared to what had happened earlier. I dodged a second swipe and brought down my battle axe once again, this time lodging it into its neck.

  The blow was solid, but did nowhere near as much damage as the backstab sneak attack had. About then, I realized I wasn’t going to beat this fiend in a fair fight. Shrugging off the second blow, the bleeding cave ghoul rammed me in the nethers. I fell gasping to the floor, my axe slipping from my slackened grip.

  Warning! You have dropped your weapon.

  As a last desperate measure, I wrapped my hands around the ghoul’s neck in an attempt to keep its snapping jaws from closing in around my face. It shook free of my grasp with a savage twist and latched onto my forearm.

  Ah, yes. The pain.

  I cried out as its teeth sank even deeper and my arm gave with a nasty crack. I punched with my free hand to no avail. Once again, my vision filled with dark spots, and a numb feeling trickled through me.

  The pain in my broken, savaged arm was excruciating, but I hung on, roaring and punching, for what it was worth. It wasn’t worth much.

  The cave ghoul spat out my mangled arm and went straight for the neck.

  When I came to again, I was fully aware of what had happened and where I was. As expected, I was on the cave floor…or wait…I wasn’t.

  It was much darker here — wherever here was. I felt around on the floor beneath me. A series of smooth and sharp edges met my fingers, and I squinted around, finally identifying why my new bed was so poky. I was sitting on hundreds of bones of all shapes, sizes, and origins.

  Apparently the cave ghoul had decided he wanted to bring me home after dinner. Or to have as dinner, more likely. And now I was trapped in its lair. I looked around in the immediate vicinity, worried that it was napping or something nearby. The good news was I couldn’t see or hear anything living. The bad news was I could barely see anything period. Like the other areas of the cave, a mossy neon glow permeated the area, but the patches were fewer and farther between. Before I could consider my next steps, an alert window appeared before me.

  Debuff Added — Sleepiness! You have been awake for twenty in-game hours and are now affected by the Sleepy debuff (-5% to all ratings and skills). To remove this effect, please set your character to a rest cycle for a minimum of four in-game hours. Time to rest up!

  As if my odds against the cave ghouls weren’t bad enough already. Fat chance of me taking a nap in here, although I was sure ready for one. My addled mind tried to wrap around the fact that I’d been in the game twenty hours already. That made it…morning of day two? It was even more ridiculous to realize that I’d only been playing for two hours in the real world. All that pain and suffering packed into just two hours!

  A glance at my in-game clock confirmed it was indeed five thirty a.m. Between the two pseudo-deaths, how long had I been out? I calculated I’d been unconscious for a combined…ten hours? For not the first time, I wondered if God Mode was really worth it. Had I died, I would have instantly respawned back at my starting location. Instead I’d completely wasted all that time.

  The trauma didn’t seem as bad this time around, though I wondered if all this extreme pain would eventually fry the synapses in my brain. After all, a person isn’t meant to experience death on repeat. When I got back to the real world, would I start to suffer from some weird game-inflicted form of PTSD?

  I chalked that up on my list of things to worry about later. At this point, the list was so large it would be a miracle if I didn’t end up a drooling vegetable before things were all said and done.

  The stupid cave ghoul had gotten the better of me twice now. The first time I could accept. But not the second. I should have known after that first failed hit with my battle axe that things wouldn’t end well at my current level. Now, I’d wasted valuable time in my vain fight against the beast.

  I needed to get out.

  I scanned the nearby area using my Combat Assessment skill. In addition to being useful when deciding whether to engage an enemy, it was also good for locating them in dark areas. A brief visual search told me the cave ghoul was gone…for the moment.

  I pulled myself up, staying as quiet as I could while clambering across piles of bones. My hand came upon something smooth and round. At first, I thought it was a skull, but when I actually looked down, I found my hand resting on a helmet. I picked it up, happy that an accompanying head didn’t fall out of it. The thing had definitely seen better days — the metal was pitted and dented. The style was open-faced, similar to a Roman helmet, sans the plume.

  About time I got a freaking break.

  Helmet of the Lucky

  Description: The previous owner of this helmet obviously didn’t have much luck, but maybe it all wore off onto the helmet? +5% Defense Rating +1 Luck (Permanent Increase upon equipping for the first time.)

  Quality: Fair (Can be improved by a skilled smith)

  Lucky indeed, I thought as I looked over the description. Given my history with the cave ghoul, I could use every bit of protection I could get, even if the helm itself looked like a rusted trash can. Of course, it was better than the alternative, the alternative being my bare head. Plus, Luck was an annoyingly difficult commodity to come by in MythRune. The fact that it granted a permanent increase to my Luck stat made the item worth much more than a piece of defensive equipment.

  Even better was the fact that the helmet could be improved by a smith. This meant that it could continually serve me even as I leveled up. I placed it on my head. A perfect fit. Apparently its last owner had been an Urok as well.

  Luck increased by 1!

  Character Stats

  Name: Zane

  Title: None

  Race: Urok, male

  Level: 2

  Total Attribute Points: 12

  Attribute Points to next level: 3

  Health: 2 (40/40
Hit Points)

  Attack: 2

  Defense: 4

  Speed: 1

  Agility: 1

  Intelligence: 1

  Luck: 1

  But would it be enough to help me defeat the cave ghoul? Probably not. It paid to be persistent in MythRune, but I was on the clock here, and I couldn’t afford to keep taking on enemies way beyond my abilities. There was a difference between being brave and being plain stupid. And I was tired of going through the meat grinder.

  I scanned the area, realizing I had only one way out of the ghoul lair. After gracelessly stumbling through the piles of bones, I finally reached steady footing. Without skipping a beat, I started to run.

  A low hiss nearly made me leap out of my skin. I looked down and saw a lesser cave ghoul growling at me. I’d accidentally stepped on the thing’s tail. When compared to the larger version of itself, this thing was almost cute.

  “Hey there, little guy,” I said, talking to it like it was a puppy and not a disease-ridden hairless rodent. “Easy now. I’m just passing by and —”

  The thing screamed bloody murder, its meaning clear. It was calling for backup.

  High-pitched shrieks sounded in front of me, but it was impossible to tell just how far ahead they were. And then the green text indications popped up.

  Not again…

  I ran. Ran like I hadn’t since I hung up my cleats. Only faster. Even in my prime I couldn’t move like this Urok body did.

  A few strides brought me into the midst of a dozen lesser cave ghouls. I juked to the right as one leaped for me, then smacked another with my fist without stopping.

  The lesser cave ghouls gave chase as I blitzed past them. The cave continued in a single direction, and soon I emerged into the larger chamber where I’d met my unfortunate end twice before. I headed for the stairs, then hit the brakes when I saw my axe lying on the floor. I might have been running like a coward, but I’d be damned if I left my weapon behind.

  As soon as I snatched the axe from the ground, I looked up to find the mob of lesser cave ghouls bounding for me. With all the racket we were making, I was surprised we hadn’t alerted the —

  A roar from the stone stairs confirmed my wishful thinking was just that. The full-sized cave ghoul jumped down from above, landing about twenty feet in front of me. As if reconfirming that, yes, my luck really was that bad (in spite of what my damn helmet told me), the creature gave out another intimidating roar for good measure.

  I didn’t stop to hear it finish. Instead, I bolted to the creature’s right, where the primitive staircase began, and scrambled up as quick as I could. I heard another shriek from the ghoul that sounded like momentary confusion. What, did it think I was going to let it kill me a third time?

  But I didn’t stop and I didn’t look back. When I reached the top of the staircase, I followed the streams of morning light pouring from the holes above and to the sides.

  Oh, beautiful sun! Where have you been all my life?

  “Skroooooowr!” Another enraged bellow sounded much too close for comfort behind me. I tried to find another gear, praying fatigue wouldn’t kick in since I was technically in combat but not actually fighting. Hopefully, it paid to be a coward.

  My right foot suddenly connected with something solid, and I hit the ground hard. I didn’t even have time to think about what I’d tripped on or how bad my stubbed toes hurt before the cave ghoul was on me. As it pounced, I donkey-kicked, pushing off the ground as hard as I could. Maybe it was my newfound point in Luck, but the timing was just right. My bare feet caught the cave ghoul in the face, and its head snapped back, giving me just enough time to scramble to my feet.

  But the cave ghoul wasn’t far behind. My thoughts raced as fast as my hairy feet. Could I outrun the ghoul? Would it chase me out of the cave? I definitely wasn’t going to count on it giving up. Thirty to forty yards remained between me and the cave entrance. Judging by the grunts of efforts closing in behind me, I wasn’t going to make it.

  Here goes nothing.

  I threw on the brakes and juked to the side. Against all odds, the cave ghoul barreled past, giving me just enough time to draw my battle axe. The thing eyed me with furious pink eyes the size of my human fist and shrieked again. The sound was cut short as my axe connected with its head.

  Critical Hit!

  +1 Two-Handed Battle Axe Skill Point

  The health bar maybe moved an inch, now down to about a third. Thanks to it being a critical attack, the cave ghoul stumbled backward.

  I didn’t wait for it to recover. Willing my aching legs to give one last effort, I squeezed past the beast and dashed for the entrance. If the ghoul didn’t turn back there, I was toast.

  Ten yards.

  It was so close.

  Five yards.

  Almost there.

  Battle axe in one hand, I pumped my arms, willing them to make up for my flagging legs. I heaved with each breath. Just one more step, just one more step.

  I burst into the sunlight, puffing out my chest like a sprinter going for a photo finish. My legs gave out and I stumbled then crashed into the grass headfirst.

  Ignoring the pain, I rolled over, preparing to meet my end yet again. Instead, I found the cave ghoul pacing the cave entrance just inside the shadows. It tried to advance into the sun but retreated with an angry hiss each time.

  It couldn’t come into the sun. It couldn’t come into the sun! I’d apparently been banking on that bit of luck without even realizing it.

  I threw back my head and laughed like a maniac in chorus with the cave ghoul’s frustrated screams. Thinking back, I realized, in fact, the sunlight streaming through the holes in the cave probably slowed the beast just enough for me to escape.

  “Up yours!” I shouted, giving the cave ghoul the bird. With a last bellow, the monster turned tail and retreated deeper into the darkness.

  10

  Rest for the Wicked

  Day 2 — Eighteen Days to Tournament Start

  I didn’t stop until I reached the Horuk camp. When I finally made it inside the ring of tents, I collapsed in a heap, chest heaving and hands shaking. I’d somehow pushed my digital body to the limit and I didn’t care. For the first time in a while, I was safe.

  But as the saying goes, problems never singly come, and while I’d survived my cave ghoul encounter, another threatened to suck away more precious game time. I pulled up the debuff that had plagued me earlier.

  Warning: You have been awake for twenty in-game hours and are now affected by the Sleepy Debuff (-5% to all ratings and skills). To remove this effect, please set your character to a rest cycle for a minimum of four in-game hours. Time to rest up!

  I groaned. I’d only just made it out of one time trap and stumbled into another. I’d completely forgotten about the mandatory “sleep” MythRune required. While almost every other aspect of the game allowed you to outperform your real body, sleep was the area where some semblance of reality still existed. Didn’t my unconscious time in the caves count as sleep?

  Though I instinctively hated everything about the sleep requirement in the moment, there was a reason it existed. It all had to do with how the game was rendered. Since the world was essentially “dreamed up” in the minds of the players, there was a danger of overstimulating your brain. My guess was the forced rest was the only way your brain could handle the sensory overload happening ten times faster than the real world. The sleep debuffs stacked each hour after twenty. I’d never had the desire to test it, but I’d heard on the forums that you could actually get to a point where you had a one hundred percent reduction to ratings and skills, followed by a forced log out. That, of course, I had to avoid at all costs, as it would end my God Mode permanently. While the developers of the game undoubtedly loved players sinking their lives into MythRune, I’m sure they preferred not to have a mountain of lawsuits pelted their way if someone went brain-dead.

  Since I hadn’t completed the quest yet, there was no way I was going to go back to
Durfa to ask for a place to nap. And seeing as how she was pretty much the only person in the village who tolerated me, I ended up a few paces from the camp, trying to flatten out a spot in the grass where I could crash for a few hours. My hope was that this close to the hunting camp, something wouldn’t try to eat me during rest mode. Players were protected from getting ganked in sleep — you basically became impervious to PvP damage while in rest mode — but NPCs could do whatever they wanted to you. In beta, I’d woken up several times from rest mode only to find I was back at my respawn point. I guessed this was how the devs encouraged players to seek out an inn, but I didn’t have that luxury. I knew if I decided to bed down in the middle of the hunting camp, the Horuk tribe would like me even less. But I wanted to be as close to civilization as I could get without taking on hobo status.

  I opened my menu and selected Rest Mode.

  As annoying as resting in-game was, one positive was that you didn’t need to spend time tossing and turning. Instead, you pretty much instantly fell asleep. While that didn’t actually knock out your consciousness, it did leave you in a pit of blackness for at least four in-game hours — or twenty-four minutes IRL.

  During this period, the only two things you could do were pull up a text chat box or initiate an audio chat. The goal here was to encourage users to relax their senses, or log off and take a break. As logging off wasn’t an option for me, I took the opportunity to pull up a chat with Brandon. We already had a lot to catch up on.

  11

  Rest Mode