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

by Derek Alan Siddoway

  I swallowed a click in my throat. While I figured it wouldn’t be a simple walk into Mythgard, I wasn’t sure “war zone” was something that would have entered my imagination, though in retrospect, it should have. “I guess it makes sense,” I said. “People want a token, and they’ll go to any length to steal it.”

  “You aren’t kidding,” Alex said, a thousand-yard stare in his eyes. “So many campers. So many bloodthirsty players out there. If you can believe it, I actually even took measures to ensure no one could steal the token from me: a special item that eludes pickpockets. From what I’d read online, thieves could only steal from us while we were alive, so I thought I was safe, even if I died.”

  “A special item in life and safety in death.”

  “Precisely. But oh no. Not anymore. I haven’t the faintest idea when, but the rules of engagement have changed. Now the token drops when you die.”

  Needless to say, I leaned forward in my seat, suddenly all ears for whatever the down-on-his-luck tinkerer had to say.

  “That can’t be right,” I said. “Your items don’t drop when you die until after level thirty. It’s how—”

  “It’s how they keep the beta testers from using their characters to take out all the new players. Yes, I am aware. I’d even died before, after I first got my token,” Alex said. “When I respawned, it was still in my inventory. Make no mistake. This was a changed rule.”

  “And you’re sure it was in your inventory the moment before you died?”

  Alex gave me an unamused look — or rather, he gave my chest an unamused look. He wasn’t one for eye contact. “I’m sure. Like I said, I’d done some anti-theft work. And my creations don’t fail. It was there until the bitter end. When I woke up, gone.” Alex took another drink, his previous timid demeanor now out the window, apparently. Either he was becoming bolder with every drink or he was really that upset.

  This was huge. Not only did it confirm big changes in the rules and contest, but it seemed that the devs were inciting in-game chaos for the hell of it. “Why are you telling me this?” I asked, suddenly suspicious. Had Dart sent this guy to con us yet again?

  “I don’t know,” the Leprechaun said, looking down at his drink. “I just needed to vent my frustrations. That was my one chance. I’m not going to get another token — don’t ask me how I know, I just do. And everyone in this game is so secretive. It’s gotten harder and harder to get information on the tokens. The boards don’t even mention the wall that’s being built around Mythgard.”

  “The devs are building a wall around Mythgard? Why?”

  “No, the campers are building walls around Mythgard’s walls. Walls around walls. Were you even listening? No, wait, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Alex let out a huff and took another drink from his cup. “I don’t mean to unload all this on you…I’m just so frustrated and…”

  Admittedly, I zoned out of whatever Alex said next, my mind spinning in overdrive trying to process everything I’d just heard. If the depressing Leprechaun could be trusted, we actually wouldn’t need to steal a token. If we wanted, we could just kill someone who had one.

  Of course, I realized an instant later that word like this was going to get out, if it hadn’t already. Players with tokens would be traveling undercover or surrounded by miniature armies. Add in the fact that tokens were changing hands like a rash on a wrestling team, and the idea of stealing or looting a token sounded pretty daunting.

  I needed to talk to Leesha. We had to find Dart ASAP and get our token back however we could — steal it, kill him, it didn’t matter. The stakes were rising almost faster than I could keep track. I only wished Brandon —

  Something outside the window caught my eye: a wiry Urok making his way toward the trading post. His description matched the image in my quest log perfectly: Nugash. Next to him stood none other than the bane of my existence: Dart himself. Right across the street.

  I jerked to my feet involuntarily, knocking the table just as Alex took a drink. I hardly noticed the tankard smash him in his overly large nose, or his drink spill all over him.

  “Ow, what the…?”

  I ignored Alex, all my attention focused out the window on Nugash and Dart. Both kept glancing around as they spoke, as if suspecting someone was following them. Dammit, where is Leesha? A moment later, the pair disappeared inside the Livermoor Trading Post.

  It didn’t matter where Leesha was. I was going to have to handle this myself. I knew I was supposed to wait for Nugash to pick up the documents from the Merchant Guild, but if I stormed in and took out Dart, I could steal his token. I doubted another golden opportunity would ever present itself. Drawing my axe, I ran for the door.

  “Oh, don’t mind me, I’ll just dry myself off,” I heard Alex grumble as I pushed through the front swinging doors. I took one step onto the wooden sidewalk and smashed straight into someone. Both of us fell back onto the ground. It was only then I realized I’d run over Leesha.

  “We have to go!” I yelled, gesturing to the trading post with my axe. “We —”

  “Shut up, you idiot!” Leesha said in a loud whisper, an angry look plastered across her face.

  “Dart —”

  “I know!” She stepped in front of me before I could cross the street, then shoved me back into the saloon. “I followed them here! Now will you just go back inside and chill out for a damn —”

  “Well, well, well.”

  I turned at the unfamiliar voice and saw another Sylvad woman walking in through the front door, a handful of Sylvads filing in to her right and left.

  “Hello, Leesha.” The newcomer had her arms crossed, a scimitar gripped in each hand. She was smiling, but the others looked like we’d just pissed on their grandmas’s graves.

  Leesha clenched her teeth and the other Sylvad woman gave me an appraising look.

  “That’s quite the hunk of muscle you’ve got there. Why don’t you introduce us?”

  I had a sickening feeling I already knew who these people were.

  “You remember those players I said I screwed over early on in the game?” she asked.

  “This them?”

  Leesha nodded.

  “Well, crap.”

  51

  The Slighted Six

  At that point in the game, it was almost instinct to trigger my Combat Assessment skill. It had nothing good to tell me — all six Sylvads were level 8. Had Leesha stumbled into one or two, we could probably take them. All six was far from a fair fight, and they knew it.

  +1 Combat Assessment Skill Point

  “I told you all we’d find her in Crystal Fen,” the lead Sylvad with pink hair and scimitars in hand said. “Did you think we wouldn’t come looking for you after that crap you pulled?”

  “Yes, and did I mention how sorry I was, Kren?”

  The apology would have sounded fake even if I hadn’t been playing with Leesha for the past in-game week. Whether she intended it or not, her response was plastered in sarcasm. I wanted to motion to Leesha to use her Ring of Mesmerizement to distract the Sylvads, but since there were six of them, it wouldn’t do much good. I figured Leesha had already come to the same conclusion, because her next tactic was to try to keep them talking. For once, I caught on.

  “You think sorry’s going to cut it after setting us back as far as you did?” the woman — Kren — said, uncrossing her scimitars. It looked like the perfect time for me to intervene as a voice of reason.

  “Hang on a second,” I said, stepping forward an holding out my hands to show I came in peace. The last thing I wanted was to get in a fight in the middle of Crystal Fen where dozens of players would have a first-row seat at me not dying no matter what these Sylvads did to me. “Why don’t we all talk this out?”

  “Talk this out?” one of the male Sylvads — a dude with green cornrows — said. “She deserves everything she’s got coming to her. She totally screwed up our first quest thread. Because of her we can’t even go near Leafblade Sylvads without being attacked
on sight. We had to start over with a different quest thread.”

  “And you seem to be doing well,” Leesha said with a smile, as if she were catching up with old friends. “You’ve turned into quite the band of heroes. The Full Metal Jackets, was it?”

  “Full Metal Druids!” Kren yelled. “It’s Full Metal Druids, and you know it. We hadn’t even heard about that movie when we first came up with the name.”

  “So, are you all druids?” I asked without even thinking. Did MythRune even have druids?

  “W-well, no.”

  “What’s the full metal part?” MythRune definitely didn’t allow anything resembling modern firearms.

  “You know, full metal? Like armor?”

  “Oh.” I cast my gaze over the band of Sylvads in front of me. Not a single one of them was fully armored. Both Leesha and I had them beat in that department.

  “H-hey!” Kren said, as if she’d just read my mind. “It’s an aspirational name, okay? And who are you? Just another victim for Leesha? Don’t fall for it, Urok guy. She’ll make you think she’s your friend and then slit your throat when you’re not looking.”

  “Yeah!” the chimer-in-er of the pack — and in my experience, every group had one — piped up. “She’s probably screwing you over too, dude!”

  “How dare you!” Leesha gasped, putting a hand to her chest in mock outrage. “You think I’d ever do that without his permission?”

  “Enough!” The pink-haired Sylvad growled in frustration. She pointed a scimitar at me. “Either get out of the way, or die with her.”

  Leesha moved like the wind, stabbing Mr. Green Cornrows in quick succession with her daggers. He doubled over at once as she leaped out of the way of Kren’s slash. The attack didn’t kill the male Sylvad, but it was enough to keep him out of the fight until he could heal up.

  Hoping to press the advantage of surprise, I activated an Overpowering Blow and swung my axe with all my might at Kren. She was fast. Both scimitars rose in an X to block my attack, but my brute strength forced her back to her knees. An instant later, I felt one of her blades clang off my steel-shod boots and stumbled back.

  “Big mistake,” Kren hissed.

  I knew we only had seconds to come up with a plan before the entire group attacked. With each heartbeat, our chances of making it out the front door continued to shrink. By now, I saw we had a sizable audience, although no one felt heroic enough to jump in on our side and even the odds.

  “What’re you doing?” the female bearded Urok barkeeper yelled. “Take this fight outside or—”

  “Hey, everyone!” I shouted. “These guys have a tournament token!” I pointed at Kren, whose eyes widened at the accusation.

  The entire saloon went silent as a church. All eyes that weren’t already watching our standoff turned toward the Sylvads, but no one moved.

  And then an arrow zipped past my head, nailing Kren in the face. Just like that, the fragile peace shattered like tempered glass and the Mangy Farm Cat fell into utter chaos.

  “Let’s go!” Leesha grabbed me by the wrist and swung me into the Sylvads like a literal shield. I bulled my way forward — I hadn’t played linemen since Pop Warner, but my blocking still did the job as every player in the joint descended on us in a hail of blades, arrows and spells.

  “I don’t think so!”

  We’d almost made it to the swinging doors when someone landed on my back, hands prying at my helmet as their knife sought my throat. I spun around and heard an angry yell from Leesha followed by what felt like a series of light punches in my back. I shook off my attacker, spinning around to find Leesha’s combo of backstabs had done the Sylvad in.

  “Let’s—”

  “Stop talking!” Leesha pushed me out the doors into the street, the fight close behind us like a raging wildfire. A quick glance behind me showed the saloon filled with brawlers. I doubted anyone knew which side was which — they all seemed to be hoping someone, anyone would drop a token once they were dead.

  Once more, Leesha grabbed my wrist and jerked me away, in the opposite direction of the Livermoor Trading Post. It had been crowded in the saloon, but the streets themselves were still busy too. We could hardly move without bumping into someone, especially since the people passing by had all seen us fleeing the Mangy Cat. Leesha and I were attracting attention in the worst way possible.

  “Grab those two!” I heard Kren yell. “They stole our tournament token!”

  I cursed under my breath, even though I had that one coming. The faces of several nearby players turned toward me, some reaching for their weapons.

  “No time to wait for an invitation,” I muttered as I raised my battle axe and slammed it into the head of one of the advancing players, an Eedari with a sword and shield. My aggressiveness gave the rest of the hungry, swarming players pause long enough for Leesha and me to make a break through the gap left behind. We ran like hell, shoving through traffic, not bothering to look back at all of the people shouting and giving chase.

  “We’re going the wrong way,” I said after we’d cleared a block.

  “What?” Leesha said, cutting through a Leprechaun as she ran. By now some of the people in front of us seemed to believe we had a token, based on the angry mob nipping at our heels.

  “I saw Dart back at the trading post. We’re going the wrong way.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, we kind of have a bigger problem to deal with right now.”

  “Oh, trust me, I noticed!”

  A flaming arrow whizzed past me and lodged itself in a nearby wagon full of hay, catching it on fire in a cartoonishly quick fashion.

  “Once we lose these guys, we can swing around back,” Leesha said, dodging a javelin.

  As if we didn’t have enough people on our tails, every time we turned onto a new street or hit a new crowd of players, one of our pursuers would yell, “They’ve got a token!” without fail. At this point, I was pretty sure the mob just wanted to take us out, not caring who among them ended up with the token they believed we had.

  More burning arrows and spells flashed all around us. Given the tight quarters we were navigating, most hit something or someone even if they missed us. More carts burst into flame. NPCs screamed and tried to shove their way out of the streets. Players, enraged at being attack unprovoked, turned to fight the mob. Many, upon hearing that we supposedly had a token, joined in the hunt.

  Lungs burning, I pushed on as fast as I could to keep up with Leesha. Horses screamed, mules brayed, and oxen let out moans of terror and anger. By now, the town guards were rushing in to attempt to restore order. But these weren’t your typical, high-level NPC watchdogs. Only game mods had that kind of power, and they apparently didn’t see a need to intervene. As such, it didn’t take long for the mob to overpower the guards with a few well-aimed projectiles.

  And then, in an unexpected turn, fighting broke out ahead. Somehow the whole thing had circled in on us. I had to give Leesha credit — her antics had started a full-scale riot in Crystal Fen.

  “This way!”

  Without warning, Leesha dove down a side alley. I skidded to a halt, iron boots sliding on cobblestone, and nearly ate shit trying to keep up. I made it a handful of yards down the alley and then did eat shit as an intense pain blossomed from my calf.

  I screamed and rolled over, finding an arrow sticking through the back of my leg. At the noise, Leesha spun around and ran back to me.

  “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” she muttered over and over as she helped me to my feet. I took one step and nearly collapsed. Arrows sank into the cabin walls on one side and pinged off the bricks and stone buildings around us.

  I risked a glance back. The archers were on cabin roofs across the street from us. None of our pursuers had turned down the alley yet. There was still a chance we could get away, even with my bum leg.

  “Come on!”

  I took two steps and collapsed. It was just like I was back in the real world with my screwed-up knee. I yelled and p
ounded the ground with my fist.

  “We gotta go, Z!”

  “What do you think I’m trying to do?” I shouted in frustration. I was not going to let temporary gimpiness be the reason we got caught. In the real world, I might have been stuck with a bad knee, but here my leg would heal. It would heal all the faster without an arrow in it. Before I could stop myself, I bent forward, snapped off the fletching, and yanked the rest of the arrow free.

  The pain sent bolts of white light across my vision and I teetered, even sitting down.

  “Holy sweet mother of —”

  Leesha pushed a potion to my lips. “No time, drink and run!”

  A dozen players of all different races and character builds charged down the alleyway as I scrambled to my feet once more. The pain soon faded from a burning pain to a dull ache. Ahead, Leesha turned out of the alley and onto another street. I felt something heavy bang off the back of my cuirass, and I tumbled forward but kept my balance. I couldn’t believe they were still chasing us!

  Out in the next street, we had much more room to run between the smaller crowds and wider-spaced buildings. Unfortunately, we were both hitting the limits of our virtual bodies. I’d been careful to mind my fatigue since first going overboard against the cave ghouls, but since we’d been running for our lives for what felt like miles, it wasn’t a luxury.

  I started feeling Leesha pull away as my lesser Speed stat combined with fatigue to take its toll. Just then, a miniature tornado shot out from between two buildings, catching Leesha in the side and sending her flying across the street into a cabin wall. I hobbled to her side to help her and saw just how many of the group had gained on us. At least three of the Full Metal Druids were closing in from the direction the tornado had come, with another handful of other random players on their tail, like vultures waiting for the kill.

  The lead Sylvad leveled a broom head at us, of all things. Bolts of energy shot from the bristles and struck Leesha just as I pulled her to her feet, followed by a pair of arrows that sank into her chest. It was clear these guys wanted revenge.