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

by Derek Alan Siddoway

  The Break-In

  Day 14 — Six Days to Tournament Start

  “Isn’t this a bit overkill?” I said as we approached the front of the Livermoor Trading Post. It was early in the morning — we’d been forced to take a rest mode after returning from the woods — and the rest of the town was just beginning to stir.

  “You ready?” Leesha asked.

  “I’m ready.”

  We both pulled scarves around our faces that acted as masks, and slammed into the double doors of the trading post, knocking them open. I was just glad they’d already been unlocked that morning; otherwise that would have been really embarrassing.

  I slammed the doors shut behind us while Leesha stepped forward, twirling her daggers in her hands like six-shooters. A white-haired Leprechaun NPC, up early to do inventory judging by the ledger book in his hand, stared at us, open-mouthed, from behind his spectacles.

  “What is going o—”

  “Shut your damn mouth, you Livermoor scum,” Leesha said dramatically.

  “We have two questions for you,” I said.

  “One.” Leesha held up a single finger.

  “Where is the safe?”

  “Two.” Leesha lifted two fingers.

  “Where is the entrance to the underground room below us?” I cut in.

  “Hang on a second. Can we start over again?”

  “What?” I turned to Leesha, confused. “No, we’re already in here, you can’t—”

  “I blew that entrance, dude,” Leesha said. “I just realized it. Can we have him repeat the question?”

  “We’re already in this!” I said.

  “What is going on here?” the Leprechaun asked again.

  It was just what Leesha was hoping for. “Reach for the sky!” Leesha yelled, pointing at the Leprechaun.

  “That’s what you wanted to do?” I asked.

  “Keep going. Don’t ruin the moment.”

  I rolled my eyes. “We have two questions for you,” I repeated to the Leprechaun clerk.

  “One.” Leesha held up a single finger again.

  “Where is the safe?”

  “Two.” Leesha held up two fingers…again.

  “Where is the entrance to the underground room below us?”

  “I feel like I could have saved you both the trouble the first go-round,” the Leprechaun said. “I have no idea what you’re talkin’ about. And besides, you probably want to get away while you can. The town guards don’t take kindly to our safety being jeopardized. They’ll be here any second to arrest the both of you.”

  Leesha and I tilted our heads so that one of our ears faced the open door.

  “You hear anything?” I asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. Actually, wait.” Leesha cupped her hand around her ear. “No, I definitely don’t hear anything.”

  “It’s almost as if the guards are preoccupied on the other side of town.”

  The clerk’s cocky smile faded along with whatever resolve he seemed to have. “What do ye want?”

  “We’ve already told you.”

  “Twice.”

  “We want the safe.”

  “And the entrance to the hidden underground room.”

  The clerk shut his mouth, his jaw tightening, and shook his head.

  “Is that a no?” I said.

  “Piss on ye!”

  I took a deep sigh. “I didn’t want to have to do this.” I balled my right hand and stepped toward the clerk, who cowered behind a ladder attached to the shelving.

  “Whoa, whoa, hang on there!” Leesha said, holding up her hand.

  The clerk visibly sighed in relief.

  “Let me go first.” Leesha’s face split into a mischievous grin and she held out her daggers as if admiring them. “I want him to be able to feel it every time I carve a piece of him up like a Thanksgiving turkey.”

  “No, please,” the clerk whimpered. “I’m just the stock man! I don’t know anything!”

  I leaned against the countertop and made a show of cleaning my fingernails. “Then tell us what we want to hear, and things won’t get ugly.”

  The clerk ran his tongue over his lips and glanced around the trading post as if the room were bugged. “I can’t. They’ll kill me.”

  In response, Leesha made her way to a larger barrel in the corner of the room. She grabbed the rim and pulled, knocking it over and spilling the apples within all over the ground. “Nope, that wasn’t it.”

  “By all the blessed Saints of the Fae, what’re ye doing?” The Leprechaun held out his hands in horror, clearly a man of organization and neatness, if the tidiness of the trading post was anything to go by.

  Leesha just winked at him. “Take two.” She grabbed another barrel and knocked it to the ground. It bounced, but the lid held. “This one gets a quality seal of approval.”

  Now it was my turn to join in with the clerk’s confusion. “Leesha, what’re you doing?”

  “Shhh!” Leesha held up a finger to her lips. “Remember, in this mission, my name is Sexy Goldencraft.”

  “I already told you, I’m not calling you that,” I said. “Seriously, what’re you doing?”

  “He kept glancing in this direction.” Leesha kicked another barrel over and it rolled into a rack of meticulously stacked candlesticks, which all crashed to the floor. “I bet you anything the entrance is behind one of these barrels. And if not, I’ll have a hell of a time breaking them open for the fun of it.”

  “Stop it!” the Leprechaun yelled, each knocked-over barrel having the same effect as a knife in his gut. The poor guy, I could see tears in the corners of his eyes.

  “Do you think they’ll even pay you overtime to clean all this up?” Leesha pried open a barrel lid with her dagger and knocked it over, scattering barley all over the floor. “Is overtime even a thing in this world?” She lay down in the mess and proceeded to make a barley angel on the floor. “Oh no. I don’t think the FDA would approve of this.”

  I shook my head, feeling like I’d brought Harley Quinn in to rob the place.

  But this time, the Leprechaun glanced to the opposite corner of the room.

  “Lee—”

  Leesha eyed me.

  “Sexy Goldencraft,” I said, sighing. I pointed across the room. “Other corner.”

  She smirked and practically skipped over to a large crate filled with rope. Shoving it aside — where it crashed to the floor like a pile of dead snakes — revealed a dark hole in the ground. I could just see the first step of the spiral staircase within.

  The Leprechaun groaned.

  “Well done,” I said, grabbing a hammer, nail and a couple of boards. “Can you tie him up while I barricade the entrance?”

  I set to work closing the shutters and barring the door while Leesha hog-tied the poor, squealing clerk. As I hammered the last nail, I received a notification.

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

  +1 Construction Skill Point

  I dismissed the notifications and turned to find the Leprechaun trussed up on the floor, gagged with a cloth.

  “You done?” I asked.

  Leesha nodded. “I — aww, man! We forgot to get him to tell us where the safe is. Worst. Robbers. Ever.”

  “I’ll settle for cash money in the real world,” I said, grabbing her wrist and leading her to the staircase as her eyes started wandering around the room. “Let’s go.”

  We crept down the staircase as quietly as possible, Leesha in the lead looking for traps or signs of an ambush. The staircase descended about two stories underground before finally ending in an expansive warehouse-like area filled with furs, weapons, armor, and even more barrels, crates, and chests.

  Was this the equipment and supplies the Livermoor Merchants were using to fund the Blue Hand Raiders in their war against the other trading companies?

  None of that mattered in the moment, though, because Dart stood at the end of the l
arge room. Illuminated by a lantern, he was leaning over a table, studying something. I held a finger up to Leesha as we weaved our way through neatly organized racks of weapons, piles of chain mail, and countless other commodities. I winced, doing my best to tread lightly on my steel-shod boots but still scraping the stone floor more often than not.

  We’d made it about halfway to the table when Dart’s voice broke the silence. “Don’t be shy. I heard you coming the moment you got here.”

  Leesha gave me an annoyed sideways look and smacked my breastplate. I shrugged apologetically. Sneaking was never going to be one of my strong suits.

  “Well, I can hear Zane, at least,” Dart continued. “And I’m sure you brought your little Sylvad companion. So both of you come on out. Let’s quit this whole charade and have a civilized chat.”

  I took a deep breath and drew my Bearded Axe of the Tundra, more for my own comfort than to appear threatening. My heart hammered in my chest as we stepped out of the shadows and walked toward Dart. He leaned casually against the table, grinning like he was greeting old friends.

  “Welcome to the dark side.” He spread his arms and chuckled at his own joke. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  “Shut it, asshole,” Leesha said, resting her hands on the daggers at her hips.

  Dart held up his hands. “Can you take it easy for a minute? Sheesh. We don’t have to be enemies. Quite the opposite. I think we can help each other.”

  I was ready to believe that about the same time somebody told me in the real world I’d been drafted into the NFL, knee and all. The longer we kept Dart talking, though, the better our chances were. Or at least I hoped. I’d learned with Dart that you never knew who was outsmarting who. And so far, he had one up on us in the record books.

  I gestured around at the warehouse stores. “I assume you’ve been working with the Livermoor Merchant Guild?”

  Dart smiled like a kid in the candy jar and raised a hand. “Guilty as charged. But you can’t exactly blame me for that. I spawned near here, and the circumstances sort of fell as they did, with me picking up the closest quest thread. You can’t blame me for playing the game. My quest just happened to butt up right against yours.”

  “No, but we can blame you for stealing our token,” Leesha said.

  Dart shrugged. “You got me there. Though at least what I did was within the rules of the game, Zane.”

  I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck, but tried not to react. My silence was probably condemning, but I couldn’t think of anything to say, my mind churning in overdrive trying to figure out what Dart could have figured out about my God Mode from our time together.

  “I could probably forgive you for doing it once,” Leesha said, coming to my rescue. “But twice? That’s a dick move, man.”

  “Oh, please,” Dart scoffed. “Do you know what the odds are of winning the tournament? If you can’t beat me, what do you think your chances in the tournament are? There are pro gamers with sponsorships in this thing. The best of the best. At least I gave you a chance to split real money with me, not some imaginary prize you think you’re good enough to win.”

  While Dart ran his mouth, I triggered my Combat Assessment then swore under my breath at the results. The bastard was up to level 11 now. Seeing my reaction, Dart laughed. “I’ve got a new skill that lets me know when people are assessing me. As you can see, I’m a lot stronger than the last time our merry band was together.”

  “He’s at eleven,” I told Leesha, grasping my axe with both hands and widening my stance. She drew her daggers and split off to the left. Dart stepped away from the table, keeping his back to us, and Leesha continued to circle. With a grunt, I activated Flaming Weapon, the blue flames dancing eerily in the dark, underground chamber.

  “What did you really think you’d accomplish by coming here?” Dart asked, drawing his short sword. “I wasn’t following you anymore — if you really want another token, you’re wasting your time.”

  “Well, good thing there’s one right here!” Leesha jumped at Dart and slashed right into his neck…or at least where his neck should have been. The moment her daggers struck him, the copy of Dart flickered away. I wanted to be sick. How had we been so stupid?

  “That never gets old,” Dart said from behind us. “You wouldn’t believe the number of morons who fall for that on a consistent basis. But I am pleased to see it fooled your Combat Assessment, Zane.”

  We turned around in time to see Dart snap his fingers, summoning a truly massive shirtless Urok with deep scars running along his chest and arms. He was at least a foot taller and strong enough to wield a massive claymore so large it could have served as a siege projectile.

  “So, I upgraded my tank,” Dart said, nodding to his new monstrous friend. “I hope you don’t take it personally. You weren’t really up to much against the yeti, anyway.”

  In response, the massive NPC Urok grunted and rolled his shoulders.

  “Nose goes that guy,” Leesha cut in, touching her finger to her nose.

  “Smart lady,” Dart said. “Now, I’m going to give you two choices. The first is easy. Walk away. I don’t really feel the need to embarrass you a third time. There’ll be no hard feelings, and I’ll forget any of this happened. I’ll go along my merry way, and we’ll never see each other again.”

  “Go to hell,” Leesha spat.

  “Zane?” Dart looked at me, like we were in a legal counseling session and not about to cut each other’s heads off.

  “No, I think she summed up my thoughts pretty well.”

  Dart made a show of being deep in thought, tapping his teeth. “Well, I suppose you’ve given me your answer, but before I accept it, I’ll even throw in a little bonus, out of the goodness of my heart. Because I may be a lying, stealing player killer, but I’m not cheating like you are, right, Z?”

  My virtual heart stopped in my chest…or maybe it was my real heart? Was my real heart connected to my virtual one? I felt like the behemoth Urok at Dart’s side had already punched me in the gut.

  Dart grinned. “Oh, yes. I couldn’t help but notice you had a difficult time dying when we last met. Somehow you fall hundreds of feet after I blow the hell out of you with a bomb and you still don’t die? More than a little bit suspicious.”

  “And you still think you can beat me?” I said, pulling out my best bluff.

  “Please,” Dart snorted. “You may be death-proof, but you’re not invincible. I can still knock your ass out and keep you from interfering. And you…” He pointed to Leesha with his sword. “I can still kill you normally, right? I’m not quite sure anymore.”

  It was all I could do to keep myself in the present. This changed things. Changed everything. Even if we beat Dart and got our token back, he knew. He knew. There was nothing stopping him from reporting us as soon as he died. Even if it meant getting clobbered by my fellow Urok, I hastily pulled up my party chat and sent Leesha a message:

  We can’t let him escape or die. We’ve got to catch him.

  I sent the message and then froze as all of the other implications began to compound. If we could lock him up in a trunk or something and force him to kill himself to respawn, he’d be sitting out of the game for an entire day IRL — ten days in-game. Of course, nothing stopped him from messaging the MythRune devs outside of —

  “Z! Look out!”

  I closed the chat window just in time to see the Urok tank raise his massive claymore overhead. He came down with enough force to chop me in two.

  56

  Haymaker

  It took approximately ten seconds for my ass to get tossed into one of the shelves in the warehouse. I crashed hard into a stack of boxes and crates, groaning as I pushed myself out of the rubble. As the tank of the group, I’d been wordlessly nominated to go head-on with Dart’s new bosom buddy while Leesha took on Dart herself. I’d landed a quick hit with my battle axe before a shoulder charge sent me flying.

  The Urok NPC was pretty darn slow, but he made u
p for it by bringing a full arsenal of attacks to bear against me. Aside from claymore swings that would have probably chopped me in half, armor and all, he kicked, headbutted, and used shoulder strikes like he was the Heavyweight MMA World Champion. I was quicker, but every time one of his blows landed, I could barely recover from being stunned before another one was headed my way. All in all, it gave me little opportunity to defend myself, let alone mount an offense.

  I was still on my hands and knees in the wreckage of the crates when an overhead cut from the claymore forced me to twist to the side, only to be kicked right in the ribs. Like some kung fu movie, I shot backward, my back wrapping around a barrel several feet away. I rolled over, noticing the entire shelf above the barrel teetering back and forth.

  Before I could worry about being crushed under the weight of red onions or another random commodity, the big Urok sheathed his sword and bent over me. I felt myself rise off the ground as he grabbed me in his meaty paws and hefted me over his head. At full pain sensitivity, this had already far surpassed the worst brawl I’d ever experienced in the real world. If this Urok was a linebacker, I felt like the eight-year-old waterboy. The bastard was toying with me.

  Grunting, Mr. Scars tossed me like a sack of potatoes into the wobbly shelving. The force of the collision was more than enough to knock it all over.

  I was sure if I could have seen an overhead shot of the whole thing, it would have played out like a classic Hollywood fight scene, with the shelving units domino-ing down the warehouse. At the moment, though, all I heard was the sound of loud crashing and wood splintering.

  Debuff Added — Broken Ribs! Your movement is restricted, and you will gradually lose health for the next 60 seconds.

  Great. It was bad enough that my health bar had taken quite the hit, but now I had a crappy debuff to worry about.

  Fighting blurry vision, I looked up to see the big Urok NPC guffawing at me. He held out a hand and beckoned for me to come at him, which was about the last thing in any world, real or digital, that I wanted to do. My axe was lost somewhere in the mess of supplies, meaning I had nothing but my wits to beat this dude.