"Val!" Halvar's voice, echoing through the cavern. "The tunnel's too tight, I'm trying to break through!"
Critical strike! Deathspider Warrior has successfully launched a surprise attack! Your left calf is crippled! You have been infected by poison! Failed to save against disorientation. You are now disoriented, and have a -6 penalty to all accuracy skill checks!
Desperately, Val tried to focus his hands, to get a bead on the massive arachnid, the largest of all three. The others had been mastiff sized, but this one was handling him as easily as a dog would a chew toy, and he couldn't line up a shot to save his life.
Val choked down sudden terror, realizing that the hideous clicking of mandibles steadily wrapping him up in a horrid cocoon might be the last sound he ever heard.
18
"Val!" The cries of his friend had been muted to the softest of murmurs even as Val's heart hammered with panic, his entire body now bound tight with strands of silk. Limbs pressed tightly to his sides, he writhed futilely as the hideous chittering abomination wrapped silken cords tightly about his ears, eyes, and mouth.
His life, flashing before his eyes.
Grinning and returning his father's salute as he began his first day of basic training, dreams of glory and triumph dancing in his head.
The hot arena of horror and death, screams of maimed brothers-in-arms as they went up like torches under the incendiary blazes their enemies so favored.
The icy satisfaction of watching his foes drop under the hail of bullets ripping from his gun as Val embraced the darkest lessons of guerrilla warfare, a shadow in the night, striking down the very rebels that had killed his friends.
Returning home to a life of constant pain, his legs a maimed, charred mess, falling finally to the explosives and incendiaries that had killed so many of his friends in flare-ups occurring throughout the world in ever greater frequency.
And how hard he fell for his old love once more, escaping into joyful worlds of fantasy and adventure, making friends across the world, only this time not as a teenager with his whole life ahead of him, but as a wounded vet in constant pain, desperate to remember what it felt like to embrace worlds of wonder and excitement with the same joy he once had, years ago.
And for a time, he found it. Friends to bond with, a game that captivated him, a girl that, in another life, he could have loved.
Before she was lured away by the promise of a game to rival all other games, so immersive, so overwhelming, it was like stepping into a completely new world, real in every detail.
And that's exactly what it turned out to be.
Julia and so many others with sockets drilled into their skulls, chattel for a race of invaders who saw earthlings as prey, and so used the most realistic simulation imaginable to lure them into the ultimate trap, their captive brains to fuel the powers of invading psionicists until they had nothing left to give, able perhaps to appreciate a few hours of horrific agony and regret when they were finally disconnected from the devices that had drained them dry, worthless broken husks doomed to a quick, awful death.
Val alone had escaped the perfect trap, glimpsing horrific truths that one Solena Petrova, corporate executive and Darklord, had thought kept so well hidden in her own mind even as she had seduced his own, or so she had thought, Val gambling with the fates themselves that the crackling portal he dared to jump through when his foes thought him helpless went anywhere save oblivion, Julia the only girl he had managed to save.
Only to find himself in a world of terror and wonder and bitter folly that was very much real, the girl he had tried so desperately to rescue now gone as if she had never been.
A universe where he really could level up, learning strange skills and magics in chilling flashes of intuition. Draining the souls of his enemies like the most terrible of vampires, and at constant risk of demise from every creature he and his newfound friends had discovered so far.
Yet dread as well as exhilaration had driven him to this moment of horrific folly. For pain was a very real thing here, and to die in this world was to die forever.
And perish he very well might, having charged headlong into danger, compelled by the desperate screams of children, determined that no one die his watch, ever again.
Yet now he was just seconds from being devoured by a hideous arachnid monstrosity that had ambushed him, and he only had one final trump card left to play, a card as like as not to spell his death as rescue him from oblivion, and he would burn in agony, either way.
Desperate screams of terrified children were the final things he heard as sticky strands fully cocooned him, the spiders pincers plunging unerringly for his throat.
Terror burned away. Only ashes of bleakest fury remained.
So be it. If he was going to die, it would be on his terms.
Hesitating no longer, he plummeted deep, deep down the crimson cord of awareness linking his gifts to the resonance of Jordian magics, feeling himself suddenly fill up with the very essence of flame. His lips curled in a grim smile even as he began to scream with pain, whispering a furious curse and howling as he channeled the last of his magics in an Explosive Retribution, every nerve ending suddenly ablaze. He smiled through the torment, the shrieking scream of the spider that had thought him prey caressing his ears before he was drowning in a sea of agony once more.
Explosive Retribution successfully cast! Save vs Oblivion made! Charred flesh is hardly pretty, but then again, neither are you! Deathspider Warrior has suffered catastrophic wounds. Deathspider Warrior has expired. Congratulations on dodging death yet again!
Congratulations! You have reached Rank 2 in mastering the element of flame.
"Val? Val! By the gods, what has that fool done now?" Gregor cursed.
"Captain, there are children tangled in cocoons of silk. We need to free them." Halvar's voice, surprisingly gentle.
"Do it," Sten said, now every inch the commander. "Elise, your sword?"
"Yes, Captain." And despite frightened whimpers, Val sensed the children being freed without a nick from Elise's deadly blade.
"By the gods," Gregor hissed. "They are..."
"Don't say it," Halvar warned.
"Dwarves!"
"Quiet!" Elise snapped. "I can't make out a word these children are saying. You two, go check on Val!"
For all that he hovered somewhere between excruciating agony and unconsciousness, the children's words rang clear as a bell to Val's ears. "Please don't hurt us!"
And then he knew no more, his dreams haunted by visions of fire flowing through the complex mana matrix of his body, obeying his every command, invigorating him, filling him with sweet hot joy and burning agony as the wildest of elements coursed through his soul.
--- End of Book 1 ---
The adventure continues in Endless Online - Oblivion’s Promise!
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Thank You
Creating this book was a labor of love, and I am grateful to my readers and all the fantastic GameLit and LitRPG authors who have come before me. In particular I wanted to give a shout out to Tao Wong and Blaise Corvin.
Blaise Corvin runs the Facebook group GameLit Society. He’s helped a lot of us newer authors learn the ropes, cares deeply about the genre, and has written some excellent GameLit as well. If you haven’t already checked out Delvers LLC: Welcome to Ludus, I recommend it highly. The character growth and clever use of powers really make it a treat to read.
And if you ever wondered what would happen if our world was suddenly influenced by RPG rules, then check out Tao Wong’s System Apocalypse series. It’s both a survival story and a great read with heroism, clever tactics, and awesome abilities.
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