Lord of creation
by
Lawrence Blackwood
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
To my family, who made sure to tell me what I did wrong as much as I did right. Without you, this would still be a half finished draft sitting in the depths of Wattpad.
Author’s Note
As I write this, Lord of Creation stands complete. It's been a long time in the making- much more than it really should have been. There are untold numbers of stories that I half-started, only to abandon them later. Then, one day, I started Lord of Creation. It was my first LitRPG novel, and I took it and ran.
Donovan started off as just a little idea in my head, but now he's grown into so much more. He may not be real, but over the course of writing this novel he has gained a semblance of life. I've read countless sentences just like that one, but I never quite understood the feeling until now. And I thank you, all of you reading this- well the ones that stuck around to anyway, screw those other guys. I hope you have as much fun reading this as I had writing it. In the meantime I'll be here, waiting for our next adventure.
Chapter 1
The joining of a perfect pair. A solid, delicious combination of those beautiful halves into a whole. I'm talking about a PB & J, of course. They are simple, easy, and most of all, delicious. I have to be careful with the bread though; my mom has a gluten intolerance. Not like those fake ones that everyone claims to have nowadays; If she eats bread, she's down for the count for at least a day.
Shit! I forgot to logout! In a flash I dropped my sandwich and half-jogged through the dining room and living room, nearly slipping on the hardwood floors because of my socks.
No, no, no. With growing dismay I turned my laptop around so I could see the screen. A simple, blood red message was displayed on the screen- YOU HAVE DIED. If I hadn't been on permadeath, or if I were playing as anything but my fragile sorcerer, this wouldn't have happened. "Damn you." I muttered, and abandoned the expensive hunk of technology. Well it was relatively inexpensive, but it had taken nearly a full summer of mowing for my parents to save up the $350 to buy it.
As I picked up my half eaten PB & J, I pushed my dismay at the loss of one of my most powerful characters aside. I had a warrior-priest to fall back on, and I had food to eat too. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. "Ew, another greasy, overweight gamer." Well, I am a gamer of sorts, and I do happen to enjoy food, but not quite enough to override everything else.
I used to play football, was even one of the stronger guys on the team when I played. Our team was only like sixteen people, but still. The last full year I played was last year, my Sophomore year of high school. I was a Junior now, with more important things to worry about. Like making money.
After I stopped playing, most of my workout habits stopped too. I kept up fairly decently, and always made sure to be active in P.E. but I wasn't quite as fit as I used to be. Still, I was secretly proud of my decent physique.
I stood up, my plate empty, to my full 5'8" of height. Yeah, not a giant. I know. I was only sixteen, so I had a bit of growing left to do. Hopefully the next few years would kick me up an extra couple inches, but whatever.
I quickly passed over into the tiled floor of the kitchen and began furiously scrubbing the peanut butter off my plate and into the sink. If there was one downside to the delicious stuff, it was how well it managed to stick to plates.
I wanted to get back to my game, but first I finished scrubbing most of the peanut butter off and grabbed my cold coffee, which promptly followed the peanut butter down the drain. Both of them were quickly stuffed into the dishwasher, which lay directly to the right of the sink. Then, it was back to the game.
I popped open my laptop, and typed in my ingenious password, which was just my name with a few numbers afterword. D-o-n-o-v-a-n-3-5-9-8, and I was in. I quickly exited out of the still open death screen, trying to ignore the shame I felt at my foolish mistake.
I made my way over to the character selection and briefly debated between using my tank, priest, or making a new character. The two I had were pretty unstoppable, to the point where many of the levels were almost boring. I clicked on create new character.
"Whoa." The usual race options for the game were there, Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Orc, but there was now at least half a dozen more options. Maybe my embarrassing death was enough to warrant extra help? I snorted at the thought, then decided to look at the new races and their stats.
Kobold- Small in stature, yet capable of devious tricks and traps. Light scales provide a minor defense boost. They are the frailest of lizard-kind, but can grow to great power if managed correctly.
Half Elf- An uncommon crossbreed of human and elf, the half elf is capable of intermediate stealth magics. They are the physically weakest of humanoids, and prefer to do their work from the shadows.
Vulrian- Massive man-beasts similar in stature to were-beasts, but possessing a mostly human mind. Vulrians make nearly unparalleled warriors, but are often the targets of assassination attempts due to the threat they pose. They possess limited magical capabilities, but have a passive resistance to most magics. Even low levels surpass that disgrace you call a tank.
Man-drake- Dryads and shamans, man-drakes are nature-born creatures and protectors of ancient and sacred land. Their healing powers are above average, but are susceptible to fire magic. Even minor fire spells can cause them severe damage.
??????????- An amalgamation of other races. You deserve the worst parts of a kobold and halfling. Worthless.
You- Slightly above average intelligence, strength, and endurance. Below average wisdom. No remarkable skills to boast, unless you count exceptional procrastination and mild laziness. This is the worst option, but you'll choose it anyway, won't you?
When did this game get so snarky? And did it really make a flower pun? It was right though. Of course I was going to pick myself, even if Vulrians did sound badass. I clicked on the You option, and was brought to a familiar, if disconcerting character sheet. The stats were dismally low, but that was the least of my worries.
An exact, if poorly animated, copy of myself slowly rotated with his arms out to the side like a T. Most characters had a reroll option, but mine had none. It was crazy to think that the game had somehow made a game version of me, but it was also kind of cool. I took another glance at my stats before clicking the continue button.
Name- Donovan Hawthorne
Strength- 8
Endurance- 7
Constitution-7
Dexterity- 5
Perception- 5
Intelligence- 8
Wisdom- 4
Luck- 6
Humanity- 50
Alignment- None
On second thought, some of my stats were okay, but I had never seen the humanity stat before. The alignment was odd, as all of the other characters I made on the game had something, even if it was neutral. Having both constitution and endurance was weird too. I was about to click continue, but a sudden, massive headache hit me.
This was possibly the worst time to get a migraine, but whatever. I clicked continue and did my best to ignore the ever growing pain. Black spots tainted my vision. I started to sway in my seat. I tried to stand and go get something to relieve the pain, but my legs gave out from under me and all was black.
◆◆◆
A classic, almost cliche dungeon formed on my screen. The graphics were better than I was used to, and I swear I could almost feel the cold, damp stone of the dungeon. VR was intense. Wait... I don't have VR. I suddenly remembered the migraine, and my worthless attempt to make it to the medicine cabinet. Did I hit my head
? Oh, shit. Why am I an idiot? There is no way in hell that there could have actually been a me choice in the game. No wonder my wisdom stat was so low.
I shook my head to clear it, and looked around. Roughly hewn stone walls surrounded me in a simple square room about ten feet by ten feet across. It was dim, and oddly smokeless torches on the walls did depressingly little to light the place up. A slightly decrepit wooden door was directly across from me. No way, this is the tutorial room! I scrambled to my feet, but stopped myself from yanking open the door. There should be a guide somewhere, I just had to find it.
"Looks like you really live up to your Wisdom stat." An eerie, but decidedly male voice said from behind me. I twirled around but no one was there. Suddenly I remembered that the tutorial was just boxes of text that appeared on the screen. Maybe the disembodied voice was similar? "How did I get here?" I called, and the voice chuckled.
"You, my dear friend, have been Soul Bound to a different plane of existence through your game. The emotions you feel while playing slowly feed energy into a spell designed specifically to bring people like you here. You, in turn, will gain energy very similar to experience points throughout your journeys. And when you finally die, all of that energy is fed back into me."
Holy shit and a half! Was I talking to a god? Because that sounds like just the sort of thing a god would say. "Well I still get a tutorial, right?" I asked to the empty room.
The response was so quiet I barely heard it. "Just envision what you want, and it will appear."
The first thing I did is try to envision a class selection screen, because I was fairly sure a red, long-sleeved shirt and jeans was not proper dungeon crawling attire. To my surprise, a list of classes, attributes, and skills appeared.
Warrior- Tough frontline fighters. Typically wield two-handed weapons or a sword and shield, but can use some heavy ranged weapons. Main attributes are Strength, Constitution, and Endurance. (Note that Constitution is resistance to damage, while Endurance is the ability to perform sustained physical activity)
Subclasses-
Paladin, Knight, and Barbarian, among others.
Mage- Many mages are frail, but not all. Most mages are physically weak but can rain powerful destructive magic upon their enemies. Main attributes are Intelligence, Wisdom, and Perception.
Subclasses-
Priest, Sorcerer, Battlemage, among others
Archer- Though they are long range fighters like mages, they are significantly tougher than their spell flinging counterparts. Main attributes are Dexterity, Perception, and Constitution.
Subclasses-
Ranger is the most prominent subclass for Archer. Though other options exist, they are generally weaker than Rangers.
Thief- Fleet footed tricksters that utilize stealth and critical strikes to their advantage. They range in toughness from as frail as a Mage to as solid as a Paladin, but their individual damage is significantly higher than other classes. Main attributes are Dexterity, Perception, and Luck.
Subclasses-
Assassin and Rogue, among others
(Note that not all Subclasses are present. More will appear as your skills in any given class increase. Also note that your class is not an active choice, but merely a mark of progress in certain traits. If you are a magic user that sneaks up on an unsuspecting Kobold, your Thief and subsequent Subclasses will advance. If you wish, the class system will be devolved into simple character traits.
"Umm, okay. That's a lot to take in. Let's just keep it simple for now." I said to the empty room. To my astonishment, the class list disappeared, to be replaced with a more user friendly character sheet with Inventory, Spells, Abilities, and Knowledge tabs. The inventory had multiple empty spaces, with a weight limit that had a maximum of 80 lbs in relation to my strength. It was currently at 2.7 lbs, likely due to my clothes. When I closed the character sheet, I noticed that three bars remained at the bottom of my vision. From left to right they were-
Mana; Obviously this one was a manner of my magical ability. It read 130/130, in relation to my intelligence + a base of 50, and was blue.
Experience; A measure of the distance I have to my next "Level up" This one read 0/50
Health; A measure of my life, though I don't know how useful it'll be. I know when I'm hurt, after all. This one read 37/37. The number doesn't make sense, but there's probably an explanation for it.
(Note that Mana regen is proportional to Wisdom, Exp gain is proportional to Intelligence, and Health regen is proportional to Constitution. Mana cap grows with Intelligence, and Health cap grows with Strength and Constitution. 10 points of Strength is 1 Health point, while 1 point of Constitution is 1 Health point)
With little else to do, I opened the wooden door, which led to another familiar hallway. If this was still on track with the game, a group of literally harmless Level 0 undead would be beyond the hallway. Speaking of levels, I never thought to check mine. Unsurprisingly, it read Level 1.
My Damage per second, or Dps, was 1-2 with my bare hands, meaning if I were to fight a dummy of myself it would take about 40 seconds or so to kill. It was a far cry from the 50ish Dps I usually started a game with, but I wasn't one to complain. I kept going, excitement covering any fear I should have had.
I burst through the door at the end of the hallway, straight into a group of skeletons. I bowled two of them over, landing on one and crushing it. I winced at the pain of something small and sharp poking me in the ribs. My Health fell to 34/37. I jumped to my feet, narrowly avoiding a haphazard strike from another skeleton. They were slow, but their hits apparently took a decent amount of Health points away from me. I kicked the leg out from one of them, and grabbed two others by the skull and banged their heads together with a satisfying crack, but there were still four of them left.
I made quick work of the remaining skeletons, but my Health was down to 14/37 by the time I was done. My Experience bar filled to 17/50, and the full part glowed a bright golden color. A few Copper coins were strewn about, which I quickly transferred to the Money portion of my inventory. They disappeared with a weird sucking noise.
There was no sign of a chest, or weapons rack, so I grabbed one of the skeleton's femurs. I focused on it, and the words Bone Club appeared, along with a Dps rating of 4-6. The durability was basically worthless, so I grabbed a few more and stuck them into my inventory. The five makeshift clubs upped my weight to 5.6/80.
I wanted to charge into the next room and bash some more skeletons, who I found out had 5 Health each. That was enough where I could one hit them with a decent hit, but I had no idea if my Health had a passive regen. I began waiting, before realizing that I could probably check. Sure enough, with a thought my Health regen popped up, but it was only a meager 2/min. Damn. I didn't have time to wait... Actually, I just didn't have the patience to wait. Onward, to glory! Well, to a few more skeletons, but still.
The next room was made of the same unnaturally damp stone as the rest of the dungeon, but had probably twice the number of skeletons. That means I should level up soon! Hell yeah! I quickly bopped a few of the skeletons on the head, and received a notification popup from a particularly nasty hit. I killed the rest of the boney dolts before checking the popup. The little 1 icon indicating that I had a notification turned to a 2, and my Exp bar reset. Level up! I opened the first notification.
Critical and Minimal strikes- There is no set chance to critically wound an opponent. Rather, each enemy has its own weaknesses and strengths, as well as the general differences in effectiveness that most weapons have. If you kick a skeleton and a person of the same level in the leg, it will have a relatively similar effect. However, if you stab a skeleton through the ribs and a person in the ribs, the skeleton will suffer no damage while the person will be wounded, perhaps fatally so. You have unlocked Creature Anatomy Book!
Huh. Nothing particularly astonishing, but the Anatomy Book sounded pretty badass. I closed that out and opened the level up screen. I was given the standard Mana and He
alth refill, and 15 attribute points to spend as I wished.
Lord of Creation Page 1
