Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure

by Belart Wright

  “Dammit!” He couldn’t help but to yell. He didn’t feel he had the time to grind the souls he needed. He wanted to hurry along to the next area.

  “I see that you’re frustrated. Good! Now you can feel the grief that you cause me,” said the smith.

  Sam was amused by Barrington’s rant, but he dared not show it.

  “Unfortunately forging your weapons brings me more joy than you bring grief, so I feel I must help you out. As to your current dilemma, you can use the souls you’ve collected to increase the power of your weapon. It will cost a little more to do so, but you currently seem to have a nice abundance.”

  Barrington smiled behind his thick beard. The way he smiled had unsettled Sam.

  “Okay, just use enough to get my Dagger to level ten.”

  The blacksmith did so, this time wrapping the blade in a white cloth. The smith instructed Sam to put his hands on the cloth and when Sam had done so, he felt the souls being drained right out of him. The act the left him breathless for a moment until the smith had urged him to pull away. The cost to level-up this way seemed to be double what it was for souls already on the weapon.

  “Good ... good,” the smith said while he examined the Dagger. “Now, we shall reforge this weapon with the blightstone, correct?”

  Sam nodded his head and watched the smith go to work. He hammered away and in an instant Sam’s level ten Dagger had increased to a level fifteen Blighted Dagger. The stats increased very little compared to his other weapons, but Sam guessed that was to balance the damage it did with criticals. The poison slider had increased by ten to match the bleedout slider.

  Blighted Dagger +15

  Knife

  A small blade, typically reserved as a last resort on the battlefield. For most, it is a useless weapon, but a few know human vital points quite well and look for the perfect moment to strike.

  ATK 70

  Weapon Damage 25

  S ATK F = 0

  D ATK B = 45

  M ATK F = 0

  B ATK F = 0

  F RAT 0

  L RAT 0

  D RAT 0

  P RAT 10

  B RAT 10

  Weight: 1 lb

  S Abs: 0

  He counted the souls he had in his possession and decided to take a little risk. Instead of leveling up like he planned, he asked Barrington to fulfill another request.

  “Can you Awaken this weapon here?”

  The weapon had merely said Silenced Dagger, for its name but its design was unique. It was the black dagger that Rondo had used. It had a black blade and black grip. Sam placed it on Barrington’s anvil and Barrington grinned greedily as he inspected the blade’s craftsmanship.

  “This one was beautifully made. Quite a shame that it’s Silenced. I feel duty bound to Awaken this masterpiece, for the right price.”

  “I know, I know. Souls, souls, and more souls. Go ahead and awaken it, please.”

  “I can sympathize with your impatience, but this one must be done correctly, which means I must take my time. It also requires more than simple souls. Items like these require pure Quintessence.”

  “Quintessence? Well you’re just lucky that I’m swimming in it, now aren’t you?”

  Sam was currently holding twenty-four loose units of Quintessence thanks to all his farming and Encroaching. He didn’t mind losing one for the sake of gaining a new weapon. He offered the Quintessence and watched Barrington do his thing. The smith rubbed a red salt down unto the blade this time, then covered it with a blood soaked cloth. He had Sam place his hand down onto the cloth and Sam felt the same draining feeling as before, only this time it was more intense. Once it was done, Sam felt a wicked pulse come from the weapon and he knew it was now fully Awakened.

  “Yes, yes, this one feels different from the last one, does it not? Weapons that were Silenced tend to be less complicit than those you’ve Awakened from giving your own life force to. They are further matured and more limited in their growth, but if you’re skilled enough, they may yet bend to your will.”

  Sam read over the stats of the formerly Silenced weapon.

  Black Blood Rondel

  Knife

  A vicious blade used by the highest level of twilight assassins, the masters. The masters of the assassin Orders tend to take contracts seldom, but the contracts they do get tend to be the most arduous and as a result are the most lucrative contracts. The Black Blood Rondel is preferred by the masters for its concealable nature and for how smoothly it slices through flesh.

  ATK 120

  Weapon Damage 75

  S ATK F = 0

  D ATK B = 45

  M ATK F = 0

  B ATK F = 0

  F RAT 0

  L RAT 0

  D RAT 0

  P RAT 0

  B RAT 50

  Weight: 1.5 lbs

  Its bleedout rating was very high. The way Sam understood it, a fifty point rating meant that half the damage done by the blade would measure directly against an opponent’s bleedout resistance. Bleedout resistance was so far, very rare, so Sam figured it would be a very useful effect early on. Bleedout was a nifty status ailment, because it drained stamina along with HP.

  Compared to his base Dagger, the Black Blood Rondel had an obscene amount of attack power. It was even superior to his upgraded Blighted Dagger. It was even stronger than his un-upgraded Rapier was. He wondered if it had a similar critical multiplier as his other two blades. He’d have to test it later, but he felt that he had a decent enough start for what was to come. More weapons meant more offensive options and more ways to take down diverse foes.

  He wished that he had another sword that scaled (powered up) properly with dexterity, but he felt confident that his new and improved Daggers would be useful for what was to come, whatever it was.

  “Thanks Barrington.”

  The smith grunted and went back to his other tasks. Sam wondered what the silver dagger was capable of, but the five thousand souls he’d need to Awaken it seemed like they would be better used in other ways.

  Sam walked over to the Soul Beacon and used what remained of his souls to level-up a few times. He was able to increase his speed five times, which put him at soul intensity forty-two. Once he was done with that, his soul count dwindled pitifully. He refilled his arrows with Barrington and leveled his other weapons with the souls that they absorbed. Both his bow and sword went up by five levels, to Flexile Wooden Bow level twenty-five and Rapier level thirty-three respectively.

  He then absentmindedly picked through his inventory, glancing over each of the items descriptions. His thoughts were really on what was next. Alex hadn’t told him anything about the next area, nor did he inquire any more than what she told him. He only knew that he was going south, to the supposed entrance of the forest. He preferred learning the area on his own. There was less of a chance he would be betrayed by whatever false information that Alex and Milner might give him.

  As he stared into the fire, a shiver came over him and spread throughout his body in a wave. He looked down at his sword hand and noticed that it was shaking. He took hold of it to quell the outburst, but it just wouldn’t stop. He whispered harsh commands to his body in frustration.

  “Stop! Stop this, right now!”

  There was nothing he could do about it. The fear he had been suppressing, crept up on him all at once. It was overwhelming and sadly, it was debilitating. Sam cursed himself for not facing it sooner. He had overlooked just how scared he really was. He hadn’t considered the entirety of what he stood to lose from death, until now.

  “If you can’t control your fucking body, Nagai then what makes you think you’ll survive this nightmare game?” he berated himself. “Think about it dumbass. If this forest was the first level then whatever else is out there gets a lot more difficult. Can’t wimp out now. We need to be at the top of our game. We need to win.”

  He laughed at his third person self-motivating absurdity, and the act of laughter seemed to lessen his tre
mors. Then he repeated the gaming handles of those he had inadvertently killed during his encroachments.

  “HolyVermillion. 3Angelo. Infamous Sampson. Call of Carl. John Washington. Xpansion Pak. Dick Rumsfeld. Spearwife. Roburn.”

  Saying the names aloud helped him focus and ground himself. Recalling his hand in their deaths and how trivially Milner deigned to sacrifice their lives brought forth an intense fury inside of him and that fury brought strength. Sam knew that he needed all that if he was going to survive and that’s just what he planned to do. Moments later, he received a call from Alex.

  “Sam, I’m going be radio silent for a while, in order to get some much needed sleep. I’ve been allowed to tell you about this and to tell you that you’ll still have some support from other staff members should you need it. You’ll probably get a programmer or something like that helping you out.”

  “How much time has passed since we started?” he asked.

  “You can tell how many hours passed by looking at your in-game hours played. You started the game at four PM yesterday and now it’s going on noon,” she explained, giving more info than Sam expected.

  “How long have you been working?”

  “Almost twenty-six hours. I’m about ready to pass out any minute.”

  “Alex.”

  “Yes, Sam.”

  “I have no way of knowing that I can trust you and I can’t risk it either if I want to stay alive.”

  “I know, Sam. I’ll just say again, that my only goal is to help you and the others survive this.”

  “I understand that and I just want you to know how I feel. Good communication, remember?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Even though I feel that whatever trust we had has been shattered, I still want to thank you, for what you’ve done for me so far. It means something to me, that you had my back earlier, especially with all you said about the Quintessence. I know, knowing about that and human form was vital. Before you go, I just want to say thank you ... for that.”

  “Of course, Sam. I never—” her voice cracked and Sam could hear her break down into sniffles and heavy sobbing before silencing her mic.

  She came back, a handful of seconds later, a little more composed.

  “I never stopped having your back Sam, never. And I always will.” She sobbed again. “We’re in this together, no matter what.”

  “Okay, it’s fine. Go ahead and rest. I’ll ... I’ll be here, preparing for what’s next,” he told her.

  “Okay, Sam. Don’t do anything reckless while I’m gone, okay? I won’t be gone for very long.”

  “Mm-hm,” he answered back, trying to sound disinterested. He wanted to maintain his distance, but the truth of it was that Alex had given him the faintest impression of hope. She was suffering too, from this madman’s out of control machinations. Maybe if they could discreetly work together, they could find some way out of this mess other than whatever Milner had planned. He would be on the lookout for such opportunities, so that he could keep the promises he made to Ru and to live the life that he and his dad wanted him to live.

  About the Author

  Belart Wright here, resident gamer and indie author. I reside in the city of Detroit, MI where I try to write books on a daily basis and not get too distracted.

  My current games lists includes Dark Souls 3, Dragon’s Crown, and Borderlands Pre-Sequel. You can usually find what I’m currently reading on my blog. D. Wolfin’s End Online #1 was pretty good. I read that as I waited for the edits for HG. It was highly imaginative. I don’t get a lot of time to play or read much from my lists since I’m always in front of my laptop writing or editing or doing whatever else needs to be done for my books.

  Support Me

  Thanks for reading Hell’s Glitch: Into a Dark Adventure! I’m currently hard at work on the sequel to this book. I wish to have it out soon with all the bells and whistles that a book like this deserves. If you would care to support my efforts please visit my Patreon page at

  https://www.patreon.com/Belart?ty=h

  Other Books By Me

  Story of K: An Infinite Golden Light – A short story about conquering brothers, serving their lord father who—as it happens—is a planet. The story chronicles a massive space battle between the brothers and a rogue member of their strange race.

  Liandra and the Dream Reader – A short prequel story to Average Joe and the Extraordinaires about a young girl who experiences terrifying nightmares that threaten her health and sanity. The girl and her parents must turn to methods that are anything but ordinary in their desperate efforts to cure an affliction that is frighteningly abnormal.

  Average Joe and the Extraordinaires – An action and adventure novel about a normal teenage boy and his newfound magnetic pull for everything extraordinary. Join Joe as he tries to survive extraordinary circumstances and clear his name after being accused of terrorizing his favorite team’s sports stadium.

  Special Note

  Hello readers! I hoped you liked Hell’s Glitch #1. Depending on how the release of this book goes, you should have many more books in the series soon enough.

  I just wanted to take this time to address a few things. Hell’s Glitch proudly wears its inspirations on its sleeve. If you read through a sizable portion of the book, you can easily identify what those inspirations are. My intent isn’t to rip anyone off, or steal in any way, but to pay homage to something I really like and that greatly inspired me. I just wanted to make this inspired project and make it for you guys and for myself. I know how hungry this audience is for new books. I’d like to hopefully continue forward and write many more stories for you all for many upcoming years.

  As I said before, Hell’s Glitch wears its inspirations on its sleeve, so I’d like to take the time to thank those that inspired the creation of this book. Thank you Hidetaka Miyazaki, From Software, CyberConnect2, Reki Kawahara, abec, Capcom, and Kentaro Miura.