Unwritten Rules: A LitRPG Novel (Genesis Online Book 1)

by Adam Horne

  Chapter 7

  Kevin had forgotten the next day he had his regular physical therapy session, and he wasn’t able to log into the game when he woke up. He’d slept later than normal, due to the fact he’d been up until almost midnight playing, and he had to eat a hurried breakfast before his trainer arrived. His mother flitted around the room with a dust rag, wiping at all the surfaces like the President was coming to visit. He sneezed so many times from the dust she raised that he had to ask her to leave so he could eat in peace.

  Ten minutes later, his personal trainer walked into the room. He’d had a number of different therapists while recovering in the hospital, but when he was discharged, he had to find one able to work with him at home. The hospital provided a list of recommendations, and they’d interviewed several candidates. There was nobody else he would have considered after meeting Natalie Evans.

  Natalie was tall with dark black hair normally tied up in a ponytail while she worked. She always smiled and offered words of encouragement as he struggled through his exercises. They talked about running, an interest they both shared, and she told him stories about the local hash group she was a member of and the trouble they got into at the bars after each event. She would grin mischievously as she told a raunchy joke she’d overheard the night before.

  To say Kevin had a crush would be an understatement, but he did his best to hide it. Although he didn’t know her exact age, she was at least five years older than him. Even without that barrier, he doubted a person as active as Natalie would be willing to settle for someone in his condition. The fact he was her patient made things worse, since he couldn’t see her feeling attraction for a person she spent an hour and a half, two days a week exercising the muscles in his arms and legs so they wouldn’t atrophy.

  “Good morning!” said Natalie with a cheerful smile when she walked in. “How are you today?”

  Kevin pushed away his plate with half a piece of toast unfinished. “I’m good.”

  She planted her hands on her hips and pursed her lips in a look of mock outrage. “What have I told you about finishing your breakfast? You’re going to need all your energy for the workout I’ve got planned.”

  Kevin laughed. “Sorry, I know. I overslept.”

  “That’s because you always keep it so dark in here. You can’t even tell the sun is up.” She walked across the room and drew the curtains open. Unlike with Ben, he didn’t mind when Natalie messed with his window. “That’s better! So have you done the homework I gave you?”

  “Yes.”

  Kevin slid open the drawer built into the swivel desk and retrieved the grip trainer she’d left for him to practice. A metal spring connected two plastic handles that could be grasped with the hand to build strength and flexibility in the palm and fingers. He squeezed it with his right hand and held for as long as he could before releasing.

  “How was that?”

  Natalie nodded. “Not bad! Longer than last week.”

  Kevin grinned. “I’ve been working with the grip trainer every day. Plus there are some other things I’m trying that might help.”

  “Like what?” asked Natalie as she started to exercise his legs, rotating them to loosen the muscles then moving them through stepping motions.

  “My friend, Ben, told me about a new online game last night.”

  Kevin explained all about Genesis Online as they worked through his therapy session and told her about how they thought the game might help with his recovery. She had a lot of questions about effects on the muscles and brain, most of which he couldn’t begin to answer, so he steered the conversation in the direction of the things he’d noticed while playing. He related the experience of grinding up the herbs to make poison and how he’d gotten better at making the motions as he practiced.

  “That’s interesting,” said Natalie. “I’d never have thought of using virtual reality for therapy. Did you notice any improvements in feeling or control after playing the game?”

  “No, but I only started playing yesterday.”

  Natalie nodded thoughtfully. “Well if you do notice changes, I’d like to know about them. I’ll check those research papers you mentioned and read them myself. Of course, most people wouldn’t continue with the game unless it was interesting. Did you like it?”

  “Yeah, it was fun. Except there was this one guy…”

  Kevin told her about Itrix and how he was taking advantage of people and making the game more difficult for anyone who refused to join his guild. He left out the part about being killed several times since he didn’t figure that was the sort of detail she would be interested in hearing. He told her about the blockade they’d held at the mine, forcing other players to fight each other for the small number of goblins that spawned outside. Kevin barely noticed the time passing as he told stories of his encounters the night before, until Natalie announced they were done.

  “That was a good session, Kevin, some definite improvement since we started,” said Natalie. “Keep working with the grip trainer.”

  “I will.”

  “Great! I’ll see you next week.”

  “See you then.”

  Even after Natalie left, he still couldn’t log into the game despite a burning desire to play. He’d worked up a sweat from the exercises and had to wait while his mother gave him a sponge bath and changed his clothes. She then insisted he eat lunch since he’d barely touched his breakfast, and with the way his stomach was growling, he found it hard to argue. By the time he finished eating the sandwich she brought him, it was already the middle of the afternoon. His plan to log on early in hopes there would be fewer people to compete against hadn’t worked out. He kept his fingers crossed that his luck would be better today than the night before and pulled the headset down over his eyes.

  * * *

  Kelath materialized in the graveyard where he’d logged out. He looked around to get his bearings and spotted the mining office to the north. He followed the road to where the path split off that led down to the mine entrance. There were fewer people milling about the area, so he felt hopeful for his chances of finishing the quest as he descended into the canyon.

  The crowd around the campfires was smaller than the day before, but that didn’t mean it was any easier for him to find goblins to kill. Without Througar to taunt the mob away, he couldn’t engage in sneak attacks and his damage dropped significantly. There were several times he was the first to tag a goblin, only to have a wizard or fighter get credit because of their higher damage output. Even worse, with the monster attacking him the whole time, he had to move somewhere safe after the fight so he didn’t get attacked by another player looking for an easy kill while his health regenerated.

  After twenty minutes, he had gathered three more necklaces. Although this was better than he’d done the day before, he was still extremely frustrated since he would have already finished the quest if other players hadn’t stolen several kills from him. He glared at a pair of clerics, both from Noblesse Oblige, who guarded the entrance to the mines.

  His health finally recovered from the last battle, he activated the stealth skill and waded back into the mess. He didn’t have to go far before a goblin with a club appeared right in front of him with its back turned. He grinned at this stroke of luck and shoved the blade of his dagger between its ribs.

  Sneak attack success.

  Critical hit!

  Poison applied.

  The goblin screamed in surprise as its health dropped to almost half and continued draining as the poison spread through its body. Another player ran up on the goblin’s side and attacked it with a mace, but there was no way he could catch up with the amount of damage Kelath had done on his first hit. The goblin turned and brought a club down on Kelath’s shoulder, knocking off some of his health. He responded by slashing it across the arm, doing some damage but more importantly hitting an artery that started to bleed. They continued trading blows, but with the combined drain of both the poison and bleeding, the goblin soon fell.r />
  Congratulations! Your Poison skill has increased to 5.

  Kelath smiled. Even if he wasn’t getting many kills, at least his skills were improving. He checked the body, finding another necklace and eight copper coins. He collected them, lamenting the fact that he never seemed to find anything interesting. He’d hoped one of them might be carrying a weapon or piece of armor that would be better than what he wore, but so far no luck. He probably shouldn’t complain though, since he’d found enough necklaces to be halfway done with his quest. When he straightened up, the player who had tried to steal his kill was standing right in front of him. He quickly identified the character and learned he was a level two cleric. He was also a member of Noblesse Oblige.

  “What’s your problem?” asked Kelath.

  “I wanted that goblin.”

  “Too bad. I got a sneak attack in before you were anywhere close. You’ll have to be quicker next time.”

  “This is our turf. You’re lucky we even let you stay here. You should be thanking us.”

  “You’re right.” Kelath gave a mock bow with a wide flourish of his hand. “Thank you sooooo much. I appreciate you letting me eat the scraps from your table.”

  He grinned at the angry look on the other’s face when he straightened up. The cleric responded by raising his mace and bringing it down squarely in the middle of Kelath’s leather breastplate. Ten percent of his health went away. He stared in surprise, his mind stuck on the fact that at least it hadn’t been a rogue because there would have been sneak attack damage and he’d really be hurting. When his thoughts caught up to the fact he was being attacked, his face began to burn.

  “Damn you!”

  Kelath slashed with his dagger, opening a cut on the cleric’s face that bled profusely. The cleric retaliated, slamming his shield into Kelath’s face.

  Strength check to resist. You have been stunned for 2 seconds.

  The cleric continued swinging with his mace, although he didn’t do much damage. Clerics were a jack-of-all-trades class, due to the fact that they could wear heavy armor and heal. To make up for their versatility, their damage output was lower because otherwise everyone would play a cleric. It meant they took a lot longer to kill mobs, but with the way they could absorb hits and keep their health up, they didn’t stand much risk of dying. So by the time the stun wore off, Kelath still had three quarters of his health bar left.

  He wasted no time in counterattacking, applying poison and bleed effects so the cleric’s health dropped steadily. When his HP dipped below half, the cleric paused from attacking and cast a heal spell, raising himself almost back up to full. Despite the fact Kelath was doing more damage, he knew he couldn’t win the fight. He had no way to interrupt spells, which meant the cleric could heal himself with impunity. Without being able to use sneak attacks in a one-on-one fight, he couldn’t dish out enough damage to overcome the heavy armor. At half health himself, his only option to survive was to run.

  He screamed in frustration but turned from the fight anyway. He took off in a direction leading deeper into the canyon. He could hear the sounds of a spell being chanted behind him and ducked behind a stone large enough to cover him and block the line of sight needed for the spell to affect him. The cleric cursed as his spell fizzled out, and Kelath jumped up again to continue running. The sound of metal boots ringing off stone followed behind him, getting farther away each time his pursuer attempted to cast a spell.

  After five minutes of running, he was far enough ahead to drop out of the combat state. He ducked behind the nearest pile of scree and activated his stealth skill. He let out a sigh of relief, thankful the canyon hadn’t narrowed into a cul-de-sac. A dead end would have meant the end of him too. He crouched behind his cover and listened for the sound of pursuing footsteps, but after a few minutes of waiting, he was still alone.

  When he felt certain he wasn’t still being followed, he took the time to look around and get a bearing on his surroundings. The canyon had widened significantly, and the walls here were lower. He’d reached a point where it opened into a plain that spread out below. A couple hundred yards ahead was a small pond, likely fed from an underground spring because it appeared to be the headwaters of a stream that meandered away through tall grass.

  With one last look behind to make sure the coast was clear, Kelath dropped out of stealth and walked onto the plain. He headed straight to the pond, which had a tall willow tree growing on the near side. He collapsed on the sandy bank next to the tree and spread his arms and legs out on the soft ground. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he felt both physically and mentally exhausted. He’d had such high hopes for this game, but so far, everything had been incredibly difficult. So many people were playing at once and a whole guild full of people was making things a hassle for everyone else.

  He needed to figure out some other way to advance in the game, because it was obvious what he was doing hadn’t worked. He’d never make enough money to pay for his VR rig competing with all the other players to kill goblins for a handful of copper coins. It seemed the game was set up to give very small rewards for farming drops from monsters, which made sense. If the mobs dropped too much loot, the company running the game would quickly go bankrupt. They had to restrict the amount that dropped because each new coin or item added to the system meant money they’d have to pay out if a player decided to redeem it. If he was going to make serious cash, he needed to figure out a way to get it from other players instead. The only way to do that would be through making items they needed, but so far he hadn’t learned anything about crafting.

  As he sat there waiting for his health to regenerate, his eyes wandered to the willow tree. He remembered hearing a long time ago that people used to chew on willow bark for pain relief because it was similar to aspirin. He waded out into the water, feeling the trunk of the tree with his hand. The haptic glove responded with a rough texture where his fingers scraped across it. He took out his knife and cut into the bark of the tree, shaving off a few long strips. He stuck one of the pieces between his teeth and began to chew. To his surprise, his health bar filled faster and a system message appeared.

  Congratulations! Your Herbalism skill has increased to 1.

  “Wow, neat!” He held the extra strips of bark in his hand and concentrated on them.

  Willow Bark: Provides a bonus to health regeneration.

  Health regeneration was only active outside of combat, so he wouldn’t be able to use them while in a fight. Anything that allowed him to heal faster would still be incredibly useful though, since it would reduce the amount of time he had to sit around to regain HP between fights. Once he found an area where he didn’t have to compete with a crowd of people for mobs, this would cut his downtime in half. Lost in the excitement of his new discovery, Kelath didn’t realize someone was watching him from the hill above until a voice spoke.

  “Hey! What are you doing down there?”

  Chapter 8

  Kelath spun around and spotted a female human wizard standing over him. She had short, black hair of a length that barely brushed her shoulders. Her eyes were dark and her skin pale. She wore light blue robes with green trim, of a better quality than the ragged brown ones given to new characters. In her hand was a tall, thin staff made of what looked like pine.

  Kelath’s hand dropped to his dagger, but the woman made no move to cast any spells, so after a moment he relaxed. She watched him curiously, nodding at the strips of bark he still held in his hand.

  “What are you doing?” she repeated.

  “Oh…” Kelath looked at the willow bark and laughed nervously. “I remembered something about this being used as a pain reliever, so I cut some off the tree and chewed it.”

  “Did it help?”

  “Yeah, it caused my health to regenerate faster.”

  “That’s really cool!” She jumped up and down and clapped her hands together, practically oozing energy. “Mind if I try it?”

  “Go ahead.” Kelath held his hand
out, and she took a small piece.

  She placed the willow bark on her tongue and began chewing. “It doesn’t soften easily, but I can see the buff now. I already have something I can drink to help me regain mana, so I still have to sit around while my health slowly fills back up. Thanks!”

  “Yeah, you can get more by cutting strips off the trunk of a willow. I discovered the herbalism skill that way.”

  She motioned at Kelath’s knife. “Do you mind? I don’t have any weapons with an edge.”

  “Sure.” Kelath pulled his dagger and handed it to her.

  She walked over to the tree and scraped at the bottom of the cut he’d already made. After a while, she slipped a handful of shavings into the pocket of her robe and returned the knife to him.

  “Thanks.” She said with a smile. “I’m Elora.”

  “Kelath, nice to meet you.” He stuck his hand out, and she shook it enthusiastically. “What are you doing out here?”

  Elora climbed up the shore and sat where it switched from sand to grassy tufts. “I heard you sawing at the tree and decided to check it out.” She patted a spot on the ground next to her and motioned for him to sit.

  Kelath sat beside her and looked across the pond. A fish jumped from the water and landed back with a splash. He thought it was a nice touch.

  “So what do you think of the game so far?” asked Kelath.

  “I love it! Although the quest areas are a bit crowded at the moment…when it became clear I couldn’t kill any goblins, I decided to explore instead.”

  “That’s why I’m here, too. I was thinking I need to find a way to learn about crafting before you showed up. That’s probably the best way to make money in the game, since goblins only drop copper coins.”

  She tilted her head thoughtfully. “You may be right. So did you make any big discoveries yet?”

  “Just the willow bark.” He shrugged. “I’m open to suggestions if you have any. What was the drink you mentioned that helps you regenerate mana?”

  “Wizards can learn a skill called ‘conjure water.’ We use a lot of mana during fights, so we need a way to regenerate MP faster outside of combat. It’s super useful! I’ll show you.”