Logout of Cthulhu: A Lovecraftian LitRPG novel (Cthulhu World Book 1)

by T. K. Kato

  17 Damage

  I felt bone shatter under the blow; I heard it, even through the sickly wet smack the impact had made. The creature fell over backward, clutching his ruined face.

  +1 Stealth

  +1 Might

  By this time, others had begun to rise, hopping in my general direction. I scampered away, back into the shadows. Two of the cultists dived into the muddy waters, vanishing from sight. Another scrambled in the direction I’d fled, flailing wildly with a tiny knife.

  I crept up behind him and slammed the crowbar into the back of his head as well.

  23 Damage

  He fell with a satisfying thud and began to evaporate. Grinning, I kept to the shadows, sneaking around the room. I dispatched the remaining foes one by one. None of these poor bastards even had a weapon, other than the knife-wielder I’d already killed.

  Another fled into the waters, maybe to get help.

  That hardly mattered, since I’d be long gone before more could show up.

  The crowbar fell hard on the last cultist.

  15 Damage

  He dropped to his hands and knees, moaning. Another overhanded swing.

  23 Damage

  This one crushed his head to pulp.

  -1 Sanity

  +1 Stealth

  +1 Might

  I could get used to this. After a glance around to make sure no more were in the area, I dismissed the camouflage and continued down the tunnel.

  Another hundred feet or so and the dry ground beneath me gave way to mud. Shortly after this, as the tunnel descended deeper, the mud became actual water splashing beneath my feet. It was as cold as seawater, and hardly pleasant. As I pressed on, the water level rose further, eventually reaching up to my waist.

  I shivered, but waded on. I was not about to give up after coming this far. The gem had to be down here somewhere and I intended to find it, no matter how many cultists I had to slaughter on the way. Arms holding the crowbar above my head and out of the waters, I continued sloshing down the tunnel.

  Whatever lay ahead, I was ready for—

  A large form launched itself out of the water ahead of me. I tried to bring up the crowbar, but the creature impacted me before I could get any momentum. Its weight bore me down, driving me underwater. The flashlight slipped from my grasp and spun around, creating a warp of light and shadow even as the monster above me drove me into the tunnel floor, throwing up mud.

  -1 HP

  -1 HP

  I lost my grip on the crowbar, concentrating only on keeping the snapping jaws of this thing off me. What little I could glimpse of it looked like a four-legged Deep One, as if they had somehow crossed a shark and a dog. I had managed to wedge my arm under its throat, but those fangs inched closer to my face with each passing second.

  Bubbles further obscured my vision as my breath escaped me. Desperate, I drew my other hand back and thrust it forward. A telekinetic blast hurled beast and water both away from me, slamming them into the ceiling.

  11 Damage

  Gasping for air, I broke through to the surface. The creature spun around in the waters, just a shadow to me, but agile as any fish. It leapt again, trailing water behind it as it flew, a streaming shadow in the dark. I jerked my hand forward again, barely managing the maneuver before it crashed into me. The half-formed ripple caught it in midair and sent it careening back into the waters.

  11 Damage

  It vanished with a splash. My flashlight had spun around, its light spilling from the muck but in the wrong direction, leaving the monster nearly invisible. Desperate, I snatched up the pistol and squeezed the trigger.

  Nothing happened.

  Useless. The damn thing must have gotten water inside it.

  Splashing ahead drew my eyes. I tossed aside the ruined pistol, then slowly knelt and patted around for the crowbar.

  Before I could find it, a shadow in the water lurched toward me as if it had been shot from a cannon. I tried to jerk my hand back up. Wasn’t fast enough.

  The hybrid collided with me and drove me back down into the waters.

  -3 HP

  Everything began to grow dim again, and what little I caught sight of seemed mere shades of black.

  It held me under, cutting off all air. Panicking, I yanked my hands apart, warping space without even having a clear destination in mind. Reality broke around us, and suddenly the pair of us and a globe of water were falling from a hole in the ceiling. We pitched headlong back down into the waters, and I landed on the monster.

  1 Damage

  The impact dazed it. I had only a split second, so I rolled over, focused on it and on the wall beside us. I pulled my hands apart. The Deep One dog-thing fell through the ripple I created, and I let reality snap back into place.

  It launched itself forward before the wall solidified, and I shrieked as it flew toward me again. The wall materialized around its hind leg, though, and it jerked to a sudden, painful stop, a croaking yelp escaping the maimed creature.

  16 Damage

  -1 Sanity

  +1 Max HP

  I backpedaled away from it, gasping, my heart feeling ready to explode.

  Despite having a leg embedded in the wall, the dog-thing continued to try to fling itself at me, massive jaws snapping and shrieking.

  Holy hell.

  Keeping well clear of the monster, I knelt to snatch up the flashlight and, this in hand, scanned around for the crowbar. The light finally glinted off it. After retrieving the weapon, I hefted it and considered closing in on the creature to put an end to the beast. That would have meant getting close to those shark jaws, though. Hardly appealing.

  Finally, I turned and continued down the tunnel.

  As the passage descended, the water came up higher and higher, until I had to switch from wading to swimming. Eventually, only a few inches of air remained at the top of the tunnel, and then I had to dive underwater.

  Flashlight in hand, I swam forward, making my way through the submerged sections of the maze, grateful it continued straight rather than forcing me to choose a route. I was still seeing things in black and white, and time seemed slower now, but I guessed I must have been under almost a minute already. My lungs were burning.

  What the hell had I been thinking? I had no way to know how far the tunnel stretched before reaching air again. Turn back? I might still be able to make it back … I might …

  I was losing it myself … wasn’t I … trying this … Not just … the game … Crazy plan …

  The tunnel opened up into a larger chamber. Desperate, I swam straight up. My arms felt like lead weights were holding them down. My vision blurred even more and bubbles streamed past me. I broke through the surface and gasped, sucking down painful, beautiful breaths.

  My flashlight swung wildly around the cavern as I treaded water, illuminating a hill rising out of the water. I swam closer to this hill, feeling sluggish and ready to lie down from exhaustion. As I drew nearer, the light swept over a cluster of bright green, gooey sacs the size of my head.

  Hell. Like something out of an Alien movie …

  Even as the thought crossed my mind, three of the sacs ruptured, and giant wasps broke free. At least I first took them for wasps. As one of them surged toward me, its face opened up to reveal teeth that looked like a damn piranha.

  What the … !

  The instant before it reached me, I dove underwater, then spun around to see it fly right overhead, its hideous form distorted by the waters.

  -1 Sanity

  Rather than despair, the in-game message filled me with uncontrolled rage. How dare these things come after me? Who the hell did these bugs think they were, anyway? I jerked my hand up as the wasp-thing soared overhead once more.

  The telekinetic ripple hurled water upward like a geyser, caught the bug, and slammed it into the cavern ceiling.

  23 Damage

  I used the momentary distraction to swim up and sucked in another breath. The moment I did so, the other two wasps buzzed
toward me. Not very smart. I dived back under, then twisted my light around to watch for them.

  As they flew by, I repeated my tactic. This wave caught both of them and left them splattered on the ceiling.

  23 Damage

  23 Damage

  -1 Sanity

  Screw Sanity. I came back up, caught my breath a moment, then swam over to the island. A dozen more sacs clustered around here. I needed to rest, but if I stopped here those things might release a small army of wasp-monsters. Fighting them on land seemed a bit trickier.

  No. Better if I just took care of the problem.

  I jerked both hands forward, sending twin ripples out at the clustered sacs. The blasts tore through them with hideous squelches, splattering green goo in all directions and covering the caverns in bug parts. A moment later, this mess began to evaporate into particles.

  Satisfied, I slumped down and lay on my back, willing my pulse to slow down. I’d taken a beating recently, hadn’t I? I pulled out one of the bandages and slowly wrapped it around my chest, as if it might have some meaningful effect.

  4 HP Restored

  Heh. Color returned to my vision, and the tunnel effect vanished. Not sure I actually felt better, but at least having more HP helped with future challenges. Next I ate one of the jerky pieces.

  3 HP Restored

  Progress already. Soon I’d probably wind up with more HP than Sanity. The thought brought a wry grin to my face. Crazy Bobby, wandering around flooded tunnels in some AR game. Actually, now that I considered it, those bugs were kind of poor design choices.

  I mean, what the hell did they have to do with Lovecraft or Innsmouth or anything, really? Did the designers just run out of ideas and need a speed bump to make the level last longer? Sure, yes, giant bugs were an RPG staple, but …

  Even so … I had to admit, piranha-wasps? Scary as hell when seen in live action 3D space. If they wanted horror, that would do it.

  I lay back and stared at the ceiling, some ten feet overhead, wondering where exactly I was. Under the town, certainly, but which part? Had I ventured directly beneath one of the locations I’d already visited? If I still had my map, would it show my indicator blinking in the churches or near the general store?

  I mean, it didn’t matter, really. But still, it would have been interesting to know the answer.

  Rest complete

  7 HP Restored

  And that was what I was talking about. My legs hurt when I rose. My in-game character might be rested, but I was exhausted and pushed well beyond my normal physical limits. Not that I’d even consider quitting. Besides the fact I was underground in some cavern and had to get out, I just wasn’t giving up on this. Hell no.

  I’d almost beaten the game and I was seeing it through.

  The flashlight illuminated three possible exits from this chamber. All were tunnels leading deep into the maze beneath Innsmouth. I couldn’t hear anything coming from any tunnel, and shining the light down each revealed nothing to truly distinguish one from the next.

  So … whatever. I picked the center tunnel and just started walking.

  After maybe a three-minute hike, a faint pink light emanated from up ahead. The tunnel opened out into yet another large chamber.

  As I drew up to the threshold, I recoiled from the sight it revealed. The interior of this chamber was composed of the same fleshy substance that had covered the rail station. A mass of tentacles writhed all about the chamber, as if from several giant squids, all tangled up together.

  -1 Sanity

  The hideous tendrils burst from the ceiling, the walls, and the shallow liquid covering the floor. They crawled about one another and, at a certain angle, I could almost have mistaken them for giant snakes.

  I hate snakes.

  I hesitated in the entrance and actually considered turning around and checking another tunnel. Except that, facing off against this probably meant I was going the right way.

  Damn it.

  The floor of this one dropped down just a bit, forcing me to step into cold, murky waters that reached up to my ankles. Can’t tell you how glad I was to have my socks squelching in my sneakers once more. Always fun.

  The ground felt mushy beneath my feet. Alive.

  A veritable wall of tentacles blocked my passage, wiggling along the floor and patting around. Though blind, clearly they knew I was in here. Maybe I was directly below the rail station now. Maybe I was looking at the source of what had breached up into there before.

  -1 Sanity

  A tentacle slapped out, dangerously close to my leg, and I scrambled backward away from it. Some of those things had to be forty feet long, and thick around as my waist. If one got hold of me … well, that would be that.

  And I couldn’t get past them without physically climbing over the awful things. Which was not happening.

  So …

  The ambient pink light meant the chamber wasn’t dark, per se, but it was still drenched in shadows, so I swept my flashlight around to search for a way out. None came into view, but across that mass of tentacles, a lumpy island rose up, clear of both the water and of impediments. A large central column dominated the cavern, that too crawling with dark tentacles and obstructing my view of the far side of the chamber.

  I frowned and looked around, but spotted no other way forward.

  Right, then.

  I drew my hands up before my chest, focused on that spot and on where I stood, and pulled them apart. Reality rippled and I pitched forward. The world around me shifted and a wave of dizziness swept over me. I stumbled several steps forward, almost to the edge of the small island, and flailed my arms to keep from dropping down into the sea of tendrils below.

  -1 Sanity

  Damn. Was that from using the power, or from nearly falling into the madness below? Either way, I backed up a few steps, then swung my flashlight around. No other islands came into view. So … here I was, in the middle of an island with no more than a four-foot diameter, surrounded by alien squid things that could crush the life out of me in a fraction of a second.

  Attack them? Probably suicide.

  Try to walk over them? Definitely suicide.

  Working my jaw, I swung the light around. There had to be somewhere I could go from here. Every room had to have a way forward. That was just … just how these things worked. So where …

  High up, a rock shelf jutted out from the fleshy wall, mercifully free of whatever the hell covered the rest of the cavern. Up there, then. Focusing on the distant location, I pulled apart space and warped myself up to that shelf. The sudden change in vantage made my stomach lurch, and I stumbled down to one knee—a position that had me peering over a drop maybe twenty feet down. And, of course, into those alien tendrils.

  Grunting, I rose, careful not to back too close to the fleshy wall nor to the edge. From up here, I’d managed to get behind the central column that had blocked my view from the entrance. Standing near the shelf’s lip, I spotted another shelf below me and to my left. A landing, really, as it looked like it led into a tunnel and out of this insane chamber. That shelf stood about ten feet down from me. I might even be able to jump it.

  Doing so would hurt, but save me from losing any more Sanity. Unless of course I missed and fell the full twenty feet down into the mass of tentacles. That would pretty much be the definition of suck.

  No, risk to Sanity or not, I was taking a shortcut out of this place. Gaze locked on the lower shelf, I jerked my hands apart and warped into the tunnel’s threshold. I pitched forward into near total darkness, slid to my knees, and knelt there, blinking and shaking my head.

  -1 Sanity

  Okay. Right. I just wanted to take this moment to offer a giant F-U to the designers. Yeah, that’s right. A big ol’ F-Bomb, sent right to your inbox. You’ve got mail, asshats.

  With a groan, I rose, steadied myself on the wall, and pressed on. The tunnel wound around sharply, then twisted upward in a rather steep slope that had me sweating after only a few minutes of
climbing it. Finally, it leveled out at another chamber. A hum drifted out of the room, not quite mechanical—more like a strong, constant vibration. Green light filled the chamber, so I flicked off my flashlight and crept forward.

  The tunnel became a path, either side flanked by numerous pools of water. The light came from glowing green stones embedded in the floors beneath the waters. Each pool was maybe eight feet across, enclosed by offshoots of the stone walkway I stood on. The room stank like mold and some chemical I couldn’t identify.

  As I drew closer, I caught sight of a woman’s head bobbing rhythmically, turned away from me. A few steps more, and my hand went to my mouth to stifle a scream.

  A Deep One at first looked to be assaulting her. A second glance answered that, though. It was trying to impregnate her. Many of the other pools featured similar scenes, men and women both coupling with Deep Ones partners.

  My heart seized up and I actually backpedaled, mind reeling at the sight. I fell back, eyes clenched against a vision I could not unsee.

  -4 Sanity

  Desperately trying not to scream nor draw the attention of the Deep Ones who—mercifully—remained underwater, I all but ran forward across the walkways. The horror of what I’d just seen played over and over in my mind. The madness, the sickness of witnessing the breeding chamber far outweighed the queasiness I’d felt when Zadok had mentioned the Deep Ones copulating with humans.

  Some of those pools had housed egg sacs, glistening as they clung to the floor beneath the waters.

  Jesus. Someone was sick to have thought this up.

  I fled blindly through the tunnels beyond the chamber, not even daring to flick on the flashlight until I was well beyond the hideous place. Finally, I did so. By this point, I didn’t have a damn clue where I was, having passed numerous turns and not had the coherence to even note which way I went.

  I wanted out of these tunnels, and I wanted out now.

  I continued forward, hands twitching, and mumbling under my breath. A cold sweat dribbled down my back even as my socks continued to squelch uncomfortably in my sneakers. Out.

  Out.

  I needed out.

  Like now.