“Thanks,” I said, snatching the potions from her and placing them in my…I looked down, remembering I was only wearing a loincloth. I concentrated on the loincloth, and up popped the description.
Loincloth
Description: A square of poorly treated leather in the front and back. You probably want to avoid battles and social gatherings until you can find more modest attire. But who doesn’t like a healthy breeze around the nether region?
Quality: Masterful, Soulbound
I turned back around, cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “You wouldn’t happen to have a Bag of Holding, would you?”
Durfa crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, I got one, but it ain’t free.”
Another sickening thought came to mind. “Command: Show inventory.”
Up popped the familiar translucent screen. It was just as I’d feared.
RuneCoins: 20
RuneCoins were the currency within MythRune. When we’d started out in the beta, we were given 200 RuneCoins apiece. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to at least buy a low-level weapon and a Bag of Holding. Considering RuneCoins were cryptocurrency and could be spent in the real world as well, it had been a generous little gift. Twenty, on the other hand, wouldn’t even buy me another breakfast sandwich in the real world. I wasn’t sure if it would buy me one in MythRune either, come to think of it.
“How much is the Bag of Holding?”
Durfa pursed her lips. “How much you got?”
I reached into the innards of my loincloth (hoping to the MythRune gods that this didn’t look as weird to Durfa as it felt to me), willed the currency into my hand, and pulled out the twenty RuneCoins I had.
“That’ll be twenty RuneCoins, then,” Durfa said, a greasy smile plastered across her face.
“You want me to slaughter the ghouls, right?” I reasoned. “I can’t do that if I can’t afford a weapon. I can’t buy a weapon if I don’t have RuneCoins.”
Durfa held out her hand and motioned for me to hand it over. “You worry about the money, and I’ll worry about the weapon.”
“You’ll give me a weapon?” I said, dropping the twenty RuneCoins into her hand before I had a chance to think how potentially foolish that was.
Durfa snatched it away quickly and pocketed the coins somewhere in her wolf dress. “In a manner of speaking.”
My smile faded. That one was on me. I gave in too quickly.
“I have a son named Durk. He’s got a coupl’a ‘whackers.’ I’m sure he’s willing to part with one.”
“Give me?” I said, my voice dry. A “whacker” didn’t exactly sound like Excalibur, but who was I to be picky?
“Give you.”
“For free?”
“For free.”
4
Blockhead
I knew I was in for a potentially frustrating experience the second I laid eyes on him. Durk was easily a head taller than me and had more than enough physical mass to make even someone with God Mode a little bit nervous.
If I had to fight this guy, I didn’t know if I could win. I had no armor, no Pursuits unlocked, and only my base attributes to speak of. I reasoned I would strive to be as meek as a kitten. I then hoped Durk wasn’t the kind of guy who squeezed kittens to death with his brute strength by accident.
“Hurghruff!” Durk shouted as he brought down a large stone battle axe onto a four-foot-tall block of wood. The weapon carved through like a knife through butter, and even a bit farther until the axe-head was buried in the earth beneath it. Durk roared in frustration as he tugged the axe handle. After a particularly fierce grunt, the axe came free and the big Urok fell backward. Hard.
It took a couple of moments for Durk to sit up and shake off his dazed expression, but then a quest notification popped up in front of me.
Quest: The Blockhead Lumberjack
Durk has the all-important job of chopping wood for the Horuk tribe, but can’t seem to find an effective way to get it done. Help him out, and perhaps he’ll hand over one of his “whackers.”
Objective: Help Durk with his wood-chopping dilemma.
I rolled my eyes. Quests didn’t get much more epic than this.
“Uh, you have to put another block of wood beneath it,” I called out to Durk as I approached. From the look of it, other Horuk tribe members chopped down trees, blocked them up, and then brought them over to Durk to chop into firewood-sized pieces. This village might have been small, and digital, but it had a system in place, just like any real city.
“What you say?” Durk asked.
He looked…well, confused was a nice way of putting it. Why the Horuk put a guy this brainless in charge of splitting wood — well, there probably wasn’t a job that required less brain power than this. Mystery solved.
“I said, you have to get another piece of wood and stick it underneath the block you’re chopping — like a stump.”
He just stared at me.
“A large stump will stop the axe from getting stuck in the ground.”
He continued staring.
“A stump. You know?”
Durk growled as he approached, stopping only inches in front of me. In spite of my own brawn, I was still more than a head shorter and found myself staring directly at his pecs unless I looked up. If he decided to start waling on me, there wasn’t really anything I could do but try to run for it.
I looked up and saw Durk’s ugly face. Chipped, yellowed fangs protruded both from his top and bottom lips, and a strand of snot swayed between his flat nostrils as he breathed.
Then the Horuk’s face split into a grin — or at least what passed for a grin. “That good idea!”
Durk trundled away, grabbing one of the nearby stumps. It had a wide base — perfect for the job. He slammed it onto the ground next to him. I smiled at him as he looked back at me. His expression looked just like Brandon’s after he successfully wrote his first line of code. It was kinda cute, really.
Then, without warning, Durk brought down the axe onto the trunk.
“No, no, no—”
Crack!
The trunk split in two and the edge of the axe drove downward through it and into the grass. Seriously, MythRune? This was the best Danny Germaine could come up with?
“You just cut the stump like you would any normal slab of wood,” I said. “You have to use that as a base. Set another one on top of it, then cut it.”
Durk sat in a stupor as his hands remained gripping the axe. It was like I’d just tried to explain algebra to him, or something. I sighed and held out a hand.
“Let me show you.”
Durk huffed, shaking his head. “No. No. This Durk’s big axe. You get little man axe.” He walked to a nearby stump and yanked a second axe free. This one was significantly smaller — though, in all fairness, it was much closer to my size, so it was probably for the best. I held out my hand and took it from him gratefully.
Up popped a description.
Stone Battle Axe
Description: A crude-fashioned battle axe of chipped stone. If you swing anything hard enough, it’s bound to leave a mark…right?
Damage: One-Handed (3–5), Two-Handed (5–7)
Quality: Poor
It wasn’t the greatest, and to top it off, this wasn’t exactly an axe you’d want to use to cut wood.
Beggars can’t be choosers, I thought, wrapping my hands around the grip. It felt…right. I raised it and brought it down on the block I’d placed atop the stump. The weapon might have been a worn, crude imitation of a battle axe, but it bit through the wood with relative ease and stopped when it hit the stump below. A rewarding series of dings went off.
Your First Warrior Pursuit Has Been Unlocked!
MythRune may be a beautiful place, but it can also be dangerous. Warriors are able to hack and slash their way through the most perilous of situations. They let their weapons speak for them, forging ahead where others dare not go.
Your First Adventuring Pursuit Has Been Unlocked!
Adventure is the name of the game here in MythRune. Though it may be endless fun, it’s no picnic. To survive out here on your own, you need to be a jack-of-all-trades, lest you succumb to the wilds. Adventurers prepare themselves to face any situation in the great outdoors with survival and exploration-related skills.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the Two-Handed Battle Axe Pursuit Sphere and the Survival Pursuit Sphere! Open up your Pursuits Menu for more information.
Two-Handed Battle Axe: The battle axe is the weapon of choice for the muscle-bound hero. But why do with one hand what can be better achieved with two? Two-handed Battle Axe skills grant more strength, control, and powerful attacks.
Survival: Staying alive often comes down not to the fittest, but to the most skilled. When going on any adventure, one needs to be ready to take on any challenge. Those with survival skills can think their way out of any extreme condition in the wilderness.
When I dismissed the final notification box, I saw Durk staring back at me, mouth agape. This guy impressed way too easily. But I’d be lying if I said the attention wasn’t a little gratifying. I felt like the god who had first given fire to Neanderthals.
“Whoa!” Durk said, bringing his giant hands together in a clap that was more akin to a thunderstorm. He scratched his head. “Why not Durk think of that?”
“It’s okay, Durk,” I said, resting my newly acquired battle axe on my shoulder. “That’s why Durfa sent me. With this new approach, you can cut as much wood as you need without having to pull out the axe from the ground every time. It will make cutting easier and keep the axe sharper too!”
My knees threatened to buckle as Durk rested his massive hairy hands on my shoulders. “Thank you, wise little Urok.”
The quest menu popped up and another notification sounded:
Quest Complete: The Blockhead Lumberjack
Although it was only a trivial thing to help Durk, sometimes small, kind gestures can make all the difference.
Reward: 20 RuneCoins, Stone Battle Axe, 1 Unassigned Warrior Skill Point, 1 Unassigned Adventuring Skill Point
In most RPGs, you’d get standard experience, but not in MythRune. Here, you got either Attribute Points to increase your stats, or Skill Points to unlock a plethora of passive and active skills within different areas called “Pursuits.” There were six main Pursuits in all, with dozens of “Pursuit Spheres” within each of the main Pursuits. As this quest had me utilize my battle axe to chop wood, I was given one point to allocate to the newly unlocked Two-Handed Battle Axe and Survival Pursuit Spheres, which fell under the Warrior and Adventuring Pursuit Categories, respectively.
In this case, I didn’t have to spend them specifically within the Two-Handed Battle Axe Pursuit Sphere or the Survival Pursuit Spheres — Unassigned Skill Points had much broader applications. As the name suggested, I could spend these two points on anything within the Warrior and Adventuring Pursuit Spheres.
“Okay, let’s see what we’re dealing with here,” I said aloud. “Command: Pursuits Menu.”
The list of six Pursuit categories popped up.
Warrior Pursuits
Adventuring Pursuits
Crafting Pursuits
Civil Pursuits
Arcana Pursuits
Underground Pursuits
Only Warrior and Adventuring were highlighted, as they were currently the only Pursuits in which I had unlocked anything. I tapped the Warrior Pursuits text in front of me. Inside were a number of spheres grayed out with a question mark in their center. Except for one: Two-Handed Battle Axe.
I tapped on Two-Handed Battle Axe and was greeted with a Pursuit Sphere layout. Despite its name, it wasn’t actually a sphere, but a series of half-circles that made up ascending tiers, like ripples in a pond. The smallest central circle bore the name “Two-Handed Axe,” and the next biggest half-circle surrounding it had a tier of skill nodes on the circumference of the half-circles. The next tier of skills adorned the larger half-circle outside the second half-circle, its nodes lining up perfectly so that each tier had five blank nodes.
Each skill that made up a node could be unlocked using either Unassigned Warrior Skill Points I earned in my adventuring or a specific Two-Handed Battle Axe Skill Point. The latter were obtained by performing specifically two-handed battle axe actions, like fighting with such a weapon or, as I’d just learned, chopping wood. But what got you your first Skill Point in a sphere wouldn’t necessarily get you a second. Once you started unlocking skills in a Pursuit Sphere, it got harder and harder to earn Skill Points, requiring greater quantities or expertise in those areas.
The leftmost node of each tier did not indicate the name of the skill that could be unlocked, but rather the requirement needed to unlock that tier. On the leftmost node of the first tier was the requirement “Swing axe with two hands.” Given that I’d just done that while chopping wood, it had unlocked that first tier, allowing me to spend my Skill Point on…
I scanned the remaining four nodes:
Tier 1:
Hook and Hack — Hook your enemies with your axe and hack at them once they’re down. Requires 3 Skill Points.
Lock and Twist — Hook your enemy’s weapon with your battle axe and twist it away. Requires 5 Skill Points.
Cyclone — Spin around in circles with your axe in hand, taking your ferocious enemies down in style. Requires 3 Skill Points.
Swing Speed Increased by 5% — Requires 10 Skill Points.
Tier 2: Must meet with a qualified Pursuit Trainer to unlock
When it came to unlocking the next tier of skills, it looked like I’d need to meet with someone called a Pursuit Trainer. In beta, specific requirements were needed to unlock successive tiers, which revealed a new set of skills. That looked to also be the case here as well, except that in beta, the requirement for this particular Pursuit Sphere was little more than a required number of Skill Points. It looked like the devs were being a bit choosier about how the next tier of the Two-Handed Battle Axe Pursuit was unlocked. I’d get back to that later, I decided, returning my attention to the first tier of skills that were available to unlock.
I’d unlocked Hook and Hack in my past playthrough of the game. If I wanted to continue specializing in the Two-Handed Battle Axe Pursuit Sphere, it’d be a move worth having. Sadly, at this moment, the first tier of moves were out of reach in terms of required Skill Points, and with the second tier of moves not even unlocked, there wasn’t anything I could do.
I swiped back over to the previous menu and tapped on Adventuring Pursuits. Within the menu, I found the Survival Pursuit Sphere was the only unlocked sphere. It had been unlocked by my chopping of the wood, and the first tier of skills were:
Overnight Lumberjack — Allows your character to chop up 10 pieces of wood while logged out with no risk of death — perfect for collecting crafting materials! Can only be used once every in-game day. Requires 2 Skill Points.
Firestarter — Can’t do much cooking or warming up without a fire, can ya? This skill allows you to utilize the proper materials to create your very own fire. An adventuring essential. Requires 1 Skill Point.
Gimme Shelter — This skill allows you to utilize fitting materials to create a shelter that can help hide you from enemies and protect you from the elements. Requires 3 Skill Points.
Tree Climber — Climb up to ten feet off the ground in a tree without branches. Let your enemies try to follow you then! Requires 8 Skill Points.
This was a gimme. I spent my solitary Survival Skill Point on the only thing I could afford: Firestarter.
You have learned the skill Firestarter!
You never knew when you’d need a fire, and with my heading into a cave to fight some ghouls, I thought it would come in handy.
I looked back up to see Durk staring straight at me. Had he been standing there the entire time?
“Thanks, Durk,” I said, slinging the axe over my shoulder. I knew from beta that I could sling it over onto my back or at my side a
nd have it hold. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to know if I can find some armor around here, would you?” Time to say bye-bye to the loincloth.
“Durk no know,” he answered.
Or not…
“This only hunting camp. No wartime here in the Horuk tribe. No war mean no armor.”
Well, I couldn’t expect to find everything in one place, now could I? Taking down twenty ghouls with no armor didn’t sound like much fun, though.
“Thanks anyway, Durk.”
“Ah, no mention it,” Durk said, waving a Hulk-like hand. “You stay around and help?”
“I don’t think so, Durk. I have some ghouls to take care of.”
5
Lesser is Morer
With the cave being two miles away from the Horuk hunting camp, it gave me a little bit of time to consider my next moves in terms of Pursuits. While I’d thought I had a solid idea of how MythRune worked, the reality was that there had been a lot of changes made between the beta and final version. If I was going to come out on top for the tournament, I needed to adapt quickly.
I saw my two-mile jaunt as an opportunity to think about my overall strategy within the game. While some players would have seen the God Mode hack as an opportunity to tackle high-level dungeons, I was more cautious than most. The last thing I’d want was to head into a dungeon that was over my head. If I got stuck, there would be no getting out if I kept getting defeated by monsters. My HP would hover around zero, but I couldn’t bank on the AI being dumb enough to fall for me playing dead. I’d basically be continuously mobbed unless something else drew the aggro away. Luckily for me, this first dungeon seemed perfect for a low-level like me.
God Mode: A LitRPG Adventure (Mythrune Online Book 1) Page 4
