Z: What up? On rest mode
B: probably a good idea. you work too hard anyway.
Z: how are things looking on your end?
B: forget about me? You’ve only been gone for like a few hours. How are things going for *you*?
Z: things aren’t exactly as we planned
B: I know. I heard.
Z: from who?
B: there’s this thing called the internet, dummy. People are going nuts about MR there. mostly in a good way too.
Z: Good?
B: Dude, they took that beta seriously. the reviews are giving them all sorts of praise for actually making meaningful changes based on all the feedback that was given. there are even dudes in beta celebrating because of the game mechanic and map changes. They say it’s like they spent months playing one game and then overnight had a completely new one to play around in.
Z: well, they’re not wrong there. Tournia is definitely full of surprises.
B: all bad, I take it?
Z: …
B: everything okay?
Z: This was already a longshot. All the hard work we put in feels like it’s been a waste of time.
Z: The game plays slightly different. The map is completely different. I don’t know where any tokens are. I don’t know where the quest-givers are.
Z: The only advantage i have is God Mode. but there is one teeny little problem.
B: Shoot.
Z: I can’t turn down the pain sensors.
Z: Something is messed
B: You feel pain at 100??!?!
Z: yup?
B: why didn’t you lead with that?
Z: what’s the point? We can’t do anything about it without risking the hack.
…
…
…
B: can you still handle it
…
…
Z: Of course I can. What are older brothers for?
12
The Sylvad
I woke up in the tall grass with the thinnest tear streak running down one side of my head. I regretted telling him about the pain issue. That wasn’t cool of me. Brandon was already dealing with a lot on his end. I didn’t need to saddle him with the burden of my problems too. Still, even I had to admit, the pain was something that plagued this entire experience. I could handle the leveling up, but the pain added a whole new element to gameplay.
I shuddered just thinking back to the bites, broken ribs, and claws to the throat. It wasn’t something I was excited to get back to. But then I remembered something Coach Gorski used to tell me back in high school when I still had the knees to play linebacker.
“The best players in the world aren’t afraid of being hit,” he said. “Sure, you can have good players who subconsciously try to avoid contact, but those players can never truly be great.”
Of course, none of that really mattered. I hadn’t been afraid of pain. I loved taking the heads off running backs and sacking QBs. I thought I knew pain. But what I’d experienced in the cave was on a whole ’nother level.
“Shut up, Z,” I said aloud as I sat up in the grass. I smacked both sides of my cheeks. Hard. Hard enough to actually take off a few HP. Brandon couldn’t afford for me to be soft. We were just talking about a bit of pain here. For Brandon, this was actual life or death. I doubted the pain of losing my brother when I could have prevented it would ever go away.
But where did that leave me?
I stood up and stretched my limbs a bit. It didn’t really do much in the video game world, but the ritual of it helped me think.
Pain or not, that cave ghoul was a no-go. I was clearly outmatched, even without the lesser ghouls latching themselves onto me during the fight. For now, the only thing I could think of was returning to the Horuk camp to see if there were any other quests I could take on. Maybe there’d be smaller ones that could help build my Pursuits and eventually give me a fighting chance at the ghoul.
Somehow or some way, I really needed to find some better armor. After all, what kind of tank walks around in nothing but rawhide britches?
I made my way to the camp and had a sudden realization: I hadn’t even tried to talk with the chief myself. Emboldened by my new plan, I made my way to the center, where the biggest and most lavish hut stood. It was circular in shape and was roughly the width of a tennis court. Two entrances — one on the south side and one on the north side — were each guarded by a pair of intimidating Horuk tribesman armed to the teeth.
“What’chu want?” The guard’s underbite made him a little difficult to understand, but the last thing I wanted to do was suggest this guy needed braces.
“I would like to have a word with your chief,” I said, donning my big-boy voice.
“What for?” the other replied, his indifference all too apparent.
“I want to see how I can best be of assistance to the Horuk tribe. If there are any tasks that I can undertake to contribute to —”
“Oh, and I suppose you’d be wanting payment for your work?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out. I didn’t exactly want to offer my services as a volunteer, but…
Apparently the guards sensed my indecision. Ol’ underbite and his companion looked at one another and started laughing.
“Get out of here, you!” Underbite said without any hint of malice. He wiped an amused tear away from his eye.
“What’s so funny?”
“You think you can just come here and demand an audience with the chief?” the indifferent guard said. He shook his head, shoulders still shaking with mirth. “Adventurers…”
Admittedly, I’d completely forgotten about that. In some villages, you couldn’t actually speak with the heads until you garnered a reputation of sorts…and that only happened if you took on other, smaller quests for folks like Durfa. Great.
I opened my menu and tapped on the Relations tab. The sole selection in the submenu read:
Horuk Tribe: 5
Holy hell. I wasn’t even close to being on their good side, assuming that 5 was a low number. It suddenly made sense. The freaking merchant at the item shop wouldn’t even sell me items. The only ones who would talk to me were some washerwoman and her half-wit son. Before I could make a bigger fool of myself, I skulked away from the guards, muttering an apology.
So where did this leave me? I supposed I could always leave, but with a mostly blank map, I would be striking out blind, wasting time. And I didn’t have time to waste. I silently cussed out the devs again for secretly developing an entirely new continent just for the sake of a stupid tournament.
I made my way back to the familiar plot where Durfa resided, hoping she’d have some other smaller quest for me to take on.
“Oh, you took care of my cave ghoul problem, I take it?” Durfa asked, dunking a dirty blanket into the stream.
“About that,” I said, growing oddly nervous in spite of the fact that she was just some NPC. “You wouldn’t happen to have any other quests for me to take on, would you?”
“What, that quest ain’t good enough for the likes of you?”
I took an involuntary step out of her reach. “I think it’s a little above my level, if anything.”
“What do I care what level you are?” Durfa growled. “You said you wanted to gain favor with the chief. I gave you a quest that would gain favor with the chief. Either do it or don’t.”
I heard the sound of wood chopping in the distance. Durk must’ve been cutting away using the technique I’d taught him. Then it hit me.
“What if I took Durk with me?”
“Now, why would you ever take Durk with you anywhere, let alone a ghoul-infested cave?” Durfa said, not even looking up from her chore.
“Maybe he can help,” I reasoned. “With our combined strength, I know I can clear out the cave.”
Durfa laughed just as hard and long as the guards had. “Listen, sonny. Durk may be as big as an ox, but he’s dumb as one to boot. Plus, he’s as gentle as a puppy. He
wouldn’t know the first thing about how to follow your orders and would be just as likely to cut off your head as an enemy’s.”
I guessed that was a hard no. I’d just about had my fill of the Horuks. They clearly had nothing more to offer me. The day was young, so I figured I could head out and hopefully stumble my way into some other village or quest that would help my character progress without killing me seven times over.
Had I had better Esteem, I would have stocked up on supplies before leaving, but with no shop that would take my business nearby, I’d have to head out empty, probably in the opposite direction of the stupid cave, and hope for the best.
I turned away from Durfa (who was still laughing) and ran right into someone.
“Hey!” she yelled as I stumbled back. “Get the hell off me, jackass.” She definitely wasn’t an NPC, and she definitely wasn’t an Urok. Her lavender-colored skin and dark blue hair were the giveaways.
“You’re a Sylvad,” I said, almost involuntarily.
“You’re an Urok,” she replied, imitating my inflection.
“What?”
“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” she said with a cheeky turn of her head, as if punctuating my stupidity. “Naming each other’s races?”
Unlike the default Sylvad model, this woman had foregone antlers. It was initially what had thrown me off, but I guessed I’d done the same thing by ditching the traditional Urok ram’s horns. My gaze shifted down to her clothing, and while she wasn’t exactly tricked out, her leathers were certainly a step above my rawhide trousers.
“Hey,” the Sylvad said with a snap of her fingers. “I’m up here — or are you just slow?”
“Sorry, I have to go.” I brushed past her, not ready to be humiliated for a third time today, even if it was a real person.
“Wait, wait, wait,” she said, getting in front of me and holding out a hand at my chest to stop me. “I’m just messing with you.”
She crossed her arms and looked me up and down. I resisted the urge to tell her where my eyes were.
“You entering the tournament,” she said. “You are, aren’t you?”
“What? Why do you say that?” This woman made no sense. Was she trying to role-play as some kind of seer or something?
“Because if you were just here playing to have fun, you’d be running around like a little kid at Christmas. I saw you talking to that old Urok woman. You’re acting like it’s Monday morning and the boss just told you that you’re doing a double shift. I bet you played the beta, too, didn’t you?”
She talked so fast I was honestly having a hard time keeping up with everything. What was a Sylvad doing in the middle of an Urok starting location, anyway?
“Let me get this straight,” I said. “Just because I may be having a bad day, you assume I was a beta tester and have my eyes set on the tournament?”
“That’s right,” she said. “We pro gamers can pick one another out. I’m Leesha, by the way.”
She held out a hand and I took it, still a little lost.
“Zane. So you were in the beta too?”
“Don’t even get me started,” she groaned. “People can say what they want, but Tournia is a joke. Did you know every race spawns on this continent? Apparently Germaine Studios wanted to make sure everyone had a fair shot at entering the tournament. I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, hoping to find some place where I can do any sort of leveling. I didn’t realize I could spend a full in-game day playing and have only one Attribute Orb to show for it.”
“You’re telling me.”
“You look like Conan the Barbarian,” she pointed out. “I guess I don’t have to tell you.”
“Hey, it’s better than nothing,” I said with a laugh. “I started with nothing but a freaking loincloth. But, man, it’s been rough going.”
“If you’re like me, this game has been nothing but a grind-fest so far,” Leesha said. “I left my starting area just to try to find a place where I could get some decent experience without dying every ten minutes.”
“Same here,” I said. It sounded like my problems were more universal than I had previously thought.
After a little trepidation, I told her about the cave and the near-impossible cave ghoul I went up against — omitting my passing out and anything referencing my non-death.
“So I’ve decided to give up for now and come back when I’m at a higher level,” I finished.
“Hmm.” She rubbed her delicate chin, bright blue eyes looking thoughtful. “I’ve already wasted enough time running around, and I can tell you, it’s not any better anywhere else…what do you think about partying up?”
All at once, blaring warning lights went off in my head. Not necessarily because of anything Leesha had done, but because I was being an idiot. I knew I had to play solo, yet the second a pretty girl (or a five-hundred-pound dude from Omaha in real life, for all I knew) started talking to me, I was tempted to go off track. As much as I wished I could recruit some help for the cave ghoul, it wasn’t worth the risk.
“Sorry,” I said. “I like to play alone.”
“Oh, so mysterious and angsty.”
“No angst. I just can’t.”
“Oh, come on. I feel like the game is encouraging us to team up with these bogus enemies. What if we just —”
“No thanks,” I said again, a little harsher than I meant. “I appreciate the offer, but I would rather explore on my own.”
“Okay…” she said, taking a step back. Maybe she thought I was a little off, which honestly wasn’t a bad thing. “All good — it’s just a game.”
But it wasn’t just a game for me. And after a couple of hours traipsing around the rolling plains, I had nothing to show for my wandering. Herds of rust-colored shaggy rhinos dotted the sagebrush and grass — creatures way over my level, even if I found one by itself. Otherwise, I hadn’t spotted another living thing. Going north was out of the picture — I had no desire to wander around until a surprise stampede or some plains predator pulverized me, or a rival tribe took me captive. The possibilities were almost endless, each more disheartening than the last.
The Ice Spear mountain range to the east looked far away and equally uninviting. West showed nothing but more plains. To the south, the country changed from plains to woodlands, no country for Uroks. Basically, I’d found myself in the exact middle of a whole bunch of bad options. Sticking with the Horuk tribe now seemed like my only choice, even if it wasn’t necessarily a fantastic one.
That stupid cave ghoul. There was no way that Leesha girl wouldn’t try to kill it now that she knew where it was. I would have done the same if our roles had been reversed and I’d wandered into a Sylvad area. And if, by some miracle, she succeeded where I’d failed, I’d have done half the work for nothing but a pair of uncomfortable pants and a map.
“Ugh, I’m such an idiot!” I said aloud, already running back in the direction of the cave. I couldn’t afford to play like this. Get your act together, Zane.
If I was lucky, I could catch Leesha and take her up on her offer. What would partying up for one little quest hurt?
13
Third Time’s the Charm
I didn’t stop until I reached the hunting camp. By the time I made it to Durfa’s hut, my throat tasted of copper, and I doubled over, completely out of breath. They’d really nailed the whole “realistic feeling” deal. I hadn’t been that gassed since sixty-yard wind sprints during hell week before a season started. And, to top it off, I ended up with the fatigued status again.
As before, I was given no information about what this actually did to me, aside from the physical effects you’d expect in the real world. My legs shook and I briefly thought I was going to find out if you could barf in-game or not.
When I could finally hold myself upright without my hands on my knees, I limped down to the stream and found the old Urok woman grinding some sort of cornmeal between two stones.
“That Sylvad…” I said, still panting
. “She talk to you?”
“Sure did,” Durfa said, not looking up from her work. “Had a lot more backbone than you did, young buck. When I told her about the cave, she seemed a might more interested than your sorry rear ever did. I told her since she wasn’t Urok, she wouldn’t get anything out of clearing the caves for us — told me thanks and headed west.”
Of course she didn’t care about some stupid quest line if she thought she could net some easy loot, I thought. She’d be in for a surprise when that cave ghoul got hold of her…hopefully. That, or she’d somehow manage to kill the monster and net some solid loot. On the other hand…with the cave ghoul gone, I could easily finish the quest. But the loot was as much a reward as the improved Esteem. Like it or not, I knew from my morning jaunt that I was stuck with the Horuk tribe.
“How…long?” I managed to ask, hands on my hips.
“I dunno. Maybe she left a couple of hours ago?” Durfa said before shifting the subject impatiently. “You going to clear out the caves or not?”
“I…yes,” I said at last. Then silently added, somehow. Why would the devs put such a hard boss in a beginner’s cave and not at least give it a weakness? Maybe the Sylvad was right. Maybe the game was encouraging us to team up.
“And hey, I didn’t think you were as thick as my son, but make sure you take a torch with you, hmm? Cave ghouls don’t like the light, but you probably already knew that, didn’t you?”
I snorted. “Well, yeah. It’s a cave. I wasn’t dumb enough to…”
I trailed off as her second sentence hit me. There had been a weakness all along.
How could I have been so stupid? I’d seen firsthand that the cave ghouls didn’t like the light. The solution had been staring me right in the face. I would have realized it sooner had I not doused my torch, no thanks to the stupid neon moss.
But now I was ready. I was prepared to make ghoul flambé when I returned to the cave. I was going to fight this bastard with its worst nightmare.
God Mode: A LitRPG Adventure (Mythrune Online Book 1) Page 9
