God Mode: A LitRPG Adventure (Mythrune Online Book 1)

by Derek Alan Siddoway

  “So, you’ve got some heavy stuff going on,” Leesha finally said.

  I felt a lump return to my throat and nodded, still not trusting my emotions enough to speak.

  “I…I’m not good at this stuff, but…I wanted to say sorry,” Leesha began. “I’m really not — I wouldn’t have ever blackmailed you if I’d have known your reasons…I want you to know that no matter what happens, I’m not going to turn you in. And I’m not expecting you to give me any money.”

  I glanced over, unsure how to deal with this version of Leesha. I’d never really believed she was all bravado and devil-may-care, but seeing part of the real person behind the roguish thief put that in perspective.

  “Are you kidding me?” I said. “If I’d never met you, I definitely don’t think I’d be as far as we are now. I won’t lie, there have been times when I’ve wanted to kill you, but I think everything worked out for the best.”

  Leesha looked up and smiled. Not her dashing, daring smile, but one that looked genuinely happy. “You sure about that?”

  “Well, except for all that stuff with Dart. That sucked ass.”

  She laughed. “If we can get our payback, that’ll be almost as sweet as all that prize money.” Her genuine smile disappeared in favor of her familiar devious expression.

  “Well, if by whatever chance in hell we pull this off, I’ll send you a really nice thank-you card with a few Benjis in it.”

  “A thank-you?” Leesha scoffed. “I’m expecting a fancy dinner at the least.”

  “Are you asking me out? What if I’m a four-hundred-pound dude who needs a crane to go anywhere?”

  “I’m asking for dinner,” she clarified with a wink. “And I don’t care what you look like. And you’d better not try to take me to Olive Garden or Starbucks. Remember, I come from class.”

  As if to prove her point, she crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. I laughed again, feeling some of my worries lighten, even if they didn’t slip off entirely.

  “Come on,” I said, standing up and offering my hand. “We’d better get back before the caravan leaves without us.”

  “Leave without Zane of the Horuk Tribe, bearer of the God Mode and the almighty Yeti-Bane? They wouldn’t dare!”

  48

  On the Road Again 2: Again Harder

  Day 13 — Seven Days to Tournament Start

  Like a well-oiled machine, the merchant caravan set off down the Trade Highway under cerulean skies. The air was crisp but growing warmer as the morning passed. All around us, the hill country shone with the ambiance of fall — gold and ruby-stained trees more vibrant than any autumn majesty the real world could produce.

  I remarked on the scenery to Leesha, whose response was to scowl at the scenery and spit over the side of Beauty’s neck.

  “I don’t trust it,” she said. “If I were a game dev, this is where I’d put an ambush: close enough to Crystal Fen that our guard is down.”

  “It’s a little ironic that the longer we play this game, the more cynical and paranoid you get and the less I do,” I said.

  “That’s just because you’re not worried about me cutting your throat every second,” Leesha pointed out.

  I let that sink in for a long moment. She was probably right. At some point, my constant suspicion had melted into…trust? Our conversation the night before had changed things, even if I wasn’t quite sure what that meant yet.

  “Well, I figured if you were going to leave me in a ditch for dead, you would have done it by now,” I said. “So now, I’ve just resigned myself to being stuck with you.”

  Leesha nodded. “Damn right you are.”

  “I guess —”

  An arrow sped through the air, ending my snark mid-sentence. Leesha cried out as it struck her in the shoulder. The force of the projectile twisted her around in the saddle, and Beauty reared in alarm.

  “We’re under attack!” one of the caravan merchants cried out.

  Before I could jump off Frank and grab Beauty’s reins, a second arrow pinged off my breastplate. All at once, the air buzzed with arrows like angry hornets. Frank bleated in alarm and began to panic. Hoping my poor ostrasaur wouldn’t run away or get himself killed, I jumped out of the saddle. I had to get to Beauty and get Leesha a potion.

  Dodging arrows, I forced my way through the chaos of mounts, merchants, and Horuk guards to reached Leesha. When I finally got Beauty under control, the Sylvad’s face was pale, and the leather on her right side was soaked with blood.

  “We should have made bets on the ambush — you called it!” I instinctively reached into my Bag of Holding and pulled out a potion. “Here, take this.” I pressed the bottle in her left hand.

  “It’s just an arrow, Z. I don’t need to waste a potion.”

  She was only down a fifth of her total health, but with no idea of how many enemies we faced, now wasn’t the time to take a chance. I remembered our earlier conversation about Lucas — if there was a chance he could die and end the quest line, we needed to act fast.

  “You’d better waste it now. We have potions to spare,” I said. “Plus we need your bow to return fire.”

  I didn’t wait for her to down the potion. Drawing my new bearded axe, I found Lucas ordering wagons into a defensive position from atop a wagon seat. The caravan shifted their positions, with the front one turning around on the wide trail and the others following suit, creating a tight, fortified circle with the oxen and mules unhitched inside. By the time I reached him, Lucas and the others were readying an assortment of weapons to join the Horuks in attacking the bandits. It seemed the enemy had positioned themselves on a bluff just off the western side of the highway where a small outcrop of rocks provided cover for them. The hill was steep, and any charge up it would leave us wide open.

  “You’re staying down here,” I told Lucas, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “That’s what you’re paying the guards for. We can’t afford for you to die.”

  The merchant leader didn’t look happy, but he nodded and ducked back under cover. By now, the Horuk guards were ready to sally out of the cover of the wagons. Leesha stood close by, fully healed, an arrow nocked to her bowstring.

  “These guys must be idiots or really, really smart,” Leesha said. “I’m pretty sure there’s not more than a half dozen of them. The arrows have slowed too — I think they’re running low.”

  “Are they that stupid to waste them so quickly? Think it could be a trap?”

  Leesha shrugged. “Maybe, but the area around us is so open that I don’t know how. I think these bandits might have bitten off more than they can chew. If they had the numbers, they would have already charged by now. Instead, they’re hunkered down on the hill, saving the rest of their arrows.”

  I poked my head out of cover and surveyed the rocky outcrop where the bandits had holed up. I activated my Combat Assessment and was rewarded with four blocks of yellow text labeled “Blue Hand Raider.”

  +1 Combat Assessment Skill Point

  “Change in plans,” I said to Leesha. For the first time in a while, I wasn’t completely out of my depth. Finally, Leesha and I could take on a group of enemies while playing to our strengths. And I was itching to try out my new level and weapon. “We can take these guys. I tank, you attack?”

  Leesha gasped and fluttered her long eyelashes. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  I drew my axe and turned to the rest of the guys, hoping I looked like I knew what I was doing. I tried to imagine I was in a defensive huddle, letting everyone know what our coverage and formation would be. “Listen up, we’re going to take that damn hill. Half of you, stay here to watch the caravan. The rest, follow me. I don’t know why these dumbasses thought they could take us on, but we’re going to show them how wrong they are.”

  The Horuks roared in approval. It didn’t hurt that we were somewhat of local legends in the tribe, and the warriors were eager to go into battle with Leesha and me.

  “Let’s do this!”

  I hurtled
over the wagon tongue and charged up the hill. In any other circumstance, it would have been a suicide mission, but we had the numbers advantage and a chance to make a quick end of things. About twenty yards past the cover of the wagons, an arrow arched down and pinged off my armor.

  +1 Heavy Armor Pursuit Skill Point

  I veered to the left, drawing away more fire. My Speed was still nothing to write home about, but at least it wasn’t a liability anymore. While four of the Horuks and I kept the attention of the enemy archers, Leesha ran up the other side, undetected, with another Horuk.

  As I’d hoped, the four Eedari bandits closed in on my group, only one still firing with his bow, while the others drew melee weapons. The first bandit barely had time to raise his weapon before my Bearded Axe of the Tundra lopped off his head. As the corpse hit the ground, I powered on to another bandit and activated my Overpowering Blow. My first strike knocked his health down almost to half, and the other warriors were there to finish them off.

  +1 Two-Handed Battle Axe Pursuit Skill Point

  I looked up to see the archer panic and make a break for it. He’d only gone a half dozen yards when Leesha leaped out from behind a boulder and buried both her daggers in his back. When she jumped back, the Horuk who’d gone with her finished off the archer with a few quick smacks of a war club. The rest of my group had already taken out the fourth bandit.

  Out of nowhere, I felt a sharp pain between my shoulder and the rim of my helmet. My HP plummeted to two-thirds in an instant thanks to the Backstab bonus the bandit received, and the shock drove me to the ground. A moment later, Urok hands steadied me, and Leesha held a potion to my lips.

  I groaned and twisted my neck back and forth as the pain receded. Surprisingly, the surprise fifth bandit who had attacked me wasn’t dead. Two of the Horuks had him pinned to the ground, waiting for our next orders.

  “P-please don’t kill me!” the man begged, kicking uselessly with his legs to try to push away from me as I approached.

  I squatted down over him, fancying I made quite the imposing figure. “What’ll you give us for your life, scum?”

  “Damn, Z, you sound badass,” Leesha said, sheathing her daggers with a final twirl.

  The bandit’s eyes rolled in terror. “Whatever you want!” I knew the Blue Hand Raiders weren’t paragons of courage, but it was a bit disappointing how quickly this one was willing to sell out.

  I pointed my axe at him so that the frosty metal head almost touched his nose. “You’ll tell us everything you know about the Blue Hand Raiders and their relationship with the Livermoor Merchant Guild.”

  “I…I’m just a grunt! I’ll tell you whatever I can, but I just follow orders. Please — don’t hurt me!”

  Leesha squatted down beside me and drew both of her daggers again. “You don’t sound useful,” she said, thoughtfully tapping the point of one dagger on the bandit’s shaking leg. “That’s unfortunate.”

  “Wait!” The bandit struggled again, but there was no way he was escaping the iron grip of two Urok warriors. “I can be useful! Every couple of weeks, we send one of our guys to pick up a schedule from the Livermoor Merchant Guild. The schedule gives us an idea of where the rival caravans are headed and when. They also give us locations where they drop off our weapons, supplies, payment, and whatnot.”

  Leesha looked at me, clearly sharing the same thought as me. That was probably what the cave was that we ransacked. It wasn’t a base. It was a waystation for the goods. No wonder it only had a few guys out front.

  “And what’s the name of the person who picks up the schedule?” Leesha said.

  “It’s different every time!”

  “Not good enough,” Leesha warned.

  The bandit swallowed hard, his beady eyes darting around as if his dead companions knew he was ratting them out. “You’re going to have to guarantee me protection if you want me to talk.”

  “I’ll guarantee you that Leesha won’t carve you into sushi if you talk,” I said. “And promise that you’ll be handed over to the town guard in Crystal Fen alive if you help us out.”

  Leesha stuck out her bottom lip. “That’s no fun.”

  I looked at her, then back to the bandit and shrugged. “She’s pretty persuasive, you know. Better give us what we need before she changes my mind.”

  “Nugash!” The bandit squealed, edging away from Leesha’s tapping dagger point as much as he could. He let out a sob and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pathetic excuse of a bandit. “He’s an Urok named Nugash.”

  Quest Updated: Hands of Gold (Party Quest)

  You learned from one of the Blue Hand Raiders that an Urok named Nugash is the go-between for the raiders and the merchant guild. If you can capture Nugash after he visits the Livermoor Trading Post, he may have the documents needed to prove the merchants and raiders are working together.

  Objective: Travel to Crystal Fen and capture the Urok Nugash after he visits the Livermoor Trading Post.

  A part of me was disappointed. I’d hoped the word of a lone bandit would be enough proof, but I guessed it could be argued that a bandit’s word isn’t worth much of anything. We’d need hard evidence if we really wanted to toss out accusations. I gave a nod to the Horuks and they hauled the bandit up, dragging him down the hill while Leesha and I checked the loot.

  The items we found were all worse than what we had, so we gave them to the guards without a second thought. The money we could have made selling the loot was worth far less than the appreciation of the Horuks.

  The Attribute Orbs drops didn’t amount to much either. From the four dead bandits, we came up with a single Health Orb and a single Attack Orb.

  “You might as well take both of those,” Leesha said, tossing the second orb over to me.

  I eagerly crushed the glowing spheres.

  Health increased by 1!

  Attack increased by 1!

  It wasn’t much of a haul, but the orbs did put me within two Attribute Points of reaching Level 8. As we made our way back to the wagons, I wondered where our levels stood compared to the competition. Dart had been at eight back before the yeti fight — knowing his tactics, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was ahead of most of the curve. At least I hoped that was the case. More than anything, I didn’t want to lag behind everyone else. The amount of isolation we’d had from other players so far wasn’t a bad thing, but it gave me nothing to judge myself against. Well, nobody other than Leesha and Dart, who weren’t exactly what I’d call average players.

  By the time we made it down the hill, the merchants had already rehitched their animals and were ready to move out.

  “I see we have a prisoner,” Lucas said. “Did you get what you needed?”

  I nodded. “The sooner we get to Crystal Fen, the better.”

  49

  Crystal Fen

  We made Crystal Fen just as the evening sun painted the autumn hill country in a blanket of orange light. Thankfully, the poorly orchestrated flop that had been the last bandit attack was our only incident on the road. My guess was that the Blue Hand Raiders had been instructed to leave caravans alone once they got within a few miles of the city.

  And speaking of city. Man, was this Crystal Fen a refreshing sight to take in.

  In my short time playing the official release version of MythRune, I’d been restricted solely to small villages and camps. While I’d been to larger cities in my previous playthrough, I’d almost forgotten what a striking sight they made against the landscape.

  Crystal Fen was by no means a bustling metropolis, but it still made its mark on the land. The small city looked like it had grown out of a frontier trading post, based on its wooden watchtowers and palisade wall. The buildings themselves were mostly log cabins of sorts, though I spied a few brick structures deeper in the town. I assumed those were the holdings of the trading guilds who based their northern operations out of the area.

  Passing through the gates felt like entering a fort straight out of the old we
st. Once inside, I was overcome with a wave of claustrophobia. I’d gotten so used to the wide-open plains and mountains that the jam-packed streets felt more than a little stifling.

  NPCs and actual players of all races made their way through the throng. At casual glance, it was impossible to tell which was which. Dust filled the air, along with odorous wafts of animal manure and sweat. On both sides of the street, shopkeepers called out to the passing traffic, their hawking blending in with the protests of mules, the shouts of people, and the creaks of wagons. I glanced around, wondering if Dart was somewhere in the crowd. Would he expect us to follow him, or did he think he’d given us the slip?

  “Civilization at last,” Lucas said, spreading his arms as if to embrace the town. Leesha and I rode next to his wagon, fighting to keep Frank and Beauty from panicking in the crowds.

  “You actually missed this place?” Leesha asked incredulously. She wrinkled her nose. “I get the hyperrealism, but they sure sacrificed the epic fantasy-ness for this town.”

  “Can you point us in the direction of the Livermoor Trading Post?” I asked Lucas. Like Leesha, I was eager to get off the main street and hopefully find a less busy and smelly route.

  “And a place where we can get our armor and weapons repaired,” Leesha added, looking at me. “I know you want to hurry up and ambush this Nugash, but if we jump him before he gets the documents, the whole thing will be a waste of time. Plus, now that we’re in a town, we’ll have access to more skilled craftsman to repair and improve our gear.”