Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

other MMOs. To most people, the concept of losing all unspent EXP was so foreign that they didn’t understand what happened at first.

It made Named Souls like the one he just picked up all the more valuable. You could choose to absorb the Souls within the item or hold onto it for when you needed them later. It was like being able to bank a small portion of Souls to use when you arrived at a Pyre or one of the very few merchants scattered about the world.

Unlike most games with money and EXP as two different entities, Souls were one and the same in Pyresouls Online. You crafted with Souls at a Pyre, used it to increase your stats – and therein level up – and it was a currency to purchase items both from other players and the rare merchants.

It made the world so much more dangerous. Players were much less enticed to recklessly kill each other or explore areas with all the vicious monsters and cunning traps about.

At the same time, Lormar was rife with ancient treasures just off the beaten path for any brave enough to go searching. So while people became more cautious, those few adventurous souls would often be rewarded for their efforts.

That was the heart of Pyresouls Online.

It professed to be one way, openly showing you a path while hiding a better way just out of view. Players that chose to look and explore were rewarded, often with shortcuts and loot that simply could not be found anywhere else.

Alec was one of those players that explored.

Jacob’s first time had been too terrifying for him to risk being adventurous. He stuck to the clearly marked paths like so many others. Everything was so much worse when you were alone. He, like many others, had not expected that, and Altis never hinted at the severe almost solo experience many players encountered.

With certain items, you could invite a person to your shard. Other, less cooperative items allowed you to invade another’s world. Aside from Crossings, those were the only two ways for players to play together.

There was no friend list, no UI for guilds, or general chat. So even if you had an item to invite a person over, you first had to find them. And that meant lingering around at a Crossing where you were never sure if the next player was going to kill you or team up with you.

Worse, you could be waiting at that Crossing for hours or days for whomever you were hoping would show up. With the way time flowed in Lormar, you might never meet up with the one you were hoping for.

All the meanwhile every other player was getting more Souls and reaching farther into the game toward the ultimate goal. Jacob had been one of those people to wait at a Crossing.

The game was truly horrifying and without pain dampeners or memory suppressants, every death was a scarring experience.

But after years of having the specter of death breathing down his neck, he no longer let fear control him. When you could die tomorrow, you learned to live for the moment.

As he came upon the town square, Jacob was met by the familiar sight of a ten-foot-high pile of blackened bones. Jacob already knew the penalty for disturbing them. In most games, skeletons were among the weakest enemies you could find. In Pyresouls, they were truly terrifying and insanely strong.

It took specific forms of damage, namely Fire and Chaos, to put them down for good. Otherwise, they would yield no Souls and break apart only to reassemble a few seconds later.

That they appeared in the first area of the game was a stark reminder to the players that Pyresouls was not a typical experience. It set the bar high and kept it there. It was up to the players to decide if it was worth the pain and effort to rise to the challenge.

If it had been just a game, it would have been one of the most popular things in the world. But knowing its sinister nature, Jacob knew he had no choice but to meet and destroy every challenge the game threw at him.

But the skeletons were an unnecessary risk, especially without a Pyre to return to. With no way to kill them, they wouldn’t even be worth the effort.

The square split off into four different directions. The one he wanted headed north, into the mountains where the two Vacant were waiting for him. Giving the bone pile a wide berth, Jacob picked the northern path and strolled through the remains of the dead village.

Eventually, he reached the edge of the village where he first remembered encountering the two Vacant on his first time through.

They stood in mismatched rusted and soiled armor with broken swords gripped limply in each emaciated gray-skinned hand. Their vacant stares looked into the village as if waiting for prey. They wouldn’t notice him until he got within twenty feet.

Most of the Vacant, especially the lower leveled ones, had poor senses. Many would mill about or stand stock-still like a statue until something attracted their attention.

Many tried to resume their last acts before death. Guards stood vigil over ancient, crumbling throne rooms. Butchers walked between their home and their caved-in shop. Archers patrolled the battlements or towers of ancient defenses.

Unless somebody came too close, they would do little else other than mime out their past life.

With his inexperience wielding a mace, he had no intention of getting that close. Instead, he picked his way carefully between two blackened buildings, heading west of the northern pass.

There was a narrow path hidden by tall grass that switchbacked up the mountainside and overlooked the narrow mountain-pass where the two Vacant stood guard.

Mace at the ready in case anything sprang out at him, Jacob found the hidden path and hurried along it. A humble grave stood lonely vigil at the top. Right next to a pile of rough boulders.

Just what he was looking for.

Setting his shoulder