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

Especially considering the obsessive nature of some gamers. Those that, despite the competition going on, would try to find every glitch and every easter egg.

No, he thought. The likeliest course is that somebody did take the Fire Oppa up on his offer but it didn’t matter anyway because the Burgon Beast escaped and either killed or forcibly logged out everybody still in Pyresouls.

Not that he had an inkling of what the Fire Oppa actually was. For all the good the Fire Oppa did for his people, he knew very little of the creature. Without the Fire Oppa there would be no Pyres.

That must have been what happened when Alec released the Burgon Beast and failed to defeat it. The monster snuffed out the Pyres, and with it the Fire Oppa. No Fire Oppa, no Pyres.

And so Earth was doomed from the start.

Knowing that, it was even harder to resist petting him. He was such a good boy.

Next Pyre, he promised himself. After I light the next Pyre.

“Thank you, Fire Oppa, for all that you’ve done for us. I’m sorry most of my kind don’t understand what you’ve really done for them.” He lifted a gloved hand in farewell. “But if I’m going to make sure things are different this time, I have to get going.”

“May the flames light your path,” the Fire Oppa intoned.

“And may they guide me back home,” Jacob finished without thinking. It was a popular enough saying Post-Collapse. He never really thought of where it came from. Now that he did, it only made him like the saying more.

7

The twisting cavern wasn’t very long, but it was impossibly dark. Luckily, every player had a faint glow around their body that provided a bit of light to see by. Other players would appear as phantasmic creatures wreathed in either white-gold or black-red auras of light depending on their method of entry.

Invited players were white-gold, while invaders were black-red.

The only exception was at the Crossings. Players appeared normally there without any specific aura, but their personal illumination still worked so that when a group of people entered a dark cave it was reasonably lit.

A torch or lantern worked much better and cast a wider pool of light. But then you were giving up one of your hands for light and not defense.

In a world where everything wanted you dead, giving up weapon hand was not a choice to make lightly.

Even with Pyresoul’s inventory management system that allowed you to call an item or piece of equipment you’ve previously set to your hand in a swirl of ash, that fraction of a second you lost swapping from a torch to a shield mattered.

If you had to swap to a sword instead, you were likely to wake up at your last Pyre.

Pyresouls was not an easy game. It did not cater to the player’s whims or desires unless that desire was masochistic in nature.

Even though the initial areas held weaker enemies, they were remarkably deadly. Due in no small part to how easy it was to die.

Though the system did well to impart knowledge of proper stances and footwork, if you knew how to fight with swords, spears, maces, axes, or knew how to use a bow you were far more effective than some random guy off the street several levels higher than you.

Even though skill – such as sword, mace, greatsword, etc. – mattered, it was how you used them that truly set people apart.

On his first time through, Jacob had no idea how to properly swing a sword. The two Vacant back in the Shrouded Village nearly killed him. He had to run, and in heavier armor no less which he had no idea how to properly move in, kiting the creatures around a burned-out shell of a home. He chipped away at their health until the much slower creatures were dead.

That had been his go-to move for most of his time playing Pyresouls. Separate his enemies, lure them one at a time, and then use hit-and-run tactics until their health was whittled away.

It was a remarkably clunky and slow strategy.

Unsurprisingly, it fell apart the moment more than one creature was lured. Or, as was often the case in Pyresouls, when more enemies suddenly descended upon you.

Such as the area up ahead.

The cavern bent and twisted back on itself, eventually breaking into a fork. Down the left path, Jacob could see nothing but interminable darkness.

On the right path, however, there was the telltale glow of an item wisp, its sapphire glow stood out like a beacon in the dark.

But there was more than an item down there. He remembered the terrifying, fatal beating he received. His first death in Pyresouls had been falling for the tantalizing lure.

The creatures that waited just out of sight on a narrow ledge wouldn’t make a move unless he got close to the sapphire wisp and the corpse it once belonged to. Unlike the other Vacant, those creatures were far stronger.

With my current physical defense, I doubt I could stand more than a single hit. Last time I had the Knight’s Armor set and that only allowed me to take three hits before I died.

He never did beat them or find out what the item was. Alec had resisted the temptation as well and like so many others had kept his eyes on the prize.

Like coming back to a low-level area when you’re much stronger, Jacob couldn’t resist the urge to test himself against his past tormentors. Pain wasn’t dulled or altered in Pyresouls. When you died, it felt real and it was both terrifying and agonizing.

Many people quit the game shortly after their first death. Every other game had adjustable pain dampeners as well as a sort of fugue state that allowed you to quickly forget about your death.

Tightening his grip on his [Mace], the flanges catching the faint bit of luminescence from his body, Jacob took the right path.

Pyresouls didn’t hold anybody’s hand.

Once, that had terrified Jacob.