01 beastmaster, p.1
01. Beastmaster, page 1
part #1 of Gamified Series
Gamified
Book One: Beastmaster (A Fantasy LitRPG)
Brook Aspden
For Nana Coral
You were my inspiration
Contents
1. Begin
2. Starter Quest
3. Charisma
4. Fortitude
5. Bully
6. Location: Home
7. Commerce
8. The Wilds
9. Level Up
10. Beastmaster
11. Sense
12. Gear
13. The Academy
14. Loop
15. The Arena
16. The Trial
17. Gladiator
18. Reward
19. Armor
20. Summon Swarm
21. Anger
22. Search
23. The Deadlands
24. Undead
25. Sneak
26. Failure
27. Dr Death
28. Regroup
29. Family
30. Zombie King
31. Round Two
32. Range
33. Mausoleum
34. Sunlight
35. Npc
36. Resolve
37. Harpy
38. Archives
39. Machine
40. Countdown
41. Ogre
42. Dark Transfusion
43. Spirit
44. Loot
45. Hen’Drix Estate
46. Service Entrance
47. Locked
48. Bluff
49. Tower
50. Merchant
51. Cut Scene
52. Settings
53. Preparation
54. Battle
55. Moat
56. Warlord
57. Final Boss
58. God Mode
59. Bonus
Afterword
More LitRPG from Portal Books
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Join the Group
1
Begin
WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN THE GAME? Y/N
The words appeared on his phone in green, pixelated block letters over a black background, like the starting screen of an old arcade game.
That’s weird.
Felix shoved his phone back in his hoodie pocket and continued to jog along the sidewalk. The streets were mostly empty, the nearly identical suburban houses quiet, their occupants mostly either at school or work by now. Which meant he was about to be late. If he kept pushing his luck like this, he was going to get suspended.
So far this month he had already sat through five after school detentions for ‘extreme tardiness’. It was partly his own fault, he knew. Too many late nights in front of the computer. Just one more round, he often told himself. I’ll just play until the next checkpoint.
It always ended like this. The bleary eyed, sleep deprived dash through the well maintained cul-de-sacs of Townsdale. The smug-looking hall monitors handing him yet another detention slip as they let the more popular kids wander by unhindered.
The new hall monitors were ruthless, they watched out for him, just waiting until he slipped up. Sometimes they even caught him before the final bell, but there wasn’t much he could do about it; it was his word against theirs. They did it to look cool in front of the other kids, Felix knew, and being at the bottom of the school’s social ladder, he was a perfect target.
The detentions didn’t even bother him really, but if his mom ever found out that he wasn’t actually putting in extra time at the library…
Every two detentions were a ‘strike’. One more strike this month and they’d suspend him. His mom would flip, likely take away his computer, and that would just be the beginning.
Definitely not enough time. The school gates weren’t even in sight yet.
Even so, the mysterious message tugged at him, and there was still about ten minutes before the final bell. He could make it.
Probably.
Felix pulled his phone out again and slowed to an awkward half-run-half-walk to read the message properly. He squinted at his screen, realizing the message didn’t have a sender. There was no phone number, no email address, nothing. It was just there, like an error message or pop-up ad. Felix had been surfing the web long enough that his instincts told him to beware of strange unidentified pop-ups. He did not need some weird virus messing with his already painfully slow cell phone.
His thumb hovered over the ‘N’.
Then again…
He’d heard Mystic Realms had been running some really exclusive Beta testing lately… perhaps this was how they did their random selection? The forums had been buzzing about how, for last year’s Beta invite, the company had hidden a coded message in their app icon. Those who spotted it and cracked the code were led to a secret URL allowing them to sign up for the Beta content.
The slots had disappeared in seconds once the news got out. Those lucky few who had gotten there first became internet famous. Mystic Realms Beta invites were like winning the lottery. They were that rare.
Felix weighed his options. There was a good chance this was just a weird virus or prank, but there was also a chance, however slim, that this was his ticket to some epic new game content and bragging rights for at least the next 12 months. He’d never live it down in the forums if they found out he was the noob who declined a Beta invite.
His thumb jabbed ‘Y’.
Felix held his breath.
Nothing happened.
Then the words ‘GOOD LUCK PLAYER’ flashed across his darkened phone screen in the same old-fashioned block text. Felix could not suppress a shiver of excitement – perhaps this really was a Beta invite. The idea of being one of the first given access to a new dungeon or boss battle gave him a thrill like he was five years old again and waking up on Christmas morning.
Felix smiled. It hadn’t been an easy last few years. This would be a welcome stroke of luck.
But there was no download link, no activation key, nothing even to suggest what game he had supposedly just joined. Felix’s hopes began to fade. It was probably just some sort of joke, coded by a sweaty guy living in a basement somewhere who thought this kind of thing was hilarious.
It left a bitter taste in his mouth, like Christmas morning again but this time every present opened turned out to be a pair of socks.
Gradually the message simply faded from the screen, revealing his usual background, the image of his Mystic Realms character. The avatar was decked out in legendary armor and holding a six-foot broadsword etched with glowing runes. It was the image Felix used to remind himself who he really was. Over the last couple years, he had made a name for himself in the MMORPG community and now commanded a certain level of respect.
In-game Felix was seven feet tall, with rugged brown hair and the muscles of a seasoned warrior. Real-world Felix was a short, skinny kid with auburn hair and the muscles of a coma patient. At fifteen years old he was still one of the smallest kids in his grade, the exact opposite of his heroic online persona.
Still, the image brought a smile back to Felix’s lips. The sword in the picture was a recent acquisition, a unique item that could only drop once on each server. He’d soloed what was usually a three-player minimum boss challenge to get it, a feat most players had said couldn’t be done. It was a game-wide first; one he’d trained for months to achieve. That had been a great day.
Unlike today.
Today was Monday and Felix was probably going to be late for school. Again. If he had kept moving at a full jog, he would have had just enough time to make it to the school gates. Unfortunately, his pace had slowed significantly as he read the message and then daydreamed about the possibility of a Beta invite. The weird unsolicited pop-up had simply wasted his time. Maybe that was the point.
“Damn Internet trolls,” he muttered to himself as he broke into a sprint – something his body began to protest almost immediately. “Hope they choke on their Doritos.”
Felix hurried through the gates, up the path, and through the peeling double doors emblazoned with the words ‘Townsdale High’. Little pieces of paint floated in his wake. The city council had put off the much-needed school repairs so they could build a ‘sculpture garden’ in the town square. They said it would attract tourists.
It hadn’t.
So the school continued to limp along, moldy and crumbling, like a slowly decaying corpse that had yet to realize it was, in fact, deceased.
At least it’s big enough to have places to hide in and game, Felix thought.
Townsdale High was in fact quite large, comprised of one huge central edifice and a few satellite classrooms, along with a football field, swimming pool and gym. The building he’d just entered was the central one and the oldest by far, a brick monstrosity more reminiscent of a fortress than a school; it’s hulking body towered over even the nearby trees, it’s few narrow windows glaring out at passers-by like a crotchety old man.
Inside, the main hallway was lined with lockers and doors leading to various classrooms. Everything had that well-worn look typical of a publicly funded facility. The yellowed linoleum floors reflected the harsh light of the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. It was as if they had purchased all their materials from a store called ‘Hideous but Cheap!’.
Buildings in Mystic Realms had far more character and they weren’t even real.
Felix managed to make it inside with a couple of minutes to spare, one of which he then spent doubled over in pain recovering from the run.
The remaining students milling in the halls mostly ignored Felix as he passed, their eyes sliding over him. Felix was used to this. He wasn’t on any of the sports teams or in any of the popular circles, he wasn’t a rebel or even a class clown. It meant he was pretty much invisible to most people, which was fine with him. He just kept his head down and tried to avoid the various cliques.
Felix preferred the gaming world, at least there you got to choose which class you belonged to, and NPCs made a lot more sense than real people. There was always a right answer with them.
He made his way towards his locker and punched in his combination, then he had to thump the locker in order to force the rusted thing open. He grabbed his books and began power walking towards class in a way that he hoped wouldn’t draw the attention of the hall monitors.
Running in the hall was yet another way to earn a detention that he couldn’t afford. Not to mention it would mean he’d have to wait even longer before logging back into Mystic Realms that afternoon.
Unfortunately, a growing circle of older students blocked Felix’s path. Seniors started a few minutes later than everyone else, supposedly because they were helping shepherd the younger students to class. In actuality they spent the time gossiping and generally obstructing the flow of traffic.
Felix nudged his way through, careful not to bump anyone larger than himself, which was everyone. Eventually he was able to make out some of the scene that was clogging the halls. Felix recognized Zander’s blond hair and massive build at once. The musclebound boy was shouting at someone. As usual.
“What do you mean you don’t have it? I told you it must have slipped off when I slam dunked my protein shake, it’s a freaking Apple Watch. Just look through your bins and find it.” There was a mumbled reply, then more yelling. “I don’t care what your job is!” Zander was in full tantrum mode, clearly performing for the growing crowd. The unlucky janitor, Joe, was caught in the blast zone.
“You know what, smart guy, since you love your job so much, here.” The boy grabbed a nearby trash can and began emptying it on the floor, spreading its contents as wide as possible.
Joe simply looked on, tight lipped, saying nothing but aggressively tugging at his graying mustache. He eventually got out a long-handled brush and pail and begin to reclaim the spilt trash. He was shaking slightly but managed to keep calm. He likely knew that reprimanding the obnoxious boy would just make things worse. Not to mention trigger a reaction from his well-connected father who had a donation-purchased seat on the school board.
The sight made Felix flush with anger. It wasn’t fair. Joe was a decent guy. Felix had met the old custodian during his first week at Townsdale High. He had been hiding under the bleachers to finish clocking a game on his handheld console. Joe could’ve reported him, or sent him back to class, but instead he’d just demanded a turn. That was the kind of blackmail Felix could get behind. Joe was harmless.
Zander Hendrix was not.
Zander acted like he owned the school. Just because he had an early growth spurt and his dad ran the largest business in town, Hendrix Industries.
It was just like the rich kids in Mystic Realms who bought accounts that already had characters with maxed-out skills and epic gear sets. The idiots would go around hassling new players, as if they somehow deserved the power they had bought. Anger prickled under Felix’s skin.
Zander grabbed a second trash can.
“Whoops. Not in there, must be in here,” he laughed as he moved to dump even more garbage onto the floor. It was clear there was no watch to be found. But Zander was an artist when it came to unjustified cruelty. He began to crush half-filled bottles under his feet, causing their contents to spurt out, mixing with the dust and dirt to create a liquid sludge that Joe’s dustpan was ill equipped to handle.
The janitor’s expression was dark, his shaking intensified, but there was nothing he could do. Even the teachers gave Zander a wide berth. His father had enough influence in town to make anyone’s life difficult, especially an aging janitor who already worked day and night all over town just to make ends meet.
The old man had told Felix recently that Zander’s father had actually been trying to replace the janitor’s role with Hendrix Industries owned cleaning services, but since they were twice the price the rest of board had refused him.
Joe seemed to be on the verge of losing his cool, which was exactly what the bully wanted. An outburst from Joe against a student could be easily blown out of proportion and used as an excuse to remove him.
Zander spied another group of newly filled trash cans across the hall, and started moving towards them, an evil little smirk forming on his cosmetically whitened teeth.
Felix lost control of his mouth.
“Leave him alone man, he’s just doing his job.”
His voice carried surprisingly well over the chatter.
Regret was instantaneous.
The larger boy turned on him, delighted to have a new target for his frustration.
Felix’s world was slowly blotted out by six feet of water polo player.
It was the same feeling he’d gotten when his Level 6 character had stumbled across a Level 57 boss monster. Zander’s biceps, toned by swimming lengths and throwing balls, were bigger than Felix’s thighs.
Zander grabbed Felix by the collar and pressed him up against the lockers.
“Are you giving me orders, Pintsize?” Zander growled. His frustration blossoming into a simmering rage, veins pulsing in his trunk-like neck.
Felix tried to reply, to say something to diffuse the situation, but all he could do was wheeze due to the pressure being applied to his chest.
“No one. Gives. Me. Orders,” Zander hissed.
Felix closed his eyes and tried to visualize +10 armor covering his vital bits.
The final bell rang out, loud and shrill. For the first time in memory Felix was happy to hear it. The school was militant about tardiness, only the most popular kids could get past the hall monitors unscathed.
The audience immediately began to disperse as a result. Zander’s perfect blue eyes darted from Felix, squirming in his grasp, to the deflating crowd. The jock was a performance bully, he always made sure there were enough spectators to properly appreciate his work.
“Hey Zand,” an urgent voice called. Another musclebound monstrosity of a boy wearing an identical school jacket. “We’re already late for practice man; coach is going make us swim laps until we sink.” That was all Zander needed; an easy excuse to postpone to a time when more people were around to witness his magnificence.
“We’ll settle this later,” he whispered, producing a predatory smile that predicted a future of pain for Felix. He then raised his voice for the benefit of the few remaining gawkers. “You and me, the gates, ten minutes after final bell. If you don’t show it will be worse for you, that’s a promise.” He gave an evil chuckle before dropping the smaller boy and jogging back to his team.
As the last of the crowd departed, Felix saw Joe still sweeping up the remains of the spilled debris. He smiled at the old man and grabbed a few of the less sticky looking items, dropping them in the nearby trash can.
“Sorry Joe, Zander is a real jerk,” Felix sighed.
As the janitor, Joe was technically school staff, but since he didn’t have a degree the teachers barely spoke to him. The students saw him as just another kind of teacher, but without the usual authority, perfect for ridicule. This wasn’t the old man’s first time playing the role of Zander’s punching bag.
Felix and Joe were both outsiders, so there had been a kind of unspoken link since that day under the bleachers. Occasionally Felix would help him put away the chairs in the cafeteria, or Joe would distract a hall monitor as Felix snuck into class late.
“Don’t worry kid, I’ve dealt with worse. Although talking back was a bad idea, should have known it would set the brat off,” the older man said, then he sighed too. “But thanks all the same.” He gave a smile that didn’t reach his mustache. Shame and frustration burned in his eyes.
