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  Dungeon Dive

  Tales from the Gods’ Game, Book 1

  Dungeon Dive

  Tales from the Gods’ Game, Book 1

  Rohan M. Vider

  Copyright

  Dungeon Dive (Tales from the Gods’ Game, Book 1), a self-published book by Rohan M. Vider.

  Copyright © 2019 Rohan M. Vider.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected].

  First Edition

  Revision (1.0)

  ISBN: 978-0-620-85540-2

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  To my readers who have made these stories possible.

  Books by Rohan M. Vider

  The Gods’ Game (A LitRPG series)

  Crota, the Gods’ Game Volume I

  The Labyrinth, the Gods’ Game Volume II

  Tales from the Gods’ Game (A LitRPG collection of short stories & novels)

  Dungeon Dive (Tales from the Gods’ Game, Book 1)

  And coming Feb 2020!

  Free Agent, Chronicles of Myelad, Book 1 (A fantasy version of the Gods’ Game)

  And also in 2020:

  Sovereign, the Gods’ Game, Volume III

  The Inquisition, the Gods’ Game, Volume IV

  Dungeon Dive

  Tales of the Gods’ Game, Book 1

  A LitRPG story in the world of the Gods’ Game.

  Set hundreds of years before the fall of Crotana, Dungeon Dive follows the adventures of a young Aveyad. Join him and his fellow champion, Talia, as they battle their God’s foes and embark upon a dungeon crawl… a task they may not be equal to yet.

  Tales of the Gods’ Game is a loose collection of stories that follows the journey of various players on Myelad. Dungeon Dive is the first volume, with many more still to come.

  This is a separate and distinct work from the main series, the Gods’ Game. It is not necessary to have read that series first, nor does this book contain any spoilers of the main story.

  A LitRPG novel.

  By Rohan M. Vider.

  www.rohanvider.com

  Author’s Note

  Dear Readers,

  Thank you for reading the Gods’ Game. It is only through your continued support that this book has been made possible. I have avidly read and digested all reviews.

  To flesh out the world of Myelad and to try something lighter (writing book 2 of the Gods’ Game was exhausting!), I began a short adventure starring one of the series’ more notable characters. What started as an idle thought evolved into the novel before you—which I hope you will enjoy as much as you’ve enjoyed the Gods’ Game!

  And if you have not read the Gods’ Game, don’t worry. It is not necessary, nor will this book contain any spoilers of the main story. Set some seven hundred years before events of the Gods’ Game, this story explores the world of Myelad through the eyes of a God’s champion.

  As with the other books, this is a LitRPG and contains elements common to CRPG and MMO computer games. To enjoy the story, knowledge of such games is not necessary. Every effort has been made to explain crucial game mechanics.

  This is a self-published work, and even though great care has been given to the review and editing of this book, some errors may have slipped through. For these, I apologise.

  I encourage you to drop me a message on anything related to the Gods’ Game or otherwise. Please also let others know what you think about the book by leaving a review on www.amazon.com and www.goodreads.com.

  Most importantly, I hope you enjoy the book!

  Best Regards,

  Rohan M. Vider

  [email protected]

  Contents

  Dungeon Dive

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Books by Rohan M. Vider

  Dungeon Dive

  Author’s Note

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Game Data

  Chapter 2

  Game Data

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Game Data

  Chapter 9

  Game Data

  Chapter 10

  Game Data

  Chapter 11

  Game Data

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Game Data

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Afterword

  List of Abilities & Spells

  List of Key Gods, People, & Places

  Prologue

  In the beginning, the cosmos gave birth to chaos. And from chaos, demons were born, the first immortals. They roamed creation, unconstrained, bodiless and free.

  Out of chaos, order took shape, birthed by unintentional patterns, unconscious routines and inadvertent pathways. And from order, sprang life and the Gods, the second immortals. Weak at first, they became stronger as order spread. For order bequeaths order, and life breathes new life.

  Inevitably, the Gods challenged the demons for dominion of the cosmos. And won. But demons, like the Gods, were immortal and could not be killed, leaving the Gods no choice but to imprison them. Eld, the chief architect of the demons’ defeat, chose Myelad for their prison.

  With the aid of his fellow Gods, Eld created twelve essence wells to trap all naturally occurring essence on Myelad. Essence is energy in its purest form, and to demons, primordial creatures, it is sustenance. One by one, the Gods defeated the archdemons, and confined them on Myelad where, starved of essence, they were helpless. Thus ended the Chaos Wars.

  But the tale does not end there.

  The Gods, given reign over the cosmos, had become its new tyrants. Across the far-flung worlds of creation, they ruled with a fickle and cruel hand, bending and twisting the mortal races—the cosmos’ youngest children—to their will.

  Eld looked upon the doings of his fellows and wept for the destruction they wrought. He decided then that the cosmos had to be rid of all immortals. But Eld was only one God. He knew that with force, he alone could not imprison all of his fellows. So, he resorted to trickery.

  In the millennia after the Chaos Wars, the Gods had grown jaded. Tired of their playthings, they sank to new lows in their pursuit of pleasure and debauchery. Eld knew this. Knew that his fellows craved something new, something different. Thus he fashioned the Game, as both a lure and prison.

  For the Game, Eld chose Myelad again. He turned the world into a gameboard, and its inhabitants into living pieces. Some were fashioned into advanced players and granted great gifts. Others were granted lesser gifts and made into basic players. However, the vast majority of Myelad’s multitudes were left ungifted as non-players, or norms as they became to be known.

  The Game gifted all its players with skills and abilities, and the means to acquire more—instantaneously. To govern the Game and the actions of its players, Eld created the Rules, a complex set of game mechanics that determined when and how players advanced, and the skills and abilities they could gain. Eld went further and created a hierarchy amongst players, assigning level and ranks to each, according to their power.

  And th
en Eld lured the ever-fractious Gods into the Game.

  The Gods, bored by eons of unquestioning rule, were entranced by the prospect of the game, and the opportunities it afforded to test their mettle against one another. Eld warned them that as immortals, they could not directly play in the Game. Their power was too great. Instead they would have to act through champions—advanced players chosen to be their proxies.

  The Gods were fascinated by Eld’s creation and readily agreed. Before Eld allowed them into the Game, he insisted that each God bind themselves to the Rules. Binding himself first, he assured his fellows that it was the only way to enforce fair play.

  The Gods had no reason to question Eld, the first amongst them, and still revered for his role in the Chaos Wars. They did as he asked. But no sooner had they bound themselves to the Rules, than Eld closed the pathways out of Myelad, and trapped the Gods within the Game. Bound by their own vows to not act directly upon the Game, the Gods were powerless to escape Myelad.

  Thus, it has been for ages.

  And so, Eld freed the cosmos from the Gods’ tyranny, but only by sacrificing Myelad, which to this day, remains the prison and playground of the Gods…

  —The story of creation as told by Matriarch Duhara, of the Jade Great Bear clan, seventh of her line.

  Chapter 1

  26 Jan 1850 AB: Day One

  Myelad. A world locked for perpetuity in a Game between Gods. Their pawns are players, chosen from the people themselves, and their prized pieces, champions—mortals favoured with divine power. For eons, the Game has been played, and for eons Myelad’s multitudes have suffered with no end in sight. When will this wretched Game end? When will we be free of divine tyranny? —Lament of Dagzid, Brotherhood scholar.

  Aveyad threw himself forward and evaded the downward-sweeping blade. He thrust out his hands and halted his fall before he crashed face first into the floor. Wouldn’t that please Talia. He rolled right. Not a moment too soon. A blade crashed into the wooden planking—where he had been not a second ago. He scrambled to his feet and spun around to unleash a flurry of starbursts. And found himself staring, cross-eyed, at a sword held chillingly steady at his neck.

  Sirius lowered his weapon and shook his head. “Not good enough, Milord. I told you, you don’t have the skills for close combat. You cannot afford to get within range of your opponent’s blade.”

  Aveyad muttered, “But I had you.”

  Sirius shrugged, indifferent to Aveyad’s annoyance. The armsmaster held out his sword and squinted down its length, inspecting the blade for notches. Practice weapons were not used in the Training Hall. Satisfied that the blade—dwarven-forged adamantine and worth a fortune—remained undamaged, Sirius sheathed it. Only then did he look up and respond to Aveyad. “You did. Right up until the moment you decided to close in for the kill. The smart choice would have been to finish me off from a distance.”

  Aveyad scowled, but remained silent. The grizzled veteran was right. As he well knew. Normally, he too would have scoffed at the sight of a caster attempting to close with a fighter. He pulled a towel off a nearby rack, and wiped away the sweat and grime from his face. What had gone wrong? The contest had started well. He’d managed to keep Sirius at bay with a combination of shock walls and holy wards while peppering him with starbursts until the armsmaster’s divine shield had cracked. Aveyad had taken a few knocks too, though the damage had been easily absorbed by his own shield. The match’s outcome had been assured. All he had to do was keep grinding away.

  Then Talia had entered the hall, and he had decided to end the contest with a flourish. That woman is the bane of my existence.

  Laughter—loud and mocking—rang out from across the chamber, interrupting the two men. Talia sauntered over from the stands where she had been watching with ill-disguised interest. Throughout the room, the ring of steel and splash of spells died out as the other young trainees turned to watch the promised confrontation.

  The animosity between the two, who were the only champions in the Training Hall at the moment, was well known. Legendary even, with the Hall, on several occasions treated to scenes of the two bickering, despite frequent lectures by the commandant on the dignity of the champions’ office.

  As champions, Talia and Aveyad were advanced players in the Game. They had been chosen by their God—Eld himself—to wield divine power. Inevitably, this set them apart from the others, who were themselves only basic players of the Game. Many of the trainees looked up to the two champions with awe and envy. Which Aveyad did his best to alleviate, and Talia simply ignored.

  Talia walked up to Aveyad, ignoring the many stares that followed her, and patted him on the cheek. “Dear Aveyad, when will you ever learn? Casters cannot stand up to a fighter.”

  Aveyad crossed his arms and stared down at the diminutive warrior. As ever, Talia was garbed in well-worn and meticulously polished plate armour. With the fingers of one hand drumming on her sheathed blade, she looked up at Aveyad with wide-eyed innocence, not in the least fazed by his attempt at intimidation.

  Once more, he was struck by her beauty. If only it didn’t hide such a heartless spirit. Talia tapped insistently at his face again. With a start, he realised she waited for a response.

  “What do you want, Talia?” he demanded. “We’re busy.”

  She threw back her head and guffawed. Most unladylike. A second later, she cut off the laughter with an audible snap. “Really?” Craning her neck forward, she studied the empty practice ring with false interest. “It looks like you are quite done here—thrashed by Master Sirius yet again.” She favoured the old paladin with a smile. He studiously ignored it, and backed away to leave the champions to their quarrel.

  Aveyad chose not to dignify her comments with a response. He turned his back to Talia and addressed the armsmaster. “Let’s try that again, Sirius.” He unhooked his wands and crossed into the sparring circle, feeling the ripple of the containment field as he passed within. All the practice rings were enclosed in this manner. The magical wards prevented offensive spells from spilling out while allowing the healing magic of the Hall’s restorative totems to reach within and mend combatants threatened by death.

  Talia sighed dramatically. “As much as I’d enjoy being treated to a repeat spectacle, I’m afraid there isn’t time. We’ve been summoned.”

  Aveyad turned around to face her. Although he wanted to ignore Talia, her words made that impossible. Knowing as much, she watched him nonchalantly.

  He waited her out. Blowing out her breath, she conceded first. “Zarr wants to see us. Immediately.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “The king? Why? We haven’t done anything wrong,” he said, half question, half statement. They had not seen their liege since their swearing in. Crotana’s king was too busy to bother with newly made champions. The only conceivable reason for Zarr to summon them, would be if they had done something wrong. But try as he might, he could not think what it could be.

  Sirius’ chuckle cut across his thoughts. “Boy, Zarr does not only summon his champions to scold them. He must have a mission for you two.” Both Aveyad and Talia’s eyes lit up.

  Was that it? wondered Aveyad. Would he finally be let out of the Training Hall? But no, he was still an apprentice and had barely obtained his class. The commandant, the Hall’s God and master after Eld, was adamant. No champion would leave the Hall until he reached level forty and attained journeyman-rank. Until then, champions were considered snot-nosed trainees, barely on par with the average grunt, and certainly incapable of seeing to their own safety. What could have happened for Zarr to break the Hall’s most sacrosanct rule?

  Talia tugged at his arm, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Come on, we’re late already. Let’s not keep the king any longer.” Not waiting to see if he followed, she spun on her heels and swept out the room.

  And whose fault is that? thought Aveyad sullenly. But he kept his peace and hurried after her.

  ✽✽✽

  Aveyad, half-running, caugh
t up to Talia outside. She shot him a glance but did not slow down. “Who delivered the summons?” he asked, slightly breathless.

  “One of the marshall’s men. He is waiting at the Hall’s entrance.”

  “One of the marshalls? Not the Kingsguard? Marshall Rolan is supposed to be on the southern border with the army; what is one of his men doing here?”

  Talia only shrugged. Her reticence was maddening. He persisted. “Did the messenger tell you what this is about?”

  Talia shook her head. “No, only that it was urgent.” She darted another look at him. “If we waste more time in idle chatter, we are going to be even later.” Aveyad fell silent. Only Talia would consider their discussion idle chatter.

  As they made their way through the Training Hall complex, part of the citadel’s west wing, they passed recruits hurrying to and fro. The recruits, basic players and all vassals of one of Eld’s champions, were graduates from one of Crotana’s many schools dedicated to their grooming. They were here for the finishing touches to their training, a large part of which included sparring against the young champions who might one day command them in battle.

  Both Talia and Aveyad were forbidden from taking vassals of their own. At least, until they reached journeyman rank and were battle tested. It was another of Zarr’s ironclad rules, and one not observed by any other Gods’ demesnes. It was just the sort of progressive ideals that set Crotana apart. It made the kingdom and its people more than just pieces in the Gods’ Game, and gave Aveyad hope for the future. Not that the other domains saw it that way. Most reviled Eld and Zarr for the changes they wrought.

  All of the recruits, dressed in form-fitting black tunics emblazoned with the heraldry of Crotana—the golden owl of Eld—greeted Aveyad with a cheerful wave. Some wished him well with the audience, while others laughingly speculated on how much trouble he was in. The Hall’s rumour mill seems to be working as well as ever, he thought.