My heart’s racing.
Palms are sweaty as I grip the controller in anticipation.
My sign is down, but will my dealer turn up?
Or will my cash be wasted?
Then the screen turns to black: I have been summoned.
A quick look on eBay is enough to see that runes are being sold for actual, real-life money.
Runes - like souls in the Dark Souls games - are the currency ofElden Ring.
They allow you to level up your character, or buy items and equipment.
Now you could buy them on the black market.
Or is this all just an elaborate scam?
The process itself was easy enough.
The seller contacted me.
We exchanged a password, a time, and a location for the sordid deal.
I laid down my summoning sign and waited.
I feel like I’m meeting a drug dealer.
Thankfully, they upheld their end of the bargain.
A few celebratory jumps and I’m booted out, back to my own Lands Between 2m runes richer.
Was it worth it?
But, of course, levelling in Elden Ring isn’t quite that simple.
What’s more, each level up costs exponentially more runes.
All that hard-earned cash, wasted.
Instead this is just scammers preying on the game’s high difficulty to make a quick buck.
But we won’t go into that here.
Don’t be fooled!
Elden Ring is the most approachable Souls game and there’s no one way to play it.
But cheaters never, ever, prosper.
Now I’m off for a cold shower.
