Power Fantasy

by Scottie Futch

  - You are [50%] less likely to acquire the [muscle strain] status effect when exerting yourself during weight training sessions.

  - Your normal body appearance has been set to muscular. If this change is undesirable, please de-activate this skill in the loading area once that option is unlocked.

  “Interesting. I can’t increase its level, but it provides a lot of bonuses,” said Scott.

  He picked up a nearby book that had no aura. It was a book on basic self-defense techniques. Curious to see if he could turn it into a tome of knowledge, he converted it into a system item. Unfortunately, this prompted no system messages. The only difference was that the book now had an attribute that made it more durable than a normal book.

  The total cost to upgrade that book was a single item point, so he was not surprised. He tried it again with a few other books, but they all had the same result. Only books that had a natural aura seemed to count.

  “I guess those things count as treasure items… The system did say stuff like that would pop up now and then…” It might have been arbitrary, but he was certainly glad the system existed. Being able to find a useful book based on the aura was always going to be a major blessing.

  Before he wandered off, he took off his costume and checked out his normal appearance to the best of his ability. The pain of his wounds intensified due to the lack of endurance, and he shrank several inches in height. Overall, he was smaller than his barbarian form. However, he was notably more physically fit that he had been originally. He was not a bulky behemoth, but he had defined muscle tone complete with broad shoulders and chiseled abdominal muscles. His body type was the stereotypical inverted triangle popularized by superheroes and gym rats the world over.

  He reset his costume and left to go find something else. The books he converted were added to his storage, but he saw little reason to keep them on hand. He sent them to the storage box in the other world to free up space, though they would not arrive there until the next day by his estimation of time. If nothing else, they could be used to start a fire.

  Eventually, he found his way to a sporting goods store. However, before he began his search, he checked his storage once more. Thirty minutes had passed.

  Excited Scott reached into his bag and pulled out a soul gem. He concentrated on the idea of upgrading his costume, and a little status window appeared before him.

  “So cheap?” he asked incredulously.

  It would cost one hundred equipment points per costume level, plus one tiny soul gem. The latter would change over time and certain costume level milestones.

  Scott chose to upgrade his costume, and the entire thing was lit up by a brilliant flash of light. A triumphant fanfare echoed outward from his position, setting his teeth on edge and making him jump up and down a little.

  “Shit!” he exclaimed as he got hold of himself. That had been a bit of a surprise.

  Scott hid himself when several people showed up. They searched around briefly but found no sign of the idiot who was playing loud music and eventually went away. In the meantime, Scott had been focusing on his costume menu.

  There were a few changes that he had not anticipated. Next to each skill a number had appeared. This number represented the level of the skill for ease of viewing. A level metric appeared in the blurb of each skill as well.

  He was bummed out by that fact that each of them had a max level, just like his normal skills. It meant that his costumes would become obsolete over time.

  Barbarian Costume

  Level: 2

  Costume Points: 2

  COSTUME SKILLS

  Rage [1]

  Shout [1]

  Frost Resistance [1]

  Weapon Appraisal [1]

  Axe Mastery [1]

  Sword Mastery [1]

  Hammer Mastery [1]

  Spear Mastery [1]

  He experimented by upgrading weapon appraisal to level two then tried to remove the point. Luckily, he could do so since he had not confirmed anything. Curious, he decided to see what would happen if he maxed out one of the skills.

  Frost Resistance would cap out at level three. He spent the points needed to max out frost resistance then leaned his head back a bit when a message screen appeared nearby. “Oho? Really now?”

  Master Skill Slots

  Once you master a costume skill, you may add it as a mastered skill under your master skill slot section of your status menu. This section will only appear once you master a costume skill. The number of slots available is based on your level. You will have one slot prior to level one hundred, but you will gain one additional slot each twenty-five levels thereafter.

  If you completely master a costume, you may add it as a mastered skill in its entirety.

  “Now that’s definitely something!” He could only wear one costume at a time, but he could add the effects of a costume as a master skill if he managed to master all the associated costume skills. This immediately made him wonder if there would be a way to combine costumes in the future.

  The costume skills ranged from a three-level cap to a twenty-level cap. Weapon Appraisal would require twenty levels to max out, while all the mastery skills had a twelve-level maximum. He tested the skills to see what would change with each level increase.

  Frost resistance would only increase his resistance to the frozen status effect and his resistance to ice attacks. He had not expected much else.

  The weapon masteries were nearly identical to the edged weapon mastery skill in how they functioned, but their slash, piece, cleave, or bludgeon damage and defense bonuses would all increase by ten percent per level. Maximizing one of those skills would more than double his current ability with said weapon.

  Weapon appraisal had no formula applied to it that he could see, but the blurb changed slightly when the level increased. White and green items were mentioned. This reminded him that green items were a thing as he had not seen one yet, despite finding a couple of blue items.

  Shout was a six-level skill. The only math it provided was an additional tag added to the bottom after a level was gained which cited a twenty percent boost in effectiveness. So, in theory it would become twice as strong at max level.

  He checked what would happen when he upgraded Rage, and grinned. It was a four-level skill, but just increasing it to level three increased the damage boost to triple instead of double. Nothing else seemed to change for the better. However, the cost of the skill increased to forty points per second.

  While Frost Resistance would be the easiest skill to master, it was currently the least useful. Rage would provide the best damage boost overall, but at thirty or forty energy points per second it carried a heavy cost. A twenty percent boost to his shout ability might be good, but it had taken a rage boost to get it to the point that it would influence that big bastard. The problem with the shout skill was that it was something of a charge skill in that the more of his energy he expended, the more powerful the shout would end up being. After about one hundred points were expended the extra boost was much less useful, however.

  He could shout for a single point, but that just produced a loud noise. Rage boosting his shout allowed his bonuses to be more prevalent and basically every aspect of the shout doubled. A twenty percent boost would be nice, but it was not really that big of a deal when all things were considered. He would still need to be within a short distance of an opponent to even knock them over, much less blow them away and break their bones.

  The hidden cost of shout, however, was the fact that it would draw a lot of attention. It would be easy for a situation to develop wherein the entire team was swarmed because he shouted.

  The safest bet was the sword mastery skill. He was in anime Japan. Katanas, spears, and baseball bats would be everywhere. There were no doubt fire axes lying around in places, but that sort of tool would be far less prevalent. His current weapon was not that great, but it was serviceable. It was named as a brush axe, but it was more like a sword on a stick. Still, it could be
used like a sword or like an axe. Given where he was, a sword was a more likely find. Besides, some sword mastery skills would apply to smaller weapons like knives as well.

  Scott considered it for a moment then sighed. In truth, a boost to his overall combat ability would be nice but it would be such a basic boost that he was uncertain of it. In the end, he chose to lean heavily toward Weapon Appraisal. A better weapon overall might be best.

  Before he made his choice, however, there was one more thing to test. Would he lose costume points if he did not spend them before he leveled his costume again? It could cost him two points, but he needed to know. If he had more points to spend this would drastically change what he chose to do.

  Scott spent two hundred equipment points and a tiny soul gem then sighed in relief. His points were fine! He went ahead and spent another three hundred points and his last gem to upgrade his costume once more.

  Multiple loud fanfares brought people back to the store once more, but they left swiftly afterward. No one wanted to deal with whatever the problem was, and several of them acted as though someone were playing a prank.

  “Six points…” Scott decided to see what would happen to shout or rage if he maxed them out.

  “I see, that’s interesting…” The effects of each level were not static. Rage did not have a damage increase beyond tripling his damage output, but when he increased it to level four and five the amount of defense he lost was reduced. At max level, there would be no loss of defense. However, the skill would be fifty points per second.

  The shout ability increased to a one hundred percent boost at the sixth level mark, making it a much more interesting choice than before. The cost seemed like it would be no different, so it would still be quite expensive to use.

  After he increased a weapon mastery to the seventh level, he noticed that the bonus increased from fifty points at level six, to seventy-five points at level seven. Suddenly, spending the time and energy needed to gather resources and max out a weapon mastery seemed to be quite worth the effort.

  “So, what will you do for me?” asked Scott quietly. He stared at the weapon appraisal skill for a moment, then checked to see what would happen.

  At the seventh level, he saw that all the aura colors were now set to appear more often. The blurb did not tell him just how often they would appear, but the fact that they were listed was quite interesting.

  “Seven aura colors… Grey. White. Green. Blue. Purple. Orange… and Radiant Gold….” Scott rubbed his chin. His mind stat was something that he had neglected since he lacked the resources needed to train it. Yet, it would directly influence this skill. It would mean that he did not need to entirely rely on luck for drop item goodness.

  In the end, he chose to forego increasing his combat skill directly and decided to focus on Weapon Appraisal. More frequent weapon drops of varying commonality would mean more chances to get good stuff. Even if nothing good dropped, it would mean more equipment points. With enough points and a few soul gems he could turn a trash weapon into something reasonable.

  Of course, now that his loot abilities were improved, he saw no reason to increase that skill’s level again until he had his combat skills upgraded. His points spent, Scott came out of hiding and looked around the store.

  The sporting goods store did not have a lot of stuff of merit. It was mostly clothes and a few protective items. A lot of it could not even be itemized. He did find a steel baseball bat in a back closet that had a grey aura, however.

  The attributes were like his brush axe, so he nearly itemized it. However, he thought better of it.

  Scott eyed the bat for a moment. “You probably aren’t worth much, but…”

  He stored it in his bag then went to the cash register. Curious, he activated the system and tried to convert the place into a system store. “Six thousand points? No thank you.”

  He did not have that many points to spend, and frankly he was not certain if anything in the store would be worth his time. He did grab a five-pound kettle bell, however. A weight was a weight. He might not get much out of it, but if his new skill counted for anything, he did want to use it.

  Once he left the store, he started back to his room. There wasn’t much reason to stick around in this part of the mall. However, he did not get far before he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

  There was an odd sparkle, a light, coming from a pile of clothes that sat off to one side of a little cul-de-sac. Curious, he walked over to it and began to dig around. That green sparkle revealed itself to be a bullet!

  Universal Ammunition

  This bullet is a weapon or magazine modification that can be made to fit into any type of projectile based firearm. If placed into a magazine or loaded into a firearm that holds more than one round in an internal ammunition well, it will completely reload that item in three seconds. Each use is one full reload. It may only be attached to one weapon or magazine.

  Uses: 9

  Note: Congratulations! You found your first true treasure item! No further rewards will be granted, but don’t you feel good about yourself? Treasure items are different than general loot in that they are extra items placed into a world specifically for you to find. Consider them an extra treat. Though, some may require special skills in order to sense their location.

  “Wait… special skills?” Scott could not help but grin like an idiot. His weapon appraisal skill was already paying off!

  He decided to check the shops once more in search of treasure but found nothing much of interest. He did locate a few items that would make for nice gifts, however. He spent equipment points to make some of them into system items, but in the end, it was going to be worth it. This was something only he could do, and he had to make his occasionally sassy presence a thing of value to the group.

  Scott returned to the room and saw that everyone had long since returned. Tosh started to say something snarky, but Scott held up his hand. “I come bearing gifts.”

  “Oh?” asked Jade, intensely interested. “Who for?”

  “Everyone,” said Scott.

  Tosh rolled his eyes, but Scott grinned at him then reached into his bag and pulled out a bat far too larger to even remotely fit into the fist-sized pouch on his hip. “Yes, Sassy. That includes you, too.”

  Scott tossed the bat over to Tosh. The younger man caught it, though he seemed reluctant. “Thanks… I have a gun though…and a bat already.”

  “That’s a system item, and it doesn’t run out of bullets,” said Scott. “I don’t have much, but everyone’s getting a system item of some sort or another.”

  At the mention of system items Tosh grimaced, but he did seem to hold that bat a little tighter. Scott was more than a little loathe to give the guy anything, but he was not going to go out of his way to ostracize Lord Slap-A-Ho. If he chose to be a douche it could only reflect badly on himself and might possibly give Scott more waifu candidates.

  “Speaking of bullets,” Scott pulled the green bullet out of his bag. “Here’s something for you.”

  Scott tossed the bullet to Otakun. Seeing his gift, Otakun seemed mildly disappointed.

  “No need to look like a sad sack. That’s nine free reloads of any one firearm or magazine. Pick the weapon you think would be best to reload fully nine times and attach that to it,” said Scott.

  “Wait… Really?” asked Otakun. His interest was suddenly reignited. While extra ammo was not much of a gift, magic reloading ammo was cool.

  “Yeah. It can be attached to a magazine as well. So, if you want to maximize ammo count pick whatever has the highest capacity,” replied Scott. “It’ll make it so you can completely reload it after three seconds, once it runs dry. Only works nine times, though.”

  Otakun was immediately excited, but then quickly calmed down. “Maybe I should hold onto it in case of an emergency or we find something like an SMG. We’re going to the police station and there could be SAT weapons.”

  “SAT?” asked Scott.

  �
��Special Assault Team, sort of like the American police have Special Weapons and Tactics squads,” said Otakun.

  “Cool. Either way, that bullet’s yours. Do what you want with it,” said Scott.

  Scott pulled out a bottle of shampoo and handed it to Jade. “It’s a seven-use item that makes it impossible for your hair to get dirty for twenty-four hours. Not much, but hey you won’t have zombie guts in your hair for a week if you use it every day.”

  Jade hugged that bottle of shampoo like her life depended on it. “Thank you!”

  He handed Momoko a pair of cheap looking glasses. She looked at them then back up at him. “Thanks…?”

  Scott grinned at her. “Try them on.”

  She shrugged then put on the cheap looking thing. She was not impressed at first, though her vision was even clearer than normal while she wore them. It was not until she glanced over to Summer that she noticed something off. “Hey! I can see your level… and name…”

  “Whoa!” exclaimed Otakun. “That’s awesome! Hey. What level am I?”

  Momoko tried to oblige him, but then frowned. “It doesn’t show anything.”

  “Yeah, it’s a grey item. It can only give people the ability to see basic information about waifus… So, only useful against other ladies,” said Scott. “Still, they protect you against up to four points of damage as well. Full body protection of a sort.”

  Otakun sighed in defeat. “I’ll never know my level…”

  “Wearing these protects my whole body?” asked Momoko incredulously.

  “Yeah, but only for four points of damage. It’s really not much, but it could be useful to lessen a hit,” said Scott.