by JK Galioto
“Not something I would do twice, or if given the choice again, once,” Gooch murmured somberly, a haunted look in his eyes. “No, that’s not something I would wish upon my worst enemies.”
“Yikes, well, I’m not sure about your enemies, but if we are successful, our friends will undergo it. Tough love, I guess?” With that, Jack launched into his tale, telling Gooch about his sun elf heritage, how he chose the Rogue class, the quests granted by Dungeon Master, his first battle with the mountain cat, Liam, his capturing and eventual death to the goblins, his respawn, Dobby sacrificing himself to save him, and his eventual triumph over the goblins and the basilisk. Gooch listened intently, peppering Jack with questions that mostly focused on how the system, skills, and combat worked. The sun was high overhead when Jack finished.
Gooch remained quiet for a long moment, still in the process of absorbing the information. Finally, he broke his silence. “I could probably spend three days questioning every aspect of your story and this world, but that doesn’t get us our friends over here or shut the damn electromagnetic pulse down. What do we do now?”
“I’ve given this a lot of thought over the past few days. Our overarching mission is to stop the Ravanan Empire from taking over Earth. To accomplish that, we have a few objectives. First, we need to stop the sources of power that are fueling the pulse emitting from the portal. Second, we need to repel the invading army so they can’t set up new sources of power near this portal. Third, we need to stop them from taking over this planet, which would give Earth a buffer against them.”
Jack paused, making sure Gooch was following, before continuing, “To accomplish these objectives, we need to become stronger, get more of our friends over here, and acquire allies. To become stronger, we need to level up and find better weapons, armor, and magical items. To get more of our friends over here, we need to find portal pearls. To acquire allies, we need to explore more of Rigara and convince the people we find to ally with us against the Ravanan Empire.”
“Is that all?” Gooch asked sarcastically, crossing his arms and cocking his head in dismay.
“Actually, there is one more thing,” Jack replied, intentionally ignoring the sarcasm. “We need to create a stronghold or base camp of some kind. I’m not sure if you noticed, but the weather feels like autumn in Wisconsin. The leaves are starting to turn and falling off the trees and the temperature seems to be dropping. I’m not sure how long until full-blown winter, or even if it will continue to get colder, but we need to prepare for the worst. Having a stronghold would also help us secure the area around the portal, which I feel is critical to our overall success.” Jack took a long breath; it felt amazing to finally be able to share his ideas and thoughts with someone else.
He waited for Gooch’s reply, which took a while in coming. One thing he really admired about Gooch was his ability to see problems from all angles and come to the right solution, even though it could be extremely frustrating waiting for Gooch to make his move in strategy games. After a few minutes, Gooch spoke. “I’m thinking through the possibilities. Can you tell me how leveling up works? How long would it take to gain a few levels and what happens when you level up?”
“Sure thing,” Jack replied. “Your hit points, stamina, and spell points increase at each level, based on your class. As a Rogue, I get an additional six points in hit points and stamina and one additional spell point. I also get two attribute points and two skill points to allocate. Finally, at second and fourth levels I was able to choose a class perk.
“As for how long it takes to level, it doesn’t seem too bad. It starts out at one hundred experience points to attain level two and then doubles each level. I am currently level four, and it will take me eight hundred total experience to reach level five. At level five you are able to choose a new class or keep the same class.”
Gooch silently took this in, and Jack could almost see the gears whirring in his head . . . or was it a hamster wheel turning? At long last, he seemed to come to a decision.
“Let me start by saying this is your show, Jack. You’ve been here longer and it feels to me that you’re the lynchpin to us saving Earth. But if you are asking for my opinion, I think we should try and level me up a few levels and then go to the cave and try to get more portal pearls. Having a few more of our friends over here could make a substantial difference. Also, I think you should take my survival token; I can be replaced, but you cannot.”
Jack was touched by the offer. “I am fine with trying to level you up, and hopefully I will ding level five before we hit the cave. As far as taking your survival token, it goes against every fiber of my being, but have it your way.” Gooch reached into his adventurer’s backpack to find the token, then gasped as his entire arm went into the bag.
“Bag of holding!” he shouted wildly while doing a little jig, which looked extremely odd on the six-foot-six giant of a man. After appearing to concentrate for a moment, he reached in and retrieved the survival token. It was the size of a large wooden coin, with a square cutout in the center and cryptic lettering encircling it. He tried to hand it to Jack but stopped short of him grabbing it.
“I just got a system message saying the survival token is bound to me and untradeable,” Gooch said, trying to let go of the coin and failing. He eventually put the token back into his bag.
“Well, I guess you have a get out of jail free card. Hopefully you won’t need it,” Jack said, secretly pleased that he wouldn’t be taking his friend’s token. He had enough to worry about without adding Gooch’s death to his conscience.
Jack took a moment to Analyze Gooch to get a sense of what he was dealing with.
Name: Gooch. Race: Human. Heritage: Stone giant. Level: 1. Class: Fighter. Hit Points: 38. Spell Points: 38.
Holy crap, Gooch had a lot of hit points and spell points! He wanted to find out more.
“Hey Alexa,” Jack asked his strange, alien mentor silently, “is it possible to share my character sheet with another person?”
There was an immediate reply in his head. “You are able to share your general character information, which includes attributes, skills, and perks. To do this, you must be in a party.”
Eager to find out more about his buddy, Jack went to the party tab on his interface. The interface was pretty basic; across the top it read: “Party Leader: Level 0.” Below that was a blank row that would likely be filled out by the members of Jack’s party, capturing their name, hit points, stamina, and spell points. To the right was a column titled “Perks,” which was also empty. Finally, there were a few buttons on the bottom that read “Invite,” “Disband” and “Change Party Leader.” Jack mentally clicked on the invite button and a new window opened up. The window had a simple column that listed nearby creatures. Jack chose Gooch and closed the window. He saw Gooch and himself listed as party members along with their basic information. He mentally clicked on Gooch, and a message appeared.
You sent a share request to Gooch.
Gooch accepted, and his friend’s character sheet appeared in his vision.
Name: Gooch. Heritage: Stone giant. Class: Fighter. Level: 1 (0/100). Sex: Male. Height: 6’6” Weight: 285 lbs. Hair: Black. Eyes: Brown. Fame: Level 1: Unknown (0/100)
Hit Points: 38. HP Regeneration: 6/hour, outside of combat.
Stamina: 33. Stamina Regeneration: 6/minute.
Spell Points: 38. SP Regeneration: 7/minute.
Heritage & Background Bonuses:
Chapter 21
Jack’s mind was in full overdrive mode after reviewing Gooch’s information. Gooch should have been sent to Rigara instead of Jack. He already had more health, and he was only level one. Between his natural size and strength, he was a born fighter, although his high intelligence would make him a great magic user as well. Jack was not jealous; his grandpa always said comparison is the enemy of happiness. Instead, he felt incredibly pleased with his decision to bring Gooch over. However, he did have a few questions for him.
“Gooch, your stats
are amazing! Not a valley girl saying a Caesar salad is amazing—actually amazing! The heritage bonuses for stone giant pair nicely with your natural abilities, like how a Coors Light pairs with, well, pretty much anything. A few questions though; what is Hard as Stone, Perfectionist, and Protector?”
Gooch had a vacant look for a minute, then replied. “In my opinion, Coors Light pairs with anything in the same way that water pairs with anything. As for my perks, Hard as Stone is from my stone giant heritage. It hardens my skin, providing a bonus to my defense. According to the voice in my head, which I have affectionately named Emily, the bonus starts at four and increases as I level up. Perfectionist is a perk gained from my background, increasing the casting time of any spells I cast by twenty-five percent, but also increasing the spell damage by twenty-five percent. Protector is my final background perk, allowing me to use my shield to block attacks directed at an ally within five feet of me, at the cost of six stamina.”
“Well, that suits you,” Jack said, a wry grin on his face. “You do like to take your time to get things right. And the ‘Hard as Stone’ perk will be really useful! By the way,” Jack added almost as an afterthought, “I know you probably would have chosen some type of magic-using class if you had your druthers, but I appreciate you going fighter. I want you to take this.” He pulled the spell book Burning Hands out of his backpack and gave it to Gooch. “Your intelligence is high enough that I think you will be able to learn this. Casting spells should help influence your class choices at level five, so hopefully you get some type of mage class to choose from, if that’s what you want.”
Gooch glanced at the red leather book, noting the symbol on the front. He looked down at Jack and asked, “What spell is it?”
“Oh, I forgot you can’t Analyze things yet. It’s Burning Hands.” Jack explained the details of the spell. “I think there is more to magic than learning a spell book and casting, but since I only have the one spell, I’m not sure. I wonder if you specialize. Runic casting? Maybe summoning magic? Hopefully, we’ll find out more as we progress.”
“Are you sure it wouldn’t be better off with you?” Gooch asked, hands trembling like a teenage boy unclasping his first bra.
“No, it’s all yours. I have my trusty Analyze spell. You see . . .”
Before Jack could finish his sentence, Gooch flipped open the book and, after a few seconds, it turned to ash in his hands. Gooch turned, spread the fingers of his right hand toward the sky, and began casting the spell, which consisted of him uttering a string of archaic words. After nearly four seconds, a jet of orange and blue flame shot out from him and into the sky. Jack, who was sitting four or five feet away from the jet of fire, could feel the heat upon his cheeks.
“Well, that was freaking awesome!” Gooch cried excitedly. Jack wasn’t used to seeing that much emotion from Gooch, but he loved seeing the look of delight on his friend. Despite being in a new world, full of weird fantastical stat sheets and magic, Gooch was doing a bang-up job of focusing on what he could control and leaving the rest alone. Jack felt immensely proud of his large friend.
“Can I see your information?” Gooch asked after casting the spell two more times. Jack immediately received a share request, which he accepted. A few minutes later, Gooch asked Jack, “How did you get so many skills? And what is Knows No Shame?”
“Well, those two questions are related,” Jack responded. “Knows No Shame is a perk I received when I made it through the process. Basically, it means nothing is below me when it comes to learning new things. That perk has helped me learn a fair number of skills. And once you learn a skill, if you already knew some of it back on Earth, that is added to your skill as a background bonus, just like you have a bonus to heavy armor. I assume that one is somehow related to your football career. Every ten points or so you advance your skill to a new level and can choose perks. You probably have notifications waiting for you to choose your heavy armor and thrown weapons perks. Let’s get going, we’ve got a date with a cave, and I can fill you in on the rest while we travel. We’ll head back toward the cave but keep our eyes open for anything we can hunt for experience along the way. That will also help with our food situation.”
“Food situation?” Gooch asked, patting his stomach. “I could eat.”
“Ha! You won’t be saying that after you’ve lived off venison and mountain lion for a few days.”
With high spirits, Jack and Gooch grabbed their equipment—no, not that equipment—and started their trek toward the cave.
A wry look in his eye, Jack exclaimed toward the heavens, “Tonight, we grind!”
Chapter 22
Following a trail that Jack was beginning to know all too well, they began their hike. A few minutes into the trek, Jack heard a grunt of astonishment from Gooch.
“My knee would normally be killing me going up and down this terrain, but I don’t feel a thing. Did the ‘process,’ as you call it, heal my old football injury?” he asked Jack.
“Not sure. I used to deal with back pain every now and again, and since coming over here, nothing, even though I now sleep on the ground. So maybe it does cure injuries, at least minor ones,” Jack replied distractedly, eyes scanning the surroundings for any sign of animal or beastie tracks. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t change the size of your Johnson; there’s no help for that.”
“I didn’t hear any complaints from your brother last night,” Gooch retorted. “Listen, once your brother explained why he needed me, I was obviously going to come and help you and our world. But having my knee work again is definitely an added benefit. You could make millions off this if you could do something about that pesky tendency to kill those who transition over.”
Resuming their trek, Jack answered questions from Gooch, who continued to pepper him with inquiries related to skills, perks, his notifications, and leveling; you name it, Gooch asked it. Through these conversations, Jack found out that Gooch had chosen a heavy armor perk that decreased the chance for his spells to fail when wearing heavy armor by twenty-five percent and a thrown weapon perk that let him throw weapons twenty-five percent farther.
They hiked a few more hours, eventually reaching a large garden of rocks that sat atop a small plateau. Jack remembered the place; they were probably less than an hour from the cave. The sun was beginning its final descent beneath the horizon, and unfortunately Gooch did not have Darkvision. Jack hoped they could at least make it most of the way to the cave without issue.
Both were fairly tired, so they decided to rest for a few minutes on the rocks and eat dinner, which consisted of steak that Jack had prepared the night before and a few of Gooch’s hardtack travel rations. Jack also gave Gooch the mountain cat hide, which, when added to his armor and leather jerkin, kept most of the cold off him.
Standing, they made ready to move out when Jack’s sensitive ears heard metal scraping against rock farther down the path toward the direction of the cave. Unsure of what was making the sound, Jack grabbed Gooch’s shoulder and held a finger over his mouth while pointing in the direction of the noise. He signaled for Gooch to prepare for battle and crept stealthily away from him, finding a large grey boulder to hide behind about fifteen feet away. He waited breathlessly, trying to make himself blend into the darkness behind the boulder as much as possible.
For Gooch’s part, he pulled out his longsword and shield and readied himself. Jack had to admit that Gooch was a sight to behold. Standing at six foot six, three hundred pounds of muscle, armor, and weapons, his friend looked like a warrior ready for battle. Although, he somewhat spoiled that image by looking more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, maybe for the first time realizing that he was fighting for his life.
A few moments later, Jack saw five goblins emerge from the path below. They looked like the others in the cave; small, wiry, grey-green creatures wearing little or no armor and wielding daggers, shortswords, or spears. Despite his nervousness, or maybe because of it, Gooch emitted a loud roar and cha
rged forward, not waiting for the goblins to react. Jack almost thought he could hear “roll initiative” in his head as the goblins set themselves to receive the giant’s charge.
If the goblins were surprised seeing a huge man charge toward them, they gave no indication. Two of the spear-wielding goblins moved forward, butting their weapons against the ground, while the other goblins began to circle left and right in a flanking formation. Gooch, eyes wide, clearly saw the goblins already moving, but he was committed and closed the last few feet in seconds. He used his shield to block one of the spears while he swung his long sword in a wide arc, cutting deeply into the other spear-wielding goblin’s side and nearly severing the skinny creature in two. Blood from the large slash sprayed all over him.
Jack watched the flanking goblins close, thrusting their daggers and shortswords at Gooch, trying to penetrate his armor and hardened skin. Gooch used his shield to meet one of the attacks but was unable to block the others, taking hits along his torso. Most were deflected by the heavy iron rings or toughened skin, but Jack saw blood leaking from Gooch’s side in at least two different spots.
Surrounded by four goblins, Gooch went into a defensive stance, trying to block and parry the attacks. He was mildly successful, freeing his weapon from the dead goblin’s spine and bringing it down to deflect a spear thrust, pushing it low and to the right. He twisted wildly and brought his shield up to block a slash from a shortsword aimed for his eyes, which left him open to another round of attacks to his midsection.
Jack, who had been stealthily moving from his hiding place behind the boulder toward the battle, noticed he now had an eye in the lower left of his vision that indicated how successful he was at being stealthy. Right now, the eye was closed and outlined in green, which Jack assumed meant he was undetected. He emerged behind the two goblins flanking Gooch’s left side. He thrust both his weapons into one of the goblins, executing his Dual Attack and downing the goblin almost instantly as his shortsword plunged completely through the tiny creature, point emerging triumphantly on the other side, while his dagger cut deeply into the back of the same creature’s neck. The other goblin turned away from Gooch to face Jack, its own shortsword thrusting low toward Jack’s groin. Jack pirouetted, dodging the attack, and performed a second double thrust at the goblin. The goblin brought its shortsword up in time to block Jack’s main hand thrust but wasn’t quite fast enough to evade the dagger, which slashed a bright red gash across its cheek.
