by Aaron Oster
Would you like to distribute them now?
Yes/No
Sam dismissed the notification, rubbing at his eyes tiredly and yawning. It was now past five in the morning, and he’d finally managed to hit level 20. The amount of XP it had taken was staggering, and he felt just about ready to drop.
“Congrats on the level up,” Emma yawned, herself having reached level 18 about twenty minutes ago.
“We need a break,” Sam said, slumping against a tree and feeling his eyelids growing heavy with tiredness.
They’d been battling monsters for the last few hours, gaining some levels between them and upgrading their abilities and skills.
“Agreed,” Emma replied. “How about you sleep for an hour while I keep watch? I still have to assign my AP and choose a sub-class.”
Sam nodded, too tired to argue. He hadn’t even gone over his skill upgrades or assigned his AP. They’d been working too relentlessly for that. And though it likely wasn’t safe to sleep in a Dungeon, they had set up a watch, so they should be fine. He vaguely heard Gordon saying he was going to sleep as well before the world faded into blackness.
He felt like he’d barely fallen to sleep when Emma shook him awake an hour later. She had heavy bags under her eyes and looked about ready to drop. Despite it being after six by this point, the forest was still dark and gloomy, if a tad brighter than it had been at night.
“Any trouble while I was asleep?” he asked with a wide yawn.
“A couple of Haunted Young, but I took care of them.”
“You decide on a sub-class?”
Emma nodded, but before she could answer, she was stopped by an enormous yawn.
“Tell me when you get up then,” he said, forcing himself to get up and cursing internally.
She nodded gratefully, then went to curl up in the spot he’d just left. Both Gordon and Barry were out cold as well, the dog sleeping with his legs splayed in all directions, while the bird was perched on a branch, balancing on one foot with his head tucked into his back.
“Lucky bastards,” he muttered, covering another yawn.
Although he’d slept so little, he still felt far more rested than he should. It likely had something to do with his Constitution going up, though he’d need to question the dog when he woke up to confirm.
May as well check out all those notifications now.
ABILITY RANK UP!
Congratulations! Your Mana Burn ability has advanced from Beginner to Intermediate!
Mana Burn: Fire a ball of mana hot enough to burn.
Damage: 22-26 (50% chance to inflict +7-9 Burn Damage, 15% chance to inflict an additional +6-8 Burn Over Time Damage)
Level: Intermediate 22 (61%)
Cost: 60 MP
Range: 27 Ft
Cast Time: 2 Seconds
Cooldown: 5 Seconds
ABILITY RANK UP!
Congratulations! Your Mana Cloak ability has advanced from Novice to Beginner!
Mana Cloak: Create a cloak of mana defending you from physical attacks
Level: Beginner 13 (12%)
Effect: All physical attacks nullified
Duration: 10 Seconds
Cost: 45 MP
Cast Time: 1 Second
Cooldown: 4 Minutes
CONGRATULATIONS!
Due to your constant nighttime activity, you have gained a new skill!
Night Owl: Much like the predator of the night, you too prefer to do your business under cover of darkness
Level: Novice 4 (66%)
Effect: +25% Increased vision in darkness or near darkness
That last one, while helpful, only reinforced the idea that he was a total creep. It seemed as though the Overlord was fond of reminding him of that fact. He’d also gained several skill and ability levels during his fights and was getting close to pushing into the next tier. Having an increased damage output for his Mana Burn was a pretty good thing.
He just didn’t really see the point of the increase of the Mana Cloak, though. The Novice level of Mana Cloak had had a 5-second duration, a two-minute cooldown, and had cost 20 MP. If anything, the ability had actually grown worse, costing 5 MP more without giving him anything extra. Sighing, he dismissed the notifications and brought up his character status.
He’d gained 6 points in each Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma due to his sub-class, but he now had a total of 11 AP to distribute. Not even having to think about it, he assigned them then looked over his status.
CHARACTER STATUS (ABBREVIATED)
Name: Sam
Race: Human
Level: 20
XP: 5,209/87,000
AP: 1
Class: Over-Mage
HP: 320/320 (Regen 3.2 Per Second)
MP: 890/890 (Regen 7.3 Per Second)
STA: 130/130 (Regen 1.4 Per Second)
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 6
Constitution: 20 (32)
Agility: 8
Endurance: 9 (13)
Intelligence: 74 (89) +8
Wisdom: 60 (73)
Charisma: 36
Luck: 14 +2
During his fights, he’d found himself running low on MP, despite his reduced casting cost. So, he’d dumped almost all he had into Intelligence, adding a couple of points to Luck as well. His sub-class had bumped his Wisdom and would continue to do so, so he didn’t feel any need to add any more points into it anymore.
From now on, he would focus on increasing his mana pool, as well as his HP. He’d occasionally throw points into Luck, but aside from that, he was pretty much set. Strength, Agility, and Endurance would just have to remain as they were until he found some rings or necklaces that gave them a boost.
Sam didn’t really have much to do when he closed his status, so he spent the remaining part of the hour simply staring around the gloomy forest, looking for enemies. He debated using Inspect on Emma to see what sub-class she’d chosen, but doing it while she was sleeping felt kind of creepy, so he held off until it was time to wake her.
“Has it really been an hour?” she whined as Sam shook her awake.
“If it helps you get up, I’ve gotten you a rock to throw at Barry,” he replied, holding out a small pebble.
Emma’s eyes cracked open and, after staring at the rock for a few seconds, she shook her head.
“After all those pal-tees and their rock throwing, I just don’t like the idea,” she mumbled, forcing herself into a sitting position and rubbing at her eyes.
“Hey, Gordon, wake up,” Sam called, prodding the dog in the side.
“Just a few minutes more,” Gordon mumbled.
Even asleep, the dog still speaks like a total tool.
“Well, you can either get up now or when a group of undead comes by to chew on you. Your choice.”
Gordon cracked a bleary eye, somehow managing to look both annoyed and indignant at the same time. Sam had long ago given up on how the dog could express so many human emotions on his canine face and instead turned to the rising Emma.
“Wanna tell me about your sub-class now?”
“Didn’t sneak a peek while I was sleeping?” she asked with a sly grin. “What a gentleman you are.”
“You know me,” Sam replied. “The total package.”
Emma stood, stretched, and then leaned a bit closer, narrowing her eyes.
“What is it?” Sam asked nervously, taking a step back.
That’s way too close for comfort. Dude, haven’t you ever heard of personal space zones?
“Is it just me, or is your adorable face getting even adorabler?”
“That is not a word,” Gordon yawned, rolling onto his belly.
“Oh, you know what I mean,” she replied to the dog, giving Sam the chance to take another step back.
“You do not imagine it,” Gordon said, stretching out his back. “As his Charisma grows, the more pleasing he will be to gaze upon. Additionally, it will make him more likable to strangers, and those who can feel attraction will find the
mselves drawn to him.”
Great, Sam thought sourly. Just what I needed.
“No one’s getting their hands on his cute butt but me,” Emma stated firmly.
“No one’s laying their hands on my butt!” Sam replied. “It’s mine, and I’m not sharing!”
“Aww, no need to be so selfish. Come on, just a little squeeze?”
Sam had to repress the urge to roll his eyes as she batted her eyelashes at him. “You’re a real weirdo, you know that?”
“And proud of it!”
“Let’s just go, we need to…” Sam threw himself to the side, startling everyone.
Emma and Gordon understood a moment later when a wad of bird poop splattered on the spot where Sam had been standing just seconds ago.
“Fuck!” Barry yelled from his perch above.
“I’m craving some bird stew for breakfast,” Sam said, a vein pulsing in his forehead. “And I have the perfect bird just waiting to be eaten!”
Barry flashed away from the tree as Sam’s Mage Bolt slammed into the branch that the pesky bird had been occupying just moments before. Sam knew that Barry was fast, which was why he’d used an attack that expanded. The arcs of mana spread out from the initial impact, catching up quickly with the parrot.
“Try that again in about a hundred years, you little bitch!” the bird squawked, then glowed a bright red and neatly dodged every single arc of mana.
Sam stood there, mouth agape as his attack fizzled out, and the bird flew by overhead, cackling madly.
“Why do I even bother?” he groaned, giving up on chasing the bird and beginning to plot his revenge.
“Don’t worry about him,” Emma said. “We’ll get him back for that.”
Gordon walked up to them then, stick clutched between his jaws.
“Shall we be off then?”
“Yeah, we may as well,” he said, noting that Gordon seemed to be in a much better mood.
Perhaps all he and Barry had needed was some sleep and to forget about the stress of the previous day. Neither he nor Emma had gotten much sleep, but they needed to continue fighting to even the odds. She and the two companions still needed to reach level 20 before they could ever hope to face off against the hound. And the sooner they could defeat it, the sooner they could defeat the Shtainerzeid and get some much-needed sleep.
12
It was around midday when Emma finally passed the level 20 threshold. Sam had only progressed a single level, and both Gordon and Barry were both still at 20. They’d decided that they would only involve themselves as much as needed so that Emma could catch up. After they’d defeated their first group of the Haunted Young, she’d told him about her sub-class.
She’d apparently chosen something to emphasize speed over power and had gone with the Nimble-Warrior sub-class. It would boost both Agility and Endurance by 2 per level and imparted the skill called Sword Stance. Emma hadn’t told him what it could do, as she said she’d wanted it to be a surprise.
He hadn’t needed to wait long to see it, as an Enchanted Young made an appearance. Emma stopped in place and pulled her sword back in a reverse grip. Her body had glowed a bright red, increasing in brightness as the monster had charged. Only when it was nearly on top of her, had she attacked, and it had been magnificent.
A blazing red light had slammed into the monster, cutting deep into its rotting flesh and even going into its bone! Emma had explained after the fight that the longer she charged it, the more power it would have. But after six seconds, the charge was at maximum, and she wouldn’t gain any more.
“You guys ready to go take down that hound now?” Sam asked over their early lunch of lovely dried stew rations, which looked – and tasted – just how he’d imagined.
“Hells yeah!” Emma said, forcing another bite of the gross stew down her throat. “We’ll kill that bitch and then go after her creepy boss.”
“Ha, it’s funny cause the hound’s an actual bitch. Good one,” Sam said to distract himself from the horrible taste. “But wouldn’t it be re-killing since she’s technically dead?”
“The hound is undead, which makes ‘killing’ the correct term,” Gordon said.
“With you around, the grammar police would find themselves out of work,” he replied.
“I was unaware of such a policing force on your old home world,” the dog said.
“He’s kidding, Gordon,” Emma said, patting him on the head. “Don’t pay him any mind.”
Gordon’s tail began wagging as she scratched behind his ears, and Sam just rolled his eyes. The dog was way too easy to please.
They set off again, making their way deeper into the forest. It had grown just a tad lighter, although it was not nearly enough to make much of a practical difference. Though the tree cover was sparse due to the bare branches, the perpetual fog made it so that barely any sunlight shone through. Had he not known what time it was, he’d have assumed it was late in the evening, nearing night.
“There it is,” Sam said, eyeing the opening in the trees where he knew the hound was.
His mind replayed the pitiful fight that they had been forced to run away from. However, this time, he knew they stood a better chance of defeating this thing. They were all past the level 20 threshold, so their skills would deal the full amount of damage. Whether they’d be able to kill it was another matter, but he was feeling a bit more confident going into this fight than the last.
The hound rose as soon as they entered, its mismatched orbs landing on them and its muzzle pulling back in a snarl.
“Here we go!” Sam yelled, then unleashed his Mana Burn.
The attack flashed across the distance and nailed the hound right in its head.
You deal: -101 damage to HOS (Mana Burn)(Massive Critical).
“It worked!” he yelled as the hound staggered back under the roiling blue flames.
He hadn’t managed to impart any burn damage, and it seemed the creature still had some armor, but it was not nearly as much as he’d originally thought.
“Alright, everyone, move in and watch out for that AOE!”
He didn’t want anyone to go through what he had the last time, and he certainly didn’t want a repeat performance. None of them had any way to block the Howl ability, and even though Sam had two abilities that allowed him to nullify damage, neither would block a Stamina-based ability. Seeing as the hound didn’t have any mana, he had to assume that that was how it formed the attack.
Emma rushed in as the hound recovered and slashed out with her sword. The hound darted to one side, only to be met by Gordon, who tore a chunk out of its hide and knocked off a small chunk of health with it. The hound spun in place, knocking Barry, who’d just emerged from its shadow, out of the air. Before she could start to pounce on him, Sam’s Mana Shot slammed into her side.
He grinned as four bolts, each quite a bit larger than the original, fired from the tip of his staff, slamming into the hound in quick succession. Emma moved in to follow up, but the hound glowed a sickly green and blocked the attack with its paw. The blade was knocked aside, and Emma staggered back. But instead of following up, the hound dashed straight at Sam.
“Oh, shit!” Sam yelled, throwing up his Mage Shield just as the creature slammed into him.
Though he didn’t sustain any actual damage, the force of the attack still sent him flying, and he landed hard on his back, having the wind knocked from his lungs. The hound tried to follow him to get in another hit, but thankfully, Sam wasn’t here alone. Gordon was on the mutant dog’s back in an instant, sinking his teeth into it and shaking his head.
The hound twisted, trying to shake him, but Barry darted in and slashed at her face with his claws. The hound lunged, snapping at him but he darted away just for Emma to come in and stabbed her sword through its milky white eye.
The hound’s HP dropped by a full 25% from just that single strike and it let out a bark of anger. Its body glowed red, and it rocketed forward, knocking Emma to the ground before she could rec
over and pinning her there. Its jaws clamped down on her neck and she cried out in pain as blood began to well up from her throat.
Sam’s Mana Shot hit the hound right in a gap in its ribs, and the creature pulled back, staggering away. Unfortunately, its jaws had still been locked around Emma’s throat and it tore a huge chunk from her neck. Emma screamed, her eyes going wide as blood began gushing from her ruined throat.
“Barry!” Sam yelled desperately, seeing her HP plummeting at a rapid rate.
“On it!” the bird yelled back, darting down and going to help Emma with a Healing Herb.
In the meanwhile, it fell to him and Gordon to hold the hound off. Angered by how hurt Emma had been, Gordon howled, then grew, fur bristling out in all directions as he nearly doubled in size. His eyes began to glow softly, and jagged teeth protruded from both his upper and lower lips.
“Holy shit! Since when could you do that?” Sam demanded, eyeing the ferocious-looking dog.
“Since I got my sub-class,” the dog replied, his voice sounding deeper and a bit slurred due to all the teeth. “It will only last thirty seconds and has an hour-long cooldown.”
“Right,” Sam muttered, holding up his staff and casting a Mage Bolt as Gordon moved in to attack.
The lightning-like mana surged forward, and when the hound tried to dodge, branched out, catching it in the side. The hound howled once again as its HP dropped to half, then Gordon slammed into it, ripping and tearing at its face and hide. Sam was forced to stop his cast of Mana Burn as he didn’t want to hit Gordon by mistake, and instead watched in awe.
Gordon seemed to have become a living weapon, and his attacks shaved massive chunks off the hound’s HP. The hound struck back at Gordon all the while, her attacks dishing out more damage than his. When Gordon’s own health dropped under half, the dog pulled back, bleeding heavily and panting hard.
