“Yeah, yeah,” Vlad said in an annoyed voice. “I get the idea. I need to put five more skill points into skills on previous branches to get the skills on the next one unlocked. I’m not dumb, you know.”
“You are right, warrior,” Echo said. “The same holds true for the Passive and Ultimate Abilities.”
“I got another question, though,” Vlad said.
“Of course,” Echo said. “I’ll gladly answer it.”
“Can I learn all the skills?” Vlad asked.
“No,” Echo said. “The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Branches of the Green Rune have two skills each. However, only one of the two is available for learning. So you have to choose one of the two. When you choose one of the two, the other one will become unavailable for learning.”
Echo’s answer made me call up my Class Menu again. I switched to the Green Rune (Active Ability) tab and examined it once more.
There indeed were two skills on each of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Branches. The skills on these three Branches were grayed-out, though, which was why I could not see their descriptions. Just in case, I tapped on the icons representing these skills, but sure enough, nothing happened because these three branches were currently locked.
I closed my Class Menu.
Vlad was still examining his own.
“Okay,” he said. “Except for these skills, I can learn and fully upgrade all the other ones, right?”
“The answer is still no,” Echo said. “There are, overall, thirty-four skills. Considering what I just said about the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Branches of the Green Rune, you can learn only ten of the skills of the Green Rune. So there are thirty-one skills available for you to unlock. However, you cannot learn and fully upgrade every single one of the thirty-one. The max level that you can reach is one hundred, so you won’t be able to get more than one hundred skill points. To learn and fully upgrade every of the thirty-one available skills, you would need to get one hundred and twenty-three skill points, which is absolutely impossible. I hope I fully answered your question and dispelled any doubts you had.”
“Der’mo,” Vlad said in Russian. I did not know what that word meant, but judging by the expression on his face, he had just cursed. He was clearly angry about something.
“What’s wrong?” Nate asked of him.
I thought that the blond Russian would just ignore him. But I was wrong.
Vlad glanced at Nate and replied, “I hate it when you can’t learn every single skill in a role-playing game. ”
“There aren’t many RPGs—if any—that allow the player to learn every single skill,” Nate said. “So the player has to choose.”
“I know,” Vlad replied in an annoyed voice. “But I still hate it. I really don’t like it when a video game makes me choose instead of letting me learn anything.”
“Why?” Nate asked.
Vlad shot him an angry look. “Are you stupid or what? When you have to choose one skill out of several others, later on, you may find out that you’ve made a wrong choice. You may find out that the skill you’ve chosen sucks and is pretty much useless, and you begin to regret learning it.”
“Well, most of the video games usually let the player take a skill point back and re-allocate it into another skill,” Nate said. “Echo, can skill points be re-allocated into other skills?”
“For a special price, yes,” the AI replied.
“A special price?” Vlad said. “You mean money or what?”
“Yes, I mean money,” Echo replied. “You will be receiving not only experience points but also monetary rewards for completing missions.”
“Oh, I see,” Vlad said and grinned. “That’s nice.”
“Echo,” I said.
“Yes, warrior?”
“Can a class be swapped for another one?” I inquired.
“For a special price, yes,” Echo replied.
“Hey, I’m not giving up the Damage class to you, Dave,” Vlad said. “Dream on.”
“I don’t mean to take it away from you,” I said.
“Oh yeah?” Vlad said. “Why did you ask that question then?”
“Just curious,” I replied.
“Uh-huh,” Vlad said, suspiciously looking at me.
“There’s one more thing that you should know about changing your class,” Echo said. “When you pick a class, your nanotrites get calibrated for that class. When you change a class, the current settings of your nanotrites get canceled out. It means that after changing a class, your nanotrites get reset to factory settings, and your level gets restored to zero, so you can no longer use the skills you have learned.”
“So basically after changing a class, you have to start from scratch,” I said. “I hoped that after changing a class, your current level would stay the same and you’d just need to re-allocated your skill points into new skills.”
“Unfortunately, this is not how nanotrites work,” Echo said.
“So you better get used to playing as Flanker, Dave,” Vlad said. “Because I’m not trading classes with you.”
I simply ignored him.
“So what do we do now?” Nate asked.
“You can now search for a mission,” Echo said.
I remembered seeing the map of the Universe before having the Control Panel show the class descriptions’. So walked across the room toward the Control Panel. Nate turned his head to look at me.
“Do you know how to do it?” Nate asked.
“I think so.”
After walking up to the Control Panel, I had it show the map of the Universe again. My teammates walked to the Control Panel as well, looking at the 3D holographic image hovering above the round surface.
“Wow,” Vlad said. “I don’t know what the hell this is, but it looks awesome.”
“It’s the map of our Universe,” I said and then voiced a command, “Show us available missions.”
A lot of sparkling dots appeared all over the map. I tapped on one of them, and a piece of info popped up above it.
> Goal: Find and eliminate a group of mercenaries.
> Reward:
> 1. Experience points: 5,500
> 2. Money: 75,000 credits
> Recommended level: 55-60
> (Do you want to see additional information on this mission: (Yes/No)
“Are you freaking kidding me, Dave?” Vlad said. “Why did you pick this mission? It’s gonna be too hard for us.”
“I didn’t pick anything yet,” I said and tapped another dot. However, this mission was also too difficult for us.
“Warrior, you can have the Control Panel narrow down the list of available missions,” Echo said. “You can have it show you only those ones that match the average level of your team.”
“Got it,” I said and then gave a voice command to the Control Panel to narrow down the list of available missions.
Most of the dots instantly disappeared. There were now a dozen missions available. I touched one of the dots, and a piece of info popped up.
> Goal: Find and eliminated aggressive animals.
> Reward:
> 1. Experience points: 100
> 2. Money: 4,000 credits
> Recommended level: 1-5
> (Do you want to see additional information on this mission: (Yes/No)
“That’s better,” Vlad said approvingly.
I tapped the Yes button and a piece of additional info popped up on the holographic screen.
> Place: The planet RX189 in the RX189 star system.
> Amount of colonies on the planet: 1
> Population of the colony: 334 people
> Mission description: A pack of aggressive creatures has been attacking the colony for the past several days. The colonists don’t have enough firepower and much military experience to deal with them, so they contacted The Weaponized to hire a team of warriors to find the creatures and kill them. Your task is to meet with the leader of the colony,
a woman named Jennifer Parker, and ask her to give you directions. Then you are to track down all the aggressive creatures and kill them all.
> (Do you want to accept this mission: Yes/No)
“Do you want me guys to accept this mission?” I asked. “Or do we check out the other available missions first?”
Before Nate could say anything, Vlad said, “Accept it and let’s go. Can’t wait to finally start playing.”
I turned my head to look at Nate and Alyson. The British guy nodded and said, “Accept the mission, David. I don’t really see the point in checking out the other ones. I doubt they’ll be much different from this one.”
“Okay.”
I tapped the Yes button. As soon as I did so, all the information on the holographic screen disappeared to be replaced by a single message.
> You already have an active mission. You need to finish your current mission before you can pick another one.
“Let’s get cracking,” Vlad said. “Time to kick some ass.”
“Warriors, let me give you a piece of advice,” Echo suddenly said.
“Sure,” Nate said. “What is it?”
“I recommend you go to the Training Room and check out how your abilities work,” Echo said. “There is also a shooting range where you can practice firing various weapons in the Training Room.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Nate said.
“Do we really need to go there?” Vlad asked. “Can’t we check out how our abilities work here?”
“No,” Echo replied. “You cannot use your abilities in the Safe Zone.”
“The Safe Zone?” Vlad asked. “Where is it?”
“You are currently in it,” the AI replied.
“Oh, I see,” Vlad said. “How do we get to the Training Room then?”
“Use the elevator,” Echo replied.
I remembered the door that I had seen earlier. I turned to face the rear wall. The small touchscreen panel that was set into the wall to the right of the door was now lit up. I walked over to it and glanced at the screen. There was a single button on it that said OPEN DOOR. I touched the button, and the door slid into the wall almost soundlessly.
We walked into the elevator car. There was plenty of space for the four of us. I stepped to a touchscreen panel set into an inner wall and looked at the display. There were three buttons on it.
> Control Room
> Training Room
> Preparation Room
The first one was grayed-out. It figured. It was the room where we currently were. I pressed the second one. The door slid close, and the elevator began its descent. A few seconds later, it came to a stop and the door slid open. We stepped out of the elevator to find ourselves in a long, spacious room.
“Okay,” Vlad said as he looked around. “What do we do now?”
“Welcome to the Training Room,” Echo said. As always, it was impossible to tell where his voice was coming from and how he could see us. There seemed to be no security cameras or loudspeakers to be seen. “Here, you can practice firing various weapons.”
“What are we going to shoot at?” Nate asked as he looked around the spacious room.
“The targets,” Echo said, and a second later, on the far side of the long room popped up a few dozens of holographic translucent human-sized mannequins.
There was a sound to my left. I turned my head to look in that direction in time to see s section of the wall to our left slide aside to reveal a compartment. A touchscreen panel that was set into the wall next to it lit up. Inside the compartment, there were four pistols and several extra magazines.
“I have some weapons for you, warriors,” Echo said. “They are inside the vac-tube.”
We walked to the compartment, and each of us took a handgun from it. There were also twelve spare pistol mags inside the compartment.
“Vac-tube?” I asked.
“Yes,” Echo said. “This is what it is called.”
“What is a vac-tube?” I asked.
“You cannot go around the space station, toting guns,” Echo said. “This is where vac-tubes come into play. You can use them to transfer your weapons from the Training Room to the Preparation Room, and vice versa.”
“Why can’t we have weapons on us all the time?” Vlad asked.
“You are not allowed to be armed when on the space station,” Echo said.
“Why?” Vlad asked.
“It is forbidden by the leaders of The Weaponized,” Echo said.
“Why?” Vlad asked again.
“I am sorry, warrior,” Echo said. “But I do not have an answer to that question.”
Vlad looked at us and said, “That sucks.”
Nate shrugged his shoulders. “Why would we need to carry our weapons all the time, anyway?”
“What if we are attacked?” Vlad said.
“The space station has various defensive systems,” Echo said. “But if they fail to keep attackers at bay and they manage to break into the space station, your weapons will be given to you so you can fight the attackers off.”
“That’s good to know,” Nate said.
“Right now, you have only pistols available for you, though,” Echo continued. “But later on, you can request additional weapons to train with and take on your missions. The Weaponized has provided the four of you with four pistols and three extra magazines for each of you. The pistols and the ammunition are given to you for free.”
“For free?” Vlad asked. “Which means that you ain’t gonna provide us with free weapons?”
“No,” Echo replied. “The Weaponized is a commercial military organization and not a charity company. We are producing our own brands of weapons, as well as ammunition, which does not come cheap. So you are going to have to purchase weapons, ammunition, and equipment from us. But do not worry, warriors, if you are successfully completing battle missions, you will be earning enough money for buying weapons and equipment.”
“How much money do we have now?” Vlad asked. “If any.”
“You have not finished any missions so far, so you do not have any money on your account yet,” Echo replied.
While holding his pistol in his right hand, Nate dropped the magazine into his left hand and checked the load before sliding the mag back in.
“So each of us has got a loaded pistol plus three extra mags,” Nate said. “What if we spend all of our ammunition in the Training Room?”
“I highly recommend not to,” Echo said. “Because it would be kind of difficult for you to complete your mission without ammunition.”
“I didn’t know robots had a sense of humor,” Vlad said.
“I do not joke,” Echo said.
“Okay, let’s shoot some targets,” Nate said.
“Just don’t waste all the bullets,” Vlad said sarcastically. “Because it’d be kinda hard for us to complete our mission without ammunition.”
“By the way, before leaving this room, you will have to put the pistols and the magazines back in the vac-tube” Echo said, ignoring Vlad’s last remark.
“When can we have them back?” Nate asked.
“Do not worry,” Echo answered. “You can get your weapons back in the Preparation Room. I will not let you go on your mission without your weapons.”
“That’s nice of you,” Vlad said with sarcasm.
I looked at my pistol, which I held in my right hand. It was black and had a futuristic look to it. What struck me as surprising, though, was that I knew how to use it. I had never owned a firearm, yet looking at my pistol, I knew exactly how it worked and how to handle it as if I had been dealing with firearms all my life. I remembered Echo telling me that the nanotrites in my body provided me with all the necessary military knowledge.
I hit the mag release button and caught the magazine with my left hand. I examined the cartridges the mag was filled with. They kind of looked like 5.7 mm bullets. Again, my knowledge of weapons and ammunition surprised
me. Despite not having dealt with firearms in the past, I now possessed great knowledge of various guns, how to handle them, and what various kinds of ammunitions looked like.
There were twenty slugs in the magazine. I shoved the mag back into the pistol grip and pulled the slide back far enough to check if there was a round in the chamber. It was there. So there were twenty-one bullets in my handgun. It was good to know.
On the left side of the pistol, there were two more buttons next to the magazine release. I thumbed one of them, and a holographic red dot sight kicked in. I hit the other one, and a small holographic display showing the amount of bullets in the pistol popped up.
The latter was a great feature. I was more than sure that when in battle, there would not be many opportunities to get the magazine out of my pistol to check the load. So thanks to the holographic ammo counter, I would always be aware of how many bullets there were left in my handgun.
“Guys,” Vlad said, looking at the pistol in his hand. “Haven’t you noticed something strange about our guns?”
“What are you talking about?” Nate asked.
“There ain’t stats,” Vlad replied.
He was right. When I looked at my pistol, no stats popped up like in a role-playing game. I was not surprised by it at all. After all, it was real life, not a video game. Or so I thought.
However, Vlad did not agree with me on that. He was sure that we were inside a video game.
“In most first-person shooter games, you can’t see weapons’ stats,” Nate said. “Probably it’s the same here.”
“Yeah,” Vlad said. “Probably.”
As to Nate, he seemed to be on the fence about whether we were inside a video game or in real life.
I turned my head to look at Alyson. I did not know her opinion on this, because she hardly ever spoke. It was even easy to forget that she was present. She always stayed close to Nate and followed him wherever he went.
We spent the next several minutes firing at the holographic mannequins. Each of us spent only one magazine. The rest we decided to save for the mission.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 7
