Earth Tactics Advance: Volume 1

by Scottie Futch

  The accessory shop had expensive rings and other pieces of jewelry that would be useful later. Scott stopped cold when he arrived at the skill store. His eyes widened and he had to stop himself from performing a happy little dance of joy. There were skills that he could purchase at a further discount that meshed with his profession! There was also a cheap profession book that could be purchased by the people in the store who did not have one.

  Scott purchased the skills Lightning Bolt and Fireball. Normally they would cost one thousand daemons each, but between his professional discount and the store discount they only cost him seven hundred fifty daemons total. He also splurged six hundred daemons on Minor Restoration.

  The lightning bolt skill was a spell linked to his lightning strike skill. If he had lightning strike activated he could concentrate on that connection and hurl bolts of lightning at an opponent for additional mana costs. The fireball skill was basically the same.

  Minor restoration magically restored health at the cost of mana. The amount healed changed with the strength of his arcane stat. Unfortunately, it only healed hit points and stamina. Actual system generated injuries required a stronger healing power to effect a proper restoration.

  Scott glanced down at the information window that told him how many daemons he held currently. It was much simpler than counting them out. “Three hundred eighty-seven left.”

  What could be buy for that much? He could probably buy another profession skill, but there were other things to consider. Scott searched the shopping arcade’s remaining booths. Surprisingly, he discovered that there was an upgrade store hidden behind a light screen. He thought nothing of it as he stepped through the light and onto the glowing square in front of the booth.

  He read through the list and whistled at the prices. The abilities shown were something not available on his normal list. Primarily, they were things like lifespan enhancement, music talent, and so forth. There were also things called lore upgrades, and system items such as working cell phones. There was even a portable mailbox. The only problem was that everything was hideously expensive, even with a discount. That is, everything was expensive except for one item labeled as a self-help brochure. Scott purchased it for five daemons.

  The last store was the item store. There were items there such as upgrade points, which cost twenty thousand daemons and could only be purchased once per month, and health restoratives. Cook books that included cooking certain monster parts for permanent stat increases were also expensive but available. “What’s this?”

  Scott looked at an item that was labeled special sale. “Pet Collar?”

  The little information blurb was not particularly helpful. It merely informed him that it was worn by pets. “Whatever, it’s only fifty daemons…” Who knew, maybe he’d be able to get a dog or something that will be able to help him fight monsters?

  He went back to the arms and armor section and purchased a few low-level items to finish off his night’s shopping. He purchased a level three set of Ace Boots, and a level two stud-knuckle set.

  [Arms & Armor]

  Ace Boots

  These boots were created by a competent craftsman. They are easy to wear and allow for great mobility.

  Attack: 5

  Defense: 3

  Special: Agility +2 | Speed +3

  Value: 400

  [--]

  [Arms & Armor]

  Stud-Knuckles

  A set of fighting gloves crafted by a competent craftsman. They are perfect for delivering that knock-out punch.

  Attack: 4

  Defense: 2

  Special: Small Increased Chance to Stun

  Value: 210

  [--]

  He only had a handful of coins left, so he wandered over to a corner by himself. He equipped his new items and then checked his status. Afterward, he took out his upgrade points and began the process of turning them into stat boosts. There was no point in saving them. Upgrading his ability stats before a level-up would allow him to have much higher increases when the level-up happened. He had two upgrade points and decided to roll to increase his charisma and reflexes. His charisma increased by two, and his reflexes increased by three.

  His power had increased by a great degree after buying new equipment. Compared to who he was early that morning, he was an entirely different person. Between his class and item bonuses he was strong enough to easily cut his way through any number of low-level monsters.

  He glanced at his charisma, however. It was once his lowest stat, and his greatest weakness. He had not thought that it would be important to upgrade it, yet, but after his run in with that mermaid he knew the truth. It was a critical issue. He could have died because he had considered charisma a less important stat. Yet, without higher amounts of it, he would be at the mercy of monsters that used charm and sensory attacks that directly assaulted the mind or spirit.

  The arcane stat was the main component in most magic related activities. It played part in protection against raw magical damage and also increased magical power. Intellect would allow him to see through illusions and to think more clearly during tense situations. Basically, he could handle more stress and learn things better as well. Charisma, not only increased his ability to use charm attacks but it would keep him from being drowned by a love-struck and murderous fish girl. It was basically defense against compulsion.

  Scott felt like a fool. This was his new life. In a game it might be safe to minimize one stat while maximizing another, but in the real world he had almost been drowned because he had not focused on developing every aspect of himself.

  He allowed the fact that he had previously never faced a charisma based opponent to cloud his judgment. Sure, he could not easily increase charisma through training, but that did not matter to him. Despite the lack of training options, he still had to find a method to increase charisma if he wanted to live. Upgrade points would need to be prioritized toward stats that were difficult to increase. He had no choice in the matter, not if he wanted to live.

  He went to check the accessory section. Items that increased charisma existed. If he did not want to spend upgrade points on that stat on a continual basis, he would need to constantly upgrade equipment that protected against compulsion and increased charisma.

  “The shop closes in the morning,” mumbled Scott. It was dangerous to hunt in the darkness, but he could purchase a charisma accessory for half price at the moment. The least expensive one only increased charisma by one point, and it would cost twenty daemons. He could get that easily before dawn. If he was lucky, he could do much better. He sold off his old pair of gloves and then headed toward the door. He had enough money for the charisma ring now, but he wanted more.

  “Hey! Where are you going?” called Daniel.

  “Hunting,” said Scott.

  “In the dark? Don’t be stupid,” said the man.

  “This is the best chance we’ll get to upgrade ourselves. I almost got killed today because I disregarded one of my stats. I need to fix that while I can,” said Scott.

  “Look, you aren’t going out there,” said Daniel. He clapped Scott on the shoulder to emphasize his meaning.

  “You’ll stop me if I choose to go?” asked Scott quietly.

  “Yeah. You aren’t going anyw-” began Daniel, before Scott almost casually twisted around used a quick arm bar takedown to drop the man to the floor. Basic unarmed combat skills for the win.

  Scott kept pressure on the fallen man’s arm while he calmly said. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “Hey, let him go!” snarled Craig before running forward with his shiny new weapon in hand. It was another shotgun.

  “He’s the one who didn’t want to let me go,” replied Scott casually. He was more than a little unsettled by the appearance of a gun. Would his jean jacket really count for much against something like that? True the gun had done poorly against ghouls, but he was no ghoul.

  “You aren’t going anywhere, and you’ll let him go,” said Craig.
He took a step forward for emphasis.

  “How about I go about my business instead?” asked Scott with as much calm as he could muster.

  “Look asshole. You don’t get it! I have the gun, you do what I say,” said Craig before gesturing at him with his weapon.

  “What good is a fucking gun anymore?” asked Scott. Even if it was a system item, it shouldn't be that powerful. Not if someone could use it at level four. At least, that was his current hope.

  Craig snorted at him and the other two officers closed in to try and corral Scott. “You don’t have to do this man. Let him go.”

  “Go ahead and shoot me, Craig. I’m not taking orders from people who didn’t even know how to check their fucking level an hour ago when everyone should have known how to do it on day one,” Scott wanted to live, but at the same time death would be a release from this permanent nightmare. Either way, he was not going to live in fear of people with guns. Release or vindication, he would soon know the truth of how useful a gun was in the new world.

  Frank, one of the quieter of the four officers rushed in to try and tackle him. Scott released Daniel just in time to catch the larger man mid-tackle. He picked him up and spun with him before he practically chunked him at Craig. The momentum of the moment helped a lot, as Frank was a big guy and Scott could feel the strain in trying to counter his movement and throw him. The shotgun went off almost as an afterthought. Scott took a shotgun blast to the face and was sent flying back. He hit the ground hard and went still.

  “God dammit!” snapped Craig. “Dammit, shit!”

  Daniel got up off the ground and shook his head. “Dumb bastard. All he had to do was stop.”

  Scott blinked then sat up, an incredulous look on his face. “Seriously, that’s all it did?”

  Everyone, the old man and tired woman included, drew back in surprise. Craig’s hands shook a little. “T-the hell, man! I shot you in the fucking face.”

  “Yeah, I think it cleared my sinuses,” said Scott with a great deal more confidence than he actually felt. He did his best not to visibly shake.

  He stood up and brushed the buckshot from his cheek. His face was sensitive, and felt a little tender in places, but beyond that he did not feel any particular pain. “That gun, what kind of attack power does it have?”

  “Wha-?” asked Craig.

  “I’m helping you out here. You need to be reminded that the old ways are over. We aren’t normal people anymore.” said Scott, covering his ass a little. He had just bet long odds on a vague guess and won. He had been stupid, but he also wanted to know the truth. During the earlier fight with the ghouls, Craig had used a shotgun. It did not seem to be incredibly effective for anything other than knocking the ghouls down. However, when he had fought ghouls using his bush axe the same was true when he was lower leveled.

  Given how much damage he could output with his old bush axe at his current level, betting on the shotgun being weaker than a shotgun should be was something to consider. Old habits die hard. If guns were not as useful anymore, then learning about that fact now would save him a lot of grief later.

  Regular guns, the non-system ones, did nothing to a monster. He had doubted that a system generated gun would be super powerful compared to other things. It was time to capitalize on how right he was.

  “What do you mean?” asked the old man after his jaw started moving again. It had been slack for a moment.

  “We’re the same as those things out there, don’t you get it? The moment we swallowed our little marbles we became something other than what we were,” said Scott. He was not one hundred percent certain of that, but it made sense. In a way, if the creatures outside were game monsters then the people in the shopping arcade were game characters.

  “That… What does that mean?” asked Craig.

  “It means that injuries we take are based on things like attack and defense. That gun, what is its attack value?” asked Scott.

  “Twenty…” said Craig.

  “Not bad, but you wouldn't even one-shot a first level ghoul with that. My defense rates higher than that weapon. It can't do shit to me outside of a perfect shot.”

  “Bullshit!” exclaimed Frank, no longer quiet.

  “Am I even bleeding Frank? My raw defense is nearly enough to negate that thing. Add in my modifiers and that shot in the face hurt about as much as a light slap, I didn't even lose hit points," Scott leaned forward and punched at the air. "Hell, my punches are stronger than that gun,” replied Scott.

  He was not certain about the latter. It mostly depended on Craig’s base attack. Still, if only comparing his punches to the raw weapon output, he was at least in possession of punches that could do more damage than a level four shotgun. Even without his gloves and boots he would still have nearly three-fourths of the power of a level four shotgun whenever he punched something.

  Everyone grew quiet then. No one spoke until a few more people arrived about half a minute later. Three people, one of them limping on a badly bleeding leg, came through the doors. Two girls of about college age, and a middle-aged man.

  “Can someone help us, please!” asked one of the girls. “Dad’s hurt pretty bad.”

  The group of people rushed over to check the man, but other than bandaging him up, there was little that could be done for him. Scott reached into his pocket and pulled out a blood red stone and then frowned. “Does anyone have a bottle of water?”

  “I do, why?” asked one of the girls.

  “I don’t know how good it will do, but if you dissolve this stone in water it works like a healing potion in a game. At least, it’s supposed to work that way,” he said.

  “For real?” her eyes went wide for a moment before she pulled her backpack forward. She pulled out a mostly full bottle of water and held it up to Scott.

  He took it and tossed the pea-sized rock into the bottle. It began to glow with a bright light and then something like an oily fog roiled out and began to fill the bottle.

  “Have him drink about a third of this bottle and see what happens.” said Scott. "That was my last bloodstone. They don't drop often." He would have tried his new health restoring ability, but he did not know if it would do much since it only treated stamina and hit point damage. The old man needed help now.

  “You seriously expect us to let him drink that?” asked the girl.

  “He’s bleeding pretty badly, and honestly I’ve been beaten all to hell today. If he doesn’t drink it then I will,” he said.

  She reluctantly stretched out her hand. Scott handed her the bottle and she held it up for her father to drink. “It’s up to you dad.”

  The middle-aged man referred to only as ‘Dad’ took an experimental sip of the red liquid. He blinked then drank a little more. “Tastes like tomato juice.”

  The girl helping him hold the bottle gasped as she saw the bruises on his face slowly began to fade away. “Is it working?”

  It took two doses to heal the man enough that he could stand up properly on his own. Soon he felt almost as good as new. They passed the bottle back to Scott afterward and he downed the rest. He’d been beaten, stabbed, clawed, drowned, and shot in the face. He needed a little healing after the events of the day. His major injuries stat affliction was a real downer, especially since he only felt like he had minor injuries here and there.

  “Why didn’t you use it earlier?” asked Craig.

  Scott shrugged. “I’ve been fighting all day and took some system generated injuries, but my hit points are fine. This stuff was only good for one day once it is made.”

  “Man that feels better,” said Scott. Minor cuts, bruises, and bite marks faded from his body rapidly as his healing factor combined with the restorative potion. “I swear, I’ve felt like tenderized meat all day.”

  Scott checked his status again then grumbled slightly. The major injuries status effect was still in place. It would be a while yet, before he could get rid of it apparently.

  “Look, man… I’m sorry I shot you in the
face,” said Craig.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’d save my ammo, though,” said Scott. He did not feel nearly as magnanimous as he seemed. Testing theories or not, Scott would not easily forget that the man shot him in the face, even as an accident. Still, it was better to not push the issue at the moment since he'd made his point. They could not stop him from doing what he wanted to do. Their best weapon was trash compared to his current abilities.

  The gathered throng discussed their individual situations, while Scott headed toward the door. He still wanted to do a little hunting.

  “You’re still going out there?” asked Craig.

  “Yeah, need to try and get more loot. Besides that, what about other survivors that might be trying to get here? If there’s a throng of monsters milling around out there, those people can’t get it,” said Scott.

  Craig nodded. “Mind if I come then? I need to see if this thing is worth a damn.” He held up his shotgun and showed it to Scott.

  Scott glanced at the gun. “That thing is going to get you killed, unless you have a ton of ammo.”

  “Shit,” Craig sighed loudly. He’d thought that a gun would be the best idea, but ammunition was an issue.

  “Nothing wrong with a shotgun, just can’t use it for general hunting. Got anything else to use?”

  “Just this crowbar I’ve been using sometimes. It belonged to Tim...”

  “If it can kill those things, come on,” said Scott without asking who Tim was. The foursome had lost someone earlier, and it was a safe bet that Tim was that someone.

  “Craig, where you going?” called Daniel as he saw the two men leaving.

  “Hunting with Mr. Answers,” said Craig.

  “Dammit, what did I tell him earlier? Going out there at night is stupid!” snapped Daniel.