by Tao Wong
“The link is subsidized by the establishment,” Fox says. “And is, of course, only for our most valuable customers.”
“Gotcha. Probably too expensive for me though. Oh, I finished up the last few books, so I’ll need the next five on the System Quest,” I say.
Fox nods, tapping in the information as he pulls out the next few books on my never-ending list. Not surprisingly, someone had put together a list of books to read that would generate experience points for completing small milestones in the System Quest. Of course, while each book might give minor revelations about what and how the System works, they still don’t answer the real question—what is it? In many ways, I feel very much like I’m a blind man feeling an elephant with books.
So far, what I’ve gathered is that the System is something that precedes all publicly available records of the Galactic Council. In addition, the System has administrative points—control areas in each zone. Take control of enough of these and you can make minor adjustments to the System within the world of that zone, much like how we can adjust our villages and towns. The Galactic Council then is just the governments and individuals who control a significant number of these administrative points, getting together to decide the rules of the System overall. Outside of the rules imposed by the Galactic Council, the System itself controls and adjusts everything in our worlds, upgrading, Leveling, and developing both material and organic objects without care to “normal” scientific laws.
Most of this is done by using the Mana that flows throughout System-registered worlds. In fact, Mana seems to be the main controlling force for the System—the electricity, if you will, of the System.
One of the major arguments in the books I’ve read is whether the System is sentient or not. Numerous tests have shown that the amount of Mana input into the System—from Spells, teleportations, Skills, and the like—is always higher than the output. In fact, there’s a “loss” of about 5%, give or take a few decimals here and there. It’s a weirdly specific number, which many on the “System is a software” side point to. Of course, others have noted that just because it’s a software doesn’t mean it can’t be sentient. A lot of fluctuations in the overall amount of Mana that flows into and out of the System lend credence to the argument that there’s something more than just an out-of-control software program at work.
“Redeemer? Redeemer?” Fox calls, and I blink, staring at the retailer who has been trying to get my attention for a bit. Interrupting a customer’s thoughts might not be a good sales tactic, but Fox and I have known each other long enough now that he doesn’t worry about it. “Do you have anything else for me?”
I grimace, hating that name. That title, even if most of the aliens seem to think it’s something I should be proud of having. System-generated titles are a big thing, marking a significant achievement by the individual. How big seems to vary depending on the culture of course, but it’s a still mark of respect—similar to tattoos in older cultures or prisons.
“Sorry. Go ahead. I’ll browse some Skills while I wait for Ali.”
“Of course. Do call for me if you need anything else.” Fox bobs his head then exits the room, leaving me alone.
I consider pulling out one of my new books and dismiss that thought, instead taking the moment to refresh my memory about my Status and what I might need to buy.
Status Screen
Name
John Lee
Class
Erethran Honor Guard
Race
Human (Male)
Level
37
Titles
Monster’s Bane, Redeemer of the Dead
Health
1700
Stamina
1700
Mana
1310
Mana Regeneration
98 / minute
Attributes
Strength
94
Agility
161
Constitution
170
Perception
58
Intelligence
131
Willpower
133
Charisma
16
Luck
30
Class Skills
Mana Imbue
2
Blade Strike
2
Thousand Steps
1
Altered Space
2
Two are One
1
The Body’s Resolve
3
Greater Detection
1
A Thousand blades
1
Soul Shield
2
Blink Step
2
Tech Link*
2
Instantaneous Inventory*
1
Cleave*
2
Frenzy*
1
Elemental Strike*
1 (Ice)
Combat Spells
Improved Minor Healing (II)
Greater Regeneration
Greater Healing
Mana Drip
Improved Mana Dart (IV)
Enhanced Lightning Strike
Fireball
Polar Zone
Freezing Blade
My build, as a friend would say, is weird. I’m part tank, part damage dealer, part Mage. While I once chided Jason for thinking of this world like one of his games, he did have one point that I’ve been considering for a bit.
If you’re working in a team, specialization might be the way to go. That way, if you compare yourself to someone of the same level who generalized, you’ll generally be more powerful. Of course, you want a pretty stable base first—running around with a 100 Health is just asking to die—but at a certain point, specializing makes sense. Especially since I can’t seem to shake off my friends.
The truth about Jason’s words is something I’ve noted while sparring with Mikito or Ingrid, the way they’re significantly better than I am in their areas of specialization. I can keep up in a fight, but if I stick to playing fair, I’m normally hard-pressed to win. Mikito’s got a bunch of speed abilities, along with Class Skills, that make her a dangerous melee fighter, while Ingrid is more the glass cannon type—able to hit with a ridiculously high amount of damage, but squishy.
In fact, one of the problems with bouncing upward to an Advanced Class the moment the System arrived was that the Erethran Honor Guard Skill tree is mostly about supporting others. The individual combat Skills are mostly in the Basic Erethran Guard or Erethran Soldier Class. That’s also why I’ve been poking around a bunch of Basic Skill trees, searching for things I can purchase from the Shop to give me more oomph. Problem is, Skills are nice, but they all come with a cost. Credits to purchase them, then an on-going Mana and Stamina cost when you use them. I’ll admit though, a lot of my desire for more strength has to do with the fact that I got my ass kicked before we left Whitehorse.
All that said, I still have no clue what my specialization would be. I can do a little of everything, but none of the roles attract me. I like being able to switch between the front-line and back depending on the situation. It’s saved my ass quite a few times, being entirely self-reliant. But now I’ve got a party…
I stare at my Status screen one last time before turning back to the Shop’s inventory. Time to stop mulling over things and get back to it. I haven’t made a decision in weeks, so why should I be able to make one now? Better to focus on what I can do right now. Maybe I can find something to augment my ranged attacks…
***
I’m the first one back, though I’ve probably spent more time in the Shop due to the better time dilation in my Shop. Knowing that the others will be a while, I get moving on arranging our accommodations for the evening and leave Ali to guide the group to the abandoned house I locate. By the time they all arrive, I’ve already gotten a few plates on the table illuminated by some System-bought lamp
s. We’re all kind of used to it by now, so the lack of electricity isn’t a big problem. The lack of hot water on the other hand…
“Couldn’t you find a place with hot water? I was looking forward to a bath,” Ingrid grumbles with nods from the other women.
“Use a spell,” I say. “They don’t even have enough upgraded places for their own people. What makes you think they’re going to let a bunch of tourists into an upgraded house?”
“We could pay,” Ingrid says.
“Sure. You going to knock on the doors?” I wave at the exit.
Ingrid just stuffs her face rather than chat. As sarcastic and occasionally rude as she is to us, I’ve realized Ingrid is actually a tad shy among strangers.
Lana, who has taken over cooking the rest of the meal, walks by, dropping another platter of food. “Ali tells me there’s a dungeon close by. One that’s pretty close to over-running itself.”
“You want us to clear it?” I ask while Mikito perks up slightly.
“It’d take a day at most,” Lana says. “And the first clear bonus is always nice.”
I consider her words. The first clear bonus is a significant chunk of experience, for sure. In fact, it’s about the only thing that has given us any real experience since we left the Yukon. The rest has been dribs and drabs from beating up under-Leveled monsters. “All right. I’m in.”
“Yes,” Mikito says.
“Fine. I’m in too,” Ingrid says.
Lana flashes all of us a smile of gratitude before plunking a case of bottles on the table. We all stare with disbelief at the familiar brand of Apocalypse Ale. As one of the Yukon’s most popular exports since the System, we all know how expensive the beer is.
“How…?” Mikito asks, and Lana laughs softly.
“What? There are some advantages of part-owning the brewery through the foundation we set up,” Lana says then fixes me with a look. “If someone actually looked into it, he might be surprised what he could get.”
“Huh…” I say, snagging a bottle and popping off the screw-top. “With this kind of incentive, I just might…”
Lana grins and snags a bottle before we all settle in for dinner and rest in an actual bed. Now that we’ve decided on actually testing out the dungeon, we drag Ali over and probe him for more information. Not that he has much, but we often find that anything is better than nothing.
Chapter 3
“Doesn’t look like much of a dungeon,” I mutter, staring at the notification floating in front of my face the moment I step into the gloomy, shadowed forest. It’s subtle, but the change in the ecology is there. One side of the barrier is less lush and more shadowed than the other.
“It is only Level 35,” Lana says, stretching slightly and pulling her skintight jumpsuit tight in all the right places.
When she catches me looking, the redhead flashes me a grin and a wink, making me blush slightly. Living and traveling with a group, we’ve not had a lot of private time lately, which has been a bit annoying. That, and we want to verify her birth control options are still working. Ever since we figured out that the System has a bad tendency of degrading purchased birth control options, we’ve all gotten a little paranoid about double-checking things like that.
“True,” Mikito says, her naginata resting on her shoulder as she straddles her bike. The polearm dwarfs the tiny Asian lady, who’s clad much like Lana, albeit with slightly more armor plating. Like me, she hasn’t yet bothered to transform her PAV. “We doing this on foot?”
“Probably for the best. It’s only a few kilometers in radius. Figure the boss is in the center,” I say, eyeing the fuzzy readouts that my minimap is giving me. Damn dungeons and their weird rules.
“Ingrid and the puppies are on scouting duty. Pull anything you find back to us…” I look around before sighing, realizing that the woman has already disappeared. “As for Tigger…”
“No. Just no,” Lana says, glaring at me.
“But…” I snap it shut as Lana continues to glare at me. “Fine. What is he called?”
“Roland,” Lana says, scratching the tiger, pushing his head into her waist.
“Roland staying with us or…?” Thus far, beyond being big, I’ve yet to see anything particularly special about the tiger, but I wasn’t exactly paying attention either. Without knowing its specialty, I’m leery of giving suggestions.
“He’ll stay for now with Anna,” Lana says, the red fox content to trot alongside the redhead.
All that done, I nod and wave her and Mikito on, letting my eyes dart over their information one last time before I play rearguard.
Mikito Sato (Middle Samurai Level 3)
HP: 770/770
MP: 430/430
Conditions: None
Lana Pearson (Beast Tamer Level 49)
HP: 380/380
MP: 600/600
Conditions: Bestial Senses, Linked x 4
It takes about ten minutes before a body drops in front of us, all dark blue hair, muscles, and blood. Mikito bisects the body before it even hits the ground, while Lana has a gun trained on it in seconds. That’s before we realize it’s a corpse. A moment later, I hear giggling beside us, Ingrid having shifted positions immediately.
“Ingrid…” Lana sighs then prods the corpse with her feet.
Now that we’re no longer worried about our lives, we spend some time actually looking at the monster corpse. It’s similar to a chimpanzee in size but with blue fur, an extra pair of secondary arms, and a tail that looks as though it should belong on a scorpion. After assessing the monster, we get moving.
We barely take ten steps before Lana stiffens, swiveling to the left. Her lips tighten and she drops to a knee, her gun raised. Roland lets out a low growl and pads to her left, his entire body shimmering. Within seconds, it’s hard to see the creature, his body camouflaged against the background terrain. Anna shifts to a safe distance away from Lana, flames bursting from her body and licking against her fur.
“Howard’s on his way back with company,” Lana says as she settles in.
Mikito makes a noise of assent but doesn’t move, continuing to watch her side of the forest. I grunt, consider my options, and pull a beam rifle from storage. Mana Darts, my favorite spell, is just a little too low Level for these guys, and everything else I have is a bit too destructive. A Fireball in a forest is a bad idea, especially since the undergrowth here doesn’t seem to have had a good forest fire in a bit. Hmmm… something else to consider. Who would have thought that bringing death and destruction actually had so many different facets?
Tension mounts as we wait, but we don’t have to wait long. The sounds of branches breaking and the padding of a pony-sized husky reaches us within seconds, then the large hound is here. Close behind him are a dozen of the ape-creatures, swinging through the trees and loping on the ground in a weird knuckle, knuckle, feet gait. The transition from peace to violence is sudden as Roland claws apart the first to cross the threshold, then he launches himself against a second. Lana opens fire with her rifle, and Anna lays down a low wall of flame to ward off the majority while Howard spins around to fight.
I add to the carnage and manage to catch sight of Ingrid coming out of the shadows to do her thing. The fight is fast and furious, but we out-Level the apes by a significant margin. By unspoken agreement, we let Lana and her pets do most of the work, the Beast Tamer having the least number of hours in the field and thus the lowest Level.
A short couple of minutes later, I’m looting the bodies and storing them in my Altered Space while Lana heals her pets.
“Think we should get lunch ready while Lana takes care of the dungeon?” Ingrid says from behind me.
I sigh, refusing to jump even if her sudden appearance is a bit startling. I finish putting the corpse in my Altered Space before I turn around. “Might not be a bad idea.”
“You guys…” Lana says, sounding exasperated. “I’m not that far behind all of you. And the boss might be a little tough for me and the boys. And
Anna.”
“A little tough is good,” Mikito says. “Good training.”
“Sounds like we’re decided. I’ll lend you Ali,” I say while setting up the picnic table. “Ingrid, your turn.”
“Hey!” Lana says, growling at us.
“Fine. Stew and bannock?” Ingrid says.
“Sounds delicious.”
“Rice too, please,” Mikito says.
“Hey!” Lana says again.
“You still here?” I look at Lana, humor dancing in my eyes as she stands there, hands on her hips while we ignore her protests.
She glares at me, mouths, “You’ll pay for this,” then stomps off, followed by her pets. Within minutes, her passage fades and I stretch.
“Going for a stroll?” Ingrid says, her voice full of mirth while Mikito snorts.
I shrug, refusing to answer. Ingrid waves the ladle at me and I nod before following Lana quietly. I might not have Ingrid’s Class Skills, but I’ve got some skills.
Look, we might be idiots, but we aren’t exactly going to let our friend solo a dungeon without some backup.
***
The next couple of hours are rather boring. Between her Bestial Senses ability and the pets, I have to give her a significant amount of space just so that she doesn’t know I’m here. Add in the fact that I need to be far enough away that the System doesn’t hurt her experience gain too much and I end up having a really uneventful stroll through the woods. Even so, the occasional extra-large explosion, tree breaking, or scream carries back to me. Thankfully, with Ali floating alongside Lana, I get running commentary to keep me entertained.
“Ooooh, that’s an amazing suplex, John, just makes those legs really defined…
“What a move, sticking her gun in its mouth…
