It only takes me a moment of consideration to hit [Accept]. Obviously this wasn’t a unanimous decision; Carlos and Maria don’t look super happy that they’re going to have to carry me to Level 50, but maybe they’ll come around to liking me eventually. This has huge potential for me regardless of the friendship status between us.
“Thank you guys so much. I know it’s probably going to suck a bit of experience away from you, but it means a lot that you’re willing to take me on and help me catch up.” I say, “I’m about to head home and get some rest; my body is destroyed. Are you guys coming back here tomorrow? Or should I just wait for James to invite me along to dives?”
“Oh no, we’re going back in,” James says with a slightly malicious smile, “and you’re coming with us.”
“Hey bud, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my body is about to fall apart. I just want to go home and let [Basic Regeneration] patch me up,” I respond.
“Oh no, if you’re joining us, you’re gonna push hard and come on every dive until you hit Level 50, and we can decide if you’re useful. I want to get this over with as quickly as possible. Hold still,” Carlos says. He then raises his hands toward me, and a light pink, slimy fluid begins bursting out of his palms and slamming into me. It is at this very moment that I realize two things. Number one, that getting healed by Carlos is kind of gross but very effective. All of my wounds almost immediately close up, and no pain remains. Number two, how low my strength actually is. The jet of healing from, presumably, the party's weakest member is almost enough to put me on my ass. It feels like I’m getting hit by a firehose!
Scratch that. It is enough to put me on my ass. I tumble backwards as the blast continues for 5 seconds and begin rolling before Carlos stops. I look up into his grinning face as he says, “All healed up? I put enough into you to heal five thousand HP. Just to be safe, you know. I wouldn’t want my new ‘party member’ getting hurt.”
Ok yeah, suspicions confirmed. Carlos doesn’t like me. Something about the way he said ‘party member’ really makes me feel like I shouldn’t expect healing to go any other way for a while. I put on a smile and say, “Yeah, I feel like a million wet slimy bucks!” Shaking off some of the excess slime from my clothes, I check my stats.
[Michael Ward
HP - 1500/1000
Titan - level 12
Strength - 126
Dexterity - 26
Defense - 68
Intelligence - 17
Vigor - 75
Charisma - 27
Skills -
[Passive] Overwhelm I - Increase your Strength stat based on physical muscle size. Increase height by 6” and muscle growth by 10%.
[Passive] Might I - Two-handed weapons can be wielded one-handed if strength requirements are exceeded by 50% or more, and ordinary objects can be used as weapons, receiving stats based on their material and shape.
[Active] Shatter I - Hitting a creature while this skill is active deals extra damage equal to your Strength stat. 1 hour cooldown. Ready
[Passive] Basic Regeneration I - Restore 1 HP per level, per hour.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
[Passive] ??? - Prerequisites not met
Mutations - N/A
Available stat points - 12
Party - The Misfits
Conditions -
Teamwork - Share all Exp. based on combat participation. (Minimum 8.3%) Receive bonus Exp. from combat while your full party is in a dungeon.
Overhealth - Due to excessive healing energy pumped into your system, your HP has been temporarily increased. Bonus HP will decay over the course of 2 hours.]
Overhealth? It seems like all that excess healing from Carlos isn’t completely worthless. Also, I see why they don’t want me to miss out on diving with them since they would lose out on the Exp. bonus from [Teamwork]. After looking through the new conditions I’ve received, I take a moment to think about my stat points. I need to hold onto them for a bit so I can figure out which of my weak areas matters the most. Intelligence might be super important for resisting attacks on my mind, but I’m not even sure that’s something monsters can do. Agility will probably be pretty useful when it comes to dodging, since I’m anticipating having to do a lot of that, given the no armor thing. Even Charisma probably has its uses when it comes to haggling or even becoming closer with ‘The Misfits’. I can’t have Carlos and Maria hate me forever. They’re part of James’ team, and I’m not ready to just quit. I have to earn their trust.
It’ll also be worthwhile holding off on spending them since I’m not sure what items I may be able to get from enemies that may boost my stats further or give me some other benefits.
“You gonna be done looking at your stats any time soon? We’ve got high orcs to kill,” Abe interrupts with a laugh. I realize I’ve been sitting here in silence looking at a screen that only I can see for probably the past minute or so.
"Yeah, sorry, some new stuff popped up thanks to Carlos’ healing and joining a party. I’m good to go,” I respond slightly abashed. I really want to make a good impression with them, and my earlier introduction definitely didn’t help me with that in the slightest. I’m playing from behind in Levels and social interactions. Yippee, it sure is great to be me.
We set off, and they lead me up to, guess who, Thomas. Yet another person I haven’t made a great impression on. Abe speaks to him, “Hey Tom, can we get a party pass for the High Orc Dungeon? Total of 6 this time. Fresh meat over here needs some experience, in more ways than one.” Gesturing to me as he talks to him.
“Of course, that’ll be two hundred and fifty Silver,” Thomas says, eyeing me. “An interesting addition to your party, Mr. Maestro. Hopefully you will have a good return on investment.”
Abe responds with, “James seems to think it will be, and he hasn’t steered us wrong yet.”
“I wish you all good luck then,” is Thomas’ response as the two finish their exchange.
We set off after that in relative silence. The only sound being Robin's marker on her board as she tries to lighten the mood with some jokes. I don’t think they hit as hard when you have to read them, but they’re still alright. Seeing her struggle to communicate sparks an idea, however. “Hey Robin, do you know sign language?” I ask.
Her board squeaks as she writes out, “I’m trying to learn it, but books are kind of hard to learn from and even harder to find,” as she shakes her head no.
“I could teach you!” I say excitedly, “I learned it when I was a kid to talk with my sister. It’s been a few years, so I might be slightly rusty, but it could be a good way for you to talk with everyone faster, and it might even come in handy while diving if you need to talk to each other silently!”
She smiles and shakes her head yes enthusiastically as James says, “See! I told you guys he’d be worth adding to the team! It’s only a matter of time before we don’t have to worry about Robin's squeaky whiteboard.”
Robin aims a fake hurt expression at James before writing down, "Yeah, honestly, this thing kinda sucks. Thank you, Mike!”
I keep on walking with them toward the dungeon entrance, teaching Robin the basics of sign language and feeling out what she already knows. As we get closer, I realize this dungeon happens to be inside an old video game store that I remember buying a few games from pre-collapse. It stings a bit sometimes—remembering life before. There isn’t a whole lot we can do about it now, but I heard from James a couple of weeks ago that some lightning mages are trying to work on controlling electricity with more finesse, so there is at least a small chance of getting electricity back. If they can do it and have a large enough output to support as many people as there still are, I’m all for it.
I snap out of my daydream about a hot shower as Robin waves her hand in front of my face and say a quick, “Sorry, lost in thought.” As I look around us, I realize this is one of the few shops people must’ve not had much interest in looting, as most of the items are just shoved to the sides of the room. There are piles of video games and consoles creating a neat path directly funneling us down into the High Orc Dungeon. The plushies and figurines, however, are notably missing. We start walking down the stairs, and it occurs to me that this one is much deeper compared to the Goblin Dungeon I’d been in previously. I assume it must have something to do with the enemy Level.
“Alright Mike, the way this is gonna work is you’re gonna stay back with Carlos and wait for us to down the enemies so you can get the final hit. It’ll give you a bit more Exp. than just sitting back would, and it’ll still keep you relatively safe. If an orc gets past us, run. They’re between Levels 60 and 70. They will kill you if they hit you. My goal is for us to take out at least ten Orcs and the Boss. This should shoot you up around twenty-five Levels or so. Is that all clear?” James asks.
“Crystal,” I say.
Entering the portal, he says, “Then let’s go grind some Levels.”