The days quickly went by after we returned to the school.
Usually someone would probably relax and grow dull after all the stress suddenly being replaced with such a rosy little community but it just encouraged us to train more instead. Well, atleast my little faction within the group.
In that time I’ve done around five runs outside the gates personally to get a wide variety of things such as a few animals, books, games, tools or clothing and food but Leo and Ally are both at one higher than me. The reason for that is simply because I found that the library is a perfect place to increase my intelligence and wisdom and I’m even catching up to school subjects in the process so it seems like a win-win situation to me.
The hole we cut to put the rope ladder through was easy enough to do though we did run into a few little mistakes like running into a support beam and having to cut a bigger hole but with the tarps rain getting in wasn’t an issue so there where no major problems with it.
By now we had around ninety people in the school all under the control of Lea and a fair amount of animals to liven the place up. It became quite the little community and the efficiency of everyone has rose by leaps and bounds in that time, letting us fortify our school to fairly high levels. With the pairs or people around the perimeter watching and numerous alarms I hooked up with fishing wires it’s doubtful anything will get past us easily. We had a problem with a rat zombie that infected three people before we could put it down but it seems that for the boost they get to their stats the virus potency goes down in return, probably because we’re of a different species so they all got over the infection fine. No one who was bitten by a human zombie has made it through so far but their vitality was all below a hundred so that doesn’t say much.
The biggest issue was food. People like eating even if they don’t need to and it is also a source of moral and stress relief so acquiring it became quite important. Of course there are obvious limits to how much we can move back and forth without making a pack mule out of me again, pulling a trailer but it’s good that in the city there aren’t many issues of running out of food, atleast not yet. Some things have started to rot but there are still many more that retain their edibility so it’s not a major concern.
We’ve had two suicides in the school which killed moral like you wouldn’t believe but so far there haven’t been any major disasters. Well correction, we ‘had’ no major disasters. If the current moment isn’t a disaster then I don’t know what is.
[Hello again! It’s time for an update! The apocalypse is hard even for the odd person who manages to cruise through it with ease but frankly don’t you think this is a little too easy for an RPG Apocalypse? Even the odd animal zombies are just a slightly higher threat compared to normal so at this rate humans actually have a chance of reclaiming the Earth. But that is a big no no. If you reclaim the earth, how will there ever be a winner in this apocalypse? I can’t just go ‘okay, humanity wins as a whole let’s reward them all’ because that would be against the point of these games. No, it’s time to spice things up a bit.]
[Evolution has been unlocked for all races! There are no automatic evolutions unless I directly interfere or it is a mindless beast who can’t choose for themselves so you can save the first one for as long as you want and build up however many choices you want but obviously there are various advantages or disadvantages to every choice you make in life so this will be the same. For example your evolution could make you into one of the mindless beasts if your not careful so try to be a little cautious before picking any old thing.]
[Next is the new races which will be spawned in! Goblins, orcs, trolls, imps etc etc. They are all low level mobs which can grow just like everyone else and with it the undead population will also multiply by several times with various variants created to balance out against them so it is time for the new arc to begin! The great monster flood… starts now!]
[Oh and as an after-thought the world will expand in size massively and several special areas like dungeons, ruins and monster nests will appear. In your status menu you now have your race present and some evolutions have a set path that can’t be surpassed. For example if you evolve into an Elf then it might be high elf or blood elf but there are only a few possible evolutions with elf as the base. There are ways to get around that and the elves will have an advantage that let’s them compare to the rapidly evolving creatures as well but just keep it in mind. Good luck!]
“Well shit” Leo cursed from beside me as we watched the city morph around us.
[Achievement: First to pull your stat-points over the 250 benchmark! Has been completed!]
[Achievement: First to pull your stat-points over the 500 benchmark! Has been completed!]
[Achievement: First to have ten achievements! Has been completed!]
[Average Enhancement: Heat Radar!]
[Average Enhancement: Padded Step!]
[Greater Enhancement: Shadow Stalker!]
The system messages for the achievements has changed and it no longer says anything about the stat boosts even though they still exist but this is what I got over the last few days. Seeing heat signatures within my area sense range, footstep sound is greatly reduced and I slip into the shadows almost naturally. It’s an assassins perfect build and since even zombies have body heat it is really helpful in pin-pointing enemies within my range.
‘Status’
[Status Menu]
Name: Jean Paradox
Race: Human *
Evolution: Available *
Level: 18
HP: 5820
MP: 6530
Strength: 632
Dexterity: 745
Vitality: 572
Intelligence: 643
Wisdom: 651
Charisma: 1381
Luck: 100
Unallocated Status Points: 136
Note: * is ‘click to expand’ option.
And there are my stupidly high stats that I am utterly in love with. It’s really disappointing to have such a massive mana pool with no idea how to use it though. God sent another message a while ago after I vaguely felt, well, something different and told me that my stats are getting to a level where I can start to sense mana even without knowing what it feels like but apparently I’m still a fair distance off from it. His message said that even a baby could use mana if they knew what it felt like but for someone who has had it surrounding them for their entire life but not knowing it was mana then sensing it without any outside interference is extremely hard. Science would had led us to it in around twenty years or so but humans finding it themselves? Almost impossible. Until now.
[*DING*]
Race: Human
Description: Humans are a rather average race. Strength in numbers, prone to idiocy and/or stupidity and rarely does something right but at the same time they have something many other races don’t. Balance. They have a balance between their body and mind and have imaginations that outshine many others, making them naturally talented at magic should they put their imagination to full use. Of course they are still weak considering a dragon has balance as well but is leagues above humans but at the same time dragons lack the numbers that humans can achieve and have a crippling sense of pride. Humans have unlimited potential that they tend to limit unconsciously.
Recommendation: Even though they have potential you should probably change race since there are many others with much more that don’t have the limits humans posses. Even proud human kings in other worlds who are disgusted by other races would happily change if given the opportunity.
Is what I got after clicking the expand for my race. I was actually expecting them to be valued less but if imagination is good for magic then it makes sense.
Clicking on the expand next to evolution thousands of options appeared before me, separated into grades and recommendation levels with footnotes attached. It was overwhelming… until it cracked and shattered, dispersing into particle effects.
[Congrats! I’m directly interfering for you! Because of that ring and the legendary achievement you qualify for a… lets say unique race. It is also one of my favourite and one that I didn’t think could appear until much later in the game but due to it’s awesomeness the requirements to evolve into the higher versions are a lot harder than say elves. Naturally it’s a little nerfed but don’t worry, it is still awesome. Sigh, I guess I’m giving you a free achievement since with my interference the evolution is instant… lucky bastard.]
[Achievement: First to evolve! Has been completed!]
[Greater Enhancement: Blood Affinity +25%]
Race: Blood Vampire
Description: The name is lacking to describe how awesome this race really is. Made by a being that cannot be exterminated even if existence itself where to collapse, this race was moulded in her image to become a perfect race fitting her status. She did not make it consciously and was instead an accident but do not underestimate the race because of this. None of the weaknesses and all of the advantages vampires have, these beings are born with naturally superior mana and health pools and higher stats to match their title: The one perfect race. Can eat human food or drink blood, born with 50% in the blood affinity and superior talent they are the perfect beings in looks, strengths, talents and brains. Possessing an imagination higher than humans without the limits… can any other race truly compare? But as is life there are distinctions among the race as well.
Evolutions: Blood Vampire, Blood Noble, Blood Royalty, Blood Royalty (main bloodline), Mythical Blood Royalty.
Total: 5
Note: Due to the nature of this apocalypse the benefits won’t be as good in the beginning but that is only in terms of stat gain. The affinity and passive gains the race holds are still in effect.
No control… sigh, even my ring disappeared. I was actually starting to like the thing.
‘Status’ I decided to check.
[Status Menu]
Name: Jean Paradox
Race: Blood Vampire *
Evolution: Unavailable *
Level: 0
HP: 17,500
MP: 15,000
Strength: 850
Dexterity: 2,000
Vitality: 1,250
Intelligence: 1,000
Wisdom: 900
Charisma: 10,000
Luck: 100
Unallocated Status Points: 150
Note: Evolution has rounded stats and added certain improvements depending on the nature of the chosen race.
Note: Five thousand HP and MP is now the new base without stats adding anything.
“Holy shit…” I muttered as I stared at my stats.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yeah.” Leo replied dazed. For a second I thought he could see my status but then I looked past the screen.
As if time was in fast-fowrard I watched the city fall into a maze of hangin walkways, creeking metal and shattered glass as nature overtook it and made it into something I had only seen in drawings. Randomly trees thousands of metres tall popped up around the city in a sort of barrier and blocked off the sky as nature glowed. Everything…
Everything had just became something absurd and unimaginable in the course of less than a minute.
Not only that, hordes of monsters, flying or on the land appeared and started to make their moves to claim territory. There was already fights breaking out through the mythical land we found ourselves in.
What was the most impressive however was the massive floating blue box in the air that I assumed could be seen from all angles.
[Dungeon City: Natures Origin!]
[Rank: C]
[Size: Medium]
[Note: Size and rank are in relation to the current world and the dungeons progress. In the future when the world grows it could be labelled as small or it’s rank could be higher or lower. Rank and size will continue to be ranked between dungeons currently inhabiting the world and not out of a set ranking system so small differences will be noticed over time.]
But then the note disappeared just leaving
[Dungeon City: Natures Origin!]
[Rank: C]
[Size: Medium]
to float freely in the air.
The place was absolutely breathtaking. Beautiful beyond compare and vibrant with life and nature everywhere. Even the monsters where in awe of it’s qualities.
Luck was in our favour today even if we still weren’t very lucky for a dungeon spawning around us. We where in approximately the middle of the city and surprisingly this dungeon didn’t work like I expected it to. The weakest monsters spawned in the middle and got stronger the further out you go. Directly above us thousands of metres in the sky where vines dangling from the top down to the ground. They had massive leaves that reminded me of jack and the beanstalk but the scale wasn’t even comparable to that children’s tale.
This was the entrance.
Instead of entering from the outside and working your way towards the middle the dungeon had it set up so that you had to come from the top as the only entrance and exit and work your way outwards. Even the city expanded with new skyscrapers appearing in the distance only to fall into each other and be taken over by nature. There was no comparison.
“Lea get everyone prepared quickly. We may have gotten lucky to only be in the middle of the dungeon but we’re still in danger from the sheer number of monsters here. We need to hole up and work our way out until we have a defensible position.” I snapped her out of the despair showing on her face and she proceeded to snap everyone else out and issue orders.
I looked up again just in time to see some sort of flying dog try to come down and snatch a child so without hesitation I threw a knife at it and pierced the head, raining coins and a talon on the three people below. The knife missed someone by an inch.
“Watch the skies!” I yelled as I retrieved my knife and apologised for almost impaling the guy. He was shaken but thankful that I saved his daughter.
Almost as soon as I yelled several flying creatures began to dive at the group as we retreated into the gym slowly through the rope ladder. We can’t fight two wars right now so we’ll take care of the land creatures first.
“Theodore! Drop the filler as you come down!” Lea yelled above the noise to one of her strongest and most trusted group members.
We made a wooden block to shove in the hole in the roof like a plug to a sink beforehand but when we made it we thought it would be the other way around, retreating up to the roof and blocking it off. This was unexpected but it still worked just the same.
“Leo, Ally, Theodore and Tracey I want you to take a roller door each! Everyone else split off into groups to support them! Kids and anyone too weak to fight stay in the middle with James, Audrey, Aiden, and me! Jean I want you to go out there and bring back any survivors from our watch you can!” Lea ordered efficiently as everyone split off into their groups.
Complying I squeezed my way through one of the doors and took out three goblin looking creatures with orange skin on the way. They where easy to kill but there was atleast fifty of them outside and I suddenly drew their agro… well, I don’t think it really works like that but I pissed them off majorly.
Dancing through the crowd I took them out as fast as I could with my new stats and started to dash towards the gate. It has to be understood that right now I am two hundred times faster than the average human with my stats and although these monsters where part of the dungeon and as such had higher levels and strength then they should as newly spawned beings they where no where near my current stats.
There where all sorts of creatures in many different colours so I’m not even sure how to describe them but a rat with butterfly wings swooped down and picked up a two metre tall meaty slime with fur covering it as if I where nothing and I saw an ogre at five metres tall struggling under the weight of a caterpillar with spider legs that was sitting on it’s back, chewing into it leisurely. There where all sorts of strange scenes that sent shivers up my spine.
I made the mistake of underestimating a slime and having the clothing on my left arm melted and my skin change into an irritated red colour though thankfully it didn’t just burn off. The wound regenerated almost immediately as I only took a few hp worth of damage.
On the trip alone I killed around three hundred monsters of varying shapes, sizes and states of matter before I reached the gate.
“Crap” I muttered as I dashed in and chopped the head off of a giant praying mantis that had the last survivor out of the four people impaled through the shoulder.
“Fuck I thought I was going to die, crap that hurt! Thankyou thankyou a fucking million man, that thing wanted to torture me like it did the others.” I looked at the bodies as he shivered and saw several holes all over them where the mantis decided to play with it’s victims. Even I felt a little sick at that.
“I’m Jean. Can you run?” I introduced without wasting time.
“Tom and yeah but it’ll hurt like a bitch.” He seemed like an easy going guy by how he was trying to act but anyone could tell he was terrified and in pain.
Quickly wrapping a bandage around the wound before he could object and tying it tight as he whimpered I started to talk again.
“We’ll get it patched up properly later. Lea wanted me to scout around the borders and get any survivors back to our choke point. I’ll carry you for now because it will be faster.” His face turned sour but I didn’t give him a chance to object as I princess carried him.
“Totally a breach of the bro code, or any code for that matter! Never carry a guy like a princess, totally not cool man!” He yelled as I ignored it. Not fun for me either dude.
“Can you identify the bodies?” I asked as we arrived at the next point.
“Charley and piper. Are you going to tell everyone who died?” He asked quietly.
“The more names we have the less people we have going out to look for them on the odd chance they are alive. It’s cruel but we don’t have the numbers for that.” He looked at me considering it before shrugging and we ran over to the next checkpoint for watch.
“Only one body. Blood leads that way, as well as a few coins.” I didn’t need to say it but I still did. Following the trail and my area sense I came across a girl stitching her own leg together.
“Let me do it. Don’t scream.” I surprised her but she handed it over with shaking hands. It’s quite impressive that she even managed to do that much. Putting her arm in her mouth I began to stitch it as painlessly as I could. After thirty seconds it was done and I tied a bandage around it and she finally took her arm out, panting and covered in sweat and blood as well as a slightly bleeding bite wound she just gained.
“I’ll swap with her.” I had a feeling he would swap with anyone at this point but I nodded none the less. We where slower now that he was using his own strength to move but I chose to think of it as a good thing, that there where atleast survivors to be slowed down by.
The next four people we came across where all dead bodies. I’ll work out why the bodies aren’t despawning later but with two people we identified their names.
“heeeeeyyyy!!!!!” I already knew where the two where due to my area sense but they where trying to signal us over to help. Surrounded by twenty creatures looking like a cross between worms and wolves they where desperately clinging to the top of a shaking statue as they fought off the tall lunges and swooping flying creatures. They looked to be in a pretty grim situation but they survived atleast.
Placing the girl down I ran off and killed the monsters as fast as I could before they jumped down and I killed the odd flying creature that followed.
“I just saw Jason get torn apart and I so thought that was going to happen to us.” The guy laughed in a way that seemed weird. The sort of laugh where you only have laughing or crying left and you choose laughing instead, a desperate kind of despairing laugh.
Asking the same question with a bit more I spoke.
“Can you both run and does that mean you met up with others?”
“We can run and yeah, we met up with one more person as he was running from the beast that killed his partner. The fucking thing was toying with him, killed him right in front of us and then smirked, fucking smirked at us and walked away.” The guy was shivering as some sweat appeared at the memory and I looked at him with a few seconds of sympathy before once again making everyone move forward.
By the time I made a full run around the gates I had fifteen people with me, bringing us up to sixteen in number. Thirty defenders and twelve defended where at the main base when I left and the rest where on watch. For only fifteen to survive, well atleast that I know of since I didn’t find all the bodies, is insane.
“Make a beeline back to the base.” I said simply as I made them move again from the two minute break. Stamina like mine is uncommon.
On the way something I had killed easily before and underestimated shot some sort of thorn out into some unlucky guys skull before I could stop it. I simply didn’t have a way to because it was a co-ordinated ambush with some meat shield cannon fodder blocking my way so before I killed them all we lost one member, bringing us down to fifteen.
We left the body.
“If your body can handle it reinforce the defences. If not recover enough to do so or offer support.” We pushed our way through the small mountain of corpses and the soon to be corpses as we made our way inside. Four people had died since I left from simple mistakes like underestimating certain monsters.
“Thirty nine defenders, fourteen defended” I muttered to myself as I joined the fray, acting as a support when any problems came up like higher levelled monsters or numbers.
“Jean I need backup! This guys too big to hurt and he’s coming right at the wall!” Fuck a tank character.
Running over there was a big fleshy… something about ten metres tall and five wide. It had floating arms detached from it’s weird roundish rectangular ball of flesh body that where constantly punching forwards in a slow but strong way, blowing my hair. How that works I have no idea but it was still a problem. It wasn’t that Leo couldn’t cut it, hell it was even easy. The problem was it was just so big that it barely took damage despite the cuts. Grey blood dripped out but nothing stopped it or even slowed it’s progression. The only saving grace was that it was extremely slow to begin with, moving at about one metre every ten seconds in a weird jump like you’d expect from slimes.
“I want to try something” I smirked as I ran at my top speed and landed a punch on it with all my strength. The body indented in and splattered blood and flesh over me before flying away into a nearby building and being impaled by a tree. It struggled for a few seconds before falling limp. The arms literally turned into meat paste after it died for whatever the hell reason operated those freaky things.
“What the FUCK was that man!!!” Leo yelled as the battlefield on this side of the building came to a temporary stop.
“That was so not worth it, I got monster in my mouth” I groaned as vomit cleaned it out for me. It has to be the worse thing I’ve ever tasted, something between burnt blueberries and honey with over concentration of sugar in it. I really hate honey and am not a big fan of blueberries either. It was gross.
“We are SO going to talk after this is over!” He yelled before getting back to the battle.
Some monsters fled immediately but most stayed to fight.
Putting some gum in my mouth to hopefully clean out the taste a bit I went back to what I was doing before.
Over the course of the siege, three more of those things appeared and two weird vomiting monsters that melted the walls. Thankfully it didn’t breach through and instead combined the besser bricks into a sort of connected entity but that was only because there was only one vomit blast that connected before getting rid of the monsters.
All at once around twenty thousand monster bodies turned into dust and blinded us.
[You have levelled up x41!]
[The first siege in the dungeon city at the entrance has been repelled, turning this area into the official entrance and safe area! Dungeon town will be built and NPC traders will be spawned! Be warned though that once a month a new siege will commence and the town will be at risk so make sure to train hard enough to repel the sieges! Monsters will get stronger and smarter over time just like dungeon divers and while they have a limit placed on how strong they can get in the starting area and as such you will not face anything stronger than what is deemed as a starting monster in the sieges, that doesn’t mean there is a limit on numbers. Get strong and cull the monster hordes or you may just find this safe haven go up in flames. Death is impossible inside the city area other than sieges or designated locations for death matches.]
[For participating in a successful siege defence and being the biggest contributor to the fight, +23 Levels and 80 Gold! +1,000 reputation with dungeon town!]
[You have reached the fifty levels benchmark and have unlocked the features: Chat buddy and Guild Creation! For more information ask your new chat buddy!]
I absently looked at the messages as I checked out the aftermath of the battle. Out of the fifty three people we had earlier now we are left with 36. Two children died and fifteen defenders bringing it up to seventeen deaths since I got back. The children… a small bug spent hours drilling through the walls as discrete as possible before launching a suicide attack at them and taking them out before we could do anything to stop it. Two more where injured from the attack, including page. She only got a scratch on her cheek though while the other got a hole through their hand, one of the supposed most painful places due to the mass amount of nerves. She will heal but for now it will take a while.
Most of the remaining defenders where injured with one even missing a leg and several lacked a few fingers or toes. This is hard to recover from and I’m hoping that HP will restore their limbs but if not it will be a severe handicap on them. The main problem is that no one is getting stronger during the fight other than the combat experience and stat increases since we didn’t level up from it. What was it yesterday, ninety something people? Jeez that number fell fast.
“Can you explain the guilds to me mister god or do I need to do something to earn the information?” I felt silly asking it out loud but that changed when I got a reply.
{I’m not mean enough to keep such basic information from you. First off though, quickly make a guild and invite everyone to it! If you don’t you’ll miss out on something great! Just say ‘guild menu’ as a command like status screen and it’ll work!}
‘Guild Menu’
[Guild Menu]
Description: A guild is a collection of people banding together to get various benefits. The guild leader can run the guild and use money to buy buffs, buildings or NPC soldiers to fight for them. To find out more you must be in a Guild or be a Guild Leader.
Create Guild? Yes/No
I clicked Yes.
Name: ?
Location: ‘Natures Origin’ Entrance City
Specialty: ?
Leader: Jean Paradox
Generals: ?
Members: ?
Confirm? Yes/No
Spending a small amount of time looking at what it meant I chose what I wanted.
Name: Origin
Location: ‘Natures Origin’ Entrance City
Specialty: Dungeon Diving, Protection, Production.
Leader: Jean Paradox
Generals: Ally, Leo, Page, Lea and Theodore.
Members: … (click to expand)
Confirm? Yes/No
Specialties automatically start with three slots and can be changed but provide small boosts to progress in those areas. Of course other jobs can still be taken, it’s just they don’t get those boosts. More specialties can be gained by completing certain hidden requirements but currently I have three. Everyone I invited could reject my offer if they wished but then they wouldn’t be part of the Guild. I pushed Yes.
[Achievement: First to form a guild! Has been completed!]
[Higher Guild Improvement: +2 Specialties!]
{Kid that achievement will follow you in any guild you make, even if this one disbands which gives you the advantage of having five specialties from the start. Even better… look at this notification!}
[By forming a guild in an ownerless city the city has been put under the guilds control! +10,000 Gold coins have been added to the guild funds (not removable) for being the first to claim the city! Now that the city is claimed, dungeon will finish remodelling.]
{By city it just means the school zone and about a km more in each direction but it’s still impressive! Congratulation, by being the first owner of this city ten thousand gold is automatically added to let you build up the city but since this is in a dungeon the dungeon will build the city for you, meaning your guild now has lots of excess money! See, aren’t I awesome? What would you do without me? Hahaha!}
“Yes you are awesome. I still have no clue what’s really going on but you’re awesome” I smiled genuinely as I praised the narcissistic god. Leo looked at me strangely as well as a few others but the guild invitation made them realise there’s more to it than spontaneously going crazy. Almost everyone joined as we watched the ‘city’ (more like town) morph.
{You’re obviously confused so let me explain. By nature a safe area entrance/dungeon town has a designated territory of 25km wide and 50km tall. Out of this you own a 22 x 22 km wide by 44 km tall box, the rest being covered in that black stone except for the entrance. You can expand your territory through guild funds but this box always stays the same size. At the entrance you have a two km wide by four tall rectangle hole that leads into the box at ground level. This is what you need to defend at all costs. Everything else is randomised based on the dungeons interests but it won’t disadvantage you. The vines leading into the dungeon will come out on top of the box where anyone will have to climb down and come through the entrance. The box will also be pretty much hidden from outside view through vines, trees etc except for the clear and flat path into the entrance otherwise the thing would just look ugly.}
“Thanks” I muttered as it snapped me out of the stunned state I had been in. Right as I finished reading, the box was finished and the hole opened.
Dirt filled everything till ground level and then things started.
All the walls where covered with vines and creepers with flowers of all shapes, sizes and colours growing out that even glowed. The outside of the box was covered in various forms of plant life other than the straight hole towards the entrance like the god said and even without the glowing lights an artificial seeming type of light appeared and made everything bright like daytime. I assume it regulates day night time cycles and the plants always stay glowing but I won’t find that out till later.
And last of all… the town appeared.
And it was pretty damn awesome.