Worldlink Annotated Archives
System Integration - Attributes- DHC-327
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After multiple studies involving biological and non-biological samples, the following information was approved for release.
Strength: A measure of physical power. Lifting capacity, striking velocity, and force.
Toughness: This measures the amount of stress a physical body can handle before damage is recorded in the health pool. Correlates to an innate armor value.
Dexterity: Fine motor control and manipulation of tools.
Agility: Gross motor control of overall body mass and movement rates.
Intellect: Data storage and recall capacity, computational ability.
Cleverness: Flexibility and speed of mental facilities, ability to “think outside the box.”
Perception: Capacity of sensory inputs, including; detail, distance, and computation of multiple sensory inputs into one data model.
Presence:
Derived Statistics - these statistics are derived from an average of other statistics.
Quickness: (Average of Dexterity + Agility + Cleverness) Reaction time, ability to respond quickly to sensory input.
Resistance: (Average of Toughness + Intellect + Presence) Ability to resist non-physical damage, emotional/psychological trauma
Note: All attributes have increased effectiveness based on an increasing square of the Species Rank (Basic =1, F=2, E=3, etc.).
-end excerpt-
The guilt for killing two men did not sit so heavy on me this time. There was no doubt that these were two people, they had spoken, and I even knew one of their names. I stopped and took a deep breath; I still felt heavy but fuck them and their whole family. These two were going to rob and maybe kill me. I didn’t know for sure, but killing folks for nothing seemed like a waste. We’re all out here in the same shit storm, just trying to survive.
I took a rag from my pocket and wiped off my face, drying the tears welling in my eyes. I gathered up the guns and added them to my backpack. I debated looting the corpses further. In the end, it was only smart. Gagging, I checked them for other useful or valuable items. Ammunition, another couple of knives, and nothing else of value. All into the backpack. I took the hip holster from the tall one, and the sawn-off shotgun sat heavily on my hip. I remembered to reload it and set the safety. It would be a valuable reminder of what happens when I lose my shit. It would also be a great deterrent. Everyone knew what a street sweeper did. Just carrying one would divert others from wanting to fuck with me.
I dragged the two bodies together and dropped the plastic poncho over them. I took my tarp of tails and headed back toward the city gate. The guard saw my bloody coveralls and the rolled-up tarp and had to question me. When I showed them the huge bundle of tails, they all gained a level of respect for me that wasn’t there before. 6200 credits richer, I went home.
I headed home and hosed off in the street again. I stripped out of my coveralls with Davon not so subtly watching me. I had a t-shirt and shorts under the coveralls and padded into my apartment.
Clothes in the wash, I showered and sat down to review my stats.
Name: Izack Hopper
Species: Human, Variant (E)
Occupation: Survivor (F) Level: 5
Occupation: Explorer (F) Level: 2
Basic Statistics
Strength: 32
Toughness: 32
Dexterity: 31
Agility: 31
Intellect: 27
Cleverness: 38
Perception: 24
Presence: 24
Free points 4
Derived Statistics
Quickness: 33
Resistance: 42
Consumables
Willpower: 407/415
Health: 320/320
Stamina: 316/320
Current Experience: 20179
Holy cow, I could see the benefits of hunting people and why it was so dangerous out there. People were worth a lot of experience. I dumped experience into my Survivor occupation. 5k to raise it to 6, 6k to raise it to 7, and 7k to raise it to 8.
Three levels and just over 2k left over. I assigned my free points after some thought. Two into toughness for an even 40, three into intellect, and six into presence to bring those both up to thirty. I wavered over what to do with the last 5. My perception was lagging behind, and my fighting depended on my strength. I knew that my perception would catch up quickly once I started pushing my explorer occupation up some levels. What sort of fighter was I trying to go for? I didn’t want to be a tanky brute, and I wanted to capitalize more on not getting hit than on taking hits.
I checked on my stats once I was complete.
Name: Izack Hopper
Species: Human, Variant (E)
Occupation: Survivor (F) Level: 8
Occupation: Explorer (F) Level: 2
Basic Statistics
Strength: 32
Toughness: 40
Dexterity: 34
Agility: 34
Intellect: 30
Cleverness: 44
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Perception: 24
Presence: 30
Free points 5
Derived Statistics
Quickness: 37
Resistance: 50
Consumables
Willpower: 500/500
Health: 360/360
Stamina: 400/400
I was rocketing up, but that was expected for those motivated to go and do dangerous crap. I knew there was a plateau coming. I had a plan for that, and my quests should help once I start achieving them. I knew I wasn’t going to run out of rats. I could take a break for a week, and they’d be back to the population they were when I started. Enough people killed them and their population never got out of control. In fact, the city would send out guard platoons to deal with them as needed.
I needed another few days of grinding to get to 10 in Survivor. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be like today. Or yesterday, for that matter. The deaths of three men sat on my chest. It was lighter today than yesterday. My heightened resistance trait was both a boon and a curse. The guilt and sadness I felt were hard. It also let me know I wasn’t a monster too. The last thing I wanted was to slowly turn into some kind of murder machine with no regret and only a hunger for experience.
I lay back on my bed and felt the exhaustion of emotional stress and physical activity take me away.
The next three days went pretty smoothly. Get up, eat, kill rats for hours and then go home. I stopped by Meera’s one night, which was a nice reprieve. I was grinding out the levels and the experience. I worked in different areas around the rat hive to ensure I got as much free exploration experience as I could pack in without taking too much time.
I had another run-in with other rat hunters, but they were cool. They had seen me around and wanted to introduce themselves. The team of three were regulars for rat hunting and wanted to check in on me. They did want to make sure I knew that someone had killed some of the other regular rat hunters. I told them that Chad and his companion had tried to rob me. They nodded understanding. No one felt bad about the loss of the two jerks.
By the end of the third day, I finally had enough to do what I wanted to do.
Current Experience: 24674
I spent the experience to push Survivor from 8 to 9 and then to 10. Notifications rolled in.
*Ting*
[Occupation: Survivor has reached level 10, skill available]
*Ting*
[Quest complete - Occupation Advancement.
Reward: Occupation Survivor advanced to Rank E
Please select Occupation Specialization
5000 experience gained]
I checked the specialization selections first.
[Please choose Occupation Specialization from the list below]
1. Exterminator: Increases damage done to nonsentient creatures and increases experience gained from slaying them.
2. Bounty Hunter: Increases damage done to sentient creatures and increases experience gained from their defeat or capture.
3. Powerhouse: Increases physical damage based on Strength and increases resistance to physical attacks.
4. Ghost: Increases success rate of all stealth and escape-related activities.
5. Survivor, Anomaly: Increases availability and power of all Special abilities and related skills and reduces the cost of special abilities.
I reviewed the selections, re-reading them one by one. I instantly removed Bounty Hunter and Powerhouse as options. I did not want to focus on hunting people or being a brute force fighter. Exterminator was also quickly discarded. While the boost to fighting non-sentients would be great, the other two were far more interesting.
Ghost sounded cool. The issue was that I didn’t want to be a ninja or a sneak thief. None of these selections locked me into anything, but they did kind of aim me at a path. The final selection seemed pretty well targeted at a variant like me. I used my special abilities constantly. This path made them even better and allowed me to gain new skills with them more easily. Hell yes. I made the selection.
[Occupation: Survivor (F) changed to Survivor, Anomaly (E)]
Benefits per level-
+2 to all attributes
+1 Toughness
+1 Agility
+1 Cleverness
+6 attribute points to allocate
Recovery rates are increased as a function of 0.5% x Resistance value.
+10% additional experience gained for surviving dangerous situations.
+25% to effectiveness of all special abilities and related skills
-25% cost for all special abilities and related skills
Cost to advance from level 10 to level 11 - 22000 experience
Whoah, the price for leveling shot up. It was double what I was expecting. Twenty-five attribute points per level now. No wonder it got more expensive!
I flipped tabs to look at the skill selections available. The previous selections were still there.
1. Rapid Recovery (F)
Cost: None
Duration: Constant
Recover stamina and willpower at +50% rate and recover hit points at +10% rate. Cannot regenerate lost limbs or total destruction of physical form.
2. Danger Sense (F)
Cost: None
Duration: Constant
Gives a warning of impending danger. Time of warning is 0.01 seconds x perception.
As well as two new selections.
3. Hunter’s Sense (E)
Cost: None
Duration: Constant
Detect the approximate threat value of the targeted creature. Values marked as varying colors on nameplate or minimap. Reduces the value of stealth-related skills used by other entities.
4. Ability Boost (E)
Cost: Moderate over time
Duration: Sustained
Increases effects of all stats, skills, and special abilities by 10% for a sustained duration.
The two new skills were impressive, but neither of them really grabbed my attention. The Hunter’s Sense seemed a bit redundant with my Vibration Sense. Did the System want me to go with a perception build? That seemed interesting, but I had a feeling it had been done already. Ability Boost was a good choice. It would overcharge everything for an increased drain on my stamina. That would include my Regeneration and Vibrating Strike but at the cost of reducing my stamina at a much higher rate.
I selected Ability Boost. The possibility of needing that little bit extra in a pinch was very possible. This would be a card I played only in dire need. I’d experiment with it some first before I lost my head to overthinking about its impact. 10% doesn’t seem like much of a boost, but who knows?
I looked at my remaining experience and was pleased to see that I could put Explorer up to 4, so I did. That left me with a bit over two thousand experience in hand and 19 free points to distribute. I dropped eight into Strength to bring it to 40, five each into intellect and presence, and the last free point into agility because why not?
To be realistic, I’d seen so much growth in the last few days that I felt like a whole new man, three or four new men. I checked my stats before crashing for the day.
Name: Izack Hopper
Species: Human, Variant (E)
Occupation: Survivor, Anomaly (E) Level: 10
Occupation: Explorer (F) Level: 4
Basic Statistics
Strength: 40
Toughness: 46
Dexterity: 40
Agility: 39
Intellect: 35
Cleverness: 50
Perception: 28
Presence: 35
Free points 0
Derived Statistics
Quickness: 43
Resistance: 58
Consumables
Willpower: 580
Health: 430
Stamina: 460
Special Abilities:
Regeneration (Minor)
Cost: Time
Duration: Continuous
Regenerate physical damage at a rate ten times faster than a creature without regeneration.
Note: Allows for regrowth of lost limbs
Vibration Sense (Mid)
Cost: None
Duration: Continuous
Gain the ability to sense the vibrations conducted through assorted mediums to a greater extent than simple hearing and touch sense.
Vibration Control (Greater)
Cost: Varies based on the skill used
Duration: Varies based on the skill used
Gain the ability to vibrate self and touched objects to a variety of effects depending on the skill used.
Note: Vibration Control is disrupted by high-phase energy
Skills Known:
Phasing (Cost: Varies)
Allows the user to pass through physical objects. The user can carry any objects touched for an increased stamina cost.
Vibrating Striking (Cost: Varies, Damage: Moderate)
Allows a user to vibrate at a wavelength slightly out of phase with reality. Objects vibrating at this wavelength will disrupt matter vibrating at other wavelengths. This disruption causes moderate damage to both objects. User may imbue this partially phased state to an object worn or touched. Damage increases based on Strength.
Occupation Skills
Ability Boost (E)
Cost: Moderate over time
Duration: Sustained
Increases effects of all stats, skills, and special abilities by 10% for a sustained duration.
Heightened Resistance (F)
Cost: None
Duration: Constant
Increases value of resistance trait by +50%
Unconventional Weapon Use (F)
Cost: None
Duration: Constant
Increases fighting skill and damage inflicted when using unconventional weapons. Attacks made with unconventional weapons are increased by and 0.5%per point of Strength. Additional fighting techniques acquired.]