“All of the people here are as real as you and I. Everyone thinks it’s either devs running multiple accounts, or some seriously ingenious A.I.” Jorn answered. “The tutorial would’ve walked you through everything, and you would have figured all of this out then.”
Sarah was scowling at him. Duerlin was scrolling through his menus, not paying attention to their conversation.
“Well, just catch me up quick. Ten thousand points seems like an awful lot, but how much does it take to level up?” Sarah leaned closer to Jorn, the rest of the bar had filled up and the noise was growing.
“It is, that quest should probably have been handled by a full party, or even two. Then the experience would have been divided down farther. And the levels here don’t go by just experience alone. You need to build your character up.”
Before Sarah could ask anything else, Jorn waved his hand over the table interface. A small menu appeared before them all. It had several tabs to choose from, each a different type of service provided. He pushed his large finger through the tab that said “Mods”. The screen switched over to one full of small crystals. Each had several symbols next to it, and a large number under that. Sarah guessed that was the type and cost.
Jorn swiveled away the menu, leaving some space between them in the center of the table, then motioned for Sarah to try. She held her arm out over the center of the table. A soft tingle in her wrist announced the arrival of the menu screen. This time, she was able to see much more of the screen. It was full of menus, options, timers, and even a small map appeared.
Sarah moved her arm around, the tingle in her wrist pulsed when she was focusing on the different tabs. She could mentally click each, and they would minimize or slide them around as she willed.
She pulled up the map, just to see where she was. It showed the gate of the city, the building they were in, and a small chunk of the city around them. She moved her arm to the right, then pinched and pulled the map screen to the left. The gate moved, the field clinic came into view, then scrolled to show the meadow they had fought in. Slightly to the north was the mountain she jumped off of. South, was an arid area separated the meadow from the coast line. What an interesting landscape.
Pulling his screen back over and into a larger view, Jorn scrolled down the menu. He hummed a little when he stopped to look at certain ones, but he kept going like he already had a choice and just wanted to look at them all anyway.
Sarah watched as he scrolled through the menu. Then she started looking through her own menu, selecting the mods tab and being instantly confused again.
“I don’t know what those symbols say, how do you know which is which?”
“The symbols reference the energies it corresponds with, as well as how it directs or interacts with the energy.” Jorn sounded like a tutorial guide. “The large sum under it, that’s the cost to buy the upgrade. That’s where the experience points come in. You need to gain the exp, and then come back here to spend it. With that ten thousand, I can afford my next modification. The energies your body is attuned with will be the only ones you can choose. If you're not compatible, it’s like speaking different languages. My tutorial had a section that explained it, but that’s about the only thing about it that made sense to me. If you can’t read what it is, you can’t equip it.”
He stopped scrolling, a larger, double edged brown crystal was floating center screen. Jorn was smiling as he eyed it.
“What is that one?” Sarah asked, she tried to read the screen, but only the numbers were clear.
“Earth crystal, Zircon. It’s a plus ten in power production. Which means I can add the bloodstone obsidian I found to my ax.”
Sarah looked at him with a lost expression, she was confused and had no idea what Jorn was saying.
“That will allow me to use it as a conduit for stronger attacks. All things you would have learned by following the tutorial.” He laughed, pressing the screen to make his order at the same time.
“How do I find what I can use, there’s got to be millions of choices in here.”
Sarah’s teeth ground as she gritted the words out. She was on the verge of complaining to the restaurant owner, hoping to find a simpler way to do this. Or maybe just punching the giant man next to her for bringing up how she missed the tutorial so much.
“You gotta filter the selections and organize the skills and abilities you use into easier to read lists. All of this stuff we learned way back in the…”
A hard punch to his shoulder cut Jorn off, SarthDarah’s huff and sudden attack left him speechless. The hit hadn’t been so much as to knock him over, but she had put a solid amount of force into it. Jorn hadn’t felt the sting of a hit like that since he left the caves.
“Fine, just give me a second.” SarthDarah retorted, she almost sounded angry.
Jorn looked down at his empty food basket, then waved his arm over the menu again and manually ordered another. Sarah was curious as to why he had waited for the waitress the first time.
Sarah’s menu read nothing but gibberish. She grumbled to herself for several minutes as she attempted to select a symbol that represented whatever element or skill she was attuned with. None of them seemed to work.
“Try that one.” Jorn’s giant finger was poking straight into her screen.
“How can you read my screen?”
“I can’t, but that’s where the organize by usable button should be.”
Sarah almost wanted to hit the man again, but calmed and reminded herself that he was just helping. She pressed the weird symbol that looked like a circle with bumps on it. Suddenly, SarthDarah had three choices to make.
Garnet- add plus three to all fire energy attacks and defenses. Cost- 5,000.
Mica- add plus ten to acceleration, required in tandem with emerald to create levitation effect. Cost 5,000.
Ruby- creates inferno effect. If inferno effect is active before modification, gain napalm burst effect. Napalm will engulf the target with combustible gel, burn effect will last until the gel burns out. (This will increase attack rating to Vaporize.) Cost- 8,000.
Sarah ogled the ruby. That little gem, barely a tenth the size of the one Jorn had just ordered, would turn her into a napalm slinging, face melting, action hero. Her punches would melt that stupid plant easily, the gel would burn right through the vines. Maybe not as quick as Anunt’s attack, but it would still work.
What about the garnet though? Simple as it looked, plus three to all attacks, and defenses. That would be a huge boost as well. What fire defense did she have though? She could make fire as she punched, that would hit a lot harder with a plus three. But the defense would be a waste until she learned more skills.
The mica was an incredible modification as well. She was already fast, to get another ten points to acceleration would make it so she could launch even faster than Duerlin, maybe. The levitate was what really drew her attention to that one though, but there wasn’t an option to get an emerald. The tandem benefit wouldn’t activate until she had both.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Her choice was simple then, Sarah clicked her finger through the ruby. The screen disappeared and so did eight thousand of her experience points.
“Good choice. That will definitely boost your damage output. Too bad it cost most of your points.”
“What can I do with the last two thousand?”
“I would suggest a power generating upgrade. Try the upgrade tab.” Jorn pointed out the small page. “Boost skills you already have, or weapons, here.”
Sarah looked through some of the options, the list wasn’t very long. It had her general martial arts skills, the flame punch was on there. The power generation skill was listed with a small red exclamation point behind it.
“Why does it have a red exclamation after the power generation skill?” Sarah was concerned at the mark, they usually meant something bad.
“It means you're either at minimum power generation, or below. Did fighting wear you out physically?”
Sarah thought back, she had been fine while they fought, but exhaustion had washed over her the moment they stopped. It had been like gravity intensified, it hadn’t worn off until they sat down and took some time to rest.
“Well yeah, but isn’t that normal?”
“For a regular person, maybe. For us, here, you shouldn’t even feel fatigued after hours of fighting, unless you’re properly upgraded. My vessel produces one and a half times the energy I need, so I always have extra reserves.”
Jorn’s explanation made Sarah consider, what would be the best upgrade path then? Would simply adding on highly potent attacks be enough?
The power generation tab, with its red mark, was yelling at her to do more. That she would need to build herself a better foundation of power first. Then she could lay on more destructive abilities. Clicking into the tab, Sarah began reading over her choices.
Energy Capacitor- stores an additional ten units of energy, does not generate energy on its own. Cost- 2,000.
Energy Generator- harnesses the natural energies around you. Will only pull in and generate energy from attuned sources. Will add ten units of energy to production. Cost- 2,000.
Siphon Pump- steal generated energies from sources around you. This pump can siphon any energy, regardless of attunement. Adds fluctuating units of energy based on sources around you. Cost- 5,000.
Energy Sphere- containment sphere. House any source of energy here. Can hold one hundred units of energy. Cost- 2,000.
Energy Direction Focus Crystal- warning, must be placed in a properly attuned weapon or gauntlet. Creates a mental link with the weapon, allows for your attuned energy to flow through it. Cost- 5,000.
“These seem like good options, but what does the siphon one do?” Sarah was genuinely curious.
It seemed like it would add in a lot of extra energy, if she was in a densely saturated place. It could also be a dry well, if she got stuck somewhere with barely any natural energy at all, that would be a death sentence.
“Hmph. You're better off taking the normal generator, then saving for the focus crystal. Your ruby will consume a big chunk of your energy, and you won’t be able to power it if you don’t add to your generation now. The siphon, I haven’t actually seen in person. It sounds like it’ll make you an energy vampire though. Might be good if you jump into the middle of mobs all the time though.” Jorn laughed a little at his own joke.
A waitress walked up, white uniform sung on her round hips. She had one tray in her hand, upon it, sat the two crystals they had ordered and another order of chili cheese fries.
“Zircon and a basket of fries, for the gentleman.” The soft woman's voice announced, as she set the gem carefully in front of Jorn. “And Ruby, for the lady.” The small red globe of power was set in front of Sarah. It looked like it was a frozen piece of fire, glimmering in the soft light.
The waitress bowed and walked away. Jorn picked up his crystal, and a slot on his chest appeared. He inserted the crystal, the slot forming around it perfectly. Sarah felt a small surge of power as his aura flared for a moment.
Sarah reached down to grab her ruby. The expensive piece of gemstone was warm to the touch and perfectly smooth. It had an oblong shape, the crystal matrix inside refracting bright red.
Ruby- this will add the Napalm Bust effect to your inferno punches. Warning, napalm gel will stick to everything it comes in contact with, including allies.
The description had popped up, and then disappeared after Sarah read it. A small slot on her left arm opened, near her wrist. Just as she had seen Jorn do, she slid the ruby into the slot. It was accepted and formed to fit it perfectly.
“Well, I figured it would be more difficult than that.” She said, the slot had closed and nothing else seemed to change.
“Since that’s a fighting ability, you won’t notice it until you actually use it. Mine boosted my energy output, so it had a somewhat noticeable effect.” Jorn explained.
Sarah thought about that, a noticeable power up like that made her wonder just how much energy Jorn was capable of handling. She needed to have more energy to use, especially now that she was going to be firing napalm. Sarah noted that the ruby hadn’t said anything about how much energy it used, but the blinking red exclamation next to her power output icon was worrying.
“What about the generator? What’s the difference between it and the capacitor?”
“A generator will actively give you energy based on the available surrounding energies that you can harness. A water user can’t get much from a dessert, and a fire user is of little use in a blizzard. That’s why I like the ground, cause as long as I stay on land, I can harness way more than I’ll ever need. A capacitor, well maybe as a monk class it would be useful to you. They need to be fed energy, that they then hold onto and can feed back to you when you need it. Not so useful if you’re already short of energy, but for someone like me who has extra, we can put away however much they’ll hold. Those charged capacitors have one big advantage that still makes them worth it. If you have a full capacitor, and don’t mind a small backlash of damage, you can use the entire charge at once to power a single attack.”
Sarah didn’t have to know the specifics of how to do it to know that that was potentially a great asset. To have an overcharge ability, all for two thousand experience points, would be easily worth it. If only she had the energy output.
It seemed like the generator was the first step, and then she would have to come back with a bunch more points for more upgrades. The progression in this game would be slow and tedious, but the realism in how it felt was amazing. Sarah was still conflicted on how she felt about it, but so far her adventure had been fun.
The freedom to do nearly anything in this game was satisfying. The near death experience had taught her to not take this game lightly, and if it were true that she only had one life, then she had come to close to expending it already. She bought the generator, hoping it was enough to power her napalm and everything else without issue.
Within a few minutes the waitress returned, once more with a tray bearing a crystal. This time Sarah had to ask Jorn where it went, and he pointed right at his own chest. Sarah blinked at him a few times, not really understanding.
“It goes in the seam of your chest plates.” Jorn was trying not to look down at the much shorter SarthDarah.
“You better turn your head.” SarthDarah warned him.
When she looked down, her chest was barely a bump in the orange fabric of her shirt. It had an overlapping style, almost like a robe, and a simple belt tied at her front was all that kept it together. Well, hopefully game mechanics kept it together while she was fighting.
She had seen Jorn have to unstrap just to show off his arm. Did that mean as long as she kept it tied she wouldn’t be able to lose her coverings? One way to find out was to pull it open right here and see what happened. Sarah wasn’t sure if she should though, there were still quite a few people in the restaurant.
Jorn was already turned and facing away, Sarah grabbed at the overlapping layer of her robe with her left hand. It lifted away as easily as any real robe would. The underneath of the fabric was a thick padding, several hooks and loops in the padding suggested she could stick small objects in them. That could be handy.
As she reached her right hand in to open the remaining layer of the robe, her heart beat a little faster. This was extremely in depth for a game. There felt like there was more realism here than she felt in her own real life sometimes.
The layer peeled back, revealing her golden bronze skin to be a shade lighter inside her clothing. Six seams ran horizontally; the first two from either side of her neck, the fourth and fifth came from just below her collar bone, the last pair were large rounded lines that gave the tops of her breasts an elliptical outline.
SarthDarah had under clothing on, simple cloth wrappings that kept her body tightly woven together. She stopped staring at herself only after Jorn coughed a bit louder than a normal person should have. The generator that she still held in her left hand fit in one of these, which one should she choose?
As she brought it closer, her right collar bone seam split just a fraction. Sarah could only guess that it must be that one.