I appeared in a sterile, white room, in one of the corners. In the other corner appeared a zombie. Its skin had mostly rotted away, leaving clumps of gray skin hanging from different parts of the body. It had long, stringy hair that had fallen out in patches, leaving bald chunks. One of its eyes had rotted away, leaving an empty socket. Its mouth had fallen open and revealed at least a dozen missing teeth. It groaned and shambled forward. All it was missing from the stereotypical zombies was its arms out in front of it.
I pulled out my daggers and raised them in front of me. Immediately, I readjusted my stance. I bent my knees and put one leg behind the other in a classic stance with my feet perpendicular to each other. I raised one dagger in front of me and held the other one close to my body, near my center of mass. That must be my Lesser Dagger Mastery kicking in. Helpful, very helpful.
From my mastery, I also know that while more people would use one dagger and grapple with their off-hand, it is not a good idea to try and grapple with a zombie or, for that matter, most monsters. Hence, double daggers.
Immediately after appearing in the room, I decided it would be a good idea to test another one of my skills. “Master Identify!”
Status of Zombie
Level: 1
HP: 50
Strength: 5
Endurance: 5
Intelligence: 1
Willpower: 1
Control: 1
Perception: 1
Zombies really do not have luck stat-wise. Okay, so how do I fight him? I can feel my Dagger Mastery taking over as I rush the approaching zombie. First, dash to the side and slam the blade up underneath the chin. Second, leave the dagger behind and-- Actually, it seems as though the first step was all that was needed. I got a critical hit notification alerting me of the 57 damage I did to a level 1 zombie. The second notification I received was more interesting.
2 (10 x 20% Training Reduction) EXP rewarded for killing a level 1 zombie. 0 (5 x 0% Training Reduction) Shop Chits awarded for killing a level 1 zombie.
Pity I didn’t get any Shop Chits and that the EXP was reduced, but I suppose getting a head start was worth it. I grabbed my dagger and pulled it out of the zombie’s corpse. As soon as it was removed, the corpse faded away.
Suddenly, the world started to swirl around and I reappeared in my game theory classroom. I checked my watch and noticed that the whole ordeal had taken about 1 minute. If I stay here for about an hour and grind, I would be able to make it at least a level into humanity’s new existence. Well, then, it’s decided.
First, I want to check my status and skill progression.
Status of Hector “Blink!” MacAvoy
Class: Blink
Level: 1
EXP Req: 98
HP: 180
Health/min: 2.4
Stamina: 97
Stamina/min: .8
Mana: 110
Mana/min: 1.3
Strength: 10
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 13
Control: 5
Perception: 9
Free: 0
Well, the EXP was removed from my distance from the next level. The System seems to be working in that fashion. I guess that I used 3 stamina to move around and fight? I need to increase my stamina regen. Next up is skill progression, which I learned about from Grun’li’s guide.
On each skill is a percentage. When it is 100%, it is possible to evolve the skill. If it is a level below Master, it will evolve to its next level. If it is at Master, it has a chance to evolve and specialize in a new skill that begins at Basic, but it is supposed to be a very rare option.
Skill: Lesser Dagger Mastery (Passive) (5%)
Allows you to single wield or dual wield daggers with the skill of someone who has been training the past five years.
Well, 5% isn’t much, but it’s something. Time to get back to training. I continued on and on, killing zombie after zombie after zombie. It was somewhat boring, but I learned new dagger techniques as I fought. Now, instead of just stabbing the zombie through the chin, I would slash across its neck in a smooth motion that almost decapitated the zombie. Lesser Dagger Mastery increased to 25%, but it doesn’t seem like it will go up even more. I think I need to fight different creatures.
Master Identify actually went up 1%, but it isn’t rising anymore either. I don’t know whether that is because Master-level skills are harder to progress in or because I’ve been essentially identifying the same zombie for an hour. I decided not to risk trying skeletons or anything more advanced because the zombie is working well enough for gaining experience.
After killing my 50th zombie, I received the normal kill notification as well as a new notification.
Congratulations, Hector! Do you want to increase your level to 2?
“Yes, please,” I say tiredly. I’m not used to doing this much work. Nearly an hour has passed, and I’ve been working the same muscles over and over again. Usually, I sit on my bed and work or listen to music. Everybody ignores me and I ignore them. That’s how I roll. I sit in the back of all of my classes, only do as much work is necessary, and botch the questions I must so I maintain a solid C+.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Back to leveling up, another light descended from the sky, just like when I bought items at the store. This light, however, was much larger and encompassed my entire body as opposed to a small point on my body. Immediately after the light touched me, a sense of euphoria shot through my body. My body twisted as waves of pleasure shot through me. My muscles didn’t ache anymore, the blisters forming on my hands seemed to heal over immediately, and I felt, for the first time that I could remember, good. I was fine. I was safe.
Then, the light vanished, taking the feeling with it, and I collapsed into a chair, breathing heavily. I checked my status screen for updates as soon as I recovered from the abrupt departure of the pleasure.
Status of Hector “Blink!” MacAvoy
Class: Blink
Level: 2
EXP Req: 200
HP: 180
Health/min: 2.4
Stamina: 50/100
Stamina/min: .8
Mana: 110
Mana/min: 1.3
Strength: 10
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 13
Control: 5
Perception: 9
Free: 20
So, the 20 free stats I have now are four times what everyone else will get, but they will level four times faster than I will. Unless there’s a level cap, this isn’t that great of a deal. If there are skills or bonuses that occur at higher levels as a prize for reaching that high of a level, that’s also worse for me because people will level faster. Maybe those are quadrupled too? I don’t know. It seems like it isn’t that great. Well, all I can do is try to level faster.
I decide to assign my stats before I start training again. To start that off, I assign enough points to bring all of my below-average stats up to 10, which costs me 8 points. I split the rest between Strength, to hit harder, Endurance, to last longer, Intelligence, so I can cope with this apocalypse better, and Perception, so I can be better at avoiding sneak attacks. When I finish, my stats look like this:
Status of Hector “Blink!” MacAvoy
Class: Blink
Level: 2
EXP Req: 200
HP: 240
Health/min: 2.6
Stamina: 70/120
Stamina/min: 1.2
Mana: 130
Mana/min: 1.3
Strength: 12
Endurance: 12
Intelligence: 13
Willpower: 13
Control: 10
Perception: 12
Free: 0
So, I think I have the stats of a normal level 5. I should probably be able to try a skeleton now, but I’m not sure I want to take to many risks yet. Plus, school would normally be over now, and all of the panic on the street means that I should probably get back to the orphanage. I have some stuff there that I want to keep.
I began to walk back to the orphanage and got as far as the door to the building before I thought about what I would find. Would people still be here? Would everything be gone, looted by people concerned only with themselves? Would there be dead people in here?
I burst into the orphanage and saw... well, nothing out of the ordinary. Mrs. Olfson was beginning to cook dinner and welcomed me when I came in. I said hi to her as I passed, and she said hi back. I passed through the kitchen and walked into the room where all of the beds were. I was shocked once more that everyone was just sitting on their beds. The older ones were reading or doing homework and the younger ones were playing together. Did I imagine the whole apocalypse thing? But that can’t be true… I fought zombies! I conjured stuff from nothing! I know how to use daggers! There is floating text, for Pete’s sake!
I walked over to my bed and grabbed some clothes to pack. Before I did that, I remembered that the appearance of the System and the machinations of the Shop granted me an inventory. I placed my clothes into a bag and popped the bag into my inventory, breathing a sigh of relief when I realize that it only took up one slot. I pulled out the rest of my clothes, of which there weren’t many, and put them into my inventory as well. I managed to fit about half of them into my bag, so they only took up 20 inventory slots. It turns out things in this world do not stack in the inventory, which is sort of annoying, but I couldn’t really complain too much because the inventory in itself is cool.
I decided to practice some of my other skills and stay here for the rest of the three days. I might be able to save some of their lives if they aren’t doing anything to protect themselves. I knew there wasn’t much they can do, but at the very least they could have practiced with other weapons or bought food. There were plenty of options. Probably.
Anywho, I began to practice my Mana Manipulation. After activating the skill in my mind, the room filled with color. It drifted around me. I could see every color of the rainbow as well as more colors that I’ve never seen before. I reached out and plucked a blue strand out from the background, pulling it back over to me. I began to wind it like you would a ball of yarn, starting with a small ball of blue and working my way up to something that comfortably fits in my palm. When I wound it to the size I wanted, I instinctively knew what to do. I reached out and grabbed and bright red strand and brought it closer. I wrapped it around the extra length of the strand of blue and pulled hard. Immediately, the ball separated from the blue strand of mana and started to unravel. I quickly used one hand to hold it in place and used the other to grab the red mana once more. This time, when I tried using the red mana to hold it in place, the blue ball started deteriorating faster.
So, the red mana will make the blue mana disappear, which is why it works for cutting but not fusion. I reached out for another mana that was entirely clear. I could still sense it, somehow, but it was completely invisible. As soon as I touched it to the blue mana, it started to move away from the clear mana. I let go of the latter, as it obviously didn’t help with creating a ball of blue mana. Suddenly, I spotted an ethereal type of mana that was tightly wound around a bright green strand. I nudged the green out of the way and grabbed the ethereal, taking it and touching it to my ball of blue. It fused immediately with the ball, so I wrapped it around my creation. As I wrapped it and pulled it tight, the ball of blue began to shrink. It all seemed to be there, it was just getting denser and denser. I wrapped and fused faster and faster, and, suddenly, something clicked. The extra ethereal mana went back to where it was, mana manipulation turned off, and I looked down to realize that I had made myself a ball of water half the size of my fist.