Matt’s POV

I woke up with a pounding headache. I jumped up and looked around ready to see a giant snake eating all my friends. But then I saw everybody sitting around a fire chatting calmly. Everyone looked good except Mike. His arm was wrapped up, using his own shirt as a sling. I groggily stumbled over to them to hear what they were saying.

Then Eli jumps up and hit the snake with a Forcepalm sending the icicle straight into the brain of that basilisk. Codes is laying down heals and shouting out commands like some sort of General. I’m firing Icicles and Water Bullets but Mike you my friend are the hero of today. If you hadn’t did that last gamble, we’d all be dead. (Z)

What gamble? What happened exactly. (ML)

Look sleeping beauty is finally awake. (Z)

Are you alright Matt? You took a pretty massive hit in that fight. (M)

The gamble is that Mike here almost lost his arm killing that twin headed Basilisk. Cody healed him up but his arms still broken. Hopefully that town that V told us about will have a proper healer. (E)

Hey I did my best. I even had to use my Bloodline on you guys. ©

Don’t worry, Codes I don’t blame you at all. (M)

What about me? Why does my head hurt so much? (ML)

You my friend got the shit knocked out of you. The Basilisk almost one shot you. (Z)

Seriously? (ML)

Yeah dude you kinda let the team down. (E)

Fuck you. I didn’t let the team down, I’m the tank and I don’t have a shield or weapon. (ML)

None of us have weapons man and we all still did our part. (M)

Alright enough! We have too much shit to do to be arguing like this. We still need to figure out what spells we’re all going to pick. And how we’re going to place our stat points we got from our level up. ©

Level up? (ML)

Dude you didn’t notice since you were passed out but check your status screen. (M)

I thought status and brought up my current stats.

Matt

Class: Knight

Affinity: Blood

LVL: 10

HP: 418/418

MP: 140/140

Health Regen: 44 HpM

Mana Regen: 2 MpM

STR-7

INT-0

PERC-0

VIT-0

WIS-0

DEX-3

CHRM-0

EXP:3900/51200

90 stat points available to allocate

Holy hell 90 points? (ML)

Yeah we leveled up nine times from the fight with the basilisk. (E)

Also my health and mana went up by ninety points each? (ML)

Yeah I believe that every time you level up your health and mana go up by ten, I could be wrong though.

Alright should we allocate our stat points now that Matt’s awake? (M)

Before we do that we have the elephant in the room to talk about. Eli you said your armor can TALK? (Z)

Um yeah it does. It has since we spawned into this world. I guess it’s sentient or something. I think I’m the only one who can hear it. Also it doesn’t talk constantly only when I’m in danger does it really speak up. (E)

Ohhhkay. So basically our five man party is actually a six man party? (Z)

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

So do you guys have any ideas how you want to build? ©

I think I’m going to be focusing on burst damage. I wanna get in, kill something and quickly get out. (M)

I’m going to go for pure health tank build. The only thing I learned from that basilisk fight is I need to be able to take more hits so you guys don’t have to. (ML)

Aww how thoughtful. (Z)

Fuck off. (ML)

I’m doing a well balanced build but focusing on sustained damage and staying in the frontlines so Mike doesn’t have to. (E)

Since me and Zach are going for mage builds we should put most of our points into intelligence and wisdom ©

I allocated my points and take a look at my improved stats.

Matt

Class: Knight

Affinity: Blood

LVL: 10

HP: 750/750

MP: 140/140

Health Regen: 45 HpM

Mana Regen: 2 MpM

STR-90

INT-0

PERC-0

VIT-2

WIS-0

DEX-8

CHRM-0

EXP:3900/51200

Then we decided to pick out the spells we would need going forward. Cody informed me that it seemed like every five levels we would be able to pick out a new spell. I had the following eight spells to choose from.

Blood Spear: Create a spear of blood to throw at your enemies. (Cost:10 MP DMG:20)

Sturdy: Become an immovable object. Dispelled upon movement. Caster still takes damage. (Cost:20 MP)

Nullify Pain: Caster nullifies all pain they would receive for the next ten minutes. (Cost:15 MP)

Barbed Wire: Caster uses magic to surround themselves in spiked mana. Causes damage on touch. (Cost:15 MP DMG:10)

Damage Exchange: Caster absorbs the damage an ally takes for one minute.

Blood Armor: Caster gives up 10% of their total health to form a blood armor that absorbs damage in place of casters HP (Cost:40 MP)

Lion’s Heart: Caster summons the courage of a lion resisting mental debuffs (Cost:30 MP)

Hemostasis: Stops the caster’s wounds from bleeding for five minutes no matter how severe they are. (Cost:50 MP)

Guys I don’t know if it’s the same for you, but it seems like the available skills and spells are catered to your class and affinity. And maybe even your desires. (ML)

I was thinking the same thing honestly. Make sure you carefully select what spells you want. Remember not just to think about what you want but what is best for the team. ©

Got it. (M,E,Z,ML)

Cody’s words hit home with me. I don’t think they were just directed at me because he’s too nice to do that. I had a lot of thinking to do.

So who's going to be the leader of our merry band of misfits? I vote me since I’m the main character (ML)

All in favor of Codes? (M)

Aye (Z&E)

Okay I guess I’m our leader ©

But he’s the healer! I’m our first line of defense keeping everyone safe (ML)

Overruled. (Z)

Cody’s POV

I’m scared. One second I’m chilling at home, the next my friends and I are in a life or death battle with a huge twin headed Basilisk and I’m in charge. Any one of us could’ve died. This world is terrifying and I seem to be the only one taking this seriously. The others are acting as if this is one big adventure and I’m over here worrying about everyone's safety. I can’t wait to get out of this forest and be in the safety of a town. Anyways time to pick my spells for my level up and distribute my points. I picked my points and looked at my current status.

Cody

Class: Paladin

Affinity: Holy/Fire

HP: 233/233

MP: 450/450

Health Regen: 11 HpM

Mana Regen: 15 MpM

STR-17

INT-17

PERC-23

VIT-10

WIS-10

DEX-7

CHRM-16

EXP:3900/51200

I had a good balance of attack and defense. I made my charisma high since I figured as the leader of our group I should be likeable to make up for Mike and Matt. Then I took a look at what spells I had available.

Blinding Light: Caster creates a blinding light that confuses and stuns everyone in immediate area (20 Feet). (Cost:20 MP)

Holy Ray: Fires a burst of holy energy. Basic light spell (Cost:10 MP DMG:20)

Minor Cure: Heals minor poisons and ailments. (Cost:15 MP)

Mend: Heals broken bones (Cost:25 MP DMG:15)

Purify: Purifies desecrated things such as undead or dark creatures using holy power (Cost:45 MP DMG:50)

Fortify: Buffs one of target’s stats by five (Cost:50 Buff:5)

Cleansing Circle: Projects a healing aura around caster healing targets within it for 50 HP over five minutes. (Cost:60 MP)

Holy Shield: Creates a shield of holy energy around target (Cost:10 MP = 5 Armor)

Lots of good spells to choose from. If I picked Mend I could fix Mike’s arm. Minor Cure would be helpful if we ran into another snake and it turned out to be poisonous. Purify and Holy Ray would allow me to have a more active role in combat. Holy Shield and Cleansing Circle sounded amazing. I decided to wait and hear what everyone else picked before I made my decision.

So what’d you guys pick? ©

Blood Armor and Hemostasis. Essentially an armor spell and a blood clotting spell. You know, stuff to make sure the main character doesn’t die. (ML)

Wait you only picked two spells? I got four. I’m starting to think its either related to my race or my bloodline. Or both. I picked two offensive spells; Geyser Blast and Ice Spear. And then I picked Dispel to have a defensive spell and Summon Familiar because I’ve always liked pets. (Z)

I picked Rage and Steel Body. One turns my mana into rage and allows my spells to do twenty five percent more damage at double the cost. The other turns my body to steel for five minutes reducing physical damage by twenty five percent. (E)

I chose Cloud Clone which creates an illusionary clone of me and Blade Storm which is an attacking spell where you rapidly slice at an enemy with blades. Figure it’ll be helpful when I finally get some weapons (M)

Okay based on what you guys have chosen I’ll pick Purify which does holy damage to undead and dark creatures and Holy Shield which gives one of us a holy shield proportional to the mana I put in.. Now question what are we planning on doing with the basilisk corpse? It’s might be worth something in town. It could even be possibly turned into armor or weapons. ©

Mike you said your bloodline was like an inventory right? Can you try absorbing it into your inventory? (Z)

Yeah I can try (M)

Mike slowly walked over to the basilisk corpse and put his hand on it. He closed his eyes and the snake started swirling around getting smaller and smaller before being absorbed into his palm.

Night was quickly approaching so we set up a watch rotation. Mike volunteered to go first, so the rest of us crowded around the fire we had started and tried to get some sleep. Little did we know it was going to be a long night.