When Barry awoke his body felt fresh, and with his recent achievements and levels, he was feeling pretty pleased with himself. His stats were nearly back to full, and he was ready to face the world again. With a yawn he stretched his arms overhead then brought his hands to his face to rub the sleep from his eyes. He looked up to through the long worm hole that he had been resting in and towards the world above. With a wave of his hand he summoned a series of remote chains at regular intervals between the sides of the pit walls and began his climb back out and into the opening. With little effort, Barry clambered upwards, using each chain like the rung of a ladder, until his head poked out of the opening and into the world above. The sky above was coloured pinkish purple, indicating it was evening time. Barry was sick and tired of snow by now, and he decided to push on and get out of this area of forest before night came. So, with careful steps, and an ever-watchful eye for any sign of hidden pitfalls, Barry began his trudge through the snow and into the next section of forest.
It didn’t take long for Barry to exit the snow and place his feet on more solid ground for the first time in what felt like forever. He now found himself in another section of tree filled forest, this one was filled with broad, hanging willows surrounded by smaller rose bushes. The other thing that was different about this zone was that the ground wasn’t flat, instead he was constantly walking up an incline. As he recalled the many times he had looked up towards the purple glow in the sky, he remembered the distinct outline of mountains in the distance.
“I guess they aren’t so far away anymore,” Barry thought to himself.
It seemed crazy that in what he assumed was about a fortnight Barry had managed to cover such vast distances by doing nothing but mostly walking. But then again, his dexterity was continually improving, and therefore so was his speed. He could already tell his normal walk was much faster than the average person before all these magical abilities and skills became available, and his run speed was damn near superhuman. So maybe it wasn’t so surprising that he’d covered such a large distance so quickly. Refocussing, Barry considered whether to rest up in one of the willow branches for the night or not. After some thought, he decided to just press on despite the impending darkness. He would still have the moonlight after all, and it was probably a good thing that he started to get used to navigating and fighting overnight.
The night was surprisingly uneventful for Barry. He did have to fight off a couple of swarms of small squirrel creatures called ‘jump crunchers’. Barry knew swarms wasn’t the right term for a group of squirrels, but it seemed to make sense to him as the little pests literally did swarm forward with numbers in the thirties. Barry could see how many individuals would be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of these creatures as they dropped down from the trees and launched up from the rose bushes. Thankfully, these sorts of enemies were the easiest for him to deal with, as like the hopstrikers, the aggressive little critters were unable to cause him any damage.
One particularly large willow tree was covered in over fifty jump crunchers scuttling along its thick branches in every direction. When Barry approached, the creatures charged at him with reckless abandon and after a few minutes of battering with his chain, he was surrounded by piles of bloody squirrel corpses. Barry decided to investigate the abnormally large willow and he found a decent sized hole in the trunk that contained a silver loot box. Within the loot box were three small green vials that Barry instantly inspected.
Inspection:
Stamina potion (minor): A stamina potion that instantly restores a small amount of stamina points. 1 hour cool down
“That’s a handy find,” Barry grinned to himself as he tossed the vials into his spatial sack and climbed back down to the ground to continue his forward march.
After stopping to enjoy a meal of roasted squirrel with a side of edible rose leaves, Barry soon found himself exiting the willow forest and hiking upwards through the first bare section of ground that he had ever come across. It felt strange to Barry, as for the past week or two he had been constantly surrounded by plant life or large rocks. Whereas this space was completely empty of any of these features. Instead, apart from the dirt below his feet, there was just nothing. It did confirm his theory that he had started pushing up one of the mountains he remembered seeing, for when he looked ahead, without any trees blocking his vision, he was able to see the steep incline and distant peak above him. Seeing this, Barry got a burst of energy and he quickly made his way up to the top.
As he reached the apex of the mountain, he felt a cool breeze rush through his hair. The air was refreshing, especially in comparison to the freezing cold winds he’d experienced on the mountain within the dungeon. He took a long, deep, fulfilling breath of air before gazing around. In front of him he could see a series of mountain ranges that appeared to be positioned in circular ring patterns. His current mountain looked to be about the second tallest in the series. The largest circular mountain range made up the centre most ring, and the glowing purple area of sky was brightest around the tall mountains. It was strange to observe, as despite the rest of the sky starting to glow a light orange due to the rising sun, the purple patch remained untouched. Looking down, Barry could see large patches of forest scattered throughout the area. Large, square areas of forest ranging from deep green, to brown and blue were scattered about the land, each with varying degrees of visible plant life. It was as if the earth had been covered in a giant, multi-coloured, natural quilt. The combination of the colourful forest, the impressive mountains and the orange and purple sky made the view utterly spectacular, and for minutes Barry just gazed around in awe. Never in his life did he think he would see such a beautiful sight. In fact, he didn’t even think he would have a life by now. His recent experiences had been unbelievable, and Barry could feel himself getting emotional again. As the tears fell down his cheeks and the orange hue in the sky turned to the blue of the day, Barry was interrupted by a message in his mind, and he instantly snapped out of his stupor.
Delta galaxy training ground day 14 progress update. Stats ladder is now fully unlocked and visible to all initiates. Please input name to be used for the ladder.
Barry furrowed his brows as he read the information. Within his mind he could sense that he needed to mentally input a name that he assumed would be displayed on the ladder for all to see. He considered whether he should input some sort of alias to add an element of mystery. He could try to think of something cool and unique like.... Barry blanked. He couldn’t think of a single good name that wasn’t in some way corny or had been used in the past. When he’d played video games previously he’d always just used the name Barry, that was who he was, and he was comfortable with that. Plus, he wanted Knob to know that he was still alive and well, and the only way he could do that would be through this ladder system. So, without any further hesitation, and not wanting to let someone else sneak in and steal his name before he could get it, he mentally pushed the word Barry forward.
You have selected the name: Barry. Is this correct?
Barry mentally pushed forward the thought of yes and the he received a more familiar message in return.
Delta galaxy training ground day 14 progress update. This is the final update before the conclusion of the training ground. Individual – Barry:
Power level: Rank 11
Item level: Rank 17
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Magic level: 25
Total soul stat points: Rank 5
Wealth: 15
Vitality: Rank 1
Strength: Unranked
Stamina: Unranked
Dexterity: Unranked
Mana: Unranked
Perception: Unranked
Manipulation: Unranked
Willpower: 2
Ladder updated: Fully visible
Rewards:
Title: Early specialist (vitality) – maintained.
Bronze loot box (7): for achieving 7 ranked stats. 3 X loot boxes upgraded to silver for achieving top 10 ranking. 1 X loot box upgraded to gold for achieving number 1 ranking.
Seven loot boxes in total. A new personal best for Barry. It also demonstrated that he was continuing to excel in these training grounds. He’d almost made the top ten for power level, which was huge. Plus, his total soul stats now placed him at rank five which was amazing progress. This was probably a result of his phantom protector class, and it reaffirmed his belief that he had done well in obtaining a class with such great stat perks. Both his soul item and magic level had improved, which was obviously the reason his power level was so impressive. Additionally, he was now back on the list for wealth, having shot up to rank fifteen. He placed a hand over the bandana around his neck and stroked the silky material, having no doubt that this epic item was a large contributor to his rapid progression up the wealth rankings. He had, as usual, maintained his rank one position in vitality, but most unbelievably and pleasingly, he was now a massive rank two for wisdom. In all, he was over the moon with his position on the ladder, and he decided to turn his attention to the overall stats to give him an idea of who he was up against.
Overall stats, power level:
1. Pinnacle – level 18
2. The boss – level 17
3. Arr0w – level 16
4. Supercool – level 16
5. Flames of life – level 16
6. Gha-rhi – level 16
7. Ms sexy booty – level 16
8. Achilles – level 16
9. The pristine – level 15
10. Zhirt-fu – level 15
11. Barry – level 15...
Barry’s stomach sank a little at first glance of the ladder. Not because the levels were impressively high, which they were. But because it looked like most, if not all of the people he was up against had in fact used a pseudonym, whilst he was just plain old Barry. Granted, some of the names were questionable to say the least, but at least they provided some anonymity. Although he felt a bit foolish, he decided to forget about it for a moment and instead move on to the other stats that interested him.
Overall stats, total stat points:
1. Pinnacle – 195
2. The boss – 182
3. Gha-rhi – 169
4. Supercool – 158
5. Barry – 153
6. Flames of life – 152
7. Arr0w – 149
8. Zhirt-fu – 147
9. Ms sexy booty – 146
10. The pristine – 146
This was interesting. With the exception of the ones known as ‘pinnacle’ and ‘the boss’, whose positions remained unchanged, most of the others on the list moved around significantly. Barry assumed that his great class perks were probably a big factor in why he had such high stat points despite having a lower power level than the others, but he couldn’t be certain. But clearly he wasn’t the only one who had gained extra points or had an impressive class, as the top three all had some crazy high stats. Gha-rhi was only one power level above him after all and yet he had sixteen more stat points. After analysing a bit more Barry moved on to the other stats he wanted to inspect.
Overall stats, vitality:
1. Barry – 54
2. Rock – 45
3. Unbreakable – 40
4. Ice fist – 38
5. Fre-ja – 37
6. Unstoppable – 37
7. Zhirt-fu – 35
8. Jojojo – 35
9. The boss – 34
10. Goliath – 34...
Again Barry was pleased with his position, and he still had a respectable lead over second, but he would like the buffer to be larger. There were a couple of familiar names on the list, but mostly the top ten, and even the top twenty were new to him. This meant that he must be one of the few frontrunners of the training grounds who invested heavily in vitality. Additionally, pinnacle, the overall rank one was not on the list at all, meaning their specialties lie elsewhere.
Overall stats, willpower:
1. Saint Kay – 42
2. Barry – 40
3. Inner eye – 36
4. Gelle – 33
5. Father Bern – 31
6. Past life – 28
7. Heavenly – 26
8. Monk Chi – 25
9. Golden – 23
10. Vhet-zhy – 20
Barry was so close to being the top rank for wisdom he could almost taste it. Only two stat points. That was a single level up for him, and that was without considering his free points. Before long he would be rank one, he just knew it. It was annoying that he hadn’t realised this before, as he could have easily invested a few points into wisdom and been granted a gold loot box instead of the silver one. But beggars can’t be choosers, and he was still extremely pleased with his overall position. Clearly the wisdom ladder was much easier to climb, as to be top ten you only needed a level of twenty. But Barry wouldn’t let that fact take away from his achievement.
“I’m coming for you Saint Kay,” he said to himself with a sarcastic snort.
Next, Barry turned his attention to the manipulation ladder, as he scrolled through with dwindling hope for Knob’s name. Despite going through the list three times, he couldn’t see his friend anywhere. He knew the last time he’d been with Knob, his friend was within the top one hundred, and moving up quickly, so if he was alive he would surely still be on the list, even if he’d done nothing but hide out for days.
“Maybe he has a pseudonym too,” thought Barry with feigned optimism.
He could feel himself getting emotional thinking about his friend, so instead he did what he could to distract himself.
Barry spent the next few minutes going through the various ladders one by one, trying to piece together where most of the frontrunners had invested their stat points. Barry only considered those who were in the top ten for either power level or total soul stats to be the ones who were truly excelling. He also ignored the wealth category altogether as he didn’t really care about it and he still had no idea how wealth was calculated. Surprisingly, ‘Pinnacle’ was not rank one for any individual stat despite being rank one for power level and total stat points. They were however, top ten for soul item, soul magic, dexterity, stamina, strength and mana. They also ranked somewhere in the top one hundred for every possible category which was quite amazing. ‘The boss’ was much more specialised, they were rank two in strength, which was the most competitive category along with mana. They were also top ten for dexterity and twelfth for vitality. Most impressive though, was that they were rank one for soul item level, being level twenty. ‘Gha-rhi’ was another who seemed to focus more on the physical stats, being rank one for strength with a whopping level seventy in the stat. They were rank two in soul item, just behind ‘The boss’ and other than that they had very few stats in the top one hundred, and nothing else in the top ten. ‘Supercool’ was the complete opposite, they had invested much more heavily in the magical stats and were the rank one in soul magic level as well as mana, being at level twenty and seventy three for these stats. Seventy three was the highest individual stat for any category, and Barry had to appreciate how much effort it would have taken to invest so heavily in a single stat. “Obviously a mage,” he said to himself with a nod. ‘Flames of life’ was similar to ‘Supercool’ in the way that they had a very high soul magic level at nineteen, and their mana level was rank five, being level sixty two. Arr0w was more unique, they had a high soul item level at level eighteen, they were rank one for perception with a level of fifty-three, and they also had an impressive dexterity level of forty five, putting them at rank ten for that stat.
Barry could have spent all day studying the various levels and stats of his competitors but when he saw ‘The pristine’ level up and instantly move from rank ten to seven in total stat points he was once again reminded that in order to keep his current ranking, or move higher up on the list, he couldn’t afford to sit back and relax. So, he turned towards the stack of loot boxes beside him and popped open the latches.
The bronze boxes were expectedly unexciting. They contained a few black and blue stamina and mana berries as well as a necklace of mana that he couldn’t wear anyway as it took up the same item slot as his bandana, yet only provided a boost of one mana point. The silver boxes were a little better. He received a ‘black bear pelt’, which provided no bonuses but stated it could be used in crafting for light armour. He also received some stamina grass to add to his collection. His final, and favourite, silver loot box reward was something called a ‘food storage bag’ that was able to greatly prolong the lifespan of any consumable. Barry felt this would be invaluable as he would be able to prepare meals well in advance and save himself having to stop and cook so frequently. He tossed all his loot so far into his spatial sack and moved on to the final gold loot box. A smile formed on his face as he inspected the item.
“Finally, I don’t have to be bare chested anymore,” he exclaimed as he picked up the dark black fabric and re-read its information.
Inspection:
Vest of the elder (rare): A magical vest worn by the elders of Yorn. This vest grants 5 additional points to the mana stat when worn.
“Another extremely useful item. The gold loot boxes don’t disappoint,” thought Barry as he flung the vest overhead and pulled it down over his chest and front.
He slid his hands down the sides of the neatly fitting singlet vest and finally he felt like he was properly dressed for the first time in a long while.
“It kind of all fits together well too,” thought Barry as he looked down at his ensemble.
Feeling ready to face the world, and filled with the drive to keep pushing himself further, Barry stepped forward and began running down the incline of the mountain towards the purple light. Less than a minute in to his downward charge, when he was a mere twenty metres or so from the collection of trees signalling the next area of forest, Barry’s enthusiasm was replaced with terror. An arrow shot forward from within the trees below him, spiralling with tremendous speed directly towards his head.