"Well, that was all fairly dramatic, wasn't it?" Lorelei smiled in her most unthreatening manner, very aware of the appalled regard of the surviving denizens of the Amber Zone.
Having spent a career working in HR, she was comfortable with her appearance rarely being a cause for celebration. It was not that she had never been especially popular, but rather that Human Resources was not the happy, fun, laid-back department people tended to assume. Her arrival at parties had tended to require a sobering—and a buttoning—up. Nevertheless, considering she had just saved these people from a pretty wholesale slaughter at the hands of those of a much higher level, she did think they could dial up the 'my friend, you bow for no one' energy and lose the 'oh fuck, there's suddenly a red lightsabre and heavy breathing at the end of this corridor.'
On reflection, though, Lorelei could see that, objectively, what these people had just seen happen would have looked like quite the shitshow.
With
As they were blown away, Lorelei again received a pleasant wash of XP and experienced the sensation she was beginning to connect with levelling up. But the fun didn't stop there. Without pausing, Lorelei had continued running up the hill towards the entrance and, with the next toss of her coin, saw the rather skimpily dressed woman floating around, raining thunderbolts down left, right, and centre, being buffeted towards the gates by a sudden—and unlikely—gust of wind.
It turned out that lightning, giant metal spikes, and human flesh were quite the combination. Another outpouring of XP came her way.
Finally, the smell of the cooking meat seemed to drive a massive fucking panther whose mouth and claws were soaked in blood, rather out of its mind. It leapt towards the nearest fresh body, a thin, intense-looking teenager, who reacted to the deadly assault with all the screaming incredulity and surprise of a pit bull owner who, having fucked around, was very much finding out. A final toss of her coin had a stray bolt from the barbequed remains of the lightning-flinger arc downwards to incinerate the panther.
The whole debacle had taken about ninety seconds.
***Help Message***
Just for clarity, there is absolutely no fucking way in the world I am going to let you keep all of that XP. As soon as I figure out who was screwing with your rolls, I'm going to nerf those gains so hard you'll be lucky not to end up at a minus level.
To be honest, Lorelei didn't much care about that, right now.
One moment, she was about to be murdered horribly, and now she was alive. Of course, it would have been nice to have reached whatever Level her epically cool slaughter of her attackers would have led her to, but she couldn't exactly argue that it had been hard-earned. Still, she had a few other pressing problems. Namely the complete horror and concern being generated towards her by the survivors of the assault on the Botanical Gardens.
"Did . . . did you do that?" A spotty young man in the most elaborate robes Lorelei had seen—before or after—the integration cautiously moved towards her. "I mean," he waved a hand at what remained of the corpses of those who had come from the Red Zone, "was that you?"
"I suppose the answer to that question depends on how grateful you are all feeling. If it's going to be cheers, high fives and lashings of ginger beer, then absolutely. All me. Please begin the celebrations. On the other hand, if you're all feeling a bit 'burn the witch' about it, then I need to tell you about hotfixes and entirely temporary powers."
The Necromancer - she didn't like to judge, but a collection of zombie cheerleaders was following this dude around, so she was going to - half tilted his head to one side and tried to plaster on a smile. "I think I speak for us all when I say we're feeling cautiously warm towards you."
He looked left and right, and there was a panicked nodding of heads and some minor 'hear, hear' from them.
Lorelei was concerned how few of those she had seen enter the Amber Zone just a few hours before still seemed to be hale and hearty. Those higher-level guys didn't fuck about.
Well, she thought, they certainly didn't anymore.
"Well, that's good, I guess. 'Cautiously warm' I can work with."
*** Help Message ***
Okay, this is one of those 'good news/ bad news' things, honeybunch. I've managed to isolate how your rolls were compromised, and I am confident that it shouldn't happen again. I sincerely hope anyone who might be taking an interest acknowledges that I did this quickly, effectively, and with appropriate recompense offered and thus decides not to wipe me from existence.
"Okay, fair enough. This sounds like largely good news. However, it not being my first rodeo with you, I'm awaiting the other shoe to drop." Lorelei was aware that strange women talking to themselves was essentially not the sort of behaviour crowds of nervous people naturally relaxed around. However, it felt like the Guide had some vital information to share, and she figured they were cowed enough right now not to make a deal of it if she did not give them her full attention.
***Help Message***
Well, to begin with, I've removed the temporary buff, so there will be no more whole-scale destruction for you. And, as indicated, I'm only going to let you move up one Level.
"Seriously!"
*** Settle Down Message***
Look, you'd have been dead without me locking that 'good' fortune in during that attack. I'm comfortable with defending the action should anyone else have noticed. Still, an argument could be made that this was an inappropriate intervention by an A.I and I have enough shit to be going on with right now without adding an internal investigation to it. So, you get one Level. And you will say 'thank you'. And stop your fucking moaning.
Stolen story; please report.
To be truthful, Lorelei wasn't too disappointed to hear that - a Level was Level, after all - but she would be lying if she hadn't felt a momentary thrill about the potential of what she could do at Level 9 or 10. The devastation those guys she had killed had wrought was pretty epic - she wondered what she would be able to do when she had access to that sort of power?
That thought, combined with the increasingly alarmed expressions on the faces of the crowd before her, suddenly brought that train of thought to an abrupt halt. When did she start thinking, with sadistic glee, about the sort of death and destruction she could cause when she became more powerful? That wasn't her, was it? She had spent a lifetime smoothing out the chaotic fall-out caused by irresponsible bosses. Why would she now be enjoying her own potential to be a despot? Lorelei felt . . . no, 'odd' didn't quite cut it. She felt like she was not actually herself at all.
***Help Message***
You do remember a whole conversation around the words ‘Chaotic Good’ right? These alignement labels aren’t just for Christmas . . .
Reflexively, Lorelei summoned up her stats sheet.
Lorelei Norton: Fortuna's Herald
Level 5
Experience 920/1000
Health 350/350
Mana 282/282
Primary Stats
Strength 11
Agility 24 (+3 Gloves of the Seer, +10% Veil of Vindication)
Stamina 16 (+2 Cloak of the Wanderer)
Intellect 30 (+5 Gloves of the Seer, +2 Double Headed Coin of Fate)
Spirit 22 (5% from Vigilante title + 3 from Earrings of the Lucky Gambler)
Secondary Stats
Critical Strike 12% (2% from Whispering Gloves of the Seer + 1% from Double-Headed Coin of Fate + 2% from Earrings of the Lucky Gambler
Haste 10% (+ 1% from Earrings of the Lucky Gambler)
Mastery 6%
Versatility 5%
Skills
Lucky Strike (Passive)- Sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss, sometimes you accidentally help the enemy. It's a surprise!
Coin Toss Conundrum (Active)- Flip a coin to decide your next move. Heads, you unleash a devastating attack; tails, you heal your enemy. Bonus points for dramatic mid-air coin flipping. Mana Cost: 50. Cooldown: 2 mins.
Random Resilience (Active)- You might shrug off a dragon's breath or trip over a pebble. Life's a lottery! Mana Cost: 100% of available pool. Cooldown: 24 hours.
Charmed Life (Active): You do seem to spend a lot of time getting hurt. Have a heal skill. But, to make it interesting, let's randomise how much healing it does. Oh, and just for shits and giggles, it will give you a random status effect for 2 mins. 30 MP cost. No cooldown.
The Old Swapperoonie (Active): Wah! Why is all my luck bad? Wah! For someone with a luck-based Class, you don't half moan a lot about random outcomes . . . Once per day, you can offload all the negative consequences of your abilities onto someone else. The timer does not reset if your poor patsy dies. 200 mana cost. 24 hours cooldown.
Inventory
Double-Headed Coin of Fate (Nerfed)
Cloak of the Wanderer (+ 2 Stamina)
Whispering Gloves of the Seer (+5 Intellect, +3, +2% Critical Strike)
Earrings of the Lucky Gambler: (+3 Spirit, Increases Critical Strike chance by 2%, and Haste by 1%)
Skinning Knife
2x[20 Leather Offcut]
8 [Charred Steak]
7 [Charred Steak - poisoned]. Poisoned status is hidden.
25 Gold. 27 Silver. 8 Bronze
Professions
Jack of All Trades
* Skinning - Lvl 23
* Cooking (Life in Your Own Hands) – Lvl 9
* Leatherworking – Lvl 1
* Campfire - Novice
Talents (Level 5 Talent Available)
Spoilsport: Increases the chance of a positive
Level 5 Talent Options – choose one
1. Fortune's Favor
Your good luck starts to rub off on others. Allies within a 10-meter radius gain a 5% increase in their Critical Strike chance when near you.
2. Chaotic Resilience
The unpredictability of your defences increases. When taking damage, there's a 20% chance to reduce the damage taken by 50%.
3. Gambler's Grace
Sometimes, luck is just on your side. Gain a 10% increase in Dodge chance and a 5% increase in Movement Speed.
Titles
Kobolds Worst Nightmare: 35% damage against Kobolds
One Cold Bitch: Frost Resistance: +10%
Vigilante: Spirit +5%
Lorelei still did not feel she had enough context to understand those numbers, but they seemed to be going in the right direction. Again, she felt a little moment of loss, as if she had not been able to get the total weight of XP from defeating her most recent foes, but she squashed it down hard. If there was one thing that she was determined to do, it was to not start viewing other humans as an opportunity to grow.
That resolution made, Lorelei noticed - at the bottom of her stat sheet - was a flashing notification that she mentally clicked on. As with 'Spoilsport', which she had gained at Level 2, this was obviously a bonus choice unlocked when passing a certain threshold. None of them was going to be a game-changer, but hopefully, they would all add up to something worthwhile as levelled up.
After a moment's thought, she selected the first option. Considering some of the thoughts running through her head, it might be wise to pick something that actually helped other people. Rather than killing them.
"Sorry to interrupt, but are you quite well?" The teenage Necromancer had brought his zombie cheerleaders to stand in front of him in a protective formation. The rest of the group clearly were moving from 'cautiously warm' towards their saviour, to preparing to jump her.
Lorelei figured she was rapidly running out of time to be the helpful, mysterious stranger. "Guide, is that the extent of the bad news?"
***Help Message ***
Well, no. Not exactly. I've been able to lock down the method by which your roll results were changed, but I have no idea who was playing silly buggers with that obscure part of the code. In theory, only I have that ability and - well, it should go without saying that if my personality has degraded to such an extent I'm actively making life hard for myself, then this integration is screwed. I'm filing that under 'a problem for another day.' More pressingly, however . . .
There was an awkward silence during which a suspiciously large number of weapons were now in the hands of the people who had moved to surround Lorelei.
"There's quite a lot that's becoming pretty fucking 'pressing' right now, Guide."
***Help Message***
Well, sweetcheeks, you can add that you have a large group of Level 10s approaching your position. And just so we are clear, there is no more hotfix for you. Good luck.
The words stopped scrolling across Lorelei's eyes, and she was finally able to adequately focus on the lynch mob preparing to do something terminal about the very imminent threat they had identified in their midst.
Lorelei managed to find her most reassuring smile, summoned up a reasonable tone and cleared her throat. "If I may, just before this gets messy, I have some news about some imminent arrivals . . ."