[4 Damage received] Health 264/280
Mana 0/150
Faster…
[Half-step used] Stamina 46/280
Faster… I need to be faster.
[Advanced Running] is now level 29. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 58% and decreases stamina used while running by 20%.
[8 Damage received] Health 256/280
I need to get back to the city… They are behind me, always behind me.
[3 Damage received] Health 254/280
“Stop!” One of the men on the guard tower yelled, I ignored him as I jumped past the fence and into the city, deeper, and deeper. Away from the forest, as far as I could. Away from them.
Fear. People were looking at me as I sat down in the middle of the main street, cuddled. ‘Safe, I need to be safe.’ Whispers appeared in my mind.
Seconds, minutes passed as my mind was freaking out, a panic attack or mental attack I didn't know, didn’t care I just wanted it to stop. Then, darkness.
-
[7 Damage received] Health 273/280
“..ake the fuck up!” Four men, badly clothed. I thought as I got up and jumped back a few meters in a matter of a second and entered a battle stance simultaneously taking out two daggers. Thugs, a speck of fear visible on their faces… “Sorry, we just wanted to check if you are alright mate.” They turned and left quickly, away from me.
‘What?’ I looked around, the sight of a sea of tents greeted me as well as masses of people all around. ‘Why was I sleeping..’ Memories hit, something happened in the forest and I was running. The Cat!. Shudders went through my body, though I was not cold. I breathed deep for a few seconds calming myself. My clothes were ruined, ripped in a few places with dried blood and pieces of leaves and plants were stuck to it. ‘Is it from running through the forest?’
It didn’t matter, I needed to tell Jake what happened and fast.
It took me only a few minutes to get to the main military base. “ID check.” Argh..
Ten minutes later I was in front of Jake. “I found it!” He looked surprised, I don’t know if by my eager voice or the fact that I found the monster controlling the attacks. He pointed at the chair and put the documents he was reading away from himself. “It’s a giant cat-like monster with mental attacks or whatever. It showed me some memories, though I don’t know if they belonged to it.” It took dozens of minutes to explain everything in detail and by the end of it Jake looked conflicted.
Then he started speaking. “So it’s like that…” And said nothing more, for a minute…
“You knew it was something like that? A monster made of strong emotions of whatever it was?” I knew that the Army had its secrets, but to hide something like that? Then again, if the populace were to know that some of the monsters were turned from humans, or at least their souls or whatever was…
“We didn’t find it, but our allies on the other side of the ocean.” The imperialistic superpower then, no doubt it would be them with their capabilities. “There are some things we simply cannot tell the masses, if you want I will tell you everything, at least of the things I am aware of.” He looked me straight in the eyes, waiting for my answer.
“Later.” I still felt weird, as if the presence from before was yet to fade, it nagged me to focus on the matter at hand. “The Cat. That thing…”
“Allie.” He stopped me from speaking, a woman's name. “The girl's name was Allie.” I knew. All those memories with her parents and younger brother happily calling her by her name. Yet for some reason… nevermind.
“Those two that did it to her, and her younger brother. We need information about them, perhaps all it… she wants is revenge or her younger brother to be taken care of.” I spoke, not really trusting my own words, was that thing really ‘Allie’?
“I will see into that and you just rest, and change.” He got up from his seat, heading towards the shelf and taking something from it. “Take it to the quartermaster downstairs, there is something special for you that I ordered made.” Special?
After leaving and giving the paper to the quartermaster… then showing my ID, signing a few papers and finally I got the supposed gift. With the box full of stuff I went to my which I still was able to use as it was designated to me by the Guild from my time as a courier.
-
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“You are back!” Richard yelled as I opened the doors to my apartment, as it was big and I was gone most of the time. I actually invited the boy and his mother to stay over, they didn’t have many other options other than me helping them and maybe it will be good to have people around that I could trust should I ever need their help myself.
“Just to change, I need to do something.” I went past him into my room and locked the doors. The gift… was interesting.
[Boots of Speed] Increases running speed by 7%.
How was it made? Is it by crafting classes using cores and runes or whatever that Jake was talking about earlier? I will need to ask him later though. I thought as I changed into a new set of military clothes and put on new boots, they were of the military kind as well. They looked heavy though despite the speed bonus.
With a moment of peace I decided to look at my status window.
[Status]
Class: None
Health: 280 Health Regeneration: 36,4/hour
Stamina: 280 Stamina Regeneration: 36,4/hour
Mana: 150 Mana Regeneration: 3/hour
Attribute Points:
Strength: 13
Endurance: 28
Dexterity: 30
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 15
Free path points: 10
Passive Skills: [Grace - Stamina use -10%, Better body movement] [Second Breath - Stamina use is reduced by 20% while running] [Minor Regeneration - Increases the regeneration rate of Stamina and Health by 3%]
Active Skills: [Advanced Running 27] [Meditation 48] [Melee Weapon Mastery 12] [Ranged Weapon Mastery 20] [Half-step] [Leg Muscle Enhancement 5] [Pain Resistance 30] [Prey’s Flight 20] [Sleep Resistance 2] [Detect Presence 44]
Closed Paths: [Path of Endurance 25/25] [Path of Dexterity 25/25] [Path of Wisdom 25/25] [Path of Running 25/25] [Path of Performance 10/10] [Path of the Prey 10/10] [Path of Greater Dexterity 50/50] [Path of Greater Endurance 30/50]
Open Paths: [Path of Strength 0/25] [Path of Intelligence 0/25] [Path of Commerce 0/25] Path of the Shadow [0/25] [Path of Melee Mastery 0/25] [Path of Ranged Mastery 0/25] [Path of Meditation 0/25] [Path of Detection 0/25] [Path of basic Muscle Enhancement 0/25]
Gear bonuses: [Boots of Speed - Increases running speed by 7%.]
Ten path points? When did I level something? I had nine last time I looked…
[Path of Greater Endurance 35/50] Endurance Increased by 1.
[Path of Greater Endurance 40/50] Endurance Increased by 1.
Stamina 284/300 | Regeneration 39/h
With that my Stamina regeneration went up to 39 points per hour, despite it it was still far from making me able to run all the time on my fastest possible speeds. Would boots themselves increase stamina usage by that 7% while running? Question for the later. I had places to be and so I left the apartment.
-
“A photo.” The teenage boy was on it with short blonde hair and brown eyes. I looked towards Jake expecting an explanation.
“We don’t know where he is, I sent out some photos to the patrols but I cannot do more than that.” Jake, the commander of Gavensburg answered while sighing. With so many people inside the city and it being so overpopulated it will be like searching for… a single person in a whole city… “The two that were responsible for Allie's death though, I will take care of the one that still lives by myself, I have a few favors to call in in the Capital.”
“One of them is in the capital?” I asked, somewhat surprised. Jake only nodded while looking resigned.
With all that Jake could offer me I left, it was time to spend days wandering around the city hoping to find any clue of where the boy is, the nagging feeling in my head was more and more restless though it was just that, a mere minor feeling.
[Advanced Running] is now level 30. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 60% and decreases stamina used while running by 20%.
[Detect Presence] is now level 45. You have gained 1 Path point. Actively sends a pulse of mana to check the user’s surroundings for living beings. Range 135 meters. Uses 6 mana per minute.
Three days later I had my first clue. “Did you see this boy?” The person I asked was another teenager, it was a whole group of them in fact.
“It’s Gerard isn’t it?” One of the teenagers asked, it was indeed a boy's name. I nodded to him. “I saw him last in the commune at the fifth street, he said that he got the job as a lumberjacking business or something.” I asked for more and more precise questions but the teenager didn’t know more, apparently they worked somewhere together by the commune itself.
I headed to the said commune while thinking about how the life for normal people changed these days. As a developed economy most of the jobs were in the service sector rather than industrial, mining or farming. It all crashed when the System came and global trade collapsed in a matter of weeks. Cheap electronics from the east? Gone. Oil and gas bought by tankers from overseas? Gone as well.
Planes still flew, at least the military ones. There were apparently quite a few coming from overseas but only from the alliance itself. Every country in the world had problems, even the superpowers that tended to have thousands and thousands of kilometers of shoreline, not to mention large swaths of lands such as deserts and mountains that no one lived in.
Commune. The building that used to be an office building changed into.. another office building but rather than focus on promoting some soda drinks it was focused on organizing work and rewards for people that were willing to work. Construction, lumberjacking, farming or any other physical jobs that were needed were available here, sometimes. Not everyone could get a job, because there wasn’t a job for everyone simply. I went inside.
“Did you see this boy? Name’s Gerard Evans.” As the commune worked under the government they had to help the Army. The woman at the counter started looking through the papers and after a ten or so minutes gave me the folder, after showing my ID and all that of course.
“Road cleaning on the way to the city to the east.” I muttered under my breath and returned the folder. There wasn’t a living address or the like on the folder since most lived under tents rather than roof. It was those people that mostly worked in the commune with those working in the Army or in places like the commune itself were occupying the actual buildings.
In a matter of an hour I was already on the road heading east, with few trucks and dozens of people working on removing cars, falling trees and filling holes in the road, thirty or so kilometers away from Gavensburg itself.
It didn't take long to catch up to them. My head started hurting as soon as I noticed the boy I was looking for, this time it wasn’t a minor pain making me fall to my knees.