As Woozle took practice laps around the encampment, Jennifer brought up her inventory menu. She had won everything she had bid on. Rather than needing to undress then redress, she was able to change her outfit from her menus. As simple as mentally dragging the clothes out of her inventory, and imaging the clothes appear on her. The clothes she was wearing automatically went into her inventory. She liked the new uniform but it did not have a hood that Woozle could ride in. Something she would miss. She was still planning on getting a robe to go over the uniform. With having leveled so many times last night, she was going to have to pick her new powers soon. With every level he got bigger, she was unsure how long that would last. Thinking it over, she decided that she would visit the micro foundry and see if the robot could do alterations to the uniform.
She politely told Jim that she would meet him and Kevin at the inn, as Woozle became more sure-footed. She also reviewed her quests.
Enroll in Bishops university: 1 of 3 complete.
Gather farm animals for the town: 0 of 10 complete.
Repair the micro foundry: Health 67 of 80 complete.
Story line: Find your familiar’s tail: 1 of unknown complete.
Build house: 0 of 1 complete.
Explore Bishop’s University: 72 of 100
Save the Town: 0 of 1 complete
Save the Nation: 0 of 1 complete.
Save the world: 0 of 1 complete.
So much to do. While the side quests she was doing were helpful, they were slowing her down. She needed to find a business owner to get a second letter of recommendation, and she had no idea what kind of side quest they would require in exchange for the letter. Jim owned the inn, but he already wrote the first letter. The micro foundry was a business but, when pressured, she could repair him. It was only after repairs were done that it would write a letter. He said he would need to talk to his guild, and they had their own sentient resource people that he would need to ask first. She felt that would lead to more side quests at this point. After spending a night in the train car, despite how safe she felt in there, she was more motivated to get her house built. On her way to level ten, she had received three enhancements at level six. Thinking this over, the powers she found the most useful was Mend so she added a reduction in stamina requirements, which had a faster repair time and the ability to repair more targets.
For level seven, she had received a new power, Drain Life, in her Necromancer power tree.
Drain Life: Diminish the health of one target. Moderate mana cost. Moderate cool down time. Part of the health you drain will be transferred into team members and allies who are within line of sight. The closer the target, the greater the effect. What were they doing with their life force anyways?
It was a combat spell. While she had not liked combat, if she was caught in one, she would be able to heal others better this way, so she took the spell.
Her level eight choices were another three power enhancements. Since she used her last enhancements on just one power. She felt it was better to spread them out this time. Currently, she only had one skeleton left in her inventory, but it was useful. Her choices were to make them hit hard, be hit harder, have more health, hit more often, have an extra skeleton, or the final option to take less mana to summon the skeleton.
During the battle, she had set her summoned skeletons to act as bodyguards with a force field that made them tougher, making them better for that job. The reduce mana usage when summoning option did not seem as much of a boon because she did not use much mana. It had the same resource pool as her future defense tech shields, and she needed to summon skeletons far less often. She was about to pass up that option completely, but instinct told her to look it over again. In the raid, she had not used her dark attack much so that she could continue to resummon.
She decided to add a reduction of mana use for both her Drain Life and Summon Undead. The final power enhancement went into reducing the mana needed to cast the protective buff.
At level nine, she had the option to add another power. With no new powers available for her three main trees, Jennifer looked at her side powers.
At level five, she had the option to select the power Craft. The craft power came from the same generic power tree set from which she received her Mend skill. After selecting the power, Jennifer felt an itch in the back of her mind, followed by a massive headache as information was added into her brain. The splitting headache lasted for only a few moments. “I can now craft pottery. I guess that’s useful,” she said, speaking more as a distraction from the headache than anything else. “I hear those are in demand over in Otherule. They have a hero who hates them, while villagers love to hide things in them.”
“Good to know, I am just going over my level up process. If you don’t mind waiting?” It was more that she was using this time for him to get used to his new body, rather than her wait on him.
Looking over her character sheet, she had only two levels left to sort through, the fifth and the tenth levels. Every fifth level had an asterisk next to a new power. Focusing her mind on the symbol, the instructions on how to change or modify a power appeared.
Level 5* - You will be given a token from the system to change one of your already existing powers. You will be given 3 options for each of your main power trees. The options will be chosen at random, and from those options you will be able to choose what best works for you. Once the token is given freely from the system, you cannot trade it to another, but it can be used whenever you want.
The same was true for level ten, but there was also an additional power to be used in a minor power set.
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Jennifer took in a deep breath, used one of the two tokens, and looked through all of the upgrades and options available.
Necromancy
Dark Pulse turned into Flaming Darkness, [+ description] low mana use, can be toggled on and off. This is the flame thrower option.
Summon Undead turned into ‘Using the Best Parts’. You can pick the best bones from multiple sources [+ cost and toggle/recovery]. This is the ‘We have the magic. We can rebuild them. We can make them better’ option.
Drain Life turned to Drain Sewer. You can now drain any sewer [+ cost and toggle/recovery]. This is the ‘never call a plumber’ option.
Summon Undead: Due to your crafting powers of alchemy and blood ritual, an additional option has been unlocked. You may now modify your minions using additional materials for your undead. This option will require additional stamina, and needs more stamina to repair the materials. This is ‘I'm Canadian. Bub.’ option.
Future Defence Tech
Force Field Weapons: Rather than casting a Force Field, you can now cast weapons made out of force fields [+ cost & toggle/recovery]. This is the ‘why defend when you can attack’ option.
Force Field Shield: Rather than being inside of a force field, a floating shield will protect the one you cast it on [+ cost & toggle/recovery]. The shield will last longer and protect more but will cost much more. This is the ‘shield over bubble’ option.
Force Field: Rather than a transparent blue, your force field will be rainbow colored. This is the ‘rainbows make everything better’ option.
Alchemy
Healing Potions: Changed to acid [+ cost & toggle/recovery]. ‘Why heal when you can melt?’
Mana Potions: Rejuvenation potions give minor healing, minor stamina, minor mana recovery, and a stimulant bonus. This is the ‘get back up’ potion option.
Healing potions turned to bonus health. This potion does not heal but will increase the health pool of the target by 20% for 15 minutes. Once the time runs out the health pool will return to normal. If a person has a pool of 100 health, after drinking this potion they will have a pool of 120. If they take 15 damage at the end of the timer they will have 100 health. If they take 25 damage, they will have a pool of 95. If the person who drinks this potion is at 5 points of remaining health out of a pool of 100, they will have a pool of 25 points.
Her jaw fell open. Each of the choices were good options, but there was only one worth taking.
“Kid. I can feel your excitement. What are you going to go with?”
Her lips curled into a smile, as she imagined what she could do with the option. “Woozle, I’m going to have the most bedazzled skeletons. Where can I get some shinies?” Her words came out loud and fast.
“You have the option to have metal skeletons with armor and weapons literally welded on, but you want to put shiny stones on them.”
She let out a long, happy hissing, “Yes.” Mentally slamming down on the ‘Canadian’ option.
Jennifer decided the next thing she had to do was review what was on her plot of land. She looked down at Woozle as he was prancing around. He was at the height of her stomach.
“Oh boy, how you have grown!” She said mockingly.
He wiggled his ears, and gave a shark smile.
***
“Yup, this is land alright.” The words came out dryly as if that was not what she was expecting. It was just a square piece of land next to one of the inns. The grass was tall, blue, and unkempt. Jennifer and Woozle explored the area looking for anything interesting.
It turned out that the land did not even have rabbit holes. But there was a blueberry bush and another bush that had large pink flowers on it. Jennifer’s alchemy powers told her that the blueberries were tasty and the pink flowers could be used to make tea, which sent Jennifer’s mind into overdrive. She had not yet seen tea in this new world. There were a lot of inns and bars but no tea.
She turned to Woozle to ask about that, but the sight of his missing tail robbed her of her smile. She chose to enter the raid and she lost track of him. Her familiar’s missing tail was her fault. She only had one main quest left to get into Bishop’s University. The sad thing was, she felt all the side quests pulling her in all directions, including helping her familiar. If she was going to help him, she would have to do some side quests that would lead to other side quests.
She nodded as she made a mental list. First, they needed a place to stay. The land she owned had the potential to help her finish her quest to get into Bishops, to have a roof over her head, and to have an after-school job. The next thing she needed was to build a house.
“Woozle, do you know how to build a house?” she asked, not really expecting anything other than his usual snarky answer.
“I know where we can find one.” He put his nose to the air and sniffed.
Jennifer with her metal spider followed Woozle, who followed some unseen trail. While Woozle was on the hunt, Kevin wandered up to Jennifer with his goblin on his back. He leaned his head into Jennifer’s with large eyes asking for something. She knew what her wolf friend wanted, and she scratched him behind the ears. She patted the goblin on the head in greeting making sure she was not left out.
She and the group followed Woozle all the way down three buildings from her land. The group walked through the door to one of the inns in town. Jennifer was hit by the smell of stale alcohol. This inn was dark, gloomy, and looked like a fight would break out at any second.
“Are you looking for a quest or offering a quest?” said a voice from beside Jennifer.
The voice startled her. Kevin gave a warning growl.
Collecting herself and putting a hand on Kevin, she replied, “I’m looking for someone who should be here already.”
Taking a quick glance around, she took in the blacked-out windows that blocked the sunlight before she focused on the speaker. He looked like a bronzed statue with twin smokestacks arching over his shoulders toward her. He wore a green apron. At first, she thought he was wearing a helmet, but then she saw the metal skin move as he spoke.
“Speak the name of the one you seek, and I shall show you to them.” The voice was deep and carried a metal note in its tone.
She turned her head to Woozle while keeping an eye on the metal man. “Do you have a name?”
“Carpenter level twenty-two. Has the Warhammer Knight second class. Big in the shoulders with blond hair.” Woozle returned to sniffing the air.
“Follow,” the bronze metal man said simply. Jennifer shrugged and followed the man, who led them to an empty table. “Stay here. If he wishes to speak with you, he will be here soon.” He then pulled two large mugs out of holders where human biceps would normally be.
As he put the mugs on the table and eyed the group, Jennifer realized she should give him a drink order. “Umm, I’ll have some berry juice and water, please?”
The bronze man hovered his pointer finger over the first mug. Red liquid poured out of his finger and filled the mug. He moved onto the second mug and, this time, water came out. “The price of the drink will be included on your table. The price of the table will be ten to fifteen percent of the transaction. This includes goods and services. A cost meter can be viewed in your menus as the deals are made. Thank you for your patronage.” The metal man left as soon as he finished speaking.
Jennifer looked at her companions. Kevin’s fur made him look bigger. Woozle found a spot he liked on the table and laid down. This was not the kind of place Jennifer liked to be in. It seemed like a cross between a bar shown in old westerns and the kind where health inspectors left with fatter wallets. The juice was good though.