Ruth was an odd woman. After the initial scare, she had properly introduced herself to Ross - she informed him of nearly her entire character sheet without actually showing it to him. Her race - being a deep elf, or a Melyvija - granted her bone-white skin, which was covered in nothing but extensive cloth wrappings. Her ears were massive and triangular, reaching nearly as far as her unusually angular face was wide. Her hair flowed down to her shoulders, one side of her locks being dyed magenta and the other a more natural-looking, baby blue. Her eyes held pitch black sclera, pupils nearly glowing white; her irises were a deep lavender color, making for an oddly fitting contrast. He unfortunately knew her eyes best, due to her consistently staring him down eagerly. It reminded him of some nature documentaries showing a lion deliberating over the worthwhileness of hunting a specific animal.
Aside from this, her rail-thin, wiry body sported vast amounts of large tattoos, seemingly random curves and lines. They almost seemed to move, and upon further discussion with her, Ruth confirmed that they did in fact shift. They were Resource Marks, she had explained; a sort of body tattoo that one could get at a runesmith or enchanter that granted a way to raise your maximum Resource Points without actually increasing them.
“Think of them like a portable gas can for a truck,” she explained. “You’d keep it in the truck and it'd let you go further with the gas you have, but it isn’t making your gas tank itself bigger. Also, my-”
“Hold on!” Ross said, shaking his head rapidly to clear it. “I appreciate the knowledge, but I don’t even know you. Considering we just met, would you care to introduce yourself properly?”
Ruth blushed slightly before nodding.
“I’m Ruth, and I’m from Earth, too.”
“Backwash!” Everest called. Ross huffed while Ruth laughed. “Sorry, Everest. I’m from Backwash, too!” she said, exaggerating the emphasis on their mentor’s favored term. She turned back to Ross before continuing.
“I’m from NYC, so I’m used to being busy. I was one of the more common people who had to walk everywhere due to the cluttered streets and such. My father refused to buy a vehicle of any kind - not even a bike.” She shook her head, sighing. “He said it’d just be stolen or busted in some gang tussle. Mom always argued with him about that.”
“Digressing!” Everest called to Ruth.
“Right! Sorry!” she said, standing stark straight. She then seemed to relax a bit, as if coming out of a trance. “No vehicles. I was stuck to the places I was able to walk to, and truth be told, I was kind of a lazy person there. I didn’t like to go out unless I had to. Eventually, I found a remote job, got tons of online friends and even managed to get into a purely remote school. TL;DR: I wasn’t very active in a city known for its activity.” Ruth grew silent for a moment, eyebrows knit closely as she frowned. She sat like that for nearly a minute in silence before taking a sudden deep breath which made Ross jump, then continued.
“Well, when my job made me go into the office about ten miles away due to an emergency, I freaked out. I had no idea what I was going to do - The shift was gonna be in about ten hours, and with my…”
She seemed to pick her words carefully with another pause. “My lack of physical anything, I had put on weight. Like, a LOT of weight.” She shook her head. “I should have just called an uber or a taxi. Maybe even take the Greyhound over, but of course not. My father was insistent that I walk, and I was stubborn as all hell. Still am. So, I decided to walk there. The weather was nice enough, and there was a small band performing nearby that my dad bought me a ticket for. Incentive to follow through on walking, y’know?”
“Sounds like he was kind of a stickler.” Ross muttered, thinking of his own father’s oddly specific rules. Even now, he forced himself to finish any and all meat in his meal first. Ruth nodded.
“Yeah, he could be a bit controlling and hated seeing me squander my life away in the same tiny apartment. Unfortunately for me - or fortunately, depending on how you look at it - that was the same night I arrived here. See, traffic in New York isn’t pretty or viable. There are also tons of crosswalks. I was in such a hurry that I decided to run a red light at a crosswalk about an hour into my route, and…Well…” She gestured down at herself. “Here I am.”
Ross whistled low.
“So you got taken out in a car accident?”
Ruth nodded. “It wasn’t a slow one, either - they’d hit me hard enough to sever my spine. I only saw it when the System brought me to character creation. I was on the brink of consciousness for what felt like a day before I finally gave in.”
“Jesus Christ, Ruth!” Ross said. “I’m… I’m so sorry. That’s genuinely horrible…”
Ruth shrugged. “I’m still alive somewhere, so I don’t see how it matters. Plus, we all head back when we reach Level 100, right?”
“If.” Everest corrected, still relaxing a small distance away.
Ruth puffed her cheeks out indignantly.
“When.” She spat back, turning to face him.
Everest just shrugged with a smirk. Ruth sighed, turning back to Ross. “So yeah. Overweight New Yorker. I was big into crocheting and RPGs. It’s why I kinda thrived here. I take it you’re also familiar with them, based on what Everest has told me?”
Ross nodded. “I used to play D&D to an unhealthy degree back on Earth-” he said, spitting the last word with venom as he turned to glare at Everest.
His mentor simply shrugged and mouthed ‘Backwash’ back at him.
Ross sighed, then continued, “So much so that I was actually being considered for a position as a paid DM at a local hobby store or two.”
Ruth’s eyes sparkled. “No way! That’s actually really cool, man! What kinda sessions did you run?”
“And we’re done.” Everest grunted, stepping in between the two. Ross hadn’t even seen him move, and Ruth simply rolled her eyes.
“We can pick this up again as we walk.” Ruth said. “He hates anything fun.”
“I like alcohol. And recreational drugs.” Everest said.
“And blunt force trauma.” Ruth added pointedly.
“Only when I’m not receiving it.” Everest said.
The two laughed before Ruth waved Everest back to his seat. She began describing her abilities once more and, as she continued her explanation, Ross found himself growing jealous of her abilities and traits.
“See, I’m a Hyper Mage,” she said, “Which means I’m only able to specialize in one direction with magic, but my magic is super powerful!”
“Isn’t Mage kind of the generic magical class?” Ross asked. “Is it a subclass of a more specific magic class, like sorcerer or warlock?” Ruth shook her head, throwing him a cheshire grin before shifting to a contemplative look.
“I looked through them. Turns out, Mage differs a lot from the others. See, there’s seven different Magic Classes with lots of Subclasses. There’s Cleric, which is kinda obvious; Then, you have Runemaster, which is all about making magic items and preparing traps and rituals in combat; Next is Sorcerer, which grants you a specific type of damage that your spells have to circulate around, but it makes them way stronger; Druid is another given, and is all about nature; Wizard lets you either specialize in a specific variety of magic or learn them all, but it takes longer to level up and it makes you a LOT more frail; Warlocks can only access any magic their Patron can, unlocking more of their spells as you level; and finally, Mage.”
She grinned wide once more. “Mages are kinda weird - see, you can be a lot of different things as a Mage. They’re kinda like the Fighters of the magic world.”
She paused for a moment, giving a pointed look to Everest. “I’m not dumping too much on him, am I?”
Everest, still taking double breaths as he calmed himself, shook his head. “He’s smarter than he looks - got a college degree. Just not very lucky.”
Ruth nodded as though several questions were answered at once, then continued.
“So Mage can go one of, what… I think it has 25 subclasses?”
Ross’s eyes bulged at that. Ruth shook her head.
“There are a lot of easy to understand ones that are familiar to Ear-Backwash,” she looked to Everest before continuing, “Backwash residents. There’s Bard, which I’m still shocked is a subclass and not an actual class. There’s also stuff like War Mage, White Mage, Black Mage, etcetera. But,” She said, enthusiasm growing, “They have some I never even thought of. Chromatic Mage, Metallic Mage, Elemental Mage.”
She pointed to herself. “Hyper Mage.”
Ross nodded. “I’m guessing there’s a trade-off for all that versatility?”
Everest nodded. “Bingo. Means she doesn’t gain as many Resource Points per level up, and all of her regens are lower than any other magic class. She chose a subclass that’s less versatile than the others, but it’s still a Mage subclass. Her lack of regen isn’t as bad as her fellow Mages, but it’s still grueling.”
“Hence the tattoos!” Ruth chimed in. “Helps me keep up with everyone else. In fact, I’ve got so many that my regen is higher than anyone else I’ve met around my own level~!” She did a small spin, revealing significantly more tattoos, drawn larger and thicker, on her back. “Cost me most of my earnings for all these, but I finally have all of them that I need!”
Ross blinked. He’d love some of those, but he wasn’t sure if he could get any for AP, much less have a use for it. Everest, almost as if on cue, spoke up.
“I’d recommend not getting any tattoos at all for your AP until the system is more stable, kid. You really rattled it hard.”
Ruth perked up.
“Wait, so that massive glitch was from him?” She asked. Everest nodded, and she turned to face Ross, a twinkle in her eyes. “Cool…”
“Regardless,” Everest interrupted with a growl, “You should be good to get a few Health ones, kid. They’re expensive, but it’s well worth it, especially with your build.”
“How expensive is ‘expensive’?” Ross asked.
“Oh, about… 200 or 300 Gold a piece.” Everest said.
“They have a deal going on where you can get a full set to grant you +100 health regen for just 3 or 4 Platinum!” Ruth chimed in. Ross blinked.
“What’s the conversion rate on the money here?”
Everest scratched his chin, looking thoughtful. “I’m pretty sure it goes up by 100 from copper to silver, silver to gold and gold to platinum. Then, it takes 1000 platinum to make one electrum, and 1000 electrum to make an orichalcum. It can fluctuate just like any other economy, but that’s the average situation.”
Ross blinked again. “So if I had, I dunno… an orichalcum coin, how much would that be in gold?” He already knew the answer, but wanted to hear it confirmed.
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Everest paused, tilting his head as he counted on his hands.
“Eh… A million, I think. Why?”
Ross shrugged, maintaining his composure despite his giddiness. “Not a fan of mental math. So, I’ll need to grind up some more money to get Health tattoos. Good to know. Next question: what’s the situation with parties here? I’ve played MMOs before, but I’m not quite sure how those systems carry over here, if at all.”
Everest grinned slightly. “I knew you’d start asking good questions eventually!” Ross rolled his eyes, but couldn’t hide the slight smirk that came after. Everest continued.
“Essentially, parties link up system interfaces. It lets you two gain access to a new window for your overlay that shows your party members’ health, stamina, mana and any other resource they use. In addition, you each gain equal amounts of loot as long as you both participate in a fight together and actually try. Before you ask,” Everest grunted, looking to Ross just as his mouth opened, “Yes, the system can in fact tell. If you both try, you both get the normal loot. Experience is shared to a degree, but being in a party boosts the amount gained. If the system is still accurate with all the tweaks to keep your situation steady, then the parties’ overall experience gain is 50% higher for each member beyond the first. If it’s just you two, it’ll be 150% the normal yield, but you each split it evenly. The math can get trippy at times, but the system is good at balancing that kind of thing out. It’ll also always round up for experience.”
“It does the bonus EXP thing cus it’s a training world!” Ruth said. “It wants to encourage teamwork so that Heroes have a better chance at survival, but that usually doesn’t stop xenophobia or good old-fashioned greed.”
Everest nodded, heaving another sigh.
“Well, as much as I’d love to discuss the follies of man, we’ve got some grinding to do.” He gave Ross a pointed look. “Make sure to accept the party request. Ruth?” Everest said, nodding to the pale elf. “Send it.”
A moment later, Ross received a new alert.
[PARTY INVITE!
(Ruth_Merenson) has invited you to join her Party! Do you accept?]
Ross mentally accepted, immediately feeling a wave of vertigo. It made him stumble enough to warrant taking a seat. He held his head for a moment before Ruth came up to him.
“You okay, man?” She asked, smirking.
“Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.” Ross said. He took a rough breath in, releasing it with a puff. “That was just disorienting.”
“Yeah, it’s why people don’t tend to swap parties very often.” Ruth explained. “I’ve gotten used to it cus I’ve had to join so many, but I still know how it felt the first few times.”
Ross nodded, breathing slowly to calm his body down, then looked to Everest.
“Why’d it make me feel sick with Ruth, but not when you got me into a party?” He asked.
Everest smiled a bit wider, a hint of what might be pride seeping into his expression.
“The reason you got woozy from joining one with Ruth and not with me is simple: I’m your Trainer, so it can’t link me to your experience gains or loot or what have you. All it really does is grant me access to your character sheet and real-time status. With Ruth, however, you essentially just felt the system intertwine your souls ever so slightly. The part of your soul that’s linked to the system - the reason it functions for you and only you and party members can see your stats - was sort of cross-wired with Ruth’s.”
At the confused and mildly disgusted look Ross gave him, Everest sighed. “It sounds a lot more intimate than it is. There should be a new tab in your interface. Look it over a few times, get to know it. Once you’re done, you and Ruth will be training together.”
Ross nodded, swallowing down the remnants of his dinner’s escape attempts. He opened the small icon on the side of his screen that resembled two people - one overlapping another - resembling what would be shown on a handicapped sign. Several screens popped up at once, and Ross took a few minutes to resize them all properly. He got an alert saying he’d only be able to access the Party Status and Party Inventory when in a fight. He took a breath, analyzing each section.
There were three sections in particular that he actually cared about, the rest being overly complicated explanations or experience distribution information. The first actually useful tab for Ross was a small window that listed each party member, and just like Everest had said, it listed each person’s current Health, Stamina and Mana. Ross did note, however, that his own bars, save for Health, were fully blurred out. In between Stamina and Mana, he found a relatively thin but evident bar that was presumably for his AP. Rather than the bar having a moving portion like other games, it seemed to simply have a number next to it. Sure enough, it lined up with his current AP. There was, oddly enough, little pixelated sprites of Ross and Ruth next to their statuses. The former smiled at this. He had to admit it was kinda cool.
Second was a brief summary of Ruth’s character sheet; more specifically, it listed her traits and whether or not they were currently on cooldown. It also showed some more surface-level stuff, such as her classes, subclasses and levels. Just like Ruth had said, she was a Hyper Mage. Level 41, to boot. Not too shabby, Ross thought. Just when he’d decide to read up on the remainder of Ruth’s character sheets later, he paused. The system had labeled one of her traits as a Prime Trait. He couldn’t hold off his curiosity after that. He pulled up its information.
[Prime Trait: Adrenaline Rush
Trait Rarity: Unique Legendary
Trait Status: Active, Offense, Defense, Combat
ADVANCEMENTS
Advancement 1: The more damage you take in a fight, the more damage you deal. You deal an amount of bonus percentile damage in a fight equal to your current missing HP. This instantly and automatically adjusts while in combat, and your missing HP is measured as a percentile, not a solid number.
Advancement 2: The more Stamina you use in a fight, the more damage you deal. You deal an amount of bonus percentile Stamina Regen in a fight equal to your current missing Stamina. This instantly and automatically adjusts while in combat, and your missing Stamina is measured as a percentile, not a solid number.
Advancement 3: The more Mana you use in a fight, the more damage you deal. You gain an amount of bonus percentile Mana Regen in a fight equal to your current missing Mana. This instantly and automatically adjusts while in combat, and your missing Mana is measured as a percentile, not a solid number.
Advancement 4: You have gained the Subtrait Vampirism.
Advancement 5: You have gained the Subtrait Hyperactive.
Advancement 6: You have gained the Subtrait Whirling Dervish.
Advancement 7: ??? {76.7%}
Advancement 8: ??? {53.9%}
Advancement 9: ??? {11.7%}
Advancement 10: ??? {0.001%}
SUBTRAITS
Vampirism
Whenever you deal damage with a Spell or Trait, you gain HP equal to X% of the damage dealt, where X is your current highest Class Level. This Subtrait is Toggleable.
Hyperactive
So long as you’re in combat and have higher Stamina Regen than your resting Stamina Regen, that Regen is doubled. In addition, your Speed is increased by X%, where X is your current First Class Level. Finally, you take double damage as long as this Subtrait is active. This Subtrait is Toggleable.
Whirling Dervish
You gain a +20% bonus to Movement Speed while in combat. This is calculated after all other alterations to Movement Speed. In addition, you may activate this ability a number of times a day equal to your current highest Class Level/10. When this ability is activated, your normal melee attacks become a whirlwind around you. For the next 20 seconds, you are immune to all non-magical melee and ranged damage, and attacks do not inflict secondary effects. Additionally, add your current total Movement Speed (as a percentile) to all damage you deal until this effect ends. You cannot trigger this ability again for at least 1 hour after the previous use. ]
Ross scratched his head. It didn’t list the requirements for her ‘First Mutation’ like it did on his own sheet, whatever that was. He shrugged, expecting that he wouldn’t be able to see a lot of things about his new party member. After all, character sheets seemed pretty private here.
“Why did the system give you Adrenaline Rush?” Ross asked. Ruth’s face scrunched up into a look of disgust and distaste.
“Everest told me it’s because I died in a way that could have been prevented if I had exercised more. I died because I never encountered consistent physical confrontations or hurdles, so now my abilities force me to take them on to be effective at all. It’s kinda insulting, if I’m gonna be honest.”
There was a moment of silence before a shudder of tension rippled through the group. Without thinking about it, both Ruth and Everest shifted to face Ross in disturbed confusion, his own face twisting into a ferocious red grimace. In his mind, he had felt something trying to hold back his words like a blockade. He had considered being quiet. He knew he should. This was Ruth’s business, and it wasn’t his place to judge. However, something deep down - something that had been brewing for the better part of a decade - began to stir. Something that raged against his life, stoked and reignited as he writhed against this new world he was unwillingly thrust into. He took one look at the mental block and, without question, let his frustration and scorn burn right through it. His mind became doused in tense and searing animosity. He could almost taste the words he wanted to speak in his mouth like bile.
It took a lot for Ross to get mad - a virtue taught to him by Pa - but enough was finally enough.
“Okay, what the fuck, Everest!?” Ross shot at his mentor, who blinked in surprise. Ruth froze.
“Why is the system so shit!? Isn’t it meant to build up heroes or whatever? It’s acting like an AI with the mind of an incel running on Windows ‘98! It rips me away and airdrops me into the goddamned woods, and it’s forcing someone who avoided physical confrontations to dive into them head-on forever!? Not to mention, but it’s so broken by me arriving that it has an aneurysm every damned time I get a new skill! For fuck sakes, man, where’s this thing’s ‘God’ - the one who runs it? He’s gotta be the most incompetent bastard who’s ever existed!”
“I mean-” Everest began, but Ross cut him off immediately.
“Shut the fuck up, it's my turn to speak. There’s also the violent, highly leveled monsters all over the damned place. I’d have died hundreds of times over if I didn’t somehow accidentally break the system with a supposedly overpowered Trait, which is actually useless in combat with anything sporting much more HP than my AP! A literal god is pissed at me for using powers I have no idea how to properly utilize because they see it as some act of heretical intent, which it isn’t!”
Ross yelled the last bit to the sky, louder than his already heightening volume.
“It’s not-” Ruth tried, but yet again, Ross barreled on. She and Everest tensed in unison as Ross’s body flowed with lines of pale orange and violet light, growing in brightness alongside his voice. They creeped and clung along his arms, thrumming with power as he spoke.
“And as if that wasn’t enough, the one person I’m relying on to carry me through this world has done little more than throw me to the proverbial - and sometimes literal - wolves!” Ross’s body had begun to hum, but he didn’t notice. It seemed as though he wasn’t talking to anybody in particular anymore. “The only really nice things he’s done for me are dumping way too much information on me and giving me so few compliments - half-hearted, at best - that I can count them all on one fucking hand!”
The last word was punctuated with a small wave of force. Ruth took a step back, but Everest simply looked intrigued.
Ross finally felt an opportunity to push out the emotions that had peaked at the kanpodomelis fight. His mind and body were teaming up to fully relieve him of the crushing emotional weight, and though he should have calmed down enough to observe what was happening, he didn't care. he'd seen so much more insanity than he should have, and his rage had reached a boiling point. Still, he fed it more, allowing frustrations from his more mundane life to join the amalgam of tension being forcefully ejected from him.
A single point of frustration - one that had haunted Ross from thee moment he'd gone into puberty to the current moment - came to the forefront, and he readily pushed it into the mental conglomeration.
“I am trying here. I’m trying like I always try, and everyone just loves to kick the guy who's down, don’t they! It’s never enough for anyone, because no matter how much you put in, they just. Want. More!”
At this, a larger wave of force ripped through Everest and Ruth. Everest seemed unchanged from his curiously excited expression, but Ruth was pushed back a few feet. Ross was mildly aware of Everest doing something on his menus, but he didn’t care. He needed to get this off his chest. A pop-up appeared suddenly, but Ross instantly dismissed it. He wasn't done yet, and not even a god could stop him from finishing his cathartic outburst.
“I get it. I’m dumb. I’m sub-par. I’m fat and useless and one of the most accident-prone people on this side of the damn universe. I get that I’m not really worth a second glance, so can everyone please stop rubbing it in!? All I want is to be something more than I was yesterday, and I can’t even get the proper chance to do that after being sent to another damned realm!?”
There was a notable series of pops, almost like knuckles cracking, and it was only then that Ross noticed his AP Pool. It was steadily draining, somehow already down by at least 50,000 points. He looked down at himself, and his eyes went wide. His anger was gone as soon as it had arrived, fully dispersing at the climax of his impromptu venting session.
A coating of orange and violet tendrils of light wrapped themselves around him, enveloping his body in what looked like a second nervous system. His hair was emitting a disturbingly bright glow, and his eyes were slowly shifting to a sort of night vision. However, instead of a monochromatic green, it was varying shades of white, black and gray.
He blinked, moving an arm.
It felt like he was wielding a feather, and he almost accidentally hit himself in the face when lifting it to examine. He exhaled sharply, testing his other arm by moving it out in a sweeping motion. A glowing orange-violet trail slowly faded wherever it moved. Then, he tested his legs, which had a similar result. Everything felt light as air, and far more flexible than before. As he took stock of how he felt inside, he realized his body felt revitalized.
Not just revitalized, he realized.
Overcharged.
He tentatively jumped, and in a blink, he felt the wind flatten his hair to his head. At the arc of the jump, he had to be at least 30 feet in the air. His eyes widened further, and he couldn’t help the small grin that came over his face. It quickly faded, however, when he saw the sudden drop in AP. As he came down to land, he did his best to brace his fall. His eyes squeezed closed, but when he opened them after a few seconds, he was on the ground and perfectly fine. He didn’t even feel himself land. He looked around at Ruth and Everest. The former was gawking at him while the latter was sporting a prideful, toothy grin.
“Congratulations, kid. You just found out about Transformation Traits!” Everest said.
Ross marveled at himself, watching the flashes of light traverse his body.
After a few moments, however, the fervent intensity began to boil once again, albeit far weaker than before. He scowled.
“We will be talking about all of that bullshit later.” Ross hissed.
Everest simply nodded, expression quickly shifting to grim agreement.