Over the next couple of days, Sathenkura’s residents slowly acclimated to Ross’s presence. Everest stood by him, acting a bit too much like a door-to-door salesman for Ross’s taste as his mentor explained his situation. Several individuals listened and even sympathized with Ross, having a distant family member or friend go through the same thing - not to the same degree, of course, but there was still a sort of mild kinship in that knowledge. Much to Ross’s surprise and great pleasure, his moustache helped reduce his intimidation factor with many people in the village.
After exploring the vast markets and finding mostly food and self-care products, the few shops that did sell adventuring gear for Heroes were widely diverse. The first one - run by Luda Umbrawelder, an old acquaintance of Everest - was quite professional, albeit relatively small. The second shop, whose name was clearly visible on the sign practically screaming at passersby on the place’s roof, was called ‘Vellum’s Emporium for Adventurers’. Everest pointed out that it was something akin to Costco - buying stuff like consumables, limited use trinkets and repair kits for all varieties of gear and the gear in question - in bulk. Traveling food was by far their largest selling point, having every favorite ration at about as cheap a price as they could sell them for while still making a profit. They even offered a rough approximation of a food court or cafe, where adventurers currently sat around a pure black table. The store itself wasn’t very busy at the moment, which Everest explained was due to them only opening half an hour ago. The furniture inside gave the feel of a classic fantasy inn, although the grey floor tiles and industrial white walls ruined that to some degree. Even the lights were a complex ritual that summoned invisible wisps that couldn’t sink lower than the ceiling. They lit the entire place in a fluorescent white light, and Ross could swear he walked into a bulk store straight from Earth. All it needed was-
“Free samples!” Called a distant orc. His tusks were a brilliant white, seemingly sharpened. His outfit was a standard tunic and leggings, though his feet were in some fantasy equivalent of loafers. His hair was brushed into a ponytail, tied up with a small strip of what looked like rose stems, thorns and all. He held a large slab of wood in his hand like a waiter, various kinds of cooked meat, vegetables and beverages placed atop it. In Ross’s experience, free samples weren’t half the size of your head, either.
Ross took a deep breath before trying to say something, paused, then rubbed his temples. He gave Everest a flat look and aggressively gestured to the orc, his smile clearly plastered on for some level of customer service. Everest just shrugged.
“Every universe has their own ‘deal’. Technology-based places have, well… technology. Magic societies have knowledge in runes, enchanting script and the like not commonly found anywhere else. We tend to take aspects from several different universes and apply them to different aspects of Terraegnus in an attempt to give heroes some comfort that their own universes could bring.” He looked at Ross, scratching the bridge of his nose.
“From Backwash, we kinda picked up on capitalism.”
“You don’t say. I-” Ross began, then stopped where he was walking. He looked up to see what seemed to be a miniature blizzard hanging out in a single spot against the ceiling, cold air wafting down onto the firbolg. He whipped around to face Everest once more.
“This place has goddamn air conditioning.” Ross said, dangerously quiet.
“Yep.” Everest said.
“I landed in the woods.”
“Yeah-huh.”
“It took you at least a full day to reach me, even with demigod-like speed.”
“Yessir.”
“And you have a goddamned fantasy capitalist system, where large corporations - or this world’s equivalent - have buildings with air conditioning, fluorescent lighting, a food court and goddamned free samples.”
“Yeah, and your point is?”
“You don’t have anything like search and rescue teams!? A literal god who has communication with the entire planet of 83 billion people brings souls here, and the system that deals with them fails so badly that one of them falls into the middle of a dangerous area in some unnamed woods. In fact, I don’t see how you could have unnamed woods! If you can do this-” Ross ferociously waved around the store, “-then why did my situation even happen!? How does this place have three door greeters who, to their credit, are the most attractive elementals I’ve ever seen, but not a single individual to spare when a potential hero of all things needs it most!?”
Everest paused, seemingly thinking it over.
“You know, that’s a good point.” He said.
“Thank you! It’s ridiculous.” Ross replied, visibly calming down. There wasn’t anything to be done for it now, anyways - he might as well try to relax a bit, as getting angry over such idiocy would do nothing but raise his own blood pressure. He had gotten a lot of achievements and gear for surviving, anyways; though, something about that justification ate at the back of his mind. He shook his head, sighing. Everest gave Ross a few moments before speaking again.
“Now that you have that out of your system, want some free samples?”
“Only if that stupid pun was intentional.”
Everest thought about it for a couple seconds before snorting a laugh.
“Totally intentional.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that day, as Ross was mingling with the populace on his own to get them accustomed to him, he ran into trouble. It had happened while he’d been discussing prices for a custom trinket, and he was having issues getting a sample of Ross’s AP, like normal.
“It’s bizarre, but the other merchants told me you’d be coming here sometime soon and helped me with some method of containin’ it proper.”
Ross smiled warmly, before he felt a chill run down his spine. The shopkeep’s face dropped from a slightly smug expression to a flat look, staring behind Ross. He turned around slowly and tentatively.
Before him stood a trifecta of young men - no older than Ross’s age. The frontmost one, who was eyeing Ross like a kid deciding the best way to break a toy, had his two presumed lackeys behind him. The first lackey was clearly some sort of goblin, with forest green skin and bulging eyes. Unlike most depictions Ross had seen, this one’s body was covered in intricately carved armor, symbols of the sun and moon etched delicately across the silver and gold plate. The second lackey, a bit harder to properly pin down, was some sort of ooze-like creature. Unlike most oozes, this one had an actual skeleton - metallic bones resting and unmoving within the otherwise gelatinous body. His eyes also bulged, and his mouth had no evident teeth, if he had any at all.
The ringleader, an irritably good-looking humanoid with rich brown skin and an immaculately shaved face, wore plates of black, blue and red. It held images that Ross could swear were moving of their own volition, and all of them depicted some sort of skull, brain or teeth biting or merging into one another. He shuddered involuntarily at the grisly spectacle of magic on metal, which made the lead man sneer with his perfectly white teeth. He brushed his pompadour hairstyle back with a single hand, which brought Ross’s attention to one of the only two unflattering aspects of the man’s appearance - a monobrow that looked as if it was straight off of Sesame Street.
The other aspect was a particularly harsh welt on the leader’s forehead.
One that was oddly rock-sized.
“You must be the person the townspeople are having hissy fits over.” The lead man said, words filled with malicious glee. It was an annoyingly smooth and deep voice. “Which makes you Ross. Odd that you’re all alone here, wouldn’t you say?”
“I’m… kind of not, though.” Ross said, then raised an eyebrow. “Wait, who did you say you were?”
“Not important!” The lead man barked before pausing. “Actually, it is. I want you to know who beats the hell out of you for coming into their territory. My name is Overlord Artorius Dragonshed.”
“We just call him Davey-” started the Goblin in a grating voice. The ooze man hit him with an elbow jab, making the goblin hiss briefly. Davey just froze for a moment before pinching his brow.
“Caleb?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“How many times have I explicitly told you to refer to me by Artorius?”
“Uh…” The goblin began to count on his fingers. It took him a few seconds before answering, “A lot?”
“Yes.” said Davey through gritted teeth. “And what’d I say I would do if you slipped up again?”
“You’d… cut off my toes..?” The goblin said, clearly confused. “Which isn’t a threat, I have talons-”
A backhand from Davey made both Ross and the shopkeeper jump. The goblin hit the ground hard, a small marker of a dizzy head appearing over his unmoving body. Davey turned back to face Ross.
“It’s Artorius.” He said, clearing his throat.
“My point is, I won’t let you stay in this town. It’s mine to protect, Ross Olsen. I’ll kill you if I have to, but you’ll be heading out at my earliest convenience - whether or not that’s in a bodybag is up to you.”
Ross felt a familiar anxiety he only remembered from middle and high school, followed by a conflicting nonchalance that Everest’s protection had provided. The mentor of Ruth and Ross had been keeping enemies and bosses away from them for days before this, and despite being attacked as soon as they entered the village proper, Ross still felt no stress. It really felt like he was with Pa Olsen again - a guardian angel at his side who wouldn’t let him get truly hurt.
Here, though, Everest was out and about conducting business in Sathenkura. The text chat was about the only way to reach him, and Ross knew his teacher would see the message immediately. He’d certainly come help, though that unwavering hesitancy that comes with anxiety flared. What if Everest couldn’t come here for some reason, or even simply didn’t?
He took a deep breath to calm himself.
Take stock of the situation, he thought.
This was most likely the one who’d attacked him the instant he’d entered the town, and based on the man’s character sheet and demeanor, Ross assumed he was a Hero. There was just something about his stance and uncanny appearance that screamed ‘chosen one’, although here there were over 80 billion of those, which didn’t make the man overly special. Davey’s sheet held a trait Ross found closer to what he’d assumed a Hero’s would be, possibly from Earth or someplace similar.
[Prime Trait: Muscle Memory
Trait Rarity: Unique Legendary
Trait Status: Passive, Active, Offense, Combat
ADVANCEMENTS
Advancement 1: Whenever you learn a new Trait, your body automatically obtains any and all muscle memory needed to be considered an expert in the skill. Additionally, your attacks are X% more accurate (X=Current Primary Class Level, 83).
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Advancement 2: Your Strength, Dexterity and Constitution scores are able to increase faster than normal. For every 2 Unused Stat Points put into one of these scores, the corresponding ability increases by 3.
Advancement 3: You have gained the Trait (Mixed Martial Arts).
Advancement 4: You have gained the Subtrait (Pinpoint Precision).
Advancement 5: You have gained the Subtrait (Monkey See, Monkey Do).
Advancement 6: Your Stamina pool has increased by 750, and your Stamina Regen is 25% faster.
Advancement 7: Your Health pool has increased by 1500, and your Health Regen is 15% faster.
Advancement 8: You may now use Mana instead of Stamina for attacks and Traits, as long as you have no Stamina left in your Stamina Pool.
Advancement 9: You have gained the Trait (Jack of All Trades).
Advancement 10: ??? {83.792%}
SUBTRAITS
Pinpoint Precision:
Whenever you make a successful attack on an enemy that triggers your Advancement 1 Ability of (Muscle Memory), you deal maximum damage.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Whenever an enemy makes a successful Critical melee attack against you, you may expend half of your maximum Stamina to unlock a Trait used in said attack. If no Trait was used, you regain the expended stamina and instead take half damage from the attack. ]
It was entirely possible that this man was utterly unreasonable, and he seemed to be snobbish and rather full of himself. Ross, meanwhile, just wanted to avoid as much person to person confrontation as possible - he was down for interacting with shopkeepers, but that was where his line was drawn here. He knew interacting with the wrong townspeople would cause a major disturbance, and if he didn’t handle this situation carefully, he was sure it might even lead to the deaths of undeserving individuals.
He swallowed hard.
“If the town guard let me in-” Ross began, but Davey interrupted him.
“The ‘town guard’ is a useless cluster of tree bark and fairy shit. They couldn’t hit a damn cabbage field if they were standing in it. They don’t know any better, I suppose; after all, they’re all gullible morons.”
Ross bit his tongue, which made Davey smirk.
“Nothing? No big reaction for the guard keeping the village safe with what meager means they might have? You must not care about this place then!”
Davey cackled maniacally before stopping, staring at Ross who barely managed to remain blank-faced. His smirk shifted into a scowl.
“Hey, dunce. I’m talking to you. I’m not a fan of being ignored.”
And there it is, Ross thought. My opening.
Despite feeling his muscles being wound up tighter than a rubber band, he turned with a calm demeanor back to the shopkeeper.
“I’m afraid I have no more of my resource at this time." Ross lied. "Do you think you could use some from Luda or Pierce, over in the clothiers’ district?”
His posture was relaxed, but his eyes screamed his stress to the merchant, who gave him a small, sympathetic look before nodding.
“Yes, I reckon that’d work nicely-”
“I’m right fucking here, Olsen.” Davey said, growl forming in his throat.
“That’s great! I was hoping for an upgrade for my-” Ross began, before whipping around and holding up the now armed AP shields he was about to hand to the shopkeep. He felt the attack coming, just like at school so long ago. It was some form of defense mechanism or something, but he could feel when Davey was about to hit him. Not in a psychic sense per se, but in a sort of subconscious perceptive method. Whatever it was, it gave him just enough time to go into the dexterity speed trick and block the backhanded slap, which destroyed one of the shields. Immediately, he reactivated it with his remaining AP.
While Ross felt a degree of pride and relief, Davey was less than pleased. His scowl grew wider as he tried to throw a punch at Ross.
The form was sloppy, and the only weight behind the blow was his Strength stat and physical weight. Ross easily bobbed to the side, blocking with a shield once again, which shattered and reactivated almost at once. Davey, meanwhile, was sent stumbling forward with the force of the follow-through and nearly fell over. He caught himself harshly on the counter, crushing the middle of it. When he realized what he’d done to the merchant’s furniture, Davey bared his teeth at Ross, cracking his knuckles.
“You made me do that, Olsen. You’ll pay for it in blood!” Davey said.
“How about an AP gain boost upgrade?” Ross asked the merchant.
Davey rushed at Ross in the enclosed space, heavy metal armor tearing through the air with superhuman speed. Ross, once again, got out of the way rather easily, though this time was far more difficult than the others. He didn’t believe he could win a one-on-one fight with this maniac, but he did think he could stall the berserk Hero until he was either pacified or detained. Ross felt his blood pump faster and an adrenaline rush kick in, deciding that now was as good a time as any to test out Kinetic Plexus - he’d just need a good store of AP first.
Fortunately for Ross, Davey gave him the perfect opportunity.
The level 83 menace began wailing on Ross’s shields, which he activated by pouring lost AP into his shields once again. Once the gain of the shields was at the same output as the assaulter’s punches - a shocking 5.8 thousand damage - he started to stockpile some while letting his shields maintain an amount of defense only a few points below the assaulter’s damage output. If this guy wanted to take Ross out, he’d try to make Everest proud and stand his ground. He’d make himself stronger from such an encounter, and build up plenty of AP while he had the chance.
After a solid two minutes of attacking from Davey, the shopkeeper began to lose interest. He mouthed to Ross, “Take it outside.”
Ross obliged by suddenly tucking and rolling behind Davey, whose one conscious companion ducked out of the way so as to not get run over. Davey let out an infuriated scream as he chased Ross into the town square, and Ross let himself feel anxious and afraid. It made his body shake, which egged Davey on. In turn, it let him get more out of the situation. He’d have enough power to one-shot his assailant if he had to, but also a generally massive store for himself. In addition, as long as his pool was at around a hundred thousand AP, he’d almost instantly fully regenerate his max HP, so his Immovable Object Subtrait would easily keep him alive.
After his reserve breached the 750,000 AP mark, Ross activated Kinetic Plexus. Suddenly, his body felt lighter. His limbs seemed to listen to him more, and his body suddenly swelled with muscles. His nervous system lit up like a beacon, orange and purple light pulsing through his body and shifting just enough to confuse attackers; the shifting of the light wasn’t an intended feature as far as Ross could tell, but he supposed enemies like ninjas or monks would have a tougher time with taking him out quickly and quietly as long as this remained active.
After this observation - only a fifth of a second ago - he felt his muscles swell again, then another fifth of a second later once more. He took a quick glance at his stats and mentally whistled, long and slow.
[Stats:
STR: 4001 (251 + 3750 From {ERROR:Solar_Plexus})
DEX: 301 (251 + 50 From {ERROR:Solar_Plexus})
CON: 251
INT: 53
WIS: 53
CHA: 53
LUC: 91 ]
Suddenly, Ross didn’t feel the reverberations of Davey’s punches nearly as much. As he subconsciously kept up his shields thanks to Everest’s brief training, he checked Davey’s own stats.
And smiled.
[Stats:
STR: 4,500
DEX: 4,300
CON: 4,400
INT: 2,000
WIS: 2,000
CHA: 2,000 ]
Knowing his Strength was closing in on his assailant’s own, Ross began to take one step forward at a time. He felt his AP draining quickly, yes, but with the anime-esque assault from Davey, its net gains were on an upward trend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Davey was dumbstruck. He’d fully expected to shatter any defenses Ross could have put up, but what he didn’t expect was for those same defenses to be brought right back up again. He’d seen the fellow Hero as his small band had approached the city, and Davey noticed his race above all else. He cursed himself for not fully reading all of Ross’s stats while he had the time. He still had a migraine from that enchanted stone from earlier, though; this made the anger worsen his aching head’s condition.
Most defensive abilities like shields or bubbles popped and had a set cooldown, but these damned orichalcum-based shields Olsen had drove Davey up the wall. He was trying to make an example of this guy for his lackeys, and while Ross was being nothing more than a punching bag, his ability to endure hits with virtually no damage was making an example out of Davey himself. He fumed, pounding harder and harder, but not a single point of damage got through to the slate-skinned goon. Then, of all the things that could happen, the damned firbolg’s chest lit up like a wildfire and he got better at blocking Davey’s hits.
The latter’s patience was wearing dangerously thin, only emphasized by the fool before him backing away slowly. Not one to give up any ground, Davey followed suit, letting his now nearly-empty stamina fully bottom out. He’d worked through stamina crashes before, and his mana would serve as a secondary source for now. He was just glad he’d found that other Hero in the town prior; his Trait gave him flurries of attacks, and Davey’s own blows were able to land far harder than that level 7’s own. Granted, the flurry was a huge stamina sink, but he took care to have a massive mana and stamina pool to compensate.
Even with his massive swathes of resources, though, Davey couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being toyed with somehow. He hated that feeling ferociously, and it was reflected in the flurry picking up speed. His armor’s shifting shadows began to swirl faster, temporarily increasing his Dexterity for a moderate mana cost per second. Still, this newbie was somehow blocking every single blow on time and maintaining whatever trait was half-blinding Davey. He took a split second to read over Ross’s main Trait, then cursed himself and stopped immediately.
“Really?” Davey panted. “Absorption points?”
Ross’s face remained stoic and unmoving.
Davey hated that look.
“Listen here, you little shit. You’re gonna get out of my town, one way or another. I’ll use every skill at my disposal to take you out, and if you think for a second-”
He stopped as Ross, fully unscathed, walked back towards the shop they were now around twenty yards away from, not paying him any mind.
“You… Get back here..!” Davey hissed, falling on his rear. Ross didn’t even acknowledge him, simply re-entering the storefront and leaving his assailant in a nearby grassy patch. Davey spat on the ground, then tapped the welt on his head before checking a new pair of system alerts.
[Stamina Crash!
You have expended all of your Stamina, and are now experiencing a Stamina Crash. All of your physical stats will be reduced by 80% for the next hour, and you gain the Exhausted debuff for the next 6 hours.
Mana Crash!
You have expended all of your Mana, and are now experiencing a Mana Crash. All of your mental stats will be reduced by 80% for the next hour, and you gain the Burnout debuff for the next 6 hours.]
He smashed a tender fist on the ground, then yelped as he took a handful of damage from the hit, courtesy of the new debuffs. There was no way for him to take control of the encounter, and he began to spew expletives as he hobbled precariously into the town square. He inspected his knuckles on the non-throbbing hand as he stood, and nearly fell over again.
Davey didn’t have a dominant hand, not anymore; he’d gained at least seven melee Traits that made the wielder ambidextrous. That being said, he still had a preference for his right hand while fighting. Looking at his right hand now, the knuckles were bruised and battered, and were additionally wrapped in a faint but similar light as was on Ross’s shields. It didn’t hurt or hinder his movements, which he was grateful for, but he was still frightened of what this could be. A debuff, perhaps? Maybe an enchantment or simply magical residue.
Davey got his answer in the form of a new alert.
[YOU_HAVE_BEEN_CURSED command…
Loading…
Error.
Cannot parse source of Curse:ERROR:{Admin_R.config}
ERROR
>>> Run{Ross_Olsen_Untitled_FC_Curse_IV.exe}
Searching for EARTH_KEY_TRANSLATION
ATTRIBUTE_NAME_NOT_SPECIFIED
Cause: NOT SERIALIZABLE
Cause: NOT DESERIALIZABLE
Cause: DESCRIPTOR_IS_MISSING
Cause: FIELD_IS_NOT_PRESENT_IN_DATABASE
ERROR: Unable to perform standard functions.
ERROR: Unable to contact an Admin.
ERROR: Admin has placed this {Ross_Olsen_Untitled_FC_Curse_IV.exe} effect upon you. It will require an Admin to remove or the effect to run out of time, or be otherwise dispelled by the nature of itself.
EFFECT:ERROR
ERROR: Unable to obtain properly contextualized description.
EFFECT: {ERROR_Remote_detonation_I_TEST}
EFFECT: {ERROR_AP_bolster_I_TEST}
SYSTEM NOTICE: ADMIN ACCESS IS FRAUDULENT. THIS IS YOUR FIRST AND ONLY WARNING, (DAVEY_COLEMAN). PURSUING FURTHER INTO THIS LOG WILL RESULT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE ERASURE FROM {TERRAEGNUS}.
ADMIN NOTICE:
I advise you to stay away from Ross Olsen in the immediate future.
I wish I could say this was simply a threat.
-Otectvurce ]