Bradley sat in the front seat of the car with the door open, “Alright Squad 0, today we are going on a dangerous mission. We will go with the general circle formation. Make sure to move into crest formation when running into encounters. Anyone have any questions?” Kevin raised his hand, “What are the attacks of the monsters we will be facing?” Bradley nodded reassuringly to Kevin, “Kobolds use weird rudimentary weapons, Wyrms use their large bodies and Fire Breath, and Wyverns dive attack. If we see a Wyvern, the first thing we want to do is take its wings out.” With everyone hopped in the back, Bradley began driving to their destination.
“Is everyone prepped with their new equipment?” Bradley called out over the radio in the vehicle. A resounding yes came from the back. Bradley continued driving, sitting comfortably in the military style vehicle. Kathy was next to him, “Thanks again for having the full gear set commissioned. I tried the armor on last night and it fits well and looks a little less ridiculous than the full gold set I got at level 10.” Bradley smiled, “I actually only asked for the shield and sword. James was ‘inspired’ by your class of Paladin and worked out the whole set.” Kathy smiled, “I’ll have to give him a better thanks when we get back to home base I guess.” After a few hours of driving, suddenly a pop-up window appeared, “The Tutorial has been completed. Phase II begins.”
Suddenly the earth began shaking, and the road started to split. Bradley slammed on the brakes, causing the truck to screech to a halt. A giant crack ripped across the ground, around 100 feet in front of the stopped truck. “Is everyone alright?” Bradley yelled across the radio. “We’re good!” he heard in reply from the back.
Bradley hopped out of the vehicle to look around. Trees taller than skyscrapers, a desert stretching to the horizon, a mountain in the distance, and two moons in the sky. Another window popped up, “Convergence complete! Have fun!” Bradley screamed out in frustration, “What the fuck is going on!” The other members of Squad 0 hopped out of the vehicle, and they looked around shocked. Ben spoke up, “What the hell just happened Bradley?”
Bradley stared directly at Ben, “Convergence. If I had to guess, a shit ton of earth was merged with the zone environments. The road is still here, and it's not like a single zone either.” Trisha began to panic, “What are we going to do now? What happened to our USDC branch? Oh god.” Trisha began to sob uncontrollably and Kevin grabbed her, “We’ll be okay. Bradley’s here, we’re all here together. We can get through this.” Kevin held her close, attempting to calm her down.
Bradley cursed out, “Fuck. Here we were, about to train in a more difficult zone and what? Now the world is just a bunch of zones. I can hear a fucking Wyvern from here for fuck’s sake. Alright, we’ll start heading back to USDC. We need to make sure that everyone back there is okay.” ‘And that all my progress wasn’t just wiped.’
Joel spoke up, “Should I try calling back and seeing if everyone is okay?” Bradley began pacing, “Yea, yea, do that. Umm, everyone back in the truck. Let’s start heading back. Joel, keep me updated.” Joel sighed, “No signal. I can’t reach anyone.” Bradley just climbed into the vehicle, “Let’s go. We’ll see what happened on our way back.”
Bradley and Kathy sat in silence for several minutes until Kathy spoke up, “At least we aren’t technically in Ohio anymore.” Bradley snorted, and then recovered, “Thanks Kathy.” Silence continued until Bradley came across a large gap where the road had been buried in sand. “Hey everyone, get out of the vehicle. We’ll have to walk for a while.” Bradley turned towards Kathy, “Get ready… Deconstruct! Deposit!”
Everyone fell into the sand pile below as the vehicle disappeared. Ben spit out sand from his mouth, “Bradley, you bastard! I was halfway out when you did that.” Bradley started laughing as he pulled himself out of a sand pile, “Look, you know I had to. It was too funny not to.” Everyone pulled themselves from the sand, and got to their feet. Bradley, trying to stay calm, motioned for everyone, “Let us march through the Ohio Desert.” Everyone scowled at him, but followed him along.
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James got nervous when the pop-up appeared. George had decided to chill out with him at his workstation, while he tried to level up his skills. “Mr. James did you see that?” James tousled his hair, “Yea little buddy, I guess things are about to change some.” George looked at him, “What is going to change?” At that moment the ground began to violently shake. George clung onto James, “What’s happening, I’m scared.” And as quickly as it started, the shaking ceased, and the second pop-up appeared. “Convergence, huh. George, let’s take a peek outside, okay bud?”
James and George cracked the door open, only to find nothing different visible. “Let’s keep going.” James stepped out, looking around, and noticed that the city had stayed the same. James exhaled in relief, “Thank goodness. Seems like everything is okay.” George tugged on James’ shirt, “Are you sure? I didn’t think we had two moons.” James looked up and his jaw hit the floor, “Dear lord.” James stared stunned, unable to comprehend what would come next.
The sounds of screaming in the street suddenly snapped him out of it. The sound of monsters rippled through the air, and the entire city was in a state of panic. ‘Damnit, Bradley isn’t here either. Gotta find someone capable of handling this.’ James pulled George through the streets, careful to avoid the scared crowd. James slipped into the East Wing of the main building, only to find that the returnees were panicking just as badly as those outside.
“What do you mean you don’t know-” “-didn’t sign up for this-” “-my family is out there-” A large man in full USDC gear stepped forward, “Please quiet down. My name is Kieran Gentry, and I am the leader of Squad 4. I am a level nine swordsman. Please feel safe. The higher squads are all capable of handling the situation.” The crowd quieted down, “Now, we all know that Phase 2 has begun, and that means Convergence. Based on what information I have, that doesn’t mean the whole world became a zone. We aren’t entirely sure of its ramifications, but know that this city avoided being swallowed by convergence.”
James sat staring at the man, ‘Seems like he has things under control.’ James took a deep breath and began to leave the lobby, “Where the hell do you think you’re going? Are you disobeying the orders of a main squad?” James sighed, “Are you really trying to show off your power right now? I’m a production class, I’m going to make weapons.” James waved him off, and began leaving again until he was stopped in his tracks, “Ohh you must be the blacksmith of Squad 0. I heard you awoke just recently. We’ll need to monitor you to make sure you’re working right.” Kieran’s grin grew sinister, “For the sake of the people, James will be producing products non-stop!”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
James was separated from George, who was powerless without corpses, and surrounded by many of Squad 4, and was drug back to his work station. “I was already going to make equipment for everyone. Why are you doing this?” James was beaten, until he started to bleed and left to work at his forge. Kieran slammed open the door, “James, my boy. Seems like you tried to fight back, but let me give you a tip. A level one can’t do shit, even if he’s in Squad 0.”
James gave Kieran the cold shoulder, and pounded away at making weapons. Kieran grabbed James by the throat, “Listen here fucker. I don’t like playing with things that play dead, I’d rather them be dead.” James couldn’t breath, his throat was entirely closed, but his mouth grew into a wide smile.
Kieran threw James down, “Son of a bitch! Fuck this. If he acts up, beat the shit out of him. I have to go find buyers.” Kieran wiped his gear off and left. ‘So that’s what’s going on. Squad 0 is gone and he wants to garner financial and systematic power.’ James smiled as he hammered away, making the shittiest weapons he could with the material he had. Unfortunately it was still better than the standard goblin blades but only barely.
He could feel his malice sink into each weapon, and even if he couldn’t see it, the normally high quality blades were being debuffed due to his anger and ill will. James snickered to himself, as the other Squad people threatened him to work faster, letting each bad encounter fill his heart up with hatred. Once James felt he was in the zone of hating all those bastards, he started work on making a stronger looking weapon for Kieran. He poured his heart and soul into hating that man, slowly morphing into wanting him hurt, then dead. The will of death he slowly built was placed into the blade, unable to be seen by anyone, and only known to James.
“I made this one special for your boss, can you guys ease up on me a bit.” James set the beautiful blade to the side, looking much better than the others he had been producing. The men guarding him looked at each other, “We want blades like this too.” James sighed, “I can’t make it exactly alike, since Kieran would beat my ass then. How about I make it customized to you guys body types and styles.”
James was plotting now, ‘Cursed blades for everyone.’ James knew exactly what the debuff was, ‘Decreased Pain Tolerance, Unable to Damage Humans.’ The severity of the debuffs allowed James to scheme. He had one of Bradley’s weaker guns, and he also had the firebolt crystal, but he didn’t want to blow up his forge. He used the ring during smithing to secretly practice his control. James also had the first sword he had crafted.
James was growing more and more exhausted, slowly burning through his mana and stamina. He was already using his skills minimally to make weapons as bad as possible, but it didn’t change the fact that creating so many repetitive weapons, so quickly, while being held against his will was exhausting. He could tell that, compared to Kieran, the two men guarding him weren’t as strong. Kieran would come in every 20-45 minutes to pick up the new batch of swords and go sell them.
James was about to reach his limit on mana and stamina, so he waited until Kieran came back to take his weapons, “This is less than last time.” James let the exhaustion paint his face, “Sorry sir, it seems the special weapons I’ve been making for your Squad took a bigger toll than I thought they would. I’ll push harder.” Kieran grabbed James by the hair, and James let himself go limp, “Pathetic bastard. Work harder.” James nodded, and Kieran let go, making James fall on the floor, “I’ll be back boys.” Kieran waved as he went, and James slowly picked himself back up.
James started to hammer, at an obviously slower pace, which concerned the men guarding him, “You have to work faster man, or we’re all fucked. Come on.” James almost fell over, “Bradley left me with some spell crystals to help me refuel my mana, can I take one out so I can work better?” The men nodded, “Anything to not get screamed at by our captain.” The men held their weapons at the ready, but were relaxed. “Withdraw 4!” A spell crystal fell into James hand and he absorbed it, slowly feeling better. “I’m gonna take another one out now, so I can catch back up for lost time,” James said, still feigning exhaustion.
The men nodded in agreement, and with that James pulled out the gun Bradley left with him. James fired at the men, as they tried to react. They weren’t able to. James fired at the men’s knee and shin area, leaving them barely able to stand. They screamed out in agony while wielding their swords, trying to use them to stay standing. “It was nice of you guys to treat me with some respect. I get why you were doing this, which is why I let you live. Be thankful.” James quickly darted out of the back door, hearing curses as he went.
Kieran was rolling in cash. Even if everyone wasn’t okay with the power grab, he was the only one who knew where James was, and the only one selling better weapons in this time of crisis. He had just dropped off another set of 10, for 15 grand a piece. Kieran was feeling happy as he walked back to the workshop, making sure no one had followed.
He entered the front door and found his men seething in pain. “What the fuck happened? I left you alone for 25 minutes and you lost to a level 1?” The men tried to collect themselves, “He had a gun. It fucking hurts.” Kieran pulled out his newly crafted sword, “The dumbass made me a real nice sword to slice him up with, which way did he go?” The men pointed towards the back door. Kieran began to walk that way, when suddenly a gunshot rang out, hitting him in the side.
“So, you think something like that would work on me?” Kieran turned towards James, smiling. “Little fucker, that’s gonna bruise. How will you pay me back?” James ducked out of the shop, and Kieran ran after him laughing, “I’ll fucking kill you!” Kieran exited the shop, and was covered in a bright orange hue, then suddenly blue. “Eat shit, fucker!” Kieran tried to block the firebolt, but it wasn’t aimed center mass. It caught him on the side, and melted his USDC gear against his body.
“AGHH!! You fucker, I’ll kill you!” Kieran kept marching forward as James repeatedly fired firebolts towards him. Each time Kieran used the anguish to keep pushing forward, marching towards the scared James. James pulled out his sword and Kieran laughed, “What the hell are you going to do with that piece of jujhmnnnnuuuukkkkkkkknk? Did you forget that you made me a much better sword?”
James stood there shaking as Kieran approached, “I won’t even need to use a skill on a bitch like you.” Kieran raised his sword and slammed it down on James’ shoulder, and it bounced off. James smiled and slammed his sword into Kieran’s gut, “I’m guessing you had projectile resistance, but it doesn’t matter when you have a sword in your gut.” James pulled the sword out and kicked Kieran over. Kieran spit out blood, “How the hell did you win?” James laughed, “Why would I give you a sword that’s better than one in my inventory, when I could give you one that’s cursed.”
Kieran dropped to the ground cold. A pop-up blinked in front of James, “Congratulations on achieving the title - Mankiller. +%30 damage to any non-monster entity and +200 xp.” Another window dinged with a level up notification. James sat on the ground in front of the corpse, feeling the fire burn deep in his heart. He now had much, much more to offer. He smiled as he yanked his sword from Kieran’s corpse.