Tom, Derek, and James all sat down in the plush office chairs around the conference table to begin looking at their latest achievements. Tom pulled up his notifications, feeling like this time he would be in a good place for some levels with all the creatures he killed. There were so many notifications though, that he wasn't sure he could read through them all. Thinking for a moment, he decided to see if he could have the System condense them down to just one message letting him know his party's progress. He was rewarded with the multitude of messages disappearing and only a single prompt taking its place for combat.
Combat:
Your party has killed 65 goblins between levels 3 and 6. Your party has been awarded 32,500 XP. Your share of the experience is 10,834 XP.
Tom was elated. This was a great amount of XP for leveling up. Seeing that there were other prompts, Tom began to go through each of them.
Skill Acquired:
Swords
You have acquired the skill swords. You have shown that you can hold a blade. Pointy end toward the bad guy. Level this skill up to become more proficient in the use of this weapon.
Current skill level: 1
Bonus damage with swords: 3%
Level Up:
You have earned enough XP to advance to the next level. You are now level 6! Continue to work hard and push yourself to gain more XP to continue to level up. You receive 10 attribute points to distribute as you see fit. You also receive 5 skill points.
Level Up:
You have earned enough XP to advance to the next level. You are now level 7! Continue to work hard and push yourself to gain more XP to continue to level up. You receive 10 attribute points to distribute as you see fit. You also receive 5 skill points.
Tom paused. What were skill points again? He suddenly remembered the prompt about the skill tree in the tutorial and pulled up his character sheet. It appeared as though he had been given the points retroactively back through all of his levels so far. So he now had thirty skill points to use on top of his twenty attribute points. Beginning to feel a bit like there was almost too much to know, Tom wasn't sure whether to be relieved that the points were retroactive and he could get more, or overwhelmed at the prospect of another set of decisions to be made.
Thinking about how the fights had been going so far, Tom was tempted to just put all the points into Strength and Dexterity. Goblins were simple creatures though, and the prompts and messages hadn't said that only goblins would pop up. More creatures with different abilities might be coming. Considering this, Tom decided to put five points into Intelligence so he could play with magic a bit more, five points into Endurance to be able to fight longer with the sword, five points into Strength to make the sword feel lighter even though he had the tattoos, and five points into Charisma since the book he had absorbed seemed to put a lot of emphasis on having high Charisma. After spending the points Tom pulled up his character sheet.
Name: Tom Harris
Race: Human
Class: Warlock
Level: 7
HP: 150/150
MP: 200/200
SP: 200/200
Total XP: 21,334 XP to Next Level: 6,666
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 0
Strength: 20
Constitution: 15
Dexterity: 15
Endurance: 20
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 15
Charisma: 20
Luck: 15
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
Inspect Level: 1
Vehicular Homicide Level: 3
Swords Level: 1
"You guys should have gotten class choices right? For the amount of XP we earned?" Tom asked.
Both James and Derek nodded, still looking at screens he couldn't see.
"Derek, have you selected your class yet?" Tom asked again. This time, Derek looked up from the screens.
"I was just about to, why?" Derek asked.
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"I wanted to try something. And I'm concerned once you take your class it won't work on you." Tom explained. "I got a spell called Dark Healing that I want to try out. I bet it won't work if you become a cleric. I'm sure you aren't fully better from that blast yet, so I want to see if I can help and get a chance to try out casting a spell. I didn't want to do it until I had time to test how to cast magic. Hence, I didn't use it in the fights."
Derek agreed, and Tom walked over to where he was sitting. Extending a hand toward Derek, Tom concentrated on the steps that had been ingrained in his mind from learning the spell. He focused on channeling mana through his body and then out to his hand and uttered the spell phrase needed to cast Dark Healing.
"Uthos manista. Morthit malistrom."
A bright purple colored energy left Tom's hand and enveloped Derek in a glow. Derek's eyes became concerned for a moment, but it appeared he relaxed after a moment of being enveloped in the glowing light. His shoulders slumped and he extended his leg out several times. When the light left him, he stood up and hopped on the leg he had limped slightly on before.
"That feels pretty great!" Derek said, looking up at Tom. "This magic stuff is awesome! That would have taken days to weeks of recovery normally."
"Awesome! And your HP is back to full?" Tom asked.
"Yeah! I can't wait to be able to do that too." Derek said.
"I'm worried it won't work on me," Tom said. "But I have my own healing spell so I should be able to take care of myself for now."
"I guess we'll have to test it out once I choose my class," Derek said.
Nodding in agreement, Tom walked back over to sit down. Skill points needed to be spent now too. He decided to pull up the skill tree to have a look now. Before he could do that though, a portal opened in front of James, similar to the one that had opened for him when he selected to be a Warlock, but this one was a vibrant green mixed with swirls of yellow. A book floated out and into James' hands. It was a brown tome with silver lettering etched into it.
"Is that your Ranger class book?" Tom asked.
"It is!" James said. "The Kama Sutra!"
Tom made a face that showed he was not amused, even though inside he wanted to chuckle.
"Oh come on," James said. "That was hilarious. And you should see the look on your face!"
Tom ignored him and went back to pulling up his skills screen. Then a white light appeared next to Derek and a book bound with silver leather and gold etching floated out into his hands. The Cleric class book, clearly. Happy his friends were getting their chance to gain a class, he looked at the options available in the Warlock skill tree.
There were three options at the base of the skill tree all shaped like bubbles with text in them. It appeared that branches led away from each of these skills, but the next options were all shrouded from view by blackness. Slightly frustrated at not being able to see what was next, Tom pulled up the skills to review his now-limited options.
Skill:
Summon Demonic Familiar
This skill allows the Warlock to summon a demon as a familiar. The higher the level of this skill, the better the demon that is summoned. The higher the level of the demon that is summoned, the more Charisma the Warlock will need to be able to control the demon.
Skill casting cost: 50 mana
Duration: 1 hour
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Cost: 10 skill points
Purchase this skill?
Yes No
Skill:
Fear
This skill allows the Warlock to instill fear into the target of their choice. As this skill levels up, the number of targets that can be affected will rise as well. The amount of influence this skill has over a creature is measured by the level of the user's Charisma. The higher the Charisma, the greater the effect of the fear on the target.
Skill casting cost: 25 mana
Duration: 30 mins
Cooldown: 1 hour
Cost: 10 skill points
Purchase this skill?
Yes No
Skill:
Corruption
This skill allows the Warlock to reduce the abilities of the target. As this skill levels up, so too will the effects it has on the target as well as allow for the selection of more than one target. The charisma of the Warlock must be higher than that of the target for the skill to take effect.
Skill casting cost: 75 mana
Duration: 2 hours
Cooldown: 6 hours
Cost: 10 skill points
Purchase this skill?
Yes No
These were some badass skills! Tom was really excited to see what each one did. Though ten skill points was a little steep. He understood why they would cost that much after seeing the effects. This also explained a lot of why the class book had been so adamant about increasing his Charisma. So many things relied on his Charisma being high for skills, and skills seemed like they were going to be more powerful than his spellcasting.
He briefly considered picking one skill and looking at what was beyond them but decided to settle on taking all three skills with the points he had. Selecting yes on each of the skill prompts as he brought them back up, he added the skills to his list of abilities.
As he purchased each of the abilities the darkness was drawn back to review more skill bubbles in the tree branching off from each of the main skills. From each skill, three more options were shown. Before diving into the other skills, Tom decided to check on the others.
Looking back across the table, Tom saw that the others were still making selections of their own, or in the case of Derek, appeared to have his head bowed in what was likely some kind of prayer. As a Cleric he would likely be making a selection of a deity to follow, and it only made sense that he would speak to them through prayer.
Taking a moment to look at his inventory, there were now twenty-two common monster cores in one of the slots. That meant that the others were given to James and Derek. Tom was glad that they would now be able to purchase their own equipment and he could focus on his. He didn't mind paying for items for them. They were his friends after all. Something about being able to buy his own equipment though meant that he could splurge a little more on some nice items.
Thinking about this reminded him that he was going to have to give some kind of speech about the tutorial and all of its facets. Deciding that the vending machines would be a big part of it he made a decision.
"We need to find a vending machine and buy some items to show to the people we are going to be speaking to," Tom said to Derek and James. They both looked up at him. "If we keep the cans we can show them how to open them so they know what to expect. I'm sure there is a machine here somewhere since there is a lot of office space."
"That makes sense," Derek replied. "Office spaces are always one of the best places to put vending machines. And I like the idea of showing them the items and how to activate them. Seeing the effect for the first time is quite an experience. It would be good to try not to scare them."
"Where's the fun in that? You should toss it at someone and tell them to open it." James said. "The look on their face would be priceless!"
"As funny as that might be, it would be better not to make anyone's panic or anxiety worse than this apocalypse already has," Tom said.
"Are we really calling it an apocalypse already?" Derek asked.
"Seems like it. It's a global effect that ended the lives of millions of people and likely will end tens of millions more due simply to the fact that humanity has existed in a state of peace for so long that they just don't know what to do with something that immediately acts with violence toward them." Tom replied.
"That does make sense. I hate the thought of what is happening. That there is nothing we can do to stop it but adapt." Derek said. "Maybe the governments can do something?"
"The governments are likely just trying to stop the bleeding. Rallying the military will only do so much, as they will have to choose places to wipe free of monsters and then sit and protect them. Because the notifications said that the monsters are appearing because of the mana being released, that means random spawns." Tom explained. "So they can't go out and just wipe all the monsters out and everything goes back to normal. They have to be ready at a moment's notice to eradicate a monster that might appear in the area they cleared and are protecting."
"I wonder if using mana in that area would cause monsters to stop appearing there," James said, now staring at a screen they couldn't see.
"That was quite possibly the most intelligent question you have ever asked," Derek said, looking stunned.
"Fuck you very much," James said in return.
"That is still something to consider. If there was a way to use up the mana in an area, that would likely mean monsters couldn't appear there, making it safer," Tom said, pondering the thought. "We will have to consider that once we get more people safe and figure out how to guide them to becoming more self-sufficient."
"Well, alright then. Let's go find a vending machine, get some new equipment, and get ready to try to help the people here!" Tom said, standing up and turning toward the door.