Well, it turned out Dan wasn’t allowing himself to be murdered very, very, very slowly. He was somehow sucking the vortex into his core. We rewound and rewatched a dozen times to figure out what happened.
How can an apparition be sucked into a core? Neither Bob nor I nor anyone we’ve asked thought that was possible.
[It isn’t. It must be some quirk of how the Game works. It wasn’t a real apparition.]
We think it’s because he had no mana-type. No one ever has a core and no mana-type. Everyone opens a mana-type when they get a Class, and they get a Class before forming a core. At least on my layer and for mortals.
[Interesting hypothesis, but it must be a quirk of this Game. Was there a change to his status?]
Nothing that showed.
[Was anyone informed of this?]
Of course. Since that dumb broad Zixy had first carbon copied everyone, I had been hitting reply-all every message. Ever since Gabrodyl had put Zixy in her place, my boss had been replying to just me, taunting me with further pictures of those five luscious holes.
I bet Gabrodyl is young, super-hot, and a proper whore. I hope I get to meet her and find out one day. And I’d proudly spawn some get with her despite her kind lacking even one semi-compelling facial orifice.
[How exactly was the apparition sucked into the core when Dan hadn’t cleared his channels and had no Class?]
Like I said, we watched it a dozen times or so. It looked like it was just kind of sucked into his core.
[But how? His channels weren’t cleared. Channels are cleared during Foundation tier. Only the pathways Classes and Orbments burrow into and connect with energy systems allow for the cultivation of beast cores and such without cleared channels.]
Beats me. Interesting you know Classes and Orbments burrow pathways. I didn’t know that. At the time, to be clear. I knew switching out disparate Orbments and Classes too often was very detrimental to long-term growth, but I had no idea pathways were burrowed.
Anyway, this vortex will come up again right after this next part.
[Did you see him use a cultivation technique previously?]
Possibly. He did review the basics of meditation with my team earlier that night, remember?
[There can be a big difference between meditation and a meditative cultivation technique for gathering qi and converting it into mana.]
Yes, but there can also be just a tiny difference when observing. Every time he seemed to be doing anything that could be a cultivation technique, his mentals stayed in the red, so I assumed he wasn’t. And like you said, he had no Class and hadn’t cleared his channels. What was there to cultivate? Gathering qi does nothing if it can’t be converted to mana, and you need mana to clear channels.
[Or so it’s assumed. Things worked differently long ago, prior to Orbments and Classes. Continue.]
Interesting you say that. We’ll come back to this soon too. Let me move on to the next part first.
Another wasted Sortilege. Once the apparition was gone, things settled down.
Dan avoided answering questions but said there wouldn’t be another attack that night. Oh, how I wish I got that second tech sent to me before then, if only just to prove that prick wrong.
Becky didn’t say anything, but I could tell she was leery about that claim. Dan had told her just the night before there wouldn’t be any attacks for a while. The very next night an apparition tried killing her get.
Bonnie seemed kind of scared of Dan too. For some Karen related reasons, most likely. She probably had a strong urge to call the cops on him.
The next morning, Bonnie refused to give a flower to Dan. Becky and Nick wanted Dan’s arm and other wounds cleaned and seen to. He said he was fine.
Dan told everyone to exercise and then left to do so on his own.
Except Leena went with him, easily keeping pace beside him the whole run.
Dan was huffing and puffing and covered in sweat, while Leena looked fresh as a daisy as she blabbed her mouth off telling him her whole life story, asking questions even though it was clear Dan was far too winded to answer.
It was easy to tell Dan didn’t give a shit about anything she had to say and just wanted to be left alone. She either didn’t care or never caught onto the fact. He lost her on a rock climb, finished exercising, and meditated.
After breakfast, everyone started lazing about. When Dan returned, he got them all training for the Trials in separate and spaced-out groups. Once he felt they knew how they were to train, he asked Nick to gather everyone and bring them to the Combat Trial.
This Trial was supposed to be the last one completed in the tutorial area and meant to give participants a little experience in combat with easy enemies before going to the real Game. Only an idiot would enter in Hell difficulty without having a [Class].
This Trial is a good example of how scaling usually works. Easy difficulty faces participants against three goblins matching the highest party member’s level, minimum of level 0, for F-rating. If they want a higher rating, add another goblin per rating up to S, or seven total.
Sounds easy. Those goblins are pathetic, but they’re not so pathetic at higher tiers. And SS requires them to fight a same level hobgoblin, minimum level of 1. At level 1 with a starter Class, hobgoblins aren’t a joke.
For Hell difficulty, S-rating requires a party to fight one bugbear 10 levels above their own, minimum level of 11, Copper tier, with a real Class and Orbment at that level.
SS-rating requires the party to face three bugbears.
Know what a bugbear is?
[No.]
They’re the biggest, strongest, and most aggressive of the goblinoids. It’s not saying much, but compared to goblins, they’re real brainiacs and extremely wily. They’re a lot taller and stronger than mortals, and they all appear with weapons at level 11, and a little armor too. At higher tiers, they come completely decked out and are true monsters.
Even extremely competent and highly skilled full-parties of six participants with Classes find this fight difficult. More often than not parties get slaughtered. Or at least a couple members do.
Once everyone was gathered outside the Trial, Dan walked up huffing and puffing, covered in sweat, his wounds reopened and leaking blood. His vitals were looking terrible.
Bob and I believed Dan would go for SS rating. If he did, Bob thought the Bugbears would decimate him. I had my doubts. Fool me once and all that.
Both Nick, still using his branch to help him walk, and Chet brought the camera to Dan. Nick said, “Don’t worry, I ain’t saying nothing about this being a bad idea.”
Dan just grabbed the camera out of Chet’s hand.
“Chet’s saying the reader thing says this should be done last, after you got a Class and magic and all that shit,” added Nick. “I hope you know what you doing, is all.”
Dan’s eyes went from his daughter to his brother, and he asked, “Mind if I borrow your knife?”
“Sure,” replied Nick as his hand moved to get it. “Just be careful, Danny.”
Dan grabbed the knife and nodded his head. He entered the Trial, set his stuff down, and placed the camera. He picked up Nick’s knife and took out his own.
The Trial lit up after Dan stood on the starting circle and selected SS. A voice counted down and three Bugbears were portaled in. A Guardian, Singer, and Warrior, all level 11, low Copper, all ready to fight.
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Like I said before, they told us in training that every enemy in the Game is a clone, be it beast or sapient or whatever else. They always have the same Class, mana-type, equipment, and everything else, every time. Same exact Orbments. They act and fight the same. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
They do improve at higher levels and tiers. More and better Classes and Orbments, better arms and armor, all that. It’s like a clone of the same bugbear or whatever was made for every level.
What gets me is that they never seem surprised when portaled into Trials. If there was a clone of me, I like to think it’d act surprised if it were ever suddenly portaled right into combat. Just for a split second before it started whooping ass.
Do they all just sit in a big portal area somewhere just waiting to be called up? It only takes three seconds for them to be portaled in. Seems like a logistics nightmare. The whole thing’s weird.
I wonder how that’s all managed. Do you know?
[No.]
Oh well. Anyway, the last time we talked about what’s real or not still has me all messed up. If someone asked me to prove I’m not a clone, how could I? Maybe I am a clone. Have you ever thought about that? If you’re a clone and don’t even know it?
[Dan initiated the Combat Trial. Continue there.]
Jeez. Okay.
----------------------------------------
Dan took a couple deep breaths to help clear his mind. He didn’t want to be someone he wasn’t, someone he’d like even less, and it seemed like he kept being pushed towards that.
He shouldn’t want to fight. He shouldn’t be looking forward to this fight. But he was.
Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought being around people again would be anything but wonderful. And not just people – family. His own brother, someone he loved dearly.
For a very long time, anything but him had meant danger. It wasn’t an easy thing to let go of. Or relearn.
Another thing he never thought would be terrible was feeling something other than the heavy burdens of duty and responsibility. Being around others made him feel again, but what he felt was terrible. Something he had no defense against and no way to fight. It just was. And it was awful.
Last time, finding his brother’s corpse, knowing his brother only selected Hell difficulty and Lone Wolf because of him, because Nick knew Dan just wanted to get life over and done with, was something he carried around with him the whole time. It was one of the initial reasons he hadn’t just given up.
And if Dan was being honest with himself, it wasn’t just being alone for so long.
No one liked being around me much after Amanda died. Or I didn’t like being around them. Worked out the same either way, he thought. Don’t matter none anyhow. Things need doing, so I got to get them done, regardless of what it makes me feel or anything else. I just wish they didn’t talk so much.
He couldn’t wait for his Health Attribute to improve. He was tired of constantly being out of breath. It would take some time and a lot of work though. My fault for smoking and not taking care of myself.
Higher-graded Stats were great, but without Stat points allocated, a higher grade wasn’t a huge help on its own. Some help, but not much. If he was remembering right, he needed S-grade and 100 in a Stat to cause its intrinsic value to double, for him to be twice as strong or fast or whatnot.
Dan stood in the starting circle and selected SS. After the countdown, three monsters appeared. He forgot the name people called them.
Wolf-bears, or something like that. He thought they kind of looked like jacked werewolves.
This fight wouldn’t be easy. He wished he wasn’t looking forward to the challenge, or glad for the opportunity to let off some steam.
The monsters always appeared in a V formation. The lead monster was a Guardian with a mace and a little better armored than the other two. But since the armor was just some leather straps wrapped around parts of its body here and there, it hardly provided any real protection.
Behind the Guardian to Dan’s left was a Singer armed with a spear. On the other side was a Warrior, the biggest threat by far.
Dan charged the Guardian. As its mace started its swing, Dan slid on his knees past its left side, stabbing its thigh hard on the way by with his right-hand knife, that arm held across his chest. That was to remove the Block defensive Orbment, which nullified one attack at First Rank.
As he continued to slide by, the knife in his lowered left-hand sliced through the heel cord of the Guardian’s left leg.
Dan’s slide took him directly into the path of the Warrior that had charged forward, its massive club glowing red, empowered by the Smash physical Orbment. Dan turned his slide into a side roll to the right, away from the Warrior and the other two monsters.
But he only rolled once, enough to avoid the club smashing the ground, causing the whole Trial to shake.
Dan halted the roll to throw his left-hand knife at the Singer. It took two seconds of singing before bard-type Orbments kicked in, and that monster had just begun gurgling out some noise that counted. Heal Song was very weak at First Rank, but not letting enemies get off healing was deeply ingrained.
The knife hit the monster’s throat, halting the song, but doing no real damage. The knife wasn’t balanced for throwing, so the hilt landed instead of the blade. Dan was no knife-throwing expert, so he was just happy that he hit what he intended to.
Then Dan was back on his feet stabbing the Warrior’s left arm. He got four good stabs in before it recovered from the Smash attack. The Warrior swiped its club around in a wide arc, forcing Dan to jump back.
Once the club blurred by his chest, Dan dashed forward and checked the Warrior, trying to knock it to the ground. He didn’t even budge the monster. He had forgotten just how weak he was comparatively at these lower tiers.
The Warrior’s left arm seemed to be moving around and holding the club just as well as it had been before Dan stabbed it four times.
And I forgot how tough these bastards are.
It took Dan longer to recover than it should’ve. He wasn’t used to being so weak and moving so slowly. Or being so easily winded. He tried for an armpit stab. Another swipe of the club forced him back and he flubbed the attack. He just wasn’t fast enough.
During the exchanges with the Warrior, Dan had been turned around a little. He knew the Singer was approaching, but he thought he had more time and space. He didn’t. He managed to get out of the way of a thrust, but the spear dragged along his arm, scoring a nice slice.
Dan twisted, grabbed the spear with his left hand, and yanked hard as he moved backwards, trying to get the Singer between him and the Warrior, but the Singer lost its balance and tumbled forward.
The Singer released the spear Dan was still yanking on, and he had to catch himself from stumbling backwards.
By the time he managed to halt his stumble and switch out which weapon was in which hand, moving the knife to his left and the spear to his right, he had to sidestep a mace blow from the Guardian who finally managed to limp forward and get back into the fight.
Dan slashed his knife, getting a shallow slice on the Guardian’s forearm as he ducked under the backswing. He thrust his new spear awkwardly across his body to his left, forcing the Warrior back a step.
With the Warrior coming at his left and the Guardian limping up to his right, Dan decided to go forward. He charged a couple steps and speared the Singer as it was getting to its feet. A clean hit right into the shoulder, halting the song on its lips and causing it to collapse back to the ground.
Dan jerked the spear free and dodged a massive swing of the club. He was hoping to get a chance to spear the Singer again, but the Warrior and Guardian, working together, forced Dan to dive canted over the Singer to get a little breathing room.
Dan was very winded and was sucking air hard. He hurriedly wiped sweat off his forehead with his left forearm, preventing it from getting into his eyes. He needed to end this quickly. The fight wasn’t going nearly as well as he thought it would.
Before he even got an opportunity to take a deep breath, the Warrior was on him again. Dan feinted right and rolled forward, not easy with a spear in his right hand, but was able to spin and score a solid slice on the Warrior’s calf, ending the move by thrusting his spear at the Guardian.
The spear had little chance of hitting the Guardian, but it caused the bugbear to stop short and move left, grunting as it put weight on its injured leg.
Dan looked left and made like he was going to spin again but thrust with all he had within him at the Guardian’s chest. The spear went in and through the monster.
Dan kept a solid grip on the spear and kept his momentum going by moving rightward to see what the Warrior was doing. It had both its hands above its head, hefting its club, a club that was glowing red.
The spear was stuck through the chest of the still living Guardian, so Dan kept moving right, using the spear as a lever to spin the Guardian before he jumped back, pulling the monster into the path of the Smash attack.
Then blood and gore splattered everywhere. The Guardian’s head exploded as the club thumped down directly onto it.
Dan tried as best he could to quickly remove the spear while trying to wipe the blood out of his eyes with his left arm, the arm still holding the knife. He didn’t notice or realize the Singer was charging him until its right shoulder, its uninjured shoulder, plowed into his stomach, driving him back a good distance until he smacked into the Trial’s wall.
As fast as he could, at the best angle he could, Dan stabbed the back and as close to the neck of the monster as he could get at while forcing its head downward and its mouth away from his neck with his newly empty right hand.
The struggle lasted a while. The longer he wrestled with the stronger monster, the more quickly Dan lost his steam and weakened. Regardless, he forced the head ever more downwards as he stabbed madly over and over.
Then the monster’s head moved lower on its own as the Singer forwent ribs and bit into the side of Dan’s abdomen, which also gave Dan a lot more room for his left arm to maneuver.
As Dan made a clean stab into the base of the neck, a killing blow, with a lot more room to see now, he noticed a glowing club coming right at him.
There was no way to move left or right. He could only slide down and pray the Smash attack hit the Singer and missed any part of him.
The attack mostly hit the Singer’s corpse, but Dan’s left arm took some of the enhanced attack. That was enough to shatter bone. The knife fell from his now useless fingers.
The corpse was tangled up with Dan. A big part of it was mush now, made so by the Smash attack. Without even looking, he knew another attack was coming soon.
Dan frantically shoved the corpse as far away from him as he could, enough to give him a little room. He forced his legs to push him back upwards. He fell onto the corpse and tried rolling over it, but his legs were stuck. He madly kicked his legs free and rolled away. He felt the air swoosh next to him as the club passed by.
As the Warrior was recovering its club, Dan didn’t hesitate. He dug down deep, rushed to his feet, and jumped at the monster, managing to grab it around the head with his working arm, the crook of his elbow over the Warrior’s eyes.
He bit into and ripped out a chunk of the monster’s neck. As much of it as he could. He then went back for seconds and thirds, holding on tightly as the bugbear flailed around. He kept going back for more until the Warrior finally fell to the ground, dead.
Dan lay next to the Warrior, panting, ashamed of his performance, of how weak his body now was.
That was way too close, he thought
Still, he remained. He always remained. And later that day, he would come back to this Trial, and this fight would go very differently then.