Jordan was pretty happy with himself, all things considered. His drone had slowed down in its murder spree after a bit. But before he ran out of Tech Points, it had managed to snag him a couple more kills.
EXP: 55/100
In the span of just about five minutes, he was already more than halfway there to Level 2. Did Jordan feel a little bad about effectively having an easy way to search and destroy Rabbits while everyone else had to deal with the tall grass obstructing their vision? Sure, just a smidge. Was that enough to stop him from doing it again as soon as his TP fully refilled? Nope.
Just a bit over four minutes later, Jordan recast Summon Air Drone. He gave it the same set of extras, and this time sent off the Rabbit Murderer 8000 into a different direction. A little bit after it went out of sight, a sudden burst of light flashed in the corner of his vision. Jordan turned toward where it’d come from, a brow raised.
The Pyromancer went that way, didn’t she? What was her name again… Hanako? Yeah, that sounds about right. Doesn’t seem like her Skill just started a large fire for us to worry about. So she must have a pretty good handle on it already.
It was just then that there was a second flash of light, and then a third. Was each one an individual usage of her Skill? If so, then she’d effectively just killed three Rabbits in a row. At that moment, another flash quickly corrected that to four in a row. Had Hanako actually managed to find a whole colony or something in one spot?
Spurred by the sense of newfound competition, Jordan mentally urged his drone to hasten its search even further. Then a bit over another minute later, it seemed to have found another target.
Experience Earned!
+11 EXP
With that, his lead had increased again to two Rabbits. Jordan didn’t actually know if anyone else had managed to find any. Hanako was only obvious because of how obvious and flashy her Pyromancer powers were. But he had a pretty good feeling that they were solidly the ones currently in first and second place for the group’s collected Experience.
Experience Earned!
+11 EXP
Experience Earned!
+11 EXP
Experience Earned!
+11 EXP
He grinned as three more notifications appeared within seconds of each other.
EXP: 99/100
Just one more Experience Point. Just one more kill. Then he’d be the first of his group to reach Level 2. At this point, Jordan only wished that they’d set out even sooner. If they had immediately started moving instead of standing by the platform for a while, then he could have reached it all the faster.
But since his kill streak did have a delayed start, Jordan wouldn’t be surprised if someone else on the planet had already reached Level 2. There were billions of just Humans somewhere out there, after all. And that was likely along with who even knew how many aliens from their entire universe.
Experience Earned!
+11 EXP
Level Up!
Level 1 to Level 2
Yes! Alright! Time to see how this works, Jordan thought. But as he was about to open his Status, another notification popped up in front of him.
Congratulations!
By attaining your first Level Up, you have now qualified for placement on the leaderboard of the Quest: Mightiest Individual. You may now view the Mightiest Individual leaderboard and your current place on it at any time.
Woah, really? Well alright then, that’s good to know. Might as well pull this thing up right away and see how other people are doing.
Mightiest Individual:
1: Wilfred Wilbur Wyndham III (Level 6)
2: Zorliay Qorath’zyrunch (Level 5)
3: Yvaro Qorath’zyrunch (Level 5)
4: Carl Rowe (Level 5)
5: Karin Allison (Level 4)
…
479: Jordan Joyner (Level 2)
Holy shit! Someone’s managed to hit Level 6 already?! It’s barely been more than half an hour since we got our Quests! Just what kind of starting zone did these guys get dropped in? Jordan gaped at the screen.
Also, the presence of aliens was now even more confirmed by some of those top names. It appeared the ones in second and third place were members of the same family. But Qorath’zyrunch didn’t sound like any human name Jordan knew of.
But aside from the appearance of the leaderboard, there was something that Jordan was mildly disappointed by. He’d hoped that by reaching Level 2 so soon, it’d have come with a new Title. Since the System had referred to Titles as rewards for one’s achievement, Jordan had assumed that quickly gaining a Level would soon earn him one. And while that might have been true for the actual first person to reach Level 2, he was clearly behind the curve in that race.
However, he then had another thought. Since the list had used his real name by default, then it stood to reason that it’d do the same for everyone else who got on it. Which meant that he now had a tool for checking in on the basic status for all the people he knew.
Jordan quickly started to scroll down the leaderboard. His eyes scanned each name as it passed by. Then just a little bit later, he found the bottom. There were actually a few people under him, so the last position on the list was actually number 493. Yet after having checked every name, he hadn’t seen anyone that he actually recognized.
Not his family, not his friends. Jordan’s mind quickly went to a dark place as he thought about his parents. They were both in their early 60s and already had a number of health issues. His mother still hadn’t fully recovered from breaking her ankle a few months ago, and walked with a limp.
Then his dad had already needed a cane to move around, due to his lower back and knees having been ruined by decades in a job that’d been hard on them. If they’d been placed in any sort of dangerous area where their group had to run from danger…
He quickly tried to push the thought out. It’d do him no good to spiral into a mentally dark place. There was still every chance that they’d been dropped in a safe area with people willing to help them out.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
So he instead turned his mind toward Adam and Leo. Jordan hoped that wherever his best friends were, that perhaps they were together.
Since the System’s grouping seemed to be at least partially based on proximity, it was a possibility. It mostly depended on if they’d actually driven off as soon as they got to their cars, or got distracted in a new conversation after leaving the mall and were side by side during the teleportation.
The reason behind that hope was largely for Adam’s sake. He was the kind of person that found it hard to even kill a spider in the bathtub. Killing stuff in video games was one thing. But for him to do so as a means of progression in the real world? No shot. If Jordan had to bet on it, he’d be confident that Adam would pick the more peaceful route of selecting a Trade as his main Class.
Leo, on the other hand, would definitely not just survive but thrive with a Battle Class. Likely even more so than Jordan or anyone else he personally knew. He had been an amateur MMA fighter that actually had both a lot of talent and a win streak.
Everything was in place for him to soon have a promising career ahead as a pro right after he’d graduated high school. But then an injury outside the ring ground that momentum to a screeching halt. And by the time Leo mostly recovered, his prospects of making it as a professional were already all but dead. It wasn’t something they talked about much. But Jordan knew that even after these last few years, the regret from it still hung over his friend’s head.
Because of that, Jordan assumed that Leo would likely pick a Class focused around what he knew best. Even if he didn’t pick a Trait that corresponds to a Class based on hand to hand fighting, it looked like Warrior was one of the default options everyone got. So if Leo was there as the muscle, Jordan trusted that he’d be able to keep Adam safe if things got rough.
But on that thought, he swiped away the leaderboard and moved on. It was time to do what he originally intended and see how his Status changed. So he promptly pulled that up next.
General Info:
Name: Jordan Joyner
Species: Human (Earth)
Guild: N/A
System Info:
Class: Combat Engineer
Subclass: N/A
Traits: Tech Savvy
Titles: Initial Merger
Level: 2
EXP: 10/225
Grade: E
Resources:
Tech Points: 7.40/17
Tech Points Regen: 3.76/Min
Stats:
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 16
Vitality: 18
Endurance: 15
Intelligence: 23
Wisdom: 21
Will: 14
Free Points: 5
General Skills:
Active: Appraise-E5
Class Skills:
Active: Summon Air Drone-E1
Active: Zap-E1
Active: Overcharge-E1
Passive: Tinker-E1
Jordan glanced through the changes. Interesting. So in terms of my Stats, the only automatic progression was to Intelligence and Wisdom. That tracks with the bonus per Level mentioned as part of my Class. But that was enough to push my max TP pool up a point.
He had noticed a few other things. The first was that the leftover Experience from the last kill was carried over, which was good to know. And speaking of which, the EXP threshold for getting the next Level had more than doubled. From 100 to 225. So with the 10 already there, it’d take about another 20 Rabbit kills to reach Level 3. Considering how it was more than twice the last Experience requirement, Jordan wouldn’t be surprised if the next one needed 500.
Then there was something else about his Stats. Jordan now had five Free Points. And when he focused on them, he sensed that he could easily will their allocation into any Stat of his choice. Now that was where things could get a bit spicy. Because while five was a small number in vacuum, here it had a fair amount of weight. For his lowest Stat, Strength, an addition of five would net him an increase of nearly 40%.
On the other hand, it’d be better to play into what I’m good at. Especially while I’m with a group of people that actually have Strength-based Classes, it’d just be a waste to increase it myself. Hmm. Hey System, could you actually define exactly what each Stat means? Like for example, what exactly does Wisdom do and what does it actually affect? Jordan asked.
But once again, the System didn’t grace him with a direct answer. Nor did it even get him a mental nudge in the right direction for him to intuitively understand it for himself. This slightly miffed Jordan. Considering how Stats would appear to be the very foundation of their builds, it'd just make more sense for them to understand what each one actually meant, right?
In any case, he’d just have to trust his intuition. Dexterity and Strength were the most obvious in what they did, just move faster and be stronger. Vitality and Endurance were a bit more closely related, but luckily, he had the Classes of the others within his group to judge off. Those that had granted Endurance seemed to be the archetypal tank, a wall meant to withstand tons of punishment.
He recalled that for their Ranger, Elizabeth, she’d gotten Dexterity and Vitality as her Class bonuses. From what she had written down in their collective notes, her Class revolved around both archery and wilderness survival. And in a survival situation, where was always the risk of getting diseases or being poisoned by something you consumed, right? So it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that’s the kind of thing that a high Vitality would help with.
Something which did bring up an interesting point, now that he thought about it. Of these four “physical” Stats as he decided to dub them, Vitality started as his highest by a good bit.
Before all the bonuses applied by the System from their tutorial, their base Stats seemed to revolve around 10. And while his Strength started as a mere 7, Vitality was a whopping 12. Which had made the latter his 2nd highest Stat, only behind Intelligence at 13.
When it came to Intelligence, Jordan did have to toot his own horn, at least a little. He was pretty well educated when it came to the field of technology. Before getting plucked off the face of the Earth, he’d a decent chunk into his graduate program for robotics. And before that, he’d already earned a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering.
Granted, he wasn’t some genius. That was just a specific area in which Jordan had studied a lot. When it came to other areas of knowledge, he was a bit more lacking. Like when it came to speaking other languages, he was a painfully accurate example of the stereotypical American that only spoke English. Not for a lack of trying, but trying to teach himself other languages had simply never clicked. So while his education was one potential avenue of explanation, he wasn’t sure if it painted a full picture.
How would the System compare two different PhD’s, for example? Like someone that was an actual medical doctor, versus someone with a Doctorate in something like business? Then there was the whole basis that a formal education wasn’t everything. How would you measure the Intelligence of people who hadn't gone to higher education, but were nonetheless knowledge experts in their own career paths?
Things like IQ tests were proof that society had always attempted to measure out one’s intellect. But such tests and measures always fell short and were always unreliable in any realistic sense.
And then for his above average Vitality, that was even more of a head scratcher. Sure he got his regular shots and generally tried to keep a decently healthy diet. But other than that… eh? Jordan just couldn’t really think of anything else that might justify it. His relatively lower Strength and Dexterity was proof enough of how little he went to the gym or anything like that. So it couldn’t be anything like having particularly good cardio or something.
Though going off the idea of Vitality governing defense against disease and poison, maybe it was just due to always getting his shots? Not that those would help much on a new planet that likely had all kinds of unique pathogens, anyway.
I could always just hold my Free Points for the time being. Although, maybe I’m overthinking this. Actually… yeah, I’m definitely overthinking this. Still staring at his Status, Jordan finally came to an actual decision.
Rather than just try to overanalyze the known and unknown details, it’d be easier to just take things at face value. For his Skills, the System directly stated that they either scaled with Intelligence, Wisdom, or both.
And of his Skills, he’d still only tested one so far. Which meant that before anything else, perhaps it was time to give the others a test run.