Chapter 5:
Frank observed the building critically. It looked like a manor house of some sort. The white smoke curling lazily from the chimney wasn’t the only sign of occupancy, it looked like all the windows had been securely boarded up.
Frank wasn’t sure what to expect. This place, whatever it was, so far had only revealed horrific monsters that seemed to want to destroy everything they came across. This was the first sign of anything that might be considered civilised life. Was it worth the risk to investigate, or should he stay clear?
It was while he was considering this that events took the decision from him. The door opened and out strode a woman in leather armour and with a bow and arrow already drawn and aimed right at him. It was a tense moment as Frank slowly raised his arms in the universal sign of ‘Please don’t fuck my shit up.’ It was apparently the right thing to do as she eased the string of her bow a little.
“You looking for trouble, stranger?” She asks, her voice firm.
“No, no trouble here.” Frank replies. Mana sparkled around her ears and whatever the Mana was doing, it seemed to satisfy her as she fully relaxed her bow and slid her arrow into a quiver he hadn’t noticed over shoulder.
“I’m Lizrinda, what brings you to Stoneside?” Now that he was no longer at the point of a weapon Frank was able to take in more details of her. She was tall; surprisingly tall, easily 6 feet if not a little more. Her eyes were a piercing blue, and her hair was vibrant copper.
“Hi, I’m Frank, and honestly I don’t know. I..” He paused, would it be a good idea to let her know he wasn’t from this world, or time, or whatever it was? He decided to go for a middle ground. “I uh, I only got here by accident.”
She seemed to accept that, nodding her head. “Well welcome, not much left round here, but most of the Plagued have been culled. So it’s not too dangerous, as long as you don’t go too far over that way.” She said pointing back towards the way he had come from. “They seem to nest over that way”
“Uh yea, I noticed that.” Frank replied, remembering the two hulking monsters he had fought against, the Wanderer and Lurker. “What’s the deal with those anyway?”
“What’s the deal with them?” Lizrinda looked confused by his response. “They’re Plagued.” Her tone sounded like she was trying to explain that water was wet.
“Nevermind, I hit my head a little while ago, I guess I’m just a little confused right now” Frank covered, “I also lost most of my stuff. I don’t suppose you could spare a little food?”
Liz sighed in resignation, slipping her bow over her shoulder. “Sure, we survivors got to try and stick together, I got lucky with my scavenging today so I can spare a bowl of stew. Come on in.” She waved Frank over as she retreated back into the building.
Frank followed and looked around as he entered. In the fireplace was the fire that he assumed was responsible for the plume of smoke he had saw. Hanging over the flames was a large pot emitting a delicious smell. In front of the fireplace were some rickety wooden tables and chairs. Liz was already sitting in one of the chairs and ladlling some of the stew out into a bowl as Frank closed the door behind him. The walls were lined with shelving racks crowded with clay and glass jars, boxes with what looked like vegetables peeking out of the top, and various miscellany.
Lizindra plopped a spoon into the bowl and passed it over as Frank took a seat in one of the rickety wooden chairs murmuring thank you. As he ate a spoonful of stew and thought about how to handle Lizindra. Obviously there were a bunch of things that were just common knowledge that he didn’t know. He could easily shove his foot in his mouth, and that could go badly. But he didn’t know if it was a good idea to tell her that he wasn’t from this place.
The two sat in silence for a while, each enjoying their own meal. Frank took the opportunity to examine the surroundings in more detail. It was obvious that Lizindra liked to keep a clean house as there was not a speck of dirt on the stone flagon tiled floor. Which was impressive given that the roads outside were barely a few steps above a dirt road. He had the feeling that he could grow to like her, it was important to keep a clean workshop when working with sensitive and small components for a new robot.
Finishing his bowl of stew with a contented sigh, Frank decided that he didn’t really have a choice but to reveal his otherworldly nature. There were too many things he needed to know that he just couldn’t ask about without it being obvious that he was either a complete idiot or not from this place.
“Lizindra, I only arrived here today. Before this morning I was working in my lab, something went wrong, and then I was waking up in the middle of Stoneside, and getting attacked by some mutant ant!” He took a breath. “Where the hell are we? Is this Earth? What’s with the mutant creatures wanting to kill me? What’s with the strange game like system?”
“Whoa, whoa. Slow down. That sounds totally insane, do you mine if I use Ring of Truth on you while you say all that again?” Lizindra asked sceptically.
“Ring of Truth? Was that what you did earlier when you asked me if I was here to cause trouble?” Frank replied.
“Yes, it's a Skill that lets me know if a person is telling the truth, as far as they know anyway. It’s a handy Skill to know if the person you are talking to is going to try to stab you in the back as soon as you turn around.”
“Yeah, I bet. Okay let's do it then.”
So for the next couple of hours Lizindra grilled Frank. Where was he was from. Was he human? Did he have access to the system? What level he was and what Skills? Did he intend to hurt her? Frank was impressed, she was very thorough in her questions and was obviously quite intelligent. Once she was satisfied that he was telling him the truth she let him ask his questions.
“So this town is called Stoneside. But what about the country? The world?” Frank asked.
“Well the world is Systema. The system made the world and everything in it. It then created people to live in the world, giving us the blessing of the system, and free will to use it wisely. Or at least that’s what I was taught in school before the whole world went insane. Stonewall was once part of Jaspus, The Kingdom of the Dwarves. One of the few surface outposts for trading. This used to be their Mayor's house.” She waved her hand around indicating the manor house.
“What happened to everyone?” Frank asked.
“The Glitch.” Frank could hear the capital G in her voice. “No one really knows how it happened, but about 10 years ago the system broke. Every non sentient creature started changing. Some creatures, even now, are barely changed and are still safe.” She sighed sadly. “But most of them turned into the Diseased. Then they evolved into the Plagued. In the worst cases they turned into Abominations or worse.”
“If that was all, then maybe we could have held on. Sure there was chaos when the family pet cat turned into a Diseased and started attacking them. But it wasn’t just the creatures. It was the Monsters too.”
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“Monsters?” Frank asked with confusion.
“Yea, sorry. This is all basic stuff here. The system used to spawn Monsters in the wild. Giant Ants, Wolves. All sorts of things. They aren’t the same as normal creatures. They are the only thing that gives experience when you kill them. They would also give loot and in rare cases Skills. But after the Glitch, every Monster already spawned instantly turned into Abominations. Most Monsters started spawning as Plagued, and even in towns and cities. It was a slaughter.” Her voice broke a little as she said that. There were tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry.” Frank said. He didn’t know what else to say. He had asked a complete stranger to bring up what were obviously the most painful memories of her life. “I think for now that’s enough, maybe we can talk about it at another time? When you’re feel a little better?”
“Yea, later.” She gave a sad smile. “It’s not safe out there, the house is built well and will protect you better than any of the ruins. I have a spare pallet if you want to stay the night. It will be nice to have someone standing watch just in case.”
Frank nodded. “Sure, that sounds good. I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping rough tonight, and thank you for the food.”
Putting words to actions Lizandra showed Frank the spare pallet in one of the rooms on the 2nd floor. It wasn’t a huge room but there was enough room for a table next to the pallet, and a small chest of drawers.
“I’ll take first watch, you get some sleep”
Frank slept fitfully, he kept having nightmares of his encounters with Plagued Monsters. The rebar pierced the Wanderer’s head. How the Lurcher nearly gored him. When Lizindra woke him for his shift on watch, he barely felt rested at all, but from the bags under her eyes he knew that she needed some sleep.
He got up and took his place in one of the chairs in what Frank thought of as the living room. Lizandra had set up a series of slide hatches to get a peek at the streets outside, so Frank set up a rotation of peeking out through them for a few minutes each. Between each check he busied himself by looking through his menus to see if they provided any more illuminating information. It was during his first menu session that he remembered that he hadn’t spent the Magic Points he had earned from killing the Plagued Lumberer.
He hadn’t gotten around to asking Lizindra about the Points and Skills system. He resolved to ask her about it in the morning. The rest of his watch went by peacefully. He once saw some dark shapes passing in front of the moon, but it seemed they were quite a distance away, as they didn’t disturb them.
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Lizindra came down the stairs not long after sunrise. She was in her leather armour already, had a sword sheathed on her belt, and had her bow slung over her shoulder.
“How’d you sleep?” Frank asked, offering her a mug of the water he had been drinking from all night.
“Probably the best half night’s sleep I have had in months.” She replied, drinking gratefully from the mug. “Anything of note happen?”
“Not really. Saw something flying past the moon, but other than that nothing. I do have some more questions though. About the system?” He finished when he saw the look of pain briefly flash across her eyes.
“Oh sure yea. I forgot for a moment that you came from a place without any system. What do you want to know?” She took a seat and gestured for him to start asking whenever he was ready.
“So the points you earn. Physical and Magical. What determines how you earn those?” He asked.
“Well it’s kind of all there in the name. Apart from your first level where you get 1 point in both to get you started. After that it’s about what you fight and how. Each Monsters have a maximum number of Points they can give, and then the points you get are based on what Skills you used in the fight. If the Skill you used came from a physical Skill then you have a chance to gain Physical Points. If it was Magical then Magical. The stronger the enemy the more Points. But the opposite is also true. After a while most normal Monsters stop giving Points. ” She said.
“Yea, I thought so. But given that I am in another world I thought I should double check the basics. What about Mana?”
“Well that increases based on the number of Magical points you have spent. The more you spend, the more you have. One Mana per Point.” She shrugged. “Pretty easy to get a decent Mana pool once you have a few Magical Skills. Throw in a couple decent Magical attacks and you usually get a Magical Point out of it.”
Frank thought about that, glancing up at his Mana. He had gotten 10 Mana from just the one Point. That didn’t sound right.
“And Skills?”
“Well the more Points you have the more Skills you have available to buy. More powerful Skills cost more Points. Some Skills require you to be a certain level, or to kill certain Monsters. Stuff like that.” It looked like she was going to continue when there was an impact on the wall near the door hard enough to shake the shelving, followed by the door shaking from several more impacts.
The two of them jumped up, Lizandra drawing her sword. “Grab a weapon.” She said pointing to a weapons rack near Frank where there was an assortment of swords, spear and bows. Remembering using the rebar, Frank grabbed a spear and readied himself as Liz limbered her bow.
“You ready?” She asked, the door was still rattling under the onslaught of whatever was outside hammering on it. Frank nodded that he was and threw open the door so that Lizandra could get a clear shot on the mysterious enemy.
A red stream of Mana flashed down the length of the arrow and settled in the tip, before Lizandra released it with a thwang. There was a muffled explosion from outside, before Lizandra indicated for Frank to go ahead.
Frank charged out with his spear at the ready. The Skill that Lizandra had just used had knocked the Monster back a decent distance, allowing Frank to see it as he ready his attack.
It looked like another Lurcher, a monstrous and deformed bear, with antlers sprouting from its head and shoulders. Dancing to the side he thrust forward with the spear managing to impale its shoulder. Before he could pull back for another strike Frank was hauled forward as the creature reared back and let out a bellowing roar that caused his ears to hurt.
The roar was cut short as a volley of arrows glowing blue rained down from above and hit with crushing force, giving Frank enough time to steady his feet. Releasing his hold with his left hand he raised it up taking careful aim at the creature's head.. ‘Mana Bolt’
[Mana -1 :9]
The blue bolt flashed from his hand and struck the beast in the head. However unlike last time it didn’t take chunks out of it. Instead flesh sloughed off the creatures head, to reveal the gruesome antlered skull below.
“It’s an Abomination. Be careful!” He heard Lizandra shout, before the arm below the still impaled spear started to glow red and flashed up and hit Frank in the chest. There was an explosion and Frank felt himself get knocked back, flying across the street to hit the rock wall on the other side of the street and knocking it down around him. It was only by pure luck that he had managed to maintain his hold on the spear.
His back hurt in a way that he had never experienced before. He heard more impacts from Lizandra still battling the Abomination, so he hauled himself up and steadied himself with the butt of his spear. The Abomination was peppered with arrows, Lizandra had managed to even blow off one of its arms. With a sigh Frank readied his spear, and thought about the last fight with a Lurcher and focussed on his Mana again and drew on Mana Infusion and thought about explosions and armour piercing rounds. As the Mana flowed down the spear and into the blade he readied himself.
[Mana -2 :7]
With a grunt he charged forward, aiming for the things chest. Lizandra saw his move and fired a glowing arrow at the beast causing the beast to raise its arm up to shield itself, leaving his chest exposed and causing him to hold still just long enough for Franks spear to strike home on his chest.
As the blade struck Frank felt the Mana invested in the blade of his spear burst forward like a shaped explosion. His spear sunk in like a hot knife through butter causing successive explosions every few moments until the back of the Abomination blew out and the mangled Monster fell backwards and off of his spear.
[CONGRATULATIONS! You have defeated a Lurcher Abomination! You have gained 150 shared EXP.]
[You are now Level 3]
[Magical Points: 4 (+2)]
[Mammals killed + 1]
[Abomination enemies killed + 1]
Frank slumped down exhausted from the short fight, and the intense pain in his back. He looked over at Lizandra, who was looking at him with a shocked expression.
“What the hell was that Skill? That wasn’t Mana Infusion or Mana Bolt!” She yelled.