Janik turned towards the sound and delivered two strikes, one at chest height and one at around leg height, a sound logic to make sure Sam wasn’t crouching or jumping out of the way, but instead, he only hit the air.
With his focus now on his side, Sam sent the rope forward with several Psyhands holding it at different lengths, as soon as it made contact he started wrapping Janik up, tightening after wrapping around as Janik struggled, allowing his mediocre Psyhand strength to do surprising wonders.
“Fuck... no... shit...” Janik exclaimed his dissatisfaction as he struggled to get out or cut the rope before it was too late. Though it wasn’t pretty, after a few seconds, Janik was tied up to the point that he couldn’t even use his swords to cut himself free.
“Well... That sucked...” He added from his helpless position back on the floor.
“I can continue if you want.” Deactivating his invisibility he came back into view, showing that he hadn’t moved. “Realistically speaking, all I need to do is go Invisible and attack you with my remaining weapons. You can see them, sure, but what can you do against 19 weapons.”
“Oh, not much, but that’s what testing and training is for, no? If I can get used to three or four weapons, wouldn’t that make me better than I was?” Even tied up he was smiling at his logic.
And Sam couldn’t fault him.
Untying him from the awkward position, Sam pondered what else he could do. He had spent quite some time fighting in the Dungeon but had been relying a lot on the normal, or already-confirmed skills or usages of his skills. He had become more effective in how he applied them, yes, but it’s still somewhat restrictive.
“Let’s go again.” Janik looked ready shortly after he was back to his feet. “I know you’ll easily win if you use your weapons, try other things.” He smiled, seeming to want to let this be a test for Sam just as much as himself.
What followed was Janik failing again and again, Sam realised that he was doing roughly the same things each time. Force Pulsing, using his hands to move things around so Janik would miss, disarming or blinding him with a well-targeted pulse. But that was all there was to it.
If he didn’t use any items like weapons or tools, and if Janik took it calmly, abusing his knowledge about Sam to move slowly and deliberately, then Sam didn’t stand much of a chance. Janik could move his feet slowly and steadily, moving one sword with both hands overpowered Sam’s Psyhand and physical strength, allowing him to ‘slowly stab him’. All in a training fashion, of course. So the more they tested things the more Janik started to win, though it was usually with the same tactics. Surprise and fast, or slow and steady.
When Sam mixed in his Invisibility, it became harder, but without much to take Janik out with, it became a kind of stalemate. He couldn’t deal damage with just his Psyhands, so even if he attacked while Invisible, Janik could just stay there and tank it. Sure, it might not be pleasant, but Sam wouldn’t win that fight anytime soon. In the war of attrition, he would win, but this just meant that if Janik wanted to, he could slowly figure out where he was, throw something around until it hit or just luck out. The short was that this wasn’t a good tactic in this training. It could be argued that this was not a realistic fight, and in one way it wasn’t, but he could end up finding himself without items and with his Boost spent, then what?
Suddenly things changed.
Janik was standing steady, trying to find out where Sam was, and one of his steady legs was shot to the side with enough force to topple him over as if some strong and heavy person kicked it.
“Fuck!” Janik let out in the air before he landed on the floor with a hard thud. Dropping his swords he grasped his calf. “The fuck was that?!” He looked at Sam with a confused anger in his eyes.
“Oh... I just realised something... dumb... I should have guessed this a while ago but...” Sam replied with a sheepish smile, suggesting that he did indeed feel a bit dumb for not realising this sooner.
“And what is that?!” Janik barked as he rubbed the sore spot on his leg.
“I have been using the Force Pulse many times, often several together. But I have never activated them while actively using the Cluster Strike. I mean... it’s a passive ability that fixes itself but... when I halfway ‘activate it’-” Making air quotes with his fingers he continued. “-at the same time as using the Pulse, it seemed to stack the power rather than consider them individually...”
“You can do that? How many hands did you use on my leg just now?” Janik was forcing himself to his feet and test-standing on his hurt leg, it looked like it was still painful so he didn’t end up putting his full weight on it.
“Well... I had to use the Throwing ability like I originally did to learn the Pulse. The Pulse is an activatable ability that seems to be locked down as it is. I suppose this was more like taking off the autopilot?” Sam shrugged, not entirely knowing how this worked. But he thought he was starting to understand.
“I originally figured out the Force Pulse through doing something like that, which created the new skill. But I suppose it’s like the System making a macro for me... macros are usually very specific, so... Perhaps that’s why I was never able to properly do more than just some light pulses.”
Sam pondered a bit more. “If you think about it, when I hold an item like this-” Picking up one of the daggers from the floor, he hovered it in view between them, pointing it to the wall to their side. “-It doesn’t weigh much, but let’s say I was barely able to lift it with one hand... I can still throw it.” Activating Force Launch it darted into the concrete wall, hitting some teal barrier before losing all its momentum and falling to the floor.
“The arc is even surprisingly flat, now... I’m not that good at math but... if my Psyhand can only lift so much, but is still able to ‘throw’ it, adding extra force into it, then it needs to be capable of much more than just the normal pulse.”
Janik nodded like a sage before responding. “I don’t know more than the normal basic math, this shit’s above me, but I get the logic at least.”
“I remember it being harder to trigger the Throwing pulse on things I couldn’t throw earlier, but perhaps since I know the abilities more now?” Sam shrugged, almost looking to Janik for answers. “But, what I did know was four hands on your leg, manually triggering my Cluser Shot ability and manually triggering the Throwing pulse, it looked... interesting.” Sam smiled as he replayed the event happening in his mind.
“Now I’m curious...” Janik commented, putting more weight on his leg. “If that was four hands, what happens if you use all of them?”
“Well, I’m not going to do that to you.” Sam smiled, getting somewhat eager about what this could do. “But let’s have a go at the training dummy there.” Pointing towards a vaguely human-shaped dummy on a stick, looking almost like a high-quality scarecrow.
“Have at it.” Janik smiled, making an ‘after you’ motion.
Sam walked closer and wanted to test a little, starting by using four hands on their arms, triggering Force Pulse in the normal way.
There was a pulse of energy there, which looked and sounded much like he expected, an energy pulse with four knocking sounds on the wooden dummy. It was clear the four hits acted separately even though they happened at the same time.
He then went through the elaborate process he needed to activate the Cluster Pulse with the same four hands. The pulse both looked and sounded more angry, the wooden sound was more of a powerful punch landing into the hardwood, and the wood shook a bit.
“That sounded dramatic,” Janik commented with a smile.
“That was just the four I used on you.” Sam smiled back before mentally placing all his 40 hands on the same arm and going through the same process of activation again. “This is all 40.”
As the Clustered pulse triggered, all the energy stacked into a single hit, sounding like a mighty thud it broke the dummy’s arm off with a loud crack. It sounded and looked like something strong hit it, something like a horse.
This gave the two of them a moment of pause, just standing there and looking at the damage as the broken-off arm and splinters fell to the floor.
“How the fuck is that still zero damage?” Janik said in disbelief as he looked at the information screen, displaying that though the dummy visually ‘took damage’, it didn’t register any damage values.
Sam had to agree but didn’t voice it. It didn’t make sense.
“It’s probably just how the dummy calculates things, it might not be... coded... for this kind of damage?” He had no idea how this was set up, the fact that the room protected them from actual harm, and the fact that the dummy could take and read damage without ‘taking damage’, could be somehow messed with in this case.
“I refuse to test this on you, but... I want to see this on... something.” He kind of wanted to go into the starter dungeon where nothing was a challenge, just to test out things, but before that, he had another idea: “What happens if I launch a dagger with this?”
“Two things. First, I absolutely want to see that. Second, didn’t you explain earlier that... you had to use Energy to do these things in addition to using Energy to create them?” He sounded excited but also uncertain.
“Yeah, that’s true... It used to be like that but, sometime during my last Solo Dungeon, I can’t remember when. It just didn’t use Energy to trigger anymore, but when I trigger it the Psyhand sort of... collapse into the energy needed, I can just re-manifest it instantly so in practice it just removed the cost to Launch or Pulse things.” Sam tried to answer honestly but he didn’t seem certain.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Well... that’s not making me jealous at all.” Faking an annoyed face, Janik looked more interested than anything.
Sam reached out and picked up a cheap dagger, manifesting and placing all 40 hands on it, aiming the blade at the dummy he went through the same process, but this time focused the pulse into the Launch mechanic as it should be.
The powerful thump sent the blade flying, there was a snapping crackle as it launched, seemingly the very same second it impacted into the wooden dummy with the momentum to dig itself far enough in that even the small crossguard was embedded.
“Ok... so that’s an improvement...” Janik commented after a few seconds of just absorbing this.
[ 5 Damage ]
“Only 5 damage with all that?” Janik added in an almost annoyance. “With all that force and speed, it didn’t even do more damage?”
Sam pondered for a few seconds and remembered someone on the internet, some gun-nut in videos when he was younger, saying the sentence that ‘speed beats armour’. It was in the context of some faster ammunition or something.
“Can you give the dummy a Defence rating?”
Janik nodded and walked over to the control panel near the door. “How much do you want it on?”
“Let’s start with 1, I want to test a few things.” Sam reached out and picked up another cheap dagger as he waited for Janik to be done, getting the confirmation that this was done he repeated the process.
Activating the Cluster Shot before manually triggering the Force Launch pulse on all his 40 hands on the dagger, sending it flying with the snapping crackle of what felt like breaking the sound barrier, the dagger again embedded itself deep in the wooden dummy with a solid and echoing thunk.
[ 5 Damage, 1 Defence penetrated. ]
Sam’s smile grew, speed did indeed beat armour. But he needed to know how far this went.
“Up it to 20, I need to test a theory.”
Janik did something on the display and gave him the thumbs up. Sam took another dagger and sent it flying like the last time.
[ 5 Famage, 20 Defence penetrated ]
This was amazing, Janik looked both confused and excited as Sam picked up a fourth dagger, this time sending it flying with only 19 hands. Though the snap didn’t happen this time, it still caused considerable penetration in the wood.
[ 4 Damage, 20 Defence. ]
Picking up a fifth dagger, Sam launched it this time by using 20 hands, the sounds and effects had no visual change to his eyes, but the display showed a different result.
[ 5 Damage, 20 Defence penetrated ]
“Bump the defence to 40, if I’m correct the first should be at three, but the second should be at five.” Sam wanted to test his theory by voicing it out first.
Again Janik did his thing and Sam did his two tests. The first he launched with 38 hands, it read 3 damage as expected. The second he launched with all 40, and as expected it ended up as 5 damage.
“Hah!” Sam exclaimed, he was happy that his theory worked out. “I can’t do more damage with that, but the extra speed lets me negate one Defence per Psyhand I use. It might not be worth it for the cheap daggers, and it might be better to just attack with all weapons at once, but it can be good in a pinch.”
Sam knew that using overwhelming damage, with Cluster Strike, would let more damage through, but this sounded like a good thing to have up his sleeve anyway. If nothing else, using it with the now newfound way to use the pulse looked good.
[ Utility Skills unlocked: Cluster Pulse, Penetrating Launch. ]
[ Cluster Pulse (Synergy skill): By clustering all pulses into one larger pulse it allows a significant increase in the force of the pulse. ]
[ Penetrating Launch (Synergy skill): By clustering Launching forces, it’s possible to penetrate the Defence rating of a target. 1:1 per Psyhand used. ]
“Oh! It unlocked them as... Synergy skills?” Sam was happy, it made activating them much easier but he hadn’t heard of Synergy Skills before. The name made a lot of sense but he didn’t know this was possible.
“That’s great!” Janik exclaimed to the new unlocks, and continued after Sam sounded uncertain about the Synergy Skills. “The Synergy Skills are simple... in theory, mostly Mages manage to unlock them by mixing spells like Fire and Air, Water and Electricity or something, but it’s not something most Players can do. The first problem is that you need... well... Skills that synergize.” Janik smiled stating the obvious.
Though it wasn’t the best or most detailed explanation, it gave Sam what he needed. The System could let you make shortcuts, Macros, Utility or Synergy Skills, whatever you wanted to call them but if you found a way to use your skills in different ways that were still supported by their function, you could elaborate on your skillset.
“I wonder if there’s something else I can do with my available skills, or if I can get something else that synergizes well with what I can do.” Sam started thinking about his skill list, including the newly unlocked Synergy abilities, there had to be more ways to abuse the system.
Turning to Janik, Sam looked at him with interested eyes. “Are there any of your skills that could be used for new things like these?”
Appraising Janik again, Sam started considering what might be possible.
[ Abilities: Fluidity, Vital Strike, Active Defence, Appraisal (E), Cumulative Strike, Duelists' Defence ]
[ Fluidity: Calculate melee of Dex as long as using (a) one-handed sword(s). ]
[ Vital Strike: Boosted damage calculation. ]
[ Active Defence: By attacking incoming attacks, the user can parry and deflect the attacks. ]
[ Appraisal (E): Can see basic health of targets up to +5 levels of the user. ]
[ Cumulative strike: Calculates total damage done at the same time, before calculating Defence. ]
[ Duelist's Defence: Wile unarmed or using Duelist weapons, gain +5 or +20% Defence. ]
“Hmm, with your skills I’m a bit less sure.” Sam continued, getting an uncomfortable look from Janik.
“I know you can see my shit... and it’s not like I intend to hide it from you but... it’s oddly uncomfortable knowing that you can see everything.” He had to end it with a smile but didn’t seem entirely convinced of his own words.
“Oh, I can’t see everything, I mean, I can’t see your dick size yet.” Sam chuckled about Janik’s earlier joke.
“That’s good, the lie lives on!” Faking a victory pose at his magnum dong joke from earlier as well, they ended up shading a 12-year-old-mentality joke.
“You need more skills, man... Diversify a bit.” Sam commented seriously after they had their laugh.
“Well, gee wow, Sam. I never thought about that!” Faking a mocking child’s tone hard enough to make it sound dumb, Janik strongly hinted that this was not news to him. “Some of us have bills to pay, you don’t think I’d get more skills if I could afford them?” Ending his statement with a miserable smile. He was more than painfully aware of this.
Sam could only chuckle in response. “Well... If you want, we could look into if there are some neat skills for you on the market. It looked somewhat scraped, but maybe?”
Janik shook his head while smiling. “I appreciate the thought, but you’ve already given me an armour upgrade, I can’t have you buy me skills. I’m not that easy.”
“Yes, you are.” Sam joked back with a dumb smile.
“Well... I might be, but that’s not the point.” Janik chuckled as he joined in on the joke before his expression became a bit more stern. “I appreciate the thought but... I’m not going to pretend it’s not an interesting thought but I can’t just accept that... I’m doing fine with what I have now... sort of. I’m already leaning on you for the Dungeons and Gear... The greedy bastard in me would love nothing more but, my pride doesn’t let me.”
Janik sounded properly honest about his statement, and though they hadn’t spent an absurd amount of time together, this felt like an honest statement. Sam knew that he was somewhat greedy due to his financial situation, but too much was still too much.
“Well, let’s hope you get something good from the future Dungeons, then. Right now I have a thing I’d like to test.” Sam smiled as he looked at the considerable damage he had done with the upgraded Launch.
Picking up another cheap dagger he faced the dummy properly.
[ Telekinetic boost active. Time remaining: 40 / 40 seconds ]