It was safe to assume that Alex was in the entry way/safe room leading to the lower floors of this dungeon he was sent to. The irregular shaped room with one door with a torch on both sides was his only way down. Before that however, he needed to acquaint himself with his skills and check to see if he got any starter gear that the system said he would get.
He started by opening his Inventory. His inventory was a grid, 10 across and 5 down, meaning he had 50 inventory slots. In two inventory slots he has two ornate boxes. He selected the first box and dragged it out of the inventory before laying it on the ground
Crouching down, he opened the box and got a look of what was inside.
Picking up what looked like a cyber punk leather jacket he got a description.
Technomancers reinforced leather jacket.
Grade F, Rarity: Uncommon.
Reinfornced synthetic leather armor with metal plates, gives subpar protection from physical based damage.
That wasn’t the only thing, it seemed to come in a set. The set included a black shirt, leather pants, steel capped black combat boots, finger-less gloves, and goggles, which was nice because he was only wearing what now appeared to be baggy pajama wear.
“Huh… How did I not notice before.” Being an Australian with numerous mental and physical problems, meant he was in poor health. One of those was being over weight. He as so caught up with all this statistics bullshit he didn’t even notice his own health.
‘The list did include becoming very healthy.’ Alex thought while rubbing his chin. All those aches and pains also didn’t register.
Alex marveled at his abs, a solid and very well defined 8 pack. He doesn’t have any of his operation scar tissue or blemishes and the new clothes fit like a glove. He went back to the chest after studying his new attire. There are two items.
A large red monkey wrench, and what looked like a futuristic pistol of some sort.
He started with the monkey wrench. It seems like it would be good to use as a blunt weapon more than anything.
Engineers Monkey Wrench.
Grade F Rarity Uncommon
A very sturdy monkey wrench. An above average starting blunt weapon for any plumber or engineer.
Then there was what looked like a futuristic desert eagle. Upon picking it up, not only did a description show up, but knowledge on how to handle it, use it, maintain it and even recharge it. Hell, his reverse engineer skill was also giving him theoretical blue prints of what it would look like, he would just have to use it more often before he could truly reverse engineer the tech and make other weapons such as rifles, snipers, shot guns and even machine guns. He would of course need the resources first.
Energy Magnum
Charge; 100%
Grade E, Rarity Rare.
This pistol uses Mana to create condensed mana energy bullets. Each shot costs 5% charge. You can over charge the pistol. Overcharging does twice the damage for three times the charge. Overcharged shots will also explode on contact with the target.
The pistol has two functions, stun and lethal. Stun shots tasers the target and can temporarily shut down machines or robots.
Alex placed the wrench in his inventory while placing the pistol in a holster on his hip. He was meant to get basic gear, and a gun seemed a bit over kill, before he recalled that his starter gear would be much higher grade to beginner stuff due to one of his purchase perks.
The chest box after he got everything out, but Alex disregarded that before going selecting the other starter box. The stuff in the other box was a bit tamer than what he got initially in the technomancer box.
He got a large heavy red tool box, filled with any tool a handy man would need such as screwdrivers. Wrenches, hammers and wire cutters.
He also got some resources. A large stack of duct tape, nails, screws, nuts and bolts that stacked and took up an entire slot in his inventory.
Nodding to himself, it was time to test his skills out.
First was the turret. He had an idea how to use the spell, how to summon the turret. A deployment outline showed up and then when he focused magic on where to deploy it, it looked like the turret just unfolded and appeared.
The turret itself is rather generic, but its has a large cannon and it glows blue. He had innate knowledge that it was currently in standby mode. It is acutely aware of hostile forces which it will automatically track and fire on.
Alex studied this turret until it dissipated, and a mental blue print of using modern day technology shows that he might be able to create deploy-able permanent turrets. Good for if he ever finds, or even create his own safe zone. He needs more data and some exotic resources to be able to recreate those turrets, but the idea is firmly implanted in his head.
Next was the health pylon
It looked rather basic, a deployed totem of sorts with a glowing green orb on the top. It glows rather brightly, making it a good source of light. There is a visible diameter around the pylon and every three seconds, it lets out a green pulse that encapsulats a 8 meter radius of the pylon. Not only was it currently overhealing himself, but was also over healing one of his deployed turrets.
He studied it, finding new information seeming to come to the fore front of his mind as to how this marvel of technology works before realizing that it was going past what it should have over healed.
It healed 96 hp per pulse and when he thought it would stop, it just kept going, making his eyes widen in shock. He sat there, staring at his resource pool until it stopped budging.
HP 1440/360
It had taken a while as he was over healing before he realised why it was going beyond what it should have initially done. His Angel trait makes his buffing and healing 3 times more effective.
It was then that he knew where his allocation points were gonna go. Survivability is currently paramount, and with more HP, means even more Over heal. Adding 22 allocaiton points to his Vitality, bringing it up to 58.8, his health went from 360 to 580
HP 2320/580
Alex was giddy with this discovery not only that, he felt much safer. His his gear, stats and absurd health for someone at level 1, he was ready to take on the dungeon.
Alex approached the exit to this room, and noticed the torches are fused into the wall, so he cant take with him a light source, no matter he has two turrets and a healing pylon that can help with that. He touched the door and it slid open, showing a spiral staircase that lead to a lower level. He went down the spiral case and exited to another room
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Floor 1 of 3
Reading the blue box that appeared before him, he knows he had a ways to go before he got out.
The room ahead of him was a long dark tunnel with some of that glowing moss, lining the walls.
Alex psyched himself up before UN-holstering his pistol and walking out. The dripping of water was the only thing he could hear in this creepy cave system along with his own unsteady breathing and footsteps. He walked for about 1 minute throwing up another health pylon every minute to help light the way. Even while on guard, he was completely blind sighted
- 1258 HP
Something crashed into his midsection like a freight train, causing him to tumble head over heels before landing painfully on his stomach. His gun flew from his grasp and he couldn’t breathe. A shrill cry rang out above him and in his adrenaline fueled panic, he slapped down a turret behind him to hopefully block what ever had attacked him
The turret quickly swiveled and he heard a sort of silenced ‘Poot’ sound as it fired.
A visceral sound of blood and flesh slamming into the turret along with the walls and before he was met with a message.
You have slain a level 17 cave bat.
Due to level discrepancy, you have gained bonus EXP
Alex dismissed the window as he was having trouble breathing with how much blood he was choking on and slapped down the pylon in front of him. It had taken a pulse before his chest, which was caved in to painlessly go back to normal, causing him to vomit out some blood before gasping for breathe.
Wide eyed and shaken, Alex placed down a turret as far down the path he was heading as he could from his seated position. It seemed to be a good idea as he heard three more poots, followed by notifications of three more slain cave bats.
Alex found out that he received more notifications beside the EXP
You have received over double your max health in damage and survived to tell the tale. You have unlocked the title ‘Second wind.’
Second wind gives the title holder immunity to receiving critical hits and an attack which would normaly kill you in one hit will instead heal you to 15% max health. This title skill has a cool down of 24 hours after use.
You have slain an enemy 5 levels above your own, you receive the title ‘Slayer I’
You receive 10% more EXP from enemies higher level than you.
You have slain an enemy 10 levels above your own, your title ‘Slayer I’ upgrades to ‘Slayer II’
You receive 20% more EXP from enemies higher level than you.
You have slain an enemy 15 levels above your own, your title ‘Slayer II’ upgrades to ‘Slayer III’
You receive 30% more EXP from enemies higher level than you.
Alex went through the motions of reading through the notifications as the thoughts of his near death hung over his head. He also saw a small golden arrow point up in the upper right of his vision. When he was sound of mind, he focused on that arrow to find out that he had leveled. Being out of combat and having no enemies nearby allowed him to level.
Your racial class has reached level 3
Your Combat class has reached level 7
“S-status”
Alex Hastings
Race: Human/Chimera: Lv 3
Titles: (Initial Returnee), (Novice Dungeoneer), (Slayer III), (Second Wind)
Combat class: Technomancer: Lv 7
Utility: Magitech Engineer 1
HP:3480/870
MP:1930.1930
Strength 26 ( 27.3) -> 65 (68.3)
Endurance 34 (35.7) ->73 (76.7)
Dexterity 48 (50.4) ->122 (128.1)
Vitality 56 (58.8) ->87 (91.4)
Intelligence 61 (64.1) ->184 (193.2)
Wisdom 47 (49.4) ->142 (149.1)
Willpower 28 (29.4) ->67 (70.4)
Charisma 23 ( 24.2) ->52 (54.6)
Allocation points 74
Shaken and distraught from his near death experience, Alex placed some allocation points into his Vitality, bringing it up to 120. He didn’t know what the rest would go on, but for now he would save them.
You currently have 3 skill gains to select.
Please select one of the following skills
Digi clone: 300 MP
Spawn a digital clone that has a copy of your equipped gear but has half your resource pool. It also deals half damage. The clone lasts for 20 seconds and has a coo ldown cost 30 seconds. It can not move more than 30 meters away from you.
Side arm adept Passive
Increases your small arm damage by 20%
Brain freeze Passive
Your classes melee damage deals bonus ice damage on every hit with the possibility of freezing the target.
2 of the three skills seemed rather… lame honestly. Sure passives are nice, but being able to clone yourself just seemed like the way to go. Not only that, his clone could take on agro hopefully and deal damage at the same time.
Please select one of the following skills
Energy shield Passive Lv 1
Scales with Intelligence, Wisdom
You gain a energy shield based on your Intelligence score x 5. The regeneration rate of the shield is your wisdom modifier x 5 per second. The energy shield will only regenerate outside of combat or 5 seconds after last receiving damage and will stop recharging if you receive damage during the recharge.
Senior Engineer Passive
Turrets and drones receive 100% more max health and deal 30% more damage
Medical professional Passive
Increases your healing skills by 25%
Now this was a little bit trickier.
An energy shield seems like it would be another level of health bonus for himself. Being in a high level dungeon at his current level could mean the difference between life and death.
Senior engineer would buff his turrets, making them better tanks and damage dealers for himself. He currently doesn’t have any drones, which shows that it is possible for the skill to appear in the future.
His healing device is powerful, but he wasn’t sure if it would affect his over heal capacity.
Alex let out a hope and prayer that these kind of skills will be available in the future. For now, he wanted to go with survival, meaning energy shields.
Please select one of the following skills:
Ordinance Lv 1 50 MP
Scales with Intelligence
Throw a mana grenade that explodes on contact with an enemy or after 4 seconds.It has a large explosive radius and the bomb will temporarily stun the enemy (Besides bosses) For 1 second. Damage dealt is based on your Intelligence score. (Cool down is 3 seconds)
Mad Lad Lv 1 350 MP
Scales with Intelligence, Vitality
Summon a mobile attack drone. This land drone fires compressed mana bullets with small AoE damage at a rate of 2 per second and has a passive aggression field, making it the ideal tank. Land drones attack power scales with Intelligence.
You can only summon one drone at a time, and it has a max life of 8 minutes.
Health scales with your vitality x25
Anomalous body Passive
Increase max health by 15%
Anomalous body seems like it would be good later on in life but not so much now with his overheal.
Ordinace is basically a magic grenade which has a the ability to be spammed. The last option was Mad Lad.
A tank drone sounded good. Surreal even, but how big is it? How well will it handle in a small cave
“Maybe in the future.” Alex said with a sigh before selecting Ordinance. A possible crowed control ability might come in handy in the short term.
Please select one skill to evolve
Skills
Turret Lv 1
Healing Pylon Lv 1
Digi-clone Lv 1
Energy shield Lv 1
Ordinance Lv 1
With his passive heals effect, he would be foolish not to select Pylon
Healing pylon selected
Please choose an evoluton Feat from the following
Offence: While a robot, turret or drone is in range of the pylon, increase fire rate by 50%
Defence while in range with the pylon, decrease damage taken from all sources by 21%
Healing: Increase the effectiveness of the healing of the pylon by 25% Over heal will no longer decay over time.
Range Double the effective radius of the healing pylon
While Alex was very tempted, very very tempted with the offence buff, healing seemed to be the way to go with his triple healing effect from his racial skill. Not only that, over heal health no longer decays. The decay rate is 3 health every second.
Please one skill to evolve
Turret Lv 1
Healing Pylon Lv 2
Digi-clone Lv 1
Energy shield Lv 1
Ordinance Lv 1
Selecting healing pylon again, he was met with different message
In order to level up a Lv 2 skill, you will need 2 evolution points. You have 2 evolution points available, would you like to continue?
‘Interesting…’ Thought Alex at the latest conundrum ‘So I cant use my three points into the one skill, I have to either save up for consecutive levels or level up the lower level skills for less points.’
His second choice was energy shield then. More HP to fall back on.
Please choose an evolution Feat from the following.
Capacity: Double your shield capacity
Recharge rate: Double recharge rate
Distribution: Give party members an energy shield based on half their INT score
Deterrence: Enemies that attack your shield via melee take 25% damage back. A shock wave is released when the shield falls, pushing back nearby foes.
If he was in a party, he would have definitely chosen distribution. But since that was not the case, it was a toss up between deterrence and Capacity. Honestly, so far, its been nothing but bats tackling him, so deterrence won out in the end.
Now he just has one more skill evolution to select
Between turret, clone and ordinance, he decided to go with turret.
Please choose an evolution feat from the following;
Capacity Increase the amount of turrets by 1. Increase the summon time from 2 minutes to 5 minutes
Damage Increase fire rate by 25%. Increase damage by 25%
Size Double the turrets size. Increase the range and durability by 50%.
He was currently pretty happy with his turrets but if anything, more fire power at one time he had better. No, he wasn’t choosing damage, but capacity. Alex had calmed down during these selections, it was rather therapeutic. Standing up and dusting himself off, he checked his resources and was happy to see everything was in order
Shield: 965/965
Health: 5040/1260
Mana: 1930/1930
Now, he was hungry, thirsty and tired. Not having eaten or drank anything for what might be 12 hours or more made him see urgency when it came to getting out of here.
It took him about 40 minuets and 16 bats later before he reached what must be the mini-boss room of this floor.
It was a large door with a demonic looking cross and skull on it. He waited until his health and mana pool was back in tip top shape before entering.
Inside he found a giant bat, easily the size of an elephant, hanging upside down from the roof. How the fat fuck did that was any ones guess. It glared at him along with a small horde of bats that rushed him. He wasted no time in placing down 3 turrets that focused fire on the closest bats rushing at break neck speeds. Being so close to proximity, he threw the ordinance and a bright flash of light and a few more shots later spoke the end of the horde.
A loud, shrill cry rang out in the large room, causing stalactites to fall from the ceiling, some slamming into his a just visible dome around him as he summoned his turrets closer to the bat, which then opened fire. With his high intelligence backing up the turrets damage, every shot tore fist sized holes into it, leaving Alex flummoxed by the anti-climatic finale as it fell from the ceiling with a resounding thud.