Later I was sitting in a bar close to the were I’d been running the Gauntlet. It was early afternoon and the bar was almost empty; two guys at a corner table drinking beer and laughing, the bartender in a white shirt and black vest, clinking wine glasses as he hung them on a rack by the foot. I had ordered in one of those pricey European beers, I thought I’d earned it and I could certainly afford it since my credits was almost up to 3000. I was sitting close to the window, still looking out over Rawleigh Street. But instead of the park I was looking at a short, burgundy awning outside a shoddy looking hotel. That got me thinking of the splendor of Imperial Plaza where Sarah was living, and that brought me to the pleasant realization that I now, as a level 10, could get a place in Area 9, if I wanted to. I kinda liked being one of the musketeers, but I wasn’t loving my cramped little room, If an apartment was 150 a week in Area 10, it couldn’t be much more than 300 in Area 9, right? I’d check on that when back in Breaker City.
I found the option in my settings to not have achievements and other in game notifications pop up during battle and activated it. I had two golden loot boxes to open after my Gauntlet runs, but what mainly drew my attention was a new section in my menu. Race and class, glowing in a blue outline.
I opened it.
Choose your race and class.
These choices are permanent and can not be changed even after restarting the game upon death. Choose wisely.
Race
Human
Elf
Orc
Tarani
Lai
I took a look at the races. Human, Orc and Elf I had a fairly good grasp of, Tarani and Lai, not so much. Tarani proved to be an alien race with blue tan skin and a long face, hulkingly tall, but thin. Masters of the mental realm and utterly suited for the mage class. Lai looked like – there’s no other way to put it – like large lizards walking on two feet. Their color could be everything from a bright orange to a subdued brown. They were immune to poison and venom, resistant to fire and made a great brawler type character. Their hands and feet were equipped with large, black claws. I hoped they were retractable, or else there would be trouble visiting the john. Orcs, exactly what you would expect, brawlers and tanks; Elves, ranged and magic; Humans, your jack of all trade’s species.
I looked up and down the list. This could be a unique experience, to become a completely new race. So much to discover. But, if I was killed, everything would be reset, all my loot gone and all my skill points gone poof into cyber space. What would not reset though, was my race and class. Call me a racist or what you will, but I just couldn’t see myself as a seven-foot lizard for the remainder of the game.
I clicked Human.
Nothing happened. No buzz or swirling lights. No trumpets or fireworks. Well, everything carrying on as usual maybe wasn’t anything to celebrate.
Next, I looked through the classes and my, if there ever was a lot to unpack there.
MAGE
Primary Stats: Intelligence, Attack Speed, Fortitude
Bonus Perks for Choosing Mage:
* +4 Intelligence: Boosts magical abilities, spell damage, and resource pool.
* +2 Attack Speed: Increases the speed of casting spells and cooldown reduction.
* +2 Fortitude: Improves resilience to damage and mana drain.
* Unique Passive: Arcane Overflow: Gain increased spell potency when chaining multiple abilities in a short period.
* Bonus Ability: Enchanter's Insight: Mages gain a unique ability to enchant items with greater efficiency and potency. Enchantments crafted by the Mage last longer, provide stronger effects, or require fewer resources
SUBCLASSES
Spell Weaver: Masters of intricate spell work and weaving multiple magical effects simultaneously.
Technomancer: A hybrid of magic and technology, using spells and technology in tandem.
Necromancer: Commands the dead and wields death magic to weaken foes and bolster allies.
Psion: Manipulates the battlefield with mental prowess, controlling enemies and bending reality.
Voidcaller: Specializes in high-risk, high-reward spells that can devastate enemies but may harm the caster if misused.
WARRIOR
Primary Stats: Strength, Endurance, Attack Speed, Fortitude
Bonus Perks for Choosing Warrior:
* +4 Strength: Increases melee damage and carrying capacity.
* +4 Endurance: Enhances stamina and reduces the cost of physical abilities.
* +4 Fortitude: Increases resistance to physical damage and status effects.
* Unique Passive: Unyielding Resolve: Gain temporary immunity to crowd control effects when health is critically low.
* Bonus Ability: Combat Momentum: For every successful attack landed, the Warrior gains a stacking bonus to their attack speed or critical hit chance for a short duration.
SUBCLASSES
Brawler: A bare-fisted or brutal melee specialist who relies on raw strength, agility, and improvisation in combat.
Vanguard: A frontline fighter who excels at holding the line and protecting allies.
Shadowblade: Specialise in precise, high-damage strikes from the shadows.
Warpblade: Uses dimensional rifts to outmanoeuvre foes and launch devastating attacks.
Spiritblade: A mystical warrior who merges martial skill with ethereal energy, creating spectral weapons and summoning spirit allies.
ARTIFICER
Primary Stats: Intelligence, Dexterity, Agility
Bonus Perks for Choosing Artificer:
* +4 Dexterity: Boosts crafting speed, accuracy, and trap placement precision.
* +4 Intelligence: Improves the effectiveness of crafted devices and magical constructs.
* +4 Agility: Enhances movement speed and the ability to evade attacks.
* Unique Passive: Tinker's Touch: Crafted traps and explosives have a chance to critically succeed, increasing their effects.
* Unique Passive 2: Precision Engineering: Traps and devices are deployed 25% faster and operate with enhanced efficiency, increasing their effectiveness and reducing cooldowns or resource consumption.
SUBCLASSES
Demolitionist: Specialists in crafting and deploying explosive devices for maximum destruction.
Trapmaster: Experts in creating intricate traps that cripple enemies and control the battlefield.
Siegecrafter: A master of battlefield fortifications and siege tactics, capable of creating traps, deploying destructive devices, and manipulating environments to control the flow of combat.
Runesmith: Combines runic magic with mechanical expertise to craft traps and explosives imbued with mystical effects.
Blightbringer: A dark alchemist who creates traps and devices laced with poisons, toxins, or debilitating effects.
MYSTIC
Primary Stats: Intelligence, Charisma, Agility
Bonus Perks for Choosing Mystic:
* +5 Intelligence: Improves spell strength, foresight abilities, and resource regeneration.
* +5 Charisma: Enhances the effectiveness of buffs and debuffs, and improves interaction with NPCs.
* +5 Agility: Increases mobility, allowing Mystics to reposition effectively during combat.
* Unique Passive: Ethereal Presence: Mystics generate an aura that slightly boosts allies’ stats when nearby.
* Bonus Ability: Soulbond. Mystics can form a temporary “soulbond" with an ally, amplifying the effects of healing, buffs, or stat boosts specifically for that bonded target. The bond also allows a portion of the damage the ally receives to be transferred to the Mystic.
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SUBCLASSES
Starseer: Draws power from celestial bodies, channeling the energy of stars, moons, and constellations to aid allies or strike foes.
Spiritwarden: Channels the spirits of the departed to summon spectral allies, shield the living, and disrupt enemies.
Heirophant: A spiritual leader who channels divine or mystical energy to heal and empower allies.
Oracle: A seer who predicts enemy movements and strategies, using foresight to disrupt foes and empower allies.
Riftwalker: Utilises dimensional magic to manipulate space, create portals, and disrupt the flow of battle.
I really needed the eyes of the Musketeers on this, tapping into their Dungeon and Dragon brains, but from what I could see, Mages and Warriors were offensive classes, while the Artificer, relying on booby traps and contraptions, was more suited for a defensive playstyle. The Mystics seemed to be a pure support class. If judging from the bonus stats handed out for each class, Artificers and Mystics seemed to be less popular than Mages and Warriors. And, I would follow suite. To lay in ambush with clever traps and deadly runes, that seemed fun but didn’t align with my personality that was more… hands on. Mystic? Nah, that meant, in effect to grab the second fiddle from the start. Those who chose that class would be immensely popular in raiding parties, but would need to hang back and aid the ones fighting. That too, didn’t suit my personality. I was more of an up front and in your face guy. That Oracle subclass looked severely overpowered, though, but I presumed it only was working on enemy mobs, not human players. I had the opportunity to choose two main classes and two subclasses, or put all my eggs into one basket, choosing one main class. Choosing two main classes would mean a more flexible build, but that I wouldn’t get the unique passive or the bonus abilities for neither of the classes. That was too big a compromise, I think. For me, who had my eye on the warrior class, that would mean that I would have to give up the unique passive Unyielding Resolve that would give me temporary immunity to crowd control effects when low on health, and the bonus ability that would let me chain attacks to gain speed and critical hits.
Both Sarah and the musketeer’s hade told me that the mage class had potential, if played right, to be absurdly OP in Windersmyr, but it was next to useless in Elatrion and the Mansion. Just by looking at the sheer size of Windersmyr compared to Elatrion, it seemed that Windersmyr was a priority for the Game Maker, The Game Control or who or what it was that ran this show. Mage seemed the obvious choice, then. Why be a hack and slash guy when you could incinerate people as a mage? Yeah… but if I chose warrior, my base strength would jump to 11, my Endurance and Fortitude to 12. That class was like made for me.
I looked over the subclasses and dove into their unique abilities. I was eyeing the brawler class:
A bare-fisted or brutal melee specialist who relies on raw strength, agility, and improvisation in combat. Masters unarmed fighting techniques and the use of improvised or brutal melee weapons.
Abilities:
* Iron Knuckles: Enhances unarmed strikes with a magical or physical aura, dealing extra damage and breaking through armour.
* Adrenaline Rush: Gains a temporary boost to strength and speed when health is critically low.
* Grappler’s Hold: Grabs and immobilises an enemy, dealing damage over time while preventing their movement or actions.
* Ground Slam: Slams the ground with immense force, creating shockwaves that knock down enemies in a radius.
But, how would that help me with ranged units, as archers and mages? It didn’t. A sub class that would, was the Warpblade:
A close-combat fighter who manipulates space to strike and evade. Warpblades use dimensional rifts to outmanoeuvre foes and launch devastating attacks.
Abilities:
* Blink Strike: Instantly teleports to a target within range, delivering a swift, powerful attack (this ability is on a timer and requires mana).
* Spatial Flicker: Phases in and out of the battlefield, evading attacks while remaining semi-corporeal (this ability is on a timer and requires mana).
* Shadow Decoy: Creates an illusory copy of the Warpblade to distract enemies and absorb attacks (this ability is on a timer and requires mana).
* Warped Slash: Channels spatial energy into their weapon, unleashing an area-of-effect slash that distorts and damages everything in its path (this ability is on a timer).
The mana requirement was a bit of a nuisance. I didn’t know how much mana the abilities would cost, and if it meant I would have to divert a large pool of my Character Points into Intelligence. But I liked the class. It gave me the flexibility and kind of high-powered abilities I needed to compete with the mages. The plan, as I saw it, was to use the abilities of the Warpblade to get up and close, and then use the Brawler skills to finish them, and then get the hell out of Dodge with the Warpblade skills, again. Blink Strike to get in there. Boom, that goes on a timer. Go into full ravage mode and then get out using the Spatial Flicker ability. I needed just enough mana to use those two abilities in close succession. Then they could go of the timer as the mana pool restored.
I ruled out Shadowblade as a weaker version of Warpblade and Vanguard needed me to be some kind of Paladin figure that rallied the troops to inspire courage. That would be phenomenal in an all-out battle with whole armies involved but would be next to useless in the daily dungeon crawl. Spiritblade was interesting but revolved around summoning weapons and energies. Just seemed to flimsy for my taste.
So, it was set then.
I chose Warrior as my class. Then Brawler and Warpblade as my subclasses. My new base stats popped up:
Base stats: Brad Richardsson
Warrior
Brawler
Warpblade
Strength: 11
Fortitude: 12
Intelligence: 6
Charisma: 7
Endurance: 12
Attack Speed: 4
Dexterity: 3
Agility: 3
Wow, that Attack Speed really started to look ugly now. Maybe I needed to do something about that. And that Agility too, since my Brawler class depended upon it.
Well, enough about that.
I opened my inventory to go through my loot. I had no less than seventeen level 1 and level 2 plasma guns and a pile of energy cells. The harnesses I looted from the chunky soldiers was back in functioning order despite I had shot a hole right through one of the helmets and blasted the other guy with a grenade. It wasn’t multiverse loot and it was worse than what I already had. The helmets, though, was a find. I didn’t have a helmet and when I equipped it to my virtual avatar – like a rotating blue glowing manakin – in the inventory screen it bumped my defense numbers up by 172. My total defense with my Elatrion build was at 3299, so 172 wasn’t much, but at the same time it wasn’t something to scoff at. It couldn’t had been more than 172 defense points that kept me among the living when I was hit at the Gauntlet. And now, the two golden loot boxes. I popped the first and frowned. Out of the box, in the usual golden swirl rose a weird looking piece of metal. It was yellow and heavily curved and had roughly the same shape as a foot. I hit the information tab.
Brayon Energy Systems – Carion Battle Suit Model 3 1/78
The Carion Battle Suit Model 3 made by Brayon Energy Systems is one of the most advanced and powerful battle systems to date. With powerful deflector shields it can take heavy damage for shorter periods of time and sustained damage for longer periods of time. The multi angle thrust system and the built-in ion engine makes sure that no fight is out of reach with the Carion Battle Suit.
Sounded awesome. A piece of banana shaped metal can do all that? I went through all my menus and looked through some of the ones I had neglected so far. I found one called blueprints and pulled it down.
Oh, sweet Jesus.
There were no less than 43 blueprints in the folder and one of them was blinking with a faint blue glow, the one marked Carion Battle Suit Model 3. I opened it and saw a battle suit, drawn up with white lines against blue background. The right foot of it was blinking and there was my banana shaped piece of metal, acting like some kind of combined shin and foot guard. Somewhat deflated I realized I needed twelve pieces only to build a working boot. 78 pieces in total to build the whole suit. I recognized it now. It was the same suit I had been wearing in the tutorial. I remembered the feeling of power and control when being in it, how the sniper rifle with the insanely long barrel had weighed next to nothing in my hands. Well, earning that suit would prove to be a long-term goal and I wouldn’t bother with it before I saw how frequent theses battle suit drops was. I scanned through the rest of the blue prints, and now stuff became really wild. There were blue prints for everything from household droids to full size airships listed in the menu, speaking off long term goals. I closed the menu, shaking my head. Was this what those whales Alara had been talking about was building?
Whales in space ships?
Weird. Being an orc or and elf, I got that, but who would willingly turn themselves into a whale? Sounded impractical in battle.
Okay, one box left, hoping for better luck now.
I popped it and held my breath as the golden swirls rose.
Now that’s more like it!
Metal gloves of accuracy – Gives wearer 15 % extra accuracy when using long range weapons. Gives wearer 15 % extra melee damage.
Okay, not the best, admitted. The gloves weren’t multiverse, my accuracy was already pretty high, as was my skills in ranged weaponry, but with these gloves I was almost guaranteed to hit my target. That made me wonder if the slow speed abilities I’d been pondering actually would be that useful to me. I could make that decision later. I would swing by one of the traders down close at the drop of area and unload the junk, and see if he maybe had something I could trade my gloves for. The 15 % extra melee damage was nice, admittedly, but on a pair of gloves that was specialized on ranged damage? It was as if the stat effects had been assorted randomly.
The trader turned out to be an asshole. He just snorted looking at my gloves.
“These stupid gloves with their jumbled stats you can take home and shove your toilet brush into. Useless! I can give you 1400 credits for them at the most. It’ll cost me to have a space smith to work out those stat effects.”
My level 12 negotiating skills didn’t do anything to sway him. If those gloves had had a main stat effect that I liked, maybe I would’ve put up a fight, but I knew the man was right. The gloves were no good, not terrible but, not good. So, I unloaded all my guns and one set of the chunky armor, while keeping a set just in case. He had some interesting stuff in his inventory, like a neuro chip that enhanced reaction speed, and another pair of legendary gloves, these enhancing the blast radius of explosives. He wanted 8000 credits for them.
Jerk. No deal. When I was on the transport back to Breaker City I, despite the disappointing loot, still concluded the trip a successful one. I was richer than ever before and I had hit level 10, which had been the primary objective. Shit, military lingo creeping back into my head. There was crap from Nam that I really didn’t want to relieve, but if the last few days of carnage hadn’t brough that shit back up to the surface, nothing would.