***Post Arrival, PA Day 97 11:04 am, Time Remaining until transfer 10.9:56:00; transfer rank 3,459,832
The Jackson depot was not in Jackson but at one of the suburban high schools in the area. Gin wasn't paying much attention and honestly didn't care. As they unloaded, Hank pulled him aside to give the traditional overprotective warning, "Take care of her, or else!", before giving his daughter a tearful hug.
"Listen up, this is your last warning. This bus is going to the embarkation point in Texas. If you are not scheduled for the 12th wave, that's the one leaving in 10 days for those who can't count, then you do not belong on this bus. Leave now, because if we haul your ass to Texas and find out you are not supposed to be there . . ."
[This guy was worse than Kranky K. Smart-ass me wants to point out that 12 and 10 both require counting.]
The bus made two stops, to pick up other transfers, on the way. Pat and Gin shared a row and chatted with several others seated nearby.
Bert was something like 6'8" and had an entire row to himself. He and Matt got on in Vicksburg. Bert was a bit reserved, but Matt spent the first hour of the ride trying to get into Pat's pants.
Inevitably the conversation came around to skills. "So, what class y'all going for?" Pat was trying to deflect Matt. She had smiled at his attempts and even moved over to sit with him, but impending events kind of squashed any romantic feelings.
"Shooting for some kind of beast tamer or summoner build if it is available." Bert's reply was as bland as could be.
"Not me, Fire, Brimstone, and lightning from above. I'm gonna watch everything burn and drink a cold one while it does. Only wish I could have brought my guns."
"Ah, Sure?" Gin just stared at Matt. He was kind of an ass, but people like that were sometimes fun to have around since he pulled no punches and pretty much said what he thought.
"Holy Priestess of the Nocturnals." Pat finally fessed up.
"What is that? Some kind of Cleric?" Matt asked.
Pat's grin was pure evil as she brandished a rather long dirk, "Rogue with a touch of Shadow Magic. I plan on sending my enemies to the final dreamless slumber with one touch of my thorns. Dad's gonna freak when he hears about it."
Matt laughed nervously and steered the conversation in Gin's direction. "What about you?"
“Nothing specific, really. We don’t know if classes are even a thing, so I pretty much covered all the bases.”
“How’s that? The slots are so limited. We only got four slots plus the two extra you can buy if you kept the tokens from the tutorial?” Bert was whispering like it was some kind of State secret and had mumbled the last like a question.
No one seemed surprised. The Dreamers in the first several waves had been very limited, having rushed through the tutorials. The ninth wave was the first time anyone had revealed having more than the standard three slots. There were people online who claimed it was possible, but they were quickly silenced by the Internet trolls demanding evidence.
“How many slots did you open?” Pat was looking between the men trying to determine who would crack first.
“Four”, Bert shrugged.
“Nine”
“Bullshit, there’s no way to get that many!” Matt’s glare could have stripped paint. He was also silently mouthing [Don’t do it, Numskull!]
“How many tutorials did you complete?”, Gin couldn’t help pushing back a little.
“Six”
“Let me guess, fire and air twice, Swords and then what? Electric?” Gin had seen Matt’s Katana when they loaded their gear. He was also trying to deflect the conversation having realized his honesty was opening up a can of worms that he did not need to talk about.
“Lightning, smartass? How about you? Did you get anything nice?”
Their conversation had attracted attention from seats in either direction and several people were looking over and around the seatbacks.
It sounded like bragging when he mentally role-played the conversation, and the added attention only made him squirm more. “So, that means you got a point of Aura and 6 tier zero skill tokens? Then left the cave and went hunting.”
“Yes, and when I hit level 3, I opened a tier 1 slot and used tokens to unlock 2 tier zero slots. We all know you can’t open more than 3 extra slots. I will have to wait until level 6 to use the other tokens, so there is no way you were able to get nine slots right!” Matt was over-emphasizing and trying to get Gin to agree that he didn’t have 9 slots.
Gin could tell that Matt was growing frustrated with the situation, so Gin conceded, “Believe what you want, I don’t have to prove anything and it’s not like we can go back and repeat the tutorial.”
“Wait, at least tell the rest of us even if you don’t tell him.” Gin turned to try and find the source of the plea and saw Matt mouthing [Don’t] insistently. Finally, he gave up trying to figure out who it was and put his headphones on so that he didn’t have to listen to anyone.
“Sorry, I don’t feel like sharing anymore.”
*** Post Arrival, PA Day 31 2:59 am, Estimated Time until transfer 94.18:01:00; estimated rank 4,243,932
Gin finished trimming two pieces of carrot into nubs before pushing them into his ears and walking through the door to face the Cowbell. [How has it gotten so big, I mean everyone had heard of the infamous BFS, Big Fracking Sword, but a BFC just seemed wrong on so many levels.]
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“HUZZAH, My young friend. You have completed 27 tutorials and earned an extra 2 tier zero skill slots as a reward. That means you will be able to keep three skills slots full and still have 3 for the tutorials going forward. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“That’s great. The extra slots will be a huge help, but it’s been a lot of work to only get 3 tier zero skill slots as a reward, thank you for the last two tutorials. I was burnt out and really needed a break, even having to drink my own alchemy potion wasn’t nearly as life or death as all the bloody fights before that. I still can’t believe you found a clan of junior ninja rugby goblins and it was totally uncool to yell ‘sic’ balls.”
“I just can’t believe how long it took you to realize whose balls they were after, and you’ll notice I waited until the third time training that skill before adding the goblins. Plus, if you hadn’t learned to drive the big bus I was going to send in orcs.”
Gin shuddered. Orcs had been part of the second Earth (a) lesson. Nevem had temporarily given him the Tier 1 spell Stone Skin and then asked the orcs to beat him until he had learned the spell. [Stupid Orcs.]
“You look down young friend. You feeling, OK?”
“Yeah, just need a break. Seriously, can we take a day off?” Nevem’s left eyebrow rose in response.
“Hhmm, maybe after the fourth wave launches. The odds are pretty good that your country will have its first survivor if they don’t mess it up. Plus, I was able to secure the services of a dwarven brewmaster to teach you tomorrow. Can’t you just taste it already? Trust me, Real Dwarven ale is amazing!”
***Post Arrival, PA Day 97 3:23 pm, Time Remaining until transfer 10.5:37:00; transfer rank 3,459,832
Gin managed to get a nap between Monroe and Shreveport. It would have been longer except Pat shook him awake when they pulled into the Air Force base on the east side of Shreveport.
Yawning, Gin noticed a bunch of buses in the parking lot and a line of people cycling through a series of tents. “Why are we stopping?”
Pat just shrugged and chivied Matt off the bus with a playful butt pinch. Gin wasn’t in the mood to interact with the others, so he dithered around until he was the last one to leave. Unfortunately, Matt ambushed him at the door and pushed him back on the bus.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Gin pushed back defensively.
“I’m trying to keep you from making an ass of yourself and revealing something you shouldn’t. There’s no reason for anyone to know about the extra skill slots. It’s not like they can go back in and get them. You telling them will only make them jealous and angry. Which will probably end with them getting killed trying to prove something. The best thing you can do for everyone is to listen to your guide and keep your trap shut.” Matt emphasized each point with a sharp finger jab to Gin’s chest.
“Especially around the military out there. If you want to feel special, then go tell one of them and I’m sure you will be made to feel real special. A special kind of stupid as they drag you around for the next nine days trying to get you to teach people how to do what you did. The best advice is to treat this like Fight Club, and you better not break the rules.”
“And another thing, I finished 34 tutorials, so your little trick isn’t so special because I have 9 slots as well!” With that, Matt stormed off the bus after checking that no one was waiting outside. Gin could only stand there rubbing his chest and wondering what had happened.
By the time Gin joined the line, Matt and Pat were already in the tent filling out paperwork. He had spent more time than he thought in self-reflection and several buses had arrived in the meantime. At first, Gin had been mad at Matt, but he eventually calmed down and decided that it would be ignorant to not be a little cautious. Gin still didn’t believe that Matt was totally correct, but he had to admit that a part of him wanted to brag. He had completed eighty-one tutorials. Even if someone completed more, the next significant tier change was at 243, and with the number of transfers tripling every time there just wasn’t enough time for anyone else to accomplish something more significant.
Military personnel were moving through the crowd keeping the peace and answering the occasional question. Gin had listened to the answers but wasn’t comfortable interacting with the troops. Matt’s suspicions had sown a seed of doubt, and he was doing his best to not attract any undue attention. He was also a little embarrassed that he didn’t know what branch of the military wore what uniform. The soldiers here were in green fatigues, and he thought that meant Army or National Guard but maybe they all used the same colors. It didn’t help when he was gifted front-row seats to an impromptu lesson, on identifying rank, delivered by a very frustrated Sergeant. Gin wasn’t sure how or why the guy had disrespected the Sergeant, but he wasn’t about to do the same.
It was nearly an hour before Gin made his way to the front of the line and by that time there were several stomachs and a few hangry individuals making loud complaints. There was evidently food somewhere beyond the tent. Not very appetizing food judging by the smell, but he still wanted to get this over with and get something to eat. The tent was open on all four sides and filled with a multitude of tables and school desks set up to process people as they came through. It was surprisingly fast and efficient considering the number of people they had to process. They would call people in to sit and then hand them a form to fill out. It was actually simple if you just listened to the instructions. You didn’t even need to be in the tent to hear them, but they always repeated them each time a new group sat down.
[Damn.] Matt had really struck a nerve and Gin was seeing conspiracies behind everything. Matt had also gotten some kind of warning from his guide, but Nevem hadn’t said anything to Gin. He was also dealing with some restrictions that Matt was unaware of. Restrictions that caused him to ask the important questions. Could he lie on this? Should he even try?
Most of this was innocent data that they could have gotten off his Driver’s License. [Hey, where was his license?] Tapping his pockets, he suddenly realized his wallet was probably still back in Mississippi. [Shoot, I hope the cafeteria is free.]
Name: Jorge I. Newton SSN: ###-###-####
Preferred: Jin
Gender: Male
Race: Prefer to not provide
Age: 24
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 240
Hometown: Biloxi, MS
Education Level: Bachelor of Computer Science, with a Minor in Art.
List next of Kin and any direct relatives and their relationship to you: (Brothers, Sisters, Mother, Father, Spouse, or Children)
List Attributes (Estimates if unknown, Will be calibrated with assessment)
Mind: 6.00
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 6
Perception: 5
Body: 6.00
Strength: 6
Agility: 5
Endurance: 7
Soul: 5.33
Willpower: 8
Aura: 4
Charisma: 4
List currently slotted Skills/Abilities and their tier: tier 1: Hammer, Shield, Light Armor, Earth, Life, Alchemy
List any Skills/Abilities known but not currently slotted: Enchanting.
It was mostly true and thankfully didn’t trigger any of his restrictions. His Spanish teacher in high school had assigned him the name Jorge in class and his parents had lived in Biloxi even if they were now deceased. The SSN had been the hardest to lie about but he managed to get by with only a twinge of pain by mixing the numbers up. A little deception was easier than an outright lie. Thankfully, it was enough to get him a temporary badge and commissary card.
The Lieutenant at the badge station told him where to report for a bunk assignment and sent him off to follow the other civilians to get some chow.