Kendall looked up from his book as the intercom sounded out in the expansive library. The librarian and everybody else inside looked up, too.
“Will Isaiah Hamilton please report to the office to check out?” It said, then cutting off. He stuck his head back into the book, but looked back up again to see who was entering the library.
Surprising. Amy didn’t strike Kendall as the reading type, much less intelligent. Then again, she may be smart. That’s probably why she’s in here, anyways. He may be wrong, but it’s all just guessing.
“Oh. Hey, Kendall.” She said. Kendall waved to her. She took the beanbag next to him. He didn’t expect it, but it was what it was.
”What are you reading?” She asked. Kendall stuck his thumb in-between the pages and looked at the cover.
”It’s called Paranoid Mage.” He said. She nodded and tapped a pen on the binder she was holding, which held a worksheet on the front of it.
”Do you think you could help me with homework six?” She said, begrudgingly. He expected it. Nobody ever came to him in the library to ask what book he was reading. Just a part of life, he guessed.
”Yeah, I can.” He said, placing the customary fork he used for a bookmark in the book and shutting it, then slipping it into his bag. He got up and pulled a chair out to a table, sitting down. He had no idea how people even had trouble with these. They were honestly really easy.
She sat across from him and slid the paper to him to show him her progress. She’d gotten three of the ten questions done.
“Oh. All you did was this part wrong.” He pointed to one of the symbols. “That means to the power of, not times. Here, you’d multiply it by itself three times.” He said. It wasn’t that hard.
”Oh, that makes sense. What about back here?” She asked, displaying the back. It was devoid of exponents. He just wrote the formula at the top of the sheet and gave examples on a few problems and resumed his reading without pause. She thanked him graciously and left right after. He sighed and continued reading.
The library’s calm quiet had returned. The librarian was calmly sorting through books when the sudden blue flash appeared in front of her, causing her to fall over. In all honesty, it even made Kendall jump. The blue screen hovered in front of him, perfectly still.
Hello, Engineer. Press Y to ready up for the Tutorial and receive your equipment.
He looked at the message with glee. Before agreeing, he began thinking to himself how lucky he’d gotten. He only had one chance, and vowed not to mess it up.
Kendall clicked y without any further questions. A shotgun fell into one hand and a tool belt into another, all while knowledge flooded into his head. He could see it all- Blueprints for turrets, tanks, mechs, theory for AI, the code for a hive mind, the code for a worker, for a queen bee. The blueprints for a humanoid robot, everything flooded him at once. It was like all of the knowledge he attained by reading instantly became imprinted in his brain, instead of just remembered vaguely. He knew it all.
Rank 1 Engineer
Condition: Tip-top [100%]
Physique: Average (Expand)
Intelligence: Incredible (Expand)
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Spirit: Low (Expand)
Skills: Turret [Lv1], Repair [Lv1], Fortify [Lv1]
Current Deployable Placement Limit: 1
The Librarian stared at him as he held the shotgun in his hand. He cycled a shell through the chamber, making a quickly expanding pile next to him after he went at it for a couple of minutes.
Stunned silence surrounded the room as they all stared at him, casually clipping the belt on behind his back and tightening it. There were a decent bit of nuts and bolts, a wrench, a different wrench he didn’t know the name of but looked like the one from TF2, a speed square, and… some little gun-looking thing. It reminded Kendall of what those welding things looked like just minus the tons of wires. He probably wouldn’t use it until he got a welding mask.
“How did you…” A stunned Amy looked through the library door. Kendall waved to her. She had a book in one hand and a staff in the other. There was a stone in the staff, glowing while the book hovered in the other hand.
”Nice book.” Kendall said. Ironic. He got a shotgun while she got magic. She probably had a magical barrier or something. He’d probably have to build one. Sucks, but that’s the way it goes.
”Uh… Nice shotgun?” She said confusedly. He understood. She probably thought he would’ve been a mage too, considering how many books Kendall reads.
“Thanks.” He said. Suddenly, the tutorial began without warning. The land around them crumbled, enveloping itself into a gigantic field surrounded by trees. Just by intuition, he felt a forcefield would block them from running. He assumed the enemy would probably be something small, maybe goblins or something.
He watched people pair into partners, mostly by if they were friends or not. Kendall activated Turret, watching as a green hologram hovered over his desired position: The dead center of the field. After internally confirming, it was placed down. Kendall walked over and inspected it. It was pretty sturdy, and embedded in the ground as far as he could tell. It had three barrels, each barrel 10 millimeters in diameter. He wondered what caliber it shot. It was too wide for ordinary rifle rounds. At least, Kendall thought so.
Prepare for the onslaught.
Kendall began reconsidering his placement when he looked around. Too many people were in the way of the where it would fire. He didn’t wanly to rip his classmates to shreds. He grabbed the turret and lifted it, sprinting towards the edge of the clearing.
”Get out of the way of the turret!” Kendall yelled as he continued sprinting. Eventually, he tripped, dropping the turret and accidentally activating it. Bullets ripped through the wood, goblins crying out in pain. It rotated in jolts, firing about one round every half a second. Despite the atrocious 2 bullets per second, it only took one shot to kill a goblin, so it was worth it. He couldn’t wait to level it up.
As they kept getting closer, most of the students got pushed back. The goblins were scarcely populated, even on each side, but still came out fast. The turret’s range was 20 feet by Kendall’s measurement. From what he could tell by the goblin’s running speed to the edge of the Turret’s range, it took them about three seconds to get to the turret from the 20 foot mark. That was six total goblins before they reached the turret, not to mention the time taken for it to turn.
What Kendall had noticed, though, it the bullets don’t affect his allies, so the radius of attack was effectively a safe zone for most people, as long as they didn’t let they guard down.
Kendall looked around. He couldn’t see any bodies, so that was a good sign. He’d yet to use Fortify, and wanted to try it. Unsure of the results, he decided to place it around his turret.
He could see a green aura emit from the turret, as well as the base expanding. Right below the barrels, an extension was attached that gave it two large shields on either side, both big enough to hide a person, but also not to get stuck on something. He thought that it wasn’t bad, but thought it could be better, Maybe make something like a small couple of barricades? That would be better
Repair was self-explanatory, so he didn’t feel much of a need to test it. Especially since it was going to require damaging his turret.
Kendall walked out of its radius, aiming the shotgun at the nearest goblin. He fired, blasting a gigantic hole in its chest. It died instantaneously.
That test went pretty well.
He noticed a significant lack of students. Amy was among the few left, alongside a few others who were mainly comprised of archers, with a few melee classes. Amy was the only mage left, and Kendall was the only engineer in general. Guess classes that weren’t actually achievable without the System were more rare than regular ones. He did wonder what else there was.
The land around Kendall began collapsing into a world of white before color and depth washed over it. The familiarity of the library appeared back in his vision.