Now that I knew what the System’s first role was: a descriptive tool, it made me reconsider the prompt about the [Berserker]. I was pretty sure it was offering the class repeatedly simply because it had registered everything it had seen me do, and I fit the needed criteria. I would need to prove it wrong somehow.
Which would never happen with the damned prompt over my face all the time.
But, with the help of my sister’s insight, it also meant that the class probably wouldn’t have any bad effects on me. If it was only descriptive, it wouldn’t force me to act or do anything I didn’t want. If I lost control, it would be entirely my fault.
I had never gotten anger issues before, that was more my sister’s thing. But it wasn’t really anger. It was a deep, cold loss of care for everything other than Gaëlle, Lila and potentially my survival, in a sea of boiling rage.
Taking the class would let me access the skills and get stronger.
As we would need all the help we could get to carry on with our plan, I had decided I would take the class.
Our scheme was a simple one, but it would be challenging.
We needed bait, which we would create by bringing Bonnie-manufactured spotlights and hunting for some game during the day. And we needed a trap.
A sure method to kill the [Dark Crow] in one go. Neither me nor my sister liked the idea of guns anymore, even if we had found a loophole to make Bonnie give us what we wanted. Just ask the AI to make us parts of the weapons, that we would then mount ourselves and tadaa, the ultimate tools of death. Or maybe not, I had read that drone strikes were more and more prevalent in modern combat.
It would make our goal to kill our buyer so much easier. We’d probably genocide entire monster groups and be the highest-levelled adventurers in the continent, a phrase that held little meaning to me but was apparently deserving a dreamy stare from my sister. But then by doing so we would probably unbalance the state of the world and create a global disaster killing millions.
Both of us had a bitter taste in our mouths when we found and read a note left from Benedict about underdeveloped worlds. He had arrived at the exact same conclusion. He didn’t count it as a liability, though. With more fancy words and statistical analysis, taking aspects like their knowledge of gunpowder linked with the all-knowing aspect of the system. Even a history comparison with the introduction of the Kalashnikov in the middle East.
It seemed Benedict had had a lot of free time on his hands.
I honestly considered bringing guns to the S world just to spite the dead man’s extensive research. It would be stupid.
But, this loophole brought another idea to the table. Maybe we couldn’t make guns, we definitely wouldn’t be able to handle drones, but we could make ourselves great medieval weapons…and bombs.
Now, me and Gaëlle argued over “How is bringing bombs any better than guns?”.
But it made more sense and seemed much more unlikely to bring societal collapse. Things exploded. Granaries exploded, oil could explode, a thunderstrike could superheat metal and make things explode. Explosions were not a foreign notion for a medieval world. Sure, they would not recognize the C4, or plastic, but we didn’t count on it being deeply studied and understood. It asked such a deep knowledge of chemistry that we didn’t expect anyone to understand the making of TNT just by looking at the boom it made.
All this was to say:
Me and Gaëlle were making bombs.
Plastic, to be exact, with a fool-proof electrical circuitry. Every part provided by Bonnie. We had a very detailed recipe telling us exactly what we needed to do, to the second and milligram.
We were absolutely pissing ourselves.
My sister loved it. “I feel like a criminal!” She exclaimed joyously.
But I could see her trembling all over. Which forced me to handle the sensitive parts of the bomb building.
And I absolutely hated it.
The recipe said it would take twenty-five minutes to make, it took us three hours.
At the end, we had some very fun-looking plasticine linked to a detonator switch.
“In case of internal explosion, chances of hull breach are at 24%.” Bonnie decided to provide helpful commentary. “This would result in a 100% chance of…”
“Bonnie, don’t finish that statement please.”
My sister threw her hands in the air.
“Nielle! That wasn’t the right quote! You had such the perfect opportunity.”
“What?” I didn’t get what she was talking about.
“Argh!” She acted as a young teen that had been grounded.
I blinked as I shook my head, not even trying to understand her anymore.
In any case, we had brand new trekking equipment, we also considered asking for fireproof clothing, but as the Drake fire was eating through rocks, we felt it wouldn’t work as well as it should. I had miraculously held on to my backpack, so I kept mine while Elle got a new one. We also built ourselves carbon bows and iron swords. The carbon bows were too technologically advanced to be replicated, while we weren’t sure if steel had been invented yet or not. We really were preparing well this time.
We would need to destroy the spotlights, not that they could have been used as weapons, but we didn’t want to take any risks. They would normally blow with the plastic bomb, so it shouldn’t pose a problem.
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Equipped and ready, we went to the Doors room.
I was nervous as we waited for the System Door 5 to rise up to us. My sister had her new sword drawn. Right now, our skill with it could have been summarized as a dangerous stick. I could draw a bow, but I wasn’t sure about the sword yet. We were so unready it wasn’t funny. All that prep and stats were nothing without the skills or [Skills].
Beepy, the exploration drone, buzzed in flight until it touched the door handle and disappeared in front of us.
Then we waited.
“Lair and entryway are void of life bigger than ten centimetres. No poisonous or toxic material found in the air. Oxygen levels nominal. Temperature at 297.15 degrees Kelvin. Safety levels over 98.7%.”
Bonnie’s voice echoed in the room, and a few seconds later, Beepy came flying back.
And it was our turn to go.
Things had changed inside the lair, namely, it was pitch black. All the fires had finally been extinguished due to the ambient humidity.
“Did you prepare flashlights?” My sister asked.
I turned on the spotlight, and immediately, the whole room burst into view.
She opened her mouth in a slightly dumb expression. “Oh, yeah.”
“Let’s try to stay discreet, right?”
“Is that sarcasm I hear in your voice, Nielle?”
“Nooo.”
We went into the tunnel, not really caring about the remaining pile of treasure. It made no doubt that the equipment provided by Bonnie was way better than anything we would ever find in there.
You have unlocked Class: [Berserker]. Would you like to take this Class? Y/N
The prompt had popped a few seconds after we had entered the S world.
“Yes.” I decided to finally answer it.
You are now a level 1 [Berserker]
Class Skills unlocked.
You received a Class Skill
“I unlocked class skills.” I told my sister. “I need a second.”
“I see the tunnel, we calculated right, somehow, it’s daytime. Seems days are twenty-three hours long just like Bonnie said.”
“You want to go ahead?” I asked.
“What? No, tell me all about your new skills, we’ve got time that’s what I meant.”
“Oh, sure: Status.”
Name: [Nielle Templier]
Race: [Homo Chimera Sapiens]
Age: [29 years old]
Level: [79(+2)]
Statistics:
[Strength=95] [Constitution=100] [Perception=100] [Agility=100]
[Hydrology power=1] [Hydrology control=1]
Remaining stat points available: [10]
Class: [Berserker = 1]
Innate Skills:
[New Species]
[Identical Twins]
[Help]
Skills: (+)
“Oh yeah I forgot. We levelled up.” I noticed as I looked at my status page.
“Me too! How did that slip my mind!? Status!” My sister immediately responded with enthusiasm. “How many levels did you get?”
“Two.”
“What!? Me too! How is that fair, you’re higher levelled and I don’t even get one more level?”
“We still need to find out the levelling equation to calculate precisely.”
“Still.”
“I’ll quickly put five in strength and…I don’t know, one in constitution and four in the two mental stats?”
“At this point, the improvement will be minimal. Do you think we’ll fall unconscious again?”
“Don’t know. Let me level first and we’ll see.”
“Got it.”
I didn’t have to tell the System anything, it had already heard me talk to my sister.
“Confirm.” I told it.
Name: [Nielle Templier]
Race: [Homo Chimera Sapiens]
Age: [29 years old]
Level: [81]
Statistics:
[Strength=100] [Constitution=101] [Perception=102] [Agility=102]
[Hydrology power=1] [Hydrology control=1]
Class: [Berserker = 1]
Innate Skills:
[New Species]
[Identical Twins]
[Help]
Skills: (+)
I waited, felt nothing more than a little prickling in my stomach and eyes, then decided everything had gone well.
“It’s fine, I think we put too many stats at the same time before, it fucked us up.”
“I thought as much. Let me put everything in mental.”
“Not body or magic?”
“No. If the level soft cap is one hundred, one hundred ten, I honestly think I’ve invested enough in body and magic, I don’t need more. It’s like a two per cent increase, even less. While it is a ten percent increase in mental. Two per cent isn’t noticeable, ten percent will be.”
“It makes sense…”
“Oh, I hate making a balanced build like this, but what do you know.”
“Shouldn’t I go magic next time, then?”
“Nah. It’s only useful in this world, the both of us shouldn’t invest in it.”
I nodded.
“So?” My sister asked. “Your class skills?”
“Oh, yeah: system, class skills please.”
You have unlocked level 1 Class Skill: [Rage]
Class Skills:
Skills acquired through levelling your class
[Rage]
“Great, I’ve got [Rage].”
“Seems like the most obvious first skill for a [Berserker]. What does it do?”
“System, [Rage] please.”
[Rage]: When you are angry, gain a 50% increase in strength and constitution
I told this to my sister, who whistled admiratively.
“For a first skill, that’s a hell of a buff. The only problem is the ‘when you are angry’ part. You can’t really control that, so it’s a bit of a hit or miss passive skill.”
“I’m just happy it doesn’t force me to be angry.”
“I’m still not certain if the system can do that or not. Maybe it can introduce adrenaline into your blood, but some sort of mind control? It wouldn’t have known how to operate for us if Benedict hadn’t forced Bonnie to teach the System English.”
“That…makes sense. When you told me about the system thing in videogames and books, it seemed a bit more powerful than…whatever this is.”
“I know. I’m horribly disappointed.”
“Well, not me.”
Our level-ups done, and my sole class skill understood, we continued on our quest to kill the [Dark Crow].
Carrying the spotlight and battery around wasn’t fun, especially considering the tunnel with razor-sharp obsidian, but our improved stats and bodies managed it easily, and we soon found ourselves back on top of the plateau.
Except for a splash of dried blood on the walked over grass, nothing was left of the events of two nights prior.
“Let’s leave the heavy things here, and the bomb.” My sister decided.
“Yup.”
“And now to find something the [Dark Crow] would like to munch on…Piece of cake.”
“Are you deliberately trying to jinx us?” I asked my sister with a raised eyebrow.
“Murphy’s law, I’m doing it deliberately, so it won’t happen. Ah, shit, now that I’ve said it, I’ve definitely jinxed us.”
“…Gaëlle?”
“Yeah?”
“Please concentrate?”