The first thing Louie noticed when he opened his eyes was that he was in his room in the tent and that somebody was sitting asleep in a chair next to his bed.
He coughed softly and as she opened her eyes, he smiled.
"I thought you had run away with some strong rugged Mad Max bandit over there."
*Huff* She stretched as she replied. "Ruggedly and handsome aren't two words that I would use to describe that trash, They are all scum over there."
His eyes got big as everything came rushing back at him.
"Shit, the Beast Waves!"
Shadow leaned over and pushed him back down in his bed.
"Wow, hang on there killer. Don't worry, the waves were defeated. You've been out of it for the night, I heard that spell you used was a doozy."
"It's the next morning?"
"Yes, we took down the last wave just before the sunset. Arnold said that they will start the aar? This morning. What's an aar?"
"That's short for After Action Report. The strategists break the battle down and see what went wrong and where and who can be improved on, I was always shit on in the AAR." He smiled but saw that her smile wasn't reaching her eyes, instead, he saw the sadness that she is trying to hide.
"What's wrong? Goddess, who did we lose?" Fearful for her answer.
"Alot of people, but us… we lost Jakob."
"Our Jakob, the boy in Naomi's team?"
"Yes."
Louie leaned back against the headboard and closed his eyes as he softly asked, but was already fearing the answer.
"How?"
"BOB collapsed and Naomi was still on his back and trapped. They were overrun, only her spider kept the insects from them. Jacob reached them first and held the creatures till the rest of the golems could arrive. They were too late to save Jacob but they got Naomi and BOB out."
'Shit! I am responsible for Jacob's death.'
Shadow was a pretty good judge of character, and she knew Louie can come across as insensitive sometimes, but she also knew that he cared deeply for his friends and 'family', and Jacob was in his group, so he was considered a friend if not more.
"Louie, it wasn't your fault."
"What do you mean? I drew too much from my bond and they passed out, which caused Jacob's death as he tried to defend them. It was totally my fault."
He saw the shocked look on her face, "what do you mean you draw too much from your bond?"
He realized that he hadn't shared this bit of knowledge with everybody in his party.
*Sigh* "Sorry not everybody knew."
He took a deep breath. "I found a place in … I guess you could call it my soul, I don't know what else to call it. Well, I found this place that has a link to BOB and those that are bonded to me, like the sisters. After we fought the crockfish, I tried healing BOB through that bond and it changed. My bond evolved into a more physical bond or something. Again I don't know what to call it, but the System calls it
He saw the confusion on her face.
"Like the spell, I know that if I feed it more mana than I have, then the mana would come from our joined mana pool, and if I depleted that then it will knock us all out. That's what happened when I improvised the spilk bridge over the canyon."
He looked thoughtful for a moment, "I guess that since the excess comes from all four of our joined pools that means that the mana starvation is four times more potent."
"Aah, I see, and now you think that's why you are responsible for Jacob's death."
She shook her head.
"You are one selfish bastard, Louie. Jacob gave his life to defend Naomi and now you want to belittle his sacrifice. You are not responsible for his death, he chose to stand and fight the monsters. He could have waited for the golems or run away at any time that he wanted to, he was only 12 years old but he chose to run towards and stand between the monsters and his friend. He chose to do that. If Naomi died then that might have been some small part your fault, but again she chose to ride on BOB, you did not force her to. If I heard right then you did not even give her permission to do that, and from what I heard from Arnold, the whole idea of her riding BOB was their party's idea."
"They are kids! They don't have to fight the monsters."
"Look around you, Louie! wake up and smell the bloody roses! Every day children die to the monsters, children that have no choice, but Naomi and her team, they choose to do something, they choose to fight, Jacob chose to stand and fight the monsters to save his friend. Don't you dare to belittle his sacrifice."
Silence settled over the room as he closed his eyes and leaned back against the headboard. He was sad and angry at Jacobs death, but slowly he came to realize that he can't hold everybody's hand, all he can do is help them to be the best that they can be and try to protect them if he was near or to avenge them if he wasn't. Jacob had made his choice, even though his death was painful, he was a hero in his eyes, and from the way, Shadow reacted, in more than just his eyes.
*Sigh* he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. "You are right, he is a hero, it was his choice and to say it wasn't, will be to belittle him."
Shadow came over and laid her hand on his shoulder.
He gave her a thankful smile and swung his feet out of bed before he realized that he was naked under the bedsheets.
"Uhh, can you give me a couple of minutes to get dressed, I will meet you all next door in the tavern."
She rolled her eyes as she turned around to leave the room. "Arnold might be there, I think he has taken a liking to Nickey's niece."
Louie shook his head sadly as she left the room. 'Even among all the sadness, life goes on.'
Louie met up with most of the leaders and his team as they were seated around a big breakfast table in the tavern.
"Morning everyone."
They greeted him back but everybody was still subdued as they talked about the losses sustained during the waves, with the biggest group Los during the fight with the Warlock's pet, Bureika.
"By the way, we got the bugger." Arnold chipped in between bites of his stuffed breakfast rooti.
"Who?"
"The Warlock. The scouts and Micheal followed it to a small cave near Hollandsche Molen. After waiting for a while they sealed it and filled it with poison till they got the kill notification. When they went in to check they found him in bed, looked like he was so tired he passed out and the poison air killed him in his sleep. Micheal contacted me about an hour ago."
Louie shook his head, "Glass cannon mages."
"Yea." Arnold agreed, "by the way, the funerals are scheduled for sunset. I asked Kirt to erect a monolith and are going to carve the names of all the fallen on it."
The mood turned more somber as they were reminded of the price that was paid in keeping the swarms out.
Nobody talked further as they finished their breakfast and got up to start their day.
"Kirt wait up."
Louie spoke up as he acknowledged the blinking icon in his interface and saw the multiple BBs that were waiting for him.
He looked through them before he found the one he was looking for.
Quest Completed
Defend the Temple District.
Defend your district from the Beastwave 0/5
Reward:
1 G coin/Defender √
1 common skill cube √
Failure: Loss of future settlement/or death.
Y/N
Optional Rewards for Deedholder:
*
1: Lose less than 50% of the defenders. √
1 Structural blueprint
*
2: Figure out what is causing the Beastwaves. √
1 uncommon spell cube.
*
3: Destroy the cause of the Beastwaves. √
1 Rare skill cube.
'Nice, even though I didn't kill Vernog, I still get the credit. I must find some way to reward Micheal and those scouts.'
He looked through his inventory and saw the skill cube that he got from the wave defense, it was called personality Shift and he immediately noticed that it was a skill meant for his class and the other two were meant to complement his affinity.
Personality shift. (Passive)
Grants the Seeker the ability to split his/her personality and think about multiple things and notions at the same time, speed, and amount of split personalities are determined by the skill level and strength of the ability are determined by intelligence stat. All knowledge gathered by the different personalities will be combined while the seeker is asleep.
The current level allows one extra personality.
Then there was the spell cube and the rare skill cube he got as rewards as Deedholder, they were analysed as
Dark Blade:
The caster releases a wave of darkness/shadow to cut opponents. Higher levels will release multiple waves dealing more damage.
Damage: 50HP + darkness damage.
Mana Cost: 20 MP
Duration: instant
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Affinities: Shadow, Darkness
Dark Puppet (Rare)
This skill is only usable by casters with the Darkness or Shadow affinity.
The user can transform a small piece of their shadow into a living puppet that will last for 24 hours. This sixty centimeters tall puppet can not be used to attack enemies since it only has ten health points and no mana pool but will follow orders. The puppet can be used to loot kills as any loot gathered by the puppet will automatically appear in the caster's inventory or bonded dimensional bags or chests. Beware any damage dealt to the puppet will reflect on the caster. This means anything that happens to the shadow will be reflected in the true body; in short, a form of "reverse" shadow puppetry.
Beware:
Do not use this skill if you have less than ten health points.
Higher levels of this skill might grant sentience to the puppet.
He left the cubes alone for now and found the blueprint he also got as a reward.
Checking it over quickly he made a copy of the blueprint and gave the original to Kirt
Greenhouse (Blueprint)
Construction requirements:
1 x Blueprint
2 x Builders
37 x Metal Ingots
123 x Glass or 61 x Primal Crystal panes
12 x cubics stone
10 x cubic lumber
This Greenhouse has an effect that is granted to each Crop Plot, its crops grow significantly faster but continue to consume Fertilizer at the usual rate. Because of this, the Greenhouse Effect increases the crop yield per unit of fertilizer. The Greenhouse Effect is capped at a maximum of 300%, meaning crops can grow up to 4 times faster than normal. This effect will diminish if there aren't enough gardeners looking after the plots.
"Damn, this thing is big, where did you get it? It looks like one of those old-time Victorian greenhouses."
Louie nodded his head, "I got it as the reward for preventing the destruction of the temple, and yes I agree, it's big, just one problem."
"Yes, the glass."
"Yes, but I think that Koert might be able to work around that with the
Kirt nodded as he placed the blueprint in his inventory.
"I will hang on to this till we meet all the requirements and find a spot that's not in the trees' shade."
"Ha, good luck with that, but I don't think that will be an issue, nowhere on the blueprint does it say that it must be built in the sun, and if I remember correctly, in this one game I played I even found a greenhouse in a Drow cavern, maybe Koert can tell you more bout that, but I think it's more to do with mana than sunlight."
Kirt nodded and moved towards the door as Leon sat down next to Louie.
"You feeling ok?"
Louie gave a slow nod, "Yea, still upset about Jacob's death, but had a good talk with Shadow and am feeling a bit better now."
"Yea, it's sad that, but I know that if there was a way to go then he would have chosen just what he had, he was turning into a true soldier. Every spare moment when he wasn't with his team, he was training with Kotche and the caravan guards."
Louie facepalmed, "ow goddess, Kotche, this must be tough on him, I will go talk to him."
"Yes, it will be a good idea to go before the funeral."
Louie nodded.
"What are your plans for today?"
Louie thought for a moment. "I must work on myself. The scorpion made me realize that I am shit without
"Ok, so how do you propose to do that?"
"The first thing is knowledge of my class and affinity and how the two are linked and what that means for me. Koert said that Darkness Affinity is usually linked to Warlocks, Necromancers, and evildoers, like that fucker Vermog. So I think it's got to do with the first week of the apocalypse, the week that I can't remember and what I did to gain my class and affinity. Maybe I can find somebody that was a hypnotist before the pulse who unlocked the mind mage class or something, until then I think I will have to sit down with Koert and learn more about my class and affinity, if he can't help then maybe I can go talk to Mildred in Starter Town, if I remember correctly then she was studying game design and know all about game lore and stuff. I got to get another tower up and linked, or maybe -"
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He remembered the runes on the pillar next to the stairs in the tree.
"I think I will first go have a look at the AAR that Arnold's Sergeants' are running then go an have a look in Gaea's temple
Louie found them in a room that was built into the boundary wall, not far from the place where they had fought the giant scorpion.
"- winner is Recruit Farel who just attacked and killed a monster." Graeme, one of the militia Sergeants, stopped in front of a recruit.
"Nice one Recruit Farel." The recruit jumped to his feet and stood to attention.
"There is just one problem, in the first place, you shouldn't even be using your assagai at all, you are supposed to watch the flow of the battle, not engage the enemy. Why did you use your spear, Recruit?"
"Sargeant, I wasn't doing anything at that moment and the monster was just there, so I stabbed it, Sargeant!" Farel replied uncomfortably.
"You should have notified the recruits of the beast in their midst and let them deal with it." Graeme shook his head, "Your task as Recruit first class is to lead your squad, your weapons were given to you for self-defense, the haft of your spear are there to point out irregularities, with force if you have to. They are only to be used as a spear if you can't get your men to do it in time, not to stab enemies when you have nothing to do."
"Did any of the monsters come close to where you were positioned?" Graeme continued asking Farel.
"No, Sargeant!"
"You are there to lead your squad, and control the flow of the battle, the moment you left your position you lost your view of the overall battle," Graeme advised, "if you want to lead from the front, to engage the enemy, then that is ok, but always keep your eyes on the battle. The battle can change in an instant and you will be out of the loop if it does. Understand?"
"Yes, Sargeant!" Farel replied, nodding in understanding.
"Recruit Jeremy!" Graeme yelled next to another troop.
"You, my friend, have won the big prize."
"Yes, Sergeant!" Recruit Jeremy jumped to his feet in attention with a big smile on his face, and Louie noticed that he was the only recruit wearing his cloak, the rest of them had theirs rolled up on top of their battle webbing next to their seats.
"Now, Recruit Jeremy, tell us all, how the fuck did you fire lightning at such a rate? I thought the lightning wands can only fire a hundred blasts before they need to recharge for a day. How the hell could you afford a lightning wand, not to mention two, and where the hell have you ever gotten the coin to buy two lightning wands from?"
Louie shook his head as he remembered the kid standing on the wall with a wand in each hand firing blast after blast of lightning bolts like a cowboy in a Texas shootout. Screaming 'Hoo-ya motherfuckers' as he danced around firing his wands.
The Sargeant saw the recruit shuffle a bit as if trying to hide something.
"Attention Recruit Jeremy!"
The recruit snapped to attention, his smile was definitely missing now, he started to sweat as the sergeant leaned in and moved his cloak aside.
"What the fuck?"
The Sargeant lifted the cloak and counted ten sheaths with wands threaded through his belt.
"How the fuck could you afford ten lightning wands? They go for 1G coin each."
"A.. I made a loan, Sargeant." The recruit was now sweating buckets.
"A loan, you made a bloody loan for ten gold?"
"Aa… yes Sir."
"SIR! Do I look like an officer to you? I work for a living!" The sergeant shouted in his face.
"No Sargeant!"
The sergeant took a step back.
"Push-ups, till I tell you to stop."
Jeremy got in the position and started his push-ups, counting down.
Graeme gave Louie an inquiring look, who held up a finger to indicate he should wait for a moment as he contacted Celia on his OCD.
'Celia, did you give a recruit a loan for 10 gold to buy lightning wands? Louie'
'Louie, yes, I explained to him that he would have to take an oath to repay it, just like a regular contract but it would be enforced by the system. I did try to dissuade him but he insisted that he would be able to pay off the loan using his loot from the beastwave. Celia'
'Celia, And did he pay off the loan? Louie'
'Louie, not yet, but I understand that they haven't looted the bodies yet. The oath does give him a month to repay, although he insisted that he would only need till after the beastwave. I didn't charge him any interest, since you said that we are here to help and not to profit at this moment. Celia'
*Sigh* 'Celia, Ok, thanks. Louie'
He explained to the sergeant what happened.
"Damn, kid. There is no way that he would have made ten gold from killing beasts, not even from that mega wave, ten gold is a lot of money."
Louie saw the arms of the recruit tremble as he went for another push-up.
"Sergeant, I will buy eight wands from him and give them to the militia, you can give one to each Sargeant or as you see fit. He can go pay off his loan and I will leave you to figure out a suitable punishment for him since that was a stupid thing to do. Oaths are binding under the System, the System might have stripped him of his class, levels, or even stats if he broke this Oath."
Louie shook his head as he thought of the stupidity of the youth, he didn't even think of working through the wording of the oath before accepting it, thinking he would make the 10G from the waves. Thinking, not knowing, and insisting on the deadline for repayment to be just after the wave, while he was offered a month with no interest. Stupidity.
As he exited the rooms he saw that the space just behind the wall has been cleared and was being used as an impromptu slaughtering yard with multiple tables lined up and who he assumed were harvesters manning the tables for the defenders that were lining up to loot and place the bodies for dismembering.
Christean had done some experimenting with his freeze spells and had found that a body that is stored in the inventory takes up to five times longer to spoil if it's frozen and that a frozen body can still be looted but will also take longer to deteriorate into sludge if it is frozen and then looted and not stored into a bracelet, so all the bodies that were gathered between waves and those still on the field after the battle, were frozen before stored. Now the bodies were all brought out to be looted by the defenders and harvested by everybody with a harvesting or dismembering skill.
It turned out that if something is killed over a long distance then the body gave off a faint glow that is visible to the killer, notifying them that it is their kill and can be looted, unlike the body slain in a melee attack that gets auto looted once you move far enough away from the body. You also have twenty-four hours to find and loot an unattended body that you killed or the option to loot it will be lost, or if the body is claimed by wild monsters. Bodies that are stored have no time limit to be looted since storing the body means that it has been claimed, but still, the body can only be looted by the killer or killers.
Louie walked over to one of the tables where the harvesting of the bodies took place.
He was intrigued to see a long row of militia at one table and walk up to see what was happening there.
He saw the body split apart into several pieces. To one side were the organs and to the other side were the skin, paws, and head, then the cleaned carcass split into its different cuts neatly arranged.
"Damn, that's handy, what spell is that?"
The woman looked up, her apron covered in blood.
"Not a spell Sir, it's a skill called
"Ow, but don't the harvesters have the same skill?"
"No, the harvesters have an inferior version of the skill, known as
"Ahh, so if you can train somebody in being an old-time butcher and then start harvesting, then they might unlock this
She nodded, "I'm doing that Sir, I got my son and two more young ones training to become butchers."
"Nice, I have seen you before. You're helping Jo in the soup kitchen, do you need a place to work and train those young ones?" Louie smiled.
"Yes sir, I help in the soup kitchen, but I also have a small shop in the marketplace now. I will sell meat and barter my
Louie had heard it before but it's the first time he heard it from somebody that had to live it every day. Usually, it was just thanks from the leadership, thanks for doing this, thanks for doing that. It was the first time somebody, not a warrior, who was directly affected by his actions had thanked him, it felt good to be vindicated.
"It's my pleasure, come find me later and we can see what we can do about your butchery."
"Thank you, sir."
Louie moved on, feeling the glow.
'It's always nice to know that you are appreciated.'
"Louie!"
Louie stopped at the temple doors and turned to look who called out to him.
He saw the Sergeant of the Guards, Patric, jogging over from the last market shop.
"Sir … Louie, I just wanted to thank you, since you did the changes two days ago, there hasn't been any monster spawns inside the walls here."
"No problem Partic, as I told you when you joined, as soon as a place is recognized as a System structure then it will not allow creatures to spawn inside it."
"I know but hearing something said and seeing it are two different things, just wanted you to know that we are all, our families included, very grateful to you."
"No problem Patric."
Patric turned back to the marketplace but stopped as Louie spoke up again.
"Listen, Patric, you guys said that most of you were in Construction? There is a group of builders, I don't know if you know of them. They are led by Kirt Dempers. I would like some of your guys to help them and see if they can unlock the builder skills through the system. The guards can profit from some of you being able to reinforce structures or make barricades and stuff."
Patric looked thoughtful for a moment, "I know of Mr. Dempers, he was a good boss to work for, I will talk to him, I'm sure there are some guys that will be glad to get the skill."
"Good, talk to Leon, see what he can organize."
"Will do, thanks, Sir."
Louie turned around and stepped through the doors to the temple as Patric moved into the marketplace.
He moved through the Temple and towards the first alcove at the right of the door.
Louie moved down the stairs in the alcove and as he went down the stairs the stairway lid up with bioluminescent moss.
Curious to see what would be at the bottom of the stairs, he found a door and behind it a small room with a pedestal on which was the Temple district interface.
'Hmm, if there is an interface here, which I should have expected, then the Temple/Tree with Sher's house on top should count as a tower?'
Knowing that a portal room won't show in the image in the interface till he has been inside the room, he still looks through the image and looks at what has been changed.
'I should look through the rune pillar at the stairs and see if there is a rune for a basement.'
Louie went into options and changed it to a 3D view that shows the whole section inside the market walls. He also noticed that there were now another couple of buildings highlighted.
The first was the market tower as before and then three others, one was the hall that he sculpted where the leaders had the meetings and another was the tavern with all the guard housing behind it, strangely, the last was a post that he didn't notice before, in front of the section where their caravans and crafting stations were.
'Hmm, strange, are those places where I can use capstones? If so then I might be able to designate the hall as a TownHall and I might skip the fact that we need a Cornerstone for a town hall? Now I must just find another capstone, which shouldn't be a problem as there seems to be a couple of nests left. Also, have to make time to go through my loot and learn those spells and skills, then I need to talk to Shadow and see what we can do about King
Paarl Leaders
* Leon Koen: (STC 2IC) pet (Seera: Black Widow)
* Gerard van Schalkwyk: Class: Scavenger/Tinker
* Mike Dekker: Class: Warrior
* Carla Coetzee: Class: Ranger
* Kirt Dempers: Class: Builder
* Jak de Beer: Class: Farmer/Animal husbandry
* Samuel De Jager: Class: None (Mayor)
* Arnold Brand: Class: Centurion/Armourer
* King ????????
Status:
Name:
Lewis (Louie) Poren
Race:
Human (Male) Lvl 12 " 465,870/819,200" = Lvl 13
Class:
Seeker (5) (27%)
Sub-classes:
(exterminator) (3%)
Titles:
* Jack Black Brodifacoum,
* Trailblazer,
* Liberator.
* OFS (One Finger Salute)
* Dungeon pioneer
* David
* Selfish
* ?????
Affinity:
Darkness 0.002%
Affiliation:
Gaea
Statistics:
Health points (HP):
540
strength + constitution times level
Mana Points (MP):
528
Intelligence + willpower times level
Stamina (SP):
660
agility + constitution + willpower times level
Critical Hit Chance:
4%
Attributes:
Strength:
23
Agility:
18
Constitution:
22
Perception:
21
Intelligence:
29
Willpower:
15
Charisma:
7
Luck:
5
Free attribute points:
0
Skills:
Skill
Level
Progression
Wu shu:
Passive
7
05/100
Improvised weaponry:
Passive
T1: 2
55/100
Glacial Rage:
P/A
6
35/100
Meditation:
Active
6
75/100
Regeneration:
Passive
T1: 2
65/100
Mana Manipulation:
Active
9
95/100
Survival:
Passive
9
85/100
Cooking:
Passive
0
25/100
Restoration:
Passive
T1: 1
95/100
Social Sharing
Passive
1
75/100
Harvesting:
Passive
9
75/100
Herb Lore:
Passive
2
55/100
Whittling:
Passive
0
00/100
Pain resistance:
Passive
T1: 0
00/100
Poison resistance:
Passive
3
42/100
Cat`s eye:
Active
T1: 0
75/100
Senses:
Passive
6
35/100
Armourer:
Passive
5
95/100
System Minimap:
Active
7
10/100
Cartography:
Active
4
25/100
Public speaking:
Active
5
95/100
Spell Transformation: *
Active
2
10/100
Conglomerate:
Active
0
00/100
Backstab:
Active
0
00/100
Skewer:
Active
0
00/100
Scholer:
Passive
0
20/100
Learning:
Passive
#
#
Quick study:
Passive
#
#
Know-how:
Passive
#
#
This star * indicates a hidden skill
Class Skill Proficiencies:
Skill
Level
Progression
Investigation:
Active
6
65/100
Tracking:
Active
5
25/100
Intuition:
Passive
T1: 2
95/100
Analyse:
Active
T1: 9
95/100
Lore:
Passive
2
75/100
Monster Expert:
Passive
4
85/100
?????
0
00/100
Spells:
Spell
Level
Progression
Activation
Improvise:
T1: 1
35/100
Touch
Mana Construction:
T3: 7
85/100
Cast
Mana Blueprint:
2
15/100
Touch
Liquefaction:
T1: 7
65/100
Cast
Earth Sense:
T1: 5
95/100
Touch
Item Schematics:
T1: 2
80/100
Touch
Vampiric:
0
10/100
Cast
Darkorb:
2
10/100
Cast
Transfusion:
0
10/100
Touch
Electrocute:
1
20/100
Cast
Suffocate:
0
15/100
Cast
Waterboard:
1
85/100
Cast
Cauterise:
6
05/100
Touch
Shadow Step:
0
35/100
Cast
Fear:
0
30/100
Cast
Concussion Blast:
2
95/100
Cast
Down the Rabbit Hole:
0
20/100
Cast
????
0
00/100