The ankle had proven more of a detriment than Michael had expected. It had swollen, making getting out of the basement and office building difficult enough, but then Michael had to limp back to the restaurant. He had cleared it the day before, so it promised to be fairly clear of enemies. He encountered two groups on his way there.

The pack of tier 0 zombies were nothing to him after his massive increase in strength and dexterity. However, the hound pack took advantage of his poor mobility. Michael ended up having to expend the two extra bolts that had respawned to get out of the situation. Another hound got bashed with his new pulse, but the ball of energy did little more than knock the dog away for a moment. Still with their pack halved, Michael was able to get out of the confrontation. He only took a light wound on the side of his right knee, where one of the hounds had seized him, but his pants had gotten the worst of it.

Michael ended up spending not only the rest of day four recovering, but also day 5. He did not waste the time completely, He used the time to get used to his new shaping ability. Two days worth of playing with it taught him a lot more than he had figured out in his initial demo. He had to add changing the energy’s form and distance to the list of things that required more energy expenditure along with darkening the color and movement.

After seeing the pulse only push the hound away, Michael worked on shaping it into a more lethal point. He also worked on shooting it away, and controlling the energy further away from his body. Michael’s shaping was still pretty rudimentary. His best point ended as some sort of tetrahedron after he pulled some of the energy back to form the tip. It proved to be effective at least against the wall in the restaurant.

As far as controlling the energy movement, he could manage out to about 8 feet, but it burnt through his Pulse far too quickly. Controlling the energy farther away from his body was both more difficult and costly. Firing off a pulse projectile was far more energy efficient. He could use extra energy to keep the energy projectile from breaking apart for a certain amount of distance, giving him a second ranged attack. It was a bit of redundancy since his bracer was fitting that role, but who could say if the bracer would always be with him through the battle like the pulse was.

The result of two days of work was that his shaping ability had leveled up to level 2, and Michael had an extremely versatile trump card. If something had him grappled and he was unable to bring his bracer to bear, he could form a dart of energy somewhere close to him and strike at the enemy. Potentially in that scenario, he might even be able to push the energy through the enemy's body in the future. His tests at this point had indicated that pushing the pulse against resistance with his shaping was extremely taxing. He struggled to push the energy dart through the sheet rock of the restaurant wall. Conversely, the fired energy dart, the ones he launched and dropped control of, could do the same with far less energy expended.

Still despite his gains, Michael found himself eager to get back out there. Being sidelined for almost two full days had caused him to miss out on far too much as it was. Not to mention he would be out of soup soon. While he had an inventory full of crackers, he would like something else.

The sprained ankle still hurt, but the swelling was at least gone. Michael used some cloth to stabilize it as best he could. He could definitely still feel it, but he should be able to function normally. After that and a couple days of healing. Michael cautiously departed his safe hold. Nothing had changed. The sunshine illuminated the eerily silent city. Despite having been out there for half a week, he seemed to feel anew the intense pressure of the atmosphere.

Two days of relative safety had diminished whatever resistance he had built over his first three days here. It was not as bad as the deep sinking feeling he had felt after appearing on the edge of a pier five days ago, but it was clear he had been out of the game for too long. He would have to find his rhythm. Once he was back in the action the feeling would likely go away since he would be too busy. Until then, he would just feel… antsy.

Michael set out heading west. He would see what else the 1st business district had to offer. His goal was to find another green drop, and farm coins and stat points in the meantime. Enemies were likely tougher than they had been a couple of days ago, but with his new stats and pulse ability he was not the same man either. If he had been at this level when facing the ghouls and ghast, the fight would have likely still been hard, but not so difficult that he was on the edge of life and death.

Michael broke back into the groove on run of the mill zombies. All tier 0’s so it went easy, but after the first group he started running into groups led by tier 1’s. Then there were the hound packs. None of them were tier 1 yet, but the packs had increased in size from 4 to 6 all the way up to 8 or 9. Michael worked his new pulse ability into the fights. It was better to expend a pulse than one of his bolts since all his pulse energy could still be recovered before 1 bolt did. Not to mention he needed to both test it and get a better handle on it.

The tetrahedron energy darts could easily kill a tier 0, even without Michael increasing the power of the darts by darkening them to yellow. It took a yellow dart to easily take down the tough hounds or a tier 1 zombie. By lunch time, Michael had found the sweet spot for using pulse. He could form 4 or 5 light yellow darts depending if he could minimize the amount of time and control he had to exert on it. He could form twice as many of the pure white darts.

As far as Michael could tell his shaping ability leveling up to level 2 did not provide any new benefits. It just made doing what he had already figured out easier. Forming the darts and the other things he tried took less concentration of thought and control. It still took quite a bit of effort, so Michael was hoping to hit level 3 and see his moves become even more automated. In theory if his level got high enough, he might just need a thought that he needed a dart in a situation to form and fire it appropriately. If he was in heated melee, it might be hard to form the dart as things stood right now. He had already failed a couple times that morning, due to losing concentration.

Michael was more than disappointed when he finally settled down for lunch. He had probably killed nearly a hundred enemies and had only gotten two stat points to show for it. He had received 32 crowns, so they did not seem affected. However, it was clear that the white drops were becoming more rare for lower level enemies. Either it was because he was tier 1 now, or it was the natural progression. Regardless, the easy days of collecting a bunch of white drops just by strolling down the road might be gone.

It was what it was. Michael threw both of the points into toughness bringing it up to 14. As far as he was concerned, status conditions were one of the most dangerous things he could run into as long as he could avoid taking a direct hit with his high dexterity.

Michael finished up his quick lunch, eager to get back out there. With nothing else to aim for, Michael decided to head for the pink drop in the garden district on the other side of the historical residential district. It should be reachable by nightfall even with a few diversions. Worst case he had to finish off his last can of soup for dinner tonight and get it tomorrow morning. He had 5 days worth of crackers, but he did not have that much water despite having drinking less for the last two days. He had just under two days worth of water and tea bottles.

Michael had just crossed over into the historical residential district when he was beset upon by a group of 9 hounds. While the battle was not overly dangerous, Michael could not afford to be careless. Pulse darts took out two hounds before the pack even reached him. He easily bashed the two that went directly for him, while the others flowed around to attack from all directions. With strength of 25, Tier 0 hounds could be brought down with one swing.

Michael’s body twisted back and forth as the canines went in and out of range. Any that closed in got the bat. If two came in at the same time, he separated his left hand using it to bat one away barehanded. His strength was high enough and his toughness gave some measure of protection. The last of the hounds went down to another of the yellow darts, and all he got to show for the battle was another two coins.

“Well, I guess everything counts,” Michael remarked dryly.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Then he noticed a figure detached from the nearby building. A fairly tall female with pale skin. Her dark hair with dyed red streaks was swept back on both sides. She wore the black combat pants and a black leather biker jacket he did not remember seeing as an option. At her side was an empty leather scabbard. She carried a two feet long machete in her opposite hand. She approached him purposefully, so Michael turned to face her.

“Just the type of guy I’ve been looking for,” she said, stopping around 10 feet away.

“Excuse me,” Michael said, his eyes darting to the side in awkwardness.

“To team up,” she clarified. “What did you think I meant?” she smirked.

“No offense, I'm not really looking for a partner. Drops are getting hard enough as it is.”

“You wouldn’t team up. not even for a green drop…?”

“A green drop. Why would I help you get one,” Michael said, arching an eyebrow.

“What no sense of chivalry…?” She said mockingly, batting her eyes. “Just kidding, I mean you will get a green drop if you team up with me for a day or two.”

“My… That's mighty kind of you, but what will you get out of the deal? And why me?”

“Well that was the pulse ability you were using, wasn’t it…? I assume that means you can’t be half bad. Also there are two green drops,” the woman paused with a smile. “At this point in time getting one by yourself would be quite difficult even for you. Not saying it wouldn’t be possible, but with the two of us, working together should be easier. I tried to get one of them myself, but had to fall back.”

“Hmmm…” Michael thought about it. It certainly was not a bad idea. As long as this girl was decent, it should make getting another green drop a cinch. “So who would get the first one?” Michael asked.

“What, you want one first despite already having gotten one, or is it two,” She said, eyeing his bracer,” she gave him a disapproving look.

“I was just asking,” Michael defended himself. “Besides, how do I even know you would be helpful and are not just trying to get a free lunch.”

“I’ve been grinding hard since day one. I think I have added something like 40 stat points and I even got a three star rating when I tiered up. Maybe I’m not throwing around fireballs yet, but I should be more than helpful.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

If all that was true, she had more raw stats than himself. Enough that she would have made a good headway against a green drop location, but without his bracer or pulse ability, she just did not have any crowd control skills. It might be possible for her to get a green drop by herself, but it would certainly be her putting her life on the line. If she was telling the truth, then she would definitely make things a lot easier.

“Fine,” the girl said, scowling. Apparently, she had thought he needed more convincing. Her home and status page both appeared before him

Name: Kyrie Allison

Tier: 1

Contender: 2, 417, 683

SP: 130/130

HP: 150/150

K:--

P:--

S:--

Primary Attributes

Strength: 18

Endurance: 13

Dexterity: 25

Agility: 20

Vitality: 15

Toughness: 15

Secondary Attributes

Ki: –

Pulse: –

Spirit: –

Michael studied her interface. The girl's stats were far better than his. When she had mentioned collecting 40 stats, she had not included the 6 points she got for a tier up bonus. She had seven less in strength, but all her other attributes were better than his. Then again with a machete as her main weapon, having less strength probably was not much of a hindrance. If the two of them got in a fight Michael might actually be in trouble.

“Very well. You have a deal. I can even let you take the first green drop. However, if something happens the second before we get there. I expect for you to stay with me for the next green drop we find,” Michael offered.

“That is acceptable, although I would like to knock both out today if we can. The second is at the edge of the garden district. Then if you would like we can stick together tomorrow as well. I’m planning to head downtown. The outposts across the map should open tomorrow. I met someone that told me the Vargas city outpost was located downtown. I was hoping to check it out, and see what deals they have. I would love to have a couple of healing potions in my back pocket, or whatever this battle’s equivalent is. Not to mention we could learn more about the different areas of the city.”

Michael thought about it for a second. He would not want to stay at the outpost for long, but healing potions would be invaluable to him. Not to mention, the possibility of learning what other people in Vargas city had learned in the first week. The outpost would be a gathering point for contenders. The first day it became available it would be a hot spot of activity. “That sounds good, but let's get through today first.”

“Awesome, why don’t we start heading to the first location first. We can talk on the way? And by the way, my name is Kyrie, but you can call me Ky. Although, I guess you already saw my name on my homepage now that I think about it. What’s yours?”

“Michael Nacht. Most just call me Mike. Did you spawn in this area? I mean to start out.”

“No, I started out in the 2nd business district to the north of here. I guess the business district is so big they cut it into more sizable chucks. I’ve spent most of my time in the two business districts, the historic district, and touched slightly into the garden district. Have not seen too many types of monsters. Mostly undead, zombies and some ghouls when I went out hunting at night. Of course some hounds and dire rats. Only seen one plant type so far. It is guarding the second drop we will be going after,”Kyrie answered from over her shoulder. The drop was apparently to the southwest of them.

“What's guarding the first drop we are headed to,” Michael called out to her.

“Don’t you want to know where all these dog packs originate from?” Kyrie flashed him a smile. “Likely there is a similar place where the dire rats are spawning to the north, but Sasha was headed that way. She is the one who told me about the outpost. She was even stronger than me when we met, so I’m sure she will be able to clear it.”

Michael’s eyes raised in alarm. Someone stronger than Kyrie would definitely be formidable. “Have you met a lot of people?”

“I’ve met about 23. I say this because I ran into a couple assholes with bows who took shots at me. Did not exactly stick around to add them to my contacts. Had to make a run for it, but other than that, Sasha was the strongest I met. Although she told me of a former police officer that she became friends with that made tier 1 on day 1.”

“What! You’re kidding me,” Michael exclaimed.

“Hahaha, thought that even you would find that alarming. Even Sasha was doing better than me. She made it by the end of day 2. It took me till the end of day 3 to tier up. What about you?”

“Uhh, well I Tier’d up on day 4,” Michael said sheepishly. “But I was dealing with some wounds and other setbacks due to getting the two green drops.”

“One of them must be on your left leg. I could tell you are favoring your right. And I was right that the bracelet was from another drop.”

“Bracer,” Michael corrected.

“Sure, Sure, still getting two by yourself is pretty impressive. Still I guess there is a reason you didn’t show your status in return,” Kyrie turned and smirked at him. “I’m beating you in a couple areas aren’t I?”

“One or two,” Michael said, giving her a disapproving look. He was not going to share the fact that he had barely gotten any more points after tiering up.

“Ha, well when you have to spend 3 stat points for one secondary attribute. I’m sure it sets you back in the primary stats area. Still it makes me glad that there are some checks and balances on things. Just in this one city, there are apparently quite a few strong people. Might not be saying that once I unlock a secondary attribute of my own.”

“Anyways, I have told you where I started and been, and everything and everyone I have met along the way. I’m interested in hearing from you as well,” Kyrie trailed off.