Michael weaved in between buildings, and kept himself near one side of the street when moving down one. It would make it easier to get surprised by the ever present zombies, but at this point the normal zombies were hardly a threat. Even if he ran into a group of them at the top of tier 1 he could fight through them with more ease than fighting through the same number of mid tier 1 ghouls.
After yesterday, he had learned that other contenders were a much more worrisome threat when traveling from one location to another. Sticking close to one side of the street meant that ample cover was always close at hand. Even if he was not near one of the alleyways between two buildings, he could easily throw himself through a door or window and only suffer minimal injuries from doing so.
After nabbing the red drop, Michael had spent the rest of day 13 grinding through as many zombies as he could manage. After a good 8 hours of walking the streets during the afternoon and into the night, he had managed to obtain an additional 3 white drops. This morning and early afternoon, he had found 4 more. A good start toward getting the 30 he would need to maximize his tier up method. While he wanted to continue to hunt, there was something else he needed to attend to.
After day 14, he expected another difficulty increase as well as for store inventories to reset with the start of the third week. Before the stalls closed for the night, Michael wanted to make it back to the old town outpost. He was sitting at 2311 crowns having earned another 600 since leaving the campus building, but he also had several other things that he would be able to sell. All to hopefully be able to afford the secondary attribute unlock. The upgrade had already increased by 1,000 crowns to 3,500 from the beginning of the week. Based on contenders' abilities to earn more and more crowns, Michael expected the cost to only continue to increase. Michael was not overly worried about unlocking his third secondary attribute before using his tier up method, but there were many other things he wanted to buy with his crowns as well.
The sun was already starting to get more red as it started to cut down toward the horizon. Michael once again cut down an alleyway. He proceeded cautiously despite being fairly deep into the old town district where the zombies were actually difficult to find due to the overhunting by contenders coming to and from the outpost. It was at the far end of the alleyway when Michael heard the voices. Other contenders…
Michael would have instantly felt weary, if it had not been for the fact that he recognized the main speaker immediately. The first person he had met during the survival battle, Phil, had a fairly distinctive voice. After a quick glance out of the alley, Michael discovered that he recognized a second person in the group of three that was walking away from him. A short brown haired girl, Becky. He had met her mere hours after running into Phil on Day 2. The third person was a tall skinny red headed man.
Michael analyzed the three of them. The third man’s name was Dax Sheppard. Both Phil and he were already tier 2 contenders. Becky, on the other hand, was still tier 1.
“Phil,” Michael called out casually from behind the group. Becky and the tall red haired man snapped around. Phil turned far more slowly, with a “Huhhh.”
Both Becky and Phil eased immediately upon recognizing Michael. Dax on the other hand stayed weary until Phil called out, “Michael!” in return. The sword he had defensively drawn dipped slightly.
“Becky and I both ran into Michael early on in the survival battle. No need to worry,” Phil added to put their third companion at ease.
“You three headed to the outpost,” Michael asked slowly, walking toward them.
“Sure are, why don’t you join us and we can all catch up. Aww, but first Dax this is Michael. Michael this is Dax,” the overweight man said, sweeping his arm between Michael and the third in their party.
Dax put away his sword and offered his hand. Michael slowly took it and shook it in greeting. “A pleasure,” the man said, shaking his hand in turn. Michael looked up to meet the eyes of the guy that was a full half head taller than him. The trio certainly made an odd looking group. This guy was extremely tall and skinny with golden red hair and a mustache. He was definitely older than Becky or himself who were both around a couple decades old, but he was likely younger than Phil.
Phil looked the same. A large overweight man, who kept his dark hair swept back in a ponytail. He still apparently used a club as his weapon of choice, although the club was slung around his shoulder with a strap. It rested all the way down past his waist, giving quite a bit more reach than even Michael’s sword would. Michael had not missed the glint of light off the metal nuggets embedded near the end. It was definitely far more dangerous than the generic club the man had carried at the beginning of the survival battle.
Becky on the other hand carried a knife in one hand and a hatchet in the other. Small short reach weapons but they looked plenty big when carried by the small girl. The freckle faced brunette was incredibly short for a fully grown adult. She offered him a warm smile, when his attention turned to her from her tall companion.
“So what have you been up to,” Phil started eager to start up conversation with someone knew.
“Nothing much, just running around and killing dead things… And yourself? With that big ass club I guess you are still going with a strength build,” Michael questioned, eager to get the guy talking about himself and the rest of the party.
Phil did not disappoint. “Haha, yeah you could say that. Although, I have had to throw a bunch of points in the other attributes as well. My tier up method did not alot any points to a specific attribute, but I put half in strength anyways. Dax is more of an all a-rounder. Becky… well I guess you could say she is a speed slash support type.”
“Support type?” Michael said questionally.
“Oh….” Phil started, before apparently coming to the conclusion that he would be sharing the small woman’s personal information.
“I unlocked a secondary attribute and have a healing skill,” Becky filled in for him.
“Healing?” Michael said, astonished. He had not seen a skill for that at the upgrade stall, but then again there had only been around 20 in total in stock. It was both good and bad that the list of skills he had read through at the stall were not all that there were to offer. It was good that he could find something better out there, but it also meant that other contenders could easily surprise him with something he had no idea to suspect.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Yes, it has been quite useful. Really, helps us to save up, not having to use potions.” Phil said jovially “I would probably have had to throw additional points into toughness and vitality if she was not in our party.”
Michael saw Dax nod in agreement. The four had already started again towards the old town outpost. Michael had fallen in between him and Becky, with Phil on the far side of Becky.
“Unfortunately, she has to be in physical contact to heal right now. Hopefully, that will change if she can unlock another of the secondary attributes in the future. The skill is compatible with all three, but requires at least one to use.”
“Oh really, which one did you unlock?” Michael asked, cutting off the big man.
“Spirit,” Becky answered quietly. “We were thinking, if I could unlock the pulse I might be able to heal from a distance. Of course, it would also allow me to fight from a distance. Which is what I am shooting for.”
Michael agreed. While he did not know the intricacies of her skill, Pulse did seem like the logical attribute she would need if she wanted to use it at a distance. “Do you have a range weapon?” he asked, eyeing the two small bladed weapons had strapped back at her side.
“No, I have been allotting my stats to plan for that, but I haven’t been able to find one yet. Mainly I help these two kill everything, and they allow me to take a share of all the drops that we find. Ideally, I would like to buy a gun, but I doubt anybody could afford one of them at this point,” Becky sighed.
Michael wrestled with the thought of offering the bow and quiver of arrows that he had just recently acquired, as Phil added his two cents, describing their fighting style. Apparently, Becky was quite adept at using her spirit energy at freezing zombies and turning some to even fight alongside them. Kyrie had also incorporated using spirit energy to freeze opponents, but being able to use it to control them was new. Michael did not think he had even read about it on the faction discussion board. It was definitely an interesting utility of spirit energy.
Of course there were bound to be limits on such an ability. Michael did not have to wonder about it for long. Phil immediately noted that it could only be used for the less intelligent varieties out there, at least at her current ability level. She had apparently failed to control several different types of beasts and ghouls.
Michael absorbed the knowledge, even as he came to a decision. He felt a push to accumulate any and everything that might be useful, but in truth with his bracer and pulse energy, he doubted he really needed to hold onto the bow as well. He pulled the bow and quiver of arrows from his inventory. “Well I picked these up yesterday, if you are interested?” Michael stated, holding them out.
“Really,” the young woman said enthusiastically.
“We have looked everywhere, but other than one’s being carried by other contenders, we have not caught a whiff of one,”: Phil took over. “Despite her wanting to hold out for a gun, we were thinking she might have to buy one. Probably tonight, before they raise prices again in the morning. Where did you find them?”
“Uhh… another contender put one of those arrows in me,” Michael stated hesitantly. He regretted it slightly, since they would easily infer that he had killed another contender from that much. But he also did not want to make up something. They would either except it, or they wouldn't.
“Oh…” the big man said, coolly. First, he had heard the big guy get stumped in a conversation.
“Well, sounds like the guy deserved it. If you are offering them for free I will gladly take them,” Becky said, enthusiastically as she snatched them out of his hands, breaking the brief lull in the conversation. “Thank you,” she thought to add a few seconds later as she tried the pull on the bow.
“So have you two unlocked a secondary attribute?” Michael asked. He was interested in how other contenders were developing, and besides for the week he had spent with Kyrie, he had not had much occasion to interact with others.
“Afraid not, other than Becky we haven’t had much luck with the drops. She got the secondary attribute random unlock from a green drop pretty early on in week 1, back when it was just me and her. Then she snagged the healing skill off her first blue drop a few days later. A few days after that, we met and started traveling with Dax. It’s been what, 4 days since we have all been together?” Phil asked.
“Not quite four,” Dax said, answering Phil’s hypothetical question. “Definitely true that she had more luck when it comes to drops. Only good thing that either of us have gotten is our tier up methods.” Michael could hear the slight irritation in his voice.
“Not quite true, I also got Forger, and it doesn’t help that we have to split all of our drops three ways. Except for Becky, we have each only opened two blue drops, so the two of us are still out of luck since the next one will go to her as well. Hopefully, Dax and I will be able to buy the secondary attribute unlock tonight, if the price has not risen by that much, that is,” Phil sighed, apparently thinking of the ever increasing costs at the outposts. “What about yourself? I know you got that bracer on day 1. Have you had any luck since then?” Phil asked.
“Well…” Michael began. He was not really that worried about giving out information to them. If he was around them for any amount of time they would likely figure out most of it anyways. However, he felt a bit embarrassed. It was clear that he was operating at a higher level than the three people he was currently with. Last thing he wanted to do was wave his apparent fortune in front of their face.
“Oh bloody hell…!” Dax exclaimed. “He is worse than her. I can tell he is just trying to figure out how to drop it on us.”
“Well that would be alright. Nothing wrong with the good fortune of friends,” Phil said, still with his jovial voice.
Michael felt his cheeks flush. The four moved on, as the other three waited for his response. Michael sighed. Continued silence would have been more awkward, so he just came out with it. “I have unlocked both pulse and Ki and I have a couple of skills,” he said, deciding to just get it all out there.
“I freakin knew it!” Dax exclaimed.
“Damn,” Becky stated from his other side.
“Well, that is certainly quite a bit for the first few weeks…” Phil said in almost reverence. “Do you mind telling me how you got all of them, and what you are ranked?”
“Uh…” Michael stammered, pulling up his status. “I bought one of the skills, and got the rest with drops, and I am currently sitting at rank 3,406.” His rank had shot back down after yesterday’s haul. He had been in the 6,000’s.
“You're still tier 1 and ranked that high!” Dax exclaimed.
“Where are you guys in the ranking?” Michael responded.
“We don’t know. None of us have ever been in the top 10,000,” Becky replied matter of factly from beside him.
“Oh…” Michael stated. He had forgotten that only the top 10,000 contenders even had a rank. Kyrie and him had both been ranked ever since the rankings began a week ago. Then Michael realized the deeper implications. He was with two tier 2’s that were not even in the top 10,000 contenders. Sure they seemed to be new to the tier, but it meant that tier 2’s out on the map were already in the tens of thousands. There were likely still plenty of tier 1’s that were ranked right now, like him. After all, Kyrie had been ranked higher than him and she had also still been level 1 a few days ago before they were separated.
The four proceeded in silence for a good minute, before Phil once again started the conversation. “So are you headed to buy a tier up method?”
“Well…actually I already have one. I was also hoping to be able to buy one of the secondary attribute upgrades.” Michael said sheepishly. His response got Dax going off again about the sinful degree of luck that he had.
Michael could not help but feel a bit bad about it, despite not believing it fair. After all, Michael had gotten the drops by putting his life on the line, but he also decided that he definitely would not mention that he had the exact same feelings about someone else mere days ago. It probably would not do them good to hear about someone, who was at his level or perhaps beyond by now.