Where are my pants were the words that echoed through the silent ship. Jayne's eyes opened slightly as she moaned out an answer. “At the end of the bed. And don't yell; my head is throbbing.”
“What's wrong? Did you overuse your mana?” Jake asked.
“No, it's just I managed to catch up a bit, that's all.”
Jake identified her
S:\>auto-identification
Universal constant interface - System shrouded
Name: Jayne Everval
Race: Evolved red-bellied black snake
Grade: F
Information on F grade
F grade upgrades to the next tier at 600 levels above the previous. You get 1 grade levelper 30 class or profession levels. Anyone below this grade in the open universe will not survive unless protected by life-sustaining means such as planetary shields and the like. No F graders have ever entered space and survived for more than two years.
Level: 33. Levels required until next grade evaluation: 1000 total
Class: Poisoning striker
Class level: 420
Profession: Demonic poison alchemist (rare)
Profession level: 506
Stats points available: 311
Mana: 10,295,000
Arcane: 3000
Stamina: 6,816,000
Health: 10,150,000
Strength: 100
Agility: 680,500
Intelligence: 300
Wisdom: 1,000,295
Perception: 2,000,800- above mortal capacity. Stat points limited to a maximum safe levelfor an F grade temporary perception level: 1,000,000
Integrity: 1,000,500
New skills
Skill:
Create pill (common)
Refining the ingredients into a pill at common rarity
Skill:
Pill infusement (common)
Infuse mana into pills to increase efficiency
Skill:
Pill duplication (common)
At the final stage, there is a chance the pill will be duplicated, giving two for the cost of one. Duplication chances are increased as Perception stat increases.
Jake looked at the response, then saw the stats and let out a quiet sigh.
“Congratulations on making it to F grade. I probably should have told you about the stat limit, but in my defence, I didn't know how close you were to it,” he said before giving her another kiss and getting up. As he did, he thought back to his old stats and how he even made that item to help her. Now that she has reached the next grade, it would be able to be upgraded, but Jake no longer had the stats to do that, so the item would be stuck in its current rank indefinitely unless he found another way to do it.
Fucken assholes, how was me having that many stats a problem when I'm now sure that I was not the only one able to do it?
“I'm going to check on what's going on with the ship,” Jake said before leaving the room and heading to the bridge. But on his arrival, not a soul was in sight and all the consoles were shut down. He sat down in his seat and activated the intercom. “Harry, what's going on?” But all he got back was silence, not even a crackle. “Okay, so he's not on board or the intercom just died.” Jake then got up and looked out the window. “Holy hell, we're back on the planet! How long was I asleep for?”
“Three days.” Jake spun around to see the man. “Harry, how did it all go in the end?”
“We got the cannon issue particularly fixed on the way back; the answer was actually already being used on the ship.” Jake looked at the man more confused than ever. “Your room; it has dampeners around it. But it's just a temporary fix; five shots is the estimated life of the dampeners.” Jake was surprised at the efficiency of the people that had been helping him now. “What about the FTL? Any idea on that one yet?”
“No, I need to go back to the moon base so I can run the tests.”
“Well, be careful. I would hate to lose you because you crashed into a rock or something,” Jake said with a laugh, but then he went sombre and asked about the dead.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“We have sent them on their final journey through the void and their families have been given appropriate gifts,” Harry said with a sad smile. Jake tried to change the topic.
“Are there any people left on the ship other than you, me, and Jayne?”
Harry accepted the change of topic. “All personnel have left the ship and repairs have been completed. Finally, the weapons and ammunition have been restocked. You're ready to go; I wish you all the best, Jake.”
Jake was standing on his empty bridge after Harry had left, the competing hum of the console gone. It seemed Jake would have to go back to Earth to finish the job and get the reward so he could catch up to everyone else. Jake pushed the intercom button and connected to his room. “We're heading back to Earth; get ready, I will be back there shortly.”
Jake activated his console and double-checked that there were no other lifeforms on the ship, as Jake didn't know what would happen to them and he didn't wish to find out at the moment. Seeing that there were only the two of them left, Jake shut it down and exited the ship's bridge, heading back to his room. As he approached the door, it opened and a bedraggled Jayne walked out before changing to a snake and shooting up at Jake's neck, her fangs piercing his body before she slithered down his back and around his arm. “That's for waking me up.” Jake was surprised but noticed something different about the snake. “Have you gotten bigger?” Jake asked, only to receive a second bite, but this time it was in a place used for sitting on, and this time the pain was immense.
“That's what you get for calling me fat.”
“I wasn't calling you fat; I meant you have gotten longer.”
Jayne’s laughter could be heard throughout the ship as Jake limped down the hallways to the exit.
“You know, it's not funny to laugh at someone in pain; also, why don't healing potions work? This really hurts.” Jake saying this just made the laughter louder as Jake opened the airlock and exited the ship. Jake then unsummoned the ship before he started back to the cottage to get some rest before heading back to Earth. But just as he was about to sit down, Jayne spoke up. “You shouldn't sit; it's just going to make the pain worse.”
Jake looked at the chair, then at the direction he had just come from. “You couldn't have told me earlier. You know, before I spent all that time walking here.”
“You didn't tell me what you wanted.”
“Fine, if I can't sit, I might as well just go back to Earth.”
“Wait, there is a group of people that want to come with us. Also, you should use an upgrade token on that.” Jayne slipped out of Jake's top and transformed. “I will go get them while you upgrade that.” She pointed directly at his transportation token.
Five hours later, Jake could at least move around without crippling pain, but there was no way he would try to sit again; that was the worst decision he had ever made.
“We're back. Have you upgraded your token yet?”
Oh shit, I knew I forgot something.
Jake quickly pulled out the token and one upgrade token, then activated it. Then he checked what changes.
Item
Territory Transport Token (common)
Locked to Jake Everval's home territory: space elevator on one home planet. Can transport up to 100 lifeforms.
Soulbound to Jake Everval
Jake looked at his four remaining upgrade tokens and wondered if he should use them on his clothing or keep them for later. If it was before the dungeon, Jake would have said to hold them, but now he was more inclined to just use them so no one could steal them again. But Jake was worried he was going to do something wrong. So he would leave the decision to Jayne. As Jake was going over his options, Jayne walked through the door.
“So, did you forget? And if you lie, I will do it again.”
“Of course. Also, what do you think? Should I use the last token or save them? I'm a bit worried they will get stolen.”
“What does your storage ring say?”
Jake brought up the description of his ring.
Item
Ring of Death (Mythical)
A ring made for the demon of death, as a gift for a budding member of her race. Able to hold plants and non-living items.
Secondary function: stops any identification attempts up to S grade and provides a passive boost to regeneration skills.
Soulbound: Jake Everval - the demon of the past
Restrictions: can only be soulbound by a demon
“Oh, I'm guessing no one can steal them if they're in there. That settles it. I will keep them. Now shall we go? Also, how many bloody people are there?”
“Well, originally it was only going to be a small group, but once we found out what happens if you upgrade a token, there are ninety-eight people that will be coming with us. We have people in all fields and a group of my new personal guards trained by the demon of death herself. Their only job will be to keep all of them safe.”
“That's good, as long as they know they're not allowed to help Earth defeat the invaders.”
“Well, that might not be 100% true. Aaliyah and the demon of death both said it is possible they could help inadvertently by training others and that wouldn't affect the quest. Anyway, I will be the one handling them when we get back, so you just worry about doing what you want.”
After getting to know the people that were going to follow him to Earth, Jake liked the makeup of the team; not a single one of them was human. There were Telas, Oriens, Nordicless, and a Welash. Each of them was very distinctive; a Tela was like looking at a void as they are made of dark crystal, while an Orien was clearly an orc. As for the Welash, she was tall, blue, and had four thick tentacles that kind of made her look a bit like a Twi'lek from Star Wars. As Jake walked over to her, Jayne explained the Welash was actually the commander of her guards and had the shadow trooper class. Each one of them was in early F grade, and most of them would be of great use in the settlement.
After getting to know everyone, Jake activated the token and they all reappeared in the same place Jake had left from.
“Let's head back to the outpost, but keep quiet as we don't know what might have happened there while we were gone.” Jake went out as a one-person scouting party for the group, as he didn't want to run the risk of getting the people he had with him involved in the war. But Jake had seen nothing from the moment he left the group till now, as he looked over an abandoned outpost. He quickly returned to the group and reported what he had seen to them; the group changed direction and headed to the nearest clearing large enough for them to bring out the runabouts, as Jake didn't want to show their trump card yet. But before they got there, Jake opened up an old message he received from the system to check the timeline.
System event.
Objective: defend your planet from a full-scale F grade invasion. Begins in four years and the planet’s inhabitants must defend it by themselves; no external forces can be used in the battle.
Prize: a planetary shield. Duration length is one era or one million years. Defends against planetary bombardment.
Bonus reward for the organisation with the most impact on the planet’s defence: the organisation will receive the title true defenders.
Title:
Staunch defenders
Receive a stat multiplier of 10 times to health, mana, arcane, and stamina, plus 10 points to grade levels.
“Four years I may have lost track of time. How long has it been and did you receive this message a while back?” Jake asked Jayne.
“It's only been three and a half years since I received a similar message. It seems the dungeon you were in was not following the same time as outside.”
Jake was shocked at the news and began coming up with ideas to fight the invaders. He came up with the idea of launching a first strike of sorts, but first he would need to get back and train a crew.