Jess was sitting up with Erica lying beside her. As Jake and Matt approached, Matt pulled out two health potions and handed one to Jess before heading over to Erica and pouring it down her throat. A moment later, Erica woke up with a gasp and let out a little moan. “Thank you, Matt,” she said, looking at the weapon in Jake’s hand. “Was that what did it?” Erica said.
“Yes, Jake threw a grenade.” Erica caught it with slight trepidation on her face. “It is one of my creations. It’s called an arcane grenade. Sadly, I don’t have many as they are rather hard to make. It employs a combination of arcane energy that has been sealed inside a mana shield of sorts.
“Would I be able to use them if I put them in my grenade launcher?”
“No, the design of your launcher is different from mine. But take this.” Jake pulled out a single-shot grenade launcher and a handful of his previous attempts at making grenades. “These are not as destructive, but you can have them as an apology for almost blowing you up.”
“What do I get?” Jess said, looking at Jake.
“What do you want?” Jess thought over her options.
“Well, too bad you took too long. You got nothing.”
An object was thrown towards Jess, causing her to look shocked for a second. She looked at what it was, a grin on her face. “This is my second-best attempt at my version of the F88. It is called Broomstick 0.9. This one is only semi-automatic because it has a heating issue. The ammunition is the same as the ones that you make for your rifle, so that shouldn’t be a problem for you.”
“Thank you. I would like to go directly out there and test it out, but I really need to rest.”
“That’s good, because we need to talk.”
Sitting at a table with books on it, Jake sighed as he picked up the last book, the name on the book being “The End of the Nord System.” Jake was told to read this book first, but he had forgotten the moment he saw the cover of one of the other books. The book had the title “The Will of Aaliyah La Flame and the Fall of an Empress.” Jake thought it was going to have some good information, but no, it turned out to be just some erotic fan fiction. Jake would have preferred not to have read it, but for completeness, to be honest, the plot wasn’t bad.
But back to the book in his hands. Let’s quickly summarise: after destroying the scout ships, the Nordic fleet forcefully entered the Nord system to investigate, but they got caught in an ambush. The point of the ambush just so happened to be directly over the planet the tutorial had sent Jake and the others to. Jake had come up with a plan to disrupt the ambush by blowing up the Jaxxen and the Pristine Rose at exactly the time the ambushes were moving into orbit. As they will be on the other side of the planet, the debris will take time to reach them, meaning a distraction must take place to keep them from checking their sensors. If it works, they should take enough damage that the Nordic fleet should be able to wipe them out. The only problem is destroying the two ships. It will all come down to what they can find on the planet. Jake was still in the belief that the bug-infested hanger would have something in it; he doesn’t know why he feels that way, but if that’s all he’s got, that will have to do. But what was really bugging Jake was the fact he was terrible at leading people. After all, he got his entire team back on earth killed, but even now, he didn’t want to lead anymore. Jess, Erica, and Matt are still making him do it. Even making him come up with a plan by himself. The words they used were, “Me and Jess are just fighters, and Matt, well, he’s more of an alchemist than a mage, so you will need to make the big decisions for us.”
Jake went over the plan once more before getting up and walking over to see Erica and Jess. Jake came to a halt at the door.
“Knocking on the door before entering is definitely the right thing to do.”
Jake had been standing there for longer than he would like to admit, then finally, he pushed back his anxiety and reached out his hand. Just as it was about to reach the door, suddenly it opened, and his hand, expecting a door to rest its momentum, fell upon Jess’s head.
“Argh, what the fuck? What did you hit me for?”
“Sorry,” Jake muttered.
“I was just coming to see you. I think we are ready to go back to the tutorial. Matt has also said that his alchemy has hit a wall, and he needs class points to improve his stats.”
“That’s good, because that’s what I came here for. I have a plan. I will say it’s not the best plan, but we’re running out of time, so it will have to do. Can you go get Matt? He will need to hear this, too.”
As Jess left, Jake walked over to Erica and sat down. “You know that if you go back to the tutorial, I don’t know what will happen to you. So if you want, you can stay here. Then, after the tutorial has finished, we can go to Earth.”
“Thank you, no, I have read what happens to my people after this battle, and for that, I would really love to kill them all. Even though it is only a sim, I would still love to see them burn.”
“If that’s what you’ve chosen, I won’t stop you.”
Jess and Matt left the meeting with Jake and Erica. “What the fuck kind of plan is that? The objective is to survive, not to go on some kind of vendetta against some overpowered race that could wipe us out with a wave of their hand.”
“His plan sucks, yes, but at least it’s not yours. What was it again? Let’s go hide in a hole for a year. We couldn’t even kill that wolf, and how many people did we have then? Oh, that’s right, we had over a hundred people. He killed it by himself. I think if we are to live in this new system, we need power, and if we can’t be powerful enough by ourselves, then we need to find powerful people to grow stronger with. As my brother used to say, he got stronger with his team. And the leader of his team was Jake.”
“Okay, so if we follow him, we will just end up like your brother, right? Oh, where is your brother now? Could he be de–.”
He never got to finish his sentence. Matt woke up an hour later; he couldn’t figure out what had hit him. He couldn’t reconcile in his mind that even though they were both the same level in grade, Jess could so simply pass through his always-present mana shield.
“How is it possible? I have to figure this system out.”
Jake and the three others were standing at the entrance to the cottage.
“Has everyone got everything they need? Because once we get down to the planet, it’s going to be one hell of a fight.”
“What do you mean, once we get down? Where exactly are you taking us–?”
Jake and the three others appeared in the rusty bucket as Matt finished his sentence.
“Erica, are you well?” Jake asked.
“I am still here.”
“What does that mean?” Jess asked.
“It means that not only am I still here with you, Jess, but I have also achieved an objective.”
“What’s the objective?” Jake asked.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“I think it’s kind of like yours. The first is to survive, the second one is to help the humans through the tutorial.”
“That’s great. It makes me wonder what will happen to me at the end of the tutorial. Do you plan to send me to earth with you or something else?”
“We don’t know what will happen to you at the end of the tutorial, but if you want, you can go back to the cottage before the end of the tutorial.”
Giving Erica an option, Jake moved up to the cockpit and plotted a course. “We have five minutes before we start re-entering the atmosphere, and by then, I would recommend everyone be sitting down and buckled in. Otherwise, you are not going to have a fun time.” Jake minutes later flipped the shuttle for the de-orbit burn, and in the cargo section, a banging noise could be heard. Looking back, he saw Matt bouncing off the roof of the shuttle, the inertial dampening system not working the best in this case, as Jake had turned it off to save on the mana drain so he would have more mana on his final approach. He also refused the shielding to cover only the bottom of the shuttle.
“I told you to buckle up; now it’s too late.” Jake flipped the shuttle back around, and Matt slammed into the floor hard.
“You better not have damaged my shuttle with your stupid face; next time when you are told to do something, just do it.”
Matt let out a groan as he tried to get up from the floor, only to collapse a second later.
“Jake, Matt has fainted.”
“There’s nothing we can do about him till we get down; just hold on and try not to freak out.”
Plasma ripped past the shuttle’s windows as the shuttle shook and groaned as it entered the atmosphere.
“Jake, where are the shields?” Erica yelled.
“I have reduced the shielding to only protect the crucial parts of the shuttle.”
The moment Jake said this, Erica swiftly put her helmet on, and they didn’t engage in any further conversations as the shuttle hurtled through the atmosphere. Jake was vigilant at the controls as warning sirens blasted in everyone’s ears. Well, almost everyone’s; there was one person who passed through the atmosphere without being aware of anything.
“We’re coming in as we did last time; I will blast the area before landing, but this time I will extend the shuttle’s shields to give us a foothold to fall back to. Once Matt wakes up, he will maintain the shuttle’s shield and provide whatever help he can. Erica and you take the left flank; I will take the right, and Jess will provide Overwatch for us both. So let’s get this grand hunt started.”
As Jake said the last words, the front of the shuttle lit up like the sun for a good 5 seconds. On the ground, in the midst of burnt bug corpses and smoke, the rusty bucket flew down, blasting the smoke aside; the hatch door opened as it did, grenades launching out the door. Just before it landed, two people jumped out the door, landing on the ground before moving out. Once the shuttle landed, a bubble extended to cover an area of about 100 meters around the shuttle.
Jake got out of the cockpit and tapped a piece of paper with instructions on Matt’s face. Before Matt stirred, a whole 10 minutes had gone by before he left through the door. Moving his hand to his face, Matt ripped off the paper. “What the fuck is this? Instructions for the idiot who can’t follow simple orders.”
List of orders:
1. Maintain the shuttle’s shield.
2. In the cockpit, sit in the seat.
3. Push the button that says mana connection.
4. Push your mana into the shuttle when required.
5. Stay within the shuttle’s shield. Yes, now you have been downgraded to a battery.
Provide assistance where you can.
Stats and skills at the end of Chapter 10. This part can be skipped.
Universal constant interface
Name Jake everval
Race Human
Grade TG
Level 100 Max cap for this grade 32 unused
Class trooper shadow mage
Class level 702
Profession Arcane Smith
Profession level 13
stats points available 4,580
Mana 23360
Arcane 23500
Stamina 23200
Health 33360
Strength 1116
Agility 1225
Intelligence 2350
Wisdom 2336
Perception 1157
Integrity 3336
Item
Transport token
Locked to Aaliyah La flame’s home world cottage. can transport 10 lifeforms
Soul bound to Jake Everval
Item
Upgrade token
Upgrades an item one rank
Item
(Soul shuttle of shadows uncommon) binds to your soul space and can be summoned cost of summoning Mana and Stamina. Soul shuttle has a slow repair function when in your soul space.< Item upgraded to.
(Arcane Soul shuttle of the wandering path rare) binds to your soul space and can be summoned. Cost of summoning Mana and Stamina. Soul shuttle has a slow repair function when in your soul space. Can use arcane power or mana to operate weapons systems.
Item
A token that grants unrestricted travel for the owner of this token in the Territory of the wondering Imperium.
soul bound to Jake Everval
Item
New item
(Clothing of the Wandering Imperium pants and top rare)
Self-repair function and +1000 points to intelligence when equipped
Soul bound
New item
(Boots of the Wandering Imperium rare)
Self-repair function and +1000 points to agility when equipped
Soul bound
New item
(Belt of the Wandering Imperium rare)
Self-repair function and +1000 points to wisdom when equipped
Soul bound
New item
(Cloke of the Wandering Imperium epic)
Self-repair function and +1000 points to all stats when equipped
Soul bound
(Enchanted Daggers common)
A set of two diggers usually used by those in trade professions, enchanted with the skill, raises edge and gives a 2% damage multiplier.
Item
(stick of thunder common) can be used to frighten weak-willed enemies or bring death. Enchanted with a self-loading function.
Enchantment requirements
Must have appropriate materials on your person for enchantment to work. Enchantment uses mana to gather materials from your person.
Item
(Inferior necklace of breathing common)
Creates a weak bubble of air around the user. Can be broken if impacted hard, lasts one hour.
Item
(Ring of holding common)
Can store non-organic items, has limited space, can’t store large items.
Item
(cauldron of the smith redacted)
This cauldron had once belonged to a renowned smith. His journey took him through the integrated universe. His end is unknown to the system. +20 to intelligence +10 to perception +10 to wisdom +10 to integrity upgradeable.
Requirements soul bound
Skills
(Steady aim. common) this is a basic trooper skill gives a passive stat boost of 5 to agility strength and perception.
(Summon projectile. common) as a mage, you can use mana to summon projectiles. Note, summon projectile does not include any ability to launch the projector. The mana cost is determined by the projectile size.
(Transmute powder. Common) requires a pre-existing object to be turned into powder before transmuting can commence. Transmuting the powder requires knowledge of what you wish to transmute into. The mana cost is determined by the quantity of powder being transmuted and the rarity of the power.
(Shadow strike. Common) to strike from the shadows is your business. Gives 5% to damage if the target is unaware of your attack.
(Universal translate. Common) has a newly integrated you were given the skill to understand the language of all humanoid life forms.
(Identify. Common) the ability to identify basic information on objects and other life forms.
New skill gained (Arcane boost Rare)
Provides a powerful boost to your physical body. Uses Arcane energy to keep operating. A backlash will occur when deactivated.
New skill gained (Arcane Time dilation Unique)
Slows time in the localised area around the caster this skill will only activate in times of the caster’s greatest need. A backlash will occur when the skill deactivates.
New skill (rebirth of the exploding body unique)
Will passively heal the user. Stamina is converted into temporary units of integrity to provide healing at a 100 to 1 ratio. Warning the system recognises that you have a tendency for self-harm, the system recommends you seek medical advice.
New skill (Arcane hammer rare)
Use your Arcane energy to reshape items
New skill (Arcane flame rare)
An explosive flame contained within a mana barrier.
New skill (small mana shield common)
You can produce a small physical shield of mana anywhere on your body
New skill (empty-minded common)
Enter a state of meditation to help regenerate lost stats and split your focus on multiple tasks
New skill gained (Arcane bomb uncommon)
A bomb of arcane energy. destruction output is equal to the amount of energy put in. Warning in this form: the bomb can not be thrown, so the same destructive force will impact the user.
Titles
Title
(Budding smith) As a budding smith, your path has been opened +1 point to all level advancements but not grade level advancements to (Initiate arcane smith) you have opened the path and taken the first steps on your journey +9 points to all none grade level advancements and +20 points to grade level advancements.
Title
(The wanderers mark unique)
This mark was given by Aaliyah La flame and it is a symbol of redacted and it will help with redacted. Only one can hold this mark it will provide a redacted link to Aaliyah La flame. Provides +10 points to grade level advancements and reduces levels needed to get next grade level by -5
Title
Dungeon master
first to complete Wandering Path Dungeon +10 points to all profession and class levels.