MICH : LEVEL 10

DAY 160 : F-DAY, FOURTHWEEK, EOS, YEAR 1

EARTHTOPIA 1 : VIDEO GAME RAID 1 : CATHARSIS

[ NEW S.T.A.T.S — STRENGTH: MAGICAL=24 - PHYSICAL=23 — TENACITY: DEFENSE=24 - SPEED=23 — APTITUDE: MANA=24 - STAMINA=23 — TILT: CONTROL=24 - LUCK=23 ]

Pushing open the doors with either arm outstretched, the wind blows back my cloak as I walk into the boss room alone. One arm raised to the side, I don’t break stride as the four in front of me rise from their thrones.

[ COMMON ACTION: SUMMON ARROW ]

As the arrow forms in my palm, I smirk at the quartet of aggroed raid bosses.

[ COMMON TOGGLE ON: OVERCHARGE ]

Ganondorf rises into the air, cape billowing behind him as his fist alights with a purple glow. Reeling it back, he hurls the accumulated energy as a dark fireball.

I begin charging my shot.

[ UNCOMMON ACTION: ATTUNED ARROW ]

Similarly lifted by a previously hidden smiley-faced upside-down bowl-helicopter, Bowser breathes an actual fireball.

[ RARE ACTION: ARROW BURST ]

A giant robot erupts from the ground under Robotnik, engulfing him in its helmet even as it fires a barrage of missiles from its fingertips.

[ UNCOMMON ACTION: BURST ARROW ]

Around Dr. Wily, some sort of tiny UFO fades into reality. But before I can quite wrap my head around what I’m seeing, it’s revealed not to be floating, but instead set on top of what looks like if you ripped out a car engine, tipped it on its side, and slapped a turret on the front. After that wildly unimpressive transformation, it starts limply spewing out white balls to bounce in my general direction.

[ RARE ACTION: EXPLOSIVE ARROW ]

Purple and orange fireballs accompany indistinct white bouncy non-fire ones along with a barrage of missiles, slamming the ground and walls all around and underneath me.

[ EPIC ACTION: PIERCING ARROW ]

As I continue my uninterrupted charge, random bits of Dr. Wily’s upturned-engine-robot thing spark alight, as though a sparkler were suddenly attached. This doesn’t seem to do any damage.

But that all changes when a fireball bigger than anything Ganondorf or Bowser just managed, streaks in from the door behind me. As it approaches, each of those sparking bits extinguish in turn. And for every one that does, the fireball nearly doubles in size. Before I know it, Wiley and his robot alike are fully engulfed by the miniature sun.

The fourth party member we recruited for this raid, Sonicfan007, dashes in and starts repeatedly jumping on the head of Robotnik’s big robot.

Meanwhile, Ross charges Bowser on the back of a summoned triceratops.

With a clang of horn on metal, the Disney’s-Pete-looking snapping turtle man nearly falls out of his smiley-face hover-bucket as it turns upside down in midair. This brings into question how exactly its propulsion works to begin with.

But before gravity has a chance to pull the boss down out of his somehow-still-airborne ride, Ross’s triceratops charges under the makeshift dinner pot.

Arm upstretched, Ross is happier than I’ve ever seen him as a T-Rex head nearly as big as the triceratops itself erupts from his fist. Seeming to spot the meal, the summoned head chomps down and enthusiastically chews on the potted turtle like a horse with a feed bag.

Before Ganondorf can do anything about any of that, I release the string.

At the cost of all my MP, a gargantuan floating light arrow releases one, then two, then all 64 exploding, piercing, shattering light arrows straight at him. Already aggroed by the others, he doesn’t seem to realize the need to dodge before four dozen of my best arrows would turn him into a pincushion if not for the part where they detonate on contact.

As soon as the first one hits, I hear a sound like shattering glass as my cloak instantly fades from brilliant white to the brown of damp cardboard.

A devastating first strike if I do say so myself. These are Raid Bosses though. So they don’t go down just from our first strike, no matter how devastating.

But then, Sonicfan007 turns yellow.

The bosses never stood a chance.

Looking across the aftermath and to the rising deus in the middle, I take in the practically demolished boss room. “That was so much easier than I thought it would be.”

Sonicfan007 shakes his head. “Too slow.”

With a twitch of his mouth, Ross bristles. “Come again?”

“We’ve been in here for over two weeks. That’s the cutoff for qualifying to fight a harder boss.”

“So it’s easier the slower you go? That’s downright accommodating. Guess this is Heaven, after all…”

“That it is. But the quality of rewards lowers with the difficulty of the challenge. Sorry to say, we wanted it to be harder.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sorry. Maybe it would’ve been best for you to go alone.”

“Are you kidding? I’ll just do it again with a different team. You guys let me solo Robotnik. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever get to do that. That memory alone is worth all the rest.”

“Seriously? The whole thing was over in a flash. You enjoyed it that much?”

“My name isn’t ‘Sonicfan’ for nothing. Or did you think I was just really into fast food with a roller skate gimmick?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Looking around, it’s clear that none of us do.

Sonicfan007 winces. “Guess those aren’t around anymore, huh? It was before your time.”

Moving over to Ross, I nudge him as we walk to the central deus now sporting eight round glasslike Respec stones. “What were you so happy about during that fight? I get that it was fun, but I’ve never seen that smile on you.”

He chuckles. “There’s this old game called Super Mario World.”

I try not to laugh. “Never heard of it.”

“Not surprised. I found an old console as a kid and restored it as a school project. That was the first of only three games I ever found. I played it all the time after that. Never did beat it though… Let’s just say that last fight was cathartic.”

“What about the other two?”

“What?”

“The games you said you found.”

“Oh. Toy Story and Barbie Super Model”

Rachel perks up. “Oh?”

“You would’ve hated it. Horrible game.”

I nod. “Games based on non-game franchises are nearly always quick-and-dirty cash-grabs.”

Rachel sulks. “Oh…”

“If you want to see for yourself, I’d be surprised if The Archive didn’t have it for sale. Even if no one in Heaven died with a copy, I don’t think you’d need much programming expertise to recreate the whole thing.”

Ross winces in clearly suppressed memory. “Yeah… I played Super Mario World A LOT.”

“And you really never beat it?”

“I was really never good at it. Besides, none of the controllers I recovered were anything like ‘new’.”

“Okay, this is bothering me now. Why didn’t you just use an emulator?”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“What’s an emulator?”

“Oh… Oh you poor, poor man.” On that somber note, I examine our rewards. I immediately glare at the first one that I know without looking at the rest, is meant for me.

[ C.L.A.S.S. RESPEC: ATTACK / LONG-RANGE / SNIPER / VIDEO GAME ]

[ C.L.A.S.S. RESPEC: ATTACK / MID-RANGE / PYROMANCER / VIDEO GAME ]

[ C.L.A.S.S. RESPEC: DEFENSE / SUMMONER / UNDEAD / VIDEO GAME ]

[ C.L.A.S.S. RESPEC: SUPPORT / HEALER / ACUPUNCTURE / VIDEO GAME ]

[ C.R.A.F.T. RESPEC: DEVELOPMENT / SMITH / GUN / VIDEO GAME ]

[ C.R.A.F.T. RESPEC: DEVELOPMENT / COOK / CARRIBEAN / VIDEO GAME ]

[ C.R.A.F.T. RESPEC: COMMUNICATION / ENTERTAINER / PUPPETEER / VIDEO GAME ]

[ C.R.A.F.T. RESPEC: BUILDER / ARCHITECT / RESIDENTIAL / VIDEO GAME ]

Almost in a trance, Rachel reaches out for the Pyromancer CLASS Respec. But her hand is stopped in a way that can’t help but remind three of the four of us of a level barrier on a road.

Chuckling, Sonicfan007 walks up and examines the choices before wincing. “What’re you guys going with?”

Ross bristles. “Why?”

“So I don’t choose it. I’m not really feeling any of these as a replacement for what I already have, so this’ll just go into the ol’ Inventory for the foreseeable future.”

The textbook tactic here is to take him at his word and try to either not give him a reason to change his mind, or subtly pressure him to go through with it even if he was initially lying. “I’ve got my eye on the gunsmith CRAFT. And I think Rachel has her heart set on that Pyromancer one.”

Said Rachel hesitantly, but enthusiastically nods.

Everyone looks at Ross.

He just shrugs. “Cooking, I guess?”

Sonicfan007 blinks at him. “Really? Not the Necromancer CLASS?”

“I can already summon dinosaurs. I’m not downgrading to zombies or liches or whatever.”

“Huh… I suppose you don’t care that technically speaking, the power to summon zombies or liches or whatever is generally considered superior to something based on real creatures like what you have now?”

“Thank you for asking. I do not.”

“Well, alright.” On that note, Sonicfan007 scoops up the Undead Summoner Respec.

As soon as the third orb disappears from the table, Rachel’s hand darts out for the second again. But just as before, it bounces off of nothing.

With a smirk, I gingerly reach my hand past hers and hover it around that same one.

She kicks me. “Mich, I swear to God, if you take that thing, I’ll never speak to you again.”

“You promise?”

She kicks me harder.

Feigning even the slightest hesitation, I robotically move my hand left, forward, and then down like a crane on top of an inappropriately hard, transparent, and spherical stuffed animal.

[ C.R.A.F.T. RESPEC GAINED: DEVELOPMENT / SMITH / GUN / VIDEO GAME ]

The instant that happens, Rachel’s arm awkwardly thrusts through the sudden lack of any resistance now that it’s her turn. With a speed that brings that silly girl to mind again, the second respec disappears from the table less than a second after the fifth did.

She looks relieved, happy, and then slumps when Ross picks up the final one instead of what he said he was going to. “Aaawe, I wanted you to make me food.”

“Rachel, this is Heaven. We can buy all the food we want, and store it for as long as we want, for free and with no degradation.”

“But still…”

“Besides, I found this other box-like console with a weird game about dystopian capitalist propaganda called ‘Animal Crossing’. I thought maybe this would let me make something like that. And… That just sounds nice, you know?”

But, proving that Ross is capable of having video game expertise that the rest of us don’t, no one can relate to him on that.

Teleporting back outside, we walk past the tent city of Hero raiders and NPC food sellers more or less permanently set up around one of the most popular raids around.

With a jerk of recognition, Sonicfan007 breaks off and starts walking towards what are apparently his friends. He raises a hand to us as he makes his way over. “Thanks for the run, folks. I’m seeing maybe the chance to get in with a group I haven’t done this with in a few years.”

[ FRIEND REQUEST: SONICFAN007 ]

Blinking at what I assume is the same friend request I got, Ross seems to remember something important. “So… Now what?”

[ TEAM / SONICFAN007: NOT FOR NOTHING, BUT YOU SHOULD GET YOURSELVES ATTUNED. I DON’T THINK I WOULD’VE TEAMED WITH YOU GUYS IF I KNEW YOU DIDN’T HAVE A SINGLE ONE BETWEEN YOU ]

[ TEAM: SONICFAN007 LEFT ]

Rachel shrugs. “Better than any ideas I had.”

I wince. “Yeah… I do tend to be useless after my one supercharged shot per encounter.”

“I noticed that. You definitely didn’t used to blow your load all at once on every fight. Why do you do that?”

I fight back a sophomoric snicker, even as Ross fails to do so. “Nothing I can do throughout an entire fight comes close to what I get from 64 piercing, shattering, exploding light arrows.”

“So how is that fixed by an attunement?”

“Blessings don’t use MP.”

Eyes going wide, Rachel promptly Dashes back and forth over and over again. By the time she stops, she looks more disappointedly excited than ever. “Well, I’ll be damned… So what’re you going with?”

“I wasn’t sure before. But now, with my new Respec, I’m thinking Frost.”

Ross pauses from his own indignant back-and-forth dashing. “I don’t see the connection.”

“I’ve told you about my issue with guns, right?”

“Several times now, yes.”

“Well, whenever I think of them, my stomach clenches. Even when I think of something so esoteric as a laser rifle. Or water gun. But not a freeze ray. I think I can bypass my aversion to guns entirely by shooting freezing energy instead. Not icicles. Those are too close to bullets. But, far as I can tell, that’s not how Ice Blessings tend to work. And the ways the other elements translate to guns feel a little too bullet-like for me.”

“It’s that important to you?”

“I’ve always loved guns. I still do. Even after I started hating them. Love, after all, isn’t a thing you control. And The System doesn’t seem to consider whether you ‘deserve to’ love something when calculating raid rewards. Otherwise, it never would’ve generated that Sniper option.”

“How do you know it was there for you? Could’ve dropped for the rest of us”

I raise an eyebrow at Ross. “Are you kidding? Did any of the rest of you literally have to fight yourselves not to let your life slip away by playing shooters all day, every day?” I don’t wait for a reply. “And I somehow doubt Sonicfan had that issue either… Despite the potential Goldeneye reference.”

“That doesn’t mean-”

“Have any of you even held a real sniper before? Because I have. I died holding one, as a matter of fact.”

“Really?”

“Technically, I dropped it right beforehand. But still. Despite what I have to admit is a strong affinity, if there’s one thing I never want to see again, it’s a sniper rifle. Not even a freeze ray with a scope. I just can’t. Nor can I deny that on some level, I want to. That’s probably what the raid picked up on to present me with the option. But on every single other level there is, I revile snipers to my core. They took everything from me…”

“But… Sorry, not that I don’t think you thought it through, but… Aren’t you an archer? Would guns even work with any of your charging Skills?”

“No they would not. I like to think I’ve made the most of it, but that affinity I mentioned is entirely absent for bows, arrows, or any combination of the two. In fact, I don’t really want a CLASS focused around guns.”

“Then why this sudden diatribe about guns?”

“I guess they were just on my mind is all. You can still use guns without your whole thing being just all about guns, right?” Not wanting an actual answer to that, or anything relating to this topic anymore, I nod towards Rachel. “So what’re you going with? Fire or Wind, I’m guessing?”

Rachel cocks her head, seemingly confused by the question. “I looked it up. If I go with any of the Prime Apexes but Agni, it’ll make a bad first impression and I won’t get good blessings. But why would you assume I’d pick Wind? The Gale Kingdom is right next to The Fire Nation. If I did that, I feel like the chicken would be staring me down for my whole meeting with the falcon one territory over.”

I can only shrug. “It’s your decision. That’s just what I would do. Wind compounds with fire better than any other element. Even other fire. With the right Gale Power Blessing, it would be like adding gasoline to your fireballs. But that’s fair enough on your end. I didn’t realize The Divine Elementals were so prejudiced against each other’s elements, or protective of their own.”

“Does that change your plans to court Boreas?”

“What? Why wouldn’t the ice bear like me? Every bear I’ve ever met has loved me.”

“How many bears have you met?”

“Seven.”

Rachel blanches. “Seriously?”

They were raised in captivity. “Yep.”

“And they really all liked you?”

They were really all sedated. “Sure did.”

“Huh… Well maybe you have a chance despite the light arrows.”

“Light arrows? No, no, I have Attuned Arrow. They default to Shine, but they’ll change to Frost once I have the attunement.”

“Oh. It’ll probably be fine then.” In a confusingly sudden hurry to change the subject, she turns to Ross. “What about you?”

“Quake all the way, baby.”

I snort. “What?”

He looks at me like I’m crazy. Or stupid. So basically Jessie. “It’s not obvious? I thought anything else would be what demanded an explanation.”

“Dinosaurs… Come out of the ground? Is that what you’re going for?”

“Yes, it’s what I’m going for! Dinosaurs come out of the ground. That’s what everyone who’s ever known about Dinosaurs associates them with.”

I nod. “Oooh, and how Heaven treats or otherwise boosts dino powers would derive more from that subconscious association, than actual dino facts.”

“Exactly! Look, I don’t know a lot.”

All three of us seem to share the feeling that he should’ve been interrupted right then. But no one says anything.

And after an otherwise inexplicable pause, Ross continues. “…But I know dinosaurs. I was way into paleontology back on Earth. I spent more time looking up ‘dino facts’ as you call them, than playing any of what we’ve been slaughtering these past two weeks.”

Rachel groans. “Three.”

Ross bristles. “Damn… It’s really been three whole weeks?”

“Yes. Well, technically, no. Two weeks, seven days, and some number of hours that I haven’t bothered counting.”

“No wonder Sonicfan was in such a funk for the last several days… But whatever. Even if we weren’t in the right kingdom already, Quake just seems like the most dinosaur-themed element. I mean there’s ice too. And fire. You guys are going with some oddly dino-centric elements yourself. But for me? Fire and ice are just how they died. As to how they lived? And how they’re remembered? Quake is the best fit. For land ones anyway… I was never too into the big fish.”

“Yeah… So you guys wanna get sushi?”

Ross and I look at each other. Then back at her. “Bet.”