I pushed myself off the wall and took a deep breath. I briefly wished my display came with some sort of minimap like most games had, but that was something I was going to have to investigate later.
“Hey Rattle, we got 100k, how much more yah think we should grab?” One of the grunts asked briefly, drawing the Brute’s attention away from me. Though I definitely had gotten the wind knocked out of me and felt like I had taken a hit, I didn’t feel like I had actually gotten all that hurt. I moved away from the wall and tried to give myself a better vantage point as I took in the scene around me.
“Why did I take so little damage when those grunts got pretty much one shot?”
“Did I not mention the training wheels portion of the tutorial? I thought I mentioned the training wheels portion of the tutorial.”
“YOU DIDN'T! I swear, it’s almost like you’re trying to fuck with me just for the fun of it!”
“I thought that was obvious!”
“CAN YOU JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION!?”
“Ugggggh fine. The mobs presented to you during your tutorial mission will be significantly weaker than those following said mission. To that end, level 1 mobs have an increased chance of negative status effects caused by abilities. It IS a tutorial after all, I think we’ve only lost like, 2 Augments during the tutorial mission in the history of Infinite Ascension,” Angie said, though it felt like she was upset that she had to. “Anyway, this mission is intended to provide you the opportunity to create your first combat skills and introduce you to the non-sentient mobs while also providing you with hands-on experience with the system at large. I’d argue, given how well you’ve done so far, you can see how fluidly your augmentations work?”
She was right. I had been far from athletic and I was never much of a fighter. Sure, I had been in Taekwondo for a few years when I was a child, but it’s not like I had kept up with it. But still, I had landed those blows near effortlessly, and I barely had to think about what I was doing.
“Man, how the fuck dumb are you. Get back in there and stuff that bag full,” the brute finally said with the shake of his head before he looked back over at me, “Who da fuck said you can get back up. I suggest you get back on the floor like the other hostages if you don’t-”
I didn’t wait for him to finish his threat, rushing the large man and activating my Sting Like a Bee ability before throwing my first punch. The brute wasn’t taken by surprise, his arm jumping to take the blow as a health bar popped up over his head with a small chunk of it fading away.
“Heh, that’s a heck of a punch, you’d make a good Viper, too bad we ain’t got space for no pansy hero bitch,” the brute said before he pulled back and launched a punch of his own. His fist almost seemed to move in slow motion as he growled, “Let’s see if you can take it as good as yah give it.”
“New Ability! Float Like a Butterfly! You’ve got luck on your side for punching and bullets, why not throw a bit in for your dodging too? This ability gives you an increased chance to dodge hand-to-hand combat strikes of 10% plus 1% for every point of Luck you have for ten seconds. And that’s literally if you’re closing your eyes and not doing anything at all to dodge. Look, it’s not rocket science Augment, just get out of the way of that fist before you take a blow, then use this ability to give yourself a little extra luck. This ability has a 5 minute cooldown.”
I skipped backwards, barely avoiding tripping over one of the grunts I had put down. Unfortunately, that put me right in position for another grunt to grab for me, he barely had his arm around me when I felt my body instinctively crouch, pulling from the man’s grip just in the knick of time.
My luck was with me and the brute tried to chase as I dodged. His powerful strike connected directly with the grunt and I could hear a nearly sickening crunch of bone. The grunt’s health plummeted as he crumpled to the ground and the brute let out a quick string of curse words.
“New Achievement! Unfriendly Friendly Fire! You’ve caused an enemy to knockout one of their companions. Okay look Augment, we get it, you’re trying not to get your hands dirty. But dodging that blow was a really pussy move. Impressive yes. But still kind of uncalled for. This is a Silver Level Achievement! Reward: You have received a B:Tier Loot Box!”
I was almost distracted by the loot box icon on my HUD as it ticked up to 5, but as I dropped low, with the brute still reacting to striking his underling, I didn’t even hesitate to throw a punch.
“New Achievement!!! Low Blow! And here I thought dodging that attack was uncalled for… I mean… I don’t even have testicles and I think I can feel the pain. You have struck an enemy in their private parts. Why did we put private parts on a Non-Sentient NPC? Look, we’d have to explain how we make them to you first and I really don’t think we have time for that right now. This is a Gold Level achievement. Reward: You have received a F:Tier Loot Box. Personally, I’d give you nothing for this one given the audacity of the attack, but Axio’s the one in charge, not me.”
I stifled a laugh, rolling to the side as the brute tried to compose himself. His health bar was now just a shade under half but he had a new icon above his head that read Stunned: 30 Seconds. On my hotbar, I could see my Sting Like A Bee skill beginning to flash, the timer on it nearly ended. I still had one more luck enhanced punch and I preferred to use it before the skill went on cooldown.
Though I was sure I could land another blow on the brute while he was stunned, there were still 3 other grunts moving into position to try to ambush me. They were loud, almost too loud and I wondered if I somehow had enhanced hearing within my zone of control, but that was a mystery for later. I flipped on my heel, using the momentum to launch a punch at what I hoped was an enemy.
“Oh sh-” was all the grunt was able to get out before my hand collided directly with his face and I could feel as the man’s nose crunched beneath my knuckles and he stumbled backwards. His health bar sank deep into the red, only a sliver of his health remaining. It was a good strike, but it must not have counted as a weak spot.
It didn’t matter in the end, I just had to follow up on the strike, but as I moved to capitalize, a strike landed roughly against the side of my head and sent me stumbling. My health bar dropped another quarter as I turned on my heel to try and recover. To my surprise, it wasn’t a grunt that had attacked me, but another brute.
“You have fallen below 50% health for the first time, your inventory is being conditionally activated to access healing serums. You have been granted 5 Basic Health Injectors. These can be accessed from your hotbar and injected anywhere into your body for full effect.”
A syringe-like icon was added to the so-far empty two slot section of my hot bar and I selected it, unsure of what to expect. In a flicker of light, an injection gun filled with a red glowing liquid literally materialized into my hand. Not wanting to give the enemies time to advance, I shoved it against my leg and pulled the trigger. A rush of energy passed over my body and my health recovered by 25% in less than a second. The icon on the hotbar went on cooldown, slowly ticking away on a 5 minute timer.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“What the hell is that?! How am I supposed to heal again if I get hit again?!”
“I suggest you don’t get hit again!” Angie chirped back and I rolled to the side as the brute brought a giant foot down, breaking the tile into chips that scattered. I could still see the civilians cowering behind the desks and tables in the lobby. “Please do not concern yourself with them, the mobs designated for the tutorial are strictly instructed to ignore Non-Combat NPCs for the duration of this mission.”
“Only for this-” I started, my shock rising as I took her implication. I was forced to jump to the side just as the first brute, finally free from his debuff, charged. As I moved out of the way, he crashed into one of the smaller grunts, steamrolling the man and taking out the last bit of health I had left him with.
The lack of a clear ranged attack in my repertoire made it clear that I needed a way to take these guys down from a distance. Trying to think on my feet, I looked around the area for a solution. It was a small space and in truth the best solution would be to find a way to just slow them all down. I scanned the area, briefly glancing each of my 4 remaining enemies as-
“New Ability! Weighted Clothes! Look at you, finally realizing your power has more applications than just through luck! For the next 30 seconds, up to three articles of clothing being worn within your local area now weigh a quarter of a ton! That’s 500 lbs if you’re one of those idiots who don’t know just how much a ton is. It might not be enough to crush anyone, but you try being speedy while carrying that much. Affected enemies take 500 minus Strength score points of damage immediately, and 50 minus Strength score points of damage every 3 seconds for the remainder of the skill’s duration. This ability has a 10 minute cooldown.”
This nearly made me come up short as I wonder what the hell my powers even were. I had no idea how that ability came out of Local Area Manipulation, but I was going to have to figure it out if I had any hope of creating more straightforward abilities. Both of the brutes were noticeably slower and I watched as one of the grunts stumbled forward and dropped to the ground with a pained groan as he clutched at his chest. Then there was the only grunt that hadn’t been affected by my ability, it almost looked as if he was considering running as he scrambled backwards.
His hesitation was short lived and he set his jaw before he stepped forward, took three strides and immediately slipped on blood that had been pooling from one of his cohorts. His head smacked roughly against the corner of the tellers desk and a big KO started to circle his body.
“Heh… unlucky,” I found myself muttering aloud. I climbed back to my feet as I looked to the last of the enemies. At this point I didn’t feel that threatened by the sole remaining grunt any longer, but the brutes had proven themselves to be some form of danger.
I rushed to the knocked out grunt and found his unused pistol. After he had seen the others get so unceremoniously incapacitated by their own weapons, he must have made what he thought was the smart decision. While I wasn’t a gun nut, I had played paintball and laser tag more than once. Maybe I was just trying to fool myself, but it was comparable… right?
Even if it wasn’t entirely sure how my main power worked, I did feel like I was getting the hang of the ability creation. As I leveled the gun at the brute I had already damaged, I was more than ready for Angie to chirp up.
“NEW ABILITY! Lucky Shot! Hey, you’re gonna take the fun out of it if you’re gonna predict when it happens. If I could, I’d just let you figure out what this one does on your own but ugggh, rules are rules. When you activate this ability, infuse the next three shots with luck equal to 1% for every 1 point of luck you have, increasing the chance of hitting a weak spot and inflicting 50% increased damage. This ability will go on cooldown if you drop the weapon being utilized when the ability is activated.”
My shot hit the brute directly in his center of mass and his health dropped by over 50%, leaving his health blinking red. I fired again, but this time I felt myself instinctively aim for the Brute’s side. From what I could tell, it seemed like dropping the mobs to 0 was actually killing them, as I could tell the enemies labeled as KOed all still had small slivers of health on their bars. While Angie had said they were “non-sentient”, I couldn’t bring myself to kill them indiscriminately without knowing just how true that was, even if a few of them had unfortunately already succumbed to that. The shot hit and set him off balance and his health dropped by another 25% as the brute let out a string of curses.
I took the opportunity to rush him, relying on the weighted shirt to drastically slow his reaction time, and mentally activated my Sting Like a Bee ability again. I wasn’t even sure when it had gone off cooldown at this point, but I was thankful I had it available. I made an actual running leap as I pulled my hand back, curling it into a fist before driving it into the brute’s temple. Just like the others, his health dropped to a small sliver of red as a spinning KO popped up over his head.
“New Achievement! Giant Slayer! We got a regular David over here! You have defeated an enemy that was a higher level than you. Given we put an enemy higher leveled than every new Augment in their tutorial, you can imagine just how common this Bronze Level achievement actually is. Reward: You have received a D:Tier Loot Box.”
Two more… I had two more to go but I could feel the activity starting to catch up to me. Underneath my health bar, I finally noticed a blinking bar with a small sliver of green left. When I concentrated on it, I noticed it was labeled as “Stamina.” It was creeping up… slowly, but it would be nowhere near ready before my Weighted Clothes ability wore off.
“Are there Stamina injections too?”
“Yup! But we don’t give you those in the tutorial, it’s better to ease new Augments into the idea of inventory usage with something like their own health. Plus most Augments finish this tutorial before they run out of stamina the first time… kinda says something about you, doesn’t it?”
I tried not to be offended by that, but I’d be lying if I said I succeeded. She was fucking with me, that’s what she had been doing from the very start and I just had to assume that’s what she was programmed to do for… some reason. There really had to be a game admin or something I could talk to once this was all done.
With the gun still in my hand, I turned it on the weaker of the remaining enemies. I fired, and while I aimed for his center of mass, I didn’t want to risk my Lucky Shot skill killing him outright. I erred toward the side of his body to hopefully avoid anything major. His health chunked down to what looked like around 10% remaining. With my stamina back up to about a quarter of its own gauge, I rushed him, finding myself getting used to the repetitive motion.
I threw two quick punches, not caring that I was using up the last of my Sting Like a Bee as the grunt crumpled to the ground with the familiar KO icon spinning above his head. I stopped to catch my breath, turning slowly until I could see the last remaining Brute. There were red and blue lights that were starting to flash in the windows and I found my attention drawn to the countdown timer I had so far been ignoring that now read “Police have arrived on scene!”
“It…. It’s over…” I said, finding myself out of breath. Realistically this should have happened the moment I had burst through the door, but Angie had been right, the augmentations were helping me along quite nicely.
“Y’think I’m ‘fraid of some pigs?” The brute grunted, reaching over his shoulder and pulling out what had to be an oversized shotgun. “Looks like your luck’s all run out hero.”
“I wouldn’t-” I started but he didn’t give me time to finish as he pulled the trigger.
I couldn’t know for sure it was going to happen, but the brute’s prediction had been far from accurate as my Misfire ability activated just as he fired, and the shotgun exploded, tearing his entire right hand from his arm and severely maiming the left one. Surprisingly this didn’t kill him, instead bringing his health down by 75%.
My stamina was still low, but there was enough there. With the brute screaming in pain and dropping to his knees, I walked toward him, trying to look as confident as I possibly could.
“Actually, I think my luck’s just getting started,” I said, not sure where the quip even came from as I pulled my fist back and hit him with every bit of strength I could muster. “You can bet on that.”