I ran up to Carlos as several academic buildings collapsed into smoldering piles of liquified stone. Sitterson Hall was mostly destroyed, and I suspected that I had destroyed much of the Carolina Inn behind it. I was fairly certain that I had not killed anyone with my missed shots, since the System had not notified me that I had killed any players.
Surely, I would receive some notification if I was killing people. Either the System would reward me with EXP, or it would chastise and penalize me if I had killed anyone. I wasn’t a murderer. I couldn’t be. It was impossible.
“Are you okay, Carlos?” I asked once I reached him.
“Yeah,” Carlos said, swiveling his head around to get a better view of the part of his body where the Diluvians hit him. “I only took six damage. I can’t be that hurt. More importantly, Vincent, I think you just destroyed the computer science building.”
Much of Carlos’s shirt was torn away, but his body was mostly unscathed. Long white marks ran diagonally across his chest and flank, contrasting strongly against his tan skin. The Diluvians’ attacks hadn’t even managed to break his skin.
“Do you need me to heal you?” Liz asked.
“No, save your spell slots,” Carlos said. “I barely felt it when they hit me.”
“That’s funny,” Liz said in a voice that made it clear she didn’t find it very funny. “We saw what they did to the people who hadn’t figured out the System yet.”
Giving my two cents, I said, “In the parameters of the Revelation System, these guys are really weak. Yet, without the System, there’s absolutely nothing we could do to stop them.”
In an attempt to lighten the mood, Carlos said, “Well, I just hope I can find some MDC clothes soon, otherwise I’ll end up completely naked after a few fights.”
“Just like the ancient Germanic tribes,” I shot back immediately. “Maybe you can intimidate our enemies with nudity.”
“Okay!” Liz cut in, interrupting Carlos’s next statement. “I’m putting a stop to this right now. I can see where this back-and-forth is going.”
With a wide smile, Carlos said, “What do you mean? I was just going to say that they would be intimidated by my massive-”
“Shut it,” Liz cut Carlos off. “We’re still on a time limit, in case you forgot.”
“Right,” Carlos said with a smile as he returned his sword to its sheath.
As we continued walking toward Peabody Hall and the probable location of enough Starsteel to get us off the planet, I checked my [Menu] and began working on updating my build to level 3.
To begin with, I looked at my character sheet.
Name: Vinzadir
Class: Eldritch Alchemist
Level: 3
MDC: 20/20
SDC: 26/26
[YOU MAY ADD +2 TO YOUR STATS]
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“System. Add one to [Memory] and one to [Speed].”
Body: 12
Fortitude: 14
Power: 11
Speed: 10
Mind: 17
Reason: 18
Perception: 15
Memory: 18
A strange feeling of warmth filled my muscles, and I suddenly felt a little bit faster. Though I was still no gymnast, I felt like my arms had a greater range of movement and my legs could move at a greater speed.
With that level up, I was able to increase my [Mind] stat to 17. I wasn’t sure how the [Mind] stats worked, but I was sure those increases would help me in the future.
“System. I would like to take the [Sleep] spell.”
[THAT COMMAND CANNOT BE EXECUTED]
[YOU CANNOT TAKE A NEW SPELL AT THIS TIME]
“Okay.” That one was my fault. I had assumed based on the pattern that I would unlock another spell at level 3.
I navigated over to the [Skills] page, and a new pop-up appeared in the middle of my vision.
[NEW ADVANCEMENT OPTION: PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THESE TWO SKILLS]
Once the pop-up disappeared, a drop-down box on my [Menu] showed the descriptions of several class skills.
Blacksmith: As an Alchemist, you specialize in making weapons and armor. With this skill, you gain a new weapon or armor template with every level. You can also [Enhance] weapons and armor for which you have a template.
Blacksmith As an Alchemist, you specialize in making weapons and armor. With this skill, you gain a new weapon or armor template with every level. You can also [Enhance] weapons and armor for which you have a template.
Mason: As an Alchemist, you specialize in crafting large items like buildings or vehicles. With this skill, you gain a new large-item template with every level. You can also [Enhance] large-items for which you have a template.
Mason As an Alchemist, you specialize in crafting large items like buildings or vehicles. With this skill, you gain a new large-item template with every level. You can also [Enhance] large-items for which you have a template.
ᛋᚹᛖᚾᛞᛋᛖᚾ: As an Eldritch Alchemist, you specialize in crafting esoteric technology that was created by the ᛖᛚᛞᛖᚱᛋ. You immediately gain the ability to construct ᚨᚾᚲᛁᛖᚾᛏ technology. With this skill, you gain a new ᚨᚾᚲᛁᛖᚾᛏ template with every level. You can also [Enhance] ᚨᚾᚲᛁᛖᚾᛏ items for which you have a template.
ᛋᚹᛖᚾᛞᛋᛖᚾ As an Eldritch Alchemist, you specialize in crafting esoteric technology that was created by the ᛖᛚᛞᛖᚱᛋ. You immediately gain the ability to construct ᚨᚾᚲᛁᛖᚾᛏ technology. With this skill, you gain a new ᚨᚾᚲᛁᛖᚾᛏ template with every level. You can also [Enhance] ᚨᚾᚲᛁᛖᚾᛏ items for which you have a template.
The third pop-up vibrated as I looked at it. The font was different, and the background color was much grayer than every other pop-up I had seen up to that point.
Considering that this third skill mentioned the Eldritch Alchemist class by name, I knew that it would be unique to me. I would have chosen this skill immediately, but I honestly had no idea what it did. The only phrase connected to that skill that told me anything was “esoteric technology,” and those two words weren’t exactly bursting with meaning.
I decided to close my [Menu] and looked up to observe the real world once more. I could probably ask the System to define the runic words, but that would take much more time than I was willing to spend at the moment.
When I looked up, I bore witness to our objective. The System hadn’t been entirely accurate when it said that the meteorite landed “near” Peabody Hall. Where Peabody Hall had been hours before, a large crater of burning metal and smashed stone remained. I could just barely make out several glinting steel deposits peeking out of the rubble.
“Huh, there goes the teaching college, I guess,” Carlos said in a sardonic tone.
“I wonder if anyone was still in there when the asteroid hit,” Liz asked sadly.
“No way,” Carlos said, confident in his answer. “The System told us about any threats we faced in the first few minutes after System Integration. They would have known to run.”
“And then they would be eaten by the Diluvians,” Liz said, looking pointedly at the many corpses that had accumulated on East Cameron.
“I’m sure some survived,” Carlos said, though he seemed much less confident in this statement.
Gesturing for the other two to continue walking toward the crater that was once Peabody Hall, I said, “Come on. We have some mining to do.”