"Allen"
"Allen!"
"Are you in there Allen?"
I could hear Hector outside. Sitting up from the couch I righted myself. I felt, good? surprisingly good. Walking towards the door I opened it up to let him in. Brushing past me and closing the door so fast I blinked. "What's wrong Hector?" He looked at me like I was high "dude, haven't you checked the notifications? the world is going crazy. That new virus fucked us all." The anger and fear laced in his voice was subdued but apparent, speaking in a slightly raised voice but clearly hesitant to do more than speak loudly. I hesitate for a second, wanting to ask more but decide the notifications might be a good place to start and pull down the notifications.
(26h ago)
Phase One Begins
There are 25 Million viable users, 8.74 Billion Users unviable.
Initiate Culling Procedure.
(11h ago)
Error Culling of unviable users resulting 20% drop in viable users within a 24h period.
20 Million viable, 8.74B Unviable
Current trend unsustainable.
Safe Period Initialization.
Threat reduction 40%
"What the hell is all this? I dumped all my stats and passed out... 26 hours ago?" I said, clenching and unclenching my jaw nervously.
"Yeah, okay so, you see the 20 million? That's us"
"What do you mean us?"
"The human race man, everyone else is, well, something else" Hector says, somewhat more calm than I'd expect, the undercurrents of fear are still there but less so now than earlier. He always did feel more at ease explaining a situation than dealing with it, especially if he's alone, strength in numbers and all that. "That's where the problem is though, the rest of them went completely batshit crazy and started attacking the rest of us. They are easy to notice though, you'll know what I mean soon enough. I was with a group of friends when this all started, drinking at the bar on 72nd, we had enough time to put our stats into what we wanted. A little later is when all hell broke loose, seems I got lucky because when phase one started I received a quest to escape the bar alone for a levels worth of stat points. At first I laughed because I thought it was a joke but after about 2 minutes everyone around me started groaning, like they were in pain, that's when my girl Elise turned to me, her eyes were almost all white except the pupil and her skin was red like she had been sunburned really bad. I was worried so I turned and asked her if she was alright. Ya know, so I could take her to the doctor and shit. She sways there for a moment getting up and looking kind of out of it. Right as I started to worry, I put my hand on her shoulder to get her attention. That’s when she turned and bit me man. Tore a chunk straight out of my arm, chewed and swallowed right in front of me. That’s when the others noticed us, seeing everyone in the bar looking like a damn boiled lobster and with those creepy ass eyes, I bolted from the bar as fast as humanly possible with a dozen or so freaks right behind me. I got lucky and put all my stats into the body categories and got away. The second i was in a safe place I got 7 more points to dump into my stats and evened the two body stats out."
Hector brought up his status screen and slid it my way.
User Hector
Profession none
HP 2400
Mana 1400
Body Strength 17 +
Body Control 17 +
Mental Strength 8 +
Mental Control 12 +
Stat Points available 0
Looking at his stats I'm not surprised at his mental stats being higher than average, he's always had above average wit and self-control, his body stats are staggering though, they come damn close to my mental stats. I find it weird that even with the extra stats from his quest he's still 6 points behind me, the starting point of your stats play a huge role in how strong you can become.
*Ding*
Quest Available
Survive the mutant horde
Notes:
Waking up from the stupor of adding too many stats at once you find yourself with a friend in the apocalypse, but alas, there is a horde sweeping through the local area from the east. Survive and thrive, or.. ya know, be food for the uglies, your choice.
Completion Rewards: Surviving, 3x Levels of bonus stats
Party Reward: Base stat gain adjustment, highest in party + 1 (gain set to 11 per level)
Failure: Be eaten alive
Looking to Hector, "I just got a quest?" Hectors eyes went wide, the blood clearly draining from his face. "What's it say?" Shifting the notification towards him the nanites respond and share the information.
*Quest Shared*
He frowns, “why are all of the notifications so… I don’t know…” I nod “like whoever is sending them is getting some kind of fucked up enjoyment out of it? No clue, I can’t tell if it’s trying to help or just likes to screw with us.” Hector takes a deep breath, "Alright, ignoring the asshole commentary from the system, we have to go, now, I'll give you the lowdown for everything I know on the way, just grab everything you think you might need and we need something to use as a weapon. Smiling I motion for him to follow, we enter my sacred game room. He stands stock still for a minute. "Make sure you grab something with an edge, otherwise it's a prop that's just for looks." I say while heading straight for the glaive that has a flexible shaft and a 60cm blade on the end. I have a few of these in the room but this one has always been my favorite, the shaft is a simple wooden yew with no decorations and a damascus blade attached on the business end along with another damascus spike at the bottom. Hector walks towards the axes. Ignoring the battle axe and going for one called a bardiche. The long blade attached to the shaft makes it a great weapon for cleaving through multiple enemies. All in all we picked fairly similar weapons, mine being lighter and quicker while his carried much more weight behind it. Picking it up and giving it a couple practice swings it felt light in my hands, almost as if it was made from heavy plastic. Wondering how effective these would be I glance over at Hector, his stats were clearly superior to mine by leaps and bounds, he is swinging the bardiche around like a toothpick. "This axe is pretty sweet" giving me a toothy grin I nod, "Feels a bit light though doesn't it? My glaive feels about as dense as a nerf weapon." Hector nods at my words, "I wouldn't put too much stock into it, I actually bulldozed through a ford focus while running away from the mutts." Pausing I look up from my weapon, "Mutts?" as soon as I ask the edges of his mouth turns down, "yeah, seems humans aren't the only things that mutated, animals did as well, I figured I'd just call all the mutants mutts until we find a better name. I was running from a dog though, the thing was twice the size it was supposed to be. I barely managed to get away, managed to parkour between a few buildings, it got distracted when it lost sight of me. Looking at the clock it took barely 30 seconds for us to pick and have our little conversation. Hector is looking at the window I showed him, "hey man, how many stats do you get per level?" grabbing a couple straps to use as weapon slings "10, its total base stats divided by 5" raising his eyebrow, "you're a damn cheat, you know that? 1 extra stat is already making a huge difference with an extra 3, god damn" tossing him the weapon swing I shook my head, "I only bumped my body stats to 10 and my mental to 20, i'd say you have an advantage given the situation. By the way, it says stats per level, but I don't have a level?" Hector shrugs and shakes his head, "neither do I. I'm guessing we have to kill stuff, but until I got here I only had my bare hands and I sure as hell wasn't wrestling with a meter high dog looking at me like I was a box of scooby snacks."
I heft the spear and motion towards the door, "Any idea on where we should go?" Hector shakes his head, "honestly there's not much to the west, the city is east but since the horde is coming from that way." I close and lock the door behind me heading to my car, it's an old 69 Nova, most would think the truck would be better given the situation but the truck is newer, most of the outside is plastic based. Only older cars had the heavy steel frames, even though the truck is almost twice the size the car is almost the same weight, I felt it would hold better. Plus it didn't have any of the newer electronics so it was one less thing to worry about. Pausing I realized the glaive and axe we brought along wouldn't fit. Hector jumped into the side, rolled down the window and just stuck the blade end out of the opening. With a smile I did the same. I stuck the key in, turning the key, and nothing, frowning, I hit the killswitch, my car has almost never stalled. With a pit slowly growing in my stomach I run straight to my truck trying to start her up as well, nothing. "Damn, looks like we're hoofin it Hector, nothing is starting, can't even get the engine to turn." Heaving a sigh Hector looks longingly at the car, "Of course, we get the apocalypse where technology stops working" shaking my head, "my generator worked earlier, it ran out of fuel super fast though, it also showed a huge draw coming from somewhere, figured it was a short."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Hector and I start jogging down the road, staying quiet to try and avoid notice, without the car for a quick getaway getting discovered could become messy pretty fast. "So Hec, how strong are the mutts? I mean, if we run into 2 or 3 of them, what are our chances" his face darkened for a moment, "I'm not really sure to be honest, I just panicked and ran after Elise bit me. She had a hold of my arm and i was able to shake her off but she had an iron grip, if I had to guess she's probably got around 8 or 9 strength. Her reflexes were shit though so it's hard to say." Before more could be said there's a clatter of sound to our left. Feeling my heartbeat pick up both Hector and I stop, pulling our weapons from the makeshift slings. We've only made it a couple blocks, still not out of the area of people we recognize from around the neighborhood. Two, things, walked out from the gap between the houses. There really was no other way to describe them. It was like a freak science experiment gone wrong. One of the what I could only assume used to be people had grotesque bulges where muscles used to be in one of their arms and down their back. Blisters and other bodily fluids coating it's skin in a sickening and painful looking layer of sweat and pus. The other looked far more lucky in its mutations, it's hair had been replaced by scales, the arms were elongated and the fingers hooked into claws. "So, which one do you want?" I ask, taking a quick glance at Hector, he shakes his head, "I'll take ugly, you take claws?" Seeing him notice the same thing I did I regret asking. The two things seem to notice us as we whisper back and forth. Taking no time they both start sprinting in our direction. Hector and I brace ourselves swing our weapons just as the two reach us. Hector, being the faster of the two of us makes his attack hit first on the hulking one, sensing the danger it lifts its arm to block the axe, it's skin gaining a gray hue to it. The axe breaks the skin but barely goes an inch deep. My own weapon glides through the air but the lizardman leans back, a small scratch grazing its chest before it plunges its claws forward, in a panic I kick out and manage to catch it dead in the chest, the elongated arms give it just enough reach to where it's 2 longest claws leave a gash on my shoulder, mere inches from my throat. Adrenaline pumping through my veins I swing the glaive in a large backhand cutting through its arm, severing it, and leaving a gash on it's chest. Glancing to my right I see Hector literally just wailing on his opponent, a whirlwind of blade and fury. The brief glance was a mistake, by the time I look back I feel pain lance into my side, the damned lizard had taken advantage of my distracted state to shove its claws into my abdomen. Luckily it looked like the hit was shallow, using the glaive as a spear I shoved the spiked end into the things chest. It became motionless, pushing it off my glaive with my foot I look over to Hector again, he managed to cut through the things arm and just as I finished my fight his axe gets lodged into the things neck, even there it only gets halfway through because of the effect it's thick skin has, that being said, the things head was halfway chopped off so it was as good as dead. Interrupted by a sound similar to a pot of water boiling, the lizard thing I was fighting before is steaming, disappearing inch by inch as I watch in morbid fascination. After about 10 seconds all that's left is a red sphere shining on the ground, unable to control the sudden urge, I grab the sphere and crush it in my hands.
Body Control +1
With a smile I watch Hector's quarry disintegrate instead of a sphere however it's a red hexagonal crystal. Seeing the same thing that happened to me he immediately picked up the crystal and crushed it in his hands. Seeing the smile on his face I'm assuming they were similar to what I got, "The sphere was body control, what about the crystal?" Clenching his fist, "Mine was for body strength. It kind of falls in line with what they were though doesn't it? Mine was a tanky bruiser so it gave me one for body strength." Nodding at what he said, "Mine was fast, it pretty much dodged my first slash no problem and body control increases speed and reflexes so it makes sense." Roughly a minute after the battle ends a screen pops up for both of us.
Victory
Rewards: Experience
(Safe Period Reward) rare consumable drop guarantee
rare item: Body Control Stone (Drop rate 0.1%)
rare item: Body Strength Stone (Drop rate 0.1%)
Congratulations
You've reached level one. Bonus stats have been added, base stats +1
I call up my status screen, immediately
User Allen
Level 1
Profession none
HP 1200
Mana 3200
Body Strength 11 +
Body Control 12 +
Mental Strength 21 +
Mental Control 21 +
Stat Points available 10
Traits
Hardened Skin - 10% increase in physical defense on activation
Keen Vision - 10% higher chance to notice details that you would not normally
Keen Mind - 10% higher chance to remember details that you would not normally
Calm Mind - 20% less likely to panic due to unforeseen circumstances
Quick Thinker - 1.1 multiplier to subjective time dilation during intense thought
Quick Learner - 1.1 multiplier to learning new skills
That’s when Hector suddenly lets out a scream. I drop into a lowered stance and pull out my glaive, looking for what had fucked with Hector. All I saw was Hector dropping to the ground, muscles writhing. He looks up to me, worried I would think he was turning and just said “stats.” Dragging his body to a building we just cleared out I toss him on the couch and wait out the update of the stats. Two entire hours later he finally stops twitching and groaning. I give him another 2 hours to rest up before I go to kick him awake. Nudging him he feels, dense? Looking refreshed he sits up and with a grin I see the motion for him to look at his stats.
User Hector
Level 1
Profession none
HP 3800
Mana 900
Body Strength 25 +
Body Control 17 +
Mental Strength 9 +
Mental Control 13 +
Stat Points available 0
Traits
Atlas (Epic) - Flat 10% additive multiplier to all physical traits
Muscle Memory - Learn any bodily skill 20% faster
Slow Twitch - Use 20% less stamina with any movement
Heavy Handed - Inflict 20% more damage with Heavy weapons and 2-Handed weapons
Dense Bones - Bones can endure 20% more force before breaking
Calm Mind - 20% less likely to panic due to unforeseen circumstances
Sharing our statuses I let out a laugh, "didn't waste any time dumping all your bonus stats huh?" Hector nods, "damn right I didn't, these things are dangerous, every little bit helps, wish I would have known though, when the strength stat hit 20 everything started hurting and I felt like I was going to pass out, figuring I might as well get it all over with I just kept hitting the plus button on body strength so it’d be updated by time I woke up, also not gonna lie, I was hoping it’d put me under faster. Plus you saw the rare item drops right?" seeing where he was going I nod, saying "if it's a 1 in a thousand drop chance and we can farm them right now then it'll be a huge boost, then again, if there was a 3rd one then we probably would have lost, I had my hands full with that quick bastard, hell, if he had hit me in a vital spot I'd have probably died. Nodding his head towards my stats, "if there's magic, considering you have mana, that'd be a good way to go since you’re already leaning towards it, unfortunately we haven't found any magic yet so I'd invest a few points into enough physical stats to survive until then. One level's worth shouldn't affect much in the long run and would probably help keep us both alive." Nodding, I evened the body stats out at 15, debating on how to allocate the last 3 I weighed the pros and cons but eventually decided reflexes were more important to me so I put them into body control. Hector shook his head "What about the traits though, we almost literally did the same thing just now and got a very different set." I give a noncommittal shrug, "Could be anything, how we fought, stat distribution, what we fought. There's not enough information to really tell." Hector smirks, "My money's on personality." Pausing for a second he looks up at me and continues, "so do we risk it and farm a bit or get the hell out of dodge?" Putting the glaive on my back in the sling I start jogging south with Hector easily keeping pace. "I think we can do a bit of both, let's get to the edge of the city so we have a wider field of view, if we can get to the southernmost edge of the horde we can pull some stragglers off to the side. I’d also like a trait so full of bullshit, like your Atlas" Satisfied with any sort of plan we both continue our jog to the southern edge of the city. Avoiding areas with higher concentrations of people. Difficult in the city but not impossible if you live near a few miles from the edge like we do. Managing to avoid any large groups we hunt down a few more of the things. All of them keep dropping physical crystals though. We managed to power up quite a bit, still no levels, seems each level requires a fair amount of experience to gain. We got roughly 6 to 7 stats each, which is fair for a day’s work. At the southern edge of town, only a couple miles left the fatigue was finally getting to us. Keeping all my strikes measured and clean I was able to conserve stamina during fights, Hector just kind of kept smashing them till they disappeared into a pile of severed body parts. Panting after the last battle, I look around, we made it an area with no high-rise buildings but there’s still a ton of apartment buildings, seeing a normal sized house I nod my head in it’s direction. “Wanna grab a rest, and if we’re lucky, a bite to eat?” Hector leans back, in a defensive posture, “we can but we have to keep an eye out, I didn’t say anything earlier but I stopped by like 2 dozen houses of people we used to hang out with, nearly everyone has turned into one of those things.” Feeling a cold shiver run up my spine I shiver, walking towards a house with my weapon at the ready. We needed a place to rest, the battles were taking their toll and we couldn’t keep it up for much longer. “I think it’s best to clear out a place to rest and hunker down for the night.” Hector just nodded at my words seemingly not even willing to waste what little energy he had left on speaking.
User Hector
Level 1
Profession none
HP 4400
Mana 900
Body Strength 25 +
Body Control 23 +
Mental Strength 9 +
Mental Control 13 +
Stat Points available 0
User Allen
Level 1
Profession none
HP 2200
Mana 3200
Body Strength 16 +
Body Control 24 +
Mental Strength 21 +
Mental Control 21 +
Stat Points available 0