CHAPTER IV: WELCOME TO THE GREAT GAME
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{06:09 ZULU TIME 1ST JANUARY 1ME
22:09 LOCAL TIME 31ST DECEMBER 2038AD}
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LONG BEACH
COLONEL & SOTO
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< YOU HAVE ENTERED A RARE MANA ZONE >
< WELCOME TO THE ROUGE DUNGEON EXTINCTION >
{Dungeon Mode is Quest/Horde}
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< CURSE ADDED >
{CURSE NAME: Scourge of the Undead
CURSE TYPE: Physical/Death
CURSE LEVEL: 5
DESCRIPTION: Scourge of the Undead is a curse that slowly levels over time, or as more undead are assimilated into the local area. As the curse levels the more the adverse reaction affects living beings in its sphere of influence. The Scourge also levels the highest leveled death or dark being over time. This being must be killed to end the curse.
Level 1: Allows the recently dead to rise again as undead in 24 hours under the leader of the scourge. Mana and Health Regen for non-dark and Death creatures is reduced by -10%.
Level 2: Allows the recently dead to rise again as undead in 18 hours under the leader of the scourge. Mana and Health Regen for non-dark and Death creatures is reduced by -25%.
Level 3: Allows the recently dead to rise again as undead in 6 hours under the leader of the scourge. Mana and Health Regen for non-dark and Death creatures is reduced by -40%. The skies stay darker longer, and the sun doesn’t have as harsh of an effect on the undead.
Level 4: Allows the recently dead to rise again as undead in 1 hour under the leader of the scourge. Mana and Health Regen for non-dark and Death creatures is reduced by -55%. Daytime is now set from 9 am-3 pm
Level 5: Allows the recently dead to rise again as undead in 1 minute time under the leader of the scourge. Mana and Health Regen for non-dark and Death creatures is reduced by -75%. Forever night. Fire burns slightly weaker. Light is slightly weakened.
NOTE:
{The Curse information does not show up on your Character Sheet. Pay attention to your POOLS}
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{WELCOME TO THE GREAT GAME
LIVE WELL, DIE FREE}
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The letters fade away from sight as Colonel started to stand, scanning the area critically, and calmly. He started to look for cover, and defendable positions falling back on his ingrained training.
Soto on the other hand jumped up and started yelling at the sky startling Colonel. As he clearly had forgotten his training.
“What the heck is up with the pain, and nausea settings in this game?! There is no menu to change it either. What the HELL!” Soto yelled queasy holding back another vomit session. “I felt like my whole body was torn apart and put back together by some ill-advised Spanish Harlem basement BBL doctor.” He grabbed his mouth suddenly looking at Colonel with wide eyes before vomiting through the spaces in his finger at Colonel, the chunks of undigested Roscoe’s fluffy waffles hitting him.
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< ALERT >
{DEBUFF ADDED: You are nauseous!}
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Being hit with fresh bile, Colonel vomited again. He stood up and vomited again apparently standing up to fast. He wiped his mouth and glared at the prompt, then his friend. “No shit!” Soto was still looking at the heavens for an answer that wasn’t coming anytime soon. “Thanks, Sergeant Major vomits a lot.” Colonel mocked
Soto turned on Colonel. “Oh, I don’t want to hear a word from you.” He jabbed a finger in his face. Reaching in his pocket for his inhaler, “I didn’t have any time to choose the type of vampire variant that I wanted, so the game chose it for me. Thanks by the way. You better be happy it's dark out, or you might have spawned in with a pile of ash. That would have been a special type of karma for that ass. But it feels like your luck worked out.” He calmed as he started to get into the game again.
Colonel laughed at the visual. “I’m guessing you're not happy about that?” Colonel carefully moved Soto’s finger out of his face. “Oh look I got a title.” They both get a pop-up at the same time. Soto pulled his hand out of his pocket to scroll with his finger. The other hand absently rummages through his other pockets looking for his inhaler.
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< STEEL PAN MELODY >
{YOU HAVE GAINED A TITLE}
{TITLE NAME: War Veteran(R)
TITLE TIER: RARE(UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION: When asked what is more important Memorial Day or Veterans Day most would say Memorial Day, and they would be right, For those who served a veteran isn’t something they want to be celebrated, just appreciated.
Thank you for your service.
For serving your country honorably in combat multiple times you have earned this Title.
TITLE EFFECT: Your interface is unreadable by rare powers or items.
Rare Bonus: Stat gain; +3 Constitution per level times T(Where T is Tier of the Player)}
< ALERT >
{Since your government is in EXTREME turmoil you have been retired, as you have fulfilled all your obligations.}
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< CONGRATULATIONS YOUR TITLE HAS BEEN UPGRADED >
{TITLE NAME: Retired War Veteran(P)
TITLE TIER: Platinum(UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION: When asked what is more important Memorial Day or Veterans Day most would say Memorial Day, and they would be right, For those who served a veteran isn’t something they want to be celebrated, just appreciated.
Thank you for your service.
For serving your country honorably in combat multiple times you have earned this Title. Since your government is in EXTREME turmoil you have been retired since you have fulfilled all your obligations.
TITLE EFFECT: Your interface is unreadable by high platinum powers or items. The player can project to anyone who tries to scan them whatever they want their information to read to as long as the person cannot identify the player level-wise.
RARE BONUS: Stat gain; +3 Constitution per level times Tier of player.
PLATINUM BONUS: Ability gain; Hand to Hand Mastery}
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< TOOL TIP >
{RARE BONUS: Stat gain; +3 Constitution per level times T(Where T is Player Tier)}
PLATINUM BONUS: Ability gain; Hand to Hand Mastery}
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< YOU HAVE GAINED AN ABILITY >
{ABILITY NAME: Hand to Hand Mastery(R)
ABILITY LEVEL: STUDENT 0
DESCRIPTION: Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the mouth. Mastery adds bonuses and proficiency to the particular ability. Hand-to-hand mastery adds a Minor percentage to damage and accuracy per level of ability. Mastery also allows the Legacy to evolve their fighting style.
ABILITY EFFECT: Minimum 5% to damage and accuracy per Ability Level.
STUDENT EFFECT: Stun chance; 10% chance to stun your opponent for 1 second plus ability level}
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{DEBUFF REMOVED: You are no longer nauseous}
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Soto smiled and then frowned. “How did they know we were in the military? Did you tell them? Did Roger tell them?” He read through his title prompt again. “You know what? I don’t give a fuck.” He shrugged happily, “I love this title, I got 4 stats per level as a platinum bonus. Which just double the amount of stats that I got per level before that. Titles is where it's at for sho. Wow, my rare bonus is dope.”
“Really, my Rare bonus is three constitutions per level, about half of what my class gives me...” The wording clicked with Colonel, “Wait, stats as in different ones or four of the same one, like me? What stats did you get?” Colonel asked curious at the differences between them already even though they just started.
Soto who had calmed down considerably since the teleport, looked at his prompts while Colonel continued to scan the local area for threats. It seemed like they had gone unnoticed, and there wasn’t anything moving or signs of a conflict yet, They would have to move soon, but being prepared was imperative for their survival.
“My Rare bonus is a 30% chance of bypassing defenses” Soto scanned around after looking at his title again. “Is yours called ‘Retired War Veteran’ too?” He questioned Colonel trying to figure out each other's capabilities. They did this in every game, and mission they had ever undertaken, it was second nature to them by now.
“Wait, we got the same title, but different bonuses?” Colonel looked at Soto for confirmation.
Soto nodded “That is some dope character development there. That means we can all be unique in our builds. The tooltip did say abilities and skills are numerous. The uniqueness will be a game changer, especially in Player Verses Player. PVP is going to be very unpredictable in this game. I get one dexterity, constitution, intelligence, and charisma for my platinum bonus.
Colonel got a pop-up.
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< TOOL TIP >
{Every player is unique, therefore the same two players, with the same classes, titles, or professions may all have vastly different skills, bonuses, and effects. The player’s gameplay style and environment have a bigger effect on their growth than their base power set. Bonuses for Titles and other Effects are broken down into a few categories. Ability/Skill gain; which grants an ability or skill, Stat gain; which grants stats based on Bonus/Effect rarity usually per level, Defensive, and offensive bonuses/effects based on rarity the higher the rarity the more likely it stacks, lastly Utility; covers all other bonus/effect, example EXP boost}
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“Oh, so everyone should have a specific experience playing the game, I don’t know how they are going to pull it off, but that’s kind of dope.” Colonel said, “I got hand-to-hand mastery as my platinum bonus. He looked around and saw their vomit seeping into the ground like it was being absorbed. It was happening unusually fast on concrete.
Soto followed his eyes. “That's gross, but I am glad we won’t have to trek through blood, and body fluids like real-life combat. It's just annoying playing games covered in blood and viscera.” Soto said getting a little too excited about the game.
Colonel had to nod at that, war was messy, really, really messy. It looked like this game took that messiness out of it, thank goodness.
Soto interrupted his train of thought. “WAIT! You got a mastery at level zero? Masteries are usually for masters to better understand their craft, may that be fighting or creating. Your brother is cheating for you big time my dude. You better send that man a fruit basket, or something, seriously.”
Soto laughed at Colonel’s expression. Colonel started to reply when he noticed Soto’s eyes widen looking at something behind him, Colonel was on high alert.
Soto’s finely tuned instincts started racing when he saw a not-quite-right homeless man shamble out of the shadows, about twenty meters behind Colonel. The odd gait by which this man walked set off alarm bells for Soto. “Hood senses tingling Battle.” He pointed over Colonel’s shoulder having him orient himself in beings direction.
“I think you meant Contact Sergeant Major.” Colonel admonished, then turned around, and looked at the figure. It looked lost, walking aimlessly. There was a name showing above its head in white coloring.
Soto shook his head. “My bad, Roger that! Contact west! Yeah, I wasn’t expecting it to look so... real to be honest Colonel.” Soto looked around for any more threats. Then back to the walking person?
Reading the name above the ‘person’ out loud dispelled that notion. “The tag above its head says it’s a Feral Ghoul.” He read the name just as a prompt popped up in front of Colonel, and his mini-map populated with red dots showing all of the Feral ghouls near their locations and level range. There were a lot around them, some were even leaving the area and heading out into the city by a gate next to the church. Colonel zoomed out his map and saw them moving out into the surrounding area from his area. As soon as the ghoul got into range of his ability it triggered.
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< ANALYZE >
{Name: Feral Ghoul(Undead),
Level:4
HP:230
MP:10
Bane: Fire
Weaknesses: Light magic and Life magic. Decapitation = True Death.
Description: Ghouls come in many varieties, the one constant between them all is the insatiable appetite for living flesh. Undead Ghouls' appetites are seconded by their strength and constitution. For their level, they will always be stronger and tougher than their frame suggests. Feral ghouls are mindless creatures seeking out food, as they level they gain +2 strength and constitution.
EFFECTS: Insatiable Hunger. Undead regeneration}
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< ABILITY LEVEL UP >
{Analyze in now NOVICE 1}
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“Well, that’s convenient. Just by analyzing this one, I can see all its kind in the local area, even further away if they started in the local area. It’s called a Feral Ghoul, and they are everywhere. They have a Bane, it is fire. They have a couple of weaknesses to light magic, and life magic neither of which we have.”
“Yet.”
“Yet, decapitation is the only way to give them the true death outside of the magic.” Colonel briefed Soto on the analyzed details.
Soto perked up at the information. “How do you know all that? That was pretty solid information there sir. What told you that? Your tooltip?” He asked looking around for more figures in the darkness.
An exclamation point popped up in front of Colonel. ”Hold up, give me a second.” He mentally clicked the exclamation point a team alert prompt appeared.
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< TEAM ALERT >
{Would you like to share ANALYZE information with your teammate Anthony Soto? Your relationship status being friendly or above also allows the sharing of character sheet information.}
{(YES/NO)}
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Colonel smirked, “Yes!”
Soto’s face lit up when a box appeared in front of his face. He quickly read it over. He moved his hands in page turning movement.
Colonel opened his full map and started to look at the distances there were between each cluster of feral Ghouls. There were tons of them, and frankly, Colonel didn’t know if they were strong or not. Their hit points were similar to his, their mana was a lot less.
“Yoooo, this is nuts. You have more hit points than me. You are pretty balanced as hell bro, well except for that ridiculous luck stat. Your class doesn’t give any skills though. Wait a damn minute your abilities are...” another prompt jumps to the front of both of the soldiers’ vision, causing them both to jump, and Soto yelped. “AYO!”
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” It was a quest update, it seemed that looking around constituted investigating, Colonel was happy for some guidance, and Soto was already reading it. He covered him while he finished, and then Soto nodded at him to read it while he started the scan their surroundings.
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< QUEST UPDATE >
{QUEST NAME: STOP THE OUTBREAK I
QUEST TYPE: Legacy Tutorial(Legendary)
DESCRIPTION: Something old and ominous has been unleashed on to your local area investigate for more updates.
REQUIREMENTS: Travel to ground zero of an odd magical event investigate area for clues.
UPDATE 1: You have found an undead, and while that may not seem bad at first, you would be mistaken, the fact that the undead are tethered means that it is terrible, very, very terrible.
OBJECTIVE 1: Kill 10 Feral Ghouls 0/10
OBJECTIVE 2: Help the Girl 0/1
TIME LIMIT: 10 mins.
REWARDS: Minimum 1000 EXPERIENCE, and piece of a set item
FAILURE PENALTY: -1 to every attribute or death}
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“Quest updates, nice so we will know when we are getting off track. But what girl?” Soto asked as Colonel’s eyes refocused from reading the prompt.
“I was just thinking the very same thing. I don’t see anyone else on my map, but that don’t mean-”
Right on time, a female scream cut through the dark cold night. The first shambling feral Ghoul turned and noticed the duo, and started to shamble run towards them. It would have been comical if the sounds of more couldn’t be heard nearby, and Colonel could see at least eleven more converging on them.
“Damn. You tank. I’ll cover you.” Soto fell into gamer mode, he wasn’t the head of two major guilds for his good looks. He was a gamer prior to joining the Army and never stopped playing. The only thing that had changed was that he could afford all the games he wanted now, not just the hand-me-down ones he used to get before he joined. Having gained a massive amount of discipline in the last thirty-plus years of service, made him perfect to control and manage the egos in the biggest guides in the online space.
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< TOOL-TIP >
{A Tank’s primary role is to absorb damage and keep the enemy off of their allies.}
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Colonel unhesitatingly stepped in front of Soto as the Ghoul passed the quarter-way mark to them. He readied himself not even thinking about the fact he had no weapon. Well, now he was thinking about it. Too late now, Colonel didn’t live in the past.
A second scream pierces the night. Four more Feral Ghouls come into view from the opposite side of the first. They are chasing a girl, a woman really. She was small, but her feet were pumping as she was running for her life. She was wearing an oversized brown wizard robe that made her movement really clumsy. Her oversized hat flopped around on her head, as she tried to keep it on with a free hand for some reason as she ran. The other hand held a broom. An old-school straw and stick broom.
Soto grabbed Colonel’s shoulder, trying to pull him to cover before they were overrun. Colonel doesn’t budge. He looked at the name displayed above her head.
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER: Commoner (Classer)}
{PLAYER NAME: Sugar
CLASS: Druid RACE: Human
Level: 0
HP 45/90
MP 10/175
EFFECTS: Fear 2}
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< TOOL-TIP >
{DEBUFF NAME:FEAR
DEBUFF TYPE:Mental/debilitating
DEBUFF DURATION: 2 hours
DESCRIPTION: Fear is the mind telling the body that something is horribly wrong, and you should be on ultra high alert, but at the same time it tells your muscle not to move from time to time. The second stage will cause fits of hallucinations.}
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“Quick hide, before they see us we can ambush them as they pass by, she will be great bait...”
Sugar the druid, dressed as a wizard, looked up at them and started running towards them. “Help! I am out of mana, and it takes hours for it to regenerate.” She yelled too loud to be ignored by the undead.
More Feral Ghouls all start heading to the duo. At least fifteen if you count the ones chasing Sugar. They weren’t fast, but they were moving.
“FUBAR! Well, guess we have to save her now, no plan ever survives first contact.” Soto said cheerfully, “Hopefully she is the one for the quest. Hold those ghouls off while I get the ones off of her.” Soto said pointing at the first Feral Ghoul, who was about halfway to the teammates now. The others were slowly heading their way from behind the original.
“I got him, but the others I’ll need help with,” Colonel said with little confidence looking at the other ten heading their way. They were further out and moving slower, but they saw them and didn’t look like they were going to stop. “Hurry up Sergeant Major.” He ordered.
“Roger that Colonel. Inventory!” Soto yelled. A grid box popped up with mostly empty grid spaces in front of his face, there were items in three boxes. “I for some reason just got this upgrade to my starter long bow.” Soto tapped two boxes, a dark brown bone compound bow without a bowstring appeared in his left hand and a silver quiver of arrows attached to his hip. Colonel’s Analyze pinged them.
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< ANALYZE >
{ITEM NAME: Dark Head Seeker(P)
ITEM TYPE: Bloodline Weapon; Recurve Bow
ITEM RANK: Platinum(Upgradeable)
ITEM DAMAGE: Base 40 critical times 5
ITEM DESCRIPTION: A recurve bow that is bond to the Soto bloodline, specifically Anthony Soto. This bow requires no ammo, just mana from the user, and environment. The darker it is or if the user is in shadows the less personal mana is consumed.
Bonded to CSM Soto
ITEM EFFECT: Mana Arrows: Just pulling back on the transparent bow string makes a dark arrow made complete out of mana, and doing weapon damage.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
ITEM EFFECT: The longer you hold back the arrow the more dark mana it cost, but the more damage the arrow does.
RARE MOD: Head seeker; Any shot fired from the bow has a 30% chance at a head shot even when target is moving. If fired with solid arrows the % becomes 90%
PLATINUM MOD: Locked(Specialize one of your classes to unlock)}
{ITEM NAME: Bladed arrow quiver(P)
ITEM TYPE: Bloodline Weapon/ammo; refillable quiver/sheath
ITEM RANK: Platinum(Upgradeable)
ITEM DAMAGE: Base 40 critical times 10
ITEM DESCRIPTION: A quiver and sheath that is bonded to the Soto bloodline. This quiver returns any bladed arrows fired every 40 seconds. The user can spend their own mana to recall an arrow at anytime. Each Arrow can be used as a melee weapon as they are shape like a sword and sharper than most their rank.
Arrow count: 19/20
Bonded to Soto
ITEM EFFECT: Bladed Arrow Return.
ITEM EFFECT: Arrowhead change; Arrows have a random negative effect on targets, the more magical the effect the more mana it cost even if the Archer doesn’t have it.
RARE PROJECTILE MOD: Enhance weapon effect; any arrow used enhances the Dark Head Seeker(P) item effect.
RARE MELEE MOD: Bleeding; 40% chance to cause bleed.
PLATINUM MOD: Locked(Specialize both of your classes to unlock)}
{For having both item bound to you, you have gained an inventory to store them, and other items. 90% weight reduction.}
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DONG!
A loud bell sounds startled Colonel, he looked to the church but the sound didn’t come from that direction. It was more like the sound came from inside his head and all around him at the same time.
“ENTER THE DARK RANGER!” A deep voice narrated.
Colonel’s eyebrows rose.
Soto, clearly not hearing the words had a bladed arrow notched, The thing didn’t look like an arrow it was more like a sword with a nock in the hilt to attach to a bowstring. The whole thing looked ridiculously unwieldy. But Soto just calmly aimed at Sugar running to him unfazed. Well, he was unfazed Sugar was hysterical. The bow started to turn black, as darkness bled out of Soto’s hands. The silver arrow also began to turn black, as he had nocked it to the now semi-visible bowstring which was also black.
As he pulled back the arrow, the darkness around it grew, extending the length with dark shadows, and making the head of the arrow more malicious-looking. The long shadows around him start to cling to him like little tendrils. Each new tendril empowered the arrow more and more. The darker it becomes the sharper and more deadly the head becomes.
Colonel turned back to the Feral Ghoul on his side smiling at the coolness of the game. “These graphics are super dope.” It felt like they were in the real world, “and I am really liking this realism.” The feral Ghoul was about ten meters away so he took another step forward to get in a better position to defend his teammate’s back. Just as he sets himself he gets his first skill prompt.
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< GENERAL SKILL LEARNED >
{SKILL NAME: Defensive Stance(U/D)(Toggled/Stacking)
SKILL LEVEL: Student 0
DESCRIPTION: A Stance is path of its own. Everyone has had to take a stance at some point, and like those stances, we stand by them. A Stance fundamentally changes you, pushing you in certain directions, and making other directions difficult attain. While power is difficult to gain by a signal focus in the GREAT GAME, those who do are juggernauts among gods. Defensive stance is the protector’s stance. The player temporarily sacrifices immediate mobility for increased defense. As long as you are in a 1 meter plus T(Where T is Player Tier; Min Tier 1) area of where you are currently standing. When defending, your health pool will continue to get bigger over time, making the player harder to kill the longer the fight goes on without them moving away from their original location. When the player moves from the location all of the gained benefits are removed.
SKILL EFFECT: The player gains +1 Constitution per second while defending.
Cost 100MP per hour.
STUDENT EFFECT: Pool regeneration increases Slightly over time. Effect is based on Constitution stat.}
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< NOTE >
{Nothing is free in the GREAT GAME, however as an NPC and a Legacy gain access to three free General Skills. For NPCs, they can be random, but for Legacies they must be learned or earned.(1/3)}
{For learning this Unique Diamond Tier General skill you are given 13 free attributes in addition to 5 placed in Constitution.}
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< ALERT >
{Player can only have one Stance Skill active at a time. Would you like to keep this Stance active?}
{YES/NO}
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“Yes!” Colonel’s grin widened while he read the prompt. A general skill as his first skill, he had thought he may get a class skill or spell first, he had wanted some kind of enhancement spell, but this was way better according to the different skill descriptions. “I just got a skill, It's pretty cool I think, and it gives me temporary attributes over time.” Colonel did feel a little more solid, but the feeling dissipated quickly before he could pinpoint it.
He took a big step to the left and watched twenty hit points disappear from his HP bar on his HUD. A second later his total HP started ticking up again. His grin became Cheshire-like.
Soto was aiming at his target intently. “About damn time. What is it? It's probably OP, it has to be after all of the crazy stuff we have been getting.” Soto said calmly tracking his target. Sugar was about one hundred meters away now, but she may as well be a mile in the dark. ‘She looks exhausted, what the hell happened to her?’ Soto thought, and then another thought came to him. ‘There isn’t a stamina pool for this game. No, Sergeant Major Focus.’ He told himself feeling his breathing, then he rolled his neck releasing a pop in his neck, lining up his shot, and refocused.
“OP?” Colonel spared a confused look at his best friend and battle buddy who he noticed was beyond focused, getting ready to rain death down on their enemies. He was getting pumped for some reason.
The narrator’s voice started to speak again. “Colonel got goosebumps, the kind you get when you know something amazing was about to happen. Like the ones you get during your first real-world concert.
“This is their first shot. The one that will announce their entrance into the GREAT GAME as a team. It will define them. For good, or for bad. It will be their bare minimum. It will set the standard for every engagement after this for all time. Let the world know, let this moment be frozen in time. Let the ashes that are the beginning of a Phoenix seed bloom into a winged beast of legend. After today Phoenix Prime will rise.” The narrator finished.
“You hear that?” Colonel started only to be cut off by Soto quietly.
“SHHH, I’m working here Colonel, I’m working here,” Soto whispered in a mock New York accent. “Focus Shot.” Soto used his combat class spell. The tip of the arrowhead glowed with a black crosshair the size of a person. The crosshair doesn’t obscure his vision at all, instead, it enhances it.
Soto kind of wished it didn’t though. The too-fast rotting face of the ghoul comes to life in full HD, after he activated the skill. He had to breathe out slowly before the bowstring touched his nose, his body in a perfect T form, Then he released the arrow, the black crosshair folding into the bladed arrow shaft, making it lengthen slightly. The extra length doesn’t affect the flight of the black streak of dark mana screaming at its target promising a silent death in the night.
The now two-meter-long, dark mana-infused bladed arrow, raced through, and across the distance in just over a second, before grazing a few strands of Sugar’s colorful blue hair, cutting clean through them. Her almond-shaped eyes widen with a mixture of fear, exhaustion, and a grim determination to survive.
Then the arrow slammed into the Feral Ghoul that was about to grab her hand that was holding onto the ridiculously unwieldy hat. Soto rolled his eyes at the odd scenario. “Gamers, am I right?”
Colonel inwardly cried a single tear.
A massive -7020 appeared for all to see in big blood-red bold numbers above the place where the Feral Ghoul’s head was previously. Soto smiled at not only the first Feral Ghoul, but the one behind it being killed with a smaller big red -678 and a third being injured, by the sheer penetrating power of the attack, and a little of dumb luck.
“Bing Bong!” Soto whistled impressed, with not only the animation, but the execution of the entire shot from arrow draw, to double decapitation. “EXP is a little underwhelming, but it is a tutorial quest for level zeros, what can we expect.” He shrugged “That shot was mad cool right? I know right! Look at the Battle log real quick... Colonel, this is super dope, but after you look at it, go into your settings and adjust it to the best of your ability, because it is mad distracting.”
Colonel looked at the battle log to see what had happened, and boy did he see, the battle log alone told a much cooler story after seeing the result. He smiled at what he read in childlike glee.
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< BATTLE LOG >
{Soto does CRITICAL DECAPITATING HEADSHOT -7020 DAMAGE to Feral Ghoul(((((40 base + 45 silver arrow enhanced by dark mana)10 critical damage)10% Focus Shot) minus 25% dark resistance)10 decapitating damage)}
{Feral Ghoul level 3 has died! +30 EXP}
{Soto causes CRITICAL CATASTROPHIC HEAD CAVE IN -680 DAMAGE to Feral Ghoul ((((30 brain fragment + 25 dark arrowhead fragment enhanced by dark mana)3 critical damage)10% Focus Shot) minus 25% dark resistance)5 catastrophic damage}
{Feral Ghoul lvl 4 has died! +40 EXP}
{Experience until next level 70/1000}
< OBJECTIVE UPDATED >
{OBJECTIVE 1: Kill 10 Feral Ghouls 2/10}
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Colonel’s eyes bulged at the damage, hell the ghouls only had just over three hundred hit points. So needless to say that was a little overkill.
“That right there Jake! That’s OP, not to be confused with OPP... how can explain it? I’ll take frame by frame it.” Soto rapped with a cocky grin before his eyes widen, and then unfocused reading a new pop-up. “Ha, the best kills are overkill. Whoa, I got two titles for that one shot. The first one is appropriately named, one shot two kills, check it out.”
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{TITLE NAME: One Shot Two Kills
TITLE TIER: Platinum(UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION: For killing two targets above your level with one single shot, and for being the first in the world to do so with a Mana-infused projectile you have earned this title.
TITLE EFFECT: Offensive; Chain attack: Whenever targets are within 4 meters of each other there is a 4% times Class Level chance to cause damage to adjacent target. For every consecutive target -1% chance.
WORLD FIRST UPGRADE: Range attacks effect do 110% less damage to family members, 100% less damage to Teammates, 90% less damage to all other allies.
RARE BONUS: Utility; Leach: On target kill gain +3% times Class Tier HP back from target.
PLATINUM BONUS: Locked(until 1st Specialization)}
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Colonel was impressed with the uniqueness of the title, the Rare bonus was a good way to stay alive longer, and survivability was the first thing any damage dealer needed to have. Life on kill was a game changer, especially in a horde dungeon. “That is pretty dope Soto, You even get another bonus for it in a few levels, I want to know what that bonus will be.”
“I know right.” His eyes shined as he looked at the title prompt. “As cool as the first title was, the second one is... he paused reading.
Colonel was going to reread the first one while he worked through what he was working through when he stopped sharing it. “Hey, I wasn’t done reading that.”
Soto’s face had become ashen somehow. “W-wait, wait a damn minute. This doesn’t make any sense. I am a noble now? Since when? How? When did that even happen? I mean...” Soto started confused, and then his face paled even more. “Ayo this is mad crazy, I’m not even a vampire anymore Colonel. All that rushing, and for what?” His eyes unfocused reading through his HUD.
He goes through his character sheet franticly. “I chose vampire because I really wanted to play as one, What the hell? How they just goin’ do me like that, taking that away from me man?” He said dejectedly. “What is going on? Stupid freaking beta test, they must have updated my character once we got here. I wonder what for?” He said shaking his head. “I am a Half-Human? What the hell does that even mean? No more information of course... that's it, just half human, what is the other half?”
“Damn!” Colonel tried to feel for him, but he wasn’t into the character creation part of the game nearly as much as Soto, Often he would just play with the default avatar which would of course annoy the hell out of Soto. Besides he was glad his character was already pre-made.
Soto continued to vent. “It's not even cool like an elf, werewolf, or even something more exotic.” He would have taken anything else, Soto never played human in video games, so he was going through a myriad of emotions trying to come to terms with his character being changed without his permission. It was affecting him more than he thought it should be, but the character felt like it was him, and he hated feeling like some developer could just jump in, and change his character. His mind was spinning.
Colonel knew his friend, and he needed to do something sooner rather than later, “Focus Sergeant Major!” Colonel ordered in his command voice, the tone, pitch, and seriousness, bringing Soto out of his spiral of character creation questions. They were in a game, but they always took combat as seriously as they could while playing any game. Which admittedly wasn’t that serious, but way beyond that of your average gamer. “We good?” Colonel asked as Soto caught his breath reaching into his pocket for his inhaler and nodding at him. Colonel nodded back his approval.
“Yeah, I’m good. We will have to go over all this stuff later. I think I actually really like the double class option though, it’s pretty... You know what, never mind, later, we will discuss it later.” Soto said catching himself again. He smiled sheepishly then saw something forming behind Sugar who was still running, where he had killed the first feral ghouls. Golden light started to trickle out of the ghoul’s body... lower half, as it started to become less opaque. The lines turned into grey lines of energy trailing away from both dead ghouls.
Colonel looked back at Sugar; the Ghouls on one side of her were just gone, leaving behind slowly forming grey floating globes that looked like a miniature representation of the Earth, but without any color, just dark grey for the landmasses, and light grey for the oceans, rivers and lakes. They lazily rotate in place above where the dead ghoul’s remains should be.
The ghouls’ bodies disappeared completely, absorbed into the earth and the environment. Blowing away in the wind were the last ashes of the creature's body. His Analyze ability kicked in, and his reason for living slightly changed, not noticeable to the outside eye, but Colonel felt it. The pull of something truly magical, and Soto felt it as well as soon as he read the small prompt.
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{Common Loot Globe}
_____________________________________________________________
Three little words that meant so, so, so much.
“Loot!” Soto said his eyes shining like an only child on Christmas morning. Like a house cat looking at a cornered mouse, like a dog doing... well, just about anything, we really don’t deserve dogs.
The draw of the loot globe was palpable, almost involuntary, the allure of items, gear, and currency that may be included within were stalwart aspects of all great roleplaying games.
Colonel was smiling for another reason, however. He has a few exclamation points in his HUD. The notifications didn’t immediately jump to the front of his vision. He was happy about that. Looking at the ghouls heading their way, Colonel could see they had all slowed down after the first two were killed, but they were still moving clumsily toward him and Soto’s position.
‘Were they being more curious, or am I just seeing things?’ He thought while taking a few seconds to read the new notifications or were they prompts? He shook his head It doesn’t matter both work. The new icons are represented by two capital As with the word NEW overlaying each letter. He still can’t get over how cool this is.
Colonel mentally clicked and absorbed the information this time, he instantly understood what the prompts were saying, and even some of the nuances he would have missed if he had just read it. He still read it to verify that absorbing the information was just as effective. Both ways seem to have a benefit. Mentally absorbing the information gave Colonel an instinctual feel for the prompt, but reading it brings that primal feeling into complete understanding. He was impressed, and that was saying a lot because this game kept getting better and better, Then all of the information came together, and Colonel chuckled to himself, he got excited about learning the English language. “Thank you colonialism, never thought I would be saying those words.”
_____________________________________________________________
{NAME: English(C)
LEVEL: MAX
DESCRIPTION: Your native language. Based on West Germanic language. Speaking, reading, and writing included. Sign language is also included, but only American Sign Language until you view another.
SUB-ABILITY EFFECT: Read, write, and speak English fluently.
MAX EFFECT: Teach English as a Profession skill, and do it at a breakneck speed, your students will level faster.}
_____________________________________________________________
{For learning this sub-ability you also learn the main ability associated with said sub-ability.}
_____________________________________________________________
< ALERT >
{Since a sub-ability cannot be higher level than the main ability your main ability has been MAXED OUT}
_____________________________________________________________
< DING >
{For leveling a COMMON sub-ability to MAX you have been awarded +8 Charisma & +5 Intelligence}
_____________________________________________________________
< ABILITY GAINED >
{NAME: Speech-craft(R)
LEVEL: MAX
Description: The art, skill and science of speech, and language. The player’s ability to speak, write, read, and understand all aspects of languages. The player learns each language as a sub-ability. Sign languages also but will have to be viewed separately.
ABILITY EFFECT: Read, write, speak, and understand any learned language fluently and as a sub-ability.
MAX EFFECT: Learn any language by observing it once.
MAX EFFECT: Teach any learned language at a high leveling speed.
MAX EFFECT: Teach Skill version of this ability}
_____________________________________________________________
{For leveling a Rare Ability to MAX you have been awarded +13 Charisma, +13 Intelligence & 13 free Attributes.}
_____________________________________________________________
“Hmm, I just got two abilities for knowing English, I think?” Colonel shrugged in confusion, seeing the stat gain he didn’t care. “But I gained thirty-nine attributes between Charisma and Intelligence. So...I am good with that.” He smiled.
A massive feeling of euphoria accompanied the stat increase. Old scars became less prominent on his face, grey hairs a little darker, and his dark brown eyes grew slightly darker, clearing the sclera of any floaters that made it whiter. But it was the intelligence that had a much more massive change. Colonel could remember moments in his life that he had not thought about in decades, and he could just as easily compartmentalize those memories. His mental acuity was off the charts now, math problems that he couldn’t solve in high school in the nineties came to mind, and he solved them in seconds. All of them.
He wasn’t smarter per se. His mind was just clearer, unburdened. Even some of the questions he shouldn’t have been able to answer, purely because he hadn’t actively learned them, but looking through his old memories he could see he had read a blog once, a decade ago... that had the formula to solve that specific problem. He hadn’t done more than skim it and he could recall it as easily as if it was yesterday. So maybe he was smarter, depending on what metric you measure intellect by, either way, he felt awesome. ‘Clear mind, full heart, can’t lose.’ Colonel quoted.
For some reason, he also started to get the feeling for his new avatar. He didn’t know what to think about that though. He turned to Soto “Are we avatars in a game, or are we actually in the game? I mean are we just sitting somewhere with our PARs on smiling like goofballs? That can’t be right, Mine was on the floor before we were teleported... or was that part of the game as well? This full immersion is confusing as hell. I mean when did the immersion start? When we parked? Or was when were went into the conference room?” Colonel voiced his thoughts to Soto.
“It's best not to think about it for real. I always say we are the game players, we are not the game designers, you know what I mean?” Soto nodded sagely, “Also that makes sense with no class skills you obviously have a different path of progression than I do. Yours must be more open-world related, so you may have to learn everything, and free stats are never a bad thing.” Soto paused looking around.
“All in all it’s dope. While my little ole path is more focused on my class skills or spells, and anything else I get is extra but, nothing is guaranteed. His eyes were unfocused and widened, “No wonder my mind was slow right now. If you can get powers that give you more intelligence take them ASAP because that one shot took forty percent of my mana.” He shook his head. “I can only do it one more time, and Mana regeneration is slow. Soto said excited for Colonel, but exasperated with the game’s sedate regeneration system, the curse and debuff definitely didn’t help. “Really slow.”
“How slow?” Colonel asked.
“Hours maybe more like she said, not nearly as bad as HP that is days Sheesh.” He nodded in Sugar’s direction and fired at another Ghoul who was trying to cut her off. The uncharged silver arrow expanded as it hit the ghoul's head and cut it head in half causing it to stumble backward as Sugar ran by. “I think that's good if everyone has that limit, but I feel for mage classes, or caster type, they will be always on empty. But-” The words were lost with his mouth fully open as he noticed the ghoul standing back up missing the top half of its head. It looked around, well, looked around was a little misleading since the top of its head, just above the nose was currently on the floor next to it. “How was that not a crit?” He complained dryly. “A part of his head is on the freaking floor.”
“Ground, not floor.”
Soto turned to look at Colonel, then fired a second uncharged shot still eyeing his team leader. “What is the difference?” He asked.
“Usually some type of cover, or roof, but generally floors are inside, while the ground is outside.” Colonel academically responded.
The ghoul dies as the second arrow takes off what is left of its head. “Really, what about a forest floor? Or the ocean floor? Smart guy.” Soto smugly clapped back.
Colonel faked rubbed his chin like he was thinking really hard, but Soto knew that look, Colonel knew the answer already and Soto had walked into his teaching trap. Colonel used to be a Chief Warrant Officer, and they are the specialist for all of the armed forces of the United States military, and then the JTF. Because of that, they were almost always in teaching mode.
“Well, the ocean floor is covered in billions on billions of tons of water and marine life.” He paused giving his Sergeant Major a chance to answer his own question a great sign of an experienced teacher.
Soto rolled his eyes looking away, of course, he had too much respect for the man next to him to not be serious, but he hated being treated like a kid. “...and forest floors are covered in leaves.” He said quickly trying to move past the classroom environment.
“No... actually I hadn’t thought about that, I was going to say tree cover, but I guess leaves work as well” Colonel partially agreed.
“Speaking of forests.” Soto started glad to be passed another semantics lecture with his team lead. He was glad that he was getting comfortable, and becoming more of himself in the game. The problem was Colonel was boring as hell and would talk about semantics, history, and other boring subjects if you let him. Time to get him back on track. “We need to find potions, or something like that. Whatever allows us to replenish our pools, this is nuts how long it is going to take.” That should do to get them back in game mode. But it seems that Soto didn’t have to do anything as he looked at him, Colonel was reading the objective update.
_____________________________________________________________
< EXP GAINED >
{Feral Ghoul level 7 has died! +70 EXP}
{Experience until next level 130/1000}
< OBJECTIVE UPDATE >
{OBJECTIVE 1: Kill 10 Feral Ghouls 3/10}
_____________________________________________________________
“That ghoul was level seven, how is that even fair already? And what's with the EXP? That thing was a level seven.” Soto complained, loudly attracting more ghouls. Just then the injured one with an arrowhead fragment in-bedded in its face started getting up and immediately locked eyes with a clearly exhausted Sugar again. She doesn’t hesitate to back up quickly.
“Is it really that long?” Colonel calmly said. “I feel it's about right when you think about it. In real life that's fast, regeneration wise I mean. I know we look at the game for fantasy, but I think the ones that are closer to reality really bring out the best in gamers, developers, and storytellers.” He turned to his side. “Stand by Sergeant Major.”
The first Feral Ghoul got to Colonel and leaped at him arms flailing in a windmilling fashion. Colonel had been standing in one place for the last dozen or so seconds, his Defensive Stance skill making it so his HP had gone up by over one hundred points, and still rising, because of that his Defensive Rating was becoming more potent. He felt tougher, glancing at his hands, they didn’t seem any tougher. His pool regeneration numbers were ticking up slowly as well, including his DR which had already quadrupled its original number. Colonel was ready.
To him, the Ghoul was really slow, like ridiculously slow. The stat difference between them was overwhelmingly clear, especially in dexterity, he could easily predict its sluggish movement like a book he wrote. The more he looked at it, the more weak points started to populate all over its body, small red bull-eyes mark these weakness icons. Another NEW exclamation point popped up in his HUD, this one seems to be a skill. He smiled even bigger.
_____________________________________________________________
< GENERAL SKILL LEARNED >
{SKILL NAME: Find Weakness(R) (PASSIVE)
SKILL LEVEL: Student 1
DESCRIPTION: Your intense stare and observant look see more than a normal player can. The player can see the weaknesses of their target the longer they look at it.
SKILL EFFECT: The longer the player looks at their target the more the target starts to show weak points. The effect is based on Skill level.
STUDENT EFFECT: Stacks with other skills and masteries.}
_____________________________________________________________
< NOTE >
{Nothing is free in the GREAT GAME, however as an NPC and a Legacy gain access to three free General Skills. For NPCs, they can be random, but for Legacies they must be learned or earned.(2/3)}
{For learning this Rare Tier General skill you are given 30 free attributes.}
_____________________________________________________________
The ghoul's hands weren’t weak, but they were clumsy, and Colonel had strength enough to match, not to mention real-life training. Colonel knocked aside the hands in a clean practiced motion. The ghoul stumbled forward awkwardly. Now unbalanced, and without the dexterity to correct itself, Colonel used its forward momentum to strike.
He brought his knee to the Feral Ghoul’s jaw while gripping its shoulders tightly. The Feral Ghoul’s head pops off its body from the shoulder, taking the cervical vertebrae, connective tissue, and acidic blood with it. An oversized bold red -2023 replaced the head, then the ghoul began to dissolve into a grey loot globe just as black blood sizzled against the ground after seemingly bouncing harmlessly off of Colonel's face. He grimaced at the not-so-clean kill as a blue -1 floated up from him. He got an auto-battle log prompt.
_____________________________________________________________
< BATTLE LOG >
{COLONEL does CRITICAL DECAPITATING KNEE STRIKE -2023 DAMAGE to Feral Ghoul ((((10 base + 10 forward momentum)10 weak point)10 Decapitating blow)+ 23 strength)}
{Feral Ghoul Level 4 has died! +40 EXP}
{Experience until next level 170/1000}
< DAMAGE NEGATED BY DR >
{-10 corrosive blood damage
DR -1}
{DR:29/30 HP:240/240}
_____________________________________________________________
< OBJECTIVE UPDATE >
{OBJECTIVE 1: Kill 10 Feral Ghouls 4/10}
_____________________________________________________________
< ABILITY LEVEL UP >
{Analyze in now NOVICE 2}
_____________________________________________________________
< SKILL LEVEL UP >
{Defensive Stance is now Student 3}
{Find weakness is now Student 4}
_____________________________________________________________
Soto chuckled “Physics am I right?” He makes a facial expression and holds it, mouth open, “You get it, huh, you feel me? No? Ah well.”
A blue +1 floated out of Colonel as he deadpanned Soto's stupidly chuckling face. “You are going to be unbearable this entire time aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.” He responds shamelessly and quickly. “Well that was a little crazy, you like... demolished the ghoul’s head with a knee, it looked mad cool, but a lot more ghouls left blackie Chan until we level.”
“Oh, my man you could do so much better than that Soto, Blackie Chan, it is so nineties.” Colonel shook his head disappointed.
“True, true, but I was on short notice so, an oldie but goodie.” He smiled nostalgic, then remembered himself. “Alright passenger fifty-seven!” He winked and then laughed at Colonel’s frown. “You should turn off your battle log if you still have yours on, I am sure you can see how distracting it can be by now. Shall we get serious?” Soto asked aiming at the closest ghoul. His whole vibe changed instantly.
“Yes Sergeant Major, let's do that,” Colonel answered just as another ghoul came within range of his Defensive Stance. He grabbed the arms of the ghouls instead of parrying them this time, he had seen a red weakness icon not only showing him where the weak points were but also where to rotate for maximum damage.
He mentally took off his battle log knowing how to do so instinctually. Then he followed the directions of the weakness icons and was rewarded with two quick pops, then the arms were torn out of the socket, and ripped from the body.
A second ghoul got in his range, and he reacted quickly swinging both bone exposed, dripping acidic bloody arms, at the neck of the new challenger. The speed of the swing, and the jumping attack power that these ghouls all seem to use, turned out to be an instantly fatal mistake for the newcomer, mushing its skull and brain so quickly its regeneration didn’t have any time to activate. The two arms broke in the process.
The armless ghoul looked confused at its stubs, and Colonel didn’t let it recover. He swept and kicked it, tripping it, He stood over it and smashed its head into the ground multiple times until its loot globe formed. He had to go and look at the battle log because he wanted to keep an eye on his experience updates, skill, ability level-ups, and quest updates so he would know when to stop beating these ghouls up. They were tough little creatures though.
_____________________________________________________________
< EXP GAINED >
{Feral Ghoul Level 8 has died! +80 EXP}
{Experience until next level 250/1000}
_____________________________________________________________
Colonel’s eyebrow raised ‘A level eight already? I killed it pretty easily too.’ He thought. ‘Are the feral ghouls leveling up?’
_____________________________________________________________
< EXP GAINED >
{Feral Ghoul Level 6 has died! +60 EXP}
{Experience until next level 310/1000}
_____________________________________________________________
< OBJECTIVE UPDATE >
{OBJECTIVE 1: Kill 10 Feral Ghouls 6/10}
_____________________________________________________________
< SKILL LEVEL UP >
{Defensive Stance is now Student 6}
{Find weakness is now Student 7}
_____________________________________________________________
< ABILITY LEVEL UP >
{Analyze in now NOVICE 3}
_____________________________________________________________
Soto pulled a blade arrow out of a dead feral ghoul as it fell over headless in a smooth motion, he cut off the hands of another ghoul attacking him, then nocked the same arrow and let it go at point blank range at another ghoul taking it off its feet, and sending it flying backward into yet another ghoul. He noticed his bladed arrows seem to have different random effects, but couldn’t tell right now considering he was fighting flesh-eating crackheads... And they were getting stronger fast.
_____________________________________________________________
{Feral Ghoul Level 9 has died! +90 EXP}
{Experience until next level [200/1000][200/1000]}
_____________________________________________________________
< OBJECTIVE UPDATE >
{OBJECTIVE 1: Kill 10 Feral Ghouls 7/10}
_____________________________________________________________
‘Good, Colonel had killed another.’ Soto thought as he got the update. Then his eyes narrowed at the level of the last one killed and smiled mischievously. “You think you big time, come mess with me mami, I’ll show you a good time! Here comes the pain.” He taunted all the feral ghouls rushing them with a silly grin and two-bladed arrows in his hands, and his bow back in his inventory. So much for getting serious.
***
SUGAR
Sugar was now cut off, and was desperately trying to get around the three ghouls between her, and the only other humans still alive to her knowledge in this god-forsaken place. She had seen them kill those feral ghouls, no one had done that so far, and she had seen a lot try, like hundreds of people tried and failed to kill any without also expiring in the process. She thought they must have been thrown somewhere higher level by accident. How was any of this even possible? One minute she was laughing and talking with her new teammates in a room with some chairs, and a few refreshments, then next there was an earthquake, and boom she was surrounded on all sides by ugly rotting feral ghouls. It was so ludicrous every one of her teammates was caught off guard, which kind of got them all killed.
All of her former teammates, and everyone she had run into the entire time she had been in the game, had only managed to buy her time to run, generally by sacrificing their lives, mostly painfully, always bloodily, and never voluntarily. The game was Dark Souls three-level hard, and way too realistic. It was scary how realistic it was. She looked back at her pursuers.
She almost stumbled again. Her outfit was not meant to run in. She thought she would be in a VR game, or something similar, not actually transported somewhere in her impractical cosplay outfit. It was winter in Los Angeles so she had dressed warmly. Good thing too because being outside at night in Princess Leia’s outfit from Return of the Jedi, would have probably caused the game to give her a hypothermia debuff. It was way too freaking real.
To be honest, until seeing these two, she was having her doubts that it was even a game in the first place, as tired as she was. She had been on the ran for hours. It certainly doesn’t feel like a game.
The good news was, that she had gotten a general skill. Of course, she didn’t know what the differences between the skill types were since she did not have a tooltip as the boys did, but the skill Danger Sense told her the feral ghouls were not chasing her anymore, That was the first time since she had gotten it that they weren’t. She was dead tired, and she could sit, and rest for the first time in what seemed like days, but was in reality only a few hours.
She looked at the guys fighting all the feral ghouls in the immediate area. As more shamble in, they were all heading towards the real threats, the ones that could actually hurt them, It's not like the two guys were hiding, or anything. As a matter of fact, Sugar was pretty sure they were casually talking, smiling, and laughing, while they nonchalantly killed all the ghouls in front of them, and the new ones entering the kill zone around them. It was an odd thing to watch, to say the least, after what she had been through, but also scary as hell. They killed them easier than the ghouls had killed her teammates.
The two guys, one with pale skin and Latin features were dressed in an all-black ninjitsu outfit, his ninja hood down revealing his Yankee baseball cap. He shoots arrows, silver or black ones at the ghouls attacking them. The silver ones were clearly more dangerous, he sometimes even used the silver ones as daggers or short swords when the ghouls got too close for him to use the bow. Each arrow attack both range and melee would leave a ghoul headless, Not all the shots killed, but all had the stopping power to give him more room to work, and boy was he putting in work.
The other guy was a fit, dark skin, black man dressed in old school fatigues, he was clearly the military type in a cool uncle that served, and you looked up to kind of way. But even with that familiarity, he was even more of an odd sight than the first guy. He had just beaten a ghoul with its own leg, a leg he ripped off way too easily. It was absurd, the strength that must take. They were so strong, too strong almost. ‘How?’ Sugar wondered, ‘How could they get so strong so quickly? Are they even human beings?’
None of her teammates had gotten an identification power, she couldn’t scan them for information like other games. But she didn’t need a skill, or an ability to see that these two men radiated great strength, not just in the game, but they carried a confidence that she had only seen in the military members of her family, and her mother of course. She never had her mother’s confidence either. It was always an overwhelming presence in her life, Sometimes oppressively so. But she had thought she was passed that, but this whole situation was bringing back all those thoughts of childhood inadequacies.
The thought of her mother brought her back to the reality of the game situation. She was weak, and she had never really felt strong in her entire life, but this was the first time she had ever felt so weak.
She balled up her fist and shook her head, This game was tapping into her real-life traumas, and she didn’t like the questions it was forcing her to ask herself. “Why is this happening to me? Why now? Why am I so weak? Who do I want to be? I want to get stronger, I need to be stronger.” She weakly whispers, every word meaning more, and more At the end she was ready to do what must be done to gain power.
“I can make you stronger little girl.” A sweet voice spoke to her telepathically, startling her.
“Who’s there?” She yelled looking around. Nothing answered back.
_____________________________________________________________
< SKILL LEVEL UP >
{Danger sense is now Student 6}
_____________________________________________________________
***
DUNGEON CORE ROOM
VAMPIRE LORD
On a projected screen against an immaculate white wall, a ghoul was seen jumping on the back of a young girl fighting for her life. She managed to shake the ghoul off just as her boyfriend swung a bat at its head. The ghouls died and a loot globe formed. The boyfriend turned around to smile at the girl when an arm punctured his chest. His eyes rolled back as the girl screamed for her life.
“Ah man that sucks I almost had that chick.” The Vampire Lord said looking at another screen with Sugar sitting on the floor.
Thrall Aldo stood to his left and behind him while Lisette stood to his right looking from screen to screen.
“Now she seems more wary, I wonder what that was, a skill? She shouldn’t have the skill points to buy one at this Tier.” He mused as he drank a glass of blood, and ate chunks of raw human. Bones and bodies litter the room but are slowly being absorbed by the floor.
Different types of battles could be seen throughout the Dungeon on the screens, some beating the Ghouls, but most were dying painful, gruesome deaths.