CHAPTER V: SYNERGY
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{07:06 ZULU TIME 1ST JANUARY 1ME}
{23:06 LOCAL TIME 31ST DECEMBER 2038AD}
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LONG BEACH
PRIME
Colonel breathed heavily as he looked at their engagement area. They were surrounded by loot globes and Soto was counting his remaining arrows. They may have overdone it a little with the killing. It couldn’t be helped the ghouls just kept rushing them. Soto only had three arrows left, and then a fourth reappeared in the quiver, Colonel smiled at how cool that looked. Just a tiny flash of light and there it was, a brand new bladed arrow.
His HUD has a glowing golden Q with the word ‘COMPLETE’ running through it, he mentally clicked it, and a quest completion prompt appears.
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< QUEST COMPLETE >
{Quest Name: STOP THE OUTBREAK I
Quest Type: Legacy Tutorial(Legendary)
Description: Something 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.
Objective 1: Kill 10 Feral Ghouls 20/10(Completed)
Objective 2: Help the Girl(Completed)
Time limit: 10 mins. (Completed)
Rewards: 1100 EXPERIENCE, answers, and Legacy gloves and a TITLE.}
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< LEVEL UP >
{The Legacy gains +1 to every Attribute except magic and +3 Constitution. All pools refilled.}
{Experience until next level 1660/2000}
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He swelled with energy and then was distracted by another prompt.
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< ABILITY LEVEL UP >
{Analyze in now NOVICE 5}
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< SKILL LEVEL UP >
{Defensive Stance is now Student 9}
{Skill Quest: Block 10 attacks without losing any HP (6/10 Completed)}
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{Find weakness is now Novice 0}
{Skill Quest: Find 10 weaknesses on one enemy(Complete)}
< GENERAL SKILL TIER UP >
{+7 Luck +2 Dexterity +1 Intelligence & +6 skill points}
{SKILL NAME: Find Weakness(R) (PASSIVE)
SKILL LEVEL: Novice 0
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. Effect is based on Skill level.
STUDENT EFFECT: Stacks with other skills and masteries.}
NOVICE EFFECT: Show directional arrows for more effective damage. If no weakness is available the player will be informed why. Effect is based on Skill level and intelligence stat.}
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Colonel’s pools were replenished with the Level Up. He was then hit with another wave of euphoria as his stats were applied from leveling up his class and tiering up his skills. ‘Wow, that is a crazy feeling.’ He thought the feeling was so amazing he wanted to go out and find more ghouls to kill right away, he wanted more power now, he wanted more levels now.
The reward feedback system was almost addicting, certainly habit-forming at the very least, he could see people just playing the game for this feeling alone. He could feel the pull of needing to get even stronger, and the primal need to grow. It wasn’t affecting his free will per se, but it was an instinctual drive to be at the top of the food chain, to be number one. He smiled at the primal part of him talking for the first time. He had always known it was there. But now he knew he could finally satiate it. The share amount of enemies he could see on his map proved that.
Colonel smiled at the thoughts. His body hadn’t felt like this in years, hell even decades, so he was grateful for non-cracking knees, non-ringing ears, and no lingering headaches, God he hated those headaches. TBI, or Traumatic brain injuries were no joke, and Colonel had been blown up a lot to earn that diagnostics from the VA, but now he was headache-free for the first time since his first combat tour, back in Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003 thirty-five years of constant headaches. He shook his head in wonder at the painless feeling.
A new prompt brought him back to the game reality, Right the game, it was getting confusing, and his mind had drifted. This reality was blending way too seamlessly. But Colonel approved. This game was awesome, and he was not going to let reality taint it.
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< Sub-SKILL LEARNED >
{Skill Name: Legacy style Grappling(U/Ru)(PASSIVE)
Level: Student 7
Description: Legacies are jacks of trades so naturally their fighting style can incorporate all styles. But your personal style is based on finding weaknesses and exploiting them to a devastating amount of damage while countering your enemies by taking their attacks head-on and sending it back at them. A brutal foundation to build your fighting style on, but ultimately very effective.
SKILL EFFECT: The longer you are engaged with a target the more weaknesses you can exploit.
Speed of effect is based on Skill level and mental stats.
(Stacks with other weakness effects)
STUDENT EFFECT: Defense bypass: The player ignores 1% of the target's defense if hit by the target.
The effect increases with Skill level.}
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After the second group of ghouls, he had earned this sub-skill, and the main skill associated with it. Funny enough Soto didn’t gain any new skills from action like he did, Colonel was a little disappointed, but Soto didn’t seem to mind at all. If anything he actually liked that each person’s gaming experience was unique, and each road to power was different.
Colonel wasn’t so sure he liked it, there was always a need for structure in gaming, writing, and storytelling. But it was always the ones who did it a little differently that usually had you excited for change. The moment Grand Thief Auto Three came out the sandbox genre took off to new heights. GTA three was just a simple change of perspective. Now the execution of that change was probably ridiculous, but compared to what Rockstar had done, MG Corp, and PAR just flip perspective on its head. This game so far was a freaking masterpiece.
Even now he couldn’t tell whether he was in a game. Outside of the game prompts and mechanics, a person wouldn’t be able to tell at all. The breeze that was hitting his face felt crisp. The clear night sky was a little unrealistic with the amount of stars he could see, but the smell of death, and decay really brought the whole macabre scene home. Colonel wrinkled his nose as the smells hit him. He distracted himself by looking at the gains from his fight. He noticed that the skill prompts prior never mentioned sub-skills. “Yo sergeant major, how come my tool tip didn’t mention sub-skills and sub-abilities?” He said while sharing his prompts. “Am I missing something?”
Soto grinned reading his skills. “I think your Tool Tip is a high tier one, but not the highest one, Mine doesn’t even give me that breakdown of skills, and abilities like yours actually did, so it might be that yours is too a low of a level and or, your tooltip is not the best, which is the same thing, I guess kinda?. It is better than mine though, so don’t trip.”
Colonel felt a little better about the whole thing after that explanation. He didn’t like missing things, however, he did like getting sub anything, which meant you got the main ability/skill as well. It was an easy way to get two skills. Though he did have limited skill slots so he shouldn’t take too many basic ones. Then he thought about it, he didn’t have a choice which skill he could take. He had learned the first three he got without prompting.
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{For learning this UNIQUE Rare General Sub-skill you have been awarded +30 to all Attributes except magic & +130 free attributes}
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{For learning this sub-skill you also learn the main General skill associated with it.}
< G-SKILL LEARNED >
{SKILL NAME: Hand to hand(R)(PASSIVE)
SKILL LEVEL: Student 7
DESCRIPTION: The ability to punch someone in the face, preferably multiple times, and also prevent them from punching you in your face.
STUDENT EFFECT: Stun; Chance 1%. Effect is based on Skill level and physical stats.}
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{For learning this Rare General Skill you have been awarded +3 to Strength, Dexterity, and constitution (Physical stats)}
< 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.(3/3)
You have reached your limit of free skills Every learned & earned skill will be available for purchase in the skill store moving forward with the exception of Title skills which are gifted.}
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Then something interesting happened. Three capital gold S forms over two skills and his hand-to-hand mastery ability. Colonel looked at them and smirked at the new prompt. ‘This game has it all huh? I love it.’
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< SYNERGY ALERT >
{Your Hand to hand General skill, and hand to hand Mastery ability can be combined with Legacy Style Grappling sub-skill creating a new synergistic higher rank General Skill. Would you like to do this? Be advised, you will lose the attributes, and possibly some of the benefits that two of three will be able to provide you from the open leveling system in the future.}
{YES/NO. TOUCH ONE.}
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Colonel froze looking at the new prompt. This was a very deliberate prompt, the wording was also distinct, not as vague as the others.
Soto had continued to talk oblivious. He rolled his eyes at Colonel “...a matter of fact, I don’t care about the real world Colonel, it is not what I came here for bro. So regen should absolutely be better than real life. I don’t want real life, I came for adventure, magic, epic fights, exotic foods, crafting, base building, and raids that have hundreds of fighters, and a hundred times more enemies. I play games to role play, not to real play.”
Soto never understood what all these people got out of putting games on nightmare mode. There was no benefit, other than breaking your controllers or sending it flying through your television screen, it was all well beyond him. He preferred to put the game on easy, that way the only hard part was PVP. Player versus Player was always challenging because humans are less predictable than programmed mobs. But Soto was a master of human psychology.
“To be fair, you didn’t know you would be even playing this game today,” Colonel said before looking back at his HUD smiling. “You thought you would be in a cool conference room listening to some dungeon master telling you about the new world she was building or something. Probably whining about not playing this game actually.”
“And yet here I am trying to enjoy myself without the real-world problems of reality sneaking in. While my commanding officer is going soft on me in the process. Don’t make me make you pinky promise to role-play here Jake, cause I will, on my grandkids I will.” Soto threatened with his pinky out like a five-year-old.
“Fine, fine... no need for all of that, sausage fingers.” He shivered at the thought. ”I leveled up and got two more skills during that fight by the way. The prompts are asking me if I want to combine them with my mastery ability for some synergy thing. What do you honestly think, should I?” Colonel asked seriously torn not wanting to give up free attributes per tier, but getting a new higher rank skill might be worth it. He also didn’t know what would happen if he didn’t accept. Would he get a SYNERGY ALERT again, or was this always a one-time thing? ‘Wait a minute...’ Colonel thought ‘is my Legacy fighting sub-skill Runic? What was above that?’ The variables in this game were like an onion every time you peeled back a layer, they were more and more, and each new layer was a juicyer.
Soto charged another shot and fired at the left side of the caster, alerting her to more ghouls coming up behind her. She started to run again. A duplicate arrow broke off at the two-meter mark hitting another Feral Ghoul knocking it back, and stunning it, A stun timer of 10 seconds appeared above its head, and it stood in place head spinning lazily. The other ghoul’s head misted the air with black blood all over the ground as it was rapidly absorbed. In seconds all that was left was the loot globe.
“Nice.” Colonel admired his shot and opened his battle log to see what happened. He adjusted the calculations he just wanted the totals.
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< BATTLE LOG >
{Soto does CRITICAL DECAPITATING HEADSHOT -6350 DAMAGE to Feral Ghoul}
{Feral Ghoul level 9 has died! +90 EXP}
{Experience until next level 1750/2000}
{Soto causes -58 DAMAGE to Feral Ghoul}
{Feral Ghoul is stunned}
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“Forty two an hour in regeneration, that’s mad stupid bro. It would take me two and half hours to use that attack again, I mean leveling up refilled my mana, thats dope, like really dope. But that makes it feel like they are pushing us to level up more.” Soto stopped reading his HUD and looked at Colonel. “Wait, you got another skill? You may have a skill based character for sure then, like umm...” He thought for a second. “Like Elder Scrolls. Mine is more like World of Warcraft.”
“Which is better? I only played Skyrim from the elder scroll series.” Colonel had no problem with that play style at all.
“WoW wasn’t the GOAT of all massively multiplayer online roleplaying games for no reason. Their interface was not the best, but it was top five everything about them was top five. You still had multiple paths to growth, and you can still compliment your build with gear that can adjust with your play style. In E.S. Stats play a much more massive role and of course, gear was a huge aspect. It was just giving you more stats so you can overwhelm your enemies. ES was superior in story wow superior in longevity. In my opinion of course. I also jump ship from WOW to ESO so I am kind of a hypocrite. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
“More like the jester,” Colonel said under his breath, Soto still heard.
“You wound me, sir.” He said with a mock accent. “But seriously, you should always combine stuff if you can, especially when the game system tells you there is synergy.” He paused to think. “Also we don’t know if there might be a cap to our skills. Your Tool Tip might not be as OP as I thought. We could be missing things. There shouldn’t be a cap on the scope of the game, but I can’t imagine how they would be able to pull it off, an unlimited-skill game. I hope so because if not, that means I will more than likely have fewer skills slots than you, If there are, I don’t like that.” Soto thought out loud, “Do it, there is only one Feral Ghoul left I can handle it with my remaining regular arrows. Plus Sugar looks healthy and she is in the clear for-”
Sugar tripped... really hard, so hard she does damage to herself. A sad red -3 sat above her on the floor where she fell defeated. Colonel analyzed her again after her ungraceful fall. He got more information from the new Analyze probably because he leveled up.
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Sugar
LEVEL: 0 EXP to next level 0/1000
CASTE: Commoner(Classer) CLASS: Druid RACE: Human
POOLS:
HP 31/90 regen 27HP per day
MP 11/139 regen 31MP per hour
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:8 Dexterity:11 Constitution:9 Intelligence:18
Magic:1.39 Charisma:13 Luck: 7
EFFECTS: Fear 2, Exhaustion 2}
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The first thing Soto noticed was he hadn’t gained any experience yet. How was that even possible? There are hundreds of feral ghouls running around. Maybe more he didn’t know how big the place was, it was damn near impossible to not run into at least one.
Secondly, her pools were dangerously low, which meant she had to have been in some type of combat which begs the question, how did she not have any experience? That first question will nag him for a bit.
“How come she doesn’t have any experience?” Colonel asked the same question, but out loud.
“I was just thinking that.” Soto calmly gestured for her to come to them. They would move to her but Colonel’s Defensive Stance skill had pretty much made him invincible by now. His constitution was at the point that he could let the ghoul punch him without him worrying about any damage sneaking through, which worked out great with his fighting style.
Sugar tried to get up again, but turned around in the process looking back at her pursuer, and tripped again. They could hear her ankle pop as she twisted it with her awkward rise and fall. She whimpered more out of fear, than pain, but pain was still a close second. The fear was what paralyzed her movements, the pain made it so if she did move she felt it.
Both Soto and Colonel look at her like she was a bubbly blonde in a cheesy B-horror movie. She looked at them, snot running down her nose, and tears streaking her dirt-covered face. Her bloodshot eyes pleading for help from them. Even the feral ghoul which had been injured by Soto’s previous attack was looking at her back stunned. The whole scene was pitiful and just... wrong, and Soto saw a chance to take advantage of the situation.
“Quick send her a team invite,” Soto said quickly before changing his mind because of the repercussions. “I mean a party invite. Do a party invite instead, don’t do a team invite, Colonel.”
But Colonel had already sent the team invite without a thought, he was incredibly quick at following orders. “Too late, Sergeant Major, too late.” He didn’t think it mattered anyway.
“That's on me.” Soto pointed at himself, shaking his head disappointed.
***
SUGAR
Sugar was inwardly admonishing herself for tripping like a shitty white trash blond in a slasher movie, but outwardly she was terrified. The good news was her twisted ankle made her focus a little better. The things she had seen already tonight were enough to make her consider quitting gaming forever.
This was either the realest game she had ever played, or this was not a game at all. The latter prospect was winning the eye test, but these prompts just kept giving her pause...
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{Would you like to join Phoenix Prime Team?}
< ALERT >
{Be advised while you can party with any player, you can only form one team in your life, with very few caveats. Once joined you can only add to the team. Choose wisely.}
{YES/NO? TOUCH ONE}
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This was the second time in the last four hours she had read the same alert. ‘I guess a full team wipe is one of those caveats.’ She thought. This time things should be different, so she tried to compose herself, but the fear made that difficult. She quickly accepted the team invite, but the next two pop-up boxes that appeared in front of her face, caused her to flinch, then she smiled. Sugar’s Grandmother’s son ain’t raise no fool, and now from her perspective she was back in the pole position just like her daddy used to be. All it would take was leveling enough to defend herself. She looked at her new team interface and it already felt different from the previous one she was a part of. The prompts said it all and then some. Sugar was home.
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{You have joined Phoenix Prime Team? Designation Prime 3}
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< BUFF ADDED >
{Fear removed, all resistances +10%}
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< CHAT ACTIVATED >
{TEAM SPEAK ACTIVE}
{Talk out loud and only your teammates can hear you. Lips can be still read.}
{MIND-SPEAK ACTIVE}
{Think your thoughts to your teammates mind.}
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A calm military voice spoke into her mind, reminding her of her dad calming her down.
[Listen to me Sugar, don’t panic, the Feral Ghoul behind you is stunned. You can get up, and come to us, or turn around and kill it, either way, you need to move... right, NOW! I’ll cover you.]
***
PRIME
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{Sugar has joined your TEAM}
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“Inspire!” Soto uses his Noble class Spell immediately after receiving the prompt. The buff bellowed out from him in an invisible wave of energy.
Sugar’s thumbnail joined Soto’s in Colonel’s HUD right below Soto’s picture. It had her HP and MP pool, status effects, and a smiling picture of her face, at closer inspection though, she was actually grimacing in pain and tiredness, as her red HP bar was around half full, and the blue MP bar was empty altogether.
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{Fear removed, all resistances +10%}
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The grimace on her face relaxed.
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< SUGAR HAS JOINED THE CHAT >
{SUGAR HAS JOINED TEAM SPEAK }
{Talk out loud and only your teammates can hear you. Lips can be still read.}
{SUGAR HAS JOINED MIND-SPEAK}
{Think your thoughts to your teammates' mind.}
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Immediately Soto started to mind-speak with her calmly, and succinctly.
[Listen to me Sugar, don’t panic, the Feral Ghoul behind you is stunned. You can get up, and come to us, or turn around and kill it, either way, you need to move... right NOW! I’ll cover you.]
Soto looked at her, his calm voice making Sugar visibly relax, despite the situation.
Sugar looked back to see the Feral ghoul getting its faculties back. She tried to stand, but her dislocated ankle couldn’t support her weight. A pitiful red -1 floated up from her sobbing body as she fell over again. She just wanted to give up and die already, but just then a small pop-up box appeared before her.
The war buddies flinched at her clumsiness. Ouch. This was why you have to vet your teammates, it seems she probably won’t fit in with them. If she even made it through this engagement.
Another Prompt box appeared in front of her this one bigger and another color. Her eyes widen in awe, anticipation, and gratitude. Then Colonel got a surprise.
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< ALERT >
{SUGAR would like permission to change her class
(YES/NO)
She gained this option for joining your TEAM be advised you have free limited upgraded Class slots for your teammates.
Slots used after Sugar: 2/13}
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Colonel tilled his head reading the prompt before saying, “Yes?” Nothing happened the prompt still remained. He looked back at Sugar.
The Feral Ghoul’s momentary distraction of being stunned out of its mind over, it homed in on Sugar once again since she was clearly the easiest meal. Her eyes were pleading looking back at him. Colonel‘s jaw tightened to match her determination, and need to try anything to survive. “YES!” He said with more conviction. ‘Show us what you got, this team has some high standards we intend to keep.’ He challenged her mentally.
The change was rapid, Sugar’s brown wizard’s robes started to darken to black. They tighten around her becoming more form-fitting. The ridiculous hat implodes on itself as it is replaced with a black singularity halo that seems to be absorbing what little light is present in the dark gloomy homeless parking lot. The black halo floated a few inches above her head, making her now raven-black hair flow behind her. Her irises change from brown to black, the event horizon at the center, her sclera bloodshot from the strain and stress of the morning.
The narrator began to explain. “Sugar was tired. Tired of never getting what she wanted, no matter how hard she worked. She was tired of everything, she was tired of how the world forced her to lean on her Japanese side because her Mexican side was looked down on, even by her own family. She was tired of people looking at her as a prize, and not a partner in business and in her personal life. She was tired of everyone in her life not seeing her, always feeling invisible, but most importantly, she was tired of being weak. Sugar now felt like she had the power to do more than just survive in this world, she had the power to devour it.”
Colonel Analyzed her to see if anything changed with this external change and purposely ignored the foreboding message.
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Sugar
LEVEL: 0 EXP to next level 0/1000
CASTE: Commoner(Classer) CLASS: Void Druid RACE: Human
POOLS:
HP 110/140 regen 37HP per day
MP 41/139 regen 41MP per hour
RESISTANCES
Physical: 0%(10%)
Magical: 0%(10%)
Willpower: 0%(10%)
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:15 Dexterity:16 Constitution:14 Intelligence:23
Magic:1.39 Charisma:18 Luck: 12
EFFECTS: Exhaustion 3}
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“Mad cool bro!” Soto beamed, “Her class change was amazing, and her stats went up too. She looks badass. I can’t wait to see what she can do.”
Colonel absolutely agreed.
“ENTER THE VOID!” A narrator said.
Colonel looked at Soto and Sugar, but again he seemed to be the only one to hear the narrator’s voice. He smiled at that. ‘What does that mean? Are they the main characters of my story, and I am just a reader, or listener... or the watcher?’ He thought. ‘No, it was more like we are all part of a bigger world, and me being a legacy gives me a different perspective.’ He shrugged feeling that might be right.
Speaking of different perspectives. Colonel looked at the woman, and she was a woman, at first, he had thought she was a teenager overwhelmed by it all. He had seen that all too often in his very long career in the Army, then the JTF afterward.
“But after closer inspection, she had the sharp lines of a semi-happy, but burdened life, her eyes were filled with determination that only decades of struggle can be expressed.And she didn’t wipe her tears, she embraced the pain, both physically, and emotionally, She let them fall because, this was being human too, we cry, and hiding it, or holding it back only takes away your humanity. That takes maturity that only age brought.”
That alone highlighted enough for Colonel to evaluate that the narrator was way, way too accurate at assessing Sugar. He considered himself a great evaluator of people so just at a glance he picked up some of the signs, but for an AI to do it and then break it down into a neat little paragraph was a little disturbing. But also strangely made him trust the information more. MG Corp and PAR were obviously masters of information gathering. All the info they had on Soto and him was public record at least their service was, but psychological profiles would be locked up tight under HIPAA laws and regulations. Sugar finally moved pulling Colonel out of his latest musings.
Sugar stood, snot running down her nose, and turned to the last Feral Ghoul, as a silver-bladed arrow from Soto slammed into its eye. Making it stumble backward.
“Summon void familiar!” Sugar swiped her nails across her hand, easily cutting the skin of her palm and providing the blood required to bring forth any summoned familiar. She makes a hand gesture that Colonel can’t follow, quickly forgetting the previous gesture when she moves on to the next, and when she completes the gesture about ten seconds later, the blood on her hand solidifies into floating unreadable script in the space behind the Feral Ghoul. The wind in the area whipped towards the floating script, as the words touched completing the circular circuit.
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< CLASS SKILL ANALYZE >
{SPELL NAME: Summon Familiar KUMA(Toggle)
The Void Druid summons a creature raised by them and embedded with the energy of Dark and Death Mana.
Cast time: 10 seconds. Cost: 100 mana & 50 HP -40 Mana per hour. Duration: until death or dismissal. Cool down: 120 seconds. Requirements: Chant. Hand Signs & Blood of Void Druid
Familiar has 3 forms that all do different things: Chibi Form heals and replenishes mana over time in and out of combat, Base Form is for traveling the Void druid may ride her summons, and Battle form.}
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The boys' eyes widen as a rent in the fabric of reality opened up as the script dissolves into nothingness. A midnight black Dire wolf, the height of a horse, and built with power muscles that can be seen even through her fur, jumped out of the black area, the void, a place so dark light seemed to be afraid to enter. Above her head as she popped into existence, read (Battle Kuma)
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< ANALYZE >
{FAMILIAR NAME: Battle Kuma
FAMILIAR BASE CLASS: Fighter
LEVEL: 0 EXP to next level 0/1000
POOLS:
HP 250/250 regen 45HP per day
MP 100/100 regen 35MP per hour
RESISTANCES
Physical: 0%(10%)
Magical: 0%(10%)
Willpower: 0%(10%)
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:20 Dexterity:20 Constitution:25 Intelligence:10
Magic:1 Charisma:12 Luck: 13
EFFECTS: Void Touched}
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< TOOL TIP >
{BUFF NAME: Void Touched
BUFF TYPE: Offensive/Triggered
BUFF DURATION: 1 attack
DESCRIPTION: Anytime any form of Kuma is summoned from the void her next attack will do an automatic critical hit.}
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Colonel read her name just as she jumped out of the tear in space, and bit the Feral Ghoul’s head off in one fluid motion.
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< BATTLE LOG >
{KUMA (familiar of Sugar) does CRITICAL DECAPITATING BITE -1000 DAMAGE to Feral Ghoul}
{Feral Ghoul level 9 has died! +90 EXP}
{Experience until next level 1840/2000}
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< ALERT >
{SUGAR health and mana is dangerously low
HP 2/140 regen 37HP per day
MP -1/139 regen 1MP per hour (-40 per hour for KUMA)}
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Kuma’s black fur started to vibrate, then she turned into a medium-sized Akita mix dog, the name above her head changing to (Base Kuma)
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< ANALYZE >
{FAMILIAR NAME: Base Kuma
FAMILIAR BASE CLASS: Ranger
LEVEL: 0 EXP to level 1 0/1000
POOLS:
HP 200/200 regen 45HP per day
MP 100/100 regen 37MP per hour
RESISTANCES
Physical: 0%(10%)
Magical: 0%(10%)
Willpower: 0%(10%)
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:20 Dexterity:25 Constitution:20 Intelligence:12
Magic:1 Charisma:10 Luck: 13
EFFECTS:}
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She ran over to Sugar excited to see her. Kuma’s eyes widened when Sugar started the change as well, but her change seemed to be much more harsh than Kuma’s. She went to take care of her hooman. Because she clearly has not been taking care of herself. Silly hoomans don’t they know anything?
Sugar’s eyes go back to brown. Her black hole halo winked out of the old hat nowhere to be seen, then she fell to her knees holding her head. Colonel got an unwelcome prompt and got another question answered, ‘How could she overdraw her mana?’
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< ALERT >
{Sugar is suffering from a severe Mana headache.}
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The answer was painful. Looked like she would be paying the price for quite a while.
“AHHH! Son of a... that hurts like a bitch.” Sugar yelled while Kuma licked her cheek trying to comfort her.
Colonel couldn’t help but laugh, This game was fun, but it had a little too many real-life consequences. He knew that added to the fun, but a damn headache, he hated those with a passion, he made a mental note never to empty his mana pool. Ever! He was finally headache-free, no way he would go back to that again, That was for the birds.
He kept getting more prompts. They told a story, one of his clumsy fighting style, and reliance on his one stance skill. He wasn’t happy about that, these were the lowest-level enemies in the game, and he had no doubt they would get tougher. He needed to get more active skills or spells to be able to keep up. The fact that all of them had just one shotted the first enemy they faced together, only meant that the enemy were just weak, and a good way to lull them into a false sense of superiority. Only discipline and consistently striving to be better could make you superior. The discipline to embrace yourself as a doer, not a sayer. Soto wanted Colonel to be all in, after that fight, there was a fire lit inside of him. It was on like Donkey Kong.
It started as a small match after his first kill, then exploded out after he leveled. Now it was back down to a match size again. He could feel its warm glow inside of himself. That glow was made more important by the prompts that they kept getting.
The prompts were why people played these games. Progress, real quantifiable progress was something that every human lived for, it was a job well done, a task completed without a manual, and acing a test all at once. It required serious discipline to get to the top of anything, so he was laser-focused to get stronger.
Colonel knew most people weren’t built for growth in real life, they seek structure and simplicity. But that was different in games. Gamers prefer open environments, and complexities in their stories, worlds, and characters. In games, humans become who they always wanted to be at some point in their lives. Open-world games like this one, are made for a very complex narrative, especially since they include Player characters in Quest objectives. That right there was a first to Colonel.
Soto’s thoughts were around the same line as his team leader's except with less flowery words. ‘This shit is dope as hell, I can’t believe that the game is including us in the quest and shit.’ One was a writer from Trinidad, the other was a gamer from the Bronx, and it showed. Soto thought about how most gamers were casual gamers, he was NOT a casual gamer, As a matter of fact, Soto hadn’t slept a full night since he became guild leader, and he loved every sleep-deprived minute of it.
He and Colonel were just built differently, Well that's not true, they were trained differently their mentality came from the success of discipline. Nothing can beat discipline. In the words of the great Mike Tyson ‘If you ain’t disciplined you ain’t nothing, because without discipline you will quit when any obstacle gets in your way.’ Truer words have not been spoken. Put in the time, and you will always be rewarded with a useful skill in life. Never complain about the results you never worked for, and never expect yourself and your work ethic in others.
They both will always be ahead of everyone because they always seek excellence in everything they do, and apparently, the GREAT GAME agreed with them. Colonel received another helpful title.
_____________________________________________________________
< STEEL PAN MELODY >
{CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE EARNED AN UPGRADED TITLE}
{TITLE NAME: War Hero
TITLE TIER: Platinum(UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION: A hero is born every day purely because a hero dies every day. The life of a hero is short, but impactful. Heroes don’t claim to not be afraid, no, they face fear in order to save another's life. For protecting a person who couldn’t do anything for you, while putting your life on the line, you have earned the Title of Hero. For your prior combat service, you have earned the War upgrade to your Title.
TITLE EFFECT: More Quest and Events are available to you. They appear on your map and mini-map.
RARE BONUS: Defensive Bonus; While in Defensive Stance, on enemy kill you replenish a Slight amount of all pools, and a 3% plus class level chance to remove a debuff.
PLATINUM BONUS: Stat gain; +4 to Constitution, Charisma, and Luck times Tier}
_____________________________________________________________
“No one is born a hero,” Colonel said under his breath quoting his dad’s age-old sagely advice. It's moments like these he missed him. Clyde Sr was a dreamer like his sons, but he had a duty, one that he couldn’t shake, a family obligation that pushed him away from his dream. Because of that, he made the promise that his children’s only duty was to pursue their passions. Of course, Clyde Jr didn’t know that until after he had joined the military. He had always thought his Daddy wanted someone to follow in his footsteps of joining the military. But that wasn’t the life he wanted for his children. He wanted them to pursue greatness in whatever they were passionate about. But like most of the Jacob extended family they all served in the military, it was only his siblings that did other things in their pursuit of greatness, and they had overachieved. Even his twin brother had been an independent contractor for the military and JTF after he had retired.
Soto put his bow and quiver back into his inventory, then clapped his hands together loudly, and started to walk over to one of the many loot globes of the feral ghouls they had killed. “Well, let’s get some loot! Check yours, I got an inventory that has 90% weight reduction. So I can carry some pretty heavy stuff. I don’t get strength as a stat though so if it gets too heavy I’ll have to use my free stats on it. Until then I will hold everything.” Soto smiled greedily.
Kuma shrunk to the size of a rabbit with an oversized head(Chibi Kuma).
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{FAMILIAR NAME: Chibi Kuma
FAMILIAR BASE CLASS: Mage
LEVEL: 0 EXP to next level 90/1000
POOLS:
HP 200/200 regen 45HP per day
MP 50/100 regen 37MP per hour
RESISTANCES
Physical: 0%(10%)
Magical: 0%(10%)
Willpower: 0%(10%)
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:10 Dexterity:20 Constitution:12 Intelligence:25
Magic:1 Charisma:20 Luck: 13
EFFECTS: Boost}
_____________________________________________________________
< BUFF ADDED >
{BUFF NAME: Boost
BUFF TYPE: HOT/MOT
BUFF DURATION: 1 hour
DESCRIPTION: The primary skill of Chibi Kuma, is boost regen times 10 for one hour per level.}
_____________________________________________________________
Chibi Kuma comforted Sugar, She snuggled her with her oversized head making for a pretty cute, and funny scene. Sugar visibly calmed. Her hands were still holding her ears as if her brains were going to pour out of them. On Colonel’s HUD, he could see the regen number for Sugar’s HP and MP pools tick up. It's not a big difference, but anything thing helps especially since she was bone dry in both pools. The tension in her shoulder relaxed. Kuma’s buff brought her totals to regen to 370HP per day and 10MP per hour(Including -40 per hour for KUMA)
_____________________________________________________________
< YOU HAVE BEEN OFFER A QUEST >
{QUEST NAME: STOP THE OUTBREAK II
QUEST TYPE: Legacy (Legendary Chain)
DESCRIPTION: Something ominous has been unleashed on your local area, investigate for more updates. You have found Feral ghouls which means there is at least a lesser ghoul making the feral ones. After killing the feral ghouls you notice they are multiplying that can only mean one thing...
Requirements: Find the source of the undead.
Objective 1: Talk to girl 0/1
Objective 2: Find and kill 10 lesser ghouls 0/10
Objective 3: Kill 100 feral ghouls 0/100
Time limit: 23:59.58
Temporary bonus: Mana Regen is moderately increased.
Rewards: ~2200 EXPERIENCE and Legacy boots
Failure penalty: Death, zombified}
_____________________________________________________________
“What the hell is up with these failure penalties man? What happened to the good ole, You lose a level or EXP, why does it have to be death, or worse, become a zombie.” Colonel said after rereading the quest. “And what is the only one thing?”
Soto smiled and ignored Colonel’s frustration. “Got to love a good chain quest though.” He was reading through his HUD as he strolled over to the floating globe of Loot. “It helped guide you initially, and if you have no idea what to do, or where to go, just complete some chain quests, and we will be right as rain. You feel me?” He happily continued to walk.
Looking at his map, Colonel could see an arrow pointing him to an X. “This area is huge bro. I thought it was a parking lot size, but it seemed more like an abandoned airfield instead. It reminds me of Balad and the airfield there from our first tour except for the lack of hangers and unbearable heat.”
“Word it does. I truly miss that place, it was the last time we just had a straight-up fight with our enemies.” Soto nodded.
“Agreed, that was a simpler time, I mean we found out later it was all types of complicated, but for us, it was as straightforward as a tour could get. See the enemy, shoot the enemy.” The enemy was very easy to identify back then, they were usually the ones trying to kill you, in any possible way, AKs, IEDs, RPGs they had them all.
Soto’s eyes unfocus looking at his map. “Damn, I think the scale is bigger than the real world scale Colonel. That doesn’t feel right, it definitely feels off, usually, games are a fraction of the scale of a city, never been in one that made the scale bigger...” he paused, “I actually think it's growing my measurements are changing in real-time. What the...” Soto expanded his map while looking at it.
“I think you are right, When I zoom out it measures my house as thirty miles away, which can’t be right, it was less than twenty when we drove here, The game reality is blending seamlessly.” Colonel rubbed his chin looking at his map as well, frowning.
Soto nodded, “I like it, if the world is bigger that just means there are more things to do now.” He said looking around. “More places to see, more creatures to kill for EXP. As long as all of the world doesn’t look like this... I will be happy.” He pointed at bland burning trash drums, old beat-up camping tents, with garbage and rusted car husk everywhere. A few sporadic feral ghouls shamble around the shadow of those cars.
“We going to need mounts if that is the case, right Sergeant Major?” Colonel looked at the fires and shambling Feral Ghouls who hadn’t heard the commotion. Good thing too they had a ton of loot globes to grab already. Colonel was excited to touch them. But team building was first then loot, his troop’s well-being was more important to him than some beautiful dull grey ball. He found himself next to the globe his hands a few centimeters away from it, before he stopped his traitorous body. ‘What the heck was that?’ He thought looking at his hands in confusion.
“Now you’re talking my language, Jake, I like it when you get into these games, we will definitely need mounts, or raise our stats to the point that running for days won’t affect us. I’d prefer that, I can’t stand riding animals, not good for my precious ones Ju Hurd?” Soto brought up his HUD, and goes through a few menus, and flicked his finger to Colonel. “Hey check out my other new title from earlier, or whatever adjusted one from before. Nobility suits me well I think, and this sick one-shot title, I never got a chance to finish reading it, Wow, it is something, that explained some of the extra damage I was seeing during our fight.” He smirked as he continued walking over to the first kills he had made at the beginning of the engagement. They were over two hundred meters away from their defensive location. Soto was impressed with his shots.
_____________________________________________________________
{TITLE NAME: Dark Nobility
TITLE TIER: Legendary (upgradable)
{DESCRIPTION Dark Nobility is A title granted to the Soto Bloodline.
TITLE EFFECT: Nobility class gained: Dark Nobility class tree
RARE BONUS: Bloodline Stat gain; +3 to all but Magic per level per times Tier
PLATINUM BONUS: Bloodline Ability gain; Hide in shadow
DIAMOND BONUS: Bloodline weapon gain; Dark Head seeker(P)
EPIC BONUS: LOCKED
LEGENDARY: LOCKED}
_____________________________________________________________
{TITLE NAME: One Shot One Kill
TITLE LEVEL: Platinum(UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION: For killing two targets with one single shot and for being the first in the world to do so with a dark mana-infused arrow you have earned this title.
TITLE EFFECT: Offensive; Chain attack: Whenever targets are within 4 meters of each other there is a 4% times Level chance to cause damage to an adjacent target for every consecutive target -1%.
WORLD FIRST UPGRADE: Arrow effect does 120% less damage to family members, 100% less damage to Teammates, 90% less damage to allies
RARE BONUS: Utility; Leach: On target, kill gain +3% times Tier HP back
PLATINUM BONUS: Locked}
_____________________________________________________________
“Wow, all that from your first shot? That nuts!” Colonel said in awe.
“I know right that felt so good, so natural. I haven’t shot a bow in over a decade, it just came back so easily, probably the game helping me out.” Soto began. “But it's really like riding a bike or seeing your wife after a year-long deployment. When it's time to ride a man's got to ride.” He chuckled at the end, then coughed.
“Yeah, I agree, with the first part at least. I feel great, and that is an amazing title. Your whole family gets it too, that is even more dope. I guess they will be letting us keep these characters after all.” Colonel looked impressed with the title.
“Hell yeah! I doubt they put so much work into my family title just to take these characters away.” Soto crossed his finger just in case, then he crossed his heart and for good measure, he crossed his whole body, and said a silent prayer to Jesus.
“Me neither, did you get that because of the shot, or the type of ammo you used?” Colonel asks
“I think both to be honest. I also don’t care, the title ups my survivability tenfold.” He shrugged. “That's enough for me.”
“I care though, since I may be able to get that title with the same special action you performed, couldn’t I?” Colonel inquired.
Soto paused to think. “I hadn’t thought about that, Once we get you a range weapon, we can try it for sure. It would be mad crazy if we could get the same titles like our WAR HERO and RETIRED WAR VETERAN titles.”
Colonel laughed dryly. “Yeah, that would be great, and if we could avoid the war in our titles it might be better. We can’t fight a war the entire time.”
“Oh we can, and I have no doubt the game will throw more at us than we can handle at some point.” He sighed and got serious. “Did this feel like a first combat engagement, sir? I couldn’t shake off the realism sometimes. Even in the moments of fantasy, when my arrows were as black as the night sky, and ghouls were trying to eat my face, it still felt real enough that it was almost scary.” There was something bothering him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He shrugged it off.
“Hell yeah, quick, fast, and brutal, just the way we like it,” Colonel replied genuinely impressed with the way the game kept him on his toes, like real life, but also clearly not the real world. He kept thinking about the real world, but he was getting more, and more immersed in the game, and it was glorious.
“Hell yeah, engaging the enemy on the open field of battle can’t be beat, that was mad fun. Leveling up felt AAAmazing, I can do that again, and again. I want to do that again right now.” Soto continued, he was still walking the long way to his first kill. He switched to team speak so he didn’t have to yell.
[If I didn’t know any better, I would feel like we were being manipulated into getting stronger. But I have always been like that, but now that I get a mental orgasm for getting stronger, yes sir, sign me up please.] Soto half-joked.
Colonel laughed, but had to agree, he felt great and wanted to go kill more ghouls for EXP. Good for him he wasn’t some young fresh out basic training private, he had some self-control, just a little though.
[Yeah, let's make sure the girls are good before we go get into any more trouble Sergeant Major.] He tried to make sure his team was ready for anything, spoils of war can always wait. Just then they both get a prompt.
_____________________________________________________________
< STRONGHOLD ALERT >
{You have found and defended a poorly defensible position. Would you like to establish a Stronghold to protect your team from your enemies? Be advised due to location any Stronghold will be temporary.}
_____________________________________________________________
Soto smiled wide, it looked like his team leader was right, of course he was, and that was why Soto let him be in charge, he was a great leader in his own right, but Colonel was a Jacob. After meeting anyone from his extended family, you would want to follow them into combat any day. They were a family of service members who all dedicated their lives to the service of humanity in their own unique way.
Soto’s family was similar, just not as grand. They serve their community and their culture. Soto’s had traditions, but the only tradition Jacob's had was duty. They did everything for their family name. This was why Soto was so proud of his best friend starting another career after the Army, and being so successful in it.
Soto knew Colonel was just as excited to just play a game as a distraction. Not to mention Soto himself needed a break from running a guild or anything like that.
[Our first battle was a success, we should do an after-action report as we look into this Stronghold thing. So we can assess how to handle situations like this better in the future. What do you think about that Colonel?] Soto offered.
[Fine idea sergeant major, really fine idea. Let's do that AAR.] Colonel said scanning his map, and surroundings for any more enemies in range. They were all moving in their own little zones never straying too far from the dark areas of the homeless tent city. More and more seemed to be ‘randomly’ walking in their direction though, and Colonel didn’t want to get blindsided.
[We should get the loot first, and then we can start the AAR.]
[May not have time for that.]
[Bro do you ever watch zombie movies? They are slow it will take them...] Soto froze, and then Colonel could see him start digging in his pocket franticly, and desperately.
[uh, where is it?]
[You good?] Colonel asked concerned.
[I must have dropped my inhaler. Help me look for it, please. It's got to be around here somewhere.] Soto started to panic slightly.
[I wonder what kind of loot we will get for killing feral ghouls.] Colonel said trying to get Soto to focus on something else before he has a full-on panic attack, on top of his asthma attack. They were very common with people in his condition.
[You think it will be good?]
Soto looked at him in disgust.
[Of course noob, everyone loves loot, it's the best! Why play a game if it doesn’t have good drops, even if the drops aren’t good we should be able to break it down for crafting material.] His eyes widen,
[Dude I haven’t thought about it before, but this is a tutorial quest chain, it will definitely teach us stuff about crafting and stuff right?]
Kuma barked trying to get their attention Soto looked over to her.
[You see she gets it.] Soto beamed at the dog reaching into his pocket again forgetting he didn’t have his inhaler. Dogs always brought out the worst in his asthma. He looked over to Kuma who cocked her head at him, and he noticed that Sugar had passed out from her exhaustion.
“Got dammit!” Both teammates curse at the sight. They weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. “I’ll set up a stronghold around then since she is closer to the homeless tents anyway”.
“Quick help me look for my inhaler. We got time she has hours of mana recovery to go through.” Soto yelled at Colonel while he started to look around.
“I got you, bro. Let me check out my character sheet before it gets out of hand.” Colonel replied, just as he opened his HUD, he got a map alert.
_____________________________________________________________
< MAP ALERT >
{A hostile target has entered your aggro zone prepare to defend yourself.}
_____________________________________________________________
[CONTACT 1 Check your six!] Soto screamed in team speak.
Good thing he did, because Clyde was trying to figure out the wording of the prompt, but hearing his teammate yell he was back in combat mode in an instant. He turned to see a feral ghoul mid-jump.
Everything slowed for Colonel, he looked at the ghoul who had caught him off guard and knew that he wouldn’t be able to get his hands up in time to defend his face. His Stance wasn’t active yet so he didn’t have his high constitution from before. But he did have a friend.
A black arrow slammed into the ghoul halting its forward momentum, the arrow dissipated right after hitting its target. As soon as that happened time sped back up and Colonel capitalized on the off-balanced ghoul.
_____________________________________________________________
< G-SKILL LEVEL UP >
{Find weakness is now Novice 1}
_____________________________________________________________
A red arrow pointed down to the leg of the sneaky feral ghoul. Colonel reacted to it immediately.
_____________________________________________________________
< G-SKILLS LEVEL UP >
{Legacy style grappling is now Student 8}
{Hand to Hand is now Student 8}
< ABILITY LEVEL UP >
{Hand to Hand mastery is in now Student 9}
_____________________________________________________________
He executed a sweeping leg kick, tripping the already flopping ghoul off its feet in one smoothed motion. He didn’t let it recover, Colonel was many things in a fight, forgiving wasn’t one of them. As the ghoul hit the ground its head bounced, and was stopped by Colonel’s boot stomping on its mangled face until its loot globe formed.
_____________________________________________________________
< G-SKILL QUEST UPDATED >
{Defensive Stance Student 9}
{Skill Quest: Block 10 attacks without losing any HP (7/10 Complete)}
_____________________________________________________________
This one was different. This globe didn’t stay in place it started to lazily move to the nearest globe, Colonel looked up, they were all doing that.
_____________________________________________________________
< EXP GAINED >
{Feral Ghoul Level 9 has died! +90 EXP}
{Experience until next level 1930/2000}
_____________________________________________________________
“So cool!” Soto said looking at the globes combining, the ones he was walking to floated by him.
Colonel looked at his mini-map to make sure he wasn’t ambushed again, then had to look at his character sheet. Before everything thing in it got out of hand like he was saying earlier, before things almost got out of hand.
_____________________________________________________________
< CHARACTER SHEET >
{TITLES: Legacy(Ru). Retired War Veteran(P). War Hero(P)
PLAYER NAME: Colonel Clyde S Jacob
LEVEL: 1, EXP to next level 1930/2000
CASTE: Legacy. CLASS: Legacy. RACE: Human(Legacy).
POOLS:
HP 270/270 regen 135HP per day
MP 490/490 regen 148MP per hour
Defensive Rating (DR): 31/31 regen 1 per second
RESISTANCES:
Physical: 0%(10%) Magical: 0%(10%) Willpower: 0%(10%)
CULTIVATOR LEVEL(N/A)
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:57 Dexterity:60 Constitution:60 Intelligence:73 Magic:4.9 Charisma:75 Luck:71
Free Attributes:183
Current attribute gain per level:
Class +1 to all except for magic.
Title: +3 Con.
Title: +4 to Cha, Con, and Luck.
EFFECTS:
Inspired
SKILLS LIST:
General:
Defensive Stance(S-9). Find Weakness(N-1). Hand to hand(S-8); Legacy style Grappling(S-8).
Skill points: 3
ABILITY LIST:
World Map(MAX). Soul Storage(MAX). Analyze(N-5). Speech-craft(R);English(C).
Title Abilities:
Hand to Hand Mastery(S-9)
ACTIVE QUEST:
STOP THE OUTBREAK II
PROFESSIONS: None
End of CS}
_____________________________________________________________
***
DUNGEON CORE ROOM
VAMPIRE LORD
The Vampire Lord had watched most of what was going on in his Dungeon for the entire time. He was old, this wasn’t his first rodeo, and he understood his assignment perfectly. Get stronger, hide from stronger foes, and make backup Dungeons so that the affiliated gods can’t completely eliminate him and his pantheon. He still had to link up with the organizations his Pantheon had set up and sponsored over the years as well.
“We have been getting a lot of people coming in, it must be a nightmare out there if they are sending in people who aren’t even ready to clear the first floor.” He said to his two main subordinates.
If he had asked them directly they probably would have told him that Dungeon’s didn’t exist prior to the breaking. Having not ever lived in a barren magic time line the Vampire was unaware of a quote-unquote normal world.
The Vampire Lord was too busy gaining levels and Mana to care about the weakling's problems. “Oh did you see the damage that greater ghoul did to that to that fighter? He thought he was so tough, Level 10.” He scoffed, “Now you are in two pieces.” He laughed. "Oh someone has started to build a Stronghold, two groups, this should be fun."