CHAPTER VI: VOW
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{00:35 LOCAL TIME 1ST JANUARY 1ME}
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LONG BEACH
PRIME
Clyde had been planning and figuring out the Stronghold while the loot globes formed together. First, he learned that they could only start with a Camp the smallest version of a Stronghold.
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< STRONGHOLD TAB >
{1 Camp available}
{In THE GREAT GAME a Stronghold is a “safe” haven that a player or group of players can make or control. This provides a place for other players to meet up at, and gain benefits from. Strongholds start small with small benefits to the owner and their citizens, but they can become mighty cities that can span vast distances, giving numerous long-term buffs and chain quests.
Strongholds naturally tax the citizens of excess Mana and anything killed in the area of control including Dungeons. This tax is paid into the Stronghold vault once per week. The Mana can be converted into currency, EXP, Skill tomes, and many more things, with enough Mana one could make anything.
All payments made within the Stronghold area of control are automatically taxed.
Allies are buffed, and enemies are debuffed.
There are many factors that determine the Mana draw, buffs, debuffs, and also the type of buildings that may be constructed, the types of Professions/Jobs that may be offered, and the types of Quests that may be designed.
These factors include but are not limited to the Level of the stronghold, size & population of the Stronghold, Titles of the rulers or creators of the Stronghold, Race of the majority of the stronghold members, and type of government to name a few.
While Strongholds offer benefits they also offer a target. The largest benefit of Strongholds is protection from beast and monster hordes. The Largest downside is someone or something will always want what you have. Protect it with your life.
LIVE WELL or DIE FREE}
{A Camp is the smallest stronghold that can be made and conquered. Camps can only be leveled up by Nobility, Clergy, and Legacies, they can be conquered by anything. A Base camp can accommodate up to 100 people in peacetime and 1000 in wartime. The base area of control(AOC) of a camp is up to 500 sq meters, Creature spawning in the AOC is significantly reduced. Base Mana gained every 7 days per citizen is 10 per level of citizen minus 1 per 2 levels of hostile players. Base Camp Effect: Well Rested; When sleeping in a camp allied players gain Well rested which grants a 10% EXP boost for 24 hours if a player can get at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Buildings available: Campfire, Outhouse, Field Shower. While in the area of control of the camp, citizens do Slightly more damage and take Slightly less damage from enemies. Cost: Stats:~50. Mana:~1000 EXP: ~2500}
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Yeah, that choice was easy. They needed a Camp, the benefits outweighed the resources they would have to put into it. Which was why Clyde decided to start the Stronghold. He had mana to burn and no real outlet for it yet. The only reason he didn’t build one yet was because he was waiting on Soto’s help.
Soto would be in on the planning session, but for the last hour, he was looking in every little nook, cranny, and shadow in the vicinity to see if he could find his little, red, emergency life-saving device.
“Bro, you sure you brought it with you?” Colonel asked, looking away from the stronghold tab.
“Jake for the tenth time, yes, I never leave the house without it. I can die if I don’t have it, I have died before because I didn’t have it, remember?” Soto said frustrated, still subconsciously digging through his pockets. The whole scenario was a nightmare for someone like him.
The second reason he wanted to build the stronghold was because of the information. Your actions seem to play a big role in how the game progressed, and building a base was just a natural choice when surrounded by enemies. Colonel let out a breath. He turned to his battle buddy.
“Wait, a minute, you seem to breathing pretty easily, now that I think about it, you seem pretty okay.” After seeing Soto not struggling to breathe. The last few hours were intense, it was to be expected that he would be breathing heavily at the very least. Yet after still looking, and not finding the inhaler for hours, Soto seemed more worried about the prospect of having an asthma attack, than actually having an asthma attack. “It has to be the game bro, why did you just waste all of that time?” Colonel was a little pissed, but he was also so caught up in the very real possibility of Soto dying, that they both had just forgotten about the game elements.
“Oh yeah...that was scary for a second there I was wondering how long you would take to figure it out?” Soto smirked looking back at Colonel.
“You just remember too didn’t you?” Colonel turned to his friend and deadpanned.
“Yep.” Soto cheerfully said.
“They’re both idiots.” The narrator said.
‘He isn’t wrong.’ Kuma thought
“Zzz” was all Sugar’s sleeping form had to add to the conversation.
“Can you help me with this Stronghold thing now then?” Colonel asked.
“Yeah just build it.”
Colonel’s eyes twitched, “Of course, I am building it, but you don’t have any advice on it?”
“That is my advice build it. The EXP bonus alone is worth it by itself. I mean-”
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< MAP ALERT >
{A hostile target has entered your aggro zone prepare to defend yourself.}
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Two more feral ghouls came into Colonel's range again. This time he was already prepared. With his Defensive Stance toggled on he prepared to take a few punches to finish his Skill quest. They were the ninth and tenth feral ghouls that had wandered over during the time they were looking and planning, they made easy work of them all. The Skill levels showing dividends already.
The two feral ghouls slapped at Colonel as he blocked them both practicing his form. He heard the now common ding of the level-up notification and smiled, this game didn’t let them dwell for long.
“I am guessing by that smile you finished that skill quest. Can I kill these dudes now?” Soto asked bringing Colonel out of his musings.
“Yes, Sergeant Major do your thing.”
They had been experimenting. It was how Soto always played his games, but he got the practice from the Colonel’s training doctrine. Test what the bare minimum was to execute your task, then work on that until it is second nature, only then will mastering it would be possible.
Soto had not been using his silver arrows, they were more than likely for tougher opponents. Instead, he had been trying to see how long he would have to hold it back before it was an instant kill for the ghouls. The problem if he didn’t crit it, it would always take two or three shots. That was with the item effect pushing the vast majority of the arrows to the ghouls' faces.
That was something they had learned as well. Item effects are not guaranteed effects. Soto had missed two fully powered shots with silver arrows, all because the ghouls had tripped and the arrow flew sadly into the night.
Colonel had learned that he was going to be a ‘bomb tank’ in the words of Soto. As long as he was in his Stance he was tough as hell.
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{Experience until next level 3710/2000 Would you like to level up?}
{YES/NO?}
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“No.” He had ignored his prompts outside of experience for the last few hours, but now it was time to get back into the game mode. He didn’t want to level up until he figured out what he was going to do about the stronghold, and more importantly the skill combination. Looking more actively at his character sheet he did see the 4/13 General Skill so there was a cap, but Soto’s CS didn’t have that information at all. He was starting to feel a little bit awkward with the thanks he would have to give his brother. ‘I hope he likes hugs because that's exactly what Soto will be giving him.’ He chuckled at the thought before letting the prompts swim over his mind.
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< ABILITY LEVEL UP >
{Analyze is now Novice 6}
{Hand to Hand mastery is in now Novice 0}
< ABILITY TIER UP >
{+5 STR, +3 DEX, +2 CON}
{ABILITY NAME: Hand to Hand Mastery(R)(PASSIVE)
ABILITY LEVEL: NOVICE 0
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 percentage to damage and accuracy per level of ability. Mastery also allows the Legacy to evolve their fighting style by learning from the fighting styles of others.
ABILITY EFFECT: +2% to damage and accuracy. The effect is based on Ability Level.
STUDENT EFFECT: Stun chance; On melee strike 10% chance to stun your opponent for 1 second plus ability level. Stun Duration is based on Ability level.}
NOVICE EFFECT: Attack Speed; While in melee range the player’s attack speed slightly increases over time. The effect is based on Ability Level.}
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He noticed that his ability had tiered up, and was a little surprised. Pleasantly so. The ability just tiered up much easier than his skills. The novice effect was pretty cool as well, having faster hands will never let you down in a fight.
“Attack speed dude that’s mad dope, you are going to be able to Mayweather everyone defensively, or Roy Jones Jr these mugs out here,” Soto said standing in a boxer’s stance throwing air punches.
Colonel smiled at his brother and laughed at his antics. His whole family was so serious sometimes, and cared a lot about optics, Soto’s family was about art and creativity. Colonel went with duty most of his life because that was expected of him. But meeting Soto changed the course of his post-Army life. Soto was the one who encouraged Colonel to pursue a Hollywood writing career. Soto had helped him outline a few of his first few novels. He was his biggest supporter outside of his daughter, maybe even more than her. “Appreciated you brotha, never change.”
“Ahh shucks son, you going to make me blush,” Soto said in a mock southern accent with a slight redness building on his face. “But let there be no doubt that I always got your back, Jake.” He gave two thumbs up, slammed them together, and turned them making a locking sound, then winked expressively. Colonel mirrored him, and then they stood at attention and nodded. Originally it was a salute, but they were in combat so the nod would have to do.
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< THUNDER >
{YOU HAVE MADE A SIMULTANEOUS VOW.}
{Phoenix Prime 1&4
Since the VOW does not have an end date it has been upgraded.
Since the VOW was honest to who you are it has been upgraded.
Since the VOW was made to a person that you owe nothing to it has been upgraded.
Since the VOW was simultaneous it has been upgraded.
Since the VOW was a practiced ritual it has been upgraded.
Since the VOW has no punishment attached the bare minimum punishment will be randomly added.
Rolling…
Punishment is True Death the VOW has been upgraded.
You have made an EPIC VOW}
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Colonel and Soto both read the vow and then broke out laughing, hard.
Colonel was the first to catch himself still looking around. His face was still flush from laughing so hard. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “Who would have thought the family handshake would be such a hit in a game?” He said before losing it again.
“Well, that's what happens when we one have one boy and five girls in their age group.” It was the girls who came up with most of the moves, they kept it simple for the old men, but the expressive wink was a must, they had pinky promised to do it. Fathers don’t break pinky promises.
Then they got another pleasant surprise.
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< STEEL PAN MELODY >
{YOU HAVE GAINED A TITLE}
{WORLD FIRST UPGRADE}
{TITLE NAME: Soul Bound (DIAMOND)
You and your brother from another have transcended blood and are now connected through your souls. As long as you are alive, you will be able to find each other. Can’t get rid of each other now!
WORLD FIRST BONUS: Locked
RARE BONUS: Extend range
PLATINUM BONUS: Locksmith
DIAMOND BONUS: LOCKED}
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< CHIME >
{CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED A QUEST}
< QUEST >
{Quest Name: Road to RUNIC
Quest Type: RUNIC (World)
Description: Your world is new and as such has many directions to go, many paths to walk, and many options to take advantage of. But that is not your concern, your concern is POWER. Power beyond that which anyone on this growing Celestial body can even fathom. Powers beyond even that of the LAWs. But you must seek it nonetheless, because without a world becoming RUNIC it is susceptible to being lost to history. Know this one truth of the multiverse. Legends can be lost to time, but RUNEs are indestructible.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Requirements: Increase the average level of Players in your world’s Mortal Realm to Tier 4. (T-1)
Protect the Legacies.(13/7)
Prevent tyranny. (50%)
The time limit is 1000 years.
Temporary bonus: Universal translator. (Speech-craft paused.)
Rewards: Permanently cement your place in the history of your world. Learn RUNEs. Earn a path to immortality.
Failure: Being lost to history and Unknown}
< ALERT >
{YOU CAN NOT REFUSE THIS QUEST AS A LEGACY AS SUCH NEITHER CAN YOUR SOUL BROTHER}
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“A vow, a title, and a quest, hell yell Colonel. I might give a kidney to your brother when I see him, you never know when you need one of those.” Soto laughed at Colonel’s gross expression.
“I don’t think that will be necessary a fruit basket will suffice.”
“If he wasn’t married I would have gotten some South Bronx chicks to show him a good time.”
“Do you even have that kind of pull in the south Bronx anymore?”
“Blasphemy, M-mob bro, we run all of the Bronx streets, I mean we ain’t crazy like we were back in the day, but the young bucks are taking care of the community with the hustle money now. I help a lot of them invest and stuff to get them and the hood out of the hustle life you feel me?”
Colonel nodded impressed, he knew Soto was involved, but not to that extent.
“A thousand years to complete this quest? This game plans to be around a long time I guess.” Soto read the quest details.
Colonel let him, he was still way behind on other stuff piling up on his own HUD. The Stronghold and the Synergy were leading the way.
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< SYNERGY ALERT UPDATE >
{With your Hand-to-Hand Mastery reaching the novice tier, the combination will automatically upgrade in rank. Continue to level your abilities and skills up for higher rank combinations.}
{YES/NO TOUCH ONE.}
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The ten free stats from tiering up were amazing, but it was the Novice effect that had Colonel wondering if the combination was a good idea. Losing out on free stats, and possibly effects was huge.
Colonel also tiered up another skill, his first skill and the only stance skill he was allowed to have. He didn’t know what that meant, but the skill quest wasn’t that hard considering the skill itself made it harder for anything to do damage to him.
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< G-SKILL LEVEL UP >
{Find weakness is now Novice 2}
{Legacy style grappling is now Student 9}
{Skill Quest: Wrestle an enemy who is trying to kill you, and has more strength than you, you must win. & complete main skill’s skill quest}
{Hand to Hand is now Student 9}
{Skill Quest: Escape a front-mounted position}
{Defensive Stance is now Novice 0}
{Skill Quest: Block 10 attacks without losing any HP(Complete)}
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< G-SKILL TIER UP >
{+8 Constitution +1 Dexterity +1 Strength & +10 Skill points}
{SKILL NAME: Defensive Stance(U/D)(PASSIVE/Stacking)
SKILL LEVEL: Novice 0
DESCRIPTION: A Stance is a path of its own. A 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 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 your fight goes on without them moving away from their original location. When the player moves from the location all of the gained HP is removed.
SKILL EFFECT: The player gains +1 Constitution per skill level per second while defending in 1 1-meter area.
Current CON gain:11 per second
STUDENT EFFECT: Pool regeneration increases over time. Effect based on skill level.
NOVICE EFFECT: The extra HP slowly falls off instead of it all being removed at once. As long as the player is in a 1-meter area of teammates the stacking effect continues.}
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Clyde was excited about his general Skill tiering up more free stats and skill points. But there was something else he felt he was missing, something subtle, but still tangible enough to give him a pause. His body felt more solid than it did the last time he leveled up like the new stats from his Skill were more potent.
Soto didn’t see any more debuffs under his EFFECTS page he knew the curse was there it was kind of insidious, but not affecting them too much. They sat down waiting for Soto’s MP pools to recover. “Well, Sugar needed the rest anyway and the Mana regen is really low with Kuma out,” Soto said trying to justify their stupidity.
“So what is new on your EFFECTS page?” Colonel asked rolling his eyes.
“Nothing.” Soto looked very confused. When Soto first opened his character sheet, there was a copious amount of debuffs, but after his level-up, and the rest of the time in the game, they were all gone. He honestly didn’t know when they went away.
He wasn’t going to complain, he had had some truly nasty ones, like his advanced asthma, on top of the stage two lung cancer, male pattern baldness, bad knees, elbows, upper back, lower back, bad shoulders, torn rotator cuff, herniated disc’s, and a myriad of other little injuries that added up to constant pain, discomfort, and random spasms. For the first time in decades, they both felt pain-free and full of energy.
“This is weird bro.” Soto rubbed the back of his neck, He did not feel the knot that had been there since high school. Growing up in the Bronx was not easy for most people. He knew better than most, you can end up on the wrong side of the law very quickly, and sometimes Soto did, glad he wasn’t caught doing anything too crazy. He worked really hard to get out. Being the first-born male child in a Latino family usually meant you were super spoiled, but Soto was always focused on getting the hell out of the hood. The Army was his ticket out, and he took it because Army life was less stressful than hood life. The same hood life that gave him his ever-present knot. The fact that it was gone had him buggin’ “Mad weird my dude this...” Soto began but couldn’t finish. He was at a loss for words.
Colonel had to agree. How was a game doing this to them? They tricked their minds into believing that they were pain-free. It was beyond his understanding, and he still had no idea if they were in an augmented reality, or a virtual reality gaming setup, because it all feels so real. The Colonel thought before voicing it. “How are they doing this for real man? This is crazy right?”
“Again, best not to think about it. Just know that it will be an amazing time when we are really old. If games keep advancing the way they are, nursing homes are going to be mad-lit when we are old men, and with more Viagra, and red bull to keep us going. The games will bring us to life, my boy, I can’t wait now.” Soto shrugged confidently. “But as far as gameplay-wise...”
He had a few working hypotheses. They had gone over the quest, and engagement while he searched for the last few hours, after which Soto had come to the conclusion, that either the other half of his half-human racial traits had removed it, or more than likely the plus ten to every stat that he had received for joining Colonel’s team pushed his Constitution to a number that allowed his body to heal his asthma naturally. Or the least likely scenario, is that it happened during the teleportation process, and that caused all debuffs to be removed. He hoped it wasn’t the last because that really sucked, but if it took away debuffs, he would do it again and again. Gamers are crazy people. They would do pretty much anything to get stronger, and he hadn’t breathed like this in decades, if ever. To feel like this he would endure whatever temporary pain they would throw at him.
Sugar was still passed out, sleeping in the fetal position on the ground, with a thumb in her mouth. Chibi Kuma laid on top of her with one eye barely open, and scanning, her big head bobbed to sleep before quickly waking herself up. She tried to be serious, but she just looked super cute, and cuddly in her Chibi form. She lost the battle with the sandman suddenly finding the back of her eyelids very interesting, very, very interesting. She passed out on top of her hooman.
The best part of killing the other feral ghouls semi-quietly was that no other groups came to mess with their team, outside of a few stragglers. Good thing too, they were not in a good place to defend themselves, exposed as they were. Sugar was just a target now, and they had no way of moving her outside of picking her up. That wouldn’t work without a place to go set up. They had thought about the church, but immediately threw out that idea after looking at the structure, it was just...creepy.
After the first globes moved towards each other, for the first hour, they had noticed that more and more loot globes were moving to the nearest ones, and combining. They did stop combining when they were attacked, but five minutes or so afterward they continued combining. It was a peculiar sight, but they were too busy at first panicking looking for the inhaler until they realized they were in a game, and then they calmed down laughing at their stupidity. “I still can’t believe you just did all of that searching, this game is so real I thought you were really going to die.” Colonel shook his head chuckling. “Wow. This game man. I love it.”
“Low key, me too, if the ghouls hadn’t come I probably would have freaked out more crazy my boy. It's like the game wanted to remind us ‘Hey idiots, you are in a game, why the hell are you looking for your inhaler?’ He said in a narrated voice. “They got me good man, real good. I am close, really close to leveling up my classes.” His New York accent was a little more prominent in his relieved, excited state.
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{Experience until next level [1855/2000]/[1855/2000]}
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The two of them sat back to back next to Sugar, and Kuma scanning their sectors and watching as the grey loot globes of all the feral ghouls they had killed, started to flow together over to the first loot globe combining into a pulsing white loot globe. Colonel analyzed it and posted the extra information in the team chat.
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{UNCOMMON LOOT POINT}
< TOOL-TIP >
{Loot globes are Gaia's primary way of accumulating, upgrading, and distributing loot in the general world. When a creature or being dies in the GREAT GAME, Gaia absorbs everything they are, and everything they own, imprints it with her Mana, and distributes it as loot available to anyone who can access the globe. Some Dungeons will have their own variations on the loot globes.}
{Loot points are zones where combatants are killed in a large-scale battle and are then secured. Once the area is secured all Loot Globes are absorbed by the highest tiered Loot Globe. The tier order is Common(Tier 1) Grey Globe. Uncommon(T2) white Globe. Rare(T3) brown Globe. Platinum(T4) Pink Globe. Diamond(T5) Red Globe. Epic(T6) Orange Globe. Legendary(T7) Gold Globe. Runic(T8) Green Globe. Mystic(T9) Silver Globe. Ancient(T10) Ocean Blue Globe. Eternal(T11) Sky Blue Globe. Ascendent(T12) Purple&black Globe. Transcendent(T13) Black&Gold Globe.}
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“Loot point huh, that’s convenient.” Soto stood and dusted himself off absentmindedly, then walked over to it. His pools had fully recovered. Kuma snored up a storm while they waited for the loot point to form, which took another hour. He stretched enjoying the feeling.
“This is really slow,” Colonel stated not for the first time or tenth. “We were better off just looting the globes before they started combining. Like I said two hours ago.” Colonel said to Soto’s back.
“First off, I said that three hours ago so no, you don’t get to take credit for that shit. Secondly, calm yourself battle, good things come to those who chill.” He said in his best Phil Jackson impersonation.
“I also said it would take a long time. And here we are. You see?” Colonel ignored his teammate.
Soto rolled his eyes looking at the loot point. “No doubt, can we stop living in the past now though Jake? Plus... and this is a guess, but there has to be some major benefit for them combining, or why else would it happen.” Soto looked at the loot point form like paint was drying. He preferred the stoic leader Colonel not the complaining whinny officer Colonel, people needed to stick to their roles, and he was the complainer in their friendship.
“So we can recover from long fights, or for our long-ass regeneration times, so we don’t have to individually loot each and every new corpse on a battlefield. All good reasons to do it also add a cool unique element to it. I never seen this in a game.” Colonel said.
“I have, Fable games did something like this, but it was much faster than that,” Soto replied.
“Oh yeah, you’re right, I see that enhancement of yours still works.”
Soto ignored Colonel as he got near the loot point. “I wonder what the rarity means do we get better drops or just a better chance for better drops? There are a lot of categories.”
Colonel’s tooltip prompted him to surprise the team lead, and he posted it in chat.
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< TOOL TIP >
{The color of the globe determines the rarity of the drops. For example, BROWN(R) globes have a 100% chance of giving at least 1 RARE drop. 10% chance to get a PLATINUM drop. 1% chance to get a DIAMOND drop, and a .1% chance at an EPIC drop.}
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Soto whistled at the prompt. “So we have a ten percent chance to get a rare item because, let's be real, anything under ten percent is fool's gold right?” Soto said to Colonel as he tried to understand this game world and its unique rules.
They seem easy and straightforward, but there was a lot of reading between the lines in roleplaying games, and this one appeared to be much more put together than any others Soto had played.
It felt more complete than any game he had ever played, even the technical bugs were beneficial, and he couldn’t complain at all. Well except for the pain levels. His face soured at that thought. What the hell was up with that? He had looked through his settings and everything but there was no way to lower it, so he was cringing the next time he got hurt.
After seeing Sugar actually pass out, he was kind of worried, she was a player like them, and she clearly had active debuffs that looked real. The fear she had was real, Soto knew that look oh too well. If she was some kind of AI NPC he might not have paid much attention, but he couldn’t help but look. Most people go their entire lives without experiencing true terror, well unless you live in a war-torn area in the world, but most don’t live in terror.
This was why we seek thrills and scary stuff. We watch movies to feed off of other people’s terror, purely because we could turn it off, and walk away. But imagine one night you go to turn off your TV, but your hand doesn’t move. Your whole body was frozen. The killer on the TV slides easily into your dimension, your eyes unable to comprehend, as you are forced to watch them murder your family.
To some orphan children, Soto and Colonel were those killers, and the terror they had seen in their eyes was unmistakable. Soto shook his head. “Ugh, this game bro. It is really doing a number on my thoughts?”
Colonel nodded, while they waited for the new bigger loot point which was represented by not only a bigger globe than the original but more details, to stop pulsing ominously. They both look at their quest rewards. It was time to see what they had won.
Soto pulled out a set of gloves that had a shiny black look to them. “Wow, these are dope, check out your gloves, you will love them, they are growth items, growth freaking items at level one. I love your brother’s ability to cheat for us uhhh, I mean you, of course.” He winked. “You know what? He likes me better than you anyway. I mean you are kind of boring.”
“Hey!”
“No, but really, it is really amazing, if you think about it, at least this early in the game. Now let's get the other loot!” He looked greedily at the loot point as the pulsing slowed down noticeably. The white internal light darkens subtly.
Colonel opened his soul storage, and with a thought he brought up a ten-by-ten grid-box. The whole grid was semi-opaque so it never fully blocked his vision, it didn’t take up much space at all in his HUD. There was a page counter at the top right-hand side that said one of a sideways eight. Other than the first page, all of the other pages were empty and had a number counter under the page counter of zero. ‘Do I have unlimited space?’ Colonel wondered since the Tool Tip didn’t activate, he assumed that he was right. He looked at the one grid holding his quest reward Legacy gloves, he used his Equip skill.
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< TOOL-TIP >
{SKILL NAME:Equip(Active)
LEVEL: MAX
DESCRIPTION: Spend a minimum of 1 mana per KG to place, and retake anything for soul storage.
MAX BONUS: Bonded items can be equipped from anywhere and to anywhere on the wearer.}
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He mentally brought them out onto his hands. With a simple thought, they appeared on. The gloves were fingerless so they really provided little protection. They glowed when they were first removed and touched Colonel’s skin, but dulled the longer he observed them. He looked at the item prompt.
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< YOU HAVE EARNED AN ITEM >
{ITEM NAME: Legacy gloves
ITEM TYPE: Gloves
ITEM RANK: LEGENDARY(set item)
ITEM DESCRIPTION: Fingerless gloves with hardened knuckles that are soul-bound to you. They are not considered armor and can be as opaque as you would like. These gloves CANNOT be identified by any skill, item, or ability under mid-legendary.
Bonded to Colonel
ITEM EFFECT: (ACTIVE)Once a target, the legacy can activate a multi-attack that instantly hits the target two times with one punch(or weapon attack) per piece. Cost: 100 Mana -10 per piece.
Current cost: 90 mana
Current attacks: 2
ITEM EFFECT: (PASSIVE) +20 to DR per piece(Not displayed on CS)
Current DR: +20.
RARE MOD: 10% increase in Strength per piece
Current%: 10% (Not displayed on CS)
PLATINUM MOD: Locked until 2nd set piece.
DIAMOND MOD: Locked until 3rd set piece.
EPIC MOD: Locked until 4th set piece.
LEGENDARY MOD: LOCKED fatal reset skill}
{This item has been bound to your soul, it cannot be stolen, or taken away from you permanently. Equip skill will allow you to recall these gloves from anywhere. This item is part of a bigger set.}
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Colonel whistled at the gloves and smiled. “Check out my quest reward.” He yelled at Soto who was walking towards the loot point. As soon as he did he realized he was being a bit too loud in a semi hostile area. Their saving grace was that the area was just so massive.
Soto smiled as he walked. Though they have yet to meet any ghouls higher level than nine. That was going to change so the new equipment was going to help with the level gap. Soto was no fool, he knew it was pure luck that they had both the skill to survive and had been put in a location they could easily handle. The fact that Sugar was in such bad shape, showed that they had it easier than her. She must have been sent to one of the harder starter areas.
Soto opened his HUD and read Colonel’s gloves prompt. “Oh wow,” he spun around and looked back at Colonel then down to his gloves. “I don’t have an identity skill or ability.” He was already ten meters away or so, but Soto’s sharp eyes could make out the details on the gloves. He looked back at Colonel. “Please tell me we will be keeping these characters for sure now?” He said almost pleadingly. “At least the gear, these are legendary gloves and part of a legendary set piece.” He kept pleading as he read more, and frowned. “Also can you break down DR for me in layman's terms?”
Colonel shrugged really not knowing about keeping the characters, he couldn’t see why not. He didn’t even know anything about the game before getting the tickets, so he answered what he could. His Tool Tip seemed to be his best weapon so far, information was king in any scenario, and in video games more so, they made the game more rounded, and fun.
“DR or Defensive Rating.” Clyde began before looking back at his prompt. “Apparently or typically you get it at your first specialization, but I got access to it early since one of my titles gave me a Natural Armor bonus effect. I have yet to see what happens when it is overcome by damage, but I don’t feel any pain when I am hit, and my DR absorbs the damage. I can’t wear armor as a result though, but my natural armor recovers by the second so, it's like having regrowing armor instead. An armor that no one can see but me... actually I can’t even see it.” He looked at his gloves, and mentally made them his skin color, the dark brown blending in with his wrist seamlessly as if he wasn’t wearing any gloves at all. “Nice you see this?” Colonel held up his hands to show them off to Soto. The opacity-adjusting quality of the gloves was dope, but all he saw when he looked up was his sergeant major creepily smiling at the loot point. “Never mind, I guess I’ll enjoy these by myself.” He side-eyed Kuma who laughed at him before laying back down. “Even the dog is making fun of me right now. Great it's like being home.” He said under his breath.
Soto clearly preoccupied and doesn’t see any of what the Colonel was trying to show him, or his interaction with Kuma. Since his mind was already on the loot point, he only had eyes for one thing, and one thing only. Loot!. He walked passed the remnants of his first two kills just the rags from their worn-out clothing still remained, but even those were being absorbed into the ground, just a lot slower than the bodies. Liquid and flesh seemed to go faster and first.
Clyde looked at the retreating back of Soto and shook his head. How does he go from being completely enthralled with something, or someone, to just ignoring them? The Colonel would never understand that about his buddy.
Clyde had more of his own things to take care of, he had put it off for too long already.
He was hesitant to combine the skills and abilities because he wasn’t sure how long it would take. Soto had mentioned that he may also be without the new skill while he waited, he didn’t know, and that was what bothered him. Was it instant, or did it take three years? Was he going to be without the majority of his only skills for the duration of this weekend if he did this? All questions running through his mind, and his Tool tip was no help.
Colonel wasn’t one for hesitation, but caution was needed when making decisions that can change your life drastically. This seemed like one of those decisions. In the game, when he first looked at his character sheet there wasn’t a cap number for his General skills, so that must have been added after he got his first skill. Soto and he had discussed a few times in the last few hours on the pros and cons of combining it, and other than losing the stat gain per level, the time it would take to combine was the biggest issue.
Ultimately it came down to ‘This isn’t real life, so why hesitate.’ Colonel said “YES” to the combination of skills, and ability.
“In retrospect, he probably should have sat his black ass down.” The narrator mocked
Clyde was about to reply when the knowledge of all three passives just... disappeared from his mind. The void they left behind made him sick, and he fell to his knees clutching at his head as a trickle of blood ran down his nose. “UGH!” He screamed through gritted teeth, trying to bear it, but he failed and screamed louder. The splitting headache made him feel like pieces of his brain were turning to mush. His vision swam making it hard for him to concentrate on anything but the pain in his brain. And boy was there pain. He could barely breathe, and a -2 rose from his head. The bile built up in his stomach threatening to show itself in a grand entrance if he couldn’t stop the spinning going on in his cranium.
Soto turned back to the noise, his eyes narrowing on Colonel before widening at his bloody nose, and the floating minus two above his head. “When did you take damage, Jake?” His head was on a swivel, and his feet taking him back to his team leader.
“I didn’t.” Colonel tried to say, but it came out like a garbled mess as his mouth wasn’t working correctly. It was like he had peanut butter in his mouth, that was stale, and had the consistency of bubble gum, that had been melted. The whole action made him even sicker.
“Don’t tell me that one of those ghouls hurt you, bro. That would be a really bad start to this game man.” Soto said even more concerned. He didn’t want to have to kill his battle, but he couldn’t let zombies loose on the world, then he looked around, ‘too late I guess.’
“No, it didn’t.” Colonel tried to say badly.
Soto narrowed his eyes at his team lead again, “Are you going to become a zombie now? That wouldn’t be a very good tank.” He paused, “Hmm, you know what, maybe it will.” He walked back with more concern than he was letting on. “You always getting in trouble when I take my eyes off of you Jacob, why is that brother?” He said with a super smug look on his face. “I need you to be better than that you heard? I know you are an officer now, but you were a non-commission at one point, can you please act like you got some damn sense please. Get yourself together brother, get yourself together.”
Colonel wanted to punch him in his smiling face, but that was just an impulse of pain, and wanting others to feel the same pain he was going through. It was a petty response that every human at some point wished on another, but he didn’t actually want anyone to feel this pain, not even his worst enemy... well... made his worst enemy. But even that feeling quickly passed. Clyde shook his head at Soto.
[All good just the price of combining skills in the ‘GREAT GAME’.] He air-quoted the words a little mockingly just before his eyes lit up with a new understanding once again, and the pain subsided a little.
The narrator voices what the Colonel is feeling. “Colonel stands as a wave of exultation hits him like an Abrams main battle tank. Soto noticing his battle buddy wavering on his feet, moved quickly to catch him before he fell back. The energy flowing through him only makes Colonel laugh. He is really getting into the game more, and more now.
“The reward feedback system was like the first drink of coffee in the morning, added to the first sunrise you kiss someone in front of, combined with the first test you aced, all mixed together with quantified growth and full-body climax. With all of that combined, you get a feeling that is so incredible, so amazing, so natural, so very thought-provoking, and it is so indescribable that it can only be represented by...”
BOOM!!!
_____________________________________________________________
< A STAR EXPLODING >
{YOU HAVE CREATED A COMBAT SKILL SET}
< WORLD FIRST BONUS >
_____________________________________________________________
***
DUNGEON CORE ROOM
VAMPIRE LORD
“Did you just level up again?” The Vampire Lord said as he turned to Lisette.
“Yes my lord only a few more kills and I’ll be level twenty.” She replied with no emotion.
“Ah, the second specialization is a good one for our kind.” He said very pleased.