Tom sighed as he got the new notification about the library. He was hoping it would be at least a common rarity. Lesser rarity was just insulting. On the plus side, he had gained another two levels in [Scribe], bringing him back up to level 15.
Signing, he left the library, heading downstairs to the cafeteria. Abaddon had already sat down with a massive feast in front of him. He absently noticed that the TV had been turned on and was on the news channel.
For a few moments, it was pleasant. Waiting in line for his food was almost peaceful. He could almost pretend that everything was okay and that he didn't have a million things to worry about. It wasn't even the work that concerned him; it was the fact that he was dealing with real people now, not just NPCs.
And then his illusion of tranquility was ruined as people started to thank him. And thank him. And thank him. For bringing them back to life, for protecting the kids, . . . and for helping them get stronger. It didn’t take long before it was overwhelming. One grown man broke down in tears and thanked him for bringing back his wife. A woman thanked him for bringing her child back and asked him to bless her child, which he couldn't do yet. Which he vaguely recognized as one of the people he had resurrected. Entire families fell to their knees and sang praises to the gods in my name. He had no idea how he managed it, but he managed not to have a panic attack as people swarmed him.
When they finally let him go, Tom felt utterly drained. He would have preferred to fight ten demon lords than deal with whatever that was again.
Tom moved into the line for food. It was hotdogs with french fries right today. As he moved through the line, whispers rose around him.
"Did you see him?"
"Who the hell is that?"
"That's Thomas."
"He brought my sister back to life."
"Did you see his ears?!"
"Do you think he's from another world?"
Tom tried to ignore the whispers as he moved through the line. He just wanted to eat. When it was finally his turn to get his food, the server froze as he faced him.
"Two hotdogs, please," Tom said.
But the man just gaped at him like a fish. He looked familiar.
"Were you the guy I resurrected today? Bill or something?" Tom asked.
"Will, sir. My name is Will, sir." Will said. "I just wanted to say thank you. You saved my life."
"You're welcome. Though technically, I only restored your life to you. You were already dead." Tom pointed out too tired to care about tack.
"Um, yes, thank you again, sir," Will said awkwardly.
"My name is Thomas, by the way, or you can use one of my titles," Tom said as he held out his tray. Two hotdogs, please. Oh, and an apple with chocolate milk."
Will nodded as he grabbed Tom his food.
"Also, Will, you have a good affinity for Fire and Dark magic. You should consider picking up and trying to combine the Pyromancer and Umbramancer Classes." Tom suggested as he took his food and walked away.
Not seeing Will's face, Tom walked away and moved over to the table where Abaddon sat. As he sat down, he cast his senses out with [Far-Seeing] to observe his 'kingdom.'
"My hello, Saint Bruner. I am so happy for you to lower yourself to grace my humble form," Abaddon said mockingly.
"Abaddon, I love you, but you keep it up. I'm going to cast the Brown Note spell on you." Tom groaned.
"GAH, oh my god, I almost forgot about that spell. Hey, after this, let's go find Chad. I want to see him act tough while he's shitting himself!!" Alex laughed.
Abaddon seemed to shrink in on himself at that suggestion. So Tom changed the subject.
"How many potions did you manage to make?" Tom asked, changing the subject as Abaddon choked on the three hotdogs in his reptile maw and laughed uproariously.
Abaddon seemed almost to unhinge his jaw as he choked down his food before answering.
"I've got twenty health potions. Around a dozen mana potions," He answered. "I unlocked the brewer skill. It kinda sucks because everything started going way faster after you set up the cauldron, so I basically just fucked around for most of the day." Abaddon chuckled at himself
Tom smirked. "Don't worry about it. By the way, do we have a working energy condenser or …?" Tom asked hopefully, but Abaddon shook his head.
"I think I can get a basic transmutation table. But we won't be turning turds into gold anytime soon," Abaddon said.
"Well, shit. So much for my dreams," Tom muttered disheartened.
Abaddon shrugged. "Just add it to the to-do list."
Tom rolled his eyes.
"Along with all of our other objectives," Tom said. "Side note: Alex seems to be having fun playing administrator. She's actually pretty good at it."
"How can you tell?" Abaddon asked.
"[Far Seeing]. I'm watching her and her underlings. She's trying to use a privacy spell, but I think my bloodline has just ruined obfuscation for like ever," Tom snickered.
"Is it really that good?" Abaddon asked.
"Ignore for a second that [Thirst for Knowledge] lets me bypass her privacy spell. [Visions of Akashic Records] is letting me read the metadata of how the skill is obscuring the conversation. Which includes a transcript of said conversation so the skill can scramble it." Tom couldn't keep it in anymore; he started laughing at the absurdity of it all.
"It's been a really crazy two days, hasn't it?" Abaddon asked.
"Two days?" Tom asked. "Has it really only been two days? I thought it was at least three?"
"You got knocked out by a fireball," Abaddon pointed out.
"Right, I kind of forgot about that. It doesn't feel like two days. Honestly, it feels closer to forty," Tom said.
"So what's the plan going forward?" Abaddon asked.
"Hold a second. I've been making a list," Tom said as he pulled out a notepad.
"Let's see 1. Finish using tutorial rewards. 2. Spend settlement points 3. Clear lairs for Major Adams. 4. Visit the Dungeon. 5. Get people working in the Cauldron, Garden, and Foundry respectively. 8."
"Wait, you skipped 6 and 7." Abaddon cut in.
"Well, I listed the cauldron garden and foundry as separate tasks, so we are technically at 8. Now," Tom explained.
"Alright, continue," Abaddon said.
"8. Meet Starkiller on December 7th. We might want to hire him. 9. Find the beta-testers who attacked us and grief them. 10. Become self-sufficient. 11. Set up a healers group so I don't have to do everything myself. 12. Set up a daycare for Chloe so she can hang out with friends and gain levels to keep herself safe. 13. Make an energy condenser and get rich, 14. build a portal to the other planes so we can mine them, And finally, 15. Find and maybe kill the Wyvern." Tom finished up.
"Dammit, when you put it like that, it's hard to believe that it's only been two days," Abaddon muttered.
"TOM," a voice screeched above the cafeteria cacophony as Chloe appeared next to him, hugging him tightly.
"Hello, peanut. Did you have a good time?" Tom asked.
"Uh, hu, we spent the whole day watching my little pony!!" she squealed. "Can I get a horse like Rainbow Dash?"
Alex met up with them, setting down two plastic trays as she sat down with them.
"Pumpkin, come here. I need hugs," Alex said as she wrapped her arms around Chloe.
Chloe hugged her back with childish enthusiasm.
"That's so much better," Alex said. "Tom, I'll introduce you to the admins later. I refuse to keep dealing with them alone. We also need to set up some wards at some point. Just the basics, you know, anti-scrying, general protection, wards against disease, wards against the building burning down, an astral ward to stop anyone just phasing through the wall or teleporting in, physical and magical wards against damage to the building, the normal stuff."
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"Yeah, but we need to set up a ritual circle, and you and I are the only people who can do that stuff," Tom muttered as he added it to his growing list.
"Any idea where Skippy went?" Abaddon asked
"I was out." the squirrel man said as he arrived with his own platter.
"Doing?" Tom asked expectantly.
"I was finding refugees and grabbing groceries," Skippy said with a shrug. "You won't believe who I found."
Skippy then told his story about the orcs, Penny's group, and the Regional Quest. The witch then gave them access to the regional quest. And with every word Skippy said Tom got more and more frustrated.
"Where is Penny and her friends now?" Alex asked
"They're asleep in one of the rooms upstairs. It's a miracle i got them in building before they passed out."
"Fucking fuckity fuck." Tom swore as his frustration reached a boiling point.. "Adding number 16 to the to-do list."
"What the hell are you complaining about?" Skippy asked. "We just get the guild together and do a raid."
Alex looked at Skippy like he was an idiot,
"Skippy, these aren't players. They've never been in a raid. It would be easier to coordinate a bunch of wet cats. How do you think they're going to react when we tell them to fight and die against a goblin horde? They're going to tell us to go eat a bucket of dicks." Alex pointed out.
"It can't be that bad." Skippy protested.
"The best guide to the system is a couple of videos people took of me in the gymnasium earlier today," Tom said.
"Seriously?!" Skippy asked.
"The best one is made by someone called Sunshine 1138. He already has over a billion views of my gym speech on YouTube. And it's still growing," Tom said, showing the video on his phone.
"Can we hire him to do more of those? Most people don't even know how to build a basic synergy. It would be good press for us," Alex said.
"Hold on, we're getting off track. If we can't use the guild, what about the RCMP or the army?" Skippy asked.
"I'm not sure. I've been using them for [Far-Seeing] practice in between other things. I even got six levels out of it. But It's pretty chaotic there," Tom warned.
"How so?" Alex asked
“They thought they could conquer a lair without us. They tried with three different monster lairs I know of, one spider, one overrun by elementals, and one with goblins.” Tom explained.
“I can see why the elementals kicked their ass. They're immune to physical attacks, but how did they fail to kill the goblins?” Alex asked, confused. "Goblins aren't that different from humans."
“The boss was a level 20 War Troll,” Tom said.
A massive monster resistant to physical attacks, heavy regeneration, and redundant organs would be functionally immune to gunfire.
"Yeah, that would do it," Alex said as he leaned back in his chair. "What about the other lairs?"
"The museum is full of zombies, the horse track has giant horse spiders, and I found an elemental lair in the nearest police station. A lot of goblins' lairs. It seems to be a theme." Tom explained.
"Lovely. So we need to clear out the lairs, turn them into settlements, raise an army, and then wipe out the goblins." Tom groaned as he added yet more tasks to the to-do list.
"Well, it’s a bloody grind out there, a handful of other beta-testers. Everything I found out there is below level 10 right now. I'm not sure there's enough XP to go around." Skippy said darkly.
For a long moment, they all just sat there feeling more than a little depressed at their situation. Then Chloe stood up on the bench to whisper in his ear.
“Can we have a barbecue tomorrow?” She whispered loudly.
“Sure peanut,” Tom said as he ruffled her hair as he tried to think of how they were going to handle this situation.
They had so many things to do, and it all just felt so overwhelming. He had to admit it was less overwhelming than adulthood had been. There, he had felt overwhelmed because he didn't know what to do or even what he wanted out of life. It had been like being given a million options and being expected to somehow choose the right one without spending the rest of his life in misery.
Now that real life was the Legend of Noralon, it was actually easier in some ways. Sure, they were at risk of getting killed by the monsters, But he knew exactly what he wanted and how to get there. He wanted to build up his guild, smash the goblins, and grow in power. He already knew how to do all of that. The only problem was getting everyone else to tag along with his vision.
"Let's break this down barney style," Tom muttered to himself. We need to hit the lairs for the levels and the resources. We should bring anyone we think has the talent to help power-level them. We should also share the regional quest with the Major at first but not to the entire guild, not until we all hit level 20. Just in case this goes tits up."
"Seriously, Tom?" Skippy snorted in indignation. "What are they going to do to us?"
Before either of them could say anything, the nearest TV flickered on as someone got the TVs working, and a news anchor appeared on the screen.
Breaking News!!! Today, a man killed a senator, Heathcliff, in his home today in full view of his family before disappearing without a trace. Unfortunately, the man is still at large. Fortunately, Ashly Heathcliff, the senator's daughter, was able to identify the person's title as a Beta-tester.
This is the eighth incident involving beta-testers who claim that the world has become a video game. Given how prepared these beta-testers were for the catastrophe, one has to wonder if they aren't telling us something …
The news anchor went on to paint the beta-testers as having triggered the system apocalypse and questioning if they should be arrested or even killed on sight.
"You were saying, Skippy?" Tom asked.
"Did you fucking plan that?" Skippy asked suspiciously as Tom added yet another thing to his list: public relations.
"Nope. sometimes, the universe just likes to prove me right." Tom said.
"So what do we do now?" Abaddon asked.
"First thing tomorrow morning, we need to have a little get-together with Major and Penny. As for right now, we go upstairs, bust out the Xbox, and spend an hour or two playing Halo 3."
"Halo Reach is better," Skippy stated.
"In what world?" Tom asked as the conversation devolved into which Halo game was the best.
You may skip to the next chapter.
Name: Tom Bruner
Race: Half-Elf ()
Type: Humanoid
LVL: 15
SubRace: High Elf / Caucasian
Age 18
Health: 525
Stamina: 675
Mana: 2700
Health Regen: 7.5 per hour
Stamina Regen: 9.0 per min
Mana Regen: 15.0 per min
Titles: Beta-Tester, First, Awoken Myths, Guild Master
Immune
None
Resistances
Mental 50% Soul 34%
Weakness
None
Bane
Manslayer
Classes: Augur 10, Tactiction 1, Scribe 3, Pro-gamer 1
Total
STR: 15
AGIL: 15
DEX: 15
CON: 45
END: 15
PER: 150
INT: 135
WILL: 120
SPIRIT: 30
EGO: 15
CHA: 90
LCK: 15
Base
STR: 15
AGIL: 15
DEX: 15
CON: 45
END: 15
PER: 150
INT: 135
WILL: 120
SPIRIT: 30
EGO: 15
CHA: 90
LCK: 15
Personal: +4 PER +4 WILL +3 INT +3 CHA
Racial: +3 WILL +2 CON +2 CHA +1 SPIRIT
Bloodline: +5 PER +5 INT
Level Bonus: +1 to all Stats
Bloodline:
[Bloodline of the Keeper of Akashic Records]—Forgotten: Through your vein runs the blood of the forgotten Keepers of the Akashic Records. These monks, scribes, and scholars helped create the system, and within their blood are the keys to its secrets.
- [The Pen is Mightier than the Sword] - Level 28
- [Words Will Always Retain their Power] - Level 20
- [Library of Akashic Records] - Level 21
- [Universal] - Level 18
- [Wordsmith] - Level 24
- [My Mind is My Temple, My Soul the Altar] - Level 34
- [Thirst for Knowledge] - Level 16
- [Visions of Akashic Records] - Level 11
- [Soul Forge] - Level 25
- +5 PER per level
- +5 INT per level
Skill Slots: 19/60: Skill Points: 2
Personal Skills
- [Analyze Person] - Level 22
- [Best of Both Worlds] - Level 12
- [Art of Water] - Level 7
- [Art of Earth] - Level 4
- [Teacher] - Level 9
Augur 07/16
- [Augurs Eye] - Level 7
- [Bright Arts] - Level 25
- [Art of Life] - Level 20
- [Prophetic Meditation] - Level 27
- [Far Seeing] - Level 11 >> Level 17
- Capstone: [Hand of Mercy] - Level 14
- [Quest Giver] - Level 1
Tactician 05/6
- [Nascent Guild Leader] - Level 11
- [Leadership Ⅱ] - Level 16
- [Raider Ⅰ] - Level 15
- [Coordinate Ⅱ] - Level 10
- [Logistics Ⅱ] - Level 12
Pro-Gamer 01/11
- [Spell Trap] - Level 1
Scribe 01/6
- [Contract] - Level 9
- [Empty]