Dave was the last to drop back into what was now the real world. He could see Dan and Rob standing in the same clearing he found himself in, talking a few feet away. Clearly they weren't in the city anymore. He looked around to realize they were basically in a forest, and the sky still looked like he had taken a bunch of mushrooms. The forest had trees three times too large, with tuffs of grass and bushes scattered around. What seemed like well worn walking paths throughout. Shaking his head to clear it, Dave rose to his feet and started walking toward Rob and Dan. Turning to see Dave walking up to them, Rob spoke.
"Dave what class did you get? I got a rare class called Deadshot. When I asked about guns though, the AI told me all advanced Earth weapons were removed. Not sure what advanced weapons means but hopefully we don't run into people with tanks and shit."
"That's bullshit Rob, my best class was an uncommon, it's called Lightning Shield Bearer. My mana affinity is lightning and I get 3 points per level but I'm still level 1. What about you guys?"
Dan spoke first, "Well I also got a rare class called Weapons Tech. It allows me to combine weapons we find to make special ones. I guess I could make a bow that shoots swords or I was thinking a staff that shoots needles. My mana affinity is light, not sure what I'm gonna do with that but I'm also level 1. My mind stat is my highest at 10 everything else was only 3 and 4. My status screen says I need 100 Exp to get to level 2 and I'll get 5 points to assign"
"Deadshot means I'm a long range specialist from what I got from the AI too bad there's no sniper rifles; but I'm sure if we find a bow I'll be able to put in some work. My mana affinity is Shadow and I already have a skill called Shadow blink. I can only use it twice within one hour though and it cost 3 mana to use. My mana is 10 everything else is a 5 or 4 except dexterity it's an 8." Rob said
"So we're all level one, but how the fuck do we level and why are we in the middle of this strange forest, when we were in the city when this all went down?" Dave asked the question but they were all thinking the same thing. Clearly they had been transported a different world or the Earth as they knew it had changed.
"Shut up you guys! You hear that sounds like something's moving in the trees over there?" Rob snapped. Pointing to a patch of trees, with some rather large underbrush going back as far as they could see.
Dave and Dan glanced at the same time toward the direction Rob had pointed to see 4 sets of eyes staring back at them. All four sets of eyes advanced out of the underbrush to reveal 4 boar. The boar almost looked like wild boar. Just with bulging muscles and anger in their eyes. Along with smoke rising from their eyes. It would have been scary as hell if they had time to think about it.
While looking at the boar notification screens started popping into everyone's vision.
*Ding* wild boar level 0 ..*Ding* wild boar level 0...*Ding* wild boar level 0...*Ding wild boar level 1...
"Umm guys can you see what they are and there levels or am I trippin?" Dan asked.
"Yeah, we fuckin see them, but what are we going to do? We don't have any weapons! Maybe we should book it?" Dave questioned.
"No!" Rob said "Animals are normally faster then humans, they'd just run us down. But these boar are on the smaller side, probably not as strong as us, we could probably take them."
The first level 0 boar charged Dan, he froze. It was small, but it had tusks but he was the tech guy, fighting wasn't he strong suit. He did fight with The Crew all the time but he would rather not unless he couldn't avoid it. The boar was closing in and he was still standing frozen, not in fear but just the sheer mind fuck of the whole situation. Just as the boar was about to ram him *Smash* Dave kicked the thing right in its head. He didn't think he could kick that hard but the damn boar went flying a good ten feet blood pouring out of its month and nose. It was still alive but clearly it was fucked up.
Rob thought to himself. He had Shadow Blink probably better use it but he wasn't sure what to do. After he picked his class he knew how to use the skill like he had been born with it. It wasn't using the skill he wasn't sure about. It was how to use it to help everyone in this situation. Suddenly he realized they were just boar, he and his brother both hunted before, he should just try to take one out fast. Dave had just kicked one across the clearing maybe they were stronger then they knew.
"Come on you fuckin punk ass pigs come get some." Dave yelled standing in the clearing between Rob, Dan and the Boar.
"They probably don't speak English genius" Dan laughed.
Sure enough the other two level zero boar started to charge. Then Rob knew what to do. The level 1 was probably the leader of the group he Shadow Blinked behind it and before the boar knew he was there he grabbed its head a twisted with everything he had *Snap*. Holy shit he broke its neck in one try. Golden motes of light start to come out of the dead monster, most of it flew towards Rob but smaller amounts went towards Dave and Dan.
Dave and Dan squared up as the other two boar were closing in. Dave knew he was gonna kick the shit out of one again and Dan realized after seeing Dave's first kick he might be able to do the same thing. *Smash* Dave kicked his boar so hard, rather then fly away, its head snapped back dead instantly. Dan kicked out but missed. The boar clipped his leg it's tusk opening a decent gash in the side of his calf. "Fuck No!" Yelled Dave and for a split second his eyes were lit with lightning! *Boom* a bolt shot from Dave's out stretched hand and the Boar dropped to the ground. Rob Shadow Blinked again next to the downed boar and snapped its neck. Dave ran over the the first boar he kicked, which was still so messed up it couldn't stand. Dave stomped its head so hard it's skull cracked and then golden light poured out the remaining boar into all of them.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Dave's whole body was glowing, when he looked over to Rob and Dan he could see the same thing happening to them. Then a message popped into his vision
:You have reached Level 2 you have 3 attribute points to assign:
"So I guess that's leveling, man it feels good. Dan your leg healed too at least we know there some way to fix any damage we get." Rob said
Then to everyone's surprise a chest appeared in the middle of the clearing. *Ding* loot chest earned mobs cleared.
"Loot chest, this is fuckin nice we level and get a loot chest, wonder what's inside" Dave said "Better be something cool! I kicked the shit out of those things. Rob how did you like teleport like that?"
"Me? Wow the hell did you shoot that lightning bolt thing? It didn't kill it, but it fucked it up." Rob answered back
"I don't know. I got pissed when it hit Dan and it just happened. It was like, I knew I could do it somehow. I didn't mean for it to happen, it just did." Dave answered shrugging his shoulders
Dan's eyes were white and when he snapped back to he told them "I assigned my points into my mind stat. If there are weapons in that chest, I want to be able to do something with them."
"Well let see what we got." Rob said walking over to the chest. When he crouched down and touched the chest, he felt a slight tingling and a message popped into his vision
*You have received 1 minor mana potion, 1 basic dagger. In your minds eye say INVENTORY to equip or select items for use.*
"Holy shit! The chest doesn't open it just give you stuff!" Rob said excitedly "Just touch it and it puts items into your inventory."
"What's that?" asked Dan
"Just touch it." Rob said. "Then you'll see, dumbass."
Dan walked the few feet over and touched the chest. He didn't say anything, standing back up and just looked to be in thought. So Dave walked over and touched it as well.
"Nice! It gave me a mana potion and an item called steel toe boots." Dave said. "What did you get Dan?"
"Just a minor health potion." Dan replied. "I bet the awards are based on what we did during the battle. Rob what did you get?"
"I got a dagger and a minor mana potion" He said.
"So you both got something offensive and mana potions. Probably because you did more damage and finished off the boar during the battle. I just got a health potion, probably because I only got injured and I didn't really cause any damage." Dan said looking a little sad.
"Still, we have to make a plan, I'm gonna use my dagger and slice these boar up because as of right now, we don't have any food. I'm sure we could find water easy enough, but food may be rough in the middle of the woods. Don't eat any berries or anything unless we're sure what it is." Rob told them. Rob also realized none of them had there packs. They only had the clothes they were wearing when they had been transported into that black room with the AI to pick their classes. His truck was gone. Anything from the old world seemed to be gone also. They could see no houses, no cars, nothing just a wild giant forest in all directions.
As Rob started to field strip and process the boar for meat, Dave and Dan looked around. Dan backed up to the edge of the clearing, looking up toward the sky. "Hey! There's a beam of light shooting into the sky over that way. Maybe we should head towards it?" Dan asked pointing toward the beam of light raising into the sky. With no sun visible they couldn't tell what direction it was, but it was the only thing they could see beside forest and the trippy sky.
"I don't know if that's a beacon or something, maybe other people or beasts will head towards it as well." Dave said. Other beasts means more Experience and more levels, Dave thought to himself.
"I don't think we really have a choice." said Rob " We're going to have to get some type of information on what's happening, we can't just stay here. Maybe we'll run into someone on the way. Maybe D will be heading that way too. If we can all get together, I'll feel much better about our odds of surviving this damn mess."
Rob felt like his speed was already good and his Shadow blink worked great. His dexterity was already pretty high so he put all his earn stat points into perception. He figured it he could always be better to see or hear attacks before they came, while they made there way to whatever that light was. This should in his mind, make traveling a lot easier and safer.
Dave decided to put his points into strength. He equipped his new steel toe boots and was surprised that they felt even better then sneakers he had been wearing. He also realized, when he identified them, that the boots added +2 blunt damage. He felt like they were a decent score for his first item, but he didn't know enough to be sure.
Dan was a little let down, he had only got that health potion but he assured himself if or when they had another fight; he would do some damage a get some better loot.
"Rob where the hell did all the meat go? I thought you were getting us some food?" Dave asked.
"This inventory shit is awesome! As soon as I get a decent piece cut the system just added it to my inventory. It says we have 15 pieces of Boar Ham. So at least we have something we can eat now, we just need to find some water. Hopefully on the way to that beam of light we find some." Rob answered.
They had somewhat of a plan and decided to get moving. Each looking around the clearing one last time, as one the started walking toward and down the path that seemed to head toward the beam of light.
Maybe that beam of light is some more loot. Dave thought to himself. Or maybe it's some more monsters and we can gain some more levels. Walking down the path in the forest.
Rob, "I hope we level up some more on the way. I feel like a million bucks and we're only level 2! Imagine what it's gonna be like the higher we get."
"For right now I think we should just stick to the plan and get moving. Lets try and locate some water." Dan said. "If we run into anyone or any trouble on the way, we'll just have to handle it."
"I hope we run into something. I'm gonna zap the shit out of it." Dave stated excitedly holding his hand out in front of himself, picturing shooting another blast of lightning.
"Not if I Shadow Blink behind it and kill it first" Rob countered.
"We've been in this new world for a half hour, you guys are already losing it." Dan said, clearly not as excited as Rob and Dave about their new abilities.
"No, we're just accepting our new purpose in life. Well same as our old purpose in the city. Kick the shit out of anyone or anything that gives us a problem." Dave said
"Well he's not wrong." Said Rob "Come on, time to move, who knows if it's going to get dark anymore. But I don't want to be in these woods if it does."