Archimedes
“I don’t trust this,” Chedderfield mumbled under his breath as the little kid beckoned them down into the bunker. The others looked at each other as they stood hesitantly in the street. They were wondering if they should follow, Archimedes surmised, judging by their unsure expressions.
“An innocent child with a cute appearance would be the perfect tool for creating trust or causing a group to lower their guard before an ambush,” Nguyen added, taking Chedderfield’s side.
“It’s either this or we risk staying above ground and getting attacked again by the undead menagerie,” Archimedes replied in as hushed a tone as he could with a shrug. “Also, are you really worried about them? Brother, you gonna tell me you can’t handle yourself? Come on. You’re probably one of the strongest humans there is. Strong enough to actually trust a little too.”
Chedderfield shook his head. “Ah, yes. The old ‘everyone is trustworthy if you have the biggest stick’ situation.”
“Am I wrong? Are you saying big stick diplomacy doesn’t work?”
“Fine, Teddy Roosevelt. But you’re going in first,” Chedderfield replied, this time rising well above a mumble.
“Fair enough,” Archimedes said, “I gotta get this one to a safe place to rest and make sure she’s got plenty of orange juice or . . . well, whatever we can find to get that blood loss covered.” He picked up Emma into the air like the teen was just a five-year-old girl he was putting to bed and began his descent into the bunker. Lucy followed after him.
“Hey . . . I voted against this idea too. Where are my compliments and overt ego stroking to appease my concerns?” Nguyen asked with a sigh as she followed after Lucy.
“You’re complaining about that?” Lucy grumbled from behind Archimedes. “I want to be carried . . .”
“If you get a giant horn through you, I’ll carry you too.”
“So how come what you did to me last night didn’t earn me a carry in the morning?” Lucy quipped.
“Could you two please stop that? I don’t have enough in my stomach to throw up,” Emma said as Archimedes continued to walk her down the spiral staircase into the bunker.
“Yes, I’d like to rest somewhere safe while I heal too,” Danielle added from behind Chedderfield. Her voice sounded strained to Archimedes, and he suspected she was hurt worse than she let on.
“Of course, babe. We’re going to get somewhere safe. Just lean on me as we go down these stairs,” Chedderfield replied.
Archimedes looked back for a moment and saw his friend gingerly leading Danielle down the stairs. The woman’s skin looked concerningly pale in the LED lights that illuminated the stairs.
The girl led them deeper into the underground structure, her cheerful voice pointing out the safety features and traps her parents had installed near the stairs. “Oh, don’t forget to hop over the tripwire at the bottom of the stairs. Daddy says there’s enough C4 there to blow the monsters to kingdom come, whatever that means.”
“Damnit!” Archimedes yelled as his feet hit the last step of the spiral staircase, and he had to make a last-second hop to avoid the wire.
The little girl turned, her eyes wide. “Language, Mister! Mommy says she’ll wash out the mouth of anyone that curses in the house.” Then the girl faced forward again and shrugged, “But then I hear mommy and daddy cursing at night when they think we’re all asleep, so I don’t think that’s true.”
Lucy snorted and mumbled, “Three kids? I bet they do.”
“Sorry,” Archimedes apologized.
“Oh my god, it’s like . . . It’s like we’re in a Mad Max movie or something,” a teenage girl said as she opened a door at the bottom of the staircase, revealing the main chamber of the bunker inside.
“Be careful, Paris. They could be zombies too. Maybe super-evolved ones that ate enough brains to learn how to act like humans and manipulate their way inside,” a boy who looked like he was no older than twelve teased.
“They were fighting the zombies, Kirk. Why would they be fighting them if they were them? Like, you’re so dumb,” Paris said while rolling her eyes.
“Kids! Will you mind your manners? We have guests over!” an overweight middle-aged woman wearing a knitted sweater with the image of a cat holding a cup of coffee on it said as she came out of the bunker doorway, her form backlit by a white light. She smiled at the group as they left the stairs, but Archimedes noted that her hand didn’t stray far from the handgun that was holstered at her hip. The lady gestured for them to walk inside.
Archimedes had imagined that the bunker would be a cramped, bomb-shelter-style tube or something, but the moment he walked into the bunker it felt less like a cramped submarine and more like a sprawling Fallout: New Vegas-style underground home with hallways two people could walk through side by side without touching and nicer furniture than any he’d ever had in his apartment.
“Close that door! You’re letting all that contaminated air inside!” yelled a gruff voice from inside the bunker. Looking behind the woman Archimedes could see the voice belonged to a tall man with shaggy brown hair. He wore a checkered long sleeved shirt and looked disapprovingly at all the new people in front of him.
With a shake of her head, the woman hit a button on the side wall and the ground entrance closed with a squeal, leaving only the artificial lights to illuminate their surroundings. With their only exit now blocked off, Archimedes felt a sudden surge of panic. What if these guys turned out to be terrible people, like cannibals or something who ate their neighbors, which is why they survived this long? Then he realized that, by using Undead Delight, he’d likely eaten some of these folks' neighbors himself.
“Where does the air come from if not outside?” Lucy asked as she pointed at the ceiling. “I mean, do you guys have an arboretum or something? Bunch of plants making the air?”
Loralei nodded. “That and a triple-filtration system that cleans 99% of all known pathogens and contaminants.”
“Triple filtered? Just how I like my vodka,” Lucy remarked.
“Of course you’d be a drinker.” Lucas looked annoyed. “Look, you can stay here for a night’s rest, and we’ll give you a meal, but after that, you need to be on your way. This shelter wasn’t built big enough for a group your size.”
“Dear!” Loralei chastised as she shot him a scornful look. “Ignore him. You can stay as long as you need to get back on your feet. But, in the meantime, why don’t you tell us all about your adventures? What’s the world like out there?”
“Thanks, ma’am. If you could show me to a bed or something, I’d like to get this one laid out to rest and heal up,” Archimedes said, indicating Emma with a slight lift of the girl in his arms.
“And will you stop gawking at her? So gross. She’s injured, like half dead, and she’s like four or five years older than you,” Paris said to Kirk.
“What are you talking about, Paris?! Stop saying stuff like that!” Kirk exclaimed, his voice cracking.
“OMG, are you blushing? That’s so f— Hey! Put that down!” Paris’s verbal onslaught against her brother ended quickly as she did her best to dodge a nerf gun that he had pulled out and shot at her. She ran away into a different room of the bunker as he chased after her.
“Sorry . . . they can be a handful, but they just haven’t had anyone to talk to in a while. You know how it is,” Loralei said, quickly apologizing for them as she gestured toward one of the doors leading off the large hallway. “In there, you’ll find our emergency guest section. It only has four beds though . . . so you’ll have to figure out how you're going to split things up.”
“Thank you. That’ll be more than enough,” Danielle said as she leaned on Chedderfield.
“Oh, dear. You don’t look well. Is there anything I can do for you?” Loralei asked.
“No, I just need some time to heal up. We all have cards that will get us back in shape given enough time and some food.”
“Then I can help. I’ll have some MREs ready in a few minutes,” Loralei said with a smile. Then she turned, walked down the hallway, and went into another room.
“Don’t mind Mom. She always wants to help. Here, let me turn on the lights for you in the room,” Rory said, opening the door to the guest area and turning a light timer switch. The lights came on, revealing bunks built into the walls with a brown cabinet next to each.
“I totally want to explore this whole place,” Lucy said as Archimedes laid Emma down on the nearest bed. Even though she was still awake, it was clear that the girl didn’t want to be. She was shaking in his arms, and despite the fact she wasn’t sobbing anymore, she still hadn’t spoken or interjected once, only hugging and curling up and around one of the pillows on the bed.
“You get some rest, kid. We’ll be right here in case something happens,” Archimedes said, looking over at Lucy. “Won’t we?”
“But . . . it's a fallout shelter! I want my Pip Boy!” Lucy protested for a moment, her face going from an energetic defense to a pout before she finally just sighed. “Whatever. I bet there is a whole room filled with beer and pizza, and now we’ll never know.”
“We’re not staying here to have a good time,” Chedderfield said as he sat next to Danielle on the adjacent bed. “When these two are in better condition, we’re going right back up to the surface.”
“Yeah. Chedderfield is right. Leave this world for them. It won’t last if the Demonic Faction takes over,” Archimedes said as he leaned back against the wall and shut his eyes for a moment, replaying the recent fight in his head over and over again, wondering what he could have done better and kicking himself for being so arrogant and confident in his skills that a dozen people had died, and he had almost lost Danielle and Emma—two of his family.
———
“So you’re level 7 too, right?” Archimedes whispered to Chedderfield as they walked out of the bedroom, not wanting to disturb the sleeping Emma and Danielle—and Lucy, who had decided she just needed a nap too.
“Yeah. Just hit it last fight,” Chedderfield replied with a nod. “I’m still not sure how the system works. I wish there was an EXP bar or something. I might not play as many games as Lucy does, but I played enough to know that if they’re going to gamify things, they usually add an EXP bar.”
“Some of the older-style DnD games used milestones, not EXP bars, to determine when the players would level though,” Nguyen commented, startling Archimedes, who hadn’t heard the stealthy woman follow them out. There was a small quirky smile on her lips as she joined the conversation and shut the door behind her. “I’m not sure which this is though. There may be EXP bars that we can’t see, or this may all be milestone based. The system has made it clear that there are entities watching us . . . so for all we know, we might only be getting levels when we get enough alien overlord subscribers watching us . . . or donations from them.” She chuckled softly.
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Archimedes frowned. “That’s a messed up thought. Did you hit level 7 too though? ‘Cause I’m wondering about this class thing . . .”
“Class thing? What are you talking about? I’m only level 6. I don’t have any class things. I just gained access to the quest system,” Nguyen replied. For a moment, Archimedes wanted to ask how she was only level 6 when she had been with the group through what felt like every fight, but then he remembered that, on the first night, Nguyen hadn’t gone with them. She had gone with Maryam and Brad, and that wasn’t the only time they had been separated since Archimedes and Chedderfield had gone with Michael and Dicky when first venturing out of the hotel.
“It’s apparently something we unlocked at level 7 . . . and not level 5 or 10. I mean, level 7? Who picks level 7 for something?” Chedderfield said as he moved his hands through the air, going through the system menu to the class section.
Seeing Chedderfield do it, Archimedes followed suit. The moment he opened up the menu, he was greeted by a system warning:
Warning: You are now entering the class section. All choices made in the class section will affect your skills and stats.
As this decision is important to gameplay, we recommend you carefully read through the section guide.
“Will you click the guide button already?” Nguyen fussed as she hovered over Archimedes’ shoulder, reading his notification.
“Yeah, yeah,” Archimedes grumbled as he followed her instruction, hitting the guide button and generating an explanation of the classes.
Class Availability:
Each player is given the ability to switch between many different classes but access the benefits of only one at a time. There is one base class corresponding to each of the six primary attributes. Additionally each player has access to one innate class corresponding to their innate ability. Other base classes may be unlocked depending on the player's weapon, skill, titles, and actions since integrating into the S.A.N.E. network.
The Base Classes corresponding to the six primary attributes are as follows:
[Strength] - Fighter
[Agility] - Ranger
[Constitution] - Warden
[Mind] - Healer
[Charisma] - Manager
[Psychic] - [Locked due to racial penalty]
Innate Class: Automator
Unlocked Classes:
Emissary – [From traveling to other planets and building cordial relations with other factions on their home planets]
Baron – [From having two or more subservient vassal relationships]
To advance a class, the player will need to complete class challenges in order to earn skill points. Skill points may then be invested in class skills, abilities, passives, and perks. The more skill points that are invested, the more options the player will have to select from within the skill tree. Additionally, based on skill-tree selection, actions, or achievements, a player may be given the opportunity to rank up a class. For example, a Fighter may be upgraded to a Master Fighter based on actions and the number of skill points invested.
Note: While the inherited class passives, abilities, and bonuses do not carry over when a new class is selected, perks unlocked through the skill tree do.
“Oh, this has great potential,” Nguyen said as she scanned the notification screen. “It doesn’t lock you into just one class. You can use them all.”
“Yeah, and I bet there are some cool synergies if you work the class skills right,” Chedderfield remarked.
“Well, enough with the build up,” Nguyen said. “Highlight one of the classes. What do the classes do? And what unlocked and innate classes did you get, Chedderfield?”
“My innate class is Purgator. It offers me good bonuses fighting against hell-cursed. I do 25% more damage and take 25% less damage, but the drawback is that I also do 25% less damage and take 25% more damage when fighting against non hell-cursed individuals. So . . . basically, it’s like a zombie hunter? Open up yours, hermano. What’s your innate class do?”
“Easy, you two. I’ll get to it. I wanna see what the others do first,” Archimedes said as he made sure his screen was visible to both of them and began going through the list, starting with the fighter class.
Base Classes:
[Fighter] – Deal 25% more damage with all melee attacks and skills. Deal 25% less damage with all ranged attacks and skills.
[Ranger] – Deal 25% more damage with all ranged attacks and skills. Deal 25% less damage with all melee attacks and skills.
[Warden] – Take 25% less damage when within 10 feet of a designated ward. Take 25% more damage when farther than 10 feet away from a designated ward.
[Healer] – Increase healing skills by 25% and reduce healing cooldowns by 25%. Decrease the damage of skills by 25% and increase the cooldown of skills that deal damage by 25%.
[Manager] – Increase all group buffs by 25% and decrease effectiveness and duration of individual buffs by 25%.
Innate Class:
[Automator] – Increase the effectiveness and duration of all skills that are passive, automatically triggered, or create non-player-controlled entities by 25%. Decrease all active skills that require manual casting, targeting, or creating directly controllable entities by 25%.
Unlocked Classes:
[Emissary] – Increase the rate of language learning by 50%. Increase the effectiveness of communication-based skills by 25%. Decrease damage skills by 25%.
[Baron] – Increase Vassal Faction Bonus for all faction members by 100%. Decrease the effectiveness of all skills and attacks by 10%.
“Those penalties to each class are no joke. Even the basic fighter class one would put a serious penalty on you guys doing that breath combo you’ve been using in the last few fights since the Acid Breath and Fire Breath skills are ranged attacks,” Nguyen noted as Archimedes went through the list.
“I’m kinda wondering what’s up with that Automator class though. Just how lazy did you have to be for the system to decide you needed an entire class based on being a bum, Arc?” Chedderfield asked as he pointed to Archimedes’ innate class.
“I think it’s more . . .” Archimedes hesitated, trying to find the words to describe his theory on why he got the class. “You know I ran a factory before the apocalypse, right? That’s all about automation. And you should know it takes a lot more effort to automate something well than to do it yourself.”
“Sure, sure. You keep telling yourself that while you sit on the couch and eat ice cream,” Chedderfield snickered.
Archimedes felt his stomach groan at the mention of the frozen treat, and he felt an instant craving. “Damnit. Now I want ice cream. But back to the classes, could we abuse any of these? Which one are you going to pick?”
“Oh! Why don’t we both pick the warden class and just protect each other, Arc?” Chedderfield suggested.
Archimedes thought about it and then shook his head. “No, we both move around the battlefield too much. You’re basically a kind of cavalry unit with your Meat Slam, and I’m . . .” He struggled to think of a gaming equivalent to his skills.
“A dragoon. You know, that class that uses leap skills constantly in those amazing old tactics games?” Nguyen answered for Archimedes.
“Yeah, I’m a dragoon. Though, I thought that was a cavalry unit too. But we both move too much for that class. I think we’d have to stay and tank more than either of us is comfortable with.”
“Didn’t another notification mention something about perks or unlocking class bonuses?” Nguyen asked.
“Yeah,” Archimedes said as he clicked on “Automator.” A new notification window appeared.
Automator
Class skill points available: 0
Current Class Challenge –
Novice Automation Integration: Use a passive or automated skill 50 times or kill or heal 50 different targets with automated or passive skills.
Available Skills:
Auto-Cast [Required Points: 1] – Lock one of your currently slotted skills such that you will no longer be able to cast it. Instead, this skill will cast at an appropriate time and at an appropriate target once every minute if the skill cooldown is available until auto-cast has been deactivated. May not deactivate auto-cast or unslot skill until 1 hour has passed.
Even though there was only one available skill, Auto-Cast, in a large grayed-out box like in an old video game, above it there were three lines leading into an indiscernible group of further options. He’d seen similar systems in games that didn’t let you see what skills were going to be available until you chose the prerequisites.
“I hate the fog-of-war models. It makes it so hard to plan your build,” Chedderfield commented as she read the class window.
“At least they let you see the first skill. What are the others?” Nguyen asked.
“The fighter class’s first skill is just a charged attack, where one attack every minute, skill or otherwise, can do double damage,” Archimedes answered. “The ranger’s first skill gives a scope—or visual boost—ability that lasts for three minutes with a ten-minute cooldown, and all ranged attacks made while the ability is active are more likely to hit their target, which . . . Does that mean the system will alter your movements? Weird to think about. The warden one is a damage transfer if the ward is within 10 feet of you, where 25% of damage taken by the ward is transferred to the warden.”
“Guard the wrong person and you both end up dead,” Nguyen said as she read the ability while Archimedes described it.
“The healer one, no surprise, allows you to heal yourself or someone else every minute for 10% of their bar. It’s called Healer’s Touch. The manager class skill is called Rallying Cry. It allows parties to move 25% faster if they are heading toward the caster. I can’t think of a lot of uses for it.”
“You could Leap-Rush ahead of us and then speed up the whole group’s movement with that one,” Nguyen suggested.
“The whole group minus me. Meat Slam will win the race,” Chedderfield insisted.
Base Classes:
[Fighter] – [Charged Attack] – Double damage of selected attack skill. Cooldown: 1 minute.
[Ranger] – [Sighted Shot] – Increase visual acuity for three minutes, increasing the likelihood to hit a target. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
[Warden] – [Guardian Angel] – 25% of damage taken by the ward is transferred to the warden until the skill is toggled off.
[Healer] – [Healer’s Touch] – Heal target for 10% of their health. Cooldown: 1 minute.
[Manager] – [Rallying Cry] – Party members move 25% faster when moving in your direction for a five-minute duration. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Innate Class:
[Automator] – Auto-Cast [Required Points: 1] – Lock one of your currently slotted skills such that you will no longer be able to cast it. Instead, this skill will cast at an appropriate time and at an appropriate target once every minute if the skill cooldown is available until auto-cast has been deactivated. May not deactivate auto-cast or unslot skill until 1 hour has passed.
Unlocked Classes:
[Emissary] – [I Understand] – Adds 25 words from the target individual’s native language to your lexicon. Usable only once per day.
[Baron] – [Efficient Order] – Vassals move 25% faster when following the baron’s directions.
After Archimedes was done reading through his available options, he looked over to Chedderfield’s screen to see what options he had. Chedderfield, probably from being in the same group when vassalizing the others, had the baron class available too, but he also had another bonus class, pyromancer, that was available because he had burned so many zombies to death. Chedderfield’s innate class, the purgator, gave him an ability that was, to some degree, just Ring of Purity, but the ring only worked on touch range while the pyromancer skill gave him a bolt that he could shoot out to deal 25 damage with a 33% chance to ignite the target.
Innate Class:
[Purgator] – [Cleansing Fire] – On touch, deal 10 damage to the target and remove all hell-cursed-related buffs and debuffs from the target.
Unlocked Class:
[Pyromancer] – [Let It Burn] – Shoots a ball of fire at the target from the caster's hand that deals 25 fire damage on hit with a 33% chance to ignite the target. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
“You should get your Ring of Purity back and go pyromancer,” Nguyen said as she read the skills.
“Yeah, you could just pop that ring and then sit in the middle of it casting fireballs at people,” Archimedes agreed.
“Bolts. Balls explode in an AoE; this is a single-target attack,” Nguyen corrected with a slightly smug look.
“Hey, Arc could have been right to use the word ‘ball.’ Now that I’m with Danielle, my balls always explode on only one single target,” Chedderfield said with a chuckle.
Nguyen rolled her eyes but otherwise ignored the joke as she pointed at the class screen and continued, “It is a good combo though. Look at that class bonus: dealing 25% more damage with all things fire and taking 25% less fire damage, and the only drawback is it reduces your damage with all other elements, and you take more damage from other elements.”
“Yeah, when are you going to run into other elemental specialists?” Archimedes asked.
“Didn’t we run into those at the aquarium? Don’t tell me that trip to the other world shortened your memory,” Chedderfield commented.
“It wasn’t that. It’s just that the group was so badass and awesome that you guys killed the ice users before I noticed,” Archimedes lied, covering up that he had completely forgotten the ice-specialized creatures of the aquarium. Even the aquarium’s turrets specialized in ice too.
“Uh-huh, but you noticed enough to remember they used ice,” Nguyen noted, shaking her head.
“It was a lucky guess,” Archimedes replied with a shrug, avoiding eye contact so Nguyen couldn’t read his expression.
“Hey, I don’t think it’s a big deal to work on all of these classes eventually, but I’m starting off as a purgator. We’re going to be fighting a bunch of hell-cursed, and the class challenge is to kill hell-cursed. I might as well get the credit for it with the class,” Chedderfield said, his hand tapping his class window. “What about you?”
“Me . . . I’m, uhhh . . . I’ll figure it out before we leave the bunker, I guess?” Archimedes answered.
“Ugh!” Nguyen groaned. “Not another cliffhanger with you, Arc. I mean, for once, just commit to a choice with these system things so the rest of us know what to expect. It’s not a permanent fucking choice here.”