Archimedes
Archimedes handed out the cards his new Auto Collection skill picked up from the pile of rubble and all of the undead monsters around him. His Automator class gave him several choices, but instead of going through them all he applied the class skill points he’d earned from completing his class quest in the two abilities he felt were a necessity the moment he saw them.
Novice Automator Challenge I Complete – Use a passive or automated skill 50 times or kill or heal 50 different targets with automated or passive skills.
Novice Automator Challenge II Complete – Use a passive or automated skill 75 times or kill or heal 75 different targets with automated or passive skills.
He had to invest his first point into Auto Cast as it was the only option, being his first ability, but after applying the skill point, the class system opened up to reveal three different skill trees available to him, each branching off of Auto Cast and each having new options within the newly revealed class skill trees. The first was a skill tree that seemed to be focused on speed, [AlacriMation], the second focused on resource reduction skills, or power enhancement skills, [Gear Master], and the final skill tree revealed seemed to focus on extra utilities and abilities, [Gadget Junky]. While the system made it very clear that he didn’t have to commit to any specific tree, a thing he checked twice, it was also very clear that only the bottom-level skills and abilities of each tree would be available until he put enough points into it. If he wanted to get the more advanced skills from any of the trees, he’d have to dump points into them.
He wasn’t sure at first where to spend his extra point and wanted to go over all of the trees for a bit until he found something he liked, but when he saw that the first skill of utility was an auto-collect function, he just couldn’t help but grab it. After all, less time collecting was more time killing, traveling, cuddling, or napping. There was no downside to grabbing the ability. It was essentially the same as purchasing time, as he’d get back every second he’d have otherwise spent bending over and picking up cards off dead things . . . and in many cases, like the one he was in at the moment, it might allow him to get a lot more cards than otherwise possible.
After he selected it, it allowed him to gather all cards within ten feet of him, and he couldn’t help but smile a little as he watched them zip into his hands.
“Wait a minute? Are you trying to rip me off? Thirty-seven cards? Is this really all I get?” Emma asked after finishing counting out her share of the loot, “How do we know you aren’t holding some back?”
Archimedes felt his brows furrow and his eyes narrow as he answered, “How do you ever know someone isn’t holding a good card back or not sharing the cards they pick up? You don’t. We all trust each other with our lives, and we have to trust we’re all being honest and fair when we share loot.”
Emma’s cheeks turned red at the admonition, and she looked down as she sent the cards to her inventory. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Of course, I trust you. You and everyone else have taken good care of me.”
Archimedes felt a slap to his shoulder and turned to see Lucy glaring up at him, her blue hair swaying as she shook her head. Nguyen and Danielle were scowling at him like he’d called the teenager a terrible name or something, and even Chedderfield gave him a raised eyebrow.
Archimedes shrugged and patted Emma on the shoulder. “It’s okay, kid. You should be wary of strangers, but we’re a team, and you’ve got to trust your team, or it’ll break down.” He glanced at Lucy to see if he’d said the right things, but she continued to glare, her arms crossed, and he continued, “You’ve more than earned your place. Especially since you got your own turret. I didn’t think any of those cards would drop. Where did you get it?”
“From you,” Emma answered.
Archimedes knotted up his brow. “What?”
“I mean, it’s the very first skill I got after all of this started. It’s called Copycat, and it lets me copy any skill that I come into contact with. Though it’s usually a really poor version, I’d been copying Lucy’s No Brainer skill but thought it would be better to copy your Turret one.”
“And it was a very good choice, Emma,” Chedderfield added as he snickered at Archimedes’ motivation. “Arc clearly took his turret back just so that he could do his stupid class quest thing, but you came through to help.”
“Class quest?” Lucy asked. “I’m not sure what that is, but it definitely sounds like something Arc would do.”
“It’s something we unlocked at level 7. It basically lets you specialize in what cards you’re using,” Chedderfield explained.
“We can explain it to them when we finish this zoo off. We really need to figure out how we’re moving forward,” Archimedes said, shifting the topic away from his doing exactly what they had warned against and back to the quest at hand. “What did you see when you went scouting, Nguyen?”
“I wasn’t able to get through the fog surrounding the zoo. Even though I was able to use my skills and the terrain to remain mostly unnoticed, the monsters weren’t the only problem. I found out from the Aussies that entered first that the fog itself has a debuff that makes you suffer a headache and nausea the longer you stay in it. Adding in all those monsters I was having to avoid already, and I wasn’t even able to get inside and had to just give up and retreat.” She gave Archimedes a thumbs up and continued, “Honestly, it was pretty smart of you to draw the monsters out of the fog with your turret, Arc.”
“Yeah, after that stunt these two pulled, it’s probably pretty empty between us and the zoo right now,” Danielle said. “We should get moving and take advantage of the gap. Who knows how long it will last?”
“I don’t think it’ll fill back up right away—we’re not the only ones here after all. Wait, did you see the route the Aussies took?” Archimedes asked as he went through his cards and tried to do some quick math on what he could upgrade. He had just enough cards that he would have to pick between upgrading either his favorite overall skill, Leap Rush, or his most powerful damage-dealing skill, Turret. There were other abilities he could upgrade too. He had enough cards that he could potentially upgrade something to gold tier.
“What’s that look? What are you thinking?” Chedderfield asked as he studied his friend’s face.
“What card to make gold? With the cards we just farmed, I can take another ability to the gold rank, but I just don’t know which one to pick. Flame Breath has been really useful as a mid-range area-of-effect attack, but I use Leap Rush and Turret a lot too.”
“Well, which do you use the most?” Nguyen asked.
“I don’t think I’ve ever removed Leap Rush from my active skills list, except once in an alien blue moon,” Archimedes answered.
“There you go, hermano. I made a similar decision when I was upgrading Meat Slam,” Chedderfield said with a shrug. “If you’re gonna use a skill nonstop, just pick it.”
“Alright then.” Archimedes agreed with Chedderfield’s logic and began merging his cards into Leap Rush, upgrading the card from silver level 1 to gold level 1. With the upgrade, there was an increase in damage based on his weight and the distance and speed with which he could leap into the air. When the card finally changed from the sleek silver background to a beautiful, glossy gold exterior, it came with four new options for him to select.
Gold-Tier Upgrade Options:
Collateral Chaos – A shockwave generates on impact, dealing 33% of the damage dealt to all non-party members within five feet of the target.
Dash Rush – Leap Rush now has a 3-second cooldown upon landing, but now allows the user to travel 75% faster toward the target.
Hang Time – Leap Rush no longer requires a target. If no target is selected, the user will enter a “glide” mode either upon reaching maximum height or by activating the mode prematurely.
Refracting Rays – Leap Rush now creates a partial camouflage that helps hide the user’s visual profile. Will have no impact on other senses.
“Oooh! Pick Collateral Chaos!” Lucy immediately blurted out as she read the skill options over his shoulder. “Then you can do the superhero landing.”
“What? No, Refracting Rays. Stealth is always the best option in all scenarios. Never let them see you coming,” Nguyen suggested, looking over his other shoulder.
“That sounds like a bad condom advertisement,” Lucy shot back. “Trust me. Go with the skills that add extra boom. Always. More boom is better.”
“Wonder what the second stages of those skills would be too,” Danielle mused, not suggesting anything. “I mean, whenever you pick a path, it always opens up new options in the theme of the last option you picked. So if you picked Refracting Rays, it might help add stealth to another sense or make you actually invisible for the gold to platinum upgrade.”
Yeah . . . she’s right, Archimedes thought, re-evaluating the skill options he had in front of him after hearing Danielle’s reasoning on how the system worked. “So if I picked Hang Time now, which focuses on keeping me in the air for longer periods of time . . . then maybe the platinum version might get me even closer to actually flying.”
“You going for some Superman vibe with the flying?” Chedderfield asked.
“Ha! Wouldn’t it be cool if we all got flying abilities but then took a plane everywhere just because one single person in the group couldn’t fly?” Emma asked.
“Or if they stuck you with an invisible plane for no apparent reason, even though you can fly perfectly fine without it,” Nguyen added.
“Maybe it was more about giving her boyfriend something to do? I mean Steve Trevor is pretty useless otherwise,” Danielle commented.
“Emotional support is not useless,” Nguyen said. “Nothing hurts more than coming home to an empty house every day.”
Archimedes could sympathize with Nguyen, but it wasn’t a conversation he knew how to have. “I know that feeling. Sorry, life is like that sometimes.” He patted Nguyen on the back before moving the topic back to something he could discuss: “But, I guess I’ll just go with Hang Time then. I think it will be useful, and it’s just great for scouting. Thanks for the input, guys, and the observation, Danielle.
“No problem,” she replied.
Arc nodded. “I’ll have to take the way skills level up into deeper consideration when I pick the first level instead of just grabbing immediate benefits.”
“Well, if you’re done leveling up, can we get moving now?” Chedderfield asked. “Standing around here makes me feel like we’ll just be attacked again.”
“Good point. Let’s roll out, team!” Archimedes responded.
“Okay, Optimus,” Lucy teased. “What? Don’t roll your eyes at me. It was right there! I had to say it!”
With a sigh and a shake of his head, Archimedes, like the rest of the group, ignored Lucy’s reference as the six of them began to move into the gray fog that surrounded the zoo, with Archimedes carrying the turret he’d dug out of the rubble.
Nguyen led the group followed by Archimedes and Chedderfield. Emma was in the center, carrying her four-foot-tall turret in both hands, a sight that looked funny since her stat increase from levels had given her the strength to easily lift it, but not given her the bulky muscles one would expect a person might need to heft it without difficulty. Danielle was by Emma’s side and Lucy behind them with her laser pistol in one hand and her sinuous funny bone short sword in the other.
The fog made it hard to see more than a few feet ahead, and without Nguyen leading, Archimedes thought that he was lost the first time he turned around to check on his team, half expecting them to not even be there or a few people to have gone missing since he could not see anything more than a foot or two in front of him. Sound also seemed to be muted to the point he couldn’t even hear their steps on the hard asphalt of the parking lot.
Due to these effects of the fog, his first indicator of trouble was the turret he was carrying whirling to life, the runes along its barrel flashing as it rotated and tried to track something in the mist. Archimedes quickly put the weapon down and saw that Emma had done likewise, her miniature knock-off turret mimicking his.
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The group knew something was out there and took up a defensive circle with Emma in the center.
“Why aren’t the turrets firing? They obviously see something we don’t,” Emma asked, her voice a little higher pitched than normal as she stared in the direction her turret barrel was pointing.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a skill or something they’re having a hard time tracking?” Nguyen suggested. “Either way, keep alert and be ready.”
Archimedes couldn't have said it better unless he were a musclebound 80s action hero. Even then, he didn’t think he could mimic an Austrian accent.
The sound of Emma’s turret firing in rapid staccato made Archimedes turn, his spear raised and Leap Rush already charging. But he saw nothing even as the turret sprayed bullets across a sixty-degree arc as something sped away into the fog.
Nguyen fired her laser rifle into the fog where the turret fired, which was all it seemed to take to push Lucy and Danielle into following suit. The three of them blasted away, red laser beams burning away the fog momentarily but not hitting anything.
His turret barked as it fired its powerful high caliber round, but when he turned his head, he saw the turret was firing in the opposite direction.
“Freaking hell,” Archimedes mumbled, “this crap is giving me the heebie-jeebies. I do not like jump-scare horror films.”
“I don’t remember you liking horror films at all,” Lucy added as her sword glowed like a faint red torch inches away from Archimedes’ arm.
“I think they’re trying to surround us,” Chedderfield said.
Archimedes’ head ached, and he couldn’t remember the last horror movie he’d seen, but it had been when he was a kid, and the skin-crawling sensation of wrongness he was currently feeling matched the impression he remembered of them as a kid.
“Just be glad we’re standing on solid asphalt,” Danielle said as she fired in the same direction the turret was pointing. “If this were dirt, I’d be scared of hands popping up from the ground like a cemetery scene and grabbing onto our ankles or something.”
“I . . . I don’t like just standing here. My turret is running out of ammo,” Emma complained from the center of the group.
Even as Archimedes tossed her a few bits of rebar he had taken from the collapsed building to help with her ammo, loading one or two into his, he started to get a little concerned as his turret stopped firing into the fog and instead turned around and pointed at the group members behind him.
“What’s it doing? Why is it aiming at me?” Lucy asked as the turret aimed in her direction. She moved left, then right, but the machine’s barrel followed her. “Arc, don’t tell me it’s getting jealous of me, and this is the beginning of the robot trying to replace its creator’s lover storyline.”
Archimedes didn’t know what was going on either but saw that Emma’s turret was doing the same thing, just aiming at Nguyen instead. He watched the turret's odd behavior for a second, and then it clicked in his mind what was happening. Before he could even open his mouth to shout a warning, it was too late. Seeming to materialize from the fog, a giant pair of black claws and the open maw of a massive panther head bore down on Nguyen from behind. The creature’s curved canine teeth sunk into her shoulder, and they tore out a scream of anguish and pain from the normally stoic woman. The monster’s claws wrapped around her before pulling. The panther, Nguyen still in its mouth, retreated into the fog.
Archimedes hunched, preparing to Leap Rush after the disappearing monster, but Lucy’s scream from his left made him turn instead. He saw another panther was trying to grab Lucy too, but she was far luckier. The moment it had appeared, she’d spun and blasted out No Brainer in the direction Archimedes’ turret was pointing. The panther froze in the air, mid-pounce, crashing to the ground a moment later. Archimedes’ spear nearly left his hand without thought, his muscle memory ready to throw it at the dangerous yet vulnerable creature in reflex. The spear would have likely seriously injured the monster, but Chedderfield’s macuahuitl cut into its spine an instant before Danielle’s gun shot the undead beast right through its head, the thumb-thick laser beam burning straight into the creature’s eye, cauterizing a massive hole through the hell panther’s skull.
“Fuck! FUCK!” Archimedes cursed as he turned and pushed off with his feet, activating Leap Rush in the direction Nguyen was being dragged. A wave of zombies appeared out of the fog, trying to block his path the moment he had sprung into action.
“Damnit! There’s too many of them to follow!” Danielle yelled from behind Archimedes as he ignored her warning and continued after Nguyen. He didn’t even bother trying to kill the small zombies lunging at him, leaping over them and dodging their attacks as he did his best to maintain a full run in Nguyen’s direction, using the woman’s screams and the bloody trail left by her body being dragged across the asphalt as his compass.
The seconds of running and dodging attacks felt like minutes until he was able to spot the feline and Nguyen, and his heart nearly stopped from the thought that he might not ever actually catch up to her. The giant undead panther had Nguyen’s shoulder still in its mouth as she kicked, screamed, and tried to stab the monster with a bone dagger as it dragged her across the parking lot.
Archimedes activated Leap Rush, his spear charging as he flew through the air. The panther’s reflexes proved worthy of its hunting-cat genes as it let go of Nguyen and nimbly leapt back a fraction of a second before Archimedes’ charged-up spear attack hit the ground where it had just been. The sidewalk exploded as the glowing spear struck it, and shards of cement blasted out in all directions. Archimedes felt the jagged debris hit him hard but was immune to the mundane damage. The monster yowled in pain and, instead of engaging in a fight, retreated into the fog and faded away like a bad dream.
“We gotta get back quick,” Archimedes said as he helped Nguyen to stand up, tears filling her eyes as her shoulder freely bled from the massive wound.
“I thought I was going to die,” Nguyen said softly, her voice shaky. “I didn’t activate my shield fast enough, and I should have watched my flank and . . . I thought it was my turn to be Frank. It was my turn to die next and . . . I don’t want it to be my turn. I don’t want to die alone out here, eaten by some—”
“Nguyen, you’re fine,” Archimedes interrupted, putting a hand on her good shoulder even as he saw the familiar yellow glow of I’m Not Dead Yet envelop Nguyen’s body. His eyes were still darting in all directions as he tried to find even the slightest trace of the panther. “I got your back. I’ll always have your back. Relax. Deep breaths now. We’ve been through worse.”
“Ye-yeah,” Nguyen replied, collecting herself as the bleeding from her shoulder slowed. “But you’d risk your life for anyone.”
“That’s right. Now let’s get back before Lucy kills me for running off into a battle without her.”
“Right,” Nguyen said as she stood straight. She replaced the bone knife in her hand with a spear.
He didn’t have time to wait for her to fully recover though. The panther that had disappeared could be anywhere in the fog, just waiting to hit him from an exposed angle or rip its claws across his back before he even knew it was there, so instead he just grabbed the injured woman unceremoniously like she was a sack of potatoes and took to the skies with Leap Rush toward the direction he had just come from. He hadn’t targeted a particular place as he activated the ability and at the peak of his jump he felt something yank him back, arresting his fall. He turned his head as far to the side as he could and saw green wings—actual wings—protruding from his back and extending out seven feet in each direction.
Archimedes realized that the Hang Time upgrade he had must have kicked in. He thought it’d be difficult or confusing to switch between leaping and gliding or that it might not be that effective since he was holding someone, but it wasn’t. He was able to easily glide through the air, the sounds of gunshots, Lucy cussing, and Emma’s turret filling the air and acting like a beacon for him to find his way back.
Floating down into the fog, he got his first view of the group. Lucy shouted, “God damn. You should have stayed hidden in the fog, you ass-faced bastard,” distracting a hell-cursed brute and pulling it out of position as Chedderfield took advantage of the taunted creature’s exposed flank to use his Bisect and cut right through the monster's abdomen. Emma and Danielle were doing their best to shoot down the lesser hell-cursed, their laser beams and rapidly firing bullets cutting through zombie flesh.
As Archimedes was a few feet from touching down, the turret he had left when he went to chase Nguyen whirled back into action, high-caliber bullets tearing through several of the hell-cursed that looked like they might overrun Emma and Danielle.
“I got her back,” Archimedes announced with a thud as he dived into the center of the formation, setting Nguyen down as quickly as he could before joining the fray and stabbing out in all directions with his spear at the incoming creatures. “But I didn’t get the panther. It’s still out there somewhere.”
Archimedes watched as the zombies began to retreat into the fog the moment the group was back in formation. Their previously relentless undead assault ceased, even if the turrets were still turning back and forth as if they were going to fire at something at any minute.
“You going to be okay?” Emma asked Nguyen as the quiet settled in.
“Yeah, but let’s just get the hell out of this crap,” Nguyen replied.
“Agreed,” Archimedes seconded as he lifted his turret in front of him once more. “Lucy, Chedderfield, I’ll trust you two to handle any outliers. Nguyen, keep that shield ready to go off at any minute, and let’s just bulldoze through this in a straight line until we see, well, anything but fog.”
“Got it,” Chedderfield replied, twirling his macuahuitl for effect.
Giving one more glance to his party, Archimedes faced straight ahead and charged as fast as he thought he could without losing the rest of the group behind him. Sure enough, after a few minutes, the ground changed from asphalt to a hard packed dirt path, and the fog around them lifted.
“There. Done. Over,” Archimedes sighed in relief. He had been on pins and needles the entire charge, afraid that someone else would be snatched out of the fog like Nguyen had been. “Damn. That was terrifying.”
“It sure was. Thankfully, we all survived and have made it through the fog,” Lucy said as she grabbed her stomach, “But shit, my stomach and head really hurt.”
“Yeah, mine too,” Emma agreed as she braced herself, one hand on each knee.
“I’m seeing double at this point, and I think I’m gonna throw up,” Nguyen added. Archimedes, turning to look over at her, was surprised at how much her shoulder wound had healed. The bleeding had nearly stopped, and the flesh was partially mended after only a few minutes.
Archimedes, who had been feeling stomach issues and nausea since they’d entered the fog, blurted out, “I think it was the fog. It might have been a poison for the living.”
“Huh? But I’m fine though,” Chedderfield said with a shrug.
“Debuffs. The fog definitely had debuffs. Nguyen already told us as much, remember? Though I think those debuffs from the fog got worse the deeper you got.,” Danielle said.
Archimedes brought up his character sheet to see if Danielle was right. He was positive that, if it was a debuff, it’d show up somewhere on the sheet. Sure enough, right under the effects, he could see the debuff.
Breath of the Undying: Target takes damage over time every 6 seconds. Target suffers nausea. Target suffers head, stomach, and muscle pain. This effect stacks with every occurrence. User’s Constitution may reduce or temporarily prevent the effect from growing.
The debuff was targeted to be most effective against those with a low constitution, but given he’d been building up the stat a lot with the help of levels and Undead Delight, he likely wasn’t suffering nearly as much as any of the others, but as he looked at his stat sheet, he could tell he was still taking damage. Seeing that the damage was steady though, he decided to switch classes, changing from Automator to Warden because of the class bonus.
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.
After switching, he was greeted with the new class challenge too.
Novice Healer Challenge I Complete - Heal 50 damage from hostile targets or effects.
He designated Chedderfield as his ward as the man was the only other person still standing upright, and if a fight broke out, he wanted to keep the effect.
“You doing okay, Queso?” he asked Chedderfield. While everyone else was doubled over in pain, Chedderfield looked perfectly fine.
“Yeah, as soon as Nguyen mentioned the fog debuff, I spent a class point on a Purgator class skill that passively removes hell-cursed ailments. And I got this,” Chedderfield answered as he flipped Archimedes off.
Archimedes stared at his friend confused until the middle finger lit up with blue fire. Chedderfield walked to Nguyen, flicked her on the forehead, and barked, “Baka!” The woman’s head snapped back, but she then picked herself off the ground and shook her head.
“OWW! But thanks, I feel a lot better now,” Nguyen said.
Lucy, who was curled up on the ground, couldn’t help but chuckle. “Here I thought Archimedes would be the one to finger Ngu—”
“Ewww!” Emma exclaimed, not letting Lucy finish her sentence.
Chedderfield shook his head and moved to each group member, flicking them with his blue flame-clad finger and removing their debuffs. He came to Lucy last and asked, “Now what was that about fingering?”
Lucy glared up at him, but then her face turned green as she turned away and hurled on the sidewalk. “Okay, you win this one, Cheeseman. Just give it to me.”
Archimedes could see Chedderfield pause, likely wondering if he should push his advantage further, but with a sigh, the man flicked Lucy, saying, “Baka,” as he did so. There was an immediate look of relief on the woman’s face, and she got to her feet, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Why do you have to say, ‘Baka,’ when you do it? Is it like a magic phrase or something?”
“No, it’s just what watching anime has trained me to do,” Chedderfield admitted with a shrug as he walked toward the zoo’s entrance. “Now you’re next, kid,” he said, his finger turning blue before he threw out another “baka” and flicked Emma.
Afterward, he cleansed Danielle, but when he turned to flick Archimedes too, Archimedes raised up a hand to stop him. “Wait a moment first,” Archimedes said as he backed up.
“What? Are you trying to savor the pain or something?” Chedderfield asked.
“Didn’t know you were into that stuff, Arc. Do we need to try some new stuff out in the—”
“Ugh, no, just please, no,” Emma pleaded with Lucy who was about to make more sex references.
“No, it’s just . . .” Archimedes looked at the group and then his life bar. The debuff was doing steady damage to him every six seconds. It was only four damage at a time, but it was growing the longer he had the debuff on him. If he waited a bit, he knew he could clear the warden’s first-class challenge. Then, even if he switched back to Automator for the next fight, he would still have the first ability for the warden unlocked if he needed to use the class again, an ability that might help him save one of his party members: the one that allowed him to take 25% of the damage in place of his selected ward.
“You’re trying to do another class challenge, aren’t you?” Nguyen shook her head as sweat appeared on Archimedes’ brow, and his stomach gurgled. “Arc, we’re all half dead and you’re really just going to sit there suffering in silence so you can finish a class challenge? Are you crazy?”
“He wouldn’t be Arc if his head were screwed on straight,” Lucy laughed, leaning in and kissing his cheek. “A little bit of crazy makes him cuter though.”
“I’m not touching that thought,” Danielle snickered.
“Alright, well, we all need to heal up anyway, so keep on suffering, but when everyone is healed up and ready, we gotta get moving, so you’re getting cured, class challenge or no,” Chedderfield said as he pulled out some panther flesh he had saved from the fight and handed it to Archimedes.
“Thanks, bro,” Archimedes replied, stuffing the meat in his mouth despite his nausea to start recovering the hit points he was losing.