[Talk to Oglo about scheduling to prepare for battle]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Isabelle was sure Oglo would like nothing more than to talk to her even more than he already had, but it was time for her to level up. Isabelle shrugged.
[Notice: You’ve reached level 5!]
[Notice: You have attribute and skill points to spend]
[Would you like to spend your points now?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
Attribute Points to Spend: 6
Hp:
26
H-Regen:
3/50sec
Mana:
11
M-Regen:
2/min
Stm:
11
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Hp and stm were getting another boost this time, she had already decided. Isabelle figured she’d split her points down the middle, so three to stm and three to hp.
Skill Points to Spend: 6
Str:
8
Int:
8
Dx:
8
Wis:
4
Const:
8
Char:
4
Isabelle hadn’t used wis enough to warrant adding to it, but she could probably use some more charisma. She decided on four points to char and two to str, because you could never be too strong.
[Congratulations, you’ve finished leveling up!]
Character Status
Name:
Isabelle
Gender:
Female
Level:
5
Class:
Undefined
Race:
Human
Alignment:
Neutral-Neutral
Attributes
Hp:
29
H-Regen:
3/50sec
Mana:
11
M-Regen:
2/min
Stm:
14
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Skill Points
Str:
10
Int:
8
Dx:
8
Wis:
4
Const:
8
Char:
8
Magic Ability Levels
Enchant:
0
Summon:
0
Heal:
0
Destroy:
0
Transmute:
0
Confuse:
0
Normal Ability Levels
Crafting:
2
Sneak:
3
Archery:
0
Lockpick:
0
Armed Combat:
4
Melee Combat:
3
Speechcraft:
2
Slight Of Hand:
0
Isabelle still wondered about getting her class changed from undefined to, well, defined.
[Clarification: Usually, classes are defined through your tutorial stage. in the absence of that, defining your class can be an arduous task. It is recommended you find a tutorial to get your class defined.]
Stolen story; please report.
Great. Isabelle rolled her eyes at the system’s stubbornness. The closest she’d gotten to a tutorial was Tahsi, and he was adamant that he wasn’t one. What a joke.
Isabelle didn’t want to dwell forever on her classlessness. Plus, she remembered she had a quest she needed to get started. So, she walked over to Oglo, who had turned away from her to do some touch-ups on an attack dummy. For a brief moment, Isabelle thought about trying to kill him and flee the Citadel training quarters. She dropped to a crouch.
[Current visibility: 200/200]
“What’re you doing, Isabelle? Yoga?” asked Oglo. “You know, yoga can actually help improve your fighting ability for a number of reasons. The isometric strength it builds is unparalleled, and—”
“Oglo,” Isabelle said, standing up from her crouch. “I’d like to talk to you about scheduling my first Citadel battle.”
“Oh! Of course. Well, we do five a day. The next one is in about half an hour. How does that sound?”
“Sounds fine to me,” said Isabelle. “It’s not like I’ve got a lot else going on.”
“Great. Let me get the schedule updated, and then I’ll take you to the locker room,” said Oglo. He walked out of the training room, down a hall, and out a door, locking it behind him.
It only took about half a minute of standing there waiting for Isabelle to consider trying to break out. There were three doors in the adjacent rooms to the training room, including the one Oglo had just locked. Isabelle walked out of the training room and up to the main practice room with all the swords and shields that she’d entered from the prison and tried the first door.
[Door - Locked]
Shit. Isabelle went to the next door, that was also in that room.
[Door - Locked]
Fuck. Was Isabelle just out of luck? She knew that the door Oglo had walked out of was obviously locked. If only there was some other way, something else she could try.
[Clarification: You can try to pick a lock. To do so, however, you will at minimum need a bobby pin.]
That made sense. There was a whole section on her character sheet for lockpick, after all, so it only made sense that the system supported it. Now Isabelle had to look around for bobby pens. The first place she looked was an old training chest.
[Loot ‘Old Training Chest’?]
Isabelle thought yes.
Inventory: Old Training Chest
Item
Traits
Citadel Training Sword x5
+2 damage, +2 stm, +6 carry weight
Citadel Training Shield x5
+3 str, +3 const, +10 carry weight
Crooked Citadel Training Sword (poisoned)
+1 poison, +3 damage, +3 stm, +7 carry weight
Gold (5)
n/a
Well shit. No bobby pins, but a crooked training sword with poison on the end? And also five gold? Isabelle would definitely take those, thank you very much.
Inventory: Old Training Chest
Item
Traits
Citadel Training Sword x5
+2 damage, +2 stm, +6 carry weight
Citadel Training Shield x5
+3 str, +3 const, +10 carry weight
That was nice. Still, Isabelle needed to see if she could find a bobby pin and get herself the hell out of here. Fighting to the death for her freedom sounded glorious, sure, but it was also risky. Breaking out undetected seemed at the moment far more glamorous.
Isabelle walked around the practice room, eventually finding a leather duffle bag.
[Loot ‘Leather Duffle Bag’?]
Isabelle thought yes.
Inventory: Leather Duffle Bag
Item
Traits
Brass knuckles
+4 damage (melee), +1 stm, +0.5 carry weight
Potion of Greater Health
+20 hp, +0.5 carry weight
Potion of Lesser Stamina
+5 stm, +0.5 carry weight
Once again, no bobby pins. However, Isabelle was starting to wonder how she didn’t even consider that looting this room was necessary. She hated to think what she would have missed out on if she didn’t try looting! This stuff was sure to give her an upper hand during the battle.
Inventory: Leather Duffle Bag
Item
Traits
n/a
n/a
Isabelle heard the door at the end of the hallway open. So much for breaking out, but at least she’d gotten some nifty advantages. She was actually starting to feel pretty confident in her fighting ability.
“Alright, Isabelle, you’re all set,” said Oglo. “Follow me to the left wing of the Citadel.”
[Follow Oglo]
“Sure thing, Oglo,” said Isabelle.
Isabelle walked behind the cheerful kobold as they went through the hallway, out the door, and weaved around different rooms and walkways where it looked like other combatants were preparing themselves for the fight. Some of the them looked awfully muscular, and almost all of them were kobolds of differing shapes and sizes. Something all of these combatants shared, all of them except Isabelle, was a dark look in the eye. Call it killer instinct, call it emotional death, whatever it was, it felt like Isabelle was marching through the feeding grounds of a bunch of murder machines.
Oglo lead isabelle to a small, dark room with a grim gate at the end.
“Okay, Isabelle, this is it,” said Oglo. “You’ll just wait here until it’s time to fight.”
“Thanks, Oglo,” said Isabelle. “When will it start?”
“You’ve got about five minutes or so,” said Oglo. “Then, the horn will blow, the door at the other end of that gate will open, and the gate will slowly rise. Once the gate has risen, wait for the whistle to blow. Once the whistle has blown, run out and get ready to fight!”
[Speechcraft attempt: persuade]
“Okay,” said Isabelle. “Now, Oglo, is there anything else I should know about this fight?”
[Speechcraft failed]
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Oglo. “It’s not really my business to give you help or hints or anything. I got you this far, as they say.”
Isabelle felt furious for a second. Her speechcraft was at level two now, and she’d just bumped her char up four points! How did she just keep failing her speechcraft attempts?
[Clarification: Speechcraft attempts are not made equally. If you are experiencing what you perceive to be a higher than normal rate of speechcraft failures, consider that you may be attempting speechcraft techniques that are at the moment too difficult for you given your experience.]
Isabelle rolled her eyes.
“Okay, Oglo,” she said. “Thanks for everything you could do for me, I guess.”
“Glad I could help you, Isabelle. Good luck out there!” Oglo smiled a toothy grin. He walked out of the room, closing and locking the door behind Isabelle.
Now she was really stuck. No matter what, she was going to have to fight this battle. Isabelle took a deep breath. Then, she opened her inventory. It was time to get ready to fight.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 26/43
Item
Traits
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Copy of the Cloud Reach List of Laws
+0.5 carry weight
Crooked Citadel Training Sword (poisoned)
+1 poison, +3 damage, +3 stm, +7 carry weight
Brass knuckles
+4 damage (melee), +1 stm, +0.5 carry weight
Potion of Greater Health
+20 hp, +0.5 carry weight
Potion of Lesser Stamina
+5 stm, +0.5 carry weight
Citadel Training Sword
+2 damage, +2 stm, +6 carry weight
Citadel Training Shield
+3 str, +3 const, +10 carry weight
Gold (5)
n/a
Isabelle wondered if she could equip the brass knuckles and the sword at the same time.
[Notice: Item brass knuckles and item crooked citadel training sword cannot be equipped together on the same hand]
Well, that answered that.
Wait a second.
Isabelle wondered if the system could read that notice out the her again.
[Clarification: Sure.]
[Notice: Item brass knuckles and item crooked citadel training sword cannot be equipped together on the same hand]
Isabelle focused on equipping the brass knuckles to her left hand, and the crooked citadel trianing sword to her right.
[Brass knuckles equipped]
[+4 damage (melee)]
[+1 stm]
[Crooked Citadel Training Sword (poisoned) equipped]
[+1 poison]
[+3 damage]
[+3 stm]
[Achievement Unlocked: Dual wield two weapons]
Fuck yes! Now that was pretty awesome. However, the more Isabelle thought about it, the more silly she felt holding brass knuckles and a sword. Especially when she had two swords in her inventory. Maybe she better try equipping the other sword instead.
[Brass knuckles unequipped]
[-4 damage (melee)]
[-1 stm]
[Citadel Training Sword equipped]
[+2 damage]
[+2 stm]
[+4 damage bonus for dual wield]
[-1 stm for dual wield]
[-1 str for dual wield]
Wow. Isabelle had no idea she was going to get an extra bonus just for dual wielding. Of course she also lost a little strength and stamina, but that only made sense. Isabelle had a feeling it was worth the trade off.
Then, she heard a loud, bellowing horn. Two humongous doors on the other side of the gate in her room swung open, revealing the moonlight of night. Kobolds were so weird. Who would have a fight at night, when it was so hard to see?
[Combat mode activated]
Oh boy. Isabelle hadn’t even meant to activate combat mode yet. She took that as a sign she had her work cut out for her.
“Welcome to the Citadel! This battle will see crowd favorite, Snilpu the Kidney Stealer!” said a kobold over a loudspeaker.
Isabelle could see a tall, burly kobold walk out of the opposite side of the Citadel and into the wide, dusty arena. The crowd cheered with spirit for him. Isabelle could even hear some lady kobolds screaming that they loved him. Isabelle felt sick to her stomach.
“On the other end of the arena, we have our challenger! Now, this one’s a little green, a little scrappy, a little freshly imprisoned and a little different!”
The gate began to slowly climb upwards. Isabelle was glad combat mode had activated, because otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to move. Since it was, she slowly walked forward, her swords drawn and ready for action.
“Give it up for Isabelle the Widlife-Murdering Human!” said the kobold announcer.
The crowd immediately started grumbling and groaning with confusion. Soon afterwards, they decided to start booing her.
Great, here Isabelle was about to fight for her life, and she had a whole crowd booing her. What an ego boost.
Then, the whistle blew.
[Fight for your life]
Isabelle ran forward, and so did Snilpu the Kidney Stealer. He wasn’t even wearing any clothes, Isabelle noticed at the moment, save for a loin cloth. Then again, when you’re a kobold with a twelve pack, she figured you didn’t spend a lot of time with your shirt on.
“And the opponents are approaching one another. This is going to be an interesting fight. It looks like Snilpu has opted to do his signature attack style, that is, melee, whereas the human has somehow got her sweaty little hands on two swords! How’s this gonna go? Your guess is as good as mine!” said the announcer.
Isabelle was irritated. Was she going to be under this announcer’s microscope the whole time she fought?
Suddenly, there Snilpu’s ugly kobold mug was, growling at her as he swung his fists. There was no more time to wonder or groan at the announcer. Isabelle dodged just in time.
While Snilpu was recovering, Isabelle raised the poisoned sword in her right hand and swung it down on his head. Then, automatically, she also stabbed at his groin with her normal sword in her left hand.
[36 damage dealt]
[Snilpu had been poisoned]
[Stamina 87%]
Dual wielding wasn’t half bad, Isabelle figured.
“First hit goes to the human!” said the announcer. The crowd booed.
“Ack!” said Snilpu. “What’d you do to me?”
Before Isabelle could answer, Snilpu pulled himself together and swung his fists at her, pummeling her in the chest four times.
[-8 hp]
“Snilpu isn’t going to let that human get the best of him!” said the announcer. The crowd cheered.
Snilpu was getting ready to attack agian already, so Isabelle had to act fast. Remembering Oglo’s annoying lessons, she lunged forward and slashed up from the ground to Snilpu’s head. However, since she was double wielding, Isabelle also then raised her left arm and brought that sword down over Snilpu’s head in a brilliant combo move.
[56 damage dealt]
[Snilpu has been poisoned]
[Stamina 56%]
Snilpu was already looking a little haggard after that attack. Everyone had told Isabelle that they didn’t think she was a good fit for the Citadel battles, but she seemed to think she was doing pretty good so far.
“Another nasty attack from the human!” the announcer said. The crowd booed.
Nasty? Isabelle just didn’t want to die! Snilpu swung his fists at her again, but Isabelle was so frustrated with the announcer that she wasn’t looking at him, and attacked at the same time.
[1 damage dealt]
[-0.5 hp]
[Snilpu has been poisoned]
[Stamina 45%]
Isabelle took a few deep breaths. But, it wasn’t time to use her stamina potion just yet. In fact, the more she looked at Snilpu, the less she was sure she’d need to. The poison seemed to be turning him green. Or was that just his natural kobold color? Isabelle wasn’t really sure.
“The dastardly human attacked while Snilpu attacked! Looks like this might be the end of the road for our favorite kidney-stealing kobold,” the announcer said. The crowd booed. Some started throwing food at the battleground. Isabelle found the whole thing in bad taste.
Snilpu pulled himself up, and with a heavy rasp, charged Isabelle with the force of his whole body. He knocked her over and, pinning her to the ground with his scaly knees, punched Isabelle in the face over and over again.
[-5 hp]
[-5 hp]
[-3 hp]
“Woah! A classic Snilpu takedown! What’s that rotten human going to do now?” said the announcer. The crowd cheered.
Isabelle was starting to actually feel hurt. She had to act quickly. Snilpu was holding both her swords down with his knees. But he didn’t have a system. So, Isabelle opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 26/43
Item
Traits
Peasant Robes (human)
+1 carry weight
Copy of the Cloud Reach List of Laws
+0.5 carry weight
Crooked Citadel Training Sword (poisoned)
+1 poison, +3 damage, +3 stm, +7 carry weight
Brass knuckles
+4 damage (melee), +1 stm, +0.5 carry weight
Potion of Greater Health
+20 hp, +0.5 carry weight
Potion of Lesser Stamina
+5 stm, +0.5 carry weight
Citadel Training Sword
+2 damage, +2 stm, +6 carry weight
Citadel Training Shield
+3 str, +3 const, +10 carry weight
Gold (5)
n/a
Isabelle then unequipped both her swords and equipped the brass knuckles.
[Brass knuckles equipped]
[+4 damage (melee)]
[+1 stm]
Snilpu suddenly feel forward as the swords disappeared out of Isabelle’s hands. Then, with a smile, she reeled back her fist and punched him point blank in the nose.
[Critical hit]
Snilpu’s head exploded, blowing blood and guts all over Isabelle and all over the arena floor.
[110 damage dealt]
[‘Snilpu’ is dead]
[Combat mode deactivated]
“A crooked trick played by the human has gotten her the win!” said the announcer. Everyone in the audience booed, and most of them started throwing trash into the battleground.
“The human will have five minutes to regroup before the next battle,” said the announcer.
Next battle? Nobody had told Isabelle she’d be fighting another battle right away. Then again, maybe they hadn’t expected her to get past Snilpu. As the audience kept booing and growling, Isabelle wondered just what in the hell she’d gotten herself into.