Lena didn’t know but while she was asking around and helping people out with their Status’, I needed to see what had changed when I had selected ‘Squire’.
“Display Status.”
Doubting Thomas
Class: Baby Squire
Rank: Slightly Above Average Human!
Level 9/10
Quests Needed for Advancement
2/2 Available
Earned Feats:
Bonus Feats:
Unspent
Feat
Points: 8!
Body
7!
The Strength of your Body.
Fight and Rage: 1
*Feline Bane: 1
*Cat Shepard: 1
Mind
7!
The Strength of your Mind.
*Trap n Burn: 1
*Distract the Doggos: 1
Soul
7!
The Strength of your Soul.
Mercy on a Poor Soul: 1
*Zomboi: 1
External Will
5!
The inner spark of Man manifest, the Will to Shape Reality
I’d rather Die than Lose: 1
Internal Fortitude
7!
7/7
How do you carry on when all is lost?
Tis but a scratch: 1
*Found a Reason: 1
Back from the Brink: 1
Divine Spark
0
Do you believe in miracles now, heathen?
Luck
7!
To clarify, Humanity has an average luck of 20. Losing His Favor was your choice but regardless, you can't call that 'good' luck. Humanity’s luck reset to (0)
Right Lady, Wrong Time: 1
Fortunate Son: 1
*MisFire: 1
Potentiality
-9.98 →
-9.94!
Ranges between (-10 and 10). Losing Status as Most Favored is pretty bad on a potentiality curve, don't tell me that surprises you?
Bonus Feat: ‘Mis-Fire’ Automatically Accepted.
A thousand razor-sharp needles shot into my lower stomach, I clenched and curled over, but before I even completed the motion to curl into a ball the pain was gone. I rubbed my lower belly, more of my bladder than my gut as I reviewed the changes.
First off, I clearly had gotten another Stat point across the board, presumably from the Class Advancement. That would explain why I was feeling a bit of extra perk, even if the math didn’t say that I got extra Feat Points for the flat increase. That’d be too easy.
“Class Advancement Quests.” I sighed, “Display Class Advancement Quests.”
“Display Class Advancement Quests for Squire.” “Activate Quest System.” “Activate Penitent Questing System.” “Activate Access for Class Advancement Quests for Foundational Class, Baby Squire.” That felt close. “Display Class Advancement Quests for Foundational Class, Baby Squire.”
I waited a few beats, hmmm, maybe they weren’t…
Ding ding, there were the chimes. A delay? There were delays now? Guessing just became that much more tedious.
What a nightmare. Who knew which combination of the words had actually worked. I scribbled them all down on the sheet of paper that Lena had left on the table and pocketed it.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Class Advancement, Complete 1 of 2…. ERROR! Administrator Interdiction. Class Advancement Parameters Modified. Modifications Accepted and Implemented.
Baby Squire ‘Doubting’ Thomas, Complete 2 of 2 Quests for Advancement to Next Class Tier.
Quest 1: Find a Sword. Consecrate it on an Altar. Reward: Unlock Class Skills
Quest 2: Defeat a human aligned with Evil. Specifically, The Mortician. Reward: Able to advance your Class.
This had Gabby-bullshit written all over it and I didn’t trust any of it for a second. “Bullshit Gabe, you’re not fooling me, I know I can advance with just the first quest and I’m not doing the second unless it’s worth my time.” I thought desperately, “Unlock my Affinity.” I was just playing off of a hunch and I wasn’t sure if my guess was actually correct, but if he wanted to jerk me around and have me do extra work, it had to be for a reason. I also wasn’t going to do a fucking thing for that shithead unless I got something out of it. In fact, I would have been more inclined to help the town without his little intervention here. Not that I would, just that it would have been more likely. I patiently waited, my newfound apocalyptic experience of waiting out shitheads showing up in spades.
Quest 2: Defeat a human aligned with Evil. Specifically, The Mortician. Reward: New Class Advancement Options Available. You’ll need this, shithead, so just get it done.
“Fuck you right back Gabby. Not good enough. I want my Affinity.” I was starting to sweat. Cursing a kinda petty ArchAngel when you weren’t sure he was even listening was different than doing it… face-to-face or whatever this was.
Proposed Quest Reward Impossible with Current Parameters. Error! Rebalancing.
Additional Quest Issued: Slay Anyone with Dark Affinity in town. Reward Upon Acceptance: 'Doubting Thomas' will be permanently granted the Dark Affinity Skill, "Evil Eye."
ERROR! Prior Alternative Interference detected in the local area. Rebalancing Quest Parameters for non-local interference. To assist in the completion of this Quest, “Evil Eye” Skill Enhancement, “Eye for Evil” will be granted in pursuance of it.
Additional Quest Issued: Slay Anyone with Dark Affinity in town. Reward Upon Acceptance: 'Doubting Thomas' will be permanently granted the Dark Affinity Skill, "Evil Eye." Reward: Singular Light-Affinity Skill related to Class Available for Purchase. You’ll probably need this to fix that cursed wound on your ankle. Take it or leave it.
I was ready for some twist but there was a lot to take in and Lena was asking something, I easily ignored whatever she had been saying. So it seemed like Gabby didn’t have unlimited control over the Penitent System. Thank God for that. Oh. That’s right, it had been called the ‘Final Blessing’ in the first message we received.
So, that meant that the Penitent System probably was a 'gift' from God and thus Gabriel couldn’t just absolutely nerf me into the ground. This was valuable stuff. If not immediately important it was good to get a grasp on the scope of his limitations. I read through the message over and over and committed it to memory. Even though I knew that there was probably some method to pull it up again, I read through the message over and over, because, after all, who knew what archaic string of bullshit terminology actually controlled that function. I made sure to focus on a few of the more important points, “Alternative Interference” and the fact that there were two different types of errors, ‘ERROR’ and ‘Error’. Who knows, some of this stuff probably will be useless, but I’d never say no to more, even if only potentially useful, information.
Analyzing the ‘deal’ in front of me, I didn’t know if I wanted a skill from the same Affinity that was named, ‘Touch of Evil’, but I definitely wanted a Light Skill. A Smite would be… I thought about my ankle curse-wound, I’d probably take a divine heal or whatever.
Thinking about it too much would be depressing, after all, it would probably be kind of shit and super limited, but I could work with something better than I could work with nothing.
“Accept all Primary and Secondary Class Advancement Quests.” It probably wasn’t the exact wording but it seemed like Gabriel had decided to roll out of bed and help move this particular process along. Just in case, I made sure to keep automatically out of my wording.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to feel, likely nothing. But what I was sure was the Dark Affinity started to writhe into my arteries and veins and felt like icey-hot was mixed with an oily sludge that was being pumped into and through me through a constant low-pressure hose. It left me shivering as I entered a dissociative state. Everyone was just meat, and not particularly useful meat at that.
“What were you doing?”
Lena-meat, slightly less-useless. I felt a flame in the center of my chest alight and burn away the slick-grimey-oil flowing through me and I felt myself return to normal, at least to whatever my early-apocalypse standard had been moments before.
What the fuck. That was Dark Affinity? Was everyone who selected it that affected? I’m a pretty average guy and that was some dark shit there for a moment. I couldn’t imagine it having a stronger effect on other, less-balanced people. Like the Mortician. Who I now had to kill. ‘Murder’ technically.
I started and looked around suspiciously, it was just Lena and Gramps nearby.
“I asked you what you were doing?”
“What? Nothing.”
“Who’s Gabe or Gabby?”
“Gabriel, the ArchAsshole that kind of, but isn’t really monitoring the Penitent System.”
She sucked in a breath and her Gramps sucked his teeth. I didn’t care, I was looking around. I willed Evil Eye to turn on and nothing happened. I focused on emulating that slimy feeling, but now putting it around, or behind, my eyeballs.
Oh you fuck, Gabriel. I saw three people here who had purchased ‘Touch of Evil,’ the Dark Affinity. It struck me that while I had pretty cleanly moved into the growing field of animal-genocide, I hadn’t actually killed a person before. And now, my first foray into the time-honored tradition of murder meant that I would be handing it out like candy. To four different people. I noticed that some people whirled around to see who was looking at them. I dismissed the sludge from my eyes.
“A few people thought there might have been a sword in the Antique Store…”
My first Quest. It seemed like a good place to start.
----------------------------------------
I carried my entire kit with me, no way was I leaving anything behind. As Lena guided me to the entrance, I realized that I hadn’t checked the Purchasable Skill List and I possessed 7 Feat Points. I almost opened it up, but thankfully that was a mouthful because it hit me that it would be totally-gabby to make the heal skill super expensive. If he even could affect that. Regardless, I wasn’t going to be testing the extent of his Administrator powers with my cursed ankle bite wound on the line.
Before we got to the roof I heard the pop-pop of scattered gunfire. We went out to the roof and it was… worse. There were now hundreds of zombies below us, on street-level, shambling around town.
Shit, I couldn’t even lie. Well, I could lie and would be doing that if anyone asked me about it. But to myself, I couldn’t lie, this was totally my fault. In all fairness, I didn’t know that fucking bullshit zombies would be a thing.
We walked up to a few of the old-timers shooting directly below them. I looked over. The zombies were climbing the ladder up.
Silence is guilt, “Where the fuck did all these zombies come from?” Best to get ahead of it.
One turned back to take us in, “Damned if I know, I think someone opened up the cemetery. Wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would ya?”
I shook my head, I didn’t just know about it, I did it.
“No, I was attacked by some stray zombies on my way in. Seemed like they were already out and about on my way in.”
“So you led them here then?”
The other one spat downward before plugging another zombie in the head, “Shit, don’t blame the boy. Must have been the Mortician. Always knew that kid wasn’t right.”
The other man nodded before lining up his own shot, “Yeah, that’s true enough.”
Whew. Made it. Gramps was giving me side-eye. I definitely was sort of regretting not shotgunning him earlier. I dismissed the thought when I noticed it was actually gaining some traction in my head. Fuck. Great, apparently the Dark Affinity had set up some sort of slip-n-slide to insanity inside my head.
While we watched them pick off the lead zombies making their way up the ladder, the paralysis of decision wormed its way into my head. I needed a plan.
Order of Operations. Make my way to the Antique store and find a Sword. Make my way to the Church and clear it out… or maybe just let the zombies out and make my way inside, after all, what were a few more zombies to the shitshow already happening below?
My mini-map was covered in red-dots all along my sightline, even though it had helped me before when first facing off with the nemesis wolf since then it really hadn’t been that useful. Still, I guess saving my life once was worth any amount of Feat points.
Antique store, sword, church.
I knew I still had to kill the Mortician, wherever he was, as well as murder three other townsfolk but that seemed like a future-Thomas problem. Granted, a near-future-Thomas problem, but firmly his problem nonetheless.
“I need to get down to the street.”
“Well shit, feel free to hop down,” one of the old-timer’s told me before firing down on another zombie, “Damn, I’m running low.”
I saw he was using a .45 and was tempted to offer ammo, but I wasn’t that tempted. I pulled my .38 and fired all five rounds into the zombies, taking my time to use one shot per head. It was strange, they were slow, but smart. They also went down with headshots, unlike that fast zombie in the graveyard. Though, I noticed it had to be directly in the center of their head, something about the spinal cord? Some sort of Penitent System bullshit I’m sure.
I turned to Gramps, “Gramps, is there another way out of here?”
“I ain’t opening the ground floor that’s fer sure.”
I took a lap around the building, at least for now, it seemed like the zombies were crowded around the ladder. While the current residents probably didn’t want to cut off ground access, I had no doubt that they would eventually remove the entire thing as an option if the other was ‘was using up all of their ammo and being eaten alive’.
Lena came back with others who gathered around the fire escape. I hadn’t even noticed that she left.
I walked toward the door and started to go downstairs before Gramps and Lena rejoined me.
“Boy I hope you ain’t planning on opening up one of the doors…” He let the threat hang in the air.
“Do you guys have a rope or something similar? How about I climb out a second story window and you guys pull it up after?”
Gramps nodded, surely wanting to get rid of me. Lena looked nervous, “I know where a rope is but I’m not going to help you go down there just for some sword that might not even be there?”
I sighed, lamenting the fact that I was being forced to give away more information, for free. The thought disgusted my budding wandering-apocalypse-trader sensibilities, but I didn’t have the time, or presumably, the clout to go rummaging through people’s shit all day to figure my own way out of here.
I explained the Class Advancement Quests. I had figured she had already heard me say some of the system commands, but they hadn’t done anything for her since she hadn’t reached that level yet. Now, she knew what I had to do. Well, I was definitely leaving out the part where I was going to open up the Church, but that seemed to be a touchy subject. I did tell them that I was a Squire and had to ‘find a sword’ and ‘kill the Mortician since he was apparently evil’. That mollified them both a bit.
I went to the opposite corner from the ladder and checked again. Still clear.