Proverbs 2:10
For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.
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Now that that was done I told Lena the plan and we both held each other's council for a bit as I checked out what Class Skills I had earned.
Skill Name: Description: How Earned: Unspent Poitns: 11 Ere’s a sw’rd m’l’rd!' A sword will appear in your hand, and it’s probably the one the lord was asking for. He won’t notice the difference will he? You should probably find the correct sword before he notices though. It won’t be good for that to happen in the middle of a duel.
Squire Class Skill
Other Requirements Met
5 Feat Points ‘Cl’ean‘s ‘a Wh’stle m’l’rd!'
For squires who can’t be bothered to clean their lord’s swords properly. Or their own. Lazy wretches.
Squire Class Skill
Other Requirements Met
3 Feat Points Noble Squire Run faster than you can believe to take a blow meant for your knight.
Squire Class Skill
Other Requirements Met
3 Feat Points Bulwark Find yourself slightly harder to move against your will Get knocked down and survive 1 Feat Point Eviler Eye Transfer curses from you to another, with your eyes. It probably won’t make you lose your sight. Or make you more like… evil or anything. I mean, definitely probably, maybe not. I mean, unless you do something stupid like-
Possess the Evil Eye base Skill.
Get cursed.
3 Feat Points Animal Tamer Look friendlier to animals. With that mug though? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa Have a non-hostile interaction with an animal. And live. 4 Feat Points Dressage Learn about Mounts. Lol, maybe you can ask Chibi, or the she-wolf. Seriously though, do it. Do it. Dare you. Reduced Cost.
Have a non-hostile interaction with an animal.
Possess a class associated with mounts
1 Feat Point Weapon Competencies Imparted knowledge of basic weapon competency
Kill something with a weapon
1 Feat Point per weapon set Eyes on the back of your head Be able to sense when a Lord is threatened.
Protect a town leader from a mortal threat
1 Feat Point
How about some actually useful skill information? Seriously. This is crap, even though I was getting better at sussing out useful information from the flavor text.
That said, I spent 5 points on ‘Here’s a sword m’lord!’ almost instantly and I refused to try and pronounce it in the bastardized middle-English mangled thing that Gabe put there to mess with me. I had a good feeling about it.
Regardless of anything else, a sword would appear in your hand. That was awesome and sounded like magic to me. It was… uh… also valuable and I totally didn’t make a rash decision that I had just chided Lena and everyone else about. I definitely did not. But come on, it was obviously talking about a magic sword? Even if the rest of the flavor text hinted that it wouldn’t last long, I was well okay with that. Magic, fucking, sword.
I also picked up Bulwark, because I had been getting knocked down more than I liked. It wasn’t objectively happening that much, but as far as I was concerned, any amount was too much.
In regards to the rest, I could clean my own sword, at least for now, and I hadn’t owned a sword long enough to be annoyed by doing so. I also wasn’t planning on traveling with anyone, so I wasn’t going to spend points on a situational skill and then never use it again. Well, unless my life was on the line and even then, I definitely wasn’t going to spend 3 Feat points on being able to take a mortal strike for someone else. Maybe, if I could have given the blow to someone else, but that’s not what the skill said.
I felt like there should have been more Squire skills, but maybe I just hadn’t unlocked them yet. ‘Other Requirements Met’. Of course, why would I assume that was the comprehensive list of skills? Unknown metrics for advancement and skill unlocking and no online forum to tell me how to unlock them. Awesome. Love it.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Then, I saw another on the bottom of the list. ‘Eyes on the back of your head’? It was only 1 Feat Point and… it seemed suspiciously placed. I picked up that Skill as well and waited to see if there was any change. No, wait. There was… a subtle threat, it felt distinctly different and… vague. I tried to picture it but all I got was a vague feeling about it all. I tried to imagine it into an image but all I could picture… were shadows. I looked up at Lena and she smiled. I smiled back.
Yeah, it was focused on her, but as of now, that’s all I could tell.
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While Lena and the group figured out the plan for letting in zombies in batches I familiarized myself with the Campers. Apparently Joe wasn't actually a ‘Camper’, he was a ‘Rugged Outdoorsman’, likely due to him being a Green Beret when he was younger. Frank and Sam were varieties of Camper as well, but the result was the same. Knife and outdoor weapon skills. They put out some dangerous looking swings with their machetes. Joe dual-wielded, his machete in his right and his bowie knife in his left.
I thought dual wielding was kind of dumb but he wove a pattern in front of him that sent his wrinkles into overdrive with a smile. It was kind of contagious when old folks got childhood levels of lit up about stuff.
The contraption, a mess of rope and makeshift levels, was ready. We were the only ones in the hallway, everyone else was in the flanking classrooms, looking through the window, ready to close the door.
My Camper Squad would be handling the first wave to get a feel for things, “Alright boys, you ready?”
“Who’re you calling boy, boy?”
“Damn kids, no respect.”
An elbow knocked into the side of my arm, “I don’t mind it, Captain, brings back memories, makes me feel young.”
“Thanks Joe.” I would definitely be sacrificing the other two if it meant keeping Joe alive.
The door opened and… nothing came in. I motioned for my Camper Squad to stay back as I walked forward, sword already drawn. Outside I saw one zombie. I pulled my pistol and fired a round into its body. Then followed it with a few more before I walked back inside.
“Alright, they should be coming,” I sheathed my sword and reloaded my pistol while we waited, then traded the weapons out again.
Everyone tensed as it turned the corner. It saw us four and waited at the entrance.
We looked at it, then at each other in puzzlement. After some time of waiting and the occasional taunt toward the shitty little zombie it started to stumble forward. Our words hadn’t had an effect on it. What had encouraged it was the absolute horde following right behind.
“Close it! Close it!” I heard a shout from upstairs. Didn’t they see these zombies coming before?
The doors groaned as more and more zombies poured in. Five, ten, twenty. Then the doors slammed shut, though they seemed to be straining at the effort.
“Ready boys?” I walked forward and waited for the moment before closing the gap in a darting thrust, spearing two zombie heads in a single motion. You gotta make a good entrance. I ripped it out and slashed hard at another’s skull, lodging the blade halfway in. I kicked it off and backed up.
“Don’t run away now boy!” The old men… I mean… what the fuck.
Heavy, confident, bloodthirsty swings started lopping into the zombies and I rejoined them as we carved through the crowd. Coordination wasn’t perfect and I had to draw and shoot my pistol a few times before we got good enough to not need me actively covering the gaps. By the time we approached the back of the formation, I managed to pull my jaw off the floor. These old dudes were some hard motherfuckers. Shit, they really did build ‘em different back then. Must have been something in the water. Or the fact that they ate rocks for breakfast.
“We going out there?” Naked bloodlust gleamed in Joe’s eyes.
I looked to him, then to his left bicep. Shit.
“Joe!-”
“What?”
“You got bit man! Fuck.”
“Where?” He looked and saw it on his bicep then ripped off his sleeve to the shoulder. He threw me his machete which I managed to somehow not catch by the blade.
“This little thing?” It was definitely cursed. I really needed-
He held his bowie and snapped his other fingers, the blade started to glow red hot and he… put it, no, he cauterized the wound and the black markings went… away.
“What? How’d you do that?”
“Huh. Wasn’t sure if that was gonna work.”
“Joe. What the fuck was that?”
“Field Medic and some outdoorsman system bullshit.”
“Yeah, I got that, I mean how’s that work?”
He rubbed the red, sore wound then grinned, “It said something about curses, afflictions-” He called up a screen, “infections, and ‘all types of other shit’ can be neutralized if I cauterize it quick enough.”
“Can you fix mine?”
He shook his head, “Sorry kid, it says it has to happen soon after, and I don’t think that applies to you. I can still try if you want, but I have a feeling it won’t work.”
It was his skill, not mine, so he’d know best, and I sure as fuck didn’t want a burning hot bowie knife cauterizing a damn thing on me if it wasn’t going to help.
“Well, I’m glad that works at least.”
He grinned and nodded, “So Cap’in, what’s next? Shit, I’m gonna set up so many traps.”
Joe left, while Sam, Frank, and myself covered and worked with the gunslinger’s unskilled battle buddies while he was busy doing… something. I didn’t even ask what. Besides a few close calls I figured that we must have killed over a 100 zombies before their brains overcame their desire to spread their curse. The 100 was guessed because I sure as fuck wasn’t going to be digging through the pile of half-rotten corpses to get the exact count.
Regardless. After everyone rested up a bit, we were ready. We had picked up a few additional classes and even a few more melee fighters, not as many but still. Enough.
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Some discussion about a shield made an impromptu, actually kind of genius thing. The school had a few of those heavy, plastic composite desks that were popular in the 90s, and after some makeshift additions of straps, a few of us had… school-desk shields. They didn’t look pretty but the triple straps helped, two around the forearm and a wide, tight one across the palm. Once I got the hand grip tightened even more, I could grab my pistol with my left hand without the shield spinning around on me. It definitely would make me a worse shot but, for a shield? Easy decision.
There was discussion on whether or not to rest or continue on as night moved its way continually closer. Most people wanted to continue and even started breaking apart wood to make torches that they could alight with a snap of their fingers.
Still, there was much less than an hour left before sunset. A runner came down from the roof and with a report that settled the debate. The zombies were pulling back to the church side of town and around the corner.
“The Mortician.”
My head snapped to Lena at that, “how do you know?”
“It’s my town. I know.”
I nodded, she had already shared some of her skills and Qualities with me. She hadn’t told me every single one she had picked, but I had a pretty good idea.
We formed everyone up and then cracked the main auditorium door open at Lena’s command.
With the first zombie trap, some of the noobs had chosen melee classes so each of the Campers had a battle buddy now, except for me, which I was fine with since I told mine to stay with and protect Lena. I didn’t want to be responsible for protecting someone and it solved two problems at once. Protect Lena and I wouldn’t feel responsible for another person’s life.
The firing line stood to either side, 8 individuals on each side. I only saw one of the women in the firing line that Evil Eye had flagged as containing Dark Affinity. Now we were missing two, which unsettled me, but there was no time to dig deeper as zombies poured around the corner at the end of the street.