A small planning period later we were all outside looking out into the newly grown forest. Tina and I climbed onto the roof for a better vantage point while the others stood on the back porch.
“You guys ready?” Susan asked us. We gave her our confirmation and she slammed her fists together her brass knuckles growing out of two simple rings, one on each hand. We pulled out our instruments and I strummed the first chord to “We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister.” As we started getting into the song, we saw movement in the tree line. Three Flesh Mongrels, a large deer thing with a bone spike protruding from all over its body, and a black three-foot-tall spider with glowing green eyes came barreling out of the woods.
I focused on each of the enemies and their information popped up over their heads. “Level 1 Flesh Mongrel, Level 2 Flesh Mongrel, Level 2 Flesh Mongrel, Level 3 Venorachnid, Level 5 Bone Cervidae.” The Bone Cervidae lead the charge by a good margin coming straight for us. When it was within five feet of the back porch Tony made his move. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed one of his chakrams directly at the deer creature. The wire connected to his weapon wrapped itself around the monster’s neck. Tony then jumped back over the railing and braced himself as Susan stomped down on the wire unbalancing the deer and bringing it slamming to the ground.
The monster tried to right itself, but its bone spikes were stuck in the ground. The rest of us continued to perform the song while Susan pounced on the Bone Cervidae slamming her brass knuckles into the side of the bone spikes snapping them off which allowed Tony to run forward towards the house the wire tightening around the stag’s neck until we all heard a loud snap. The Flesh Mongrels were slightly faster than the Venorachnid and as the first one got to us Josh jumped off the railing tackling it. Josh’s strength being what it was the tackle didn’t do much of anything, but it did allow him to use his skill to make it fall asleep.
The singer dodged out of the way and Tina put a hole straight through its head just as the second mongrel reached Josh. It lunged at Josh but the momentum of my arrow piercing its temple as it was airborne threw it into the last Mongrel placing it on its backside. Susan didn’t let the opportunity pass by, she lifted her hand, her brass knuckle starting to glow yellow, twisted her hips, and slammed it down on its head. The monster's head down to its collar bone exploded covering Susan and Josh in viscous blood. Josh vomited and Susan screamed.
“Ewww ewewewewew!” Susan freaked out and gagged, which made Josh throw up again. The Venorachnid finally made it to the two freaked out-front liners and struck out with sickly glowing green fangs. Its strike was faster than expected and Susan was hit. At the same time, Tony slid underneath the spider cutting off its legs, and Tina and I put two distinct holes in it. I pinned the spider’s head to the ground while Susan made its abdomen explode. We were about to start celebrating when we noticed Susan rolling on the ground holding her arm.
Tina jumped off the roof and ran to her girlfriend while I scrambled down. The kill notifications came rolling in, but I ignored them reaching Susan a few seconds after Tina.
“The spider thingy bit her! What are we going to do?” Tina asked. Tony came up and moved his sister out of the way. Using his chakram he cut her sleeve open. Black veins climbed up her arms, Tony wrapped the wire around her shoulder and pulled it as tight as he could until she yelled out. The black veins stopped where the wire cut into Susan’s shoulder.
“Did you level up?” Tony asked her.
“Wha-?” Susan asked confused and clearly in pain.
“Did you level up!” He said more forcefully. She nodded her head wincing back from his loud voice. “Put all of your free points into constitution now!” Susan looked as if she was about to pass out, but she did as he told her. A minute passed by, and she still looked weak, but the color returned to her cheeks, and the black veins subsided.
“How did you know to do that?” I asked Tony and he just gave me a nonchalant shrug.
“Constitution raises health. I thought it might at least give us some time.” Tony responded and I couldn’t see the fault in his logic. With Susan looking better I decided to give my notifications a look.
“You have performed during combat! 250 essence awarded! You have defeated level 2 Flesh Mongrel 50 essence awarded! You have defeated level 4 Venorachnid 100 essence awarded! LEVEL UP! +2 Charisma +2 Dexterity! 1 Free Stat Point!” I looked at my stat sheet to see my progress.
Nathan Schute: Bardic Archer
LEVEL 3
STRENGTH: 3
CONSTITUTION:5
AGILITY:8
DEXTERITY:21
INTELLIGENCE:6
WISDOM:6
CHARISMA:14
PERCEPTION:5
2 Free Stat Points
I thought back to the first Flesh Mongrel and how if it hadn’t been for Susan, Josh and I would probably be dead. Plus, as an archer, I need space to be able to shoot. I placed both free points into agility bringing it up to 10. My body suddenly felt lighter, and I got a sudden rush of energy. I decided to sprint to the end of the house and back.
“Woah!” Josh exclaimed. “How did I not know you did track?” I bounced on the balls of my feet shooting him an annoyed look and he responded with a shit-eating grin.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you run!” Tina said, getting a small laugh from the others. “What do all the stats do anyway?” She asked and before Tony could respond a new screen appeared in front of each of us.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“The system has recognized that you have a viable question regarding your statistics. Would you like to view the statistic help screen Y/N?” I selected yes and another screen opened.
“With some statistics, you will notice an automatic difference in your body or mindset. This is not the case with all statistics. Below you will find an explanation of each statistic.
Intelligence: Raises maximum usable mana and magic damage. Raising Intelligence also allows you to make connections to other things in your life and helps with memory retention. These connections may or may not be relevant. Raise wisdom for a noticeable difference in making relevant connections for clearer problem-solving.
Wisdom: Raises mana regeneration and resistance to magical or mental damage. Raising wisdom allows you to make relevant decisions to problems. These decisions may only become apparent if you’re able to make connections to things you’ve learned before. Raise Intelligence for a noticeable difference in memory retention and more options based on different connections you’re able to make.
Strength: Raises physical damage output and adjusts your body to reflect physical ability up to the human peak. You’ll notice physical changes up until the Strength statistic reaches 50 after which you’ll only notice increases in your ability to physically affect the world around you. Raise the constitution to allow for skeletal growth.
Constitution: Raises maximum health pool and resistance to physical damage. You will notice differences in height and weight up until Constitution statistic reaches 50 after which you’ll only notice increases in your ability to withstand physical damage. Raise Strength for musculature growth.
Agility: Raises reaction time and movement speed. Moving too fast may result in injury, raise dexterity to allow grace of movement, and lower chances of injury. Due to safety concerns, the system creators have deemed that movement speed won’t be upgraded until both it and Dexterity have reached 10.
Dexterity: Raises grace of movement, flexibility, and acrobatic ability. Attempting movements that your body is not used to may result in injury raise Strength and Agility to prepare your body and lower chances of injury. Due to safety concerns, the system creators have deemed that acrobatic ability won’t be upgraded until Dexterity, Strength, and Agility have reached 10. You will notice some differences in grace of movement and flexibility.
Charisma: Raises natural magnetism, performance, communication, and attractiveness. You will notice differences based on each interaction. The higher your charisma the more likely you will be able to gain a positive result in any interaction. Charisma is fought off by wisdom.
Perception: Raises visual, auditory, and olfactory senses. Raising these senses before your body is equipped to handle them may result in an injury raise your constitution to prepare your body for the changes in your senses. Due to safety concerns, the system creators have deemed that sensory abilities will not be upgraded until constitution reaches 10.”
I finished reading over the information packet, sighing in disappointment. “If I’d known about the stats, I would have spread them out more!” Checking over my stat sheet again and wondered if I should put the next several free stat points into strength so I could unlock the dexterity abilities. I looked around at the others and started noticing some changes happening.
Susan flipped over backward and did some kind of contortionist move where her legs stayed over her head before flipping over. Tina and Tony both grew at least an inch, and their clothes became a little tighter as their muscles toned up and grew ever so slightly. Then I got a look at Josh, and I got that nervous flutter in my stomach like when I’m at the top of a roller coaster and I’m about to rush down.
“Holy hell, man you look like one of those European supermodels!” Tony said staring at my admittedly far too pretty best friend.
“Thanks, man! So, I’m level four now… think we can head into town? Please?” He smiled at all of us, but it felt like he was looking directly at me. I still thought it was too dangerous, but looking at Josh It didn’t feel like such a bad idea.
“Sure, man the monsters aren’t that strong and it’s only 10 miles I think we can make it.” It felt like the right decision to make but something was nagging at me in the back of my head. “We just proved that we’re strong enough, right?” I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, but at the same time it was the right decision.
“Hey, I just gained essence!” Josh exclaimed, which made me remember what happened earlier with Tina and Susan.
“Oh, hell no!” I glared daggers at Josh who looked back at me startled. “You raised your charisma to manipulate us into heading into town? It’s not safe what is wrong with you? Shame on you!” I was yelling at him at this point.
“You have manipulated someone into seeing things your way using shame! 100 bonus essence gained!” I hadn’t been trying to manipulate him exactly but seeing him shamed did feel right.
“You’re right I’m sorry I’m just worried about my parents.” He said sadly. I understood where he was coming from. All of them had people that they wanted to check on. Susan had her dad, and the Twins had their parents and the 12-year-old triplets. I was the only one with no more family in town, so I knew I needed to be the one to make the decision.
“Listen I know you’re all worried about your families, but we don’t know what the situation looks like out there. The sky is crazy, the grass is attacking us and there are literal monsters out there.” I paused, looking each of them in the eye before I continued. “We need to be able to survive out there and that means getting stronger. So, let’s train a little bit more then we can try to make it into town.” I received a notification before the others even responded.
“You have convinced a group of people to follow your advice. 500 essence gained!” Tony came up and threw an arm around my waist pulling me closer.
“Ooh you know I like a man who can command a room!” He winked and laughed while I rolled my eyes and pushed him off me. Turning my bow back into a guitar, I climbed back onto the roof ready to train more. The first few monsters we pulled in were more Flesh Mongrels which made me wonder why there were so many of those things out there. My archery improved little by little and I stopped having to use Steady every time to hit a monster. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hit targets that were far away without the skill just yet.
Only a few hours later I hit level 5 giving me another skill point to use. I checked my screens again to check my results.
Nathan Schute: Bardic Archer
LEVEL 5
STRENGTH: 3
CONSTITUTION:5
AGILITY:10
DEXTERITY:25
INTELLIGENCE:6
WISDOM:6
CHARISMA:16
PERCEPTION:5
2 Free Stat Points
I went ahead and put the 2 free stat points into Strength bringing it up to 5. Then I opened the skill trees to spend my new skill point.
BARDIC ARCHER SKILL TREE
1 SKILL POINT
PERFORMANCE ARCHERY CONVERSATION
STEADY
NOTE: SOME SKILLS HAVE OVERLAPPING FUNCTIONS
I had a decision to make regarding my skills. Archery may be important seeing as there were literal monsters out there waiting to kill us, but at the end of the day, I didn’t want to always be fighting. I loved music and it’s not like a skill underperformance would be useless in combat. Knowing that it may be a bad decision I still unlocked a new skill in performance.
“Amplify: Crowds can be loud, amplify carries your sound directly to the ears of the target you want to hear it. Additional Effect: Raises targets physical damage output by 10%” I sighed, relieved that the skill could at least help in combat.
“So, what did you get?” Tina asked me and I told her which opened the floor to discuss each of our abilities.
The twins chose skills that were more directly combat related. Tina got something called a mana shot which made her shots stronger the more mana she puts into the skill. Tony received caltrop which made the rings on his tambourine drop to the ground each circle twisting in half, so spikes pointed up in different directions. Josh didn’t seem comfortable with fighting, so he chose a performance skill called vibrate which allowed him to vibrate his vocal cords to reach pitches above and below human perception. It could also slow targets down or boost their movement speed.
Susan told us that she didn’t have skill trees to choose from, instead at level five she just received a new skill. Her new skill was called bloodlust which raised her physical damage and speed by 20% but it can only be triggered if she draws blood.
“So do you think we can make it into town now?” Josh asked me, making the rest of the group look toward me hopefully. I rubbed the back of my head thoughtfully before deciding. The sun could still be seen through the trees, but the light was fading it would be dark soon but judging by the looks on the other's faces I knew that I wouldn’t be able to convince them to wait all night.
“Fine but we’re going to have to be careful it’ll be dark soon so if we’re gonna go let’s go.” The rest of the band lit up. We packed a few provisions and began our ten-mile trek toward town.