So this was not how I thought the day would go.
I mean I already knew that today would suck. I mean I was going to court for an aggravated assault and before the sentencing my brother decides to try and break me out. Then the end of the world happened.
Now here I am my pants slightly wet from pisssing myself when some kind mega stroke knocked me and my brother flat on our ass and now there's this.
Fallen Lvl 1 Health 50/50 Mana 0/0
I got some message saying I gained some skill and this showed up on the poor guard my brother knocked out. I have no clue what the {Fallen} is.
What I do know is that its time we get the fuck out of dodge.
Making the assumption that what just happened to us wasn't some isolated incident if even a third of what we just felt happened all over the city, hell the world, there is going to be mass chaos.
For some reason, I get the feeling that I and Vinnie are way better off than we have any right to be right now. like I am by nobody's standards alright. I mean my heart's pounding I'm more scared than I've ever been and I feel as if I should be on the floor sobbing right now, but I'm not.
like I'm automatically handly the entire thing way better than I have any right to be.
"Do you feel off," I ask Vinnie my hand on my chest feeling my heart as if that would help figure this whole thing out.
"As off as you can if you just got your brain tossed into a blender and your body felt as if it was tied to a metal cage during an electric storm." He said his voice sounding tired.
oh it's bad. Vinnie always makes his analogies really long and detailed when he's upset.
"No I mean now. We seem way better off now and I don't think that we should be."
"What does it matter?" Vinnie said before taking a deep breath and standing up.
"It matters because It might come in handy. If we're going under the assumption that the world has just changed, any advantage in our favor is one we need to take."
with that, I bring up something that's been bugging me.
YOU ARE AFFLICTED WITH Codependency LVL 1 (Unique)
If it came between the rest of the world and your brother you would sell the rest of the world out in a heartbeat in a half. You two are the beginning of a codependent relationship. You look to each other for strength. Your Identities are tied to one another. He makes you feel like you matter, he's there when no one else can bother to show up. You'd kill for him, bury the body, and go back to life as if nothing happened because you need him more than you'd ever want to admit.
PROs
* Permanent Party System (unique)
* 50% resistance to all Mental Affliction while within party limits
* Empathic Connection LVL 1 at this level STRONG emotions can be felt between party members.
CONs
* Immunity from all mental afflictions will no longer be applied.
* When further than 5 kilometers away the Mental affliction Depression, Panic Attack, and Self Doubt will have a 5% chance of afflicting the user. This is an additive effect that will increase every 24hrs.
Ignoring the fact that this blue box seemed to know a whole lot of intimate details about me and Vinnie's relationship. If its to be believed, one of the pros seemed to be resistance to {Mental Afflictins}. I bet my non-existent allowance that a would-be a side effect of the World Break being a whole bunch of mental fuckery. Either because of the pain or because uploading people's brains to the multiverse might have some harmful side effects.
Hell I barely have the energy to move and I am on the verge of either screaming or crying or both.
imagining that times two all around the world. I doubt that many people are up and about. now.
"Dude now isn't the time to be zoning out," Vinnie said shaking me out of my inner turmoil. "The guard or {Fallen} if were going to believe the blue boxes. he's moving."
I look at the guard and Vinnie is right and he is moving. He just isn't moving correctly. His movement look plastered on and fake. Like a rag doll being played with by something trying to imitate human. So since the world has changed I decided to change to.
and nothing says change like using your new superpower.
I don't know how this Skill {Identify} works but if I can pull the {Codependcy} Tab than maybe I can use it. I already can see the name the system gave it {Fallen } maybe if I take a closer look
Skill Identify has Leveled up Fallen Lvl 1 Health 50/50 Mana 0/0
Description: Though the system is by no means responsible for this for some species World Break System is too much for them to handle. This is called OmniDimensional Starvation. Fallen are beings that could not handle the benevolent system and were partially terminated. Alive only enough to carry a grudge and be sworn enemies of all system orientated being. Highly adaptive. At your level Highly Infectious.
if it being gross wasn't enough the thing was the multidimensional version of some infectious disease. Hell the fact that it had a name suggests that it's not some once in a blue moon infection. Like dying from the hiccups. So I got off my ass and slowly walked around the body so that my back was towards the door that leads upstairs. My hands gripped the baton as I walked by.
it was not a second too soon. The guy no I don't think he was a guy anymore. the thing had managed to twist his head around. Way further than should have humanly possible he did something out of horror movie. It didn't help that the thing was starting to look the part.
I didn't really pay attention to him earlier. When he was taking me to the bathroom and such. he was just some guy in his mid-40s with a permanent scowl on his face, probably from having wasted his life walking delinquents and petty criminals to and from the bathroom.
Now his face it twitched as if he didn't have full control of it yet and was it snapping every so often. Black saliva dripped from his mouth and hit the floor. it was thicker than saliva should be and seemed to be endless. What was worse though was his eyes. black from the white of the eyes to the pupil. black veins spread from that thing eyes up to his face. It was inhuman.
"What the fuck is wrong with him?" Vinnie asks knife in one hand, the handcuffs covering his knuckles like some makeshift brass knuckles.
Before I could speak the thing jumped at me. Luckily instincts took over and I had a taser gun in my hand. I pull the trigger to the gun and watch two prongs shoot out of the gun and into that thing's chest.
Lightning DMG -1, Stunned for 30 seconds
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
I instinctively knew how much damage I caused, and ill admit it was distracting. luckily Vinnie didn't have that.
"Let's get this mother fucker," Vinnie said leaping past me and punching the thing in its face with his handcuff knuckled hand. he managed to hit but I think the same thing that hit me hit him and he ended up overreaching
not wanting to let him do all the work. I drop the taser on the ground take a step forward and do an upward swing of the baton to the chin
Blunt Weapon DMG -8
Not letting that distract I hit him again on the side of the head before kicking him putting some distance between me and that thing.
Blunt Weapon DMG -6, Kicking DMG -2
At this point Vinnie gets off the floor and uses the knife and stabs the thing in its shoulder. When he removes the knife the blood gushes out is black and oily.
Curious I use that{Identify} Skill on the thing
Fallen Lvl 1 Health 10.43/50 Mana 0/0
"were 90% there " I said already ready myself for another swing. unlucky for us by this time the stun had worn off and had enough control over its body to lunge at me. Not prepared I just barely manage to hold the baton in front of me catching the {Fallen} clamping mouth as it kept snapping at me trying to take a bite out me it snapping so hard that part of the baton was actually breaking its hands flopped at the side like it hadn't even realized that they were even there.
Then suddenly tackling the {Fallen} he knocked him to the side hitting the wall before. not that hitting the wall stopped him. the second he got on top of the thing and started punching it. and he kept punching him. for a few seconds the thing moved but then the thing just stopped moving. That didn't stop Vinnie. He kept hitting the guy over and over again until a blue box appeared in front of me.
You Have Defeated Lvl Fallen Eaned 25xp
That meant nothing to me except that the thing is dead. Not that I wasn't going to double-check. So I kicked him, once then twice then ten more times before my leg started to hurt. I felt like kicking him some more but my brain was working again and I decided to take a step back. I was breathing heavily adrenaline I think but it was also something more. Distracting myself I used the skill that in my opinion I'm getting pretty good at. I used {Identify}
Dead Fallen Lvl 1 Do you want to Loot Dead Fallen Lvl1? Yes(Must establish physical contact) No
Nowhere as thematic as I thought it would be. I took a step forward to touch the dead body and loot it but then I saw Vinnie. He was next to the body on the ground leaning against the wall. he was sobbing and gulping hard, his legs bent up with his arms wrapped around them.
"Shit, shit, shit I didn't mean to kill him, shit. " He said rocking back and forth.
"Hey calm down," I said grabbing his shoulder. This is bad, though I guess all things considered it's a good thing it only happened now. Neither one of us is what you say of sound mind when it comes to.... certain things.
Hell there's a reason that I beat a guy almost to death, and why my case was an excruciating long but ultimately pointless venture. My record is filled with incidences of me losing my shit and going apeshit on someone or something. Vinnie's thing is just a little bit different.
I keep my hand on his shoulder and just sit next to him. my heart was still beating hard and the urge I had to just kick the{Fallen} until it was nothing more than a pile of pulp laid on the floor was beginning to make me suspect that we were more affected by this whole World Break than I thought.
I thought about checking the system but I felt Vinnie move and decided against any distractions right now.
So we sat there. me trying to keep a cool head as I resisted the urge to walk around and kick things, while Vinnie dealt with the fact that we just killed something. I could have tried and talked to him but at this point my only word of wisdom would be something akin to "Fuck everyone but us." And that wasn't going to be helpful.
So we sat there for about 10 minutes before Vinnie calmed down and I felt less likely to punch something. I opened my mouth but the box came into my vision and a bunch of blinking dots on the side.
You have learned Skill Blunt Weaponry Lvl 1 Description: Some people like knives and pointy objects. you like smashing peoples head in. +1% increase in damage when using Blunt Weaponry.
You Have Learned Skill Kick Lvl 1 Description: What else do you want me to say, its kicking. It's like punching but with your feet +1% increase in damage while using your feet.
You have gained the title The First
they come one after another but I think I'm starting to get used to it all.
"Hey I just got some more skills and something called a title. " Vinnie asks me straightening his legs and whipping his face off.
"{The First}?" I ask.
"What skills did you get- " Before I even finished asking he slides over his info.
You Have Learned Skill Unconventional Weaponry Lvl 1 Descriptions: When you fight anything around you could be used as a weapon. +1% increase in damage while fighting with something not considered a weapon.
You Have learned Skill Frenzy Lvl 1 Description: Sometimes losing control can be a good thing. Especially if you just want want to make something a whole lot less alive. +5% increase in Strength and Endurance -10% decrease in Intelligence and Wisdom.
I got the first one, the way that he used the handcuff was nothing if not unconventional. the skill {Frenzy} was .... appropriate I guess for what he did.
"Do you.... do you think that this is what life is going to be now." Vinnie finally says. "I mean we're down in the basement in a building in a shitty small town and within five minutes of this thing coming we ended up having to kill someone. I don't get the feeling that this was a one-time thing."
I open my mouth but ended up closing it up again. I'm pretty sure that a good 90% of my anger and nerves are fear slash end of the world mumbo jumbo happening. neither one of us is in tip-top shape and everything Vinnie just said had the harrowing inkling of truth. The anger from the fight was going away and fear was creeping in. This was a Lvl 1 monster that was as new to this as we were. We were just hooked up to a multitude of universes and there's no way that this was the last time. It felt as if my usual 'we will survive' speech might not cut it this time.
So like everything else I decided to change it up.
"Your probably right. " I start off saying, Vinnie's face crinkled in surprise. "The blue box didn't call it the {World Break} because it sounded cool. The world is going to go into free fall, the only thing we can do is adapt. We figure stuff out and survive. Your the brawn and I'm the brain. I would say we survived worse but we both know that I'd be blowing smoke up your ass. I have to believe that however fucked up the world just got, that me and you, together can do anything. " I said holding my hand out. He pauses for a second before grabbing my hand and pulling me in for a hug. Something I didn't know I needed until then.
"First thin first We need to get out of here."
Almost as soon as the words left my mouth.
Congrats You have unlocked the Quest system Quest The Great Escape (Grade F+)
It might be the end of the world but that doesn't mean you can afford to laze around. Your party has committed to breaking one of you from a secure facility meant to keep people in. Luckily the end of the world hasn't been kind to a whole lot of people. If you can escape before a semblance of order can be restored you might just be home free.
Time Limit: 24Hrs
Reward: 250xp Penalty: Jail time (or what that means in the post apocalypse world that you now live in. )
"Well this just keeps getting better and better," Vinnie said breaking up our hug. "I guess its back to work."