I have re-written the ENTIRE first chapter based on constructive feedback. If you have already read it, you will need to re-read it or you will be very confused. ^_^
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“How’d it go?” Bardon asked, as he observed me run back into the Library. Presumably he had seen the whole thing through the clear glass windows.
“I almost died!” I exclaimed. “This crazy huge grey wolf killed everyone in that classroom, and it jumped after me when I opened the door. The only reason I’m alive is because it got its head stuck through the door and I kept stunning it with head shots.”
He sighed. “I am glad you’re alive, but I warned you before for a reason. You are far too weak to venture out there by yourself, and certainly not without at least a little extra training or planning. I am guessing he was at least level 8, if not much higher, so you might even have gained a level or two from killing him, but your act was foolishness. I cannot leave the Safe Zone often, or even for long, as my magic is part of what sustains it, but I will do it just this once to help you collect his Inventory cube and any other drops. You might as well loot the room while you’re at it, if you don’t mind looting the dead, that is.”
He motioned me back outside and over to the room. I forced the door, complete with wolf still stuck in it, open enough for him to slide past, then me after him. The room was absolutely a mess, but there was no one else alive in the room to attack me. Bardon leaned down and picked up a small cube. “Here, this in the Inventory cube. Put that in your pocket.” I stuffed the grey cube, about the size of a tennis ball, into my jeans pocket. He looked around the room and pointed to the wolf carcass in the door. “Take that and drag it back to the Library. I will use it later. Everything else here has been trashed, but you might find some things of interest if you loot every corpse in the room. You might even earn a skill.” He suggested mysteriously.
I wasn’t too keen on looting all the dead bodies, but blood had never bothered me much, and they didn’t smell that bad. I figured that in reality, the dead wouldn’t miss anything, and it would be better for me to benefit from whatever they had on them than to miss out. In a survival sense, that unknown item could be the difference of life and death. I can’t really say how many bodies I actually looted, as some of them were mangled and in pieces, and it was impossible to count. In fact, I found the thought of counting the bodies somewhat morbid, but there was a part of me that wanted to know--how many of my classmates had actually died?
I was conscious that the Warden was standing at the door guarding, and waiting for me to finish, so I made sure to move steadily. I made sure to start at one corner, and when I finished a body I moved it over to the corner to join the rest, until there was a large pile of dead in one corner, and a bloody mess all over the rest of the floor. When I was finished, I had obtained nine purses, seven wallets, and a random smattering of other money and jewelry, along with scores of books, bookbags, some with significant rips, almost all of which were bloodstained, and various other items contained in the bags. Only one single sweatshirt was blood-free, and that only because it was tucked inside a bookbag off in a corner under a desk. I Identified as many of them as I could until my mana ran out, but for the most part I saw nothing special. The cabinets didn’t reveal much, but the teacher’s desk had a set of car keys, a wallet with a male ID, presumably the teacher’s, a metal letter opener, which struck me as a possible weapon to use, and a few other belongings, including a bagged lunch. I took the lunch with me as well. As soon as I did that, a status window popped up in front of me.
You have obtained the Scavenger skill. This skill points out items that may be of value or use on bodies, as well as increases the likelihood of successfully harvesting useful items from the bodies themselves, such as fur, horns, or claws, and can influence the quality of the extraction. At higher levels this skill increases the Credits obtained from the User by a percentage.
“I’m all finished.” I said to Bardon, pointing to the large pile of items near the door.
“Let’s start by taking out the Inventory cube, hold it in your hand, and say ‘Expand Inventory.’” I did as instructed and saw the following:
Your inventory has increased by 38 slots. 14 items have been obtained.
“Now say ‘Open Inventory’ and look at what is in there.”
I did as instructed, and found six of the new slots filled with meat, three filled with other food items, one had a ring in it, and another a canine’s tooth. Another still had an eyeball, which I found kind of gross. At least the tooth seemed remotely reasonable. The last item was a sword. “It told me there were fourteen items, but I only see thirteen.” I complained. “Can’t the universe do math?”
“Look closely at the Inventory window--you should see something titled Credits. Is there a number under it?” he asked.
“Yes, it says 7.83.”
“That’s the total number of Credits you obtained from him, as well as any other money you picked up and put in your inventory. Credits were the fourteenth item, and are the TransGalactic Currency. All money of any currency will automatically convert to Credits by the conversion rate at that time when placed in your inventory. Now, next you need to . . .” Bardon gave me step by step instructions on how to allocate the various items I obtained into my inventory. He had me put all money, including credit and debit cards, gift cards, etc. into my inventory. Most of them disappeared and the Credits number grew, although by a fraction of the actual dollar amounts. Even the teacher’s cards only added a few credits, and I can assume he had more money than most of the students in his accounts. All together it left me with 38.42 Credits, although I had no clue what the actual buying power of 38 Credits was.
Next, he had me Identify and sort the books. All skill-related books he had me keep, along with any book of the first of its kind, and the one that was the highest quality. I had already learned all of the languages the school taught, but Bardon had me keep them anyway. He said that if I used them later it would add experience to my current Languages skill. The rest, such as the nineteen Economics books, I left, except he had me give him one. “What do you want that for?” I asked.
“I have a skill called Library Science that has a subskill called Card Catalog. It allows me to know whether I have read a book before and whether it is contained in any specific library of my choosing. That one isn’t in this Library, and I haven’t read it. You have a few others I will want as well.” He directed me to hand him a few books, none of which were skill books, and none of which I wanted anyway. I did so gladly.
After going through all the books, I had to go through the book bags, jewelry, and other items. I put all the books in bookbags and placed the bags in my Inventory to clear them out of my way, also reducing the number of slots I used, then began to Identify any remaining items. Most of the jewelry was junk like watches and plastic earrings, but there were a few items of actual precious metals, and a few necklaces and rings that had actual precious or semiprecious stones in them. I put the valuable ones in my inventory, tossed the junk in a pile, and continued. I did also save about eight watches, most of which I was able to fit in my inventory, saving them for when my battery ran out. There were a number of cell phones and such, and I turned all of them off and put them in a bag. They had no service, and if they were of any use it would not do to run down the batteries. I hadn't even checked for electricity yet, as this room had a big window and was well lit by the sun. Any items with interchangeable batteries I removed the batteries then saved both the electronics and the batteries. In the end the rest of the little stuff like rubber bands and such I piled in a bag and put that whole bag in my inventory, filling it completely. From there, I stood up, finished.
Bardon directed me to come and follow him, and with that, he left and stood in the hallway while I extricated the wolf’s head from the door and slowly dragged his body across the tile flooring toward the Library. I continued to struggle with it once inside the Library, except it was harder now due to the carpeting. Once inside, Bardon pointed at the carcass with his index finger and it floated up in the air. He walked across the Library into what used to be the Computer Tech room. Opening the door, I peeked in to see a huge kitchen.
“Where did this come from?” I exclaimed.
“It’s part of the Safe Zone. Do you recall the Safe Zone rules outlined in the User Guide? I can basically make this place however I want it to look. The computers were useless, as there was no internet signal for you all to make use of, so I transformed the room into my kitchen. I will make some food from this later. He floated the body onto a long steel table, turned, and went back to the Library Circulation desk in the middle, motioning for me to follow. “Later, if you like, I can start to teach you Cooking, as I will be making us dinner from this guy here. You might even be able to help me skin him and get some practice Scavenging. It's a useful skill especially when it is sufficiently leveled."
I thanked him for the offer, then I decided to practice Mana Manipulation whereas Dee just continued reading her book. I am a bookworm, and love to read, but in a situation like this I am surprised she could sit there and read for hours on end without doing anything else. No matter. Actually, I went and asked Bardon first, but he simply said “Trial and error is an amazing teacher,” and continued his own book. So, I went back to meditating to see what I could figure out, and this time was able to easily enter a mild meditative trance. I remained there for a few minutes when I heard the sound of a status box appearing. Opening my eyes I saw another status window.
You have learned Meditation. This skill allows you to regenerate mana and health at a faster rate. At higher levels this skill will allow you to regenerate stamina and additional benefits will be added. + 0.2 mana/sec +0.2 health/sec
Success! I told Dee the skill I just got, expecting her to be jealous, but she smirked at me before saying, “Yes, but I bet you didn’t get the Bookworm skill. I hadn't thought about it, but it made sense given the time she had spent reading that she had gained a skill from it.
"So what are the benefits? What does it do?" I inquired.
"It increase my reading speed and retention, letting me do more of what I do best--read. After all, as the President of the Reading Olympics, school or no school I have a reputation to maintain. I might also add that I got 1 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom just from all the reading I was doing, and two Intelligence just for obtaining the skill!" Dee excitedly exclaimed.
"So how long did you have to read to get the skill?" I inquired.
Probably about an hour and a half total, maybe almost two hours. It all sort of ran together after a while. Although, I did finish one book and start on a second at the time, so there's a chance that had something to do with it. You want it too, don't you." She stated.
"Of course I do. Who wouldn't want a skill that makes me smarter and read and retain information faster?" I smiled. Dee went back to her reading and I turned inward, focusing on meditating, and within a few minutes I began to sense a ball of energy within my body. I continued to focus on it and after a few more minutes I became able to more clearly visualize this glowing ball of blue light, presumably my mana center.
I heard the sound of the status box, but I continued to meditate anyway. I imagined mana streaming in from the world around me and filling my mana core, much like I had done in the past during Qigong meditation. I heard another status update, but ignored it and continued. As I did so I saw my mana start to flux and go out of control. It thrust me out of my meditative state and I became nauseous. I felt super-full of energy, but it was making me sick. I quickly started to identify the chair, table, and nearby books, figuring that it was due to having absorbed too much mana. As I Identified objects, the feeling slowly lessened, then was gone.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I mentally willed for the status messages to reappear, and they did. The first notified me that I learned the Meditate skill; the second stated I had learned Absorb, but that continued mana Absorption would make my mana core unstable and I would have to discharge the mana or dire consequences would occur. As it turns out there is a lot to learn about magic.
I decided that my magic-play had come to an end, as further experimentation without guidance could prove disastrous. Every fantasy book I had ever read suggested either supreme luck or serious aptitude was required when self-teaching magic, or a horrid curse or other disaster would befall the character in question.
Finished with Meditating for the moment, I opened my Inventory to explore what was there. The meat was just edible meat. The eyeball and canine both he the ability to be used as crafting items, whether in cooking, alchemy, or even tailoring or weaponry for the tooth, and may have had some arcane use for the eyeball. The ring was actually a bit of a find. It's appearance was unique, in that the ring was like two rings that were attached to each other, but one slightly smaller than the other and that fit inside the first. It also, when not worn, could spin inside the first one, almost like a gyroscope. The ring's properties matched the unique design of the ring.
Gemini's Ring of Rejuvenation: Doubles Health and Mana regeneration
I immediately equipped the ring. This was a real find! It didn't just increase it, but double whatever my current regen-rate was! I was going to show Dee but decided against it. I didn't want her to be jealous, and I figured it might be better to keep some things secret. I heard some new noises and looked up to see a handful of other students walk into the Library. Some of them had clothing that was torn in places, and a couple of them looked injured in one way or another. Bardon welcomed them and explained the Safe Zone rules, then directed them to some of the couches. I didn't recognize any of them, but I decided to be friendly and introduce myself. We had a short conversation, and they had come from somewhere upstairs. Of the six of them four were from the same class and had a run-in with some kind of flaming snakes. Most everyone in their class had died too, but they manage to escape and hide in a bathroom. The bathroom had a pair of spider-like beings that were the size of volleyballs, and one of their group had died, but they managed to kill the two spiders and safely hide for a while. The other two were a teacher and single student who had found refuge in the bathroom along with three other injured students after the rest of their class was killed or wounded by frogmen with tridents. The teacher, Kevin, had managed to take one of the tridents and fend them off just one enough for a few to escape, but even so the tridents were poisoned and the injured students had died. Kevin defended the bathroom at the door after they arrived until they made a plan to attempt to escape the building. On their way toward an exit, they passed the Library and noted that Bardon was there. They decided to risk it and it turned out to be a good move. Here they were able to rest and heal. I let them know about the Language skill and offered them some of my extra foreign-language books from my bag. Two of them accepted but the other four politely declined, apparently not seeing the value of learning languages at a time like this.
The conversation died down after a bit so I excused myself to go find Dee. We consulted on what to do next, as we couldn't stay in the Library forever. We decided that before exploring we should gather more information. I pulled out the school map Bardon gave me, and saw that the map itself showed what was CURRENTLY there, not what had been there before the countdown. Each classroom was marks in some way, and appeared to show what type of Users had torn over that are. The most noticeable change being that the gym was now the Bog of Baldori, Slime King, and the Kobold Army that was in the Auditorium, but there were other changes too. We decided to start exploring the hallway outside the library a little further to test out the new environment. I learned a little from my past almost-death from the wolf and we opted to pick rooms that didn't sound as threatening. to reduce the risk. We ventured out of the door to the left. The hallway was darker than normal, and we headed around the bend toward our Spanish classroom to check on everyone else and see what had become of them. We passed a stairwell and rows upon rows of grey student lockers until we arrived at our classroom. Standing in the doorway I could see the room was empty of people, except I observed a large, leafy, vined plant in the far corner of the room. The desks and chairs were in absolute shambles,nap though the room was surprisingly not-bloody like the one with the grey wolf had been. Without moving any further into the room I cast Identify on it. Identification failed. I tried it five more times until it succeeded. Turns out I was able to spam Identify with no cooldown, also known as the period I would have to wait to use the skill again. I didn't have any other active skills so I would have to test the cooldown idea later.
Ingus Fertinalis/Fertile Vineweed, Level 19: a carnivorous plant that uses protein derived from meat sources to build its vines and procreate.
"That plant is the enemy." I warned Dee. "Watch out for its vines." I looked a bit more closely and realized that some of its vines trailed up the wall and into the drop-ceiling. I quickly jumped back, knocking Dee down, but my quick movements saved me. As I did that a series of lightning-fast vines shot down where I had just been standing, breaking the tiles below. I lashed out quickly with my bat, smashing them before they could recover and change direction, then I back pealed further to get out of range. I had thought a plant would have been easy, but from the experience I just had and how it looked like the other students might have died, it was way above our experience level. What we needed was an easier foe.
We started to walk forward down the hallway, past the Guidance are on the left and the art rooms down a hall to the right. The hall in front of us led toward the cafeteria and administration offices, but we heard loud noises crashing around and we looked for a place to hide. On our left was a glass-enclosed office that was used for Attendance, and we rushed in there and closed the door behind us. It was all clear glass so didn't hide us, but it at least cut down on any noise we might make, and we crouched behind the tall counter there. Luck was on our side and nothing else was back there. Dee didn't want to look but I peeked my head around the corner at the bottom.
At first I saw nothing, but the loud noises grew louder and the building started to shake. I started to hear growls and what sounded like birds or cats fighting. An amazing sight came into view--what looked like two beasts fighting. They each had a lion's body and tail and the head of a large eagle. Their wings were light blue in color and must have been six to eight feet long each. Instead of paws, their front legs were more eagle-like and ended in talons. One was a little larger than the other and the coloring on its wings was a few shades darker blue than the other. "Gryphons." I breathed. I was in awe. These powerful, formerly mythical beasts were both ferocious and at the same time majestic even in the midst of their clash. Their bodies flying against the flor and the walls was causing the shaking, and their talons as they ripped and sliced into one another's fur and feathers and caused the screams of pain to rise unbidden from their mouths. "Identify"
Golden Gryphon: Level ??? This is a half-lion half-eagle who is of a highly intelligent and noble race.
I ordered about the hidden level, but my attention was transfixed and I couldn't help but keep watching in awe. A short distance behind them came a dozen or so small, humanoid, hooded creatures, dressed almost entirely in black. One of them held a very ornate looking white staff that appeared to be fashioned of either ivory or bone with arcane gold adornments and an angry red glow emanating from a large red gem affixed at the top. He uttered words in a language I could not understand, and as he did rays of black shot from the staff and struck one of the gryphons, halting its leap toward the other and knocking it onto its side. The smaller of the two took the opportunity to pounce on the injured gryphon and it flung its body toward our hiding spot.
The glass exploded and I pulled my head back to protect from injury. As it was, I still took shrapnel damage, and I am sure Dee did as well.
-26 health from flying glass.
The countertop shuddered from the impact, but the metal framing holding the glass absorbed some of the impact and our hiding place, for at least a few minutes, remained intact. The gryphon landed and its head bounced on the tile. I couldn't see anything else of its broken body, but its head landed about six inches from mine. It's eyes widened in surprise at first, then it seemed to almost smile dimly, and I suddenly heard a voice inside my head.
"Human. Help me." It pleaded.
"I don't know how." I thought back, somewhat startled by the sudden telepathic intrusion. "I don't know how to heal and all I can do is Identify and Meditate. I am weak." I hated admitting that, but it was true. A barking command in that guttural language sounded again outside and the other gryphon sounded like it ceased its attack.
"You may be weak now, but please, find a way to save my brother. He is all I have left and they have captured him under a spell. He isn't himself, and they will destroy his mind, then his body. I followed him to this Evolution to rescue him, but have lost this battle and can go on no further. I have failed. You are my only hope."
[ Quest: Set the Captive Free
A Golden Gryphon's dying request is that you rescue its brother from captivity and ensorcellment to the Kobold High Priest. Quest will fail if the Gryphon loses its mind or dies before being set free.
Rewards: ???
Penalties: Guilt and regret [/window]
"I would like to try, but I am too weak. How can I defeat them?" I asked, tears forming in my eyes.
Quest accepted.
"I give you this." A blue piercing light shot from its forehead to my right shoulder for a split second.
. You have received the Mark of the Gryphon: +20 Intelligence, +20% to all stats when Health is below 20%. You have learned the skill Touch of Light.
With that, his head disappeared from view as his body was dragged forward and the sounds of crunching glass and twisting metal could be heard. The last thing I heard from him was a heart-rending scream, then all was suddenly silent. Tears were streaming down my face as I mourned this beautiful beast who had connected with my heart for just a few moments. That guttural language continued as a number of those little beings chattered with each other.
Language Skill has been activated. Current Gurian Comprehension: 1%
I turned and looked at Dee and could see the fear etched in her face. I do not believe she heard the telepathic conversation, and she was terrified we would be found, which under the circumstances was reasonable. I gripped my bat just in case someone came around the corner and found us, but they sounded very busy with the gryphon they had just killed. We sat there, breathing as quietly as possible, for at least thirty minutes. Even after they sounded like they left I waited for three more minutes before peeking my head around the corner. I surveyed the area and except for the mangled remains of that beautiful beast, the coast was clear, so I stood up and beckoned for Dee to do the same.
I crept forward and searched what little of the body was there using my passive Scavenge skill, but literally nothing was left except for a few feathers scattered on the floor from a broken wing. I Identified them and they appeared valuable, so I reluctantly put them in my Inventory, but my heart wasn't in it. I did it solely because at any moment a single item might spell the difference between life and death. Wasting no more time, we ran back to the Library without looking back.