Enter system, p.12
Enter System, page 12
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
The information barely fit in the pads' memory and Marc knew that he'd only gotten a fraction of the help files from the System.
Which means it may actually have been truthful regarding why it didn't allow direct access to all of them, he thought.
He did his best to write the blurb for the pads, but after Felicia had read it, she'd elbowed him out of the way.
“Yeah, what you put in was all truthful, but there was no hook, it was just a basic description. Didn't you have some creative writing classes? They should've taught you better than that,” she said.
“I was trying to stick to being factual and not dramatic.”
She finished typing.
“Use that instead. I trimmed your listing but kept it at the end since it does list a lot of valuable information.”
Marc stared at the listing and blinked.
“Hey, that's good. It almost makes me want to buy one and I've got all the stuff on it in my head still.”
She smiled at him.
“I was helping pay my way through college with online auction sales. Gotta know how to write those blurbs up to get the most out of the sales.”
“Well, thank you.”
He set the auctions to active, instant buys, feeding in the pads one by one as he listed each of them. The System would take care of delivery and take a ten percent cut of the sales themselves. He'd listed the pads at five silver each, figuring that if someone had managed to build a Safe Zone, they ought to be able to afford five silver one way or another.
Hell, it's only half the price of a twenty-four hour Safe Zone. I hope anyone who buys it thinks it's worth the price. If not, well, hopefully we'll at least make our money back, he thought.
Marc was surprised when less than an hour later his notification light started blinking. He'd gotten something to eat, chatted with the others for a bit, then started looking for an apartment to claim. He wanted the one next to Felicia, but caught himself wondering if that would bother her.
Shop Message:
You have sold an item, the funds will be credited to your shop account and may be spent or withdrawn at your leisure.
“Well, it looks like this might work,” he said.
He was standing in the hall in front of apartment he wanted, and Felicia's door was open. She'd apparently heard him, because she came out into the hallway.
“Oh? You're going to claim the one next to me?” she asked. “I'm glad that works for you, it'll be nice to have you close.”
Marc's eyes widened.
“You like that idea? Yes, I was thinking about it, but that isn't what I was talking about. Apparently we've already sold one of the System help pads. I just got notified of it.”
“I told you they'd sell,” she said. “Now, are you going to take that apartment or not?”
He looked at her, standing there and smiling at him, and his brain froze.
“Um, I will if you want me to, do you?”
“You're a grown man, you ought to be able to make your own choices. But, yes, I'd love having you living next to me,” she said.
“Good, then I'll take it.”
She smiled at him, then shook her head and went back into her apartment, closing the door this time.
He headed for his own new apartment to check it out more thoroughly, then stopped in his tracks when he heard the screams from somewhere outside.
* * *
Chapter Nine
Marc broke into a run towards the front of the building, which was where it sounded like the screams were coming from. He burst out the front door to see a group of people on the other side of the gates in the outer wall. They were pointing at the top of the wall to one side of the gate, so he looked that way.
Ah, crap. The gargoyle. I never set any of the options on him, he's still set to default, he thought.
He quickly searched for the appropriate entry in the knowledge he'd picked up from the Research help. When he didn't find it, he pulled the pad on Safe Zones out of his inventory.
There it is, he thought, skimming the table of contents.
Pressing the link he skimmed it quickly, then pulled up an interface that represented the Safe Zone. A moment later the gargoyle returned to his position over the front door, instead of looking threatening next to the gate.
“Come on in,” Marc called out, moving out to the gate and unlocking it. “Sorry about that, just got the Safe Zone set up this morning, I hadn't given the guardian any orders yet so I guess that's his generic response.”
More than one of the crowd were still staring at the gargoyle, now perched over the entry into the building.
“I've got it set so he won't bother you now, at least for the moment. Once I list you as residents of the Safe Zone, he won't be any trouble for you. He's set to guard against non-humans at the moment. I'll change that later on though.”
Meanwhile, Felicia and Rob had also showed up at the front door, coming out a few seconds behind Jeff. Marc turned back to them.
“Um, either of you feel like talking to them? You know how I am talking to people I don't know,” Marc said.
Rob shook his head silently and Felicia just rolled her eyes and stepped up to him.
“I'll take care of it, this time at least, but don't think I'm going to be our official greeter.”
Jeff came sauntering out now, looking as though he hadn't been worried at all.
“What was that?” he asked.
Felicia turned towards the gate, where the people were still standing outside the Safe Zone, so Marc turned back to Jeff.
“Just a bunch of people freaked out by the guardian, is all,” he said.
Jeff raised his eyebrows and Marc pointed to the gargoyle, who was perched several feet above their head.
“Just seeing a gargoyle freaked them out?” Jeff asked, chuckling. “Morbid fear of architecture or something?”
“You're such an ass, Jeff.”
He pulled up the interface and had the gargoyle fly down to him for inspection. When it first moved, Jeff didn't seem to notice, but he certainly did when it landed in front of him. Jeff practically jumped out of his skin and dove back into the hallway then.
“What the hell? Where did it come from? I couldn't feel it moving,” Jeff said.
Marc cocked his head.
“Feel it moving?”
“Yeah, I've got an awareness style skill that tells me when someone is in movement within ten feet of me or so.”
Marc grinned.
“Someone? What about constructs? I don't think the gargoyle is technically alive, so could that be why you didn't notice?”
“I sure as hell hope not, but it would explain why I got the skill while we're still fairly low level if it only does living things,” Jeff said.
Now he came back out and stared at the gargoyle. It was made from a black stone that had speckles of an almost white color in it. There were cracks crazing the surface although they looked more cosmetic than anything else since none of the cracks were more than a tiny fraction of an inch in depth.
The gargoyle's face was animalistic, with an extended snout and fangs. The body was mostly humanoid looking when it was standing, but crouching, as it did by default when it was resting over the door, left it looking more like a canine about to leap on a victim.
The wings that extended from it were reptilian in looks, although made of the same stone as the rest of it. Its limbs ended in hands and feet that were armed with claws nearly as long as Marc's fingers.
All in all, there was a good reason these people had been screaming in fear from it showing up and trying to prevent entry to the Safe Zone.
It seemed as though Felicia had calmed the people outside the wall now and the first one ventured into the Safe Zone gingerly, as though ready to dart back through the gates at the first sign of problems. When nothing happened, others started in as well. Marc turned to Rob to tell him that it looked like there wasn't a problem after all when the screaming started again.
Marc snapped his attention back to Jeff, sure that he'd somehow found a way to screw with the gargoyle and make it look threatening to the others again, but he was just standing there staring at it. Jeff's eyes snapped up towards the crowd and Marc followed his gaze.
A band of short, scaly humanoids were behind the crowd, advancing on them with weapons in hand. The front row held shortswords that looked almost too large for them, but the ones behind that were only armed with their claws, which looked dangerous enough to qualify as weapons on their own.
At the very rear of the group were a pair of the scaly creatures that were larger than the others. One was in armor and the other in robes.
Marc snapped back to the menu to try to instruct the gargoyle to attack, but realized that with the opponents so far outside of the Safe Zone, the gargoyle couldn't do anything at all. He left it set to attack non-humans and dropped the interface, casting his Arcane Armor spell on himself.
“Rob, armor up. We need to get those people in here and out of harm's way,” Marc called.
He turned to Jeff, only to find no-one there, a quick glance showing that Jeff had obviously dropped into Stealth mode.
Felicia was still out near the gate, motioning the people in. More of them were streaming through now, although some had already been under attack. Felicia had her healing staff in hand, having replaced the original with another from the final fight for the school. Little beams of green light kept shooting out towards the people at the rear of the crowd who were under attack.
Rob's armor shimmered and appeared on him, his pilum in one hand, shield in the other.
“Hah, I figured out the auto-equip,” Rob called out as he ran for the gate.
Before he was out of range, Marc cast the Phantom Shield spell on the tank, then ran after him. As he ran he called out to Felicia.
“If we get those things inside the Safe Zone, the gargoyle will attack also, so get the people in as quickly as possible. Rob and I will protect them as best as we can.”
Marc thought he'd have a problem getting through the crowd but they somehow managed to part for him and Rob as they moved towards their opponents. As he was moving, he stared at the little reptilian creatures.
Kobold Warrior
Hostile
You have learned the skill Analyze (creature) (1). Learning is best done by doing.
“They're kobolds, warriors in the front row at least,” Marc said, loud enough for Rob to hear them.
“Shouldn't be that bad then, right?”
“I hope not, but if we draw them back through the gates the gargoyle will help us fight.”
“Got it,” Rob said, then set himself in a defensive stance as they reached the rear of the crowd of people.
Rob's pilum lashed out, striking one of the warriors that had been trying to stab the people in the crowd. Marc was eyeing the two kobolds in the rear though, worried that the one in robes might be a caster.
Because most of the other casters we've run into have been wearing robes, he thought, and feathers, but I can't tell if this guy has any right now.
There were about ten armed kobolds in the front row and he didn't think Rob could handle those odds, so instead of attacking the robed kobold, he thrust with his own pilum.
For a few moments his thoughts were all locked down in attacking, defending, and dodging. Then he was struck with a tiny dart of fire. It looked like a flaming Mana Dart, but he had no idea how to do that himself. It had been mentioned in the description of the spell, though, that elemental variants were available.
He shook his head. The dart hadn't hurt that much and it had been a single dart, so the caster was low level, at least in that spell.
“Clear, the gate's clear,” Felicia yelled.
“Rob, let's fall back,” Marc said.
They tucked in closer to one another since the fight had put some distance between them. The gate was only about ten feet wide when both sides of it were open and now they were close enough to go through it at the same time.
They settled into a routine, one attack, three steps back, all the while defending as well. They'd both been hit several times, but Marc had felt Felicia heal him at least once and he had to assume she was healing Rob as well.
Finally the wall appeared in his peripheral vision. Another few steps back and they should have some help.
There was screaming back in the Safe Zone again and when Marc took another step back, he ran into the gate. It wasn't locked though and swung open, allowing him to back through, Rob at his side.
They continued to back up, fighting while retreating, and the moment the kobolds entered the Safe Zone the gargoyle let out a screech and took to the sky. A moment later, it was diving down, claws extended, towards the first intruders.
Rob and Marc formed up about ten feet back from the gate, far enough back to allow the gargoyle to move as it wanted, and set themselves to defending.
Now I can probably do something about that caster, Marc thought.
He turned his eyes to the back of the kobolds and found another flaming missile coming towards him. Gritting his teeth he took the hit and, once he was sure he'd hold his concentration, started casting his own Mana Dart with the kobold caster as his target.
Two darts launched out from his hands and raced into the distance to strike the caster. The kobold stared at him after they struck, then turned and spoke to the armored kobold beside it. The armored kobold shook its head, then the one in robes pointed towards Marc and then towards the gargoyle.
The armored kobold shook its head again, but pulled a horn out from somewhere. After a trio of short blasts on the horn, the kobolds not yet in the Safe Zone began to pull away, going back to their leaders.
The ones already inside were also trying to fall back, but Marc, Rob, and the gargoyle took advantage of that, dropping another five before they left.
Once the kobolds were out, they fled towards their leaders on all fours, scurrying along almost as fast as though they were at a full out sprint.
Felicia shut the gates and locked them in the closed position.
* * *
Marc noticed that his notification light was flashing, but before he could pull it up he saw Felicia whirl, a furious look on her face. She was glaring at the crowd of people.
No, she's glaring at that one guy in the crowd of people, not all of them, he thought.
“What the fuck did you think you were doing?” she screamed, stomping towards the man she was glaring at.
“Are you crazy? I didn't do anything,” he said.
Marc noticed the people near him starting to back away from him, looks of horror on their faces.
“I'm not stupid, I looked you right in the face when I caught you trying to close the gates. My friends went out there and risked their lives to save yours, and you tried to lock them out of the Safe Zone,” Felicia said, her voice cold.
“You're crazy, I didn't do anything of the sort,” the man said.
“Really? Why are you clutching your hand then? Because I gave whoever it was that tried to close the gates a solid crack on their hand to stop them,” Felicia said, an unpleasant smile spreading across her face.
“I saw it too,” a disembodied voice said.
Marc recognized Jeff's voice, but the accused seemed to have no idea who was speaking.
“What did you expect me to do? I heard you talking about letting those... those... things in here. Of course I tried to close and lock the gates. What was I supposed to do?”
Well shit! Marc thought. I never thought it through. Of course there'll be people like this that survived. I don't want this guy in the Safe Zone, but if I toss him out it'll be just like I murdered him.
“Obviously you're too incompetent to take care of people if you were going to let those monsters in here,” the man sputtered. “Just turn this place over to me now and no-one needs to get hurt.”
He was now holding a pistol in his hand, obviously taken from his inventory. Even from here Marc could tell that it hadn't been taken care of very well. And that was before whatever the System was doing to firearms to deteriorate them. The man's aim point kept wandering from Marc to Felicia and back.
“Really?” Marc said. “You think I'm just going to walk over to you and give you possession of this Safe Zone?”
“If you know what's good for you, you will,” the man said, sneering.
Marc sighed and looked around. Rob and Felicia were just gawking at him as though he'd gone insane. Looking back at the man with the pistol, everyone in the crowd had backed well away from him.
Okay, I hope this works, otherwise I'm going to be in a world of hurt, Marc thought. But it's supposed to increase the defense which means it should provide at least a little resistance, and with the condition of that pistol that's probably all that's needed.
Marc walked directly towards the man, casting a Phantom Shield on himself as he did so. Once he was within arm's length of the man he was sure he could sense the location of his shield. Right now it was only a few inches in front of the barrel of the man's pistol. He took another half step forward, stopping when the shield was as close to touching the front of the pistol as he could manage. Then he looked at the man's face.
“I don't think so. If you'd been in control of this place, you would've never opened the gates and all the rest of these people,” he said, gesturing towards the rest of the crowd, “would've been dead and kobold food by now.”
“I'm warning you, I'll shoot.”
“You'll regret it if you do,” Marc said.
The man pulled the trigger. The pistol fired, but the bullet couldn't make it all the way out of the gun quickly enough. Marc was pushed back several steps as the barrel exploded. The Phantom Shield caught most of the explosion and forced Marc backwards, but it also reflected a good amount of the force back towards the pistol's wielder. The man's hand and arm were shredded and bits of shrapnel embedded itself in his torso and face.
A roar from behind him left Marc's ears ringing and he wondered what it was until he noticed blood spraying from the torso of the man whose pistol had exploded. A quick glance showed him that Felicia was holding her shotgun and had moved to a point where there was no-one else behind her target before firing.
