Enter system, p.14
Enter System, page 14
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
Finally he opened his eyes, determined to first check his help files to see if they dealt with anything of the sort and then to go down and purchase pads from the shop so he could set up more System help pads and sell them. His notification light was flashing when he opened them though, so he pulled that up first.
You have discovered the skill: Mana Manipulation (1)
You have discovered the skill: Meditation (1)
Your Aptitude has increased (8->9)
Your skill, Mana Manipulation, has increased in skill level (X2) (1->3)
Your skill, Meditation, has increased in skill level (1->2)
Shop Message:
You have sold an item (X2), the funds will be credited to your shop account and may be spent or withdrawn at your leisure.
Marc blinked when he realized that the auctions he'd created earlier were now out of stock entirely. He quickly decided that he needed to turn off the shop notifications or he was going to be inundated with them the way things were going. A quick mental flip and they were off, he'd try to remember to check on them every few hours since they wouldn't show in his notifications any more.
Well that was incredibly productive, he thought, even if I don't end up figuring it out right away. I can always try again later and maybe pick up some more points in the skill. Let's see what Mana Manipulation does. Help Mana Manipulation.
Mana Manipulation:
For many, magic is simply plug and play, perform a spell by rote and receive a desired effect. There are those who want it to be more though, and these are the people who receive the Mana Manipulation skill. With this skill, magic can be dissected down into its component parts and the parts reassembled to perform spells for almost any occasion. A true master of Mana Manipulation will create new spells at the drop of a hat. Beware though, experimentation with magic and mana can be dangerous in the extreme.
Marc shook his head, grinning.
That's a much better help file, even if it doesn't tell me a lot of specifics, he thought. It gave me the gist of the skill and was easily understandable. Speaking of help files though, I really do need to get more of these things listed.
As Marc headed down to the gym to access the shop, he skimmed through a few of the help files, trying to see if he could get more in-depth information to use with his efforts to allow his Mana Dart spell to perform other types of damage. He didn't find anything that would be directly useful, just a few references that alluded to knowledge that could be learned that would help him out.
So basically, I need to get some spells that deal with the elements. Then I can probably figure out how they access their element and swap that out? I hope so, anyhow.
When he got to the gym a few of the new people were in there. Giving them a quick wave, he moved over to the shop pedestal, only to find two people in line at it already.
Huh, I wonder if we can upgrade the shop so more than one person can use it at a time? If we can, we ought to, especially if we're going to try to get more people here, he thought.
The two in front of him in line didn't take long though. It looked like they were putting items up for sale since they came away with nothing in their hands. Then Marc was there. Checking his balance, it registered as forty-five silver.
Looks like the shop automatically takes its ten percent, he thought. Should I pull the money to pay everyone back their original investment now or wait? I'd only be able to do another three pads if I did that since their base price is two silver a piece, but I'll make note of what I owe for their percentages and get another twenty pads to set up and sell off. I'll get them back their initial investment after this run, then start paying percentages and back percentages on the one after that.
He nodded, figuring out the math that would allow him to keep increasing how many pads he was putting up for sale while still paying back his friends for their initial investment. After that he could worry about profits, but since it was net not gross, he wasn't worried about it yet since he was reinvesting the coins so far.
Marc leaned back against the wall and pulled out the master pad, linking it up to the others, he downloaded all the data into them, then went back to the shop pedestal.
Only nineteen for sale, I need to give one to Al like I said I would, he thought.
A few momenta later he had nineteen pads up for sale on the shop again.
After tracking down Al and dropping off the pad with him, Marc headed back for his room. He was feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment and starting to feel a little groggy. He needed to clear his mind and the best way he could think of to do that was to get a good night's sleep. Hoping that he'd be feeling more on point in the morning, he locked his door and turned in for the night.
* * *
When he woke in the morning Marc was feeling much refreshed. The grogginess that had begun to cloud his thinking the day before had cleared away completely and he realized that they had a few problems.
First, we'll need to do something about those kobolds. If they're in town somewhere then anyone that hasn't come to the Safe Zone is in a lot of danger and I'm sure we haven't gotten all the survivors yet. Second, they can actually attack the Safe Zone apparently. I wasn't sure yesterday, but they did follow us in through the gates so it won't keep them out completely, just prevents them from spawning in here. So we need to upgrade some, at the very least maybe higher walls and maybe a watch post or something so we can tell when we're going to be attacked. The very least we'll need is to get some guards on the walls.
He pulled on his clothes, his mind still working as he did so.
So, we'll need to figure out where the kobolds are, if that's the whole group or if there are more of them, and determine a way to attack them that'll provide the least danger to ourselves. They fled east yesterday when they ran away, so probably we should start looking on the east side of town. That's mostly residential, but not entirely.
Now he pulled up his notifications, remembering that he wanted to check his shop notifications frequently.
Shop Message:
You have sold an item (X11), the funds will be credited to your shop account and may be spent or withdrawn at your leisure.
He'd been heading for the door, ready to get something to eat down in the cafeteria, but he stopped dead in his tracks.
Already? There's only eight left there now. Should I go drop more into the shop now or wait until later? he wondered. At the very least I can pull out some of those funds and give the others back their initial investments. I'll do that and make a few more pads to increase the total available, then figure out when to start giving the others their percentages also.
On his way to the cafeteria he noticed that the people who had come in yesterday had settled in some. Twice he saw people exiting from apartments and when he got to the cafeteria there were a number of people already at the tables, eating breakfast. Looking over to the kitchen, he saw it was staffed and operating, so he headed for what used to be the lunch line. Now it was manned by a pretty young woman while an older couple were back in the kitchen itself, cooking.
“Marc, right?” the young woman asked. “What would you like?”
“What's available?” he asked.
“Oh, we can do some things to order, or dad can just put you together a breakfast burrito from things he's cooked and has staying warm back there.”
“Breakfast burrito sounds great.”
“Okay, one minute. Drinks are in the cooler down that way,” she said, gesturing farther down the line.
Huh, there's only milk, juice, and bottled water. I need to track down the vending machines and grab a bunch of cokes or something also, Marc thought. I wonder if that milk is still good, even?
“Oh, dad reminded me that we've got coffee also. That's back in the kitchen though since there's no easy way to keep it warm out here.”
“Please?” Marc said. “Gotta get my caffeine however I can. I think maybe we should do some foraging today. I'm sure someone has already hit the grocery stores, but I bet they had to leave a lot and I'm sure we can use any of it.”
The young woman nodded.
“I'm sure dad would like more to work with than he has here. The school has a limited selection of things for him to work with.”
“Well, we'll see what we can do. What was your name again?” Marc asked.
Just about everyone had introduced themselves yesterday, but Marc was shit with names and he knew it. He'd remember their name after he'd talked to someone for a little bit, but if it was just introductions and no conversation with another person, the name went in and out of his head in a flash.
The young woman smiled at him.
“Alice, I imagine you lost a lot of people's names yesterday?”
He shook his head.
“I'll remember them sooner or later, it's just that yesterday, heck everything since the System showed up, is kind of a disorienting blur.”
“I get that,” she said. “We just locked down in our house, down in the basement. Then dad saw the signs you guys put up while he was out foraging and decided we'd be better off with others. It's amazing what you did with the school, I didn't recognize it when we got here, it looks more like a medieval fort than anything else at this point.”
“Yeah, you get to alter things when you create a Safe Zone, so we did that to try to make it more defensible.”
“Order up!” came a cry from back in the kitchen.
“I'll get your coffee and burrito,” Alice said. “I imagine you've got a lot planned for today.”
Marc just nodded. He had ideas for the day, but no plans as of yet.
* * *
Marc saw Rob at a table, with a few other people around the same age. He didn't actually recognize them but evidently Rob knew them, or had quickly made friends with them since they were engaged in an animated conversation.
Felicia was at a table, in a spot all by herself, and when she saw him looking for a seat, she smiled and waved him over.
I'm not sure, but I think Alice might've been flirting with me? Marc thought idly as he made his way over to Felicia. I don't think I would've noticed before all this, is that the point I dropped in Charisma getting her to flirt with me, or telling me that she was? Damn it, I much prefer the solidity of dealing with mathematics to the vagaries of negotiating social situations. Social situations involve all kinds of variables that I don't know how to solve for. I suppose it doesn't really matter though, unless I wanted to respond to Alice's flirting, which I don't.
He slid into the seat beside Felicia and started to eat.
“Morning, Marc,” she said.
He nodded, then finished chewing and swallowed.
“Good morning, Felicia. How are you?”
He'd asked tentatively, remembering their conversation of the night before when she'd seemed less than stable.
“Much better, thank you for asking. How are you?”
“Oh, well, I was feeling kind of groggy last night, but that's all cleared up now. I was thinking we should get the group together and maybe a couple of volunteers and work on cleaning out one of the grocery stores today. If we're going to have a lot of people here, we'll need to be able to feed them until we can produce our own food, or have enough things to sell to buy some through the shop.”
“That's a good idea,” Felicia said. “Should we plan that for today?”
“I'd like to, but I was also thinking that we need to track down where those kobolds are at. If it's another lair thing then they might be a threat to the Safe Zone. Things might not spawn here, but now we know for sure that they can attack here.”
“Yeah, you're right. I think the grocery store should take precedence though. The kobolds fled once, so maybe they won't be back right away? Maybe we should send Jeff out to skulk around town and see where they're coming from. While he does that, we can lead some people to the grocery store and start clearing it out?”
“He'll bitch about it,” Marc said, “but if we phrase it right, I bet he'd do that. He's pretty proud of his Stealth capabilities as far as I can tell and that'll give him a chance to use it and maybe increase his skill in it.”
Rob came over a few minutes later.
“Hey guys, is there any way we can get some starting equipment for some others? I was just talking to some people, casual gamers, that really want to start up their own adventuring group. They want to go out and do stuff. Evidently most of the people we got yesterday just want to settle in and feel safe. They're happy to help out around here, but want nothing to do with the spawns or anything else.”
“I get that,” Felicia said. “I'm sure there'll be more people that just want to feel safe than there are that want to do anything else.”
“We've got some of the stuff we looted from the goblins, hobgoblins, and kobolds, right?” Marc said. “I know I had to dump some due to space issues, but I've still got some. Maybe we can offer that to them?”
“I'd love to give them the other staff of healing if they're going to have a healer type,” Felicia said. “But Jeff has it and he's a pack rat. I'm sure he won't want to give it up.”
“Well, we can go take a look at the shop also,” Marc said. “I need to pull some funds to pay you back your initial investments since the help pads are selling like hotcakes. While we're there, we can see if there's anything they can use that's available for cheap. Did they say what types of classes they want?”
Rob shrugged.
“At least one of them wants to tank, was asking about my armor. A couple want to be casters, and the last one didn't say anything about it.”
Felicia snickered.
“Send that one to Jeff. Sounds like they want to be a thief, but didn't want to say it out loud. The casters can come talk to Marc and I, maybe we can help?” she said.
Marc thought about it for a moment.
“I think I can explain my Mana Dart spell well enough for someone else to learn it,” he said. “I spent some time picking it apart last night. I was trying to alter it for elemental damage like that kobold used on me.”
Felicia stared at him.
“So, did you manage it?” she asked.
“Yes and no. I know what I have to do to alter the damage type, but I don't know the actual symbols to plug in for it, I have to find them or see them or something.”
“Symbols?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah, one of the things I found out is that magic is very much like math, so I'm just using similar references.”
Rob groaned.
“Good thing I didn't want to be a caster. Math and I never got along very well,” he said.
Felicia shook her head.
“Don't tell Jeff, okay? We all know you're a math whiz, but if you tell him magic is based on math he'll start complaining again about how easy you've got it now. He was already doing that because of your class.”
“I overheard some of that,” Marc said. “I won't mention it to him on purpose, but with his skillset I'd never know if he was lurking nearby, so he might overhear me.”
Marc glanced around as though he expected Jeff to pop out of Stealth and shout 'Boo!', then settled back down.
“So yeah, send the ones that want to be casters over. I can probably hook them up with the Mana Dart spell if they want. I don't know if Felicia could manage something to get one as a healer though.”
“Actually, I could,” she said. “I got offered the class after using the staff of healing, so if there's anyone wounded around here, I could let them use the staff to heal them and they'd probably get the offer also.”
“Good plan,” Marc said. “We should probably think of ways we can get people offered as many different classes as we can. There are class listings in some of the help files, so we ought to make lists and try to brainstorm how people could obtain the classes.”
“I've got paper and pencils, shall we?” Felicia asked.
“No, first the grocery store. Why don't you make up some more signs directing people here. We can put them up at the store and along the route we take to get there. Might get some more people with motivation if they're going to the store on their own and see them.”
“That could be good or bad. Good, if they're just desperate, bad if they like the idea of looting.”
“Well, if they get hostile while in the Safe Zone, then I'm pretty sure the guardian will turn on them. That makes for a fairly easy method to sort out people we don't want here. I just wish I'd had the time to turn that setting on before yesterday's shenanigans,” Marc said.
Felicia just nodded to that.
“Let's go to the shop first, like you said. We'll bring the others that want to adventure with us, show them what we have available to give them, see if we can boost them at all with stuff we can afford to buy, then teach them some spells,” Felicia said.
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Marc replied.
* * *
Chapter Eleven
In the end they didn't buy much from the shop, most of the items that would be useful were priced higher than they could afford. They did purchase a suit of light leather armor and a small shield for the other group's tank. They'd been asking about spears like Rob and Marc had, but there was nothing similar in the shop. Rob had taken all the longer spears from the hobgoblins though and the other group settled for those along with an assortment of short blades that had been retrieved from the goblins, hobgoblins, and kobolds.
Marc took a few minutes to cash in the help pads that had sold since the last time, then immediately purchased and programmed new ones to list. After that, they were ready for their plans for the day.
“So, we want to hit the grocery store, the nearest one, and get more food for the Safe Zone. I'm sure we can produce at least some of our own, but I'm guessing that'll take some time to come online,” Marc said.
“Yeah, with all the new people we have, that cut down the length the food stuffs that were in the kitchen will last,” Felicia said. “So we need to add more and get our own production underway ASAP.”
