Enter system, p.15
Enter System, page 15
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
“When we get a few levels, we can probably go out hunting. We can add some meat to the diet,” Jack said.
Jack was the person from the other group that Marc had assumed wanted to be a thief. Marc had been wrong there though, Jack actually wanted to be a ranger type. He just hadn't seen any of the original group in a similar class so he'd determined to forge his own way into what he wanted.
“Hey Jack, you want the ranger class or whatever they have that's like it, right?” Jeff said.
Jack nodded.
“Well, if I remember right there's an outdoors store a block or so past the grocery store. Hunting focused, so they might have some bows and arrows. Why don't you and I go there while the rest of these guys hit the grocery store. See what we can find you. If you can get the class quickly enough you'll get a System token from that, one you can use to Systemize the bow you get so it doesn't fall apart.”
“Why you and me?” Jack asked.
“Hey, it's outdoors mostly. Don't ranger types get the Stealth skill or something similar to use when outside? I can maybe train you in it, just turn down the Thief class they offer if you manage to learn Stealth. Once you have the bow, we can hunt some small game and then maybe it'll offer you the class you want,” Jeff said.
“Oh, that makes more sense than I'd expected. Yeah, let's do that if it's okay.”
“Go for it,” Marc said. “Not that you need my permission. We're bringing you guys along to pick up some experience if we happen to encounter anything.”
Felicia's plan worked. She loaned the healing staff to the other person who wanted to be a healer. Then they went to the other people who'd arrived the night before and found a couple with minor injuries. After healing them, they had a new healer. Jeff even temporarily gave up the other staff of healing to the new healer, albeit reluctantly.
Meanwhile, Marc spent some time with the other group's potential Mage, Douglas. They discussed how the magic system seemed to be based on esoteric mathematics and Marc explained some of them. After Doug grasped the basics of what Marc was saying, Marc spent a half hour teaching Doug the Mana Dart spell. Once he'd learned it, which Marc had been sure would take longer than it had, Doug was offered a simple Mage class, no other qualifier to the class title, just Mage.
“It works for me,” Doug said. “I'd much rather have spells for any situation as opposed to being focused on just one thing. Well, assuming we can find more spells.”
“We found the Mana Dart spell on a scroll from a hobgoblin caster type, so they are out there,” Marc said.
“Good, maybe we can trade spells if we both end up with some the other doesn't have?”
“Yeah, assuming they're tradable. My class isn't strictly Mage, so some of mine might be class specific stuff.”
They fell into a discussion of Marc's class and what Doug was hoping to do until the others returned.
“So, they've got their Mage and Healer,” Jeff said. “Rob couldn't exactly figure out how to get their tank to a Warrior class, and we'll need other items for the Ranger class. I think we're set for now, yeah?”
“Sounds about right, let's head out then. We had a few volunteers to help bring stuff back, so we need to pick them up first,” Marc said.
They headed to the gymnasium, which people seemed to have picked for the general spot to hang out in, added in the others who had volunteered to act as pack mules, then headed out of the Safe Zone.
* * *
As they left the Safe Zone Marc looked around with interest. There weren't any cars right nearby or they would've taken those before, but the houses he could see seemed to be holding up okay. They looked a little neglected, something that shouldn't have happened as quickly as it had, but they looked better than the large buildings downtown that he could see from here. Some of the larger ones were already precariously leaning to one side.
Fortunately the largest building in the town was only five stories, so even if the taller ones crashed down they wouldn't destroy much else.
Even so, I know we can enlarge the Safe Zone, Marc thought. We just need the materials to do it. Once I can get it close enough to the town we can start using the materials from existing buildings downtown and get expanding rapidly. Until then, we need to make sure we can feed everyone and figure out a way to get more materials in order to expand far enough to use the ones from existing buildings.
Something had caught his eye when he was looking through weapons in the shop. Nestled in among the listing for actual weapons had been a machine, a fairly large one although it was also portable. It was listed as being able to produce metal to make your own weapons with and that was why it showed up in his search.
Mounted on wheels and able to be pulled by a couple of people, or slowly move on its own, he was pretty sure it was what the people who'd been selling building materials were using. Place it up against an item to be broken down, or load the item into it if it was small enough, and it would break down the item and yield processed materials for building on the other side. The listing he'd seen for it focused on it being able to break down metals to make weapons out of, but it had also said that it would process all types of appropriate materials as well.
The only problem was that it had been listed at five gold. Five gold was five hundred silver, or fifty-thousand copper, so it was well out of his current range.
Although if the help pads keep selling well, it might not be out of range for long, he thought. Plus, I happened to mention to Jeff that there was a Cash for Gold shop near that hunting store he wanted to go to and that if he happened to visit it that would be a good thing. I know he won't turn over all the gold from it, assuming there is some there, but he'll turn over a lot I think. I wonder how our standard troy bullion ounces will convert to System gold. Also, how would they convert gold jewelry? Are we better off selling it as jewelry or should we melt it down or what?
As they moved down the road, his head was on a swivel, looking in all directions for spawns. When they passed the first road leading east, he took some extra time to look down it since that's where the kobolds had fled when they left. He didn't see any of them out on the road though, not that that meant a whole lot. Instead he made sure to let everyone know that that's where they'd headed when they ran away, then continued on. That way, everyone else would probably also keep an eye on that area when they were passing it.
The store parking lot was loaded with cars, all of them in poor shape by this point. He could tell from the variety of fluids that had leaked out onto the slowly crumbling pavement.
So yeah, internal combustion engines deteriorate quickly, asphalt goes more slowly. The asphalt in the parking lots back at the school is back in good shape though, so if we can claim the whole town, then maybe we can keep the internal roads intact and functional? It's going to make going from town to town incredibly sucky though.
The front windows of the grocery store had all been smashed in. The doors had fallen off their hinges, lying shattered on the walk in front of the doorway.
“Alright, Jeff, now's the time for you to split off if you're going to do so,” Marc said.
Jeff faded from view and it looked like the potential Ranger was trying to do the same, just with much less success.
“No, like I told you before, you're trying too hard,” Jeff's voice said from nowhere.
A moment later Jack faded from view also.
“That's them taken care of, now it looks like something's been in here,” Marc said, “so let's be on our toes going in, shall we? You folks here just to carry? You can stay out here if you like, or you can come in with us. You might pick up some experience if you come in and we have to fight, but be careful if you do. We don't want to lose anyone.”
Marc gestured to Rob. As the tank he'd be going in first. Rob kicked some broken glass out of the bottom of one of the windows then stepped in. He looked around then took several steps forward. Marc and Felicia followed in behind him. Marc waved to Doug, Jayden, who was the tank for the second group, and Olivia, who was the healer for the second group. The three of them followed into the store, the secondary tank bringing up the rear.
“So, how are we doing this?” Rob asked.
“I think we need to work our way through the store, clear all the aisles. Then we can get everyone in here to pull the stuff we want.”
“Which is?” Rob asked.
Felicia choked off a laugh.
“Pretty much everything,” she said. “Food first though, but we'll definitely want toilet paper, hygiene items, and all that. I bet we'll be able to buy any of that stuff from the shop, but if we can go for a while without doing that then we'll be able to expand more quickly. I agree with Marc, we need to expand the Safe Zone before everything falls apart to the point where we can't recycle anything out of it when we claim it. So the quicker the better for expansion.”
Marc had shared his thoughts on that with her, but hadn't told her about the machine he'd found available yet. He'd wait until Jeff was back and see if he'd found any gold or not. If he had, then Marc would broach the subject with his group.
Alright, get your head in the game Marc, you need to pay attention, he thought.
“Okay everyone. Hold still for a moment. Listen for movement. Rob made a lot of noise coming in, so if there's anything in here, it might be moving around right now,” Marc said.
Everyone froze and listened. Marc himself only heard some scurrying from somewhere deeper in the store.
But if I'm hearing it from here then that's no normal sized rat or something, gotta be bigger than that, he thought.
“Anyone else hear scurrying?” he asked.
He got a couple of nods in reply.
“Alright then, stay alert and we'll start looking for whatever it is.”
The front of the store was lit up from the sun outside, but deeper into the store was dark, getting pitch dark towards the back.
“Hmm, I wonder if simple electronics have been deteriorating as fast as the more complex stuff?” Marc said.
“What?” Rob asked.
“Oh, they used to have some of those little LED flashlights in the impulse buy section near the checkouts. I'm going to see if they still do and if they work at all, because it's really dark in there,” Marc said, pointing deeper into the store.
He moved over and grabbed one, only to find that it popped, clicked, and let out a little puff of stench when he tried to turn it on, but there was no light at all.
“Alright, give me a minute here. Sorry, I should've thought about the power being out, but since we have it back at the Safe Zone I didn't consider that.
He found himself remembering what he'd worked his way through with the Mana Manipulation spell and came to a conclusion quickly.
Alright, I can change variables. I don't have one for damage type, but the damned things glow when I shoot them, so let's remove the damage variable, increase the packaging variable since that will probably provide the glow, and add in a duration like I found on the Arcane Armor and Phantom Shield spells. Try to boost the duration value too. It should still mostly balance out on the power levels, increasing duration and casing while decreasing damage. I'm pretty sure the damage contributes heavily to the mana cost of it, so increasing two other variables while removing that will...
A bit more thought and a moment's casting later he had two Mana Darts fall to the floor in front him, each glowing brightly.
Your skill, Mana Manipulation, has increased in skill level (3->4)
Your spell, Mana Dart, has increased in skill level (3->4).
He picked the Darts up, happy to be able to interact with them and also satisfied that it caused no more than a vaguely uncomfortable buzz against his hand as he held it, no pain at all.
“Who wants the other torch?” he asked, holding out the Mana Dart in his left hand.
Doug took it.
“I thought you said you only had some defensive spells and Mana Dart?”
“I did, these are modified Mana Darts. Should last for at least twenty minutes. I changed the spell to produce light and add duration instead of doing damage.”
“Wait, what? You can do that?”
“Another skill, it's called Mana Manipulation. I would've mentioned it earlier but you didn't seem very interested in the math behind the magic.”
“Well, if you can get something like that, then maybe I am interested. How hard is it too learn?”
Marc took a moment to form an analogy he was sure Doug would understand.
“Think of the basics I taught you like the intro to a hundred level college course. Mana Manipulation is probably like a seven or eight hundred level course.”
Doug stared at him, eyebrows raised.
“And you just got it?”
“I tried to dig into the math behind the spells. I was a math major, you know? I think math is fun. I eventually planned on doing applied mathematics, just hadn't decided what specialization. Well, now I know what specialization I'm going for: Magic.”
“Yeah, well, it you ever make formulas for your variants on spells, teach them to me. Otherwise, I think that's gonna be all you,” Doug said, emphasizing the last with a nod and a finger pointing in Marc's direction.
“You guys done with your talk? Maybe we can get on with this now?” Rob said. “It's kind of creepy in here, you know?”
“Sure Rob. Hey Doug, stick towards the back with Jayden. Hopefully we'll spread the light beyond the group that way while still giving us all enough light to work with,” Marc said.
He stepped up near Rob and they moved deeper into the store.
* * *
They moved to the back of the store where the noise seemed to be coming from. The movement was reluctant as there was a particularly bad odor that seemed to come from back there. The mix of rotting meat, sour milk, and a few less identifiable odors did not blend well and assaulted the senses almost as badly as a physical attack.
That was where they found their noisemaker though. In the darkness of the store a raccoon was up and active in the middle of the day, working his way through the meat counter, having made his way into it from the sliding doors in back of the counter used to place the meat in. When the light spilled over onto him, he froze. Then, much like Jeff, he dropped out of sight. In this case he'd rolled over through the open door to the back.
Marc went trotting up to make sure the raccoon wouldn't be a problem, but when he got there he couldn't see it anywhere.
“Oh, please don't tell me that regular animals got skills like Stealth,” he said.
“Nah, it's probably just hiding,” Rob said. “They aren't called bandits for nothing. My grandma had some get into her attic. We knew they were there, but never could see them.”
“Well, I don't think we're in any danger from it,” Marc said. “I'm pretty sure it's not hungry by this point.”
He was looking in the meat case at the numerous cuts of meat that were partially devoured.
“We don't need to be in this section anyhow, so we'll just leave him be and hopefully he'll return the favor,” Marc said.
He reached around and through the back of the meat case, nudging a couple of cuts of beef onto the floor behind the case itself.
“There you go, guy. You can eat those while we're looting everything else. There shouldn't be any light down there so you're good for that. Sorry to disturb you,” Marc said.
Then he turned away from the meat case.
“Come on, Rob. Let's go get the others and start looting the store.”
Their intention was to take most of the stuff that would last the longest, but as they were walking into the store one of the pack mule volunteers voiced an idea.
“You know, the bread and stuff should be good for a week or three, we should grab all that stuff too, use it up first.”
“Sure, we can do that,” Marc said. “Jayden, Doug, and Olivia, take a few of the volunteers over that way. This way each group has a light, a Healer, and a Mage.”
The two groups split up, Marc's heading towards the pasta aisle to grab as much of it as they could.
“Awesome,” Rob said. “Items stack up to ninety-nine in the inventory slots.”
Marc glanced over.
“What did you grab ninety-nine of?”
“Oh, I just started dumping a bunch of Crunch bars into my inventory, right? Saw them keep stacking so went and got more from the other checkout aisles. They didn't start a new slot until they were ninety-nine deep in the first one.”
“That's great, I wonder how large an item we can fit in there?” Marc mused.
The pasta aisle was cleared out quickly, the discovery that the volunteers could use their inventory in that fashion allowing them to clear the shelves much more quickly. Marc detoured for a minute before their next goal.
“Sorry guys, I was craving these recently, so I'm going to get some while I can.”
He loaded twelve pack after twelve pack of Cokes into his inventory, watching them stack higher and higher.
“Hey, twelve packs stack to ninety-nine also,” he commented, done with his own looting for the moment. Let's see, what's next on the list?”
As he left the aisle, he noted that he hadn't been the only one snagging some drinks, large swathes of the aisle were empty of goods.
“I hope you guys stuck to a single type so as not to use too many inventory slots, you can always trade later,” he said.
He got a couple of shame-faced looks and noticed people swapping goods back and forth as they continued on. Next on his list was the snack aisle, less for chips and the like and more for all the nuts and jerky.
They kept going until all their inventories were full and the bags the volunteers had brought were also full, then returned to the front of the store and waited for the other group.
“Hey, you all set?” Jayden asked.
Marc nodded.
“Yeah, we need to get going. We'll make another run today if we have the time. Any sign of Jeff and Jack?”
“Not yet,” Jayden said.
“We're here,” Jeff said, although Marc couldn't see him when they looked around. “There are kobolds out on the road back to the Safe Zone. Looks like they're doing the same thing we are, looting places.”
