Enter system, p.23
Enter System, page 23
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
“So, Rob escorted him to his apartment so he could go to sleep. Did you know that Jeff claimed that entire maintenance area we were in before as his apartment?”
Marc shook his head.
“Nope, doesn't surprise me though. He had good times there and from what he was saying a few minutes ago, there weren't a lot of those at home for him.”
She frowned.
“Yeah, I didn't know.”
“None of us did, he never talked about it, but we've got some other stuff to do at the moment. Would you do me a favor?”
“Sure, what?”
“I know some people were planning on standing guard on the wall and I'm about to move it,” he said gesturing towards the wire-frame outline. “I thought maybe we ought to warn them?”
Felicia chuckled for a moment.
“Oh, yeah. I can see where that might be a good idea. I wonder if it would move them with it, or just dump them off of it? Not a good idea to find out though. Let me go warn anyone out there, it should only take a few minutes.
Marc looked over his adjustments, hoping he'd done it correctly. He'd checked and they were nowhere near being able to afford the next upgrade after this one with the materials they'd have left over. He didn't fancy buying more of them either since the little he'd bought had cost almost half a gold. He couldn't afford to just buy all the materials he needed to expand the Safe Zone, even if the basic ones were cheaper than the ones he'd just purchased.
As he waited he remembered how the materials for originally establishing the Safe Zone had floated through the air to where they were needed. A glance a the pile of materials that he'd bought, lying on the ground next to the shop pedestal, brought an amusing picture to mind.
I don't, however, think that people would much like to watch that stuff float to where it was needed, he thought.
He spent the time moving the materials out one of the side doors of the gymnasium. They weren't near the other materials, but at least they wouldn't be trying to float through the interior of the keep when he finished moving them.
After he'd gotten all that outside everything looked alright, so when Felicia returned in a few minutes and gave him the all clear, he accepted the changes.
* * *
Chapter Seventeen
Marc was done for the day. The help pads were restocked, the Safe Zone enlarged, and he'd already had dinner. He wasn't willing to go out and try to clear more of the town in the dark, despite being sure there'd be more spawns out after dark. So he decided it was time to retire to his room and maybe put some more effort into increasing his Mana Manipulation skill.
Oh, and I've got spell scrolls too, I should learn my new spells, he thought. Maybe I could even Scribe a copy of the fireball spell for Doug. We only got one of those, but two of the curse scrolls. He got a scroll too, but he didn't say what it was, just that it wasn't the curse scroll. So maybe he can teach me whatever it is he found?
Marc decided that he was just going to learn the two scrolls he had tonight, then spend some time meditating on Mana Manipulation. That had worked well to advance both skills the last time he did it and he was hoping for a repeat performance.
Plus I should get the symbols for Fire, AoE, and either dark or curse. That should help quite a bit in working my way through more of the Mana Manipulation stuff.
He was about to open his door and enter his apartment when a hand fell gently on his shoulder. He turned to see Felicia looking at him earnestly.
“You aren't going to give Jeff a hard time, are you?” she asked.
Marc shook his head.
“Nah, he can spend all his free time drunk if he wants. I won't give him a hard time about it unless he shows up for an outing drunk.”
Marc paused for a moment and a wry grin spread across his face.
“I make no promises about not teasing him about having a hangover, assuming he has one, though.”
She smiled back at him.
“Good, I know we all thought he was this mysterious semi-bad guy, but with what he said tonight, I think there's a lot more to it than that.”
Marc nodded.
“I always thought it was odd when he wouldn't talk about his dad at all. I understand not wanting to talk about his mom since he probably didn't even know her that well before she died, but his dad? To be honest, despite considering him a good friend, I only met his dad one time in about five years of friendship.”
“Which should tell us something right there, shouldn't it?” Felicia said. “I mean, I know he met your parents repeatedly when we did stuff at your house, but we never did anything at his place until he moved out of his father's house.”
Marc nodded.
“Don't worry. I won't avoid it if it comes up, but I won't bring any of this up on my own either. I'll only talk about it if he does, and I'll only get on his case about drinking if it gets to be a problem for the group or the Safe Zone.”
“Good, that's all I wanted,” Felicia said. “So, what are you doing now? It's still early...”
She stopped her sentence, leaving it hanging. Marc, though, was not the most clueful of individuals when it came to certain things. Drop a math problem in front of him and he was like a dog with a steak, drop a social cue in front of him and he was liable to trip over it.
“Well, I was planning on learning the two new spells off of the scrolls we got. Then I was going to work on Mana Manipulation and Meditation combined, maybe try to reverse the effect of the curse spell and see if I can turn it into a buff.”
He was confused when Felicia's face fell, but she smiled at him gently.
“Okay, you have things to do. I get it. Good night, Marc,” she said.
As she turned and headed for the door to her own apartment, he turned back to his own, shaking his head.
Why do I think I just disappointed her somehow? he thought.
As he entered his apartment he broke into a grin, pulling out the two scrolls he was about to learn.
* * *
In the morning Marc was pleased with his progress. Before going to sleep he'd managed to learn both Curse of Weakness and Fireball. Then, while working on his efforts to reverse the curse spell, he'd gained a point in both it and Mana Manipulation. He'd also managed to change the sign on the symbol used for the stat decrease. That simple change had given him a message that he'd learned a new spell: Blessing of Strength.
Marc wasn't sure if that was a new spell that he'd created, or if he simply managed to duplicate an existing system spell. The name suggested the latter to him, but he didn't care since he'd managed to do what he'd wanted.
After that he'd allowed himself to sink into meditation, focusing on the math behind magic. As a result he'd finished the night by gaining two more points in Meditation and one final one in Mana Manipulation. So he was rather cheerful heading down to breakfast.
His mood was only buoyed when he heard the conversation going on in the cafeteria.
“... telling you, it was crazy. Like watching that old cartoon about a wizard's assistant who lost control of his magic. Those blocks of stone and wood heading for the walls? The sand fusing itself into glass and creating buildings? It was crazy. I'm glad Felicia warned us first or I might've freaked out. As it was, by the time all the changes were done I was just staring and laughing my ass off.”
Ah, that must be one of the guys that was on the wall last night right before I expanded the Safe Zone, Marc thought.
“Hey look, here he is,” the man finished, then turned to Marc.
“What are all those new buildings?” he asked.
Marc, not having expected the interaction, froze for a moment.
“Oh, the ones I added in the expansion last night?” he said.
The man nodded.
“Well, there's a regular greenhouse that speeds up growth. There's also something called an Aquaponic greenhouse that's supposed to use a symbiosis between plants and the fish that live in it and supply us with both for food. The last one, the one attached to the main building, is a new barracks. I wanted to make sure we have enough beds for everyone since I plan on trying to get anyone I find in town to come up here so they can be safe.”
“Aquaponic?” the man said.
Marc shrugged.
“Hydroponic is just growing in water. I guess the aqua prefix is supposed to mean growing in water with fish in it? There should be instructions on a pad in there according to what I read about it. Same thing in the greenhouse.”
“What about those fields out front?” the man asked.
“Oh, those? I know we have some kids here now so I thought they could use them to run and play,” Marc said.
The man started laughing and shaking his head.
“Sorry Marc, wrong kind of field. Those look like farm fields all plowed up and ready to go,” the man managed to say between the chuckles he was slowly managing to contain.
“Then I guess those fields out front are for more crops?” Marc said.
“I guess,” the man said. “I also guess that I'm a farmer. If we can get some seed and some tools, hopefully more than just hand tools, I can work those fields for you.”
“Well, that sounds like a good plan. I'm sorry, what was your name again? I'm horrible with names,” Marc said.
“Ain't we all,” the man said. “I'm Allan.”
“Well Allan, I was planning on another trip into town today to try to find more people. Is there anywhere in town that would have the seeds you want? And what kind of seeds do you think we need?”
“Well, we'll want a decent yield and something that won't damage the soil, maybe even enrich it more since those are new fields.”
“Um, the upgrade to the Safe Zone required a hefty dose of fertilizer. I thought it was for the greenhouse though, do you think some of it might have been for those?” Marc said.
“Could be. I was testing the soil and it's pretty darned good already. Never hurts to enrich it more though, at least up to a point. So, I was thinking beans in one of those fields, bush beans most likely since they give a good yield and it's an easy crop that I can train others on.”
He looked at Marc slyly.
“You know, just in case we end up with more of these fields for the kids to not run and play in.”
Marc maintained his expression. He was used to people taking digs at him and he had an idea that this one might be more of a test than an actual dig.
“I could see where the kids might want to have other places to not run and play,” he said, “but what seeds did you want for the other field? And where can we find them?”
Allan's sly look broke up into a snort.
“Cool customer then? Good, you'll need it with some of the people here. For the other field? Maybe buckwheat? We can make a bread out of it, although it won't be what most of us here are used to. It's another forgiving crop though and since these fields have never been worked, and we've got no idea what other changes this System thingy might have made, it just seems wise to use forgiving crops.”
“Allan, I like the way you think. Now, is there a place in town to get these seeds? How many will we need anyway?”
“There is, although maybe not enough to plant both fields fully. Tell you what, with these inventory things, we can carry an awful lot, so how about we get all of those two first types of seeds, then we tuck in all the other seeds we can find too?”
“Where, Allan?”
“That's the bad news. The farm supply store that carries bulk seeds is all the way on the other side of town, almost directly across the town from here. Maybe four or five miles from here?”
“Thank you. We were already planning on going into town today, to try to find more people. We'll just make two passes through town this way, one in either direction. The first one we'll yell out that we'll be headed back to the Safe Zone in a while and people should be ready to travel if they want to join us there. We can pick them up on the way back through, that gives them time to discuss it, for groups, or to get anything they want to take with them together to join us on the way back through.”
“Well, I'll go with you and show you the best route. We can work the route through some of the residential areas without adding much distance to it,” Allan said.
“Are you sure? I thought most of the folks in here didn't want to go back out into the town,” Marc said.
“Nah, I'm good with it. I already picked a class, got it offered when I was testing that soil. I'm now a Farmer by class as well as by life. It looks like if I can get some levels somehow I can do lots of good stuff with the crops, from making them grow faster to driving certain types of insects away. All sorts of stuff. Since I heard your group say they were getting levels by going out into town, I thought I might do the same.”
Marc shook his head.
“We'll probably have to fight some since we're going to make a lot of noise, intentionally.”
“That's okay, I got my weapon I Systemized back when this all started.”
Marc looked at Allan eagerly.
“So, what do you have for a weapon then?”
“You got to promise not to laugh first,” Allan said.
Marc nodded.
“I promise.”
“Well, I was on my farm, a couple miles out of town, when this all happened. I claimed my overalls here for armor, tried to claim my shotgun for a weapon, but it said it was too strong. So I picked this.”
Out of Allan's inventory appeared a pitchfork, nearly as tall as he was. The tines were gleaming, shiny, and looked as though they came to very sharp points.
Marc smiled, but managed to keep his promise.
“Well then, let me go get some breakfast, then we'll grab the rest of the two groups and head out.”
* * *
Since he'd already told everyone he wanted to go into the town to try to find more people today, the groups had no problem with the change in plan.
“The greenhouse people said they needed seed also, so maybe we can find stuff for them. They want things like tomatoes, peppers, and the like. Oh, and we'll need to buy some fish to initially stock the aquaponics pond,” Felicia said. “I checked and they have some of our Earth fish, live, in the shop. Tilapia is the recommended option for that one according to its pad.”
Marc held up his hands in mock defeat.
“Alright, we'll work on it. Just, please, someone make a list?”
“Oh, I was working on that also. We can keep lists or notes in our interface. The command to bring it up is 'notes' all by its lonesome, either spoken or thought,” Felicia said. “I figured you shouldn't be the only one working last night.”
Her rather piercing look at Marc was caught by everyone but him. He'd immediately opened the notes option in his interface to check it out and was staring at that. Felicia groaned and Marc glanced over at her.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked.
She shook her head once, kicked him in the shin, then turned and stalked off.
“What did I say?” Marc asked.
Jeff laughed at him, almost cruelly. Unfortunately he hadn't had a hangover this morning so Marc hadn't been able to tease him about it.
“You're one smart dude, Marc. When it comes to math. Pretty dumb when it comes to women though,” Jeff said.
“Like you're any better?” Rob asked. “I remember how many girls you asked out, then bitched to us that they turned you down.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Jeff said. “But do you also remember how many didn't turn me down?”
“Well, there is that,” Rob said. “I'm just saying that you shouldn't pretend to know everything about women. Maybe Marc's blind to the fact that Felicia likes him. Maybe she's blind to the fact that he likes her too, but really, we shouldn't tease them about it.”
Jeff broke into a grin, then caught Rob's gaze. He then turned to look at Marc, who was only a couple of feet away from Rob. Rob followed his gaze, then immediately blushed when he saw where Marc was and realized that he'd been overheard.
Jeff was staring at Marc now and when Marc looked back Jeff slowly spoke.
“Yes, yes we should. We should definitely tease them about it until they get the hint and stop dancing around each other like ballerinas. All tippy toe like they're worried about disturbing someone.”
Marc quickly turned and left, his face feeling as hot as though he'd just stuck it in an oven.
I mean, I always thought she might, but are they right and she does? Why doesn't she just say something to me about it.
Then he realized his own guilt.
Hell, why don't I just say something about it so we both know for sure where we stand? Hell, I'd rather go toe to toe with a pair of hobgoblins all by myself, that's how much doing that would scare me, but if one of us doesn't, who will? Rob and Jeff? Well, they sort of just did, I guess. We'll have to see if I've got the guts to mention it to her. Normally I wouldn't, but these last few days seem to be changing me. No surprise there.
Marc grabbed his breakfast and ate quickly. Once he finished he headed out to the front gate where they were supposed to meet.
Felicia was out before the others and she approached with a guarded face.
“Sorry,” he said, when she was in earshot.
“What?”
“I said I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to you since I'd gone straight to the notes section you told us about.”
She blinked, then stopped and just stared at him then.
“That's right, you said you were going to put points in Charisma, didn't you?”
“What's that got to do with anything?” Marc asked.
“Well, normally you wouldn't notice even after I kicked you.”
“Yeah, well, I'm feeling a little stupid right now. There's been lots of times like that, haven't there?”
She stared at him, then put a hand to his brow.
“Are you sure you're feeling okay? Did the System replace you with a pod person or something?” she asked.
Dodging the easy out that would allow him to just slide into tossing minor digs back and forth with her, Marc took a deep breath.
“That's not the only thing I'm feeling stupid about. I screwed up last night, didn't I? I should've just said I didn't have anything planned.”
