Enter system, p.24
Enter System, page 24
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
Now her face got serious.
“Really, are you feeling alright?”
“Better than I have for a long time. Maybe I won't make any plans for tonight so we can talk, if you like.”
Then, his prior habits and mannerisms took over. As he realized what he was saying, his gaze, which had been on Felicia, slowly slid down so he was starting at the ground.
“I mean, assuming you don't have anything better planned? Ah, crap. I suck at this. I try to actually move forward and instead I'm backsliding. What is wrong with me?”
Fingers came up beneath his chin, tilting his head back up.
“I suck at it too, Marc. I chickened out last night, and tens of times before then, so don't feel too bad. At least you managed to get further than I have.”
Saying that, she leaned up and pressed her lips to his. It was a brief kiss, a peck really, but all the times she'd kissed him before it had been on the cheek, so Marc's spirits soared. He didn't dare speak, afraid that he'd trip up with his words. Instead he just stared at her for a moment.
Until Jeff, who'd used Stealth to approach unseen, started a slow golf clap.
“About time,” Jeff said. “Maybe now you two can stop mooning over each other.”
Marc just stared at Jeff, anger in his eyes.
“Low blow, dude,” he said.
Felicia snickered.
“He's just jealous. He never told you, but I was one of those girls he asked out who turned him down,” she said.
Now Jeff's face went red all over and he tried to drop back into Stealth. With two people staring at him, he couldn't do it, the skill wouldn't trigger successfully. He shimmered briefly but stayed fully in sight.
“Oh look, here comes Rob,” Jeff said.
Marc and Felicia turned to look, but there was no-one there. When they turned back Jeff had, of course, dropped into Stealth and disappeared.
“Really, he asked you out? I mean, I'm not surprised, you're very attractive, but I didn't think you were really his type,” Marc said.
“You silver tongued devil, you. Nice recovery there. But yes, he did. After all I was a female gamer and he didn't know many of those. Most of his conquests were more the dumb blonde types. I let him down easy though, told him there was someone I was interested in and I was just waiting for him to make a move.”
“Oh, sorry, maybe I'm misconstruing things?”
“Marc, Marc, Marc,” Felicia said, shaking her head. “You're someone, aren't you?”
He was about to reply when she turned.
“Oh look, there's Rob,” she said.
“You too?” he asked, but this time when he turned Rob was approaching them down the road that stretched from the gate to the buildings. The other group was following along and he had Allan with him also.
“Hey, you guys seen Jeff?” Rob called. “He's the only one we're waiting on.”
“He's around here somewhere,” Marc called. “He's in Stealth. Just messing with us, like normal.”
“Good, then we should head out,” Allan said. “Got a long walk ahead of us, especially if you want to go the residential route.”
“I thought you said it wouldn't add much on to the walk.”
“It won't. A quarter mile isn't much compared to four or five miles, but if we get a lot of takers, that's going to slow us down a bunch,” Allan said.
“Well then, I guess you're right. We should head out,” Marc said.
* * *
As they headed down the road towards downtown, they passed the recyclers. Conner had volunteered to stand guard for them. He'd used his lesser system token he got for choosing a class on his pistol so he was armed with that and the baton that he'd selected as the weapon for the initial Systemizing. Marc had made sure the man had as much ammunition as he'd wanted since the 9mm Glock 17 Conner had Systemized shared ammunition with Marc's father's Ruger SR9c and Marc's dad had always amassed a surplus of ammunition for any of the firearms he owned.
Conner waved as they went by, not taking his eyes off of the surrounding area as he did so though.
Good, I'm glad he found something he could do. It would've been a waste for him, with his training, to end up just hiding in the Safe Zone, Marc thought. I'm glad the Guardian class also guards the inhabitants when they're outside the walls.
Marc had been especially happy when Conner volunteered since his original plan had been to just have the recyclers take the day off any time both groups were out of the area around the Safe Zone. This was much better, the expansion of the Safe Zone could continue apace while he and the others were out trying to find more inhabitants for it.
They made it a half mile from the gates before the first interruption. The asphalt in the area was showing heaved up areas, almost like speed bumps, and he didn't understand why at first. Then the prairie dog the size of a German Shepherd surfaced through the dirt on the side of the road.
“That's a big'un,” Jeff said, “but just one isn't going to be an issue for us.”
Marc, knowing that prairie dogs were actually a bit clever, and focused on doing everything as safely as possible, spun around.
“Behind us,” he said.
The first one had come up on the left hand side of the road to draw their attention, but the other nine had come up behind them and were pulling themselves out of their holes to charge the party.
Jack's bowstring thrummed as he shot the one that had been a distraction. It didn't die with a single shot, but two more arrows lodging inside of it before it made it out of its hole to run did the trick. Meanwhile Marc had tossed up his Arcane Armor spell first, then started in on his newest spell, Fireball.
“Don't close with them yet, backpedal a little,” Marc called, then started casting.
The group backed away from the prairie dogs as a ball of flame shot from Marc's hands. When it burst, it only spread out to about a little more than a yard, but that was enough to scorch two more of the prairie dogs after setting the center one aflame.
Default settings, but if I make it expand more before my skill goes up, I'll lose damage, Marc thought. I'll just need to grind it up to a decent expansion level then maybe mess with it some.
After the fireball had burst, the group moved in. Jayden and Rob were forming the front line, trying to gain the attention of the prairie dogs and hold their aggro. It was relatively easy since Rob had taken a Taunt skill. He made some growling noise that caught all their attention, then slammed his sword into his shield.
“Hey, nice sword Rob,” Jeff called out, from nowhere apparently.
Marc's attention moved to Rob's sword. It was a longsword and of a better quality than any they'd found yet. It also seemed to shimmer a bit in the sunlight, nearly glowing.
Marc shook his head and readied his Mana Darts. He knew the flame and dark symbols now, but he didn't want to curse the prairie dogs, he just wanted to kill them. He wasn't sure if applying the dark symbol to the Mana Darts would do a different form of damage, or simply curse the target, so flame it was.
Jack had switched targets to the ones charging after the original one fell. Doug had tossed out a Mana Dart at one of them as well.
Guess he hasn't reached skill level three in the spell yet, Marc thought.
Doug yipped excitedly right after he finished his cast and the next time he cast his Mana Dart, there were two darts.
Or maybe he just got it right then, Marc added, casting his own Mana Dart.
He split the darts, giving them a Fire Aspect and sending one towards each of the prairie dogs he'd already scorched. One of them fell to the dart, while the other continued rushing Rob. The one that had taken the full brunt of the Fireball was now down as well.
Felicia had buffed Rob and Jayden while Olivia was waiting, ready to heal the first person to get wounded. Jack had dropped another prairie dog and now was changing targets again. Doug cast another Mana Dart, dropping his target.
We've got this under control, so let's try out the new spell I created, or discovered, or whatever, Marc thought.
It only had a five minute duration, just like the curse version, but Marc doubted that the fight would last that long.
He cast Blessing of Strength on Rob just before the first prairie dog reached him and Rob roared as he felt the spell take effect. He even seemed to swell a bit, as though the added strength had forced a bit of growth on him as well. When he slammed his sword forward, it cut halfway through his first target.
That might've been overkill, Marc thought, but a good, successful test at least.
He pulled his pilum out and trotted forward, targeting the burned opponent that had been scorched by both his fireball and the Flame Dart version of the Mana Dart. The creature was slowed from his wounds and it only took a single attack from Marc to drop it.
Three of the prairie dogs had made it to Rob, but the first had dropped almost immediately. Jayden had drawn one off of him and as Rob was preparing to strike the last one, Jeff showed up from behind it, driving his gladius into its back and dropping it.
Rob had only taken one minor wound and Olivia had healed it immediately. Jayden, at a lower level and with worse armor had taken a little more damage, but a heal each from Olivia and Felicia had him back to full health as well.
“Hmm, never thought I'd actually see anything to be scared of about prairie dogs,” Rob said.
“You should,” Felicia said, beginning to cast again. “You're diseased from that one little strike he got in on you. Let me fix it with a Purify spell. That's the one I just got at fifth level, should take care of a disease.”
She finished her cast and Rob glowed for a moment, then Felicia looked over Jayden.
“Looks like you didn't get the disease, so we're good.”
“I always knew they were filthy little bastards,” Jeff said.
Marc looked back at Rob. Not only had the spell healed the disease, but apparently it had also cleaned him up. He'd been spattered with blood and rather rumpled after the fight, but now he looked like he'd just stepped out of his front door, ready to go.
“Wow, that's a nice spell. Did you happen to notice the side effects?” Marc asked.
She nodded.
“It does a few things, but the disease aspect is the most important part of it. At least right at the moment.”
Then she looked over at him and glanced away quickly.
“And if both of us can ever get over our own obstacles, I imagine it would handy for cleaning up afterwards, too,” she said, very softly.
She glanced back towards him as she finished speaking. Marc's eyes widened and Felicia realized that he'd heard her. Evidently she thought she'd been speaking under her breath, but it had been just loud enough for Marc to hear. As he stared at her, she turned beet red and hurried over to Olivia, starting to talk about their class in a loud voice.
* * *
Chapter Eighteen
After the prairie dog attack they made it the rest of the way to the downtown area with no additional problems. Once there, Marc decided that the best way to make a lot of noise was with music. He'd discovered that the quality of his MP3 player and associated gear had improved substantially when they'd been Systemized. He hadn't tried maxing the volume yet, but even halfway up the volume slider made it louder than he'd been able to get it before.
He jury rigged a holder for the external speaker and hung it from his belt, then turned the MP3 player on.
Let's see, music to slay by, he thought, smirking. Need something with a good beat to get the blood flowing. It should draw out any spawns in the area too. Aha! That'll do nicely.
He had a truly eclectic selection of music, a little bit of almost everything, and a lot of a few styles he liked more. One of his favorites was 80's music of different varieties, so that's what he started with.
The strains of a live version of 'Don't Pay the Ferryman' started drifting from his speaker. The sound of the audience cheering in the background would hopefully convince spawns that there were lots of victims out here, he hoped.
“Make some noise?” he said to the others, raising his voice to be heard over the music. “I'm not sure that the canned stuff will sound enough like live people to draw anything out.”
Jeff shook his head and rolled his eyes at Marc's choice.
“You gotta let me pick one later on,” Jeff said. “I know you've got it on there, I had you put it on there.”
Marc groaned inwardly. He could only think of one song that he'd put on there for Jeff in the past few months and it wasn't one of his favorites. He'd already decided on his next choice though and he set that to playing as Ferryman finished.
'Don't Fear the Reaper' had a bit more bass to it, but still as they walked down the street slowly, they didn't see anyone or anything that they were looking for. He halfheartedly queued up Jeff's choice as they walked. Allan caught his attention and motioned to a side street which they started heading for.
For just a moment Marc thought he saw a curtain twitch and a pale face stare out towards the road where they were. He waved at the curtain and motioned downwards. When the song stopped, he didn't start Jeff's choice immediately, instead he hollered as loud as he could.
“We'll be coming back through here in a few hours. When we do, if you want to move to a Safe Zone, just come down and join us. The high school is a Safe Zone now, so if you want you can try to make it there yourself too, but there's monsters out there, so you can travel with us for safety if you like.”
The curtain twitched again, although he didn't see a face this time. So he shrugged and turned to Allan.
“This is going to lead us to the residential area you were talking about?”
Allan nodded.
“Yeah, it'll probably only take us an extra ten minutes both ways and should get us within earshot of a few hundred houses, well if you're loud anyhow,” Allan said.
“Okay then. Let's go. Don't blame me for this next musical choice, it's Jeff's.”
Marc hit play on the music and the first few seconds were quiet until the singer hit the word 'Floor'. That was bellowed at full volume after the whispered start. Then the song got louder. 'Let the Bodies Hit the Floor' rang out over and over. Marc was keeping his eyes opened and he groaned as he saw movement inside a dark building. It was some sort of store with a large, open, ground floor if he remembered correctly.
As the song echoed through the streets, the movement inside the store became more concentrated and a moment later a pack of massive rats came flooding out into the street, heading straight for Marc.
“Hah!” Jeff screamed, barely audible over the music. “You've just got to pick the right music!”
Evidently Jeff had been spending some money at the shop since instead of drawing his gladius, his hands flickered down to his body and came up loaded with throwing daggers. He started whipping them one after the other at the rats. Meanwhile Rob had dropped into a crouch, his shield in front of him.
Jack was firing his bow as quickly as he could, killing most of the rats he hit. Doug and Marc both managed to cast at about the same time. This time Marc just used the generic Mana Dart spell. When his target and Doug's both dropped, he cast again only this time he split his darts, targeting one rat per dart.
A single dart wasn't enough to drop a rat, but those he'd hit suddenly seemed significantly less interested in the headlong charge towards Marc. Jayden and Rob stepped in between Marc and the rats at that point and he had to be more careful about his targeting.
The two tanks did end up in combat, but they both wore heavy leather boots that prevented the rats from biting their feet badly. Although the rats did try to scale their legs, but once Marc had seen that he held off and used his spell on the smarter rats trying that.
The fight was over in just a few minutes, rat corpses nearly the size of Chihuahuas laying scattered about the street.
“Hey, do these guys have loot? Should we go in there and see if they had a nest or something?” Olivia asked.
The healers had it relatively easy in the last fight, only needing to cast a few heals, and stepping into place to plug leaks when the number of rats overwhelmed the front line.
“We could, if we're quick,” Marc said. “So only check in that main room maybe?”
Rob pulled out his sword.
“That's why I got this. It gives off light, it also holds an edge better and requires less maintenance. Magical, but nothing super powerful so it was only a couple of gold. But yeah, let's look. Let's go in to check and we can use my sword for light.”
I'm not sure I want to be the one to tell him that if we get into a fight, his light source also being his primary weapon may not be the best of plans, Marc thought. I can always mangle another Mana Dart spell to make light if we need it though.
They moved into the store, with Rob in the lead holding his sword up. Marc almost stopped after his third step into the store when he heard high pitched squeals and squeaks.
Shit, are those babies? Are we going to have to kill a bunch of baby rats to avoid an infestation? That just doesn't seem right, he thought, then realized that he hadn't thought of the rightness of any of the fights he'd been in so far.
Am I getting my emotions back or something? he wondered. Why would it suppress our emotions for so long, only to allow them back? Can we deal with it better after a while or something?
His notification light started flashing at that point so he pulled it up, curious.
You've discovered a important fact about the System. Certain emotions of individuals on worlds new to the System are suppressed so they may function and have a better chance of survival. This suppression begins to wear off at level 5 since by that point the individual has demonstrated that they are capable of surviving in the System Worlds.
Exp+250
Marc stopped cold and Doug almost ran into him.
“Damn it! I knew it,” Marc said.
“What is it?” Felicia asked.
“You remember when I got experience for figuring out something about the System before?”
