Enter system, p.26
Enter System, page 26
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
Meditation (4)
Creative Writing (1)
Scribe (1)
Shield Mastery (1)
Short Swords (1)
Spells:
Mana Dart (4)
Arcane Armor (2)
Phantom Shield (2)
Crenelate (1)
Curse of Weakness (2)
Fireball (1)
Blessing of Strength (1)
He grinned as he looked at his increasing health and mana along with his list of skills and spells.
I guess things are looking up a bit, he thought. Although, they weren't looking down so why am I feeling more encouraged now?
He brushed off the uncertainty of his mood, blaming the System and its interference with his emotions. Maybe he would've felt this way about earlier levels if his emotions hadn't been being suppressed. He'd never know though, so he simply tried to dismiss the thought.
Noting that he was full up on Mana again, he stood.
“Anyone need more time or can we get moving on getting the seeds out of this place?” he asked.
“Hang on, please? Working through some leveling stuff,” Jack said.
There were a couple of other nods from the members of the second group so Marc moved over and sat down next to Felicia.
“You leveled too?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I kind of planned what I'd use my new skill points for though, assuming I didn't get options on any really nice new skills, so it was quick for me.”
“I didn't have mine planned, but it was still pretty quick. Being without a weapon after I pinned that thing in the last fight told me I needed another weapon skill and a secondary weapon,” he said.
“I already have another weapon, just in case, but it seems to do about the same damage as my tire iron. They classified that as a mace for skill purposes so I picked up another one from the shop for cheap and just tucked it into my inventory,” she said.
“I wish I'd thought of it sooner myself, it'll be nice to be able to toss the pilum if a thrown attack is appropriate, but still have a weapon on me.”
“It's not like you aren't dangerous without it. You've got your spells now.”
“Yes, but it's hard to parry with a Mana Dart,” he said, gesticulating as though he were trying to do so.
She snorted at that, then chuckled under her breath.
“Hey, it looks like they might be about ready,” she said, getting to her feet.
Marc followed suit, looking around and seeing that everyone was paying attention again, not lost in their screens.
“Alright, let's get in and out of here. It's liable to be a bit gross, but anyone who doesn't think they can handle it, or just doesn't want to, can stay out here on guard. Except you Allan, you need to show us what we should get,” Marc said.
Doug and Olivia ended up staying outside on guard. Marc had Jack stay as well since his primary weapon was his bow and it wouldn't be that useful in the cluttered store. Plus, that way the guards weren't all casters.
They moved into the darkened store, Rob holding his sword up for light. Marc covered his nose at the loathsome scent that saturated the air inside of the store. Dead, rotting things made up the high notes with different kinds of oil and other chemical scents threaded through it all.
“Over this way,” Allan said. “That's where the bulk seed is.”
Jeff shimmered out of view and Marc wondered if he was going to scout out the rest of the store or if he had something else planned. Disregarding that, he followed Allan over and started loading his inventory. Amusingly enough, he could take the entire covered half-whiskey barrels containing the seeds into his inventory, each one taking its own slot. He felt a little bit of weight increase, but it was drastically reduced from where it should have been. He left a few slots open, just in case, since there were plenty of people to carry the seeds.
Allan filled his inventory second, then Felicia. While she was doing that, Jeff reappeared.
“Hey Rob, chew toy!” Jeff said.
“That's rude, I was tanking for you too,” Rob said.
“No, I meant chew toy.”
Jeff brought up his hand. In it was the severed hand Marc had seen through the window. Marc shied back a little, not really wanting to be anywhere near it. Then Jeff squeezed and the hand made a little squeak.
“As in, this thing is one. Who the hell makes severed hand chew toys?” Jeff asked.
“And who buys them?” Felicia added.
“Yeah, that'd be the store owner,” Allan said. “I think that was his Doberman you guys had to fight, or at least it was once. No clue what that thing was now. That's the type of dog toy he'd get though. He said the dog wasn't a pet, it was a guard, so if it got toys they'd have to be ones that encouraged him to be a better guard dog.”
“Rob, Jeff, you guys load up. Let's get out of here. It really does stink,” Marc said. “Anything else we want here, Allan?”
“Maybe some, if it doesn't decay back at the Safe Zone like you said. There are some farming tools that would make life easier.”
“Grab them quickly, we still have to walk home and try to recruit a bunch of new people for the Safe Zone on the way,” Marc replied.
“I'm on it,” Allan said.
He walked away muttering about different tools and the like and Marc gestured for Jeff to follow him.
“Keep an eye on him? Who knows if there's anything else in here and he's already got the Farmer class, so we kind of need him,” Marc said.
Jeff nodded, then slipped back into Stealth again.
* * *
They were moving back down the road towards the town when Jeff sidled up next to Marc.
“So, yeah. That thing might've been a chew toy, but back in the office there were at least three bodies torn to shreds. I didn't want to mention that to anyone before. Plus, at least one person was shredded on the floor of the store, you saw the blood.”
“Kind of what I figured,” Marc said. “I wasn't too eager to see it though so I just tried to keep us on task.”
“Good idea, don't know how some of them would've dealt with it.”
He chuckled.
“Surprisingly,” Jeff continued, “I think Felicia could've handled it, don't know about Rob. And the others? No clue at all.”
“Well we avoided all that at least, now we just need to get home with all the stuff we found.”
Allan had discovered a lot of other things to bring back with them, from fertilizer to tools and all kinds of stuff in between. The fact that items stopped their decay if you brought them into a Safe Zone meant that there were all sorts of items that were just a little worn down now that they could bring back and use. Nothing fancy, but hand tools? Allan had asked everyone with room to stash some of those in their inventory to bring back.
They were almost back to the residential area they'd alerted earlier in the day when a message flashed across their sight.
System Message:
Rare spawns will now commence. Increase your power levels by destroying spawns or through other means. Good Luck!
Marc dismissed the message quickly.
“Well, the System sure isn't wasting much time is it?” he said. “I wonder just how high the spawn levels will go. Common, uncommon, rare, will there be mythical and legendary or something of the sort as well?”
“You know there will be,” Jeff said, “although they might not be called that. At least we've had a few days with just the more common stuff. We got a Safe Zone set up and we've even managed to save some of the town's inhabitants. Not to jinx things, but somehow I'm expecting to find a rare spawn on the way back to the Safe Zone, that's just how things work, right?”
Marc shook his head. Unfortunately he agreed with a lot of what Jeff had said.
“Well, let's see if we can't save a few more inhabitants before that happens, okay?”
He sped up the pace so they made it back to the residential area in just a few more minutes. Once there, he started yelling, imploring people to come join them at the Safe Zone so they could have at least a modicum of safety along with company.
He was fairly surprised when the first few yells brought out what looked to be a party of adventurers. Their equipment wasn't great, but they had some. It looked like a pair of machetes were the weapons wielded by their front line fighters, used in conjunction with shields like Rob's, and leather coats like the one he'd given Jeff. They had two ranged attackers with short bows also. These two wore leather coats as well, but had no shields. He was most interested in the last two though, neither one wore armor and the weapons they carried were little better than long sticks, suggesting to him that they'd managed to home grow casters of their own.
“Hey there,” Marc called. “Are you interested in changing your base to a Safe Zone?”
“That's what we're here to talk about,” one of the ranged attackers said.
“Well, I'm Marc, I'm the one who created the Safe Zone with the help of my party. Who are you?”
“Ronald, Ron really since the only ones who called me Ronald aren't around any more. So what is this about a Safe Zone?”
“You should check the help on it. Essentially it's a space where spawns don't occur. They can still attack the place though, but being able to sleep without worrying about a kobold spawning on your chest and tearing out your throat is kind of relaxing,” Jeff said.
“Jeff...” Ron said, letting the name hang.
“Hey Ron, how's it hanging? I know you don't trust for shit, so I'll let you know up front that Marc's entirely honest. Little goody two-shoes sometimes, but he's trying to get as many people as possible in the Safe Zone to help them stay alive. Already expanded the place once and is planning on doing that repeatedly.”
He looked over at Marc and when Ron couldn't see his eyes, he winked.
“You were saying you wanted to expand right into the town, right?” Jeff said.
“Yeah, it takes a lot of materials to expand the Safe Zone, but if they're already in place in the area we're expanding into, then those count. So all the buildings that are falling apart would be used for materials and allow us to speed up our expansion. Hopefully we can get a big chunk of the town as part of it and revamp it so the survivors can live there. Build shops for craftsman, have some fields for farmers, have the areas outside the walls for hunting and clearing spawns,” Marc said, launching into a spiel he'd half-planned a while back.
“Yeah, what's the cost?” Ron asked.
Jeff started laughing and Marc turned to him, confusion evident on his face.
“TANSTAAFL,” Jeff said. “There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. That's Ron's motto. Here's the price man, you need to actually contribute somehow, that's it. Whether it's guarding the walls, adventuring outside them to get stronger, or taking up some sort of crafting. That's all. I told Marc we should charge people, but these other guys outvoted me.”
Ron's face brightened a bit.
“Well, we gots a lot of hard workers here. We been protecting them and they been helping feed us, gave us some of their original claims so we could do it better too. You willing to take them all along?”
“How many,” Marc asked, eagerly.
“We know of twenty-three survivors other than our party. We been protecting them here, but if there's a better place for them to be protected and you ain't gonna try to rob us just for going there, well, we'll tell them we think that's the best plan,” Ron said.
“That sounds great,” Marc said. “One quick question though, and it's only barely related.”
He nodded towards Ron's back line.
“Casters?”
Ron grinned.
“Yeah, looks like you got 'em too though, you be one of them even.”
“That I am, I'm just wondering how they managed to get their classes, maybe offer to trade some spells with them if they're interested.”
At that, the more scrawny of the two back liners stepped up. He looked to be in his late teens, maybe even still high school age.
“Hell yeah, Ron. I told you I needed more spells. I vote for it.”
The other back liner slapped the back of his head. She looked a few years older than him, but there were some similarities that told Marc they were family.
“Shut up, Reggie. Let the man negotiate,” she said.
Ron groaned and rolled his eyes.
“I see you've got the same problem I do,” Marc said, side-eyeing Jeff.
He'd noticed Ron's original reaction to Jeff and was trying to play on it. Ron looked over at Jeff for a moment.
“You know, you might be right there. Goodwill gesture then. The chick? She used to be an EMT. When she went to treat someone that got bit by one of these critters out here, she got offered a healing type of class. Her brother, Reggie? Well, he's always been a nerd. He claims that's why he got it, something about math.”
“Ah, another math Mage,” Marc said. “We'll have to have a chat. If you can learn it, I've got a damned interesting skill that will help you with all types of magic.”
Reggie started straining against his sister's grasp, trying to run towards Marc.
“Can we, Ron? God, something to eat that we don't have to worry about monsters smelling? Sleep in a decent bed? It sounds like heaven,” the Healer said.
Ron smiled at her and Marc noted that she had far more sway on the leader than he'd expected.
Doesn't look like magic, girlfriend maybe? Or even just a crush? He's reacting the way I do to Felicia.
“Alright, we can try this,” he said to her.
Then he turned back to Marc.
“You screw us, I'll make you pay. Okay boys, go get the people.”
The two tanks and the other bowman turned and trotted off, knocking at the doors to houses and calling out to people.
“We had 'em pack up what they wanted to take, just in case we agreed to go with you. It's not like they got much any more,” Ron said.
People were starting to trickle out into the street, slowly forming a crowd around Ron.
“Alright, we're going to go with these people. It sounds legit, even if Jeff's involved.”
A few of the crowd waved to Jeff while a few of the other crowd members scowled at him.
Yup, sure looks like they know him, or at least some of them do, Marc thought.
“Start forming up, make sure the old folks and the kids have someone able-bodied nearby to help them,” Ron called out.
About then there was a roar from somewhere deeper into the residential area. Several people came fleeing up towards Ron.
“Shit!” Ron said. “That's new. Everything we've seen so far been small, big rats and scaly little guys. This ain't, sounds huge.”
Marc looked around, he wanted to get the non-combatants out of the area, but didn't want to sacrifice any of his group to do that. They might be needed in the upcoming fight.
“Allan!” he yelled. “Lead these people towards the Safe Zone, same route we took earlier on. Go about a block and if it looks like we're losing, get them moving to get back there.”
Allan startled, taken off guard by Marc's command. Then he straightened up and his pitchfork appeared in his hand.
“Alright people, on me. You heard Ron, help each other out if you need it. We're going to that intersection right there,” he yelled.
He pointed with his pitchfork.
“Then we're going to wait and let these folks take care of whatever that problem is. After they kill it, they're going to lead us back to a Safe Zone where we won't have to worry about this stuff popping up out of nowhere.”
Allan didn't even look to see if anyone was listening or following. He set off towards the intersection he'd indicated, apparently confident that the others would follow. And they did.
There were still other non-combatants streaming out from between the houses and down the roads. As each one appeared, Ron yelled and pointed towards the crowd. Then he stopped cold, staring between two of the houses. Marc quickly looked and caught sight of the monster that was making the roaring noise.
It was green, with boils and warts. It was humanoid in shape, but almost twelve feet tall. All of its limbs were long and thin to the point of looking almost stretched and emaciated. And the teeth in its jaws were huge.
Not teeth, fangs, Marc thought. What is this thing? Some sort of ogre or troll or something? I'd guess an ogre would be thicker, so I'm going to guess troll.
Then he realized that he didn't need to guess and stared, triggering his Analyze (creature) skill.
Urban Troll - Hostile
Level – 9
Commonality – Rare
“Shit!” Marc yelled. “I blame you, Jeff! It's that rare spawn you were sure we'd find, an Urban Troll.”
“Fire and acid?” Reggie called out.
“In the games, kid. Who knows about in real life,” Jeff replied, also at volume.
“Worth a shot,” Marc yelled. “Jayden, Rob, we need a front line, then I'll start tossing some fire at it.”
The two tanks formed up a few feet in front of Marc. Even before Marc got his first spell off, the other two tanks that had been trying to rouse people to leave for the Safe Zone had joined in, extending the front line.
Ron had his bow out and an arrow nocked. He was waiting for the tanks to get set and once they did, he drew and fired. The arrow struck the troll and it roared its pain. Jack and the other bowman started firing as well.
Meanwhile Doug was the first of the mages to get a spell off, his pair of Mana Darts flew out, striking the troll and aggravating it even more.
“Awesome!” Reggie squeed. “Is that a magic missile?”
“Mana Dart, but almost the same thing, kid,” Doug said.
Now Marc let his spell off. It had taken slightly longer since he'd first cast Phantom Shield on Rob and now he was substituting his fire symbol for the damage type in his Mana Dart spell. His own two darts flew out. Instead of raw mana his were made of flame. Text slipped across the bottom of his vision for a moment and he grinned.
Your spell, Mana Dart, has increased in skill level (4->5).
The troll roared in pain and anger as the flaming darts struck it in the chest.
