Enter system, p.37
Enter System, page 37
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
“We cleared the high school of goblin and hobgoblins. Once it was cleared, the System determined the building was strong enough to qualify to make a Safe Zone and we did it. We've been rescuing survivors, killing spawns, and expanding the Safe Zone ever since.”
“Sounds like you're simplifying things a lot.”
“Yes, I am, if you've got a couple of hours I'll be happy to give you the whole story. You aren't the first classed groups we've found either. Plus we've learned how to teach people some of the classes.”
“Yeah, we figured that out for our Mages, at least,” Kenny said distractedly. “What classes can you teach?”
“Warrior, Mage, Healer, and we're working on Woodsman, for combat classes at least. There's a lot more people learning non-combat classes though and those seem easier to pass on,” Marc said. “It looks like the non-combat ones are simply learn by doing under the supervision of someone with the class. Warrior is that way also, the way we figured out to teach it, and so is Healer. Mage involves some learning though. Normally if I teach them the Mana Dart spell they get offered the class.”
“Heh,” Kenny snorted. “You can learn Mage by doing too, as least our type.”
“Your type? We've got a few standard Mages, plus an Elemental Mage, and an Arcane Bulwark. What's your type of Mage?”
“Pyromancer,” Kenny said, glancing at the scorch marks along the wall.
Duh! I should've figured that one out on my own, Marc thought.
Kenny looked through the party again, he'd done it when they first approached, but now he did so more slowly.
“Ella?” he asked.
The lower level Mage had been hanging close to, and behind, Jeff throughout the conversation.
“Yeah Kenny, it's me. I'm the one that told them you were out here. I thought you might have survived, so I convinced my boyfriend's party to come out and check,” she said, placing a heavy emphasis on the word boyfriend.
Jeff glanced at her sharply, then glared at Kenny.
“Well shit, I wish I had known there was someone I knew in this group. We would've been a bit more welcoming,” Kenny said.
“You guys been having problems? Marc asked, gesturing towards the scorched walls.
“Gremlins,” Kenny spat. “Little green things, like knee high. Some of them have magic, but all of them have teeth and claws. We lost a few people with no classes and even one of our classed people to them.”
“You've got non-classed survivors? You should definitely consider the offer to come to the Safe Zone then, it's a lot safer there,” Marc said.
“Yeah, we want to, we just want to know what the catch is,” Kenny said.
His eyes had been flicking about as they spoke and now they focused on a point and widened.
“Shit, speak of the devil. Gremlins,” he said, pointing.
“Where, I don't see anything,” Rob replied, staring where Kenny was pointing.
“That's why I saw your friend in Stealth,” Kenny said. “Practice. Look for the footprints puffing up dust.”
Marc had noticed the wide, bare of any growth, patch of dry dirt around the building. He hadn't realized that it was a defensive measure though. Now he saw what Kenny pointed out and the creatures moving towards them slowly became visible to him.
“Get in here,” Kenny said, “through the window.”
“No time,” Marc replied. “Form up, Ella against the wall. Felicia, Rob, and I will form an arc around her for protection. Jeff—”
“I know, I know,” Jeff said. “Stealth and Stab, leaders or casters.”
He shimmered out of view while he was speaking.
“Can everyone see these things?” Marc asked.
Rob and Ella shook their heads.
“Well, let's see if I can't break their Stealth,” Marc said, beginning to cast a Fireball.
He was modifying the spell, giving it as much AoE as he could, despite the damage drop. He hoped that even a tiny bit of damage would break the Stealth on the gremlins. He had to be quick though, they were almost on the group.
Marc launched his fireball, targeting it to get as much of the area where the gremlins were as he could. When it went off, there were a bunch of shrill cries of pain, but none of the Gremlins dropped. Rob tensed though, and Ella started casting, so Marc figured he'd achieved his objective.
Somewhere back in the building he heard some cursing.
“That son of a bitch has a Fireball? All I've got is the Flamethrower and Burning Hands spells and I'm a Pyromancer!”
Marc smirked.
Looks like there'll be a few new spells to trade for soon, he thought.
He cast his Arcane Armor spell as the gremlins charged, then pulled out his shield and pilum.
Alright, mission for this fight is to protect our Mage. Maybe she can pull another skill level on Mana Dart with enough targets, he thought.
Based on that premise, Marc began a defensive fight, something his class excelled at. He laid out gremlin after gremlin with Shield Bashes, as Ella tossed out her Mana Darts. Before long she was sending out two darts with each cast.
Once she called out that her mana was low, he jammed his pilum into the dirt. They were fighting too close together for him to take it into his shield hand, he was afraid he'd hurt someone if he tried. Then he started trying to raise the skill of his own Mana Dart spell, throwing spell after spell at the Gremlins.
Much like the kobolds, the gremlins seemed to rely primarily on numbers to overwhelm an opponent, but shortly into the fight Marc had noticed missiles shooting out of some of the windows on the building, and a minute later there were a few more tanks alongside of him. Tanks he didn't know.
There were a couple of robed people in with the tanks and it took Marc a moment to realize that they were robes, not dresses. It wasn't until one of them raised a hand and released a gout of flame that struck several of the gremlins that he realized they were Mages in robes and not just women fighting.
When the gremlins had lost about seventy-five percent of their numbers, one in back let out a warble. As the rest turned to flee, that gremlin started chanting.
Oh, hell no. Not letting a caster get off a spell if I can help it, Marc thought.
When the one beside it started casting also, Marc had to make a choice. He chose the second one, hoping that Jeff was ready to stab the first caster before it finished its spell. His Mana Darts flashed out, striking the second caster and interrupting its spell. It squeaked in terror and its hands flew to its head as the miscast spell apparently backfired.
Meanwhile the first caster had a satisfied look on its face. It had stopped chanting and was leveling its hand, directly at Marc. A moment before it was pointing straight at him, the casting gremlin cringed with its whole body, Jeff appearing behind it. The casters hands flew towards its back where it had been stabbed and when the hand it had been leveling made contact there was a flash of light and the smell of ozone filled the air.
Not waiting to see what else was going to happen, Marc cast two more of his Mana Dart spells at the other caster. With one Mana Dart spell cast on him before Jeff took the primary caster out Marc was sure the second casting of it would drop him. When it didn't he cast the third time, which did finally drop it.
The scorched corpse of the primary caster hit the ground as Jeff hopped around shrieking, having caught part of the lightning the gremlin caster had discharged. Fortunately, the other gremlins didn't try to continue the attack. They'd already been fleeing when they saw both of the casters slain and now that their casters were gone they sped up, breaking apart into groups of one and two before disappearing into the streets, alleys, and buildings of the area.
* * *
People poured out of the building and started looting once the last gremlin was out of sight. As they looted, Kenny looked over to Marc.
“I wasn't sure, but I think maybe you guys can manage to keep a Safe Zone intact. I'll put it to the group, but I'll vote that we join you. Especially with all our non-classed people, it would probably be safer.”
“Sounds great. I'm not criticizing here, just wondering. Why didn't you guys build a Safe Zone out here?”
“We did try, after we cleared the building, we tried to make one. They told me we didn't have the materials, not enough wood, and we could build a temporary one for ten silver. The damned regular gremlins only drop a copper or two each normally though and we just couldn't manage to get a thousand copper to pay for it. We're probably close now, but...”
Marc was torn for a moment before speaking, but these people were trying, they knew what they had to do, or thought they did, and just hadn't been able to manage it yet.
“Well, it's kind of counterintuitive to why we came out here, but once you got classes you should all have gotten System tokens that you can see in your inventory. You can use those to create a permanent Safe Zone if you also have enough other materials.”
“What? I thought they were just an award sort of thing since I couldn't manipulate it.”
“Didn't you read the help on Safe Zones?”
“We tried, but most of it was so much gibberish that we gave up. We figured if we got the temporary one up we might get more help on it. That's how things seem to work now. It just sounded like you needed to have the token to have the capability to build one.”
Marc nodded.
“Yes, it is how things work, mostly. If you access the Safe Zone help now though I bet it's more clear. We noticed the help files clearing up a few days back, becoming much more understandable.”
“We did too, but that's true for all of them? I never thought to go back and look at the ones we'd discounted earlier on,” Kenny said.
“Well, go ahead and give it a shot,” Marc said.
Kenny's eyes unfocused for a moment, after ensuring that there were enough people around alert to avert any sort of attack.
“I'll be damned, it really is. Is that all System Tokens can do though?”
Marc shook his head.
“Nope, if you can get to a System shop, you can use it for other things there. Like Systemizing additional items, or purchasing completely new items.”
“Yeah, and just where are we supposed to find a shop?”
“Any Safe Zone,” Marc said. “If you build one, you should get a shop automatically installed. Or, if you join ours, you can use the one there.”
“Dude, sorry, but I'm gonna have to talk to my guys. Do you mind standing guard for a few? Most of the time the gremlins all leave after a failed attack, but a couple of times one or two have remained around after to try to attack when we lower our guard. Plus, I still never found out the catch to staying at your Safe Zone,” Kenny said.
Marc stood after looting the corpses of the two casters, hiding his grin. He'd just picked up another scroll from the primary caster's corpse.
“Sure, no problem at all. How long do you need?” Marc asked. “The catch though? You have to actually contribute, help the Safe Zone prosper.”
Kenny shrugged.
“Half an hour tops? I hope it's less than that, but you never know with these guys. As for helping out? Well, we've managed to stay alive here by everyone doing that, it shouldn't be a problem.”
Marc finally stopped and actually looked at the people he'd been fighting with. Their armor was significantly better than any but Rob's. Even at that, it was better looking. He could see the ornamental aspects that it had once had, before the obvious scars of battle had marred it. Their weapons looked to be of a decent class, swords, maces, and knives that looked as though they were ready for use.
“What the hell? If you don't have access to a shop, how'd you get the equipment? It looks a lot better than what we had, or still have even,” Marc said.
Kenny grinned.
“Yeah, while LARPers may have gotten the short stick and gotten insulted all the time before, it ends up that their gear, when Systemized at least, is pretty damned awesome.”
Then he turned and called for his group. They clambered in through the windows and disappeared into the building.
Marc was explaining that they were waiting for Kenny to talk to his people. He hadn't been the only one who'd noticed the equipment though and had to explain.
“Live Action Role-Players, you remember, the ones with costumes, padded weapons, and good looking mock armor and the like? Evidently they claimed their LARPing gear and it turned into the real thing.”
Marc shook his head.
“However they did it, they're still alive and they've got a bunch of non-combatants still alive also, so no-one start cracking jokes about what their hobbies used to be, okay?”
Marc stared at Jeff in particular. LARPers were exactly the type of person that Jeff used to love to tease mercilessly. Sometimes even taking it way too far to the point that tempers were flaring and ready to explode.
And if that happens now, with real swords, armor, and magic? No, just no, Marc thought.
Surprisingly Jeff nodded.
“If those guys have as many traps as I think, they could pull me out of Stealth, and they've been surviving attacks like this while keeping others alive? I can cut them some slack and toss some respect their way instead of disdain.”
Marc just stared at Jeff.
“Hey man, they've got to have their own Rogue classes too, what with all those traps,” Jeff added. “Who knows what skills they might have, and if we can trade skills? I'm not going to endanger that, noway, nohow.”
Ella drove her elbow into Jeff's ribs.
“Hey,” he complained.
“Be nice, Jeff,” she said.
“Okaaay,” he replied, stretching the word out until it nearly snapped.
She just shook her head and muttered something about juvenile delinquents.
I ought to introduce her to Conner. Maybe between the two of them they could get Jeff to grow up some? Marc thought.
* * *
Kenny was back out about ten minutes later, all by himself.
“If you don't mind waiting a bit longer? We need to get everybody to head back with you. Are you sure it's safe? We've got almost as many non-classed as we do classed.”
“As safe as anything is currently. We had to kill ogres on the way though and I'm pretty sure nothing is going to have moved into their territory in the last hour or two, so mostly safe at least,” Marc said.
“Okay then. Gotta be as safe as it is here. With the concrete of the building crumbling and the gremlins attacking over and over? It's worth the risk. Be right back, gotta grab my own stuff too.”
The first one out was one of the guys wearing robes. He immediately made his way over to Marc.
“Was that a Fireball I saw you casting earlier on?” he asked.
“Yeah, kind of. I sort of spread out the area of effect, less damage, but I was mainly trying to break their Stealth with the damage, so any at all should have done the trick.”
“Wait, you twisted a spell as you cast it?”
Marc nodded.
“How'd you learn that?”
“The spell or the twisting?” Marc asked.
“Both, definitely both.”
“Well, the Fireball was learned from a scroll.”
The man's face fell.
“Single use?”
Marc nodded.
“Damn!”
“The twisting was another skill I've got. Don't even ask unless you're seriously into math, because that's what magic is in the System. It's just another division of mathematics pretty much, and twisting spells means having to get a basic grasp of that first,” Marc said.
“Well crap, then. All my spells are channel style, I keep having to feed mana into them to keep them going. I'd like some one and done mana cost style spells.”
“I can probably teach you Fireball, or maybe make you a scroll of it,” Marc offered. “If you'll teach me that Flamethrower spell in return.”
The man's scowl spread out into a grin.
“You can make spell scrolls?”
“Yup, Scribe skill does that.”
“I think I like you already. Name's Joshua, by the way.”
“Marc.”
“We'll talk about this more later, okay? I want to make sure the other Pyromancers know that we've got a chance to learn new spells. They've got the same problem, channeled costs. I think it's because of how we got the class that it's feeding us channeled stuff, but I don't know.”
“How—”
Marc had started to ask him how he got his class, but Joshua had disappeared back into the building by the time he got the sentence started.
I'll ask him on the way back, we'll have plenty of time during the walk, Marc thought.
Twenty minutes later they were ready to leave. Some of the non-classed people weren't in the best shape and Marc worried about them making the two and a half mile walk back to the Safe Zone, but he also wasn't about to just leave them.
Maybe we can throw together something wheeled to help them if they can't keep up, or a travois type of thing? The tanks are probably strong enough to drag a travois with one of them, but that would be a problem if we got into combat. Damn, we need some sort of wheeled transport to take with us when we go out to find people, he thought.
He was worried that any people they found from now on weren't going to be in the best shape any more and if he could find something like that, it would make things easier.
Make it easier to recover more other stuff too. Just get it into the Safe Zone and worry about restoring it later on maybe?
He shrugged. There was nothing he could do about any of that at the moment, he just needed to make sure people were keeping their eyes on the road.
But a little talking wouldn't hurt, he thought.
Spotting Joshua, he walked over.
“Hey, I was wondering about something you said earlier. Channeled spells because of how you got your class? How did you get it?” Marc asked.
“Oh,” Joshua said, then chuckled uncomfortably. “Well, when the shit hit the fan we had all claimed our LARPing gear and ended up with decent weapons and armor, right? Hell, this robe acts like light armor for me even. Anyhow, no-one got a class right away, not until they did something to earn it. Mostly fighting, you know? Anyhow, there I am trying to figure out how to get a Mage class, except I was pretty much useless the first fight because I hadn't figured it out. I only had these dinky throwing knives for weapons.”
