Defenses were built on three sides, a labyrinth of spider webs, with dog-sized tarantula patrolling within it. Then the Chinese joined, making a giant half-circle around their temporary bosses. An anonymous Dartmouth student coined a nickname for their neighbors: the Auszeals. Some even suggested Zealaus because of the resemblance with Zealous, but it didn’t catch.
What their rivals wanted was obvious: to assault Dartmouth with overwhelming force and gain easy points. Taking the game seriously, Ariana tasked Peter to get two spiders for her, one alive and one dead. He indulged, as now they were on the same side, and keeping a team member happy was worth the effort. Warping in Stealth, Peter cut a monster's head with the cleaver, throwing a sack on the second monster. When he returned to the camp, the girl managed to tame the living beast and left the carcass in her tent for later dissection.
With that task done, they proceeded to Redroar’s village, but this time on foot, for physical training. A few miles jog was now easy for Peter but hard for Daniel and torture for Naomi. Regina and Ariana coped well enough.
"You're late," the Barbarian snapped when they showed up on the training grounds.
"Sorry," Peter said. "We had to inspect an enemy camp before we came."
"Don’t expect me to stay overtime. Today, we'll work on your strengths. Ariana, you told me yesterday you’re a beastmaster of sorts.”
“A Tamer, sir, yes sir!” Ariana bellowed, taking a military salute stance with no logic or sense and almost poking one of her own eyes in the process.
“You and my kids will go and hunt bilghies."
"Use your pet—"
"Pets, plural, now," the girl opened her rucksack and produced Shredder and the spider.
"Iiiiii!" Redroar screamed, jumping back. "Put it away, put it away!" Her cubs had about the same reaction, hiding behind her.
“It’s domesticated,” Ariana said. “See?” she made the spider climb on her arm, settling on the shoulder.
C’mon… She’s mercantile, but not a bandit.
Shaking her fear off, the mercenary continued, her fangs showing through her clenched jaws: "So be it. Use your pets to kill a bilghie. Choose an old male trailing behind the herd; don’t touch the cows and the calves. Bilghies never forget and follow scents. Trust me, you don’t want to have a stampede upon your camp. After you hunt the beast, skin it. The hide is good for clothes or armor. Kids, you must be brave and accept being around that… abomination."
"Moooom," a girl wailed.
"Does your ability require you to bond with the creatures you tame?" Reroar ignored the cub's plea.
"Depends," Ari said. "If I want to keep it, yes."
"Don't. Domesticate two young males and bring them here. There's a bounty for mounts. I'll take the reward, and you will be satisfied with a well-done job. Don't rush at the herd until my litter explains what to do. Off you go," Redroar flickered the back of her hand. "Naomi, you’re a brainiac. Go to the village and ask my husband to allow you access to every bounty in the area."
"I'm n-not m-made f-for this kind of j-job," the girl stuttered, scared by the prospect of fighting.
"Every team has to have an analyst. You’re the first step on your team’s path to success. Pretend you have to hunt a bandit group and analyze patterns. See if you can detect their base.”
“Aye, captain!” Naomi blurted in a salute as pointless as Ariana’s and ran away. First toward the forest and only after being redirected by the lioness to the village
“Now, sweet cheeks," Redroar turned toward Regina, "What is your specialty?”
“Heals and Debuffs. I use dolls to transfer healing or CCs,” the girl said softly. She appeared intimidated by the lioness.
“That’s a good specialization. I'll have to train these two brick heads to fight for a while, but later, I'll show you how to craft puppets. My folks had a souvenir shop back when I was a cub, and we made our products ourselves."
"Great," Regina nodded. "May I watch you training them?"
"Suit yourself. Try to learn from it."
"Thanks!" Regina cheered and went to sit on the grass, propping her back on a fallen tree.
“C’mon, meatball,” Redroar beckoned the cook. “Show me what you learned.”
First, Redroar spared against Daniel. She was pulling her punches, but the man was faring better than the day before. She was correcting his stance and footwork now and then, and Peter tried to memorize her indications.
Maybe the fight from the camp helped him progress… or get back in shape.
“Now, imagine you have a bounty on your head and see me coming at you,” Redroar told Daniel. “What do you do?”
“For sure, not going into a close fight,” the man laughed. “Use a gun?”
“A gun, huh? Why don’t you try? Shot at me.”
“For real? I mean... I can switch to rubber bullets, but won’t it hurt?”
“Only if you hit me,” Redroar said. “Go for it.”
Hesitantly, Daniel unholstered his gun, replaced the magazine, and tried to aim at a leg. Redroar moved the limb out of the way a fraction of the second before the bullet hit. Despite his repeated exclamations of ‘what the fuck’ Daniel didn’t manage to hit Redroar at all. The next bullets missed as well until the gun clicked empty, and she held her claws at his throat.
“Second IQ test, and you failed it too... Do you think a few pew-pew will stop me? If you see me coming at you, run, throwing money and valuables behind you. I’ll stop collecting, and you’ll escape with your life.”
“Go to the village and ask hubby to let you in my training hall. You will see a sparring dummy and a large painting with basic exercises. Practice. Hey, are you paying attention?" Redroar snatched Peter off his daydreaming. "Your turn. Take this," she threw him a hundred-inch stick, the equivalent of a javelin or a spear. "I saw what you did to him yesterday. Try to do it with a weapon and plant that stick into a tree."
"Oh!" Peter exclaimed. “Never thought of it.”
Facing a large tree, Peter began to execute a series of thrusting motions, adding his Phase. It was indeed a hard task. Being a dual skill, his ability borrowed from Warp’s anti-collision protocol, stopping short of obstacles. Doing it with his index finger has been easier, instinctive. Not that he was eager to stick his arm inside a tree.
The stick reappeared for the first ten tries before it hit the tree, banging on the bark. Peter reduced his motions to the minimum the eleventh time, thinking hard: C'mon skill, let it go forward.
Suddenly, there was a hard shock in his hands, the wooden shaft meeting more resistance than before. It was stuck inside the tree for ten inches. He had to Phase again before managing to pull the staff out.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Does it hurt the trees if he leaves holes in it?" Regina asked, her voice showing panic.
"Err… no, I’m sure they regenerate. It's a very sturdy species," Redroar said.
"Good," Regina nodded, satisfied, which meant that the System had sent the previous message only to Peter.
I'll stab those dry saplings over there.
Ten minutes and a Mana pill later, his movements have become swift and efficient.
"Now try that against yours truly," Redroar said. “Come at me with everything you got, I won’t attack back.”
Knowing better than not obeying her orders, Peter tried his best but aimed at Redroar's shoulder. In the worst-case scenario, she'd receive a flesh wound. Nevertheless, however hard he tried, Redroar easily avoided his attacks, hitting his head with a twig when she thought his footwork was faulty.
“Now, let’s say you see a bounty hunter approaching you. What do you do?” Redroar asked, forwarding a hand to signal him to stop attacking.
“Err... run as fast as I can and throw money behind me?”
“Are you stupid?” Redroar let out a roar of laughing. “Use a gun. I said a bounty hunter, not me. With me, you run. With somebody else,” she mimicked a gun with her fingers, “shot. Good. You’re improving. If you train hard, you might stand toe to toe with me one day."
"Thank you," Peter bowed. "But this is not that day. You’re seeing the future, right? That’s how you’re avoiding bullets and my hits."
Redroar froze. “How did you figure it out?”
Peter opted for an elaborate explanation to look smart and impress Regina. “Like our detective stories say: when you take out the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, is the truth. And I saw you move even before Daniel moved his index. Thus, you can see in the future... by a few seconds?”
"That’s a secret, and it will stay so,” she frowned.
“It goes without saying,” Peter bowed his head.
“Stay here and train whatever you want, I'll take your missy and show her how to craft stuff."
"You did great. I'm impressed," Regina whispered to Peter, biting his earlobe before following the Barbarian to the village.
Left alone, Peter took a few minutes' break, then decided to test something else. What if he tried to connect his Mana to a projectile, influencing its trajectory after the launch, like a guided missile?
Imagining a line of Mana linking him to the javelin, Peter aimed a throw as far as he could. It failed, but he added a Kinetic Impulse the second time, and it worked.
You have unlocked Guidance (Mythical Rare co-skill, novice level), an added effect of your Kinetic Impulse. Projectiles can be guided after leaving your hand, but the Kinetic Impulse’s bonuses are halved. Increase your co-skills level with practice to reach perfection.
The Mana consumption was huge, and he had to rest again. Taking another Mana pill so soon after the other was out of the question because it caused nausea and disorientation. He went to sit next to the tree Regina used.
"Yep."
"Hit me!"
Achievements Rewards:
For improvising a plan on the spot and winning a 'Get the Flag' challenge: + 2 INT
For designing a bespoke weapon (Cleaver+polearm): +2 INT
For unlocking a dual aspect (Phase) of Warp: +5 Magic Power
For your overall performance during the achievements: +2 in each Constitution, Concentration, and Will.
Will has reached the Journeyman tier
You have reached level 23 and received 3 free APs
That’s fantastic!
Peter closed his eyes for a second, summoning his Character Menu. His weakest stat was Concentration.
“I guess concentration helps me... concentrate?”
“Then I’ll put my available points in it,” Peter said, calling his stats up.
Peter Hillden, Age: 25, Class: Impulse, Lvl. 23
Strength: 61 / Dexterity: 70 / Constitution: 34
Intelligence: 31 / Will: 41 / Concentration: 26
Charisma: 40 / Luck: 41 / Magic Power: 30
General Skills:
Impulse related: Kinetic Impulse (Novice), Phase-Warp (Apprentice), Strong Lightning Affinity (Novice), Strong Earth Affinity (Novice), Weak Fire Affinity (Novice), Physical Augmentation (Novice), Physical Restraint (Novice)
Influence (Apprentice)
Inspect (Apprentice)
Sneak (Apprentice)
Stealth (Novice)
Loot (Apprentice)
Multiple Weapons Proficiency. General Civilian Skills.
“So… ” Peter let out a deep breath. “Can I finally see my resource pools?”
HPs=Level+Constitution x 10 = 570
Average HP regen rate: 6.8%/hour = [(Constitution x 2) /10] %
MPs= Level+Magic Power x 10 = 530
Average MP regen rate: 1%/minute = (Magic Power x 2)%/hour
Average skills cost:
Kinetic Impulse, Loot, and Inspect: 25 MP; any skill related to Lightning, Earth, Physical Augmentation, or Physical Restraint: 30 MP; Activating Guidance: 5 MP; Maintaining Guidance: 5MP/sec; Activation of Sneak: 20 MP, Activation of Stealth: 50 MP; Maintaining Sneak and/or Stealth more than 1 second: 5 MP/sec; Activation of Warp: 30 MP, Activation of Phase: 50 MP. Maintaining Phase over 1 second: 5MP/sec; Chained Warp (a Warp activated within 5 seconds after the previous one): 10 MPs. Maintaining Terravolt: 50 MP/sec.
The costs didn’t look so big, but Peter realized combining skills was where things added up, depleting his Mana Pool in no time.
Shit! I have to invest in Magic… "Thanks, System.”
“Err… question: Why does it say average?”
“Explaining: imagine throwing punches, some soft, some hard. Would it make sense they'd consume the same amount of energy? Information: your Mana costs are much higher than those of your friends. They have practiced using Mana for a year. Nevertheless, your skills are orders of magnitude higher in power.>
A cluster of chaotic noises attracted Peter’s attention. Two buffalos appeared in the distance, approaching fast. On the first rode Ariana, with a hide rolled on itself behind; on the other, the cubs, cheering and somersaulting. Shredder was running around the group, barking.
The girl let her slip down the buffalo, which was taken over by one of the cubs. Before leaving for the village, all cubs, as one, lined up and pulled their tongue on her.
"My butt is killing me," she complained, letting herself lay on the grass near Peter.
"Yeah, riding is not as easy as it looks. What happened to your face?" Peter asked because she was full of scratches.
"They happened,” she hissed, pointing to the cubs. “The mutts killed the spider immediately after it helped me hunt the buffalo. Shot it with slings. I was furious, spanked one, then they all jumped on me, and voila," Ariana pointed at her cheeks.
"If you roll on the ground, they jump off you," he offered advice and a Health pill.
She shrugged and closed her eyes. After a minute, she sighed. “I was feeling guilty and tried to project it on you.”
“Sorry?”
“When we broke up… I was attracted to Melinda… smitten with her, and tried to blame you. That you were too soft, too weak, let me go too easily, or… whatever… never mind,” she shivered. “It was me all along. I felt guilty, and I behaved like a bitch.”
“Let bygones be bygones,” Peter said frankly.
“It hurts…” Ariana said. “Being with Melinda… knowing she sees other people… I wonder if this is how I hurt you.”
“I cried three days in a row, but when you started to act like the bad bitch of the West, it helped me get over it,” Peter confessed. “I imagined being married with you, twenty years for now, and wishing to shoot myself.” She giggled, and he patted her hand. “Give it time… things will sort themselves out. I don’t think Kostel is her type.”
She shrugged and closed her eyes again, laying still. Peter couldn't know whether she was sleeping, but he let her rest and went a hundred yards farther to practice his new moves again.
Naomi and the rest arrived about an hour later. “Hey!” the girl said, her voice echoing with happiness. “I got a plus-five in Intelligence and Concentration!”
“How high are they?” Peter asked.
“High Journeyman tier.”
That’s not fair! We’re toe to toe at the university. I can’t be half as smart as her!
“And I found patterns in the bandit attacks and determined probable locations for their bases,” Naomi continued.
“And let me guess. Naomi is satisfied with a job well done, and you will collect those bounties, right?” Peter looked at the lioness, noticing the large grin on Redroar’s face.
“But of course,” the Barbarian said. “That’s how training works.”
“You should pay us a percentage.”
“It’s OK, baby, I learned many useful things,” Regina interjected.
“And I got a valuable armor ingredient for a very reasonable price,” Daniel said, showing them the bilghie hide, now tanned, evidently through magic. “
Geez, that woman sure has a way to exploit us… Peter rolled his eyes. Takes synergy to another new level.
“It’s so rewarding to see you happy,” Redroar said. “Let’s wipe those stupid smiles off your face. Take a staff and come at me all at the same time,” she threw a bunch of sticks on the ground.
For the next spar, Redroar used Daniel—the meatiest of them— as a shield, often grabbing him at the last moment, making sure he intercepted the heaviest hits. That alternated with throwing the cook as a projectile, only at Peter, who dodged most hits, but not all, leaving them with a couple of bruised ribs.
Victory eluded them despite giving their best. They had lunch in the village at noon, trained individually some more, and then returned to the camp in the afternoon. All was smooth until midnight.