They stood behind metal barricades as soldiers removed stacks of tables and chairs weighed down with sand bags. Meanwhile, other Ministry personnel stood behind tripod mounted machine guns, aiming at the entrance to the mess hall fingers on triggers.
“The corridor through there,” Gideon asked, directing the question to Book. “Is it compromised, or will we still be able to breathe?”
“You’ll be fine,” Book said. “There are stairs just beyond the mess hall which lead down to the eastern subterranean section of the base. Our readings show that airflow is still fine down there, and you should still have lighting and power. Once you’re down the stairs, a main corridor will lead you past several sleeping quarters and down to a storage area at the far end. That’s where the spare generator is.”
Red frowned.
“If it’s all underground then why the hell haven’t you guys just gone down there to pick it up?”
Book turned to the other man. “The air is breathable, and you’ve got basic power, but it’s not exactly safe. There are at least three Stalkers down below. They got in when the attack first started and we haven’t had time to clear out this section of the base yet. The Commander thought it would be easier to just barricade it up until we were ready to push.”
Gideon nodded. “So, if we can clear out this section of the base and get the generator, we’ll be helping you out twice.”
“Exactly. The generator is the priority, of course, but if you’re able to kill all the enemy combatants down there it would be hugely helpful. Most of our efforts have been directed to defending the base from outside and we simply haven’t been able to spare the resources to clear out that area.”
SIDE MISSION: Clear the Bunker
Kill all enemy combatants within the Lunar station bunker.
STALKER’S KILLED: 0/3
REWARD: 5 Enhancement Points Each
“Remind me again,” Red asked, “how many of these points to we need before we can level up our class?”
Mia smirked. “And by remind me you mean tell me because I don’t have a clue how any of this works?”
“Yeah, if you like.”
“Need to reach a hundred core stat points,” Gideon said, watching the soldiers clear away the barricade. “It doesn’t matter how you’ve assigned the points, but you need a hundred in total to level up. Usually, you’d have to be at a guild hall or a hunting lodge to do that, but I guess it will work differently here.”
“A hundred points?” Red asked, screwing up his face. “And we only get them when we complete missions?”
“Mostly,” Mia agreed. “On Artemis you sometimes get them for killing the bigger monsters as well, or on reaching certain milestones. Like, if you kill a thousand monsters you get a bonus, that kind of thing.”
“So, we’re gonna need to do another ten or twenty of these damned missions just to reach the next level?” Red complained.
Gideon nodded. “Sounds about right. I’m not sure how it’s going to work here, but on Artemis the difficulty scales as well. Basically, the requirement doubles each level that you go up. So, it’ll take a hundred points to get from Novice to Initiate, then two hundred points to get from Initiate to Adept.”
47:20
Gideon navigated to the small journal icon on his HUD and opened it up, moving through familiar pages until he got to the class guide section of the manual. Gideon broadcast his display and motioned for Red to come over and take a look.
“This is a list of the requirements to go up each level. I’m assuming it will be similar here to what it is on Artemis, but here could be differences I guess.”
** CLASS ADVANCEMENT REQUIREMENTS **
Novice: 100
Initiate: 200
Adept: 400
Sentinel: 800
Exemplar: 1600
Paragon: 3200
Ascendant: 6400
“Your average mission will give you, what, five points?” Gideon asked Mia.
She nodded. “I think that’s about the average yeah. Bigger missions might give you ten but there are a whole bunch that only offer one point as a reward.”
“Right,” Gideon continued, “so, if we say three points on average, it’s gonna take us about twenty missions total to reach Novice level. Then forty missions to reach Initiate.”
“Shit!” Red blurted. “How many is it gonna take to reach the top level?”
Gideon shrugged. “Twelve hundred give or take. But that’s not the highest level. Once you reach ascendancy, you get access to the two top levels, Sovereign and Transcendent. Basically god-tier levels that only a few hunters have ever reached. They don’t have the same level requirements because they change every year.”
“Change how?” Red asked.
“Depends,” Mia said, her eyes bright with excitement. “It might relate to a specific hunt schedule, or some kind of arena event where the top hunters have to duke it out PVP style. They usually announce it at the beginning of each season.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Gideon said. “We’re so far away from anything approaching that level that there’s not point even thinking about it. The first goal is to get to Adept as quickly as possible. That’s when a lot of the really cool abilities kick in.”
“That’s why you can’t afford to sleep on side missions,” Mia said. “Most hunters take everything they can get because it takes so long to farm enough points to get to the higher levels.”
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
The clatter of chairs falling on the floor drew their attention and the trio turned to face the newly made entrance into the subterranean section of the station. A screech followed shortly after, echoing through the area below and bouncing off the walls in the mess hall. It was an unearthly scream that sent a chill up Gideon’s spin. Without realizing it, he’d draw one of the Stalker talons and found that both Mia and Red were similarly armed.
The soldiers closest to the opening backed away, reaching for their sidearms and facing the newmade hole as their companions aimed machine guns at the space. Once more a screech ripped through the air and some of the troops visibly flinched in response.
Crouching low, Gideon moved toward the opening with Red on his right side and Mia at his left.
“Question, Book,” he said, not taking his eyes off the dark hole leading into the depths of the station. “If all you had here were sandbags and a few pieces of furniture, why didn’t the Stalkers try to escape? For that matter, why aren’t they charging toward us right now.”
“We don’t know,” Book offered weakly. “They attacked us during the opening fight and found their way down into the storage area. For some reason, they haven’t tried to get back up again.”
Gideon nodded.
“Just a piece of advice,” he said, walking toward the opening, his eyes locked on the dark space. “That kind of thing is probably worth mentioning up front for this kind of mission.”
“Is it important?” Book asked. “I figured it would be best to tell you what we do know rather than what we don’t.”
“If something’s keeping them down there,” Gideon replied, approaching the edge of the whole, “then it’s probably important.”
“Fair point,” Book said from behind them. “I’ll be sure to consider that next time.”
Red grunted. “If there is a next time.”
Once they’d made it up to the opening, Gideon paused. He turned to Red, motioning toward the gap with his talon blade.
“You wanna do the honors?”
“Fuck no!” Red blurted. “Walk inside some creepy ass whole. One of those Stalker bastards is probably waiting just out of view, ready to stick me the moment I get within sight.”
“You’re the tank though? You’re whole purpose is to head into situations like this head first and take the brunt of the damage.”
“I’ll help,” Mia said. “I’ll stay close enough to heal you if you need it.”
Red looked utterly bemused. “What the hell are you two smoking?” He pointed into the opening. “It’s a creepy ass hole and I’ve only got one offensive ability. Well, two, but one of them is throwing shit and that’s hardly going to be much use in close quarters like this.”
“What ability?” Mia asked.
He shrugged. “Titan’s Cleave. Says it does area of effect damage in front of me. I picked it up when I snagged the sword.”
Gideon shook his head. “Your offensive abilities don’t matter as much as damage mitigation and aggro generation. You’ve got at least one ability that can reduce damage—”
“Two,” Red corrected, holding up two fingers with his free hand. “Unbreakable Bastion and Colossus Stance. I picked that second one up with the sword as well.”
“There you go,” Gideon said. “Two ways to mitigate damage.”
“Yeah, but I’m telling you there’s no way in hell I’m stepping in there first. Maybe once our AI Tutors are fixed and I can pick up some of that sweet, sweet ether. But until then, I ain’t charging into any black holes unless I can see an enemy with my own two eyes.”
“Fine,” Gideon said, shaking his head. “I’ll go. Just stay close and keep your eyes open. If I have to use Shadow Step or Shadow Veil I’m gonna basically disappear and that means you’ll have to tank whatever I’m fighting until I can put it down.”
Red nodded. “No trouble, bossman. I got no issue fighting something I can see, but I’m not—”
“Charging into any holes,” Gideon finished. “Yeah, I get the picture.”
45:15
He turned back and led the way through the cluster of chairs and tables stacked to either side, his boot gently pressing against the concrete stairs leading down into darkness. Gideon was tempted to trigger his stealth ability just because it might help his eyes adjust to the darkness, but a ten-second burst of invisibility would probably turn out to be a waste if he triggered it this early.
Instead, he summoned a second talon dagger into his other hand, reasoning that he might be able to react quicker to a sudden attack if he had a weapon in both hands. Of course, he hadn’t had much practice with dual weaponry, not that he’d had that much experience with anything though, other than sitting on his ass watching the Great Hunt feeds in his underwear.
Once more a screech cut through the air and Gideon stopped dead on the stairs. He scanned the area ahead, waiting for his eyes to acclimatize to the low light.
There were dim orange lights illuminating the stairway and corridor up ahead, but they seemed to be on quarter power or something, barely offering enough light to see three or four feet ahead. As he continued walking and the corridor stretched out before him, Gideon saw more of the lights running along the ceiling, but they did little to disburse the gloom.
There were two doors to either side of the corridor, spaced around thirty feet apart. At the end of the corridor was an open hatch where either a door was hanging open or had never existed.
As the trio moved further into the corridor a small map appeared on the top right section of Gideon’s HUD.
“Minimap’s come online,” he whispered.
“Not for me,” Red hissed.
“Me neither,” Mia said. “Must be something to do with the Artemis System.”
Gideon nodded, quickly examining the map. There were no warning dots on the map, so he had no indication where enemies might be lurking, but he could see from where he was standing that all the doors along the corridor were closed.
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” Red whispered.
“Well,” Mia said, “Probably for the same reason they haven’t tried to break out of this place. There’s obviously something down here that they’re interested in.”
“Like a generator?” Red reasoned. “You know, the one we’re down here to find?”
Gideon shook his head. “Why would a species capable of interstellar travel be interested in a small, portable generator. My guess is they’ve got stuff much more advanced than anything we could manage.”
“Fair point,” Red agreed. “Must be something those bastards have a hard on for down here though.”
They continued making their way through the corridor eyes becoming steadily more accustomed to the low light. Gideon stayed alert, hoping to pick up on any stealthier enemies nearby with his newly acquired Stealth Sense.
As he came to the first door, he moved up to it and placed an ear against the cold metal. After a few seconds listening and hearing nothing, he opened the door, stepping back a little. The room was a small, rectangular space with bunks arranged on either side and a small desk on both sides of the room space between the bunks.
The room looked relatively neat and tidy but seemed as though it was definitely lived in. It didn’t seem as though any of the aliens had ventured inside, however, so Gideon stepped back out, shaking his head as he moved to the opposite side of the corridor to try the second door.
“Dude, what the hell are you doing?” Red hissed. “Just head to the doorway at the end.”
Gideon ignored him, leaning an ear against the other door and listening. Once more he heard nothing and gently opened the door. A similar bunk room revealed itself though with a slightly funkier smell inside. He left the room and moved on down the corridor as Mia whisper shouted at Red.
“He’s checking to see if anyone is going to come up behind us. It’s basic military tactics. Clear the area as you move though to make sure you don’t end up with a knife in your back at an inconvenient moment.”
“Just seems like we’re burning time,” Red protested.
As Gideon moved toward the next door, a skill notification appeared in his HUD.
Tactical Insight +1
He grinned, ignoring the notification and leaning an ear against the door. Hearing nothing, he opened it up and found yet another empty bunk room.
“I mean, one room I could understand,” Red continued. “But all four rooms? We’re gonna be here forever and that screeching bastard is down here somewhere. With two friend apparently.”
“The screeching bastard is staying put,” Mia hissed back, “probably guarding whatever they’ve found down here. And we need to check all the rooms because what if we miss the one room that has a Stalker in it? How would you feel if one of those came up behind you in the middle of a fight.”
41:33
Gideon moved to the final door, keeping an eye on the archway at the end of the corridor. He couldn’t see anything but darkness up ahead, but the mini map showed a large space up ahead which, according to Book, was where they would find the generator, and likely three Stalkers.
As he pressed an ear against the final bedroom door, Gideon ignored Red’s continued chatter. It still baffled Gideon how anyone could enter the Great Hunt lottery with no experience at all. Even if Red had come into the experience with nothing, he could have quickly red up before being uploaded into his echo. There were literally hundreds of introductory videos that would give you an Intro 101 on the Artemis System and everything related to the Great Hunt in under an hour.
He heard nothing and so gently pushed the door open. It was another bunk room, but something on the floor had caught his eye. It looked like someone had spilled oil on the floor and tracked sticky footprints through the room.
As he caught sight of the dead soldier lying in the shadows to the rear of the room, he felt a thrill of urgent excitement and dread. Gideon had less than half a second to react as the drone Stalker lunged from behind the dead soldier and drove its twin claws into his chest.