《Another 3:00 AM Invasion》


 Thinking of a future that will not be

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    <td style="width: 98.527607%; text-align: center">Congratulations !</td>


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 Magical Jack is a class?

    Oooh my head is killing me. I should really stop drinking so much when going out with my friends. I made a weird dream.


    Then I realize it is not a hangover when I hear shouting outside and pounding on my door.


    What to do, what to do, wait don''t panic. I start taking a few deep breaths to anchor myself. A blinking blue dot appear on the right top corner of my vision and when I concentrate on it a blue screen appears in front of me.


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    Notifications


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    You have several notifications available do you want to read them now?


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    I freeze an undefined time (a few seconds only in fact) then think: A system? This is a damn system. Am I dreaming of being in a game or what?


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    Nope. Sorry this is real. Get a grip man. You know what. I think you have other priorities now. Come back to me when you are not trying to survive the next minute.


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    The window collapse and a solid blue dot appear on the right top corner.


    Ok I got a system and a snarky one it seems. Let¡¯s go back to my current situation. These creatures can be killed but I need something more effective than random appliances. First consolidate my door barricade then find some weapon.


    I start to gather and pile furniture against the door in order to gain a few more minutes. I, then, quickly go past my bedroom to my workshop. I look thoughtfully around the room. My worktable is full of tools, electronic and mechanical components, and various scraps. Nothing there is of immediate interest apart from some tape roll.


    In a corner is my cosplay stuff. I grab my leather corset. It is one of the few items that are real as can be. What I considered as a nice prop until now should give me some basic protection to start with. As I am used to wearing it when staying at the market, it should not hinder me a lot. I quickly put on my leather boots and discard everything else on this side. Unfortunately, all my cosplay weapons are fakes made of foam.


    I then focus on the crate containing my portable forge. I grab my heavier forge hammer hoping it will be enough as a secondary weapon.


    Back to my kitchen I grab a good kitchen knife and a broom handle. Removing the unnecessary part, I tape the knife to the 1-meter-long wood staff in order to create an improvised short spear.


    As I finish the weapon, I hear that the bashing against my door is now becoming hacking.


    Going back to the door as ready as I can be I get a glimpse of the axe.


    I don¡¯t like my odds of a short spear versus a war axe. I need to find something to better my odds.


    I focus on the blue dot. System you there?


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    Of course, what sort of question is that? Like I could go somewhere else!


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    Anything you can give me to improve my odds?


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    Not my role here but I will give you your notifications


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    The System has been successfully installed. You can now use it at its full capacity.


    Throw skill discovered. You can now throw a toaster and hit an elephant with some accuracy.


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    Throw increase by 1. Yeah, you can hit a rhinoceros with some accuracy.


    You killed a feral goblin. 100 XPs awarded


    You are now level 1


    You gained 1 attribute point


    Due to your original first fight, you have been given a random skill


    Random skill selected: identification


    Class selection is now available


    Improvised weapon crafting skill discovered.


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    When I see the notification for the skills, I feel like some knowledge has been imparted to me about them. It is quite nice as I find that a few more rolls of tape are needed if I really want my spear to be useful.


    A class? Can you give me the list? I hope I can find something immediately useful.


    The system then displays an enormous list.


    Any way to reduce that list?


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    Yes, you can just filter like you would do in your favorite search engine


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    I fiddle a little with the filter to a few interesting classes.


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    Battle Mage: A magic user who focus on combat. Complement his magic with some fighting skills


    Wizard: A powerful spellcaster whose spells are based on intense study and magical theory.


    Sorcerer: A magic user who made a contract with an external entity to gain power


    Runesmith: Empower runes with mana to create powerful effects.


    Witch: A practitioner of mundane magic.


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    Some seriously interesting stuff there but each of them seems to focus on some part of magic which bothers me. And then I stumble on the one I know I will not pass


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    Magical Jack: A Jack of all trades on all magic possibilities. Magic knowledge is vast, and your starting experience will be very limited. It will accrue through level progression or discovery and research.


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    Yes, that¡¯s what I call the jackpot. I want to select Magical Jack as a class.


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    Magical Jack class selected. As of level 1 you gain the following:


    Mana attribute unlocked. Your current mana is 200/200 mana regen rate .8 per seconds


    Mana sight unlocked. You can perceive mana when you activate your mana sight


    spellcasting unlocked


    You have gained a free starting spell to choose at your convenience.


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    Looks good. Can you give me a list of starting spells to choose from?


    The list is quite short, and I quickly select the one that should help my immediate survival.


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    Mana bolt spell learned. Not really a Kamehameha but perhaps you can tickle your enemies to death.


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    As the mana bolt spell knowledge enter my mind, I know my odds dramatically improved.


    Can I have a summary of everything? Like a status? And of course, a status screen appears.


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    Status


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    Name: Damien


    Level: 1


    XP to next level: 0 on 200


    Class: Magical Jack


    Profession: None


    Muscle: 10


    Agility: 12


    Vitality: 9


    Stamina: 5


    Wit: 12


    Will: 8


    You have 1 unassigned attribute point


    Hit points: 90/90 Regeneration 0.5


    Mana: 200/200 mana regen rate .8 per seconds


    Skills


    Throw: 2


    Identification: 1


    Improvised weapon crafting: 1


    Mana sight: 1


    Spellcasting: 1


    Mana bolt: 1


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    I will dig on the attributes and some skills later. Now is the time to see if my spear and my mana bolt can help me.


    I ready myself as much as I can looking at the growing opening in the door.


    Finally, a good chunk of it drops down and a few seconds later a feral goblin enters the corridor. I immediately thrust my spear towards it successfully skewering it but as I try to retrieve it, I only get the broom handle as the goblin in its death throes cut the tape with its claws. Oh crap.


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    You defeated a feral goblin + 100 XPs.


    Spear skill discovered.


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    Another feral goblin finds its way through the hole in the door, and I launch my first mana bolt at it.


    It is not tickling the creature which hisses at me looking in pain. I answer it quickly with another mana bolt in the face and see it crumble.


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    You defeated a feral goblin + 100 XPs.


    You are now level 2.


    You gained 1 attribute point


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    Nice.


    An intense pain blossoms on my side. While I was distracted by the notification, one of the warriors sent its javelin through the door. That¡¯s bad, really bad. I am feeling dizzy due to the shock and my blood is flowing through the wound. Seems my corset saved me an immediate death.


    And if that was not enough, this warrior is getting through the hole with a short sword in hand.


    I am toasted! Again?

 To die or to level ?

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    So, he got a really lucky strike? Time to power through that stuff.


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    Less than half my hit points and I still need to deal with the grunt and probably with the shaman.


    I need some quick plan or I will not survive both.


    Ok, that should occupy them some time. I will get around them as discreetly as possible. If I can disable the shaman quickly enough I should be able to deal with the grunt.


    Great that will cover my noise easily.


    It should be far enough for me to go behind the two goblins.


    I could have been a burglar, nah magic is a lot more cooler.


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    <td>Discretion skill learned</td>


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    Nice.


    Hum seems to look like a kind of enhancing. It should distract the caster so I can deal with him. I just hope the enhancement will stop shortly after else I am in a kind of hell.


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    <td>0 mana left. You suffer mana depletion</td>


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    Ouch mana depletion is a nightmare. How could I prevent that. Eh system, anyway to always know my mana and increase it ?


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    Displaying a mana bar now


    Increase your attributes dummy


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    Oh hum thanks ?


    Can I get an explanation of the attributes first ?


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    Muscle is your general physical ability and mesure you capacity to do feats of strength. It increases damages when fighting in close combat with or  without weapon.


    Agility is your general attribute for dexterity feats. It increases your success rate for combat range


    Vitality represents the health of your body and your resistance to physical difficulties like disease and poisons. It directly helps to calculate you hit points


    Stamina is how long you can continue to do exhausting feats. It also relates to your hitpoints regeneration speed


    Wit is you ability to perform logic and deductions. It also impact your speed of thought, your memory and your capacity to do magic. It sums with will to determine your mana amount.


    Will is to your mind what vitality is to your body. It represents you capacity to resist any mental difficulties like mental magics or stressful situation. It also directly correlate to speed or mana recovery.


    Do you want to see your remaining notifications now ?


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    Yes


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    You defeated a goblin grunt +200 xps and a shaman goblin + 300 xps


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    Nice. Ok show me my stat page.


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    Name: Damien


    Level: 3


    XP to next level: 0 on 1000


    Class: Magic Jack


    Profession: None


    Muscle: 10


    Agility: 12


    Vitality: 9


    Stamina: 5


    Wit: 12


    Will: 8


    Hit points: 41/90 Regeneration 0.5


    Mana: 200/200 mana regen rate .8 per seconds


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    Throw: 2


    Identification: 1


    Improvised weapon crafting: 1


    Mana sight: 1


    Mastery of magic: 2


    Spellcasting (class specific): 2


    Spells:


    Mana bolt: 2


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    Hum add 1 to will and 1 to wit for the magic part. Let''s add 1 to stamina as it is quite low.That really explains why I cannot climb stair without thinking I will die.


    Also can you explain Mastery of magic, spellcasting and class skill point ?


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    Mastery of magic helps you unlock new magic capacities. Each points in it allow to directly gain a new class specific skill. It increases every odd level. Spell casting is not counted against this total.


    Spellcasting directly reflect the number of spell that are granted to you. It is one of your class specific skill.


    class skill points can be spent to increase any skill oriented towards you class. In your case any and all magic oriented. You gain one point every level starting at level 3


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    Nice. What to choose? I need variety to maximize my survivability in the short term. Let''s add that point to Mastery of magic. Show me the capacities.


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    Runecrafting : allow you to craft runes on objects giving them capacities that can be activated with mana. The more your mastery will progress the more runes you will be able to add on a single item. The skill will give you some basic rune knowledge. You will have to find or create new ones.


    Imbue : a complementary skill for skills like runecrafting. Allow you to create mana batteries for your creations.


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    Good. Now time to experiment and prepare.

 Runes and some nearly forgotten loot

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    So from my neophyte understanding, rune crafted items are like electronic circuits. You put components and link them. What I got is quite basic but it should be a good start to improve my hammer.


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    Ooops, I nearly ruined my anvil and made all the nearby monster aware of my presence. At least the hit is quite good and the mana expenditure quite low, if only the goblins gave me good stuff


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    <td style="width: 98.833819%">You could have looted them perhaps ?</td>


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    Ooops again.


    Loot


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    Loot


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    Hu where is the loot? Is there an inventory?


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    <td style="width: 98.833819%">Only compatible system item can be stored</td>


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    Seems logical.


    Time to get rid of some pests.


    I will not be able to stealthy explore my building without some noise suppressing. There are probably runes or magic for that but I have nothing yet to help me on that topics. Too much risk then and the doors being intacts perhaps there are not monsters then.


    Lets see how you fell to be from hunter to prey.


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    Gaining the mastery of my hammer was really anticlimactic there as it was the only tool/weapon I had available if I wanted to stay hidden.


    That limited me to only alone goblins unfortunately but I manage to get rid of around fifteen of them.


    I could have gone for pairs but without my mana bolt spell, being too flashy, that was to dangerous.


    Now that I am in my safe place I check my loot and browse my options after leveling.


    System can you display the loot?


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    Yeah nothing really interesting there. At least I will be able to melt the daggers. System can you display my gain?


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    Oh yeah I forgot the free spells.


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    <td style="width: 98.833819%">Spell manipulation : Can be upgraded later on. Allow you to change some aspects of a spell like power, element, color, ...</td>


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    Spell casting


    Rune Crafting


    Spell manipulation


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    As I browse through my status with some satisfaction I hear a big commotion coming from my living room


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    What is happening now?