《The Slime Apocalypse》 Ark 1.1: Blue, Green, and Murder Slimes "As you can see here if you apply the Pythagorean Theorem to this right triangle..." Mr. Drew blabbered on; it wasn''t his fault that the lesson was boring, I just shouldn''t have stayed up all night reading, but I couldn''t let Aaron finish the book before me. I also couldn''t help dozing off because Aaron wasn''t even here today, which worries me a little. He never misses class, hm... oh crap, the class is staring at me. That means Mr. Drew asked me a question. I glanced at the board, ah, crap I hate square roots. "Riley?" "Ah, sorry Mr. Drew, C would equal 7," the whole class giggles, the wrong answer. "While you are right that the answer to the problem on the boardis 7, Miss Linsday already answered it. I asked if you got enough sleep last night." "Ah, no, I did not, sir." Ah, Linsday. Me and Aaron''s third amigo. Tall, brunette, and also my crush since the third grade. I checked my watch, ugh 30 minutes in class still. Whatever, I''ll take a nap.
"Mmm... your an interesting one. I think I''ll give you a hint to help survive my new world." "What - I''m a little groggy when I dream." "Wow, the little one stands up to me." His booming laugh shakes out. "Well, I''ll introduce myself, I am the above god, Ackeron..." "So, like, is this a lucid dream or what?" "No, little one, dream implies that you won''t remember everything but my name." "Ok, cool then." The god laughs. "Well, little one, our time draws to a close, I''ve decided to give you three pieces of advice. First, you aren''t suited to physical combat, stick to spells, bud. Second, remember blue is magic and green is physical. Third, knowledge is the better to brute strength. Now, little one I believe that what you humans call ''the world ending'' is coming." "Nah smart A-type kids just say the world is ending when they get in trouble, so Mr. Drew is probably giving me the death glare right about now." "Well, you are interesting, you''re not affected by my presence at all." This man (god?) "Ackeron" said. "Should I be?" I asked. "I don''t quite know yet... I do however know that you will certainly make my little experiment interesting. Really, your world is actually ending in a few seconds here. Goodbye, fight hard, live, and grow strong enough to meet me again."
I came to on the floor to the right of my desk. With the entire class staring at me. Then they were staring past me, and if I had to hazard a guess, they were staring at the small screen that had appeared in front of myself, and I''m assuming themselves.
Name: Riley Johnstone Race: Human Class: TBD Level: 1
Stats: Human Average 10 Base: 1-20 Item bonus: Total:
Strength: 6 6
Agility 7 7
Charisma: 10 10
Wisdom:If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. 17 17
Intellect: 18 18
Luck: 2 2
Undistributed Stat Points: 5 Current Exp: 0/25
HP: 160/160
HP Regen: 1 per minute
Mana: 180/180
Mana Regen: 1.7 per minute
Stamina: 60/60
Stamina Regen: .7 per minute
Skills: Level: % to Next LVL: Undistributed Skill Points:
Speed Reading 7 57% 0
Base Education Skills: 7 58%
Game System Knowledge 8/10 99%
Show Subsets?
Then, of course, like any novel that this situation happens in, a message follows.
Dear inhabitants of earth, I apologize for the sudden injection of my little pet project, the game screen. Now as you guys don''t have weapons that will work against my creatures, the next thing that you place your right hand against will become a unique personal weapon that you can summon and un-summon from anywhere, choose carefully. Oh yeah, also my pets will start spawning in 5 minutes. Their density will depend on where you are. For example, the more people, the higher the chance you die. I.e., Run from schools and public transportation. Also hospitals and graveyards, but that''s because of a different reason.
Well, that''s fun, I wonder how that all works. Like, if my hand is in the air, does that mean I''m going to get an air weapon in a second here? As I mused over this, one of the jock heads shouted into the strangely silent room "EFF THIS I MUST BE SEEING SHIT!" With that, he slammed his hands down on the desk, and as he turned to storm out of the room, it emitted a bright light. The legs shifted into one large leg that now resembled a cement stomper, the head then popped out into a cube, now resembling a large war hammer. "Woah, what," was all the jock could get out, and then, "Cool! It said I gained a soulbond desk hammer." With all the other students still in shock, I thought about this logically, If what you touch becomes a soulbond weapon, - and it seems to be based on your main attributes - a desk would turn into something like a ritual desk, because my main attributes seem to be intelligence and wisdom. Then I remembered the dream I just had. The "god" said that knowledge is better than brute force and that I should stick to spells, but where could I get spells in a magicless world? Then I spotted the math textbooks. "Meh, what do I have to lose?" I placed my hand on the book, and just for fun, uttered, "weaponize." A blinding light emanated from the book, and when the light had cleared, the book had disappeared. "Shit, really nothing."
Personal message: Ha, I guess I owe you one little one. Also maybe wait for a few when expecting things from a god running this system FOR THE WHOLE WORLD.
Name: Logical AnalyticalLearning Ruin Tome (LAL for short)
Rarity: Legendary
Effects: When magic is carefully observed, owner has a 25% chance of learning the magic. Must be holding tome to use and learn magic. To summon: Say "summon LAL." To dispell: Say "dispell LAL." +3 Wisdom +2 Intellect
Well, that''s a fantastic item. I guess I''m going to be a mage then, good, mages are cool. Wait, didn''t the god dude say that his pets would be spawning in five minutes, like five minutes ago? I went to check the clock to confirm and saw something above teachers head. "MR. DREW WATCH OUT" I yelled. I stared at the weird break above the teachers head and saw a little green blob just kind of appeared. You haveobserved creation magic. You have gained a class from observation, Creation Mage. You have gained a class from starting weapon, Enchanter. Your classes have combined. Your classes have perfect synergy. You have gained class ritual mage. You have gained three bonuses for discovering three classes. Here''s the last hint. Look to your left, you can''t help your teacher. Wait, what? I looked to the left right as there was a plop and a small green blob dropped down where I was sitting a few minutes ago. I thought, Thanks Mr. God dude... What was his name again? I can remember everything else he said, though Then I heard a terrible scream from teachers direction. Ark 1.2: Just Trying to Figure Shit Out "Oh shit, of course, a slime spawns right next to me," I muttered. Well, it doesn''t look like the slime on my chair is going to attack me. It''s just kinda staring at me. Wait if slimes don''t have eyes, can they stair? Wait, shit it''s jiggling. That''s never a good sign in enemies. I wonder if that means that it''s going to attack? As I came from my musings, my mind reacted faster than I thought possible, and information I''ve never known before flowed into my mind. I flung my hand out and shouted: "create stone block!" to my amazement, A 1*1*1 meter stone block appeared with a small pop above my desk and chair crushing them and the blob. "Well, that worked, I guess, but, wait, shouldn''t there be like a notification?" 90 mana used. Base mana slime killed. Gained 5xp. The screaming stopped, is Mr. Drew safe? I looked over and didn''t even see his body, let alone the blue slime that plopped down onto him. Wait there''s something wrong up there. There was what looked like fruit punch scattered across the whiteboard and the jock who got the desk hammer was standing at the front heaving quickly, the jock was also splattered with fruit punch. Then it hit me like a stone block crushing a desk Laying just left of the desk was the headless body of Mr. Drew. Then the jock spoke with a heart-wrenching tone "Hell yeah the system said I got 15xp... Mr. Drew are you ok? Mr. Drew? Mr. Drew, I got that blob, I got em good didn''t I sir? You''re ok now ain''t you get up then. Oh dear god..." after that he curled up onto the floor and began sobbing to himself. Still, in shock, I looked around the room and saw the other students were crying to themselves, staring off into the distance, a few seemed to be manipulating the screen they''d been given, and one was even maniacally laughing as he exited the room. Judging the class to be safe I uttered "menu" because what else would pull up the interface in this situation?
Name: Riley Johnstone Race: Human Class: TBD Level: 1
Stats: Human Average 10 Base: 1-20 Item bonus: Total:
Strength: 6 6
Agility 7 7
Charisma: 10 10
Wisdom: 17 3 20
Intellect: 18 2 20
Luck: 2 2
Undistributed Stat Points: 5 Current Exp: 5/25
HP: 160/160
HP Regen: 1 per minute
Mana: 200/200
Mana Regen: 2.0 per minute
Stamina: 60/60
Stamina Regen: .7 per minute
Skills: Level: % to Next LVL: Undistributed Skill Points:
Speed Reading 7 57% 0
Base Education Skills: 7 58%
Game System Knowledge 8/10 99%
Creation Magic 1 93%
Ritual magic 1 100%
Claim Bonuses for class discovery? Y/N Well, I don''t have time right now to review the nuances of a new class or to distribute the points I gain from it, I''ll do it later, then. Right now, I need to get out of the school. I have the feeling something is about to go down. I should find a way to get to Aaron''s house and from there we can geek out about this and figure out our plan of action. I should bring Linsday with me, safety in numbers. I walked over to Linsday and had to snap a few times to get her attention "Uh, what, this can''t be true, right? This is some weird-ass dream? Riley, I need you to tell me this is a weird ass dream." Linsday asked, on the verge of tears. "I''m sorry, I wish I could tell you so, Linsday, but we can''t focus on that right now, we need to get out of the school" "I don''t understand Riley, there are none of those terrible blobs in here anymore why can''t we stay where its safe?" She seemed to be fully in shock now. "Linsday, look at me, right now, there are monsters spawning all over the world, we might be safe right now, but that message told us that we needed to run from schools and such. So we need to go now." I spoke with as gentle of a tone as I could even though I was panicking inside. "You just said that those monsters are everywhere, where will we go?" "I don''t know Lins, but we need to go find Aaron, after that, I don''t know, but we can find somewhere to carve out a safe haven." I was getting close to breaking now. "Ok, let''s go then." she stood up and wiped her tears away. Right now we just need to get out of the school without dying. Still, that laughing kid worries me, I don''t remember his name but I do remember he hates me, something like I humiliated him in front of the school at an assembly or something.
The Laughing Kid¡¯s Point of View
Name: Catalyn Mazmorra Race: Human Class: TBD Level: 1
Stats: Human Average 10 Base: 1-20 Item bonus: Total:
Strength: 7
Agility 15
Charisma: 3
Wisdom: 8
Intellect: 9
Luck: 18
Undistributed Stat Points: 0 Current Exp: 0/25
HP: 160/160
HP Regen: 1 per minute
Mana: 90/90
Mana Regen: .8 per minute
Stamina: 70/70
Stamina Regen: 1.5 per minute
Skills: Level: % to Next LVL: Undistributed Skill Points:
Speed Reading 6 11% 0
Basic Education 6 4%
Marksman 18 75%
Firearm Knowledge 13 27%
Hand-to-Hand Combat 8 53%
What the hell¡¯s going on? You know what, I don¡¯t even care! This is amazing! A message originating from an unknown source told us that we basically get to reshape ourselves and create a weapon out of whatever we next touch. Well, what we touch with our right hand. So, if I touch my desk, like that jock kid did, I can make a hammer. If I touch my math book like that asshole Riley did, I can get a¡­ whatever that became. My guess is a spellbook of some sort? Does this mean the weapons are based on the physical attributes of the item, or the qualities of the person who touches them? I think I¡¯m gonna wait a bit before I touch anything with my right hand. A thought popped into my head, I feel bad for some people... And then I burst into uncontrollable, maniacal laughter. Thinking about how many ways I can swing this situation just made me laugh harder and harder, and then that jock took off Mr. Drew¡¯s head and I was in fucking tears. People were definitely looking at me like I was crazy, but who the hell cares? I¡¯m gonna own this world! Hmmm¡­ as far as we know everyone has received these mysterious ethereal messages. That means other people have, at least, a general idea of what¡¯s going on. If I don¡¯t act fast, I won¡¯t gain the upper hand. For this exact reason, once I was done with my little psychotic episode, I ran out of the room and directed myself straight to my locker. I opened it and grabbed my prized possession, something I¡¯ve been waiting to use for a long time now.
¡°EVERYONE DOWN ON THE GROUND AND SHUT UP!¡± I look down at the disassembled group of kids. I just happened to be standing on a cafeteria table and, just for emphasis, I shot a few bullets from my MP-28 into the air. A few ceiling tiles came down, narrowly missing a couple kids. Damn, almost got them. Now, if you hadn¡¯t guessed already, the MP-28 is my prized possession. It¡¯s amazing. It¡¯s a submachine gun that has burst capabilities. It¡¯s fairly old, being the very first submachine gun to ever perform in combat, introduced in 1918 by the German army in WWI. I won¡¯t go too in depth on how I obtained this masterpiece; let¡¯s just say I have some contacts. In any case, to abstain from placing my right hand on the weapon, I fired a burst of bullets with just my left hand. Ouch. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I said, everybody, GET DOW-¡± ¡°That guy¡¯s got a gun!¡± Wow. A bit late to the punch, buddy. Fucking jocks. They are complete idiots. Honestly, if you¡¯re in a lunchroom in a high school and nobody¡¯s talking, you should probably assume something¡¯s up. And then, if you see a fellow senior standing up on a table with a gun, barrel smoking, what would you do? I, for one, would not draw attention to myself. So, to teach a lesson to my dumbass peers, I leveled the weapon directly at the jock¡¯s chest. But, of course, in my haste to teach this idiot a lesson, I completely forgot about the soul binding¡­ thing that has been implemented into everybody¡¯s right hand. Just as I remembered this key factor, the MP-28 started to transform. It actually looked really cool. The stock of the weapon suddenly turned into a kind of liquid alloy and enveloped my arm. The gelatinous compound that now covered my hand, arm, shoulder and some of my back and chest started the second stage. I could feel tendrils of the substance burrow into my skin and then further into my body. While this did frighten me for a couple of seconds, I soon began to feel healthier, more powerful, better than I ever had before. The sensation was¡­ addictive. Oddly enough, the barrel of the gun still looked about the same, even though the mag (jutting out from the side of the barrel) was now transparent and softly glowing a green light. So, as to not stray from the objective I had before the weapon transformed, I lowered the barrel at the jock and¡­ realized there wasn¡¯t a trigger anymore. Shit. I didn¡¯t know what to do. My gun had just kinda been seriously modified by an unknown source. Am I supposed to automatically know how to alter to this world? Then I remembered that when Riley created his book, he had stated an ¡°action¡± command, and so I uttered ¡°Fire.¡± The effect was¡­ surprising. A burst of three bullets fired out of the gun heading right for the center of the guy¡¯s chest. I had apparently used way more projectiles than I needed. The first bullet that was sent toward him blew him apart. And by blown apart, I mean he practically exploded. You could see blood, guts, bone, sinew, brain, and whatever else you find in a human just go flying. ¡®Twas a piece of art. Almost immediately after the first bullet blew the idiot to smithereens, the second bullet burrowed its way into the person directly behind him. That bullet blasted the next guy straight into heaven, or hell, or wherever we go when we die. Pittsburg? The third projectile rammed itself into a girl¡¯s right hand, but she took no damage. Instead, when the bullet burrowed into her appendage, the hole started to knit itself back together. As it did so, her arm started to glow, and the glow soon spread throughout her whole body. A couple of intense seconds later, the light recentered on the palm of her hand and molded itself into a form. She was now holding a glowing red broadhead arrow that was about a foot in length. She stared down at it, very confused. After contemplating this spectacle, everyone froze. It was like I was in a museum and the students were all wax statues. I jumped off the table I was standing on and stood directly in front of the first person I saw. I waved my arm in front of his face. No reaction. I tried flicking him in the forehead, and nothing happened. My finger just went through his head, like it was a hologram or something. ¡°What the hell do you think you¡¯re doing, Catalyn!?¡± a booming male voice sounded. ¡°These are my experiments! While your mental status and reaction to this situation are very intriguing, these people are meant to be studied! Not to mention the fact that you have absolutely no idea how to use that gun of yours. Are you trying to get yourself killed?¡± I tried my best to respond in a comprehensible way, ¡°Ummmmmm... What?¡± I heard a sigh from behind me and turned around. I attempted to comprehend the very odd image that stood before me. The first thing I saw was a bright little red orb. The sphere was located in the center of the chest of a human figure. The figure¡¯s whole body was stark white with no creases, imperfections, or characteristics whatsoever. It was a completely blank slate. As I examined this oddity, the voice started up again, but it seemed to come from the white model; ¡°Look, I¡¯ve stopped time temporarily and will soon bring you somewhere similar to a safe house. You will have five hours to assess your menu, weapon, your new physical attributes, and your course of action for when I place you back into your time stream. I STRONGLY,¡± he over-emphasized this word, ¡°suggest you don¡¯t kill your comrades. They will serve a great purpose to you, but if you kill them, I may have to deal out a punishment¡­ such as taking away your physical body. Capiche?¡± ¡°Wha¡­ um¡­ sure?¡± ¡°Good.¡± The white body snapped its fingers, and a flash of light burned my irises. I could feel my stomach flip inside out as I was transported to another location. I opened my eyes to look around, but it still hurt to look at anything and I was starting to feel sick. I sat for a good five minutes before I tried opening my eyes again. This time, I thought I was blind because all I saw was gray. Nothing else. I frantically looked to the left and right worried that something had really happened to my eyesight. But when I looked down, I could see my arms and legs just fine. A wave of relief washed over me when I realized I was not, in fact, blind, just in a featureless location. This must¡¯ve been what he meant by a safe house. I decided to take the orb-thing¡¯s advice and opened up my menu for the first time since I equipped my transformed gun:
Name: Catalyn Mazmorra Race: Human Class: TBD Level: 1
Stats: Human Average 10 Base: 1-20 Item bonus: Total:
Strength: 7 10 17
Agility 15 10 25
Charisma: 3 6 9
Wisdom: 8 6 14
Intellect: 9 6 15
Luck: 18 2 20
Undistributed Stat Points: 0 Current Exp: 10/25
HP: 200/200
HP Regen: 1 per minute
Mana: 150/150
Mana Regen: 1.4 per minute
Stamina: 170/170
Stamina Regen: 2.5 per minute
Skills: Level: % to Next LVL: Undistributed Skill Points:
Speed Reading 3 11% 0
Basic Education 6 4%
Marksman 18 75%
Firearm Knowledge 13 27%
Hand-to-Hand Combat 8 53%
Mana Manipulation 2 98%
Haggling 14 63%
Damn! Seems like the new-and-improved MP-48 significantly increases my stats. Is a count of 18 stat points placed in Luck considered high? It must be because I should not have gotten a soulbound power this strong. Then again, who knows? I¡¯m not exactly one of those geeks who sit around playing Dungeons and Dragons in my free time. Though I now half-wish I pursued those kinds of activities. They might help me in this situation. I took a good hard look at my menu. After studying it for about a minute, I learned that HP (health points?) was equivalent to the ultimate number of stat points I have obtained plus 100, and HP regen I¡¯m assuming is whatever level I am because nothing else on the sheet corresponds. Well, unless you take the ultimate number of stat points and divide it by one hundred, but doesn¡¯t that seem a little repetitive, though? Mana looks like it could be intellect times ten, while mana regen concludes to be based on my wisdom divided by ten. Does this mean intellect and wisdom only affect mana or do they also affect my actual mental health? And then my stamina and stamina regen seems to be the same as mana, except based on the variables strength and agility, respectively. Now that I¡¯ve got that sorted out, let¡¯s look at my skills. So, in all my life, the only skills I¡¯ve acquired are speed-reading, base education, marksman, firearm knowledge, hand-to-hand combat, mana manipulation, and haggling. While my intelligence-based scores seem to be a little embarrassing (excluding haggling), I have oddly high-leveled skills based on combat. Makes sense. Wait a second, don¡¯t you generally have a hub or something in video games? Maybe, with the recent changes to Earth, we might have something similar. I closed my menu and inspected my view. I noticed a green bar at the top-center of my vision reading 200/200, a yellow bar in the top left of my vision reading 170/170, and a blue bar in the top right reading 150/150. I assumed these three readings represented health, stamina, and mana, respectively. I also noticed this little, blinking red dot to the right of my blue mana bar. I thought about interacting with it and another transparent screen appeared with a number two above it, reading: Weapon Acquired
Name: Bergmann Weapon o¡¯ Mass Destruction
Rarity: Legendary
Effect: Fire high-powered projectiles for a cost of 5 mana. Immune to magic damage, extremely dense. Can shape to any form, within allowed density. +10 to both physical stats, +6 to all mental stats, and +2 bonus to Luck.
Oh. Wait, LEGENDARY!?!?!? Isn¡¯t that a bit much at level one? Not that I¡¯m complaining, but whatever god decided to fuck with our world created a horrible weapon system. I mean, this thing is O.P.! The only downfall to this the Bergmann Weapon o¡¯ Mass Destruction is that each individual bullet costs five mana. Seems a little steep, because that means I can only fire thirty bullets every¡­ move the decimal, subtract 14, multiply by seven¡­ 107 minutes, which is how long it takes to recharge my mana after completely depleting it. Then again, those bullets are really powerful. Maybe it won¡¯t affect me as much as I think? Eh, I¡¯ll figure it out later. I opened up the second notification; 15 mana used. 2 level one humans killed. Gained 10xp. Wait a second¡­ level one humans are only worth five experience? That. Is. Bullshit. I realize we¡¯re not that great of a species, but only five xp? Give me a break. Anyways, I should probably start working with my the Bergmeister. I began by learning how to create a wall in the grayscape. Apparently, it was pretty easy. All you had to do was think about a wall appearing and it appeared. The more detailed you thought about the wall, the more detailed the wall physically became. Once I had that situated, I began firing bullets at the wall. I didn¡¯t know what the wall was made of, butit seemed as though it was really dense because my projectiles didn¡¯t even make a dent. I created another wall, specifically made out of titanium, and tried again. When the little balls of mana contacted with the titanium wall, it shattered. It just fell to pieces. Considering it was one of the strongest metals known to man, I may just have the strongest weapon unknown to man. A lot of people are going to die very, very soon. Once I finished with this little experiment, I checked my mana bar. To my surprise, it had not dropped even one point! It must be the ¡°safe house¡± that was allowing me to expend mana-based ammunition without actually wasting mana. Maybe this place is a kind of training grounds, perhaps? I continued with my study by taking a stab at modifying the Bergler itself. I first tried making it compact itself into a fist that was an extension of my own. I succeeded, to an extent. It switched back into its gelatin form and moved down to my hand, making something that resembled a wrecking ball. While not perfect, it wasn¡¯t bad for my first try. I spent the next half an hour perfecting the fist and then moved on to more strenuous designs, such as large animals, or models of buildings. After I became fairly proficient with this aspect of my weapon, I tried changing the shape of its ammunition. I created a very large and dense titanium wall and fired a single bullet. As I thought about firing the bullet, I pictured what I wanted it to look like as it shot out of the Weapon o¡¯ Mass Destruction. I wanted it to look like a boomerang, but right as the tip surfaced from the barrel, the mana shape exploded, sending me flying. ¡°Son of a bitch, that hurt! Goddamnit. Let¡¯s try this shit one more time.¡± I raised my barrel a little to the left of the titanium target but stopped myself right when I was about to fire. ¡°I¡¯m a fucking idiot,¡± I muttered. I focused on the barrel of the gun and changed it so that its shape could easily accommodate the boomerang-like collection of mana. The problem with my first attempt was that the mana shot into the barrel of the weapon, exploding inside of the Bergmeister. This time, my plan worked perfectly. The projectile launched itself from the Berglar. After flying for a bit, it looped back around, hitting the dead center of the wall. ¡°BOOM! That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about!¡± I yelled, doing a little jig. A couple of seconds later, I stopped as I heard faint laughter. I realized that the wax douche was watching me. ¡°Can I get no privacy?¡± I muttered. In a whispery voice that seemed like it came from right next to my ear, I heard ¡°Nope.¡± I practically jumped ten feet in the air and I may have screamed a little. ¡°Stop it! C¡¯mon, that¡¯s just fucking creepy!¡± When no reply came, I decided to get back to my experiments.
Before I knew it, my five hours was up and the entity showed up to take me back to my school. But, I had checked my mana control skill when I was done and realized it had grown to level 15! I don¡¯t know, I thought it was pretty cool. Anyways, with another flash of light, I was standing in the same spot as before, looking down on the group of frightened and horrified faces. I tried to remember what I was doing standing on a cafeteria table. Oh, that¡¯s right! I was creating a Dictatorship! I completely forgot about my plan to take advantage of the world¡¯s vulnerability and confusion. I decided to lay some ground rules. ¡°All right, let¡¯s get started! As you can see, I may have the most powerful weapon in the world at my command.¡± For dramatic effect, I made the solid metal coating of my arm transform back into the liquid gelatin substance and swirl around my body in random patterns I concentrated a little more, and the swirling alloy retreated back into a slightly more solidified form and wrapped around my body. A large snakehead slowly rose above my left shoulder and gave a very loud and threatening hiss. Not something to mess with. For good measure, I decided to fire a couple of bullets into the back wall, blowing most of it apart. I practically hit myself when I realized I had just wasted ten mana. ¡°Right! First things first. We¡¯re gonna make this school into a fortress. This is going to be the most badass high school in the world! Though, word to the wise, those of you who decide to rebel against my¡­ command¡­ well, let¡¯s just say you¡¯ve only gotten a taste of what I can do. Di-,¡± suddenly an arrow (The same one I had accidentally let that girl create earlier with her soulbind power right before I was whisked away to the safehouse) came flying directly toward my face. I saw it just in time and moved ever so slightly, causing the projectile to narrowly miss me. The bolt shot through the wall behind me, leaving behind a neat little hole, almost a foot above my head. What I didn¡¯t expect was for it to come right back through the wall, now aiming at my chest. All I could think to do was move out of the way (even though I had no time), but my weapon had other ideas. The snake I had created earlier snatched the arrow out of the air with its mouth. I had it point and refire the arrow towards the girl, and then let it shift back into its original shape. She saw her own soulbound weapon directed at her, so she brought her arms up to shield her face. Instead of ripping through her, as we both expected, it popped like a water balloon on contact with her arm and a copy of it formed in her hand. I was actually pretty impressed, but that was nothing compared to her reaction. She looked down at her hand and her eyes shined. She looked up at me and I could tell she was about to start something big. ¡°Alright, dickwad. Let me get this straight. You decide to kill a couple of us, attempt to kill more, and then assume that we¡¯re just going to¡­ follow you? Are you insane?¡± I could see from the look in her eyes she wasn¡¯t as righteous as she seemed. She was planning something. ¡°Now look, there is one of you and a lot of us. If we all decided to, oh, I don¡¯t know, create our own weapons right now,¡± some of the people around her got the memo as several of them began touching the most dangerous object they could find with their right hand, ¡°then we could beat you.¡± All I could do was laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Even as someone in the front row launched at me with a four and a half foot claymore (I saw them grab the rod under one of the cafeteria tables) I just kept laughing. I, of course, saw them coming, so when they took a swing, I took action. Their blow should have slashed me across the stomach, but instead, I moved my right arm over and forced the Bergmann Weapon o¡¯ Mass Destruction to solidify itself. The guy¡¯s attack just kinda bounced off and I decided to test something. I brought my arm back and punched the guy in the face with the Berglar. His face splattered and his body went and flew into the ceiling, leaving his head stuck. Idjit. And then chaos ensued. People started charging at me, even the ones who hadn¡¯t gotten weapons yet just grabbed anything they could get their hands on. I mean, one kid must¡¯ve somehow gotten his hands on a toaster because he actually shot a piece of toast at me. I was a little envious. I wanted to try magic toast! Throughout all this pandemonium, I just kept on fighting and laughing. When I first saw everyone come at me, I grew the end of the Bergmeister horizontally and launched a rolling spiked cylinder, very similar to the pulverizer attachments that can be implemented onto tractors. It was far more effective than I expected. It alone must¡¯ve killed around thirty teens and injured a little over thirty more that weren¡¯t paying attention and didn¡¯t jump over it. I mean, it was only about a foot high. A little effort would have allowed you to live. The pulverizer kept traveling until it hit the ruins of the wall where I then let it dissipate. Because I could never see the amount of mana other bullets took up during my five our training, I checked my reservoir and saw I only had fifteen mana left. Jesus, that thing took a lot more effort than I thought it would. As people kept charging at me, I resorted to melee fighting that became more effective with the change of the Berglar¡¯s shape. I must¡¯ve tried out a dozen different weapons, including a wrecking ball, a giant fist, a mace, a giant-ass sword, the snake I had created earlier, and I even fully enveloped one girl in the berg¡¯s liquid state, crushed her, and used her face as a scare tactic. I let it rise to the outside of my giant black fist and let it hover in front of another student, which made them flip out. It was pretty funny. After I had killed roughly 25 students, excluding the ones I killed with the pulverizer, I heard a booming voice say, ¡°All right, that¡¯s QUITE ENOUGH.¡± Wait a second. I recognized that voice. That was the wax guy. I tried moving or turning my head to see where he was and found I couldn¡¯t. In fact, the only body part I could physically move was my eyes. I realized this could not bode well for me, so I surveyed the crowd of high-schoolers and noticed they had all frozen in place as well. I noticed it wasn¡¯t quite the same as before when time had stopped, because I could still see all their eyes moving. The entity appeared in the back of the cafeteria, sitting on a cage around a clock and slowly drifted down towards me. When he was floating right in front of my face and all I could see was his wax dome of a head, he said calmly, ¡°You do remember what I told you, right? How I strongly suggested you not kill all these students? You can tell I have a nearly unlimited reservoir of power, and you intend to not do what I think is best? I believe you forgot that these people are all my experiment. I don¡¯t want you killing everyone with that over-powered weapon of yours, so I¡¯ve decided to tame your bloodlust.¡± He turned around and started floating away, but thought better of it, ¡°Oh, and no more help from me. You figure out everything yourself now.¡± He clapped his hands and another brilliant flash of light surrounded me. I suddenly felt myself falling, and falling, and falling, and falling. And falling. And falling. And falling. And falling. This trek seemed to take forever. Eventually, I felt myself land with a clink. As I inspected my surroundings, I saw that I was in a room with a lot of pipes and a lot of gauges. I must be in a boiler room or something, I surmised. As I was surveying the room, I noticed that my point of view was from a very low position. Unnaturally low. And when I noticed a mirror leaned up against a cabinet, I learned why. In the mirror, I saw a reflection of myself, but it wasn¡¯t me. What I saw, where my point of view seemed to be originating from, was a little green orb. Son of a bitch. Ark 1.3: Philosophical Thoughts of the End of the World Riley¡¯s Point of view. Linsday and I poked our heads out of the classroom to check if the hallway was safe. It looks harmless enough but will we ever be safe again, I gently slapped myself; not the time for philosophical thoughts of the end of the world. As we ran down the hallway, I glanced up my manna had refilled to 114/200, dam only 2 minutes have passed since I crushed that last slime. That means not accounting for Linsday¡¯s soul bound weapon we can only encounter one more slime before I can¡¯t cast create. Then its a 33 minute wait till I can cast again. Ergh I should find out what Linsday claimed before we get out of the school.
stamina used 5.
Slightly winded I asked Linsday ¡°What did you claim for your soul bound item?¡± ¡°what do you mean, the right-hand thing¡­ I uh haven''t claimed anything I¡¯m too nervous to make the wrong choice like Brock did.¡± I skidded to a stop now uh strange we should have caught up to that laughing kid by now mh ¡°what is is bad that I haven¡¯t chosen yet?¡± she asked her voice filled with worry ¡°no, in fact, it¡¯s wonderful, give me a second.¡± I looked around where we had stopped, right outside the gym and the gym storage room wait don¡¯t we have a fencing club here at school? Let¡¯s see we it all went to hell in 5th period; there should be no one in the gym ¡°Hey Linsday, how do you feel about using a sword?¡± I asked ¡°en guard¡± she pantomimed stabbing towards me, ¡°sweet Jesus even in the apocalypse you''re a dork, let''s go get you a weapon.¡± we poked our heads into the gym, and saw three green blobs right in the middle, we retreated a safe distance from the gym, where we guessed they couldn''t hear us wait can slimes here at all? Can they taste or smell? What scenes do slimes have? I shook my head is random philosophical thoughts a side effect of having the limit of human intelligence? ¡°Ok so how are we going to avoid the slimes in there?¡± Linsday asked ¡°well I¡¯m hoping to sneak around them, but I¡¯d guess slimes have 360-degree vision.¡± as if to reaffirm this I got a notification in the corner of my vision.
You have increased system knowledge by 3%
¡°Well, that rules out that¡± Linsday must have better luck than I because as we were discussing our plans, several loud bangs came from the adjacent lunch room ¡°you want to check that out?¡± Linsday asks ¡°not particularly no,¡± but the slimes did I guess they can hear.
You have increased system knowledge by 3%
You know that will get annoying, I wonder if the system can hold off notifications till I bring them up and just like that the text box in my vision disappeared, and a small blinking black diamond appeared in its place. Mhh smart system now let¡¯s go and get Linsday a weapon, we were free to waltz into the gym and subsequently to the equipment room. Then we could see the padlock on the door ¡°the one day that Mr. Smyth decides to lock the equipment room is the one day we need access.¡± Linsday complained, ¡°well it wouldn''t be easy if it wasn''t locked, hang on let me try something.¡± I put my hands on the lock and imagined stone filling the keyhole and then protruding an inch or two, after a few minutes of picturing this key, and finally feeling satisfied with my mental image; I uttered: ¡°create a stone key.¡± When I opened my hands, I saw that just as I pictured there was about an inch and a half of grey porous stone sticking out from the lock. I heard a small ping, and the square started blinking again I saw the blue bar plummet as well. I turned the stone key, and the lock popped open, Inside the equipment closet, there were all sorts of options for Linsday¡¯s soulbound power, frisbees, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, then my eyes settled on the fencing equipment. I grabbed all the feasible options and brought them out to her. I unloaded my arms onto the ground. ¡°what do you think I should pick Riley?¡± ¡°well really something from the fencing equipment gives you the best chance of having a powerful weapon, but it''s up to you.¡± Just then I hear shouting from the lunch room, although I couldn¡¯t make out the words, And then all hell broke loose. We were lucky we didn''t go into the lunch room because there were sounds of an intense battle, and deep gouges were sliced into the walls, giving us view of around a hundred students grabbing anything they could and rushing at one student standing on a table, he had what looked like liquid metal swirling around his arms and body. Shit, that¡¯s the laughing kid I knew he was trouble. My increased memory kicked in because I remembered his name was Catalyn though I still couldn¡¯t remember why he hated me. Catalyn was standing near the back of the lunchroom slicing down students that were attacking him without breaking eye contact with a girl holding an arrow in her hand, also on a lunch table, my boosted intelligence kicked in again Madeline, she was in my English. I saw Madlin launch her arrow at Catalyn which he narrowly dodged while slicing a kid with a claymore in half, did he get a legendary weapon as well? I saw the arrow streaking towards where we were standing ¡°LOOK OUT,¡± and I tackled Linsday out of the way, narrowly dodging it myself. As Linsday fell towards the pile of stuff it thought would make good soul bound powers she put her hands out to catch herself, in doing so both hands landed firmly on a set of fencing pads. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. A bright light flashed, and the result was interesting, The female, armor rule of games held to this world. After my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw the padding had been turned into minimal armor with a segmented steel skirt, and a steel-plated leather strap around her breasts. ¡°Umm Linsday¡± ¡°yeah¡± ¡°you may want to look at your soulbound power now¡­¡± I gestured to her attire; she responded in cold rage ¡°I swear to god if I meet the god or whatever that made this system I AM GOING TO RIP HIS DICK OFF¡± I went to help her up and realized that I couldn¡¯t move anything but my eyes. Through the gap in the wall, I saw and heard the god that I¡¯d already encountered once shit. He said something I couldn¡¯t quite make out what he said, but after he was done talking Caylan just disappeared, in the silence, there was a small ping. Then he was by us two he turned towards me and spoke ¡°why can¡¯t you humans just get along with each other when given absurd amounts of power, I gave out ten legendaries. Ten, two for each major country, now I¡¯ve had to take care of two of them, there are only eight of you left. Let me warn you DO NOT make the same mistakes that the other two did. Also, I forgot to give you a bonus for having the highest possible skill level in system knowledge without experiencing the system. You are already set in the weapon department so wisdom it is, know this young one, this building going to turn into a very high leveled dungeon very fast. Fight hard, grow strong, and meet me again.¡± what is that his catchphrase or something ¡°yes it is young one. And as for you little miss rage, be grateful you are one of a hundred to get epic ranked soulbond powers. Don¡¯t blame me for the armor, it is based on the games that this world played before, now I have other matters to attend to, there''s a dungeon on the west coast that somehow already has 3rd tier slimes¡­¡± he muttered to himself as we got control over our bodies again. Wow, he is weird. I helped Linsday up and gave her my sweatshirt to cover herself with. Ignoring the rather large group of students now fighting the mass of slimes that had been attracted by the noise of the battle, we exited out the gym and started to make our way towards the front doors. It wasn¡¯t far really only fifteen feet of hallways and then about thirty feet of the entrance way, but since we were taking our time and trying to move as quickly as possible it took us about ten minutes to get to the front doors, and what we could see through them was not a pretty sight. Through the doors we had a pretty good view of the town, there were numerous, plumes of black smoke rising into the sky and as we watched, we saw a building collapse. It¡¯s the end of the world as we know it and I¡¯m filled with joy¡­ does that make me a terrible person? ¡°Well, we¡¯d better go the longer we wait for, the better chance a slime attacks us.¡± I tried the door ¡°locked, its still school hours after all¡± I told Linsday, she responded, ¡°well can¡¯t you just do the same thing you did with gym equipment closet?¡± I thought about it for a moment then remembered: ¡°no it''s an electronic lock, we can, however, go unlock it with the control panel by the secretary''s desk.¡± We made our way towards the secretary¡¯s office. As we made our way inside, I wondered where Kathrin is? Kathrin was the secretary for the school; she was also a woman in her twenties that all the guys in school lusted over, through the connecting door we could hear the sounds of two people embracing the end of the world. I looked over at Linsday''s horrified face as she came to the conclusion that I had, ¡°ew¡± was all she muttered ¡°what they are fucking like it¡¯s the end of the world, which it is.¡± I whispered back ¡°well it¡¯s gross is all I¡¯m saying, look there are the lock controls let¡¯s go¡± she went over and clicked the button to unlock the doors. With a rather loud buzz, the doors popped open. From the door to the principal¡¯s office we heard ¡°what was that George.¡± then ¡°who care the worlds ending anyhow now flip and put in my¡­.¡± we couldn¡¯t make out the rest, this time I gave Linsday the horrified look ¡°what they''re just embracing like it¡¯s the end of the world.¡± I shot her a glare. ¡°Whatever let¡¯s get out of this school and find somewhere to hide out for a while so I can regen mana.¡± We made our way into town and saw some bizarre things along the way you know in apocalypse novels and media the towns are always deserted for some reason even like an hour after the apocalypse there¡¯s just nobody here what do they all die, or escape to the countryside or something how fast do people get out, we were warned. Goddamned increased intellect was making me think about the number of people who were probably pooping on their bosses desks like they always told Janice from accounting they would. As I emerged from my musings, I realized that we had traveled a fair distance and were near my apartment. I thought about it, my place was centralized in the building, on a relatively high level, with sturdy walls, and of course, I was a bit of a collector of older weapons that would help with this situation. ¡°Hey let¡¯s camp out at my place, for now, we are near there anyway.¡± ¡°oh yeah.¡± She responds still seemingly in shock. As we made our way up the building to my apartment, I noticed a strange lack of slimes I wonder why that is? Someone like me that adjusted to the system and made quick work of the simes in the buildings. We entered into my four room sparsely decorated apartment and a small notification popped up.
You have entered into an unclaimed safe place, as long as the claimer is living no monsters can spawn in this area. Would you like to claim Yes/No
I, of course, choose yes and a bright light flashed through the apartment, when our eyes had cleared nothing had changed except near my bars of health and such, there was a small symbol showing a bed. ¡°Well that¡¯s nifty did you also get an option to claim this space?¡± I asked Linsday as I settled onto the couch ¡°What, no? Is that what that light was?¡± she shot back ¡°oh ok, it appears that some places are counted as safe places that can be claimed to create anti-monster zones.¡± now that it¡¯s safe I should get to investigating with my new class, powers, and this system in general. Ark 1.4: Houston, We Have a Problem Catalyn¡¯s Point of View Let¡¯s get this shit straight. Aliens, or whatever, invade our world. Every person on Earth gets one superweapon. I take a weapon based on my MP-28. I then attempt to shoot up my school. A so-called ¡°god¡± stops me, lets me train myself, and then sends me back, hoping I will choose to take a more righteous path. Instead, I get back and kill a bunch of people. I get in trouble for killing a bunch of people, and am now lying on the ground in the form¡­ of a green orb. The. Actual. Fuck. From my earlier assessment, I can see that I¡¯m in the school¡¯s boiler room. It¡¯s basically in the dead center of the school, but I¡¯m not really sure how that¡¯s gonna help me. Why was I transported here? Why was I turned into an inanimate object? All questions to answer. But first, what can I do? I can¡¯t move, but I can look around. When I look around the room, my vision originates from my body. But, taking a close look in the mirror, it is clear my body has no eyes. What does this mean? Well, it means that my eyesight is probably mana based, which allows me to assume it shouldn¡¯t be contained exclusively within my body. Now that I have this information, I¡¯ve decided to attempt to widen my range. At first, I tried to force myself to look from a different vantage point. I imagined looking at myself from above. As I did so, I could feel my mind push mana outside myself, above me. For a second, I thought I had succeeded. I could see myself from a different perspective! Quite literally. But right after my little imaginary jig, I felt myself get weaker and my mana raced back into myself. Goddammit. I THOUGHT I made progress. I tried looking at myself from above a few more times, but I made very little leeway. My attempts all had the same result. And, honestly, it hurt. Pushing mana out of myself was similar to going completely limp, losing all muscle control. But then, it comes back and it feels like a sledgehammer to the gut. Not that I have a gut, but you know what I mean. So yeah, it hurts. A lot. Before taking another shot at this (possibly) doomed to fail attempt at mana control, I decided to do something I should¡¯ve done in the first place. I took a look at my hub. Honestly, I don¡¯t know why I didn¡¯t think to do it before. As soon as I inspected my hub, I noticed a few oddities. My HP bar was full green, except it had a -/- instead of a 200/200. This was the case with both my mana and my stamina as well. It¡¯s almost as if my stats have been reset - oh. I immediately opened my stat screen and found this:
Name: Catalyn Mazmorra Race: Dungeon Core Class: TBD Level: 4
Stats: Human Average 10 Base: 1-20 Item bonus: Total:
Charisma: 6
Wisdom: 6
Intellect: 6
Luck: 2
Undistributed Stat Points: 75+20(W) Current Exp: 50/200
Density -/-
Mana: -/-
Mana Regen: -
Skills: Level: % to Next LVL: Undistributed Skill Points:Stolen novel; please report.
Speed Reading 6 11% 3
Basic Education 6 4%
Marksman 18 75%
Firearm Knowledge 13 27%
Hand-to-Hand Combat 8 53%
Mana Manipulation 10 10%
Well¡­ that explains my problem. I technically have no mana right now. That would explain why I¡¯m having such a problem. Considering I have some peace and quiet right now¡­ I think I¡¯m gonna start distributing stat points and the such. So, how did I get seventy-five stat points? Based on my original character sheet, I had only sixty points. But, getting to level four gave me fifteen more, which means that each increase in level allots five stat points. But what are the twenty W stat points? Looking at my abilities, it seems as though I lost both of my physical attributes; strength and agility. In doing so, it seems that the system rerouted those gifted stats from my weapon into the undistributed category, meaning I can do whatever I want with them. This allows for some extra leeway, which is very nice. It looks like I have three usable skill points. Would this mean I gain one every time I level up? This means they are a LOT more ability stats than skill, don''t I should preserve my skill points a lot more. I think I¡¯m gonna wait on using them, for now. I would like most of my ability scores to equal out in some way, probably with Charisma as the lowest. I don¡¯t exactly see how it would help me quite as much as the others, and Luck seems to have served a very good purpose so far. I figure it would probably be a good idea to dump skill scores into Mana Manipulation, for now. In the end, this is what I came up with:
Name: Catalyn Mazmorra Race: Dungeon Core Class: TBD Level: 4
Stats: Human Average 10 Base: 1-20 Item bonus: Total:
Charisma: 13 6 19
Wisdom: 6 16 22
Intellect: 6 16 22
Luck: 20 2 22
Undistributed Stat Points: 0 Current Exp: 50/200
Aura Density: 850/850
Mana: 220/220
Mana Regen: 2.2 per minute
Skills: Level: % to Next LVL: Undistributed Skill Points:
Speed Reading 6 11% 3
Basic Education 6 4%
Marksman 18 75%
Firearm Knowledge 13 27%
Hand-to-Hand Combat 8 53%
Mana Manipulation 10 10%
Once I was satisfied with the current state of my character sheet, I closed my menu and surveyed my surroundings, once again. I was still in the boiler. I was getting real tired with this scenery. I decided to take another shot at mana manipulation. Alright, let¡¯s do this. I, once again, forced a small amount of mana out of my crystalline body, just enough to look at things from a different vantage point. As I did so, I closed my ethereal eyes and braced for another impact, but I felt nothing. No sudden crashes or gut-wrenching pains. I slowly let my vision flow back. At first, I couldn¡¯t understand what I was seeing. The view was so different than the one I¡¯ve had for the last¡­ however long I¡¯ve been here. And then I began to comprehend where my consciousness was located. I was looking down at the school. My theory worked far better than I could have ever hoped. Just to see, I was curious exactly how far my vision would take me. I thought about moving farther into the sky and started to rise steadily. Screw this, LET¡¯S GO! My mana followed my thoughts and I shot toward the sky. I managed to reach the edge of our atmosphere and looked back down. I don¡¯t think I ever really appreciated Earth. God, it¡¯s beautiful. Earths blend of oceans and land, its lights from all the cities and technological advancements. It seems like there¡¯s no end to it. I turned around and looked farther into space. I could actually see the moon from here. It looks a lot cooler without through an atmosphere filled with fumes. And then I fell. Ark 1.5: HAS, BAS, Alfred, and George. Riley¡¯s POV I entered into the apartment with Linsday in tow and noticed the studio had changed a wee bit, for starters it had been more L shaped with a small kitchen that you enter into, leading to the living room with an offshoot bathroom and bedroom. Now it was shaped more like a square with the living room in the middle and the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom wrapped around it, also in the middle of the living room was a chest high cylinder. ¡°What do you think that is Linsday?¡± when she didn¡¯t respond looked over an saw she had already fallen asleep on the couch Guess she was tired, it was a long day as is, you know with the world ending and all whatever I¡¯ll let her sleep while I figure out what''s up with this pillar. I walked over to the pillar and looked all around it for any clue of what it was and why it was here, after looking it from top to bottom, I noticed the hand grove on the top shrugged and placed my hand in it. In my mind, I heard ¡®Welcome to Home Arrangement System, or you can call me HAS¡¯ the voice was quite freaky because it was a genderless monotone voice speaking into my head. Can you hear me? I tried to project my thoughts. ¡®I can, discomfort with current voice patterns detected, initiating a mental scan to determine preferable voice module¡¯ I felt an almost wave through my brain not uncomfortable but not pleasant either. ¡®There we go, Riley, is this better?¡¯ Oh dear god no why is that the voice it picks? The voice it was using now was Linsday¡¯s and making it worse, It said it in the most alluring way possible. ¡®What are you not satisfied with me?¡¯ I swear I could hear it pouting. No that¡¯s too weird go back to the genderless robot. ¡®Well fine then¡¯ it got in one more comment before a jarring change back to an emotionless genderless voice So what now HAS ¡®Now, you say ¡°home menu¡± to pull up my interface.¡¯ Imma look like a lunatic doing this, aren''t I? ¡®Most likely yes.¡¯ I realized that I probably already seemed crazy, you know standing in the middle of the room furrowing my brows and making facial expressions, I muttered under my breath ¡°home menu¡± and another small blue screen popped up in front of me.
Home menu interface: Home Size. Mana needed per 10ft.
11,592 ft. 100 MP
Home mana pool: 100/100
Passive Mana Gain: .1 per minute.
Break Down: By Cubic Feet: By Mana:
Living room: 3,200 ft 64,000 MP
Food Palace: 800 ft 16,000 MP
Porcelain Throne: 392 ft 7,840 MP
Gamer¡¯s Den: 7,200 ft 144,000 MP
Home associated skills: Skill level: Present till next level:
Cooking: 5 50%
Crafting: 4 3%
Sleeping: 2 -
Cleaning: 1 100%
Show 0 leveled skills?
Defensive rooms: Room level: Mana till next level:
Armory: 0 50
Training room: 0 50
Recycling room: 0 50
Well, that would explain why no matter how often I clean it my house is always dirty. ¡®Yes it would, the home skills are skills that you can only use at home or in select circumstances, your cleaning skill effects how easy it is to keep your home clean. Have you any other questions?¡¯ I noticed that the voice had slipped into a butler like voice, very prim and proper, what does the dash in my sleeping skill level mean? ¡®Ah yes sir, the sleeping skill effects how well you sleep and how much you sleep, it has a dash because the only way to level it up is a proper nights sleep, at the higher levels you may not need to sleep for months.¡¯ Well, it makes sense that I don¡¯t have a very high level of sleeping, I tend to avoid it after all. I''m going to call you Alfred, is that ok home system? The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.¡®Mh yes excellent choice sir, have you any other questions?¡¯ Yes, how much mana would it take to claim this whole building as my own? ¡®Mh, sir depending on your plan of action either nearly 11,592,000 mana or 80 mana.¡¯ Why is there such a huge difference? ¡®Well if you use the home system function to claim 10-foot chunks, then it is eleven and a half million mana, but if you go down to the boiler room and claim the building as a residential zone, then it would only be one mana per room. With ten rooms on each of the ten floors, factoring in that you claimed your room already, and that one other room has been claimed it¡¯d be 80 mana.¡¯ Alfred that was the longest sentence you¡¯ve said yet. ¡®Indeed¡¯ Well, I¡¯m off to the boiler room then to claim the building. Don¡¯t let anyone in that''s not me. I looked over at the sleeping figure of Linsday is there any way for you to communicate with Linsday once she wakes up? ¡®Yes, there is sir.¡¯ Ok once she wakes then could you explain what¡¯s going on and where I am also, treat her orders as my own ¡®Are you sure.¡¯ Yes, I''m sure, I¡¯ll be back in a flash. With this thought, I left the room and started making my way to the boiler room, I should get my laundry while I¡¯m there I put it in the machine before I left in the morning, I did lone my best sweatshirt to Linsday, and you know once you give a girl your sweater you never get it back¡­ and following that line of thought, I realized I had arrived at the utility room that led to the boiler room that seemed quick I guess my apartment is on the first floor. Wait is it technically a house now? Because I can make it as big as I want, urgh I¡¯m getting distracted again, I need to figure out a way to stop my increased intellect from running all the time. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and tried to pull open the door, of course, its locked well I guess it¡¯s a good time as any to try my creation power. I thought about different ways I could use this power to get past the door well I could try to create acid above the door and melt the door, create another stone key, or even use my power to create brass gears and the such to try and create a clockwork golem, oh or even more fun would be a bomb I shook my head to stop that line of thinking before it got any worse like a hydrogen bomb really brain to break down a simple wooden door. Oh it¡¯s plywood wood I can just create water in the between the grains of the wood and that will soften it and I can break it down, also I think my increased intellect is functioning as a separate conscious that¡¯s giving me ideas. Does that mean that all people with split personality syndrome are actually at the limit of natural born human intellect? Ugh, I need to find a way to deal with those pesky thoughts, either way, that¡¯s a great idea, thanks to me. I placed my hands on the door and felt the ruff grain under my hands, I visualized water filling the spaces between the wooden surfaces and spacers, I imagined the water softening the door and going past the natural absorption rate of the wood and paper, I then uttered ¡°create¡± and I heard a small woosh as a puddle appeared at my feet, my blue bar plummeted, and the little black diamond started blinking again. I placed my hand against the door and could feel the moistness of the wood now. I reared back and attempted to kick down the door, making sure to kick near the knob of the door, and to my surprise, the door basically splintered and gave me the surprise of soaking my leg with water that hadn¡¯t been absorbed by the door. Oh, of course, that soaks my leg, I should have just used acid. Anyway, I entered into the utility room and decided against grabbing my laundry before claiming the building, maybe I¡¯ll get it later, or figure out how to create my own clothes and destroy them instead of washing, or maybe find a cleanse spell those are always a thing in these situations. It¡¯s this type of thing that maybe my luck will kick in and I¡¯ll find one after killing a slime, granted I don¡¯t even know if enemy drops are a thing yet, any slimes that I¡¯ve killed have been crushed by a block of stone. Well, now I''m just going insane as I¡¯m having a conversation with myself. Noticing I was just standing in the middle of the utility room staring off into the distance I decided to start acting only on instinct not thought because dam that was inefficient, I¡¯ve spent around 12 minutes thinking not acting¡­ there it is again. Before I could get onto another track of thinking, I rapidly moved towards the boiler room door to find it locked again, this time with a solid as hell old iron sliding door. I think you can find your own way past this yourself we¡¯ll now I know I¡¯m developing a second personality or guess that wouldn¡¯t be another personality because they don¡¯t take over my body. Whatever I¡¯ll name him George. I took another look at the door, it was rather old but in good condition with basically just the rivets being rusted. Any ideas George? Nope, none. Well, that¡¯s a confirmation of my insanity. I began thinking of different ways to get past the door some of my thoughts including another idea of creating a golem of sorts, I don¡¯t quite know how yet, creating a kaboom of sorts, can''t the doors too thick to safely blow up, and lastly trying to create water at a high enough pressure to cut through the mortar around the door, no that wouldn¡¯t work, my mana bar read out at 134, this is after about 12 minutes of standing around and thinking, meaning that when I did the door trick it used 90 mana. The door was about 2 meters tall, a tenth of a meter thick, and a meter and a half wide, but with all absorption of the wood, I created about a cubic meter of water. To create enough water to slice through the mortar would take far too much mana. Correct so what other option do you have to get past the door. Ah ha good old acid, hydrochloric acid to be specific, water and key so far I imagined a small amount of hydrochloric acid pouring over the brackets anchoring the door to the wall. I decided to try something different this time and just imagined the act of pushing mana into my mental image, I felt a rather large tug from my body as I began to hear a sizzle from the top of the door. I opened my eyes to see the acid quickly working through the brackets well elegant solution my friend, but maybe you should actually use the several chemistry classes you took, do tell what¡¯s one of the byproducts of hydrochloric acid and iron? That''s right extremely flammable hydrogen gas. I thought about it for a second ¡°so, that doesn''t matter I''ll just not breathe it in¡± I responded to myself God I¡¯m daft, what''s in a boiler room that¡¯s right a boiler. How do boilers heat up the water except with the right a flame¡­ George trailed off as it hit me, and also the door fell off its hinges and it the ground. Well seeing as we aren''t dead yet it means that the gasses haven''t gotten thick enough to push down to the flame, but don¡¯t let me deceive you that door is still being melted through and will keep creating gasses... I swatted away the train of thought ¡°yeah yeah I got it from here, I need to create a base to neutralize the acid.¡± I thought about the many different bases after filtering out the one that wouldn¡¯t be strong enough to neutralize the acid I decided simpler was better and settled on good old sodium hydroxide. I pictured the solution dousing everywhere the acid was remaining and pushed my little remaining mana into the mental picture, I saw my mana plummet down from 49 to 4. Yeah that checks out, it would seem that a cubic meter of material costs about 90 mana and I created about half a cubic meter of sodium hydroxide. While on this train of thought I was hit with one of the worst headaches of my life shit mana deprivation is no joke. ¡°Shut it, George, at least I got the door open¡± yes but I also don''t have enough mana to claim the building now. ¡°43 minutes¡± that''s till manas at 90 just enough to claim the building and have a little extra to spare. Better yet you could only wait 38 minutes and use all your mana to claim the building, but also deplete your mana fully. ¡°What would happen if I ran out of mana.¡± Do you know? ¡°What no that''s why I asked you¡± well then I wouldn¡¯t know, I am you after all. I weighed the pros and cons then realized that I¡¯d been away from my room for almost a full half hour. Sweet Jesus what if Linsday woke up and is in the process of girlifying my room, oh no ¡°welp looks like I''m only waiting 38 minutes.¡± I got up from the ground where I had apparently fallen during my headache which was now more of a dull throb, and stumbled past the fallen door into the boiler room then sat down in front of the white pillar that was identical to the one in my room. I assumed the lotus position in front of the pillar, because well what else do you do when trying to regain mana I seemed to enter into a trance I was woken from it much sooner than I expected Granted time seems to pass differently when I¡¯m in a trance that¡¯s true of a pre-game system world though, right George? George? Uh, I guess that George isn¡¯t talking right now. Anyway, I glanced up at my mana bar and was surprised it was full well ok then, I saw that my little black diamond was blinking again. I should check that out at some point¡­ But not right now and with that, I slammed my hand into the palm-shaped indent. ¡®Welcome to the building arrangement system, or BAS for short.¡¯ the mechanical voice was back. Oh, it¡¯s you Alfred? ¡®If that¡¯s what you name me sir. Then yes¡¯ They had slipped into the butler''s voice again. So how does this work? ¡®You give me 80 mana to claim this building as your own and then it works similarly to your room, but with making rooms instead of expanding them.¡¯ Then, of course, a prompt appears.
Would you like to claim this building as your own? Y*/N *claiming the building will cause you to gain the subclass Building manager
Well ok, I guess having one probably bad subclass I can always change it out later With that I affirmatively clicked yes. There was a flash of light and another prompt popped up.
You have gained a subclass, subclasses are utility classes different from the main class you can only have one subclass and if you are prompted for another they will not combine, they will replace each other.
The little black diamond was flashing vigorously now, finally deciding to get it out of the way I mentally clicked it and a rather long list of notifications scrolled past my eyes, apparently one was more important than all the others because it stopped scrolling at this box that was updating as I watched. BIG NEWS MAN (or woman or whatever you identify as the prince dont judge) WEEEEEEEE I''m just filling in here so that you can see the pre-chapter note. for reading this far down ill give you a tidbit... Zombie Skull Crusher 3: Revenge Of the Murderous Rabbit God is a game about a space seal that runs around mars killing 10-foot tall fire breathing bright Pink Rabbits... they may or may not appear later in this series. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Now i Just got to add charcters so its longer. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP wanna hear a joke? Two fish are swimming they hit a wall one turns to the other and says "dam" What do you call a fish made of only two sodium atoms? TwoNa hahahhahahahhahahha kk by now