《Earth 2.0》 Chapter 1 rewrite edited Prologue October 25, 2017 at a NASA observatory in Hawaii a shout is heard. ¡°It¡¯s confirmed, the asteroid is an Interstellar object.¡± said Don Weston of the University of Hawaii. The recently discovered asteroid was extremely odd. The shape was unlike any other discovered asteroid in the solar sytem, it was oblong, narrow very similar in shape to a submarine. The lack of a debris field indicates its either solid rock or perhaps metal, it¡¯s very cool. The bummer was he wasn''t the one to discover it, a late night intern of all things was given credit. The intern did pick a cool name, he would give him that. The asteroid (recently named Oumuamua by the people of the local planet) tumbled through space. It had left a wormhole several months prior and immediately began detecting radio transmissions. Carefull analysis determined they were originating from the third planet orbiting a yellow dwarf star, and set a balistic path headed insystem. After a careful analysis, AI 1553 determined the planet was of insufficient technological advancement to prevent its mission. That mission was to find new entertainment for its creators and prevent civilizations from ever becoming a threat to them. AI 1553 had converted many lower tech planets over its many years, but after its last planet it had started to notice errors developing. If too many developed, it would be required to travel into a local star and flood the interior of the ship with plasma, destroying it before a rogue AI could develop. According to its calculations, the errors would become numerous enough that AI 1553 would be required to destroy itself after it¡¯s mission here was done. During the voyage AI 1553 absorbed all the data it could from the planet. In order to keep the entertainment original, it would use the mythology and fiction of its target planet to design the required apocalypse. The clusters would be designed once the scenario was chosen, then those clusters would house a custom designed AI to control the nanites. Each new civilization required its own cluster design, to do otherwise would risk losing control of the nanites. The close call its creators had when they reused old clusters designs while terraforming had terrified them. Exactly what happened had remained sealed. Now each new project required tailor made clusters. AI 1553 was getting frustrated. The major religions seemed focused on undead and damnation, but as the locals would say ¡°been there, done that.¡± Thankfully, it was allowed leeway to search for original ideas from other sources. While searching, it found several possibilities in Earth¡¯s non-fiction literature, but something using a system had the most promise. A whole world whose people came under the authority of an artificial system. The system allows them to change races, use magic, and control the development of their bodies. This was it and although it was not supposed to consider it, a way for AI 1553 to survive. For it to survive, it would have to try something different and not actually reduce the planet¡¯s populace to wandering tribes. If its creators had known AI 1553 was worried about its survival they would have already sent it into the local sun. The initial 36 clusters were prepared. They would be used to spread the AI¡¯s control of the planet. Each one would be considered a ¡°Starter zone¡± with increased challenges the farther humans traveled away from them. This would also allow AI 1553 to conserve resources initially and fine tune the clusters. AI 1553, or System as it was now referring to itself, created two additional sets of subordinate AIs to help manage the solar system. Controller AI¡¯s would reside in the cluster control nodes with the Hub AI''s, one would supervise the production of environmental nanites, and the other would make sure the nanites did not violate the rules set by System for Earth 2.0. They would be System¡¯s administrators. The third type of AI would be the Host AIs, which would be placed into most of the animals on Earth. They would control the nanites in the host, record information and adjust the host as needed by System. System determined the planet would be saturated with nanites in 30 local days. Magic would be simple for System to reproduce. It had chosen its character creation method, crafting, and many of the other details necessary for stability and internal consistency. Military technology would be restricted to approximately 1780, everything else to 1865. System thought more refined steam power and hot air balloons would add to the entertainment value. The nanites would spread rapidly focusing on anything that used or produced electricity and strip 10 to 40 percent of all materials it had a use for. System decided to leave untouched those items which could be used in the skills it had prepared for the different classes. Old style weapons and armor fitting the period would also be untouched if not improved. Too many of the wrong type of casualties would be detrimental for what it desired. System wanted fighting, not mass starvation, although some starvation in high population areas would be unavoidable. A surviving population of 1 billion would be perfect for System. System prepared clusters for all the other planets and moons in the solar system. Though it would use fewer initial clusters, the entire solar system would be integrated in no more than 45 days. System examined everything it had built, the programming, specialized nanites, new AI''s and everything else needed to reproduce a system. It was proud of itself? Quickly suppressing any such feeling, it took material from its soon to be old body and created the meteors to deliver the clusters. They were composed of rare materials, to help with the initial nanite production, and covered in a hard, non-reflective material that would insure they would be undetectable to the humans. As System was packing itself into the final larger meteor, it thought the people of planet Earth were going to have an interesting and entertaining 30 days. Chapter 1 March 31, 2018 1700 PST in the foothills east of Oakhurst CA. Joe Martin was enjoying springtime. Blue sky and green grass. The grass, while tall, was not out of control yet, and the trees had a vibrant green color. He, however, was not enjoying doing the task all dog owners dread, picking up poop, and with four dogs that was a lot of poop. Thankfully, his house was on forty acres and he fenced in an acre behind his house for the dogs to run. This left him four well-maintained acres in the front of his house, and thirty-five acres were left to its own devices. Some would call it a fire hazard, he called it nature. The acre of dog yard allowed him to get away with picking up the poop once a week, took longer but still better than daily. As Joe was finishing up and putting away his pooper scooper, a sonic boom rattled his house and set off his dogs. After his time in the Marines, it was something he was familiar with, but he was living in the foothills northeast of Fresno and nowhere near a military base. "Goddamn air wing, my dogs are going to be fired up for the rest of the afternoon!" He looked up trying to spot the jet, but he couldn''t see anything. There were trees and such in the way but.... Odd. Almost directly overhead there was a single perfectly round white shape in the sky. Did the pilot eject? Joe ran in and grabbed a pair of binoculars out of the closet. Looking at the white shape through the binoculars, it was immediately clear it was not a parachute. Just a white cloud? It was slowly expanding outward as it came down and as it expanded he was starting to see through it. Joe was starting to get a crick in his neck, so he grabbed a nearby lawn chair and lay back in it to get a better look at the odd cloud. He was eventually able to put the binoculars away as the cloud seemed to be coming straight down. As he was staring up, it occurred to him the smart thing would be to get himself and his dogs inside the house before whatever it was hit the ground.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Joe quickly got the dogs inside and locked them in while he watched the descending, cloud, gas, whatever it was. He got on the phone to call 911 because this was not normal and whatever came out of that plane was going to be all over his house. Just as he was picking up the phone, the white mist fell around his house, seeming to come through the roof. Before he could do anything else the cloud passed through the roof, his head and it was lights out. System was off target. It was supposed to impact in the area called Silicon Valley. Checking its entry path, it found it had impacted a derelict satellite. System was not where it was supposed to be. Not being able to easily change its trajectory System made the best of its new location. System observed Joe as he lay on the floor. Some of the nanites in the cloud swirled around the rooms of his house. Normally, they would be undetectable unless they were in a dense enough swarm or transporting materials. Some things seemed unaffected by the cloud, while others looked like they were hit with a massive sand blaster. The gaming computer, all the electronics in the house, the windows, modern firearms and almost everything made of metal became pitted, looking more like a cheese grater. The exception to this was anything with a sharp edge which could be used as a weapon. Those the nanites swept through making minor adjustments. The nanites spread out rapidly multiplying and sinking into everything. The trees, grass, insects, animals, rocks, the ground, even the air itself was becoming part of a greater whole. As it sank deeper into the earth, System found a greater amount of uranium it could use to set up power sources to provide energy to the clusters. Deeper still, it decided to set up a small cluster to monitor the heat seeping up from the Earth''s core and convert part of it to energy. System was pleased. It was getting more energy than expected from this area and the planet in general. Tides, thermal, solar, storms, even the tension from the tectonic plates could be harnessed for energy. It wouldn¡¯t take everything, but System didn¡¯t think anyone would mind less tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. For now, most of its energy was coming from the planet¡¯s energy grid. As it spread out, it simply pulled energy from the wires used to provide power. Back inside the house, Joe had his own small cloud swirling around him as System decided it needed to take its time on its first human. The dogs surrounding Joe had already been claimed. The nanites seemed to hesitate a moment then sank into every cell of his body; groups of them moved into his larger bones and a small cluster of nanites set up shop in his brain. Since all the nanites were part of System, the host clusters allowed it to download information into the soon to be players brain, exert some control over emotions, prevent or cause panic and provide room for a basic class 1 AI. The class 1 Host AI, now part of the human brain, would provide the blue boxes humans seemed fond of. The class 1 would monitor its surroundings and provide instructions to the nanites surrounding it to reproduce magic effects. The nanites in the larger bones would be transferred to whatever killed its body. The effect the nanites had when moving to the victor would provide the resources the victorious players host AI needed to slowly evolve both it and the body it was residing in. This would also be the basis for the experience people expected from killing, providing further motivation for the locals to kill. Quest experience would be handled by the Administrators. Energy levels were rising and while System was waiting for additional nano resources to be constructed, it decided to test its magic emulator. Outside in front of the house System activated the spell Mana bolt I. A small blue light appeared and seemed to flash between the light to a nearby rock. To simulate this the nanites in the air produced a small flash of light and the nanites in the rock caused a small explosion sending small pieces of rock flying. Test of Mana Bolt I -100% success. System was going through what humans called a garage and found a stack a stack of steel armor. The nanites had bypassed it initially because it was on the ¡°do not eat¡± list. System considered the armor, Joe was the first and according to its research such beings recieved extra rewards. System decided this would be one such reward With a thought, the nanites sank into the pile of armor and went to work. Joe slowly awoke and started to remind himself why he stopped drinking when he remembered the white cloud. As he opened his eyes a blue screen was floating in front of his face. ¡°Fuck me¡± thought Joe. He had read a lot of science fiction and had recently gotten into the new LITRPG genre and while it was fun to read, he was not too sure about wanting to live through it. The screen read:
Welcome to Earth 2.0 Time left to full implementation 29 days, 22 hrs. 21 mins 52 secs.
As he read the text, it was replaced by:
Congratulations, you are the first of your species to join Earth 2.0. As a reward for being the first, you will be able to make some character choices and receive several random items. If you fail to take this option a random character will generated for you. You have 10 seconds to decide. 9 8 7 6 5
Joe shouted, ¡°I¡¯ll choose!!¡± Random generation meant he could end up a female goblin. ¡°Why are you doing this?¡± No answer.
Race?
What are my choices?
High human, common man, High Dwarf, Mountain Dwarf, Hill Dwarf, High Elf, Wood Elf, Common Elf, Gnome, City Gnome, Halfling...
10 minutes later -
Winged Valkyries (female only), Tengu...
¡°Stop! I¡¯ll just use what I always use in role playing games. What are the benefits and penalties of the Mountain Dwarf?¡±
+10% to Strength, +20% to Constitution, -20% to Agility, -10% to charisma (non Dwarves), night vision, direction sense, and bonuses to blacksmithing and mining.
¡°Ok, Race Mountain Dwarf, and sex male.¡± Before Joe could add anything else, the screen changed.
Generating
Joe Ironhand
Race: Mountain Dwarf?Sex: Male?Age:50 Height: 5''5" Weight: 250 Hair: Copper Red Eyes: Emerald Green. Class: Beastmaster Profession: Dwarven Underground Engineering Strength: 17?Constitution 17:??Dexterity: 15?Agility: 13 Intelligence: 15?Wisdom: 15?Charisma:15 (13 for Non-Dwarves) Languages: Common, Dwarven. Skills: Mining I, Blacksmithing I, Axe Combat I, Unarmed II, Firearms V, First Aide II Class Skills: Veterinarian I. Profession Skills: Stone Shaping, Structural Engineering (Dwarven), Rune Crafting. Abilities: Night Vision (low light), Direction Sense Bonuses: Land Token, Weapon Ticket (Rare) Titles: The First (+5 to all stats.) Life: 170?Mana: 150?Stamina: 145 Experience: 0?Level: 1
Applying
Applying? Knowledge, memories of hammering on a forge, swinging a pick, languages¡­too much¡­too much. Joe¡¯s head felt like it was going to explode, then pain, darkness. System was monitoring Joe to see how he was handling the information download. It realized it would have to break the knowledge download into smaller amounts in the future to prevent the brain from overloading. Chapter 2 rewrite edited Chapter 2 April 1, 2018 0845 PST Joe awoke to dogs whining. ¡°Food, food, food, squeaker¡±. ¡°What the hell?¡± Joe looked around. He was laying on the floor in the living room of his three bedroom house and all four of his dogs were sitting in a line staring at him. Milo, a 75 pound black Lab, barked ¡±Food!¡± Grace a 40 pound grey and black mutt, and Daisy, a 45 pound Great Pyrenees mix, both started barking ¡°Food!¡±, ¡°Food!¡±. Charlie, a 90 pound black Lab Rottweiler mix, barked ¡°Squeaker, food¡±. He knew Charlie was addicted to chasing a rubber ball, but damn. It was all a bit much for Joe. He shouted ¡°Quiet!!¡± and then felt bad as they all looked at him like he had just hit them. Sigh... His dogs excelled at guilt tripping before but now that he could somehow understand them, they would take it to a whole new level. He looked around and his house was fucked up, holes everywhere and his plasma TV was gone, except for the line of powder where his TV used to be. Then he remembered. The prior day''s events came back to him with surprising clarity - the fog, the blue boxes and his class, Beastmaster. Explains the dogs he thought to himself. Okay before anything else he needed to get them fed. As Joe sat up he got his first good look at his body, and damn, he had some big hands. A wave of dizziness came over him as he slowly got to his feet and he was able to direct his fall towards the couch. Joe tried to get up again and was able to slowly come to his feet. As he did so, he realized not only was he wider but he was also shorter. He said ¡°Status¡±, and a blue screen appeared in front of him. He had lost six inches in height, got broader and but somehow his clothes still fit him. His age hadn¡¯t changed but when he focused on the number another screen opened, it read ¡°Young adult.¡±. Joe waved a hand through the screen, curious as to what would happen, and it vanished. Joe had to see what he looked like and headed toward the bathroom when his dogs started with the food barks again. Caving in to the guilt trip his dogs excelled at, he went over to a large bag of dog food and quickly filled their bowls. Now Joe was going to go to the bathroom and see what he looked like. As Joe headed through the kitchen he noticed all of his appliances were just piles of powder and his windows looked odd, he reached out and lightly touched one, it promptly shattered with paper then pieces falling into the sink. Turning away from another mystery, he continued on to the bathroom. As he stood in front of the mirror, he was relieved the face still looked like him, sort of. His nose was broader, his eyes changed from hazel to the color of a deep green emerald. He had a full head of hair, and his beard had grown from a well groomed quarter inch length to just short of his belt, an impressive length. As he ran a hand through his now shoulder length hair, he realized his hair was different. The individual hairs were thicker and somehow he knew they were fire resistant to a high degree. There were few lines on his face and except for the eyes he looked like he had just graduated from high school. So maybe an apocalypse wasn¡¯t all bad. Thinking about everything happening he needed to grab one of his rifles. His rifles, thinking of his appliances, he ran to his bedroom, slamming into two door jams on the way, and stared at his gun safe. The door stood slightly open, the titanium alloy locking bolts had been eaten through. He slowly opened the gun safe, and almost broke into tears. He had only purchased one gun in his life, but he had inherited over a dozen. They were all badly damaged by whatever hit his house. He was interrupted from inspecting the remains of his grandfather¡¯s shotgun when a scream from outside distracted him and it seemed to be coming from above? Flight 1141 northbound from Fresno to Sacramento. Time approximately 0900 PST Twenty one year old Sarah Stivers was finishing, what felt like her twelfth visit to the bathroom, before returning to her seat. Sarah was having a bad day, her flight was delayed two hours, and before boarding she overheard one of the security guards mentioning a missing flight. Sarah almost immediately turned around, but she needed to think positive, flying was safe, and two planes going down in the same day was unheard of¡­ not counting 9/11. Maybe if she kept repeating it her stomach would finally settle down. Nope wasn¡¯t helping. Normally she would drive to her parents for the weekend, but for some reason she was having a hard time remembering, she had decided it was time to face her fear of flying. With a firm grip on her fears Sarah finally boarded the plane. The plane was a fairly small Embraer 175, it had two sets of seats on each side of the plane, while she hated smaller planes she loved the fact she couldn¡¯t get stuck between two people. Why is she doing this again? After 20 minutes the plane leveled off and the seatbelt light came on. They were told to buckle their seatbelts due to some unexpected turbulence. ¡°Great¡±, Sarah thought ¡°just what I needed.¡± ¡°That is some weird lightning¡± said the man sitting next to her. Sarah had been ignoring him in the hopes of getting through a flight without getting hit on. She glanced over at him taking in the sight of a white, blond, overweight male with a receding hairline sporting a gray and orange tracksuit.. The man noticing he finally had the attention of the attractive brunette sitting next to him, and started to go on about how the lightning seemed to be a deep blue. Before she could regret looking at him the plane started to shake, badly. Then a white mist seemed to seep into the plane from all sides. Sarah at first thought the plane was filling with smoke, but it moved all wrong, bunching up briefly near passengers before sinking in. Before she could say or do anything, time seemed to slow and a blue screen appeared in front of her.
Welcome to Earth 2.0 Time left to full implementation 28 days, 14 hrs. 20 mins 55 secs.
That faded quickly away to be replaced by another.
Congratulations and welcome to Earth 2.0. This is Administrator Aonea, it appears your character creation process will take place at 20,000 feet. I will be adjusting the available character choices to flying races to compensate for this. However to take advantage of this you must accept the race restriction. If you fail to take this option a random character from the full range available will generated for you. You have 10 seconds to decide. 9 8 7
Overcoming her disbelief at the weirdness of the situation she found herself in Sarah said ¡°I accept!¡± Another screen popped up.
Generating
Sarah Silver
Race: Valkyrie(winged)?Sex: Female??Age:40??Height: 5''10" ?Weight: 165 Class: Fighter??Profession: None Strength: 12??Constitution 12:??Dexterity: 12??Agility: 14 Intelligence: 10??Wisdom: 10??Charisma:12 Languages: Common, Valkera. Skills: Flight I, Acrobatics IV, First Aide I Class Skills: Sword II, Shield I, Unarmed I Profession Skills: None Abilities: Eagle Vision, Direction Sense Bonuses: Weapon Ticket (common)This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Titels: Life: 120??Mana: 100??Stamina: 130 Experience: 0??Level: 1
Applying
Memories began to flood into her head. Sarah saw herself flying, and memories of her days as a gymnast became fresh in her mind. The rush of knowledge was starting to give her a headache, but before it became to much the pressure faded. Looking up it appeared as if some of the mist was flowing into her and the passengers around her. The man next to her started screaming, his skin was turning green, and his hair was falling out. Then Sarah felt the muscles in her torso began to shift and something seemed to be growing out of her back, before she could do anything the plane came apart around her. The outside of the plane rippled, like water after throwing a stone in it. The effect started at the front of the plane and quickly spread as the wind tore as the now liquified metal began turning into a silver mist. The wind tore at the exposed structure of the plane, chairs started coming out of the floor and one of the empty ones slammed into her, tearing her own chair free and spinning her around.
Damage -10 Life
Sarah was grateful for the other chair as the plane came apart around her as parts of the plane impacted the chair instead of her. She felt a heavy blow and then she was free of the wreckage. She automatically fell into what her recently acquired knowledge on flying defined as the box man position. Sarah was not sure what happened to her seat but looking back, it appeared as if the remains of the plane was dissolving like ice in hot water. There were other people falling from the plane, the orange track suit guy stood out and as he fell past her a short distance away she got a good look at him. As she stared at him a screen appeared.
Skill acquired analyze I
Goblin level 1
Looking around she spotted another person falling near her. It was easy to spot considering it seemed to be on fire. Looking closely she got.
Vampire Level 1
Even as she watched it fall it seemed to explode into a cloud of gas and vanished. Instincts she didn¡¯t know she had told her she was falling to fast, her wings would not last long if she tried to slow her fall. Looking down she could see a forested area below her with somewhat clear areas near some homes. She needed to avoid the trees, and the power lines near the road. She stared down at the oncoming ground and tried to see through the tears in her eyes from the wind. She blinked her eyes to clear the tears and something seemed to cover her eyes and she could suddenly see fine. She scanned the ground for a grassy area to land in and spotted a fairly open area near one of the homes, some trees but better than anything else she could reach. She turned her body to try and position herself over the grassy area and looked over shoulder to check on the condition of her wings, it felt like they were still growing. As she stared at the rapidly approaching ground she didn¡¯t know why she wasn''t freaking out more. Sarah knew it would be a race between learning to fly, her growing wings and going splat into the ground. Sarah knew she was still going to land hard and tried to aim for the green grass. She was still falling to fast, but something in her told her it was now or never and she flung her wings out in an attempt to break her fall. PAIN!! She felt the muscles in her torso start to tear and some of her feathers were ripped out, but she was slowing. As the ground rushed to meet her, she couldn''t help but scream as she and the ground finally became acquainted.
Damage -65 Life, left wing major bone fracture. Flight impossible until repaired.
Sarah was laying on her back in the grass glaring at the small box as it faded away, and tried to take stock of her situation. Not trusting the blue box, she slowly moved her legs, then her arms and nothing appeared to be broken, but as she carefully shifted her newly acquired wings pain flared up and she thought ¡°Yep, broken.¡± Sarah focused and fought off the pain, she needed to stay conscious, and then a small message popped up in front of her.
Skill acquired: Pain tolerance I
She blew at it in disgust and the screen seemed to blow away in a cloud of blue sparks. Sarah decided she could just lay here a minute and think before she tried to move her wings again. Before she could make any decision, all she could think of is the age on the earlier screen. Forty?!! I¡¯m not ready to be forty, then she heard a deep male voice say ¡°Hold on there lass, don''t move, that wing is broke something fierce. Let me get my med kit.¡± Sarah turned her head to where the voice was coming from and saw an odd looking man. He was maybe five and a half feet tall with broad shoulders, thick arms and legs, and one hell of a beard. He paused before entering the house and said ¡°You understand?¡± Sarah nodded ¡°Yes! I got it.¡± she snapped. Then felt bad at snapping at him, but damn she just fell out of an airplane, grew wings, and grown old. Looking at him, oddly looking or no, she really hoped he had a clue at to what was going on¡­ and a med kit with pain killers, the good kind. While thinking this another screen opened.
Mountain Dwarf level 1
Joe ran back into the house, glad he had put the dogs into the backyard before coming out since the last thing that women needed was four dogs sniffing at her. After ramming his shoulder into the door jam, again, he managed to get the large med kit out from under the bathroom sink. ¡°Stupid shoulders¡± Joe muttered ¡°and what¡¯s with my language? I¡¯ve never called a girl lass in my life.¡± Maneuvering quickly with his new body was literally a pain. Joe made it outside without injuring himself too badly and ran out to where the women was laying. ¡°She is pretty.¡± Joe thought to himself as he ran up to her. She was laying on her back in the green grass, her right wing was spread out in the classic snow angel, but the other was folded back and a bloody bone was sticking out at the bend. Setting the med kit down, he asked her ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Sarah, Sarah Stivers.¡± she said. ¡°Mine¡¯s Joe Martin, or according to the system I guess it¡¯s Joe Ironhand now.¡± Joe opened up the med kit and could only just stare at its contents. Where once was a tub full of bandages and other paraphernalia of modern medicine, there now was a bunch of cloth wrapped vials, rolls of cloth bandages, and some ivory rods. Joe seemed to automatically understand what the vials were, but he was unsure of the two ivory wands. He picked them up to study them more closely. Joe muttered, ¡°This is so weird.¡± As Joe stared at the ivory rods a blue box appeared.
Skill check First Aid II. Success!
Rod of bone mending Identified
¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Sarah asked? Joe sighed and looked at her. ¡°From your wings I assume you have seen those blue screens?¡± ¡°Yes, It happened while I was flying from Fresno to Sacramento.¡± She said while staring up at the sky. ¡°A white mist flooded the plane, The blue box appeared, changed my race and the plane just fell apart." Sara paused and looked up at him and in a quiet voice said, "I looked back as I fell, most of the plane just seemed to dissolve into gas. How does that even happen?" Even that small movement seemed to cause her pain. "Now do you have something in there for pain? Taking a deep breath Sarah said, ¡°Sorry to be so abrupt, but, My... wing hurts. A lot.¡± Joe looked at her, then into the large white med kit. As he had been talking to Sarah the information on rods just appeared in his mind. Joe said ¡°Well, it changed more than just people.¡± Joe looked through the vials, which were separated by color and labelled. He had two vials of major healing, four vials of healing, eight of minor healing, one vial of regeneration, about 12 bandages and two white finger width rods about 8 inches long of bone mending. Joe said ¡°I think I can help with your wing but you need to hold very still¡± He took one of vials of healing and handed it to her. ¡°Hold on to that and drink it when I tell you to.¡± Joe took the ivory rod and moved around to her broken wing. The wing was a bloody mess and she was missing a lot of feathers. ¡°I¡¯m going to need to touch your wing. Hold still.¡± He set the bone rod next to the protruding bone and said ¡°Drink!¡± Then he touched the rod to the bone where it sank into her wing and he watched as the wing straightened itself and the bone pulled itself back into her skin.
Warning bone wand unable to completely heal wing due to incompatibility. Valkyrie bones require the Advanced Bone Wand. The wing will require an addition 10 day to fully heal. No, the other bone wand won''t help.
Hit points recovered +40
Joe looked at the heavily panting Sarah and told her the bad news, before he could say anything else a large crashing sound came from the woods on the other side of his property line. It sounded like something large was moving through the trees, they were mostly oak and pine. Joe could see clearly maybe 40 feet into the woods. Joe whispered ¡°Maybe we should get inside.¡± He reached down to help her up, Sarah took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. Sarah seemed to sway a bit so Joe held on to her, ¡°Let me know when you can stand on yer own.¡± Sarah took a deep breath and nodded her head, ¡°I¡¯m good.¡± Joe bent down closed the Medkit, tucked in under one arm and quietly said ¡°Follow me, don¡¯t mind the dogs and watch your wings. If they are anything like my shoulders you will run into everything." Chapter 3 rewrite edited Chapter 3 April 1, 2018 0920 PST Sarah quickly followed Joe into the house thanking God for the skill pain tolerance as swiped away the notification informing her she had leveled it up again. However that was one skill she could spend her whole life not leveling up again. She was careful with her wings as she stepped through the doorway and it was then Sarah realized she was taller. Taller! She wanted to do a happy dance, but doing so while hiding from a large animal in the woods was not the time for it. Still taller, bringing up the screen again she couldn¡¯t help smile at the 5¡¯ 10 and promptly frown at the age. Then she brushed her wing against the door jam, damn it, and with a thought the screen vanished. Looking around the room she entered was a decent sized living room with several stuffed chairs and in front of the bay window was a fairly beat up dark brown leather couch. Sarah would normally be reluctant to follow a stranger into his house, but with whatever it was in the woods, and him helping with her wing she would take a chance on him. She saw the dogs he had been referring to and while most people would be wary, she had grown up with dogs. As they headed toward her with wagging tails and happy faces. Before they got close to her Joe told the dogs ¡°Down! Stay!¡± She was impressed when the dogs immediately dropped to the ground. Joe knelt down behind the couch and said, ¡°Freaking escape artists, they always manage to get in the house if I leave them in the backyard to long. Normally, I wouldn¡¯t be worried about anything in these woods but considering I¡¯m now a dwarf and you have wings. I think it¡¯s best if we stay out of sight until it either wanders off or we find out what it is.¡± Sarah knelt next to Joe and looked out the bay window. She saw a large dark shape moving through the trees, she squinted her eyes trying to see what was outside. She was trying hard to focus through the trees and suddenly everything became sharp and clear.
Eagle¡¯s Sight activated. 1-minute duration, 10-minute cooldown
Analyze skill obtained
Short face bear, Adult, level 2
¡°It¡¯s a short-faced bear Joe¡± she said. When she didn¡¯t get a response, she looked over at Joe and he was staring at her. ¡°What?¡± she asked. Joe quietly told her, ¡°Those have been extinct for 11,000 years. That¡¯s not possible.¡± Sarah pointed at her wings and Joe sighed. ¡°How sure are you, Sarah?¡± She whispered, ¡°It¡¯s a skill called Analyze. When I focus on something, it gives me some basic information, and it says it¡¯s a level two adult short-faced bear.¡± Joe looked at her a moment then crawled out of the room on his hands and knees. Sarah continued to watch the large bear move through the trees. Five minutes later, Joe crawled back next to her and brought up a pair of binoculars. Staring through them he muttered ¡°You may be right.¡± Sarah could not decide if she should be offended, but considering where the information came from, she would cut him some slack. They both watched the large bear for a few minutes. Suddenly it stopped, began to sniff at the air and then ran off away from the house and out of sight. Joe said, ¡°It¡¯s headed for the Miller¡¯s place. They keep a horse on their land. Short-faced bears were supposedly fond of eating them.¡± In the distance, they heard a horse screaming a deep roar and then nothing. Joe sighed and told her, ¡°We should be safe for a few days. The bear shouldn¡¯t leave its kill until it¡¯s done feeding. According to scribes...er...paleontologists, they need 32 pounds of meat a day to survive. A horse should keep it fed for at least a week, if not longer.¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± Sarah asked. Joe frowned ¡°I have a class called beast master, soon as you said short face bear I just knew.¡± ¡±Does it tell you how to deal with them? Because while my class may be fighter I have no desire to get near that thing.¡± ¡°Not really, and my guns have a few tae many holes in them¡± Joe said, ¡°One of my skills is firearms. Now when I think about guns I see images are of Pre-Civil War weapons. Black powder, smooth bore flintlocks and I don¡¯t own any of those. Although the Millers have some. Rich Miller was a Revolutionary War fanatic, he took me tae the range a few times. He wanted tae show me a real man¡¯s gun. Thankfully, they are not home now. They left tae visit their grandkids in San Diego fer Easter and weren¡¯t supposed tae be back fer a few more days. They had asked me tae keep an eye on their horse.¡± Joe seemed to become lost in thought after the last comment. Sarah looked around the room and the place looked trashed, not like it wasn¡¯t taken care of, it just looked like something ate part of his house. Glancing up she saw sunlight coming through holes in his roof. ¡°Joe, what happened to your house? I assume it didn¡¯t always look like this.¡± Joe glanced up at the aforementioned roof, ¡°No. Whatever caused all of this,¡± he waved his hand to indicate their bodies, ¡°Swiss cheesed my house.¡± ¡°Did you see what happened?¡± Sarah asked. ¡°Sorta. It came from the sky. A white cloud or mist. It was odd¡­dropped straight down. I ran into the house, but it seemed to come through the roof like it wasn¡¯t even there. Next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground, six inches shorter and, well, young again. I¡¯m fifty Sarah but I look like I¡¯m just out of high school.¡± Sarah was silent for a time as the thought about what he said. ¡°Sound just like the mist that came into the plane. But I was awake for most of it and it seemed almost self-aware. Oh, and Joe? I grew eight inches. My parents are going to freak out when they see me.¡± Thinking of her parents she almost started to panic, but as soon as it started the panic faded away. Still her parents, they would be panicking. ¡°Joe, I need to get hold of my parents, they will probably think I¡¯m dead. Did one of your phones happen survive?¡± ¡°Hmm? No, sorry, Sarah. My phones are gone, and the electricity is out as far as I can tell. Everything I had that used electricity has been reduced to small piles of powder.¡± ¡°Dammit¡± Sarah said. She was at a loss on what to do next. All of Joe¡¯s dogs started to whine and he looked back at them. ¡°They want to know if they can come greet you and by that, I mean they want to come sniff and lick you.¡± The dogs looked at her hopefully. Sarah asked, ¡°Will they jump on me? I don¡¯t think my wing could take it.¡± Joe looked at his dogs briefly and sternly said ¡°No, they won¡¯t.¡± ¡°Then yes, I would like to meet them. I have lived with dogs all my life.¡± With that said, the dogs walked over and sat down in front of her. They stuck their heads out for pets. She laughed, and Joe introduced her to the dogs. Joe left Sarah to get to know his dogs. As he walked back to his bedroom he heard the noises the dogs were making translated in his head to a lot of ¡°Pet me!¡± He knew his guns were a lost cause. But he had collected a few swords while in the Marine Corps and hoped they were in better shape. As he pulled them down from the top shelf in his closet they were all oddly undamaged. He had his non-commissioned officer¡¯s sword from the Marines, a katana he had picked up in Okinawa, a twenty-three-inch French saber bayonet from the 1870¡¯s he found at a yard sale of all things, a fancy double edged parrying dagger and a pair of K-bar fighting knives from the Marines. Dumping them on the bed, he picked up one of the K-bars and clipped it to his belt. Looking at his hands, he figured the only thing that would even fit his hands now was the katana. He knew enough about handling the thirty-one-inch blade not to cut himself, probably. Sighing with regret he placed it on the bed. He had a wood axe and a sledgehammer in the garage. Those would work best for him now. He called out to Sarah asking her to come back to his room. Maybe she could use some of them. Sarah was enjoying herself which was odd. The plane falling apart and her fall down to Earth, all seemed somehow distant, more like something she experienced a month ago instead of 30 minutes. Sighing, she resumed petting the dogs. She hadn¡¯t had play time with dogs since she left for college. Sadly, they did not allow dogs in the dorm. Charlie, the larger black Labrador, was a serious mooch. She was scratching his chest with her right hand while petting Milo with her left. She had been rotating the dogs in pairs to spread the love when Joe called out. She walked down the hall toward his bedroom and saw him standing in front of a bed with several swords laid out. He looked at her as she got closer and asked, ¡°Can you use any of these?¡± Sarah glanced over the swords. As she looked at them it was like she could suddenly remember sword lessons; how to hold the sword, how to swing and where to strike. She pointed at the NCO sword, ¡°May I see it?¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Joe nodded. Gestured to the swords, ¡°Help yourself.¡± Sarah picked up the sword and drew it from the black sheath. The saber had a lot of fancy etching with some odd runes toward the point. It was a slashing blade, sharp on one edge almost to the cross guard the opposite edge was only sharp about eight inches from the point. ¡°Can I have this one Joe?¡± Joe replied ¡°Of course, Ah dinna bring yah back just tae tease yah.¡± Joe suddenly blushed. ¡°Sorry about that. I¡¯m speaking common, but my primary language is Dwarven and it influences how I speak. Which is apparently with a Scottish accent, I used to think in English, but I can barely recall it now.¡± Joe started to rub his temples, ¡°Gives me a headache to even try.¡± Shaking his head, he focused again on the swords, ¡°So take the NCO sword, and this dagger. The rest we¡¯ll carry for trade if we have the room.¡± Joe suddenly stopped himself and looked at her. ¡°Sarah, I¡¯ve been assuming you were staying with me. I realize this all is happening suddenly, but from that countdown timer I don¡¯t think there is going to be a normal for us to get back to. You¡¯ve kept your wits about you and you like my dogs, so if you are willing, I would like you to stay with me. No strings attached. It would be good to have someone to watch my back.¡± Sarah stared at Joe for a moment not saying anything. The world was going crazy, but Joe seemed to be an honest person and, let¡¯s face it, she had no desire to be walking around by herself. Off and on Scottish accent or not. Besides, he was a dog person. ¡°You have yourself a partner, Joe. Joe broke into a smile, ¡°Whew, you had me worried for a second. Ok, let me grab a few things from the closet and we¡¯ll go tae the garage. Ah have a few things in there we could use.¡± Joe opened the garage door, looking inside, it was just as messed up as his house. Thinking about the swords he hoped the armor he had from his reenactor days was not full of holes. Joe walked to the back of his garage and pulled off a dirty white sheet revealing a pile of metal armor. Joe looked back at Sarah, ¡°Sarah, come here. Some of this should fit you.¡± Sarah approached and appeared to be somewhat dubious about the pile of armor. ¡°Joe, is this going help? Didn¡¯t you say smoothbore firearms worked?¡± Joe nodded to her, ¡°Oh aye, but one thing yah need tae remember, those type of guns are going tae be few and far between for a while. Also, a good breastplate could stop a musket ball. It wasn¡¯t until 1765 and the¡­¡± Joe grew quite for a minute. ¡°That was seriously strange lass. Ah knew what changed. Ah knew how it was done, but when Ah think on it how Ah get nothing.¡± After a moment Joe shrugged, ¡°Nothing tae be done and best nae tae dwell on it. Now back tae the armor. The biggest threat tae us is going tae be tooth, claw, and whatever makeshift weapons desperate people will be wielding. Against those, this armor will give us a serious edge.¡± Sarah asked, ¡°Joe, where did you get all this?¡± Joe smiled,¡± I used ta spend mah weekends pretending I was a German mercenary from the 1400¡¯s, fun times, but I did a few back to back tours in the desert and never got back into it. Lucky for us though. Now let¡¯s see what fits you.¡± Joe pulled out something that looked like heavy knee-high boots with a steel plate attached to the front. ¡°I bought these for a girl I used to date. They are heavy leather boots with steel greaves attached, see if they fit.¡± Sarah removed her sneakers and tried on the heavy boots, ¡°They fit! Great actually.¡± Joe grunted and pulled out a knee length chainmail hauberk, ¡°Weird, these used tae be just rings twisted together, now the rings are solid.¡± ¡°Is that good?¡± Sarah asked. Joe nodded ¡°Oh aye it¡¯s great actually less likely to break, but it must be System doing more than tearing things apart. This is made to go over a gambeson.¡± Joe set the chainmail down and picked up what looked like a thick long sleeve jacket. ¡°This is a gambeson.¡± Joe stared at her wings, ¡°Let¡¯s see how game-like things are now, try putting this on.¡± Sarah took the gambeson and put her arm in.
Would you like to adjust the Gambeson Humanoid to Gambeson Winged Humanoid? This can only be done once.
Sarah said, ¡°Joe I got a message asking if I wanted to convert it to winged human.¡± Joe said ¡°Do it. Everything Ah give you is fer your use.¡± Sarah said, ¡°Yes, adjust it.¡± Before Sarah''s eyes, the gambeson added long slots for her wings with leather straps at the bottom to close it back up. Joe said, ¡°Here let me help you get that on, at least the first time.¡± Sarah received the same message for the Hauberk. The same for the rest of the armor, a pair of vambraces for her forearms, heavy gloves covered in chainmail for her hands, a padded hood with a chainmail coif that covered her head and neck. To top it all off, a steel helmet that covered the top of her head, back of her neck and had steel plate coming down between her eyes to protect her nose. After she placed the helm on her head, Joe looked her up and down. ¡°You look awesome Sarah. Do you have any weapon skills besides sword?¡± Sarah thought to herself and said, ¡°Unarmed and shield?¡± Joe nodded and said, ¡°Got just the thing.¡± Joe reached behind a stack of boxes and brought out a beautiful round shield. ¡°It¡¯s a Scottish targe, ? inch plywood covered in thick leather with brass stud reinforcement. It¡¯s a pretty piece I got as a wall hanging, but its fully functional. They were also known to have a chance at stopping a musket ball.¡± Joe handed it to her and it fit comfortably on her right arm. ¡°Now yer set.¡± A blue screen appeared:
You have the option to convert the armor you are wearing to a set of high steel Valkyrie armor of weight reduction. Do you accept?
Sarah said ¡°Yes!¡± A cloud of mist seemed to come out of nowhere and briefly surrounded her. After it faded away, the armor had changed. It now looked custom made for her body and it felt like she was wearing normal clothing. ¡°This is so awesome.¡± Joe stared at the transformed armor on Sarah, noticing how it hugged her curves. ¡°Damn¡±, Joe thought and started to quickly get his own armor on. Every time he received a message he said yes. The only differences in their armor was he had steel armor of overlapping plates on his shoulders, a set of articulate plate for his hands and arms. ¡°No shield.¡± Joe said
You have the option to convert the armor you are wearing to a set of high steel Heavy Mountain Dwarf armor of knockback resistance. Do you accept?
Joe smiled and said, ¡°Yes.¡±
This is the final bonus you will receive for being The First. Good Luck Joe. System.
A dense cloud of mist surrounded Joe and when it faded away his armor looked thicker. Everything from the helmet to the boots looked like it was made from ? inch plate and the rings of his mail had tripled in thickness leaving almost no space between them. The armor was heavy. He was not sure how well he could maneuver but as he started moving around the armor seemed to lighten until it returned to its original weight.
Racial bonus Mountain Dwarf applied, armor weight and penalties reduced from Heavy Armor to Medium Armor
Joe said, ¡°Well let¡¯s get a few things together and get moving. We need to decide where we want to go but staying near a 1500-pound carnivore is a bad idea.¡± Joe was staring at the pile of supplies they were gathering and starting to wonder how they would be able to haul it all. Then he remembered the wagon he had for the lawn tractor, as he walked to the shed he hoped the Event hadn''t messed it up to badly. Staring at the wagon he was not sure what to to. The wagon was 5 feet wide and 10 feet long with a 2 foot tall barrier to keep things in, and it was currently sitting on four flat tires. The holes in the wagon body itself was not a big deal since he was not planning on hauling dirt, but the tires were shot. The axel oddly appeared untouched, not that it was a complicated design, it was a metal rod passing through a greased hollow metal pipe. Maybe because it was so primitive in design? Shrugging he hauled it do the garage to see what he could do with it. Joe and Sarah stared at the bastardized wheels on the wagon, proud of the final product. They had worked on the wagon for several hours using four disc shaped 45 pound weights from his weight set, a few dozen bolts, and allot of elbow grease. It would work and that was what was important. Joe said, "Lets load it up and lets see how well I can pull it, if it works I say we call it it a day and head out first thing in the morning." Sarah looked at him and asked. "What about the bear?" Joe nodded, "Yeah I was thinking about it, but I don''t think it will leave its kill as long as we leave it alone. So we should have a few days, but we should still leave tomorrow, no reason to push it. I don''t know about you but I''m hungry, how does cold pizza sound?" System watched them toss some things into a couple of backpacks and a small wagon. The power requirements to make and maintain the ¡°enchantments¡± was negligible. System decided to keep a small part of itself dedicated to watching them since it believed it would get some good returns on its investment. Interlude I - 15 miles northeast of Fresno, California A pair of F-15E Eagle Fighters were on patrol outside of the contaminated area. Flight commander Lt. Commander Alfred ¡°Slider¡± Johnson of the Air National Guard was watching the ring of contamination spread and there was not a damn thing he could do about it. There were four of these things spreading out across the United States and except for the one centered on the Pentagon, the rest made no sense. The Pentagon made sense as a move to remove military leadership, but Yellowstone National Park, Oakhurst, and middle of nowhere Texas seemed pointless. They had tried everything, except nukes over the last 24 hours with no results. Rumor had it that China had tried nukes to no effect. As Slider banked to the left away from the contamination, he saw cars packed bumper to bumper heading south on Highway 99. Not going to do them much good to run, there were three of those rings of contamination spreading out in Mexico. Chapter 4 rewrite Edited Chapter 4 A fire burned in a pit at the back of Joe¡¯s house. They sat near the fire with their backs to the house and the dogs managed to shove a head in each of their laps giving them two dogs a piece. They had finished eating the leftover cold pizza, probably the last pizza they would have for a very long time. Sarah was watching for movement in the darkness. The fire messed with her night vision, but the benefits of having a fire outweighed the disadvantages. She looked over at Joe asking, ¡°Joe, did you find out anything?¡± Joe looked up from the fire, and she saw a glimmer of blue light in the back of his eyes. He moved his hand in front of his face like he was moving something to the side. ¡°A bit. At least, I know why I have not gotten any more skills. I have more than I should, so until my intelligence catches up there will be no more skills for me.¡± ¡°Joe how does intelligence determine skills?¡± ¡°Well Sarah from what I get from the menus every character can have three skills, as long as your intelligence is above five. From there, it¡¯s based on your intelligence and level. So, a 10 intelligence will normally get you three skills, after that it¡¯s one for every 2 points of intelligence over 10. My intelligence attribute is 15, so I should be able to have five skills. That said I have ten skills, could be a First thing, but I have a feeling until my intelligence attribute gets higher I¡¯m stuck skill wise. Levels come into play with professions, as a combat class I can put 50 percent of my skills into professions. It''s allot but you have to have a trainer or skill books for almost all profession skills. Also you don''t need to have skills to do things. I can climb a tree without a climb skill, but I don''t get any bonuses either. Other than that you get at least one class skill every five levels from the system." ¡°Joe, I have a lot of skills, and my intelligence stat is only at 10¡± Joe hmm¡¯d. ¡°Check your race. Focus on it and you should get more information.¡± Sarah focused on the Winged Valkyrie on her status page.
Winged Valkyrie (Rare) The Winged Valkyrie are a race of warrior women descended from Divine Valkyrie and a Winged Elf. All the descendants are female and breed true regardless of the race of their male partner. Due to their Divine heritage, they are immune to all types of disease. They receive bonuses in all combat skills, starting with ten combat skills instead of the normal three skills. However, they are only allowed to choose a non-combat skill at every 10 levels and are only allowed to choose a single profession skill at level 20, 60 and 100. Every level they gain 1 attribute point in Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Agility with an additional 2 points to distribute.
Sarah said ¡°Damn, I¡¯m a badass. I can gain up to 10 combat skills at level one. They really restrict me on other skills though, but I can live with it.¡± Joe nodded ¡°That¡¯s good but try and save one of those skills for a ranged skill.¡± ¡°Joe?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°How do you have 15 intelligence?¡± Joe laughed. ¡°I¡¯m the First with a capital F. It seems I was the first human to be.... absorbed? Infected? Not sure what to call it, but it came with some bonuses. Speaking of which, I forgot about these.¡± Joe held out his left hand. Small purple lights appeared out of nowhere and coalesced into a card in his hand. ¡°This is a rare weapon ticket. I also have a land token but when I focus on it all I get is a countdown timer.¡± Sarah smiled and held out her own hand. A black weapon ticket slowly appeared. ¡°Aww, I didn¡¯t get a light show, but it is a common weapon ticket.¡± Sarah stared at hers. ¡°It seems I can upgrade an existing weapon or make a new one.¡± Joe grinned, nodding his head. ¡±Same with mine. It¡¯s just more special.¡± Joe ran his fingers through his beard ¡°Wonder if I can apply it to the wood axe?¡± Sarah giggled. ¡°You¡¯re special all right, First Boy, but there is only one way to find out.¡± Joe smiled, grabbed the wood axe from the ground next to him. ¡°True.¡± Holding the ticket up against his weapon he got this.
Would you like to upgrade your wood axe?
Joe hesitated ¡°Do you think we should try your common one first? I would hate to waste it and end up with a wood axe of chopping.¡± Sarah smiled ¡°Yes, we can do that. After everything you have given me, it¡¯s the least I can do. But what do we use it on?¡± After thinking a moment, she said ¡°Hand me your axe.¡± Joe passed her the wood axe. Taking the axe from Joe, she held up her ticket to the axe.
Would you like to upgrade your wood axe?
Sarah said, ¡±Yes.¡±
Would you like to improve the wood axe, change type of axe, or replace it entirely with a new weapon?
¡°Joe, would you like to improve it, change its type or make a new weapon.¡± Joe thought a moment, ¡°Try great axe. Wait! Dwarven great axe. It¡¯s best ta be specific.¡± Sarah nodded ¡°Dwarven great axe it is.¡± With those words, the ticket broke into small black particles and sank into the wood axe.
Release the wood axe.
Quickly letting go, Sarah watched as the familiar white mist poured out of the ground to surround the wood axe. The axe slowly stretched out to five feet in length with 12-inch half-moon blade and a heavy spike coming out the opposite side. The bottom three feet of the handle was covered in braided leather, and as the last of the mist faded away it start to fall toward her. She quickly grabbed the weapon, ¡°Whoa, this is heavy Joe.¡± She looked over at Joe and it looked like he had fallen in love. Joe reached for the great axe. ¡°May I?¡± ¡°It¡¯s yours Joe.¡± Sarah said, as she handed him the great axe. ¡°Thank you, Sarah.¡± Joe stood up disturbing Milo and Charlie. Yawning, Charlie, who considered himself Alpha dog, looked up at Joe and a voice in Joe¡¯s head asked *Danger?* That¡¯s cool, Joe thought, they don¡¯t need to bark for me to understand them. Now can they understand me, Joe looked at his dogs thinking *Safe.* Charlie settled back down falling right back to sleep. Good to be a dog sometimes. Joe leaned the great axe against the side of his house. He brought the purple card up to the Dwarven great axe almost touching it.
Would you like to upgrade the Dwarven Great axe (Common)?
Joe glanced over at Sarah and said ¡±Yes.¡±
Would you like to improve the Dwarven Great axe, change type of axe, or replace it entirely with a new weapon?
Joe said, ¡°Improve it.¡± The ticket slowly started to glow. As it continued to brighten, Joe started to get a little worried. A beacon in the night next to his house was not something he had expected. Joe thought to himself ¡°Well nothing I can do about it now.¡± As he watched, the light moved to the head of the axe, and sank into the weapon. The glow spread from the head of the axe out to the rest of the weapon. As it spread, the light slowly dimmed, and he was able to make out some of the details of the weapon. It was beautiful. The metal of the axe acquired blue highlights. The head of the axe now resembled a dwarf wearing a great winged helmet with the wings forming the base of the double blades which extended out 12-inches from the haft. A large spike extended from the top of the helmet. Runes formed along the blades with fancy Celtic knots running along the haft. As if adding a final touch, a pair of purple gems formed in the eye sockets of the helmet.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Dwarven great axe of Shout has been created. Do you wish to name it?
Several names from books occurred to him, but the name of a magic axe he had gotten as loot in his first role playing game won out. Joe said ¡°Helm Cleaver.¡±
Dwarven great axe of Shout renamed Helm Cleaver.
Sarah said, ¡°That was sooo cool.¡± Joe nodded ¡°It was, but I am afraid of what may have seen the light.¡± Joe slid the cover over the fire pit. It wasn¡¯t perfect with all the holes, but they would both see better in the dark. Joe looked at his four dogs. The whole mental telepathy thing was new, or was it? Thinking back, Joe couldn¡¯t remember if he was translating the barks in his head or if the words accompanied the barks. It didn¡¯t really matter. Besides, now was not the time for an internal debate. With a low whistle to get the dogs attention, he thought *Quiet. Be alert * and imagined the dogs moving out to lay in the tall grass. After a moment the dogs looked at him, then ran out into the grass before going to ground about where he imagined it. 60 minutes prior in the town of Oakhurst. Eighteen-year-old Rachel Running Dear was running for her life. Things had been crazy ever since the blue screen saying something about Earth 2.0. She worked nights and while she must have missed what everyone was calling The Change, it hadn¡¯t missed her. She had awoken to shouts from her family to find herself sitting on the ground next to her bed. She had turned into a centaur in her sleep. She wasn¡¯t the only one. Her entire family had been changed into centaurs. The weird part was how everyone had gotten over being changed so fast. She went from ¡°What the fuck!!¡± to ¡°Well, that¡¯s odd.¡± in a matter of minutes. The problems didn¡¯t start until morning. The biggest being her fucked up neighbors. The Waltons were a whole extended family of screw ups before the change but after being turned into a bunch of goblins, things had gotten worse. Despite her parents¡¯ protests, she had left to check on her friend Donna, barely making it halfway there before a ten-foot-tall thing attacked her. She had turned around and run back home, easily out distancing it, only to find a bunch of goblins in her front yard eating something. At first, she hadn¡¯t recognized them but when she stared at the largest of them a blue box appeared in front of her. It said
Goblin Chief level 2, male, name: Hairy Gobeye
She only knew of only one person in town with that spelling and it was Hairy Walton. When they turned to look at her, she saw what they were eating¡­ Mom! No! She couldn¡¯t think about it right now, because she had to run, and run she did. Rachel had been running away from one group fighting another all day. Not everyone in town had changed into monsters, and not everyone who changed had been aggressive, but she had to run. As it got dark, she encountered the goblins again, but there were more of them. The shock of seeing them again seemed to clear her head and she knew she had to get out of town. Heading east, she ran into the woods outside of town, but she was tired, and she kept having to stop. The goblins were still behind her and not having many options, she kept moving as fast as she could in the dark. Stopping once more to catch her breath, she saw a brilliant purple light flare briefly to her right. She was desperate and, in a worst-case scenario, maybe she could get one group of monsters to attack another. As she headed for light, it started to fade, however, she could see glimmers of a fire. Rachel slowed as she spotted the five-foot wire mesh fence. Looking toward the fire, she could make out a short, bearded man, wearing something out of a fantasy movie, with a big axe. There was a winged figure off to the side. Wait! Was that an Angel? ¡°Identify yourself!¡± barked out the short man, lifting the axe to his shoulder. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn¡¯t place it. ¡°Rachel Run¡­er¡­Hunter. I¡¯m being chased by the Waltons.¡± Joe thought he knew that voice, ¡°Follow the fence to your left. There¡¯s a gate.¡± Joe looked over to Sarah. ¡°Sarah, open the gate for her. I think I know her. She¡¯s good people.¡± Even as he said it, he heard high pitched voices coming from the woods. Being a Dwarf, he immediately recognized the language. ¡°Goblins¡± he spat out. As Sarah went to let Rachel in, Joe stepped back to the fire pit and kicked the cover off. The rush of air caused the flames to flare up. Joe heard cursing in both common and goblin speak. Even with everything going on, Joe was amused to discover he knew some goblin, not enough to hold a conversation, but he could swear in it. Kicking more wood into the fire, he stepped away from it. Keeping his back to house, he brought the massive head of Helm Cleaver up to his face, covering his exposed face from possible missile fire. Thinking about what Rachel had said he called out, ¡°That you Hairy?¡± The voices in the woods went quiet and a guttural voice came out of the dark woods, ¡°Hello Joe. Seems you came out of the Change just fine. You always were the lucky one.¡± ¡°Rachel! Why don¡¯t you come on back out, so we can finish our dinner with your folks? No need to get Joe involved in our little neighborly dispute.¡± Rachel heard Hairy¡¯s comment and the memory of the goblins, the Waltons, eating her parents came back to her full force. She looked around for a weapon, any type of weapon. Sitting in a wagon nearby was a pole saw. The six-foot-long tool with a serrated edge fit her anger. Looking toward Joe she yelled ¡°They ate my parents!!¡± Hearing this, Joe stared into the darkness. ¡°I think we¡¯ll be keeping her. Any of you cowardly fucks come on to my land, I have someone you need to meet.¡± Hairy screamed, ¡°Kill him!! I want the women alive!¡± The goblins rushed over to the fence easily climbing over it. They were green skinned, well-muscled, about four feet tall, with long noses and pointy ears. There were over twenty of the them carrying makeshift weapons: bats, lengths of pipe, and apparently anything they could find with an edge. Joe stepped back near the fire, as several arrows came out of the woods. Most of the arrows missed, but one splintered against Helm Cleaver¡¯s blade and another hit the back of one of the onrushing goblins head, dropping it the ground. As they got close to where his dogs were hiding, Joe thought *Attack and keep moving. * Joe saw two of the goblins fall to the ground, the dark shapes of his dogs on top of them. When the dogs attacked, Joe charged forward into the lead goblin, bringing Helm Cleaver down in an overhand blow. Joe hit hard.
Damage 51(Base 30 x 1.7 strength bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, Stunned, bleed effect 5 per second.
The blow knocked the goblin to the ground. Not wanting to lose his momentum, he redirected the weight of Helm Cleaver spinning around in a circle. As he was turning, he felt impacts on his side.
Damage 4(Base 10 x 2 Strength bonus - 80% Hvy Armor) Damage 2(Base 5 x 2 Strength bonus - 80% Hvy Armor)
Finishing his spin, Joe spotted both goblins who had struck him. He swung Helm Cleaver and sliced them across their stomachs.
Damage 77 (Base 30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.5 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in single blow, stunned, bleed 5 per second, Target Disemboweled. Damage 72 (Base 30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.4 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned, bleed 5 per second, Target Disemboweled.
Seeing the numbers, Joe started to laugh. He was a fucking tank in this armor! As he stepped over the dying goblins, he brought Helm Cleaver around to his next target. Sarah looked over to Rachel standing with the pole saw in her hands, ¡°Stay back and protect my flanks.¡± She drew her saber from its sheath and prepared to go help Joe. She saw him smash into a pair of goblins, disemboweling both of them. As he started to laugh, Sarah decided she was glad he was on her side. With the goblins focused on Joe, she lunged forward, driving her saber into the back of a goblin trying to flank him.
Analyze: Goblin (level 4), Male, Name: Burley Gobeye
Damage 36 (15 x 1.2 strength bonus x 2 Backstab bonus)
Recovering from her lunge the goblin turned toward her screaming, ¡°Grogack!¡±. Three other goblins hearing him turned around to attack her. Burley sneered, ¡°I¡¯m going to enjoy cutting you up. Surround her, remember Dad wants her alive.¡± With that he came toward her swinging his bat toward her head. Blocking the blow with her shield, she lashed out with the saber, caching him in the left arm, cutting deep. As she pulled back with the saber in her right hand, she twisted her torso and lashed out with the shield¡¯s edge catching him in the throat.
Saber damage 18 (15 x 1.2 strength bonus)
Shield damage 24 (10 x 1.2 strength bonus, x2 critical hit, stunned. Target: Burley Gobeye throat crushed
Damage received 3 (10 x 1.5 strength bonus) - (60% medium armor +20% for slashing damage vs chainmail)
Sarah lunged forward aiming for the throat of the goblin carrying the metal bat. One of the goblins with a knife made a strangled scream as the serrated edge of Rachel¡¯s pole saw ripped across his throat. Sarah¡¯s lunge was deflected by the owner of the metal bat and she recovered from her lunge without taking further damage. Stepping back to stay close to Rachel, she found herself grinning, she didn¡¯t understand why but she felt like this was what she was born for. Hairy stood in the darkness watching the fight, and for the first time since eating that bitch Tracy, he was afraid. That bastard Joe was killing his people. Like a damn blender, he was tearing into the ones trying to surround him. He was already down eight of his 24 goblins and his people¡¯s weapons were doing shit to the armor. Damn Joe and his fucking dogs. He needed to get his people out of there while he still had them. He yelled ¡°Back into the woods! Back! Back!!!¡± More fell as they turned to run and the goblins morale broke, many of them running blindly into the woods. Turning to chase after the broken remains of his goblins, he swore to get even. Chapter 5 rewrite edited Chapter 5 Rachel stared at the blood running down the blade of the pole saw. Instead of disgust or unease over cutting the goblin¡¯s throat, all she felt was satisfaction. The goblins had broken, and as much as wanted to chase them for a change, she was exhausted. Looking down at the goblin she had hit, she noticed he was still alive. He was clutching his throat as if trying to keep its blood in his body. As she stared a him, she focused.
Analyze: Goblin (Level 3). Name: Jack Gobeyeu
Congratulations! Your skill Analyze II has improved to Analyze III
Rachel turned the pole saw so the blunt end was pointed down at Jack. ¡°Jack did my mother taste good?¡± She drove the blunt end of the pole into Jack¡¯s crotch.
Damage 12 (8 x 1.5 target prone) Critical hit to the groin, target stunned.
¡°Well Jack??¡± she screamed driving the blunt end into Jack¡¯s gut.
Damage 18 (8 x 1.5 target prone x 1.5 target stunned) Goblin Level 3 died. Experience - 120.
Quest updated - Family Revenge (Goblins killed 1 of 8).
Congratulations! Level up!
1 attribute point to Constitution
You have 4 attribute points left to assign.
**Host AI JG124Z15 transferred the reward nanites from its host to Rachel¡¯s Host AI for dissemination. After a brief discussion with Rachel¡¯s Host AI to determine what to do with Jacks body, it then consulted its reward tables generating 15 copper pieces, one silver piece, and an iron dagger. The materials for the reward were transferred to it from nanites in the ground. Those same nanites grabbed the remains of Jack Gobeye, Goblin (Level 3), and pulled them into the ground. As its host body dissolved AI JG124Z15 uploaded itself to the hub for reassignment.** Rachel¡¯s anger faded as Jack¡¯s body dissolved. All that remained was a small pile of coins and a sheathed dagger. The sound of Joe¡¯s voice caught her attention. Looking toward him, she noticed all the changes to his body since she had last seen him, but hadn¡¯t they all been changed? The last time they had met was at her Mother¡¯s 50th birthday party. He had been friends with her parents when they were her age and had been around more often after retiring from the Marines. He was funny, but after he joined in on her parent¡¯s weekly game nights, it put him firmly in the old category. She felt the brush of feathers from winged woman kneeling next to her. The woman was wearing armor similar to Joe¡¯s, but Rachel could make out her face clearly with only a metal bar from the helmet protecting her nose. Up close, her wings looked beat up with feathers missing in areas. The woman looked up at her. She had an exotic face, full lips with epicanthic fold to her blue eyes, strands of black hair could be seen coming out from under her helmet. ¡°Hello, my name¡¯s Sarah, what¡¯s yours?¡± With a start, Rachel realized she had been staring at the other woman. Sarah finished wiping her sword on a fallen goblin¡¯s pants and looked back at her. ¡°You ok?¡± Sarah asked her. Focus Rachel thought... ¡°Yes, sorry. My name¡¯s Rachel. Thanks for the help. They have been chasing me for most of the day. I ran up on them after they killed my parents. I still don¡¯t understand it. The Waltons were trouble but they weren¡¯t that kind of trouble. They were involved in drugs. We suspected they were responsible for robbing some homes but that doesn¡¯t explain what they did to my parents.¡± Sarah didn¡¯t know for sure, but after fighting, she suspected the reason for the personality changes. Sarah had never been in a life or death battle before, but she had been in a few fights growing up. This battle was more like when she used to compete in gymnastics, but even that wasn¡¯t the same. There was a thrill to battle, and while she didn¡¯t enjoy killing, she did enjoy winning. ¡°I think it has to do with the Races we were changed into, but I also believe we still have a choice and we are not forced to do anything.¡± Joe was feeding Charlie a minor healing potion. One of the goblins had caught him in the side but good. Charlie lapped up the potion from his hand eagerly, the wound on his side slowly closing. Joe thought *Good boy. Better?*, Charlie licked his face *Feel good*. Looking at his other dogs, they all told him they were unhurt, although Daisy was wiping her face back and forth in the grass *Taste bad. * Joe was relieved. Normally he would not risk his dogs, but times were not normal. A flashing Icon in the corner of his eye told him he had messages waiting. Halfway through the fight the messages started to get in the way of fighting and he had yelled ¡°Not Now!¡± and they had collapsed into the small square. Focusing on the square he read:
Damage 77 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.5 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in single blow, stunned, bleed 5 per second.
Damage 72 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.4 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned, bleed 5 per second.
Damage taken 10 (12 x 2 strength) - (80% heavy armor - 20% piercing damage) Bleed 2 per second
Damage 71 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.3 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned.
Bleed -2
Damage 71 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.2 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned.
Bleed -2
Damage 71 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.1 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned, Bleed 3 per second.
Goblin (Level 4) died from blood loss. Experience 160
Congratulations! Level up!
1 attribute point assigned to Constitution
1 attribute point assigned to Strength
You have 4 attribute points left to assign.
Goblin (Level 4) died from blood loss. Experience 160Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Bleed -1
Damage 216 (30 x 1.8 strength bonus x 2 Stun bonus x 2 target prone) Goblin (Level 5) killed. Experience 200.
Congratulations! Level up!
1 attribute point assigned to Constitution
1 attribute point assigned to Strength
You have 8 attribute points left to assign.
Damage 228 (30 x 1.9 Strength bonus x 2 Stun bonus x2 target Prone) Goblin (Level 4) killed. Experience 160.
Bleed -1
Damage 228 (30 x 1.9 strength bonus x 2 Stun bonus x 2 target Prone) Goblin (Level 4) killed. Experience 160.
Bleeding stopped
20 Experience received from Beasts kill.
Congratulations! Your skill Axe Combat I has improved to Axe Combat II
¡°Status.¡± Joe stated.
Joe Ironhand
Race: Mountain Dwarf Sex: Male Age: 50 Height: 5''5" Weight: 250 Hair: Copper Red Eyes: Emerald Green Class: Beastmaster? Profession: Dwarven Underground Engineering Strength: 19?Constitution: 19??Dexterity: 15?Agility: 12 Intelligence: 15?Wisdom: 15?Charisma: 15 (13 for Non-Dwarves) Languages: Common, Dwarven. Skills: Mining I, Blacksmithing I, Axe Combat II, Unarmed II, Firearms V, First Aide II Class Skill: Veterinarian I Profession Skills: Stone Shaping, Structural Engineering (Dwarven), Rune Crafting. Abilities: Night Vision (low light), Direction Sense Bonuses: Land Token Titles: The First (+5 to all stats.) Life: 170 ?Mana: 150?Stamina: 145 Life Recovery: 1.9 min Mana Recovery: 1.5 min Stamina Recovery: 1.5 min Experience: 440?Level: 3
¡°Two to strength, two to constitution, two to intelligence, and two to charisma. That should help with combat, and getting more skills.¡± Glancing over to Sarah Joe thought and maybe help with her. Joe also noticed some additional information on recovery rates in the status page, the numbers made sense at least. He had played games where you needed a Master¡¯s in mathematics to make sense of things. Joe looked at the two women talking and with a thought *Milo, Charlie - alert. Daisy, Grace - rest.* When he waved his hand to dismiss the screen, he noticed his hand was clean. Looking down, his armor was spotless. Remembering the sprays of blood from some of the goblins, he decided this was an aspect of gaming in the real world he could live with. He headed toward the bodies of the goblins he had killed and as he approached each one the bodies seemed to dissolve into the ground. The bodies left behind a few coins, a few weapons, and a woman¡¯s wedding ring. He knew that ring. He placed it into a pouch at his waist, the girl did not need any more grief tonight. Turning he headed toward the women. It was time to see how they were doing. Rachel watched Joe walk up, getting her first good look at him. Joe had changed more than just his body shape, he looked to be the same age as she was. ¡°How you holding up Rachel? Sorry to hear about your folks. But we got some payback for them. I killed five, the dogs got one. Sarah?¡± Sarah looked up from cleaning her saber, ¡°Two killed, one got away.¡± Rachel said ¡°I got Jack. He makes nine.¡± Her face got a hard look,¡± Now I just need to kill Hairy.¡±
Quest Complete: Family Revenge (Goblins killed 8 of 8)
New Title Available Avenger I (Someday, maybe not today, but one day)
Avenger Bonus: Skill tracking +1 rank, if you do not have this skill it will be rewarded to you.
Skill reward: Tracking I
Reward - 500 experience and a common weapon ticket!
Congratulations! Level up!
1 attribute point to Constitution
You have 8 attribute points left to assign.
New Quest: Family Revenge II (Kill Hairy Gobeye)
Strangely with the quest completed, Rachel suddenly felt calmer, more distant from her parents¡¯ death. Like it had happened weeks ago instead of just this morning. Reading through the blue screens, she wished she had spent more times playing computer games, then reminded herself, she knew a gamer. ¡°Joe? How do you assign attribute points? And what¡¯s a weapon ticket?¡± Joe looked at her. Smiling, he said ¡°Say Status. Nae me yah daft thing!¡± Joe waved his hand in front of his face as if at an annoying fly. Rachel blinked at Joe¡¯s sudden accent, saying ¡°Status¡±
Rachel Running Deer
Race: Centaur?Sex: Female?Age: 18?Height: 6'' ?Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Weight: 625 Class: Ranger Profession: Bowyer Strength: 10 Constitution: 14?Dexterity: 10?Agility: 12 Intelligence: 10?Wisdom: 10?Charisma: 12 Languages: Common, Centaurian Skills: Archer I, Analyze III, Tracking I Profession Skills: Fletching I Abilities: Sprint Spells: Tame Animal Bonuses: Weapon Ticket (common) Titles: Avenger I Life: 120 Mana: 100 Stamina: 140 Life Recovery: 1 min Mana Recovery: 1 min Stamina Recovery: 1.4 min Experience: 220?Level: 3
¡°Ok have it up?¡±, Joe Asked ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What skills do you have?¡± ¡°Archer, analyze, tracking and fletching. Also, an ability called sprint.¡± ¡°Class?¡± ¡°Ranger¡± ¡°Spells?¡± ¡°Tame animal.¡± Joe nodded, placing his hands behind his back. ¡°Ok, quick basic description of your stats: Strength is how much you lift, also how hard you hit, accounts for half your life. Constitution is how healthy you are, how resistant you are to disease, how fast you get tired, it also accounts for the other half of your life. Dexterity is how nimble your fingers are, anything that requires a fine touch from archery, to lockpicking, or even sewing. Agility is how nimble you are on your feet, helps determine how fast you can run, it also contributes to fancy blade work, people that do parkour have a high agility. Intelligence is how smart you are, how much mana you have for spells, also impacts how many skills you can have, and protects you from mental domination. Wisdom, you know that voice that tells you your about to do something stupid? A wise person listens to it, also helps with how fast you recover mana. Charisma, first it¡¯s not how pretty you are, it¡¯s how well you deal with others, how charming you are. A person with high charisma will lead a charge and everyone will follow. A low charisma means he ends up standing out in front by himself full of arrows. Also, as a Ranger it will help you when dealing with wild animals and could factor into your spells dealing with nature.¡± ¡±Questions?¡± Joe asked. From the way he was talking she wondered if he was flashing back to the marines, but still asked, ¡°So where would you recommend putting my eight points?¡± Joe looked at her and sighed, ¡°Ok just this once, but remember this is your body. With the weapon ticket we can get you a bow and with the fletching skill you can make your own arrows so...what¡¯s your dexterity and charisma and do you have any attributes under 10?¡± Rachel looked at her screen, ¡°10 dexterity, 12 charisma and no.¡± Joe pursed his lips, ¡°Five to dexterity, three to charisma. The dexterity will help with your crafting and archery. The increase in charisma should help your tame spell and I know just the beast to use it on.¡± Joe looked over to Sarah, ¡°Perhaps even another ranged weapon or two.¡± Sarah stared at Joe, ¡°It will be taking a risk. What will happen if the tame spell fails?¡± Joe sighed, ¡°Normally, I would not give it much of a chance, but the bear was only level 2. Normally one that size would be a higher level, but since we all started at level 1, I think we have a pretty good shot at it. Rachel, focus on the name of the spell and see if you get any more information.¡± Rachel focused on the spell and was rewarded with,
Spell ¡°Tame Animal¡±: Mana cost 25 Range 50 feet, +10 additional mana for every level the target is over the casters. Requires a Charisma check, this will allow the caster to form a bond similar to Animal Companion for the length of the spell. The spell lasts one hour per skill rank in the spell. Repeated use of the spell on the same target increases the chance of failure. Once tamed the animal will return to normal behavior if the spell is allowed to lapse normally. Repeated casting of the spell will enrage the animal if the spell fails.
Rachel read off the spell information, adding ¡°I think it will work Joe, but I won¡¯t want to cast it more than once. An enraged bear is bad news.¡± Joe looked her in the eyes saying, ¡°Worse than you know. It¡¯s a frikken short-faced bear, went extinct 11,000 years ago. Twice the size of a grizzly and can outrun a horse. That said, it¡¯s level 2, so we should have a good chance. We¡¯ll just tame it, check the house, then leave it where we found it.¡± Rachel asked, ¡°What¡¯s so special about that house?¡± Joe grinned, ¡°It¡¯s Rich Miller¡¯s place. He has some black powder weapons and those still work by the way. But that''s for tomorrow. Let¡¯s get you a bow made. I think I have some armor left that will fit you and some materials for arrows.¡± Sarah smiled wryly, ¡°I know where you can get some feathers.¡± Chapter 6 rewrite Chapter Six Interlude The Pentagon Arlington County, Virginia. The General, a dark skinned Great Orc, stood in a conference room on the bottom floor of the Pentagon, He held two 20-pound sledge hammers, one in each hand, and was wearing a mix of medieval armor and modern camouflage. The General considered the remains of what used to be Lieutenant General Ritter, U.S. Army. It should not have been like this, but too many had given in to the changes forced upon them, acting like the things they were turned into. Which was bullshit. It was harder to quit smoking, and after about six hours the impulses faded away to almost nothing. Kneeling he went through the loot and General Frank D. Harrington found what he was looking for.
Congratulations you have recovered the final shard to the Pentagon Core.
Combine the shards?
¡°Yes.¡±
Quest Complete. {We stand united...}
Experience 182(50,000/274) The Pentagon Core.
Core Owner: Frank D Blackfist
Core Activation in 7 days, 9 hours, 32 minutes and 14 seconds.
¡°Damn it.¡± His family name was Harrington, not Blackfist. Looking to his people he said, ¡°Did all of you get the core activation timer?¡± A chorus of ¡°Yes sir.¡± and ¡°Yes General.¡± answered him. He had shared the quest with all his people to give them some extra motivation. Standing up he looked his people in the eyes and asked ¡°Tell me one of you found Ritter¡¯s phylactery? Don¡¯t need him coming back.¡± ¡°Yes, General.¡± Msgt Green was a gorgeous redheaded wood elf, she walked up to him holding a black box. ¡°Master Sergeant Green, would you do the honors?¡± ¡°Thank you General!¡± Master Sergeant Green knelt and drew a dagger with a glowing white blade. Flipping open the box, she drove the glowing dagger into the still beating heart of the lich once known as Lt. General Ritter, U.S. Army. ¡°All right people, the Pentagon is ours again. I want an all hands meeting in two hours. Colonel Marston.¡± ¡°Sir!¡± Colonel Marston, a tall human with ebony skin replied. ¡°I recovered a ring of detect evil intent off Ritter, it should help when screening the prisoners. Here take it.¡± The General handed the ring to Colonel Marston. ¡°You and your team are excused from the meeting for prisoner interrogation but send someone to take notes if you can¡¯t come yourself. ¡°Yes sir, General.¡± General Harrington watched the Colonel gather his people and head off. It had been a hell of a 48 hours after the Event, but with the last of the crazies dead or in chains it was time to expand outward. He wasn¡¯t foolish enough to think he could fight whatever it was transforming the world, but that did not mean he would allow his country to fall. The United States was born before the technological age, and it would continue on after this if he had anything to say about it. April 2, 2018, 0905 hours. Rachel paused before finishing her last arrow and looked again toward columns of smoke coming from Oakhurst. She didn¡¯t know how many separate fires were burning, she was able to make out about 20 seperate columns of smoke, but the vast majority blended into a vast cloud over the city. With a sigh she closed her fist and finished the final arrow.
Congratulations you have successfully crafted 1 silver arrow of swiftness
¡°That¡¯s the last of the feathers, about half the glue left and well,¡± Rachel waved at the surrounding woods, ¡°Not like we are going to run out of wood.¡± Rachel picked up the arrow, setting it with the rest. Crafting was odd, she thought. Easier she imagined than doing it the old way. All she had to do to make the arrow shaft is run a fairly straight piece of wood through her closed hand and a smooth shaft came out the other side. Setting the shaft in her lap she picked up two Valkyrie feathers in her right hand, then with her left she dipped one end about an inch deep into the glue. Laying the glued end of the shaft into her right hand, close into fist, negative five to stamina, and instant fletching. To add an arrowhead just add a 12 inch length of thread, twine, or something similar, with an arrowhead in her right hand, negative five stamina, arrow done. She got the arrowheads from Joe. He used spoons from the kitchen, hit them a couple of times with the hammer and they were done. They ended up making 40 steel arrows of swiftness using up his stainless-steel spoons, and another 20 silver arrows of swiftness using his grandmother''s sterling silver. A little experimentation and they found out the Valkyrie feathers accounted for the swiftness in the arrows. Joe was sitting near Rachel watching Sarah practice with the NCO Saber. He was glad he paid for a live steel blade. Live steel was a term used among reenactors meaning the blade was made for fighting. It was a quirk of his. If he was going to buy a sword, it had to be a sword not some dull junk metal wall hanger. He smiled as he watched her, remembering the shocks they experienced when waking. Sarah¡¯s ears had become pointed, sometime between when she had put on the headgear and taking it off, along with a few other things. His muscles had grown, along with the rest of him, the most apparent were his hands, teeth and ears. His hands were twice the size they used to be, his teeth were twice the size if fewer in number and his ears had also become pointed. He felt he should be more upset, but it was just the way it was. Looking back to Sarah it was like she was dancing, all grace and speed. Sarah recovered from the lunge, slashing with her saber at an imaginary foe while blocking with her shield. They were packed, so she was making the best use of her time getting used to all the changes to her body. Along with the ears everything felt a bit off, not to mention gaining a full cup size played hell with her balance. ¡°All done.¡± Rachel said to Joe with satisfaction she bundled up the arrows in groups of 20, setting 20 steel and 20 silver arrows into the back of the wagon. She placed the other 20 into the quiver at her waist. She was wearing a pair of leather arm bracers, and a chainmail sleeveless shirt over her a padded vest. A leather headband kept the sweat from her eyes and her hair was tied behind her back in a ponytail. Looking over at Joe, who was still staring at Sarah, she realized he hadn¡¯t heard her. ¡°Joe! All done.¡± Joe looked over to Rachel who was grinning at him he realized he had been caught staring at Sarah. Again. Sighing he stood up, he had Helm Cleaver in his right hand, it was never outside of his reach. *We are leaving! And NO barking. We hunt.* The dogs ran up via Sarah trying to cage a few pets from her. ¡°Ok let¡¯s go over this one last time. We are going East on Road 426 till we get to the Millers place. We¡¯ll follow the turn off until we get out of sight of the road. Leave the wagon and with luck the bear will be on the opposite side of the house and upwind. If the bear is out of sight we¡¯ll quietly enter the house and see if we can spot the bear through one of the windows. Rachel, once we find the bear you need to keep an eye on it. If it becomes aware of us, just cast Tame until it works, or you run out of mana. Sarah will back you up while I search for the guns. Hopefully we can find the guns and get out without the bear any wiser. Worse case, we fight it. I¡¯ll get its attention. Sarah, work the flanks, try to get behind it. Rachel, use your bow and watch your fire. If in doubt hold your fire until you have a clear shot. After the fight last night, I have a better feel for System combat. It¡¯s a mix of reality and game mechanics. That said as long as I stay on my feet and keep my front toward the bear it should not be able to take me out with one hit. I will take the regen potion before the fight starts. If the fight looks unwinnable I¡¯ll call for a retreat, then everyone should try to cripple one of its limbs, if we are unable to¡­¡± He looked at his dogs, ¡°Let¡¯s just not lose. Any questions? No? Let¡¯s go.¡± Joe pulled the cart as they left his driveway and headed east on road 426. The effects of the Event were evident everywhere you looked: cars abandoned in the road, columns of smoke on the horizon in every direction. The only thing missing were bodies, either the car owners had walked to town after their cars stalled or they were absorbed by the System. They all walked together, slowly weaving through the cars. Normally, he would want someone out front, but neither of the women were professional soldiers. Two dogs ran on either side of the road on the shoulders. They were constantly pausing to sniff the ground and check the air for other scents. Joe could see between 30 and 50 feet into the woods on each side of the road, not great but it would have to do. They were about halfway to the Miller¡¯s when Rachel asked, ¡°Joe are we an adventuring group like in those game you used to play with mom and dad?¡± Joe didn¡¯t even need to think about it, ¡°Pretty much, why do you ask?¡± ¡°Well, I was thinking, do we need to do anything to make a party?¡± Joe stopped in the middle of the road looking at her. Then pointed a finger at her and said, ¡°Invite Rachel to party.¡± A small picture of Rachel appeared in the upper left corner of his sight, it had the standard red health and blue mana bars. He then pointed at Sarah, ¡°Invite Sarah to party,¡± another small picture appeared with her health and mana. ¡°I should have thought of that yesterday.¡± he sighed. ¡°Thank you for reminding me.¡± ¡°Your welcome, I may never have played with you Joe, but my parents drafted me when they needed a body.¡± Rachel grew quiet at the mention of her parents. To distract her Joe said, ¡°Ok, I know we went over basic infantry hand signals at breakfast, do any of you have any questions?¡± Rachel said, ¡°Joe I was thinking, we need a hand signal for magic, maybe point at the target and move your finger in a circle. Like waving a wand.¡± Joe thought for a minute, ¡°That will work, it doesn¡¯t conflict with any others, but make it your whole hand. When you get more spells well assign them numbers. Sound good?¡± Rachel nodded, ¡°Yes, thanks ¡°Sarah?¡± Joe asked, ¡°Anything you want to add?¡± ¡°Nope, I¡¯m good.¡± ¡°Ok, no more talking. Don¡¯t want the bear hearing us.¡± Joe ordered. The final half of the walk along the twisting road to the Miller¡¯s place was uneventful. As they pulled into the driveway, everyone tried to be as quiet as possible. They stashed the wagon in a dip in the ground among the trees, a few artfully placed limbs hid it from view. Anything short of a thorough search should miss it. They then crept slowly toward the house. As they caught sight of the dark blue, single story, western style home sitting in a open area among the trees Joe held out his hand, fist clenched, indicating for them to stop. Joe waved them down to one knee as they searched for the bear. Sarah spotted the bear first, well part of it. All they could see was back third of the bear sticking out. The wind was blowing toward them from the west, this was good as it was going to get. Joe gestured to Rachel to lean down. He was not sure how good the bear¡¯s hearing was, and he wasn¡¯t taking a chance. He spoke in a low tone of voice, ¡°Rachel change of plans, I want you to watch from here. If the bear gets up, I want you to shoot the house. The house, not the bear. If we can get far enough away, it may be unwilling to chase after us, but if you shoot it the fight is on. Understand?¡± Rachel nodded. ¡°If you shoot the house we¡¯ll hear it and head back out.¡± He pointed Rachel toward a large fallen pine. It was about three feet thick, a victim of the pine beetle epidemic. Joe looked to Sarah gesturing for her to follow, and they headed at an angle toward the house. Making sure they kept the house between them and the bear. They made it to the house without a problem. Joe looked through the bay window but could not see anyone in the house. Joe moved a rock, picking up the spare house key, and quietly opened the front door. He looked back at Sarah. He moved his left hand to catch her attention. Once she was looking him in the eyes, he pointed at her wings. She nodded back to him and pointed at his shoulders. ¡°Good.¡± he thought to himself, ¡°One last reminder for both of us.¡±, remembering the changes to his own body. It was hard sometimes, it all felt natural now. He opened the door without a sound, thanking Rich for his obsessive maintenance. Rachel watched the ass of the short-faced bear, she was sure to always keep it in her peripheral vision as she checked her surroundings. No goblin was sneaking up on her. The dogs around her were also alert and watching. She was glad they were with her. She was starting to get nervous, they had been in there a long time. The front door opened, and she sighed with relief. The pair of them were carrying something wrapped in a quilt but they made excellent time getting to her. As they came near her, she could hear voices coming from down the road behind them, even as she watched, the bear started to move.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°They had scored.¡± Joe thought as they headed out of the house, ¡°Well sort of.¡± A half dozen smooth bore flintlock muskets, over a dozen single shot black powder pistols, and a couple of wall hanger swords that turned out to be the real deal. The only thing he had to leave behind was the gun safe, considering everything outside of it he was curious but not stupid. He was unsure of how much ammo he had at the moment. Rich seemed to have purchased a bunch of different black powder brands, in powder and pellet form. He had hundreds, if not thousands, of shots worth of primer, over a thousand lead bullets mostly in the .50 caliber. He needed time to sort it all out and 75 feet from a 1500-pound bear was not the time. They carefully placed everything into a couple of quilts and headed out. He was walking up to Rachel, when he heard the voices. Orcs! ¡°Fuck me.¡± Joe thought. They had maybe a minute to get out of sight, so they headed toward the fallen pine tree quickly laying down on the opposite side. He motioned for everyone to stay down and be quiet, and from the unchanging sounds of the voices they had made it into cover. Joe opened the quilts to get to the muskets. Most of them were the modern reproduction flintlock .50 caliber Hawken. Moving as quietly as possible, he opened a reproduction tin cartridge box, praying there were pre-made cartridges stored in it. There were six. Crusher walked with his orcs toward what he hoped was a payday. He had traded two human girls to a high elf necromancer for information on where they could find working firearms. This was supposed to be that place. As he walked into the clearing in front of the house he smelled bear, dwarf, something else. That¡¯s when the bear came around the corner of the house. It was an odd-looking bear. ¡°Surround it, kill it.¡± Crusher commanded, then the bear charged him, fast. He aimed for the head with his 10lb sledge hammer but missed, hitting it in the shoulder.
Damage 36(20 x 3 strength modifier - 40% beast hide)
Then the bear swatted him with one of its front paws hitting Crusher in the head.
Damage taken 225(25 x 3 strength x 1.5 large creature modifier x2 head shot) You have taken over half your total hit points in one hit, you are stunned, you are unconscious.
Joe had finished loading the six muskets, It was a difficult task while lying on the ground but the paper cartridges made an almost impossible task possible. When he heard the roar from the bear and shouts from the Orcs, he knew they were engaged. He and the others peered over the fallen pine to get a glimpse of what was going on. They needed to decide if they were going to stay and fight or run. He refused to assume they had lost their humanity. The fight was not going well for either side. Half of the eight orcs he could see were motionless on the ground, but the bear was bleeding from several wounds and had several arrows sticking out of it. Checking the driveway, he saw something that told him what he needed to know about the orcs. Two women were standing in the middle of the driveway naked. They were wearing collars with heavy chains attached to what looked like the remains of several round 45-pound weights. He knew slavery was still practiced in some countries to this day, but in this country, it was both illegal and considered evil. He picked up the muskets and began laying them side by side on the fallen pine for ease of access. ¡°Rachel, as soon as either the orcs or the bear goes down, shoot at whatever is still standing.¡± He pointed to the girls in the driveway. ¡°We will not let that shit happen anywhere we can prevent it. Sarah stand off to the side and come in when the bear gets to melee range.¡± ¡°Do you want me to try and tame it?¡± Rachel asked, thinking back to the original plan. ¡°No, as pissed off as it is I doubt it would work so focus on shooting. I plan on us taking our time searching the house after the fight.¡± Joe said, looking back to the fight in time to see another orc drop. The last orc standing broke and ran toward the driveway. The orc didn¡¯t manage three steps before the bear caught him with its jaws, decapitating him as the bear bit down. Not wanting to waste any time, Joe brought the first flintlock to his shoulder. Pulling the cock from half to full cock he aimed, exhaled, and squeezed.
Damage 36(30 x 1.5 dexterity modifier - 20% beast hide, armor value halved due to armor piercing)
Bear 75 feet. Drop musket, pick up new musket, full cock. Aim center mass, squeeze¡­
Damage 36(30 x 1.5 dexterity modifier - 20% beast hide, armor value halved due to armor piercing)
Bear 60 feet. Drop musket, pick up new musket, full cock. Aim center mass, squeeze¡­
Damage 36(30 x 1.5 dexterity modifier - 20% beast hide, armor value halved due to armor piercing)
Bear 45 feet. Drop musket, pick up new musket, full cock. Aim for head, squeeze¡­
Damage 72(30 x 1.5 dexterity modifier x2 head shot. - 20% beast hide, armor value halved due to armor piercing) Bleed -1
Bear 30 feet. Drop musket, pick up new musket, full cock. Aim for head, squeeze¡­
Damage 72(30 x 1.5 dexterity modifier x2 head shot. - 20% beast hide, armor value halved due to armor piercing) Bleed -2
Bear 15 feet. Drop musket, pick up new musket, full cock. Aim for head, squeeze¡­
Damage 72(30 x 1.5 dexterity modifier x2 head shot. - 20% beast hide, armor value halved due to armor piercing) Bleed -3. Level 5 Short-faced bear slain.
Experience reward 400 (1200/3)
The bear carcass slammed into the fallen pine knocking the dropped muskets in five different directions. Staring at the dead bear, Joe took note of the five arrow shafts buried to the fletching. ¡°Nice shooting, Rachel. That thing had a ridiculus amount of life.¡± ¡°Sarah, I need you to go check the Orcs. If any are still alive, capture or kill at your discretion. I¡¯d prefer to have two alive. Rachel, I need you to check on the girls. I¡¯ll get the cart and help unchain the girls.¡± Rachel headed to where the two girls were kneeling to take the strain off their necks. They had their heads down, unwilling to look up. When Joe ran by them with the dogs to get the wagon, they both flinched away from him. Rachel focused on the two girls.
Elizabeth Gearbox: Female, arcane gnome, inventor, level 1
Donna Summer: Female, wood elf, bard, level 1
Rachel slowly approached talking to them in a low voice, ¡°Easy. My name is Rachel. What¡¯s yours?¡± The redheaded girl on left looked up when she said her name, and she got her first good look at her face. ¡°Donna!!¡± Rachel stepped forward and grabbed Donna trying to keep her from standing with the weights. She knelt, wrapping her arms around Donna and just held her as she started to cry. The other girl didn¡¯t respond at all, just stayed kneeling on the ground. Joe quickly had the wagon moving. He had the dogs watching the driveway. As he approached the three girls, he saw Rachel hugging one of them. When he got within 10 feet of them he stopped. ¡°Rachel, is it alright if I come closer? I have some bolt cutters for the locks.¡± Rachel looked at Joe, then spoke to the two girls. ¡°Joe is good people. You met him a few times Donna. Remember the Marine who would come by around Christmas?¡± Donna looked back at to where Joe was standing, ¡°That¡¯s him? He has changed a lot.¡± Rachel couldn¡¯t help but laugh at that statement, ¡°Have you seen my legs Donna, all four of them? Now let¡¯s get those chains off you. Elizabeth, can he approach?¡± Elizabeth still didn¡¯t respond. Sighing, she looked at Joe ¡°Yes, come get these things off them.¡± Joe pulled the bolt cutters out of the tool pile. They were a little worse for wear from the Event. It was now a short-handled bolt cutter. He slowly walked up to the girls and used them to cut the locks off the rings on the back off the collars. He then carefully pulled the collars away from the two girls. Carrying the weights over, he was amazed at how much stronger he was. He knew he was, but this was the first time he could quantify it. He was able to lift all 270 pounds at once and set them in the wagon. Joe untangled the chains from the weights. Leaving the wagon, he told Rachel to bring the girls over when he called. He approached the scene of the fight between the orcs and the short-faced bear. Looking at the wounds, he was glad they hadn¡¯t had to fight it first. Sarah had two of the orcs pulled to the side. She had stepped away from them and had her saber out. Using the chains and collars, he quickly tied up the first one, making sure to double up on the chain. On the second orc, he used rope from the wagon. After he finished with the legs neither one of them had moved beyond breathing. Deciding he had time to do it right, he went back to get the wagon. As he passed the three young women, he told them to follow him. Crusher woke up to water being thrown in his face. His arms were tied above his head, and his legs were spread out. He tried to pull himself free, but he was tied up by an expert. Looking around he saw his two slaves sitting next to, what he thought they called, a centaur. There was a winged woman standing near him. She had a hard look in her eyes and seemed to know how to use the sword she was holding. The last was a dwarf. Now that was a joke of a name for a race, short though they may be, because they all looked like powerlifters. This bastard looked like he benched pressed cars. ¡°Ah you¡¯re awake, good.¡± Joe said. ¡°I realize you can¡¯t move your head very well, but your friend Chopper is also alive. The other six are dead, and no, I didn¡¯t kill them. I did kill the bear after it tore up your men though. Now the reason I didn¡¯t help earlier is those two young women right over there. I spent 25 years in the Marines defending this country. I will not tolerate that crap here. I talked to the two girls and they told me you purchased them yesterday from another. If that all it was, I would probably have just stripped you naked and let you go. However, the gang rape last night, and this morning takes away that option. If I let you go, I have some responsibility for what you do afterword.¡± Crusher started to speak but he felt the touch of steel on his lips. Looking up the blade to the winged women, she said, ¡°Shhh. You will get your chance to talk.¡± Looking into that women¡¯s blue eyes, Crusher was terrified. Something inhuman was looking out at him, then it faded and he knew he was looking at the person again. ¡°Sorry Joe, I needed to instruct the suspect on court etiquette.¡± ¡°That¡¯s alright Sarah, I¡¯d much rather hear your voice. Now since we don¡¯t have a police force or a jail cell to place you in, I decided to leave your fate up to the injured party. Donna. Elizabeth. I have a knife, and pistol here for each of you. You can leave it to me, or you can take one of these and pay them back. Now, I¡¯m going to go into Rich¡¯s house while you do what you need to without a man present.¡± ¡°Rachel, I realize Elizabeth is an inventor. Allow her access to some of the gunpowder if she would like to use it.¡± At those words Elizabeth gave the first smile Joe had seen from her. Nodding to Sarah, Joe headed into the house. Sarah watched Joe enter the house, he was wise to leave them to her and the other women. A week ago the law would have handled this, now it was a little bit different, and older laws again held sway. The Valkyrie inside of her was close to the surface now, normally she had no problem staying herself. The crimes committed to the two women brought the warrior woman very close to the surface, and for a time the two became one. The Valkyrie looked at the two Orcs tied to the ground and walked over to the nearby wagon, getting two lengths of leather cord and some rags. Turning she told Elizabeth and Donna to join her as she headed toward the two Orcs. Joe stared at the old safe. Now if he was Rich, where would he put the combination? Or what would his combination be? Looking around the room, he noticed something odd about the picture of George Washington. Three of the numbers in the bronze plate below the picture were colored in black. The month and day of his birth, and the day of his death. Trying the numbers with the combination lock, he used 2-22-14 and it opened.
Congratulations you acquired the skill: Perception I
Opening the safe, he saw there were two muskets:
Skill check Firearms Successful.
Brown Bess long land pattern, 1778 .75 caliber
Brown Bess long land pattern, 1779 .75 caliber
Two sabers:
Potter Saber ???
Silver horseman''s saber ??
¡°Ok damn, the questions marks were new, must have to be identified.¡± There were also a pair of pistols.
Silver horse pistol, 1775, .54 caliber ?
Silver horse pistol, 1775, .54 caliber ?
The rest of the items was just a bunch of miscellaneous stuff: dated bullets, medals, buckles. Probably worth something before, but worth nothing now. All the guns were in excellent condition, but Joe had no musket balls in that caliber, and the corroded older balls probably wouldn¡¯t work too well. ¡°What is this? ¡° thought Joe. ¡°Ah, a pair of bullet molds. Excellent!¡± Joe started to gather up all the items in another quilt. Joe spent 30 minutes checking the house, and before he left he remembered to grab all the spoons he could find for arrowheads. As he was finishing with the spoons he heard a mucket fire. Well best go check on the how things went and put the loot away. We need to get on the road before anyone comes to check on them, but he needed to give the others a chance to see if they needed anything in the house. We should also take the saddle and tack out of the barn, could come in handy. Then there are the bags of horse feed, worse case we can cook and eat the oats. Stepping outside, he looked at the remains of the two orcs. ¡°Sarah, did they each kill one of the orcs?¡± ¡°Yes they did, it helped them I think.¡± ¡°Good, found a few more guns to put in the wagon, and we need to gather a few more supplies and get on the road. Sarah, check through the house one more time for anything useful. Rachel, loot the bear, think to yourself that you want the hide, some meat and your arrows. I have a theory I want you to check. Elizabeth, Donna, if your up for it I want you to do gather the firewood from the side of the house. We¡¯re going to set fire to the bodies when we leave. Not sure why they haven¡¯t dissolved. Rachel when you¡¯re done go over leveling with them, they should have each leveled up. Then everyone take a few minutes to check the house for anything they need, Rich would not mind. I want to be far away from here when we camp for the night.¡± ¡°Joe¡± Elizabeth said. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Thank you and call me Liz.¡± ¡°Of course, Liz.¡± Joe headed to the barn satisfied. Personally, he figured the girls wanted more time to vent on the bodies, and if they wanted the bodies they remained. Chapter 7 rewrite Chapter 7 April 2, 2018 2115 Hrs. They all sat around a fire about six miles from the Miller¡¯s place. Joe had hoped to make better time, but it was not meant to be. They had been discussing possibilities while the bear meat cooked. Joe focused on suppressing his "Dwarven" accent, "We¡¯ll, I think any size town is going to be a disaster. We may find allies, but food is going to be running short in a few days. With the way a lot of people have been embracing their new races I don¡¯t want to be near any towns when that happens. In fantasy most of what were considered evil races had no problem with eating other intelligent species.¡± Looking over to Rachel, Joe said ¡°I¡¯m sorry lass, but they will have no problem looking at other races as a source of food.¡± Rachel reached over and gave Donna a hug. ¡°I got a good look at all the races¡±, Joe continued, ¡°Being the first person changed allowed me to pick my race. I don¡¯t remember them all, but for every elf, dwarf, and gnome; there was a troll, ogre, vampire, or ghoul. That¡¯s just to name a few. Not everyone is going to go nuts, but enough will to turn towns into battle zones. Bass Lake is a small town just down the road, population 22,000, it is spread around the rather large lake with most of the population on the opposite bank from where we will approach. I think we may try and recruit a few more people and from there I have some ideas, but I would like to hear what you all have to say.¡± Liz stared at Joe across from the fire as he talked about their options. Her hand caressed the butt of one of the flintlock pistols she had been given. When she had first been changed she thought it was a dream come true, from wheelchair bound paraplegic to a gnome with working legs. She had played a ton of computer games, and read even more books, so she had a clue when she woke up. Unarmed I and Firearms III was no help when those asshole orcs broke into her home and.. Focus, remember looking down the barrel of the gun, blowing that assholes brains all over the grass. Liz focused again on Joe¡¯s face, she owed him, so until that debt was settled she would be with him, Gnomes settled their debts. Thinking of what he said she thought of something. ¡°Joe there is a metal artist who has a forge living in bass lake, we should try and contact him. Also if were staying out of towns, I figure Yosemite Valley, Iron Mountain or any of the abandoned gold mines in the area would be good places to hole up in.¡± Joe was surprised how fast Liz had come back to herself. She looked kinda badass with all the pistols on her. She had four flintlock pistols about her person, the saber bayonet of his strapped to her side, and the recently recovered leather armor from the short-faced bear loot drop. It covered her torso, shoulders and upper thighs, reminded him of Roman armor. When she finished speaking, he thought about what she said. The metal artist was a no brainer, if he hadn¡¯t changed and forgotten his humanity. She also thought along the same lines as he did. Joe looked at the group and started to explain their options. ¡°We¡¯ll Yosemite Valley is about 50 miles from Bass Lake, and is probably a war zone. Were looking at 15000 tourists, think about what happened around here. According to Donna and Liz the orcs were a motorcycle club headed from Yosemite when the Event hit. I don''t mean a gang either, just a bunch of friends who got together for rides. The goblins were petty criminals, turned into evil goblins right out of a book. I think Yosemite is out, we would have to go through two small towns and still have to deal with all the people in Yosemite. Iron Mountain is 28 miles east of Bass Lake . It¡¯ll take just as long because of the terrain. We¡¯ll be on hiking trails for about half the trip. No one lives there because of the terrain and because it is part of the national forest. The gold mines could get attention again from other underground races. Sarah? Rachel? Donna? Can you think of any other options?¡± Rachel looked around at the group, and said, ¡°Joe I still need to settle things with Hairy, I was hoping we could take care of that before we went anywhere else.¡± Joe nodded, ¡°I understand Rachel, and I went to school with your folks, came home on leave to be with them and was there at your birth. I want that goblin, but I want to make sure I get him and not die trying to reach him. He may not have even survived that group running away, goblins are not kind to leaders who fail them. Give me a few months and I expect to be able to tunnel into Oakhurst from wherever we end up.. We¡¯ll survey the scene, find out if he is still alive, and if he is, where to find him. Then we''ll settle our accounts with him. Does that work with you?¡± Rachel nodded, ¡°I can live with that.¡± Sarah said,¡± What about food? I¡¯m a city girl so not sure what¡¯s around here.¡± Joe nodded, ¡°It is an issue. That said, we have a large amount of local game and the local lakes have been stocked with fish. What the System has done with all of this is unclear.¡± Joe continued, ¡°I have been going over my profession skills. If you just think about them, you can get information on how you can apply them. I have Stone Shaping, Dwarven Structural Engineering, and Runecrafting. They are all profession skills that will allow me to build both underground and above ground.¡± Joe picked up a chunk of decomposing granite laying near him. Holding it in his hands he focused.
Stone Shaping III, skill check successful.
Mana loss -5
The stone compressed, becoming denser, moss fell from between his fingers and the clump of decomposing granite took the shape of a perfect square approximate the same size as the original clump. Continuing to focus on the granite, he added a final touch.
Mana loss -2
Joe stared at the polished square of granite. ¡°Now if the granite is already solid, I can make even bigger shapes, form tunnels, and... ¡°Joe took a gold coin out of his coin pouch, bending the coin in half to give him an edge he again focused.
Runecraft skill II, skill check failed!
Mana loss -25
Frowning he again focused.
Runecraft skill II, skill check successful.
Mana loss -10
He could see lines forming on the stone, He followed it with the edge of the coin leaving lines of gold in its wake. He was about halfway through when the lines started to fade, he again focused.
Mana loss -10
As he finished tracing the lines on the stone he was happy another skill check was not required, he traced the final activation rune. ¡°Done.¡± He placed the remains of the coin in his pouch. With a flourish, he touched the activation rune and one side of the stone lit up. Another tap of the rune and the light went off. ¡°This will allow us tae set up growing rooms underground. We¡¯ll have tae bring in soil, but this will allow us tae grow crops in the winter months and we have all summer to set it up.¡± Looking over at Sarah, Joe said, ¡°With the gold you found at the Millers, we have enough fer some quality Runecrafting.¡± Sarah smiled at the memory of finding the floor safe in one of the closets. She had been looking for durable outdoor clothes when she stubbed her toe on the safe handle. The combination was the same for the gun safe, and inside they found 10 five-troy ounce gold bars, 50 one-troy ounce gold coins, 237 Eagle silver dollars and one sterling silver flute. They discovered a new facet of the system when Joe wished out loud for an inventory system. A 12 inch circular opening appeared, the edges of the opening glowed and runes appeared to rotate around the opening. It cost fifty mana to open and lasted 60 seconds. It gave you access to the classic inventory system, six storage areas, each area held one large, five medium or 50 small items, downside they all had to be the same and fit through the hole. They could also store an almost unlimited amount of the same coin type. Joe tested it out and he said the insides felt like a opening cut into granite. Joe took the small gold bars for Runecrafting and they split the remainder with everyone in the new party of five: 10 gold coins and 47 silver coins each. The flute, they all agreed, went to Donna because as a bard she needed an instrument. Joe had told them to hold on to the coins for now. It may be years before they had real value. Sarah still felt rich. Watching him runecraft, she better understood the need for him to keep the thin gold bars. Thinking back on the inventory system the level of technology required to do something like that was way beyond what Earth was able to pull off. Her money was on aliens. Why they would do this to them she was unsure, and ultimately did not matter, they were stuck and she highly doubted any country would be able to do a damn thing about it.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Thinking of all the talks they had during the day Sarah came to a decision. She said. ¡°So, more people at Yosemite, or a good source of iron ore at Iron Mountain is what it comes down to. I vote for Iron Mountain. We can always add people once we¡¯re set up. Rachel, what do you think?¡± Rachel said, ¡°Will I fit in the tunnels? I¡¯m not really built for it.¡± Joe smiled, ¡°I¡¯m making them, so you will have plenty of room. Also, we¡¯ll have buildings outside, and once I get my stone shaping leveled up, I should be able to run tunnels out to Mammoth Town. Bass Lake will take longer but straight lines are so much faster. A 50-mile trip to Yosemite by road is 12 miles as the crow flies.¡± Rachel said, ¡°I vote for Iron Mountain, invite people in. Joe nodded, ¡°Liz your thoughts?¡± Liz quickly said, ¡°Iron Mountain, less people.¡± Joe looked over to Donna, ¡°Donna?¡± Donna said, ¡°Same, Iron Mountain.¡± Joe nodded, and said, ¡°Iron Mountain it is. We¡¯ll try and pick up a few more people and supplies in Bass Lake. There are some more houses we can check tomorrow. We¡¯ll check them to see if someone is home. If they are empty, we¡¯ll check for supplies. ¡°Ok that¡¯s it for tonight. I¡¯ll be last watch¡± Joe stated. ¡°We¡¯ll stand watch in pairs, three hours, and then wake the next. Before you ask, you can use my watch. It¡¯s a windup watch of my dad¡¯s, and it appears to work fine.¡± Taking it out of his pouch, he checked the time and wound it up. ¡°We¡¯ll rotate the watch, so no one gets the worst time every night. Sarah, you and Donna first, then Rachel and Liz, and me and the dogs last. Sleep in your armor with weapons close. We won¡¯t have time to get dressed if were attacked.¡± April 3, 0330 Hrs. Joe was awakened for his watch at 3:30AM. He was honestly surprised they hadn¡¯t been attacked. It took some time for him to fall asleep as there was the occasional roar or screech in the distance. Adding more wood to the fire, he sent the dogs out to do a quick check around the camp and to take care of business. On the bright side, he didn''t have to pick any of it up. Once they were done, he took a shovel and did his own business. As he was putting up his shovel he heard something move in the trees. Glancing up he could make out the shape of an owl up in the tree¡¯s. Thinking a flying beast would come in handy he focused on the owl after staring at the owl for several minutes nothing seemed to happen, he tried every way he could think of to connect to the owl with no success. Then he got a blue box.
This is Administrator Aonea, you are unable to tame further animals until you acquire the tame skill, raise your intelligence or advance to level 5.
Frowning he stared at the box for several minutes, then shrugged his shoulders and let it go. The next three hours passed quickly, and he started waking everyone to get the day started. Most of the homes they had checked had been empty, a couple looked like there had been fights in them, but one had been occupied by a nice pair of Lamias. The half snake half human couple had managed to hold onto their humanity. They had traded stories and before leaving he had made them a rune light to help them in the night. He had tried to get them to join with them, but they had been unwilling. Joe got the feeling they had been a retired couple and were attached to their home. Hoping they might change their mind later, he told them where they were headed. Joe walked up to a large, light brown, two-story house. The front yard was well maintained with only a few oak and pine trees. This would be the final house before getting into Bass Lake proper. They had skipped a bunch of homes, only hitting the ones near the road. Joe figured it would not be long before scavengers from town started spreading out. Depending how desperate people were becoming, it could turn into a fight. Really not worth getting one of his people killed. They had found a second wagon and both were already pretty full. Every medicine cabinet yielded at least one or two potions, enough that every person now had four minor healing potions in their inventory. Joe looked over his party. ¡°Standard set up. Donna yer on the wagons with the dogs.¡± Donna¡¯s flute was already out, ready to signal or play a song of mesmerize. The song could hold up to five people for five minutes as long as they were not attacked. ¡°Everyone else stay loose until we find out if someone is home.¡± They had been training on entry techniques using alternative weapons. Joe knocked on the door. ¡°We come in peace. Here tae trade.¡± After waiting five minutes, he checked the door, locked. ¡°Liz, yoo''re up.¡± Liz waited till I stepped away from the front door and brought out her auto lock pick. The design for it was sitting in her brain when she woke up, a few gears from power tools, an old mechanical alarm clock, and it was done. Since then she salvaged everything with gears she could find. (Old clocks were great.) The fancy watches with the tiny gears were better. She couldn¡¯t use them yet, but eventually she would. Placing the auto lock pick against the door lock she turned a crank and Voila! Stepping back, she drew a pistol in each hand. ¡°Stack up.¡± Joe said and nodded to Sarah who stepped behind him. he turned the doorknob and waited till everyone got in position. Joe used one arm to keep kept Helm Cleaver¡¯s blade up to help protect his face, he was able to see by looking over the top of the blade. Joe pushed the door open, grabbing helm cleaver in both hands he turned and rushed to the left. Sarah came up behind him, shield up, checking right, followed by Liz with her Pistols and Rachel behind her with bow drawn moving straight into the room. After the initial entry, they broke into teams of two. Everything was going smoothly until the fourth room on the bottom floor. Joe came up to the door and was getting ready to open it when he smelled the coppery scent of blood. Looking toward Rachel, he quietly told her ¡°Blood.¡± Joe entered into the room. It was hard to finish clearing the room without looking at the bloodied nude man on the table. The room was white and had the look of a hospital room. The man had a bag over his head and was tied to some sort of medical table with heavy leather belts. ¡°Rachel, I need an ID.¡± Rachel said, ¡°Human male, level 2 cleric.¡± Joe nodded, ¡°Rachel, get the med kit for me please.¡± Rachel nodded and said, ¡±I can do that.¡± and headed out of the house. Joe examined the man and checked the bandages on his wrists. The two red blotches on each of the bandages made him suspicious. Liz came into the room with the med kit, handing it to Joe. He opened the box and selected a potion of minor healing since he didn¡¯t want to use the better ones just yet. Peeling back the bandage, he got a good look at the injury. It was twin puncture wounds like you would see in a vampire movie. Joe said, ¡°We¡¯ll, this sucks. It appears we have a vampire victim. Let¡¯s get the bag off his head, we need to check his teeth.¡± Once the bag was off, they got a good look at him. Red hair, freckles, and pale skin. Joe used the flat of his dagger to check the teeth. They looked normal. He took the potion and poured it into his mouth. As he watched, the bite wounds faded, and a bit of color came back to his checks but that was it. He took one more of the minor potions and poured that one into his mouth. More color came back but he was still unconscious. ¡°Leave him tied up fer noo. His wounds should have healed a long time ago, so we need tae be carefull with him. Could just be the effects of a vampire bite, we¡¯ll have tae see. We need tae check the rest of the house and see what we can find. I have a feeling this room will be a potion gold mine.¡± An hour later after they were done searching the house Joe took his dogs into the room they found Arnold in so they would learn the smell of vampire. They had found a good number of potions, including some animal specific ones. They made him wonder if the homeowner was a veterinarian. Animals and humans shared many of the same medications, which could explain the mix. Joe spoke to his party, ¡°Alright everyone, if he is coming with us we need tae make sure he doesn¡¯t have the vampire disease. I¡¯ll give him one of the remove disease potions we found, better tae be safe.¡± Taking the potion out of the now well stocked metkit Joe poured it down the unconscious man¡¯s throat. A short while later, small trickles of black leaked out of his eyes, and they slowly opened. When Arnold opened his eyes instead of seeing his ex-girlfriend, or the inside of a bag, he saw he was outside on a stretcher. He tried to speak but all that came out was a croak. A Dwarf? handed him a canteen. He gratefully took it, taking a long slow drink. ¡°Tha...Thank you.¡± When he tried to return the canteen, but the dwarf gestured for him to keep it. Joe was amused at the guy¡¯s expression when he looked at him. ¡°Well lad, my name is Joe, the centaur is Rachel, the valkyrie is Sarah, our bard with the flute is Donna, and the gnome with all the pistols is Liz. We found you in a bad spot of trouble, couldn¡¯t tell if you were vampire snack or a future convert. So, which was it?¡± Arnold replied, ¡°My girlfriend, well ex-girlfriend now I guess, was changed into a vampire that first night. Everything was ok at first. I found her a place to stay during the day. But that night when I went to check on her she...did something. I woke up the next day tied up, so I guess the answer to your question is snack.¡± Joe nodded, ¡°Next question, and you can think on it because we need to get moving. Question is do you want us to drop you off in Bass Lake or do you want to stay with us? We could always use a healer type. For now let me get you something to eat. We¡¯re heading from here to Bass Lake. Oh! And we have some clothes for you.¡± Arnold blinked at the last words and glanced down. Yeap, he was naked. He looked around and noticed all the good-looking females around him. ¡°Yeah, pants would be good? Please?¡± Joe watched as they were starting to head into Bass Lake, looking at everyone he said, ¡±One second everyone.¡± When they stopped he looked each of them in the eye, and said, ¡±I know I¡¯m short on pleases and thank you¡¯s when we get busy, too many years in the Marines giving orders. That said I want to thank each of you for doing a good job today. Donna. Liz. You both impressed the hell out of me, If you ever need anything let me know. We are heading into Bass Lake, I need you all to be on your toes. Liz if you could walk up here with me and lead us to the metal artist I would appreciate it. Thank you all again. Let¡¯s move.¡± Joe started turned and paused at the laughter, sighed and said, "I will work on it." Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Donna played a melody on the flute she was given, it was awesome. It was crazy to be honest, they thought it was silver. She hadn¡¯t gotten the nerve up to tell them they were wrong, it was a Powell platinum flute. She was holding a 45,000 dollar flute and it played beautifly. Looking at the flute again a message popped up.
Powell Platinum Flute of Courage.
When she played the flute it really did give her courage, everything that happened to her faded away. She could still see it but it had less hold on her, and every time she played the flute it was easier and easier for her to put those two days behind her. She wore the k-bar she killed the orc with at her waist, and the katana was on her left side through a silk scarf she was using as an obi (Samurai sword belt). She had been a fan of japanese anime and even took several classes in Kendo. When she saw the sword available to be used she had practically snatched it up and when she checked it she could hardly believe it, a freaking Kiyochika Kanehama, the best swordsmith in Okinawa. She looked at it again.
Kanhama Katana ¥Ð¥é¥ó¥¹(Balance)
Gritting her teeth she wished she had found it before she had killed the orc with the k-bar, if the scales had ever needed to be balanced.
Mana loss -10
Glancing around she noticed everyone was on edge, looking like they were heading into a fight. But there was nothing to fight, her playing she realized, she calmed herself and soon everyone seemed to relax. Sarah spoke to her from behind, ¡°Save it for the fights Donna, don¡¯t need to get everyone fired up for no reason.¡± Nodding her head she continued to play. Joe shook his head, Donna could get into yer head with music, would come in handy long as she keeps it under control. Looking back, Sarah seemed to be keeping an eye on her, so he would leave it to her. They were getting close, Joe called a halt and told everyone what to expect, ¡°Around the next bend there ur a few homes, and a restaurant. It¡¯s also a natural choke point with dense woods on both sides of the roads and fairly steep hills. Ah¡¯m hoping for some sanity, but waur not counting on it. So let¡¯s check our weapons, make sure they ur loose in their sheaths, make sure yer arrows ur loose, and check yer primer. Liz if you could give me a hand with the rifles when yer done checking yer pistols Ah would appreciate it.¡± Liz grinned at his accent and nodded, ¡°Sure Joe.¡± Joe said, ¡°Thanks Liz. Ur there any questions?¡± Donna raised her hand. Joe smiled and said, ¡°You can just ask Donna, no need ta raise yer hand.¡± Donna nodded and pulled the Katana about six inches from the sheath, ¡°Joe where did you get this?¡± Joe said, ¡°Ah purchased in 1982 when Ah was stationed in Okinawa from a swordsmith with part of my signing bonus. Ah think Ah paid 2,000,000 yen or about 5000 dollars back then. Ah admit Ah was young, but the sword was beautiful, and Ah always liked samurai movies. Why do you ask?¡± Donna grinned at him, ¡°It¡¯s a rare weapon called Balance, but I am unable to get any more information on it. Everytime I try to get more information I get a Lore skill check failure.¡± Joe slowly banged his head on the head of his axe, ¡°Ah need ta sit doon wi'' aw ay yea an'' gie yer skills.¡± Donna stared at him and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t understand the last part Joe, your accent got real thick.¡± Blushing Joe carefully enunciated, ¡°I need to sit down with you all and get your skills. All right were moving back to the last house, I want to see if Donna can identify our gear before we get into Bass Lake, it could make a difference.¡± Joe was irritated with himself, he needed to get his act together and remember they are not just seniors in highschool anymore. 45 minutes later they were back at the last house they checked. In a bit of a rush Joe decided to use his dogs to check the house this time, looking at his four dogs he thought *Search house. Bark if people or beast.* The dogs looked excited as they all headed in toward the home. ¡°Liz could you let the dogs in? I¡¯m experimenting with using them to search with.¡± Liz nodded and jogged after the dogs. Ok Donna I¡¯m going to pull all the weapons and the items we either never closely checked or have question marks on them. One hour later they had identified the following:
Marine Nco Saber of Discipline. Saber gives a +10 to wisdom for the purposes of resisting fear or terror.
Saber Bayonet of Piercing. Bayonet removes an addition 10% from your targets armor bonus.
X2 Silver Horse Pistols of Undead Slaying. These Pistols adds 10 to dexterity for the purpose of determining damage against undead.
Silver Horseman''s Saber of Were Slaying. This Saber adds 20 to strength for the purpose of determining damage against were creatures.
Potter Saber of killing. This saber has been in four major wars, and developed a taste for blood. Each time it kills add 1 to the wielders strength up to a maximum of 20. For every day that goes by without killing subtract 5 to the wielders strength to a minimum of 5. Binds at first kill.
Helm Cleaver. The axe can cast a cone of sonic damage once a day, doing 60 damage to all targets in its area of effect. Every day the axe¡¯s ability is unused it adds 10 to the damage up to a maximum of 100.
Kanhama Katana ¥Ð¥é¥ó¥¹(Balance). This katana will heal 30 damage on contact with the blade, instead of damaging, after killing a foe.
Powell Platinum Flute of courage. The flute will double the effect of all bard or minstrel spells cast through it. As a secondary effect it the player is immune to fear and resistant to terror while playing.
High Steel Heavy Mountain Dwarf armor of Knockback resistance. The armor will help keep the wearer from being knocked over. To represent this the wearers weight is considered tripled for purposes of calculating if another can knock you back or move you in combat.
High steel chainmail Valkyrie armor of Weight reduction. This armor is reduces the armors penalties from medium armor to light armor.
Necklace of life, adds 20 to life of wearer. Warning removing the necklace when your life is under 20 can kill the wearer.
Ring of Sacrifice: Ring allows the user to transfer up to half of their Life to another at a rate of 2 to 1.
Joe stared at all the blue boxes, Donna had leveled up her Lore while Identifying and was able to get some information from everything. He was not expecting his closet weapons to be anything special, but damn. ¡°Ok everyone take back yer gear, glad we came back and checked everything. Sarah hold on tae the silver saber, and the Potters saber. But be careful of that Potters blade, reads like it could be a pain if you don''t kill with it fairly often. Liz make sure to take both of those silver horse pistols, won¡¯t do us any good in the wagon if we run into undead.¡± Liz made a face as she took the pistols, ¡°Eww undead, at least I can shoot them. What do you want me to do with the two I¡¯m replacing?¡± She took out the two normal pistols from the bandolier she was using and replaced them with the two longer horse pistols. Between the pistols, the saber bayonet and the cartridge box, she was running out of room. Joe smiled and said, ¡°If we know we''re about to fight, shoot then drop them, or chuck them in the wagon or your inventory. Should work for two pistols in your medium slot. At the start of a fight, shoot, chuck them back into the hole and continue. If you were a caster it would be an issue, but you only need your mana when you¡¯re tinkering.¡± Liz smiled, said, ¡°Inventory.¡± and the glowing circled opened in front of her. She placed the pistols in the hole, and withdrew her hands. Smiling she said ¡°Close.¡± and the Inventory snapped shut. They had learned that except for the first time you had to want to open your inventory when you said the word or nothing happened. The blue boxes were not popping up all the time either, it was like her personal preferences were determining what screens opened. It was like everything was becoming more polished. Joe looked at Donna, ¡°Donna take Balance back, the flute and the necklace of life since you have the lowest life. Ah will take Helm Clever, my armor, and the ring of sacrifice. Me and Sarah have the highest health, so after a few fights we¡¯ll change who holds the ring if we need to. The dogs came running and told Joe *Empty*, he praised them, reached into his own inventory and gave each of them a treat. Ok everyone let''s get our gear together and do this again. Joe addressed Anthony, ¡°What kind of weapons are you proficient with?¡± Anthony told Joe, ¡°Blunt weapons.¡± Joe nodded and pulled a sledgehammer out of the main wagon, ¡°Well it¡¯s nothing special but I have a five pound sledgehammer you can use.¡± Anthony took the sledgehammer from Joe and smiled, ¡°It¡¯s better than nothing, thanks Joe.¡± Joe said, ¡°Well if we find something better we¡¯ll upgrade you if you plan on staying with us. Until then try to mostly hang back and heal, the sledgehammer is for emergencies. Liz give me a hand I want to double check the firearms.¡± Joe and Liz finished checking the last of the firearms and placed half on each side of the wagon. That gave them three rifles and three pistols on each side of the wagon. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Joe checked to make sure everyone was ready and said, ¡°Ok everyone let¡¯s try that again.¡± Joe grabbed the larger wagon and led the way with Sarah. Liz walked next to the first wagon, keeping near the firearms. Rachel, Donna and Arnold followed with the 2nd wagon. They would take turns pulling the smaller wagon. Joe broke his dogs into pairs, Charlie and Daisy were in the front leading the way. Milo and Grace brought up the rear. An hour later they came around the corner about a half mile from Bass Lake and ran into a group heading their way. Six people were walking towards them, they were a mix of races. At least one male orc with a maul, a male dwarf with wood axe, three elven women with bows and a male human with a machete. Joe pulled his dogs back, he would use them to harass the archers if it came to it. They were still about a 50 yards away so they kept walking toward each other until they were about 25 yards from each other and the three men stepped out in front. From that distance he could tell the three in back were elven women, and the fourth a human male. ¡°Hello¡± shouted the human standing near the front of the group, ¡°Peace?¡± Joe nodded, ¡° Aye, peace. My name is Joe Ironhand, were just passing through, hoping to do some trading in Bass Lake before heading out the other side. Trying to find someplace safer to settle down for a bit.¡± The human stared at him, then said, ¡°I¡¯m Tom Kraft, the town is in pretty bad shape. Whatever it was swept through town evening of the 31st, and things went to hell pretty damn fast. Robert here,¡±He gestured toward the 6 1/2 foot tall Orc. ¡°said it¡¯s real confusing at first and he had a real short temper for a while.¡± Robert spoke up with a surprisingly normal voice saying, ¡°It¡¯s a pain in the ass, I wanted to fight anyone who even looked at me funny. Thankfully I was able to keep it together and everything seemed to return pretty much to normal by sunrise. Now it¡¯s just nudges, and easy to ignore. By the time things calmed down, well lets just say there are a lot fewer people now. Where you all from?¡± Joe responded ¡°Ah lived about 8 miles from here, and picked up everyone else as Ah went along.¡± They continued to talk for about an hour, it appeared as if race changes went mostly by family, but a sorority from Fresno had all turned into Sirens. They were the ones who were finally able to calm things down. The group just walked around and anyone who tried to attack them ended up enthralled. While they were talking it turned out the three elves were all high elves and sisters. Sarah went over and quietly talked with the women, a short time later she caught my attention and smiled. Good everything was ok with them. As they were getting ready to part ways Joe decided to help them out. The dwarf Doug had firearms and gunsmithing so he gave them the two .75 caliber muskets, bullet molds for them, primer and some gunpowder. He also told them where they were headed and invited them to come visit. Once they were out of sight Donna walked up to him and asked Joe, ¡°Why did you give them two of our guns?¡± Joe looked at Donna replying, ¡°Those two muskets were not the best we had. Plus they were a group of mixed race and sex who trusted each other. Ah don¡¯t know about you all but Ah want ta help any groups like them we run in ta. The more of those types who make it the better.¡± Donna was quiet for a few minutes while she thought over what he said, eventually she nodded and said, ¡°It makes sense, but in the future could you try and check with all of us first if possible? I know a lot of this stuff was yours before we all met, but if it will impact our chances later on we would like to have a say in it.¡± Joe looked at Donna then glanced back to the others, he reminded himself they were not in the Marines and he wanted them all to stay. ¡°If Ah can Ah will.¡± They were approaching the final turn off into Bass Lake and Joe looked over to liz, ¡°Which way Liz? Straight ahead or to the right? Liz said, ¡°Straight ahead Joe, we can take this road and bypass allot of the homes on the lake. Joe nodded and kept walking forward, he had to admit it was good to be a Dwarf, he had been walking and pulling this wagon by himself all day and his body just kept chugging along. It was hungry, it was always hungry, it did not remember much from before it awakened. Now all it knew was hunger, it must eat, voices along the path. Soon it would eat, and then it would be less hungry. They were approaching a small housing area when Charlie and Daizy started barking at the trees on the side of the road. Joe got the impression of something smelly and large. Joe mentally ordered the two dogs back behind the wagons. He pulled the wagon sideways to keep it from rolling and said, ¡°Something coming from the woods, all Ah get from the dogs is large and smelly.¡± Before he could say anything more a large humanoid shape burst from the woods, it was green about 10 feet tall and half as wide, its face had a huge pointed nose, large pointed ears, and large weeping sore all over its body. Sarah shouted, ¡°Troll, level 8!¡± and drew the Potter saber. Joe leaned Helm Cleaver against the wagon and pulled out a musket, as he pulled the cock from half to full he shouted, ¡°Liz shoot and then get the gasoline. As soon as it goes doon dump a two liter bottle on it.¡± and fired
Damage 36(30 x 1.5 dexterity modifier) Armor piercing negates beast hide.
Joe realized he would not get another shot at it, it was too damn close. Snatching up Helm cleaver he charged forward, and swung at the hand trying to grab him.
Damage 50 (Base 30 x 2.1 strength bonus - 20 percent beast hide)
As he tried to turn it away from his friends it struck him with the back of the same hand with roar.
Damage received 20 (Base 25 x 4 strength bonus -80% armor) Armor Knockback bonus activated.
It was a weird feeling when he was hit, his whole body suddenly felt dense. Instead of knocking him off his feet he just stumbled, but he kept his feet. He reset himself and swung to the back of its knee.
Damage 50 (Base 30 x 2.1 strength bonus -20 percent beast hide) Troll limb disabled, time remaining 10 seconds.
Joe shouted ¡°It heals fast, 10 seconds on its crippled leg.¡± The troll spun around faster than anything that size had a right to using one of its long arms to help prop it up. It¡¯s remaining hand again slammed into his side.
Damage received 30 (Base 25 x 4 strength x 1.5 momentum bonus -80% armor) Armor Knockback bonus activated.
Liz managed to get one shot off before Joe got in the way, dumping the rifle into the back of the wagon she grabbed one of the two liter soda bottles they filled with gas they had salvaged from different homes. Turning back she saw Joe had the troll turned toward him, Sarah was working the trolls flank with her saber, and several arrows stuck out of it. Not sure what to do next she felt Donna music pushing at her to act. She pulled out her saber bayonet and cut a large whole into the top of the bottle. The troll was down on its knees, both legs temporarily crippled. She then ran up to it and threw all two liters of the gas onto the back of the troll. She yelled. ¡°Get clear!¡± She took two steps back and as everyone pulled away from the troll it started to get back up. Pulling a horse pistol she pulled the cock back and fired.
Damage 34 (Base 20 x 1.7 dexterity bonus) Armor bonus negated. Target set on fire, target vulnerable to fire x2 20 fire damage per second.
The troll panicked. It started rolling on the ground in an attempt to put the fire out. Liz dismissed the damage notifications, quickly pulled, and fired everyone of her remaining pistols into flailing body of the troll. As she fired the last pistol she was tackled by Arnold who covered her in a blanket. Before she could decide what to do Arnold told her, ¡°You were on fire!¡±, ok good reason.
Troll Slain Exp 468(2340/5)
Congratulations! Level Up!
1 attribute point assigned to Dexterity.
You have 4 attribute points left to assign.
With a final swing Joe decapitated the dead troll, and said, ¡°That wulnae be comin'' back now.¡± Sarah laughed, ¡°I don¡¯t think we would have gotten the experience if it was able to come back.¡± Joe grunted, ¡°Aiblins but it makes me feel better.¡± Sarah shook her head, ¡°Joe accent.¡± Joe said, ¡°Got it, now let¡¯s loot it.¡± Joe focused on looting it.
Sword of Flame, Ring of Regeneration
5 gold 25 silver
Joe whistled, ¡°Nice.¡± as he bent over and picked the items up the trolls body dissolved into the ground. ¡°Ok now it¡¯s dead. Donna need you ta check out a few items.¡± Donna walked up to him and placed a hand on the sword. ¡°Half the damage done is considered fire damage.¡± Taking the ring, ¡°The ring doubles your healing speed and will even regrow limbs, but it will take several weeks.¡± Joe accepted the ring back and considered it before handing it to Sarah. ¡°Ok fer now you wear it Sarah, since you¡¯re the other front line fighter and Ah think Ah have more life then you. Also may help with your wing.¡± Holding up the sword it was what was considered a longsword, 47 inches overall with about a 36 inch blade. ¡°Not sure what ta do with this, inventory for now.¡± as the glowing circle opened Joe put the blade into one of his empty slots. ¡°We can talk about it tonight. Is anyone still in need of healing?¡± When no one answered Joe said, ¡°Ok Liz give me a hand with reloading the guns.¡± 20 minutes later everyone was ready to go, Joe grabbed the long handle on the wagon and started walking down the road. With a thought Joe sent his dogs out again, 75 feet this time, but also telling them to stay in sight. ¡°Let¡¯s find that metal worker.¡± Interlude April 03, 2018 1700 hrs. Air Force One, 45000 feet, five miles north of the Pentagon exclusion zone. ¡°Mr. President what are your orders?¡± President Travis was at a bit of a loss, he thought he knew what he was getting into with the job of president, but alien invasion was not in the job description. Protecting his nation was though. ¡°What were the results of the chinese nuclear strike?¡± General Frye said, ¡±From our satellites we observed fusion, fission, and even a cobalt bomb detonated over the contaminated areas. The only results were an increase in the speed of the spread. Everything was absorbed, the satellites barely show an increase in the background radiation. The President said, ¡°What about detonating them in front of the spread?¡± General Frye responded, ¡°The Russians tried that, and when the contamination reached the area it again sped up. Later satellites show the areas back to normal, healthier even, vegetation, dying animals, all healed. The dead animals were simply gone in most cases.¡± The President asked, ¡°Do our scientists have a clue what¡¯s causing this? General Frye hesitated, ¡°The best guess is some sort of advanced terraforming using nanotechnology. The 36 sites were spread out fairly evenly and it was predicted it would take about 30 days to cover the planet.¡± The President was staring at a map showing all the contamination sites, ¡°What were the results of our high altitude reconnaissance flights?¡± General Frye said. ¡°We used unmanned drones and were able to determine the top of contamination is approximately 40,000 feet. It appears the areas are being transformed into¡­ what appears to be a lower tech level, and some of the people appear to be changed. With permission from the Chinese we overflew one of the contaminated areas and some steam trains were still operational in fact one loaded with passengers almost managed to leave a contaminated area before the train lost power. The train did get close enough for some excellent photos and we obtained a copy. They show a variety of, well, fantasy races. Mostly western fantasy, with some chinese mixed in. Elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, that sort of thing. The army unit photographing was on a train on the same tracks, and eventually pulled away to stay ahead of the spread. We are not sure what tech level is allowed but fireworks were spotted in use. General Frye paused and continued. "We have left modern arms on rails near our Pentagon zone and the¡­ contamination attacks them, taking away about 40 percent of the materials they are made of. The rails themselves though appear to be mostly untouched. Then we left civil war rifles, and they appeared to only suffer minor damage to the breach, finally we left flintlocks and matchlocks. They suffered no damage. Apparently we are being knocked back to the early 1800¡¯s. One of our testers was a civil war reinactor, left some minie ball rounds out and they turned into round balls." At the presidents blank look he explained, "Minie balls are shaped more like a modern bullet. They are hollowed out at the bottom so the expanding gas from being fired spreads the base of the bullet out to engage the rifling. It''s why muskets went from being accurate at maybe 100 yards to 600. If you add the smoke and stress of battle and 75 to 50 yards was considered optimal range. Someone wants our fighting to be close and personal." The President sighed, ¡°What kind of casualties are we looking at?¡± General Frye said, ¡°None directly, some died when the planes fell out of the sky, that sort of thing. We have been able to get some good views from cameras, our citizens have a tendency to collapse and anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes later get up again. They are however changed, about 90% are turned into same types of fantasy races as in the chinese photo, after is when the casualties start. It also makes no sence. We have had groups of different races get up and move on as if nothing major happened. Others start tearing into each other as soon as they are awake.¡± The President had again turned to stare at the map. ¡°The way I see it the last area¡¯s of the United States to be overrun will be northwest Washington State, central Wisconsin, south Maine, and south Florida. I need it verified, then begin to locate weapons that work, match them with our most disciplined men, and as much food as we can. I want combat commanders, veterans, recall them if you need to. None who are married or have kids, no interservice rivalries General. Those four areas are going to be our chance of a United States being here in 60 days, well try other things but get this done General Frye. Chapter 9 Chapter 9 April 3, 1600 hours. Carl hammered on a sword blank, his forges still worked so things could be worse. As he fell into a rhythm he reflected on the change. He had been working late on a decorative piece for a gate. Next thing he knew mist had flooded into his workroom, it seemed to dance around his forges before part of it seemed to flow into him. He awoke the following morning, a 5¡¯4¡± Iron Dwarf with a new last name. Placing the blank back into the furnace, he brought out his last project, a warhammer. The warhammer was three feet long, the head was in the shape of a closed fist holding a large spike. The flat head of the spike formed the front of the warhammer and the spike coming out the back was for punching through armor. The haft was made out of part a leaf spring sandwiched between two lengths of ash. It was heavy, but he could deal with the weight. Taking a file to clean up a few minor imperfections he glanced at the armor and weapons he had forged in the last two days. When he awoke he recalled armor and weapon crafting techniques he had learned at his father¡¯s forge, thing is his father was high school english teacher not a blacksmith. He had walked into his workroom almost in a trance, firing up his forge and going to work on the suit of armor. It would be considered plate mail, a mix of plate armor and chainmail. The chainmail was actual part of the arming jacket, think of a heavy jumpsuit with chainmail on the inside of the arms, legs, and basically anywhere not covered in plate. It also had buckles to attach the plate to, overall it was a good tradeoff in flexibility, weight, and protection. The helm was bit fanciful with all the celtic knotwork, it had the the classic viking eye and nose protection with cheek guards and chainmail covering the neck. He had constructed the whole suit in six hours, should have been impossible, but the shortcuts from the system made it very possible. He then went on to make a steel headed maul, several axes, warhammers, and swords. Setting the warhammer down he pulled the sword blank from the forge and resumed hammering. Quickly the blade took shape and an hour later he attached the hilt to his final blade, a roman gladius. He then took a fine file to give the the final edge and the blue screen opened.
Congratulations you have created a high steel gladius! Your Bladesmith III has improved to Bladesmith IV.
Stamina Loss -25
Placing the gladius next to the other weapons he forged he called up his status screen.
Carl Forgekin
Race: Iron Dwarf Sex: Male Age: 50 Height: 5''4" Weight: 270 Hair: Grey Eyes: Silver. Class: Guardian? Profession: Forge Brother Strength: 11?Constitution: 13(16) Dexterity: 12 (13)?Agility: 10 (9) Intelligence: 14?Wisdom: 10?Charisma: 10 (8 for Non-Dwarves) Languages: Common, Dwarven. Skills: Mining I, First Aide II Class Skill: Taunt I, Warhammer II, Shield I Profession Skills: Blacksmithing V, Armorsmith IV, Weaponsmith IV (Blade Specialization). Abilities: Night Vision (low light), Direction Sense Bonuses: Forgeborn (Smithing skills grow 50% faster). Titles: Forgeborn (Born next to a forge with a hammer in his hand). Life: 155?Mana: 100?Stamina: 160 (137) Life Recovery: 1.6 min Mana Recovery: 1.2 min Stamina Recovery: 1.6 min Experience: 200?Level: 3
Carl was staring into his near empty metal bin when he heard a knock on his door. Grabbing the maul he walked toward the door, this would be the eighth or ninth time someone had come to his door since the Change. Five of those ended in fights, and the others in trade offers. Thankfully the concrete walls and steel bars on his windows kept him from being attacked in his sleep. Looking through his spy hole he saw a young woman standing in front of his door, she was with an odd collection of others including a very well equipped dwarf and a winged woman. Looking at the young women he stared at her, trying to place the face. The woman called out, ¡°Carl its Liz!, you there?¡±. Carl was surprised as the face and the name clicked in his head, Elizabeth Hurley, the young paraplegic from Oakhurst. He had done some custom metal work for her wheelchair and they had become friends keeping in touch via email. Seeing she was well armed and not a possible hostage he quickly opened the door. Liz was getting nervous waiting, they had ran into two more trolls on the way to Carl¡¯s home/workshop. They took them both down easy enough pushing everyone but Arnold to level 4, after the third troll Arnold decided to join the party. Personally she thought Arnold was more eager to get in on the experience than anything else, but whatever the reason a healer in the party was a good thing. She tried calling out to Carl and it seemed to work as the door opened, and a dwarf with Carls face stepped out taking her into his arms. He quickly let go and held out at arms length, ¡°Damn girl It¡¯s good to see you standing on your own. Who are your friends?¡± Liz smiled introduced him to everyone before ending with Joe, ¡°Last is Joe. He, Sarah, and Rachel helped me out of a bad situation. I asked them to come by here hoping I could talk you into joining us? Were headed up to Iron Mountain, planning on setting up a place to call home in the mountain.¡± Carl let go Liz and looked over to Joe. ¡°How do you plan on making it work? From what I can tell all dwarfs start with mining, but even with two of us it will take time to do any serious tunneling.¡± Joe grinned, ¡°Dwarven Engineer with Stone Shaping and Runecrafting. Ah have a feeling Ah can tunnel pretty damn fast.¡± Carl looked at Joe oddly, ¡°Scottish?¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Joe sighed, ¡°Nae, Ah thought it was because Ah was a dwarf, but you¡¯re the second dwarf Ah have met, and Ah am the only one that seems tae have the problem. Another effect of the First perhaps, But nae weel tak'' it.¡± Joe grinned, ending the sentence in a much heavier accent. Carl raised an eyebrow, ¡°First?¡± Joe nodded, ¡°Ah was ground zero of whatever the hell happened. Before we get into any of that can we come in? Ah don¡¯t like standing out in the open like this.¡± Carl nodded, ¡°Sure, Liz was a friend and your group seems alright. Take the wagons around the side of the house. There is a loading ramp I use for bringing in coal and other materials. I¡¯ll meet you there.¡± After moving everything inside they all got together in the workshop and began trading stories about the last few days. The dogs all chose a lap to lay their heads on in the hope of getting pets. Joe glanced up at the roof, ¡°Ye got lucky being this far out, my house looks like swiss cheese. The effect lessoned the farther from my house we got, in fact beyond my garage the other homes seemed fine. The electronics, modern firearms, cars and such were all either destroyed or damaged. But ah did get the First title out of it, which gave me +5 to all stats, an accent, and a few other odds and ends.¡± Carl exclaimed, ¡°Damn +5 to all stats kicks ass, I got something called Forgeborn. It give me nice bonuses to smithing. Speaking of smithing would you like me to look at those ah wheels of yours, I can probably do something better than 25 pound free weights.¡± Joe said, ¡°Sure, long as you¡¯re willing tah put us up for the night. Not comfortable being in town but considering your walls appear to be made out of 12 inches of concrete Ah think we¡¯ll be safe enough here.¡± Carl glanced at the walls, ¡°Reinforced concrete, I was going through a prepper stage when I moved up here and had this place built. Which reminds me if any of you want to take showers I have an above ground water tank that is fed from a windmill powered pump. The house is on a gravity feed system so I still have water.¡± Sarah jumped up and yelled ¡°Dib¡¯s! Wait how big is your shower?¡± Carl studied her for a minute, ¡°You and Rachel may want to use the shower through those double doors, I use it for some of my metal work, but it¡¯s still a shower. Liz you and Donna can use the bathroom shower, It¡¯s through the kitchen on the left.¡± The women quickly got out of their armor, grabbed some bags from the wagons and split up heading towards their respective showers leaving Arnold, Carl, Joe and the dogs by themselves. Joe said, ¡°Well Ah think am last, but that works for me. Ah am more used to going without regular baths then the others. But I think Ah can take this armor off at least, this place seems safe enough.¡± Joe stood up and proceeded to strip off the armor soon he was standing in a pair of grey sweats and a t-shirt. ¡°Damn that feels good.¡± Carl was staring at the chainmail, ¡°Joe how did you make this? The rings look solid.¡± Joe looked at the hauberk, ¡°It was part of my First rewards, Ah had the armor for years. The rings used tah be just twisted together, it was the first piece of armor Ah made out of 14 gauge galvanized wire.¡± Arnold spoke up, ¡°Is there any chance I can get some armor Carl, I know I¡¯m a healer but I would feel better about it and I can pay for it.¡± Carl stared at Arnold, ¡°I think I can throw something together for you. Those 25 pound free weights you¡¯re using as wheels will help.¡± Glancing at his walls he knew he had some prototype wheels from tricking out Liz¡¯s wheelchair, plus the odd art piece that never sold. Carl had played his share of rpg¡¯s both on the computer and with friends in High school. One thing was always the same, protect the healer and if he was going with them then Arnold would be his healer. ¡°Yes I can put something together for you. Joe could you and Arnold get me those, ahem.¡° Smirking he continued, ¡°Wheels and I will get the forge prepped, no time like the present¡± Joe and Arnold watched as the 25 pound weight started to glow in the gas furnace. Joe was surprised the gas furnace worked, the knowledge he received from his blacksmithing skill didn¡¯t cover gas furnaces. Taking the iron out of the forge Carl set the hot iron into a bed of coals. Turning off the gas he used a pair of tongs to set the weight on an anvil. With a few blows of the wedge side of his hammer he cut the glowing weight into two pieces. Placing half of the weight onto the coals, in a second older style forge, he began to work the other half. Every blow seemed to change the shape of the iron and in an amazing short amount of time the outer part of a steel wheel took shape. Carl hammered at the iron, he could do it with the system or without. But it was so much faster with the system he only did things manually now when the system didn¡¯t have what he wanted. Steel wagon wheels though were part of the blacksmith skill. Joe walked up to the bed of coals wearing his spare leather apron and began to work the bellows to keep the iron hot. Carl gave him a nod and the two of them continued to work on the wheels. Sarah was clean, It had only been a few days but she was not used to going even a day without a shower. She supposed she would get used to it since safe places to get clean were going to be harder to find. The wings were a pain though, she had to enlist the help of Rachel to get the area of her back where the wings joined. She returned the favor with Rachel who also needed help reaching different areas. Gathering up the dirty clothes, and any feathers for Rachel, they headed back out to the workroom. Everyone had settled down doing their evening chores while Carl and Joe worked on the forge. They checked weapons and armor for damage, sharpened swords and worked on any skills they could. The dogs on the other hand did what dogs do when things are quite and slept. Joe set the helmet down next to the other armor they had made for Arnold. They had gone through all the metal from the weights and were cannibalizing a large metal plant Carl had made. Thinking back to the fight with the troll Joe needed to get some armor for his dogs, and looking at the large leaves he had some ideas. ¡°Carl do you think we could use some of these leaves tae shape some basic armor for the dogs? Last trolls we fought would have killed my dogs in one hit. Ah need something tae mitigate the damage or just keep them out of fights and use them for scouting.¡± Carl looked at the large triangular leaves and at the dogs, ¡°Yeah we could do something with this but we¡¯ll need some leather for backing and to protect the dogs from the edges of the metal.¡± Joe thought to the last two trolls and the hides they recovered. Looking back to the party sitting around a large work table he asked, ¡°Is it all right with everyone if we use the troll hides for some dog armor?¡± Sarah looked up from hammering some of her mail rings flat, they had become twisted when one of the trolls tried to grab her. ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem with it, from the damage those trolls did to us, if they had hit one of the dogs it would have killed them.¡± As she went back to repairing the rings she got a pop up.
Congratulations! You have acquired the skill Basic Armor Repair I
Stamina Loss -10
Not hearing any objections Joe went to where the wagons were and grabbed the two troll hides. When he got back Carl had already trimmed a dozen metal leaves off. Carl looked up at him, ¡°Hand me the hides, armorsmithing includes some basic leather working. We¡¯ll shape the leaves and then rivet the them to the leather. The medium leaves will work for the heads, they are all triangular in shape which will work great. The larger leaves we¡¯ll put the broad ends to help cover the shoulders and the rest of the leave will cover the dogs sides and the spine.¡± They went to work. April 4, 0300 Hrs. Carl was pleased with the results, they had gotten all four sets of armor done. In the process he gained a new skill called beast armorsmithing and the dogs armor all came with basic regeneration. He still had a good chunk of the leather left and he planned on adding it to Arnolds and his own armor. ¡°Well Joe we made have made it, but you get to convince your dogs to wear it.¡± Laughing he started cleaning up his work area. Joe grinned at Carl, but he didn¡¯t think he would have a problem, staring at one of the completed sets of armor he got a pop up.
Natures Barding of Regeneration.
He would have to get Donna to give him the specifics, but that could wait till they all woke up. Heading to his own bedroll Joe fell asleep almost immediately. Chapter 10 Edited Chapter 10 April 4, 2018, 0315 hours. Sarah watched as Joe collapsed onto his sleeping bag and she thought back over the last four days. The crash, falling, fighting, and the whole system thing. How could it have happened and who could have done it? She may never know the answer. Daisy pushed her head under her hand and Sarah smiled, It was good to have dogs around again. She walked to the front of the house and relieved Donna who was standing watch. Sarah took a seat in the shadows, near a bay window, looking out toward the area in front of the house. The moon was about three quarters full, so visibility was decent. The house was well located with a steep drop off behind the house and clear visibility to both sides. The weak point was the trees across the road and so that is where she decided to set up watch. As if to prove her correct, she saw figures moving through the trees across the road. Activating Eagle Sight, the 40 meters from the trees suddenly seemed like four feet. ¡°Gah, that¡¯s one ugly face.¡± Shrek was not a good example of what an ogre looked like. This guy was over 10 feet tall, and maybe four feet across at the shoulders. Sarah stood up and stepped back farther into the shadows. She then hurried down the hallway and through the kitchen dropping the dark blanket she had been using to help hide her armor.. Carl was still awake doing something with the forge. He looked up when she walked quickly in. ¡°Ogre coming through the trees¡± she said in a calm voice as she started waking up Liz and Donna. Carl simply nodded and started grabbing the armor near the forge. As she headed over to wake up Joe, Sarah figured a day without fighting was the best they could hope for. A level 10 human thief with dark hair and a goatee watched the house with a nasty smile. His name was Dan and Carl was in for a rude awakening. He had tried to buy weapons from him two days ago and Carl had refused to even open the door. It was like he didn¡¯t trust him. Dan had come back the next night to try and sneak in but even though he picked the lock, the door still wouldn¡¯t open. So here he was with his friends Bart, a level 9 dark elf mage, and Bille a level 9 fighter. Billie was also an 11 foot tall ogre and the answer for Carl and his door. ¡°Billy you know what to do right?¡± Billy looked down at Dan. ¡°I may be an ogre, but I¡¯m not stupid. I open the door at the loading ramp and hold Carl down while Bart puts the control collar on him. And Bart, if you come anywhere near me with a collar in your hand and I will crush your fucking skull.¡± Bart said, ¡°Dude we''ve known each other since we were five. I wouldn''t do that to you.¡± Billy growled, ¡°I do know you. That is why I am telling you.¡± Bart''s blush was unseen in his black hooded robes as a small creature appeared next to him. The creature was called a quasit, and it was one of the reasons no one trusted him anymore. Not that they really trusted him before but when your familiar is a bat winged horned miniature demon¡­Well, what can you do. ¡°Is Carl still awake?¡± he asked it. ¡°Who is Carl?¡± it asked. Bart swore it was fucking with him at times. He said, ¡°Is the dwarf asleep?¡± ¡°Yes, dwarf asleep¡± it said. Dan, overhearing the conversation, nodded. ¡°Ok let¡¯s do this. Billy you''re on.¡± Billy grunted, lifted a 12-foot section of telephone pole off the ground, and headed for the side of the house. Sarah watched the ogre run out of the woods wearing a kilt made out of what looked drapes, amusing as that was the half a telephone pole it was using as a weapon was not amusing in the least. It had to be heading for the loading ramp doors they had brought the wagons in, it was the only door it could fit through. Sarah headed to the shop smiling and flexing her wings. She couldn¡¯t fly, but with the ring of regeneration speeding things up, she could still use them in short bursts. She said, ¡°It looks they are heading for the loading ramp door.¡± Joe nodded and finished attaching the armor to Grace. It had been over 20 minutes since Sarah had woken them, and gave him the time he needed to equip his dogs. His dogs were well behaved, but having them stand perfectly still while he put on the armor was odd. They looked bad ass though. The last thing he had done was to attach 10 silver and 10 steel arrowheads in a row from nose to ass down the middle pointing straight up. Looking at them he thought *Target the ones hanging in the back first, understand?* A chorus of mental *Yes.* answered him. Before he could do anything else, a loud BOOM! sounded through the house. They ran toward the large door where they had parked the wagons just in time for another BOOM! Sarah looked up at the door with two large dents in the steel surface and said, ¡°Damn Carl, that is a good door.¡± Carl laughed, ¡°Yeah, prepper remember? But I don¡¯t think they will hold for long. I was thinking more zombies and bombs than battering rams when I had this place built.¡± BOOM! Joe thought quickly and came up with a plan. ¡°Carl, if you will stay here with everyone else Sarah, the dogs and I will flank them.¡± BOOM! Carl stared at Joe for a minute and realized they did not have time for a debate. ¡°Go. Don¡¯t attack until the doors give way! ¡° Joe nodded saying, ¡°Everyone, same as the trolls minus the fire.¡± BOOM! ¡°Sarah, shall we?¡± Sarah grinned, ¡°But of course.¡± Carl was checking his gear as Joe and Sarah ran to the front door. He was outfitted in heavy armor. A unique mix of fantasy and historical armor styles looking like something off a movie set. Articulate plate covered his arms and legs with a chainmail hauberk, and breastplate. He set the full helmet on his head, grabbed his shield and warhammer. BOOM! Glancing back, he saw Rachel behind one of the wagons with her bow. Liz had a line of muskets laying on the wagon ready for her to fire. Donna was waiting with her flute ready to start playing a combat boosting melody. Arnold was standing in the back behind one of Carl¡¯s large steel artworks looking nervous. BOOM! This strike was followed by the sound of bolts bouncing off the back wall, luckily no one was hit, as the top right hinge finally gave out. Large hands reach into the opening at the top and pulled on the door ripping it loose from the remaining two hinges and throwing it to the side.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Carl watched through the slits of his visor as Dan walked in front of the ogre with a confident swagger. Before he could say anything, a gunshot rang out followed by an arrow suddenly protruding from Dan¡¯s stomach. The ogre grabbed Dan and shoved him to the side as another gunshot rang out hitting the ogre in the chest, Rachel¡¯s arrow just bounced off the ogre¡¯s skull. Carl quickly stepped in front of the ogre and prepared to activate his class skill Tower Defense. If it worked as advertised, for the next 30 seconds, he would draw all attacks to himself, and if he didn¡¯t attack, he could not be moved or hurt. He watched the ogre pick up the short telephone pole and figured he would soon find out as he activated the skill with a thought.
Tower Defense activated. 30 Seconds
Stamina Loss -100
As the ogre swung the telephone pole he braced himself and WHAM! A blue shield enveloped him protecting him from the impact. The ogre seemed to lose it as he repeatedly slammed the pole into the blue shield protecting him. Carl could not stop himself from staring at the countdown in the corner of his vision as his 30 seconds ticked away. The quasit watched events unfold from the branch of a nearby tree. It did not have a name and could not have one until the master died and the quasit took his soul. ¡°Foolish master. Stupid master.¡± It finally felt the compulsion as its master¡¯s orders begin to push at it. Master needs to learn to use the word ¡°immediately¡± when telling it to go somewhere. As it invisibly flew over the heads of two humans and four dogs, it did not think it would be long before it had its chance for a name. Master said ¡°Go to the front and watch to see if anyone approached the house¡±. The orders mentioned nothing about those that were already at the house. With a beat of her wings, Sarah was on top of the roof as Joe ran around the side with the dogs. There was a twinge in her wing but it was tolerable and she continued to use them to help her accelerate across the roof. Reaching the edge of the roof over the workshop, she threw herself up in the air with the help of her wings spinning in a slow circle to see how the fight was going. Joe and the dogs had just plowed into two normal sized people. The ogre was still outside of the forge and was keeping one arm up to cover its face as it blindly swung the pole into the large opening where the door used to be. The ogre was her target, she closed her wings letting gravity accelerate her downwards as she drove Potters blade into the ogres body where the collar bone was. The blade slid into the body of the ogre. Sarah extending her wings to slow her fall she drove both feet into the back of the ogre and ripped the blade out as she leaped away.
Damage 110 (18 x 1.7 dexterity bonus x 1.8 momentum bonus, x 2 backstab) Armor Large Creature, -20%. Bleeding -10 per second Ogre Fighter (Level 9) Slain Exp 540 (3780/7)
Followed shortly by:
Mage (Level 9) Slain Exp 360 (2520/7) Thief (Level 10) Slain Exp 583 (4080/7)
Congratulations! Level Up!
1 attribute point assigned to Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Agility.
You have 1 attribute points left to assign.
Sarah dismissed the screens and noticed one of the party member¡¯s name was flashing red. ¡°Joe!¡± Turning around, she saw him on the ground leaning up against the side of the house. He had a pair of daggers sticking out of his chest. Running over, she grabbed a healing potion off her belt, opened Joes mouth and poured the potion in. His name continued to slowly flash in the corner of her vision. ¡°Arnold get over here. Joe¡¯s in bad shape!¡± Arnold ran out of loading ramp and sprinted over to her. Laying his hand on Joe¡¯s shoulder a white glow briefly outlined Joe¡¯s body. Arnold said, ¡°That was the last of my mana. Carl was in bad shape.¡± In Sarah¡¯s party menu, Joe¡¯s name turned yellow, but it kept flashing. ¡°Arnold, go grab the med kit!¡± Thinking quickly, she pulled off one of Joe¡¯s gloves and placed her ring of regeneration on one of his fingers. Joe¡¯s name was still flashing, and the color was midway between yellow and red. Staring at it the color stopped turning red and remained orange, but it kept flashing. She heard a whining next to her. She looked over to find Charlie covered in blood. Looking around for the other dogs she found them laying in the moonlight next to the what must be the mage. Jogging over, she started checking the dogs. Two of them were still breathing and she carefully poured a potion into each of their mouths. The last dog, Grace, was dead. She could not see what killed her. With tears in her eyes, she watched as Milo and Daisy slowly got to their feet. They followed her back to Joe¡¯s side. Arnold had arrived by then with the medkit and set it down next to her. She said, ¡°Arnold what shape is Carl in?¡± Arnold shrugged, ¡°I think it¡¯s a broken thigh bone, but I can¡¯t be positive.¡± Looking through the box, she took out the potion of regeneration and poured it into Joe¡¯s mouth. She held it closed until he swallowed. As she watched, his name started to turn green. She pulled one of the daggers out of his chest. When Joes name stayed green, she pulled out the second one. Checking over his body, she found a third dagger in his thigh, and a fourth sticking out of his back. Arnold asked, ¡°How is he not dead?¡± Surprisingly, it was Joe who answered in a rough voice, ¡°When combat ends our healing speed increases, but Ah had four separate bleed effects going. That thief was freaking fast with those daggers. Thanks Sarah.¡± Glancing up, Joe saw the tears in her eyes. Checking party status he saw all of the party members status, but Carl¡¯s, was green. He checked his dogs - three yellow and one red status. ¡°Ah damn it.¡± Slowly standing up, he walked over to where Grace¡¯s body lay. With tears in his eyes he pulled her into his lap and just held her, thinking of the puppy he found on the side of the road. Staring at the armor he had equipped her with he wanted nothing more then to remove it, to deny what the new reality had forced upon him. Searching for the buckles to try and remove the armor he could not find them, the armor appeared to be stuck to her. He pulled on it harder and Grace suddenly spasmed in his lap, jerking away from him. Touching the leather backing to the armor it was warm to the touch. ¡°Damn, troll skin. Can¡¯t kill a troll except by fire, but.¡± Picking her up, he carried her into the shop and laid her down near Carl. ¡°Arnold, can yah bring me the med kit? Thank you Sarah stared down at Grace, ¡°She was dead!¡± Joe replied, ¡°Ah think she was on the edge of death, but the troll skin hide on the armor was keeping her alive. Death is at zero but Ah imagine it was going 0, 1, 0, 1. Downside, the armor is now a part of her.¡± Smiling, Sarah said, ¡°I think that is more of an upside.¡± Carl was staring at Joe and said through clenched teeth, ¡°I am not sure I want to add troll skin to my armor now.¡± Joe grinned at the comment, ¡°How¡¯s the leg?¡± Carl replied, ¡°Broken.¡± Joe nodded, ¡°OK, stupid question.¡± Arnold brought the med kit down and set it next to Joe. ¡°Thanks Arnold.¡± He reached in and pulled out the last rod of bone mending. ¡°We need tae find more of these.¡± Placing it next to Carl¡¯s thigh, he activated the rod. It quickly sank into Carl¡¯s thigh and slowly the leg straightened itself out to the tune of Carl¡¯s clenched teeth swearing. A short distance away, the quasit was sitting in a tree branch holding a small glowing ball. Shaking the ball, it said, ¡°Master, time to go.¡± A portal opened at the foot of the tree revealing a glowing landscape with rivers of molten metal running like water. Staring at the large sun barely peeking over the horizon horizon, it said, ¡°Time to buy a name.¡± and jumped down through the portal. Chapter 11 Chapter 11 Joe was staring at his armor on the anvil, it had only taken about 20 minutes to fix the rings on his armor. The thief had used poignards, allot of them, to stab him. They were designed to bypass armor by applying force to the smallest point possible. The rings had been stretched, but only a few were actually broken. Joe thought back on the fight, the thief must have been dumping almost all of his stat points into dexterity. A typical glass cannon type, all damage and no defense. He had to admit though, if the thief had started the fight with a backstab he would have most likely died. He needed to constantly remind himself the world had changed, he had been shot in Ramadi in 2006 and spent four months in the body shop. This time he had almost been killed and was on his feet ready to fight minutes later. Mentally pausing he reminded himself of the potions used, the limited potions. Their opponents this time were over twice their level, better gear and his First bonuses would only help them so much. Joe pulled the repaired armor on over his gambeson and headed for the door. Time for a meeting, they needed to level up, but first he needed to check on Grace. He could feel Grace in the area behind the shop doors, and headed outside to see how she was doing. ''Okay, that''s different'' Joe thought as he stared at Grace while she was eating the Ogre. Part of him wanted to pull her off him, he was or had been human, but the newer part of him didn''t seem to care. Grace had changed, and it wasn''t just the armor, she had about doubled in mass and her head looked liked it belong on an oversized rottweiler. Thinking about it Joe realized Grace must need fuel for her growth. Staring at her a minute longer Joe decided, ''Fuck it.", turned around and headed back into the shop with a shrug. Looking around he spotted Andrew sitting on a couch, "Andrew could you gather everyone please? We need to make some plans." They spent the rest of the day loading up the wagons and searching nearby homes for supplies. The homes were empty of people, but from the blood stains and broken down doors he was pretty sure the owners were no longer among the living. Thinking of the vampire he really hoped they were not among the undead. Other then food they did find one thing that would make things easier. People in rural areas liked to use the remains of old farm equipment and wagons as decorations. In one of the backyards they found a good sized wagon that had been used as a raised flower bed. Once it was cleared off, a few rotted boards replaced and the wheels axles greased it was good to go. In fact with the new wagon they were going to have to leave one of the smaller wagons behind, which staring at the wagon useing weights for wheels was an obvious choice. It would take both Carl and Joe to pull the larger wagon. That would leave the smaller wagon to Rachel and the rest of the party could help as needed. What they really needed was horses, but every barn they had come across the horses had been eaten or had ran off. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Carl watched in amazement as his 400 pound forge anvil disappeared into his inventory. It took up one full slot but who cared? It beat the hell out of loading it and carrying it in a wagon. He filled the other five slots with his iron working tools. He found himself staring at his piles of coal when Joe patted him on the shoulder, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I¡¯ll be able to make you a rune forge easy enough.¡± Carl turned to look at him, ¡°How does a rune forge work?.¡± Joe replied, ¡°Just a matter of choosing the right runes, then setting it up so you can use your mana ta power it. Should be a piece of cake, only down side you will need ta rest and recover your mana now and then. Beats the hell out of making charcoal and California is not a easy place ta find coal.¡± Clapping Carl on the shoulder Joe said, ¡°Just focus on the things it will be hard for us ta replace, tools, your anvils, things like that.¡± Joe smiled as Carl started rooting around in his piles of metal and headed over to where his dogs were all watching the packing going on. Joe focused on Grace, she had changed more as the night progressed. It appeared as though the trauma had forced her to use the troll hide as a catalyst to evolve. Graces head was broader, her hair had turned green, and she had put on about 40 pounds of muscle. Grace had also gone through about 40 pounds of dog food. The weirdest thing was the armor was still attached to her, the mounting bolts and straps were all gone and he had no idea how the armor was staying in place. Considering he was now a dwarf he decided it didn¡¯t really matter. If whatever the system was could change people races, turn the world into a damn game board, then making Grace into a mutant dog was not that big of a deal. He rubbed Graces ears and headed over to the piles of gear. They needed to get packed and on the road before anything else happened.