32 – Sour taste of revenge
>>Atmos Arcadia Tower Complex – FLOOR 2 – Plateau (F)<<
That question mark skill is a ticking bomb. I have no idea how long it will last or what its effects will be. I need to hurry and secure a nice place for the girls to live in peace. Even if I have to raze half a universe to the ground to do it.
Julian walked with purpose through the rocky desert, under the midday sun. He paid no mind to the blazing heat or the dry air, counting on his high level to just bulldoze through anything this floor had for him. The closest, and only way up that he knew of was close to Mesa village, and to reach there he had to go through the Outpost. It was fine, he decided, he might even do some shopping if there were any people around to keep the stores open.
He was happy to see that there was nobody asking for money at the outpost gates. They must have learned their lesson. Inside, there were many more people than he thought, making the only street inside the scrappy walls a river of survivors who poured in through the main gate after a long day outside. As the sun set, the buildings came alight and the fires awakened, and the smell of cooking saturated the air. In this tiny outpost in the middle of nothing, no larger than a hundred meters in diameters, there were more than five hundred people milling about. Tharlaxians, humans and Torians alike chatted, rested, ate by the fires and enjoyed the amenities that the system-issued buildings provided.
“One of… whatever that is,” Julian said, ordering what looked like a meat skewer from a vendor at a stall.
“25 Runes.” the burly man said. He wasn’t wearing any of the base class clothes, instead choosing to wear a shirt and a leather apron stained with animal blood. Julian’s Appraisal didn’t work on other adventurers, nor did it work on animals or monsters at the current level, but it was easy to see that the man had managed to evolve his class from something combat oriented to a more utility based one through a quest. Perhaps if Julian had the patience to initiate some small talk he would have learned more about this, and he would have also learned that this man could cook food that gave his party bonuses and temporary buffs, but he didn’t. He didn’t care either, because his attention was solely focused on a small group of people gathered around a metal barrel with a fire going inside.
“Those spineless fucks. Easiest Runes of my life!”
Julian stalked them like a hunter, keeping to the shadows. What they were saying was making his blood boil already.
“Yeah, right? What were they thinking?”
He observed them from behind a corner.
“Idiots. That’s what they were. They could have just swapped their classes for non-combat ones but no… they chose to be all hippie.”
“We would have killed them anyway!”
Roaring laughter. Julian felt his ears ring with how high his blood pressure was getting. He checked inside his ring, and found his new weapon he had crafted earlier. Now, they only needed to say the two words, confirm his suspicions, and he would do it. He was going to do it. He didn’t give a shit that he was in the middle of the outpost. PvP was enabled and he sure as hell didn’t care if whatever police force had formed here after his last visit was going to be on his ass. These assholes here only needed to say the words so that he could be sure.
They kept talking, and their discussion shifted to other matters. They laughed, drank and joked. All the while Julian watched them and waited, but they didn’t mention New Hope. He bit his lip, and his teeth showed pearly white in the darkness that had descended. He checked for his weapon again.
>Irradiated Star. Uncommon Rarity. Heavy hitting mace with long sharp spikes. Built from exotic metals and enriched with Uranium, this mace inflicts both Blunt and Pierce damage while building Bleed and Radiation. Damage scaling: F+ STR, F FAITH
***
A new day dawned upon the wasteland of desert around the Outpost. A team of four, one among the many teams who left the safety of the encampment every morning in search of treasure and Runes, walked down the beaten path towards the rocky mountains. A shadow lurked, hidden behind a large rock. He was looking at the silhouette of the Mesa in the distance, farther than he had ever seen it and wondered if this was worth the detour. But then he thought about what was left of New Hope, on the deserted floor 1. And he thought about his dashed hopes for his family, and what could have happened if he had left them there the first time instead of waiting until the last possible moment before going back. They would be dead, disappeared like the others.
He moved out, letting rage dictate his actions.
“Hey!” a voice came from the party of four as soon as they saw a man stand in front of them. They chattered among each other as their leader took a step forward, savoring the Runes they were about to get this early in the morning.
“What an idiot. What’s he doing, standing there unarmed like that?”
“The boss is going to show him, that’s for sure.”
The conversation between the leader and the unknown man was too quiet to reach their ears. When they saw the two move, they licked their lips in anticipation. They knew that their boss had managed to get a jump on the guy, and was surely—
A scream tore the air apart. A guttural scream of pain, and the trio watched immobile as their boss keeled over, holding his chest spilling its innards and intestines and crumpled on the ground. They barely had time to react and take out their weapons before the man was upon them. He was holding an oversized spiked ball, dripping with blood and pieces of brain from the shattered cranium of their leader, and he walked with heavy but impossibly fast steps towards them. Before Clementine, the Thief, could even take out her knives her head literally exploded. From where the weapon was still lodged in her brain a hissing sound screeched as her flesh boiled and liquefied. It dripped to the ground.
Then the man disappeared with how fast he moved, and Trevor’s body was suddenly flying through the air in an arc. He tumbled and struggled to get up, but he grit his teeth and gripped his sword tight. He was the tank of the group, he was not going to go down this easily. He stared down at the unknown assailer and spat.
“What do you want?” he snarled. “Why did you kill them?”
The man said nothing. He only walked towards him, slowly but with the weight of destiny itself. Trevor screamed, letting adrenaline fuel his muscles and gripping his sword with both hands he jumped up and towards the man.
A shield appeared in the man’s hands just as Trevor was about to descend on him with the weight of his body behind the sword. With one fluid motion, the shield met the sword and kept going as if the sword was never there, moving with the grace of a placid river. The ear-rending screech of metal echoed in the valley, and Trevor’s attack was stopped dead by the Parry.
Julian looked, uninterested, at the stunned man before him as he struggled to move his body after being incapacitated by the Parry. He exhaled, and with his Irradiated Star hit him once, then twice with all the strength he had. Trevor’s body split in two, and his face was forever frozen in a soulless scream.
Julian’s gaze went to the last surviving member of the party.
“You destroyed New Hope, didn’t you?”
Edmund was only a boy, barely eighteen. He quivered and shook in his oversized armor too big for his frail body. He had picked the Researcher class but had been forced to wear Warrior clothes until the system offered him a class change quest. And now he was here, lost and confused, alone. And he wished he had never joined this ragtag group of people who seemed so strong, so reliable that he was willing to suffer through the bullying and the things they did to him at night in exchange for protection. These people who died so easily like paper figurines against a moving truck, now lying dead on the unforgiving sand.
He pleaded. He didn’t know what New Hope was, or what this man wanted with him. He only wanted to live.
“A waste of time,” Julian said, and Edmund felt a dash of hope as the man who killed his team walked away into the distance without saying a word.
He didn’t even feel the bullet passing through his brain as his life ended, and his body rolled down in the crevasse. It would stay there, until the vultures ate it or some scavenger found him and looted him. He died a nobody, forgotten and alone. Tears streaked his stained cheeks.
***
Julian dragged himself all the way to the Mesa, where the village waited for him like a taunting idol built by the system to remind him of how worthless he was compared to its power.
He decided it was going to be razed to the ground. With robotic movements, Julian entered the saloon and materialized a barrel of Black Powder right where the spirits were. Then he turned to leave, but changed his mind and snatched a bottle. Taking a swig, he aimed at the barrel from the middle of the road and fired. The whole building exploded, sending debris and splinters in the air and all around. One of them shattered Julian’s bottle, but he shrugged and materialized a red vial from his rings. It was an HP potion, not that he cared. He downed it like an energy drink. Then he did the same with other vials, green and blue, as he walked around the village setting buildings on fire and shooting at the windows. Then he stared at the church, turned around, and disappeared into the Mesa where the hidden door was waiting for him.
Distractedly he allocated the points he gained from his two level-ups, but did not choose any skills.
Status:
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Julian V. Terror. 2 skill points available Base + cultivation + titles + class passive VIGOR: 37 (27+10+0+0) -> 39 (29+10+0+0) Runes: 7388 |
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Titles: Strong!: +10 STR |
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Skills: Appraisal lv.2 – Valuable Experience lv.2 – Non-Euclidean Space lv.4 – Plant based Lifeform lv.1 – Crystal Cores lv.1 – Efficient Crystal Absorption lv.2 – Precision Morphing lv1 – Eye of the Beholder lv1 – Portable Oasis lv1 – Uncanny Observant lv.1
Parry lv.1 – Dodge Rolls lv.7 – Seppuku lv.2 – Tough to Kill lv.1 – Bold Butcher lv.1
Sorceries lv.6 – Freehand Magic lv1 |
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Sorceries: Magic Missile (Magic – F INT) – Homing Magic Missile (Magic – F- INT) |
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Incantations: None |
Loadout:
Basic Shield, Two Revolvers, 2 1m3 rings, Bullets and Powder,
Rings: Water, Food, Magic Bullets, 28 F-Crystals, 4 F+-Crystals, Misc loot, Misc technomagic gadgets
Appraisals:
Common – Common+ – Uncommon – Uncommon+ – Rare – Relic – Artifact – Mythical – Legendary – World – Universe – Special Rarity
Scaling: F- is 1:0.7 stat to dmg – F is 1:1 – F+ is 1:1.5 – E- is 1:2 – E is 1:3 – E+ is 1:4 – D- is 1:7
>Revolver. Common Rarity. Archaic human gun capable of shooting bullets capable of inflicting Pierce damage with a short range of fire and low accuracy. Magazine capacity: 6. Additional damage type depends on bullets shot. Damage scaling: F DEX
>Magic Bullet. Uncommon Rarity. Bullet enhanced with shards of an F-crystal, capable of inflicting magic damage as well as physical damage. The Black Powder has been mixed with a small amount of crystal powder to enhance its explosiveness. Damage scaling: 20 flat physical + 15 flat magic damage
>Irradiated Star. Uncommon Rarity. Heavy hitting mace with long sharp spikes. Built from exotic metals and enriched with Uranium, this mace inflicts both Blunt and Pierce damage while building Bleed and Radiation. Damage scaling: F+ STR, F FAITH
Skills:
Scaling: F- is 1:0.7 stat to dmg – F is 1:1 – F+ is 1:1.5 – E- is 1:2 – E is 1:3 – E+ is 1:4 – D- is 1:7
Note: the level of the skill is the first number, the arrow represents the bonus for the next level should Julian choose to upgrade it.
Valuable Experience lv.2 -> 3: Decrease level up cost by 10% -> 15%
Seppuku lv 2: Coat your weapon with your own blood, taking moderate HP damage and gaining a Bleed debuff. Your weapon becomes empowered, dealing 7 bonus Slash damage and applying Bleed. Can be resisted. ARC scaling: F
Plant based Lifeform lv.1 -> 2: Gain the ability to recover a small amount of SP -> (and HP) when exposed to sunlight
Crystal Cores lv.1 -> 2: Plunge your bare hand deep inside the body of a slain monster to extract its core. Only works on kills you have just made. Guaranteed success with (F, F+)-rank cores, rate diminishes as rank increases.
Efficient Crystal Absorption lv.2 -> 3: Gain 10% -> 15% more attribute points when using Crystal Cores to Cultivate (max 23 at F-rank)
Non-Euclidean Space lv.4: all the spatial rings you wear have 4x ->> 7x ->>> 9x the storage volume
Parry lv.1 -> 2: Parry an incoming physical attack, dealing huge Poise damage to the attacker. Can only be done with a shield. Parry window is of 0.1 -> 0.12 seconds, in the middle of the action
Dodge Rolls lv.7: Roll on the ground to gain a small temporary immunity window
Precision Morphing lv1: Create small precise pieces from raw materials.
Appraisal lv.2: Display information about the target. Displaying: name – rarity tier – brief description – damage scaling -> HP bar -> level -> boss HP bar -> adventurer HP bar -> SP bar – MP bar -> class -> level
Tough to Kill lv.1: When below 50% HP, gain a shield that negates the next incoming hit
Freehand Magic lv1: Replaces the need of a Staff with complex hand movements in order to perform Sorceries
Sorceries lv. 6: Gain the ability to perform basic sorceries when brandishing a Staff. INT scaling: D-
Eye of the Beholder lv1: Focus to be able to see farther and in greater detail. Consumes SP.
Bold Butcher lv.1: Critical hits have a life steal effect.
Portable Oasis lv1: Opens a portal to a small pocket dimension. Can support up to 2 people. 20 seconds cast time. Consumes all MP and SP in the process.
Uncanny Observant lv.1: Influence the very fabric of reality. You gain the ability to change one small detail that only you have noticed about the environment around you
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