Life Reset

by Shemer Kuznits

  That discovery sparked some new ideas for using the skill. If I could sense feelings, I should be able to influence them directly, instead of physically controlling the body.

  I released my test subject, and watched it race down a warren hole as if the devil was chasing behind.

  I picked another rabbit-victim and concentrating, pushed the mental command to roll over at the rabbit. The cheeky thing just looked at me and kept munching away at the grass. Concentrating harder, I specifically targeted the minute amount of mana in its brain. After several attempts I managed to sense the flow of mana as it coursed through the rabbit’s brain, shaping its thoughts, but try as I might, I couldn’t affect it.

  After an hour of frustrating failures, it occurred to my exhausted brain to infuse my mana into the rabbit. Targeting its mind, I forced some of my mana into the rabbit. When I had used four mana points, I realized with a jolt that it had worked. It felt like having d another appendage. I flexed my new ‘limb’ and the rabbit hopped. I sent an impulse of intention and the rabbit ran in circles.

  I had done it, something no other player had done before.

  I can totally mind-control NPCs now!

  Vic butted in

  “Easy for you to say,” I countered, “You’re a digital construct, you were designed to control NPCs, but it's a first for me.”

 

  That almost sounded respectful. Almost.

  But Vic got me thinking. I knew it was because of my increased cerebral connection that I could interact with the game using thoughts.

  Could that be why I was able to mind-control the rabbit?

  Vic answered my thought.

  That would explain why only NPCs had domination type skills, they were beyond most players capabilities. According to what Tal had told me, most players’ brains weren’t wired efficiently enough. But mine was.

  It’s also why Guy decided I’m fit for the role of a lowly goblin, I furrowed my brows.

  I shook off those thoughts and considered my latest discovery. I could control the minds of other creatures! That was huge.

  I practiced for a few more hours. Eventually I was able to control five rabbits simultaneously. To exercise my skill I made them do all sort of tricks; form a line, run in circles, and lastly, I made them build a human err…rabbit pyramid. Or almost build, as the last bunny toppled the others.

  By then I was mentally exhausted and my mana was low, but there was one more thing I wanted to try before calling it a day.

  Releasing all but one of the fuzzy experiments, I focused on the last rabbit’s mana and pulled. It resisted my first attempt, but I persisted, pulling even harder. Finally a strand of blue energy was released from the rabbit, it drifted over to me and was absorbed, replenishing my mana pool by three points.

  You have learned a new spell: Mana Drain(M) [active, monster race]

  You can access another’s creature mana reserves and leech some of it for your own use. This ability takes a significant amount of time to reuse. The amount of mana extracted varies based on your skill level and the victim’s strength and resistances. No mana cost. Mana Discipline.

  Current level 1: Novice.

  Effects: speed: 60, mana drain: small

  Prime Badge: As the first player to unlock this skill you gain 50% increased rate and can teach it to others.

  A Badge! That was my fourth as a goblin, quite an achievement!

  But, why would the Drain ability be a spell?

  In a way, the skill went against the overall theme of the Biological path mechanics. The ability to seize an opponent’s mana as your own was not the same ‘influencing’ it. And it cost no mana.

  The only downside was that I could use it only once per minute, too slow for repeating uses during combat, but overall it was still a nice ability to have.

  I targeted another rabbit and hit it with Mana Drain, netting me another five mana points. Nice!

  I need to grind this skill as often as possible.

  The long cooldown period was a setback. I was going to have a hard time level up this skill, even with the Prime badge.

  So, I had several cool new abilities.

  Vic suggested

  “Good idea. Let’s go with Freeze, Sense Emotions and Dominate.” They were easy and self-explanatory.

 

  Trust Vic to casually bring up something so alarming.

  My first thought was no way in hell could I control a player. But then I realized it might be possible, sort of. In theory, if I cast Dominate on a player, the game mechanics could take control of the character from the player, and make it obey me despite the player’s wishes.

  I would have loved to test it out, but there were no players around. As far as I knew.

  Only a few hours remained till sundown. The rabbits weren’t enough of a challenge to level up my new abilities.

  Maybe I should train up some of my other skills.

  I opened my character sheet to review my current status:

  Title: Esteemed Totem

  Level: 7, (52%)

  Race: Monster Race [Goblin]

  Type: Boss I [Totem]

  Deity: Corgoram

  Followers: 2

  Attributes: [1 points available]

  - Physical 2

  - Mental 8

  - Social 0

  Pools:

  - Hit Points: 117

  - Mana: 216

  - Armor: 7

  Skills:

  - Lucky Bastard 11 (61%) (Prime)

  - Analyze 3 (57%)

  - Tracking 3 (12%)

  - War Party Leader 1 (80%)

  - Mana Infusion 2 (5%) (Prime)

  Skills (Spells):

  - Mana Manipulation 11 (84%)

  - Drilling Arrow 7 (37%) (Prime)

  - Mana Shield 15 (80%)

  - Blood Wrath 11 (50%)

  - Heal Followers 1 (30%)

  - Mana Drain 1 (5%) (Prime)

  Damn, I forgot about the level I gained before I died.

  I put the ability point into Mental.

  I had developed most of my skills to the point that using them in combat was the best way, by far, to level them up. But not Mana Infusion. I hadn’t used it since I created it, and it was a great skill to have at higher levels.

  I activated the skill and felt a rush of physical power saturate my body, invigorating and strengthening muscles as mana coursed through my veins, supplementing my body’s normal energy with magic. Time to grind, I clenched my fists and ran. I started running along the valley wall, analyzing everything I came across; birds, field mice, ore veins…everything.

  Half an hour later, I was rewarded by my efforts.

  Mana Infusion skill level increased to 3

  Though I was tired, I pushed on, even harder, and increased my speed, catching a surprised look from a roaming goblin

  Mana Infusion skill level increased to 4

  ...

  Mana Infusion skill level increased to 7

  .

  When it became too dark to run safely, I gave up training for the day.

  I had leveled up the skill multiple times, but needed four more levels to reach Apprentice rank. I wanted to know what perks it would give, but I’d had enough of training for the day.

  The goblins were all sitting around the cooking area for the evening meal. I got my dinner from Guba and sat down among my clanmates to hear today’s results.

  Tika’s hunting had yielded 13 pieces of meat, two more than needed for the clan’s daily upkeep.

  Vrick and Bek had a bad day. During their hunt they encountered a Dire ape. They w
ere just barely able to kill it, and then the rest of its pack showed up. Running for their lives, they stumbled across a recently empty beetle mound, and took shelter inside it. The apes couldn’t reach them, but they kept the two goblins penned in for most of the day. As nightfall approached the apes finally abandoned their prey, leaving my two goblins to escape the forest.

  “Esteemed Totem,” Vrick addressed me, shamefaced. “I don’t think the forest is safe for any of us anymore. If we had more warriors, I could take a raid group to dispose of them, but…” He looked down and away, embarrassed by his inability to protect his clan.

  I agreed with his reasoning completely. We were still too few, and too weak.

  You received a new quest: Make The Forest Safe Again I

  A pack of wild dire apes recently invaded the forest inside your valley, drawn to its seclusion and safety. Unfortunately they are extremely aggressive, making the forest a dangerous place for goblins to hunt and gather, and they are a potential hazard to your new settlement.

  Defeat or chase away the pack from your forest!

  Quest Type: simple, chain

  Reward: gain safe access to the forest again, increased reputation

  It turned out the apes were quest worthy targets. A Simple one, just like all ‘go-there-kill-that’ type of quests were. However, it was a chain quest, which implied there might be more to it than that.

  I guess I’ll have to deal with it and see for myself.

  “You did well Vrick, I’d rather have you two here, safe, than lying dead in the forest. Anything else to report?”

  “Just this,” He handed me the loot they’d gathered before running from the apes; four chunks of meat and one Ape pelt.

  The food yield today was not amazing. I had eight extra pieces of raw meat.

  I hoped my new fisherman would have better news for me.

  “How much fish did you catch today?” I asked him bluntly.

  “Two,” he replied dully, holding up three fingers.

  “What? Just two?” I asked. Or is it three?

  He nodded and pointed to the camp ‘storage’ pile. Two shimmering fish were on top as the most recent additions.

  Two pieces of food per day was not much for a specialized worker. I was hoping for a production surge from the new guy’s efforts.

  I accessed the Interface and checked the worker’s information.

  Goblin Fisherman

  Level: 1 (0%);

  HP: 14

  P:1, M:0, S:0;

  Skills: Haul 1, Fisherman 3

  Traits: Noncombatant

  His Fisherman skill was going up. I really hoped he would produce more when it got higher.

  I clicked on the Fisherman skill.

  Fisherman (S) [Monster race]

  Can catch fish using a fishing pole.

  Location available: Goblin’s Gorge Pond. Max fish yield per day: 21

  Level 3: Novice

  Effect: daily catch: 19%

  Actually, that wasn’t too bad. It should only take a few days for the worker to reach Apprentice rank. Then he should catch eight to ten fish a day, with none of the dangers of hunting.

  This is not too bad. But I still had to acquire a decent fishing pole for him to use. The -40% penalty stacked with the -10% clan morale penalty, so in effect his daily catch was half his actual potential. A decent fishing pole should improve that greatly.

  I walked over to Zuban and his workers. They were sitting in a circle, eating their dinner.

  “Zuban.” I greeted him. “How was the construction progress for today?”

  “Not bad,” he answered carefully, “The new Builder is a quick learner and a quick worker. The other one is still rubbish though” he shrugged. “We’re about a quarter of the way to finish. The job would go a lot faster if you got me another Builder.”

  “That’s my priority Zuban,” I assured him.

  He grunted in approval.

  “By the way,” I took out the cougar fang Bek gave me. “I have this, think you can do something with it?”

  He looked at the fang for a moment, apparently impressed. ”It would make a nice necklace.”

  I couldn’t think of any use for it.

  “Here you go, do with it what you think is best.” I checked my inventory for more inspiration.

  Well, I have all those poison glands…

  I went over the Guba and showed her the glands I harvested from the beetles.

  “Can you do something with these using your Chemist proficiency?” I asked her.

  She looked at the gland, then inhaled sharply. She cleaned her hand on her apron and reached out. “Give them here.” she commanded.

  She took a magnifying glass from one of her pockets.

  Funny, I never saw her use this before, I mused as she inspected the gland for a long moment.

  Finally, she lowered the glass and looked at me, shaking her head. “There’s nothing I can be making, not a lot of potency in ‘em. Maybe a Poisoner could be making an extract out of it. Or maybe…” She hesitated, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “What is it?” I demanded.

  “It might be possible fer a good Cook to be makin’ some exotic dish out of ‘em.” She said reluctantly. “Though ye be wanting that one to be very skilled before ye’ll be tasting any of the food yerself.”

  “Thanks,” I shook my head and turned to leave.

  A few steps later I heard her mumbling something that sounded like “Crazy youngling Totem gonna be poisoning us all to death…”

  ***

  A roar sounded in the night, startling everyone from their sleeping covers. I hastily scanned our camp but didn’t see any threat.

  Another roar sounded, this one clearly coming from the edge of the forest. I looked at the tree line, across the moon-filled plain, and saw a large humanoid shape coming from the trees.

  I couldn’t see its exact details, but it was squat and powerfully built. Another one came into view from the tees, and another. Soon, a score of the creatures stood there, all roaring at us, and pounding their fists on their chests.

  Vrick nudged my elbow. “It’s them apes” he whispered, “they must have tracked our scent back to the camp.”

  That was bad news. We were ill prepared for an attack, especially from such a powerful looking bunch. Luck was on our side though, after they show off for a few minutes, they turned around and disappeared back into the forest.

  The message was clear, we were warned to stay away from the forest.

  That was something I couldn’t allow.

  ***

  Next morning, we woke up tired. None of us slept well after the late night show. It was hard to sleep knowing a pack of wild apes roamed the forest only a few hundred meters from us.

  I ordered everyone to stay clear from the forest. It was a good thing we had already cut down all the trees we needed for the current building project. Tika could hunt the scrublands in the valley, though the hunting wouldn’t be nearly as fruitful.

  That left Vrick and Bek and the two warriors without assignments. Well, that’s easily handled.

  “Vrick,” I pointed to the patch of dirt nearby. “Today, train with your warriors. Make sure to keep an eye on the cave entrance and the forest while you train.”

  He nodded and left to follow his orders.

  “Be careful not to injure each other!” I shouted after him “you won’t have a healer this time.”

  “Bek,” I turned to the small goblin. “Today you and I are going to train together.”

  He perked his ears at that.

  I smiled at him. “I am going to grant you another spell today, come here.”

  I held his hand and concentrated.

  Would you like to impart the Mana Drain skill to Bek? Yes/No

  He started to tremble in fear when he realized what was happening. He obviously remembered the incident it caused last time. Still, he did not struggle.

  I confirmed the prompt and once again a shower of sparks shot o
ut of my hand and into the small wretch. “Now, let’s find some open space” I suggested, and we walked away from the camp to an open field of grass.

  I turned to face him and rubbed my hands together. “Alright, let’s start. You go first.” I pounded at my chest. “Target me with Mana Drain.”

  The small goblin looked more miserable than ever. He gulped, blanched, then nodded. He closed his eyes, concentrating, trying to cast the spell for the first time.”

  I could feel Bek’s will connecting with my mana as he tried to pull it from me, causing my mana to start vibrating strangely. I closed my eyes, and held the mana in place with a mental effort, thwarting his spell.

  The spell ended and I opened my eyes, Bek’s shoulders were slumped in defeat.

  “Me sorry, Totem” he piped, “Me stupid goblin, no makey-work, spell.”

  “It’s alright Bek.” The little guy needed some encouragement. “I shouldn't have resisted. Try again” I told him, putting my arms behind my back to invite another attempt.

  Bek’s ‘failure’ was a valuable lesson all the same. Strong willed creatures could apparently resist the spell. That meant it would be more difficult to drain other spell casters, although the benefits of depriving a mage of mana might be worth the risk.

  We waited for the cooldown timer on the spell, and then Bek tried again.

  This time, I didn’t resist his spell. I watched as a strand of mana left from my body, and drifted into Bek’s.

  The little goblin looked terrified at his success, and fell to his knees muttering abject apologies.

  “That was very good!” I praised him. He only drained me of three points. I’d regenerated them before he even absorbed his stolen mana.

  “My turn.”

  I targeted Bek and cast the spell. A thick blue strand of mana was pulled from Bek and absorbed into me.