by Naosu N R
I explained it to her. I didn't sugar coat it.
"Basically as long as you stay with me you are OK. That's because I have access to the skill that can calm your nerves from the trauma, and I have skills related to that. Most people don't have this skill, called 'pacify'. But you will be stuck in my party, because you won't be able to have a normal life without my pacify skill nullifying the effects of your PTSD. I'm not an expert but it seems like it takes some people years sometimes decades to overcome it," I said.
"What...? Oh man," she didn't take that part well.
"Why can't I just resist it? And can't you make it permanent to effect me?" she asked.
"I'm sorry. I don't have that kind of skill yet. But if you..." I was going to say stay in my party permanent she'd always have access. But she interrupted me.
I also had to be careful and let her down gently. She's not actually mad at me, but just she's so upset over her situation that she doesn't realize she's being difficult to work with. It nearly turned into an argument. She's in denial.
I wanted it to be like she'd almost be worshipful and thankful towards me. But instead she couldn't accept it.
I guess people are really like that. Its like if someone told you, you were quarantined and you'd have to stay home and not go outside, but people do it anyway. They still want control over their lives.
The interview ended, when Melanie came to check on me to find out why Rita had gotten upset.
I...don't know if Rita will stay with us. But I want to try to help her. And she is good looking, and kind of hot, though not as much as Melanie.
...
"We need to go hunt for food," I said after I managed to get the others together to discuss the day.
"Good," Linz told me.
"About time. I want to level up again fast. It should be fast since I'm level 1 right?" Simone asked.
"Don't do anything crazy. Your status is a bit temperamental after a level reset sometimes. Its been known to feel a bit klutzy the first 24 hours after a class change for example," Linz warned.
"Is she right?" Simone frowned, not wanting to hear it from 'Bad Girl'.
I found out the blonde girl with us is also an elite knight class. (How is that different from a normal knight, I wondered. The others didn't know either. And most of them didn't even know there was such a thing as an elite knight.)
Name; Rita Argent
Level; 28
Class; Elite Knight
The other guy had captured her after killing her party. Rita is level 28.
Wow. Nice.
This is a good level! Really!
If I'm careful I could guide her and help her, and in the process gain the powers of that level 28 strength! (But I can do it without being a jerk, or causing harm; it would be a symbiotic relationship. I wouldn't mistreat her. I also won't push her into any wife relationship unless she decides she wants it.)
But even though she's ready to go now and functioning, she doesn't feel good about being on the front row yet. It seems I'll have to bring her up to speed slowly. For now she's on my back row with a bow and arrow.
Hm...
So if I can use Pacify to keep her 'in the game', AKA emotionally treated, then she'll be a really good game piece.
But it will take time to get her to where she can fully function.
I think I'm also close to figuring out how to enhance my gear up to +4. I did a few experiments for this after making love with Melanie, and after finding out what Rita's job was.
But an elite knight is still kind of useless on a zombie floor, where even 1 bite kills you slowly and turns you into undead.
Before leaving, I tried 2 enchants, both of which failed.
I enhanced Rita's buckler to +3, since we'll need her and her defense skills. She says she can block 1 or 2 bites in a row sometimes but doesn't like taking the risk. If I get her defense power up just a bit more, it might help the team to not only be dependent on me.
I also got Rita's combat boots enhanced to +2, but that wasn't until later that night.
Formation;
Mandy in front left, Bad Girl Linz in front right. Me in center, Simone middle left, and Shelly middle right. Back row has Miguel back left, Melanie back middle, and then Rita rear right side.
Well that's how it would have been if I'd been a normal mage. Because you can't get bit by zombies without extreme problems, instead I'm the front center fake tank.
The others often make jokes about this.
But then I found out the formations are also a minor Elite Knight class buff, used by Rita. She uses them on us, plus they also help keep us organized.
This way, she can get us +10% to defense, or +10% to offense, etc.
I wonder if there's more of them?
Mandy doesn't know the answer to that. And by saying that it seems that Mandy doesn't have that skill set?
Is it a skill set for only 'elite knights' and not normal 'knights'?
"Well, let's go," I huffed taking a deep breath before we plunged out the front door onto the stairs going up to the 3rd floor.
From here on out, zombies might be in the building. It will be combat everywhere after this!
...
I found out it was a miracle we weren't all dead.
This whole time the bandit prince had missed that there were 3 rooms full of zombies locked in them. They had probably been locked in there by him as maybe a trap for people snooping, or else for a scenario if his own men betrayed him.
Or maybe they were just too lazy to finish them off.
But over time they'd been wearing down the drywall and room walls and doors in the rooms they were in.
We had to back off and then string up some trip wires and then release them; which was a big mess.
The trip wires helped reduce the number trying to flood us once the door was open.
Then I hit them with mezz, and stuns, slowly whittling them down as we did a combat retreat. Rita showed her worth there, blocking a few of them from going after Simone and Melanie.
But it cost me almost 80 mana just to control the flow down to where we could isolate them, before we could even engage them!
Finally one by one, we killed them off.
But now I need to rest again, because we used almost 250 mana for just 3 rooms of zombies!
Simone is happy and now level 3! (+2 levels!)
She kissed me hard and wrapped her arms around me.
Name; Simone Mansfield
Race; Human
Magic job; Ranger
Level; 1 → 3
Health; 82/90 → 90/98
Mana; 14/14 → 24/24
Mana Regen; 2
Health regen; 4
Element affinities; Nature (weak)
Str; 27 → 28Agi; 44 → 46Con; 49
Int; 54 Wis; 44App; 94
Skills; athletics, jogging, defend +2, block, parry, evade +1, Search, spear proficiency, Forage +5, range efficiency(new!)(increases range weapon 'to hit' efficiency, but only by small amount; +1%)
Gear list;
Bikini top
Levis pants
Sneakers
Baseball bat +1
Buckler +3
Spear
Melanie has acquired the 'trap making' skill, and she's trying to acquire 'range weaponry' and range attack skills with coaching from the others.
Wait, why did Melanie get it and not Simone?
Oh. Melanie has been doing 'experiments' in her spare time. I should have realized. They are pretty simple however.
Miguel is mad because somehow or another I've got all the woman, '...except for that bitch, Shelly'.
"What was that?" Shelly's ears pricked up.
"N-n-nothing babe," Miguel said looking guilty.
"I think he likes you Shelly," I said.
Rita and Linz both smirked.
...
1 PM
Lunch break.
1:30 PM
Wife intimacy time with Melanie. But I got gr
eedy and had a turn with Linz after that.
Then after that...
2 PM
We resumed hunting.
Level 3 of this building is now clear after 2 small rooms. But we don't dare do the fourth floor yet.
I managed to enchant another flashlight. This one ended up with a Mezz charge (1/day), and a 'Light' spell effect (1/day) also, but the normal flashlight function doesn't work on it for some reason.
Huh?
I just realized I created a modern looking wand.
So my flashlights are wands...?
Hm...as an enchanter technically, I could make an entire build out of only making and arming myself with tons of flashlight wands! It would be kind of cool also.
More hunting...
Dinner inside at 6 PM (before dark. Always cook your food before dark in undead maps, no matter what the guide says!)
6:30 PM
Marital intimacy with Melanie again.
Marital intimacy with Simone after that. She's particularly energetic after me rewarding her with class change.
We got nervous the closer night gets. A lot of the others want to sleep in the same room.
And as adventurers in a dangerous map, everyone sleeps with most of their clothes and gear on, no matter what others might think of it.
We're making good progress.
If we can just stay alive a bit longer...
Chapter 36
Two days passed.
We managed to avoid starvation.
And with getting a few levels, Simone's [Forage] skill has increased a lot. That is enhanced even further, by my ability to push us forward into more territory covered per day, through strong offense and defense. Plus, Melanie's skills are increasing also, with being better with range skills.
I'm not sure what the exact finding rate on the [Forage] skill is. But I like what this skill does for us. And we're getting to a point where its able to work enough to support us with the combination of everyone's skills and working together. Not only is Simone made valuable, but also a lot of stuff has become more interesting.
This also is getting me used to the idea that each dungeon class really does have a lot of perks and pros, making each class valuable, and 'not only mages and summoners being valuable'.
The [Forage] skill will open up many possibilities! Even the option to live in my own society, or create my own society, or town is possible with enough people with it!
Still, there are a few issues.
Melanie doesn't like Linz.
Linz doesn't like Mandy, but likes Melanie.
Simone doesn't like leaving me alone with Mandy or Linz. But she doesn't seem to hate anyone, or feel rivalry with anyone. Maybe that's because of how I gained her while still being with Melanie.
Rita claims she likes everyone and all of the others, except that I often catch her giving Linz odd looks, that well, aren't exactly hateful but do seem to have a lot of distrust and concerns about her sincerity.
Shelly doesn't like anyone except for herself...and to a smaller degree Melanie, whose skills she covets.
It finally hit me why Shelly is like this. Her mana regeneration rate isn't so good for some reason. I wonder why. Maybe part of why she came with us may be due to Melanie's amplify skill, which is seriously one of the most overpowered skills I'd come across so far, as it can boost your entire build.
As a mage that's a problem. And what happened to her other team? Is this related to that?
And this is why she's sort of negative and aloof from others, but yet still coveting Melanie's help.
Mandy is still having secret conversations with people.
Miguel is surly and often avoiding all of us, and still sort of caught between hero worship for me for being like he wants to be; a player. But also he's angry that I seem to have all the females in the party except Shelly, the bitch. (His words, not mine.)
And when does Simone get an alertness skill? A hunting and tracking survival scout class should get this valuable skill right?
...
"I-I did it!" I stood up quick.
Oops...
I blurted that out while all of us are having breakfast together. (8:27 AM) Accidentally I'd stood up excited, when I'd gotten my enchant up to +4, on my jacket.
This means, I can get all my gear up to +4 pretty soon! And I'll be that much better of a 'mage tank'.
But its still not a 100% chance of success on enchanting. Like every other type of enchanting, its got a probability rate. But now it can be done!
I guess it had opened up when I'd reached level 10. So does that mean I'd get +5 opened at level 15, or level 20, I wondered?
Still, Shelly tells me the really good enhancements need to be +12 or higher. Those are the ones that people really want. Of course anything after +4 or +5 actually requires tons of wealth just to get.
Some people don't even get access, because of poverty issues. Plus, when you hunt in a group in the dungeon, you don't get to keep all the loot. You get a share instead. And often the really good items go to the people that shined the most (who happen to often be the ones that already have good gear and don't need it.)
Thus, even with adventurers and in the murim world there is poverty, especially in the lower levels.
It seems like Miguel's family isn't exactly poor but isn't doing terribly great either. I don't know about Mandy. And is Miguel going to introduce us to them? Depending on the situation this might not be a good thing.
And often many adventurers might not have all their family involved in the murim world. I don't know if Mandy is this way or not.
But it had taken twice as much mana to get my jacket to +4, from +3. (And it also had taken more mana to get it from +2 to +3 than from the enhancement before that also.) So it seems that each time I enhance the mana cost goes consistently up.
This means I'll have to work hard from now on. But hopefully we're on our way to being able to survive more sub-bosses easier.
Yesterday also, I'd added another enchant completed on my Mezz wand flashlight. Now it can do 2 mezz charges per day.
...
Breakfast got cleaned up not long after.
I'm lucky that I don't have to do breakfast cleanup. But that's only because the others want me to check Rita's condition often. They don't say it in front of her but they are worried about my 'pacify' 'buff' coming off her in mid fight.
I had only recently finished Rita's treatment, when suddenly she ran back from going to get and check on the front 'safe zone' enchant with Miguel in it.
Then Rita spoke up.
"Guys! Miguel is at the front lobby of the building. He's saying to come quick!" she signaled.
(It was currently Miguel's turn to stand in my 'safe zone' enchant, which prevented zombies from flooding the front entrance of the building. We took turns doing this, to keep them out.)
We got everyone together and ran down there.
Surprisingly when we got there everything is fine.
Why did he call us there?
I also see he's got tons of arrow making materials spread out on the floor. He'd been using the time wisely for arrow crafting this whole time. As he also is interested in any kind of crafting skills, plus being worried about avoiding zombies, we'd let him stay in there.
"What is it?" Mandy asked first.
Mandy and Linz are giving each other odd looks, from rivalry still.
"You aren't going to believe this!" Miguel cried.
"I was playing with my status screen in between arrow making, you know taking a break. And I found out you can send and receive messages to and from the surface world while in this safe zone enchant!" Miguel told us.
"But we could do that with mage mail already couldn't we?" Melanie glanced at me.
"No. I mean with normal devices," Miguel said.
"What?!"
"Really!"
"No way!"
"It shouldn't do that," Mandy said.