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Page 5
I was shaking with elation. It was a maze, and I had just figured out the path! I ran back and forth, double and triple checking placements of plant groups with those I had made on my map. I had gotten it! I studied the map, doing my best to commit it to memory.
Congratulations! You have increased your Conscious attribute!
It was time to finish this. I took a deep breath, tasting the salt in the air. I was ready and headed into the forest. It was slow going. I made a point of familiarizing myself with the number of steps in between each grouping. I was close, so close. My slow and cautious movements through this maze had gained me a couple points in Stealth. After just a few more slow steps I could see the glowing item in the center. It was hard to keep quiet and contain myself when I finally made it to the item.
You have received Tasty Flower
Tasty Flower - Wrist
5 Armor
Activate: Cure Weak poison once per day
Durability 5
Tasty Flower? That was an odd name. I put it on my wrist and found out why. The petals, a mottled pink and red, wrapped around my wrist, and... writhed. They left a light wetness behind them as they slowly squirmed around. I frowned as I realized they looked like tongues, and they were… tasting me? “Okay, this place is weird.”
It was time to make my way out. I turned and retraced my steps. I could take the easy way out and just get killed, effectively teleporting me to the cube, but I didn’t want to risk the flower getting damaged.
Thinking about what my prize would be, I wasn’t paying complete attention to my feet and brushed against a flower of a round plant. There was the terrifying poof of spores.
You have been blinded!
Crap. I held in my panic and stood completely still, listening. I heard the carnivorous plants rustle and then settle down after a while. I was blind though. My heart was beating so fast I was afraid they would hear it. I tried to calm my nerves and think. Where had I last stepped? I stretched out my arms with exacting slowness, stopping when my fingers brushed the plant that had poofed me. I closed my eyes (I know, I couldn’t see anyway, but it helped) and pictured my map. If I took a few steps this way... there it was, the next round plant. It poofed at me as my fingers touched it, and my blindness counter reset. I had it though. I was close to the entrance and I felt like I could make it out if I was extra careful.
It felt like hours but according to my blindness countdown, it was less than a minute, I felt the sand beneath my feet. I had made it! I dropped to the sand with a grunt of pleasure. I could hear the lapping of the water before me while I watched my countdown 10… 9… This was it! 8… I could complete the...
You have been struck for 1 piercing damage!
You have been poisoned!
I hadn’t moved out of the range of one of the carnivorous plants! I felt my leg go numb and panicked. I was so close! I dragged myself towards the water. Maybe If I could make it in, I could swim out of range!
You have been bitten for 23 damage!
Crap crap crap! The timer on the blindness ran out and my eyes cleared up to the horrible maw of this plant, blood dripping from where it had bitten me. Its bulb opened, and its thorny protrusions latched onto me again.
You have been bitten for 19 damage!
Its tendril was slithering up my body, heading for my wrist. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I think it knew I had the Tasty Flower and wanted it back. I scrambled up to get towards the water, the plant was surprisingly fast and caught up to me.
You have been bitten for 20 damage!
I was too slow with my leg poisoned... then I remembered the activate-able ability of the Tasty Flower and imagined its ability activating. The Poison debuff disappeared and the Tasty Flower stopped writhing.
You have been bitten for 21 damage!
I was getting dangerously low on health. Being whole now, I outdistanced the flower and waded out into the water, submerging myself as soon as I could, and swimming out. I hoped these things couldn’t swim! Treading water, I watched as the plant hobbled into the surf. It collapsed into it, then my eyes widened as I witnessed what happened. The carnivorous plant... dissolved... the saltwater was melting it! Well that would have been nice to know a little earlier.
Your Tasty Flower has lost durability!
Oh no. No NO. Without further thought I jumped out of the water, shaking my wrist to try to get the seawater off my precious sacrifice. Then I sprinted. I don’t think I have ever run so fast before. Taking off through the jaguar zone, running as fast as I could up the hill, cursing the developers as my Stamina bar plummeted.
Your Tasty Flower has lost durability!
My Stamina bar was almost empty. I wasn’t going to make it.
Your Tasty Flower has lost durability!
I was 10 feet away. My Stamina had run out, and I fell to my knees. I breathed raggedly and gained a point of Stamina.
Your Tasty Flower has lost durability!
I ripped the Tasty Flower off my arm and threw it, aiming for the sacrificial hole. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t watch.
You have made a worthy sacrifice!
Your quest has been updated!: A Little Pain for a Lot of Gain - Sacrifice 6 worthy items. Reward: Unknown.
Items sacrificed 6/6
You have completed a quest!: A Little Pain for a Lot of Gain
Reward - Advanced class choice
“YES!” I did it! I watched as the hole expanded wider and wider, a spiral staircase forming from the walls. It was too obvious I was meant to use them, and with only a little hesitation, I made my way down the steps which led to a well-lit room. The walls were lined with gray stone bricks, and the large room was empty except for a glowing cube similar to the blue one down at the beach. The cube rose out of the hole in the ground and, floating dead center in the room, shifted from blue to red. Directly beneath the cube inlaid in the floor was a black gemstone. I touched it and found it warm.
Tutorial Zone - 90% completion bonus: Primitive Dungeon Core
Primitive Dungeon Core
Charm Slot - Light attunement
Durability - Indestructible
Dungeon cores may be used to grow a dungeon - Requires Core Master skill
Soulbound
As soon as I took this core thing, I felt the hill shudder. Dust and debris fell as the staircase I had climbed to get down here morphed back into the hill, and dirt and stones rained down on me. I knew it was time, time to leave this tutorial level, which I guess was a kind of dungeon, and see the rest of the world. I may have been pissed coming here, but I was hooked now. This was my new life, right? Time to live it. I slapped my hand on the cube.
Chapter 5
The world swirled around, coalescing into a single point of light on the horizon, which expanded to envelop me. I stood in a pure white room. No scents or sounds, just a white room. White walls, white floors, white ceiling. Not overwhelmingly white, just white. I spun around to look for any exits, but there was nothing. No hallways, no doors, no windows, nothing. When I stopped turning a screen appeared in front of me. It was about the size of a whiteboard that a teacher might have on their wall.
The System messages that usually showed in my vision appeared on the floating screen.
You have completed a quest!: “The Journey Begins” Reward - Choose a class!
Quest Reward: “A Little Pain for a Lot of Gain” - Your selection of classes now includes some Advanced classes based upon your skills at the time of completion.
As I finished reading, ghostly mannequins appeared in a circle around the room. One, labeled “Hunter”, had on a set of clothes that looked like little more than dirty furs and hides, holding a spear and knife that were made of stone.
There were several other primitive looking classes, and a few that looked better, with nicer gear that didn’t look freshly caught and skinned. I felt like I was swimming upstream, I didn’t understand what an Advanced class was or what it meant. Tapping on the question mark, the screen replace
d the words that had been there and filled it with information about classes.
Classes are broken down into several tiers; Primitive, Basic, Advanced, Rare, and Epic. Each tier of class determines how many attributes and skills are associated with it. Attributes and skills that are part of your class have a higher maximum score cap.
If I understood this correctly, completing the tutorial in the way I had gave me the option of an Advanced class, which had significant power over a Primitive or even Basic. Waving the screen away I walked towards the mannequin silhouettes. There were four of the Primitive classes and three Advanced classes. Presumably there were Basic classes in between, but I guess my quest reward wouldn’t let me even see those.
There had to be a way to change classes at some point. If I had done that well in the tutorial zone, and only been offered Advanced classes, how did someone get the higher tier? I would have to investigate that later. I walked up to the Hunter class and looked it up and down.
Hunter - Primitive class
The Hunter is a class that focuses on bringing in food, in the form of meat, to a primitive tribe. The Hunters are also the warriors or defenders of a tribe. Hunters have skills to move stealthily, track and dress animals, and few combat skills.
Well I could see why these classes were considered Primitive. There wasn’t much in the way of versatility. It was nice to learn that selecting a class unlocked skills. The next class also had furs and leather on, though not as much as the Hunter.
Gatherer - Primitive class
The Gatherer is a class that focuses on gathering food or tools from a primitive environment. Gatherers also craft many of the day-to-day items a tribe uses. Gatherers have skills to forage, craft, and enhance a tribal lifestyle.
These classes made me wonder what it was like out there with all the people. Were they a nomadic society? Did more people make it through the tutorial with Basic or Advanced classes? I hadn’t played anything with classes resembling these primitive ones before, and I was very interested to see what it was like. I was sure after reading these two that there had to be a way to get other classes. I couldn’t imagine being a Hunter or Gatherer for who knows how many years. I think I could guess what the last Primitive class was by the elaborate garments and accessories it wore.
Chief - Primitive class
The Chief is a class that focuses on enhancing a tribe through quests and buffs. Chiefs use social abilities and charisma to enhance the cohesiveness of a tribe. Chiefs have skills to give quests and raise morale and effectiveness.
A Tribal Chief, a Hunter and Gatherer; I was getting an idea of what the larger game world would look like, and it made me nervous. Was this going to be a primitive life? Swords and Sorcery? Dragons and Dungeons? Wait... I got a Dungeon Core from that tutorial zone. Did that mean the tutorial zone was a dungeon? I examined the last Primitive class. Oh, it looked like a magic class. I guess that answered part of my questions.
Shaman - Primitive class
The Shaman is a class that focuses on keeping a tribe healthy and strong. Shaman use natural medicines and a connection to the spirit world to help their tribemates. Shaman have skills to create poultices and poisons and interact with the spirits of nature.
Finally there was a class with magic. Maybe. It didn’t actually say anything about magic so maybe I was wrong, but this was the first somewhat interesting class I had seen! At this point I was quite glad I had completed the tutorial zone in the way I had because none of these classes interested me very much. I turned to the set of Advanced classes I had unlocked and gave them a brief once over to see if anything immediately grasped my attention.
Conquistador - Advanced class
The Conquistador is a powerful explorer and combatant, they combine exploration skills with gunpowder and melee weapon skills. A Conquistador can command members of his party with buffs, fire attacks with a musket and survive in the wilderness.
Hmm, a hybrid explorer/warrior. That was pretty cool, and WAY more powerful than the Primitive classes! It made me wonder what the Epic classes were like. It was interesting to see muskets and gunpowder; it gave me even more context about what the world might be. It also totally turned me off to the class. I had no idea if gunpowder and musket stuff was available, but I had a hunch based on the other classes I saw that it might not be right away. It would suck to have a class that needed something impossible to get, to run optimally. Besides, I did not want to be a front-line fighter. Go ahead call me a coward, but I did not like getting hurt. I moved on the next one.
Trickster - Advanced class
The Trickster uses magic and manipulation to fool people into doing what he wants. Tricksters deceive others with social skills and Illusion Magic and use dirty tricks in combat.
This class was very interesting, I loved that my quest reward had shown me these classes, even if I wasn’t going to take them, I was learning so much about the new world! Illusion Magic! I had to admit this class was tempting, but I had to see what the last class was. My eyebrows rose when I read the title.
Treasure Hunter - Advanced class
The Treasure Hunter specializes in finding hidden treasures, whether they are powerful items, places or creatures. Treasure Hunters have skills to help them intuitively know the location of treasures while exploring and getting bonus loot from lootable objects.
I knew it as soon as I saw it, this was going to be the class I wanted. I examined it closer.
Treasure Hunter - Advanced class
Class skills:
Hunch -A gut feeling that can lead you towards treasure
Driven–When following a Hunch, you are more powerful
Lucky Find - Increased rewards from drops and treasure
Illugraphy - Create and project maps and data for you or anyone else to see
Unlocked skills - Sucker Punch, Survival, Athletics, Assessment, Stealth, Archiving
HP Multiplier–5
Starting Kit - Explorers Belt, Sturdy Clothes - Chest Legs Boots Hat 5 Armor Each, Infinite Notebook - Uses finger to write - infinite pages - soulbound (Cannot be stolen or destroyed).
Oh yes, this was perfect. I had always loved finding treasures in my life on Earth even if I never got to keep them. Running in a salvage group was more than just a way to pay the bills, it was its own level of reward finding unique things from a bygone era. Now I’d get to do so for myself!
I knew when I made my decision I would be sent into the world, but there was so much more I wanted to learn. What were Attunements? How did magic work? I had a million questions, but knew from my time in the tutorial zone, it seemed like the devs had wanted us to figure out much on our own. So without further hesitation I pressed the “Accept” button on this class. The world shifted and swirled around me and I blinked. When I opened my eyes I was no longer in the strange room.
Chapter 6
Turning around to get a bearing on my new surroundings, I marveled once again at the beauty of this world. This scene much different than the island, but equally as vibrant. I was standing in tall grass on the top of a hill, the gentle slope leading down into a massive valley filled with grasses of all kinds. The sky was a brilliant shade of blue, dotted with perfectly fluffy white clouds. A warm breeze made the grasses dance and the soft swooshing sound filled the air. There were huge mountains off in the distance, their peaks covered in snow. Down in the valley was a herd of grazing beasts, bison was my best guess. The herd was massive, stretching from one side of the valley to the other. I inhaled deeply, the fresh air filling my lungs, invigorating me.
In the foothills of the mountains, I noticed an open circle of stone, what looked like the entrance to a cave, with smoke coming out from somewhere above it. There had to be people there. I certainly couldn’t see anyone else and I had a pretty good vantage point. I looked at the flashing + sign in my field of vision, and selected it, blinking as my character sheet bloomed before me.
Name: Hudson
Year: 0
Race: Huma
n
Age: 18
Class: Treasure Hunter
Level: 2
HP: 140
Armor: 0
Body – 130 Stamina
Strength - 10
Agility - 10
Physique - 10
Mind – 110 Mana
Conscious - 7
Subconscious - 2
Superconscious - 1
Heart – 107 Zeal
Empathy - 1
Projection - 1
Emotion - 5
Soul – 103 Spirit
Self - 1
Aura - 1
Connection - 1
Attunements:
Light
Class Skills:
Hunch – 1
Driven – 1
Lucky Find – 1
Illugraphy – 1
Personal Skills:
Archiving – 1
Secondary Skills:
Sucker Punch – 1
Unassigned Skills:
Survival – 1
Climbing – 10
Running – 10
Jumping – 10
Willful Ignorance – 1
Obstinance – 1
Throwing Mastery – 1
Makeshift Crafting – 8
Assessment – 1
Athletics – 1