by David Burke
“Of course I am. I will always put you three first, but it would be irresponsible not to look out for the others. There are only 25 out of 100 left and if this keeps up, the entire cluster will be gone in less than a month. We also don’t know for sure when we will next get visitors from outside or if those visitors will be friendly or hostile,” Jay said.
“So we agree though that we insist our team stays together?” Meikiyo asked.
“Oh, we are staying together for sure,” Jay answered.
“But what if some of the others need help with the first dungeon floor? I mean I assume that we are going to be moving onto the second floor, but most of the rest are only level 1 or at most 2. We have grown far beyond them, especially Jay and that isn’t even counting whatever changes happen when things reset this morning,” Huong said.
“Okay, I know I sound heartless, but I’m not. I don’t mind the idea of helping the others, but it needs to be on our terms. We need to keep descending. Isn’t that what the dream said?” Amelia asked.
“Yes, and you are right. We can’t stop descending or if the dream voice is right, then nothing else we do is going to matter. I don’t know about you, but I also have skills that I have neglected and need to start working on. Hopefully if we keep our purchases down, then there will be enough credits to get what we need while helping the others level up and practicing our skills.”
“So then we are basically on the same page, then?” Meikiyo asked.
They all nodded and said yes before Huong added, “One other thing. I don’t think we should ever leave Jay alone with Jasmine, or even with her little group. One of us always needs to be with him. He is only a guy after all.”
“Um, I think I can take care of myself. If I can kill giant apes, I think I can handle Jasmine,” Jay protested.
“That’s exactly what we don’t want: you handling Jasmine,” Meikiyo said softly.
Amelia just laughed and said, “Oh, aren’t you so cute. Those big muscles won’t help you with Jasmine. You just stick to handling the monsters and let us handle the bitches.”
This time Jay had the common sense to keep his mouth shut.
Chapter 2 - Jay’s in Charge?
After another half hour of talking, they decided that they couldn’t put it off any longer. The curious thing for Jay was how much he was enjoying his time with all of them. Each had their own personality, and somehow he felt more complete for having them around.
Amelia was snarky, but he could tell that she cared and she had a way of seeing to the central issue of anything. Huong was always compassionate, but her scientific mind was first rate and made him question his thought process about everything. Some of her insights were going to be invaluable in his further training as she helped him come up with ways to utilize his abilities and the entire team in unison. Meikiyo was still the least talkative, but what she did say was usually right on point. He liked the way she could be so decisive.
He found himself lost in thought as they walked to where Jasmine and company were. It wasn’t that he was exactly glad to have been yanked out of his life and forced into constant peril, but to quote Monty Python, with them by his side, he wanted to say, “Let me face the peril.” If they could ever stabilize things here, this would be his own little Eden.
When they reached Jasmine, she was with Mia, Kenzie, Emma, Daphne, Ava, and Charlotte. Between their two groups, they represented 40% of the remaining survivors of the cluster. Jay broke the ice by saying, “You wanted to see us.”
Jasmine gave him that secret smile that somehow felt like it was just for him, and a sense of contentment washed over him. “I wanted to see you… but this is fine. We all need to talk, anyway. The reset or whatever we are calling it will happen within the next hour or so if it keeps true to the past week. After that we don’t know what will have changed, but I think we need to vote on leaders first and then afterwards formulate a plan for how we can survive. Actually, more than survive. I’m already tired of being worried about food and shelter and all that. Who knows how many bungalows will even be left after the reset.”
“Fair enough, but shouldn’t everyone be involved in talking about leadership?” Huong asked.
“Why, of course, but I have a proposal and I wanted to make it to Jay privately first. Are you sure you don’t want to just go talk with me?”
“No, I’m comfortable here. I’m not even sure that we need a specific leadership. There are only 25 of us left. Maybe we could count on one another to do the right thing,” Jay said.
Jasmine gave him a look like you might give a cute puppy that just made a mess all over the carpet. “Well, if this is how it has to be, so be it. I wanted to tell you that I think you should be our leader. The council might have seemed like a good idea at first, but now there just aren’t enough of us for that and beyond that we now have a much better understanding of what we are facing. This is the time for strong leadership, and no one has proven themselves to be stronger than you. We don’t have time for committees, we just need a person who can make decisions as required.”
Of all the things that he had expected, this was the last Jay had thought he would hear. “Uh…”
“As eloquent as ever, oh great leader, but this time I have to agree with Jasmine. You are the only person who fits the profile of a leader, so you will have my vote,” Amelia said.
The rest of them all nodded and chimed in that they would vote for him. Jay simply said, “But I still need to be able to descend in the dungeon. I won’t have time to be sitting around settling squabbles and things.”
“We all know that, but you would truly be the leader. The chief of our little tribe, if you will. You would tell us what to do and we would all take turns going down with you. Whatever you decide,” Jasmine said. Her voice was practically a purr, and Jay couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of excitement.
Fortunately, a small part of his brain stayed clear enough to channel PSI energy into his Iron Will skill. Immediately, it was like a fog lifted from his mind. What Jasmine said still made sense about there being one leader, and he guessed it was better that he did it than risk it going to someone he didn’t trust. Her words were still enticing as was she, but it wasn’t that overwhelming excitement or urge to please her that he had been feeling a moment before.
He really needed to remember that she was dangerous with her emotional influence. Although a part of him was worried, another wanted to excuse it as likely an unavoidable run-off of her own emotion. The chemicals in the water were messing with all of them and he knew how his sensual projection would fire off without him even meaning for it to.
“Mia and Kenzie, will you go get the others? We need to vote before the reset. We can talk about advisors, partners, and sleeping arrangements afterwards,” Jasmine said. The two named girls ran off to do as asked, but the rest started arguing.
Jay just walked away because he needed to be able to think on his own. As he walked away, he heard the girls of Team Jay saying how he was part of their team and that the others had to go through them. Meanwhile he heard the others complaining that it wasn’t fair and they couldn’t hoard him. It was definitely better to be a hot commodity than to be trying to figure out if he could find a date for Friday night. At least he thought it was.
While the others were assembling and Jasmine was trying to get everyone calmed down and organized for a vote, Jay wanted to take a few minutes and start feeling out his formation-based abilities. Obviously the one that he was most interested in was Temporal Manipulation, but that one was still locked.
That left Body Manipulation and Psionic Construct. Jay had a vague idea about what psionics were. To him it was mostly the mind reading and mind control but his experiences since being taken proved that it was equally things like pyrokinesis and telekinesis. He wasn’t sure if enhancing his body was the same thing as skills like his Accelerate.
They required different types of energy, and he could feel the stamina being drawn from what he woul
d call a core within the center of his body. He didn’t know quite how to describe it. There was something like a vessel that stored the energy deep within his being. Physically, it felt like it was in his chest.
The same thing could be said for his PSI energy, except that the core was in his head. They both required the same type of mental tugging, and they both could cause pain if he drew on them too heavily. He just couldn’t decide if they were two different types of energy or the same energy channeled through two different lenses as it were.
Either way, he felt more comfortable with the physical changes, so he wanted to try Body Modification. It seemed like that was what Brent the were-wolf had done, and it seemed to have benefits in many ways. So that was what he thought about first.
Focusing on his hands, he concentrated on turning his fingers into claws, toughening the skin and modifying the bone structure to allow for it. The energy that he needed clearly came from his head in the form of PSI rather than from his chest, despite the fact that this was a physical effect. It worked and his hands started to change faster than he had expected.
What he wasn’t ready for was the pain. It felt like every bone in his hands was being broken, no more like they were being ground into dust. In his mind’s eye, he could almost envision the process. The flesh at the tips of his fingers ruptured and bony claws extended out, and then the flesh sealed back around it as though he had always had the claws. It wasn’t simply extensions of his fingernails, which disappeared entirely but true razor-sharp claws.
His hands widened and the bone structure changed to accommodate the strain that swiping at something with his hand or rather paw would place on him. When it was done he let out his breath and tasted a bit of blood in his mouth where he had been biting down on his tongue to keep from crying out. It was nothing for his enhanced regeneration, but still drove home how this was not as simple as Brent had made it look.
More time must have passed than he thought because he heard a voice calling his name, “Jay, we are done voting.”
He turned his back to hide his hands while he grimaced and worked on returning them to normal. Interestingly, unlike his enhanced strength or speed, he didn’t have to continuously channel energy into the transformation. Once his body was modified, it maintained the new shape until he put energy into shifting it back.
He had only just finished when Huong put her hand on his shoulder. “You really should come over and talk to everyone. We finished voting.”
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Jay turned to her and asked, “Wait, don’t I get to vote?”
“Well, of course you can, but it doesn’t really matter. The other 24 of us were all unanimous. We all agreed with Jasmine’s idea. It really was a good idea. She has some of the best ideas and now you are the chief.”
“Are you feeling okay?” Jay asked.
Huong giggled in a bubbly way that wasn’t normal for her. “Of course, chief. I’m just excited. Why wouldn’t I be feeling okay?”
“Just the way you were talking about Jasmine earlier versus how you are talking about her now. That’s quite a difference.”
“What do you mean? I’ve always thought that Jasmine was super smart. She will make the best advisor to the chief. We really should go over so you can talk to everyone. They all want to see the chief.” With that, she tugged on his hand and pulled him along after her.
When he got over to the rest of the cluster, all of them were waiting for him. Within seconds he found hands all over him as though they all wanted to just get a chance to touch him. He heard things like, “Hey Jay, do you like blonds?” or “I need you to take me hunting?” even “Jay, look over here.”
Then the crowd parted seemingly by invisible hands and Jasmine grabbed his hand, pulling him to a slight rise in the ground so that he could be free from the others. A second later he felt his other hand be latched onto and turned his head to see Amelia had his other hand. There he stood, as the two of them tugged on him until they finally worked together to get him free of his adoring and pawing fans.
“You can’t treat the chief like that. He will let you know when it’s okay to approach him. He is gonna be very busy today planning out what our little village needs to do and then after that he is going to have to make sure that we are safe from the monsters on the first floor,” Jasmine said.
“Okay, and now, Jay needs to pick his advisor,” Amelia said.
Jay felt all eyes upon him and an invisible pressure building inside of him. He again channeled PSI into his Iron Will skill and felt the pressure ease, even if it wasn’t entirely gone. He kept looking back and forth between Jasmine and Amelia. He knew that he had promised Amelia, but Jasmine just looked so right. Fortunately, he was saved from having to make the decision as the reset happened and they all lost consciousness.
Chapter 3 - Newcomers
Jay came to and found himself once again on his back, staring up at the sky. It was a brilliant blue with wispy clouds moving along. All around him he heard others waking up.
He immediately called out, “Status” as he sat up and got a notification followed by his status sheet.
Congratulations on surviving stage one of the experiment. As four of you have succeeded in clearing the first floor of the dungeon, the second floor is now open. This means increased dangers but also increased chance for growth. Continue to descend and prove yourselves worthy of staying alive. Make your race proud. Figure out the experiment parameters to gain advantages.
Note that you are all no doubt feeling the effect of the increased stimulants in your drinking water. They automatically increased once the first floor was cleared. Those of you who have not crossed the first threshold may find that you have trouble tolerating the increase and may experience some unpleasant side effects. You are all warned and encouraged to cross the first threshold as quickly as possible.
M1789
Level: 13
Awareness: 14
Precognition: 10 - 99%
Sensual Projection: 6 - 1%
Life Sense: 7 - 81%
Iron Will: 7 - 14%
Telepathy: 2 - 5%
Durability: 18
Hardened Body: 11 - 38%
Enhanced Strength: 9 - 27%
Kinesis: 14
Kinetic Bolt: 5 - 96%
Accelerate: 6 - 74%
Kinetic Dampening: 6 - 49%
Metabolism: 17
Regeneration: 11 - 78%
Enhanced Speed: 8 - 18%
Formation: 33
Body Modification: 4 - 0%
Psionic Construct: 1 - 0%
Temporal Manipulation: 33 - 0% LOCKED
PSI Pts: 610 Stamina: 350
Current Credits: 15960
The notification helped make more sense of what he had been experiencing. The stimulant or whatever they wanted to call it that was in their water must become less effective as you reach the peak of one threshold. So they had all noticed it affecting them less and less, and especially once he had crossed that first threshold.
Now though, it had seemed like it was in full tilt again. The efficacy of the compound must have been increased, and so he was susceptible to it again. He didn’t mind staring at pretty girls, but he did want to be able to keep his mind clear. The thing was that he had no idea what the next threshold would be. It clearly wasn’t ten because he had passed that the day before with his quest reward. It also explained why the girls had been so handsy with him this morning. It was almost like they couldn’t control themselves.
Thinking about levels, he was surprised that he had only gained one level, but supposed that the messages had all said that it was unusual to get a double awakening, so maybe that would be slowing down. That was consistent with games that he had played. In the beginning levels came easily, but then it began to take more and more effort to improve. Heck, that was consistent with many skills in regular life. It was just quantified here inside the experiment.
He couldn’t complain though. As awful as killing all those i
nvaders had been, he was massively powered up by the 23 stat points that he gained on top of his one for leveling. That brought another concern to mind. He hadn’t had even a single nightmare about killing those people. That didn’t set right with him. He wondered if the experiment was messing with his mind too. That worried him more than a little, but he wasn’t able to dwell on it for long.
As everyone woke up they all started to gather around Jay. It was clear that the message had scared them. Multiple voices were asking about how to clear the first threshold. He knew this was gonna give him a headache really fast. Beautiful or not, no man wanted to hear that many women speaking at one time.
“Everyone calm down, please. We will have a plan in place in just a few minutes. Right now, I need to ask you all to go find a partner and start practicing your skills. Give us a couple hours and then we will call everyone back together,” Jay yelled out over all the other voices.