She carefully performed a one hundred eighty degree turn that made her tires squeal and people screech in terror before she gunned the engine and tore down the highway once more. Her phone buzzed and she looked down. The goddess of love and bad driving checked her messages while driving down the busy North Carolina highway at speeds in excess of one hundred miles per hour.
Aria snorted then leaned back and casually repositioned one of her legs so she could steer with her foot while she returned a text from Mid. What she lacked in common sense, she made up for in flexibility. "She really sent him there, huh? What's wrong with that girl?" asked Aria as she used her knee to help absent-mindedly steer her Cadillac around a truck that was hauling propane.
There was a short lag period between the divine city and Earth due to the need to use Earth-based technology to communicate back and forth properly. It would not do to use menu screens for every little thing. That factor had caused her not to receive updates concerning Scott since she had the run-in with Sarah.
Aria wove between the cars on the road using her foot while not bothering to look to see where she was going. The cars moved so slowly that it was easy to avoid running into anyone. That would not keep someone else from having an accident, of course. More than one car swerved off the road onto the grassy embankment, their drivers fearful for their mortal lives.
She sent a text to Mid asking her to stop being cruel to Scott. It was not long before Mid replied.
"Hang in there baby?" asked Aria. It was a photo of a cat hanging on a clothes line with those words captioned beneath it. "Cute, but what does she mean?"
Aria rotated her steering wheel hard with her steering foot and pressed the brake pedal. Her Cadillac spun sideways and drifted a few dozen feet before she punched the gas with her brake foot. She took off again down the road she had just turned onto.
She acquired a thoughtful look. "I wonder what he's doing right now?" she sighed. "Bet it's more exciting than what I'm going to be doing with my day." She shook her head then pouted in a way similar to how a little girl might look if someone had asked her to eat her Brussels sprouts. "Meetings" *Blergh*. "Stupid military."
In the background the sound of dozens of police sirens could be heard. She was a little sad to hear them. There were a lot of bad drivers and criminals in the world. Even the police seemed to be having an exciting day. She briefly wondered who they were after to need to bring in so many officers, but then she sighed again. Why couldn't she be doing something more exciting right now? "You better show me your appreciation later, Scott." she said. A slowly spread smile arose on her lips. She bit her lip a little as she started to envision just how much he would appreciate her.
While eight of North Carolina's finest state troopers chased after her, Aria continued to daydream about how much Scott would appreciate her, and the depths of said appreciation. A slight hint of drool began to dribble from the corner of her lips and she giggled like a moron. "Oh Scott! You're so appreciative."
~*~
The confines of the safe room were something Scott had become intimately familiar with. He had awakened there after several of his most recent deaths. He sighed then stood up. "What is that now? Six. Seven?"
He shook his head then went to look at the salvation mirror. Little had changed since the first time that he had looked at him. The problem was that he had died too often. He had not even made it to class level two, yet.
"I need to try another tactic." he said. Throughout his many deaths, Scott had managed to defeat only one more hellion. The monsters in this dungeon would forget about his existence whenever he entered the safe room. If he died they forgot him and then their locations would be randomized the moment he stepped out of the door.
The main issue was that their skills roughly matched their stats. His skills only matched his level. They were clearly more skilled even if they were on similar footing stat-wise.
"Direct confrontation doesn't work that well. Beating the things takes too long" muttered Scott. By the time he was nearly done with one monster he was normally beaten all to hell. The worst part was that the noise from the battle drew the attention of the others. They would often show up to see what was going on and then he would die.
The problem was the length of the battle. Scott had tried everything that he could think of to shorten it. He had even attempted to use the pistols that he had found. That had proved slightly useful, but only in drawing a monster away. For some reason, the damage from the weapons was low. His lack of a firearms skill was possibly the cause, or perhaps they were just low-level weapons due to the fact that he was in a tutorial dungeon.
As he sat on the cot thinking about his current issue, a useful thought occurred. "Maybe..."
He nodded. There was no reason not to try and change things up a little. Scott put his new thought into action and slipped out of the room. The corridor at the end of the hall was empty, so he moved forward carefully. He sensed for the life around the corner even though it hurt his head slightly to do so.
A life force that he had become familiar with was detected around the next corner. Scott only sensed one monster. He took out his pistol and leaned his head around quickly in order to see where the monster was at. The hulking brute was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He too wore the raincoat looking thing that the others wore. Scott would not know what weapons it wielded till it drew them forth.
Scott fired off a round to get the monster's attention. He managed to hit the wall just beyond the beast. It stood up straight and looked around in surprise.
"Hey, you hungry?" whispered Scott loudly before waving at the monster.
The hellion exclaimed. "Meats!" before whipping out a greatsword. Scott hissed loudly then turned and fled. The monster quickly chased after him. Scott managed to make it back to the corridor that led to the safe room before it caught up.
Scott twisted out of the way of a hard overhand strike that slammed into the floor with great force, and leveraged it into a hard spinning sweep to the monster's ankles. It was knocked off its feet and landed with a heavy *whuffing* sound. The air had been knocked from its lungs.
The sorcerer immediately capitalized on the opening presented. Scott launched a hard downward heel-stomp that slammed into the monster's face. He kicked it a few times, but it soon recovered and lashed out wildly to try and drive Scott back.
Scott obliged and allowed it to get to its feet. It was time to enact his strategy. He needed combat experience. Experience development did not work in the same manner here as it did on the casual server. Combat experience was derived through the actual combat scenario, not just from the kill. In fact, killing these monsters might have been wasteful. Scott was uncertain of that fact at the moment, but it was possible.
The only thing Scott had to lose was his life. He'd already lost that several times. It was time to see if he could leverage that fact into a viable training method.
The hellion snapped. "You damned meat!" before it picked up its greatsword and began to hack, slash, and chop at Scott with great speed and power. The sorcerer was hard pressed to dodge the attacks, much less counter them. He took several hard strikes that bruised his arms and legs. A decidedly nasty horizontal swing had gouged through his leather armor and caused him to bleed heavily.
Scott was unable to dodge another incoming swing and he was forced to block it with his right arm. He felt the impact and the stress on his muscle and bone. However, he had managed to withstand the swing. His unarmed combat bonus granted him a natural defense of one hundred forty, but his unarmed combat skill had actually increased it by seven points. He had learned that his flesh was strong enough to resist some of the blows from these monsters, though it was still best to let the armor try to stop some of that damage.
Stopping the monster's attack with a block had caused serious stress on Scott's right arm, but it provided an opening that he could exploit. He spun to the side and kicked at the back of its knee. The monster's leg buckled
slightly, throwing him off balance.
Scott threw himself forward, snaked his arm around the monster's neck and dropped quickly toward the ground in a bid to break the hellion's neck on his shoulder. The movement was successful, but was far from fatal. A shoulder neck breaker could easily end a fight on Earth, possibly even be fatal, but the hellion's health durability was simply too high.
The shoulder neck breaker stunned the monster, however. Scott decided that one professional wrestling move deserved another. He rolled the beast over, climbed onto its back and slipped his arm around its neck once more. He used his other hand to comb back the beast's head and began squeezing his arm for all he was worth.
When the weakly struggling monster's struggles stopped. Scott immediately let go. He snatched up the greatsword and shoved it into his bag, and then began to rifle through the monster's pockets. He found a few coins, but nothing too exciting.
Scott left the unconscious monster where he fell then quickly moved back to the shelter of the safe room. Once inside he checked the mirror, saw no difference, and sighed. "I have to wait for the pulse."
He needed to heal and to allow his armor and gloves to repair themselves. That was apparently the special function of the so-called special equipment. His noobie armor self-repaired if he was in a safe location, such as the safe room. It would be repaired over time, much like he healed when he rested.
The cot called to him and Scott gladly went to enjoy his rest. Time passed in the timeless place. Injuries healed at an accelerated rate. His armor and weaponry were restored to perfect status. Scott awoke then sat up.
"Alright. Let's see." Scott checked the mirror and rubbed his chin. He was still level one, but he had increased his light armor level by one. He saw no changes on his defense stat. Still, he was certain that it did something.
He went out to fight a little more. While he was not certain that his tactic would work, it at least allowed him to train his light armor skill.
Scott pulled his pistol from his bag. The unconscious hellion was no longer on the floor where he had been left to lie. That meant that the dungeon had reset. He found the monster in the same location as before. Since he had not died, the layout of the monster locations had not changed.
Once again, Scott took a shot at the monster. Surprisingly, it whipped out another great sword and charged toward him.
The sorcerer did not make it back to the point that he had before because he had been momentarily delighted to see that he could keep looting the same items if he wanted. In short, he had limited bag space, but he could farm these guys!
"Stop meats!" snapped the hellion as he whipped his greatsword downward. Scott took a hard cut along the back that sliced through his light leather armor and caused him to bleed a little, but he had managed to narrowly avoid being cleaved in half.
He turned quickly and struck down at the beast's rising hands with a double downward hammer fist. The greatsword was knocked from its hands just before Scott swung his doubled fists upward to slam under its chin. The monster's head was knocked back by the continuing combination move. Scott turned counter to his current movement and swept the monster's leg. This hellion was not an unarmed combatant. That much was certain. Without his greatsword he was easily knocked around by unarmed strikes and takedowns.
Still, he did have incredible health and stamina. The hellion launched a desperate kick that Scott mostly avoided. He could feel the bruise beginning to form along the side of his calf, however.
The sorcerer kicked, slapped, and dodged as best he could to lessen the fallen monster's strikes. Despite his superior position, Scott had trouble hitting the monster in a vital spot. The desperate flailing of the hellion's limbs was unskilled but powerful.
Scott chose to hop back a short distance and allow the monster to get back to his feet. The hellion was the perfect opponent at the moment. He had little in the way of unarmed combat skills, so it was not that difficult to take him down to the ground. However, he was extremely dangerous with his greatsword. That forced Scott to act quickly to avoid taking damage.
Thus began a dance with death, the partners in that dance were a twilight sorcerer and a hellion. The hellion would swing his blade and the sorcerer would do his best to dodge. Sometimes the sorcerer avoided the attack. Sometimes he was hit and paid a heavy price.
Loud shouts began to echo down the hallway after a few minutes. The sound of the fight had drawn another hellion.
"This is my meats! You fuck off!" snarled the hellion before whipping his blade around in a furious arc.
"Meats!" roared the incoming hellion. It would join the battle soon.
Scott saw that as the perfect time to end the fight. The next time the hellion made a heavily committed attack, Scott kicked the blade to the side turned quickly and launched a fierce uppercut that slammed into the beast's chin. Its greatsword dropped to the ground as it staggered back.
The sorcerer scooped it up and raced off toward his safe room. The sounds of screaming hellions echoed through the corridor as their meat made a mad dash for freedom.
Once inside his safe room, Scott made a bee-line for the salvation mirror then checked his stats and skills. There was no change, but he had not really expected to see one. His plan would take a lot of time and effort. He also had to wait for the experience pulse so that his acquired knowledge would be absorbed properly.
"Man. I hope this is working. That guy was tearing me apart." Scott was fortunate that his current opponent was a heavy weapon user with little in the way of skills beyond swinging his weapon. A gun fighter, or a light weapon wielder, would have already torn him apart by now.
He stuffed the greatsword into his bag then flopped down on the cot. It was time to recuperate from his battle once more.
A series of short, but dedicated, battles began after that. The moment Scott thought that another hellion was going to approach, he did his best to get an opening in the battle and then raced off toward his safe room. During those battles he had run out of ammunition or magic charge, whatever the pistols used. Scott had resorted to stepping out from behind the corner and saying random things to irritate the monster that he had used as a training dummy throughout the day.
He fought the same hellion over two dozen times, and managed to knock it unconscious three of those times. His headache increased severely in intensity during this time due to the heavy usage of his unarmed combat skills, but Scott felt that the plan had to be working.
There was no way to know how much time had passed since he had begun training in the way that he had. He felt like the better part of a day, perhaps two days, had passed but there was no sense of time in the dungeon.
"Guess I better get back to It." said Scott with a sigh. Was his plan working? His light armor skill had increased to three, but beyond that he had no idea.
Scott glanced at the salvation mirror to make certain that his progress was saved, but then stopped cold. The mirror told him something interesting!
[Status]
Scott Jacobs
Race: Lunarii | Class: Twilight Master
Age: 18 | Max Lifespan: Ageless
Level: 2 | Title: The Reborn
Attack:140[147-154] | Defense: 140[151-159]
Strength: 100 | Agility: 100 | Vitality: 100
Intellect: 100 | Charisma: 100 | Attunement: 100
[—]
"It worked? Hell yeah! It worked!" Scott laughed loudly and slapped himself on the thigh. "Damn, I almost gave up on it."
The thing he was most excited about was his headache. It was gone. Finally, the constant pain in his head had disappeared!
"What I have here is a chance to increase my skills a great deal and farm for a lot of items. Mid was right, I definitely need to take my time and learn everything that I can." Time did not pass here in relation to the rest of the universe. He was slated for the next insertion schedule into ARS, but everyone scheduled for that insertion would start at the same time since the gods pretty much did whatever they w
anted with local time.
His goal was level five, but it was also the headache. When he had both reached level five and his head felt like it was going to split open, he would be ready to move on. That would mean that his combat level had reached its peak in relation to his social and skill experience pools.
"That's perfect." said Scott. He could level to five, bank another four combat levels, and then spend his first day or two out in ARS proper socializing and learning about the world. The city alone should be something wonderful to behold.
He left his safe room and went out to find his training partner. The hellion was in his customary spot. Scott grinned. It was time to get to work.
~*~
In the parking lot of the headquarters building that Scott had been assigned, a little red Camry pulled gently into an empty parking spot. Aria stepped out then sighed at her car. "Man, can't believe I had to change it to another car."
While driving with her customary safety consciousness, she had realized that the state troopers were after her for some reason. Normally it would have been fun to be detained by the police and get booked as a criminal, but she had a time schedule to keep. She had been forced to quickly change her car from a pink Cadillac to the next thing on her list, a red Camry.
Aria pouted at the car. It was fun to drive it, but she had liked her convertible. Maybe she would change it into a jeep next? A jeep could be fun.
The vehicularly downgraded goddess locked up her car then strolled into the headquarters building in search of the only contact she had. Upon entering, she met with a Lieutenant James, who called up for Captain Johnson.
A few minutes later the middle-aged captain came down the stairs and walked over to the duty desk. He glanced at the lieutenant then over to Aria. "You needed to see me about something, ma'am?"
Aria smiled brightly at the captain then said, "Yes. We should go to your office."
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