Project Alpha

by R. A. Mejia

  Lillian shrugs and answers, “Well, you seemed to be stuck, so I said the first thing that came to mind. I figured it would be less suspicious than claiming I was a stranger that had wandered into your home and I certainly didn’t want your mom to think I was some booty call.” Seeing my expression, she laughs and continues, “Besides, it will be a great cover for all the time we’ll be spending together.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, now that you’ve joined my team.”

  “I never said that I’d join your team of dungeon clearers.”

  She turns to me and smiles, “Oh, but you will. I’m sure of it. You need my facilities to turn credits and loot into dollars. I can also offer you a discount on equipment and training. I can use your help clearing dungeons and claiming bounties. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

  Lillian walks ahead before I can say anything to counter, forcing me to increase my own pace or be left behind. We reach the bus stop just as it’s pulling in and ride mostly in silence. Lillian asks about my classes at the college, and I tell her what I’m taking this semester and how it’s going so far. She offers to let me study at her office whenever I want, since she has the time dilation upgraded at 4 to 1. I thank her for the offer.

  As the bus makes its way to the mall, I find myself considering Lillian’s offer more and more. Why not join her team? Why the hell am I so reluctant to take her up on her offer of employment? I mean, she’s already helped me. She’s explained about this whole System thing and pointed out ways for me to make money from it. If it weren’t for her, I’d still be stumbling around with only a few skills that I could practice at work. She’s also offering to train me and provide even more guidance, something I dearly need, especially in choosing the best skills, so I don’t waste the forty skill points I have saved up. She’s already helped without asking anything back. I take a look at her and wonder why I can’t just take the offer.

  If I’m honest with myself, it’s partly the way she dresses and her place of business. She’s apparently wealthy. She has some expensive looking name brand clothes and a fancy schmancy high-rise office in New York City. She can afford to swap out furniture in the place like it’s nothing and she can afford to upgrade her home base to levels I don’t think I’ll ever be able to. Another part of it is just the suspicion that there’s something she’s not telling me. I mean why does she need me? She’s rich, why can’t she hire someone more experienced for her team? Is this some charity offer? You know, help the poor brown boy who’s new to the System and have something to brag about with her rich friends?

  Lillian looks up from scrolling through her phone and smiles when she sees me looking at her. My heart skips a beat at seeing that smile, and I chastise myself for thinking so poorly of her. No, she’s never given me one look of pity or looked down on me. Still, I just can’t shake the feeling there’s something she’s not telling me, and until she does, I just can’t take her offer.

  The bus finally arrives at the mall, and I notice just what Lillian and John meant by the area being affected by the dungeon now. There are no cars in the parking lot of the mall, and the outside looks even more run-down than when I first came down here. Walking from the bus stop to the front entrance, we see several figures loitering around with long sleeve jackets and their hoods up even though it’s a bright, warm day. The practically empty mall has only a few people walking around inside on a Saturday, and all the people working in the stores give us suspicious looks as we walk past.

  I lead Lillian to the second floor of the mall and take her to the dungeon. She tsks when she looks at the dungeon door, and I see her focusing on it. I realize I haven’t used Inspect on the dungeon since I first found it. I focus my attention of the red dungeon door, and a blue box appears.

  Dungeon - Zeldario Mash

  Recommended for groups of levels 4-9

  Classification: Fantasy

  Restrictions: No high-tech weapons or abilities

  Wow, that’s a lot more information than I got the first time I inspected the dungeon. I guess increasing those levels in Inspect paid off. What’s more concerning though, is that the proof that the dungeon has grown more powerful has been right here the whole time. When I first looked at it, it recommended for levels 1 -5. Now it's for groups of levels 4 - 9. No wonder I got killed last time trying to solo it.

  I Inspect Lillian, wondering if the two of us can handle the entire dungeon by ourselves.

  Lillian Coke

  Level 9

  Even with my increased level in Inspect I still only get her name and level. It must have something to do with the difference in our levels. I mean wow, the last time I used inspect on Lillian, she was only level 7. Now she’s level 9. I guess that means we’ll be ok in the dungeon.

  Lillian opens the red door and steps inside. She disappears the moment she crosses the threshold. Is that what it looks like when I walk through one of these doors? I can only imagine what some average person would think. I imagine them opening and closing a regular door trying to figure out how I disappeared or find the trap door. Someone might even think I’d stepped through a portal to a magical Harry Potter world. I imagine a dungeon appearing in a train station in London and rumors spreading that someone disappeared near Platform 9. Then gaggles of people running into brick walls and posts trying to find the right place to get to Platform 9 3/4.

  I’m pulled from my musings by a cough and see Lillian poke her head out of the doorway expectantly. I quickly follow her through the door into the dungeon. Once in the dungeon, Lillian pulls up her inventory, and her outfit transforms. She goes from ripped jeans and a cardigan to full heavy platemail with glowing magical runes. Lillian has a massive two-handed sword strapped to her back. Only her head is uncovered though she has a helmet in her gauntleted hands.

  “Well, get changed into your battle gear, Anthony.” She orders.

  Still stunned by the complete change in both her demeanor and outerwear, I pull up my inventory and tap on the simple leather armor set. There’s a quick flash of light, and I find myself covered in tough leather. I look down at myself and feel underdressed compared to Lillian, whose armor practically glows with power. However, if Lillian thinks less of me for my cheap beginner armor, she doesn’t say anything as she starts to walk through the cave. I have to jog a little to catch up with her. She moves surprisingly fast in all the heavy looking metal armor. I guess she’s invested a good number of her stat points into strength and constitution. There’s no other way she could walk around in that stuff without being exhausted.

  Lillian exits the cave and scans the area looking for the land below the mountains. The forest, the plains, and the large castle from which a blood red fog spews forth to cover the land.

  She turns to me and asks, “What’s the quest line that beats the dungeon?”

  I tell her about the old man down the path and the quest he gave to defeat King Kanon and free Princess Plum. She nods as if she’s heard the quest before.

  “Ok, I’ll invite you to group up with me. Just accept the invitation and share the quest with me.”

  A blue box pops up in front of me.

  Lillian has invited you to join her group. Do you accept?

  I think, ‘Yes,' and a small portrait of Lillian appears in the upper left corner of my vision. Unlike the other System boxes, this one seems locked in place even though I move my head. Next to the portrait is are three horizontal bars. A red one, a blue one, and a yellow one. I can only assume these bars represent her health, mana, and TP.

  “Hey, why can I see your health but I have to look up my character sheet to see mine?”

  Lillian sighs wearily, “Why haven’t you read through the guidebook? There’s a whole section in there about customizing your User Interface. You can see any of your or your group's info by simply selecting the options in your User interface section. You can even save particular settings with a unique name that lets you activate or deactivate them.”

  I really sh
ould read through that entire guidebook sometime. I call out, “User Interface,” and a blue window pops up with a bunch of choices to change the way I see things. I can have damage notifications come up instead of seeing red numbers float from myself. I leave that as is. I mean who wants a bunch of popups about damage distracting you in the middle of combat? I do select to see my health, mana, and TP bars. The horizontal bars pop up, and I have to resize them move them to the bottom left corner of my vision. I also set them to become translucent unless I look directly at them. I also enable them to flash when they're below 20% so that I know I need to take a potion or run away.

  There are a ton more settings I can alter or turn on but I ignore the rest for now since I’m not sure how I want to set everything up and Lillian is giving me the stink eye.

  “I’m all set. Thanks for telling about that. Why don’t you have your health bar where you can see it?”

  She shakes her head at me, “I do see my health bar. The changes to your User interface are things only you can see. I mean who wants to walk around seeing other people’s boxes hanging out?”

  That makes sense. Lillian reminds me that I need to share the quest with her. I sheepishly tell her that I don’t know how and she gives me another look that tells me I need to read that guidebook.

  It turns out it’s a simple matter of calling out for the Quest Log and pressing a little button next to the quest description labeled, ‘share quest.’ With the quest for the dungeon shared, Lillian pulls up her quest log and reads through the details. It only takes her a minute to read through the details and close her quest log.

  Lillian starts walking down the mountain trail at a quick pace. I follow behind as she walks past the old man and heads straight into the forest at the bottom of the mountain trail. She completely ignores the blobs and Goombies, and those monsters seem to sense how much more powerful she is than them and they run when she approaches. The Goblins, however, aren’t that smart. They rush to attack her in large groups, and I’m worried at first since that tactic has killed me before. However, Lillian pulls the giant two-handed sword off her back and cuts down three or four Goblins with every swing of her blade. Within moments only the Goblin archers in the distance are left. Lillian must activate some ability or skill because she bends her knees and leaps through the air towards the archers. She lands with such force that a small crater is created and the Goblin archers fall. Before they can rise, Lillian is already swinging the blade killing them with quick, efficient strikes. I want to pause and pick up the dropped loot, but Lillian is already moving forward towards the castle.

  Lillian dispatches three more large groups of Goblins with little trouble before we reach the large castle from which the red fog that blankets the land springs. Unfortunately, according to Lillian, we’re not getting any experience points since she’s more than five levels above the monsters.

  I equip the throwing hammers before entering the castle, but Lillian doesn’t wait for me. I have to run to catch up with her, and by the time I’ve entered the front gates, there’s already a trail of Goblin corpses in the hallways. She leaps through the second level of the castle, scaling the platforms. She takes a few hits from the hammer throwing turtles before she can leap to their platforms and slices them in half giving the phrase ‘turtle on a half-shell’ new meaning for me.

  We’ve reached the boss’s room in record time, and Lillian takes a moment to Inspect King Kanon while he gives his speech about how much he loved Princess Plum. I do the same to see what level the boss is now.

  King Kanon

  Level 9

  Health 450/450

  Mana 350/350

  King Kanon is the dungeon boss that kidnapped Princess Plum. While he did so out of love, it doesn’t make it any less creepy.

  Abilities: Fireball, Turtle Defense

  Weaknesses: Cold, The Love of a Good Woman

  While he’s finishing off his speech, I move off to the side so that I’m ready to use Hammer Time. However, Lillian switches equipment. She trades in her two-handed sword for a one-handed axe and shield. The axe has a thin layer of frost on it, and the shield has glowing red runes.

  When King Kanon finally finishes his speech, I launch my first hammer through the air towards the boss. Before it can even land, Lillian is rushing forward, lashing out with her frost axe. She’s cracked King Kanon’s turtle armor and is using her axe like a lever to widen the opening when my hammer hits the bosses back. He barely notices my attack and turns as he inhales and blows a stream of fire at Lillian. She doesn’t dodge like I would. Instead, she raises the shield on her left forearm and takes the attack head-on. I watch in fascination as the blast of flame that would have sent me for respawn barely reduces her health bar.

  I continue to use Hammer Time on the boss, but my attacks do minuscule damage compared to the chunks of life each one of Lillian’s axe chops does to King Kanon’s health. After a few minutes, the boss falls to the ground dead, the weight of his body shaking the castle.

  Your party has defeated the boss monster King Kanon, level 9. You receive 90 XP.

  I do a little happy dance at finally getting some experience points from this dungeon run. Then I remember that this will likely be the last time I’m in this dungeon and move to the body of the fallen King Kanon. I touch the shelled back of the boss with one hand and cross the fingers of the other as I activate Absorb. The body of the boss disappears, and I get a notification from the System.

  Absorb has successfully captured the essence of the defeated foe. You’ve learned the ability Fireball.

  I scream with joy as I read the notification. After all the times I used Absorb on this boss, I finally got an ability from him. I pull up the ability’s description.

  Fireball - Level 1

  E

  Active

  Some people just want to watch the world burn. Now you too can become one of them. You’re now able to harness the raw power of fire and shoot a ball of red-hot fire from your palm. Be careful where you aim, because you’re not immune to your power. To activate, think or say ‘Fireball’ with the intent to use the power.

  I can’t wait to use my new ability. I stretch out my right arm like I’m getting ready to catch a baseball and yell, “Fireball!”

  A red ball of flame the size of a baseball shoots from my hand and corkscrews through the air until it hits the castle wall where it burst apart. The flames cling to the stone wall for a moment before burning out.

  I do another happy dance, and this time it turns into a full-blown happy jig. The best part of the ability is that uses mana and not TP. I finally have a use for my mana.

  “How the hell did you do that?”

  Lillian’s voice cuts through my merriment. I turn towards the sound of her voice and see her standing with her mailed hands on her hips, her helmet in the crook of one arm. She’s looking at me with an expression of mirth at my crazy dance moves and curiosity at how I just shot a fireball.

  I run up and hug her. Too happy to realize she probably can’t feel the hug through her metal armor. I tell her that I finally got the boss’s ability to throw fireballs after trying for weeks. From her confused expression, I can tell she doesn’t understand so I explain about my ability Absorb and how I get a chance to absorb a monster’s essence and get their abilities. I emphasize that it’s only a chance and that it’s much harder to get a boss’s ability or any creature with a higher level.

  Lillian’s eyes widen as I describe the ability and her mailed hand grabs my arm as she asks me to show her the ability description. I do so and wonder at the happy expression on her face.

  Absorb - Level 1

  SSS

  Active

  The User has the chance to absorb the essence of a defeated foe from their corpse. The chance of absorption is based on the difference in level between the User and the foe. If the User has a higher level than the foe, then the chances of absorption being successful upon activation are increased. If the foe has a higher level th
an the User, the chances of absorption being successful are decreased.

  To activate, touch the body of a defeated enemy and think or say ‘Absorb’ with the intent of activating the ability.

  “Do you know what this means?” She shakes her head and continues, “No, of course, you don’t. Well, I’ll tell you.” She points to a line in the ability description. “You see that part that says SSS? That is the rarity level of ability or magical power.”

  I frown at it, vaguely recalling something like that from some old video games.

  Lillian continues to explain, “The System starts the rarity scale at the most common abilities G, then F, then it continues up all the way to A.”

  “Wait, since S is below G, doesn’t that mean my ability is like super stupid or something?”

  She shakes her head, “Nope. Instead, after it goes to S, then SS, and finally SSS.”