NOVEL NEXT Chapter 26: Levels and Class Basics
<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Gym>
Alex and Natasha sat side by side in the hall outside of the receiving bay, which held the doors out to the street. They did so in order to be ready in the unlikely case of a breach.
Still they were using the time as best as they could.
He'd cleaned his dadao, and it was currently resting with the flat of the blade on her knee as he held the handle.
As Alex stretched what joints he could and Natasha read, he was attempting to work with Basic Life Transfusion through the blade as a medium.
It works for Force Burst…
He could easily remember how his mana and life energy had moved together for Basic Life Transference.
He also remembered how his mana would move into the blade of his dadao and clothing for Force Burst.
Yet, he couldn't get it working so far, but he'd only been trying for a few minutes.
Mainly, he didn't really feel like he could 'grasp' his life energy without an associated skill, at least not yet.
So, since it wasn't immediately getting anywhere, he finally admitted to himself that it could likely be, in part, due to him being rather distracted.
A blinking notification had been bothering him, and he had only been postponing it because he'd had other things he wanted to do.
It was time to see if he had been fortunate, and as it turned out, he was at least a little lucky as he accepted the experience.
Safe location detected:
Calculating and granting experience…
You killed
Zombie Ravager (Common), level 4 x 2
Zombie Ravager (Common), level 3 x 3
Zombie Ravager (Common), level 2 x 5
Zombie Corpse Crawler (Uncommon), Level 3 x 41
Undead Commoner (Common), Level 1
Reward:
Extra experience awarded for killing creatures above your level.
Some enemies defeated were two or more times the level of the victor.
Rapid kill bonus added for multi-kills of enemies above your level.
Experience earned increased accordingly.
All opponents were of a lower Rarity, experience reduced accordingly.
He felt the experience pour into his class, and it quickly hit the point that it was ready for a level up.
But the experience kept coming, now not going to his class.
Finally, as the influx was right near its end, Alex's Race reached the tipping point.
Alex felt himself grin broadly, thinking of all the creatures that he'd killed.
Then, he frowned. "Natasha?"
"Yeah?" She glanced his way, looking up from the book she was flipping though.
"How many zombies of each kind were in the women's locker room?"
They compared notes, and it seemed like the group had faced about the same number of enemies as Alex in their own locker room.
Five of them had split the experience, since non-leveled individuals couldn't get experience so they didn't take any. Thus, Matt and the other non-Initiates had been a pure benefit.
Even with that split, the group that had cleared the women's locker room were now each above level three.
No, Natasha is level three.
The others had hit four or five in their Race and Classes, even with getting Uncommon classes after fighting beside Natasha.
Common races, uncommon classes, all told, they'd level at a bit more than four times my rate.
And five of them had gotten a total of four levels each.
Throwing in some of the other clean-up work that had been required and even still, there had been in the neighborhood of twenty levels worth of experience. After that, Alex had even defeated fifty two extra zombies out on the street.
And he was now only getting one level in his class and one in his race.
Two level-ups instead of more than twenty…
Yeah, if anything, he should have gotten more than the roughly one and a half levels that he'd earned… he really hoped that he'd made the right choice, picking the slower-leveling class and not contesting the race with the same issue.
He sighed. It was what it was, and whining wouldn't change anything.
He'd known that he chose a slower leveling speed, and he still thought he'd made the right choice, but it was a bit nerve-wracking to come up against the results of that choice.
Nevertheless, he felt a smile pull at his lips as he said, "Alright, Accept Level Up."
Level Up:
Life-Aspected Warrior (Rare), F
Level 2 → Level 3
Life-Aspected Human (Rare), F
Level 2 → Level 3
Stats assigned.
Five Unused Points Available
Notice:
Racial bonuses will be added at the next Racial Level-up.
Racial Level-Up detected.
+4 to each Magical Stat for each Racial Level recognized
Adding stats.
Alex's eyes widened, and he gasped as power flowed through him from the System.
Natasha looked his way again, at the sound and smiled. "Ahh, got a Racial level?"
He tilted his head to the side in confusion, after the feeling passed. "How did you know?"
"Apparently, the first time you level your Race after unlocking your magical stats gives all the stat points you should have gotten up to that point."
Alex checked the description of his race once again, and sure enough the description had changed, it now simply said,
Stat Gains per Level
+4 all stats
Unused Points: +4
He looked at the rest of his Character sheet, his smile widening.
His mana pool had more than doubled as had his MP regeneration. It would still take him almost five hours to refill his Mana Pool from fully empty, but it was some improvement.
Class Notice:
Class Skill or Spell Choice
Alex felt his smile widen even further as he dove into the options. The first thing he noticed was that the five options he hadn't chosen were still there. Now, however, there were an additional three.
Class Notice:
Class Skill or Spell Choice
A Choice Must be Made:
Regrowth (Common) [Spell]
Heavy Strike (Common) [Skill]
Basic Life Chains (Common) [Spell]
Basic Health Manipulation (Common) [Skill]
Rage of a Great-Bladesman (Common) [Skill]
New:
Life's Sustenance (Uncommon) [Spell]
Life's Eyes (Common) [Skill]
Multi-Strike (Common) [Skill]
The previously offered skills and spells hadn't changed any. So, Alex started by focusing on the new ones.
Life's Sustenance seemed to be incredibly similar to Create Water and Create Rations, except it seemed to be enacted by touch?
He shook his head.
Even if that was more efficient, it would actually limit some of the utility those two spells offered, and it also gave Alex the feeling that the three would likely synergize and combine. Since he didn't want them to, that would be a waste of a possible combination.
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The result might be good—honestly, it would probably be great—but it dealt with an area that he just didn't have needs in at the moment.
Life's Eyes, similarly, seemed to have been offered because it would potentially synergize with his Detect Life spell.
I need time to read the Detect Unlife Spell book at some point soon.
The skill as it was presented offered him the ability to see any life in his field of view at no cost of MP. That was interesting as it would make it obvious if someone he saw moving around was undead or not, but it honestly felt a bit too niche for the current moment, and he had very firmly lodged in his mind that this was only a Tutorial, not his new normal.
Well, the System seems to be the new normal, the zombies aren't.
Reality was still waiting at the end of this madness. Reality with the System.
Finally, Multi-Strike felt like the System was responding to his most pervasive opponents.
He seemed to be fighting multiple lower powered—but still fast—enemies most often. That was something that his weapon could help him handle but not as easily as a lighter weapon might have.
His stats helped, and he was honestly doing pretty well, but it could be better.
His weapon had its own benefits, and he wouldn't trade it out even with all his current information, but it might be nice to have something that increased his multi-target damage.
That decided it, honestly.
"Accept Class Skill, Multi-Strike."
Choose skill variations:
Multi-Strike (Common)
OR
Force-Bursting Multi-Strike (Uncommon)
This comes from merging Force Burst (Uncommon), with the Class Skill Multi-Strike (Common)
Multi-Strike (Common)
Spend stamina to strike twice when you would have otherwise only struck once.
Alex blinked. That's… it? Huh. Well, let's take a look at the combined skill.
Force-Bursting Multi-Strike (Uncommon)
Spend stamina and mana to strike twice when you would have otherwise only struck once.
Each strike sends out a burst of Force Magic from your blade when it is deepest in the wound.
Alex blanched, immediately imagining how that would go.
<Alex, Imagining - The Disaster>
Alex struck zombie after zombie, always in pairs due to his newest ability.
Each zombie died from a single strike, no matter how powerful they were, their very bodies being ripped asunder by Force Magic.
He had no shortage of targets, but that was largely his own fault.
After all, when every zombie he killed rained zombie fluids over everyone nearby, the one thing he would never lack was more zombies to blow apart.
<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Gym>
He grimaced at the imagining of the horror such a skill would bring into this scenario.
True, it seemed awesome for most other circumstances, even if it would remove a tool from his arsenal, but in this Tutorial? Against zombies?
Yeah, no. It was a terrible choice.
"No, thank you! I'm not giving up Force Burst for something I can't use right now."
Natasha glanced his way, seemed to realize he was talking to himself, and went back to reading.
He nodded to himself. He was decided. "Accept Skill variation, Multi-Strike."
Notice:
Class Skill and Variant Selection
Decision Rating: Understandable. Likely wise.
Knowledge of how to use the new skill—how to move his own internal energies—came to his mind. This time it was his stamina that moved to activate the skill, extending out into the blade while being rooted in his arms, much like mana did as part of his Force Burst, but obviously in an entirely different manner.
He felt himself grin widely.
He now had two examples of how to move energy types outward, using his weapon as a medium for a skill or spell.
This should be easy.
It was not.
And just like that, the first three hours of the tutorial were complete.
I really hope the whole Tutorial isn't this packed…
<Nick Smith, Real - The Apocalypse, Earth?>
Nick tightened his grip on his bat one more time, fighting an internal battle within himself.
He could already hear utter chaos outside, which made the wise choice staying inside. But he could also hear the occasional screams for help, the sirens in the distance, and feel his own nagging conscience.
The last half-hour had been nuts, and he hadn't even left his apartment.
On reflex, he called up the 'System Notice' to reassure himself he wasn't remembering wrong.
System Notice:
Congratulations!
Your planet has been Initiated into the System.
Individual Quest [Proof of Worth]:
The world as you knew it is over.
Without society, without laws, without the niceties, who will you choose to be?
Survive for 24 hrs.
Reward:
Tutorial Entrance
Specifics based upon actions both before initialization and until the timer runs out.
Survive:
23 hrs 30 min
That was the question, wasn't it? Who was Nick? Who did he choose to be?
It was silly, but he felt a bit like, if some powerful System was going to be judging him, he might as well put on a good show.
Besides, if he was being honest, he'd always wanted to be able to gear up and go help those in need.
He wasn't some hero, but he could hear people screaming for help, even if only every couple of minutes.
He had been in his apartment on the fourth floor of his building, and now, he could see trees out of one of his windows, a teetering skyscraper out of another, and one interior wall had been replaced with a raw cliff-face.
He still chuckled at that. He'd never be able to afford an apartment with that fancy a feature.
He shook his head, fighting through his almost manic fear. It was time to act. He grabbed his doorhandle and steeled himself.
He pulled it open with a jerk and… nothing. He saw a mostly empty street.
Well, that was anticlimactic. Even though it's odd to be on at ground level now…
He strode out, taking a moment to zip up his coat against the chill, but as soon as he looked up from that act, he almost dropped his bat.
The world looked like someone had shuffled everything.
Some sections were only a dozen feet across, but many were as wide as city blocks.
There were a few shacks from what looked like an under-developed slum beside a garage that seemed to have come from some billionaire's mansion.
A part of an ancient forest seemed to be beside a part of a strip mall. Well, now that I think about it, that's actually pretty normal…
He saw movement down the fragmented street and spun, raising his bat.
One of his worst nightmares came into view, come to life… Spiders the size of house cats were leaping from parked car to parked car, seemingly orienting on something that he couldn't quite see.
He had a choice to make. He could run back inside—which was undoubtedly the wise choice—or he could at least see who was being chased. Maybe it was a big group, and he could join up with them and find even more safety that way.
Yeah… sure… That's what'll happen.
Before he could convince himself otherwise, he stepped out from behind the parked cars and looked down the quilt of various types of finished road—ranging from dirt and gravel to concrete and black-top.
He could now see that it was only four spiders, not that that was much better. Regardless, the four spiders seemed to be different varieties of spider, and when he saw a particularly bulbous body with a red hourglass on it, he almost ran for all he was worth. One did not fight a black widow the size of a chihuahua.
But then, he saw what they were all chasing.
There were ten people, five men with various clubs or other improvised weapons, two women… and three children, the oldest looked no older than seven, the youngest was two… if he understood children's ages right—which he probably didn't.
Even so, he felt something rise up within him.
He was not going to cower in his apartment while a spider as inflated as his ex's ego sucked the life from a kid less than a dozen yards away.
That, he could never live with.
So—with a deep breath more to keep himself from panicking than actually to calm down—he ran forward.
The group saw him coming, along with the bat in his hand, and they must have assumed that he was coming to help, because they swerved into a clearer part of the road, and the men turned around while the two women kept going.
The spiders were almost upon them when Nick ran up beside them, and his last thought was rather disjointed. Oh, that's just a really strong woman… neat.
Then he was swinging his bat for all he was worth.
It was surprisingly effective, alongside the five others.
It was also surprisingly… goopy.
A moment later, he was spitting out spider innards, followed closely by an uncontrollable vomiting.
He really, really shouldn't have yelled a battle cry as he swung at the first one.
A guy on the far side had been unlucky enough to be the target of the super-widow. It was dead now, but by the swelling and bursting blisters, the man wasn't far behind.
He was the only one whom they'd lost to kill the four spiders, but that was still an atrocious trade off.
Even through the bile that just kept coming, Nick saw the new notification.
Kill Notice:
You killed:
Giant Arachnid (Simple), Level 1
Reward:
Experience to be granted when the Tutorial begins.
System Note:
There will be no experience earned, nor penalties given, for any member of your own species killed during this phase of Initialization.
The surprisingly built woman offered Nick a hand up, and he took it. She pulled out a handkerchief of all things, offering it to him.
He took it, wiped his face, spat out the last of the nastiness, and smiled in thanks. "Thank you. I'm Nick."
"Kamm. We should keep moving." She smiled slightly, waving off his attempt to hand back the cloth. "Keep it. Thanks for the help." Her smile dropped as she glanced toward the member of her group who was dying in agony.
One of the other men straightened his back, walked forward, and brought his wood-ax down on the suffering man's head, ending his life with that simple motion.
Nick wretched again but kept it down this time. "Yeah… We should find somewhere safe. My apartment's right there, but…"
As they turned to look, they saw that it looked like his apartment had somehow been ripped out of his building in isolation. It was now sitting at the base of a cliff all on its own.
"But it doesn't look like it would actually be much better than out here."
Kamm nodded. "Yeah, plus, I assume you got the experience notification? We're going to want to get as much of that as we can, mark my words."
They all began moving over to where the two other women and three kids were huddled. Nick smiled in return. "Yeah… Yeah. Let's see what we can do."
He glanced at the System quest once more. Maybe this is who I want to be.
Individual Quest [Proof of Worth]:
The world as you knew it is over.
Without society, without laws, without the niceties, who will you choose to be?
Survive for 24 hrs.
Survive:
23 hrs 17 min