NOVEL NEXT Chapter 33: Finally, Sleep
<Alex, Real - Secure, High School Gym>
Alex was almost done with his book, but someone—Natasha—had shaken him from his heightened focus.
The informational book was much much larger and more detailed than the skill book had been, but even so, he was nearly three-quarters of the way through it.
Oops… I was only going to read the introduction…
As he lifted his head, he swayed slightly, feeling utterly spent. "Wha—?"
Natasha looked exasperated. "We've been calling you."
He looked around, feeling bleary. There was a plate of food beside him, untouched.
When did that get there?
It didn't really matter as his eyes locked on it, and he picked it up, ravenously devouring each bite as quickly as he could make room for it.
He checked his stamina and balked, even while continuing to stuff his face. He was down to around 5% remaining.
That can't be good.
Natasha shook her head. "Well, eat while we walk. It's been half an hour. Are you ready to plan our go-ahead?"
Half an hour? He frowned in confusion. Why… oh! Oh… He was supposed to have met with the other initiates after half an hour. "Oh, I'm sorry that I missed it. I—"
"You didn't. It's just time now. Like I said, I hope you're ready to help plan our go-ahead."
He blinked at her a few times, while continuing to shovel food down.
He hadn't missed it?
He glanced at the mostly finished, cookbook sized volume beside him.
The last of the food disappeared, and his smile grew. "Speed Reading is the best skill."
Natasha shook her head again, smiling this time. "Come on, they're waiting for us."
Alex got to his feet, storing the few things that had been around him. "Thank you for coming for me."
"Of course."
"Did you get anything good from the store?" he inquired as they began to walk toward the sideroom.
"Not too much, but yeah. I didn't have too many points, but there were quite a few interesting things."
"Yeah, I definitely wished that I'd had more. Some of the Rare skills looked really interesting."
She glanced at him. "Those were like… a million merits."
"I know, I know. That was more than twice what I could spend but—"
She placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "Wait, more than twice? How many points did you have?"
"Just over four hundred thousand. What about you?" he asked, feeling a bit defensive. Had she gotten more? He thought he'd done very well, all things considered.
"Just about thirty thousand, and I had the most of all the others. My personal quest was to help ensure we had enough food for those in our base. I got a multiplier for everyone in the base, because we still had enough food. Apparently, 'enough food' meant that they could eat when they wanted until the timer ran out. I'd assumed it meant for a protracted period of time, or I'd have been more interested in increasing those we had in here." She gave him a hard look. "How did you get more?"
He briefly explained the odd back and forth between the tutorial quest and the System seemingly penalizing… someone for lackluster rewards.
Natasha finally sighed. "I guess that's all above our heads."
"Yeah, just a bit."
At that point, they reached the room, and it was planning time.
The food had helped some, but he was still at less than 10% stamina.
He needed to sleep soon.
Glancing into his inventory, he was reminded that he needed to fix his sword, too.
I can do that during the meeting.
Greetings were exchanged around the group, and Alex pulled out a stool to sit on.
Everyone glanced his way, a few smiling.
Natasha followed suit, as did Kaylee and James.
The rest grimaced.
Alex considered. "Do you all want seats? I grabbed some folding stools from a classroom we were evacuating. I think that's where the others got them, too."
Lenka accepted—she hadn't had the opportunity to grab a stool that would fit in her now smaller inventory. The rest did so as well a moment later, thanking him for the use of the stools.
"Oh, you can keep them. I don't have so much room now that I can carry a stack of the things about."
That brought smiles to their faces, and they each thanked him once again.
He then pulled out his dadao and laid it across his legs, beginning to dump mana and health into it to fix the chip out of the edge from the flesh golem as well as the other internal issues that had begun to crop up within the metal once again.
There was a moment of slightly awkward silence, and Alex sighed internally. No one else was willing to lead the meeting… I can do two things. This will be fine.
He kept a large focus on his sword and the work happening there-in, and let himself fall into his standard facilitatory role, "Alright, let's get this started." He smiled around. "I was able to get several informational tomes about skills, classes, races, and attributes. Once I've read through them, I'm happy to lend them around so long as I get them back in the end. The store said they were customized to me, so you'll just need to be aware that there are apparently different ways to accomplish these things, and some won't work for everyone."
That caused some interested murmurs. That was good. He hoped that the informational tomes could help more than just him. Speaking of which…
He also glanced toward Lenka. "I also picked up something that might be of some interest to you, Lenka. It's to do with permanent magical effects, and it's a doozy."
Her eyes widened, and she nodded. "That would be really helpful. Yeah. I'll look forward to it."
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Alex smiled. "Alright. Did anyone else get anything that would be useful for everyone? Or anything that greatly changes what you can do?"
They went around, and some had gotten small tools or other useful odds and ends, but most people hadn't gotten very much in this initial cycle. The biggest upgrade came in what James had picked up.
It was a knife of de-animation. The weapon specifically would break down the magics that reanimated undead, and could even make golems and elementals suffer damage, but the greater benefit came from his ability to create knives expanding to be able to create temporary duplicates of that magical one.
It was incredibly expensive, and they would only last a few seconds, but that was plenty for him to throw them instead of the original. It wasn't even that great of a change of the skill he had acquired, because it was, at its base, a replication skill rather than a 'create from nothing' skill. In this case, that benefited him greatly.
There was a round of happy congratulations that Alex let run their course before he brought their focus back to the purpose of the meeting, "Alright, then. I assume we all know that the next quest is an untimed one."
Nods all around.
"So, Kaylee, any thoughts on what our go-forward should be?"
Kaylee smiled, "Well, the obvious first step is to clear the school and secure the main entrance more permanently. We still have just under nine hours before the magical seal runs out of juice. We'll still have the metal security cage, but there are probably things that can get through that with relative ease."
Alex nodded emphatically, and Lenka spoke up. "Yeah, we saw a flesh golem thing. It would tear anything like that like an over-sugared child through wrapping paper on their presents."
Alex suppressed a smile. The System seemed to have gone a little overboard on that random translation of something it deemed in need of censoring.
Kaylee was frowning. "Lenka, where did you see the golem? Should we be watching for it to come back around?"
Lenka shook her head. "Alex killed it."
All eyes turned to Alex yet again. He sighed, but nodded. "Yeah, it was… awful. Anti-magical to a large extent, and it had a mind-affecting something surrounding it, which made it seem even more horrifying than it was to begin with. If you encounter one, run. If I had encountered one with any other threat nearby, I would have lost and badly." He pointed over to the corner where the bones were piled. No one seemed willing to go anywhere near them. He needed to put as many as he could into his inventory, soon. "That's what's left."
"That's good to know." Kaylee did not look happy at all. "With the plague witch that John killed, it seems like there are some nasty enemies still in the school, at least potentially."
There was a round of agreement.
She then followed up with the obvious next question, "So, when do we clear out the school?"
There was silence.
Alex sighed internally again. This is always the way of things. No one wants to put forward an idea or timeline for fear it will be shot down.
He cleared his throat. "How about we try to get some sleep, and tackle it in five hours or so?"
There was some pushback, but that got the discussion started.
<Grant, Real - Secure, High School Gym>
Grant considered his own choice of purchases even as the others began to discuss Alex's proposed time of action.
He, himself, didn't honestly care much when they went. He would love some sleep, but he felt fairly amazing, considering.
Don't think about it. It'll be fine… This whole thing was so counter to how his life had been that it still felt unreal, like a dream that wouldn't end and kept threatening to become a nightmare.
But before he could let that foment within him, he focused on his new acquisitions.
He had gotten a single heal potion, thinking that it would be a good last ditch means of surviving along with the potion of cure magical disease that he already had, but that wasn't what had him really excited.
Even now, he wore a pair of magical gloves with an incredibly simple effect: They would grip anything he wished to hold for as long as he had stamina.
There were warnings about the material strength of what he gripped, and how his gloves could easily shear off the top layer, thus spoiling his grip even while the magics still did exactly what they said they would, but that didn't bother him.
With his increased strength, he was becoming able to swing his sledge-like hammer with enough force that he was a bit concerned about losing his grip on the weapon in unideal conditions, such as the weapon being covered in viscera from zombies, or rain, or even just his own sweat and blood if things went less than well.
They had cost him all of the points he'd had left after the one health potion, but he considered the merits well-spent.
But he was losing the thread of the conversation, and he returned his attention to the other Initiates.
They had a school to clear out, after all, and if he was to follow his own quest, he needed to keep the building and facilities as intact as possible.
Let's see if we can make some arrangements.
<Watcher, Apology Tutorial #486 Control and Observation Room>
The Watcher could hardly contain her glee at Alex's choices.
Sure, there were things that would have hurt her jerk of a Supervisor more in the moment, but those that he'd picked up had a chance to really pay off. After all, this first scenario was another thirty days long, and Alex would have enough downtime to go through them all in detail, especially with his auspicious acquisition of the Speed Reading skill.
She knew that wherever the Supervisor was, he would be very unhappy.
I wonder if I can use some of my payout at the end of my contract to buy his real name… I do not want to accidently cross paths with him in the future…
The System's Upper Store was filled with all sorts of things that mere mortals like her wouldn't even think to ask for, and if they did, they'd be far too expensive to reasonably consider.
The Watcher, however, would have a very nice payout in merits if things continued as they seemed to be going.
In a few centuries, I'll be able to truly step on the road to the top.
She watched as the few remaining Initiates did what they could with their purchases, striving to establish safe havens per the newest quest. Little did they know, that would be more important that it seemed.
Alex wasn't the only interesting Initiate, but he was the one doing the most for her at the moment, even if only indirectly.
No one messes with my creations and gets away with it. Nobody.
<Alex, Real - Secure, High School Gym>
Alex was so glad that that little meeting was done.
They settled on going into the school in force in four hours' time.
With that decided, they broke up the meeting so that those not on watch could grab some sleep.
Through their roughly ten minute talk, Alex had managed to completely empty his mana pool, which taught him something.
Having no mana made his head hurt.
Also, by spending just more than three hundred mana, he funneled way more of his own health than he probably should have into his dadao, managing to repair it fully.
Thankfully, he didn't have any lingering injuries, and so, with his incredible rate of HP regeneration, he had the health to spare.
He only got feedback that it couldn't take any more after he tried to continue with the little mana he was regenerating.
He staggered out of the meeting and found Matt Adams, "Master Adams, I'm going to grab some sleep, but would you be up for me grabbing you in a few hours to get some pointers?"
Matt smiled in return. "Of course, Alex. It's a madhouse out there, and I think I'm only safe in here because of you. My family too." He pointed to his wife and son on the other side of the gym. "Thank you."
Alex just smiled.
"I'll be sleeping over there, just wake me when you're ready."
Alex nodded, stumbling back to the side room where he found his tightly compacted mattress. He'd rolled it up, much like those come-in-a-box beds, with the help of his previously enlarged Inventory.
When he freed the velcro strap, it popped out, landing with a whoomp.
He fell atop the sheets that were still on the mattress and pulled up his character sheet to check his progress even as he drifted off to sleep.
Character Sheet:
Alex Johnson
Life-Aspected Human (Rare), F, Level 3
Class: Life-Aspected Warrior (Rare), F, Level 3
Class 2: NA
HP: 1170/1170
SP: 42/640
MP: 10/560
Physical Stats:
Power: 27
Agility: 41
Fortitude: 39
Mental Stats:
Power: 22
Agility: 41
Fortitude: 25
Magical Stats:
Power: 28
Agility: 23
Fortitude: 26
Unused Points: 0
Attributes:
Blood:
Life Finds a Way (Unique)
General Skills:
Great-Blades Basics - Dadao (Common)
Advanced Kinesthetics (Common)
Inventory (Common)
Team Sense, Temp
Analyze (Common)
Danger Sense (Common)
Basic Mana Sense (Common)
Basic Mana Manipulation (Common)
Basic Carving (Simple)
Speed Reading (Common)
Spells:
Force Burst (Uncommon)
Create Rations (Common)
Create Water (Common)
Detect Life (Uncommon)
Detect Unlife (Common)
Basic Small Force Blade (Common)
Class Skills and Spells:
Life's Active Defense (Uncommon)
Multi-Strike (Common)
Basic Life Transfusion (Common)
Class Bonuses:
All Life-Aspected Spells cost 25% less to cast.
Your Life-Aspected Spells' effects occur 25% faster.
Your HP is calculated at Racial Base + 10 x Physical fortitude.
Your MP is calculated at 20 x Magical Power.
Your effective Physical Power is 25% greater for physical attack and defense.
You take 25% less damage from Physical attacks when you are armed with a great blade and unrestrained.