Fall of the Black Seraph: The Complete Genesis Game Collection, page 62
Luca looked around, unsure of where the shower was or how to proceed. In irritation, Tatiana grabbed him by the arm and shoved him towards the door near the back of the room where the shower was. "It’s right there. I’ll see you downstairs in ten. If I have to come and get you, you’ll have hell to pay. You’ve already pissed me off." Without saying another word, she turned and walked out of the room, leaving Luca more confused than anything.
Knowing better than to waste time, Luca started the shower, enjoying the hot water rolling over his face as he took a bar of soap and vigorously scrubbed at his skin. It made his stomach cringe when he saw a steady stream of black, brown, and red roll off of him, the collected filth and grime from the last few days. Filth he hadn’t even been aware of. I needed this badly. But I didn’t notice the dirt on me. Do I have some kind of glamour on? It was a question he pushed aside for another time. For now, he was just thankful for the hot water and soap.
Luca leaned forward, bracing himself against the wall of the shower as he let himself enjoy the water and zoned out. For how long, he wasn’t sure, and in a moment of panic, Luca realized he had lost track of time. Luca had a moment of panic, not knowing how much time had elapsed. Now is not the time to make a bad impression. I need these people. Why do I do this to myself? he thought as he turned off the water and rushed out of the shower, not bothering to dry himself as he put on the uniform Tatiana had left for him.
He was pleasantly surprised by how well it fit him and how comfortable it felt. Black cargo pants with leather reinforcement on the bony prominences, a grey Henley, and a crimson overcoat with inlaid metal fibers for protection. The end of the overcoat had a hood he could pull down towards his eyes to obscure his identity and offer additional protection by acting as a helmet.
Both the henley and the crimson overcoat had two measured elastic slits that easily let him slip his wings through. A minor enchantment seemed to be on them because Luca felt the material comfortably cinch down tight once the wings were through. When the entire set was on, he felt a brief surge of power as it inlaid an additional effect on his body, a slight arcane glow.
Notification: Complete Item Set "Crow Uniform"
Details: The uniform of the Crows is comprised of three parts. If all three are worn together, they will create a persistent shield that will block one offensive spell against the wearer once daily. Additionally, when the hood of the uniform is worn, the user cannot be differentiated by looks from other members also using the hood.
Maybe I should take a second look, Luca thought as he approached the mirror. For a brief moment, he had almost panicked, wondering how somebody else got into the room. When he realized it was just his own reflection, it didn’t help him to breathe any easier. What he saw in his reflection was worse than he thought. He couldn’t do anything but doubt that he was even himself anymore.
The unfamiliarity of his own image made him uncomfortable, scared even. It made everything he was going through and had been through already seem less real. He wasn’t a kid anymore, not even a little bit. Rough stubble grew on his chin. He looked every bit the part a 17-year-old man. He wondered as his thoughts grew dark, just who am I?
Knowing he was short on time, Luca turned away from his reflection and went to leave the guest quarters. He took one last look around the room to make sure he wasn’t missing anything, not wanting to leave anything behind. Luca was grateful he took the extra time to give it a second look as he saw the rough leather string of a medallion his mother had given him partially sticking out from under the pile of disgusting clothes he would never wear again.
Luca grabbed the medallion and shoved it into his pocket before running out the door downstairs toward the rec area where the rest of the team was waiting. "Yeah, I’m definitely late," he muttered to himself with a bit of worry, thinking about the angry woman who had charged into his room.
Luca ran as fast as he could, hustled as some might have called it down the stairs. The entire time he was in the view of most of his new guildmates and his new team. Dominic’s new heavy hitter, awkwardly rushing on his first day, late to his first hit time. Luca saw a monstrous-looking man with a wide grin on his face staring right at him, doing a slow clap. The man’s face was severely scarred. Half of the man’s face was a mess of scar tissue. A permanent hue of angry red and purple, appearing as if half of it had been torn off, thrown in a fire, and then reattached.
"Well, there he is. Told you all he’d be late," said Tatiana, standing up from her seat as she put out the palm of her hands upwards just like an usher would as she beckoned him over. "The man of the hour himself. I hope you slept well, sweetheart, because that’s the last time you sleep so good for months."
Next to her, the scarred man laughed, and a pale-looking man with long, thin grey hair who wore glasses shifted nervously. Even as a girl with red short-cropped hair like a boy who looked roughly the same age as he now appeared to be snickered. Luca noticed they wore the same uniform he was wearing, the same uniform Tatiana was wearing. Luca didn’t see anyone else at the table. This might be the whole team. Luca groaned, recognizing this was not going to go well for him.
"Newbie, you’re gonna need to work on making all your complaints via inner monologue. That’s the last time any of us want to hear you groan. Everybody is having a shit time down here, but nobody wants to be around a downer. This life is hard enough as it is," said the girl, gritting her teeth, already irritated with the newest member of their team.
"Well said, Steele," agreed the scarred man, sizing up Luca with a look of disinterest. Though the man saw Luca’s wings, he considered them more of a commodity than anything else. His assessment of Luca found nothing but shortcomings and fault in the kid.
"Enough of that. The kid is going to have to pay his dues later. I’m running behind as it is," barked Tatiana, holding up her hands to silence the group. "Normally we’d train you up with us, let you leach a bit of our experience to get stronger, but only after making sure you know how to fight and wield a weapon, but Dominic wants you out in the field with us today, and he’s the boss, so that’s what we’re doing.
"So, quick introductions, everybody, this is Luca, but when we’re in the field and outside of this Guild Hall, it’s going to be Seraph. You know, ‘cause of the wings," explained Tatiana, pointing at each one of the members of the team, commanding them with just a pointed finger to identify themselves.
"I’ll go first," said the scarred man with a grunt. "I’m 2Face, the team’s primary damage dealer. Take note, this face of mine is why you don’t min-max your stats. I tried to go all speed and tore off part of my face from whiplash. The dungeon heals most damage, but only enough so you can fight again, and to my left is Mother."
"I can introduce myself. Thank you," interjected the man with the glasses, trying to appear as if he was equal on the team to 2Face. "I’m Santiago, but everyone around here calls me Mother."
"It’s not because of his nurturing nature if you were wondering," interjected 2Face with a grin.
"And I’m Steele," said the girl, holding out her hand to shake his. Luca wasn’t sure what to make of her with a name like that. "And yes, I’m a girl. I just liked how it sounded. I’m the team’s tank. I draw attention from the monsters and whatever else we might go up against so the rest of you can kill whatever wants to try and kill us."
"Great. That was mostly painless," chimed in Tatiana as she clapped her hands together, ending the introductions. "Now that everyone has introduced themselves let me lay down the ground rules before we head out to the Phoenix Refuge. I don’t care what Dominic says about you being a heavy hitter. Mother is the only healer in the guild and one of the only healers in all of Hometown. He's more important to all of us than you are. If we need to abandon you to keep him alive, I will gladly do that. Aside from that, stay near me, and you should be fine."
Chapter 17: Rendezvous at the Gate
"So, what now?" Luca asked, looking towards his new teammates for guidance. The last thing Luca wanted to do was a repeat of the march through town to reach the gateways that led to the other dungeon floors. Yesterday's memory of the hostile elves pelting him and the group with rocks was fresh in his mind. He didn’t want a repeat.
Tatiana looked at Luca without saying anything before she turned and looked at 2Face. With a slight nod of her head, 2Face stood up and reached into the pocket of his uniform and pulled out a heavy-looking, though basic steel maul. Cradling the weapon gently, almost reverently, 2Face walked over to Luca and handed it to the newest member of their party.
Holding the maul in his hand, Luca could only look with shock on his face wondering how the impossible had happened. He really just pulled this massive thing out of his pocket. Where did he even keep it? Luca examined the maul, wondering what the trick behind the magic was.
Seeing the look of shock on his face, the entire team started to laugh at Luca’s expense. The healer known as Mother took a little pity on Luca, turning to him when the laughing stopped in explanation. "It’s part of the magic of this place. Every pocket is a spatial pocket. Any pocket you have basically connects to as far as we can tell, an infinitely large personal inventory. All you have to do is think about what you want and reach in and grab it. The magic does the rest. It’s one of the few things I like about this place."
"That makes sense to me, but what am I supposed to do with this?" asked Luca, holding the heavy maul with both his hands. He was surprised that even though it felt like solid steel, it was noticeably lighter than he had expected, carrying it would be easy.
"You swing it obviously. What else would you do with it? It’s close enough to a bat or a club that you should be able to use it without hurting any of us seriously until we get a chance to train you up. This breaks our standard operating procedures, but it’s not my call," replied Mother to Luca as 2Face and Steele looked at each other, sharing a knowing smirk at the rookie's expense.
"That’s enough, you guys. Leave the noobie alone," interrupted Tatiana, slamming her hands down on the table. "Listen, Luca, can you swing that? If you can, show me."
Luca grabbed the maul with his hands, holding it like they had heavily hinted, holding it like a baseball bat. His dominant right hand positioned about a quarter of the way up the handle and his off-hand just above the base. Luca easily hefted it through the air, swinging it in a forward motion, sliding his dominant hand downwards to further propel the force. Too late, he realized he couldn’t stop it and smashed the maul into the floor.
The maul’s head hit the floor with a loud noise, breaking through the wooden planks that held it together, leaving a small jagged hole of splintered wood on the floor and a small crater underneath that. Every single person in the room turned to look at him with varying degrees of annoyance, irritation, and malicious joy. 2Face began to do another slow clap, a mocking grin on his face as one by one every single other person in the room joined in. Embarrassed by the attention, Luca didn’t know how to respond, his fair skin turning a bright shade of red in embarrassment.
"Jesus, kid, you sure love making trouble," said Tatiana, shaking her head in disbelief as she examined the hole. She turned to the crowd and motioned for them to settle down. "Just what exactly is your strength at anyways? That was almost impressive."
Luca hesitated, wanting to check to make sure before answering. "Status," he said as the prompt flashed before his eyes.
Name
Luca Fernandez
Race
Nephilim
Aliases
None
Class
Angel
of Death
Passives
None
Abilities
Summon Nightmare (1-1000)
Level
Current Unassigned Stat Points
0
1 of 999
Current Experience
0 of 35
STR
10
INT
10
AGI
10
WIS
10
LCK
10
PHY
2*
END
10
PER
10
SOL
*$0000
With a motion of his hand, Luca dismissed the prompt and answered. "My strength’s at 10."
Steele looked at him in disbelief as she narrowed her eyes in jealousy. "There's no way your strength is at 10 if you’re new. What's your level say? What about your PHY score, you know, physique?"
Luca responded bashfully, uncomfortable with the sudden attention on him, not wanting to be examined or treated differently by those around him, but knowing there was no use fighting it. It was something he was used to. "It says my level is 1 of 999, and my PHY is at 2."
"Jesus, man," said Mother, "Maybe you should be our tank then and replace Steele. That puts you at an effective strength of 20. That’s amazing. With your strength being boosted like it is, that makes you about as strong right now as a level ten. Might not seem like much, but not many here in the Dungeon live long enough to hit 10."
His face heavy with envy and pettiness, 2Face interrupted them to ask, "What's your total stats at, noobie? I’m level 31, and my total stats are at 62."
Luca realized that he had made a mistake in sharing his stats so freely. Whether he wanted to or not, he was going to be treated differently and like an anomaly. If his PHY score basically doubled his physical stats, then Luca realized he was about as strong as 2Face already was at level 31 and then had more after that. There would be repercussions. He needed to expect that. People didn’t like being challenged, and if they didn’t think they could fight him, the repercussions would come in different, harder to detect forms.
There were times when Luca struggled to know what to do. This wasn’t the time for doubt. The response to the question was easy enough. With only one real answer, Luca lied. "Only my strength is at 10. Everything else is set to 1." Most of the team relaxed visibly when they heard this, the budding resentment already fading, though 2Face remained agitated, something about the situation not sitting well with him.
"That’s enough chit chat. Somebody will be by soon enough to fix this floor, but let me tell you, rookie, the cost of the repairs is coming out of your share today and that’s if you get any. They're not exactly free with the money around here and the Dungeon doesn’t pay well," chastised Tatiana as she made hand movements for the group to finish up. "At the least, it looks like you can swing the hammer well enough to kill something.
"Mother, go ahead and head on downstairs and open the portal or save a spot if there is a weight," ordered Tatiana as she grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck and directed him towards the stairs. "As for the rest of you, once we get to the other side of the portal, be prepared for a fight as soon as we land."
"Um… is Mother going to link back up with us?" asked Luca, bewildered, wondering why the man wasn’t headed out the door towards the central plaza.
"Of course he is, don’t be stupid," replied Steele. "He’s just going downstairs to the guild gate. Belonging to a guild has its perks. One of those is having a gate right here in the building for us to use.”
Tatiana cleared her throat, impatient, and getting irritated that her team hadn’t started moving already. "We are heading out. The order will be Steele, Luca, 2Face, me, and then Mother."
With no further fanfare and without delay, they went down the flight of stairs, leading directly towards a sealed room where Mother was waiting, haggling with whoever the gatekeeper was. "We can go through at any time," he announced.
