Sponsored Apocalypse 2: A LitRPG Adventure, page 25
My bloody spear in hand, I looked at his handiwork, he looked back, and we gave each other a nod before running off. It was getting close to the time where I figured we should spend some advancement points before we headed any further. Even with my crazy current Endurance stat, I was starting to get tired. I could definitely use a break. Tom looked the same, and when he pointed at a distant part of town, a strip mall that actually blessedly looked empty, I nodded in return.
I had no idea how many advancement points I’d racked up by now, but it was time to use them.
THIRTY-FOUR
The sounds of combat outside were growing louder, and I glanced quickly at Tom to see if he was reacting. But the sometimes-frustrating man just sat with his back against the wall of the bookstore we were taking shelter in, his eyes unfocused. He had a slight frown. I was starting to realize that many people had different expressions or mannerisms when they were in their menus.
As I adjusted how I was sitting, I glanced around where we were hiding. At weird moments, I could notice the strangest things.
We’d only been in this bookstore for a few minutes. Most of the stores in town were damaged—the glass broken out or the doors ripped off their hinges. In this case, the door was gone. However, it was obvious that monsters had barely been in this place, likely on account of fewer potential victims or nothing to eat or loot. Like many stupid humans before the end of the world, monsters didn’t seem to care about books.
Tom and I had snuck in with the express purpose of spending our advancement points. The monsters we were encountering were getting more powerful the deeper we got into town. Not only that, it seemed that quite a few of them had been either slumbering or in some sort of…stasis state prior to the attack. My working theory was that the system had done it, shut them down. It’s the only thing that made sense, and it could be because most of the more powerful monsters rampaging around the countryside would have been too much to handle for anybody but me, Aldina, Tom, and Samuel.
Ben was getting powerful, too, but he was a glass cannon. If somehow he could sit back and shoot things, he was extremely dangerous. But if any monster managed to close with him, he’d be dead meat.
In fact, that probably described quite a few of the more powerful fighters from town other than the so-called “Four Heavenly Kings.”
The noises outside were definitely getting louder; I was sure of it now. There were screams, yells, gunshots, and explosions, all of them still relatively distant, but they were getting closer. I had the feeling that what had been just Tom and me carving a path through town was going to become a mass melee soon. Before we ran into that sort of chaos, it was definitely a good move to use the advancement points we’d gotten.
I opened up my menus and looked at my notifications. Holy crap!
It sure didn’t feel like I’d been fighting all that long, and the higher level I got, the harder it was to get new advancement points. But I’d already leveled up fifteen times!
I had a total of sixteen advancement points. Another system message read:
Congratulations!
You are now over Level 75!
New skills and abilities have been opened in the menus to purchase!
That was definitely a new one. Even Aldina had never mentioned anything about that.
There was also:
Congratulations!
You are one of the first 3% of your world to achieve level 75!
Title: First Three to Seventy Five
Reward: Single time use boon: Seal of the Unforgiven.
Seal of the Unforgiven is a one-time use ability that allows the purchase of any system with no limitations, if applicable. Prerequisites will not apply. Use it wisely.
To say I was shocked would be an understatement. The implications of the title and the award were both staggering. I decided that I would save it until level one hundred, just in case there was some other milestone that I didn’t know about.
Based on what Aldina had told me, I believed that she was already over level one hundred. I had no illusions about my leveling ability itself—I was doing well, but I’d definitely gotten help. But Aldina, while being a regressor, was probably not the only talented individual in the world. It was a big world, too. I had to assume that there were other exceptional people out there just like her, and three percent was not a lot. Of course, like before, I didn’t know what that “five percent” actually was, but I could guess that it was not three percent of the original world’s population.
In addition to the other notifications, I saw one last one that stood out. It was another notification about some of standard skills being rolled up into umbrella categories. At first, I didn’t understand why, but then I realized that over the course of my swath of carnage through town with Tom, I had actually picked up and used a number of objects as weapons. On top of that, I’d been fighting in more unpredictable and unconventional ways, especially due to my [Superior Ghost Frog Leap] skill.
Before I had acquired my last few skills and abilities, I’d been trending into more of a one-trick pony, using the same abilities and attacks. But now, in addition to the offensive capabilities I had before and my extremely strong defense, I was building up a decent number of utility skills as well. I was also just…learning to fight better through experience.
Honestly, I was lucky that I already had quite a few skills, like martial arts, before the end of the world even happened. However, they’d all been untested, unpolished. But now, I’d been through dozens, maybe hundreds, of life-and-death battles.
Things I used to think about consciously, I just did now, out of muscle memory. In hindsight, it wasn’t a surprise that my system skills had changed to reflect that. I truly had saved an absolute buttload of advancement points by not needing to purchase combat abilities. The significant head start with actual advancement points I’d gotten hadn’t hurt, either, nor had my resulting extra stats.
I was beginning to realize that the extra stats I’d receive with powers had probably been as much because of the high-point cost for the sponsored menu purchases as the abilities itself. I theorized that some of the stat bonuses were given as a catch-all so that even somebody with terrible stats wouldn’t end up actually hurting themselves by buying any particular skill. It was the most logical explanation that I could come up with. Otherwise, buying from the special, sponsored menu items would be completely unfair, gambling or not. And I believed Aldina when she’d said that this world was technically a “good” world.
Thinking about Aldina again, I briefly looked around and realized that we were in a secondhand bookstore. Maybe before Tom and I left, I could check to see if any of the fantasy books she’d claimed could teach real magic were here.
I shook my head, focusing, and got back to my advancement. My eyes flickered as I looked through my menus. Sixteen points. Sixteen points was not the most I’d ever had, but I felt like this was a turning point for my system-related decisions for my future, or what Aldina had called my “build.” I had to really give some thought about what I could do best, where I was lacking, and what fighting style worked for me.
Ultimately, probably my most powerful ability was [Built Different]. Ever since the monsters had arrived on Earth, [Built Different] just allowed me to react to things with more freedom, safety, and speed than I otherwise could. It also meant that even without armor, I wouldn’t fear cuts or stab wounds nearly as much as the average person. My greatest vulnerability was broken bones, crushed organs, and that sort of damage. I’d gotten several relevant abilities to help prevent damage like that. But now that I had an entirely new set of skill menus to purchase from after hitting level seventy-five, I was blown away by my choices.
Part of me still wanted to use my points for stats or maybe offensive skills, but I had to remind myself that just like [Superior Ghost Frog Leap], skills and abilities that allowed me to avoid damage were worth their weight in gold. Samuel was a prime example of that. Without his ability to teleport between instances of smoke or use smoke to cloak himself or protect himself, Samuel would probably be a relatively low-level fighter. His hand abilities were cool, but he had a hard time dealing with large monsters by himself. It would even sometimes take him a while using his claws to bring one down. He had to rely on targeting weak points and bleeding out monsters until they slowed or died that way. His smoke-related attack abilities were strong, but he couldn’t use them very often.
But still, Samuel was legitimately one of the Four Heavenly Kings. He just had the lowest damage output.
I decided to focus more on my defense. I had already decided before not to let my relatively high armor level lull me into a sense of false security. So what I was about to do was just an extension of that. Trying to hurry, but still very conscious of how important my decision was, I pored over the menus, and finally, gritting my teeth, I decided on “Malleable Organs.” The ability was only possible due to a number of prerequisites I’d already bought. It actually stood out as being a high-level ability with prerequisites. The ability read:
Malleable Organs: When you are hit, your body does not react like others. A dent in the armor might kill another person, but for you, it would just be uncomfortable, at least temporarily. Blunt weapons are drastically less effective, and your limbs can slightly lengthen or shorten depending on the situation. However, beware, you are still vulnerable to being cut or punctured.
Once I chose [Malleable Organs], pain wrapped my entire body, but not the shooting pains or the headaches I’d experienced before. Instead, it felt like worms were wriggling under my skin and I was being bitten all over my body by ants or maybe stung by wasps. The feeling was intensely uncomfortable, but I gritted my teeth and endured. Finally, after only moments but what had felt like a lifetime, the sensation stopped.
I presumed that I had been changed, although I didn’t actually physically feel any different. There was no way to test my new body, and I wasn’t too interested in it anyway. After all, in just a few minutes, I was going to be right back into combat, and I was sure that my new ability’s power could be obvious after that. Or not. But so far, going with my gut for all of my choices had kept me alive. I didn’t know if my build was “optimized” or whatever Aldina might say. But by my reckoning, being alive and also being one of the Four Heavenly Kings definitely meant I might be onto something.
Now I only had six points left. There were definitely a number of skills and abilities that I could buy, including one that even allowed me to generate fire on my hand and spread it to my weapon, called “Blazing Digital Manifestation.” That ability sounded super cool, but I remembered Samuel and how cool his hands were but how much less killing power he had than I did. I also thought about using the points to raise one or two of my stats. However, after going back into my menus and browsing new ones that I hadn’t seen before, I found something that captured all of my attention: “Dark Contractor Combat.” It cost five points and had a prerequisite of being the Dark Contractor class. I blinked at that.
Based on my understanding of the system, if I had overlapping skills already that the “Dark Contractor Combat” would offer, it would be cheaper in the menus. Five points was not cheap nor expensive. I suspect that this entry would have cost more in the past if I could have seen it. Without giving myself a chance to second-guess the decision, I chose “Dark Contractor Combat,” the first skill or ability that had a class prerequisite.
My head suddenly burst into pain, feeling like fireworks were exploding behind my eyes. However, the pain didn’t start there. It worked its way down my spine all the way to my tailbone. In a moment of strange madness, I wondered if it was going to make me piss myself. But then the feeling was gone. And unlike the ten-point ability I just bought before this, my body felt massively different.
If I had to explain it, I’d say there was a much deeper, stronger connection between my body and my mind now. Other than the Rathi language, this was the first knowledge-based ability. However, now that I’d bought it, I was able to actually read what it was for:
[Dark Contractor Combat]: A mysterious martial art created by and taught to Dark Contractors by other Dark Contractors. Dark Contractor Combat allows the Dark Contractor to use their summons as an extension of themselves in their fighting styles and more clearly recognize weaknesses in enemies.
“That’s it?” I whispered. I blinked a few more times at the screen in front of me before pulling out of the tooltip and looking at my entire stats. I soundlessly whistled. I checked my new, updated character sheet:
Miles Lindstrom
Title(s):
First Ten to Five
First Five to Ten
First Transcendents
Challenge Room Champion
Champion of Anubis
Goblin Vanquisher
Xenocide
Manslayer
First Three to Seventy Five
Level 84
Class: Dark Contractor
Traits:
Merciless Xenocide: Poison
Stats:
Str: 9
Dex: 7
End: 12
Int: 7
Will: 11
Origina: 4
Luck: 6
Reflex: 7
Armor (nat): 1
Available Advancement Points: 1
Evolution Points: 0
Affiliations:
Sponsored by Anubis
Associated Sponsor Titles: New Champion
Boons:
Eternal Struggle Reward System
Seal of the Unforgiven (One time use)
Class Skills:: Entity Domination
Sense Summons
Summons:
[Goblin Spirit Summon]
Prime Skills:
Tsukumogami Embrace
Spirits of the Past
Built Different
First to Five Eyes
Superior Ghost Frog Leap
Malleable Organs
Lower Prime Skills:
Known Enemy Ambush Prevention
Bone Strengthening
Elastic Joints
Natural Armor
Basic Magic Resistance
Lower Mystic Mind Armor
Spongy Organs
Lindstrom Recall (3/3)
--Hammer
--Flag Pole
--Bayonet
Stalwartization (4/4)
Active Skills:
Saliva of Hared Ha
Bone Truth Eyes
Basic Enchanted Sleep
Pulverizing Pebbles
Angry Arrows
Transfiguration: Alcohol to Water
Toxic Breath of Hellas Portentis
Ghost Frog Hunker
Equipment-Related Skills:
Better Days Auto Whisk
Beaded Benediction of Delayed Solace
Private Malone’s Last Stand
Weeping Island’s Resolve
Passionate Earth Mover
Sparky’s Lucky Nail
Tuning Fork of the Forgotten Composer
Bent Crowbar of Ben the Scavenger
Heavily Borrowed Land Nav Compass
Jojo’s Scavenging Chain
Colt Family Foundation Flagpole
Enchanted Equipment:
Iron Bracelet of the Weeping Island
Skills:
Dark Contractor Combat
I had truly come a long way. If the me now could go back in time a week or two, I would be like a demigod in the old world, Earth without monsters. It wasn’t a humble thought, but I was also sure that I was right. Everything had been so fast-paced since the monsters had come that there hadn’t been much time to reflect on the fact that I could get through doors in a heartbeat these days and also have the strength to batter one down without any tools. Or, if that didn’t work, just blow most doors of their hinges using nothing more than a rock. Well, maybe not just a rock. I would probably need a larger chunk of metal or something. But [Angry Arrows] just kept growing more and more potent.
With a sense of wonder, I shook my head and closed all my menus. Then I got up to check the bookstore for any copies of the mysterious book Aldina had claimed could turn a regular person into a mage.
THIRTY-FIVE
Before we left the bookshop, I asked Tom, “What did you spend your advancement points on?”
“Well, the usual, really. I focused on improving my reflexes and durability, like making my skin stronger. I should probably focus on some other things now. I feel like I’m becoming sort of a one-trick pony.
“But on the first day after, you know, everything, I saw somebody shoot someone.” His expression grew withdrawn. “It affected me, you know? It feels like sometimes, even when I’m fighting monsters, I can still see that scene where the one man killed the other. They’re probably both long dead now.” He shook his head ruefully. “What about you?”
“Well, I made myself tougher, too, but I also got a combat skill.”
“Oh, really? For what?”
“My class.”
Tom’s eyes widened. “You can get combat skills for classes?”
“It’s new to me, too,” I said. “I don’t know if it’s only because I’m above level seventy-five now that I saw it, or something else.”
“No, I don’t think the level has anything to do with it,” said Tom.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I’ve been over seventy-five for a while now.”
“Are you kidding me right now?!”
“Nope. One hundred percent serious.”
Whatever remaining illusions I had that I was special, at least when it came to my aptitude for leveling, were dying on the vine. I had a feeling that my initial impression that I was at the very bottom of the list for making the first three percent to level seventy-five could definitely be true.
Outside the bookshop, roars, growls, and sounds of combat grew even louder. Suddenly, the entire building shook as something large nearby either exploded or toppled over.
“Well, we’re all leveled up now, I guess,” I said. “Probably should get back to it. You know. Fighting and stuff.” I shrugged.
