Primer for the Apocalypse: Book One, page 7
Once again, I headed to the weapon trainers in the combat training field. While Enchanting was an important part of my future (and past) arsenal, I wanted to ensure I had the basics of fighting down without needing to rely on enchantments, just in case I couldn’t access them at first.
It was unlikely if things progressed the same way as before, but it wasn’t impossible.
Also, I needed to gain more funds before ‘learning’ Enchanting. Without the funds to purchase materials, I couldn’t do much with my skill, even if I did get it.
I set my quarterstaff and the small bag I’d purchased aside and approached the trainer I usually worked with.
“Duality! I’m glad to see you! I have another trainee in need of a sparring partner. What do you think?” He motioned toward the spear-wielding tank of a man wearing shoddy leather armor. Aside from the training spear, the man held a large wooden shield.
“I think the shield might be a bit much, but I can give it a try. Do you want me to use a quarterstaff or the spear?”
“Heh,” the trainer let out a huffed laugh. “Let’s have you stick with the staff for now. Don’t hold back too much, either of you,” he said, looking between us. “I have a healer close by to fix anything that gets broken. I’ll stop you before anyone gets seriously injured.”
I looked at my opponent. He was at least twice my size, with medium brown skin that contrasted nicely with the shock of messy white hair. The tips of his hair matched his dark blue eyes. The combination shouldn’t have worked, but it did.
Though I could see his name already, I used Identify to check the other player’s level.
[Ger Frost – level 2]
I was surprised to see he was at a lower level than me. Either he’d reset his character already, or he’d started the game recently. It was possible he’d just focused on training for an entire week, but I doubted that was the case.
Regardless, he might have invested his first six points into strength, so I wouldn’t underestimate him.
“Hi. I’m Duality,” I said after retrieving a training staff and quickly equipping a set of training armor.
The large man nodded. “I’m Ger,” he said, pronouncing it like the beginning of ‘Gerald.’ “You sure you’re okay with this?” he asked, motioning toward his much larger frame.
I smiled and gave him a quick nod. It was nice of him to ask, but we were there to train. Besides, I was almost certain I’d eventually fight much larger opponents. It was good practice.
We started slow, testing each other with probing strikes and gradually increasing the speed and strength of our blows. Neither of us had anything to prove, which was nice. It would have defeated the purpose of sparring if he’d immediately rushed in and tried to defeat me in one blow.
While there was a time for training like that, I didn’t feel it was what our trainer was going for when he matched us up, so I avoided going for debilitating strikes as well.
At least in the beginning.
After exchanging several careful strikes, Ger’s stance changed, and he lunged forward. It was clear my agility was higher than the other player’s, and I deftly avoided the strike before responding in kind, thrusting the end of my staff into his side where the armor provided weaker coverage.
He grunted, letting me know he’d felt the blow before twisting and bringing his spear around. It seemed like the white-haired man was having trouble fighting around his shield. It must have been a new addition to his training.
When the trainer called a halt to our spar, we were both carrying several bruises. I hadn’t bothered spending my mana to heal them since the trainer mentioned having healers. Still, since the injuries weren’t enough to warrant the healers’ attention, I quickly cast Heal on both of us.
“Thanks. That’s a lot faster than my Self Heal. Do you have a Life affinity?” Ger asked.
“No. I used Time. It just speeds up natural healing.”
“Still better than the general spell. That was a good fight. I was surprised you were able to put up a fight with nothing more than a large stick,” the large man said as he nodded toward the training staff in my hand.
“Yours is just a large stick with a pointy end,” I replied glibly. “How long have you been training with it?”
“Just since the game released. It’s supposed to be one of the easier weapons to learn, and someone had to be the tank for the party,” Ger shrugged.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate spells into melee,” I said as I wiped off the staff and placed it back on the rack. “What’s your affinity?”
“Crystal. It’s pretty useless,” the spearman said as he joined me by the rack. “That’s why I didn’t mind filling the tank role.”
I stared at him in surprise. “Crystal isn’t useless,” I said bluntly. “You could send crystal shards into your opponents from the tip of your spear or make crystal armor or a crystal shield. You could probably make an entire spear out of crystal if you found the right spell. Think about launching crystal spears at opponents! As you increase tiers, the crystal you make will probably get stronger, too.”
He considered my words. “I hadn’t thought about it that way. I guess I was just thinking of flashy spells. Maybe I’ll pick up a few more spells and try them out. Aside from Self-Heal, it’s not like I have anything else to use my mana on, and it doesn’t work very well. It’s supposed to increase Health regeneration, but it’s pretty slow.”
“It might improve if you keep using it,” I suggested.
“I’m hoping so. Not that I need it, necessarily. We have a dedicated Healer in our party to take care of most injuries,” Ger stated before slowly heading toward the exit to the training field. “I’m going to grab some lunch, or maybe dinner? It pretty much all blurs together at this point. Do you want to come with? I’m meeting my girlfriend and the rest of my party there.”
Since I needed to eat anyway, I agreed and grabbed my bag and quarterstaff before catching up to the larger player.
Chapter 8
“My party is over there,” he said, pointing toward one of the rectangular tables by the back wall. “Let me introduce you to them, and you can drop your stuff off before grabbing food.”
I didn’t need to drop off my stuff before going through the cafeteria-style lines, but I followed his suggestion anyway and headed over to the table.
“Hey, guys. This is Duality. We met at the training field. She was my sparring partner.” He turned to me. “Duality, this is my girlfriend, Deni –” he pointed to an attractive, dark-skinned female with long, black hair streaked with thin lines of bright pink, “—and this is her roommate Bell and their neighbors Blaze and Mesmer.”
Bell, or Belladonna according to the floating user tag above her head, appeared shorter than the others, but it was hard to tell with everyone sitting down. She had lighter skin than the other two, with silver hair set in a pixie cut. Next to the silver-haired girl was a surfer-boy-looking guy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Mesmer was attractive, but almost everyone was in the game.
Last was Blaze. He was by far the most flamboyant in his appearance, with spiky, brownish-red hair lightening into shades of orange and yellow on top – like his hair designed to look like it was on fire. His eyes had similar shading and almost glowed. While the rest of his body looked pretty average, he’d clearly spent a lot of time designing his appearance.
I gave a little wave. “Nice to meet you all. I’m Duality…like he mentioned.”
Ger interrupted the others before they could start talking. “We’re going to grab some food. We can chat when we get back.”
I left my quarterstaff leaning against the table but didn’t bother detaching the bag from my waist. It was just as easy to leave it connected. Besides, it wouldn’t hamper my ability to get food in the slightest.
The others bombarded me with questions when I returned. It wasn’t too overwhelming, but it caught me off guard initially. I didn’t mind telling the others about myself – within reason – and they were surprised to find I was just going to be entering my senior year of high school in the fall.
Not that I wanted to go through high school again. If I thought my parents would go for it, I’d probably ask to switch to a virtual school or just test out and get my equivalency diploma. But there was no way they’d go for either option since ‘socialization was important.’
“Hey, we’re going to be doing the wave rift after lunch if you want to join us. Another fighter would probably help. We didn’t last very long the last time we tried it,” Bell said from across the table.
“I don’t mind giving it a try. What was it like?”
“You’re in a village and have to protect it from waves of creatures. Most of them were goblins when we tried it before. They start off really weak and gradually get stronger with improved weapons. It’s just a typical wave rift. You have to defeat like ten waves to beat the rift, but you can leave through the portal anytime,” Bell explained as the others nodded along.
That didn’t seem very complicated. In fact, it seemed like an excellent way to earn a lot of experience. If I went ahead and activated the upgrade option, I wouldn’t have to worry about losing out on any experience either. Speaking of…
“That sounds like good experience. Do you guys normally hit your experience cap in there?”
“We’ve only delved it once, but I did last time,” Bell replied.
“Me too,” Ger said. The others echoed the sentiment.
“Have you seen the option to upgrade your interface? You can push anything extra over or set a percentage of your experience to automatically apply to the upgrade until the threshold is met. I have mine set to pull anything above the experience cap, so I don’t lose anything. The upgrade is supposed to be like going from having an Alexa to having a Jenna that anticipates your needs.”
It had made the changes only moments before, but there was no reason to point that out.
“Where did you hear that?” Blaze asked.
I shifted uncomfortably. “I can’t really tell you…but on a completely separate and totally unrelated topic, do any of you know any beta testers?”
My tablemates’ eyes lit up, drawing the conclusion I’d implied without stating. I really hated lying. Not that I was lying, but it felt the same.
“Ah, what I wouldn’t give for that job!” Blaze sighed. “I read a forum a couple of months ago about the game, and beta testers were on there describing what the game was like before anyone else even had access. I wonder what they’re testing now. Based on some of their comments, they are definitely testing something, but nobody is talking anymore.”
“Yeah, I don’t know any beta testers personally, but I watched some of the game footage before deciding to get the system. Seeing how realistic everything was – it was like watching a movie, not a game! Thank goodness Atlas accepts a payment plan,” Deni commented, adding the last bit under her breath, though everyone heard it.
“I told you I’d get it for you. You didn’t have to finance it,” Ger said quietly. Nobody acknowledged his comment.
“Well, anyway,” I said, interrupting the awkward silence that began to grow. “My brother is in the military and was somehow picked as part of a special unit that works with Atlas. Technically, he’s a beta tester, though he doesn’t work for Atlas. He’s not allowed to tell me anything that isn’t approved for public release. I’m guessing the rest of the beta testers are the same. That’s probably why they aren’t sharing anything about what they are currently testing.”
“How does that have anything to do with the upgrade?” Bell asked.
“It doesn’t. Totally unrelated topic,” I said with a straight face.
“Uh huh. Well, the upgrade sounds pretty neat, but how much is it?” the silver-haired female asked.
“At Tier One, it’s ten thousand experience points. It goes up with each tier. I think Tier Two is twenty-five thousand, and Tier Three is fifty thousand, but I’m not sure after that.” …Because I’d gotten it at Tier Three before, so I had no reason to ask. “It sounds like a lot, but I’ve just been pushing anything beyond my cap into it for now. I’ll probably invest more when I hit level nine or ten and can fight in a Tier Two rift. The bonus experience is supposed to be pretty significant between tiers.”
“I don’t know about spending ten grand just to get a better AI. My interface seems to work fine as it is,” Blaze said uncertainly.
The quiet blonde beside Bell spoke up. “I’m going to try it. I’ll let you know how it works. Since I’m just the healer, I can hold off on leveling for a bit. It’s not like you guys need my help all that often anyway.”
I didn’t bother contributing to the conversation much after that since I’d accomplished my goal: other normal people now knew about the upgrade. Hopefully, the information would spread. I hadn’t set up an information-sharing site yet, but once I had the upgrade, I’d be sure to publish an article about it on whatever site I set up.
∆∆∆
Like the other rift, this one swirled with thick, green mana, marking it as Tier One. I could feel the increased pressure from the dimensional barrier, even several steps away, making it obvious that it had reached at least mid-tier.
Before leaving the cafeteria, Deni, the party leader, sent me a party invitation. We’d covered each party member’s affinities, primary roles, and any spells or skills directly relevant to our upcoming delve. None of the guards mentioned my addition to the party, so I stepped through the swirling portal after the others had entered and joined them on the other side.
We found ourselves in the center of a small-town square, with the rift entrance directly behind us. Aside from the slightly different materials, the buildings were well made and modern enough to not be out of place in any American small town.
“Oh, the adventurers have arrived!” a voice called out from behind the small crowd of villagers who’d gathered. “Thank goodness you’ve come! I feared my request for aid would come too late.”
The speaker was an older man, identified as Village Elder – level 5. His short, gray hair was tossed messily as if he’d been nervously running his hands through the thinning strands, and his nicer clothing made him stand out from the more humbly dressed villagers. He also had the highest level, with most of the villagers being level three, with a few level twos and fours mixed in.
Deni stepped forward as the party leader. “Yes, we were sent to help with defending your village. What can you tell me about the threat?” she asked, playing her part. Role-playing was not specifically required, but it often helped rifts like this go a lot smoother.
“Goblins have been seen approaching the village from the east. They appeared to be separated into waves, but my scouts could not determine how many waves were coming,” he said as he wrung his hands nervously. “Most were only armed with simple clubs and spears, but there were too many for our small village to handle. You’ll help, won’t you?” he asked hopefully.
“Of course we will! That’s why we are here!” she replied.
As if her words had triggered the first wave, a shout sounded from atop the wall. “Goblins approach! To your positions!”
I looked at Deni, waiting for her orders. It wasn’t necessary, but I wanted to make a good impression.
“Those with ranged attacks head to the top of the wall with the archers. Ger and I can help hold the gate since we won’t be much use from a distance. Mesmer can pick where he wants to stage. I don’t think the gate was meant to withstand any real force, so I doubt it will hold very long,” she said quietly as she eyed the wooden gate.
In contrast to the wooden gate, the wall was made of thick stone and contained several shielded platforms on which defenders could stand. Bell and I headed to one of the central platforms, ensuring we were close enough to provide support for our other party members.
The Fire Mage positioned himself on the other side of the gate while Mesmer hung back with some villagers closer to the village square but still near enough to the melee fighters to assist with healing. While he probably had a crowd-control spell or two already, I had no idea of the details. Then again, worrying about the rest of the party and what they were doing was not my role in this fight. With a smile, I sought out my first targets.
The first wave only consisted of a couple of dozen level-one goblins wielding simple clubs that looked more like sticks than real weapons. The archers were fully capable of defeating the low-level threats, though my temporary party members also sent a few attacks just to contribute.
Bell stood beside me, throwing her knives with what appeared to be wild abandon. I could tell she was shifting their trajectory with Telekinesis or a similar spell since the blades appeared to change paths mid-flight to hit critical points on her opponents. She then used the spell to retrieve the knives, which was a handy application of the spell.
I waited until the mobs clumped together before sending a Bolt into their midst. I didn’t want to spend the mana on small groups of weak opponents. Still, it would only take a few minutes to recover the expenditure. After the last goblin in the first wave fell, there was a slight lull before one of the scouts called that the second wave was approaching.
Chapter 9
Once again, the mobs were defeated without injury to us or the rift villagers. Most of the work was done by the villagers, making our assistance almost unnecessary this early. Given the theme of the rift, it was likely the waves would continue to increase in difficulty until they exceeded what could be handled by the locals alone.
That was fine with me.
The third wave was much like the second, with only the number of opponents changing. With more opponents within the killing field, I decided to cast Gravity Bomb, followed immediately by Bolt. The results were exactly what I expected.
“Holy shit! That was amazing!”
I grinned. It was a bit pricy to double up on the spells, but it made a huge impact in the fight. The locals were able to mop up the remaining invaders, providing us with a small break before the next wave. I pulled up my status during the break to see if I was getting close to the experience cap. I’d added a section to show how much I owed for the upgrade, so I focused mostly on that.
