Medic

Requirements: Life Magic (Beginner 1)

Cost: 15 Mana

When cast upon a target you can perceive, they heal 4 x points of health, regardless of damage type.

Soldier Boosts

Requirements: Life Magic (Beginner 1)

Cost: 27 Mana

Touch: For the next cycles, Target's physical attributes are enhanced by 33%.

Jonathon was looking at the two spells he'd created in his interface as he waited for his cousin to arrive. Both had existed in the system before – the phase space of spells at the early ranks of life magic seemed very well plumbed – but he'd still gained two experience for 'translating' them. Happy with the result, he used his 'Create Dataset' perk twice, to make one copy of each. From speaking with Bob, he knew that his other instruction perks would apply to anyone who read them – though in this instance, that would just mean extra perks when the army medics hit their next multiple of four – right as the door alerted him he had a visitor.

“Open.” he directed, and the room obeyed with alacrity, permitting his cousin and four people he did not recognise to move within: Mike gave him a rather sheepish grin.

“Hey, Bro.” he waved a hand, gesturing at those behind him. “This is my party. You remember Sally and Sandra? This is Vanessa, Sally's girl, and Eric.”

Jonathon did indeed remember the two: Sally had been Mike's friend since high school, close enough that his parents had taken her in when she came out and was no longer welcome in her parents home. A tall, slender brunette, She'd only missed out on being homecoming queen due to her orientation and the bigotry of her school.

Sandra, on the other hand, had been Mike's girlfriend for the past six months, and he only knew her through Instagram: Today, half her hair was dyed black, the other white, reaching down to her shoulders.

Vanessa and Eric, on the other hand, were new to him: Eric looked to be something of a jock, to put it bluntly, complete with a football jersey and crew-cut blonde hair – Jon thought he was trying too hard. Vanessa had the look of a goth girl, slightly overweight, with her curly black hair died back in a bun, and a profusion of silver bracelets on her wrists.

Jonathon nodded in their direction. “Nice To meet you all. I take it this is your party?” he paused, then glanced vaguely up. “Jeeves, more seats.” The hologram shimmered into existence.

“Certainly, Jonathon.” Jeeves replied, as seats for all his guests appeared: Eric and Vanessa both looked a little shocked as the chairs materialized in a wave of neon blue, and Jon gestured to the chairs. “So. Sit. Given you've brought your friends to support you... What did you fuck up, Mike?”

Mike held up his hands defensively. “Hey, It wasn't like that!” his voice full of injured pride. “We just came to help!” Sally and Eric nodded at that.

“Yeah, We heard you had a dungeon and were expecting a swarm.” Eric said, glancing at Sandra with a wince as she added, “And those army guys were being assholes!”

“Which I suppose explains why you didn't respawn in the temple of Hakor you mentioned?” Jon asked archly, looking to Mike: He liked his cousin, but this was pretty typical of the shit he pulled. How he was staying in the Engineering degree was something he ascribed to Sally's influence – she was far more studious, and it wasn't a coincidence they were studying the same course at the same college – but she didn't seem to have objected overly harshly, either: for she was the one who answered his question.

“She was charging for Respawns.” she said, disgustedly. “Covertly. We heard about it from the first group that respawned – they gained a trait called 'Indebted.' Apparently it let her make one request of them they literally would not be able to refuse.”

Jonathon winced. “Okay, that's a good reason. But you do understand how dangerous things are here, right? The average level of monsters outside is in the mid twenties. I was killed yesterday by a 'Vampire' that lurks in a pocket dimension and that can alter our respawn points. What sort of things have you been fighting?”

“Smoke Jaguars, Djinni, and Light Ninja.” Eric replied, thoughtfully. “Mostly level one to level four.” he, at least, appeared to be aware of what they might have stumbled into.

“The things we've been fighting?” Jonathon said, sounding vexed, “Skeletal Snipers with laser rifles, Panzer -snails – think a living tank with an acid projector - and we've spotted various artillery pieces: you can look at the list of known monsters later. Hell, we have a 'Bone lord' at close to level thirty watching us for the dungeon – it apparently has swords that can phase through armour, and an array of gamma ray lasers. Hell, We're working in teams of nine, and we're looking at increasing that – our first day out, when it should have been easiest, had thirty percent casualties. You've just been working in a group of five? Which if you has the small group command skill?”

They looked at him blankly for a moment. “That's a skill?” Vanessa asked, a little timidly. “We've just been fighting together. What does it do?”

“You'd need to ask Dave – He's the one in my group with it, but the perks all help us work together better. Every group here learned it.” he finished this a bit lamely – realising he didn't actually know how it helped, deciding he'd need to pin Dave down and ask him. “Well, You're here now. Are you looking to join our gang?”

“Umm, Sure?” Mike replied, his friends nodding: Jon sighed. “I need a yes or no answer from each of you, please. Do you wish to join Gang Earth Three?”

There was a noticeable pause as they exchanged glances, but – apparently having some idea of what he's talking about – a moment later all said 'Yes'.

Their names populated in his mind, and from their mild gasps, he presumed they were being fed the information on the gang: as they did, he gestured at them with a smile.

“And now you're in the gang: I can hit you with the same spell that's making us all look like movie stars, if you want? It gives you the body you would have had if you'd eaten properly and exercised your whole life.” at their nods, he cast the spell in sets of two, leaning back with a sigh. “So. What, Exactly, can you all do? Mike, you said you were an Arcane Mage? Gas, Mana, and Space magic, wasn't it?”

Mike affirmed this was indeed the case, and he'd been developing them as they fought: It seemed that Sally was as well, with Sandra an Elemental mage – Sally was focused on

Void and Creation magic, whereas Sandra was the 'party healer', with Life and Destiny. Eric and Vanessa were their front line fighters, a Bladesmith and a Gunsmith respectively: A classic WoW party, in other words, or as far as they could build in the system. Eric was quite proud of his sword and board style (He'd always been interested in HMA, and had using the skills for a photonic blade and Heavy shields: he'd apparently received soulbound, basic versions of them both as part of his basic issue, the lucky bastard.

Vanessa, meanwhile, had been using an assault rifle procured from the army, which was not soulbound, and was rather hoping he could help replace her equipment.

“We've got some AK-47 knockoffs – the local soldiers all respawned here without their gear, after their base was overrun by teleporting zombies.” Jonathon noted, drily. “The soldiers have been relearning how to shoot over the past few days, since most of them didn't buy the needed skill. A member of my party grabbed some photonic sniper rifles from our last outing, and she's using one of those.”

She huffed. “Doesn't help me. I don't suppose a trip to that base could be arranged? There must be a lot of weapons lying around...” her tone was suggestive, and he chuckled, shaking his head.

“So far, We've not been able to go more than a mile from this fortification: Their base is something like seventy miles away. Maybe once we have some of the heavier vehicles?” he suggested. “Assuming we successfully repel the raid in..” he glanced at the interface, “Twenty-two days, we're looking at adding a Mech, fighter, and tank facility, probably, to help secure the area. We're also looking at building more fortifications – we can apparently seal off an area to make it safe – though we might also be able to circle the dungeon: we're not sure what that would do.”

His words were received with smiles and grins, and a cascade of questions that he waved down. “That's for the future: Our problem right now is surviving the end of the month. I don't know how much of the Fortification you've explored – have you even looked outside?” There was a round of shaking heads.

“Well. We have a training facility you can book slots in – you pick a skill, and it trains you in it. We have an instruction facility, if any of you have the Instruction ability?” another round of blank, curious faces, “Well, If you find someone who does – like most of the people here – you can get a boost to their effective instruction rating in there – which means more perks when you rank them.” a pause. “We have a few other useful rooms – There's a Temple to the god of magic, a room with an active map of the area, a fabrication facility... You get the idea. But I do recommend taking a look outside, a walk along the wall. The dungeon is about half a mile away, and you can, with a bit of effort, see the scout it has watching us – a level thirty Bone Lord.” a suppressed snicker from Eric, and Jonathon fixed him with a glare. “It has eight Multiphasic blades – Blades that are selectively immaterial to various things based on what it wants, so presume armour is useless against it: three heavy Gamma ray Lasers. Health in the tens of thousands... And the dungeon is using him as a scout.”

That did eventually cause the mirth to die down, and Jonathon asked a question that had been bugging him. “Mike said you were all killed by a Dragon?”

Mike nodded, and Sally scowled. “Yeah.” She said. “Don't know what level it was, but it coated all of our dorm building in some kind of corrosive gas. Dying hurt, dammit. It was way more powerful than anything else we'd been fighting!” She sounded especially put out by the last part, and it was understandable if one was thinking of it as a game – which their party composition, coupled with most of what they've said, suggested they had been. Jonathon was rather curious about it himself, though – the guide had told him the risk factor around a dungeon was in bands. So the kind of monsters outside would be out to about thirty-seven miles – danger close. A mid-range band – danger far - out to about eighty miles beyond that, and a slowly escalating the closer you got 'beginner' band outwards, until it hit the same band from another dungeon. The Teleporting zombies that had killed the soldiers, for example, were either middle or outer band monsters – but he wouldn't expect something like a dragon outside the inner level.

Which did bring up the question about why they were rampaging and blocking air travel: Happily, he had someone to ask. “Jeeves?”

“Yes, Jonathon?” the by now familiar neon shimmer brought the AI's avatar into being. “How can I assist you and your friends today?”

Jonathon blinked a little at the addition – Jeeves was apparently still evolving – but put it out of his mind in favour of what was bothering him. “So they were in the newbie ring, and were killed by a dragon. I keep getting told dragons and other large, high level monsters, are why air travel is a no go right now. What gives? Why are there monsters that powerful outside danger close?”

Jeeves pointedly did not sigh: You could almost hear the sigh he didn't make. “As noted in the preliminary briefing, Jonathon, each dungeon releases twelve roaming bosses within their area. While these are certainly more than a match for newbies alone, they are triumphant kills with unique drops for those who can work together in a greater swarm, or even better if you can kill one solo!”

Jonathon sighed. “Of course. And with nine dungeons... that's over a hundred over them over the US. Need I remind you, Jeeves, We didn't get the briefing? Dismissed.” The AI seemed to frown for a moment, before shimmering out of existence.

“That answers that question. We'll have to pin down Bob for more information, I suspect – He's a galactic advisor one of my team has.” he added the last to the questioning looks, before they could ask. “It's a perk you can get through death magic – an advisor. Maskeline might also know, if you can catch his attention – we can ask his High priest to find out, I suppose.” The conversation had really borne home to him quite what a good position they were in, if you ignored their proximity to the dungeon: They had facilities, custom classes... And by the sounds of things, Nobody in New york had anything similar. If they did, they clearly weren't sharing. Which was, now he thought of it, Kinda weird.

“What's the situation in New York like, anyway? You were working out your dorm? There were soldiers? What happened to you since monster night?”

Glances were exchanged, and Vanessa was apparently nominated to answer: Now the spell had completed, she was a muscular, curvaceous goth girl, and she didn't seem quite at home with how her body had changed yet, curling a lock of her hair nervously before she began.

“Well, like. Mike told us what you told him, and I guess someone up high also read the guide, Y'know? Because the national guard were deployed, like, already. Most of them weren't using guns anymore, y'know? But they had a bunch of mages, and some guys with guns who were like, really good shots now. It was a weird mix, but they pulled anyone who wanted to help to, like, help defend the city? After we went out an insisted, anyway, and showed what we could do. They had sandbags and shit, y'know?”

She shrugged. “But the monsters that came – Weren't, like, until about three AM, and most people had gone back to bed by then. It was a wave of those dumb rabbits, mostly. Big and dumb, they were easy to kill. Got most of us to level three before the night was over, y'know?” she shrugged. But then it was lame. Some of the ninjas and djinni got into the city, like, so the army organised volunteer patrols to hunt them down while they made the city less 'porous'.We volunteered, but, like, it was super-lame. Class was, like, suspended, and we heard some other weird shit.”

“like?” Jonathon prodded, as she fell silent: Mike loudly exhaled.

“Well, There was that Hakor chick, who took over a priest? She was building a following, giving out blessings and stuff.” his cousin explained. “Building her own little army that did not play with others. It probably helped they had some guys who could make food.” he glanced at his colleagues, as did Jonathon, to see if they had anything else to add.

“I saw at least one neighbourhood that had been turned into a fortress by mages.” Sandra said, somewhat light-heartedly: The spell had given her more muscle, but hadn't really changed her look. “They had some weird looking guns and guards on the walls, and weren't letting anyone in.” Eric nodded at her words.

“I remember the LT bitching up a storm about that. How he wasn't gonna let the city fall to warlords. He had a bunch of skills to help him lead the troops, too – we got a health and mana bonus when he was around.” he frowned. “I didn't see anyone playing with death magic, though.”

“I did.” Vanessa said. “An old lady was guarding her block with some weird skeleton soldiers. They had guns and everything, and she was giving out cookies when we passed. Weird lady.”

“Did you see that gang of flying kids?” Mike said with a grin. “I swear, they musta bought some synergistic spell or something, they were faster than I am!”

The conversation trailed off into more oddities they'd seen in their patrols, tricks their friends had picked up, and general bitching about military authority before Jonathon called it a night and kicked them out: They needed to eat, and he wanted a nearly night. He had some ideas mulling in his mind, and sleep seemed the best way to make them resolve.

He couldn't help but ponder, as he drifted, off, what the Colonel would have to say about their performance tomorrow...