Chapter 5

Rachel stared at the blood running down the blade of the pole saw. Instead of disgust or unease over cutting the goblin’s throat, all she felt was satisfaction. The goblins had broken, and as much as wanted to chase them for a change, she was exhausted. Looking down at the goblin she had hit, she noticed he was still alive. He was clutching his throat as if trying to keep its blood in his body. As she stared a him, she focused.

Analyze: Goblin (Level 3). Name: Jack Gobeyeu

Congratulations! Your skill Analyze II has improved to Analyze III

Rachel turned the pole saw so the blunt end was pointed down at Jack. “Jack did my mother taste good?” She drove the blunt end of the pole into Jack’s crotch.

Damage 12 (8 x 1.5 target prone) Critical hit to the groin, target stunned.

“Well Jack??” she screamed driving the blunt end into Jack’s gut.

Damage 18 (8 x 1.5 target prone x 1.5 target stunned) Goblin Level 3 died. Experience - 120.

Quest updated - Family Revenge (Goblins killed 1 of 8).

Congratulations! Level up!

1 attribute point to Constitution

You have 4 attribute points left to assign.

**Host AI JG124Z15 transferred the reward nanites from its host to Rachel’s Host AI for dissemination. After a brief discussion with Rachel’s Host AI to determine what to do with Jacks body, it then consulted its reward tables generating 15 copper pieces, one silver piece, and an iron dagger. The materials for the reward were transferred to it from nanites in the ground. Those same nanites grabbed the remains of Jack Gobeye, Goblin (Level 3), and pulled them into the ground. As its host body dissolved AI JG124Z15 uploaded itself to the hub for reassignment.**

Rachel’s anger faded as Jack’s body dissolved. All that remained was a small pile of coins and a sheathed dagger. The sound of Joe’s voice caught her attention. Looking toward him, she noticed all the changes to his body since she had last seen him, but hadn’t they all been changed?

The last time they had met was at her Mother’s 50th birthday party. He had been friends with her parents when they were her age and had been around more often after retiring from the Marines. He was funny, but after he joined in on her parent’s weekly game nights, it put him firmly in the old category. She felt the brush of feathers from winged woman kneeling next to her. The woman was wearing armor similar to Joe’s, but Rachel could make out her face clearly with only a metal bar from the helmet protecting her nose. Up close, her wings looked beat up with feathers missing in areas. The woman looked up at her. She had an exotic face, full lips with epicanthic fold to her blue eyes, strands of black hair could be seen coming out from under her helmet.

“Hello, my name’s Sarah, what’s yours?”

With a start, Rachel realized she had been staring at the other woman. Sarah finished wiping her sword on a fallen goblin’s pants and looked back at her.

“You ok?” Sarah asked her.

Focus Rachel thought...

“Yes, sorry. My name’s Rachel. Thanks for the help. They have been chasing me for most of the day. I ran up on them after they killed my parents. I still don’t understand it. The Waltons were trouble but they weren’t that kind of trouble. They were involved in drugs. We suspected they were responsible for robbing some homes but that doesn’t explain what they did to my parents.”

Sarah didn’t know for sure, but after fighting, she suspected the reason for the personality changes. Sarah had never been in a life or death battle before, but she had been in a few fights growing up. This battle was more like when she used to compete in gymnastics, but even that wasn’t the same. There was a thrill to battle, and while she didn’t enjoy killing, she did enjoy winning. “I think it has to do with the Races we were changed into, but I also believe we still have a choice and we are not forced to do anything.”

Joe was feeding Charlie a minor healing potion. One of the goblins had caught him in the side but good. Charlie lapped up the potion from his hand eagerly, the wound on his side slowly closing. Joe thought *Good boy. Better?*, Charlie licked his face *Feel good*. Looking at his other dogs, they all told him they were unhurt, although Daisy was wiping her face back and forth in the grass *Taste bad. * Joe was relieved. Normally he would not risk his dogs, but times were not normal. A flashing Icon in the corner of his eye told him he had messages waiting. Halfway through the fight the messages started to get in the way of fighting and he had yelled “Not Now!” and they had collapsed into the small square. Focusing on the square he read:

Damage 77 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.5 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in single blow, stunned, bleed 5 per second.

Damage 72 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.4 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned, bleed 5 per second.

Damage taken 10 (12 x 2 strength) - (80% heavy armor - 20% piercing damage) Bleed 2 per second

Damage 71 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.3 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned.

Bleed -2

Damage 71 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.2 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned.

Bleed -2

Damage 71 (30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.1 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned, Bleed 3 per second.

Goblin (Level 4) died from blood loss. Experience 160

Congratulations! Level up!

1 attribute point assigned to Constitution

1 attribute point assigned to Strength

You have 4 attribute points left to assign.

Goblin (Level 4) died from blood loss. Experience 160

Bleed -1

Damage 216 (30 x 1.8 strength bonus x 2 Stun bonus x 2 target prone)

Goblin (Level 5) killed. Experience 200.

Congratulations! Level up!

1 attribute point assigned to Constitution

1 attribute point assigned to Strength

You have 8 attribute points left to assign.

Damage 228 (30 x 1.9 Strength bonus x 2 Stun bonus x2 target Prone)

Goblin (Level 4) killed. Experience 160.

Bleed -1

Damage 228 (30 x 1.9 strength bonus x 2 Stun bonus x 2 target Prone)

Goblin (Level 4) killed. Experience 160.

Bleeding stopped

20 Experience received from Beasts kill.

Congratulations! Your skill Axe Combat I has improved to Axe Combat II

“Status.” Joe stated.

Joe Ironhand

Race: Mountain Dwarf Sex: Male Age: 50 Height: 5'5" Weight: 250 Hair: Copper Red Eyes: Emerald Green

Class: Beastmaster Profession: Dwarven Underground Engineering

Strength: 19 Constitution: 19 Dexterity: 15 Agility: 12

Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 15 Charisma: 15 (13 for Non-Dwarves)

Languages: Common, Dwarven.

Skills: Mining I, Blacksmithing I, Axe Combat II, Unarmed II, Firearms V, First Aide II

Class Skill: Veterinarian I

Profession Skills: Stone Shaping, Structural Engineering (Dwarven), Rune Crafting.

Abilities: Night Vision (low light), Direction Sense

Bonuses: Land Token

Titles: The First (+5 to all stats.)

Life: 170 Mana: 150 Stamina: 145

Life Recovery: 1.9 min Mana Recovery: 1.5 min Stamina Recovery: 1.5 min

Experience: 440 Level: 3

“Two to strength, two to constitution, two to intelligence, and two to charisma. That should help with combat, and getting more skills.” Glancing over to Sarah Joe thought and maybe help with her.

Joe also noticed some additional information on recovery rates in the status page, the numbers made sense at least. He had played games where you needed a Master’s in mathematics to make sense of things. Joe looked at the two women talking and with a thought *Milo, Charlie - alert. Daisy, Grace - rest.*

When he waved his hand to dismiss the screen, he noticed his hand was clean. Looking down, his armor was spotless. Remembering the sprays of blood from some of the goblins, he decided this was an aspect of gaming in the real world he could live with. He headed toward the bodies of the goblins he had killed and as he approached each one the bodies seemed to dissolve into the ground. The bodies left behind a few coins, a few weapons, and a woman’s wedding ring. He knew that ring. He placed it into a pouch at his waist, the girl did not need any more grief tonight. Turning he headed toward the women. It was time to see how they were doing.

Rachel watched Joe walk up, getting her first good look at him. Joe had changed more than just his body shape, he looked to be the same age as she was.

“How you holding up Rachel? Sorry to hear about your folks. But we got some payback for them. I killed five, the dogs got one. Sarah?”

Sarah looked up from cleaning her saber, “Two killed, one got away.”

Rachel said “I got Jack. He makes nine.” Her face got a hard look,” Now I just need to kill Hairy.”

Quest Complete: Family Revenge (Goblins killed 8 of 8)

New Title Available Avenger I (Someday, maybe not today, but one day)

Avenger Bonus: Skill tracking +1 rank, if you do not have this skill it will be rewarded to you.

Skill reward: Tracking I

Reward - 500 experience and a common weapon ticket!

Congratulations! Level up!

1 attribute point to Constitution

You have 8 attribute points left to assign.

New Quest: Family Revenge II (Kill Hairy Gobeye)

Strangely with the quest completed, Rachel suddenly felt calmer, more distant from her parents’ death. Like it had happened weeks ago instead of just this morning. Reading through the blue screens, she wished she had spent more times playing computer games, then reminded herself, she knew a gamer. “Joe? How do you assign attribute points? And what’s a weapon ticket?”

Joe looked at her. Smiling, he said “Say Status. Nae me yah daft thing!” Joe waved his hand in front of his face as if at an annoying fly.

Rachel blinked at Joe’s sudden accent, saying “Status”

Rachel Running Deer

Race: Centaur Sex: Female Age: 18 Height: 6' Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Weight: 625

Class: Ranger Profession: Bowyer

Strength: 10 Constitution: 14 Dexterity: 10 Agility: 12

Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 12

Languages: Common, Centaurian

Skills: Archer I, Analyze III, Tracking I

Profession Skills: Fletching I

Abilities: Sprint

Spells: Tame Animal

Bonuses: Weapon Ticket (common)

Titles: Avenger I

Life: 120 Mana: 100 Stamina: 140

Life Recovery: 1 min Mana Recovery: 1 min Stamina Recovery: 1.4 min

Experience: 220 Level: 3

“Ok have it up?”, Joe Asked

“Yes.”

“What skills do you have?”

“Archer, analyze, tracking and fletching. Also, an ability called sprint.”

“Class?”

“Ranger”

“Spells?”

“Tame animal.”

Joe nodded, placing his hands behind his back. “Ok, quick basic description of your stats: Strength is how much you lift, also how hard you hit, accounts for half your life. Constitution is how healthy you are, how resistant you are to disease, how fast you get tired, it also accounts for the other half of your life. Dexterity is how nimble your fingers are, anything that requires a fine touch from archery, to lockpicking, or even sewing. Agility is how nimble you are on your feet, helps determine how fast you can run, it also contributes to fancy blade work, people that do parkour have a high agility. Intelligence is how smart you are, how much mana you have for spells, also impacts how many skills you can have, and protects you from mental domination. Wisdom, you know that voice that tells you your about to do something stupid? A wise person listens to it, also helps with how fast you recover mana. Charisma, first it’s not how pretty you are, it’s how well you deal with others, how charming you are. A person with high charisma will lead a charge and everyone will follow. A low charisma means he ends up standing out in front by himself full of arrows. Also, as a Ranger it will help you when dealing with wild animals and could factor into your spells dealing with nature.”

”Questions?” Joe asked.

From the way he was talking she wondered if he was flashing back to the marines, but still asked, “So where would you recommend putting my eight points?”

Joe looked at her and sighed, “Ok just this once, but remember this is your body. With the weapon ticket we can get you a bow and with the fletching skill you can make your own arrows so...what’s your dexterity and charisma and do you have any attributes under 10?”

Rachel looked at her screen, “10 dexterity, 12 charisma and no.”

Joe pursed his lips, “Five to dexterity, three to charisma. The dexterity will help with your crafting and archery. The increase in charisma should help your tame spell and I know just the beast to use it on.” Joe looked over to Sarah, “Perhaps even another ranged weapon or two.”

Sarah stared at Joe, “It will be taking a risk. What will happen if the tame spell fails?”

Joe sighed, “Normally, I would not give it much of a chance, but the bear was only level 2. Normally one that size would be a higher level, but since we all started at level 1, I think we have a pretty good shot at it. Rachel, focus on the name of the spell and see if you get any more information.”

Rachel focused on the spell and was rewarded with,

Spell “Tame Animal”: Mana cost 25

Range 50 feet, +10 additional mana for every level the target is over the casters. Requires a Charisma check, this will allow the caster to form a bond similar to Animal Companion for the length of the spell. The spell lasts one hour per skill rank in the spell. Repeated use of the spell on the same target increases the chance of failure. Once tamed the animal will return to normal behavior if the spell is allowed to lapse normally. Repeated casting of the spell will enrage the animal if the spell fails.

Rachel read off the spell information, adding “I think it will work Joe, but I won’t want to cast it more than once. An enraged bear is bad news.”

Joe looked her in the eyes saying, “Worse than you know. It’s a frikken short-faced bear, went extinct 11,000 years ago. Twice the size of a grizzly and can outrun a horse. That said, it’s level 2, so we should have a good chance. We’ll just tame it, check the house, then leave it where we found it.”

Rachel asked, “What’s so special about that house?”

Joe grinned, “It’s Rich Miller’s place. He has some black powder weapons and those still work by the way. But that's for tomorrow. Let’s get you a bow made. I think I have some armor left that will fit you and some materials for arrows.”

Sarah smiled wryly, “I know where you can get some feathers.”