Chapter 4

Level Up

Rt 66 East of Shroud, OK

6:58 PM Friday

10 January 2020

I awoke slowly to a bright blue screen. My head was pounding, and I could feel a big goose egg on my forehead from where it had impacted the steering wheel. My hand came away wet with blood after I touched my forehead. I released my seatbelt as I tried to focus on what the blue screen said. Slowly the words began to come into focus.

Your head has struck your vehicle. You have received 9 points of damage.

You have a concussion, you have received the concussed debuff.

You have struck the De’Rashka Warrior with 853 points of crushing damage.

You have killed a level 8 De’Rashka Warrior.

Quest Complete – First Blood: You have killed the first Sapient Seed after “The Release”. By completing the quest, you have been granted the title “Quickdraw”. This Quest was auto accepted upon your completion of the Quest. You have received 1000 Experience points for completing the quest.

For killing a level 8 De’Rashka Warrior you have been awarded 3320 experience points (1080 * 3, due to the level differential)

You have eliminated a Contender. For eliminating a Contender, you have been awarded 8000 experience points (1000 * 8 (due to the level of the contender). For eliminating a De’Rashka Contender your racial modifier has moved from Unfriendly to Hostile.

Quest Complete – Remove the competition: By eliminating the first Contender and completing the quest you have been granted the title “Quickening”. This Quest was auto accepted upon your completion of the Quest. You have received 1000 Experience points for completing the quest.

Quest Complete – Decisive Blow: By eliminating a Contender with one blow and completing the quest you have been granted the title “Decisive”. This Quest was auto accepted upon your completion of the Quest. You have received 1000 Experience points for completing the quest.

Harbinger, Quickdraw, Quickening, and Decisive? Are you extremely talented, lucky, or unlucky? Only time will tell.

You have leveled up. You have been awarded 5 attribute points and 1 Skill point.

You have leveled up. You have been awarded 5 attribute points and 1 Skill point

You have leveled up. You have been awarded 5 attribute points and 1 Skill point

Wow, a snarky message from the system already. I must have gained its attention by receiving all the titles. Additionally, I realized that I must have earned level 5. I wonder what other benefits came with level-ups in this new world.

As I opened the door and stepped out of my car, I noted that my car overhead light didn’t come on. I fumbled around inside my car looking for my cell phone. I thought maybe I could use the flashlight on my phone. After, searching for a few minutes I found it on the floor of the car under the gas pedal. Unfortunately, the screen didn’t light, and I had no way to turn on the flashlight feature. There was no light other than the moon. Fortunately, it was a full moon. As I tried to look around, I wished that I had more light to see better. With that thought, I received a new prompt.

You have a magical sphere available would you like to unlock the magical sphere of Fire?

I laughed out loud as I remembered the fire mage that I had role-played with my friends. I thought, heck yeah, Fire would be awesome. Who doesn’t like to throw a huge fireball at some enemies? The prompt asked me to confirm and I mentally selected the yes.

You have unlocked the magical sphere: Fire.

I thought about what magic I would like to cast. Then I concentrated on my intent to have a flame appear in my hand. I received another prompt

You are casting a spell Flame. The minimal MP cost is 2 MP. How much MP would you like to expend?

I thought 2 MP and immediately, a small flame appeared to burn just above my right hand. I received a new prompt.

You have cast Flame cost per cast is 2 MP flame. Flame will continue to burn at .5 MP per second until you run out of MP or cancel the spell. Additionally, increasing or decreasing the size of the flame or the distance from your body will increase or decrease the MP respectively.

Slowly, I started to turn my hand over. The flame floated just above my hand and remained floating just above my hand. I was staring at the flame when I suddenly noticed the creature that was pinned between a tree and the hood of my car. It was now slumped over my car very evidently dead. I walked closer to get a better look. The closer I got, the more the creature looked like a minotaur to me. The minotaur had bright red blood running down his body and onto the ground. I don’t know what color I thought the blood would be, but I was surprised that it was red. His head was a bull with 12-inch-long curved horns, but his torso, arms, and hands appeared human other than his long claw-like nails. However, from what I could see of his lower body between the tree and the hood of my car, from his waist down was all bull again.

I tried to remember what the message had called him. Remembering it was a De’Rashka Warrior, but it also said that I had eliminated a Contender. How did a minotaur get to earth riding in a slowly descending meteor? I feel like this world is changing so quickly with so many terms that I don’t know what everything means. Meanwhile, I have a flame dancing on my hand and a dead minotaur pinned to a tree by my car. Everything just seems so much like a video game. I glance nervously around to see if I see any more creatures. I wanted more light, but I also didn’t know how long the flame would last before my mana pool ran out. I thought about calculating it but didn’t want to waste the time I had before the flame went out.

I wondered if I could just loot the minotaur. I stepped closer but didn’t receive a prompt. I touched him but again didn’t receive a prompt. In addition to his double-bladed ax, I saw earlier, he was wearing a necklace and some type of vest. I don’t know if they provided any magical benefit, but at this point, he seemed strong and I didn’t want to leave any potential advantages behind. Somehow throughout the accident, he hadn’t let go of the ax. He was still clutching it in his hand laying on top of the hood of the car. At this point, I was happy that I hadn’t had to fight him. I was doubtful that I could have overcome his power. I decided to take the ax and the necklace for now as these seemed the easiest to remove.

With sudden inspiration, I decided to try to Examine the ax.

You have examined a Double-bladed Battle Axe:

Weapon Damage: 2 x Strength

Weight 5.1 lbs

Length 4.8 ft

Requirements: 18 Strength, 18 Coordination. Players with insufficient abilities will suffer a penalty to hit and to damage.

Enhancement: Features 2 gem slots - empty

You have earned a Skill: Examine Level 1

I looked closer at the battle-ax trying to see where the enchantment slots were, I realized there were sockets on each side of the ax head that would hold some type of gem. In my other hand, I still held the necklace. I looked closer at it. The necklace was made of gems. I realized that the stones were about the same size and shape as would fit in the enchantment slots. I decided to examine the Necklace as well as the vest that the minotaur was still wearing.

You have examined an Unknown Necklace:

Minerals: Unknown, 24 gem-like materials of various colors

Weight 0.6 lbs

Length 24 in

Requirements: unknown

Even though I hadn’t removed it yet, I decided to examine the vest to see if I should remove it and take it with me.

You have examined a ?mineral? Doublet:

Mineral: Unknown

Armor Protection: 70% damage reduction to damage physical damage taken to the torso

Weight 10.3 lbs

Size: XXXL Adult

Enhancement: Features 2 gem slots - empty

Requirements: 18 Strength, Players with insufficient abilities will suffer decreased protection. Improper fitting will affect the damage reduction bonus provided by the armor.

Damaged: 20% chance damage will ignore all armor protection

After the examination of the Doublet, I decided that I was not going to pass that up. I don’t know how to get it off the minotaur, but I would figure it out. I inspected it closer and noticed that there was a slot above each shoulder that looked like it was made to hold a gem just like the ax. The doublet was a little big for me as I normally wore an XL. I didn’t know what kind of mineral it was, but some protection was better than no protection.

The Doublet felt and looked a little like steel or iron and seemed to be about as heavy as the Kevlar vest that I wore in Iraq. I had a bulky jacket in my car. If I wore the doublet over the jacket, I thought it might help to reduce the movement of the armor. Climbing up on top of the hood and I used my flame to look around for the straps or latches to remove the armor. After searching for a few moments, I managed to find both latches, one on each side of the armor that was located lower down next to the waist. While unbuckling the doublet, the flame went out. I was out of MP.

Flame has reached 1% synchronization.

Standing there in the dark for a minute, I contemplated what I wanted to do next. While I wanted to continue to OKC, I also knew that I have 20 attribute points and 4 Skill points that would be extremely helpful to me on my trip. If these worked as they did on a video game, I would be much better prepared if I assigned some points. Perhaps Pansofia would help me to understand what each attribute point meant. It would be safer to sit in the car while I evaluated my character sheet.

When I opened my car door, to get back inside, I noticed that the ceiling light still didn’t’ come on. It seems that all technology stopped working after the Release. While there didn’t seem to be any other flames or risk of fire from my car, but I wanted to gain some more MP in case I need it, so I didn’t relight my flame. If I am sitting in the dark car I might notice before another minotaur or something else could show up and attack me. Before the Release, I tried to drive and read my character sheet. That had been very ineffective. I didn’t want to try and walk down the road and be attacked. Maybe I had been lucky, and it didn’t seem smart to push my luck any further. I sat down in the driver's seat and closed the door before I opened PISS.

Personal Interface Support System (PISS)

CHARACTER SHEET

QUEST

INVENTORY

MAGIC

SKILLS

TMS

HELP

Name

Rick O. Shea

Strength

12

Screen Name

LordShea

Agility

11

Level

5

Coordination

12

Experience to next level

730

Constitution

11

Total Experience

15,270

Intelligence

15

Faction

Undecided

Wisdom

14

Race

Human

Willpower

16

Profession

Undecided

Charisma

13

Class

Strategist

Luck

15

Personality

Survivor

Attribute Points Available

20

Titles

The Harbinger, Quickdraw, Quickening, Decisive

Skill Points Available

4

HP

46

Mana Recharge (PS)

0.3

Mana Well

62

Magic Capability

100%

I select the HELP tab and immediately my little fairy was walking on my smashed-up car dashboard. “Hello LordShea, would you like to continue with the help feature?”

“Can you describe the attributes and how to use them?”, I asked Pansofia. She replied, “On your internal display are the definitions of the attributes as provided in the manual.” As she talked the words begin to appear in front of me. “The higher the value the greater the effectiveness of the attribute. The average value of a human attribute on earth is 10.”

Strength = Physical ability to use Force to move an object

Agility = Physical ability to move quickly

Coordination= Physical ability to hit what is being aimed for or to do small detailed work

Constitution= Physical ability to endure pain and wounds

Intelligence= Mental ability to understand concepts

Wisdom= Mental ability to use experiences to understand how concepts affect each other

Willpower= Mental ability to focus mental energy to accomplish a task

Charisma= Mental ability to affect how others think and feel about you

Luck = generic ability that affects the likelihood that something good or bad will happen to you

As I considered the information, I realized that all my attributes were above those of an average human. Which made sense to me because I was young and in good shape. As I thought about those older, they wouldn’t be in good physical shape and their physical attributes would be lower while their mental attributes would be higher from everything they learned over their lifetime. However, young people might not have the mental toughness from enduring challenges and applying their minds to problem-solving. I also noticed that there were four physical attributes and four mental attributes in addition to the generic attribute of Luck.

Deciding where I wanted to spend my attribute points. I knew I wanted to be able to use the battle-ax and wear the doublet, but I also wanted to be able to understand what magic I could do with my Magical Sphere. Before I committed to my attributes, I wanted to understand the magical spheres.

Pansofia was just standing there on the dashboard with an occasional movement to show that she was still there and waiting. It was not like the gentle swaying back and forth of character creation on a video game. This was more like a hologram video chat. There were so many questions to ask, but I wanted to focus on my character level-ups and see what I would need to make it to Oklahoma City. Knowing that I had a week head start to claim territories and there were bonuses to my race by claiming these territories. I still was not sure what this meant, but with strange races falling from the sky I wanted to do my part to keep humanity safe.

“Pansofia, what are the magical spheres available for me to learn”, I asked.

Pansofia replied very simply, “Presently there are 4 magical Spheres available for you to learn. Fire, which you already learned, Liquid, Gas, and Mineral are the other magical spheres”. If you look at the Magic tab on the PISS, you will see a representation of the Magical Spheres that you can learn.

I opened the Magic tab. The lettering of the word Fire burned red on my internal display. While the other spheres remained white. I assume this is because I have unlocked the Fire Sphere.

Personal Interface Support System (PISS)

CHARACTER SHEET

QUEST

INVENTORY

MAGIC

SKILLS

TMS

HELP

Fire

Gas

+

Mineral

Liquid

SPELL:

Synchronization %

Learned Spheres:

Unlearned Spheres:

Flame

1

Fire

Gas

Mineral

Liquid

“This is very interesting, but is there a list of spells that are available under each sphere?”

Pansofia responded, “there isn’t a specific spell list for each Magical Sphere. Spells are limited by the magical Sphere or Sphere’s that you unlocked and by your experiences and imagination. Some spells will require access to multiple Magical Spheres. However, if there is a spell that you use more often, you will begin to synchronize that spell and your ability to cast this spell will be faster and cost less MP if it fully synchronizes. Additionally, depending on the resistance or difficulty the MP required to cast a spell will be more or less.”

In addition to playing a Fire Mage once upon a time, I also liked to play Paladin’s or Priest because of their ability to heal. I am also a little bit worried about getting hurt out here and don’t know how my hit points recover. I asked Pansofia, “How does healing work”?

Pansofia replied, “There are many types of healing which require a complex answer to a simple question. For example, as your body is mostly made of organic material and water most of the tissue repair can be made with a healing spell from the Liquid Sphere. However, to mend a broken bone would require access to the Mineral Sphere as this is not something that can be done with Liquid.”

This complicated my next Magical Sphere selection. I knew that I wanted to be able to heal myself, but it seemed the more complicated the magic was, the more spheres that one would need to know.

“How do the attributes affect my HP, as well as magic and the ability to cast spells?”

“These stats are an accumulation of your attributes and will grow with you and your character development. For ease of understanding I have provided the mathematical calculations for you on your internal display”, Pansofia replied.

Health Points (HP) = (Strength + Constitution) x 2

Mana well = (Intelligence + Willpower) x 2

Mana Replenishment = (Wisdom + Willpower)/100

Based on this information, I felt more comfortable assigning my attribute points. I wanted to be able to use the double-bladed ax without penalty and to wear the doublet even if I had a penalty due to my size and the fact it was damaged in the wreck. This was the only weapon and armor that I had, and I wanted to be able to fight and defend myself. Even though I live in Oklahoma and everyone owns at least one gun, I didn’t carry one in my work vehicle because the company didn’t allow us to.

As expected, I decided to put 6 points each into my strength and coordination. Not only would this allow me to use the double-bladed ax and doublet, but I would also increase my HP substantially. However, this used up 12 of my 20 available attribute points. I didn’t want to put them all in my physical attributes, I wanted to spend some on my mental attributes. Without knowing what character builds were available in this world, I was looking to try and balance my character.

Ultimately, I knew, I didn’t want to be a meat shield or a glass canon. Especially, as I am alone in the dark on a deserted road. I decided to put 2 points each in Intelligence, Wisdom, and Willpower. I didn’t want to spend any points in Charisma yet as I wasn’t sure the advantage, but so far, I felt like a lot of lucky things had happened to me. How many other humans could have leveled up to level 5 already?

Plus, I could claim a territory a week before any other race. I don’t know why all of this is happening to me. However, the chance to claim a territory before any other race seems like a great advantage to humans. I wanted to get to the Capital in OKC as soon as possible to claim this advantage and save as many people as possible. I decided to put my last two attribute points into Luck. For whatever reason, I seemed to be getting lucky. Putting some additional points in Luck seemed like the best approach.

When gaming, I was never one to hold back attribute points for an emergency. I would rather have an increase in my abilities all the time. There may not be time to apply the points later, and I didn’t want to have to try to do it during combat. There didn’t seem to be a pause button and looking at my character sheet didn’t seem to result in any time changes that are in some video games. Not knowing what Skills were available other than the examine skill. I decided to hold off on spending the skill points. Before leaving the car, I wanted to look at PISS one more time.

Personal Interface Support System (PISS)

CHARACTER SHEET

QUEST

INVENTORY

MAGIC

SKILLS

TMS

HELP

Name

Rick O. Shea

Strength

18

Screen Name

LordShea

Agility

11

Level

5

Coordination

18

Experience to next level

730

Constitution

11

Total Experience

15,270

Intelligence

17

Faction

Undecided

Wisdom

16

Race

Human

Willpower

18

Profession

Undecided

Charisma

13

Class

Strategist

Luck

17

Personality

Survivor

Attribute Points Available

0

Titles

The Harbinger, Quickdraw, Quickening, Decisive

Skill Points Available

4

HP

58

Mana Recharge (PS)

0.34

Mana Well

70

Magic Capability

100%

“Pansofia”, I called reactivating my HELP function. “What is the TMS tab, and why is it a different color”?

“TMS stands for the Territory Management System. Since you are a Contender, your PISS includes the TMS tab. However, as you have not yet claimed a Territory, your TMS tab is not accessible.”

“Okay, Pansofia, so what is a Contender?”

“A Contender”, she said, “is a sapient being that is capable of claiming a territory for their race and or faction.”

“How many sapient races are there and what are factions” I inquired?

“I am sorry”, she replied, “at this time I can only provide information as it relates to your character sheet”.

Since I didn’t have any more questions about my character sheet. I begin to mentally prepare for my trip to Oklahoma City. Now that my car was no longer working, it looks like I was going to be using my LPCs. Also known as Leather Personnel Carriers or boots for the nonmilitary types. I had a few snacks and bottles of water in here for when I was driving between calls, but nothing really of substance.

Considering what I wanted to take with me, I did a quick mental inventory of what was in my car. My work tools are in a rolling toolbox, so those could be handy and I didn’t want to leave those, but other items wouldn’t be of any practical purpose. My company had also issued us a first aid kit. This seemed like a handy item to take with me. In the toolbox was a flashlight, I decided that I would use that instead of my flame spell. It would last longer and wouldn’t deplete my mana pool in case I wanted to use my magic for something else.

As I went to get out of the car, I was surprised to realize that my new doublet was fitting better than it was before. Feeling around my arms and torso, I realized that my muscle mass had dramatically increased. Since it was still cold out, I left my jacket on and hoped that I wouldn’t overheat on the walk.

Going to the back of the car and I opened the trunk so that I could pack up my tools. Once I got the rolling cart set up, I tried to find the flashlight in my toolbox. Finding it, but when I turned it on and nothing happened. Shaking my head in anger at myself, I wondered how long it would be unit I wasn’t surprised by all the effects of what the Release had on technology. Letting out a sigh, I finished packing up the cart. Fortunately, it was a full moon. If I were careful, I could use the light from the moon and conserve my mana. Time to start walking.