《Hero for hire》Chapter 0-3
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“Hello there! I'm kinda lost, can you help me getting to the nearest information booth? Also you look ugly, can I call the manager?” the Crow smiled while talking with recently severed head of demon. It had no eyes and purple skin, with small set of jagged teeth in it's mouth, which was located right between his small horns. “Of course I can help you. You are now at hell, the information booth is right near the 'Bob and Burgers' canteen and manager was killed when he turned the freezer on. {Laughter}” Crow was currently very happy for being in hell. It was his dream, get in hell, kill the main demon, usurp his throne, and steal a princess. It was not however how he imagined hell. “The hell was supposed to be a place of death and despair, not the funfair! Well, I guess once I get out of ammo it will be quite troublesome.” Crow shrugged and continued walking.
He was walking for 2 hours, and the scenery was all the same. He couldn't understand where was the north, as compass wasn't working, but the time and external temperature were shown. It was 21:23 and the temperature was 10 Celsius. He also found out that the air was similar to one on earth, albeit containing a bit more sulfur. For the next few hours he was walking without an idea of where he was going, before he came back to the place where he murdered 4 demons and left his minigun.
“Well, I borrowed the minigun, so it's not technically mine. Also it's getting late.” Jack looked at what was happening around him. “Well, let's try to scavenge something from demons, shall we?” Jack grabbed one of his knives and proceeded butchering demon. Surprisingly the flesh was easy to remove and meat was rather soft. Also the demon had very thin bones in it's body, but they were quite resistant to cutting, but easily snapped if pressure applied. Once Crow came upon heart, or what he considered a heart, he found a small spherical object inside it. “Oh man! They stoned to the degree of having stoned hearts!” terrible sense of humor aside, Crow was intensely staring at the object in his hand, when suddenly a pop-up window appeared.
Demonic Catalyst(?)
“What the fuck?” Crow dropped the object he held and the window vanished. “I'm not stoned, am I?” Crow grabbed the dropped object and stared at it once again. Same window appeared
Demonic Catalyst(?)
“Well, that's kinda strange. Kinda. What if I stare at the corpse?” Jack stared intensely at the corpses in front of him.
??? (Demon)
“And how do I know that this stuff in his heart is catalyst?” unsurprisingly there was no answer. “Hm... should I eat this stuff? Probably not, but think of what can I gain after consuming the heart of my enemies! Or not. Fuck, I'll butcher other demons and get the stuff from them.” Crow said so and proceeded butchering the recently killed demons.
He finished the process in a few hours, and gained the same stones from them as from the first one. Looking at them they were all named 'Demonic Catalyst', but other than that it contained no information. Crow's stomach growled
“Ups. Guess I'm hungry. Oh well, not like I have any food to eat other than that purple meat. I guess it's purple. Well, let's give it a try?” Crow removed his helmet and cut a tiny piece of meat. Once it was in his mouth, he started chewing on it before swallowing. “Bleh! Taste is terrible! I wish I had pizza!” Crow looked at the hill of meat beside him. “{Sigh} Let's postpone the feast. First of all, if there are blue windows than it probably has status, right?”
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Status is currently unavailable. Time until the full integration of SYSTEM is 01:22:49.55
“Hey! What the hell? STATUS!!!”
Status is currently unavailable. Time until the full integration of SYSTEM is 01:22:49.47
“Oh, I need to wait for around a... two days? Hm... fine. Should I find a place to sleep? Well, I better eat some more meat, the amount I could stomach at least. I doubt I would be able to eat all of it, even if it was tasty.” The taste of demon meat was quite similar to charred rubber sole, but it was quite tender. “Meaning I can easily make bite sized pieces and just swallow it without chewing.” Which he immediately did.
After ten such pieces, Crow understood that he couldn't eat more of this meat. Not because of the repulse, but because he couldn't eat more. The demon meat was quite nutritious, and to the much annoyance of Crow it had quite lengthy shelf life, so it won't spoil for at least a week.
“So, let me get it straight. This shit will feed me for a week?!” Crow asked no one in particular. “Fine, I will eat it for a week. You system better generate me some awesome quest to get the fuck out of this place!”
Quests and Missions are unavailable. Please try again in 01:22:45.25
“Inventory?” Crow asked in hope of getting some rare skill, but it was futile. “Fine, it's not working. Fireball!” and again there was nothing. “Well, I'll have to wait for two days then. Let's make some pack from those demons.” Crow said getting out of his exo-suit and grabbing nearby hides and bones. “This better work.”
After six hours of tiresome labor, Crow managed to make a crude pouch consisting of hides, sinew and bones from demons. It was crude, but for what he had in mind it was of tolerable quality. Unfortunately for him, he was getting tired and had to find a shelter, or make one, as soon as possible. Once the bag secured on the left leg of exo-suit, Crow geared up and moved in some random direction.
“I'm positive that there are quite a lot of demons in this place. I hope I find one with tasty meat.” his hopes however were futile. “Great. Just great. No tasty demons in hell. Hunt just became extermination.”
For the next 14 hours Crow was going around the hell, in search of something. It was still futile as he would sometimes venture back to the place where he killed demons.
“Ah fuck it! I'm going to sleep. Right, Status!”
Status is currently unavailable. Time until the full integration of SYSTEM is 29:57.09
“Erm, what?” Crow was surprised at seeing the time before system could be accessed by him in 30 hours. “Why is that? Why would day have 30 hours in it?!” Crow stood in the middle of nowhere with no clue on what's going on, besides the fact he was in hell. “Better enjoy the massacre to come. Night, or whatever the time it is here.”
-0-0-0-
Jack POV
“Rise and shine!{Yawn}” I opened my eyes to see the all too familiar purple skies and charred ground. “Status?”
Calibrating the Status.
Great. I just was in need of some calibration.
New user detected, initiating tutorial mode.
“Can I skip... oh wait, better not to.”
Establishing connection to the SYSTEM... completed.
Welcome to the SYSTEM. This is your status screen, where you can monitor your parameters, change privacy settings and distribute your unallocated points to where you see fit. Status window also contains messages and in some cases has a SYSTEM-Shop.
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Name/Alias
Contains name of individual, it's Alias and basic information.
Examples:
Name: John Smith
Alias: Stinky
Tag: Tanner(current occupation)
Race
Your Race. Sometimes some creatures may have sub-races which will also be shown here. It is possible to evolve one's race.
Class
The class you've chosen. Class increases the needed experience to level up and gives extra attributes per level.
Age
Age in standard SYSTEM years.
Titles
Titles can give you some advantage in particular field, but at once there can be up to ten titles active, with only one being shown in your status.
Example:
Master Carpenter title might help with creation of better woodworks and increases woodworking speed.
Unallocated Points
Points you can spend on increasing your parameters and affinities.
System Credits
Currency used in SYSTEM-Shop, or Shop for short.
System Tokens
Can be exchanged for specific items or quirks at Shop.
Parameters
Basic Parameters can be increased without limit. Advanced parameters can only be increased to 100. There are only 9 basic parameters [email protected]%$#!^&!#&(!*@&*=+//
While not having class the user can upgrade it's parameters up to 100. Cost for increasing parameter will be locked at 1 UP. After gaining class the user will be increasing parameters with the formula of 1+(?/10) rounded to the lowest value, for advanced parameters the formula is 1+(?/5) rounded to the lowest value.
Example:
to increase luck past 19 one need 4 UP, to increase past 20 cost 5 UP.
Experience (EXP)
Shows in percentage the amount of experience you have. Once it reaches 100 you will level up and increase your parameters according to your class and race. You will also gain unallocated points for further distribution.
Health (HP)
Health is the total amount of damage you can sustain before being knocked unconscious or killed. If your health drops to 0 you will be knocked unconscious, if it comes to the negative amount exceeding the 20% of your total health, you will die.
Mana (MP)
Mana is your total magical energy capacity. It can be used for special moves or to cast spells. If you exceed the limit of your mana, you will suffer a backlash and won't be able to use spells again until your mana is full again, and until then you will suffer severe headache, and possible fainting.
Strength
Basic parameter. Used to determine the total damage dealt, health and health regeneration.
Secondary effect: Makes your muscles more dense.
Constitution
Basic Parameter. Used to determine your total health, health regeneration and resilience.
Secondary effect: Makes you more hardy.
Vitality
Basic Parameter. Used to determine your health and health regeneration.
Secondary effect: Decreases the effects of fatigue.
Agility
Basic Parameter. Used to determine overall coordination and speed.
Secondary effect: Makes body more flexible.
Dexterity
Basic Parameter. Used to determine minute coordination.
Secondary effect: none
Perception
Basic Parameter. Used to determine strength of all of the five senses.
Secondary effect: Varies
Focus
Basic Parameter. Used to determine mana capacity and regeneration.
Secondary effect: Decreases effects of mental fatigue
Willpower
Basic Parameter. Used to determine mana capacity, regeneration and magical defense.
Secondary effect: Increases recovery speed.
Attunement
Basic Parameter. Used to determine mana capacity, regeneration and potency of spells.
Secondary effect: Eases the usage of spells
Charisma
Advanced Parameter. Used to determine overall attractiveness.
Secondary effects: enhances person's aura.
Psyche
Advanced Parameter. Used to determine the ability to influence world through sheer will.
Secondary effects: Increases person's thought capacity to a lesser degree.
Luck
Advanced Parameter. Used to increase chances of any action being beneficial to user, to a certain degree.
Secondary effects: Varies.
Affinities
Your affinities are set at birth and can be increased through the one's life, or unlife. In some cases you can gain additional affinities after performing special actions or by buying the affinities in Shop.
All affinities influence the effectiveness of said element. The waste of mana on element can be decreased or increased depending if the person has affinity or not. If person has affinity in particular element, said person will have reduced mana consumption of all manipulation with the corresponding element by 0.5% per level of affinity.
The higher affinity, the higher resistances one have against that element. 0.25% per level of affinity.
Maximum level per affinity is 100. Changes with race and class.
Primary affinities
Fire
Water
Earth
Air
Light
Darkness
Life
Death
Combinational affinities
Combinational affinities are variation of primary affinities and have the same affinity level as their weakest parental affinity.
Magma
Ice
Mineral
Lightning
Illusion
Shadow
Nature
Hexes
Unique affinities
Unique affinities are affinities one have since the birth of one's soul, and will always have them regardless of the body one will have upon reincarnation. They can be acquired through special actions as well.
Summoning
Time
Void
Space
Soul
Masteries aka Skills
There are many skills one can learn throughout the life, therefore all the skills have categories which they belong to. Note that some magical skills are reliant on affinities, and can't be increased outside of increasing one's affinity
CQC I, Marksmanship II, Defensive Measures I, First Aid I, Survival II, Cooking I, Stealth III, Matter Manipulation I, Matter Creation I
Traits
Traits can vary greatly, but all of them give some advantage or disadvantage, and sometimes both. Traits are inborn qualities, but can be bought or removed in Shop. Some traits are more costly than others, so bear that in mind.
Abilities
Similar to traits, but while Traits are passive, abilities need to be activated.
This concludes the tutorials.
“So, status?”
Alias:
Reaper
Race:
Homunculus
Variant: Prime
Class:
None
Titles:
Inquisitor
UP: 10
SC: 1000
ST: 1
Age:
14
Level:
0/10
Experience:
0%
HP:
997/997
MP:
955/955
Traits
Stubborn, Tough, Esper
Abilities
Grimoire, Discerning Eye, Soul Siphon
Bloodlines
Primary: Human; Secondary: None; Tertiary: None;
Strength
23
Constitution
21
Vitality
26
Agility
26
Dexterity
22
Perception
29
Focus
31
Willpower
56
Attunement
11
Charisma
12
Psyche
14
Luck
73
Fire
Water
Earth
Air
Light
Darkness
Life
Death
15
10
10
10
5
25
5
15
Summoning
Time
Void
Space
Soul
0
0
0
0
5
CQC I, Marksmanship II, Defensive Measures I, First Aid I, Survival II, Cooking I, Stealth III, Matter Manipulation I, Matter Creation I
“Is it good or bad? Wait, first of all how do I get points, credits and tokens?”
Unallocated Points
Gained through leveling up, and through special actions. Used to level up parameters.
System Credits
Gained through completing System generated quests, and through special actions. Used to buy items from System-Shop
System Tokens
Gained through specific actions. Used to buy special items from system shop.
“Do I have special actions required to get UP or SC?”
Current abilities
Soul Siphon (Passive)
Consume part of the lingering soul energy, converting it to UP. Doesn't work against constructs.
Siphon: Life
Can consume the life force of creatures, converting some of their parameters into Lifeforce and sending them for user. Doesn't work against undead or constructs.
Siphon: Soul
Consume part of the creature's soul energy upon it's death, converting it to UP. Doesn't work against constructs.
“Aw shit. Fuck! I have a way to get UP but not SC.”
User has unspent points. Would you like to spend them?
User has unspent credits. Would you like to spend them?
User has unspent tokens. Would you like to spend them?
“YES! All points to luck. Item or ability to gain credits.” obviously the needed items. Luck is almost maxed, so it might even help me with getting out of this place.
One Ability found
Matter Conversion
User is able to convert any substance to 10% cost of it's value in shop.
Cost 1 ST.
“Fine. I take it, not like there is anything worthwhile for those tokens, unless I search for it through whatever amount of junk items. I wonder, do you have some food in shop?”
Category food contains: 457196305 articles.
Eh? Is it heaven or hell? I'll get some cheap burger.
Hamburger combo
Cost 1 SC
You just have to grab all of my money system. You're worse than Nanotech! I'll take 3.
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Travelers [DROPPED]
DROPPED. The story focuses less on dungeon building than on the why of dungeons and how they fit into the universal order. While I am working from a grand plot, the writing is going slice of life style because I need to do that to work out how things progress into that grand plot. The original story seed idea / synopsis is below. The Grand Tapestry protects Rhofhir from Primal Chaos by imposing Order via patterns. However, the patterns grow stiff, stagnant, and so the Tapestry is nearing a time of Unraveling. Evidence of past civilizations wiped out during previous Unravelings foreshadow the apocalyptic catastrophe looming over the world. The mages of the Arcane Asylum reach out across dimensions, searching for some way to prevent, or at least stall, the coming Unraveling. Among the many voices they find is a gifted graduate student researching machine-assisted telepathy -- and his gaming group. Lena never expected that the chance to play DnD with telepathy would result in her becoming an actual Dungeon Master, nor that her friends could become the bosses of her dungeon. This is, in many ways, her dream come true, but there's a catch: What happened to Brad, the creator of that telepathy machine?
8 98Titan Warriors - A Mech LitRPg
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8 188Magnum Opus
Before Kyle Greenar was the great Magus Jade Eye, he was just a normal villager from the province of Rock grove. Spending his formative years working on his family's farm, where High Magus Theta Jade happened to be passing by. She saw his talent for magic and decided to take him as a disciple, taking him back to her guild Jade palace. Where he dove into the study of mysticism and the craft of magic head first. Spending hundreds of years to reach the heights of a Great Magus. But on the precipice to becoming a High Magus he was betrayed by his fellow disciple. Follow Kyle Greenar as he takes his new lease on life and follows a different path of magic.
8 194The World Of Divinity
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8 144Forgetful
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8 71But I never wanted to be involved
My friend loves light novels, games, anime. All I wanted was for some peace and quiet. But he just had to drag me along didn't he. For once, the idiot was summoned as the hero, here's the problem he pulled me. Then I ended up in the same world just no clue where the idiot friend of mine is gone to.
8 87