WARNING! You have entered a dungeon that is a higher level than you, and it will be very difficult to survive.

You have entered a Devourer Hive, a level 15 dungeon that has yet to be defeated. Devourers are a tough species of insectoid, resistant to most damage and able to cut and eat steel. You have been warned.

Logan wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to cry. He knew it’d be tough, but more than ten levels above him, this place was a death sentence if he got hit. His only solace was his massively overworked pistol, but it had limited ammo. It would recharge, but it took a few hours per shot. The recharging feature of the pistol the only reason he was comfortable boosting the damage per shot ratio so high, otherwise he’d be in trouble pretty quickly if all of his ammo was expended after only ten minutes.

He walked in the middle of the formation with Jones, while the scouts took front and rear positions to make sure nothing was able to sneak up on them. He was happy that the UI changed based on where he was looking; if he didn’t see an ally, their name, an arrow pointing to where they were, and their health bar in the top left corner of his visor. When he could see them, their name was projected on their back or chest, where it would be on a tactical vest, he supposed, and the health bar was shown along their spine and both forearms, making it a quick glance to ensure his entire team was health without having to worry about which little bar in the corner of his vision indicated what person.

Pat and Meghan had their new rifles out and ready, taking any corners slowly and making every attempt to be as quiet as possible. Jones had a pistol and a small box with a handle at the ready. He had already shown Logan what his turrets looked like, and this made it easier to pack around and throw before it unfolded and stood up. Once he deployed at least one turret, he’d swap to his shotgun, which was much more deadly than his pistol, even if it was an upgrade from the B-Safe Survival Mk. 3 that everyone started with.

Devourers were mostly blind, Logan learned, which is why they were able to have their helmet lights on, otherwise they’d have to upgrade their gear even further so they could see in the dark. Mason didn’t have enough pull for that, though, so they would have suffered through being a bright light in the dark for every hungry insectoid in here. The main tunnel eventually opened to a cavern, two tunnels leading away on the opposite side. What caused blood to drain from their faces was the three large ant-like insects, but their forelegs ended in crab-like pincers. The devourers were digging at the walls, pulling out what Logan would guess was iron ore and placing it in the middle of the cave.

Meghan moved up, and with Pat they moved in opposite directions to sneak up on the creatures that were on opposite walls. Being in a party allowed them to use their short range radios instead of talking out loud. While mostly blind, the devourers weren’t deaf, so they made sure to use party chat for the foreseeable future.

“I think we’re ready.” Meghan said. “Go ahead and throw your turret, and when it lands we’ll fire.” A round of agreement later, Jones threw his turret toward the devourer on the far end of the room. A gentle clattering lead into two loud discharges from the rifles, bright light briefly flooding the room. The turret unfolded and began to rapidly fire into the last remaining devourer, but it didn’t seem to be doing too much. The scouts moved to either side, trying to line up a shot, but it as moving too much trying to get to the turret to eat it. The roar of the shotgun sounded next to Logan, throwing him off a little bit. He kept seeing the energy blasts bouncing off of the carapace, and even though he didn’t think he could do much, he pointed his pistol and fired.

The front of the devourer’s head shattered into itself, the large blast from his weapon destroying it outright. He stared, completely dumbfounded. The others seemed to share that feeling, but it was hard to tell behind their helmets. The turret, detecting no valid targets, lowered its body between the three legs holding it up. It would take another minute or so before everyone would look to Logan. Jones stomped up to him and jammed a finger to Logan’s chest.

“What in the HELL was that!? I thought you were only level four? Not to mention the fact that you’re holding the crappy gun EVERYONE starts with!” Jones shouted, overtaken with outrage from feeling like he had been lied to. Pat came over and patted Jones’ shoulder.

“Hey, maybe he just got lucky. Critical hits happen in the weirdest situations, sometimes.” She didn’t seem too convinced, but seemed like she was willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Logan decided to diffuse the situation by explaining what happened, because they should all trust each other and keeping this secret might not be the best in the long run.

“Actually, I found a way to modify my gear to make it even stronger. It’s a little different to what the armorers do, so I’m not sure what the limits are. When we’re back at the base, I can show you, but for right now I think it’s best that we keep moving.” He didn’t explain his ability in full, but he figured the gist should be good enough for now. Jones threw his hand up, slipped his shotgun onto his back and picked up his turret. Meghan was keeping an eye on the tunnels, just in case the shouting drew any devourers into the room.

“Well then, what’s the damage output of your pistol currently?” Pat asked.

“Uh… give me a moment to check, it’s been a little bit. I have some system messages, too, so I should check those while we’re still in the clear.” Logan responded. Pat just nodded and turned to help keep an eye on the tunnels. He pulled up his notifications first.

-Logan’s shot hit Devourer Worker! Critical Hit, damage scaled 400%!

-Congratulations, you have leveled up! X2

-You have Six(6) Attribute Points to distribute!

-You have gained a skill level!

Pistoleer - Level 2

Increases damage by 4%

You may select a class when you are ready!

The three insects gave him enough experience to go up a few levels. He was surprised, but he was also very happy to have a group to help him. Logan saw Jones going around and tapping the devourers, but wanted to get back to his growth. Next he pulled up his character sheet.

Name: Logan

Level: 6

Class: None (Selection required)

Subclass: None

Species: Human

Strength: 10 Health: 250/250 Health Regen: 1 /sec Vitality: 10 Armor: 2 Dexterity: 13 Stamina: 290/290 Stamina Regen: 1.6 /sec Agility: 16 Endurance: 1 Intellect: 11 Psi Focus: 210/210 Psi Focus Regen: 1 /sec Willpower: 10 Shield: 0

Skills:

Tinkerer - Level MAX

Allows the user to access alternate functions for items and abilities.

Astro Pilot - Level 1

Increases speed and maneuverability of star ships by 1%.

Pistoleer - Level 2

Increases damage by 4%.

Forced March - Level 1

Stamina drain reduced by 1% during long treks on foot.

General Engineer - Level 3

Items created by you will be 6% more powerful.

Armorer - Level 2

Weapons and Armor can be repaired by 4% before permanent damage occurs.

Logan chose to put more points into dexterity, since he had a group he didn’t need to avoid hits as much, so he opted for damage output. A dexterity of 19 mixed with his skills made his weapon look a lot nicer compared to when he had first pulled it out of his ship vault.

Survival Pistol Mk. 3

Unique

Pistol

Damage: 49-59

Durability: 19/20

Range: 15 meters

Ammo: 1(9)

Special Effects

Unbreakable: Cannot be destroyed.

Recharging: Recharges (1) ammo every (2) hours.

Soul Bound: Cannot be stolen, dropped, or traded.

He let out a low whistle, still not sure how he scored a critical, but now it made way more sense why it killed the devourer in one shot. “Hey Pat, between fifty and sixty on average per shot. That’s what I was able to get it to, but each energy cell now only provides a single shot.” The other three looked to him from where they were standing.

“That’s more than what our rifles do per shot. We have more of them, but still, holy crap.” Pat replied. A sigh escaped the three others as they tried to figure out what to do with that information. “Okay, have you picked a class yet? If so, go ahead and tap the corpses so you can loot them. You’ll want to pick up as much as you can, since the loot is why we’re here.” Logan nodded, taking note that Jones’ body language seemed to be agitated even more now. Meghan gave him a thumbs up and a nod behind Jones’ back, trying to spare the engineer’s feelings but also encourage the new player.

Logan pulled up the class menu, trying to get through the last thing before the others got upset that he was taking so long. A hexagon opened up, each point representing a different class.

The Soldier

The Merchant

The Scientist

The Scout

The Engineer

The Pilot

He already looked up the basics of each of the classes, and while some of them had good abilities, he was torn between soldier and engineer, but he figured that his Tinkerer ability would work better with the skill set of the engineer. He didn’t think that Jones would be upset, since he was in a party with two people that had the same class and while there was overlap, they had each branched out a bit into different skill trees.

Meghan had specialized into stealth and critical strikes, like a fantasy rogue. She worked best in ambush scenarios, which is why she was often used against the outposts and supply lines for the militia. Pat on the other hand, put her talent points into explosives. Useful as well in ambushes, she was assigned with Meghan because of the synergy they brought to the front. Jones, of course, was an engineer, and he specialized in one very capable turret. He makes sure their flanks are covered when on a mission, and there were more than a few times when it was necessary. While they were players and couldn’t actually be killed permanently, they didn’t enjoy the six game hours they lost every single time it happened.

Logan selected The Engineer, as it was in line with his specialty talent. The point that represented the class lit up, signifying that he had unlocked it. The point brightened up and a new menu opened. This one was the list of talents he could pick from, but at the moment it was a little sparse. He only had two points, one for level five, and one for level six.

Turret

(Rapid, Sniper, Dragon, Storm)

Quantity 0

Damage 0

Durability 0

Duration 0

Special

-

Drone

(Bomber, Fighter, Scout, Valkyrie)

Quantity 0

Damage 0

Durability 0

Duration 0

Special

-

Logan needed to select a primary ability to focus his talent points into for now. His research told him that every five levels he could choose to gain a new ability platform or make his current one even stronger. Since Jones was working on the turret, Logan figured he’d diversify their skillset, so he would choose the drone. Their team consisted of scouts already, so he wanted to avoid that one, and while the bomber sounded nice in theory, he knew that area of effects could hurt his allies if they went wrong. Jones’ turret was a rapid striker, so he chose to pick the valkyrie model.

Drone

Valkyrie

Quantity 1

Damage 5

Durability 40/40

Duration 120

Special

Einherjar’s Call

[Once per deployment, the valkyrie can revive one ally with 10% HP]

With a damage dealing support platform, he felt better about their odds of surviving, even if they supposedly weren’t great to begin with, with their team composition not being a healthy mix of different roles. His device wouldn’t deal a lot of damage overall, but that wasn’t the main function. When Logan looked back to the group, they motioned for him to finish looting the corpses on the ground, so they could move on. He was pretty happy with his choices so far.

He poked each of devourers, and a prompt appeared, asking if he wanted to loot them. He selected Yes and they started to break apart into digital noise, as he was the last one who needed to loot. The items he received were placed directly into his inventory, which was handy. He was able to get two units of chitin and a pair of Insectoid Claws. He pulled up the information on the claws, since the basic tooltip told him they were something he could wear.

Insectoid Claws (Devourer Variant)

Uncommon

Gauntlets

Armor: 3

Durability: 12/12

Special Effects

Melee Damage: 4-6

[Hidden Ability]

Sharp claws to rip and tear, to make things easier to Devour.

“Hey, guys, I got some claws. They seem like they’re pretty good, but I don’t want to take them if we need them for something else.” Logan said, letting them know about his good fortune.

“Good find, Logan! Go ahead and claim them, since we’re going to need everyone to be as strong as we can get them. If you find more, though, we’ll need to set them aside, since the set bonus is why we’re collecting this gear series.” Meghan replied, genuinely happy for him. Logan pulled up the menu and equipped them from there, the brown carapace covering his hands and forearms, ending in wicked looking claws on each finger. It would be weird to not see the B-Safe style gloves that had covered his hands since he started this journey.

“Can we go now, please? I want to get through this at least once before dinner.” Pat asked, joining Jones in being annoyed at the delay. They all looked to the two passages before them, but before a discussion could be had, Pat started walking down the left tunnel. “Always choose left, am I right?”

—

The combination of assassin, demolitionist, shotgunning turret user, and SMG drone support worked well for the most part. There were times, many times, where things started to get a little dicey, but the valkyrie was able to keep them safe. Every time he deployed his little friend, it would be flying for two minutes if he didn’t call it back early. Each fight brought more experience, more levels, more skills points, and more loot. About two hours after starting, they started to see even bigger bugs with larger mandibles and more claws. These were called Devourer Warriors, and they took more effort to kill, but provided more loot to collect.

They stopped in a small cave with an alcove that held a small lantern. The others explained to Logan that this was a safe room, a place to rest and relax, sometimes to log out and get some food before coming back in and finishing. Dungeons usually had two, one around the half-way point, and the second right before the boss room.

“So,” Logan started, “We’ve been having a pretty good go of this, but why are these devourers so feared?” The others looked to each other, and it was Jones who responded.

“If you’re not able to get away from them, or they catch you unaware, they can shred your armor and weapons quickly. For you and I, this means that they’re also a danger to our devices. Gear they break and eat doesn’t respawn with you, so if you get stuck, you’re likely to lose all of your stuff, which makes it even harder to get away.”

“They also have a unique history,” Meghan added, “They were once feared throughout the galaxy. Their genetic lines held more diverse samples, and they had a much more complex social network between the different castes and their royals. Now, of course, it’s just the queens, their defenders, the warriors, and the workers.” Logan nodded, curiosity currently satiated. While the others were sitting down and resting a bit, pulling up menus and browsers to check on their lives in the real world, he pulled out his drone and repair kit, popping the latches for the first time in a little while.

“Wait, you can just open them?” Jones asked, his awed expression a rare thing for Logan to see. Logan shook his head.

“Sadly not, you have to have a skill. I mean, you can try, but I’m not sure what will happen. Not with this one, though, I’m going to be using the tools for a while.” He took out a few of the tools to emphasize his point, and started to take the drone apart. Jones took out a repair kit of his own and started to pull at it, trying to get it to open, without much success. The drone’s internals weren’t too complicated, and it looked like if he was willing to reduce the damage output, he could increase the health bonus for the revival feature, or vice versa. He wasn’t thrilled with changing those numbers until he had a better grasp on it. If Logan reduced either the duration or durability, it would boost the other, and while it was tempting to have it out longer, that was only so long as it didn’t get destroyed first.

Logan was about to put it back together when a small piece started to glow a dull yellow. As he looked at the piece, it got a bit brighter before the glow faded completely. When he focused on it, his visor popped up with a tooltip telling him that it was a small fabrication unit, which the drone used to repair itself from a sample that was stored inside. Normally, it was just a small chunk of steel or aluminum that was stored inside, making it relatively quick to repair when it was damaged or destroyed. He might not have a better metal, but he did have pieces of chitin, and from what he had experienced fighting the devourers, it was pretty strong. A small piece of the chitin popped into his hand as Logan selected it out of his inventory, and he popped it into the fabricator.

Almost instantly the drone started to remake itself, from a dull steel grey to a matte brown. Logan was pleased with himself, and he put everything back together and his tools back into the kit. When he finally looked up, the other three were staring at his drone.

“Hey, uh…” Pat started, having trouble finding the right words. “Is there any way you could tell us a bit more about that ability? You’d make a killing on the auction market selling new gear if you can figure out how to do that with weapons and armor.” They all focused enough to get the stats on their friend’s ability platform, which had doubled in durability without any obvious drawbacks.

“Logan, you’re going to work with me to figure out how to do that.” Jones said after a minute or so.