DAY SEVEN COMPLETE
Leaderboard Positions:
Level: 3rd
Combat Ability: 8th
Magic Ability 1,202,732nd
Spirit Ability: 9th
Wealth: 124,328th
Survivability: 2nd
Chance of being crowned: 4th
Overall: 22nd
Leaderboard Rewards:
Skill Revelation - Level 15
10 Upgrade Points
Uncommon Loot Box
Level Reached: 15
Class Tier Reached: 2
Reward:
Rare Class Loot Box
As he opened the screen, three items appeared in front of him, sitting on the empty cot within the tent. Two of them were small, carved boxes with words etched into them. It was strange. He had never seen the language before, but he could instinctively understand what the words meant.
**Skill level increased: Translation 1 - 2**
Huh. So that's how that works.
“I seriously hate you,” Lan said as Jay read the boxes.
Oh, come on. I doubt it could have been that hard to get.
“348,210 languages, Jay. 348,210. That’s how fucking many I had to learn before the system finally decided to give me that skill. Have you even tried learning one language?”
Uh, no.
“Then shut the fuck up! Open your God damn prizes that you don’t have a proper appreciation for.”
He let that drop, turning back to the boxes and opening the first one labeled “Uncommon" in that strange language. A small vial filled with a red liquid and an autoinjector it perfectly fit into sat in the box.
Emergency Overcharged Health Injection - Uncommon: Level 15
Effects:
Instantly repair all damage done to your body within the last 24 hours. Once you have used an item of this class, you may not use one again for an entire month. If you use another item of this class before a month has passed, side effects range from instant death to permanent insanity.
Uhh, what the fuck?
“Put that somewhere safe.”
What does ‘other items of this class’ mean?
“Other health injectors. Most of them don’t have that level of backlash or cooldown, but they also don’t have anywhere near that level of effect, either.”
Huh. Neat. Jay placed the injector back in the box and put it in his jacket pocket before moving on to the next box.
This one had the words “class” and “rare” on it again in that strange language. Other than that, though, it looked identical to the first box. Jay picked it up and opened it. A silver bracelet sat inside the space. It was larger than the box should have been able to hold, but it somehow still sat snugly inside. He pulled it out and used his Investigate skill once more.
Hardened Bracelet of Resolve - Rare: Level 15
Effects:
A silver bracelet originally forged by a master dwarven craftsman with the express purpose of bringing his will form. That artifact, long lost to time, inspired several artisans to produce inferior copies that now flood the market. This is one of those copies.
While equipped, any Spirit constructs you create will take on a metallic property and have their strength increased by an amount equal to 10% of your willpower, rounded up.
“That’s a very good reward for you.”
Jay couldn’t help but nod. It may only currently increased his armors’ strength by 4-- --whatever the hell that meant. But between Lan’s reaction and the fact that it was the highest rarity of item he had seen so far, he knew it had to be good. He slipped the bracelet on and instantly felt his armor take on a physical form. He could still see through the helmet without it obstructing his vision, thankfully, but when he looked at his arms and legs, it really did look like he was wearing a set of medieval plate mail.
He smiled as he moved around in the armor and felt a slight boost. It was almost like he was constantly running his Empowerment skill at a slight trickle. It wasn’t that big of a change, especially compared to the observed jump in reflex he had this morning. Still, it would make a difference.
Moving on to the last item, he picked up a glass bottle with a thin neck and a cork stopping the top. An ever-shifting liquid sat within, swirling from blue, to yellow, to red, and every color in between.
Skill Revelation - Level 15
Effect:
Gives you the needed inspiration to level a skill to Level 15.
“Ooo, use that on your armor.”
Wouldn’t it be better for one of my class skills?
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“If you didn’t just get an item that made your armor into a broken fucking skill with the amount of willpower you are gonna be gaining, I would say yes. But you did just get that item, so use it on your armor.”
Jay shrugged. Alright, do I just drink it?
“Yep. Though you should probably sit down first.”
Why?
“It’s, uh, known to be a little disorienting. So, unless you want to wake up from your revelation with an awful crick in your neck from whatever position you collapsed in, I would sit on the bed to drink it. I’d probably even fully lie down for the time it takes to kick in.”
Yeah, that's fair enough, Jay sighed, remembering all the times he had passed out in uncomfortable positions in the last week.
Jay sat down on the cot, swirled the concoction, and observed the strange liquid within. He popped the cork out and raised the glass bottle to his lips.
“Here goes nothing,” he muttered, tipping the potion back.
He gagged as the viscous liquid hit his throat, but he managed to get it down. The only saving grace the liquid offered was that it was tasteless. Even so, between its texture and the fact that it had coated his entire mouth, it was like the damn thing didn’t want to be drunk. A screen popped up displaying his eligible skills. He lay down fully, flicking through the options until he came to Basic Spirit Armor and clicked it. Another screen popped up showing three possible paths.
Upgrades Available:
Spirit Armor
Effect:
An improved version of Basic Spirit Armor
Basic Berserker Armor
Effect:
Protection provided by the armor decreases in exchange for an increased boost in physical attributes. Decrease and increase are proportional at a rate of 1:2. Stores a portion of the Spirit of any creature slain while the armor is active.
Basic Sacrificial Armor
Effect:
Attacks that hit the armor are completely stopped. In exchange for this effect, the armor is highly fragile and will shatter no matter what it is hit with. Spirit cost to reform this armor increases exponentially for each time you form it. Resets after 24 hours.
Jay nodded as he looked over the options. This was actually going to be a hard choice, when he got down to it. He ruled out Spirit Armor almost immediately. He liked the base skill, and a better version of it would always be nice, but the other two options were just too appealing. As he thought about it, the Sacrificial Armor did function how he originally wanted it to. It would save him from long-range or sneak attacks, but that portion of the armor would become useless.
If someone shot at him with an automatic weapon, he would be toast. The Berserker Armor, however, did sound interesting. He managed to look further into the ability and found that, at max strength, it would be slightly stronger than his current Spirit Armor. When he lowered it, he could reduce the armor to almost nothing in exchange for an almost 16x strength boost. He would probably only get a few seconds out of that, though, as the boost ate through the amount of Spirit he fed into the armor when he formed and repaired it. It would, however, absorb the remaining Spirit of anything he killed. As long as he was fighting, his armor would be constantly improving.
He tapped his chin for a few moments before selecting Basic Berserker Armor. He liked the idea of the Sacrificial Armor. That soon changed, however, after he looked at the cost increases and saw that it would be over 3000 Spirit to reform the armor a third time. He decided against it. A sudden burst of nausea hit him, and he was grateful Lan had told him to lie down. He quickly dismissed the notification telling him his Nausea Resistance had leveled. With nothing else to do, he shut his eyes and let an exhaustion he didn’t know was there take him.
He awoke a lot later, when three hours? remained before the next wave. He sat up on the cot and formed his new armor. It was strange to build as each strand of Spirit hardened when it snapped into place over his body. When he was finished, he lay back for another hour. His Spirit regenerated before getting up once more and heading out of the tent. He grabbed his weapons and took his place on the wall again. He was surprised to see the mountain of bodies had been moved, allowing him a straight line of sight with the pyramid. He sighed as he looked around. The wall that had once been filled with soldiers and strange turrets had been battered and destroyed. The enormous weapons were gone entirely, and only a sparse collection of people remained on top of the wall.
Jesus, he thought before returning his attention to the pyramid.
Hey, Lan, I'm supposed to get better rewards based on how long I stay in here, right?
“Yeah, why?”
How many rewards do you think I would get if I took out the pyramid?
“The only reward you're going to get for that is a blade through the chest.”
Really? Even with how strong I have gotten?
“Yes, Jay. You may be able to carve through hordes of those things now, but a node would cut you in half without a second thought.”
I think I could take him.
Lan let out a long sigh. “Fine. Survive today, get the reward that lets you leave and not die, then go fight the big boss like a maniac.”
Huh. I was just messing with you, but that actually is a good idea. I forgot that death doesn’t mean death after today.
“It doesn’t, but it’s still not an enjoyable experience.”
I'll judge that for myself.
Lan sighed again before muttering, “Fucking maniac.”
Jay smiled. Lan was usually the one telling him to do insane things, so this was a nice change of pace. Even if he trusted her intuition enough to know that thing would probably kill him easily. He still wanted to see it.
The third day passed much like the second. Jay cut through every enemy with ease, but it was obvious that after three days of constant combat. The other defenders hadn't been so lucky. Large chunks of the wall had fallen. After the sun finally let out another pulse, the only living thing that remained in the battered structure was Jay. He jumped down and walked to the tent, observing the surroundings with wide eyes. Not even a body remained.
They weren't real.
He hated this. Even though he’d cleaved through those things with ease, it still hadn’t been enough to save the rest of the fort's occupants.
They weren't real.
He kept repeating the words in his mind, but they didn’t help. Even if they’d been meant to die, that didn’t make the screams any less haunting.
They weren't real.
Jay entered the tent and collapsed onto the cot, staring up at the ceiling. He got a notification telling him he had succeeded and could leave now, but it didn’t change the numb feeling that was pulling at him. After a few minutes, Lan tried to talk to him, but, after making sure it wasn’t anything important, he asked her to give him some space. She agreed reluctantly after a few more attempts to get him to engage in their normal banter were met with silence.
They weren't real.
So, why? Why did he feel this way? It hurt. He had accepted on Day One that they would all be dying by the end of this, but did it have to be that way? Jay didn’t know. He couldn’t know. He clenched his fist. Even if it would end with him dead, he was going to make his best attempt to burn that pyramid to the ground. His motto was wrong. Those people were real. They had died who-knew-how-long-ago, but they were real. He couldn’t change what had happened to them or bring them back, but he could make the ones who did it to them suffer--even if they were just hollow copies, as well.
Lan, do you think it's okay to kill someone who does something horrible?
“Well, I believe in killing anyone who’s a minor inconvenience, so--”
Seriously. Please.
She let out a long sigh. “Yes, Jay. Sometimes, you may not want to get your hands dirty, to taint them with someone else's blood. Still, when you find someone that is irredeemable and too dangerous to keep contained…” she trailed off. “Just listen to me on this. Don’t let a monster go. The only lesson they will learn is to come back stronger.”
They sat in silence for a long time before Jay finally drifted off to sleep.
