Sprint Page 6
You have slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 1x2 blue sigils.
You have slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 2x2 red sigils.
I swipe my shield and knock an insect to the side. I fire two more bolts and a wave of exhaustion hits me.
You have slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 2x2 orange sigils.
You have slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 4x2 red sigils.
I can barely stand up now, but the creatures are almost dead. Rachel is dodging the creatures with her new agility. One manages to make contact biting into her shoulder. She screams angles her gun at its face and fires.
Your party has slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 4x2 green sigils.
I can’t lift my shield up anymore and it is getting hard to breathe. I start to get swarmed, the creatures, sensing weakness, land on top of me. I am too tired to shake them off. I fire more plasma bolts.
Your party has slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 7x2 blue sigils.
Your party has slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 2x2 red sigils.
You have slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 8x2 orange sigils.
You have slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 4x2 green sigils.
I see Rachel rush over to me and she starts to pull the creatures from off of me. I can feel the itching and now I see the value of a ranged heal. She can swing her blade and heal at the same time.
Your party has slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 4x2 red sigils.
Your party has slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 1x2 red sigils.
Your party has slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 2x2 green sigils.
I am able to stand now and I grab one that is biting my arm. I fire two plasma bolts into its head at point blank range.
You have slain a monster in honorable combat, you are awarded 25x2 experience, and 3x2 green sigils.
I lean on Rachel and pull myself completely standing. That is when the green plasma started. To our left a barrage of green plasma burns us. We both jump, more startled than anything else. My Hardy absorbs plasma energy and Rachel immediately heals her wounds. Instinctively, we both duck down behind my shield.
“Well, I guess we found the competitors.”
Rachel snorts. Peaks around the shield and fires her plasma gun. This is just like with the teleporting elves
“If we charge them will you be able to keep us healed?”
“Not a problem. Those creatures only got a bite on me a couple times. I can heal us quite a bit before I am exhausted.”
I start to charge my energy beam. “Good. On three. One...”
“Three,” shouts Rachel and rushes forward. I scramble to keep up with her and race forward just barely keeping up. The plasma fire focuses on Rachel and she shields her face and keeps running. Her arms getting burnt and healed in rapid succession. I fire two plasma bolts, arcing them to the source of the green bombardment.
That gives us a momentary pause as the green bolts veer off to the side. I spooked them, good. It’s time they face my true attack. My beam is fully charged. I fire two more bolts, trying to take some pressure off of Rachel. I look in the corner and I have forty-one energy in my aether. I can afford this. I see the aliens in the distance. They are green skinned humanoids, orcs. The aliens are only forty yards away. I line up my energy beam and tap into my aether. Pain fills me and my dark blue beam lances forward. I only have to hold this for two seconds. I can do anything for two seconds. While my beam is painful, it does catch the orc unaware. The dark blue beam lances through his chest.
You have slain another competitor in honorable combat, you are awarded 100x2 experience, 50x2 honor points and 10x2 purple sigils.
Rachel was always ahead of me, but now she has reached the aliens. She swings down her sword and the alien throws up his rifle to block. The fire gem explodes the gun and it is thrown from the alien’s hand. Quicker than I could believe the alien is striking at Rachel with two daggers in each of its hands. Rachel dodges the first swipe but gets caught with the second. Her hands glow green even as she swings down with an overhead chop. The slashes she suffered stitch back together as the alien blocks her blade. Rachel and the orc are dancing around the solid ground. Rachel is able to dodge most of the dagger strikes. The orc does manage to get some solid slashes on her as Rachel tries again and again to get the orc to over extend. Rachel’s hands are now just constantly glowing green. Rachel slashes sideways with her blade and the alien blocks with one of its blades. I didn’t realize before, but this orc has four arms, each of them wielding a dagger.
I rush forward. I do not want to send my ranged attacks in there and hit Rachel. Rachel dodges another swipe of the daggers and stabs with the sword. The alien is caught in its shoulder and red blood spurts out. The green skinned orc drops its dagger in the arm Rachel stabbed. Now it is using only three of its arms. Rachel doesn’t stop, she pulls out her blade and goes in for an overhead chop. The alien raises two arms up to block while stabbing Rachel in the gut with the third. Rachel doesn’t flinch or attempt to dodge. She continues to press down with her sword and aims her gun at the creature. She pulls the trigger at point blank range, hitting it with three green plasma bolts. The creature reels backward as Rachel has burnt his chest and exposed his white ribs. Rachel sweeps her sword sideways and chops the creature’s head off.
Your party has slain another competitor in honorable combat, you are awarded 100x2 experience, 50x2 honor points and 9x2 red sigils.
You have been awarded with 40 Iron I Tokens and 500 experience for your victory.
Your opponent was ranked higher than you. You have earned the achievement Goliath Rank I. You are granted 500 honor points as a reward.
Congratulations you have survived your fourth Gate War.
You will be transported back to your world in thirty seconds.
Rachel pulls the dagger out of her abdomen and throws it on the ground. We quickly loot the alien orcs. Mine drops 393 credits, 8 blue sigils and a brooch.
Brooch of Absorption Durability 78/100 While worn, this brooch will absorb units of power equal to its current durability. Once the Brooch has absorbed its durability worth of power, it will disintegrate. This item cannot be repaired.
I feel the familiar tugging sensation and I am whisked off to my Whitespace.
Chapter 9
Feeling good about our latest victory, I open up my interface and I am slack jawed at the icons. There is the level up icon, the skill up icon, the talent icon and the array icon. Not wanting to waste any of my upgrades I click on the level up icon. This is just in case I get a new more powerful ability.
You have leveled up. You are now level 4. You have unlocked Professions. You have unlocked reward multiplier x 1.2. Enter the gates, battle across the galaxy, fight, win, conquer.
This level grants me professions and unlocks a reward multiplier. I am a little disappointed that I didn’t unlock another ability, but maybe professions will be useful. I click the new icon that appeared, a hammer.
Welcome to Professions. Professions are a way to create objects of power within the Ulterian system. Having a profession allows you to harvest material from the world and monsters. To craft items you must first learn the formula. Formulas are either researched or granted as you obtain ranks in your profession. You may have as many professions as you desire, however a few unique formulas can only be obtained through the leveling interface. You may unlock more formulas by conducting research and learning more about the world. Your personality, genetic disposition, and behaviors has been scanned and you are given your most suited choices now.
Smith: Create weapons and armor
Lapidary: Create gems and stones
Runologist: Create Mana active runes
Alchemist: Create Mana imbued elixirs
[+] More...
Trusting in the Ulterian system and ignoring the more option, I consider my choices. Maybe smithing is the way to go, crafting dangerous weapons and armor could dramatically impact my combat capabilities and survivability. We haven’t found any good armor yet, but that extra bonus defense could be the difference between life and death. I liked the idea of creating more gems like the Gem of Firebrand. The extra damage I could give everyday weapons could be awesome.
Runologist appealed to me on a visceral level. Something about crafting with a mana language has always appealed to me in video games. Why wouldn’t that extend to my real life. I wondered vaguely if there are sentence structures that influenced abilities. I wondered what media I could use and how to craft the script. I wondered if I could make magical texts that function as spellbooks.
My last option appeals to my inner chemistry teacher, it just didn’t have the same appeal as Runologist. After waffling for a few minutes on my choices, I just decided to dive in and I selected Runologist. Afterall, the notification had mentioned that I could have as many professions as I wanted, I just need to find some way to learn them. The other options weren’t out of the running, just not right now.
Runologist selected.
Formula Learned: Minor Mana Storage
Formula Learned: Minor Hardening
Formula Learned: Minor Kinetic Energy
Formula Learned: Minor Wealth
Suddenly, I just knew how to create. I knew the intricacies that went into runecraft. The lines need to be spaced precisely, different shapes harness ambient mana differently, the knowledge even extended about techniques to use to etch runes into metal. Runes could be combined with each other to produce secondary effects. For example, I knew if I combined the mana storage rune with the kinetic energy rune, I could create a system that could gather charges while in someone’s personal inventory.
I bring the Minor Mana Storage Rune to my mind and a diagram appears in my mind. I can understand why it works, how it absorbs the mana and where the mana gets stored. I decide to test something, and I take off the Ring of X-ray Vision and examine it closer than I have before.
On the inside of the band I see a small script. I examine it closer and I notice some striking similarities between one of the runes in my ring and the minor mana storage rune. This must be how the ring regains mana. I notice a few other runes, but they don’t look like anything I know so I don’t really pay much attention to them yet.
I focus on the rune that I almost know and imagine how I can draw it. I overlay the minor mana storage rune in my head and notice that there are only two more lines. Those lines must be like the antennae grabbing mana from the environment. I run over to the auction house and purchase a pen and some paper for 12 credits. I pull out the paper and write out the minor mana storage rune.
Rune crafted Minor Mana Storage.
Success! I attempt to add the lines where I see them on the ring and I don’t get any messages. I craft another minor mana storage rune and I attempt it again. Nothing. It takes me twelve tries before I get the notification that tells me I am on the right path.
Formula Progress Basic Mana Storage
I fill up the entire paper with minor mana storage runes and I only get six more formula progress notifications. I buy more paper for 4 credits and tuck it away in my inventory and go back to my interface. I know I am on the right track at least, if I have to practice more, I have to practice, but I don’t need to be in my Whitespace. Rachel is waiting for me outside, so I better level up quickly.
I open up my talents first and see my one and only ability. I click to upgrade it.
Shake it Off (Passive): Automatically resist a mental of physical status effect 7.5% of the time.
Nice little upgrade from its base of five percent. I’ll take it. Moving on. I open up my ability window and take some time reviewing my abilities. It appears that I can upgrade all the traits.
Energy Beam (Active): Create a beam of electromagnetic energy+ from your hands+. Energy beam contains 10 units of power for up to 2 seconds+. Siphon 2 units+ from your personal aether to add 1 units+ of power to your energy beam. Cooldown 9 seconds+.
Hardy (Passive): Your skin, ligaments, tendons and muscles+ temper and are more resilient. In addition, 1 units+ of force and 2 units of electromagnetic energy and 1 unit of plasma energy+ of every impact is redirected into your personal aether+.
Plasma Bolts (Active): Create 2 bolts+ of Plasma out of your hands. The bolt contains 1 unit+ of power. Bolts gain their energy from your stamina, firing more than 15 bolts in 20 seconds+ will cause exhaustion. Expend 20 units+ of energy from your personal aether to remove exhaustion. Bolts can be mentally guided after fired. Cooldown 1 second.
I decide to invest in my defense. Having that battle with the gray skinned aliens really woke me up to the importance of defense. I decide to upgrade my blue trait, my red trait, and my green trait for my Hardy ability.
Hardy (Passive): Your skin, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and organs temper and are more resilient. In addition 2 units of force and 2 units of electromagnetic energy and 1 unit of plasma energy+ of every impact is redirected into your personal aether. Expend 10 units+ from your personal aether to temporarily increase the force and energy redirection by 100% for 10 seconds+.
The pain of tempering cascades throughout my entire body. My insides seem to burn. I sink down to my knees gasping for breath. My lungs don’t seem to be working right and my vision is going black. I can’t keep my eyes open; the pain throughout the inside of my body combined with the lack of oxygen. I close my eyes and continue with the pain. I am not sure if I did end up passing out, because I just remember pain one moment and no pain the next. I stand up. It feels like I have been kidney punched all over my entire body. It still hurts to breath, but it is manageable now. I review Hardy again and I am pleased at the bonuses it is giving me now.
I still have one green trait to upgrade and it can be in any ability. I could upgrade plasma bolts. This would allow me to fire more bolts, but to make this ability more useful I really need to upgrade the blue trait so I am not as exhausted as quickly. I would only be able to five times every twenty seconds and that isn’t what I want out of my ability. I want to be able to spam it. I could upgrade Hardy more, but I feel like it just got a significant boost, it would be a waste to give it more. So, by process of elimination I upgrade Energy Beam and it reduces the cooldown by a second.
Energy Beam (Active): Create a beam of electromagnetic energy from your hands. Energy beam contains 10 units of power for up to 2 seconds. Siphon 2 units+ from your personal aether to add 1 units+ of power to your energy beam. Cooldown 8 seconds.
Just one more icon left, my Arrays icon. It appears I can upgrade either the strength of my Hardy-Energy Beam connection or my Hardy-Plasma Bolt connection. Most weapons we have encountered so far have been plasma based. We might run into electromagnetic weapons later, but right now taking less damage from plasma seems more useful. I upgrade the Hardy-Plasma Bolt connection. I am pleased to find out that the amount of plasma energy redirected from Hardy has increased from one to two and now it costs nineteen instead of twenty units of energy to remove exhaustion. Progress!
Without any more icons, I have one more thing to do before I leave my Whitespace. I walk to the black panel and open up the Gate Store. I make my purchase and walk out of my Whitespace.
Universal Antidote obtained. It has been stored in your inventory.
Universal Antidote: An elixir of great power. This antidote is a panacea for all diseases, poisons, and conditions in the known universe.
I make my way outside and I find Rachel standing twirling her blade. She smiles as I approach. The limp in her leg noticeable as she comes forward. “Please tell me you have it.”
“Ha
ve what?” I say with a smirk.
“The antidote! I didn’t know this, but the more I strain my leg the more the poison spreads. It was okay when I was just running, the spread was small, but all that dodging I did in that last battle caused an entire muscle group in my leg to fail. I need the antidote.”
I scrunch my brow in concern, “Was I supposed to get the antidote?”
She smiles and punches me, hard. “Hand it over.” I summon the antidote. It is a small vial of purple liquid with red spots. She opens it and gulps it down in one swig. “Oh my god, that literally tastes the way farts smell. I just drank a fart.” I bark out a laugh. If it cures her, drinking a fart will be a small price to pay. She closes her eyes and lets out a sigh and then a sob. “Will, the antidote was too powerful. It cured the poison, but it also cured my pregnancy condition. We just lost the baby. I can’t sense a heartbeat when I use my scan. Will, what have I done?”
My skin paled and I started to sweat. Butterflies suddenly appearing in my throat. I don’t know what to say. This will be the third miscarriage. This one to alien antidote that considered pregnancy something to be cured. Don’t aliens know what life is, don’t they value it? How could something that describes itself as a panacea treat pregnancy as a condition to be cured. Rachel starts crying and I hug her. We were looking forward to a child and now she has bloody pain ahead of her.