“You got one too?” Huwett asked, moving close to me. “Uncommon Skill Card. Wonder what we would get if we used it?”
Uncommon?
I thought, realizing that Huwett might have been rewarded with only an uncommon grade reward. Which made sense, I basically did the optional quest alone, and landed the final blow on the dungeon boss, so my contributions were probably rated higher by the System. No one else made mention of the grade of their reward, which made me think they all got an uncommon card besides me.
“Let’s find out what we get then!” Francis yelled as a faint golden light suddenly flashed in his hands where a small rectangular item floated above his palm.
The small item was only barely discernable by its outline for a moment before it crumbled into ash and the light was absorbed into Francis’ body. His eyes glazed over a moment as he began readying some kind of notification.
“Basic Axe Mastery,” he said aloud when he finished reading. “Not all that impressive, but at least useful.”
Everyone else quickly began activating their own skill cards, and with all the excitement of their own reward, no one noticed that my card was tinted yellow instead of light blue. It only showed in my hand for a moment before crumbling away.
[Activating Skill Card (Epic) Blood Manipulation…
Skill Slot Used: 1 -> 2 / 10
New Skill (Blood Manipulation) Unlocked]
That certainly sounded better than a weapon mastery skill. I couldn’t help but bring up the skill description.
[Blood Manipulation - Lvl 1 - Beginner
Effect: Allows physical control of your blood through use of mana. Level of control is determined by skill level and intelligence stat.]
It was a rather open ended skill, which were the kinds that I loved in video games, as it meant one had many options in how to use it. Something like this skill may sound simple, but it was a godsend if used by anyone with enough creativity or talent.
As it would turn out, those were two things I had in generous amounts.
“What’d you get, Adam?” Barry asked me with a smile.
“Basic Sword Mastery,” I lied. “Would’ve loved some magic like Vasquez, but still useful I think.”
“Agreed, I got ‘Minor Regeneration’, seems good for a tank, ” he laughed. “What’s with the slots though?”
That was also something I noticed as well. I brought up my skills to figure out what was going on. The System was stingy with information, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t any logic to it, so I tried piecing it together.
[Adam Pierce:
Skills: Inspect [Max], Blood Manipulation - Lvl 1 - Beginner, Shade Stealth - Lvl 2 - Beginner, Marked to Die - Lvl 2 - Beginner
Skill Slots: 2/10]
“Did you get the [Inspect] skill from the Tutorial quest rewards?” I asked.
“Yeah, you too?”
“Mmm,” I swiped away the screen and clicked my tongue in thought. “Looks like our class skills don’t count against these ten skill slots. Meanwhile, these rewards do. So I’m at two used slots out of ten.”
“Can we just trade out skills whenever we want, like a loadout?” Barry closed his own screen and was looking at me now, his face filled with a mixture of excitement and concern.
“No clue,” I admitted, this wasn’t something my Sponsor went over with me in the entry room of the Dungeon. It was apparent to me that I’d need to have more indepth talks with her later, if one could even manage to get Death to talk. “I’m guessing there is a cost or penalty to changing out skills once your slots are filled. Maybe they disappear, maybe the lose levels or something? There’s always trade offs in RPGs, I don’t see this would be any different.”
“Yeah, true. Guess that’s a pig that will need to learn how to fly once we ride it,” Barry said with a grin.
“What?”
“You heard me,” he waved a hand dismissively. “Now how do we get out of here?”
“I think by using that,” Norton pointed off a short distance away where a dark blue portal shimmered just above the ground in the clearing.
“Weird, we gotta use a portal, the Tutorial just kicked us out once the quest was complete,” Huwett said.
“Tutorial is different from a normal Dungeon Rift, I guess,” Francis replied, already beginning to walk toward the portal. “No use filing a complaint, doubt this System has an HR department.”
“True that,” Norton chuckled, clapping a large hand on Francis’ back.
“Let’s go then,” Barry waved, following after the two men.
“Alright, alright, let’s go,” I walked a couple steps before halting abruptly and brought up my status screen.
I only at that moment realized I never chose an option on the spirit absorption for the Dungeon Boss, nor for the Elite Ork Warrior for that matter.
[Ability Activated: Soul Usher (F)
Harvesting Soul Essence…
Options available.
Consuming Stats: Essence Cost 10 (5 x 2)
Sentient Spirit (Ork Scout) consumed, Beast Spirit (Lord of the Wood) consumed, allocating gain based on Sentient’s highest stat.
+2 Strength gained, +1 Vitality gained, +1 Willpower gained]
It took only a moment for my ability to break down their souls into stat points. With that done, I spent my free stat points from my level up and quickly checked my status.
[ Name: Adam Pierce
Class: Death’s Disciple
Level: 12
Stats:
Strength: 28
Dexterity: 52 (56)
Vitality: 50 (51)
Intelligence: 36
Willpower: 38 (39)]
With the absorbed stat points, my boost from my level up and the three free points I spent, I was able to figure out what the new upgraded Pioneer Title did for me, which was an additional plus one to all stats. As before, it didn’t seem like it would be a large difference later down the line, but right now, that was basically two more levels worth of free stat points.
Nothing to scoff at for sure.
“Come on, Adam,” Francis called out to me from just in front of the portal before turning and disappearing inside.
I jogged to catch up with everyone else, stepping into the shimmering blue energy and leaving the Dungeon behind.
“Your agility has really increased, previous human world records are nearly laughable now,” Lucilla said as she looked over the screen display next to her. I could see the numbers on them rather easily as they blinked, "39mph".
And that isn’t even my final form.
I thought to myself.
The feeling that I needed to hold back on revealing my full capabilities still stuck in my head, so I wasn’t performing to the fullest extent that my stats allowed for these tests. My mental switch was off for the moment, so I was able to accurately feel the slight pang of fear and trepidation around the government bending my powers to their whim. It was something that I was rightfully worried about, as the TV screen behind Lucilla demonstrated.
The displayed newcast showed a large government building interior, men and women in suits all seated about in a large circle as they yelled and argued with each other. A lone brunette woman, who looked not even to be in her mid twenties yet, was speaking into a microphone in front of the collected politicians.
In the lower right corner of the screen was a video of a gathered protest, people waving signs and pumping their fists in the air.
At the very bottom of the screen was a running banner that said “Congressional vote for Emergency Proposition D108: Regulatory body and conscription of Rift Hunters aims to put “superhumans” under the purview of the government. This comes following the European Union’s vote under ratification I-302.”
It was the same all over the planet, governmental bodies pushing to have singular power over the individuals who have gone through System Tutorials and gained classes. The larger consensus was to call such people “Rift Hunters”, after the spatial rifts in which they had to chase down and enter to gain their powers.
Since the entry and completion of the Common Dungeon rift that was completed by Barry, myself, and the others, the government had basically had us locked into the training facility for a week to do further assessments.
In the seven day interim, the world was reeling from the changes forced on them. The most obvious being the threat of people walking the streets who are essentially superhuman, and managing that against the backlash of violating human rights by rounding them up and hiding them away, possibly under cheese caves.
Because the government would never do that.
“Final test will be offensive power,” Lucilla said, tapping her clipboard impatiently.
“Gotcha,” my runeblade appeared in my hand with a flick of mental effort and I turned towards the large wooden dummy set up nearby.
It took only a few seconds to barrage the dummy with some slashes and stabs, before I received the signal to stop.
The dummy was heavily gashed and torn from my attacks, but its three foot thick body wasn’t cut in half or anything. I would have dealt more damage if my [Marked to Die] skill worked on lifeless objects instead of only on living things, or at least anything with a spirit.
But, I also wasn’t trying to go all out anyway, so it turned out in my favor.
“Your results will be tallied and sent to you, for now you may return to the residence quarters,” Lucilla didn’t even look up from her clipboard when she spoke that time. I felt my mouth curling into a half-grin as I looked at her.
The woman was a workaholic, real Type-A motivation sort of person. She probably dreamed about spreadsheets and numbers in her sleep. Which was too bad, I felt like she had the courage and competence to be a strong Rift Hunter in her own right.
“I’ll be there until you need me then.”
Most of the other Rift Hunters were in the shared lobby by the time I walked in from the testing hangars. Barry, Francis, Angela, and a dozen or so other faces that I’d seen around the facility before but never really got to know too much.
They were all animatedly talking as the news showed on the large screen at the back wall, the image of the same congressional gathering appearing on it as the one I had seen minutes ago.
“Making sure we don’t have superpowered serial killers and sadists walking in public is most important right now,” said a woman. She was tall, muscular almost to the point of rivalling Francis, and obviously some kind of melee fighter class.
“Saftey of people is important, but not to the detriment of violating human rights. Who cares if we are all alive if we are living as slaves to a Tyrannical military state?” Another man said in retort.
The man was thinner, with long black hair tied back in a bun. His posture showed no fear of the physically larger woman, and I guessed he was some kind of agility based class given his frame.
“Things will be worked out, we don’t need to fight each other to the death about how best to keep people alive,” Barry moved in between them, his tone strong but comforting at once. “Rift Hunters can help police each other, just like how humans police humans already. It’s about setting the proper example, we can be that example.”
“How, when we are locked away like lab rats by the government? No one even knows we are down here, my wife and kids think I’m helping a business emergency at my old job, I can’t tell them their dad is a prisoner in a damn cave being tested as a weapon!” A new man stepped forward, his eyes crackled with lightning from some kind of skill. He was probably a mage.
“I understand—”
“Do you? Do you have kids?” A woman cut off Barry’s reply.
“No.”
“Then you don’t understand at all.”
“I’m sure this is all a temporary measure until things are understood, and the rules around whatever this System and its portals are,” Barry continued, his smile still amiable and his voice still cheery despite the venom aimed his way.
“Yeah right. You all don’t get it do you?” The lightning mage said again, his face drawing into a grim scowl. “The governments, all of them all over the world, only know control and power. Corruption and greed won’t just go away because there are people capable of tossing eighteen-wheelers. If anything, they’ll want to monopolize that power for themselves. Military power, corporate pressures, wealth, it’s all the same.”
I looked at this guy with a slightly raised brow. He seemed to understand things alright. I thought the same thing, that the power grabs wouldn’t just stop here, in these caves alone. It will get worse unless something forces the larger world populace to see what’s happening.
Which meant we, all of us, needed to get out of this facility and get our freedom to reveal it all. But as the others said, the military had our families, our kids, they had my parents. Nothing was ever stated directly, but we all knew what that meant.
I can bust out of here if I really needed to.
I thought. I knew that was true, but it wouldn’t solve anything. One man ranting about secret government ops during a literal magical apocalypse wouldn’t gather any attention.
I had to wait for my moment. Figure out or find a means to escape this situation without putting my parents in danger or ruining the narrative that we needed.
“Whatever, be a pawn, I’m not stupid though, I know what’s really happening,” the lightning mage guy waved his hands and stalked away, leaving Barry to talk down the rest of them. The Paladin would be able to do it, he was just that kind of guy. Likable almost to a fault, I felt that from the moment I met him.
Hell, even I liked the guy, maybe enough to say he was a friend.
Which would make what happened eight months from then, all the more difficult to admit.
1.15 Bloody Rewards