Project Alpha_Book 1 Page 11

  Chapter 17

  “Gosh darnit!”

  At least that’s the clean version of what I scream as I respawn in my room. The truth is, it was a long stream of curses and expletives.

  Once I calm down, I pull up my character sheet and lament that just a few moments ago I was level 6. Now, after my death, I’ve been knocked back to level 5. I sigh as I sit in bed and remember the progress I’ve made the last six weeks and how it all got away from me.

  ****

  After discovering the dungeon in the mall, the last four weeks fell into a routine pretty quickly. Mondays and Wednesday, I had an Anthropology and Math class in the morning. I would port home to study for a few hours, do homework, get dinner ready, then go to work where I practiced System skills. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I came home for breakfast with my family, get some sleep, hit the dungeon in the mall, then went home to make an early dinner. Afterwards it was English and Biology classes, then port home to study and sleep. Fridays, I hit the dungeon again for a few hours until the afternoon, then I ported home to rest before the night shift at the Quickie Stop Mart. Saturday and Sunday I worked during the afternoon for half shifts, but had the nights free.

  There were always two things I always made it a point to do: I was home for breakfast and I always made dinner for Marie. Mr. Smith would ask me to stay for overtime some mornings after work. However, I always declined, even though the pay is time and a half. I know it sounds silly but the mornings are the only time of the day my family gets to see each other, and I’d rather do that than get overtime hours.

  The weekends were my mom’s only days off and Marie, and I tried to let her sleep as much as possible.

  When we were little, the weekends would be the time Mom would organize things for us to do as a family. She’d take us to the park to play, or to the public swimming pool, or to the museum on their ‘kids are free’ days. In retrospect, I think she was trying to make up for the time she felt she lost with us during the week even if it cost her some much-needed rest.

  Now, Marie and I do things on our own during the weekends. I work part-time and Marie hangs out with Becky and does stuff with cheer and her other after-school activities. Mom is always up by the time we come home in the afternoon though. She has a meal and something for us to do as a family. While I love my mom, it worries me sometimes that she seems to sleep so little. I mean, I’m tired as heck from my part-time job and school. I don’t know how she does it, but she must know what she’s doing, right?

  On a more personal note, Samantha from work kept appearing on my shifts, and we started to get along better once I knew something about her. I kept getting reputation increases with her every time we talked, and I noticed that when I talked about the things she liked, it went up even more. When she started to flirt with me, I was rather surprised. I would have never thought she’d be interested in me. But then again, I rarely understand why women do things. The two of us went out a few times, and I found that she’s pretty hot when she wears something other than a work uniform. However, the places she liked to go didn't exactly appeal to me and I had a hard time thinking of her as a casual hookup when I knew she had a kid. I don’t go past third base with her and things just sort of fizzled out after a while. The two of us still joked around at work, but we stayed work friends.

  In addition to being able to increase my reputation with Samantha, the System has provided some other great benefits. I get into the habit of using Inspect on everyone and everything as I go through my daily life. School, work, home, everywhere. So, it’s not a surprise that after a couple of weeks of practice, I’d raised it to level 4 and I saw even more information when I used it. For example, there’s was a hot brunette in my biology class that I flirted with. At first, I didn’t want to use Inspect on her just because I felt like it would ruin some of the fun of getting to know her. Then she suggested we get together for some ‘private study time’ at her place. I was surprised by the offer, as we hadn’t gone out together yet, so I used Inspect since it had just leveled.

  Jessica Fletcherson

  An independently wealthy young woman in her twenties, Jessica spends her time attending college and researching her next novel. She writes a successful series of murder mystery novels, under the pen name I. Tiddi, and considers herself an amateur detective.

  Likes: Neat penmanship, old-fashioned typewriters, forensic science, and surprise endings.

  Dislikes: Rude behavior, people that ask too many questions, and determined FBI agents.

  Bonus info: Several of Jessica’s ex-boyfriends have gone missing, and the murder rate in her hometown of Cabot Castle is surprisingly high.

  While I thought it could be fun dating someone wealthy for once, the insinuations from the bonus info put a huge damper on my libido. Of course, I politely declined, citing family obligations and I made sure I didn’t ask her any more questions about her past. One anonymous tip to the FBI later and Jessica stopped showing up for class.

  The Inventory Management skill turned out to be a much better skill than I initially thought. Every level I gained in it added one box to my inventory space. I mean, yeah, I could have purchased more inventory space as an upgrade from the System store but this way it was free. It was a little hard to train though, and I only increased it to level 2 but still, free inventory slots.

  From my time in the dungeon, I increased my Bludgeoning Weapons skill to level 3. The higher level in the skill meant that I increased my chances at landing a blow, and I find that hitting monsters with those branches does slightly more damage.

  Since I plan to continue with school even though I’m trying out this dungeon thing, I grabbed some new skills to help me academically. The Speed Reading skill increased reading speed without sacrificing comprehension. The Mental Math skill made the math calculations I did in my mind easier and faster. Finally, the Analysis skill was one of those always active skills that worked with others to boost their effectiveness. Once I got it, I found I saw new points in the stuff I was reading, and the more complex math problems I worked on became easier as I saw how their parts fit together. Even the information I got from Inspect was more detailed, especially when it came to people. It’s like my brain was always studying things in the background.

  While the new academic skills were handy for my classes, they weren’t that helpful in furthering my plan to become a rich dungeon cleaner. I spammed Dungeon Scan whenever I left the house and increased it to level 3, which increased the range of the skill to seventy yards. However, I didn’t discover any new dungeons. Mapping only increased to level 2, but Dungeon Mapping increased to level 3. Since they're background skills, I think I need to go to new places for the skill to increase in level. But the new levels in Mapping were neat; they started to map out new locations with pins.

  Speaking of the dungeon, I was able to fight my way to the castle by week two. The forest area near the cave only had two types of mobs—the Blue Blobs, and the Goombies. The plains beyond only had one type of monster—short, fat-headed Goblins that wielded either wooden clubs or short bows. Individually, they were not hard to kill, but as I got closer to the castle, they started to work in groups. Thankfully, I could use the weapons they dropped. Though the clubs they used did more damage than the wooden branches, they still broke after a certain number of hits. So, I tried to have a couple of spares in my inventory. I tried to use the bows and arrows, but I sucked at aiming, and I could only get off one or two shots before the monsters got too close and I had to switch to the club. I also discovered how to sneak up on Goblins who had their backs to me. I got a bonus on the damage I did, which helped me kill the Goblins a little faster.

  Still, fighting Goblins was a bit more challenging than fighting the Goombies that attacked in a straight line or the Blobs that just stood there. The Goblins seemed semi-intelligent. They dodged my strikes and counter-attacked when I was off balance. In groups they even had their ranged bow users hang behind the club users. I encountered my first experience with d
eath within the System when I came across a group of Goblins that used this tactic. By the time I defeated both club users, the bow user whittled my health down to zero.

  Death was a severe shock to the system that I recommend everyone try to avoid. As my health neared zero, the edges of my vision turned red. Yet even as my last health point disappeared I still felt every arrow that pierced my body. If anything, dying momentarily intensified the pain. Then, pop. The next thing I knew I was opening my eyes back at the beginning of the dungeon, standing in front of the Respawn Crystal, whole and unhurt physically. Though my mind didn’t quite believe it until I stripped naked to make sure there weren’t any wounds anywhere.

  It wasn’t until after I was sure that I was uninjured that I noticed the notifications floating in the air.

  You’ve been killed by Goblin Archer.

  Respawn in 3...2…1..

  You’ve respawned a Respawn Crystal.

  You lose 30 XP. XP needed to level 3: 42

  My concern over my health quickly turned to anger at the experience loss. It turned out that there’s a 30% experience point penalty when you die. This one death lost me all the experience points I’d earned over the last few days. I was almost to level 3 when I died, and I’ll admit that I raged a little in my room at the loss of experience points.

  After I calmed down, I was more determined than ever to improve my monster killing skills. I thought I was being smart by spending most of my dungeon earnings on a simple laser pistol for 120 credits. It only did 3-5 damage per shot, but according to the description it used my TP as a source of energy, which meant that at the cost of 5 TP per shot I could squeeze out about 28 shots before I ran out of TP. Unfortunately, when I tried to use it in the dungeon, I got a message that high-tech equipment wasn’t allowed in this dungeon, which meant I wasted all those credits. I stashed the laser pistol in my inventory for another dungeon.

  My death and respawn also inspired me to learn from the Goblin’s tactics. I figured out the reach of the club wielders and how to dodge their attacks. When they missed, I counter-attacked and smacked them on their football-shaped heads with a club. When the Goblins grouped up with bow users, I learned to stay mobile. I drew the club users away, then dodged around them and rushed the bow users. Once the archers were dead, the club wielders were relatively easy to kill. A similar tactic worked on the large groups of club-wielding Goblins. I hit one, then ran away, drawing just that one away to a place where it was isolated. Then it was easy to kill the solo Goblin. Occasionally, I had to retreat in earnest if I attracted the attention of three or more Goblins in a group.

  By the time I’ve finally reached the castle, two full weeks have passed but I’d regained the XP I lost and made it to level 3. I dropped two points into intelligence and two into wisdom and found my health up to 120, my mana at 190, and my TP at 170.

  The castle itself was a maze with three levels of monsters. On the first level were skinny versions of the Goblins that use spears. They patrolled the hallways and attacked alone. The monster was good with its chosen weapon, and I found it hard to get past the spear in the narrow corridors of the castle. It wasn’t until I noticed that the creature kept trying to attack my head, that the idea of using the Roll ability occurred to me. The next time the Spear Goblin tried to stab me in the head I activated Roll and found myself tumbling under the extended weapon. When I came back up, I was close enough to use my club and killed the creature with a few strikes to its head.

  I picked up the spear the Goblin used but found I couldn’t use it well until I spent a skill point to unlock the Piercing Weapons skill. I used the extra reach of the weapon to devastating effect on the rest of the first level of the castle.

  On the second level, there were a series of ledges I had to climb up and walk along. There were giant man-sized snapping turtles along the way that walked upright and threw a seemingly endless supply of hammers. Even though I recognized the creature as a rip-off of the Hammer Brothers from Mario games, they killed me once by knocking me off a ledge I was trying to climb, making me fall to my death. When I went back again, I had to time my jump to the ledge the hammer thrower is at and can kill it.

  Once I beat all the hammer throwing turtle men and made my way past the ledges, I made it to the final floor. The final floor was just a long hallway that lead to the boss room. The boss that guarded the princess turned out to be a weird mash-up of a long-necked dragon wearing a crown with a spiked turtle shell. When I used Inspect on him I learned how outclassed I was.

  King Kanon

  Level 4

  Health 200/200

  Mana 150/150

  King Kanon is the dungeon boss that kidnapped Princess Plum. While he did so out of love, it doesn’t make it any less creepy.

  Abilities: Fireball, Turtle Defense

  Weakness: Cold, The Love of a Good Woman

  When I walked into the boss room, the door behind me slammed shut, locking me in. King Kanon had some long-winded speech about him being in love with Princess Plum and that no plumber was going to come between the two of them. I could only shake my head at the bad dialogue. When he was done, he attacked by shooting fireballs that did thirty points of damage each time they hit. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for me to die.

  After I respawned, I returned home and looked through the System Store for something that would protect me from the fire but only found a fireman’s jacket that reduced fire damage by 10% and even then, it was way out of my price range. Instead of immediately going back, I took a few days to puzzle out a way to beat the boss. I knew there had to be some trick or strategy that I just wasn’t seeing. I beat the Goombies by figuring out when it would leap kick. I learned how to kill the Goblins by figuring out how to counterattack and lead them away into more manageable groups. The spear wielders I was able to defeat using the ability I absorbed from the Blobs. It wasn’t until I remember that ability that a plan started to form in my mind.

  With my increased Inspect skill combined with Analysis, I was able to see what special abilities each monster in the dungeon had. The Blobs only had the Roll ability; the Goombies had a Flying Kick ability. The club-wielding Goblins had an ability called Smash that brought their club down in an overhanded attack for extra damage. The archers don’t have any abilities, but the spear wielders had one called Stab. The hammer throwers had just the one that I’m looking for though; they had a unique ability called Hammer Time that let them throw hammers in an arc. I leapt for joy when I saw what the ability did, and it fit right in with my plan.

  The first step of my preparation was to trick the hammer thrower into wasting ammo. I stepped into his aggro radius and then once he started throwing his hammer, I stepped back out of range of his arching hammer throws. It’s a tactic I remember using playing those old 2D games. Here, the thrown hammers didn’t disappear, and I collected the stackable ammo in my bag. They stacked into groups of twenty, but I had to pull them out one at a time to use them. After I got enough ammo to fill my inventory, I killed the hammer turtle and used Absorb. I cleared out the second level of the dungeon and killed seven Hammer Turtles but don’t get their special ability. I had to climb back down to the first level of the castle and spend time killing the Spear Goblins until the Hammer Turtles respawned. When they did, I headed back up and killed them all again. I repeated this cycle until I finally got the ability Hammer Time.

  Hammer Time- Level 1

  F

  Active

  This is a unique ability that launches a hammer as a ranged attack. To activate, think or say ‘Hammer Time.'

  Note: Wearing parachute pants while using this ability increases damage by 20% but lowers reputation with all females.

  After reading the ability description, I seriously considered buying some parachute pants but dismissed the idea. After all, I’d have to wear them in public to the dungeon, and that would draw way too much attention to my studly self. As soon as I had the ability, I practiced throwing hammers, only to discove
r I sucked at it. Even with the ability I only hit my target 1 out of 5 times. I realized that there was probably some skill I was missing. Sure enough, when I searched through the Skill menu, I found a Throwing skill which increased my chances of hitting a target. According to the skill description, my dexterity skill also played some role in my accuracy.

  Over the next few days, I was able to grind out my Throwing skill to level 3 by using Hammer Time to kill absolutely everything I can in the dungeon. Anytime I needed more ammo I just returned to the hammer throwing turtles and used the exploit I discovered to fill my bag with throwing hammers. This not only neted me lots of loot but enough experience to get to level 4. Since I knew I need the extra help aiming for my plan to kill King Kanon, I invested four stat points into dexterity which brought the stat to twelve. The physical benefits were astounding. I found that I could run faster and move more fluidly. Additionally, dodging the weapons of the Goblins became much easier, and I noticed the increased rate in which my hammer throws hit.