Chương 11: A New World

I wake up dead. You have failed to enter the park in time, and will received a death penalty. All stats are -5, and you are reset to level 1. Ouch. That's really painful. Tutorial period has begun. Time to end of tutorial: 71: 18: 33. I look around to see if the others are still there. Part of me thinks that they won't be, that I'll be the only one who survived being killed. What if the death penalty subtracts 10 levels from us, and the others all ended up at negative levels, and that meant that they stayed dead?

But they're all sitting around, looking dejected and frustrated.

"What the hell?" Ashley asks.

"Who said we were supposed to be in the park? Which park?"

"I don't know," Gigi says.

"But at least now we know we need to find the park."

"But which one?" El says.

"Do we go to the Minnehaha Falls? To Bde Maka Ska? To Boom Island? Loring Park? Lyndale Park?"

"How do you know so many parks?" Vinny asks.

"I've lived in this city for years, and I couldn't tell you that many park names."

"It doesn't matter," I say, as El shrugs.

"What matters is that we know we need to find a park now, and we have three days to do it. A lot of the parks are near to one another. We can start checking one after another until we find the right one."

"We're going to get killed again," Vinny says.

"We're back to level one, but I bet the monsters haven't dropped down to lower levels."

"We gained levels before," I point out.

"And we didn't have the equipment or the skills we have now. I still have my class. Everyone else still have theirs? Good. So we have some abilities we didn't have before. We've also got all our skills. We can do this. We just have to be careful. But the levels will come, and they'll come quickly. You'll see."

"He's right," Ashley says.

"And we can range farther than we have so far. We also know what we're looking for in shops."

"Let's go to Bde Maka Ska first," Gigi suggests.

"It's right down the street from here, anyway. Maybe there'll be something that will tell us that we've arrived at the right park, and then we can just use that as a home base while we go exploring and fighting for the next three days." We can all agree on that course of action, and so we head out. It doesn't take us long before we come across our first monster. It's a lynxith. Lynxith. Common basic monster, level 6. HP: 60/60. As Vinny predicted, it isn't lower level.

But as I predicted, we're much better equipped to deal with them now. There are three of them, and when I sneak attack one of them, I deal 60 damage. Nearly as much as I was dealing before, and enough for one blow to take the creature down. Once there are five of us and two of them, the lynxith don't stand much of a chance. They try to fight back, but they can't quite get through our defenses.

One of them rakes its claws down Ashley's shield, leaving behind deep scores that makes me think we need to get her a better shield, but it doesn't get through her defenses and actually damage her. You have defeated Lynxith x3. You gain (180/5) 36 experience points. It feels like a pathetically low number of experience points, but I notice that it puts me closer to finishing the lynxith quest, and it gives me and El a chance to get more claws and fangs, so I'm not complaining. Besides.

I only need one hundred experience for level two, and I'll get 250 more if we kill just one more lynxith. So I'm going to level up quickly again. So will Vinny, I think. I don't know if the girls already completed the lynxith quest or not. In addition to the claws and fangs, we strip away more of the fur, scraping the flesh of the inside of it so that it will dry as a good solid hide. It's not leather, but it will serve its purpose as a bag or a wrap or something.

And it gets me another level of Animal Harvesting, which to me is more valuable than the hides themselves. As we walk down Lyndale avenue, we pass by a theater, which gives me an idea. Maybe they have props that we can use, things that are meant to be stage weapons but that we can use either as real weapons or at least as materials for upgrading our weapons. I improved my Smithing to 4 by improving my sword to level 9, but I'd like to improve it even further, if not find something better.

"Let's go through there," I say, pointing at the theater.

"Ooh, I bet they have candy in the concessions area," El says. She hefts her axe and leads the way, a sweet tooth drawing her into the building. I head for the prop room back stage, taking Vinny and Gigi with me. El and Ashley go to raid the concessions for breakfast and for sugar. It's only been three days, but I feel like I deserve some sugar. I've been surviving on trail mix and water, and that doesn't quite hit the spot the way that some licorice would.

We go through the backstage area, and it's not long before I find a prop chest to go through. Sure enough, there are a few swords meant for stage combat in here. They're dull, the blades not designed to hold an edge, but that's okay. I can take them apart and use the metal for something else. What matters is that I find both a mace and a war hammer. I don't know what plays they were doing that required these particular weapons, but I know that they're important to have.

Just these two weapons would do wonders for us against another group of skeleton warriors. Hopefully, we'll be several levels higher than we are now before we fight any more of those, but I like the idea of having a weapon that can actually harm them for when we inevitably fight more of them. I take the time to break down the stage swords that I find, pulling them to their constituent pieces and wrapping all of them up in a lynxith fur, noting that I have a second level of scrapping from taking them all apart.

Then we go out to see how the others did with the concession stand. There's plenty of candy to go around, so we take a break to talk and plan.

"At least we know death isn't permanent," I offer.

"There's a pretty fucking steep penalty for it, but it's not permanent."

"And we know we need to get to a park," Gigi says.

"Maybe it doesn't matter which one. I hope it doesn't. I'd much rather know where we needed to be than have to spend the next three days just guessing."

"How do you think we'll be able to tell if we get to the right one?" Ashley asks.

"I don't want to go through this again."

"Maybe we look for something that isn't supposed to be there," I say.

"Something extra that will tell us we need to be in this park for whatever reason." This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Something like what?" Vinny asks. I shrug.

"I don't know. Something obvious, I'd think. If we're supposed to get there, then there should be something telling us that, something that makes it clear that we've arrived. Maybe some kind of force field that keeps monsters out. Maybe a giant stage for whoever is running this tutorial to stand on and give announcements. I don't know what it'll be, but I imagine we'll know it when we see it."

"So if we don't find something unusual here, we should go to the next park?" Vinny asks.

"How many parks do you think we can make it to over the next three days?"

"Three days is a long time," Gigi points out.

"We can probably hit all of them, if we focus on moving all day. The cities aren't that big. It may take us a while to walk from one to another, but we can make it to at least a few of the parks each day."

"Let's make sure we focus on leveling up, too," Vinny says.

"I don't like being a squishy mage."

"Definitely focus on leveling up," I agree.

"We need to find other quests, if at all possible, to help with that. And not just normal quests. Secret quests are even better."

"What are secret quests?" Ashley asks.

"Like I got a secret quest for qualifying for all the basic classes I was offered," I say.

"There were four of them. Maybe we can all work on skills that will qualify us for multiple classes, and get the secret quest that way. I don't know what they are, but if we can figure them out, they're worth a lot of experience. That's how I was able to reach level ten."

"You were level ten?" Ashley asks.

"I knew you were higher level than we were, because we couldn't tell what level you were. But you made it all the way to ten?"

"Just barely," I say, "but yeah. Level ten." We finish our candy and use the sugar rush to get down the street, where we run into another group of lynxiths. Five of them, this time. I only need to kill one more, but five on five is a good match. I can kill one in a single hit if I get a sneak attack, but I'm not able to get that in the one on one battle. The lynxith claws at me, and I do my best to dodge. It hits, but only does four damage.

Still, that's enough to break my Shell, and while I 20 points of damage with each hit, I get hit a second time before I kill the thing. Again, it's only four points of damage, but I currently only have eleven hit points, so the four points of damage is pretty bad. I'm just lucky it didn't cause bleed. After the battle, we each get sixty experience points, putting me up to 96. But I complete the quest, giving me another 250 experience.

This boosts me all the way up to level three, and gives me four stat points to spend. I'm going to have to increase everything eventually, just to get back to where I was, but for now I put them all into agility, improving my Defense up to 39 and meaning that my ranged attacks will do more damage than my melee attacks, sneak attack notwithstanding. As I level up, I realize that we know a lot more this time around than we did before. We know there is a death penalty, meaning that death isn't permanent.

There's a respawn that comes at a steep cost, but that does come. We know that we need to make it to a certain park, or to any park, before the time runs out on the tutorial. We know that we can qualify for classes based on our skills, and we know how to get magic. I don't know if my talent still works, but it's still listed on my sheet, so I assume it does. I wonder if I'll get another talent when we reach level ten again.

Point is, we've learned a lot about the way the system works, and while the 40 points of attributes that I lost for dying isn't in any way made up for by the amount of stat points I'll get regaining level ten, I at least know what the various stats do now, so I can put my points in them more judiciously. I know the game a bit better than I did, and I know the monsters better, too. I'm not as scared anymore, even if I do have a fraction of the hit points I had before.

I tab over to my classes tab, to see if there are more classes that I could qualify for. Sure enough, there are. Class: squire. Qualify for class. Progress: Dodge 5/3, Shield 0/3, Sword 6/3. Class: barbarian. Qualify for class. Progress: Dodge 5/3, Sword 6/3, Strength 11/20. Advanced class: healer. Qualify for class. Progress: Alertness 3/3, Meditation 3/6, Spellcraft 3/6, Presence 10/20. Advanced class: spellslinger. Qualify for class. Progress: Alertness 3/3, Meditation 3/5, Spellcraft 3/6, Spells known 2/5.

I wonder. If I qualify for all of those classes, or just a combination of four classes between those and the ones I still need to qualify for, will I complete a secret quest and get another boost of experience? I imagine I will. And even if I don't, I'd like to get the skills necessary to help me finish off that new skills quest. I've got 48 skills already, and only need a total of 75.

That's a good 27 new skills I need, but I can get them in time, and having specific skills that I'll want to get will make it easier. New skills are easier to learn; the higher levels are the ones that get harder. And I know that as a rogue, I'll get Pick Locks and Sneak faster. Picking locks is another way for me to get experience. I should remember to do that, if we find any more chests. We should go looking for chests; they have loot in them.

Our next stop before we get to the park and the lake within it is a sporting goods store along Lagoon avenue. It's guarded by five giant mantises. Giant Mantis, common advanced monster, level 8. HP: 120/120. These take two hits to kill with flanking, so I move to fight the same one that Gigi is fighting. She bashes against her shield to keep the thing's attention on her, and I stab it with my sneak attack to cut its health in half with my first strike.

The one mantis that doesn't have an opponent turns on Ashley, slashing at her with its claw and opening up a nasty wound in her back. She almost drops her shield, and Gigi moves to protect her, leaving me to finish this mantis the hard way. I slash again for another twenty points of damage, dodging a slash of claws before it can do to me what it did to Ashley. Her defense is still higher than mine, I'm pretty sure, and it looks like it did a fair amount of damage to her. I don't want to get hit if I can help it.

Not getting hit is the best way to stay alive, even though Shell is there, good for six whole points of damage. It's like I have more hit points, but still far fewer than I did just a few hours ago. When I take out that mantis, I turn towards the others and start using my throwing knives. Each knife does 24 damage, breaking through the carapace of the giant mantis that Ashley is fighting, trying to help her finish the one that wounded her, trying to take the pressure off her.

Once I'm throwing knives, we're able to turn the tide of the battle. I will run out of knives after twelve throws, but that's more than enough to kill the mantis and allow us to gang up on the three remaining, as they continue fighting a losing battle. It's just a matter of time before we kill the rest of them. Another hundred and twenty experience, halfway to level four. Whereas before I felt a desire to get higher levels just to make me more survivable, I'm now wanting to get back what I lost.

I'll get three points for stats at levels four and five, then four points for six and seven. I'll only get thirty four total points between levels one and ten, meaning I'm going to have a six point deficit. It's not as bad as the others have, but I still feel like I'm behind. I need to level up, and I need to do it quickly. In the sporting goods store, we find something that I've been wanting for days. Bows. There's a compound bow and a recurve bow. I check them both. Compound bow. Common weapon level 3/5.

Damage: 6-10. Recurve bow. Common weapon level 2/5. Damage 2-13. So the compound bow does more minimum damage, but the recurve does more maximum damage. It's also a lower level, which means it can be improved more. I should take just one of them, but I decide to grab them both, along with all the arrows I can find. Which turns out to be about thirty of them that are hunting arrows, with pointed arrow heads, and another twenty target shooting arrows, which are just pointy but not sharp.

I don't know what the difference will be, but I know that hunting arrows are more likely to do damage going in and coming out. Target shooting arrows will just slide right back out. Maybe it's a question of causing bleed or not. Either way, I've got fifty total arrows, a quiver that holds twenty of them at a time, and a few extra strings and gadgets that I can try to use to improve the bow when we next have some downtime. El finds a javelin to throw, which does 10-18 damage from the base throw.

That'll do a lot more damage for her, since her strength is, or was, above twenty. I wonder if she's still qualified to be a barbarian. Was her strength at 25 or higher before we all died? The only thing we don't find in the sporting goods store is a shield. There are throwing axes, which El claims for herself, wanting a thrown weapon to go along with the javelin.

"If I can throw an axe or two before closing range, that would be way better. And the javelin is longer range, so I need both."

"Can we spend some time here?" I ask.

"I need to practice with the bow if I want to be able to use it in combat."

"Can I use your throwing daggers while you practice with the bow?" Ashley asks.

"I need to gain the throwing skill if I'm going to qualify for these other classes." Waiting here is just as good as waiting anywhere else, and we need to take some time for Ashley to be able to heal from her injury during the battle with the giant mantises.