Jay slowly moved down the staircase, gun at the ready. He rounded the corner and swept the large living room. It was the only part of the house that was actually decorated. A nice couch faced a TV on the opposite side of the room from the staircase, and a weight bench sat a few feet to the left of that. More motivational posters covered any free wall space.
The rumbling swept through the house once more, emanating from the couch. Jay paused for a moment before creeping forward again. He kept his gun ready, idle by his side as he peered over the couch and found the sleeping form of Jett. The resting man's mouth hung slightly open, and as he breathed in, the rumbling echoed out from him once more.
Jay sighed, holstering his weapon before lightly shaking the man’s shoulder.
“Huh, what?” Jett asked, looking around.
“Have you ever heard of sleep apnea?”
“Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling?
“Fine enough, but seriously, dude. With how bad your snoring is, you might want to get it checked out before... you know. Everything hits the fan.”
“Eh, it’s fine. I would prefer not to get any more cybernetics. This damn arm already gives me enough grief. You know how annoying it is to have to change out an arm every few months just so your body looks proportional?”
“Uh, no. How the hell can you afford that?”
Jett waved a hand. “Frank takes care of it.”
“Who is Frank?”
“Oh, I guess you two haven’t met yet. Frank is a good buddy of mine and basically like my older brother. Long story, but he takes care of everything I want.”
“Huh. What did Frank do for a living to be able to afford that?”
“Nothing much. He just organized fights for me.”
Jay raised his eyebrows. “What kind of fights?”
“Everything from boxing to mixed martial arts. I've fought from pay-per-view to underground cage fights, and Frank had been my manager through it all.”
“So, why don’t you pay for your own things? Sounds like you should be able to afford it, doing that.”
“I don’t care much for money. Hell, I would have paid to be in those fights. Well, except the one where I lost my arm, but that's another story. At the end of the day, I just want to be comfortable and have fun. So I let Frank keep all the money on the condition that he kept finding me fights and paid for the things I needed.”
“And what if he just ran off one day?”
“Frank? He would never do that. Me and him are thick as thieves, and I could never see him doing something like that. Eh, you will understand when you meet him.”
“You do you. Anyway, how long was I out for?”
Jett lazily flipped his head over to look at a clock sitting on the countertop of a nicely furnished kitchen. “About ten hours.”
Jay winced at that. He had lost almost a full day just to win a duel. That reminded him to actually check the notifications he had missed.
**Skill level increased: Basic Spirit Empowerment 11 - 12**
**Skill level increased: Basic Spirit Armor 10 - 12**
**Skill level increased: Misdirection 4 - 5**
**Skill level increased: Basic Blade Combat 2 - 6**
**Skill level increased: Unarmed Combat 8 - 11**
**Skill level increased: Basic Weapon Knowledge - Blades 0 - 1**
**Duel complete. Result: You have been declared the winner**
At least it had been somewhat worth it. He probably could have gained all those levels without losing ten hours, though.
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “So, uh, how the hell do I get back to my apartment?”
Jay and Jett talked for a while longer before Jay finally left the house. Jett had given him some basic directions on how to get back to the park they had fought in, and also offered Jay his contact information. That led to a discussion about why Jay didn’t have a phone before Jett just resigned himself to visiting his apartment every once and a while. It was around midnight when he finally left Jett’s house and began walking back to the park. After all was said and done, despite the unprompted way-too-long nap, Jay was happy with the day’s events.
He stopped for a moment, running through all of it again. For the first time in years, it felt like he actually had a friend, and it was glorious. A smile formed on his face, and he continued walking until he reached the park. He thought about just heading straight to the dungeon and learning whatever leveling thing Lan had for him, but had a better idea. There was still probably a good amount of weapons and tech in the nearby enforcer stockpiles, and he wouldn’t complain about getting a few more levels in Stealth. Rubbing his hands together with a grin, he promptly changed course and made his way to where he knew a few had been.
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He carefully crept around the unmarked warehouse, making his way to the back door. Keeping his Obscuration skill on at full blast, he pulled out a hammer and a crowbar he had acquired on the way here. He placed the crowbar on a large padlock that held the back door of the building, and, after looking around one last time. He wrapped the handle of the crowbar with a shirt to slightly dampen the noise and began hammering away until the lock snapped and dropped to the ground.
**Skill level increased: Lock Picking 2 - 3**
He wasn’t sure how what he had just done could be considered lock picking, but he wouldn’t complain. The metal door cracked open, and he slipped into the warehouse. Red lights illuminated the room and swept side to side, causing Jay to curse when he saw what they were attached to. Two automated turrets armed with what looked to be some form of scaled-up plasma pistol sat bolted to the roof.
Well, they certainly were not fucking around here, he thought.
He looked back at the door and considered just leaving, but decided against it. He would not try to test it, but if he did mess up. His Spirit Obscuration surely would stop whatever detection system the guns had from spotting him, right? There was no knowing for sure, but with what they had guarding the place, he sure as hell wouldn’t let this opportunity slip by. He moved forward, carefully sneaking behind a few shelves to avoid the red light.
A whirring noise suddenly echoed through the room, giving Jay just enough time to dive from his hiding spot as a ball of plasma melted the shelf he had been hiding behind.
“Oh crap.” He bolted forward, scrambling towards the other side of the room as both red spotlights focused on him.
The whirring echoed out again. He dived at the last second once more, barely avoiding a shot. He felt the heat blazing like the inside of an oven just inches behind him as he pushed himself back to his feet and continued running. Without any hesitation, he slammed into the door, knocking it open, and slid a few feet into the room. He kicked the door closed again just as another ball of plasma shot out, melting straight through the metal. He panted and quickly crawled further into the room. Not stopping until he could no longer hear the whirring of the turrets preparing for another shot.
Jay collapsed against a shelf in the room, panting, for several moments before he was finally able to calm down. That had been way too close. Way, way too close. At least he had made it, and the rewards of this--
He paused as he looked around the room for the first time since he had entered, and he nearly screamed. It was completely empty. He had almost been melted, and the room was completely empty. This had to be some type of cruel joke. Who the hell would clean out a stockpile like this and leave the turrets on? He frowned as he thought about it and didn’t like the only answer that he could come to.
The turret hadn’t gone off before, so it couldn’t have been someone else trying to rob the place. Which means it was an enforcer. He sighed. Probably one who also happens to be a candidate, if I had to guess. What fucking luck.
Enforcers were bad enough on their own. Top-tier military grad implants, weapons that could wipe an entire building from the face of the earth, and most of them didn’t even know what they were doing. Half of those implants were directly connected to someone’s brain, causing them to hear, feel, and see as though they were in a completely different reality. No one could pull them out of their stupor once the transformation took place. Even if the modifications were removed, their brain was irreversibly damaged. A few had been outfitted with kill switches, at one point, after a few more violent accidents. However, when they disobeyed an order and their handlers tried to activate the device, it just fried the last functional part of their brain and sent them on a rampage. Over 1,200 people had died that day before they were finally put down.
Jay shuddered at the thought of one of those monsters getting the boosts that he had. He knew a good number of his fellow candidates had actually won a fight against the cybernetic monsters. He knew he could probably even take one on, if he had to. That was, if they didn’t have the same strength boosts that he had grown accustomed to. This was bad.
He needed to get stronger--now. With that in mind, he pushed himself back to his feet and walked to the half-melted door that was just starting to cool. Checking the room one last time and still finding it empty with no other exits, he sighed as he waited for the slag to stop glowing red hot. Once it did, he used his Spirit Empowerment at full blast, ripped the door from the wall, and, with several quick steps. Made it out of the building, dodging two more rounds of plasma as he did. He didn’t stop moving until he was several blocks away, where he finally stopped to catch his breath.
So, Lan, about that leveling technique.
“Done with almost getting killed and wanting to jump straight into another lion's den, huh?“
I need to get stronger.
“I know. Just pointing out that you seem to have a death wish with the amount of risks you have taken over the last few days. I like it. Finally getting into the spirit of a proper Death March.”
Fuck off and just tell me.
“Fine, fine. You remember a while back when I told you that almost every action had a skill?”
Yeah, why?
“Well, that wasn’t exactly true. A more correct phrase would be that every action that you think should have a skill will have a skill.”
What?
Lan sighed. “This isn’t really something I wanted to tell you, as it normally just hampers progress on the skills that actually matter, but after seeing your drive and that innate skill of yours, it’s necessary for you to level your willpower as soon as possible.”
So, you're telling me this entire time, I could have been close to Level 14 on Day One?
“Technically, yes, but it would have left you with a bunch of useless skills that will never pass Level 14.”
Never pass 14? Why?
“Skills work very similar to the way classes do in this regard. To reach Level 15, you need to do something that improves the skill or elevates it to a new level. This can normally be done pretty easily for most skills, but for something as natural to you as Breathing, it's nearly impossible to get it to level up unless you mix it with another skill.”
So what is the downside that kept you from wanting to tell me this?
“Because it would have limited you from gaining more powerful skills off the bat. You would have had to train up the skills that mix into some of the stronger skills and combine them to get something as basic as Endurance. The system limits it so that if you have a base component of a skill combination, you won’t be able to gain that skill normally. To continue with that, as an example, with Endurance, you would have had to get Breathing, Basic Motion, and Blood Flow to Level 14 just to get that skill, and it would have locked you out from having the Blood Flow skill and Endurance, which is actually quite a powerful combination.”
Are you sure I should go through with this, then? I’m fine, just avoiding the use of that ability for a while while I work on my foundation.
“That wouldn’t be a bad course of action, but this will be fine as long as you only gain the skills that I instruct you to. We're gonna limit it so you only get things that are actually useless or that you already have the combination for, so it won’t lock you out of anything.”
Fair enough. So, how should I begin?
