“The trials themselves are very survivable . . . if you are prepared and pick a decent Template and are smart about how you spend your points. The heavy losses in the first days are due to nobody having a clue what to expect, how to spend points and having no chance to get extra points to start with. Currently, so long as the uninitialized have the info packets the government has already started distributing and the 100 points that they can bring in ahead of time, along with even a couple pieces of basic gear, we could expect over 95% survival rate even in the combat Trials.”
“What about the other 5%?” – Senator
“You can’t fix stupid. Especially with no-one to save them from themselves.”
Excerpt from a presentation to the Senate Committee on the Tower
Tower Day 9
Charlie woke up in the middle of the ‘night’ and rushed to the toilet, emptying her stomach before she sat down for the other. She sweated out a tarry substance that glimmered with ugly sparkles of light that twinkled malevolently. She spent the next hour in the shower scrubbing everything off between rushing back for another unpleasant purge. Despite the ordeal, when it was finally done and she was clean once more, she felt good. Something inside that weighed her down, making her feel sluggish and unresponsive was gone and she looked at the world in a new way. The air felt cleaner, the water she rinsed her mouth with tasted better, the ration bricks . . . tasted exactly the same.
“Don’t want that again. Hopefully that doesn’t happen the next thing I add.” She shuddered. She took another swig of water to rinse one last time and looked at the door. “Might as well . . .” She put on her clothes, armor and weapon and stepped into the fourth trial.
Like all the previous trials, the white stone stretched out and branched into a maze of twisty passages that split in right angles. The first thing she tried was her new skill. Charlie flipped the mental switch to activate Dark Arrow and a small sharp bolt of solid darkness appeared above her palm. Another mental switch and it shot off down the hall . . .for about five feet then it dissipated back into nothing.
“Well, that’s underwhelming.” Charlie sighed, reviewing the skill numbers in her status. “Well, next point will take it to 10 and it should be ten times better if it follows the rest of the pattern.”
She shot another arrow and frowned as she felt a ‘tug’ from her other skills. This time she activated her Dark Attack, then formed an arrow and smiled as the cloud of dark energy flowed up and around the new skill. “Oooh, it’s not just melee enhancement, it’s any attack. And . . .” She activated her Dark Enhance and smiled as the dark energy deepened slightly.
The enhanced Dark Arrow shot down the hall, fizzling out one foot further and the Dark Attack energy started flowing around her hands again. She cut the energy to the skill and smiled. “This is very nice. Once I get Dark Arrow bumped, I’ll really cut through the mobs. Plus any other skills I get. I’ve got plenty of room . . . low on passives though.”
Charlie checked her status and frowned as ‘Dark Arrow’ was grayed out. A couple seconds later and the skill brightened up. She shot another and once again it turned gray . . . and one tick later brightened up. “Cooldown. Well, even if I can’t spam it, it’ll help. Hmm, if I enhance attack, it’ll go for eleven ticks or so, or . . . most of a minute and a half.” She shrugged. “That’s forever in these fights. Especially if it’s just one on-”
click
Charlie swore up a storm as she set her foot on a spot that looked no different from any other and a strange glyph glowed for a moment before a metal spike shot up and into her foot.
“Fuck!” She swore, hopping back and holding her foot in the air. “Now there’s traps!?” She waited a minute for her regen to fix her up and started forwards again -
click
“And they reset!?” Charlie screamed in anger only for a pair of screams to answer her from behind. She whirled to see two goblin rushing right at her, claws outstretched and glowing. She whipped one hand up and fired off a fully enhanced Dark Arrow . . . and it puffed out of existence right before impacting on one target. “Shit. Range”
The failed attack did make one goblin flinch back, so Charlie readied herself to meet the other, Battle Fury pushing strength into her fist, but her gear-granted Will held the emotions at bay, present but not overwhelming, allowing her to step to the side and smash the goblin’s skull with a metal-plated glove. The goblin’s head snapped to the side and it crashed into the floor, tumbling into a heap. A shriek announced the second goblin had arrived and Charlie quickly moved aside again, tripping it this time to land on the other, causing a -
click
And the spike shot up, punching a hole through both goblins at the same time.
“Suck it, gobs!” Charlie laughed, a raw, primal edge to her voice. She wasted no time in pulling back a foot that pulled the swirl of Dark Attack down to help her punt the top goblin into the wall, then she quickly put her Dex and Grace to work whipping her foot back to catch the other as it tried to get up, punting it to another tangled heap of green. She rushed forward and body slammed them both, and quickly punched the two until they faded into a couple fangs.
Once the drops were both safely tucked away, Charlie stood in the hall and laughed, and laughed. Now that she could keep her mind in the fight, guide the rage and pleasure instead of drowning in it, things could really start moving. She smiled and started walking on, pleased that the only damage she had so far was from -
click
“Dammit!”
~~~
Charlie moved carefully through the Trial 4 maze, stepping along, ever ready for the tell-tale ‘click’ that signified a trap activating. Once tripped, there was a half-second where she could quickly step back to get out of range – at least for the floor triggers. Every glyph on the floor shot a metal spike up for ten damage. Besides that, there were some on the wall that acted like an infrared beam that shot a non-element arrow horizontally, and even ceiling sensors that dropped a ‘rock’ on her head.
Still, each one had enough of a delay that once she knew it was activated she could either back-step or dodge forward to get out of danger. It still added to the stress of exploration and she found herself taking extra breaks, not just to regenerate health or mana, but simply to calm down and stop the Red from encroaching on her thoughts. The fights with wandering mobs were actually less worrisome than the anticipation of triggering a trap. Every time now, two or even three goblins came at once, but the Will boost let her fight smart – or at least smarter than she was. She could do her best to avoid hits while her enhanced punches did serious damage to the paper speedsters the goblins were turning into.
Just like previously, the goblins were even faster than before, claw attacks more damaging, but they still had nothing in the way of defense so an average of five fully enhanced punches took one down, with the force hurling them away so they had to charge back at her, usually giving her a chance to side-step and hit them again, or even intercept with a Dark Arrow that added to damage done.
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Charlie paced back and forth in front of the exit door that let her know she was half-done with the 20 goblins in this Trial. “Two points each, so forty for this batch, plus drops . . . need 90 for my next stat, definitely need to buy Willpower.” She muttered to herself. “Then, I dunno, work on getting skills to a higher level? More stat points would be good too, dunno what they do besides improve ‘me’ somehow. The power stat seems like it makes me more ‘powerful’ all around. Seem stronger, everything hits harder . . . I’d like to buy the ‘Intelligence’ stat too, but that’ll be 160 points. Then Wisdom’s a bet for mana skills. That’s 250. Shit’s getting expensive. That’s . . . carry the one . . . 500 points just for unlocks.” She sighed. “And just 40 points plus drops from this floor . . . I just said that . . .” She jingled her bag. “Maybe ten points? I’m getting more fangs . . . I dunno. So, big question. More skills, more stats, or save up.”
Charlie continued to pace, moving faster, the red haze creeping in again. Her hands clenched into fists and relaxed over, and over. “Need to get back.” She eyed the ticking clock in her status. “More power now lets me hit harder, go faster.” She spat to the side, a trace of shimmering crud hitting the floor. “More purification skills I want. I don’t know why but I need them. Maybe some utility skills. Boost mana storage and Regen. Load up multipliers.” She thought for a moment, willing herself to stop and slow down, pushing back the Red. “Okay. Grab more purify, something for mana and more abilities. Defense and healing. Get back in the game faster, move quicker.”
She walked off through the maze, quickly running into another couple goblins that got first a Dark Arrow, then a Dark Attack punch that ruptured a kidney. Charlie laughed happily as she proceeded to demolish them.
~~~
Charlie luxuriated in the shower after finishing the trial, scrubbing herself clean of the faint traces of crud she had sweated out. “Hope this shit finishes quickly.” She grumbled, rubbing at her scalp to get it out of her hair. “Soon as I get a knife or scissors I’m chopping this all off. Rapunzel is overrated.” She did her best to wring the water out of her waist-length hair and sighed, walking over to the cot to finish air drying.
“Let’s see what I got . . .” Charlie grabbed the drops from her bag, another health potion from the treasure room, and the Trial reward was -
-Basic Dark Mana Potion, restore 50 points Dark Mana
“Nice, might come in handy for longer fights. Add what I was holding . . . sell the lot.” Charlie checked her points and smiled. “50! Awesome!”
She navigated to the purchase menu and nodded. “Increase Power to 2, increase Vitality to 2. 30 left. Umm . . .” She checked the purification skill list. “Spirit, mind, soul, heart, and . . .” She felt a whisper from inside. “Corruption. Add to purification skill.”
-Purification skill limit reached. Further additions will destroy skill.
“Okay, no more of that!” Charlie gulped, suddenly worried. “Um, 20 left . . . what can I do . . . stat boosts?” She frowned at the screen. “Huh, I can increase the tier of my skills? Ok, bump all my stat boosts to next tier . . . 2 points each, ok. 6 points now. Can I bump my Dark Boost? Yes I can! Just once, ok . . . another 2 points, so 4 left . . . how about core enhancements? Dark Mana Core Boost, nice. 2 points for that, then . . . oh right, gotta bump Arrow, 1 left . . .” Charlie shrugged. “Eh, what can I do to heal? Hmm there’s a list. Ok, just go for Dark Heal, I’ll bump it next time.”
Charlie looked at the open door and grinned. “I’m on a roll! I’ll pull an all-nighter and get another trial done now . . . and more points.” She shivered in anticipation, putting her gear back on and stepping out.
~~~
Charlie Character page
Charles Fitzgerald
Point Value: 179
Core Concept: Lesser Dark – Unlocks Dark and associated element skills
Energy Type: Mana – Prime stat Power
Template: Gloria Crimson Bloodwine Angelique (modified)
Race: Celestial Touched Human – T 4, 4 more skill slots
Bloodline: Shard of Light-tainted Night – T 3, +.3 to Night element skill multi, 30% more damage from Light skills
Trait: Battle Fury – T 3, 30% increased damage, great rage and euphoria in battle
Equipment: Basic Leather Armor [+10 def, +10 hp], Basic Amulet of Intelligence [+1 Int], Basic Earrings of Will [Will +1], Basic Empowered Pugilist Gloves [+10 Fist Dmg, +1 Pwr]
