Sponsored Apocalypse ch 24

I reviewed my character sheet.  There were a few new lines.

Miles Lindstrom

Title(s):

First Ten to Five

First Five to Ten

First Transcendents

Challenge Room Champion

Level 25

Class: none

Traits: none

Stats:
Str: 7

Dex: 4

End: 10

Int: 6

Will: 8

Luck: 6

Reflex: 7

Armor (nat): 0

Affiliations: Sponsored by *hidden*

Associated Sponsor Titles: *hidden*

Boons:

Free skill voucher at 20. (locked)

Prime Skills:

Tsukumogami Embrace

Spirits of the Past

Built Different

First to Five Eyes

Lower Prime Skills

Bone Strengthening

Elastic Joints

Active Skills:

Saliva of Hared Ha

Bone Truth Eyes

Basic Enchanted Sleep

Pulverizing Pebbles

Angry Arrows

Equipment-related Skills:
Better Days Auto Whisk

Beaded Benediction of Delayed Solace

Stalwart Pan of the Lonely Mountain

Lindstrom Family Hammer

Private Malone’s Last Stand

Weeping Island’s Resolve

Enchanted Equipment

Iron Bracelet of the Weeping Island

Skills:

Dagger Combat

Hammer Combat

Magic Combat

Club Combat

Spear Combat

Sword Combat

Scythe Combat

Explosive Combat

Enchantment Combat

Earthworks

Ambush

Healing Salve Application

Firearms (pistols)

Combat Endurance

Available Advancement Points: 8

***

It looked like I had a few more skills, and I could understand most of them.  None of my skills’ mastery level had risen, which was mildly confusing.  The other new entry was the “Assessment Room Champion,” title.

After drilling down into it, I saw:

Assessment Room Champion

You have survived and received a prize from one of Faceted in an Assessment Room within the first month of your world’s integration.  You now have access to basic information regarding Assessment Rooms.

There wasn’t any associated skill or ability related to the title, but as soon as I read the description of the title, I suddenly just…knew things.  It felt completely natural.  My threshold for weird shit was so high now, I just shrugged and moved on.

At least now I knew why the goblins had blocked off the house that the portal had been in.  I hadn’t thought to ask Aldina about it.  Most if not all Assessment Rooms were off limits to monsters.  The Faceted could kick them out, or even destroy them.  It was likely that this particular portal had led to goblin death.

Good.

Okay, eight points to work with, I thought.  Luckily, this time the choice was fairly easy.  I chose [Natural Armor] for five points.  The last three points went into raising my Dexterity from four to five.

My entire body tingled like crazy, probably because I was upgrading two different things at once.  At least it didn’t exactly hurt.  But then when it ended, I was painfully aware that I was out of points again.  I just had to trust that I would be that much more formidable.

There were more than just two changes made to my character sheet now, though.  [Natural Armor] had been added of course, but there was something else.  I reviewed the interesting section.

Level 25

Class: none

Traits: none

Stats:
Str: 7

Dex: 5

End: 10

Int: 6

Will: 8

Luck: 6

Reflex: 7

Armor (nat): 1

***

Now I had a point of natural armor!  I wondered how durable I’d be after activating [Stalwart Pan of the Lonely Mountain].  The antique pan was annoying sometimes how it bounced against my butt while I walked, but it was definitely one of the better…spirits I’d found so far to use with my ability.

I was definitely growing in power.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t really any way to figure out how strong I was now without fighting more.  But I planned to go hunting again after experimenting some more first with my various powers and abilities.

I poked my head out of the house I’d been sheltering in, mainly to make sure the coast was clear and Aldina wouldn’t see me leave.  It was embarrassing to admit that to myself, and I let myself stew in cringe for a second before leaving.

My half-baked plan was to double back to town the general way I’d come here.  Aldina was probably going to continue following the river, so I wanted to go a different direction to town now.  I left the residential neighborhood and followed the road.  My point of natural armor was making me feel a lot more confident about moving around in the open.  As best I could tell, and I had an alien sense of confidence on the subject, [Stalwart Pan of the Lonely mountain] gave me less than a full point of armor.  I had no reason to believe it wouldn’t stack with my new full point of  natural armor.  On top of that, my abilities that made me tougher covered my entire body, not just a portion like worn armor would.

I was pretty sure I was bullet proof now, or could be.

That was a freaky thing to think about.  Can monsters use guns?  I hoped not.  Of course, after spending time with Aldina and hearing her grim view of the world, I was aware that other humans would be a problem.  Hell, I would have figured that out myself.  But even though I’d experienced a few days since the end of my world, most other people in my vicinity were still in their first 24 hours of it.

It might have been a little foolish, but with my high Endurance, healing spit, and natural armor, I was less worried about ambushes now.

I could feel it–the new point in Dexterity would help me run faster too.

However, I didn’t see any people or monsters as I walked down the middle of the road–just evidence of both.  It was haunting, really.  Just a day ago, this back woods road would have gotten at least a small amount of traffic.  Now there was nothing.

As I walked I thought more about my character sheet.  I still didn’t have a class.  Had Aldina ever mentioned anything about classes before?  I couldn’t remember.

Suddenly, my very logical and mature decision to strike out on my own didn’t seem so wise anymore.  I shook my head.  No, it’d never been wise.  From a purely objective perspective, it was actually kind of dumb.  But it was also necessary–I still believed that.

Almost like the universe was listening in on my thoughts, four goblins suddenly ran at me from the woods at the side of the road.  Actually, even as I backpedaled, I did a double take.  One of them larger than the others.  The not-goblin was actually almost as tall as I was, and built more squat, like a gorilla.  It had some hair, too.

I concentrated, using [Bone Truth Eyes] and saw a tag above its head:

<Hobgoblin>

Great, I thought.

The hobgoblin was carrying a modern maul with a fiberglass handle.  Looted, no doubt.  The smaller goblins had had a head start.

Luckily, I wasn’t a complete idiot and I’d been walking with bayonet in hand.  I’d gotten ahold of my antique iron skillet with my other hand.

I danced back just far enough to avoid an awkward attack from a hatchet-wielding goblin.  Then I darted in and crushed the monster’s head with my pan.  Using my forward motion, I swung my bayonet, deflecting a strike from a crude spear made from a kitchen knife duct taped onto a rake handle.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t even seen the third goblin behind the second.  The little creature gleefully ran forward, gibbering aggressively, and hit me in the chest with its crude club, a piece of wood with nails sticking out of it.   The monster impaled me with the big, nasty looking weapon.

Or tried to.

At first, my blood ran cold, wondering what sort of damage I’d just sustained, if I was going to die.  But then the entire scene seemed to come to a standstill as I glancef down and saw how the nails had barely penetrated into my body.  There might be a little bit of blood, but not much.

I reacted first, swinging my pan around and braining the goblin with my enhanced strength.  Then I dropped my pan, grabbed the third goblin’s spear, and drove my bayonet through its throat.

So far, I hadn’t even activated any of my abilities.  The extra point in Dexterity was amazing.  Not only could I move better now, faster, more fluidly, I could also see the attacks of my enemies better.

When the third goblin dropped, the hobgoblin was already almost on top of me.  I tried to say, “Shit!” but it just came out as a guttural sound.  Up close, the hobgoblin looked even more mean and muscular.  The monster was rearing back its warhammer-like maul as it closed the last few steps.

Tough body or not, I did not want to get hit with a five pound splitting maul, swung by a monster that looked like it swam in ‘roids and lived in some sort of monster gym.

I pointed my bayonet, moved my entire body and thrust forward while activating, [Private Malone’s Last Stand].

When the blade sprang forward, the hobgoblin tried to twist to the side, messing up its swing.  My bayonet still got the creature in the stomach, but there was no power in it.  Instead, my arm was pushed back.

Now I knew I couldn’t use my bayonet at a close range projectile weapon.  But the extra reach sure made it one hell of a pick sticker.

With a quick step, I still ran the hobgoblin through, then lunged forward and smashed the creature in the face with my heavy iron pan.

The hobgoblin reeled back, right off of my extended bayonet.  So I followed the monster, jabbing a few more times, savagely trying to do as much damage as possible before it hit the ground.

That probably hadn’t been necessary, I thought.  The monster was already dead.

It was an interesting feeling to work so hard, exert myself, and then not even really be winded.  High Endurance was the best.

Then my adrenaline in my veins seemed to go cold as I realized how screwed I would have been without all of my body-toughening abilities.  Actually, I would have likely died long before now without them.  Even though it’d be cool to have more offense, I had to give myself some props for choosing to make myself harder to kill.

Of course, none of it would have been possible without my high Endurance, and I got a lot of that from my special skills I’d picked.

Some of my survival up to this point had been luck, I had to admit that to myself again.  But as I looked down at the dead monsters around me, most of them killed through a combination of raw physicality and skill, I felt a sense of grim satisfaction.

I really had changed.  But what was this world turning me into?

“You must have a deathwish, Sponsored Warrior.”  I suddenly heard a vaguely familiar voice behind me.  “Alright, fine.  You have the qualifications to meet my lord.  I won’t put this off any longer.”

“Wha—”  I spun as fast as I could, so quickly that some of the monster blood I’d just gotten splattered on myself actually flew off.

Standing there in the middle of the street was the same man who’d popped into my room after my end of the world quest had ended.

The robed man with the weird animal mask made a gesture with one hand.  “I was planning to wait until nighttime to come fetch you, but the more I watch you, the more aggravating it is.  If you die, it will be of little cause for mourning, but my lord will be…upset with me if he does not get to meet you while you still live.  After all, you have already exceeded the qualification to meet with him.  Somehow.”

“Do you always pop up behind people…and in corners?” I asked with a scowl.  “Thanks for the warnings and info before, but I’m starting to suspect you do this stuff on purpose.  Startling people.”

“Of course I do it on purpose!”  The masked man frowned.  “Part of my duties are to approach high-strung warriors, some of whom have the power of true heroes, who may or may not have also lost their minds already.  If you were tasked with such a mission, would you just pop into existence right in front of every person you were sent to meet?”

I blinked.  What the stranger had said was surprisingly logical.  “Alright, fine.  So I’m maybe gonna end up being a Champion, right?”

The man’s mouth twisted.  “That is not for me to say.  Just please follow me.  I mean you no harm.”  Behind him, a glowing portal appeared and began to rotate, hanging right above the street.

I hesitated, and the priest–that really was what he had to be– scoffed.  “If I wanted to kill you, I could have done so at your house when we first met.  Let’s go.”

It didn’t take me too long to make up my mind.  After all, this situation was less sketchy than dealing with the Faceted in the Challenge Portal.  And I’d always believed Aldina about everything she’d said regarding Champions.

“Fine.  I’ll go,” I said.  And I followed the dog-masked man to the portal. “But this is the last time I follow a strange, oddly-dressed man into an unknown portal.”

The priest looked back and growled at me.  I sheathed my weapons, held up my hands and shook my head.  “I’m serious.  Next time even if you show up with a van and some candy, I’m going to say no.”

“Your attempts at humor are less compelling than your good fortune with the system.”

I shrugged.  “Everyones a critic.”