Apocalypse Cultivation 2, ch 3

Chapter 4 should be up in just a few minutes.

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Getting back into the reward menus didn’t take Jake very long.  Now that he had a better understanding of how the system worked, using his renown points didn’t seem too difficult.  However, he got a surprise when he mentally chose to view the rewards themselves.  Instead of a list of items like he’d been envisioning, there were...boxes.

The boxes were listed numerically.  There were one point, two point, all the way up to five point boxes.  And he noticed another field next to them where he could add more points.  Jake sofly read out loud, “Standard boxes offer 3 choices of its tier.  Every point added will offer one more choice, and a higher chance for higher rarity rewards.”  He made a face.  “Rishlay didn’t say anything about this.  These are loot boxes.  Figures.”

He stared at the rewards for a moment, noticing that the 1-5 point boxes did not adhere to the normal gaming conventions on earth.  Instead, they seemed to follow the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, green, blue, purple.  “So one point boxes are red, but if I really wanted a rare reward of the 1 point tier, I could pump tons more points into that box.”  He understood the concept.

After a shrug, Jake spent 1 Renown point on one single point, red reward box.  The screen of his Eternal Struggle Reward System flickered before a new little box in the corner made a pattern that Jake didn’t recognize.  Next, a new prompt flickered:

Result found.  Please choose three keywords for your rewards.

Jake almost chuckled.  The Faceted really were copycats.  And because Jake was familiar with “keywords” from the challenge rooms, he could reason that the system would accept phrases, or even sentences for a keyword.

What was interesting was how he could choose what type of rewards he would receive after the random roll for rarity and such was already done.  Of course, he had no idea what the symbols the system was showing--likely reflecting his result--meant.  But in time, if he could figure it out, maybe he could change what type of rewards he wanted based on how good of loot he figured he would receive.

It was like a game within a game.

Jake mentally filled in, “Information, sight, identification.”  He was thinking about the sword in his inventory that the Morrigan had changed.  Maybe he could cross off one problem from his list.  Either way, he’d only spent one point, so it seemed like as good of an experiment as any.

The screen flashed again, and a roman numeral displayed, a “1.”  “Oh, good roll,” said Jake.  Whatever symbols he’d seen before had likely meant, “+1” or something.  Then the screen flashed again and there were three potential rewards in his mind’s eye.  The view was similar to looking at rewards in a challenge room, so it only took him a short time to figure out what he was looking at.

From what Jake could see, the three rewards seemed pretty good. They included:

Infrared Eyesight, plus -- The ability to activate infrared vision.  Ability to see the invisible.  Useful to see certain types of magical energy, mystic patterns, and pierce the hidden.

Divine Identification -- Upon activation, offers information about Divine-touched people or items, relics, and artifacts.  Success is based upon ability and potential resistance.  Higher proficiency reveals more information.

Mental Almanac -- Once activated, provides basic information about most tangible objects or events that can be encountered.  This includes information of organic life, names of sentient beings, and identification of some magical or other supernatural spells, effects, or phenomena.

All three options were actually excellent.  The rarity of Infrared Eyesight was at Orange, so tier 2.  Mental Almanac was also tier 2.  Divine Identification was Red, so tier 1, the lowest rarity.  Jake was torn and seriously considered all three, but eventually settled on Divine Identification since it was what he’d been hoping for in the first place.

Not for the first time, he was glad for his mage training and his study of Faceted challenge rooms in his first life.  The keywords seemed to work the same for the Eternal Struggle Reward System as they did in challenge rooms.  It seemed that the Faceted had really mimicked the original closely.

One Jake chose his reward, the screen disappeared and a warmth appeared in his head, starting at his temples.  A moment later, he knew that he had the skill and how to activate it.  “Wow,” he muttered.  “This feels like cheating.”

He drew his saber out of his inventory, the one that Morrigan had said she was going to modify.  As he did so, he realized why his new ability had been such a low rarity.  How often would an average person--or even a champion--encounter divine items?  Probably not much.

The saber didn’t look any different than it had before.  He put it on his waist where sword normally would ride.  It felt like the right thing to do.  The hilt felt right in his hand.

The area was kind of cramped so Jake actually thought better about drawing the saber.  Instead, he decided to use the reward system again and get some more utility out of the way.  Jake scrolled the menu, but flinched back with a curse as a giant paw suddenly slammed into the tunnel almost right in front of his face.  It seemed the tiger had gotten tired of waiting.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed old claw marks underneath the new ones.

With a curse, Jake wondered if the tiger had trapped prey in this hole before.  Probably.  Maybe whatever the tiger had hunted before was big enough it hadn’t had to wait like this before.  As the otherworldly rock began to crumble under the flexing claws, Jake realized he’d misunderstood something.

The tiger could dig him out.  It just hadn’t felt like it until now.

Now that Jake actually had to escape, he also realized that having a time constraint messed with his plans.  It might take him a few scouting missions to find a place underground to retreat to, and if he was unphased, the tiger would likely find him.  Demon beasts had cultivation bases of their own, and the senses that came with it.

“Shit,” muttered Jake.  The grasping, flexing paw felt like it was right in front of his nose but he had at least a few minutes before becoming kitty food.  He opened his Eternal Struggle Reward System screen and rolled one more point.  This shouldn’t cost too much, right? He thought.  The one point roll ended.  Now he only had three points left.  Since the roll was done, he quickly inputted, “map, mental, surroundings.”

His three results made him raise his eyebrows.  Eyes darting between the screen and the giant claws growing closer by inches, he read:

(Tier 2)  Fortune Map (growth type) -- Ability to generate a map overlay that lasts three breaths.  The map size and accuracy will vary, but will always point to fortunate locations or encounters

(Tier 3) Mini Map - Map that can be constantly displayed or studied in detail.  Updated in full for every dimension and level of reality the user travels to.  Can be utilized to track individuals.

(Tier 3) Mini Map, enhanced (growth type, special) - Updates area map as the surroundings are visited or explored  Success is based upon ability and potential resistance.  Higher proficiency reveals more information.

“Shit,” he hissed.  All three choices were good, and he was fairly certain he’d just gotten an extremely lucky roll, maybe the equivalent of rolling all “7’s” in the Eternal Struggle Reward System!  He’d only spent one point and he’d gotten not one, but two tier 3 results!

The Mini Map was really what he needed, but the Fortune Map would be amazing for the future...if he had a future.  Finally, when the claws were only a few inches from his nose, he growled, chose Mini Map, enhanced, and phased, then flash stepped downward at a 45 degree angle.

He hoped he wouldn’t regret his choice in the future.

***

Jake was starting to lose his composure.  He was cool-headed, but the last few minutes had been a never ending tsunami of stress and danger.  Finding a new place to hide was proving difficult.

He’d dove into the earth, but had needed to come back to the surface before his phasing ability ended.  His map was open in the corner of his vision but there hadn’t been any time to really learn how to use it.  At least the new mental map was easy to read.  It updated as he moved, almost like a map in an RPG game on earth, turning the surrounding darkness into information.

Unfortunately, it hadn’t taken long for the giant tiger to find him again.  But this time Jake had been so wary, he’d actually gotten a sense of danger and had dodged a pounce.  Then he’d run through the forest, barely keeping ahead of the huge demon beast by using flash step.

In fact, the tiger came so close to catching him he’d felt the demon beast’s breath on his neck. A moment later, it’d been gone.  Something massive and dark had jumped out of the forest shadows, slamming into the tiger.  Whatever the new creature was it pushed the attack and the two demon beasts had begun thrashing around, engaged in a life and death fight.

Jake hadn’t stuck around.  He didn’t want to be caught between the demon tiger and anything big and bad enough to see it as a potential meal.  As soon as his phase ability could be used again, he drove back into the earth.

His map filled out details around him a bit farther than what was immediately visible on the surface.  This rule seemed to apply underground even though he couldn’t actually see anything.  If he concentrated, he could change the view to a 2d map, or a wire frame, or even a 3d model.  This time, he noticed what looked like a pocket in the earth or a cave on the edges of his perception and he moved that direction.

After a short exploration to ensure it was big enough for him to stay in for a while, Jake phased back into reality and slumped on the stony ground, leaning against the slanted wall.  That was close, he thought.  He needed to get the hell out of this area, fast.  That was obvious now.

He wasn’t sure if he could actually suffocate in his little bolt hole, but he wasn’t too worried about it.  His dimensional  storage ring actually had an honest to goodness oxygen tank.  But just to be safe, Jake sat cross legged, centered himself, slowed his breathing, and began to meditate.

There were still a few things to do before he could start escaping in earnest, like use up the rest of his points in the Eternal Struggle Reward System.  He also needed to learn how to use his new map tool.

Jake knew if he were still a normal human,and maybe less experienced, he’d be overwhelmed with everything that had just happened in such a short time.  As it was, he was not very happy about how things were developing.  But being safe underground had just taken the edge off of his worry.

After a couple of hell dimensions and all his time fighting vampires via a challenge room, he was actually feeling a sense of familiarity with the situation.

We waved a hand and mentally commanded his map to open to full size.  As he studied it, he wondered if he’d made the right choice.