New Story -- Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Apparently, something had been trying to inform him of things for a while, but he hadn’t known to check for it. It was like having a bunch of text messages ready for him to read, but he’d turned off all notifications on his phone. In this case, however, his phone seemed to be in his eyes… or directly in his mind, which was even creepier.

Thankfully, using this sudden messaging service was fairly user-friendly, as it responded to his thoughts to scroll up from his latest message about the Darkwood Buckler (Common) not being compatible with his current Class, all the way up to where it had left off as soon as he was dropped into a volcano.

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Contender_#32599999-E_rejected!

Initiating_disposal_protocol…

Contender_disposal_initiated…

Contender_disposal_complete!

ERROR_Contender_disposal_failed!

ERROR_Contender_outside_operating_perameters…

Transfer_unsuccessful…

Restablishing_training_program…

Welcome to your Contender training, #32599999-E!

To begin, please select your Class!

Fatal_damage_accrued

Training_reconstitution_protocol_activated

Warning! Select your Class within the next 30 minutes or one will be randomly assigned!

Fatal_damage_accrued

Training_reconstitution_protocol_activated

You have entered the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon(Minimal Difficulty)!

Warning! You have 60 seconds in which to select your Class!

Random Class assigned!

Category: (SUPPORT)

Class: Assistant Healer

To mentally access your Character Report during Training and after you enter the world of Tarth as a Contender, simply think, “Character Report”

Further explanations of the Contender System will occur during your Training

Entering Training Simulation now…

ERROR_Training_Simulation_not_found

ERROR_ERROR_ERROR_ERROR

Darkwood Buckler (Common) not compatible with current Class!

“What?!” he blurted out loud involuntarily, before covering his mouth as he froze in place. Straining his ears to the max, he didn’t move or even think about anything for at least a minute or so before he concluded that nothing had heard him – or they were so quiet that he would never know. Once his heart stopped beating a mile a minute, he reviewed what the messages said.

Assistant Healer? Support? What does that even mean? Am I a doctor now?

All this talk of Classes and systems made him think that this was some sort of video game or role-playing game, which wasn’t exactly the best news. While he’d played some games while he was younger, he was never into them as much as others his age had been; fortunately, his experience with them made him at least somewhat familiar with the basic ideas behind RPGs.

From what he knew of them, being a healer without a party to heal was essentially suicide. The little experience he’d had playing an MMORPG years ago, for about 3 weeks before he got bored of it and decided it wasn’t his thing, he actually found he preferred being in a support-like role. The problem? He didn’t like playing with anyone else, as he preferred to be solo and do his own thing, but that was extremely difficult for something like a straight healer. That same thing translated to real life, as he was a bit of a loner and didn’t really care to be around people, which was why he preferred to work from home and not have to deal with anything but data and reports. It sucked for his love life, but he was much happier when there was no one around.

But if he was an Assistant Healer, then if he wanted to survive wherever he had ended up, he might have to team up with people out of necessity. That was even if he was able to escape these caves, of course.

Reviewing the messages again, he deduced that he had likely been originally slated to join this “Training” thingy, which he assumed was what the naked people in the massive glass room were undergoing with their vacant stares like they were participating in some sort of bizarre VR simulation. Something had obviously gone wrong, forcing the simulation to try and kill Thaden by dropping him into a volcano; when it didn’t work, his body was still technically connected to the “Training” and acted accordingly. If it acted anything like the video game tutorials he’d experienced in the past, he assumed that participating in one meant that the player – or in this case, whatever a Contender was – couldn’t die as they learned how to navigate their way through the virtual world. Being reconstituted seemed like a natural function of this training or tutorial, which was why he had been resurrected multiple times.

Then there were the “ERROR”s that occurred when he was supposed to enter the Training Simulation, which he could only assume was because he wasn’t in that massive glass-walled room anymore. As much as he’d like to know how or why this happened, and considering that he wasn’t just imagining all of this in a fever dream, he had more immediate concerns – and they all focused on one of the lines in the messages that he almost glossed over at first glance.

You have entered the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon(Minimal Difficulty)!

I’m in a dungeon?

Almost as soon as he focused on the message, a different “window” popped up in his vision, as if he had suddenly opened up another tab on a web browser.

Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon

Current Difficulty: Minimal  Medial Maximal

Recommended Party Size: 5

Recommended Party Levels: 5 - 10

This is a game! Or at least it looks that way.

He suddenly wished that he had spent more time playing RPGs when he was younger, but his regret was short-lived as he realized that there was nothing he could do about it now. He would have to use what little knowledge he had of them to survive what was apparently a dungeon that was meant for groups of people numbering around 5 and were Level 5 to 10.

And what Level am I?

Finding the message referring to his Character Report, he thought those words and another “tab” popped up in his vision.

#32599999-E

Assistant Healer

Level – 1

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 0/100

Health – 10/10

Mana – 20/20

Physicality – 1

Celerity – 1

Mentality – 2

Personality – 1

Fortuity – 1

Spells:

Weak Healing (Channeled)

Weak Regeneration (Heal-over-time)

Weak Repulsion Field (Channeled)

Competencies:

Support Spellcasting Competency (Level 1, 0%)

Defensive Spellcasting Competency (Level 1, 0%)

Mana Management Competency (N/A)

Thaden tried to make sense of what he saw in his Character Report, but other than the fact that he was Level 1 and had 10 Health and 20 Mana (however that was calculated), the rest was only moderately useful to him without more details. Thankfully, he was able to open up more “tabs” when he looked at each portion of the Character Report for slightly more details.

Physicality: Measures the physical strength and constitution of the body. Affects physical attack damage, physical damage resistance, maximum Health, and Health regeneration rates.

Celerity: Measures the movement speed of the body. Affects ranged attack damage, ranged damage resistance, and stealth bonuses.

Mentality: Measures the power of the mind. Affects magical attack damage, magical damage resistance, maximum Mana, and Mana regeneration.

Personality: Measures the charisma of the individual. Affects social relationships with non-Contenders as well as charisma-based spells and abilities.

Fortuity: Measures the luck of the individual. Affects every interaction with the world by a slight amount; the higher the Fortuity, the greater the chance for a positive outcome.

He supposed that made a little more sense, but it wasn’t looking good that he had a “1” in each category except for Mentality, which was a “2”. Hoping that it would make a difference with the supposed spells he was assigned as an Assistant Healer, he looked a little closer at them.

Weak Healing (Channeled): Creates a connection between the caster and a target that continuously channels healing energy.

Healing Rate: 1 Health per second

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 20 feet

Casting Time: 2 seconds

Mana Cost: 1 per second

Weak Regeneration (Heal-over-time): Grants a target continuous healing energy that replenishes Health for a limited time.

Healing Rate: 1 Health every 5 seconds

Duration: 45 seconds

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 20 feet

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 10

Weak Repulsion Field (Channeled): Creates a full-body repulsion field on self that blocks all physical damage up to Level 20 sources and slightly repels attackers.

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 20 per second

Uh… nope.

With only 20 Mana to his name, he could heal himself or cast the Weak Repulsion Field spell for a total of a second before he was empty. He could only assume that the expensive spell was meant for those situations where the caster had no other choice but to block an attack that they couldn’t avoid, but it would wipe out their Mana pool. Even at higher Levels, which he assumed would mean a larger Mana pool, it appeared as though it would still only be an emergency spell when the caster was desperate because most of their Mana would likely be used for healing others. Then there was the fact that the description said physical damage from up to Level 20 sources; after that, either it did nothing or was reduced in effectiveness. There might also be a stronger version, since this had “Weak” in its name, but that would likely cost even more per second to cast.

Overall, things weren’t looking very promising. On a hunch, Thaden walked over to the weapon rack and picked up the sword, only to find that it seemed to weigh a hundred pounds or more when he attempted to hold it like he was going to actually use it to fight with.

Iron Broadsword (Common) not compatible with current Class!

Thankfully, he was prepared for it and didn’t allow it to hit the ground as he used his other hand to lift it and place it back on the rack. The same happened with the spear, unfortunately, which was a shame because he really hoped he would’ve been able to keep his distance from the monsters – or are they Vogmites, according to the name of this dungeon?

With hope in his heart that the same didn’t happen with the bone knife, he picked it up…

…and immediately fumbled with it as he gripped it as if he was going to stab something. It wasn’t heavy like the other weapons, but it felt as if it was greased up and wouldn’t stay in his hand. Only when the grabbed it with both hands without one of them on the handle did it feel normal, and he placed it back on the rack with a defeated sigh. He didn’t have to look at the message that popped up saying that it wasn’t compatible with his current Class to know that he wouldn’t be able to use it.

Can I even use any weapons?

Digging into the last section of his Character Report, the Competencies, he didn’t hold up much hope. However, there was one strange peculiarity that he was unsure what it meant….

Support Spellcasting Competency: Pertains to the competency of casting support-based spells. Level minorly affects casting speed and spell cost. Increases in Level through frequent usage.

Defensive Spellcasting Competency: Pertains to the competency of casting defensive-based spells. Level minorly affects casting speed and spell cost. Increases in Level through frequent usage.

Mana Management: Pertains to Mana regeneration rates. Level increa—ERROR_ERROR

Huh. I wonder what’s wrong with that last one? I suppose that there’s only one way to find out.