Breaking the Game

by Dhagon

It's amazing how little difference there is between a serial killer and an adventurer. There's a reason for the term 'murder hobos'. But when your on a quest to save the world you take inspiration where you can, even the Slaughterhouse Nine. A CYOA involving the Gamer power.

3. Basically Zombies

Chapter 2: Basically Zombies

My first impression of the zombie ID was that it didn't look any different. I made a quick check and the building itself was clear. Not that there was really any place to hide since the interior was gutted. Looking around from my vantage point it seems the dungeon was the same size as the Empty ID.

Movement down below attracted my attention and I saw my first zombie. It didn't look like the stereotypical zombie from media. While it was clearly rotting the flesh was blackened as if burned. It still had the same shambling walk though, which was a relief. I had half feared that they would be closer to the creatures from Left4Dead.

A clang showed that one had bumped into the bottom of the fire escape. Perfect. Observe.

[Reanimated Corpse, Lvl 2]

[HP: 150]

[Str: 30, Dex: 2]

[A human body serving as a flesh puppet. As a construct does not possess End, Vit, Int, Wis, Cha or Luk.]

Besides the description, which was interesting to note, the stats seemed much lower than I had feared. The puppet part was a bit odd. I wonder if there is a reason it didn't just call it a zombie.

I check and the rifle along with the box of clips are just where I had dumped them. I am never going to need to buy ammo for a dungeon run. I quickly grab the rifle and using the scope quickly shoot it in the head. I hadn't bothered using a silencer since I wanted to attract attention.

The zombie collapses but doesn't explode. Checking the screen shows I haven't gained any XP or loot. I go back to watching and see some kind of white beetle with red markings crawl out of the body. What on Earth? Observe.

[Corpse Beetle, Lvl 1]

[HP: 1, MP: 100]

[Str: 1, Dex: 2, End: 4, Vit: 1]

[Essentially mindless and only capable of following instincts it does not possess an Int, Wis, Cha or Luk score. Capable of reanimating human corpses. It is capable of maintaining and repairing the corpse they inhabit.]

The hell? I quickly shoot the beetle and note with satisfaction the changes in my screens indicating I received both loot and XP. I don't have time to examine either though since the pair of shots had drawn a crowd of zombies.

I started shooting them down as they climbed the fire escape, but position made targeting the beetles a pain. The problem was that the zombies weren't giving me anything. The beetles were leaving their broken flesh puppets and entering other zombies.

I didn't really see the point since a head shot seemed to destroy them still. I had used an entire clip trying other shots and besides one where I got lucky and hit the beetle it didn't seem to do much. The body would fall and the beetle would use some kind of black threads to sew it back up and then it would get up.

I figured the beetles would eventually run out of bodies and I could then hunt them down. Which wasn't dangerous, just really annoying. That was when I saw a group of the bodies spasming off to the side.

They were all headless and a small swarm of beetles were crawling over them. I kept an eye on them and saw that they were stitching the bodies together into odd patchwork amalgams comprised mostly of limbs.

When it got up and suddenly raced towards me I was definitely shocked. I started shooting at it automatically, but there wasn't a head anymore. As it started climbing over the fire escape I shot a few limbs off, which slowed it down only slightly. As it neared the top I sighed. Bloody Needle.

My spell tore through the creature, shredding it like it was placed in a blender. I received a number of notifications even as a small rain of unattached limbs rained down.

Below I could see several more patchwork creatures getting up and even more being formed. Clearly I need a new strategy. ID Escape.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X

As I sit and lean back I think about the dungeon. Engaging in melee might end up being a better choice if I can vaporize the bodies with my attacks. I think I also need an area of effect attack. For now, lets see what I've gotten.

I am finally level 2, the last attack had given me just enough XP. It's when I check my Inventory that I was slightly worried. Besides money I had received two items. Grimm Silk and Grimm Carapace.

Grimm.

I know I had Aura, but I hadn't expected this. Thinking about it, I hadn't come across any reference to Grimm in any of my reading or studying. It was unlikely that I'd miss something that big so easily.

As I think about it, the only conclusion I can come up with is that this is the result of a crossover choice from the CYOA. If I remember I had selected It Gets Worse with a RWBY crossover in the second version. This version must not have that option, which I'm honestly glad for. This world is dangerous enough as it is.

Heh, the notification for my Wis increasing supports me. Thank god for that.

I had actually worried if I was overtrained for the dungeon. In some ways I was, but I could have easily died if I hadn't had such an advantageous position. Despite my abilities I definitely want a backup option.

While I consider my options I start popping in and out of an empty ID. Just in case it make a difference I want to make sure my ID Escape skill is a high enough level. After a few times I start using the zombie dungeon. I'd pop in and use Bloody Needle on a few zombies and then leave.

After a few times I turned on my Aura to keep up with my HP loss. I meditated whenever my MP ran low and mostly enjoyed the fact I was actually gaining XP while training up several skills.

I'm having to stop to heal more often than meditate though and I go back to using the rifle and even sometimes Mana Bolt, which do comparable damage.

It's only after I gain a point of Vit that I realize I've only really been boosting my offensive abilities. I open an empty ID to start working on another skill I remember from the Gamer, Mana Shield.

With how high my Mana Manipulation is, it doesn't take long to create it. I eagerly look over it's description.

[Mana Shield (Active 60 MP / min) LVL 1 - 0%: A hardened, directionally permeable shell of mana that protects the user by absorbing a portion of incoming damage. Single shell absorbs 1 point from attacks and can absorb a total number of points equal to the user's Int.]

Since it seemed a bit underwhelming I use Blood Magic to create a version of it next.

[Blood Shield (Active 40 HP + 80 MP) LVL 1 - 0%: A blood infused mana shield that protects the user by absorbing a portion of incoming damage. Single shell absorbs (1 + 25% of Vit) points from attacks and can absorb a total number of points equal to the user's Int + Vit. Maintaining the shield costs 80 MP / min.]

The Blood Shield was much more powerful right off from the start, although it did come with a pretty high HP cost. The best part however was that it took a shape that clung much closer to my body. Since it didn't really act like a shield I renamed the second spell Blood Armor.

Since I was creating spells I built one last one. An AoE to fill in that gap. Basically a Bloody Needle but spherical and much, much larger.

[Blood Bomb (Active 200 MP + 20 HP) LVL 1 - 0%: A large sphere of mana designed to explode. Damage increases with both Int and Vit. 20% armor penetration.]

Ok. No more excuses. I'm going to try again.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X

Cautious person that I am I do make a single test run for Blood Bomb. As expected, it was fairly devastating, wiping out every zombie in an enormous area. The damage isn't too extensive, much less then the Bloody Needle, but the scale was impressive.

I did make a Mana Bomb just for comparison and it was so much weaker it was pitiful, it didn't even cover the same area. It seems that pure mana didn't propagate too well on its own. Besides that and the damage the other major difference seemed to be that the Blood Bomb had a much more sharply defined border of effect.

After that though I dropped in, ready to actually fight and hopefully clear the dungeon. I had dropped all of my weapons in preparation and the first thing I did was to pick them all up. Hopefully I wouldn't need them, but better to be ready.

I shot a pair of zombies with the rifle and waited a second before sniping their beetles as they emerged. Then I jumped off the tower towards the closest zombie on the ground. Aura. Deadly Charge.

The zombie pretty much vaporized. I took a moment to confirm that it had worked and the beetle was dead before continuing. I also realize how much overkill that was if the entire body had been destroyed. Out of curiosity I used Power Strike on the next and sigh when it doesn't explode even with the critical. I waste a second strike to kill the beetle.

I danced back and forth inside the ever growing crowd of zombies, using Deadly Charge to keep killing them fast enough to keep an space clear in the center. Though like a dam breaking under a flood, I couldn't hold them back forever. Eventually I miss. I still hit, but without the critical from hitting the head it didn't explode. I had to waste another attack to kill the beetle.

I lose too much momentum and struggle to keep up. I'm losing room to maneuver rapidly. Soon I wouldn't have enough room to activate charge anymore. Time to change tactics.

Mana Shield. Blood Armor.

I feel the layers of protection wrap around me and go on an all out attack. I don't bother defending, freely letting the zombies strike me in return for attacking even faster. I lash out over and over even as my health steadily drops.

I keep an eye on my health and when it gets below a hundred I jump out of the crowd, channeling mana to boost me. At the top of my newly gained Power Leap I drop a Blood Bomb. The explosion destroys the majority of the zombies gathered below along with most of the fire escape.

I take a moment to eat some snacks before realizing that the zombie were no longer moving towards me. Instead they are gathering at a spot several hundred yards away.

Show time.

I glance at my stats quickly and see my HP is just over a hundred. I have over half my MP left and that should be plenty. Seeing where the zombies are gathering Power Leap to the nearest warehouse. I drop a Blood Bomb even as the zombies start to melt into each other.

I watch them form a single enormous misshapen figure. Observe.

[Lesser Legion Puppet, Lvl 22]

[HP: 7000]

[An amalgamation of human bodies melded together to serving as a guardian. Corpse Beetles instinctively create these when they detect a powerful threat. Heavily damaged during it's construction, it is much weaker than normal. As a construct does not possess End, Vit, Int, Wis, Cha or Luk.]

I stare at the rest information. 7000 HP and it was weaker than it was supposed to be? Thank god it wasn't invulnerable while forming.

I take out one of the rifles and start shooting it while running away on the rooftops. Being so slow should mean I could pick it off at leisure. After a few shots I notice that I'm hardly doing any damage. I also see the that the damage is healing, thankfully not much faster than a normal zombie, but it is still another problem.

It's obvious guns aren't going to help. I drop it and pull out some snacks. I eat as I keep running away. I also drop Mana Shield and Blood Armor. I'm going to need all of my mana and it wasn't like they'd help against something that size.

Once I'm far enough away I Stealth and creep off to the side a bit and began eating as fast as possible. I doubt he'll give me enough time to meditate.

It turns out I was right. The building I had last been standing on tears apart as the Legion Zombie plows through it. Not seeing me it starts destroying all of the surrounding buildings. It was just my luck that he picked my building to destroy first. I knew he hadn't seen me since I had been hiding behind a solid brick wall. Stupid luck, not supposed to let things like this happen anymore.

I scramble out of the rubble and realized I had only lost a little health. So maybe my luck did help. Fuck it. I activate my Aura. I need the boost and it isn't like hiding has worked so far. I cast a Blood Bomb at it's head and while it flinches, it didn't do too much damage.

I Charge and as soon as I hit one leg I Charge the other. I bounce back and forth, Power Striking the entire time as he tries to alternatively avoid me.

When one foot raises higher than normal for a moment I hope it was falling. I barely Leap out of the way of it's stomp. The shock wave still knocks me down.

I check it's stats and see in disbelief that it was only just under 5000. Even as I watch it ticks up steadily, refilling at a rate of 1 per second.

I resume running away, eating as many snacks as possible. I'm going to need a critical hit to really make it hurt and I finally had a plan. I stealth and shift to the next building before sprinting off to the side. Behind me I hear the building being demolished.

After a pause I hear the roar as it caught sight of me again. That was fine, I had enough of a lead. I leap back up onto my base and run to the other side, stealthing after I do so.

I tense, feeling the ground shake with it's approach, the timing was going to have to perfect. I quickly spend a Perk Point on Ambidexterity and seeing that I had several I buy Toughness as well, seeing my HP immediately gain over 50 HP. I grab Eidetic Memory as well. If my plan works I'm definitely going to want to remember this and if doesn't it isn't like I'll regret spending the point.

As soon as the building starts tipping over I leap as high as I can straight up. As soon I cleared the falling building I see the legion zombie already swinging for me. I activate Bloody Needle and then Deadly Charge at the same spot.

The charge drags me through the air behind my spell and the zombies fist overshoots me. Just before I hit, I see the spell punch a hole deep inside it's forehead. I land on the now armored skull and barely damage it. I was exactly where I wanted to be however and pause a second hoping it will do the obvious, cliche thing.

As soon as I saw the massive hand swinging up to slap down on me I pushed away. I cast Bloody Bomb directly into the hole in it's head even as I Deadly Charged straight down to it's foot.

I never made it. Even as I neared it flashed a brilliant white and shattered into pieces. I have never been so happy to see the ground.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X

After exiting the zombie ID just in case I look at my health and as expected it was sitting at 48. That was close. I still had a reserve in case I needed it, but not much of one. I also take note of a new notice.

[Quest complete.]

[Back from the Depths.]

[Clear your first dungeon.]

[Rewards: 1 Perk Point]

Back on top of the building I read through the notice log to see how to fight went. Piecing it together I realize if it hadn't hit itself I might likely would have had to cast again. I'd have still won probably, but I didn't like how close it had been. I also note that I received a point of Wisdom at the end of the fight, most likely from my planning.

I take a minute to savor my victory. I was far closer than I had wanted, but very satisfying at the same time. It was only the distraction of having to keep such a close watch on my stats that kept me from fully enjoying the battle. I couldn't wait until I was powerful enough to not have to worry about such things. Sadly I probably wouldn't get any much if any XP from such fights, but it would still be fun.

Of course, I'll still get loot. With that bright thought, I check out my inventory. Lots of petty soul gems, definitely an Elder Scrolls influence, along with more Grimm Silk and Chitin Plates. It looks like the Legion Puppet just dropped multiples of the same, along with a lesser soul gem. The last item was the best. It was what I had been hoping for. A skill book.

Life Drain. I had so many ideas for that spell. I had toyed with the idea of creating it myself, but you had to have an idea of how a spell works before you can make it. Sadly, I had no idea as to the mechanics. But with this I didn't need to.

With this, so much will be available. I can adapt it for healing, another spell I had no idea how to create. I can even improve it. Death Field had been one of my favorite force abilities from KOTOR and I definitely wanted it.

Eagerly I absorbed the skill book.

[New skill learned.]

[Necrotech (Active) LVL 1 - 0%: The ability to reanimate dead flesh through infusing it with energy. Higher ranks allows for the construction of more elaborate constructs using appropriate materials.]

What is this? Where's my Life Drain? And necrotech, that's Exalted. That's...not bad, but not actually very powerful without access to Oblivion energy. Hmm, what would I need to be able to wield Oblivion energy?

[Requirements not met. Requires Level 100, Vit 200, Int 70, Cha 200, Skill: Necromancy LVL 100.]

Holy crap. So not any time soon, if ever.

Wait. Necromancy? So another magic type.

[Requirements not met. Requires access to negative energy.]

And no idea on how to get that. I drop the search, this could end up taking forever. Some other time.

Sigh. So they changed this too. Disappointed I flip through my notebook of ideas. I had started it earlier to keep track of all of my ideas so I didn't forget any. Now that I have Eidetic Memory I'm not sure if I really need it anymore. Although it will probably still come in handy, if only to organize my thoughts.

Hmmm. Wisdom increases every time I make a good decision. Tactical planning counts towards this process. A huge grin appears on my face as I get an awesome idea.

I need video games.

More specifically, I need strategy games that involve resource management and complicated units. Games that require careful consideration and decisions, lots of decisions. Oh, and another idea. This time for luck. Gambling. Something involving dice or something. Shouldn't be too hard to find something that fits that description.

Wow. I hadn't realized just how many computer programming books I had absorbed after I gained Comprehension. A 31 without any practice? That's crazy. I guess with all the tinkers out there programming benefited indirectly because I know a lot more programming languages than I had even heard of in my past life.

Getting the games turned out to be easier and more trouble than I had first thought. Raiding one of the malls for what I needed turned swiftly into a cape fight. Should have expected there would be squatters.

I don't think they cared about the items I was after, but then again, they might have. Either way, several of them saw me and raised the alarm. A few quick shots dropped the sentries, but then something really odd happened. Each of the remaining people seemed to ripple and then they were covered in armor.

The armor was obviously a parahuman power. It didn't look remotely realistic. Instead it looked a lot like some drew cel-shaded plate armor on top of each person. It made me wonder for a moment whether I was the only person with video game themed powers.

As silly as it looked the armor was unmistakably tough. None of the guns I tried would punch through the armor. A Bloody Needle still works though. I tore through one of them and his armor fell apart into splatters of ink. Interesting.

By that point I'm assuming their leader appeared. She was wearing much higher quality armor. Richly colored and covered in fine detail it was pretty impressive. Cel-shading at it's finest. She was also carrying an enormous shield which she used to block my opening spell. It gouged it, but didn't actually break through.

A sudden loud hissing was my only warning before four snakes seemed to swim through the air to lunge at me. They were fast and completely caught me by surprise. I panicked and did something I knew was dumb.

I threw a Blood Bomb.

The explosion was just as enormous as I remembered. I groan. I'm just glad I don't seem to feel nearly as much pain as before. I'm pretty sure that would have sucked.

I have to dig my out. A shelf fell on me, but it's easy enough to shove to the side. Thank you high strength. As soon as I'm clear I look around.

Almost everyone else had been sent flying. The exception was the gang leader. She was still there, glaring at me over the puddle of ink that used to be her shield. Damn, that's impressive. From her wrist I could see the remains of the snakes melting down as well. At least something went right.

I wanted to whistle in appreciation but didn't have time. With a flick of her wrist, one of the designs on her armor seemed to animate and grow out of her armor. When it's mouth started smoking I retreated into an ID. She can make freaking dragons. That's crazy.

I didn't actually leave. I really really wanted her power. It just seemed too useful not to collect. I dropped out a fair distance away. The group seemed to have huddled together and I cast a Blood Bomb into the middle of them. I flicked a Bloody Needle at the dragon's head before it could breathe fire and smirked when it melted. I also noticed her armor lost the design on it. Hmmm, so there are limits. Probably involving preparation time.

I cast another bomb to keep everyone off their feet before spamming Bloody Needles at her. They shredded her armor only to reveal another layer underneath. And of course, it was also covered in designs. I'm just glad we're indoors since the wings she grew would have let her run away otherwise.

The tail launching spikes actually caught me surprise since I was busy dodging the pack of wolves she had summoned. I should have suspected the things could detach from her. The impact knocked me down and I had to retreat into an ID again.

I Power Leap and exit at the top of my arc. Another bomb clears away the wolves and I target one of her wings with a needle before IDing away again. She tries to run at that point, but I really wanted her power. She also seems to have finally run out of abilities. A quick bullet to the back of her head and she goes down.

[Quest completed.]

[Gang War.]

[Defeat your first villain.]

[Reward: 1 Perk Point.]

So another hidden objective. Nice.

As I expected, no one really seemed to care about computer games and they were pretty much untouched. Even most of the computers were there. Most likely since utilities weren't working. I end up looting the entire place before leaving although I do leave enough supplies for the rest to survive if they come back. There was no point trying to find them all, and besides, some of them might gain interesting new powers.

There were no generators to be found so I improvised. I tore apart a truck engine along with some other cobbled together supplies and created my own. With Craft so high it was pretty simple. Then I retreated through an ID back to the building that was rapidly becoming my base. I stashed the supplies in one of the few remaining room inside the building and IDed to use it's copy.

While setting up my new gaming rig I used my new skill book.

[Using this Skill book will replace your current Power. Confirm?]

The hell? I'm only allowed to have one power?

Damn it.

In the end I hit yes. The tinker food are powerful, but will just take too long to really affect me. I do grab her body though as well as make my way back for the tinker's body. It was a little rat eaten, but still plenty viable according to my Observe. If I grab Blasto's power I can clone them and make copies of their powers.

I think about the issue for awhile before two solutions present themselves. Three actually, but one just didn't seem worth the risk. Eidolon has a good power, but I have no idea what my subconscious will do.

The first seems the best. Glaistig Uaine's ability to harvest other cape's powers and manifest them seems ideal. I can even try for Eidolon to increase the number I can manifest. I'm going to have to kill him at some point since he's the one who keeps summoning Endbringers.

The second is a bit riskier. The Butcher. Given my abilities I think I could have a decent chance at killing her. I'm immune to precognition so her Danger Sense won't work. I just need to get strong enough to actually hurt her.

Gamer's Mind means I won't be influenced by the previous Butchers. The best part is Harvest might also drop Skill Books, allowing me to empower someone else or gain stronger variations of the Butcher's powers.

Of course I still will need to get to them both for their powers. Or. I smile in inspiration. Or I just need to kill a clone of theirs. And didn't Blasto start working with a DNA database he got from Accord? One that had samples of everyone?

As for other powers I collect? I'm not exactly sure. I'd go the minions route if I could. I know it'd be the best way, but so far I haven't found a Party Mode. Probably requires a high Charisma, which means I might never unlock it.

Oh well, I have my goal now.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X

To reach my goal unfortunately requires going back to training. Lots of training. At least playing games isn't monotonous. When I had selected the games I avoided the Earth Aleph imports. I have a whole new world of choices and intend to enjoy them all, or at least a good portion of them. Thankfully they had the stereotypical cheap game section that included lame mysteries and fake casinos.

Preparations complete, I drop into a zombie ID, which is really misleading name. I settle myself down, activate stealth and a number of other spells and load the first game. Only a few minutes in I notice that flesh puppets, screw it, I'm calling them zombies.

Only a few minutes in, I notice the zombies gathering around the building. Peeking over the side shows they're all looking at me.

Hmmm. I'm an idiot.

I pop out, drop Aura and re-enter. Sure enough, they don't find me automatically. They're Grimm. Aura acts like a lure. Until my Stealth is crazy high I probably have no chance of hiding while my Aura is up.

Oh well. I still activate Mana Shield and Blood Armor before hiding again. And damn. Apparently mana is the same energy Aura is, so they can still sense it.

Fine. I pop out and don't put my Aura or any spells this time. None of the zombies approach.

Finally.

I spend several fairly peaceful hours playing games, sadly without sound since I need to hear if anything tries to get to me. I play my way through the campaign of a few of the games before switching to the gambling games. I barely kept myself from cheering when I received my first point of Luk.

I was right about the stealth as well. I leveled pretty fast, especially when I threw a Blood Bomb the next street over. All the zombies in the area started searching the area and I enjoyed watching my skill steadily increasing.

Eventually stealth started drastically slowing down. Probably too high for the zombies now. I had gotten a fair number of ability points so I was happy. I still stayed though, even a trickle of experience was better than nothing and my primary goal were still the games.

I eventually left when the generator died. I almost kicked myself when that happened. I had loaded the generator with enough fuel to run for days. It running out of fuel was probably bad. Checking my watch revealed that yes, I had just lost several days. Again.

I do finally set my watch with a vibrating alarm every 8 hours. I actually feel stupid when I get a point of Wis for that act.

Still, it was well worth it. I had managed to get both abilities to the coveted 25 mark, if not well past. Roulette turns out to be great game for Luck and I can load multiple instances of the game at the same time. Horribly boring and I'm not sure if I want to do it again anytime soon.

Depends on the perks I guess. And on that note I load the perks page, filtering out the ones I've already learned.

Available Perks (Current Points: 6)

Ant Haul (reduce encumbrance penalty on Str and Dex by 5%)

Catching a Break (less likely to be unlucky soon after being unlucky, the worse the occurrence the less likely there is another occurrence)

Fleet (Increase top speed by 2 mph)

Inhuman Reflexes (Skill, increased chance to react to surprise)

Intensive Training (+2 to one Ability)

Jinx (Skill, allows user to curse target with bad luck. Minor annoyances will occur throughout duration. Cannot cause death.]

Long Haul (reduce encumbrance penalty on End by 10%)

Lucky Streak (good luck increases chance of additional good luck)

Mana Battery (Gain additional 1 MP per point of Int)

Minimap (Skill, provides abstract information tool)

Pack Mule (Equip Load increases by 10 lbs)

Serenity (Skill, allows user to perform other actions without breaking meditation)

Skilled (+5 ranks in one Skill)

Soul Eater (User may consume Soul Gems to replenish their MP. Amount gained dependent on quality of Soul Gem.)

Toughness (Gain additional 1 HP per point of Vit)

Vigorous (Gain additional 1 Sta per point of End)

Well Rested (gain additional 10% XP from kills after sleeping)

Huh. I quickly flick to my perks and see Toughness there as well. Nice. Looks like I can take it more than once. However, there are a number of perks I now want. It is irritating that there are so many skills listed that I want and have absolutely no idea on how to create.

The luck perks don't seem terribly useful either. Unless I'm horribly bored I can't see myself training my Luck to 50. Wisdom though. Those are all nice. Looks like lots of game in the future for me.

I take Soul Eater. I haven't found anything that increases MP more than 10 and those energy drinks actually cost me HP to use. I immediately cast a few spells and then consume a Petty Soul Gem. 50 mp. Presumably the stronger soul gems will give more. Even if they don't it was already worth it.

Ok, five choices left. Damn I wish I knew how to create those two skills.

Fuck it. Minimap. Serenity. Inhuman Reflexes. Vigorous. Toughness again. Yes to all. I am now the proud owner of three new skills. Let's see what they are. Observe.

[Minimap (Passive) LVL 1 - 0%: Provides detained data as if using a basic Observe on all targets within area. Options for filtering and sorting information available at higher levels. Covers area that falls under Harvest the Fallen.]

Not bad. So basically an actual minimap from a game, but potentially much more customizable. Even as I read the experience rating changed to 1. So always on, but probably will level slowly. Hopefully enemies will help. Next.

[Serenity (Passive) LVL 1 - 0%: Allows actions to be taken without breaking use of Meditation. Use of a physical ability score, expenditure of mana or taking damage greater than the current level of this skill automatically breaks Meditation.]

Damn. So combat is completely out for right now. Although it doesn't cap skills. So training is still available and maybe sniping enemies if I don't mind using a lower Dex. Not great, but still potentially useful. And again, damn. I probably could have made this. Just would have had to combine Concentration with Meditate.

[Inhuman Reflexes (Passive) LVL 1 - 0%: Chance to activate on surprise 1%. Upon activation automatically know what triggered it and gain 1 second of subjective time to think of response.]

Ok. I have defensive bullet time. That is amazing. I definitely will have to level that up. Unfortunately the only way I can see to level it is to get attacked by surprise over and over again. Training this skill is going to suck.

And it's back to training for now. I really need some kind of training montage skill. Although how would I level it? Boredom sends my mind on some random tangents. Too bad Serenity doesn't actually grant peace of mind.

I activate all of my buffs before meditating. I carefully walk back and forth and watch the experience gauge of serenity fill steadily. When the minute mark hits I hold my breath and cheer when Meditation doesn't break. That broke it though, but I quickly start again.

It's pretty boring just pacing back and forth and I end up playing games again. I limit myself to turn-based games after I drop the laptop for the second time. Stupid 1 Dex.

It takes hours, but I finally manage to get it to level 10. I stop after that since it's high enough for what I have in mind. I sit down and while still meditating, I began playing with mana.

I'm careful not to use too much, but using what I can. I form it into various shapes and move it around, sending it floating around my head or jumping between my fingers. It's not easy and I have to maintain my focus or all the mana disperses in the air.

I don't get any new skills from this, but Mana Manipulation starts leveling pretty quickly. I'm spending about 1 MP per second, but with meditate up I'm only losing about 33 per minute. At this rate it'll take just over 2 hours to empty my reserves.

I decide to keep at it until I do run out. There is something innately fascinating to me about mana. I have always loved the concept of magic and to now that I had it there was no way I wasn't going to use it.

When I did run out of mana, I looked around for something else to do. Even with Gamer's Mind I was getting tired of training and I needed something to distract myself with.

I ended up playing with my Inventory, testing out it's limits. The term living creatures ended being an interesting limitation. Plants didn't count and could be stored. So could eggs although I'm not sure why.

The zombies couldn't, but that was because of the beetles. Sadly the beetles couldn't be stored until I killed them, they just passing through the screen otherwise. So no perfect assassination power. Although they do drop something new now.

[Gore Bag]

[This is a collection of miscellaneous human body parts. Crafting item for Necrotech.]

I firmly ignore those for now.

I end up giving in and go back to grinding using the games. I'm nowhere near the 50 mark, but in the end I feel that it'll be worth it. As a sign of my newfound wisdom though I also train my survivability.

The first was to give myself more damage resistances. I still remember frantically dodging the fire from the last cape and anyone can use a flamethrower or Molotov cocktail. It actually proved to be much better than I had realized. As soon as I started burning myself I got the following notifications.

[Fire Resistance (Passive) LVL 1 - 0%: A skill that makes the body adapt to extreme heat, reducing damage taken. Reduces fire damage by 1.]

[Due to repeating actions a new skill had been learned.]

[Damage Reduction (Passive) LVL 1 - 0%: A skill to make the user more difficult to injure. All damage is reduced by 1% before resistances are applied.]

[All damage resistance skills are now listed as subskills under Damage Reduction.]

Huh. Well, that will make keeping track of my defensive skills easier. I should probably start grouping all of my skills that way. I set about doing that while I search out new ways to hurt myself. Since the first few levels are always fairly quick to raise I try to raise each of them to at least 10.

I ended up with resistances to acid, cold, electricity, and piercing damage. I tried poison, but ended up with a different skill instead.

[Poison Resistance (Passive) LVL 1 - 0%: User is resistant to harmful substances. 1% chance to ignore the effects of a poison. Weaker substances may be completely negated.]

[New Perk Available.]

The hell? Let's see.

Picture of Health (resist diseases as easily as poison)

Odd. Sleeping gets rid of anything long term. Buuuut I don't like sleeping, so it looks like I'm going to be getting that later on. On that note, maybe I should actually try sleeping at least once?

I time it and it takes a full eight hours. When I read the notification I also realize if my mana gets high enough sleep might end up being fast to refill it than meditation. Although I'll probably get a skill or perk later to fix that.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X

Lacking inspiration I end up starting on the training that I know is going to suck. I go back to my base and look around. I'm really lucky there is so little shelter provided and no one wants to live in a very exposed position. I still make sure to pull up the fire escape. I can always kick it down inside the ID.

Using craft and some of the scrap metal laying around I fashion myself a very heavy weight vest. More than enough to put an Encumbrance penalty on myself and keep it there even if I gain a few points. Then I step into a zombie ID. I bounce a rock down the fire escape to attract a few zombies and stealth to make sure only a few notice my presence.

It sort of works. Even if they don't notice me, they see the other zombies homing in on something. I sigh and wait until a half dozen have made it up the ladder before using a Blood Bomb. It wipes out most of the gathered zombies, but more importantly it destroys the ladder.

Then I began my terrible training plan. I activate Aura, Blood Armor and Mana Shield. I put on a blindfold and ear plugs. I then proceed to fight. Sorta. Actually I mostly just let them pound away at me.

I get hit a lot.

I don't get hurt though. I had calculated it and between my defensives the zombies can't actually deal any damage except on a critical hit. Speaking of, ow. So yes, critical hits still hurt.

When my ability finally triggers I can feel it. It's a weird sensation to know an attack is coming from the side with your senses blocked. I punch and I can feel the zombie die as I reflexively destroy it's head. Oops.

I resist aiming for the head after that and settle for just pushing the attacks away. It feels like an eternity before I finally feel the ability start kicking in more and more often. It's still only a fraction of the time, but it's now a noticeable fraction.

Since I have Ambidexterity I decide to try and have fun. Whenever I parry an attack I use the other to gut punch the zombie. I deliberately aim low since I don't want to destroy the beetle, which seems to be located somewhere in the chest.

I make horrible fake martial arts noises. I pose. I try out silly moves that would be impractical and hard even if you weren't blind.

Even that gets boring after awhile and start getting frustrated with the training. It's working, but it's certainly not any fun. I figure it's the grinding combined with the blocking the senses that's getting to me. Trying to lift my spirits I start singing March of Cambreadth. It didn't quite work for me. It's hard to get your blood pumping when you aren't exactly fighting seriously.

I tried a few other song before I found one that seemed to work for me. I had always liked Re: Your Brains and the silly lyrics seemed to fit the ridiculous image I had in my head of what I was currently doing.

Eventually I couldn't stand it anymore. Singing, dancing, nothing distracted me enough to keep going. And yes, I tried dancing with the zombies. It wasn't that hard either. Instead of pushing it away I'd grapple it lightly and then use my superior strength to drag it around while I sorta stumbled through a dance. The waltz was by far the easiest, but the tango was a close second. Everything fancier was horribly difficult just because I kept falling over. It was ridiculous, even more so than singing, but it kept me entertained enough to keep training for awhile.

All things end though. When I finally felt my weight vest lighten to where it didn't impede me anymore I decided it was time. I thoroughly enjoyed destroying the zombies after ripping off my blindfold. A pair of Blood Bombs cleared the mob at the base of the tower, which had been covered in zombies attracted by my Aura.

As soon as I saw the zombies start to congregate I was leaping towards them. Dual casting, I was able to hit the pile of zombies with four Blood Bombs before they melded. Sadly it still spawned a lesser legion zombie. I guess there isn't a lower level version. I had this hilarious idea of damaging it enough so that it ended up being only two zombies merging and it being called something like pint-size legion zombie.

Oh well, I actually had a plan I wanted to try out so it all works out.

I started dual casting Bloody Needles, all of them aimed directly at it's head. When it swung at me I leaped to the next building and cast again. I repeated the pattern three times before it broke the pattern.

The zombie suddenly hunched over for a second and it's flesh began rippling. Instead of armor though it grew two additional pair of arms. It then started flailing towards me, attacking the buildings around me as well. It was too late though. I had been keeping a close eye on it's health. Even as it twisted to continue the barrage of attacks my final pair of Bloody Needles slammed into it's head and it died.

Since I leveled I grab Picture of Health.

[New skill learned.]

[Blight Resistance (Passive) LVL 1 - 7%: User is resistant to harmful substances. 1% chance to ignore the effects of a disease or poison. Weaker substances may be completely negated.]

I check and it seems Poison Resistance was replaced. Thankfully I didn't lose my little progress. Or maybe not. I also decided to get around to leveling the crap out of that skill. Losing the ability to get drunk seemed a small enough price to pay for immunity to many of Bonesaw's techniques.

Since nothing else seems really appealing I grab Toughness again. I really don't want to die.

I definitely need to level both Bloody Needle and Blood Bomb some more. They are both rapidly becoming my more useful offensive abilities. Which would be a problem if I run into someone who can mess with blood, but it should be fine for now. After all, it's not l've run into anything unexpected already right?

Fuck. I need another way of damaging enemies. And guns just don't seem to be able to keep up. At this point my fists deal more damage than bullets. Probably because I'm so much stronger than normal.

Awwww. I'm going to have to melee. I definitely want a weapon than. Maybe something to throw as well. Or maybe I can draw one.

My new power is fascinating. Basically I can draw, or tattoo but I'm sticking with temporary uses until I have a better handle on the power, pictures that I can imbue with energy that can then be brought to life. They have to be on a living creature and whoever it's on is the one controls when it's activated. I also can't modify it after I imbued it which is the main reason I'm not making any tattoos yet.

I can draw living creatures and limbs along with simple things such as armor or a sword. The level of detail and skill put into the drawing determines how powerful it is. For non-living items the detail and skill determine the complexity of what I can create. Everything requires a certain level of detail to be used, but it will be stronger if the drawing is more details and life-like. Luckily both painting, tattoos and drawing all fall under Craft, which I have fairly high.

Just as I suspected from my fight, anything that is killed or destroyed causes the tattoo to vanish. Drawings are of course one-shot uses. I'm also wondering how easy it would be to allow an animal to manifest a tattoo. Not really that important for now.

The only actual drawing I regularly use so far is a wakizashi. I have a few of drawings, but I'm mostly satisfied with the sword for now. I had picked that weapon because one of the random skill books I had read gave me the skill Iaido. And after reading it's description, it was exactly what I was looking for.

[Iaido (Active 149 Sta) LVL 1 - 0%: A technique to draw the sword and smoothly flowing through an attack and flick to cleanse the blood off and then resheathing. Attack deals an additional 53% damage and increases the chance of a critical hit.]

The only drawback to the technique was that it requires too much energy. It was too bad it drew upon my stamina instead of my mana. It is getting cheaper but it will likely never be something I'll be able to spam. Although I wonder if there is a way to shorten my recovery time?

[Requirements not met. Requires End 50.]

Definitely need to reach End 50 than.

I spent most of the day practicing. The problem lay with the cost. Even with my Aura up I still had less than a thousand Sta, which meant six attacks. Six! I spent a large amount of my time running around between the zombies trying to level up On a Dime. Sadly I couldn't sprint since it consumed Sta.

I didn't even always get all six attacks in. Iaido is pretty stressful and occasionally the sword would break when I was cutting a zombie in half. After the first time I started drawing multiple swords on myself. I was on the verge of just abandoning the technique altogether when I had an epiphany.

I carefully fed mana into the sword. I willed the energy to strengthen it, to make it better, to make it more. The sword burst, exploding along with the energy spill out of of it. I didn't mind too much since I could just draw more. I try again and again.

Eventually I gain a new skill and it was perfect.

[Reinforcement (Active varies) LVL 1 - 0%: A skill to amplify the properties of an object by augmenting it through the infusion of mana. An object can have any number of discrete attributes increased. The total bonuses cannot exceed (102 + the caster's Int)% and cannot be divided into amounts smaller than 1%. If the objects HP is selected than it also gains the caster's Int in damage resistance. Reinforcement lasts for 1 day per 5 points of the caster's Wis.]

I test out the skill using what I remembered from the Fate Stay Night series. I already found out overloading an object destroys it. While my version isn't quite the same, I test to see what other similar limitations it might have.

First, the mana cost is fairly high. And lastly, I use it on myself. As expected, as soon as I turn it off the benefits fade. I even catch a bird to try it on. As expected overloading it poisons it. It also costs more. In fact, it costs exactly an additional amount of MP equal to it's Int. Additionally the timer for the buff read lower and some calculation revealed that it's Wis score was subtracted from mine before the duration was set.

Since training is gong slowly due to the pitifully small number of strikes I can make before being forced to rest I train both Deadly Charge and Power Strike. I did attempt to get around the massive amount of Sta that was used by Iaido, but failed in the best kind of way. I attempted to substitute MP for Sta with Iaido. Instead I ended up getting another technique from Fate Stay Night. I love being lucky.

[Prana Burst (Active varies) LVL 1 - 0%: User continuously utilizes the expulsion of bursts of MP to impart additional force to certain movements. MP is consumed depending on the actions taken and the boost given. Maximum boost is 104%.]

Prana Burst was an Active skill, but one of the few I've found that stacked with others. It was very impressive as well. It did drain obscene amounts of MP to use though. Even with my ridiculous MP pool I couldn't afford to use this all the time. Thankfully I probably wouldn't need to. Assuming it progressed linearly like all of my other skills so far, then combined with Iaido I should easily bring down any single target.

Training all of my new skills was tedious and slow, but slowly I made progress. A fact highlighted when I get a shiny new title. My first in fact.

[Exterminator]

Obtained by killing 1000 Corpse Beetles.

+100% Damage dealt to bugs

+100% Defense against bugs

+10 Abilities when fighting bugs

I immediately equip it. It makes the dungeon runs much easier. I'm a bit shocked at how routine it had become.

Which brings me to this point. I'm facing for the first time a fully generated legion zombie. I'm a bit excited at what it'll be like. It does seem to be getting bigger at least. Observe.

[Legion Puppet, Lvl 34]

[HP: 15400]

I glance at the rest of the description, but it didn't reveal anything new. And then it stands.

Definitely bigger. Where as before it stood around 30 ft, this one is closer to 50. So twice as big, twice as tough, hopefully it has something more than that going for it.

Almost as if it heard me it generates bone armor. The armor is complex and almost stylized depicting skeletons warriors fighting. I'm actually impressed at the level of detail that had gone into forming it. Who knew the bugs had it in them to be so artistic?

I immediately use the tactic I had perfected against the lesser legion zombies. I power leap from building to building, dual casting Bloody Needles as I go. It works all too well. The armor does block some of the damage, but not enough. I'm horribly disappointed. The only real difference was how long it takes.

Oh, well. Inventory. Let's see if I've finally gotten Life Drain. Aaand I didn't. I do however, have several red bottles that I suspect are health potions. Observe.

[Lesser Health Potion.]

[Instantly recovers 100 HP. Does not remove Crippling status effects. Tastes like strawberries.]

That's not bad. Much better than in DnD at least. Sighing I exit the ID.

[ID Create: new options available]

There we go. My ID skill had been sitting at level 9 with 99% experience for awhile. I immediately look at the skill.

ID Create (Active 100 mp) LVL 10 - 11%: Allows for the creature of dimensional pockets. Pockets are destroyed upon leaving.

Current Dungeons available: Training, Empty, Zombies, Wolves

So wolves. And since it seems to be going with a RWBY theme, most likely Beowolves. In the show they're seemed pretty weak. I'll wait for now. Experience can be gained at any time. When the story starts I likely won't have much time to train. The worst is that everything happens in such a small time frame. I really want my stats at a much higher level before then.

I can't wait until the story starts.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X

Status

Name: None

Age: 8

Title: Exterminator

Semblance: Gamer

Class: Mage

Level: 19 - 45%

HP: 966/966

MP: 7245/7245

Stamina: 1008/1008

Equip Load: 3/154

Conditions: None

Money: $37,203

Str: 37 (74)

Dex: 33 (66)

End: 37 (74)

Vit: 34 (68)

Int: 46 (49)

Wis: 35 (37)

Cha: 1

Luk: 32

Points: 95