Tutorial 2.4

After discussing powers and costumes over lunch Taylor and I got down to power testing and training. It took a few hours, but we now both had [Stealth], [Detect], [Knife Mastery], and [Knife Throwing]. Taylor got [Brawling], but I'm not comfortable hitting her for a skill. Too high of a chance to do serious damage on accident. She probably thought it was (just) a gender thing; I got a relationship loss alert. But more importantly we proved that my power was at least helping us gain skills and stats faster and wasn't just a Thinker power quantifying things. That's going to be so useful, it could paint a real target on my back...

Now we're preparing to test ID Create. Taylor thinks it's best that we check and make sure it's not some weird Master effect that leaves us standing around drooling while we fight zombies in our minds. My skill screen wasn't particularly helpful on the subject, but it did let me know that I can currently open a barrier that's either empty, or inhabited by zombies. And that undead summoned during daylight suffer a 25% penalty to level and stats. Taylor's about a hundred twenty yards away, peering around a shipping container to keep an eye on me while I try this solo.

"Ready?" I yell to her.

A pink window appears in front of me, labelled [Taylor Herbert], with an icon of a speaker on it. Taylor's voice comes from it, speaking at a normal volume. "James, you don't have to yell. Voice chat, remember? And I'm ready."

...I didn't think I would forget that fast.

"[ID Create: Zombie]" Left hand in the air, right hand clutching my bright pink baseball bat, I face the horde. And I do mean horde. After the tutorial trip into the Illusion Barrier, I really wasn't expecting more than four or five zombies. There's a small crowd of [Zombie, Level 6] in front of me, and I expect there have to be more around, behind containers and such. With this many zombies in plain sight, I'm not taking any risks. I charge the nearest one.

"Good news, James. You disappeared." I trip over my feet as I get a sudden reminder we've still got voice chat active. I have got to train my AGI up. "It looks like you really do make a pocket dimension instead of an illusion."

I hop to my feet as fast as I can. "That's good to know. [Power Strike]" The strike knocks a baseball cap off the nearest zombie and leaves a serious dent in the side of his head, but only takes off about a fifth of his health. It almost knocks him over as well. "Looks like there's about ten zombies right here." My MP is still over six hundred, so I can spare a little to finish him before the others get too close.

"Ten zombies? Get out of there!" Taylor's worry feels a touch insulting. I'm 50% higher level than I was when I took out two at once.

I try to reassure her. "I just leveled, so I've got a bit more HP and MP to work with. And I want to see if I can find more teeth." Maybe I'll get lucky and find another blueprint.

It takes five more [Power Strikes], and one normal hit, for him to die. [97 XP] The whole time I can hear Taylor over the voice chat muttering about "stubborn boy" and "4 WIS".

That's not fair. "It's seven now!" Four of the other corpses are a bit closer than I like now and two new zombies have shuffled into view from behind me. On the plus side, I've got an alert that [Power Strike has leveled up!] I turn and sprint at the nearer of the two new enemies, hoping to get some space before the loose circle around me closes.

"And my fifty-nine is telling me to tell you to get out of there!"

"I've got this!" This time my starting [Power Strike] catches a businesswoman zombie right in the floating ribs. A quick spin and I'm not only outside the ring of undead, I'm behind her. One of the 'busy-signal' alert indicators starts flashing. If I've learned anything from tactical RPGs…

"[Power Strike]" and a back-attack (to the head) should give me good odds on a…

[Critical Hit!]

With only a sliver of HP to go, I take my chance to get the [Brawling] skill, and punch her in the kidney with a rapidly-freed left fist. The good news is I've got another indicator blinking now, so I probably did get it. On the down side, it actually takes two punches to finish her. ([97 XP]) And by that time, I'm surrounded by a mass of stinking, scratching corpses.

"Fuck." [Danger!]

"What?!" Taylor doesn't sound happy.

This is not the time to be talking, though. "Hold on!" A little impatience leaks into my tone. I'm probably burning MP a little faster than I should, but I can't stop while surrounded. [Power Strikes] flow from my mighty pink bat, even as blow after blow catches me from angles I've got no chance to defend against. And they hit hard. Things kinda blur together in a brawl like this...

I run out of MP with only two enemies left. Neither of them is in perfect shape, but I'm down to 32/220 HP, and Pinkie is looking a little rough. Three or four more hits and Taylor will find out what happens if someone dies in an Illusion Barrier. ...or maybe I'll just never reappear… Fuck that. I just have to play it safe and focus on taking them out one at a time. I take a moment to reassure Taylor. "Told you. Just two left."

"Just be careful, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Careful mode on." I hate this kind of moment in action RPGs, kiting enemies for five or six minutes because you can't afford to take a hit. And the whole time I've got half-a-dozen or so alerts waiting for me, blinking away. Hell, it takes long enough that I regenerate enough MP to finish off the last zombie, a decaying cowboy, with one last [Power Strike] to the face.

Of course, this is when I realize all the noise has drawn three or four more groups of zombies. They aren't exactly on me yet, but they're close enough I can't make a break for it. No. Nope. Not a chance. I drop to the ground and sweep up what loot is in easy reach. I have to leave a few soul shards and a tooth, and I think I saw a rib over where I got the first zombie, but I'm out of time. "[ID Escape]!" The world shatters, and I find myself staring up at an unimpressed Taylor.

...I half-expected another WIS boost for knowing when to cut my loses...

A wave of alerts blocks view.

[Due to an act of noteworthy dexterity, AGI has increased by 1]

[A skill has been created through a special action.]

[A skill to fight without weapons, [Brawling], has been created.]

[Brawling (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 2.3%]

[Allows the user to freely fight unarmed. Passively increases unarmed attack speed and power by 3%. When replaced by a martial arts skill 25% of earned experience will carry over.]

[Rabbit punch! Eye gouge! Groin stomp! There's no such thing as a fair fight, just whoever is left standing.]

[Sense Danger's level goes up by one!] [Blunt Weapon Mastery's level goes up by two!] [Power Strike's level goes up by one!] [Due to diligent effort, your STR has increased by 2!] [Due to diligent effort, your VIT has increased by 1!] [You've gained 1 level.]

I dismiss them as quickly as I read them, which is pretty damn fast, if I do say so myself. "Okay, so you may have been right about not taking them on solo," I admit magnanimously.

"MAY have been right?" Taylor has her hands on her hips, a stance I'm all too familiar with from my sister - angry teenaged girl. "MAY have been right? You could have just left and come back with me in the party. You just made me the boss. That makes me responsible if you get yourself killed! Do you know what it was like for me just standing here listening to that? Do you-"

Taylor brakes off her rant midstream to focus on something I can't see. "Huh. I just got an [Intimidate] skill."

The only surprising thing about Taylor receiving the [Intimidate] skill is "You didn't already have that?"

Author's Notes: Two shout-outs - Sin Piedad is the 100th subscriber to Co-Op Mode! And Marie, "anonymous" reviewer: I'm glad you're enjoying the story, and hope your recovery goes well.