Fuse

Alright, I'm back on the hill that's next to Dumpster. Good to know I can somewhat alter where I'm going.

Now, my last scuffle with Garbanag didn't go so well, because he just broke out of my trump card and I didn't feel like starting the battle with half my mana gone.

So, I need to do some self improvement somehow. Indiscriminate murder has gotten me slow but steady improvement to my ranks. Achievements are a bit hard to come by, but they do help sometimes. And gacha tokens haven't done me that dirty so far.

Maybe I should get up to B rank in all of my essentials, then I could do some achievement hunting…

Hm, but if being able to travel through worlds isn't an achievement, what would be?

Maybe if I go to the player's hub, I could maybe strike a deal or something with someone else to get some things…

Well this is a Terraria world, maybe I'll farm up some souls of night or something so I can have a constant supply of souls to use to power my soul mage class.

Hm, so I'd guess this is my plan of action.

Go to the hub and talk with some of my peers. Then I can come back here to start killing the local crimson or corruption population, then I'll do some achievement hunting in the hopes of getting a gacha token and then I can finally kill that Brit.

Yeah, this is going to be a pretty busy week…

Landing in the hub, I decided to just walk around and get a feel for the place.

There were just a bunch of people around talking to each other. But I think they're using some anti-peeping magic because I couldn't clearly hear even one of their conversations.

Well, it's not that bad. If it worked the last time, I can definitely just walk up to someone who looks American and ask for some advice.

Spotting someone with all of the characteristics of an Asian-American, chatting with someone who was also an Asian but not American, I decided that they were a good place to start.

Observing them told me that their names were Azazel, and Qishiuang, it was pretty obvious who was American and who was not.

Walking up to them, I introduced myself, "Hey, my name is Fuse, I'm pretty new around here so I wanted to see if people here wanted to give me some tips?"

The two turned to him, then they turned to each other, and Qishiuang asked, "Why us?"

I pointed to Azazel, "He's American."

Azazel blinked in surprise, "How the hell did you know that?"

I shrugged as if it was obvious, "Americans recognize other Americans."

"Since when?" Azazel earnestly asked.

"Since the end of segregation and people stopped trying to draw arbitrary lines of who was American and who wasn't," I easily answered.

God, remembering segregation just makes me pissed. So happy LBJ passed the civil rights act. And God bless King and Lincoln's soul.

Qishiuang tilted his head, "I don't get it."

"Shame," I quipped before turning back to Azazel, "Anyways, have any tips for a fellow American?"

Azazel hummed as he rolled with the punches and thought of an answer, "Have you had sex yet?"

"Last life or this one?"

"This one."

"Then you probably should, you get a divine gacha token for doing it. I'm asexual and even I caved to the allure of a divine gacha token." Azazel revealed.

Hm, that is a great point. I'm not that into sex, that crazy son of a bitch ruined it for me. But the allure of a divine gacha token is very very convincing…

Well, I'll ask Dori or Nahida if they want to, even though they're the opposite of my type. If they say no, I'll just wait until I find another American that'll say yes.

But also, "Did you get something good from the gacha token?"

Azazel frowned, "I mean, I got a really good and loyal chef out of it. The best food I've ever eaten. But… I was sort of hoping for a more combat oriented pull."

Qishiuang groaned, "I got a curse out of mine that basically made me have an evil version of me inside of me. That took like 49 years to exorcise."

Ah, that sucks.

So, no guarantees aside from its rank, huh? That's definitely a risk.

"Alright, I'll definitely put that on my to-do list. Anything else?" I said.

Azazel scratched his chin, "Uh, I'm thinking…" His eyes wandered to the nearby shops, then he remembered, "Ah, yeah, you see the guys who decided to make a shop around here? They trade in favors, and a bunch of us got together to make a list of who's trustworthy with those favors and who isn't. Here's the list. Keep it."

Azazel hands me some sort of tablet and I quickly skimmed over it.

Some people are basically just here to hand out free stuff. Some people are here to recruit people to their weird groups. Some people just want to watch people suffer. And all of this pops a question in my mind.

"Hey, what's stopping me from just taking something from you, like a super powerful gun or something, and taking it to my world to curb stomp everyone?" I asked, curious to see if there were any limitations.

"I think that there's a sort of a universal law in place that causes things you take from other gamers to be debuffed to wherever you're taking them to," Azazel said, trying to remember the specifics, "And that law doesn't work when you trade favors. So maybe it works like the law of equivalent change here? I'm not exactly sure."

Ah, that's highly specific and equally as inconvenient.

I wonder if there's a reason why this place is made that way. But I guess I wouldn't know.

Well, anyways, that's good to know. I'll probably look around to find someone who sells guns. In fact, the list of people that I got shows whatever they're selling, so I bet I could just use that.

"Thanks for the help, man." I thanked as I pulled up the tablet, "I'm good now, though."

Azazel nodded, "No problem dude. Oh, here's my recommendation, go check out Zamandor's Systems. He's a nice guy, so he'll ask for a favor that he'll never use and in return he'll upgrade your system a bit."

I put that on my to-do list, "Alright, thanks again. Take care."

"Take care." Azazel said as he turned back to his conversation partner.

Meanwhile, I checked the location of where Lockheed Martin is located compared to Zamandor's Systems.

Lockheed Martin was closer to where I was, so I decided to go there first.

Now, can I just say that I love the fact that this random guy decided to name himself after the company? That's absolutely wonderful.

It's just unfortunate that the owner of Lockheed Martin, Taiclet, is listed as a yellow on this list. Which apparently means 'he might make you do some sucky stuff.'

But Taiclet is no doubt a fellow American, and I know that he'll do me good.

Entering his fine establishment, I see Taiclet leaning back in a chair, who's just a normal white guy, smoking 5 cigarettes at once and I immediately know I'm in good hands.

"Hey, I'm here to get some guns and ammunition." I announced, getting his attention.

"What state?" He immediately asked.

"California." I immediately answered.

He let go of his cigarettes, allowing them to dissipate into the air, "Hm. Age and what year?"

"18, 2024." I answered again.

"Did you get to vote yet?" I shook my head, "If you could, Who would you vote for in 2024?" He asked, starting to stand up from his chair.

"Biden," I answered.

Taiclet smiled, and we both immediately knew that we were both in good company "My man."

"Where are you from?" I decided to ask, walking further into his store.

"I'm from Texas, I'm a couple decades older than you but hey, that's fine, I can feel that patriotism roaring inside of you," Taiclet said as the store suddenly burst with a bunch more weapons on display, "Americans, or at least the good ones, get a buy one get one free deal."

I rubbed my hands, "That's a good deal. I've just been getting guns from the gacha and occasionally a random quest, so my collection is a bit sparse and I don't have ammo for my shotgun and rocket launcher. And I'm hoping to get an AR-15 or something, mostly because it's iconic."

"What does AR stand for?" Taiclet quizzed.

"Armalite, duh." I easily answered. My dad drilled that one into me.

Taiclet was pleased, "Alright, I can hook you up. Anything you want for that free deal?"

I hummed, "I've been naming my guns and weapons after the presidents-"

Taiclet interrupted me with an irritated groan, "I'm super fucking pissed I didn't come up with that idea."

"Now is a great time to start doing that, anyways, I've been naming my guns and weapons after presidents and my explosive weapons after the bad presidents, and I kind of just want a shitty grenade launcher or something and call it Trump." I finished.

Taiclet tilted his head, "When you say shitty, how shitty?"

"When Trump hits an ally, it kills them, when it hits an enemy, it heals them kind of shitty." I said.

Taiclet snorted, "Fucking hilarious. Alright, I can get you hooked up right away with those two, but you'll need to give me a minute to get you your ammo and custom Trump launcher, alright?"

I nodded, "Yeah, that's fine. And I just give you a couple of favors?"

Taiclet nodded, "Exactly, I'm thinking 3 favors?"

"Yeah, I can do that, no problem," I agreed with the total, "Do I get some kind of phone number or something that you can call me with?"

Taiclet nods, "Something like that. Is this your first time buying something here?"

I nodded, "Yep. First time."

Taiclet hummed, "Alright, then while I work on the grenade launcher, you can head over to Zamandor's Systems and get a free system update from him, and he'll fix you right up with a messaging menu, plus a few extra stuff."

Alright, that's cool, I was planning to do that anyways.

I gave him a thumbs up, "Alright, I'll go do that now. I'll be right back."

He nodded, "God bless."

"God bless." I said, as I left Lockheed Martin and followed the map towards Zamandor's Systems.

I'm still not that religious despite knowing that there probably is a God or two somewhere out there in the universe. But it's still polite to return a 'God bless' to people. Especially Americans.

After a bit of walking, I made it to Zamandor's Systems, and I walked into the store expecting a bunch of people because of how highly spoken Zamandor was, but apparently it's literally just me and him.

"Ah, did someone send you here?" Zamandor, who seemed to be some sort of zombie bro, asked.

"Yeah, Azazel told me about you, and Taiclet sent me here for the upgrade so he can contact me for the favors." I answered.

Zamandor frowned, "Taiclet? That guy from Lockheed Martin? You know he's crazy, right?"

Crazy? "Crazy how?"

"You know… ungodly patriotic about America for no reason at all."

Oh, Zamandor is just retarded.

"Whatever, can I just get the upgrade thing?" I dismissed Zamandor's entire point, intending to get my upgrade and go.

Zamandor sighed, "Yeah, of course. Come sit over here."

I walked over to where Zamandor gestured to and took my seat.

"Alright, now this will just take a second… Huh? What the heck is wrong with your system?" Zamandor confusedly said, scrolling through some invisible menu, "It's like… Is your system corrupted somehow?"

I shrugged, "It's been like that. But it doesn't really affect me that much."

Zamandor worriedly asked, "Seriously? Ugh, hold on, I'll try to expunge the corruption when I update your system."

I can practically feel his cold touch feeling around my soul as a notification appeared in front of me.

[System Being Updated]

The system update happened practically within an instant, and I could feel Zamandor looking through me in order to find what the issue was.

[System Update Completed]

"Huh, how the hell did I not find it?" Zamandor confusedly asked rhetorically, "I'm like, the expert here."

Okay, so he didn't find the dominoes or anything like that. I guess that's both good because I kept my whole thing a secret from this anti-American loser, and bad because nobody knows about my whole thing with Skryb.

"Well, maybe it wasn't that big of an issue," I suggested, "Anyhow, anything I need to know about the update?"

Zamandor looked a bit disappointed, but he moved on, "Ah… Right. So the ranks all get 3 pluses or minuses now, some of them have different names, and the general scaling is S is us and other comically overpowered gods, D are base humans, A are the more normal gods, B are all super powered, C are wall level people. I know I jumped around a lot, but did you get that?"

…My progress is resetting again, god damn it.

I bitterly wave it off, "Yeah, I'll check my ranks later."

Zamandor nodded, "Alright. You also get your own message menu, and you can also make your own quests, but the rewards are random for those. And I think there's a bunch of randomly generated achievements now. You'll have to redo some things though."

That sure sounds nice.

I don't really care enough to follow, though.

I stood up from my chair, "Thank you for your help, Zamandor, but I have other things to be doing."

Zamandor shrugged, "See you, then. If you need help with your system, I'm your man. But the next time will cost you."

I sighed, and left without another word.

I doubt I'll need his help.

[Biden (AR-15) - A semi-automatic rifle bound to Fuse's soul, allowing it to grow alongside him. This particular weapon is named after the 46th President of The United States, Joe Biden]

[Trump (Lockheed Martin Customized Milkor MGL) - A grenade launcher bound to Fuse's soul, allowing it to grow alongside him. This grenade launcher heals enemies and harms allies. This particular weapon is named after the 45th President of The United States, Donald Trump.]

Landing back on Garbanag's world, I didn't think of any location so I was dropped into the desert biome, I got a new pop up.

Achievement Unlocked!

[Otherworld]

Requirements: Travel to a new world

Description: And with this, may there be no barriers left for you.

Reward: 1 gacha token, 1 class slot.

Huh, there really wasn't an achievement for this? What a worthless system.

Well, what do I get from the gacha token?

Mythic Class Upgrade Skill

[Soul Ballista - Creates an arrow using your arms as its bow. The Soul Ballista gains exponentially more strength the more souls infused into it. Additionally, it can take in the souls of any living creatures in a distance dependent upon your Control rank. The more souls infused with the Soul Ballista causes the wind-up to be longer.]

Oh, that's pretty nice. That's a super cool sounding ability.

At the very least, more useful than anything Skryb's little gang has given me.

Now, the new class…

Hm, I definitely need a healing class of some sort, and of the healing classes that I know of, priest sounds like a good pick. The generalist all-rounder healing class.

But I also really want to be a shaman. I want to have totems and things like that. It just sort of scares me that shamans might just use water to heal, and I absolutely hate water.

But the totems might be used for a lot of other things, so… It's a risk I can take.

Alright, now theoretically, how would I unlock a shaman class?

Looking inside my inventory…

Huh, I have a wooden staff that I still have, maybe I'll just use that.

Pulling out of the wooden staff, I tried calling out to whoever was listening, "Oh great spiritual bodies of the Earth, I'd like to be a shaman, if you will…"

Nothing happened.

Assholes.

I sighed. I guess priest really is my best option then.

I cleared my throat as I called out, "Hey, God, I know that I was an atheist, but we're cool now, right? Can I be a priest?"

Nothing happened.

Asshole.

Maybe I just need to actually pray… But then again, I really don't like praying when I know that I can always just depend on myself.

You know what, I didn't need a healing class anyways. I should just fire my gun and see if there's anything I can get from that.

Spotting the nearest critter, a little scorpion, I pulled out Lincoln and blasted it to pieces.

[Mercenary Class already obtained]

Well, fuck you too, system.

Alright, how about just a sword class? I don't have a dedicated melee class, and I could definitely do better than what I can do now.

Pulling out Roosevelt and Eisenhower, I jumped another scorpion who was stupid enough to stick around after what happened to the other one. And lo' and behold, look at what I got.

New Class Unlocked!

Requirements: Attack something with two swords.

[Dual Warrior - The dual wielding style of sword fighting, boosted with inhuman power and clearly magical abilities.]

Starter Skills Unlocked.

[False Swipe - When this skill is activated, the next attack will not kill the target. Costs very little stamina.]

[Quick Strike - When this skill is activated, your next attack will be quickened. Costs a bit of stamina.]

Thank you, system, very cool.

Alright, I should work on my sword fighting skills that'll help whenever I run out mana or bullets at some point. Other than that…

Hm, doesn't the dungeon in Terraria have those specter souls? Those are probably really powerful. And if I could get enemies to drop souls of light on the surface, I could totally do the same for specter souls.

Oh! And I can get wings in this world! I wonder if I have enough power to kill a wyvern…

Well, I'll find the dungeon first because it's easier than trying to figure out a way to go high up enough in the sky to find wyverns.

And then hopefully, I'll be able to craft wings despite not having any sort of anvil or anything.

Looking up at the sky, I can see the sun setting, and I use my basic knowledge that the sun sets in the west and rises from the east to figure out where I am.

Now, I know that the jungle is… To the east, I think? So the dungeon is probably to the west, where the sun is setting…

Well, there's only one way to find out! And hey, I'll even walk through the night to hack away at any monsters that try to fight me.

And California can also have its shot too! This'll be like a field trip for us.

The air suddenly gets colder around me, and I can instantly tell that my night is about to become a lot worse.

I sighed and stopped in the corruption biome I was passing through, "California, be prepared for a fight."

The Regieleki beeped confusedly at me, not knowing what I was referring to.

"Alright, Skeletron Prime, show me your worst…" I psyched myself up for the boss fight to come.

I can see him appear over the horizon, and I sighed and thought to myself…

I really do live in the worst timeline sometimes.

Fuse

Status: Healthy

Stamina: Healthy

Mana: Full

Race: Human/Slime Hybrid

Title: Ambitious Regent, Devourer of Souls

Classes: Mercenary, Soul Mage, Geomancer, Dual Warrior

Professions: Stylist

Ranking Setting: Universal [Change]

Overall Ranking: C

Power Rank: C- [Expand]

Magic Rank: C [Expand]

Social Rank: C- [Expand]

Rank Points: 0

Perks: [Expand]

Titles: [Expand]

Classes/Professions: [Expand]

Ranks Expanded: (Universal)

Overall Ranking: C

Power:

Strength: C-

Speed: C-

Vitality: C-

Endurance: C

Magic:

Magic Power: C-

Mana Reserve: C-

Control: C+

Social:

Confidence: C-

Charm: C-

Luck: C-

Menu:

[Self-Status]

[Inventory]

[Quests]

[Skills]

[Achievements]

[World]

[System Status]

[Deity Menu]

[Messages]

AN:

Next upload is on the 3rd of next month, February.

Soul Ballista is entirely because I wanted to have JJK Sukuna's fire arrow thing.

My record with fight scenes is, quite frankly, not good. So hopefully I can make this next one kind of cool to read.

Also I realized 'huh the system is kinda stupid' and I decided that nobody is taking this fic seriously anyways, least of all me, so I'll just change it a bit. And I'll probably change it later too.

Oh yeah, I realized that this fic has over 80 favorites and 100 follows on FFN. I don't know how this happened, but it's kind of crazy that people are reading this. Just doesn't compute in my mind.

I wonder what's the overlap. Do any of you read Time Capsule, my other fic? Or maybe there's only like a handful of people who read both fics.