Another month has passed and I finally have treasure nodes in all the dead ends. Some might call it overkill but If I want people to delve me regularly I have to give them a reason to. Sure, there is some force compelling them to do so but I don't want to rely on that. Mainly because it could go away at any moment. Next I think I'll add a few edible mushroom nodes. I would add more mob spawners or increase the current spawners level but nobody has made it anywhere close to anything important yet. Well there was that one group of 12 that would have found a chest if I'd had one there at the time. Either way I think two or three mushroom nodes will go great. At the very least it'll make the place feel less dead.
While waiting for either another visitor or enough time to pass for me to get the required DP, I continue to stare at the world outside my domain. It suddenly strikes me that I'm not seeing any planes. I'm not sure where the thought came from but looking back I can recall seeing fewer and fewer flights and now there are none. Makes sense if electronics have been acting up as the visitors claim. Now that I'm paying attention I'm also hearing far less traffic on the nearby road. Granted I can't actually see the road but I doubt vehicles have changed that much. Put together with the fragments of conversation I've been able to overhear and it doesn't pain a very good picture for humanities survival.
After almost another full week Eric's group returns for the third time and I get to eavesdrop on a conversation already in progress.
Damien: "Look I'm telling you, it makes perfect sense."
Amy: "What part of applying video game logic to the real world makes sense to you exactly?"
Damien: "Think about it, why else would we be given levels. And how do you gain levels in a video game? … Oh come on, I can't be the only one who plays video games!"
Eric: "Look man I get what your saying. We should try to level up by killing these snakes. I'll admit there is a certain logic to it."
Damien "It's either the snakes or it's something else. Either way we need to get stronger, and killing things is the only way I can think of to do that!"
Rachel: "Personally, I'd rather deal with the snakes than bears the size of an elephant or saber toothed squirrels or whatever else is out there. I mean we've all heard the news, seen the footage of villages and towns being over run. Even some cities are starting to get attacked by large groups of mutated freaks that used to be normal animals. "
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Once again their conversation is cut short by the first encounter. Even I have to admit that they have gotten better. At least they're not just flailing anymore, unlike some groups. The good news is that I think I'm getting much better at creating tough but fair encounters. At any rate fewer people are dying now. After one particularly brutal encounter where I threw a total of 12 snakes at them one of them shouted that he had in fact leveled up.
Eric POV
The feeling Of leveling up was a strange on. On the one hand I didn't feel any different, but on the other hand I must be different somehow from who I was. I do appreciate how the notification was obvious without being intrusive. Whoever designed this thing must have considered that people would probably be in the middle of combat when they leveled up. Now lets just see what this level up gave me, preferable before the next encounter.
Let's see here.
Eric Stuart
Age: 16
Level 2
Health 56%
Magic 100%
Strength 1 (+1)
Constitution 1 (+1)
Speed 1 (+1)
Agility 1 (+1)
Wisdom 1 (+1)
Perception 1 (+1)
5 more stat points to spend
+1 skill slots
It's a lot more comprehensive than I would have thought. I do have to wonder how it calculates health. I mean I don't feel like I'm 44% dead. Also, I highly doubt it's as simple as health reaches 0% you're dead. As for where to put the stat points, strength is a must but don't I want to put them all into strength. Perhaps three in strength and two in constitution? Maybe two in strength and three in constitution? Perhaps I should spread them out a bit more. There are six stats after all. With only five stat points one of the states is getting nothing no matter how I spread them out. I know, I'll put one in constitution, one in speed, one in perception, and the last two in strength. I just hope that was the right call.
As for the skill slot there are a lot of skills to choose from. Thankfully they're all sorted into Offense, defense, support, and utility. Offense and defense are self evident, however based on the description it seems as though support is more about buffs and D-buffs. Utility on the other hand is strictly none-combat skills such as healing, crafting, mining, and herbalism to name a few. I definitely want an offensive skill, the question is which one. Even narrowing it down to just offensive skills there are still hundreds. I can feel the others getting impatient but I refuse to rush. In most games a mistake made early on can ruin a build. This isn't a game but I'm pretty sure the same logic still applies. Except this time there are no do-overs. I have to get this right from the start or waste level ups trying to fix it later if it even can be fixed. Eventually I find one that seems just right. It's called weighted strike and it's a passive skill that adds 10% more force to each strike compared just swinging the machete normally.
After confirming my selection I can feel the changes instantly take effect. I feel stronger, faster, as well as more confident. As we continue further down I can't help but notice the snakes seems a tiny bit slower and less durable. They're also slightly easier to spot. The others all take jabs at me for standing there poking at the air for ten minutes or so. At least that's apparently how it looked from their perspective. Which I didn't truly appreciate until Amy leveled up. It was a bit odd watching her poke at the air frown then poke some more. Even though I was just in her shoes it's still a little unnerving to watch. If I didn't know better I'd think she was an escaped mental patient.
