"Yeah Tom, you pulled it off. Don't bother asking me how." Korbin said, smiling as he shook his head.
"What? No I di-" movement on the projection wall caught my attention, a replay of the end of my last fight with Aarin.
"Woah, that's me?!" I said excitedly, walking over to the towering projection. A bright ball of purple lightning flashed across the screen, creating a blinding blast of light where Aerin was. Just as quickly as the light manifested, it dispersed, leaving a charred mess of cloth and chunks of flesh and bone behind. Several feet away, my body lay motionless on the ground.
"Holy shit, I won? HA-HA, I fucking won!" I gleefully cheered, twisting around to face my squad who all laughed exchanging handshakes with me. After only a couple minutes of celebration, the screen behind me illuminating our cheers dimmed into a golden hue. Turning around, the projection shifted from playing my killing blow on repeat to the words 'First Place: Elysium' in a golden font. Suddenly, a prompt emerged across my vision.
*Congratulations!* Your Faction placed 1st in: Placement Tournament Finalist Death Match. Your faction has earned (10) Event Points!
You've slain ->
[Human (Level 9)]
You've slain ->
[Human (Level 8)]
…
You've slain ->
[Human (Level 10)]
*Bonus!* You have received (7) additional Event Points for eliminating opposing faction members.
*Bonus!* For being the final competitor remaining in the Placement Tournament Finalist Death Match, you have received (10) additional Event Points.
*WARNING*
All personally held Event Points will be dropped in increments of (10) per death. If one is slain by a fellow competitor, their dropped Event Points will be automatically transferred to their killer upon the completion of their Planetary Objective.
Well, that's a whole fucking lot to take in at once.
Hoping not to let pesky details get in the way of my good-mood, I continued down to the last update of my notifications list.
*Congratulations!* You've leveled up your class level!
[Storm Strider (Level 10)
->
[Storm Strider (Level 11)
+3 agility, +3 endurance
+1 Free Point
Finally, I reached a new level after feeling like I was on the bridge of leveling up for nearly a week. True, a curve in the rate of progress in the levels department was to be expected given the nature of every single video game I've ever played. That being said, I've grown quite accustomed to expedited development, making this next step to an evolution all the more satisfying. Of course, having a free point on my hands was nothing to be casual about, especially after nearly losing to how abysmally small my Mana Pool is compared to my Stamina. Without hesitation, I dumped my free point into Intelligence hoping to get my resources up until I could properly train for a larger mana pool naturally…hopefully.
"Great! All that work for 10 lousy points?" Derrick said in a disgruntled tone.
"Technically 27, I have 17 by myself." I corrected Derrick, hoping to alleviate some of his disappointment.
"What?! How is that even possible?" Cassi asked.
"I guess if another faction member kills someone, they take their personal points or whatever." I replied.
"How come we didn't see anything about that?" Lonni asked, looking into the air presumably at his notifications. Korbin chuckled to himself before interjecting.
"Because you died, Lonni. Everyone except Tom did, meaning he's the only one who got to keep these, what did you call them? 'Personal Points?'" Korbin asked me, turning his attention from Lonni towards me.
"It's not an official term but, yeah that's what I've gathered from the description. Only way to keep them is to complete your Planetary Objective." I answered, skimming back over the notification again.
"Alright, then we just have to survive our challenges in whatever world we're dumped on, and kill a few fellow competitors." Korbin surmised, rubbing the bottom of his chin in thought.
"Hey speaking of, when do we start our next objective?" I asked the room, wondering if they got any notifications while I was fighting Aerin. As if the system itself heard me, a notification popped up right after I asked.
Your Faction Rank (1st) has qualified for (3) options for your next Planetary Objective!
The War Beneath The Surface (Epic)
Votes: 0
Beastial Conquest (Rare)
Votes: 0
Faction Face-Off (Uncommon)
Votes: 0
"Everyone's seeing this, right?" Lonni asked the group.
"Yeah, and I'm assuming this will decide our next Objective. Does anyone object to selecting the rarest one?" Korbin quickly asked the group. My mind focused on contributing my vote to the first mission before he could finish his sentence.
The War Beneath The Surface (Rare)
Votes: 2
Korbin's inquisitive facial expression fully dropped to a look of disappointment, slowly turning his head towards me.
"…Tom." Korbin said in a deadpan.
"…yeah that's my bad. To be fair, I'm pretty sure everyone agrees that rarer means better, no?" I asked, hoping to save myself from a group bashing for skipping the whole 'discussion' and 'voting' process.
"I mean, it does make sense to me that higher graded objectives should award more Event Points for completing them. All the same, I sort of hoped you learned your lesson in going over everyone else's heads like that." Korbin replied, instantly sending a wave of regret pressing on my chest. He's right, I did the same compulsive shit selecting our first Pylon. A decision that cost 8 other people their lives that day.
"I…won't do it again." I said, struggling to look Korbin in the eye.
"Don't worry about it. We can't actually die here, just try not to fall back into bad habits, alright?" Korbin said, flashing a smile. Before I could question the unexpected showing of understanding, Korbin turned to the rest of the group.
"Before we all vote and presumably travel to our next objective, there is something I need to make apparent to everyone here." Korbin said, stepping back from the group to face all of us.
"I know I've been running a pretty tight ship with you guys, giving little sympathy for your unforced errors. At times I've literally beat lessons into your heads. I know it's harsh, and I know you may think me cold, maybe even cruel." Korbin said, almost sounding apologetic.
"But none of what I've done is without purpose. We needed to be perfect, if we had any hope of getting strong enough to stop her when she gets to us. From what Aerin's told me though, it seems our time is far shorter than initially estimated." Korbin said, his eyes trailing off as he spoke.
"Who?! I'm so tired of this 'she's coming' bullsh-"
"Brigid. Brigid is coming." Korbin said cutting me off.
"Okay? We just killed her, all we need is the numbers advantage like last time?" Derrick interjected.
"You don't understand, Brigid royally fucked up by not bringing a full group. She has not been doing so in the tutorial. She's the reason Aerin and his people are on the run." Korin explained.
"I don't get it, how is this one person terrorizing these people? They're some of the strongest fighters I've ever encountered, that doesn't make sense." I pointed out, not feeling convinced she was that strong.
"She's not just doing it with her hands, Tom. And if you didn't notice by her extremely small Faction Squad, but she hasn't exactly been making friends. It's her fucking Pylon." Korbin said, clenching his jaw at the mention of Brigid's pylon.
"Her settlement? If it's so bunkered down, why are they invading?" Lonni very expertly pointed out.
"It's not just some castle with walls. It's an entire settlement packed into a massive airship, constantly moving across the tutorial." Korbin said.
Wait, Pylons can fucking move?
"As useful as that may be, I'm not seeing how that can be such an issue to Aerins people. What's her beef with them anyhow?" Cassi asked.
"She doesn't really have one, they're just strong. Brigid's wiping out every single settlement in her path for the sake of experience and assumedly her own enjoyment. All the while heading straight for Elysium." Korbin continued sternly.
"But how? How is she doing all this?" I begged, not seeing in what world this single individual could wipe out entire settlements.
"Her settlement is armed with some sort of mana cannon, by Aerin's description it's a giant beam of red and black energy that leaves anything in its wake burned to dust." Korbin answered, furrowing his brow. There was a couple of seconds of silence in the air as everyone digested what Korbin had just shared. Derrick's quiet chuckling broke the quiet streak, earning confused looks from everyone until he spoke up.
"Let her come. We have an entire event to out-level that pampered narcissist, and I've already killed her once." Derrick said, smiling casually looking amongst us. He had a point, Brigid had just proven herself beatable.
"Yeah, I just wanted to let you guys know in case she arrives even sooner than expected. Anyways," Korbin began, his voice shifting back to a more professional tone.
"Everyone, go ahead and place your votes. We're in first place for now and need to keep it that way." Korbin instructed, 3 pairs of eyes glaring up into the sky in response. Within moments, a swirling ball of purple and black energy manifested at the center of the room, expanding in a cyclone of foreign manas. Slowly, the strange spiraling vortex compressed at the center, ripping open into a glowing bright white light shining across the room.
Your Faction has selected: The War Beneath The Surface (Epic)
Please proceed through the Event Simulacrum Portal to begin your next Planet Objective.
"I guess this is our ride?" I said, pointing at the assumed 'Simulacrum Portal'.
"No time like the present." Korbin announced, casually walking into the cyclone of lightless energy swirling a tunnel of pure light. The moment his leg broke through its threshold, the rest of his body shot forward into the portal.
"Shit, no choice now." Cassi grumbled, hurriedly walking across the room into the portal. She too slipped through the rest of the way the second she stepped into the blinding white light.
"Fuck, this better not hurt." Derrick said to himself walking through the portal after Cassi. Lonni turned to me, flashing a warm smile my way.
"Hey man, just wanted to say you did a great job back there. And whatever skill turns you into a ball of lightning, that shit's awesome. Keep it up, brother." Lonni said, strutting over and shaking my hand firmly.
"Thank you, Lonni. And to think, I almost killed you the first time we met." I snickered, slapping him on his massive heavily armored forearm. Lonni leaned back, holding the metal plating on his belly laughing hardily.
"I'm glad you didn't. I'll see you on the other side." Lonni said, flicking his head toward the portal before jogging straight through. My smile quickly faded realizing I was the last one through, not knowing if they were already knee-deep in a battle with some ancient alien race or something. With a surge of urgency, I dashed across the room, leaping through the blinding light.
As my body hurtled through the portal's spiraling threshold, an immense warmth spread across my arms, working their way through my entire body. In a blink, the skin at my hands started flaking away like falling sand, my entire body dissolving before I could muster a reaction of any kind. As the bright light engulfing me faded from my vision, I couldn't help but notice I maintained a concerning amount of consciousness for having been erased from existence. I couldn't see or hear, yet I felt free to move, while having no limbs of any kind. Then, a rush of momentum overcame my chest as the sensation of falling manifested over whatever was left of me.
*THUD*
My eyes shot open feeling my feet slamming onto a hard, jagged surface. The echo of my landing reverberated all around the utter darkness that surrounded me. The faint drizzling of water filled the silence, along with the occasional humming of the wind.
"Tom?" Cassi's voice sounded from a few feet away, causing me to physically jump and seperate my twinblades. The burst of Lightning mana surging along my chains and blades illuminated the area around me in about a 5 foot radius, revealing jagged brown rock formations underfoot. To my side, a vain of shimmering blue ore reflected the flickering light emitting from my blades, with Cassi's towering figure standing behind it casting a giant shadow behind her.
"Oh, it's you." I said, lowering the edge of my blade pointing at her.
"Me too." Derrick's grumbling voice echoed from the darkness behind me. Frantically spinning around to face him, his familiar purple jaded halberd reflected the blue light from my blades flickering around us.
"OH ff-…hello, Derrick." I sneered, holding my chest after suffering two mini-heart attacks consecutively.
"Hey buddy, how was your fall?" Derrick asked.
"My what?" I asked back. Derrick wordlessly pointed above us. Looking up, all I could see were the many drops of water falling into the vicinity of my light.
"I don't understand, did we come from the sk-?"
"Wait." Derrick interrupted, staring intently into the darkness. A moment later, a small blue light emerged in the distance. The ball of light quickly expanded, splitting into an oblong circle of bright blue light cascading closer by the second. After several seconds of rapidly intensifying in size and brightness, thousands of tiny crystalline shards of light came into view about a hundred feet overhead. The light transferred from every path of crystals, lining the contorting caverns of rocks and glowing veins of ore in a pulse of light.
*BOOM*
The earth underfoot rumbled as thunder blasted through the endless tunnels and caverns all around us, the reverberations of its irruption fading in multiple directions.
"Ah, I see." I said, watching as the light dancing along the crystals overhead faded into the distance. As my eyes scanned back toward the others, an orange wriggling light caught my attention.
"Hey, what's that?" I said, pointing to the light. The orange light suddenly fell several feet before halting on a rock formation, the sound of two pairs of boots hitting stone echoing immediately following.
"Not what, who." Cassi said, chuckling. The light fell even further down this time, reaching within 50 feet of us. followed by an even louder thump onto the stone.
"Oh SHIT!" A deep voice bellowed panicked from above, a few rocks falling at my feet.
*CLANK*
A hulking piece of metal bounced at my feet. Looking down, I spotted a spiked ball of steel that looked awfully a lot li-
*THUD*
"Ahhh, damnit." Lonni's massive figure groaned laying on the jagged stone floor, slowly clambering back to his feet.
"Oh shit, Lonni are you okay?!" Cassi exclaimed, hurrying over to help Lonni to his feet.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." He grumbled, forcing a smile through his grimacing as he stood up. My body flipped around at the sound of boots clapping onto stone directly behind me, my blade only an inch from Korbin's neck before realizing who it was.
"Woah, easy Tiger." Korbin said, grinning as he flicked away my blade. A ball of wavering orange fire hovered over his other hand, illuminating over double the area that my blades could.
"Sorry, what the hell is this place?" I asked, peering around the darkness that apparently consumed this world. Why isn't there's something like a fucking sun or moons to shed a little light here? As if the mysterious powers that be could read my thoughts, a familiar notification popped up on my screen.
Planet: Xernilia
Era: 7th
God: Vashi
Lives: 1
Planetary Objective: End the war that ravaged Xernia and its inhabitants for centuries before the apocalypse.
Countdown Until Apocalypse: 14 days remaining.
"Oh good, more warring civilizations to lay siege! Only this time with no army, and the end of the world is literally guaranteed, what a treat!" Derrick exclaimed sarcastically, earning a couple giggles from Cassi and I.
"I assure you, not having the threat of genuine death takes a lot of weight off the violence." I replied, recalling the blissful simplicity of the Placement Tournament.
"Relax, our focus should be on trying to find a better source of light and actually finding whoever's at war with each other before concerning ourselves with fighting in it. Stay close, this place has a lot of sneaky drop offs." Korbin instructed, waving his hand and heading up a steep stone slope. The wall at his side glimmered as the ore in the wall reflected his orange flames light into a blue hue along the crystalline patches in its vicinity. The rest of us inquisitively looked amongst each other before I shrugged my shoulders and followed at Korbin.
"Hey, why were you climbing up the walls with Lonni by the way?" I asked, jogging up the rocky subterrane to Korbin's side. Lonni's baritone voice trailing behind me echoed off the wall.
"Actually I never climbed up the mountain. He was uh…" Lonni's eyes drifted to the floor, as did his voice.
"I was saving his skin. Big man here decided to launch his flail out the moment he realized he was alive and falling. Landed himself way too high up from us to get down in the process." Korbin answered through a smirk. I started to laugh myself, when the balls of my feet slid off the edge of the stone underfoot, forcing me to twist and lunge back up on one leg before falling off.
My face went completely red realizing the irony in me nearly dying right now, our groups collective laughing seeing me find my balance again paid homage to my instant karma. Averting my own gaze away from the team, I noticed some of the crystals on the wall beside us were subtly glowing a light green at the top of a patch of them, rather than the blue we'd seen them emit thus far.
"Hey Korbin, shine your flame over here." I called over my shoulder staring intently at the subtle green glowing atop the jagged crystal patches along the stone wall. Korbin walked over to me, leaning his flame closer to the crystals. Immediately, a dancing pattern of shimmering green light flashed across the wall above, creating a green glowing path that led directly into a massive cavern now illuminated by the same green crystals. Narrowing my vision, some plantlike vines tangled around the green crystals deeper into the cavern. Korbin sighed, turning to face the rest of us.
"Alright, let's get hiking up there. Sooner we find the native life here, the sooner we can end their wars for them and get off this rocky abyss of a planet."