CHAPTER 13: Roar… (Part 2)
[Congratulations! You have cleared a dungeon and have earned your very own a safe zone! This is a rare dungeon reward only handed out to the most devout souls, only 3 safe zones per state. Your Safe Zone consists of the town once known as—Cuttingsville]
[Please, name your Safe Zone upon reading.]
Confusion spread through my mind, this notification only creating more questions. I tried to think of a name, I suck at naming things.
As I thought a box appeared in my vision and I entered,
[Conviction]
Another forced notification came in that read,
[Safe Zone Regulations and Information:
Enemy Spawning, Generation, Transformation, and Mutation, Systematically Suppressed.
You may designate up to Two Mayors per Safe Zone
Safe Zone may shelter as many people as you allow up to 1,000
+15% Physical Damage Reduction inside Safe Zone
+10% Trap Damage inside Safe Zone (Friendly Only)
Option to be notified when sapient life enters Safe Zone— Conviction]
Well, that answered a couple questions…
The next read,
[2,000 Experience Points earned for clearing dungeon and reaching earned safe zone.]
[Level Up! Congratulations on reaching Level 7!]
I was stoked to receive another boon.
I guess dungeons could be worth clearing after all. The safe zone’s enough to make me want to clear more. There has to be more people out there and they’re all going to need somewhere to go. The experience is just a sweet bonus.
As we continued further into the zone Taylor paused momentarily, “I just got a notification.”
Oliver followed up, “Me too!”
“What does it say?” I asked.
Taylor read it out, “It says, Welcome to Conviction, Rick Weston has cleared a path closer to Sanctuary. Please seek, Rick Weston, or appointed Mayor upon arrival for invitation. Failure to seek invitation will result in a Notice of Infiltration.” She paused for a moment and continued, “Oh, I got another. It says Seek Invitation? Yes or No. I hit yes.”
“Me too!” Chimed Oli from my back.
Another notification popped up, I was glad the system considered this important so I didn’t have to mind wrestle with it again. I opened the notification.
[Taylor Johnson requests an invitation to Safe Zone— Conviction.]
[Accept—Yes or No]
[Oliver Johnson requests an invitation to Safe Zone— Conviction.]
[Accept—Yes or No]
“Right, Yes to both.” I said out loud, accepting both at the same time. I had a new option on my HUD. A see-through figure of a castle tower took up too much of my peripherals not to notice it.
I mentally opened the menu, it had two slots where I could enter names for the Mayors as well as a description for the title. Basically they were people who would also have the same control of the area. I entered Arthur as a mayor and he gave me a short bark to let me know he received it.
There was also a small drop down, asking me if I wanted to be notified if someone were to pass into town. I enabled the notifications. If anyone entered while I was gone, I wanted to know.
As we moved I took a moment to push the new symbol out of my vision, instead using mental cues to open it.
“This looks good here,” I said as I began working on another quick blind for Arthur and Oliver.
We arrived at the clearing after hopscotching some rocks to cross a river. Surrounding the new camping spot were apple trees already starting to bud.
I was surprised to see the safe zone actually followed town lines, it was just another thing that struck me as odd. Cuttingsville had always been one of those small Vermont towns where people say, if you blink you miss it. Before the fall, only a few hundred called it home, now it’s down to three… and a dog.
We finished setting up the small hiding spot then Taylor and I took off. Arthur picked up the scent of Spriggans on our walk so that’s where I led us. Out of all the enemies we’d faced they seemed like the most comfortable choice for helping Taylor level quickly. We know the weak spot, they aren’t too fast and they hand out decent experience.
I could see a half dozen of the tree guys in the distance standing in the middle of the woods trying to blend with the environment. After studying the area, laying out a plan and giving Taylor a few silent tips on scouting, we moved in.
The Spriggans remained still, trying to blend. They even moved with the wing like the other trees and a few grew leaves from their heads and arms to blend in better. If it wasn’t for Arthur we may have stumbled right into the ambush.
The plan was to separate them then literally ‘disarm and demobilize’ them.
I circled the ambush spot, pulling the first out of place by the arm and using a simple one-arm shoulder toss to drop him.
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Dad would not be happy with my form, but it worked.
Before it could recover, I stepped on it’s chest and ripped off it’s arms, then crushed a leg with my staff leaving it one hit from death.
I lured the others away from the downed Spriggan and Taylor swooped in from behind to stab into the core, killing it instantly.
She had trouble removing her dagger on the first attempt so I shouted out for her to stab in and out, in one fluid motion.
We repeated this time process until there were only 2 Spriggans remaining. It was messy and I took some damage but they were easy enough to separate and disarm. I may or may not have swung one in circles like a little kid helicopter to hit the others.
I shuffle stepped forward, throwing a spartan kick that Leonidas himself would be proud of. The blow sent it skidding back into a tree. I followed its trajectory pinning it with my foot while I ripped off the arms. I kicked one of the legs shattering the appendage into twigs.
I moved to finish the last one.
I’m pretty sure this guy was sent off during the helicopter ride.
My plan was to repeat my first dismemberment but as I pulled on the arms my pain receptors lit on fire.
The twiggy fingers were growing into my wrists at an alarming rate.
I grit my teeth and yanked back to separate the arm and cut off the growth. Using his arms that were now stuck to me I beat his legs into branches until he was just another almost dead tree dude.
I picked at the twigs burrowed in my forearm until one word sang out through the quiet forest, filling me with dread.
“Help!”
I spun around, taking off as quickly as I could.
The Spriggan somehow already grew its limbs back.
It wasn’t even 15 seconds.
I watched as the Spriggan reached out, fingers just centimeters from Taylor’s face.
I was moving faster than ever, but I was still too far away.
Time slowed as I watched the horror unfold.
I won’t allow this!
I felt the Mana inside of me respond, it understood my intent.
I was suddenly back in my Fathers truck again. Same truck, different trip. This time rather than being in my younger body, I was watching as if I were another passenger cramped in the middle seat.
We dropped off one of my friends after my little league game was canceled due to weather.
My friends parents were concerned for him and wanted him home because there was a huge storm passing over Vermont, so my father obliged and we dropped him off.
We never expected the trip to turn into what it did.
On our way home, the descending rain was so intense as it pounded the windshield that it made safely driving an impossible task.
We were driving down a hill on the outskirts of town when Dad had to pull over to sit out the rain.
It was the most violent I had ever seen so called Mother Nature, even to this day.
The gusts came first, blowing the rain parallel with the ground to slam into the side of the truck, rocking us as if we were in a small fishing boat on a choppy lake, rather than a truck on the road.
As I watched this unfold again, I was able to step out of the truck leaving my younger self and father behind. I could somehow feel the rain on my skin and the wind blowing from all directions. I watched the rest of the scene unfold.
Little Rick was trying his best not to panic cry.
Our Father said, “It’ll be aight. Just some wind.” I mouthed the words with him as I watched from the nucleus of the growing storm.
My Fathers eyes told a different story.
It frightened me more than the storm to see a bit of fear in his eyes. A man who never showed that type of emotion. He showed a lot of anger and rage, but never any vulnerability.
Looking back now, I see it wasn’t fear for himself, but for me.
Not long after he spoke, rain turned to hail.
The gusts stilled for a moment as pellets clobbered the truck making it sound as if we were in a war zone with bullets punching through the steel sheet body of the truck.
The wind returned with a vengeance as the two-ton truck began rocking back and forth, the bed raised and the back wheels began dragging across the asphalt.
Younger me closed my eyes as my father reached over and put his hand on my chest, calming me.
A tornado touched down right on top of our truck. It was one of the only times we had a twister in Vermont, at least in my lifetime.
As I relived this memory in third person, I could feel the palpable anger of the ferocious winds.
As the twister passed overhead I shared that anger, breathing it in and out of my body.
I started to understand the different sides to this element more.
It can be a barrier of protection, a light healing breeze, or it can be a devastating power that levels cities and towns.
The last vision showed me how the wind can heal and protect.
This was wrath.
The storm passed and it was over.
In the distance the sun chased the darkened clouds from the sky.
I felt the suns warmth and started to feel something else, but the world was snatched away.
Mana ran down my arms as I punched out at the air, connecting with nothing.
A gust of wind fired from my knuckles, turning the hand of the Spriggan into wood chips just before it could touch Taylor’s face.
It reached with the other arm.
I fired Mana through my hand, jabbing again and shattering the arm as I closed in.
Taylor took the opportunity to sink her dagger in and out of the gut of the Spriggan. Black ichor splashed across her face as she removed it and backed away breathing heavily.
I looked at the Health Bar that only had a sliver left. Only now noticing why this one was different.
[Twisted Spriggan Overseer]
[System Generated / Natural Evolution]
I reached down ripping the core from the Spriggans stomach, finally killing it.
“Sorry kid, won’t happen again.” I said feeling like I drastically let her down with my mistake.
Taylor was wiping the dirt and wood chips off her sweats, “Are you fucking kidding me!? That was sooo bad ass! How did you do that?! Oh by the way, I got three level ups since that crew was pretty high level.” She said, sounding authentically intrigued.
Laughing but still down on myself I replied, “Honestly I don’t know. Swear jar... I can feel the Mana in my body. I forced it to do what I wanted. I had a, flashback I guess, then uh, yep.”
“Seriously? You don’t talk to people much do you?” She asked teasing me for my lackluster response.
“Just Arthur, does he count?”
“Uhm, no… Well maybe? I suppose he halfway counts now, but not before. I’m guessing your dog is the only person you’ve talked to in a while huh?” She sounded a bit more genuine and concerned.
“I guess so, if you don’t count talking in my customer service voice to the rich assholes at work, or my shitty boss. I lived on the mountain by myself. I had a neighbor a mile or so up the road who we would visit. An older lady named Bell. Arthur would play with her cat, Lily… They were the closest thing to family or friends that I had within 55 miles.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bri-” she started but I cut her off.
“Nothing to be sorry for. They deserve to be spoken about. She was a great lady.” I said looting the last Spriggan.
I tossed one of the looted Health Potions to Taylor and she caught it, I could tell she applied her stat points as she made it look effortless.
Finally realizing what I missed, “Wait, how do you know what level they were?”
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“You said they were pretty high level, was that a guess based on XP or?”
Looking at me quizzically, “You mean you can’t see their levels? It shows right next to their names. They were all level Nine, and that one tougher one was level Eleven... Stranger Things!”
“Huh? Stranger what? It doesn’t show levels on my HUD.” I explained, confused by the random comment at the end.
She began to look sad now and said, “Oh no... I’ll never be able to finish it.”
I had no clue what she was talking about so, I let it pass. Instead focusing on my HUD, I thought about how I wanted the system to show me the levels of everyone around me, whether it be friend or foe.
With purpose and intent focused, I felt a faint haptic sensation throughout my body, almost like a nod of acceptance.
With no way of testing to see if it worked, we moved on.
One more clash should do it for the day.