Ch. 3 Making It Safe
Richard had sat on the couch, bringing up the screen that had the system info on it, which was given to him once he integrated.
*Richard Hundai
Essence Level 4
Essence Available 34
Attribute Points Available 0
Strength 12
Agility 9 (10)
Constitution 9 (11)
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 11
Aura 14
Abilities
Telekinesis (1)*
It was surreal still, seeing his stats like that. He then brought up the second screen.
*Would you like to travel to your IPS?
Yes/No?*
He clicked yes and was brought back to his IPS. He saw three icons, one for his stat sheet, one for the ability store and a new one that said it was for a shop. He was curious about the shop, but didn't go there yet, he had a few things to do first. He leveled up again using 5 Essence, then saw that he needed 12 Essence to level up this time. He was surprised at the cost, but chose to level up again, leaving him with 17 Essence. The next level up was 14 Essence so he asked "System, what is going on with the levels, why did it go up so much?"
"Every five levels will double the required Essence from the next achievable level for you to level up. This is a way to improve the 'vessel' that contains your Essence. This 'vessel' is what allows the system to modify your attributes and soul, integrating abilities into you. As you gain more levels, the amount of Essence your 'vessel' needs to be able to keep up with the changes is to put it mildly, quite a bit"
Well that explained nothing, but he didn't question it, What he did do though was take the second level of Telekinesis after that. It doubled the weight he could manipulate. He smiled at that, then noted it took another 10 Essence to level Telekinesis again. He held onto that thought as he added both his level points to Agility and Constitution, bringing them up each to 10. Then he went over to the store. In it were a multitude of items, but the ones that had him smiling were.
*Refillable Water Canteen (Milar Conglomerate)
Cost 100 Essence
This Canteen refills with water at a rate of 1 litre per hour, the water in the canteen is cold and clean, a good source of water if you do not have access to clean water.*
*Dimensional Pocket Ring (Milar Conglomerate)
Cost 1,000 Essence
This ring holds a 'rune' for Dimensional Pocket Space, allowing the 'user' to store items into a sub space, without the weight of the items dragging them down. To access any items stored within the ring, one must simply will the items to appear. Cannot hold living beings within Dimensional Pocket.*
He knew he was a long way off from those purchases, so he went back to his abilities and purchased the next level of Telekinesis, bringing it up to 3 times the amount of weight he normally could manipulate. He had 25 minutes left on his timer, so he perused the shop some more. There were automatic turrets, vehicles and all sorts of warfare options, but they required Essence to power them. He sighed and backed out of the store as his time came up.
When he woke up he could hear the kids playing out front, so he headed out there to see his wife using his axe to take out a couple of Zombies at the main fence to the property as his mom watched the kids, holding her rifle to her chest. He sat down next to her "Where's pops?" She jerked her thumb back towards the garage "He is gonna grab some of the beams to reinforce the fence, then grab some more chicken wire. Phyllis is clearing out the Zombies with Matthew." Richard looked up and saw Matthew at the corner of the property with the bat taking out some Zombies over there. "This is crazy, you know that right son?" she said and he nodded "I do, but it is what it is. Not much we can do about it until we get stronger." She nodded back and sighed "I guess, I just didn't think it would be like this. I'm glad we are so isolated out here. I wonder how things are in town, or even in Flagstaff?" Richard shook his head "No clue ma, but I imagine it's horrible. We need to protect what we have first. Then we can worry about others."
He sighed as he stood up "I'm gonna go help pops, then go back out there to hunt." She nodded "I'll keep an eye on the babies with Phyllis and Matthew once they're done. You need to stay safe and come back." he nodded then headed over to the garage to help pops. It took them a lot less time to reinforce the fence with more poles and beams using his telekinesis, then wrapping a second set of chicken wire on the first. It also helped to give Richard a lot more practice with fine tuning his Telekinesis. It was four hours before they were done, but all in all it definitely was a lot stronger. He took pops out with him on his next run, going further and further from their house as they hunted down what they could. It seemed each property had Zombies attacking it, some had a few and some had a lot. For an hour they walked around, killing as many Zombies as they could, netting Richard 76 Essence and pops 58. Once they got back to the house they noticed his mom passed out and Matthew was the same. "Mom got like 40 Zombies and Matthew got somewhere around 60. I'll do mine now if you'll keep an eye on the kids?" Phyllis asked, Richard smiled and nodded, watching her pass out on the couch. Half an hour later everyone else woke up, so Richard went for his IPS and leveled up three times, bringing him to level nine and using 48 Essence, he used his three free points to bring Intelligence up to 16 and Constitution up to 12. He wanted to bring up his Constitution to make his body hardier as well as up his endurance. He had no delusions of being awesome. He wasn't in shape and until he was he would have to rely on stats to get him through. He sighed as these thoughts flew through his head, then turned back to his task. He used another 15 to get level 4 Telekinesis, leaving him with 15 Essence.
He perused the shop and abilities section a bit while he waited for the upgrades and saw an ability too good to pass up.
*Regeneration
Cost 2,000 Essence
Allows the 'User' to heal at a progressively faster rate than the rest of their race. Using Essence and nutrients the body has collected can visibly heal all wounds as well as repair any damage the body may have sustained.*
He would have to save up for this like the two items from the shop he wanted, but he would. It will take going in town at least before he could buy one or two of them. Once he was done perusing the abilities and shop a second time he woke up, he felt something as he did though. It was a strange sensation of his skin crawling, he began scratching himself and felt less of the scratching than he thought. "Hmm interesting." then he thought about it for a second, his upgrade to Constitution would have definitely made his skin hardier and is probably what that sensation was. But he had upped his Intelligence quite a bit, then realized he wasn't having a hard time remembering anything and his thoughts were much clearer than before "Must have been a qualitative change I didn't notice. I'll have to keep an eye on this." then he nodded and headed back outside.
He saw everyone out there, sitting in the front yard with a small fire going in the fire pit. "So the electricity is out for now." pops said as Richard went out to join them "Damn it, I was hoping we would have longer before that started. Alright, there was a generator in the shop that we could use, it costs 200 Essence and uses 1 Essence per day, but it is the equivalent of a regular household use of power." pops nodded "Yeah I saw that too, we need to go hunting. Problem is if the neighbors have dealt with their Zombies, we won't have a lot to hunt out here, if they haven't we need to be careful." Richard nodded "Alright, Pops you and I are gonna be heading out this time. Phyllis, Matthew keep the gate and fences secure, mom you're on overwatch. Once you guys have enough for the abilities you want, take them in shifts." they all nodded as pops grabbed the keys to the truck "We might as well use the truck while we can. Maybe we'll be able to find supplies." Richard nodded and hopped into the passenger seat, pops hopping in and driving down the road.
Two hours later and it was almost fully dark outside. They had been hunting all the Zombies nearby in the surrounding areas. There were about 50 homes there, and all of them except two had been overrun by Zombies. The two that hadn't were a sheriff and his wife who decided they wanted to try and help him clear the area and see if there were more survivors, hopped in their truck and followed pops and Richard. The other one was an old man who had a shotgun in his lap, sipping on some beer on his porch. He didn't seem to have any issues and had killed almost 80 Zombies by now. He had been integrated and was saving his Essence for an ice cooler that would replicate any beer he wanted. If Richard wasn't so flabbergasted he would have thought it was an awesome idea. They bid the man farewell and returned home. Richard had racked up 642 Essence while pops had gotten just over 500. They had cleared out the entire area of all Zombies, which is why they were returning now, after closing and latching the gate to the entrance of their community.
As soon as they got back home however a screen popped up in Richard's vision.
*This area has been cleared of all hostile entities. As the greatest contributor at 45.32% you have been designated as the leader of 'location AZ4281' which has become a safe zone. You will have a new system tab to review as ownership comes with many benefits and responsibilities.*
He pulled up the new tab which had the area that he and pops had cleared. He first changed the name, then reviewed the stats.
*Magi Tower
Population 18
Defensive Structures 1
Production Structures 7*
He shook his head as he stopped reading there, he wasn't a base building type of guy. "Pops, I need you over here for a second." Pops jogged over and nodded "What's up?" Richard designated pops as the new leader "Have fun, I'm not the base building type. You love building so do what you can." Pops' eyes went wide, then he grinned "Oh this will be fun" as he walked away and began tapping on the air. Richard walked over to the Sheriff and his wife, who were a white couple, the sheriff about 5 foot 11 inches tall, short cut brown hair, a nose that looked broken in two places, a strong chin and a muscular build. His wife was much shorter at 5 foot 4 inches tall with long curly red hair, freckles and a tiny nose and mouth. Her figure was a healthy one, with about d cup breasts and an hourglass figure.
"Alright guys, this is our place. I don't know if you saw a message or not, but apparently the community our homes are in is designated a safe zone by the system. So it should be safe to go home, we will meet at old man Harry's house tomorrow to discuss a few things, plus we will all get to meet everyone, including the neighbors over there." he pointed at the house with the kids in their 20's. "So let's say about noon. The old man might wanna sit and sip beer all day, but we need everyone working together." The sheriff nodded and shook his hand "Thank you again for saving us. We will be there." then he turned away and headed to his truck.
Richard turned back to the house "Alright guys, let's all get inside and get some sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow. Spend your points while you can tonight."
Richard was just getting Mya to sleep, laying on his belly in his bed when he closed his eyes and opened his IPS.
He bought another level, brining him up to 10 and using 20 Essence. His next level would cost 44 Essence this time. He sighed and shook his head. It was taking a lot more essence as he leveled up, so he went back to his abilities and selected Telekinesis, leveling it up to 5 using 20 Essence. He decided that having a few more abilities wouldn't hurt, but he wanted to limit which ones he got for the moment, wanting to get regeneration first, then the dimensional bag. He did however get the refillable canteen. He saved the rest of his points and used his attribute point to increase Con to 13.
*Richard Hundai
Essence Level 10
Essence Available 517
Attribute Points Available 0
Strength 12
Agility 10 (11)
Constitution 13 (15)
Intelligence 16
Wisdom 11
Aura 14
Abilities
Telekinesis (5)*
He wasn't looking impressive yet, but it was only a matter of time. Once he got regeneration he would be happier because he knew he was going to run into trouble sooner or later.