Chapter 3 - Explanations

It had taken a bit of convincing on Micro's part to get his mom to agree to let him sleep over last minute at Spike's. His friends raised an eyebrow when he swiped away a screen telling him his bluff skill leveled up. He had to say that everything was OK and that Spike just got a new game that they wanted to try and beat as one last hurrah before school started again.

He assured himself it wasn't a total lie. After all, his new...ability...whatever...made his life a game and they did need to figure out how to "beat" this new game.

When they got to Spike's house they heard his mom from the kitchen.

"Spike Drago! Where have you been?" she stormed out into the hallway and Sugar gasped in shock while Micro had more or less been expecting this and Gamers Mind took care of any other shock. Spike's mom had a deep purple tint to her scales and a tail just a bit longer than Spike's stuck out from the base of her shirt. "I expected you home a half hour ago and...."

It was then she noticed Sugar and Micro were standing next to her son.

Minerva Drago

(Mother Dragon)

Lv 54

"I...why are they…" Spike held up his hand to stop his mom.

"Don't worry mom. I trust them. Not to mention something happened today that makes telling them kinda a necessity." Spike's mom looked at him confused before she went wide eyed.

"They showed up didn't they?" Spike nodded. His mom closed her eyes calming herself before nodding. "Well, why don't you take them up to your room. I will come by with refreshments."

As she went back to the kitchen, Sugar turned to Spike who decided to transform back into his scaled form. Sugar jumped back seeing this and turned to Micro who was still perfectly fine.

"How are you so calm!?" He yelled. Micro just looked at his friend and shrugged.

"That's part of what will be explained," Micro said as he followed Spike up to his room, Sugar slowly following behind. When they got there, Spike motioned for his friends to sit down.

"So…" he started. "Where to begin...."

"Maybe why you look like a...a…" Sugar tried to find the word.

"A 'draco kin' perhaps?" Micro said. He didn't fully understand what was going on but he was going to enjoy what he could, and he wasn't disappointed. Sugar turned to him with a bewildered look as Spike just looked confused.

"How the heck do you know that?" Micro sighed.

"It has to do with what I need to explain. But yours seems like it will be more in depth so let's continue with you." Spike looked at his friend for a moment before shaking his head.

"Fine. Well I guess the easiest way to say it is that there is a lot more to this world than most people know. There are many different races and creatures that exist that most people don't know about. To group them all together, they are referred to as ability users. One race of creatures…" he looks at Micro. "Is the Draco Kin, or dragon kind. We have certain traits of dragons such as wings, claws, or fire breath. We aren't as powerful as the true dragon factions but still..."

"Wait…" Sugar said. "So you are part dragon!?" Spike nodded. Sugar looked on the verge of fainting while Micro just looked deep in thought.

"What about the true dragon factions? What are they?"

"The politics of them are too complicated to get into now," Spike said. "Long story short they can fully transform. Not just grow claws or scales, but their true form is that of a dragon."

This intrigued Micro. If there was so much power just contained in a Draco Kind...how much did a true dragon have?

"And who are the Fangs?" Micro asked. "And what was that...barrier or whatever it was?"

"Wait," Sugar said. "Does this have something to do with why you disappeared?"

"The barrier thing is a bit easier to describe. Basically, many people have the hidden ability to use magic in some form or another. What you saw was a very basic use known as the illusion barrier. It is used by different races to hide our activities from the non magical population."

"You say many people have magic," Micro said, thinking of his own stats screen and the MP that was locked. "Is it just people like the Draco Kin or…" Spike shook his head.

"No. While it is rare in regular humans, it does happen. Some become the most powerful magic users. But enough of that for now. Onto the Fangs."

"Yeah, could you explain what you mean by the Fangs since apparently I was not allowed into the illusion barrier," Sugar said, looking over at Micro who calmly said he would explain later.

"Well the Fangs are...well...a gang of Draco Kin who have been trying to recruit me ever since my father, who used to run with them on occasion, passed away." This time even Micro looked surprised. Spike usually never talked about his father in the years they knew him. To find this out… "Well, anyway...that's who the Fangs are. They won't leave me alone, and today they tried to involve you two, and at least somewhat succeeded."

Quest Complete!

Liar Liar Pants on Fire!

-Your friend Spike lied to you about why he was leaving. Find out why.

Quest Reward

-100exp

-Learn Spike's secret

-Increase your potential

Bonus Objective

-Hold off/distract one of the enforcers (Reward 200exp)

Ping!

You have gained a level! View bonus points and changes on stats screen.

"So they trapped Micro in a barrier?" Sugar asked. Spike shook his head.

"No. I put up the barrier to keep you guys from running into them. Only ability users like Draco Kin should've been able to enter." Spike looked up at Micro. "Which I believe leads us to what you have to talk about." Micro nodded and took a deep breath.

"Do you remember how I talked about how my one project malfunctioned?" Seeing his friends nod he looked a little guilty. "Well, that's not entirely true. In fact it seems to have affected me in a very...interesting way." After that, he began explaining everything that had happened to him since he tested his machine earlier that day. His friends raised their eyebrows but stayed silent as he explained. After finishing with the whole level up comment, he remembered he had to check that. "Status."

Micro Chip

Lv7

HP(200/200)

MP(Locked)

STR 10

VIT 7

DEX 13

INT 32

WIS 19

LUK 5

CHA 8

Bonus stat points 10

"Huh...I did get some bonuses," he muttered. After brief consideration, he decided to wait to see how things go before he added the bonus points. He looked up and saw his friends staring at him. Sighing, he tried to think of some way he could show them. A thought then occurred to him. "Create Party."

With that, a small text box appeared in front of him.

What do you want to name your party?

"Holy cow this worked!?" he cheered.

Do you want to name the party: Holycowthisworked.

"No," Micro sweat dropped. "Demonstration."

Do you want to name the party: Demonstration.

"Yes. Now, invite to party, Spike Drago and Sugar Rush." Suddenly two screens popped up in front of his friends and they gasped.

"What the heck!" Sugar cried out. Spike was shocked to, though he had experience with stuff like this so it wasn't as bad.

"Well this is certainly interesting," he said. Micro disbanded the party shortly after since now his friends knew what he was dealing with.

"Well, now to see what else I can do…" Micro thought aloud. Then he remembered the one thing he wanted to check. "Settings."

Tutorials

Commands (Hard or Soft)

Background music (Currently off)

Menus

"Commands," he said. His friends were curious about what was happening, but since they couldn't see it anyway, they decided to just enjoy the refreshments Spike's mom brought up and play video games while they waited for Micro to finish experimenting.

Commands can be either set to Hard or Soft. Hard commands require each command to be spoken. Soft commands allow you to just think commands. Both of these require you to intentionally think of doing the skill so you do not accidentally trigger a command or skill in normal conversation.

"Soft," he said. Then he thought 'Menus' and the screen switched. He grinned. Now he no longer had to speak everything and sound like a crazy person whenever he wants to do something.

Menu Avatars

Menu Pop Ups

He opened the Pop Ups category and smirked when he saw he could move the stat boost and level up pop ups to a side menu so he can view them after finishing whatever he was doing. He would've done the same with Skills and Quests but it might be better to have them show up immediately.

Micro also checked the Avatar section. Apparently he could assign certain characters to run the menu screens. Though most of the assignment screens were locked so he decided to set that up when more were available. He decided to skip Background Music for now. It would probably be distracting anyway.

'Tutorials.' A whole list appeared in front of him. Some of them basically told him stuff he already knew so he went through them and got some experience for it. He also learned something interesting.

"Hey Spike," Micro said. "Pass me something for a moment please." Spike shrugged and handed him a game case as he and Sugar paused the game. 'Inventory.' He thought as a small screen with many different slots appeared. He held the case about the screen before letting it go. As soon as it hit the screen, it vanished and filled one of the slots.

"What?!" Sugar gasped and even Spike went wide eyed at that. Micro was grinning like a mad man as he thought to retrieve the game case and it came out into his hand.

"I have an inventory," Micro smiled. "I wonder if it has a limit...or if it can be organized certain ways…" After a little bit of fiddling around he set up two pages to test it out. Clothing and Miscellaneous. "This will be awesome!"

"So you level up to right," Sugar said. "How exactly do you do so?"

"Well I get some experience by completing quests," Micro said. "But if it is like any normal video game, I can also level up from battles as well."

"That...sounds dangerous," Sugar said. Micro nodded.

"That fight with Fume, I nearly lost all my HP." Spike wasn't surprised by this and looked down sadly, guilty his friend nearly died due to his family's past. "The only reason I'm not at low health now is because I leveled up."

Micro sat in thought for a while. While he didn't want to risk things like that, he doubted he would be able to go back to his normal life now that he had this ability.

"Is there anyway to train up without any major risk?" he asked Spike.

"Wait," his draconic friend said. "You actually want to go through with this?!"

"Well I don't really have much choice," Micro said. "If I can get sucked into barriers like that again, I need to be able to defend myself." Spike tried to think of something to say, but couldn't.

"Fine. There are some barriers that can be put up that contain training enemies. The most basic is Zombies." Sugar was looking between his friend in shock.

"Whoa whoa whoa," he said. "You guys are seriously going to train...against Zombies?!"

"It's better than just not trying," Micro said. "Though I wonder….the quest I got about finding all this stuff out said that as a reward I can unlock my potential. Yet certain features like my MP are still locked." He noticed many things on the option menu had small gray chains around them. He would probably unlock those features in time.

"Well that's probably because you haven't been taught how to properly channel it yet," Spike said. "I can show you how to use it by creating an illusion barrier."

"Really?" Micro smiled at his friend. Seeing Spike nod he grinned wider. "Ok! Let's do this!"

"Well, the first thing you need to know is that you won't be able to create the more advance barriers for a while. You can probably only create an empty one for now." Micro nodded. That made sense. Plus he probably could level it up to get the more advanced ones. "Start by focusing. Imagine a ball of energy swirling about. Then imagine it spreading out around you and creating a small sphere around the area."

Micro closed his eyes and started picturing it in his head. It was a large mass of swirling power that seemed to spread out around him.

"Now hold up your hand and send the energy out!"

"Create!" Micro said as suddenly the world around them seemed to shimmer before settling down. "Did....did it work?"

Skill Created!

Instant Dungeon Create! (I.D. Create) (Lv1)

Create your own separate space for training or just relaxing.

Current dungeons available

-Empty

"Well that answers that," Micro said as he waved the screen away. "Now how do we get out?"

"Well you saw how I broke the other barrier," Spike said. "Just raise your hand and imagine the barrier shattering." Micro did as he was told and the world around them seemed to shatter like glass.

Skill Created!

Instant Dungeon Escape! (I.D. Escape) (Lv1)

Escape from an instant dungeon

"Awesome!" Micro cheered. He couldn't wait to see how useful that can be, ideas already going through his head. He quickly pulled up his stats again and saw his MP was a high 300, likely due to his INT stat. He also noticed he had a MP restoration rate of 2% probably due to his WIS stat. He assumed that originally his starting rate would be 1% so he wouldn't be completely screwed if he ran out early on. Gaining WIS (probably from the puzzles and riddles he likes solving) probably raised it by another percent...actually, make that 3% since he got a point for figuring that out. Which likely meant that it would be 1% for every 10 points since he was now at 20.

"Well," Spike said. "Time to test out your level up theory with a Zombie barrier."

"Wait," Sugar said. "Are we sure we should do this? What about...weapons or something?" Sugar clearly was the most nervous about this. Makes sense since Spike had his dragon like abilities and Micro had these weird new gamer powers. He had nothing. Spike thought for a moment and then went to his closet. When he came back he held a pair of metal bats which he tossed to his friends. As Micro caught his, he used Observe.

Skill Level Up!

Observe Lv2

Scan objects to learn what they are and possible uses for them. Learn more about the world and people around you via this skill.

Current descriptions

-Objects: Name and what it can be used for

-People/Enemies: Lv, name, title, health (mobs only), MP (mobs only) brief description

Aluminum Bat

(Common)

A blunt metal bat normally used for sport, but is also serviceable as a weapon.

"This should work," Micro said. "I have a skill from when I used that frying pan that increases blunt weapon damage."

"Ok…" Sugar said, still a bit nervous. After assuring their friend they will make sure everything works out, Spike held up his hand and the world shimmered. This time however, the sky outside the windows seemed to be red. Micro and Sugar ran over to the windows and gasped. All over the streets, Zombie's were roaming around. Micro quickly used observe over one of them.

Zombie

Lv7

HP 750/750

MP 50/50

Doesn't matter how it died, it's a zombie now, and it is after flesh.

Special Perks:

-Superhuman Strength

-Superhuman Durability

-Superhuman Stamina

'So they have perks huh…' Micro thought as he made his way to the door. He didn't see anything like that on his menus, but maybe he just missed them. He would have to double check later.

"Are you seriously going out there?" Sugar asked surprised. Micro looked back at him and smiled.

"Of course. No point coming here if I don't train up a bit." He hefted the bat onto his shoulder and made his way down to the front door. As he opened it up he immediately crouched by the door frame. He saw a zombie in the front yard, the same level and stats as the other he saw. Waiting until it turned it's back to him, he started sneaking out behind it.

Skill Created!

Sneak (Lv1)

The ability to remain undetected.

Chance of being undetected=Lv of Sneak+DEX-Alertness of Target

Swiping the screen away Micro got right up behind him and brought the bat swinging against the zombie's head with all his might.

Skill Created!

Power Strike (Lv1)

Active (MP Cost 20)

Putting all your strength into an attack to drastically increase damage

+50% damage to attack

Surprise Strike!

Micro grinned when he saw all the stat buffs to his attack. Also factoring in the Blunt Weapon Mastery, he did over double damage with that attack. The zombie stumbled and was dazed.

'Stunned!' Micro realized as he brought the bat around to strike the creature's knees. It collapsed to the ground and he struck the downed undead multiple times in the head until it finally hit zero. He was breathing heavily when he was done. Why was he so winded after just something like that. Then he remembered. On his stats screen his VIT was pretty low.

'Well I know what I need to increase a bit.' He pulled up the screen and put three in right away to round it up to ten. He would decide the others later. Just as he was getting ready to look for another to take down, he saw that the zombie dissolved. Spike and Sugar came out after him, treading with caution when Micro suddenly asked a question. "Spike...do these creations normally drop stuff?"

"Um...no. Why?" Spike asked. Micro reached down and held up a few things. One was a rotten tooth.

And the other was a small wad of dollar bills.

"I think my ability gives loot drops as well."

{Written by Twistedphoenix1}

{Edited by SpedaHooves/KenKanekiTheCat/Me}