[GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT]
THE WORLD QUAKES!
A Player has unlocked a new unique class: Reality Warper.
A male voice echoed from everywhere all at once, reading the announcement. When the voice cut off, the pop-up vanished.
His vision sharpened. The resurrected goblin lurched towards him, a wide toothy grin on its face as it picked up the bone dagger.
Elijah stared up at the creature expecting it to end him there.
Instead it plopped down in front of him and began picking its teeth with the dagger, still soaked with its own blood.
He focused on himself. He felt something had changed within him. He felt stronger. Healthier.
“Stats,” he whispered under his breath.
[CHARACTER STATS]
Name: Elijah
Class: Reality Warper
Level: 1 (0 / 10 XP)
Health: 12 / 15
Mana: 20 / 20
Strength: 1 (Beginner)
Intelligence: 4 (Beginner)
Dexterity: 3 (Beginner)
Constitution: 3 (Beginner)
Skills:
- Reality Warp - 1
His class sparkled with the shimmering gold of legendary rank. He flexed his muscles as he looked over his new stats. He was stronger.
But his eyes flicked up to his level indicator. He’d lost the experience points he’d gained earlier. He snorted in annoyance, looking between his new class and the resurrected goblin, wondering which of the two factors had been the cause.
The same instinctive tingle itched at his mind as he looked over his stats. If he could see and edit the stats of other entities, he should be able to edit his own. He mentally ‘touched’ his stat screen while thinking about his new ability.
[DEBUG VIEW: ELIJAH]
Elijah1397 {
Player_ID: 1389472997
Class: PLAYER
Respawn_Timer: 120s
Collision_State: TRUE
Loot_Table: PLAYER_LOOT_DEFAULT
Despawn_Trigger: TIMER
Faction_Tag: PLAYER_HERO
XP_Multiplier: (Default_1.0)
Stats [
Level: 1 (0 / 10 XP)
Health: 12 / 15
Mana: 20 / 20
Strength: 1 (Beginner)
Intelligence: 4 (Beginner)
Dexterity: 3 (Beginner)
Constitution: 3 (Beginner)
]
}
Force Logout?
1) Confirm
2) Cancel
His eyes paused on the Player_ID line. If he changed that, would he essentially steal the account of another player?
He shook his head. No, he wasn’t that sort of person. It didn’t matter how weak he was in-game, he wasn’t a thief.
Besides, when he hovered over the field with his eyes he could sense that it wasn’t available to be changed. But his stats were available to select.
He clicked on his level indicator.
“Let’s just start small. Boosting myself to level two should be a good start,” he said to the goblin. The creature didn’t react to Elijah’s words, just kept picking its teeth with the bloody bone shard.
Elijah made the change in his stats and waited for the confirm option to appear. Instead, he was met with an error box and the pain behind his eyes from earlier returning.
[ERROR]
Reality Warp must reach the Celestial tier to affect Players.
Rubbing his fingers into his eyes to try to numb the pain, he grumbled. “Of course, I can't have it too easy, can I?”
The whole cave rumbled again, aftershocks from the earthquake he had caused by unlocking his unique class. More dust and loose stone rained down from the ceiling.
“This whole cave is going to collapse, do you know how to escape?” he asked the goblin.
The creature rose to its feet, slowly, and cracked its neck. “You no ask me name,” it said. “Want me help but no ask name.”
Elijah blinked. He couldn’t help but stand there, stunned, that this creature who had just been trying to eat him would call him out on being rude by not asking its name.
It hadn’t been in the debug menu, likely due to the creature being dead at the time, but Elijah had assumed the creature didn’t have one.
“What’s your name?”
“Me name Bitter Root,” It replied in half-broken English.
“‘Bitter Root’? That's a strange name, isn't it?”
Bitter Root just shrugged. “Gobs be named after first thing they's try eats. Me try chewing on root of cave wall. Better name than me uncle. He name ‘Me Legs’. He try eat me grandpa's legs.”
Elijah had to stop himself from laughing. It was a stupid joke, but exactly the kind of humor that he always found so charming in games.
“Okay, Bitter Root, do you know the way out of here?”
The creature grinned at him, turning and leading him out into the rest of the cave.
The cave seemed to open as they went. Elijah wrinkled his nose as the smell of rotten flesh and mold grew stronger. The rushing of water grew fainter as they walked.
After a few minutes, they came to another chamber. Bitter Root kneeled, peering inside from behind a rock. “That one name Big Grub. He like poke with his pointy sticker.”
Sure enough, the goblin in the chamber was poking at the lichen growing on the cave wall with a small, crude dagger.
The cavern that the goblin was in was barely larger than the one that Elijah had woken up in. Freshly fallen stones lay scattered across the floor from the aftershocks.
Elijah squared his shoulders and flexed his muscles. He was ready to try out his new powers and Big Grub was the perfect target.
He stepped out from behind Bitter Root’s hiding spot and walked into the chamber, raising his hand towards the mob.
“Hey ugly! You’re about to face the might of the Reality Warper.”
“Boss guy stupid?” Bitter Root asked, his voice dripping with incredulity. The enemy turned to face him.
The goblin rushed at him. He focused his will on the creature and selected it the same way he selected his stat menu. His intention focused his will.
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And he was met with the pain again as an error message obscured his vision.
[ERROR]
Reality Warp is Range: Touch until reaching Journeyman or higher tier.
Fuuuuu—”
Elijah tried to dodge out of the way, but the pain in his eyes made it difficult to focus.
Big Grub slammed into him, stabbing the knife into Elijah’s stomach.
White-hot pain exploded through him. The breath was forced out of his lungs.
[STATUS]
Damage Taken: 4
Remaining Health: 8 / 15
Big Grub ripped the knife from Elijah’s stomach. The goblin swung his arm back for another stab. Elijah was barely faster and gripped the creature's wrist. He could feel that it was stronger than him. He activated his power.
[DEBUG VIEW: BIG GRUB]
Big_Grub {
Entity_ID: NPC_GOB_126
Class: MONSTER_MOB
Respawn_Timer: 7200s
Collision_State: TRUE
Loot_Table: TUT_GOB_LOW
Despawn_Trigger: LOOTED && TIMER
Faction_Tag: NPC_FOE_GOBLIN
XP_Multiplier: (Default_1.0)
Stats [
Level: 2 (NULL / NULL XP)
Health: 10 / 10
Strength: 6 (Beginner)
Intelligence: 1 (Beginner)
Dexterity: 3 (Beginner)
Constitution: 2 (Beginner)
]
}
Elijah’s eyes slid down the menu. Any second now the goblin would overpower him. Any second, he could lose the last of his health.
If he died, he didn’t know if he’d be sent back to the start of the tutorial. If he was sent back, would that mean he’d be reset to the prisoner class?
He grit his teeth and screamed at the goblin. A raw visceral yell.
Health. That was the key here. The blade drew ever closer as the goblin overpowered him. His eyes flicked over the Health stat on the menu, then down to the blade. Elijah winced, commanding the option he’d selected to go to zero.
He confirmed the change.
He expected the goblin to drop dead on the spot. Instead Elijah’s strength overpowered the goblin and he shoved it backwards, causing it to drop the knife. It clattered uselessly to the ground.
Both Elijah and Big Grub stared at the knife for a split second, before turning their attention back to each other.
Returning his gaze back to Big Grub showed Elijah exactly what had happened. When his eyes had flicked down to the knife, he’d selected the strength stat, not health.
The game, apparently, had a minimum that stats could be. Instead of sitting at zero, the opposing goblin’s strength stat was now one.
Half that of Elijah’s own.
The goblin lunged for the knife, but Elijah was faster. He kicked the goblin square in the face, sending it sprawling a few meters away.
He grabbed the knife. Lunging at the goblin, it rolled out of the way. The iron knife stabbed into the hard stone, sending a jolt of pain up Elijah’s arm. The pain, thankfully, didn’t come with lost health this time. He’d have to experiment more later to see just how much pain he could endure before it started counting as damage.
Big Grub turned toward him. Snarling, he lunged. Right into Bitter Root’s cudgel. The goblin had come out of his hiding spot and swung his cudgel just as Big Grub had lunged.
Big Grub hit the ground again. Elijah took the opportunity to jump onto him, knife first. He drove the knife down into the Big Grub’s chest.
[COMBAT LOG]
CRITICAL HIT!
Damage Dealt:
1 [Crude Bone Dagger]
x 2 [Critical Attack]
= 2 damage
~~~
[COMBAT LOG]
You have killed Goblin!
XP Reward: 2 XP
Current XP: 2 / 10
Elijah collapsed onto the ground, his hands shaking, his breath coming heavy.
Bitter Root seemed relaxed as he leaned on his cudgel. The goblin let out a wheezing laugh. “Boss try get killed?”
Elijah shook his head. “I thought… I thought I could just wave my hand to make reality bend to my whims.”
He worked to slow his breathing and, after a long minute, stood again, his resolve solidifying. “Turns out I have to grab it by the throat.”
A grin broke out over Elijah’s face. He straightened his posture despite the sting of pain in his belly.
He’d done it. Not luck, not an accident. Him.
He was just starting to feel full of himself when the cave shook again. Part of the roof began to collapse. He rushed forward grabbing Bitter Root. He tossed the goblin over his shoulder as he rushed towards the next passageway.
He briefly wondered why he’d thought to grab the goblin that had been trying to eat him just a few minutes ago, but pushed those thoughts aside.
He made it to the next section of cave. This one was separated from the rest of the area by a large oak door. He set the goblin down.
“Me no like be carried. New Boss never do again.” Bitter Root told him, brushing off his loincloth as if Elijah had made it dirtier than it had already been.
“New boss?” Elijah asked him, staring down at the creature.
Bitter Root shrugged his shoulders. “Sure. Me no like gob cave no more. Want big adventure. New Boss make big adventure.”
This had to be caused by Elijah changing the goblin’s faction tag. He had to admit, he could always use the help. Bitter Root had been instrumental in the fight against Big Grub.
The sound of bells rang in his ears as a box popped up in his vision.
[NEW SKILL ACQUIRED]
Summon Familiar
Description:
Summons your Goblin Familiar: Bitter Root.
Elijah mentally closed the new notification. Gaining a goblin as a familiar felt weird, but also strangely right.
Elijah gripped the crude dagger in his hand firmly as he moved toward the door. He put his hand on the wood and heard Bitter Root snort.
“New boss gon’ do big stupid?” Bitter Root asked.
Elijah stopped in his tracks. He turned back towards his goblin familiar and raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Cuz me wanna watch if big boss is,” he said with a chuckle. His beady black eyes looked between his ‘master’ and the door.
“What's behind this door?”
Bitter Root laughed and hefted his cudgel from his shoulder to the palm of his open hand. “Me glad you ask. Behind door is Big Badda Boss Babe. Lead whole clan.”
Elijah frowned, “I thought you said goblins were named after the first thing they tried to eat? How'd your leader get a name like that?”
The goblin laughed, “Not name. Title. Took from last Big Badda Boss Babe.”
“Last chief so pretty,” he said, stroking his cudgel in a way that made Elijah uncomfortable, “She make Bitter Root jailor. Bitter Root get first pick of new meat.”
Elijah eyed the goblin wearily as he stroked his club. “Are you going to be a problem when we go in there?”
The goblin hefted the cudgel back onto his shoulder and smiled. “No, me no be problem. Me hate new Big Badda Boss Babe for killing last one.”
Elijah took a few minutes to work out a game plan with Bitter Root. His Intelligence stat was low, but when it came to battles, goblins could be very clever.
Bitter Root led the way through the large oak door, tugging on the rope they had loosely wrapped around Elijah’s hands.
“Big Badda Boss Babe! Prisoner want have word with you,” Bitter Root called out into the gloomy room.
From the shadows stepped a giant of a goblin, its gait slow and ponderous as it hefted its bulk across the cave. Every footstep pounded through the area, echoing off the rough walls. Ten feet tall, the creature’s head barely cleared the cavern roof. Dozens of gold chains hung from its bulbous neck. It was large, smelly, and ugly.
And distinctly male.
“That’s your ‘Big Badda Boss Babe’?” Elijah hissed at his familiar.
Bitter Root scratched the back of his neck and rolled his eyes at Elijah. “Title be gender natural, right?”
Elijah blinked a few times as his brain worked to comprehend the words.
“Neutral! The word is neutral! And no, not when they have gendered words like ‘Babe’ in them!” He shouted.
The large goblin stepped more fully into the light, the shine from the gold chains around its neck glaring dramatically. “What be this? Why you bring me prisoner, and not food?”
Elijah moved closer to the Boss Monster, and a health bar appeared over its head.
[BOSS INFO]
Big Badda Boss Babe (Level 3)
HP: 60 / 60
‘This is a tutorial boss?’
Elijah straightened his shoulders and stepped forward. “I’ve come to parlay for my release. I have no wish to kill you, but will if I must,” he lied, simply trying to get within touching distance of the creature.
He didn’t have to wait long, the Boss rushed forward with incredible speed and backhanded Elijah so hard that he flew through the air and hit the far wall. His back smashed hard into the damp stone followed by his head and he slid down the wall to land in a pile on the floor.
He could barely see straight. The pain was so intense. He’d have to see about adjusting the pain settings in the game.
[STATUS]
Damage Taken: 7
Remaining Health: 1 / 15
Bitter Root laughed maniacally as he watched Elijah crumple into a heap against the far wall. “Boss say stupid thing, get smashed. Me love this game!”
Elijah’s plan hadn’t gone exactly as expected. He expected the boss to grab him, or get close enough for him to touch it. He hadn’t expected to nearly be killed by an attack. Still, it got the job done. He’d slammed on his ‘Reality Warp’ skill just as the brute’s fist made contact with him.
Elijah felt that he could now make edits, refining his knowledge of his abilities mechanics.
[DEBUG VIEW: BIG BADDA BOSS BABE]
Big_Boss {
Entity_ID: BOSS_GOB_BIGBADDA_TUT
Class: BOSS_MOB
Respawn_Timer: NULL
Collision_State: TRUE
Loot_Table: BOSS_TUT_RARE
Despawn_Trigger: NONE
Faction_Tag: NPC_FOE_GOBLIN
XP_Multiplier: (Boss_10.0)
Stats [
Level: 3 (NULL / NULL XP)
Health: 60 / 60
Strength: 8 (Beginner)
Intelligence: 5 (Beginner)
Dexterity: 8 (Beginner)
Constitution: 12 (Apprentice)
]
}
‘I just have to make contact to initiate the menu. That's useful,’ he thought.
He reached out and tapped the Boss’ health stat, and groaned when he was met with yet another error message.
[ERROR]
Reality Warp must reach the Apprentice tier or higher to affect Apprentice tier stat.
‘That is less useful.’
The boss saw his arm move and turned towards him. Before he could try to adjust anything else the large goblin was on him, he felt the boss’ massive fist make contact with his chest, breaking several ribs and dropping his HP drop to 0.
