Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

facepalmed for not thinking of it sooner. At first, he was hesitant to waste his precious songs, but a quick look at the timer erased his uncertainty. He created a quick playlist for Nick to play and began again in earnest. A chime sounded as the first song began to play.

You have created a song chain! Success with activities related to musical themes increased by factorial multiplier based on quantity of songs in series. Song chains have a cooldown of 6 hours through host levels 1-10.

The synthesizer tones of the intro to Jump by Van Halen started. It was easier to jump to the beat of the song. Life seemed to shift into montage-mode as Gus focused on jumping and lifting himself just an inch higher than his typical jump. Before he got to the guitar solo, he started to notice a hint of a longer hang time. The song ended and a message displayed along the bottom of his screen.

Jump Around by House of Pain. Success rates x 2.

The musical fanfare at the beginning of the song reminded Gus of leveling up. He started to get into the groove of jumping at a faster tempo with the song. The drill was becoming more fun, similar to dancing. Gus imagined he was stretching upward with the repetitive whistle in the song. The hang-time was definitely increasing and he was leaping at every other beat because he was mid-air when he would usually jump again. His stamina bar also started to drain at a slower rate, since he was using less physical exertion, but Gus noticed his MP bar start to trickle down a little. The floating must be utilizing some of his MP to maintain the effect. Excellent! It was working.

Jump by Florida (featuring Nelly Furtado). Success rates x 6.

Gus wasn’t familiar with how factorials worked, but those success rates were increasing like nuts. He was getting so much hang time now that he had a brief moment to spare while in the air. He started practicing a spear parry move while in the air albeit without a weapon. He didn’t have time to enact a full Counter-attack move, and it was difficult to coordinate both the actions simultaneously. He noticed his hang time dropped at first, but he was able to increase it little by little to the same amount by the time the song ended.

Apache (Jump on It) by Sugarhill Gang. Success rates x 24.

Gus felt like he had been double-bounced on a trampoline with the boost in height he obtained when the next song started. The slower tempo of the song fit perfectly with the long time he had in the air. He was able to execute a full parry and counterattack now, and alternated which side he threw his imaginary attacker to with each leap. The song made Gus want to watch Dodgeball again, remembering hearing the song for the first time in the movie. After getting comfortable with his parry-counter combo, the song shifted again.

Jump, Jive an’ Wail by Brian Setzer Orchestra. Success rates x 120.

Gus shot up so much the increase in height scared him. Luckily, the skill slowed his descent so he didn’t crash back down and break an ankle. The thought made him wonder what he would do if he was hurt badly. Better look into an infirmary in the manor and what it would take to activate it before he really needed it. However, the slowing effect as he approached the ground gave him confidence to try something new. Gus began to just have fun with the skill at this point and did forward flips, then backward flips. He noticed he was able to tug himself a little to one side or another if his jump brought him over one of the circular banks of couches that were in the center of the atrium.

One Jump Ahead by Brad Kane, Disney’s Aladdin Soundtrack. Success rates x 720.

Gus felt a little cheesy about this selection, but he liked it anyways. And that multiplier! Going along with the song, Gus added a forward direction to his jump, and minimized the height. He felt like he was in one of those martial arts movies where the ninjas leapt from tree to tree, defying gravity with their crazy, wire-assisted jumps. But this was real! Gus leaped forward, did a small wall run and leapt to the opposite side of the hall. Gus tried a dash forward, and felt the world slip by, just like when he first used his zoom-vision. It was disorienting at first, but after a couple attempts, he was dashing forward like a pro. A chime sounded.

Skill unlocked: Dash (Level 1)

Speed forward a distance of 100 feet or less. Distance increases with skill level (50ft +(n x 50ft)).

100 XP awarded

200 FP awarded

Awesome! This would help a lot in getting around, especially when it came to traveling in the forest. Reviewing the logs had taken some of the time of the song and it moved to the last song before he was finished reading.

Jump in the Line by Harry Belafonte. Success rates x 5,040.

Beetlejuice! If Gus wasn’t such a cinephile, he probably wouldn’t know so many jump songs. Gus jumped and just hovered. With the massive multiplier, Gus had broken some gravity barrier. A chime sounded.

Skill unlocked: Basic Flight (Level 1)

Flight speed: 10 mph

Max altitude: 5 feet

Flight speed increases: (10 mph x n)

Max altitude (5ft x n)

MP cost: (200 MP/sec -5n MP/sec)

MP cost: 195 MP/second

100 XP awarded

200 FP awarded

195 MP meant he could only fly for around 1.5 seconds! The multiplier must be diminishing the skill’s MP cost or multiplying his MP pool to feed the skill. Without it, he would have to train a lot to be able to make flight a usable skill. Not wanting to get distracted again, he shifted from side to side with some strain. It was harder to maintain this than simply jumping. It felt like he was continuously pulling a very long tablecloth off one of those