Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

spear with anticipation. Checking the queue, he noted there was still a little over two hours until the Nth hybrids would be ready. Taking the naginata to the training arena, he stood in the scanner and waited for the computer to analyze him. A ding finally sounded:

Quest Granted: Freak on a Leash

Quest Conditions:

1) Show competence in hitting a target with a spear from over 50 feet

2) Learn the skill Ether Leash

Quest Rewards: 500 XP, 300 FP

Time Requirements: 3 hours

Quest Failure Penalties: Ether Leash skill locked

Do you want to accept this quest? (Y/N)

Gus accepted the quest and instead of seeing Chop Chop, he saw himself on the virtual display. Gus’ previous battle footage of throwing his spear was replayed and Chop Chop shook his head and grunted in disapproval.

A target popped up in the distance. The display showed him where to grasp the spear for ideal balance and control when throwing. The spear had a tiny bit of flex in it, and it took a lot of trial and error to improve his aim. Too high and to the left. A slight shift here down and to the right. Too much. And so it went for a while. As the practice became more automatic, Gus started to see improvement.

###!###

The closest Gus had come to target practice, at least with thrown objects, was playing darts with his buddies after they went to the local pub quiz.

A chime sounded and brought Gus’ attention to his practice.

You have leveled up the skill: Polearms to Level 7!

Auto-assist enabled. Can be toggled off/on in the interface.

300 XP awarded

100 FP awarded

LEVEL UP! Congratulations, Level 11 reached!

500 FP awarded

You have (5) additional stat points to assign.

6900 XP to level 12

Taking a break to allocate his points, Gus looked at his stats. He didn’t feel a big deficiency anywhere except charisma, and he doubted that would make any difference with the zombies, so he ignored it. He decided on adding two to constitution, two to strength and one to intelligence. He checked his new stat layout.

Gus Vannett

Level 11

Agility: 25

Constitution: 28 (27+1)

Charisma: 18

Strength: 27

Perception: 26

Intelligence: 27

Luck: 27

Fractal core: Level 1

HP: 540

MP: 440

Stamina: 540

Wary of getting hit while fooling around with stat points, Gus focused on the arena again. With the auto-assist enabled, Gus began to see trajectories and angles visible on the display. It was much simpler to consistently hit the center of the target with the assist to help him.

The training had updated at some time and now showed his avatar throwing the spear at the target but always keeping an ether leash threaded to the butt of the spear. After hitting the target, virtual Gus pulled the spear back into his grasp. After three playbacks at different speeds, the virtual display cleared and Gus saw his current position.

Looking at the spear, Gus noticed a small knob at the butt end. Getting ready, he mentally tied an ether weave onto the end of his knob there, and aimed. He threw the spear, but missed the target completely, attention too fixed on the tether. After losing the spear, the tether winked out. Gus tried again, this time weaving three threads into a cord, then attached it to his spear. This tether seemed much more stable. Gus tried again and could focus more on his aim, now that less focus was needed to maintain the tether. The spear hit the outer rim of the target, and Gus was surprised that the tether added no noticeable weight or drag to the spear when thrown. Ether was flipping weird. But he kind of loved it.

Pulling the spear, it plopped out of the target a mere ten feet, due to his hesitation. Gus was afraid of launching his spear toward himself so he pulled with a half-hearted effort. Dragging it back to his grasp he tried again. After pulling a couple times with varying levels of tension, he found the sweet spot so the spear wouldn’t fly past him, or approach so fast he was worried of grabbing the blade by mistake.

In no time, the skill became almost second nature, and just like that, Gus had another ranged attack. In addition, he had a way of retrieving his spear if he ever lost it. He had already developed a bad habit of throwing his weapon away; now he could keep it as long as it didn’t get stuck into anything. If he had this ability in the last battle, things would have been less dire. He still wouldn’t have won, but that was too close a shave after he got separated from his main weapon.

For some reason, the session did not end after a chime and notice indicated he received the Ether Leash skill. He finished the three-hour practice and the system awarded him his XP and FP rewards. He had hoped to finish early as with other days, but every time one was in a hurry, things seemed to take forever.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Paranoimia

Day 9 6:14 PM

1:04:56 remaining

The moment of truth with the new hybrid Nth was here. Gus headed back to the Foundry, more eager than scared. If this worked out, there could be some big changes ahead. Following the indicator lights to the conveyor where finished products were delivered, he saw a long flat plastic tray covered with grayish-black dust.

“Big moment Nick, have any final words?” Gus asked.

“No, but my common sense is tingling…” Nick replied.

“That’s never stopped us before!” Gus grinned and hit activate on his display controls.

The black and gray grains coalesced together, briefly forming a face contorting in a silent scream. The figure exploded outward, then froze, the jagged edges compressing back into a solid sphere, six inches in diameter. A single string of text froze on the display, with everything else becoming non-responsive.

Uploading…

Gus froze, wondering what had happened. He felt an emptiness and knew that Nick was gone, at least for now. It was like a noise you didn’t notice on a conscious level that became apparent when it abruptly stopped.

The silence stretched into an uncomfortable length,