Chapter 40

The Angel Express, Etson - 3:14 PM


I woke up from my power nap with a stretch and a yawn. My mind was refreshed after the series of harrowing events of the morning. From Seraphim screwing me over with the Writhing Zeppelin to Seraphim screwing me over with the changes to the main scenario, I really needed a good solid rest.

[[Notice]]

You have rested in a Safe Zone that you own. All HP and other resources have been restored by 50%.

My eyes opened to see the notice, which I swiped away, and the room around me. The luxury sleeping car the Transportation Safe Zone provided lived up to its name. The bedroom I was in was almost the width of the whole car although only half of its length. A rich, dark wood made up most of the walls, with a royal blue carpet and ceiling and gold accents. The windows were closed since the view outside was of the warehouse.

Removing the blue and gold checkered comforter from my body, I stood up and stretched again before sitting back on the bed. There wasn’t a lot of room for furnishing, but the bed was perfectly suited to me and the plush carpet felt great under my feet. Other than the queen sized bed, there was a desk and chair, a sofa, and a television mounted on the wall.

Aside from the exit, there was another door that led to the bathroom with its own shower, washer, and dryer. I walked in and removed my clothes from the dryer. I had washed them when I showered before stumbling back to bed for my nap. The luxury safe zone had augmented the washer and dryer to mend clothes as well as clean them, which was going to be a godsend when we fought the Vespae and their favored weapon, the spear.

Once I was dressed, I left my room behind and entered the hallway. The wooden walls lined the halls here, though the carpet was a rich red and gold instead of blue. In front of the other bedroom, which was the same setup except green and gold, was Corwin. He perked up when I came out of my room and wagged his tail, but continued to lay there.

“Aww, poor baby,” I cooed, approaching him. His tail wagged faster. “Did they not let you into their room? Oh, poor baby, poor baby.”

Corwin jumped up on his feet and pressed his head into my hand. I gave him the attention he wanted, although scratching him didn’t exactly go as planned. While I had more mobility in my fingers now, the improvement was slight and the pain was still there. Based on this, I guessed that it would take closer to a day in order to purge the demonic influence from Pustibule’s scalpel than a few hours. Which was fine; I was still psychic, after all.

I knocked on the door to the Mills’ room and raised my voice. “I’m awake, guys,” I announced. “I’ll be in the dining car if you guys want to join me. Also, I’m taking Corwin and I’m going to feed him people food.”

“Okay!” Jeff said.

“Don’t you dare be a bad influence, Ant!” Kayla called out. “We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

I chuckled. “Roger that, take your time.”

My room was in the front of the sleeping car, next to the train engine, and theirs was in the back next to the dining car. I moved around Corwin in the small hallway and stepped through the doors onto the gangway and into the dining car.

Despite only three people and a dog living on The Angel Express, the dining car was very spacious. A long bench was built into the entire right side of the car with tables and chairs in front of them. Only half of the left side was set up the same way, but had a bar with a kitchen behind it complete with everything one needed to make their own food from a stove to a fridge to a blender and more. If anyone had the inclination to cook or if I were to pick up someone with a cooking based class, they would be able to work their magic here. Under the bar was also alcohol, but there was a time and place for everything.

I didn’t enter the kitchen; while I was a stellar chef, I had other things to do. I took a seat on the bench and a menu popped up. Not wanting to eat without the Mills, I ordered a hot chocolate which appeared in front of me. It materialized at the perfect temperature, and I nodded to myself at the rich flavor when I Lifted the oversized mug and drank from it.

With a wave of my hand, I brought up my menu and navigated to the Heelies of Hermes.

[[Item]]

Heelies of Hermes

(Growth Item (this item is ready to be upgraded), kill 8 bosses to upgrade; +7 dexterity, +5 constitution, Divine Messenger skill acquired, Air Step+ skill acquired)

[[Skill]]

Divine Messenger

When traveling on the Heelies of Hermes' wheels, gain a boost up to double your speed in accordance to how full your inventory is. You may also use the wheels indefinitely as long as you are on level ground or a downwards slope.

[[Skill]]

Air Step+

Up to four times per shoe, use a feather to jump again in the air. One feather takes 4 minutes per shoe to regenerate, if more than one feather is missing on a shoe, they do not regenerate concurrently.

Would you like to upgrade the Heelies of Hermes?

Yes

No

Thanks to the Demonic Doctor Pustibule, I was still ahead of the curve. With the defeat of the Carnivorous Column, Writhing Zeppelin, and the Vespae Bombardier Krinkee, I had just enough to boss kills to upgrade the Heelies of Hermes to +2. I was very excited about the prospect of a new skill being attached to it.

Being a growth item, it followed a pattern of upgrading a skill then learning a new skill then upgrading a skill again. Different items had a cap to how many times they could be upgraded that you could usually guess based on the names attached to it. Hermes was a powerful Olympian, and his Heelies could be upgraded to +5 for a total of four skills and three upgrades.

I reached up and tapped yes.

[[Item]]

Heelies of Hermes +2

(Growth Item, kill 8 bosses to upgrade; +10 dexterity, +8 constitution, Divine Messenger skill acquired, Air Step+ skill acquired, Broken Boundary skill acquired)

[[Skill]]

Broken Boundary

Mark a door by touching it and activating this skill, this mark does not go away until it is used or you mark another door. You always know what direction the mark is in and how far away it is. At another doorway within range, you may activate the skill and open the door to find that it opens to the door you marked prior. The range of this ability is equal to 1 mile per point in dexterity added by the Heelies of Hermes. You may allow others to travel with you in this manner at the cost of one feather per creature. The portal will remain active for up to one minute or until the wearer enters, whichever comes first.

I whistled, getting the attention of Corwin who had laid down on my feet. Reaching down, I pet him to the best of my ability before waving away the screen. The Heelies of Hermes had a lot of extra options that could be selected thanks to the many hats Hermes wore as a god. There was a good chance of getting a dud because of his varied portfolio, such as something animal or athletics related. Personally I had hoped for the Thievery-based Soft Feet, which muffled footsteps and allowed me to turn invisible at the cost of feathers, but this one was good. Situational, but exploitable and thus good.

With a wave of my hand, I brought up my stats. I rolled my eyes at my hit points now that it wasn’t perfect, but I couldn’t complain too much. After all, I was still likely to have more hit points than all but the most ambitious of tank players currently.

[[Status]]

Player Anthony Franklin

Class: Warmind

Race: Human

Points: 2,724

Stats:

Hit Points: 473/473

Mental Points: 177/300 (0/100)

Strength: 20; Dexterity: 37; Constitution: 41; Wisdom: 30; Willpower: 30

Complaining really would be a worthless endeavor. Thanks to the combined effort of all of my magic items, I was stacked. The Writhing Belt Whip would switch between my defensive stats, dexterity and wisdom, to my offensive stats, strength and willpower, based on what form it was in which allowed for a lot of flexibility. These stats weren’t even counting the Vague Stick, which gave me a +5 to both strength and dexterity. With it “equipped,” which was just a fancy way of saying I was holding it, then all of my stats would be above the scenario limits and two of them would even be twice the maximum.

In short, I was broken in the best possible way. Not that I would let it get to my head.

Not that I’d let it get to my head any more than I possibly had.

“What are you grinning about?” Kayla asked as she and Jeff walked through the door. Corwin shot up to meet them, tail wagging and tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth.

“Just upgraded my heelies,” I told her, swiping away the screen.

“That’s still an absurd item,” she said with a smile and a shake of her head. As Jeff made his way behind the bar, she sat down at the other side of the table. When I first saw her every run, the short woman tried to make herself even smaller. Now she held herself with poise and confidence, much like how I imagined her before the system dropped.

Behind the bar, Jeff was gently pushing Corwin away with his foot as he looked through the fully stocked fridge. “How do you like your eggs, Anthony?” he asked.

“Sunny side up, but you don’t have to cook,” I responded. “Let’s have a meeting and eat from the menu. It’s free.”

Jeff wrinkled his nose, but relented. “Menu food is just kind of… it tastes manufactured, you know?”

“You get used to it.”

“Why don’t you grab some spices from the cupboard, honey,” Kayla suggested.

“You’re right, love,” Jeff said, grabbing a few things before he joined us at the table. He kissed his wife on the top of her head before sitting down. Corwin sat next to the Jeff on the floor, and the man pet his dog while looking through the menu. I did the same. Thanks to the high end dining car, there were a lot of fine choices.

“There’s a fair few more choices than I thought,” Kayla mentioned.

“No expenses spared,” I said with a wink, selecting a filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes. It appeared in front of me with a glass of water. A plate full of lobster appeared in front of Jeff and shrimp and noodles appeared in front of Kayla. Jeff also pulled out a bowl and a bag of premium dog food for Corwin.

Apparently, the food was good enough because Jeff didn’t bother adding anything to it. My own plate was delicious and perfectly made. Even if the Transportation Safe Zone made everything else terrible but the food, it would have been worth it. It was good for morale and, in the apocalypse where truly good food was hard to find, necessary.

The meal didn’t last long for anyone and soon we were watching the empty plates disappear, satisfied. “Guess you got those spices out for nothing, huh?” I asked.

Jeff nodded. “Sure did,” he said. “I’m not going to question this dining car again.” Kayla and I chuckled. She picked up the spices to return them to their proper spot as her husband leaned back in the chair, hand on his stomach.

“So, before we head out there I wanted to get a grasp on what you guys have going on for you,” I said as Kayla returned. “Kayla, I already know you have the Double Agent class. Did you take those vials I gave you?”

“I did,” she said with a nod. “And now my credibility and moxie stats are up to 20. I haven’t found any items that boost them yet.”

“What does moxie mean?” Jeff asked.

“Courage and nerve, mostly,” she answered. “It helps keep me focused.”

“Have you already explained your class to Jeff?”

Kayla nodded again. “I did.”

“It’s a mix between a bard and a rogue, focused on infiltrating enemy hideouts and dealing sneak attack based on your credibility towards friendly unfriendlies, right?” Jeff asked, looking at his wife and setting his hand on her leg.

“That’s the basic gist of it, yes.”

I nodded as well. Kayla had already used her Part of the Crowd ability to enter the stronghold I took out to sabotage the troops there. What we didn’t see was Kayla creating an illusion in order to fool the Vespae into thinking she was one of them. Later on the ability would evolve to allow her physical transformations, though that wasn’t available until the scenario limits were lifted.

“Are you still rocking the dagger from the tutorial?” I asked.

To answer, Kayla reached to the side and pulled the dagger from her inventory. It was a straight dagger with an ornate golden handle meant to impress, though it wasn’t made of real gold. It gave her a +1 to strength and dexterity, but wasn’t anything special. The Double Agent class gave her Dagger Mastery as a skill which would do most of the heavy lifting until she got a proper weapon.

“Okay, we’re going to work on getting the both of you geared up,” I stated. She put the dagger back. “So your skills should be Dagger Mastery, Part of the Crowd, and Backstab, right?”

“That’s right. I also picked up a skill book from the raid against Fertro, the guardwasp shaman, when I went along with Gloria,” she explained. “It was for the passive In The Breeze. When I’m outside, or in front of a fan or something, I get a small boost to attack speed and accuracy.”

“You can build for some good critical hits with that,” I said approvingly. “In The Breeze, Dagger Mastery, and Backstab are a really good combo. Have you already gotten those two up to level three?”

“Not yet, both are level two because I don’t have the points yet.”

“Once they are, you should get…” I put my hands on my head as I tried to remember. “Killer Critical, I think. Not only makes it more likely to get a critical hit on your back stab target, but increases damage by some percentage of your Moxie. Increasing Part of the Crowd and Backstab should get you an ability that makes it so that Backstab works for longer, though I can’t remember what it’s called right now.”

Jeff put his arm around Kayla’s shoulders and pulled her close. “My wife’s going to be one-shotting fools left and right.”

“Only when the situation hits just right,” she added, though she leaned into him. I smiled at the casual affection these two had for each other, and a twinge passed through my heart for Sara.

Instead of dwelling on it, I put my hands down on the table and turned to Jeff. “How about you? Did you accept a class?”

Jeff shook his head. “No, I didn’t like what they offered me first. Bug Zapper,” he said as he made a face. “At first I thought that it might be cool because of the zapping part, right? But I didn’t feel good about it from the get-go and the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a trap.”

“It absolutely was,” I said. “It’s great against bug type enemies, so it would have really helped against the Vespae, but it’s less than subpar against anything else. Your instincts serve you well.”

Jeff grinned as Kayla patted him on the back. “Right now I’ve got a class sitting primed called Beast Master. Because of Corwin, I suspect, but I wanted to talk it over before accepting or declining.”

I leaned forward so that I was resting my elbows on the table. "Beast Master is adequate, but all of the offense will go to Corwin and you're sidelined playing support."

"Which I don't want. Corwin is a precious boy and I want to be a frontline fighter. I'm damn good with a rapier. Kayla, back me up."

"It's true, he's damn good."

"Alright, I believe you," I said, holding up my hands. "So you've got two, actually three choices. The first one is to fight alongside Corwin until you're offered the Bestial Alpha class. That mixes wild shape with monster training. Only problem is that they don't get any weapon mastery skills but instead get it in claws and other natural attacks."

"The worst part is Corwin has to fight," Jeff responded, crossing his arms.

"This is the monster apocalypse, Jeff, everyone fights. Besides, we would actually figure out if he's a dog then."

Jeff scowled, which looked very out of place on his usually happy face. "What's option two?"

"Use the rapier more, get a class. Simple."

"And the third option?" Kayla asked.

"Defeat the main scenario and get a special class called Needle Lancer by beating the queen's top wasp," I said. "It'll take time and you'll be classless, but you don't even need a lance despite the name. It revolves around piercing weapons."

Removing his arm from Kayla's shoulder, Jeff leaned on the table. "And what are the odds we can make it that far and kill it without a class."

"That depends on you and how bad you want it. It's a great class, easily a top 100 class, it just takes a lot of skill to use correctly."

"And if something goes wrong, I can accept the other class whenever I want, right?"

“That’s always true,” I said with a nod. “But, and I do have to ask, how come you're so keen on being a frontline fighter? I understand that you have skill with a rapier, but there’s not a lot of people who would happily rush into melee range with a monster.”

“I wouldn’t say I’d happily rush in,” Jeff said, looking at his wife. “I just find it acceptable that I get hurt if it means someone else doesn’t. It’ll suck, but I’m willing to live with that.”

“And it’s not acceptable,” Kayla said sternly, meeting Jeff’s eyes. “But there’s no use stopping him. He’s just going to go do what he thinks is right anyway.”

“You two are adorable,” I said, smiling.

“We know,” Jeff said, kissing his wife with a grin and looking back at me.

I reached into my inventory and pulled out the blue skill book I had collected from the Carnivorous Column after the Writhing Juggernaut ate it. It fell through my fingers and hit the table. Corwin perked up immediately at the sound of something new on the table, and stared at the skill book like it was food. Jeff pet him as I pushed it towards the man.

He shifted the book and opened it. “Explosive Thrust?”

“Yup,” I said. “It’s a movement skill that’s kind of like one I already have, but it only works with a piercing weapon. It’ll lunge you forward and, if you hit with the attack, it deals extra damage. Normally this would be fine for me since I planned on relying on spears, mostly, but it’ll be a long while until I find something better than the belt whip the Writhing Zeppelin dropped.”

“How many points do you want for it?” Jeff asked.

“None? It’s for you, man.”

“I don’t think I can just accept something so good, you know?”

I sighed, but couldn’t help but appreciate Jeff’s good nature. “I hear you, and if it helps then don’t think of it as a gift. It’s an investment. I’m investing in you two, your safety and well being, and your ability to keep up with me in the future."

"Wow, what an impersonal way of putting it," Kayla said.

"I… like having you guys around. Thomas was right, the path I’m on is really lonely. I’d like some friends. I'd really like it if it's you two.”

“Corwin, no,” Kayla chastised. I looked at the dog to see him inching towards the skill book, eyes intent on the prize. He backed off at the warning and Jeff accepted the skill, causing the book to disappear. Kayla reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “We’re here for you, psychic boy.”

“Thanks, Kayla,” I said as I tried to squeeze back. “As for me, since you’ve both been very forthcoming, my class is Warmind. I have telekinesis and other psychic powers. Right now my abilities are limited to Pushing, Pulling, Lifting, Dropping, Spinning, and Bending. I also have a personal force field called Shield that I’ll eventually be able to give to other people, though that’s a long way off because I need Shield at level five.”

“Beyond the bounds of the scenario limits, then,” Jeff stated.

I nodded. “I have a plethora of magic items, which is why I’m kind of… not really dressed for the job I want,” I said with a chuckle, looking down at the mess of color I had become. There would be an option to dye the clothes later, but it was basically a waste of points this early.

“Still better than torn jeans and a bathrobe from the Safari Resort,” Kayla said with a smirk.

“If you insist,” I responded, knowing she was right. “Well, that’s all I wanted to go over. Anything from you two before we head out?”

“I had a question, actually,” Kayla said, though she started getting up. Jeff and I joined her, and Corwin bounced to his feet. “I know things are hectic and it’s only been a few days, but how come our leaders are you, Tommy, and Father Alexander? Where’s the military or government? Shouldn’t they have some kind of plan in place for natural disasters? Obviously they didn’t plan for this, but I’ve been wondering about it.”

I offered Kayla a sad smile before heading towards the exit. “Tell you what, Etson city hall is on the way to the forest. How about we stop by and I can show you exactly why no one should expect government intervention. And get you two some more points in the process.”

With a touch, I marked the door with Broken Boundary, causing a glowing blue winged sandal to appear on it. Only I could see it, I knew, which was great because the symbol would stick out like a sore thumb and give people something to watch out for. I left the train with the others in tow, refreshed and ready to resume the day.