Book 2 - Chapter 5: Multi-Purpose Reinforcements

Magic being what it was, Sean was prepared when the enchantment spruced up the table, closed up holes, and repaired dents in the table-top from its various battlefield experiences. He was also prepared for the bit where the table righted itself, glowed for a bit, and generally made a big show of being a special magic table.

He was less prepared for what happened next. The table’s self-repair and enhancement lasted about five seconds, and dulled gradually as the work finished. But a sudden thump and loud groan behind him coupled by an immediate notification from the system, one that forced itself open and demanded he read it before he could close it, was less within the confines of his expectations.

Staffing Slot Filled: Multi-Purpose Work Table

In accordance with a standing agreement, the staffable characteristic of the Multi-Purpose Work Table has been automatically assigned to an available member of your support staff.

This assignment can be reversed if you wish, but doing so will immediately expel the assigned staff member from the competition system space unless they are immediately reassigned to another work station or staffable space.

Well, that’s weird. I don’t recall having a staff. Unless… Sean thought, as he turned around to confirm the source of the loud cursing that ringing through the room as a result of the impact he had heard. Yup. Good old Brett.

“Damn fucking system,” Brett said, calming down only slightly as he lifted his large, bald bulk off the ground. “Could have set me down gently, could have had me appear standing. I was standing when I left, for the record.”

“Yeah, it’s sort of a dick like that. Falling was more dramatic, I guess.” Sean beamed and approached, hand out for a handshake in greeting. “Welcome aboard, I guess?”

“Good to be aboard.” Brett glanced around the basement, looking subtly worried as he did. “Well, okay to be aboard, at least. Have you thought about hanging a painting in here? Might help to dispel some of that murder-basement feel.”

“Well, yeah, sorry about that,” Sean said. “I spent most of the points on tools and making sure the door isn’t easy to break down.”

“Well, okay, I can see that being a priority. Wouldn’t want your own personal crafter murdered while you are out doing your thing. By the way, did you know how often you nearly die? I’ve been watching you for the better part of a day. It’s sort of a lot, Sean.”

“You could see me? The whole time?”

“Just the last several hours. I think since I’m only here on your invite, the system thought it was relevant for me to watch your adventures before I got sent here. We have to get you a better plan for fighting those things than just hoping the arrows don’t hit you in a place that kills you, Sean.”

Sean got into the shop menu, buying quickly buying another cot and pushing it over near his.

“Sorry, this is the best I can do for chairs right now. We can set up the other room for you later.” Sean sat down. “For what it’s worth, I was going to take the next day or so to try and figure out something for that. I wasn’t really expecting you this soon.”

If Brett was here, it meant he had agreed to Sean’s proposal that he act as a sort of helper for the whole try-to-save-the-world-against-all-odds quest Sean was on. That was disquieting in a way, since neither of them knew what would happen to Brett if Sean died, or even what would happen to him if Sean found a way to leave the competition early.

Sean had no idea what had happened in the outside world since he had jumped into the time-stasis the System held contestants in until their coordinated start, but either things had gone very, very poorly out there indeed or Brett had given him a tremendous vote of confidence by coming here. He wasn’t sure which he was more comfortable with.

“I wasn’t necessarily expecting you at all, Brett. Are things really that bad out there? Or was I not clear enough about the part where I’m probably gonna die trying this?

Brett laughed.

“No, you were clear. Even if you weren’t, the Apocalypse System made me sign off on a bunch of stuff before coming here. And things got worse, after you left, but not that much. People were still surviving, getting off the planet when they could.”

“How long has it been?”

“I have no idea how long the system kept me on ice, but I jumped into that time-freeze about six months after you left.” Brett accepted some shower-head water from one of Sean’s rinsed-out garbage bottles and took a sip. “Really, Sean, it was more about how angry I got than how bad things got. Near the end there, the system made an announcement that there was only a month or so left of time to get into the competition, and the offworlders started to worry about not making the deadline.”

That doesn’t sound good, Sean thought.

“Turns out some of the offworlders were only keeping people alive because they were convenient. When they heard that clock ticking, they turned to the highest level source of safe experience they could.”

Sean felt sick.

“And that was?”

“Crafters. Merchants. Non-combatants. Highest-level Earth folks around started disappearing left and right. Sometimes they’d find the bodies, sometimes they wouldn’t.” Brett took another sip of shower water, and gave a weak smile.

“So yeah, I thought I’d join up. Help you fuck up some offworlders. Seemed like a good use of my time, after that.”

—

At some point, Sean had to explain to Brett that while he was glad that the man was here, he did have to go to sleep at some point in the relatively near future. Not right away, of course. But since he had a stack of things to do before he actually slept, that meant talking while they worked.

The first project was clearing Brett out some space. Sean was fine with sleeping in the main room, what he now realized would have to be the common area, but did want some illusion of privacy while that happened. Pulling his cot into a corner and dragging the giant pod in front of it at least partially blocked things if he needed to use the tools or workbenches while Sean slept.

Cleaning up the storage room was a little harder, but more profitable. There were a few things they wanted to keep, like a mop and bucket, various cleaning chemicals, rolls of tape, trash bags, and various plastic and glass containers. Almost everything else could go, and Sean and Brett spent the better part of half an hour dumping the rest of the contents of the room into the recycling bin, creating a large amount of hopefully more usable trash in the process.

After moving Brett’s cot into the storage, it was dinner time, such as Sean and Brett could provide for themselves. The ever-burning log turned out to fuel the stove perfectly well, and the stove itself was magically easy to control in a way Sean was thankful for. While he cooked, they talked.

“I know we’ve been telling you not to talk about your class much, but…”

“It’s fine, Brett. I think our fates are linked enough now.”

“Could you say it in some way that’s less needlessly romantic sounding?”

“Nope. Deal with it.”

For the first time, Sean was able to dump the entirety of his build details on someone. In the greater world, this would have been stupid. But here, the only risk was that Brett was somehow a double agent of some other power, committed to taking Sean down by any means possible. If that was true, there was no way to know before actual assassination attempts started, and he was likely already screwed anyway. The good money was on complete trust.

“So the way it works is pretty simple. Stitch Up is regeneration, and works better as my VIT gets higher and I get farther from enemies. Shankmaster is a combat skill that works with anything I can make that the system considered a shank, and is a crafting skill that works with Adhesives Mastery to build weapons out of stuff I find, mostly garbage. Both scale off SAV.”

Brett motioned towards Sean’s pile of weapons on the table.

“You are telling me you get a bonus off all those weapon types? You don’t just carry around the hammer for non-augmented utility?”

“Yeah. They all feel right in my hand.”

“That’s not normal. Restricting damage types is one of the ways the system balances things. You are supposed to have damage blind spots.”

“Yeah, it’s… better than it should be. I always just attributed that to having a rare class.”

A second later, Sean was covered with a fine mist of half-chewed beans and rice. Apparently the rare class was a little more surprising for Brett than he thought it would be.

“Having a fucking what? A fucking WHAT?”

“Rare class. I wasn’t sure at first that’s what it was, but it wasn’t nearly as shitty as an all-rounder class was supposed to be. The system confirmed it later.”

“You aren’t supposed to have that, Sean. Did you eat a fucking 10,000 year ginseng, or something? Where did you even find the kind of exposure to rare stuff that you’d get that?”

“I think it was just being stuck in time for several decades. I’m not sure, but that’s where Hard Time comes in.”

Apparently talking about skills was interesting enough to get Sean’s audience listening again. Brett was now quiet, listening and eating his lentils peacefully, while Sean did his best to wipe the last mouthful off his face.

“Hard Time affects time. I can stop time, or speed it up. It works about four times in a row before I dry up if I use it rapid-fire.”

“How much effect are we talking about here?”

Sean punched out at Brett, then activated the skill. He timed it to slow Brett down about halfway through the punch, so he could see the difference. Brett recoiled from it, nowhere near fast enough to actually dodge the strike if Sean didn’t pull it at the last moment.

“And that’s speeding yourself up?”

“Slowing you down. It looks about the same if there’s only the two of us. Most of the time I’d speed myself up, because…”

“It doesn’t work on groups, so it works better that way. Got it.” Brett took a bite of his meal. “Can you do multiple targets?”

“Two. If I’m only fighting one opponent, the relative difference is a little bigger that way. But it does take two charges to do. Oh, and it works better on smaller objects. Not much, but it’s good for throwing things. Or stopping killer mice, probably.”

Brett looked thoughtful.

“You’ve been dumping most of your stats into that?”

“Yup. Lately. I’ll write down my status screen for you later.”

“You can actually just share it. Will me to see it. Just the status screen.”

Of course I can do that. Sean thought. It made sense, in a world that hadn’t gone as fully to shit as his had. He sent him what he had, complete with his newly assigned status points.

Sean Lawrence

Level 35 Human (Prisoner of Time)

EXP: 432,700/1,520,000

STR: 20 (24)

DEX: 50 (52)

VIT: 25 (27)

SAV: 60 (61)

MAG: 83 (89)

—

Abilities: Shankmaster LV7, Adhesives Mastery LV4, Stitch Up LV5, Hard Time LV3, Cellblock Brewmaster LV4

Achievements: E-Raticator, Uncommon De-nominator, Three Spectral Bears (Active, Situational stealth in dark, natural environments), Make-shift Ranger (Active, imrpoved stealth in wooded areas), Forest Dragon-kin, Mini-boss Massacre, High-Proof, Late-Start Long-Shot , Junkyard David, Front-yard Defender, Chaotic Alloy