“Could you fight to protect your kids?” I asked as gently as I could.
She nodded.
“Good. Because you are. If you die, you won’t make it back to them. You won’t be able to take care of them. Anything that attacks you is attacking your husband and your kids and your whole family. It’s them or your family. It’s not right or wrong, Samantha. It’s just the way it is.”
“You’re full of shit,” piped up Susan. “You don’t know you’ll have to fight anything. We’re ten miles from a tourist town. What would attack you?”
I looked at her very deliberately.
“What? Or who?”
She looked confused but I didn’t let her respond.
“I hope you’re right, Susan, I really do. I hope to God you’re right. Because if you are none of this makes a difference and everything will be fine. And I’ll never have been happier to be wrong. But if I’m not…”
I paused and looked around again.
“We’re out in the country. It’s spring tourist season. There’s thousands of strangers in the area, nobody knows anybody, none of the locals knows us. And these mountains are full of animals. Which the messages say are going to get stronger and more dangerous. Anything could happen. If we’re going to move, we have to do it now. Today. My plan is to leave here not later than noon, because that means even if I have to practically crawl I should make it to town before dark.”
Opening the guidebook, I pointed to the map on the inside cover. “Ten miles, give or take. Long walk for an afternoon but doable. I remember a few steep parts between here and town but nothing too bad.”
“How will you know it’s noon?” said Samantha somewhat randomly.
“When the sun’s overhead, it’s noon,” I said, trying not to sound sarcastic. “But wait… System, time?”
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Local Time is 9:47AM Eastern Standard Time, Saturday, April 8, 2017.
“Wow, that’s handy,” I said. “Try it.” There was a flurry of muttered requests for the time. I noticed Susan didn’t even try.
“Okay. So I want to leave within two hours and less if we can manage it. Raise your hands if you’re coming.”
Danielle immediately raised her hand, followed a second or two later by Mike and Samantha. Anthony looked at Susan, whose hand didn’t stir, then raised his own with a shrug. Joe started to raise his and then looked at Mandy, whose expression was anxious.
“Mandy, I…” Joe’s voice trailed off. I saw what was coming and tried to head it off.
“Nobody has to decide right this second. I just wanted to see. Okay, let’s assume it’s five going and three staying. Mike and Samantha, did you get offered perks?”
“Yes,” said Mike. “I think mine has to do with the fact that I’m a doctor.” He blushed at the impressed looks this got him. We online weirdos usually kept info like that pretty close to the chest.
“It offered me something called ‘Healing Touch.’ It lets me heal somebody for… I think it said 20% of their health instantly if I can touch them?”
“Did it offer you a special class like Joe?” I asked.
“No. It just said I could accept it or not accept it.”
I winced. Hopefully he hadn’t blown his chance.
“That sounds pretty OP. That means ‘overpowered,’ and it’s good, at least when it’s us. If you say ‘Status,’ can you still accept it?”
“Status. Yes. Should I?” Mike looked at me, his eyes a little glassy as he tried to focus on me and his sheet at the same time.
“What does it say it costs?” So far all the perks had been pretty reasonable, but if it would cost him half his own health or something, that was no good.
“It says ‘20% of Maximum Mana,’ if I’m reading this right. It also says, ‘Removes all negative Status Effects.’”
“Grab it,” I said instantly. That was as broken as my Instant Induction, maybe more so. It didn’t say anything about level differences so he might be able to heal a thousand HP with 20MP. And it cured… everything?
“Okay… ‘Accept.’” He shook his head for a second as the perk took effect. “There, I have it. It’s on my character sheet under ‘Special Skills’ now.”
“Fantastic,” I said. “You could save all our lives. Let’s do everybody else’s perks first and then pick classes, if that’s okay.” Nobody objected so I went on. “Samantha, you?”
“I’m a vet,” she said, ducking her head slightly. “It didn’t offer me a separate perk, but it did say I’d get special bonuses if I picked a class called ‘Animal Tamer.’”
“Outstanding,’ I said, and meant it. Joe and Anthony smiled and nodded as well. She started at the enthusiasm in my voice. “It’s still there, right?”
“’Status…’ Yes, it’s still there. It says, ‘Tame animals up to four levels higher than you, with a 20% penalty for every level the target's exceeds yours. Tamed animals will obey reasonable commands based on intelligence and fight to protect you if treated well. You may tame one animal per every five levels: tamed animals will grow in power along with you. Does not work on sapient beings. If you accept this Class, as a bonus perk for pre-System experience and being in a medium Mana area at System Start, you will get one extra taming slot, a 10% bonus to chance to tame, and your tamed animals will gain an extra 25% damage, be 25% more resistant to damage, and heal 25% faster.'”
“I’d say take it,” I said. “In gaming we call people with that kind of class a tamer or a ranger, and they are really flexible. The pets can do damage, scout, and all kinds of things. And those bonuses are amazing.” Something occurred to me and I quickly added, “You do like animals, right? It’s not like just a job or something?”
“I love animals,” she said firmly. “’Accept.’ There, I have the… she stopped and shuddered. Mike looked alarmed but before he could say anything she went on. “That was… weird. Now I’m a Level 1 Animal Tamer. It says I have two Class Skills to select and one Attribute Point to distribute.”
“Hold off on picking, I’d say, until we do everybody else. Go ahead and read the list and see what makes sense, though. Who’s next?” I looked at Joe. “You already picked. In fact, hang on…”
I got up and rooted around until I found a pen and some notebook paper in one of the kitchen drawers. Printing carefully, I made a list of all our names and briefly noted what I knew so far about everybody’s classes and perks. For Danielle and I, I put only what we’d admitted in front of the others. I noticed nobody had said anything about Titles. Maybe the early adopter bonuses were about all gone at this point.
Eventually, everybody but Susan had picked a starting bonus perk. (She refused to even call up her Status screen.) Then we started picking Classes for those who hadn’t gotten a Special Class as their perk. I went with “Mind Mage” for my announcement and sort of glossed over the details.
“Classes now?” asked Joe. He was starting to get really into this. “Danielle, your perk sounds like a Class, but it isn’t?”