Vivid Stars Online

The area we moved through quickly came alive again as we left the former territory of the Great Bear. While I was sure life would return to that area eventually, it seemed the local animals and Beasts had yet to work out that it was dead.

An hour after we departed, I noticed the first set of red dots showing up on my scanner. “Beasts ahead,“ I whispered, holding up a hand to let her know we should stop.

I pulled up the data on them to find that it was a pack of five Dire Ferrets. I’d had to hide up a tree from the last pack of that size I’d encountered, however, this time I wasn’t alone.

They were already advancing toward us, somehow knowing that we were there. “Five ferrets on approach,“ I informed Linnea. “They're fast but not tough. I’ve been able to kill them with single shots to the head before or cripple them by hitting limbs.”

“Understood,“ she replied from behind me, followed by an odd clanking sound. “If you could advance a little ahead and to the side, I'll take out as many as I can as they come through the trees.”

That was the plan we had already agreed on, so I was happy to follow her instructions. I pulled my pistol as I moved to the side, ready to take a shot once they got within my effective range. From my experience so far, that was about twenty feet away. Any further than that and my accuracy fell below fifty percent.

A minute passed, then I heard the crack of plasma flying past. A massive bolt, at least three times the size of my pistol blasts, flew forwards and struck a ferret I hadn’t even noticed yet.

Half of its body exploded in fire, killing it instantly. Bloody hell, I thought as I stared in shock. Well, she’s clearly worth the money. Is this the difference between a proper combat class and whatever I am currently?

Linnea fired two more times before the ferrets even got within my twenty-foot range. One shot hit the second ferret in the face, while the other took out both of the third's right legs.

I took aim and fired at the closest remaining one as they advanced, missing my first shot but hitting with my second. While I might not have a gun nearly as powerful as Linnea’s, I did at least seem to have a faster rate of fire.

Then, just as I was turning to face the final Dire Ferret, a bolt of plasma passed my head, so close I could feel the heat. It struck the Beast straight in the side, blowing out its entire chest. I really hope she knew what she was doing there, I thought, trying to avoid imagining that shot hitting me instead.

Still, that had been an incredibly easy fight. No injuries and minimal expense as well. Linnea was already showing herself to be far more effective than I’d dared hope.

I turned to congratulate her, before pausing as I took in her weapon. “Was that gun always so long,” I asked, cocking an eyebrow in confusion.

“You're correct it wasn’t,” she replied with a proud grin. “Long rifles have two modes of fire. I normally keep it in rifle mode for easier travel. However, when I have some prep time, I usually swap to sniper mode. “

“While I’ve got a far slower fire rate in sniper mode, I get much better accuracy and more power behind each shot,“ she continued while pressing a switch on the side of the gun. With the same clanking sound I’d heard earlier, it contracted back down to the shape I was familiar with.

That seemed to be blatantly broken to me, there had to be some kind of downside. “So why isn’t everyone using one if it’s that good,“ I asked.

“The Long Rifles skill has a much slower growth rate,“ she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I’m still only on level one with it. Also, the guns cost more than buying both an assault rifle and a sniper rifle. Didn’t matter at the start since it was free, however, it’s going to make upgrading a bitch.”

“Wait,“ I said, latching onto the last thing she’d said. “Are you saying gunslinger gets a free gun to start with?” Sure, that would make sense, however, I was feeling pretty ripped off.

“Yep,“ she nodded, looking rather surprised. “All the combat classes do. Didn’t you get that pistol for free?” She finished, pointing at my gun.

“No,“ I sighed in frustration. “All I started with was a database of alien languages. I had to shell out three thousand credits for this,“ I waved my pistol for emphasis. ‘

The game infinitely ripped me off, I thought, sighing again. Psionic powers had better be bloody amazing when I finally get them. It’s the only thing that would justify making the start this difficult.

She winced as she replied. “That’s rough, it must have been hard to sink that much into equipment before seeing any gains.”

I could only nod in response. Still, it was kind of working out, if you ignored how I was still spending more than I was gaining. Anyway, it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and check the combat report.

Combat Report

Outcome:

You killed 1 x Dire Ferret

Your companion killed 4 x Dire Ferret

Results:

You gain 30 XP

Level Up Achieved

Congratulations, you have reached level 3.

So I guess that means party kills give half XP, I mused as I looked over the report. They were worth 10 XP normally, so if I got 10 again for the one I killed and 5 for the ones Linnea killed, it works out.

“I just leveled to three, so I'll need a minute,“ I spoke aloud, letting Linnea know I wouldn’t be watching our surroundings for a bit.

She nodded and congratulated me before beginning a short patrol around the clearing. It was nice to have someone watch over me while I fiddled with the System screens, I was lucky nothing tried to kill me last time.

At level three, I gained a class skill as I’d expected from reading the forums. While I felt it was a little odd that you gained a non-class skill first, I supposed there were probably a lot more universal skills than class skills.

In that case, it would make sense for the class skills to be on the slower progression. I pulled up the list of skills and had a quick scroll through. Most of them were blocked due to lacking the appropriate Psionic Ability.

Of the ones I could access, the Psi Sense skill I’d read about on the forums seemed to be the most useful. I still had to find a lead on gaining psionic abilities and I figured being able to sense psi energy would be of great help.

I confirmed my choice, then moved on to the stats screen. As had become my habit, I put both my free points into the Toughness skill. I had no intention of changing that till I actually gained my first ability and figured out what I needed for it.

Until then, Toughness was the only one of my core stats that was useful for me. Confirming my selection, I pulled up my full status sheet to have a look.

Jared Hope

Class: Psionic Aspirant

Level: 3

XP: 10/600

Statistics:

Brawn: 0

Toughness: 9

Agility: 0

Perception: 0

Mind: 3

Will: 6

Free points: 0

Skills:

Archeology level 1

Translation level 1

Pistols level 2

Psi Sense Level 1

Traits:

Database of Alien Languages

Status:

Uninjured

My toughness is really getting up there, I thought with a smile. Hopefully, that would help me survive the tank role I’d fallen into with our team. I couldn’t expect every fight to be that easy after all.

It was also nice to see that the XP requirement hadn’t tripled again. It seemed like it was based on a formula and not just a flat increase. Six hundred XP seemed like a lot, however, at the rate I’d been gaining it I might reach level four by the end of the mission.

“All done,“ I told Linnea. “I’ve just got to pull the beast cores and we’re good to go.”

She nodded and continued patrolling. I supposed that made sense, at least one of us should keep watch. It just would have been nice to not have to do it all by myself for once.

Sighing, I got down to business. Butchering the Beasts was much easier with a proper knife, and it only took me about fifteen minutes to finish. I also learned just how resilient the cores were as I found a core lying halfway across the clearing. It looked to have been blown out of the Beast's chest without a scratch on it.

With that messy job done, we moved on. We were achieving an amazing pace with the two of us, particularly since I wasn’t injured for once. We had two more fights before lunch, both of which we finished easily.

“Ok,“ I said as we came into another small clearing. “I need to log out for about thirty minutes to take care of things in the real world. Usually, I light a fire to keep the Beasts away. Does that work for you?”

“I can keep watch,“ she responded with a smile and a shake of her head. “I’m in twenty-four-hour immersion, so I don’t need a break.”

Well, that’s useful, I thought as I grinned in response. That will save at least fifteen minutes of setting up and putting out a fire. I wonder what twenty-four seven's like?

It wasn’t the time to ask, however, and instead, I just lay down on the soft grass and logged out. I returned a half hour later to find her sitting next to the corpses of two Dire Boars, their cores already pulled.

“Thanks for dealing with that,“ I said, pointing at the Boars. I was suddenly very glad I had gone to the effort of lighting a fire every time I logged out while alone. Who knows what could have happened otherwise? I thought with a shudder.

“No worries,“ she responded, tossing me the cores with a smile. “Just doing my job.”

I nodded in response before pulling myself to my feet. Since she’d taken the cores out already, there wasn’t any reason to wait, so we moved on.

It was several hours, and several fights, later that I got a strange feeling in the back of my mind. It was like the resonance from when I was close to Psi Energy, yet it felt far away and in a particular direction.

Must be Psi Sense, I realized, overjoyed that it was paying off. “Slight course change,“ I said, as I turned to face Linnea. “One of my skills is suggesting there’s something off further towards the mountain.”

“Given that we’re only a few miles from it, the thing I’m sensing can’t be too far. Given we’ve made good time so far, I don’t think it will delay the mission,” I finished.

She shrugged and responded, “You’re the boss.”

It seemed she was happy to just follow along, which I supposed made sense. She was getting paid regardless of whether we actually made it to the lake this trip after all. She was also getting a lot of XP given she was getting more than half our kills.

I nodded in response before turning to face the direction I was drawn to. We walked for several miles through the disturbingly quiet hills. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this, I mused as I took in the eerie quiet.

Still, I couldn’t turn around without at least trying to find out what it was, so we pushed on, right up to the edge of the mountain. I almost missed it until Linnea pointed out the crack in the rock.

Fuck, I thought in horror as I stared at it. Of course, it had to be a bloody cave and not one of those you can just walk into either. Maybe I can just leave and find another clue?

Before I could even begin to believe that, a System message appeared in front of me.

Quest Complete

Congratulations on completing the First Lead (Path of the Psion)

Rewards

Ten XP

Path Continuation

As I stared at the message in horror, I realized that for the first time since starting the game, I was no longer sure that I could do this.