“You’re going to fight this ‘BOSS’ monster, and you want me to come with you?” Troy’s voice sounded skeptical, and a bit condescending.

Mike felt annoyed instantly. The magician had sat around on the roof gaining levels for doing nothing. Now that they actually needed his help he didnt think it was worth his time?

Then Mike saw Troy’s nervous swallow. Just like that things clicked into place.

Everything Troy said was an act. A deflection. He didn’t doubt the BOSS’s existence. And he sure wasn’t too good for the party. Troy was just scared.

Mike wanted to grab him by the shirt front and shout ‘Man Up!?’

He managed to hold himself back.

Troy was a coward. The more he got to know him the more Mike was sure of it. But he was also a survivor.

The contradictory nature of his two sides was the key to his worth. He was a coward who knew how to step up and fight. The question always seemed to be, ‘how do I get him to fight now?’

Mike had no idea.

Bargaining seemed to work sometimes. The problem was Troy always came out ahead in their little trades. It wasn’t a long term solution and it left Mike with a sour taste.

The two men were opposites. When they worked together their different approaches came together for a more comprehensive whole. In the end everyone was better for it.

Mike could see it. It was the reason he let go of his pride so often around the other man. Surviving was more important than his newfound sense of self worth.

Unfortunately it didn’t seem like Troy agreed very often. Their relationship was only half a day old. Already it strained to the breaking point.

Yunah put her hand on Mike’s shoulder, stepping up beside him. He let her take over persuading Troy without a second thought.

“We came up to the roof to outfit ourselves for the fight. Why don’t we all do that instead of endlessly arguing. I’d really like to sleep in a bed tonight. But the only way that’s happening is if we beat the BOSS.” She said, her voice almost seeming tonhabe a calming effect on the two men.

Troy gave an awkward smile as he scratched behind his ear. “I’d like to so that, but I didn’t get any credits from the party system, only energy.”

It was obvious what he was driving at. He wanted credits to make himself safer if he was going to fight with them.

Of course that’s exactly what Yunah had been offering. She was just significantly more subtle than Mike would have been about it all.

There was non haggling. Yunah, Mike and Sara each offered five hundred credits in an empty trade transfer which Troy accepted.

The other two party members were given three hundred credits a piece. An additional six hundred from the team. That left Mike with roughly four thousand total credits.

Party member five and six, a Hispanic guy named Romero and a short bubbly brunnete with glasses named Jessica rounded out their party of six.

When Rajesh saw them gathering he brought his crew over. Aside from Dan and the original athletic girl they’d added a couple of new members.

Mike recognized the cousins from Wisconsin, Becky and Maggie. He’d met them and a guy named Joe on the sixth floor after he’d saved their lives. They both carried some sort of rifle now. He’d never seen anything like it before. It reminded him of his old pellet gun only with a slightly larger bore.

Behind them was a huge black guy he’d never noticed before carrying an oversized battle ax that could only have been a system reward.

Clearly Rajesh had his own party of six now. And he wanted in on the BOSS fight the minute he heard about it.

Mike took one serious look at his group and almost laughed. They were all players. And they all carried weapons. If he understood it right the ax carrying giant – a man almost as big naturally as he was after his change – had fought his was to the roof from being stuck in the elevator shaft on the third floor. Some guy with a hockey stick had turned and almost killed him.

He might survive. But the others were level-one, fresh, meat. Taking them was stupid. He argued his point and lost. Troy, perhaps a bit maliciously, fought particularly hard for including them.

Annoyed, and worried people were going to die, Mike retreated to plan his system purchases with the girls.

***

“I think I want to buy the half plate armor set. That’s almost all of my credits. But I have the shield and my mace so I don’t need thing else…” Sara paused, thinking, “except maybe the skill [Heavy Armor (Novice)] but it’s a general skill so that’s only another hundred credits if I need it.”

Skills came in a few different flavors. One such flavor was general skills.

Skills classified as general skills were split out into five ranks: novice, apprentice, adept, master and grandmaster. Each level was exponentially more expensive then the one below it.

Worse still, only novice level general skills could be purchased directly for credits. Starting with apprentice level they also required a ranked reward. Directly learning a skill at the apprentice level required a D rank reward. Adpet required a C, master a B, and Grandmaster an A rank reward.

The problem was easily subverted for anyone with confidence in themselves. General skills could grow with the user through a proficiency rating.

Purchasing a novice rank skill and raising it to grandmaster was a pipe dream for most. The possibility did exist.

It was just significantly easier purchase the skill at a higher level with a ranked reward. Every level unlocked brought with it more of the personal experience and insights of a previous user of the skill.

For a skill like [heavy armor] the difference in novice and adept was negligible.

An adept might find himself running through rough terrain without worrying about stumbling over loose rocks or exposed roots. For walking and general straight line movement, however, it wouldn’t matter much at all.

Skills like [swordsmanship] were where the differences shined. A Master swordsman could make an ordinary sword cut iron like mud. A grandmaster could kill a man with a sheet of paper.

In neither case was that directly related to their skill with the blade. It was only a side product. They could fight rings around adept swordsmen – even outnumbered five and more to one. All of this before taking into account attributes, blood lines, magic and equipment.

Sara’s announcement made Mike laugh. He understood enough about skills and equipment to know her choice was pretty extreme. She was sacrificing a lot of potential options for a very obvious focus on defense.

“What’s with you and armor?” He couldn’t help asking.

When Sara didnt answer him he looked up to see her zoned out. Unconsciously she was touching the corner of her forehead.

Mike found himself feeling like an ass. Earlier in the day she was struck by a stray hockey stick. She’d only just recovered from the injury with a combination of leveling up and a heath potion.

Her armor fixation was obviously a reaction to the fear of getting hurt. Mike had no skill in psychology. He didn’t know how to help her. Yunah seemed to be letting her friend work it out on her own so he followed her lead.

“Never mind. If you can move around in it feel free to get the heaviest armor you can afford.”

It was a lame attempt to reassure her. Sara’s grateful smirk told him she appreciated the effort anyway.

Leaving Sara aside Yunah didn’t take long to make her choices. A set black light armor enchanted with the [stealth] skill, two skills called [light foot] and [thrown weapons (novice)] respectively, and a set of system made throwing knives wiped her out of credits.

Her desired role within the team was obviously the scout. She fit the mold quite nicely, quiet, observant and capable of acting on her own.

Mike had no objections even though it still left direct combat entirely to him. Her guilt over that fact was likely the reason she took the throwing knives skill set. It gave her the opportunity to support him in combat.

Mike’s shopping took more thought.

From a gaming perspective he was already fulfilling the role of a tank. He even had a tank skill he’d received for free. The problem was Mike still sincerely believed specialization was too risky.

Life wasn’t a game no matter how game-like it had become. If he couldn’t handle every situation that was the same thing as saying he would die sooner or later. Mike had zero desire to die.

That left his only option as remaining a jack of all trades focused toward combat. Which might end up being just as bad in the end.

Taking a look through the general store first Mike found that clothes were cheap, even work clothes and professional gear. As long as it wasn’t classified as a weapon or armor it would only cost a couple of credits max.

He quickly bought a set of thick work clothes in dark colors with steel toes boots and sure grip fingerless gloves. Ignoring modesty he changed right there.

Yunah looked away blushing. On the other hand Sara, he noticed, checked out his newly acquired muscles.

Once dressed he found he looked a bit like the special forces soldiers in most movies right before they went on a mission. He liked that idea and carried it through with his choice in armor.

He selected a modern, almost futuristic looking, overlapping composite polymer plate vest. It was expensive at eight hundred credits and it left his arms exposed. But it would stop bullets, turn knives and distribute blunt force. He thought the trade off was worth it.

Weapons came next. Keeping it simple he bought a combat knife and a bearded ax both close ranged system weapons and both middle of the line for non ranked melee weapons. Mike considered taking a third, larger weapon but he still wasn’t sure which direction to take in the future and decided against the waste of credits.

That left skills. He wasn’t ready for magic, or specialization so he kept it general. [Martial arts (novice)] and [Basic un-armed Combat (novice)] at a hundred credits each.

There were plenty alternative paths he could have taken including specializing in a school of fighting like [Muay Thai (novice)] or [Boxing (novice)]. Mike simply felt foundational styles would leave him more options later.

Lastly for skills he took a movement skill called [Foundational Light Body Arts (novice)]. Both a passive general skill and an active one it would help him move faster and more fluidly in his day to day life. Then in combat he could focus on it for explosive increase in speed and evasion.

His big spending was then on increasing his basic attributes at one hundred per tenth. The store was uneffected by his negative skills so he could raise his mental attribute without worry.

Name: Mike Tanner – Race:Human (Orc)

Occupation: None – Level: 5

STR: 2.1 / QUI: 1.8 / BOD: 2.1 / MIN: 2.1 / SPI: 2.0 [AP: 0.0]

Purse: 40 Credits

Skills: [Brute Strength] [Sturdy] [Dark Vision] [Slow Witted]

By the time he was done he was completely broke. Mike felt he was more the sufficiently compensated for his credits.

He was now twice the man he’d been that morning.

Better even. Stats were not so simple as one plus one equals two. In the right circumstances one plus one could easily equal three or even more.

Feeling his new power washing over him for the first time Mike had no doubt he could shatter Olympic records. Any sport, any record. He felt that good.

“Let’s head out,” he said as soon as he noticed the awkward stares he wss getting for nxing around so excitedly.

There was no sense delaying if everyone else was ready.