Freelance Saga: Learning Curves (3 page)

The message screen suggested that he use his
observation skill. He did so.

“This thing is a dragon? It’s so small!” The
thing was the size of a chicken, a small chicken at that!

The dragon roared, but the sound came out
more like a menacing gurgle. “Graaaoorrrgh!”

“Bring it, hand bag.”

The little dragon-thing ran toward him at
breakneck speed … for it. It jumped toward Scott but the man easily
turned to the side. The lizard was faster than any turtle had a
right to be, but it was still not very fast.

It jumped toward Scott again, and he moved
out of the way once more. This pattern repeated a few more times.
The wanna-be dragon did not seem to have any more talents. Scott
finally decided to try hitting it.

The next time it jumped at him, he turned
away just like before. This time, however, he kicked at it while it
passed. The hard-shelled monster flipped over from the attack and
landed on its back.

It tried its best to right itself, but it
wasn’t able to move properly. Scott felt bad for it for a moment.
Then he remembered that it had been trying to kill him this whole
time. His foot stomped down, hard.

He repeatedly stomped the squealing thing
until it shrilled loudly one final time, then stopped moving. It
quickly dissolved into the same motes of light from before then
faded away. In its place were three coins and a piece of shell.

A brief fanfare erupted and a new message
popped up. “Congratulations on defeating your first monster! You
have earned three copper coins, and found a piece of loot. Use your
identification skill to learn more.”

The light barrier disappeared. Scott left the
arena then checked the piece of shell. He learned that it was a
useful item for crafting purposes. It can be used to create armor
or shields if he gathers enough pieces.

A new message appeared. Now that he had a
piece of loot he could access his inventory menu. Scott immediately
called out, “Inventory!”

A new screen popped up. The inventory window
acted as a method of organizing his goods and items. Following the
onscreen prompts he clicked on an empty slot. The inventory screen
asked if he wanted to store the items in his hands. He said,
“Yes.”

The shell and coins disappeared and a new
icon appeared in the location he had chosen. “Well, obviously that
is possible. Real world my butt.”

The coins had been registered as part of his
wealth. After further review he noted that his inventory could
house ten separate objects and twenty of each object. He learned
that if he wanted more space he would need to purchase a bag or
pack. “Seems legit.”

He shrugged then looked around for a new
arrow. What he saw was another message screen. This one suggested
that he might want to go back to the arena and use his
identification skill.

Scott walked back into the sand pit and
followed the advice of the screen. He didn’t see anything special.
He tried a few more times, and nothing happened. It was not until
he looked in the general area that the monster had been at when he
beat it that he finally saw something. A treasure chest faded into
view!

“Seriously?” He walked over and opened it up.
Inside the chest he found a change of clothes, a set of boots, a
backpack, a canteen, and oddly… there was also a toasted ham and
cheese sandwich.

He changed his clothes when prompted, when he
chose to wear the backpack a new screen appeared. “I see, so I can
carry one hundred pounds of items without feeling the weight. That
makes perfect sense.”

Scott attached the canteen to the side of the
backpack with a D-ring attachment that the pack had. The treasure
chest faded from view and an arrow popped up to lead him away once
more.

He followed the arrow to various places and
continued to learn about the world. Eventually, he returned to the
cabin once more and was released from the tutorial after being
instructed to go inside and receive one final present.

“It’s a book?” Scott lifted the book and read
the title. It was a history and manual for various aspects of the
world.

“So, after I read this I will be allowed to
do any training that I want until my twenty-four hours is up.” He
sat on the bed and leaned against the wall. The day had been very
tiring. It was hard to believe that it was only four in the
afternoon.

Scott opened the book and began to read. A
bright light erupted from the text. The book dissolved into that
light. The radiance flowed toward him in a stream and pierced his
body. He could not move, only accept what was happening.

Words, images, intimate knowledge of the
world and its nature filled his senses. When this bizarre memory
upload ended, he knew the names of popular towns and professions.
He possessed an education similar to an average citizen. He even
knew about the strengths and weaknesses of common monsters and
weapons in the region he would travel to on his next visit to this
world.

“That was intense!” Scott looked around,
wild-eyed. He began to recognize certain things by name that he had
misunderstood before. The motion sensitive sinks, for instance.
They were powered by crystallized elemental energy. It regulated
its energies for human usage. All powered systems in this world
were like that!

A new message screen popped up. He checked it
out and nodded. There were optional objectives that he could
undertake if he wished.

“Dungeon exploration training sounds useful.”
Scott clicked on that option and a new arrow appeared in the air.
He followed the arrow and moved on to his next training location.
Life in this strange land would require that he know many things
that he had not had knowledge of before.

The dungeon was not that far from the cabin,
less than a mile. He stared at the structure before him then shook
his head. “Seriously? They call this a dungeon? It looks like a
dilapidated shopping mall.”

The message screen popped up again and he
could not help but laugh when his suspicion was confirmed.
“Forgotten mall, huh?”

Scott followed the prompts that the screen
sent out. First, he checked the immediate surroundings from the
outside. This shopping mall had few exterior windows, so stealth
surveillance was not an issue. When he did come to a window he was
cautioned to move carefully.

He peeked through the window briefly, saw
nothing, and then crawled past it to avoid being seen if he had
missed anything. There was little of interest outside of the mall
at first, but he did find one thing that unsettled him. It was a
corpse!

“What the hell?” Scott inspected the dead
body and saw multiple claw and bite marks. It was like a thousand
tiny animals had worked it over. It was badly decayed. He could not
tell if it was a woman or a man. He could not even tell if it had
been human!

He nearly left the corpse where it was, but
he remembered something from before. “Identify.”

The corpse became illuminated in red light
for a moment. Several smaller points of light appeared in different
locations on the body. Scott held his nose closed and leaned down
to check them out. He found eighteen copper coins, a small dagger,
a pistol, and a piece of paper.

He held the pistol up and stared at it. Since
the memory upload he had known that this world had guns. However,
he also knew that they were rarely used by anyone outside of city
patrols and professional militias. They were considered weapons
with little use outside of hunting weak monsters or fighting
low-level bandits.

“Eight shots left, a thirty-eight caliber
pistol. Hmm, only an attack power of one hundred forty? Even a rock
was attack power one.” The idea that a thirty-eight caliber pistols
only produced a little over one hundred forty times the power of a
simple rock was not an easy one to accept.

He considered the weapon for a moment then
placed it into his inventory. It could break with a few more uses
and he had little ammunition. It would need to be used sparingly
for emergencies. The knowledge that he had acquired told him that a
weapon with an attack rating of 140 would be suitable for use till
around level forty or so. Properly equipped weapons usually needed
to be in a range of 3-4 attack points per level to remain
useful.

The sheet of paper turned out to be the words
for a basic torchlight spell. Scott followed the instructions and
held up his hand, palm up. “Gather here, spirits of the sun. Dance
above my hand. Bring light to the darkness.”

Nothing happened, not that he had expected
that it would. It would be too simple to be able to cast a spell
solely because he knew the words.

The message screen had other ideas, however.
He read the information that it provided then he smirked. “Now
that’s convenient.”

Since he had chosen to take the dungeon
exploration option he would be granted this spell for free.
Normally, he would need a real spell-book, actual training, or
something similar to use a spell. He gained the torchlight creation
spell immediately afterward.

“Oh, so that’s what I did wrong.” Now that he
knew the spell, he knew how it operated. It could not be used in
broad daylight. He would have to use it in a darker area. It was
still too easy, but it was a game world so who was he to judge?

Scott walked away from the disgusting corpse
then remembered to check his knew knife. The blade proved to have
an attack power of twenty-seven, and a durability of eighteen. He
kept it out despite having no dedicated knowledge of using a knife.
It was still stronger than his natural unarmed combat skill. That
skill relied on raw strength as the base, so even with his ten
percent bonus he only had an attack power of eleven.

He quickly slid into the dungeon entrance and
looked around. There were no immediate threats, but it was darker
inside. He tried his light spell again. This time, the spell
activated and took twenty points of his mana with it. He had no
other use for it right now, but the sheer amount of mana that it
took was a cause for concern. The spell lasted only ten minutes per
use, after all. Even if he rested, that would give him one hour of
exploration time at most.

The sphere of light that he created drifted
upward and hovered several feet above his head. The shadows fled
wherever the man walked. The ancient shopping mall was not a
particularly large structure. He found no monsters, and it seemed
like there was nothing left to scavenge.

After a half hour of wandering, a new message
screen popped up. It congratulated him on successfully navigating
the entire dungeon. He gained twenty EXP, and an additional point
of faith. Why he gained faith from wandering in a shopping mall was
anyone’s guess. Still, it was not bad. He’d gained two new weapons,
a little money, and light spell from the corpse outside. The inside
was empty, but the trip was not a total bust. The weapons were only
a rusty knife and a battered baseball bat. Neither seemed to be
worth much, but they were loot.

He left the Forgotten Mall and went back to
the cabin. He ate dinner and rested for a few minutes to completely
recharge his mana. Normally that would take much longer, but the
nature of the cabin and the tutorial sped the process up
greatly.

“Lessee, I could go learn about survival
skills. There is also the magic tutorial, the pet tutorial, mapping
skills, and capturing monsters.”

Scott considered the choices then chose to
learn survival skills first. If he was going to be living in this
game world soon, he would need to be able to survive.

The arrow led to a small clearing. Message
screens began to pop up. They instructed him on the basics of
starting a fire, first aid for minor injuries, foraging for edible
plants and insects, and simple weapons or armor maintenance. He
also learned how to fish, set traps for small game, and cook. There
were many minor things that were also mentioned such as purifying
water, and blazing a trail. When he was done he was granted the
skills: survival lore, first aid, cooking, fishing, trapping, and
camping.

“Man that was a lot of stuff to learn.” Now
that he had the skills, though, he remembered everything that he
had been taught. That was weird but useful.

The mapping tutorial was fairly
straight-forward. He acquired a mapping skill that automatically
generated a map for him to call up. Whenever he entered a new area,
the map would automatically fill-in as he wandered around.

The magic tutorial was interesting, but very
short. He followed the arrow to the proper location and read a book
on magic. Rather, he started to read the book and it dissolved into
a stream of light that pierced his body then automatically uploaded
the necessary basic skills. He now had a mana manipulation skill to
work with, and understood the basics of magical energy usage.

Roughly two hours had passed and he had
nearly finished the available tutorials. The only ones left were
pets and monster capturing. He chose the pet tutorial.

The pet tutorial arrow led him to yet another
clearing. However, in this one there sat three pedestals. Each
pedestal had a book sitting upon it. He read each book when
instructed, and learned how to tame, train, and increase the level
of pets.

A new message popped up asking if he would
like to summon a pet from the monster world. Scott shrugged. The
information seemed a little odd to him regarding pets, especially
the part about intimacy levels. Still, he could use a little furry
mascot. “Yes.”

The arrow popped up and led him to a small
altar nearby. “I have to place an item on the altar that is of the
family of monster that I wish to summon?”

He did not really have anything from a
monster except for that piece of dragon-turtle shell. Uncertain if
it would work, Scott placed the shell onto the altar. A new message
popped up. He read it aloud. “This item will require four levels of
experience to be expended in order to summon a pet.”