Survival Interval: 448

It would be on the morning of the survival battle’s 12th day that they would reach their assigned outpost. The outpost was located in the old town district. A bunch of old brick buildings and various small business shops. None of the buildings were more than 2 or 3 stories, and to Michael’s dismay there were literally no enemies for them to grind some drops from. They had expected to hit the outpost mid morning, but they were going to make it a lot earlier than that now and that was taking into account the quick side they had made to stop by the old town’s pink drop.

It was very strange since ever since leaving the downtown outpost they had been swarmed frequently. Still it had been extremely productive. Michael had over half of the attribute points he needed for tier up, 46 or the 75. Since killing the giant monitor he had snagged 19 more attribute points and 4 green drops. Their first tier 2 had actually given out 2 green drops, so they had each gotten one.

However, after the giant monitor they had failed to encounter another blue drop as they made their way to the old town outpost. Neither had they run into another tier 2, although they had run into zombies that Michael had gauged to be mid stage tier 1’s. Not really a problem for Michael and Kyrie, but it seemed battle wide the stronger tier 1’s had begun to take their toll on the contender population. They were not even through the second week and the contender’s remaining counter had dropped to just over 1.5 million. Meaning that over a million had dropped in the last week, already double the half million that had dropped in the first week.

Name: Michael Nacht

Tier: 1

Contender: 352,603

SP: 200/200

HP: 100/100

K:--

P:50/50

S:--

Primary Attributes

Strength: 30

Endurance: 20

Dexterity: 25

Agility: 20

Vitality: 19

Toughness: 20

Secondary Attributes

Ki: –

Pulse: 5

Spirit: –

Special Ability

Shaping (ability): LVL 3

Quickened step (skill): LVL 3 duration 1-3 Seconds; Potency: +35% agility, +14% Dexterity; Cost: 6-10 SP per use

For the 19 new attribute points, Michael had thrown the lion share into vitality and 5 to toughness. Michael had made the decision for two different reasons. For one he had taken a serious slash all the way down his back. A zombie had literally jumped down from a nearby roof, catching the two of them completely by surprise later on day 9. While not life threatening thanks to his green vest, the wound and successive moderate bleeding status had taken him down to half health. Michael had ended up using a valuable healing potion so that they could keep on going.

The second reason was that soon after they had finally discovered how the secondary attribute recovery rates worked. Kyrie had figured it out. Now that she had two of them, she had noticed a direct correlation between increasing a stat and her new Ki recovery rate. Then she had found that it lined up perfectly with her spirit recovery rate and another affiliated primary attribute. The ki recovery rate depended on toughness. The spirit recovery rate depended on endurance, and much to Michael’s annoyance the pulse recovery rate lined up with vitality. The only primary stat he had left untouched.

Michael had wanted to slam his head against the wall. If he had thrown even one point into the stat, he might have realized it sooner. Now with 19 in the attribute it took just over half a minute to recover 1 pulse point. When he hit 20 in vitality it would take exactly half a minute. It was important since now with 50 points he could build a deep reddish orange dart.

Michael had spent a lot of effort over the last two days to improve and work on his ability and skill. He had made no tangible effort with his skill, but his shaping had leveled up to level 3. Michael had improved his energy darts. They were more streamlined and could hit targets harder. However, Michael had also developed a new way to use his pulse entirely.

Michael called it his push. He could throw out what amounted to a wall of energy. Zombies caught by his push were thrown back. It was a good crowd control attack. He could throw back an entire sector of zombies back a step or two. The only issue is that like the reddish orange dart it would pretty much drain his entire pulse pool.

It was one of the reasons he wanted to improve his pulse recovery. Bringing shaping to level 3 had improved energy expenditure slightly, but if he could get his pulse recovery where he could recover a point in pulse every second or every few seconds he could become extremely powerful.

Michael was not ready to throw all his hopes in that one direction yet. He still wanted to get the other secondary attributes and improve all his primary stats. However he could definitely see the benefit in specializing

Kyrie with two secondary attributes had become quite powerful. Sure she only had 2 points in ki and 3 in spirit, but the ki allowed her to strengthen her strikes and her spirit allowed her to freeze zombies. The girl was 12 attribute points closer than him to the next threshold having 58 of 75, and it certainly showed. She had increased her agility and dexterity to 30 and 35 respectively making her extremely quick. She had overtaken him in the rankings. She was now in the 2700’s.

Michael was currently at 3406. It stunk that he had fallen behind Kyrie, but the rankings did not matter overly much. Michael was certain if it came down to it, he could beat her in a fight. His bracer and pulse would allow him to take her down before she was ever able to close on him. A reminder that although they had both made great gains and could be considered to be at the forefront of contenders, that anything could happen.

From the four green drops, Michal had gotten a tier up method, a bottle of sun quintessence, and 2 potions. Of course he had to pay Kyrie back for the potion he had ended up borrowing from her, leaving him with 1. The tier up method was better than the basic method, but not by much in Michael’s opinion.

[Fire retardant (tier 2 method): This method gives contender 10 attribute points in toughness and 10 additional contender choice attribute points. In addition, Contender will gain damage resistance against fire and fire based attacks. Resistance can be increased further.]

Michael looked down on the method, since it only gave the same amount of attribute points as the basic method. It did give the fire resistance in addition, but as of yet they had not run into any fire based attacks. It likely would not always be the case since the interface offered such a method. Not to mention, Kyrie and him had already seen the hells gate where supposedly hellhounds might come from in the future. Still it was awfully specialized to be helpful in a wide range of applications, and would only give 20 attribute points versus the 25 that Kyrie’s method had offered.

In all honesty, Michael could not help but think longingly about Kyrie’s method. The method dictated giving 20 points into vitality. That would double what he had. On top of making him more survivable for the entire game, it would give an instant boost to his pulse recovery rate. However, right now they only had those three methods to compare. Michael had a feeling that there were much better methods out there. After all they had gotten these methods with a green drop, when blue and red drops were also available.

The old town outpost was located in a large empty lot between several brick buildings. It was a third of the size. All the pavilion tents and shops were crammed together. The smaller outpost was reflected in the contender occupancy that was allowed. The outpost was currently at 41 of 500. Not too many contender’s were present. Michael analyzed all of the ones that he saw, but so far had gotten unknown contenders.

“So what do you want to do first?” Kyrie asked.

“The upgrade stall,” Michael replied. It was an easy answer. He had 982 crowns after the last few days of slaughtering zombies left and right. Kyrie smiled. She had just as many crowns and both of them were most interested in upgrades since they had already gained things they needed from the apothecary through green drops.

They instantly located the upgrade stall. An older bald man with white hair on the sides of his head rubbed his hands together enthusiastically as he saw them approach. Unlike the grumpy old man that had run the last upgrade stall, this guy seemed eager to deal with them.

“Two people approaching me with such eager expressions and purpose so early in the morning. Looks like I might actually get to sell something today.” The old man stood up from his chair. “So what are you looking for?”

“What are the secondary attribute unlock upgrades going for,” Michael chanced.

“Hahaha, I see you have already been to an upgrade shop before. Not this one since I don’t recognize you… Anyways no point in even talking about the primary attribute upgrade unless you have over 2,000 crowns. Same for the premium equipment upgrade, although I might get it for around 2,000 since it is nearing the end of the week.”

Not being able to afford the secondary attribute unlock upgrade was not overly surprising, but what he had just said made Michael pause in thought. It made sense as they neared the end of a week or month, the respective inventory would expire, so could be offered cheaper.

“Damn and base skills are up there as well?” Michael asked.

“Well depending on what you want some of them can go for less than 2,000 crowns, but look kid some of the things this first week are just to get the blood pumping. Get you out there hunting. The two of you have the right look. After doing this through a lot of battles I can tell you guys are better than most, but you just haven’t had the time to collect enough crowns,” the old man said sympathetically.

“What about selling something to you then?” Michael asked.

“Ah yes, depending on what you have I can buy it outright from you, or I can put it on the market and when it sells you can come back and get whatever I was able to sell it for. More than likely you will get more crowns from the second method, but I understand sometimes you need the money now.”

“What is the benefit to you with either method? Do you get a commission or something with the second method?” Michael chanced.

“Ohhoho you kids… I won’t get into the specifics, but if I buy it outright from you, it will be because I believe I can make more on it. Of course that involves me putting my potential gains on the line, so I won’t do it unless I’m sure I can definitely break even. Trust me, any shopkeeper who has taken it on the chin a time or two will never outright buy something they are not positive they can sell. However, this is only the first week so chances are good.”

“As far as a commission, no I won’t get one. At least not from you. The higher I can sell it for, the more the interface will pay me. If I can sell it myself I will get the most I possibly could, but likely it will be sold through one of the many other upgrade shops. I will set a minimum limit that I am looking to get. If another shopkeeper can sell over that, then they will make even more money. Or perhaps they will just buy it from me, or other shopkeepers can message me and bargain for something lower. Regardless, if I sell something of yours for 500 crowns, then you will get a notice and can pick up your 500 crowns from any outpost.”

“Hmmm, alright I got a tier 2 method I’m interested in selling,” Michael said. An interface notice with the method was automatically shared with the shopkeeper based on Michael’s intent.

“Hahaha, boy a tier 2 method is definitely something I can buy this early in the battle,” the old man said reading through the notice.

“Well, I’m sure you realized this, since you are selling this method. It is not the best method out there. I can’t get into the specifics, but this method only gives the same amount of attribute points as the basic method. Of course this method adds the fire resistance part. Which is levelable. Not sure how beneficial that will be in this battle. Of course based on the contenders and shopkeepers I’ve talked to there is not much of that going on right now… So chances are that feature won’t drive up the price.”

“Still I should easily be able to sell this. Contender’s who are going to buy a method would choose this over the basic method if they were the same price. They might be willing to pay a bit more for it. That being said, I am looking at selling this to less outstanding contender’s than yourselves, so I will likely have to sit on it for another week or so. Not a risk at all for me since I’m sure thousands will buy methods. I just can’t set my sights too high.”

“I will warn you though. One, it will be better for you. Two, it will be better for me. The sooner you sell this method the more you will be able to get for it. Whether I buy it from you outright, or I put it on the market. You could hold on for a few more days or perhaps even a week. However don’t hold onto this for several weeks while you wait for the perfect method for yourself. I know there is a temptation to have a backup method, but you could also end up not being able to sell it. Or if you can, having to do so at a far reduced rate. This type of item is moving into its prime window right now.”

The old man studied Michael. Michael nodded in return. He understood, and he was already certain that he wanted to wait for another better method.

“Good, so the basic method is currently being put on sale for 1,000 crowns across the map. At least through the first week that won’t change. Next week it will likely be about the same, so my out front price for it is 1,000 crowns. Some contender somewhere might really want the fire resistance. I don’t know, but it seems pretty situational. I just can’t guarantee myself that I can sell it for a whole lot more than what the basic method goes for with what I know.”

“Hmmmm…maybe I could take a look at some skills and this sale could be a part of the negotiation,” Michael proposed.

“Hahaha, you’re a smart one. I might not be able to offer you a better deal for the tier up method, but it can certainly make up a bit of the difference in another deal. Sure, how many crowns do you have? I will put any skills that fall in the range assuming I buy this from you for a 1,000 crowns.”

Michael thought about it for a second. Inevitably if you told a merchant your top price, than all of a sudden the minimum they would accept for something would also increase, but Michael could not see away around it. Still he did not have to give an exact amount.

“Just under 1,000,” Michael replied.

The old man smiled. His eyes stared forward into the air as he played with his own interface. After a minute, he was done. “Okay these are all the skills that could go for 2,000 crowns or less. You take a look, while I see if the young miss here has anything for me.”

The old man started conversing with Kyrie as Michael stared at the list of possible options. There were actually quite a few, and he could open them up and analyze the notice that would come with the skill. He could not see specifics, but it would give him an idea. Regardless, of which one he decided to go with or if he chose to go with one at all. He intended to read them all. After all, knowledge was important. He had not really fought with other contenders, but that likely would not last forever.