The Connected System

Tommy surveyed the field. He could see the defenders, how they were spread out and how they were defending and blocking his attackers. There were more defenders than attackers. It had taken some time to adjust to the fact that a Dungeon only allowed five attackers but variable defenders.

He was used to directing ten plus himself. Now it was only four. At least in the Dungeon. Outside was different.

Not that he had really directed all ten. He’d had some ability to adjust things at the line but most of the play calls came in from Coach. What Tommy had done was look over the defense as they made their adjustments and he’d alter things a little as needed. That had been his job as Quarterback, then he had to get the ball out to where it needed to be or make things up as needed if the plays broke down.

It was what he was still doing, just not with a football, and the goal wasn’t to score points but to stay alive and defeat the enemy.

He had been as scared, shocked and overwhelmed as everyone when the Connection hit the planet. Everyone had said Tommy Bledsoe was a natural born leader. They could see it on the field in his East Texas town. He’d been a five star QB recruit with all the top colleges after him. With the new NIL deals, he’d been in line to make a lot of money and that was before even going Pro. They had been talking about him as the next can’t-miss prospect. A sure #1 draft pick and franchise QB.

He’d always tried to downplay all the hype. He just wanted to play football. But sometimes it was hard.

When the Connected System had come and Adapted everyone, he’d seen it as just another challenge to overcome. All the skills he had on the field, he’d apply them to this new world. And it helped that the Connection translated some of those skills to the Class he had ended up receiving upon reaching Level Five. It had been a Rare Class.

Not strictly a frontline offensive Class, it was a strange combination of direct damage and Support. Not that Tommy really knew what all of that meant. He just went with the flow and did what Coach said. Tommy had been a traditional drop-back passer. He could run, but he preferred to throw it. His strength as a QB had been in his improv skills when a play broke down. He didn’t take sacks and tended to get something positive out of most busted plays.

His new Class, Battleleader, had some Offensive and Defensive Abilities but its biggest use was in the direct buffs he could give to the rest of his party and allies. The buff was variable, taking whatever the person’s Class’ Abilities were and increasing them. Speed, attack power, defense, stronger casting or heals. Anything. Tommy could just make it all stronger.

Like how an elite QB could make the offense around him even better.

The other thing his Class did was let him see the ebb and flow of the battle. It wasn’t seeing the future, at least Tommy didn’t think it worked that way, but instead he could calculate expected movements and patterns after watching the enemy. It was like watching game film on the opponent, breaking down tells like how a d-lineman would shift his weight to the side he would start his rush on, or how a QB tended to play tight but could be faked out.

Battles were like that. There were patterns, things that Tommy could see and follow and adjust how his people attacked.

If Tommy was honest with himself, he loved the Class more than he had loved being the star Quarterback, and he had loved everything about that. He’d been looking forward to going to college, after finding the one that gave him the best deal, and seeing what being the big fish in a bigger pond would be like. He’d heard the stories about what college life was like for the star athletes.

The Connection had changed that but in better ways. He’d never get to play pro football and make millions of dollars, but this was better. He wasn’t playing for people’s entertainment. He was fighting for their lives.

Their adulation meant more.

And seeing his name on the worldwide Ranking Board was huge. That was a thrill. It wasn’t just a local ranking, or even a national ranking. This was worldwide. He was one of the Top Ten strongest people on the planet.

He was thrilled.

And Coach Donovan was even more thrilled.

Clan Donovan was growing fast. Coach said that people from the surrounding areas were being drawn there because of Tommy and his strength. Coach was usually right. He’d called the wrong plays now and then. Everyone did. Even the greatest coaches lost games. But Coach Donovan knew how to run a team and was now applying that philosophy to a growing city.

Their Clanhold was in the old high school but their territory covered the entire city. They still had issues, food mostly, but with Tommy’s Class and his ability to control the battlefield, those issues were going away.

And he was gaining in Levels. Already Level Twenty-One. It wouldn’t be long before he hit Level Twenty-Five and whatever awaited there. It would only make the lives of the Clan even easier.

Wasn’t that the job of the quarterback? Lead the team onto the field of battle and win the game?

“Frank, two more on your left,” Tommy said, seeing two of the Dungeons monsters, these things called Gremlocks, rushing the team’s tank.

With a thought, Tommy Activated his Ability. He felt the slight drain on his body as the energy left and was channeled through the strange Team Interface to Frank Rayno. He’d been the football team’s Center and was now the Clan’s main tank, a gaming term they found really applied to their new reality.

Instantly Frank’s Defensive Ability, Shieldwall, strengthened. The energy barrier in front of him grew to the side, covering that area as he turned to put more of it in front of the approaching enemy. The Gremlock’s claws struck the barrier, not penetrating.

Frank was good for now, but Tommy knew he had to adjust the attack pattern to give Frank some relief. He surveyed the field, wondering what to do as images of the Gremlocks and his team’s movements filled his vision. Not just their current, but how they would respond and react in the next few seconds.

Tommy saw it all and knew exactly what to do.

***

Davis ducked under the swing of the Hob’s club. The creature was small, which meant Davis was almost touching the ground, his body bent at what would have been a very painful and awkward position. Not one he was even sure he’d be able to get into Pre-Connection. Now it felt natural.

He kicked out, booted foot connecting with the Hob’s knee. He wore his old hiking boots, which were starting to look worn from the continuous wearing and abuse they were taking. He needed to replace them soon. The Hob’s neck snapped, the creature yelling in pain and falling backward, allowing Davis to get up. Using his spear, he pushed the arm and hand holding the club out of the way, twisting the spear and driving the butt end into the Hob’s stomach. The monster fell back another step.

Davis spun his spear around his body and stabbed the tip into the Hob’s neck. It was a gruesome wound as he pulled it out, but it was the quickest way to kill the creature. He hated that he was getting used to killing and was now thinking about the most efficient way of doing it.

Far cry from his high school days when his biggest concern was if he’d pass the latest test or not. Unlike a lot of highschoolers, Davis hadn’t been that concerned about college. He had already known where he would be going and what he would be doing.

His father’s alma mater but at least a different major. Not that the school was bad, Davis liked it and was happy to go. But because of finances, scholarships, Dad’s alumni status and all that; it’d been pretty much a given he was going there. There hadn’t been much choice.

He had still needed to get the grades to be accepted. Which is why the tests had been his biggest concerns. Work had been second, making sure he could get enough shifts. Girls had been a close third.

He had still been a sixteen year old boy and there had been some really good looking girls at Coe-Brown. But time had always been an issue, there hadn’t been much of it for dating. He’d known Harper, loosely, as they hadn’t really traveled in the same circles. It was hard to not know who she was. He was glad he was getting to know her better.

But time was still an issue. They spent a lot of it together but there was always something more pressing that needed doing. Fighting, scouting or just trying to stay alive. He hoped at some point soon things would slow down enough and they might actually be able to have a date of some kind.

How would that even work in this new world?

He looked around, making sure there were no more threats. Randy’s punch took out the last of the hobs, leaving the chamber empty. The Darkmound Dungeon was weird. The walls were all hard packed dirt, some roots even still visible poking out. There were claw marks and furrows, indications that the arched tunnels had been dug by hand. The weird thing was that the tunnels were not hob sized.

Those creatures were barely four feet tall. The tunnels were a good eight or so high and probably ten wide. Most of them at least. There were some that were tighter, those had been interesting to fight in.

The mound was a maze. Davis and his party had found themselves coming back to the same areas over and over. Even trying to use their inner maps, it was proving difficult to keep track of the winding passages that kept looping back around on themselves and crossing over multiple other paths.

The random rooms dug off the side didn’t help. Those were the living and work areas of the hobs. They were filled with what the hobs considered tools, beds and anything else needed to live. Most of it was useless and luckily there were no kid hobs.

Which was a weird thing but Davis tried hard to not dwell on it.

The Mound was filled with Level Five to Ten Hobs, most being in the Seven and Eight range. They’d come across some Mini-Bosses, which were tough but not impossible. Their healer, Diana, hadn’t been pushed to the limits yet. Kim’s Abilities had proven to be the best in the mound, while Davis and Randy had the hardest time as both of their Abilities required room to maneuver. They had made their way through the mound, finally coming to the large chamber they’d just finished wiping out the hobs in.

Davis leaned on his spear well Diana went around and healed them. All of them had gotten some minor wounds. There had been a lot of hobs in the chamber. It was one of the largest they’d found, but it wasn’t huge. It had been a tight fit with all of them. He wondered what Harper was doing. Had they made it back to the Clanhold yet? Time moved differently inside a Dungeon, he had no idea how much had passed outside.

What was his father doing? Davis was torn. He loved his dad but Peter Millman was having a hard time adjusting to the new world. At first, when he’d volunteered the two of them to scout out the Grandfords, Davis thought his father was working to embrace their new lives. But his near death after fighting the Sunrise Phoenix had changed things.

Peter had withdrawn. He didn’t want to fight, didn’t want to craft. He wanted things to go back to the way they had been. Davis agreed that Pre-Connection was better, but if they were stuck with the Connected System, he thought it best to embrace it and work with it. And he enjoyed some aspects of it.

Fighting was dangerous and he hated killing, but there was some fun to it. There was a rush. Better than any of the dopamine hits from snowboarding or scoring the winning soccer goal. And he was good at it, getting stronger every day.

He felt a sense of responsibility as well. He had a melee Class, one geared toward fighting. It felt wrong to not use it to help defend the people of the Clan. It felt wrong to just sit back and not do anything.

Everytime Davis left, it led to a fight. They had a small curtained off area in one of the classrooms. The one room shared with four other families. Everytime the fights got louder and louder, both Davis and Peter yelling at each other. Davis felt bad for the people in the room with them.

Nothing changed. Davis left, Peter got mad.

Why couldn’t his dad understand? This wasn’t just about fighting. It was about protecting others. It was about helping the community and the new Clan to survive.

“You’re just doing it to impress that girl,” Peter had said before Davis had left for the expedition.

Davis had wanted to yell back, but he hadn’t. He’d just turned around and left, not even saying goodbye.

Was there a part about impressing Harper? A small part, but Davis knew he didn’t have to with her. He wanted to grow stronger to match her, so they could spend more time together. Davis knew he’d have to do something to catch up or she’d leave him behind and any chance they had would be lost. But he wouldn’t be reckless about it. Catching up to Harper wasn’t the primary reason he fought, he truly did want to help the people of the Clan.

Davis wanted his father to understand and to rejoin the Clan. There was a lot of good that Peter could do. He could be useful, even if he didn’t fight. Davis wanted his father to survive. He hadn’t thought about his mother in a long time. He tried not to. His father wasn’t as successful and that was probably also part of Peter’s depression and apathy. Davis wished he could help his father.

“Are we ready?,” he asked, standing up fully.

Everyone looked healed and refreshed.

There were two tunnels off the large chamber, the one they’d entered by and the one Davis turned to face. It was smaller, darker, and the only tunnel in the entire mound they hadn’t gone down yet. There was only one thing that could be at the end.

The boss.

“Let’s get this over with,” Randy said, cracking his knuckles.

Davis smiled as the others gave their nods. He wanted this dungeon done with. They’d all gotten some good experience, at least a Level of Advancement each. It was a good run, barely anything worthy of looting, but that wasn’t the point. They were here for experience and Davis was looking forward to the next stop they had planned.

The Challenge Dungeon.