//------------------------------// // Zero Hour: Part 14 // Story: Spike of All Trades // by Ariamaki //------------------------------// - - - - After the first hour of laboriously slow patrolling, Spike realized that he was not prepared for this... Sort of. His prep had mostly leaned towards survival and execution, which were all well and good. And he was very good at both, a fact that served him well: The smaller lone specimens (of either species he had previously met) were easy pickings while larger ones only proved a slight challenge. Even a group of five mid-sized Mountain Crawlers mostly felt like a roadblock in retrospect. But he hadn't been prepared for just what a chore this kind of fighting would be. The insects were too dumb to provide a meaningful challenge with their relative stats, and their tactics boiled down to the same few maneuvers over and over. Bite here, rake the arms there. Exude some terrible-smelling gunk, exude some acid. It got boring, and the experience gains even started to go down. Of course the sheer bulk of experience gain more than made up for that last bit. Spike managed to take out a decent number of each type before he ran into any complication. Mostly stragglers, a few crowds, and then... Well, and then the complication. A new species cropped up and Spike wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. Standing almost as tall as Spike himself but far bulkier and stockier, it took up the majority of the corridor it was currently pacing. This was an entirely new species, some kind of shiny iridescent horned beetle. He noticed it before it noticed him thankfully, which left time for Observe-ation and study. Sadly that just made it three-for-three on Observing the invasive insects being immediately confusing. GLITTERSHELL Recommended Combat Level: ~10 Force: 12 / 15 Finesse: 3 / 3 Fortitude: 33 / 33 Traits: Insect, Adaptive, Versatile, Hardy He mouthed a silent "Ten?" to himself as he looked dubiously at the stats. That seemed weirdly low for a lot of reasons. It was stronger than the toughest Bermite he'd seen so far (which had sported an RCL in the 30s) and more durable than any two or even four insects put together... Sure, Finesse in the toilet, but was that enough to tank its overall value so much? It even had an entire trait over the other bugs! Although that didn't actually give him much information to work with either. Adaptive: This creature can respond to changes in its environment very rapidly. This response can vary between reactive counteraction, passive comprehension, and more. Hardy: This creature is even more durable and stable than its relative Fortitude would suggest, often in the form of redundant organs, skeletal reinforcement, etc. So it not only crushed the other bugs for Fortitude but it was even sturdier than that implied. Add to that the vague description for Adaptive, and Spike had little idea what was going on. How was this recommended for such a low level? Did it have some easily-exploited weakness? No, he'd never even heard of such a beetle before so that couldn't be it... Or even if that was the case it wouldn't be useful to him, so same difference. He watched the gigantic beetle plod around the tunnels for a few minutes before deciding to just turn around and go the other way: The Dogs needed the entire perimeter clear before he went back to Ponyville, but the order of operations was his to choose. He'd just come back and deal with this surprise interruption once he'd spent more time on the other insects. As is often the case, however? One surprise cascaded cleanly into another. When Spike made it back to the original exit of the now less-temporary Diamond Dog warrens, Piercing Ammunition was standing there with Arcane at his side. The two of them were apparently looking over the work Spike had done on the exterior. He was self-admittedly pretty proud of that: Earthshaper and his flames together had melted the cobbled walls like so much glass, eventually slagging it all down into a smooth and regular exterior. What had been a barely-stable barrier, mostly for peace of mind, was now a reinforced and fortified wall. He waved lazily as he approached the ponies, pretending to be more shocked than he was. "Funny meeting you here!" "Har har kiddo: Arc insisted on joining me when I came back around, said Rara and the Princess could hold down the fort." Arcane only snorted at that, refusing to turn away from her work. A constant pale-gold glow from her horn was dancing across the walls. When neither she nor Piercing spoke up again, Spike decided to turn the Dragon's Mind towards the spell on the wall, picking out the operative symbols of her work (at least as he understood it). A lens, the edges of a paper crane, a fluted trumpet-like cone... "Communicating back to Luna about my, uh, ad-hoc employment?" That got him a quirk of the tightly-sculpted eyebrows, the unicorn Night Guard eventually nodding. "She wanted to make sure you weren't getting yourself too deep out here." "I vouched that you probably weren't doing anything stupid, but the wife really did insist. Almost like she wanted out of the Arcade, which I have never seen since we opened shop." "Being in an enclosed room with those two was just getting stuffy." Spike nodded in commiseration. "Too much frou-frou? I know Rarity's all about the fancy lifestyle, and I imagine she'd be needling Luna for details about historical fashions if given the chance." "More like the opposite, but close enough. You done clearing the filth already?" "Ah, no... More like the opposite, to beg a quote." "Hah! Back to ask for help then?" "Oh Tartarus no. I took on the job alone and I intend to complete it that way unless things get really out of control. No, I just wanted to take a different route for a while: Ran into this weird beetle thing that seemed like it would be a serious pain. Figured I could grind my combat skills on the small fries before tackling it, ya know?" Piercing waved a wing for him to pass, and Spike obliged. "Sounds completely reasonable: But pride or pay or whatever, do tell us if you need an assist." "Will do! And I guess the Diamond Dogs are treating you both just fine?" "Like royalty, after the work you did: Seems you made a pretty positive impression in such a short time." Spike bemoaned, again, his lack of an actual Reputation menu... But she was probably right. "Well, there's plenty more where that came from: I don't plan to only fight when I come back out here in the future." If either of the Ammos had picked up on his long-term plans for the area, neither one commented on it. They let him pass freely, and he did exactly that: Right now they were both on the job, and the idea of even just having that kind of responsibility made him a little giddy. Piece by piece, the maturation of his magic had led to maturity in other fields. First he gained the ability to stay awake like normal ponies (and then some). Then came more trust and responsibilities. New avenues of cooking and creation and helping others. Skills and studies he couldn't have really considered just a year ago. Now he was out adventuring on his own, just like Twilight and the girls. Sure, he was doing it a bit more proactively and with a tiny bit more violence in terms of solutions... Well, no, the Elements weren't afraid to get their hooves dirty when it came down to it. They just hadn't dealt with too many problems that responded well to a kick or a magic blast. But that was where Spike had his opportunity to shine: Because he was being proactive and he wasn't saving the whole world with his quests and endeavors? He could target the kinds of problems that reacted best to his skillset. And right now? That meant getting back to work as an exterminator. - - - - ~ Several Hours Later ~ Spike rounded the corner and slumped back against the wall. He laughed to himself despite the seriousness of the situation: If he wasn't The Gamer then he'd probably be run pretty ragged. His stamina had floored out more than once, his HP and MP alike were down into the low hundreds, and there were plenty of bugs approaching his position. Gamer's Body made it so he didn't have injuries to show, but without it he'd be a mess of blood and mangled scales. Earlier today he might have considered this to be a hopeless situation. While one hit from the enemies around here couldn't take him out? Spike wasn't fighting just one enemy. An accidental run-in with a cluster of a dozen Bermites led to his frantic fighting retreat: He hadn't expected to run into an entire outpost this close to the Diamond Dogs, hence the current circumstances. It was a situation that probably would have seemed hopeless from an outside perspective: But if he had that same outside perspective he could directly see the reason for his own calm. Floating over his head, only visible to himself? There were (as Pinkie would put it) some blue words. [The Gamer] Spike LV 19 Four levels in about as many hours. He'd been hounded by other packs just like this and gotten himself into some very nasty fights. Sure, this was the first time with such low resources, so close to lethal damage, and up against such numbers. Why risk it instead of hiding or seeking help? Precisely because of one of those fights! Backed into a corner by a Mountain Crawler of exceptional size, Spike had survived and walked away with hard-earned knowledge of a benefit that only came around every so often... And right now he was planning to exploit it to the fullest. The Bermites rounded the corner of the dim corridor, dozens of clacking legs brushing and slipping against loose pebbles. The ones leading the charge were the weakest since the survivors of the chase figured out at least one thing thanks to Spike's past attacks. Whatever goes first against this two-legged monster dies instantly, that was the lesson they’d learned. It wasn't a bad judgement call, for a splinter colony separated from their hive. That was giving them a lot of credit though. Something with an actual Intelligence stat would have considered that this might be a trap. The dark corridor lit up vicious acid green and sprawling hearth-fire orange in equal measure, a pair of fireballs sent out back to back to clear the front of the wave. The weakest Bermites ate the entire assault, leaping up to block as many flames as possible from hitting their seniors. It was a noble self-sacrifice in one sense. In another it was only feeding the fire. Notifications of experience gained rolled across his vision one box after another, until Spike saw the message he'd been gambling on: You have gained a Level! The stronger wave of Bermites crashed forward and laid into him with all their might. While you couldn't say the half-dozen remaining bugs 'knew' that Spike was desperate, they were fiercely territorial and fought the Mountain Crawlers regularly. Their insectile instincts let them know that nobody had an inexhaustible reservoir. Not the acid-oozing worms, and not this two-legged freak. Which is why after a flurry of completely fruitless bites and slams? They all died. Draw sent his claws whipping out from his sides with grotesque speed, Slice cut apart armor followed by Pierce to punch through one soldier and into another, Grasp lifted the entire shish-kebug on his arm and then a flick of the wrist sent them crashing to the ground. One attack after another, enhanced with the Dragon's Claws while running Heart and the Hoard. When the dust cleared, Spike (naturally) had no visible injuries despite being back down to four hundred-odd HP and MP. Back down. Because it turned out that gaining a Level reset his health and magic straight to the top. A guaranteed refill to perfect condition, just waiting on enough experience to trigger it. Shame it wasn't possible to hold back from claiming quest rewards, or he'd practically be stocking up on extra lives! The next best thing if not better: Plenty of harder games didn't do the courtesy of restoring you after a respawn, and at least this way he stayed in the same location. Spike had banked on the insects having just sharp enough instincts to get them into trouble without the intelligence to back it up. Ideally he would then be able to turn what should have been his moment of greatest weakness into an impossible-to-predict rally. The result was a clean sweep on top of the full-body head rush that was gaining a Level to begin with. As the adrenaline boost of combat faded, Spike let out a few long breaths and then settled into meditation. Gamer's Mind kept him from being really shaken, but he still felt the tension, concern, and dread that came naturally from making such a risky play... They were just more distant and faster to fade. As the trance of meditation took its hold, he looked back over what he’d done. The instant pick-me-up of a level had been nice and he had spent it effectively. With that done, now he had an opportunity to refill naturally and consolidate the lessons he'd learned over the past hours.