How to Steal from a Fantasy Deathworld - Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Character: Michael Valentine Wade
Level 3
Health: 94/100
Mana: 3/100

• Stamina: 7 (0)

• Strength: 6 (0)

• Intelligence: 0 (0)

• Agility: 7 (8-1)

• Luck: 12 (2+10)

• Vitality: 4 (7-3)

None of his stats had improved, other than mana going up another tick. But next to all the stats was a yellow plus sign flashing. And at the very top of the screen was an equally glowing number two.

Two stat points to distribute.

If he was stuck here in this world, he'd need to take it all seriously. As absurd as stat points in reality might look like, the game system was clearly present and had measurable effects on the world. Namely, the (truely) dead skeleton in front of him. He sighed, limped to the wall and sank down against it.

Against his better judgement, he took out the phone. A text was already there.

Wowow, that's almost straight cheating. Love it ⸜(ˊᗜˋ)⸝

"Thought a god of games would want people to play by the rules."

Bending rules is a game on it's own Michael~

So, Play was that kind of god. Made more sense why they ended up picking Wade instead of some olympian spec-ops military soldier. He looked over his stats again. "How powerful are these stat points?"

We won't know till you give it a try right?

Absolutely useless god. Wade had a feeling this shit-texter wasn't going to help him with his next question, but he had to give it a shot anyhow. "Fine, at least tell me this: If I distribute my stats out, can I reset them later?" - No, there was a better way to phrase that question given the rules of the game: "How many coins does it cost to respec?"

The text changed, overwritten.

Hmmmmmmm, it just shows me three question marks where the cost should be lol

Question marks? "The hell does that even mean?"

Might be based on how many you spent idk ┐(︶▽︶)┌

Goddamn it. If it ended up being a single coin per point, that could be crippling. None of the quests were getting done anytime soon. He had two coins to his name, enough to buy a better than average weapon of some kind if he got out of this dungeon. Would the system consider redistributing points to be about the same value as a weapon? He needed to know in order to plan ahead for it. "Can you give me an approximation or something to work with?"

lol

He sighed, and looked up into the ceiling as he mulled over what he could do. "I just want to go home, I'm missing my work shifts. Fuck."

Bruh. You're being chased by skeletons in a brand new world, and you're thinking about work?

"Of course I am, do you know how hard I worked for that fulltime position? I'm getting those hours one way or another, and if I have to strangle you to get out of here, I will."

Wowowow, with that perfectly normal and healthy logic you sound almost a little... manic? (ง ื▿ ื)ว

He shoved the phone back in his pocket, not wanting to hear more. He had to get out of here fast before his gas station shift started. This entire fantasy world could wait until after he got his hours in.

Vitality. He wasn't sure how far 100 health points would carry him. What did it even represent? Raw survivability, or something more nuanced?

Extra health might not save him in a deadly situation - if he was down to 20 HP out of 270, he'd probably be too injured to escape anyway. But for gradual damage over time? That could help. Plus the increased resilience and mana resistance might keep enemy spells from one-shotting him. On the other hand, if he remained at full operation even when running around at 1 HP total like a video game character might, then additional health was arguably one of the best stats he could use. He just really didn't want to have to test that out.

Stamina could have been an option, especially given how fast the skeletons moved. But his bad leg complicated things. Extra endurance meant nothing if he was too crippled to use it. The same reflex that jerked a hand from a hot stove would make his leg give out. He had to mentally prepare to grind through the pain so it wouldn't take him by surprise.

Strength seemed mediocre. The skeletons were basically immune to physical damage, their bones like steel. Even sledgehammers barely scratched them. Though maybe he just hadn't been strong enough? There were non-combat applications too, like moving heavy objects.

Intelligence sat at zero, and he had no clue what mana even meant here. Until he encountered something magical, points there seemed wasted. But there might be a way to know… "Play, what's mana?"

Mana's magic, duh.

Wade rolled his eyes, before staring daggers back at the screen.

"Play."

Michael.

There was a beat of silence as he took a deep calming breath. Wade wasn't going to do this bit with someone who called themselves the literal god of games. "I need information to make things work out here Play. Tell me what mana is, and I can do more things you find entertaining. Win-win right?"

I wouldn't mess with magic right now, not until you get a teacher. Trust me.

That was both completely unhelpful, and helpful at the same time. "Elaborate?"

Mana's super toxic. Hold more than your body can naturally process or use it just the wrong way once and… RIP ✖╭╮✖

Wade stared at the phone, frowning. "What, you explode or something?"

Naw, mana poisoning doesn't kill immediately, but you'll wish it was immediate (￣▽￣*)ゞ

"And a teacher helps with that? Is it that hard to learn?"

The opposite, it's super easy to learn. But you can't easily tell when you're close to your body's limits. When the pain starts - it's way, way too late.

The phone continued, text wiping out the prior one.

Use too much or channel it through an important organ by accident… well you're gonna have a real bad time. And then die. Horribly.

Wade heard all that. And the warnings. But all he heard was that he could learn it fast. And if it was on the table, his head inevitably dove down to one and only one focus: "Is there healing magic? Even if mana's toxic, can you use it to cure things or fix legs?"

Play was a god, magic was real here, so holy or divine magic seemed like it should be in the cards. If healing magic was a thing, he had to learn it. He had to. Wade felt like he was holding his breath as the text finally popped up on his phone.

It does. But it's like using poison to cure poison, too much and… you know. The whole RIP thing? ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

He opened up his stats, looking at his mana. If the hard part to being a mage was just knowing where the limits was, didn't he already have something right in his stats for that? "I think the system can help gauge where I'm at, it's probably what the mana stat is for. If I got that going for me, how fast can I learn magic?"

If it works like a built-in pressure tester for mana then yeah you'd get to arch-mage status preeeeetty fast. But we don't know that. Even with the system helping, there's a lot more finess to it than 'Just don't channel it through your heart' lol

"I don't care, teach me how to cast a healing spell, even a basic one would be fine."

I get you're a desperate to fix up your leg and neck here, but trust me Michael, don't fuck with mana until someone's there to guide you. You will die, horribly.

Play had the wrong idea. "It's not for me asshole, it's for people back home." Wade couldn't give a single fuck right now about fixing his own leg and neck.

lmao you have friends?

Three that he could think of immediately. Jason and his mom had been there when his own family left him and his sister homeless, and now they were under the knife like he was. But one was really at the forefront. "My little sister, she's interred in the hospital. Can healing in this world work for a spine injury, or fixing up hand tremors and seizures? How much can you use it?"

Why do you even care about some NPC mortals?

Wade sucked in a breath, feeling the rage deep inside, fueled by an even deeper self-loathing. "Because I'm the reason two people are stuck in a hospital Play, I have to help fix it. Some asshole I know got upset his girlfriend talked to me, picked a fight in front of everyone - and I didn't back down. So later that day he ran all three of us off the road."

Julie had been an amazing architect in training, internships lined up and competitions won. She'd worked harder than anyone Wade knew and now she could hardly draw. Jason had been a steadfast friend for years, and now he moved around on a wheelchair - all because of Wade. He felt he'd gotten the easier end of the stick with only a limp and neck pains.

The hyperfixation came back, bubbling under all his emotions. He couldn't end up trapped in this world, he had to get back to earth. They deserved better than some asshole who vanished like his parents had. "I'm getting back home one way or another. Are you going to tell me what I need or just going to piss me off?"

There was a pause in the texts, and Wade thought for a moment he'd pushed the god too far. Until the notification pinged.

One healing spell every four hours is sustainable. Could do more if you and the patient are really skilled and working as a team together. Which isn't going to be the case for a human on earth.

Healing every four hours sucked by fantasy standards, but in modern earth? Jason gets physical therapy once a week if Wade was lucky and could cover the bill, otherwise Catherin's paycheck as a nurse would hardly cover his medication, the hospital internment and the loan sharks after her. She'd taken on those loans to help cover both her son and Julie. She didn't need to and she still did. Wade could feel the self loathing bubbling up, but he wiped it away with a thought of what he could potentially bring back.

Every four hours of healing would be stupidly good in comparison. "I'll take those drawbacks any day. How do I learn healing?"

No way, I'm not telling you. You'd just wanna end all this early and head home instead of winning the game here.

"You think I'm not already doing exactly that? Fuck you and your game, tell me how to use a healing spell, or I swear I'm going to just sit here and do nothing for hours until you do."

He couldn't hurt Play in any way that mattered. But keeping that god bored to tears? Doable. And he'd goddamn do it too.

You trying to blackmail me?

Wade laughed, "You think I won't?"

I'm sure you'd be dumb enough to try and strangle the only god on your side, but in this case I really can't help you. 

Wade didn't say a word, he stared down at his phone with a mix of fury, and utter single-minded fixation.

No really, I can't help you. Magic specialization requires, you know, specialists.

"Figure it out. Or else this is where the adventure and fun end Play. I sit down here and do nothing."

(≖､≖╬)

Wade stayed silent, fully committed to waiting here for all eternity if he had to. Ten seconds later, another text replaced the last.

Talk to a priest or a cleric and have them teach you runes to tattoo on your skin. You use those like magnifying glasses for mana basically, living bodies are notorious for having low tolerance so even a basic healing spell without some optimization tricks would need more juice than you can handle. Or you could find a healing trinket of some kind around, non-living material has no limit to how much mana it can hold.

A healing trinket? Gear? "There's magical  equipment out here?"

You think there wouldn't be? But fyi gear still works with mana, it's all just as dangerous. Like a bomb. If you don't learn know how to use it right, you die lol

Wade wasn't listening to that. In his head, there was only one thing that mattered: "Buffs." He called out, and then cast identify, eyes looking over for one in specific.

Market’s blessings (Language, Passage, Luck) - Allows you to read, write and speak fluently in any language used by general trade. Allows passage into Azdrial with all currently equipped gear or independent beings, and allows return passage in the same manner. Increased overall luck and success in gambling.

With all currently equipped gear, and return passage in the same manner.

Which meant if he got something that could do healing for him, he could bring it back to earth. "Can stuff from Azdrial work in Earth?"

Little bit tougher since there's no ambient mana on earth. But if you bring a power source like a mana crystal with you, should work in theory?

"In theory? You're not sure?"

Plenty of places in Azdrial are drained of mana now, and crystals work fine as a replacement there. That's my best guess mortal, I'm not the god of magic 
(；￣Д￣)

Best guess was better than nothing. That's what he was going to do then. Find a healing item, a crystal, and head home in one piece.

New Personal Quest: Atonement - Find the means to heal the only real family you have left. Rewards: Greatly reduced self-loathing.

Even the system could recognize it. And if he had to dive back into this clown show again to find what he needed, he'd goddamn do it as many times as it took.

Wade slapped his cheeks, taking a few breaths, getting his head back into the game. He looked over his stats again. "What does three out of a hundred mana mean? It's been slowly ticking up, is that a time limit of some kind before my body has too much mana?"

Idk, like I said, I'm new to the system same as you are, but I'd guess you're on the right track. Def would give you a huge advantage over mages here if you just knew how close to death you could get

"How long do I have?"

Good news for once! Unless you walk into a zone with really dense mana in the area, you don't have a time limit.

No time limit? Wade's head shot through the reasoning. If Play talked about ambient mana as if it wasn't dangerous - wait, he could think of it from a different angle: If mana was so toxic all life couldn't survive it for long, then there wouldn't be life at all in the first place. And one of his stats mentioned mana resistance. "We all have natural mana resistance, right? Is that it?"

Yep, a bit of mana is fine to live with. You're like a dry sponge atm so you're sucking it in. Once you're as saturated as your surroundings, you'll be fine.

"And the surroundings here are at a safe level?"

There's a lot of weather events with mana up on the surface, but down here looks like it's nearly all gone. Very dry and safe.

Wade nodded, filing that detail for another time. Once he got out of this dungeon, he could worry more about it. Mana sounded like half radiation, half water pressure. Something to be careful around but not fatal in small doses like what he was going through. And the system had given him what was probably a built-in geiger counter.

Agility was after intellect, and that landed on the 'maybe' list. The system basically claimed one point equaled having perfect vision without glasses if he thought of the debuff in the opposite direction.

His eyes lingered on Luck. Three question marks for a description, yet it had already triggered several times, improved his identify a bit, and possibly saved his life. Great. Make the mysterious stat actually useful, but never tell exactly how.

His base luck was terrible - accurate given his life so far - but that +10 modifier had done work. A critical hit had shattered the skeleton's skull when normal strikes barely scratched it, and let him snap the boss skeleton's spine in one hit. He experimentally stabbed his dagger into the bones. Unlike before, it sunk through completely, splintering them like twigs.

There really is something keeping these assholes so tanky. Probably magic and mana. Maybe if he got saturated up, he could learn how to be as tanky as they were?

Wade sighed. He didn't have enough data yet - no idea about equipment slots, enchantments, consumables or if these choices were permanent. He'd just learned about mana and that already opened up so many different future options if he could get his hands on stuff. Even the impact of a single point was unclear.

The safest option was holding onto the points. Retail had taught him that rushing decisions usually led to angry people looking for someone to blame. Having unspent points could be critical if he encountered something requiring specific stat thresholds.

He looked down at his leg and came to one conclusion: None of this would matter if he couldn't run at all. He lost points in vitality for his condition, maybe putting points back in might negate them? Fuck it, he still needed to take some advantages with what he'd earned immediately. If only to test the system out.

He opened up the character menu, and pressed the golden plus sign next to vitality, bringing it from its current total of four after modifiers, to a total of five.

Vitality increased!

Vitality: 4 -> 5 (7-3)

The change was immediate, drastic, and surged through every nerve in his body.