There were always two things I always made it a point to do: I was home for breakfast and I always made dinner for Marie. Mr. Smith would ask me to stay for overtime some mornings after work. However, I always declined, even though the pay is time and a half. I know it sounds silly but the mornings are the only time of the day my family gets to see each other, and I’d rather do that than get overtime hours.
The weekends were my mom’s only days off and Marie, and I tried to let her sleep as much as possible.
When we were little, the weekends would be the time Mom would organize things for us to do as a family. She’d take us to the park to play, or to the public swimming pool, or to the museum on their ‘kids are free’ days. In retrospect, I think she was trying to make up for the time she felt she lost with us during the week even if it cost her some much-needed rest.
Now, Marie and I do things on our own during the weekends. I work part-time and Marie hangs out with Becky and does stuff with cheer and her other after-school activities. Mom is always up by the time we come home in the afternoon though. She has a meal and something for us to do as a family. While I love my mom, it worries me sometimes that she seems to sleep so little. I mean, I’m tired as heck from my part-time job and school. I don’t know how she does it, but she must know what she’s doing, right?
On a more personal note, Samantha from work kept appearing on my shifts, and we started to get along better once I knew something about her. I kept getting reputation increases with her every time we talked, and I noticed that when I talked about the things she liked, it went up even more. When she started to flirt with me, I was rather surprised. I would have never thought she’d be interested in me. But then again, I rarely understand why women do things. The two of us went out a few times, and I found that she’s pretty hot when she wears something other than a work uniform. However, the places she liked to go didn't exactly appeal to me and I had a hard time thinking of her as a casual hookup when I knew she had a kid. I don’t go past third base with her and things just sort of fizzled out after a while. The two of us still joked around at work, but we stayed work friends.
In addition to being able to increase my reputation with Samantha, the System has provided some other great benefits. I get into the habit of using Inspect on everyone and everything as I go through my daily life. School, work, home, everywhere. So, it’s not a surprise that after a couple of weeks of practice, I’d raised it to level 4 and I saw even more information when I used it. For example, there’s was a hot brunette in my biology class that I flirted with. At first, I didn’t want to use Inspect on her just because I felt like it would ruin some of the fun of getting to know her. Then she suggested we get together for some ‘private study time’ at her place. I was surprised by the offer, as we hadn’t gone out together yet, so I used Inspect since it had just leveled.
Jessica Fletcherson
An independently wealthy young woman in her twenties, Jessica spends her time attending college and researching her next novel. She writes a successful series of murder mystery novels, under the pen name I. Tiddi, and considers herself an amateur detective.
Likes: Neat penmanship, old-fashioned typewriters, forensic science, and surprise endings.
Dislikes: Rude behavior, people that ask too many questions, and determined FBI agents.
Bonus info: Several of Jessica’s ex-boyfriends have gone missing, and the murder rate in her hometown of Cabot Castle is surprisingly high.
While I thought it could be fun dating someone wealthy for once, the insinuations from the bonus info put a huge damper on my libido. Of course, I politely declined, citing family obligations and I made sure I didn’t ask her any more questions about her past. One anonymous tip to the FBI later and Jessica stopped showing up for class.
The Inventory Management skill turned out to be a much better skill than I initially thought. Every level I gained in it added one box to my inventory space. I mean, yeah, I could have purchased more inventory space as an upgrade from the System store but this way it was free. It was a little hard to train though, and I only increased it to level 2 but still, free inventory slots.
From my time in the dungeon, I increased my Bludgeoning Weapons skill to level 3. The higher level in the skill meant that I increased my chances at landing a blow, and I find that hitting monsters with those branches does slightly more damage.
Since I plan to continue with school even though I’m trying out this dungeon thing, I grabbed some new skills to help me academically. The Speed Reading skill increased reading speed without sacrificing comprehension. The Mental Math skill made the math calculations I did in my mind easier and faster. Finally, the Analysis skill was one of those always active skills that worked with others to boost their effectiveness. Once I got it, I found I saw new points in the stuff I was reading, and the more complex math problems I worked on became easier as I saw how their parts fit together. Even the information I got from Inspect was more detailed, especially when it came to people. It’s like my brain was always studying things in the background.
While the new academic skills were handy for my classes, they weren’t that helpful in furthering my plan to become a rich dungeon cleaner. I spammed Dungeon Scan whenever I left the house and increased it to level 3, which increased the range of the skill to seventy yards. However, I didn’t discover any new dungeons. Mapping only increased to level 2, but Dungeon Mapping increased to level 3. Since they're background skills, I think I need to go to new places for the skill to increase in level. But the new levels in Mapping were neat; they started to map out new locations with pins.
Speaking of the dungeon, I was able to fight my way to the castle by week two. The forest area near the cave only had two types of mobs—the Blue Blobs, and the Goombies. The plains beyond only had one type of monster—short, fat-headed Goblins that wielded either wooden clubs or short bows. Individually, they were not hard to kill, but as I got closer to the castle, they started to work in groups. Thankfully, I could use the weapons they dropped. Though the clubs they used did more damage than the wooden branches, they still broke after a certain number of hits. So, I tried to have a couple of spares in my inventory. I tried to use the bows and arrows, but I sucked at aiming, and I could only get off one or two shots before the monsters got too close and I had to switch to the club. I also discovered how to sneak up on Goblins who had their backs to me. I got a bonus on the damage I did, which helped me kill the Goblins a little faster.
Still, fighting Goblins was a bit more challenging than fighting the Goombies that attacked in a straight line or the Blobs that just stood there. The Goblins seemed semi-intelligent. They dodged my strikes and counter-attacked when I was off balance. In groups they even had their ranged bow users hang behind the club users. I encountered my first experience with death within the System when I came across a group of Goblins that used this tactic. By the time I defeated both club users, the bow user whittled my health down to zero.
Death was a severe shock to the system that I recommend everyone try to avoid. As my health neared zero, the edges of my vision turned red. Yet even as my last health point disappeared I still felt every arrow that pierced my body. If anything, dying momentarily intensified the pain. Then, pop. The next thing I knew I was opening my eyes back at the beginning of the dungeon, standing in front of the Respawn Crystal, whole and unhurt physically. Though my mind didn’t quite believe it until I stripped naked to make sure there weren’t any wounds anywhere.