Maids VS Apocalypse

While fiddling with his System before, Mark found something that confused him a bit.

Both his HP and MP were a 100/100, and when he checked Lara’s stats, he saw it was the same for her despite having increased her level to 09. As it turned out, the number had been a percentage all along.

"By the way," the new revelation brought forth more questions. "Since both HP and MP are percentages, how are they calculated exactly?"

Ramsay thought for a moment then answered.

"For HP it’s Endurance and Strength. For MP it’s Focus and Mind."

Mark frowned, not finding the answer satisfactory.

"How about you explain the calculation part, Sergeant Rider?"

"And how do you expect me to do that? Do you think I’m some kind of math nerd, Private White?" Ramsay retorted. "Listen, all you need to know is that the more strength and endurance you have, the slower your HP decreases. The same goes for Focus and MP. As for Mind, it determines how long it takes for your MP to recharge."

By now, Mark was starting to realize that the Peace Keeper didn’t know the answer to his question. That wasn’t that surprising, though. After all, very few bothered to learn about the hidden calculations that determine the stats of their character in a game.

’I should’ve asked Rebbeca about it...’

"How long are you going to stand there for?" Ramsay asked, taking him out of his own thoughts. "Get moving, Private! We still have another 36 Rifts to close!"

"Alright." Clenching his fists, Mark sighed then turned to Lara. "Mind if I borrow your spear?"

The maid didn’t respond, her gaze locked onto the sky for some reason. She seemed a little uneasy, but when he followed her line of sight, Mark didn’t see anything.

"Lara?" He tried calling out to her again. "Is everything okay?"

Closing her eyes, the silver-haired girl heaved a wistful sigh then turned to look at him.

"I... I am fine." She said. "You asked for my spear, Master?"

"Yes..."

"You need not ask if you can borrow it. The weapon has always belonged to you."

Her tone indicated that she was still in a bad mood so Mark tried to avoid angering her any further.

He opened the Maids screen from his Player Menu. Seeing the empty Hire box made him grimace, but he tried to ignore it and pressed Y on his imaginary controller while selecting Lara’s status card.

A smaller menu appeared telling him to select between viewing the maid’s stats, her equipment, and the items she held.

The other day after their car crashed and the hoard of monsters rushed them, Mark was surprised to see Lara using the spear he gave her to fight them. That didn’t make sense considering she left it stabbed into Malarak’s right eye, but after asking her about it he learned another function of the System.

When selecting an item from his inventory, Mark is given two options; Use and Equip. At first, it sounded like there was no difference between them, only that "Equip" allows one to summon an item and return it with a simple thought without having to go through the System interface, while "Use" takes the item out of the inventory. But turns out there is more to it.

By equipping an item, one is able to able to recover it no matter its location. That was how Lara reclaimed the spear, only that she did it by coincidence, unaware that wishing to have it back would cause it to appear in her hands.

Mark selected the spear in the list of Lara’s equipped items and pressed Y, causing yet another option menu to appear. This one showed "Unequip" and "Move".

The first one doesn’t need an explanation. The second one allows him to move the item between the maids or to himself.

Mark used the "Move" option to equip the spear himself. He then held out his hand, and with a thought, the long weapon appeared and fell into his palm. It was much lighter than he expected, and seeing the glow from the Pierce +1 filled him with awe.

Trying and failing to spin it around, Mark then rested the spear on his shoulder and cleared his throat.

"Well then, I will be going."

~[ ]~

It took Mark a few minutes to reach the horde of Stone Rhinos. Enough time for him to realize what a stupid idea it was to take on this challenge. Sadly, he couldn’t afford to back down now. That Ramsay had insulted him enough times already and he didn’t want to give him more ammunition.

Once only a dozen meters or so separated him from his target, Mark lowered his posture and slowed down.

He used the rocks and boulders around him to hide and approach the closest rhino. The beast didn’t seem to have noticed him so he had the perfect chance to launch an ambush.

’Alright...’ Mark took a deep breath and looked down at his spear. ’This is it...’

Focusing, he increased the output of the Force Field around his hands. He then tried to move it around and little by little spread it along the shaft of the spear.

Before long, the entire weapon was covered in a light green glow. Looking at it, a smile spread across Mark’s face. He sneaked a peek at the monster lazily munching on the nearby rocks.

’Who said watching all that anime would never come in handy?’

Though his confidence hadn’t fully recovered, Mark was able to draw enough courage to jump out of hiding. There was no going back after that point so he pushed forward and charged at the moving pile of stone.

"HAAAA!"

The massive rhino didn’t react to Mark’s appearance at all. It remained still until the sound of a chisel piercing a stone resounded in the desolate land. Only then did the sense of imminent danger strike it like lightning.

Mark was stunned for a good two seconds. He expected to face some resistance or for his attack to fail completely, but the enhanced spear dug through the thick stone-covered hide like it was wet sand.

His attack was working and the beast’s prized stone hide could do nothing against it, that is it until it moved and yanked the spear out of his hands.

Mark fell face-first into the ground. It wasn’t as painful as it seemed so he was quick to recover, but by the time he did so a shadow fell on him and he looked up to see the massive beast with his spear attached to its side about to trample him.

He wasn’t fast enough to move out of the way so he could only watch as its stump-like legs headed straight for his face.

"La-"