The System Apocalypse: Short Story Anthology II

I’m Dave, and I like to party.

At least, that was my slogan back when I was a party planner in the big city. You know, before the System happened. Before we all got Classes and Skills, and ninety percent of us died. I’d probably be dead too, if I hadn’t come back to my hometown in middle-of-nowhere Texas to plan a friend’s bachelor party. The city I’d lived in didn’t fare too well. Lots of dead people.

So I got lucky, in a way. I lived. Most of my family lived. The surrounding countryside started out fairly low-leveled,
which made surviving easier, if not easy.

I got unlucky, however, in other ways. For example, I was very drunk when I made my Class choice. Remember the bachelor party? It went on into the early hours of the morning and looked as though it might keep going… until we all started seeing blue screens in front of our faces.
I’ve sworn off alcohol since then actually. Thanks to that stuff, and my stupidity, I’m now a level 40 Party Planner.

Yes, that’s my Class. And yes, it’s been very hard to level.
The apocalypse started nearly two years ago, and this is as far as I’ve been able to get. And that’s with working my rear off every day. Us “non-combat” classes gain experience, and thus Levels and power, by completing quests tied to our class’s goal. A crafter class has quests to craft things. A lawyer has quests to… sue people? I don’t really know how a lawyer levels, or if any even survived the System.

But a Party Planner? Turns out that I drastically overestimated the demands for parties in the apocalypse when I chose this Class. Not much to celebrate, what with all the monsters and death. No parties mean I can’t complete my Class quests, which means no access to easy, safe experience.

Instead, I’ve had to go out with the combat Classes to fight the mutated animals and brand-new monsters that roam the plains around our small town. My Class doesn’t come with any offensive abilities, but I grew up hunting with my dad and friends. Now, the things we hunt are much more likely to hunt us back, but still, I’m familiar with the concept. I purchased some combat spells from the Shop, and I have my Party Hard buff, so I’m not completely useless. Not nearly as useful as I’d like to be, but I don’t slow people down too much.

Several of my friends, on the other hand, chose actually useful Classes.
“Look out!” Marsha calls as she tackles me to the side.
A red, slimy rope as thick as my arm misses us by inches as we fall, before slurping back into the mouth of the horse-sized bullfrog hiding in the tall grass near the trail. It’s big, ugly, and has an extra pair of legs. A glance is all it takes for my Level 1 Identify skill to trigger.

Grey-Bellied Groggert (Level 53)

Even before we stop moving, green is leaching from the plants around us and forming a ghostly shell around Marsha. She’s a level 45 Plant Warden and the tank for our regular group. That Plant’s Gift shield of hers can really take a beating—as long as she’s around living green things. Which is good, because from the chorus of earth-shaking croaks coming from farther in the grass, I can tell this groggert isn’t alone.

But that’s okay—neither are we.
“Yeehaw!” The pounding of hooves on the hard trail almost drowns out Connor’s shout as he gallops around the corner. Before his horse even slides to a stop, Connor raised his rifle and fired five times, all the shots slamming into the groggert’s massive forehead. Each bullet glows white with the power of his Wild Blast skill.

I’ve gotten up by this point, but before I can use a single Skill or fire my beam pistol, Marsha has stabbed the wounded monster twice with her sword, killing it.

As I said, I’m not completely useless out here, just mostly.
I activate my group buff, Party Hard, which gives a 10% increase to Stamina, Health, and Mana Regeneration to friendlies around me. Like most of my abilities, it’s more powerful if I apply it to an event I’ve planned, but it still has some effect when I use it to boost my hunting group. That’s all I have time for before two more groggerts hop onto the trail, their grey-green bulk shaking the ground as they land.

I raise my beam pistol, a Mark V Humbolt Special that I’ve been carrying, and upgrading, for the last year. As I fire off a quick blast, I duck back behind Marsha. Two years ago, hiding behind the five-foot-nothing former cheerleader would have seemed nuts. Now, thanks to our different stats and Skills, Marsha probably has three times my Health. And that’s without considering her shield. I’ve been putting most of my free attribute points into Constitution, but I still only have 510 Health. I’d be crazy not to hide behind the slim blonde.

My first shot hits one groggert on its fleshy mouth, leaving a single mark but not doing much damage. Okay, straight energy blasts don’t seem to be the ticket. Time to try out my gun’s newest upgrade. The Mana Attunement Module, and its associated user manual download, wasn’t cheap, but if it does what the salesman said it would…

Release Date: 1. April 2023

Pages: 303

Genre: LitRPG Sci-Fi

eBook ISBN: 9781778551055

Language: English

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