UpLeftDownRight Marvel

Logan caught the long subway home, his backpack slung over one shoulder. He plopped himself down in the middle of the subway, in the corner of the specific segment he was in. His usual commute was roughly a half-hour, sometimes an hour depending on how many people needed to catch the subway.

It took him a few minutes of scrolling mindlessly through his phone and blasting music in his ears to realize that the damn subway was empty. Why the hell was it empty? He paused his music and pulled out his earbuds. A red screen appeared in front of him again.

"Nightly combat trial commence! Don't die!"

Logan leaned his head against a handrail. "God. F.u.c.k.i.n.g. Dammit."

Another screen, a much deeper red, appeared in front of him. "For using our CEO's name in vain, combat trial now includes a boss!"

Kicking the wall of the subway, Logan turned around to be faced with what looked like orcs from various fantasy genres.

Orc Soldier

Level: 2

HP: 55/55

He produced his staff from his inventory and took a cautious stance. If he was too careless, he would reappear in his own dimension covered in gashes and cuts. He wasn't having any of that. An orc holding a battleax charged forward, only to be met by Logan's staff batting the dangerous axe-head away, reversing his momentum back into the orc's teeth. Logan took a hold of the orc's wrist and managed to wrench him into the subway's support pole, a resounding clang ringing through the metal subway car.

The orc fell back a bit, disoriented, before Logan blasted him with a ball of shadow energy. The orc flew back into his allies, several going down. A ding sounded.

Shadow Manipulation level up! Shadow blasts now have splash damage and knockback!

Current rank: 1

Ranks needed to level: 15

Logan grinned a bit at this revelation, assuming it also meant his shadows dealt more damage. The orc from before digitized, but his battleax curiously remained. Ignoring it for now, Logan jumped and grabbed the vertical bar, using the elevation to kick an orc in the nose and follow it up with a crack of his staff upon the top of his head. That orc digitized as well, leaving behind a very crude dagger. Deftly picking up the dagger, Logan attempted a use of his 'Throwing' skill, lodging the dagger in an orc's shoulder. Dashing forward a bit, Logan jammed the end of his staff into the but of the dagger, not only snapping off the hilt, but sending the dagger's blade out through the poor orc's shoulder blade. That orc digitized.

"3 orcs left of wave 1"

Cursing his luck at the idea of multiple waves, Logan thrusted his staff in front of him, catching an orc in the gut and followed with an upward crack into the orc's teeth, nose, and forehead all at the same time. Needless to say, that orc never got back up and digitized. The last 2 orcs were quickly dealt with by a well-aimed blast of shadows and sharp kick to the last orc's c.h.e.s.t.

~skip to last wave, because that much fighting gets boring~

Here it was. The last wave. Oddly, it had less enemies than the first wave, only 5. As the subway doors opened to welcome the new adversaries, Logan readied his staff and his now level 3 karate to face his challenge. He was greeted by 4 orcs and a f.u.c.k.i.n.g ogre.

Ogre

Level: 3

HP: 100/100

Releasing a loud "UGH!" of frustration, Logan picked up a fallen battleax and hurled it at the ogre. Unfortunately, the ogre caught it, and now had a weapon. "Oooookay, no more throwing." Content with distance, Logan used up the last of his magic energy to nail the ogre with 2 darkness blasts. The ogre buckled slightly, but the orcs digitized after the second one. Logan s ran forward and leaped at the ogre, only managing to shatter its ax arm, its other arm swatting him aside and denting a seat with his teenage body. Logan winced deeply, clutching at his c.h.e.s.t to hold in the likely bruised or broken rib. "F.u.c.k this shit." Logan backed away a bit, finding a few daggers lying around. He put away his staff in his inventory, picking up a handful of daggers. Running on fumes and adrenaline, Logan f.u.c.k.i.n.g chucked the handful of daggers at the ogre. Imagine his surpise when two of the roughly 5 daggers lodged in its skull and the other three took up residence in its c.h.e.s.t. A countdown began in Logan's peripheral vision, a countdown to when he would be going back. Panicking slightly at the tons of crap around him, he stuffed the bigger weapons into his inventory and nabbed the only drop from the ogre.

~~~~

Moments later, on a subway full of people uncomfortably close to him, Logan hid behind his backpack to swipe and tap things on his screens. His full benefits from those fights were as follows:

Shadow Manipulation Lvl 2

Current Rank: 7

Ranks Needed to Level: 15

Karate Lvl 3:

You are considered an intermediate practitioner of this fighting style. Daredevil's left pinky could still kill you, but you'll manage to beat his toe.

Current Rank: 3

Ranks Needed to Level: 20

Throwing Lvl 2:

Objects you throw have a much higher chance of hitting their mark. The force of your throw also results in better damage.

Current Rank: 1

Ranks Needed to Level: 15

Throwing Skill - Multi-strike:

Depending on your Throwing skill, you throw multiple objects at once. All objects have the same chance of hitting. A limb or general area wounded by more than one object becomes a severe wound, and the target may take extra care to protect that wound.

Orc Spear/Warhammer/Battleax/Greatsword

Useless to you in their current form, but can be broken down into materials and refined into better materials.

Material Grade: C-

Ogre-skin Leather:

An absurdly strong leather made from the tough and calloused skin of an ogre. Can be fastened around a hilt or other form of handle as a grip. If applied to a weapon, your attacks with that weapon would deal 5% more damage.

Material Grade: B

Level 3! 10 more stat increases available!

HP: 30/40

Str: 5+2 = 7

Dex: 10

Con: 5+1 = 6

Int: 7+3 = 10

Wis: 7+3 = 10

Cha: 5+1 = 6

Luck: 2

Combat Trial 2/5 completed!

Reward: +335 shop coins, 1 random equipment item

Loading item...

*DING*

!NEW! Midnight Trenchcoat:

A darker-than-the-night trenchcoat, full of inside pockets, radiating dark energy. While equipped, your form is obscured at night time. During the day, you cannot hide, but you have an intimidating visage. While obscured, targets have trouble seeing you, and have a 50% chance to lose track of you, and a 25% chance to miss on a ranged attack. Any abilities utilizing shadow energy require 5% less MP.

Logan's eyes widened. 'This thing is so broken!' He then noticed a new tidbit in small print about the coat.

Required to wear: Shadow Manipulation Lvl 5

Logan cursed softly to himself, but figured he should be glad for what he got. On the subject of what got, he visited the System Shop to see if 395 coins could get him anything. He was happy to see 1 item that cost 390 coins, and he could just barely afford it.

Assassin's Needles:

A bandolier of 30 razor sharp needles, designed to be thrown in groups from their much thicker bases. The pack regenerates after 24 hours. Not necessarily lethal, but can be if aimed well enough.

Cost: 390 Coins

Required: Throwing Skill - Multi-Strike

Logan bought the bandolier immediately, sending it to his inventory for when he might need them. A moment later, he arrived at his station, leaving the subway and walking a few more blocks to his house on the outskirts of Queens. As per the usual, his dad wasn't home, either at work or sleeping around again. He wPlus ent to his room and just kinda sat there, thinking. Apparently, so was MJ Watson, who his game decided to send him a notification about.

*DING*

MJ Watson thinks you're hot for some stupid reason! +5 charisma bonus to interactions involving her!

He immediately hung his head. Far too much to comprehend all at once. "Life can suck a d.i.c.k, dammit."