Reincarnated As The Heroes Guide

Sanchez watched silently as James, the young student, tested his new bow, and then made the hard choice to spend some of his points to upgrade his own gear.

”What can you get me that is better than what I’ve got? The drops haven’t given me any Uncommon Grade guns yet, but your store might have something for ten points. I got a reward for the first clear of the dungeon, on top of the two for the quest.

But the loot boxes tend toward the medieval, while your store has high-tech stuff.”

”I noticed the same thing. Like, these robes are really comfortable, but they look like they belong to a Royal Palace from a thousand years ago. The store has modern stuff. Let’s see what you can get for ten points.”

Kalli set the filter, and they both stared at the options.

{Sniper Rifle} 50 calibre, uses armour piercing rounds. 10 included. Deals 30 damage, ignores 60 points of armour.

{Chaingun} uses 5.56mm ammunition. Warning: Consumes 10 rounds per second of firing time, 1 second spool time delay before firing begins.

Kalli frowned at that. The chain gun design had issues. The ones that the armies of her world used were far superior to that.

{Lasrifle} Stored energy weapon, requires 30 mana to recharge. Deals 30 damage per shot. 30 rounds per charge.

”Wait. Stop there. The store has a laser rifle? Like an actual laser rifle? What sort of strange System is this, that it gives out swords as rewards, but lets you buy bleeding edge military technology?”

Kalli shrugged. ”Maybe it’s because we’re too low level? Like we’re getting weapons from the dark age because we’re just starting, and all the truly cool stuff is only available later in the progression, but the store lets us get a bargain bin version at Common Grade?”

”Right, I almost forgot that Common Grade implies that there are more rankings of the same items, and not just cooler stuff for more points.”

”Unfortunately, all the stuff I have for sale is Common Grade. But given the prices, that’s likely all we could afford anyhow. Still, if you want to keep looking through the list, there are many more weapons for under ten points.”

Sanchez shook his head. ”I will take the Lasrifle. I’ve got 35 mana right now, so I can reload it. I just have to watch my skill usage, so I’m not out of mana and shots at the same time. The only issue I see is that it will create a marker to my location when fired.

Silence is an advantage in battle, but so is invisibility.

However, dealing three times as much damage will let me take out much larger targets. The rat demons don’t need anything close to this level of firepower. But the Rat King we faced took hundreds of points of damage before he died.

Even the boars usually take at least five or six solid hits with a sword, or a critical shot with a rifle. There is some damage reduction from armour involved, given their name, but the math is less important than the outcome.

If we face anything worse than those, we will be thankful for the extra damage.”

”It also won’t cost you points to keep buying ammunition. That isn’t a small advantage, and that is likely why it costs so much, despite not having armour piercing or an extreme firing rate.”

”Oh, good point. I will take it.”

Kalli traded over the weapon and Sanchez made a pained face as his points were drained.

The rifle was a simple thing, much like the one that he already had, but it had a textured forestock instead of the vented one that Sanchez had wrapped in cloth long before he arrived here at the Academy.

Judging by the look that he was giving the new rifle, it would get the same treatment, either for protection or for better grip when the weapon was wet.

There would be more of those pained expressions soon, she knew. The rest of his team should have gotten a bonus for the completion if he did, unless he got it as top damage dealer of the team.

And if they had bonus points, someone was going to need gear.

Sure enough, just before dawn, two of the warriors came up to the tower where Kalli was keeping watch.

”Hey, if our guess is right, Sanchez already told you that we got ten points as a mission completion bonus, and we’re looking for armour.”

Kalli nodded. ”I’ve got you. We’ve got lots of options, so let me sort it out. Normally, plate armour is one point a piece, but there are better things in there.”

{Composite Battle Armour} Full Suit without helmet or boots. 70 points of armour.

{Bomb Suit} Cumbersome, but incredibly effective. Includes helmet. 200 points of armour.

”Well, there aren’t a lot of options at ten points. But at five points we’ve got {Light Composite Battle Armour} with 40 points of armour, and it comes with boots. Point for point, it’s a better deal, but I suspect that as melee warriors, you want as much armour as possible.”

”The light Composite is less armour than the plate armour and chain pants that we have, but it looks much easier to move in. Is that some sort of bodysuit?”

Kalli inspected it. ”Yes, it looks like it’s some sort of kevlar bodysuit with composite plates. It covers the whole body, except the hands and head. It would actually be great for the mages or rangers. It’s more armour than wearing cloth, even if the cloth is magical.”

The two boys gave her an appraising look, and Kalli glared at them.

”You’re thinking of what I would look like in that armour, aren’t you?”

”No, Ma’am.”

The other student on watch laughed at the instinctive denial. They definitely were, and that bodysuit would look spectacular on her. But he wasn’t going to say it. Discouraging the skintight futuristic fashion of the battle armour would encourage people to buy worse armour, and that was no good for anyone.

”Well, our current armour is trashed, and nobody knows how to fix it. So, we’re going to be spending a large portion of our income just replacing gear,” one of the two complained.

Kalli searched the store.

”Wait, here is something. {Repair Token} 1 Point. Repairs a single piece of Common Grade gear.”

”Oh, that is an option? So, gear isn’t disposable when it’s damaged. We were worried that we might not make enough to support our own adventures. But if it’s only one point per piece, we just need to be a bit gentle on our gear and carry a good shield.

Wait, the common grade chain and plate is only a point a piece to buy new. That’s only a good deal after we have good stuff.”

”Or we can hope that we will eventually find someone who can fix it without spending points. Not all the classes are combat classes, you know.”

But most of them were, and the ones who survived the first day almost all were.

If they were going to make any headway in finding the life skills heroes that would fill in the gaps in what the warriors and other combat classes needed, they were going to have to hurry before there were none left to rescue.