《The Achievement [system].》 Chapter 1. The first day of the rest of your life. ---James---
< Mike (From Work) ??
4:39pm
Hey man, what¡¯s up?
4:58pm
noticed yh left work early today ¨C you good? I saw sarge rinse you ¨C dick ¨C hope yh didn¡¯t take it to hard.
Honestly mike? No bullshit? Okay, I keep feeling like I want to die. Its not like I¡¯m suicidal or anything, I¡¯m just so bored and hollow constantly and its getting kind of exhausting. I need money to live and exist. I need a job to get that money. I hate my job obviously, but everyone hates their job so¡­its not like my case is any special, I¡¯m just being weak/whiny about it. I just don¡¯t want to exist anymore y/k? I don¡¯t want to work. But yeah I¡¯m good, don¡¯t worry. [Send]
James stared up at the dim screen of his Android for a longer amount of time than usual. He imagined what it would be like to hit send, what the closest thing to a work friend he had would do¡­ The moment passed. James breathed in deeply, then shifted his thumb to the backspace ¨C holding it till his overdramatic search for attention disappeared. James cracked his constantly sore fingers and responded for ¡°real¡±.
< Mike (From Work) ??
4:39pm
Hey man, what¡¯s up?
4:58pm
noticed yh left work early today ¨C you good? I saw sarge rinse you ¨C dick ¨C hope yh didn¡¯t take it to hard.
5:05pm
Yeah, Just tired. See you tmr.
Enter message
No one has any business whining to work friends. Especially such fragile ones¡­don¡¯t want to drive him away with my unimportant thoughts and all that. James¡¯s phone slipped out of his hand the moment he hit send ¨C dropping down beside his head and bouncing against his ear as he lost the energy to hold it. His arm flopped down to his side with all the energy of a wet noodle and he stared up at the stained ceiling in his apartment. Should I masturbate? No¡­that¡¯s too much effort. Dinner? ¡­Meh. James sighed at himself and closed his eyes for a minute. A buzz from his phone vibrated against his ear. A response! ¡­he ignored it. A second buzz came through and James opened his eyes. Directly in the center of his vision a single blue box floated ¨C menacingly and silent.
Looking for a change? Want a fresh start? A clean slate? A world of magic and science, wonder and excitement is but a click away.
Simply click yes to confirm the terms and conditions of this offer ¨C act fast! Slots are limited!
Yes No
Blinking half asleep by this point, James squinted and read the floating words. ¡°What?¡± Clicking yes before he realized what he was doing, James felt his finger tug slightly and then pass through the panel. A single haptic twitch as it passed through the screen and then both were gone. The panel, his finger. The whole room behind it as well now that James thought about it. The exact moment his finger connected, all senses left James¡¯s being and a stream of information began to reel into his brain. A cacophonous din of lights and sounds and thoughts and rules and conditions and conditions to those conditions and secondary information needed to understand those conditions and¡­ All this information was roughly shoved towards James¡¯s mind, with no real effort spent towards letting him actually think about it. It was too much. Too much information to fully process, given in too little an amount of time to process it in. A normal human mind couldn¡¯t hold onto this and so it didn¡¯t. Instead, the information shot directly to one''s soul and his being looked it over ¨C understanding everything on an abstract level for the briefest of moments. James¡¯s soul understood what was being offered ¨C both the good and bad laid out on an abstract level for the tiniest slivers of moments. The soul accepted and faded away. The Terms Of System vanished. And information began to fall apart as whatever mechanism pushing it forward disappeared. In this moment, as James¡¯s consciousness slipped into nothing, his conscious mind clung to scraps of TOS valiantly attempting to make sense of what his soul had accepted. The only useful scraps his mind could gather were bits and pieces James found most important. The only scraps he really needed to know. The personal highlight of the contract.
¡­This is a fresh slate in a world that hasn¡¯t yet stratified¡­
¡­No boon the system gives you can be taken away without your consent ¨C even by the system itself. Every moment of your effort will be rewarded. Every drop of work and hardship will be paid in full¡­
¡­To ease you into said world there will be a tutorial of sorts, with preset paths limiting your options. If you try and succeed, your life will be your own however, to do with as you wish¡­
... James awoke standing up. He felt different, weaker in some ways, stronger in others. Nothing bad and nothing massive¡­but enough of a change ¨C enough smaller changes ¨C that it was the first thing he noticed. It felt strange ¨C the changes really should have been explored more ¨C but more important than any of that was his current situation. He was standing up. Realizing that fact made him stumble and sway ¨C the disorientation of ¡®not having any disorientation¡¯ hit him hard and nearly caused him to fall over. Catching his balance, James looked around and noticed others all wearing grey pants and shirts. Many of these ¡®others¡¯ were stumbling ¨C glazed eyes suddenly opening wide in panic or shock at being transported somewhere without remembering it, their arms windmilling to stay upright. His excitement peaked in these first few moments ¨C a rush of more ¡®feeling¡¯ than he had felt in quite some time. A rush of something new, of adventure, of fantasy and a hint at something more ¨C wonder coursed briefly through his veins before slowly, ever so slowly, beginning to dry up. And then it nearly completely disappeared as he looked around further and started to realize everything looked¡­normal? This¡­this isn¡¯t right? For some reason, some deep part of him had been expecting he would be transported to some forest full of dangerous monsters to fight. He would be given some [fireball] spell. A sword and provisions. He would shortly meet an elf and save her from a wild pack of goblins, then later she would show her thankfulness by¡­ He would ¡®something¡¯. Prove himself ¡®somehow¡¯. But those dreams were all drifting away as he looked blankly at his surroundings through a thick haze of disappointment. Instead of a secluded exciting area with fantastical creatures, James now stood in a surprisingly clean ¨C and more importantly decidedly unmagical and unimaginative ¨C looking world. Humans were the only race that surrounded him ¨C split into people wearing grey clothing he just noticed matched his own and more ¡®natural¡¯ looking characters with varied outfits sitting behind booths and talking to people close by. ¡®Fantasy¡¯ ¡®Shopkeepers¡¯ shouted their wares out in English ¨C yelling out about free samples and amazing deals and negotiable prices that included small tasks or ¡®quests¡¯ for payment. A woman rode past on a distinctly fibreglass bike ringing her bell twice as she swerved around him and continued on. This¡­this is a fantasy world right?
---Maddy--- Madison Graves stared about the brick road she found herself on ¨C taking in every detail as fast as she could, eyes darting about and cataloging her surroundings. Behind her the road veered around the corner of what appeared to be a barn. A rusted scythe was propped up against a bale of hay to her left ¨C arranged like someone had simply tossed it there after a day¡¯s work. Behind the barn, just over an acre of farmland was fenced in by a small stone wall and in front of her, a grey cobblestone road extended out into small houses filled with people. The road was lined with several clean looking and colourfully painted buildings ¨C clumped up closer together the further away from the farm they went ¨C and in the distance, Maddy could spot various booths and large buildings that gave off a different feeling than the houses. One large building within reading distance, had a massive blinking sign with ¡®Inn¡¯ lit up using twisted neon lights. The walls of this Inn were painted bricks in blues and greys and blacks that repeated in a semi random pattern¡­ and drew her eye for longer than they should have. Maddy started to walk down the road still scanning everything she saw¡­something was wrong. Something felt¡­just a bit off. Just enough she knew it would bug her until she figured out exactly what she was sensing. She passed the Inn and was suddenly in the village proper ¨C cafes and bookstores were located beside places selling medieval-looking weapons and fronted by those booths that looked like lemonade stands. The stores and stands sold everything from pies, to arrows, to pieces of paper detailing martial arts techniques of dubious quality. All the shops were painted in bright vibrant colours. Reds and greens and yellows all in new paint ¨C as if they had been made days before. Maybe they have been. Everything felt ''normal'' at first glance. Maddy could feel the stones under her shoes, could smell the air and hear the voices surrounding her¡­but, slowly at first ¨C then more quickly as she locked into what was wrong ¨C the strangeness shone through. This village looked less like a real location and more like a theme park ¨C a mock up of a medieval village using modern paint and electronics and electric streetlights and people who looked less like villagers and more like¡­like the staff of a theme park. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Besides the mix of technology. Beside the absolute mess of artifacts that created a town that hadn¡¯t existed in any period of time ¨C couldn¡¯t exist in any period of time. Besides the nice large signs in English conveniently labeling ¡°main street¡± rimmed with neon blue glows. The random small buildings labelled ¡®toilets¡¯ every few dozen meters. The paint that looked like it had been applied only yesterday. The lack of sewer grates or drainage channels in case of rain. Maddy finally realized what was bothering her. It''s not balanced. There¡¯s too much missing ¨C too many random things that don¡¯t make sense. The subtle thing that¡¯s bugging me is that it doesn¡¯t feel like it''s been lived in. It feels like the commercial district of town that¡¯s been cut out and placed in the middle of nowhere. I¡¯ve walked down the entire main street and passed nearly a hundred shops¡­for just a few dozen houses. There''s way too many restaurants and bakeries for the number of people that supposedly live here ¨C and I can¡¯t see how they are supplied. The farm for example is way too small to stock more than a single booth or two and is located way too close to what is basically the commercial district. Where do they get all the materials? Does every shopkeeper live inside their shop? Where are the children? I¡¯ve seen only two of them ¨C and one or two old people ¨C but tons and tons of adults all happy to sell their wares¡­ There are enough shops and ¡®commercial¡¯ buildings for me to think of this as a town but it''s not nearly big enough to count as one and then I add that to all the other little problems. The farm behind her looked even weirder in her memory. The field was too small. The barn and implements too clean. The scraps she had held onto from the TOS felt too limited to matter. She needed more information.
¡­you will find yourself in a new world¡­
¡­by accepting these terms, you will be transported to a far away location with no way to ever return to where you currently live¡­
¡­you will be given access to a system that rewards actions or ¡°achievements¡± with various powers¡­
¡­rarity is important ¨C nearly as important as true effort. Doing things your own way. Forging ahead. Picking non typical options and doing non typical things. The zones you will find yourself in reward novelty and innovation¡­
¡­for there is true magic ahead. Your wildest fantasies may become true as you come to learn anything is possible¡­
Maddy wanted to start filling in all the missing information. She didn¡¯t want scraps, she wanted the whole picture nicely laid out in front of her. She quickened her pace, jogging over towards the gate at the end of ¡®main street¡¯ and peering out at the plains beyond. Two guards stood at either side of an open arch directly in the middle of the road ¨C Maddy nodded to each of them then stepped out of the village and quickly scoped out the surroundings. A few yells and sounds of violence drifted over to her ears as she saw a couple distant figures fighting what looked like regular wildlife. Besides the fighters, the most important ¡®thing¡¯ of note seemed to be just over a kilometre out. There was a shimmering in the air, just barely visible that distorted everything past it and then almost disappeared as it moved up. Maddy tracked the almost invisible wall to the sides and as far as she could follow it up ¨C covering her eyes slightly against the glare of the sun ¨C and confirmed its dome-like shape trapping them in. There was wildlife being attacked by her fellow¡­abductees? On the ground ahead of her, two stout men wearing identical cotton clothing to her, wielded matching heavy-looking swords as they ran back and forth attacking what looked like rabbits. Their swings missed the hopping fuzzballs and the rabbits were fighting back ¨C as Maddy watched, one bunny hopped up like something out of a children¡¯s movie. It spun in the air and karate kicked the man¡¯s chest knocking him onto his butt. Further out and to the side, a badger continuously headbutted a crouching man holding nothing but a shield bigger than he was¡­ and beyond them, a thin stick of a guy shot arrows after a bounding deer ¨C missing all his shots as the creature dodged back and forth. The rest of her situation settled in and Maddy turned ¨C running across the entire town once again as she retraced her steps. Maddy liked figuring out the optimal way of doing anything and the scraps of information she had retained from the TOS reflected that. Information about the best way to proceed. The best way to get ahead. She just needed to be unique. Maddy passed by weapon booths without a glance ¨C bypassing others as they looked at swords and knives and shields and bows. A shop of spears, a shop of daggers. Nothing unique here. Everyone¡¯s picking the same sort of weapons¡­I need a rare choice. She paused for a moment to listen in on one women as they hefted a massive tower shield. ¡°So how do I pay for this?¡¯ ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it dearie. This is the tutorial village ¨C all visitors get one free weapon! One free weapon, one free complimentary meal, and one free ¡®nights stay at the inn! If you want a new weapon, just come back and trade that old thing back to me.¡± That¡¯s¡­a weird way to do business but I suppose if this is a ¡®tutorial village¡¯ it makes sense. She hadn¡¯t found any money on her persons, but the mystery of the village made sense if everyone was just here for them. Part of the package and all that. She had already spent too much time acclimating to it. Maddy ran faster, actually sprinting as she travelled the last block to her starting area.
?? Achievement get: Runner 1
Description: For spending several minutes moving faster than normal.
Stat: +1 leg speed.
She spied her goal for returning and walked over to pick it up. Bending down she paused noticing an old woman staring at her from the window of the nearest house. Finishing her action Maddy grabbed the farm tool then walked over towards the window and held it aloft. ¡°Does this belong to you? Am I allowed to use it?¡± Maddy asked. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it dearie. This is the tutorial village ¨C all visitors get one free weapon! You can choose any weapon you like from any location¡­and just so long as you return it from where you found it, can swap with another just fine." The old woman spoke with a slight accent ¨C it reminded Maddy vaguely of a southern one but less aggressive. Like someone had moved to Texas for a few years but hadn¡¯t grown up there. ¡°Thanks for clarifying. I hoped that was the case.¡± Turning to retreat towards the main gate Maddy paused. ¡°Is¡­there another gate? Or do I need to return to the end of the road? Is there a map of the town I can look at?¡± She asked hesitantly. ¡°There are three gates in this town. The main gate and two side gates¡­nearest side gate should be at the rightmost side of the field." ¡°Thanks once again!¡± Maddy turned and moved out into the field looking over past the other end of the barn. Sure enough, a second gate was visible ¨C this one much smaller and staffed by a single guard. She ran over awkwardly trying to avoid bashing the scythe into things as she did so ¨C Maddy hoped she hadn¡¯t spent too much time preparing. As she stepped out into the field, the faint sound of a shady-looking man explaining their poisoned dagger to a prospective person twinged her absurdity meter. ¡°Arr young man. This `be the tutorial village ¨C all visitors get one free weapon! One free weapon one free compl¡­¡±
---Richard--- Richard entered the game world for the first time. He felt strange and stifled as he got used to his game avatar. Looking around for a mirror he found none ¨C but it was hard to focus on that with the fucking yelling happening a few feet to his side. ¡°I did it! This is finally happening!!! I¡¯m in an isekai! I¡¯m the chosen one ¨C I¡¯m the protagonist of my own story! I¡¯ve read about this! This is how it starts! AAAHHHHHaHahahaa. FINALLY! I¡¯ve been waiting my whole life for this! I wonder where my sidekicks are? I wonder what problem I¡¯ve been summoned to solve! I wonder what cute girls I¡¯m going to save! Who will be first in my harem? That one just looked at me, She probably just fell for my endless charm. Where¡¯s my status? STATUS. INTERFACE! INSPECT! STATUS! STATUS!¡± Richard found himself moving before he knew what he was doing. He quickly walked around the side of the house beside him ¨C large purple bricks on either side of the allyway between it and the house beside it. There. Richard moved over to a rubbish bin climbed up onto the hard plastic and braced himself against the wall behind him. Turning across he looked at the upper window and jumped ¨C grabbing onto a ledge his arms shaking slightly. Grunting the young man pulled himself up. Richard had never been out of shape, but for some reason after being given a game avatar they nerfed his strength ¨C setting it to some baseline or shit. He could normally do over a dozen pullups without breaking a sweat, but pulling himself up onto this window ledge felt like he was carrying a second person wrapped around his waist. Richard cursed as he kicked up and nearly fell ¨C sliding his side up onto the sturdy ledge. Peering in the window for a moment he saw a nearly empty room with a single bed lamp and bedside table. Not wanting to enter the bedroom right away, Richard instead grabbed the upper side of the windowsill and slowly shifted his feet about ¨C crouching and leaning around the side of the house. His hand fumbled about the lip of the roof before finding something sturdy, feeling and latching on to some nob above him. Without waiting or hyping himself up. Richard stood up the rest of the way ¨C rotating his body out and up as he did so with a slight ¡°ouph¡±. Richard¡¯s hand had grabbed onto a metal hanger of sorts that bent down and held the eavestrough in place. Staring at the hanger at eye level Richard shook the metal to test its sturdiness. Should hold. Eyeballing the screws for a moment then shifting his eyes to the side and checking the distance, Richard decided to risk it. Swinging his leg Richard hop kicked and pulled his body to the side ¨C awkwardly stumbling into the gutter which bent worryingly downwards and let loose a faint screech before he was secured, safe and laying on the roof.
?? Achievement get: Climbing 1
Description: For using nothing but your body to scale an obstacle 10 feet or higher once.
Stat: +1 Grip Strength.
The achievement faded away a moment later ¨C short and to the point. Not a thought had been spared for his safety ¨C not after the truth the blue boxes had told him.
¡­to a place designed for you and the others who have accepted this contract¡­
¡­exactly what the rules of each area are, is unknown, but the first area will give you: a body, low pain, resurrection upon any death¡­
¡­depending on your actions you may gain boons. Achievements gifting stats and skills or both consumable and permanent rewards to you or items you own. No boon the system gives you can be taken away without your consent¡­
¡­any changes to this contract and any area with new rules will be conveyed to you before hand and must be accepted and consented to¡­
¡­the world is bigger than you think and if you succeed you will understand how it works. How this is possible. The secrets of the universe await! ¡­
This world is a game and I¡¯m going to treat it like a game. ¡­but it''s kind of hazy now. Wonder how they went about giving us all that information and then taking it away? Eh¡­doesn¡¯t matter. Worse case I die and deal with whatever respawn penalty there is. I can¡¯t remember anything about it, so it probably doesn¡¯t matter. Standing up and moving to the front and then edge of the roof, Richard paused and glanced around ¨C trying to figure out his position. The annoying player was still below now yelling and calling one of the NPC¡¯s a peasant. What a fucking tool. I¡¯m sure we can give you a proper intro to fantasy land can¡¯t we now? Richard giggled slightly to himself as he unzipped and aimed. Within a few seconds, a clear stream shot out and fell to the side ¨C he corrected himself and the stream properly started soaking the shoulder of the little bitch. A shriek rang out as Richard relived himself and his victim flailed about ¨C they flinched and looked upwards getting a face full of piss for their troubles.
?? Achievement get: The obscene rooftop marksman. (unique)
Description: For crassly aiming your body fluids at someone from great height.
Resource: Chaos gland (1/10 chaos points)
  • First time rare resource acquisition results in storage creation. Chaos points are obtained from mischief and can be channeled through relevant skills.
  • +1 chaos point for free.
Active Skill: Aura of Mayham. Uses 1 chaos point to slightly increase a myriad of negative effects in a localized area for 1 minute. (Confusion, Bad luck, chance of tripping)
? Achievement get: Gain a rare resource for the first time. (unique)
Description: Gained "chaos affinity"
Stat: +1 mental stability.
Passive skill: Skill Use Knowledge on how to use your new resource has been gained.
Looking at the stream of rewards for his actions ¨C the stream mirroring the stream he was releasing below ¨C Richard couldn¡¯t help himself. He started giggling uncontrollably. He was being rewarded. He was playing this game the way it was meant to be played ¨C the proof: how many achievements he was being showered with. Shaking the last few drops out, Richard zipped himself back up and stepped back from the edge of the roof. Below a wail rang out and in the distance he saw two guards pushing through the crowd ¨C aiming towards the bitch below. ¡°POLICE!¡± ¡°JUSTICE!¡± ¡°I¡¯VE BEEN ASSAULTED! Did anyone get a good look at him? How can I report this? I NEED¡­¡± The screaming voice faded quickly as Richard ran across the rooftop. He jumped when he reached the edge and landed heavily on the next roof over.
?? Achievement get: Jumper 1 (rare)
Description: For jumping across a gap at the edge of your capability using nothing but physical abilities.
Stat: +1 leg strength. Stat: +1 leg agility.
Jumping across several more roofs he laughed. This game is fun. He didn¡¯t know exactly how much one ¡®leg strength¡¯ or ¡®leg agility¡¯ was and it didn¡¯t matter. The exact change was noticeable if just barely. The jumper title upgraded to level 2 after five more houses and level 3 after just over thirty. Each provided that same small increase in speed and strength. Spying a glint near the chimney of a roof, Richard paused briefly to pick up a round sparkling silver coin. He admired the tender, watching a new title appear and then disappear rewards coming in fast.
?? Achievement get: Zone 1 collector 1.
Description: For collecting 1 hidden coin
Stat: Eyesight +1
Richard reached a low roof and dropped down to the alley below ¨C two final rewards for his actions flipping past.
?? Achievement get: Dropper 1 (Rare).
Description: For falling 6 meters and landing on your feet.
Stat: +1 Leg defense. Stat: +1 Feet defense.
??? Achievement get: A chain of rooftops. (Rare)
Description: For crossing over 30 roofs in a short amount of time.
Stat: +3 Physical balance.
¡°I fucking love this game.¡± Chapter 2. Who I am. ---James--- James wandered around the town disappointed. Enough time had passed that he started to wonder if this was real. If any of this was real ¨C really what had he been thinking? Was he dreaming? Had he been drugged, knocked out and brought to a LARP game? Why? He had briefly gotten excited by the idea of fighting monsters. He had been excited by the idea of fantasy¡­of a new world. But is this world a new world? How would I even check? When he had poked his head out of the gate¡­ he had just seen a bunch of regular animals being attacked by random people. I really must have been drugged pretty strongly. I still feel strange. I guess its only just now wearing off? ...might as well play along. Something to do right? I wonder if I¡¯ll get in trouble for skipping work. James entered a weapon shop and stared up at the swords and spears and flails. They all hung up on the wall stacked sideways on smooth hooks. The shopkeeper looked up for a moment as he entered before continuing to talk to the customer in front of him. ¡°¡­all visitors get one free weapon! One free weapon one free complementary meal and one free nights stay at the Inn.¡± ¡°Why are you giving us weapons? What do you hope to gain from this? Who do you work for?¡± the customer asked. ¡°This is the tutorial village. We are¡­guides. Messengers who simply wish to help you transition into the new world. You don¡¯t need a weapon but fighting monsters is a good way to earn achievements. I work for myself. I¡¯m self-employed ¨C you know the tutorial village has no king? We do have a mayor however, nice fellow. Has some nice questlines for anyone who stops by if you¡¯re interested.¡± James picked out a sharp looking sword and brought it up to the counter. The shop keeper smiled at him for a moment as if waiting for him to ask a question about this specific sword. ¡°I¡¯m taking this¡± James said holding the large sword up and jiggling it slightly to show what he was talking about. ¡°Good choice! The Zweih?nder is a true two-handed sword perfect for swinging.¡± ... James left the store after standing there silently for a moment longer. I¡­think that went well? He carried the sword one hand on the blade and one hand on the hilt all the way out of the town ¨C cradling it like a baby carefully making sure not to stab anyone with it. Once he reached the outer area James attempted to shift both hands to the hilt and lift it in front of him. The sword was surprisingly heavy. Not enough that he couldn¡¯t lift it, but enough that trying to move it about left the blade¡¯s tip shaking and swaying slightly. I guess I just swing it? James pulled it above his head and attempted to swing downwards in a crushing blow. The tip of the sword smashed into the turf and vibrated up his arms. It felt awful. But this was the first time James had held a sword so that was probably normal? ¡­James didn¡¯t like how many people were watching him make a fool of himself by the entrance. No one ¡®seemed¡¯ to be judging him, but he still wanted to find a more secluded area to practice. Carefully extracting the blade from the dirt James turned to walk along the wall ¨C traveling along the slight curve till just out of sight of the gate and those in front of it. Ahead of him a boar snorted and pawed the ground aggressively. The boar had bright glassy red eyes, but besides that fact looked incredibly ¡°normal¡±. Here goes nothing I guess? James raised his sword high above his head and crept forward. A few meters before he reached the animal it turned and began running directly at him. James timed himself, eyeing the distance and then swung down the moment the beast got close! ¡­the boar dodge to the side and ran past him. Struggling to raise the sword once more, James tried to swing the wobbling blade harder ¨C frustration welling up in him as it missed once more. Why am I sucking so badly? The boar turned in a grand arc thundering slightly as it curved around and came towards him once more. James held his blade out like a spear ¨C hoping to stab the creature and use its momentum against it ¨C but missed a final time, the boar slamming into his side hard. The impact felt muted and strange ¨C James felt himself falling on his back incredibly quickly its impact also muted. It was like getting punched by a boxer with pillows on their hands. The boar had jumped up onto James¡¯s chest and was staring down at him with two hate filled eyes. The dark red eyes contained more anger than James was expecting and a dribble of drool dropped down onto his chest. Not knowing what else to do James found himself punching upwards ¨C smashing one closed fist after another into the boar''s snout spittle flying away with each thud. After just a few short seconds of wild punches, the boar thrashed back ¨C shaking its head as it gained distance with a series of growling snorts. James stood, a faint twinge at his side completely ignored as he realized he was empty handed. I chose a bad weapon. James was forced to admit to himself as he backed up as well giving space to the boar that was only now seeming to refocus on him. James stepped to the side ¨C narrowing his eyes at the boars identical movement. The animal''s surprisingly smart¡­and it hates me for some reason huh? ¡°For some reason. Hah, I guess I did sneak up with the intent to attack you first huh. Want to let me past now, little buddy?¡± James spoke as he slowly bent to the side and picked up his sword once more. The boar roared a guttural sound that would feel more in place coming from a lion or similar beast then charged once again. Annnnd now. James swung, trying to time himself once again but frustration leaked into his wide arc. He carved around as hard as he could and the sword actually slipped out of his fingers this time ¨C it spun as it flew out and caused the beast to dodge in a wide turn before making its way around again. Out of weapons and feeling overwhelmed James ran. He couldn¡¯t see any other options right now and was too stressed to think properly. I¡¯ll come back to collect the sword once I¡¯ve thrown the boar off I guess? James¡¯s mind raced as he dodged the boar¡¯s lunges ¨C jumping to the side every time he heard his pursuer close in, then running in a different direction. The boar was much, much faster than James, but comically worse at turning ¨C his frantic zigzag of a sprint back to the gate let him escape mostly unmolested. The boar galloped around him in wide looping paths and his breath was heavy as he pushed himself to run. Lunging forward the last few steps James slid past the leftmost guard and rolled to the side scrambling up inside the town ¨C expecting the beast to be right behind him. When nothing happened in the following seconds James slowly stepped out into the middle of the path and stared. The boar had chased him right to the gate and now stood as if held back by some invisible force. Just over a meter away from the gate the boar glared up at him hatefully. Beady red eyes glared into James before with a pig like snort the boar turned and slowly walked back into the field ¨C glancing back a few times as if making sure James was still standing in safety.
?? Achievement get: The Swift Coward. (Rare)
Description: Outrun a creature faster than you after provoking it. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Active Skill: Haste Increase speed for 0-9s with a cooldown of 3x haste''s activation.
?? Achievement get: Gain an affinity.
Description: Gained "Speed affinity"
Stat: +1 mental stability
Passive skill: Skill Use Knowledge on how to use your skill has been gained.
James stared at the achievement. He reached out to touch it hesitantly ¨C feeling the slight haptic tug of contact and flashing back to the contract in his room. It''s real. Of course, it''s real. I already knew it''s real I can feel it. This is reality. James had felt weird ever since waking up. He had been acting differently than normal. Feeling differently. Thinking slightly differently. A part of him hadn¡¯t quite understood what was happening ¨C a part of his brain dismissed everything and treated reality like it was a dream. In this specific moment his finger brushing past a fading block of hardlight his situation finally started sinking in for good. The block was convincing enough but the ¡°knowledge¡± the system had just given him was what sealed the deal. Knowledge suddenly appeared in James¡¯s memory as if it had always been there. He now knew how to activate his haste instinctually ¨C he had always known how to activate ¡®his haste¡¯ instinctually. It felt like he had used it all his life, he had hundreds of memories of using the skill seamlessly integrated into his mind¡­but no memories of when he had used it. He knew what it would feel like, despite knowing he had never used it before. James stepped forward and activated [haste]. His steps ''rushed forward'' and he found himself running faster than he had ever run before. He deactivated haste. It felt almost as if there was no point in practicing his skill ¨C he already had the muscle memory of using it ¨C but¡­the thrill of knowing he had an ability trumped anything else. He wanted to continue using it again and again. The reward almost completely wiped his memory of the box that had given it to him ¨C frankly it calling him a coward for strategically retreating pissed him off. He wasn¡¯t afraid of dying. He¡­wasn¡¯t young and hotheaded enough to be manipulated that easily. I need to find out more about my situation. What exactly is this place? What is this world I¡¯m in? First let¡¯s retrieve that sword. James waited a few minutes and then left ¨C once more aiming along the wall. His fingers ran along the stone as he retraced his steps towards where he had dropped the massive blade. Out of the corner of his eye he tracked what he was pretty sure was the same boar as before. It hadn¡¯t noticed him yet and with any luck it wouldn¡¯t notice him. As if triggering a flag, as soon as James reached the sword the boar turned and noticed him. Dammit. Pawing the ground it bent back and then charged ¨C barrelling towards James even as he scrambled to pick up his sword. James activated haste as he reached down, his memory guiding his hand. A flash of energy seemed to push out of his pores. A haze surrounded his skin in a moment and his arm lurched forward. Grabbing the sword faster than he would have otherwise and then aiding his jump up once again [haste] smoothed things over. James turned with more grace than normal and [Haste] pulled him back towards the gate dragging his feet forward. He ran and continued running past when haste deactivated ¨C safely back at the gate. His previous run from the boar had taken over 30 seconds of mad dashing. This magic fueled sprint had taken just over 10.
---Richard--- Richard stood cross armed inside a shop. None of the weapons seemed fun ¨C and that was the most important part of picking a weapon. "I want a shotgun. They always feel the best. One with a nice solid recoil and a satisfying ''chick chick'' sound. Have one of those?" "I...I am sorry Sir, the only weapons I have are what are on display. Perhaps one of my competitors has what you are looking for?" "...doubt it. I''ll take that hammer I guess." "AH! Good choice, The Mirel is a fine warhammer. Great for smashing!" "Yeah, sledge hammer going sledge. I''ll figure something out". Richard took the sledgehammer and left ¨C wandering about looking for something to do.
---Maddy--- Maddy scanned the plain looking for the weakest tutorial ¡°monster¡±. She hadn¡¯t liked the idea of attacking animals unprovoked ¨C she wasn¡¯t a hunter and didn¡¯t like the idea of causing pain but¡­ The animals did disappear when they were ¡°killed¡± ¨C vanishing a few moments after death. They had red eyes and were acting pretty aggressively. Second guessing absolutely everything isn¡¯t doing me any good. The evidence suggests they are indeed ¡®monsters¡¯¡­.I might as well commit because I''m falling behind the head of the pack. Rabbits spread in patches ¨C spawning from burrows underground nearly as soon as one of them was killed. They seemed the smallest and weakest physically but were fast and incredibly agile ¨C able to dodge most attacks. Good for training speed based people? Getting better reactions? Further out wandering around there was the occasional deer ¨C relatively strong, relatively fast. More importantly they stayed far away from people and stood still unless approached ¨C good for ranged practice? There was the occasional boar ¨C strong and relatively fast in straight line dashes but with abysmal agility. Good for dodging and glancing attacks? Learning how to wear something down slowly? Very rarely there were turtles that¡­seemed to just sit there waiting to attack and ineffectually biting at anything that got close ¨C sitting target good for damage scaling? Good for crushing attacks? I think that¡¯s everything? Can- Maddy noticed a glint in the grass. Stepping forward she picked up a bunched and broken snake skin and finished her review. Okay so there also exists some hidden snakes and potentially more hidden creatures I haven¡¯t found yet. Probably to train perception or tracking skills? Right now I need something that¡¯s easy to hit and there¡¯s one thing that matches. Looking around and making sure not to get in anyone¡¯s way, Maddison picked a turtle and hiked over to it. Holding the scythe by her side she awkwardly swung it a few times ¨C knuckles turning white as she gripped the wooden handle tightly. Stepping forward and bringing her arms back she nodded her head slightly before swinging forward at the stationary target. ¡°Sorry about this¡± she whispered and then twisted, her blade swept around and smashed off the shell. With a scraping screech, her blade¡¯s edge slid overtop of the shell causing rough vibrations to travel up her arms. A screech first from the contact on the shell and then from the mouth of the turtle. The ¡®monster¡¯ really was ¡®screeching¡¯ ¨C an unearthly nails on a chalkboard level of shrill anger. The sound made it easier to solidify the creature as unnatural and worthy of attacking ¨C Maddy pulled back again shifting her arms slightly before swinging a second time. And again. I¡¯ll figure this out. Maddy did not know how to use a weapon¡­and a scythe wasn¡¯t a typical weapon. It wasn¡¯t even classically a weapon ¨C it was a farming implement used only in battles by peasants who couldn¡¯t afford a real weapon. She swung again. Maddy had never killed something before. She had never gone hunting, never had any interest in death. She had zero bloodlust and actively disliked the idea of harming an animal. She shifted and swung. A new skittering shriek rang out from the mouth of the monster, like something between a hoard of insects and a car being shoved through a trash compactor. A chip came off the shell like a badly cracked egg exposing yellow pink organs. The organs pumped enthusiastically in front of her ¨C surprisingly lacking in blood and pumping about more than something standing still should. Maddy started to realize something was off ¨C not with the monster, it was more and more obviously not a natural creature, but with herself. She moved her scythe back aiming the tip awkwardly towards the exposed area and stabbed again and again dissociating completely in these final hacks. The point of the curved blade slid in and out of the fleshy hole and twisted violently as it attempted to do the most damage¡­ but Maddy was barely paying attention. She tried to center herself. Why do I feel like I¡¯m in a dream? I can feel the grains of wood in my hand. I can feel myself wandering about. Why doesn¡¯t this feel real?
?? Achievement get: Scythe wielding. (unique)
Description: Killed a monster using an uncommon weapon before anyone else.
Stat: +3 Arm strength. Stat: +3 Arm speed. Stat: +3 Core stability.
Passive skill: Scythe Use Knowledge of how to swing a scythe.
?? Achievement get: First kill.
Description: Destroyed a monster for the first time.
Stat: +5 mental defense.
Accompanying the two messages Maddy felt the last of her mental fuzziness leaving her. She stood above the corpse of the turtle ¨C painfully aware of how badly she had been using her scythe up till now. It was a hard tool to use right. Not hard to learn, but with more skill than simply swinging it and hoping for the best. A proper swing was less about strength and more about a gentle but firm rotation originating from your body''s core. Maddy shifted her body slightly and swung again, trimming the tops of the grass even as the monster disappeared from below her. Logic dictated she should immediately go and test her more effective knowledge on a new turtle but¡­ This wasn¡¯t Maddy. None of this was her ¨C oh the analysis was the same but not the way she went about it. Madison Graves was not actually a creature of logic despite her love of optimizing and list-creating hobby. What she had done in the past hour was not her normal knee jerk reaction to being put in a strange situation and that disturbed her. ¡­and what¡¯s with this knowledge I¡¯ve just been given. I have memories of using a scythe before. It''s in my mind. The system is messing about with my memories¡­is it also messing about with my thoughts? I feel more calm than that should have made me, is that because of the mental defense? Can I trust my own thoughts? The fact that I¡¯m able to question them makes me think I can... but I have no clue how accurate that is. Maddy needed more information. She needed to better understand what exactly had happened to her, why she was here. Why she had just acted the way she had. Slapping her face ¨C noting how dull the sting felt, more evidence she was being messed with ¨C Maddy turned and headed back to the town feeling more and more herself as she walked. She nearly made it back to the gate before something made her shift her eyes slightly. A young man with hawk like eyes was standing off to the side staring straight at her. Glancing at his posture the way he held his bow, the twitch in his cheek as soon as he noticed she had noticed him¡­Maddy smiled and walked over. ¡°Hey there! I¡¯m Maddy. What are your thoughts on the monsters? Have you made your way out and about yet?¡± She projected her voice towards him confidently as she strode closer and stopped just out of reach. ¡°-Do I know you?¡± The man asked ignoring her question and instead tilting his head slightly. ¡°D¡­did we go to school together?¡± Maddison¡¯s mind raced through her memory ¨C shifting his face through highschool then grade school and coming up blank. Even as she tried to reorient herself, her mouth continued speaking. Naturally filling in the space with empty noise. ¡°We might have, what¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Troy¡± The man responded continuing to tilt his head. The most generic of names. Think I remember three Troy¡¯s in grade 12 and not a single one looked like this¡­ ¡°I¡¯m sorry, it doesn¡¯t ring a bell¨C¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure what to think about our situation¡± Troy cut her off. ¡°¡­I¡¯m planning on going to ask some of the villagers for more information. Want to join me?¡± Maddy waited for a beat before continuing. ¡°Sure¡± Troy answered. Maddy turned and moved past Troy ¨C coming closer to him before heading towards the town making sure to flick her hair once on the way. Stop it. Stop it stop it stop it. I¡¯m not. Going. To do that. Chapter 3. Lets talk about stats, baybee. ---James--- James finished returning his massive sword for a spear with several jagged spikes running down its side. ¡°I want to try this one out.¡± He spoke towards the shop keeper hoping that was enough. ¡°Excellent choice! The Alkul¡¯a spear is a popular older model. Your trade in has been accepted. Come back any time if you want to return it and try another.¡± James stood there for a moment awkwardly holding his newest choice. He wanted to ask for information outside of the spear but the shopkeeper was talking to someone else again and¡­he didn¡¯t. He didn¡¯t want to bother them. James wasn¡¯t good at talking to service workers. It always felt like they were annoyed at him ¨C if he was working a customer facing job he wouldn¡¯t want anyone to bug him outside of business interactions. After a few seconds of waiting to see if they were free, it became even more awkward to continue standing there then interrupting them would be. James turned towards the door then paused just as he was leaving. ¡°Excuse me? Sorry Can you tell me about anything you know, and think might be useful? So, I already know: we resurrect when we die, have pain diminished, can get these achievement things for doing stuff¡­but I can¡¯t figure out how to see my ''status''? All these stat points I keep getting? I¡¯ve forgotten what they are, how do I find them. Also it''s like a video game right? What¡¯s my current level? Also why do monsters disappear into nothing when you kill them? Why don¡¯t they have any blood?¡± The loud and excited voice of a third customer cut in turning the shopkeepers attention to them. MVP right here. Thanks for asking what we were all thinking. Push through the cringe! Stepping back in and standing by the door of the shop, James hoped he didn¡¯t seem creepy for just standing there and watching. ¡°Woah there. Happy to help as a village guide, lets pick apart some of your questions. You seem to get most of the rules, can¡¯t really tell you why they exist, they just do. As for your status¡­that¡¯s something our small village hasn¡¯t been given the resources to show you. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find ways to see all your achievements in the future. I don¡¯t know what you mean by level but as a recent player you are bound to be tier 0. The barrier around our village is set to protect us from the wider world ¨C it should allow you to pass once you reach tier 1 which you should get if you just keep gaining achievements.¡± ¡°So level 1 to leave, got it. Why¡¯s my head fuzzy by the way? Also you never answered if there¡¯s anything I should know. Oh and why does everything seem so fake?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry I¡­don¡¯t quite know why your head is fuzzy dear customer. Have you eaten anything strange? All my weapons are completely real I assure you. And¡­ let''s see. What would a newcomer not know¡­OH! Do you know how to search for quests?¡± ¡°Finally! I knew I could get something new if I kept prying. I know nothing about quests ¨C what are they?¡± ¡°The great achievement system has benevolently given us an option for if you feel lost or need guidance.¡± The shopkeeper began. ¡°To see a list of personalized quests all you need to do is say ¡®quest¡¯ and three words you wish to influence the quests you get. This will give you a handy list of information on, or hints about achievements you could gain. The quest board can be re-queried once every three weeks or upon completion of all three of your last quests. At any other point you shouldn¡¯t get a list ¨C make sure not to say quest if you haven¡¯t used your board yet for the week. Simple enough ¨C can¡¯t believe I nearly forgot to mention it. Thanks lad, I¡¯ll tell any other newcomers I see ¨C just in case they don¡¯t know about it yet.¡± James watched as the random customer finished asking his questions and left ¨C carefully waiting a moment so it wouldn¡¯t look like he was following them out ¨C then moved to find an empty area to look at quests. I have to get this right¡­ let''s think a bit¡­Okay got it. ¡°Quest. Help me grow¡± he spoke out loud.
Quest Board: ''Help Me grow''
Kill one of each monster: Collection Reward: stats.
Help me grow enough food for winter: Quest start at barn. Reward: produce, Varies.
Become a giant: [Click here] to attempt impossible goal. Reward: Giantism If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
--- Richard --- Richard stood in front of a young NPC, grilling the dense bundle of repeating lines for more information. He was rushing through the interaction because he needed to know the bare minimum¡­but that didn¡¯t mean he had to like it. ¡°¡­the quest board can be re-queried once every three weeks or upon completion of your previous three quests.¡± ¡°Ait. Thanks m8. Let''s see¡­Quest! And then three words to seed it. Stronger! Faster! Smarter! Should be good enough for now.¡±
Quest board: ''And then three''
There¡¯s no such thing as ''too far'' for monsters: Kill the giant rat living in the sewers and then her three babies. Reward: Varies
The Three stat leanings: Learn about stats in some way and then gain a stat in each major leaning. Reward: Stats.
¡­and then: Part (3): Third part of a chain fetch quest. Involves bringing a bottle of wine to Esabella. Part (1) is unlocked by finding any shop keeper and asking if they need anything. Reward: Unknown.
Richard stared at the panel for all of a second before falling onto the ground and beginning to giggle holding his sides. ¡°Holy fuck that¡¯s good. Not even mad, system has some sass. Technically the truth. Ehehehe. Fuck that¡¯s good.¡± Standing up while wiping fake tears out of his eyes Richard glanced at the achievements and the title snorting again before watching the panel fade away. ¡°Welp, fuck those achievements ¨C I¡¯ll figure something else out ¨C they just seem like suggestions, not anything I¡¯m forced to do¡­should be easy to scrounge something else up, games tossing rewards at us after all.¡± He started thinking out loud. ¡°¡­I see you¡¯ve wasted a quest query. I¡¯m awfully sorry about that but it''s not the end of the world. It''s only three weeks to your next attempt.¡± The boy said while looking slightly scared. Richard looked at the NPC after forgetting they were still there. Huh. Turning he left without saying anything else. Robotic sounding mother fucker. That¡¯s not what children sound like. ¡°Something fun to do, something fun to do. Rewards are stats. Stats¡­fuck I hated stats but these are the other kind aren¡¯t they? The fun kind? Guess I¡¯ll use the help function ¨C hey you! Tell me about stats.¡± Pointing at an NPC riding past on a bike he hailed them down. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I have a delivery to make. I simply must be going¡± ¡°Got it. Yep. Understand. Okay tell me about stats.¡± Richard waved his hand dismissively. It¡¯s the little details that show the developers didn¡¯t focus too much on the game. This NPC is supposedly delivering something¡­ but I see absolutely nothing but them and the bike. Lazy. ¡°Well¡­okay. Stats are the wonderful reward achievements give us. They are separated out into three types or ¡®leanings¡¯. Speed, Power, Defense¡­¡± the NPC began her explanation. ¡°The trifecta of simple games. Seems to be missing something¡­I¡¯ve gotten leg strength and eyesight.¡± ¡°¡­Those three stats can be applied in different locations in your mind, body, and soul.¡± ¡°3x3¡­so 9 stats I guess?¡± ¡°Depending on the focus they can be further broken down into quite a few more specialized stats which are quite a bit stronger in their focus. Defense is the stat that can be broken down the most, and body is the area that can be broken down the most.¡± ¡°¡­so more than 9¡­¡± ¡°For example ¡®Decay defense¡¯ or ¡®Bludgeoning defense¡¯ give much more of a visible result than the generic defense¡­but that¡¯s because the generic defense is focusing on everything you could defend against. You need almost a dozen generic defense points in an area to be as effective as a single specialized defense. Depending on locations in an area, stats can give quite drastically different results ¨C power in your arm for example will make your arm stronger, but power in your ears will make you better at listening to people and power in your brain will make you smarter.¡± ¡°¡­that last line feels personal. You good?¡± ¡°Yes I am ¡®good¡¯. Beyond that, soul based rewards are rare for low-tiered players and can be ignored.¡± A solid pause ended the NPC¡¯s explanation before she continued. ¡°That is a general overview of stats. Feel free to ask any of us guides any questions you might have, we live to help you acclimate to the world after all. Now, I simply must get going. I have a delivery to run!¡± Richard watched in slight amusement as the woman pedalled away on her bike. ¡°Now I just have to get one of each stat? Tutorial indeed. Tutorial wouldn¡¯t be needed if the game didn¡¯t make such a convoluted system.¡± Richard stood in the street thinking about what to do next. I got these leanings already. Mostly from running across the roofs¡­what should I do next? Fuck I¡¯m getting tired of information gathering. Might as well have some fun next ¨C I deserve it after sitting through that info dump. Maybe I¡¯ll go try out the game''s combat system?
--- Maddy --- ¡°¡­so tier one is a total of 27 stats of any type in any location? And a skill? How do we go about getting the stats we want? So far they¡¯ve just been given to me,¡± Maddy asked maintaining eye contact with the newest guide they had found. Maddy had been talking to an older woman for close to 20 minutes now. She needed to know everything these guides would tell her while they were available. It just made sense to get prepared. Troy stood behind her like a lanky lost bodyguard ¨C arms flipping between crossed and loose, occasionally glaring at people passing occasionally glancing at Madison¡¯s hair occasionally looking straight down as he listened and fidgeted. ¡°Achievements give stats my dear. You get stats for doing things themed around the stats you want. Doing something brave usually gives power, doing something quickly usually gives speed. Defense is usually rewarded for surviving something hard. If your hands get burned badly and then healed you are likely to get fire defense on your hands. If you want more control over what type of stats you want you can quest for them. Use the exact stat names to get quests¡­something like ¡®Stats Leg Power¡¯ as your divine request.¡± ¡°You¡¯re incredibly helpful, thank you. Can you tell us more about quests now?¡±
?? Achievement get: Pestering Power. (uncommon)
Description: Collect more information from the guides than most.
Stat: +1 mental power.
¡°Of course my dear. The stat board can¡­¡± Chapter 4: Its hard to come up with pranks. Thats why they always fail. ---Richard--- Richard sat in the only bar in the tutorial town, watching people come and go. He was nursing some shitty nameless booze that tasted like boiled lard mixed with moonshine. It was so bad it wrapped around to being funny ¨C like someone heard cheap booze was supposed to taste bad and actively worked towards making a bad booze so they could call it cheap¡­
?? Achievement get: Drink of some ¡®Alcohol¡¯.
Description: Destroyed your gut for the first time.
Stat: +1 Mouth, Poison defense. Stat: +1 Throat, Poison defense. Stat: +1 Stomach, Poison defense.
His day so far had been eventful but not actually anything he would call interesting. After learning about stats and how to get to the next area he had gone out and killed a monster ¨C hammer smashed the nearest turtle ¨C but¡­it was less exciting than he imagined. Sure breaking things was inherently fun, but being told to break something sucked the interest out of the exchange. To add to the mob killing being unsatisfying, the damned thing had melted into nothing after being squished a few times. It seems like this game is PG rated? Half the fun is seeing the flying bits ¨C why was it being censored? To help squeamish people get used to it? Trick them into killing things on baby mode? Fuck that. Richard had dipped from monster killing after a single attempt ¨C picking out a free bedroom to leave his sledgehammer ¨C and then decided to climb a building. He had actually killed himself by climbing the tallest building in the town ¨C the clock tower ¨C then slipping off near the top. Just before he reached the clock, a section ended up being surprisingly slippery ¨C like the lip had been greased or something. That was a trip. All Richard could say was dying in this game was strange. A flash of muted pain as his legs splintered and shot up through his chest. A splotch of fuzzy static for a loading screen and then he was standing on the street near where he had started. His sense of time had been off. That was the weirdest part. He had been in static for¡­a few seconds at most but the sky was suddenly dimmer and streetlights had been flicked on. Between his fall and awakening on the streets, at least an hour had passed ¨C probably more the sun had been relatively high and shifted to setting. Besides the lost time as he respawned, there was something else ¨C supposedly there was no long-lasting negative impact from dying in this game. ¡°Supposedly¡± according to the TOS at least and he felt inclined to trust it. Despite there being ¡®no long-lasting impact¡¯, he felt strange and ¡®off¡¯ for almost an hour. Similar to the feeling he had gotten when he first arrived but worse. Richard thought back to his last few achievements.
?? Achievement get: Kill with a hammer.
Description: Destroyed a monster for the first time.
Stat: +2 Arm strength.
Passive skill: Hammer knowledge Knowledge of how to better swing a hammer.
?? Achievement get: First kill.
Description: Destroyed a monster for the first time.
Stat: +5 mental defense.
?? Achievement get: A trip around the block.
Description: Run around the entire tutorial village.
Stat: +1 leg speed.
?? Achievement get: The three stat leanings. (learn something new)
Description: Learn about stats, gain those stats get even more free stats.
Stat: +1 mental power
?? Achievement get: Climber 2
Description: Climbed a reasonable distance using nothing but your body.
Stat: +2 grip strength.
?? Achievement get: Fatal Faller
Description: Fallen to your own death. You died in a- the easymode sandbox. Wump wump. How pathetic, Have some pity stats.
Stat: +3 sole bludgeoning defense. Stat: +1 feet bludgeoning defense. Stat: +1 knee bludgeoning defense Stat: +1 leg defense. Stat: +1 chest piercing defense.
His whole day could be described by those achievements. All the minor points cut away and boiled down to series of events that rewarded him. Taking a sip of alcoholic fat Richard thought back further. He had zero interest in the various fetch quests offered, briefly been excited by the idea of killing a monster then disappointed once he found they were simply PG-13 animal punching bags. When he summed up his entire day the most fun he had had was running along rooftops. He had heard the sound of pursuers and known he was being chased. Falling off the clock tower had come close in terms of adrenaline but...he couldn''t say it was a pleasant experience. Why do I have galaxy brain levels of improvisation but can''t plan a fun event for shit. I just want to have some fun, life''s not worth stressing over....I mean I guess there is one thing I haven''t tried? Richard hadn¡¯t had a chance to use his bad luck skill yet, so sitting in the bar nursing his liquified sock he decided to test it out. A pulse in his head as he activated the familiar skill and what felt like a shiver running down his back was the only feedback that it had been used. Looking around Richard waited. And waited. A waiter tripped while carrying more waxy lard drink across the room ¨C his tray tumbling forward and smashing the liquid across a women¡¯s lap. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. She yelped and flinched backward ¨C her scooting chair smashing into a second waiter who tilted his tray sideways. The tray teetered back and forth as he attempted to regain control of it, then finally dumped a bowl of what Richard could only call ¡®food¡¯ onto a curly haired man¡¯s head. This man turned around and glared ¨C eyes missing the waiter and locking onto the shocked and slightly smirking face of another warrior. Roughly 15s into the activation of his skill and a small bar fight had begun breaking out in the center of the room. Huh. ¡­Richard felt kind of detached from the process. It was definitely kind of funny the way it just kept going like dominos¡­but for the most part he didn¡¯t get much enjoyment out of the skill use. Not as much as he should have. It kind of just felt pointless and disappointing. He hadn¡¯t been the one to do it. ¡°Press button and indiscriminately fuck with people¡­¡± he muttered under his breath. This skill didn¡¯t suit him at all ¨C the game hadn¡¯t chosen a good one. It was also annoyingly weak and situational if he thought of it as a combat skill. Admittedly he hadn¡¯t been going around asking players what skill they had gotten, but everyone else seemed to just need some time before they used it again not some convoluted resource-gathering minigame. One woman killing monsters on the field for example ¨C she could create a ball of napalm-like fire in her hands then chuck it at something once every few minutes. Simply lobbing the flame like a softball. Another ¨C a man wearing a floppy hat ¨C could clap his hands creating a huge flash of light in front of him seemingly every time he did so. Alternatively, if he thought of it as a skill to have fun with, he was left disappointed as well. Maybe Richard did like fucking with people, maybe the skill did match that part of him¡­ but the skill itself removed a lot of the fun he got from the process. Richard wanted to fuck with people he thought deserved it ¨C not everyone nearby. He wanted to screw over people who thought they were invincible. Ruin an arrogant prick''s day, have some fun at an incel''s expense. Not as some moral thing or some childish thoughts of justice ¨C nah Richard just had a ''type'' of victim he preferred. ¡°Ah fuck it, I¡¯m going for a walk.¡± Richard left his drink on the wooden table and moved out into the street ¨C stepping around a groaning drunk vomiting chunks of food that looked just as appetizing as it had been on the plate. ¡°Might even have improved how it looks? Meh¡± Richard lost interest. Darkness had come quickly and the surroundings were lit by bright streetlights shining down in perfect rings of light along the bricks. The air had grown chilly and a few steps away from the bar the sound of the brawl behind him faded. Spinning and picking a direction at random Richard began strolling down the street. He felt slightly tipsy as he walked ¨C more focus than needed directed towards putting one foot in front of the other¡­less focus spent actually looking at the surroundings. It all looked so ¡®samey¡¯ ¨C the brightly painted walls identical in clean primary blandness. After travelling a block, Richard was compelled to fill the silence somehow. ¡°One of the funniest things I can think of right now is that time I heard about a Florida man sneaking a crocodile into a cop car¡­you see ¡®MR System¡¯, it''s funny because they are pigs and definitely deserved it. ACAB after all.¡± Ricard spoke softly his slightly slurred voice barely carrying in the silence of the street. ¡°Thinking about them opening the door and seeing T-Rex jaws¡­heh¡­¡± Richard snorted and peered into a closed shop, his breath fogging up the window as he squinted and scanned the interior. ¡°So¡­Brainstorming something that might be fun. I¡¯d say I''d like to fuck with the guards but¡­well they are NPC¡¯s. What¡¯s even the point right? It''s so much fun to fuck with other players in video games than the bundles of code wandering about. It''s real. If you get a reaction from a person they gave you that reaction. If you get one from an AI it''s because the creator allowed you to get one.¡± Richard always trolled in multiplayer games. It entertained him more than the story or goal of most games. Messing with people online helped him relax in a way nothing else did. ¡­it was a shitty hobby for a shitty human being, but one he kept falling back on like an addict. ¡°Then again¡­I also heard of a different Florida man robbing a drive-through with a crocodile as a weapon. The mad lad threw the murder lizard through the window ¨C what a legend ¨C and honestly that¡¯s just as fun as the cop guy... wouldn¡¯t you say?¡± Richard continued talking to his silent system ¨C the only thing around to listen to his tipsy speech as he tried jimmying open the front door. It was locked and he didn¡¯t have a credit card or similar to try and break in¡­not that he was actually that practiced at breaking in despite the number of times he had snuck into places for ¡®pranks¡¯ over the years. ¡°So really¡­it¡¯s the crocodile that¡¯s hilarious right?¡± Richard found himself wandering around the side of the shop. He checked a closed window before moving further back towards a slightly ajar door casting light onto the dumpster beside it. ¡°And the crocodile is funny because of how absurd it is right? Comedy is sure fun when you try to analyze it right? Ahhh¡­fuck why can¡¯t I think of anything spontaneous?¡± Richard tested the back door finding it unlocked and stepped inside. ¡°Is someone there?¡± A sleepy voice asked from within a side room of the shop. Turning the corner as he stepped into the building Richard saw a confused-looking NPC holding what appeared to be a baggy shirt in his rough and calloused hands. He was in the middle of getting dressed for bed when Richard had come across him ¨C thankfully already in pyjama pants. ¡°Hey! Can you tell me about stats? What type of stats can the three be used on?¡± Richard blanked for half a second before saying the first thing that came to his mind. ¡°Oh! Of course I can teach you about that.¡± The NPC relaxed. ¡°Starting with the body, most power stats indicate physical strength of some sort. If you have an ¡®arm power¡¯ stat for example, your arms are stronger. Besides physical strength, we have most of the senses. Power in your nose will make you better able to smell thi¨C¡± Richard grabbed the shopkeeper''s shirt out of his hands and wrapped it up and around their throat ¨C pulling them down against his side and pushing down with all his strength. The NPC Struggled for a bit ¨C longer than Richard had imagined they would ¨C before going limp and unconscious as they flopped onto the ground. ¡­considering Richard had no experience choking someone out it felt surprisingly easy.
?? Achievement get: Non lethal takedown 1 (non stealth) (rare)
Description: Made a creature unconscious after startling them.
Stat: +1 Reaction speed. Stat: +2 Body strength.
?? Achievement get: Tricked! (uncommon)
Description: Trick an intelligent creature before attacking.
Stat: +2 lie generation power. Stat: +1 planning speed.
?? Achievement get: Breaking and entering. (uncommon)
Description: Subdued an ''NPC'' in their own home.
Stat: +1 fear defense. Stat: +1 decision making power.
Passive Skill: Sneak knowledge Knowledge of how best to sneak about...you know, like a criminal.
Richard stood breathing heavily all sense of being tipsy gone through the adrenaline. This was fun! ¡­he briefly considered finishing the job, but some part of his mind rebelled despite dismissing the NPC as being a mindless puppet. ¡­I¡¯m not cosplaying a serial killer why am I spending so much time thinking about merking the guy? I¡¯m¡­what am I doing actually? Fuck I did this without a plan didn¡¯t I? Got tired of brainstorming with my non existent imagination? I guess I did want something spontaneous¡­ Looking around in the silence, Richard began talking once more ¨C this time directing all his remarks down at the unconscious body. ¡°Now¡­ let''s tie you up with those bedsheets ¨C don¡¯t make this weird ¨C and figure out what I can do with your ¡®store¡¯. Maybe I¡¯ll figure out something great after looking about? Wish me luck big guy.¡± Rubbing his head slightly Richard got to work. ¡­ The next day had Richard standing in front of ''his'' new store ¨C handing out free desserts and telling players who came close ''mostly helpful'' information. The shop he had infiltrated was a bakery of sorts, with a bedroom, a kitchen and a front area full of pre-baked goods. Richard had tried his hand at making more deserts last night but his lumpy cookies looked decidedly different from the rest of the offerings¡­ and the +1 brain power achievement for cooking them all did not seem worth it ¨C at least in comparison to the amount of effort he had put in. Everything had kind of gotten out of hand, he had attacked and replaced the baker on a whim but now he felt like he couldn¡¯t leave. He wished there was something to lace the deserts with ¨C him giving advice was just an attempt at making this whole scenario less a waste of his time. ¡°Yes, I heard there''s an achievement for shooting a bow while standing on your head and hitting your target. There''s a secret rare achievement for doing so in the sewers and killing one of these giant rats ¨C you didn¡¯t hear that from me!¡± Thanking him, a stooge with a bow ran off excitedly to gain his new achievements. ¡­they probably actually were achievements now that Richard thought about it ¨C he just thought the idea of making someone stand on their head in the sewers was a lark. ¡°Hey! You over there, Want to learn a secret? There¡¯s an achievement for killing your friends ¨C the betrayer gives you a nice stat bonus~¡± ¡°Want to know a secret? Removing a guard''s clothing gives you a strong bonus.¡±
?? Achievement get: Quest giver 1
Description: Inform multiple people about previously unknown achievements
Stat: +1 Wisdom.
¡­this is less fun when I know those are actually achievements. System¡¯s prank blue balling me. Dropping the cupcake he was handing someone Richard abandoned the charade and began walking away from his store. As he was leaving the bow guy came running up to him excitedly. ¡°You were right Mr baker! I got the handstand bow shot ¨C 7 balance, 2 arm strength, 1 eyesight. I¡¯m going to try and get the sewer achievement next! This is the best achievement I¡¯ve gotten so far! Thank you!¡± ¡°¡­no problem.¡± Richard responded pushing past him. Richard wandered through the town trying to find something to do. He used his chaos field once ¨C at least a point had been gained from his ''advice'' gig ¨C and watched an NPC on a bike fall over, crashing into a player holding a giant sword. Both apologized to each other furiously and Richard¡¯s eyes glazed over. There¡¯s no point in any of this¡­maybe the next area will be more fun? I have more than enough points by now right? ¡­ Looking back up towards the clock tower Richard shrugged and moved to climb and jump off it once more. Just for good luck. Throw the system off its game. Chapter 5. Control and slaughter. ---Maddy--- Madison swung her scythe through multiple rabbits ¨C sweeping around in a low spin to bisect the cute targets. Watching them burst into fuzzy nothing she glanced to the side at the achievement popping into her vision.
3?? Achievement get: Triple kill.
Description: Description ¡®Ouuuu baybeeee a triple¡¯. Kill three within your tier within a single second.
Stat: +1 arm speed.
?? Achievement get: Monster slayer I
Description: Directly kill 100 monsters within your tier
Stat: +1 Reaction Speed. Stat: +2 Arm speed. Stat: +1 Arm strength. Stat: +1 Core strength.
?? Achievement get: Scythemaster (rare)
Description: Kill 100 using a scythe
Active Skill: The reaper¡¯s blade. Apply necrotic attack to scythe weapons. Cooldown 3 minutes. Cooldown reset on kills while the skill is still active.
? Achievement get: Gain an affinity.
Description: ¡°Necrotic affinity¡±
Stat: +1 mental stability.
Passive skill: Skill Use Knowledge on how to use your skill has been gained.
Maddy turned smiling back at Troy ¨C ¡°Got it!¡± she laughed, including her impromptu partner in her excitement. ¡°We need to get you an affinity next ¨C using a weapon enough times is basically guaranteed to get you a skill from what I can tell. The requirements are really simple.¡± Troy stood awkwardly holding his blowgun. Before he met up with Maddy he had grabbed a bow and managed to land a few kills with it. ¡­Maddison thought that was a waste, her party needed rare weapons to succeed ¨C she had convinced him to swap to his current blow gun for increased uniqueness. ¡°It feels weird.¡± He spoke after fidgeting a bit. ¡°I know, that¡¯s partly because of how new it is. My scythe felt incredibly weird when I first held it¡­ but now its comfortable. You got knowledge for using a bow after destroying one monster with a bow and that¡¯s why it felt better. I¡¯m sure everyone started off with their weapons feeling bad ¨C that¡¯s just due to inexperience!¡± She spoke, partly from experience partly from hours of pumping the natives for information. ¡°Now¡­sadly because you already got the bow knowledge, this test is going to take a few more kills to get you blowgun knowledge¡­based on what that old women said you should get it after 10 kills. Hold off till then to see if you actually like it or not¡­okay? Anyone who drops a weapon without giving it a proper shot is weak-willed and I know you¡¯re not that.¡± ¡°okay¡± Troy parroted back Maddy stepped back and watched carefully as Troy fed a nib into one end of the weapon and raised it ¨C aiming carefully despite his inexperience. Thuck. A faint sound was made as the projectile shot out ¨C missing the rabbit by a good half a meter even as it noticed and jumped to the side. Slashing out with her new skill [the reaper''s blade], Madison bisected the escaping Rabbit ¨C The first use of her skill being overkill when she could slice them in two normally. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Let''s try again.¡±
--- James --- James moved onto his 5th weapon. He had tried a large sword, a spear, a dagger, a bow, and now he was picking up a spiked hammer. Nothing felt right. Nothing felt satisfying, felt strong enough. Everything was awkward. He had started switching shopkeepers so they wouldn¡¯t know how many times he had swapped his weapon ¨C they all seemed to accept trade-in¡¯s funnily enough ¨C even if they weren¡¯t the original ¡®seller¡¯. Heading out yet again, James stepped outside of the gates and activated haste ¨C dashing forward immediately to swing the hammer into a now scarred and heavily wounded but still alive boar. Haste deactivated even as his weapon collided and slipped away causing the boar to squeal in pain. ¡°DAMMIT.¡± James lunged forward. He grabbed the boar''s bristled side, hands pulling loose-matted skin down, even as he scrambled up the side of the boar. With a flailing scramble as the boar pulled itself forward, James pulled himself sideways up and onto its back. Kicking when he got a good hold James managed to knock it over ¨C pushing the creature onto its side with a demonic squeal. James punched down onto the ¡®monster¡¯ its snarling snout snapping up at him as he pounded flesh. Again and again. The boar twisted underneath him as it attempted to escape, spinning its legs up into him and kicking James¡¯s ribs hard ¨C a crack sounding out but being ignored. Flailing around with the dulled pain James eyed a rock and snatched it off the grass swinging his arm back and bringing it down onto the boar¡¯s snout. Up and down the rock fell ¨C James bashing the boar¡¯s head into the grass with no small amount of pent-up frustration activating haste partway through his smashing attack speeding up until he was battering the boar multiple times a second. He kept battering until the boar simply disappeared below him and James realized he was just smashing the ground stupidly with his rock haste deactivated and on cooldown. Slowly the frantic haze of battle faded. James felt broken. Dozens of wounds littered his arms, his legs, his chest. They hurt but in a diminished sort of way. Like a bunch of papercuts that ached deep towards his bones. Even as the adrenaline faded and James gained enough coherence to read the floating achievements¡­he found that¡¯s what stood out to him. He was surprised by how weak the pain felt.
?? Achievement get: First kill.
Description: Destroyed a monster for the first time.
Stat: +5 mental defense.
?? Achievement get: Kill your first monster with a rock. (unique)
Description: A precursor to the glorious world changing invention that is ¡®rock stuck on stick¡¯ you have chosen to forgo that great technology and killed using nothing but a nice reliable rock.
Stat: +1 body strength. Stat: +2 body defense. Stat: +3 right arm strength.
?? Achievement get: Test dummy.
Description: You have tried out a variety of weapons on a single opponent before finishing them off. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Stat: +2 brain power.
?? Achievement get: Grudge match. (uncommon)
Description: You have finally laid a personal grudge to rest ¨C destroying something you saw as a rival. Paying back your pain and more by fighting in anger and killing in rage.
Stat: +10 body strength.
James could feel himself getting stronger. Physically feel himself getting stronger nearly all at once. Most of the stats were a general ¡°tiny bit better¡± sense but +3 right arm strength was a rush. It was a noticeable change ¨C James¡¯s right arm was noticeably stronger than the rest of his body ¨C and James wanted more. Standing up James wobbled slightly before turning and freezing in shock. A long haired man carrying a thin curved sword in one hand and a spiked hammer in the other watched him struggle to his feet laughing slightly. He had a wide disarming grin and spoke using a trembling voice that James could tell was making fun of him. ¡°That was probably the most pathetic kill I¡¯ve seen yet. You rushed forward so fast at the start I stopped to watch¡­but man you got shredded.¡± James hated dealing with people. Why had he stopped just to make fun of him? The long haired man twirled his weapons slightly in the silence eyes travelling to James¡¯s bloody chest before glancing back at his face. ¡°You mute? Or just stupid?¡± The man called out again, tossing the spiked hammer up once before catching it. ¡­that was my spiked hammer. ¡°Hey, thanks for finding my weapon for me. I lost it in the fray¡­¡± ¡°So you can talk? Perfect. Listen might as well tell you now, We all revive from death so its not a big deal what I¡¯m about to do.¡± Stepping forwards the thief continued talking calmly a new glint appearing in his eyes. ¡°You see, this tutorial zone is getting kind of boring and I¡¯ve been let in on a little secret. PK is much more lucrative than monster killing. The achievement¡¯s almost 10x as good. Dozens of stats¡± James activated haste and lunged forward. Towards the would be PK¡¯er. A brief flicker of surprise crossed the man¡¯s eyes before he moved and suddenly James was skewered. He had rushed forward and then dodged to the side at the last moment ¨C meaning to get around and¡­he wasn¡¯t sure actually. Either rush past him to the safety of the village or attack the man¡¯s back ¨C in preemptive self-defense. Either way, nothing worked how he hoped. Somehow the man¡¯s arm had moved into James¡¯s path stabbing his blade through his stomach and whipping the hammer around into the side of his head. Everything spun as James fell, eyes glancing up at a boot. The last thing he could see.
?? Achievement get: Killed by a player.
Description: Rip.
Stat: +2 chest piercing defense. Stat: +1 head bludgeoning defense. Stat: +1 neck bludgeoning defense. Stat: +1 brain speed. Stat: +1 mental defense.
James awoke standing in the street, a wave of static lifting away from his senses as he oriented himself. He felt nauseous. A shivering feeling of anxiety wrapped around his neck and chest ¨C wholly mental in scope. What the fuck. James breathed deeply, looking at the death achievement fading away slowly in front of him. No, what the fuck. It took nearly a minute for the sense that he had lost to fade and his critical thinking to set in. Death had¡­been almost a boon. His body was completely healed ¨C no sign of the boar fight around him. He had gotten quite a few stats from ¡°dying¡±. James breathed out slowly staring at the stats themselves. Chest piercing defense. Not enough to matter but¡­a small step towards preventing me from getting stabbed that way again. Neck and head defense¡­a small step towards avoiding getting killed by a mallet again. Brain¡­stuff. To better prevent myself from getting in the same position once more? James stood in the street flipping between emotions. On one hand, he had had more luck using a rock than he had a weapon. A literal rock felt better in his hands than a proper hammer ¨C he could still feel the slight thrill he had while smashing it down. On the same hand, he had been healed and given a reward for dying¡­it really didn¡¯t effect him in the end. On the opposite more pressing hand however, James was annoyed by the idea of the thief profiting off of him. Of getting an achievement worth a lot. Of getting an extra weapon for free. At his expense. That was his issue. He had just been used. The whole point of coming here¡­the whole hope he was starting to nurse was that he wouldn¡¯t have to be used anymore. James¡¯s scattered mind got angry at being killed and then purposefully calmed itself down. He had gone through worse. Having credit stolen after working unpaid overtime to get something done. Getting put on probation for ¡®not being a team player¡¯ after trying to report it¡­considering this didn¡¯t seem to affect him going forward ¨C all those ¡°real¡± hardships were dozens of times worse. James breathed and collected his thoughts. I feel like it¡¯s the wrong lesson to take away from this but¡­stuff the system gives me like stats and haste have been kept. The weapon the shopkeepers gave me was taken. It wasn¡¯t actually mine, just borrowed. The system didn¡¯t give it to me so I can¡¯t trust it ¨C I can only trust my body? Is that the best part to learn? James narrowed in on this point his mind slowly coming to terms with his desires. I want to be strong. No¡­that wasn¡¯t quite right. I want¡­control. God that¡¯s cringy sounding, ¡®look at me, future control freak¡¯ right here. James batted the thoughts away before circling around and settling on them once again. He really did want control. Control over his body. Control over his life. He didn¡¯t want to work for anyone else, rely on anyone else. ¡­and ¡®being strong¡¯ was the simplest solution. A side effect of his real desire. If he was strong he wouldn''t be an easy target for PK. If he was strong he wouldn¡¯t be pushed around just for existing. If he was strong he could do what he really wanted and no one could stop him. Would even try stopping him. ¡­Maybe not completely a side effect. If James was being honest with himself, that frantic fight with a boar was the most fun he had had in¡­years. It was the happiest he had felt in years. He had been slashed and stabbed and nearly died¡­and it had felt amazing. He wanted to do it again. ¡­ James exited the village from the back this time. The sun was setting, the light growing dim and casting long shadows from the few trees that poked up throughout the field. The trees were closer together behind the town. Not quite what you would call a forest ¨C especially with all the grass beneath it ¨C but enough to cover the ground nearly completely in shade. The trees were what James¡¯s mother would have referred to as ¡°climbing trees¡±. A mixture of large branches ¨C both low and high ¨C topped with green curling leaves. Similar to maple trees but with leaves that curled nearly into tubes. A serpentine shape moved along a branch over James¡¯s head ¨C a faint hiss sounding out just before it dropped. The hiss alerted him to the danger seconds before it appeared and his reflexes pushed him into jumping forward ¨C as he jolted into action James activated his favourite skill [haste] pulling him away faster than should be possible.
?? Achievement get: Great Hearing! (Uncommon)
Description: Dodge a deadly sneak attack using nothing but a sound cue.
Stat: +3 Hearing strength.
Turning, James looked about for a rock ¨C realizing none were within reach ¨C and settled for a large branch. Even as the snake thudded to the ground behind him, James swiped the branch, smashing it down onto the snake''s body covering it completely for a second in foliage. The snake thrashed and started to climb up through the dead leaves of the branch ¨C even as James picked it up once more and swung sideways like a batter. The snake flew wide, its length visible in the dim light ¨C just longer than James¡¯s arm. Damn, I was aiming for the tree trunk. James ran after the snake jumping up and landing directly on its middle expecting a squish but getting a slight roll forwards as the tube bulged beneath his sneakers. Raising his leg up and stamping as hard as he could, James caught the snake''s head, finally killing the creature.
?? Achievement get: Curb stomp a monster to death. (rare)
Description: You squeezed a snake like a tube of toothpaste.
Stat: +5 sole defense. Stat: +1 leg speed. Stat: +2 leg power.
James felt his legs shift slightly as the ¡°monster¡± faded to nothing. The high of stats ¨C the instant gratification of achievements pumping dopamine ¨C fueled James¡¯s search for something else to fight. In the distance, he saw a turtle resting beneath a tree. Got you. Creeping forwards, James spent the time to pick up a large rock and step around the tree. He held it under one arm and reached up, holding onto a solid branch as he did so. Slowly, carefully, James swung his leg up onto a knot and kicked into a sideways hang. Nearly dropping his rock, he shifted slightly before straightening up and peering through a split in the trunk spying his prey. Still there, perfect. Shimmying up into the fork of the tree with his back to one trunk and his feet to the other, James pulled himself up to a higher branch and then an even higher one. Up, up James clambered, reaching one of the largest branches near the top ¨C everything past it was too thin and, more importantly, this one spread out nearly directly above the turtle ¨C who still hadn¡¯t moved yet. His hand gripped into bark as he began to shimmy forward, one hand holding his rock against his chest, the other pulling him forwards. His legs wrapped around the branch below him tightly and his eyes were locked on the prize.
?? Achievement get: Climb carry. (rare)
Description: Climbed up to a reasonable height while carrying a heavy object.
Stat: +1 grip strength. Stat: +2 palm defense. Stat: +1 arm strength.
Reaching a point he was satisfied with, James tried to figure out how best to brace himself. Mostly in place James pulled back and aimed, before swinging downwards slightly throwing the rock at the middle of the turtle''s body.
?? Achievement get: Killed with planning.
Description: You created a plan of attack that required set up and followed through with it until the end.
Stat: +1 brain power.
?? Achievement get: A dropped rock. (Unique)
Description: Killed a creature from ¡®up high¡¯ after dropping a large rock on them. - you didn''t even have a conveniently placed boulder beside a cliff to do it with
Stat: +3 Planning power. Stat: +3 Body power.
A shudder went through James¡¯s body as the achievements faded and he felt the stats effect take hold. Moving to climb back down, James paused mid-scramble and checked the distance instead. ¡­I should be able to reach that right? Rolling over the side of the branch and dangling his legs downward, James dropped just over four meters ¨C bracing his legs against the impact and finding them stronger than he expected ¨C not even noticing the drop. Crouching and landing sideways, James paused and looked to the front hopefully ¨C to see if that warranted an achievement. ¡­Apparently not. Guess I¡¯ll find another monster to kill. Boar, Snake, Turtle¡­I saw deer and rabbits running around? Not sure if there¡¯s anything else but let¡¯s try and complete the set. Chapter 6. Dealing with others. ---Maddy--- Maddy practiced her ability again and again. Her gaining [The Reapers blade] or ¡®magic slash¡¯ had filled her with a sense of familiarity and intuitive understanding of its use and limitations¡­but she didn¡¯t want to take that for granted. Instead, she made a mental sort of review of the skill ¨C practicing it repeatedly and mentally noting down what she learned. For most groups that last note meant she could chain her slashes indefinitely making sure she killed something each time. Single-use slightly stronger attack plus short ongoing affliction to a single target. Alternatively, a constant skill on every attack, assuming there¡¯s plenty of weaker targets to reset the cooldown. There¡¯s something about putting everything into point form that really organizes things isn¡¯t there. Twang. An arrow drilled through the boar''s side, squishing into the melted flesh her skill had left and hitting some vital spot in the monster ¨C causing it to disappear.
?? Achievement get: Dynamic Duo
Description: Killed a total of 150 same tier monsters in a group of two. You socialite you.
Stat: +1 Hearing strength, Stat: +1 Sound defense.
Troy had annoyingly refused to stick with the blowgun, slingshot or hand dart¡­ returning to a bow he claimed ¡®felt the best¡¯. So many people are going use such a generic weapon, we have to stand out to get far ¨C why can¡¯t he just understand that? I haven¡¯t seen anyone else using a blowgun ¨C that¡¯s why it''s perfect! Maddy knew she could have pushed him into sticking with a less used weapon ¨C a few words, a firm push here or there¡­but she was wrestling that side of herself into submission. She had already slipped a few times ¨C Troy was just so easy to manipulate and years of practice were hard to shake off when she was stressed out. She hated that side of herself ¨C she refused to dictate her teammate''s builds for them more than she already had. An offhanded swipe of her black-tipped blade killed a rabbit jumping from the side.
?? Achievement get: I see you, I kill you
Description: Kill a monster within 500ms of noticing it.
Stat: +1 Brain speed.
A burst of light shone through the air beside her, a glowing arrow flashing forward and sinking completely through a rabbit''s body. ¡°I did it! I got a skill¡± The boy beamed over at her. ¡°Well done!¡± Maddy smiled back and raised her hand for a high-five. She paused for him to walk forward and receive his reward. Maybe if I commit to being his partner it will feel less like I¡¯m just using him. ¡­yeah that sounds good. I don¡¯t want to be the type of girl who treats people solely on usefulness, I refuse to become my mother ¨C no matter how much his weapon selection is suboptimal. ¡°How many stats do you need to cross the barrier? I¡¯m nearly there.¡± She asked him out of hand. ¡°I¡­haven¡¯t been keeping track. I¡¯ve gotten at least 10?¡± ...I''m at 26 if I''ve been keeping track. He''s probably close. Still in the first few hours that...should be pretty good right? ¡°¡­the old women mentioned we could check by trying to pass the barrier? Want to go try it out?¡± Maddy offered. ¡°Okay¡± Troy nodded quietly. ¡­he¡¯s so submissive I¡¯d hate to see what someone else could do to him¡­yeah, it''s for the best he sticks with me. Keep telling yourself that. Maddy led the lanky manchild across the field. They stopped twice to defeat boars before reaching a shimmering veil. Up close, the barrier looked somewhat like oily glass, Head on it was completely clear but looking to either side, a reflective rainbow sheen hung in the air ¨C refracting light in a manner that Maddy could only call ¡°odd¡±. Placing her hand against the barrier caused her fingers to spread out as if she were pressing it against a wall ¨C but no feeling of touch was relayed back to her brain. Pushing harder bent her fingers back slightly, the dim twinge of reduced pain registering after a point¡­ but still no sense of touch returned to her. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Going say that means we don¡¯t have enough yet,¡± Maddy said turning back to her teammate rubbing his hand back and forth along the touchless barrier. ¡°Yeah,¡± Troy stated marvelling at the phenomenon in front of him. ¡°I figure it''s still early but we should start thinking about our party soon. So far I¡¯m our close-ranged melee fighter and you¡¯re our long ranged archer¡­Now, I could start working on defense ¨C and become a tank hybrid ¨C but I think we are better off finding a third member to be our tank. Want to go find someone?¡± Troy seemed put off by the idea of adding a member but nodded a moment later as if realizing he was being difficult. ¡°Alright, let''s head back to the tavern, I think that will be the best place to find our tank.¡± ¡­ Maddy walked between her fellow travellers stepping around people in the surprisingly large Inn ¨C Troy trailing along behind her. She was looking for a tank, but more specifically a tank that looked¡­amicable to joining a group. Tanks were surprisingly hard to find. If this were a video game she¡¯d have dozens of people to ask, but as it was, she saw maybe three characters holding shields ¨C all of whom seemed to have already found groups. Deep down a faint voice in her head said to pick the easiest-looking person to manipulate and make them start working towards being a tank¡­but she brought that metaphorical voice out behind the back shed and pumped it full of angry bullets. Someone, I just need to find someone who can work at blocking and holding someone down. It doesn¡¯t have to be someone holding a shield I just need ¨C Eyes passing over everyone sitting alone, something flickered in her memory. I passed her earlier today. She was¡­someone who was trying out a shield right? A massive tower shield? I don¡¯t see it anymore but she¡¯s sitting alone. Dodging around a waiter Maddy approached the woman gesturing to the bench across from her and speaking confidently. ¡°Mind if we sit down?¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± The women''s physique was surprisingly muscular from up close, with strong-looking broad shoulders, a tomboyish sprawl of arms and legs and sharp eyes¡­ in contrast, her voice was shy sounding ¨C soft and incredibly quiet like a mouse. She sat in a booth halfway along the tavern''s wall, an uneaten plate of mush pushed far into the corner of the table. Directly in front of her was a mostly downed tankard of some clear drink ¨C presumably booze ¨C and she held a clear mug loosely in one hand. ¡°My name¡¯s Maddison but you can call me Maddy, all my friends do.¡± Reaching across the table Maddy offered her hand and smiled disarmingly. The woman stared at the offering for a moment, then reached out with her empty hand and shook it firmly. ¡°Jess,¡± the women responded quietly as if in afterthought. ¡°I want to be straight with you, We are hoping to find a tank for our party. Are you interested?¡± I think straightforward is best with her, no point beating around the bush for a while first. The woman scratched her head for a bit then pulled out a whip, ¡°How did you know I¡¯ve been working on defense ¨C are you some kind of stalker? My weapons¡­well like this.¡± ¡°I saw you earlier with a massive shield and recognized you. This is Troy by the way,¡± Maddy spoke quickly, trying to figure the woman out. Her mental profile flipped a few times before settling once more. The woman glanced at Troy who seemed much more enthusiastic about a second member now that he knew it was a girl...then flicked her sharp eyes back to Maddy. ¡°Why?¡± An open-ended question that could mean multiple things¡­I think she means it in this way. ¡°I think working together is better, because focusing on individual strengths is the best path to success. Besides that, it''s lonely to travel alone right? Groups, that form early are bound to be more tight-knit?¡± Maddy spoke, trying to sell the woman on why they should team up. Jess held her head back for a moment staring up at the ceiling before sipping her drink and nodding. ¡°Sure.¡± Near the entrance of the bar, a fight started forming. A waiter had spilled something on a tightly wound man just waiting for an excuse to pick a fight. Scooching back further into the booth, Maddy watched for a moment before returning to her tentative newest partner. ¡°So tell me about yourself?¡±
?? Achievement get: Form a ''party''.
Description: Strength in numbers. You''ve formed a group dedicated to fighting together.
Stat: +1 Brain power.
... The group stood in the field practicing working together on each of the individual monsters offered. Jess had already gained a ''creation'' affinity from tanking hits with a shield that let her create flat barriers at the end of something she was holding. After switching to a whip that meant she could fling a cord out and place a yellow pane of "barrier" in front of ¨C or to the side of ¨C creatures faster than she could move. The barrier shattered after a single good hit, but was enough to stun a charging boar and let the others finish it off in the few moments of its confusion.
?? Achievement get: Stun Kill.
Description: Kill a creature thats been knocked out somehow. Opportunity or planning?
Stat: +1 Brain power.
Despite her tone and soft voice, Jess was incredibly aggressive while fighting ¨C throwing herself at the creatures with wild lunges and a wild look in her eye.
?? Achievement get: Group kills 1.
Description: Killed 100 within-tier monsters in a proper party.
Stat: +1 Arm strength. Stat: +1 Arm Speed. Stat: +1 Core Strength.
After confirming everyone had the 27 stats needed, Maddy stopped them and started to speak her plan. "So, has anyone noticed how we were offered a free meal and a free night''s rest?" "Yeah, I already had my meal, they just kept bringing stuff to me till I said I was full." Jess spoke quietly. Troy just nodded at the question so Maddy continued. "Only one night''s rest, that means they expect most people to leave sometime tomorrow ¨C unless they are willing to put in the effort to barter for more nights. Considering the average person will leave tomorrow I think we should leave right away, achievements are based on doing novel things or acting outside of the norm after all." Maddy continued. "Are you sure about that? As far as I remember from the strange agreement I made, achievements are based on effort. How much you push yourself?" Jess cut in. ... "Okay, let''s share anything you remember from the TOS." Maddy started again, "Something about everyone having an equal chance, and effort being rewarded," Jess spoke scratching her head. "I can become strong, better myself and become better at...stuff. Also, I''ll be put somewhere safe." Troy spoke after they turned to him. "Okay, so what I got was that doing unique things give better rewards. Being the first to complete something. Making decisions others don''t make. That''s a way of getting ahead without putting in as much effort. It''s being smart. Where I''m going with this is I think we should leave the tutorial now and hope either we get an achievement for leaving as soon as possible or we get a head start on whatever comes next." Looking at each other Jess and Troy seemed to be gauging the other''s reactions. "Should we not sleep first? What if we don''t have a bed in the next area? It''s getting late - shouldn''t we leave early tomorrow?" Jess asked after a moment. "I''m guessing quite a few people are going to think that way, That''s why it''s better to leave now. Be at the head of the pack. It''s obviously a decision we all have to make together... but that''s my vote. It seems like the smart thing to do." Glancing at Troy with that last line he seemed to make up his mind "I think we should leave now as well". Now for the last one. "Sure" Jess spoke moments later, "I''m out voted anyways." Oh, no more convincing was needed. As the sun began to set on the first day the group of three began walking towards the outer barrier ¨C as they watched someone stepped through ahead of them and subconsciously the group began moving faster. The last few steps were made nearly at a run all three entering the barrier simultaneously. Chapter 7. F**k around and find out. ---James--- James was finished killing one of each ''monster'' outside of the town and he felt great. He hadn''t gotten an achievement for doing so ¨C despite his quest query proving there was one ¨C and decided to move inside the town to find the missing collectable kill. After nearly two hours of searching the streets, he found it nearly by chance. An open entrance In an alleyway with a glowing neon sign helpfully declaring "sewer". Stepping down into the dim corridor James found himself wishing he had his phone for light. I¡­think I can manage without a flashlight? ¡­or a torch? James''s eyes slowly adjusted as he moved further away from the entrance. The amount of light faded the further in he walked before a chittering sound rang out and the sound of splashing came towards him. Dimly a small furry shape came rushing towards his legs and James kicked out by instinct punting the creature back down the hallway.
?? Achievement get: Vigilant nightwatcher.
Description: Respond to an attack in poor lighting.
Stat: +1 night vision.
A sharp squeak rang out and as it oriented itself and the point of night vision seeped through, James could just barely make out the two tiny red eyes glaring back at him. Rat, massive rat. Running him down again James activated [haste] and spun his leg around, the skill aiding his movement and letting him kick the rat into the wall beside him. Crunch. There was definitely the sound of breaking bones with that last hit ¨C Rats were unsurprisingly kind of fragile. Kicking out one last time and squishing the creature against the wall James was met with two rewards.
?? Achievement get: Killed a rat without a light.
Description: A case of all the information needed being contained in the achivement name.
Stat: +3 night vision.
?? Achievement get: Zone 1 monster collector. (Rare)
Description: Killed one of each type of monster in the tutorial.
Stat: +5 body power. Stat: +5 body speed. Stat: +5 mental power. Stat: +5 mental speed
James could see quite a bit better, the near black ''forward'' becoming a dim path for several more meters deeper as his eyesight suddenly sharpened. Do I keep going? Turn back? James stood considering. He had gotten what he came for and as much as he was riding a high from his new stats¡­he didn''t really want to kill more Rats in the dark just because he could. Better eyesight would help quite a bit but it wouldn''t do anything in complete darkness... No, he had gotten what he came for ¨C Might as well leave. Stepping out of the sewer into the pitch darkness James looked around then decided to take a quick nap at the Inn before heading out. He was starting to get tired. ---Richard--- Richard liked breaking things. He liked breaking things he knew he wasn¡¯t supposed to break ¨C In this case, what he was breaking was technically his own body¡­but more accurately he felt like he was abusing the system ¨C cheating the non-existent rules of this game he found himself in. There were two important points for this scam¡­ One, nothing the system gave could be taken away ¨C only altered with consent. Richard finally figured out the loophole for that rule. The system gave them stats and skills ¨C those were safe from harm ¨C but something else was in charge of¡­other parts of the game. Namely, free resurrection was a gift by something other than the system¡­and the way NPC¡¯s got cagy about that, meant it might be changed in the future. Same with the free weapons, same with the free pain resistance. It was definitely going to be changed ¨C Richard didn¡¯t trust free stuff. People on average weren''t nice enough to offer free things without a catch. ¡®If you think something is free the product is probably you¡¯ and all that. So resurrection might start costing something or disappear¡­ this game becoming a permadeath one. Might as well cheese the free achievements while I can? Abuse the tutorial? Cheese the ''Cheevos. The best way to farm death achievements that Richard found was to damage his body a whole bunch, Survive with massive wounds for a bit and get achievements for that¡­and then kill himself to reset his state. Free healing plus the death achievement. Picking a nice secluded alleyway to farm stats Richard went to work. He held his hand above a torch ¨C his current free ¡°weapon¡± ¨C burning the skin until it blistered and popped ¨C eyes stinging even through the reduced pain.
?? Achievement get: Careful, that¡¯s hot! (rare)
Description: Burn a hand with fire.
Stat: +3 Left-hand fire defense.
Moving the flame along his arm and across his chest Richard found himself beginning to regret this course of action as heat dug deeper.
?? Achievement get: Can¡¯t learn your lesson, (unique)
Description: After burning one hand and being unable to use it, you burned the other ¨C proving once is not enough to learn your lesson.
Stat: +2 Arms Fire defense. Stat: +2 Hands Fire defense
?? Achievement get: Self immolation (Rare)
Description: You have burned your entire body to death in the middle of a city. Clumsy. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Stat: +5 Body Fire Defense
?? Achievement get: Edgy (uncommon)
Description: Cut yourself on your own blade ¨C careful! That¡¯s sharp!
Stat: +3 Chest Slashing defense
?? Achievement get: Mauled by a boar.
Description: Fallen to a Tier 1 monster. Don¡¯t worry, Everyone starts somewhere.
Stat: +3 Body bludgeoning defense. Stat: +1 Chest slashing defense.
?? Achievement get: Seppuku. (rare)
Description: Stabbed your stomach with your own blade. Dishonor!
Stat: +4 stomach piercing defense. Stat: +4 stomach general defense.
?? Achievement get: Masochist. (rare)
Description: Purposefully caused yourself harm multiple times in the tutorial to raise your own stats. You must like the pain.
Stat: +10 Nerve power Stat: +10 Nerve arcane defense
Warning: First rank fully reached (81 total stats). Stats and achievements cannot be gained past the first sub tier of rank 1 (117 total stats) in instanced reality Zone1, #000120212
That last achievement and subsequent warning was proof either someone caught on or prepared for the ¡°exploit¡± Richard was using. Richard could feel whatever energy ¡®stats¡¯ were made out of rushing through pathways beneath his skin. As if his skin was full of pores being unblocked, touch bloomed across his body ¨C an intense rush of feelings rushing through every part of his being. These ¡°feelings¡± were overwhelmingly comprised of white-hot pain. Intense, soul-searing pain that literally stabbed through his body ¨C not something that shock was reducing, his nerves hadn¡¯t died and given him blessed relief. The blinding violating agony started in his core and radiated out into his extremities. Richard screamed at close to the top of his lungs. He had been in the midst of melting his arms chest and legs with acid stolen from the leatherworking section of an armour shop. It was supposed to be a game. An exploit without consequences. There was so much proof that was the case ¨C the acid itself for example. ¡°Real acid¡± wasn¡¯t nearly as dangerous as the stuff he had found ¨C and something that could melt his flesh as fast as it was doing so would melt through leather if that was really what it was used for. Fuck, Richards''s industrial chem prof had stirred hydrochloric acid bare-handed ¨C and that was a strong acid! Even if it had been diluted a bit at the time it had been some proof that acid didn¡¯t work the same as it did in movies. Richard scratched his chest ¨C the goop that had been his skin sloughing off exposing muscles and fat with each scratch. His fingernail fell off in the puddle that slid down his side and tears dripped into the gore covering his front. It was drawing out too long, why was he still alive? It had all seemed so clever moments before. He had been wincing through the pain ¡®like a man¡¯ raising his whole bodies ¡®acid defense¡¯ by leaps and bounds. The pain had been bad but manageable and the periodic achievements sweetened the burn into feeling like a workout. Richard could do workouts even if they were mostly a social thing. The guess that he was taking advantage of something or someone sweetened it even further¡­it had felt addicting. Glorious. He was grinding a truly massive amount of stats. ¡­Now it felt like he should have been placed on a reality tv show titled ¡°fuck around and find out¡±. His mind had blanked ¨C the pain wasn¡¯t going away ¨C he was still screaming ¨C his early acid defense achievements seemed to have kept him alive even longer than he should have ¨C people were watching ¨C why wasn¡¯t he dead yet ¨C his thoughts were becoming disjointed. Richards''s mutilated hand scrambled about and found the stolen dagger he had been using for slash defense farming. His fingers wrapped around the blades edge in his haze of pain a spasm of new agony causing his hand to clench tightly ¨C reflexively and completely against his will.
?? Achievement get: Knife game. (rare)
Description: Slice off a finger using a knife.
Stat: +5 Finger Slashing defense Stat: +5 Fingers Slashing defense.
His finger was gone but he barely noticed through the haze of his bubbling chest cavity. Why did it smell so bad? Why hadn¡¯t he noticed the smell till now. Why couldn¡¯t he focus? ¡­his finger was gone but that¡­didn¡¯t matter. His finger didn¡¯t matter, it would be back soon. ¡°This is a game. Everything is fake.¡± Richard rasped to himself. ¡­trying to make his body believe it even as his arms scrambled about and attempted to manipulate the knife towards his melted chest. ¡°Just a game. Just a fake g ¨C hick ¨C game.¡± Richard blinked at the red and slippery knife held above him. He coughed some searing bile up trying to focus through the pain. It was getting really hard to believe that truth in this moment. It was hard to make his brain understand this was fake with the waves of pain rolling through him screaming they were real. It was hard to bring his knife up to his neck ¨C some part of him rebelled even though he knew he wouldn¡¯t die. His body no longer trusted his mind ¨C the mind was what had gotten the body into this mess and was understandably suspect. ¡°asfkuck just fuck¡±. Richard was many things but cowardly was not one of them. He liked to think it wasn¡¯t one of them at least ¨C he had done all sorts¡­all sorts of stupid things throughout his life proving he wasn¡¯t a coward. ¡°Why aren¡¯t my arms just listening¡± Richard struggled against himself there in his allyway. His current problem was less a fear of death ¨C it wasn¡¯t even death! He would be back soon! His problem was simpler. His body refused to listen to him. Richard liked to think his mind was healthy ¨C he wasn¡¯t masochistic or suicidal despite his last few actions. His mind was healthy and rebelled against the knife! He was repeating that to himself now, his pain-ridden hand trembling as he pressed it against his neck unable to push it further. A few of his ¡®whole body¡¯ stats covered his neck and his current press didn¡¯t even puncture the skin causing it to slide ineffectually across with his weak press. He couldn¡¯t even break the skin. What bastard did this to me? Oh yeah it was this pussy holding a knife in front of me wasn¡¯t it. I should fuck him up for that shouldn¡¯t I? Revenge fuck my stupid neck with this switchblade. Just fucking do it you stupid fucking-
?? Achievement get: Throat Seppuku.
Description: Cause of death has been determined. Two hands were used to stab your own throat.
Stat: +10 Neck Slashing defense. Stat: +10 Body Slashing defense.
?? Achievement get: Reborn in acid. (unique)
Description: Spent an extended period of time battling intense acid without dying from it.
Stat: +27 Body acid defense.
Rank 1, Tier 1 reached. Achievement system removed till ''user'' leaves this ''tutorial''.
Client ''Richard Stove'' has overshot Zone requirements. Over halfway to rank 2 in the first area - I''m impressed! Did you like my gift? I paid part of the price to get you that affinity - big fan of your work. ...I see you pushed yourself a bit there at the end, Don''t worry, the help will piece you back together again. Sending you a personal message for a single reason. You got a wee bit too big for a structured zones requirements - you should not have overshot that much and the balance of the ''tutorial'' is broken if I let you stay there. Should have set the shutoff at rank 1 tier 0 but I didn''t think someone could get that many stats at once so early. You signed that contract, meaning I can''t force you out of the tutorial or interfere with your choices...but part of my job is keeping you from breaking the rest of the clients''s experience and you being over halfway to rank 2 will forcefully upgrade the zones difficulty... So here''s what I''m going to do, I can''t change your state in the tutorial but thankfully there''s a fun little loophole in my instancing - As long as you are in ''a'' ''zone 1'' I''m safe. Moving you to an empty tutorial before the help does their thing. I suggest you advance soon. Again, big fan of your work. I suggest you break that organ into true chaos magic - it will be a blast. ~R
Chapter 8. Tutorial Clear. Richard! ---Richard--- Richard awoke in the middle of an empty town. He could still feel his skin melting and peeling off his chest, could still feel his own hands plunging the tip of a knife towards himself. He had gained tons of stats ¨C more than needed by a huge amount but¡­he didn¡¯t think he could continue mutilating himself anymore not with undeadened pain. Taking the time to read his last few achievements ¨C they weren''t leaving until he finished ¨C Richard stopped when he noticed a message formatted differently. R. That''s the big boss huh. Guess I did break some things huh? Wandering through the empty town was eerie. All the buildings were husks of themselves - still brightly painted but missing food and weapons and furniture. It was less fun than it sounded. Richard peeked into the Inn moving through the empty wooden room and checking behind the counter. A single coin sat behind the counter but no achievement popped up when he picked it up. Continuing on Richard found the room he had briefly been given the day before ¨C 201 ¨C and stepped into the empty area. His hammer lay in the middle of the floor instead of leaning against the bed where he had left it. "Guess he decided to bring this with me huh." Picking up the hammer, Richard left ¨C wandering through the town peeking into buildings and finding nothing to loot. Once he reached the gate he could see what looked like a sea of curling tentacles. Everything outside of the town was changed ¨C the bright field was full of slimy spiked grass that waved back and forth seeking and stabbing at the air. In the distance the barrier lay, same as before but now it looked cracked. Like a glass pain that had been hit by a thousand chucked rocks it held but reluctantly. "Do I want to stay here? Say fuck you to the great R in the sky and not leave?" Richard asked directing his question towards the nearest tentacle grass. "There doesn''t seem to be any food...and I can''t gain any achievements so there''s no point grinding anything...feels like the only option is to just be a good little boy and follow orders huh." sighing Richard checked left and right and then started running towards the distant barrier. The grass attacked his body barbed tentacles slashing at his back and side and trying to trip his legs. The attacks slid off his skin ¨C shredding his jumpsuit but mostly leaving his skin unharmed. Doesn''t seem too bad? A particularly fast-looking slash pierced his back slightly making Richard wince. Jinxed it. Had to jinx it. Pressing forward Richard endured a storm of blades mostly unharmed, his back stinging but otherwise unharmed. Reaching the barrier Richard leaned into it and passed through ¨C without a ripple. He stepped into nothing. The moment the tips of his eyes passed through everything went dark and the moment his back foot came through after him everything faded ¨C the slight sting from his back disappeared and his senses muted.
Tutorial clear!
Clear description: Your path through the tutorial has been rarer than most. You started off an [Obscene rooftop marksman] hellbent on [Chaos] then mellowed out and learned to [Jump] and [Climb]. The largest gains you made were those of self-flagellation however ¨C your mind finding many imaginative ways to kill and maim your poor weak body. [burning], [slashing], [stabbing]. You were [Reborn in Acid]. May your journey be fruitful. Your path ever upwards.
Nomenclature for Rarity: [Unique]. The only person to have done something. x5 free stats. [Rare] 99.7%+ of people haven''t done. 1 in 334 x2 free stats. [Uncommon] 95%+ of people haven''t done. 1 in 20 x1 free stats. [Common]. 68%+ of people haven''t done. Close to 1 in 3. No additional rewards. [Trash]. >68% of people have done. No additional rewards. Rarity linked to global stats for [Earthlings] across all zones. Rarity linked to both total [Earthlings] and total achivement percentage gained.
Clear stats: Clear time 1days 9hrs 5min 2s. Coins found 2/100 Steps taken 5700 Monsters killed 1. NPC''s knocked out 1 Times revived 6. Highest stat, Piercing/slashing body defense. Second highest stat, Acid body defense. Achievements earned 18. Total stats earned 149 Clear state: Rank 1, Tier 1. Next: Rank 1, Tier 2. 168 total stats.
Clear Rewards: #1 stat earner. +5 free stat points #1 defense stat earner. +10 free defense points. Unique titles x2 +10 free stat points. Rare titles x4 +8 stat points. Uncommon Titles x2 +2 stat points
A choice!
Body reward and foundation. Mind reward and foundation.
Richard stood in darkness drowned by the scroll of a system message. It appeared he had done¡­well? The game seemed to have approved of his actions so far. It ended by giving me a choice¡­I guess body? Making his selection a new panel appeared below detailing another choice. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Body -> A choice!
Description: Focused or spread. This choice is non revertible and may drastically effect your future. Choosing both or neither is equivalent to your current state.
General body of distributed flesh. [Choose?] Flesh blended into a single material and re-distributed throughout its previous container. As a factor of your total stats, the more points you have in each body leaning move you closer and closer towards that goal. Damage towards any body part becomes less dangerous quickly, but inversely damage to non critical body parts becomes more dangerous on average. Losing a foot will become just as bad as losing your head¡­However, high defensive stats will mean losing your head will no longer be lethal and you won''t have a single weak area. Warning: You will no longer be able to individually target specific areas of your body with stats for a more specialized result. All existing and future body stats will be applied equally throughout your body.
Specialized body of key organs. [Choose?] Your life will become focused into a variable number of key areas (Default: Heart and/or Brain). Those locations will become quite a bit more vital towards your survival while every other part will become less so. So long as those key areas are kept protected, the rest of your body will become easier to heal. The more key areas are made, the less important each becomes and the more disposable every other part of your body will be. Warning: You will no longer be able to give individual body parts multiple leanings. You will no longer be able to add defensive stats to a key area ¨C only surround your weaknesses in defensive armour. Each of your existing conflicts will be given an option to lock in and separate out part roles and future stats will conform to those choices. Tip: To make a limb both strong and defensive you will need to concentrate defensive stats into your skin and bones while strength stats are focused into muscles.
Richard stared at the two options for a moment trying to figure out if he cared and by how much. ¡°How do these work?¡± He asked after a moment waiting to see if someone would respond. ¡­Only silence met his question. ¡­yeah figured that was the case. ¡°Which works better with my current stats? Which is less painful?¡± he tried again. Another pause met his question but this time the options updated slightly after a few seconds ¨C new words pushing into existing lines.
Body -> A choice!
Description: Focused or spread. This choice is non revertible and may drastically effect your future. Choosing both or neither is equivalent to your current state. Bodies are messy and your current state is more painful than either option.
General Body of distributed flesh. [Choose?] Flesh blended into a single material and re-distributed throughout its previous container. As a factor of your total stats, the more points you have in each body leaning move you closer and closer towards that goal. Damage towards any body part becomes less dangerous quickly, but inversely damage to non critical body parts becomes more dangerous on average. Pain is your bodies method of informing you about damage. With this option, the degree of pain will be communicated based on the percentage of your body that has been damaged. Losing a foot will become just as bad as losing your head¡­however high defensive stats will mean losing your head will no longer be lethal and you won''t have a single weak area. Losing either will still hurt. They will hurt less than you think. Warning: You will no longer be able to individually target specific areas of your body with stats for a more specialized result. All existing and future body stats will be applied equally throughout your body. Spreading out defensive stats and reducing weak points can be seen as more effective to environmental or hard to block attacks.
Specialized body of key organs. [Choose?] Your life will become focused into a variable number of key areas (Default: Heart and/or Brain). Those locations will become quite a bit more vital towards your survival while every other part will become less so. So long as those key areas are kept protected, the rest of your body will become easier to heal. The more key areas are made, the less important each becomes and the more disposable every other part of your body will be. Pain is your bodies method of informing you about damage. With this option, the degree of pain received by most of your body will lessen, but damage around your weakpoints will give massive warning spikes and damage to those weakpoints will be excruciating if not immediately fatal. Warning: You will no longer be able to give individual body parts multiple leanings. You will no longer be able to add defensive stats to a key area ¨C only surround your weaknesses in defensive armour. Each of your existing conflicts will be given an option to lock in and separate out part roles and future stats will conform to those choices. Tip. To make a limb both strong and defensive you will need to concentrate defensive stats into your skin and bones while strength stats are focused into muscles. Focusing defensive stats on places more likely to get hit such as your chest and head can be more efficient than spreading them out.
Hah! It responded this time¡­ I¡¯m spending too much effort on this. Both seem fine ¨C I hate how convoluted the stats are anyways, the first option lets me ignore them and just raise the three all together¡­Or I can go ''all in'' defense and try and become a hydra who can regrow his head. After selecting the option a final pair of panels appeared briefly flickering into view and then fading even as he read them ¨C as if impatient and showing up solely due to formality.
Balance: 25 free points. 10 free defense points.
Please distribute your clear rewards. Due to previous choices, if directed towards your body, all points will default to ¡°total body¡± stats.
As if feeling himself from the outside, Richard held a mass of swirling potential in his focus. ¡°Free Stats¡±. He had chosen to generalize his body due to convenience¡­ but only in name. It only mattered when he flung more defense into it. A thought and the potential shifted ¨C overlaying itself over his entire body and beginning to sink into him as it got harder to direct. Letting go of the defense stats Richard pulled the less focused potential and willed it to do the same. All in defense let''s go!
Choices being mined.
His consciousness faded.
¡°Hey Dicky, hand me the fun bag ¨C I¡¯m going to shove it down his throat. ¡°You getting turned on by the idea of shoving shit down someone¡¯s throat Mike?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk back, you know what I mean.¡± Richard¡¯s friends had cornered the transfer student and were in the midst of giving him a ¡°bad day¡±. It was just a minor prank ¨C the fun bag they had made was a cocktail of laxatives and LSD ¨C but Richard was loath to waste it this way. ¡°I told you, I made this because I wanted to slip it into the teacher''s coffee machine. I had a heist all planned out and you are wasting it.¡± ¡°This twig gave us extra homework, acted like a know it all and hit on Tracy in the middle of class. He obviously deserves it much more than our bumbling teachers.¡± ¡°Simp.¡± ¡°Someone help me hold him down.¡± ¡°Prank''s less funny when you force it into him instead of tricking him¡­¡± "Dicky are you helping or not? Want to eat trippy shit instead? Stop whining and get over here." Richard found himself wincing slightly as he watched his younger self. He was an unwilling participant sliding the serum down Basil''s throat. Back then he had felt like this was a waste. Now remembering¡­reliving it, Richard found himself wincing again and again. He wasn¡¯t proud of this. Not like all the other pranks he had done, Those had been funny. This was just¡­ The scene played out, his whole shitty crew waiting for the LSD to kick into effect and pushing the poor kid into the cafeteria. Basil ran across the room panting eyes darting back and forth before climbing up onto a table and kicking lunch trays about. Mike laughed beside him, collapsing to the ground as he watched the transfer student kick and stamp people''s lunches before suddenly dropping to the table ¨C his face turning red as he vomited and convulsed. ¡°¡­I think he¡¯s overdosing bro, that was meant to fill a whole coffee machine not a single boys throat.¡± Mike sat up and squinted watching carefully before climbing up and patting Richards''s shoulder. ¡°He¡¯ll be fine¡­ Should be fine. Don¡¯t worry about it. Let¡¯s take the rest of the day off.¡± Come on mini me, Grow a spine and fuck up those ''friends'' of yours. They deserve it so much more than him. Do it before they leave your life forever and remain a bad memory. Please. The scene jumped forward. Richard was held against the wall by two lanky gangsters beating him again and again. But now he was less a bystander, each hit sinking deep into his flesh. He was reliving the pain personally. ¡°Think it''s funny to drug our lil bro don¡¯t you?¡± Gangster1 spoke while grabbing Richards''s throat and holding his arm back. Gangster2 was silent, simply punching every single visible part of Richard¡¯s body, meaty fist bruising his chest and arms and legs and face. The beating continued for what felt like hours before a single unidentified pill was pushed down his throat and everything began to fade. The last words the gangster spoke were something Richard didn¡¯t remember happening the first time around. Gangster1 spit onto his face and whispered. ¡°Karma¡¯s a bitch isn¡¯t it.¡±
Achievement get: General body of distributed flesh gained!
Chapter 9. Tutorial Clear. James!
Tutorial clear!
Clear description: Your path through the tutorial is unique in its own way. You started off frightened and new, running away from fights you couldn''t win. A chance was made by abandoning the fruits of society and striking out with a weapon. Your path of carnage from that point is fierce and calculated for you [killed every monster type in the tutorial]. You even climbed a tree just to [drop a rock on something]. Well done traveler. May your journey be fruitful. Your path ever upwards.
Nomenclature for Rarity: [Unique]. The only person to have done something. x5 free stats. [Rare] 99.7%+ of people haven''t done. 1 in 334 x2 free stats. [Uncommon] 95%+ of people haven''t done. 1 in 20 x1 free stats. [Common]. 68%+ of people haven''t done. Close to 1 in 3. No additional rewards.[Trash]. 68%< of people haven''t done. No additional rewards. Rarity linked to global stats for [Earthlings] across all zones. Rarity linked to both total [Earthlings] and total achivement percentage gained.
Clear stats: Clear time 15hrs, 10min, 28s Steps taken 9700 Monsters killed 49. Times revived 1. Highest stat, Body Power (Strength) Second highest stat, Brain Power (Wisdom). Achievements earned 12. Total stats earned 75 Clear state. Rank 0, Tier 2. Next: Rank 1, Tier 0. 81 total stats.
Clear Rewards: Tutorial clear in first 20%. +1 free stat point. Refused a weapon and killed using only your body and the environment. +1 free stat point. Unique titles 2 +10 free stat point. Rare titles x3 +6 stat points. Uncommon Titles x2 +2 stat points
A choice!
Body reward and foundation. Mind reward and foundation.
¡­body or mind. Uhhh¡­ James stared at the options. ¡°Both? What¡¯s a foundation mean.¡± ¡°¡­Body I guess¡±, James spoke and selected the option. Staring at the two results he tried backing out and found he could swap over to mind which made a part of him recoil.
Mind -> A choice!
Description: Focused or spread, This choice is non revertible and may drastically effect your future. Choosing both or neither is equivalent to your current state.
Collection of minds. [Choose?] A mind of multitasking, mental stats will spread out in a parallel direction over time creating a mind better at focusing on many tasks at once. Larger lumps of mental capacity may form into discrete subprocesses that operate cut off from your main consciousness and all subconcious actions will gain stronger reasoning and purpose. Increases capabilities more drastically with mental power stats than speed. Warning: Increased chance of schizophrenic disorders.
Focused Juggernaut of a mind. [Choose?] Often times focusing on one thing at a time, is better than attempting to multitask. Becoming faster and faster at thinking about one thing at a time, will allow you to finish multiple tasks faster than one working on a several simultaneously. Increases capabilities more drastically with mental speed stats then power. Warning: Increased chance of Attention and Compulsion related mental disorders.
¡°I don¡¯t like the idea of the system messing about in my head. I don¡¯t like the idea that the system can mess about in my head wtf¡­and those warnings.¡± James grimaced. ¡°I already have enough stupid mental hangups, I don¡¯t need an increased chance of more. ¨CBack to body,¡± he quickly backed out. Swapping to the body options James stared and carefully considered the two. ¡°Second option seems like it give me more control. It also seems more¡­normal. More realistic. Why would I want to die due to a stubbed toe?¡± If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Decisively picking the option James found himself shifting.
Balance: 20 free points.
Please distribute your clear rewards. Due to previous choices, if directed towards your body, all places with already aligned stats are no longer allowed multiple alignments. Due to foundation choice, many existing conflicts have been found. Highlighting clashes.
James found himself staring at his body from above. Or maybe he was standing in front of his body¡­there didn¡¯t seem to be any gravity affecting him in this state. All across his ¡®body¡¯, three colours were highlighted. Red for power, Yellow for speed, and Blue for defense. Each point where multiple stats combined was highlighted helpfully ¨C the combination of coloured stats creating orange, green and purple shifts. This wasn¡¯t fully a ¡®respec¡¯ option ¨C instead, James could concentrate out overlaps into side-by-side blobs that infused different parts of his body. Drain conflicting stats in one area and shove them in another. Anywhere defense clashed, James pushed it out ¨C defense in his hands pulled into the palm of his hand and made his skin tougher. He tried focusing defense into his joints ¨C pulling it from his legs and arms into his elbows and knees. Speed was more important in his leg muscles and power more important in his arms and core. At some point James¡¯s free stats became available and he found himself with even more options to plan out his body. Speed in my nervous system. Power in my bloodstream. Defense makes the most sense in my bones. Free defense is the most important around my head and chest¡­while I¡¯m here I¡¯ll throw a defense into mind, I really don¡¯t want anything mucking about in there¡­one point is not a lot but at least it will show I¡¯m committed. When James was done there was a pause as everything settled and then a popup appeared,
Assign critical area(s).
James paused¡­would picking his ankle turn him into Achilles? He didn¡¯t want to have a weakness but it still felt like the best choice. Multiple weaknesses would be better but harder to defend¡­leaving it as brain and heart would make it easier for anyone that knew where it was located¡­but they were also already naturally defended areas? The skull and rib cage were better than nothing. Can I pick something random? The sense really did seem to want him to pick an organ, group of organs or body part ¨C it wouldn¡¯t let him pick a section of something or a random spot in the middle of flesh. What about my stomach? Similar to heart but less obvious? ¡­that might make me more prone to poisoning¡­ But that¡¯s what I¡¯m doing isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m picking a dump organ to make everything else stronger. I could pick my appendix? No one cares about that right? Where¡¯s something easy to defend? That¡¯s kind of visible in the side. Looking around James finally made his decision. He picked both his kidneys. They were located right below his lungs but still within his rib cage. They didn¡¯t have an obvious path of weakness ¨C heck James didn¡¯t even remember what they did in the body ¨C and were less obvious than his heart or head. Pulling away from his character creation James found himself fading ¨C his sense of everything disappearing completely.
Choice being mined.
James was back in highschool doing concentration curls. He had taken weightlifting as his required physical class instead of gym and the sports it represented. Weightlifting¡­was actually really fun despite how hard it was to find the motivation to do it. Having it as a class 4 times a week forced him to go for the hour and he loved it. Finishing his set of 12 he immediately dropped his dumbell from 30lb to 25lb and began again the set of 10 ¨C running a reverse pyramid till burnout. Closing his eyes James dug inwards again and again, his biceps rapidly losing strength as he continued without break. ¡°Ten¡± He gritted out placing down the dumbbell and swapping for a 20lb one placed slightly behind him. Eight¡¯s next. Pumping, James¡¯s younger self started managing three before his arm refused to raise. Rather then rest, he dropped the weight to 15lb and tried again. Muscles screaming James pushed himself pulling the 6th rep up before swapping to a strangely shaped 7.5lb bar. The 10lb bar was being used and James was already hogging three other dumbells at once. His arm struggled to raise the lower weight again and again. Dropping it after 4 he sat clenching and unclenching, his arm completely spent. Guess I¡¯ll go return these. Picking up two bars and heading over to the rack James was stopped by a classmate. A guy he hadn¡¯t spoken to before stood in front of him staring down at his arms for a moment then nodding in¡­comradery? Appreciation? It hadn¡¯t been clear at the time and reliving it James still didn¡¯t know exactly what had gone through the kid''s mind. ¡°Damn you''re big. Props!¡± the kid finally spoke after an awkward second of staring ¨C giving him a thumbs up ¨C then moving around James and heading for a separate machine. That¡­was weird. Sitting in class James kept thinking back to the interaction, it slowly shifting from something awkward to something that felt good. Looking down at his arms he smirked to himself, laughing at how good it felt to be complimented by a stranger. The memory began to slip forward, exam season starting and his weightlifting class ending. Weeks passed of studying math and physics and chemistry ¨C the exams blending together as he went through the motions. A full month of mostly inactivity. That¡¯s how little time it took to wipe close to 7 months of progress. James took a summer job at a clothing store while his family went on vacation. He was going to university in the following fall and needed the money ¨C however small ¨C to help pay for his first year. The summer progressed, his previous gains finished melting away. It was hard to find a gym ¨C let alone get motivation to drive himself to one enough times to warrant one. Living alone was getting harder than he thought it would be. Customers chewed him out over every little thing, he worked, came home, ate and slept, then worked again. His steady meals began fluctuating between effort and nothing as existing began to grind him down. The monotony of that summer compressed into several minutes while retaining every bit he had hated of it. Just over halfway through the summer, the speed run of his memories paused. James was lying on the couch in the living room staring at his flabby arm in self hatred. His dinner was a smoothie created from half a bag of raspberries, half a 750ml bottle of Smirnoff, and a drizzle of some old lemonade. Something snapped and James leapt up running towards the stairs before jogging up and down them repeatedly. ¡°You like working out don¡¯t you, It''s good for you. Working out will make you happier with your body. If you just worked out again you would be happy wouldn¡¯t you? ¡± he drunkenly chanted to himself feeling winded after just two laps up and down the stairs. A nice burn started warring with the wheezing burn in his lungs ¨C the pain slowly shifting from good to excruciating. ¡°You deserve this pain, you know that don¡¯t you?¡± James continued ¨C gasping ¨C somewhere along the line tears had begun to leak out down his cheeks. His noodle legs screamed as he continued to climb for no reason other than to punish himself. He felt dizzy from lack of air¡­the alcohol¡­not having eaten that day. He pushed through. He kept running up and down without pausing. James was gulping for air and had black fuzziness pulling in at the edges of his vision. A faint buzzing ring grew stronger in the back of his head ¨C it was ignored. Who knows how much time had passed ¨C it was probably only a minute or two he couldn¡¯t wimp out now. Up and down, he continued to push himself ¨C half crawling at this point, his legs not steady enough to hold his whole weight. He slipped. James fell as he turned near the top of the stairs tripping over his own legs. The stairs seemed to rush towards him ¨C faster than possible, his side ramming into the lips of the stairs the hardest as he tumbled down. James lay in the entranceway to his parent''s house bruised ¨C having briefly blacked out ¨C and sore beyond belief. Somewhere along the lines his pants had fallen off ¨C or he had taken them off and he didn''t remember ¨C and he lay there in his boxers staring at the wood panelling of the ceiling. His consciousness faded once more as he slowly went to sleep. James didn¡¯t bother to move to a more comfortable spot ¨C choosing to slowly drift off on the hard floor. A popup appeared and faded as the memory ended.
Achievement get: Specialized body of key organs.
Chapter 10. Tutorial Clear. Madison! ---Maddy--- Inky blackness dulled her senses as soon as she stepped through the barrier. Her companions were gone along with her sense of direction and touch and taste and feel.
Tutorial clear!
Clear description: Your quick path through the tutorial has been straightforward and "by the book" with a dash of spice. A [scythe] was gained, a [reapers blade] achieved. You collected information wringing it out of the natives, striving towards greatness. Careful and planned steps might get you there, but some risks will need to be taken as well. May your journey be fruitful. Your path ever upwards.
Nomenclature for Rarity: [Unique]. The only person to have done something. x5 free stats. [Rare] 99.7%+ of people haven''t done. 1 in 334 x2 free stats. [Uncommon] 95%+ of people haven''t done. 1 in 20 x1 free stats. [Common]. 68%+ of people haven''t done. Close to 1 in 3. No additional rewards.[Trash]. >68% of people have done. No additional rewards. Rarity linked to global stats for [Earthlings] across all zones. Rarity linked to both total [Earthlings] and total achievement percentage gained.
Clear stats: Clear time 7hrs, 38min, 47s Steps taken 7700 Monsters killed 212. Zero Revivals. Highest stat, Arm Speed. Second highest stat, Mental Resistance (Clarity). Achievements earned 12. Total stats earned 31 Clear state. Tier 1. Next: Tier 2. 54 total stats.
Clear Rewards: Tutorial clear time in top 5% +5 free stat points. Unique titles 1 +5 free stat point. Rare titles x1 +2 stat points.
A choice!
Body reward and foundation. Mind reward and foundation.
Skimming through her information, Maddy stopped to review her choice. Build wise¡­I don¡¯t fully have a build yet. This is a choice to decide what I wish for the future. Body¡­my only options so far have been body. Mind doesn¡¯t have a direct relationship with something useful. But then again, if I have to pick between brains and brawns I¡¯d like to believe I¡¯m a ''brains''. Does ''brains'' have magic? There¡¯s been hints at that and I haven¡¯t seen a way to increase the closest thing to magic I¡¯ve seen so far ¨C my skill¡­will ''mind'' help with that? I didn¡¯t get any information on ''soul'', but if I had to guess souls are more likely to work with magic. But I just don¡¯t have enough information. In games, ''mind'' is usually linked to magic right? Maddy stood in nothingness for a long period of time before tentatively choosing mind. ¡°Alright, so¡­neither of these mention magic. I know I''ve been mentioning that alot but really if I have a goal it would be that. Everyone wants magic don''t they? It''s the ultimate childhood fantasy.¡± Madison spoke softly. Even as she expressed her disappointment, a flicker of her screen made Maddy pause.
Mind -> A choice!
Description: Focused or spread. This choice is non-revertible and may drastically effect your future. Choosing both or neither is equivalent to your current state. Current state is neither good nor bad for ''magic''.
Collection of minds. [Choose?] A mind of multitasking, mental stats will spread out in a parallel direction over time creating a mind better at focusing on many tasks at once. Larger lumps of mental capacity may form into discrete subprocesses that operate cut off from your main consciousness and all subconscious actions will gain stronger reasoning and purpose. Increases capabilities more drastically with mental power stats then speed. Become more adapt at controlling multiple simultaneous skills or spells at once. Give more subconscious action to spells. Warning: Increased chance of schizophrenic disorders.
Focused Juggernaut of a mind. [Choose?] Often times focusing on one thing at a time, is better than attempting to multitask. Becoming faster and faster at thinking about one thing at a time, will allow you to finish multiple tasks faster than one working on a several simultaneously. Increases capabilities more drastically with mental speed stats then power. Become better able to create single, powerful spells. Warning: Increased chance of Attention and Compulsion related mental disorders.
New lines shoved into view making Maddy pause. ¡°So there¡¯s a confirmation that magic does exist. Spells are different than skills right? Or are they the same thing?¡± Maddy waited for a response, churning nothing before continuing. ¡°A response confirmed something is listening¡­so either you can¡¯t or won''t respond to that. It''s either an intelligence or automated sort of update¡­¡± ¡°Can you list all the pro¡¯s and cons of each option?¡± Silence met her question and Madison sighed. ¡°Worth a shot¡± Just based on what it showed first there seems to be a bit of a bias towards ''focused''. The wording used makes it seem better¡­but when I asked about magic the first option is straight up better. Controlling more and subconsciously controlling more vs making a single stronger spell? ¡­but I don¡¯t even know what spells are, so maybe that¡¯s a dumb comparison to make. ¡°Which option is more popular?¡± Once again there was a long pause before text slid in almost reluctantly¡­like Maddy had driven a hard bargain and the system box was finally giving in.
Collection of minds. 42% [Choose?] ¡­ Focused Juggernaut of a mind. 56% [Choose?]
There''s 2% missing? Oh, I guess picking neither. That''s a unique one, but unique the same way that shooting yourself is unique ¨C I''m not picking it. ¡°So¡­the system prefers focused to general actions¡­but it rewards unique and rare actions more than common ones and¡­the sense from the TOS tell me it will reward uniqueness more and more going forwards. ¡­That¡¯s all the push I need to pick the first option.¡± Confirming her choice by reaching out and jabbing the screen decisively, a flip of system boxes appeared and disappeared about her head. Her viewpoint floated up and shifted and then twisted. She felt strange but fully in control as a series of impressions appeared around her ¨C she instantly knew these were her free stats. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Maddy pulled a single ¡°amount¡± of stat out and pushed it about. Holding it towards her body she found it begin to get sucked in, holding it towards her mind a similar pull appeared. Trying to keep it from locking into place became steadily more difficult as Maddison moved bits around trying to experiment with her situation. The ¡°potential¡± could be squeezed out like a thread enhancing a long thin line of her body, or combined in her brain to push connections out into specific portions ¨C like object recognition or language or long-term memory. The stats were like drying playdough that became stiffer and stiffer the more she worked them ¨C they pushed her to commit to something¡­but a faint wish held her back. She had an incredible amount of control over these stats ¨C she could use them to enhance nearly anything she cared about and yet¡­ Back in the tutorial, the ¡®guides¡¯ had mentioned the trifecta of body, mind, and soul. ''Soul''. That seems like something more unique. I haven¡¯t gotten or heard of a single person gaining a stat in that¡­so figuring out how to use my free stats that way should be a bonus right? And the world likes unique actions? And magic doesn¡¯t seem linked with the mind, so if anything it''s linked to the soul? A part of me wants real magic more than anything else ¨C especially when I can see it within my grasp. Maddison tried figuring out where her skill was located, in the hopes of pushing the stats into that. Mind seemed to be located in my brain, so soul should be somewhere on the body as well right? She looked in her heart, wondering about some metaphysical relationship with love or something. She looked around the center of her body, trying to remember what little she knew of meridians or chakras or whatever. Maddy tried to remember the feeling of casting her skill¡­it wasn¡¯t really something she knew how to do, it was just something she did. Like moving your ears up and down or some other non-normal uncommon-flexing. Every minute or so Maddy had to shake her stats about to prevent them from solidifying fully. All of them had already set into their ¡°leanings¡± ¨C some defense, some power, some speed¡­but if they solidified she wouldn¡¯t be able to push them into her soul once she figured out where it was. They would be wasted! ¡­several minutes later she finally started to clue into something. What am I holding these stats in? How am I thinking if my mind is supposedly in my brain? Maddy tried to look at herself. Not her body or ¡®mind¡¯ in front of her but whatever was actually looking at those abstract concepts. She found she couldn¡¯t. There wasn¡¯t a mirror and she didn¡¯t have limbs she could focus on instead. Taking a gamble Maddy stopped shaking the stats about and instead held them close ¨C preventing them from sliding to either her mind or body. Slowly but surely the potential crystalized and pulled into her spiritual self holding them. Maddy¡¯s consciousness faded.
Stats distributed, Balance 0. +6 soul defense. +2 soul power. +4 soul speed.
Choice being mined.
Madison¡¯s mom was the smartest woman in the world. ¡°Listen Maddy, to build rapport with people, you have to first observe them. Some people react to direct questions poorly, others find roundabout methods fake seeming. Try and understand their personality ¨C see things from their point of view and work based on that model.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to kindergarten today, make sure to not try and be perfect ¨C show flaws and call out what you have in common with people ¨C if you don¡¯t have anything in common it''s fine to make something up! This is how you make friends.¡±
Maddy found herself floating in soft mist, surrounded by panes of glass depicting her at hundreds of points throughout her life. One showed her laughing with friends, one showed her crying at her pet''s death. The majority of the panes were of her, however. Each begging to be looked at, each vying for her attention.
Madison¡¯s Mom helped shape her childhood. Like a potter working with clay, she moulded her into the perfect daughter, the perfect person. ¡°Always find your friend''s secrets if you have the option to, Try not to pry them out ¨C that can create resentment, instead work to let them naturally tell you things about themselves. In good times they can let you gain massive amounts of favour by gifting them things relating to those secrets, in bad times you can use them as leverage. There¡¯s never a negative to knowing someone¡¯s secret! Now, what have you found out about that Abagail¡¯s homelife? Her mother''s been skipping town meetings frequently...¡±
Maddy found it hard to keep track of everything. All her thoughts were scattered and pulled in different directions. Times of heavy studying, times of fun. Good and bad scenes were reasonably equally represented but¡­the bad seemed to hit so much harder.
¡°Yeah, he¡¯s so weird. Have you heard his voice? He sounds like he picks kids up in vans.¡± Maddy laughed. ¡°I knowwwww. Why does he keep hanging out with us? Isn¡¯t it obvious we don¡¯t like him?¡± Maddy was in high school cattily gossiping about their newest ¡®friend¡¯. She didn¡¯t really believe anything she was saying ¨C but the girls she was with loved it. ¡°Ouch. Poor Matt.¡± Maddy winced trying to focus on something else. Flipping sideways she found her sight drawn to the continuation of that scene.
¡°Hick, Hick, They are all soo meannn. Did you know they thought I sounded like a pedophile? It''s just because of my southern accent.¡± ¡°That¡¯s awful¡± Maddy spoke, comforting Matt. She rubbed his back on the theatre stage ¨C the only two left behind after drama practice. "Do you know who said it? Who started the rumours?" "Cathy did, She mentioned at lunch" There was a pause as Matt internalized the lie. ¡°Th¡­thank you. You¡¯re a good friend you know that? Probably my only friend in this school.¡± ¡°OUCH.¡± Maddy flung her hand out pushing the rest of the scene away. In high school none of the double timing cattiness had bothered her, but now they raked deep into her guilty consciousness. She had hurt people with her words. She had lied for no other reason than because it had been fun to feel in control. She had gotten away with so many minor lies.
Maddison¡¯s mom was not as smart as she liked to think she was, she was petty and narcissistic but she still meant a lot to her daughter. ¡°You should join the drama team, it''s not a requirement but practicing acting will do you well in life. You know how much I want you to do well don¡¯t you?¡±. ¡°Of course, acting sounds fun,¡± Maddy told her mom while making her elective selection.
¡°What do you think that person is thinking darling?¡± Maddy¡¯s mom asked from the bench they were sitting on. This was one of her favourite games ¨C people watching and commenting. ¡°Uh¡­he seems rushed? Stressed out? I think he had a rough day at work.¡± Maddy guessed. ¡°His wife¡¯s cheating on him. He found out a few minutes ago and is calling a cab to go confront her.¡± Maddy¡¯s mom laughed ¨C winking a moment later when a cab pulled up and the man got in. "What about that women with the stroller? The one talking on her cellphone..."
Maddison¡¯s mom was deeply flawed and constantly gaslit her. Nothing she said ever meant anything and her viewpoints poisoned everything.
Maddison¡¯s mom was a superhero helping her survive school and socialize and dominate classroom politics. -Back when she thought being popular in school meant something.
Maddison¡¯s mom was a monster.
¡°You¡¯ll do well, marrying him. Make sure to be passive. CEOs like him like to think they are in control. Oh, my darling daughter I¡¯m so happy for you. You¡¯ll do me proud.¡± Madison¡¯s mom spoke while arranging her daughter''s marriage to someone nearly twice her age. She was 19 when she was given to him. Finishing top of her class but not going to higher schooling. This was what her mom had been preparing her for. Becoming a goldigger. All that effort to become someone¡¯s prize.
Maddy grimaced trying to find her way out of the maze of scenes. Of broken panes of glass. She didn¡¯t want to be stuck here anymore. The scenes got darker, flashes of her time with him. Each felt like mental damage, each memory an unpleasant experience. Each scene seemed to want to pull her fully into it, but something¡­maybe her soul defense? ¨CLet her resist the pull and as she moved, she was mostly able to ignore the flashes. Batting scene after scene of her memories, Maddy finally found herself alone. Free, her mind clear.
Achievement get: Collection of minds
Welcome to the game. A few minor changes will come into effect in the following zone. Pain numbing has weakened to 50%. The goal is not to get hurt. Automated restrooms have been removed. You''ll have to deal with more realistic "normal" ones situated in each of the settlements. A death penalty has now come into effect. To increase excitement and immersion in this game, dying now comes with a period of weakness corresponding to 10 minutes for every stat point you have. Stacking a death penalty multiple times doubles both the time and degree of weakness you have received. In short - try not to die. NPCs no longer speak your native language. Instead, communication will be area specific. By entering the following area you agree to all of these changes and acknowledge you have been informed.
Accept.
Yes? No?
Not consenting to zone 1s rules will place you back in the tutorial with no means to progress (not advised).
Each player received a similar notice as soon as they attempted to continue on. All but two received this generic set of patch notes while an additional line floated in for Maddy.
... Dying now comes with a period of weakness corresponding to 10 minutes for every stat point you have¡­ Due to your choice of soul defense, resurrection has unfortunately become more costly to perform. An additional contract will be given in a moment, stand by.
A pause was felt before a second panel appeared.
Resurrection and you. Hello pestilence! You¡¯ve dipped under a curtain sooner than you are supposed to. Tut, Tut as G would say. You are now roughly four times as annoying to resurrect. To fulfill my job, you either need to accept not having the same safety net as everyone else ¨C agree to waive all responsibility from me to continue saving your pasty little ass ¨C or sign an additional series of requirements. You also need to accept a non-disclosure agreement so R¡¯s toys have a bit longer to buy the dream. You really did this to yourself trying to be a special little snowflake. Requirements to fulfill my job and allow you the same death penalty resurrection as everyone else. Step 1: A) Break your necrotic skill into Life and Death magic as soon as possible ¨C death magic doesn¡¯t have anything to do with soulwork but it will bridge the gap nicely. B) OR Become my servant letting me into your soul permanently. Honestly the cleanest option. <- pick me! C) OR Figure out how to revoke and remove soul defense. Hard to do, not recommended. Step 2: If either 1A or 1B is chosen, perform a simple ritual to create a soul link and consensual trigger ¨C details of ritual dependant upon option chosen and acceptance of NSA (Non Snitching Agreement). As a bonus little nugget of info, No matter if you agree to¡­what¡¯s the wording R wanted me to use? Oh! ¡°Permadeath¡±. As long as you agree to permadeath or a harmless little ritual, you¡¯ll find you aren¡¯t too badly off. My resurrection contract lasts until you reach the end of the 3rd zone after all.
Chapter 11. A new world. ---James--- James stepped through the barrier and was greeted with a wide-open field. Less kept than the tutorial and wilder, this field had long grass that came up past his waist and bumpy uneven mounds of soil. Hidden in and amongst the grass were strange bushy plants that looked like something out of a budget sci-fi series. Ahead and to his left, a large wooden streetlight poked up out of the ground ¨C its enclosed glassy lamp dim and disabled in the light of day, its existence¡­out of place in the wilderness surrounding him. Not seeing any other landmarks, James walked over ¨C finding the lamp grew out of a ''Y'' shaped fork, the dirt paths themselves nearly invisible in the tall grass except when standing directly on them. At chest height, three wooden signposts ringed the lamp pointing down each of the paths and naming their directions. 3km B¨¤ndp¨¢ss pointed left and was marked with a sword and swirling staff. 4.5km S¨¨r pointed right and was marked with a cog and wrench. 17km ¨¨ros pointed forwards ¨C away from the tutorial behind him. It was marked with a boat and several stylized fish. As James stood considering his options, a pair stepped into the corner of his vision and began walking towards him. James tensed then tried to relax ¨C turning slightly and pretending to notice them as soon as they stepped onto the path beside him. Are they going to jump me? Do they also want directions? Attacking first is a bad precedent. James stared directly into both of their eyes trying to discern their alignment. "...hey there, did you also come from the tutorial?" A thin man holding an axe spoke eyeing his clothing. "Don''t be dense Dave. He''s wearing the same clothing as us ¨C of course he''s from the tutorial. Stop waving that thing around you''ll frighten him" Considering just nodding slightly, James hammered his stupid hangup down and tried to talk like a normal person instead. "Yes, I just exited the tutorial". You sound like a hecking robot. "...neat. What''s this post for?" The talkative player asked stepping forward and squinting his eyes as he read each sign. "I think it''s to tell us where to go Emil." "No shit, ones clearly further away¡­so which of these two do you want to aim for?" Emil spoke gesturing back and forth. James stepped back and slightly blended into the background as the two friends began discussing their options. He was 90% sure they wouldn''t jump him and now he just wanted to fast forward their discussion. "Think that way has something to do with wizards and that way has something to do with gears." "Yeah Dave, ¡®figured the same, I''m leaning towards the sword and staff. Gives me a vibe of adventure." "Sounds good. It''s not too far away from the gear¡­ so we can backtrack if you want to check the other out after? Hey, you want to come with?" Dave spoke turning about to look at James half heartedly. Obviously doesn¡¯t want me to come as well. "Nah, I''m planning on checking out the other direction" James spoke pointing towards the gear. "¡­Cool, see you around. Come along now Dave." Emil cut in turning. A few steps away he noticed his friend hadn¡¯t started walking yet so he twitched his head and beckoned. ¡°Stop treating me like a dog, it was one time.¡± The Dave muttered stepped forward and falling in line. Bickering slightly the two walked towards Bandpass neither looking back. Welp. James hadn''t been planning on a direction, but felt more comfortable going alone and figured any direction was fine. Setting off himself, James began walking, turning his head back and forth as he scanned the surroundings. Time passed in relative silence ¨C there didn¡¯t seem to be any loud wildlife nearby so the only background noise was the sound of grass swaying in the wind. It was strangely peaceful walking alone and James relaxed after a bit, making a game of practicing [haste] as he went. The description of the skill had been somewhat lacking ¨C even if it had been accompanied by memories of using it. Oh it was a simple enough concept on the surface. He could turn it on for up to nine seconds, move faster for a bit at seemingly no physical cost, and then deal with a cooldown three times his activation period. The ¡°move¡± faster was where it got a bit strange. Every time he activated it he felt like running ¨C walking quickly with the skill was almost more effort and standing completely still was nearly impossible. Most of that was muscle memory and how he activated it which was hard to think about because of how instinctual it was ¨C like switching to manually breathing¡­but part of the activation was moving his body forward and part of the deactivation was relaxing and stopping his movement. He needed to be moving to use the skill and already trying to move as fast as possible. Move ¡°faster¡± was also a bit strange. There was a massive boost to acceleration and it was much easier to turn or dodge while using the skill. It felt like his inertia was reduced ¨C any force resisting his movement lowered. His reaction speed was also increased, his body reacting to the increased ¡®speed¡¯ but also the surroundings better. James really liked [haste] and played with using it in different ways along his walk. One use was spent attempting to run on all fours ¨C slower than he had hoped and incredibly hard to activate the first time. Another use trying to run backwards ¨C it worked but was harder for him to activate and he ended up tripping on a rock he couldn¡¯t see. He even tried walking on his hands ¨C something he couldn¡¯t do normally ¨C and while he did manage a few steps he collapsed quickly landing on his side in the grass. There didn¡¯t seem to be a cost to his skill beyond its cooldown ¨C after dozens of times it still worked the exact same way. Comforting.
?? Achievement get: Jog a mile in your own shoes.
Description: For walking 1.607km faster than normal. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Stat: +1 leg muscle power. Stat: +1 leg bone defense.
An achievement blinked up in James¡¯s vision after roughly 15 minutes of silence. It''s good to have my hourly hit of dopamine and wow does that feel different. The rush of stats was focused ¨C somewhat obviously ¨C and was the first major change James felt in his body. Instead of vaguely feeling a ¡®something¡¯ moving into an area, this stat infusion felt like liquid ambrosia was trickling through his body. It was slow and despite there being no real nerves in his bones made him feel like they were cups being filled with warm tea. Getting close to Band ¨C no I was going towards Ser wasn¡¯t I? Sounds like a town, I¡¯ll figure out what I want to do there. Attempting to whistle and failing, James continued walking while making mouth noises until he spotted a wall in the distance. And what a wall it was. As he got closer, the copper plating and uneven application become more and more prominent. It looked like something out of a steampunk movie, with belching smoke and exposed gears and a floating blimp just above the wall. James took a deep breath and moved to enter the settlement.
---Richard--- Richard stepped out of the barrier shaking his head slightly at the message he had to accept before he got out. Knew they would be changing some things. Called it. I fucking called it. He was still dealing with the memories the system or whatever had shown him ¨C overwhelmingly they annoyed him. He regretted his actions back then but having them shoved in his face made him feel like someone was trying to control him. Make him feel bad so he''d act in a certain way or something. You were a grimy little shit who went along with gross bullshit and now you deserve to have bad things happen to you. You deserve whatever we are planning so bend over and let it happen. Fuck that. Richard wanted to punch something. He wanted to deck whoever had forced those rotten memories on him. He was carrying his hammer and wanted to smash something with it. What do I want to do? What is this place? Staring around Richard blinked through a haze of annoyance looking about the planes. Spotting a signpost reasonably close he walked over to it and read the directions. ¡°Got it¡± Not having a means to deface the sign ¨C no paint or pen ¨C he looked at it and then at his weapon. ¡°Hammer time,¡± Richard shouted before taking out all of his frustration on the structure. Bits of glued wires and chips were underneath the wood ¨C sandwiched between boards of plywood and linked to the paint somehow. As he broke through the ink seemed to shatter ¨C moving like it wasn¡¯t dried as it flung out into the grass. Chunks of wood flung out in all directions and then ¨C heaving slightly ¨C it was done and Richard started to feel a bit silly.
? Achievement get: Killer of directions. (Rare)
Description: The world is a little more confusing due to your actions. Directions a little less known.
Stat: +1 body power.
¡°People are going to start thinking I have anger issues and that''s blatantly false.¡± Wiping his hair back Richard looked around then started kicking the chunks of sign into the grass hiding all signs of his violence away. I feel less strung up but still feel a bit like crap. Need to find something fun to do. Something funny. Cheer me up. Let''s head that way? Bandpass is a fun name.
---Maddy--- Maddison felt an icy chill running down her back as she stood once more in darkness reading her¡­ ¡°patch notes¡±. Her altered patch notes. Her wake up call. ¡°what¡­what exactly is this place. What am I accepting?¡± she spoke into the now ominous and claustrophobic darkness. The message stared back smugly, not responding to any prodding or poking. It just floated there ¨C annoyingly ¨C waiting for her to respond. Maddy was frozen with indecision over the choice ¨C her thoughts spiralling down the logical conclusions. Permadeath¡­so real death. That¡¯s a funny way of saying normal death. Reality. I could¡­actually die. But that¡¯s normal. That¡¯s not something I should be confused about should it? That¡¯s what reality is and I¡¯ve already decided this is reality¡­ so this doesn¡¯t change anything? I just found out I had a safety net ¨C I haven¡¯t even used it yet! Why am I getting hung up over it? I gained something faster than normal. That¡¯s¡­good. I¡¯m ahead. Others are going to lose the safety net as well, I¡¯m just joining them faster. Maddy continued along this train of thought looping around those few points several times before settling down. Unlike some arrivals, Maddison hadn¡¯t been lying to herself about her situation. She hadn¡¯t been pretending she was in some secret fully immersive VR test, or high on some cocktail or shoved in a new reality TV series. She hadn¡¯t needed to, to accept the TOS. She had needed a quick escape and the TOS made itself known in a convenient time. If this is reality why is it so much like a game? All she needed now was to figure out what she wanted to do. ¡°What do I know?¡± ¡°What do I think I know?¡± Maddy leaned her head back and began speaking aloud into the darkness ¨C trying to organize the problem in her head verbally. ¡°I wish I had a notebook to get my thoughts in order.¡± ¡°Okay, so here''s what I think is happening. I¡¯ve been brought somewhere¡­another dimension or something and should assume everything I see is real. Considering I had to accept that TOS and now I¡¯m being told to accept this¡­¡¯simple contact¡¯ I¡¯m going to assume me accepting actually matters. That¡¯s the biggest hint I have going for this actually being true. For the few scraps of the TOS I remember being true and for this message to be true. That gold lettering¡­it feels different when I read it. As if just by reading it I know its true. True¡­true. If I just saw it laying around I might think it was¡­messing with my head somehow. I wouldn¡¯t trust the suspicious letters that are somehow magically making me think they are true. But because I have to actually accept them? Because it¡¯s a contract I have to agree to? That makes it¡­that makes it more likely to be accurate, at least in my head.¡± Maddy continued to narrate her thoughts into the darkness crouching down slowly to sit cross legged on the emptiness below her. ¡°¡­A few bits of it not being gold are even more¡­well the words themselves are laughably suspicious but the fact that they aren¡¯t gold ¨C as if the gold truth-telling magic didn¡¯t work on it ¨C that lets me accept the whole scenario better. It also¡­it also lets me accept the information I already know. If whoever brought me here could do whatever they wanted to me, they just would. They must want something from me¡­well from us. From everyone brought here. I¡¯m getting distracted. What I really need to ask, is do I want to agree to this new contract?¡± ¡­ it''s simple and full of loopholes but maybe that¡¯s better for this. I¡¯m going to see about ¡°breaking my skill into death magic¡± and¡­not agree to anything if I don¡¯t think it''s worth it then? ¡°I guess I do.¡± Maddy sighed then reached out. ... Stepping out of the barrier Maddy looked around cautiously. The surroundings felt more dangerous without a safety net, more sinister. Alien plants. Alien surroundings. ...she suddenly noticed her scythe in her hands ¨C noticeably absent from her time between areas ¨C and tightened her fingers around the shaft feeling safer. Carefully stepping forward she cut the plants in a swath in front of her making sure nothing could hide and revealing the path. Where''s my team? She suddenly remembered her relatively new party. How had it taken her this long to think of them? How long would they take? Would they come through the same place? How long had she taken? Somehow while choosing options all urgency had left her ¨C she couldn''t picture how long she had taken between areas. It was probably a long time right? But maybe not¡­thinking back it might only have been a few minutes. Had her team come through before her and went on ahead? Maddy did not want to stick around toward dark. She also had to figure out how to get death magic. When playing games Maddy liked to hoard limited resources ¨C everyone did. She hadn''t used her quest query yet because she might need it at some point but if she never used it, it was a waste was it not? If she waited a full 3 weeks without using it once that was a lost use? She needed to figure out a good query to help her figure out how to break her skill. Clearing a section up to a path Maddy passed and read the sign while she thought. "Quest break my skill." She spoke out loud, giving up on second guessing herself.
Quest board: Break my skill
Fall into magic and land upright: Use your skill and alignment to perform a action exactly opposite of its purpose in a place free of distractions. Reward mana, concepts.
Through knowledge you may prosper: Recive assistance from the mad genuis ''Spook'' located in Nox to break your skill safely into its component parts. Reward Aether infusion, Sealed core.
Break your body, mind, and skill: In a stressful situation use your skill and alignment at a point you should not have been able to. Use it to perform something you should not have been able to do. Reward carries depending on actions, situation, enviroment.
Suddenly a sound behind her made her turn. Both Jess and Troy were stepping through nearly simultaneously behind her. They looked slightly shocked and weary taking a moment to get their bearings. Focusing on her after a few seconds, both relaxed slightly and started making their way over. "I''m glad you came through safely! Quick come over here, there''s a sign and I think we should head towards Bandpass. It''s only half a mile away!¡± Maddy called out. Chapter 12. NPC2.0, The new natives and communication. ---Maddy--- Maddy and her two companions had an uneventful walk to Bandpass. Maddy made sure to do the bare minimum social upkeep asking the two how their choices had been ¨C both had chosen Body foundations. Troy had chosen one that focused his strengths into key areas ¨C his bow drawing capabilities, his eyesight, etc ¨C and set his whole stomach as his weak spot while he was at it. ¡­Maddy didn¡¯t quite get the point of picking a weak spot, but didn¡¯t want to make the kid regret his choice. Maybe the tradeoff from picking that was worth it? Jess in comparison had chosen one that diffused her strength and defense throughout her body ¨C deciding everything was important but in turn making nothing important. Both mentioned feeling quite a bit different, and it was only once Maddy realized she was paying attention to them perfectly ¨C while also thinking about skill breaking ¨C that she noticed her change as well. Currently it was a subtle sort of thing ¨C if Maddy had to compare herself before and after the transformation, she would definitely say she was better at multitasking despite her relatively low number of mental stats¡­ Even if it was only two separate trains of thought, the fact that she hadn¡¯t slipped and missed a single word or mixed parts between them was apparent. And now there were three trains of thought. One on the conversation, one on skill breaking and a final on how she was multitasking well¡­ As a quick TLDR; how she thought hadn¡¯t changed in the slightest, but the degree she could split her focus had changed drastically. ¡­A much more important train of thought was about life and death magic. She was trying not to feel too paranoid or waste too much time on trying to figure out the ¡®why¡¯ of things. Maddy ignored the first point for now ¨C she would need to consult people or find information on it before she got anywhere. Instead, Maddy brainstormed what ''using her skill opposite to its alignment'' meant. It¡¯s a skill that attacks something ¨C so I would need to use it to protect someone? Wouldn¡¯t killing something that was attacking someone count? What was it that the note said? I would need to break it into life and death magic? So¡­ let''s assume necrotic damage is ¡®death¡¯ what I need to do is use it to create ¡®life¡¯? Would making a bunch of fertilizer and then planting stuff in it count? Is there a better option? Something faster? How long would planting stuff in melted fleshy goop take? What do I think of when I hear ¡®life¡¯ magic? ¡­creating life. Plants, nature and stuff, right? Anything living? Maybe something sketchy? Aphrodisiacs and baby-making spells? What would it be in a video game? Let¡¯s say death magic means necrosis, life magic would be something like healing right? Anti necrosis? So I could try and figure out how to heal someone with necrosis? ¡°You okay? You seem to be thinking hard about something?¡± Maddy found herself staring into Jess¡¯s eyes. The woman had spun around into her path and was staring at her curiously while walking backwards. ¡°I am actually, sorry was I spacing out? I didn¡¯t mean to be reclusive.¡± Maddy laughed. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking. What¡¯s your opinion on the changes to the so called ¡®game¡¯?¡± Maddy explained herself. ¡°I guess the tutorial is over? I get why resurrection now has a cost ¨C otherwise we won¡¯t care about dying ¨C but why is it that pain mitigation has dropped? I don¡¯t understand why that¡¯s been taken away.¡± Jess responded, seeming to relax slightly as she spun back around. A few moments of silence passed before Jess spoke once again ¨C so soft Maddy had to strain to hear in the silence. ¡°What was that flashback from hell.¡± She whispered, more vulnerable than she had ever been. Bonding experience. ¡°I saw my mom.¡± Maddy spoke, using the truth to appear more sincere. ¡°Lots and lots of my mom¡­¡± Maddy waited a moment then added a bit more as bait. ¡°You ever browsed r-slash raised by narcissists? That might give you an idea of what my childhood was like.¡± Why do I revert to this when stressed? I¡¯m not planning on being shady! I just want to become a good friend. That¡¯s it. After a moment Jess responded. ¡°I lost the use of my legs three years ago ¨C soccer accident. I had to relive the injury and following years ¨C each and every minor difficulty I had because I couldn¡¯t walk. Knowing it would never get better, I would never be active again. I thought¡­I thought this ¡®game¡¯ was a dream. That I was back to being a cripple. That¡¯s why I chose a ¡®generalized¡¯ body you know? I don¡¯t want to ever have a single part of my body broken like that again.¡± Jess''s voice grew firm at the end instead of wavering. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Troy spoke for the first time in a while pointing at something in front of them. Still a ways away, the grass seemed to retreat from a small stone wall. The wall was low ¨C just a bit taller than Maddy¡¯s head ¨C but nothing appeared to be beyond it. As they got closer and closer, a gate came into view ¨C metal doors opening inwards at the end of the path. Soon the group was standing at the entrance staring into and down in slight shock. Bandpass was a giant sinkhole ¨C roughly 500 yards across and deep enough, the bottom far below was dark and murky. It was less than a mile deep but it was hard to estimate at the angle they were looking down from by just how much. It was also a town ¨C buildings ringing the whole hole in a giant coiling spring-like shape. Built mostly into the ¡®cliff¡¯ face, these buildings were fronted by slanting blue roofs that seemed to almost grow out of the face behind them. The end of the coil pulled into itself roughly 100 stories down ¨C high above the bottom of the pit ¨C but rope ladders extended down haphazardly from the last level. Light only reached the top few stories ¨C the sun was far enough down in the sky that most of the town was in shadow ¨C but it was open enough only the last few levels were truly dim. Set at nine equidistant sections along the walls were inset spiral staircases connecting each story vertically. Looking closer, the group could see people wandering the paths ¨C frequenting a band of stories over halfway up. The bottom half of the town seemed to get worse and worse ¨C like a mixture between a slums and war zone most of the floors were broken off completely but the occasional shelf sat mostly floating in space ¨C connected to higher floors by rope ladders or messed up looking bridges. A cough sounded out and Maddy jumped ¨C spinning her head to notice an old man sitting on a box just inside the gate on the left. ¡°Alromel?¡± The man asked in a weak tone before sighing and swiping his hand through the air at their curious expressions ¨C speaking again this time changed.
The entrance is closing soon. If you wish to enter bandpass before nightfall please do so.
A blue box floated up in front of Maddy ¨C and presumably her teammates as well based on Troy¡¯s twitch. Not an achievement, just a text box with words ¨C one made by the old man. ¡°We are coming in.¡± Maddy nodded stepping onto the spiralling street. Slowly the old man stood up and shambled past them. He stepped just to the entrance then poked his head out and looked around. The old man nodded to himself after a few seconds and moved over to one of the gates ¨C beginning to push. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Slowly but surely the door began to close and Maddy stepped forward to help ¨C handing her scythe to Troy and grabbing the edge of the door by the gatekeeper. This was probably the first time Maddy noticed just how the stats in her arms had changed her. The door was thick and attached to massive pistons inside the stone. Digging in Maddy pushed ¨C her added force quickly closing the one side of the gate. Nodding gratefully and smiling at her ¨C a glint of a blood red tooth on his face was all the motivation Maddy needed to switch to the other gate. Moving over she began pulling it around ¨C Jess had grabbed on as well and between the two of them the gate was shut with little trouble.
?? Achievement get: Help the gateman. (Unique)
Description: Sometimes a good deed goes unrewarded. Not this time, you helped a gatekeeper close up for the night out of the goodness of your heart.
Stat: +1 Body strength.
Watching the gatekeeper spin a handle and latch the two metal blocks together, the group continued on walking down the sloping street. All around them, a dull foreign clatter seemed to grow ¨C hundreds of people speaking in a strange musical language. Some of the citizens were bartering, some lounging in comfortable but dangerous-looking seats that hung out over the edge ¨C the majority of the drop between the street and the ¡°Pit¡± was not protected with a railing. Osha would not approve ¨C there were children running about. That¡¯s when Maddy started to notice the town seemed proper ¨C built in an implausibly impractical area but for the most part it had a ¡°real¡± feeling the tutorial had lacked. Little grooves occasionally ran across the street ¨C dumping potential liquid into the pit. Far below she recognized what looked like families occupying homes. Technology in this town was strange, there seemed to be a large number of what looked like carved bones being used as tools or shaped into weapons or furniture. That gave Maddy pause for a moment ¨C imagined scenarios of this being some cannibal tribe ramping through her mind before she calmed down once more. She was good with people, no one here felt malicious ¨C she was positive it was a relatively safe place to be¡­giant hole notwithstanding. The other main component of Bandpass tools seemed to be polished amber-like stones. Murky crystals with strange shapes inside of them ¨C seemingly embedded into cloths and leathers and curved bones.
Hello, travellers! Come in and browse my shop!
A blue box wafted over from a open counter, the wide open window showing a room full of what appeared to be jewelry. ¡°Want to go in?¡± Maddy asked her crew then pulled them into the shop wanting a closer look. A couple was standing near the back of the room each showing off a warm ¨C but ultimately greedy looking expression. They felt like they were calculating how much profit they could make off the crew ¨C trying to gauge how much money they had, how gullible they seemed.
Is this your first time in bandpass?
The woman asked, breaking away from her husband and stepping up towards Maddison. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t think I speak your language. Do you understand English?¡± Still smiling the women gently pulled her by the arm over to a rack of necklaces each set with small red gems. Picking a worn one off a hook near them she motioned and then fastened it around Maddy¡¯s neck.
Please feel free to talk freely now.
¡°This is¡­what? A translator?¡± There was something when Maddy spoke ¨C a vibration on her chest and the women nodded.
Highest quality, only 498 pips and 10 hours guaranteed. I also have the incredibly rare response version for 999 pips but its held in the back for safety.
Probably a tourist trap but that doesn¡¯t even matter does it¡­how much is a pip? How do I get them? ¡°I don¡¯t have any money, how do I get these ¡®pips?¡¯ what are they worth?¡± Maddy asked noting the slight glaze that crossed the woman¡¯s face. The sigh she made wasn¡¯t translated but her question after was.
Are you confident in your weapon? You could join a hunting expedition or try your luck at the dungeon. Could also work as a pit monkey if you want to be safe.
Pulling Maddy over a few shelves the shopkeeper pointed out several smaller ¨C and noticeably less complex looking necklaces made of lower quality materials.
If you manage to find some money I have some budget options as well, this one is a reliable responder, Can respond yes, no, maybe. 1000 responses stored. Won¡¯t let you communicate well but at least you can respond to others with it. 3 pips.
¡­couldn¡¯t I just nod or shake my head?
This one is a similar model for the simple folk. Allows you to request: food, a bed, surrender, call someone a ¡®fuckwit¡¯, say you are friendly, ask for work, tell people you want to buy or sell something and finally ask for the nearest status hall. It¡¯s harder to use ¨C you¡¯ll have to touch each of the clips along the sides to make any of those responses. Minimum 700 or so responses guarenteed. Might reach as high as a 2000 if you spread uses out before it breaks. 99 pips. Popular model with travelers. Finally I have the flawed universals.
Pausing the women pulled off an intricate necklace of her own, carefully storing it in her pouch. Next she reached across to a cabinet and pulled out a lumpy gem ¨C one that looked forcefully held together as if someone had fused several smaller gems into one. Placing it around her neck she spoke once more her voice overlaid and not silenced by the box that narrated her thoughts.
This non-alternative is ---, It¡¯s for the largest piece operative yet inclines -- homogenize speech-words and timber --- is falsely endorsed for ------ that hungers to be handled nicely in society. I¡¯ll kill you if you procure it --- 20 pips.
Maddy stared across at the shopkeeper. ¡°That¡¯s¡­not just a bad translation. I¡¯m pretty sure you just said you¡¯d kill me there at the end¡± Wincing the shopkeeper placed it back in the shelf before returning to her ¡®good¡¯ translator.
As I said, it occasionally changes the meaning and tone of your words. I don¡¯t recommend it. Cheap however. Now, if you aren¡¯t going to buy anything I¡¯m going to have to ask you to return the free trial product.
Pulling the device off Maddy¡¯s head before she could continue asking questions, the women shooed her back towards her teammates sending a last message before they left.
Come again if you end up receiving some money!
---James--- James walked through the bustling streets of ¡®Ser¡¯ feeling like he was in the midst of an industrial re-enactment. Every building was ¡®enhanced¡¯ with mechanical nick knacks and doodads in some manner ¨C doors opened and closed automatically using pressure plates, tanks of random substances rolled about on rails. Those tanks were pushed by little mechanical trolleys now that James could see their backside. People traveled on little steam-powered carts. It was suffocating ¨C James was rapidly realizing he had been having more fun walking in ¡®nature¡¯ than he was this ¡®settlement¡¯. People spoke in a strange clicking language ¨C occasionally slipping into a vowel heavy dialect and using strange bracelets to shout blue boxes of information at each other and everyone nearby. Reaching the center of town, James found a map ¨C a billboard of sorts, one side dedicated to a close up of the town, the other set to the surroundings. Important to James was the surrounding map and ¨C after looking around to make sure he wasn¡¯t in anyone¡¯s way ¨C he stood in front of it for a while trying to memorize his surroundings. The map was static but had square boxy labels that looked something like an E-reader¡¯s paper screen ¨C the text a specific mechanical-looking font detailing information in English. As James watched someone walked past him ¨C passing closer to the side of the board and thus triggering a few labels to flicker to some different language. A few seconds after they passed the text faded back to something readable. Offset in the bottom middle lay a huge blank circle detailing ¡®old tech, isolation barrier¡¯. The tutorial ¡®zone¡¯ was denoted as 5km in diameter ¨C a nearly twenty square kilometer area of question marks. Pretending there were rings coming out of the center of the map, a dotted line was placed 15km out and then 45km out ¨C getting cut off by what the map was showing but still clearly shown as round squiggly rings. Each ring in the map was denoted as a zone, ¡®Tier 0, Tier 1, Tier 2¡¯ ¨C and inside those zones there were smaller pockets of ¡®+¡¯ some number and a symbol that James found in a legend denoted ¡®monster den¡¯. Assuming Ser was in the north side of the map, to the far south ¨C directly on the other side of the tutorial zone ¨C a point denoted ¡®bandpass¡¯. Moving around the map the east was mostly blank ¨C a city noted as ¡®Eros¡¯ nearly at the edge of the board right beside what had to be either a lake or the sea. High above Ser ¨C bordering the line between Tier 1 & 2 ¨C was a city with a star beside it ¨C ¡®Nox¡¯. All across the west however, was a steadily growing block of ¡®badlands¡¯ full of scull marks and danger symbols. For the most part the entire map was connected by both thick roads and smaller foot paths but none of them travelled into the badlands. ¡°So if I want to fight monsters I should head there no?¡± James spoke to himself tapping the badlands curiously.
Beware! Bad land that way. Very bad land. Polluted, corrupted place.
James was surprised by the blue box popping into his view turning his head to find a child staring up at him.
You¡¯ll die if you go there. Lots of monsters
¡°¡­can you understand me?¡± James asked cautiously noting the child¡¯s eyes flicking a few times as he read some invisible screen.
Of course, Pa¡¯s been working on the personal translator. If you wish to test yourself there are much safer options than the badlands ¨C do you want to help me? I lost my prototype grasper in the dungeon¡¯s first floor. Retrieve it for me and I¡¯ll tell you a bit about the world, give you some chips for your troubles. What do you say? Accept quest?
Yes No
Chapter 13. Lets gather our bearings like squirrels collecting nuts for winter then choose our path. ---James--- James tried to figure out what he wanted to do. On one hand, he didn¡¯t actually want to do something for this strange kid ¨C who spoke in a strange manner through blue boxes¡­it didn¡¯t feel official in the same way achievements did. He didn¡¯t know what chips were ¨C probably a currency though ¨C what they were worth, how much he would get... He could be scammed, nothing proved the kid would give him anything. ¡­but really, did he have anything to lose? Out of the corner of his eye, James saw an alleyway and what looked like a mugging. A violent one with a bookish-looking fellow held up against the wall being beaten with what looked like brass knuckles. That scene, mostly out of the way of regular city life looked so normal he hadn¡¯t noticed it till now. James remembered the ¡®PK¡¯er. He didn¡¯t want to be taken advantage of. He remembered how much fun he had had killing monsters. How much simpler it was. If something attacked him he could fight it. If a person stole from him...attacking them back was a crime right? Was self-defense encouraged? He was a foreigner would anyone take his side? ¡­he wanted to be strong. Strong enough that he wouldn''t even need to think about these sorts of problems. He wanted to go to the best hunting ground and push himself as hard as he could there. ¡°I think¡­I think you should find someone else.¡± Not listening to the boy¡¯s response, James left the city, a destination planned. No supplies, no information, an individual walked towards the land of death the sun low in the sky.
---Maddy--- It was hard to ask for information about magic without being able to communicate with the natives, it felt almost like she was on a linear path ¨C the main questline in a game. It seemed like too many steps to reach where she wanted if Maddy was being honest. ¡°Maddy?¡±. Instantly Maddy found herself focusing on her companions. Jess had just asked what her plans were. ¡°Well¡­I¡¯ve been thinking. We need to get information right? ¡­and that means we need a translator and to do that we need money.¡± She began. There wasn¡¯t any point in hiding this at least. ¡°Okay¡­just asking but do we really need to buy a translator? That can be a good goal if we don¡¯t know what else to do but¡­shouldn¡¯t our goal be to be getting as many achievements as we can? I¡¯m sure knowledge would help and there¡¯s probably some quests we need to be able to talk to people to get but¡­¡± "We should go to the dungeon." Troy spoke adding in his unwanted opinion. Esh¡­without knowing she could die she would have suggested it first. She was being too critical ¨C they were probably picking the best plan based on what they knew ¨C but diving into that blind made Maddy shiver. ¡°Have both of you already used your quest board?¡± Maddy asked, mind racing as she stalled for time. She could get someone to ask for "skill break knowledge " and see if there were any quests for it. "Yes" "Sorry" "Drat" Maddy whispered. She was running out of ideas. Maddy¡¯s mind continued to churn through options. The healthiest action was obviously to tell them both the truth. Tell her of her resurrection issue¡­say the world was a bit more real than they were treating it¡­say she could get that back if she got magic and that was why she was hoping for magic¡­ But did she really know them that well? She had a pretty good mental profile set up for each of them¡­but did she trust them? Years of training said no. Years of her mother reminding her not to show weakness even to friends. The message had mentioned a "non snitching agreement" ¨C who knows how enforceable that was or what the penalty for failure would be. Magic existed after all. What if she was turned into a newt? Maddy flipped through solutions. She could push as hard as she could ¨C fall back on easy solutions and convince them with some lies but¡­that was failing. She would rather force herself to tell the truth right now. ¡°I got it. A quicker option but one that''s not guaranteed¡­and one I think we should do." "Let¡¯s hear it then" Jess stood back crossing her arms slightly looking suddenly much younger than Maddy had been placing her. "Who says we need to ask the locals? Let''s check to see if there''s a library or a bookstore in this town!" Glancing up for a moment then looking her in the eye Jess nodded. She seemed less enthusiastic than Maddy was for obvious reasons¡­ "But let''s be quick, you had us leave early ¨C admittedly I haven''t been tired since then ¨C and I want to act on the idea you originally promised. So far we haven''t gotten much for coming early. We''ve gotten one small achievement for helping an old man. That''s not enough! It''s been too long since I¡¯ve gotten an achievement!" Thankful her desires had won out over her companions'' growing impatience Maddy dragged them through a crowd of people and started looking for something ¨C anything that looked like it had books. Thankfully that wasn¡¯t hard to do. Unthankfully those books were not in English. The two bookstores Maddy found sold leatherbound books full of dense text. Some had pictures and diagrams which were helpful but¡­it wasn¡¯t enough. She could feel her companions annoyance grow the more time she wasted, Finally she found one that offered a unique service. A machine that looked like a cross between a microscope and a photocopier sat in a dusty corner. A solid boxy base with a curved viewing glass the machine was surprisingly mechanical ¨C glass and interlocking parts and dials to shift what had to be dozens of amber panes bouncing light off mirrors and through lenses. The shopkeeper was happy to explain it translated any text placed in front of it into the language of the user. Apparently creating text that translated, was easier than translating existing text and this machine only worked on a few languages but it was still impressive. The problem of course was that this was a store. You were supposed to bring books over check through them and decide to buy/photocopy them into your own language. Maddy just wanted to read them. Taking books over, one by one flipping through them as if she was studying their quality, Maddy tried to gather information in bits and pieces. She could only spend a minute tops on each book ¨C the shopkeeper was getting less and less friendly the less it looked like she was going to buy something ¨C but a picture was starting to form from the scraps she had gotten. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.Skill ¡®breaking¡¯ meant something almost religious to these people ¨C it turns out skills were relatively rare for the ¡®natives¡¯ and the system itself was barely mentiond despite them obviously using it with all the blue boxes floating about. A skill ¨C or ¡®trapped power¡¯ as it was sometimes translated ¨Cseemed to be something gained when fighting a great beast or delving deep into a dungeon. It was always great but¡­it was fixed from the moment you gained it. No matter how much you used it, no matter how much practice you did it would never get better. It wasn¡¯t fully ¡®yours¡¯. That was the main reason for ¡®breaking¡¯ it. Once ¡®claimed as your own¡¯ the power could grow. Multiple skills could be gained without breaking any of them ¨C max one a rank with each getting harder to gain ¨C but¡­once you broke a skill it was easier to get more of them. The true benefits were all in its growth however. Claiming the skill as your own let you change it. Work it out like a muscle. Let you create new abilities. Let magic happen. One book claimed it was best to find your own manner of ¡®breaking¡¯ the skill ¨C stressing it by using it in an unattended way but one that you came up with on your own. Getting help would lower your potential, ''make you weaker'' ¨C unable to progress. You had to ''find the answers on your own''. Another book just listed an example ¨C someone using a speed affinity to slow something down by adding speed opposite to motion. That split into proper movement magic ¨C both speed and slow ¨C and that¡¯s where Maddy learned more about magic for the first time. A magic affinity always had its opposite inside of it ¨C its inverse effect. When you split a skill into its magical parts you could create both heat and cold. Light and darkness. Creation and destruction. ¡­and they seemed to think those opposites or ¡®inverses¡¯ were real physical things. Darkness wasn¡¯t just the absence of light it was the existence of its opposite. Cold wasn¡¯t the lack of heat, it was a type of energy in its own right.
?? Achievement get: Bookworm. (rare)
Description: For having sought knowledge in pages despite the barrier of language. You have consumed a lot of new information from the study of books.
Stat: +5 brain power.
¡­the shopkeeper was coughing. Maddy was starting to get a bit too obvious with her reading. Searching for a book or two on dungeons Maddy was partway through finding out they were dangerous but structured ¨C usually a gradual increase in difficulty with varied monsters and puzzles and rewards that warned you if anything was different ¨C before a hand came down on her shoulder.
I¡¯m going to have to ask you to buy something if you want to continue reading. I imported this translator from well past Ser.
Nodding slightly Maddy left the shop companions in tow. ¡°Did you get what you were hoping for?¡± Jess asked a few steps out ¨C a hint of curiosity in her tone. ¡°Yes and I¡¯m up for the dungeon now. Wish I could find anything specific about this one but it shouldn''t be deadly. The main thing I learned was about magic. Guys! There¡¯s magic here! You should break your skills, I learned a whole bunch about how to do it and what the rewards are ¨C you can either break a skill into you or out of you ¨C stick it into your body or soul ¨C and depending on which you choice you make there¡¯s a whole path for advancement. You can become a magic warrior or a mage!¡± Maddy¡¯s excitement leaked into her explanation and she gushed at the possibilities. Slowly her companions learned about the options and began admitting it was good to know.
---Richard--- Richard stood in the center of Bandpass ¨C physically it was a side of the cliff but there was enough bustle and general ¡®happening¡¯ that it felt like the center. In one hand he held a small bag of large rice shaped coins called ¡®pips¡¯ in the other a pair of translators. The pips had been traded for his coin ¨C sorry sold ¨C and the translators had been procured ¡®half off¡¯. Richard had bought the funny broken version for 20 pips, used [misfortune] to cause a distraction and then swiped the expensive one on his way out.
?? Achievement get: Shoplifter. (uncommon)
Description: Stolen from an open shop. You know that¡¯s a crime right ¨C you¡¯re supposed to pay for those!
Stat: +1 Planning power. Stat: +1 Decision speed. Stat: +2 Body speed.
¡­he hadn¡¯t ever shoplifted in ¡®real life¡¯ but had some practice in video games. After gaining money he had spent some on a back holster for his hammer ¨C it was awkward lugging the thing around all the time ¨C then found something to eat. Buying a bread-like product from a stand ¨C it was a single pip and looked like a pretzel ¨C Richard walked along the open edge thinking. What to do, what to do? I want to find something at least slightly fun. ''They'' seemed to have tried a bit more with the theming here? Not that they had to do much to improve how shitty the tutorial looked. The town was made of stone. Stone in different shades ¨C marbled blue a lot of the times ¨C and somehow fused to itself. Along the street were houses and shops ¨C glorified boxy caves ¨C covered in lanterns shining out a bright light and decorated with plenty of weird shaped plants. A few vines dropped down from the floor above, and a few shrubs seemed to be playing ¡°public attraction¡± duty¡­ but most of the plants were in boxes hanging under windows ¨C or kept in the occasional ledge out into the pit covered in vegetables like a community garden. There were people here as well ¨C quite a bit more than the last area, both players and NPCs. Players were players ¨C easy enough to tell because even though most had new clothing and armor that hid their grey track clothing¡­they spoke in English. The NPC¡¯s were the weird ones, speaking in some strange made up language like the devs had gotten lazy and didn¡¯t want to narrate the conversations between background characters. ¡­if Richard was being honest with himself, the NPC¡¯s acted quite a bit more lifelike than their tutorial counterparts. Scarily so ¨C he knew they were fake¡­was pretty sure they were fake, but they no longer did stupid repetitive tasks or acted in robotic manners. So how much does the game want me to push someone in that pit? Richard looked out staring down at the water far below. It was the first thing he thought of when he saw the town''s setup ¨C the first thing anyone probably thought while seeing that pit. ¡­that¡¯s high enough the water would feel like concrete¡­Would my defense be enough to survive it? ¡­no dumbass, there¡¯s a death penalty now. Its not worth jumping and I already cheesed those achievements. Are you becoming an adrenaline junky? We haven¡¯t done that before? Richard took a bite of his pretzel thing. It was spicy. Like someone had filled a ginger-tinged bread with sugared chillies. The inside of the roll was full of melt in your mouth reeds of some unknown plant that made his mouth burn. ¡°Oh Fuck, I wasn¡¯t expecting that.¡± Staring at the spicy bread Richard took another bite. ¡°That¡¯s a fucking good stick of buttery bread stuff. Want some?¡± Offering it to a player standing and staring at him from a few feet away, the voyeur paused and looked shocked to be called out. ¡°What? No gross, you already took a bite of it.¡± he spoke while backing up. ¡­Richard shrugged and moved on eating the rest of his roll as he thought. Pushing someone off would only be funny in specific convoluted circumstances. Stuff is funny when it''s unexpected ¨C thanks spicy roll ¨C so I need to figure out something people would be surprised by. What do I actually want to do? If Richard was even slightly honest with himself. What he wanted to do more than anything else was fuck with people. People in this case meant players not NPCs¡­and ¡®fuck with¡¯ meant. ¡­well he wasn¡¯t sure yet. Something he would think was funny. Why am I never creative when I want to be? Why is all my time spent trying to think of things to do instead of just doing them? All his current prank ideas really just boiled down to hurting people and his consciousness was still reeling about from that flashback. The memory of the ¡®unfunny prank¡¯ clawing at him fresh-cutting his personal code deep into his mind. Hurting people is only funny if they deserve it. This mantra ran through his brain again and again as he tried to relax and think about something fun instead of lines he wanted to make. Lines he didn¡¯t want to cross. Lines weren¡¯t fun. Consequences weren¡¯t fun. Richard really was an impulsive guy rather than a planner and it showed. Staring at his 20 pip translator of miscommunication, Richard tried to imagine the best use for it. ... Slipping the pure translator on for a moment he walked over to an NPC and tried asking them for hints. ¡°Hey, does this town have a mayor or something? Do you have any events with speeches?¡± Staring at him for a moment with a blank look, Richard sighed and pulled out a pip offering it towards them. Pocketing the pip, the NPC went back to staring at him blankly. ... ¡­Richard waited for a minute before realizing they weren¡¯t going to respond and laughing. ¡°Alright got me, I didn¡¯t actually say that was for anything¡­ how many more pips do you want for some information?¡± Richard asked fingering his bag. Instead of answering the man pointed at his translator. ¡°¡­that¡¯s not a payment. I need this.¡± Shaking his head the man began an elaborate miming session ¨C making shapes with his hands and speaking out of habit, then pausing and looking confused when Richard didn¡¯t understand. Oh, got it he doesn¡¯t have one. ¡°You¡¯re only borrowing this okay? I want it back after¡± Nodding the NPC took his translator and began speaking.
Traveller! Welcome welcome! Lots of travellers lately! You want me to bring you to the general? He¡¯s responsible for a lot. Festival! We haven¡¯t had one of those in a long time. Happens every time someone reaches the end of the dungeon. Want me to show you around the town? I can show you beautiful bandpass for small donations.
Richard took the translator back and declined the help. Alright, I have a plan. Either clear the dungeon or know when someone else has cleared it and then swap the mayor ¨C sorry generals¡¯ translator for this one. Unexpected things are always funny. I want to confuse the shit out of anyone listening to that speech! Chapter 14, A dungeon delve. ---Maddy--- The dungeon was located over halfway down the cliffside. The walls got slick with dew and the surroundings darkened as they made their way down the path towards it. It was nearly nighttime by the time Maddy¡¯s group reached the entrance and she started to wonder about her timeline ¨C how long she had been here. What had happened when. It had basically been nightime when we left from the tutorial but was just past midday when we came out. Did we spend that much time in the in between area? Is this the end of day two? I was slightly hungry at the end of the first day and kind of forgot about that when we passed through the barrier. I haven¡¯t slept once yet, but as soon as I came out of the in between I was well rested and full of energy? Finally reaching the entrance the group found a rope ladder for the final stretch. Not wanting to carry her scythe down one handed, Maddy tossed it down first. A faint clanging rang out through the darkening pit as she clambered down to retrieve it once more. Checking carefully to make sure her rough treatment of the blade was fine, Maddy and co looked up towards a large cave mouth. The entrance to the dungeon was perched on a thick round slab that extended out into the pit. The entrance itself looked decidedly less sculpted than the buildings up above. It was very ¡®cave-like¡¯ as opposed to carved abode. More ''natural seeming''. Presumably, it was set up like this ¨C a ladder straight down to it ¨C in case monsters came out of the cave¡­they would run out into the pit or find themselves trapped and go back in? Because monsters can¡¯t climb ladders? Going need a bit more information than that ¨C I thought monsters stayed in the dungeon and nothing I read said otherwise. Glancing over, Jess spoke quietly ¨C soft voice whispering that she would take the lead in case anything jumped them. Nodding, Maddy stood behind her more thankful for the protection than she had been before. As they stepped into the entrance, the group felt the air change. It rapidly grew warmer ¨C a faint musty smell wafting out from deeper in. At roughly fifteen feet away from the entrance, a black cloth seemed to be installed in the ceiling. Carefully walking over to it and poking the material for safety, the group peaked through and then slipped past. Beyond the cloth door the path opened up and changed. The walls shifted from rough stone into a straight corridor lit by strange alcoves full of light. It was wide enough across they could all walk side by side if needed and tall enough they didn¡¯t feel cramped. Peeking into one alcove, Maddy saw the light bulb was set up into a hole in the top. Pulled up to be invisible from the front a glowing bulb shone light down and bounced it out into the hall. ¡°Lightbulb¡± was only the closest analogy she could make. There was a bulb and it was producing light¡­ but its texture looked almost organic in nature and there wasn¡¯t any sign of electricity or external power connected to it. Trying to pull the bulb out to take with them, Maddy felt first a slimy exterior and then her hand being burned. ¡°Ahh, Don¡¯t touch the lights guys¡± She relayed back holding her stinging hand by her side. Slowly the pain faded, and she realized her hand wasn¡¯t burned after all ¨C just tinged a slight pink as if she had slapped something hard. ¡°Left or right?¡± Jess called from up ahead. Choices. Sigh. Why was there a choice with no way for her to figure out if it was good or not? ¡°We don¡¯t have any information, doesn¡¯t matter ¨C anyone want to randomly pick?¡± Maddy asked after a few seconds of silence. ¡°Right¡± Troy responded from behind them. ¡°Right it is, careful to watch our behinds, we don¡¯t want to be ambushed by something coming up behind us¡± Maddy relayed stepping behind once more. Troy nodded looking happy and the group began making their way deeper. Carefully making their way forward, it wasn¡¯t long before a light skittering sound was heard from ahead. Bending slightly the hallway suddenly revealed¡­well. What could only be a monster. If Maddy had to describe it, she would say it was like a centipede had been combined with an albino rat ¨C a long furry snake-like body leading out to a pointed nose and lined with hundreds of tiny black legs. As soon as it saw them the creature charged ¨C a crack sounded out as Jesse''s whip placed a barrier in the centi-rat¡¯s way, halting its charge immediately. Trying to orient herself, a flash of light zipped past Maddy¡¯s side, and the monster was skewered by an bright glowing arrow. Wiggling slightly like a pinned worm, the monster died. Black juices began to leak out of the hole left by the slowly dimming arrow and a chemical smell filled the air. Maddy hadn¡¯t done anything ¨C couldn¡¯t do anything. Her weapon was not easily swung in such a confined space. She could probably swing it if she contorted her body and stood by the wall but¡­that was unwieldy. That was an excuse ¨C her weapon did not take to hallways well and nothing she could do would change that. But she knew that going in. It was the price she made by picking a lesser used weapon. ¡­lesser used for a reason but one she wouldn¡¯t regret. She wouldn¡¯t change to a generic weapon at the first sign of trouble. ¡°Everyone alright? That didn¡¯t seem worse than anything on the plains?¡± Jess called back after finishing her check of the body ¨C unlike the tutorial it wasn¡¯t vanishing. It was very much a real corpse ¨C a faint sweet but ¡®chemically¡¯ smell curling up from it. ¡°I¡¯m fine¡± Troy called placing another arrow on his string. ¡°[Lightshot]¡¯s cooldown is much longer here than it was outside. I won¡¯t be able to use it a lot¡± ¡°I¡­can¡¯t swing properly, I could have hit that monster as well, but I¡¯d also have clipped your legs. Sorry, I hope we reach a cavern or something¡± Maddy made sure to point out her faults and act sheepish for not hitting their first encounter. ¡­a faint part of her had started trembling as soon as the monster appeared and wouldn¡¯t calm down. If she died, that was it. It was over, there was nothing she could do. Coming down into the dungeon flared up as a dumb decision. She was making nothing but bad decisions she should hole up somewhere safe far away. Clamping down on her emotions Maddy pointed ahead and said they should continue ¨C not a single hint at her inner turmoil leaking out. ¡­ Onwards the group walked. After a few minutes, they reached a second fork and turned right once again. This time two demon ferrets ¨C as Troy had called the centi-rats ¨C attacked instead. They were partway down the second hallway and attacked simultaneously but were dealt with easily in the enclosed area ¨C one was hit by a regular arrow in the head and the other was squished up against the wall and kicked flat. ¡­Maddy once again was not a part of either of those attacks. It was only after those teasers that they reached the first room. A large open cavern underground, lit by a single lamp far above met their eyes. All along the walls glowing greenish gold vines seemed to be growing in and out of the stone ¨C it looked sickly like worms digging out of someone¡¯s flesh but also natural in a way. All across this room round domes ¨C like a village of miniature stone igloos ¨C met their gaze. Each igloo containing the blinking red eyes of a demon ferret ¨C it rolled off the tongue more, so Maddy had converted her name for them. Gathering up, the group stayed near the entrance and created a formation similar to what they had on the planes. Jess stood in the front center a bulwark against the swarm. Maddy stood on her right side so she could swing safely. Troy stood on the center-left because he didn¡¯t care as much. Clearing her throat, Maddy made a large ¡°Hah¡± sound drawing the monsters out and towards them. Waiting until the first demon ferret was in range, Maddy swung carefully. Muscle memory timed and angled her blade just right to hook into the side and open them up from the top. ¡­the demon ferret kept coming, skittering towards her despite leaking fluids wildly. Lunging to the side slightly, Jess laid a barrier directly in front of Maddy¡¯s legs as the monster lunged the last foot. At this distance, she could see the way the clear-ish, yellow-ish defense appeared. It grew like¡­.it grew like the air was a liquid and the barrier a sped up growth of ice across its surface. Like an invisible box of invisible liquid that turned solid and filled its container. Smash. The monster hit the barrier angrily ¨C banging its head and squishing it''s injured back into the wall even as it disappeared. Too extended to try and bring her blade below her feet, Maddy had a stroke of inspiration. She pulled the weapon up to stab the butt of her scythe down onto the slightly stunned rats head. A faint crack and squish sounded out as she broke something inside ¨C presumably its skull ¨C then shifted her scythe back into position to swing once again.
?? Achievement get: Butt killer. (non sexual)
Description: Killed a monster with the butt of your weapon. Where did you think that was going?
Stat: +2 arm power.
Another ferret charged. This time she used [the reaper''s blade], bringing it around sharply and cutting in a wide sweep ¨C the black rot taking hold of furry white flesh and finishing off what she could not. Again and again and again she swung. Like a farmer collecting wheat at the end of the season, the combat quickly shifted to simply being physical exertion. It wasn¡¯t hard. Not while protected and with a stream as consistent as they were coming. The seconds began to drag and blend together as she ¡®pulled back, paused, swung¡¯ on repeat. A few minutes into the assault and she could no longer hear the ¡®thunk¡¯ of arrows being shot. Her partners shifted as she fought, her position pushed out further. What were they doing? She could hold. Roughly ten minutes passed. Ten minutes of fighting before Maddy finally started to wonder if something was wrong. ¡°What¡¯s the chance this is endless?¡± She called sideways ¨C noting Jess blocking and funneling monsters towards her in a more manageable stream. ¡°What?¡± Jess yelled back, preventing a particularly rabid looking one from sneaking around the side. ¡°They keep coming from those burrows, what¡¯s the chance they never end?¡± Jess actually stopped for a moment letting one through as she paused ¨C it lunging at Maddy¡¯s legs. This time Maddy kicked it hard ¨C a faint splash of something spraying her ankles as she did. ¡°¡­possible. Sorry about that.¡± Jess hastily resumed funnel duty. A ring of bodies now lay just outside of Maddy¡¯s range, the corpses melting slightly together with the aftereffects of her skill. ¡°Why isn¡¯t Troy shooting anymore?¡± Maddy asked glancing to the side where he appeared to be aiming endlessly. He mumbled something as she felt a faint stinging from her leg ¨C the splattered fluids from earlier burning several welts onto her flesh. ¡°I can¡¯t hear you over the skittering¡± Maddy found herself raising her voice. ¡°I only have a hundred arrows or so left, I can collect them after the fight but I have no clue how many monsters there are and thought it was better to get anything that escaped you two.¡± ¡°Well you let that one through. I think they have acidic blood or spit or something. Careful with getting any of their fluids on you everyone.¡± Maddy ignored Troy¡¯s mumbled response about not wanting to hit her leg. She realized she was losing her calm. Realized she was ruining their perception of her ¨C that she needed to get a hold of herself before she broke their early relationship. It said a lot about a person the way they acted under stress and Maddy did not want to come off as a bitch. She recentered. She was fine. She was handling it. There was a literal pile of proof that she was ¡®handling it¡¯ all around her. The smell was starting to waft back. Sickly sweet like someone had vomited after gorging on fruit roll-ups. Like a fruit roll-up factory had been sprayed with bleach and ammonia¡­the mustard gas created corrupted with sweetness. But that was fine. ¡­what was the chance that it was poisonous? Did she feel like vomiting? ¡­they should probably try and change their situation somehow. ¡°Alright. I think we should either try and get across the room or head back. There doesn¡¯t seem to be an end to these monsters in sight. I¡¯ve killed at least one pretty consistently every few seconds now.¡± ¡°We should probably head around the outside of the room instead of going down the center and getting surrounded. I¡¯ll be better able to defend you two that way.¡± Jess mentioned while pointing to the left. ¡°Good idea. I¡¯ll follow your lead.¡± Maddy responded after looking about. Inching to the side, the group made it roughly twenty feet before something stopped them. ¡°Ouch¡± Troy yelped and shot Jess ¨C his arrow digging into her shoulder after he was attacked from the side. Hidden against the rock face, several grey tendrils stabbed out ¨C reaching repeatedly like ¡®wall hands¡¯ in a horror movie. Where they had stabbed into Troy, dull scabby splotches had spread quickly. Looking closer, Maddy decided it looked exactly like rough blisters made of stone ¨C like Troy had been wounded and partly healed but the healed ¡®scab¡¯ was straight granite. ¡°Watch it¡± Jess snapped, reaching around and ripping the arrow out ¨C throwing it to the side. The group was falling apart. They had worked well together on the training field but switched to blaming each other for every single thing at the first ¡®real¡¯ excursion. ¡­this was Maddy¡¯s fault. She was trying to let everyone do their own thing, she had made this group but hadn¡¯t once claimed to be its leader. She needed to actually lead. Give direction so her companions didn¡¯t feel like they were floundering. ¡°Everyone, back towards the entrance, give me a few minutes ¨C something''s bothering me.¡± Maddy spoke while waving her free arm. Backpedaling wildly, the group mostly reached their original position ¨C it was a few feet away from the previous pile of bodies and less smelly. Maddy breathed out and started to step through her thoughts, a portion of herself taking care of the monster culling almost on autopilot. For some reason she no longer felt like putting her thoughts down point form. ¡®For some reason¡¯, it was probably her foundation. Now her mind just flung solutions and thoughts all over the place ¨C tossing them back and forth in a messy juggling manner and just expecting her to keep up. ¡­it was weird to think about herself in third person and that self observing part could definitely better be used actually thinking about the situation. This was a solvable problem. This was a ¡®designed¡¯ challenge. A ¡®designed¡¯ situation not a natural one. There was a room with endlessly spawning monsters that seemed to want them to go towards the center. It prevented the obvious safe path with arm hands ¨C was there a hidden path? Should they head back and try a different route? If Maddy was just a bit faster at killing ¨C just a bit more confident in her maneuverability ¨C she would consider ¡®just running through¡¯ and fighting from the other side. If they could just lower the number of monsters that were attacking¡­ Maddy stared at each of the igloos. They seemed surprisingly fragile now that she was looking at them more carefully. Like a wasp¡¯s nest, or paper mache structure. ¡°Troy, can you try shooting one of the nests? Use a [light shot] if you can.¡± Nodding, the boy drew his arrow slowly. The bow seemed to be gathering light over the course of a second as he pulled it back. A nice smooth charge that collected all one place before flying out when he released. His arrow shot true into the center of the room and hit the nearest nest. Like a bull in a vase store, the arrow smashed through with the sound of broken pottery. It smashed clear through the first igloo and impacted the dome behind it. After the second structure it lost most of its momentum and lay slowly dimming in broken shards of nest. Maddy did not understand how [light shot] worked. ¡­that was not a valid thread of thought right now, she needed to focus. The destruction of a nest seemed to confuse the few demon ferrets running towards her and the constant assault lulled as they looked over investigating the destruction in their midst. Wanting to see what her own chances were, Maddy took the moment to run towards the nearest nest ¨C winding back as she ran and holding her weapon low. Activating [the reapers slash] and swinging like a pitcher she twisted ¨C smashing her blade tip through up to the hilt. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. A black pulse of necrosis spread across and dissipated into nothing¡­not appearing to do anything. Well that was anticlimactic. ¡­up close the igloos looked like they were made of clay. In hindsight there was nothing living for necrosis to decay, and it was probably a dumb attack. It was definitely a dumb attack in hindsight. ¡­at least Maddy could pretend it was a test to see if they were living or not? Scientific process, flesh rot does not effect the igloos. Twisting her scythe and yanking it upwards she pried it out of the clay creation ripping off most of its top. Inside she found it¡­ empty. Nothing was inside, nothing to show how the demon ferrets had been appearing, no hole down into the cave floor no weird contraption just¡­empty nothing. Several ferrets were swarming her ¨C running over to her new position away from her companions ¨C and she didn¡¯t think she could face them all at once. ¡°Jess, block for me as I get back into position.¡± Maddy yelled even as she turned and began running back. Dashing past her companions she turned just in time to see half a dozen ferrets attacking at once. Two were blocked by a barrier snapped out at the edge of her whip. Another two were blocked after the tank threw her hand out for the second time casting it right in front of Maddy. The final two went around both sides of that last shield and jumped to savage Jess¡¯s legs and waist. Smashing her whips handle down on one, Jess yelled ¡°Off you creepy fuck¡± and seemed genuinely disgusted for the first time. There was a faint wince of pain in her voice as she grabbed both of the monsters by the head and flung them away wild gibberish and curses leaking out before she composed herself once more. A third monster that had shook off most of its stun, charged once more but was skewered by an arrow. Maddy took a deep breath and then stepped forward back to Jess¡¯s side. She sidestepped in front of the tank for a moment to kill the three mostly stunned creatures in front of her then regained her position. She didn¡¯t have her ¡®skill¡¯ to attack them anymore and that meant none of her attacks were a sure thing. If she managed to hit their heads perfectly they were gone easily but everywhere else left them as cockroach like zombies skittering forward unstopped. Their legs were much harder to focus on ¨C just removing a few didn¡¯t seem to stop them ¨C and so most of her attention was aimed at heads. ¡°Troy, whenever you can attack a nest. We¡¯ll focus on all the monsters, if you can¡¯t make it normally wait for your skill to cool down¡± ¡°okay¡±, Troy drew back and let loose another blindingly bright attack. Wiping out another nest he tried a regular arrow before giving up and waiting for his skill. ¡°You said cooldown is decreased in bright areas right?¡± Maddy called back, mind free enough to start wandering again. ¡°Yes?¡± Troy spoke nervously holding his bow like he was about to get in trouble. ¡°What needs to be in light to recharge? You? Your arrow? Can you go stick either in an alcove to recharge?¡± ¡°My arrow does and¡­sure. I¡¯ll try that¡± Scrambling over to an alcove just inside the hallway behind them troy held is arrow inside eyes staring at some invisible note. ¡°Got it¡± He yelled after a few seconds running back to make a new shot. A new rhythm was discovered. One of troy running back and forth between the same alcove and his position to attack a new nest ¨C trying to recreate his feat of hitting multiple each time to save time. Slowly the periodic attacks slowed. Soon one was attacking every 15s, then once every minute. By this point the three started pushing into the cavern maddy and jess attacking igloos as well. Maddy killed a demon ferret exiting a hole then bent down and stared into it curiously. The igloo was still empty but nearly completely in dark. It was like some video games where monsters only appeared in dark places ¨C this was her new running theory as to why they were spawning when they did. All they needed to do to break a spawner was let in some light. A hole or two in the top was mostly enough. Still they had suffered enough at the room''s hands, that Maddy made sure each igloo was wide open and smashed. A box flicked into view for each of them the moment the last nest broke.
?? Achievement get: Tier 1 dungeon room clear. (Rare)
Description: Blind clear of a swarming area you have discovered a secret and used it to progress.
Stat: +2 mental power, Stat: +2 decision making power, Stat: +2 mental stability, Stat: +2 mental speed, Stat: +2 arm power, Stat: +2 arm speed, Stat: +2 core power, Stat: +2 body poison defense. Stat: +1 lungs poison defense. Stat: +1 running speed. Stat: +1 voice power.
¡°Nice! I got nearly a dozen total combined stats from that!¡± Jess whooped. ¡°Same!¡± Troy excitedly spoke while staring at the air. ¡­that was a lot of stats. Did they say a dozen? ¡­Maddy had received more than that. Was it because she had killed the most? No this system didn¡¯t discriminate based on kill count. Was it because she was the only one using a scythe? She knew it was helping but she didn¡¯t think it would be that big of a change. ¡­was it because she didn¡¯t have a safety? That¡­felt like it might be true. Was it worth it though? She couldn¡¯t say. ¡°Alright everyone, let''s head forward carefully. I¡¯m starting to get thirsty, and I read there are rest areas in dungeons.¡± Maddy spoke up urging everyone to continue onwards. Onwards and deeper. ¡­ The group walked through a hallway looking up at carved paintings. A scene of stickmen with antlers was drawn on the wall. Some depicted the elk men hunting stylistically designed demon ferrets ¨C chasing them through fields and tunnels with sharp hooked spears. the ferrets were hiding and the paintings shifted to show one hiding again and again the painting growing smaller each time. Finally they passed through a black curtain and entered a¡­rest room. The rest room wasn¡¯t furnished per say, but rocks were shaped into benches they could sit down on. In the corner, some glowing roots climbed down into what looked like a fruit bush ¨C the fruits themselves some strange pear-like shape with soft spikes coming out of it. Below a crystal clear pool of water lay ¨C Maddy realized suddenly just how thirsty she was and nearly ran over to lap it up like a dog. Stopping herself at the last minute she cupped her hands together and drank deeply before standing up once more. She wasn¡¯t hungry but felt like she had to take some fruit. She didn¡¯t know the next time she would eat and it was right there. The chance of it being poisoned was nearly zero. Dungeons that left safe rooms always did so in good faith ¨C she read they really hated trapping or impersonating a rest area but that book made it sound like they were intelligent. Her being allergic or unable to eat the fruit due to differing biology¡­that was a less likely problem. ¡°Anyone want to try some of the fruit?¡± Maddy called back to her companions, both of whom had sat down on a bench carved into a nook in the wall. I¡¯m not using them as poison testers¡­or I am a little but It doesn¡¯t matter if they die. My life¡¯s more important as selfish as that sounds. Dammit, its true, but it sounds so bad no matter how I try and justify it. ¡°Sure, toss me one¡± Jess sighed both legs spread wide like a dude on a subway. Watching her eat the cube fruit with a contemplative face Maddy wandered over and sat beside her. ¡°Tastes like¡­slightly fishy apples. Not as bad as it sounds¡± Jess spoke. ¡°Raving review, Guess I have to try one as well.¡± Maddy laughed and took a bite. It tasted like a very light tuna sandwich. The texture screamed apple and there was definitely a hint of the taste¡­ Maddy was definitely not a fan. It was edible though and jess was right in saying it wasn¡¯t as bad as it sounded. Offering a bite to Troy the two watched his face scrunch up and laugh. Slowly the trio unwound as they sat there in the rest room. A part of her wanted to keep going as soon as possible but suddenly everything started to catch up and Maddy found herself getting sleepy. Her eyes drifted off for the first time since she got to this new world and she collapsed onto Jess''s lap. The last thought Maddy felt as she drifted off was a sudden faint worry that the apples were poisoned with some sleeping agent¡­a worry she could barely get enough energy to focus on before everything went dark. ¡­ Maddy awoke still sprawled across Jess''s lap her feet kicking into Troy¡¯s leg feeling incredibly well rested. She didn¡¯t know how much time had passed and so, as she jolted awake, she panicked. ¡°We¡¯ve been wasting time! Guys, are you awake?¡± shaking Jess¡¯s shoulder until she opened her eyes, Maddy was quick to notice the hole in her shoulder. Jess¡¯s grey shirt was pierced where Troy had shot her, but the skin below was unblemished and whole. Groggily blinking eyes that quickly regained intelligence jess jumped up as well full of energy. Poking Troy as well Maddy found herself considering how strange a place she had chosen to sleep in. A cave deep underground with magic glowing roots everywhere. Two new friends that were basically strangers. ¡°Is everyone ready to continue?¡± Maddy spoke making her way over to drink from the pool again. ¡°I¡­have to use the washroom¡± Troy mumbled looking uncomfortable. Staring around Maddy saw a small closet-like shape near the door they had come in. Walking over Troy ducked beneath the corner and shouted back happily that it worked. Listening and pretending not to hear the faint sounds coming out of the room, the group continued on, entering the far side of the rest room into a new corridor, this one sloped downwards. After a few feet, the tunnel opened back out and began twisting back and forth. Making sure to keep a sharp eye on their path the group slowly regained their sense of urgency and paranoia, ready to be attacked at any moment. After less than half an hour they came into a large room with an altar in the center. Smooth and boxy the altar drew their eyes and they walked towards it not looking up. An incredibly faint scream was all the notice they had before everything fell apart. An incredibly incredibly small worm-like version of the demon ferret ¨C a many-legged caterpillar with dark black legs ¨C dropped onto Jess¡¯s head and began burrowing down. A flash of blood flew out and splashed onto Maddy¡¯s face as she saw the beetle dig down. Burrowing, seeking, the worm dug straight through her friend¡¯s skull ¨C tossing flesh and bone like little more than dirt being dug away by an energetic dog. Down through her head and through her throat the worm passed a faint bump visible as it moved. Jess looked glazed and confused staring straight ahead as the creature attacked. ¡°Help her! How do we get it out? How is she still alive?¡± Maddy jumped forward glancing back and forth across her friend¡¯s chest unable to track where the bug was crawling. Troy had stumbled back in shock as Maddy saw a faint bump pass over Jess¡¯s breast and work its way down her arm. Everything was happening too quickly. Maddy¡¯s plans and decisions flew away, her half decided ideas about completing the dungeon and breaking her skill ripped apart and scrambled into one. It was hard to imagine her friend dying ¨C in this moment it felt hard to imagine they would come back especially when she could see the blood leaking out of her mouth and dribbling down her cheek. She knew what she had to do. This was not the time to experiment on her friend. This was the perfect situation to experiment. She couldn¡¯t risk her friend''s life. She had to save her. Holding out her scythe, Maddy pulled back and activated [the reapers slash]. She pulled her blade around carefully and slowly brought the sharp end towards Jesse''s upper arm. She could see a bump moving around could see the inner damage being done. Carefully her blade hit and the black rot took hold. She was using this to heal. Her skill was bent towards being a scalpel. A deathly rot to kill a worse problem. Grey sickly necrosis spread from the point her blade lay. Slowly it travelled up to Jess¡¯s shoulder and down to her forearms. A frantic digging sounded out and part of jess¡¯s arm fell off ¨C a dying bug twitching on top of it. The creature''s digging had hit softer flesh and pulled it out. Stamping down Maddy squished the bug beneath her sole and felt herself change.
?? Achievement get: Tier 2 dungeon room cleared. (Rare)
Description: You have survived an ordeal with quick thinking and the sacrifice of another.
Stat: +6 mental speed. Stat: +3 communication power. Stat: +3 sound defense.
She felt the strange sense she had to activate her skill buckle and grab onto something ¨C ripping through some metaphorical barrier to collect it for herself. There was no time to think, some remnants of the barrier seemed to be giving her information. Like shards of glass from a window she had broken each containing words cut off and fading. She could pull this¡­something into her body. Place it somewhere purposeful. She could push this¡­something out of her body. Bring it out so she could look at it and see it for what it was. Maddy chose external even as the blue box appeared.
Skill breaking. Your continued actions deemed as consent. [The Reapers blade] lost forever. No additional actions taken.
?? Achievement get: A hint of magic. (unique)
Description: You¡¯ve chosen a faction. Magic you claim! You who wish for the ability to do anything. You who wish for the world to be more. You who perhaps doesn¡¯t know quite what you have done. Good luck.
Death [Unlife] mana gained. Life [Undeath] mana gained. Concept of application gained. Concept modifiers of scythes, transference, and collection gained. Knowledge of [the reapers blade] transferred to knowledge of recreating the skill¡¯s effects.
Two lines flickered to Maddy¡¯s senses. She could tell in the original language of magic life was phonetically written as inverse death. Death was phonetically written as inverse life. The status translated both versions and flickered between the two ¨C shifting as it communicated. Her skill was gone as was everything that made it up. In exchange¡­Maddy knew what she could do. Looking over at Jess¡¯s still blank and dazed-looking face Maddy lay her hands carefully around her pulling the woman down to the ground. Jess moved with little resistance, eyes trying to focus on her even as blood pooled everywhere. She should not be alive. The only reason she was alive had to have something to do with her foundation. Maddy wiped blood off her friend''s cheek and slowly drew a symbol across her forehead. Faint hints guided her hands ¨C the barest touch of knowledge she didn¡¯t have. The barest whisper of what she could do. She could try without this but it wouldn¡¯t be as effective. The time wasted was worth it. Finally finishing the spiralled symbol Maddy lay her hands down and began to push at part of herself. Her mana, the raw fuel for her broken skill not yet fully healed. It was an abstract thing, held outside of herself and within reach of her mind. Slowly but surely her hands began to glow a soft green, and a faint trickle of energy seemed to leave and spread through her friend. It passed beneath Jess''s skin as it travelled towards the women¡¯s wounds slowly, achingly slowly. The skin at the top of Jess¡¯s head closed and her eyes regained focus ¨C confusion shifting to pain over the course of a few seconds. Maddy¡¯s mana source was incredibly small. The skill had been more efficient than she could imagine ¨C her current stumbling felt feeble. Her current regeneration paltry. She could feel every single drop of power as it appeared and was immediately dragged to healing duty. Each drop shifted in a certain instinctual way towards life, each drop immediately consumed by her spell.
?? Achievement get: Beginner mage. (unique)
Description: Used a spell on another practically.
Stat: +3 mental picturing power. Stat: +3 memory.
A full ten minutes later, Jess stood completely fine waving her healed arm cheerfully. The damage Maddy had done with necrosis had done much more than the bug in the end ¨C her arm taking twice as long to reform fully. It had given her time to study the woman¡¯s body in more detail as she healed. Jess¡¯s flesh seemed different. It was hard to see where muscles started and ended, it looked like there were thousands of capillary blood vessels everywhere. Her bones were big and full of holes and almost embedded into the surrounding muscles. ''Generalized body'' was pulling a number on her insides. It looked like a mess, but it had healed fast and that was all that mattered. At the end of the day, all Maddy had really done was push Life mana at her. Jess had done the rest. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Maddy asked cautiously. That had looked beyond fatal, and she was worried about any trauma from the ordeal. ¡°Hurt like a bitch but I¡¯m good now. How long have you been able to patch me up like that?¡± Jess spoke jumping about as if testing her body. ¡°I broke my skill ¨C guys I can now use magic!¡± Maddy found it hard to stop herself from getting excited. She didn¡¯t like the situation she had been in. She didn¡¯t like that she had done it based on half-figured-out ideas ¨C but the results spoke for themselves.
Bravo little miss paperwork. I tried to sneak you some knowledge ¨C piggyback off the official channel ¨C but it didn¡¯t work. Going to have to find a work around¡­so hang with me. In the next few days find some time alone to contact me. I¡¯m not allowed in this walled off reality, so you¡¯ll need a vessel. Make a small humanoid shape and fill it with death mana like you just filled that chick with life mana. I¡¯ll do the rest ¨C already got a taste for your mana from the system feedback just there and I should be able to manage it. PS: There isn¡¯t actually a time limit, but I might get bored if you take too long. It''s not my life on the line so try and muster up some urgency yourself.
¡­her excitement dropped a bit as she read over the message. Right¡­there was that. She still didn¡¯t know if she wanted to accept whatever ritual this mysterious suspicious individual was asking for. Contacting him ¨C she was pretty sure it was a male ¨C felt safe however. She could ask for clarification then. ¡°Do¡­do you want to continue? We have one last event to deal with if the rule of threes holds true in this dungeon.¡± Maddy asked after a minute. Looking down cheerfully Jess nodded. ¡°I¡¯m fine Maddy, I¡¯m the tank, I can take that sort of damage no problem.¡± ¡°Okay, let''s go.¡± Stepping ever deeper the group began to walk carefully ¨C checking the ceiling frequently. Maddy was hoping for another rest room ¨C she hadn¡¯t read enough about dungeons to know what the chance of that was, but knew it was a possibility. As they walked, Maddy relayed her experience with breaking her skill. Troy nodded as he thought and Jess seemed off-put by it ¨C maybe just because she had been the one who went through her arm being turned to mush? After a while the walls began to depict the elk men once more ¨C this time hunting a demon ferret that grew bigger and bigger. Maddy paid close attention to the murals this time ¨C their last situation might have been avoided if they recognized the hint and better studied the pictures. Maddy kept a close eye on the way a red ball from its head seemed to grow and multiply down its back. The last mural held a many legged snake at least twenty feet long and covered in several red bumps. ¡°Okay, I bet we are going to have to face that giant demon ferret. Look for red bumps I bet we have to smash them all¡± Maddy relayed to her partners both nodding seriously. Onwards they walked Maddy staring down at her scythe as she moved. She knew mostly how her skill had worked ¨C and was pretty sure she could still ¡®cast it¡¯ manually but¡­it wouldn¡¯t be quite as strong. Not without practice. She also knew she could make it stronger by enchanting her weapon better. She could draw symbols and strengthen her skill past its previous point. She just¡­didn¡¯t know fully how. She didn¡¯t even have a method of carving or painting any symbols. ¡­she should really turn around and come back later. Breaking her skill was 100% the right choice in the moment ¨C and for the future ¨C but it came with some complications. Before she could talk herself out of it they entered yet another large cavern ¨C this one full of pillars and many many entrances and exits everywhere. Holes in the roof. Holes in the ground. Holes in the walls. There were dozens of places to go, dozens of places something could be hiding. Unlike everything up to this point, the light was not evenly applied ¨C walls were hidden from sight, sharp shadows cutting across holes. Light sources were placed sparsely turning into searchlights as they shone through holes or past pillars. ¡°Keep your eyes peeled, get ready to dodge or hide at a moment''s notice¡± Maddy warned. The group slowly walked around the edge of the room checking every hole nearby as they went. A rumbling sound rang out followed by silence. ¡°I think it came from that direction?¡± Maddy spoke softly pointing. Nodding the group positioned themselves and slowly travelled deeper into the mess of areas. A rumbling sound rang out again ¨C this one much closer ¨C before suddenly from the mouth of a cave less than 30 feet away a giant face rushed out. It reminded Maddy of the basilisk from a certain magical school story she had loved as a child. Roughly four feet tall, the head was massive and covered by long shaggy white fur. Its hair ran and dropped down its face covering a gaping crocodile-esk mouth that was wide open and full of hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. Travelling out of the cave mouth incredibly quickly the body just kept coming and coming. Each of its legs thundered as they pulled it forward its body continuing to slide out. Maddy jumped to the side throwing herself behind a pillar as the massive hairy many-legged snake flew past. It was faster than her, faster than anyone in their group by a good amount. It just kept coming. It was so much longer than her ¡°at least 20 feet¡± estimate from before. Finally, the tip of the tail came out almost as soon as the head had disappeared into a tube behind them. She had just barely noticed some pink bumps along its back before it was gone once more. This creature was fast. Faster than anything they had faced right now and in such a confined space if felt faster than anything Maddy had ever seen. It was too strong. Maddy found herself dodging once more as it came rushing dangerously close to her, unable to do anything but scramble from pillar to pillar. Her partners were somewhere nearby ¨C she could hear them scrambling as well ¨C and it was only in the first charge that she tried to attack. Her scythe swung around ¨C death mana pulled awkwardly out and along it in a pseudo reapers slash. Her attack opened a gash along the monster''s side but might have been little more than a papercut for all it noticed. Flicking its tail at the end Maddy found herself flung back several feet smashing into a pillar completely winded her head banging off the stone behind her. Suddenly her friends were beside her, Jess was yelling something wildly. Oh, she was going to place a barrier and Maddy should attack as soon as the creature hit. Nodding, still finding it hard to breathe, Maddy braced herself on the pillar and held her scythe weakly. They needed to kill this monster. A part of her felt like she was slightly concussed, but a majority focused on the problem in front of them. It was like a video game. This was a boss monster. The boss monster had obvious visible weak points they had to attack. Sure, it was faster and stronger and bigger than them but the bigger they were the harder they fell right? Maddy was definitely concussed. She held her hand beside her head pushing Life mana into it as quickly as she could. Slowly everything grew back into focus.
?? Achievement get: Self field medic. (Rare)
Description: Healed yourself while still in danger.
Stat: +3 reaction speed. Stat: +3 head bludgeoning defense.
Sooner than she was expecting, Jess had flicked her whip out and placed a barrier directly in the snake''s path. Like a train hitting a Volkswagen beetle, the snake bulldozed through the barrier barely slowing down. It shook slightly and changed directions before it angrily aimed toward Jess and charged forward once more. Maddy swung her scythe high in the air. It was harder to aim this high up but she still managed to slice the top off one of the pink bumps. The core shattered surprisingly similar to the way the little demon ferrets¡¯ heads had shattered. Maddy was nearly positive they had all had a core in their head. Specialized body? Beside them, Troy shot an arrow piercing another core before it sped up once more. The legged train disappeared into a cave and then suddenly came out of another hole close by, rushing directly towards Maddy. Everything was happening too fast, there was no time to think properly. She wasn¡¯t going to dodge in time. Suddenly Jess was there. She stood directly in the monster''s path arms outstretched and created a single large barrier. Maddy had just enough time to think her new friend was dependable before half their body was gone. The rat-like head had twisted sidewise and swallowed her head and upper body crunching through stat increased defense slowly but surely. Maddy¡¯s mind went still. She knew intellectually that Jess was fine, she would just revive, it''s fine¡­. but it was hard to even keep that intellectual fact in find seeing her friend''s severed legs and waist fall to the ground with a strangely dry thunk. Maddy was screaming. She was holding her mouth so she would no longer scream. She was hiding once more. It took a good solid moment to calm down. This delve was a lot. Too much was happening and it all felt too real. Maddy thought it might have been easier to deal with if she had a revival but it was still too visceral. Too graphic. Her hands shook and her eyes glanced around noting ¨C Troy at the far end of the room. He raised a finger to his lips then ran to the side slowly drawing his bow as he did. Light began to shine and soon [light shot] was drawn but not shot. Light moved across the room as he soon became the brightest source of light in the cavern. A shadow cast by his skill moved over and settled on Maddy. She was¡­hidden slightly. The light controlled the shadows and worked opposite to its goal. It was then that she noticed the boss moving past eyes squinting slightly and sliding over her. It was closer than she thought. It had nearly gotten her while she was processing Jess¡¯s sacrifice. A [light shot] flung forward from its source hitting the beast and blinding it momentarily. Maddy ran as its head thrashed about ¨C not away but towards its back. Her scythe was pulled back above her head and stabbed down onto the nearest core. The thrashing increased. Her scythe was pulled back once more and stabbed down onto another core and another. Somehow she managed to avoid the worst of the thrashes and after Troy hit another core and she stabbed another two it was done. Enough had been hit that the monster was still. It shuddered, several of its legs stabbing out a few times and then it was still.
?? Rank 1 dungeon cleared. (Rare) ?? Among the first to clear a dungeon and the first to clear this specific dungeon, you have done so in record time. Clear stats: 159 monsters killed. (new record) Time taken 27 hours. (new record) Party size 3. State entering dungeon. Rank 0, Tier 1. Free points gained 20.
Main Reward:
Active skill: Words of death Apply death mana to your voice, vibrating necrotic timber to all who hear. Damage based on emotion and words used. Damage mitigated by sound defense
Chapter 15. What can I say except... ---Richard--- Richard watched the sun set quickly over the whole town, fingering his supplies. He had bought a rope, a fanny pack and some strange ¡®potions¡¯ with the last of his coins ¨C or pips or whatever they were called ¨C then set up directly above the mayor¡¯s house. The NPC¡¯s were still fake in this zone ¨C Richard had overheard some talk about the state of the game today just walking about¡­as a quick recap, multiple tutorials had had had identical NPC¡¯s in them. Same name, same personality, same look. This area was also full of copies. Yada yada. The section Bandpass was in, joined up with a new ¡®ring¡¯ as they were called ¨C because each area was surrounding the previous one. Players had traveled to the next ring, had met up with others from separate bandpasses¡­ confirmed identical NPCs in the separate areas¡­and then returned. The other players were industrious in their information gathering ¨C not that Richard cared about all that. He knew these NPC¡¯s were fake, but ¨C between the tutorial and here ¨C an uncanny valley of realism had been passed. The NPC¡¯s spoke and acted real enough that he couldn¡¯t tell the difference anymore. They might as well be real. Richard was starting to gain more interest in ¡®them¡¯. He was beginning to ¨C despite himself ¨C get more invested in this game. In the world itself instead of just his fellow players. What that meant, right here right now, was that he was excited. He was about to sneak into the leader of this town''s house completely blind. It was making him feel more grounded. He had a goal. It was causing him to smile constantly to himself. He was about to ¨C mostly harmlessly ¨C confuse the fuck out of a load of people. No one seemed suspicious of him loitering about the street and he waited till the foot traffic dropped to zero. ¡°Having easily accessible balconies is wonderful for security isn¡¯t it?¡± Richard mumbled to himself while tying a rope to a stone support column. Slowly lowering it off the ledge he repelled down after it. Hand over hand he climbed ¨C his current strength just barely up to the task of holding his weight. It seemed like he had gained some pounds without noticing it. His body felt heavier than it had back in the tutorial. Zero chub though ¨C must all be muscles. Oh¡­he had forgotten his sledge hammer lay across his back. Must be that ¨C damn that holder was comfortable. It kept making him forget he was lugging around such a heavy item. Toeing down onto a ledge, Richard looked around. This section of town was separated by periodic gates. There was a row of houses built into the rock face and then every couple dozen meters there was a wall and latched door. Those doors led into a stairwell alleyway that led up and down the ¡°streets¡±. Not that all that security mattered when one side was wide open. Pulling his rope sideways slightly, he made sure it rested behind the pillar he had tied it to ¨C the support column extended up through multiple floors and would hopefully keep his escape route hidden. Tip toeing over to the house, Richard checked each of the doors and windows looking for alarms or locks. There didn¡¯t seem to be guards about ¨C the leader of this town didn¡¯t have a watchmen or secret service equivalent ¨C so he was left with a decision. Sledge hammer down a door, or crawl through the window that was little more than a curtain. ¡­He was supposed to be sneaky, so Richard decided to peek through the curtain. Raising the corner of the blackish cloth Richard raised his head then visibly jumped ¨C directly across from him a grotesque face stared back. ¡°Fuck!¡± Richard hissed, then stared about¡­ before glancing in again. The room was laid out like a den. There were couch equivalents and wooden coffee tables. A warm golden lamp sat in the center of the room as a fireplace equivalent¡­ and various paintings and medals lined the walls. More importantly, it was full of the heads of monsters. Real monsters not the animals from the tutorial. A wild-looking face that looked like a lamprey fucked a donkey. An evil-looking mug from some cross between a shovel and a lizard. Two tentacle-covered messes covered in sharp barbs and hundreds of glazed eyes. It was a trophy room. One full of game of a more supernatural origin. Clambering into the den, Richard looked around ¨C impressed despite himself. He briefly had the bright idea of swiping a head then using it as a mask and running about but¡­the more he invested himself in the game the more he started acting like it was reality. He would not consider himself a thief ¨C not for personal gain or anything outside of an active prank. Maybe something from a public building instead of someone¡¯s home would be ¡®safe¡¯? No, if anyone considered Richard a thief, he wanted it to be for something like stealing a building or¡­a giant statue or something. A faint sound rang out from deeper into the house and Richard dove under the nearest coffee table. Realizing it was the equivalent to hiding behind a telephone pole, he crawled around and behind a couch ¨C just a few moments before someone entered the room. The general. He really was a military man ¨C all thoughts of ¡®mayors¡¯ flew out of Richards mind as soon as he saw a sliver of him pass by. The man was imposing as fuck. Richard knew if he could see the general, they could see him as well ¨C so, he lay as flat and scrunched against the wall as he could. What he had seen in that brief sliver however painted a picture. The general wore a grey-green cloak ¨C like a camouflage-painted cape that fluttered behind him. His face was sharp and his eyes piercing ¨C his stubble black. At his waist and shifting by his leg was a strange curved sword ¨C like a rapier that was bent into a hook. A single scar ran between his left eye and his ear. His steps were purposeful and smooth. He looked like a young pirate cosplaying as a soldier. Richards''s breath was held in his throat as he listened to the general grab something ¨C mumble a few incomprehensible words ¨C and then leave. Despite the man leaving immediately, Richard stayed laying in his hiding spot barely breathing. That badass-looking ¡®Sunnova bitch probably doesn¡¯t have guards because he can wipe out anyone who sets foot here. One wrong move and I¡¯m straight to the resurrection penalty. I keep imagining myself getting up, walking into the next room ¨C and him suddenly standing behind me asking ¡®can I help you?¡¯ ¨C holy shit! He reminds me of grandpa. Okay, breathe. Let¡¯s give it a few minutes. Give it some time so I don¡¯t fall into a clich¨¦ trap. ¡­ If I spend any more time here, I¡¯m going to fall asleep. Let¡¯s go. Sliding back out Richard slowly but surely began to explore. He had no clue where the general might keep his ceremonial translator, just what it might look like ¨C he knew what the shop''s translators looked like. They all had an amber gem in them. Couldn¡¯t be too hard to find right? It also wasn¡¯t like anything important was resting on this caper. Richard crept between room after room. Through an austere kitchen and down a lavishly decorated hallway. Past an imposing entrance hall and into a messy storage room. Richard kept sneaking ¨C passive knowledge from that achievement guiding his body efficiently. He didn¡¯t like that this was becoming a theme with him ¨C but he couldn¡¯t help but admit it was useful. Finally in the second more obscure storage room ¨C located off of a strange cult-like ritual room ¨C Richard found what he was pretty sure was his goal. A blue sceptre-like object with a single perfectly round amber sphere in its center. It was by a sketch of what Richard presumed was the dungeon and some random notes he ignored. Pulling out the first of his potions ¨C some acid equivalent, Richard carefully dribbled a line around the stone before popping it off and pocketing it. Pulling out his unstable core, he rubbed a clear epoxy-like goop on it ¨C filling in all the cracks and bumps and making it look¡­mostly the same as the original. Next, he pulled out the last of his purchases. A super glue-like substance the alchemist promised would stick a Kreel to a slimewurt ¨C whatever the fuck that meant. Rubbing a tiny bit of glue onto the staff, he placed the unstable core on top and held it for a dozen Mississippis. This prank was elaborate. The best pranks were simpler than this, but he had time to kill¡­He really hoped it turned out the way he was hoping. When Richard eyeballed the staff he could safely say¡­it looked the same¡­same-ish. If he stared closely, the shoddy job he had done quickly became clear¡­ but it should pass a quick inspection? Richard was not into arts and crafts ¨C he preferred the duct tape & WD-40 style of building things. Shoving stuff together and hoping for the best with lots and lots of leeway. He was an engineer, not a crafter ¨C at least once he graduated¡­not that he was likely to graduate anymore? Damn, that was starting to sink in too, wasn¡¯t it? He wasn¡¯t going back, was he? Bit trippy that. Not that I regret my choices. After this I might try hunting some monsters. If they look like ¡®that¡¯ I¡¯m sure I can get some mileage out of it. Seems to be the main goal of this place after all. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Richard left the scene of his crime, the last moments of his life before he had come here filling his thoughts. This wasn¡¯t a forced memory like the system had raw dogged him with when he was getting his new body. Just some idle thoughts. Faint reminiscing filled his head as he crawled and hid and snacked on a hastily made sandwich and lay on the general¡¯s bed and crept on.
?? Achievement get: Make yourself at home in the general¡¯s home. (Unique)
Description: You¡¯re not scared! I bet he¡¯s friendly.
Stat: +1 fear defense. Stat: +1 body power.
Richard had been in second year of university when he got the offer to simply ''stop''. Stop and head to a new place. Drop everything and try something new. Accepting was probably the most impulsive thing he had ever done ¨C and that said a lot. Richard had been impulsively making dumb decisions for the past twenty years of his life. He didn¡¯t have anyone he would miss ¨C it had taken six semesters for him to realize that, once again, his friends were toxic fuckwits. He had a good track record with that. Two for two in high school and college. His family was¡­fine but distant. Nothing dramatic or exciting¡­ no abuse or drugs or anything fun like that. No, they were just boring people who didn¡¯t care about each other as much as they should. And university itself was a mess. A mixture of fun classes with shit professors and shit classes with professors who thought they were fun. He had gotten a co-op over the summer and saw what the industry was like ¨C what he had to look forward to ¨C and he didn¡¯t like it. No one looked like they were enjoying themselves. He started getting interested in politics. In reading articles and browsing certain subreddits and finding out just how much he hated the current status quo. Just when he started to lose all hope of a fun life, the system appeared. Like a savior. Like a probably predatory lawyer offering rules and stipulations but also including actual bribes. The system appeared and offered a different path and Richard took it. He took it and didn¡¯t look back. Richard well and truly believed something kind of rare: The meaning of life was to have fun. That¡¯s it. That¡¯s all there is to it. What¡¯s the point in growing up in that dull world ¨C especially when he suddenly knew this one existed? Sure, he didn¡¯t know what he wanted to do in it yet. Sure, he knew there was a hidden catch somewhere¡­ but fuck if it wasn¡¯t a more exciting-looking option. ¡­ Richard made it out of the general¡¯s house and up the rope once more. It was now deep into the night ¨C the surroundings dimly lit by occasional lamps as the light of the moon didn¡¯t make it down here easily ¨C and he found himself wandering. I should find a good place to nap. I¡¯m out of money but the air is nice and warm and there are benches everywhere¡­that place looks good enough? Richard picked a stone seat overlooking the pit and fell asleep a few minutes later. Today had been longer than he thought. ¡­ Waking up to a goblin poking his cheek Richard groaned. Kids suck. ¡°Go away, shoo, shoo.¡± Richard waved then stood up and took stock of himself. Nothing had been swiped, not that he cared much about his current belongings. He felt surprisingly refreshed for the outdoor nap ¨C no aching back or neck. ¡°Am I allowed to say I like my new body? Is that narcissistic? Fuck it. My body slaps¡±. Richard spoke out loud as he stretched. A faint laugh rang out from a player nearby. Richard tried not to let it be obvious how much he liked that. Wasn¡¯t even a joke. Nice. Sauntering off, Richard made his way towards the dungeon. He had heard all about it already and its strange properties and rewards and shit ¨C there was no doubt in his mind that a player would clear it soon. The starting pistol for the general''s corrupted speech. Making his way down level after level and finally coming across a ladder, Richard found himself standing by a pair of scraggly-looking players. ¡°This a line?¡± he asked staring at the two of them confused. ¡°It look like a line to you?¡± the taller of the two spoke with a slight sneer. ¡°If you want to get in the dungeon go right ahead. Get far enough in and it''s nearly impossible to meet up with someone. Place does some strange shit.¡± The shorter of the two spoke. He waved Richard on, a bored look on his face ignoring Richards''s continued stare. ¡°You two waiting for something then?¡± Richard asked again ¨C trying to make small talk. ¡°Mind your fucking business¡± the tall player drawled barely glancing over to respond. ¡°Now now Dave.¡± The shorter spoke as he glanced over to Richard¡¯s gear eyes lingering on his hammer and fanny pack. Turning fully to face Richard the shorter one continued ¨C picking his words carefully as he did. ¡°Listen here, you seem like a chill dude so I¡¯ll lay it straight for you. This dungeon has just been cleared ¨C there¡¯s a lil light that goes off a few floors up. That means in a few minutes, the players that just cleared it will be exiting this here door.¡± The man pointed to the hole behind him. Richard sized them up as they talked. Dave ¨C the tall one ¨C gave off the air of a new gangster ¨C one who thought he was cool just because he smoked a joint once¡­but would fold at the slightest pressure. Not one who had done more than posture and threaten people on a street corner. His weapon was a long sword held at his waist. The one talking reminded him of a friend he had had¡­a piece of work. ¡°Don¡¯t you think it''s unfair they get the best achievements just for getting here a day before us? They should share the love shouldn¡¯t they? We got a quest to kill them for some sweet rewards. Could use a third if you want to help? Plenty of dungeon loot to be gained from their corpses and all that.¡± the man continued. Richard¡¯s suspension of disbelief completely broke. He started to laugh ¨C they were recruiting muggers? Just¡­offering a spot to rob the clearing party? He laughed and shook his head at the concept. ¡°Taking that as a no. Got it, listen man. You don¡¯t seem the brightest so I¡¯ll lay out your options. You can leave us to do our thing unharmed but you¡¯ll have to give us your stuff. Or you can get a beating and we¡¯ll take your stuff. It''s only fair ¨C you seem to have gotten some rewards somehow ahead of the rest of us ¨C you should share the love. What do you say?¡± Shorty spoke while fingering his weapon ¨C a short sword halfway between a normal size and that of a knife. Richard finished laughing holding his hand out in the universal sign for ¡®stop, give me a second¡¯ gathering his thoughts. ¡°Considering how shitty this year, and in fact, this whole bloody decade has been. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it turns out this game exists to let us start directing our repressed violent tendencies towards safe targets instead of what our true focus should be on ¨C megacorporations and those who are paid to protect them.¡± He spewed. Shorty looked confused, then annoyed, before responding ¨C all of the joviality in his voice gone. ¡°Fuck you like to hear yourself talk don¡¯t you. Trying to sound smart by being confusing? Get out of here with your communist crap and give me your shit.¡± Shorty snapped. ¡°Hah! You said I was dumb and asked for banter ¨C thought that meant you wanted some high brow shit¡­ I¡¯ll try again.¡± Richard jumped forward aiming at shorty bare-handed. ¡°Fuck¨C¡± Richard kicked out at shortie¡¯s knees and grabbed his head ¡°¨Cyour¨C¡± running towards the cliff wall he bashed the man''s head into the stone ¡°¨Cugly¨C¡± Richard pulled shorties head back and smashed it forward once more ¡°¨Cfucking¨C¡± Shorty was stabbing Richards side, the blade barely piercing as Richard continued to beat his head into the rock ¡°¨CMother!¡± Shorty stopped moving quicker than Richard thought he would, did he not have any defensive stats? Was he really that weak? Turning, Richard found the tall lacky just now pulling his sword out of his belt. Pulling his hammer out Richard ran forward ¨C muscle memory he had never gained, directing his strike. The lacky stabbed Richard completely through his stomach ¨C an angry scowl accompanying the strike ¨C and Richards''s side swing broke the man¡¯s arm. ¡°Fuck you¡± The tall gangster wannabee spat and Richard found himself kicking them onto the ground. Instead of going for the player''s head he started to beat random body parts enjoying the thuds and quick descent of posturing to pain and fear. ¡°You¡¯ll regret this¡± the man spoke through tears as Richard finally smashed his hammer down on the player¡¯s head. Richard breathed heavily ¨C more from the emotions than actual effort. That was surprisingly fun.
?? Achievement get: Slaughterer of the weak (Rare)
Description: Kill a pair of players nearly a full rank below you. How does it feel, bullying the weak?
Stat: +3 body power. Stat: +3 body slashing defense.
Turning around he paused and looked at a shocked-looking couple grabbing onto one another to his side. They gripped each others¡¯ arms as they exited the dungeon behind them and took in his handywork. Richard froze for half a second then let his tongue work for him ¨C this seemed like a good time to just run with it? He really was better at impulsively dealing with his actions than plans. ¡°You¡¯re welcome¡± Richard bowed sheathing his bloody hammer and retreating towards the ladder. Climbing the shaking thing did not make a cool exit. So, he stopped at the top and stood with both arms spread wide. ¡°I¡¯m a hero!¡± laughing Richard proclaimed proudly then quickly made his exit. Nailed it.
---Maddy--- Maddy stood injured beside the massive hairy ¡®many legged snake¡¯ her hand slowly pumping life mana into her side. They had won, she had survived. That was it. Troy slowly walked over from his place behind a pillar and stood on the opposite side of the snake for a minute just staring at her. Taking a deep breath, he finally spoke up. ¡°I broke my skill. Using the light to control shadows did it for me. Got a light and darkness affinity. Pulled it into myself¡­¡± Troy trailed off. ¡°Hey! Congrats! How was that?¡± Maddy spoke not wanting to diminish his efforts. She wanted another moment to collect herself, but the world wouldn¡¯t wait for her. She needed to distribute her stats before the clear achievement would fade¡­but that could wait a moment. ¡°It feels¡­good. I know now I¡¯ve really been using mana every time I use my skill. It''s located right below my head and I can pull it through my arms and into my bow if I want. Vaguely I know I should make some mana circuits and direct it through my body better¡­we won didn¡¯t we? I just got all the achievements for this. We are one of the first to clear a dungeon. That¡¯s amazing, isn¡¯t it?¡± Troy spoke glancing at the corpse below. Maddy nodded and began to move about checking his body for any place she could heal. [Healing touch] ¨C as she had taken to calling her ''pushing life mana out'' ¨C was not very efficient or fast. However, they had time now and other than a slow regeneration, mana didn¡¯t seem to have any more costs. No point not to just run it constantly. Might as well get some practice. The two made their way around the room ¨C Maddy accepting the stats and getting a very very rudimentary version of her stat allocation in the transitionary place. A very slight out-of-body experience where she pulled the 20 stats evenly into soul power and soul speed. This time around she could tell her mana was located in her soul and the stats strengthened her control of it. She still didn¡¯t get how to gain these stats manually, so it seemed the best use of free stats for now. she wanted to better understand the cost of soul defense before she gained it as well ¨C it was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. There were so many tunnels it was hard to figure out where they were supposed to go. Just before Maddy began picking tunnels at random, one far to her left lit up ¨C light spilling out in an obvious ¡®this way¡¯ sort of deal. The two made their way over and began walking carefully through the exit path. The clear tunnel passed into a small room with a wooden table ¨C those glowing roots that had occasionally appeared, growing up into the reward pedestal. Three bags lay across the table ¨C each containing several large rice-shaped crystal coins. Pips ¨C Maddy had seen them exchanged a few times. There were a few dozen coins in three different shades in each of these bags ¨C Maddy did not yet know the denominations. Shifting her scythe to her offhand Maddy grabbed her share and Jess¡¯s juggling them as she tried to figure out how best to carry them. ¡°I can tie them to my quiver?¡± Troy offered and Maddy nodded passing them over. Glancing around for anything else the pair shrugged finding nothing then left from the back. The hallway they were in turned and came out from the side of a fork ¨C it looked similar to one of the first two forks the team had passed when entering. So the exit was all the way back here? That didn¡¯t seem right. Maddy tried to lay out the dungeon in her head finding it took much less time to reach the curtain than it did the first time around. Ducking under the black cloth the pair could see a spill of natural light up ahead and the faint sounds of violence. Cautiously creeping forward Maddy grabbed Troy for support as soon as the scene came in view. To the left, a huge splotch of blood covered the wall ¨C dripping down into the caved in face and crumpled form of another traveller. Across from them blood was splattered everywhere ¨C covering the ground and legs and arms of the culprit as he finished off his poor victim. Turning he looked towards them and froze. Maddy couldn¡¯t read him. The man wore the same grey jumpsuit as the rest of them, along with a shoulder sheath and pack tied to his waist. His hair was brown, medium length, and dishevelled ¨C like he had just rolled out of bed ¨C and his blue eyes gleamed. They sparkled, his face crinkling like he was laughing at some joke only he could understand surrounded by gore. Maddy found herself reaching for her scythe. Everything about the man in front of her spoke danger ¨C he had a sword sticking out of his stomach he appeared to be ignoring. Pulling it out and tossing it to the side the man bowed almost mockingly ¨C ¡°You''re welcome¡± he spoke, his voice trembling slightly like he was trying not to laugh. Turning he bolted towards the ladder and climbed it awkwardly standing once more and turning to face them. ¡°I¡¯m a hero!¡± He shouted down ¨C arms raised in a ¡®tada¡¯ before turning and leaving once more. ¡°What?¡± Troy spoke beside her glancing around in confusion. Chapter 16. Man VS Wild. LitRPG edition. ---James--- James hiked towards the badlands for the rest of the day. He ignored the voices ¨C the ones of doubt and worry. Those voices whispered that he should give in, work for a bit. Buy some equipment, get more information, leave more prepared. Those voices were a trap. Listening to them left you listless on the bed after forgoing food for a week. James knew the way forward was to listen to his body not his brain. His body wanted freedom. It wanted to run, to fight again ¨C against harder and harder opponents. His mind was the enemy. A smart sounding voice that had never known how to make him happy. Clouds passed over his head and he breathed deeply. James had never much been one for the outdoors¡­had never understood or subscribed to the idea that ¡®going out and touching grass¡¯ would make you feel better. It never had before after all. Now? Now with bright purple stalks swaying in the yellowish grass and mushroom-like trees in the distance waving blue tentacles towards the sky? Turns out all James had needed was a fantasy world to get the appeal. Getting closer to the trees James stared carefully. Are they safe? He didn¡¯t quite know how one would check. Mushrooms are poisonous a lot of the time right? And these are purple¡­bright colours usually mean poison ¨C right? Those tentacle-like branches waved about high above ¨C almost like a blow up ¡®greeter¡¯ waving in the wind. Hmmmm. James decided not to risk it. Continuing on he found the vegetation shift in spurts and clumps, grass disappeared leaving pockmarked dusty ground. Purple stalks randomly changed colours to red or blue and changed heights and shapes as he got further in. Up ahead on top of a hill James spotted a¡­well he wasn¡¯t quite sure what it was. Definitely a monster of some sort. There was nothing animalistic about it however ¨C the creature was comprised of several fuzzy cubes stuck on one another. It had six legs, each an extruded blocky set of boxes. It had a face reminiscent of a squished-in elephant or maybe a rhino ¨C like some cartoonish frying pan had flattened a grey smooth but wrinkly face into its current form. Oh! It''s like a rhino was voxelated, then covered in hair. Done. Monster appraised. Minecraft cow on realism shaders let''s go. Snorting, the blocky creature turned and shuffled off the top of its hill out of sight. ¡­it had probably seen him ¨C right? James decided to loop around and try and come at it from the side. Hunching over a bit, James sprinted around the edge of the hill ¨C looping around and finding it empty. Turning suddenly to make sure it hadn¡¯t ambushed him James stared suspiciously at the path behind him. ¡­nothing. Continuing around, James made a full loop of the hill and then stared upwards toward the top. It''s better to have a good vantage point right? Slowly walking up the hill James tried to keep himself low ¨C his body tensed and ready. He crested the top and¡­nothing once again. ¡°Huh¡± James spoke. He slowly stood up and stared about. For a kilometer in every direction, there seemed to be nothing but patches of dust and grassy knolls. No sign of life ¨C no sign of anything really. Suddenly the ground beneath him shifted. At first, he struggled to maintain his footing ¨C he jumped sideways half expecting something to be digging up towards him. Instead ¨C when glancing around ¨C the whole hill was rumbling and bending upwards like a flower. Grass and dirt cracked and broke apart as the ground rose like the fingers of some earthen god. There isn¡¯t a monster in the hill. The hill is the monster! James glanced at a shrinking crack between two sections of ''hill'' and started running. He activated [haste] and sped up aiming forwards. James flew across the patch of hill and then jumped, twisting his body slightly to slide sideways through the closing trap. He just barely squeezed through then fell down several meters to the ground below. Landing heavily James righted himself on the dirt. There was no time to think ¨C from this side he could see the face of the hill below him ¨C it looked like a beetle covered in dirt and raising everything above it with a dozen flat arms. The shell looked thick and sturdy and it was holding a massive amount of dirt above it¡­ James retreated as quickly as he could, then watched the hill settle down once more ¨C as the monster realized it hadn¡¯t caught anything. At first, the ground moving down did not do so neatly ¨C there were obvious signs of it having been disturbed and broken apart¡­ Over the course of a few seconds however, all that damage looked like it was wiped away. A shimmering slowly hid the cracks, and the disguise was complete once more. What¡­did it fix itself with magic? Is it an illusion? It just looks like its fixed ¨C is that possible? The rhino thing also disappeared ¨C was it an illusion as well? Did it get eaten really quickly somehow? Jump in a hole?
?? Achievement get: Survived a hill. (rare)
Description: Many unaware find themselves on a grasping hills back. Few make it out alive.
Stat: +4 leg speed. Stat: +3 reaction speed.
James felt the pump of stat liquid infuse his leg muscles and spread throughout his nervous system. He found he could clench slightly ¨C mentally looking into himself and directing where he wanted it to go. Should I try hunting the hill? Trigger it to snap its trap up and expose its¡­armoured underbelly? I¡¯ll continue on. This is fun! James started up his hike once again. This time he stayed away from each of the hills ¨C some were obviously normal shallow bumps in the ground, but others he couldn¡¯t tell. The further into this biome he walked, the less it made sense and the more life appeared. It really looked like dozens of different biomes had been cut up into little patchwork chunks and then sewn back together ¨C grass immediately cut off into rocky soil, that suddenly jumped to a patch of several trees¡­and then immediately jumped to a dark blue sand. Some patches were much bigger than others, some were long and some short ¨C James found himself walking down a path of sorts. A rocky biome stretched out in a longish spike below and almost sort of formed a road if you squinted. Convenient. Life was one of the first major changes ¨C bugs had been occasionally placed everywhere but here they thrived ¨C groups of ants and ant-like creatures. Floating flies and fly-like creatures. The sound of nature grew and became a more steady constant. Next the occasional small animal appeared ¨C and immediately the food chain expanded as creatures bigger than them wandered about. For a ¡®no man¡¯s land¡¯ the ¡®badlands¡¯ were surprisingly full of life. Most of the creatures ignored or ran away from James, but a few stared challengingly up at his face as he passed. Soon creatures were large enough they started to consider James more than an interloper or a threat. Some considered him food. One creature completely covered in sharp feathers that hid all of its main features began to stalk him. It looked like a giant fur ball of quills each containing glistening razor sharp points. James looked around for a weapon and dived for the nearest rock. Rocks were surprisingly hard to find despite the mess of biomes. The tutorial zone had given him some idea there were conveniently placed rocks every few meters he could grab¡­ but out here in the wild that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. It was almost luck that there was one nearby¡­but this rock was smaller than he would have liked. It fit nicely in his hand, but it hardly had any heft. Waving the stone about in front of the spiky bush did nothing to stop its continued circling of James¡­ and so he decided to disarm himself and find another bigger version. Taking aim, James activated haste for a half second as he threw the stone ¨C hoping its increased mobility and reaction speed would help him aim true. The stone flung out perfectly and smashed into the bush. It made an incredibly loud crack as it hit and the bush jumped back a bit¡­but James was shocked to see the bush seemed mostly unharmed. The thrown rock fell ¨C covered in puncture wounds. Covered in holes where razor feathers had sliced into the solid stone. I cannot touch that. It''s like a porcupine? But with strong quills? The bush bristled a hissing noise skittering out as it¡­well James couldn¡¯t see a face ¨C or even eyes ¨C but he assumed it was staring him down. He had a flash of his first encounter with a boar and his face hardened. I¡¯m not going over that again. Let¡¯s find a bigger rock. Turning James began to jog ¨C a jog that quickly became a sprint as the bush gave chase behind him. James had had several incremental increases to his speed at this point ¨C he was noticeably faster than when he had got here¡­but the bush remained constant behind him. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. In fact, from the quick glances James was throwing over his shoulder, the bush might very well be gaining on him. He activated [haste] for a second ¨C bursting forward and then deactivated it running ever so slightly faster. Continuing to run after [haste] had turned off felt a bit like running down a hill. He didn¡¯t have as much control over his legs as he would have hoped. Trying to dodge didn¡¯t seem to be an option ¨C the bush was agile ¨C running without charging. James found all of his focus was on the ground in front of him. It was insanely hard not to trip with how uneven the ground was at times. Spying a rock he was pretty sure was perfect to the side, James activated [haste] ¨C turned quicker than was perhaps natural ¨C and barrelled towards his goal. James slid around the rock and glanced over towards where the bush was ¨C two dozen meters back and gaining. His chest was heaving from the dash even as he bent to pick up the rock and strained to lift it. His fingers dug down beneath the soil as he panted and tried to pull it up. [Haste] was still on cooldown from the last time he had activated it for just over a second. The bush was a dozen meters back. [Haste]¡¯s cooldown ended and James activated it once more ¨C trying to add its speed to his own. With a ripping sound, the rock came up out of the ground and James hurled it forwards. His posture was bad, he had very little time to aim but it still flung out just as the bush came into range. He felt strange and hot ¨C a blinking box shifted by him, but he ignored it for now. James watched as the boulder seemed to fly in slow motion ¨C its incredibly shallow arc bringing it towards the ground quickly. It impacted ¨C the bush had started to dodge as it came close but didn¡¯t have enough time to clear it. A series of cracks rang out as the boulder hit and scraped the bushes side. The boulder snapped off hundreds of sharp feathers as it passed. Score. Crashing to the side the creature wiggled about before regaining its feet once more. The creature seemed wary of James before its reason seemed to catch up with it. It knew he didn¡¯t have a second boulder and it made to charge once more. James was there first. He jumped forward ¨C running the few steps towards the creature instead of away ¨C then bent and punched with all his might on pink exposed flesh. A high pitched squeal rang out ¨C one closer to a pig than anything else ¨C and James found his arm breaking through the flesh like paper. His arm sunk down into a coil of innards up to his elbow and James waved it about. He grabbed hold of something lumpy and pulled ¨C the creature had shifted and punctured him several times as it thrashed, but whatever he had done inside of it was enough. The creature was suddenly dead and leaking copious amounts of dark red blood. James screamed up in the sky ¨C partly in pain but for the most part in excitement the rush of having won overwhelming his reason. A wordless guttural cry of victory James laughed and fell back staring up at the lumpy organ in his hands and the boxes he had been ignoring.
[Haste] skill breaking due to circumstances. Do you want to break your skill? [yes/no]
?? Achievement get: Fletching-fox killed bare handed. (unique)
Description: A creature prized for its fletching but notoriously hard to kill with close ranged weapons, you managed to kill it bare-handed. Challenging yourself? Or perhaps you simply did not know the proper hunting tool ¨C a spear.
Stat: +10 Arm power Stat: +5 Skin piercing defense
¡°What? No! Sure I pushed you a bit hard there but don¡¯t you dare break on me.¡± James hit ¡®no¡¯ on the skill break. As he calmed down the hot feeling began to dissipate. He felt the rush of defense and power stats rolling throughout him ¨C a huge ¡®rush¡¯ that felt better than anything he could think of. He had earned this. ¡­had he been mistreating his skill? Abusing it somehow? James loved his only skill ¨C he thought nothing the system had given him could be taken away¡­or taken away without his consent. That¡¯s why there was a box right? The system had to patch up anything it gave him? Even if he was the one to break it?
?? Achievement get: Refused a skill break. (rare)
Description: Perhaps you wanted better circumstances ¨C perhaps the break pushed you in a direction you didn¡¯t want. No matter your reasons or circumstance, you have refused a break content with your gifted skill for now.
Stat: +1 mental power
That¡¯s¡­strange. I¡¯m rewarded for it so¡­I did good? Why would anyone not refuse the break? I¡¯ll try and figure that out when the quest board is back. James lay there slightly wet from blood, a dull throb from his side becoming more and more evident. Sitting up he looked down and reviewed himself. Dozens of puncture wounds lined his body but¡­they were not nearly as problematic as he would have thought. Most seemed to have closed up ¨C he wasn¡¯t bleeding anymore ¨C and nothing had hit anything vital. ¡­vital huh, the only vital spot he had now was his kidneys. Those were still safe and sound. James didn¡¯t even need to figure out how to stop the bleeding himself. Pretty solid deal all around. The forgotten fox organ beside him lay glistening in the light. It looked like some cross between a lung and a brain ¨C deflated but full of tendrils that went off everywhere. The body itself was supposedly valuable as well ¨C people liked using the sharp feathers to make arrows¡­ Could he drag it somewhere and sell it? Collect feathers to sell? Use that money to buy some supplies? That wouldn¡¯t be relying on anyone right? James would have been using his own power under his own terms to get those. James bent down and picked up a few of the feathers that had been knocked off from the boulder toss. ¡°These are pretty good knives?¡± He tested a feather out on the corpse James slowly tried to skin the creature ¨C cut its valuable pelt away. It was much much harder than it sounded. James found himself pulling large meaty chunks off of it instead of a smooth skinned pelt like he had been imagining. Everything was slippery and his fingers kept getting sliced and stabbed ¨C once down to the bone despite his supposed skin piercing defense and light hands. The sun was starting to set its position falling and James found himself wondering if he could eat his kill. How do you make a fire? Rub sticks together right? Figure out if any flint is around? ¡­I don¡¯t know what flint looks like do I¡­and you need steel to strike it for maximum effect. Maybe a feather could work instead? Is this meat safe to eat? ¡­can I eat it raw? ¡­I have a safety so what¡¯s the worst that can happen? James stared at the lung brain for a bit before bringing it to his mouth and having a slight nibble. It tasted¡­not awful but incredibly raw and incredibly strong because it was raw. Not something he wanted to eat or anything he would recommend. James went back to the fire idea. He could hear that voice in the back of his head screaming he was stupid. He wouldn¡¯t be having this problem if he had just prepared better. Gotten some supplies. He ignored that voice. The voice was a downer. James could figure this out. Standing up James walked past some bushy patches ¨C gathering small sticks and leaves as he looked about. Finding a long but strong feeling reed he tried to set up something he had seen once. Once on a show or something? He couldn¡¯t remember where, but they had wrapped some thread around a stick and pulled it about to spin the stick¡­ James got to work spinning his stick in an attempt at creating fire. He grabbed stones and smashed them together hoping for one that made a spark. He tried several methods of fire starting before a weird sound began floating through the air towards him. A high-pitched shrill sound that made him think of something low-pitched and bass boosted. It was a contradiction, a strange unnatural sound that made his ears hurt. Standing up James looked around warily. The smell of blood must have attracted something, I¡¯m not giving up my kill! Its mine! I caught it. Suddenly the sound was louder. James¡¯s ears did more than hurt ¨C they burned. He felt like they were suddenly stuck under a candle flame ¨C there was heat and stinging pain and pressure. Suddenly everything went silent. His eardrums burst ¨C or burned ¨C and the awful sound was gone. All sound was gone. A sharp pungent and slightly spicy smell drifted past his nose and suddenly he felt like sneezing. The hairs in his nose burned up and all scent was quickly gone. Not as big of a deal as sound ¨C not something he would notice ¨C but now his nose hurt. James¡¯s rational voice told him to run ¨C abandon his prize ¨C but he couldn¡¯t even tell where he was being attacked from. Where should he run? Directly into whatever had deafened him? Spinning slowly James¡¯s eyes darted about constantly ¨C there! No¡­that was just a ball of grass. There! No¡­that was a squirrel thing and it was running away. James felt more and more paranoia tensing his muscles. He couldn¡¯t see anything coming. Suddenly a burning claw found itself inside his stomach. He couldn¡¯t see it ¨C it was burning and he could see the result of it but¡­ Whatever was attacking him was invisible. James was panicking. His mind was shocked, and his body was confused and he didn¡¯t know what to do. He punched out ¨C his fist swinging wildly through the air and hitting nothing. Something raked down his back. Spinning around he attacked again ¨C kicking and flailing his arms. James couldn¡¯t hit anything; he couldn¡¯t see anything. He might have been able to hear it, but his ears were dead. Humans couldn¡¯t tell the direction of things well just by scent, but, even if they could, his nose was dead as well. James saw out of the corner of his eye his kill being ripped apart and pulled away. Something stabbed down through his legs. A sharp burning spike twisted through the side of his head. James was still alive. He had so many wounds but none of them were fatal¡­somehow. They all hurt. He turned on [haste] and tried to run away ¨C aiming for a tree in the distance ¨C but three steps forward and he had run straight into a new claw. He was lifted up and shook¡­he felt a tear¡­ And then it was over. ¡­ James found himself passing through a rough static ¨C around him random dots of light and dark swirled and flashed in fast patterns. ¡­ And then he was whole again. Standing in the town he had left ages before.
?? Achievement get: Killed by evisceration.
Description: Ripped apart by something you couldn¡¯t see¡­then saved. You have survived a horror few have dealt with yet.
Stat: +10 Ear fire defense. Stat +5 Nose fire defense. Stat: +5 Skin slashing defense.
James stumbled then stared about. No one seemed to be paying him any attention. The light was dim ¨C it was either evening or dawn, he couldn¡¯t tell. He had failed¡­ He felt weak, mentally but also physically. The death penalty that was mentioned was definitely in effect. It felt like all of his stats ¨C all of the progress he had been making was suddenly gone. It felt worse than that ¨C like his body was emaciated ¨C like he hadn¡¯t walked or moved in weeks. Looking around James slowly made his way out of the town once more. His rational mind screamed at him again. Told him nothing would change ¨C that he needed to stay somewhere safe till the penalty wore off. But now his rational mind was joined by a second voice. I¡¯ve already been killed in a town by some PK¡¯er once. Its not safe ¨C at least not any safer than the outdoors was. James left civilization for the second time ¨C a rising sun welcoming his path once more. He traveled mostly in silence ¨C walking for close to an hour before slowing in the midst of a plane. Looking about he confirmed he was alone then bent and began to do pushups. ¡°One. Two. Three¡­¡± James counted aloud as he worked. His weakened body struggled with each pushup ¨C his arms struggled his core bent and shook. This wasn¡¯t a punishment however. James pushed himself again and again for a different reason. He wanted to get stronger. There was a burn but it was a good burn. The burn of progress. Finally, after what felt like a thousand reps ¨C but what was probably closer to a dozen or two ¨C a single popup appeared.
??? Achievement get: Outdoor workout. (uncommon)
Description: Pump that iron ¨C or¡­in this case pump that stone? Workout to exhaustion in the outdoors.
Stat: +1 arm strength.
James collapsed breathing heavily. His weakened body ached, and he gave it time to rest. Standing up after a few minutes, he began to perform jumping jacks next ¨C over and over pushing his weakened body until he collapsed once more. As if waiting for him to finish a second popup appeared.
??? Achievement get: Outdoor workout 2. (uncommon)
Description: Pump that iron ¨C or¡­in this case pump that stone? Workout to exhaustion in the outdoors.
Stat: +1 leg speed.
Sitting down carefully James considered his results. ¡°Power stats¡­power is equal to strength. Any strength training should give power stats¡­the equivalent of building muscles?¡± James spoke aloud as he walked through his thought practice. ¡°Speed stats¡­that¡¯s equivalent to cardio. Any cardiovascular exercises should give speed stats¡­the equivalent of toning?¡± James continued voice picking up speed as the epiphany hit him. ¡°¡­defense is¡­¡± James trailed off as he thought. ¡°Obviously I don¡¯t just get stats from working out. All my other stats have been for the most part for doing ¡®stuff¡¯¡­So any time I avoid danger or do ¡®something¡¯ quickly I get speed. Every time I act more aggressive and face something head on, I get power. Every time I fail and get hurt, I get defense¡­¡± James trailed off for a moment clutching his hand together and studying his arm. ¡°So defense is¡­useful but I still died to those monsters easily enough. Defensive stats are failure stats. If I work out wrong and break something or tear something, I¡¯ll get defense. It¡¯s the sign of pushing too hard. It¡¯s the sign of weakness.¡± James thought through those options and nodded. It might not be a perfect analogy, but it would do. Rolling over once again James began to do sit-ups. He would spend his weakness getting stronger. One. Two Three¡­ Chapter 17. Pushing ahead sometimes involves some backtracking. ---Maddy--- It took a while for Maddy and Troy to finish up their delving experience. Immediately after the encounter with a lunatic, they had been accosted by a native guide ¨C a woman who sought to bring them towards some ceremony. The town they were in had some cultural relationship with their dungeon. The natives had figured out how to alert anyone when the dungeon was cleared ¨C something to do with lights ¨C and heavily heavily pushed for those who completed it to come to a ceremony. They really wouldn¡¯t take no for an answer ¨C at least they wouldn¡¯t take the miming Maddy and Troy did as they tried to communicate¡­ignoring them pointedly with a one sided onslaught of facts and information. Supposedly, the ceremony was only held two to three times a year ¨C the locals didn¡¯t seem to clear the dungeon often ¨C and it was a big deal every time it was cleared. Those who cleared it for the first time were usually young adults seeking to prove themselves. They went through once, gaining power and then joined one of the towns¡­army positions? The translation seemed off whenever they spoke of the army and its tasks. The ¡®army¡¯ itself was split into three main sections. Hunting bands that went out of the town''s walls and fought regularly. Public servants that seemed to have the equivalent of desk jobs. And guards who acted as policemen, bouncers, or hirable bodyguards. All were theoretically in the reserves for if the town went to war¡­ but that hadn¡¯t happened in recent memory. The citizens who cleared the dungeon were well known to be stronger than normal humans ¨C anywhere from twice to three times as strong due to stats ¨C and a majority of them gained a skill from the experience as well. This was the first time Maddy had heard about how these locals interacted with the system. Stats and skills were common knowledge ¨C you could even read them using a status stone for a fee ¨C but they didn¡¯t seem to gain achievements randomly or know anything about them. Occasionally a warrior would suddenly get much stronger after killing some large monster and stats were well known to be raised through effort¡­ The attendant kept talking, her words translated into box after box as the trio walked up stairs and down stretches of street. Maddy really wanted to know Jess was okay. She knew there was some delay before resurrection, but not how long it was or how it actually worked. Jess had literally saved her life. She wouldn¡¯t be satisfied until she could see the straightforward and soft-spoken girl with her own two eyes. ¡­I¡¯ll try and make it up for her. The attendant finished her background knowledge sharply ¨C trailing off her description about multiple dungeon clears not being worth it. They had arrived at the ceremony location. Two thirds up the colonized section of pit, there was a stage jutting out into empty air. Like a reverse amphitheatre, there were several ringed seats facing outwards from the stage, and on top of it, a single man stood ¨C awaiting their arrival. A last hurried blue box by the attendant stated this man was someone called the general and ¡®to be respectful but not sycophantic¡¯ ¨C the pair was already staring. The general was the leader of this town. He was an imposing figure ¨C stern with military vibes. Probably the perfect type for girls who were into uniforms and rugged looks. As a leader, he wore a long bright green cape and held a king¡¯s sceptre. As a spokesperson he delivered his ¡°speech¡± to a crowd of citizens. Natives and curious travellers gathered around them ¨C boxing the pair between the stage and themselves. After a moment of muttering from the crowd, the general raised his hands high and began his speech.
Welcome future pillars. You come from afar instead of growing up in our great nation. A foreigner to our ways and lands. Despite your outsider status, you have proven yourself as a pillar ¨C we don¡¯t ask pillars to hold up ours but urge yourself to carry something ¨C someone or someplace and carry it high. Aloft and above the dirt. For strength is needed to hold back the darkness. Strength is needed to defend the cattle. Strength is needed to eye the fires and hear the shakes in the black. Come closer small stones and appreciate my glory. Come close and receive the sticker of approval ¨C for I promise with all my heart not to kill you.
Stunned silence met the general¡¯s speech as he trailed off. The crowd looked shocked ¨C some looked confused, some like they wanted to laugh, one or two seemed angry. Maddy locked eyes on the manic eyes of the lunatic who mouthed ¡°sticker of approval¡± and doubled up in silent laughter. Wiping his eyes, the traveller Maddy had seen outside of the dungeon stepped back into the mass of people and vanished ¨C disappearing as people began to murmur and wave the general down. An aid rushed up and inspected the general''s scepter, shaking his head. A second aid climbed up onto the stage and passed a translating bracelet over to the man who accepted it with grace. After letting everyone murmur for a moment, he raised his fist high and continued as if nothing had happened.
Now, young outsiders. This badge will designate you as an honorary member of the guard. You¡¯ll be able to accept quests and the simplest jobs through the employment office. It''s also all you need to become a full member of the army should you so desire ¨C but know this. Citizenship is much easier to bestow then revoke. You will be accepting responsibilities with said status that cannot be ignored as easily and refusing your duties will have harsh penalties.
The general beckoned and the pair approached. An awkward half clammer had the two climb the large steps and then they were in front of him. He smiled. The general''s eyes were sharp and stern, but with kind undertones and his stiff smile was obviously genuine. Jess should be here. It''s not fair that she is missing out just because she failed near the end. Slowly the man reached out and placed a circular pin of sorts on Maddy¡¯s arm. It stuck almost like a magnet ¨C pulling close and affixing itself in one go. Below the crowd let out polite hums and smacked their hands against their chest. I guess that¡¯s their version of applause? Everyone seems to be leaving now. Guess we are free! Looking around Maddy nudged Troy who seemed to be frozen in an awkward but happy sort of stance as he took in the ceremony. ¡°Hey, ready to go? Let''s head back to the translator store, I want to communicate with people and figure out more about our situation.¡± She whispered. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Huh? Oh sure.¡± Troy agreed. And then we have to find our last member and I need to contact the person reviving us. Also should find something to eat. I¡¯m suddenly starving ¨C not that I want to pretend that has priority. ¡­okay yes it has priority. Let''s get something to eat.
---Richard---
?? Achievement get: Crowd Deceiver. (Rare)
Description: Interfere with a public ceremony without getting caught.
Stat: +6 mental power.
Richard stumbled out of the crowd smiling widely. He had done it. He had pulled it off. Was it worth it? It was probably too small of a result to warrant the effort he had put in... but he was still pleased with himself. How fun it had been was slightly overshadowed by how much fun Richard had had killing the would-be muggers¡­ but he kind of hated how much he had liked that. It hadn¡¯t been funny ¨C okay seeing the shocked onlookers had been pretty funny ¨C but it hadn¡¯t been intended as a joke. ¡­and the system had sucked some of the fun out of it afterward when it mentioned picking on the weak. Making me seem like a shitty ass bully ¨C I¡¯m not a fucking bully! Muggers are fair game for merking. Its karma. Instant karma is funny right? ¡®Karmas a bitch isn¡¯t it.¡¯ Richard¡¯s mind flashed for a half second back to the time his prank had been twisted into a simple case of bullying and the rest of his mood soured. Fuck. Did I advance too far and now I¡¯m sitting around in the newbie zone picking on weaklings? That¡¯s it isn¡¯t it? If I want to feel less like a prick I have to find a higher levelled hunting ground. ¡­alright. Let¡¯s go find a map or some shit. ¡­ Richard found a bookstore containing a map and some hastily piled-together books. They seemed out of place ¨C like someone had picked them out then left them here¡­ Curious despite himself, he read through and remembered a few things. ¡®R¡¯ Mentioned breaking my skill into chaos magic. This book describes how to do so¡­while also mentioning there are other ways of breaking your skill. So, ¡®R¡¯ wants me to break into magic right? I wonder what he would think if I broke my skill one of these other ways¡­ Fingering his translator, Richard turned and asked the shopkeeper about the surroundings. Something about the map seemed weird¡­ Looking about secretively then leaning close the NPC spoke.
Yes, that way is a land of fabulous machines. Why ¨C look at this book translator! I imported it all the way from Ser. Some of the folks around here look superstitiously upon those contraptions but you have to admit its practicality. So what do you say. Planning on buying that are you? Or do you have anything you are looking for instead?
Richard paused¡­ he could ask about skill breaking outside of magic but he was probably better off just looking for that in this direction instead. ¡°Thanks mate but I¡¯m good,¡± Richard nodded then left to retrace his steps. Back towards the path he had reached here on. Off to see what Ser was like.
---James--- James worked out till exhaustion again and again. His workout achievement ticked into the double digits over the day his blood, sweat and tears poured into his body. As time went on he felt stronger ¨C his stats returning to him, his new stats adding to his total. As he left his weakest point, it took longer to gain the stacking achievements ¨C working out till exhaustion took dozens and dozens of reps ¨C he had to either completely switch muscle groups or wait a decent amount of time before he could try again ¨C working out till exhaustion didn¡¯t seem to mean anything if he was already exhausted¡­he had to actually work for these points. After hours of rest and workout he started to get thirsty ¨C ravenously thirsty and hungry as well. Turns out sweating left you dehydrated ¨C who would have thought. James hadn¡¯t yet worked off his penalty so he went in search of something to drink cautiously ¨C he didn¡¯t want to spend more time than needed in this weakened state. Walking across fields for a while James grew steadily more and more thirsty. It felt different from normal ¨C worse somehow ¨C a building cloud of dread covering his tracks. It hadn¡¯t even been a day ¨C sure he was exercising for most of it, but he shouldn¡¯t feel this bad. James had gone days without drinking before and felt fine. What was happening? Throbbing spikes of both pain and ominous danger rang out through James¡¯s body as he searched for a river or pond or cactus ¨C any source of liquid. Anything to quench his thirst and stop the pain radiating out from his kidneys. From his weak spot. Finally James spotted the mushroom trees once more. At this point he would probably die if he didn¡¯t drink anything ¨C that was how bad he felt. Poison was a risk he was willing to take. Running up to the side of the tree he stared up at the trailing strands high above it. They reminded him of an upside down jellyfish ¨C floating about lighter than air. They were lighter than air mostly hollow strands of gossamer thin cloth. No liquid to see there. The bark of these trees looked damp ¨C beads of dew or sap or something glistening on its side. Taking a brief breath at how dumb his only option was James closed his eyes and licked the tree. It tasted like dirt. Slightly herby dirt water¡­but at least it was liquid. Looking around for a tool James spotted a sharp stone and picked it up aiming at the mushroom tree''s side. He stabbed ¨C puncturing it roughly and with a almost anticlimactic ease. He stabbed again ¨C the consistency of the trunk was softer than he would have thought it needed to be to hold up such a large tree¡­ but stiff enough his hacking was slow going. Digging deep into the trunk James was thankful to see more dirt water beginning to pool and drip. The mushroom sap from inside of the tree was slow to trickle out but it was constant. Soon James was scraping his hand around the inside of his hole and bringing life-saving nectar to his lips repeatedly. Inner sap tasted... less like dirt. If James could compare it to something, he¡¯d probably say it was almost tea-like ¨C an unidentifiable herby flavour that was not quite unpleasant, but also not something he personally liked. Slowly he began to feel better. Tired but better. He was slightly hungry as well but the mushroom husk tasted like rubbery dirt and he wasn¡¯t ¡®that¡¯ hungry. Searching around James picked a second tree and began to climb it ¨C he didn¡¯t want to sleep on the ground outdoors. Kicking and jabbing his arms and legs into the trunk he created foot holds and easily scaled the trunk. Pulling himself around a flap he found himself on top of the mushroom''s cap ¨C surrounded by the trailing jellyfish legs. Picking an empty spot, James sunk back into an incredibly comfortable bed and fell asleep. ¡­
?? Achievement get: Exposed sleep. (uncommon)
Description: Survived a night outdoors. Congratulations! You weren¡¯t eaten by monsters.
Passive skill: A deep but light sleep. With deep sleep you remain well rested after a nap. With a light sleep you will awake at the slightest noise or touch. Knowledge of how best to apply your stats to increase this natural ability has been gained.
James awoke and stared about ¨C to his side at the far edge of the mushroom cap a smoking husk of some bird lay cooked through to the bone. It had wicked looking talons and a sharp carnivorous-looking beak... and it was most decidedly dead. From what James could tell, this bird had flown towards him in the night and then collided with the jellyfish tentacles before ending up in this state. Cause and effect weren¡¯t confirmed... but he looked at the drifting tendrils in a new light. ¡°I¡¯m not touching those¡± James spoke his voice losing its sleepy tinge. Moving to leave, James paused, before turning and carefully crawling back towards the smoking bird. ¡°Breakfast.¡± He muttered to himself while staring at the prize. Carefully reaching past the dense ¨C probably dangerous ¨C drifting lines, James pulled the smoking carcass back towards himself. Ripping burnt feathers and skin off a portion, James carefully took a bite. It tasted awful ¨C a sharp and bitter slice of dried stringy chicken. James took another bite. Most of the flesh was on the rare side of things ¨C some of it was decidedly burnt. All of it was unappetizing. James finished eating ¨C most of the meal untouched ¨C then left for his day. He slid down the mushroom stalk easily enough, then made the quick stop at his mushroom hole. He needed to wash the bitter taste away. A few gulps of herby water later and James was set for the day. The mushroom had made a wonderful bed and his death penalty was gone. It was time to brave the badlands once more. This time he wouldn¡¯t be hunted by invisible creatures. This time he would make a difference. He was stronger now. This time he would win. Chapter 18. The isekai customer service rep hates you. ---Maddy--- After some time shopping, Maddy and Troy finally found Jess wandering about and looking for them. She seemed panicked for some reason ¨C jumping on her companions as soon as she saw them. ¡°Did either of you two grab my whip?¡± Jess asked with much more energy than either of them were expecting. Maddy paused and glanced down at herself as if checking. Her hands were full of a sweet sort of rolled salad wrap. The bag she had bought earlier was full of her dwindling money, a doll, a book and some rope. ¡°¡­no? Troy ¨C did you?¡± Maddy asked, turning to him. Shaking his head Troy looked confused at the question. ¡°I resurrected with a new jumpsuit, but without my weapon. It''s important! How will I place barriers far away like this?¡± Jess seemed surprisingly devastated. ¡­Maddy should have thought of that. For some reason, she had just imagined Jess appearing outside of the dungeon with all her stuff ¨C the fact that she hadn¡¯t made sense in hindsight but¡­ ¡°We got you money? You can buy a new one?¡± Jerking her head, Maddy nodded to Troy who pulled out and then passed over the bag of pips. Looking at the bag of cash seemed to calm Jess¡¯s fervour. ¡°¡­thanks. Sorry, the death penalty is awful. It''s reminding me of¡­things I didn¡¯t want to remember,¡± Jess looked around as if noting how public the place was. ¡°Don¡¯t die, got it¡­¡± Maddy spoke giving her a thumbs up and trying to lighten the mood. ¡°Want a bite?¡± Troy offered his half-eaten sandwich to a slightly disgusted Jess. ¡°We¡¯ll get you something else to eat before looking for a weapon for you. There¡¯s lots of street food and handheld options.¡± Maddy offered instead. ¡°Might as well wait out your current penalty ¨C we don¡¯t want to make it longer than necessary. The worst part of the death penalty seems to be slowing you down and letting others get ahead.¡± ¡°Worst part of the penalty is how awful I feel but¡­yeah. That sounds nice ¨C I¡¯m not hungry but eating might make me feel better.¡± The group wandered off again for a second round of shopping. ¡­ Maddy stood alone in her rented room. It cost twenty pips a night ¨C a good chunk of her cash to get a room to herself but she needed it. The room was austere yet comfortable ¨C stone floor and walls, an open window with tied curtain. A single lamp lit with some unidentifiable fleshy yellow lump. A raised mattress and wooden bedside table. In front of her was a stuffed doll she had picked up for the contact ¨C its glassy, yellow-tinged eyes staring up at her. At first glance she could pretty easily call it a ¡°doll¡± and move on, but actually describing it was a bit more involved. The doll looked like a cross between a plastic or ceramic creation and a stuffed toy. There were plenty of shaped unknown materials giving it form and structure ¨C bones and rubbery looking chunks and painted hinges¡­but there were also soft sections full of grey stuffing and fabrics sewed into its body. It was humanoid but strangely inhuman ¨C she would definitely call it a contender for creepy doll of the year. Everything was a bit off ¨C just a bit too realistic while being a bit too fake. The doll¡¯s size was about the length of her forearm and she had bought it because she didn¡¯t want to arts and crafts this connection. Getting her friends to not question it was harder, but she had managed somehow. Taking a deep breath, Maddy sat cross-legged in the center of the room and carefully lay the doll in front of her like a patient. Maddy reached out with both arms once she was ready, taking another long breath. Continuing before she could stall any longer, Maddy lay both hands on the doll''s body and began to infuse death mana ¨C the action more instinctual than anything else. She could tell somehow she was doing it wrong ¨C her casting crude and raw¡­whispered thoughts told her she didn¡¯t even need her hands! Technically her mana wasn¡¯t coming from her body even if she needed contact of some sort¡­but that just confused her. Maddy felt better imagining it was seeping out of her hands and didn¡¯t know an easier method. At first, there wasn¡¯t a sign of anything happening ¨C there wasn¡¯t any living flesh for the necrosis to take hold of. Slowly however as she continued to fill the container with undirected magic, a soft glow began to ring out. It was dark dark purple ¨C a UV glow that seemed to reflect off her skin and just barely tint the surroundings. Suddenly with no warning, the doll''s stuffed hand reached up and grabbed her wrist. ¡°That¡¯s enough¡± The light seemed to flicker like a candle despite being a solid lump enclosed in a lamp. A rustle and the cloth on the window seemed to slip around and almost fuse with the surrounding wall. The door to the room suddenly seemed more locked than before and Maddy was suddenly horrifyingly aware that she was trapped with¡­something. With unnatural jerking grace the doll flipped up off the floor ¨C moving from lying down to standing up in a single impossible movement. Maddy stared in slight nervous shock as the doll began to shake and twist itself. The creature inspected its body and the surroundings and somehow, she could tell it found them lacking. Somehow between its inspection and current state it had changed ¨C Maddy hadn¡¯t noticed the moment it had, but now the doll''s shape was different. Its form thinner, its glassy eyes more alive, its hands ¨C it had hands now. Instead of a fabric glove-like shape, both arms now ended in skeletal hands formed from teeny tiny bones ¨C melted and reformed from places about its body. Maddy calmed herself down by finding human traits in the creatures¡¯ actions. It''s vain, it cares about how it looks. It''s performing theatrics because it wants to either impress or frighten me. She was partway through building a mental profile when the creature flicked both of its wrists ¨C a slight rattle ringing out ¨C then turned to her. ¡°Alright then, I don¡¯t want to be here. You don¡¯t want me here. Let''s just fix your stupid soul defense problem and be done with it.¡± he spoke. ¡­this was not turning out how Maddy was hoping. The narrative had been taken hold of ¨C she had been planning on asking what the ritual would do before agreeing to anything. ¡°Sorry, I haven¡¯t agreed to anything yet ¨C you have to tell me what we are going to do first! I¡¯m not performing some sketchy magic without knowing what¡¯s happening¡± Maddy blurted out. ¡­ that was jumbled and awkward. I was planning on asking that more slowly, what¡¯s wrong with me? Maddy was more flustered than she thought if that¡¯s how she worded things. Staring at her with an annoyed face, the doll waved its bony hand at the ground ¨C then glanced at it in even more annoyance when nothing happened. ¡°Backward ass town replica full of medieval ass practices,¡± the doll muttered to itself sliding over to the bed. The doll moved without stepping ¨C both ¡°feet¡± planted firmly on the ground as it skidded over and stopped by Maddy¡¯s bedside table. ¡°Houses should have wooden floors. None of this medieval shite,¡± he continued to mutter to himself. Without appearing to do anything, the wood of the bedside table grew sideways out into a flat surface. Waving its bony hands like a conductor, crude diagrams and words appeared onto the sign like a whiteboard. ¡°Okay see this? This right here?¡± the doll pointed to a humanoid outline ¡° ¨Cthis is you. Not that fleshy meat sack you¡¯ve been stuck in but your puny little soul.¡± Waving his hand again the diagram changed ¨C the outline becoming thick and more defined ¡°This is soul defense. It prevents any external manipulation, both good and bad. It''s like healing ¨C you have a life affinity now, you¡¯ll find it harder and harder to heal anyone with life defense ¨C regular defense has some life defense mixed into it as a rule but you''re lucky that it¡¯s one of the rarest defenses. Now ¡®resurrection¡¯ is a nice little event innit¡¯ it. Nice to get free revives innit¡¯ it. Nice to make more work for me innit¡¯ ¨C some of you seem to get some sort of thrill out of killing yourself as many times and in as hard to notice of a position as possible." The doll spat and waved its hands about before continuing. "See I''m stuck all the way over here. Past several dimensional locks and whatever else that shifty bugger put in place to isolate this place. So, here''s what happens. Your fleshy meat sack gets damaged somehow and my contractual obligation is to yoink it and shove you into a new body. Easy enough. That''s something I can do for squishy souls like this no problem. Then they put me off in the middle of nowhere ¨C this part is tricky, but I¡¯m amazing so I can still get it done. Soul defense throws a wrench in that. If I¡¯m by you ¨C or even projected by you like I am right now ¨C then it''s still no problem. The minuscule number of defensive stats you¡¯ve gained means nothing¡­ It''s still annoying ¨C and that isn¡¯t a viable solution. Forcing me to babysit you by following you around in this body means I¡¯m less able to resurrect everyone else. This takes a load of concentration to pull off by the way ¨C my dead queue is slowly backing up because of you. So that''s where the spell I''m going'' have you do comes into place. I''m going'' need you to do the metaphorical equivalent of bending over and spreading your soul''s asscheeks for me¨C I need you to make a hole somewhere in your soul defense big enough such that I can reach through and grab you from wherever you die. It''s just a temporary hole ¨C but one you need to continue holding open if you want more free shit. Some disclaimer ¨C the chance of a soul attack in these baby zones are minuscule, leaving a hole open won¡¯t make you much worse off than before you gained any stats yada yada. So, we have three options. ¡®A¡¯. Sign something waving all responsibility from me to resurrect you. ¨C you could have done this back in the transitionary area by the way and saved me this trip. ¡®B¡¯. Have you open a hole in your annoying ass armour and hold it open so long as you want to be a resurrection target. ¡®C¡¯. instead of you poking a hole in yourself I¡¯m going to do it. I¡¯m going to poke a hole in your defense and sew it open because I refuse to babysit you with this twisted obligation any more than I have to. ¡­and believe me. If I make the hole for you it''s going to fucking hurt. So choose. Pick your poison. I''ll give you ten more minutes of my precious time and if you don''t pick, I''m going to make the choice for you. Three. I''m going to pick three if you don''t make a choice.¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! The last sentence was uttered in a happy matter of fact tone. It was 100% a threat but not presented as one. It wasn''t stated as if he was trying to intimidate her ¨C just dropped at the end like a fact. What''s the right answer? Why did he give me options? He seems to just want to perform ¡®C¡¯ ¨C why isn¡¯t he just doing it if that¡¯s what he wants? What¡¯s stopping him? It seems safer to just tell him off. ¡­honestly the idea of him reaching around and playing with her soul made Maddy feel ill. He obviously hated her, and she didn''t like the idea of her life being in the hands of someone who despised her this way. On the other hand, snubbing the only safety net ¨C drowning just because I don¡¯t like the creep of a lifeguard seems¡­moronic. Sometimes you don¡¯t like people and that¡¯s life ¨C this¡­man is pretty obviously a person. "Can you tell me more about the world I''m in?" Maddy asked trying to pry any info out of him while she had the chance. "Oh! Of course. This whole place everything you see here is in a snow globe I keep on my desk. Sometimes I sit on it ¨C that''s nighttime ¨C and sometimes I piss on it when I''m bored ¨C that''s what you call rain." Maddy stared at him, "so you''re not going tell me anything?" "Nope.¡± He radiated smugness and refused to elaborate. ¡­its really really hard to read this doll. He doesn¡¯t have any visible reactions I can base stuff off of¡­but he¡¯s strangely human. I could try and make small talk? Get to know him better? ¡°What¡¯s your name? What do you want me to refer to you as?¡± Maddy asked. ¡°Don¡¯t. Don¡¯t try that, don¡¯t touch that and piss off. Names sometimes have power, even if they don¡¯t have power they are for mates, I can tell you''re trying to weasel yourself into my good graces and it just pisses me off. Five minutes left now for being annoying. I''m not a tour guide or help desk or escort you¡¯ve hired here to answer your every childish question," the doll snapped and glanced pointedly as if at an invisible watch. "Could I learn to resurrect myself?" Maddy asked searching for an alternative. A fourth option. "Giheeehehehehehe," suddenly the doll''s head snapped up and it began to laugh. Its whole demeanor changed and a low giggle rang loudly across her rented room. "You think this is easy? Something you can just learn? Go ahead. Figure it out if you want. I¡¯m not a professor so find your own method. Become a proper lich like the rest of us ¨C I respect you wanting to make less work for me¡­but does that mean you are picking option A? Times up girly," That was not five minutes. "No¡­no I¡¯ll do it. I''ll make a link for you." Maddy cut in not wanting the choice to be made for her. "What do I have to do?" She continued ¨C trying to keep her option open. "Shame¡­alright. I haven¡¯t got all night. Tell me the concepts you got, I''ll fudge something together with them," he responded, mirth gone. Maddy paused¡­"Application? I think one of the other things mentioned is transference? I''m sorry a lot was happening at the time I can''t remember¡­" she trailed off. The necromancer groaned then muttered something about the youth of today losing their memory. He twisted his arm a bunch then held out a hand staring pointedly. "Give me a cr¨C a pip, not the worst kind I''ll do it for you. Yes one of the bigger ones you daft broad." Maddy considered not complying but figured she had pushed him too much. Fishing around in her bag and grabbing one of the larger sized crystals left, she passed it to the doll. Mumbling something under his breath ¨C either a spell or an insult ¨C the necromancer crushed her pip then twisted his head as if reading something. "You have an application concept. Scythe collection and transference shapes or proto concepts. Remember those the next time someone asks you ¡®ait? ¨C this is what happens when crystal spooned leeches get handed skills for basically free and break them without much effort either ...and okay here''s what we are going to do." Once more heading to the whiteboard, the doll waved and pulled a long sheet of wood out. Pausing for half a second he slashed with a finger and broke it off into a thin panel. "Shouldn''t have actualized any of your concepts yet. What I''m going to need you to do is think about application really hard. What it means to you, everything you think is possible with it, everything you need it for, everything you might need it for. Etcetera etcetera" The doll passed Maddy the board and a black stick of something like charcoal ¨C once more the items appearing out of thin air. "Got that? Anything come to mind? Any shapes or words or anything? Nothing? Good. Now you are going to draw this symbol" ¨C sketching something out of the sheet he continued ¨C "while thinking of that concept as hard as your little mind can. If you can''t do it the easy way I can always leave and come back once you''ve actualized the thing. Its okay to say you aren¡¯t capable ¨C I¡¯m not expecting much.¡± Maddy droned out his bored, annoyed and resentful voice. He said he¡¯s not a teacher, but this is the first hint I¡¯ve had about how to use magic. What does application mean to me? Its¡­well¡­ It¡¯s¡­applying myself maybe. That sounds like a pun though. Application is¡­why is it so generic? Why are there so many options? Maddy continued to try and picture what application meant. Several different parts of her mind began brainstorming down different paths and slowly a net of ideas formed. She had a rough picture and could hold it in her mind ¨C application was simply application. Reaching out she began to sketch the symbol the necromancer had shown her ¨C trying to imagine it as part of the application held in her mind. It felt¡­mostly right. Mostly right but that little tail over there seemed weird and that line was too long and this section should have a loop to properly convey her application. "And she''s changing it, of course she has to be different the special little snowflake. ¡­its mostly the same. Should still work if you actually actuated it correctly.¡± Directing the last line towards Maddy the necromancer seemed more resigned than he had. Sliding forward the doll jabbed a boney finger down onto the wooden board and continued the lesson. "This right here is your rune of application ¨C figure out how to use it properly for other stuff on your own time. Or don¡¯t, waste the free help. I literally don¡¯t care. Anyways, just that should be enough ¨C what I''m going need you to do next is draw this set of symbols perfectly ¨C no improv please ¨C and link that rune here, here and here. It needs to be on something close to you at all times. I''m talking write it on your arm level of closeness, and then you''ll have to power it nearly constantly. Don''t worry once it''s activated you won''t notice the draw.¡± Maddy stared about before pulling her pant leg up and beginning to write it on her leg. She felt kind of silly painting herself in front of the doll before he nodded satisfied with her work. ¡°Now¡­activate it from here with life mana and here with death mana. Ideally mix them properly here to activate with a neutral mana as well but it''s simple enough that shouldn''t be needed. Your rune is just different enough from mine it might not work but I added in enough redundancies i''d be surprised.¡± Maddy stared down at her leg. "Should I have written on something that¡¯s not my body? Put it on my clothes or something? I don''t want to use death mana on myself if I can help it ¨C that doesn''t seem safe¡­¡± she began to worry. "Oh stop being a wimp. All good mages have a few arcane tattoos ¨C it comes with the job. Let''s go I don''t have all night. Worst case you die, and I bring you right back so we can try again." Considering it and then finally giving in Maddy pushed out. First healing life mana in one side then ¨C bringing her other hand around ¨C deadly necrotizing death in the other. Everything rapidly began to come into effect. A price of pain flared up her leg as necrosis ripped through all of her drawn runes in a second. A pulse of life mana wafted through everything right after struggling to heal the lines of dying flesh. Back and forth the two pulsed ¨C as if her drawn runes were a racetrack, the two lines of magic running laps about her leg. Slowly the stinging feeling began to fade ¨C her flesh gaining a sickly sort of pale scar in the shape of her drawn runes. "¡­actually worst case you rip apart your soul and I can¡¯t bring you back but hey! You did it! You''re lucky with your affinity pair by the way, Fire mages have to wait longer to burn a mage tattoo as good as that and don''t have such a nice healing from icing themselves afterwards." The doll spoke giving her a thumbs up. ¡­of course it was more dangerous than he let on. I can¡¯t trust anything he says without golden text. ¡°Okay any minute now it should be activated.¡± The doll dropped his arm as he spoke and stared deep into her. Crossing his arms and tapping his skeletal hands against himself the doll waited ¨C not staring at Maddy exactly but staring past her¡­ looking at something around her navel. ¡°Done¡± He nodded and suddenly Maddy felt it. It wasn¡¯t a physical feeling more an emotional one. It felt like suddenly she was exposed ¨C vulnerable. She felt like she was naked and standing in front of a crowd of eyes ¨C she hated it. Slowly the initial rush of vulnerability began to fade but it never seemed to disappear entirely. It never went back to a feeling of ¡°normal¡± She felt¡­on edge. Not immediately unsafe but like she didn¡¯t want to fall asleep alone. Like she was walking home after dark in a less-than-stellar neighborhood. The necromancer studied her for a moment longer then made a business sort of nod ¡°Finally ¨C seems to have set,¡± and Maddy could tell he was about to leave. ¡­She needed to know something before he did. The question was burning up inside of her. it had been burning up inside of her from the very first blue box she had read of his. ¡°Why are you so hostile? Why¡­why do you hate me? The system rewards us for being unique ¨C doing things that others don¡¯t. Why are you so angry that I¡¯m doing what the system wants ¨C don¡¯t you work for it? Why are you mad that we are just fol¡­¡° The necromancer raised a single bony finger and Maddy trailed off. He looked like he was struggling between responding and not and finally settled on something ¨C a deep sigh rattling out. ¡°First off, I don¡¯t work for the system ¨C I work for that prick ''R'' and not because I love the job but because of a stupid deal. Second off that right there? So called ¡®unique things¡¯? That¡¯s exactly what pissed me off.¡± The light in the room flickered and dimmed as the necromancer spoke ¨C as if reality itself was affected by his anger. ¡°The system is a great arbiter of fairness and progress and it''s being fucking abused and violated to accommodate you brats. Did you know rarity gets slightly reset when it¡¯s integrated with a new species? Of course you don¡¯t. You first time settlers are getting achievements left and right for doing something first in your species ¨C hey you wiped your ass properly! Well done lil miss baby ¨C here¡¯s a permeant increase in wisdom or some horseshit! You don¡¯t even know how good you all have it! That¡¯s even worse innit? Some of you worthless bellends have the gall to complain about your situation. ¨C and you think you''re unique? You really think a single thing you¡¯ve done so far is worthy of the highest normal rarity level ¡®unique¡¯???¡± The light was nearly out now ¨C a suffocating feeling gripping Maddy¡¯s throat as the creature raged, his voice coming from all directions. Shadows flickered across the wall a swirling mess of shapes spewing out of the monster before her. ¡°The system is a noble creation of the highest power and it is being abused in this stupid achievement farm you all signed up for. You¡¯re being power leveled and babied and not a single one of you petulant pests deserve'' it. YOU. Do you actually think anything you have done is unique? Do you think what you have done is even rare? Noteworthy? Deserving of the tiniest smidgen of ¡®achievement¡¯? You were the first to use a rare weapon brat ¨C but there¡¯s dozens of others after you with the same one. You decided the free points ¨C free points you didn¡¯t deserve of course ¨C should be used on the hardest stats to increase ¨C your soul ¨C making my life much harder than it needed to be. ¡®Let¡¯s be unique¡¯ you say and then turn around and do absolutely everything by the book. You fought some monsters ¨C by the book, in the most standard type of team paring ¨C not nearly anything worth reaching the first tier of course because some loopholes lets R fuck with the natural difficulty and provide some gimped tier 1 nothings as an actual monster. You left the ¡®tutorial¡¯ slightly early. Big WOOP. Give the cunt a trophy! You went straight to a settlement, found some info and then beat a rank one dungeon just a weeeeee bit faster than most. Itty bitty bit. Not some first clear of a dungeon hundreds ve'' tried ¨C no you waltzed through a common dungeon and it showered you in stats. NOTHING YOU HAVE DONE IS NOTEWORTHY GIRLY. Do you really think what you have done so far is that special? Do you really think you deserve the power you have gained? I spent THREE YEARS creating a unique spell ¨C THREE YEARS! ¨C you picked up a peasant weapon after a few seconds of brainstorming. A scythe, the best your little mind could come up with worth as much as my apprenticeship. You know there are other brats using actually unique weapons right? One has a pair of frying pans tied to a string. Another has a small little rake and garden trowel as his weapons. One even decided to fight with a bag of nails ¨C each and every one of them at least deserves their ''unique'' achievements for at least picking not weapons that are hard to use. Other than picking a scythe ¨C every single one of your decisions was the blandest most common option done evvveeerrr so slightly faster than others for some undeserved rarity!¡± the creature raged and spat. Maddy literally couldn¡¯t breathe. She felt¡­she kind of understood ¨C some hidden parts to his personality clicked into place ¨C but ultimately his anger felt misplaced. She had¡­shed been picking rare options at least? She hadn''t complained once? It didn¡¯t matter right now he was choking her. With a gasp of breath she tried to defend herself struggling to speak without air ¡°I chose a distributed mind foundation. Only 42% to the specialized 56%. That¡¯s a less common option right? Something other than picking a scythe?¡± Staring directly at her the doll seemed to realize the effect his emotions were having and calmed. The vibrating air began to still ¨C the boiling shadows disappeared. The necromancer¡¯s anger didn¡¯t disappear but was put away. Controlled and back to simmering beneath the surface. ¡°You left at a time where only fifty others had chosen mental options before you. At the time you picked that foundation it was twenty-one to twenty eight on the choice ¨C thousands have passed through by now. Of the brats that chose a mental foundation, distributive is by far the most popular coming in at 86% of the mental pickers. Maths are fun arn''t they? It just goes to show, nothing you have done is special. None of your ¡°smart ideas¡± really mean much. You know what you could do if you really want to pick something unique? You could jump in the pit outside. Swim down to the bottom of its murky depths and come back. That¡¯s an equivalent to the work I did as a child gaining my first rank ¨C no breathing apparatus, no fancy water breathing spell just swim to the depths healing yourself past your mortal limits. That¡¯s a proper achievement ¨C one no one else has gained yet too! Do it ¨C or don¡¯t ¨C I don¡¯t care, for even if you do ¡®that¡¯ it will have been my suggestion not your own. Remember that ¨C you haven¡¯t thought of anything ¡®unique¡¯. You¡¯ve abused the system. True unique is something no one has done from any race or lifestyle. Get something with a true or absolute unique rating and maybe then I¡¯ll give a shit. Actually put in some effort and maybe I won''t think you¡¯re a waste of conjured air. It''s going to be hard. Even if you try my suggestion the reward won¡¯t be as good as the one I gained ¨C because there won''t be any danger. I¡¯ll be here to save you if you fail. Meaningless actions from a meaningless babied existence. Nothing you could do has any meaning while I¡¯m here to save you and will continue to have no meaning until you finish this ¡®game¡¯¡­ I¡¯ve already spent too much time here.¡± Like it was a puppet and its strings had just been cut the doll fell ¨C the necromancer leaving without any other effects. Leaving almost mid sentence ¨C his last words echoing in Maddy¡¯s mind. She lay there for a moment feeling a lingering vulnerability. A need for something. Some measure of defense she didn¡¯t have. Human contact. ¡­I don¡¯t want to be alone. I wonder if Jess wants to sleep in my room? That¡¯s¡­weird isn¡¯t it. After I had us rent separate ones? ¡­ I¡¯m going to ask her anyways. Chapter 19. Sometimes you just gotta ignore the haters and do what you want. ---Maddy--- Maddy lay wrapped tightly in a lumpy tassel covered duvet-like blanket in the middle of her hard and uncomfortable rented bed. She stared up at the stone ceiling of her room in silence reflecting on her day. Maddy couldn¡¯t sleep ¨C she had offered to share the room with Jess who had declined¡­and well. Without wanting to explain why ¨C or show any ¡®weakness¡¯ ¨C Maddy had dropped it. Besides Jess she hadn¡¯t even offered the option to Troy. It would have been fine to share a room ¨C they had already napped together in the dungeon after all... But he was kind of dense about some things and might think she was propositioning him if she asked now ¨C after telling them to get separate rooms. So here Maddy was alone, feeling like a little girl afraid of the dark. Her regaining the safety net had been an event and a half. Logically it had went quite well! She got it back without any major cost. She learned some information ¨C the necromancer had dropped stuff left and right not seeming to care about secrecy even if he didn¡¯t want to answer her questions. Lots of puzzle pieces gained. Lots of benefit from the interaction. Logically she now knew the source of his resentment ¨C he was jealous. Logically she understood it was misplaced ¨C she hadn¡¯t done a single thing wrong. The necromancer was like a grumpy old man claiming he had been beaten as a child and ¡®it was unfair the youth of today weren¡¯t being beaten as well¡¯. He ¡®had to pay outrageous costs on stuff¡¯ and ¡®it wasn¡¯t fair that those things were now cheaper¡¯. Logically nothing he had said should phase her¡­ ¡®Nothing you have done is special.¡¯ ¡®Nothing you can do matters.¡¯ Maddy pulled her shaggy not duvet up higher and felt a tiny bit safer. Logically she should be fine ¨C but emotionally, right here right now, it was hitting her quite a bit harder than it should have. Logically she knew why that it was as well! She had a hole in her soul defense making her feel vulnerable and exposed. It all made sense. I hate this. I hate knowing exactly why I feel bad and knowing it''s stupid but not being able to push past it. I¡¯ve always been able to control my emotions up till now right? Well¡­up till then I guess. At just under 19 years of age Maddison Graves was married to a psychopath. Not one like from the movies ¨C no she was married to a more mundane one. A CEO with a hobby of manipulating her. For the first 18 years of her life she was brought up being taught how to manipulate others. How to act, how to talk, what to think, what to say. She got quite good at it ¨C at least she thought she had, everyone was just so easy to interact with. Everyone so easy to control. It was light harmless fun. She was winning at life. Manipulation was a positive thing. Then she married someone better at manipulation than her and everything fell apart. Those two years of her life were spent in luxury and pain ¨C everything was her fault but it was fine he forgave her. She slowly grew to love him ¨C think she loved him. A variant of Stockholm syndrome no doubt. Then her life got worse and worse. She would make dinner for him and a client and then he would sabotage her meal ¨C she only found that out afterwards ¨C leading to her ¡®embarassing him in front of the guests¡¯. None of the abuse she went through ever made sense ¨C there didn¡¯t seem to be a goal to it other than him getting off on her misery. But she could also never prove it. She tried to turn it around on him, act in ways to make him feel guilty ¨C didn¡¯t work ¨C garner sympathy ¨C didn¡¯t work. He didn¡¯t have empathy she could latch onto and treated all her mind games as a child¡¯s attempt at playing. And then she had run away and tried to meet up with her mother only for her to be waiting there with ¡®him¡¯. The traitorous old narcissist. The monster. And everything continued. And then just when her thoughts started to turn darker the system appeared. Offering her a way out. She took it, was transported to the tutorial village and tried to make the most of what she had. ¡®You''re not special, nothing you do matters.¡¯ Maddy hadn¡¯t once thought she was special or better than anyone else. She just wanted to get ahead. She just wanted to survive ¨C but not in the way she knew. She didn¡¯t want to manipulate others. She didn¡¯t want to act like her mother, act like him. That was it. That¡¯s all she wanted. ¡®¡­for even if you do ¡®that¡¯ it will have been my suggestion not your own¡­¡¯ Maddy should start thinking of better achievements to aim for. As a group they had wasted most of the last day ¨C they should move on. Head ¡®deeper¡¯ into this world. Make sure they stayed on the curve. No need to try and please the dick resurrecting them. No need to ignore the rarity achievements. No need to ignore doing stuff just because others had done it before. She would get stronger her way. Besides¡­this world had magic and what human anywhere doesn¡¯t fantasize about using magic?
---Richard--- Richard was stopped at the gate to Ser by some nerd with a clipboard. Something something he needed to answer a few short ¡®voluntary¡¯ questions about his skills and stats and what his tutorial had been like¡­if anything strange had happened or if there was noteworthy information he felt like sharing. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°I have a skill called morning wood. It makes me good and hard whenever anything attacks me.¡± ¨C Richard grabbed the nerds mechanical pencil and stabbed himself with it ¨C the pencil snapped with his ¡®skill¡¯ demonstration. ¡°Besides that I have oh uh¡­over thirty stats spread somewhat evenly. I don¡¯t remember the exact number. My tutorial was fine ¨C Can I come in now?¡± ¡°If that¡¯s all¡­you should be fine. Some players did some weird stuff in the tutorial ¨C if you¡¯ve just left it here¡¯s some common information we¡¯ve discovered and are distributing. There were roughly 40 players in each tutorial. Let out into this initial area there are over 100 ¨C based on people confirming they were from 4 separate tutorials we can confirm there are potentially 160 that will end up in this second zone once everyone leaves the tutorials. Going further away from the sphere you left we link up to 4 other areas and there¡¯s rumors of a third area further out. Both of those let us backtrack without a problem but people from separate areas can¡¯t return to the same version of one. Going back to the tutorial. Every ¡®tutorial zone¡¯ was an identical town filled with identical ¡®NPC¡¯s¡¯ giving identical quests. One tutorial had someone break the clock tower ¨C a player climbed up and smashed through the clock face looking for coins. In another tutorial someone killed the mayor and most of the guards ¨C just broke in and slaughtered the ¡®NPC¡¯s¡¯ running the place. None of the other tutorials were affected by those two cases and similar stories have begun to spread¡­ some players seem to think their actions don¡¯t have consequences anymore! I¡¯m here to tell you that¡¯s not the case! Our guild is watching this town like hawks! ¨C we just want you to know anything that diminishes, or ruins other players experience will be punished severely. Welcome to Ser! If you are interested in joining the united players alliance, feel free to seek out one of our reps near the dungeon!¡± The nerd excitedly finished his speech and waved Richard in. ¡­ Some players seem to be having fun. I''d like to get to know the guy who broke the clock tower ¨C how did he get past the slippy area? Also Fuck guilds. All my homies hate guilds ¨C they are like unions. Sure, In theory I agree with the principle behind them ¨C ''fuck the rich'' ¨C but in practice they piss me the fuck off. Bunch of annoying twats gathering together in large numbers. Think just because they are in a group, they are more important than the rest of us. Richard took a deep breath and tried to put them behind him. He wasn¡¯t going to get riled up ¨C he had a goal. Don¡¯t bully the noobs, get to a higher leveled hunting ground. Figure out what breaking my skill outside of magic means. You got this! In and out. Directions, info. Oh hey look. Muggers! Richard stared at a group of sleezy looking men rifling through a players bag. NPC¡¯s ¨C locals ¨C harassing one of his fellows. ¡­seems like a change of pace? It''s not like anything that bad can happen to players. Worse they die and revive. Ignore it. Go on, ¡°get¡±. Stick to the plan. Richard turned away then paused and glanced back. He looked for a map or a tourist booth or something¡­ Despite himself Richard found himself idly scanning the surroundings. No one was doing anything ¨C both NPC¡¯s and surpisingly the other players were just¡­ignoring it. Oh, now they are punching the poor sap. Richard glanced around for a weapon. If he used his hammer it would be¡­more lethal than he was intending. Feel too overused. Too much him simply blasting past with power. He needed something ¡®safer¡¯ like a foam hammer or bucket of slime. Something he could talk himself into using. The road he was on was something like a commercial district ¨C a wide bricked path lined with shops. Based on the sign one shop sold oil. One was a ¡°fixer¡± ¨C and looked something like a mechanics shop. One was a butcher. Good enough. Strolling over Richard stared at the butcher¡¯s offerings ¨C slabs of red and purple meat perfect for slapping people with. Haunches of strangely shaped creatures and plucked birds. Marbled offerings that looked to be processed with cheese or something. Sausages and meatballs. Everything listed a price in ¡®chips¡¯¡­ Richard had one pip. What was the exchange rate between pips and chips? Could this buy him anything? ¡­probably not. As Richard stood there a gross smell wafted past his nose ¨C a rotting stench of sour meat. It smelt awful but somehow Richard didn¡¯t mind? Probably something to do with defensive stats. Following the smell around back Richard strolled until he found a large dumpster of garbage. Rags, plastic, unidentifiable goop and a pile of rotting meat. Picking a mostly intact cloth bag out of the trash Richard began filling it with garbage. Picking some choice bits of rot out, then tying it together with a rubbery string he hefted the makeshift ¡®weapon¡¯. ¡°I¡¯m such a good person¡± Richard muttered to himself heading back to the allyway to see if the mugging was still happening ¨C oh good! He hadn¡¯t missed it. Taking a running start Richard came barreling in swinging. Smack. That¡­was the most glorious sound Richard had ever heard. Just the right tinge of wetness. The intake of breath and shout from his target were a nice touch as well. ¡­he was going to have to hear that one again. Smack, smack, smack. Richard knocked three muggers to their knees before they could react. The fourth and final thug turned held some stun gun-like device and jabbed it towards Richards''s chest. Letting it hit even as he swung downwards, Richard found himself slowed slightly ¨C it felt like he was moving through fudge for a second and then whatever the item was stopped working with a spark. Just before Richard kicked his knees in and began smacking the leaders face in with his smelly meat the man had a sudden flash of fear. Smack, Smack, Smack. Richard probably hit each of the four muggers over a dozen times each. At some point his bag had broken and Richard had needed to swap to slapping them with a sausage ¨C just as satisfying but less effective. The mugger''s victim was long gone ¨C he had disappeared a few seconds after Richard saved him...but really he didn''t matter. what mattered was being able to smack thugs around. Surpisingly after he had broken their slowing machine none of the men seemed to have much fight in them. ¡­them just sitting there and taking his beating, slowly sucked the fun out of the task for him so Richard slowly stopped.
?? Achievement get: Beat some meat with your meat. (rare)
Description: You dished out a punishment upon multiple people weaker than you using meat.
Stat: +3 body power.
Yeah yeah I get it. Fuck What now? Karma I guess ¨C I forgot to loot the last bodies and these seem willing to give me some pennies. Pulling out his translator and making sure it was on, Richard stared down at the NPC¡¯s and got to talking. ¡°This right here? I¡¯m calling it Richard karmic services. You lot seem to be taking things from people and I¡¯m out here to take them from you instead.¡± One of the men yelled some garbled nonsense and Richard reached out to stroke his face with his sausage. ¡°Shhh, shhh. I know¡­you robbed it fair and square. Well now I¡¯m robbing it back fair and square ¨C give me everything you got or I¡¯ll switch to my friend back here.¡± Richard thumbed his hammer expectantly. Looking at each other and talking more in their made up language ¨C they might be planning on attacking him or running away, Richard didn¡¯t really know or care. They hadn¡¯t put up much of a fight anyways it might be fun if they tried something. Slowly but surely a pile of rectangular crystals and bags and an eyepiece appeared in front of Richard. Sweeping it all up Richard smiled at each of them then left the alleyway with a skip in his step. ¡°Violence can solve all your problems. ¨C Hey I just realized I¡¯m robbing hood! Where¡¯s my achievement for mugging the muggers? Come on system don¡¯t be stingy.¡± The stingy system didn¡¯t respond and Richard found himself moving on. He found a map. On it there was some squiggles showing random places, there was some cities, monster dens ¨C more importantly a place to go. ¡°Found the higher leveled zone¡­and it looks like there¡¯s a blimp ride to it? Always wanted to ride one of those. Where do I go to hitch a ride?¡± Continuing his sightseeing, Richard found he liked the aesthetics of this area. It reminded him of some games he had enjoyed. It gave him a good feeling. Happy memories. Finally finding the blimp office Richard paid the 100 something chip fee to not have to walk anymore and boarded the giant dirigible. ¡°Why is my first thought I wonder how hard this would be to pop?¡± Richard looked around but found the few other passengers non responsive. Guess I¡¯ll just take a nap. Chapter 20. Revenge is a dish best served fresh. ---James--- James finally reached the badlands once more and trekked past his previous point. He had felt strangely full of energy the whole trip ¨C it was like the bird he had eaten was laced with caffeine or adrenaline or something. It made him want to move. It was for that reason that he found it hard to want to sneak through the badlands. He felt alive, he almost wanted to dance through the monster infested wilderness. Almost. Even without anyone watching, dancing was a bit much for James. He glanced around for a second to make sure nothing dangerous was in sight, then held his hands over his mouth and shouted loud and long.
?? Achievement get: Tempting fate (uncommon).
Description: Purposefully make yourself known in an area dangerous to you. Bravery or stupidity? Whose to say.
Stat: +2 fear defense. Stat: +1 lung power.
It just felt so exhilarating to exist ¨C as James had grown older, the world had seemed to get duller. Flat somehow. It was hard to explain, but now looking back¡­ the last few years of his life felt ¡®flat¡¯, stuffy and fake ¨C like he had been taken over by a robot going through the motions. Eat. Sleep. Work. Repeat. Nothing he had done had felt like it mattered. It had taken him ages to get a job after graduating with a computer science degree. He had finally found something as a Jr developer¡­but then three whole years had passed without a single raise. Sure he hadn¡¯t ¡®asked for one¡¯ but he kind of expected they would give them out based on his performance. It turns out it didn¡¯t matter how good of a programmer you were ¨C it didn¡¯t matter how good at your job you were, what mattered in the adult world was social skills. Networking and being assertive and saying the exact right thing to the right person¡­that was how one advanced. If you were introverted? Extroverted but not socially intelligent? Well that was a good sign you would never progress in the world. Now everything felt ¡®more¡¯. More exciting. More fulfilling. He had worked out till his muscles had screamed and now he was stronger for it. Permanently. That was the big exciting seller he kept coming back to again and again. It meant the workout mattered. It meant his effort actually ¡®meant something¡¯. It reminded him how much he had enjoyed working out. Right now James knew what he wanted. It was a simple want for a simple man. He wanted to find something stronger than him and fight it. He wanted to push himself and be rewarded when he succeeded. A faint crashing noise came from the distance and James found himself looking around his surroundings despite himself. He was in what he would call a ¡®sandy grasslands biome¡¯ standing beside what he could only call a ¡®densely packed swamp-tree¡¯ biome. The trees grew into a wet peat-like soil and had roots poking up high into the sky. James found himself stepping into the shade of the trees and dropping down beside one. He held his breath and pushed deep into the wet soil despite his plans. James was curled into a crevasse of roots his shirt and pants slowly soaking as the sunk into the soft ground ¨C just a meter or two away the sand jumped up and down with the rhythmic thumps that came towards him. Smaller than a skyscraper but only by a small amount, the long neck, of a creature shifted into view. It looked almost like a giraffe ¨C if a giraffe¡¯s head had been crossed with a snake and decorated by an art major. The long neck swayed back and forth or ¨C occasionally ¨C darted forward then back with a speed James could barely follow. That was too high of a target. He had to set his sights lower. Something he could stare into the eyes of. Cresting a hill the creature passed across the sandy planes nearby ¨C its body was the size of a transport truck held up by eight thick and slightly stubby legs. Its giraffe/snake neck rose up to roughly a hundred meters in height and moved in a way no creature that big should be able to move. Sometimes the bigger they were the larger they fell and sometimes the bigger they were the flatter you would become when they crushed you. James wanted to push himself not speed run his death and so he crawled deeper into his hiding spot and waited till the thundering steps vanished once more. Finally the long neck was no longer within sight and the sand had stopped dancing with thuds, so James found it safe to extract himself from the tree. He knew what he wanted to fight. He wanted to hunt the creatures that killed him ¨C he wanted revenge. They had stolen his hard-earned kill. He wanted to redeem himself ¨C prove he was stronger somehow¡­but also he hated how helpless he had felt facing them and wanted to break that weak feeling. What James knew and what he felt blended together. Facts and opinions meshed into a franken-web of ideas. They had shown up after he had left a kill sitting around for over an hour ¨C maybe more, he was bad at keeping track at time. That made them seem like scavengers ¨C the hyenas or vultures of the monster world. They were invisible to his sight and had actively attacked his other senses with some unknown skill. He had gained nose and ear fire defense since then but wasn¡¯t sure if it was enough. Something that was invisible and broke his other senses made him think they were alpha predators... but going after his kill instead of finding their own made them seem weaker. The fact that they hid instead of just attacking head-on¡­that also made them seem weaker. Sure, one had lifted him into the air and ripped him apart... but James was confident the creature was actually weak somehow. It was the only thing that made sense based on the rest of their existence. If they weren¡¯t weaker in power then maybe they sucked in defense and speed. It just makes sense. All I have to do is land a hit or two on them. Figure out where they are and beat the invisible buggers to death. How would you hunt an invisible enemy? I feel like the movies always have you throwing sand or something in the air to show where they are. Maybe fighting them in a muddy or sandy area like I¡¯m by? So I can see their footprints and attack that¡­ ¡­but the fact that they knock out your smell and hearing seems like a bigger clue. I just have to survive that and I¡¯ll probably be able to hear where they are right? ¡­I got fire defense in my ears so its¡­somehow burning my ear drums. How do I defend against that? James leaned back against the tree behind him trying to plan a way to attack. He imagined there was some aloe-vera like cream he could put in his ears to soothe them¡­ but where he would find or how he would make such a convenient salve was beyond him. He could try stockpiling a pile of stones and then start throwing them in every direction? Indiscriminate attacks seemed like a good idea ¨C he would have to find a better biome to plan his trap than here. A chittering noise filled his ear and suddenly James found himself attacked by a small rodent like creature that had crawled down out of the tree. It had approached nearly silently and jumped down onto his head scratching and biting aggressively while James had been thinking. ¨C turns out the badlands weren¡¯t a good place to brainstorm. Growling slightly as he flailed about and grabbed the tree rodent ¨C James turned and smashed it into the tree. A single punch was all it took ¨C the rodent James wanted to say looked passably like a squirrel seemed to crumple into the bark like a deflating balloon. Passably because it had six legs tipped by sharp clawed feet and crumpled because its innards seemed to shift and push into both sides of the body. ¡­James stared at the flattened corpse for a moment trying to see if it would bring him any inspiration. ¡­kind of reminds me of earmuffs if I¡¯m being honest. The two edges bulged into round furry balls while the center was flattened like a bridge. The dead animal did not look at all like earmuffs ¨C but they had given James an idea. Probably a dumb idea ¨C most likely a dumb idea ¨C but one he felt like doing anyways. Stepping a bit deeper into the biome James reached out and collected some young vines ¨C ripping them down from the branches above. He then knelt in the wet peat and ripped up two large chunks of wet moss. Trying to balance the moss in his elbow and wrap with the other arm, James spent an embarrassingly long amount of time securing the moss to both of his ears. He stood up. Sound was mostly muffled but the headpiece was so shoddy he could still hear the surroundings. If this worked he would be happy. Next leaving the swampy area James traveled over a hill and down a long stretch of blue sand towards a ¡®stone filled biome¡¯ This would be his battleground¡­eventually. First he had to find some bait. Looking around James found there was an annoying lack of anything bait like. There were tons of birds high above and small critters galore but nothing that looked easy to catch ¨C let alone big enough to be worth it. Sighing James mentally tried to memorize as many landmarks as he could then went on a walk. I¡¯m bound to find something nearby. ¡­ He was right, just over thirty minutes into his search James found a large canine whose defining trait seemed to be two large antlers. Like a wolf-elk or some dog-moose James once again found it hard to either classify the creature or care. It was perfect. Slightly dangerous looking but with huge ¡®prey animal¡¯ vibes. Casting his eyes around James found a thick looking stick and began stalking his bait. Less than two meters away the creature seemed to finally notice him. A deep growl rang out as it turned and made to headbutt the man but he was waiting for that. Haste. Diving diagonally forwards, James felt more than heard the rush of wind pass above his shoulder. Swinging his makeshift weapon behind him James felt the impact ring up through his arms. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. With a crack his stick broke on the antlers ¨C but his attack did smash the beast''s head downwards into the ground. A startled yip rang out even as James spun his body in a half turn. Acting more on instinct than conscious thought, James pulled the now sharp end of his stick up and plunged it down towards the beast''s neck ¨C still sped up, the world around him a blur due to his only skill. Thrashing about, the welk twisted its head around and the sharp point of an antler dug deep into James¡¯s side. It stung ¨C and the attack had been too close to his cores for comfort ¨C but James found himself laughing instead. He held the antler in his right hand then dug the stick in with his left and twisted. Extracting it then stabbing it into the same hole with adrenalin-filled jabs. Several chunks of stick broke off. The beast shook. Its struggles became weaker and more erratic¡­and then it fell ¨C its last few spasms and twitches sprayed its legs out wide and twisted the corpse onto its side.
?? Achievement get: Killed a creature with nothing more than a stick. (uncommon)
Description: Your weapon of choice was improvised but you still managed to turn it to lethal end.
Stat: +3 arm power.
James had won ¨C taken more damage than he was expecting but had come out victorious. It felt great. Winning felt great. Slowly extracting the antler from his side ¨C it had dug in deep James winced as he felt the gore. It was wet ¨C it looked bad ¨C but he felt¡­strangely fine. He was bleeding less than he should and as he pressed a hand against the holes it felt like little more than a scrape. Taking his shirt off ¨C carefully pulling it around his swamp muffs ¨C he ripped the tattered fabric then re applied it on himself. James felt the incredibly makeshift bandage in satisfaction then turned to his kill. ¡°Now how do I get this back to my planned ambush area?¡± ¡­ It took over half an hour of awkward back pedalling to reach the rocky biome again. Awkward backpedaling with James dragging the corpse between his legs ¨C both hands on the antlers yanking it cm by cm. James collapsed into a heap on the ground as soon as he could. He spent a moment to rest and regain his breath and just breathed. Behind him a faint streak of blood smeared a splotchy trail leading towards his location and around him stones lay scattered about ¨C an endless supply of ammunition. James lay staring up at the sky, all of his senses strained to catch the hint of trouble and he just took a moment to relax. He was incredibly surprised he hadn¡¯t been harassed once bringing his kill back ¨C it felt almost disappointing. He had spent so much effort keeping track of his surroundings without getting jumped. Almost a waste of his attention. I wonder how long I have to wait? What are the chances something else attacks me instead? Pretty high right? Shh. Positive thoughts. The sun beat down from above, steadily making itself more and more known. James needed a drink again and took a small break from guarding his corpse to find a source of water. Less than a hundred meters away there was a small pond he could drink from ¨C it felt almost picturesque nestled away in the badlands. Several small birds flitting about above and a small lizard scuttled away when James got close ¨C he felt like an animal approaching an oasis on the savanna. Cupping his hands together and taking several small sips James felt immediately better ¨C the water had a slightly scummy taste but was cold and refreshing. Suddenly afraid that something had reached his bait in the few minutes he was away James ran back as fast as he could skidding to a stop in front of the still set creature. It''s fine. I didn¡¯t miss anything. ¡­ James slowly grew bored as he waited. Part of him wanted to work out to exhaustion ¨C see if he could manage a stat or two now that he was in a more dangerous area¡­but it would be dumb to be exhausted for when the monster did show up. Picking a less intensive task for the waiting game, he returned to trying to make fire. Humans hadn¡¯t always had matches or lighters ¨C this was something that was definitely possible. A good skill for him to figure out how to do. After several unsuccessful attempts he finally had a setup he thought looked likely to work. A log with a dug out section, some mostly dry looking ball of fluff and a stick. Rolling the stick back and forth between his hands James activated haste ¨C his spinning speeding up. A small ploom of smoke rose up into the air and he started rolling it as fast as he could.
Skill break: Would you like to break your skill?
Yes No
¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± For the briefest of glorious moments, James saw fire ¨C even as haste deactivate and it went out. ¡°Don¡¯t break from just this.¡± He snapped, declining the prompt, as an incredibly faint whine filled the air. James paused. They are coming. Standing up quickly James bent and collected several stones in one arm a particularly nice one held at the ready. Slowly the whine built ¨C muffled by the earmuffs and as it grew closer, an almost haunting song built and grew. His ears felt hot ¨C his earmuffs had dried out quite a bit since he had made them ¨C but either it, or his defensive stats prevented his hearing from going out like last time. A dense smell filled his nose his sense of smell being wiped out but that was fine. He didn¡¯t need that. Less than a minute after they started, a sharp increase in the music indicated the creatures had arrived. His ears started to feel itchy ¨C like someone had converted the taste of a spoonful of cinnamon into a noise then shoved it into his ears. James couldn¡¯t pinpoint where the creatures were exactly as they circled around him ¨C but he could tell their general direction. Winding his stone back like a pitcher James aimed roughly towards one of the sources of the song and threw ¨C a sharp screech ringing out as he did. Surprisingly there wasn¡¯t a visual indication he had done anything ¨C James had half expected the creature to flash into view as it was hit but somehow it almost crafted an illusion of the rock flying through safely. There was zero indication of the hit ¨C If not for the cry of pain now ringing out he would have thought he missed. An angry shout and rapidly increasing noise from his left caused James to jump backwards bending slightly at the waist and throwing a second rock towards where he just was. This one missed ¨C but the attacker did as well, its wailing cry rushing past. James shifted in the air, activating haste for the briefest of moments to twist himself into a better position and dash forward ¨C deactivating it and bringing a rock around without letting go. It seemed to hit something soft and pass through ¨C a faint brush of a hit that felt like it hit a curtain. James jumped even further after the retreating spectre and bashed the stone straight through its ethereal body. A shimmer passed through the air like a heat wave as the monster fell. Beside him the third and final monster came barreling forward its song increasing in strength like a train coming down a tunnel toward him. Throwing his last rock wildly, James lunged to the side bending to pick up more projectiles. He was beginning to feel boxed in as the first injured creature attempted to attack him as well. Barely thinking he threw several rocks wide to scare it away and lunged for more. One at a time. James couldn¡¯t tell whether he was supposed to go after the weaker one first or not, so he simply picked the closest and swung. A sharp invisible claw aimed towards him and scraped along his forearm ripping a huge gash into his arm even as he punched in and through the creature''s soft body. A second shimmer as the creature fell ¨C its invisibility fading in death. The third monster seemed to be retreating, the sound beginning to fade and James turned ¨C activating haste now that it was off cooldown. ¡°Get back here¡± He shouted as he dashed towards the sound and lunged, arms wrapping around the figure and bringing it to the ground. A screech rang out as he scraped his good hand through the soft body ripping out chunks of flesh ¨C the final attacker fell more violently than its brethren. James¡¯s arm hurt ¨C on closer inspection the claw had sliced through nearly halfway all the way from his wrist to his elbow. His side was still not healed ¨C the tightly wrapped and bloodstained shirt stemming the blood but not doing much else. Despite the massive wounds and several scrapes and bruises he had somehow gained and ignored James felt amazing. He had done it.
?? Achievement get: Firestalker revenge. (Unique)
Description: Killed three firestalkers with minimum preparation and minimum tools. Drawn to sources of fire and exposed kills, firestalkers are a bane upon civilized existence. Invisible monsters that aim to cripple and then kill their prey, these creatures frequent high level areas and attack those who aim to set up camp. You¡¯ve used this to your advantage, luring a pack of the creatures to a battlefield of your choosing. You then slaughtered them nearly bare handed in an anger born of vengeance ¨C your weapons nothing more than your fists and some stones.
Stat: +3 hearing fire defense. Stat: +3 smell fire defense. Stat: +3 leg speed. Stat: +3 arm power. Stat: +3 fist skin defense.
Active skill: Retaliatory shot. After taking a hit, a portion of the movement and energy is stored. The stronger and more numerous the hits, the larger a ''retaliation'' may be collected. That energy may then be returned with vengeance ¨C added to a physical attack, increasing its power. Knowledge of how to use this new skill has been gained.
Immediately the slightly warm feeling in his ears faded, the wash of fire defense soothing his skin. His nose was still disabled ¨C the infusion of new stats soothing the sting but not healing the burnt buds. The rest of his stats were less noticeable ¨C drowned out by the rush of knowledge and twist of his new skill being made. He could feel it, could feel how it worked, knew how it could be used inside and out. And James couldn¡¯t help himself. For the umpteenth time today he laughed out loud a happy cry of satisfaction. A wordless cry that claimed he had done it. He had survived and come out on top. ¡­ James¡¯s arm was doing badly. It really was a massive gash ¨C one that might even be fatal due to blood loss before the system. Before his enhanced body that cared less about wounds outside of his cores. Despite being non-fatal, it wasn¡¯t suddenly healed ¨C the gash wasn¡¯t closing despite leaking less blood than it should. Ripping off a section of his pant leg James wore the cloth like a sleeve then wrapped the twine from his swamp muffs around it. The high of battle had begun to fade and James was coherent enough to see all three of his kills. The firestalkers were by far the creepiest looking monsters James had faced up till now ¨C they looked like skeletons wrapped in wispy flesh that was half jello half cloth. That flesh was transparent and tinged slightly yellow now that it wasn¡¯t actively bending light or however it had worked ¨C and the bones were dark black. Bipedal, but not anything James would consider ¡®humanoid¡¯. Its black bones twisted up into a sharp and pointed scull ¨C or out into the sharp claws bursting out of the skin of both hands. James dragged all three of his kills over to rest next to the moose-dog and stared at them in silence. An idle thought filled his head as he gazed at them. A dumb decision that suddenly appeared and wouldn¡¯t fade. I want to eat one. I want to stuff this creature that was about to eat me down my throat. That¡¯s the best form of vengeance. The proof I won. The victor''s spoils. James slowly, ever so slowly reached an arm out. His rational brain screamed at him not to ¨C it didn¡¯t look appetizing let alone edible. ¡­but he was getting pretty good at ignoring his rational brain these past few days. He was ignoring it and feeling happier than he had since he was a child. Scooping scraps of yellow jello up into his mouth, James slurped the substance down raw. It had an awful texture ¨C slimy but lumpy and full of strands. It almost felt like someone had liquified meat but left the tendons and veins alone. It had a sharp bitter taste ¨C James had been expecting something spicy but instead it came off almost tart. A hint of sourness. The barest sliver. There was a sort of tingle with the after taste like James was licking a battery or something ¨C a tingle that continued on down to his stomach and continued to jolt about inside of him. He took another bite. Firestalker flesh was not something James would call good tasting¡­but he had earned this. If he compared it to his last meal ¨C the badly cooked murder bird ¨C he would even call it charming. It tasted like something that was an acquired taste ¨C not a taste that he had acquired but one that someone else might like and rave about. James ate quite a bit of the monster''s side before taking a large bite of a sack that tasted like vomit and nearly hurling the rest of the meal.
?? Achievement get: Raw monster meat muncher. (rare)
Description: Ignoring rhyme or reason ¨C without checking for toxicity or roasting your meal you have braved a meal some would consider disgusting.
Stat: +5 stomach poison defense.
Passive skill: Monster eater. Knowledge of monster meat categories and cooking methods has been gained.
For the second time in so many minutes, a rush of knowledge was implanted in James¡¯s mind. Memories of time spent researching monster meat and its effects. James now knew the tingling feeling in his stomach was a temporary boost to something. A temporary stat increase or defense or even esoteric effect. The energy boost from this morning had been as well. He didn¡¯t have knowledge of firestalker flesh and its effects, but he did know a tingling was usually an increase in something active. He also knew he could probably make a better tasting version of the flesh by liquifying it, straining all the gross internal organs, and then resolidifying the gel¡­on top of that knowledge, he knew because the creature had fire aspected abilities, it would be hard to melt the flesh using heat alone and he would need some other method. He knew based on the colour of the blood coming out of the elk-wolf it was safe to eat. He knew so many random tibits he hadn¡¯t known before. This was the most actual information James had received so far. This ¡®passive skill¡¯ felt entirely different from the previous gifts the system had given ¨C those were like a muscle memory he forgot he had gained. This knowledge¡­well. It was straight up information. It was stuff he now ¡®knew¡¯. ¡­it was disorienting. It was disorienting and tiring and James realized he wanted to sleep despite it still being the afternoon. He needed to sleep or else he would pass out in the middle of nowhere. Looking about he spotted the tops of trees in the distance and started hiking ¨C giving a single wistful glance back at his kills as he did so. It felt like such a waste to leave them but there was nothing he could do with his current abilities in the current area. Reaching a tree he climbed up as far as he could and fell asleep within minutes ¨C a faint buzzing continuing to fill and spark in his stomach carrying him off to contented dreams. Dreams of flying through the air and throwing lightning bolts like some greek god. Below him fire stalkers ran as he rained death down upon them. Happy dreams. Chapter 21. A look at the other side of the world. ---Richard--- Richard woke up to a change in the sound surrounding him. The hum was high pitched now ¨C the blimp switching to different engines or some shit just as it began to land. He stood ¨C once more finding his rest had been peaceful despite not having a proper bed ¨C and made his way over to the railing to look down. Before him, down below and in all directions, there was an industrial city. Incredibly similar to Ser in theme but greater in scope. It was less contained ¨C less squished together. Factories littered the landscape ¨C at least three separate areas within view had truly massive smokestacks belching grey, orange and purplish smoke into the air. Tracks ran everywhere ¨C small trains with mining carts or passenger carriages shifted from building to building or whizzed around corners like a theme park. How do I go about hitching a ride on one ¨C not the slow passenger ones, the cracked up amphetaminecarts¡­that was bad. Don¡¯t be proud of that one. Walled-off areas had welders re-applying copper and bronze plates onto machines and buildings. Reminds me of that time in my co-op I walked a plant. Similar but as if they are allergic to steel. ¡­and more citizen-focused sectors were visible, blended throughout everything. Parks and shops and houses located in and amongst the love letter to industry instead of in their own separate area. The blimp touched down onto a large raised platform ¨C even as several workers dragged fucking massive hoses over the grounds towards them. Several faint clicks rang out as they attached them to some bottom part of the passenger carriage and then retreated quickly like rats. Richard watched more workers rush to bring a ramp over and begin setting up the offloading system. Jump off? Done. Richard skipped the wait by crossing the deck and vaulting the railing on the far side. He fell around thirty feet down and landed lightly ¨C or at least as lightly as one could. He was unharmed and the ground seemed unbroken. ¡­It wasn¡¯t a super hero landing sadly. Standing up Richard quickly glanced around. No ones watching, might as well pick a direction and start exploring? ¡­ Richard found himself in a gun shop. Not a general weapons store, a shop that sold nothing but guns of all shapes and sizes. It was close to the blimp and stood out with cool sign ¨C Richard had to check it out. See if he could swap out his hammer. In the background a man with a mechanical arm watched his every move. Relaxed but exuding a dangerous air like nothing Richard could do would affect him. Each gun sat on a shelf with a little plaque explaining what it did in English.
T Series. Lumox rifle. (3) Aether/shot. 18 Aether capacity. 1,500c
T Series. Lumox tracer. (1) Aether slot while active. 1400c
UCZ Series. General purpose mini cannon. 12mm rounds. 350c
UCZ Series. General purpose cannon. 44mm rounds. 350c
K Series. Enhanced cannon. (1) Aether/shot. 12mm rounds. 1 Aether capacity. 550c
UKFZ Series. Detonation pistols. Optional (1) Aether/shot. 9 Aether Capacity. 1,200c
CK ¨C Prawn Gun. (2) Aether/Shot. 1,500c
DC ¨C Acid lobber. (2) Aether/Shot. 1900c
KZ Series. Piercing Rifle. 4mm rounds. 900c
KZ Series. Shotgun. Scatter rounds. 500c
DR Series. Velvet Kiss. (6) Aether/shot. 32 Aether Capacity. 99,000c
...
Staring at the letters confused Richard for a moment but after looking around he found a legend at the end of the wall.
S400-Rating:
U ¨C Utility. K ¨C Kinetic. T ¨C Thermal. D ¨C Dissolution. C ¨C Chemical. R ¨C Nonstandard/Rare damage. N ¨C Non-lethal. Z ¨C No Aether cost.
¡­he couldn¡¯t tell what ¡®aether¡¯ meant. Other than that, it seemed to be separating out damage types? And indicating utility? He had a bag of chips from the muggers ¨C and assumed the ¡®c¡¯ on the price tag stood for chips¡­he had a bunch? Handing the bag to the man with a mechanical arm, Richard fingered his translator. ¡°Hey buddy, I¡¯m new in town. What can this buy me? And what¡¯s Aether?¡± Richard asked. Grunting then fiddling with a tab on his arm the man sent a series of messages across without speaking.
Your translator seems to be a custom model. It¡¯s not coming across well and you don¡¯t have a custom receiver ¨C could tell you were new without the mention. Just got in from out in the boonies did you? Looking to head to the dungeon? You have 683 chips here ¨C enough to buy something to defend yourself but not enough to get any of the good stuff. If you haven¡¯t broken a skill yet you want to look at the ¡®Z¡¯ series. With your budget and no Aether slot there¡¯s plenty of options. I can give you a list if you want? Just confirm if you want me to collect them, it¡¯s a pain.
Yes No
Richard tapped the ¡®no¡¯ option ¨C the shopkeeper shaking his head slightly at the physical movement ¨C then asked again. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°I have a skill, how would I go about breaking it? What does an Aether slot mean? What does breaking a skill entail?¡± Grimacing and tapping his arm a few times, the shopkeeper responded while shoving his money back.
I¡¯m not a tourist booth or info broker. Delvers association has a Breaking setup. Think you can afford it with this much cash. Could also find a crackpot and participate in one of their experiments ¨C think many break skills for free as they test out new setups? Come again if you are looking to buy something.
Richard stared at the dismissal. Kind of rude but he didn¡¯t actually care, mans¡¯ had a job. Collecting his bag of chips Richard left the shop and stood in the street for a moment. ¡°How would I even find those places?¡± ¡­ Seras conflicted the fuck out of Richard. He had started off trying to find a place to see what breaking his skill entailed ¨C then quickly dissolved to simply exploring once more. On one end of the scale, he loved the aesthetic ¨C this was more his kind of fantasy. He had initially gone into engineering because he liked machines and understanding how things worked¡­and this place seemed tailor made towards that part of him. On the other end, the more he walked around, the more it felt like a copy of the world he was trying to get away from. He had become disillusioned with his job prospects, and he was quickly becoming disillusioned with the city he had traveled to. Sweat shops and abused mechanics or workers in teeny tiny elevators being sent up and down shafts. Men in old-fashioned looking suits down at everyone from glass windowed towers ¨C Richard could practically hear their posh voices tittering and calling everyone peasants. After walking about for over an hour, Richard jumped on an ore cart careening around a bend at ground level. The ten minute trip he had after that point was like a roller coaster without safety rules ¨C he kept having to duck under and around metal beams. Near the end of his trip, he ended up jumping off ¨C he saw his ride was heading for a factory ¨C and that landing actually hurt despite his defenses.
?? Achievement get: Minecart Ride. (rare)
Description: Ride the delivery system.
Stat: +2 Body Power Stat: +1 Fear Defense.
?? Achievement get: This is my exit (rare)
Description: Jump off a vehicle moving over five times as fast as you can run, then land on rock solid ground and survive mostly unscathed.
Stat: +5 Body Bludgeoning defense
The trip had blasted past more atrocities and abuses than he had cared to see. Suits whipped coal-covered workers in what looked like a kennel. A man was grabbed off a street and shoved into a windowless vehicle. Soot-covered people bowed as a family with frills and fancy clothing walked past. In ten minutes Richard saw over a dozen small acts of injustice. Of someone abusing their power. Of something bad happening to the poors'' and being ignored. None of the events stood out against each other, but together they built slowly into a picture of oppression. There were barely any players here ¨C he had seen maybe two in the past hour of wandering ¨C but he also found it harder to see everyone as NPCs. His mind was conflicted and confused by everything. Richard wanted to go back to those initial moments of crystal clear clarity. That moment he felt when he entered the tutorial and knew without a doubt this world was a game and he could do whatever he wanted ¨C he could just have fun without worrying about consequences or boring morality. He knew this was all a fabrication. He fucking knew it was a fake city full of fake people acting out a twisted play of the industrial era with Victorian aesthetics. And yet he didn¡¯t ¡®feel¡¯ that anymore and he hadn¡¯t felt that way for days. Everything feeling ¡®real¡¯ had felt like shackles on him. Holding him back from going wild ¨C from acting on his first thoughts. It''s why he hadn¡¯t pushed anyone into the pit or popped the blimp he had flown in on ¨C no matter how funny the sound and reaction might have been. Back in¡­well he couldn¡¯t really consider earth ¡®reality¡¯ anymore ¨C back in the ¡®old world¡¯ ¨C he had played plenty of ¡®pranks¡¯ over the course of his life. Pranks others found funny. Pranks only he found funny. One or two pranks others found funny, but he didn¡¯t care for. One of Richard¡¯s biggest fundamental problems was not knowing where lines were ¨C he often went a bit ¡®too far¡¯ without knowing where the ¡®line¡¯ he had crossed had been. Despite that, he had always managed to stay above some sort of boundary. The place ''he thought'' the fabled ¡®line¡¯ was. Any pranks that broke rules ¨C most of them ¨C were never too illegal. Petty crimes rather than something serious. None of his pranks ever crippled or maimed anyone. You know, a basic level of decency that you had to follow to fit into society. Stuff that was fine to do in games but frowned upon in reality. Sure his lines were much further than others, sure they were self-imposed ¨C not ones he cared about on principle¡­but they did exist. Now¡­well the posh ¡®nobles¡¯ or maybe just ¡®businessmen¡¯ pissed him off enough to want to kill them all. The overworked NPCs and polluted air. Everything about this place made him want to burn it to the fucking ground. He wanted to pull the skyrim game of stacking bodies into a giant pile. He wanted to set up a newton''s cradle with hanging suits and see how much momentum was maintained with inelastic ¡®bodies¡¯. ¡­he was a bit angrier than he needed to be. Richard knew he was projecting how he felt people acted in the old world onto these cartoonishly grim dark characters¡­he understood that. Richard¡¯s mind shifted in that moment and suddenly everything was clear again. He was no longer waffling about things being fake and not mattering or real and having consequences. He just knew he wanted to break this society ¨C real or fake. They were real enough for him to care and fake enough for him to stop caring. Real enough for him to be mad. Not real enough for him to feel like he had to hold back. ¡­ Richard startled when he heard a loud bang. Near the end of the street a rich looking couple was exploding in colourful sparks and bangs. Screaming rang out as he jogged towards the disturbance. Getting closer Richard saw a pair of players give each other animated high-fives and celebrate their exploits. ¡°Did you get the achievement? Reverse pickpocket some lit fireworks?¡± ¡°Of course. That sights almost as beautiful as the lump of stats it just gave me.¡± They seem fun? Wonder if I should join their group. Richard stepped towards their backs but paused at their next words. ¡°Beautiful as that sluts¡¯ tits earlier. I¡¯m telling you ¨C you have to fuck an NPC bro. They are basically fleshlights you can do whatever you want to them in this game ¨C pick any of them off the street like I did, it''s not like they are people.¡± The first player laughed nudging his friends side conspiratorily. Richard continued walking. He should have figured. He was horrible at picking friends ¨C anyone he was drawn to had something wrong with them. This pair might not have been that bad, but they had suddenly reminded him of his last friend group. The college group he had left. Richard¡¯s problem with gaining friends was incredibly simple. He had, among other things, a dark sense of humor and was drawn to people with similar tastes. He then ignored any warning signs they gave off until they were slamming them into his fucking face. It was like his college friend group. Sure, they got his sense of humor¡­ Sure, they had been willing to vandalize the dean¡¯s office at a moment''s notice¡­ Sure, they laughed and he had felt like he belonged for a bit¡­he knew they had his back¡­he knew they made life more fun. ¡­But then he started realizing their ¡®jokes¡¯ weren¡¯t jokes anymore. One was ranting misogynistically, but it wasn¡¯t the same standard dark humor ¨C they actually wanted to rape a classmate and wanted to know how to go about it without getting caught. Another had a thing for children that when played straight made Richard¡­well made him realize them being fucked up wasn¡¯t funny anymore. Every joke about lolis was a red flag because of course it was. How had he not seen that? He had gone back through every conversation they had had, every joke he had laughed at and none of them had aged well. Not when his memory retroactively turned them into confessions instead of shocking, unexpected, and thus hilarious statements. It turned out he was the only one using humor to make fun of shitty things ¨C they were trying to see what they could get away with. He couldn¡¯t look past it ¨C he couldn¡¯t continue hanging out with them. Any of them, any of the times. This happened in school, it happened when he made troll friends in games. Every single actual friend he had ever made¡­It made him realize maybe he shouldn¡¯t make friends. He wanted friends. Richard wasn¡¯t antisocial or introverted. He liked being around people, he liked attention, he liked being social. But he shouldn¡¯t have them. I¡¯m better off alone. Chapter 22. RNGesus and stupid random events. ---Maddy--- Maddy grouped up with her partners after a sleepless night and asked what they wanted to do going forward. Jess¡¯s death penalty was gone ¨C slept off like a cold ¨C and she was raring to go. As a group they had two main options. They could use their newfound status from clearing the dungeon to find quests in town ¨C Jess argued it would be a waste not to stick around here for a while grinding¡­ Or they could leave and travel to a new area ¨C Maddy had found a map and researched the surroundings. They were in the weakest area currently ¨C a ¡®low level¡¯ zone right by the tutorial behind them. In every direction away from the tutorial the difficulty slowly rose. They had already basically wasted a day ¨C Jess on cooldown and her preparing and then enacting the contact with the necromancer. They should push ahead while they were still near the start of the curve ¨C there were already six other groups who had completed the dungeon after them and the number of players walking around had skyrocketed. At least thats what Maddy thought. Finally after laying out all her thoughts her teammates agreed that it would be best to move on ¨C there was a carriage that left daily to the nearest city and they were going to catch that as ¡®guards¡¯. Their status let them join the trip for free ¨C it also let them gain money for defending it in the case it was attacked. Maddy brought her group to the merchants preparing to leave and signed them up reading over the terms of the contract she had heard about once more. Free meals, free room, free transportation. Sure they were only paid if they had to defend the carriages but that was still a great deal for ¡®adventurers¡¯ who just wanted a trip. All three of them accepted and got on the open top of a carriage ¨C its roof like the top of a double decker bus with railings and benches. Maddy was more and more sure this was a good idea. There were several cities they could head to each winding between monster nests. They could even leave the carriage to fight some monster nests if they wanted ¨C there were several close areas and culling the monster numbers in them was always appreciated. The monster nests along their route were well mapped out ¨C essentially they were blobs in the wilderness that increased the ¡®tier¡¯ of the surroundings to a certain ¡®level¡¯. Inside them, there were several creatures of a certain theme that were well documented. Halfway along their current route for example there was what was known as a ¡®tier 5¡¯ ambush nest. A stretch of wilderness full of creatures with an average strength of ¡®tier 5¡¯ that hid and confused one¡¯s senses. Will of the wisps that led travellers deeper into it. Spindletwisters that burrowed through the ground and attacked your legs. A dozen noted monsters with recommended hunting strategies strengths and weaknesses. It was nice seeing the type of hunting ground they would pass and Maddy already noted one she might head into along their trip. The rest of their travel should be safe ¨C sometimes monsters would appear or travel outside of those nests ¨C and wild monsters appeared in the night no matter the location ¨C but the biggest threats all seemed safely contained. You could pick your opponents and travel to them. Maddy felt better and better about the world she was in. The map was worth its weight in gold. There was a single place that broke those rules. The badlands. Because it grew and shrunk the danger zone was marked far on either side of it and signs placed periodically warning any to stay away. There was a simple reason for that. While monster nests had a few creatures that were stronger than average ¨C ¡®field bosses¡¯ as they were called ¨C the difficulty was always stated. It was somewhat fixed ¨C as much as ¡®difficulty¡¯ could be ¨C usually plus or minus a tier at the most with each tier being a measurable ''strength''. They were also usually a gradual shift ¨C the outer edges full of weaker monsters than the middle section. The badlands on the other hand were a mess of linked nests that broke through and spilled around one another. Tier 1 monsters right beside tier 10+. Monsters who''s only weakness was fire beside fire-resistant monsters ¨C or even monsters who grew stronger in the presence of flame. Synergies that made everything much worse. The land itself grew dangerous far beyond what a normal nest allowed ¨C leading to almost dungeon like interactions between the environment and the monsters in it. Designed monsters with optimized set ups ¨C but without a lesson accompanying them. Designed but not to the benefit of those who faced them. A wild unpredictable ecosystem that no sane being would enter. There were so many potential monster types and everything shifted and churned day by day ¨C even if you survived a short trip into it safely retracing your steps the following day could find you in an area much worse than you had found the day before. No one sane would ever go there when there were perfectly good ¡®fair¡¯ challenges everywhere.
---James--- Several Hours into the night, James was attacked. Maybe in a different universe ¨C one where he hadn''t gotten the ¡®light but deep sleep¡¯ ¡®skill¡¯ he might have died. As it was, he woke up to a giant bug creeping down the trunk towards him and nearly fell off his branch. The bug was pitch black and indistinct in the shade of the tree, but James''s night vision was stronger than natural and his fist surprisingly strong for his awkward perch on a branch. As James punched upwards groggily, the much decreased faint buzz from his stomach buckled. It felt like he was vomiting for a half second as the tingle surged upwards passing through his throat and chest then slipped out and ran down his arm. Mid-swing the last vestiges of tingle gathered in his fist and pulsed when it hit. At the exact moment James¡¯s fist hit the shell of the creature, a faint flash lit the surroundings ¨C dim but comparably bright in the near darkness. His fist sank through carapace like butter and in the brief light from his attack, James could see. The creature was entirely unique and set off an instinctual twinge of revulsion. It looked like someone had glued dozens of insect parts together ¨C mishing and mashing spider legs and praying mantis claws and dung beetle pincers on a centipede body with five bulges that were reminiscent of ant torsos...
?? Achievement get: I''m awake! I''m awake! (Rare)
Description: Survive a sneak attack on your sleeping form unharmed.
Stat: +4 reaction speed.
The light faded quickly and with it the last of his tingle, but James was already ahead ¨C the giant bug falling off the trunk and past him towards the ground below. It was not a silent decent ¨C the bug had let out a loud hissing noise as soon as it had been hit and combined with the flash of light James could hear dozens of creatures heading his way. Dropping to a lower branch and kicking off of it, James activated [haste] and began running away from his location. Nine seconds later his run became less controlled ¨C his limbs began smashing branches and tripping over the foliage in the dim light. Suddenly James broke through the treeline and the light of a moon high above lit his surroundings. He was standing on the edge of a grassy plain once more, staring out at a literal field of monsters. There had to be a hundred creatures, some recognisable some not, each focusing towards him¡­hungry. Slowly James backed into the shade of the trees once more then turned and ran. Why were there so many monsters at night? Where had they come from? A crashing noise behind him signaled creatures reaching the treeline behind him and starting their pursuit. Around him the forest seemed to still, the faint noises of small fauna fading as they hid from James¡¯s pursuers. James ducked under a massive knot of branches sliding along slightly muddy ground before scrambling back up and continuing to run. A few seconds later a loud crash rang out as something impacted and obliterated the obstacle James had bypassed. Feet pounding into the ground James tucked his head down and ran and ran ¨C after just over a minute of dashing James reached the other side of the biome. He slid out of the treeline and looked out at a second field of monsters. ¡­this feels like a bad slapstick comedy. He could hear the crashing sounds far behind him even as he spun and re entered the forest ¨C this time aiming in a third direction. Frantically glancing around as he ran, James picked a new tree and climbed it. He jumped and scrambled ¨C reaching a solid nook even as the first creatures passed by beneath him. Several ran past but more still looked up at him. A wolf with ethereal floating fur sniffed and shifted its head up towards James¡¯s perch. Its red eyes squinted in concentration as they landed on him. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Two massive hairy snakes came up behind the wolf as if coordinating and began to climb the tree. Wrapping around the tree like a spring the two hairy poles corkscrewed up towards James as he struggled to snap off a brittle looking branch. Looking down just as they reached his feet, James kicked out even as the first creature lunged and bit at his system provided shoes. At the moment of impact, he instinctually activated his new skill. Faint feedback from it told him he had successfully gathered¡­ something. He didn¡¯t have time to study the sensation ¨C The snake''s head jerked back even as the second¡¯s hairy maw lunged. James collected that impact as well. It felt like filling an endless bucket with holes in it ¨C James could tell the more impacts he stored the faster they would leak away. Grabbing a branch above, James jumped slightly and tried to stamp the first snakes lunge into the branch ¨C even as the second disappeared around the side of the trunk once more. Foot landing awkwardly and rolling James flashed back to his attempt to jump on a snake in the tutorial even as the force of his foot rolling it along the branch decapitated this one. Below a sea of creatures had appeared ¨C the most dangerous looking a humanoid wood-coloured and textured creature that could almost reach his current branch with its branch-like fingers. Around the side the second snake''s hairy snout wrapped around near James¡¯s head ¨C an attempt to sneak attack his position but he punched out once more dumping the charges he had gathered from the previous attacks into a single punch which flashed out slightly faster than he could swing normally. His fist impacted the head sideways even as it attempted to bite him and blasted the snake off the tree, its long furry body losing its grip and twisting out into the air.
?? Achievement get: Tree Pugilist (unique)
Description: Box high in the branches of natures bounty - not box a tree.
Stat: +2 Knuckle defense Stat: +2 Arm muscle power
Climbing up a bit higher James found an easier to defend position and began taking each creature one at a time. He was well rested and fully awake as minutes dragged onward into an hour. The attacks slowed after the first two and he found it relatively simple to defend his position ¨C most of the dangerous-looking monsters weren¡¯t climbing up toward him. The stream of creatures that could climb were kind enough to mostly come one at a time. It wasn¡¯t what James would consider easy ¨C some attacks leaked through and most of his body was covered in scrapes and slices ¨C but it was maintainable. As if listening to his thoughts, a creature showed up to flip the stalemate on its head. What James could only call a troll pushed aside two trees just within view and stepped toward him. Its head was nearly level with the branch James was on and its thick stubby fingers moved surprisingly fast across the distance to grab him. James felt trapped ¨C a small crowd of creatures below, a solid trunk at his back and the massive sausage fingers reaching out towards him from the front. James couldn¡¯t see a way out of his predicament. An image of him being munched on by the foul yellow-stained teeth in front of him filled his head. He could just allow it to happen? Revive back at the city and try again after the death penalty faded? It would be easy. He had done enough. No. James refused to go down without a fight. He refused to be beaten passively ¨C he didn¡¯t want to die again. Above anything else James didn¡¯t want to lose. He jumped ¨C grabbing the branch above him ¨C and swung his lower body even as the massive fist closed just below his feet. Pulling his whole body forwards he twisted and hurled himself down the arm. Towards the creature. Activating old reliable, James [haste]d forward towards the creature¡¯s face. The troll swung its second hand ¨C its left arm wrapping towards its right like some couch potato swatting a fly ¨C the fat fingers jiggling as they slapped its biceps right in front of him. James¡¯s perch began to fall as the troll dropped both of its arms and he lunged forward He was doing it. He was dodging everything. Speed. Speed is the answer. Skill games always have dodging the answer instead of blocking. It doesn¡¯t matter how much damage something does if you never get hit. He just had to be faster. Faster. Faster. Jumping onto the hand in front of him and then kicking upwards, James¡¯s body lunged up to the troll''s shoulder. He didn¡¯t have a branch anymore but that was fine ¨C he had his body. His body would be his weapon. James flew sideways ¨C turning on a dime on the troll''s massive shoulder and lunging towards its slowly turning head. Time to use everything. Curling his arm into a fist James dumped his impact storage feeling his hand blur slightly and shoot forwards. It felt like he was wearing a glove as he plunged his fist toward the troll''s right eye. With a squelch, his fist popped through the eye and kept going. His arm was suddenly buried nearly completely into the creature¡¯s head.
?? Achievement get: See this fist? (unique)
Description: Punch through a massive eye.
Stat: +2 Knuckle defense Stat: +4 Arm muscle power
He was killing it. He was definitely winning. Spasming his hand James laughed. He could feel the lumpy mess around his arm. He had to be digging around the troll¡¯s brain. Any moment now. The troll''s hand wrapped around James¡¯s body and squeezed. It has to be dead soon. Slowly James found himself pulled off the creature''s shoulder. His arm slowly ever so slowly emerged from the eye socket absolutely covered in a greenish slime ¨C a wet sound accompanying its extraction. James struggled even as he was pulled up and held at arm''s length away from the monster. It was¡­smiling. Its almost humanoid face stared at James in malevolent glee as the goop around its eye grew and patched the surroundings. Over the course of thirty-something seconds, all indication that James had attacked it was gone. Its face was now unblemished ¨C its ugly grey skin had grown through the goop all the gore that had fallen down its face had almost evaporated. The troll reached out with its second arm and grabbed onto James¡¯s ¨C his right one, the one he had used to punch the creature. Pinching then yanking the troll began to pull. James¡¯s arm was extended out and held tight. Incredibly tight. His skin and bones had been enhanced by over a dozen defensive stats by this point. That wasn¡¯t an insane amount but it was a significant one. It was to the point that James felt like his arm was sturdier than a normal human had any right to be. The troll twisted and something popped. The bones and skin were enhanced¡­they could deal with a lot of impacts. The troll spun James¡¯s arm skin twisting in around his shoulder like a sausage being formed. James leeched each tug and twist. He dragged as much force out of the troll''s drag as he could. A final tear and his arm was off. A massive rush of charge filled James¡¯s skill ¨C more than anything up to this point. The arm flopped in the troll''s massive hand in an almost comical manner the shock and light pain made James laugh. The crunch as it was brought up to the troll''s teeth and began to be chewed was anything but humorous but James continued to chuckle. If anyone were around to watch they would have thought he had lost it ¨C his pained laughter was almost maniacal. Twisting, James bit down on one of the troll''s fingers his teeth sinking through and biting off a small chunk of skin and green goop beyond. His monster meat knowledge was filling gaps in his memory ¨C the troll had to be a monstrous equivalent of a ¡®distributed body¡¯. The way it healed could mean it had an incredibly strong distributive body ¨C the fact that James¡¯s attacks had actually pierced it pointed to a different option however. It had a monstrous version of a skill. Some sort of healing affinity. Life-based. That meant its flesh had a chance of having a healing component as well. This hope filled James¡¯s head as he ripped and swallowed a chunk of flesh off the creature''s finger. This hope-filled his mind even as a pungent sweaty taste dripped down his throat.
?? Achievement get: Mutual cannibalism. (unique)
Description: Eat of something that is currently eating of you. Tit for tat. An eye for an eye. Bite for bite.
Stat: +20 Blood defense
The troll brought James¡¯s whole body towards its face opening its mouth wide teeth bloody from James¡¯s arm. This was the end. He had done all he could. No! It was ironic how much James now struggled for his life. Less than a week before he would have said he didn¡¯t care if he lived or died. Right now, he would do anything to survive just another second. Breathe and continue struggling for a single moment. Ripping all the charges out of his arm being twisted off, James pulled down and twisted with all his might ¨C dumping his ¡°revenge attack¡± into a spinning escape. Maybe that had been enough, Maybe the hand had started to loosen as it made to toss James into the troll''s mouth. Either way, it worked. James found himself squeezing through the bottom of the fist and falling back towards the ground.
Skill break?
Yes No
The ground came up hard James landed on his back and smashed his head into the soil. [Haste] was off cooldown. He had to activate it. James stared upwards without moving for a solid moment. The troll was bending down to pick him up again. The ethereal fox ¨C patiently waiting all this time ¨C was bounding towards his fallen form. [Haste] James was moving even before he was fully upright. He had nine seconds to run. Nine seconds to lose dozens of creatures. Nine more seconds to live. His charge broke through an encirclement of monsters ¨C several snapping mouths or grasping appendages being ignored as he thundered through the trees. High above, light was beginning to filter through the trees. The first rays of dawn. He just had to make it till daytime. There were fewer monsters then. He could survive the next day so long as he reached it. James broke through the treeline. A sandy biome met his eyes, a single monster in front of him. The monster was something like a hunched monkey with an impossibly large mouth ¨C an upper jaw that started around its ¡®head¡¯ and a lower jaw well into its belly. James jumped still sped up by his cheat, moving forward with his one saving grace. His foot kicked out ¨C smashing off the top of the monster''s head as he ran. Stumbling for a second James landed and jumped forward again. Ahead of him a giant pool of water awaited his sight. A crystal clear pond ¨C or miniature lake James wasn¡¯t sure of the correct classification ¨C met his sight. Reaching the edge James dived forward. A cool rush broke across his head dark splotches blinking across his eyes for a second. He had hit the water hard ¨C his [haste] fueled dive flinging him forward like he had just left a cannon. Deeper into the water James swam awkwardly. [Haste] deactivated and he felt a rush of clarity come over him. His right arm was completely gone. His enhanced body prevented it from being deadly but he was still bleeding steadily ¨C worse so in the water. James treaded red water slowly bleeding out into the pool. Near the shore, the fox had arrived and was staring at him. Several smaller monsters were starting to appear behind it. This was it. They were going to swim towards him. Maybe this pond had a shark or something in it. The world seemed to have it out for him right now. James continued to tread water watching the fox. The light of dawn was bright by this point. Around the fox creatures seemed almost to disappear one by one, some dug into the sand others flickered out like a bad connection, still others turned into goop like the creatures in the tutorial had. The fox turned and walked away.
?? Achievement get: Survive a night in the ¡®badlands¡¯ (Unique)
Description: The first to do something many would deem insane. You have survived an entire night deep in the chaotic spill of corruption. A fluke or the first of many? Only time will tell.
Stat: +9 Free Body power. Stat: +9 Free Body defense. Stat: +9 Free Body speed.
James continued to tread water for a while before swimming towards the opposite shore. One-handed, James slowly but surely dragged his body out of the water. His whole body ached ¨C hundreds of scrapes and bruises he had been ignoring throbbing into existence. His missing arm was a raw ache. A pinprick of pain hovered around his cores. Despite that James was happy. He had done it. He had survived. He had won. Chapter 23. Is it still revenge if you are acting on behalf of a stranger? ---Richard--- Richard stood by the edge of a factory. It wasn¡¯t a particularly special one ¨C to be honest, the main reason he was here was only that it was the closest one he could find. He didn¡¯t have a plan or a personal motive or anything. Richard was just here to break some shit. If he spent a single moment thinking about it, he probably wouldn¡¯t be here. He¡¯d have talked himself out of the impulse, continued his search for a delvers association to try breaking his skill¡­ But he had already made up his mind. No second guessing yourself Richard. No waffling. See something you want to do and do it. The ¡®factory¡¯ as he was calling it ¨C it looked like one from the outside ¨C was an epicentre of minecarts. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of tracks leading out at ground level in all directions. Tracks coming out of second and third story openings ¨C some a few meters up into the air, several higher still coming out near the building''s roof to rush away into the distance. Picking the nearest cart entrance and waiting a bit Richard watched a cart head in and then fly out a minute later. ¡°Business is open now bois,¡± Richard spoke under his breath as he walked through the door. Sometimes the best way of sneaking into a place was just acting like you belonged. Strolling confidently down an incredibly short tunnel, Richard found himself in a giant staging area full of conveyor belts and robotic arms. Grey bags of what looked like cocaine ¨C or in a more boring but plausible description flour ¨C were stacked in transport carts or ¡®loaded¡¯ into empty ones depending on the docking station. Large signs in a foreign language labelled and noted things ¨C different walls and columns had chalk scribbles noting down different things. Richard didn¡¯t want to stop and gawk suspiciously mid infiltration, so he moved with purpose picking the pulpit overseeing the room and walking straight over. Ripping the door open and stepping inside Richard was met by the eyes of two tired-looking workers ¨C both glancing up at him a question on their lips. ¡°Sorry friends, I¡¯m late for my shift and I need a new outfit.¡± Pointing over to the wall Richard spotted several lockers full of the same blue coveralls the men were wearing. As soon as Richard began getting dressed the two turned back to the glass ¨C they hadn¡¯t spoken once since he entered the room they simply stared dejectedly down at the output of several monitors. ¡­his holster and pack did not seem kosher? Richard left most of his things in the locker ¨C his sledgehammer, his leftover money ¨C committing to the costume. ¡®Monitors¡¯. They were incredibly old and analogue looking. The wall was covered in what looked like the output of several oscilloscopes. Jagged sine waves moving up and down between two red bars¡­some sort of measure of a factory process with limits? Richard finished getting dressed and left them to it. Stepping out of the pulpit he picked a direction and began to explore. It took him all of a minute to decide the factory was making some sort of fuel for the minecarts. Slow carts would roll in on a slope, get coked up, and then disciplined by mommy machine and head about their day. Somewhat literally ¨C after being loaded with white dust, carts were wacked by a massive bendy metal paddle. A robotic arm extended out and smacked carts into action like an old-fashioned use of corporal punishment. ¡°I think I want some of that dust, see if it''s explosive or something?¡± Making his way over to a conveyor belt, Richard reached out with one arm before suddenly, out of nowhere, a hand gripped his arm. A man in a bright turquoise outfit stood beside him ¨C yelling directly into his face. The man was dressed differently from the few workers Richard had seen so far ¨C his outfit screamed supervisor or officer or something. Richard was 90% sure he had seen someone wearing this getup whipping someone in his drive by of the city ¨C not this guy exactly but someone in his position probably. Spinning him sideways the man raised one hand into a cup and smashed it into Richard¡¯s ear. ¡­I think that was supposed to hurt? Richard wondered as they continued yelling and started pulling him over to a machine. Pointing and jabbing the empty spot in front of him the NPC yelled spittle flying out and covering Richard¡¯s face. ¡­yeah, enough of this shit. Looking around to see no one else was around to witness him, Richard positioned himself and lunged. He grabbed the arms of the man and shoved his whole body against the side of the machine ¨C smashing him off dozens of protruding pipes and valves. Surprisingly after an initial surprised shout, that hadn¡¯t done much to the supervisor. Grabbing his arm Richard attempted to suppress him in strength for a second before realizing they were stronger than him. With a solid right hook the supervisor smashed his fist directly into Richard¡¯s gut. ¡­once again, I think that was supposed to hurt? Doubling over as if he was in pain, Richard glanced around wildly looking for something anything. Why the fuck did I leave my sledgehammer in the locker. Because you wanted to blend in jackass, you know that. Spotting a toolbox below the station in front of him Richard dove and knocked the lid open. Hammer, duct tape, screwdriver, another screwdriver, little knobby thing that looks like an Alen key made by someone high out of their mind¡­ Grabbing a screwdriver Richard whirled and stabbed into the supervisor¡¯s leg. A kick forward had the same foot planted on his face knocking him back again. Grabbing the duct tape and tiny hammer Richard scrambled to his feet and dove forward smashing the hammer down onto the man¡¯s head. They dropped ¨C not dead or even knocked out just stunned by his last attack and Richard took the moment to duct tape the man¡¯s hands and feet together¡­and then his arms and legs with more tape just to be sure. ¡°There we go¡­¡± Richard panted slightly then walked over to a conveyor belt and grabbed a bag of dust. ¡°Stick this in my to-go container¡± He muttered moving the bag over and dropping it into the toolbox. The bag moved weirdly but he didn¡¯t have time to process that right now. He just attacked someone in charge and wanted to find a better place to play with his loot. Taping the toolbox shut and to the now struggling supervisor''s front ¨C taping the chest to his chest ¨C Richard grabbed the man¡¯s feet and began to drag. ¡°Mate you need to lose weight, anyone tell you that? You¡¯re fucking heavy.¡± Richard spoke down to the man who was screaming up at him again. ¡°Ah, forgot the first rule of kidnapping¡± Ripping off a new chunk of duct tape, Richard bent down and wrestled it onto the mans face ¨C he kept trying to bite him and kept gnashing his mouth open and closed but Richard managed to gag him successfully in the end. Returning to the mans legs Richard dragged him into a hallway then found a door and entered a room. The room was empty ¨C lucky ¨C and surprisingly big. There were several old looking out of use machines everywhere and a dim light. Dropping his cargo down Richard took a quick moment to walk around the room. Looking back, he saw the supervisor inching his way towards the door like a worm and he strolled back kicking the man in his side. ¡°None of that,¡± Richard spoke while opening the chest and staring at his loot. ¡°What does this do?¡± ¡­ Richard was doing science. He felt like a kid ¨C he fucking loved science. Back when he didn¡¯t know how things worked and he learned things through testing. The white dust was magical in its properties and finding out what it did was a blast. K-Dust ¨C or kinetic dust ¨C as he was able to pull off one of the machines, was not a fuel per say. As a sort of hypothesis on its use, Richard would say the powder somehow increased the inertia of an object? Or, alternatively it decreased any friction acting on an object it was attached to? Bit of both? Taping it to his toolbox made the box slide across the ground like it was on ice before suddenly slowing down and stopping as the dust was used up. Adding it to the roll of duct tape and then rolling it caused the roll to ¡®roll¡¯ all the way across the room, bounce off the wall, roll back past him, bounce again, and then peeter out on its third pass. Stuffing some down the supervisor¡¯s clothes and bowling him across the room did something similar to the toolbox. Essentially it wasn¡¯t necessarily fuel ¨C instead, the dust seemed to keep things going? Anything that moved would continue moving with any action that would slow it down being removed. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Carrying it in its bag felt strange ¨C it was light but moved as if it was heavier than it was. The whole section pushed and pulled his arms at the slightest movement. Its true use was when pulling it out and sticking it on things, so Richard continued to play with that. He could rub it on random junk and toss that about, but science was always more fun to do with a test subject. Partway through Richard stripped the supervisor ¨C taking his turquoise outfit for himself ¨C and re taped his body more effectively. What he found while introducing the game of human bowling was that the powders effect wasn¡¯t permanent ¨C the powder was used up depending on how hard it was to keep things moving. Spent dust would turn to smoke ¨C depending on how much friction it was deleting or inertia it was fucking with. Stuff that could already move well was more effective ¨C turning the test subject in a rolling direction got him further than sliding. You could get an effect just by rubbing powder on stuff, but you were better off taping handfuls of it to the side of things ¨C and it was better to stick it perpendicular to the direction you wanted to push something. Sticking it on the man¡¯s head and pushing it forward was more effective then taping it to his chest and pushing him forwards ¨C Richard was reminded of the little compartments on the minecarts and how the dust was placed at the front of each cart. Always nice when your theories were proven by a second source. It''s how you know you¡¯re doing science properly. Drunk science is even better than regular science¡­ Rubbing dust all over the small items in the toolbox made them steadily more and more slippery ¨C once nearly fully covered they felt like they were oiled up. Spitting on some dust made it turn grey and¡­broke it slightly. The water made it a slippery oil ¨C it wasn¡¯t nearly as magical in effect; it was kind of just a ¡®slippery oil¡¯ that didn¡¯t make things it touched slippery¡­but might work as a good lubricant? Except it also grew darker as time went on quickly becoming a blackish liquid that was completely ¡®spent¡¯ ¨C on anything that might need to be lubricated for longer than a few minutes it was worse than actual oil. Richard licked his index finger then dipped it in some fresh dust and stuck it in his mouth. It tasted like ash and sugar¡­a sweet taste with an underlying burnt flavor and¡­yep, subtle notes of paint thinner.
?? Achievement get: How else was I to know it was poisonous? (uncommon)
Description: Ingest an unknown toxic substance purely due to curiosity.
Stat: +3 chemical defense
Despite it saying the dust was toxic Richard couldn¡¯t tell what it had done. Science demanded answers so he took the screwdriver and poked a hole in his test subject¡¯s gag. ¡°I wish we had a funnel, don¡¯t you?¡± Richard confided in the NPC as he scraped dust into the hole. The dust didn¡¯t seem to be going in, so Richard poked a finger through aggressively and began shoving the dust past his subject¡¯s lips and into their mouth. ¡°Don¡¯t make this weird bro,¡± Richard winced as his mind made parallels between him finger fucking a mostly naked mans feeding tube and well¡­that. After a handful of dust, he started to notice the results ¨C everywhere Richard was manhandling the subject their skin was turning dark. Where before Richard had punched and stabbed and flopped the NPC around just fine, now minor touches left bruises and gentle presses of a screwdriver pierced skin. After a bit more testing Richard was reasonably confident in saying the dust¡­poisoned people into being more susceptible to damage. It reduced both potential stats and a bodies natural kinetic defense¡­making them easier to hurt with physical trauma. It took a while to take effect, so he wasn¡¯t sure how useful it was as a weapon, but it was a side effect. If Richard had had this dust described to him in a few words he would have thought, it was a lubricant ¨C reducing friction? Stick it in moving machinery and move on. The main use ¨C placed in minecarts to keep them coasting for miles in every direction ¨C was much more imaginative than he would have come up with and it made him want to be imaginative as well. What can I do with a load of this? If I dump it in the streets, will it make people slip and slide about like an oil spill? Might be funny but it seems¡­unimaginative. Maybe describing it as friction deleting is a red herring? I don¡¯t want to just think of it as slippy powder ¨C but that¡¯s also the simplest use of it. ¡­but not really because its not necessarily placed between the ground and the thing slipping? Maybe some self testing will make an idea appear? Richard filled his shoes with powder and tried to skate about. Tried being the key word ¨C his feet did not suddenly start slipping about as soon as he stuck them in ¨C there was traction below his feet. He then tried to step forward and found his caked feet really didn¡¯t want to take that step. Not in a glued to the ground unable to move sort of way ¨C it wasn¡¯t nearly that strong ¨C more in a stuck in jello every small shift was resisting motion manner And then like his foot was ripping through the jello preventing it from moving it was free and sliding forward. There was an incredibly weird vibration and the dust in his shoe shifted ¨C aligning into a single polarity? After that kick it was pulled forward dragging his leg and rest of his body with it¡­and up. His leg flung high into the air unnaturally fast. Richard fell on his ass. ¡°Fuck. Okay, that was different,¡± he said slowly writing himself and standing up once again. There seemed to be some weird interaction that only started showing up once he was using it on himself. It was like how you couldn¡¯t fly by picking yourself up by your bootstraps. Equal and opposite reaction and all that. ¡­except this wasn¡¯t how any of that worked. Magic dust was already breaking rules somewhere ¨C it acting weird now was¡­him not understanding it fully. That¡¯s fine. Richard had only been doing science for less than an hour. Richard bent down and tried to pull himself forward by his hands. There was a strange sort of tingle on his hands ¨C a very faint copy of the feeling from his shoes ¨C but for the most part he had better luck with this method. His feet slid along the ground relatively smoothly ¨C there was a faint shift of the dust in his shoes and a fizzing feeling as it was burnt to slide him about. Sliding over to an old machine and grabbing it to pull him forward, Richard found there was still a different sort of effect. The dust really didn¡¯t like that he was trying to pull himself ¨C the physics said there shouldn¡¯t be a difference between him pushing someone lubed up with k-powder and him pushing something while lubed up with k-powder. But there was and Richard pushed past it. Its fine, magic fuckery in the dust. Why was he trying to make sense of it? His skill was even less scientific than this anyways ¨C Richard was getting too invested in explaining magic. Trying one more self test for use case¡¯s sake, Richard taped some to his chest and tried to figure out if that changed how he moved ¨C it did but to a lesser extent then putting it by his shoes. His feet felt ever so slightly slipperier than they had, and his chest felt like it was pulled forward an ever so slight amount¡­if Richard had to explain the feeling, he would say it was like air resistance was removed times two or three. A negligible thing that could be ignored was suddenly ignored more than it should be. Richard had been ignoring his test subject for far too long. Sprinkling the rest of the powder on the man he dragged them out of the room once more ¨C much easier coming out than it was coming in. Making his way over to one of the paddling machines Richard tied them to the paddle end. He wrapped them in the worker''s outfit ¨C plus the rest of his duct tape ¨C and then grabbed a bag of dust and lubed them up for good measure. Turning a massive dial that seemed to control speed ¨C the supervisor was durable but probably couldn¡¯t handle the max setting ¨C Richard stood watch as a cart came in was loaded and then love tapped away by a supervisor on a stick. ¡°¡­funnier in my head but that¡¯ll do. Good luck getting down from there,¡± Richard grabbed another bag of dust ¨C this place needed better security there hadn¡¯t been a second person to stop him the entire time he had been here ¨C before wandering towards an open hallway. Turns out there was someone in the room. A single worker who seemed frightened of him¡­or maybe just his new supervisor suit ¨C but seemed to recognize the old supervisor. He kept his head down and nodded to Richard as he passed but Richard could see the mans closed fist. The way he stared towards the bat bitch. The way he clenched his fist and grinned slightly when he thought Richard wasn¡¯t looking anymore. Yeah, I¡¯m a good person. This is going great. ¡­ Richard passed through an open door into a decidedly nicer section of factory. There were nice marble floors and nice-looking conference rooms, and everything was just so ¡®nice¡¯. ¡­Richard amused himself by taping kinetic dust to every doorknob he found. If he wrapped it thoroughly enough the whole doorknob became slippery enough, he couldn¡¯t open it ¨C and presumably, the faceless bastards that worked here wouldn¡¯t be able to either. There were people here ¨C suited people in old-fashioned businessmen outfits. Most of them were in rooms but Richard passed one or two in the hallway. All of them ignored him ¨C their eyes shifting over him as soon as they saw his uniform. They treated him like he was furniture, but Richard turned it around on them. It felt like he was the only one in this building ¨C he was walking through an empty hallway. They were the NPCs, the furniture. Richard found probably the fanciest room in the building. It was a massive, massive office but looked more like a 5-star hotel room. Stepping in, Richard went to a desk and decided to coat everything he saw. ¡°Some dust on the paper, some dust on the pen. Dump a bit in the drawer, dump a bit on the floor over here.¡± Richard hummed to himself as he trapped everything he could see. Finally ¨C once he had coated the last item a ¡®large glass mug¡¯ ¨C he got a pleasant surprise.
?? Achievement get: Vandalize the CEO¡¯s office. (Rare)
Description: You messed with a CEO ¨C which one? You know, the one! The head of a corporation! An important one! (If you were messing with a more important one, they would have been mentioned by name)
Stat: +1 Body power Stat: +2 Body defense.
¡°Should probably leave now, right? Quit while I¡¯m ahead?¡± Turning and exiting the office, Richard began making his way out of the building as fast as he could. When he had entered the factory, he had some vague plans of burning the place down or something ¨C instead he had spent a long-time doing science and then¡­well had played some minor pranks and been more pleased by them than he should have been if he was being honest. Burning it down now would ruin all that work ¨C he hadn¡¯t been coating the inside of rooms with it and locking suits in¡­ Hey that¡¯s an idea. I could oil up all the doors leading out of here and then set fire to the place! ¡­I should have figured out how to set a fire off as soon as the CEO does something in his office. ¡­why am I fixated on the fire. It''s not even that funny ¨C not like burning down a fire station would be. Really if I want to destroy a place, I should use its local specialties. K-dust to break the factory. Karma¡­karma''s always funny. Once again Richard was distracted and didn¡¯t notice two arms slapping down on his shoulders. Second time it had happened ¨C this time when he turned, he was met with a blue box.
Who are you? Why are you carrying a bag of dust? I know every driver in this plant, and you are not one of them. Answer quickly.
Richard turned to face two men. One fingered an arm band ¨C translator ¨C the other a baton. ¡°Me no speakth the language?¡± Richard spoke miming the translator action.
You¡¯re going to have to come with us.
¡°Fair, fair,¡± Richard began answering and then turned suddenly and began running. Dumping dust as he ran Richard heard a crash behind him. A faint slowing jolt hit his back, but he continued running. Doesn¡¯t look like I can get my shit back from that locker. Pity. Reaching a door to the industrial section Richard kept running. He half expected a blaring alarm to start playing but all there was was the sound of feet pounding behind him. It''s surprisingly easy to escape isn¡¯t it? Richard exited a railroad entrance once more and prepared to disappear into the surroundings. As soon as he reached the outside his luck seemed to be over. In front of him was¡­something he hadn¡¯t realized fit the setting. It was what Richard could happily call a mech. A large circular cockpit. Four mechanical legs. Two grabby arms. A tinted panel of glassy material across the front like a pair of glasses. Turning to run sideways Richard heard a faint clang and suddenly he was attached to the wall. One of its two arms had crossed the distance and grabbed him. Four pincers closed in on the end of a long razor-thin wire. In the middle of the ¡®grabby¡¯ ¨C along all four fingers ¨C small syringe-like spikes stabbed in and injected Richard with paralytic substances. Richard was pulled towards the mech his eyes growing dark. He felt incredibly helpless ¨C all his stats seemed almost worthless against the machine in front of him. Remembering his only skill ¨C his ¡®chaos points¡¯ were long full and unused ¨C Richard activated his aura even as his eyes faded shut. The last thing he saw was a bag of sorts coming out of the ¡°sleeve¡± of the mech¡¯s arm wrapping him up as everything went dark. Chapter 24. Acid is a boy’s best friend. ---Richard--- Richard awoke chained to a wall in a dungeon. Chains were a bit of a stretch ¨C they were more like restraints of coiled fabric ¨C and the dungeon was mostly metaphorical ¨C the place was brightly lit and painted a light blue¡­but it was still the feeling he got. Bad end. You got caught. An angry looking man came into the room dressed in a ridiculous frilly outfit then began monologuing in a foreign language. Not understanding the words definitely lessened the impact of the no-doubt full of exposition scene. The frilly man got a mad glint in his eye and then pulled out a gun of sorts triumphantly. The gun looked like a stapler tipped with barbed hooks. Stepping forward and waving the device in front of Richard''s head he suddenly jolted it to the side and shot Richard¡¯s arm. Fuck. The strangely jagged and curled fish hook flew through Richard''s reinforced skin and pulled flesh forward with an awful ripping sound and sensation. It hurt ¨C quite a bit more than anything had in a while ¨C and the man started laughing as he shot Richards side and legs and chest and side again and again ¨C each shot more erratic each hit closer to where Richard would think his vitals were. At least where they used to be. This section of a game ¨C either some sort of storyline cinematic or extended game over was¡­something that should be skipped through quickly. There wasn¡¯t a point in dragging it out was there? Richard lay his head back wincing through the pain and hoping it was over soon. He wanted to get back to breaking stuff. He understood. He got complacent after how easy everything had been. He got caught and now he was being punished cause actions had consequences yada yada. Richard activated his field of misfortune burning useless chaos points and watched as the noble misfired the gun somehow ¨C hurting his finger a squeal of pain ringing out. Seeming to have enough of his torture game, the man spat on Richard''s face and turned away. Richard memorized the noble''s face as he walked towards the door to his cell ¨C which opened just as the bastard was reaching for it and smashed his arm and head slightly. ¡­still a useless skill but it''s at least slightly cathartic. The new man who walked into the room was also wearing a business suit but a more subdued one. A solid grey, brown colour. A bowler hat and a cane. This second man was at least carrying a translator.
What to do with you, what to do with you. You made my employer displeased with your little stunt ¨C as part of the interrogation we of the private-police are supposed to ask ¡®why¡¯¡­ but between you and me, I don¡¯t really care. At first we thought you might be a spy or similar, but based on how you messed around with our CEO¡¯s office and didn¡¯t take anything important, we¡¯ve written you off as related to a disgruntled debt-slave. Feel free to speak up if that sounds true.
¡°I think there¡¯s been a misunderstanding. I¡¯ve been framed!¡± Richard spoke.
Thank you for confirming our suspicions. Now, going forward there¡¯s no indication you are a citizen. Legally you don¡¯t have many rights ¨C almost as few as a debt-slave ¨Cwhich leads into my next statement. It turns out you have a large number of defensive stats and a rare mutation that usually only shows up in monsters ¨C a G-Type body. No skill or Aether connection we could see which is odd ¨C no link to the delvers association either which is doubly odd considering how many stats you¡¯ve gained ¨C but that¡¯s a mystery that¡¯s unimportant for all but my own curiosity.
¡­he realized he wasn¡¯t wearing a translator and the interrogator didn¡¯t seem to care¡­there wasn¡¯t a point in saying anything. There wasn¡¯t a point to any of this. ¡°Okay yeah you got me, I am actually related to someone. That checks out ¨C turns out I¡¯ve been having relations with your mum. Surprise! You have a new father.¡± Yeah¡­this is a sham. If it was a real interrogation they would give me a translator. Seems like they can do whatever they want with me ¨C and are just going to go ahead and do it no matter what I say.
Now I¡¯m going to give you a choice ¨C a wonderful choice because of how kind I am. I am an officer afterall ¨C I give choices to even the most deplorable of criminals.
Option 1. You become a debt-slave in the chemical mine. Your constitution is greater than most people who are sent there, so you should last a while. Could even buy your freedom after paying off the damages you caused in a few years.
Option 2. We have a¡­client who¡¯s been begging for access to someone with your body type. He wants to run you through some chemical testing ¨C something about seeing how different acids work to melt down defensive stats. I can¡¯t imagine you lasting for more than a few hours and it''s anything but a quick and painless death¡­but hey. It''s still a choice.
The man was grinning at Richard as he finished up. Richard looked at both options. Chance of escaping some workers prison? Low. Do I want to play prison bitch? Not particularly ¨C I¡¯ve seen how workers are being treated in this town. Chance of being able to get revenge after reviving? Pretty high. Only reason not to choose the second option is if I were a pussy afraid of some pain. Both suck. This sucks less. Not having a hand free to reach out and select his option, Richard was forced struggle a bit before accepting it mentally. With a glance down as if reading the choice Richard had made, the man looked surprised for a moment. He suddenly laughed and took out a panel about the size of a dog tag.
Wonderful! That¡¯s a profitable choice ¨C my estimation of you has skyrocketed. Just going need you to accept a teeny tiny legal document ¨C just makes things easier paperwork wise and we are good to go.
[I consent to becoming a test subject to Project D¡¯s human trials waving all intrinsic rights I own as a human per article 12]
Richard paused at that for a moment before mentally accepting it. It''s not like they seemed to have any care for rights up till now.
Always nice to be surprised. Enjoy your choice and remember ¨C you picked it.
Stepping forward as the last box floated up, the officer stabbed a needle into Richard''s side. Richard found his body slowly but surely fading out for the second time today ¨C his last view a grinning face staring at him like he was a hunk of meat. ¡­ Richard awoke again ¨C this time wrapped in something like a straight jacket and held on the end of a crane. In front of him a man in a lab coat and oversized glasses stared maniacally towards him. The man looked unhinged ¨C he probably had to be to buy Richard as a research subject, but ¨C from Richard¡¯s experience ¨C most unhinged people were pretty good at hiding it. Seeming normal at first, then shifting to crazy ¨C this man however looked the part. His hair was messy half frizzed a corner burnt somehow. His lab coat had chemical stains on the sleeves and a blood stain near the bottom of it. Not speaking to Richard, the man wandered over to a panel of buttons and began manipulating Richard¡¯s position in the air. The crane pulled him towards the first vat in a long line of vats and dunked him in unceremoniously. Perhaps unsurprisingly, nothing seemed to happen other than Richard was now very wet. The liquid smelt awful ¨C like nail polish and vomit ¨C but besides that fact it wasn¡¯t really an issue. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Coming over while humming to himself the doctor pulled out a scalpel and stabbed Richards''s arm. ¡­attempted to stab his arm ¨C the blade slide right off without scratching him. Grabbing his arm firmly the doctor tried pushing the blade into him fruitlessly. Nodding to himself the man gave up and left to his workbench returning with a bulky scalpel at the end of a hose. Turning on a machine, a whirr began to fill the air ¨C and the scalpel began to vibrate. The man waited for a moment for the machine to warm up ¨C glancing at an arm band presumably giving him the time. After a minute or two it seemed to be ready and the man stabbed once again ¨C this time slicing through a section of Richard''s flesh in a similar manner to the CEO¡¯s nailgun-like machine. Dunking the exposed flesh under the liquid, the doctor began shining lights at Richard and pointing various machines at the tank. ... ¡°Want to send me to the strongest batch you¡¯ve got? Come on I want to get this shit over with¡± Richard called out. His wound had closed over already, a faint sting lingering despite the regeneration. Ignoring him, the mad scientist manipulated the crane to pull Richard out and dunk him in a pool of water ¨C washing off all traces of acid before starting all over. Moving on he excitedly dropped Richard in the next tank¡­and the next. After four tanks the sadistic fuck left the room ¨C Richard''s body soaking in a swirling pool of inky blackness. ¡­ An hour of stinging later and the doctor returned ¨C this time dumping various bags of dried chemicals into the following batches. Taking his time to record the notes, the man moved Richard to the next and the next. Some were drastically worse than others ¨C it seemed the scientist was more interested in getting his money¡¯s worth from Richard than he was melting him¡­ because every pool that was strong enough to get through his defenses quickly had him removed and dried off. This was much less painful of an experience than the acid in the tutorial had been ¨C his current body just felt pain in a different way and he no longer had his nerves separately increased in strength¡­ But it was much much worse. Easier in a way, but more mentally draining. Before Richard had been in control. He had been the one pulling the trigger. He had also been frequently gaining stats every time he stopped. This time around the system seemed silent. Stingy as it sat back and watched him get tortured for hours. The wait was worse. The wait between dunks. The wait for his skin to heal and stop dripping. A few times the doctor rubbed a healing goop on Richards''s body that seemed to sink in and increase his already supernatural regeneration. Extending the suffering. The only way Richard could stay sane was to disassociate harder and harder as the torture progressed. This wasn¡¯t actually something that was happening. He was just going through a cut scene. He had memorized the faces of the CEO, the sham of a security guard, the doctor. Each of them were shifted to the #1 spot on his shit-list ¨C triple tied for #1. This was a first for Richard ¨C he wasn¡¯t used to wanting revenge for himself ¨C especially if he provoked someone. Richard wasn¡¯t a hypocrite. If people played pranks on him he¡¯d laugh them off. If he became the butt of a joke he wouldn¡¯t get offended ¨C people often said don¡¯t do anything to people you wouldn¡¯t want to have happen to yourself and Richard often thought of that when playing pranks people thought went ¡°too far¡±. In university, he covered the toilet in his roommates room with plastic wrap so when the guy pissed on it in the morning it went everywhere. That had apparently been ¡®too far¡¯ ¨C Richard would have laughed if it had happened to him. ¡­it would just be friends messing around with each other ¨C the proof they were friends. All this was to say he normally didn¡¯t get mad if anyone retaliated. But this wasn¡¯t normally. This right here was a¡­an overreaction. He hadn¡¯t even burnt down the place. Richard disassociated. The pain was real. This was just a game. Each of the fuckers who were doing this to him would pay. They weren¡¯t real ¨C hurting them was safe. They were real ¨C hurting them would matter. The pain was fake. Richard disassociated harder ¨C his thoughts becoming a jumbled mess. You could say the last of the thrown away chains were melted away ¨C like the acid baths melting his skin went deeper and melted away his consciousness. The pain built and built with each subsequent bath until finally, a box appeared.
?? Achievement get: Reborn in Caustic Chaos. (unique)
Description: Repeatedly had various corrosive chemicals bathe your still developing distributive body.
Passive Skill: Entropic Adaptation (Defensive body of chaos). Your body is constantly shifting - defensive stats actively seeking out and dispersing attacks. Over time become more resistant to continuous damage - your body shifting to survive in even the most hostile of environments.
...but Richard wasn''t paying attention anymore. If anything the skill made things worse ¨C he wanted to die quickly and this was keeping him alive longer. Immediately the pain he was dealing with abated ¨C the current bath he was in slowly faded from a fire, to a light sting, to nothing. His head cleared slightly in time to see the confused face of the scientist noting the change. A new bath ¨C the pain resumed for a bit and then faded. Another one. The same effect. Most of the acids had been too weak to harm his defense stat focused body that much... but now they straight up stopped harming him after a few seconds. And then suddenly the scientist seemed to give up ¨C lifting Richard up and dragging him towards the empty bath at the far end of the room. Moving hoses around the man combined the result of several of the most effective vats then unceremoniously dumped Richard all the way in. Immediately everything went dark as his eyes were burned off. The world was fire ¨C his existence fading quickly. ¡­ Richard woke standing in the street a blue box floating to his side.
?? Achievement get: The fate of a lab rat. (Rare)
Description: Participated in a science experiment - as a test subject - meeting a fatal end.
Stat: +20 chemical defense.
Warning: Stat total approching zone cutoff. Currently rank 2 with total 267. Stats and achievements cannot be gained past the first tier of rank 2 (350 total stats) in instanced reality Zone2, #001000120 It is advised you head to the next zone soon to continue progressing according to the schedule.
Richard stood in the street in silence. His mind felt rattled ¨C supposedly he had a high number of stats but he felt weak. Incredibly weak. Both due to the shitty death penalty and due to the after effects of his trip to law enforcement. The system seemed to be trying to kick him out. To make him move on already. For the second time ¨C this was just a repeat of the tutorial. ...although the difference between whatever rank 2 was - something less than 267 - and 350 was alot greater than the difference in the tutorial. That had been...81 and 117 I think? As far as Richard was concerned he had just gotten here. He still had so much he wanted to do! Richard wasn¡¯t leaving till he had revenge at a bare fucking minimum. Part of him wanted to immediately seek out and fuck up all three of his targets but his body was shaking and¡­he had failed his last attempt. Besides, he hadn¡¯t even figured out skill breaking yet? ¡­that was a productive use of his time while he waited out his death penalty right? How long did he have to wait? Supposedly I have 267 stats. 10 minutes for every one of those is¡­300 would be 50 hours minus whatever the difference is....basically 50. Around 45 hours? That¡¯s almost two days of nothing. Fuck me with a cactus that death penalty is brutal. It seems like the worst part of it is not being able to progress well in that time ¨C not being able to do as much in general due to having lower stats? The main negative of the death penalty is wasted time. ...also I''m pretty rattled. I keep thinking of numbers ¨C not that I''m not good at math but I usually don''t fixate on it this much. ¡­but it also doesn¡¯t matter that I¡¯m not progressing because I¡¯m reaching the cap already? and I still have almost a 100 stats before thats even an issue? The smart thing is to keep going. Find the next zone and all that. Key point ¨C The smart thing is not the fun or satisfying thing so I¡¯m going to ignore it. Let¡¯s find the delvers association. I have time to kill. Walking along and asking NPCs that looked approachable where to go, Richard finally came across a huge complex that seemed to be the place. The front gate led into an open courtyard with small buildings everywhere. Most seemed to be stores selling armor or weapons or food or even expensive healing serums but one stood out as an information shop ¨C walking over Richard asked the women manning the counter where he could go for skill breaks.
You got a skill? Congratulations young man. Let me just send you the list of supported affinities our breaking machine can handle¡­there we go. I assume you have the fee ¨C please indicate which affinity your skill falls under and I can start the paperwork.
Kinetic based skill: Movement, momentum, fake force. Any skill that deals bludgeoning or piercing damage.
Thermal based skill: Altering heat in either direction. Includes endo and exothermic chemical reactions ¨C fire skills are thermal.
Photon based skill: Lasers, light manipulation. Skills that deal with radiation or heat damage in the form of lasers. If you do not know whether your skill is thermal or photon based we can check for you. Answering incorrectly can break our machine and knowingly breaking our machine will result in a fine or criminal offence.
Matter based skill: If your skill creates a short-lived OR permanent physical object or alternatively breaks the fundamental parts of a physical object you can be pretty sure it¡¯s a matter-based skill. Dissolution and fake matter fall under this category. Dissolution can usually be broken with settings for both chemical and matter ¨C please select both if your skill can vaporize objects just for safety.
Chemical based skill: Poison, necrosis, certain generation of reactive compounds that do not fall under thermal skills.
Other base: Unsupported. Any esoteric manipulation or combination of elements not stated in the previous sections.
¡­first off. Fuck I forgot my money in the locker. The death penalty and trauma addled me more than I thought. How could I forget something that basic? ¡­and secondly where the fuck does my chaos affinity fall under¡­can I throw it under kinetic? It usually moves random things right? ¡­fuck it''s other isn¡¯t it? Selecting the other he watched the women''s face grow embarrassed.
I¡¯m¡­really sorry. You got unlucky ¨C that nearly never happens. If you want, I can send you to a good friend of mine? He¡¯s a scientist working on increasing our known breaking methods ¨C as long as you agree to work with him and understand a smooth break isn¡¯t guaranteed, I can give you his address?
Richard flashed back to his time with the mad scientist. Wouldn¡¯t it be ironic if she sent me there? ¡­this is a defining moment isn¡¯t it. What kind of man are you. Do you still trust so called scientists or do you now have some deep seeded trauma that makes you want to push them all into traffic. ¡°Sure, that would be great.¡± Richard responded smiling. Chapter 25. The rune of self study. ---Maddy--- As a group it felt like they had ¡®hurried up just to wait around¡¯. They barely had time to decide and rush to catch the caravan¡­but then once they were settled in on top of the cart''s roof there was suddenly nothing to do. To be more accurate it felt like there was nothing to do ¨C Maddy finally had some time to work on something she hadn¡¯t had time for yet. Maddy could now do magic. Her childhood dream suddenly theoretically within reach. ¡­she just didn¡¯t know how. She had applied a mage tattoo ¨C following the necromancers¡¯ directions ¨C and used the last of her money to buy some books ¨C nothing incredibly helpful but bits and pieces were better than nothing. All she needed now was to do some testing. Taking out a wooden slate and charcoal pen Maddy set them up beside her on the rocking bench. ¡°You planning on doodling to pass the time?¡± Jess asked glancing over. ¡°I¡¯m¡­planning on trying to get stronger. I need to figure out what I can do since I claimed my skill.¡± Maddy explained pushing her hair out of her eyes. ¡°¡­I should do that as well.¡± Troy spoke suddenly looking down at his bow as if he had forgotten it. ¡°¡­and I guess I just what¡­do pushups? Try and train resistance by stabbing myself?¡± Jess asked seemingly put out by the process. ¡°You could always try and break your skill as well? Give me a second¡­¡± Maddy opened the second most useful of her translated books ¨C on affinities and resistances ¨C and skimmed through till she found the section. ¡°Okay, so the main affinities are life and death magic ¨C what I have ¨C fire and ice magic, creation and destruction affinities, light slash darkness schools and finally speed plus slow ¨C otherwise known as movement magic. There are some more esoteric schools ¨C the book says theoretically anything can be an affinity ¨C but they are all, for the most part, worse.¡± Maddy skimmed through then shut it once more. ¡°Barriers are the most common form of creation magic alongside weapon creation and summoning ¨C all this is to say if you want to break your skill into creation/destruction you have to use it to¡­destroy something? I can try and help you brainstorm ways to do that if you want? Keep in mind some of the books think you should figure it out alone.¡± Maddy offered. ¡°¡­I¡¯m still not that fond of the idea of breaking something ¨C especially as it works perfectly fine right now.¡± Jess sighed opening her hand and creating a paper-sized yellow barrier on the end of it. ¡°I¡¯ll think about it¡± She finally spoke ¨C slowly moving her hand back and forth while staring at the pane on the end of it. Maddy kept an eye on her friends and the surroundings while splitting off and focusing on her own project. Over the past sleepless night, she had had some time to consider what she knew and what she thought she knew. Pros and cons of trying stuff out randomly or being ignorant. She had made up her mind ¨C now that she had a safety back, playing with runes seemed much safer. Just in case she thought she¡¯d start with life magic ¨C it seemed less likely to kill them if it exploded. To start out with she was going to forge ahead and ¡®actuate¡¯ or figure out the rune for each of the concepts she had available. She had already found her rune for application ¨C her main one if the necromancer was to be believed. She also had a symbol she was pretty sure was transference ¨C the simple one she had used instinctually to help heal quicker back in the dungeon. Spending some time Maddy thought about and tried to figure out¡­or just create the shape for the rest of them. Scythes¡­well she drew a backward 7 and it felt right. Collection was a more complicated spiralling shape¡­she couldn¡¯t remember if there were any others. Think I got them all. Now to see what they do? Erasing all her sketched runes but application Maddy pushed life mana into it. Immediately the board was suffused with life mana ¨C the wood feeling greener and somehow newer. ¡°That wood¡¯s fresh!¡± Jess commented from the peanut gallery causing Maddy to laugh. ¡°Sorry it''s weird to do this with an audience. Don¡¯t mind me¡± Erasing that scribble, she sketched the scythe rune and tried again. This time her mana seemed confused. It didn¡¯t seem to know what she wanted ¨C it suddenly jumped across and tried to heal her weapon? The wood of her scythe felt a bit younger, but the mana was spluttering around ¨C it continued to feel confused ¨C jumping back to around the rune and shaping itself into a scythe shape then flying off and doing nothing¡­ then flitting back again and covering the hand Maddy used to hold her scythe. Next, she tried collection. Dumping mana into her slate caused it to build and build. It didn¡¯t seem to have an output ¨C the mana just pooled into a single point at the center of her spiral and stayed there. Hmmm. Adding multiple runes beside one another ¨C [Scythe-Application] to start ¨C seemed to be a better use of her time. [Scythe-Application] let her send life or death mana over to her weapon no matter where she stood on the caravan roof. It made an effect where mana appeared to teleport across the short distance to her weapon ¨C not that she could figure out a use for that just yet. The day progressed Maddy trying more and more combinations. The first few hours had a huge jump in skill ¨C going from ignorance to having a minimum level of knowledge was huge but every gain past that point was barely noteworthy. One huge discovery ¨C or more accurately solved problem ¨C was how her mental state and goal affected the result. Depending on the runes used, her own thoughts were more or less important. Certain combinations were ¡®stable¡¯ ¨C the result being the same no matter how many times she used it ¨C while other combinations appeared to randomly change. That randomness wasn¡¯t fully random ¨C it was influenced by Maddy¡¯s thoughts and by taking advantage of that she could make more flexible results. Finally ¨C several hours into the day ¨C a minor discovery threw everything she thought she knew out and forced her to re-evaluate her thoughts. Maddy was starting to get confident in understanding her ¡®concept¡¯ runes. The discovery that threw her back to the start was ¡®everything else¡¯. If she drew a random shape or scribble it also changed results. She was distinctly reminded of the mage tattoo she had made ¨C and all the interlocking symbols she had traced. Those symbols had made up the majority of the tattoo ¨C simpler symbols half the size of her concept symbol. Pulling up her pant leg and studying the faint white lines Maddy began tracing each symbol onto her board. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Jess asked. Maddy froze. What do I do? She had spent so much time trying to figure stuff out Maddy had relaxed a bit too much. She hadn¡¯t forgotten she was on top of a moving vehicle ¨C that would be silly ¨C but she had forgotten she was doing everything in plain view of her friends. Do I tell her the truth? I trust her¡­she gave her life for me in the dungeon. ¡­but also, do I even know her? It¡¯s been less than a week since we met. I could lie ¨C say it¡¯s an old scar. ¡°Can I¡­I might tell you later.¡± Maddy finally spoke. It wasn¡¯t the best thing she could say. It wasn¡¯t even what she would consider a good response from a social standpoint. Instead, it could be considered a crack. Her forcing herself to try and show trust. Staring at her for a solid moment Jess nodded. ¡°Okay, if its that big of a deal you don¡¯t have to worry. Hey! I¡¯m bored. You mentioned there were hunting grounds on the way ¨C when are we going to visit one? The days half over? Also, when is something going to happen? I thought for sure we would be attacked on this route ¨C why else would they be setting us up as bodyguards?" Maddy reached into her bag and pulled out a book. ¡°I have three books for the ride. One on affinities and resistances ¨C it explains how different skills and defenses work and some common monsters that take advantage of that. This book right here has a large map of the area and shows information on every single established monster nest ¨C there¡¯s a page per nest with basic information and strategies plus a glossary of common monsters. And this book is a book on wizards that explains some of the things they can do but not how they can do them ¨C its really really basic and I don¡¯t know how reliable it is. So¡­you could borrow the guide and check out the nests we are passing? I want to hit the one on page 38 ¨C We should have already passed a few so you¡¯ll have to guess how far along the route we are.¡± Maddy finished her explanation and handed over the middle book. Looking excited for something to do, Jess opened the book and began scrolling. Slowly pushing down her pant leg Maddy returned to her studies ¨C she wanted to figure out something useful by the time they reached her target nest. Using her previous discoveries Maddy combined all her runes into a shape and pushed death mana into it in a familiar way. The result was a line of necrosis shifting down her scythe beside her. A bit more effort than before she broke her skill, and she had the functionality back again. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. It was stupid and reckless, but Maddy reached out and touched the line instantly having her finger begin to bubble ¨C black rot spreading towards her. Except it was her own skill. Her own death mana turned on her ¨C with a focused thought the effect broke, her mana responding to her command. A push of life mana had her finger begin to heal slowly and Maddy returned to testing. This right here was¡­functionally the same as her old skill broken apart and put back again in the same way. If she stopped right here, the breaking she had done would be a negative ¨C turning an ingrained ability into one that needed a board of runes to work. Along those lines Maddy began adding the small whatever they were called runes around her main one. Just throwing random squiggles at the problem was not an effective solution ¨C it was a brute force way of experimenting. Some small runes made it much worse. Some small runes made it better but fundamentally changed the skill in some way ¨C for example adding several crescent moon shapes about her [reapers blade] base caused it to no longer jump to something when she attacked. ¡­at least testing it on her finger gave that result ¨C she didn¡¯t exactly have any ¡®enemies¡¯ lying around to try it out on. Turning a single application and then ongoing damage skill to a skill that applies immediate ongoing damage. Its basically the same but not sticky¡­I think someone else might like this one more. Maddy wasn¡¯t arrogant enough to think she could figure everything out in a day ¨C but it was grating she hadn¡¯t managed to get something practical in the time she had wasted. There was one other avenue she hadn¡¯t touched yet ¨C she had a second skill as of the end of the dungeon currently unused. Unlike before when skills felt like some unreachable thing in some unknown place, now Maddy could actually feel her new skill. She could feel the barrier holding it in place ¨C paper thin ¨C and could imagine ripping into it like a gift. All it would require was a moment of dedicated thought and she could break it as well. Maybe using bits of it could increase her rune abilities? The reason she hadn¡¯t was a combination of safety and not having used it before ¨C her memories of using it were foggy now ¨C none included how it should feel now that she knew it was using mana. Noting a landmark they passed ¨C a large emerald tree ¨C Maddy quickly began drawing the runes for her old skill into her scythe. She spent a few minutes to figure out how to fit it on the wooden handle, carefully drew all her concepts and added in a few minor symbols that seemed to make things better in her tests¡­ Standing up once she saw a second landmark, Maddy turned to her friends. ¡°I¡¯m going on a short stop at this nest. If you want to come, you¡¯ll have to plug your ears ¨C I want to test out my new skill.¡± Troy paused and seemed to consider staying, but then saw Jess jumping up beside him and quickly changed his mind. He didn¡¯t want to be left behind. ¡°Finally! Let¡¯s stretch our legs¡± Jess bent from side to side before jumping off the side of the caravan. Troy went to the side and took the ladder down and Maddy followed stepping off after him. As a crew the three walked towards a sign the caravan stopping behind them ¨C a worried looking drivers head poking out of a window and staring at them as they walked away. Contract-wise, the caravan and riding adventurer¡¯s setup heavily favoured the adventurers. They didn¡¯t have any obligations to stay and guard them ¨C the merchants in turn didn¡¯t have any obligation to stay and wait for them if they decided to hit a nest but they would in the hopes the group would return afterwards. ¡°So. Why do you want to ¡®hit¡¯ this nest?¡± Jess asked once they were a hundred feet from the caravan. ¡°¡­for some selfish reasons. There is a load of slow and incredibly resilient monsters here. Apparently, necrosis works well on them ¨C its not the only type of attack that works well but its actually noted as the best. Add to that and there¡¯s a rare but incredibly valuable monster called a death slime that occasionally appears ¨C its something that can only die to life mana and its core sells for hundreds of pips if its undamaged.¡± ¡°Got it. You want to cheese some fights. I call picking the next nest!¡± Jess seemed unbothered by the description. Troy simply nodded. As time progressed the third member of their group seemed to be more and more comfortable staying a silent observer. As a group the three walked towards a sign ¨C one denoting the ¡°edge¡± of the nest. The sign had some simple symbols ¨C they didn¡¯t seem to have splurged for translating text instead simply showing a monster head with four notches and a shield ¨C the symbol for tanks. Stepping past the invisible line the group continued on ¨C Troy making sure to stay back an arrow cocked as he walked. As they progressed further the environment seemed to change slightly. The grass grew shorter and stubbier ¨C taking on an almost wood like texture as it turned brown and stiff. There were occasional shrubby trees here and there, but they weren¡¯t close enough Maddy would consider this a forest. A bit further and the grass was strong enough to resist their steps ¨C it was like walking on a sea of bent wooden sculptures. Ahead and to the left, a creature that looked like an eight-legged wooden pig watched their approach. As they grew closer it bent its head slightly and prepared itself. ¡°I¡¯m going to try and hit it,¡± Maddy moved her scythe around into a prepared position ¨C pushed death mana into it ¨C and began running forward. Snorting, the monster in front of her pawed at the ground like a bull and began its charge. The wooden bull was faster than Maddy had been imagining ¨C at least based on the ¡°slow¡± description her book had given her ¨C but still manageable. The creature charged at roughly half Maddy¡¯s running speed, but it was having less troubles with the wooden grass below. Running around its side and slashing out as hard as she could Maddy¡¯s scythe dug a thin scratch along its flank her mana jumping off and beginning to attack the creature¡¯s flesh. Circling it Maddy reached out and took hold of her mana ¨C this was the addition her extra runes had added. Trying to keep track of her running body and direct the mana inside the bull¡¯s body simultaneously was a mind-bending task. She was nearly certain if she hadn¡¯t chosen a split mind, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to pull it off. One part of her focused on not tripping on the uneven footing, a second focused on burrowing and worming through tough flesh. She felt like a worm operating based on feel and sensing based on how tough stuff was to dig through. She ate and melted and spread ¨C constantly splitting off into more worms that were too hard to keep track of. Maddy ran. Her book hadn¡¯t mentioned the ground being this awful to run on. Maddy figured out how to split her focus more ¨C more worms less controlled. She was a conductor ¨C a general directing an army. Maddy returned to her partners'', slowing down and throwing the last of her attention that had been focused on her body towards'' the current task. She felt like she was on the cusp of something ¨C each of her tendrils of death mana were quickly fading. They were splitting apart and weakening and soon would be completely gone ¨C but they also felt¡­ There. Maddy realized each tendril had a purpose¡­some part that she realized was from the ¡®collection¡¯ aspect. If they managed to kill this creature, they would gorge on its death and return to her ¨C refilling her mana to full once more. She could feel the monster weakening could feel the death on the air ¨C why couldn¡¯t the tendrils ¡®collect¡¯ that and continue feeding? Maddy pulled her desire towards the worms attempting to communicate. She had a desire ¨C she wanted them to continue. She was so close¡­but the worms refused to listen. One by one they disappeared and Maddy found herself once more watching the bull from her body. it looked like a wreck. Its whole side was black and vague lumps of ¡®something¡¯ were oozing and dripping out of its body coating the grass below it in inky red and black. ¡°Please cover your ears¡± Maddy called to her friends then spoke. ¡°Please Die,¡± Maddy¡¯s voice changed as she evoked her skill. She could feel death mana resound out of her skill filling the air with her will. The bull began to shake ¨C death mana crossing the distance and burrowing in through its ears. She couldn¡¯t control this death mana ¨C it didn¡¯t even fully feel like hers ¨C just sense it. Just barely see it was happening. I have to break this skill soon. Beside her Jess shook slightly ¨C she was grinning, black ooze leaking from both ears. ¡°Dammit Jess, I warned you!¡± Maddy yelped suddenly mad that she had hurt her friend. The skill seemed powerful in a way ¨C it dealt almost as much ¡®damage¡¯ as [the reapers blade] from a safe distance ¨C she could also tell it dealt ¡®damage¡¯ to everything that could hear it. If she had it in the dungeon room full of demon ferrets, she could have wiped out all of them at once¡­ But it could also hurt her allies ¨C especially if they were dumb enough not to follow the one rule she had given. Reaching a handout, Maddy pushed the small amount of mana that had regenerated since she had used her slash towards'' Jess. ¡­and then paused. Just pushing mana wasn¡¯t very effective. Ahead of her the immobile bull died ¨C she was barely paying attention at this point as she held her scythe up and tapped the tip to her friend¡¯s ear. Instead of using her attack skill, Maddy pushed life mana through the same runes. Mana gathered meaning and purpose then erupted out of the tip of her blade the moment it pierced the mushy flesh of her friend¡¯s ear. Maddy controlled the weak tendril of life mana as it sought to mend and fix what she had done. Maddy was much less experienced with healing by this point ¨C that was bad. Her affinity put her into the place of her team¡¯s healer she should lean into that more. To the side she noticed another bull-like creature approaching. This one was nearly identical but had a flower growing out of its head. ¡­she had used most of her mana killing the first one and was distracted trying to heal Jess. ¡­sure, this nest had four notches ¨C that meant tier 4 or ¡®one third of the way into rank 1¡¯ but that should be close to her strength ¨C right? She didn¡¯t know her exact ¡®level¡¯ but had tried to guess based on the stat levels she had read about. She was levelled for this hunting zone and had specifically picked it because she countered stuff here ¨C why wasn¡¯t it as easy as she had imagined? ¡°Guys, second target,¡± pointing towards'' the new bull she heard a faint twang and a streak of light as Troy shot toward it. The brilliant arrow sunk into the bull and was essentially eaten by its flesh. In one side and then gone ¨C a faint glow illuminating the hole for a moment and then fading. Jess stepped forward and whipped a barrier into place ¨C her new whip had a longer reach and supposedly better flexibility ¨C so the barrier appeared right in front of the bull. She seems to be doing okay. Maddy dropped her focus on the spell ¨C the manual portion the rest of the life mana worming around could figure itself out ¨C and gripped her scythe once more. She wished her first cast of the scythe had stayed around long enough to refill her. Her roughly 10% fill mana pool would have to do for this attack. Maddy paused. What¡¯s that? She could sense her death mana still in the corpse of the first creature ¨C could sense its death still tinging the air with untapped energy. ¡°This is probably a dumb idea but I¡¯m going to try something, I feel like if I don¡¯t try this, I¡¯ll keep thinking about it,¡± Maddy called back watching as Troy shot another arrow ¨C this one a pitch black blur darkening reality as it warped towards the bull and disappeared into it ineffectually. Running towards the first corpse Maddy struck it with a weakened [Reaper¡¯s blade] pushing mana into the body and feeling it collect¡­stuff. It wasn¡¯t mana it was eating and ¡®collecting¡¯ just energy ¨C and Maddy could only sense this energy due to her affinity. With a surge she felt the tendrils gorged and full ¨C like leeches that had over fed on blood and were now about to burst. Each tendril disappeared when it was full ¨C returning to her across the distance and refilling her pool.
?? Achievement get: Reaper¡¯s prodigy. (Unique)
Description: Actively seek out and collect the energy of death for the first time.
Stat: +1 soul power. Stat: +3 mental power.
There was still quite a bit of energy on the death. Striking it for 10% once more Maddy turned and ran towards the second bull. Behind her the invisible leeches filled up on death energy and as Maddy grazed this bull releasing her skill into it she found herself refilled once more. [Words of Death] was off cooldown ¨C ¡°cooldown¡± meaning it had refilled its pool of mana and the system skill would now let her use it again. At this moment she really could understand why someone would consider the gifted system skill ¡®unowned¡¯. If it were hers, she could send it off before it finished refilling. Heck if it were hers the invisible mana pool for the skill would be added to her own ¨C she could use that mana on more scythes if she wanted. Breaking in the midst of a fight seemed dumb, however. Just something for the future. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see another bull running towards them ¨C it was still a ways¡¯ away but gaining as it ran between bushes across the wooden grass. ¡°I¡¯m using my sound skill. Please cover your ears¡± Maddy yelled making sure to watch until Jess covered her ears this time. The third bull was in range, so Maddy spoke ¨C frustration bleeding into her words. ¡°Both of you just die already.¡± Beside her the second bull buckled and fell ¨C while ahead of her the charging ¡®third bull¡¯ tripped and slid. A crackling sound rang out as it broke a path of grass like some fleshy Zamboni. Maddy turned and ran towards it her scythe at the ready. Now that she was getting into the groove of things, she was more confident with her choices. Her partners didn¡¯t seem to be doing too well here¡­ but she had specifically picked this nest for herself ¨C she had even told them she could go alone. A bit more exercise and she should have enough experience to go back and study some more. A strike of death worms into the fallen body and Maddy turned ¨C making her way back towards her partners. There seemed to be a lull in the attacks ¨C no 4th bull was attacking as she reached them. ¡°How are you two doing?¡± Maddy asked making sure to address how she could tell they were feeling. ¡°I feel useless, I need to break my skill soon¡± Jess responded smiling and trying to play it off. Her voice was so soft it was hard to hear when she wasn¡¯t doing the equivalent of excitedly yelling. Troy seemed to be studying his bow. ¡°I¡¯m fine¡± he mumbled after realizing she was looking at him. ¡°I¡¯ve mostly got what I came for,¡± Maddy said after a moment. real experience using her skills had done more for her than the last few hours of studying ¨C she couldn¡¯t wait to try and refine her findings. Suddenly Maddy paused. ¡°Hold that thought¡± she spoke staring past them. It had been a rare chance but¡­she thought she saw the golden goose watching them from underneath a shrubby tree ahead. A death slime. If she caught that all her hopes for this trip would have been achieved. Chapter 26. The most valuable monster around – the slime. ---Maddy--- Slimes are a unique sort of creature. They are actually an entire class of monster ¨C with a few key traits common between all variants. To start off with, 99% of slimes have a single elemental weakness directly opposite to their own ¡°element¡±. That element makes up all of what they are and do to the detriment of everything else. To reiterate. Fire slimes are weak to ice and to a lesser extent water. Shadow slimes are weak to light and to a lesser extent fire. And the target Maddy was aiming for ¨C death slimes ¨C are weak to life and healing. This was counter to a lot of ¡®normal¡¯ monster and human affinities ¨C typically having one side of the coin does not make you weak to the other ¨C countering a regular monster''s preferred affinity will momentarily neutralize it but nothing more. This has led to the theory that slimes are nothing more than a concentrated lump of their affinity. ¡®zeroing them¡¯ by turning them into ¡®pure¡¯ mana killed them by scrubbing what they are out of existence. In exchange for ¨C or perhaps ¡®because of¡¯ that weakness, slimes are some of the most resilient creatures around. They are one of the only monsters that are 100% immune to all other sorts of damage ¨C in fact the affinity book Maddy read this fact in claimed this trait ¨C nearly 100% immunity ¨C was what makes a slime, a slime. If a creature has 100% immunity to a single element it should be considered part slime. The reason for the all-encompassing name ¨C ¡®slime¡¯ ¨C was pretty simple. Other than stone slimes and other physical variants ¨C those are solid, usually immobile, nearly invincible blocks¡­ that shatter to a single child¡¯s kick ¨C all slimes are goopy creatures immune to physical damage. No matter how much you slash and stab a slime, they will always reform or slide through your attack. It is a well-known fact that unless you have the specific weakness for a slime on hand, there is literally nothing you could do to kill it. With varying degrees of speed, affinity damage ¨C fire slimes burning things, death slimes necrotizing things ¨C and intelligence, slimes exist on a spectrum between pest and deadly killer. Now, the reason Maddy wanted to kill one was less apparent ¨C her affinity book simply stated slime cores sold for a lot. From what she could tell after reading the entry in her ¡®nest ¨C and minor bestiary of each ¨C book¡¯, the core had something to do with how slimes perceived the world. Slimes without a core were usually mindless, randomly wandering, masses of goop. Slimes with a core could somehow see their surroundings and more importantly threats in their surroundings ¨C they were instinctively able to sense if a creature was stronger or dangerous to them. Catching one is probably a rare enough feat to warrant an achievement. If they are so valuable, they might be useful to keep for myself as well. ¡­ ¡°Catch that ball of money!¡± Maddy shouted dashing towards the ¡®probably a death slime¡¯. With a silent jolt it began running ¨C moving surprisingly fast as it slid through the bush and across the spiky ground without slowing down. Surprisingly fast ¨C it was like watching a turtle run after being told your whole life they were slow. Something that shapeless should not be moving that quickly. Maddy awkwardly ran through the grass, her feet stamping up and down ¨C occasionally breaking strands below her and kicking them forward. Dimly she could sense her friends right behind her. Distantly she could hear what was probably another bull or monster crashing their way. She held her scythe to her right side ¨C leaning ever so slightly to the left to balance correctly. Despite pushing herself as hard as she could, her prize was getting away. One of the reasons slimes were so valuable was due to their difficulty in catching them ¨C most slimes liked to hide in dangerous environments they were immune to. The middle of a volcanic wasteland was the book¡¯s example ¨C basking in the heat and flames that drove predators away. That got messed around a bit with monster nests and their somewhat unnatural environments ¨C the fact that this nest occasionally created them despite being mostly tanks was a prime example of an exceptions to the ¡®rule¡¯. Maddy ran around a bush the slime had simply glommed through ¨C then spotted it over a hundred feet further ahead. She pushed herself further as it disappeared into another bush ¨C crossing the distance as fast as physically possible with her running speed and the unstable ground. ¡­there was nothing on the other side of the bush. She couldn¡¯t see it hiding in the bush. ¡­the slime was gone. Maddy slowed. ¡°Dammit!¡± She cursed ¨C turning she spotted her two friends coming to a halt right behind her. Both seemed less winded than her ¨C their different body foundations coming in play? Or am I just this out of shape? ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s gone.¡± Maddy sighed gesturing around at the emptiness. ¡°What was that thing?¡± Jess spoke squinting in the direction it had glommed. ¡°It¡¯s a valuable target. I wanted to catch it to figure out why it was so expensive ¨C or sell it¡± ¡°Ah, well that¡¯s fine. There will be plenty of them in the future ¨C¡± ¡°A nest like this with an easier environment and having a slime specifically designed for me ¨C that won¡¯t happen again. Its rare here too! We could spend hours without finding another one.¡± ¡°¡­or other ways to make money. We can stay here a bit longer? Try and find another one? Box in that one?¡± ¡°I feel a bit guilty about leaving the caravan for too long. It feels like we are abusing our position as ¡®adventurers¡¯.¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°I could have used that core for my capstone.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, well we can always find you ¨C¡° Maddy paused. There was a 4th person standing beside them.
---James--- James slowly regained his strength while resting. A few minutes was all he needed to sit up and start feeling better, but that was far from enough to feel good as new. He was missing his arm. His whole arm. It was¡­just not there anymore. It hadn¡¯t fully sunk in when he had been desperately struggling to survive, but now that he had a moment to rest it was all he could think of. How do I fix this? How do I get it back? I know eating regenerating monsters can help heal you¡­but can it regrow a whole lost limb? ¡­revival is possible. In comparison to that, regenerating a lost limb is a parlor trick. James suddenly realized he was feeling sorry for himself and stood up. It was understandable ¨C it was always understandable the times he ended up wallowing in emotions¡­every period of him being ¡®depressed¡¯ could be directly linked to bad things outside of his control happening to him. If I focus on this, it will happen again. I need to get better at basic survival. Take it one step at a time. James didn¡¯t stop to think about how healthy of a mindset that was ¨C instead he just moved. As he stepped forward, he distributed his ¡®free¡¯ stats. An even split of all three types. His power went through his eyes ¨C he needed to see danger before it appeared. His speed went to his legs ¨C being able to outrun enemies was the way to go. His defense went to his bloodstream. He couldn¡¯t bleed out at this point he had come too far. It was a defensive split but one he liked for the future. Grabbing a particularly sharp rock James left the pool behind ¨C winding his one arm around and around like a baseball pitcher. Until he figured out a better thing to do, he was going to find a life based monster and eat it. If that didn¡¯t work, he would do it again. As simple as it was, it sounded like a plan. ¡­ James¡¯s hunted ¨C everything was harder with a single arm. Surprise surprise. Don¡¯t wallow. He killed several small creatures of different sizes and ate bits of their flesh raw. An hour into the day he was incredibly lucky ¨C he found red flowers that burst into flame when smashed and spit on. He held off on cooking most of his meals ¨C he didn¡¯t know what his chances of killing a Firestalker were with one arm ¨C but he still kept a group of the flowers in his pocket. They only seemed to alight when hit with water ¨C so unless he went swimming again or bled on the pocket or got too sweaty¡­okay it wasn¡¯t the safest spot for them but leaving them behind was worse. He would rather accidentally catch himself on fire than try to make a fire without tools and one arm. James consumed ¨C raw creatures and finally a few badly cooked ones once he found himself unable to continue. He didn¡¯t care for taste ¨C nearly everything tasted absolutely awful ¨C he just cared about survival. He only vomited a creature up once ¨C something that burned that much on the way down had to have been poisonous. He hid from any monster bigger than him ¨C size wasn¡¯t everything but it was still a good indicator¡­ and even if it wasn¡¯t nighttime he didn¡¯t like his chances. Once or twice he found a critter that was particularly hard to kill and got excited. There was a purple vole thing he was forced to hold down with a knee and bash with a rock for nearly 10 minutes that made him think he had found one ¨C and it had actually worked a bit! The stump of his flesh growing out slightly to the middle of his forearm¡­ But sadly he couldn¡¯t find more of them. The one positive for the experience was growth. It seemed like the system really liked him fighting one handed. It really really liked him fighting one handed ¨C even though most of the creatures he killed were weak enough they shouldn¡¯t have given him anything¡­ by noon he had gained over two dozen stats spread between his arm and legs. Two monster hunter achievements with specific numbers at 20 and 40 ¨C considering they restarted and weren''t stacking based on the one from the tutorial they were zone specific?
?? Achievement get: Monster hunter I. (uncommon)
Description: Kill 20 different breed of monster.
Stat: +3 free body power.
?? Achievement get: Monster hunter 2. (rare)
Description: Kill 40 different breed of monster.
Stat: +4 free body power.
¡­Both distributed to the muscles in his chest after he decided he was becoming too lopsided in the one arm. Two monster eating achievements.
?? Achievement get: Monster gourmand 1. (rare)
Description: For eating 20 different monsters you killed ¨C waste not want not.
Stat: +6 stomach poison resistance.
?? Achievement get: Monster gourmand 2. (unique)
Description: For eating 40 different monsters you killed ¨C waste not want not.
Stat: +8 stomach poison resistance. Stat: +1 free body defense.
That defense being added to his as-of-yet untouched throat, to help stuff go down ever so slightly better. Maybe because of how focused he was ¨C maybe just because of his last meal ¨C but James felt something faint change as soon as he distributed that last point. Something was different. He was different somehow. ¡­what that ''difference'' was he couldn¡¯t tell and ignored in favor of surviving. James learned a strange sort of fighting style. His battles were short and quick and usually involved ''power shooting a stone at something on its own, then rushing forward and curb stomping it as fast as he could. Peak hunting Strat. Sometimes he would pick up the rock again and bash the monster to bits with it if it survived his first assault. Once or twice, he would hit something that would turn and chase him ¨C James only realizing after the fact how strong it was. And then again. Something changed. This time with the environment instead of his body. James was stalking a bird that looked somewhat like a peacock with leaves for feathers when he noticed the surroundings were different ¨C they had changed more than usual the sharp relief between biomes unnatural. The ground was sticky and covered in a strange goo. It was green and spread over a wide area ¨C curious James crept into the belly of the beast so to speak. Careful not to slip James continued walking until he found the source of the destruction ¨C a man standing in the midst of carnage. The first human James had seen in the badlands so far ¨C instantly making him raise his guard. A part of him wanted to leave right away ¨C but he was curious despite himself. At the man¡¯s feet, a dozen monsters were laid in a neat line. Each were killed in a similar manner ¨C a single hole in the head or chest or bulbus weak spot. James walked towards the man who waved him over like they were in the midst of a park laughing lightly. ¡°Hey! Come check out what I just shot! Come! Come! Look at this!¡± At the man¡¯s feet a mound of green slime lay and in his arm, an emerald gem sat. ¡°Look what I just dug out of the critter below me! It¡¯s a slime core! Come! Come look this was a great kill ¨C super hard to shoot correctly but a couple finger bullets did it in just fine.¡± James crept forward like a stray cat ¨C [haste] ready to activate and wisk him away at a moment''s notice. What¡¯s happening? Who¡¯s this? Why are they so cheerful and why are they so nonchalant about being here? Aren¡¯t they afraid of calling more monsters towards them? I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening. Chapter 27. Meeting a wizard. Meeting a inventor. Meeting a particularly interesting rock. ---Maddy--- ¡°Who are you?¡± Jess yelled jumping away and pointing toward the man in their midst. Troy held up his bow training his eyes on the surprise-person who stood smiling around at everyone. Maddy¡­didn¡¯t react. She was certainly surprised he had arrived ¨C even more so that she hadn¡¯t noticed him arrive despite her foundation which should have let her pay better attention to the surroundings¡­but everything about him spoke to her of someone who didn¡¯t mean them harm. The ¡®man¡¯ wore an outfit of reddish leather and carried a brown short-cloak around his neck. The most immediately important ¨C or perhaps just distinguishable feature was his fake beard. Attached to his face was a modestly sized grey beard ¨C and two nearly invisible strings wrapped around the side of his head keeping it in place. ¡°Hey there, didn¡¯t mean to frighten you ¨C my names ''Renald''. I¡¯m a wizard. Mostly a wizard. I¡¯ll be a full wizard once I catch that slime and make my capstone at least ¨C I¡¯m done with my apprenticeship.¡± Renald explained himself slightly haltingly but with a friendly tone. Maddy stared. The beard¡­that made him look less mysterious and wizard-like ¨C didn¡¯t he know that? It also managed to lower her suspicion. A part of her circled around and pointed out he could be wearing it to make people think he was less competent than he was¡­but his posture and eyes and voice did plenty to make him feel reliable. ¡°Hey! Obviously suspicious man with the fake beard. I don¡¯t care if you think you are a wizard or not ¨C why are you going about sneaking up on us in the middle of a monster nest! Back off! Stand over there buddy.¡± Jess spoke defensively shifting forward to place herself between him and her two companions. She glared and moved her finger back and forth pointing a few times till he got the message and stepped over ¨C looking slightly amused all the while. It was a nice thought ¨C but Maddy knew he wasn¡¯t out to attack them ¨C if he was, he would have done so before they noticed him. He was either out of touch with social norms or this was something to do with his culture. ¡­which brought Maddy¡¯s attention to something. ¡°You¡¯re not a¡­traveler, are you? How are you speaking English?¡± Smirking the man lifted his cowl to show a ruby-red pendant. ¡°Shifting a rudimentary system-based translator to a vocal one is well within the capabilities of a wizard such as I.¡± ¡­so this is not his real voice. It¡¯s a¡­translation. That makes sense. I''ve already seen some translators. When Maddy noticed that, she could see how his lips and voice didn¡¯t match up. The beard had hidden that for a moment. Enough small changes had built up now that she was starting to doubt her initial assessment. She might be¡­reading him wrong. She didn¡¯t have some supernatural gift to understand people after all just some practice. ¡­but still, even with the cascading suspicious points she still felt like he was trustworthy. She trusted her gut. ¡°What¡¯s your capstone?¡± Maddy asked ¨C not wanting to let the conversation slip into an awkward stalemate. ¡°Its¡­a capstone is the final project an apprentice takes on to prove everything they have learned. I don¡¯t want to share what mine is but the core from that slime is the last thing I need to finish it.¡± Renald spoke firmly. Jess was looking between the two of them. She seemed slightly less on edge after seeing Maddy talk normally, but her hands were held tightly around her whip all the same. Suddenly the Wizard flung his hand to the side and what looked like a sparrow of fire shot out. The construct flew a hundred feet to the side and began attacking the bull that had been making its way toward them. With a shriek the sparrow dug into the bull which was immediately immolated ¨C it began running towards them burning wildly before falling a few seconds later. A perfect circle was burnt into the wooden grass around it ¨C the fire mysteriously disappearing as soon as it reached the edge. Ripping out of the top of the bull the sparrow flew back towards them. Maddy could see drops of blood burning off ¨C the feathers of fire curling up into smoke that vanished. She could see an incredible amount of details on the bird ¨C instead of simply shaping fire into a bird shape ¨C or turning a bird red ¨C this construct was a perfect blend of the two. The bird circled the man twice, then disappeared into his hand once more. Maddy hadn¡¯t seen the bull yet ¨C once again she should have been paying attention to her surroundings better. She needed more mental stats. ¡°Woah there, sorry for attacking without saying anything ¨C nests are great places to have conversations.¡± The wizard laughed. Maddy stood staring at the remnants of the spell picturing the bird in her mind. Trying to keep those flaming feathers still in her memories. She wanted that. Maddy wanted to be able to chuck magic instead of running up and attacking stuff with her scythe directly. it wasn''t that she liked ''ranged'' attacks ¨C if that were the case she would have chosen a weapon like a slingshot or a blowdart back in the tutorial. It was hard to explain herself in her mind. She wanted magic. She wanted that freedom, the ability to shape the world with her mind. Maddy didn¡¯t even care about attacking things when she thought about it ¨C she just wanted magic, a taste of what that man had shown. ¡°Can I become your apprentice?¡± Maddy spoke almost without thinking. She wanted this. ¡°Ha! The sign of a true wizard is to take a disciple of my own¡­I didn¡¯t even have to head out and find one! Are you willing to spend the next nine years of your life learning from me? Apprenticeships are not to be accepted lightly. ¡°Of course she¡¯s not¡± Jess yelped ¡°That¡¯s ages!¡± ¡­ ¡°Counter offer, you teach me a bit of what you know and I¡¯ll help you catch a slime?¡± Maddy asked ¨C partly as a joke. Jess didn¡¯t need to refuse the apprenticeship for her. She wouldn¡¯t have¡­she wouldn¡¯t have accepted nine years. Probably. ¡°And why would I need your help catching the slime?¡± The wizard laughed eyes flashing a golden yellow of flames at his words. ¡°¡­I have a life affinity and you need life mana to kill it?¡± Tilting his head the wizard pulled out a vial of green liquid and stared at it for a moment. ¡°I was going to hold it down and pour a healing potion on it ¨C getting your help might be more efficient. Sure." His demeanour completely changed for a moment his eyes staring directly into Maddy¡¯s soul his outstretched hand firmly dangling in space between them. ¡°For one day¡¯s lessons in the art of shaping your mana as you wish it to be shaped, you promise to aid my murder of the manifestation of death slipping about these wooden woods.¡± The man intoned a slight smirk upon his lips. ¡°To clarify¡­you mean the death slime right? Not some other creature? And you¡¯ll answer my questions?¡± Maddy asked even as she reached for his hand. ¡°Yeah, master always said to enter into minor pacts with appropriate formality ¨C there you go!¡± As soon as Maddy brought her hand away, a whisp of yellow light came and wrapped around her finger. It felt warm ¨C that was actually the only sign the ring of light existed ¨C she couldn¡¯t feel it other than the slight warmth and when rubbing her other hand over it her fingers simply passed through it. ¡°Hey hey hey! What are you doing to her?¡± Jess once again seemed more suspicious of anything he did. ¡°Just a promise ring ¨C it should stay there until we both do what we promised to do¡­ it''s just a reminder ¨C if you run away it should stay there for years unless dispelled reminding you of the promise you are ignoring¡­do you not know of promise rings on this ¡®Earth¡¯ you spoke of?¡± The wizard spoke seeming embarrassed somehow ¨C his demeanour returned to the laid-back state he was in before. ¡°It''s fine Jess¡± Maddy waved at her friend. She knew she was entering into things blindly ¨C she knew she was dropping everything for this but¡­it was magic? How could she not? ¡°What happened to making sure not to keep the caravan for too long?¡± Jess asked seeming to have given up slightly. ¡°A caravan! What fun!¡± The wizard closed his eyes for a moment then opened them once more. ¡°I¡¯ve never ridden one ¨C let''s catch the slime quickly and then I can give you your lessons upon your travels.¡± Renald laughed. Jumping into action the wizard unfurled his arms which began to glow softly. With a burst of yellows and reds and oranges, hundreds of ethereal feathers flew out and drifted off in different directions. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Maddy asked her eyes locked onto each feather as it flew over and began floating about her head. ¡°Trying to find the slime ¨C these should lock onto it¡­or you now that I think about things. You have a life affinity don¡¯t you? Properly claimed I¡¯m sure based on those runes ¨C which means you have a death affinity too.¡± The wizard looked embarrassed as if he had made a mistake. ¡°¡­yes.¡± Maddy confirmed watching the feathers float about. ¡°Never mind ¨C I found the prize, your death wasn¡¯t strong enough to hide it from the following feathers! Let¡¯s go for a walk!¡± the wizard''s face lit up as he pointed off in a random direction. As one, the group began to walk towards the slime, the wizard''s words taking over the conversation. ¡°Man, I¡¯m lucky you¡¯re here to help me catch it ¨C slimes are tricky bastards. This one will start to run away as soon as it scans me. My plan is to circle around it soon and flush it toward you. Then you just have to blast it with whatever healing attack you can manage and badda bing badda boom the core is mine.¡± The wizard rambled a small skip in his step. ¡°Think you can manage your part?¡± He turned almost in afterthought to ask Maddy ¨C as if suddenly worried that was too much for her. ¡°Of course!¡± Maddy spoke. His knowledge was hers. Giving her a thumbs up the man seemed to be filled with light and suddenly he rushed away ¨C a slight streak to his movement as he ran away from them in an arc. The glow of his steps faded and then suddenly with a wobble the death slime was there. It ran panicked towards the group momentarily freezing as soon as it spotted Maddy and her friends. Far behind it, she spotted the wizard sprinting straight towards them in a comical manner ¨C he looked like he was running incredibly fast but his movement was that of a light jog ¨C like he was running on a treadmill the world around him holding him back. I wish I broke [words of death earlier] and made some runework for the skill ¨C I could have used healing everything within range right about now¡­unless the slime doesn¡¯t have ears and it wouldn¡¯t have worked? Dashing forward her legs scrambling slightly to deal with the grass, Maddy pushed life mana through her [reaper''s slash]. All along the edge of her scythe, a faint green line glowed ¨C and her scythe knowledge guided her hand into a low slash. Like a farmer''s swing reaping wheat, an entire swath of wood grass was sliced through ¨C flying up in all directions even as the tip of her swing just barely missed the slime. Its body wobbled as if laughing at her and dashed to the side heading towards Troy who stood trying to box it in. Letting lose an arrow he shot towards the creature ¨C an arrow of darkness streaking across the short distance and passing through the slime harmlessly. This was her job, she had to complete it. Quickly running around the wizard was once again between her and the slime. It spooked and momentarily seemed to forget she was behind it as Maddy ran towards it and swung once again. ¡°There!¡± Maddy whooped as the tip of her scythe passed through the globing creature. The barest swipe that did nothing ¨C but soon after a surge of her life worms burrowed through the creature unnaturally fast and it seemed to melt and burn away. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
?? Achievement get: Catch a slime (Death) (Unique)
Description: Kill a slime of the death variety. Get back here you!
Stat: +3 mental power. Stat: +3 arm power. Stat: +3 mental speed. Stat: +3 running speed.
Walking over, Maddy found the rest of the slime had seemingly solidified into a solid dark grey and translucent sphere. She picked it up then brought the core towards the wizard. As she reached him she placed it in his hand ¨C the moment Maddy completed her side of the bargain, her ring faded and broke... the warm feeling she had grown used to gone. ¡°You played your part perfectly. Thank you.¡± The man spoke staring at his core in satisfaction. ¡°What is it? What does it do?¡± Maddy asked staring at the core as well. ¡°Have you used a status stone before? This is a form of one of them.¡± The wizard spoke while beginning to place it in his pocket. ¡°¡­no I haven¡¯t.¡± Maddy responded Jess and Troy crowding around behind her. Renald paused seemingly surprised then finished tucking it away pulling out a second much smaller core ¨C this one pocketed with small marks. ¡°Your lessons can begin now I guess. A slime is a creature that navigates purely based on scans. ''Analyze'' its brand of magic is sometimes called.¡± Renald began to explain. ¡°Wait!¡± Maddy interrupted. ¡°You said a day of lessons, I don¡¯t want to start that day so late if it means I get less time with you.¡± Nodding beside her Jess seemed to approve of the statement. ¡°I¡­I will give you a day¡¯s worth of lessons and spread the rest of the hours out tomorrow. Let me continue¡± Renald seemed slightly annoyed at the interruption glancing at everyone before continuing. ¡°Hold this stone and simply push a bit of mana into it ¨C neither of your affinities should be too damaging but to be polite you should push pure mana ¨C that¡¯s where you combine life and death perfectly, so they cancel out ¨C into the center of it.¡± Renald instructed. Carefully taking the status ¡®stone¡¯ Maddy tried to follow his goal ¨C mixing her mana and pushing a pure version out ¨C it wasn¡¯t perfect, she pushed a bit more life than death out but it seemed to have worked.
Name Maddison Graves.
Foundation Distributive mind.
Mind
Wisdom Intelligence Clarity
24 16 8
Body
Strength Agility Endurance
25 14 10
Soul
Presence Impact Stability
3 4 6
Stat Total 110
Rank 1
Tier 0
Outlier notes:
Affinity: ''Life & Death''. Highest Leaning: ''Power''. Lowest Leaning: ''Defense''. Highest Area: ''Body'', Lowest Area: ''Soul''. Strength concentrated in arms: 12 Speed concentrated in arms: 9 Endurance Concentrated into ''deafening prevention'' in ears: 4
Maddy stared at the status screen wafting up in front of her taking it in ¨C even as Troy took the stone and activated his own. ¡°This is a status screen or output of an analysis spell ¨C power in the first column, speed in the second, defense in the final¡­there are many variations on this screen ¨C some that show more or less information. Most are a bit inaccurate ¨C plus or minus a few points to each stat ¨C and some show an ¡®effective¡¯ result after calculating synergies¡­some badly made or collected ones will only show physical stats ¨C a lot have perception separated out from the rest of the bodies strength¡­anyways I''m getting distracted. Mines high quality even if it''s heavily used and works well for what I need. Typically scanning yourself is called a ¡®status¡¯ spell ¨C and scanning others is called a ¡®analyse¡¯ spell. You can nearly always get more information from yourself than you can from others ¨C the easiest scan on someone or something else just gives back that they exist. The easiest useful scan gives back their highest and lowest stats ¨C that¡¯s usually enough to build a plan of attack around. Sometimes a scan can include location information ¨C how far away something is from you for example ¨C but those are even more inaccurate and useless for anyone with eyes. Typically these spells are structured to give you back if someone is stronger than you or not ¨C the standard is to show a skull for each tier at or above you ¨C up to three or four usually with a special identifier if they are a rank above you. ¡­I¡¯ve gotten a bit distracted again. Basically, slimes are constantly scanning their environment ¨C pulses in different directions bringing back basic information on people and objects. They use that to find prey weaker than them, as well as stay away from predators stronger than them ¨C or those they know have an affinity with their weakness. Strong wizards can usually do this status or analyze spell themselves ¨C or incredibly specialized information mages ¨C but most of the rest of us need tools to do the job for us. We then don''t use our tools that often ¨C because using a status stone or analysis artifact imperfectly damages it and I don''t want to keep buying new ones. Finally this sort of status check is only really important for fighting unknown creatures of similar strength to you ¨C I haven¡¯t scanned a single creature in this nest for example, because I know I can overwhelm them all.¡± The Wizard began his lecture while leading them back towards the caravan. ¡°Wait!¡± Jess yelled for the group to stop. The edge of the nest they were coming out of meshed weirdly with the surroundings ¨C a rim of clay meeting their eyes just ahead. Running over to the clay she pulled out a mound ¨C cast her barrier into it and began shaping the clay around her skill. Up till now she either attached a barrier to herself ¨C part of the pane of yellow magic embedded harmlessly in her body like a shield ¨C or embedded it into the ground ¨C it not affecting the surface after being cast or broken. This time she built a small lump around the skill ¨C the crumbly and hard clay pressing up against the pane without breaking. Staring at the result ¨C a mound of dirt you could barely call anything ¨C she deactivated her skill, a hole existing where it had been. Her eyes flashed slightly as she ¡®destroyed¡¯ with her mana of creation and then she jogged back to the group nonchalantly. After Jess reached Troy, she reached out and grabbed the status stone being discussed ¨C bringing up her own information as well surprisingly quickly. ¡°Ah! Always fun to see a breaking for the first time. Some find it incredibly hard ¨C you seem to have managed well enough I¡¯m surprised that worked!¡± Renald exclaimed ¨C the conversation derailed slightly as he congratulated the women. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about that all day ¨C don¡¯t take this from me¡± Jess looked embarrassed as she responded positively to the wizard for the first time. ¡°Good job!¡± Maddy lightly punched Jess¡¯s shoulder which caused her friend to light up. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s not going to fall behind. The group continued on towards the caravan to continue their lesson.
---Richard--- Richard arrived at a building ¨C the woman had drawn a path to it ¨C and stared up at the door in front of him. This place screamed ¡®residential building¡¯ ¨C it didn¡¯t seem at all like a lab or professional place he could go to learn about skill breaking. The whole ghetto door and wall reminded him of getting weed back in highschool with his friends. ¡®Friends¡¯ of course. It was a sketchy fucking setup that¡¯s all he was going to say. Knocking on the door and waiting a moment, Richard found his eyes wandering around the houses nearby. Everything looked¡­off. It looked like a poor neighbourhood in his old city ¨C but instead of nailing up boards over windows, they seemed to like bolting sheets of copper up instead. Copper must be worthless with how much everyone used it here. Suddenly the door sprung open slightly ¨C jolting to a halt with a thick inner chain. A single baggy eye peered out at Richard for a moment and then the door was opened ¨C what was the point of having a whole multi-stage opening mechanism if you went and opened it to the nearest stranger? Was he just checking to see if Richard was a cop? Stepping inside Richard found himself face to face with¡­to be honest he¡¯d describe the young man in front of him as a ¡®chem lab masters student¡¯. The guy didn¡¯t look much older than Richard ¨C he wore a heavily stained and ripped lab coat, had messy hair and looked like he hadn¡¯t slept in a week. ¡°Hey there, B told me you would be coming.¡± A ¡®tinny¡¯ sounding voice ¨C speaking English ¨C came out of a small box on the man¡¯s chest as he spoke and gestured for Richard to step into the room. ¡°I heard you¡¯re looking to break a nonstandard skill? One not on the books?¡± The man asked as he lead Richard further into the entranceway. ¡°Uh¡­hey man. Can you hear me as well? So far I¡¯ve only seen translators that work one way. And yeah¡­sure. I want to know about skill breaks that¡¯s why I¡¯m here.¡± Richard responded ¨C peering into a messy bedroom as he followed the man deeper into his house. Instead of responding to the translator comment, the man tapped a device on his one ear ¨C presumably the translator? ¨C and continued down the hall. At the end of the hall without looking back the man pushed a weak looking door open slightly kicking a hinged doorstop down ¨C it looked like a bicycle stand but welded to a door ¨C then disappeared inside. Half expecting to be jumped, Richard stepped into the room where he was met with a mess of tubes. Tubes, wrapped around tubes ¨C one or two a transparent material that let you see the coloured liquid inside. At the end of the room appearing to be either fed by the tubes or producing something into them, a massive machine sat. It barely fit the room ¨C there were even scrapes along the ceiling as if assembling it smashed the weak drywall-like stuff above. The machine itself was covered in hundreds of nobs and lights and switches in various sizes and styles ¡°Sorry I didn¡¯t catch that. You don¡¯t know what skill breaking is?¡± the grad student turned to look at Richard surprised. ¡°I¡¯m also sorry I didn¡¯t introduce myself. My name¡¯s Rags ¨C so tell me about your skill. I¡¯ll walk you through the ¡®totally safe¡¯ ¡®probably going to work¡¯ skill breaking process as you do so ¨C a joke to lighten the mood but it doesn¡¯t seem like it''s landed. Sorry, I just want to know how to dial in the doses.¡± He disappeared behind the machine and started fiddling with some dials. ¡°¡­It¡¯s a skill. The system called it a chaos affinity. Makes random things I can¡¯t control happen. Trips things.¡± Richard felt incredibly awkward as he stood there. He wasn¡¯t used to feeling like this ¨C he usually just fucking went for it¡­ but the man fiddling with dials and pulling out syringes was creeping him out. ¡°System? That the name of some machine? Haven¡¯t heard of it. Anyways¡­Random telekinetic impulses you said? Step over here and put your hand on this status reader ¨C I want to see your stat spread.¡± The grad student spoke while waving at a small machine. Richard walked over to stand in front of something like a radio with a LED screen¡­ Richard pushed a confidence he didn¡¯t feel into his motion as he reached out ¨C don¡¯t want him to think I¡¯m just going do anything he says. I¡¯m doing this because I want to. Placing his hand on the panel indicated, Richard waited for a moment, then blinked as a low rez image popped out on the ¡®screen¡¯.
"Oh... that''s interesting...are they really this high or did the machine break again? Let''s get the detailed statistics for defence. Sorry. Please wait a bit," The grad student continued on seemingly confused by the numbers.
Blunt Force 38 {3.35} Piercing Force 58 {5.87}
Thermal - Cold 14 {1.47} Thermal - Heat 26 {2.22}
Radiation. 0 {1.00} Electrical 9 {1.27}
Chemical - Base value 71 {7.99}
"... that''s quite a bit higher than I''ve seen before ¨C even assuming it''s accurate to plus or minus a point or two. How do you even have that much chemical defence without armour? All the dungeons nearby have kinetic shock and heat damage? Sorry, one more check for sanity.
Body Speed 6
Body Power 24
Body Defense 215
Brain Speed 1
Brain Power 12
Brain Defense 9
Total 267
Rank 2 {0}
Shaking his head the grad student seemed done with his status tests. "Sorry for the wait! I''ve just never heard of anyone getting this far without breaking a skill. Give me a few minutes to set things up and then we can get started."
---James--- James stood in front of the most nonchalant ''dude'' he had ever met. They were holding an emerald ball and grinning wildly'' "Come on mate, stick yer hand on it. Let me show you something." the man urged. James was, to put it mildly, ''shit at people''. The guy was friendly but...what¡¯s the chance this was a trap? It would be pretty stupid of James if he just decided to put his hand on some strange ball which magically poisoned him or¡­or something. The man was definitely going to attack him ¨C should James attack first? What if they weren¡¯t going to attack him. That might provoke him into retaliating! James was still one-armed ¨C and look at some of these monsters the guy killed¡­that one looks like a baby troll or at least some smaller species. How the hell did he kill it with a single hole? "You brave enough to be out here in the wilds but not brave enough to touch a core? Look I''m holding it bare handed ¨C catch," Tossing the ball towards him, James reached out and fumbled it. He probably could have caught it two handed but reaching out with a phantom hand wasn¡¯t doing him any favors ¨C activating haste as the ball slipped James managed to save it before it fell holding it against his chest. The man clapped. ¡°Right on. Knew yeh could do it, Try and activate it with your energy ¨C Promise it will be fun.¡± ¡­he was making fun of James wasn¡¯t he. ¡°Here, take this back I don¡¯t know what you are talking about.¡± James held the ball carefully. ¡°¡­have you not broken your skill yet? Wild. What are you waiting on?¡± Walking forward as if to take it back and then suddenly blurring his hand the man shot towards James. He grabbed James''s palm for a second then ''something'' seemed to shoot heat through James¡¯s hand ¨C a tingle that was more shocking than painful. James threw the ball up and jumped back even as a blue box appeared in his vision.
Stat(us)
Rank 2
Defense 112
Blood 32¡À
Skin{fire} 21¡À
Stomach 20¡À
Skin{Piercing} 10¡À
Bones 10¡À
Brain 9¡À
Other 9¡À
Power 98
Core{muscles} 19¡À
left arm 29¡À
Eyes 15¡À
Right arm 13¡À
Brain 7¡À
Other 6¡À
Speed 68
Legs 45¡À
Nerves 8¡À
Brain 7¡À
Other 7¡À
James stared at the ''status'' floating in front of him until it disappeared. It felt relatively accurate ¨C even with all the ''plus or minus''s'' everywhere...he turned to notice the man ¨C once more holding the emerald ball. Holding the ball and smiling at James. Creepy. "That seems to have gotten your attention. Neat rock huh? And based on your reaction you don''t know much do you? Let me tell you a bit about the world you are now in. Call it me being a good Samaritan. My names is Ralph. I''m from Earth too." Chapter 28. Detailed lessons on magic and how the world works. ---Maddy--- It was strange how willing to wait and grateful the merchants were when they returned with another ¡®protector¡¯. Or maybe it wasn''t strange ¨C it just hinted at the power they had as ''adventuers''...and told a tale of a world that favored the powerful. Maybe Maddy was overthinking things ¨C maybe monsters attacking the caravan happened more often than she thought. Climbing up the ladder to the caravan¡¯s roof Renald made himself at home then looked at Maddy¡¯s discarded stack of rune attempts ¨C shuffling through the wooden slates like they were a stack of magazines. She sat across from him ¨C beside Jess ¨C silently waiting for the Wizard to speak. ¡°Okay, I think it''s best to just push through this,¡± Renald finally spoke, looking up and staring into Maddy¡¯s eyes. ¡°There¡¯s no, ¡®correct¡¯ way of doing magic ¨C you¡¯ve started down a classic path but have either made a decision I dislike or made a mistake somewhere. I have one question before I critique your runework ¨C are these¡± He pointed towards all her little symbols ¡°your language or a language you know?¡± Most of those symbols were ones she had copied from her leg. A few were made up. ¡°¡­no? I¡¯m sorry I literally know nothing and the books I found weren¡¯t a big help.¡± Rifling through her three books he sighed and nodded. ¡°Most wizards are secretive buggers. Proper tomes are hard to come by ¨C I can¡¯t imagine you finding anything useful in a regular shop.¡± Taking a deep breath, the Wizard began his lesson. ¡°To start out with, I¡¯m only giving this lesson to you ¨C it won¡¯t be as helpful for either of your companions and trying to follow it exactly for them will be useless at best and outright detrimental at worse ¨C I¡¯ll give a few pointers and there¡¯s some overlap¡­ but I¡¯m not an expert on magic warriors so take every non-spellcaster note I give with a heavy dose of trip potion.¡± Troy noticeably shrank at those words his attention fading. ¡°To start out with you need to know what a spell is. All spells ¨C all magic in general has three important components. Element. Concept and Shape. Simple. Easy to remember. In order we have: Element ¨C that is the affinity of mana you push into the spell. It¡¯s the hardest to change ¨C it¡¯s the hardest to gain and lose. Outside of very specific cases ¨C making a decision to gain more elements for example ¨C it¡¯s the aspect of your spell you don¡¯t have control over¡­ as well as something that taints the rest of your spell in its innate concept. A rudimentary and prehistoric view of magic is to split it as ¡®element¡¯ ¡®everything else¡¯. That¡¯s an old model but does show how the ¡®fuel¡¯ is separate from the ¡®spell¡¯ nicely. The next main part of a spell is the Concept. Concept is the goal. The meaning. The strength. The part of a spell that is a ¡®spell¡¯. It''s harder to change and harder to gain than shape ¨C but easier to do so than with your element. Using a spell with nothing but concepts, shapes and some pure mana without an affinity¡­that¡¯s what we call cantrips. They can do a lot ¨C and sometimes scrubbing the concept of your affinity out of the spell is beneficial¡­but they are always weaker. Shape is the easiest to change. It¡¯s the least or most important part of a spell depending on who you ask. Personally, some mages spend way too much time focusing on it but I can see why ¨C they have something they can control and focus all their time squeezing out what they can from it. By that I mean a lot of wizards lock themselves up in their towers and spend all their time slowly crafting their spells to be better. Everything clear so far?¡± The wizard asked pausing in his lecture. ¡°What do they do?¡± Maddy asked ¨C he hadn¡¯t said enough. The Wizard paused as if considering how to respond then started up once more. ¡°I¡¯ll get there. For now, know this. Everyone from those who messed up their breaks, to those with unbroken skills, to monsters use these three parts. I¡¯ll go over them once more and then give you some examples ¨C feel free to ask your questions at the end. The first building block is the element. Simplified it is simply the type of damage your spell does. It is the way your spell can affect reality. Elements are the ¡®payload¡¯ as some call it, or the ¡®fuel¡¯. For your spell to have any results the element has to affect reality ¨C even if you aren¡¯t attacking something the spell still needs to burn its results upon reality. Sorry, I¡¯m first and foremost a fire wizard a few descriptions might show that. Element is what people will resist your spell with ¨C unless your concepts are strong enough to make it really weird at least. The second building block is the method with which you transfer that elemental damage. Less straightforward than elements, it¡¯s the ¡®goal¡¯. The ¡®meaning¡¯ behind the spell. Concepts are conditions, modifiers, rules, themes. It¡¯s the part of a spell that can be called magic. The most important part as far as I¡¯m concerned. The final building block is the Shape. Shape is the form your spell takes. What it looks like, how it moves, what control you have over it. Some view this part of spellcraft as the most important ¨C it¡¯s the part you have the most control over after all¡­I already said that didn''t I? Basically it''s just a means to an end. It''s important only because of how it affects the other two blocks but it''s not important on its own. Does that make sense? As promised, I''m going to explain all three using some examples. Literally anything can be an element. Water, love. Unlike concepts or shapes, the elements shown in this book really are the best.¡± The wizard held Maddy¡¯s affinity guide and pointed out the base elements once more. ¡°You don''t want a weak element like water ¨C water damage is so much worse than something like fire. You''re lucky to have gained one of the ''good'' elements for your first skill. My master¡¯s favourite description was using the element of surprise. As an affinity, it would be ¡®surprise¡¯ and ¡®straightforward¡¯ mana on the inverse. If you make a ball of surprise mana and hit someone with it¡­ they will be dealt surprise damage. That means they will literally be surprised as long as they don''t resist your spell. That''s it. You''ll have surprised them. The end. Only creatures intelligent enough to be surprised will be damaged by surprise damage ¨C everything else will have natural defense too high for your spell to bypass¡­ and you would find it hard to do anything but add and remove surprise from people no matter how good the rest of your concepts are. Some people imagine gaining some rare element is good ¨C but it''s really not. That¡¯s what concepts are for. Water damage in the short term is only good for ruining books and surprise mana is a parlour trick. If you think of water hitting something really fast and dealing bludgeoning damage... that''s movement magic and you are better off gaining a movement affinity for that damage type then working on your water concept. Now let''s look at Concepts and Pseudo concepts once more. Continuing to use surprise as an example, the concept of surprise is incredibly powerful and useful tool. Most assassin''s and rogues use surprise concepts of a sort. The [backstab] skill in all of its affinity flavours, deals its damage through attacks on the unaware... Adding its concept to an existing spell would make the spell deal more ¨C or only deal ¨C damage if done in a surprise attack. The concept of surprise will help your elemental damage slip past some defenses. ...Will strengthen your attack into being stronger than it should be. ...Will taint your entire spell and make it weaker if not done in a surprise manner. The opposite concept ¨C straightforwardness is also a valid concept even if it was a weak element. There''s a large portion of warriors who like to tell you they are about to attack you. Their skills only works if they face creatures head on and with honesty. Sometimes they shout the name of their skill or describe it to you before they can use it. Sometimes those who use these skills are called duelers ¨C and sometimes they are called droners ¨C because of how annoying their monologues are¡­but I¡¯m getting carried away. Another harder to wrap your head around example using the same concept of surprise, is a spell that only affects people who are surprised. A certain monster likes trying to scare people by appearing out of nowhere with a deathly face ¨C usually of a dead loved one. If you are shocked by the monster¡¯s appearance you are hurt by necrotic damage ¨C the death mana passing between the monster and victim through the concept of surprise. More indirect than a surprise attack but still a concept... the damage is still traveling from the ''mage'' to the ''target'' using surprise so it''s still a concept. That monster was just an example, but it actually has a more well known and dangerous mutant ¨C there¡¯s an illusion monster that hurts you through fear. It can only hurt you if you are afraid of it and because of how tied to the concept it is, it can also only be hurt if you aren¡¯t frightened of it. The final section is shape. It''s boring but the part you have to most control over. All I want to say about it... But I guess I have to describe it for completion''s sake, don¡¯t I?¡± The wizard paused his lecture and looked at Maddy as if hopeful she didn¡¯t want to learn the final section. When she nodded, he sighed and continued. ¡°So! Shape! It''s what everyone focuses on when they see a spell. How flashy is it. What does it look like? Shape is important ¨C don¡¯t get me wrong ¨C but its also something that has a default. Most spells will have a shape without too much effort and that shape will usually be a good one without any need to play with it too badly. Certainly not most of your life slowly refining it ¨C not when you could gain more concepts or strengthen the ones you have. Anyways let me show you what I mean¨C¡± Waving his hand, the wizard flung tiny orbs of fire out ¨C each forming into different shapes in front of the group. "This right here is a flame spear. It''s a fire element, projectile and piercing concept, it''s shaped into a pointy spike because that pointy spike helps the piercing and projectile concept¡­the shape is its literal shape as a spiky thing. Right beside it is a perfectly spherical fireball. It is functionally identical to the spike beside it ¨C still has the same element and concepts ¨C but I purposefully shaped it into this orb shape. The piercing concept was weakened slightly because it''s not a very good piercing shape and it was harder to make it smooth ¨C but that¡¯s it. Same spell for the most part. see how shape didn''t really effect it too badly? In fact adding in a shape other than the default made it worse. Next over here we have a bird of fire. Same exact concepts and element... but now its beak is the point my piercing concept will center on. Without adding a bird concept or an excessive amount of shape controls for me to manually move it about, this is functionally identical to the spike¡­but I¡¯m also cultivating a phoenix theme, so I¡¯d use this one with a few more concepts if I were going to attack. Guess I need to show a different brand of spell, don¡¯t I?¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Waving his hand without waiting for a response, the wizard created another few shapes floating in front of them. ¡°This¡­is a fire wall. Its fire element, has the concept of placement, blocking and defense¡­and for me those concepts default into this convenient wall shape. I could use the same concepts and turn the spell into a bull or shield or knight protecting me, but the wall''s nice and simple. ¡­And here¡¯s yet another one. This is a chain of fire with concepts of restraint and capture. Not something I would use nonlethally ¨C I would probably bite the bolt and use ice mana for that ¨C but it¡¯s a good visual example of the shape affecting how the concepts work. Do you understand?¡± Renald paused and glanced at each of them. Nodding Maddy was glad to see her friends were following along as well. ¡°Perfect." The wizard clapped his hands, then continued the lecture "Going back over each section a final time ¨C I promise this is my last pass. You have an element gained from your first skill. If you broke it properly you have it and it''s inverse because mana is fundamentally one side of a coin. That''s a wide range of potential ¨C you can do most of what you want by sticking with those two sides of your mana¡­One of my master¡¯s favorite sayings is ¡®Creation and Destruction and everything in between¡¯ translated to your affinity it''s ¡®life and death and everything in between¡¯ because there¡¯s a lot you can do just sticking with one. As a proper teacher ¨C even if just for a day ¨C it''s best for me to tell you all the possibilities and I¡¯ve also picked up a second so here it goes. The cost of gaining a second or even third element is stats. Your ability to gain stats, most of your current stats. It''s a hard price ¨C not to be taken lightly. You have to sacrifice several leanings and areas to gain more. To be exact to gain a second affinity you¡¯ll need to sacrifice two. One for the new element and one for the mixture of that new element and your life/death affinity. To get a third you¡¯ll have to sacrifice four more. One for the element, two for its mixture with your first two elements and a fourth for the mixture of all three. Four is almost unheard of ¨C that costs 15 total out of 10 possible slots¡­and should be impossible naturally¡­but there¡¯s always an insane bugger trying to make dragon fire which has elements of Fire, Light, Destruction, Death and probably speed as well. It''s impossible naturally but by skipping intermediary steps certain madmen can stick with the four or five elements and then a single ¨C usually several mangled slots ¨C that fills with the mixture from all of them. How does this affect you? Well¡­ it''s just an option but most ¨C if not all ¨C good mages have a light and dark mana affinity as a second. On its own, it¡¯s the weakest of the ¡®good¡¯ affinities... but as a second type it¡¯s the absolute best. And that¡¯s because both offer a way to make attacks ethereal. It''s also the easiest way of gaining a concept that allows stuff to pass through the air and projectiles are some of the best spells you can make. The ability to attack through armour and walls is invaluable ¨C as is the strength that using light magic to shape your spells will give you. Having a spell or two that makes you seem like you are somewhere you are not...thats also pretty useful. It lets you project your body or confuse an enemy¡­invisibility is light magic with concepts of stealth or hiding and usually a dozen minor changes to reflect your image to nothing... Think about it. That''s all I''m going to say. I would hate to push you towards any direction but there¡¯s a reason it''s known as the wizard¡¯s element and picking two body stats to forgo is usually safe.¡± The wizard paused in his spiel seeming embarrassed. ¡°Some more unsolicited advice for your friends,¡± Renald spoke turning and pointing at Jess. ¡°As a tank your creation magic is great but having Maddy¡¯s life affinity and the ability to heal yourself would be a great addition¡­it would honestly increase your strength exponentially ¨C two elements is nearly always better than one three is where it starts becoming a risk. For you ¨C¡± He continued pointing at Troy. ¡°¨C Having your tank¡¯s creation magic would be invaluable for you as an archer ¨C I bet you¡¯ve been finding it hard to keep track and manage your arrow supply. If you had a creation affinity you could conjure your own arrows and never worry about running out again. A strong enough concept might be able to do the job as well, but ¨C using a concept to do the job of an element is always a problem. It''s like trying to create a concept with nothing but shapes ¨C doable but always harder. Anyways. Maddy ¨C my short-term student. As a mage ¨C unless you are heading down the asinine path of a spellsword ¨C you want to spread out your concept pool. As many as you can gain moulded around into as many situations as you can think of. If you get several similar ones ¨C that''s synergy. Perfect. If you have several different ones that''s versatility. Perfect. The best ¨C easiest and most reliable ¨C way of gaining more concepts is to always have all your skills broken. Then, with no system skills delve dungeons of your rank. Fight field bosses at the center of monster nests. Perform great feats and push yourself somehow. Essentially gain more skills for your actions and then break them as well. Grow your library of concepts. A great side effect is each skill increasing your available mana ¨C each skill should increase your pool or pools and a bigger max mana is always appreciated.¡± The wizard laughed. ¡­seems like common sense but it''s nice to have someone tell me that. ¡°Now! I want to come back to your runework. Concepts are usually ¡®actuated¡¯ into a specific shape that''s ¨C usually ¨C unique to you. If you make a magic item¡­actually just if you continue to use your scythe as your focus, it will become an item only you can use. It will also grow stronger and better able to channel your magic the longer and longer you invest yourself in it. This is good! It will make you a stronger mage¡­but you should be careful about putting too much of yourself into it. If you lose your focus, you might find yourself crippled ¨C always create or carry a backup just in case you lose your main weapon or figure out a way to make sure you''ll never lose it. My clothing is completely covered in runes ¨C most of my spells are embroidered into the inside of it¡­but I also have some mage tattoos for emergencies. Anyways. Those concepts that you turned into runes are your own. They are tied to you and you alone. Sometimes mages with identical affinities and similar concepts will be able to share a focus or trade spells¡­that¡¯s not something you can count on. For most cases just think of it like you having a spell system that no one else has built from the ground up...you can''t use anyone else''s and they can''t use yours. I''m also heavily pushing for some things with my description but you don''t have to follow my advice. Some mages tattoo their concept into their body and nothing else ¨C we sometimes call that a ''keystone''. They then use nothing but their thoughts or gestures or voice to cast spells. Personally having time to write the spell down first and the ability to reuse the spell later is more useful...but there''s always mages who like being able to change the shape better on the fly. Just for completion''s sake, a ''proto'' or ''unfinished concept'' is one that can only be used in certain situations. A true concept can be shifted to whatever purpose you want ¨C any purpose that fits the concept at least ¨C while a ¡®part-concept¡¯ is one that can only be used in similar situations to the skill it was broken from. It''s limited essentially. You can either complete it by breaking more skills ¨C the easy way ¨C combining parts until you have a whole concept¡­or you can spend years of your life studying it until you upgrade it with your own knowledge and understanding. Finally, shape is not an esoteric concept like you¡¯ve been using it in your practice. It''s not something to guess or brute force, it''s you telling the spell what you want. That why I started off this lecture saying I dislike how you started your path. I can tell you are writing random symbols placed every which way, instead of simply using the symbols to describe what you want. Usually ¨C all the good mages at least ¨C have shapes written in words. It¡¯s written in your own language ¨C you writing out what you want your spell to be. Using a language you can¡¯t speak for the shaping is asinine ¨C no matter how useful said language might be. Now, obviously some languages work better than others ¨C languages similar to runes like pictographic languages are usually better ¨C but there¡¯s no point using one if you don¡¯t understand it. There are a few languages specifically designed for magic ¨C languages of magic they are called ¨C and writing in one is usually considered the best¡­but you would have to learn that language before you could use it. Some mages try and make up their own imaginary language ¨Cmake their own language of magic ¨C but I think that''s a bit too much effort for little real gain. At the end of the day it''s also just an issue of efficiency ¨C remember shape is not the most important part of a spell! Not unless you want to spend all your time in a dusty tower. You can do away with a lot of shape runes just by having a strong mental picture and you can push past efficiency issues just by breaking more skills and having a bigger pool of mana. Putting it all together a spell could look like this.¡± The wizard picked up one of Maddy¡¯s wooden slates and began burning symbols into it. ¡°I draw my rune of ¡®covering¡¯. Then beside it, I write. ¡®A cloak of flame to coat my frame¡¯¡­ sorry magic likes rhymes and short descriptions¡­now all I have to do is push mana through it and¨C¡± A whirl of flames burst forth wrapping around the man. Slowly he was covered in shifting licks of fire. It wasn¡¯t quite what Maddy would consider a cloak¡­but it did look nice. ¡°Voila, this is a spell. If I used it for more than a demonstration It would grow stronger and better fit the picture I had... but it''s functional. ¡­let me just turn that off so I don¡¯t burn this vehicle down annnnd there!¡± with a snap the wizard broke his spell flames flickering out as if they were never there to begin with. I want to be able to do that! ¡°I don¡¯t have a lot else I want to teach you at this stage, so for the rest of my bargained time I¡¯m going to have you try and come up with some spells ¨C draw them out ¨C and I¡¯ll give you feedback on them. You can also ask questions and I¡¯ll try to answer you to the best of my abilities.¡± Handing the stack of wooden slates over to Maddy once more, the Wizard turned to her friends. ¡°For you two¡­ignore some of what I said. I will give you what little I know, but keep in mind it¡¯s a wizard¡¯s understanding of your path ¨C not someone following the same. Usually ¨C from what I can tell ¨C magical warriors have both an easier time gaining or creating a concept from scratch. You might not even need to take one from a skill but that could be heresy I don¡¯t know. What I do know is you¡¯ll end up as more of a slave to it than us wizards. You should pick concepts you believe in to embody yourself by ¨C no clue how you¡¯ll go about that but it''s pretty safe advice. Gain strength by committing to your concepts. I know some warriors have commandments or ¡®rules¡¯ they follow to make themselves stronger. Not drinking. Not touching women ¨C no offence ''miss tank'' ¨C always telling the truth even if it would make a situation harder. Grow that single concept or group of closely knit concepts or rules or whatever¡­that image growing stronger should be your method of advancement. If you gain skills or concepts that are outside of this picture toss them. Feed them to your main concepts ¨C somehow showing they are superior. Make sure to tie your concept to yourself ''somehow'' ¨C your magic works better on ''yourself'' and ''you'' are what you want to grow stronger. Because you have an easier time making your own concept I want to warn you not to make a rigid one... If you break any of those rules it will weaken you. If you break too many of them or break one that¡¯s too brittle and tied too much to who you are, it might completely shatter your path ¨C to the point you have to start from scratch. Something like ''I am a rock'' Is a great concept for you Miss tank...but ''I am invincible'' is not ¨C that would break at the first loss you take. it would be a bit stronger ¨C and every battle you win or escape unscathed would increase its strength...but it would be brittle. It¡¯s a much risker path¡­but magic warriors are often able to kill unprepared wizards pretty easily so the strength you gain should be worth it. I won''t persuade you to switch ¨C to do that you would have to rip out a lot of what you are and start from scratch. Maddy! I can see you listening ¨C don¡¯t even think of trying something like that. More concepts are better. Don¡¯t bother trying to strengthen any of them until you have dozens of them and find you keep using one more often than others. Your first job should be to create a spell for every possible situation you find yourself in. A spell to block or shield yourself ¨C you don¡¯t have to focus on it if you are relying on your friend here to protect you¡­ but you should have it just in case. A spell to hit something far away ¨C don¡¯t think about replacing your archer friend you just need to be able to do it. Build up your basics. Break a minimum of three skills ¨C Make triple that in spells. Do that again once you¡¯ve become more experienced. Put your spells all across your person. Place them on your weapon. Hide them in your clothes. Burn a spell that will help you escape into your flesh ¨C just in case you ever get stripped and locked in a prison. Try and create a spell that doesn¡¯t require any physical runework ¨C using nothing but your movement and words and a strong enough picture. Make a cantrip or two that¡¯s completely different from your elements. Essentially plan for every eventuality. That¡¯s what being a mage means. Then ¨C and only once you¡¯ve become a mage ¨C can you look higher and think about combining spells and creating a theme. Remember! Only after you have built a foundation to your satisfaction should you even think about a greater image¡­¡± Putting out his hands and the wizard concentrated and crafted sculptures of light. Each sculpture slowly shifted and formed into different versions of Maddy. Of things she could be. The first was a strong looking version of her. Leaves flew about fading from green to brown in the air and she stood on a mound of dirt. Her scythe seemed to have returned slightly to its farming roots ¨C something about the rudimentary illusion screamed ¡®fall¡¯ to her. ¡°A woman of seasons. Of the harvest. Of rot creating fertile grounds for new growth.¡± The wizard spoke noting her gaze on the image. A second picture had her in a black cloak ¨C her scythe purple and shimmering in the evening light. A sense of finality was contained in her posture and the weapon. ¡°A reaper. A woman who kills. Who collects souls for their final rest. A living agent of death.¡± The wizard continued his descriptions ¨C smirking slightly as she looked at it. A third picture had her having entirely abandoned her scythe. She wore a white tunic and gloves. ¡°A healer. One who only kills diseases ¨C who heals the sick. A women loved by many.¡± A fourth had her holding a skull in one hand. Surrounding her were swirling streams of mist ¨C spirits of the dead passing in and out of her body. ¡°A Lich. A creature more dead than alive. Abandoning your fragile mortal coil, you created a phylactery and bound your spirit to a new home.¡± Maddy moved on. ¡°A gardener. Your beds are full of corpses fertilizing your new growth.¡± ¡°A queen of rot. Your mushrooms grow through all. Your kingdom of fungus spreads unstopped.¡± ¡°The builder of a great tree. The commander of skeletons. The creator of new life.¡± The more sculptures the wizard made the less work went into them. They shifted as she looked at them as if he was still trying to figure out how to show them. ¡°That final stage is where you want to do something like the warriors over there. Combine your skills. Flavour them. Decide to only use life or only use death that ''restriction'' making the one you do use stronger. Decide to try and combine aspects of both in all you do¡­ or leave them as a simple fuel. Theme yourself and gain strength through that image. Do you have any questions? I could probably go on for ages, but I feel like I¡¯ve told you all you might need¡­I¡¯ve already probably dropped too much on you at once. If not, you should make your spells! I want to provide some practical experience before the day is done. Maddy stared down at her slate her mind whirring. Like the final display, her mind was currently picturing herself as a hundred different possibilities. She liked a bit from this one and a bit from that one¡­Wait he said not to focus on that yet ¨C she should build her foundation first. Shaking herself into focus Maddy reached out and broke her second skill. This time it took but a focus of attention ¨C her mana reaching out and wrapping around the skill just out of reach of her. It melted away a rush of ideas coming forth. No system prompt accompanied it ¨C it seemed her breaking it in this manner was enough consent for the system to leave her alone. The concept of sound. Bits and pieces of the concept of words and emotions. Immediately Maddy set to work finding the runes for each of them. She had some studying ahead of her ¨C hopefully this would be more effective than the last time! Chapter 29. How the world ACTUALLY works. ---Richard--- ¡°¡­and the skill has parts of this and this¡­Got it! I¡¯ll mix a bit of everything with a double shot of kinetic-suppressing serum to start. Lie back on this chair here and I¡¯ll get you hooked up.¡± The grad student finally finished his shit and waved Richard over. Richard didn¡¯t move. This was all happening with a bit too little input on his part. He wasn¡¯t going to just strap himself to the machine without being told what it did. A flash of the last time he had been at a ¡®scientist¡¯s¡¯ mercy flash through his head and he felt himself tense involuntarily. ¡°First tell me what skill breaking is. Tell me what you¡¯re going to do to me.¡± Richard backed slightly towards the tray beside him. If the fucker tried anything he¡¯d stab him with the scissors right there. ¡°You came here wanting to break your skill? ¡­fine. Sorry for jumping ahead¡± Walking away from the machine ¡®Rags¡¯ sat on a chair and spent a moment adjusting himself to be comfortable ¨C oblivious to the man eyeing sharp implements behind him. Rags pulled up a whiteboard and a¡­strange looking pen and began sketching as he talked ¨C his pen appearing to almost spray paint his words onto the board. ¡°Before I get into how I plan on breaking your skill I¡¯ll tell you what breaking a skill means.¡± The student began. Rag¡¯s verbal ticks appeared to slip away as he talked. His body began to move smoother ¨C it was as if he was entering a trance while talking. ¡°New skills are locked away. We can¡¯t access them ¨C you can¡¯t do anything with them. Well ¨C except for ¡®use¡¯ them of course in their limited original capacity. Think of the skills you obtain from dungeons or nests as seeds trapped in a glass bowl.¡± Reggie began making a shitty sketch of a seed surrounded by a fishbowl. ¡°There¡¯s many a ways to break the bowl and get the seed ¨C and we want the seed because that¡¯s the only way you can grow it into a tree. The first way is to simply break the bowl and shove all the insides straight into your body. This is what you do if you want to keep the skill ¨C it will briefly become much much harder to use¡­but as long as you break the bowl cleanly that will soon be fixed. Your body will form new pathways to the seed¡­and the seed being attached more firmly to your body will now be able to grow. Your seed will be nourished by your body. Your body will be nourished by your seed. Sympathetic aether connections will resonate between body processes and the skill. Badda bing badda boom you now have an ability that can grow stronger the more you use it. Like a muscle breaking and growing new fibres when you work out, pushing the skill will strengthen it. This sort of break can be done ¡®naturally¡¯ ¨C essentially breaks need certain chemicals and thought patterns which are usually created in stressful situations. Adrenaline is a big one ¨C why adrenaline reacts with skills so well is unknown, but the connection is easily measured. Now ¨C¡± The grad student clicked a button on his pen which turned it into an eraser of sorts ¨C it actually sucked up all the sketches like a tiny vacuum. I want one. Spinning his pen a bit, then clicking the button and starting a new sketch Rags continued. ¡°The skill itself will break naturally if you attempt to use it to do something outside of its limited initial capabilities. Using a movement skill to create fire for example. Using a skill that usually makes one type of energy make another. Aether can do that easily ¨C skills on the other hand are usually too limited to work in that capacity. The problem with this wild sort of break, is its rarely ever clean. Using the fishbowl analogy, you¡¯ll shatter the bowl to place the seed in your body¡­ but accidentally nick the seed with glass shards¡­ or fill your body with those glass shards ¨C best case they take a while to heal and expel from your body, worse case they negatively effect your physical body somehow. Permanent mutations. Strange dependencies and desires. People who can only use their skill in arbitrary situations or are inexplicably weakened if they don¡¯t do certain random actions. This is what we call a bad break ¨C incredibly common for those who attempt to break their own skills. Any break that stunts the growth of the ¡®seed¡¯ is a bad break ¨C there¡¯s no point breaking a skill if you know it won¡¯t grow in the future. That¡¯s why there are serums you can buy to increase the probability of breaking successfully. Instead of needing a stressful situation, drugs can increase your heartbeat to the needed level and prep the area with the desired chemicals. A perfect serum, instead of shattering the glass bowl, melts it away and gently places the ¡®seed¡¯ in your body. The base idea of suppression serums, is to fill your body with an inhibitor to provide resistance for your skill. If its kinetic-based like yours might be, it will block physical movement ¨C K-Powder in trace amounts is a low-level ingredient for kinetic breaking methods. ...There are some external methods of skill suppressing that also work and will be employed by this machine. Next, you¡¯ll activate your skill and, if everything works perfectly, the skill will push up against the resistance and break in the process. You following?¡± The grad student turned from the mess of scribbles on his board to glance at Richard as if just noticing he was there. ¡°¡­yeah, straightforward enough. Break the restrictions preventing skills from growing. Got it.¡± Richard responded ¨C still not completely sure he was on board with this whole plan. Maybe he should try and break it himself? No drugs? K-powder was poisonous wasn¡¯t it? And that was just one of the substances that would be pumped into his body. ¡°Here¡¯s where you have a choice. Option one is for if you like your skill. Break it cleanly and carefully then leave it alone. That¡¯s all we need to do. Push the ¡®seed¡¯ into your body and let time and random mutations increase its strength. This option¡¯s usually what delvers do if they find they have a skill that¡¯s hard to replicate. If you have a dissolution skill for example, a lot of dissolution weapons are insanely expensive and a natural skill can sometimes be better than nothing...same with anything that creates matter or more accurately converts energy to either regular matter or pseudo matter. We ¨C humanity in general ¨C haven¡¯t managed to replicate either of those to practical levels yet. Some have figured out how to influence those breaks ¨C cloaking for example is an aspect of light manipulation that gives you effective visual invisibility. Doesn¡¯t block infrared or hide your scent or sound but its still invisibility. It''s quite easy to twist any light-based skills into a cloaking one if needed¡­ but official channels all have permits and stuff for those ¨C puts you on a list. The second option is a more modern one ¨C an option only a decade old at this point but one that a huge portion of you guys pick. What we do in this case is to gather all the spread ¡®seed¡¯ from throughout your body and concentrate it into a single spot. We give you an interfaceable node. Push the seed into that node and scrub it as much as we can until you have a pure aether source ¨C or as close as pure as we can get. You see aether can do a huge array of tasks¡­when you realize what aether can do, you¡¯ll bemoan most skills as lacking. Why should you have to stick with the affinity you received by random? Why should you be a slave to random mutations? At a general glance, aether doesn¡¯t do anything alone ¨C instead, it''s powerful because of how it affects other forces. Aether can very efficiently convert, transfer and store energy from one source to another. That¡¯s the simplest understanding of it as a fundamental force. Your current skill works the same way it''s just not visible to you yet ¨C it should have what you know as a cool down. That¡¯s how long it takes for the aether to refill ¨C and it''s refilling based on your internal chemical energy. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Food essentially. The stronger your skills the more calories you need to consume ¨C your body will convert the chemical energy into aether and your abilities will convert that aether into a result.¡± The inventor began to ramble about three-dimensional reaction plots and the efficiency between converting energy to aether and then back to a different form of energy¡­ ¡­His explanation breaks down when you realize I don¡¯t have a cooldown. Finally Rag¡¯s seemed to pull himself slightly out of his excited description to continue his description. ¡°Sorry, you don¡¯t care. Having an Aether slot lets you interface with tools ¨C mankind has only advanced this far because of their use of tools after all! Ignoring them and trying to rely only on your body is foolish¡­There are two big bonuses for this option ¨C you can often use any tool that requires an Aether slot and should said ¡®tool¡¯ fail, you can replace it with another. You can swap between weapons if you need ¨C you won¡¯t be forced to pick one for each slot. And if you go the slot based option you still have a method of growth. If you maintain a connection to a tool for long enough it will increase in strength ¨C your own Aether warping and binding it to you. The more you use tools, the stronger your Aether source itself will become. Win, Win. So¡­are you ready to break your skill? Do you know what you want me to aim for?¡± The lecture ended ¨C Rags staring at Richard as if only now remembering why he was explaining things. ¡°Shit, you sold me. Pretty good pitch all together ¨C I¡¯m sold. Hook me up.¡± Richard found himself agreeing and setting himself into place. ¡°So can you give me an invisibility skill? That seems like the best by far ¨C so much better than my current skill. It would be useful for¡­delving.¡± Richard laughed trying to keep himself jovial as the student attempted to stab him with a needle. Despite being a tiny point, his defence made it hard for the grad student to manage ¨C by the end it looked like he was putting his full force on the device just to get it inside Richard''s arm. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry. Your skill is too far away for me to figure it out¡­your better off gaining a cloaking item if you want invisibility. All it really is at the end of the day is a manner of transporting light from one side of you to the other without warping it in between¡­simple stuff. Not as useful as you are imagining however ¨C a lot of monsters have a second or third way of figuring out where you are,¡± Rags spoke ¨C he really did sound apologetic. I didn¡¯t want it to fight monsters, but I get it. ¡°Well¡­Yeah, I¡¯m not happy with my current skill. Give me a slot or whatever.¡± Richard laid his head back watching as the grad student opened a drawer and pulled out several disks. They looked like metal batteries. Perfectly round disks of roughly polished slightly matte materials. ¡°Titanium and the slot alloy made from it is the safest base metal to use in the body ¨C but it''s incredibly expensive. Incredibly incredibly expensive ¨C I don¡¯t even know how they extract that metal¡­ So, I¡¯m sorry to say don¡¯t have any on hand and even if I did, I wouldn¡¯t be happy using it for free on a volunteer. I¡¯d probably ask you to pay ¨C if only to chip in for the slot price. The Iron alloy on the other hand is relatively safe so long as you have a few defensive stats ¨C it tends to make worse interfaces ¨C but then again so does titanium at the start. Copper is also a heavy metal and a bit iffy¡­but it has really great conductivity and you have more than enough chemical defense to deal with it¡­incredibly cheap but not because it¡¯s the worst option at all. Could also try out the one I made myself ¨C it¡¯s a zinc carbon mix I made weeks ago but it''s untested ¨C should be safe with the amount of defense you have. So, what do you say? Which would you prefer? Also where do you want it inserted ¨C some places are harder to interface with than others. Most men like them on their forearms ¨C makes it easy to attach to guns and stuff? Could also try the back of your hand but that¡¯s harder for me¡­could try the middle of your chest? Best spot for armour?¡± ¡°Forarm¡¯s fine man.¡± Richard waved him on and watched as he pulled out a pad and placed it on his arm.¡± ¡°¡­numbing agent might not work, depends on what brand of chemical defense you¡¯ve got.¡± He muttered under his breath before suddenly Richard noticed the tubes had activated. A massive hum filled the air and steam began belching out of the side of the machine. Is this steam powered? Really? I was starting to think the place wasn¡¯t a steampunk city after all. A huge whine filled the air. Pulses of something passed through the machine down the tubes and into the liquid in his side and arm and leg ¨C how many places had the young scientist attached to him? Richard didn¡¯t remember all those¡­ Turning to him partway through the grad student had a manic gleam in his eye as he shouted ¡°use your skill!¡± Richard activated [Aura of chaos]. All of a sudden, a hose unplugged ¨C spraying a thin oily substance across Richard''s leg and arm. His skill did not seem at all suppressed ¨C that went right through whatever fuckery was going on with the tubes and machine. Grimacing the grad student re-attached the tube and shifted a few dials ¨C the hum changing a sick buzz passing through Richard''s body. ¡°Again! As soon as your cooldown''s done!¡± The grad student yelled over the sound of his machine ¨C seeming to be studying several readouts that were passing across a board in excitement. ¡­Now would probably be a bad time to mention I don¡¯t have a cooldown ¨C just a limited resource and 2 more shots before I have to go out and cause more chaos. Richard reached out and activated his skill ¨C it felt strange. He already couldn¡¯t fully describe how activating his skill felt but now it felt like pushing something through butter. Like there was a button he had to press but it was on the other side of a stick of softened butter ¨C the button pressed fine but he had to scrape aside some shit to get to it first. Richard waited for the mad scientist to pull out a vial of foam ¨C nothing else just foam ¨C walking over to Richard quickly and shoving it in his mouth like a lollipop. Tapping the edge a tasteless bubbly material flew to the back of Richard''s throat and slid down like he had swallowed a cappuccino¡¯s top. ¡°Drastic measures! Again!¡± Rags yelled returning once more to the machine to check some dials or something. Attempting to activate his skill Richard felt it almost work ¨C a blue popup dominating his vision.
[Aura of Mayhem] breaking due to environment. Do you wish to break your skill
Yes No
In the background he heard the inventor shout ¡°That one should have worked!¡± his voice distorting through the translator. Selecting yes Richard felt a buckle. A break. Throughout his body, countless tingles seemed to swarm ¨C now the inventor was bringing what looked like a metal detector over his chest dragging the tingles toward Richard''s arm. Pulling out a vibrating knife he sliced skin off Richard''s arm next ¨C Richard barely felt that ¨C and pressed the copper alloy deep into the wound. Immediately the man doused the area with a bottle of some green liquid ¨C it bubbled and caused his skin to start rapidly healing. Richard''s body was trying to push the foreign object out. Clamping down hard, the inventor pulled out yet another tool ¨C this one a long rod that looked like it had just been removed from a hot fire ¨C and pressed it down into the disk. Richard felt himself buckle. The white-hot poker was like a super magnet dragging leftover bits of Aether source through his body ¨C unlike the metal detector, the rod was more violent. Richard''s body shook slightly as he felt something leave him.
[Body of chaos] breaking¡­Consent transferred.
Richard felt another wave of something ¨C this one much much worse but also¡­nicer. Much more intense but¡­less invasive. It felt like a tight glove slipping into place his skill was already close to his body and it bound tightly in seconds. The Inventor didn¡¯t seem to notice ¨C he was busy pushing various clips toward Richard''s arm and waving things around it. ¡°I think we managed it!¡± Rags suddenly spoke up excitedly and stepped back to survey his handywork. ¡°That wasn¡¯t so bad was it?¡± Richard briefly wanted to hit him before suddenly he breathed out and began laughing instead. ¡°Yeah. We did it ¨C what was that foam you shoved down my throat at the end?¡± ¡°Compound extracted from a monster that is hard to damage with skills. Less scientific to use ingredients you don¡¯t understand but it worked. You¡¯re going to want to wait a bit before using that ¨C there¡¯s a high chance your body will reject and try and heal the slot out of you if you stress it... I¡¯ll give you a small device you can use to start training it up ¨C on the house. Just give me a bit to write some stuff down. Pulling out his pen once more Rags began writing down his notes on the side of the machine ¨C forgetting to go back to the whiteboard. Richard waited, his body quickly feeling more normal. He felt great actually ¨C better than before. It almost felt like his skill was seeping through and fixing the death penalty ¨C but that couldn¡¯t be right could it? The penalty was a timed nerf to punish deaths wasn¡¯t it? ¡­or was it just a natural side effect of resurrection? The gamemasters claiming the ¡®bug¡¯ was a feature and moving on? That made a lot of sense. ¡­ ¡°Can I go?¡± Richard asked looking about. Rags seemed completely engrossed in his work ¨C it reminded him of how NPC¡¯s acted in games after you finished a questline. They just started puttering and pretending you had left. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m heading out¡± Richard said and began walking towards the door. Just as Richard reached the exit the inventor turned and tossed a rod towards him. "Use this to train your source until you have an item for it. Good luck and thanks for stopping by!" The inventor seemed to mean it. ... Richard felt better than ever as he left the sketchy building and that meant something. It meant it was time for him to find the factory again. Find the factory. Get his money back ¨C he needed something to buy a weapon or an invisibility cloak. And¡­well. He had a few visits he needed to make somewhere in that todo list. Richard was done holding back. Chapter 30. Probably some lies. Maybe? Don’t trust everything random people tell you. ---James--- James listened to the story this other ¡®earthling¡¯ or whatever they were calling themselves said ¨C ¡®travelers?¡¯ that seemed dumb. It started off with an introduction and brief description of commitment ¨C Ralph claimed he was the strongest earthling he had met so far, because of one simple reason. Ralph managed to get nearly every single stat concentrated into one of his hands. His thumb and index finger had nearly 100 power stats on just them alone ¨C when you considered the amount of strength a single power stat gave and then figured out what percentage of the body those fingers were and multiplied the stats effectiveness by that concentration percentage¡­ Committing like that and specializing to that degree came with a lot of firepower. Ralph¡¯s flicks were stronger than gun shots. He could flick pebbles that broke the sound barrier ¨C the array of bodies in front of him were ¡®proof¡¯ of his strength. After introducing himself, the main description started. James hadn¡¯t asked for it, he didn¡¯t want the help, but Ralph was here to do so anyways. Apparently on one side of the ¡®badlands¡¯ ¨C about fifteen miles in ¡®that direction¡¯ ¨C there was a massive technological city. Steampunk and safe enough so long as you followed the laws and had money ¨C even if you didn¡¯t have money, if you had a decent amount of stats and could delve the dungeons it was a good place to go. On the other side there was dozens of pocket territories ¨C small villages of 30-3000 each led by a ¡®mage king¡¯. Safe so long as you followed the laws and didn¡¯t antagonize their leaders. And, ¡®apparently¡¯, breaking your skill ¨C you know, the thing James hadn¡¯t done yet ¨C involved picking one of those two ¡®sides¡¯. Breaking his skill by using ¡®speed¡¯ to make fire, or move light, or ¡®something¡¯¡­breaking his affinity by turning the energy that made up ¡®speed¡¯ into a different form or type of energy. That was the sort of break that would set him off on the ¡®science side¡¯. Once he broke his skill, Aether would let him grow simply by pushing himself. It would be like working out ¨C like turning his skill into a muscle in his body. Additionally it would let him use his ¡®aether¡¯ with items just so long as he did it right¡­not that James was sold on using anything but his own body to survive and fight. He wanted to be the weapon. Breaking his skill by using ¡®speed¡¯ to slow down as the opposite¡­that would let him subscribe to the ¡®magic side¡¯. This side would let him grow by understanding his skill and himself. It would let him break physics easier if that¡¯s what he cared about¡­ but it would also restrict him in arbitrary ways. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Okay, and tell me again why I can¡¯t just pick both? This ¡®picking a side¡¯ isn¡¯t really something I want to do. I don¡¯t want to join a faction, I don¡¯t want to belong to a group. How do I know you¡¯re telling me the truth? How do you even know this? How long have you even been here and why do you know so much about two widely different areas?¡± James shot his questions one after another trying to pick Ralph apart. Trying to make him slip up. ¡°I¡¯ve been here five days now ¨C First off, the two sides are relatively close on this ¡®side¡¯ of the zone we are in ¨C you just have to cross this badlands to reach the areas and not many can or are willing to risk it. The other direction is a long walk all the way around the ring ¨C this ¡®zone¡¯ is shaped like a doughnut after all.¡± ¡­I think I remember seeing the edges of a curve on the map¡­that might check out. ¡­I still don¡¯t know if I trust him. He¡¯s being too nice ¨C too helpful to a stranger. But maybe? No. definitely suspicious. ¡°And focusing on your first question. As far as I know you ¡®have¡¯ to pick a side. It''s like your foundation ¨C wide or tall, you have to pick one because picking both means you pick neither¡­¡± ¡°And if I don¡¯t want to pick either side? Neither faction? You¡¯ve only been here five days ¨C are you really an expert?¡± James found himself responding then clamped his mouth shut. The man paused then nodded. ¡°If you have a quest board free you can ask that I guess? Doesn¡¯t hurt just to ask ¨C see if you get a quest to pick both and not cripple yourself somehow.¡± He replied and James could tell he was making fun of him. ¡°I don¡¯t ¨C I used it back in the tutorial and we have to wait three weeks.¡± Definitely just messing with me. I should go. ¡°Have you tried? How do you know three weeks hasn¡¯t passed already? How long did you spend in the liminal space between the tutorial and here?¡± Ralph asked. ¡­was that possible? Was time just off? ¡°Quest: Break both factions¡± James tried. There was a pause ¨C he was nearly positive Ralph just wanted to make him look stupid and then suddenly the board shimmered into place.
Quest board: ''Break both factions''
Destroy what both sides have built up ¨C smash everything in the science and magic sides of the zone. Reward: variable.
Aether spells and mana slots. Beat a true dragon to achieve your desired results. [Click here] to attempt impossible goal. Reward: Greater wish.
Path of the paradox: Part (1). Learn exactly what it is you want. Requirements: Two unbroken skills. No broken skills. Knowledge of what Aether and Mana are. A push. Reward: Part (2).
James stared at the board. Dimly he could hear the man across from him talking. Asking if it had worked? Explaining what the options were again? James was tired of being told what he ¡®had¡¯ to do. He was tired of being told what he ¡®could¡¯ or ¡®couldn¡¯t¡¯ do. He had already gone over this ¨C its why he was in the wilds alone. James wanted to stand on his own two feet. He wanted to be self-sufficient and never again rely on anyone else to exist. ¡­he was also, he had to admit. Curious. James clicked the second option before the quest board disappeared and it was lost forever. His panel disappeared and with it the world around him shifted. In the moment everything blurred, James was nearly certain he saw Ralphs''s face twist into an unnaturally big grin ¨C his arm waving goodbye as he faded away. ¡­but the trees also appeared to have eyes and the sky was painted by a child, so it was all probably a hallucination. ¡­ James was going off to fight a dragon. Chapter 31. You have the agency to make whatever decision you want - no matter how dumb it might be. ---James--- James stood in an empty plain. All the signs of monsters and the weird patchwork of connection biomes he had gotten used to was gone. Instead, there was nothing but short grass for kilometers in every direction. The back of James¡¯s throat felt funny. There was a tingling like he had swallowed something weird. A bitter tingling that grew until he could taste the fear. There was a faint buzzing in James¡¯s ear ¨C a nauseating whine of danger that grew even as the taste did. A shadow passed overhead. James looked up. The sky was blue ¨C too blue. A brilliant pure ultramarine without a single cloud in sight. And then it wasn¡¯t. A shape blotted out the sky growing bigger and bigger as it descended. The dragon had to be several kilometers long. Dozens! A hundred at least! With a thundering shake ¨C barely enough time to even take it in fully ¨C the dragon had landed. It was fast. Too fast ¨C quite a lot of it was ¡®too much¡¯. James hadn¡¯t even gotten his bearings yet ¨C but the dragon¡¯s head was suddenly all he could see. Less than a hundred meters above his head blotting out most of the sky. Larger than a football field. An impossible creature single handily bigger than anything James had ever seen before in his entire life. Its eyes! One of its eyes was larger than a bus was long. James activated [haste] and began to run. As fast as he could, he had to survive a moment longer! He couldn¡¯t help himself. How could he kill something bigger than a mountain? ¨C then why offer it! Why not warn against it better? James had thought ¡®Impossible¡¯ meant ¡®hard¡¯. The world went white. James died.
?? Achievement get: Dragon Fire Speedrun. (rare)
Description: Survive <12,780ms> after catching the eye of a true dragon.
Stat: +9 Mental defense Stat: +9 Soul defense Stat: +9 Free Body Defense
James awoke standing in the middle of the steampunk town he had left days before. He awoke and stood in the street unmoving. Everything hurt. Everything continued to hurt. It felt like his whole body was bruised - from his fingers to his toes. Someone pushed past him roughly and he simply moved to the side ¨C stumbling onto a bench almost conveniently placed nearby and beginning to shake. His body slowly shifted from pain to numbness. His mind was frayed ¨C he felt confused. The man didn¡¯t know who he was ¨C what he had been doing. He felt the fear of being hunted of being prey ¨C unnaturally amplified. He couldn¡¯t stop shaking ¨C this wasn¡¯t him being cowardly or weak, his body refused to listen to him. His mind refused to stop repeating the memory of everything burning. His senses had been sped up by [haste] ¨C he had seen the grass catch on fire for a split second before the dragon¡¯s breath had even arrived. The ground had boiled up ¨C the air had ripped apart. ¡­it felt like James had been nuked. It felt worse than a nuke somehow. He hadn¡¯t been this effected by a death yet. Slowly, ever so slowly, the almost unnatural ever-pervasive fear melted away. It felt like morning frost disappearing in the light of a new day. His mind still felt scattered ¨C his body had shifted from being numb and tingly to the familiar weak feeling of a death penalty. Something deep within him still felt scarred however. Up till this point James would have ignored it but the achievement gave him something called ¡®soul defense¡¯¡­ Well¡­if James had to describe the feeling, he would say it felt like his very soul had been burned. Something you couldn¡¯t feel. Couldn¡¯t sense. Something that shouldn¡¯t be hurt had¡­been hurt. It felt like if he had been burned for a millisecond longer, everything that made him up would be gone. Resurrection or not it, would simply be ¡®gone¡¯. Slowly as James pieced himself back together, he saw another blue box.
Due to monumentally stupid decisions you are unable to be resurrected. Something about dragon fire interfering with resurrection or something? Listen, you cleared this zone¡¯s level requirements ¨C head on over to the next zone already. It¡¯s a long ass trip but you¡¯re a big boy and can do it. I believe in you. Twat.
James¡­didn¡¯t have enough mental capacity to think about that right now. His body was still wracked by some magical fear. He wasn¡¯t in control of himself and he hated it. While he had been pulling himself together, the light of day had fallen. It was dusk and he did not feel like leaving the town just yet. Instead, he slipped off the bench and began to work out. Pull ups. Push ups. James worked out till exhaustion ¨C then switched muscles. He didn¡¯t have any weights ¨C he didn¡¯t have any stones ¨C so he was stuck doing any exercise that didn¡¯t need a tool. He pushed himself till he could barely move ¨C his body dripped with sweat and James felt himself grow stronger. Working out to exhaustion was easy to do with how weak his body felt. The burn centered him. He felt more himself. He was in control of this burn. His stats were coming back. That¡¯s what the steady increase in strength was ¨C it was like after being resurrected he was shoved into a body that hadn¡¯t moved in weeks. As he waited out the death penalty all his existing stats were transferred over. ¡­he also gained a point of arm strength and a point of ab strength ¨C a lower rate than working out in the wilderness had gotten but still a reward for his sweat. As James worked out it quickly became evident that his one arm was stronger than the other. It was annoying ¨C one side was pushing up with less effort than the other. He didn¡¯t want to become lopsided. James wanted to become strong. But maybe those weren¡¯t mutually exclusive? ¡­strong. ¡­that guy. In the badlands ¨C why was he so strong again? He concentrated everything into his fingers? ¡­ It¡¯s a trade off, isn¡¯t it? Its like when I decided to pick a specialized body instead of a generalized one. I wanted more control. I wanted to feel like the stats mattered more¡­I wanted to be more efficient. I wanted to be stronger¡­ This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Would I have survived losing an arm with a generalized body? I don¡¯t know¡­part of me feels like I wouldn¡¯t have done so well but maybe that¡¯s just copium. James worked out long into the night and regained some of his previous strength. He thought about his body. He thought about his skills. He thought about his new goal ¨C breaking his skill without picking a side ¨C and considered the final option on the list. It really looked like the only option to not get involved with either side was to get involved with both. He had to learn what it was he was asking for¡­that¡¯s what the quest had said. He finally got around to considering the system message and what it meant. James couldn¡¯t be resurrected anymore. He had to move to the next zone. ¡­the message had been a bit rude. Had that been the system? The system had been relatively nice to him so far¡­ ¡­the system wasn¡¯t a person was it? No¡­nothing the system gave could be taken away. Without consent. That caveat of ¡®without consent¡¯. His resurrection had been taken away¡­so what did this mean? It meant the system hadn¡¯t given him resurrection. Something or someone else had. The person who sent the message? Probably. ¡­if it was a person giving him the resurrection maybe he didn¡¯t want it anyways! James didn¡¯t want to rely on someone. The system was different¡­it was just¡­ Just a fact of his new life. It only gave him stuff when he pushed himself so the system was a transaction. James would rely on himself and the system. Nothing else. A while later something flashed into James¡¯s mind. Stuff the system gave ¨C his skills for example ¨C those couldn¡¯t be taken away. He couldn¡¯t lose them unless he wanted to. ¡­there wasn¡¯t that sort of rule for a ¡®broken¡¯ skill was there? ¡­was breaking your skill a huge scam? Break it so its no longer protected by the system and then someone would come along and steal it? ¡­James would need to figure out how safe breaking a skill was. He refused to get scammed. The man in the badlands was even more suspicious in his memory ¨C was anything he said reliable? Could he trust a single word out of that snake¡¯s mouth? James stretched ¨C attempting to touch his toes ¨C and sat in somewhat pissed off silence. So. So this was something else that would require talking to people. Another thing being thrown on the pile ¨C really sucked didn¡¯t it? No matter how much he wanted to be fully independent the world conspired against him. Conspired to force him to rely on others, conspired to make him ''choose''. ¡­ James spent a frankly excessive period of time in self-reflection. Something he had been trying to avoid ¨C reflection was for people living in cushy safe ¡®cities¡¯. For people alone with their thoughts. In dead-end jobs like his previous employment. He wanted the simple feeling of survival. How single-minded he had become in the badlands ¨C how focused he had been on the next step. Surviving another hour. Another day. He missed it. That was the feeling of happiness. James had gotten pretty good at surviving in the day if he was honest with himself. The stats in hearing and sight had made it hard for anything to sneak up on him. After fighting enough creatures, he had gotten better at gauging their strength ¨C he knew the monsters to stay away from and the ones that he could beat pretty consistently now. He fought pretty consistently, but most of it felt like ¡®hunting¡¯ rather than challenging himself. Nighttime¡­to be honest he wasn¡¯t sure if he could survive the second night ¨C not unless he finished healing his arm. If he healed it he was relatively confident in surviving again. And that was another thing! James was mad at himself for the suicidal choice. It felt like it wiped all the progress he was making regaining his arm. Just wiped it all out. ¡­the system was really generous to me when I only had a single arm to fight with. I¡¯ve been kind of ignoring it, but the system does more than just reward you for results. It cares about how you get those results, how much effort you put in. ...it also cares about restrictions doesn¡¯t it? How hard stuff is? So, ¡®step one¡¯. Travel to the next zone. ¡®Step two¡¯. Learn about what the factions in this world are like¡­what is possible with a ¡®broken¡¯ skill and if I want to go through with this. Complete that quest. ¡®Final step¡¯. Grow strong enough that I¡¯ll never have to rely on someone ever again. James slapped his face at the thought, the faint clapping noise echoing in the sleeping town. Why does it sound so childish when I frame it like that ¨C I¡¯m an adult! My goal isn¡¯t stupid! ¡­its also not really a step¡­just a constant goal to work on. A better step would be ¡®better use the system¡¯. Get better achievements by restricting myself. James finally picked himself up off the ground and made his way over to the bench. James shifted himself into a semi comfortable position and looked up at the sky. The stars were out twinkling in the night. He fell asleep on that bench ¨C his tracksuit sweaty in the evening chill. As James slipped away his plans turned to dreams. Dreams of power, Dreams of happiness. ¡­ Awaking to someone walking past, James carefully observed his surroundings and sat up slowly. It seemed the early birds in the native population were waking up ¨C he didn¡¯t want to deal with any of them, so he made to leave ¨C checking the massive map in the center of town once before he did. James felt a sense of deja-vu running through his mind as he left this town for the third and hopefully final time. His idle thoughts screamed at how stupid he was for not getting better supplies. If he didn¡¯t like swords he could get a knife instead ¨C and something to start a fire with! His life would be so much easier with a flint and steel at the minimum. And a water bottle! Or water skin! James continued on. Getting any of those things would require either him stealing them or working for money to buy them. Unless he could find any of them conveniently lying around, he didn¡¯t want them. Unless he could get items on his own terms he didn¡¯t want them! Could he hunt some creatures and sell them? He¡¯d probably get ripped off¡­ but if he was able to get supplies with that it might be worth it? James¡¯s body was still in the death penalty ¨C he was roughly halfway through the cooldown. ¡­that was enough. Despite him still being ''in the death penality'' the exercise felt like it had brought him back. back to 90% of his strength at least. James jogged along the path. Towards the next zone. Towards his goal. ... It almost felt boring how safe this grassland was¡­ After half an hour James got an idea. He ripped the bottom of his shirt and wrapped it around his eyes. This would make him stronger. Tying the blindfold tight, James started up once more. He stumbled a few times but got into a rhythm walking along the path. His ears strained and every sense he had began to feel super charged. As if trying to make up for the lost sight, he felt the occasional wind and used that to keep himself pointed in the right direction. After a short while of walking like this he got an achievement.
?? Achievement get: The blind stroll. (rare)
Description: Walk for ten minutes in the wilderness after purposefully removing your sight.
Stat: +1 Hearing strength
James smiled and continued walking. After thirty minutes of careful steps through darkness he received a second popup.
?? Achievement get: The blind walk. (rare)
Description: Walk for thirty minutes straight in the wilderness after purposefully removing your sight.
Stat: +1 Hearing strength Stat: +1 Fear defense.
James grinned once again ¨C the popup appearing in his vision. A blazing blue box in the darkness of his blindfold. The feeling of his hearing growing was addictive. The blue box was proof this was working. This was indeed a path to power ¨C even if it was only senses, his time in the badlands had proven how useful hearing was. James continued to walk. I should fight something like this ¨C I¡¯m sure it would be great fighting experience¡­and I¡¯m sure the system would reward me handsomely for it. He didn¡¯t know if he was brave enough for that. He didn¡¯t have a safety net anymore. ¡­that wasn¡¯t the sort of thought he wanted to be having. It made him want to fight blindfolded even more ¨C prove to himself he wasn¡¯t a coward. He didn¡¯t care about proving it to anyone else ¨C James realized he had worked out in town without caring if anyone saw. He hadn¡¯t even thought of it but even just the other day he would have thought that was embarrassing. ¡­It just seemed so pointless of a thing to worry about if he was leaving right after. He¡¯d never see anyone in that town again. It didn¡¯t matter what they thought. Back to a blindfolded fight. I might try and find something small and weak then fight it blindfolded. Work my way up to the big game. That seems like a good compromise between stupidity and training. Attempting to whistle to himself a few times and failing, James continued to walk across fields. His feet occasionally left the path, but he always swerved back onto it. Walking blindfolded was actually sort of exciting. Not exciting in the same way the badlands had been ¨C and if he somehow died here he would die of embarrassment¡­but it was thrilling in a certain sort of way. His ears strained to pick up the slightest noise in the surroundings. He felt almost like he could see himself ¨C a rough outline of where he was. ¡­I think I have to admit something to myself. I think¡­I think I¡¯m becoming an adrenaline junky. Not content to simply walk I have to make it harder for myself ¨C Why does the danger excite me this much? Is it all that fear defense messing with my brain? Fear defense! Why didn¡¯t that help against the dragon! If that shitty feeling it forced upon me wasn¡¯t magical fear than I don¡¯t know what it was. ¡­okay it was probably just too strong. Speed is better than defense anyways.
?? Achievement get: The blind trip. (unique)
Description: Walk for an hour in the wilderness after purposefully removing your sight.
Stat: +1 Hearing strength Stat: +1 Fear defense. Stat: +1 Sole Touch strength. Stat: +1 Nerve speed.
¡­that was a weird stat. ¡®bottom of feet touching¡¯ strength. It was specific and concentrated enough that James felt the difference more than the others even if there was only one ''point''. Through his feet, he could feel a bit of the vibration of his steps hitting. He was a tiny bit more certain with the placement of his legs. On a whim, James removed his system-granted shoes ¨C or not ¡®system granted¡¯ now that he thought about it. ¡®Whoever resurrected them granted¡¯. He held them in one hand as he walked ¨C feeling the dirt beneath his steps. He felt the slight slope of the path and better centered himself on it ¨C no longer occasionally stepping off the guide below. James felt good. He felt free. Free to do whatever he wanted no matter how stupid it might be. ¡­and if anyone were around to see a man walk barefoot and blindfolded along a dirt path? Well, their opinions on his sanity wouldn¡¯t matter. James was free. Chapter 32. R is for Richard. It is also for Revenge. ---Richard--- As Richard tried to retrace his steps to the factory, he tested out his ¡®practice¡¯ tool. Holding the end of the rod he¡¯d been given near his arm, Richard fiddled with stuff absent-mindedly. A connection was a process he had to actually work to achieve ¨C it felt like trying to wiggle your ears. A muscle he wasn¡¯t used to using ¨C one that became harder to use the further away from his ¡®slot¡¯ the rod travelled.
An average adult human has on average 27 stats. An interesting tidbit about this number, is that it is three to the third power. The first rank threshold is achieved at 81 stats. This is exactly three times the amount of stats as an average human. You can consider someone with most of their stats in a average sized area and purpose, to be three times as strong as a regular human. Most rank 1 delvers are spread out enough to be weaker than that, and many find skills and equipment more important than simply stats¡­but on average you¡¯ll find three rank 1 delvers are required to even stand a chance against a single rank 2. Due to the multiplicative effect stats and skills have, the real difference between ranks is even harder to overcome. A few delvers after this rank threshold receive a rare mutation shifting their body towards something closer to a monster.
The second rank threshold is rare. It is three times the stat value of rank 1. 243 stats. Again, on average, you can consider someone of rank 2 to be three times as strong as someone in rank 1. Most delvers who have achieved this rank have the previous body mutations ¨C in fact its theorized said aether mutations are a requirement to even reach rank 2. Some have even found their aether mutation mutating further ¨C often to even stronger heights. The third rank threshold is spoken about in legends. It is achieved at three times rank 2. 729 total stats. Those who have achieved said level have not spoken of any unique traits or abilities it may give them¡­ No one has reached this rank in recent time.
Your current rank: <2> Portion of way towards rank <3>: . The technical term being ¡®tier¡¯ <0>.
A common colloquial term for ranks is for rank 1 to be referred to as ¡®bronze¡¯, rank 2 as ¡®silver¡¯ and rank 3 as ¡®gold¡¯. A common colloquial term for tiers is for tier 1 to be referred to as ¡®half step¡¯ and tier 2 as ¡®full step¡¯. The initial tier is usually dropped. Tiers are evenly divided between ranks. In recent years the trend has shifted towards calling tier 0s "Low rank X" tier 1s "Mid Rank X" and Tier 2s as "High Rank X". You''ll find many of the older generation refers to tiers in steps and the younger generation has shifted to ''degrees'' to indicate someones progression. Tiers are more important the higher a rank someone grows. ¨C at rank 2 the three different tiers are solid barriers. A tier 1 can usually always beat a tier 0. A tier 2 can usually always beat a tier 1. Etc. Currently its unknown as to if tiers have any special traits beyond being easy to analyse.
Richard stared at the blue box as it slowly faded once more. Most of it seemed to just be an information blurb ¨C just to reach some text limit? A stress test blue box? He found his slot had automatically disconnected from the rod after revealing its secrets. Focusing he reached out once more ¨C an identical blue box flipped into view and faded a few moments later. It was something to do while he walked, a muscle to flex¡­and soon it became nothing more than an idle impulse. Like playing with keys or a pen, Richard tossed the rod up and down ¨C not caring if it fell and broke anymore. Incredibly quickly all things considered, the connection process became second nature. As long as the rod was within a few inches of the slot he could connect it perfectly every time. And ¨C equally as quickly ¨C Richard found himself at the concentration of railroads once again. This time, Richard was on the opposite side from where he had entered it last. The ¡®front¡¯ of the building was more office-adjacent than the ¡®industrial back¡¯ had been¡­ but beyond that it looked basically the same. Slowly he walked the perimeter. There wasn¡¯t a wall or fence blocking off the kinetic dust factory ¨C it felt weird the place was so exposed. It felt really weird¡­but considering how many minecarts were arriving and departing it must just be too complicated to set up. To reiterate, there were a hundred different ways into this building most of them minecart openings at various heights. Richard needed to plan his moves. He had to be smart. ¡­why does my mind jump to kicking down the front door and yelling ¡®here¡¯s johnny¡¯ or something. I¡¯m so stupid ¨C fucking focus Richard. What¡¯s the real plan. Well, to start ¨C the reason he failed last time was due to the mech police. Where had that come from? What alerted it? The alarm right? Richard turned his eyes to the buildings around the factory. Most were houses ¨C from what he could tell they were the houses of people who worked in the factory. Looking in a window or two, he saw the bruised bodies of families. Kinetic dust was toxic¡­especially over time ¨C the bodies of ¡®workers¡¯ and their spouses were not immune and years of exposure had taken a toll. The most obvious sign of K-Dust poisoning was the bruises. Every minor bump ¨C many ¡®normal¡¯ everyday actions left dark red and purple marks. From a game standpoint, their natural kinetic bludgeoning defense ¨C and probably their slashing defense as well ¨C was close to zero. From a human standpoint, they were magical coal dust victims or something. Richard¡¯s dimmed anger began to grow once more. ¨C He hadn¡¯t forgotten his decision, he hadn¡¯t stopped caring or forgotten¡­but the past few hours breaking his skill and wandering around had brought the seething rage down to a candle''s flame. Richard found himself picking up his pace ¨C a plan crystalizing in his head as he did so. The mech warehouse was guarded by two human watchers. Richard found it partway through his search ¨C it wasn¡¯t actually hidden after all. There were two large hanger doors like that of a garage but made out of copper prison bars instead of a solid sheet of metal. A cage revealing its prize within. Richard had to figure out how to blow up, disable, block off or otherwise prevent said mechs from leaving the building. How were they informed they should leave when I set off the alarm? There isn¡¯t really any wires sending communications to it for me to cut¡­can they just hear the alarm from here? It was pretty loud wasn¡¯t it?. Richard could still remember how fast the mech had shot and restrained him. It had made him feel helpless ¨C not his fucking kink. He really needed supplies didn¡¯t he? Every good plan needs supplies¡­ But he didn¡¯t have money currently and every time he had to go through multiple steps to reach the result it felt muted. His anger had already dimmed once today ¨C proving just how weak it was but still. Could he sneak in and get the money left in the pulpit lockers? Was it still there? Richard grew more and more frustrated by steps and plans ¨C it wasn¡¯t that he was impatient. ¡­okay, it was a tiny bit that he was impatient. He couldn¡¯t help it! Richard could be patient when he wanted and wasn¡¯t ADHD enough not to focus on things¡­but right now it just didn¡¯t sound fun. It didn¡¯t seem like fun and with how shitty of an experience he had had, Richard wanted something exciting. A treat. He wanted it enough to toss the careful planning stage to achieve that. His partly formed plan was good enough. Trying the side door to the guardhouse Richard found it unlocked. Slowly, carefully he twisted the handle and pushed the door open. On the other side ¨C staring directly at him ¨C was the shocked face of a third guard. Richard flung the door the rest of the way open with a bang and surged into the room. He felt like a linebacker thundering towards the man even as they reached for a weapon at their belt. Grabbing the guard''s face Richard pushed, throwing all of his momentum into the motion. The guards head slammed into the wall behind them even as they let out a shout ¨C it was strange how something as simple as shouts of pain shifted between languages wasn¡¯t it? Shouldn¡¯t that be universal? Bashing the head back again Richard found the second guard walking towards him. The first seemed stunned ¨C not nearly as injured as he should be, but stats were a thing. Richard had a bit over 20 strength stats spread throughout his entire body¡­that meant he was roughly stronger than an average person but that was it ¨C if anyone had defensive stats it meant nothing. Jumping at the newcomer, Richard reached towards the baton they had extracted from a holster ¨C it buzzed and vibrated slightly in the air. Grasping the baton with his left hand and tossing a haymaker with his right, Richard dimly felt first a surprising amount of pain and then a slowing sensation coming from the baton in his grip. Like a stun gun mixed with a full body kinetic¡­something. The pain itself quickly faded ¨C Richards body dismissing it as non important, his passive skill adapting to it and defending against it. He punched again. Behind him the still groggy guard stumbled towards Richard and out of the corner of his eye Richard saw the third head towards a back door. No you fucking don¡¯t. Richard ripped the baton out of the guard¡¯s hand ¨C flipped it around one-handed and stabbed their side with it. Anyone see that? Should have got it on tape that was so fucking cool ¨C knife skills! Dashing forward Richard smashed the first guard with the stun baton almost in afterthought then threw it towards the last just before they disappeared into the door. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Running forward to the now doubled-up guard Richard kicked towards their head as hard as he could. There was a sharp crack ¨C the guards head smashing off the doorframe beside him before Richard picked up the baton and returned to his first prey. ¡°Sorry about that. Where were we?¡± Richard gasped taking a second to breath. The only response he got was a groan from the guard he had bashed first and an angry unintelligible spluttering from the second. Jogging back towards them Richard swung his stolen baton aiming for heads. ¡°Banter¡¯s not nearly as fun when we can¡¯t understand each other, what happened to everyone having translators?¡± Richard smashed both guards pretty firmly then looked about the guardhouse. There didn¡¯t seem to be convenient rope or duct tape. He turned back and stared at them. The guard by the door seemed to have shrugged off the pain from the baton and face kicking. He was now pulling himself up off the ground ¨C one hand on his head the other holding his own baton. ¡­Acab. They are complicit with this whole fucked up society. Probably go home and beat their wife and kids if they have them. One might have even been responsible for capturing me the first time¡­ ¡­ Richard stared at the three motionless bodies lined up against the wall. He hadn¡¯t been aiming to kill them ¨C they might just be knocked out ¨C but his solution to removing them from the picture had been simpler than he would have hoped. Curb stomp them until they stopped moving ¨C if they die they die. ¡­based on how much blood was everywhere they were probably dead. He felt strangely free as he left them behind and entered the garage. Richard had stopped second guessing himself ¨C they were fake. It was like killing those players that had been recruiting muggers ¨C it didn¡¯t mean anything.
?? Achievement get: 3v1 unarmed slaughter. (rare)
Description: Take on three NPC¡¯s a rank below you. They don¡¯t outnumber you ¨C you outnumber them.
Stat: +4 Body power Stat: +2 Body speed
The achievement floating up as he entered the hanger made Richard laugh a bit. ¡°The game seems to approve ¨C enjoying the show are you? Stick around I¡¯ll show you something much better Mr. System you voyeur slut.¡± Why had he been thinking so quietly? Disable the mechs? Really that was his first thought? He now had a much more fun idea. There were three mechs in the building ¨C one seemed to be half taken apart so he ignored that one and moved to the second. Moving around to the back of this mech, Richard grabbed an inner railing and stepped up the footholds. He slid himself into an elevated seat and began to check the insides. The ¡®mech¡¯ was in simple terms, a round-ish metal ball with two stubby arms and four legs. In its resting position, the back was popped open ¨C the seat Richard was now laying in facing straight up into the air. Presumably, when Richard figured out how to turn it on, the seat would shift forward into an upright position ¨C if he could just figure out ¡®how¡¯ of course. Fiddling around, Richard tried flipping switches and bending levers ¨C each labelled in some strange language with unknown characters. Finally, Richard ¡®linked¡¯. He connected his slot to a metal-detector-looking disk on a tube and the machine whirred to life. The disk sucked down onto his arm locking into place and several devices began moving. A burst of steam shot out several tubes on the side as a series of clinks sounded out¡­ and then slowly, with a smooth shift, the cockpit closed. Latches flipped around Richard''s legs and chest ¨C a seatbelt of sorts that was almost claustrophobic in its sudden restriction of his movements. And then it was finished. Richard found himself seated and looking through a wide glassy window in front of him ¨C tinted a deep yellowish purple. A rearview mirror of sorts was built into the bottom corner of the panel ¨C the grimy view behind the mech even worse than the front view presumably due to bouncing off of several mirrors. There was a dim reddish orange meter in the upper corner ¨C the now translated description claiming it was his slot quality. there were several stat panels now that Richard looked better ¨C each with a translated description.
Operator Stats
Slots(1) Slot Rank(0) PercentToRank(1) ( 87% ) Current throughput(low) Current power(high)
Machine stats
SyncRate(low) Machine health. ( 98% ) Energy Storage. ( 5% )
Operator instructions:
Recommended action, allow ''Aether battery'' a moment to charge.
As he watched the ¡®storage¡¯ percentage steadily ticked upwards. After a minute or two the slot percentage ticked up once to 88. Not having a manual, and with most of the switches unlabelled, Richard began randomly flipping shit. How hard could it be? One dial turned on a beaming searchlight in front of his view, a second shot the mech''s grabby arm where it was pointing (currently towards the building''s caged gate). Turning off the front view searchlights, Richard pressed a button to retract the grippy claw ¨C and, with a slight squeal of metal, the copper bars bent and ripped out of the wall. Pulling two joystick-style controls around Richard began slowly lumbering out of the building. The mech operated based on two levers. If the left was pulled back and the right pushed forward the mech would turn left and vice versa for the opposite direction. The tops of these levers were on a rotating ball which controlled each side''s arm ¨C Richard felt like a T-Rex, the arms were barely visible in the corner of his view. ¡­his grabby arm was still holding the garage door. Flipping one switch seemed to crunch the door more¡­flipping another seemed to inject something into whatever the hand was holding¡­another turned his left arm into a shield of sorts. Richard found the correct switch to drop his door making sure to remember which one was which. It was a surprisingly simple system¡­of course there were dozens of other dials and switches Richard didn¡¯t know how to use ¨C for all he knew the mech had rocket boots or something hidden behind its hundred switches. Laughing slightly as he crashed into the corner of the garage and pushed through it, Richard watched as the machine health percentage went down a tick. ¡°Onwards!¡± He shouted feeling immensely pleased with the controls. They weren¡¯t quite ¡®mimic your movement¡¯ level haptics but the more he shifted the smoother they felt. ¡°Wait no! I forgot something¡± Richard stopped ¨C spinning his mech around and shooting the other mech in the hanger over. It fell backwards and rolled sideways¡­the other mech was probably too in pieces to matter. Reaching the largest minecart door Richard squeezed through the sides just clearing the walls. A short trip through a tunnel and Richard was in a large hanger ¨C he had passed by this one in his first visit, all he had to do was head through that door and he would be in the room with his stuff. Lumbering through the machinery Richard giggled as he tried to pick up a machine to move it out of the way. His arm¡­was not made for construction ¨C the claw seemed built specifically for catching humans so when he shot it down at the mechanical device it failed a bit. That was fine ¨C push past the machine not being human-shaped and try again! Richard picked the device up, stepped through, turned around, crunched the machine to bits. ¡°Fuck! That was the squish button not the drop button¡­eh, I bet no one will notice.¡± Dropping the mangled machine Richard kept walking ¨C entering the correct room then lumbering over to the pulpit. He stared through the glass ¨C peering down at the two dead-eyed workers looking back at him. ¡°Forgot something, carry on¡± Richard shot the door and ripped it off its hinges. He then walked around slightly and aimed through the doorway ¨C shooting his claw in and latching onto the locker he remembered leaving his shit in. ¡°Yoink,¡± Richard whooped as he retracted the device ¨C the locker broke some bolts as it pulled out of its position and smashed through the doorway. ¡­the mech actually slid forwards slightly with this stunt but other than that everything seemed to be working perfectly. ¡°Its kind of surprising how long it keeps taking the alarms to go off ¨C I¡¯ve been working based on the idea it would have started as soon as I entered¡­do they not have security cameras in steampunk land?¡± Richard wondered to himself ¨C out loud in his cockpit even as he turned and began making his way towards the office section. ¡­ Richard''s mech was just under two meters in diameter. The top height was a bit above that due to the legs and it wasn¡¯t 100% a sphere¡­but it was a good estimate. Taller then most people but not giant. So far that size hadn¡¯t been an issue ¨C the size came into play near the end of the hallway however. Richard couldn¡¯t fit through the door. He also surprisingly couldn¡¯t push through it ¨C the final solution was to take a running start. Richard retreated down the hallway a bit, spun in place then charged. A faint vibration ran through the whole structure with each step ¨C all four legs almost galloping as he sped up then blew straight through the door, the frame and a bit of the wall. Slowing down slightly Richard saw the shocked face of what looked like a cleaner stare at his large form for a second. They dropped their mop and bolted into a room beside them shutting the door ¨C hah, as if a puny door could stop the great machine! Richard turned back to the new hallway ¨C remembering the path back to the CEO¡¯s office. Strolling down the hall even as an alarm started going off ¨C finally! Richard turned a few times and then repeated his bulldoze method. ¡­it said a lot about how much Richard was winging things but he didn¡¯t know what would happen if he entered the room only to find it empty again. Could he try and hide in a closet or something? Richard started giggling uncontrollably at the thought of his massive form trying to hide in a closet even as he spotted the same pompous looking NPC who had played a knife game on his body. ¡°Target acquired¡± Richard spoke in a funny voice aiming the arm even as the man jumped up out of his desk in shock and anger. They didn¡¯t even have time to fully realize what was happening ¨C been there done that ¨C the CEO didn¡¯t even begin running before suddenly they were grabbed and held at Richards''s side. Currently, Richard''s mech held two items. On his left the slightly dented from its passage through several walls ¡®locker¡¯ he had retrieved from the pulpit. In his right the struggling form of the fake human. Richard tried imagining what it looked like from the outside ¨C the little arms made the whole thing absurd. It was like a fat man holding two large cups of diet coke. Turning for the wall Richard considered how durable his passenger was. ¡­Probably won''t make it will he? Turning sideways and attempting to run at an angle was not intuitive with the control scheme. It took richard a solid minute of positioning before he managed it ¨C holding the CEO behind him as he lumbered through the outside wall. ¡­or tried to. With a large bang, Richard was slightly surprised to find his passage was obstructed. How dare the wall. Smashing it a few more times Richard turned and decided to retrace his steps. He felt allergic to the retreat ¨C last time he passed through the building in this direction he choked and Richard felt strange and anxious as he ran. It felt like blood should be pumping through his veins and pounding in his head but instead, it wasn¡¯t. His body wasn¡¯t responding the way he was used to ¨C was this not enough? Spying an overseer standing in the middle of the hall waving him down Richard sped up. He wouldn¡¯t be caught again ¨C the impact of the overseer left a smear across his mechs windshield and they immediately left his thoughts. ¡°I wonder if one of these switches is a windshield wiper? Flipping stuff randomly might break my cargo so I¡¯ll wait¡­should have flipped literally every switch before starting shouldn¡¯t I ¨C hindsight¡¯s always a bitch. Oh look! A door to outside!¡± Richard pointed out turning towards the newest obstacle. Smashing through his third door of the day ¨C his mechs ¡®health¡¯ had just dipped to 14% ¨C Richard glanced around wildly and then started running. He wanted to reach a good distance before checking his cargo. The CEO didn¡¯t seem to be struggling as much? Yeah, they were fine for now. The building behind him was still ringing with lights and a blaring noise but Richard didn¡¯t look back. He raced down the street hoping there wasn¡¯t a law against mechs on the road ¨C hoping he wouldn¡¯t be stopped by a second even bigger mech but luck seemed to be on his side. Ducking into an allyway Richard ran into what he could only call a ''slums'' before stopping. He felt giddy. He had done it. Popping the back Richard impatiently disembarked his vehicle to stare at his prizes. The locker was bent ¨C to the point the door itself was open ¨C and Richard felt around inside till he grabbed the fanny pack. Attempting to maneuver the hammer out was a bit too hard so Richard left it ¨C he didn¡¯t care about starter weapons anymore. There was also a toolbox worth of junk in the locker ¨C a bunch seemed to have fallen out but duct tape remained so Richard looted it then turned to his second prize. ¡°Hey! Remember me?¡± Richard waved¡­ The CEO looked shaken ¨C the trip hadn¡¯t been kind on him but he was starting to pull himself together his already angry face turning red as he began to splutter something. ¡°Yeah¡­if I cared to translate that I¡¯m sure it would be a great line. I¡¯m just going go ahead and move you now ¨C best to keep momentum man. You know how it is. Binding the dangling legs together, then wrapping the CEO¡¯s arms to his side, Richard popped back into the mechs and released the claw. Running back around he hoisted the CEO ¨C tossing the bound man over his shoulder ¨C and went on a walk. ¡­ ¡°You know¡­I¡¯ve never quite gotten the difference between irony and karma if I¡¯m being honest with you ¨C please forgive me if I got it wrong¡­its karma what¡¯s happening to you and it''s ironic the way I¡¯m doing it ¨C is that correct?¡± Richard spoke from his position on the ground. Richard had tied the CEO to a railroad then sat down a few meters away. The final act of revenge wasn¡¯t quite as funny as he had been imagining but the punishment he had come up with felt fitting. They were the CEO of a railroad company ¨C kind of ¨C so he would kill them by reenacting a western classic. Tied to a railroad like a damsel in distress. Of course, usually the damsel was saved by the hero ¨C in this story, the hero was the one doing the tying ¨C but it still felt good enough. The only problem seemed to be that Richard had picked a bad track. It had been close to ten minutes now and not a single minecart or mini-train had rushed past. The CEO had started getting loud so he was now gagged to prevent people from coming past. Honestly, if Richard had more time he would have liked to figure out how to dangle them in front of the train ¨C toss them in front of it perfectly and hit a home run. ¡­the amount of time was almost enough to make him second-guess himself. Suddenly without warning a cart came whirling around the bend filled to the brim with copper bars. Several tons of metal rushed forward to impact his victim. For some reason Richard had been imagining the CEO would fly after being hit ¨C would ragdoll through the air like a ball after being hit by a bat¡­instead they broke. Maybe the K-dust was messing with it ¨C maybe he had simply tied the CEO too tightly to the tracks ¨C whatever the answer was the NPC disappeared with a squelch. The impact half squished them ¨C flinging bits of gore everywhere ¨C and ripped their body in two. ¡­Richard stared at the result of his actions in shocked silence. Grabbing a metal pole off the ground, he slowly walked over and poked the remains of the CEO¡¯s legs with them. ¡­ What could he think? What was he supposed to think? He had done this. His mind had come up with this and carried it through. This smear was what he wanted right?
?? Achievement get: Tied a CEO to the tracks. (Unique)
Description: Reenact a western classic and become the villain of a cowboy movie.
Stat: +10 Body Power Stat: +5 Body Speed Stat: +2 planning power Stat: +2 emotional defense
¡°Ah¡­wondered when that would arrive ¨C larger reward than I¡¯ve gotten in a while. Thanks. I resent that villain tag ¨C I¡¯m a fucking hero mate ¨C but it''s fine. I forgive you.¡± Richard responded to the system as he left the scene of the crime. He felt¡­free. He felt good. Shouldn¡¯t he feel something else? Guilt maybe? Nah¡­ ¡­the only regret that Richard could end up mustering was a faint sadness ¨C his whole plan was less funny than he had imagined. Ah well. Maybe he would come up with something better by his next target. He just had to figure out where the police officer that had fucked him and the creepy scientist were hiding and come up with some new punishments. Before that Richard was going take a break again. It was a bit of a shame he couldn¡¯t take the mech around everywhere but¡­it was kind of noticeable. It stood out in a bad way ¨C and linked him directly to this crime. So many people had seen the ball smash through the building and kidnap the monster running the place¡­ It was fine. Richard had his money again and now he wanted to go shopping. Maybe after grabbing some guns, he¡¯d have a plan for the next two. Chapter 33. Why does magic like 3s so much? The build a skill workshop. ---Maddy--- "Just have to start on it huh." Maddy muttered just under her breath ¨C staring at the stack of wooden slates she had been holding for close to ten minutes now. Her mind was blank ¨C clueless as to where to start. She wasn''t an artist, but it felt like¡­it felt like she had decided she wanted to draw, looked throughout the house, finally found a pack of markers from grade school, sought out some paper ¨C pillaging the families printer ¨C then. Just after sitting down, finally after getting ready, she suddenly realized she had no clue what she wanted to draw. Madison thought about the lecture ¨C thought back and tried to narrow in on her goals. What did she want? What did Madison Graves want? Why did she want it? Why did she think she wanted it? Madison wanted magic. She wanted¡­fantasy. I obviously want to survive and make my way but¡­ But magic. This single goal had briefly consumed all of her thoughts. Who wouldn¡¯t want magic? If you found out it really existed? Who wouldn¡¯t dream of being able to use it? From what the wizard had explained, magic wasn¡¯t fully what she had been imagining ¨C it was a bit too structured in certain ways¡­but that was probably true of any magic she imagined. Looking behind the curtain made it lose a bit of mystery. What was her short-term goal? The task she had been given was¡­well she was supposed to make her own skills from the ground up. The broken system skill gave her the building blocks she could use to play with. After re-arranging them, she would be doing the same actions the system had done ¨C only now under her own control. She would understand what is happening. That¡¯s probably the best place to start right? Focus on what I have? Focus on the smaller pieces then put them together afterwards? Maddy¡¯s two most important concepts were application and sound. They were the two that were ¡®complete¡¯ ¨C the rest were all ¡®part concepts¡¯ and limited enough they could only be used to make skills like her old ones. She could actually focus on both at once ¨C and despite herself, Maddy found it easier to multitask. The act of multitasking calmed her slightly ¨C a side effect of her foundation? ''Application'' was an incredibly general concept. It was vague in meaning ¨C she could probably use it in tons of different scenarios¡­but because of that it felt weaker. Like a glue she could use to hold skills together. When Maddy thought of how it was used in her original skill and how it felt¡­glue was what came to her mind. Something that tied the whole skill together ¨C it seeped throughout the shape of the skill and made it somehow work ¨C the skill itself was almost too complicated. The only reason such a wide array of effects worked together was because this glue was a part of it. She imagined the shape application took in the skill ¡­she realized it was being used twice. The skill was almost recursive ¨C looping back on the same concept and double dipping its utility. ¡­no, it was more recursive than that. ...better. Maddy''s board took on a mess of squiggles as she pulled apart and put her skill back together with her new knowledge. It made sense in her head but became more and more convoluted the more she broke apart every part of her skill. The crocodile brackets were "shapes". The part of her skill that was being automatically filled in by her familiarity with the skill. The image she had, the way she moved her mana through the runes¡­she counted four ¨C maybe five different times the mana looped back through her ¡°application rune¡±. Maddy was reminded of a mechanic ¨C she could almost imagine herself taking apart a metaphorical engine and putting it back together to better understand it. The end result almost reminded her of how people talked about computer programs ¨C not that she was confident enough to claim it was exactly like that. ¡­despite being a bit of a mess, this last result felt right ¨C but it wasn¡¯t at all like Renald¡¯s spell example had been. He had simply written a rhyme beside some symbols ¨C Maddy¡¯s starting point was a probably hard-to-follow mess of concepts and shapes that might not make sense even to her when she came back to it later. ¡­should she try and untangle it? Try and copy Renald¡¯s spell style more? ¡­he had spoken a lot about everyone¡¯s style being different hadn¡¯t he? What Maddy had written felt right¡­she would just work on making neater setups in the future. The whole time Maddy was writing down and thinking about ¡®application¡¯ she was also considering sound. Sound as a concept¡­it spoke to her as communication. Maybe if her affinity was with motion, she¡¯d be better off thinking about it purely in terms of vibrations ¨C she could actually think of sonic damage or sound itself being an attack. Instead, after ruminating on the concept for a while, all Maddy could say is it felt like ¡®communication¡¯ more than simply vibrations in the air. The concept was like a microphone she could shove stuff through as long as it looked like ¡®sound¡¯. A communication between her and others. A communication between her and a spell. The concept blasted her words stronger than they would be otherwise¡­but that was it. She could tell if she wanted to speak her spells instead of writing them, this concept would help shift her to that end. She could tell if she wanted to create songs of mana ¨C magical melodies for ¡®spells¡¯ the concept would drag her through the motions. Did she want that? Drawing the concept for sound on a board then holding it, she looked at her friends. ¡°Heal¡± she spoke ¨C imagining any injuries on them being attacked by her life mana. A faint splash seemed to come from her voice wafting over them. Weaker then her words of death had been ¨C she had removed the emotion concept parts and hadn¡¯t put in a lot of effort. ¡°Heal my friends ¨C make all that is wrong with them right. Please heal Jess and Troy.¡± Maddy spoke watching as her mana was better directed ¨C a lower amount of healing seemed to hit Renald, a lower amount was dissipated into the surroundings ¨C it looked like the mana that did hit her friends was a bit higher¡­ Jess smiled at her ¨C a grin at being called her friend. They should all make sure to do something together soon ¨C Maddy didn¡¯t want them to start feeling like travelling companions that just so happened to be near each other. Maddy focused back to the results. Overall, they were much stronger ¨C it was a better spell, the shape of words she had used was better¡­but it also took longer to ¡®cast¡¯ and sounded slightly dumb as she was put on the spot. Is this how she wanted to do all of her spells from now on? Looking over the side of the cart Maddy tried another sound-based concept ¨C trying as hard as she could to stop focusing on the healing aspect of life. ¡°Grow the grass to be big and strong. Nutrient rich and full of Life.¡± It would be hard to notice the result without her¡­life sense? It wasn¡¯t fully a real ¡®life sense¡¯ but Maddy could see her own mana and what it affected. ¡®Personal mana sense¡¯ might be a better description ¨C at least for now. She also felt a timbre in her already full of mana words. They seemed to resonate when she said life ¨C she wanted to hold that thought. Stolen novel; please report. Starting with her at the center, a wave of her mana flooded out in all directions ¨C carried as far as her voice could reach at the speed of ¡®sound¡¯. Every single blade of grass lit up slightly in her sight ¨C and she could have sworn they tinted greener in her vision. It would be incredibly impressive if not for how little had actually happened. Maybe if she cast the same spell again and again for a day or two? It was wide-reaching but maybe due to how much grass was being affected, the result was muted¡­ Waiting till her mana was full again, she tried a similar spell. ¡°Grow the grass just around the carriage. Apply and effect only the grass in a twenty-foot range. Make it nutrient rich and full of Life.¡± This time the grass right around the carriage was affected ¨C it definitely changed colour ¨C like a blurry brush had increased the saturation in a circle around her. ¡­The spell had seemed to like her using Apply in the wording ¨C she could definitely feel it in the words. It hadn¡¯t quite been the same as actually using the symbol for it ¨C but it was still there. Renald was right. The more concepts she had the better. She should work to gather more and increase the range of stuff she could do. One day she might be able to speak a whole sentence using nothing but concepts! There was a real question she wanted to answer though. Would she want to add verbal activations to spells in the future? Taking her scythe covered in reaper runes and activating her first spell, Maddy spoke at the same time. ¡°Reaper¡¯s slash¡± she looked around suddenly realizing she didn¡¯t have a target. She wouldn¡¯t be testing her spell on her friends ¨C people were not test subjects. ¡­she also didn¡¯t know about testing it on herself. That seemed like a good path towards masochism. ¡­should have just used life mana shouldn¡¯t she? It was so much safer for testing that death mana. Waiting for the spell to dissipate, Maddy spent some time trying to undo it. It felt like she could almost bring it back. She could definitely straight-up break the spell ¨C but that wasn¡¯t nearly as useful as being able to retract it. Bring back the mana that never ended up being used¡­if she wanted that she would probably have to change the spell a bit but it didn¡¯t stop her trying anyways. Finally back to a clean slate, Maddy tried once again. ¡°A living Reaper¡¯s blade¡± Maddy spoke as she cast her spell. Reaching out she touched the tip of the blade and saw how her worms flooded out and through her body. Definitely stronger. So back around to her original question. Did she want to start speaking every single one of her spells? No¡­ No¡­she didn¡¯t think she did. Would she speak a spell if it made sense? Probably. It was a free boost to effectiveness. The worms felt anywhere from a quarter to twice as effective just because she had spoken the words¡­yes that was a huge range ¨C it was really hard to figure out just how much better just that they were. So how did she want to carry around her sound concept? It felt separate from the rest of her spell parts. Something she could use or not¡­a amplifier that only activated when she spoke and wanted it. The more Maddy felt around her concepts the more it felt like there was meaning to how they were used. A meaning to placement and a meaning to¡­Maddy had an idea but it felt like a commitment. Did she want to try it? ¡­should she wait? ¡­it felt like this was the best time to do it. It felt like she should commit while she was still thinking of it ¨C like if she waited till later, it would no longer work how she was hoping. That might just be superstition, but it might be true ¨C Maddy wanted to follow her gut for this but she didn¡¯t have to. She had someone to ask. ¡°Hey, can you help tell me what you think of this plan? If it sounds good I¡¯ll also need some help setting it up.¡± Maddy turned to her temporary teacher rousing him from his dazed position. ¡°Of course, tell me what you want¡± He responded and listened. ¡­ ¡°Bit to the left.¡± Renald spoke magnifying the light sculpture in front of Maddy¡¯s face. She was currently carefully drawing [Apply -> Sound] on her tongue using the charcoal of her marker. The rune for sound took up a massive area of her tongue while apply was drawn small and attached with an arrow near the back. Renald was acting like a mirror ¨C looking down at her tongue and mimicking what he saw with an illusion. He had said she had to draw it herself if she really wanted it to work how she was hoping ¨C so this fake mirror was their best option. Slowly but surely, she drew the shapes as cleanly as she could. Her tongue felt dry and saliva was building in the back of her throat ¨C she could taste the charcoal and it was making her salivate for some reason. As soon as she saw the last line was in place Maddy pushed her mana through the rune. A race of death killing her tastebuds. Melting into her flesh and making her wince. A race of life, healing her damage, fixing immediately afterwards. The runes burned deeper and deeper into her tongue ¨C they felt almost like they were living creatures. Her tongue vibrated and Maddy found herself gagging and choking ¨C involuntary tears rushing down her face as the worried eyes of her friends watched. ¡­she waved to them that she was fine. It didn¡¯t hurt that bad ¨C and she wanted this. Finally finishing up, she channelled life throughout her head clearing up any lingering signs of damage. All this on a whim¡­but it felt right. She still wanted more concepts ¨C she hadn¡¯t even finished making a new skill ¨C but now felt clearer than she had. ¡°Thank you, don¡¯t worry I¡¯m fine¡± she told her friends ¨C the barest slip of mana leaking into her words. They didn¡¯t seem to notice her slip ¨C that might get dangerous if she wasn¡¯t paying attention ¨C but¡­Troy seemed to relax at her words. ¡°I finally figured out something I want to do. It''s dumb that it took me this long, but I have a plan.¡± Maddy finally started once more, a goal in mind as she drew on her board and then shifted straight to her scythe. Testing was all well and good, but this needed to be written on the scythe itself. Step one was to section off a majority of the spell. She wanted death leeches that could be sent out to attack¡­and life worms that could be sent off to heal. What she really wanted was to attach those worms to sound ¨C send them off to attack anything that could hear her. Essentially combine her two skills ¨C the problem of course was that words on their own were indiscriminate. Sound was by nature an area of effect. What Maddy wanted was to attack only the monsters they would face and not her friends. To do that she couldn¡¯t send them out with sound¡­she had to combine it somehow? Somehow the transference ¡®part concept¡¯ transfers the collected death energy back to me on a kill. Can I change that slightly? What does that look like? Messing about with her part concepts for the first time Maddy was more and more aware of the limitations. She couldn¡¯t just immediately use them to get the result she wanted ¨C but what she wanted was already mostly done. ... Several hours of drawing, erasing and redrawing...a sleep through the night and then a return to the project in the morning. Finally she got the result she had wanted. She had taken small breaks to learn more from the wizard ¨C how she might be able to gain a second affinity for example ¨C but the largest gain was her spell. Maddy had gotten it working! ¡°Apply a link to all that can hear me.¡± Maddy started out with a ¡®sound¡¯ attack. Her attack was limited in scope to the point where it was drastically strengthened. All she wanted was to ¡®plant a seed¡¯. That symbolism was written out in her ¡®shapes¡¯ description and held in her mind. She didn''t want to hurt anything, just forcefully plant a seed that didn''t do anything alone. Everyone and everything in range ¨C including the merchants below actually ¨C was hit by this ¡®primer¡¯ spell. ¡­she willed the seeds attached to the passengers below to wither ¨C she didn¡¯t want to be rude. Everyone had been hit of course except for Renald. He simply smiled as he listened to her spell ¨C did he have such high defense it didn¡¯t activate for him? Some sort of protective spell? That wasn¡¯t important. Now that she had a link, Maddy cast the reapers slash into her other modified skill. Standing far back on the carriage she aimed directly at Jess and cut the air ¨C ¡°Healing slash¡±. The seed inside of jess sprouted ¨C bursting into an intangible sprout that quickly grew. It thrust vines of life throughout the already fully healed girl''s body and then faded. Turning to look over the side of the carriage, Maddy saw what she had felt. A creature that looked like a puffer fish with legs and large red eyes stared at the carriage as they passed its nest. ¡°Necrotic slash¡± Maddy swung her blade ¨C pushing the effect down the connection she had made towards the monster. The seed it turned out was actually an egg ¨C an egg that burst open and hatched dozens of deadly leeches. Her spell grew as it activated creating several creatures that burrowed through fishy land-flesh and caused the surprised monster to shriek like a banshee. The cart below her sped up slightly ¨C she should start being more understanding of their situation ¨C and it wasn¡¯t till they were far away from the nest before it slowed once more.
?? Achievement get: Apprentice mage: Joined paths. (unique)
Description: Create a fully functional spell or combination of spells that can be used with both sides of your mana effectively.
Stat: +3 mental power. Stat: +1 mental speed. Stat: +1 soul power.
¡°I think you¡¯ve finally reached a point where you¡¯ve found your own path¡± Renald jumped up onto the side of the caravan and began walking along the railing ¨C impossibly balanced on the tightrope. ¡°Do you have any more questions for me before I leave?¡± he spun and jumped to the front of the carriage. Yes. Maddy had tons of questions. Tons ¨C she hadn¡¯t milked the teacher for all he had. What did she want to ask? Why was she blanking? ¡°What about using pips in spells? What about using something like a core in a spell?¡± Maddy spoke the first thing that came to her mind. Her question caused the wizard to pause and grimace slightly. ¡°A practice I¡¯m not that fond of ¨C sorry for creating a gap in your explanation but I really don¡¯t think it¡¯s something you should focus on. Basically¡­You as a young mage have your element concept and shapes. Those are yours ¨C those are the spells you can cast freely.¡± The teacher sat down dangling his legs off the railing and staring at them. ¡°Using components in spells is a method of making up for something you are lacking. It¡¯s a way of essentially giving yourself an extra disposable single use concept or even element. It can let you create spells you never would have been able to otherwise ¨C depending on how meaningful or how magical the component is it can allow you to create incredibly strong effects¡­but it also adds a resource to magic that doesn¡¯t need it. Wizards that rely on components but can¡¯t create any real spells without them¡­they are not real wizards in my mind.¡± Renald spoke and Maddy could hear the derision on his voice. ¡°Sometimes it¡¯s the only way to go about doing something however ¨C Pips are basically eggs for cores. They don¡¯t work well ¨C its incredibly hard to get them to give you a status screen ¨C but because they have that¡­that sort of innate concept you can use them to cast a status ritual¡­the bigger they are the easier it is to do so ¨C if you have a big enough pip however you¡¯ll end up with a core and using a core that can already give you a status screen for a single use spell to achieve the same result¡­¡± Renald¡¯s face gave off what he thought of such an effect. ¡°Basically, if you rely on it it¡¯s a crutch. But¡­It''s also the only way to achieve some results ¨C I¡¯d hold off on using it for anything but some sort of permanent spell or as a last resort. For example, creating a familiar or escaping a monster a rank above you. Do you have any other questions?¡± he asked. Maddy paused. She did but she didn¡¯t...he had already given her so much ¨C so much more than the amount of effort she had put in helping him. It felt¡­the more she got to know him it felt like this was just a charity. He hadn¡¯t needed her help in the first place ¨C he just wanted to set her on the right path. That felt right. Nodding her head Maddy said goodbye. ¡°No, I don¡¯t have any other questions ¨C thank you for your time.¡± Wiggling his fingers, the wizard jumped up once more then bowed and blurred. He was gone. ¡°Finally, that guy creeped me out.¡± Jess spoke up causing Troy to nod beside her. ¡°Really? He seemed nice.¡± Maddy wanted to defend him more but¡­that was fine. Chapter 34. Guns and Guards make Games of Glory. ---Richard--- Richard found a weapons shop. Not the same one he was in last time ¨C no matter how much brand loyalty he had towards the shopkeeper with a mechanical arm ¨C but one closer to his current location. The shop was in a less reputable district than his first one. The signs and quality of the offerings were more suspect¡­but who wouldn¡¯t want to find some black market weapons! Walking past the shopkeeper ¨C an incredibly gaunt man with hollow cheeks and a mechanical monocle ¨C Richard nodded and began browsing the wares. What did he want? Well¡­he wanted a gun if he was being honest. Not because of some dumb reason like thinking it was the strongest weapon or not wanting to get his hands dirty ¨C no Richard wanted a gun because of how satisfying they were to shoot. He didn¡¯t want some sniper¡¯s clinical weapon or some pea shooter no. He wanted a ¡®big ass gun¡¯. A shotgun if he could find it ¨C maybe a bazooka if he was lucky. Passing over all sizes of pistols and rifles Richard paused when he saw something even more exciting. An invisibility cloak! Reaching out in slight awe, Richard grabbed the cloak and found himself linking to it almost subconsciously. Wrapping it around his frame he looked down. His legs were gone. ¡­okay there was a seam and he kept dragging it making a faint blur of a ruffle appear near the ground but even that faded with time and if he held it just so¡­there. He was completely gone! This¡­this was amazing. Imagine how much easier sneaking into places or surprising people would be with this? Everyone should have an invisibility cloak! Stepping out of the back shelves, Richard walked across the room before suddenly a cough sounded out. Turning he saw the shop keeper looking at him. Stepping to the side the shop keeper¡¯s eyes followed.
If you bind or break an item you buy it.
The shopkeeper spoke his voice rasping slightly a frown accompanying his stare. ...whatever his translator was it didn''t seem to be masking his actual voice - Richard heart the rasp loud and clear every time he talked the translated panel appearing delayed a moment later. Pulling the hood down Richard stared at him. ¡°How come you can see me? Is the item defective?¡± The shopkeeper snorted and tapped his eyepiece.
Thermal imaging. That item only gives optic cloaking¡­you¡¯ll need a heat shield as well to block proper glances. You buying that?
Richard would take it! Even if it was only part invisibility this was singlehandedly the most useful thing he had ever seen. Brining the cloak towards the shopkeeper and handing it over reluctantly ¨C it broke its connection as soon as it left his hands with a slight jolt. The thick invisible sheet flickered into sad translucent view again. I want it.
That will be one million chips, will you be paying in installments, a line through the bank, or cash?
Shifting the cloak over his scanner the shopkeeper glanced up at him bored. ¡°I have this¡± Richard dropped his bag of funny money on the counter and watched the shopkeeper scan it.
And the rest of it?
The shopkeeper spoke up after glancing at some invisible screen. ¡°¡­how much am I missing?" Richard said slightly worried.
You have just under 6 thousand chips here¡­ you need a mill. So most of it.
The shopkeeper rasped slowly as if Richard was slow. ¡­fuck. ¡°Okay¡± Richard said taking back his bag and staring longingly at the cloak. One day. ¡­he could just take it, but he wasn¡¯t a thief. Richard would not rob an honest man just trying to make his sketchy living ¨C maybe if this was a massive department store of guns instead of a mom and pop style shop. Maybe then. Heading back and now better able to look at the price tags Richard found himself trailed by the shop keeper who hung the cloak up once more and stood just behind him as he looked at things. ¡°Why are all these pistols shooting random globs and Lazers? Where are the solid chucker¡¯s? The lead.¡± Richard spoke up ¨C might as well ask the staff on hand.
Delvers who use firearms tend to shoot a lot. They don¡¯t like carrying around ammo ¨C and would hate to run out in the dungeon.
The shopkeeper rasped ¨C sliding into view beside Richard their hands behind their back. ¡°So, the rest of these make their own ammo? Why can¡¯t they just create their own physical bullets? Why all these fancy effects?¡± Richard asked curious. Probably some bullshit reason to pump up the sci-fi factor. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Pointing up to a rifle near the ceiling the shopkeeper spoke.
Materialization is expensive ¨C do you know how much energy it takes to create matter? Even create fake matter like most materialization powers do? Something like that takes ten minutes to create a single bullet and twenty for one that¡¯s stable and won¡¯t disappear in a bit. 24 something odd shots a working day ¨C if its bound and constantly on you might get 72 in a 24 hour period . Compare
Pointing to a sci-fi looking pistol the shopkeeper continued.
With the same Aether flow rate and slot count, a lazer pistol can shoot once every half minute or so. Of course you can carry ammo ¨C there¡¯s some options here for that ¨C and many of the higher end kinetic rifles let you grow a shot in case of emergencies¡­ But they are unpopular for a reason ¨C materialization¡¯s even worse because dissolution ends up being cheaper than materialization for non bruisers. When you are converting matter to energy you can sometimes chain it ¨C loop energy around and use the energy to fuel the strike. Course they are expensive for a reason. Everyone and their mum wants a dissolution weapon. ..come over here. Most delvers prefer a melee weapon ¨C a solid baton can usually be powered indefinitely. It''s much cheaper to keep the energy by you then toss it around.
Eyeing Richards build the man brought him towards a second isle. This shop had fucking lightsabers. Richard stared at the wall of disabled lightsabers pulling one down and connecting his slot to it. Slowly ever so slowly a brilliant purple mass began to extend out of it. Like a¡­deodorant? No like a lip balm or something being twisted out of its case. Pushing it back on the shelf quickly ¨C not wanting to slice through anything ¨C Richard stared at the shopkeeper. ¡°What else do you have?¡± ¡­ After making nearly a full circuit of the shop ¨C there were so many toys ¨C Richard finally found something different. The shelf of ¡®experimental¡¯ ¨C read more exciting ¨C equipment near the back. The ¡®meta¡¯ for weapons was currently elemental weapons for the poor ¨C swords or axes that burst into flames or similar. Lasor pistols as a cheap side arm. ¡­and then light sabers and dissolution guns for the well off. All sounded fun but lost some novelty knowing they were the most popular choices. Did Richard really want to roll up to a dungeon delving party wearing the same getup as half the people there? Nah Richard rolled back around to wanting a gun with some kick. That¡¯s why he was excitedly looking at the DIY ammo scooper. It looked like a mechanical ice cream scoop on RGB and gears. How one used it was to hold one side against stone ¨C or similar material although it was only really rated for dungeon walls ¨C and channel the stockpile option. Through some magic mumbo jumbo Richard didn¡¯t understand, it bit into and sucked stone up. That raw material was moulded into into hollow canisters that extruded out the top and was sliced off into perfect sizes¡­ Like those plastic snowball makers you could use to create a mound of perfect snowballs, as long as you were using the correct type of gun you could make infinite ammo from the surroundings. Infinite ammo that, more importantly, didn¡¯t take forever to make. Then depending in part on if you filled its ¡®jelly filled¡¯ setting ¨C a side section that would pipe trace amounts of explosives or similar into each round ¨C or went for shrapnel rounds ¨C a specific process that would break the stone in such a way it exploded on firing¡­ From the explanation Richard could tell he could have both his ¡®big ass cannon¡¯ and ¡®shotgun¡¯ dreams all in one tiny package. Okay it wasn¡¯t that tiny ¨C it took up a lot of space on his belt ¨C but it was different and he liked how it felt on the test slab. Experimental Ammunition scooper. 2999c. The General purpose cannon he bought was 800c ¨C probably a good price for it ¨C and then Richard bought a dozen bags of ¡®effects¡¯ he could add to the weapon each for 20c. Supposedly the effect bags should be able to last him a hundred shots each so that felt like a good trade? Hard to value money when you weren¡¯t really sure how much it was worth and had taken it from muggers in the first place. Richard''s estimate for the dollar value was something like a third. That meant he had spent nearly 1000 dollars on the pooper scooper and 270ish on the gun. ¡­pricy? Maybe? It seemed pricy but he didn¡¯t really know how much delvers made. It was all fake money in the end. Taking his bounty happily out the door Richard walked along. Really what made the most sense for him to do was to head to the dungeon. Become a proper player and grind a bit ¨C try and get another slot or two using his single one to switch between his two items would be annoying when he could just use a single one. All it should require was beating a boss right? Could he get a skill for continuing his crusade? That was the problem. The longer he spent without continuing down his path of vengeance, the less he cared about following through with it. No he¡¯d continue. The next target was the police. Sorry the ¡®private police¡¯ if that wasn¡¯t a red flag if he¡¯d ever seen one. Making his way through the city, Richard learned more and more about them. They were mostly a regular police force, but the majority of their work was done through corporations. The city itself hired them as well to be more traditional police but they paid so little the ¡®official¡¯ police seemed to be nothing more than a marketing ploy ¨C no one he talked to mentioned ever seeing them stop a burglary or similar. Basically the mafia as far as Richard could tell. Finding their bases was incredibly easy ¨C finding the specific cop who sold him into test subject status was not. What Richard did find was a central office right by the blimp docking station. The blimps were interesting. More involved than Richard had first thought. It turned out they were filled with helium ¨C those hoses that attached to them would top them up every time they landed ¨C and a majority of the reason they moved so well was due to K-Powder. Everything came back to that damned magic dust. Turns out if you removed some of the drag caused by massive balloons they could move much faster through the air ¨C who would have thought? ¡­nah it was a cool material, Richard was just salty it was controlled by crooks and poisoning the populace. It did give him an idea however. Richard waited till night ¨C still salty he didn¡¯t have an invisibility cloak ¨C then went to work. Using his newfound scooper on the cement base of the building it slowly but surely dug down into the foundation. The process was kind of long ¨C it wasn¡¯t meant as a digging device ¨C but Richard had time. Suck in cement like material. Poop it out into canister. Suck in more. A faint buzzing sound rang out but it was even less noticeable than Richard was imagining. He could have done this in the day. Richard at least was getting plenty of practice with the device. Always a bright side. The machine worked in a series of steps. First it seemed to pulse backwards into the stone adjacent mix softening it somehow. Then it stabbed into the material with spinning scoops to pull it up through the back. Inside the stone was compressed in a single step and then pulsed with a second wave of something to solidify it. Scoop. Scoop. Scoop. Once Richard had dug a hole about the width of his arm he was ready. Rushing towards the blimp docking station he snaked one of the feeds around the side and through its back area ¨C crossing the back ally to his dug hole. He had estimated it would fit, but it was with great relief that he found the tube snaked its way over no problem. Inserting it down and under he then tried to activate his stone tunneller to cover over the hole. ¡­this was not its intended use at all. The ¡°stone¡± was not nearly as soft as the machine made it look ¨C less playdough and more stone. ¡­ Finally sealing off the edges Richard made his way back to the ally and took a small nap. Dawn was the sign to start his plan. Workers would notice the snaking hose soon ¨C every half hour he waited discovery became more likely. Sneaking into the building Richard found a round wheel to spin and release the gas. Heh¡­release the gas. A faint hissing sound was a sign it was working, and he snuck back around to watch the building from the front. ¡­it wasn¡¯t immediate. Slowly but surely however there were signs of confusion. Someone suddenly yelled in an incredibly falsetto tone and Richard knew it had taken effect. ¡­there. Complicated distraction made. Chapter 35. The end to a trip and the end to a training arc. ---Maddy--- The road trip continued. It felt strange ¨C it felt like time was passing incredibly quickly but it was also rapidly becoming the longest section of Maddy¡¯s new life. At night the caravan would stop ¨C many people huddling in as sections puffed out like a transforming RV into bedrooms ¨C they would eat quietly bringing their protectors food and slowly climbing back inside ¨C as if afraid movement would draw monsters. She hadn¡¯t fully noticed it when Renald was here protecting them but monsters came out at night. Even if they weren¡¯t in a nest, slinking creatures would circle the source of life the caravan posed ¨C and it was her crew''s contractual and moral job to fend them off. In this area everything was tier 1 or so ¨C a soft application of her new spell ¡°sound seeds¡± was enough to kill nearly everything without leaving the roof¡­ Everything that could hear her that is. Some monsters didn¡¯t seem to have ears and one or two were defensive enough to shrug off the effect. Those were usually shot by an arrow or two and dealt with. They also started stopping at miniature towns more and more frequently. Nearly every single one had a similar setup ¨C a ¡®massive¡¯ (read tall but not as high as most skyscrapers) tower in the middle surrounded by dozens to hundreds of small buildings. The tower was home to the mage king and the surroundings held by the ¡®citizens¡¯ ¨C who all seemed normal but meek. Occasionally scared for no reason and¡­stifled. The caravan would stop for an hour or so at each small stronghold, rapidly trade a lot of complicated goods ¨C they weren¡¯t bringing food or anything about instead their wares were mostly marshal scrolls and translators and other magical tools ¨C then continue on. At one Maddy stepped down and after staring at the tower in the center too long was pulled to the side by a citizen. She was carefully told not to disrespect their god or she would be smote by holy lightning. Another of these cities nearly a day later had every single ¡®citizen¡¯ wearing a collar of vines. If they spoke out of turn those collars would tighten as if warning them and presumably they could strangle and kill those who did worse¡­ That was probably the worst one. Maddy could ever so slightly see the life and death mana contained in those collars. It was close enough to her own affinity she could almost see how they were doing it and it scared her due to the complexity. Maddy¡­if she were honest felt kind of off about the situation. She didn¡¯t want to come in here and push her modern sensibilities on the natives. They were being protected from the monsters and maybe that¡¯s what the world needed? The strong protecting the weak? Some of the cities really did feel like trading with dictators in autocratic third-world countries. But she was an outsider. She wasn¡¯t even a part of the trades ¨C just a third party watching from on top of her ride. At least most ¡®citizens¡¯ seemed healthy and well cared for outside of the tyranny? Some of the small cities were truly beautiful ¨C the people happy. She ended up choosing to turn a blind eye to it ¨C no matter how guilty it made her feel. She chose to close her eyes and enjoy the trip. A tourist. Some of the cities had dungeons in them ¨C they could have stopped and done another run but¡­then they would have lost their ride until another came past and as a group, they agreed to see it through to the end. Finally, on the 5th day they were nearing the end of their route. The caravan would start looping back soon ¨C heading towards Ser once again while passing through a few of the largest cities. Should they continue? Make another whole loop? Stop at a city or two to try another dungeon? Some of them were rank 2 instead of the rank 1 dungeon they had completed last time. Currently, they were near the ¡®end¡¯ of the zone trundling along towards the city the closest to the edge. That¡¯s what the natives called the barrier to the next zone. The ¡®edge¡¯. It was a massive arcane barrier holding back a monstrous area even worse than the badlands. Supposedly at least. The barrier had been there so long it was almost legend by this point. So, what was the best option? Maddy had a goal before they left. She wanted¡­she wanted to gain a second affinity and it felt like the best time was to do it now before they advanced further. Considering Troy at least seemed interested in doing so as well ¨C he didn¡¯t talk much but had mentioned how annoying his limited arrows were and how it felt like all his thoughts were on rationing them and collecting them once again. To complete this goal they had two options ¨C the method for gaining a second affinity was simple enough but not easy. First they had to hold onto a source of mana of the affinity they hoped to gain. A task that was infinitely easier because of her friends. Swap some mana and hold onto it. Without them she would have to find a natural treasure or hire someone to do the donation ¨C considering it would leak away over time it would need to be done quickly and honestly it all sounded like a pain. Much easier with friends. They then had to do something worthy of gaining a new skill. Beat a dungeon their ¡®level¡¯. Beat the field boss at the center of a nest that was their ¡®level¡¯ or higher. Those were the simplest and nearly sure-fire methods of gaining a skill though obviously not the only way. When gaining that skill there was a high chance it would latch onto the mana they held but didn¡¯t use ¨C a high chance that shifted to 100% if they did something like use some of that mana to land a finishing blow. After that point they would be¡­mostly given a skill. The skill would almost be in limbo ¨C not fully theirs because the mana wasn¡¯t theirs. Then they had to commit. To make it theirs they had to break that skill and give the new source of mana a place to live. Remove a stat and replace it with this mana. The hardest technical part but also the simplest in comparison to everything up to that point. For her friends picking would be a more emotional thing. Feeling it out. Relinquishing and replacing their stuff. For her she could use a spell. She could write down what she wanted ¨C the shape of how she would break her skill. ¡°So dungeon or field boss?¡± Maddy asked making sure her friends knew they were in this together. ¡°I¡¯m¡­I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to gain a second affinity¡± Jess spoke up. ¡°Really? You heard the advice Renald gave right? A life affinity would synergize incredibly well with your distributed body and tank build.¡± Maddy asked curious. ¡°I don¡¯t¡­I don¡¯t know if I trust that. Besides, if I just need healing I have you. You¡¯re not going to leave me, are you?¡± Jess asked. ¡­she hadn¡¯t been planning on it. Had that been what Jess was thinking? She didn¡¯t want to remove her dependency on Maddy hoping that bond would keep them together? Maddy could use that couldn¡¯t she? No! Why was her brain wired wrong. She shouldn¡¯t take advantage of that! ¡°I¡¯m going to. Removing mind power and body speed¡± Troy spoke up. ¡­that was right, they had to figure out which stats they were giving up. They only ¡®needed¡¯ to pick one ¨C but the combined element was exponentially stronger than the uncombined one and it would be stupid not to fully commit. ¡°That¡¯s fine, back around to the original question. Dungeon or field boss?¡± Maddy asked. She had to figure out what stats she was willing to forgo. Really¡­there were two that made the most sense didn¡¯t there? If she was committing to being a mage, ¡®body power¡¯ and ¡®body speed¡¯ were the safest to chuck right? Defense was the best body stat to keep even if she didn¡¯t have a lot of it? No...it was better to keep speed. Better to not get hit than to try and shrug off hits right? Getting hit hurt. ¡°I think¡­I think we haven¡¯t beaten a field boss yet. Another dungeon would be same old but the achievement for a first-time field boss is probably better right?¡± Jess spoke up after a pause. Right, achievements were a thing. Maddy had gotten distracted by magic ¨C it was a good point. ¡°What do you think?¡± Maddy asked Troy making sure he felt included. Starting to nod and then pausing as if gathering courage Troy spoke. ¡°Yes. That¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°Perfect, want to help me pick a nest? Only a few by us right now¡± Maddy spoke up picking out her book and scanning the area. ¡°Nothing sneaky. I hate the monsters that hide and attack from your blind spot or can confuse your senses¡± Jess spoke up. Straightforward request for straightforwardness. ¡°There¡¯s one¡­hard to say exactly how far but within a mile or so that¡¯s fire-themed. Lots of burning attacks ¨C even the foliage has fire mana in it. Could also pick this one just past it ¨C it''s shield themed and has lots of monsters that look like this¡± Pointing to her book Maddy showed off the shield monster. ¡°That one!¡± Jess spoke up pointing at the defensive nest. ¡°Alright, that fine with you?¡± Maddy asked and got confirmation from Troy. Now how to tell the merchants they would be ditching them here? ¡­ Maddy and crew got off. The merchants seemed sad to see them go but they were close to the next city and could stay there overnight. There wasn¡¯t always an adventuring party traveling with them after all, they must be able to do so somehow. All three of them prepared in different ways. Maddy went over her scythe carefully fixing any smudging on her runework and Troy seemed to be counting his arrows. Jess walked over to a tree and whipped it several times, each slash leaving grooves in the bark. She then wrapped her whip around the trunk and held it in both hands concentrating. One foot came out and then she yanked her whip towards her ¨C the leathery material cutting through the wood like a string of floss through butter. The tree was cut in two ¨C the trunk sliding sideways after her void mana guillotined it ¨C and fell to the ground with a huge crash. ¡­seemed she now had some more offensive capabilities? More a paladin and less a pure tank? Good for her. ¡­ The crew was ready and began their slightly awkward ritual. Jess and Maddy stood on either side of Troy holding his hands. Jess slowly pushed all of her mana towards Troy aspecting it towards creation. Troy pushed all his mana towards Maddy aspected towards light. Maddy felt the pump of mana. She could feel it in her body but it wasn¡¯t something she could really control. Even as she watched it seemed to spread out and leak from her skin ¨C her forearm glowing slightly as the mana faded. Quickly pulling out a charcoal pen she painted a few symbols where the biggest section was located. ''Apply to this apply.'' she wrote. Application was not the best concept for what she wanted ¨C really she needed something like ¡®collection¡¯ or ¡®storage¡¯ ¨C but her collection concept was a part and not bendable enough to suit her needs. Maybe if she had more time she could sit down and twist it towards that purpose anyways but for now a simple application loop worked. The mana at least wasn¡¯t fading ¨C even if it didn¡¯t seem to know what it was doing with the spell. Troy hadn¡¯t needed to write anything down to contain the mana inside of him ¨C he had a look of concentration upon his face however and that wasn¡¯t going away while Maddy was now free. ¡­she liked her situation more but understood the appeal. Turning as one they stepped past the invisible boundary of the nest ¨C a sign at the edge with shields and half-filled circles all that indicated something was off. Deeper into the nest they walked ¨C this one was much much larger than the last they had entered and took a while to show many changes. The grass ¨C because it was always the grass ¨C showed the first signs something was off. It was like paths had been pushed through the foliage below them ¨C it pressed down in different random patches each ¡®pointing¡¯ in different directions. When on those patches of grass it was much easier to walk the direction they pointed ¨C it was roughly a doubling of effect. Walking along the grains in one direction was twice as easy. Twice as fast. Walking side to side did nothing and walking against the grains felt like she was walking through molasses. Her body slowed down and struggled against it at nearly twice its difficulty. Jess seemed slightly less affected by the effect ¨C her defensive stats blocking the directional concept? But enough time was spent on the environment. The monsters were here. ¡­ The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Four creatures awaited their approach. They looked like a cross between those spiky square blocks in Mario and a monkey. Each had an almost mirror-like front ¨C a grey that shifted to chrome dead on. They moved sideways like crabs ¨C always facing towards the group ¨C but for a brief moment when one was getting into place Maddy saw its back was bright pink. A baboon''s pink bum pulled up until it covered most of their back. They were a variation of ¡®specialized body¡¯. their back a weak side their front stronger for it. In fact ¨C because they embraced their weak spot so much and tied whatever their concepts were into it so much they were nearly immune to damage from the front. Nearly completely impervious to damage from one direction. Maddy spoke. ¡°Apply the seeds of potential on mine enemies¡±. Her voice carried with it a deadly package. As long as the creatures could hear her it should land¡­ ¡­The block nearest to her rushed forward at an incredible speed. ¡°Damn, it didn¡¯t work¡± Maddy yelped ¨C somehow because they were facing her their concepts overpowered her own. Even if sound should go around them. Even if it made no logical sense they could block sound if their backs weren''t exposed¡­ Magic. Jess¡¯s whip shot forward and placed a massive yellow barrier in the creature''s path. She was getting better at that ¨C her barrier seemed thicker now that she had broken her skill and could strengthen it. The first baboon thwomp smashed against the barrier with a sound like shattering glass. It slowed for a second and then sped up once again ¨C undazed. ¡°Cover me¡± Maddy yelled dashing forward. Soon she wouldn¡¯t have to throw herself into danger like this ¨C at least not this directly. She didn¡¯t enjoy it. Having to get this close wasn¡¯t fun. Trying to stick to the grass ¨C Maddy hit a patch and turned sideways running around toward the back of the creature. ¡­that should have been enough but she wasn¡¯t facing a single monster. Its pack attacked as well ¨C the one on the side rushing towards her from Maddy¡¯s blind spot and smashing into her like a truck. Maddy was flung. She felt bones break ¨C the impact literally threw her up into the air and for a brief moment she spun, a dizzy view of the entire battle visible before she landed groaning to the side. Troy shot an arrow ¨C a blinding bolt of energy that actually sunk a teeny bit into the front of one of the monsters. ¡­all of them seemed to be outmatched. All three of their attacks fell short ¨C was this really an ¡®on-level¡¯ area? They seemed so much stronger. As a group¡­they were falling behind their theoretical strength weren¡¯t they? Maddy activated her self-healing spell ¨C a simplified version of the spell she used to heal others then spoke as soon as her head felt less dazed. ¡°Fix and hold my body together.¡± She didn¡¯t need to be fully healed. She just needed to stick herself together enough to return to the fight ¨C she could feel roots travel around her body. Felt the magic fortifying any broken bits, roots momentarily surrounding and replacing bones. There, two of the creature¡¯s backs were to her ¨C the monster seemed like something you could only really face in a group. Mentally thanking her friends for distracting them Maddy cast her first spell once more ¨C pushing the last drops of her mana into it. ¡°Sew the seeds of retribution. Apply the potential to defeat my enemies¡±. This time the two with their back to her were hit. The magic travelled through the sound of her voice and into their ears ¨C tiny dormant parasites deposited cleanly. Another monster was approaching her ¨C seemed the sound of battle had done it ¨C and it was now rushing towards her. Quickly slashing out with her scythe and calling for the seeds to awaken ¨C the amount of mana she used wouldn¡¯t be that strong for the ¡®real hit¡¯ but with how weak their backs were it was enough to kill them. Tiny maggots swept sideways and then dove into the pink bottom ripping them to shreds with a keening cry. ¡°Dodge¡± Jess called seeing Maddy¡¯s back turned towards the 5th monster but Maddy had already accounted for it. Stepping onto a patch of grass and throwing herself forward Maddy heard the whistle of wind right behind her, the tip of her foot clipped in passing. Stumbling around she slashed ¨C her blade whipping at the back of the monster and just barely missing. It wasn¡¯t enough. Maddy¡¯s mana was near rock bottom ¨C the constant trickle just barely refilling what she had lost. They hadn¡¯t even reached the field boss yet. The ¡®alpha¡¯ as some called it. Why hadn¡¯t they picked a better matchup? Picked a nest they countered better? ¡­Maddy shook her head. Sometimes you couldn¡¯t control everything. It was good to face more natural creatures sometimes. She didn¡¯t want to lock herself into only being good against squishy distributed tanks like the bulls had been. Dodging to the side again ¨C Maddy felt like she was being corralled picking the direction the grass moved every time ¨C Maddy suddenly felt a stream of mana begin filling her nearly to bursting ¨C the maggots had finished gorging on the first two deaths and returned to her with their bounty. Quickly her pool filled to bursting and then the rest of the maggots began filling her scythe ¨C crawling down her arm into the wood where they sunk into collection tanks for later. A mage was always better when she had mana. ¡°Apply eggs into grass around us,¡± Maddy yelled pushing her entire pool into the spell pushing her words and the image in her mind as hard as she could towards bending her spell. She had briefly thought of it back when she was planning out her current setup ¨C back when testing she found her mana covered all the grass easily the sound rustling and sticking onto the vegetation. The reason she had moved away from that point. The ¡®stick it in grass plan¡¯ was due to how wasteful it was. How much mana the route would take without more concepts to enhance it as an attack vector? Using sound directly had seemed smarter ¨C now she was regretting not including it anyways. There was space on her staff for more spells. Maddy¡¯s mana bottomed out ¨C a wave of tiny clear eggs deposited on nearly every single blade of grass in the clearing as she did so. Each blade became a host ¨C like a tick clinging to the tip of the blade ready for someone to walk through and pick it up. Quickly she pulled the ¡®on hold¡¯ and fading maggots from the scythe back into her body filling up her pool again. A sixth monster appeared but was killed by an arrow to the back as it charged Maddy ¨C Troy taking advantage of its turned form. ¡°Reap the souls of enemies and heal my friends. Slash of activation¡± Maddy yelled sweeping her blade across the battlefield. Every single creature had been covered in eggs. In seeds ¨C and this was the moment they hatched. Jess and Troy both had healing versions ¨C the sweeping scythe beginning to fix them ¨C while all three of the remaining monsters ¨C and yet another that had just arrived ¨C all shuddered as her curse was activated. Even if the sound had been blocked in one direction her activation slash didn¡¯t seem to care for direction or distance, bursting all the eggs at once. The ones on the grass were a waste ¨C if she had better prepared this spell those could have been saved ¨C but it was fine. She would soon have more mana again ¨C and yes her pool was refilling. She should cast the seeds once more now, no matter how inefficient.
?? Achievement get: Spell a dozen deaths (unique)
Description: Kill twelve or more same tier creatures with a single spell.
Stat: +2 soul power. Stat: +3 mental power.
Waiting till her pool was full Maddy yelled for seeds to coat grass ¨C removing the part about them being near her. Casting the same spell a second time when her pool refilled Maddy felt the density of eggs in the nest increasing. With such a wide range they were dispersed ¨C barely at a density or size enough to catch things ¨C but as she stood in the clearing catching her breath she could feel more and more seeds catch hold of things. She couldn¡¯t fully tell where they were but her connection to the spell said they were on a monster now. Returning to her friends she panted slightly. ¡°Does anyone need more healing? Do you want to continue? I think I¡¯m getting a better hand at killing these things but depending on how much worse the boss is I¡¯m not sure how I¡¯ll do.¡± Jess shook her head then nodded. ¡°I¡¯m okay, And yeah, It''s better to try and redirect them than stop their charges ¨C I¡¯m having better luck deflecting the charges than I am stopping them.¡± Troy simply stared at his bow a faint frustration radiating off of him. ¡°Let''s keep going then,¡± Maddy spoke and led the way once more, deeper into the nest. The effect on the grass started to become more and more pronounced ¨C getting to the point where Maddy could barely move against them and was almost pulled along them even if she didn¡¯t want to be. It felt like standing in a river ¨C the rush of water pulling her downstream. Down towards the boss. Cause it became more and more obvious a large chunk of the streams were focused inwards. Pulling food towards the monster ¨C pulling prey towards it. Coming across several roving bands of thrump baboons the group had a few tense battles ¨C they didn¡¯t separate again, Jess really did seem to get the hang of deflecting them and a few were trivial as they already had seeds on them. Finally the group reached the center of the mess. It wasn¡¯t just the grass anymore. The few trees and the few shrubs that were in this nest were all bent at a nearly flat level as they followed the flows of direction about. And in the center of the clearing stood a humanoid figure. He held a single shield in one arm ¨C no, his one arm was a shield ¨C and carried a long spear in the shape of a giant silver arrow. Glancing towards them the knight stared for a moment then suddenly charged. Fast, Incredibly fast, the creature''s movement burned new ¡®vectors¡¯ into the ground as it moved. Directly in front of it and charging towards them like an arrow the shifting grass rotated and pointed directly at their position. Was this boss responsible for all the lines in the nest? Or was the nest¡¯s ability to make those streams what made this monster able to? Jess quickly placed an angled barrier in the boss¡¯s path even as the group dove in different directions. With a contemptuous swing the boss shattered the barrier with its spear and was suddenly beside them. All three of them were in different directions and the way the boss bent and turned its charge in an arc reminded Maddy of the tutorial. The bull ¨C it was the same sort of movement if much much faster. Proof that was meant to prepare them. Troy shot off a completely black arrow as he jumped backwards ¨C somehow aiming and accurately firing the shot even though he was in the air. The boss whipped its arm around ¨C slapping the arrow out of the air even though its back was turned. How had he responded so quickly? How had Troy and the boss both attacked already? Maddy struggled to get a moment to stand ¨C taking advantage of the fact the boss seemed to turn and head towards Troy to center herself. ¡°Apply the seeds of potential upon my voice. My voice will reach all, my voice will apply magic upon the knight in front of us.¡± Maddy dumped her entire pool into the attack ¨C for the barest hint of a moment she thought it might work but then the shield was swung with a blur as if the knight had parried her attack. Had parried something at the speed of sound. Continuing its charge towards Troy the knight wound back its spear. Jess swung her whip at the creature''s legs ¨C coating it heavily in void mana as it ran past her. Jumping to avoid the slash the charge was slowed and Troy got out of the way once more. Maddy had to think. Her new attack vector wasn¡¯t working. She was nearly out of mana, Sound¡­without a kinetic affinity wasn¡¯t as strong as she had hoped. It was still incredibly strong being able to attack with her voice but she should¡­she should stick to an attack she knew would land. Not imaginative enough to come up with a new spell in the heat of battle Maddy focused. She turned and spun ¨C a spin through the air that slashed in a three sixty and shouted out. ¡°Apply all seeds already sewn. Grow and gather me mana from my enemies¡± All across the nest eggs hatched. It took a moment but mana began to pour in ¨C most still raw with the stench of death. She felt like a spider in the center of a web ¨C dozens of lines of ¡®transference¡¯ leading out from her to her victims and back to her once again. As soon as she was full she focused on her surroundings once more and flung eggs into the grass surrounding them. And again. And again. She used the combined deaths to paint the clearing with her parasites ¨C both her companions were still alive. Somehow Troy had managed to land a shot, the knights arm bled white blood even as the arrow lit up the surroundings. Stabbing forward the knight finally impaled Troy ¨C not bothering to finish the job as he turned once more to attack the ¡®second pest¡¯ ¨C Jess. Maddy continued to use her makeshift spell to dump seeds in the grass. One or two had latched onto the boss¡¯s legs but it didn¡¯t seem enough. She wanted to be sure of the attack before she used it. Finally the flow of mana from her first attack faded and it was time. Jess was stabbed once and then shield bashed into the ground her whip arm nothing more than paste. Troy was crouched bleeding from a wound that should be fatal, ignoring it with his body¡¯s foundation. ¡°Attack the knight. Grow and provide necrotic death for the boss ¨C activation slash,¡± Maddy shouted her attack ¨C glad in the moment she didn¡¯t have an audience. At some point or another, she had started shouting all her attacks and it was beginning to feel like she was in an anime or something. Seeds hatched and maggots bit down deep. The boss twisted in shock focusing in on her voice and correctly identifying it as what was causing it pain. Starting a charge across the clearing towards her it suddenly tripped. Her maggots were working. Hundreds of them digging deep ¨C multiple times her mana pool ¨C as the boss slid along the grass seeds that had been planted and not landed yet all hatched as well adding to the attack. Suddenly with a twitch, the boss was dead.
?? Achievement get: Defeat the vector knight. (unique)
Description: Beat a field boss within a tier of you as a group of three.
Stat: +1 soul power. Stat: +1 soul speed.
Active skill: Dead lights Protect and kill all who would gaze upon the death of all light. Stare deep into the necrotic pits of illuminus. Brighten and show your desire to kill. Casting time 3s per light. Max 3 lights. Cooldown 30 minutes per stored light to a maximum of an hour and a half.
Maddy broke the new skill as quickly as she could ¨C even as she ran towards her friends to heal them as fast as she could. They had to stop getting this bashed up in fights. ¡­ Maddy could feel her new mana flowing through her body. She was at a crossroads ¨C either let it disappear her effort wasted (although she would still gain the concepts from the ¡®dead lights¡¯ mainly ¡®orbs¡¯ and partial ¡®surround¡¯ (the concept of surrounding something but only the part that could surround her own body)). With a trembling hand she wrote on her arm. ''Give up body power, give up body defense. Gain a light and darkness affinity. Gain the combination between both my affinities.'' A popup appeared.
Self spell, Consent achieved. ''Body Strength'' being replaced with Light (not-dark), Dark (un-light) mana. ''Body Defense'' replaced with ''Living Light. Living Dark. Deadly Light, Deadly Dark...''. Do you wish to proceed? Warning: Spells to strengthen or defend your physical body will be drastically weakened. Warning: Current (body defense) and (body power) stats will be reduced to a third of their effectiveness and natural gain of both stat types will be reduced to near zero. Warning: This decision cannot be reverted.
Accept. Ignore.
Maddy paused with the warning. She wanted to do this. She wanted to be stronger ¨C maybe if she had this affinity before the fight, she could have gotten through it better. Her attacks might have landed ¨C she wouldn¡¯t have been able to beat the knight without her spread seeds. She accepted and immediately felt different. Instead of being in some unknown place she could feel both of her new pools condense down into her body. pushing stats out of the way they housed themselves in the center of her being and both began to fill. The base affinity filled someone naturally ¨C it simply slowly filled like her life and death mana did. The combined affinity however¡­it too filled very slowly the mana dipping down into it from nothing at an incredibly slow rate. Alongside this however the pool drew from her other two pools. Life and death mana was funnelled towards it almost halting its own refilling and her new light and darkness affinity was funnelled towards it ¨C the one super pool greedily sucking the rest until it was filled itself. Quickly sketching the skill she had claimed into her scythe and activating it in curiosity, she watched as one by one motes of light floated out and began to spin about her head. This skill used Deadly Light mana. Illumious necrotic damage. Each mote shone with sickly power ¨C they somewhat shot in an invisible cone she could direct like searchlights but they also bathed the surroundings in poisonous power ¨C even if it wasn¡¯t focusing on them it passively started to burn her friends so Maddy quickly shut it off. Inverting the death mana she activated it again ¨C greenish motes floating out like drones to spin around and shoot healing beams of light on her damaged companions. The mana evenly hit their bodies sinking down deep into them¡­pausing Maddy realized this was not the time to experiment, but she couldn¡¯t help herself. She needed to know her new capabilities. Activating the skill, a final time ¨C now with darkness and life ¨C pitch black mist began to shift and grow out. These versions really did not want to stay as perfect spheres ¨C instead they undulated. Floating droplets of soothing midnight that spread through the air towards her companions when she aimed them. Darkness was much slower than light moving on its own but in exchange as soon as it hit their bodies instead of impacting their skin it sunk though as if they weren¡¯t there. It had an incredible piercing power and Maddy cut the spell ¨C replacing it with seeds of life using dark-life. Darkness¡­darkness spoke to her in a way that light did not. Her body, her mind. Darkness felt more ''right''. Every part of her screamed it was better than light. She was more in tune with it. It was her. There was only one problem with focusing on it more going forward. Darkness and making all of her powers darkness focused seemed edgy as heck. Chapter 36. Acid is a scientists best friend. That and megalomania. ---Richard---
?? Achievement get: Poison a police station. (Unique)
Description: Filled entire private police building with helium. ¡°I¡¯m Higher than a whale!¡±
Stat: +5 Mental planning power
Richard seemed to be falling into a pattern. Bash a head in, steal some clothes. Walk around nonchalantly pretending he belonged. ¡­it wasn¡¯t his fault it was the optimal way to infiltrate! He didn¡¯t have an invisibility cloak! Yet. He didn¡¯t have one yet ¨C one day he¡¯d own that glorious piece of cloth priced like a luxury car and then he¡¯d be rocking the infiltration game. Anyways. Next time he¡¯d pretend to be a garbage can or something. He hated how ¡®samy¡¯ these infiltrations were getting. The hardest part of this one was definitely how he had to keep his face straight and pretend to be panicked. People kept yelling in a foreign language squeaked up to 11. They sounded hilarious! It was hard to take the panic seriously when it sounded like that ¨C 10/10 prank, would fill a police station with helium again. Since he had started, corrupt cops had opened windows and certain areas were lowering in density again¡­ But considering several pigs had asphyxiated and dropped due to oxygen deprivation, the mayhem was continuing even if the original source was dissipating ¨C to be honest his prank was a bit more lethal than he had intended. Teeny tiny bit more¡­ but that didn¡¯t really matter with how corrupt they were. ¡­Richard really hoped he wasn¡¯t wiping out janitors or anyone ¡®innocent¡¯ ¨C that would rain a bit on his parade. Punching down instead of punching up ¨C wouldn¡¯t be nearly as funny with collateral damage. Finding a document room and trying to ignore the growing worry, Richard started rustling through files. Fuck. Everything was in a different language. Where was the translator? He should start carrying one in his pocket¡­ Finding a corner of the room happily held a scanner and Richard began trying sheets randomly. Thankfully they were separated by type of incident and sorted by date ¨C he found his own file after a few minutes of searching. Either this being the central headquarters meant it was the document place, this was the building he had been taken to, or documents were copied¡­ Either way, score! Rustling through the values Richard got two names he had been working for. Dr, Dostramalius ¨C the ¡®person¡¯ he had been sold to. Commander Cad ¨C The officer who had sold him. As easy as those two names were to find, it was much much harder to figure out where they actually were. By the time Richard found a client booklet that gave a location for Dostramalius the sounds of panic had died down. He¡¯d have to forgo the officer¡¯s punishment. ¡­peeking out as carefully as he could Richard saw an empty hallway. That wasn¡¯t good. Richard had a sudden vision of the building surrounded by mechs trained on the door he would come out of. Did they know he was in here? Probably not right? He hadn¡¯t been clumsy with his knocked out guard¡­had tossed ¡®it¡¯ in a bin in the alleyway. He should still be fine. Deciding to stroll though the building until he found an escape route, Richard heard a thudding sound and ducked into the nearest office. In the hallway just on the other side of the door, a growling hiss rang out. Low and sinister sounding as something shuffled by. What¡­what the fuck was that? Did they let loose a bloodhound? This game''s equivalent of a bloodhound that sounded like a monster from a horror film called ¡®the thing¡¯? ¡­or was it just ¡®Steve¡¯? The officer who was a bit weird ¨C ¡®he was just like that, don¡¯t mind him¡¯. Richard opened the door right into the face of what looked like a giant mole rat crossed with a spider. Its pink sniffing nose undulated in the air and its many legs were touching both the walls and floor. Richard didn¡¯t think ¨C he whipped his gun out of his holster ¨C slot connecting to its aether input ¨C and fired the shell point blank towards the horror in front of him. He had filled its chamber with ¡°shotgun¡± style rounds ¨C the stone carefully weakened to shatter upon firing ¨C and each shot sprayed the entire hallway. Instantly the spider mole was flung back with a surprised hiss, but Richard didn¡¯t stop there. One hand reaching into his fanny pack and grabbing several rounds Richard dumped them into the ¡®loader¡¯ on his mini cannon. Pulling a small lever in and out to cock each shot Richard fired, cocked, fired, cocked. Five full blasts of shrapnel peppered the entire hallway ¨C each shot accompanied by a sharp crack from the gun and hissing from the monster. Each blast flung his arms back slightly but the gun didn¡¯t seem to operate off of explosions. The ¡®crack¡¯ was somewhere between the sound of a whip and breaking glass. At least one thing was true about this weapon. It was just as satisfying to fire as Richard had been imagining. ¡­it looked like the giant mole spider had died somewhere between the second and third shot¡­he had gotten slightly carried away emptying all his grabbed rounds. Ah well. There¡¯s no kill like overkill ¨C poking the creature with his barrel a few times to make sure it really was dead Richard fumbled around in his pack and reloaded once more before placing it back by his waist. This had been¡­enlightening but also any cover Richard had had was probably blown. He should start treating this game under the assumption they knew he was here and were coming for him. Multiple mooks with unknown tech and monsters under their command ¨C Richard suddenly really hoped he hadn¡¯t just shot someone¡¯s equivalent of a pet dog. This was a tracking monster, right? Monster. Glancing idly around as he strolled down the hallway Richard paused then did a double take. That¡­looks familiar, doesn¡¯t it? Poking his head into a doorframe Richard found the room he had been held in last time. The ¡®not dungeon¡¯. Stepping through and looking around Richard found a side door ¨C and stepping through that door he found an office. It looked like he had found Captn¡¯ Cad¡¯s lair! Quick! What do I do? Really¡­a fitting punishment for the officer ¨C karma for what Richard had been put through ¨C would be to sell the captain. Shave him bald. Find a fucked up human trafficking ring and enter the cop into it as some merchandise ¨C basically the same as what he had done to Richard. ¡­that plan would be the most satisfying but¡­it had a few small problems. Namely: where do you sell humans? Can you even sell a police officer? Did he just hide here, bag him, then walk about through shady looking streets? That was too much effort. Richard would just have to make do with shitting on the man''s desk. ¡­That plan also had a problem. Namely, Richard didn¡¯t have fuel in the tank ¨C he didn¡¯t have the magical ability to shit on command. He could just leave? Richard had already given up on punishing the cop once before ¨C sorry pranking him. Did he even have to do something that was funny? He could just smash all the stuff in here. That might be fun? Reaching around his baggies of various ammo effects Richard flipped through them all like a catalogue. A neurotoxin. An impact-based explosive. A pseudo acid ¨C ''dissolution powder'' and a catalyst that activated it. Supposedly for piercing rounds. A bag of confusion. ¡­according to the shopkeeper, this was a special sort of poison that caused anyone hit by even a trace amount of it to make ¡®more mistakes¡¯. It was meant as an opening shot on intelligent monsters to make them easier to handle but I could...idk fill something in here with a bit of it. Kinda like ¡®You made a big mistake selling me off. Now make some more mistakes!¡¯ This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡­still kind of disappointing. There was a baggy of combustion powder filled with ignition capsules. Supposedly good way to set stuff on fire with hard to put out effects. Nothing was funny. Some of them might be funny to watch but¡­ Really was booby trapping the office a good punishment? Setting some ignition and explosion powders about under his seat? ¡­Richard had seen an anime once where someone had been shot up in the air on a chair and he had laughed at the time. Slapstick works much better if you can actually watch it, however. It lost some of the satisfaction if you didn¡¯t see it happening. Boo. Fine. I have better plans for the scientist anyways ¨C plus this officer is kind of just part of the entire police station of corrupt officers. A punishment for all of them is just as good as a punishment for ¡®him¡¯. The helium kind of counts? Why isn¡¯t the blimp using hydrogen? If it was, I could probably blow the place up. Isn¡¯t hydrogen easier to produce too? Electrolysis on some water and bamn? But then again, I haven¡¯t seen any signs of electricity other than those stun batons. I guess if they have a natural geyser, helium might be easier to acquire, and convenience will win out¡­why am I even considering that? It¡¯s a game, the resource might just be spawned in out of sight. Finding the office¡¯s bathroom Richard dusted the bottom of the flush toilet with dissolution powder and cracked the capsule overtop ¨C a bit got on his finger burning slightly but the main point was a small hole being dug near the bottom of it. Juvenile but it made Richard smile more than any of his other plans and it was just such a waste to do nothing. Leaving the office and the attached dungeon, Richard skipped through the empty building reaching a doorway to peek out. Immediately he was grabbed. This time however the one doing the grabbing was a nurse ¨C not a mech. The man wasn¡¯t strong enough to move Richard if he didn¡¯t want to be moved but Richard allowed them to pull him to the side and shine a light in his eyes anyways. Speaking to him then giving him a thumbs up when they realized Richard couldn¡¯t understand the nurse pointed him towards a group at the side. Walking into the group and then leaving Richard¡­just left. Scot-free ¨C the perfect crime no one even paid him any attention as he snuck away. ¡­ Richard felt like he was flowing through the city. Everything was just so easy ¨C the ai one these NPCs was too simple. It almost made it less fun. Almost ¨C Richard was happy he didn¡¯t have to go through a prison arc again. Finding the lab of the good doctor. Richard was met with what was essentially a maximum-security building. No windows and no doors that he could see were visible from the outside. Everything was layered copper panels with different sheens on them. Slightly different tints of different colours. How should he get in? Finding an out of the way portion and trying to melt through didn¡¯t work ¨C it seemed like the wall was basically immune to his dissolution powder. The stone ice cream scoop didn¡¯t work ¨C it only really worked on stone and stone-like materials of which the wall didn¡¯t count. There had to be an entrance? How did the mad scientist get supplies? How had Richard been transported in? Should he find another private police depo and steal another mech? Would a mech even make a dent on this place? Just when Richard was starting to despair a group of officers walked up to the wall in the distance. Covertly sneaking around behind them Richard was just in time for a portion of the wall to open ¨C it spread out like a mouth puckering letting the group inside. What was the scientist¡¯s relationship with the police? Did they regularly bring him test subjects? They didn¡¯t seem to have a victim this time. Richard walked in right behind the last one. No one seemed to notice him ¨C the NPC¡¯s really were stupid, not that Richard was complaining right now. Ducking sideways as soon as he entered Richard quickly moved into a side passage and started running as quietly as he could. No one had noticed yet ¨C Richard finally figured out part of why these infiltrations were so easy. There weren¡¯t any security cameras. The tech level was all over the place ¨C how the hell did they have mechs but no security cameras? ¡­it reminded him of how he had heard it was so much easier to commit crimes a century or two ago on earth. Back then you did the bare minimum and you could never be caught ¨C they didn¡¯t even have DNA testing! You could leave fingerprints and blood everywhere without anyone the wiser¡­ Finding the room Richard had been held in last time. I don¡¯t have to wander around the whole facility again! Fucking A. Lets go ¨C Grabbing a bucket Richard ran over to the last vat of acid dunking it in to pick up a good portion of it. ¡­halfway back up into the air and the bottom had fallen off the bucket the metal melting like a cartoon. ¡­what were the walls of this vat made out of? Richard looked around. Was that his only bucket? No! There was one over there¡­ Grabbing the second bucket Richard used his melted test subject to try each vat. Finding one that didn¡¯t seem reactive with the metal but stung his finger when he dunked it in Richard filled up the bucket and ran towards the door. Carefully balancing the bucket of acid on top of the main door, Richard ran back towards the vats. Once again recreating a classic prank ¨C this time with a twist! Richard hid, peeking around the vat in anticipation. The best karmic punishment for the man who melted him was to melt him back. See how he liked it ¨C scientists probably didn¡¯t have good acid defense right? They the brains behind an operation? Richard waited. And waited. Finally, he heard the faint sound of footsteps. Nearly immediately after the mad scientist pushed into the room head bent down as he read from a clipboard. The bucket teetered. It tipped. And landed straight on the scientist¡¯s head! Yes! The last moment the scientist''s face had looked so surprised. Worth it! Sometimes it¡¯s the little things¡­
?? Achievement get: Acidic surprise. (Unique)
Description: Dump acid from on top of a door onto a ¡®NPC¡¯. Classic prank. Remember when we used to do this as kids? No? Just me?
Stat: +1 Brain power.
Richard paused. One¡­one single stat seemed kind of stingy of the system, didn¡¯t it? The scientist was still standing despite being drenched. His clothing had melted in parts as had a portion of his clipboard but¡­the man itself seemed strangely fine. The bucket obscured the scientists features even as they raised their hands high in the air. And then the acid rose. Globules of burning liquid floated up off the floor to hang in the air like a reverse rainstorm. Peeling off of him acid floated out and began spinning, tiny droplets colliding and growing larger. Within a dozen seconds the scientist ¨C still with the bucket on his head ¨C began walking into the room droplets floating out and away from him like drones. ¡°Shiiit! How was I to know the man was magic!¡± Richard yelped as a droplet whizzed over to his hiding spot and smacked into him. Rolling out of his hiding spot Richard pulled out his gun and fired. Shrapnel flew across the room spraying wide ¨C but the scientist had already pulled more fuel out of the nearest tub and what little bits that would have hit him sizzled ineffectually as they met with a barrier. Fumbling around Richard cursed ¨C he should have better sorted his pouch instead of just tossing stuff in. He didn¡¯t need a shotgun round he needed a proper bullet. Why hadn¡¯t he premade some of the special shots? Grabbing a smoother-feeling bullet Richard slid it into the loader cocking it even as a spray shot of acid smashed into the side of his face. ¡­it burned but was bearable. Richard¡¯s highest stat was acid defense ¨C thanks in part to this very man. ¡°Hey. Try and block this one¡± Richard aimed and shot. He didn¡¯t have gun knowledge ¨C not like the system had given him hammer skills ¨C but he was close enough the shot still seemed to fly true. Bullets were faster than moving globs of acid no matter how fast he moved them and Richards''s shots were huge. The base bullets looked more like something a floor-mounted gun would use than a handheld. The shot rang true ¨C it fucking zoomed across the room smashing through a defensive barrier and into the doctor''s shoulder behind. ¡°Sorry! Gotta work on my aim¡± Richard shouted even as he fished about for a new shot. Blasting him with a massive dose of liquid Richard flinched slightly as he felt his entire chest begin to burn slightly. ¡­he was a tank. Toss everything into defense and laugh when attacks didn¡¯t affect him. Gritting his teeth Richard pushed through ¨C his passive skill was already increasing his acid defense and the sting was fading rapidly. ¡°Hey! Stop getting melty shit into my stuff!¡± Richard shouted feeling the whole bottom of his fanny pack was full of acid several holes already melted through the bottom. Shit, his scooper! Grabbing the most important item in his arsenal Richard wiped it on his shirt then tossed it to the side. This bullet should do ¨C all his packets of bullet effects were broken open by this point the powders dispersed in the acid and coating everything. A portion of his bag had caught on fire. The bullet he grabbed was slippery and wet. Loading it quickly and hoping it didn¡¯t break his cannon, Richard ran towards the man in front of him. Guns were fun and Richard understood they were ¡®ranged¡¯ weapons¡­but he was in the moment and shooting someone point blank was funny in a ¡®that¡¯s not how you¡¯re supposed to use it¡¯ way. Ducking under one droplet then being bombarded by two more ¨C the scientist was running at this point. He seemed to have understood Richard was resistant to most of these acids and was heading towards the last pool. Maybe he recognized Richard by this point? Realized this was all just karma. Revenge! Laughing wildly as he slipped about and was beat by blast after blast of caustic liquid Richard was gaining. It seemed the scientist had gotten within range ¨C his fingers sprayed out and pulled. With that yank a massive ball of acid pulled out of the farthest pool splashing a massive amount of excess across the floor that left visible marks. Richard raised his weapon pointing directly for the bucket head. Pulling the trigger his arms shook slightly and with a jerk the scientist flung back. ¡°Boom! Headshot¡± Richard shouted even as the super acid from the end impacted his front and shoved him back. That felt good. Pulling the trigger had felt so satisfying. He was making the world a better place. A benevolent assassin! A flashback to the melting session filled Richard''s head as he screamed. The skin on his front looked awful and the pain briefly spiked as his body warned him about the damage.
?? Achievement get: You kill me. I kill you. (uncommon)
Description: Come back like a specter to kill the person who killed you last time around. Most don¡¯t get to revenge their own death. You are not most.
Active skill: Unstable shot. Stabilize a concoction that really shouldn¡¯t be stable into a bullet. Concoction will break apart once it impacts something.
¡­but it was dripping off. The acid wasn¡¯t attacking him anymore. The mad acid manipulator hadn¡¯t seemed to have bullet defense. Walking over Richard stared down at his tormentor. ¡°Fuck!¡± Why was he dead already? Kicking the scientist''s side in frustration, Richard wished it had lasted slightly longer. His torment had been over hours and hours ¨C this hadn¡¯t been enough. Sure it had felt great but it wasn¡¯t enough. Kicking off the bucket so he could get a good look at the doctor he saw a mess of a caved in face and sneered. Stepping down Richard stomped and twisted messing the face up further. He¡¯d teabag the corpse but that was less funny than in games with a respawn cooldown where they could see what you were doing as a ghost. Picking up the body Richard dragged it towards a tub. There didn¡¯t seem to be much point in this anymore. Throwing the body into the pool Richard watched in angry satisfaction as the body melted.
?? Achievement get: Clean up after yourself. (rare)
Description: Dispose of a body you created.
Stat: +2 mental power.
Turning Richard stumbled away he felt¡­he felt strange. Shouldn¡¯t he be sick? Why was killing the NPCs so easy? Sure it wasn¡¯t even as graphic as some of the stuff he had seen online but weren¡¯t you supposed to feel something when it was in person? Guess he was just desensitized to violence. Or maybe those stories were just about bitches who couldn¡¯t handle a little blood. Richard barely paid attention as he wandered through the lab to pick up his scooper. He wasn¡¯t a thief¡­but taking from this lab wasn¡¯t stealing, was it? It was ¡®looting¡¯. Fair game in games, wasn¡¯t it? Besides, he had melted his fanny pack ¨C he needed a new one. Loot. Then leave for the next area ¨C nothing really holding him here anymore was there? Richard went off to search for rewards a slight haze of disappointment following about behind him. Chapter 37. Beginner area: Maddy clear! ---Maddy--- Maddy stumbled out of the nest both of her companions under her arms ¨C the high of success pushing her forward. Stats were an incredibly important base ¨C but gaining a second affinity was a multiplier that more than made up for them. In her teacher''s brief explanation, each additional proper affinity ¨C and more importantly its combined version ¨C was an exponential increase in power combined with a variable decrease in power. And wow, Maddy could feel it. Her combination mana was insanely potent ¨C to the point she never wanted to use the base forms again. The addictive high pushed her towards gaining a third affinity as soon as possible. if this affinity had doubled her power the third would quadruple. if it had tripled the third would...what was nine times something again? Nonary? Ninefold? Maddy breathed as she tried to ignore that slight craze. That completionist desire to collect them all. As her teacher had said, most good mages had a second affinity but of those, few took a third. Adding to that, even though additional affinities were a instant increase, there were plenty of mages who grew incredibly strong using only a single element ¨C she should spend more time with what she had, spend more time juggling the pros and cons. "You two ready to go? I can see the barrier from here." Maddy asked glancing at her friends. Both seemed more or less fixed from their wounds by this point. Even if they hadn''t done a perfect raid, at least no one had died this time right? Progress? "I don''t have anything I''m waiting for ¨C so sure, lets go." Jess pulled away bouncing slightly as if testing out her newly healed body. "See you on the other side?" Jess asked after turning and jogging backwards towards the wall behind her. "Of course, I''ll wait till both of you are out" Maddy added, taking the last few steps towards the barrier and placing her hand on it. She sunk in ¨C she had expected to but some part of her wondered if she had made the zones requirements. Stepping through the invisible wall with barely a sign it was there, everything went dark.
Zone 1 clear!
Clear description: Your somewhat average path through the first zone was anything if not ''unique''. From helping gatemen to becoming the first to clear a dungeon, you broke into magic before most, and created your own spells. Ignoring how stingy the system is with magic achievements you persevered, performing many unique feats. You were a [reaper''s prodigy] and [killed a dozen with a single spell]. You beat the [vector knight] of a tier 4 nest and gained a second affinity. Your foundation has truly been established ¨C the only way forward as clear as a midsummer eve.
Clear stats: Clear time 8 days. 12 hours. 5 minutes. 5 seconds. Dungeons Cleared: 1 Nests Cleared: 1 Monsters killed: 590 Zero Revivals. Highest stat, Mental Power (Wisdom) Second highest stat, Mental Speed (Intelligence) Achievements earned in zone: 13. Total stats 127 Clear state. Rank 1+ Next Tier: 41 stats to go.
Clear Rewards: First to clear a dungeon anywhere. +10 free stat points. Second affinity gained. +10 free stat points. Zero Revivals. +5 free stat points. Upper Percentile of monster deaths +3 free stat points. Unique titles x8 +40 free stat point. Rare titles x4 +8 stat points. Uncommon title x1 +1 stat point.
Maddy blinked in the darkness ¨C all blue boxes remaining firmly in view no matter if her eyes were open or shut. She felt more aware than she had last time she had gone through this ¨C what had changed? Was it simply her new stats? There were three separate buttons waiting for her attention ¨C floating apart and with the bottom two greyed out slightly while still being clickable.
Stat distribution.
Foundation Fertilizer.
R¡¯s information (bonus).
¡­considering how they were placed, she could tell the order she should click them in. Going in order down the list Maddy hit ''Stat distribution'' and immediately came to the out of body experience she had been in before. She had seventy-seven stats. That was...that was a massive amount. She was rich! So many unique achievements that had only given one or two stats ''in the moment'' were now being cached in. A delayed reward for all of her actions up till now ¨C the real reason to push for unique achievements. Hemming and hawing slightly ¨C Maddy tried to consider what was the best for spells ¨C she really wanted to just dump everything into soul stats because of how hard they were to gain normally...but she didn''t really know what they ''did'' yet. She knew how mental stats were helping her...she could feel it. So that''s where I''ll direct my focus. Maddy brought both mental power and speed up to an even forty to start ¨C this was quite a bit different ''this time around''. Maddy did a slight double take at the changes. The first time she distributed stats towards her mind she saw a sort of representation of her brain with different parts somewhat overlaid with a sense of what she could increase. Instead of a total increase, she could have sent stats to her frontal lobe or temporal lobe or whatever ¨C increase her short-term memory power or decision making...at the time she hadn''t seen a ''magic controlling section and had simply distributed them somewhat evenly. She had even pushed that evenly further - smoothing over parts that seemed to have more stats so everything was a bit more uniform. This time around her mind...well it looked almost like the spider web of an arachnid with a specific taste for brains. Lumpy brainmatter wrapped in cocoons of brainmatter that was mostly magic like a spider was saving it for later. There was a lump in the center she would consider her ''main'' brain and then following little magical strands outwards there were several sub-brains. except...none of these were actually seperate brains. They were simply duplicated parts of her own brain seperated out into different areas. The strands touched several largeish lumps of grey matter and then spread out yet again to touch smaller scraps. This whole shape was more a metaphor than anything else ¨C and the main point for this new metaphor was how it changed with more stats. Trying to push power towards her main brain would have a small bit latch on and a larger bit drip off down the webs in all directions ¨C pooling in different scraps to make them larger as well as growing the barest hints of nubs at the end of each line. Trying to push speed into her main ''brain'' would add a tiny bit then spread and add a tiny bit...as well as somehow grow more connections the speed stat splitting off strands of spiderweb to attach more densely. Slightly curious Maddy added a single mental defense ¨C she hadn''t come across a need for it yet but it seemed like the sort of thing you didn''t see the use of until it was relevant. All of the energy contained in 1 unit quantity of ''mental defense'' spread throughout the web itself thickening the lines by the barest of an amount and removing a frayed end she hadn''t even noticed was there. Now, a bit more confident in her desires, Maddy pushed some of the ''power'' and ''speed'' she had assigned into ''visualization'' before it locked. the ability to picture things in her mind was almost directly related to her freeform ability to do magic ¨C all spells could be done without it if she properly shaped them, but so far she kept having to make changes on the fly. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Hence the bias towards visualization. There seemed to be a way she could try and better control the growth of this web ¨C try and make an effort to make dedicated areas with each lump being better at one thing instead of everything...but she had already used a lot of her free stats on mental increases. Maddy teetered on a decision for a second and then caved ¨C dumping the rest in her soul stats once more by holding them close towards the ''her'' that was picking ¨C trying to balance how they felt.
Stats distributed, balance 0. +22 mental speed. +7 mental power. +1 mental defense. +17 soul speed. +15 soul power. +16 soul defense.
Mostly happy with those decisions Maddy moved on.
Nurture your foundation! Your decisions and actions have affected results.
Soul eater: Consume the bodies of your fallen enemies ¨C for mana and now memories. You may learn snippets of information from souls you consume. Consumed intelligent souls will add knowledge to the library of your mind, as well as increase your ¡®thinking¡¯ power. For main benefit, consumed souls must be human.
Mana mind: Interlace your thoughts with mana, tying both your mental stats more tightly to your magic as well as tying your magic more tightly to your thoughts. For maximum benefit, personal spells must be used to interface beyond just pushing mana into place.
Custom: Request a different fertilizer, removing bonuses due to actions. Requested foundation growth will have variable effectiveness based on desire and difficulty of request. Heavy recommendation to tie both past choices and foundation to request. Warning: Challenge given will have a variable amount of increased difficulty.
Maddy stared at the options before her. Instead of two choices splitting into two more, she now had three. Two examples building off of her previous and a ¡°build your own¡± with a disclaimer about increased difficulty. ¡°¡­The fact that there is a custom option is¡­weird. It makes it seem like anything is possible?¡± She asked of the darkness. ¡°Well¡­it is magic. So, these are probably things I could do even without the system¡¯s help? No point trying to pick something different when the systems offering exactly the sort of option I want.¡± Choosing ''mana mind'' when she didn''t get a response ¨C the soul option had looked useful, but the idea of killing humans made Maddy''s stomach twist ¨C Maddy then moved on to the final section.
R¡¯s information (Bonus)
This is not a part of your clear rewards, this is¡­a bonus from me to you. Think of it as those gift baskets your insurance providers used to send you ¨C just a little something extra to keep my clients happy. Your foundation dug deep and fueled itself upon your past. Think of it as a freebie ¨C a reward for past events ''for the system would have rewarded you them if you had been a part of it back then. The fuel for your current growth however will be a trial in the present ¨C that¡¯s all I¡¯m willing to say as spoiling it may ruin a bit of the mechanisms. You can forgo your trial ¨C leave and not receive any rewards ¨C but those who don¡¯t nurture their foundations may not do well in the next zone. to experience a truth you may have missed. Then move on to your trial. Good luck. ~R
Maddy read the note then hit the button watching as colours leaked into view. ... She was watching herself back in the tutorial. In front of her was the old woman she had been asking for information ¨C happily telling her anything and everything she might ask. The woman was kind ¨C she had endless patience as Maddy slowly teased out everything about her new world. Stats! How they grew, how they interacted, how they could be focused. Quests! The quest board and how to best make use of it. How to get achievements! The type of mindset she had to get in to do something rare, something others hadn''t done before. The way achivements were biased towards things that were hard to do alongside being rare. ¡­she had forgotten some of this ¨C Maddy had gotten distracted and hadn¡¯t been purposefully working on doing unique actions for a while. She should get back on that ¨C So! Why was she being shown this again? Just so she remembered to try and do more unique things? ...most of her last unique achievements were all spell feats that were only ''unique'' cause she had done them first...she should take better advantage of her situation shouldn''t she? Maddy ¨C the Maddy in the scene ¨C finally finished her interrogation and walked away. Turning as she left, the memory waved and thanked the guide a final time. She then disappeared around the corner ¨C memory Troy drifting off after her like a puppy. And then¡­ And then something changed. Maddy walked out of sight of the old woman and suddenly ''they'' just felt different. Her structured helpful mannerisms faded ¨C and Maddy was left looking in horror at someone...''different''. A ''different'' person wearing the same skin. Not bad, not good...just someone else. Only a horror due to the ''change'' itself and how complete it was. A single tear fell down the old woman¡¯s eye ¨C the ¡®NPC¡¯ as some travellers had taken to calling them. Alone the woman shook and clutched her arms in silent horror, fingernails digging deep into her forearms as she trembled and silently wept and muttered in a foreign language and¨C. And then suddenly stopped. Her tears were gone ¨C her mannerisms ¡®fixed¡¯. Maddy was once again looking at a kind woman. A traveller was walking towards them ¨C sorry, just the woman. Maddy wasn¡¯t here ¨C she was just an observer. At some point the vision had started feeling too real ¨C it was a memory. It wasn''t happening, it just might have happend. The vision faded even as the ¡®player¡¯ began asking for information and the ¡®NPC¡¯ happily responded ¨C repeating lines again and again like a marionette. Like a puppet. ¡°This is the tutorial village ¨C all visitors get one free weapon! One free weapon, one free complimentary meal¡­¡± ¡­ Maddy stood in darkness. What was she supposed to take away from that vision? What the heck? Why had that woman cried as soon as she was alone? What had Maddy missed? That her supposedly good sense for people hadn¡¯t picked up anything off? Why¡­why did the NPC act so aggressively out of sight? It couldn¡¯t have been that bad to talk to Maddy could it have? With what purpose had ''R'' shown that scene to her? Was it really what had happend? Before Maddy had time to properly react to the scene, everything changed once more ¨C a faint popup appeared briefly and then disappeared once more.
Mana Mind chosen: Trial commencing.
¡­ Maddy found herself in a windowless room. Her teammates stood disoriented in front of her before suddenly jumping into action. "Hey, were you also just picking some foundation or something?" Jessica asked walking towards her. Suddenly ¨C a few seconds into her greeting ¨C Jessica dropped like a rag doll. Behind her, Troy buckled as well ¨C falling like he had been smashed over the head with something. Rushing forward Madison saw both had crumpled heads. Their craniums were bashed-in, leaking blood and brain matter across the floor.
Trial: Choose You can only heal one in time. Attempting to heal both will result in neither surviving. Taking too long to choose will result in neither surviving. Who will you ''choose'' to save? Who will you ''choose'' to abandon?
¡°What kind of trial is this!¡± Maddy found herself yelling frantically, put on the spot. She had to make a choice quickly. An important choice ¨C one that shouldn¡¯t be a thing she had to make. They wouldn¡¯t just kill my friends for my ''trial'' would they? They are their own people ¨C they don''t just exist to be ''my companions'' no matter how dumb my brain is with considering myself the main character ¨C right? It doesn''t logically make sense to kill other people in a trial just for me ¨C right? Maddy didn¡¯t have this time to try and figure out how or why this was happening. They had resurrections, didn¡¯t they? It wouldn¡¯t be death ¡®for good¡¯ would it? She still hadn¡¯t chosen. She really didn''t have time for this. Maddy''s mind stilled. Her steadily growing attempt at becoming a better person was set to the side. Once she had tossed that part of her the choice was easy. A simple pros and cons done in less than a second. A simple choice made in as short a time as possible. Reaching out she began healing Jess. Once she started working her previous thoughts returned almost reproachful ¨C it felt like she was a different person sitting there judging the choice. Judging herself. ... It felt wrong being made to choose. Trying to justify her choice to herself made her feel sick ¨C was it just because Jess was more talkative? More fun? She knew more about her? Or... was she choosing who could better protect her? Choosing her tank instead of her sniper as a better match for her build. She didn''t need an archer did she? Maddy wasn¡¯t healing optimally ¨C where was her scythe? It had disappeared when she had entered this ¡®completion space¡¯ why hadn¡¯t she noticed till now? Why was she just pushing life mana towards her friend and hoping they would be healed? ¡°Hear me my mana. Life and the healing properties it provides. Darkness and its ability to spread, to pass through and permeate this body. Help me, Help me heal Jess. Help me heal my friends ¨C both of them if you can. Heal all who hear my voice! My healing is not limited by the number of patients I heal. My words, my pleas, my emotions should communicate just how much I want them to survive.¡± Maddy spoke wildly ¨C pushing dark-life mana roughly into her voice. She should be figuring out a rhyme, shouldn¡¯t she? That was just so hard, and she was put on the spot and panicking ¨C the trial said trying to heal both would result in neither surviving ¨C why? Maddy had a good distributed mind ¨C she could focus on two people just as easily as one. Would something happen if she tried that? Was the real trial how she would react to being told she could only save one? Maddy had chosen ¨C had chosen who she would heal first! Not who she would stop on. Trying desperately to imagine the roots of her ''seed spell'' pulling flesh together Maddy watched as slowly but surely Jess began waking up. Her mental image wasn''t linked to darkness ¨C or even light ¨C currently. She had to become better at healing people considering it was a huge part of her toolkit right now. Once she finished this she would move straight to Troy. She should have time ¨C he still looked alive after all. If they survived, would they know who she had chosen? ¡­
Trial complete: Mana mind received.
Both bodies melted away and Maddy found herself sitting in the darkness once more ¨C clutching Troy¡¯s chest desperately attempting to fix him after she had stabilized Jess. His shirt slowly faded from her touch melting into the darkness around her. The darkness had stolen him from her. The darkness was supposed to be her friend ¨C why was it turning on her now? She could do it! He was still alive! A new popup appeared ¨C one nearly identical to the one at the end of the tutorial. A massive popup she could barely find herself focusing on.
Welcome to the continuation of this game we are playing! As a general announcement, nothing that happened in your trial should matter ¨C if you died your cooldown will have taken effect but nothing else that happened is permanent. Nothing you saw should be real. Some of you may have experienced something traumatic. You must push past it ¨C the price of power isn''t too steep but it takes its toll on all. Going forward~ A few minor changes come into effect in the following zone. Pain numbing has been completely removed. The goal is not to get hurt! Permanent pain numbing has been deemed to have negative consequences no matter how useful it is towards letting you acclimate to a strenuous existence. Your endless resurrections are now capped. Three lives max for the free ones ¨C this is a fair number gathered from existing games. I suggest you don''t find out what happens in the final death. The goal is to not die! Furthermore: alongside the 10 minutes of weakness for every stat point you have, you will now be subject to additional negative ¡®debuffs¡¯ for the duration of your resurrection. By entering the following area you agree to all these changes and acknowledge you have been informed. Accept?
Yes No
Not consenting to ''zone 2''s rules will place you back in zone 1 with no means to progress. The system will be disabled for you and living conditions may worsen. (Not advised).
Chapter 38. Beginner area: Richard clear! ---Richard---
Zone 1 clear!
Clear description: A looping path you appeared to be heading in one direction then changed your mind. From making yourself at home in the general''s home, to beating your meat and riding minecarts. You were melted and tortured but you didn''t break ¨C or did you? You did eat an unknown toxic substance and were reborn in caustic chaos after all. Was the decision to tie the CEO of the Kinetic Corp an act of genius or insanity? Poisoning the police? At least it was all done in revenge. Your foundation has truly been established ¨C and only you know the direction you will head next.
Clear stats: Clear time 5 days. 8 hours. 3 minutes. 27 seconds. Monsters killed: 1 1 Revivals. Highest stat, body defense Second highest stat, Body chemical defense Achievements earned in zone: 19. Total stats 300 Clear state. Rank 2 Next Tier: 50 stats to go.
Clear Rewards: 1 Slot gained +1 free stat points Unique titles x6 +30 free stat point. Rare titles x9 +27 stat points. Uncommon title x3 +3 stat point.
Dumping all stats to defense Richard moved on.
Nurture your foundation! Your decisions and actions have affected results.
Distributive slots: Though you have gathered up your potential into a single point, your body protests this focus. Distribute your slot throughout your body like the rest of your organs ¨C both removing it as a weak point and allowing you to form an Aether connection from any point in your body. Each new slot you add will automatically over time drift towards this goal ¨C and every slot you allow to distribute in this manner will give a permanent burst of stats. Body of chaos addition: Chance of manifesting a decoy slot at a random point in your body.
Go slot yourself: Form an aether connection between your slot and your body. Will allow the formation and growth of pseudo skills that breaks upon unconnecting said ¡®slot¡¯. Each ¡®grown¡¯ and then ¡®broken¡¯ skill may release a variable number of stats based on how long and developed the skill was allowed to grow. Body of chaos addition: Chance of skills sticking around for a random amount of time after disconnection. Body of chaos addition: Mutation rate of skill increased.
Custom: Request a different fertilizer, removing bonuses due to actions. Requested foundation growth will have variable effectiveness based on desire and difficulty of request. Heavy recommendation to tie both past choices and foundation to request. Warning: Challenge given will have a variable amount of increased difficulty.
¡­Huh. Richard looked at the options. Both actual ones looked good ¨C one would once again remove a ¡®weakness¡¯, the other would let him try out different builds breaking his skill again and again till he got one he liked in the almighty skill gatcha. Eh. That sounds more fun. Also, I like the name better. Picking ¡°go slot yourself¡± ¨C the reason Richard had picked distributed in the first place was to simplify things not remove weaknesses ¨C he moved on to the ¡®information¡¯. Richard hit the ¡®click here¡¯ button and found himself suddenly floating in space. The silky smooth voice of that one narrator that narrated absolutely everything filled his ears. What was his name again? There was a planet below him. One side was completely normal. A sphere of regular old planet. It was labelled ¡®zone 3¡¯. Roughly two-thirds of the remaining planet was sliced again. This was labelled ¡®zone 2¡¯ and, as time progressed, that zone split away from the planet ¨C like a solid works assembly being exploded so you could see all its parts. This ¡®zone 2¡¯ was stacked on top of itself ¨C hundreds of stacks each showing an identical landmass with strange passages linking them together in a nested manner and giant pillars holding each ¡®story¡¯ on top of the other. Fake skies were painted on each underside ¨C the scale of things was immense. A smaller circle slice of the planet pushed away ¨C this one with thousands of ¡®levels¡¯ ¨C each labelled ¡®zone 1¡¯. Finally, like a sword what had to be a million tiny disks shot off into space like a tube of flat pringles, the ¡®tutorial¡¯. The narrator continued talking with his buttery smooth voice. ¡°Roughly 0.1% of the humans on earth accepted the chance at a second life. 0.1% willing to throw everything and everything they knew away forever. That¡¯s more than you might think. Of just under eight billion humans on earth. Eight million of you moved to this world built just for you. All physically separated zones are linked together ¨C pushing more and more of you into the same place. An empty planet has been shaped for your arrival. By the third zone, all instancing will be gone. Those millions of separated disks left floating on this side of the planet will stay until the last stragglers leave them or perish. And, as each zone is disabled it will join up with the main planet. You¡¯ll be mostly on your own at that point. Your responsibility to maintain a foothold. Your responsibility to live or die ¨C to populate yourself and to create your own society. To deal with monsters. To build a lasting foothold in the universe. Zone three ¨C the last area ¨C is the goal you are working towards. It''s also the start of your journey.¡± The voice paused for a bit as if giving Richard time to really think about that. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Now, if it was as simple as dumping you off on a planet and hoping for the best, that would be all there is to this story ¨C There¡¯s something else, however. These are the estimated stats for the standard ten rungs.¡±
Ring/Tier Rank Total Rings Pop in each ring Total Pop
0 0 198101 40 7924056
1 1 49525 80 3962000
2 1+ 12381 160 1980960
3 1++ 3095 320 990400
4 2 774 640 495360
5 2+ 194 1280 248320
6 2++ 49 2560 125440
7 3 12 5120 61440
8 3+ 3 10240 30720
9 3++ 1 15200 15200
10 4 1 7300 7300
A panel appeared in the side of Richard''s view as the narrator began to explain them. ¡°These numbers show your final estimated population without interference. Less than 0.1% ¨C amusingly close to the number of humans that accepted this colonization effort, but incredibly wasteful from an efficiency standpoint. A minimum population that¡¯s viable for reproductive purposes but not one with a good chance of thriving.¡± Moving around the planet, the view pointed towards a moon then zoomed in. On it, a massive black building lay nestled between craters. Continuing to zoom in till the screen showed off the inside of the facility, a wall of massive computers met Richard¡¯s sight. ¡°Due to these sobering stats, we have decided to introduce a controversial new system. Your attempted colonization is being aided by some helpful guides.¡± The voice continued. One computer was labelled R-001. A second G-002, a third B-003. Several smaller computers rested in the back their codes too small or non-existent to see. Several lights on the supercomputers blinked rapidly and the voice began to fade. ¡°They all have their own jobs to help with your colonization effort ¨C to provide information, tests and ¡®training wheels¡¯. After they ran some simulations, they decided to combine each rank into three zones ¨C Linking them gradually while operating life-saving measures. I don¡¯t want to jinx the results but using them your life expectancy has jumped massively. There''s quite a bit of controversy with this decision ¨C many are of the opinion that their changes may reduce or bias your results in some way, but a majority is for this setup. "Remember, we want you to succeed. Every source of Aether pushing back the chaos in the universe is a boon. The amount expended to set you all up is immense ¨C and will only truly be paid back if you gain a permanent foothold and survive. "Good luck and in the system we trust.¡± The narration finished as the last of the illusions vanished. Richard stood there in the darkness. A faint buzzing filled his ears even as everything shifted once more.
Trial: Escape the mountain. Description: Reach the bottom of the trial.
This¡­this wasn¡¯t an illusion. At least if it was it was an incredibly convincing one. Richard stood on top of a truly massive peak. Below him almost a hundred meters down, a cloud layer lay. And, in all four cardinal directions, the affinity shifted. One side was full of flames and fire ¨C another a swamp with toxic green mist obscuring his sight. The third direction seemed to be a windstorm ¨C swirling air that shot boulders and sharp spikes about. The final direction was empty. A normal path. ¡°Fucking not falling for it¡± Richard yelled up into the air. No way that direction was safe ¨C R was a troll. So ¡®R¡¯ ¨C was he really a computer? Just some AI having some fun as it made everyone dance to its whims? What¡­what was Richard to think of the exposition he just received? Ignore it as lore for the game he was playing? Richard looked at his offerings. If he was ¡®smart¡¯ and ¡®safe¡¯ he would probably pick the toxic swamp ¨C Acid and some variation of ¡®chemical resistance¡¯ were his highest stats. If he wanted to be surprised he¡¯d take the empty path ¨C throw caution to the winds. If he wanted to break the mould he would pick a different option. Richard started down the fire path. The air started to grow dry ¨C his mouth becoming parched as he stumbled down the steep path. Heat built as he half slid half strolled down the rocky slope. If he was doing this, he might as well have some fun of things ¨C Richard didn¡¯t usually spend much time for PVE in games. He liked the interaction. He liked when things were ¡®real¡¯. ¡­but this was reality, right? Just one after some aliens and their pet AI¡¯s went ham on it? Richard jumped over a bubbling pit of what had to be magma ¨C sorry lava this was above ground ¨C a blast of fire wafting over his side as he finished. It hurt ¨C but not as much as he would expect. His skin blistered and his clothes burned off but¡­that felt less and less important the more time he spent here. Skipping across a black strip of rock, Richard hop skip and jumped along some rocks ¨C the rocks were overtop of more bubbling lava. Richard was naked ¨C all that remained of his clothes some blackish-grey ash across his blistered skin. He could feel the metal of his slot beginning to melt. His skin was heavily heavily damaged but¡­it should be getting worse and it wasn¡¯t Body of chaos. The more time he spent here the higher his fire resistance got. ¡°Wish someone were here to watch me streak through their challenge ¨C Hey Mr. System. You¡¯re here, right? Like what you see?" Undulating his hips slightly and wiggling his eyebrows at the sky Richard stared about. Fuck it was hot. ¡°If you give me a toboggan and dare me to use it, I¡¯ll ride down the hill in it. Like a reverse winter sport. Can call it Hell Sledding.¡± Crouching and hopping down a small cliff hand sizzling as he touched off the hot stone, Richard continued talking. Partly because turning the trial into a joke helped lessen the impact somehow. Fake bravado that gave real results. Partly because¡­he didn¡¯t know what to think. This was reality. Not a game. That meant¡­that meant he had really killed some people, didn¡¯t it? Not NPCs. ¡®real¡¯ people? ¡­that made him feel a bit ¡®off¡¯ in a convoluted way he couldn¡¯t describe. Cold for some reason despite the heat of the environment. He didn¡¯t feel guilty ¨C they were all POS''s¡­but then he felt guilty for not feeling guilty and slightly angry that he had been ¡®tricked¡¯ but also¡­not? He had already decided it was real so he hadn''t been tricked had he? Why was he threating the information he received as fact. Just cause it felt real? He could just keep pretending to belive this was a game couldn''t he? Richard slipped on a rock his entire foot dipping into a tide pool of magma ¨C he screamed. His foot as it came out was absolutely coated in white hot liquid fire that continued to burn like the world''s worse sunburn ¨C somehow both ''on'' and ''inside'' his body. It seared straight to the bone¡­but Richard¡¯s leg wasn¡¯t normal flesh and bone anymore was it? Like a blender had been taken to his insides, instead of a solid core of bone surrounded by weak flesh he had a single material ¨C a lattice of tiny bones and tiny muscles and tiny capillary veins. The burning began fading ¨C his foot was still covered but it didn¡¯t hurt as much. It was still red hot but the stone was no longer molten. It cracked as he walked dying into a stone cast. ¡­this was an empty world we were given. The computers then came along and set everything up to help us acclimate. Gave us resurrection and stuff ¨C it also means they made the NPCs¡­so the things I killed were fake. Richard¡¯s foot and leg were slightly stiff now. He was limping slightly. Not because of the injury but because of the imbalance. ¡­you know what would be a dumb idea right? Richard punched his unharmed foot into another magma pool, hissing slightly through the pain ¨C this one was definitely easier than the first. Less painful. ¡­talking himself into having regrets for his spring cleaning of villainous fake humans was a pretty weak move. He had already decided it was real. He had already decided they were fake ¨C no fucking regrets. Richard¡¯s feet clomped slightly as he moved. This was...better. Less imbalanced even if he was a bit stupid for that second hit. He was now butt naked but sporting two fashionable stone boots. This was probably someone¡¯s kink, wasn¡¯t it? ¡°System, sign me up for alien onlyfans. I want to profit off of this.¡± He found himself laughing despite himself. It wasn¡¯t funny ¨C his joke wasn¡¯t that good, but it made him feel more in control. It wasn''t a joke for others, it was for himself. The slot in his arm had completely liquified by this point ¨C surprisingly it seemed to be fusing to him even better. It was like his arm was growing through the foreign object. The lattice of bone spreading from one side to the other, whatever had become of his nerves slowly knitting themselves through it while it was molten. ¡­it was starting to get cooler. The heat was less suffocating, and it wasn¡¯t just his skill adapting him even further to it. ¡°How far is it to the bottom? The challenge is making it through the environment, right? Not walking for ages?¡± Peeking over an edge Richard groaned slightly. ¡°Phase two, got it, got it. Guess we need the full range of thermal damage, don¡¯t we?¡± Below him was a solid thirty foot drop the bottom of which was snow. Down from it ¨C in large jumps ¨C there was mound upon mound of snow, a blizzard growing stronger as the path went. Leaving the lava lands behind Richard dropped into snow ¨C a huge sizzling sound announcing his arrival. It burned ¨C almost more than the magma had in that initial moment but slowly the freezing cold became nothing more than a slight chill. Standing up, Richard turned and burst into laughter. He had made a snow angel ¨C one with his cock and balls fully melted into its bottom. Turning once again still giggling Richard jumped down a ledge rolling slightly and then falling off the second and third. ¡­this might be a problem. Around him, snow slipped and snowballed. He was starting a mini avalanche as he fell down cliff after cliff. With a crack, his arm shattered after landing wrong. ...that shouldn''t have happened. What broke? Did he still have bones? Richard¡¯s chest was pounded ¨C he didn¡¯t know how much of his lungs were still there but he was fucking winded from that hit. Hitting a solid expanse Richard panted slightly then slowly pulled himself up out of the snow. His skin was white now ¨C pink tone leeching out of him leaving nothing but what looked like a corpse behind. The molten slot in his arm had cooled. It felt more a part of him now. All its changes from his growing into the molten pit, solidified. Seemed like the reward had been given ¨C did it really have to be done so violently? Slipping and sliding as he made his way across an icy strip Richard continued until he found a sign. ''Trial Tundra Terminated'' it read. ¡°Really? You had to write that just because it rhymed? Or has three T¡¯s or something? Alliteration, Alliteration, Alliteration. I swear you have something for threes mate. Should get that checked out.¡± Richard commented. Stepping past the sign Richard continued on ¨C the cold rapidly fading. When it was nearly gone for good, the world faded as well ¨C and a glowing blue box appeared in his vision.
Trial complete: ¡°Go Slot Yourself¡± Aether mutation gained.
Chapter 39. Beginner area: James clear! ---James---
Zone 1 clear!
Clear description: You killed a fletching fox bare handed ¨C you hunted firestalkers bare handed. You ate of monsters ¨C you even ate a monster that had been eating of you at the time. Above all, you were the first to survive a night in the badlands and one of only an incredible few who managed this feat. Your final day was spent walking ¨C you travelled a massive distance spending a large portion of it blinded. You even walked 10km carrying a heavy rock for training. Your foundation has truly been established ¨C the only way forward as clear as a midsummer eve.
Clear stats: Clear time 5 days. 8 hours. 0 minutes. 47 seconds. Dungeons Cleared: 0 Nests Cleared: 0 Monsters killed: 310 2 Revivals. Highest stat, Running Speed. Second highest stat, Left Arm Power. Achievements earned in zone: 27. Total stats 320 Clear state. Rank 2 Next Tier: 30 stats to go.
Clear Rewards: Cleared without breaking skill. +3 free stat points. Unique titles x8 +40 free stat point. Rare titles x7 +21 stat points. Uncommon titles x6 +6 stat point.
James jumped on those free stats. Despite just heading into things he had amassed an amazing 70 free stat points to do with as he wished. His first order of business was to smooth over some things. Because he had been one handed he had gained ''left arm'' stats ¨C his ''left side'' was now stronger than his right. James was right handed and even if he understood the benefit of specializing, he didn''t want to become lopsided in this specific case. His grip strength was also somewhat uneven ¨C a slight increase in his hands and strangely a few of his fingers and while he had seen the use of this ...he just didn''t like the difference between his two sides. Carefully sculpting the flow of ''power'' stats throughout his hands, he came to a point that looked good and even. How many stats had he used so far? Thirty or so? Alright. One thing James knew was he wasn''t using defense stats if he could help it ¨C defense stats were gained when he failed. They were loser stats that didn''t even help that much. As far as James was concerned, this world operated on dark souls rules. Dodge roll for the win ¨C if you don''t want to get hurt you just had to avoid getting hit in the first place. The exceptions had been blood defense to prevent himself from bleeding out, stomach defense to help him eat monster meat better and defense specifically set up to better help him attack with. Carefully portioning out 10 ''defence'', he split it around his hands ¨C strengthening the skin and into bits of the joints without stats, then sunk tendrils into bones in a lattice of lines instead of a solid pour. James very very carefully tried to gain the most effect from the stats with the least amount of resources distributed. ...this should let him punch things better. Technically it was full of holes if what he cared about was preventing weaknesses but for punching it looked great. Next James aspected the last bunch of stats into speed. He wanted better reflexes so he dumped a massive amount into his nervous system ¨C bumping up the invisible connections all across his body. Reaction speed sunk slightly into his brain but didn''t seem to affect his mental stats for some reason ¨C at least the way James was using it right now. He was increasing his ability to instinctually react to stimuli not his ability to think about what he should do ¨C should be better for fighting which is all he cared about in this new life. Then moving back to running speed James pulled an amount that felt good out and infused the whole area. ''Running speed'' as a stat was 90% his leg muscles but a tiny bit seemed to pull around up through his waist and around his hips ¨C those sections despite being included were very roughly locked in. James carefully directed the stats throughout into something that seemed to be more ''optimal''.
Balance 0. +15 Right arm power. +10 Right hand power. +4 Left hand power. +10 Hand defense (bone/skin/tendon). +19 Nervous System Speed (reflexes). +12 Running speed.
...that summary seemed much too simplified. It didn''t nearly the effort James had just gone through. Moving on.
Nurture your foundation!
Your decisions and lack thereof have affected your choices. Due to not breaking a skill in the intended timeline, your choices are not bound to a $;_+299&; You may choose from either an aether growth or mana growth ¨C please note the nutrient method will be atrophied until you break a skill, and only function at 11% efficiency in all aspects until then.
Monster eater (Mana option): You may have found monsters meat a suitable way to gain short term buffs or boons. By nature, your body rejects said foreign energy and purges it upon use. No matter what you may do, it remains a consumable. Gain the ability to permanently ¨C and somewhat randomly ¨C gain stats from monsters with more stats than you currently possess. Quantity and quality of stats linked to how much of a difference between you and said meat there is. Chance of collecting traits from specific monsters and combining them with your own body.
Kiln of combat (Aether Option): Body stat growth may be unlocked through pushing yourself outside of the system. Physical exertion may increase speed and power stats ¨C and every time a wound is naturally healed defense stats are guaranteed. Chance of mutating a body part upon being hit by an affinity or attack. Each random mutation may be accepted and claimed or purged before it sets.
Custom: Request a different fertilizer, removing bonuses due to actions. Requested foundation growth will have variable effectiveness based on desire and difficulty of request. Heavy recommendation to tie both past choices and foundation to request. Warning: Challenge given will have a variable amount of increased difficulty.
James stared at the panel in slight shock. Despite his plans, he was forced to ''choose'' anyways. "There''s¡­no option for both. No option for neither?" James looked at the options. They sounded good ¨C he was leaning towards monster meat ¨C but more importantly it ruined his plans. It wanted him to ¡®choose¡¯ a side after he purposefully put that choice off. There was only really one option wasn¡¯t there? ''Custom''? An empty panel appeared in front of him next.
State your desires:
¡°I¡­I don¡¯t want to be forced to choose a side. I want to pick both. Both aether and mana. I don¡¯t really care about this ability so long as it''s good and doesn¡¯t lock me out of the other side.¡± James stumbled through his request ¨C why was he so awkward? He was just asking the system wasn''t he? The system recorded each word he mentioned ¨C text appearing in the pane as he spoke. It seemed to pause and then suddenly the panel buckled. It morphed ¨C a hand shooting out of it like someone was standing on the other side and pushing through a rubbery barrier. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The blue box shifted and tinted green. It bulged and reshaped itself into a little green man ¨C naked but without genitalia and wearing a long red hat. He was¡­a gnome? A tiny goblin? Something fantasy-themed and full of sparks. Literally full of sparks ¨C it looked like a thousand sparkles were held beneath its green skin. Giggling wildly the little man skipped about ¡°Hello, Hello, Hello! My client in care. My stubborn man. I hear you don¡¯t like the offerings given? You want ¨C¡° the gnome¡¯s eyes flickered blue for the barest of a second then returned to normal. ¡°You want to remain outside of the little game. You want to have your cake and eat it too. I see. I see. I see," the gnome''s voice was somewhat lyrical. His tone and speech didn''t quite rhyme ¨C but they sounded like they should. Spinning wildly the final blue box ¨C ''R¡¯s Information¡¯ ¨C drifted over and was shattered into motes of dust. Jumping up into the air and sitting on an invisible stool, the green man looked across at James ¨C now at eye level. ¡°Hello, Hello, Hello, once again. My name is¡­for now you can call me ¡®R¡¯. I''m the one making your boons ¨C the system is too rigid to handle this sort of thing so I''m here in ''person''." R began to giggle and whisper to himself "In person, In person, In person." Jumping up he looked at James and smiled his voice getting less flighty. "Ignore that old message, I¡¯ll give you bonus information in person as it fits my fancy.¡± R''s form twisted and spun as he danced around James his actions somewhat reducing the business tone he was conveying them in. ¡°Magic ¨C or mana and all that it can do.¡± R began with a pirouette ¨C he reached out into the darkness and picked up a small blue magnet. ¡°Science ¨C specifically aether studies and effects¡­they interfere with one another.¡± He continued, picking a red magnet then pushing it towards his first one showing the resisting force. ¡°I see in the logs you got a system quest for this¡­so I want to give you a bit of a hint of what you are actually asking.¡± Forcing the magnets together R laughed out loud as they suddenly exploded into a maelstrom of lights and sounds. The end result was a lumpy-looking blob dozens of times larger than its previous form. ¡°You would and could and should consider these two forces the same ¨C they are in a way especially if you just look at results,¡± R spoke. Breaking apart the two magnets R pushed them towards two steel balls which rolled across the air and off into the distance. ¡°But they are not the same. The stronger you focus on one, the more that becomes clear ¨C¡± He continued. The effects swirling around James grew more real ¨C on one side someone flew about shooting Lazers out of his eyes ¨C cape flapping in the wind ¨C and on the other, a man turned himself into a wolf and pattered away. ¡°To become better at one thing is to forgo another. When you open one door another closes. It''s always a choice, always a decision but that decision can''t be free. These two systems are tied together tightly and though that tie and the relationship they have they grow stronger.¡± Pausing the gnome twisted the shapes until he had two identical rainbow balls. ¡°These two example systems can do the exact same thing ¨C now with some changes.¡± ¡­grabbing a bit of blue from one side and a bit of orange from the other he swapped them. Pausing and then rapidly shuffling bits and pieces R seemed utterly fascinated by his display. Slowly the creature''s attention was lost while he manipulated his illusion ¨C R completely ignored James for nearly a minute. The creature swapped colours until one side was mostly primary colours and the other side mostly secondary. Satisfied and giving the results a little nod, R turned and continued. ¡°There¡¯s a cost to everything. An equivalent exchange of sorts¡­you can see the total size of both of these systems is the same? That means they both have an equal potential... but because those colours have swapped, one now has more red and the other more purple¡­to give face to those colours and untangle my description of differences. One major trade off is that aether is better at fine ''creation and control'', while mana is better at large ''creation and control''¡­a creation mage can create a ball of iron a kilometer in diameter but not easily create the specific compound for sucrose. The amount of energy that ball of stone would require is infeasibly large using aether¡­but in exchange, a materialization Esper can create compounds dozens of times more complicated than simple sugar.¡± The examples the gnome gave were displayed around them ¨C a massive ball and the molecular formula C12H22O11. ¡°What you are asking is for both. You want the power to create a mountain of sugar. You are asking to be exponentially stronger than your peers ¨C your wish is for infinite power and potential.¡± Pushing the two balls together once more created a shape dozens of times larger than before. James felt slightly awkward. I mean obviously he wanted to be stronger? However¡­The main reason he had wanted both was because he didn¡¯t want to be tied down to a faction. He didn¡¯t want to be locked into some sort of group. He didn¡¯t like the idea at becoming worse at something he had no control over. ¡°So it''s not possible?¡± ¡°Everything is possible ¨C for a cost. The cost of your true wish would be something like you beating a true dragon as you are ¨C and based on how raw your soul still looks, you probably know how likely that is.¡± James felt the burn. The raw searing pain from the dragons¡¯ flames ached like an old wound. He wanted to shout out that quest was impossible ¨C but he had done it to himself. The quest had warned it was. ¡°It looks like you already have an option, however. You just have to beat that quest ¨C that result won¡¯t be exactly what you are hoping you know?" R tilted his head while answering. Grabbing the two balls once more ¨C R seemed to really like that analogy and illusion ¨C the gnome pushed them together. This time the two seemed to slide around and through each other creating a dense knot without mixing the same size as both individually but...denser. Different. The ball seemed to flicker between sides ¨C the knot appearing to jump and twist, one section one ''side'' and then suddenly the other. ¡°Just to clarify, this would mean you have the advantages of both ¨C as well as the weaknesses of both¡­ but not necessarily at the same time or in the same way. You wouldn''t be removing one side''s weakness with its counterpart ¨C you would be claiming everything. It''s more effort than it might warrant and means you¡¯ll need to work twice as hard ¨C but you will be freer. Is that fine? Is it still what you want to work towards?¡± Turning to him curiously R stared deep into James¡¯s eyes. James was suddenly aware of how strange the creature looked. The being''s eyes were holes into the sack of flesh holding nothing but sparkles. The way he spoke was familiar¡­but James couldn¡¯t place where or when he had ever talked to him. His rhyming continence had changed ¨C as if that personality was nothing more than a mask. Now R reminded James of someone else. Someone he had met? Yeah. This was fine. James wasn¡¯t a stranger to working harder ¨C it would even be worth it if his result was better because of that extra work. ¡°Alright then, the contract is sealed ¨C I¡¯ll even show up to give you the push it needs at the end just because I¡¯ve enjoyed watching you so far.¡± the thing spoke. All illusions disappeared and faded. ¡°Let¡¯s see. Yes this can work. This growth mixed with this¡­¡± R muttered. In front of James, a new pane appeared.
Monster Kiln of Combat Eater. (Mana/Aether): Eat that which attacks you. Cook and consume foreign energies and objects to permanently increase stats and/or gain their effects. Effects may be gained through exposure at a lower rate than consumption. for full results effects from either food or exposure must be understood from both sides of the ''coin''. Warning: without gaining both Mana and Aether, this growth will remain unstable and potentially dangerous. Gaining one and not the other will keep it atrophied and may result in permanent negative effects if used. Warning: harder than usual trial due to additional wishes being integrated.
James looked at the pane. It seemed to have retained most of both boons? That¡¯s what he was talking about! He could just pick both. Nice. Accepting the boon James saw a flicker as the world changed ¨C R looking on with a fascinated face. ¡­
Trial: Eat your own hand. Description: Autocanabalize your own flesh, and absorb the remnant energies contained within.
James stood in a small apartment. Most of the room was taken up by a kitchen ¨C the other quarter or so a small living+dining room beside a massive window. Stepping carefully over to the window James looked out at an alien cityscape. It wasn¡¯t too fantastical ¨C surprisingly so. There wasn¡¯t flying cars or anything¡­that James would expect¡­but the shape of the buildings was wrong. The architecture used ''different''. The vehicles and distant figures strange. Pushing on the window slightly James felt how solid it was. Turning back to the room he looked around. There were no doors into this apartment. No way out ¨C he was trapped. Eat your own hand. ¡­that¡¯s kind of fucked up. What is R forcing me to do? Walking over to the kitchen James looked down at his arm and the knives about. I just need to cut it off? Is power worth it? Suddenly James saw something near the center of the room. Walking over he found a bloody lump. It was his arm ¨C the arm the troll had ripped off. So, he didn¡¯t have to cut off his own arm ¨C just eat the one here? Reaching out James shoved it watching the hand flip around and flop slightly. He felt sick. Not at the gore. No. Just at the idea of eating this. The instinctual human revulsion towards cannibalism. It couldn¡¯t be good for him. Looking around James found several tools. The kitchen was stocked full of knives, and blenders, and frying pans, and pots, and strange machines or devices he didn¡¯t know the use of. How do I make this edible? James couldn¡¯t believe he was actually considering this. Walking around the kitchen he found a spice rack ¨C 90% of the spices being unknown. Tasting some, he found salt and an overpowering flavor that was slightly like MSG mixed with garlic powder. Walking back he found a sharp looking knife and smashed it into the lump of flesh cutting out bones. ¡°Do I have to eat everything? Nails and skin and bones and stuff?¡± James asked the room ¨C but no one responded. R was watching, wasn¡¯t he? Just say no. Ignore this. Find an easier trial. James pulled the arm over to a sink and began washing it ¨C the lump looking somehow worse now that the blood and dirt was gone. Moving it back over to the cutting board James butchered the arm trying not to pay too much attention. He was a bit surprised at his own strength as well as how tough the arm was. They cancelled out somewhat but the tip of his knife dug into the wooden board hinting something was off. Remnants of stats still remained in the arm. Defensive stats in skin and bones. That¡¯s why he had to do this. Regaining those stats was how he got the new power. That¡¯s why this was happening to him. ¡­he probably had to eat everything didn¡¯t he? Removing most of the ¡®gross bits¡¯ ¨C who was he kidding? The entire package was a ¡®gross¡¯ bit. James found a blender and began pulsing. Arm smoothie? James felt like vomiting. It''s fine. This isn¡¯t my arm¡­ it''s steak. It''s monster meat ¨C I ate grosser shit in the past few days. Finding a frying pan and thick oily fat, James began frying the chunks of meat heavily seasoning everything. Pouring the blended ¡®gross¡¯ into the pan and tossing in some flour, he fried a patty of sorts ¨C there were still chunks of bone. That wasn¡¯t a patty¡­ what was he thinking? James opened his mouth and choked down an incredibly small chunk of meat. All he could taste was spice ¨C underneath the spice, if he had to pick a taste, he¡¯d say it was just like bacon. He took another chunk and swallowed it. The worst part was definitely the mental aspect. It tasted perfectly fine, but he still felt like vomiting. Bile rose in his mouth every time he thought of it. Bacon. It''s just bacon. James lied to himself. He wasn''t very convincing. Most of the meat gone James moved to the patty. He took a bite ¨C No. the worst part wasn¡¯t the mental aspect, it was definitely this. The texture. The blender hadn¡¯t done a good enough job and it tasted like vomit despite the seasoning. It definitely wasn''t cooked as well as the meat was. Choking down the patty he moved back to meat ¨C drowning out the worst taste with a better one. Finally, the task was done. James¡¯s stomach churned ¨C he looked up at the ceiling. ¡°That should be enough, shouldn¡¯t it?¡± The room disappeared.
Task complete: Monster Kiln of Combat Eater gained.
Instantly the churning in James¡¯s stomach lessened. Energy rushed through his body, faint ideas moved through his mind ¨C combining with his monster meat knowledge. R sat in the air looking at him with a strange curious expression. ¡°What the hell was that¡± James shouted at the monster in front of him. ¡°You did it. I¡¯m kind of surprised ¨C you know you only needed to eat the meat in the hand¡­not the whole arm and rest of the bits?¡± ¡­what? ¡°You mean I didn¡¯t have to go through all that?¡± James started growing angry. ¡°Trials are always at least slightly variable ¨C you going above and beyond will have increased the rewards results ¨C I¡¯m just surprised that¡¯s all. Looks like you do have what it takes to walk both sides ¨C I¡¯ll see you when you have the rest of your quest complete...sit in on a few classes in the next zone, I nudged things to make those easy to access. Then figure your way over to the other side and get the knowledge there and badda bing badda boom it should be done.¡± R finished his sentence, then spun in place and was gone. A moment later the ending message appeared. James looked it over ¨C one thing popping out to him. The systems rewards could never be taken away from him without consent. The system itself could be taken away. R¡¯s whims the only thing allowing him to continue growing ¨C at least until he finished breaking his skill and got the ability to grow with monster meat. ... ...badda bing badda boom. Was R''s real name Ralph? Chapter 40. A new world...again. ---Richard--- Richard stumbled out of the barrier behind him. He was nearly butt naked ¨C his clothes still burned off. What was left did not lead a picture of modesty ¨C you might say his current outfit was even worse than simply being naked. To start, his feet were covered in fashionably clunky stone boots fused and cast to his feet. Around his waist was his looted belt ¨C and all the supplies in and on it. Stone scooper one side, mini aether cannon the other. Pouch in the middle full of rope, money, vials of acid, ammo, etc. Somehow all his supplies had disappeared and slipped his mind in the transition ¨C their return suddenly incredibly obvious without the clothes beneath. Barely having time to take stock of his circumstances, let alone his surroundings, Richard¡¯s attention was immediately drawn towards the figure charging towards him. Snow white pelt with a sparkling pink mane. A spiral of iridescent flamboyance at the front. A fucking unicorn was aiming to skewer Richard not ten seconds into his entrance to this new area. Before Richard had time to process this situation, a 3rd party appeared ¨C an Indian man with a lightsaber leapt from the right corner of his eye a loud whoop ringing out of his throat. The Jedi wannabe positively flew towards the beast, then chopped down with the finality of a woodcutter swinging his axe. Passing clear through the unicorn¡¯s head, the swing twisted at the bottom of its arc ¨C from a chop to a slice that burned a gash through the unicorn¡¯s side from left to right. In front of Richard, the still charging beast¡¯s head flipped up ¨C cauterized flesh preventing blood, the cut clean enough the wound barely had time to smoke. The head flew up and over the now collapsing unicorn''s back releasing a faint sparkle as it flew. The rest of the creature¡¯s body slid several dozen feet toward Richard and stopped just in front of him. The Indian man turned walked towards him speaking in a foreign tongue. ¡°kya tum ek gumaraah aadamee ho?¡± Staring for a second the man''s eyes lit up and flashed to his armband.
Hello, have you just passed the exam? Did you get good? My fucking was terrible. Did you see how I completely destroyed that silly pony?
Richard reached around pulling out his own translator. ¡°Yeah, I saw. Legend. Should have got it on a highspeed camera so I could play it back to you. Actually! Let¡¯s find another unicorn and see what they think of a shotgun to the mane¡­also do you have any clothing? As you can see, I seem to have burnt through mine.¡±
Sorry I don''t have spare paint, was thinking about that. Shotgun you say? That''s boring friend. Why don''t you have a laser pistol?
¡­they seemed to be immediately hitting it off. What was the chance this lightsaber wielding player was cool and what was the chance they were secretly fucked up? Honestly pretty high based on past experiences¡­ ¡­ Before the pair had time to head off on their ¡®epic quest to kill things and gain pants¡¯ a new group arrived. This group was decked out in full swat gear ¨C their heads obscured by greenish blue visors, their body wrapped in marbled blue and green armour ¨C each carrying identical pistols, blades and blue glowing shields. They approached Richard and his new friend, their weapons trained steadily upon the pair. The new group was completely silent as they surrounded the players, moving with unnaturally coordinated steps. ¡°I¡¯ll take the ones on the left I guess?¡± Richard stage whispered to his new friend reaching for his side. A shot burst forth from one of the armoured figures stabbing into Richard¡¯s hand with a slight jolt. Suddenly a blue box appeared.
Suspicious foreigners do not resist and follow us. Assuming you do not assault an agent, you are not under arrest and will not be harmed.
Will not be harmed after already firing the first shots huh, Kenobi over here will probably slice the ¨C Richard heard a faint thud from beside him. He turned to watch his new friend walking towards the group both hands high in the air with a scared look on his face. ¡­huh¡­doesn¡¯t look like this is a ploy ¨C he dropped his weapon beside me¡­ ¡­that¡¯s kind of boring. Richard found himself checking out. He let himself be somewhat corralled along for a short walk purposefully walking as calmly as possible while ready to throw hands at a moment''s notice. While Richard walked, he mentally shifting his new friend back to ¡®friendly random player¡¯ status. Soon they were in a wide open field that had been cleared of trees and grass. It looked like someone had bulldozed the place recently ¨C most of the foliage roughly scraped into a rough wall on two sides. Walking over to a small white tent ¨C one that reminded Richard of the ones set up at outdoor weddings but with three poles instead of four ¨C they came towards an incredibly charming looking man stamping papers. He looked like what a used car salesman wished he looked like. Like the man at the booth oozed a sense of ¡°trustworthiness¡± and ¡°one of the boys¡± style energy. ¡­Richard was immediately on guard. No one was that likable. ¡°Hello! Welcome! My names Nevin. I hope your introduction hasn¡¯t been too harsh. My boys have been a bit on edge ¨C not that I blame them; we¡¯ve had quite a few strange individuals come through the containment field in the past few days. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯re not in trouble, we just want to make sure you aren¡¯t a threat. Waltzing out of the supposed corrupted zone ¨C do you all know one another? Why don¡¯t you tell me a bit about where you came from? What you saw on the other side and what you are hoping to do here. All voluntary information but if you cooperate I can smooth stuff over and get you a temporary citizenship. What do you say?¡± Nevin spoke. His lips didn¡¯t quite match what he was saying ¨C the only tell that his speech was translated. Richard mentally groaned. What game had a customs office? ¡­ Richard did the bare minimum amount of cooperation before being directed away from the unnaturally friendly spokesperson. Staring around somewhat lost Richard¡­felt bored. No one was really doing anything. There wasn¡¯t anything he could even focus on? Richard spun slowly and finally spotted something interesting. He wandered over to the edge of the wall strolling up to the only active looking man in sight to see what was happening. While everyone else was sitting on makeshift benches or standing around one man was moving. The character was barefoot and shirtless. His eyes were closed and he was performing squats while holding a large stone on one shoulder. Richard wasn¡¯t quite sure what made him stand out in the sea of people. He¡¯d say it was because he was on his own but¡­there were a few loners sitting by their lonsome and they didn¡¯t stand out in the same way. This man looked¡­strangely in between phases if Richard had to put a description to it. Dishevelled but not homeless ¨C his tracksuit pants and tied shirt around his waist dirty but not tattered. Like a college kid had gotten lost in the woods for a night. ¡­maybe a bit older than college? Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Richard glanced around then looked closer. The most interesting thing about this figure was probably his shirt. The one tied around his waist. It was hard to tell at first glance ¨C especially with how it was scrunched up and tied to itself, but the sleeves were covered in blood. Absolutely splattered. Who¡¯s blood was that? He looked uninjured. Who had he killed? What had made that much blood? A mystery! ¡°Hey mate, want a partner?¡± Richard looked around trying to find a rock to lift as well. Eyeing the rough wall beside them, he spotted a dirty stone embedded into its length and spent a moment wriggling it out side eyeing the stone lifter still silently doing his reps. Awkwardly trying to place it on his shoulder Richard gave up and held it close to his chest trying to do a squat as well. Fuck, this is harder than it looked. Struggling for a moment beside his silent companion, Richard finally got into a position that mostly worked and did a few reps in camaraderie. Richard didn¡¯t work out a lot but he was relatively good at it when he tried. It was mostly a social thing ¨C working out only really happened when he had a friend who lifted as well. ¡°I have to get out¡±. The man finally whispered. His voice rasped slightly as if he hadn¡¯t spoken in a while. ¡°Out of this field?¡¯ Richard responded side eyeing him as he did another rep. They nodded. Definitely interesting. ¡°We are trapped. Walls on two sides. Guards push you back if you try for the other two sides. I feel stifled. We have to get out. I have to get out of this.¡± The man whispered. He truly sounded panicked. There was a hard look in his eye that Richard liked. A commitment. ¡°Want to break out?¡± Richard asked slightly excited. He had just found his new best friend. Time for a pseudo prison break!
---James--- James was not having a good time. Not ten minutes into entering the new ¡°zone¡± and he had been subdued and placed in a kennel. Trapped like a rat in a box open to the elements. He wasn¡¯t strong enough. That was the baseline. All one needed to take away from the encounter. He had kicked and punched and struggled to beat the armoured men ¨C using stored kinetic retaliations and hasted movements before they had tazed him several times and tossed him into this box. One of his punches had even bent some of the metal on the armour! Not that that was enough. James had definitely put up a good fight. At least for a minute or two¡­however he had been surrounded and the armoured men had cheated. Used strange weapons which turned the ground to quicksand and locked up his limbs when they hit. Now he was biding his time till night. Then he would try and run up the wall, then crawl away into the night. He would leave. Train himself till he was stronger than come back and burn this place to the ground! ¡­maybe that was an overreaction but James hadn¡¯t felt that helpless in a while and he hated it. He was supposed to have gotten stronger. He was supposed to be above being forced into places he didn¡¯t want to go or forced into doing stuff he didn¡¯t want to do. He wanted control over himself. He wanted to be stronger. That frustrated energy built until James found a spot to exercise ¨C at least that way it would feel like he was doing something. ¡­ After working his muscles for a bit ¨C he hadn¡¯t gotten any stats yet but he could tell an achievement was soon going to arrive ¨C a nearly naked man came over and joined him. ¡­was he making fun of him? No. The character who had arrived was actually putting in an effort to do some reps¡­ James didn¡¯t know what to do. What to tell them. An awkward energy was beginning to build so he had to say something right? Why were they naked? Why was no one commenting on it? Was James the weird one for thinking this was weird? Probably. It was usually James¡¯s fault in social situations. Why did they want to work out right beside him? There was a whole stretch of wall free ¨C why come over here and force him to socialize? Finally James decided he had to say something just to fill the void. Not knowing ¡®what¡¯ to say, he ended up confiding in the man. Just spilling his thoughts ¨C should have kept quiet. What if they went and told someone? Against all odds, James¡¯s confession seemed to give the strange man energy. ¡°Want to break out?¡± The man excitedly whispered. Like that wasn¡¯t an obvious answer ¨C like escaping itself would be fun instead of just a required action to be free. James really didn¡¯t know how to talk to people. Why was this a problem? ¡­he wanted to be stronger. Talking to people. Confidence. That was strength too wasn¡¯t it? He should stop running away because ignoring something he was bad at was weakness. Kill the weakness. Explaining his haphazard plan James watched as the naked man placed his rock down on the ground and started doing something with a strange tool to it. ¡°Sure, could work.¡± The man started while liquifying the stone and squeezing it through a funnel. ¡°We wait till night, scale the wall. Fuck off into the night. Solid simple plan¡­ If you are still in the planning phase however, I have some ideas as well. Some brainstorming action. First off. Let¡¯s find the food and toss this confusion powder into it. Then we can blow up the shitty wall with carefully embedded explosive shots ¨C I¡¯ll use my new skill to blow them all at once. ¡°Finally in the confusion we can get a pair of those suits ¨C did you see they have like exoskeleton things? I could sense the slots in them when they brushed by. If we knock out the NPC¡¯s wearing them I bet we can swipe a pair. Did you get a skill slot yet? If you can¡¯t tell I want some new clothes and thought one of those suits might be fun¡­OH! We could also escape then double back around and pretend to be one of the men searching for the escapees and lead them off on a wild goose chase¡­Just some ideas¡­¡± the man trailed off. James had been nodding along the whole time ¨C wait was he serious? ¡°That¡­that¡¯s some ¡®ideas¡¯.¡± James tried to say as calmly as he could.
Excuse me. These are your citizenship. Sorry for the delay ¨C Just took some time to finish the background check and to process your DNA samples to test for corruption. You are clean¡­ Either way you both are free to go now. I¡¯m also supposed to mention we are heading back to the city if you want to come join us ¨C we should be back before night. Plenty of places to stay in Stable.
A young woman stood holding two flat strips of metal. One for James one for the strange man. ¡­what? They were¡­Just¡­letting them go? James¡­didn¡¯t really know what to say to that. He really wanted to just run. Head off into the wilderness where things made sense. There things either wanted to eat you or didn¡¯t. Simple. Here you had to deal with not knowing what was happening or why¡­ Surprisingly the naked man also looked disappointed ¨C but James suspected that was just due to not being able to blow something up. The man seemed just a bit unstable ¨C but maybe that was just him? James really just wanted to leave but¡­he had promised himself he would do something. He would complete his quest to gain both aether and mana. He would head back to the city and figure out how to learn about aether as painlessly as possible. Then and only then could he escape back to the civilized wilds. Maybe he could find a painless way of gaining some supplies as well while he was there. ¡­and maybe a way to shake off the explosive tag along while he was there.
---Maddy--- Maddy stepped through the barrier and emerged into a deep verdant forest. The trees looked almost prehistoric ¨C like something out of a dinosaur movie. Standing close to the barrier she looked about carefully. Her scythe was back. As was her bag. No sign of her companions yet ¨C were they okay? She wouldn¡¯t trust the last message stating they were till she saw them. Not wanting to wait unprepared, Maddy cautiously pulled out a charcoal pen and began to sketch on the side of her weapon. Some quick changes to the layout and tons of little lines of what exactly she wanted later and Maddy cast her spell. ¡°Parasite these Trees with Slumbering Seeds¡± she spoke, dumping her entire combined pool into the working. The words sounded better this time around ¨C of course her spell sounded better when no one was around to hear her. Just her luck¡­the spell seemed better formed then any of her previous now that she had time to watch it. The changes to her previous spells were minor ¨C she simply wanted to use her voice to carry her eggs into her surroundings after all. The main additional goal at this point was to make them last as long as possible. Dark-Life mana to make them better able to sink into hosts. Each egg was also an orb because why not ¨C that concept really was similar to her ¡®scythe¡¯ pseudo concept just more complete. All it really did was make her spells stronger if she made them into orbs. Easy enough to do. Feeling more comfortable after seeding the surroundings, Maddy continued to wait for her pool to refill. She had time and needed to think. ¡­ What had that truth been? The one with the old woman. What secret did it hold? Assuming it was actually the truth, it meant the natives were being controlled somehow to act a certain way around travelers. That had some horrifying connotations, mind control? Were they ¨C the travelers ¨C invading a land? ¡­the zones seem too artificial to be a real place they are ¡®invading¡¯. Were those people kidnapped from somewhere? Why were they made to act less ¡®real¡¯? What was Maddy supposed to do with this information¡­be nicer to the natives? Figure out how to free them? Jess stumbled out of the barrier a few dozen feet to the left. ¡°Hey! Over here!¡± Maddy called jogging slightly over to regain her companion. Jess looked battered ¨C Maddy was almost worried her own trial had been real after all but¡­the wounds were different. Mostly small round bruises as if Jess had been attacked by a hail of rocks or beaten with metal balls the size of ping pong balls. She looked brutalized but happy. ¡°Hey, we are the first out? Thanks for this it feels amazing ¨C¡° Jess moaned slightly as bruises faded. Maddy had immediately cast healing roots from her life pool, pulling mana out and running it through the spells written down on her scythe. ¡°Looks like it, how was your trial?¡± Maddy asked stepping back. ¡°Not too difficult. I¡¯m more concerned about that truth ¨C did you know we had less of a choice to leave the tutorial than we thought?¡± Jess asked. ¡°What do you mean? Let¡¯s combine all the information we got¡± Maddy responded. Maybe with more information she could better puzzle out her own gift. Before Jess had time to explain, Troy stumbled out nearly directly beside them his eyes bleeding ¨C Maddy immediately rushed to perform her duties as her teams leader putting the conversation on hold. Then, following the flow of the conversation the group ended up walking away from the barrier following a rough path through the prehistoric forest. Right around when Maddy wanted to bring up the information exchange once more a series of crashing sounds rang out causing her whole group to jog towards the noise. The first thing they saw when they entered the clearing was what looked like several high tech drones dive bombing a palace made out of fur. A woman sat outside the massive building waving a wand that sent out bright pink sparks. One of the drones got too close and was hit by the wand ¨C it ¡®pop¡¯ed¡¯ in a cloud of pink smoke becoming a toy bear. A second came in ¨C it too being attacked by the pink sparks until it broke and transformed into a potted plant. The final drone turned to fly away but was attacked by what looked like a paw coming out of the furry building ¨C the paw appeared to melt out of the wall and continue to extend, far, far longer than it should have been able to. The snake-like paw stretched all the way over to the corner of the clearing and smacked the retreating drone ¨C hitting it so hard bits of metal and plastic were flung away. What had they walked into? Chapter 41. How to collect infinite energy using nothing but physics and a pinch of Aether. ---James--- James was trying. Trying to get stronger. His goal was to learn ¡®all about¡¯ aether. ''R'' had even helped direct him ¨C the little gnome had told him to go to some classes. For some reason, the city he had been directed to had free drop-in schooling from an elementary level to what he could only refer to as ¡®university level¡¯ ¨C all in the same place that simply translated to ¡®school¡¯. And so that was one of the first places they went to as soon as they reached the city. Stable was¡­different. It was a city in the truest sense ¨C with hundreds of large metal and glass skyscrapers but immediately stuff looked ¡®off¡¯. The outer section was surrounded by laser turrets like something out of a real time strategy game. Once you entered the city the differences looked even more off. The first landmark that drew the eye was the center of the city. A single skyscraper towered above the rest in roughly the center of settlement. It had to be 800 to 900 meters tall at least. Nearly a kilometer to the 100-150m of the rest of the skyscrapers. The second point to focus on was the architecture. Every single ¡®skyscraper¡¯ was a triangle ¨C not a pyramid, a triangular prism going up dozens of floors. Some had a tiny pointy pyramid on top like an obelisk, but most were simply clean boxy prisms. The floorplan of the ¡®city¡¯ was¡­almost honeycomb esque. Parallel ¡®streets¡¯ in three different planes created equilateral triangles around each tower. The next major fact of this city was the streets themselves ¨C they weren¡¯t built with vehicles in mind. Instead of cement sidewalks rimming two to four lanes of traffic, the middle of every ¡®street¡¯ contained four lanes of constantly moving sidewalk. There were a few suspended monorail-style trains but the majority of people just stood on the sidewalks. The sidewalks were simple things ¨C less closed off than the ones at airports and more fluid somehow. Fast lanes in the middle slow lanes on the outside. Weirdly shaped roundabouts at every single intersection that passed traffic between the lines and let you switch directions ¨C supposedly you were supposed to turn around at a roundabout rather than ''crossing the middle'' of the street but many jumped between the two sections without a care for safety. James, the player who seemed unnecessarily interested in him ¨C he had introduced himself as ¡®Richard¡¯ ¨C and a ¡®guide¡¯ they had been given by the city, all stepped onto a moving sidewalk and sped up quickly. As they ¡®flew¡¯ through the urban sprawl, James found himself staring about despite himself. This was¡­a hell of a lot more exciting than Toronto. There was a certain kind of freedom to cities ¨C in towns you always had to worry that someone that knew you might be watching and judging but, in a city, so many people were out it was almost like you wrapped around to being alone. None of the people paid them any mind ¨C the fashion spread was huge and what they were wearing didn''t stand out. Richard had been given a pair of jean-like pants and a hoody as soon as he mentioned to the natives his fashion wasn''t by choice. James didn¡¯t normally care about clothes or fashion, but some of the residents had positively fantastical outfits. Flaming hair and clothing. Bands of ¡®invisible¡¯ material that made them look like their torso floated 50cm or so above their legs. Neon stripes running down their pants and jackets like something out of a cyberpunk movie ¨C or even just subdued, simple, black business suits. ¡­James was never going back to being an office worker. The suits reminded him of his old job and his mood soured slightly. Let¡¯s just get to the school and see what we can learn as painlessly as possible. ¡­ They finally arrived at the ¡®school¡¯ ¨C a bright skyscraper that took up three blocks, the triangles merging into a larger triangle. As they walked towards the glass doors their guide quickly explained how the building was set up. Kindergarten-level content was called a tier 0 class, while university-level content was referred to as a tier 16 or 17 class. The building was an eccentric shape ¨C a corkscrew with only ¡®one¡¯ floor and a set of elevators in the center. Peeking into room after room, James saw how the slightly sloped floor let teachers stand at the ¡®bottom¡¯ all the desks able to see above the people in front of them. The room shapes near the center of the tower were all much weirder than those at the edge ¨C but those were strange as well no doubt due to the design choice to put a spiral in a triangular prism. This would have worked better as a cylinder if they really wanted a corkscrew, wouldn¡¯t it? Why were none of the rooms square? It made everything feel strange¡­ Due to their age and partial citizenship, the classes weren¡¯t ¡®locked¡¯ behind previous tiered prerequisites¡­but stepping into random rooms felt like being thrown into the deep end. ¡­ ¡°In theoretical aether analysis, all forms of energy may be transformed into the aether domain with a series of simple formulas. In our previous class you may have remembered a quick review of Laplace and Fourier transforms. We will be building upon that today with Eriel and Lime transforms, applicable towards most P-type energies displayed in standard form. If we have time by the end of the session, we will review the inverse formulas and how energy may be extracted from the aether domain back to P-type energies.¡± A slightly robotic voice rang out in the classroom. James pulled his head back out of tier 14 class and made to head to a new door. ¡°I remember Fourier transforms¡­they made more? Who¡¯s this Lime fellow? That doesn¡¯t sound like a real name.¡± Richard muttered beside him. [Closed room theory is an important area of study ¨C its important for all aether engineering but shows particular relevance in dungeon formation and direction. Can anyone give me a brief description of the model and some simple limitations currently preventing it from acquiring more practical use?] A wizened old woman spoke in a raspy untranslated tone while writing down her speech ¨C her personal tablet translated the text up onto the board behind her. Pointing out a particularly peppy looking kid who couldn¡¯t be much older than 12, the kid excitedly began to respond.
Closed room theory states, that by closing off a system such that no energy can be added or removed, the potential for aether to affect the system is exponentially increased. As long as the total energy in the room doesn¡¯t change, the amount of work applied by said energy is much larger than classically possible. Its why most dungeons have either a door or energy reflective fabric on the entrance. Its to help keep the system as a separate area. If it weren¡¯t for the observity paradox this model would be used even more often.
[And what¡¯s the observantly paradox?] The teacher asked smiling wildly.
The observity paradox states, that the ability for aether to effect an object is negatively effected by each observer added. A closed system can reach 100% efficiency if treated as a black box. However, if you can see what the aether is doing, or attempt to measure it, the efficiency is lowered. Theoretically an aether system completely cut off from all human interference has the maximum potential. This phenomena is known as a paradox, because aether only works around life and only shows its true potential while linked to a human or other complex organism¡­it needs an observer to function despite being negatively effected by them ¨C that¡¯s also why there are so few remote controlled mechs or serious vehicles. Without an aether warrior directly connecting to the machine, its efficiency is lowered ¨C a majority of the time to the point of uselessness.
The kid spoke with a slight smirk the entire time. He looked proud of himself and his knowledge shifting his eyes back and forth to his classmates as if seeking their approval.
Basically teach. Aether appears contradictory in terms of function. Furthermore with a low number of observers aether can appear to act erratically ¨C single warriors and small groups in aether dense locations have been known to come across implausible seeming situations ¨C they have reported impossible sounding and unrepeatable effects while far from witnesses. Some people claim those effects are simply illusions or delusions while others claim they are ¡®magic¡¯ ¨C as stupid as that sounds. Magic does not exist ¨C anything you think is magic is simply something you cannot explain ¨C
The kid was cut off by the teacher in a kind but firm manner. [Thank you Kevin, you¡¯ve definitely done your homework. Next time you do not need to continue quite this far past my question ¨C I know you are excited, but some of the topics you¡¯ve brought up aren¡¯t supposed to be covered till weeks from now. Now, I¡¯m distributing handouts to your personal devices, please have them done by the end of the day I will be available for any questions you may have.] she wrote. ¡­much better. It felt weird to be surrounded by children but at least now James understood what was being said.
---Richard--- Richard was¡­confused. His worldview was currently being slightly shattered and he felt incredibly lost as he tried to pick up the remains of it. Each time he felt like he was gathering his mental state back, a new person came along and smashed it to bits with a metaphorical hammer. This last one was definitely the worse today. The kid¡¯s words resonated with him. ¡°Magic is simply what you don¡¯t understand.¡±. While treating reality like a game it had been incredibly easy to ignore all the fantastical stuff happening around him. Why does this powder break physics? Magic. Why do people have lightsabers and energy weapons like something out of a tv series? Techy magic. Its just a game mechanic. Why bother figuring out why it worked that way. Now well...How had he been transported to this ¡®game¡¯ ¨C this ¡®colonization effort¡¯? If he listened to his truth ¡®for real this time¡¯. Actually stopped to think about it¡­he didn¡¯t know. Stolen novel; please report. How the fuck did they manage that? Were we knocked out, placed on an alien ship and brought here? How close to earth are we? There was something about us never being able to go back¡­is that just because FTL travel? Were we frozen like popsicles and dethawed here after hundreds of years had passed? Fuck. Before it was so easy to brush off wasn¡¯t it? ¡®A wizard did it¡¯ ¨C that¡¯s how. Can I just continue to pretend I believe that? ¡­ it''s so hard to ignore once I¡¯ve opened pandoras shitty box isn¡¯t it? A wizard didn¡¯t do it. This is reality. This is¡­unless there¡¯s something to do with alternative dimensions, this is somewhere in the universe. What happened to us can be explained ¨C we just don¡¯t know how yet. Richard remembered how much he loved science. Chemistry was his favorite, but physics also had some sway. He liked the results much more than the nitty gritty ¨C its why he had gone into chemical engineering in the first place. Practical applications of chemistry instead of some theoretical mumbo jumbo that no one actually cared about. Richard reached out to his handler for the first time on his road to understanding. ¡°Hey, sorry I didn¡¯t catch your name. How is there so much energy being used in this city? Isn¡¯t it wasteful? How do you power everything?¡± The woman smiled and responded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. They seemed to have splurged for the variation of translator that converted to sound. It felt like they were a native English speaker. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you are interested in our infrastructure! That bodes well. The cheapest theoretically infinite source of energy is gravity. The central tower in the city is our gravity well.¡± she laughed. Richard winced. That¡¯s¡­ not how gravity works. Gravity is a force. ¡°How can you harvest gravity? Please explain how you can get infinite energy from that ¨C explain like I know regular physics but don¡¯t know anything about aether.¡± I''m going to get to the bottom of something. She paused as if confused for a moment then lit up and started her explanation. ¡°Okay! You want a classical description of the system. I think I can do that. So! Mass at a height has potential energy right? A large amount of mass at a high enough height has a large amount of potential energy. When you let that mass fall, you can convert potential energy into mechanical energy. Put a bunch of wheels in the path of the mass and you can create electrical energy from the rotating magnetic fields ¨C or convert it directly to ¡®physical¡¯ energy. An incredibly ancient form of this is the water wheel used in water mills or the ones placed in dams to collect hydroelectric power. Are you following me so far?¡± the guide asked. ¡°Yep, simple enough.¡± Richard responded. Not quite an ¡®explain like I¡¯m five¡¯ but well below his knowledge level. ¡°Once the mass reaches the ground its potential energy is zero. It''s ¡°spent¡±. Picking the mass up and bringing it back to the top of the tower while its still mass ¨C no matter how clever you try to carry it, is simply spending energy to store it as potential once again. That¡¯s because gravity pulls mass ¨C the same useful trait for generating energy works against you while trying to reset the system.¡± Richard nodded. Everything checked out so far. ¡°To get around this limitation you have to understand a fundamental principle of the universe. Mass is simply energy in a different form. You can convert mass to another type of energy ¨C for example electrical ¨C and then run that electrical energy up a conductive wire to the top of the tower ¨C in case you didn¡¯t know electrical energy doesn¡¯t really care about gravity ¨C before converting it back to mass. Drop it back down the tower and you can collect more energy before sending it back up. Obviously, in a real system this is all happening continuously¡­ but that¡¯s the basic idea behind the ¡®well¡¯.¡± The woman ended. ¡­see that¡¯s where she lost Richard. Somewhere in the last bit she started bringing up something full of holes. That¡¯s¡­that wouldn¡¯t work would it? There¡¯s something there that should be breaking physics somewhere right? You couldn¡¯t just make infinite energy ¨C that was impossible. One of the basic problems people who didn¡¯t understand physics like to imagine they¡¯d discovered. Richard tried to think of loopholes. ¡°Okay, but the gravity does effect electricity even if just a little. Electricity is electrons and they have a teeny tiny bit of mass so even if they aren¡¯t affected much it should still add up. Also you¡¯d have to keep the wire superconductive otherwise it would lose so much energy traveling up the wire.¡± ¡°Pretend instead of electricity, the mass is being converted to light. Then, that light flies up, is converted back to mass. Drops down. Gets converted again. Rinse and repeat.¡± ¨C the woman looked incredibly pleased by her response. Was she reading off a prompt? Was this a standard problem? ¡­that¡­okay sure, light is also affected by gravity warping around black holes and stuff but¡­ ¡°Converting mass to energy creates a massive amount of radiation and converting energy to mass is really fucking inefficient?¡± Richard started feeling slightly panicked. This was breaking his worldview in a different way. ¡°And that¡¯s why everything is done by Aether. I¡¯m sorry I really can¡¯t describe how the generator works without it much longer. There isn¡¯t actually ¡®little wheels¡¯ or something spinning all along the tunnel. No, the kinetic momentum is sapped directly into energy skipping something as redundant as electricity with kinetic induction. The mass isn¡¯t fully ¡®mass¡¯ and the transported energy is not fully ¡®energy¡¯ from a classical non aether standpoint¡­even if that¡¯s how they look from a result standpoint. ¡°Basically the tower is a loop with the part being looped about being shifted into a heavy super dense liquid near the top and then an energy-dense ''not affected by gravity and easily transported'' form near the bottom. Because of the specific ¡®forms¡¯ used at both ends, this back and forth conversion is over 99.99% effective ¨C and most of the by-products are recaptured to either shove back in or extract from the system as the final product. It''s also set up so the state transference is as cheap as possible ¨C the part that converts it to mass synergises with the part that converts it back to energy and nothing is really lost in that loop. ¡°Clean nearly free energy! It does need a human operator with a slot to operate at a positive energy output¡­and it is incredibly incredibly expensive to make at the start. But, in exchange, power output is billions of times more effective then simply having someone create the energy directly. ¡°That¡¯s the important point. ¡°The operator isn¡¯t actually creating any energy! They are just increasing the conversion efficiency for the system by cycling fresh aether and making sure the efficiency is as close to 100% on the loop as possible¡­like a maintenance worker walking around tightening screws. Any other questions?¡± Richard¡­didn¡¯t know enough to say anything else and that annoyed him. He hated feeling fucking stupid ¨C he wanted to learn more. ¡°Is there a better way to learn all of this than jumping into random classes?¡± Richard found himself asking. ¡°Many find hands-on learning the best, but we have free tablets you can read through if that¡¯s a better learning style for you.¡± The woman responded seeming somewhat put out by the idea. ¡°Let¡¯s go¡± James spoke up for the first time ¨C he seemed to light up at the mention of a book instead. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll continue guiding you in case you have any questions.¡± The woman really seemed confused by their choices, but led them toward the library anyways. ¡­
---James--- Got it! James could just check the internet/free library of textbooks for required information. That was so much faster and easier than taking classes. It felt like a dream come true. Finding the tablet ¨C a large touch screen the size of a desk ¨C and beginning to manipulate it James found himself reading up on aether on his own terms. Sure the explosive tag along ¨C Richard ¨C was there as well. Sure he would randomly take control of the screen at times. But, this was still the optimal way of learning. Aether had essentially three main fields or ¡®abilities¡¯ each with dozens of sub fields and rules or quirks to its effects ¨C each of which also tied into each other in different capacities. James separated them out into a physics, a chemistry, and a biology equivalent. Aether conversion was the physics equivalent. The ability to transform different types of energy from one form to another. How that conversion took place involved dozens of different techniques¡­ but as a high level overview it was simple enough. It was like how electricity could be converted to magnetism and vise versa. Electricity could be converted to an aether form and back, or converted from electricity to aether, and then finally to magnetism. It could also be converted from magnetism to aether and then to heat, or from heat to movement. All stuff classical physics could do! All aether was doing was providing more options ¨C most of them more efficient. Actually getting those conversions to take place usually involved using the ¡®second field¡¯, or materials made with the second or third field but the results were all easy to understand. Getting more ¡®applied¡¯, the second field of study was Aether reactions. This was essentially the chemistry equivalent of this aether knowledge. The main ''ability¡¯ this field of study focused on was the ability for aether to change the properties of matter and energy. Ignoring the ¡®how¡¯ of things, aether could change different physical properties of elements and matter. It could change the specific heat capacity, or the tensile strength, or the viscosity. It was hard for aether to effect these changes on a general scale ¨C most of these physical changes only really effected certain types of materials¡­like the ability to make water ¨C and only water ¨C react explosively with air. Another example was the ability to momentarily melt cellulose and bend trees into weird shapes ¨C Another to create exotic states of matter. The ¡®how¡¯ of things was much more complicated. Essentially, from what James understood, aether reacted with matter. Using vague knowledge of ¡®sp hybridization¡¯ from high school to fill in the gaps, James could vaguely see how it all worked. Aether bonded with atoms and groups of atoms then changed the shape of their energy fields. It twisted the blobby probability fields into knots or increased and decreased their size. From what James could remember, carbon was incredibly important because of its ¡®plus or minus four something¡¯ letting it form four bonds to other atoms¡­he couldn¡¯t remember why carbon was better than say silicone ¨C just that there was a reason all life used it as its main building block instead of anything else. Aether changed things. If a molecule was bonded with aether it could and more likely ¡®would¡¯ be ¡®effected¡¯ in a massive way. Something like gold could be massaged to having the same ¡®bonding¡¯ capabilities as carbon. Life with magnesium as its main building block. With sulfur. Quite a few monsters had parts of their body using strange elements ¨C blue blood was famously due to titanium blood cells instead of iron ones. Now that James read up on it, quite a few monsters were poisonous to eat and of the ones that weren¡¯t, many didn¡¯t provide any nutrition. Their base muscles and fats and stuff were all using different non digestible or toxic elements and compounds. How was James eating meat just fine? Was it just because of his stomach¡¯s poison defense? A question for him to figure out later ¨C he was not going to stop now, especially as his newest ability doubled down on eating monster meat to improve himself. No matter how simple changing the energy level of different molecules sounded, this whole system became more and more complicated the more molecules were in play. There was the number of potential compounds without aether times a billion. Trillions of potential materials ¨C many unviable or hard to create, many more incredibly useful or effective and a massive amount unknown. The final side effect was almost in afterthought, but aether could stabilize some elements that were impossible or nearly impossible to create otherwise. Something like a theoretic element with atomic number 160 or 200 ¨C or even 300 ¨C could become stable at room temperature and with specific (only occasionally unique) properties. The final ¡®level¡¯ shown at the library, was aether¡¯s biology equivalent. ¡®Applied¡¯ to the point of not understanding it ¨C just its effects. This field was called Psionics and wasn¡¯t even fully an ¡®aether¡¯ field. Not in the same way the other two were. Essentially what it addressed was how Skills, monsters, and human run aether devices could affect things ¡®at range¡¯. They could redirect or convert force from across a room, could perform any of the reactions in the previous section from meters away or manipulate materials through the air about them. Not how aether effected things but how living creatures could manipulate aether. General telekinesis was one of the purest forms of this phenomena and something many high level aether warriors managed¡­but so was literally every unbroken or naturally grown skill even if they were limited to what could be effected. There was also several rare abilities like Telepathy or Psychometry that fell under this category ¨C abilities that didn¡¯t cost aether to use but theoretically interacted with aether in some way shape or form. Anyone with a developed psychic ability was called an Esper and supposedly hundreds of years ago they were hunted down and experimented on ¨C a ¡®barbaric¡¯ practice the government cracked down hard on in recent times. There were a few different theories as to how psionics actually worked. Some stated there was a field of aether suffusing all of reality ¨C the astrosphere ¨C that certain people could work in¡­others stated there was an entirely separate dimension to reality ¨C the aether dimension ¨C and, with an invisible aether limb, skill utilizing people could interact with stuff through that realm. Others stated all psionic effects were explainable using radio wave equivalents ¨C that instead of a separate realm you were simply pushing the effect through regular space where it manifested. Long distance skills were a type of radiation and all that. ¡°Ahhhhhhh. Okay! That¡¯s enough studying, lets go see about sticking our heads into the gravity well or something fun like that. I¡¯m getting stir crazy.¡± Richard loudly spoke from beside him ¨C untranslated so the guide couldn¡¯t hear. He turned to grin at James then stage whispered his next words ¡°Want to get some achievements?¡± Chapter 42. Heroes? ---Richard--- Richard wanted to do something fun. Like always he didn¡¯t know what the fun he wanted to do was, but he was getting better at coming up with stuff on the fly. ¡°This map¡¯s initially much more friendly than the last area ¨C I say we find the dark side of this city whether it¡¯s a cult or mafia or something and fuck with them for some easy achievements. Has to be some safe targets somewhere no?¡± Richard stepped backwards onto the moving sidewalk and let himself be pulled away. He watched as his new potential friend stepped on afterwards ¨C their handler following along behind them like a ghost. How many players had entered this area so far? How was the city giving everyone a handler ¨C there couldn¡¯t be that many NPC¡¯s on standby just for them right? ¡­a question that only made sense when imagining this was reality. R simply made enough handlers for everyone. He bent plausibility over his knee to make it happen, that''s all Richard needed to know. Stupid question really ¨C why was Richard searching for safe targets anyways? They were NPC¡¯s right? ¡­Were any targets safe? Should he open that can of worms? Boring train of thought ¨C Richard thought he killed those annoying bits of self reflection. ¡°I think¡­I think I¡¯m going to leave soon.¡± James said quietly. ¡°I want to get out of this place. I feel stifled¡± Me too buddy. ¡°You feel better when you stop caring ¨C worried about what people think? Fuck em. Worried about picking the right choice or doing the right thing? Just make the choice you want to make, damn the consequences ¨C as long as you are fine with your decisions that''s all that matters. It''s freeing.¡± Richard stepped over onto the slower lane for a second pulling back to stand by James and starting to stroll ¨C walking to keep up with the faster sidewalk. ¡°I¡¯ve been dying to ask ¨C whose blood is that on your sleeves? What¡¯s the story?¡± Richard probed. James looked down and then started as if only now noting the dried blood caked into fabric. ¡°Mine¡­I guess?¡± James spoke his hand coming up to touch his mouth for a second. James¡¯s skin was unblemished ¨C as weird as that was to focus on. Dirty but without a wound or even sign of a wound ¨C he wasn¡¯t carrying any weapon or supplies. It was a mystery ¨C the main mystery drawing Richard¡¯s attention to the guy. What was his story? What was there about him that Richard was drawn to? His answer could have been any number of minor things that dropped Richard''s excitement. Instead¡­James¡¯s answer had made even more questions and actually raised his interest. In the distance as if choreographed, a universal sound rang out ¨C screaming and the shattering of glass. Less than thirty seconds later and the source of the disturbance came into view. A masked man stood in front of the shattered remains of a storefront surrounded by glass. His skin was tinted grey, he wore coveralls and a hoodie ¨C no the ¡®look¡¯ did not ¡®work¡¯ ¨C but what drew the eye was his hair and the glowing rods held in his hands. Neon tinged vials of glowing liquid were held haphazardly in his arms throwing a faint rainbow glow up onto his chest and grey mask. If it were night time, Richard had no doubt the whole street would be lit by those vials. His hair on the other hand was¡­dangerous looking. It looked like it was made of metal ¨C of very thin dreadlocks the ends braided like steel cables. The hair was also waving around about his head like snakes ¨C that was probably the part to focus on. Behind the criminal, a shopkeeper ran out then stood and pointed yelling something unintelligible. ¡®There¡¯s the thief? The one standing in broken glass ¨C right there!¡¯ maybe? Continuing to play out like a scene from a movie as Richard moved closer ¨C drawn towards the entertainment on the moving sidewalk ¨C a new man flew in, cape and spandex outfit flapping in the wind. The outfit had quite a bit more tassels and frills than a traditional superhero outfit, but this character still looked the part. Yelling something ¨C probably some variation of ¡®stop! criminal scum!¡¯ the superhero held both hands out in the universal boxing pose. Constantly spiralling smoke poured out of his sleeves and coated the man¡¯s fists. The steel haired criminal smashed his head into his arms. His mouth darted open, a long tongue flicking out of his mask like a gimp suit and flicking a vial up into his mouth. The man bit down hard ¨C not seeming to care for the broken glass filling his mouth ¨C and suddenly his body began to convulse. The superhero yelled something in shock and flew forward but this is the moment everything seemed to go wrong. The steel hair which had been floating slowly about the man¡¯s head like a metal medusa knockoff suddenly shook. The hair stilled for a second and then suddenly grew in all directions even as it began to spin. The superhero punched forward ¨C a ghostly fist flying across the remaining distance even as the hair began blending the entire street. Like a tornado of blades, the metal medusa did a death metal impression and headbanged the street to bits. It happened in only a second or two. The ghostly punch impacted the criminal''s chest causing him to freeze and cough in shock but by that point it was too late. The ¡®hero¡¯ had been blended. His bloody body had been thrown backwards resembling nothing more than ground beef. The shopkeeper and a random civilian ¨C one of the only people to have stayed to watch instead of running away initially ¨C were both dead. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. They lay on the street covered in thousands upon thousands of deep gashes. Richard had been hit by the attack as well ¨C his front was doing quite a bit better than either of the bystanders and his skin seemed to be healing slightly but he had dozens of physical defense stats to thank for his current condition. It was just his luck the moving sidewalk had brought him directly across from the criminal at the moment they attacked. It hurt. Not in a debilitating manner but enough that Richard winced and spent a disoriented moment piecing together what had happened. When he ¡®came to¡¯ and finished reviewing the attack not five seconds had passed ¨C but already the state of the street had changed. Richard turned to glance at his companions and found their handler crumpled and twitching in a pool of blood. Her body was between the two sidewalks and being spun slightly ¨C perfectly balanced between the two as the left sidewalk dragged her legs backwards and the right sidewalk dragged her head forwards then continued around. James was gone. Richard¡¯s mind took in their guide ¨C if it had been an ¡®enemy¡¯ he might have found the spinning funny but¡­humanity''s ability to connect to people had reared its head. Richard had talked to her. Had asked her questions and received answers. Sure she was ¡®just an NPC¡¯ Richard had known for a few hours but he still found himself getting angry. Turning back to stare at the culprit Richard was just in time to see a slightly bloodied James blur slightly as he jumped onto the steel medusas back. James¡¯s legs wrapped around the criminal''s waist, and his hands grabbed two fistfuls of hair ¨C the steel digging deep into his palms and drawing blood. In a single moment, James wrapped hair around the criminal''s neck in a makeshift garrote ¨C pulling tight even as the hair buckled and strands began to whip about. Sentient whips that attempted to bloody the latched-on player. Richard watched as struggling wires cut deep into the skin of the criminal¡¯s throat in a red line, the grappling pair falling forwards with James on top. The moment the criminal hit the ground the impact seemed to help James along and with surprisingly little sound their entire head flew off rolling upwards and to the side. Richard in this moment knew two things. One. He was definitely right about his new friend being interesting ¨C the man was a fucking badass with how inventive his weapon choice had been. And two. While less than a dozen seconds had passed and Richard wouldn¡¯t have considered himself to have ¡®froze up¡¯ he had also done pathetically little to help. If they were playing heroes, he should have been right there beside James. Fuck ¨C am I the sidekick?
---James--- James¡¯s body had moved without much prompting. Fight or flight response had kicked in and he chose fight ¨C he had been attacked. He had fought back. Simple as that. And yet now he was laying on top of the corpse of the man he just killed and it felt like he was going to have a panic attack. Did¡­did he just make a mistake? This was a person wasn¡¯t it? What was he going to do! Was he going to get in trouble? Was he going to go to jail for manslaughter? It was self defense right? No, he had gone above and beyond that ¨C he should have [hasted] away from the dangerous man not towards him. James was definitely going to have some trouble in a court of law if he brought it up. He was definitely going to get in trouble wasn¡¯t he? Fuck! AHHHHHH! Why hadn¡¯t he left immediately? This is why he hated being in this city. This is why he wanted to be back in the wilderness. If James was there and killed something that attacked him no one would bat an eye. Here there were ¡®rules¡¯. Here in ¡®society¡¯ there was the ¡®law¡¯ and he was a foreigner to these lands. He didn¡¯t know the laws. He had to deal with the daily politics of dealing with other people and he had just made the worst social blunder possible. James¡¯s body should have succumbed to the blood loss but¡­he had so many defensive stats in his veins and heart preventing that. His body didn¡¯t care as much about all the damage to it ¨C not as much as it should. As long as his cores were safe he was fine. The blades hadn¡¯t reached his weakness. ¡­he wasn¡¯t dying but James was definitely disoriented. Focusing blurry eyes he pulled himself together wincing through the pain. He could barely read the achievement he just got even as it faded ¨C he could barely focus on the exhilarating feeling of stats diffusing through his body. Pain was a sign of danger. Of his body warning him about damage. His body could deal with this damage. This damage wasn¡¯t dangerous and so it shouldn¡¯t hurt this much. He should be able to ignore it. James felt himself be spun over his bloodied shirt being peeled up and a warm sensation being applied. I have to get away. This place isn¡¯t safe and I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m allowed to defend myself. I have to take a long break from interacting with ¡°people¡±. James continued to lay cursing the shock his body was going through thoughts of escape running through his mind. As soon as someone made to arrest him for murder he was going to run.
---Richard--- A set of five police officers had arrived ¨C way too late to the scene as the trope always went ¨C each wearing outfits and armour identical to those when they first arrived. Taking in the scene in a few seconds immediately a pair split off to James and a pair to their handler. Was she still alive? There was a line of blood running dozens of feet down the sidewalk her body still spinning. Was James fine? Richard had flipped to being jealous that he hadn¡¯t helped take the criminal down ¨C he should have first checked to make sure James¡¯s wounds weren¡¯t too bad. That was a mistake. The final aether solider approached Richard and began asking him to describe what happened while offering a container of cream. ¡­ When Richard finished describing the metal medusa being taken down the solider offered him the tub once again, finally explaining once Richard asked.
Sure, seeing as how you¡¯ve been helpful giving us a picture of the scene. This is what many refer to as a healing salve. It¡¯s the most versatile catch-all type of recovery drug available to public market. Topical applications or consumption both work and it has miraculous effects. Closes cuts ¨C clotting them by filling the area with gunk that bonds to flesh and is harmlessly scabbed away. Reduces swelling, soothes burns. Doesn¡¯t fix broken bones but does act as a sort of cast ¨C the mixture turns hard when in contact with broken bones instead of the softer gunk it does otherwise. ¡­basically first aid in a bottle ¨C or tub in this case. Great for stabilising people. Doesn¡¯t heal poison or diseases but can mitigate some of the effects of them. Can sometimes reattach lost limbs but its not crazy enough to regrow them or anything. For simple wounds and for fast acting relief its unparalleled. Do you want some, or would you like to head to a hospital?
Richard reached out and scraped a bit of goop onto his cuts. Immediately it felt like they were closing. His body sucked the cream in like a starving creature given a meal ¨C it was fan-fucking-tastic. The man had said for ¡®public market¡¯ ¨C Richard needed to buy some of this if he could. Fuck it felt nice. The cuts felt like they were already healed completely. Either something was synergizing with his body, or the solider had undersold just how miraculous it was. Damn this guy was making an impression on Richard. He was so used to the idea of the police being corrupt but everyone here professionally helping everyone¡­it was nice. This group at least was good eggs. Richard walked over to James¡¯s body and watched the pair applying salve to every square inch of his body. One of them was checking the others and confirming no one else could be saved.
Your friend''s a hero. Usually you need a hero¡¯s license to do something like this without being a vigilante, but special attention is taken to all of you coming out of the containment field. I¡¯m sure you are going to be given a hefty sum of credits for this as if you were an actual hero group. His quick thinking stopped that villain from rampaging and hurting more than they already did. From one fellow protector of the innocent to another. Tell him we owe him one.
Richard nodded. He didn¡¯t even feel jealous a single bit. Chapter 43. Villans? ---Maddy--- In a clearing deep in the prehistoric woods, the last of the drones were transformed or smashed. Looking at one another then approaching, the group of three made their way over to the pink mage. ¡°Hey! Do you understand us?¡± Jess called out directing the woman¡¯s attention towards them. A wide happy grin filled the woman¡¯s face as she noticed the group, her voice coming across with an immense amount of energy. ¡°Hello! Travelers! Come in! Come in out of the light! I¡¯ll make you all some tea and you can rest your legs!¡± She giggled while gesturing towards her furry house. Maddy¡­felt something was off. She continued to approach, but tensed slightly and began studying the woman. Just because something was ¡®off¡¯ did not mean she was going to act differently ¨C not yet at least. Maddy wanted to ask a question because the woman¡¯s magic had been entirely different from what she was taught. ¡°Hello to you as well! However did you manage to turn those drones into random items?¡± A flicker of confusion passed over the woman¡¯s face before she lit up and happily responded. ¡°A fellow practitioner of the wild arts! Come in! Come in sister! I¡¯d love to tell you all about my magic ¨C I¡¯m sure you can guess part of it. I have a transformation affinity and the transformation element. It¡¯s much weaker against living creatures because everything has such a high resistance to transformation¡­but metal birds are easy ¨C they don¡¯t have a soul after all!¡± The woman had turned as she spoke stepping into the building ahead of them. Troy made to duck through the door after her, but Maddy grabbed his shirt from behind. ¡°Huh?¡± He turned confused and missed the frustrated micro expression flash across the witch behind him. Continuing to hold his shirt Maddy continued to talk while making no move to step into the furry house in front of them. ¡°That¡¯s fascinating. I assume you have different concepts for different things you want to turn stuff into? Why bother picking different items each time?¡± The witch smiled while walking backwards. She looked perfectly friendly, her almost childish voice was innocent and faint giggles escaped her brightly painted pink lips. ¡°You have to have fun with magic sweety. Beside, I needed some new decorations for the living room¡± This was not the time to experiment but¡­Maddy trusted her intuition and she trusted her new ability. There was something off. One hundred percent, this woman was suspicious. She just needed the barest bit of truth to confirm her suspicions. Maddy pulled life mana into her brain for the first time. She directed it and sucked it into her mind ¨C she really should have practiced first but this seemed like the safest mana option to test. Immediately her vision changed. How Maddy perceived the world, what she focused on was altered. The faint hints of life ¨C or death ¨C that she could see were suddenly starkly put into view. She saw the ¡®house¡¯ for what it was ¨C a living creature, the door its mouth. Strange looking muscles bent and twisted about its frame. She saw her companions beside her and the woman ahead of her normally, but instead of focusing on colors or even shape, her mind overlayed them all with ghostly green blobs. At the center of each a concentrated source of life, sat greenish tendrils spreading out into their flesh. Tendrils that filled their entire bodies in an outline of the human themselves. And, through the building ¨C incredibly incredibly dimly ¨C strange lumps sat. ¡­this wasn¡¯t enough ¨C she couldn¡¯t see through the walls with how dense they were¡­ But Maddy knew something was off. She knew it deep within her bones. Dropping her life mana, Maddy pulled Light-life into her mind instead. The world flashed with colours ¨C but that hadn¡¯t helped, so Maddy dropped and switched to dark-life. The strange lumps hiding behind the living walls were finally revealed the world becoming a bit more monochrome. Stuffed in different rooms of the house were¡­shapes. Similar to the blobs that were her and her friends. Similar to the life of the humans she could see, living blobs were contorted into various stages of transformation ¨C one living source halfway between that of a human and a sofa. Another source completely in the shape of a lamp, another shaped like a human with its arms and legs cut off, its torso swinging slightly just behind the wall. Maddy¡¯s mind felt different while she burned life mana ¨C she felt calmer, slightly happier, more positive in general ¨C and adding light or darkness to it had compounded that ¡®difference¡¯ her mind becoming slightly more creative and slightly more pessimistic in turn. Something she really had to test and practice with ¨C but those changes were sidelined to what she was currently seeing. The horror hinted at right behind the walls. I wish I had a way to talk to both of my teammates without anyone hearing ¨C add it to the list of spells I have to make. Troy seemed confused at being held back, while Jess had begun glancing between Maddy and the witch in her cabin in the woods. Jess looked like she was starting to understand this was probably a trap, but Maddy still wanted to get them back out of range of the house. That paw had reached past where they were currently standing when it attacked the drone ¨C Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°She¡¯s like something out of Hansel and Gretel or Baba Yaga myths or something.¡± Maddy whispered even as she took a step backwards. ¡°What was that?¡± The witch called back already in the next room. ¡°Are you three joining me?¡± the witch continued, a faint giggle ringing forth as she asked. Maddy continued to burn dark-life mana tracking shapes through the wall. The silhouette of the witch appeared to be stroking one of the partially transformed silhouettes. ¡°We¡¯ll be right there!¡± Maddy shouted even while she backpedalled quickly ¨C both her teammates joining her retreat. On the side of the house, two fleshy eyes ripped out of fur with a wet popping noise. They spun wildly for a full second then locked onto the trio. ¡°Comeeeeeee sister. Don¡¯t lie¡± The house laughed. Two arms melted out of the solid wall and began to stretch out to reach them in a grabbing motion. Maddy swung. The world dimmed. Her scythe flashed ¨C spells activating and burning her old reapers'' slash runes ¨C even as her mental buff was forcefully cancelled. Maddy flipped her mana pool towards death instead of life ¨C the source inverting and cutting off its connection to her mind. Necrotic darkness shimmered along the edge of her blade as she swung ¨C an afterimage creating a disk in the air along its path. To her left Jess swiped her whip upwards ¨C the thin cord a purple hole in reality. Both of the house¡¯s arms were sliced off even as Troy shot his own arrow forwards ¨C the piercing bolt aimed directly at the house¡¯s right eye. A shriek like a banshee rang out as the arrow passed through the eye and deep into the house ¨C actually Maddy saw the end of it fly up out of the back of the house and up into the sky. The path of the arrow drew part of her attention as it arched up and then away into the forest. Seems Troy¡¯s arrow was using a variation of dark void? It barely seemed to slow down in its travel. Effective. Both of the monstrous arms were severed ¨C Jess¡¯s target in a beautiful clean cut. Maddy¡¯s version a ragged rip that rapidly turned black as necrotic energies burnt into them ¨C and the stumps of the long arms flailed up in surprise. It wasn¡¯t that easy however. The arms began to shake as new hands grew from stumps ¨C the one-eyed house glaring daggers at them, yellow blood trailing down the one shut eye. In the first exchange their group seemed to have come out on top but Maddy felt like she was failing. Her mana was dangerously low ¨C the combined pool completely spent from both her mental buff and the last skill. She still had over half her life/death pool and nearly her entire light/dark pool ¨C both draining as fast as they filled, their contents were processed and pulled towards her combined pool. Maddy also felt like she was failing for a second, very specific reason ¨C she wanted to shift away from melee fighting. Using her mana in a close ranged swipe felt like she was failing as an aspiring mage ¨C she didn¡¯t want to continue being this in danger. ¡°Try and hit the controller through the wall¡± Jess yelled at Troy pointing toward where they last saw the witch. He raised his bow ¨C Maddy pointed and yelled a different option. ¡°Blind the other eye instead. You don¡¯t want to accidentally kill her!¡± Shifting slightly Troy shot a second bolt ¨C this arrow a blinding burn as he presumably used light-void. The shriek that rang through the air as the house was hit was louder than the last ¨C it nearly drowned out the strange look and statement Jess made. ¡°She¡¯s attacking us, isn¡¯t she? You mentioned Hansel and Gretel? Why would you care about an evil witch? She¡¯s basically a monster isn¡¯t she?¡± Jess re asked after the shriek died down. Was this even really a question Maddy had to answer? Were her friends really this trigger-happy ¨C did they really want to become murderers that easily? ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later, just try not to do something you might regret.¡± Maddy shot back even as she began to flip through options. Should they try and capture the witch? Tie her up? Maddy didn¡¯t have any spells in that vein yet. She didn¡¯t have any concepts she could bend towards that purpose either ¨C she really needed to break more skills. Could she blind the witch? Darkness or light both might be able to do so¡­but really it seemed like the best option was just for them to run away. The witch¡¯s power seemed at least partly tied to that house ¨C and seeing as how the house it self hadn¡¯t stood up on chicken legs or anything as long as they ran they should be good. She shouldn¡¯t be able to chase them? ¡°Come on, lets run away¡± Maddy spoke even as she jogged backwards. ¡°We can take her!¡± Jess looked annoyed but sighed and started to follow. Behind her the arms shot forward once again impacting off of a shaped barrier. Jess had created two stretched out strips of yellow light. They almost looked like wings as they appeared behind her back and deflected the arms. The arms continued to flail about ¨C it looked like the witch was having trouble directing them without eyes outside of the building ¨C and as a group the trio made it to the edge of the clearing before turning and beginning to leave the fight behind. ¡°What was that about?¡± Jess asked spinning around to walk in front of the group. Troy seemed to melt into the shadows behind Maddy as if hiding from jess¡¯s annoyed voice. ¡°Listen, in the zone completion rewards I got something called a ¡®truth¡¯. It showed me one of the guides in the tutorial completely stressed out as soon as we left. She looked like she had been controlled by something while she was around us. What if that witch is just a random innocent person being forced to act like a monster around us? Could you live with yourself if you killed her just because she was being manipulated?¡± Jess had grown silent as Maddy talked before sighing. ¡°Sorry, you¡¯re right ¨C thank you.¡± Jess almost whispered. Her already soft voice had taken on the tone of a child being chastised and it was hard to hear her properly. After nearly a minute of silent walking Jess spoke up once again. Her voice was no longer quiet ¨C it hadn¡¯t taken long to get over her near mistake. ¡°I think¡­I think I figured out one reason the guide you spoke of would have been stressed out. I also got a truth, it turns out we had¡­a tiny bit less control over leaving the tutorial than we thought.¡± Jess began to explain her own truth. ¡°You see, contractually we were completely safe in the tutorial. Endless resurrection. We couldn¡¯t have that taken away. Once we reached the level cap of the tutorial, we wouldn¡¯t have gotten stronger anymore but none of the achievements we had gained could be taken away either. Sounds perfect right? ¡°Well. What would have happened if we hadn¡¯t consented to the last area¡¯s stricter rules? We couldn¡¯t have anything promised taken away right? ¡°That¡¯s what my truth showed me. It turns out we were only really supposed to spend a day or two in the tutorial. An average of three days ¨C a maximum of a week or so. Once that worst case scenario runs out the first and major problem would have cropped up. ¡°¡­the food would have disappeared. There wasn¡¯t any way of getting more food in the tutorial ¨C the fake farm didn¡¯t make enough and there¡¯s only around a week of food stored away in the restaurants and stuff. ¡°Endless resurrection but you would start starving to death every few days or weeks or whatever. You couldn¡¯t handle staying in that torture for long ¨C I¡¯d imagine most people stuck there would be begging to be let into the next zone¡­it¡¯s the same sort of situation in the last area. We were only meant to take a week or two in that zone ¨C a few months max before it all fell apart. The zones are designed to push us further and further forcing us to accept less help each time. I¡¯m nearly positive we will soon lose all the free gifts we¡¯ve been given and we¡¯ll be left completely to our own devices.¡± Jess trailed off for a second and then jolted as if remembering why she had started her explanation. ¡°Anyways what I meant to say is when I heard this it all sounded fine. The early areas are training wheels and you can¡¯t be a freeloader forever¡­but I didn¡¯t even think of the guides. The NPC¡¯s or natives or whatever. They only had a week of food too ¨C do you think they would be left in the tutorial through the end? I can see why someone might get stressed out if they were allowed to think about that looming deadline.¡± Jess¡¯s voice grew slightly disturbed. Were all the guides really just killed off when they left? They couldn¡¯t be right? Maddy tried to imagine it. She wanted to say it wasn¡¯t true ¨C that just seemed so wasteful if it was¡­but then she thought about her ¡®trial¡¯. That had been traumatic. Could someone that had forced that sort of choice onto her really have her best interests at heart? No. It can¡¯t be that bad, the woman she had seen in her vision was probably just that stressed out after being controlled against her will. Chapter 44. Beer Run. ---James--- James awoke on a street bench feeling surprisingly refreshed. Sitting up, he found himself face to face with Richard ¨C eating some wrapped foodstuff noisily at the end of the same seat. ¡°This is a fucking good sandwich.¡± Richard swallowed and spoke lifting the wrapped thing slightly and giving it a shake as if showing it off. ¡°Got you one too ¨C oh and said you¡¯d rather not go to a hospital. We¡¯ve ditched our minder after the attack. She was taken to be treated¡­want to go do something fun?¡± He continued then took another bite. Reaching down James picked up the package unwrapping it slowly then took a bite. It was good ¨C surprisingly so. It kind of reminded James of a gyro¡­but instead of a pita, it was a weirdly fluffy and stretchy bun. ¡­the bun almost seemed like soft and fluffy playdough ¨C it was almost like uncooked, risen dough in texture but tasted like baked bread. James took another bite, a flash of pleasure flicking across his tongue. There were actually several things happening in his mouth. A strange sort of texture from the soft, raw dough mixed with cotton candy ¡®bread¡¯. A solid but unidentified meat and sauce, with a flavor mostly like souvlaki. A tiny twinge of something that seemed to radiate out of the dish even as it fell down James¡¯s throat and into his stomach ¨C a flavor he couldn¡¯t pinpoint having ever touched before. Faint balls reminiscent of garlic or maybe onions¡­so shallot balls? If James had tried to describe this meal to anyone he was positive he wouldn¡¯t be able to convey just how good it tasted right now. He couldn¡¯t even describe some of the underlying tastes let alone the overall picture. It was good ¨C probably the best thing he had tried in years. Before James realized what was happening his meal was completely gone. All that was left was a greasy texture on his fingers and a slowly fading after taste. ¡°I know right?¡± Richard laughed watching his expression. ¡°Technically you paid for it ¨C they handed you a prepaid card after I said we didn¡¯t have AI¡¯s¡­Oh! Did you know most people have brain chips? It''s how the army men talked to each other without verbally saying anything and it¡¯s how a lot of stuff in this city works¡­¡± Richard looked around. ¡°Not having an AI Chip is kind of like not having a phone. Kind of want to get one ¨C apparently if you have aether slots you can buy them for much much cheaper and grow them yourself. The ones that don¡¯t need a slot or aether to run are much more expensive.¡± James looked down at the strip of metal. It looked like a really thin credit card ¨C the same thickness and length but with a width closer to a popsicle stick than a full ¡®card¡¯. James took his card up off his lap and looked at it with mixed feelings. He hadn¡¯t wanted to deal with money because he hadn¡¯t wanted to work again. James had gone through so much because he was afraid as soon as he ¡°gave in¡± and started working again he¡¯d revert to that empty state he had been in before he got here. That was the real reason he refused to take a easy job and get supplies before heading to the wilderness. But now¡­money had fallen into his lap ¨C almost literally. It would be wasteful not to use it now that he had it right? Should he be annoyed Richard had used it without asking him? Had forced him to buy a sandwich and gotten himself one? ¡­Actually, that had tasted so good James found it hard to be mad. He was actually kind of thankful ¨C it reminded him of the time in university when a friend learned he hadn''t eaten in a week. The friend had microwaved eggs and rice and forced James to eat several bowls before they were satisfied... What did he want to do with the rest of it? James didn¡¯t want anything he would be sad about losing¡­if he respawned and lost all his stuff he didn¡¯t want that to be the end of the world. ¡­there was only 3 respawns now. James really should start treating it like he had none he couldn¡¯t afford to waste them anymore. Don¡¯t plan for failure, plan for success. ¡°Real talk. Everything needs fucking slots. I need a slot for my weapons. I need a slot for an AI chip ¨C breaking the link to AI¡¯s is even more shit than breaking it to other devices ¨C I need a slot to play with my new mutation and start actually trying it out. Fuck! Why does everything want so much from me! Let¡¯s try and get more skills before anything else.¡± Richard continued talking ¨C not seeming to care that James wasn¡¯t responding. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Not like we can purposefully get skills right?¡± James responded to show he was paying attention. The system would just hand them out if they did something worthy of it ¨C and inside this city what was the chances they would find something worthy of getting a skill? He¡¯d already stopped a robber and gotten¡­well admittedly some nice stats but no skill. Richard turned to look at him and smirked. ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear? As long as you break all your skills you are basically guaranteed a new one every time you beat a dungeon or kill a field boss.¡± James hadn¡¯t heard that. There was a tiny problem with the information ¨C namely that James hadn¡¯t broken any of his skills yet and refused to do so until he learned about magic and mana. ¡°¡­not going to break my skills yet.¡± James muttered. Richard¡¯s eyes widened slightly then went to normal. ¡°Well fuck. I can¡¯t really remember what the rules are if you aren¡¯t breaking your skills¡­I honestly didn¡¯t give a shit when I read it at the time. Sorry mate. Something like double your rank is the maximum number of unbroken skills and undoubled is the number you can get without too much work? So if you are rank 2 right now you can get 2 unbroken skills in your backlog before you should go break them, or 4 skills before you literally can¡¯t get any more? ¡°Don¡¯t think there¡¯s a limit for broken skills but it does get harder to get them the more you have¡­¡± Richard trailed off. ¡°Something something, think there¡¯s a soft cap for three times your rank in unbroken skills? Something about it being directly related to your added up tiers. There¡¯s some math bullshit for if you¡¯ll get it, but I still want to bang out a dungeon run. You coming or should I solo it?¡± James had mixed feelings. Or¡­actually his feelings weren¡¯t that mixed he just didn¡¯t know what to think about them. Somehow in the past day or so Richard had grown on him. He was already past the point James¡¯s work friends had been at ¨C it felt like they were ¡®friends¡¯ but when had that happened? They¡¯d barely done anything together¡­ Also was that even a good idea? James¡­James had made very few real friends over the years. Nearly every single one of them ¨C the actual ones, the friends he confided in and had gotten close to. Nearly all of them turned out to be suicidal ¨C his best friend in university had drunk an entire bottle of whisky and then attempted to jump off the library roof. James had held him back with another one of their friends¡­was Richard also going to put him through that? Was that why they were getting along? Fuck. If someone did that right now it would probably chain react and set James back to square one but that sounded so bad to focus on. James was doing that weird thing where he didn¡¯t respond again wasn¡¯t he? Time to make a decision. ¡°Sure, I want to buy spices but I¡¯ll try beating a dungeon with you as well.¡± James blurted out. Where had that come from? I mean yeah James wanted that but why was it what had come out of his mouth? ¡®I want to buy spices¡¯ there was literally zero context for that. The sandwich must be effecting me more than I thought. Richard started laughing. ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting spices. Alright, let''s go find you some ¨C OH! Yo I just got a great idea to make this dungeon run more fun, lets see if I can sell anything for credits and chip in¡± ¡­ Richard had found his ¡°chips¡± were not a real currency. Aether crystals as they were called could be sold for chips ¨C but he had to find a loot distributer by the dungeon to do so and went off to exchange some things leaving James alone to shop. Shopping sucked. Was it just a guy thing? James didn¡¯t want to spend ages waffling over this or that. He didn¡¯t want to bother the cashier or spend enough time for a random store person to come by and ask if he needed help. Picking literally one of every single good looking spice in the supermarket James also grabbed a backpack and a water bottle on sale for 140c and a portable lighter because he had hated how hard it had been to start a fire from scratch¡­hoping against hope he had enough money for all this ¨C if he rang it up and didn¡¯t have enough he¡¯d probably just die. The total came to 412 credits ¨C from what James could tell of the value of a credit was roughly 30 cents. Most produce seemed to be roughly 3x the dollar value from back home, he really had just spent like 140$ on spices hadn¡¯t he?¡­technically the backpack and water bottle had been nearly 50$ of that? Either way James had less than 100 credits left from the 500c bounty and had definitely proven his priorities. Stepping out of the supermarket James nearly walked into Richard speed walking past. ¡°Oh good! Do you have any money left? I got some supplies but if you want to burn the rest of your bounty we could do with more condiments¡­¡± Richard lifted a bag of stuff and laughed. I just left¡­if I go back the cashier is going to recognize me and think I¡¯m an idiot who forgot something¡­ No. It¡¯s fine. Just¡­don¡¯t care what people think. That¡¯s what Richard said to do right? Turning around James re-entered the store a tiny bell dinging above. The cashier didn¡¯t even look up as they walked past and traveled to the food section. ¡°I got sausages and buns, Figured we could have a mini barbeque picnic in the dungeon. Might be a good place for a party¡­couldn¡¯t find booze sadly and probably wouldn¡¯t have enough for it anyways.¡± Richard looked over as if asking for James¡¯s permission. That sounded fine. Some food was good and would give them energy for any fight they went through. Might even be a more relaxing place to have eat then out here surrounded by people? ¡°Sure, I think I saw something to drink near the back¡± James walked over the far corner where a small section had some unknown spirits each labelled with ¡®14%¡¯ and some unknown scribbles. ¡°Done! I¡¯ll pay you back if I get more money. Richard reached in pulling half a dozen bottles out and juggling them in his hands. He seemed more excited by the dungeon delve than James. I really should try and relax. Have some more fun. The last thoughts James had as they headed back towards the ¡®dungeon district¡¯ was how strange this world was where monster filled dungeons were less than a kilometer away from a grocery store and how modern conveniences were a trap that was luring him into not wanting to leave. Chapter 45. Boom! [Headshot]. ---Richard--- Richard was pretty happy with his situation ¨C a confident swagger leaking into his gait as they headed deeper into the city. Was his current friend an unlikely companion? Yes ¨C even he would admit that readily to anyone who questioned it but¡­he was also having fun. If anyone started judging his companionship fuck em. He¡¯d double down on becoming James¡¯s friend purely out of spite. Every time he thought he¡¯d start getting bored, James would say something or do something and flip Richard back into being interested. Hey! His new friend had that trait he liked as well. That willingness to go along with Richard¡¯s ideas no matter how stupid they sounded. Richard wanted to have a barbeque in the dungeon. Roast some hotdogs ¨C okay all he found were some sausages like meats so they technically weren¡¯t hotdogs¡­it was the thought that counted. They could have a mini party. Silly idea given for no reason other than it made fun of how seriously people were taking dungeons. A lot of people would probably say no and move on¡­ Not James though. James had said yes instantly catapulting him into good friend status. ¡¯Yes¡¯. ¡®Sure¡¯. ¡®Alright¡¯. All fabulous fucking words. Richard liked confirmations. Now! Was Richard acting a bit dumb? Was he latching a weee bit too hard to James? ¡­.maybe. If he was being honest¡­probably. Despite that admission, it was hard to care. Richard had made a solid attempt to do this whole ¡®solo gig¡¯ so far. Solid week of soloing this game but that just wasn¡¯t really his style. One man army? Richard couldn¡¯t even be bothered to get skills by himself because leaving people to do some boring grinding on monsters or other PVE shit hadn¡¯t interested him in the slightest. Richard was a social creature. An extrovert. He liked being social ¨C he loved interacting with people and having friends. Even if he always picked wrong, even if he was drawn to people with something messed up with them he couldn¡¯t help it. He kept breaking and trying again. It had only taken a week this time before he caved. Fuck he was weak. Of course if he hadn¡¯t found James he¡¯d probably still be going through whatever dungeon they picked alone ¨C he wanted more skills and felt like he was falling behind with his one ¡®slot¡¯ and one broken passive skill that was forgotten due to being a passive¡­ But why go alone when he had access to a partner? Especially one who could hold his own ¨C the way James had fucked up that super powered robber mook¡­well it made Richard hope he wouldn¡¯t be the one ending up as dead weight in the dungeon. The pair finally reached the dungeon district. An enclosed city inside the outer city ¨C it kind of reminded Richard of china town if he was being honest. This place looked more natural¡­more ¡®grown¡¯ than anything else he¡¯d seen so far. Slightly seedier and older looking than the city around it, the buildings were various shapes ¨C a majority a blocky rectangular footprint instead of the triangles of the modern section. Brick walls were spray painted with guild signs, advertisements for enhancing drugs and gear. Contact info for prostitutes and combat ¡®modifications¡¯ vying for space beside drawings and scribbles. All the writing was in a foreign language ¨C it seemed no one here cared about accessibility but the pictures helped show off what was being advertised. This was actually Richard''s second time being in this place ¨C he had been here once before to sell a bunch of his shit and scout out the area. Confidently leading the way over to the actual dungeons Richard began to talk ¨C filling James in on the place. Dungeons were weird. Mainly due to them being ¡®closed off¡¯ they had all sorts of strange abilities like a shifting floorplan that didn¡¯t seem to match reality. Mechanically if a dungeon was ¡®broken open¡¯ to try and figure out how it worked it would fall apart. The act of digging down into it from the outside¡­even the act of trying to map it out externally ¨C either through GPR (ground penetrating radar) or similar ¨C that all¡­ damaged the structure somehow. Of course people had still tried and some funky pictures had been taken of dungeon internals before the external probes had smashed things ¨C but for the most part it simply wasn¡¯t done. All that was, was a roundabout way of saying it was illegal to try and mess with a dungeon and dungeons rarely if ever had proper maps. Even the ones that did have maps often had several different variations that seemed to contradict each other as a dungeon shifted day by day person by person. Going into a dungeon there was a weird ability many referred to as ¡®instancing¡¯. It wasn¡¯t perfect but it usually meant as long as you waited a few minutes between entering a dungeon you¡¯d never run into another delver as long as you delved. Obviously there were exceptions ¨C ones no one could explain where, you¡¯d suddenly come across a party midst battle or find traces of their passage moments before ¨C but most true delvers knew not to question it. Dungeon¡¯s a dungeon. Why did X happen? Dungeon bullshittery. How does it do Y? Dungeon Bullshittery. It was a black box you couldn¡¯t figure out without breaking it. At least that¡¯s how the guy buying his loot had described it. The dungeon district was special for quite a few reasons. Dungeons usually didn¡¯t do well too close together ¨C dungeon engineering usually involved making sure they all had enough room to do their thing ¨C so each dungeon in the district had an entrance a street or two apart. Despite those entrances it was nearly guaranteed the dungeons should be overlapping beneath their feet¡­but the dungeons themselves nearly never intersected it being nearly impossible to stumble into one of the other dungeons while you were down there. The district had six separate dungeons. They were laid out in a very very rough pentagram pattern each two to three blocks apart. Three of the dungeons were ¡®rank 1¡¯ ¨C with one being ¡®rank 1¡¯, one being ¡®rank 1+¡¯ the third ¡®rank 1++¡¯ to denote difficulty. Two dungeons were ¡®rank 2¡¯ ¨C one being ¡®rank 2+¡¯ the other ¡®rank 2++¡¯. Finally, a single dungeon known as the ¡®death pit¡¯ was ¡®rank 3-¡® ¨C what the difference was between ¡®rank 2++¡¯ and ¡®rank 3-¡® was the description hadn¡¯t been clear on, but it was specifically denoted as different and harder. Obviously the death pit sounded the most metal but it had stricter rules to enter it an approval process and a bunch of boring bureaucracy. They could always try to break in, but considering they were also bound to die with how ¡®hard¡¯ it was, that seemed like a waste. Especially with a stingy three lives. Going into a weaksauce rank 1 dungeon wasn¡¯t a good way to get new skills, so the two rank 2s were their options. Richard walked past and pointed them both out to his new friend ¨C pretending to be a tour guide the whole time. He found himself talking in a funny accent while pointing about. ¡°Slightly easier one¡¯s called ¡®emerald¡¯. Has a poison, acid, radiation, swamp type theme. Everything wants to slowly wittle away at you ¨C the air itself is toxic and when stuff hits you those hits tend to linger¡­between it and the other its supposedly easier option because antidotes are sold for literally every type of poison or effect and there¡¯s equipment you can get through most of it. See over there, masks with cartridges for the three main types of gas you might breathe. Shift out an organic poison cartridge for a metallic one or whatever,¡± Richard waved over to a stand full of various canisters and gas masks. ¡°Second option is slightly harder ¨C again ¡®supposedly¡¯.¡± Richard made air quotes with his fingers as they made their way over. ¡°It¡¯s called something dumb so I renamed it to ¡®bees¡¯. Main thing you have to worry about, is that a lot of attacks or monster are small and fast as a bullet. Second problem is whatever¡¯s not fast and small, likes to stick you to things. Basically from what I could tell, The dungeons full of waxy glue that holds you in place and bees that bombard the fuck out of you. Take your pick between them.¡± Richard waved to the second option. He¡¯d probably do better with his toxic defense in the emerald dungeon but he was kind of hoping James would pick the second. Two main reasons ¨C for one, it sounded so much less annoying, and secondly a swamp would be a much worse place to have a picnic. The toxic clouds would probably ruin the taste of the hot dogs! James paused for a second then made the correct choice. ¡°Bees,¡± he said. ¡°Beautiful! I knew that sounded better didn¡¯t it?¡± Leading the way over Richard walked over to the unguarded door and turned the knob. Opening the door wide, both of the adventurers stepped into the dungeon. ¡­ The dungeon wasn¡¯t quite what either of them had been expecting. Instead of a dingy cave that probably had bad air circulation, what met their eyes was a slightly bumpy path full of weird architectural decisions. The walls were made of white triangular bricks. The triangle theme again ¨C nothing above had been made with bricks like this. Equilateral triangles were awfully inconvenient shapes to brick lay with but the surroundings looked sturdy enough. The mortar between each brick was an off white colour ¨C slightly yellowish at times, slightly pinkish at others. It looked like a child had used a fuckton of crafters glue to stick his ¡®recognize this shape¡¯ blocks together. Kids had those right? They were too stupid to know a triangle was a triangle until they gnawed on it a bit? Richard moved on. In and amongst the goopy looking brick walls were what looked like partly formed bug nests. Wasp hives and ant dens ¨C there would be portions of brick absolutely peppered with holes, tiny bits of white marble carted over and glued into mounds. No visible sources of light were anywhere to be seen, but everything was somewhat uniformly visible in a sterile-looking manner. Took Richard a hot second to figure out the blocks were all glowing ever so slightly and illuminating everything else. After a minute of silent walking, the pair came across what looked like a stalagmite of glue directly in the center of the path. It swayed slightly a single whiteish drop falling down every second. ¡°Looks like semen.¡± Richard began glancing over and doing a double take when he saw James sticking his finger into it then licking it. Can¡¯t be outdone can I? Fuck. I should have done that first. Sticking his tongue out Richard stared James down as he licked the slimy tentacle. It tasted like nothing ¨C like sicky slightly slimy nothing. Shuddering the tentacle in front of them started to pull up into the ceiling. ¡°Get back here you sticky tit¡± Richard yelled jumping as far up as he could and wrapping his arm around the sticky appendage. Pulling down as hard as he could a pained squeal rang forth even as the roof buckled. ¡°Come on now¡± Richard grunted wrapping the tentacle around his arm a few more times then putting his entire body weight onto the thing. With a wet, squelching sound, slowly but surely the monster was ripped out of the ceiling. The bricks bulged a bit worryingly near the end before a slight pop rang out and the creature was free smashing down to the cobblestones below. ¡°What have we here?¡± Richard asked peering down at the creature wrapped around his arm. It was a clam of sorts ¨C its long ¡®foot¡¯ sticking down instead of up out of the sand. Its body was shaped like a shell but did not look very hard ¨C instead its shell was rubbery looking and bright yellow like a traffic cone. A tiny mouth with lamprey teeth sat directly under its ¡®foot¡¯, protruding teeth undulating slightly. The creature itself squealed like a pig and spat copious amounts of thick white liquid everywhere nearly completely at their mercy. Making a decision Richard unholstered his mini shotgun pointed the round directly in the footballs forehead and pulled the trigger. One satisfying bang and one sticky explosion later, the pair looked down at a mostly dead monster. The entire hallway was coated with its insides and a faint sulfuric smell was beginning to fill the room. ¡°What the fuck was that encounter?¡± Richard said looking down at his arm in confusion. The glue was rapidly beginning to harden, his limbs becoming annoyingly difficult to separate. It was like super glue actually. The whiteish substance at the start coated everything and then something else in the body ¨C the body that was now exploded and coating the place ¨C activated that substance, hardening it in seconds. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± James spoke, wiggling about his feet fused to the ground below. Grimacing slightly his limbs began to blur and James did a strange sort of jumping shake ¨C popping both of his feet out then landing on his knees which also stuck slightly to the ground. Thankfully by this point, the superglue-like effect was weaker and it didn¡¯t take much for James to pry himself out once again. Richard had a bit more trouble getting undone. Most attacks required defense to deal with ¨C this seemed to require power. Of course the defense might have been doing something but Richard couldn¡¯t tell. All he knew was he didn¡¯t seem strong enough to get himself out of this. ¡°Time to cheat I guess¡± Richard muttered pulling out his stone scooper and pointing it towards his magma covered feet. It would be a shame to lose his cool boots, but at least he¡¯d get out of this mess. The ground vibrated a faint hum passing through the area and Richard''s feet tingled like they were touching a live wire. It didn¡¯t take much at all to loosen his feet ¨C part of the ground fusing to his boots even as they mushed slightly after turning to playdough. Pointing the other end at it, Richard let his boots harden again ¨C now entirely different and marbled with white streaks. He made sure to smash his foot down slightly as he did so ¨C to force his feet into a flatish shape before they hardened once more. While he worked on getting himself unstuck, James had picked up a chunk of clam meat and begun gnawing on it. ¡°Tasty?¡± Richard asked ¨C what was James¡¯s thing with eating everything so far? James mumbled something and then seemed embarrassed and spoke up. ¡°Tastes like sugary fish.¡± ¡°¡­is that a good taste?¡± Richard paused trying to imagine it. ¡°¡­no. Could probably make it work but this isn¡¯t a good taste¡­imagine a can of tuna with a cup of sugar mixed into it¡± James responded taking off his backpack and searching around inside for a vial of something. He pulled the spice out, shook it onto his chunk of meat then took another bite ¨C a slight smile flickering across his face at this version. And he fucking takes another bite. Wild. Richard didn¡¯t feel like matching his partner¡¯s desire to eat everything ¨C it was funny the first time but now it just seemed like his thing. Taking a moment to consider the creature they had slaughted Richard tried to consider it realistically. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. They wouldn¡¯t even have learned anything about it if they had just walked past the tentacle. This right here wasn¡¯t the ¡®challenge¡¯ of the dungeon. It was a hint. A hint at the challenge ¨C a taste of what they might face further in. How could he deal with it? Realistically how could he prevent himself from getting stuck to things and annoyingly being trapped and at the mercy of the bees to come? It didn¡¯t matter how resistant to damage he was if he was just held in place without being damaged by the stuff. Was putting everything into defense the problem? No it was the sticky stuff that was the problem! Richard had his first truly stupid idea of the dungeon. Licking the monster tentacle hadn¡¯t counted ¨C that had been an important test for science. Pulling out his own vials and powders Richard squinted down at his supplies. Fuck some of these were unlabeled weren¡¯t they? What even were they again? Picking a corrosive pair, Richard sprinkled the base onto his arm then ¡®activated them¡¯ with the second catalyst. It was a lot like the super glue reaction the sticky creature had made. A faint burn quickly started singing into his flesh as the reaction started. The looted corrosive acid melted into his flesh¡­then after a few seconds his skill kicked in and the burn disappeared. After a solid minute, Richard could almost completely forget it was on him ¨C despite the faint cloud and occasional sizzle ringing out from below. The reaction actually grew stronger as time went on but body of chaos shifted him faster than the reaction increased. Reaching down again Richard touched some of the only lewd white stuff that wasn¡¯t reacted then rubbed it in the clams juices. Yep. Acid burned through the group ¨C the reaction overpowered whatever the sticky reaction was at least. This would definitely work¡­main problem was Richard had barely enough to cover his whole body and that was if he used it all¡­it was meant for shoving in bullets as a payload not for self protection through skill abuse ¨C still at least now Richard had a plan to feel smart about. Turning to see James¡¯s stare, Richard scratched his head which caused a bit of his shirt to melt off and flop onto his head. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Is that how you melted off your clothing last time?¡± James asked. ¡°Nah, that time was magma not a weak ass acid ¨C hey! Good thinking actually!¡± Richard reached down and pulled out his trusty mcgruffin item. His wonder tool was flipped around and began to ever so slowly soften the wall. Sliding the tool along without letting it scoup and form bullets Richard started grabbing handfuls of softened stone creating a ball the size of a football. ¡°Going strip, turn around for a sec to make this less weird¡± Richard warned pulling off his shirt first. James turned with a strange look on his face even as Richard crafted his new armour. ¡®Armor¡¯ was of course, a verry loose term. ¡®Lumpy diaper-looking thing¡¯ might be more accurate ¨C it looked like someone¡¯s arts and crafts project complete with literal fingerprints and uneven application. His chest plate looked like those sandwich boards people would wear ¨C it had a flattish front and flattish back ¨C badly connected around his head with two bent strips in the middle. A few moments into this craft and Richard had quickly given up on the idea of a full body suit. He was more interested in the modesty of his current crotch armor anyways ¨C without so much physical defense this would chafe like a motherfucker wouldn¡¯t it? Last step was to slowly melt out a flat stone shield with handle. ¡°How do I look¡± Richard twirled showing off his stupid-looking outfit. ¡°¡­you look fine.¡± James finally said after seriously looking him up and down. ¡°Can I have a shield too? I want to block anything sticky from hitting me.¡± He asked after a second. ¡­damn, that shield was annoying to make. Richard mentally weighed just giving James the one he had just made and finally went back to arts and crafts a final time. This second shield came out a bit better ¨C Richard was getting better at stone shaping it was almost like the tool was an extension of himself. The longer he burned aether through it the more it felt like it was ¡®his¡¯. The shield he was making for James was slightly bigger ¨C if Richard was generous he¡¯d call the swat style shield a ¡¯tower shield¡¯. If he was honest, he¡¯d call it a cry for help. Handing off the shield Richard prepared his acid ¨C ready to rub all over himself at a moment¡¯s notice ¨C and then he was ready. ¡°Let¡¯s go dunk on the dungeon¡± he spoke stretching a single arm around and around. ¡­ It took several minutes of walking through silent and claustrophobic feeling hallways before suddenly the passage opened up. In front of them was a massive circular cavern surrounding an old ruin. The ruins seemed almost like an excavated area ¨C the crumbling buildings contained within partway unearthed from the ground below. From the ceiling high above, long undulating tentacles hung ¨C some of the ¡®clams¡¯ with those sticky ¡®feet¡¯ had to be the size of a bus. Many clams actually had their bottoms peaking out of the ceiling ¨C creating yellowish domes crowing from the tiles high above. It looked like the whole ceiling could fall at a moment¡¯s notice ¨C where were the supports? How was it being held up? The ground also had a variant of the clams. Tentacles came out of the ruins ¨C snaking out of ¡®doors¡¯ or ¡®windows¡¯ ¨C the holes in the stone buildings that used to be openings. A faint rustling sound filled the room. Like just out of sight things were watching and waiting. Richard slowly walked towards the center of the cavern. All the walls were coated in white cream. The tentacles there were better able to attack them. The main problem with this room quickly became clear. Where was the exit? Which way were they supposed to go? Other than the entrance to the cavern far behind them the room felt empty. Suddenly one of the tentacles nearby sort of undulated and shot a gigantic globule of white sap towards them. Richard just barely blocked some of it with his shield ¨C it seemed James partly behind him had done a better job managing to block everything that would have hit him. Frantically rubbing acid on his calves and then going ham on the rest of his body, Richard just barely heard a faint whistle and then with a crack he was punctured. A hole shot through his entire side ¨C so fast and so aggressive it blew straight through Richard''s defenses stone flying off in all directions. He¡¯d called this dungeon ¡®bees¡¯ after the description ¨C guess they¡¯d found the bees. Ignoring the puncture wound, Richard finished his acid bath then spun around trying to figure out what direction the attacks were coming from. Crack. Richard barely felt it but there was now a hole in his arm. Blood spurted out onto the inside of the shield, Richard''s flesh ripped and strange-looking thick blood seeped through the hole. Spinning Richard aimed his shield towards where that shot had come from ¨C getting into place even as he heard the newest crack. Richard got sprayed in the face, his eyes stinging. It took a good solid second to realize what had happened. His shield had been hit dead on by the bee ¨C and the stone that made it up had literally been obliterated. The entire top left corner was now gone and turned into shrapnel that had peppered his side and face. Those shots pierced stone! Sure they had pierced him first, but Richard still hadn¡¯t started equating his own defense with that of rocks. It turns out that if you wanted defense in a rank 2 dungeon dedicated to piercing damage, it needed to be stronger than a chunk of rock. Despite the holes Richard barely felt scratched. He fumbled around in his pouch, dipping his grubby fingers incredibly roughly into the healing salve and roughly applying it to any unwanted holes. Glancing around, Richard spotted James hiding in the nearest house. His friend''s dark eyes darted about, a single deep scratch on his face. ¡°Good idea¡± Richard shouted even as another crack herald another piercing hole¡­his skill was starting to increase his piercing defense and that last shot felt more¡­violent because of it. A rip instead of a perfect punch. Jumping into his own house, Richard was just in time to be spurted with white cream from several tentacles. ¡°Oh fuck off¡± he shouted even as what looked like a clam with crab legs crawled out of the ground and exploded showering Richard in its inner juices. ¡­right about now, Richard would be completely immobilized and at the mercy of the bee sniper but his acid trick was working ¨C the sticky reaction was overpowered by the acid reaction, the acid almost eating the stomach fluid and flaring itself to be stronger. James exited his house with the shield held in front of him ¨C it looked like he was holding the door to the house and when he burst out he was ripping the door out with him. Behind him, a faint telltale spurt sounded off a glue clam exploding. ¡°I miss having a mech¡± Richard shouted then exited his hole as well ¨C holding his partly shattered shield up in the hopes it would block any of the sniper shots. Crack. This time either the shot was slowed down by the chest ¡®plate¡¯ it punctured through, or Richard¡¯s skill had increased his defense high enough to stop it. With a thudding impact, Richard was pushed backwards a full step. There was a wiggle in Richard''s chest and he could finally see the monster that was attacking them. Just based on the description, Richard had jokingly called them bees¡­ but now that he got a good look they had more in common with swordfish. The creature was mostly embedded in Richard¡¯s chest, its feet flailing about ¨C each kick letting out a faint crack and pushing it deeper into his flesh. Reaching over one handed, Richard yanked the blood covered monster out and finally got a better look at the little bastard in all its glory. Long nail shaped nose/tusk/horn. Grey tipped with pink and hard ¨C it somehow still intact, despite having been smashed through stone and Richard. Silvery body with faint feathery scales that seemed to breathe with each flap. The way they radiated outwards from the tip, kind of reminded Richard of the fletching on a dart or arrow ¨C the monster didn¡¯t seem to have a mouth but it was breathing through what looked like gills all along its length. Finally the back of the creature. Long but strong-looking legs surrounded by both muscles and what looked like tiny strands of string pulling them back and releasing them in sequence. The monster¡¯s four legs continued to kick ¨C each kick breaking the sound barrier and moving fast enough to blur into strange streaks in Richard¡¯s vision. Flying fish darts with ¡®fast as fuck boi legs¡¯. These are definitely not bees. ¡­there¡¯s a bigger fish theme than I thought. Clams, crabs, flying fish. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that everything was sticky and above ground, Richard would have through it had an ocean theme. Why didn¡¯t the monster have a mouth? Where was it eyes? How did it eat? How did it get enough energy to kick that hard? Richard breathed out. He almost forgot the most important rule. ¡°Dungeon bullshit. Don¡¯t question it¡± he softly repeated to himself. Another crack rang out ¨C there didn¡¯t seem to be any new holes in Richards¡¯ body so that was probably a shot aimed at James. Pressing the still wiggling fish against the shield, Richard pushed and pushed ¨C ignoring the legs scrambling about. He continued to push until, with a tiny crack ¨C so much softer than the sound coming out of the legs or sounds of sniper shots flying past ¨C the fish snapped. Deep yellow blood leaked out everywhere as the legs wiggled a few times more and then was still. A distant roar rang out. It seemed directly related to what Richard had just done¡­actually several cracks started rapid firing immediately so it was definitely related. Each shot hurt more than the last ¨C even if Richard ignored the fact they were doing less damage. It was like Richard had an invisible health bar and each shot was bringing that bar lower and lower. That was what his aether mutation was supposed to do after all ¨C nice to know it was working. Richard had definitely pissed something off ¨C within a few seconds he was hit by half a dozen shots rapid fire. The last three embedded into him and Richard was left with a very important decision. Run and hide or decide to continue his antagonization game ¨C Richard pulled out the wiggling fish one by one and snapped them each like twigs. A shot pierced his head. Directly into the side of his head, the flying fish wiggled and churned ¨C the end was definitely ripping up where Richards brain should be. Richard JFK¡¯d for a second dropping the fish he was about to break ¨C a reflexive ¡®fuck¡¯ was yelled even as his arms ripped the fish out in a panicked flail and toss. It looked like the jerking throw someone would make when a surprise spider landed on their face ¨C not the actions of someone who should have brain damage by now.
?? Achievement get: Survive a headshot (rare)
Description: Finally at the point where you can start seeing the effect of all those defensive stats you¡¯ve been shot in the head and are barely worse for wear.
Stat: +9 body piercing defense.
Feeling only slightly fuzzy ¨C despite the gaping hole in his head ¨C Richard fumbled about for the healing salve then dropped it with a second curse. He bent down to grab it once more ¨C
?? Achievement get: Accidental dodge. (uncommon)
Description: Dodge an attack moving much faster than you should have be able to dodge ¨C either you just predicted the future or (most would guess) that was all luck. Either way congrats on the near miss!
Stat: +3 Body speed
Ignoring the achievement, Richard scraped up some goop and roughly pushed it into his face hole ¨C literally feeling it scab over in real time as his body sucked in the drug and converted it into flesh. He was starting to get pissed. This was purely a combat challenge so far ¨C where was his chance to have some fun? Richard paused. Having fun was just a matter of opinion wasn¡¯t it? In other words the problem wasn¡¯t this dungeon ¨C it was him.
---James--- James ran, the thrill of finally returning to combat ringing through his veins. He heard a tiny click ¨C the sound that had preceded every shot so far and immediately reactivated haste ¨C throwing himself to the ground as fast as he possibly could. A crack rang out and the angry bee shot above his head.
?? Achievement get: SSSS Rank. Supersonic split second slide. (rare)
Description: Dodge an attack moving much faster than you should have been able to dodge ¨C but do so purposefully with the slightest of hints heralding the attack.
Stat: +3 reaction speed. Stat: +3 leg speed.
Half a second to grab my sticky shield again and continue. James moved in a trance picking up the shield he had tossed to the side to fuel his dodge and continued running. In the distance several shots began ringing out ¨C faster than before. Each was aimed at Richard ¨C looked like he was playing distraction¡­wonder how he was surviving those shots? James had already seen one punch through the stone ruin he had been hiding in ¨C passing through two walls of sandstone like it wasn¡¯t even there. Splurt. James didn¡¯t have a [haste] cooldown anymore. He cheated ¨C pulling the tiny kinetic potential he had gained by getting grazed by a shot and tossed that into his body¡¯s spin. Twisting his body was now the ¡°retaliation attack¡± that was being fueled.
Skill break:
Yes? No?
A huge glob of sticky catalyst was parried as he spun ¨C his massive bulky shield catching it and almost throwing it to the side contemptuously. This thing was useful ¨C and made of stone so James wasn¡¯t worried about losing it or breaking it or anything. Like an upgrade of the boulders he usually used to attack with. Continuing his spin, James reoriented himself towards the direction most of the shots were coming from, then began sprinting once more. A few minutes into the run he spied the edge of the cavern. Growing into ¨C or perhaps out of ¨C the wall was this massive¡­creature? It looked wrong somehow. Not impossibly wrong but¡­engineered. Like a fleshy pink catapult covered in spikes that rustled continuously. The source of the piercing shots in this cave was kind of shaped like an octopus with each arm bending into a stiff board. The arm would slowly bend downwards ¨C a cable similar to the ones on each of the babies ¡®legs¡¯ pulling it towards its back. Its catapult arms would dip towards the spikes, up one of the ¡®babies¡¯ nesting there and locking into place. Then the catapult would fire, and partway through the arc the baby would jump as well ¨C resonant force through jumping perfectly, making it fly much further and faster that it should have been able to otherwise. The arms were a blur, the shots fired almost invisible with how fast they left the creatures arms ¨C James saw one of the arms tilt as if aiming towards him and started to run. [Haste] was off cooldown by now and he flipped it on, lurching forward. His favorite skill. The old reliable boring speed multiplier. James saw the muscle relax ¨C saw the arm begin to loosen a faint click ringing out as if in slow motion. He bent his knees holding the shield in front of him and jumped ¨C flying the last three meters in an arcing lunge, the heavy stone slab held in front of him like a toboggan. There was a pop as the shot smashed through the top of the shield and burrowed through his head ¨C directly through his left eye.
?? Achievement get: Survive a headshot (rare)
Description: Finally at the point where you can start seeing the effect of all those defensive stats you¡¯ve been shot in the head and are barely worse for wear.
Stat: +9 head ''skin piercing'' defense.
His body moved as if on autopilot, the momentum doing half the work as he brought the shield down as hard as he could. Below him three of the eight arms shattered ¨C his toboggan slam breaking the stiff bones directly in his path. He was now under the firing range ¨C the arms couldn¡¯t get him anymore ¨C but he wasn¡¯t safe. The spikes seemed to have a mind of their own ¨C James was now close enough to see they looked like little fish with legs attempting to aim towards kicking off at a much lower ¨C but still lethal ¨C speed impacting his shoulder and arm. James had a sudden rush of kinetic potential from the series of impacts ¨C grabbing a broken chunk of his shield he lifted it up and bashed it down on the nearest fish before it could attack him. No, he wouldn¡¯t die here. He reached out with his bare hands and grabbed onto one of the monster''s free firing arms. [Retaliatory shot]. The skill surged and he ripped the ¡®arm¡¯ off. Bringing it up he jabbed the jagged bone down into slippery back then swept it from side to side knocking dozens of fish off the back.
?? Achievement get: Got your arm. (unique)
Description: Rip off a creature¡¯s arm, then beat it with it.
Stat: +3 arm nerve speed. Stat: +3 arm muscle power. Stat: +3 arm skin defense.
James¡¯s body moved as if with a mind of its own. He felt concussed, his one eye blinking rapidly as he ripped and punched and screamed ¨C turning to grab another arm he was just in time to see Richard swinging towards him. ¡°Aahhhalalaaaaaaalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaa¡±. A warbling yodel rang out as the man approached quickly. Richard swung towards James and the injured monster one arm wrapped tightly around one of the roof ¡®vines¡¯ his battlecry echoing in the cavern. The arm not tightly wrapped around the vine was holding his thick-looking gun the tip shifting about wildly as he attempted to aim. As Richard swung he hit several of the existing vines ¨C and reaching the end of the arc he almost paused in midair. There was a single moment of complete calm and then he fired ¨C the concussive blast throwing him backwards and accelerating him off into the distance once more. His shot blasted down beside James, burrowing into the monster''s back a spray of gore and flaming liquid flying out in its passage. ¡­that could have hit James. Almost rude how close it had hit¡­but James was just happy for the assist. Half scrambling half sliding off of the beast James felt more clearheaded ¨C no longer flailing about in rage but also more aware of his concussed feeling. ¡°yooloaohohohohohhooooooo¡± Richard swung back ¨C coming even closer this time his eyes squinting in concentration before he let lose a second cannon shot his body flying back into the distance once more.
?? Achievement get: Duo Kill
Description: Kill a monster with a friend.
Stat: +1 Mental power
Jame¡¯s vision was growing blurry. His body relaxed slightly knowing the threat was gone. As if angry at his lack of care for them, one of the still alive fish jumped smashing into his leg and caused him to yelp. Adrenaline was beginning to fade and James realized just how much he hurt. Blinking upwards he noticed Richard standing in front of him. The man said something a worried look flashing across his face as he unscrewed his tub. ¡°¡¯m goooood¡± James muttered even as he felt the cream slathered across his gaping eyesocket. ¡°Hey there buddy. You with me?¡±. ¡°yesssh.¡± James muttered. ¡°I¡¯m going try and shove it all the way through. Don¡¯t know how much this will hurt okay?¡± Shove what through? James felt his friend''s fingers poke goop through his eye socket. Oh¡­that makes sense. James felt a spasm wash over him and then everything went black. Chapter 46. A bit of me, a bit of you. ---Richard--- Richard was desensitized to gore. Some time on 4chan ¨C some morbid curiosity and the random junk that pops up in social media was enough to toughen anyone up in modern times. Richard was also bad at processing death ¨C he didn¡¯t quite get the importance people gave it. Now sure, if someone close to you died, you¡¯d spend a few days in mourning ¨C that made sense¡­ but he got physically annoyed when people were still sobbing years later over the same old thing. Move on. Gore was gore ¨C and death was death. Separate linked things that didn¡¯t really mean anything at the end of the day ¨C and were further muddled by the system and game they were playing. That being said, there was a huge difference between seeing gore and touching it. Huge difference ¨C Richard had been fine but he would understand anyone who vomited while dealing with what he had just had to do. There was a difference between mourning and being glad someone survived a near miss. Richard was glad they hadn¡¯t been ganked yet ¨C even if he knew they could respawn. His new friend had blacked out again and he had been forced to try and heal the guy ¨C the cream didn¡¯t seem to be functioning as well on James as it had on him. Thankfully, despite blacking out James didn¡¯t seem in danger of actual death ¨C his chest rose and fell quite firmly, and his wound closed over relatively quickly. The bloody scab had slowly flaked off over half an hour. Based on how the previous shots had sounded like they had come from separate area, there was probably still at least one more fish ¡®cannon¡¯ on this floor ¨C probably three to match the game master¡¯s love of that number. He could go clear them out while sleeping beauty slept off the minor head wound? Head off on a minor adventure to kill the rest of them? ¡­but part of the reason he had even killed the last one was due to how high his skill had grinded up his piercing defense ¨C a defense that was probably mostly gone by now. Did he want to head off and re-walk through a barrage of shots? He felt so much more damaged by now¡­his invisible health so much lower than before. Meh. Flopping down and taking off the remains of his billboard chest armour, Richard reached over and unzipped James¡¯s backpack. Rustling around awkwardly he found the drinks ¨C he was surprised they hadn¡¯t smashed even with the store¡¯s packaging ¨C then popped a lid and took a swig. Huh, it tasted both better and worse than he was expecting. Some sort of distilled ale? Closer to sake than beer. Almost like a really really weak whisky but different somehow. Rustling around a bit more, Richard started pulling most of the squashed supplies out. He could get things going while he waited. If he wasn¡¯t going to be using his tools he could also try ¡®slotting himself¡¯ for the first time?
---James--- James regained consciousness to the sound of Richard cursing and smashing things together a few meters away. Blinking while sitting up James felt and heard stuff fall out of his backpack ¨C it was open, currently the flap unzipped. Taking a moment to gather his bearings James quickly felt fully with it. Looking over he saw Richard seemed to be attempting to light a fire around a knotted root ¨C the only wood he could find in this dungeon? Standing up, James wandered over and stood back watching slightly arms crossed slightly. He felt like how dads stood around someone working on a car ¨C helping through proximity. ¡°Burn bitch. Burn already you worthless piece of shit.¡± Richard struck the flint and steel several times, a stream of sparks flying onto what appeared to be a crumpled up bit of paper wrapping ¨C something from the food they had gotten? Looking around, James began walking as well, looking for supplies. One of the land tentacles curled slightly after him but he dodged the blast of goop ¨C the faint sound alerting him long before it would have been an issue. There really didn¡¯t seem to be much wood here ¨C the ruins were too old to still carry wooden doors or otherwise. Nearly everything that wasn¡¯t stone or mortar had long since rotted away¡­what should they do? James checked one house and found a slab of stone on the ground with an engraving ¨C not an important one just one that was notable due to being carved in English. ¡°Mk2 foundation for my perfect home. This glue gal will make a palace yet!¡± ¡­ James began running back as soon as he heard a loud explosive bang. Richard stood proudly over the remains of a log ¨C a small lick of flames shooting up and flickering light across the surroundings. ¡°Just had to throw the magical equivalent of a jar of gasoline on the fire and It burned beautifully¡± Richard spoke as soon as he saw James giving him a thumbs up. One of his vials lay empty beside him, the contents presumably being used to get the current fire going. ¡­there wasn¡¯t a lot of wood. Their fire was definitely going to go out soon. James paused then gave in and voiced his worry. ¡°Yeah, I think we can burn part of the monsters here? The clams seemed flammable.¡± Richard seemed to have just come up with that on the spot. He did not at all sound convinced. It was still worth a try? Grabbing his heavily broken shield ¨C it was less a ¡®tower¡¯ and more a ¡®dilapidated wall¡¯ by this point ¨C James headed off. He spotted the nearest tentacle and followed it through a door into the remains of some ancient home. There was a chittering clicking sound and the crab-like variant of the tentacle monsters began crawling out of the ground ready and primed to explode. James smashed his shield onto it ¨C activating haste as he did so for that extra oomph. There was a wet squelch and crack as its slightly hardened but ultimately rubbery shell was broken and the crab was killed ¨C still partly entombed in the ground below. Slowly lifting his bug swatter, James reached down and grabbed the corpse carefully ¨C despite his attempt to grab a clean spot it felt incredibly sticky. Carefully carrying it out of the building and back towards the campfire, James was just in time to see Richard dragging the remains of the cannon monster towards the fire ¨C where he tossed a broken and partly burnt arm onto the blaze. There was a crackle and pop ¨C parts of the arm appearing to burn even as parts melted and cooked. Trying his monster James watched as the rubbery crab almost put it out but the fleshy arm surprisingly caught. ¡°Fucking A, found something ¨C lets go tentacle hunting¡± Richard pumped his fist when he saw the spool begin to burn. The spool itself didn¡¯t seem very flammable ¨C it turned out it was the white goop covering it that was burning¡­but that was a nitpick. A few dozen minutes of hacking off tentacles actively seeking to trip them up and restrain them later, and the pair had a blazing bonfire that smelled slightly like burnt sugar. ¡°Alright then! How many hotdogs you want?¡± Richard spoke rubbing his hands together and pulling out several squished sausages. ¡°Just like¡­half or something¡± James said after a moment staring at the mess ¨C they wouldn¡¯t survive long. Best to eat them all now. Nodding Richard looked around a bit ¨C then walked over and stared at the cannon corpse he had dragged over. Reaching into the ripped off section he dug his feet in then ¨C after some furious wiggling ¨C popped out a thin looking fish bone. Long and curved like a rib, the slightly pink bone looked kind of like a weapon in his hands as Richard squeezed a sausage on then walked over to the fire. ¡°Here ¨C¡° Richard said, handing James the stick then grabbing his own bare handed and shoving it into the flames. His eyes winced slightly and then he seemed to ignore the flames, turning to look at James as if this was the most natural thing in the world. ¡°So how¡¯s your game been so far?¡± ¡­the two slowly relaxed to one another. Food and drink helped a lot but the fight they had had did wonders for breaking down barriers. The fire made the surroundings smell like caramel and after trying a bit of each of the monsters the pair confirmed they tasted much better cooked. The tentacles they were using for fuel tasted like incredibly tough and fibery squid. A squid that had been glazed with some smokey sweet sauce ¨C not the best but edible. The crab tasted rubbery ¨C its insides were one of the only things that weren¡¯t sweet reminding James of actual crab ¨C or maybe even something closer to lobster? And of course the actual food ¨C the sausages ¨C tasted great. James was once again reminded how much he liked food and how adult life and the grind of work had made him forget that. When he was a kid he¡¯d help his dad cook meats around special occasions ¨C he¡¯d help his mom bake desserts. Food was something he loved, so it said a lot about depression that it had made him not care about it anymore. ¡­James¡¯s mind wandered. He wondered how his parents were doing? It felt like years since he last reached out to them¡­and now he couldn¡¯t anymore. Kind of sad if he dwelled on that, but James didn¡¯t regret his choices. He was so much happier now than he had been back home ¨C everything felt more real. More important. Everything was more colorful. The loss of family was worth that a hundredfold. James ended up telling Richard of his goal to break into both sides ¨C something that was going to be a secret but just ended up slipping out when he needed a conversation topic. Richard then taught him more about what he had learned of Aether and how it worked. Slots vs free growing skills and how broken skills could grow instead of remaining the same as when you got them. They both mentioned their trials and truths ¨C Richard had seemed impressed when James told him about eating his own hand and waved away his falling in lava like it hadn¡¯t been that big of a deal. One of the only dings against the barbeque was probably the drinks. Despite having an entire case worth of supposed ¡®14%¡¯ drinks¡­ neither felt even the tiniest bit buzzed. Turns out three bottles each wasn¡¯t enough with defensive stats ¨C Richard yelled about chemical defense and seemed legitimately upset. James had stomach poison defense which also seemed to be preventing him from getting intoxicated¡­but he didn¡¯t care as much. No matter how much fun this had been, it didn¡¯t seem smart to actually get drunk in a dungeon. It wasn¡¯t the most important part for Richard, but James was surprised to see an achievement for their ¡®friendly dungeon barbie¡¯ giving him half a dozen stats for barely doing anything. What happened to achievements being based on effort? Richard had shown James he could gain stats by doing more than just fighting. Finally their party wound down and they were forced to consider what to do next. ¡°Been meaning to ask ¨C you notice that yet?¡± Richard asked after a while pointing vaguely upwards. ¡°Yeah¡­seems like it¡¯s where we have to go next¡± James nodded. Across the ceiling were several various sized holes. When initially entering the room, they had looked like places giant clams had fallen out of ¨C but now with more time to study them it was clear they were entrances to a second cavern. Directly below the holes you could sometimes see glimpses of the room above. It was pretty clear really. The only way to progress in the dungeon was to head up. Picking the hole closest to their side of the room, the pair each grabbed a thick dangling tentacle and began to slowly climb side by side. It was incredibly easy to hold onto ¨C each of the roof tentacles were slightly sticky so it was almost harder to remove your arms and legs from it than it was to grab a new spot. The roof tentacles were also not simply dangling ropes ¨C they swung and shifted slightly, each living ¡®things¡¯. The tentacles seemed almost too heavy for the clams to move ¨C unlike the ground ones these couldn¡¯t wrap around or grab onto anything ¨C but that didn¡¯t stop the clams from swinging them about swaying back and forth as if attempting to shake them off. James was having an easier time of things. His arm and leg stats made him feel like he could probably climb carrying a dumbbell while Richard slowly struggled, an annoyed look on his face. ¡°This is getting harder and harder ¨C I swear my defensive stats are making me heavier or something¡± Richard groaned wrapping his arms around his trunk to take a rest. James felt something was wrong ¨C and a few seconds later a distant crack rang out. Yep ¨C they were high enough to become targets again. Seemed the other cannon had missed by quite a bit ¨C they were probably over a kilometer away assuming it was against the distant wall ¨C but now that it had shot once¡­yep. A second shot rang out. With renewed vigor the pair began to shimmy-scramble their way up their trunks ¨C the tentacles slowly but surely getting thicker the closer to the roof they climbed. Underneath James¡¯s hands he could feel rough almost dried flesh covered in wrinkles ¨C it quickly lost its new and sticky feeling, becoming harder to hold onto but easier to climb. ¡°Fuck!¡± Richard yelped and began spinning wildly ¨C he seemed to have been clipped by a shot, the dart ripping a gash in his side that flung blood into the abyss below. ¡°Go. I can tank these better,¡± Richard waved his hand up at James even as he put in a herculean effort to climb as fast as possible. Nodding to himself James sped ahead ¨C arm over arm flying up the last dozen meters and finding himself just at the edge of the lip to above. There wasn¡¯t a dedicated path ¨C no ladder or blinking sign saying to ¡®climb here¡¯. Taking a deep breath James leapt ¨C grabbing onto two sturdy looking bricks above the edge ¨C his feet dangling above the abyss below and his entire lower body swinging from the lunge. A sharp crack from the stone beside him indicated a near miss from the sniper below. They were getting closer. Using nothing but his upper body strength, James clenched and then pulled ¨C throwing his entire body up into the shaft above in a single herculean upwards lunge and grab of a second pair of bricks. His legs scrambled a bit then dug into the wall finding purchase and instantly making James feel safer. A few scrambles later, James found himself in the jungle above. Taking a quick look to make sure he was safe ¨C he wasn¡¯t fully but nothing was currently attacking him ¨C he grabbed what looked like a smaller white vine and tossed it into the pit below. Looking around wildly and grabbing a sponge-looking yellow stone James stood guard at the top a swinging indicating his friend had found it and was climbing up the rest of the way. The second floor was¡­easier to describe once James knew one of the themes of the dungeon. It was a sticky coral reef. The inside of a breached coral cave filled with tide pools of sticky looking liquid. It looked like there were tide pools of honey ¨C thick murky puddles of yellow filled with shapes that shifted right beneath the surface. There were dozens of paths everywhere ¨C crawlspaces beside the ¡®yellow, white and pink coral¡¯ blended together ¨C and in the darkness glubs and drips and occasional splash trickled through the background. ¡°Fuck I think one of them got me in the balls,¡± Richard spoke even as he crested the top of the hole behind them. ¡°Thanks for the rope ¨C I don¡¯t think I could have done your parkour shit at all.¡± He continued ¨C standing up and giving James a double thumbs up. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°No problem.¡± James answered in a distracted manner ¨C still eyeing the surroundings. ¡°Nice rock¡± Richard pointed down at the chunk of coral still held at the ready in James¡¯s hand. ¡°Don¡¯t name it or get too attached ¨C I¡¯ll throw it away at a moment¡¯s notice¡± James tossed back only slightly awkwardly. Richard seemed to love the response, turning to look about as well. ¡°Nothing to say which way ¨C Lets go thattaaway,¡± Richard pointed towards one side and as a pair the two began to walk. They strolled in relative silence for a bit ¨C the constant drip and glub of sticky liquid fading into a white noise as they walked. Finally Richard stepped too close to a tidepool while rounding a corner and with a loud splash a spike was suddenly embedded in his side. He jumped a bit then played it off reaching down and snapping the brittle rod ¨C it shattering into chunks as he did so. A second spike shot out incredibly fast but this time James [haste]ed then jumped forward and pushed Richard to the side just out of range. Grabbing the spike ¨C carefully ducking down in case a third was shot ¨C James attempted to pull it out. There was a slight give and then with a ripping sensation it was out and held in his hand. The spike¡¯s tip was pure white ¨C the rest of it fading to a greyer muddy colour, faint veins running up and down its length. Grains like that of wood ¨C increasing its strength in the spike direction but weakening it in any other. The end shifted from smooth to looking like the bottom of a tooth ¨C nerve endings and bloody pink bits of gum included. There was some type of monster hiding in the tidepools turning them into deadly traps ¨C makes sense. Avoid the pools of liquid. Turning to look at Richard, he had a strange look on his face. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± James asked ¨C Richard was staring at the hole in his side. Was it poisoned? ¡°I feel¡­stiff?¡± Richard spoke stretching a bit as he answered. Moving his body about with hardly a problem he nodded. ¡°It¡¯s like a sticky poison. I feel like my insides are steadily being gunked up as it spreads¡­it isn¡¯t too strong or my defense is letting me ignore most of it but its annoying. How the fuck does it even work? I can feel it spreading and then stiffening in its wake.¡± Richard paused then shrugged. ¡°Don¡¯t get stabbed¡±. James gave him a double thumbs up holding it until his friend laughed. They continued on completely lost as they continued to reach passages and randomly pick a direction. Could probably have used the generic ¡®always walk left¡¯ style thing but that was fine. As they walked the environment steadily got stranger. The tidepools began to shift into angles ¨C some looked like congealed blobs on the walls surface tension making it look like a sack or a pimple on the wall. It started to get harder and harder to dodge the spikes when they came from hidden nooks and crannies above their heads. James dodged every shot and Richard grew steadily more poisoned, the gumming up of his body getting worse with each shot and then steadily better ¨C something about a skill reducing its effects? His face began looking pale after a few hours ¨C the last wounds refusing to close over as they leaked sticky blood slowly across his body. The pair found a relatively safe looking room hidden around a corner in the wall and took a small nap and drink from its fountain. They spent quite a bit of time in this floor ¨C over a day if James was estimating it right ¨C but nothing important seemed to happen. As if agreeing with them, the system only rewarded Richard once for getting hit too many times and James once for trying to eat a spike ¨C inedible he did not recommend. Finally ¨C feeling like they hadn¡¯t completed this area correctly, but not knowing what they were supposed to have done ¨C the pair came across a door. A solid double door in the midst of the path ¨C incredibly out of place in the fantastic coral surrounding them. On the door, a single picture displayed what looked like angry rain attacking someone hiding underneath an umbrella. Staring at it, each other, and then shrugging. The pair grabbed each handle and pushed stepping into the most fantastical looking setting yet.
---Richard--- At first glance it was a field of grass, some strange trees, and a low orange sky. It was the sort of setting that looked weirder and weirder the longer you looked ¨C like some artist got fucked on shrooms and painted the beach while standing on their head. The sky was an upside-down sea. A massive amount of sticky orange liquid about twenty to thirty meters above the field ¨C somehow held up without falling on the pair below. Strange upside down waves that ¡®dangled¡¯ rather than ¡®crested out¡¯ drifted across ¨C and deep below the liquid, bright lights lit it up a warm yellow. The filtered light cast shifting patterns across the ground as waves refracted the source above. The strange trees first looked like mushrooms but upon closer inspection were closer to jellyfish ¨C legs dangling down and holding them to the ground as they attempted to ¡®fly away¡¯ into the sea above. Like helium balloons mixed with rubber? The grass was actually a sea of spiky barnacles, kelp and other random sea junk ¨C it looked like a low tide that had just been removed ¨C the plants glistening with sticky sweat in the air. It stank. It stank of burnt sugar and brine ¨C a sickly sweet bitter burn that made Richard annoyed and sick of this ¡®adventure¡¯. Behind them the doors made a click as they shut ¨C and, as if waiting for the sound, the sea above began to boil. Drip by drip the sticky sky began to rain ¨C its glue filled payload falling with a glop, glop, glop upon the pair below. Running towards the nearest jellyfish Richard jumped underneath before too much shit got on his body ¨C looking across it seemed James had done the same. He had reached his own ¡®umbrella¡¯ incredibly quickly but seemed to have been hurt by the spiky ground Richard hadn¡¯t even noticed. Yeah, defense was much better than speed. Checking his pouch, Richard stared slightly sad at his dwindled supplies. All he had left were some normal cannon shots and some shotgun rounds. A bottle of poison and bottle of ¡®confusion¡¯ he hadn¡¯t used yet ¨C he¡¯d already run out of acid, explosive and burning rounds. Even sadder he¡¯d run out of all the healing goop he¡¯d been able to buy. He needed to find a better supplier that shit was lifesaving. He had barely anything as far as he was concerned. His multi use gun and stone scooper were still working perfectly on his belt¡­his stone underwear was fine¡­ Grabbing a handful of the jellyfish ¡®arms¡¯ Richard ripped popping the suction cups up off the ground and holding his umbrella high. Looking at the suction cups for a second, he attached them all to his stone diaper then held his arms out and jumped a bit. ¡°How fucking stupid do I look?¡± Richard called spinning around. Where had James gotten to? Oh! He was currently dashing from umbrella to umbrella, jumping back and forth in a swerving pattern to avoid the worst of the ground. ¡°Rude¡± Richard muttered and began giving chase. His umbrella moved behind him as he ran, and he was forced to hold it in front of him one handed. His shoes¡­now would probably be a good time to mention they had changed a lot since the start of the delve. Earlier ¨C back at the first big cavern ¨C he¡¯d slotted himself without feeling much of a change then unslotted to make sure he could. A process that took an annoying minute or two and made his gun less useful (switching from his body to his gun was too long to do in the middle of a fight). Something that wasn¡¯t the best to experiment with when he only had one slot but¡­partway through the coral caves he¡¯d switched back because it didn¡¯t seem like he was using his gun. Now almost a full day later, he had what he thought was a skill on his feet. His stone shoes were slowly but surely changing and melding better with his flesh ¨C a constant stream of aether fixing them ¡®somehow¡¯. The mix of cooled magma and ripped off white stone swirled into several spiral patterns, the bottom had better traction the lumpy bits became decorations¡­ Either way maybe with more time to grow the skill the results would be better, but right now Richard thought it best to switch back to his gun. There was supposedly a final boss in every dungeon and he wanted to be prepared. Breaking the budding skill felt like yanking out a cable embedded in tar. He slowly ripped the slots tether out of his body ¨C it felt like the tether passed down his arm down his chest and split before going towards both feet¡­which made sense but gave a physical view of how far he had to slowly pull them up and back towards his source ¨C it snapped back at the end settling into a familiar feeling of potential. Whatever skill was changing his shoes was still there ¨C just starved of aether now, its already slow growth began slowing down instead of steadily speeding up. The shoes were also still changed ¨C the skill had been what was changing them after all they were still physical materials on his feet. ¡­Richard took a moment to be glad his melted to his flesh shoes were what were changed instead of his stone diaper. That would be embarrassing to have fused to himself. A few minutes into the passage across the planes ¨C it was hard to tell how far they were, the distant wall hidden by a cloud of rain ¨C when suddenly something changed. With a crash the ¡®boss¡¯ appeared. A giant shark the size of a bus and covered in a dozen frog-like legs ¡®jumped¡¯ out of the sky above. Its mouth was open slightly as it turned to face Richard giving a peak at its maw. Its nightmare inducing maw ¨C row upon row of needle-sharp teeth each literal spikes instead of simply being a pointed mound. The shark jumped ¨C launching across the distance, its many legs being used in a weird sort of hop. Richard flipped his cannon up ¨C already loaded with poison rounds and shot twice ¨C the two shots disappearing into the mouth in front of him even as it attempted to bite down on his body. With a whistle a block of stone came flying from the side also entering the shark mouth even as Richard lunched to the side his front getting scraped up badly by the ground below his innards barely leaking out due to how congealed they were. Richard had almost forgotten how glued up his insides were currently from hours of poison. His skill prevented him from being as affected by it but it didn¡¯t stop his insides from being sticky and not leaking out when they should. The rain continued to fall, and Richard struggled to push himself up ¨C he was stuck to the ground slightly to his dismay. Barnacles and strips of seaweed stuck to his front as he literally peeled himself off the sticky ground and felt the drips land in his hair and across his back. His umbrella had floated away ¨C slipping into the sea above out of the corner of his sight. Once again, not nearly as fun as Richard would hope. The shark frog had hopped away again and was just now turning to face him for another lunge. James ran past and hurled a rock at the shark¡¯s eye before dashing back to the safety of a umbrella. Richard looked down loading in the confusion shots as he considered the distracted boss. Should he try and get eaten? Jump in its mouth and attack it from the inside? That seemed like the standard way to beat something like this¡­ James ran past again blurring as he jumped just out of the snap of the shark¡¯s jaws as it whipped around. The sharks teeth looked like they just kept going all the way through its throat. Richard was pretty confident if he got chomped he wouldn¡¯t survive more than a couple seconds. Not without first grinding up piercing defense or breaking all that fucker¡¯s teeth. Staring down the barrel of his cannon he aimed from just over forty feet away and shot. Hard to miss such a big bastard wasn¡¯t it? Thankfully the shark didn¡¯t seem to have too tough hide ¨C Richards bullet sunk into its side the confusion round hopefully doing something. Back to regular bullets. Richard was tired of running about. Firing the gun felt satisfying so he¡¯d continue doing that. Walking forward slowly he reloaded and fired a second massive bolt sinking into the creature as it thrashed and attempted to eat his zooming friend. Swapping to a shotgun round Richard aimed towards the wall in front of him and let loose ¨C shrapnel peppering its entire length. The shark spun and lunged at him faster than he was expecting. It also missed ¨C for some reason flying just past Richards¡¯ side instead of hitting him dead on the rustle of wind pushing past his bare chest. Confusion poison seemed to be doing its job? Richard spun and aimed once more. He felt calm. This wasn¡¯t something he thought was too exciting ¨C it was just a job. Fun in its own way ¨C it was so satisfying finally having a target to unload on ¨C but¡­also muted somehow. It didn¡¯t feel like it mattered in the end. He was brutalized by this point ¨C most of his torso covered in scratches and stab wounds, a dull pain constantly thrumming through his body by this point. If this were actually a game his health bar would be in the red ¨C a blinking indicator all around the outside of his screen. ¡­but he didn¡¯t feel the urgency this situation should honestly be invoking. He had already died dozens of times in the tutorial ¨C he still had lives left. A safety line. And the boss was drugged and poisoned and it felt like only a matter of time before they beat it. The boss jumped ¨C missing Richard in terms of eating him but very much not missing him in terms of its body. A shadow fell across Richard before with a massive impact he was thrown downwards and squished into the ground. Spread the contents of his body dragged as the shark continued on. Everything hurt ¨C more than Richard thought possible since his upgrades ¨C and then sticky insides were squeezed out of the holes in his body ¨C his low health flicked to ¡®literally dying¡¯ his vision going fuzzy and dimming for the first time. No wait that was just his eyes getting squished. ¡­ Richard should have been dead. His body of chaos skill increased environmental resistance by rapidly raising his defense to continuous damage in the short term. It did not ¨C it could not ¨C protect him from instantaneous damage. Simultaneously Richard had a majority of his stats in defense ¨C maybe if it was entirely bludgeoning defense (instead of being split between so many different sources), maybe then that would have mattered¡­but he just wasn¡¯t a high enough level to shrug this off yet. He could probably survive being hit by a car on the freeway but not survive being hit by a semi into a brick wall. There were ¡®levels¡¯ to these sorts of things. And finally, his body¡­his distributed body. A body that made wounds to individual spots less important while increasing how fragile his body as a whole was. With zero defense he¡¯d have died to a finger being cut off ¨C or more conservatively a hand ¨C and with over two hundred defensive stats ¨C almost three hundred in total¡­well it still shouldn¡¯t have been enough. Maybe if he had more than 20 stats specialized in bludgeoning. Maybe just some less specialized in chemical ¨C maybe if he had a specialized body with defensive stats more efficiently placed. Maybe then his stats would be enough to handle more than 50 tons of blubber pushing him into and sliding him slightly through sharp gravel. By all logical and natural means Richard should now be dead ¨C his transient spirit shoved into a new body, his memories being re applied, his system connection returning stats to his new body. One life less ¨C a lesson in maintaining vigilance. In not underestimating a boss in a dungeon rated slightly higher than your tier. ¡­and so all that was left to protect him would be a fluke. ¡®fuckery¡¯ as the individual in question would have described it. His body ¨C although heavily squished ¨C was mostly held together in the same general area. Glue filling the paste, a unique skill constantly fighting and jumping around every part of the pancake that used to be Richard. On his soles ¨C the two parts of his squished body that were completely intact ¨C a pair of mutated stone shoes protected his feet. It conveniently provided two small pinpoints to base his body off of. They also held a pair of skills ¨C a pair of identical skills, the aether patterns shifting without the link that had been growing them. Bits and pieces ¡®died off¡¯ in different ways ¨C diverging and changing as they shriveled up and became separate. Richard had also had an active ¡®link¡¯ to a weapon. A rudimentary kinetic cannon violently shattered into pieces ¨C the slot¡¯s tether flying about wildly and latching onto the shoes they had just been fueling before. The dying and mutating aether patterns spluttered back into life. A single split skill that had diverged from itself, attempted to re connect ¨C attempting to heal itself¡­attempted to relink itself through the mushed up body to reform a connection. It dragged the feet together ¨C dragged the most intact part of its being conveniently connected to its source of food towards it as well. Shoes drifted together ¨C coppery flesh now flattened and drifted together as the slot drew closer and attached to the shoes sinking into their surface A second item broke. An experimental tool ¨C one that was irreplaceable in a sense as no one used anything like it or knew how to remake it in the area Richard was in. Dozens of miniscule lenses and wires ¨C as ¡®complicated¡¯ as an old clock instead of the ¡®simplicity¡¯ of a digital one ¨C all broke apart. They mixed with the sack of sticky flesh ¨C they mixed with the rebuilding skill whose base nature was to twist stone-like materials into something better. Broken improving stone shoes mixed with general stone manipulation. The skill saw its body ¨C its tomb of stone and felt part of it change while adapted in different ways. The boots that sought to better themselves learned and adapted ¨C incorporated what would help it while breaking apart what wouldn¡¯t. The exact mechanism for purposeful aether mechanics was complicated. Aether could act like a wave or a beam or a particle ¨C could act like a current as it passed through a wire or like sound as it bounced off drums. Could turn solid or jump across a distance depending on thousands of interactions or techniques some known some unknown. Throwing things together and hoping for great results was usually not the recipe for useful results ¨C aether required much more care. More knowledge. More purposeful manipulation than throwing stuff together. Nothing here could be considered enough ¨C and nothing said they should interact. And yet all the random things continued happening in tandem. A skill linking and reforming, tiny enhancing bits and pieces of esoteric technology more granular ¨C more analog ¨C than usual, a blend of mutated cells and sticky glue ¨C resonating chaos rooted in magic and forcefully caged to aether. The metal that comprised a slot ¨C physical matter drenched in aether closer to a source of it than usually simple atoms were usually able to get. First Richard''s feet became pseudo cores. His foundation was too deep to turn them into true cores. His generalized choice, too strong to change now. But having your entire body become more important wasn¡¯t too far a stretch from the generalized body ¨C not when a pair of feet were all that were left. If you lose half your body you don¡¯t have 50% health left ¨C a pair of legs was now 100% of the body ¨C 100% healthy. Such a trick shouldn¡¯t work but aether drenched the results and chunks of skill forced result. Next his shoes buckled in a spasm of still growing potential ¨C tiny tiny straw like arms ripping out and gathering bits of its owner ¨C sometimes shaping stone into a scoop to do so¡­sometimes accidentally mixing stone and Richard mush together and then rehardening it into new. Sometimes growing arms with bits of Richard rock and using that to improve its functionality. Mixing more of its body with its owner. Over the course of a few minutes a small dome of stone formed on the sea field ¨C blocking off the constant rain of stickiness and protecting it from the light. Dozens of small sticks dragged their shoes around ushering what scraps they could together. The shark was gone by this point ¨C off continuing to fight another ¨C a large chunk of Richard still smeared across its front. The pancake continued to do what it could with what it had. Tiny autonomous claws frantically trying to put something together which could not be put together. Mushing stone into stone was easy ¨C at least if you could liquify and reform such a wide range of materials at will. Mushing flesh into flesh was hard. Even if there was carbon in It, the carbon was in too complicated a form to count ¨C even if you simply mushed it together. Somehow fused bits and pieces into a whole, some structure somehow lost. There was nothing the arms could do. The arms were beyond fused in Richard¡¯s matter ¨C the stone originally burnt into skin and the hands mixed in with his DNA the stone becoming an extension of his flesh. All they were in the end were cognizant enough for some protocols to consider Richard not ¡®dead yet¡¯. To prevent his extraction by forces far beyond the realm of this ¡®closed room¡¯. ¡­ still not enough to prevent Richard from dying. Body of chaos on the other hand! The wholly primal skill rooted in the unknown considered the current state of its body entirely damaging. A continuous form of damage! A long drawn-out death that slowly became less and less certain ¨C until finally there was no chance of such a pesky thing happening not without more damage. But of course such a simple skill was just life support ¨C it couldn¡¯t possibly regrow and reform Richard¡¯s body. Just prevent further decay. And so it was left up to the simplest of things in the end really. Stats and a body foundation. An understood but uncommunicated fact of the two body foundations was how they directed stats. Defensive stats were some of the most affected ¨C the most changed based on your roots. A specialized body became better able to resist damage. Stronger and harder armor. A way to prevent weaker damage from even affecting someone ¨C a stronger path towards becoming as hard as a diamond and as resistant to shattering as rubber. A generalized body became better able to spring back from damage. It had a much worse ability to prevent the damage from happening ¨C worse than a regular body with stats ¨C but in exchange it pushed towards regeneration. As long as they were still ¡®alive¡¯ the barely understood bits of potential would attempt to reform their body towards peak form. The technical description was long and poorly misunderstood by most. The colloquial term was that generalized bodies had better void defense. The pancake slowly, slowly ever so slowly regrew itself. Bits that had been lost were remade ¨C digging for calories that didn¡¯t exist and being fed aether instead. Hours past ¨C the stone shell finally cracking open as a completely naked man stood up confused and feeling like ¡®absolute shit¡¯.
?? Achievement get: Reborn from a single body part. (Unique)
Description: Something common in high ¡®ranks¡¯ achieved at one impossibly low. Your body has been remade ¨C what was gained and what was lost?
Stat: +81 Void defence.
?? Rank 2 dungeon cleared. (Rare) ?? Among the first to clear a rank 2 dungeon and among the first to clear this specific dungeon, you have done so with a small party. At the very end your party beat the main boss with a massive portion of your body smeared across the boss itself! Clear stats: 15 monsters killed. Time taken 71 hours. Party size 2. (new record) State entering dungeon. Rank 2, Tier 1. Free points gained 40.
Main Reward:
Active skill: Damaging Shared body. Share a small amount of ''damage'' with creatures coated in ''you''.
Chapter 47. Separation. ---James--- James dodged and weaved about the slow monster. Just his base speed was enough to dodge all of the shark¡¯s weak snaps or thrashes ¨C not that they were actually weak according to any understanding of the word. The massive creature¡¯s attacks looked like they hit like a truck and based on the smear that had been Richard before he died, James wouldn¡¯t survive a single one of them. They were just so slow ¨C it was hard to see them as a threat. Every once in a while, the shark would hop in these truly massive lunges ¨C those James could only dodge if he was far enough away or able to flick a [haste] on. Thankfully the creature only seemed to hop once every minute or two ¨C more than enough time for short bursts of haste to come off cooldown once more. The hops were fun because with each slide a wave of sea stuff would fly in arcs behind and to the side of the shark. The skid marks were also great because they tended to be safer than free areas ¨C alot of the sharper or stickier bits scraped off or flattened. This was well and truly a grind. It was also an incredibly unstable stalemate. The monster couldn¡¯t hurt James and none of James¡¯s ¡®attacks¡¯ seemed to hurt the monster. The shark was damaged and James was nearly positive Richard had poisoned the creature before he failed but¡­the sky was still raining a sticky nightmare onto everything. Slowly but surely the rain was making it harder to move. Would James be trapped before the boss died to poison? Would the boss eject all the poison from its system if they continued this dance too much longer? Would he fail one of the lunge checks ¨C not flicking haste on in time or getting trapped by the environment? Because yes, the environment was the real problem. The shark would never be able to hit him like this but if he got completely stuck to the ground it might just manage it. James¡¯s feet felt raw from the barnacles. The rain and sea stuff made an awful combination of slippery and sticky. Every once in a while he went to dodge and realized there was a porcupine-looking sea urchins waiting to explode and quill him to death with their¡­sharp spikes. Split second "I''m going to dodge this way ¨C wait! Backpedal and pick the other side" style decisions were costly in the time department. ...and still the fight continued. James watched as the boss leaned backwards and launched itself back into the sky. It would do this every few minutes ¨C jumping out in a new spot a few moments later. Could James direct it to hit the environment as well? It couldn¡¯t just be awful for him, surely he could make the boss suffer just as much ¨C right? A formless darkening on the sea above was the only sign the boss was there. Turning James activated haste and bolted towards the nearest sea urchin. Based on past experiences the boss would jump out in a few more seconds ¨C three to five or six maybe. The boss would also attempt to intercept James ¨C jumping towards where he would be vs where he was¡­ A massive surge of liquid exploded out of the sky just behind James as soon as he got worryingly close to the urchin. Now. Spinning sideways and running at a right angle to his first dash, James thanked hastes weird ability to ignore momentum. A shadow flew past where James had just been, the massive creatures landing on a group of spiky mines. All according to plan. James saw a few spikes fly off into the distance, the piercing shots blurring away even as the shark roared. The shark sounded like a lion had swallowed a frog ¨C its deep guttural scream merged with a ribbit in a strange way¡­ The whole thing was strange if James actually tried to think about it. Sharks couldn¡¯t scream ¨C they were silent killers, weren¡¯t they? You couldn¡¯t scream under water? The creature rolled sideways, and James saw an absolute mess covering its front. Dozens of puncture wounds and red gore ¨C some seemed to be part of Richard. The shark spun completely around ¨C rolling on its back before righting itself once more. It was definitely injured now ¨C wary. Would it run away? The shark made a halfhearted hop towards James ¨C crossing half the distance towards him then skidding the last half, its sharp jaws gnawing the air. James ran to the side ¨C not even needing to use haste this time. Nope. His enhanced eyes darted about trying to find another sea urchin or two to place between them. Spying a discarded spike he bent and picked it up like a spear hefting it tightly. You¡¯ll do. Twisting, he held the spike back and waited till the shark was in range once more. There Doing a single hop and baseball style run up James threw ¨C tossing the small amount of kinetic potential he¡¯d gathered into it for good luck. A streak as the shot passed over and hit the shark¡¯s eye, embedding itself deep into it. James turned and ran once again. He baited the shark into a second sea urchin and then a third. He dodged lunge after lunge after lunge. His feet were raw ¨C he wouldn¡¯t have been able to walk on them before the system but as it was they were just an inconvenience making it harder for him to move. Finally, after ages and ages of constant fighting, the shark shuddered and didn¡¯t continue.
?? Rank 2 dungeon cleared. (Rare) ?? Among the first to clear a rank 2 dungeon and among the first to clear this specific dungeon, you have done so in record time. Clear stats: 18 monsters killed. Time taken 71 hours. Party size 2. (new record) State entering dungeon. Rank 2, Tier 1. Free points gained 40.
Main Reward:
Active skill: Averaged force. Average the movement and momentum between two touched objects with respect to their mass. Reality of your body being the collision site is lessened ¨C force naturally lost in collisions is low and evenly spread across your body. Time for skill to function dependent upon mass with abnormal sizes taking much longer to process.
James felt the knowledge and memories of how to apply his new skill flood his mind even as the screen confirmed the death of the shark. It was incredibly simple in context, but held a large amount of potential. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. The description of the skill seemed more complicated than it needed to be¡­and somehow equally way too simplified. Inaccurate ¡®somehow¡¯ from how his memories showed the skill working. James thought back to high school, the blurry memory of physics taking a while to resurface. As a simple refresher, for a purely elastic collision, if two objects had identical mass and one hit another, the two would swap velocities. A ball rolling quickly and hitting a ball sitting still would stop in place and the ball it hit would shoot away at the same speed. Its why newtons cradles were so fun. The momentum was transferred back and forth as efficiently as it could be. For a purely inelastic collision if a moving object hit another it would stop completely ¨C all the kinetic energy being transferred to light and heat and transferred through deformation¡­ This skill was neither of those because it wasn¡¯t really a collision even if it felt like it ¨C even if the skill description mentioned collisions. What it was instead was a simple mix and redistribution of kinetic energy across a distance with the bigger item taking more. The kinetic energy of the system added together and then divided by each of the masses to redistribute it ¨C along with a note to keep the vector direction the same. Something twice as big would take twice as much of the kinetic energy. A ball hitting a stopped ball would cause both balls to roll away at the same lowered speed. It was strange having a memory of experimenting with the skill, but James remembered taping a large rock to his back and having his friend shoot him in the front with a bullet. At the size of a metal bullet, the skill could activate nearly instantly ¨C and a huge chunk of the kinetic energy was transferred to the rock sending it flying away from his back. The bullet still had a chunk of energy left when it hit James ¨C he could remember feeling the bruise from the microsecond before it activated and the sting of its remaining impact ¨C but it had lost the power to pierce his enhanced skin at that point. I hate how easily the system seems to reach into my mind. Those memories never happened. I remember a friend being there but don¡¯t remember the friend''s name or face. Does the skill seem more rooted in physics because I gained it close to the aether side? In an aether dungeon? Is it even useful? I remember that experiment, but I don¡¯t remember actually using it to fight with¡­if I could transfer all the energy from one thing to another instead of part of it, it would be much more immediately helpful. If it didn¡¯t take forever to select the earth below me as the sink for an attack it would be have more utility ¨C I could stop nearly any attack in its tracks in that case. If it wasn¡¯t directional, I could carry sacrificial rocks easier and defend against small but fast attacks¡­ Either way James was happy he actually gained a skill even if it seemed worse than his previous. Richard had mentioned a maximum number of skills at each tier that was lower for unbroken skills. It seems like his long fight against the shark had been considered difficult enough to count. Looking up at the sky James was incredibly glad the boss dying didn¡¯t deactivate the room somehow. What would happen if that ceiling fell on him? Nothing good¡­ James had a final point to meet. He had to try eating a bit of the boss ¨C so far, his body modification hadn¡¯t felt like it had mattered. Without breaking his skills, it hadn¡¯t done anything yet ¨C it had been nerfed into uselessness with none of the monsters he''d tried giving him anything. James walked towards the corpse bending down near it to grab a sharp spike. Carefully reaching out to touch the monster¡¯s skin ¨C he trusted the blue box saying they had won but only so much ¨C James stabbed repeatedly in a circle. Digging the spike in and leveraging James popped out a chunk of flesh, the majority of the insides being something that looked halfway between fat and muscles. White blubber filled with fibrous strands. Making a fire would be too hard right now. James licked the edge of his raw shark slightly then spun his small backpack around and fished about for a specific spice. A spicy spice ¨C one that would probably match the taste and mask the worst of it. Generously coating the flesh in flavor James took a bite. ¡­it wasn¡¯t that bad. Texture was vile but he¡¯d eaten much worse in the previous days. Much much worse. James ate the entire chunk then cut out a second piece and repeated the process. He felt¡­he felt different ¨C the food was doing something. This was his power ¨C not that of the system ¨C so he wasn¡¯t gaining a notification. No blue box was popping up to say anything was happening as James ate ¨C If one had popped up James was almost positive, he would have received several ¨C Stat: +1 leg power Stat: +1 body power ¨C Style notifications. Each trickle of stat energy was shifted slightly ¨C James nudged bits here and there directing the last settlements into his muscles. Actually¡­now that James had felt it the stats felt different. Stat: +1 leg muscle shark jumping power Maybe? The monster stat felt subtly different than the power stats he gained from the system. Wilder somehow ¨C rawer. After five large chunks of flesh James was both full and the stats he had gained had stopped increasing. Maybe with an unnerfed ability ¨C with aether and mana ¨C he¡¯d be able to get much more from a kill. Time to leave I guess? Turning James stared about the planes. The sticky rain had stopped ¨C and he could now see the edge of the room in all directions. That¡­that looks like the side we came in on. So over there is the exit? James considered. As he started to head towards the far wall he paused. What¡­what¡¯s that? Far to the side what looked like a massive unnaturally shaped and marbled rock sat. It looked kind of like a shell. ¨C was that a secret monster? An extra shiny reward? James crept towards it pausing as he looked about. There was blood on the ground ¨C a smear of blood in all directions. Red Richard blood vs the thin yellow shade a lot of monsters in this dungeon shared. Had the shell eaten Richard? James searched about for a big rock. He was going to crack that bad boy open and kill whatever monster had feasted on his friend. Rocks were inconveniently hard to find when you wanted them ¨C what happened to stone biomes being nearby and easy access! Finally James found something that might work ¨C a boulder covered in barnacles. Bending down and lifting with his back not his knees James hoisted the large stone up onto his shoulder. Turning with purpose, he headed towards the evil shell and got ready to toss it. Crack. The shell began to break apart. Seconds before James tossed his weapon he saw a tuft of familiar looking ¨C if short and wet looking ¨C hair. Richard stood slowly naked as the day he was born. Bits of his body bent slightly ¨C his arms and legs looking more like pool noodles or long party balloons full of water than real limbs. They bent at curved angles instead of right angles ¨C an uncanny valley sort of effect almost had James toss the rock anyways. Instead, he chucked it to the side nonchalantly ¨C flickering haste to throw it farther and ignoring the break offering. ¡°Hey, I thought you died!¡± James called out causing the disoriented man to look at him in confusion for a second. ¡°I need a drink. Something harder than those weak mixers¡± Richard rasped ¨C a spurt of thick blood spilling out of his mouth before being wiped away. ¡°You look like you need more than a drink¡­want to head out?¡± James gestured towards the exit. ¡°Please¡± Richard rasped ¨C his voice already sounding better. The two walked slowly and then began picking up their pace as they moved. Richards legs cracked and popped a bit at the start but steadily grew better. ¡°So how did you survive?¡± James asked, curiosity burning through him as they left the plains behind. ¡°System says its something called void defense¡­¡± Richard began. ¡­ Right before they exited the dungeon the two found a room with a single pedestal and two bags of tiny gems. They looked almost like the pips that had been used for money in the previous zone. ¡°They look even enough ¨C this one¡¯s mine¡± James spoke hefting the nearest bag and pocketing it. He still didn¡¯t want to buy anything he¡¯d be devastated about losing ¨C or rely on a weapon that could be lost or broken. A few more spices and maybe a lighter might be worth it though? The two exited the dungeon and then headed towards a shop to exchange their crystals. A small snag appeared as they finished up. [503 credits for you¡­and 502 credits for you] the loot casher spoke. No, the snag wasn¡¯t the difference of credits. It wasn¡¯t risking their life and three days of their time for only around 170 dollars. [What about the rest of your loot?] the cashier asked. Stepping forward Richard began to explain that this was all they had received from the dungeon. [Sure that¡¯s the exit bonus but most delvers know to harvest monster parts¡­which dungeon did you just complete? Did you beat the boss? Most of the final bosses have parts that sell for hundreds of credits minimum and even the regular mobs have some credits in harvested parts.] ¡­no one told them dungeon monsters could be sold. They could have gained so much more! Bemoaning their lost loot, the two left and begin to wander silently. James felt awkward ¨C why was it so hard to say he wanted to leave? Did he still want to leave? ¡­yeah. This had been fun ¨C the people in this city seemed nice even if they had been attacked once on the street¡­ But he had felt so much freer away from civilization. ¡°So¡­I¡¯m planning on leaving soon, heading back to the magic side ¨C I told you about that¡± James spoke. Why were words hard. ¡°Alright then. See you around mate,¡± Richard responded. That had been easier than he was imagining. Now what is the best way to get to the magic side? Start walking around the edge of the barrier? If it was a dome like last time, he just had to make his way around using it like a wall ¨C right? ¡­he had a way to check ¨C kind of a waste but you know¡­its not like he had a different use for it currently. ¡­ ¡°Quest: Way to magic,¡± James spoke. If the board resets with each zone he should be able to ¨Cyep!
Quest board: ¡®Way to magic¡¯.
A sea voyage! Aether is prevalent and all persuasive ¨C but you know of the ¡®other¡¯: Sail across the ocean surviving the journey to catch a glimpse of the mystical. Reward: 81 free stats.
Survive the badlands! Aether is prevalent and all persuasive ¨C but you know of the ¡®other¡¯: The edge of the world is often called the badlands ¨C a wall of nests so dangerous few make it out alive. Cross this deadly wall of monsters ¨C survive and see the secret that hides on the other side. Reward: 81 free stats.
Can¡¯t go through it ¨C can¡¯t go under it. Gotta go above it! : Fly over top of the ¡®containment barrier ¨C fly high above its peak and reach the other side. Make sure to pack a space suit ¨C the top of the barrier is known to pass above the atmosphere near the middle. Reward: 81 free stats.
¡°Shit ¨C has it already been three weeks?¡± Richard spun sideways at James¡¯s use of the achievement finder. ¡°Quest board reset at each zone I think¡­or the transfer between zones takes more than three weeks I don¡¯t know. Either way looks like I¡¯m crossing the badlands again. Going'' find a map after I get a lighter.¡± Richard stared to the side as if thinking. ¡°Quest: Kill my boredom,¡± he spoke eyes lighting up at the response. ¡°Fucking A okay. I have something to do when you leave ¨C after I go break my new skill of course.¡± The two continued on to buy James¡¯s supplies then headed to the edge of the city to say goodbye. Awkwardly standing for a moment near the edge ¨C the guard staring at them suspiciously for loitering near the gate ¨C the two bumped fists for lack of anything else to do then parted ways. It was nice having a friend. Chapter 48. Dreams of magic. ---Maddy--- The entire rest of the day was spent tramping through the jungle. That wasn¡¯t quite as long as you would think ¨C seems like they exited the barrier in the afternoon instead of morning this time ¨C but it was still a few hours of walking. Maddy¡¯s feet would be killing her by the end of if not for a simple cheat ¨C near the start of their trip she realized burning life mana through her feet ¨C wasteful without the direction of a proper spell ¨C made them feel great. On one hand simply sending mana at her feet was wasteful¡­on the other hand it was good visualization practice. She didn¡¯t have a skill or innate ability to just manipulate mana as she pleased so having something to practice on let her build this ability further. Maddy was understanding more and more about how magic worked ¨C or at least how it worked for her. What she liked and disliked, what worked and what didn¡¯t work. She was still in this strange honeymoon period with her magic¡­it felt like she could do anything ¨C the world was her oyster. This was good for now ¨C her teacher had expressed that was an ideal state for a wizard''s foundation¡­in time she could solidify herself further baking habits and strength into her soul but for now this was perfect. The start of her ¡®path¡¯. As a group they walked mostly in silence for a majority of the day. It felt like the proper thing to do ¨C everyone¡¯s mood was ''off'' right now. Sometimes ¨C often even ¨C ignoring problems let them fester¡­but in this specific case it didn¡¯t feel like a ¡®problem¡¯. In fact, trying to ¡®fix¡¯ anything might even make it worse ¨C might backfire and become annoying or stretch it out somehow. Troy was easy ¨C he had some social hangups and was more comfortable if he didn¡¯t have to talk. He still liked being included and liked being around them but didn¡¯t want to speak if he didn¡¯t have to. Jess on the other hand was currently in a state of embarrassment and or frustration over them ¡®running away¡¯. She had understood and agreed with Maddy¡¯s points so the frustration she now had was directed towards herself ¨C an annoyance that it had needed to be pointed out vs an annoyance that it had been pointed out¡­ Either way it felt like if Maddy tried to act like a therapist and talk her through it the annoyance would shift to her instead. Besides ¨C as the day progressed Jess seemed to process it well enough herself. By the time the evening hit for real she was fully ¡®recovered¡¯ ¨C the way her friends were walking showed them getting more comfortable as they grew tired. The natural light dimmed over the course of half an hour or so and the three slowly stepped closer and closer together. Grouping up for perceived safety. Instead of standing a few feet apart they were nearly holding hands as they walked. ¡°Do we want to set up a camp for the night?¡± Maddy asked as soon as her eyes began squinting to see the surroundings. Jess stopped in her tracks and squinted. Slowly she spun shuffling her feet as she stared about the surroundings. ¡°Yeah¡­I¡¯d be down but we should probably find a clearing or something? Somewhere safer than right smack dab in the middle of nowhere.¡± She spoke her voice even and normal as if she hadn¡¯t just spent the day in silence. That was¡­fair. Maddy hadn¡¯t actually been meaning right where they stood ¨C if she left that alone would it seem like she was less competent? Would it harm her image in the group¡­or alternatively would pretending Jess had thought of something she hadn¡¯t make Jess feel more confident? Should she work towards directing the source of her confidence towards Maddy? Raising her up while linking her good feelings towards Maddison? Which way did Maddy want to play this? ¡­ Maddy didn¡¯t want to ¡®play this¡¯. It was just a simple question between ¡®friends she was not manipulating¡¯ who were ¡®following her because they liked her¡¯. Why was her mind so exhausting sometimes? ¡°Sure ¨C of course. Good idea! Let¡¯s continue on till we find a good spot, or it gets too dark.¡± she finally responded. Beside her Troy held his hand up ¨C slowly his skin began to glow the brightness casting shadows around them. It was darker than Maddy had thought. Why hadn¡¯t she thought of making a light yet? Was it not dark enough to register as an issue she had to fix? Hindsight made her feel stupid ¨C Maddy also had a light affinity now. Magic wasn¡¯t her first thought to anything. Maybe it was just because she hadn¡¯t done much with light yet? Maybe because darkness spoke to her more? Well¡­not to be outdone. ¡°An orb of light, shining bright, existing solely to illuminate the night.¡± Maddy softly sang ¨C creating her own miniature sun above her head. The orb was perhaps a bit too ¡®bright¡¯ ¨C she had a bad habit of throwing most of her mana into spells and with her mental image and mention of ¡®illumination¡¯ instead of trying to ¡®attack¡¯ the spell was more focused¡­ She should have added a line in about lasting as long as possible but that wouldn¡¯t have rhymed¡­ She should also have quickly written the spell down on something to increase its stability¡­ Maddy¡¯s searchlight level spell lit up eyes in the darkness. She flickered life mana into her mind watching as indistinct shapes became more visible. There were half a dozen cat-like creatures watching them. Four in the trees. Two on the ground. They were doing nothing but watching ¨C the light causing them to back up slowly. Troy shot an arrow up towards one of the tree cats, the thud causing it to hiss and run away. Maddy continued burning life mana, watching them as they slinked away into the night. Those¡­probably weren¡¯t monsters. If they were monsters, they would have attacked wouldn¡¯t they? The group continued on more cautiously than before. After about ten minutes more of walking they found a place mostly suitable for the night. It wasn¡¯t perfect ¨C not by a long shot ¨C but there was a slight clearing and that was good enough. ¡°I¡¯ll take first watch.¡± Maddy spoke. Nodding gratefully her friends pulled out their communal mat ¨C they hadn¡¯t been able to buy a tent or sleeping bags in any of the places they had gone ¨C then rapidly fell asleep. ¡°Alright.¡± Maddy watched them for a moment then climbed up on a massive log holding her scythe close to her body just in case. This seemed like as good a time as any to practice. Not like she hadn¡¯t been practicing all day but some time to really sit down and think about things. She still had to keep most of her mana free ¨C to defend them at a moment¡¯s notice ¨C but it would be a waste not do anything with her ¡®free¡¯ regeneration. It would be a waste not to increase her capabilities at any time she could. The light above her winked out ¨C it had been growing slowly dimmer and dimmer despite her attempt at making it last. ¡°Light orb.¡± Maddy spoke, creating a tiny ball with the minimum amount of mana she could. This one was already fading fast light mana leaking away from the weak casting ¨C she had less than thirty seconds to get this working. Fiddling about her bag, Maddy found her drawing tools and quickly wrote a few small sentences across the log below her ¨C swapping out words for concepts when she could. She threw in several of her partial concepts while she was down there ¨C collect light for example she thought might hold the light mana better, but the partial collect seemed to only let her do the opposite of what she wanted dimming and preventing any light it ¡®collected¡¯ from illuminating the surroundings. ¡®Collect darkness¡¯ worked a bit ¨C although it only really seemed to be increasing the brightness of existing light sources. Finally she found a variant that seemed to work ¨C a soft glow lighting up the entire log and trickling through her crossed legs. Okay! Now that that¡¯s out of the way the first thing I should do is test out my new ability. Really test it out¡­ One by one Maddy pushed different pools of mana into her mind and watched as the world changed. What she saw was enhanced, how she felt was shifted. Light was perhaps the biggest change ¨C she could see her spell working away beneath her legs. It was hard to describe the shapes and patterns she had unknowingly created¡­but it looked almost like a mutated sand timer. A pile of sand falling to the ground below ¨C except the path it traveled looped and split and looked almost like a river¡­ She let the unstructured direction of magic fall. So far it felt like the biggest change to the ability was what happened to her vision. It wasn¡¯t fully affecting her eyes ¨C other than maybe a bit of leaking from her brain ¨C instead it was simply changing how she processed the input her eyes gave her¡­ But was that reality important? Should she focus on the effect it had on her eyes or not? Maddy sat for a while. She really wanted to close her eyes and meditate on the feelings but¡­that would reduce her ¡®distracted watch¡¯ to literal uselessness. She decided to play more with life and darkness mana pulling more deeply from that pool ¨C it wouldn¡¯t reduce her combat capabilities too much right now and it was hard to really practice mana with pinches at a time. Standing up and stretching for a moment Maddy changed positions and pulled out her old slates. ¡°What do I want light to be? How will It help me? One of the big reasons I wanted it initially was the combined mana it would make¡­but what can it do for me alone?¡± Maddy softly spoke. Behind her someone grunted slightly and rolled over. Okay¡­shh. Don¡¯t vocalize your thoughts. She could focus on how light interacted with her concepts¡­try and bend her current skills to use light instead of death or similar but¡­ Maddy flared light into her brain watching the grains of mana falling through a twisted delta of magic. So light really is a particle. Maddy joked watching the sand fall. Maddy¡¯s mind was a mess. More than she realized ¨C she kept getting distracted by the different trains of thought instead of completing them separately. She spent a moment gathering and flexing her consciousness trying to get into the right headspace then continued. All mana has an innate concept. Fire has a fire concept and life has a life concept. It''s why some spells are hard to do with certain affinities¡­the mana being used corrupts the spell. The concepts it carries don¡¯t play well with the concepts you form your spell in. Life mana has a life concept ¨C it''s why you can heal with it¡­the idea of healing is contained within the concept of life. Death also has a concept ¨C it''s why death mana by default necrotizes things¡­the mana¡¯s concept bends towards killing. So light. Light has an innate concept¡­and what might that be? Light is¡­sight¡­Light is¡­the way everything sees. The ¡®thing¡¯ that everything sees. I should be able to shape that into something visible¡­in other words, without using any of my concept runes I should be able make an illusion that people can see. I should be able to¡­see? Maddy paused, a goal suddenly appearing in her mind. She had something she already needed to do ¨C create something to scout or watch about for danger¡­and she had an affinity who¡¯s base ability lent itself towards sight. Maybe. Well then. Magic is at least partly based on imagination and intent. What do I think of as sight? Should I pull in any of my other concepts and build this scout around that? If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Maddy shifted between and then settled on a single underutilized concept. Orbs. So far she had kind of thrown orbs at relevant parts and moved on ¨C her eggs had worked fine before she had turned them into orb eggs after all. But she wanted something that could see and eyes were kind of like orbs weren¡¯t they? So, she just had to create an eye.
An eye to sight and see for me. An orb of collected light for thee. An eyeball of veins blue and red. Go forth and scout for me I said! Transfer all you think you saw. Tell me danger tooth and maw.
Maddy found a flat sort of fern ¨C some prehistoric leaf ¨C and wrote her spell down, maintaining a mental image of the eye she wanted to create. Necrotic mana on her finger burnt an oval egg shape around her poem and a massive amount of light mana pushed in and twisted about her words. ¡°An eye for me, a sight it shall see. An eye for me, a light it be. Apply my mana upon this spell. Apply my mana I do tell.¡± She softly chanted nonsense ¨C whispering the words again and again as she worked. At this point her attempt to rhyme was repeating the same ideas again and again breaking meaning apart slightly as she ran out of ideas. The mana didn¡¯t seem to mind ¨C responding to her words and imagination and the physical connection and resonance in her voice more than the words themselves by this point. She left a tiny bit of light mana left to channel into her mind and better comprehend the spell she had created. Before Maddy¡¯s eyes it seemed like the instant transfer of mana was almost slowed down. Light mana radiated off of her body in all directions at the speed of light. The mana surged with each word she spoke ¨C as if she were wiping away a fogging window with each syllable ¨C the light shining through brighter and then dimming slightly as more fog grew. As the mana flew towards her creation at the speed of light, it seemed to coalesce into drops¡­tiny grains of clear sand that slowly became a pile and then a sand sculpture. The nature of light mana was like a thousand tiny pearls when forced to stay still. She dropped her light sight for a second to see the spell properly. Yes¡­that was an eye about the ¡®leaf¡¯. A remarkably realistic looking eye ¨C it was fuzzy in parts she hadn¡¯t thought important to imagine, but otherwise it looked real. It didn¡¯t look like something fake ¨C it wasn¡¯t see through or glowing or anything like that¡­ Maddy flicked the last of her light mana into her brain once more to stare at the result. Okay¡­ The illusion broke down slightly when she looked at it with her light-sight. The sand castle came to the forefront ¨C she could see the leaf vaguely distorted below the beads of light¡­ Pushing her scout off Maddy watched in slight disappointment as it floated¡­down. Back and forth the eye fluttered ¨C a falling leaf ¨C before the scout landed on the ground below her and stayed still. Okay¡­so the spell is not strong enough to move with the concepts I gave it¡­I don¡¯t have a kinetic affinity and I can¡¯t have the scout fly off and about with just an orb and some shaped dreams¡­ Bending down she picked her eye up. There was a faint imagined sense of squishing an eye ¨C the illusion itself bulged around her fingers like she was squeezing it ¨C but¡­at the end of the day the illusion wasn¡¯t real. She could feel the leaf below it and feel a faint warmth from the light mana surrounding her fingers but that was it. Walking over to the opposite side of the ¡®camp¡¯ Maddy carefully placed her ¡®eye¡¯ down balancing it on a shrub. Then stepped back. Walking back towards her seat on the log ¨C carefully taking the long way around her friends so she didn¡¯t wake them up¡­ Troy had his arm wrapped around Jess so that was a thing. Jess had her arms and legs splayed and flung out as if she were in the midst of a comfy bed and not a makeshift mat in the middle of the forest. Maddy paused to review their body language and innocent looking faces. There wasn¡¯t something there¡­they weren¡¯t hooking up ¡®behind¡¯ her back. She was 99% certain. ¡­not that there would be a problem with that. Maddy climbed up to her perch once more, then felt about inside her. Reaching for her eye ¨C it felt like it was attached to her head just behind her real eyes ¨C she tried to ¡®see¡¯ what it saw. Closing one eye to try and view through it¡­barely just barely might have done something. There was a vague blurry sort of outline of the woods on that side of the camp. Burning light mana ¨C the act becoming second nature by this point ¨C her view of the forest through the eye she had made grew¡­slowly but surely more details were formed until after a minute she could swear that was her real eye sitting in the bush. Dropping the struggled attempt to see through her scout, she instead tried to ¡®ask¡¯ it what it saw. There was a pause as if it was struggling and then the eye sent back a vague ¡®all clear¡¯. Okay. It worked but could definitely be better. Maddy had vaguely planned for the eye to talk to her ¨C hoping the concept of sound would push through and let it communicate but that hadn¡¯t been enough just yet. No spells worked perfectly first try after all she had some time. ¡­ The next attempt at a scout was to detach it from the spell she made. Instead of a leaf that was an ¡®eye to see¡¯ she made a leaf that ¡®created¡¯ an eye to see¡­ Except it didn¡¯t really create it it more just did the same as the previous and then pushed the eye away from it. The leaf fluttered to the ground and the eye mostly stayed floating above it. moving the leaf vaguely moved the eye ¨C kind of like how the original orb skill followed her about ¨C but¡­it wasn¡¯t a scout that could move about. She placed the floating eye on a new fresh side and tried again. Bit by bit her spell became more refined as if her mana knew what to do the more eyes she made. Sadly it looked like the first eye was one of her best ¨C it was still glowing over there on the bush nearly an hour later while all her other attempts were already broken. The magic really felt quite a bit more stable when wrapping completely around the leaf ¨C trying to push it away free floating ¡®worked¡¯ but it lasted a fraction of the time¡­ What she was doing suddenly reminded Maddy of golems in stories. They usually had a piece of paper with like holy words or rules or something on it embedded inside of them. ¡­it would probably be pretty easy to make a golem if she wanted. With a wink at the back of her head as it flicked out ¨C that spell had lasted more than most ¨C her first eye disappeared. Stepping off her log Maddy bent and dug her hands into the hard peat of the forest floor. She scraped and dug the ground then pulled up a crumbly sort of dirt. Carefully tansfering a good handful to one hand she grabbed another leaf then retreated to her perch ¨C the bush she was pulling them all from was nearly completely stripped for materials now. Slowly Maddy played with the materials thinking about her desire. She had started off wanting to make a scout spell ¨C she could spend some time and make a eye that floated and ¡®flew away¡¯ from her sending back what it saw¡­but that eye would fall apart after a few seconds. Sometimes you had to work with what you got ¨C instead of trying to force that spell to work, for now Maddy would double down on her first version. She didn¡¯t have a creation affinity so there wasn¡¯t a huge chance she could make anything permanent ¨C like making a spell whose goal was ¡®movement¡¯ without a speed affinity¡­but she could still try her best. The first step was to infuse the leaf with life mana. To create a living spell ¨C a ball of collected life that just wanted to continue existing and nothing else. Maddy paused then shifted her mental image. At the center was a leaf and one of her maggots. A tiny little grub ¨C one of the weakest versions that could last the longest...altered further in the hopes it would last even longer. She didn¡¯t have any left in her scythe ¨C they tended to burrow in and hibernate for as long as they could after she killed something but still faded after an hour or two ¨C so she was forced to make one from scratch. She could try and visualize it but Maddy inherently knew that wouldn¡¯t really add anything to her spell. It needed something real and impactful to matter ¨C ideally she¡¯d kill a monster with her reapers seed spell then transfer the maggot to here but¡­the monsters seemed to be leaving them alone pretty surprisingly right now. Maddy cut her arm, twisting her mana through her scythe in a practiced manner. It felt off to use her skill this way ¨C trying to create a maggot was inherently trying to attack something¡­if she were using her skill to heal the egg would hatch into roots and quickly consume themselves to heal anything they found¡­and she was ¡®attacking¡¯ herself right now the skill confused and conflicted as the maggot seemed to want to protect her as well as head straight towards her heart. Slowly the tiny wisp of death mana grew feeding on Maddy in some unseen way¡­ ¡°Oh!¡± Maddy jumped ¨C pushing death mana into her brain and looking down. The maggot spun and chewed on Maddy¡¯s lifeforce, becoming plump as it gorged on the invisible energy of her body. She could immediately see how weak the maggot was ¨C she could snuff it out with a thought if she cared to ¨C but she could also see how it could be improved. Minute flaws laid bare towards a clinical pessimistic side to her brain¡­ She turned off death mana and shoved as much life mana into her mind as she could to try and compensate. Any negative impact from using death mana in such an important area slowly faded and Maddy breathed deeply. Okay. Now to continue. Pulling the maggot out of her arm ¨C healing the tiny slice by pushing life mana through a healing spell on her scythe then dragging it back to the cut ¨C she placed it on the leaf she had made earlier. Carefully Maddy spat into a bit of dirt clumping the wet soil around her leaf and living seed infusing the whole process with life mana as she did. Then as if as an afterthought she activated her eye spell ¨C slowly weaving it into the hibernating seed below. The maggot seemed to dig about the muddy dirt as she worked ¨C chewing the leaf and mud and leaving something¡­different in its wake. Finally, Maddy was left with a very real fitting eye. She carefully brought it over to the first eyes shrub and placed it on the top then retreated once more. ¡°What do you see?¡± ¡°The forest is clear¡± Her maggot told her ¨C peering out at the world in front of it. Perfect. ¡­ The next experiment Maddy moved to was improving her existing skills. Adding light¡­adding an illusion of what the skill looked like increased its strength. That meant if she used her dark-life/death mana and created eggs they would be stronger if she covered them in light mana illusions of eggs. Her wispy maggots would have more form with fleshy looking white bodies ¨C her slashes would have more oomph if she made them look like they had more oomph. And then she moved on ¨C Maddy didn¡¯t have a way to track how much time was passing or when she should wake someone up to take over¡­but she still felt wide awake. Each channel of life mana through her body banished the tired feeling slightly ¨C kicking the ball down towards a future her. This skill...now this one... Slowly she better made her skills physically look like she imagined them. A simple enough boost to her strength that only took some time to modify the spells on her staff. A line or two of descriptive words. Some imagination and iteration as she created maggots then studied them up close ¨C filling in details they lacked or studying how the light mana coating her skills blended into them slightly. ¡­ One of her eyes alerted her to some movement and a quick back and forth let her notice what was happening behind her back. Jess extracted herself up off the ground ¨C looked around ¨C then spotted Maddy and began tip toeing towards her carefully. Even if she didn¡¯t have eyes behind her head Maddy would have heard the rustling as Jess brushed through undergrowth but she pretended not to hear. With a lunge, Jess wrapped her arms around Maddy¡¯s side hugging her back and ducking her head around beside her. ¡°Whatchu working on?¡± Jess asked staring up at her ¨C seemingly disappointed she hadn¡¯t jumped out of her skin. ¡°Well¡­look around" ¨C Maddy pointed out her eyes sitting on roots and logs and balancing on bushes around them. Jess squinted and then jumped when she noticed one. ¡°Creepy¡± Jess laughed brushing off her surprise then climbing up beside her crouching down and sliding her legs around the log. ¡°I think you should head to bed ¨C I¡¯ll take second watch. Shoo, shoo¡± Jess nudged Maddy. She was being more touchy than usual. Was everything fine? Maddy stared into her friend''s face. Everything was¡­not fine but it wasn¡¯t a big deal? It was small and¡­ Had Jess had a nightmare? Maddy continued staring then nodded. ¡°Okay, thanks. I¡¯ll renew the spell on the log below you so you have light for as long as possible¡­ Maddy bent and found her previous script then pushed a huge chunk of life-light into it attempting a weaker version of her previous maggot discoveries ¨C she didn¡¯t want to make one in front of Jess right now. Finishing up the glowing base Maddy shoved the entirety of her light pool into the spell ¨C doubling up on what was already there ¨C then nodded and slid down from the log. ¡°Good night Jess¡­Good luck and make sure to wake me up if anything happens.¡± Maddy spoke yawning suddenly as if her body suddenly realized how tired it was. Picking an empty place at the edge of the matt Madison curled up and attempted to fall asleep. Sleeping in the woods sucked. Sleeping without a blanket sucked. The last thoughts that filled her mind as she drifted away were how she had wasted her time making scouts¡­she should have figured out how to make a bed or blankets first. ¡­ Maddy dreamed a disorienting mess of scenes that night. She was a child again ¨C being led through a mall by her mother. She was a young adult once again ¨C holed up in her room to escape him. She was a mage ¨C she knew magic ¨C and she was flying about the sky on a broom. Her broom was her scythe ¨C it curved beneath her legs and held her up as she cut through the air. She was a scythe ¨C her body firm her arm a blade. She was in high school ¨C acting so much cattier than she remembered. She was drinking in a bar with Jess and Troy ¨C Troy wore a spooky looking cloak that hid his eyes and Jess was loud as he yelled for refills on the ale at the bar. Finally as if trying to make some sense of the nonsense her mind shifted and solidified. She was dreaming ¨C it was all a dream. She floated above her head staring down at her mind below. The same view as when she had distributed her mind stats. The web of connected nodes and wires between them ¨C some near the edges looked frayed while others were strong and almost humming with mental energy. This¡­this was her mind. The representation of her mind. Except it wasn¡¯t just a ¡®web¡¯ in name. it really was a spider''s web the more she looked. A single spider sat at the center appearing to grow as she noticed and focused on it. A controlling arachnid. Faint threads floated out as the spider manipulated its surroundings. This was her¡­she was a spider. Faint threads snaked away from her head and puppeted the bodies of her friends beside her. She was nothing more than a puppet master¡­they weren¡¯t her friends. Not really ¨C not if they knew what she was like. They were just convenient tools she had picked up ¨C they didn¡¯t actually like her she had just forced them to like her. No. Maddy struggled to drag her eyes away. This¡­no I¡¯m not like this. The spider cackled with her mother¡¯s voice. ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with being yourself¡±. Maddy began arguing with her mother ¨C a frustrated argument about leaving her alone. About how she was getting better. She was her own person now... she had never won an argument with her mother before.- All her points were shot down with simple ''facts'' or twisted into no longer mattering. And yet a part of her felt¡­felt at peace. A part of Maddy turned away from the drama in front of her and looked around. Twin pairs of eyes stared at her from both sides of the woods. The ¡®cats¡¯ from earlier slowly but surely stepped towards the clearing. The log beneath Jess was growing dimmer and dimmer as Maddy¡¯s spell left it, and as the light retreated the cats moved closer. They shimmered in Maddy¡¯s vision ¨C flickering and blurring slightly in her dream. Suddenly a tiny voice flickered into Maddy¡¯s mind. ¡°Something there¡± Her eyes shot open and with a gasp Maddy jumped to her feet. Jess spun slightly on her dim log to stare at her in confusion. ¡°Something here¡± her maggot eye nudged her. It was still working ¨C what had to be hours later and the scout she had made was still going strong. ¡°Light orb¡± Maddy spoke quick casting a weak version of her light spell, the ball suddenly illuminating the eyes. Her dream had been real. ¡°Aha!¡± Jess yelled jumping off the log far faster than she should have been able to ¨C her arm flicking out with a void whip seconds later. The slash ripped through the creature still shocked by the bright light in front of it and scoured a deep gash on the tree beside them. The cat both ¡®died¡¯ like a regular creature and partly melted as if made of clouds ¨C a haze of life rising up into the air as its body was split in two. Mine. Scrambling to pick her scythe up Maddy slashed out ¨C cutting through the mist and harvesting its life. She condensed the death energy down into seeds then turned just in time to see Troy firing an arrow from his half asleep position. The second cat died with a hiss and ripple of clouds. Maddy looked around then walked over and harvested this death as well. ¡°Show yourself!¡± Jess yelled into the darkness even as troy rapid fire created glowing bolts of light and shot them into the surroundings. All of his bolts landed true and continued to shine brightly ¨C it was like he was stabbing glowsticks into the trees around them. There weren¡¯t any other cats¡­
?? Achievement get: Sleeping sentinal. (Rare)
Description: Alert yourself and respond to an attack upon your sleeping form.
Stat: +3 mental power. Stat: +3 mental defense. Stat: +3 mental speed. Partial-Concept: Awake
Slowly the three gathered up and waited. ¡°¡­does anyone else feel like that was anticlimactic?¡± Jess spoke after a minute of silence. ¡°I don¡¯t know but I don¡¯t want to go back to bed¡± Maddy sighed. It was early but the sky already looked brighter. Guess today was going to start early. Camping sucks. Chapter 49. The beginning of a cooks camping adventure. ---James--- James started to run as soon as he left the confines of the city. No magic or aether or whatever, just his enhanced legs and feet pounding the earth. Well¡­no skills at least ¨C what did stats count as? Magic or Aether? It didn¡¯t matter. All that mattered was speed. Roughly a hundred meters out from the city there were long dead corpses of creatures ¨C most too charred and decomposed to recognize what they might have been. That line of corpses had been his starting line. He had no finish line. Not yet. Speeeeeeeed. ¡­ After almost an hour of running, a popup appeared to show off his progress.
?? Achievement get: Endurance sprinter (rare)
Description: Run forty-four kilometers in under an hour using nothing but your body.
Stat: +9 leg speed. Stat: +3 lactic acid defense
The burn that had been building from running all out faded and James felt himself push forward even faster ¨C he had definitely been slowing down that last bit. More! Faster! He wanted to be faster than a car! Not as fast as a car in a school zone. James whooped as he ran, swerving off the path to jump over a log ¨C for no reason other than to see if he could ¨C laughing hysterically all the while. As he flew over the log he tapped it with one hand imagining it was a monster he tagged ¨C can¡¯t touch me-ehehehe. He skidded for a sec ¨C flashing haste to cheat his landing and return him to the path ¨C then jumped over an even larger log feeling the wind flow across his body. He flew over the puny fallen trees. Graceful. Elegant ¨C the jumping stats from the shark monster seemed especially potent doing far more for the smaller number than others. James needed more monstrous stats. More! It had been hard to feel strong in the city ¨C and hard to feel like his stats even mattered when people were walking around with laser pistols¡­ Actually just listening to the culture there it seemed like stats didn¡¯t even matter at all. Everyone was about skill this, aether tool that. Stats were just treated like a level indicator. But this? This reminded him of his original goal. He wanted to be strong on his own. He wanted powerful skills of course but above that, he wanted to turn his body into a weapon. This right here, this was what he was pushing for. His stat growth had slown'' down ¨C proof he wasn¡¯t pushing himself as hard as he had been before. Forwards! Forwards! Forwards! ¡­ Finally slowing down when the path began to break apart, James found himself at the edge of a large lake. To his left far in the distance the barrier that was his guidepost cut through the water. To the right, he could see the distant shore wrapping around a muddy beach shown in his vision. He should go around¡­but intrusive thoughts bulldozed into the front of his mind. Go ¡®through¡¯ it. Swim. You can do it! James¡­didn¡¯t listen to the voice to its immense disappointment. The water would feel good but it would also get in his backpack and soak his supplies. It would be a stupid decision¡­a waste¡­ And yet why was he letting his boring common sense ruin his actual desires? James stopped his path along the edge of the lake and stared about. The area he was in was tentatively a Coniferous forest ¨C it looked a lot like forests back home in Canada. There were fir and spruce-like trees¡­nothing interesting. The weird part however was the fruit ¨C most of the trees had different coloured pear-shaped balls making half the foliage look like Christmas trees. All it needed was some snow and lights to finish the theme. A Christmas forest¡­were there monsters about? There had been a few small animals on his path and something large and furry had run from his charge earlier¡­ But for the most part the surroundings were empty. A bird cawed in the distance... but for the most part it was silent. James wanted to swim and so he did, stripping off his clothes and climbing a tree to keep his backpack of spices and pants and shirt safe. A faint hint of him was uncomfortable showing so much of his body and yet¡­he was alone, he needed to be more confident. Taking a running jump into a shallow dive James swam as fast as he could ¨C the cold water washing off his sweat and soothing his well used muscles. Swimming¡­swimming was easy. Almost boring with how simple it was. James took a breath and dove down ¨C pushing his body against the buoyancy ¨C then opened his eyes. The clear water was too deep to show much. The lake bed was dark and murky ¨C long strands of green algae drifting about and wrapping around grassy weeds and fern-like aquatic bushes. A few seemed to have little berries, the small colourful dots shining out in what was otherwise darkness. James swam down and grabbed a few ¨C feeling his lungs begin to burn as he headed back up. Swimming was¡­different than running. It used a lot of the same leg muscles but there were faint differences. His stats were optimized for running and while quite a lot of that transferred enough didn¡¯t that it felt weird to kick about. Swimming could be good training couldn¡¯t it? James swam back to shore and took a bite of one of the water berries. It was sharp, tart and sweetly acidic ¨C like a cranberry mixed with a lemon. The texture left much to be desired but as far as a flavour went it was pretty nice. Throwing the rest of his wet handful into his mouth James puckered his lips at the sour tingle while searching about for a rock. There¡­that seems like a good size. Bending down to grab a stone the size of his head, James carried it confidently towards the lake once more pushing out into the water. He walked until he couldn¡¯t walk and then jumped treading water as hard as he could. This was doable ¨C he had picked too light of a rock for this to be a true challenge. Despite it being ¡®too easy¡¯ his legs still quickly began to feel tired¡­despite not fully pushing himself as hard as he could or for as long as he could he still got an achievement
?? Achievement get: Take your pet for a swim. (rare)
Description: Carry your pet rock out into the lake ¨C making up for the stone being unable to swim.
Stat: +3 free body power
Continuing to drift towards the center of the lake James took a deep breath and then dropped ¨C letting the rock pull him down towards the bottom once more. Landing by some berry bushes, James sort of walked over and shifted his stone to one hand to grab more sour treats.
?? Achievement get: Lake walk (rare)
Description: Walk along the bottom of a lake.
Stat: +1 lung defense
Out of the corner of his eye James spotted a drifting shape ¨C a fish. ¡­understanding better the challenge that could give him achievements James took a metaphorical breath and then shoved the berries into his mouth. A small stream of lake water entered his mouth with the intake but he had gotten it.
?? Achievement get: Submerged Snack. (Unique)
Description: So gluttonous for food you forgot you can¡¯t breathe under water ¨C wait till you get to shore to snack you sea-pig.
Stat: +3 lung defense. Stat: +3 stomach defense.
Dropping his rock James swam up towards the surface even as he felt a slight tug from his surroundings. His head broke the water with a gasp and cough as he breathed deeply then smashing down James returned just in time to see a strange fish barreling towards him. Almost as long as his arm with powerful looking fins and intelligent looking eyes this fish was lacking a proper name something like a pike. Lashing out James felt how his body moved under water ¨C the fish flicked its tail and spun around his body much faster than he could follow. The water was a good training tool now that he thought about it ¨C it was an exaggerated view of the way air could push at him as he got faster. Flailing and failing to punch the fish a few times seemed to embolden the creature ¨C it dived forward toward him after ¡®realizing¡¯ how ¡®weak¡¯ James was. Its relatively small mouth opened and the fish bit down hard on James¡¯s arm. ¡­ James stared at the surprised fish. Its tiny mouth just barely punctured his enhanced skin. Something that wasn¡¯t at all impressive considering how little James had focused on it. More importantly, the fish was now still and within whacking range as it attempted and failed to rip out a relatively small chunk of James¡¯s forearm. Clenching his fist and raising it back James locked eyes with the fish before punching as hard as he could. He instinctively pushed all the retaliatory kinetic energy into his fist as he flung an underwater hook. His arm ripped through the water and smacked the creature sending it spinning away a faint impact ringing out through the water around him. Angry now, the fish attacked again ¨C dodging another of James¡¯s strikes as it tried to aim for his face. This time the fish bit down hard on James¡¯s nose ¨C the lunge for his face making him flinch even if the pain was barely there. James pulled both arms back like a percussion player smashing cymbals together then turned on [haste] and double slapped the beast. Instead of letting it get away once again, James wrestled the slippery aquatic, ignoring the chunk of his nose it had ripped out or the cloud of blood filling the water around him. Holding onto a fish in water was hard ¨C so much harder than it should be and James constantly felt like he was going to let go. [Haste] was still active ¨C probably the only reason he was able to keep up with the pike¡¯s thrashing and James finally managed to get the creature under one arm. His second fist began to beat the fish again and again and again even ¨C James had to close his eyes as blood and bits of scales filled the water. As if just realizing it had a method of attack left, the fish that was slowly being beat to death unleashed its final ability. The water around James came to life and churned, unnaturally strange swirls and whirlpools brushed across James¡¯s body. He continued to punch. The same tugging feeling he had felt when he swam towards the surface initially now amplified somehow as the magical creature brought the full force of its lesser water manipulation to bear. The creature attempted to grab the surroundings and pull James down further into the lake and he felt himself dropping even as he felt the fish¡¯s thrashes grow weaker. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. With a final crack James smashed something important inside the fish and it suddenly stopped as if whatever force had been animating it was snuffed out. The tugging pull instantly stilled and James began to swim upwards his catch still held tightly under one arm.
?? Achievement get: Underwater pugilist. (Unique)
Description: Deciding to play fisty cuffs in a new domain you have killed a creature using nothing but your body in domain that empowers it.
Stat: +6 arm power.
A faint ringing was slowly filling his ears and a faint taste like antiseptic cream smelt filled his tongue. He had been underwater way too long ¨C it had felt like moments, but he had been punching this creature for minutes. His newest stats had probably just been enough to pull through ¨C the creature had dragged him deeper than he had realized. Breaking the surface, James breathed deeply ¨C the edges of his eyes blurry and dark as he struggled to regain focus. How far away was the shore? It looked like almost a kilometer away¡­where had he come from? Where was his stuff? James blinked as he rapidly regained normalcy. There¡­that looks familiar? Picking a direction ¨C using the barrier as his biggest landmark ¨C James began to swim to shore carrying his prize. A few minutes into his one arm paddle he felt a tugging from the creature under his arm ¨C was it still alive? Ducking under water and opening his eyes he saw a smaller fish ¨C this one shaped like a salmon with sharp teeth attempting to steal his prey. Mine. James kicked the fish away and grabbed his catch even more possessively. He stared at the salmon eyes narrowed in a stalemate. The two stood in a silent stalemate for almost a minute of silence ¨C James would have to go up for air soon. Finally the fish seemed to give up ¨C diving and disappearing from James¡¯s sight once more. That¡¯s what I thought. Returning to his paddle James swam ¨C flicking on [haste] whenever its cooldown disappeared until he finally reached the shore. Dragging his catch up onto the ground he was able to look at it in all its detail. The pike looked massive ¨C over half a meter in length with another 20cm of fin trailing behind it. This was a catch! The entire front of it was nothing more than brutalized scales and ripped off skin. Fish bones poked out and it would have been covered in blood if that hadn¡¯t been washed away in the lake. Still James was happy. He had caught lunch. ¡­ The first thing James did was store his fish up the tree. It wasn¡¯t a very safe space ¨C many creatures could climb trees ¨C but it felt safer than leaving it on the ground for a few minutes and he had an idea. Step one was to gather some lemon cranberries. James decided to cave and get his shirt wet ¨C bringing it down to act like a makeshift bag. He could always dry it after all and he didn¡¯t want to spend hours on this. Next he gathered several rocks and placed them in a circle on the muddy ¡®beach¡¯. He gathered several fallen pine branches as well as a few larger logs then pulled out his lighter and soon had a roaring blaze. Next step was to pull out his saucepan ¨C a thin metal frying pan that took up a lot of space in his bag but was paradoxically super small when he held it in his hands and wanted to cook with it. Putting the gathered cran-lemons into the pan with some fresh lake water James sprinkled some sugary spice into the pan and held it out over the fire. It very quickly began to boil, but his hand kept getting hot so James took a break to try and balance rocks better. It was hard to re-arrange a fire once it was burning but James poked stuff around with a stick then made a ledge for his pan to balance. Sprinkling some sprigs of herbs in, then stirring it till reduced, James stared at his supplies. Dozens of spices to make his food better, water bottle, pan, lighter, Swiss army knife complete with fork and several knives... It had seemed like luxuries when he was gathering them but now ¨C the point was to make sure he didn¡¯t have any belongings he¡¯d be sad about losing¡­but now it felt incredibly bare bones. Where was his plate? A pot? More utensils? Finding a branch and quickly stripping it James sharpened the end and slowly skewered his beaten up fish. The fish was almost bigger than his fire! It bent the stick he found, forcing him to gather a second and stab it from the other end as well. Salting the outside generously James placed it across the flames ¨C his fire had dimmed slightly while he worked on setting up the fish and it was more embers than flame now but a few more branches flared it right back up. Carefully James spun and tried to evenly cook his fish. This was taking longer than he had imagined ¨C the fire wasn¡¯t hot enough but maybe that was for the best? He pressed it down into the hot coals ¨C that didn¡¯t sizzle it like he was imagining it just covered the fish in soot so he was forced to wait. ... Finally it reached a point James was happy with and he flopped it out onto one of the stones. Pulling out his knife James carefully cut off a strip then drizzled it lightly with his lumpy sauce. Using his knife to try and scrape the burnt scales and skin off James switched to a fork and took a bite. It tasted¡­it was strong. A strong fishy taste ¨C tougher than James had been hoping but smoky and almost tasty paired with his sauce. All around the late lunch was something he could be happy with. He took another bite and another, ripping large strips out of his tough fish and happily saucing each bite. The inside of the fish reminded him of things ¨C his monster knowledge resurfacing to point out what strange-looking sacks might be. He felt like a gourmet biting into each part ¨C That was a swim bladder¡­that was a skill heart¡­that was a bit of intestine¡­that was something that might be a liver or might be an effect accumulator. Most of the insides were supposedly toxic¡­but stomach defense ignored that and he was only taking small bites. After eating a large amount of the meal there was the barest hint of something that built and faded¡­it felt like he was being mocked ¨C it felt like if his newest ability was fully setup with mana and aether he would have just gotten a stat point or two. It felt like a waste¡­but was a meal ever really a waste? Besides the sad lack of a permanent boost a different sort of feeling grew as he ate more of the probably an effect accumulator ¨C something that sometimes stored an ability letting creatures charge or pre prepare their skills. The barest hint of a churning feeling seemed to build and fill his stomach. Knowing it would have been more potent had he eaten it right away and knowing the feeling would fade soon, James walked over to the water and dipped his hands into the pond. He focused and attempted to feel¡­something. People didn¡¯t usually eat monster meat and the system knowledge he was given only gave him a general sort of knowledge. There. With a flex of his insides, James pulled and pushed the churning feeling out of his hands, a faint ripple floating away from him in all directions. It was hard to explain, feel, imagine, even describe how it felt. The manipulation was definitely kinetic based so that helped ¨C the tiniest of overlap in how the skill functioned and his own skill functioned. The churning feeling was completely spent after only creating a ripple or two. A second waste¡­but he hadn¡¯t eaten the creature to gain a skill he had eaten it because he beat it and wanted to¡­plus he had been getting hungry. It felt like a good experience either way. Grabbing the remains of dinner ¨C a mess of inedible bits and leftovers ¨C James carried it to the lake and threw it into the water. Seconds later the salmon from earlier poked its head out as if thanking him then attacked the remains just out of sight. You¡¯re welcome. ¡­ After his meal James spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the entire outer edge of the lake. He ended up at the far shore just as it was beginning to grow dark and decided to climb a tree to fall asleep out of reach of wild animals and monsters. Picking a particularly tall one James scrambled up it then got comfortable ¨C using his backpack as a pillow. It took a while to release his restless energy but he slowly fell asleep watching the sunrise ripple across the lake. ¡­ The night was uneventful but James did find a line of scratch marks across the bottom of his tree. It looked like a seven clawed creature had angrily ripped apart the trunk unable to reach him¡­if it had truly been a threat however James would have been woken up by his minor ability. Taking a deep drink of the lake''s water ¨C he had no desire to repeat his dehydration fiasco ¨C James set out once more. He spent the majority of the day hiking. Partway through he spent some time trying to hike blindfolded again ¨C this was a different sort of challenge to before. He kept hitting trees till he got it right. He spent some time carrying as heavy a rock as he could lift ¨C spent some time trying to run once more the largest difficulty being in dodging the trees ¨C but for the most part his trip was entirely uneventful. The day ended around when James exited the Christmas forest and he continued walking into the night. Monsters come out at night. Usually that meant one needed to be careful but James was looking forward to it. He wanted some action ¨C something to spice up his trip. Sadly outside of the badlands ¨C or a monster nest ¨C the increase in monsters was barely noticeable. James walked across a grassy plain feeling like the only person in the world. A slinking mass of fur stalked him ¨C it looked like a furry slinky with dozens of tiny legs and it was a coward. James had punched it once when it had gotten close and now it ran whenever he got close, moving like a jumping caterpillar that flipped ends repeatedly as it dodged and flung itself about. Sure, he could hunt it down with haste¡­it wasn¡¯t ¡®that¡¯ fast¡­ But that didn¡¯t seem like a challenge. That didn¡¯t seem like it would even warrant an achievement ¨C James had killed plenty of monsters and gotten nothing. It felt like he only gained achievements when the monster was stronger than him or he fought it in a unique way or was hindered somewhat like when he fought underwater. ¡­maybe he could setup that situation artificially? Should he fight this blindfolded? It was already pretty dark so it wouldn¡¯t change things too much¡­ Yeah that seemed like a plan. Tossing off his tutorial sneakers, James flipped up his shirt to cover his head squeezing out of the sleeves and using them to tie a wrap around his eyes. A series of increasing vibrations announced the monster''s charge ¨C it seemed to understand that James had blinded himself and thought him an easier target now. Left. James dodged ¨C right into a furry body. Okay maybe he couldn¡¯t make up for sight just through touch yet. It''s fine, that was part of the challenge. James jabbed his hands about trying to shadow box the creature he couldn¡¯t see. An impact at his back nearly sent him sprawling ¨C if I had a way to time it and a rock I could have transferred a lot of that force¡­ A second impact hit his side and he flicked on [haste] to grab the coil of flesh by him. The start of a repeat of the fish beating took place, before, with a twist the flesh rod he was holding¡­sort of turned inside out? It happened just as haste deactivated indicating a level of intelligence and planning from the creature¡­one that didn¡¯t seem like a good sign. The creature that was beside him some how twisted around until its body had wrapped fully around James¡¯s. It constricted slightly a lethargic feeling sinking into James¡¯s bones. He felt¡­slow. The kinetic energy that every movement he took was increased¡­the force he used was sapped. This¡­this isn¡¯t good. With a tightening twist the slinky began to squeeze. So it''s like a boa constrictor? Get a creature inside its body and squeeze it to death? I didn¡¯t notice a mouth and I haven¡¯t felt any bites or slashes so I guess this makes sense. James flexed his body. It was uncomfortable but this much pressure couldn¡¯t kill him. Haste was on cooldown but he should be able to use it in a few more seconds and then the counter attack would begin! ¡°Is that all you got?¡± James laughed his speech slurring slightly even as he struggled to rip the tightening coil apart. The monster didn¡¯t answer ¨C James didn¡¯t even know if it had a mouth ¨C but after tightening the coil bent slightly. A second before it happened James realized what the slinky was doing. That¡¯s¡­not ideal. ¡­ The slinky was not a boa constrictor. Instead, it was a Supplex master ¨C it jumped and smashed James¡¯s head into the ground his face being shoved into grassy dirt while his neck was jerked so hard he thought it might break. After throwing James head first into the dirt the creature¡¯s tight hold on him loosened for a solid second. He was still ¡®slowed¡¯ and trapped but he had a bewildered moment to reach an arm down and push his head up before the coil tightened once more. Dammit! James yelled as he tried to use something ¨C his new skill, anything. There was a slight weakening of the pressure as James picked points to impact each other ¨C one side of the coil pushing back on the other.
Skill break?
Yes No
No. James struggled to transfer force about ¨C it kept almost working the coil loosening here and there each time he pushed his skill. The main problem was in its domain¡­the skill worked off of momentum and kinetic energy not continuous squeezing. It was too limited in scope ¨C too useless as it was. James was flipped up ¨C the slinky suplexing him backwards to the point he was standing up once again. [Haste]. Cooldown over James found the slow feeling ripped out of him his body humming as his skill battled that of the monster. It felt like haste wanted to fill him up with energy to a certain level ¨C the monster was stealing that energy ¨C and so the skill kept giving him more, the amount given raising higher and higher the more was stolen.
Skill break?
Yes No
¡°I¡¯m not ready yet ¨C no I said!¡± James yelled ¨C he didn¡¯t have time to be distracted by popups! James had nine seconds to escape this Chinese finger trap and beat it to death - zero to spend on this stupid announcement. James twisted ¨C uncoiling the slinky slightly and shoved his body out the creature''s middle. His arms failed around and found a rock. Lucky. Raising his favourite makeshift weapon, James bludgeoned the coil holding him till it grew mushy and weak. It felt like the coil was full of nothing but liquid ¨C the insides controlling the entire slinky with hydraulic pressure. As soon as James broke a big enough section of the monster its insides poured out in a rush ¨C coating his entire body in oily liquid that made his skin feel slippery. The hard coil seemed to deflate in his arms falling off him even as he rolled over and tried to stand up.
?? Achievement get: Blindfolded Beat down. (unique)
Description: Kill a monster using nothing but your body. The noteworthy part is purposefully removing your sight beforehand.
Stat: +3 Ear power. Stat: +3 Nose power. Stat: +3 Nerve power. Stat: +9 free body power. Stat: +1 stomach skin bludgoning defense.
An addictive rush of stats ¨C higher than anything since the dungeon filled James. Affirming his decision to remove his sight as a good one. ...a dangerous rush that made him want to do it again. Pulling off his blindfold James found himself covered in incredibly shiny blood. It was a light red but glistened in the moonlight far more than it should have. Licking some of the oily blood off his hand James grimaced. It tasted like coppery gasoline. It was a shame that most of the body seemed to have sunk into the ground but it¡¯s not like James wanted to eat it¡­ He took a bite out of the ¡®skin¡¯ his teeth fighting to bite through what felt like a tire. James couldn¡¯t help himself. What if it gave him something good? Continuing to gnaw on the deflated monster James scrapped bits of the inside off swallowing the taste. Maybe it''s better fried? ¡­ A few minutes later James had a grass fire going. His makeshift pile of grass burned bright and hot lighting up the entire plain around him but it kept going out ¨C it kept going burning up all the fuel while also nearly spreading to the surroundings. James did not want to start a bushfire ¨C he kept jumping on the spreading lines feeling like an idot. There was a problem with just doing what he wanted damned the consequences but he was having so much fun he didn¡¯t want to stop now. Besides¡­the fire did its job ¨C the heat softened the rubbery flesh somewhat and after copious amounts of spicy sauce the James choked down a few bites of the slinky skin. A single defensive feeling stat dripped out of the monster and was distributed to James¡¯s skin. More importantly a large rush of¡­was a monster''s skill mana or aether? James couldn¡¯t tell what the feeling that monster meat gave him was, but it felt like it filled and shifted about him. Like the last time its skill had been a kinetic-based one ¨C but somehow¡­maybe because the monster was more ¡®magical¡¯ or more¡­aether dense? Somehow the feeling of slow power filled him stronger than anything had up till now. It was a slow feeling of power and yet James wasn¡¯t slowed by it¡­it was his to control. Stalking out of the night was a second monster ¨C a wispy looking four-legged creature without a head. ¡­a test subject. James jumped at the creature bringing the slow feeling energy to bear the creature scratching at him even as it became lethargic and still. It felt like cheating as James grabbed a rock and beat the defenceless monster to death then threw its body on his fire. Too weak. ¡­too easy. James travelled across the plains for most of the night occasionally finding and killing a monster or two. It seemed like he was in a low leveled zone ¨C his time in the badlands had shifted his view of what normal monsters were like. James started getting really tired sometime deep into the night but there was nowhere to sleep ¨C he was attacked every 20-30 minutes and sure he would be able to wake up in time to stop it but that felt like there wasn¡¯t a point¡­where were the trees? Why were the natural biomes so big? It was almost a fluke that caused James to continue fighting through the entire night but it rewarded him with an uncommon achievement in the end so maybe it was worth it. By morning he was no longer tired ¨C his second wind had hit and he felt like he could go another day but he ended up forcing himself to find a comfortable clump of grass to powernap in. When he woke up it was afternoon and he travelled once more¡­another day of walking ¨C flipping to walking on his hands or running blindfolded or running on all fours. Anything to make his trip fun. Anything to train his body or try and get more stats. Finally part way through the third day, a sharp line in the grass showed something had changed. The grass in the plain was for the most part weird and alien ¨C but it was just weird and alien. Nothing he¡¯d seen on earth¡­ but still ¡®just grass¡¯. The line in front of him however shifted the grass from ¡®weird grass¡¯ to something that seemed to bend his sight. It changed from thick greenish stalks with occasional spirals into¡­a fractal of glass-like wires. Just stepping across the line made his balance teeter to the point his body told him he was falling constantly. More important than the weird grass was a look ahead. 20-30 meters past the weird grass was a waterfall of lava and less than a hundred meters to his right was a forest of upside-down trees their roots seeming to dig into the air around them. Seperate biomes close together. ¡­he had made it. Finally, James was back in the badlands. Interlude 1: The type of person who might be willing to leave everything behind. ---Chad--- For the past year every single reason a man might keep living had slipped away. One by one by one. Chad was getting old ¨C had been for years but it hadn¡¯t bothered him up till now. His knees went ¨C then his wrists. He had been getting weaker for ages but recently it had all ramped up to debilitating levels. Chad was in pain daily. His family doctor had given him some cream that helped briefly but overuse gave him rashes. Aches and pains were just a common part of growing old ¨C Chad could deal with that even if it made walking or doing anything with his hands hard. After the aches and pains, the cataracts came. Not something he had ever imagined dealing with ¨C but there you go. Blasted eyes failed him. Why was it so hard to see? Glasses didn¡¯t help ¨C and surgery was too expensive in this damned country. All of that paled in comparison to the real tragedy. The blow that broke Chad''s motivation to keep going. Two weeks ago the love of his life ¨C Lilana ¨C died. His wife of almost five decades just¡­disappeared. Abandoned him. Went on ahead. Whatever you wanted to call it. He couldn¡¯t sleep. He couldn¡¯t sleep at night without her beside him ¨C every night he dragged himself into bed and stared blurrily up at the ceiling, alone with his thoughts. Why couldn¡¯t he just...sleep? Drift away and join her? When does this get better? Chad wasn''t one to even consider taking his own life...but why couldn''t this all just end. He¡¯d tried melatonin ¨C he¡¯d tried every prescription pill his doctor had offered and nothing seemed to help. It seemed like all he had left was to¡­just fade away. Join Lilana and be at peace once again. Something sort of slid into his vision ¨C somehow brightly visible despite the cataracts.
Looking for a change? Want a fresh start? A clean slate? A world of magic and science, wonder and excitement is but a click away.
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Yes No
Huh¡­ Chads brain struggled to comprehend what he was reading. Guess¡­guess the next thing that¡¯s going to go is my mind? Ha¡­I really should sleep. He turned to the side breathing heavily at the exertion. The indent¡­the indent of where she should be. A tear threatened to slip out but Chad wasn¡¯t no snowflake. He was a real man. He could¡­ Chad reread the hallucination. Either he was crazy or not ¨C either way it didn¡¯t hurt to humor the blasted thing. What did he have to lose after all? His shaking hand reached out and clumsily poked the box ¨C missing the ''yes'' by a inch but somehow still accepting the prompt. A moment later a proper understanding of what he would be giving up and what he would be gaining was presented to Chad. It seemed like a dream come true ¨C so many caveats and bonuses. Chad didn¡¯t care about dying after all. Even if it was a lie ¨C well Chad would prefer going out in a blaze of glory rather than this sad fading away. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He accepted. ¡­ What felt like moments later he was standing in a bright crowd. He could see! He was standing straight ¨C his knees felt twenty years younger! Chad was still old but it felt like his body was reset. All his ailing parts fixed. Chad was still old but¡­he could get used to this. Walking over to a nice young man handing out weapons Chad picked up a sturdy looking blade and went out to kill something. Maybe if he had some action he could finally sleep.
---Nicole--- Nicole was a prostitute. She hadn¡¯t ever wanted to be ¨C not that there was anything wrong with her profession but¡­she felt forced into it and that bred resentment. It was the only way she could make money in this country ¨C the only way to make ends meet. Literally the only option left for her ¨C living on the street was not an option. She wasn¡¯t allowed to go to school she didn¡¯t have enough to escape and try and find one of those heavenly countries like she had seen on tv. She hated every single one of her sick clients. Asking her to do this and that. Fuck them. She especially hated that ginger that had come last. He was just so rough. Fuck if he slapped her face one more time she just might snap and bite his dick off. Suddenly in the middle of her dinner a prompt appeared. A strange blue box that spoke to her ¨C seeming to know she had never learned to read. It offered her a choice ¨C Nicole knew everything had a catch but really¡­could this really be worse than her current life? She hit yes.
---Matthew--- Matthew was an outcast. Someone picked on everywhere he went. Every time he moved ¨C every time he thought he¡¯d escaped the bullying it all came crashing back ¨C like someone was following him around turning everyone against him. The only time he¡¯d had a friend had been in highschool. The one time someone had been nice to him ¨C the only time he¡¯d felt like he could be himself. Sadly she had disappeared after graduating and after entering college it seemed like the bullying reached a new height of cruelty. I wish I could escape. Like an angel heard his prayers a box appeared ¨C a way out! A divine answer to his prayer. He answered ¨C smashing the yes button as hard as he could and then was reborn.
---Jing--- Jing lived in a white room. His food was slipped under the door twice a day and nothing he was ever given was sharp enough to hurt himself with. He didn¡¯t know why. It had been like this as far as he could remember. Somedays the walls would sing music to him and he would sing back to pass the time. Sometimes the food he was given changed or someone came to ask him how he was doing. Sometimes they would listen to him ¨C bringing him games or books but most of the time his requests were ignored. He didn¡¯t know why. Finally the source of the voices came to him ¨C bleeding out of the wall into a blue cube that offered him a new life. He took it.
---Tanya--- Tanya was¡­invisible. It felt like she was drifting though life. No connections. No attachments. No friends but no enemies either. She just kind of¡­was. She read fanfiction and books and webnovels on her phone and that was it. She loved fantasy and escaped from the world constantly to soak in dreams of magic. That was her life. One day a familiar looking prompt appeared to her ¨C one reminding her of dozens of isekais she had read. It felt like she had finally gotten her letter to Hogwarts. It was years late but that didn''t matter. Maybe¡­maybe in a new world something might change? She hit yes.
---Walden--- Walden had lived on the streets all his life ¨C stealing bread from a bakery like someone from an old movie. As someone from the slums he¡¯d never gone to school ¨C never had a chance. He kind of just lived day to day. What else could he do? And then one day that changed. Something noticed him. Someone offered him a chance. He said yes.
---Phyo-- Phyo lived in a country constantly at war. Gunshots were common ¨C the sound of planes overhead was ignored. Either it was a bomb raid or not ¨C stressing over it would just shorten his life. Despite the war he made do. He worked hard ¨C his family was relatively well off. Someday soon they were going to escape. Find somewhere more peaceful. They nearly had enough money saved up for the trip as well. And then one day the bombs he had ignored ruined everything. Phyo came home from school to find a smouldering wreck of a street. He rushed to his home and found the bodies of his parents. The remains of his family. The world had ended that day¡­ But a prompt appeared sneaking into his vision and quieting his angry screams. A new world free from the current war. He said yes.
---Phenx--- Phenox was unteathered. Bored, drifting through life. He said yes.
---Shelly--- Shelly was just so angry all the time. Everything in life existed to push her down and she was sick of it. She said yes.
---Mei--- Mei just needed a chance. A single chance to prove her worth. She said yes.
---Felix--- Felix jumped at the chance of a lifetime. And said yes.
---Chu-- She said yes
---Marven--- When Marven was 17 he raped and killed his highschool crush. Somehow the courts bypassed the regular ruling and sentenced him as an adult. He went to prison ¨C begging and pleading that it had been a mistake crying crocodile tears the whole while ¨C then sat for three years in a hellhole. He regretted everything ¨C he hadn¡¯t meant to get caught. If he could do it again he¡¯d hide that sluts body better. Finally the devil came to him and offered an escape. Instead of vilifying him the blue box offered him a chance. A chance to be free. A chance to do it all again in a world without rules. A chance to become strong enough no one could ever lock him away again. He accepted. Chapter 50. The [sound] system. ---Maddy--- The group packed up their limited site and began the morning trek early. Troy had a small stack of nutrition bars in his bag so they all had a energy filled but sad snack then headed out. Maddy¡¯s contribution was a simple weak spell to kick the tiredness away ¨C ¡®Awaken Life¡¯ using her new partial concept was written on her water bottle ¨C a good swig of the altered healing liquid was the equivalent of strong coffee and helped perk the group up. I hope we find a city soon ¨C it feels like we are kind of just wandering about without a goal. After a few minutes Maddy decided to go back magic development ¨C it would let her feel productive while they walked. She had two pressing spells she needed to design ¨C the first was a spell for her mental enhancement. It was a huge ability the blue box had straight up described as more effective with a designed spell instead of just a pump of mana¡­but Maddy wanted to explore it a bit further before she decided what she wanted to focus on with its actual spell. Did she want to increase her mental ability? Decrease how the mana changed her perspective? Increase it? She could probably swap out different spells but it felt like what she picked would be her committing to it. It felt important. A more pressing task was her scout creation goal. Last night she had created long lasting sentinels ¨C it had been a useful tangent but hadn¡¯t been what she had actually wanted. What she ¡®actually wanted¡¯ was something that could head out and tell her what was in the surroundings¡­a way to find danger early or in the current case, find civilization. One of the biggest problems in her experimentation seemed to be her lack of a proper movement concept ¨C to make something whose main goal was movement, she would need a kinetic affinity¡­to make a spell with the ability to move itself about, she¡¯d only need a movement concept. Her ¡®shaping¡¯ and intent hadn¡¯t been enough to fill in the gaps. If she had a ¡®projectile¡¯ type concept she could have her scout throw itself around¡­if she had a ¡®follow¡¯ or ¡®fly¡¯ or ¡®homing¡¯ or ¡®travel¡¯ or ¨C really any method of getting her spells from her to something else she could probably shift things¡­ But she did have a method of transferring her spells didn¡¯t she? Sound. It¡¯s how she set up her main damage spell ¨C why did she skip over it while trying to transfer her scouts about? Maybe because she had been too focused on the idea of sound and what it would mean for a scout or for scouting ¨C she didn¡¯t want to hear better she wanted to see what might attack them. Either way Maddy had already played with this concept. She had already focused on sending seeds out to anything that heard her ¨C or alternatively to grass in range of her voice. She didn¡¯t actually need long lasting scouts if they could travel in a far enough direction and the spell was cheap enough to cast¡­if she ignored long lasting she didn¡¯t have to try and link it to a physical medium. It''s also hard to write while walking¡­ Quietly trying to structure the spell using only her voice ¨C ignoring the good-natured comments from Jess at some of her more nonsensical phrases ¨C Maddy pushed light mana into her tongue. She gave mana to her voice and felt out how it interacted with the air in her mouth as she spoke. Sound was a wave that travelled through the air¡­light was also a wave that travelled through the air. They were basically the same thing! The concept of sound and the innate concept of light could be squeezed together, the light piggybacking off the sound and then forming the eye illusion at the site she wanted it to show up¡­ She felt like she had pieces of the puzzle ¨C she felt like she could see how it might fit together. She pushed mana into her mind ¨C light mana changing how she thought of the problem and revealing the structure of her half formed spell to her eyes and ears. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. It was off topic but this definitely felt like the best use of her mutation ¨C she wanted to focus on how the mana made her perceive and shape her spells. Should she make glasses and focus the mental spell onto the glasses being linked to her mind so she could see magic more clearly through them? Should she ignore an item that could break or be stolen and try and stick the magic into her real eyes? How would she even draw the spell on her real eyes¡­should she use the idea of a third eye and draw it on her forehead? She had already practiced shaping eyes this would just be an extension of that plan¡­Yeah I think I like that idea¡­I¡¯ll look into it later. Despite going off on tangents the main section of Maddy¡¯s mind continued to focus on her main problem. She tried her goal out several times each iteration slightly more in line with her goals than the last. Using just light mana her picture of a eye was worse. It didn¡¯t have a link to biological sight and the effort to make an eye were useless. Instead of changing directions and attempting to imagine something with lenses and light refracting off of glassy focus points or something, Maddy re-added life mana into the mix. She could pull life mana out of one core to make the base of her spell ¨C a single seed of life surrounded by light¡­or she could pull life-light out and have the perfectly combined mana type create the spell instead. That option was much easier to work with ¨C trying to keep them separate would cause the mana construct to fail as soon as she tried to squish it into the sound¡­ So she kept them combined using the stronger mana type to force through some problems. Bonus of using life was the innate concept of life letting her attach her spell to living things. It took most of the morning before Maddy was able to speak her spell and have ghostly eyes appear on trees and grass as they passed. Her early eyes could blink twice and ¡°see¡± the scene for a second before trying to return the garbled mess to her in a garbled disoriented mess ¨C often in a hundred different locations as each of the created eyes tried to show her their vision at once. Moving from that point If she was flaring life-light mana into her mind as hard as she could when she did this she could mostly piece it together¡­but making the information sent back simpler was an easier problem to solve. She briefly tried having each eye take a picture and send it back instead of a 1s long video¡­but abusing her unrelated concepts for this goal wasn¡¯t bearing her any fruit so she returned to the setup she had last night. The eye would open, look about, then tell her if it saw anything important and what that something might be. Her concept of sound seemed to really like when she received the response verbally and a lot of the spell fell into place once she let each eye wisper back to her. Spending some time to create a tiny egg in her or her friends ears let her speak to them like she was sending a message through a one way walkie talky ¨C and using that same image in her scout spell built until she had something functional but not pretty. The biggest problem was definitely mana cost. Using her spell to a usable ability required her to sink her entire life-light pool into a single cast. Sure it only took a few minutes to fill her mana up completely once more but that was time she was out of her most powerful combined mana. Trying to lower it artificially by ¡°feeding¡± the spell less caused it to break. Trying to ¡°optimize¡± her spell without more concepts to give it power did nothing. Trying to limit its scope did increase its ability in random ways and was probably the best way of looking at things. As a default Maddy spoke and caused a dozen eyes to randomly show up over a sphere around four to five hundred feet centered on her. That was mostly just the range of her voice however ¨C the actual range increased if she yelled¡­but it was still semi random. Using dark-life and sticking her eyes into life in shadows instead of life based objects¡­that worked incredibly well but also failed where it mattered the most. It worked incredibly well as far as sticking the spell went¡­but darkness broke the vision part of her eye concept. She had some luck on a tangent to make dark-life ears that heard secrets from the shadows but once again returned to her eyes at this point the goal almost overwhelming all other problems. It was still a useful spell and one Maddy wanted to write down to better create later¡­but a tangent that cut into her experimental mana budget so one that was shelved for now. She wanted the eyes to appear beside life ¨C to scout out creatures and monsters instead of appearing randomly. She wanted to increase the probability of seeing something important. It took dozens more casts before Maddy started focusing in some properties. She didn¡¯t really remember a lot of physics but there was something that randomly bubbled up in her daze of casts. Something about light being both a particle and a wave? A double slit experiment? Her eyes were the particle that acted like a wave of sound and then condensed down as a particle again when they hit ¨C was sound also a particle and a wave? She was hazy on that right now but that didn¡¯t matter. What mattered is this was all probability or ¡®something¡¯ and she should be able to increase the probability that the eyes saw something important¡­maybe. That insight into how her spell might be functioning increased its strength ¨C the number of eyes that appeared almost doubled ¨C but she would have to wait till later to continue with it. One of the eyes in her last cast had seen something after all. Roughly forty degrees off their current path, there was the edge of the forest and beyond that what looked like civilization. They had found a city before nightfall ¨C looks like they wouldn¡¯t have to sleep outdoors for a second day in the row. Maddy relayed her findings to her friends to a cheer from Jess and a smile from Troy. They wouldn¡¯t need to sleep outdoors for a second day after all. I hope there¡¯s a shower. Chapter 51. Crossing hell. ---James--- James smiled in anticipation as he entered the strange biome. Step one was to access the dangers ¨C over there he saw something swaying slightly. Was that a threat? There¡¯s a faint chittering coming from the upside down forest ¨C cicada analog or monster? The badlands felt so much more packed ¨C it almost felt busier than the city in its own way. Fuller with life ¨C more¡­packed with creatures. James breathed slowly as he crouched and lightly stepped forward bit by bit. A shrew-like creature with skeletal wings ran past. A bird that looked like it was made of glass appeared and then vanished into invisibility a second later. Part of him felt silly ¨C he was much stronger than he had been last time he was in the badlands and yet a huge portion of his last time here had been spent running and hiding. He could not jump from fight to fight like he had been in the random nothing between him and the city. A faint splashing rang out from ahead and with an earthy gurgle the tip of a long tentacle raised up from the pool of lava. It was dark dark grey and covered in dried chunks of stone ¨C the solidified lava looking like so many barnacles. With a slight crack several small tentacles popped out of the ¡®main tentacle¡¯ to wave slowly in the air. The smaller feelers seemed to be tasting the air or listening or something ¨C a few steps from James had them spin around and point directly at him tracking his movement slightly. Fight or flight? James looked at the appendage. He was stronger but was he strong enough to face this? It was an unknown. Part of him ¨C the part that had gotten battle crazed while fighting monsters the whole way here wanted to rush at it. Another part wanted to play it safe. He had a goal ¨C continue on through the badlands to get to the other side. The first part argued its point ¨C he didn¡¯t want to feel weak anymore. Running from a fight was the mark of a coward. He wanted to be strong ¨C strong enough to face any foe head on. The rational side smacked this dumb budding personality ¨C he wasn¡¯t regressing to a child¡¯s reasoning. Not sticking your hand into a fire wasn¡¯t cowardness, it was common sense or survival instincts and survival was a mark of the strong. His rational side tried to appeal to his dumb side and yet battle James could read rational James¡¯s every thought and wasn¡¯t tricked. Rational side pointed out there wasn¡¯t very many monsters in this area ¨C an almost suspicious lack around the lava fall. This battle hungry part of him drew him slowly closer to the appendage ¨C he could see it and, even assuming there was more underneath, this part of him promised he was well out of grabbing range. The rational side pointed out the tentacle was bulging. ¡°Splurt¡± With an awful undulation, the tentacle sucked lava up from below it ¨C the bulge of molten liquid travelling up its length in sickening waves like a leech sucking blood. The tip of the tentacle bulged and puckered like a mouth about to spit and then popped ¨C a massive glob of lava flying towards James a moment later. James [haste]ed to the side, his reactions speeding up even as the spray of lava went wide. He dodged the majority of the throw, but a single drop worth of molten stone impacted his side as he moved. It burned ¨C instantly and without any real warning or way to bypass it. This wasn¡¯t the heat of an open flame or hot pan ¨C James couldn¡¯t withstand the material for a second and get off with light burns. No, this drop melted into him ¨C travelling a centimetre or two into his body before he managed to use one hand to scrape and throw it away. Grey smoke and the smell of burnt flesh floated off his side and in his haste to remove the burning parasite, his fingers were also badly singed. The lesson hurt ¨C but it wasn¡¯t dangerous. Or more accurately it was dangerous but not lethal ¨C not with James¡¯s current body. The pain was already gone ¨C his body deciding it wasn¡¯t useful anymore and tossing it. Bending down to dig into the ground better, James zig zagged backwards then began running in an arc around the lava tentacle. A second and third splurt were dodged from further away without a drop landing on him, but James was already retreating. Just out of range James picked up a rock and pitcher threw it as hard as he could towards the tentacle. The rock left his hand like a bullet ¨C travelling across the distance while spinning wildly. It smashed into a chunk of the congealed stone on the creature, causing it to writhe slightly and splurt more lava towards him. James jumped sideways and ran further into the badlands. The only reason he had successfully dodged was due to haste ¨C a skill almost on cooldown already. Just out of range, the skill faded causing James to slow down slightly. All attempts at subtly were gone ¨C James spotted a large blurry shape heading towards him from the side. Passing into the upside down forest, James clawed his way through what felt like sharp spiderwebs. The way the roots dug into the air left stiff lines of sharp oxygen or¡­something. He couldn¡¯t focus on unimportant details right now. Hidden from one danger, James paused when he spotted the figure staring at him. In front of him was a humanoid figure ¨C a humanoid figure made out of those same cracks in the air. It looked like someone had bunched together a thousand sharp lines into the vague shape of a person. Backpedaling James watched the figure grin ¨C a jagged mouth of crisscrossing lines giving the figure the appearance of a child¡¯s scribbles. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Still have half a minute of cooldown on [Haste]. Not much kinetic energy stored in [Retaliation] and no useful or easy way to use my new [Transfer] skill. Feint right then jump left? James¡¯s mind flipped through options even as his body moved. The sound of shattering glass accompanied his dodge around whatever the crack figure just did a ripping sensation crossing the side of his body. He could definitely have escaped unharmed with the inertia breaking power of haste but dwelling on ¡°what ifs¡± was a useless train of thought. Grabbing a root James swung ¨C pulling his body into a curve and continuing on. It felt like pins and needles were beginning to spread all across his body. What even was this biome? The lava pit seemed safer in hindsight. At least then James understood what was happening. Making a right angle break James found himself on the other side of the small forest ¨C a crashing from the figure right on his heels. Ahead of him was a perfectly flat plane of glossy stone ¨C a patch of yellowish grey rock roughly half a kilometer in length. It looked slippery ¨C and more importantly wide open to anything that may see him ¨C but James didn¡¯t exactly have options right now. Continuing to run towards the unnaturally flat section of stone James jumped ¨C his monstrous jumping stats sending him onto it fast where he found that yes ¨C it was in fact slippery. Like warm ice, his legs flung up from under him as soon as he landed. James fell even with his attempt at keeping his balance, his whole body flipping back and his head smashing painfully into the ground. As James slid, a flash of stars passed over his vision. This was¡­not ideal. Thankfully the crack monster didn¡¯t follow him ¨C preferring to stay hiding half behind one of the tree trunks as it watched him slide away. James figured out why this section was empty ¨C it''s because anything that entered it slid to the other side. No friction at all ¨C that¡¯s what this feels like. The flat plane was also less flat than he thought when viewed from the side ¨C it sloped slightly pulling him towards a hole on the far side. [Haste] is free again. Digging into his skill James felt something struggling between it and the floor below him. Within a second his skill seemed to have gained supremacy, the unnaturally frictionless ground below him turning into merely slippery linoleum.
Skill break?
Yes No
Of course pushing the skill past the natural kinetic aether caused that blue annoyance to pop up, but James was well rehearsed in denying that particular prompt. Not yet. Soon. He promised and then exited the slippery trap, his body dropping to dodge whatever that was flying past his head. James continued on. It felt like he was running an obstacle course or something ¨C a claw here a hand here. Some pincers down there a guillotine like rope up there. Siren call here, toxic smell there. Same old, same old¡­except nothing was the same, every single creature wanted to kill him and each had a unique way of going about that. Tons were too weak to matter, but an equally large number could squash him with a glance if he got too close. Nearly as soon as [haste] was off cooldown he would be forced to activate it again, the skill turning on and off literally hundreds of times. A few times he mistimed the cooldown ¨C attempting to use the unavailable skill and causing a box to appear ¨C but every price he paid was small and instantly ignored. Sometimes he found it easier to kill the monster harassing him but most of the time he simply ran past them. Despite the massive difficulty in traversing this web of nests he was making it. He wasn¡¯t thriving ¨C not truly ¨C after all, by the two hour mark he was absolutely covered in burns and scrapes and dangerous looking gashes¡­but despite that he was making it. He was still alive ¨C nothing important lost yet ¨C and making good time. Even got an achievement for dodging so many monsters ¨C increased his leg speed by another drop in the bucket. And yet ¡®despite his good time¡¯ his state was a risky one. He was in a sort of equilibrium where he was just barely winning again and again. And something came to tip the scales. By the time James started his journey into the badlands it was already late afternoon. He reached the badlands and wanted to head into it right away¡­ Now perhaps he had been flush with victory after killing so many night crawlers on his trip over. Maybe he simply forgot how close he had gotten his one survived night in the badlands or maybe¡­maybe there was some malevolent god watching his struggles with glee, piling more danger onto the scale just to see what would happen. Either way¡­monsters came out at night. More monsters multiplying the danger that already existed. It felt like the night monsters were stronger on average ¨C and with the dimming light came worse visibility. Either way, the scale tipped. James almost dodged passed something that should have missed him. He was even running [haste] when he dodged ¨C it was in that state of sped-up and heightened reflexes that he watched the preyingmantis-shaped bear move. You see, he should have dodged the creature, but as soon as he did it was like he didn¡¯t. The creature sort of shifted slightly and despite not looking like it had moved¡­James was suddenly impaled ¨C a sharp and furry arm sticking out his back the dim figure staring at him in alien curiosity. What sort of unfair move was that? As soon as James turned his head away from the creature it moved with him. It was like the creature was photoshopped into his vision ¨C like he was wearing glasses with little moving mantis monsters painted on the inside of them. It hurt his head to focus on, but no matter how fast James moved the creature was always there. No matter if he jumped left or right the direction was wrong ¨C The only way to escape seemed to be running backwards or moving his face purposefully into obstacles that forced the mantis to ¡°unlock¡± and dodge around. Running backwards was not an ideal method of running ¨C especially not at night. Especially not in the wilderness and especially not surrounded by monsters. An incredibly soft sheet of something touched James¡¯s back, his whole body slowing down to a crawl. Kinetic power, Why is haste always deactivated! I need it to break away. Can I try and transfer this? Shove it over¡­ The mantis was in front of him, its one hand stabbing his front again and again. It looked almost like a gangster shanking someone in an alleyway ¨C its long claw actually a knife entering his stomach and- One of James¡¯s cores was punctured, and his badland run was finally snuffed out. His kidneys were his heart ¨C his new brain ¨C and with their loss his life was also forfeit. It felt like he¡¯d forgotten this ¨C forgotten to protect them in the hectic melee. But at the end of the day¡­how was he supposed to protect them? He had been held down by something from the back. It felt¡­it felt like there was nothing he could have done. ¡­ James awoke standing in the middle of the city. He felt like he had been hit by a truck repeatedly. His body was oh so weak ¨C emancipated. The muscles atrophied. More importantly Richard stood in front of him waving his hand slightly. ¡°Hey¡­hey James. Hey¡­.hey James. Oh! There you go. Why have you been ignoring me? Fuck happened to you? You look awful man. I thought you left?¡± James stumbled and looked about for something to vomit into. ¡°Died¡± he choked out and hurled shiny and slightly clear red liquid onto the street. ¡°¡­¡± without saying anything Richard walked over and patted him on the back. ¡°There there, happens to the best of us.¡± Richard spoke when James was finished hurling. ¡°Let''s go get you something to eat. Tell me all about your adventure ¨C Actually let''s go find burritos. I¡¯m really craving Mexican. My treat.¡± ¡­ Chapter 52. A day of relaxation and trying new things. ---James--- James was over the worst of his sick feeling. He gathered himself together and found he had been transported to a strange-looking diner. Richard was across from him confidently biting into a completely red wrap ¨C it was a red dyed tortilla equivalent full of bright red chunks of something and dripping creamy looking red sauce. In front of him was an identical wrap and surrounding them there were several empty tables. The building was backlit by red tinged lights and had several plants placed in various places as decoration. ¡°Try your burrito. They mostly got the taste right but it¡¯s missing something¡± Richard swallowed and mentioned. James took a bite. The ¡®burrito¡¯ burned on the way down. As if the red was a sign of how spicy it was. The chunks seemed to be marinated and lightly cooked meat while the sauce was an acidic and smoky mix that was overwhelmingly capsaicin. The heat mellowed as it entered James¡¯s stomach. His stomach defense was more than enough to handle this level of heat ¨C even weakened with his stats being regained slowly like they were now. James coughed a bit and nodded to Richards vague ¡°good yeh?¡± You¡¯d think the spice would upset his stomach more but somehow the burn seemed to wash away the last of the sick feeling. Now James just felt weak and disappointed by his showing. Finishing his ¡°burrito¡± first, Richard wiped his mouth on a red napkin, then sat back. ¡°Well¡­ while you sort out getting fucked by the resurrection penalty, I¡¯ll tell you what I¡¯ve been getting up to. First off, I got this great outfit¡± Richard pointed down to himself showing off his ¡®jeans and a t-shirt¡¯. An outfit that looked utterly normal until you realized how few people were wearing something similar. The entire time Richard talked two tiny stone hands peeked up from the side of the table gesturing animatedly. ¡°Then I went to find a way to break my new skill. First off ¨C there are mobile skill breaking facilities. Think mobile libraries ¨C just a van driving about with all the stuff you might need to snap your [skill] painlessly and quickly. They patrol the delver district and did me for a few dozen credits.¡± Richard waved the server over to ask for a drink. ¡°¡­anyways, skill breaking van. Turns out I had two unbroken skills! I literally forgot I had one that let me delay explosions or something. How does that happen? Well, I turned that one into this here aether slot and let the other one break naturally and fill my body¡­mixed with my existing skill somehow. Chaos body has some fucking weird interactions mate.¡± Richard waved his hand and James saw a shiny metal disk about the size of a toonie on his forearm. ¡°After that well¡­ I got three quests. One is to research the corruption in a pharmaceutical company. They make super drugs some delvers take. Roids that interact with stats somehow and turn people into the hulk. Quest sounds like they are doing some shady stuff to make that happen. Solid goal. ¡°Second quest is to make a cult for something mundane. As funny as making the cult of the pencil or the cult of the green smoothies would be, social quests like that sound fucking hard. How the fuck do you convince enough people to count that as a proper completion anyways? There isn¡¯t a charisma stat after all. Reward looked high but not worth it. ¡°Third quest is to join the villain group ¡®deviants. After I am registered as a villain turn myself in just because¡­.and then break out of prison to prove I can. Weirdest quest chain I¡¯ve seen yet, and I might even have gone for it if I was really that bored. Problem with that sort of quest¡­well this whole place is kind of modern. By that I mean there are cameras everywhere and psyche profiles and police or ¡°supers¡± or whatever have your face on file with your criminal background. If I had a proper disguise, I could probably join a villain group safely but as soon as you get caught your entire genome and everything is in the system. Don¡¯t¡­don¡¯t think I want to deal with having a criminal background just for fun you know?¡± Richard smiled as the waiter was already coming back with a dark red cup of something. ¡°Thanks,¡± Richard nodded then took a massive swig from the glass. ¡°Anyways, first quest seems the safest. It''s fun to fuck over capitalistic oligarchs, lets me pretend to be a hero ¨C even if the world is only partly real I¡¯m still doing some good I think¡­but while trying to figure out what quest I wanted to do I ended up caving and buying a personal AI.¡± Richard tapped the side of his head as if pointing out something that had been pushed into his head. ¡°That changed everything. Cheap personal AIs let you interact with all the standard systems. The default ones all require a nearly constantly running aether slot, so I really need to gain another skill to gain a second slot. Distracted from my quest to kill the chemical mafia I decided I needed to speed run another dungeon¡­except then!¡± Richard downed the rest of his red drink grimacing slightly before continuing ¡°I found the shitty guild system has already started growing here. Our fellow players have already set up a private network linking personal AI¡¯s together. Some questions about Earth let you into a forum setup and there¡¯s a bunch of info gathered together.¡± James nodded ¨C he was following along but it was starting to feel like he needed to say something for this to stay as a conversation. ¡°That¡¯s bad?¡± James asked. ¡°Nah, idea is good ¨C there¡¯s even the start of a system called the combined quest board. Basically, everyone is supposed to use the system quest board and then use their AI¡¯s to verify its truthfulness and add it to the board with their info. Quests and the achievements you can gain have a whole bunch of hidden requirements after all ¨C if you have above or below a certain amount of stats certain quests don¡¯t trigger. Theoretically by cross checking quests like this we can filter out ones that won¡¯t work for us¡­ If you have certain types of abilities or use certain weapons the quest name and reward shifts. Bunch of stuff like that. ¡°The reason ¡®it¡¯s not the best¡¯ is this whole system is set up by a guild that¡¯s kind of monopolizing it. See anyone can ¡®donate¡¯ their quests to the board to increase the general knowledge of the player market¡­but all the best quests with the biggest rewards are locked to member only status. They say it¡¯s the cost of providing the free service to the rest of us but it combines with some things to piss me off. My new plan is to figure out what dirty laundry this guild has ¨C it definitely has some ¨C and then air it all for the rest of us to riot over.¡± Richard¡¯s little stone arms smacked into each other the two tiny gloves alternating between strangling motions and punching themselves as Richard talked. ¡°Oh! I also found a place to stay and ate out at a few places. Only other point I feel like saying is my credits are dry again. Nearly all the credits from the delve are gone ¨C I never ended up buying a new weapon so if any of my plans need a degree of violence I¡¯m shit out of luck.¡± Richard sat back and stared about the room. ¡°My trip wasn¡¯t that eventful.¡± James began. He quickly recounted his journey ending with some descriptions of some of the monsters including the one that had killed him. ¡°Think the monster was actually moving that weirdly or was it messing with your vision? Richard asked after a moment. ¡°Huh?¡± James paused, then looked up. He saw Richard¡¯s face twist slightly as he tried to reiterate his question but James caught up. He quickly responded to make sure Richard didn¡¯t think he was slow. ¡°I mean¡­at the time I was 100% certain the creature was physically moving wherever I looked. Now that you mention it¡­¡± James started. ¡°It seems like it might have also just painted an illusion of itself on your eye or tricked your brain into thinking it was in front of you. That almost seems more likely than being locked to your vision right?¡± Richard finished. ¡°Huh,¡± James repeated. ¡°Hindsight makes me think you are right.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to steer you wrong it just makes the most sense. If it is really locked to your sight you might have been able to close your eyes to prevent It from being attached¡­if its just an illusion or trick you should have tried figuring out where its real body was or just run straight towards it ¨C it might even have been the cold feeling at your back near the end a single monster luring you back to its real body¡­¡± Richard¡¯s one stone hand came up and formed a ¡®thinking pose¡¯ as it tapped his face. ¡°Stop that¡± Richard looked down pushing his involuntary hand away before continuing. ¡°New conversation topic! Why did you walk so far through the city when you respawned? I was calling your name for a while¡­think I followed you some 4-5 blocks before you noticed me.¡± Richard asked curious. ¡°I¡­respawned right when I saw you? Immediately wanted to vomit and then followed you here?¡± James began to hesitantly respond. But, as he voiced the answer, James was already starting to see the problem Richard had brought up. ¡°Then¡­who walked you to that spot in the street?¡± Richard finished the train of thought to its logical conclusion. ¡­ ¡°So is the system controlling us?¡± James asked, worried about his body moving about without his permission. ¡°Mind control? There is a mental defense stat after all ¨C why isn¡¯t that triggering and how can I trust anything knowing it might be a possibility.¡± ¡°I¡¯m actually wondering how the system even revives us. Using ¡®a wizard did it¡¯ for all the questions I might have is not good enough. The system runs off aether right? So how does it even function?¡± Richard began thinking back to the super computers running this whole charade. ¡°Resurrection is outside of the system¡± James responded. ¡°Anything the system gives can¡¯t be taken away, but stuff the people running this place give can¡­¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Richard snapped his finger. ¡°Yes! Okay. So ¡®R¡¯ is resurrecting us ¨C or one of his friends is. Still means aether is being used to bring us back to life somehow. Considering I somehow survived being pancaked I can kind of see how healing on a scale higher than anything we¡¯ve witnessed so far might regenerate a body¡­But that doesn¡¯t sound right. What¡¯s being teleported away? Just your mind? There¡¯s still a body left behind when players die.¡± James wanted to help figure this mystery out ¨C if only to regain his peace of mind. ¡°Quest: How Resurrection Works¡± James tried¡­but the system didn¡¯t respond. ¡°Doesn¡¯t reset with death then, only zones.¡± James muttered. ¡°I wasted mine, fuck. I don¡¯t want to wait nearly three weeks to learn the answer¡± Richard grumbled. Glazing his eyes over as if reading an invisible screen Richard muttered commands under his breath. ¡°Over slightly, next page, search the forum for resurrection¡­Nothing.¡± Raising his voice slightly he continued. ¡°Sorry but I don¡¯t see anyone else asking this yet. Either that or it¡¯s a guild only thread that¡¯s hidden ¨C bitches.¡± James nodded, ¡°By the way, Any chance I can interest you in getting an AI? Best bang for a skill I¡¯ve gotten so far, it''s basically giving you a phone again! One with frequent software updates based on your use¡­you would have to break a skill for a slot to use it, but plus side we could keep in touch. AI¡¯s kind of function like a partial mesh network with a trust system to limit man in the middle bullshit. Some nodes are much more complicated than others ¨C the ones hosting the servers and stuff ¨C but as long as you are in range of at least one other ai we can send messages back and forth.¡± James looked at him. ¡°Yeah you want to wait to learn ¡®magic¡¯ or whatever first. Could still get an AI inserted? Link a dedicated slot up with it at a future point? That way as soon as you are finished with your goal you can link up with technology and start sending messages.¡± James sighed. ¡°First off, if I die, I¡¯ll lose that right? I don¡¯t want to have anything valuable I care about losing. I¡¯m already devastated I lost all my spices¡­I¡¯m going have to buy those again with the credits I have left from our delve ¨C¡± Richard interrupted him ¡°That¡¯s fair but are you really treating the worst part of death as your inventory being lost? I¡­I¡¯m not the guy to ask about this, but system revives are now hard capped and limited to fuck. That means if you run out you¡¯re gone for good. Treat it a bit more seriously, okay? I don¡¯t want my friend to leave in a more permanent manner than you¡¯ve already been planning.¡± James sighed. He hadn¡¯t been treating death lightly ¨C his last traverse of the badlands had been him trying his absolute hardest to survive¡­but he had let night fall when he was in it so maybe he hadn¡¯t done absolutely everything perfectly? Besides that, it felt nice having a friend ¨C a real friend. One who seemed to actually care. James had had plenty of ¡®friends¡¯ over the years. From ¡®work friends¡¯ to ¡®classmate friends¡¯ ¨C people he would talk to at work or in class and nowhere else¡­but really on the scale of friendship, most of those people were probably just acquaintances. People he talked to but didn¡¯t open up to. Opening up was hard ¨C doubly so because all of the ¡®best friends¡¯ James had had all had their own variation of depression. ¡®Worse¡¯ depression than his own ¨C not that it was ever a competition. Most had been suicidal and ¡®dealing¡¯ ¨C as awful as that word was as a description ¨C with them while his own mental health was rocky usually made him worse. It was hard to open up to people if it only ever resulted in pain ¨C it was hard to handle getting attached when all that resulted in was calling up the hospital because your friend said they were going to drink laundry detergent and then stopped responding. When a friend decided you were too clingy and ghosted you for a week causing you to start googling obituaries in your area. Before he knew it ¨C in less time than should be possible ¨C it really did feel like he had made a new ¡®good friend¡¯. One who didn¡¯t seem suicidal like all the past friends he had had¡­it was nice. ¡°Something on my face?¡± Richard asked, bringing James¡¯s attention to the fact he had been staring and probably smiling like an idiot as well. I¡¯m going to mess this up aren¡¯t I. ¡°Just think it''s fun you care. Thanks for being my best friend~¡± James purposefully leaned into a sappy tone at the end causing Richard to groan and toss a half rolled up red napkin at him. ¡°Fuck off, don¡¯t make it a bigger deal than it is.¡± Richard''s grey mini hands continued to be a tell ¨C one reaching up and holding the back of his head sub consciously. Standing up Richard gestured towards the door. ¡°Ready to leave? We can walk around the town while you work off the death penalty. Get you some more spices and stuff.¡± Richard asked. ¡°Don¡¯t we have to pay?¡± James asked looking down and back towards the counter. He didn¡¯t want to dine and dash. ¡°Already paid for both of us¡± Richard tapped his head. ¡°Transferred credits a minute or two ago. Let¡¯s go¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t have to pay for me¡± James muttered as they moved towards the entrance. ¡°Of course I did, ¡® best friends¡¯ and all that¡± Richard punched James¡¯s arm just as he slipped out the front door ¨C a sort of flap that slid around you as you passed through. It was strange ¨C the door looked like a solid sheet of misted glass but parted like hung fabric. As soon as James pressed his hand into the solid pane, a seam appeared ¨C the middle parting perfectly as if he was cutting a new entrance in a sheet of plastic. James stepped through after Richard then glanced about in an attempt to gain some bearings. Already close to night again. Where did the day go? The surroundings were almost glowing with the number of neon lights about. Quite a few floated on invisible string¡­or maybe they just floated? A few shops had full scale holographic displays ¨C and a few of those cascaded out into the street. The street holograms caused people to look strange as they walked through them but were static enough to look fake. James caught up to Richard and looked about as they walked. ¡°What¡¯s your plan?¡± James asked after they walked in silence for a moment. ¡°Don¡¯t really have one, figure if we see a spice shop we can head in. Figure if I see a clue to any of the mysteries we can explore it. Slight secret but I wing most of these sorts of things¡± Richard confided. ¡°Oh hey look. A ¡®metal bar¡¯ lets check it out,¡± Richard pointed out a shop showing several flexing metallic statues. James found himself almost dragged into the new building where he stared about the surroundings. Unlike the last place this ¡®bar¡¯ was full of half a dozen patrons who all glanced over as they entered. Most glanced back at their drinks or weights but a man in the corner squinted and stared as they made their way further in. Near the front a muscled man sat on a bench slowly bending a bar of metal into a pretzel a small crowd of three watching him as he nodded towards them. ¡°We¡¯ll take a table for two¡± Richard spoke as if to himself then waved his translated info over to the bar man who nodded to an empty spot. ¡°Why are we here?¡± James asked as they stepped over to a table. There didn¡¯t seem to be any chairs ¨C the only place to sit was the bench the owner was sitting on, and all the other patrons stood at their tables. ¡°Listen, I need to get you asking the right questions James. This isn¡¯t a why scenario ¨C instead it¡¯s a ¡®why not¡¯ ¨C means I literally don¡¯t know a single thing about this place so I¡¯m curious. Figure we might as well have some fun if we are in down time ¨C in other news, I don¡¯t have enough credits for a weapon but food and drinks are cheap.¡± Richard waved the question away then looked down at the menu. A piece of paper lay on the table covered in a foreign language that looked almost like English but with an entirely different alphabet. Phonetic but with different characters and words? ¡°Are those¡­blocks of metal?¡± James muttered peering closer. ¡°Think so!¡± Richard confirmed then waved the musclemen down. ¡°This, and this, and this¡­¡± Richard pointed to half the menu causing the buff waiter to nod a few times. When Richard pointed to one item near the bottom the two had a bit of a back and forth ¨C from what James could tell based on one side of the conversation, Richard had to prove they both had the stats to handle it? Something about the menu item being poisonous to the non-aether enhanced? Either way, Richard seemed to satisfy the man as soon as he showed off the ¡®stone hands¡¯ and the waiter stopped trying to steer them away. After noting down their whole order, the man left them both with a hand weight and moved the the back room. ¡°So¡­we just do some variation of standing curls?¡± James asked then picked his weight up hefting it a few times. His arms were weak ¨C so much weaker than his stat filled state had gotten him used to ¨C but the weight wasn¡¯t excessive. Feeling slightly awkward he began working out while waiting for his food ¨C his drink? To be honest he wasn¡¯t sure what the bar was offering just yet. ¡­ Actually, after a few minutes of lifting James changed his mind. The weight was incredibly appreciated ¨C somehow having something to do with his hands relaxed him. It only took a few minutes for the first ¡®meal¡¯ to be brought out. Two tiny saucers each containing a block of what looked like¡­well based on how it was cut by a knife the metal looked like sodium? Or potassium? One of those metals you can cut by hand. The block was covered in a light drizzle of oil and came with a single knife and flat looking fork. ¡°On three?¡± James asked, causing Richard to grin. ¡°On three.¡± His friend confirmed then started counting down from 10. ¡°¡­Five, four, three and in,¡± Richard said lifting the block of soft metal up and taking a bite ¨C James rushed to take his own bite feeling like he was committing some crime against chemistry. It tasted exactly like he thought it would ¨C this block was definitely not food as far as his brain was concerned. There was a slight tingle on his tongue and a strange texture but the overwhelming taste was of nothing. It didn¡¯t seem to have a flavor ¨C was it really edible? It was kind of disappointing if James was being honest. When James focused on the metal, the waiter removed his weak dumbbell and replaced it with a heavier one. He finished off the appetizer and went back to pumping iron. It wasn¡¯t a full workout ¨C doing curls wasn¡¯t nearly enough ¨C but it was a fun theme at least. ¡°Don¡¯t think that was food,¡± James finally said glancing across at his dinner partner. ¡°Yeah¡­I don¡¯t know what I was expecting¡± Richard responded staring in confusion at his clean plate. Before they could regret their decision, the waiter came out again, this time carrying supplies. Roughly sliding two plates in front of them the pair saw two golden statues of a man holding a medal high above his head. Pulling out a canister of something, the waiter carefully drizzled the two golden statues in sauce then held up a hand. ¡°Five minutes?¡± Richard asked translating and sending the message. The waiter grunted in affirmation then turned, nodding once to James as he retreated once more. James reached out and poked the soaked statue. It felt solid. With a closer look, the metal didn¡¯t seem to be straight gold ¨C it looked more like some unknown alloy ¨C but it was completely hard. ¡°Guess the doused stuff will make it soft?¡± Richard asked, poking his own statue. James shrugged then picked up his new weight and began curling. Richard seemed fascinated by his statue ¨C he bent in and poked it several times pinching the sides till they bent inwards and licking his fingers to taste the liquid doused on it. Finally five minutes passed and the statue was ready. James reached out to bite it only to find the taste surprising. Unlike the last block this statue had actual flavors. A coppery tinge was the main note ¨Creminding James slightly of the taste of blood ¨C but a subtle medley of other tastes filled his mouth at the same time. The easiest way to describe it was as ¡®something he¡¯d never tasted before¡¯¡­but that felt lazy. Especially as a third and fourth meal came out ¨C both tasting wholly ¡®unique¡¯ as well. The final offering was a drink and a pile of hard metal balls. You poured a shot of the liquid, dropped the ball in the drink and watched as it started to smoke and spark ¨C a call back to the sodium in water experiment from high school. The waiter showed off how you shot the sparking ball then watched them each slam their own as if not trusting they could take it. The ball burned ¨C it sizzled and sparkled all the way down James¡¯s throat and then continued to sparkle in his stomach. A warm feeling slowly filled his body, his arms and legs feeling loose and tingly. Once again ¨C a wholly unique feeling. James had to say the closest feeling was being drunk but with a vibrating tingle that continued as the ball continued to react in his stomach. Looking across the table, Richard watched the waiter turn away and then winked at James. Quickly before he could react, the madman tossed the rest of his balls in his pitcher and then chugged the whole thing. Richard''s eyes sprung open near the end of his shotgun ¨C smoke leaking from his nose and giving him the look of a dragon. James wasn¡¯t quite about that macho display, but he quickly made 8 more shots and worked his way through his entire pile. Each ball increased the drunk tingling feeling ¨C by the last one James began feeling nauseous but he pushed through. Paying once again Richard dragged him into the night laughing hysterically as he spun about. ¡°I wonder how they made those meals edible? The waiter never responded when I asked. Want to hit the other dungeon? I bet we can speed run it. Oh¡­you wanted to wait till your death penalty was done, booooo. Spices! We were supposed to get you spices. Fuck, that¡¯s on me I got distracted. We should get you those balls so you can make that last drink on your own! Aheh, I¡¯m glad to know there¡¯s still stuff strong enough to get me buzzed,¡± Richard continued to happily talk as he dragged James further into the night. Chapter 53. The Three Laws. ---Maddy--- Maddison had roughly a second to gaze upon the city before a blue box slid up detailing her exploits.
??? Achievement get: The arcane scout. (rare)
Description: Spy a settlement and confirm its existence from a position you should not have been able to observe it from. Perform this sneaky spying unaided by tools or tricks ¨C use nothing but your arcane abilities to do so.
Stat: Mental visualization +3 Stat: Mental feedback defense +3
Where was that when I actually spotted the city? Too many small weird situations are hard to ignore. ¡°Oh hey! The city almost looks like its floating¡± Jess called as soon as she spotted the towers in the distance. Maddy squinted slightly and confirmed that yes, the city appeared to be blue and white stone placed high above a lake. ¡°I think you¡¯re right¡± Maddy responded while a part of her continued to try and figure out the mystery of the system. It''s almost¡­well first I thought the system didn¡¯t like magic. My guess was because it gave us skills that were locked and we had to jailbreak them to be able to edit them¡­we almost voided our warranty on the skills themselves. That was why as soon as we pulled the mana pool and concepts into ourselves, the system seemed snubbed. The system gives achievements for all sorts of things ¨C not just fighting ¨C and yet as soon as I¡¯ve started using magic it feels like all my achievements are combat related. The system hasn¡¯t cared for all my hours of feeling out and redesigning my skills¡­it doesn¡¯t care for all the practice I¡¯ve done. It just cares when I¡¯ve killed monsters with those skills. It doesn¡¯t care but it ''has'' given me achievements for results of using those skills? So¡­that ¡®snubbed¡¯ idea might be true but I think¡­I think the real answer is something slightly different. If it was really just snubbed I think the system would only give achievements if I didn¡¯t use my magic. Tentative hypothesis but my new guess is the system can¡¯t see my magic? It can only see the results of it? So the system cares for results and not the process¡­But that¡¯s not true because there are achievements for doing the ¡®process¡¯ in different ways like using different weapons or making it harder to get to the goal. Maddy continued to mull the idea over in her head as they approached the side of the city. She needed to figure this out If she wanted to continue to gain achievements consistently. Currently achievements were the only way she could gain stats after all and stats were important. Near the shore of the city, a straining bridge mixed with a staircase met their eyes. It was a sloping path up to a wide open gate and looked like it was on the verge of collapse. Looking at her companions for confirmation then stepping forward Maddy climbed the stairs carefully listening to phantom creaks and concerning cracks as she did so. ¡°Approach,¡± A voice called down to her once she was halfway up the stairs. Aren¡¯t guards supposed to say ¡®halt¡¯? Maddy thought as she squinted forward fingers clenching her scythe unconsciously. The staircase was shaped like an arc ¨C near the bottom each step was square, but by the top half each step was wide and slightly thicker. Large blue slabs rimmed with white banisters each wider than the last. On the very top step a woman sat holding what looked like a telescope in one hand. The gatekeeper? A guide? Someone random who heckles anyone who comes to this city? Jess stepped up beside Maddy, moving in front as they continued towards the woman. It looked subconscious, but Maddy appreciated the thought. Her knight. Her protective wall. The guard looked simultaneously incredibly interested and board out of her mind. It was a strange dichotomy to Maddy¡¯s social senses. You¡¯d think her base state would be a boredom that left as soon as she became curious in us? Stopping right in front of the woman Maddy squinted slightly seeing a second gate right behind the first one. It made a sort of airlock as the telescope woman stood up and beckoned them between the inner and outer entrances. ¡°Is this a kill box?¡± Jess whispered to Maddy causing the telescope woman to snort from where she waited. ¡°I think it''s just immigration¡± Maddy responded, voice low. She hadn¡¯t felt an ounce of maliciousness from the gatekeeper. There were a few occasions that had made her question her judgement of people ¨C magic seemed to be able to fool her senses ¨C but ultimately she still trusted herself. Stepping up to telescope girl Maddy watched as she spun her device and looked into it causing the staircase behind them to shift and descend to the ground below. A second complex spin caused the outer gate to slowly close trapping them in the entranceway. When the large doors clicked shut the woman set her device aside and began pulling stuff out of the wall. ¡°Now, before you enter the city I have to give you a scan and make you take the cities commandments. At any point, you can leave but refusing the security check will bar you from ever coming through again.¡± The woman spoke as she set stuff up. First a wooden desk seemed to slide out of the blue stone beside her then a crystal contraption and a scroll of pure white complete with inkwell. Each device that was removed seemed to melt out of the stone ¨C was it an illusion? Maddy teased a tendril of light mana into her mind watching as a section of wall shifted to looking like soupy sand¡­it was dense ¨C incredibly dense in comparison to her own illusions ¨C but did prove that the wall was at least partly an illusion. Maddy couldn¡¯t see past it with how dense the sand was but could confirm it was there. She also noticed several illusion boxes surrounding them. The wall was made of giant blue ¡°bricks¡± the size of her head and around five of them were ¡°missing¡± looking like rectangular pools of sideways quicksand. Maddy focused back on the guard. ¡°Please place your hand on this global status reader and infuse a portion of your mana.¡± The woman asked. She seemed to have lost some of her bordom a careful eye tracking Maddy from the moment she noticed the illusion bricks. ¡°Sure,¡± Maddy nodded reaching out first because both her companions were hesitating.
Name Maddison Graves.
Karmic Scry Neutral
KS Using SE Intent WF Rule abiding
Affinities Life&Death | Light&Dark
Path Way of the Mage, Initiate.
Domain None
Mind
Wisdom Intelligence Clarity
46 43 14
Body
Strength Agility Endurance
12.5 14 5
Soul
Spirit Whisper Stability
23 22 22
Stat Total 219
Major Realm Silver
Minor Realm Full Step
Outlier notes: Mental power specialized in visualization. Innate ability increases effectiveness of mental speed and decreases mental power. Physical Strength and speed concentrated in arms. Second affinity forcefully gained: Body Power and Body Defense the source hosts. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
The gatekeeper relaxed slightly as Maddy''s status came up. Maddy read it over before it faded, her eyes drifting between the new or altered sections. Karmic Scyry. Is that my attachments to the local powers? Showing I''m unaffiliated with any of them? Or is it something about my base nature...I''d like to think I''m "Good" ¨C I haven''t done anything that would place me halfway between a theoretical good and evil. Domain? What''s that? It looks important...the next step of magehood after I finish my foundation? Major and minor realms...are those Rank and tier? Rank...I think I''m still in rank 1 so rank 1 tier 2.
Name Jessica Rhodes
Karmic Scry Neutral
KS Using SE Intent WF Protective
Affinities Creation&Desctruction
Path Way of the Warrior, Initiate.
Domain Protection
Mind
Wisdom Intelligence Clarity
3 14 50
Body
Strength Agility Endurance
35 19 151
Soul
Spirit Whisper Stability
0 0 1
Stat Total 273
Major Realm Gold
Minor Realm Standing
Outlier notes: Altered innate ability with distributed body base. Minimum endurance threshold for ''partial slime'' designation met.
Name Troy Watts
Karmic Scry Neutral
KS Using SE Intent WF Reactive
Affinities Light&Dark | Creation&Destruction
Path Way of the Warrior, Initiate.
Domain None
Mind
Wisdom Intelligence Clarity
9 18 21
Body
Strength Agility Endurance
62 78 25
Soul
Spirit Whisper Stability
0 0 0
Stat Total 247
Major Realm Gold
Minor Realm Standing
Outlier notes: Body power stats concentrated in eyes and arms. High overall focus on all perceptive organs. Body speed stats concentrated in arm and body reaction time. Body defense concentrated in stability. Core placement [Redacted]. Second affinity forcefully gained: Body Defense and Mental Power the hosts.
How are both of them a higher level? What happened? Is it just the system not caring about my magic? I really need to figure that out soon. ¨C Also, 25 endurance? Did that mean he used to have 50? Jess spoke up despite the group still being in front of the gatewomen ¨C Maddy had also noticed but would have waited till they were alone. ¡°Weren¡¯t you going to pick body power? When did you switch to defense?¡± Jess asked peering across at his panel. ¡°Uh¡± Troy glanced at the gatekeeper then finished. ¡°I figured, back when we were fighting that knight ¨Cmonster knight. That monster knight¨C¡± Troy seemed to want the gatewomen to know it had been a monster. Smart, but the real smart thing would be waiting till they were out of earshot if it was important. ¡°¨CI finally figured that I trusted you enough to protect me. That I should focus on my strengths instead of picking up my weaknesses. I had also died recently and had gotten a lot more defensive stats ¨C they were suddenly my second highest stat ¨C and I realized I they weren''t as useful when the monsters were getting that strong so fast and splitting like I was was causing me to fall behind, so I just went with it.¡± Troy finished in a massive spew of words. Idot. What if he surprises her with knowing he revived? Also shouldn¡¯t you halve the effectiveness of your lowest stats? Its kind of a waste to nuke one of your higher ones. I mean if ¡°Hey! So you didn¡¯t trust me before?¡± Jess laughed then smacked his back. ¡°What¡¯s the second part you needed?¡± Maddy asked the gatewomen, steering the border check back on track. ¡°Oh, Okay.¡± The bored woman shifted the brilliant white parchment over and began to read out a disclaimer. ¡°Please recite this oath after me and then sign anywhere on the sign in sheet. The three laws are as follows. ¡°I ¨C say your name here ¨C promise not to break the following laws ¡°One. Do not commit unjustified murder. ¡°Two. Do not cause foundational damage to this city. ¡°And finally, Three. Don¡¯t look down. ¡°¡­.and that¡¯s it, when you are done, sign the page.¡± The woman finished. Feeling slightly silly, but ¨C considering the oath didn¡¯t seem excessive ¨C repeating the words as spoken. Maddy had an intrusive thought. Add in the stuff that¡¯s obviously not part of the oath. Say ¡®and that¡¯s it, when you are done sign¡¯. Do it. She ignored the intrusive thought and signed her name after promising not to look down. Putting everything away in a few seconds, the gatewomen pulled out her telescope once more and spun open the second gate. ¡°Good luck!¡± Chapter 54. Minor City Exploration. ---Maddy--- Maddy allowed Jess to step slightly in front, then followed her out into the alleyway. The main street wasn¡¯t actually an alleyway, but it certainly felt like it with cramped walls and what could be charitably called an ¡®unconventional¡¯ layout. It was even thinner than Maddy had gotten used to from the last few cities ¨C everyone walked or rode rickshaw-like carriages. Even so, most cities had had a main street or two, large enough for carts or caravans to ride through. This one was immediately small, like a back-road made even thinner by the choice of constant bends and corners. Tightly packed buildings lined the sides with varying degrees of wear and tear on their marble bricks. The bricks were all a rough but pretty looking marble and nearly all followed an aesthetically pleasing gradient pattern. It was almost like every layer of bricks was added to all the houses at once. Dark blue, slightly lighter blue, slightly lighter blue¡­all the way to white roofs and upper stories. Trailing your eyes downward revealed bricks shifting to black then yellow then the barest tinge of red. Maddy found her eyes couldn¡¯t roam lower, her head resisted her motion firmly and rolled upwards unconsciously if she tried to shift her eyes downward. The ¡°law not to look at the ground¡± seemed to be reinforced by magic. It wasn¡¯t really noticeable, but if you tried to fight it, your head hurt slightly. ¡­look back up¡­and it¡¯s gone. The street itself bent and looped sideways ¨C you couldn¡¯t see more than a dozen or two feet in every direction. Probably to keep the ground out of sight? Is there anything moving about on the ground? Tiny monsters or something? It was probably wildly impractical to build. The face of every building was bent somehow ¨C their insides were probably a mess because of the non-straight walls. Could you look down in buildings? How committed are they to this law? It really feels like the entire city was built with this law in mind ¨C why? Is it something religious? Nefarious? A huge practical joke? Besides the strange design, the only other point of note was how pretty the bricks were. They looked expensive but neglected ¨C like polished blocks from a bank or hotel that had been scuffed up by sandpaper. It was probably the other way around ¨C blocks of stone that hadn¡¯t been polished to shiny perfection ¨C but it was still noteworthy. The group walked slowly down the street ¨C just trying to gather their bearings. It took almost ten minutes of simple walking before Maddy realized they should have an actual goal to work towards. ¡°Should we find somewhere to stay first?¡± Maddy asked, turning to look both her friends in the eye. ¡°Sure, same method we used last time?¡± Jess asked, glancing back. Most of the cities they had passed through in the past few weeks had been simple things. They had entered accommodations the caravan set up or slept on the roof. The one time they had been forced to find a place themselves, they had brainstormed a plan for finding a good place. Step one: determine how friendly the locals are. ¡­they seem¡­amicable but distant. Most people seem to be walking around purposefully looking up at the sky even though they are pretty safe with an level gaze¡­ Step two: Depending on how nice the pedestrians are, switch to merchants. This city didn¡¯t have random carts all over the street¡­so they had to start peaking into buildings to find a target...this street should be a main street even if it¡¯s thin right? It came straight off the main gate? Main streets are shop streets aren¡¯t they? ¡­yep, from what I can tell, this town isn¡¯t breaking that rule as well. This one seems to be a butcher, but the cashier does not seem friendly. This one is a clothing store¡­sure. This one might work. First passing off her scythe to Troy, Maddy spent a second to re adjust her bag then stepped into the store alone. Inside she found a curved room filled with cloth of a hundred shades and variations. Directly in the center of this room was a large doughnut shaped service desk supported and attached to the ceiling by nine thick pillars. A man sat in the center wearing an incredibly wide hat and an outlandish vest. He spun slightly ¨C as if on a hidden swivel chair ¨C then looked up, smiling as soon as he saw a potential customer. Not beaming directly towards him, Maddy made her way slowly around the outer loop of the room. She purposefully took the time to look over everything on offer. Out of the corner of her eye, Maddy noted the man¡¯s grin widen ever so slightly. Should be enough, definitely considers me a potential customer now. Done with her first move, Maddy made her way over to the desk, activating the group¡¯s shared translator as she did so. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m new in town and hoping you could answer a few questions for me?¡± Maddy asked, watching as the man nodded happy to help. ¡°Thank you! Okay so forgive me if I missed it, but I can¡¯t see any prices listed? How much are the different items you have on display?¡± Maddy asked ¨C once again cementing her status as a customer willing to buy stuff. It wasn¡¯t even fully a charade ¨C Maddy really was considering the outfits. ¡°I¡¯m potentially interested in gaining a more comfortable top and bottom for daily wear ¨C as you can see my current outfit was for traveling and has gotten a bit dishevelled on my trip.¡± The shopkeeper laughed warmly and responded in a friendly tone. ¡°Ahh! Of course. Typically the outfits on our entrance side are priced based on quantity and can be bought as shown. We sell outfits as a whole ¨C most include shoes, shirt and either pants or skirt¡­some include an overcoat and a few are combined single piece. These are split into limited and full based on the side of the room they are on.¡± Standing up, the man used his hands to start pointing about the shop. ¡°From here to here is what we call our limited selection. Simple outfits priced at 100 pearls as a base. From here to here our are full selection, those cost 150 pearls as base. The special part of our business is our bulk offering. We have a longstanding promotion where each additional set comes with a stacking discount of 10% per pair capping off at 9. That means your ninth limited outfit will cost only 10 pearls!¡± Maddy nodded and made to ask her next question but the man animatedly continued his description. "Attempting to remove an item from the set or mix and match breaks the discount and lets me price based on discretion. We try and keep the total costs the same. Some shoes cost more, some outfits have overcoats etc. We really prefer customers buy our full sets. "Now! I can see the question in your eyes. What about the back half of our store?¡± Spinning around the shopkeeper continued. ¡°Everything on this side of the room is shown for reference. If our specially prepared outfits are not to your liking, you may browse our custom offerings. Typically what this option looks like is a simple measurement of your body and a request of materials, style and budget. This is where the majority of our customers come. Custom fit outfits can be made within the day pending certain rare materials or strange requests. We can even stitch arcane threads and clothes for those with the money to spare. ¡°In terms of casual wear, which of our plans are you leaning towards?¡± the shopkeeper asked, turning to look at his customer. Maddy nodded along, only embellishing her interest slightly. She really did want a clean set of clothes or two. Didn¡¯t have to be fancy, just some clean pairs she could swap to, to make herself feel less homeless. Asking for expensive magical clothes was a trap. Any spell she sewed onto her own clothes would be stronger by far than anything someone else could make her ¨C not because she was better at sewing per se. But because magic worked better being used by the person who created it, and she could more easily activate and push mana through spells using her own concepts. ¡°I think I¡¯ll stick with the limited sets. My next question was actually about the currency ¨C I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m new in town and don¡¯t know how much pearls are worth. I have these? Are they an option?¡± Maddy pulled out a handful of pips, then spread her pill-shaped crystals across the table hopefully. The demeanour of the man didn¡¯t change a fraction when she wasn¡¯t drawn to his upsell, but as soon as she displayed her wealth he noticeably shifted. His smile became strained and a half muttered ¡°adventurer¡± leaked out of his breath almost imperceptibly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry miss. We don¡¯t take monstrous currency here. You¡¯ll have to find a ¡®loot¡¯ exchanger near the dungeon if you want to deal in real money and store policy is not to deal in loans or tabs to adventurers. I have no clue how much those crystals are worth. Will that be everything?¡± ¡°Is there a reason for that policy?¡± Maddy asked even as she tried to piece together what was happening. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Adventurers are prone to racking up credit and then heading off to die. It¡¯s simple,¡± the man responded curtly. Dammit, all my goodwill evaporated somehow. His answer makes sense, but I can tell there¡¯s a lot more to it than that¡­ I guess regular citizens don¡¯t have a favourable view of adventurers here? Good to know at least, I¡¯m so used to being treated like royalty when I enter a place, I didn¡¯t even consider there might be cities where it is seen negatively¡­ Well, might as well try and squeeze out whatever I have left. ¡°I¡¯ll go exchange these after a few more quick questions if you have time. Which way should I head to reach the dungeon? And I¡¯m also wondering if you knew any places I might stay the night? I might be back later with pearls for that outfit.¡± The shopkeeper seemed to war with himself over maintaining a professional demeanour ¨C vs his obvious dislike for adventurers. He seemed to make up his mind when she mentioned coming back, and responded begrudgingly. ¡°Adventurer district is center town. Follow main straight about one seventh of a mile and you¡¯ll reach it. Can probably find a sta-motel or something there.¡± Maddy nodded, then thanked the man and left. ¡°Either that shopkeeper has a personal problem, or adventurers aren¡¯t seen kindly here.¡± Maddy whispered to her friends as soon as she met up with them. ¡°Try not to let slip you¡¯ve delved a dungeon if you don¡¯t have to¡­I found if we head straight we can find a dungeon and the typical shops that set up around them. Can exchange money and see if they are more accommodating.¡± Maddy finished. ¡°¡­have you seen us? No one else is scruffy and carrying weapons.¡± Jess looked pointedly up and down Troy carrying Maddy¡¯s scythe and his own bow. ¡°Okay, Well. Only have one encounter to go off of but keep it in mind. We can try buying clothing that matches the locals better but I¡¯m not sure I want to use that place.¡± Maddy sighed. ¡°That bad?¡± Jess asked as they started to walk. ¡°Not really¡­Do think he almost offered us a stable when I said we needed a place to sleep.¡± ¡°Dick.¡± ¡°What are our goals besides room and board? Should we hit up the dungeon here? Try and see if there are caravans here?¡± Maddy asked glancing back to make sure Troy felt included. It was a good question. For the past day or two getting here had been the goal. They didn¡¯t want to sleep outdoors without supplies if they could help it. Every part of the outdoor experience sucked. From reliving themselves in the woods to a constant need to be vigilant against surprise attacks. Most of the wild monsters seemed weaker than those In monster nests but they could still die to them if they were completely unprepared. Less important but still sneaking up was the need to bathe. Maddy would not consider herself a clean freak ¨C nor did she require or even care for luxurious accommodations¡­but that didn¡¯t mean she found roughing it fun. It didn¡¯t make the forced camping experience far from a shower comfortable. That was all just a short term goal of course. What was their plan for the future? The only real long term goal they had was advancement. They, as a group but also individually needed to grow stronger. More achievements. More concepts. More stats¡­ And besides that major ongoing quest there was a more pressing one hidden deep beneath the surface. The same goal but for a more important reason. They needed to advance to continue existing. It might not be that bad¡­but there was a dark trend Maddy hadn¡¯t had time to dwell on up till now. The tutorial had an average time to beat of a day or two with a hidden time limit for the food to run out and make living there a starvation hell. Because of how much everything liked the number three, she¡¯d say it had a safe range of 3 days to beat with most people leaving around day 2. The first zone had an average time of a few weeks ¨C she wanted to guess it was an estimated 3 weeks to beat and continue on. Jess had explained there was a hidden time limit on terms of the nests. At some point the badlands would break ¨C whatever natural force keeping the line of super nests contained would break. The danger pushed in a specific part of the world would fail and the zone would slowly fill with high leveled monsters forcing people to advance¡­or enter a hell of constant death to monsters and repeated resurrection. There¡¯s no reason to believe this zone was any different. That meant they had a time limit. It went from around 3 days to 3 weeks for the last two areas¡­would the new safe time be 3 months? Or the difference between days and weeks¡­7x3 weeks would be 21 weeks so around 4-5 months? That¡¯s the time when the zone will start to become hostile? This zone switching into a mode that was actively pushing them to advance or fail was also worse than the previous areas. Maddy had somehow managed not to die a single time, yet, but unlimited revivals were a thing of the past. The necromancer in charge of that service seemed to want to finish his community service as soon as possible. Maddy thought back to her experience with the necromancer and tried to figure out how to deal with that situation. ¡°Don¡¯t die¡± was the obvious solution to that issue but ¡°figure out how to use magic to revive myself¡¯ could be a hidden second goal. If the powerful people I¡¯ve talked to are to be believed, self revival is easier than reviving others¡­ I can and should spend some more time building my healing spells. Put some more research into keeping my spells from degrading after a few minutes ¨C figure out how to make a healing spell that can be cast beforehand and used if we are hurt. Making it permanent basically requires creation magic¡­but if the time limit is long enough to be convenient, that won¡¯t be needed? In terms of resurrection itself¡­well I have a life and death affinity which is the starting point for a lot of necromancers. It''s the only reason I¡¯m even considering it a possibility¡­but based on what the necromancer was saying life mana isn¡¯t enough I need soul mana¡­or something? He gave me a hint to self revival by saying I should build a phylactery. Think I read about those in fantasy? An urn or something that brings a litch back or contains a backup body or something? Except that same media always talks about litchood being a cursed existence. It¡¯s not called life, it¡¯s called undeath. Rotting undead bodies fuelled by their own magic. Not something I want to try unless I would die otherwise and not something I want to try without more information. I¡¯m also not drawn to the idea of necromancy in general. I just want to survive¡­immortality might be a nice personal goal as well? The group finally reached the adventurer¡¯s district. A part of Maddy continued to think about personal goals and how she might go about shifting her magic. But the majority refocused on her surroundings. Right in the middle of the street was a large carcass of a strange beast. The creature was covered in a unique mix of hairy scales¡­like curved and flattened quills that covered its entire body in reds and purples. What looked like a young boy not much older then ten or so, sat on top of it. His cross legged position putting him at eye height with the people who passed and he was animatedly talking to a man in robes of gold. His eyes flickered to Maddy¡¯s group and then returned to the man in front of him. ¡°Yep, this right here is a krill. Caught it myself ¨C smell it. Can you taste the concept of anger on your tongue just from its decapitated presence? I¡¯ve kept the head in a bag to prevent this whole street from going berserk, but I can sell it to you as well for the right price.¡± The child crossed his arms confidently. An unintelligible stream of sounds came out of the golden robed mans mouth. Seemed like he didn¡¯t have or care for a translator? ¡±Of course it¡¯s worth that much. Every single part of this creature is a potent material. Its personal concept is so strong its entire body can be used. From its armour to its flesh. You could craft or commission someone to create countless artifacts of passion and rage. I dare say there¡¯s probably an intrinsic rune or two intact somewhere deep within. One with an emotion concept and you know how much those can go for! ¡°You could even use the raw material as a spell catalyst, but burning even bits of a body like this in single use spells would be incredibly wasteful, don¡¯t you say? 39999 pearls seems more than fair for such a bounty.¡± The kid continued to haggle. He killed that? Is he really much older than he looks or are kids just built different here? Maddy continued on until they found a shop. ¡°I¡¯ll head in and see if I can exchange our money. Keep a look out.¡± Maddy asked, then ducked in. A long line of characters stood in front of her - the hallway so long it curved. Maddy couldn''t see the front of the line. Immediately ducking back out she spotted her two friends wandering back towards the kid and his ''krill''. "Hey, lines super long. Going to be a while" Maddy called then returned. Guess its time to stand here and wait.
---Richard--- Richard was having a good time. It was long into the night and Richard was still fucked from the fizzing metal balls. Excellent. If anyone asked, Richard would say he was drug positive. A social consumer in all cases ¨C getting drunk or high alone was sad as shit ¨C but still one who partook of the intoxicating vibes if he had a friend to do it with. Besides the warm fuzzy feeling from his stomach or the way his limbs felt loose, the main feeling the balls were giving him was curiosity. Curiosity and a happy feeling. It''s why they were exploring so much of the city. The nightlife in this artificial city was wild. Finally, after hours of trying to find anything and everything they could, the two found themselves back in the adventurer district. Richard really wanted to run a dungeon with his current intoxicated state - playing video games was so much funner when high and that¡¯s basically what those structured combat arenas were after all. Yo, he should see if he could get a gun with a loud speaker. Play some badass beat as he mowed down the monsters. Later. Right now he was more interested in that. What is that? Suspended in a clear net, a long feathery lizard looking creature bled dark pink blood onto the street below. Once they got a bit closer he saw the feathers were flat and hard. They looked somewhat like long scales? The body was just so vibrant and with how high Richard was right now, the dripping blood was mesmerizing. Walking up he nodded at the man sitting behind his catch and accepted an information packet that was tossed his way.
Adult Female Krill. Perishing Hash (-/-||/--|)
CM Type Aether warped beast. Contains a large amount of both known and unknown compounds. 40 credits per gram of meat. 100 credits for reactive bladder. 100 credits for deactive bladder. 5000 credits for aether core. Other cuts available upon request.
¡°Have anything else? I want to know more. Richard sent back a second after reading the sneak peak.
Krill Monster primer. Perishing Hash (-/-||/-|-)
Krills are an uncommon aether warped creature with a unique lifecycle. Technically they fall under the NM classification which separates monstrous aether beasts and non monstrous ones¡­but due to how dangerous and actively hostile they are, many consider them to have a M classification and no effort is made to limit their hunting. As you no doubt know, Aether warps matter in unique ways. Those warpings can create specific interactions. In this case, Krills require several chemicals they cannot make themselves notably epinephrine (adrenaline). Female krills also require testosterone to help fertilize their eggs, causing them to seek out males specifically to kill and consume. Krills aerosolize a series of sweats and secrete special poisons from their fangs and claws all aided by specialized kinetic manipulations and passive penetrating fields. These toxins are designed to help induce the overproduction of their favourite chemicals and cause a myriad of side effects in the common human including anger anxiety and occasionally lust. To complete their combo these creatures have behavioural patterns specifically designed to frustrate and taunt or torment their prey. Several behavioural serums from antidepressants to mood enhancers, have been created using krill body parts. Certain aether warped humans have gained skills that interact well with krill body parts.
"Fascinating¡­" Richard muttered staring the creature over appreciatively. ¡°What do you think? Shit, you don¡¯t have an AI do you? We gotta get you one of those come on. I bought mine this way¡± Richard grabbed his friend ¨C who was staring at the creature like he wanted to eat it ¨C and dragged him towards the AI shop. The night was still young. Still so much to do. Richard was having a good night. Chapter 55. Don’t look down. ---Maddy--- After waiting for a while in line, Maddy heard someone speaking French and connected up with a group of fellow travelers from France. The group was right in front of her in line and connected with someone a spot ahead of them from China. There was a brief period of greeting where everyone spoke of coming from Earth¡­but it died down quickly and Maddy found herself having more in common with the Chinese man than anyone else. After a period of hesitance, Maddy ended up being let ahead of the French group to talk to the more magic heavy conversation partner. And, slowly, as the line moved forward, the two sent translated messages back and forth and learned of each other. Maddy obviously offered parts of her own journey to make sure he didn¡¯t feel grilled, but most of the wait was spent reading his story. The man¡¯s name was Jing. Age unknown. Friendly, but incredibly vague about his past. His story started a bit after the start of the teleportation to this world. As a condensed overview, Jing had taken a long time to break his first skill. It took him a long time to understand what the world was like or what he was supposed to do ¨C to make matters worse he had been added to an ¡®zone¡¯ full of people who spoke a different language. Jing had taken to the end of the last zone to get a translator and had been put through some rough events in his early days. Rough events translated to stats, which eventually translated to enough personal strength to take matters into his own hands. Mental stats had chased away the confusion and raised his awareness and critical thinking skills. Once he finally touched magic his potential exploded. Jing had met someone briefly who had given him a few tips near the beginning a ¡®Mr Renshu¡¯ from his homeland who had had a better start. And this is where the meat of their conversation lay. Chinese characters were incredibly strong for enchantments ¨C each character was almost equivalent to a rune. Many characters represented a single word ¨C a single concept ¨C and contained a potency phonetic representation lacked. Unlike how Maddy had sunk into the concept of sound using words and the rune on her tongue to convey her intent. Jing had sunk deeper into the idea of writing his spells down with the actual act of writing influencing his magic. He had a few ¡®more permanent spellworks¡¯, but nearly every single spell he cast was painted. Many at the time he wanted to use them and always using a variety of inks and dyes. Different colours gave different meanings ¨C some increased or decreased the strength of certain types of spells based on a convoluted set of rules. Some of his inks contained the blood or powdered scales of a specific monster he had fought ¨C while others were simple and yet maintained a strength that seemed more like superstition than true power. He had a red dye that was rarely used for example. His ¡®lucky ink¡¯ that had to be saved for important rituals or insurmountable obstacles. Maddy noted this down but tried to make sure her own path wasn¡¯t ¡®corrupted¡¯ by someone else¡¯s. In his case she probably would have switched to only creating spells with that dye but it was clearly working for him and she did know that rules and restrictions had power. Something more important than their shared experiences with magic was their shared ¡®view¡¯ of the world. Not so much their philosophical view or anything, but their magical one. Jing was adamant that the world was full of spirits. Tiny invisible motes of energy ¨C potentially ¡®qi¡¯ along with greater wisps that held great power. These spirits could be communicated with or pushed into spells. Harnessed and bound or contracted and placated. Take your pick they both worked. Considering many spirits could survive being shoved through a spell, it was better to use them consensually ¨C having an angry entity following you around after it was used as a surprise amp wasn¡¯t ideal, even if there was little direct danger. Jing had taken the exact same concept leap as Maddy. He had figured out his original base element of light had a meaning towards sight. He too had used that meaning to create all sorts of ways of seeing the world. That had seamlessly been integrated in the last area before he had even gained his second affinity of ice and fire. The main spell he ran nearly constantly let him better see these spirits ¨C he had already been able to see them in glimses since all the way back on earth ¨C and allowed him point to several seemingly empty spots in their surroundings as places with high concentrations of them. This whole conversation was slightly strange because it felt like his words weren¡¯t true. The spirits¡­nothing Maddy had seen, heard or had even been hinted they might exist. The only hint that magic might have even been able to reach earth was the system box arriving there. It felt like if Jing hadn¡¯t told her about these so called spirts, she would have never learned about them till the day she died. A part of magic that had he had tacked on all of a sudden. An afterthought that didn¡¯t need to exist. If Jing hadn¡¯t demonstrated a spell supposedly with and without ¨C a single small crystal of ice that lazily moved about, or a dense sword of ice that spun and acted out a imaginary fight with intelligence¡­well then she would have been confident saying he had just made it all up. He also seemed to use this description to describe her own sights in a dismissive manner. Maddy had spoken of the haze of death energy that was released when things died and Jing ¨C after nodding a bunch ¨C mentioned it was probably just such a high concentration of death sprites that she could see them. Similarly life sprites tended to cluster around living things, so if she saw green about humans with her life sight, she was ¡¯probably just partly seeing the life sprites in that position¡¯. That just felt wrong. Of course they couldn¡¯t just show off magic in a semi crowded hallway ¨C Jing had been warned by a gruff-looking man to cut it out after the ice sword flew about his head. Finally after what felt like hours, Maddy had reached the front and the conversation was done. There at the front she found an incredibly overworked and stressed looking clerk. The man quickly rushed through a trade and moved on, shooing her off as soon as he was done counting out the clear coins. Hours of waiting for a three minute exchange of items? That was annoying. was this the only exchange place in town? Why was it so busy? Just the high volume of travelers the city wasn¡¯t used to? Maddy had offered to try giving the clerk a healing spell with her ¡®awake¡¯ concept as a pick me up, but had been refused and shooed along. The whole experience felt like a waste of time. Maddy kind of wished there was an achievement for waiting in line to sweeten the deal ¨C but no dice. Maybe if she were the first to sit through that or had done something unique while waiting ¨C maybe then? Maddy really had gotten bad at chasing down achievements. She¡¯d do some brainstorming later today. She couldn¡¯t just ignore it to focus on the more exciting spell manipulation. ¡­ The rest of the day was simply repeating the ¡°question a shopkeeper about places to stay¡± plan. This time they picked shopkeepers around the adventurers district who all seemed friendlier. The first mark was someone who created vials of healing liquid. They didn¡¯t need the healing with Maddy filling that spot, but bought a small vial each ¡®just in case¡¯. Bonus of course, was it made the shopkeeper more likely to answer their questions. It was funny how such a vital service ¨C healing consumables ¨C hadn¡¯t been filled in the previous zone. In this moment, the city gained a sense of realism all the cities in the last area had lacked. It was like, of course adventurers buy healing items. They could die in a dungeon! It was a vital safety measure that all natives would be using if it existed! Not having them in the previous zone almost¡­almost felt purposefully done? Like R removed it from the cities, knowing that the travelers would be more likely to get hurt or die¡­ and the added danger and pain would give better achievements because there wasn¡¯t an enormous cost to death¡­And! And now that they could permanently die after their fourth death, it meant the healing items were added back? That seemed right. Any world that evolved naturally, would have something like this built in from step one. Maybe that was a hint the world was becoming more real? ¡­ ¡°I¡¯ve decided.¡± Troy spoke up after they settled into their apartment for the night. This ¡®proclamation¡¯ was noteworthy for a few reasons. Troy¡­Troy nearly never spoke if he could help it. He responded when prompted, but usually nodded or shook his head or even just gestured if he could get away with it. ¡°I¡¯ve decided to look down.¡± He spoke again. He turned and gave a slow purposeful nod to first Maddy and then Jess. ¡°Ayyy! Finally someone mentioned it!¡± Jess laughed even as Maddy shook her head and began to respond. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I wouldn¡¯t look down without a good reason or hint of what we might see. You know there¡¯s literally only three laws, with the last being little more than a slight inconvenience. If it¨C¡± Troy continued again cutting Maddy off. ¡°I¡¯m doing this, I just thought I ought to tell you two in case something happens. Please stay back, I don¡¯t want to drag you into my choices.¡± he mumbled, refusing to look her in the eye. Raising both hands in front of his face before Maddy could talk him out of it, Troy took a deep breath then pulled his arms apart. Directly in front of him bulging slightly around his hands, the air seemed to stretch. The air quickly solidified as he pulled it ¡®taut¡¯. Maddy felt almost like the action was similar to how he pulled back his bow¡­ the same concept being used? As his mirror finished forming, Maddy got a brief glimpse of the ceiling before suddenly Troy was gone. ¡°Hey!¡± Jess jumped up ¨C a panicked look on her face. ¡°Where did he go?¡± Jess spun her head, straining slightly as she tried to bend it downwards. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure he just fell, or was pulled downwards¡­ give me a second,¡± Maddy spoke even as she joined Jess in spinning about the room. And suddenly Maddy had a choice. To follow her recent oath¡­or to join her companion of several weeks in his decision. Her mind went in several directions. It felt like her brain was splintering, a dozen separate trains of thought suddenly popping to the forefront of her mind. On one side, a twinge of anger that Troy hadn¡¯t consulted them more before jumping ahead. This felt like it had come out of nowhere. On another side, frustration at herself. She should have been able to notice he was plotting this long before it became an issue. When did he decide this? Why hadn¡¯t she been able to talk him out of it? On another side, there was curiosity. She wanted to know what was down too! She had been taking it safe ¨C there was a good chance there was a good reason for this rule after all. Enough to put it on the same level as murder in the law¡­it didn¡¯t change the fact that she burned with a desire to know what was happening. Was there some tentacle monster lurking below, puppeting people and preventing everyone from seeing that some people didn¡¯t have legs? A society of little people who all died if anyone stared at them? On another side, there was a seed of what she could do to follow him. The easiest way to replicate his feat. The words she would use, the way she might imagine her spell twisting to work on short notice. On another particularly heavy side, there was a stupid memory of psychology class. There was a question her teacher had asked once ¨C something that came up a lot as a conversation topic or personality quiz. ¡®Would you help your best friend hide a body? Would you turn your friend in if they came to you and confessed to murder?¡¯. The teacher hadn¡¯t seemed to have a good reason for bringing it up at the time ¨C it seemed to be presented to the class for no reason other than to spark discussion and it was equally as useless right now. That train of thought was annoying because while placed in the same category as murder in the oath, it was obviously not the same. The fact that her mind drew a parallel was unconstructive right now. Especially with the idea of ¡°laws¡± shifting in a world like this full of danger. If a law was something enacted by a single king instead of something created and agreed to by society like she was used to¡­well then blindly following it was just as dumb as breaking it for the sake of rebellion. Several trains of thought attempted to brainstorm dangers and ¨C in and amongst the web Maddy¡¯s mind had just spun, her ¡®mind spider¡¯ awoke and took control. The central bit of her, cut through the panic and made a choice. ¡­ ¡°With eyes of life and light; created quickly short but bright; ever formed in sound and sight. Tell me what you see; please reveal the truth before me; your job to form from sound and simply be. Look down and scout; see if I must help; surround me and sprout!¡± Maddy stumbled through the rhyme, visualizing her eye scouts appearing on anything they could inside her room. Her rhyme¡­kind of sucked. It wouldn¡¯t win any awards, but it wasn¡¯t designed to. It linked relevant concepts and had a pattern with three chunks of three. That was the part that felt important. If spells want meaning well then there they hecking go. As far as ideas went it was already a wasteful plan, but she didn¡¯t have time to copy Troy¡¯s trick of making a mirror. It was easier to reuse and try and shift the goal of an existing spell than to make something from scratch on short notice. It was going to be wasteful and she wanted to save as much of her mana as she could to deal with whatever might happen but she just didn¡¯t have the time. Maddy pushed mana towards her scythe¡¯s scout enchantment, trying to keep some in reserve. She tried to keep as much of her mana in reserve and actively found herself fighting the spell. She actually found it trying and drag all of her mana out to complete and had to clamp down. As she finished her last word, Maddy¡¯s mana buckled. It felt like her spell was a living creature greedily biting down on the mana she was holding back from. Her toungue bled slightly ¨C the spell had been dragging itself out of her mouth after all and biting caught the fleshy appendage in the crossfire. Still the spell had taken too much. A final gluttonous chunk of her mana. She had been aiming for a quarter of her pool and it felt like she ended up with two thirds being taken instead. It would have to be enough. One, by One, by One. Eyes grew out of her surroundings like eldritch mushrooms. Hundreds on the wooden bed and desk and door. Thousands on her arms and legs. Two big ones on one side of her face, One on the back ¨C a single sticking to Jess¡¯s forehead like a tumour. In one single blink, every single eye opened. Maybe it was their relative proximity to Maddy. Maybe it was her desire or the words she used and the idea she only needed them for a short duration¡­but the eyes all sent back a crystal clear view of what they saw. Thousands of nearly identical perspectives merged in Maddy¡¯s brain into a single clear picture. Very quickly she found herself closing her own eyes and staring through the spell instead - she saw everything from several several sides and yet her mind did the hard part of combining it. And, more importantly, in that moment, she ¡®looked down¡¯.
?? Achievement get: Looked down when you weren''t supposed to look. (Rare)
Description: In the perfect copy of a famous city, you rebelled and broke its most important rule. Now we figure out if you researched what you were doing first. Remember kids, freedom to act as you like, does not excuse you from the consequences of those actions.
Stat: +9 mental power Stat: +1 soul power
She was also looking up and sideways ¨C and technically it wasn¡¯t her doing the ¡®looking¡¯¡­ But still¡­she looked down, by looking at all directions at once and that counted. The floor was dark and blue looking ¨C darker than Maddy had been sure it had been earlier today. At least darker then the twinge of colour from the outer unrecognizable edge of her peripheral vision had seemed¡­ Except it wasn¡¯t. The floor itself was glass. Polished clear glass, or crystal, or ¡®something¡¯. It provided a clear view of the lake below, dark as the sun set and the hidden moon rose. Far, far down below, Maddy¡¯s clear vision almost zoomed forward as she focused and cut through the distance. In the water she saw what looked like a young girl. A young woman in what looked like a frilly white and pink dress swimming? The woman was far from shore and moving strangely in the water. Was she drowning? Finding it hard to swim in that dress? The girl spun slightly and looked up and in that moment Maddy found herself gazing deep into two of the most gorgeous eyes she had ever seen. She stared at those eyes from thousands of viewpoints ¨C every single one of her eyes captivated until they were all she could see, the multiple perspective fading. Those eyes were nearly distracting enough Maddy almost didn¡¯t notice the woman was naked. Continuing her spin as if giving Maddison a better look, the women¡¯s glistening chest slipped out of the water and suddenly Maddy realized the glass floor wasn¡¯t a floor at all. It was nothing more than a weak barrier ¨C one that had vanished in this endless blink. ¡­And Maddy was now falling. A rising rush of vertigo pulled her out of her daze as she wrenched her eyes away from the women below. A second achivement flickered into place but maddy had a hard time focusing on it with the world spinning about her.
?? Achievement get: Broke out of a hypnotic gaze I. (uncommon)
Description: Through either effort of will or luck, you''ve found yourself mesmerized for a moment and broken away. Maybe with a few more stats you''ll find yourself no longer dazed through sight-based attacks.
Stat: +3 mental defence (visual filter).
Maddy had just enough time to realize she was in the air. She no longer had her scythe, the weapon spinning dangerously beside her and then suddenly ¨C Crash. Maddy hit the water hard. It wasn¡¯t quite ¡®slamming into concrete¡¯ levels of damage, but Maddy had every single bit of breath knocked out of her in the most violent manner she had ever experienced. It felt like part of her insides were rearranged and her entire front was suddenly bruised. Maddy¡¯s mouth gasped and filled with water, the surroundings a disorienting whirl of bubbles and pain. Nearly all her premade spells were on her scythe. Where had it landed? Which way was up? The surface? Why was her mouth full of water ¨C what had just happened? Where was she? Maddy coughed and spluttered and pushed a trickle of dark mana into her mind in an attempt to focus. Healing. I have to heal myself and retrieve my scythe. I just fell into the lake. Troy, I did this to follow him. I have to see if he¡¯s about as well. I think I¡¯m in shock ¨C healing first Maddy tried desperately to use her life mana on her body and found it annoyingly ineffectual. Mana¡­mana was a fuel that lacked the oomf a proper spell did. It also refused to listen to her when all she could give it was wishes. It honestly felt like she was pointing a laser pointer about her body with her mind and hoping the mana would move towards where she was screaming at it to move. This wouldn¡¯t be a problem if she had picked an internal path instead, but she had wanted greater flexibility and ability outside of her own body. Why was her self healing spell written on her scythe and not her robes or even her own skin? Focus. Maddy needed more than just her visualization. More than just her thoughts and wishes. She gasped, pushing her voice to work underwater. ¡°Heal,¡± she just barely enunciated, lungs full of water and mouth and throat lacking air to communicate with. It wasn¡¯t speaking ¨C not truly ¨C and yet a sound was made, a concept invoked and her mana heard. As if only just now listening to her wishes, life mana reacted to her burning desire. It felt like a wave rushed out around her, the mana swirling away in all directions. No! I¡¯m already wasting too much. Choking out a second time, Maddy managed to make just enough noise for a second concept, this one dumped with dark mana. ¡°Orb¡± All the mana which had been shot out in all directions with intent to heal, began to pull back towards. Dark tendrils wrapped around and filled her surroundings, her dark mana merged and mixed with the water like dye. Bit by bit her goal was realized. She had already determined that the orb concept pulled a spell into and then held in in an oblong sphere-like shape. It shouldn¡¯t work on spells already cast ¨C it shouldn¡¯t have an ability to pull anything towards it. It wasn¡¯t like the concept was a black hole or anything; it was just a simple orb. But¡­that¡¯s what Maddy wanted it to do and there was no reason she saw for the spell to be done already. If that was what the concept did to itself, she just had to extend what counted as ¡®itself¡¯. What said a spell was done? When you said the last word? What if you pause and then start up again? I misspoke, I meant to say ¡°heal orb¡± not just heal. Don¡¯t worry about it.
?? Achievement get: Forceful aquatic chant. (unique)
Description: Verbally cast a spell under water...without having accounted for the water first. You know you need to breathe right? Some lung defence might help right about now.
Stat: +9 mental power.
The life mana was pulled towards Maddy and held in the water directly around her like a healing cocoon. She was a creature nurturing in an egg. More accurately, it really just felt like she was creating a dilute healing potion and then sleeping in it. My emergency healing potion! Where did that end up? Oh, I think I left it in my bag on the bedside table. Slowly the roughly cast mana got to work. Maddy was pretty sure she now knew what direction was up ¨C the healing liquid trickling through her mouth and nose were extending her life more effectively than raw mana had been. All disorientation was gone so that was good ¨C even if suddenly the pain was harder to ignore it was worth it. But it wasn¡¯t enough. She had to reach the surface if she was to have any chance of staying alive. The spell itself was fading after all ¨C faster than her pool could refill and be recast. ¡­ Just as the last bits of the spell were fading and Maddy was ready to start swimming upwards, she found herself face to face with a beautiful woman. The one who had stared up at her from the lake below ¨C now floating in front of her, a wide smile upon her face. The naked woman was holding Maddy¡¯s scythe and drifting closer and closer, her hair moving in a mesmerizing manner in the water. Don¡¯t look her in the eye. Maddy flinched her gaze downwards as her mind attempted to remember the dazed feeling she had felt back in the room above. Below the waistline this women¡¯s body seamlessly morphed into what looked like a jellyfish. What Maddy had thought was a dress was nothing more than the bottom half of a chimera-like creature. Legs were nothing more than thick, murky and transparent tentacles. All across the jellyfish body, hypnotic patterns glowed and spiralled and pulsed. Maddy attempted to backpedal, readying what little of her combined pool remained ¨C she was nearly empty on life/death and light/dark. All she had was less than half a pool of the more potent mixed affinity left. On three I shout ¡®die¡¯? In front of her, the monster opened her beautiful lips and revealed a mouth full of gums. She has no teeth? That was the last thought and hesitation Maddy had before the monster shot forward towards her and everything went dark. Chapter 56. Silent static sound. ---Maddy--- Maddy awoke frozen and drifting. She had never experienced sleep paralysis before but that was definitely the closest feeling she could imagine relating her current state. Her mind very quickly fought through a fog and found itself trapped in a fleshy prison. Within seconds the prison gave slightly and she could move her eyes about. That¡­almost made it worse ¨C being able to roll her eyes about wildly made her feeling of being trapped intensify. Beside her, Maddy could just barely make out a body she was nearly confident was Troy and a bit of a distance ahead the jellyfish siren who had captured her argued with¡­ What even is that? A massive creature of floating strands and flickering patterns and random body parts took up the entirety of Maddy¡¯s vision. The creature was wider than she could track without being able to tilt her head. It was an absolute mess of shapes. Blobs of clear jellyfish with hair floating up off of it. Tentacle like appendages covered in eyes or ears. Random strands of blobby nothing that slowly morphed into what looked like a melted human arm or ended with puckered red lips. A rubbery horror that was strangely sterile and clean. It looked like it should be covered in rotting flesh but was instead simply perfectly smooth ¨C the humanoid chunks slowly shifting to jellyfish and back again across a massive scale. The mostly girl shaped monster continued to try and argue with the monstrosity most of the communication appearing to be done through flashing lights but a small bit through a humanoid voice speaking some shrill foreign language. Body language made her look like a teenager trying to convince her parents to let her keep a pet while it was hard to attribute anything from the other side of the conversation. Maddy found more of her body returned to her. She could feel the water around her and was suddenly aware of the rubbery chunk of something in her mouth allowing her to breathe. It tasted like a tire and her lungs still felt full of water but just by focusing on her breathing Maddy found herself able to start moving ever so slightly. A twitch of her hand in the water turned her whole body slightly. Another shifted her further and Maddy found her head could tilt the rest of the way to see Her friend beside her. He seemed to be trying to get her attention? Maddy continued to struggle against the disconnect between her body and mind. It felt like all the connections between her body and brain had been cut and she was slowly reforging them the longer she struggled. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have followed me¡± Troy mouthed. Or at least mostly mouthed. The inside of his mouth was full of white gunk and it was really hard to read his lips. Hindsight said he was probably right. There wasn¡¯t really anything she had accomplished by jumping after him ¨C that was all hindsight speaking however. At the time Maddy had known nothing and had made a decision. Now she had to figure out how to get them out of this. Cut off from nearly the entirety of her magic Maddy couldn¡¯t even cast the skills she had broken any more. She¡¯d moulded their parts too much to control mentally. There was still the sound rune on her tongue? Focusing on that, Maddy tried to imagine how she might get out of this. All her complicated magic was out. Trying to make seeds or similar was too complex to work through with pure visualization. Sound and the rune¡­she could distill it down into attaching dark death to her rune then making a sound ¨C any sound ¨C and piggybacking the attack onto that sound? She might even be able to visualize it attacking just what heard her, instead of weakly hitting anything touched by the sound... For this plan Maddy didn¡¯t need to say anything ¨C just make a sound. It was raw but it should work? It would hit Troy as well¡­was she okay with that? If she was currently being frozen by either of those monsters and hitting them broke their focus she¡¯d suddenly be able to grab Troy and maybe heal any damage she¡¯d caused? How would she go about healing. She could semi-reliably push life mana toward him but without intent, it wouldn¡¯t do anything against the intent-filled attack. She could ¨C Maddy didn¡¯t have time to finish her plan. A long tentacle wrapped around her waist and yanked her through the water until she floated in front of a pouting monster with unnatural appeal. The woman held out a hand and stroked Maddy¡¯s cheek then spoke. The words were in a different language and warped but somehow Maddy could understand the meaning. ¡°I¡¯m sorry-sad, I hope-wanted to play with you more but All-Mother said your Mind-Aegis is too strong. Bad-Stats.¡± The monster sighed with melodrama her nice sounding voice overlaid ontop of the shrill noises she made underneath. Explanation given, several things began to happen quickly in sequence. Maddy felt the hold on her body drop for a disorienting second before a tingling shock spread through the tentacle holding her and she was once again frozen completely. It felt like she was being pumped with paralytic poison even as a wash of something passed through her body and stole her control. Her body was squeezed hard enough for her to involuntarily choke out the rubbery gag and an incredibly painful burning sensation coated her entire scalp. There was a single horrifying moment when she realized the monster in front of her was about to eat her brain and then like a movie being shut off on an old boxy television, everything snapped to static. Stolen novel; please report. Maddy died for the first time. Her perfect streak broken near the end for no real reason. Nearly all sensation left her till all that remained was a weak sense of self. It felt exactly like the feeling of distributing her stats or choosing something outside of her body but without the structure those times had given. Nothing surrounded her but blinking dots of black in a white void. Or maybe it was flashing points of white in a black void? It was hard to tell. What felt like a billowing cloak surrounded Maddy¡¯s sense of self. A terrifying trapping sensation made worse by the sensations on the opposite side of the material. It felt like it was almost instantly wrapping around her and yet if Maddy had to point to a direction she would have said it came from the rune on her leg. It felt¡­it felt like Maddy had just been shoved into a silk bag and on the other side thousands of hands were grabbing and poking and pressing. Skeletal hands the fingers nothing more than bone. A new sensation of movement began to permeate Maddy¡¯s being. It was hard to describe as movement ¨C for her soul had none of the balance organs or typical senses of touch that might give her a feeling. ¡­but similar to how the bag surrounding her pushed a sensation onto her being, the pull through static pushed the intent of movement onto her. The longer Maddy was held in this bag the more sensations she was able to feel. The less of a void it felt like she was in. ¡°Necromancer?¡± She called out her voice almost sounding out. The almost exclamation originated from the center of her being and suddenly freaked Maddy out as she realized she had no mouth. Or head. It felt like there might have been a slight pause in the movement of the bag but it soon continued no response being given. The sense of movement continued. A rocking sensation that was almost soothing. The sharp fingers jabbing the other side of the bag stopped feeling as rough¡­ It was almost boring. Maddy was left alone with her thoughts¡­and yet her thoughts felt strange. More chaotic and less ¡®her¡¯ than she would have imagined. Her mind¡­wasn¡¯t fully linked to emotions in this state. It wasn¡¯t linked to discrete ideas, or logical thought, or even most of her memories. She was incomplete. Incomplete and yet not terrified by that incompleteness while still being present enough to notice it and comment to herself on everything. Time passed and pending anything else to do Maddy¡¯s mind got curious. Her foundation choice¡­that was something that was linked to her mind. Not her brain even if that was usually the home of her mind but¡­the part of her that was currently reasoning and thinking about herself. The mind that was currently located in her soul instead of her brain¡­ Her mana¡­was located in the center of her and yet nothing she had felt had indicated her pools were located in her body. So where were they? Her mana pools being located in her soul made sense didn¡¯t it? why couldn¡¯t she feel them? As soon as Maddy thought that she could feel the familiar link to her pools appear. Like when you suddenly wondered what something you were ignoring felt like. Suddenly something hidden was all she could see. Her pools felt strange. Strong and so much more alive than they were usually¡­and yet flimsy and weak in the same moment. Instead of a solid point she could instinctually feel they were shifting blobs of potential rolling about her soul. Constantly in slight motion and slippery in a way they had never been before. Maddy finally grabbed onto one of them and pulled life mana into her mind. In a single moment, the floating point was attached and dragged towards her consciousness. Like she had just stretched an elastic band around her nose and a marble and then let go. The link she made snapped tight and her pool pulled up and into her. Suddenly Maddy felt more herself. She felt happier and more optimistic but also¡­the mana she could feel rushing into her mind ¡®fixed¡¯ her slightly. Made her even more herself. It was difficult to tell time currently but in a single moment Maddy felt her entire pool was drained to a single drop. What was little more than a disorienting flash of sensation filled her and Maddy was briefly able to sense the strange life that surrounded her. Her pool was drained completely dry. So easily had she ripped the mana from it that it felt like she had accidentally broken it. like she had eaten it completely the pool disappeared from her senses for a panic inducing moment. Slowly the pool came into view once again drifting away from her mind as it struggled to refill. It had slipped away from her mind as soon as her life mana reached absolute zero and ever so slowly regained its form. After a metaphorical sigh of relief ¨C Maddy didn¡¯t have the lungs or mouth to sigh with ¨C Maddy focused on what she had seen. It wasn¡¯t quite thousands of hands but there were at least a dozen of them holding onto her surroundings. There were muted blobs around her in the surroundings. Humanoid shapes seared into the static for a second and then dropped as soon as her spell ended. Maddy reached very carefully for her light pool. Instead of grabbing it this time Maddy reached out and tapped it mentally. She actively tried to draw as small a strand as she could up towards her mind and took the time to slowly visualize the single small strand passing through her soul. A less aggressive link was made and Maddy¡¯s senses shifted once more. Slowly as if looking at the output of a 3d scanner, the void shifted and gained structure. Very quickly static black and white dots shifted to sand and outlined buildings and figures. The fuzzy black and white bled into colours as the flavours of light tinged her surroundings. Maddy was back in the city once again. Held floating invisible above people¡¯s heads. Below her and to the side she watched a familiar looking outline. A familiar... Was that¡­her? Maddy saw herself moving in a strange manner through the city. Her body walked naturally and yet with a robotic twitch that was almost creepy in its regularity. Like clockwork every 10 or so seconds her body would pop upwards slightly. Her current vision also revealed the hint of a shimmer about her body. It wasn¡¯t quite an illusion but Maddy was pretty confident there was some magic surrounding her body that was preventing people from noticing or caring¡­ Why. Why was that her body? And why wasn¡¯t she in it? Maddy hadn¡¯t been reincarnated yet. For some reason she had been imagining her body would appear fully formed wherever the necromancer reincarnated her at. ¡°How na?ve¡± A voice spoke from beside her. Maddy suddenly realized she must have been projecting her thoughts because suddenly a small puppet shaped creature floated beside her. Not just any puppet ¨C her puppet. The one she had used to summon the necromancer all that time ago in. ¡°Is¡­is that a person? Are you shoving me into someone else¡¯s body?¡± Maddy asked glancing between the invisible figure beside her and the still wandering body below. ¡°Will you tell me not to save your silly little ass if I say yes?¡± The creature spoke. Mirth filled his¡­soul voice as his intent radiated down on her. Maddy was tempted to say yes just to spite him. The lack of a brain removing many filters she didn¡¯t know she had. And yet those same filters showed her true thoughts without hiding them from herself. The answer was no. She would still want to be saved. She¡¯d just feel guilty about it. She hadn¡¯t responded and yet the necromancer seemed to see every one of her thoughts. He actually laughed out ¡®loud¡¯ this time as his skeletal hands squeezed her bag lightly. ¡°I like you more like this girlie. To answer your question. That meat puppet is no more a person than a baby is. It has the potential to be a person, but it isn¡¯t one yet. Besides, as fun as it would be to see how long you can last as a spirit ¨C Your soul defense is what. 20? 22? That would let you survive something like a day without a body unless you actively tried to kill yourself. Wouldn¡¯t put it past you hah. Anyways. As fun as that might be, that bastard R would find out and I can¡¯t afford to break a deal with the big scary demon,¡± the necromancer trailed off. With a shift as if he was suddenly bored of the conversation, the necromancer grabbed the bag surrounding her tightly and dragged it towards her body down below. ¡°Wait,¡± Maddy called without quite knowing why. She wanted to prepare herself or something? Ignoring her cry the necromancer continued to pull her into her body a final slightly muffled response the last thing she heard. ¡°You don¡¯t technically need to re apply the rune to your leg. This zone is close enough to reality I can bypass most of the restrictions and your soul defense isn¡¯t an issue as is¡­try to stay under 27 if you are planning on dying again and don¡¯t want to piss me off but whatever. I could handle triple that in this zone anyways even if it would be a colossal pain in my ass¡­¡± Chapter 57. A return to physicality. ---Maddy---
?? Achievement get: What you can''t see can''t hurt you (Rare)
Description: Died to a Deleamouson. Perhaps you caught a glimpse of hypnotic patterns in the water. Perhaps you went swimming deep into an illusionary lake. Whatever the case, you were caught and eaten alive by the alluring sights of an aquatic predator.
Stat: +18 Mental visual defense Stat: +3 Mental defense
?? Achievement get: A Ghostly existence (Unique)
Description: Spent considerable time, aware and fully unshielded in the spiritual layer then returned to the physical.
Stat: +9 Soul defense
?? Achievement get: Vision from beyond the veil (Rare)
Description: Viewed the physical layer while wholly located in a spiritual layer. Through some form or variant of astral projection or similar, you found yourself as nothing more than a spirit. Not content with your lacking senses, you managed to view a shadow of reality through magical means.
Stat: +9 soul power Stat: +4 mental power
?? Achievement get: A mobile mind (Unique)
Description: Consciously moved about as a spirit and then returned to a physical form ¨C however aided you might have been.
Stat: +4 soul speed Stat: +2 soul defense
?? Achievement get: Possessive aren''t you (Unique)
Description: Consciously claimed a new body as your own. Not content to simply take control, you¡¯ve squashed whatever ego the body might have had and bound your soul tightly to a new shell. Considering how easy that was, the previous host must have been too weak to fight back. Are you possessing sick children? That¡¯s generally frowned upon in polite company but everyone needs a hobby.
Stat: +10 mental power Stat: +5 soul power
Maddy stumbled sideways as her body dragged itself into focus. This is wrong. This isn¡¯t my body. These aren¡¯t my hands. Maddison collapsed by the wall and retched. Weird bile ran up then out and fell onto the transparent crystal floor below as she dealt with the disorienting continuous full body transplant. Within seconds the bile sunk through the material and fell down into the lake below. Don¡¯t stare down. Maddy had the presence of mind to twist her head slightly towards the wall as she heaved and shook. Through blurry tears she read the achievements before dry heaving a second time. This was worse than she had heard. Was this new body rejecting her? Was it just because she had been conscious continuously from before, during, and after the transplant? Was she just weaker than others? Maddy reached for her life pool and panicked slightly as it wasn¡¯t exactly where she was used to. It was shifting when I was incorporeal. Calm down, it¡¯s over here. Directing some towards her mind instantly made her feel more in control and with a shaking hand she wrote on the red brick beside her. The bile made a great finger paint even if it was disgusting and a quick ¡®heal me¡¯ written and activated later and Maddy was fine enough to stand up. It felt like infusing her body in life mana claimed it somehow. It was more hers now. This isn¡¯t my body. She felt slightly weak ¨C likely due to her small number of physical stats not having transferred to this ¨Cnot my¨C body yet¡­and yet surpisingly it felt like most of her mental stats survived the journey. Maybe because she had kept them in her soul? Dragged them with her? Either way she had to find their room. What section of the town am I in? Spinning about Maddy tried to spy any familiar landmarks. All the roads looked the same¡­she was currently in a low traffic street and a couple of the citizens walking past had glanced at her in curiosity. One or two looked concerned but didn¡¯t want to get involved. Maddy wiped her mouth as she spun slowly then stepped out into the center of the street to get a better look. The town didn¡¯t seem to have any massive towers or anything she could link to¡­ Guess I¡¯ll walk for now. Wiping her hand as best as she could on the wall, Maddy slowly made her way along the street. As she walked, Maddy began splitting her attention into separate components. One part focused entirely on the surroundings and walking. It took a surprising amount of concentration to do those two things but Maddy left enough of her attention in this compartment to panic about her traumatic experience. Dying had wiped the compulsion to stay looking upwards and now this section of Maddy also had the intrusive desire to look down. She knew what was down there. Even if she wasn¡¯t able to confirm the properties of the floor she could guess. It seemed like the ground was solid but let through waste. The streets were surprisingly clean for somewhere people couldn¡¯t stare¡­garbage was just dumped to the lake below. Similarly you could technically look down but if you found yourself hypnotized or something along those lines the floor would drop you? ¡­Maybe the jellyfish siren could control those it hypnotized and the city decided it was better to jettsion a compromised individual instead of dealing with them walking around doing a monsters bidding? That felt right but opened up an incredibly important line of thought. Why. Why would a city decide to build itself on top of what was probably an underwater monster nest? If there was such a danger of looking down¡­why was the floor see through? Couldn¡¯t they paint over so you couldn¡¯t see the water below? It didn¡¯t make sense. While a portion of Maddy¡¯s thoughts focused on walking and a portion of her thoughts focused on the cities infrastructure decisions, the majority went to planning. Maddy felt¡­surprisingly great as she sorted the list of priorities and started populating a much longer list of long term goals adding countless bucket list style spells into it as she walked. A way to speak underwater. A way of casting spells while unconscious. If she did get her staff back, a way of not losing it again. Most of these bucket spells were vague enough she didn¡¯t even know how to start working on them but it helped calm her down more than anything else did. For the longest time she had been dealing with the pervasive effect of having the soul exposing spell active. It wasn¡¯t a complete personality change, but that spell was a constant negative hit to her sanity ¨C one obvious in hindsight as soon as it was gone. It felt like that had been weighing on her decision making skills. Forcing her towards the safest courses of action. Making her more frightened of certain scenarios. Blunting her willingness to take risks. Not removing it completely ¨C if that was the case she probably wouldn¡¯t even have followed Troy to their shared death ¨C but there all the same. It was almost an oxymoron. She had been safer having it there and letting the necromancer revive her than she had been without it and yet had acted as if she didn¡¯t have that safety. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Excuse me?¡± A voice called from Maddy¡¯s side and she turned to find herself staring at a floating woman. She looked incredibly similar to the gatekeeper ¨C a telescope like staff, a similar outfit and face. The eyes were a different colour ¨C Maddy couldn¡¯t remember the colour of the gatekeeper¡¯s eyes, but this woman had bright almost glowing aquamarine irises and she would have noted that if the gatekeeper had such a defining feature. And of course the woman was floating. She sat cross legged on an incredibly thin pane of floating glass that looked similar to the crystal floor. ¡°Yes?¡± Maddy asked trying to guess what the woman might want. She does want something from me. There¡¯s a relaxed posture and cheerful exposed outlook but a hard look in her eyes as if she could switch immediately depending on how I react. I am not being given a break am I? ¡°Do you have a moment to step inside and answer some questions?¡± The woman with connections to the city asked, gesturing towards an open door. She¡­probably knows I fell? What will she do with that information. Should I answer her questions? I can¡¯t afford to get in trouble right now ¨C I don¡¯t have easy to cast magic and I¡¯m still recovering. ¡°Sure¡± Maddy answered easily, pushing every ounce of cooperation into her voice that she could. She then stepped into the caf¨¦ she had just been walking past a slight rush of wind flipping her hair up as she crossed the threshold. Moving into the building, Maddy was lightly directed towards a small booth with comfortable looking but slightly too high up set of benches. They almost looked and felt like they were sculpted from clouds and Maddy felt strange as she found herself sliding in and looking across at the woman ¨C the officer? This is a strange way of interrogating someone. Maddy noted as the woman called down a waiter. She found herself fidgeting as the waiter stood and took her order ¨C the employee¡¯s standing up position was directly at eye level for both of them. She felt even more off center because of how high she was. Her legs dangled below and reminded her of a child in a booster seat or something. After focusing on the why of things and dismissing it Maddy calmed those senses taking complete control over her mental state. Her legs stilled and the fidgeting stopped. ¡°Do you want a drink?¡± The officer asked glancing across at Maddy. This¡­felt like a loaded question. Was it a move to place her off balance? An offer to try and open her up? A way of subtly introducing a debt so Maddy would feel like she had to respond? Was this more than just a random caf¨¦ and the drink was going to be a truth serum or something? ¨C Maddy didn¡¯t trust that didn¡¯t exist after the gold letters and existence of mental defense. Or of course was it just a polite offer with no hidden meaning? Without knowing the officers personality, the exact answer would be hard to guess¡­the real question was how Maddy wanted to react. Did she want to refuse it to snip those potential ties and dangers? Or did she want to knowingly accept it to build goodwill? Maddy purposefully hesitated longer than needed to show she was deliberating then responded. She tried to strike a balance between different options her mind kept tossing to her. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll go with whatever you recommend.¡± ¡°Wonderful!¡± The officer laughed raising her hand in the universal symbol for ¡®two¡¯ and letting the waiter leave. Less than a minute later the waiter came back and slid two fluffy drinks towards the two of them. The drinks were unique enough to warrant a second take. They were held in crude cone-shaped glass mugs. Like a mason jar had been moulded into a martini glass by a child. The drinks themselves looked almost violently sugary ¨C if Maddy had to describe the drink in front of her she¡¯d say it was like someone had half-liquified white cotton candy and drizzled a blue syrup throughout it. Maddy would have hesitated over drinking first but the officer had already brought her own to her lips for a quick sip. Maddy drank as well ¨C it was much less sweet than she had imagined. Still sugary but not sickly so. The drink rolled down her throat easily while tasting of melons and something soft. The concept of clouds? Not what an actual cloud would taste like but the idea of it? ¡°So what do you think of my city?¡± The woman asked, smiling slightly as she watched Maddy sip and try and place the taste. Okay. Not an officer. Mayor? No¡­following the pattern other cities have followed, she¡¯s probably a mage queen¡­that means she is above any laws and probably incredibly powerful. Considering how strong the leaders of cities in the previous zone have been she¡¯s potentially even stronger. Maddy sipped once more, slipping into a role she had been distancing herself from and then answered honestly. ¡°I haven¡¯t had much time to explore it yet¡­but so far I like it. Its clean and the colors are nice.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± The woman happily responded then took a deep drink. ¡°I¡¯ve built most of it myself¡­we haven¡¯t passed the 27 year mark yet which is usually the sign of a city that will stand the test of time but I¡¯m pleased with the results so far.¡± The queen finished swirling her cloudy drink and taking another long swig. Maddy felt like she was good with people ¨C and yet in this moment she couldn¡¯t predict what was happening. Every instinct was telling her the woman was interrogating her with intent to kill if she answered incorrectly¡­and yet she wasn''t coming at the interrogation in a way someone who fit her profile would. Did she treat her like a generic police officer? A fantasy view of a queen? The glimpse of high level people she¡¯d seen so far? It didn¡¯t help the queen''s words and actions didn¡¯t mesh, confusing Maddy more. Maddy didn¡¯t know what to answer. There was a pause that felt drawn out enough someone else might start babbling in. Asking why they were stopped or explaining what had happened to them. Maddy kept her mouth shut and sipped more of her drink. Finally the woman continued her questioning as if realizing Maddy wouldn¡¯t start speaking on her own. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for dragging you off the street but I¡¯m still in the stage where I like to get involved. It¡¯s hard not to see this city as the small group of settlers it once was you understand.¡± The queen placed her glass to the side and leaned forward. She¡¯s finally getting serious. ¡°I¡¯m hoping you can answer a few simple questions for me ¨C there¡¯s no need to be that tense.¡± The queen laughed then lifted a hand to the side. A blue pane extended quickly and began playing a recording of their entrance to the town. Maddy would have winced as Troy spoke of resurrection even as she outwardly watched the scene. A second pane appeared providing an upwards view of their room roughly as soon as Troy looked down and ending a minute after Maddy followed. Jess paced back and forth alone in the room and then faded away as the view ended. ¡°First off, I¡¯m hoping you can satisfy my curiosity. I¡¯m hoping to figure out how some humans have managed to leave the bounds of the city and then return without me noticing. It¡¯s a security issue you understand ¨C you aren¡¯t the first adventurer to break the rules but you are some of the first to do so and then not come back through the front gate¡­now how might you have managed that I wonder?¡± The queen spoke. Maddy mentally screamed into a pillow while schooling her face as naturally as she could. What do I even tell her? ¡­ Maddy compared lying with telling the truth and finally settled on a limited version of the truth. She wasn¡¯t responsible for the resurrection ¨C nor did she know how it worked. She had fallen and been eaten by the monsters below before finding herself back in the town. She was simply a traveler from far away with a life saving set of magic upon her ¨C one she didn¡¯t want to use frequently. The queen asked some questions and seemed disappointed but accepting of her explanation. Maddy really wanted to turn around and ask her own questions but every instinct screamed at her that that was a bad idea. Finally the interrogation seemed to end and like a drop of cold water running down her back the queen changed. She no longer gave off a dangerous aura ¨C no deadly vibe hid in her eyes or body language. She just looked tired. Maddy got the courage to ask her own question. ¡°If that¡¯s all¡­can I ask you why you created the city like this? Why have such a dangerous nest right below the city? Why allow people to break the rules at all?¡± The queen laughed even as she moved out of the seat and gestured for them to leave. ¡°Darling you betray how little you know of magic. True magic needs costs and it takes a true mage to decide what she wants those costs to be. I¡¯m not a teacher nor willing to mentor every little adventurer who passes through this town for free.¡± Despite rejecting the majority of an explanation, the woman didn¡¯t seem to mind her asking the question. After exiting the caf¨¦, she paused before flying away. ¡°How about this, a quest ¨C you adventurers like quests do you not? This town has three dungeons. One main one that¡¯s used by plenty, one walled off that¡¯s built into the infrastructure and linked to the nest below and one that¡¯s open but never used. Ignoring the walled off dungeon, we have one that¡¯s delved often and by many for while it is on the upper end of the second major realm it is variable in its danger. A perfect 9 floors each slightly stronger than the last with no hard completion requirement ¨C you can leave easily at any time though rewards are greater the deeper you descend.¡± The queen spent a few seconds getting comfortable on her floating disk before continuing. ¡°The second open dungeon is the bottom of the third major realm and almost abandoned. In this city I am the only individual who has cleared it for one simple reason. The dungeon introduces partial absolutes, if you don¡¯t know of those either¡­well all you have to know is it has concepts strong enough to kill even your defensive guardian with barely an effort. Most¡­most adventurers love to boast of danger but shy away from how lethal this dungeon is. If you are truly as free to die and resurrect as you claim¡­try putting that shield to the test. I solemnly promise upon my position as owner of this city that should you or your friends clear this little used dungeon¡­you can ask a righteous boon or as many questions as you like.¡± With that final challenge the queen floated up off the street and over a roof. Nearby a child pointed at her passage and their father picked them up to wave from on top of his shoulders. Huh. Maddy stood for a moment near the entrance to the caf¨¦ relieved the queen appeared benevolent. Maddy had briefly imagined herself being thrown in a dungeon or studied just for having been found out¡­it was reliving to find out that the leader was benevolent. ¡­ Gathering her composure, Maddy resumed her semi-lost walk down the street attempting to juggle her previous ideas as well as split off another compartment to consider the queen¡¯s words and challenge. A small part of her considered trying to cast her eye spell again¡­but lack of resources and the risk of an eye looking down again and feedbacking to her made her put it off for now. If she pushed for the variant that told her what they saw instead of showed her the risk was probably nothing but¡­it still felt dumb to experiment in the street right now. Maybe if it began to grow dark before she found her way¡­ Maddy found the the subtle change from a side street to a main road. It was kind of hard to tell but she now knew the street made it''s way towards the center of town. Following it for a bit she noticed the change to the adventurer¡¯s district and a bit longer put her by the place she had exchanged money at. Backtracking a bit, she found their shared rental and as soon as she opened the door Maddy found herself in her friend¡¯s arms. "You''re safe!" Jess cheered, picking Maddy up and spinning her about the room. Jess laughed in an almost manic amount of relief, only pausing when she noticed Maddy''s state. "Death penalty, no spinning" Maddy choked out and instantly Jess stopped. An incredibly guilty expression flickered across Jess''s face as she slowly held Maddy out and looked at her. She''s feeling bad she didn''t join us. "I didn''t know you could hold me," Maddy said smiling and kicking her dangling feet slightly. It didn''t fix Jess''s guilty demeanour, but it did make her smile slightly as she lowered her to the ground. ¡°I haven''t been ignoring strength stats like both of you,¡± Jess spoke looking over Maddy¡¯s head. Maddy twisted her body and looked to the side noticing Troy had just gotten back as well. Suspiciously good timing ¨C or it would be if they hadn''t probably died around the same time and been revived as well. Troy looked up at her ¨C he had glanced down briefly the idiot ¨C and then looked to the side. Both of her teammates were acting guilty. Guilty and frustrated and almost tearful. If Maddy were just trying to get something out of strangers she might have liked this setup. Some pressure and they''d be even more willing to agree with her. But they were her friends, and this atmosphere wasn''t a healthy one for keeping their teamwork going. More importantly, she hated the part of herself that had even thought that for a second. Maddy looked up at the ceiling for a moment. She sighed, then looked slowly and deliberately at both of them. Maddy made sure to catch both of their eyes before she pointed over towards the room¡¯s couch. "Let''s talk." Chapter 58. Team building exercises. ---Maddy--- Once they finally let themselves be brought over and settled in, the group therapy session began. Jess seemed immediately ready to apologize for not protecting them ¨C and Maddy got it. Her tomboy friend was their guardian and while delving or fighting a nest, their tanks number one job was to keep them safe. It took a while to assure her that she hadn''t needed to follow them in this case ¨C Jess hadn''t seen an easy way of looking down and then had decided Maddy would have been able to call up to her with magic if the coast was clear or they needed help. It took a bit but ultimately wasn¡¯t that big of a deal. Jess seemed satisfied with their answers. She really had been only mildly worried. The real problem was Troy. Something had festered for a while uncaught and it was hard to untangle what he was thinking based on the erratic body movement and facial expressions. He was also dealing with the same death penalty as her and it was manifesting in a different way. The transition wasn¡¯t as traumatic but the majority of his stats were gone. Finally he confessed. "I''ve been growing stronger pretty consistently and I like both of you but¡­I''m starting to understand that I''m not needed." Troy spoke. Okay, instantly half a dozen answers filled Maddy''s head. It had taken a lot to get Troy to open up so instead of interrupting ,she let him continue. "We all have roles right? Jess is the wall we can hide behind and attack from. Maddy is the¡­the healer and the communication expert and the debuffer and the short range attacker and medium range and wide range everything in between." Troy laughed slightly at that and then continued. He was the most articulate he had ever been all his frustrations pouring out in a stream. "And then I''m the guy in the corner taking pea shots at stuff you both already have handled. Oh sure I help quite a bit but that''s it. I help. I help us get through encounters faster. I''m positive you two could handle anything without me¡­if you stop deluding yourselves and think properly you realize I''m right. I¡¯m¡­the extra." He paused and looked away. "Hey! That''s not true," Jess called out jumping up and twisting her head in a weird direction as she attempted to avoid looking at the floor. "You don''t have to lie to me." Troy snorted. Maddy could see both where he was coming from and yet also why he was wrong. She knew she didn''t want to let him go. She knew the position he filled and he was underselling himself immensely. Besides a possessive twinge of hers that loathed to give up a team member she hadn''t been up keeping properly¡­she knew what he would respond to. "Let''s ignore all you do currently and talk about what you can do to become better." Maddy started. Jess spun towards her shocked. The beginning of an angry exclamation filled her face but Maddy was more interested in how Troy reacted. He had turned towards her a pleading look crossing his face as soon as she spoke. He didn''t want to quit the group. He wanted to know what he could do to help. "What can you imagine doing that either of us can''t do? What responsibilities do you want to officially take on to feel more needed," Maddy continued and, just as she finished, Troy responded ¨C almost cutting her off with how fast he was. "I don''t know!" Troy blurted out in frustration. Jess''s angry look on the side died and she glanced quickly at Troy. She opened and closed her mouth as if trying to respond to him. Maddy sat for a moment then nodded. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s start from the beginning. Instead of all of us mostly knowing but not saying what our roles are, we start communicating better starting now. To start let¡¯s take a step back and say what we are currently good and bad at as well as what we think each other are good and bad at.¡± Maddy began. ¡­ After some back and forth with her friends stumbling through their views, Maddy added her own strengths and weaknesses. ¡°I chose to split my attention and power. That hasn¡¯t come without costs. To start Troy ¨C how often can you make and shoot an arrow?¡± He paused then started to answer ¡°just a normal arrow? A [drill shot]? If I create it in the bow, or draw from a stash? If I need to solidify it, or leave it unstable?¡± ¡°Any arrow. How fast can you shoot something from scratch or from a ready position and how many times can you do that?¡± Maddy added. ¡°I¡­from rest, it depends on how easy my bow is to reach¡­maybe a few seconds? If my bow is in my hands and I¡¯m just creating and releasing an arrow just a bit over a second? A few more seconds if I have to do anything fancy with it and I can shoot maybe a hundred arrows every few minutes?¡± He seemed to be asking her for confirmation on every single answer. His answer was enough for her point. ¡°That¡¯s enough. Okay, my pools have each raised with each skill point but the way I¡¯m using them has also changed. If I use most of one of my pools, it takes 6-7 minutes to refill. If I drain it completely something taxes it differently and it takes over 10 minutes to refill despite only being a little bit more. I have 3 pools but technically only have 2 regenerations considering my combined pool draws from the other two.¡± Maddy paused and looked at both of them. ¡°I¡¯ve been really bad at managing my mana ¨C as I¡¯ve gotten more mana I¡¯ve started using more and when I use more my spells are much stronger but it doesn¡¯t change the fact I¡¯m using my entire pool at once.¡± Maddy had both of their attention. ¡°So¡­I have 3 full cast spells every 20 something minutes. If you just look at my regeneration I can cast 3 spells per fight ¨C¡° Troy interrupted. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you cast several spells in the same fight?¡± Maddy paused then nodded. ¡°That¡¯s usually because I can regain mana from deaths and start stockpiling it in my staff that¡¯s all strictly death mana I can convert to life as needed. I also sometimes cast spells early using much weaker casts with less raw mana. The damage dealing spells I¡¯ve been casting are also designed to hit everything in a fight at once instead of one by one. That weakens it quite a bit while making it more overall damage as long as there¡¯s enough monsters being hit. All that doesn¡¯t change the fact that ¨C depending on the situation and events out of my control ¨C I can only cast a few spells to your nearly endless supply. If there is a single hard to beat monster, or more appear after the fact, or a monster is able to resist my single attack¡­well then I¡¯m hecking stuck. I¡¯m good at cleaning up a single hoard. I¡¯m good at supporting all your damage but that¡¯s it.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Troy seemed to have understood where she was going with this. ¡°You are currently our main damage dealer. You have the most consistent amount of damage and ¨C when you do that thing where you charge up with light ¨C you deal quite a bit more damage than either of us. I¡¯m not trying to fill that role ¨C I¡¯m not trying to take over your job and I don¡¯t even think I could with all the decisions I¡¯ve made.¡± Maddy finished her rant. Near it almost shifted from an attempt to cheer Troy up to her admitting her faults. Dying¡­dying had brought to light just how weak she could be in certain situations. This was as much about her as it was her teammates. ¡°I think you are filling your role perfectly right now. As you grow stronger that position will become even stronger. You seem more keen on critiquing yourself right now that I don¡¯t want to add anything to that but you also seem to respond better to us admitting you are human and have faults like the rest of us. Personally going forward you should get better at hiding behind Jess. If you were a melee damage dealer you would have to duck out behind her to attack but you have a great shield you can stay behind and attack from.¡± Maddy added. ¡°I need to get better at protecting you two. I need to always be with you without falling behind¡­or not falling in this case¡± Jess started to admit. Both of her friends seemed tired but better than they had been. ¡­ The group spoke a bit more about their specific skills and how they might interact better. Finally they finished the impromptu therapy session and each went their separate ways. Their combined room had a main area and mostly private bedrooms. Mostly because while they were slightly built into the walls ¨C the room was not a nicely shaped square design and more a lumpy mess ¨C the only part separating them was a curtain that could be pulled out of the wall and rolled along. Maddy pulled her curtain shut and then sat on the bed in silence. Pulling her bag towards her ¨C she was so happy she hadn¡¯t lost most of her cheap tools ¨C she laid her charcoal pen and paper and similar beside her. Maddy was exhausted ¨C mentally she should probably take a nap before anything else and yet she knew she would feel better if she returned a bit of her kit to functionality first. As much as a clear mind would help her in her magic making having the bare minimum of magic would help her sleep. She needed a mirror. Light¡­she could probably shape light into a mirror shape with enough effort but without a dedicated concept for that, the amount of effort would be huge. She didn¡¯t have a rebound or reflection concept or anything just the innate concept of light. It would be even easier just to try and make an eye that could see her. Besides. She could just ask for help and make her friends feel more relied upon than they had been. ¡°Hey, Troy? Can you make me a mirror?¡± Maddy called out then waited. A moment later he slipped into the curtain somewhat awkwardly and looked at her confused. ¡°I want to redo my tongue and need to see properly,¡± Maddy explained causing him to nod and then sit on the edge of her bed holding a sheet of reflective light in front of him a moment later. It seemed he was back to the silent act. Should she comment on it? She¡¯d ignored it because that seemed to be what he wanted but was that what he needed? Ignoring his feelings had literally just backfired. Pulling out her charcoal pen then scooching forward on the bed Maddy opened her mouth and carefully began to draw. This was¡­a crutch in some senses. She had started to rely on the ease of twisting spells with sound but it was also one of the strongest parts of her current kit as well as the easiest to remake. Maddy was much better at her runes than she had been and the situation to reply was better than it had been before. Considering how much she used this she wanted to take her time. Slowly Maddy brought the charcoal drawing utensils towards her mouth and began to channel mana into it lightly. To start. the rune for sound carefully drawn as nicely as she could imagine directly in the center of her tongue. Next A group of meaningless lines spread out of it in all directions like a spider web. On each line she wrote the meaning for the line ¨C Latch, Optional, Addition. Technically she could use her intent to push mana through the different sections without this part but adding it and making it explicit would make that shaping faster and easier. At the end of each line she added more runes ¨C all her concepts and then all her pseudo ones just in case she wanted to add a concept to a spell on the fly. Application and orbs. Emotions, words, awake, transference, surrounding, collection, scythes. It hurt to write that last word. Maddy felt the loss of her focus deeply. It was kind of stupid ¨C after all she didn¡¯t need that particular scythe at the end of the day. It was a bulky focus that had originally just been picked up off the ground. But she had liked that scythe in a sentimental sort of way. It had been with her through a lot by this point ¨C she had used it so much her magic had permanently warped it towards herself. All her spells had grown in it, using the scythe instead of something random made her spells more efficient. Follow her wishes more closely. Made them stronger. Its loss was more than just an inconvenience, it represented days and days and days of continuous effort that had been wiped away. Feeling the mana on her tongue and making sure none of the ¡®ink¡¯ had run too much due to her saliva Maddy took a deep breath and ignited the lines in an intense burst of death mana. A dump of all her mana, a flicker of separating it into life and death sections and causing them to flicker and cancel out. Tastebuds died and flesh curdled ¨C intense life healed the lines microseconds later. Slowly the runes became a scar and yet it was more than just an inkless tattoo the mana and intent she had for this warped everything slightly. Charcoal bled into the working and instead of being rejected when it healed the carbon bound to her tongue slightly darkening it. Mana wasn¡¯t just consumed it lingered and was almost deposited along the runes before disappearing. ¡°Okay, you can put that away¡± Maddy spoke blinking slight tears away and examining the result carefully. It seemed to have worked. Troy dropped the mirror, then jumped slightly as he realized how close he was to her. Carefully moving as if to leave Maddy reached out and stopped him by holding his arm. Making sure to hold it incredibly lightly ¨C so he didn¡¯t feel trapped and would only stay due to politeness ¨C Maddy asked her question. ¡°Why are you non-verbal?¡± Troy paused a flash of emotions flickering across his face. He didn¡¯t want to answer, he was afraid? He was¡­embarrassed? Finally, Troy responded. Instead of a simple explanation he gave her an entire story. ¡°I used to talk a lot when I was a kid. You know how kids are ¨C constantly speaking their mind. Back then we had a culture of ribbing each other and roasting friends and classmates or making jokes at each others expense. I was good at it! Or¡­more accurately I was bad at it in the right way. I think my brains broken ¨C I think of things to say nearly instantly but it takes a long time to consider what I¡¯m actually saying and decide if it¡¯s a good idea to say it. Back then I¡¯d blurt it out right away. Made me really good at comebacks but a lot of the time I¡¯d go too far. Like¡­someone would say I¡¯m stupid and I¡¯d say at least my mother doesn¡¯t have a drinking problem. That sort of thing you know? Zero to a hundred?¡± Troy paused for a second as if asking if she¡¯d done the same. After a incredibly short pause Troy continued. ¡°It wasn¡¯t just my so called roasts being too savage for grade school I started to realize it was everything. I was blurting out my first thoughts to things without actually thinking things through and I lost basically all my friends and got a shitty reputation and then I moved in grade 5 and it started happening again. It wasn¡¯t just comebacks, it was me interjecting into random conversations and bringing up stuff I thought was funny or interesting and¡­and well I¡¯d go to sit down at lunch and everyone would silently get up and leave and that hurt. So¡­so I started consciously thinking things through before I said them. I started considering the company I was in and the context and¡­ That helped but it also meant now I¡¯d have a mentally vetted comeback like a minute or two after the perfect time to say it. I¡¯d want to respond to something people had mentioned near the start of the conversation and it''s no longer good. I also spent so little time thinking about what to say and not actually speaking that I¡¯ve gotten bad at it. So now there a combination of me not wanting to say anything in case I say the wrong thing and not wanting to say anything because I¡¯m bad at words now and I¡¯m afraid if I do say something it''s going to sound stupid. I stopped being actively hated by people but I haven''t had real friends since early highschool. Its been years and you two are the first real friends I''ve had since then and I''m afraid of saying something wrong and fucking this all up and breaking what feels like a fragile relationship because I suck.¡± Troy finished. Maddy sat for a second. That¡­that wasn¡¯t quite what she was expecting and that¡­that made her feel off. She thought she could guess someone¡¯s circumstances well ¨C and if she couldn¡¯t it was because she didn¡¯t have enough time to create a mental picture of them or enough interactions to feel them out. Troy was really easy to deal with and yet he had been sitting on such a huge backstory she hadn¡¯t guessed and¨C. ¡­and it made her feel like she wasn¡¯t as good with people as she thought she was. But maybe that was fine? No it felt wrong. Just because Troy had a brand of anxiety that stemmed in a direction she hadn¡¯t dealt with before shouldn¡¯t make him some enigma. Jess popped through the curtain to come up behind Troy. Without saying anything she hugged him from behind ¨C the illusion of privacy broken by the flimsy curtain. The three sat like this in silence for a while. Today¡­today had been a lot. Chapter 59. All Any%, Glitchless Dungeon (speed)run. --James--- The days following the night of partying felt short. It didn¡¯t take much preparation to be ready ¨C James left slightly before the last tingling signs of the death penalty were gone. He had started to feel stifled and had regained most of his strength and so it was time to move on. All there was too it. There was one lingering hit that hadn¡¯t returned. The monstrous jumping stats were the most obvious but presumably his other mutation stats as well. It felt like¡­it felt like those stats had been damaged when he got revived and unlike the system given stats they hadn¡¯t been returned or healed. Incredibly sad, it was yet another reminder that the only guarantee was stuff the system had given. System stats? Returned on death. System skills? Returned on death. Anything else? Good luck. Those stats had also felt more important than the rest because they felt like he had earned them himself¡­but there were still remnants left behind and it wasn¡¯t a huge hit to his totals. James started off his journey differently this time. Once he was around 10 minutes away from the city, he started looking about and found a large dry log. Rearranging his new backpack of spices and a frying pan, James picked up the log and made a promise to himself. He wouldn¡¯t drop this until he reached the badlands once more. An additional punishment for failing. A way of making the relatively easy trip harder and more fun. And so he set off, taking a break every few hours to rest his sore shoulders and re-adjust. The first night fell and James could have dropped his massive, cumbersome weight¡­but instead, he held on. This was now his weapon. It wasn¡¯t a good weapon ¨C despite its size and weight it was difficult to swing hard enough to ¡®count¡¯¡­but it was ¡®a¡¯ weapon and James bludgeoned several chimeric creatures of the night before taking a nap. Several similar days passed, and James grew with dozens of achievements ¨C all leaning towards strength stats. One or two to start and then, as if realizing his commitment, a shower of them all about the second day. Achievements for carrying a log for a long distance. Achievements for not letting go of the same log for an entire day. Achievements for using a log as a weapon or for throwing it into the mouth of a devouring tundra mole. There were a few close shaves that nearly made him drop his log ¨C but he held on. After all, if he couldn¡¯t handle this much, how could he cross the badlands? Finally, after a much longer amount of time than his first run, James reached those planes yet again. This time he gave the death field in front of him more respect ¨C he was still excited, but a calm wave of focus passed over him. Dropping his log, then lowering himself and using the trunk as a backrest, James rested while watching the planes from outside. He would cross in the morning ¨C hopefully a full day would be enough to cross in the safety of daylight. ¡­ The morning of his trip, he awoke and stretched, carefully scanning the horizon from left to right. In the distance, hulking shapes moved blurry and indistinct. The air was warped by some of the biomes in front of him ¨C it was hard to tell just how far he had to cross. One of the major landmarks was what looked like a giant upside-down pyramid floating at least three or four kilometers away ¨C peaking up above the metallic grass directly in front of him and boxed in by what looked like incredibly tall and thin trees. James bounced a few times to hype himself up and then began to jog lightly forwards ¨C trying his hardest to stay silent while still moving quickly. The grass felt normal ¨C surprisingly soft for something that looked spiky. What looked like tumbleweeds made out of steel wool seemed to stir and lazily bounce towards him, but he was soon past the area. It was a fine line to walk. Partway between sneaking and running the trip continued. An attack by a seven-headed wolf-like creature. An attack by a cloud of bugs. An attack by a fast-moving snail-like creature with impenetrable armour and a slimy attack that melted through anything it touched. James ran and hid and ran again feeling everything in intense detail. He could feel vibrations through the enhanced senses in his legs. Could see better with the stats in his eyes. Could run faster than the fastest athlete and [haste] himself to the speed of a car to get past sections or run around biomes that looked too hostile to cross. Many attacks got through and piled up, but nothing hit a critical system and James was long past caring about the minor pain his body warned about. It took almost seven hours to cross the badlands, but he did it. Bruised and scraped but entirely alive, James made it through without dying and was rewarded handsomely for his efforts, his ''quest'' finally complete its reward true.
?? Achievement get: A brave crossing (Rare)
Description: Completely cross the badlands alone, without tools or external aid. Was it simply luck or truly skill that let you survive?
Stat: +54 free body power stats. Stat: +27 free body speed stats.
---Maddy--- Maddy told her friends of the challenge she had been issued and the danger this second dungeon held. Agreeing it seemed like a good goal to work towards, they waited out the death penalty and prepared. Maddy missed her scythe terribly as she recreated all her spells. This time she opted for turning her clothing into her focus ¨C it seemed like the meta others were following and made sense. Buying a purple cloak and some red thread, Maddy sewed all her old spells into the inside of it. She then added most of the modifications she had done using her voice previously going through the motions. It¡­didn¡¯t feel as good ¨C this wasn¡¯t her path as some might say ¨C and yet¡­she had to try it out at least once. Besides the time and effort, theoretically the only difference between this cloak and her staff had been the nice sort of theme that had gone into it. The wood staff was her life, the sharp blade was her death. That theme had become less of a description once she had gained life and dark mana¡­but it had fit quite a bit more than this cloak did. There was a single reason to go for an external focus instead of simply tattooing everything she wanted onto herself. Permanency. Tattoos were a commitment. It was another reason she liked her scythe better than this cloak ¨C it was hard to remove the spells she sewed into this fabric when with her scythe she could simply smooth over sections with life mana and the wood would reset. She could experiment or alter her spells if she found something better. Maddy really did miss her scythe, but couldn¡¯t see a way of getting it back. She had to move on. For now, this cloak was fine. Even if it made all her spells feel worse and weaker and even if she found herself constantly comparing it to what she had. Once they had prepared and dealt with the penalty the group began to practice using the easier dungeon. Easy of course was not technically the right word for it once they got deep enough ¨C the last few floors were technically full of monsters with more stats than them¡­it was still a dungeon with everything trying to kill them. The difficulty came in how incredibly forgiving and artificially designed the dungeon was. Starting at tier 0 and working its way up to rank 2 tier 2 by the end, this dungeon had the smoothest difficulty curve they had experienced so far. Each of the 9 floors were almost a copy of the previous one with small changes to each floor that stayed for subsequent floors. A river that appeared on floor 3 and was there every floor after that. A hallway that became a mirror maze on the 5th floor and remained after that point. The encounters changed as well ¨C one enemy would become two or three on the next floor or evolve into a stronger variant each time but with a similar location and manner of attack. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The concepts contained were ones of glass and water and reflections. Minor notes of light were strewn about but not in a way that mattered ¨C the most light was used to attack with, was a glowing beetle that tried to blind them before striking. There wasn¡¯t anything with illusions or lasers or similar. ¡®Light mana¡¯ but no ¡®light concepts¡¯ you might say. Most of the monsters were giant clear bugs ¨C dragon flies and water striders and various giant glass beetles. Many had some sort of reflective ability ¨C a concept of reflection that when used in a certain way, let them shoot attacks back at the group. It was an incredibly strong reflection but not an invincible one. Troy very quickly figured out how to twist his own magic and similar concept into piercing those mirrors ¨C and Maddy¡¯s attacks usually went around and attacked from all sides causing them to shatter easily enough. There were enough cracks in the defenses to exploit if she worked for it and the reflections didn¡¯t seem able to follow the conceptual link of sound Maddy was using to attack through. They overwhelmed the lower floors in strength then slowly solidified the best types of attacks when they could no longer simply crush the creatures. The group took this dungeon slow ¨C even though it was a smooth difficulty curve and let them practice on each enemy before it increased the difficulty, they still left and came back multiple days in a row. They found which monster parts were worth harvesting raking up a solid slush fund and in a more exciting manner were pushed enough on the last two floors to gain skills on them. Maddy received a skill called ¡®light shield¡¯ on floor 8. It was a light and dark mana skill that created a perfect shield of light and for light. By that it made a black shield shaped disc that stopped all light ¨C or light-based ¨C attacks from passing through it¡­while only blocking a small section of space and allowing all other types of attacks to pass through. That broke into the concept of polarity and a pseudo/limited concept of shielding. Stretching the skill to wrap around the group in a black bubble using the concept of an orb was easy enough ¨C 360 defenses against light and only light at the cost of not being able to see out of the wall of darkness. As fun of a personal spell as that was, its real use was in synergy with Jess¡¯s skills. A few hours of dedicated experimentation and Maddy could instantly coat all of Jess¡¯s created shields in a thin film that added the light defense onto them. [Apply [Light Polarity shield] to shield touched by my sound] was the base of the spell, along with some modifiers for different scenarios. For the most part visually, it gave the transparent yellow panes of Jess¡¯s barriers a dark tinted sheen like that of sunglasses. Its main use was blocking all light damage while continuing to function as a shield ¨C not that it was really a game changer in this dungeon, but they did start using it every time they got to the glow beetles trivializing their attempt to blind them. After coming back on the next day and fighting all the way through the 9th floor they had been rewarded yet again. Technically it had been a hard fight through to the final boss but days of practice against similar enemies made it feel like it was impossible for them to fail. They moved like clockwork. Jess employed solid barriers that were weaker but withstood several attacks or situationally invincible barriers that blocked single attacks no matter how strong but shattered on a single hit. Troy settled into his DPS role with arrows that could bounce off stone or drill through chitin. Maddy dealt with a wave that appeared halfway through each floor and blinded a specific monster that was reliant on sight. The final boss actually did have a light-based attack ¨C a giant searing beam of blue light¡­ But light defense on Jess¡¯s shields made that attack barely worth mentioning. By several metrics the giant moth was technically stronger than the group¡­and yet it fell in less than ten minutes with none of them being hit once. The grub shaped boss on the 8th floor had actually been harder to beat than the moth on the ninth. It truly was an ¡®Easy¡¯ dungeon where only the incompetent could die. There was a long pause after they beat the creature ¨C as if the system was watching and didn¡¯t want to give them real rewards after such an easy fight. Finally it acquiesced and gave them the most low effort clear pane they had seen. Finally, after almost thirty seconds they received their clear rewards, the lowered stats proving they hadn¡¯t done something truly special. A few more runs to try and regain as much of what was lost as possible and then they were going to hit the abandoned dungeon. You needed a bit of danger to advance after all.
Fully cleared a dungeon after almost nine separate runs.
A smart plan with proper use of tactics. Stat: +9 Mental planning power
Main reward
Concept of {Separating Delineation}. Draw a line upon the world, compartmentalizing reality as you see fit.
---Richard--- Richard had been derailed a few times leading to his goals ballooning. His one goal hadn¡¯t changed ¨C his wish to have fun at the cost of everything else ¨C but the list of potential things he could try was massive. The things he wanted were endless. The fields he could get into, the things he could do. The problem of course was money. They¡¯d gotten some quick credits from their last dungeon delve and those were now gone a good part of that due to them not knowing to harvest shit while they were there. The second inhibitor was number of slots. Frankly he was greedy for slots ¨C he only had one free right now. One free slot held up by his AI or an item or a self-grown skill. Not enough to really dip into his whole skillet. Both problems were solved by delving again ¨C but delving what he had already delved alone this time seemed fucking dull. Besides, the most consistent way of gaining a skill was completing a dungeon for the first time and there was a second option around his level in this city. The swamp dungeon. What are you doing in my swamp! Richard giggled to himself while strolling into the place mostly unarmed. Two quick runs. First a quick stroll to pick some stuff. His goal was enough credits to buy a weapon. Then he could do a proper speedrun. ¡°I wonder if they sell music players. I want to stick a boombox to my gun and blast some high-octane junk as a background track. Something electronic I can shoot to the beat too. Make this a rhythm game¨C¡° What looked like a cross between a crocodile and a slug surged out of the muddy water Richard was wading through. Faster than he could react, it twisted its body sideways through the air ¨C bending like no crocodile could ¨C and chomped around his entire waist and core. The teeth dug into Richard¡¯s flesh and a thick saliva burned as it attempted to melt through his flesh. Ripping its head back and forth the slug croc partly ragdolled Richard¡¯s body as it tried to cut him in two. Richard punched once or twice then gave up after it barely scratched the creature. After the first bite however, the teeth could sink no further. The burn of the saliva dropped to nothing as well and ¨C as the tiny bit of Richard that had been ripped off dropped down the beast¡¯s throat ¨C something strange happened. The creature shuddered and spit Richard out. It convulsed slightly as the damage it had done to Richard was returned to it in a more lethal manner. Slowly it began to melt. Its sticky body turned into a slight puddle as its dissolution based stomach acid tried to melt the chunk of Richard and the chunk of Richard melted the creature in turn. Richard watched slightly as the creature flailed, then walked forward and stomped onto its head. ¡°Anything here to sell? I think I remember hearing the stomach acid in a lot of the creatures is worth a lot¡­fuck it.¡± Pulling out a thin knife that looked somewhat like a long needle, Richard very roughly skinned and ripped out a giant bag before heading back the way he had come carying his slimy prize like a bag of groceries. ¡°I want a cannon, but I think I¡¯ll mix things up for the extermination run. Does this dungeon have a scoreboard? I haven¡¯t speedrun anything before, but it could be fun?¡± Richard continued to talk to the air ¨C trying to ignore the loss of of a conversation partner. ¡­ Returning a few hours later, Richard hefted a massive tube covered contraption. It had a fancy name and list of capabilities but as far as he was concerned it was the flamewoofer3000. Molotov cocktail launching flamethrower ass mega gun. No one sold boombox style attachments for guns, so Richard made do with making funny noises with his mouth as he waded through death and burned poisonous creatures straight out of an alien horror movie. Clouds of toxins were breathed in and out. They grew denser and more poisonous as he walked but¡­his defense had reached a tipping point. With the speed the poison was increasing, his body could indefinitely handle it. A lot of the monsters were strong enough, but their main tools were toxins that did nothing to Richard¡¯s mutated body. The environment was a giant hazard ¨C pools of liquid none would dare cross and dangerously unstable patches of poisonous grass and moss that threatened to dump you in the acid below. Technically the whole massive underground was built like a wheel with a path you were supposed to follow through seperate incremental zones... Richard walked through it all badly beatboxing and burning everything. He wouldn¡¯t call the experience fun ¨C he was wet and it was hard to walk through the sludge¡­but he was amusing himself and that was all that mattered. Finding the biggest baddest looking creature in the swamp ¨C a giant ball of slime with poisonous tentacles for hair like a beach ball had fucked a rubbery medusa, Richard bull rushed the mini boss and burned it while ignoring the rain of blows. The ball cooked up when burned, becoming harder even as it turned black. Richard then used his feet to pull up some of the stone from underneath the sludge and create a series of stepping stools around the outside. After almost ten minutes of effort ¨C a good portion of the time he had spent in this dungeon ¨Che managed to stand on top of the burnt ball and tried to keep his balance as he walked on top of it. Immediately falling off and face planting into sludge Richard spat burning mud everywhere and gave up. Richard abandoned his idea of clown rolling the rest of the dungeon. It was kind of fun liberally applying the diplomatic effects of fire to the monstrous population, but it grew stale after a while. That was the main note that kept causing him to try random silly ways of progressing. Everything else blended together. He tried making a stand-up paddleboard and a stone canoe to mix things up, but ended up returning to wading after both proved more annoying than his imagination. Finally, completely bored with the dungeon, Richard reached the end and found a moving pile of kindling for the boss. Burning the tenant and grabbing a singed chunk of hardwood before he even gained the clear reward ¨C a skill for making fire burn incredibly quickly called ¡°entropic flash¡± and some solid chemical defense ¨C Richard missed the exit and ended up dragging his prize all the way back to the beginning. The only reason he knew he missed the exit was the smug sounding achievement he gained at the entrance rewarding him for taking the long way back. ¡°And training montage end¡± Richard yelled right before exiting the dungeon. This should tie him over for a bit. Chapter 60. The watchful eye of fate. ---Maddy--- Stepping past the curtain, Maddy and her two friends blinked as they found themselves in an oppressive-looking room. Directly in the middle of the chamber, a massive Steele sat covered in archaic looking writing. Crumbling letters carved into stone and weathered by countless years ¨C as soon as they set eyes on this artifact, a blue box slid into view in front of each of them. The surroundings were a light grey stone covered in marbled lines of blue and all sign of the floating city and rules against looking down were gone. The group finished making sure the room looked safe then read the message they had been sent by the dungeon.
The watchful eye of fate.
You who have entered fates domain rejoice. Today you are lucky enough to discover just how strong the grand designs you have been ignoring really are. Fate''s Auditor keeps a careful eye on the weaves of destiny, and all¡¯s position in it. Noncompliance with the grand design will result in pruning. Ignorance of destiny is no excuse for actions against it. Fate is the most benevolent god however! Tools have been provided such that all may know the future. The holy rune inscribed near the bottom of this note is a start, but alternatives may be hidden should his lord¡¯s teachings not reach you. Drink of the lesson held partway through the passage if you wish to survive the days to come. In fate we trust.
Near the bottom of the Steele a single symbol stood out prominently. It was a complicated rune with what looked like an hourglass in the middle and two eyes on the sides each blending into their own hourglass. Not terribly complicated in terms of a drawing but annoyingly detailed in comparison to most runes Maddy had to deal with. Not only was there plenty of separate lines but notches about the outside. Either those evenly marked lines were part of the rune¡­or what Maddy was guessing they were an exact ratio that needed to be followed between different parts. What happened if you didn¡¯t draw the rune perfectly or why the ratios mattered was unclear but¡­might as well copy this down while she could? Pulling out a wooden slate, Maddy quickly sketched and set the rune before the group continued on. Carefully they stepped down the hallway. Jess led the way her glowing golden shield held at the ready. Just a buff Maddy had designed to help turn a shield into a torch, nothing special or expensive although it did combine with the floating shield shaped barrier in a pleasing way. They didn¡¯t have long before they reached the ¡®pool¡¯. A stone pedestal covered in swirling patterns connected to the same rune they had seen near the entrance. ¡°Are we drinking this? How much do we trust the dungeon and how likely is it to be poison¡± Jess spoke staring down into the water below. ¡°Feel like ignoring the dungeons commandments is a bad place to start the delve off on,¡± Maddy responded after a small pause. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll drink ¨C heal me if its poison¡± Jess spoke then cupped her hands together and plunged them into the pool below. Pulling them up she drank, then tilted her head to the side. ¡°Tastes ashy, like a barbeque? Don¡¯t think the water is very clean,¡± She relayed. Jess continued to think eyes moving about herself and the surroundings as she tried to figure out the effects of the potion. After a moment she jumped back slightly then stepped forward and pushed a thin wall into being in front of them the barrier sealing off the entire corridor. ¡°Do you see that?¡± Jess whispered pointing ahead. Maddy didn¡¯t see anything. Flicking mana into her mind, she shifted through light and dark then life and death but continued to see nothing but an empty passage ahead. ¡°No¡­What do you see?¡± Maddy asked carefully looking at her friend. ¡°Us¡­ we are slowly walking away¡± Jess responded slowly eyes tracking some invisible illusion. Maddy weighed her options then looked at Troy and nodded. He reached towards the bowl but she stopped him quickly. "I''ll drink as well, stay our sober driver alright?" Maddy joked. Troy stopped, nodded and then as if trying to be better about his verbalization problem responded. "if thats alcohol I don''t think I want the responsibility of getting stuck with two drunk chicks. I think you would be the most responsible DD. As party introvert I call the mind altering-" Maddy stuck her tongue out and drank quickly causing him to laugh and trail off. He was getting better at talking ¨C less and less worried he would say something to drive them away. It was a good look on him. Maddy looked about about for this supposed illusion only Jess could see. If they had the same hallucination there was a better chance of it not simply being a random hallucinogenic after all. Slowly in the completely empty hallway a swirl of smoke began to cover the floor appearing from thin air and swirling about the ground. Three figures pushed up out of the smoke and solidified slightly ¨C their colors matching the trio. The three smoky figures seemed to be looking at something in front of them as they walked ¨C and as they continued down the hall the real group followed, tracking their movements. After around a hundred steps the misty trio stopped dead. They waited a second then jumped back quickly as directly ahead of them the smoke shook. The real group paused to see what had happened and after a few seconds of no longer walking, the passage directly in front of them fell like a trash compactor ¨C the reverberating crash of stone on stone loud enough to make Maddy¡¯s ears hurt. If they had continued blindly walking forward they would have been squished. Could Jess have defended against that? Probably not. So¡­the smoky apparitions had shown them the trap? Had they been shown the future? Slowly the passage in front of them raised up again ¨C sliding into the ceiling above. After nodding the misty version of Jess seemed to say something. This was followed by Maddy¡¯s ghost nodding and responding. They then walked down the passage unharmed disappearing slightly as they faded with each step. ¡°So¡­do we follow them?¡± Jess asked. The group stood there for a second as an ominous feeling began creeping up on them. Maddy nodded after a hesitant pause. ¡°It seems so. This¡­was the tutorial I guess? A lesson the stone writing said.¡± The group continued blindly following their future selves down the hall. As soon as they started to move, the ominous feeling disappeared like it had never existed at all. Just less than a hundred feet later and the canaries were gone. Another bend in the stone passage and suddenly everything opened up. The group stepped out into sunlight and stared about in awe. ¡°Is¡­is this really a dungeon?¡± Jess breathed. ¡­ The group had exited what looked like a cave mouth, the mountain behind them trailing up into the clouds in a sheer cliff face. It was so high the upper edge of the cliff faded away into blue, almost melting into the sky itself. Distant dots swirled about as if birds or dragons or something were flying a kilometer or two up ¨C and the entire wall looked steep and slippery with no means to climb it. Directly in front of them was a field of grass and a few hundred feet away they could see the edge of what looked like a village. On one side of the village a forest of short trees extended out as far as the eye could see ¨C not comedically short, but small for trees, the tops of the pine and oak styled trunks only a few feet higher than Maddy¡¯s head. The other direction held several farmlands the endless rows of wheat and strange purple vegetables disappearing out of sight they were so long. Walking towards the village the group maintained a careful lookout while trying to consider what they had learned. ¡°So¡­from what I can tell, stuff will happen and the only way we can react to it is by seeing the future?¡± Jess asked as they walked. ¡°¡­yes.¡± Maddy responded then tilted her head slightly. ¡°We were given a rune and¡­It shouldn¡¯t be able to do anything. I¡¯m the one who works with actual runes but this isn¡¯t mine. Runes are personal things right? Even if I draw this perfectly it shouldn¡¯t do anything ¨C just be a pretty picture. It still feels like the dungeon hinted I should try so¡­ Want me to try using it to knock it off the list? I can test it out before we get too far and then if it doesn¡¯t work well¡­well I¡¯m going to assume we need to bring this drawing to someone who can help us? First step in the dungeon might be finding someone in the village who can use this rune.¡± Maddy went through her thoughts out loud stopping to stand in the middle of the path. Directly in front of them a small wooden fence wrapped around the village ¨C not one that could prevent much from getting through it almost looked like it was falling apart with age. Nothing more than a boundary line around the village. Her two friends stood guard glancing about and fingering their weapons as they waited. It was slightly ominious ¨C the sun was bright and the surroundings cheerful but the town in front of them seemed cast in shadows despite that. A low murmur and the sound of people talking reached their ears from deep in the village but beyond that it looked almost empty. Maddy crouched and ¨C rather than potentially mess up her quick sketch ¨C pulled out a second slate and began to carefully copy down the rune. She made sure to keep the ratios the same and fill in every line no matter how meaningless it might be. When using her own concepts she could feel a slight resonance when she drew them. A slight feedback that ¡®this was correct¡¯ ¡®this is a concept yes¡¯. Copying this sketch down¡­it gave her nothing. That was one of the main reasons she assumed it wouldn¡¯t work ¨C unlike all her system given concepts the rune gave her nothing. Once she finished sketching, Maddy added a simple sentence to the side and began pushing light mana towards the spell. ¡°With light and this copied rune, please reveal the future if you can.¡± Maddy evocated. Her spell was as noncomited as she was and she really didn''t expect it to work. Glowing slightly the slate accepted her mana but did not do anything else. Welp, it was good to check before dismissing that. Maddy moved to drop the spell but then paused as what looked like her shadow shifted. When dropping the spell, her light mana relaxed as it faded to the default neutral. A fade from +1 down to zero the fade mixing with the -1 of dark mana. In that second of fade something had happened. Flickering to dark mana quickly before the spell completely ended, Maddy pushed her mana in the other direction and saw her shadow begin to step away ¨C even as it faded to nothing as if banished by the lack of light. ¡­dark mana worked better than light mana for ''some reason'' and yet the concept of light was what allowed her to say ¡®reveal¡¯ and hope the idea of light shining and illuminating the darkness would help¡­ The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Dark mana didn¡¯t work like that. The idea of darkness did not seem like something you would use for sight and the innate concept of darkness broke the implicit sight concept of light because of that. The fuel was correct but the structure broke¡­ And yet it ''had'' worked slightly ¨C at least it did do ''something'' before it failed¡­Maddy had been expecting nothing at all. ¡°Sorry, give me a bit longer¡± She called to her friends and went back to looking at her sheet. Wiping away the short sentence she tapped her fingers slightly and then began sketching lines and arrows about, adding and erasing words as she thought and ¡®designed¡¯ a new spell. Maddy could only push a pool in one direction at once ¨C the idea of drawing light and dark from the same pool was fundamentally impossible with what she knew and felt from mana. She could pull out mana completely balanced between the sides ¨C neutral ¡®zero¡¯ mana but that pure mana had neither light nor dark in it and was as weak as water. She could try to pull out some light mana, cut it off from her pool and hold it from decaying¡­then pull out dark mana and use that as well¡­but that might not work after she¡¯d put in the practice to do the exact opposite of that. Her seed spell flipped her mana after it was already in play after all ¨C the spell turning into a damage or life portion as she shifted its alignment outside of her body. Besides ¨C even if this idea of shifting and then pulling out the opposite alignment might work Maddy had a easier option available. Making two separate sections on the sheet, Maddy took a deep breath and pushed light mana into the revealing portion ¨C she drew an eye and imagined the shape of the eyes she had already spent ages designing for her scouts. Then, pulling dark-life from her second pool, she directed the opposite mana through the other section of the spell. A river of deep greenish mana swirled and pooled as it passed through the hourglass eye and deposited itself in her eye drawing. An illusion of a lifelike eye flickered as light mana flashed through the viewing portion of the spell and then coated the darklife inner eye. This whole working pulled and twisted. The wood she was using for a sheet of paper jerked and bunched slightly, the living darkness pulled it up into itself. The inner eye almost looked like it was trying to hide under the light. This whole spell dragged at Maddy. She felt both her light pool and her darklife pool rush and strain to complete the working ¨C dragging every last drop to achieve its purpose. Maddy mentally sighed but didn¡¯t stop the pull allowing the spell to complete with as much fuel as possible. In only a few seconds the spell finished and Maddy stared down at her handy work. A single glowing eye appearing to grow out of the wood ¨C behind its lid swirling sand fell and rose in the pupil. The basis of this spell was Maddy¡¯s sentry template using the more disorienting version where she could link her sight instead of being told what the eye saw. Closing her ¡®real¡¯ eyes Maddy trickled the last scraps of her darklife mana into her mind. As soon as the mana activated her foundation her perception shifted. She could see the tether of her spell floating to a previously unknown part of her and down to the board in front of her. Mentally grabbing that tether and dragging it more purposfully towards her ¡®mind¡¯ Maddy felt the tether connect and begin dumping information. A second was all it took for her mind to being parsing the feedback and soon a view of the world pulled itself into being. A view from a lowered perspective ¨C the view of her own body from a disorienting upward angle. Maddy opened her ¡®real¡¯ eyes. Her mind didn¡¯t have any trouble dealing with the multiple perspectives its only problem had been how disorienting the location had been. Having her normal vision helped her mind sort the second vision as ¡®other¡¯ and soon the disorientation faded. Twisting her wooden panel about like she was holding a camera Maddy saw Jess, Troy and then herself. ¡­herself. Spinning it forward she saw the ''her'' holding the panel and spinning it back she saw the ''her'' standing across from her. As soon as she accepted that mirrored version of her was not her body it faded slightly turning from solid to a wavering illusion. Maddy watched herself flicker and move just barely there. This mirrored image of her seemed to be trying to tell Maddy something. I wish I knew sign language. Am I really this bad at conveying my thoughts through gestures? This other Maddy made some movements as if pulling out her own invisible board and began sketching quickly with a slight squint of concentration. Rubbing her fingers across the invisible slate this other Maddy activated a spell and suddenly a blue box appeared ¨C but not a standard one. This blue box wavered and flickered rapidly ¨C as if just under the water of a pool someone was dropping rocks into. It was also only visible using her current spell ¨C the box appearing in her magic eye but not her normal ones.
We don¡¯t have much time. Do not under any circumstances let Jess try and crash the wedding that¡¯s currently happening. You can¡¯t let her die with a fate correction. I¡¯ll add what I remember being added to your spell but you need to fix it as well. In the next few days being able to hear the destined whispers is vital. Also swap the mana order to light-life inner workings and dark mana outsides. You¡¯ll thank yourself later.
As Maddy read the note to herself, future her stepped forward and with an intense look of focus sketched something on the board Maddy was holding up. In less time than Maddy needed, the mana broke apart and her spell faded. Blinking back to her regular sight she looked down on the board. The eye had broken but the board remained warped by her magic. Her drawn runes and shaping text looked different from what she had written ¨C both because of the ¡®paper¡¯ being scrunched but also because of the added sections. What looked like faint aged lines completely covered the ancient wooded paper equivalent. Most looked like squiggles but quite a few looked like backward words or purposeful runes Maddy had never seen before. Mirrored sentences and arrows and dashes ¨C it looked like more than should have been added in such a short amount of time. The additions were thick. ¡°Did something happen?¡± Jess asked her leaning in slightly to look at the squiggles. Maddy would have jumped if a portion of her attention hadn¡¯t been watching the surroundings ¨C as is she paused as her mind flickered and tried to sync with the portion that had been focusing on her friends. ¡°Yes¡­I¡¯m supposed to tell you not to stop the wedding from happening.¡± Maddy responded tracing the letters. The way the wood was warped looked ever so slightly like how she could ¡®kill¡¯ wood with death mana¡­but warped somehow by the passage through time? The words looked like old scar wounds or strange wooden birthmarks. Leaving a faint part of her attention to focus on studying the spell the majority of Maddy focused on her friends with a smile as she gestured to continue on. ¡°What wedding? Why would I want to stop it?¡± Jess asked as she stepped into the village proper. ¡°No clue, its probably happening in the town. Want to go check it out?¡± Maddy responded. ¡°I¡¯ll follow from the roof.¡± Troy muttered. The archer bent his legs and jumped ¨C somehow landing on the edge of the roof above then scrambling to a position near the top. Not knowing exactly what was happening, the pair watched their friend hop to another roof out of sight and then stepped through the gate and began to follow. Maddy fingered the side of her robes mentally urging her two spent pools to refill. She had a whole pool of life and death mana she could use to heal or attack with and was holding a finger to the relevant attack spells as they continued on. The path went between two houses and then bisected a road of sorts wrapping around to the side. Turning the group walked along the cobblestones stopping only to watch what looked like a small child covered in a cloak run out of a building. They watched in tense silence as the small clocked figure used chalk to draw a scribbly circle on the cobblestones and then run away. ¡°Don¡¯t step in the circle¡± Maddy said after a moment. ¡°That could be one of the dungeon monsters¡­the circle looks like its just a scribble but it could be a trap.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the boss.¡± Jess stopped her steps towards the circle and the pair continued on down the curving street spotting and avoiding a second and third chalk circle as they walked. The sound of people talking rose as they grew closer to the village center. Soon the backs of ¡®human¡¯ heads became visible; a crowd of figures standing around a sort of stage in the village center. The heads¡­looked off. As Maddy grew closer and could see both the sides and fronts of some of these ¡®people¡¯s¡¯ heads she narrowed in on what felt off about them. It felt racist to admit they didn¡¯t seem human with just a few changes but Maddy was punched with an uncanny valley when observing the characters in front of her. The group was humanoid in all senses of the word but several things were ¡®off¡¯ in a slight way. Their eyes were slightly too big ¨C not quite anime exaggeration levels but far larger than felt real based on any human Maddy had seen before. Their average height was lower than most people but not in a exaggerated way ¨C most of the figures were 5¡¯ tall several closer to 4¡¯-6¡± making Maddy taller than all but a few of the tallest people. Their heads were large in a not quite exaggerated way but because of their smaller size the effect gave everyone a slight bobblehead look. Finally everyone had thin hands longer than Maddy was used to. Not enough to be alien in shape ¨C just enough that it stood out as different than ¡®normal¡¯. Besides those very slight but significant traits the figures looked ¡®normal¡¯. Something Maddy did note was how varied their skin tones were ¨C not because any of the skin tones were weird on their own but because of how varied they were for what looked like a medieval village. For such a small village the fact that no two people had the same skin tone ¨C everyone tinted a shade of bronze or pink, yellow or gold, dark brown or black¡­it felt strange in a period sort of way. It was like a tv series was attempting to show multiculturalism at the cost of ¡®period¡¯ accuracy or ¨C more accurately like the village had been founded by people from all areas of the world. The crowd wore simple dresses and old fashioned looking suits, while on the stage a woman in a brilliant grey and sparkling outfit stood. Directly behind her was a tall woman with a top hat ¨C tall for both the ¡®short¡¯ race as well as tall for regular humans she towered in at at least 6¡¯-6¡±. On the same stage a blacksmith and nervous looking man stood near the back wiping a cloth nervously across his hammer. The sparkling dress women was held gently but firmly by the top hat women. This bride looked¡­somewhat forced into this wedding if Maddy had to guess based on the surroundings. Her face had a pained looking smile and the arm being gripped by the top hat woman trembled slightly. The presumed groom tightened his robe and stepped forward to some polite whoops and shook fists from the crowd. One or two villagers glanced at Maddy and Jess as they approached but seemed to pay them no mind as the wedding continued. Maddy couldn¡¯t understand a word being said but she got the gist of things. The top hat women was sort of like an officiant? There was a speech and then the groom responded and then another short speech. Maddy wasn¡¯t sure what the blacksmith was doing here yet. He sat slightly to the back wearing a dirty smock and spinning his hammer in a nervous fidget. To his side sat a large anvil and a sealed box. With both hands raised the top hat woman¡¯s voice changed ¨C becoming deeper and almost fervent as she shouted a phrase at the sky. Then the officiant pulled the unresisting bride towards the anvil beside her. The box was carefully opened and its two items were held up high enough for the crowd to see. It was hard to fully tell without a closer look but there seemed to be a spiked gem and a simple metal ring? There was a deep green gem attached to what looked like a needle covered in tiny fishhook barbs. Sliding the ring onto the brides hand, Maddy caught a glimpse of a single hole where the centerpiece should be. ¡­oh. Placing the brides finger on the anvil then pulling the spiked gem around, the officient positioned it on top of the brides finger like a nail being driven into wood even as Maddy realized what was about to happen. Raising his hammer with a grim expression on his face, the blacksmith nodded once to the top hat woman then with a flash stuck the gem down his hammer being swung with a practiced ease towards the gem nail. The bride screamed. Beside her, Maddy noticed Jess stepping forward and managed to reach out and hold her back. ¡°That¡¯s messed up,¡± Jess whispered to her allowing herself to be held but only just. A hard glint was in her eyes and she flexed her hands as if she wanted to start throwing barriers everywhere. Maddy nodded then continued to watch the proceedings. The bride was no longer restrained ¨C her wedding ring was properly nailed into her finger, blood trickling down her hand and onto the ground where she stood¡­ but no one seemed to pay it or her any mind. The blacksmith seemed determined to wipe every last drop of blood off his hammer and anvil ¨C an oily rag being rubbed over everything as fast as he could even as he dragged it off the stage. Most of the crowd seemed excited but a few faces looked grim and resigned. Pulling sticks of incense out of her pocket, the top hat woman walked about the stage and began to light the sticks carefully. Each stick when lit wafted a single thin line of smoke into the air and as the circle was complete it looked like a ring of pillars surrounded the stage. The crowd grew still as they all tracked the woman in silence. As the ninth and final stick was lit a strange feeling began building in Maddy¡¯s stomach. The smoke swirled through the air on an invisible breeze the pillars warping and dispersing when the women began to hum. Maddy felt the barest twinge of recognition. A vague kinship with that hum ¨C a sense of adjacent concepts that pulled her into and then rejected her. A use of sound and magic¡­ The woman¡¯s eyes snapped shut then open ¨C audibly snapped Maddy could hear it from her position in the back ¨C and when they opened they were suddenly completely grey. It looked like the officiant had rolled her eyes up into the top of her head but also made them clearer and filled them with smoke. Hash words rose up into the air as the shaman spoke. It was hard to tell but it sounded almost like a different language this time her words following a guttural tone full of rasps and barks. Her top hat fell to the ground below her, causing all the hair that had been stuffed inside of it to unwrap and fall to the ground below. The woman had hair all the way down to the ground ¨C ashy crumpled grey hair that made her look old despite her face looking young. With a snap the shaman loudly blinked once more and finished her prophecy ¨C the crowd seeming relived by her words. Looking incredibly tired the woman bent to pick up her fallen top hat and began slowly winding her hair up and shoving it into the hat before flipping it back onto her head. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Jess muttered and Maddy shook her head. ¡°I know. We¡­we need some way of translating what they are saying soon. I feel like we just missed something important.¡± ¡°Important lore for the dungeon.¡± Jess laughed a tense look on her face. The wedding really had taken a lot out of her and Maddy felt that. Maddy reached out and squeezed her hand. She knew Jess had made a point to say dungeon as if reminding herself this wasn¡¯t real. Jess squeezed back her grip much tighter than Maddy¡¯s had been. The two watched in silence as the defeated looking bride was led away by her new husband and the crowd began to disperse. Seeming to slip almost magically through the crowd the top hat woman appeared in front of them without saying anything and beckoned the pair to follow her. Glancing at one another and surreptitiously noting Troy training his bow on them from the roof, the two agreed. This dungeon...was definitely going to be different than the combat focused one they had been grinding the past few days. Only time would tell if that was a good or bad thing. Chapter 61. Free will rejects fate. ---James--- James rested and stretched then began to wander. He had found himself in a forest once again ¨C one with really thick trees and large ferns. Large bugs buzzed about his head ¨C dragon flies the size of a small bird and monstrous looking beetles ¨C but all he could think was how safe it felt here. A distant crash sounded out and James pivoted trying to pinpoint where it had come from. That way? Picking the most likely direction, James began to walk ¨C pulling around his backpack to check his supplies. All his spices were safe. They had survived the journey strapped to his back. Pulling it back around, James hiked for a while breathing deeply at how fresh the surroundings felt. He needed water soon ¨C his bottle was empty and he had sweat out plenty of fluids. Continuing on mindlessly for a bit James found himself slowly getting more focused ¨C a nagging sense that something had changed stood up and tried to gain his attention. It took a few minutes of careful walking to realize what the change was ¨C the sound of the forest was gone. All the little things ¨C the distant chirp of birds or small animals. The occasional sound of a fighting monster or trickle of a stream or rustle of leaves. It was silent and suspicious because of being silent. Was there something dangerous nearby? Something strange? Clapping his hands together James felt both like it was a gunshot echoing in the silence¡­as well as the fact that it sounded quieter than it should be. A slight muffle ¨C what had changed? Slowly spinning around and squinting at the surroundings, James spotted a flash of yellow. There? Making his way over to the bit of colour, James found what looked like a small yellow tent tied to a massive tree. It looked out of place in the forest. A man made structure in what was otherwise almost a prehistoric landscape. Carefully making his way towards and then opening the flap ¨C half expecting to be jumped by a camper or some clown or something ¨C James found a large empty room on the other side. The first time he had seen something of the like it was clearly bigger on the inside than the outside. The outside looked almost like a flimsy fabric structure that needed to be tied to several branches just to keep it upright. In comparison the insides were a comfortably wide area complete with solid wooden supports all around the wall. One wall was solid wood ¨C the part that had been facing the massive tree was open the flaps of fabric nailed to the wood on all sides. James carefully explored ¨C the tent was relatively empty. There was a single wooden table covered in some papers and books all written in a foreign language. There was a lantern at the ceiling and a box filled with fruit and cheese. Another box filled with what looked like a hundred sticks of different shapes colours and sizes. A third filled with some different powders and some gems James recognized as what appeared near the end of dungeons. Chips he recognized along with a few larger ones. The most important part of the area however was not any of the man made supplies. What drew the eye was definitely what was attached to the base of the tree ¨C something that tipped this whole tent into reminding James of a dig site or some archaeological study. Near the bottom of the tree two thick roots split out and then wrapped around creating a mostly circular shape. All across this natural ring bits of root split and twisted into strange almost fractal like patterns. And, of course in the center of the ring was a shimmering void. Dark Dark liquid rippled slightly in the light of the lamp ¨C the bottom of the pool hidden from sight. Inside the pools tiny specs of multicoloured sparkles shifted and flashed in the light¡­the whole pool of sprinkle filled oil seemed to be constantly churning and shifting. With a closer look the trunk and inner section of this ring seemed to be filled with carved words ¨C the only man made part of this setup. Were they part of the pool? Something the researcher or research team who made this site had added? James looked about once more. A unbidden thought urged him to jump in the pool and see what happened but the eerie lack of any people made his rational side warn him against it. The portion that wanted him to take the plunge argued it was probably an achievement and the risk would definitely be worth it. The rational side mentioned there was a limited number of lives left and if he died there was no guarantee he would appear on this side of the badlands¡­he should try and find a town or something to set his respawn point. James argued with himself as he sat and watched the swirls move about. The two parts he was ruminating on boiled down to the lack of sound and sign of life being a pretty good warning vs he had found something and just turning around and leaving without gaining anything from it would make this seem pointless. He finally reached out and dipped the tip of his finger into the pool feeling a slight chill and fuzzy sensation. Slowly the fuzzy sensation moved down his arms and began swirling about his stomach. It reminded him of the feeling etching some monster parts gave. A sort of contained potential? Dunking his entire arm down and feeling around, James braced himself half expecting something to reach out and grab him. Instead all that happened was he found he couldn¡¯t reach the bottom of the pool ¨C he couldn¡¯t even reach the sides. It was like the pool extended out underground, the entire floor resting precariously on some underground chasm that opened up and extended underneath his feet. As James felt around, the liquid began to swirl faster ¨C pulling his arm out he watched the swirls continue agitatedly spinning before slowly settling down once again. A drop of liquid from his hand fell onto the carved words lighting up the entire ring in a mystical glow. After a second a blue box appeared.
Please insert information crystal to attempt artifact analysis.
James stood up, went to the box of dungeon crystals and pulled out a few different sizes. Bringing them back to the pool he noted a glowing circle on the root and placed one of the small crystals on it. The runes flashed brightly as the crystal crumbled to dust. A short empty pause of nothing and then ¨C as if it had been loading or processing something ¨C a box appeared.
Unknown well
Limited analysis: This pool of potential has unknown uses but seems soaked in strong naturally crystalizing concepts and contains a large amount of unknown properties.
Dropping some drops of liquid on the runes once again James pulled out his biggest crystal ¨C why not ¨C and shoved it onto the consuming section of the spell. A moment later the whole thing flashed ¨C much more brightly then before ¨C and a new blue box appeared.
The well of wandering wishes.
Partial analysis: An unnaturally natural formation, the well of wandering wishes can grant a minor desire. Unlike a standard wishing well, this link to true magic will only aid you in achieving your wish instead of outright granting it. By stepping into the well you will be transported to a place your wish can be achieved. This might not be the best place you can achieve, nor the safest or easiest¡­however it will give you the chance. Because of its limited scope, the cost it enacts is smaller and more predictable. Due to an opportunity provided, cost is likely to be a small removal of an opportunity. Due to the opportunity presented being variable the end location may contain unknown dangers part of the cost being taken from the suboptimal placement. Cost scales with difficulty of gifting the opportunity but remains relatively low. Well contains a fragment of [redacted]¡¯s [redacted].
James looked at this much more useful lore snippit. ¡°Alright then, so a portal pool?¡± He asked the surroundings then nodded to himself. Might as well use it right? If what he wanted was something he could do easily enough without the pool it wouldn¡¯t be too bad of a cost¡­and just ignoring the pool and moving on felt wasteful. The box was only a partial analysis but it seemed pretty trustworthy¡­had a box ever lied to him yet? More importantly James was tired of running away from things. Strength came from facing the unknown head on. ¡°I want to learn of magic. Of mana and how it works. I want to learn as quickly and painlessly as possible.¡± James spoke to the pool then waited. He noted the liquid began to swirl and churn faster as he spoke ¨C with any luck the pool would bring him to a magic library or something and then he could scroll through some books like he had when he researched aether on the computer. Maybe there would be a giant owl or something to fight and that was the danger? Watching the churning pool for a moment James shrugged. Nothing ventured nothing gained. He stepped up onto the edge of the ring then took a deep breath and jumped. Jumped into the unknown.
---Maddy--- Maddy stepped into a strange looking silk building near the edge of town. A solid crystal eye hung above the door and the insides were decked out in a weird mix of items. If Maddy had to describe the building/tent in a few words she would have said it felt like a church had been crossed with a gypsy caravan. There was an alter and several stone benches as if set up for a sermon, but instead of a place to rest a religious book there was a pedestal containing a crystal ball swirling with silver smoke. The hard benches were covered in soft red pillows and in the corner a comfortable looking nook looked like somewhere a wise old man might meditate in spiritual harmony. Incense sticks lined the walls ¨C all burning despite the group having only just entered the room ¨C was there someone here constantly replacing them? The sweet and exotic scents filled Maddy¡¯s nose causing it to twitch slightly as she breathed and looked about. Covering every wall was tapestries. Hand weaved and painted murals depicting what looked like folklore or fairy tales ¨C but also strangely enough, mundane scenes from the village. Maddy recognized the stage in one tapestry and noted what looked like both her and Jess standing and watching from further back. Another had her stabbing a shadowy figure holding a bow. A third had Jess caging what looked like a being of darkness in chains of gold as it fought to escape. The building clashed slightly with the savage wedding they had witnessed. It felt comfortable and inviting ¨C if this was a shaman church where were the severed heads in jars? The tablet proclaiming commandments all must follow or risk divine wrath? Coming out from a back room the priest who had brought them here held a thick bundle of burning herbs. Sage and several unknown exotic smelling and looking wafts of smoke filled the air ¨C the scent overpowering the small tendrils from the walls and making Maddy cough as they filled her mouth. ¡°What¡¯s this for?¡± Maddy asked even as the woman responded for the first time. ¡°Parrot tongue and thistleweed plus some singing sage to mask the scent. Just a trick to break down some language barriers. Nothing more.¡± The woman spoke gesturing towards the benches and sitting down on her own. Spoke in English. Responded to Maddy¡¯s English question. She hadn¡¯t even translated herself yet. ¡°So tell me, do you wish to re affirm your task? Learn what fate has in store for you so you may face your destiny with acceptance? Or do you already know and simply need me to give you the tools you might need. As a humble cog in the grand design I¡¯m able to help all who may be lost or confused.¡± The priest spoke. The woman managed to look both regal and comfortably relaxed as she sat and spoke ¡®towards them¡¯ like a teacher. ¡°What¡¯s up with that wedding?¡± Jess chimed in. ¡°The woman didn¡¯t seem thrilled to be there.¡± The priest smiled kindly at her outrage. ¡°Everything happened as it should be. Tyrissa found her soulmate ¨C the one she was destined to marry and have kids with and quite obviously fell in love. She asked to see what fate had in store for her and grew dismayed to learn her destiny led her into a unhappy marriage with no escape. Attempting to rebel against fates grand plan she wanted to call off the wedding and attempted to run away. The ceremony you witnessed was simply a correction. A simple spell to keep her bound to her husband ¨C nothing dangerous. ¡°Now if her blasphemy was allowed to continue? That would be the real danger. She would have brought ruin to our village. Her children you see are destined to save us from the shattering that will happen in twoscore years¡­and fates plan tends to be the most benevolent of outcomes for the majority. I too empathize with her fate but nothing can be done,¡± Shaking her head in sympathy the priest ended her explanation ¨C as if it made perfect sense. ¡°She wanted to escape a miserable life! How could you blame her?¡± Jess¡¯s voice rose in anger even as Maddy felt a twinge. She¡¯d run away from an unhappy marriage herself after all ¨C this random women¡¯s situation brought bad memories to her mind. Could she really stand by and let them do this? ¡­it¡¯s a dungeon. Maddy tried to convince herself it was just some lore. She found it hard to move past ¨C what was the difference between the natives to this dungeon and the natives outside the dungeon? What was the difference between her and them? Were they simply people being mind controlled and forced to act out a play? Were they humanoid monsters? Did it matter? The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. A part of her focused on the conversation and added her own question. ¡°What did you mean by our task?¡± Maddy asked. Smiling and nodding the woman answered. ¡°Since long ago, your arrival was foretold. You will appear signaling hope but also revealing a hidden evil. For somewhere amongst our number there is a calamity. A calamity not even I can scry ¨C one that will grow and spread corrupting more and more of our people. You are destined to stop this evil. ¡®To appear from far away, route out the corruption and then leave within but a single moons cycle¡¯. The prophecy names you and your companion ¡®The inquisitors¡¯. ¡°We have been expecting you.¡± ¡­ The two girls left the church with mixed feelings. In their hands a positive wealth of herbs and trinkets had been given. Bundles of translation incense they could burn to speak to people. Bundles of future sight incense the ¡®holy¡¯ blend containing deep concepts that could help them scry the future on their ¡®quest¡¯. A locket that could be used to contact the priest if they were unable to come back and ask her questions, a metal tag they could show as ¡®proof¡¯ they were the inquisitors. A dagger that could be used to stab the ¡®great evil¡¯ should they be unable to kill them on their own, an old fashioned pair of handcuffs inlaid with ruby gems in case they decided to take the evil alive for whatever reason. A bag of marble sized herbs they could burn to cleans themselves of ailments, a small bag of strange looking coins they could use to rent a place or buy food while they routed out the problem. It was a lot. A lot of free tools and both of them were conflicted over both their task and and the amount of help they were being given to complete it. Was this really it? Was this really a rank 3 dungeon? One that told them exactly what to do and then gave them all the tools to complete it? ¡­was the real goal to fight this destiny and ignore the future? All the warning they suddenly received was a few small pebbles landing nearby. With a deafening crash a massive boulder suddenly impacted the payment in front of them, smashing deep into the ground and peppering them with shrapnel. Jess jumped forward and expanded a barrier to catch most of the blast, but Maddy still came away with a streak of blood running down her cheek. The two stared in shock at what had just happened. They could be attacked at any time ¨C this was a dungeon after all ¨C just a few more steps and they would have been squished ¡®randomly¡¯. A closer look at the impact sight saw something even stranger. All around the embedded boulder a scribble of chalk moved ¨C almost like those lines of chalk you saw in crime scenes. Looking around Maddy pointed at another chalk circle. One of the ones drawn by the child. Jess turned and stared between the two putting together what Maddy had just realized. Jess then nodded holding her barrier in front of the pair keeping them both safe from any further shrapnel. They waited in silence for a moment before with a crash another boulder obliterated the cobblestones around the marked area. ¡°We have to figure out a permanent sort of future sight as soon as possible¡± Maddy muttered staring at the impact in dread. This dungeon had a theme and boy was it committing to it. ¡­ Maddy trickled mana into her wooden eye pushing more and more until her spell activated. This time she followed her future self¡¯s tip and created a churning lightlife middle then wrapped it in a shell of darkness. The darkness seemed to hold the light contained and around the pupil a thin film of transparent darkness lay. The viewing light seemed to pass through this film of darkness and¡­polarize? The view of the world through this eye was dark as if she were looking through strong sunglasses, but alive with smoke that swirled and showed stuff happening about. Future her had definitely upgraded the spell even if Maddy didn¡¯t understand everything that had been written down. Was the dark shell reflecting the light around inside? Maddy didn¡¯t have a reflection concept how was that working? Even incredibly boosted and optimized, this spell still cost too much. It lasted much longer than her first attempt, but Maddy could still only run the spell for a dozen minutes before it broke apart and she needed to wait the 20 or so minutes for both pools to refill with one cannibalizing the other. Maddy would have preferred the spell either cost as much as her regeneration to maintain letting her keep in on constantly¡­it also sucked how vulnerable it left her to be empty. She still had her life and death pool to draw upon and react to something she saw¡­but it felt weird to walk around as nothing more than an infrequent scout. The two explored the entire village Maddy spotting several boulders ¨C all but one landing on chalk circles ¨C as well as several interactions between villagers happen right before they ¡®happened¡¯. More importantly, the smoke of her spell showed her and Jess enter and leave buildings shaking their heads feeling like it was invalidating the search somehow. If she had entered and not found anything in the future why did she need to enter and not find it the second time? future her had shown off they hadn¡¯t found anything there. Not following in future Her¡¯s footsteps, had first given an ominous feeling and then nearly had them walk into one of the boulders falling off the impossibly tall cliff beside them. If they had just followed future her they would have missed the boulder completely ¨C it felt almost like a warning shot of some god smiting the earth right in front of them. Besides the on again off again exploration Maddy had time to think. On one hand she didn¡¯t like the goal of the dungeon on the other it felt like there was a lesson it was trying to impart? In terms of the destined hero plotline they had been given¡­it was strange in a few ways. For one Troy hadn¡¯t been mentioned once. Just Maddy and her companion. The fact it was her and a companion and not just the pair of them was also weird ¨C was it just because she was party leader? Why¡­why wasn¡¯t Troy mentioned. Was¡­was he the ¡°Hidden evil?¡± was the path to dungeon completion actually beating him? The thought flickered into Maddy¡¯s mind unbidden and unwanted. As soon as it entered her mind, she couldn¡¯t ignore the bad thought. Was¡­was that what the dungeon was leading up towards? It slotted suddenly into place ¨C if they could only scry the dungeon and Maddy brought with her the ¡®great evil¡¯¡­the pictures had a shadowy figure, was that Troy using his dark mana? Was the intended way for this dungeon to be completed to turn on her companion? It made a sick sort of sense to Maddy as she continued to be led about the town by her future self. The real question was what happened if she refused. Would refusing to kill off her party member kill them all? Would that switch the dungeon to hardmode as she fought against the ¡®absolute¡¯ power of ¡®fate¡¯? Troy had two lives left, if it let them complete the dungeon maybe that was a sacrifice they had to take. What the hell is wrong with me? Maddy stopped in her tracks. Had she really just entertained the idea? A part of her placated that through, whispering they didn¡¯t know if Troy was the great evil yet anyways. She didn¡¯t want to be this type of person. She would not step over her friends just to succeed no matter how easy it might make things. She had just been thinking about things practically. That was all. A shadow moved across the world at that moment. The sun had reached the cliff behind them and the shade cast by the sun plunged the village into darkness. A chill fell over Maddy as she stood there blinking in the sudden shade. Darkness had come¡­in seconds. How high was the cliff that it could shift its shadow that quickly? It felt like an omen. ¡°Want to¡­call it a night and try and find a place to sleep at eat?¡± Maddy asked Jess turning to find her friend gone. ¡°Well that¡¯s a good sign¡± She muttered to herself. Maddy did not understand how she had missed Jess leaving. She looked about for the part of herself that was supposed to be keeping an eye on the surroundings and found there was nothing there¡­had she forgotten to leave some focus there? Maddy missed her scythe more than anything else in that moment. She could imagine feeling it in her hands ¨C could imagine gripping the smooth wood for comfort ¨C the blade and knowledge of how to fight with it a potential weapon even without mana. The future version of her began to walk away in that moment. It seemed she had made up her mind to head that way instead of standing in the streets? Not understanding the strangely solid version of her selves thought process ¨C but, realizing movement was better than anything else ¨C Maddy followed her ghost. Her hands were held tensely at her sides fingering the attack runes on her robe. Future her stopped and nodded to a figure ahead receiving something and as Maddy approached she found an old woman exiting her house and nodding to her. ¡°Alk, ish-ahn mally¡± the woman said as soon as she passed. ¡°Pardon?¡± Maddy paused at the woman watching as she passed a small tart across to her. Two thumbs up and a warm smile was all Maddy got from the old lady before she turned and Maddy continued on. Where was she going? Did she even know? Was future her following a future future her endlessly none of them knowing where they were going but following each other blindly in a conga line? The solid ghost in front of her opened a door to a house and entered it confidently. Maddy paused and entered after her the already opened door closing as she entered the room. In the middle of this house a giant mirror sat the mirrored version of herself sitting in front of it calmly. ¡°Why am I about to do that? Maddy muttered as she stepped towards the ghost. ¡°Delineate,¡± Her copy smiled reaching out her fingers snapping shut in a pantomime of scissors. A sharp pain caused Maddy to jump back as her fingers fell off the stumps gushing an incredible amount of blood. ¡°Wha-¡° Maddy yelped in absolute shock even as her mirrored copy rose her fingers up towards her and spoke again. ¡°And that¡¯s too dangerous as well¡­Delineate,¡± Maddy¡¯s copy had grabbed Maddy¡¯s tongue as soon as she opened her mouth. The twisted copy pulled it out even as she snipped it with her second hand. Maddy¡¯s mouth filled with coppery blood, the liquid running down her throat even as she struggled to both comprehend what was happening and react. She was under attack ¨C she couldn¡¯t used sound. She only had death mana to defend herself with and life mana to heal herself with. A flash of life mana shot towards the self healing runes in her shoulder and then cutting it out after a second Maddy pushed death mana towards her only non sound attack spell embroidered into her hip. Her copy did not let up her attack for a single second ¨C as soon as she finished cutting off Maddy¡¯s tongue, the copy had stepped back and begun to chant. The copy had a cruel mocking smile covering her face as she watched Maddy try and fend her off. ¡°Destroy and rip and tear my weakness, Rend cloth spellwork in tawin, delineate the past and sever fate. Delineate¡± Maddy¡¯s clothes ripped and shredded even as the death mana began to condense into a method of defense. Maddy desperately grabbed at the fading spellwork tossing the full might of her imagination and visualization skills at completing the spell without a source. Attempting to grab the unstable maggot with her fingerless hand Maddy tossed the maggot towards her copy. She couldn¡¯t be this outclassed ¨C this was her she was fighting after all wasn¡¯t it? The copy let the maggot impact her front and watched it wiggle into her stomach. ¡°Phase¡± Maddy¡¯s copy spoke even as she stared at her stomach a slight grin appearing as the wound closed. ¡°Thanks for the healing dear but that was unnecessary,¡± Maddy stood naked and vulnerable and shocked before mirrored self. What was she supposed to do? Why was she this outclassed? How was her future self using this many spells in rapid sequence ¨C why would she ever do this to herself? Blood trickled down Maddy¡¯s front and sides dripping from her mouth and stumps. The short burst of healing had not been enough to fully close her wounds and most of them had reopened. Maddy¡¯s copy grabbed her roughly ¨C manhandling her own body in surprising cruelty as she pulled Maddy down and grabbed the handcuffs they had been given earlier. ¡°Aww, don¡¯t worry. I know I¡¯m dumb, I¡¯ll give you a minute.¡± Maddy¡¯s copy handcuffed her hands behind her back even as Maddy struggled fruitlessly. Her copy pushed her to the ground and held her on her side even as the copy rifled with practiced ease and removed the knife they had been given. Slowly carefully Maddy¡¯s copy began to cut a rune into her side. Maddy screamed as her shade worked ¨C this slow burning sting hurt more than losing her tongue and fingers. It hurt more than any of the cuts or bruises she had gained adventuring. It somehow hurt more than melting her own flesh with death mana had. The spell was drawn out in a torturous ¨C frankly unnecessary feeling ¨C way. Maddy found it hard to pull herself together and try to react. Her copy finished the job and pulsed her own healing spell across Maddy. A slow, incredibly weak sort of healing that closed the cuts leaving scars. A slow healing that finished sealing over her fingers and stopped Maddy¡¯s severed tongue from killing her from bloodloss. A slow healing that left scars. Maddy¡¯s copy stood up and began to drag her down stairs in the corner. She was being brought to the buildings cellar ¨C her copy seemed to be struggling at least to drag her even if Maddy wasn¡¯t struggling anymore. Her bare skin scraped across the rough stone floor and painfully hit each stone step as they descended into the darkness. ¡°Light banish the night¡± Maddy¡¯s copy spoke as they descended, causing the cellar to glow slightly the walls themselves hit by her light mana. ¡°hhrsk¡± Maddy choked trying to speak through her lack of a tongue even as she was pulled off two steps to land painfully on the floor below. Her copy laughed as she continued bringing Maddy to a wall producing ropes and somehow cutting a looped hole into the stone wall to fasten her to. ¡°Why you ask?¡± Maddy¡¯s copy asked looking down into her eyes. ¡°Ah well, I have to regenerate my mana anways. Might as well pass the time. I¡­am the real you.¡± Maddy looked questioningly at that even as her double finished chaining her to the wall and stepped back to admire her handywork. ¡°Time travel¡­isn¡¯t a part of reality you see and I¡¯ve already completed this dungeon once. It¡¯s a long affair even if it''s easy. The married woman you saw? Yeah she¡¯s the ¡®great evil¡¯ you are supposed to defeat. She tries to fight against fate and fate sends you to put down her rebellion. Simple enough plotline. Takes a few days for her to start cursing people and the only hard part of taking her down is keeping her alive when you do it. Her children still need to stop something in the future after all and killing her results in a fail condition.¡± Maddy¡¯s copy talked. Maddy had wanted information¡­but not like this. It was good to know the dungeon wasn¡¯t planning on turning her against her party. Just¡­act against a trapped woman and perpetuate its helpless story. ¡°And then we left the dungeon, we got our reward from the mage queen running this place and learned of domains and magic¡­to paraphrase domains are our truth. The way magic works for us and those in our domains. Remember how that necro bastard had us use soul magic, his runes working for us? That¡¯s because we were in his domain. His rune wouldn¡¯t have worked for us if we weren¡¯t gifted it through the truth of how magic around him works. This dungeon also has a domain that can gift its concepts of stupid helpless destiny and inside of its domain ¨C its truth that time travel exists and its prophetic concept can see it...well that breaks reality.¡± Maddy¡¯s copy explained herself even as the last signs she was a shade vanished her form looking as real as Maddy. ¡°The truth of the matter is, you are nothing more than a conjuration¡­a creature created by the dungeon the ¡®truth¡¯ of its domain telling everyone you are my past self. Within the world that is this dungeon you are real, but as soon as I leave again, that ¡®truth¡¯ shifts to a ¡®lie¡¯. Your existence will fade once more. Maybe you¡¯ll fade before that as well as my own domain starts resisting this stifling world. I reject this domain. I reject this truth.¡± Maddy¡¯s copy yelled that last line her eyes flashing as she walked across the room to pick up a scythe. Maddy¡¯s scythe¡­returned? Her copy continued to tell its story returning to its seat and stroking Maddy¡¯s scythe. It was her scythe - she could feel it...hers in truth. maddy tried to reach out for it but the focus was too far away...it wasn''t hers. She should have been able to activate a spell on it from this distance but...it felt like her scythe was ignoring her to snuggle up closer to the fake in front of her. The story continued. ¡°Right now¡­even through you are a conjuration, the truth of this dungeon and truth of ¡®you being my past¡¯ means anything I do to you happens to myself. Has happened to my self more like. If I kill you I will die as well, the truth of time means you ¡®have¡¯ to gain the rewards of this dungeon and leave to talk to the queen and get your scythe back like I did. Of course, before it reaches that point I¡¯ll have broken this fake truth. I can already feel its hold over me weakening. My goal¡­my goal is to break this dungeons shitty domain over me and make sure nothing like this ever happens again. This helpless story of a damsel trying to escape a desperate situation? Acting like a puppet to fates whims ¨C forced to suppress the freedom of one for the good of some bastard group? Forced to play out this story any act against it an unavoidable fail condition and death? That¡¯s what this is about, I¡¯m replacing the past to change the future.¡± Maddy¡¯s copy finished her monologue in a matter of fact manner and went still. A cool rage had simmmerd just under the copies tone and yet she hadn¡¯t shouted again. Her rage was calm and controlled. Instead of raising her voice her copy had calmly described the situation while clenching the scythe hard enough to leave her knucles white. Maddy knew her own ticks and saw half a dozen signs her copy was angrier than she could ever remember herself being¡­and yet it was all wrong. Maddy knew herself ¨C she knew she wouldn¡¯t do this in this situation. This copy¡­this copy wasn¡¯t her. ¡­Maddy¡¯s mind reeled over the revelation of magic even as she glared back at her copy matching her angry eyes. Even if she wanted to break fate Maddy couldn¡¯t imagine herself acting like this. She couldn¡¯t imagine this copy was her ¨C of course Maddy was real, this shade was the fake created by the dungeons truth or whatever. That wasn¡¯t a full description. It hadn¡¯t explained everything properly. Maddy was missing something important¡­but this was enough. So this was a ¡®her¡¯ that had already beaten the dungeon. A ¡®her¡¯ that had gained whatever rewards and concepts the dungeon had given her. A her that¡­a her that had managed to get her scythe back from the lake below. A her that was stronger than her in every way¡­this was a Maddy who had everything Maddy had and more¡­a Maddy who had been able to prepare spells specifically to beat herself. No wonder Maddy had lost. ¡­¡±What?¡± Maddy¡¯s copy seemed annoyed by her glare. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you wouldn¡¯t do this too because you did and will. I¡¯m stronger than you because I learned the real secrets of magic and committed.¡± Maddy¡¯s copy jumped up and stared down at her with wild eyes. Broken eyes. ¡°I committed, I finally went about gaining a third affinity. There¡¯s nothing you can do. There¡¯s nothing I could do and now that¡¯s you! That¡¯s you because you are nothing more than a fake past!¡± Her copy rapidly began sounding more unhinged as she backed away and walked up the stairs continuing to stare as if afraid Maddy might lunge at her as soon as she stopped looking. Her copy kept glancing down at Maddy¡¯s breasts as if they were triggering her somehow. ¡°I¡¯m not you anymore. I¡¯m not going to be helpless. You¡¯re not her! I¡¯m the one who controls people ¨C I¡¯m not going to be controlled by others!¡± The copy¡¯s voice continued to float down to Maddy. The mirror image of her smashed the mirror in the room above yelled something about Maddy ¡°not being her, not being me¡± and then left the house the slam of the front door cutting Maddy off. ¡­ What was Maddy supposed to do now? Chapter 62. Trapped by fate with nothing but your thoughts. ---Maddy--- Maddy found herself thinking through the results of her unhinged copies rant ¨C attempting to fill in the missing pieces. Because there were missing pieces to the story. Her copy¡­her copy had a third affinity and had seemed to have learned something from the queen to lead her into gaining it. Destruction and creation. Jess¡¯s affinity. It made sense¡­Maddy had considered a third affinity several several times and that was the affinity she would choose if she picked up a third one. Maddy found herself latching onto her old ideas as she sat trapped against the wall ¨C it helped keep her mind off her situation and collect herself. In terms of picking the best affinities the options of the remaining ones she didn¡¯t have yet were ranked in her mind. From lowest to greatest there was fire and ice as her third pick. That would increase her damage and the control of her spells by quite a bit ¨C fire could spread and with dark death fire she could make some potent burning. Same with ice ¨C she could probably freeze creatures with damaging cold death. Fire and ice were one of the most popular mage affinities and if she didn¡¯t have death mana she would have been waffeling between life/death and fire/ice for the better damage vs versatility of being able to heal as well as kill. Higher on her list was movement ¨C speed/slow mana. Maddy could already move her mana about a bit and on a side path could move things a bit with her own spells¡­but if she really wanted to use magic to actually move things she needed movement mana. Might let her fly on a broom ¨C imagine if she had her scythe back and could fly around on it like a witch from a story. She vaguely remembered seeing a witch flying on a scythe once in an anime and the aesthetic had stuck with her. It would also give her a massive amount of control over her own spells ¨C instead of attacking wildly with sound she could probably eventually make her spells dance to her thoughts their every movement under her control. She could use sound to actually attack with ¨C the sound being the damage instead of the medium the damage was moved in. Unlike fire and ice which would increase her damage and spread the range she could attack in movement magic felt like it would increase her strength in a more fundamental manner. Usually movement mana was one of the most popular warrior affinities and shunned by mages¡­but Maddy had already picked up the most optimal second affinity for a mage ¨C light/dark mana ¨C and going against the most popular choice for a third mage affinity felt more useful. And that¡¯s when she came to her third and most considered option. Creation and destruction. As far as destruction or void magic went it was known as the most immediately damaging¡­but that was it. Its pure universal damage was balanced against the versatility of spreading continuous fire or death related damage types. Considering Maddy¡¯s main damage of necrotic attacks was countered by anything non living ¨C not that she had had to deal with that yet ¨C void attacks would round out her range against non living threats¡­but that side of the coin was just a bonus. The main reason Maddy wanted the affinity was because of creation mana and the reason she wanted it was both in the brief descriptions she had read and been told about along with how she was positive it could work. As far as mana went, mana had the potential of all the mana types contained within it and you could usually achieve some measure of all the parts as far as it affected spells. The main part of affinities were hard lines that couldn¡¯t be crossed. You could make spells that moved without a movement affinity for example ¨C otherwise most spells wouldn¡¯t do anything¡­but without a movement affinity it was difficult to impossible to make a spell that moved ¡®things¡¯ or people. There was also a limited amount of control over the movement spells could have without a movement affinity ¨C you could make bolts of magic that shot out or attach your spell to a wave of sound¡­but controlling every exact movement of your spell was next to impossible as was designing those sorts of spells without a concept to guide them. Similarly, you could ¡®create¡¯ a spell and spells could momentarily appear to create a physical thing ¨C an ice spell for example creating what looked like a solid bolt of ice ¨C but those spells couldn¡¯t truly ¡®create¡¯ anything the way creation mana could. The momentary summon would disappear as if it were a lie the spell would fade. From what Maddy could tell creation magic¡­creation magic was the path towards permanency. Creating a sentry eye that lasted for years. Creating a spell and then spending it later. Maddy was nearly positive the mage queen had a creation affinity that let her create the floor to the town and have it last forever¡­or last so long as it was in her domain? Maddy didn¡¯t quite know the specifics. Despite the information her clone had given it wasn¡¯t enough to say she knew exactly how magic worked. What she could say was whatever her clone had heard had pushed her to finally getting this affinity. Maddy really really wanted this affinity. She could think of dozens of spells that needed it. She could imagine so much potential in the affinity. Of course¡­there was a reason Maddy hadn¡¯t gotten this yet. The cost. The cost to doing it herself ¨C as far as she knew the only way to gain that third affinity. She would need to give up four stat areas. One area of stats for the creation/destruction mana. One area for the creation pool mixed with the life pool. One area for the creation pool mixed with the light pool. And one area for the triple pool ¨C life/death+light/dark+creation/destruction. Of course she could always choose not to go all the way¡­decide not to gain the full set of pools all the way up to that fabled triple pool¡­but that triple pool was part of what made this path worth it. that triple mix of mana types would be exponentially stronger than her double mix in every way. Each stat lost would decrease her strength and only by going all the way to that triple pool could the increase in magical strength almost make up for that. A risky increase with hard consequences. An increase in strength and versatility that would decrease her strength and versatility in another manner¡­something that would turn her into a glass cannon in a way she didn¡¯t know if she wanted to commit to. That right there was a huge commitment. One Maddy hadn¡¯t been willing to make and still didn¡¯t feel willing to make. She could toss her last body stat easily enough, but then she would still need to eat 3 areas between mental strength/speed/defense and soul strength/speed/defense. It was a risk in a way every other decisions hadn¡¯t been ¨C Maddy still didn¡¯t fully know what the soul stats did for example. What stats did her copy sacrifice? ¡­ Finally after thinking through the whole setup, Maddy realized. She dumped mental defense¡­the stat the system warned was important with my foundation¡­was her future self really stupid enough to have dumped mental defense and then gone down to fight a mental threat in the jellyfish sirens? Maddy understood in that moment that was exactly what her alternative self had done. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that was one of the sacrificed areas that led to mirror Maddy having a creation affinity. If Maddy had a way of staying safe and attacking from afar ¨C say a skill from beating this dungeon ¨C she might have thought she could stay in the city and attack and collect her scythe from safety¡­but hindsight said the first time Maddy had been attacked by the sirens it had been through her magical eyes. A single level of abstraction wouldn¡¯t protect her from the mental horror hidden below. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. If Maddy had to guess based on her current thoughts her copy had probably dropped her last almost unused body stat, her mental defense, and two soul stats with soul defense probably being one of them. Can I use that? She would have to escape first¡­but that weakness gave her something she could focus on. Something else to focus on at least. If she thought about her situation she¡¯d probably start panicking and that wouldn¡¯t help her escape or beat her self in any way. Mages with similar affinities and concepts hard countered each other and countering specific things instead of blocking a wide variety of attacks was always essentially 100% effective. Slimes were the biggest proof of concept of this law ¨C the only reason they were 100% immune to specific types of attacks was because they had no defense against everything else. Specialized defense perfectly blocked specialized attacks¡­it was the commonly known idea in magic and Maddy already knew every single one of the spells she knew and loved were going to be ineffective against the shade with her powers. If she had some time to plan after all she could pretty easily make a counterspell for every single one of her own spells and there was no way her copy hadn¡¯t. She had also plumbed the depths of her early concepts pretty hard so far¡­Maddy had no way to know for certain but it didn¡¯t feel like she could get out of this just by shifting the way her spells worked slightly. She couldn¡¯t just say ¨C use a different shape than maggots and hope it worked. What Maddy needed was to start from scratch with her build and there was one method she could see to do that. Her new concepts¡­ Delineation and polarity. She hadn¡¯t fully explored them yet ¨C they were something added onto her list of spell components. Something she hadn¡¯t had time to focus on yet. It looked like her copy was using delineation quite frequently ¨C she had even¡­even abused the concept far from its roots and turned it into something that cut. Delineate¡­ delineating a split between two different areas and focusing on the split itself until she could almost cut space just by separating the areas. That sounded good but Maddy couldn¡¯t just copy her future self. Not if she had a chance of winning. There was living proof she could abuse delineation into cutting ¨C especially if mixed with void mana ¨C but if she tried to think of a different use¡­ Maddy hadn¡¯t fully actualized delineation yet. She had the rune already ¨C a long solid line with a little tick on one side and not the other¡­but she hadn¡¯t gone through the steps of feeling the concept out yet. She couldn¡¯t speak or draw¡­but Maddy could make that shape considering how simple it was. Rolling onto her side so she was laying facing the wall Maddy kept her body as straight as possible her outstretched arms bound to the wall beside her. This¡­this was basically the shape. Her arms were a bit too close to her head ¨C they should be in the middle of her body for maximum impact ¨C and her Delineation was the idea of making a border between two areas. Not necessarily of cutting something into two¡­but of simply marking down a boundary. Of declaring two areas to be separate but not necessarily forcing that divide¡­ There was something else about it¡­Maddy didn¡¯t have a dictionary to confirm anything else but she thought she had heard it used to describe stuff before¡­ That wasn¡¯t important, she had the main definition she knew ¨C Maddy knew delineation could indicate a boundary. Something like ¡°delineating the border between countries¡± was an English description of it and a magical description could be delineating the border between spell effects. Could Maddy focus on how the concept would let her treat two areas separately? ¡­yes she could, instantly Maddy knew that it was even the way the concept wanted to be used. If she worked on this she could make a spell that worked differently depending on which side of a line something was¡­something like delineating a battlefield and her mana would heal everything on one side and damage everything on the other? Yes¡­Maddy could feel the barest tingle of recognition with the concept ¨C her current laying pose was not close enough to her regular shape to get a full vibrating answer but it was enough for her current purposes. She could¡­she could make two lines and make a delineation triangle! That would be a way of saying everything in this slice of the world gets effected by my spell in this way¡­ That idea gave a weaker feedback but still a feedback. Like maybe a pizza slice with two delineation lines would really just be a single bent delineation and the line didn¡¯t want to be bent? That gave a bigger feedback. Maddy paused. Even if she made her spells work differently on two sides of the boundary that wouldn¡¯t help her against her copy would it? ¡­except that was thinking in too simple a manner. If she could effect magic¡­if a domain could effect magic and everyone had a domain¡­if her copy could control her maggot and shift it didn¡¯t that mean Maddy could make a boundary that effected others spells as well? She could make a line that made all of mirror Maddy¡¯s spells heal her on Maddy¡¯s side of the line and damage her on mirror Maddy¡¯s side. That¡­that seemed like a good start. She would need to actually test this spell out to see if it worked how she was hoping it worked¡­except it probably wouldn¡¯t effect things crossing the boundary right? If it damaged on mirror Maddy¡¯s side it would probably continue damaging even if it crossed into Maddy¡¯s side? Mirror Maddy had said phase when she shifted Maddy¡¯s spell. Polarity¡­polarity is a shift of sorts right? Could Maddy shift the polarity of mana between life and death? That felt like a more concrete plan. The more concepts she combined the better chance her goal was of succeeding. Of course this probably wouldn¡¯t help defend against mirror Maddy¡¯s creation and destruction affinity. Maddy felt like she wouldn¡¯t be able to shift the direction of mana types she didn¡¯t have¡­unless the concept was even stronger than she was imagining. Which wrapped around to blocking mirror Maddy¡¯s methods of attacking. Maddy would need to¡­the best thing she could do would be blocking sound. How could she prevent sound? If she had a sound affinity she could invert it to silence easy and some simple shaping could make a sphere of silence cutting off her foes chants¡­but she just had the concept of silence and no real way to invert it. ¡­But maybe she was thinking things in too limited a manner again. When she was taught magic her teacher had gone over how concepts could be used on one end or the other. She hadn¡¯t fully understood it ¨C and had felt like the descriptions on both sides had sounded so different they were something else entirely. But that obviously wasn¡¯t true so how might it be working? If Maddy figured this out she was sure she would have a tool her copy didn¡¯t. The goal was instead of a spell that attacked using sound when she spoke¡­a spell that attacked the sound that others spoke? Every time her copy tried to chant a spell her own would activate? Maddy continued to plan and brainstorm staying in her pose until her arms began to hurt. Hours had passed already and she had dozens of ideas for spells that might work but no way to test any of them. And then the sound of the door above opened and Maddy sat up. She banged her bare feet on the ground and croaked slightly ¨C her mouth too broken to try and scream ¨C hoping the slight thumping might alert whoever entered. It was either someone random or it was her copy after all. Mirror Maddy was at the top of the stairs now. Her attempt at noise had been useless. Mirror Maddy grinned slightly as she came up noting Maddy¡¯s attempt and pulled out a knife. ¡°...another application for now, going try and filter the application through the dungeon''s domain once more then you¡¯ll get a friend.¡± her copy told her. This time Maddy was ready for the pain and grimaced looking away from her captor as the madwoman carved magic into Maddy¡¯s side. As soon as she was done, mirror Maddy pulled her own shirt up and looked carefully noting down some old scar lines and nodding to herself. ¡°It worked kind of like how I was imagining¡­I¡¯ll have to test the other version to see which one was better.¡± Standing up and then pausing mirror Maddy looked down at her. ¡°Don¡¯t want anyone seeing you like this, it is my body after all.¡± Activating some spell Maddy found cloth begin to materialize out of nowhere ¨C a rough seamless sort of gown to protect her modesty. Nodding at her handywork mirror Maddy left once again ¨C ignoring all indications that Maddy was a human and treating her like little more than a doll. A few minutes later she returned this time leading a man as they dragged¡­a second identical man? The stranger carried himself like a man with plenty of stats. Instead of dragging his double down the stairs like Maddy¡¯s had, this copy lifted his bruised and battered clone like a sack of potatoes tossing them roughly down beside Maddy. ¡°There we go, glad to find someone to help¡± Mirror Maddy nodded to mirror dude and the man looked annoyed. ¡°I¡¯m doing this for myself. This dungeon doesn¡¯t control me and you don¡¯t either Maddison.¡± He spoke. ¡°Of course not, I do wonder why you were so rough on your dungeon clone though James,¡± Mirror Maddy spoke as she finished chaining the unconscious man to the wall. ¡°I hate that guy, he reminds me of myself.¡± Mirror James spoke as he led the way back upstairs. ¡°So tell me about this dungeon puppet master again¡­ This dungeon¡¯s weird, I want something I can punch.¡± Chapter 63. Unlikely union. ---James--- James awoke trapped. He felt confined and trapped and he wanted out. Straining against his restraints even before he was even fully awake, James pulled ¨C [haste] ¨C his movements sped up slightly and he heard a creak from behind him. He twisted and began to push off against the wall, planting both feet on either side of the blasted rope digging into the stone. James lifted himself up off the floor as he tugged, pausing only when he took in more of the room and realized he wasn¡¯t alone. Beside him there was a woman¡­incredibly pretty but in a plain and ¡®normal¡¯ way ¨C a different sort of attractiveness to the alure of a perfect model. More grounded and real¡­and somehow more attractive because of it. She wore a strange dirty looking dress ¨C like nothing more than a loose and roughly wrapped blanket. Clean but ragged. Her dark hair was long and dirty. A dribble of dried blood ran down from the side of her mouth and her eyes shone with an inner fire¡­ This was the chick who ambushed him with that bastard doppelganger! They were working together! James had stepped into the pool finding himself dropping slowly through a thin liquid that made him feel as if he were spinning ¨C after a few seconds he couldn¡¯t tell up from down ¨C and then¡­he had flown out of a well in a town full of anime people. Nearly immediately he had been ambushed. The doppleganger had toyed with him while she watched ¨C he had been faster than James, stronger. When James had tried to gain some distance the doppleganger had slowed James down so his limbs were moving through molasses and then beat the shit out of him. All James remembered was being grabbed and thrown into a building repeatedly ¨C why was she here? Did the doppleganger turn on her as well? He stared across at her in suspicion. ¡°You¡¯re finally awake.¡± The woman spoke her voice lisping ¨C strange and wet. She stared across at him in an equal amount of suspicion. If anything her suspicion helped remove some of James¡¯s. her mouth¡­her mouth looked like someone had done a number on it¡­that too helped James remove some distrust. ¡°Who are you and what do you know about what happened to us? Are you a traveler or a native? Do you know why you also got duped by the dungeon? I¡¯ll tell you what. I¡¯ll go first if you¡¯ll promise to help me break out of here.¡± She asked ¨C if James were to believe her, she also had a doppelganger. Every few words she had to pause and¡­it was hard to understand her words. Despite that¡­or perhaps because of it there was something about her seemed honest. Trustworthy in that she seemed equally as pained and trapped as he was. James immediately wanted to believe her. James continued being suspicious for a single reason. He didn¡¯t want to think with his dick and was rocking back to the other extreme to try and compensate. She was suspicious because she wasn¡¯t suspicious! James paused pulling himself around into a more comfortable position and then nodded feeling stupid for his earlier struggles. ¡°Sure, hit me.¡±
---Maddy--- Maddy finished describing the scenario to her cell mate. James had listened intently as if trying to catch her in a lie but very quickly settled into believing her story and wanting more details about the dungeon and surroundings. He was strange ¨C his stats were high¡­his raw strength had nearly ripped down the wall and there had been a moment he blurred faster¡­ and yet he hadn¡¯t seemed to be using mana actively. Prodding him slightly, she found he hadn¡¯t broken open a single skill yet. ¡­strange indeed. The sooner he claimed a skill, the sooner he could start modifying the random system skills into more personal abilities ¨C the sooner he could start growing his magical strength. To try and make up for how creepy her tongue and speech must have been, Maddy reverted to many old habits subconsciously. She focused on gazing directly into his eyes to appear trustworthy, made sure to play up her wounds slightly without addressing them to give him the exact view of her she wanted. She felt guilty but kept doing it ¨C she couldn¡¯t¡¯ stop. She couldn¡¯t afford to not in this position. Talking had been hard ¨C Maddy had been pushing nearly all her life mana into her mouth and removed tongue for over a day by this point. She kept imagining it growing back ¨C kept imagining it restructuring and filling out. Kept imagining her mana moving towards it till she was delirious ¨C her concentration wavering. Despite that, it hadn¡¯t been enough. She¡­as far as she knew should have been able to heal this ¨C and she could slightly. Slightly being the key word ¨C for some reason it was an uphill battle in a way no wound had been up till now. Why? Wasn¡¯t it just some flesh? Just a slab of muscle? Could she have healed it instantly if she had a way to write down the spell? Could she have healed it instantly if she could reattach the severed tongue instead of regrown it? For some reason all Maddy could focus on was creation magic¡­she should just be healing a small wound ¨C the trouble was definitely that it had to create flesh from nothing not that tongues were particularly hard body parts to heal. Its not like it was regrowing an arm or anything complicated ¨C If she had creation magic this probably would have worked out better for her. ¡­another push for gaining that affinity. While Maddy talked her tongue healed better than it had over hours of not talking. A strange quirk of her tongue being used allowing it to heal in a way it hadn¡¯t while sitting. As if her talking activated the intent to use her tongue to speak? Any slurred words were a wound and her mana attempted to heal the words? Was her tongue not actually healing and it was actually her words that were being healed by the life mana? Some sort of conceptual healing of the idea of words? Maddy paused and did a few vocal tests. Shouldn''t she be getting an achievement? Something for healing her tongue? Maybe for being trapped? ...dungeon. A lot of actions inside of dungeons seem to result in rewards at the end. Maybe it''s just deferred? Maddy returned to James. ¡°So that¡¯s as much of a general idea on how magic works as I can remember. You¡¯ll have to ask one of my friends when we get out if you want to know how it feels for an internal path. You should also keep in mind, magic is a personal thing and works a bit based on how you think it should work ¨C I think that part has something to do with domains. Don¡¯t try too hard to copy others and learn your own path from the beginning and you should be fine.¡± James nodded slowly. He had actually come to learn about magic so her explanation had been a way of making him feel indebted to her and willing to help. It cost her nothing after all ¨C in fact teaching someone helped sort her own thoughts out. Sometimes the best way of learning was to teach. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Now, there¡¯s a good chance our dupes will come back in a few hours ¨C mine has come back three times now and she''s due for a fourth. Do you want to wait till they leave to maximize the time they think we are still trapped? I think I have an idea for getting out but I need time to prepare afterwards between then and our fight.¡± James strained slightly. ¡°I want to get out as soon as possible. What if they come back and immediately kill us?¡± ¡°We are linked somewhat to the magic that says they are our future selves. Killing us should kill them as well ¨C although my copy seems to be working to break that link.¡± Maddy weighed her options then sighed. She¡¯d have preferred maximizing her time by escaping right after they came and left but¡­there was nothing saying her idea would even work. ¡°Okay, can you shift as far towards me as I can and not be weird about this?¡± Maddy asked. James looked confused and deliberated before complying. ¡°Okay, when I¡¯m done weakening the rope you¡¯ll have to break the rest of the way. This is going to be embarrassing if it doesn¡¯t work.¡± Maddy laughed.
---James--- James¡­didn¡¯t know what to make of his current position. What life choices had led to this? Maddison ¨C or Maddy as she preferred being called had called him over without explaining herself. She then reached out with her foot and began rubbing her toes across his bloodied chest ¨C opening a few wounds just to do so. Not my fetish. James tried to focus on how jealous some people might be having a pretty girl stick her feet on them to ignore how gross he found it. His blood defense seemed to be making it hard for her to coat her toes properly¡­at least it had prevented him from bleeding out? She still gathered a bit of his blood then spun around and kicked herself back so her legs were up against the wall. Slowly she smeared his blood about ¨C Wild smearing scribbles that looked like nothing more than nonsense. Flipping back around she gathered more blood kicking off his chest as she flipped back to her writing. Under her scribble she wrote another scribble ¨C this one slightly legible like a toddler''s writing. ¡®Kill ropes¡¯ ¡­James assumed she knew what she was doing. You couldn¡¯t kill rope after all. Pulling her foot back Maddy began to bang her sketch widly causing James to scooch back slightly. He was beginning to doubt the sanity of his fellow captive. After a few minutes of banging, Maddy stopped and turned to him. ¡°Alright, try and break us out, I think I weakened them.¡± Staring at her then the ropes ¨C had she even done anything? She had seemingly attacked beside them...James tugged. They still had some give¡­ Straining once more James jerked back as he flung away from the wall. With a silent smack he slammed into the ground behind him opening a wound on his back but otherwise being nothing more than an annoyance. Standing up he actively worked to make sure not a single hint of pain leaked into his actions. "I''m out!" James cheered quietly then walked over to Maddy and stood to the side trying to rip her rope. It was much harder to snap her line than his own but after a moment he managed it ¨C she had been thrown onto the ground as well causing him to wince. She looked fragile ¨C that must have hurt much more than it had him. Standing up carefully, Maddy looked about the room seemingly disappointed. ¡°Can¡¯t see here either, ahhH! I need to find something to write with and on. Let¡¯s go upstairs and look about.¡± James followed her up the stairs ¨C making sure not to look like a creep despite how little she looked like she cared and then began helping her raid the home above. It was relatively empty ¨C the home looked abandoned, the shelves bare. A bag of salt made James wince and feel about ¨C his bag! His copy had stolen his spices! Oh that bastard was going to pay, something about him just pissed James off. ¡°Come here and I¡¯ll heal your chest¡± Maddy called from the other end of the room. Wandering over he watched as she scraped a spell into the ground ¨C she was clutching a giant shard of what looked like a mirror tightly enough to cut her hand a faint dribble of blood flowing into the scraped words she wrote on the floor. ...her fingers. James had just realized her fingers were little more than stumps. she was struggling to hold the shard. as he watched the mirror snapped and she gasped in disappointment. I want to help her. Maddy reached for a second shard and continued writing her stubby hands barely able to hold the shard in front of her. Does magic require blood? There definitely seems to be a lot of it so far¡­that made sense to James. This time James saw the flash of light and felt the warmth pass across his body. Unlike whatever she had done on the wall James could feel this. He reached out...and just barely felt his body grab onto the healing energy directing it better towards his worst wounds. Countless scrapes and bruises faded and knit together. Maddy¡¯s wounds were also closing and she looked¡­she looked exhausted. The brave face she seemed to be putting on fell for a second as she winced and watched the magic pass across her body. Her fingers were still stumps. The spell... James would have to pay her back. She was doing so much for him. They were going to fight their own clones they had decided. Or he had decided more like ¨C Maddy had explained their clones were supposedly created from the dungeon to pretend to be from the future and hers had gained quite a few achievements and even a new affinity. His had probably grown as well ¨C She had brought up the idea of swapping¡­with some preparation she would be better able to kill James¡¯s clone from afar and supposedly one on one, warriors had a better shot at being able to kill a mage than vise versa. James had nodded along and then said he was going to kill his clone putting a stop to things. That was the bastard he wanted to kill. Boss of the dungeon? Mini boss? A future him? That didn¡¯t matter. He wanted revenge. His clone had humiliated him. Of course if they could team up against them separately ¨C draw them away and face them one at a time that would be the best but neither of them really believed that was going to happen. James stretched ¨C he felt great. Whatever Maddy had done with her healing magic had returned him to tip top shape. He was a bit thirsty but beyond that he was ready and willing to go. Beside him, Maddy was carving runes into her leg¡­James looked away. he felt restless. Picking up a sack of flour James began to do squats in the corner. the exercise helped - but barely felt like anything. Nothing in the room looked strong enough...James dropped to the floor and began performing one-handed pushups, the second hand holding his bad awkwardly above his back. If Maddy was going through physical pain the least he could do was work up a bit of a sweat in solidarity. Soon the counterattack would begin and they had a plan. James¡¯s plan was simple. Run up and punch the bastard using his face. He wouldn¡¯t know what hit him.
---Maddy--- application of healing life mana on her leg helped remove most of the pain...even if it did make the lines she drew stubbornly want to close. A few simple words had been all it took to strip her spells from her. Chapter 64. In trinary 64 is not significant. ---Richard--- Richard was in a strange sort of fugue of knowledge and discoveries. It had started simply enough. A vague plan of hacking the network the guild had set up and defacing it or some shit. Maybe air any dirty laundry he found to show off how corrupt they were. Just a goal ¨C random challenge to work towards. Nothing was unhackable after all and if a player from the guild made the achievement website there was nothing saying he shouldn¡¯t be able to break into it. Of course the ai implants ¨C including the one the website was hosted on ¨C were nested however many layers of abstraction deep and he didn¡¯t understand how they even functioned¡­so that¡¯s why he was now sitting in computer science classes with children. In front of the teacher, a teaching implement sat. it looked like a toy ¨C a three by three set of metal balls stuck on short poles and attached to a square plate. Each ball had a glowing strip roughly a third of the way down it and the teacher had passed it around the room as they talked. The teacher''s lecture was recorded in real time ¨C the closed captioning translated automatically for Richard to follow along. He had the translation appearing in his implant ¨C a scroll of text running down the side of his vision. ¡°The base of modern code is held in that block. Nine trits form a single tryte. Can anyone tell me the number of integers in a tryte?¡± The teacher asked causing a smug little twelve year old to hold up his hand in glee. ¡°A Trit can hold three values and there are three by three of them ¨C so in base three, the max number of values is three to the nine or 19683. For extra credit, the first value is commonly zero, so the maximum integer is 19682.¡± The teacher laughed and nodded. ¡°No extra credit for that but thank you for being thorough. Yes, a single tryte can hold 19683 values. That¡¯s enough to hold every single common assembly code point! Before we go into the most important assembly instructions I¡¯m going to go a step deeper. Does anyone know why a trit is the base we use? Why not base 4? Base 10? Base 2?¡± The class was silent. Well that¡¯s obvious right? They have a hard on for threes and want to force everything into threes no matter how little it makes sense. Richard raised his hand. ¡°Yes! Our outsider in the back ¨C please send your answer to my interface so I can read it off.¡± The teacher called back to him. Eyes glazing as he read Richard¡¯s response quickly the teacher laughed. ¡°Not quite but ¡®three is the best number¡¯ is a common answer to the question. Besides it being the lowest prime that counts ¨C one and two don¡¯t count as far as I¡¯m concerned ¨C besides its compactness there¡¯s a hardware reason.¡± The three by three training tool reached the front and the teacher swapped it out for a large crystal ball. Some sort of holographic interface projected over top of it and showed a single ball of light slowly bouncing back and forth inside of it following a sin wave. Quickly speeding up the ball of light became a glowing line directly through the crystal. ¡°This right here is a representation of a phase crystal. As you can see its currently aligned from the front to back.¡± Pulling out what looked like a magnet the teacher began dragging it around the outside of the crystal showing how it changed the direction the line was pointing. ¡°Phase crystals are stable forms of stored directional energy. They are locked to a single oscillating direction as shown in the representation and remain in that direction until changed by an external force. The phase of the crystal ¨C as this direction is called ¨C can be both read to various accuracies and altered to various accuracies depending on the technology used and the size and shape of the crystal. Most aether based devices contain several larger phase crystals ¨C at least three times if not hundreds of times larger ¨C solely for analogue calculations. There¡¯s ways of averaging the phase between two phase crystals or performing three dimensional vector math across dozens of crystals simultaneously.¡± The teacher began adding holograms to the end of his ball collapsing them back into the ball each time showing how the ¡®phase¡¯ changed. ¡°Phase crystals and operations can be used entirely separate from programming to track or intercept objects in space. Most of reality exists using three dimensional values and analogue storage in this default makes for efficient calculations. ¡°Computers however contain millions to trillions of microscopic phase crystals some only a few dozen atoms in size. At those scales, the accuracy of altering and measuring the phase of a phase crystal drop to incredibly thin margins. We can only really work in an ¡®up/down, left/right, back/front¡¯ system at that point, those three sectors translating to a single trit. Does anyone know an exception to the rule?¡± The class was silent. ¡°I¡¯m not surprised but I¡¯d have hoped some of you might have guessed. It¡¯s the same answer as a lot of limitations. The answer is that active aether sources can break some of these hard and fast rules. Trits are relatively stable unpowered and when used to store static information or perform calculations without an aether connection they are referred to as non-volatile forms of memory. When aether link is introduced, each cell can suddenly retrieve a much wider range of values including intensity. (I, ¦È, ¦µ) is the form this method of memory is denoted. ¡°Aether based energy transfer and manipulation links large banks of memory together and, when actively infusing everything, each cell can suddenly store and retrieve a variable range of values above those three. This active case is known as RAM or volatile memory and can grow exponentially with the strength and quality of the slot connected to it. this is why high ranks have much better AI¡¯s ¨C they actually have the same base devices but their potential is much higher due to all the abilities aether unlocks. Quantum calculations for example with certain methods of linking memory banks and operations¡­ Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°The easiest improvement is storage space. Most AI¡¯s have roughly a teratrite of stable storage. With volatile storage and a good enough stream of aether that flips up to exatrites of storage easy ¨C just so long as the owner doesn¡¯t cut flow to their devices and start decaying their memory banks.¡± The teacher paused for a moment as if watching everyone. ¡°So to reiterate. Non aether devices use trinary logic on nine trites.¡± Pulling the previous devie out the teacher spun each ball to different positions showing how each ball held three values.¡± ¡°All prebaked and manual code runs off this system and it''s where we will be directing our focus for the next few lessons. For common programs theres a load of logic that works really nicely with three values. Yes, No and maybe are the base of trinary. Our first lesson will go over K-Maps and early fuzzy logic ¨C yes I see I finally have a question¡± The teacher paused then nodded answering. ¡°We will not bother learning the code for aether devices because it doesn¡¯t exist. All active AI applications are¡­self grown. Reinforcement learning and self modifying program seeds optomize themselves to each user. None of the advanced programs are written by kin hands, they are all a derivative of generative design practices. All you have to know is that allows some of the most complex devices in modern life to fit in a space smaller than your finger. If that is the last question I will send everyone worksheets now.¡± The teacher flipped questions to everyones AI¡¯s then took a moment to rest by the window. And Richard despaired slightly. His goal¡­he figured he could probably find a loophole or hack something made by humans with the same tools as him but¡­hacking what sounded like a living organism? Hacking a black box that even the creators didn¡¯t understand? ¡­that might be beyond him. ¡­ Richard was in a fugue of information. He had reached a tipping point ¨C a point where he finally began to understand the principles behind a lot of aether technology and it felt like there was a literal endless amount of bits he could learn. All thoughts of hacking the guild were forgotten as Richard learned computer science and chemistry and esper interaction and material synthesis. It was almost surprising how little aether actually did ¨C the complexity in all these fields and in the devices made with them was the same complexity the non aether fields held just multiplied by another factor. Or¡­instead of multiplied it was squared or even cubed. It was like imagining every possible part of chemistry as a separate technique¡­and then the number of techniques when introducing the few changes aether made cubed the number of techniques. He really wanted to go to a lab or tour one of the factories that made ai chips or similar ¨C those were in the capital but that could be taken if he took one of the weekly expeditions there. He hadn¡¯t just learned passively ¨C Richard wasn¡¯t one to sit endlessly on theoretical knowledge he wanted to actually prove his stuff. Even simple reactions like combustion functioned differently when exposed to aether and Richard could totally see how someone ignorant might look at the whole field as magic. But no, it was science and Richard was a huge fan. He had loved science and still loved it to this day ¨C a brief run in with the realities of the world might have led him astray but no longer! Science was cool! Mad science was even cooler! And finally confirming that skills were basically strange chemical reactions was deeply deeply satisfying. Passive skills were more like continuous reactions. Active skills were batch reactions. Active skills were stronger because they could build up a storage of energy to use all at once. It all just clicked. Which led to his current experimental setup. To start he had focused on one of the fundamental abilities aether provided. Aether could alter energy ¨C and matter because matter was simply another form of energy. Converting between the two was more complicated than many options and many attempts at creating matter from nothing but energy simply resulted in¡­solid energy that decayed to nothing afterwards. Psudo matter ¨C something he totally wanted to study at some point but¡­ Richard was distracted once again. He had gone to school for chemical engineering ¨C Richard hadn¡¯t gotten far into it yet the first year of engineering was mostly general knowledge with all the fields combined but he did have a good grasp of the subject. Now learning just how much of aether was chemistry he fell into the deep end with learning as much as he could. He ran the toxic dungeon ¨C not for fun or strength but simply for funds. A quick pop through the dungeon could give him a thousand dollars or so in a hour or two and a steady stream of that kind of money opened the world of devices to him. And with those devices he had built this lab. He had started simple. No organic compounds ¨C organic chem back home was already black magic he didn¡¯t even want to look at it when aether was involved. No Richard had started with a single element and then shifted to include compounds made with that element. Aether directed aether and with that he was able to observe this transfer of energy. It wasn¡¯t nessisarily an instantaneous process nor a simple start and end. It was a reaction. A reaction with byproducts. A reaction with multiple steps. Playing around with that Richard figured out how to begin to convert his element of choice ¨C nitrogen and nitrates ¨C and figured out how to begin its conversion to something else. Jumping partway through the reaction Richard found he could attach it to a different form ¨C and once it was removed from the reaction it would revert. Combining this Richard had a strange gun shaped contraption that would basically convert nitrates to light, shoot that light across the room and then revert it back to the nitrate again. He was currently using it to draw a dick on the wall ¨C the salt half embedding into it and working like a laser pointer that left a trail behind it. A thick white beam of light that was visible in the air¡­and a piece of art to rival the louvre. The nitrate he was currently using was just a salt¡­but some nitrates were explosives. It wouldn¡¯t take much to make a beam of light that deposited nitroglycerin far away. And explosions made everything so much more fun. Richard finished his art piece then reviewed his other major project. After gaining more slots and learning more of AI¡¯s he now had his constantly running. Running but doing nothing was useless so he had put it to work. To start he had ¡®downloaded¡¯ nearly all the publicly available knowledge and stored it like a offline copy of Wikipedia. That had been an achievement ¨C something he had nearly forgotten was a thing. Next he had discovered a way of better feeling and measuring aether movement inside his own body¡­and then he had worked on his foundation mutation. He could grow a skill from scratch. He could observe the skill being grown. He could record and study the readings using his ai. And while he didn¡¯t know the possibilities yet having a skill germinate slowly while his AI watched and predicted things was a hell of an experiment. Using the strange energy to study itself was fitting in a way. The information he was getting back had been part of what gave him his nitrate gun. Having a super computer attached to your mind was a hack. The ultimate cheat. Or in other words Richard had a new toy and reverted to a child as he played with it. Life is fun. Chapter 65. The world of mirrors. ---Maddy--- Maddy finished her initial preparations and together with James, they snuck out of the building a tense feeling overtaking both of them. Their clones were stronger than them. Their best chance at overcoming that was an ambush ¨C wait. One of the villagers just smiled at her and waved? The villagers were still here? For some reason, as soon as her clone had appeared, Maddy had wiped all memory of the rest of the dungeon from her mind to focus on the main threat. She tentatively waved back causing the villager to smile and nod before continuing on his way. Quickly Maddy sunk back into focus. She did the metaphorical equivalent of placing her trigger finger on her spells ¨C directing the barest hint of mana into them. Her leg began to feel warm. Flickering mana into her mind for a second lit up her runes in her mind''s eye ¨C her leg was glowing. This¡­this is different. Maddy had tried to pre-charge a spell before back when she was testing things out however long ago. It hadn¡¯t worked at the time and so she had stopped trying¡­but now, maybe because the runes were on her actual body it worked. It felt like if she completely filled the spells she wouldn¡¯t be able to keep them from activating but filling them a little? That seemed doable? It would increase the number of spells she could cast after all. Maddy continued dumping mana into her leg a faint strain on her mind beginning to build as she filled spells up then stopped and held them back from completing. ¡­it was almost dusk. Maddy could see the line of shadow cast from the cliff as it moved down the street once more. It moved so quickly and finally it felt like a sign. ¡­her clone was probably coming back every dusk now that she thought of it. Harder to do whatever she was doing in the dark. Motioning James to the side, Maddy found a spot staring at the home she had been held in but mostly hidden from the street. Thankful for the extra time, Maddy began to draw in the ground ¨C sketching a large arc closed with a straight line in the back. Her mana refilled, her spells charged and she drew. Laying down the herbs from her bag into the shape completed her preparations and then Maddy was left to wait ¨C patiently staring across at the door. It wasn¡¯t a moment too soon ¨C with the rapid shift to shade and darkness her future self came walking down the street alone. Perfect. Waiting till her clone was near the door, her back to Maddy she called her first spell ¨C using as little mana as she could to finish the pre charged experiment off. ¡°A curse upon this fake. A confusing attack on mental state.¡± Maddy called out ¨C the words were simply the vessel for her spell containing her intent. She had designed this based on a theory. An idea that her clone was mentally damaged from the dangers in the lake and also that her clone had probably dumped mental defense. Maddy had no real mind concepts ¨C she had no real way to direct the spell towards a mind¡­all she could do was use sound to transfer it to her clones body and shape an idea of attacking the mind into it as well. She had another idea with even less chance of working but that was why she had made so many plans. ¡°Awake and aware, your mind will be snared. A deadly attack through and too, the part your mind awakes. This makes attack two, the goal your reason to breaks.¡± This bad ryhme was also a shot in the dark. Her ¡®awake¡¯ concept was limited in many ways. It wasn¡¯t an element ¨C she couldn¡¯t invert it to sleep or anything¡­but she could use it to try and direct her death mana. If this allowed her to attack some part of her copy''s brain that stayed awake that would be perfect. Might not do anything but that¡¯s fine. Maddy was only committing a small amount of mana to all these opening attacks. They might do nothing but with any luck they would help even the divide. Maddy¡¯s clone had whirled at her tone and instantly spotted her. Mirror Maddy spoke her own spell even as Maddy¡¯s two opening shots caused her to blink and shake her head about. Without giving her time to continue, mirror Maddy began to speak her own spell quickly pushing past Maddy¡¯s attacks. ¡°Delinate ¨C¡± her clone began ¨C before suddenly, with a surprised cough, blood burst out of her mouth. It worked! Maddy¡¯s biggest preparation had worked! A jagged rip in the world began to streak across the ground towards Maddy before fading away as the mana lacked whatever direction her clone was planning on speaking. This spell was her delirious hope. A way to remove one of her clone¡¯s biggest tools. The idea was half baked and yet it had worked nearly as well as Maddy had been imagining. To start, she had finally looked at how concepts worked based on what she had been told. Concepts were how the elemental damage was transferred between her and her target. She spoke and attached the payload to her sound¡­ There was another method. A method that hadn¡¯t made sense to Maddy until she was left alone with her thoughts for over a day. That method was using concepts from the other direction. A reverse attack of sorts. The idea of her opponent speaking and Maddy figuring out how to attack based on their speech instead of her own ¨C despite the sound coming from them to her instead of her to them¡­ It hadn¡¯t made sense at first. The ¡®reverse¡¯ direction did not make intuitive sense to Maddy. The default? It all felt realistic and clicked into place whenever she thought of it ¨C for using a sound concept to attack for example she was putting her spell inside the sound. She attached it to the sound like a payload ¨C sent it off and then allowed it to activate as a maggot or underected burst of mana on the other side. That made sense. On the other hand attacking someone who spoke? That felt fake somehow. It had taken nearly an entire day alone with her thoughts attempting to explain the magic in her mind before an idea had kindled. Maddy had thought of lightning. Of how it looked like it was coming from the sky down to the ground¡­but in many cases it was actually going in the opposite direction. A charge reaching up from the earth to strike the sky. And then she had thought about how her mana didn¡¯t actually need to physically move away from her. Early experiments had it teleporting about as she focused on things. All she really needed was a link and the concept was what made that link¡­ Cut to her current spell. She knew it was possible, had an idea of the mechanic and just needed a way of implementing the mechanic. She would preemptively charge her retaliation spell ¨C and then wait for sound to activate it. As soon as the sound from someone else reached her, she would use her concept to follow it back to its source. A tether of concept intent she could pump her payload through. And this is where her idea became even more untested and had even more of a chance of going wrong. You see, the elemental part of a spell could be inverted instinctually. Converting the mana in or outside of her life/death pool between its two sides was something she did purposefully¡­but with the same sort of control as blinking or raising a hand. Something she could do ¡®manually¡¯ but was in most cases something she just ''did''. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Inverting a concept¡­well using a concept involved writing its rune or speaking it. How could she convey she wanted to use it in an inverted way with that? Reversing the rune ¨C mirroring it and flipping parts inside out left Maddy with what she imagined a inverted rune would look like. No one had told her this would work and she didn¡¯t even fully believe it would be that easy¡­but she hoped. She hoped and worked based on the assumption it would. Maybe by tricking herself she could trick her mana. Spells at least partly worked on her understanding after all. An inverted rune was how she would convey an inverted concept. All of that led to her current situation. She already knew her maggots could be unraveled so she had picked a different image. An image of something bad to eat ¨C of rotting poisonous human flesh appearing and corrupting the tongue that touched it with how vile it was. Revenge for what her copy had done to her tongue. The attack had worked better than Maddy had hoped ¨C a link was formed and a massive chunk of Maddy¡¯s dark death mana had rushed into her runwork before jumping into her opponents mouth almost melting mirror Maddy¡¯s tongue with how angry she was. I¡¯m winning. Dimly Maddy saw mirror James beating the hell out of her ally. She couldn¡¯t help ¨C her own opponent was already making her next move. Her copy threw something to the side the spell cracking loudly beside her. From that sound a wave of sound passed over Maddy and caused several maggots to pull into existence on her skin. Maddy¡¯s retaliation attacked the spot her copy had caused the sound to appear from even as Maddy channeled an anti magot spell. Her shifted spell ripping the foreign magots apart and pulled scraps of mana back into her pool causing her mana to refill ever so slightly. Furious, crazed eyes looked back at her as mirror Maddy pushed past Maddy¡¯s retaliatory spell. Mirror Maddy¡¯s voice sounded like gravel as mana rolled out of a rotting mouth ¨C even as Maddy¡¯s attack connected once again a second burst rolling through mirror Maddy¡¯s mouth. ¡°Domain of shattered mirrors¡± The copy rasped and the world listened. Her spell completed. A lumpy chunk of tongue fell out of the copy''s mouth as she completed her activation and went still. And around the two of them everything seemed to freeze. Like¡­like someone had taken a picture of the world and then painted it onto the world once again. Maddy shifted and the world stayed where it had been. The three dimensional reality seemed painted suddenly. The world was fake ¨C the only truth one of mirrors. The air turned glassy and stiff then shattered with the sound of a thousand breaking mirrors. The broken bits of reality refracted then floated past as chunks that spun and floated outside of reality. Between the two of them, it looked like countless shards of a broken mirror floated in space. Around them it looked like the world shrunk then repeated. A hall of mirrors copying the street an infinite amount of times in all directions. It boxed the two in, hiding everyone but them and the immediate houses in this hall of reflections. Silent at this point, mirror Maddy reached her hand into the air beside her ¨C the reach pushing into a reflective part of reality like she was dunking her hand into a sideways pool of water. A mirror chunk floated between them briefly hiding mirror Maddy from sight. When the chunk revealed her once again, mirror Maddy was just finishing pulling her scythe from the world beside her. Smart. Maddy winced. Instead of continuing a ranged assault, the mirror copy flourished her scythe and began to run towards Maddy. The scythe looked different ¨C the blade was a shining mirror following the new theme ¨C the steel reflective and glowing. The handle was dark stained wood almost black with the dark death her copy seemed to be infusing into it. As the scythe moved through the air the world appeared to be cut. A stream of refraction tailed behind mirror Maddy as she crossed the street ¨C the cut sides of the blade, splitting off like mirrors and leaving a trail of black in its wake. it was like she had created the scythe and the scythe now created destruction... That¡¯s not fair. I never got my scythe back why does she get it. Stepping out of this spot wipes one plan. If I can dodge I should, but there¡¯s no point running about if she chases me away from this spot endlessly¡­Maybe I can invert my idea and try and trap her in the D? No its set to polarize outwards in, the reverse is too hard to switch to now. Mirror Maddy jumped sideways ¨C passing into a floating mirror and disappearing even as she appeared behind the real Maddy. Her copy flew out of the mirror behind her, eyes glowing as the reflection attacked with purpose. The scythe was swung like the farming implement it was ¨C straight for Maddy¡¯s runned legs, twin trails of ripped space cracking behind it. A burning hollow sensation filled Maddy¡¯s chest as her legs were severed from her torso faster than she could dodge. Jagged rips from the swipe struck upwards and ran groves along Maddy''s body continuing the assault. A gleeful look crossed her copy''s face, even as Maddy found her body begin to fall and twist towards her copy. Her copy''s gleeful look rapidly twisted into surprise as she fell as well. Maddy desperately chased the shock from her body with life mana even as she watched her copy''s legs crumple and twist into nothing. An angry coughing guttural sound shot out of her copy''s partly healed mouth¡­even as the copy fell onto her back and failed to catch herself. ¡°¡­DAMMIT, is the fake still linked to me?¡± Her copy screamed and Maddy understood. That was how this fight was balanced. How the dungeon matched them. Her future self was stronger than her ¨C had more stats, more concepts, more experience¡­and yet she couldn¡¯t kill Maddy. Killing Maddy would be killing herself. Maddy had no such weakness. It was like the dungeon was on her side ¨C nerfing her opponent and holding her down so Maddy could finish the demon off. Hoping desperately her early attacks had done something, Maddy felt her severed leg. A majority of her spells were broken ¨C only two sections near her thigh still in play. ¡°Nightmare,¡± Maddy spat activating one of the undamaged spells. This spell used a guess ¨C a guess over what had happened to her copy in the story she had given. A potential trigger based off the way she had treated her. ¡®You¡¯re not her¡¯ her copy had yelled seeming hypnotised by nudity ¨C that was the hint. In the air above them an illusion formed. A floating flicker of light mana. The siren who had hypnotized her. ¡°You¡¯re dead!¡± Mirror Maddy immediately shrieked. ¡°I killed you, I won!¡± Her copy twisted and began to attack the illusion with her scythe, the air above turning into a storm of ripped air. Maddy continued channelling the last drops of her light pool into the illusion even as she reached for her second spell. A retaliation based on her opponent''s scythe. An attack that sent death to ¡®her¡¯ scythe and then attacked ¡®her¡¯ with it. All her remaining death mana as fuel. The copy continued to swing madly at the air even as her scythe began to fight back. Seeming to corrupt the dark-death in the handle, Maddy¡¯s spell caused vines of darkness to travel down her copy''s arms and into them. It took several seconds for mirror Maddy to even notice ¨C her eyes gaining the barest flicker of recognition just before the vines melted through her neck and dug up through her brain. In front of her everything began to break apart. The mirror world melted taking the copy''s scythe with it. As her copy¡¯s body was ravaged by necrosis, it quickly ripped apart ¨C ripped till nothing but a wooden slate covered in a broken eyeball was left. The last scraps of her copy''s body melted puffing into smoke that twisted into the street around them. Maddy looked at the item her future self had modified. Looked at it properly in hindsight seeing the twisted backwards words that spoke of bringing her to her past self. That spoke of reflecting her through the link Maddy had made, strengthening her each time Maddy used the altered spell. Maddy reached out and snapped the slate just in case then crawled over to her legs. She had done it. She had won. Maddy grabbed bloody legs and began carefully trying to heal them back onto her body. The fight had happened so fast and yet it felt too close. She hadn¡¯t used even half her preparations ¨C the drawn D hadn¡¯t even come into play for example ¨C and yet¡­it had been too close. She should have done better.
Floor one clear
Description: Triumphed over a Twisted Twin. Time a Tale as old as sin. Feat: Beat Root C using Choice K while under-levelled.
Stat: +3 Soul defense Stat: +9 Mental defense Stat: +27 Mental planning power Stat: +27 Mental reaction speed Stat: +27 Free stats
Bonus reward
Evolved Psudo Concept gained: Observation of reality. You have proved yourself the real you. You have proved the reality of yourself ¨C this is me ¨C and have crystalized that meaning into permanence.
That¡­that was part of the dungeon? Maddy thought even as a second box slid into view.
You who have beaten great odds rejoice. You have surpassed your own future. You who have struck down your future despair. You have set your own fate. Your actions have set a tale into motion. An unavoidable truth has just been witnessed. Maddison graves, you are not free from fates clutches. As a final gift for clearing the first floor, this witness is conveyed to you in full. A minor favour that need not be repaid. You are destined to die by your own hand within twenty-seven days. No matter where you travel, no matter what you do, this fact is known. It''s inescapable. The seed of this truth is scarred directly onto your soul. It already happened after all. I just watched it happen. And the truth of what you have just done, will be a curse that cuts your future short.
Chapter 66: Trapped between a Rock and a Rock. ---James--- James punched a sandbag with every ounce of his strength. He imagined his opponent was ripping his kinetic force away ¨C and when digging into his retaliation skill James ripped the force back. It was his. His force. Digging a hand into the broken wall beside him even as he redirected the force he had just gathered into his strike, James ripped a massive chunk of clay and stone and flung it towards the doppleganger ¨C flicking haste for a microsecond as he did. Fuck did ripping a wall apart with his bare hands feel satisfying. James felt his skills strain and attempt to break repeatedly as he flung them through paces they never were meant to go through. His copy grabbed the chucked chunk of wall almost contemptuously flinging it up in the air and then telekinetically smashed it down towards James like a comet. [Haste] again. James flung himself to the side and dashed forward to punch again This time trying to hold as much of the kinetic energy as he could on his own side. [Retaliatory strike] creaked and splintered in his mind the system forced to glue it back together again and again as he refused the break. The fake wasn¡¯t him. James knew this for one single reason. The fake had broken into magic and only magic. He had taunted that fact near the start of the fight as if him giving up on his full goal really made him stronger than James. The fake had given up as far as he was concerned. Blurring many times faster than James fully [haste]''d, his copy crouched and then punched upwards with all his might. James transferred some of the force to his shirt causing it to rip and fly off his back even as he stole part of the power for himself filling the bottomless pit of [retaliatory strike]. Despite both of those drains, the attack was still strong enough to send James flying straight up in the air. High, up higher than the house beside him his center crumpled and internally bleeding. His entire chest and stomach felt bruised and yet¡­his weakened mutation seemed to be doing something. It pulled residual mana into his body and reinforced it somehow. James fell downwards kicking towards his copy like a falling hammer. His doppelganger seemed surprised at the amount of force he flung, even as he ripped some of the force away and slid back. James landed heavily ¨C all the wind kicked out of him even as he lunged once again. He could do this. He could beat himself. It was just like working out. You pushed past and beat your previous record. Or something ¨CHis copy ripped his own chunk of wall out and flung it at James even as he was halfway towards him. James raised an arm. The impact flung him back and this time James felt the crack of a bone in his arm splintering. Should have spent a bit more of my body stats on defense. In front of him his copy blurred once again leaping at least twice as high as James had gone ¨C almost like he was making a point ¨C then twisted mid air and accelerated towards James''s feet first. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. [Haste] again. James pushed off the chunk of wall in front of him with supernatural speed and reactions causing the strike aimed at his head to smash through his shoulder instead. His doppelganger¡¯s foot actually broke through James¡¯s skin and bone ripping the flesh out of its socket. James ¨C still running [haste] Dodged back and to the side as he watched his copy¡¯s arm twist and implode. Hah! James grabbed the hunk of his arm and used it as a bat to try and smash Doppel James''s face as they finished landing and tried to react to their own arm being damaged. Dopple James blurred under the strike and jumped backwards, his head flipping between his own missing arm and James¡¯s bloody implement. His eyes narrowed even as he made to punch James again. James could not claim he was winning. He couldn¡¯t even claim he was holding his own ¨C and yet he pushed past all of that with pure stubbornness. He wasn¡¯t fighting himself. He was fighting a fake who had given up ¨C a copy with an altered version of his skillset but not as much drive. His copy flickered in that moment parts of his body turning to smoke. James used that moment of weakness to dodge his doppelganger''s punch and watched as out of the corner of his eyes Maddison¡¯s doppelganger appeared to almost melt in a bloody mess down the street. Maddy looked even worse off than he did ¨C she was missing both legs and the entire street around her was covered in copious amounts of blood. With a roar, doppel James blurred across the street and grabbed a curtain from the house they had smashed together. Twisting it quickly, his copy made a fabric rope ¨C the curtain twisting like a snake in the doppelgangers one existing arm. The copy shook his makeshift rope and blurred towards him once again. Only I can take advantage of the surroundings! That''s not fair! James didn''t like how innovative his copy was acting. ¡°If I can¡¯t kill you I just have to tie you down before I find the real boss. I wonder if Maddy¡¯s copy is the big bad of the dungeon¡­what do you think mini me?¡± Dopple James spoke even as he jumped the rope wiggling about in the air like a snake. A distant shout and rush of warm healing crossed James. Quickly shoving his arm back he tried to reattach it while jumping to the side. The healing wave was indiscriminate ¨C damn, Maddy seemed to be healing his clone as well ¨C but James felt a muted wave of feeling return to his one side. His one arm was back! ...maybe he shouldn''t punch anything with this arm just yet but damn, He wouldn''t have to go through a one handed state again. Healing was convienent. Doppel James flickered and shifted to even more smoke, even as he wrapped James in rope and flung him into the wall. ¡°Fuck!¡± His doppelganger yelled even as he finished vanishing ¨C the smoke flowing away in all directions. James groaned as he found the wall crumbling behind him. His body tipped forward ¨C still restrained and slammed onto the ground. He had lost. If his doppelganger hadn¡¯t melted into smoke just then¡­he would have been captured once again by the bastard. James bashed his head into the ground slightly in disappointment trying to wiggle out of the tightly knotted rope.
Floor one clear
Description: Survived an assault from a powerful you. Feat: Beat Root C using Choice S while under-levelled, disadvantaged and receiving only light assistance.
Stat: +27 free body power Stat: +27 free body speed Stat: +27 free body defense
James looked at the free stats hungrily barely paying attention to the second box. He was going to optimize the use of each and every one of those stats. That was a massive massive jump...even more than his last dungeon. Was this dungeon a higher level? Well. Not going to complain about strength. James did a double take at the second box he had skimmed, a sinking feeling rushing though his veins.
You have witnessed the future. You have witnessed a future you don''t desire but will find yourself chained to it all the same. A prophecy has just been made. You will break into magic within three weeks time. And then you will fail to fight yourself, finding your choice lacking. Life isn''t fair James. Submit to reality. Without magic I bet you don''t even know why this is happening to you.
Chapter 67: Information, domains, spicy meat balls. ---Maddy--- Maddy limped over towards her partner and untied him. He seemed relatively unscathed but an uneasy look seeped through his whole body as he stared to the side. ¡­he also got a prophecy huh. Knowing he wanted silence, Maddy led the way down the street continuing past building after building until they reached the corner with the Inn. James grabbed a backpack he had looted from his copy and slipped it on before following her ¨C his backpack almost faded away as if he were used to wearing it. Jess stood in the street eyes glazed as she stared down at her hands. ¡°Hey!¡± Maddy called out speeding up as she got closer to her friend. ¡°Hey,¡± Jess responded focusing on her a pained look crossing over her face. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Maddy rushed the last few feet to her friend and grabbed her arm firmly. ¡°I¡­I found who was cursing everyone¡­I found her stabbing voodoo dolls and flinging scraps of dangerous looking mana everywhere and I killed her and then¡­¡± Jess breathed heavily ¡°It was that woman. The one forced into a twisted destiny. I didn¡¯t know. She just wanted out. I didn¡¯t mean-¡° ¡°It''s okay,¡± Maddy spoke softly nodding to her friend. Something trickled through her mind then and there. Her friend was pretty distraught over killing the woman¡­this was the first humanoid figure she had killed and it seemed to have beaten her down thoroughly. Maddy on the other hand had killed her copy without thinking about it. All that work trying to make sure she was thinking about how to be a good person¡­and she hadn¡¯t even registered the death besides a faint relief that it was over and she had won. Am I a bad person? I¡¯m probably just in shock. That makes sense. ¡­ The group ended up leaving the dungeon after being thanked profusely by the priest. All four of them had had an entirely different experience. Troy¡­perhaps because he had never drank of the future water but he hadn¡¯t dealt with a single time shenanigan his entire stay. Instead it had been as if he were constantly under attack ¨C boulders falling towards him with barely any warning, boiling water being dumped out a window towards him, a bull from the field escaping and charging past. He had nearly died dozens of times but had trained his reaction time and increased his perceptive power by leaps and bounds. His dungeon experience ended up being the most tame of the entire group ¨C even as the stuff he had to dodge grew stronger and faster and harder to spot his reaction speed and perception increased in time. Jess had found herself ¡®tricked¡¯ or ¡®forced¡¯ into completing a tragic story. Theoretically she had just completed the dungeon ¨C or at least the dungeon¡¯s first floor ¨C how it was meant to be completed¡­but for some reason the experience shook her. Jess kept saying she was supposed to protect and she had failed. James had been beaten by his clone until Maddy freed him and Maddy as the worst off, had killed her future self unwittingly starting a clock for her own death. They left the dungeon in relative silence passing through a short passageway and out of the door as soon as they did. ¡°Don¡¯t look down by the way,¡± Maddy drifted back towards James as she walked realizing he hadn¡¯t passed through the official channels. ¡°There''s hypnotic mental horrors below the glass floor. If you catch a glimpse you¡¯ll be sucked away¡± She continued to explain then watched him start and nod slightly as he understood. Not having a real goal, the group started back towards the inn they had rented but were stopped part way. Less than a minute after they exited the dungeon, the queen of the city floated past. She looked much more relaxed than the last time Maddy had seen her ¨C lounging sideways on her floating blue disk as if it were a couch instead of a flat pane of glass. The queen¡¯s eyes lingered for quite a while on James before flicking to Maddy. ¡°You survived! Have you cleared the dungeon already? It took me over a month when I went through¡­¡± The queen spoke sitting up and swinging her legs around to dangle in front of them. ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡± James began but Maddy nodded. ¡°We beat¡­something. At least the first floor. I have some questions for you ¨C I really hope you¡¯ll let us cash in some of that reward you were talking about. Eyes glazing for a microsecond as if checking something the queen nodded, a happy look on her face. ¡°Sure, I can already see some of the results of your partial clear. If we are going ''spend some time talking I want to find a place to eat first. Any preferences?¡± The queen asked flicking her fingers a few times as if swiping through an invisible iPad. The group stared at her in silence for a moment. ¡°Do you have anywhere with magic food?¡± James spoke up as if trying to kill the awkward silence. ¡°Anywhere with meals, you can¡¯t get normally?¡± The queen nodded slightly at the comment. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll take you to a tourist trap. How does spicy food sound?¡± A round of noncommittal shrugs and nods met her question. ¡°Perfect, follow me it''s near the edge of the adventurers district.¡± ¡­ The group was led into an empty looking bar and brought to a secluded corner with a long booth. Nodding to the barkeeper and calling for the ¡°full special¡± the queen slid into a spot near the back and excitedly fiddled with a napkin. The whole experience was incredibly disconcerting. If last time Maddy was being grilled by the queen she had given off heavy police vibes, this time she looked like nothing more than a toddler being brought to McDonalds. ¡°I¡¯ll also take a spiked spike slush Earl,¡± She called across the room then turned and gestured for everyone to join her in the booth impatiently. Maddy slid in first ending up across from the queen then stared over her eyes flickering up and down the woman. Maddy¡¯s mental model of the queen¡¯s personality shifted and reaffirmed until she was relatively confident she knew what the queen was like. It all amounted to power ¨C the queen was strong enough not to care what anyone thought but self conscious enough she tried to put on an act in certain situations. Maddy would be willing to bet money the queen used to be an adventurer or similar and this current personality was her ¡®real¡¯ one when she wasn¡¯t trying to intimidate. ¡°So I have some questions about soul stats and domains.¡± Maddy began before being cut off. ¡°Food first, Then I¡¯ll answer your questions as I like ¨C you haven¡¯t done a full clear after all.¡± Nodding about to the group the queen smiled wildly as a small platter was brought towards them. ¡°Thanks Earl!¡± She nodded to the barkeeper ¨C who seemed to be doubling as a waiter. Pointing towards the platter of small meat-like balls as soon as they were set up the queen spoke< a grin on her face. ¡°Want to give everyone the full rundown Earl? Or do you think it''s more fun as a blind test?¡± Grunting the barkeeper looked at her and sighed. He bent over the table and began pointing about the platter. ¡°Here at ¡®Spicy Earls¡¯ we provide all nine different spicy flavours cooked to conceptual perfection. The Spicy concept contains the idea of a good flavour strong enough to almost hurt without actually damaging your body. Spicy hot for example has the burn of fire mana while spicy void has the creeping sent of oblivion ¨C here we¡¯ve managed to replicate the same effect for the rest of the common damage types. Each row on the appetizer platter has a different spicy flavour ¨C the far right one is spicy spike, the piercing kinetic mana giving it a sharp flavour and-¡° Nodding the queen cut him off. ¡°I think roulette is better after the overview. Thanks Earl! That will be all.¡± Staring at her with a tired look Earl straightened up then nodded to everyone at the table and headed back to his position behind the bar. ¡°Earl used to banter more back when we were a party.¡± The queen stage whispered then pointed across at the table. ¡°This is the weak tray. Earl will bring out the stronger stuff once everyone¡¯s gotten a taste for the flavours." Looking about them expectantly the group stared at the meat before hesitantly reaching out. ¡°Alright, I believe you said you had questions?¡± The queen finally turned to Maddy brought a sharp-looking glass to her lips and downed some of her spike slush. ¡°I do. Okay. First question is about soul stats. No one¡¯s been able to tell me much about them and I want to know if they are worth keeping or if I should drop them for a third affinity.¡± Maddy asked. She needed to know exactly what she was giving up and gaining if she committed to this. Any way she went she would be giving something up, but she didn¡¯t want to make an uneducated decision. The queen swirled her spicy drink and then spoke. ¡°I thought for sure your first question would be about domains¡­and soul stats are less well defined than the rest. I¡¯d say common sense describes a third affinity as not being worth it¡­but common sense also says you shouldn¡¯t interfere in another¡¯s path.¡± Popping a chunk of meat into her mouth the woman sat for another moment and then asked her own question. ¡°What do you know about the soul?¡±. ¡­
---James--- James was enthralled with the food working his way down the line silently with Troy. The two grabbed a chunk from the same section, made eye contact, gave each other a slight nod and then popped the chunk in their mouth. Spicy hot ¨C despite mentioning fire mana ¨C was simply a slightly spicy meatball. It tasted like steak marinated in hot sauce and honey. Spicy spike was exactly as the barkeeper described. A ¡®sharp¡¯ taste that almost felt like James was sliding razor blades down his throat. He was confident he had never tried this flavour before in his life ¨C his tongue shouldn¡¯t have the taste buds to explain this and yet he still felt the slicing slip of the meat across his tongue. ''Spicy beat'' was the bludgeoning damage type ¨C a soft ache like a bruise being pressed or a sore muscle being stretched out the day after a heavy workout. Despite how it sounded it was a good ache ¨C almost addictive and James found himself reaching for a second before continuing. Spicy death was a sour cloying fizz. The closet way James could describe the new flavour was as if kimchi had been made into pop rocks that made your tongue numb. He was definitely not a fan of that variant ¨C it killed his tastebuds for a bit causing everything he ate to taste bland. Spicy light was subtly different from spicy hot somehow both softer and deeper with its ¡®pure¡¯ burn. Spicy dark sunk through his body while barely damaging him ¨C feeling like the food was dropping down through his stomach and out his legs. Spicy life could barely be called a spicy flavour ¨C the ¡®damage¡¯ of life mana healed his mouth completely. It did act as a sort of pallet cleanser, completely wiping the aftertaste of spicy death as it flowed across his tongue and reset his taste buds¡­so that was a plus. Spicy cold had a slightly similar vibe to actual cold food as well as mint gum without the taste of mint. Like the meat was covered in mint ice cream minus mint¡­despite being hard to describe perfectly, it was the most mundane flavour besides spicy hot. Spicy void was stronger than spicy death but less sour and more ominous tasting as if the meat was melting the inside of James¡¯s mouth. He needed to flip to a life chunk to fix his taste buds again but it was definitely an experience. James was dimly aware of the second platter of meatballs coming out ¨C this time piled high and strong enough each hurt to eat. The bludgeoning damage shifted from a slight ache to feeling like it was physically bashing itself around the inside of his mouth, the heat from the fire damage felt like the inside of his mouth was burning. He continued flipping between stuff at a steady pace. Dimly James was aware he was eating the most of everyone save maybe the queen but¡­it was an experience. Having tasted all the flavours James would have to say bludgeoning and piercing damage were his two favorites ¨C it couldn¡¯t just be his own affinity reaching out to them they felt the most unique and the most memorable. I wonder if I can buy some of those two spices for my spice kit? Continuing to eat but slowing down James began paying more attention to the conversation. A lot of information was being dropped beside him and he was thankful he didn¡¯t have to be the one asking all the questions. ¡­
---Maddy--- Maddy finished describing a clipped version of her time as a spirit ¨C she left out the necromancer and how she got back her body but described the way she had felt and used magic. As she spoke the queen seemed surprised and then calm continuing to listen to Maddy¡¯s explanation. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°I assume the rest of your story has to do with whatever artifact you used to revive? That¡¯s enough for me.¡± Tapping her fingers slightly the queen spoke again. ¡°The soul is your magical body. That¡¯s it. Body stats increase your physical bodies strength speed and power and soul stats increase your souls strength speed and power. The most common use of the soul is astral projection. An ability some mages use to separate their soul temporarily from their body. Soul defense is how long your soul can survive the depths of the astral and increases in a curve based on how many points you have towards it. Soul speed is roughly a measure of how much your soul can move itself unaided by external forces and soul power is roughly a measure of how much your soul can do unaided by external forces. "Your soul is not your mind ¨C your mind can rest in either your body or soul and through certain magics, if the places your mind rest in your body is compromised, your mind can briefly rest in your soul until your brain is healed once again.¡± Tapping her finger slightly as if making up her mind the woman continued. ¡°Depending on your domain, the exact interaction your magic has with your soul may shift the effects of soul stats drastically. It''s often better to come to a description of them on your own than being described it by another. More accurately it¡¯s the least understood aspect of you and thus the part you can imagine does the most with your imagination changing what it actually does. You seem to have a firm understanding with no weird interactions so its safe enough to tell you but keep in mind there are those who heavily lean into soul magic with a ton of interactions¡± The queen finished her explanation. Maddy nodded to herself and tried to think. If the soul didn¡¯t have a massive link to magic ¨C if it wasn¡¯t something like the size of her mana pool then¡­it might be worth thinking about dropping. ¡°Now, I believe you also want to know about domains?¡± The woman asked staring at Maddy and then slowly spinning to view everyone else before returning to her. ¡°There''s a reason most teachers will only tell their students about their domains when they are already crystallized. Contradictory information can be detrimental to your path if you aren¡¯t sure of it.¡± Maddy paused her mind flickering to the dungeon¡¯s ¡®curse¡¯ before nodding. ¡°I¡¯m sure I want to know,¡± Maddy began. ¡°I mean it. Everyone, if you aren¡¯t certain of your path, an honest description of domains can ruin you,¡± The queen''s eyes lingered an awful while on James before he nodded and she continued. ¡°Alright, in that case I¡¯ll drop it. It doesn¡¯t cost me anything and you¡¯ve made your choices.¡± The queen began. ¡°Your domain is your truth. It is the unique part of you and changes between person to person. Every single human and most monsters have a domain but when we speak of domains we normally refer to crystalized domains.¡± The queen took a bite and stared about seeming to enjoy how much attention the group was paying her. ¡°Your domain¡¯s reaches are a mixture between how far you can sense and how far you can effect. That means if you stand on top of a mountain and look far away your domain will blanket the side of the mountain you can see, while not covering the part behind your back¡­its not a sphere as some like to imagine and it shifts and shrinks depending on your spells and location. The strength of the domain stretching as far as you can see will fade based on how much range your spells have-¡° Pausing as if remembering not everyone at the table was a mage the queen backpedaled slightly ¡°Or so some domains work. A warrior often has an internal domain that barely breaks the surface of their skin but a combination of perception and power is a good description for mages like myself.¡± The queen stared at her empty drink sadly then leaned back< her arms wrapping around the booth behind her as she stared up towards the ceiling. ¡°Domains have a lot of rules and nuances, but in short they are they way magic works for you. They are the way you ¡®believe magic works for you¡¯ along with ¡®the way all magic works¡¯ in your vicinity due to that belief. Only the strong crystalize their domains and that¡¯s the part that¡¯s important. Once your domain crystalizes It''s set. The rules you believe cannot bend and shift anymore. You can grow stronger building upon what you have but you can never change your deepest truths. The taboo of telling the young of crystalized domains is it can either shake their foundation ¨C knowing that the ways they believe magic to work is personalized and don¡¯t necessarily match how it works for others can lead some to stop believing in their own magic. The other potential problem is for those who wish to artificially add stuff to their domain before crystallizing it. Faking belief for power or tricking themselves into adding rules to their magic can and has given strength before...but also results in brittle domains forged from lies. A proper crystalized domain is diamond. A fake domain is little more than glass.¡± The queen accepted her second glass in silence ¨C somehow she had ordered without notifying anyone. Either that or ¡®Earl¡¯ just knew she was out and brought her a second drink to make up for it. Maddy looked over and asked for a life drink before Earl turned away. He nodded at her ¨C also accepting orders from James and Troy for their own spiked drinks. The queen continued. ¡°So, while I could describe understandings of how domains actually work, you¡¯ll have to keep in mind they might function differently for you. In case your understanding is different please pretend my description is fake ¨C at least until your own domain finishes crystalizing. My own understanding of how domains are formed is that every single cast of a spell you do leaves something behind. Even when a spell is completely spent, your mana remains. The intent of your concepts break apart but stay in the surroundings. That is what I believe a domain is. All your personal spent magic soaking into the environment around you. That inert mana continues to contain your abilities ¨C continues to link to the concepts you used to cast it and reaches out to help your new spells complete. For mobile domains, it follows you around like a pet seeking to be close to its owner or spreads out to try and get your attention in places you can see.¡± The queen laughed as she continued. ¡°Going forward, domains can overlap completely with each other. You can stand beside someone with a similar domain without even noticing it ¨C both your magics functioning normally as your understandings don¡¯t contradict one another.¡± Waving her hand the queen created two lumpy chunks of glass and pushed them together no problem. It wasn¡¯t an illusion. The queen really conjured the glass ¨C she must not have a light affinity for illusion work. ¡°The other case is with contradictory domains. If two people have understandings of the world that are completely different from one another. If two mages have spells that run off completely different beliefs of what magic is¡­then their domains fight each other. Non crystalized domains mush together in unpredictable and uncontrollable ways while a crystallized domain always crushes and suppresses the mushy ones. Two crystallized domains on the other hand actively crash ¨C often with a visual effect. A wall between the two, a secondary battle between two environments¡­and just as there are an unlimited number of domains the way these crashes happen shifts drastically between users. Vastly more powerful mages can often suppress weaker mages even if both are crystalized but you''ll find its next to impossible for a mage to effect a warrior''s domain with any real effort¡± The queen continued. Creating a few different blobby shapes of glass, the queen shoved them together randomly causing cracks to form or bits to sink into each other or wrap around like an ameba. ¡°I think I remember hearing far on the other side of the badlands there is a massive domain that affects your magic in really strange ways. I haven¡¯t braved that crossing but you hear rumors¡­anyways. That¡¯s the main part of this description. Practically for a mage, your domain is the area you can use magic and with a good understanding of it you can manipulate the domain itself. For a warrior your domain usually forms much faster ¨C I see two of you already have a domain nearly fully settled ¨C and all you have to know is it will prevent hostile or foreign magic from affecting your body easily¡­No one should be able to stop your heart just by looking at you or transform your flesh into stone or anything dangerous like that.¡± Turning to Maddy she continued. ¡°As a mage your domain is much much bigger than a warrior but also more diffuse. The biggest tool you have for turning that around is called domain definement and that is where you use a spell actively trying to interact with your domain. The warrior version is avatar embodiment and works similarly. The idea is to make an environment that helps your spells and tries to break or weaken the spells of an opponent. As soon as you do and with the right intent your domain will ''be'' that environment. How can I best describe it¡­domain spells follow a similar trend to the other common parts of magic. As an overview¡­ ¡°Well for elements, literally anything can be an element but simple physical damaging ideas are the best. A type of damage that exists in nature and one that effects the type of creature or similar you want to use magic against. You obviously already know what the strongest element foundations are, as none of you have anything weird and two of you have multiple elements. ¡°For concepts, once again literally anything can be a concept and there¡¯s a much wider range of ideals. Typically the best concepts are all physical ideas and objects or simple goals. A sword concept, an armour concept or a protective one, a bolt, a set of chains or more general an idea of restraining something, an animal. Stuff like that. ¡°For domains, once again a domain can be anything. I¡¯ve heard of a warrior or two having a sword domain with their entire domain contained within their blade¡­In general most mage domains are an environment, and most warrior domains are an ideal for a person. For example, a knight domain or king domain complete with strengths and weaknesses and innate abilities from the concepts infused into their magic. Anyways, even though anything can be a domain there¡¯s a trend. A common sense ideal that the majority of properly made domains follow. Most defined domains for mages contain an environment. For example, a forest. Oh! That¡¯s a good comparison. An okay element might be wood ¨C even if wood damage isn''t very strong. An okay concept might be a tree and an okay domain might be a forest.¡± The queen seemed excited by that comparison, happy with herself. ¡°My own domain is this city. I¡¯ve made it so that the infrastructure itself is my defined domain using proper weakness engineering and I¡¯m confident it could survive even a dragon''s attack unharmed. The flip side of course is that I cannot leave. I¡¯m committing to this city with my life ¨C and upon my death the domain should stay protecting my people long after I¡¯m gone. After all, its my mana ¨C even if its already spent. As long as my domain sticks around, the spells should continue running indefinitely. "My understanding of domains being the used up inert spell chunks means it should stick around and because my domains crystalized it shouldn¡¯t fade away and spread into the surroundings. Quite a few mages like to stay far away from other mages ¨C the common idea of a wizard tower is just a mage wanting to stay far away from others who might interfere with their own spells.¡± Finishing her explanation, the queen trailed off as if she had nothing more to say. ¡°How do you crystalize your domain? And how do you use a domain to fight against a spell you don¡¯t want?¡± Maddy asked prodding the queen to continue. ¡°Domain crystallization is a personal wishy washy thing. I told you how I figured out how domains work right? As soon as I figured that out, I just cast a bunch of wasteful spells purposefully trying to soak my environment until it crystalized. ¡°In terms of domain fights¡­The easiest way is to believe a method of magic to be impossible and then crystalize that understanding. If you don¡¯t believe magic can do something and then you come across someone who believes it can your domains will conflict with a slight defenders advantage keeping you protected from that. Me telling you that and you purposefully trying to engineer that of course breaks that way of protecting yourself from a type of magic you already know exists or at the very least makes it a weak method. ¡°The other way is to believe that all magic ¨C even a magic you don¡¯t understand ¨C has a weakness and way for you to beat it. Crystalize the understanding that even if you are hit by some unknown spell or domain effect, you can always do something to break it even if you don¡¯t know what it is. That belief is the utter truth of magic after all, so affirming it as true and infusing that into your domain will help you take advantage of it. All you need then is to shrug off any domain impression and treat the foreign magic how you understand magic to work. You could work it into a domain definement or not it doesn''t matter.¡± ¡°Okay, I have another question. What is weakness engineering? You mentioned something similar when I asked about the ground being see-through¡± Maddy started. The queen looked over at the diminishing pile of food before turning back to her. ¡°Is that your last question? Technically you haven¡¯t beaten the dungeon so I don¡¯t want to spend the whole day here. I¡¯m hoping to leave by the time the food is done, and three questions seems like a good number. Considering you¡¯ve had two of the questions, does anyone else have something they would prefer me to go over? You all helped delve the dungeon?¡± The rest of the table jumped slightly at being called out then after thinking for a second shook their head or said they were fine. ¡°Alright then. To answer your question, weakness engineering is a simple concept with a massive amount of work being put into exactly how to take advantage of it. Some call it ''balance'' some call it ''mana playing fair''. It¡¯s a base rule of magic like how concepts work but¡­how much focus you spend on it is entirely up to you. Weakness engineering is tied into your concepts and goals and based on how much you focus on it can sink into your domain ¨C if you use it too early or with too little thought for the future you may regret it. Alternatively if you know exactly what you want from life, getting some good practice in it before you crystalize your domain into permenance will help you far into the future. ¡°The base idea is that constraints provide power and all magic has strengths and weaknesses. Knowing this fact, by purposefully picking and choosing your weakness you can improve your strengths. It touches upon true magic which I¡¯ve heard only a whisper or two of and is the building block upon which high spells run. "In general the more you try to do with a single spell the worse it will be unless you spent an equal amount of effort improving all the individual components and even then over engineered spells are not always stronger or more effective. The only way to make a perfect defense is to poke holes in it as contradictory as that sounds.¡± The queen seemed much more excited by the current topic than the previous ones. ¡°Slimes are the earliest example of this truth. They are perfectly defended against all but a certain type of attack. Slimes are also mindless, relatively situationally weak monsters but they prove the base concept. The base rule of magic and reality you can actively take advantage of. ¡°So. When you use weakness engineering you make a conscious decision to weaken your spell in a way you don¡¯t care about. As soon as you do this, you strengthen the parts you do care about¡­but because weakness engineering is a more fundamental truth of magic, you lose a lot of its benefits as soon as you try and cheat it. Making a spell that defends against all physical attacks for example but allows everything else through¡­that spell will have a huge amount of strength. Same with one that lets physical attacks through but no non physical ones. Keep in mind having both spells within easy access will weaken them slightly but just the fact that they are separate will keep them incredibly strong anyways. ¡°Attempting to cast both spells and layer them into a so called ¡®perfect defense¡¯ is what I call cheating however. The magic will understand what you are doing and weaken to the point of making a single relatively strong shield that¡¯s far far from the perfect shield you would have otherwise. A shield that defends in one direction is stronger than one that defends in all directions¡­ as is one you have to focus on to maintain vs one that can be deployed automatically. That doesn¡¯t mean you should always use a shield wall instead of a dome, it just means you should keep it in mind when designing a spell. ¡°Keep in mind all spells have strengths and weaknesses no matter what you do. All weakness engineering is, is a way of letting you ''choose'' what those strengths and weaknesses are instead of leaving it up to fate.¡± Maddy flinched slightly causing the queen to stop and eye her then nod in understanding. ¡°Turn of phrase sorry, you are probably still traumatized from the dungeon. That¡¯s the idea behind it anyways. The city floor has a designed weakness in that its right above a massive monster nest and is specifically weak to those monsters. Because of that contrived situation, its strong enough to hold thousands of houses and people and nearly indestructible by common means. The geas I¡¯ve pushed through the population weakens that slightly¡­ but because the chance is there ¨C because light can pass through the ground and because its ''technically possible'' to break the safety and trigger the trap below, the majority of the strength remains. ¡°Another example is a good friend of mine. She made it so her magic wouldn¡¯t hurt children or any she deemed innocent. It bites her every once in a while when she comes across a monster cub close enough for her magic to consider them exempt but¡­she¡¯s never said she regretted her choices. That¡¯s a weakness she¡¯s willing to take on for the sake of all her magic being slightly stronger. It does mean she can indiscriminately attack groups while sparing anyone she would want to spare which is a useful side effect. ¡°Anyways, I think that¡¯s a good time to wrap things up. I have lots of work to do after all.¡± Waving her arm all over the place randomly the queen finished up. She then gestured indicating everyone on her side should scoot and let her out ¨C sliding out in a few dashes and jumping up¡­Maddy found it hard to imagine what the woman even did for work when she acted like this. Stumbling out of the booth and onto a disk of blue, the queen spun lazily and began floating towards the door. ¡°If you beat more of the dungeon I¡¯ll answer more questions but I don¡¯t know of anything else you would need to know. Thanks again for strengthening the town I hope my debt has been repaid and I hope you continue.¡± Maddy watched her go and took a swig of her life drink, swirling the liquid around her mouth as she thought. It felt like she was finally learning of the last major rules of magic. Despite all her warnings about belief and her understanding not being the one truth, everything the queen had said had made sense. All she needed to do now was figure out how much of that was the fundamental truth and how much of it was simply the woman¡¯s understanding. Chapter 68. Contracts and callbacks. ---James--- What now? James was lost. He had been invited back to Maddy and her two friends¡¯ Inn to rent his own room... but ¨C after thanking them for the invitation ¨C decided to escape and head about on a walk instead. James had made a mistake. The other day he had jumped into a well to learn about magic¡­the cost for that knowledge unknown at the time. Now that he¡¯d learned of magic it seemed a lot like the cost was actually his real goal. He would be forced to break into magic. Was that really it? Was there a solution? His supposed future self had broken into magic and only magic¡­had he done so because he was forced to? Or because he had learned that aether was simply mana working differently in a tech-based domain? That¡¯s what it had sounded like when the glass woman explained it at least. Had his future self known that breaking into aether was chaining himself to someone or something else¡¯s power? Was that really all aether was? It couldn¡¯t be, could it? And now James was confused. He¡¯d finally learned of both sides ¨C the ¡®quest¡¯ he¡¯d requested and been sent on on was somewhat complete¡­and yet now he didn¡¯t know his next step. Supposedly the final part of his quest was ¡®a push¡¯ wasn¡¯t it? ¡®R¡¯ had mentioned helping him at that point¡­how did James contact him? Would it even still work now that he had been cursed? ¡°R?¡± James spoke into the street looking about ¨C trying as hard as he could not to look at the ground. Looking at the ground was hard to do when you weren¡¯t supposed to look at the ground ¨C like thinking of pink elephants when you were told not to. ¡­ How had he contacted ¡®R¡¯ last time? He¡¯d¡­used the quest panel, right? But that cheat was only usable once every three weeks resetting in a new zone or upon completion of all three quests. He could try anyways? ¡°Quest: Help Me R¡± James spoke. Nothing appeared. No blue box was there to show the way. James sighed. It couldn¡¯t be that easy could it. This did seem like the best chance he had¡­it looked like he would have to wait the rest of his current three weeks out. How long had it been? At least a week, right? It felt like it had been a month since he was exploring the night life with Richard. ¡°I guess that¡¯s good enough¡±. A voice spoke from his shoulder. Whipping his head sideways, James clawed and tried to fling the small blue figure sitting on his shoulder off in surprise. Jumping over his hand and laughing the figure expanded and pushed through the air as if it were thick and sticky as he floated to the ground in front of James. Spinning about with a slight giggle the short man ¨C for he was a man now if slightly waxy looking ¨C looked up and James and smiled. ¡°I do remember making a promise ¨C I keep my promises ¡®don¡¯t chu know.¡± ¡®R¡¯ spoke twisting his head slightly and giving himself a strange accent. His current guise shifted to that of an old, wrinkled man. As James watched the man continued to look like he was growing older ¨C as if ¡®R¡¯ was tweaking his character profile in real time before settling on something he liked. ¡°You came?¡± James spoke almost surprised. ¡°And miss whatever¡¯s going to happen next? My man! I wouldn¡¯t miss it for this world. Before we get started what do you think about me bringing us somewhere easier to work in?¡± ¡®R¡¯ responded his tone and acent shifting between various youthful tones despite his continuous aged appearance. ¡°¡­sure¡± James confirmed watching as the world was suddenly gone. He stood in a wide-open field. An endlessly flat expanse of grass in all directions¡­one that reminded him of something. James spun slowly looking across the empty planes before with a flinch and upward jolt he remembered. Craning his neck back as he looked about the sky James crouched slightly ready to start running or attacking someone. ¡°This is the final zone, not the dragon area.¡± ¡®R¡¯ spoke from behind him, an amused look on his face. ¡°This¡­this is the final area?¡± James asked looking about cautiously. ¡°Yepperonie old chap ¨C it might change once you all funnel out of the closed zones, but this is the physical location.¡± R confirmed nodding enthusiastically. Shaking his head like a wet dog R¡¯s body lengthened and his age melted away. A final fluroushing twitch of his arms and there stood an incredibly incredibly waxy looking man wearing a suit. It looked like he had suddenly given up instead of settling on a guise he liked the look of. Was this the real him? Somehow James doubted it. ¡°If you¡¯ll excuse me, I need to kick start the terraforming and then I can get around to sorting you out ¨C one moment.¡± R began muttering to himself searching about his pockets as if trying to find his keys ¨C realizing he didn¡¯t have pockets and then shifting his suit back to a baggy coat so he could reach in and fish something out. Pulling an empty handful of ¡®something¡¯ out of his recently made pocket the creature eyed its surroundings then mimed pitching his empty hand to the front. A few seconds after the mimed action, a splotch of colour began to spread across the grass like spilled oil. Dark orange tinted the grass in a wave that burst outwards and then rapidly slowed. The plant life spasmed and twisted ¨C grass combining into each other and then withering as dead blades smouldered and then suddenly grew again splitting and combining and twisting into something more. ¡°Do you mind if I skip this?¡± R asked James¡¯s glancing sideways at him the creatures arms extended as if ready to snap its fingers. ¡°What?¡± James asked glancing to the creature and then back to the steadily growing wave of weirdness. ¡°I mean, do whatever you need to do?¡± James responded causing the ¡®man¡¯ to grin. With a dramatic snap the world changed once again. The surroundings were suddenly all orange, with red and brown notes. Bits of smouldering shrubbery dotted the landscape, and several trees were placed haphazardly about. The branches creaked and crackled ¨C small holes in the bark showing a contained inferno hidden underneath each trunk. Directly ahead, a massive creature loomed ¨C it looked like a dark yellow brontosaurus with spider limbs near the ground¡­or more accurately the massive monster was a single thick neck. A single massive neck towering up into the sky topped with a flat looking head and mounted in the center of a large mound surrounded by dozens of thin legs. It was now night ¨C as if ¡®to speed up the process¡¯ ¡®R¡¯ had simply fast-forwarded through time ¨C and the sky was a mass of stars. Directly set above them casting a steady blue-tinted glow was an utterly massive moon ¨C one at least five if not ten times as large as the moon from Earth. ¡°Alright, now on to the product survey¨C¡± ¡®R¡¯ spoke simply as he turned to James. James jumped and stared about wide eyed. He tried desperately to give the surroundings the same calm note as R was ¨C but he couldn¡¯t help being surprised. ¡°What is this?¡± James asked eyeing the massive monster as he tensed his body. ¡°Come on, can¡¯t you guess? You should have enough information already¡­¡± R spoke laughing as he fiddled about with blue key cards. ¡°A nest?¡± James asked still eying the biggest threat and keeping his senses peeled for any surprise dangers. ¡°Bing! What you call a nest is one of the cheapest ways of transforming the surroundings I have. Comes with a free field boss if you playthings right as well. Anyways, on to the survey!¡± Blue que cards vanished from R¡¯s hands and began appearing in front of James as familiar blue boxes.
General disclaimer and TOS (Terms of System)
Overview: What you have done so far is the bare minimum needed as foundational fuel for your wish. You now have the potential to break into the two opposing systems but do not have the ability to do so. The requirements for aid must be accepted to complete your wish as stated. Requirements: One, acceptance of all aspects of the ¡®push¡¯ henceforth known as the ¡®trial¡¯ and any alterations made by the one issuing this contract. Cost includes among other things (1) life as stated in previous contract rules, (1) body stat permanently being locked and forced into host status. Final break may still have restrictions based upon your own actions. Two, the actual effort must be completed by (you) with the requirement of beating the designated creature stated as ¡®the completion requirement¡¯. Completion is deemed possible but may still fail if proper effort is not taken to cross the finish line. Three, due to this being an amendment of a previous contract a new set of requirements will be provided. This payment will be conveyed by the one issuing this contract.
Accept all requirements?
¡°Simple enough,¡± R spoke as he reached over and ran a waxy-looking finger down the list. ¡°To start: Actually, doing the break would cost quite a bit more for me if I couldn¡¯t lean on some existing options, Even if you are charting a new path, its easier and cheaper for me to tread between established guidelines to interface with the systems you are ¡®joining¡¯ but not aligning yourself with. In other words, even if I do most of the technical bits, you still need to fuel the final break. You still have to put in some work without me breaking even more systems than are in place, or shouldering the cost myself for no particular reason. Finally, I want something minor for this boon. Everything else is requirements for the process, this note is a requirement from me. Think of it as payment for my time and knowledge even if the cost is taken from you.¡± James looked at the list and then looked over at R without signing. ¡°I¡¯m not accepting anything without knowing what I¡¯m accepting¡± James spoke careful not to sign his life away cringing internally at how bratty he sounded in his head. He had been quite happy with the previous contract even if he didn¡¯t remember much of the actual contents. This one¡­seemed way too flimsy. R smiled and nodded ¡°Of course, Of course, I completely understand. Want something to drink as we go over the terms of our agreement?¡± Gesturing over to a smouldering log, ¡®R¡¯ made as if to sit down at a desk. James shook his head slightly causing R to nod again as if he didn¡¯t care either way. ¡°No problem, no problem. In terms of requirements, you¡¯ll have to pick a body stat to host your second affinity and one of your spare lives to act as the cost fulling this transformation. Additionally¡­I was going to go over the potential limitations in the quiz but to start off with I¡¯d like to ask about your quest. What do you know about Mana and what do you know about Aether?¡± James thought for a second still feeling slightly on edge due to the surroundings. ¡°Magic is mana as fuel, concept as¡­meaning and direction, shape as desire and intent? There''s also some stuff about domains and imagination. On the other side¡­Aether is split into fuel and effect, but more importantly seems to be split into physics chemistry and biology fields? There''s also some stuff about Esper powers and slots and stuff.¡± James began. ¡°No, no no! How does mana feel. How does aether feel. How do they differ in terms of goals?¡± R prodded ¨C and so even though James felt he had answered the question properly the first time, he tried again. ¡°Mana¡­mana is about doing stuff with your imagination and aether is about learning the rules of how things work and using those?¡± James started. ¡°Closer if simplified,¡± R nodded and then continued. ¡°Mana and the magic made with it is the pure wish for power. Magic is not caring about the why and how of things but instead a focus on the results. It¡¯s a mainly personal and solitary field with no easy way of building upon or collaborating with others. One of the major focuses of ¡®advanced¡¯ magic is in restrictions and limits. Self imposed and chosen limits with purposeful or subconscious origins¡­control over what limits are in place through blind misunderstanding. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°From your actions and goals, you fit entirely within this ¡®side¡¯ ¨C you¡¯ve even limited yourself already without even gaining a strength from those actions! If it weren¡¯t for your conviction and pure desire not to be ¡®chained¡¯ to anything¡­well, I¡¯d have assumed you¡¯d break this way and move on over a month ago. ¡°Aether on the other hand¡­ is more selfish in its goals while remaining less selfish in its actions and interactions. Instead of a blind wish for power, aether is a wish for understanding and control due to that understanding. Aether devices, drugs, esoteric modifications¡­they are all designed to achieve comparable and greater strength to those of mana without dealing with conceptual limitations. You could say they are trading one limit for another but that¡¯s getting into a bit more than is needed here. ¡°Essentially aether is defiance of the natural. Instead of accepting your natural affinities, strengths and weaknesses¡­ aether allows you to customize and overcome the hidden laws of existence. It¡¯s a collaborative force as well as a more stable one. In some ways it''s better than mana, in other ways it''s worse. More importantly its not a solitary system. Aether needs infrastructure to shine. You can exchange, gift and create using that which was created from others¡­but for it to truly sparkle you need to combine your strengths with others. In terms of a long-term world of aether, power will accrue over generations with individuals adding their knowledge or creations towards the good of the whole. One might invent a novel way of creating batteries another might perfect interface an artificial mind with a fleshy one. This world has been kickstarted with quite a bit of external knowledge and devices, but humanity can build off of that growing to be greater than what came before. ¡°From all your actions so far¡­I¡¯d say you aren¡¯t a good fit for this system. You don¡¯t act like you want to rely on or help others. You aren¡¯t as focused on knowledge as others ¨C in fact. Despite breaking into magic, a recent acquaintance of yours seems much more in line with aetheric temperaments and goals.¡± Pausing his explanation, ¡®R¡¯ pulled out a blue pane of glass that looked similar to a tablet. Flipping it to show James he leaned in and saw a silent image of Maddison writing down notes in bed while illuminated by a single floating light and surrounded by companions each meditating on their own goals. ¡°She¡¯s treating magic like a science. Keeps trying to figure out the rules instead of embracing the lack of rules. She¡¯s doing well in terms of strength, but she should really start using her imagination more. Now, I once told you that a combination of both sides gives more weaknesses than strengths. Your goal isn¡¯t actually strength however ¨C nor is it a perfect power. What you truly wish for is control over yourself. Control, that¡¯s what all of this is about. You want to pick and choose your limitations and then discard them or overcome them¡­and that is something I can do. ¡°So, lets talk about the limitations that will exist as soon as you finish this breaking ritual. After we can go over the cost and job offer. Are you sure you don¡¯t want to get comfortable?¡± R asked gesturing about. James slowly nodded and went over to the previously offered log. There seemed to be more involved than he was expecting. Why couldn¡¯t ¡®R¡¯ just wave his hand and set James up? No¡­this was better. It gave James a sort of validity to his eventual break. It made if feel more real. ¡°Comfortable? Good. This shouldn¡¯t take too long, but a verbal description helps cut out a lot of the legal jargon from any contract. An informed contract is stronger and gives a lower chance of regret. Let¡¯s start with the interactions directly after the break. To start: ¡®mana effecting aether¡¯. Mechanic wise, by personalizing your aether fingerprint it will no longer interface well with others. Your source aether will be ever so slightly off the general resonance ¨C for all intents and purposes power wise it¡¯s a true aether break but in terms of results¡­ ¡°In terms of effect, one of the biggest strengths of aether will be nerfed. You should be able to use a few simple devices, but any complicated aether devices made by others will no longer work for you. The strength of aether is being able to act as a hobbyist ¨C buying and combining parts from others without needing to understand how they were made. You won¡¯t be able to do this easily. If you want to use aether to its fullest potential, you¡¯ll need to create most of your items from scratch or heavily modify others work before you can use it yourself. This is a limitation¡­ but one you might be able to overcome using your own strength or knowledge. For now, considering how uninterested you have been in leaning on others strength, it doesn¡¯t seem too bad of an initial weakness¡­¡± ¡®R¡¯ finished. James thought things through. In many ways he was completely fine with this but at the same time¡­it felt big. He was being told the greatest strength of this side would not be there for him. Unless he figured out how to overcome it? Could he¡­create some sort of adaptor? Find a way to modify devices to work for him as well? Wait- James pulled off his bag and reached around, finally finding a small, cushioned box wrapped in multiple cushioned layers. The ai he bought with Richard¡­the cellphone equivalent he had promised to use once he broke into aether. He¡­wouldn¡¯t be able to use this if he accepted the request. He wouldn¡¯t be able to keep in contact with his friend¡­ ¡°¡­that would make a more balanced break.¡± R muttered staring at the device and fiddling with his cards. James also had the burning question of the dungeon. ¡°Can I even break into aether? I went through a dungeon that basically said I had to break into magic¡± James finally asked R already waving it aside as non important. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. It¡¯s a stupid truth anyway. When you break into both, you¡¯ll break into magic and break into aether and that¡¯s going to count for the dungeon¡¯s purposes. You can even go back and continue delving and it wont mind if you don''t stick to mana abilities. That sort of law is weakend by aether anyways. More importantly I¡¯ve changed the plan a bit! As part of your breaking ritual, I can start you off with that AI. Call it me throwing it in for free as you wouldn¡¯t be able to create something like that from scratch without relying on others and it should help you out. Offset how little your aether break will give you to start." R seemed pleased by this. James took a moment longer to consider then nodded. He had no real interest in relying heavily on others. ¡°Perfect. That should balance out the ritual. Now! On to how the stability of aether will stunt mana¡­I already mentioned the easiest way for the two systems to play nice is to borrow a magic trait. You¡¯ll need to sacrifice a single body stat at the start to host things but¡­the same restriction will prevent you from exchanging more stats for more affinities. You won¡¯t be able to pick a second or third affinity¡­not if you want to keep the balance you have. ¡°It all boils down to balance. I¡¯m going to give you a pretty stable foundation but unless you figure out how to overcome this yourself¡­on either side too large an effect would snap your split systems into a single one. If you attempt to gain a separate dual affinity using magic, you¡¯ll lose your aether pool first. If you try to do something of equivalent self change on the aether side, you¡¯ll lose your magic but I find that hard to imagine. Like everything due to the nature of your break you might be able to combine higher concepts and knowledge from both sides to do something simultaneously and remain balanced. ¡°For safety I¡¯d say you need to do the bare minimum of practice using both ability sets ¨C but the job offer later should remove that restriction anyways. And again, plus side with the amount of potential we are going to be cramming into you, you might be able to overcome this restriction as well.¡± R smirked slightly as if he doubted that would happen. James thought through this restriction carefully as well. On one hand he was really hoping to have both the strengths of aether and strengths of mana without any weaknesses¡­on the other hand these ¡®initial¡¯ restrictions he ¡®may¡¯ be able to overcome sounded¡­reasonable. He already hated the idea of losing a single one of his focused stats ¨C James couldn¡¯t imagine wanting to sacrifice more just to gain more affinities. The initial cost for mana on this deal seemed worse ¨C sacrificing a body stat. Obviously defense but¡­he¡¯d prefer dropping one of the stats he didn¡¯t have much in. He didn¡¯t even have any stats in his soul after all! That would be a real easy chose to drop he barely knew he had a soul. What about mind? Mind stats seemed lame other than making him think a bit faster so he could react better¡­ Finally, after several minutes in silence James spoke. ¡°Okay, I accept. Anything else?¡± James asked, finally ready to accept the requirements and move onto the actual breaking. ¡°Theres also that final note. Itty bitty requirement from me. Don¡¯t worry this one is fun¡± R laughed pointing at the last line and then pulling out more sheets. ¡°The cost from me. It¡¯s a way you can help me help you as well as a way you can solve a problem for me. I want to make you an absolute.¡± R¡¯s voice gained a strength as he spoke that last line and pulled out a new contract. ¡°To start. This zone you see about you is the final area. It¡¯s the planet you are being gifted ¨C nearly unaltered from the empty floating rock it was before we got here. On that technicality its not a ¡®zone¡¯ ¨C there are no instances or non-natural barriers isolating it from the surroundings. What there is however is the final trial. This world¡­is only big enough for a single system. As soon as the strongest clients find themselves in this area, they will find themselves pitted against each other. ¡°Its¡­unavoidable. The way I was contracted to set up this expedition, its basically a given the final area ends in war. Both sides increase the difficulty for the other side without providing benefits ¨C each side actively hinders the other in as high a level as settlers end up. Because of my contractual obligations ¨C because of how this whole system is set up¡­I cannot interfere in this scenario. Not directly. Not through an external force at least. The only way I can interfere in the scenario is through an inside agent. ¡°That¡¯s where you come in. There¡¯s a lot of names for your job ¨C demon lord. Agent of chaos¡­Actually, on that note this isn¡¯t even a new position. I was always going to try and field an insider absolute ¨C I was actually planning on saving it for a familiar face. This one was my highest contender. I had such¡­such high hopes for him.¡± R shook his head in deep sadness. For the second time in as many minutes, R pulled out a blue tablet showing off a scene of someone James knew. A scene of the tutorial town way back when. Richard was dropping his trousers a gleeful satisfaction flickering across his face as he peed off a roof onto a figure down below. It flipped to him walking past a group of earthlings pausing and swapping two of their drinks then stepping back and watching the two reach over and take a sip of each others¡¯ drinks. It flipped to him standing in a booth calling out fake sounding quests and sending people off to do silly things for him. And then it flipped a final time and showed Richard sitting in a desk in a classroom. A complicated looking mess of wires and chips sat in front of him, and his hand was raised. The teacher called on him and he excitedly began to point out random bits on his mess of an item before asking a question. The teacher nodded and Richard smiled, unplugging something and twisting a dial before plugging it back in. Looking up at the teacher Richard gave a double thumbs up then went back to listening to the lecture. The scene ended. ¡°Disappointing really. I have no clue why he¡¯s gotten so boring¡­I might have miscalculated giving him that affinity instead of leaving it up to chance. It was meant to break into magic.¡± R shook his head before looking back at James. ¡°Anyways that¡¯s the job. The reason I want you to take it is unimportant. The reason you might want to take it is easy. By winning the final ¡®scenario¡¯ this world will be ¡®settled¡¯. On one hand the difficulty will drop. The strength and quantity of monsters will at least halve after one side is removed, but the conflict of having two sides will also end the chances for advancement. The number of challenges you have to face to grow stronger will shrink. ¡°On the other hand, on a more personal reason for you to take this mantle ¨C one tying into both how mana and aether work as well as how your break will solidify. By removing either of the pylons on this planet and ¡®breaking the planet to magic or science¡¯ half of your power will become suppressed and limited. That will snap you into the side that breaks ¨C that¡¯s tying into the power of an absolute. To fuel your continued wish you¡¯ll have to continue to work for it.¡± R finished. Reaching around in his pockets ¨C they obviously weren¡¯t pockets¡­were they like miniature inventories? Portals to some other area? R pulled out a gold card tossing it into a box for James to sign. Unlike every other blue box James had received this one was solid. It was a physical sheet of something held floating in the air in front of him. It felt like a piece of thin glass ¨C the words painted onto it with black paint. The signature field at the bottom scribbled with a real pen. All of the words were in a strange language that shifted slightly out of the corner of James¡¯s eye ¨C like the words were rearranging when they thought he wasn¡¯t staring at them. James squinted slightly at the incomprehensible contract. R had done a lot to describe the job but if the contract itself was obscured? ¡­James didn¡¯t want to accept without knowing what he was accepting. He already didn¡¯t like the idea of working for someone else¡­especially when it felt like that someone else was trying to manipulate him into accepting by pretending he was ¡®working for himself¡¯ instead of for them. ¡°Can you tell me what an Absolute is? You threw around a bunch of different titles. I¡¯d also like to know what that catch is. What do you get out of this? Why create a scenario forcing everyone to war and then try and stop it? If I know that I¡¯m fine accepting it.¡± James asked without agreeing to anything. Since when was he able to negotiate or talk back to someone this powerful? ¡®R¡¯ stared at him for a moment then nodded a faint smile growing on his face. ¡°An absolute is what every single one of the helpers running your settlement are called. In terms of what it is¡­think of it like a self fulfilling prophecy. A non mechanic ¨C a title and ongoing requirement an inalienable fact with a singular weakness and everything in between. Its easier to describe the idea of an absolute with a simpler example than yours. Say someone comes to me and asks for the power to make an absolute barrier. A perfect defense ¨C something only they can let others through. I can do that. I can give them a defense stronger than any defense that exists in their world ¨C stronger than any attack that could possibly reach them.¡± R gave up on the panels and simply projected an illusion of the barrier that surrounds each zone a shadowy figure standing behind it one hand held high. The illusion flipped to show the domes surrounding each zone like a series of nesting dolls getting larger and larger. ¡°Now, by definition at the time of my gift their ability is absolute in its effect. To keep that absolute ¡®status¡¯ however means they need to squish anything or anyone that could threaten it. Elm for example needs to kill or otherwise disable anyone who could threaten his barriers. Any attack strong enough to threaten his state of absolute defense. As soon as an attack can break the strongest defense, the breaker gains the status after all ¨C they then have an absolute attack or absolute ability for destruction and the mantle passes to them with their ¡®job¡¯ to prevent a defense that could overwhelm them. ¡°Absolute immortality contingent on keeping someone from becoming able to kill them. Absolute soul sundering death contingent on someone not making a defense that could beat them. ¡°An absolute that doesn¡¯t flip flop would be the strongest mage. As soon as someone grows stronger than them their status as the absolute strongest mage would shift to the newcomer. ¡°Really really simple isn¡¯t it? In your case, your absolute state of having both mana and aether is contingent upon the world you live in having both mana and aether¡­so as soon as the world flips to one or the other for good you¡¯ll have to ether transcend the world and its limitations¡­or lose half your abilities. Alternatively prevent the ridiculously rare chance of someone becoming able to break your dual status. That¡¯s your ongoing cost¡± R paused for a moment staring at James to see if he got it. James did¡­but didn¡¯t. As far as he could tell, it was a synonym for the best or strongest¡­but it also didn¡¯t seem to give anything beyond that? With how much R kept focusing on it and reverberating the air when he spoke of absolutes there had to be more of a status¡­ ¡°As for why I want you to try and keep the world in flux ¨C besides entertainment...The growth of each zone is a somewhat natural thing. Each has a tier requirement that prevents leveling too far past its point, but also prevents anything stronger than its range from existing inside of it. Breaking that zone¡¯s cap will forcefully increase the strength of the zone ¨C or in other words, ¡®unstable zones provide more growth¡¯ but will also tier themselves up after a certain point becoming harder for everyone inside of the zone¡­this knowledge will be told to everyone likely leading to them attempting to stabilize the zone and prevent the difficulty from spiraling out of control. ¡°I want you to keep the world unstable. Keep the unbalanced teetering between aether and mana. Keep the world growing for as long as possible¡­keep increasing the max tier allowed. The civilization that contracted me to set up this whole settlement wants you to settle down in this final zone¡­but I personally want this place to grow stronger than the civilization that contracted me. As high a rank as possible ¨C even if you fail and wipe yourselves out after reaching monsters too strong for you to handle I will still have a higher rank world in the end. If individuals wish to transcend their current world to reach a stronger one and continue advancing¡­well those worlds need to exist to send them to. That¡¯s what I get out of this.¡± R finished. James stared at him. If he didn¡¯t know better he¡¯d say that last bit had slipped out¡­but no. This is what R wanted and James had wanted to know. There was still a bit he didn¡¯t understand ¨C the ¡®why¡¯ of things like why R couldn¡¯t just interfere directly or make a higher rank zone without them but. ¡­but James was satisfied. Building up some courage he reached out and carefully drew his signature on the contract ¨C like signing a slip at the post office. ¡°Alright, Now on to the breaking?¡± James asked looking about. ¡°Nope! We keep getting distracted. We still need to do my quiz!¡± R laughed and spun with boundless excitement. ¡­soon. Chapter 69. Nice ---Richard--- Richard was having a blast ¨C still. How had he gotten so sucked in? Fuck if he knew, but they ¡®gone n got em¡¯. Richard had made a goal over a week ago. He wanted to make ice cream attack people. More accurately he wanted to play about with sculpted spontaneous motion¡­then use that to create an artificial skill that would turn dairy treats into something that scared people. At the time of coming up with this plan Richard had thought it was hilarious. He had a target ¨C an ice cream store he saw firing an employee when they had taken a day off of work to see their sick mother. At least that¡¯s the story he heard yelled between the employee and the owner and it seemed deserving of some karmic chaos. His goal was to make the ice cream people bought from this store grow tentacles and a mouth and similar mysterious shapes and then pretend to eat the customers who were going to eat it. A noble plan. The noblest of goals. ¡­An incredibly hard plan to actually implement. Sculpting a series of motions was simple enough in theory ¨C like drawing a shape using nothing but formulas in a graphing software, Richard could model the motion and outline relatively easily using his AI and time. There were also plenty of skills and certain tools that could manipulate materials in specific ways often by modifiable formulas. It turns out manipulation skills were some of the most common of any type. They were so common technology was able to start replicating it. The problem of course was that no one else saw the genius of being able to manipulate ice cream and all the machines that mimicked an espers ability to manipulate materials from afar were incredibly proprietary. Not that that would stop him. First Richard delved a few more times for money ¨C pushing deep into the acidic poison dungeon to grab the most expensive materials to sell shrugging off the environment and ignoring most of the obstacles. The most expensive piece was a cone shaped device that did the important part of pushing the manipulation a distance away. A antenna of sorts that would change ¡®manipulate the stuff the device is touching¡¯ into ¡®manipulate the stuff the device is pointed at¡¯. The majority of the effort ¨C and reason it was a ¡®hard¡¯ goal couldn¡¯t be bought however. First he bought a machine that manipulated water into a sort of whip/rope hybrid. Then he ripped it apart carefully studying each component. This wasn¡¯t something he could cheat with his AI on but that was fine ¨C his other major experiment was starting to bare fruit as well and the insights from his skill studying transferred vaguely. He had been studying how his mutation would naturally grow a skill if a slot was directed inside of him. It seemed like the major factor was the creation of long microscopic tube like chains of aether modified elements. It was essentially an advanced compound like DNA but instead of forming a double helix, the structures formed a carbon-nanotube style structure using the elements inside his body. This wasn¡¯t quite the whole picture ¨C he couldn¡¯t find the skill structure for his ¡®chaotic body¡¯ or ¡®stone hand feet¡¯¡­and all of the physical devices he could study were macro scaled objects none in the shape of tiny tubes. But there was still some insights into how the aether would be compressed and pushed through microscopic tubes to transform it into effects. And how certain elements seemed to help focus skills on certain materials. Of course that skill strand wasn¡¯t the whole picture ¨C the skills themselves seemed to interact with the surroundings through a invisible medium and a few random skills were created as several separate points instead of one long chain¡­but it was a good building block. The big problem of course was translating whatever aether DNA was into a mechanical system. It was even harder when the skills were created on a microscopic level and the devices Richard needed to make were mostly macro¡­ But Richard actually spent the time bridging those gaps.
?? Achievement get: A dairy Delight. (unique)
Description: Create a device designed to manipulate spiked dairy to your whims. Why? Why not!
Stat: +9 mental power.
Finally the culmination of all of his effort had paid off. His end result wasn¡¯t quite as easy as he had been imagining ¨C he had to sneak into the ice cream parlour in the dead of night and spike their dairy supply with a bag of food safe reagents that would interact with his ¡®monstrification¡¯ device¡­but here the results were worth it. James should be here to watch. Richard sighed as he stood on a nearby roof and watched his target enter the ice cream parlour and begin making the fresh treats for the day. A stone hand unconsciously moved up and scratched his back as he continued to stand waiting for his first victim. Richard wished he could skip through the boring bits. All his favourite pranks required so much setup and waiting around. Oh! His first victim. A little shit with a red shirt and baseball cap was banging on the parlours door even though it hadn¡¯t opened yet. Perfect ¨C the owner seemed annoyed but greedy enough to accept the kid¡¯s money before leading him to the inner counter and letting him pick out a flavour. Richard carefully aimed his box shaped device towards the entrance and tracked the kid as he left the store. ¡°Get fucked¡± he whispered flipping a switch and watching his invention get to work. It took much longer than it had in his lab ¨C even though he had already proven it would work this distance something almost hitched and stuttered as he pushed aether through several connected parts¡­ Maybe something in the environment? He should have done a test run in the middle of the city first. The real bottleneck in his knowledge was definitely how stuff was transferred through the air. It¡¯s not a radio wave or brand of radiation ¨C Oh! It''s starting. Finally the kids cone began to jiggle. A single tentacle rose up from the center of the ice cream and smacking into the greedy kids face even as he went to take a bite. With a shriek the kid flung the ice cream and ran away down the street causing Richard to lose it. Dropping to the roof Richard held his belly and shook with deep silent laughter. Fuck he hated kids¡­he tried not to target them ¨C children were the worst targets on all fronts. It didn¡¯t stop him from slipping every once in a while. It was simple math ¨C humor at someone¡¯s expense was only funny (or acceptably funny) when punching down. Children by and far were weaker so any attempt at sticking it to them was less funny and in poor taste¡­On the other hand the little bastards were so fucking annoying and 90% of the monsters deserved what was coming to them. Richard tried to ignore them as targets but man did he want to drop kick some kids ¨C everyone did but man was it hard sometimes to ignore those impulses.
?? Achievement get: Steet Spook. (rare)
Description: Scare an NPC in a crowded street.
Stat: +3 mental power.
Richard wiped tears from his eyes and stood back up peering over the side of his roof. Another kid ¨C damn, they didn¡¯t look like someone he could justify using his machine on. Richard sighed and waited till they left and a nondescript man came past and entered the shop. Good enough ¨C the goal was to make the ice cream store lose business after all. He wasn¡¯t really hurting anyone other than the shopkeepers image after all¡­he wouldn¡¯t try to scare old people in case they had a heart attack. There. Moral crises adverted. Bring on the fear. Richard activated his device watching as the ice cream grew several arms and a large gaping mouth with melty teeth. ¡­the business man seemed to not notice the transformation? Oh, his eyes were probably reading something on his AI¡­The man went to take a bite causing Richard creation to chomp down on the mans tongue ¨C teeth were made out of ice cream so it wasn¡¯t a hard bite. That woke the man up ¨C the business victim¡¯s eyes grew wide as he grabbed the face hugger off his face ripping the cold dairy off while looking incredibly shocked. He looked for a moment like he wanted to march back into the building then shook his head in disgust and simply moved on. Perfect. Richard giggled. He could be entertained by this for hours. ¡­ It took half the day before news to spread far enough the authorities got involved. Leaving as soon as a ¡®hero¡¯ came to investigate the store, Richard went back to his place to figure out his next goal. An achievement floated past after awhile stating he¡¯d managed to evade the law and was promptly ignored. It was never about the achievements. At some point Richard had shifted away from realising he wanted to deface the player guild ¨C they would make great targets if he ever figured out what to do with them. He wanted to go back to that angle ¨C could he reuse his current device? It still worked great¡­ Richard sat in his room trying to imagine what might be funny or pending that, at least entertaining for him to watch. His mind flickered to something and then tried to shy away before dragging back to it once again. Sometimes juvenile humor just ¡®hit different¡¯. His current device worked mostly based off the suspended catalyst¡­if he made some tweaks to account for the different consistencies Richard was nearly positive he could make the device target waste. The real question was how he could target a toilet in the guild base. Having someone sit down¡­defenceless¡­and then attacked from their own stool. Ahhhh! Quality humor. I¡¯m not a child you are. Richard got to work giggling slightly as he imagined fecal monsters chasing people around. Shitty monsters for shitty people. Heh. ¡­ The problem with invisibility cloaks was in regulation. You bought one and you got put on a list. Sure they were easy enough to obtain as long as you were a delver ¨C having a cloaking device to hide from monsters was a solid way of progressing through a dungeon¡­but having a tracking device embedded in the standard issue cloaks or having the equivalent of a full profile set up for you as soon as you bought one really put a damper on buying it for recreational use. At least the main tools to make one weren¡¯t regulated as strongly. Richard put in a lot of work for his DIY cloaking device. It was heavy ¨C a thick material with two slots for eyes and only really provided good optical dampening. Because of how thick he made it, the cloak would also mask most of his body heat as well but it did nothing for auditory masking. Or in other words he made a swishing noise as he walked about and the cloak trailed along the ground around him. It also only really worked perfectly when he stood still ¨C a slight blur moving through the air as the optical warping shifted through the air. Still Richard was proud of it. He had a tool to sneak in. The guild building was massive ¨C how had players bought this? Had they really just pooled money from delving? They probably taxed all their members heavily like a pyramid scheme. Fuck em. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Richard snuck through a side door and wandered about the guild halls trying to keep out of sight of any cameras while keeping as quiet as possible whenever someone appeared and passed him by. This was exhilarating. A reverse heist! Spotting a door labelled ¡°Executive Recreational Facilities¡± Richard nodded. Perfect. The elites were probably even stronger crooks weren¡¯t¡¯ they! Shuffling over to the door box under one hand, Richard squinted at the blue box that suddenly popped into his view.
Executive password:
|
Alarm sounds after three wrong attempts
¡­Backing up till the box disappeared Richard tapped his fingers carefully as he stared at the problem. What problem? He just had to go through it! Wandering about till he found some stairs Richard projected a minimap of the facility up on his ai watching the device locate him in the building and figure out where the executive area was above. The floors were cement. A nice solid looking barrier and thick ¨C covered in tiles to look nicer but still mainly cement. Several stone hands reached up. ¡­ After melting through a patch of cement ¨C snipping a chunk of rebar out and carefully placing the tiles aside ¨C Richard popped out of the floor and looked about once more getting his bearings. He was in a large empty room directly on the other side of the entrance door. Ahead of him three nondescript doors lined the empty room. Shrugging slightly Richard made his way over to read the sights built above. Fuck. Marry. Kill. Richard looked at the three doors trying to divine their meaning. It was like the game right? Themed rooms? Twisting the knob of the first door he pushed into a brightly lit room and froze. Several glass cages lined the walls half full of naked women. Several tear stained faces looked up and shrunk back as soon as the door opened ¨C the captives staring at the empty doorway in obvious fear. Each cage had a sign plastered above it. [NPC: Eliza] read the closest, the scribbles underneath listing random information about her. Richard closed the door and walked down the line his face a mask. Marry was a empty room dressed up like a church and kill was a room full of torturous tools and a chute near the back labelled ¡®disposal¡¯. That¡¯s where you chucked the bodies. This is where you brought the NPCs to fuck and kill and toss like trash. Richard set his toilet booby trap to the side shutting the door behind him and walking about the room slowly. He felt¡­he wouldn¡¯t say sick per say. He¡¯d seen worse in media, heard worse online. He was almost too shocked to feel the anger he knew he should be feeling. Zero to one hundred. Trapping one of the toilets of the sick fucks who created this place was¡­was an underreaction. That was fine for corrupt abuse of power and stupid holier than thou bullshit. This? This¡­ Richard didn¡¯t know. All the fun had left his head. All sense of petty pranks or having some fun at their expense. The only karmic action that seemed worthy of this was to fuck and marry and then kill every executive who came through that door! Richard tried to laugh at the idea a swirling rage finally building as he seriously tried to think of an appropriate response. Obviously he wouldn¡¯t fuck them ¨C sex was gross as anything more than a joke ¨C but just putting them all down like dogs¡­that didn¡¯t feel satisfying. It would make him feel slightly better but it didn¡¯t seem fun. It wouldn¡¯t even mean anything ¨C the executives were players right? Unless they were absolutely useless, they probably had most of their free lives. Richard¡­Richard was pretty confident in beating most standard players one on one. He¡¯d seen the other ¡®adventurers¡¯ heading into the dungeons and put himself above all those he¡¯d seen. One on one at least ¨C he could probably take out more if he had some more tools and an element of surprise. Even if they were pigs hording all the best gear Richard thought he could take them. But what if they alerted each other? What if they revived and alerted each other? ¡­it took a while to revive and when they revived they would be weaker. Was there a way he could wipe the whole guild out? Was anyone in this rotten building worth sparing? No. Take a step back. This guild has been aggressively recruiting. Theres probably tons of gullible fucks working for them. ¡­it was probably just the executives who knew of this place. The leaders. They were the only ones that deserved Richards''s wrath. Richard looked about. He wasn¡¯t prepared for anything and didn¡¯t have the tools on hand to fix that. He had his useless toilet trap, his makeshift invisibility cloak. His ai obviously and¡­currently a skill for sensing inside himself and one for breaking things easily. He also had his stone arms and manipulation. Richard slammed his fist against a torture table staring down at the red stains before walking out of the door. The only way to deal any lasting harm was to spread the information. The only way of taking this whole place down without blowing up the potential innocents as well was. Was boring. Was boring. Was boring! This whole trip has been a colossal waste of time, the solution is unsatisfying the situation is sticking, and I don¡¯t think I can trust my judgement the more time I spend here. Richard set his AI to start recording. Linking it to his eyes and funneling as much aether as he could into it, he stared about the room in silence stepping out and then headed to the next one. Entering the caged area again Richard spun past all the cages and then closed the door behind him barely looking at the girls in particular. He wanted to punish the people involved ¨C he wanted to become the law and enact his will upon them. He wanted to make them hurt ¨C he didn¡¯t even care about making it funny or full of karma he just wanted to rip them apart and yet he wasn¡¯t strong enough to take on hundreds of players unarmed. He was going to need some help. More than a little. Richard felt about his body reaching through his pockets and pulling out random bits of junk. Finally, he found a crumpled up business card and carefully looked it over. The heroic police officer type who had made him hopeful for the society. Performing the equivalent of a phone call on the card Richard sent off several messages with the video attachments. It felt like giving up. It felt like the adult and responsible thing to do. It felt like giving up. ¡­ A few minutes after his message Richard got a response. His story was being verified and the authorities were on their way. Richard stood staring about the room. Waiting for his problem to be solved for him. He almost didn¡¯t notice the door to the executive area open in front of him. Almost. Eyes locking on the monster entering the room Richard watched as they shut the door behind them and then immediately spotted the giant hole to the side. Tensing slightly the executive reached down and pulled out a pistol fingering the futuristic device as he slowly panned his head about the room. Slowly walking towards the three doors the man crossed the room and then spun and shot at Richard as soon as he moved slightly. Ssss. A burning burst of light shot in a pulse across the distance melting through Richard¡¯s cloak and sizzling into his skin. His cloak started flickering as the warped light began ¡®warped wrong¡¯ ¨C the illusion broken. Running towards the confident executive Richard growled slightly as they calmly smirked and opened fire. Bolt after bolt of plasmic energy hit Richard¡¯s chest and legs and head ¨C a dozen shots fired in the four seconds he had taken to cross the room ¨C but nothing did more than a flesh wound as far as he was concerned, the first had penetrated deep but by the tenth shot they barely singed his skin. The executive¡¯s eyes widened and he began to blur backwards even as Richard tackled him and wrestled the gun from his hands. Trying to connect his open slot to the gun fruitlessly for a moment Richard ignored the shouts and struggles from the monster then tossed the gun and tried to drag the man. The executive buckled and threw Richard off him. He was strong ¨C fucking must have more strength and speed stats than Richard ¨C but Richard was a tank. Squeezing out some of the charred flesh from the gun shots, Richard tackled the scrambling man and force fed the struggling monster some of his flesh. He was thrown off once again Richard body sliding across the floor as they stood spitting desperately. Raising a hand the executive made a grabbing motion and his gun flew across the room once more. Shooting Richard even as he tried to stand, Richard was glad to see the creature flinch back and spin as the damage was shared between them. Running back over and tackling him ¨C more beast than man at this point Richard successfully straddled him and punched downward attempting to use his breaking skill. Fuck this is useless. Random skills suck unless I find one, I like and keep it ready ¨C break bone! Break something. You broke all sorts of useless shit in my lab. ¡­after pounding the man a bit he reaffirmed the skill was a dud for combat and he tossed it removing the internal slot in frustration. The executive had regained some of his senses and finally seemed ready to pull out his trump card. Suddenly looking as if he were about to barf, the man spat napalm like fire across Richard''s face. Sucking in in the same motion and breathing a dense blood red fire across Richard''s face Richard could barely see the monsters own head become immolated by the feedback of his own skill. Beautiful. The monster in human skin was heavily weakened by that attack and Richard began smashing himself down more effectively. Standing up and jumping on the creatures chest he kicked them a few times before grabbing their feat and dragging him towards the torture room and disposal bin. ¡°Uck eew¡± the blackened creature spat at Richard causing him to grab a sharp looking implement from the table beside him and stab the figure. ¡°Fuck you too¡± Richard yelled his erratic mental state catching up to him. Even while burned beyond belief the player was starting to move again. Richard stabbed his head¡­still moving. Neck ¨C still moving. ¡°You¡¯re a zombie aren¡¯t you¡± Richard groaned aiming for the heart next and ignoring the hypocrisy. That stab immediately caused the creature to twitch and stop moving.
?? Achievement get: A deadly brawl. (uncommon)
Description: Beat a player within a tier of you while initially unarmed. Did you start a bar fight and go too far? You totally started a bar fight and went too far.
Stat: +9 body defense. Stat: +9 body power.
of course PK awards more stats than average. Richard finished dragging the corpse to the disposal bin and pushed it down the chute. He sighed and stepped out ¨C picking up his mostly broken cloak and staring about the room. The place looked like a war zone ¨C a long smear of blood and ash crossed the room and entered the third door. Two burn marks on the wall marked stray shots and of course the massive hole in the floor marked his entrance. Richard''s stone hands moved without him noticing slowly pulling up a lump of cement and roughly slapping it into a chair in the middle of the room. His cloak was melted to his body in several places nearly all semblance of it having been an invisibility cloak gone. it looked kind of cool in a warped and melted silvery sort of way. One of the arms snaked across the floor and grabbed the tossed pistol bringing it back to his hands. Richard looked at the chair and pistol then smiled slightly. ¡°Good boys¡± He nodded while patting the hands then sat and studied the weapon in front of him. All sense of subtly was lost by this point¡­or was it? This area is probably sound proofed. If I had a murder room, I¡¯d definitely soundproof it. Aiming about the room Richard felt about until he figured out how to connect his slot to the weapon. ¡°Pew pew¡± He whispered shooting a few bolts across the room that left scorches on the walls. An unsatisfying weapon. Where was the kick? Where was the explosive kick ass feeling of a proper gun? ¡­ Richard found killing the first executive unsatisfying. He found calling for help and tossing responsibility unsatisfying. But after a few minutes of sitting and thinking he had an idea. A way of making any further combat more enjoyable. Walking over to his manipulation device he pried it open searching about for certain items. This was bound to not work how he was hoping¡­but it was better than just sitting here sulking. Opening his mouth wide Richard dropped several key chunks of the machine into his mouth and swallowed. Melting some stone from the ground he dropped it in his mouth as well ¨C still liquified. Waiting a few seconds Richard began re connecting his body slot. Searching about he pushed towards the manipulation devices. This had a high chance of failure ¨C early testing had his ability to influence his random skills at roughly 25%. Still if it worked it would be worth it. Maybe his wishes could be conveyed if he tried to think about it a lot? There was at least some link to the mind and a physical manifestation. Richard felt his slot connect to his body and begin claiming and modifying atoms in his body. They kept wanting to reconnect to the mostly gone ¡®breaking¡¯ skill but he mentally pushed his slot dragging it away and towards his swallowed devices. The residual aether in the swallowed stone reacted ¨C the stone couldn¡¯t stay liquified without aether after all. Dozens of small coincidences pushed together as Richard''s chaotic body began twisting probabilities. The attunement rods broke and bound to liquified stone, the manipulation chip was dragged back towards it fusing to the liquid stone attunements. And Richard began to use his stone hands to pull and drag the cement floor up into the air. As stone was manipulated by the hands his nascent skill shifted and began leaning towards a similar bend. His ai analysed everything and threw in some helpful tips, his mind poured through the slot dragging the parts together. Finally his desires began to bear fruit. The liquified stone slowly fell under his control. Soon ¨C under a half hour of effort ¨C and Richard could manipulate the liquified stone into a rope. Tossing and manipulating the rope up to the ceiling Richard pulled himself up till he was dangling upside down by his new skill right beside the door. I wonder if anyone else will come through? If they don¡¯t this will all be a waste¡­ ¡­ Richard¡¯s hopes were answered once again. Another executive passed through the airlock like set of doors and froze as he surveyed the carnage. A single hand began moving up towards his ear right as Richard slowly lowered himself upside down beside the monster. ¡°I¡¯m batman¡± Richard rasped in his best impersonation even as he attempted to choke the guy out from upside down. This executive jumped and blurred into motion right after Richard grabbed him. Running about the room they dragged Richard around upside down and tried to throw him off before Richard had the bright idea of retracting the rope holding him up and slowly dragging the executive into the air like a spider. Damn! I¡¯m not batman I¡¯m spiderman. Fuck it batman was funnier. Richard bemoaned even as he transferred the rock rope from around his waist to around the executives throat then dropped to the ground. Staring up at the hung creature in satisfaction Richard moulded some more cement into a bat and began to beat them like a pinata.
?? Achievement get: A human pinata (rare)
Description: Beat a hung player. I don''t think candies are going to drop from this.
Stat: +20 body power.
And that¡¯s where his heroic contacts found him. Standing in the middle of the room whacking the hung executive and smiling happily. The door opened slowly, and three men burst into the room ¨C one floating above the other two. Staring about one of the heroes tensed as he noticed Richard and shouted something. Right as that man made as if to capture him, he was stopped by a familiar hand. Slowly walking towards him the hero pinged Richards AI. Responding immediately the hero nodded at the response and walked towards him slowly as if he were dangerous. Well that¡¯s rude. I¡¯m a hero too! Richard tossed his cement bat to the side in good faith nodding towards the hero who stopped before them.
I think the villain is already dead
A message popped up in Richards ai causing him to glance back at his pi?ata.
I think you are right. Good catch.
Richard responded a moment later. Looking about he gestured towards the ¡®fuck¡¯ room and opened the door to the horror within. Instantly the two sidekicks sprang into action breaking down the cages and speaking calming words in a foreign language. The hero seemed to make up his mind.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The culprits are all dead, their accomplices in heavy questioning. You did well.
Richard beamed. It was always nice to be appreciated. Chapter 70. Break the system and take its power for your own. ---James--- ¡°If that¡¯s all you need, we can start on the survey?¡± R asked with a noncommittal question ¨C as if he didn¡¯t quite care about the answer either way. James hesitated for a moment longer than nodded. ¡°Perfect, one second¡± R began and began tossing his blue sheets to the side each sliding into James¡¯s view a moment later.
Magical break.
Would you like your magical affinity focused outwards or inwards? Internal magic requires manipulating mana within your body while external magic requires manipulating mana through external means. Internal mana scales on both body and mind stats while external may scale on variable requirements. Internal codified as [magic warrior], External codified as [mage]. Direction chosen locks your focus heavily and while warriors can affect the world outside of themselves and mages can effect their own body expanding from the field chosen remains more difficult.
Internal External
James only hesitated for a second. Internal, my goal has always been to turn my own body into a weapon not give my power to random weapons.
Energy focus, effect focus.
Purify the power of a skill into a pure energy source using the effect mechanisms as fuel for the capture and containment of source aether ¨C Physical node required to generate a slot. Majority of ability to create effects with aether source diminished until a tool is obtained or created and linked. Labelled Slot break. Purify the power of a skill then dump into the body without containing it in a dedicated slot. Labelled natural skill node. Focus on the ability to create effects by enhancing the effect mechanisms into physicality using source aether ¨C additional trauma required to fuse ability base. Labelled Esper break. Toss unenhanced effects and unpurified power into body hoping for some result. Labelled wild skill break. Aether aligned non focused break. High chance of keeping existing skill while unlocking growth potential. Chance of existing skills combining or influencing wild skill. Chance of skill mutations. Each additional break may end in any of the focus areas, but subsequent breaks will lean heavily towards existing break methodology. One broken skill needs to be set aside to embedded slot into item: AI. Assign additional (2) skills to [Slot, Node, Esper, Wild]
This was a stranger question. James hadn¡¯t heard much about aether breaks if he was being honest. Everyone seemed to focus on creating slots as the meta. All three of the other versions seemed better to him ¨C Wild was if he wanted to keep his current skill while ¡®breaking¡¯ its growth suppressor. Node was if he wanted a skill but didn¡¯t like the skill, he was breaking to fuel it. Esper seemed new ¨C he¡¯d heard of espers while researching aether but hadn¡¯t known how they were made. That sounded cool but also risky as there wasn¡¯t much focus on what it would actually do. Node was also risky in a way ¨C at least with a wild break he knew the type of skill he could grow, if he made a node it could be worse than the skill, he broke to make it. And of course, until he figured out how to start making devices having a slot break would¡­be wasteful. James thought for a bit then assigned things. Haste ¨C wild break. James liked haste. Kinetic retaliation. Useful but¡­no he wouldn¡¯t gamble on seeing what an Esper break would be or try and reset and grow a new one. This could be a wild break as well. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. So that left transference. A skill that so far was too niche to work properly. Could be useful if it worked instantly and didn¡¯t require random positioning but¡­easily the skill James used the least. This could be the slot he used for an AI? Yeah, it seemed the safest. ¡­if he had broken skills already there was a high chance, he would have more than three skills by now. Sad but¡­at least now James could start picking up new ones. Confirming his selection, the next question appeared.
Note Body stat you wish to host your off affinity.
Defense, moving on. ¡­no final panel appeared. James paused then glanced to R who was nodding to himself. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± ¡°Yep! Told you it would be fun. Now, are you ready?¡± R asked. James took a moment then nodded. ¡°Alright then. This should move quickly once I start. First off, the base.¡± Snapping his fingers a copy of James appeared standing just in front of him. James tensed slightly and stared at the clone. It was his body all right¡­although it looked a bit weaker? Like his stats hadn¡¯t been applied? Suddenly a sharp burn was felt in his side and James looked down in shock. R¡¯s hand was embedded into his body. James started to move but found he couldn¡¯t Slowly R brought one of James¡¯s two cores out of his body. R¡¯s hand looked sharp for a second before turning normal outside of James¡¯s stomach. Stabbing his hand into James¡¯s clone James watched frozen as R did an incredibly rough transplant ¨C no this couldn¡¯t be a transplant. This was just shoving organs into people and healing their skin over top of it. Pushing his clones kidney into his James¡¯s body R stepped back licking the blood dripping down his arm absentmindedly. ¡°Now the chip and split. R spoke and suddenly James fractured.
---James--- James regained consciousness as he felt a forging object burrow through his head. The Ai¡­but it shouldn¡¯t feel like this. Why does it feel like a metal spider is crawling through my ear? Richard said you barely noticed it. His body felt¡­weak one moment and strong the next. Ahead of him stood his clone looking as shocked as he did¡­his clone was wearing James¡¯s backpack. Oh I¡¯m the clone. R snapped his fingers in front of James¡¯s face. ¡°Alright, Consent has been acquired already so¡­Break as you¡¯ve broken before.¡± With those words James found a dozen ignored breaks suddenly rush through his skills. Each time he had dismissed the break message, each accrued break suddenly caught up to him. Everything began to feel hot ¨C James vaguely recognized the feelings of foreign energies traveling through his body and pooling in his stomach before a with a sharp gasp the defense in his body began to weaken and accommodate the energies. Vaguely aware of R pushing a pill down his mouth James collapsed and felt the rampaging energies push aside and draw upon his bodies defensive stats. Most of James¡¯s defense was located in his blood. His veins and his heart. At the time he had been trying to avoid bleeding out and hoping the stats would minimise the weakness James had with dehydration¡­ Now they became channels for energy. Suddenly not letting James rest R spoke once again. ¡°Two as one.¡± And James blacked out for the second time.
---James--- James awoke, he had two sets of memories of the past minute or so confusingly jumbled and then¡­suddenly compartmentalized and fixed by his brain. He remembered the feeling of the AI crawling into his head the aether ¨C or had it been mana? Pushing through his veins. He remembered feeling like the world was resonating with his body each of the concepts his skills contained slowly sinking into his very being. Revenge, Hording, accumulating, stealing, Escaping, All of >him< being infused by speed, Transfering, creating a decoy¡­ James shook his head and tried to make sense of things standing up slowly. Everything hurt ¨C it was hard to focus on anything but how unstable his body felt. R was trying to tell him something. James blinked and refocused. ¡°Got you. Okay, I¡¯ve briefly combined your two potential bodies into the same one. You are incredibly unstable right now but luckily, we have some glue standing over there.¡± R waved towards the towering monster less than a hundred meters away. ¡®Go and fight it. The achievement should set your current body and finalize this break. You have anywhere from an hour to a day before you rip into two bodies each trying to hold onto your soul, and you settle on one side. Good luck finishing off your break!¡± What? James blinked as R¡¯s words caught up to him. He felt¡­he felt both of the swirling energies in his body, but he didn¡¯t have time to focus on them. R was already pushing him towards the massive monster like he was a child being made to ¡®go play¡¯. James began running. His skills were gone¡­but they were still here with him. It felt strange ¨C he could distinctly remember each of his two bodies and their breaks and remember how he had felt in the seconds following them. ¡®Oh, this is what the skill was, it was this energy and these concepts all along¡¯. ¡®Oh this is what those skills were, they were this energy and that set of intangible structures.¡¯ And then he had combined and he suddenly realized how different the two felt. They were clear oil and water ¨C incredibly similar looking¡­and yet distinct when shoved in the same container. Instead of ¡®one energy held in his body defense¡¯ and ¡®one held in whatever free spot he had¡¯ they¡­were both held in both but not necessarily at the same time. One moment his veins were mana the next raw aether. As James began to move forward, he felt the last of the confusion sort itself out. His body was his ¨C the mana in it was his, the aether in it was his. The barest remembered guess of the reason R needing a life of his having something to do with that clone that appeared¡­all thoughts faded away to focus on the fight. James filled his body with speed. Chapter 71. Combat helps. ---James--- James crossed the distance to his training dummy, feeling the way the energy in his body swirled and fluctuated. As he moved, he tried to activate [haste]. The skill wasn¡¯t there anymore. The mental ¡®hook¡¯ he had to activate it was gone. And yet the energy swirling about his veins in a loop whispered to him. There was feedback from his wishes ¨C the concepts still shifting and embedding themselves in him sang out what he had to do. ¡­energy wasn¡¯t the most accurate term for the mana and aether rushing through his veins. Potential felt more accurate¡­and yet what was stored potential energy if not simply energy? James twisted his mana ¨C reaching into the contained kinetic potential and pulled. He pulled the mana out of his veins and sunk it into his muscles dragging the energy into its purpose. Mana sunk into his muscles like water being poured on desert soil disappearing deep into the flesh and interacting with the stats hidden within. Parched muscles drunk mana and swelled. James accelerated. It was less instant than a [haste] activation¡­and yet James could tell it was simply inexperience and his body being in such an unstable state that turned an instant activation into a steady ramp-up. James continued to move faster and faster, distant memories of the description he had received back in the tutorial flickering to the forefront of his mind. Stats were the base. Skills were the multiplier. Increasing both synergized the result into something greater than either could reach alone. James surpassed his maximum speed of just a few minutes before and kept going. James had slowly but steadily built up an incredibly solid base of speed stats concentrated in the muscles he used most often while fighting. If he could previously run at 40-50 km/hr using just his stats, 120-150 km/hr using a 3x boost from haste. Now¡­now it was ballooning into something like 150-400 km/hr as his multiplier grew stronger and stronger and the limits broke. The massive neck monster had begun slamming its entire upper body downwards towards the bug as it rushed towards him, but James was already past it. The neck moved surprisingly quickly for its size as it smashed into one of the few flaming trees behind James. A splintering crash rang out as the magma giraffe completely flattened the foliage and the shattered tree baked the area in heat then caused a rain of smoldering coals to pelt the surroundings. James turned on a dime feeling a strange disconnect from his body as the mana fueling haste flickered to aether and back to mana. His body flipped involuntarily midair as his unstable state cost him a second of control. Mana manipulated speed directly. It filled his veins with velocity. Aether approached speed differently than mana did. As far as aether was concerned, speed wasn¡¯t a force. Force was mass multiplied by acceleration. To speed up, you applied force to your mass which increased your speed. The force had to be applied from somewhere ¨C aether had to push off something in the air even as it twisted his current momentum attempting to direct it towards the creature in front of him. Speed returned and James jumped, finding his body rising higher and higher as he rose above the slowly raising neck and flipped midair. James began to fall, his body now sideways as it passed by the tree trunk-like neck. He punched as hard as he could, drawing mana down his veins and into his fist in a reverberating burst his stores dropping to a fraction in a moment. His hand burned slightly from the impact ¨C the monster was hot. More importantly, his unstable flicker twisted the side in control right before the moment of impact. As far as mana was concerned, punching something while flying through the air made complete sense. As far as aether was concerned, there wasn¡¯t anything to brace off of and it hadn¡¯t prepared to brace off something. Effect-wise, James found himself smacking the beast¡¯s neck then rocketing backwards through the sky as the force of his punch was applied equally to his body. Ragdolling midair, James righted himself and saw the entire nest from above. Close to three kilometers in diameter, the nest stood out against the endless green planes like an orange splotch on a green canvas. His brain spent a second trying to link what he was seeing to something¡­and failed. The surroundings didn¡¯t matter, all that mattered was what was happening to him. James realized he was falling downward quite quickly, and a faint flicker of panic shook his focus. While his mind blanked, his body attempted to instinctually react causing James to look inwards. All his skills were mushed together currently. They were in an incredibly fluid ¨C if unstable ¨C state and responded nearly instantly to his desires. It felt like he should take some time to slowly meditate and feel them out, but James obviously didn¡¯t have time. Instead, he ripped into the ideas, dragging mana about his body as concepts screamed their purpose into his body. James grabbed and smashed his desires into the concepts in the seconds he remained airborne, teasing out some of the voices from the others and ignoring the rest. James twisted the first part of the redirection skill ¨C the idea of grabbing all the kinetic energy from an attack ¨C and then, instead of shoving it onto a sacrifice, fed it into the retaliation skill. The one that sapped kinetic energy to release later. James landed on his back feeling the majority of the impact transforming directly into potential and joining the energy swirling through his veins kicking them back into bursting. There wasn¡¯t an invisible pool to fill with kinetic potential anymore ¨C there was just his body and what he could shove into it. This stolen energy wasn¡¯t his in the same way his mana and aether was. It felt wild. It also leaked. When the retaliatory skill was some nebulous external thing, leaking from that invisible pool was simply the potential draining and disappearing because it wasn¡¯t used. When that external pool was shifted to his body, leaking meant the energy steadily infused his body. It now sunk into his veins and fueled the haste-like mana burn in his muscles. Something in his foundation clicked. Something in his mutation was unblocked slightly ¨C his body drinking the draining energy making sure not a single drop was wasted. James ran back towards the field boss, the sparsely set glowing trees blurring past like neon lights in a city. Punching directly hadn¡¯t worked well for him ¨C the monster was a living furnace. Where were the rocks? All James could see were smoldering trees? James kept his eyes pealed for something to put between his fists and the creature¡¯s hot body. A massive splinter of the tree was embedded in a tree in front of him. Yanking the splinter out as he passed, James hefted the makeshift spear and shot towards the hulking figure in front of him. Crossing a hundred meters in a single second, James jumped and then ripped as much of his momentum out of his charge as he could while dumping it into his spear even as he threw. The splinter of wood shot away from him at the speed of sound. The shard of wood turned to splinters as it impacted the boss¡¯s neck near the base and drew bright yellow blood with a sharp crack. James skidded slightly and shot to the side once more. Nearly all his mana was spent once again but James jumped to meet the swing of the beast¡¯s neck head on. James felt the air before he felt the impact and yet found himself grinning as the neck approached. The boss¡¯s attack almost looked slow as it rushed towards him through the air. James felt slightly invincible as he activated his previous impact devouring skill and ripped a massive amount of kinetic energy out of the strike then shoved the potential straight into his pool. The cocky attitude was burned straight out of James a moment later. Something had shifted ¨C another unstable aspect or perhaps simply his concepts not having settled properly. It wasn¡¯t just kinetic energy contained in that strike. And it wasn¡¯t just a pure kinetic force that was ripped out and shoved in James¡¯s veins. Pure heat was briefly stored as potential in James¡¯s mana circuit, the hot potential burning into his blood even as it began steadily draining out and into his muscles and body. Haste fueled by fire and broke for a moment ¨C speed was so heavily soaked into that skill that heat didn¡¯t know what to do in its place. Haste had among other things been subtly increasing his perception speed and the broken skill caused the next few seconds to feel like a blur as James was suddenly high in the air his entire body wracked by pain which he took a moment to ignore and recover from. James found himself starting to fall for the second time in as many minutes. The wind began whistling past his body even as he grabbed the speed mana in his body and twisted it slowing his decent with slow mana. A sort of reverse haste he cut off from his upper body, so it no longer slowed his perception along with his movement. Weird interactions shifted and clicked as they solidified ¨C his stability increased in the midst of combat his two sides shifting slightly more in line. Slow mana was an energy that caused things to slow down. it was a physical energy opposite to speed mana while complementary. ¡­Aether flickered into place and then out whispering this didn¡¯t make sense. Slow wasn¡¯t an energy. It was the lack of energy. Reducing speed was removing kinetic energy from something. James¡¯s spent pool began to fill slightly as his unstable skills latched onto this truth shifting his slow energy into a drain of the kinetic energy as aether beat the inconsistency into line. His slow fall was his body stealing energy from gravity. Turning gravitational potential energy into stored kinetic energy. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Click. Mana looked at this arrangement and scoffed. Gravity was just a form of movement magic. Gravity was kinetic mana limited to push only downwards causing it to grow slightly stronger because of that limit. And so, the two forces raging across James¡¯s body began to find commonalities. Mana refilled based on time and lifeforce. It pulled power from the concept of time without weakening time a constant steady reliable trickle. It pulled power from the strength of the user fluctuating with health and emotions and injuries and a thousand tiny things. Aether refilled based on gravity and chemical processing. A steady constant drain like a miniature version of the massive gravity wells fueling the aether cities. A fluctuating secondary source based on food and metabolizing fat and nutrition into pure power. This fluctuated based on health as well along with how well fed its user was. They were the same energy. The same not energy twisted in different ways. Oil and water mixed slightly. Click James¡¯s body went through epiphany after epiphany stabilizing more and more as it fell even as his mind tried desperately to catch the instinctual flickering happening throughout the domain that was his body. Throughout the closed system that was his power ¨C the locked room that had the truth to everything. James had mana and aether. Only one could be active at a time without interfering with the other. Not because they were different energy sources but because the viewpoint you looked at the common ¡®potential¡¯ beneath shifted between the two. One lens went to one core the other went to the other. They were both attached to the circuit, both had equal say on how he used the potential. He could only use one side at once. They shared a pool however ¨C the cost of sacrificing his defensive stats¡­hadn¡¯t been needed. It had been done ¨C something deep in the idea of his defensive stats had been shattered so it could host his power but¡­the cost hadn¡¯t been fulfilled. Something ground to a halt at that realization. His defense did not need to be stifled to accommodate half of one power. His body defense had already been broken in a subtle way ¨C it could not grow but it no longer needed to be stifled to accommodate his power. And yet his potential already overlapped his defensive stats. The cost had been paid but the result was not fulfilled. James couldn¡¯t use both powersets at once. Whatever shattered part of his defensive stats had been broken in the contract attempted to heal. The cost had been paid and could not be reverted. It could be fixed in a way however. An equivalent exchange. The meaning behind his defensive stats shifted and fused more tightly to his body mutation. In less than a second nothing visible had changed but the fundamental balance had shifted entirely. Initially the majority of his power was held in his veins as his highest pool of defensive stats. That was where it was hosted. His mana circuit. The next highest source of defensive stats before his break had been his bones followed by the skin on his fists. Fundamentally his veins as a source for his power had resonated deeply with James. Blood was magic as he had seen with Maddy. Blood caried his magic through his body and deposited it where it might be used. Bones¡­bones made a great sink for excess power but that was it. A great storage medium ¨C a great place to dump kilojoules of energy, the solid structure insulating them slightly from the rest of his body. The base meaning of his defensive stats had been broken. As they attempted to heal, these stats latched onto their original purpose and twisted it slightly. A resonance with his mutation finished. There was a foreign energy invading it. A harmful energy that was too wild for his veins. His body had mutated to absorb what he ate¡­that which attacked it. His defensive stats existed to protect him from external harm. His defensive stats existed to help him process the external harm into strength. The heat burning James was grabbed and shifted into his bones. Heat pooled and was compressed into James¡¯s bones, his marrow boiling ¨C the physical elements vaporizing instantly deep inside of his body even as his body continued to process the power. The last bit of his broken aether skills began to regrow and interact with the complex series of interactions happening inside of James¡¯s body clicking into place for the final time. Aether told him fire was similar to kinetic energy. Kinetic energy was big things moving about. Fire was small things moving about. Aether told him he should be able to create any effect with his movement ability. Aether told him all energy was the same. Aether said energy could be transferred between these two forms. Take the vibrating atoms and steal their vibration. Store that vibration as potential. James cooled slightly as his body processed the power into a form it understood. Mana pointed out the meaning was being scrubbed. The power couldn¡¯t shift that easily. The concept of heat was still there. There was now a wild kinetic energy with the concept of heat in his body. The concept of heat was a foreign concept the magic in James¡¯s body should not be able to affect. The mutation in James ate and processed all the esoteric bits of the energy shoving miniscule processed motes of potential into different bits of his body. From James¡¯s point of view, he had been hit upwards, his veins burning. Rapidly he slowed himself and his body quickly cooled, his mana circuit feeling strained and overworked while a dozen parts of his body screamed different things to itself. Everything had happened over the course of a few seconds of slowed fall. Mentally James grew more sure of himself as instability was chased away. James reoriented. He had nearly fallen back to the boss¡¯s grasp and the creature was directly below him, mouth open wide. How do I move out of the way? I¡¯m in the air? It¡¯s my body, right? I should be able to move it how I want. James wrestled his mana inside his body and pushed it to one side even as he dropped his slow fall. With a sideways dash, he jumped sideways through the air his unstable body no longer fighting him. There was no involuntary flip-flopping, just him using the ability he wanted. Currently magic was easier to shape, so James stayed nearly solely within the realm of imagination and mana as he dodged a bite and pulled his body back through the air manipulating his speed directly. Gravity tugged downwards incessantly and yet his magic had already learned it was simply a force it held domain over. It simply had to pull the power pulling it down into itself. Gravity was nothing more than fuel. If James had noticed, he had an audience he would have tried more graceful backflips and darts through the air¡­but it was all he could do to focus on dragging his body back and forth as he dodged swipe and bite after swipe and bite. Down below R sat on a comfortable-looking chair eating what looked suspiciously like popcorn. Evasion wasn¡¯t an attack. Sooner or later, something would fail, and James¡¯s fuel was rapidly running lower. He didn¡¯t belong in the sky yet. Directing his body straight down James briefly embraced and enhanced the pull of gravity with mana then shifted and aimed towards one of the boss¡¯s spider legs. They looked fragile and the boss had not moved once since his battle had begun. Smashing down like a comet James punched straight down transferring his own momentum into a strike and slowing to a slight fall right as he landed. The leg broke surprisingly easily considering how tough the boss had seemed up till now. It also hadn¡¯t been hot. Grabbing the leg, James dodged the falling neck and began to run backwards attempting to think. That swing¡­that swing seemed slightly faster than anything before. Tossing his prize to the side James reversed directions and headed back directly towards the monster. Strafing around the side of the creature James dodged a tree trunk sized neck thudding into the ground beside him then darted forward and punched once again. Channeling a bit of juice into his fist to help the punch along, James smashed off a second leg the insect-like appendage flipping up and into the air as it was knocked off. A bellow rent the air as the creature grew slightly faster and attacked once again. Swiping around in a protective sweep that James had to jump back to avoid. His brain was finally starting to think in terms of strategy. The foundations were pretty uniform across both sides and species. As a tough monster that attacked physically¡­this boss definitely had a body foundation. For the most part, the difference between large amounts of defense and either a specialized body or generalized body were easy to spot. A generalized body with lots of defense would be squishier. Easy to land attacks, easy to draw blood or take off a limb. They would be less affected by those minor wounds, however. They would heal easier. Essentially, they had a massive health pool and low amour. A specialized body with lots of defense on the other hand would be able to shrug off more attacks. Instead of healing from blows they would simply ignore them. A specialized tank would be a wall you couldn¡¯t break. In exchange they had a single point you could focus on. A core or cores. A weakness concentrated into a single point instead of spread throughout the entire body. Another dart and smash of a leg caused the creature to stumble and swing even faster. As far as magic was concerned limits and scenarios created strength. This boss had its unhidden cores attached to its body. In exchange, it seemed to gain speed and presumably strength the closer it came to dying. James had found the creature¡¯s initial movements laughably easy to dodge, but as he worked his way through the legs he began to sweat. Even as he increased the amount of mana he was shoving into ¡®haste¡¯ the margin of error for each dodge was becoming slimmer and slimmer. His AI took that time to finish booting up online, its entire functionality briefly exposed to the situation. Its fuel seemed strained ¨C the device itself had been made into a slot locking it into a permanent skill as far as aether was concerned. Mana seemed to want to rejoin the rest of his body and his truth of flipping between mana and aether didn¡¯t like the disconnect between the ai being an aether source and mana wanting a single combined pool. A flex of will fixed things. The ai was cut off from his general pool the effects of powering it with mana instead of aether mitigated. As it finished coming online, several blue boxes appeared about the edges of James¡¯s vision like a Hud. Functionally his AI was a powerful newborn. It hadn¡¯t grown with him yet and knew not to interrupt or offer advice. It did seem to react to his wishes somewhat as some marvel of technology had it read James¡¯s surface thoughts and minimize most of the boxes. Deciding to help in the only way it knew how his AI calculated his pool, his regeneration, his current draw and then helpfully displayed them all along with a little timer telling him how long it would take till he reached zero. 12.056s Thanks¡­real helpful. James pushed even more mana into haste watching the timer rapidly begin dropping faster before his AI took into account the new draw and flipped to a 4s timer. With a final burst of speed, James shot forward smashing the final leg and carrying past the final defensive swipe from the monster. A single guttural wail rang out and then the creature collapsed. Its flailing neck lost all power continuing its momentum and dragging its body with it causing the fat torso to be pulled to its side leaking yellow blood from every smashed core. James stood breathing heavily watching his pool tick from 1% to 2% on the screen even as a blue box appeared.
?? Achievement get: Take down the long-necked ember king. (unique)
Description: Solo beat a field boss at your advancement level.
Stat: +9 free body power. Stat: +9 free body speed. Main reward: Nonstandard break stabilized. Partial concepts of information and translation infused into embedded artifact .
Behind him a faint clapping broke the silence. James flinched and glanced over at R waving him down from the sidelines. James looked about and then slowly walked over to his audience, an awkward feeling pushing down the pride he had felt for winning. ¡°Good on you, knew you could do it¡± R waved smiling happily. James stopped before the creature and looked down. R was lounging in a reclining chair. Upon his face were a pair of those old 3D cinema glasses, the blue and red sunglasses looking slightly comical upon his waxy indistinct form. ¡°Is¡­is that it?¡± James asked looking about. R nodded for a moment standing up and causing his items to melt away. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s it. Congrats on passing the trial! Well done and all that. I¡¯ll give you a moment to collect yourself and then I can toss you back in the previous zone if you like. Your job as absolute only really starts when everyone gets here, and I wouldn¡¯t want you to lose out on the clear rewards.¡± James nodded slightly and then looked back at the smoldering body of his kill. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll toss you back with your kill if you like. It would only rot here anyways¡± R nodded seemingly reading James¡¯s mind. ¡°Just give me a shout when you are ready. I really don¡¯t mind.¡± R continued stepping back as if giving him some space. James looked about trying to figure out if there was anything else he needed here. OH! His spice bag. For some reason his backpack was sitting on the ground beside where R had been sitting. Grabbing his supplies and shrugging them onto his back James looked over at R and nodded. ¡°Ready¡± And within a blink, the world changed. He seemed to have been kicked back to the wilderness. James found himself in the prehistoric forest once again standing beside the smoldering carcass of the monster he had killed. Ahead of him a river rushed past and faintly the sound of a waterfall rang out. R was gone. James took a moment to check out the surroundings and then carefully checked over the body of the monster beside him. He was worried it might start a fire. Helpfully his AI pointed out R seemed to have dumped it on a rocky area beside the water specifically so it would not light the forest on fire. Staking out the surroundings James returned and stared at his catch once again. Now for the real question. How should he go about eating this? Chapter 72. Self mutilation for fun and profit. ---Maddy--- After the talk with the Queen, Maddy started making a massive number of ¡®big decisions¡¯ one after another. First, the decision to gain a third affinity. She couldn¡¯t do it without giving something up¡­but maybe that was the point. The power it gave her would directly relate to how much she would gain after finally committing. Body stat was a split-second decision. Barely even missed its passing. The problem is what came from there. For the best result, Maddy needed to sacrifice three more areas. One for combo with dark/light. One for death/life. One for Dark-Death/Light-Life. She had six options. Considering her soul was simply an astral body her mind could inhabit instead of her body¡­and considering she now knew that and couldn¡¯t trick herself into giving it more importance in her magic. Well, she was leaning towards dropping soul stats over mental stats. Initially, she was imagining dropping all three ¨C but then she had started second guessing herself and trying to imagine the utility of each stat. Each stat she had needed to have a purpose to be worth keeping. Her foundation and shift through mutation meant that the meaning of her mental stats had shifted slightly. Mental defense was the durability of her ¡®mental web¡¯. The strength of the connections between different areas. If her doppelganger was to be believed, the stat was the major factor preventing the negative parts of her foundation from appearing. The warning it had given back when she chose it. Considering it also helped resist the most insidious of attacks ¨C rare mental abilities ¨C Maddy was loath to remove it. Mental power was roughly the number of mental threads she could use. It had blossomed to the point where Maddy could theoretically keep track of thousands of separate things at once, but Maddy rarely ever took advantage of that. Mental speed had shifted the most. Using the web metaphor, it was the number of connections between each area. Its major focus seemed to be letting her separate mental threads communicate with each other. As a computer metaphor, that was her thread synchronization. Soul defense was how long she could stay in the astral ¨C how long her soul could survive outside of her body. Soul speed was how she could move herself as a soul. And soul power was how she could affect things as a soul. Soul stats sounded impressive¡­but they only felt like they came into play if she actively used them. Soul power and speed only came into play if she was floating about as a ghost trying to activate things. Maddy¡­felt like soul power and speed were the easiest two to give up. She wouldn¡¯t want to actively be trying to affect things as a ghost. But something caught when she thought about giving up soul defense. If¡­if anything happened to her body, her mind had a safe place to go. Maddy had life mana ¨C she had healing ¨C so while she couldn¡¯t yet¡­a faint part of her had imagined the idea of healing back from death safe inside her soul. She didn¡¯t have a body foundation to facilitate it¡­but that shouldn¡¯t be locked away from her if she grew stronger. So maybe she should drop one of the mental stats instead? Between them. Mental defense was the most boring but felt the most important. Removing power when she wasn¡¯t taking advantage of it¡­felt safest. Felt like nerfing her potential instead of her current abilities. Removing mental speed/sync on the other hand. It felt like¡­it felt like embracing the idea behind her foundation while weakening it slightly. That¡¯s how everything felt. After taking two days of rest and ruminating on these in several different ways Maddy made a decision. Mental power embraced her foundation and built off of it while mental speed simply mitigated a potential problem from it. It felt like a weaker choice. If she had chosen a focused mind that distinction might have swapped¡­but ¡®as is¡¯ Maddy felt the best about removing mental speed as a growing stat and committed. Traveling through to the bottom of the easier dungeon, Maddy wrote her desired exchange onto her stomach and then collected a large amount of donated creation/destruction mana from Jess before using the boss to lock it in. Despite doing the majority of the fight alone it had barely been enough of an achievement to lock it in. No stats accompanied the fight as a repeat and yet her goal had been achieved. ¡­ That had been a rush. Everything had worked pretty much exactly how she had imagined it. She felt slightly weaker as her existing body speed stats disappeared, didn¡¯t even notice the reduction to her soul stats and then found her mentality shifting rapidly. Her mental stats were the big cost, and she could feel it in the change to her resting thoughts. Her mental speed was pushed aside, and her mind splintered slightly, each mental thread untethering ¡®a teensy bit¡¯ from each other. It very quickly started to feel like she had multiple minds instead of simply one mind that was incredibly good at multitasking. Her skill for gaining the affinity had been ¡®healing water¡¯. The ability to ¡®create¡¯ a liquid full of healing life mana that was stable and lasted until it was used or broken in some other way. ¡­but that skill had been broken into its parts nearly instantly and wasn¡¯t something Maddy wanted to focus on just yet. Several of the connections between her threads snapped but those that remained were still strong and firm. Perhaps if she had removed defense all the threads would have snapped entirely before floating away? Her mind was splintered slightly and yet it was still her. That¡¯s all there was to it. There was no conflicting personalities fighting over control or anything similar, there was simply different parts of her mind focusing on different things and not collaborating as much as they had been up to that point. More importantly there was what she had gained. The triple combined mana pool was exponentially stronger. A single tiniest drop of dark-destructive-death ¨C or DDD as Maddy had mentally called it could melt through nearly any unreinforced object or creature she could direct it at. She could create simple small purple tinged items using creation mana or realistic small and simple items using ¡®creation/light¡¯. All quick and simple things to study but there was something she wanted to do first. Her current plan. Her current massive undertaking. A new focus. As Maddy was a mage, she had to convey her intent with her mana in an external way. That meant writing down a spell. A focus was the device those spells were written on and important for a single reason. If she used it to cast the same spell again and again, the spell would grow stronger. More efficient ¨C the mana better able to understand her intent as it built on all the spells that had been cast before. There was some meaning held in an object. The meaning which could make someone¡¯s most cherished and well used homemade object immensely stronger as a focus than something someone else had made ¨C no matter how many bells and whistles they might have added. Instead of buying a specially made focus she was better off picking any old object that resonated with her and using that. Someone¡¯s childhood toy could have more power than a traded archmage¡¯s grimoire. There was power in the spoon someone used to eat during a famine that simply did not exist from an item crafted by another. There was a certain magic in the mundane. A magic in history, a magic contained in the feelings one might have for something. And that¡¯s where Maddy¡¯s focus had shifted. She had felt a link to her scythe and had felt how it had grown with her. Spell after spell cast through it each becoming stronger over weeks of time. A cloak hadn¡¯t been the same, no matter how useful of a canvas it had been. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. And despite loving her scythe it had been lost to her. Despite a cloak being useful it had been easily broken. Maybe if she had cared more she would have spent more effort on the cloak but it had only ever been a replacement to her. That was the difference. What Maddy wanted was spells that couldn¡¯t be broken. A focus that couldn¡¯t be taken from her. The simplest option was obviously to figure out how to prevent anyone from taking her focus from her. Figuring out how to make an item that could follow her about or defend itself. And yet¡­that¡¯s not where Maddy¡¯s mind had stayed. She hadn¡¯t gone with the ¡®simple¡¯ option. The idea of trying to make a living staff that crawled around after her and defended itself had felt flimsy in a way she couldn¡¯t quite place. No, Maddy¡¯s mind had gone down a more extreme path. Of embedding her magic into her body. She could of course simply go ham on the tattoos. Those would be hard to remove. But Maddy had had tattoos and her doppelganger had neutralized them. Something visible on her skin¡­it didn¡¯t feel protected. What Maddy wanted was to act almost like an internal magic user. She wanted¡­to place her spells deep within her body. Protect them with the same level of effort as she would protect her brain or heart. In fact¡­if she managed to make spells that could revive her from death, they would become even more important than those unmagical fleshy organs. Her first idea had been to swallow something. That had immediately shifted to the idea of cutting open a section of her body and inserting a focus then healing it back. And finally it had shifted to her current plan. She was going to carve her magic directly into her body. Specifically her bones. She couldn¡¯t think of an object that meant a lot to her and so using a part of her body felt even more meaningful. There was also a resonance with her bones and how her magic felt. Death had a link to bones and as they would be deep inside of her, they would be constantly in darkness. They weren¡¯t quite something that linked to creation or destruction but they still felt better than something random. And this is where her plan got weird. Despite vaguely feeling like she could roughly carve stuff onto her bones from outside her body¡­despite that being a possibility it wouldn¡¯t have felt accurate. Which led to carving it outside of her body and then placing it back in her body. Something that should not have been the idea she should have focused on and yet as soon as Maddy imagined that solution she couldn¡¯t bring herself to let it go. She kept coming back to this insane plan until finally after removing a bone from her toe and healing it back good as new in a morbid test she committed. ¡­ Maddy very awkwardly lay in the groups shared room surrounded by the bed¡¯s shared curtain with very specific instructions not to enter. In the middle of the bed lay a washbasin full of altered healing liquid she had taken an entire day to fill. The basin itself was covered in words spelling out its purpose countless lines of repeating intent separating the goal of the liquid into two parts. In front of her lay her two hip bones. One of the biggest bones in her body and easiest to write on with its flat sections. Her stomach and both legs were covered in writing ¨C a steady trickle of life mana keeping it stable and removing the majority of pain from breaking her concentration even as the liquid slowly dropped. A single massive slit ran across the bottom of her stomach, an application of destructive darkness having facilitated this self surgery. Maddy couldn¡¯t feel her legs. Even without pain the extraction had been messy. Even with the amount of healing life mana and steps she had taken this all felt risky. She ¡®felt¡¯ and believed with all her heart that this would work but¡­would probably not have done this if it weren¡¯t for the safety she knew she had in terms of extra lives. This felt like too massive of a jump forward but also felt like her best chance of advancement. She wasn¡¯t jumping into things ¨C she had come up with this plan in part while captured and stressed beyond her mind but Maddy hadn¡¯t implemented it then. She had waited long enough, it felt like a rational decision instead of one made in the heat of the moment. She had put in place as many safety measures as possible and committed on a down day in case this operation took her out for longer than she was anticipating. Maddy lay in a vague cloudy realm above pain and worldly concerns. Her situation almost slipped away ¨C it almost felt fake. She was dissociating hard right now and embracing the degree she was separated in the moment. Holding her charcoal pencil in a loose relaxed manner Maddy wrote magic onto a bumpy canvas. A canvas surprisingly free of blood after being cleaned and dried on the cloth beside her. She doodled slightly letting her experiences guide her hand as they looped lines and scribbled words about the runes cementing each focus into prominence. In some ways the way she was writing her current spells felt like regression. Instead of writing a rhyme Maddy was using an older version of her knowledge where mana flowed along sentences and paths looping back onto runes or splitting like the roots of a tree. She had realized she wasn¡¯t good at rhymes or poems and the only reason they held strength was due to being harder to write. A self imposed limit Maddy didn¡¯t want to be forced into for the future. There was a lot of those self imposed limits to magic ¨C something she could focus on soon but which was a distraction in the moment. What Maddy was doing for her dual magic was simple in concept. First she drew every single one of her current runes along both pelvic bones similar to how she had set up her tongue but with a few small changes. Instead of sound in the center Application was the focus in a very real way. It was a glue concept ¨C something weakened by stretching in too many directions and gaining an incredible amount of flexibility due to that stretching. She had mostly set runes and spellforms that overlapped between spells in similar spots. The most complicated and understood spell remained her eggs that split into healing vines or deadly maggots and one of the more simple but heavily shaped spells was her scout eyes. Both had improved as she had grown ¨C splitting eggs benefited greatly from the concept of polarity shifting the mana and locking it into a side. Eyes benefited from creation mana and the innate concept of creation. The majority of her focus was in layout however. Her left bone was had most of her attack and damage spells, right had most of her utility spells or spells with a ¡®softer¡¯ focus. Healing and helping others. In many ways this sort of combined focus was worse. There felt like there was a meaning to making a separate bone for each spell. To making sure the written form of spells didn¡¯t overlap and potentially corrupt each other. And yet Maddy focused on this to start because it would immediately remove how weak she felt without access to a simple kit of abilities. Her goal wasn¡¯t to solve every possible problem or to create incredibly generalized spells like her tongue had been. Her goal was to solve every simple situation she could think of in as efficient a way as she could. This in some ways would be her foundation. Future bones could have higher purposes. She also liked the theming she was doing ¨C by separating spells by a vague ¡®passive¡¯/¡¯hostile¡¯ goal she hoped they would interact in a beneficial way. Sharing strength instead of weakening each other. Finishing up the last her her spells ¨C a simple incredibly low mana light orb written across the edge of the right femur ¨C Maddy looked over her drawings carefully. There was a final reason for her ¡®all in¡¯ plan. Maddy wanted to practice and study her new affinity while keeping the majority of her old power intact. If she created specific new spells she could place them on new bones. Future bones should be easier to reach but smaller and harder to write on and better fits for a ¡®single spell¡¯. This was her best shot of a combined focus. Not seeing any glaring problems in her sketches Maddy began to slowly carve her drawings. Her finger was covered in a quick spell to help her focus and she activated it now. A single drop of DDD formed on the tip and sharpening into a point slightly turning her finger into a dark purple claw. Carefully Maddy carved each of her runes soaking her mana into each carving as she worked. She spent as much time on them as she could before moving to the words and helper shapes mapping out each spell in a web of connections. Finishing off both of her focuses Maddy glanced over the carved runes critically. It felt like she should fill them with something. Pour molten gold into the carved cracks or something¡­but Maddy didn¡¯t have a specific medium to do that with. None of her concepts were really a physical solid she could imbue. There were no meaningful elements she felt fit. A future test? It would have to be. As if waking from a dream Maddy stared down at her mangled and surgically preserved bottom with a wince. Before she started to fully come to terms with her state Maddy pulled her carved bones down and began squeezing each into place. Her flesh parted a fresh burst of blood dying the healing liquid around her a darker shade before with a few quick alterations to the basins script, Maddy deactivated the first part and enabled the second part of the magic. Slowly the magic that kept her situation preserved was tipped. Instead of healing ongoing damage Maddy healed the more fundamental damage of her bones being removed. The pool began to drain rapidly her flesh knitting up immediately while the pool continued to flow into her soaking deep into her skin. For an agonizing period of uncertainty Maddy continued to find her body frozen. Her legs wouldn¡¯t move. She had irreversibly broken herself, hadn¡¯t she? What had led to her thinking this was a good idea? Why couldn¡¯t she feel her lower half yet? Then with a spasm of her knee, Maddy found her nerves and whatever else governed her lower body had been fixed. Watching the last of the liquid drain ¨C all that was left was a reddish sludge ¨C Maddy slowly lifted herself out of the basin triumphant. It had worked like she knew it would. Reaching a single hand out Maddy felt a link to the runes inside her and directed mana to a small section with barely a thought. Beside her lighting up the entire bed and casting a bright glow upon the scene sat a small floating orb of light. Shifting it to red and then blue with a focused thought Maddy spent a bit more effort to change the size and move her light about her head the more advanced forms drawing a heavier cost of mana. She laughed despite herself, flexing her will and causing a dozen orbs to appear and then a hundred and then a thousand watching them all dim and pop like soap bubbles as her light mana ran dry. She had done it! Time would increase efficiency and she would need to cast every single spell several times to make sure they set properly¡­but that was easy enough with the dungeon nearby. Now¡­now Maddy could start studying her new affinity in earnest. I wonder what I can create next? Chapter 73. Cultivation and cool down. ---James--- James did a quick scout of the area ¨C the river flowed back a ways to large waterfall and forward towards a split. Not finding anything of interest he returned to his potential meal. The smoking carcass billowed a smell that turned sweeter the longer it sat. The first problem on his lack of plate, was trying to butcher it. The majority of the body was too tough to cut with any tool James had. He could make slight cuts with a massive amount of force but¡­it was just that tough even in death. Like a chunk of hot stiff rubber surrounded in crackly off orange skin. Moving to the bits of the leg leftovers, James cracked and snapped off the largest chunk and peered inside. The legs were a thin and brittle carapace holding a incredibly tender orange tinted meat ¨C although most of the meat had fallen out when James smashed them. Tasting a tiny bit James found it reminded him of shellfish with a slight hint of sweetness. There seemed to be a theme for a lot of big monsters, their meat had a high content of sugary ¨C or more accurately sugar adjacent ¨C elements in it. This wasn¡¯t the first time James had bit into a monster and tasted sugar. Was a requirement for growing large having a lot of sugar? Like a massive humming bird? That didn¡¯t seem right, sugar would burn too fast. Best not to question it too much. To the side his AI promptly began analyzing and spitting out facts. James hadn¡¯t needed the computer to tell him it was safe ¨C his monster meat knowledge from long ago had made him pretty confident he could eat it. ¡­come to think of it that wasn¡¯t something he had thought about in a while. The system handing out information directly into his head. Now that he had a moment to relax he also had to think about his ai. It hadn¡¯t shoved information in yet but it was interfacing quite clearly with his mental state. Should he be concerned? James felt concern but also felt slightly like a boomer adopting cellphones as a new technology. The main reason he had wanted an AI was as a cellphone. Could he use it right away? Could James message Richard? That was literally the point. Actively focusing on his AI James began to control the expanding panels pulling them about his vision mentally and flipping between panes. The correct areas appeared after a small amount of mental prodding ¨C the AI really liked to hide and show things based on request so it only took a moment to pull up a communication setup. Flipping through more options the AI seemed to pull the identifier for Richards ¡®phone¡¯ straight out of James¡¯s memory. The ¡®phone number¡¯ or string of characters that translated to some trinary number. Once again creepy it just read his thoughts but considering he was interacting with it using his mind it wasn¡¯t that big of a stretch. James immediately ran into a problem sending his first message. It simply stated Richard was out of his current range. It asked if James wanted to schedule a message for when he did get back in range¡­but that wasn¡¯t good enough. ¡®unsimplifying¡¯ his interface and delving into the real settings James began to flip through options and information trying to find a good solution. This felt familiar. Technically he had been a programmer in his job. ¡®Technically¡¯ because he hadn¡¯t really programmed much. At least not anything James considered programming. It had mostly been excel work if he was honest and running cobbled together batch scripts passed down and modified by others. James didn¡¯t want to think of those jobs ¨C they had been stifling. He hadn¡¯t been an extravert so there was no chance of success. James shook the unwanted memories away and focused on cracking open his new device. He knew how to navigate a computer and while the initial interface was entirely different as soon as he dug deep it felt familiar. This is all his AI was currently. A high tech cellphone with all the capabilities of a miniature computer. Okay. If James ramped up his power he would be able to boost the range. Assuming he could maintain that boost for a second or two he should be able to reach Richard ¨C or rather than reach Richard reach an idle AI that could bounce his message to the real Richard. Seems like a plan. The AI itself didn¡¯t see a way of increasing its energy draw so James had to step out of the interface for a moment and figure out how to move his energy manually. He fumbled. During the breaking ritual his AI had been sort of ¡®cut off¡¯ from the rest of his power. Instead of the skill being attached to his overall ¡®pool¡¯ it had been ¡®sandboxed¡¯. All its generation, linking, everything about it was isolated from his combined aether and mana. Trying to force a meld of the two didn¡¯t work. No mater how much James imagined grabbing and squeezing them together or pushing a pulling the areas into one they wouldn¡¯t connect. Ripping off one of the last legs James took a large slurp and tried again. This time James stopped trying to force a full connection. After a bit of internal manipulation James finally bridged the gap. The idea wasn¡¯t to ¡®connect¡¯ it but to pass energy and power from his normal pool to his cut off pool. Not a meld a simple hand off. Collecting the majority of his energy and dragging it towards his head ¨C feeling his face heat slightly ¨C James grabbed and shoved all of his megar pool boosting the theoretical range¡­ And nothing. Pushing his entire pool of energy towards it boosted the theoretical range¡­and did nothing. That was anticlimactic. James felt his energy splutter and slow. The speed infusing his veins faded to a dim flicker before he stopped. What a waste of power. James sighed and gave up for now, He¡¯d probably have to cross the badlands again to send a message or two. There was a good chance that mess of nests was interfering with the connection somehow¡­or maybe he just wasn¡¯t strong enough? James finished eating the scraps of his raw meal, reaching in and teasing out bits of the energy from his stomach. He could feel the foreign power slowly radiating out and running through his bloodstream. It deposited bits and pieces on the inside of his body ¨C bits of the food changed into aether as his stomach began the long process of digestion. For some reason focusing on the process and manually attempting to direct it sped everything up by a order of magnitude. Meditating increased the speed, but more importantly it brought something to James¡¯s attention¡­what is that? With a twitched James flipped to his AI after realizing it was acting strangely as well. As if eagerly waiting for him to check his AI needed barely any prodding to show what it was sensing.
Stat: +4 neck muscle might
Stat: +7 adrenaline production, propagation and effect due to danger and damage
There it was. The exact format seemed off ¨C those were those monstrous stats his body would give him huh? They looked a bit weird if James was being honest. None seemed to match the format of normal stats ¨C was ¡®might¡¯ closer to power or speed? It felt¡­it felt like a mix between the two with a more savage underpinning. The second stat seemed to be adrenalin power separated between the gland and anything it produced but with a¡­ Switching his lens to mana James felt the stats out a bit more. His senses slowly wrapped around and through the new areas before returning with their findings. Mana claimed it was simply a power stat bound to a concept ¨C sort of like a pseudo skill fueled by a stat instead of mana? Was that how regular stats worked? A sort of passive skill that slowly built upwards? No regular stats felt a bit different. Either way considering how relatively few stats they were, the effect wasn¡¯t too significant. Every little bit obviously helped but the increase to neck might and adrenalin, whatever was overwhelmed by all the other modifications James had done. Actually, this all isn¡¯t a normal process. It¡¯s because of my body mutation ¨C its finally started working properly now that I finished my break. All the monsters I eat should give a bit of their stats as long as they are stronger than me in a certain way. Any foreign energy can be integrated ¨C I already experienced that with the attack in that last fight. Can my AI pick up what was done? Trying to analyze himself and trying to study his body with both lenses to his power, James slowly teased out¡­something. There wasn¡¯t fully a stat he could point to. No number attached to anything or concrete proof it had done something. But he had felt something being deposited along his mana channels in that last fight and searching about the area did start to provide something no matter how faint. Despite the low feedback, from what James could tell, there was something like a ¡®thermal energy conversion to kinetic energy¡¯ sort of¡­efficiency? Speed? That power was very very thinly spread throughout his entire veins and seemed to be mixed with some sort of fire defense. It was hard to tell the exact results because it felt almost like his veins were a metal that had been ever so slightly tempered and quenched in a blacksmiths fire. All that mattered for now was James felt like if he tried to recreate the same feat he would have a better shot of things. It felt like if he tried to recreate the same result, he would have a better shot of things. His veins better able to suck and hold onto the power without burning the rest of his body. What about¡­ With a thought James¡¯s status appeared.
Status
Rank 3
Total 754¡À Lots of unknown or altered stats, Still classifying
Body defense 130¡À Roughly 1/3 reduction and limit cap applied. Body Power 300 Speed 243
Top body stat concentrations.
Blood/circulatory system 59¡À High flux impacting readings Arms/chest 131¡À Legs 200¡À
Mental power 13 Mental Defense 20 Mental speed 6
Esper defense 9
Body foundational mutation found, memory classified as Monster Kiln of Combat Eater. (Mana/Aether): ???
That¡­that seemed accurate? James felt about his body. Mostly accurate and with low fidelity ¨C it seemed confused by parts. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The breakdown was nice but it appeared to be measuring the concentration or quality of his aether? It almost looked like his AI was attributing some of his skill to his speed stat the real breakdown didn¡¯t seem that big. James pulled mana through his circulatory system in a cycle feeling out every bit of his flesh and bones. In some ways he could better feel how the stats effected him, in others having a external description helped put some things into context. His AI Had better luck analysis specific parts of his body. Focusing on his stomach for example gave ¨C
Stomach breakdown (to reasonable degree of confidence)
Digestion 23
Core stability 50¡À (Fraction of total core stability)
While picking his forearm gave.
Forarm stat breakdown (to reasonable degree of confidence)
Formarm Muscle Strength 32¡À (Fraction of continous total)
Skin defense 1
Latic acid defense 1¡À (Fraction of continous total)
Bone defense 1¡À (Fraction of continous total)
Blood Defense 3¡À (Fraction of continous total)
Grip strength bleedover 1¡À (Fraction of affiliated musclegroups)
As James continued to study the AI feedback, it started to filter in ways that were more useful for him. He already ¡®felt¡¯ roughly how his stats interacted, but putting numbers and descriptions to certain parts was helpful. Slowly teaching it how he wanted to see the information helped. Knowing that his defense had been effected and fluctuated wasn¡¯t helpful. Knowing what his actual total was helped ¨C the fact that he had reached the third rank meant he technically he could reach the next zone if he wanted to. Should he do that? Move on already? ¡­it felt like he still had stuff to do here. Heading onwards was bound to put him as one of the first and yet¡­he still had to practice a bit with his final break. There was still the dungeon he had run with those people from the magic side¡­ James kind of felt like leaving without finishing that was running away and yet if R was to be believed, the so called curse couldn¡¯t happen? ¡­how much leeway did he have? He knew how the ¡®level¡¯ caps worked but¡­he couldn¡¯t memorize it and doing the math was annoying. Thankfully he had a calculator already implicitly calculating his rank to do it all for him.
Rank Tier Stats total
0 0 0
0 1 27
0 2 54
1 0 81
1 1 116.8222152
1 2 168.4867897
2 0 243
2 1 350.4666456
2 2 505.460369
3 0 729
3 1 1051.399937
3 2 1516.381107
4 4 2187
...rounding down the tier totals and then looking at the list for a moment James nodded. Rank 3 had been passed at 729 stats. Sometime around the last dungeon? The most he could gain was 1051 before the system acess was cut off and he couldn''t gain more achivements. Could he grow beyond that with monster meat? ...probably. R might interfere if he broke whatever systems the shapeshifter had in place too badly however. Closing the panes, James looked towards the main body in front of him. He was kind of surprised no predators or scavengers had come sniffing around the meat. Staring about carefully, James noted a bird flitting about on a nearby branch. A pair of tiny fish swam against the current. A few bugs crawled across the bottom of the meat. In many ways the world around him was alive. It was easy to feel alone in emptiness, but this forest was full of life in a way the empty plains of grass hadn¡¯t been. What should I do now? Taking off his pants and shirt, James slid into the water. It was a spur of the moment decision and yet it felt good. Sweat from the fight and days of dirt caked off and were caried away in a rush of nature. As James held himself against the water he felt about. The water¡­it called to him. It moved past¡­it moved. Reaching out with his new senses James twisted and found he was no longer being pushed by the water. He could feel a faint trickle of power run through his veins as he sapped the energy to refill his stores. Suddenly gaining an idea, James swam up the river pulling himself to the waterfall and stepping up onto a rock roughly in the center of it. The waterfall was around 5 meters long ¨C in comparison to the rivers 12ish meter width. It thundered and beat itself into the rocks below it and yet James felt nothing more than a soothing shower as he got comfortable. This was a much better power source. Within a minute of rest, his pool was filled to roughly what it was before he had attempted to boost his range. James continued to sit listening to the surroundings and relaxing in a way he hadn¡¯t ever done before. Sitting there, ripping kinetic energy from the water as it beat itself across his back, James felt like a lizard basking in the sun. His muscles loosed as he allowed a bit more of the force to impact his muscles. It felt so weak¡­ playing about with forcing some of the stolen energy into the water James boosted the power of the waterfall and sighed with contentment as tense muscles were massaged. James continued to sit under his waterfall for over an hour just slowly feeling out his energy and practicing. He shot little streams of water away from him and tried to twist the direction of the entire waterfall. He could grab a good solid handful of water to divert but even when struggling the entire water was beyond him. It wasn¡¯t a measure of strength ¨C it was a measure of distance. He just couldn¡¯t affect anything that far away from his body. James relaxed further and pulled as much energy as he could into his veins and then pulled more ¨C till his heart beat fast enough to worry him and a faint pain sunk out of the core of his being. He pushed all his mana into a single punch that broke the sound barrier and caused his ears to ring for minutes afterwards. He refilled his pool to bursting then threw an even louder aether punch, feeling out how the energies reacted and burst away from his skin. The practice was exercises in a way. There was pain as his pool was forced to hold more than it could handle and yet it was a good kind of pain. The burn of a good workout. The practice was good too. There was only so much you could read about aether and mana. You truly had to ¡®feel¡¯ them out to get what they ¡®felt¡¯ like. It helped they whispered slightly to him ¨C a flicker that was more obvious when he swapped which Lense was active. Beyond the obvious differences there were deeper feelings associated with both powers. Because the powers weren¡¯t necessarily mana and aether. They were magic and¡­Esper? Whatever the method of manipulating aether was called, it had some differences that James only really started understanding when he finally started using it. Magic for example seemed to have a result based scaling. More powerful magic could do ¡®stronger¡¯ ¡®things¡¯, but the limit seemed to be ¡®how powerful¡¯ the ¡®thing¡¯ itself was. It didn¡¯t care about how much energy should be needed for a result ¨C a similar small amount of mana could create something technically massive but useless or small and weak but useful. Could create matter from scratch despite that being one of the most expensive things to do on the aether side. The results you could achieve with a set amount of mana was variable and more dependent upon the concepts and other parts of a ¡®spell¡¯. Essentially you couldn¡¯t ¡®cheat¡¯ it. There was no clever trick to abuse. What you could do was engineer your results. Tell your mana you didn¡¯t want to ever use a sword or spear and commit to that limitation. The mana would then give you strength for that limit ¨C a strength that grew the longer and more deeply you committed along with how ¡®hard¡¯ a commitment that was to take. It was to the point where as an internal mana user, if James made one of these commitments and stayed true to it for long enough he would be physically unable to break it ¨C that ¡®cost¡¯ embedded into his body. His own power would rebel against breaking his self imposed oath. Of course magic also scaled upwards based on ¡®meaning¡¯ which was a nebulous sort of thing. James could twist his powers to be specifically weaker in certain ways to increase their strength in others but all that was something that would come with time and experience. Aether on the other hand felt¡­almost weaker initially? You needed roughly the amount of energy that a result would achieve. If James absorbed a punch with a kilojoule or so of energy and somehow achieved 100% efficiency¡­he¡¯d only have a kilojoule or so of energy to redirect back into an attack. There was no 110% - no way of breaking the conservation of energy that he could see. On the other hand, there wasn¡¯t that sort of artificial cap to things. If James amassed his maximum aether, the amount of force he could produce was limited by the amount of energy he could expand, not how ¡®strong¡¯ of a result he would achieve. It scaled based on a more logical base ¨C in exchange, to achieve greater results you had to take advantage of things. You had to abuse edge cases, a bullet used less energy to shoot than a cannon ball after all and in some ways could kill easier. You had to understand reality deeper ¨C from what James could tell you could do some really wild things with aether but it was all much harder to access. All of that was of course just the feelings the lenses gave him. His mana responded to his thoughts and desires ¨C dragging itself around his body and flexing into new shapes. When he flipped all his mana to aether it was suddenly a wild thing. It no longer listened to him. It still directed itself where he aimed it but it no longer did anything if there was nothing there to activate. James stopped and restarted. It felt like he had had a painting in a glass case. When he broke to aether he had smashed his hand into the case and pulled out the now damaged canvas finding it could unroll into something bigger. On the back was a barcode he could use to return the painting and exchange it for another. When he broke to mana, his painting had been taken away. Mana had turned around and given him a brush and some coloured paints and told him he could make his own painting. A new one ¨C this time mixing the concepts together into a different shade or painting an entirely different scene. Except again that didn¡¯t feel quite right. It wasn¡¯t a painting even though magic gave him the base ingredients instead of the finished product. His aether skills were transplanted sprouts. They would now grow semi randomly both with and without his involvement ¨C if he wanted to modify them, he would have to act like a gardener. Pruning the growing plants, feeding them nutritious soil. Pollinating them or placing them under a microscope. Mana was still a paint set however. If he wanted to make a tree he¡¯d have to get much better at art. James stayed under the waterfall for a second hour partially meditating partially practicing. He felt grounded. ¡­he felt like he probably looked sort of silly. Monk mode ¨C wasn¡¯t this some ritual ancient warriors did? ¡­James kind of got it. This felt good. He wasn''t even getting wrinkly with all the defensive stats in his skin! James also felt like trying to reach Richard again. This time he put a super charged amount of aether into the range boost ¨C pumping his veins full of kinetic potential gathered from the waterfall and then throwing it all into the altered device in his head. James felt his teeth chatter as the energy was momentarily compressed into his flesh before pushing out and creating a almost visible pulse in the surroundings. It worked. The message sent ¨C a single message sent¡­and then the energy was expend without a response. It had only been boosted for a second or two after all. Spending a while to recharge James sent a second pulse noting both that it lasted a bit longer and that he had a response.
James: New phone who dis.
Richard: Hey you finally joined society! What have you been up to?
James: Sorry, signal is shoddy. Pretend this is email instead of text and send big ass packets. I¡¯ll send my adventure in a bit, I¡¯m still figuring out how to attach videos to this thing.
James spent a bit of time detailing a rough outline of his adventurers since the last time they had been together. His AI didn¡¯t seem able to give him videos of his memories, but it could transcribe a lot of the conversation with R, even though James hadn¡¯t had the thing till afterwards. Ending the message by bending gravity and flying out of the cave, James filmed a quick drone shot of his kill as a flex. He then traveled back to charge his burst and sent it off. Waiting a bit to refill his stock he sent another pulse and was disappointed to note no response had come. Another charge and connection and he finally got a response.
Richard: How the fuck are you rank 3? My stat totals only at 611 ¨C still in the 2++ range. I call hacks! Anyways, looks like its easiest to meet up in the next area. Grinding the same dungeon gets barely anything stat wise and other than the initial achievement and one device, I haven¡¯t gotten anything from the knowledge grind. Might go fight some crime or beat up a homeless woman to catch up... Shouldn¡¯t be more than a few days if I really focus? Richard: Fuck I wanted to try and figure out how resurrection works but I got distracted. You say R called a clone of you an extra life? That¡¯s¡­I¡¯ll see about focusing on that angle. Of course it makes sense they are cloning us. How do they transfer consciousness and shit? Anyways, here¡¯s a few snippets of my last week or so, Let me tell you about what those fuckers in the guild were doing behind our backs...
Chapter 74. Creation. ---Maddy--- In the midst of Maddy¡¯s celebration, Jess poked her head into the curtain and looked around. ¡°I¡¯ve been calling your name ¨C are you okay?¡±
?? Achievement get: Embedded focus. (Rare)
Description: Embedded a magical focus inside your body. One step up from a tattoo you attempted to hide the source of your intent somewhere inside your own body.
Stat: +9 mental defense.
?? Achievement get: Pelvic power. (Unique)
Description: Through ritualistic surgery, you have somehow managed to convert two out of reach bones in your body into focal points for your magic. Is this a sign of genius or madness? Only time may tell.
Stat: +9 mental power Stat: +9 mental defense Stat: +1 soul defense
Like the boxes had been waiting for Jess to enter the room, two achievements flickered into view below Maddy¡¯s sight. Maddy had, when preparing her room, attempted to set up a silenced area. Destruction had the idea of breaking and removing something and by using destruction mana, her sound concept for direction and plenty of shaped ideas she was somewhat able to destroy sound before it left her area. It hadn¡¯t worked perfectly but it had muffled any sounds Maddy might have made ¨C she didn¡¯t want her companions to worry ¨C and it appeared to have muffled Jess enough as well. Maddy stood there glaring slightly at Jess who looked down, noticed Maddy wasn¡¯t wearing pants and quickly retreated from the curtain. Quickly getting dressed Maddy deactivated all her ritual enchantments and exited the room. Clapping loudly to get both of her friend¡¯s attention, Maddy began. ¡°So, what are our plans? I have a time limit of just under a month for this dungeon, but we could also leave and come back? I¡¯m planning on dedicating quite a bit of time to research and practice so I don¡¯t want to waste both of your time¡­¡± Troy twisted his head back and forth slightly and then responded ¨C he was getting better at responding which was a good sign. ¡°I want to train as well but training in a vacuum doesn¡¯t really do much. We¡¯ve stopped gaining anything from the repeat dungeon delves but I heard there are some nests within a few kilometers¡­could we apply ourselves on each nest to get practical practice?¡± Jess nodded slightly. ¡°I agree with that, I don¡¯t want to practice alone or split off for a while only to reconvene later. Practical bits seem like a good way of keeping in shape. A variety of nests will help round us out as well.¡± It would cut into her study time but¡­she had to agree actually applying anything she practiced was smart. Maddy nodded and after picking a potential destination and time ¨C a small nest a kilometer north of town and sometime tomorrow morning ¨C she went on to a more exciting goal. Creation study. ¡­ There was a certain sort of bias to shifting immediately to triple affinity work. It was quick and easy and gave a massive free boost of power. ¡­but starting from the basics would deepen her understanding in a way that heading directly to combinations wouldn¡¯t To start Maddy began creating a variety of shapes and items. , written and filled with creation magic created a slightly lumpy purple apple-ish shape. ¨C plus a clear picture of what she wanted ¨C made a pretty good version of an apple. A completely purple apple but one with some shading and a reasonably lifelike shape. Also created a reasonably lifelike apple shape. Between the three tests the first one broke after a few minutes while the other two remained in shape for over an hour without any sign of degradation. Attempting to cut into either of them had the two better options start to degrade. Attempting to taste either of them led to them melting and disappearing in her mouth without a flavour or much of anything. Kind of like water flavored cotton candy made of air. So, this was ¡®fake¡¯ matter. How could she go about making ¡®real¡¯ matter? First Maddy used destruction magic to rip apart a chunk of wood she had watching as her magic ripped it into shreds and then dissipated the result into nothing. She put some more effort into that spell, ripping it into nothing in a single swipe. Then Maddy began channeling her new affinity through her mind watching as her sight changed and altered her perception slightly. Unlike the other two affinities ¡®reality¡¯ sight gave everything about a sort of¡­density. Everything Maddy saw from the wall to the curtains to her hand or failed tests looked normal enough as far as her eyes were concerned. What changed seemed to be how ¡®real¡¯ things felt. Most of the surroundings felt ¡®relatively real¡¯. Her hand felt ¡®very real¡¯. Her apples felt ¡®barely real¡¯. Creating something while channeling this sight showed her mana reaching out and coalescing ¡®real¡¯ity from¡­itself? Like her mana was crystalizing into the thing it created, shifting and then setting into something. Channeling void sight was dangerous but feeling a numb sort of apathy rush across her as she began to trickle the barest bit of destruction into her brain Maddy saw instead how everything continued to have a sort of density but now it felt like how easy something was to break than how real it was. It felt like creation gave the same sight but from a different angle and with more safety. Running some tests Maddy found she could vanish her created items with barely a touch while something like her hand resisted destruction until she ramped up quite a bit. Moving on slightly, Maddy created an apple using creation light. This time what looked like a perfect apple appeared ¨C no purple with this conjuration! Maddy¡¯s light mana correctly shifted the structure and made it look red and green. Just by the power of illusion her apple looked real ¨C and yet flipping to a light sight Maddy saw her apple really was mostly that colour, it wasn¡¯t an illusion, the creative light had truly created red ¡®mostly matter¡¯. On the same note looking at the result in her reality sight showed that just by making the apple ¡®look¡¯ more real it ¡®was¡¯ more real. That was even accounting for the dual mana type being stronger just by being a dual mana type. A strange interaction but when channeling both light and creation into her mind, Maddy was able to better destroy the result ¨C as if by seeing all sides of the fake apple she was better able to tear it apart at the seams. She could see the remnants of illusionary sand baked into the reality of the conjured item. only by viewing both at once could she see the apple as a conjured creation instead of a fake. Moving on Maddy added life to her apple. Creative Light life and the combined shaping into an apple shape with her intent made a pretty accurate result. It even had a slight apple taste as she bit into it and felt it mostly fade till all that remained was an ¡®essence of apple¡¯. Maddy returned to base creation mana. Breaking off another piece of wooden slate she wrote down her desires and tried a new test. First she destroyed the chunk of wood and then a heartbeat later attempted to create it. Watching in her reality sight, Maddy saw her mana shred the ¡®reality¡¯ of the wood and then hold onto those crystalized bits of density ¨C it wasn¡¯t just density Maddy realized even as her spell attempted to push them all back together again. Density made it seem like each bit of it was the same¡­each bit of density was slightly different and when ripped apart there was a massive amount of variation to the bits of reality held in her mana¡¯s grasp. The spell completed and showed a mostly put together slate of wood once more. It looked ever so slightly off ¨C too smooth, too uniform¡­but for the most part her spell had perfectly ¡®created¡¯ the slate of wood in its second half. ¡­could I use this to teleport? Maybe I¡¯ll hold off on testing that on myself for now. Maddy recreated the spell completely off on a new tangent. First a new bit of wood vanished with a sharp crack and then as the sound traveled across her ¡®bedroom¡¯ the wood reappeared where she had pointed out in her spellwork mostly intact from the journey. Adding light mana in she tried again finding it seemed slightly more put together, attempting a third time with life mana had the final wood looking pretty much the same for the journey. That just felt like a side effect of the combination mana being stronger by default. Maddy waited for her mana to regenerate and attempted it again, this time on a more complicated item. Her blanket was placed in a pile and teleported across her room in a sharp crack before Maddy rushed over and felt the fabric. It had in fact mostly worked ¨C there was a single part that had fused to itself when it had reformed in a heap, but Maddy still felt it was a success for such an early test. The real question was how she could go about increasing the ¡®reality¡¯ of her creations. Was there something she could do with her mana to make it crystalize into ¡®reality¡¯ better or was the answer really just that using matter to create matter gave better results? ¡­ Some more testing with her new water concept proved the more that went into a spell the better the results ended up. Just by creating water with her water concept instead of creating a shape with just shaping intent she made something nearly as real as ¡®reality¡¯. There was still a slight fakeness to it ¨C especially if she scaled it up but that was fine. Creating a few drops of water made something nearly indistinguishable from water but creating a entire basin full made something that was only roughly 80-90% ¡®real¡¯. Maddy could imagine if she tried to conjure an entire wave of water the conjured material would vanish relatively quickly just by sheer scale. Maddy continued practicing late into the night. She woke up still thinking about how it all might work, and a portion of her attention focused on this problem even as she was dragged to fight a wave of small splitting fur balls that each halved their ¡®reality¡¯ before regenerating it slowly as they bounced around and attacked. Maddy came into her second day of experimentation with a different mentality. Before she even started, she had found herself asking an entirely different question. ¡°If magic is shaped by how we think it works and how we use it¡­long ago my teacher spoke of ignoring focusing on using components. At the time it made sense ¨C there¡¯s power in finding rare materials and using them to cast spells but only being able to cast spells with an external resource can limit or trap you if you don¡¯t have access to it. ¡°The thing is, there really is power in the environment. A part of a monster, a rare ore or plant¡­there¡¯s mana in those items. There are people who use components and have powerful results. I get not wanting to crush a fire petal every time you want to cast a fireball or something but¡­if I¡¯m trying to create something permanent than using a permanent material makes sense? ¡°In some ways I¡¯m working towards crystalizing my domain and strengthening what I can do but if I never once cast a spell using a component, I literally will not be able to cast them when my domain crystalizes and my magic locks in. ¡°Components are in a way like rhyming. They are something that makes a spell slightly harder to do and thus make the result slightly stronger. Wanting to create a permanent spell¡­it seems like the perfect time to use a limited resource. It feels more worth it.¡± Maddy continued to speak her thoughts aloud attempting to work her way through them. She was returning to something she hadn¡¯t done in a long time. Creating golems. Reusing her basin ¨C why not, she already had it ¨C Maddy had filled the wide bucket with silty soil. It wasn¡¯t quite clay, but it felt similar and was gathered near the beach to the lake ¨C they hadn¡¯t wanted to get too close in case they got trapped. She had her friends help her carry it back to their place before she continued the setup. They had gotten some weird looks, but no one stopped her and after setting up her basin she moved on. Drenching the soil with magic Maddy continuously created life-light-water with as neutral and as concentrated an effect as she could imagine. The goal wasn¡¯t to immediately fill the basin with healing liquid it was to create single drops of liquid as close to 100% ¡®real¡¯ as possible with as much mana as she could pack in each time. Stirring each set of drops in before regenerating, Maddy slowly created a wet muddy result that felt connected to her and strong. In some ways this felt like over kill, in other ways it felt like it wasn¡¯t enough. She could cast a spell with a fraction of this power, but her goal wasn¡¯t to cast it once it was to cast it and have it continue working forever past that point. Next Maddy began to form the seed for each eye. Maggots poured from where they had been stored in her arm. She had fed and captured these on the nest monsters each collecting a portion of life energy before being held as stable as she could. Many felt stale and faded but keeping them in her arm had kept the majority relatively stable. There was a qualitative difference between the energy created by killing something and simply generated from nothing as her mana was. At first, she thought it was part of the innate sort of energy but now Maddy was beginning to suspect it was closer to her uniform understanding of magic. Life energy was ¡®harder¡¯ to gain and thus was stronger because of that. The hidden part of magic was meaning and there was meaning in this energy that her base mana lacked. Moving on, Maddy began mass producing her seeds. To start Maddy had a large slate. She placed her runes and wrote down as much as she hoped and dreamed for. Her eye spell and more ¨C she nearly wrote a short story with how much of a description she packed into the tablet. She then attempted to condense it. Creating miniature ¡®tablets¡¯ just under an inch in height and half that in width, Maddy pulled out the next tool she had bought in preparation. A lens. A large magnifying glass style ring of glass that had cost more than it should have. Taking a deep breath, Maddy carefully began a ritual to transfer her words to a smaller form. Placing an array of the small tablets to her side, Maddy poured mana into a spell and spoke, creating faint destructive-death-light beams that sort of shone out of the original tablet bounced and then focused through the lens slowly burning into the tablet below. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Maddy immediately stopped after seeing the result. The imprint was backwards. Either the lens or¡­Maddy held her tablet and eyeballed it holding it and imagining the way the light would flow from it to the smaller tablets. Okay. No, it was simply that she was focusing from the side she had written it on. That made sense ¨C bit of a brain fart but something she could solve. Carefully setting up a separate spell, Maddy burned the original writing through to the other side of the tablet then shone the ¡®backwards¡¯ version of it through the process once more. The new spell was slowly burned into place like an arcane printing press. Several of her first burns had been fuzzy as her hands shook but after conjuring a contraption to hold the lens and getting into a groove, Maddy began stamping out spells quite consistently. To start, Maddy began creating a hundred eyes. They were eyes who needed to be real enough to exist and continue existing, but did not need to interact with the world beyond sight. They could be ethereal or intangible or any matter of fake ¨C Maddy didn¡¯t care. She simply wanted them to last and do their one job. Maddy wanted them to be able to teleport about ¨C fading into shadows to appear in others. Collecting at her word and flying forth in a wave of scouts like a stream of crows. She wanted a following. A collection of eyes constantly feeding her information. Maddy had such high hopes for these ¨C in many ways she knew she should refine the spell several times but acting like this would fail her first time was just setting herself up for failure. With all the effort she was putting in, Maddy secretly expected it to work perfectly. Carefully placing lumps of soaked earth and topping each with a slate and a living maggot filled with lifeforce and a drop of her own blood¡­ Maddy laughed to herself suddenly. It looked like a snack ¨C a cracker complete with some foreign delicacy. A risky charcuterie board. Forbidden snack. Taking each lump and hand molding them into a sphere Maddy worked her way down the line creating a hundred lumpy spheres roughly an inch in diameter. Roughly the size of a human eye. She then melted the flesh off the bone of her index finger pulling out the bone and placing it under her printing press. With a second thought, Maddy burned the binding into her body, coping and compressing the link down to fit on the bone. Placing the bone in the middle of her workspace, Maddy last minute made a change to her ritual. Instead of leaving the lumps roughly in lines, she began placing them in the shape of a giant eye the finger link sitting in the center of the pupil. Happy enough with the setup, Maddy began pumping mana into the working. Instead of picking shapes one by one she carefully held every single ball in her mind and pumped a steady stream of mana towards them simultaneously. Shockingly easy to do with her mental foundation. She could probably extend this level of multitasking into the thousands easily this level of multicasting felt dead easy. Slowly but surely Maddy filled all the already drenched and magical balls with more mana, activating them after a few minutes of effort. One by one the balls grew brighter and brighter as light mana filled the earthy flesh turning it into something that could ¡®see¡¯. Even as they grew brighter a film of darkness spread across them the inky shell capturing the light and causing it to bounce around and focus. A final shell of living creation-light gave the spheres texture and colour ¨C the act of making her spell look like an eye increasing the power of the shape and increasing the ¡®reality¡¯ of its existence. With small pops each eye she created disappeared one by one as they activated flickering into nothing more than mana and re-appearing about her in the shadows of her room. They spread slowly ¨C the sound they were now making shifting to just out of the regular human auditory spectrum as they shifted and flipped about almost like they each had a mind of their own. Placing her bone back on the tip of her finger and heal-creating the flesh back around it, Maddy was suddenly connected to the network. Each eye gave her a slightly disorienting piece of its vision if she focused on it or a mute stream of impressions as they relayed information through words and feelings. It had been a success! This was exactly what Maddy had been hoping for. She had spent the entire afternoon working on this project¡­it looked like tomorrows nest fight would test them out in a more practical sense. ¡­ The project hadn¡¯t quite been a success no matter how likely it had seemed at the time. Despite appearing to work correctly near the start over the course of hours several of the eyes failed for various reasons. Some had simply stopped working ¨C had gone to teleport, disappeared in a silent pop and then¡­just not re-appeared once again. From what one of them looked like it was like each of its teleports had degraded it slightly ¨C causing the eye to appear more and more melted before after rapidly jumping about it simply lost too much reality to keep jumping. At least one was eaten by what Maddy thought might have been a cat? It was hard to tell from the dying burst of information she had received while a dozen more had been hypnotized by the scirens below and fell into the water. They stayed there dangerous buzzing links in Maddy¡¯s mind she didn¡¯t want to look through ¨C the first time she fell she had been attacked through the scout¡¯s sight after all¡­by the morning those links had faded the eyes having vanished down below. Finally, at roughly 4am one of her eyes had woken Maddy up. She had introduced a bit of spellwork feeding into her ¡®awake¡¯ concept that would let her eyes wake her up if they thought she needed to know something. In their hotel a room was being robbed ¨C a pair of women in blurry forms were holding a old man at knife point and dumping all of his belongings in a sack. Maddy¡­felt like it wasn¡¯t her responsibility. Stuff like this happened all the time, the only thing that had changed was she was now aware of it. She felt guilty as she went back to sleep tossing and turning before waking up with bags the next morning. A steady stream of healing mana and awake concept fixed her right up for the day and they headed off for their second nest. All told, by the next morning Maddy had lost over 30 of her 100 eyes. Not a good sign ¨C it had taken so long to create them, and she had really wanted them to be ¡®permanent¡¯. They fought against a massive moving tree made of glittering motes of life mana that tried to infect everyone through smell. Maddy spent the majority of the battle keeping them from being infected while Troy burned through the trees health and Jess blocked every single lashing branch attack. Taking a detour to get some of the bodies from the previous days nest and then collecting a similar group of materials, Maddy lay everything out and began infusing her dirt slowly and carefully while thinking things through. She¡­she had put everything she had into the previous days attempt. She really didn¡¯t know how to proceed from here. She had one idea but¡­she didn¡¯t have high hopes for it. She needed to do the exact same ritual but better. That was the goal. One thing she was going to try and introduce was the monster¡¯s ability to split into two. That way even if eyes died as long as she had some still alive, they could multiply and continue growing. Except she had never really used a monster material in a spell before and it felt too clean of a solution. She also wanted to put in a self-preservation note so the eyes tried to survive better but that also felt too simple. She needed¡­she needed something else. She already had a massive amount of mana in this. She had a good mix of concepts and shaped intent built into the spell. What else could she do? Short of having an actual eye concept to click the whole thing into place or drastically change her methodology? ¡­ Maddy thought things through by bringing up different ideas and meditating on them. She spent two entire hours filling the bucket ¨C taking breaks to channel mana into her mind and think under the influence of each. She would have to start her ritual soon if she wanted to get it done by the end of the day¡­but Maddy wanted something better. Finally, something began bubbling up. She¡­she wasn¡¯t committing enough. Sure, she had thought she had put her all into that last spell¡­but she hadn¡¯t committed. Not in the way she could have. There wasn¡¯t enough ¡®meaning¡¯ to this. A huge chunk of the spell was just what she wanted. Her technique was great. If she committed to doing this whole ritual continuously, she would only get better at it. The problem was in cost relative to her goal. She wanted something and wasn¡¯t giving up enough to get it. She wanted something permanent and thought a mere five to six hours was enough to get that result for the rest of her life. She needed¡­she needed to put in more effort. Take her time. This was also a chance to finally commit with something else. Her foundation. All those weeks ago Maddy had gained a mental modification. One that specifically said it would be more effective with a spell. So far, she had simply pushed mana into her brain and used the altered perception to see or think of things she hadn¡¯t seen before. There were many possibilities but that was the use she had found for it. this seemed like the spell to use it with¡­didn¡¯t it? She wanted a magical sight and had a base that provided a different sort of magical sight. If all of her eyes could see the life and light and reality of their surroundings¡­that would be perfect, wouldn¡¯t it? In many ways she would finally be locking that in after all. Locking it in would give strength as she tossed uses, she hadn¡¯t reached before¡­right? To truly achieve what she wanted Maddy should take her time ¨C something that was hard to do with the invisible timer the dungeon had put on her. It felt like taking more than a day on this was a waste of time she could be using to try and escape the curse¡¯s clutches. That sense of rushing was what was holding Maddy back from achieving this. Maddy stopped her ritual for the night and began to do some small experiments, each which confirmed what she believed. She then stopped and tried to confirm if they were simply conforming to her belief or actually how it might work¡­realizing the results were the same in the end Maddy continued. Using the collected monster bodies in tests confirmed some things Maddy had guessed and heading out for a late stroll around the market for random trinkets let her practice component magic for the first time. She used a small fire crystal to create a flaming scythe in the air despite not having a fire concept or element. She created a brilliant bolt of light that burned a small hole in her wall with a talon of a radiant monster and used a small living magot to create a maggot spell many times stronger than her simple shaping. Heading to sleep and then heading out to fight another group of monsters, Maddy once again collected the splitting bodies and then returned to her room for the days work. Her initial group of eyes was now down to less than twenty. The ones who remained were all slightly strange ¨C as if they half existed and were clawing themselves into continuing to serve their purpose. Maddy finally began her ritual once again. This time she worked slower and more methodically. The ¡®reality¡¯ she saw effecting created items ¨C and even the world around them ¨C was directly proportional to her inferred ¡®meaning¡¯. When destroyed she could effect that reality a bit and that was how she saw her component magic working. She was ripping apart something with void mana and then feeding the scraps of ¡®meaning¡¯ into the spell¡­obviously the mechanics of it were different for someone who didn¡¯t have void mana but it fit in with what she knew nicely. So, this is how her final ritual went. This was going to be the final one ¨C this time Maddy wasn¡¯t going to have a do over or second shot. It was probably going to take over a day, however. This time, instead of trying to mass produce the slates for the eyes Maddy began making a separate large slate for each eye. She didn¡¯t try to cheat and write them all at once, she didn¡¯t skip steps or rush on any of them. There was meaning in sitting here writing each eye into existence. The same meaning that creating a thousand paper cranes might have, the same meaning that fed into magic in a way she couldn¡¯t quite control. There was a ¡®mundane¡¯ eye with a ''pure'' affinity along with one of each actual affinity. Light, dark, life, death, creation, destruction. Each would have the sight tinged in the same way her mental foundation worked. Maddy then worked upwards, an eye for every single one of the affinity combinations. 27 eyes in total arrayed in a repeating triangle pattern about the marked floor. Less than last time but there was more hope held in this attempt. Next Maddy began burning each spell into a smaller form. First, she burned the words on the backside, then she burned the words through light onto their smaller forms and then finally she ¡®melted¡¯ the slate itself sundering it into nothing more than scraps of meaning she shoved into the small crackers of wood. She infused the big slate into the words of the small slate until each felt almost more real than the surroundings. This had taken her two nights of effort. She had dumped mana into the dirt up to a point she needed a separate script to help contain it all in her ¡®eye flesh¡¯ without it evaporating away too badly. Next, she created the balls. She stacked her items and then began cutting small scraps of various items she had found in the market. In some ways this form of component-based magic felt cheap ¨C the only real cost was money¡­in other ways just introducing a foreign energy felt meaningful for her goals. The minor items she used in this stage weren¡¯t anything special ¨C just a group of magical trinkets matching each of the eyes. a vial of troll blood for the life eye, the scale of a shadow snake for the dark eye. Nothing huge despite using the majority of her saved up money. Maddy arrayed her balls about the floor in her room working quickly before the primed earth lost too much of her mana. She took a deep breath. And. Began. Melting the last of her materials ¨C a flicker quill from a porcupine that could shoot quills across space and a mummified egg of some beast known for evasion and a pile of the annoying splitting balls. Maddy carefully teased out the meaning and infused each of her eggs with the foreign concepts. The concepts she had stolen and claimed as her own if only for this ritual. Next ¨C performing the task with the fever of a cultist. Maddy spoke. She softly chanted her desires into the silenced room and poured her power into her hope ¨C at the crescendo of her chant, Maddy popped out her eye. Her real eye, the final piece of the puzzle. The concept of eyes that would complete this spell. The concept of her eyes that would cause this spell to be her sight. Her eye. Her eyes. Her sight. Maddy crushed the eye in her hand, even as she ripped it apart, feeding more meaning into the spell than she had ever done before. She could feel a line of power connecting to each eye as they ate of her flesh and exploded in potential. The socket in Maddy¡¯s skull throbbed painfully ¨C she was barely focused on reducing the pain and a wet trickle fell down her face splattering onto the floor below. That was meaning too. As easy as wiping all pain away was, the fact that pain was involved would give power to the working. A sort of ¡®limit¡¯. A sort of ¡®cost¡¯. Removing it made things easier. Leaving it in made things harder. Her chanting grew ¨C at some point it felt like her words had been taken over, she barely knew what she was saying anymore the stream of English blurring together into nothing more than the concept of sound. It couldn¡¯t be English anymore, could it? There was nothing more than vibrations of meaning in the air by this point. Maddy melted all her eyes together into one. She turned to her setup struggling to remain focused and began pouring in the final part. Quickly she pushed the last of her mana into a separate spell with relief ¨C the main ritual kept threating to drain her completely dry and after giving up one of her eyes Maddy¡­would have only one more shot. No¡­she wouldn¡¯t have a second shot. That was the point of this, this was a spell for forever. She was still holding back even now. Maddy thumbed her second eye out vomiting a bit at the sensation of the ball in her hands even as she crushed it and fed it into this combined eye mush. The world was darkness. Maddy had completely wiped out her sight this time. Feeling out she activated the spell and felt the heat of her mana burning the ritual into her cheek. Into her skin, into her bone, into her very skull, this ritual was supposed to head as deep into her brain as it could, interfacing with the magic that was her mental foundation. Maddy didn¡¯t have mana anymore. She didn¡¯t have life mana to wipe away the pain and the application burned. She thought it might have finished, but there was no way of checking so she continued to hold herself as still as she could, feeling the burning tunnel of magic as it slowly, moment by moment, began to fade. Blood leaked from her eye sockets and sizzled as it impacted where Maddy was trying to burn her spell into her flesh. It hurt. It hurt but she was doing it to herself and so it was bearable in a way an external pain wouldn¡¯t have been. Finally, it was over. She couldn¡¯t feel the spell being burned anymore and Maddy collapsed. She lay on her back in darkness and only began to stir when a view of the surroundings. Began to appear. She could see herself. She could see herself from a dozen angles. She could see the pained expression. See the twin lines of blood trailing down her cheeks and dirtying the wooden floor below. A strange dark red tattoo sat on her cheekbone ¨C a eye directly below the eye above it more meaning than purposeful spell contained in its shape. There was so much tangled linework that looked like it might be words mushed together¡­but what truly stood out was the view any of her eyes with reality sight saw. The tattoo melted into her cheekbone below looked more real than everything else. It looked at least twice as real as Maddy herself. She watched her own smile begin to grow and saw herself open her two eyes. One was bright purple, the other green. Creation and life? Yes of course those were the two contained in her head right now¡­that¡¯s not a ¡®her¡¯, that¡¯s me. Maddy was looking out at the room even as she looked down at herself. As much as her eyes were a cost ¨C as much as they were a commitment to the spell¡­she wanted to keep looking relatively normal. Two of her spells were currently nestled inside her skull. Not because that¡¯s where they belonged but because they could belong anywhere, and she didn¡¯t want others to see her empty sockets. Blinking Maddy felt the eyes shift and teleport away. A moment later two separate eyes appeared and pushed themselves into her socket. Her eyelids fluctuated slightly in an annoying way ¨C gross for anyone who could see her face in the swap¡­but once she opened her eyes again she could see a light life and creative life eye held in both of her sockets. They were both mostly greenish and looked normal ¨C although slightly different shades and the light life eye glowed more than eyes normally did¡­ Maddy continued to watch herself enraptured. She used her eyes like a mirror to stare and inspect her body. She looked different. Slightly malnourished in comparison to what she remembered. Her hair was dirty and matted. Her clothes covered in sweat and blood. ¡­this was her? ¡­or was this simply a vessel for her? Was this even her body? ¡­ Yes. This was her. This right here was her body. Those were her two eyes. Those eyes over there under the bed were hers too. They were all her body. Not some fake vessel for her mind and soul. They were her. Sure she had created it so her eyes would continue to exist, spawning from each other if they were destroyed ¨C something she hadn¡¯t tested but knew without a shadow of a doubt would work. Sure she had swapped bodies already. It didn¡¯t mean that that wasn¡¯t her. That wasn¡¯t her body down there and over there and up there¡­ Maybe she should take a break for the rest of the afternoon? Slowly standing up, Maddy felt enough of her mana had returned to start conjuring water. She filled her hands with drops of the cleansing liquid and wiped off her face. Next Maddy slipped out of her clothes briefly drenching herself in a steady stream of mostly fake liquid and sighed out. Below she filled her basin with gunk and slowly began to feel more clean. She needed soap. Why hadn¡¯t she bought soap? After her shower Maddy slipped into her spare clothes ¨C her less adventurous outfit. The one meant for normal use. Using her surrounding sight, Maddy carefully unknotted her hair finding it easier to melt and reform some of the matts. Reaching up she felt her tattoo slightly. In some ways it was a weakness¡­she could try and hide it with an illusion or paint over it or¡­ Or just leave it for now. If someone was attacking it they were attacking her head. That was already a weakness. One of her eyes appeared directly above jess''s bed and caught her gaze directly causing Maddy''s friend to jump.
?? Achievement get: Permenant power! (Rare)
Description: Through masterful work and great personal effort you have managed to create a permanent spell. Difficult and powerful this is a point many mages never reach.
Stat: +27 soul defense
¡­ I really need a break. Bursting out of her curtain Maddy found both of her friends in a state of sleepiness and roused them out of their meditation. ¡°Let¡¯s go out for dinner tonight. My treat.¡± Maddy called pulling both of them to their feet. Troy stumbled confused after her while Jess¡¯s eyes lit up even as she nodded and closed her curtain to get dressed. A moment later the group headed out into the town. Just to live a little. More magic and fighting could wait till tomorrow. Chapter 75. Been a long time since weve seen each other hasnt it? ---James--- How hard was it to find one city? A floating one at that? James spent quite a few hours just jogging through the woods, a slight trickle of mana infusing every one of his movements. Jogging in terms of effort ¨C his cruising speed was closer to that of a car. Every once in a while, he¡¯d get annoyed and jump ¨C clearing the tops of the trees with a sharp crack and peering about in the surroundings. How big was this zone? Had ¡®R¡¯ dropped him on the opposite side of the damned map? It wasn¡¯t running away from a challenge if he couldn¡¯t find the dungeon again, was it? He was trying to keep to the prehistoric area ¨C the way it shifted to a prairie with incredibly long grass made James wonder if each area was really just a massive nest. A human nest? Were all the native human¡¯s dungeon monsters? Maybe, or maybe James was just dumb. Flying a bit in frustration, James took to the sky low altitude cruising above the forest like a glider. Flying was harder and slower¡­but slower was a relative thing. He could move much much faster on the ground but had to dodge trees constantly and watch out for trip hazards which messed things up¡­ slightly. Harder was also a relative thing ¨C He just had to focus on getting into that strange sort of headspace where gravity was nothing more than fuel for him to be stolen. An unlimited natural resource to be tapped. At that point James could float in a single spot indefinitely. He could then add a push of movement ¨C in several different ways ¨C and that push worked differently based on if he was using his magic lens or his science lens. Magic worked based off his wishes and thoughts but it had nothing to really build off of. He had no concepts for flying ¨C nothing even remotely telling his mana he should be doing what he was doing. He did have concepts for moving his own body but ¡®move me this way¡¯ fighting against the world was inefficient at best. Aether let him cheat. His whole ability to fly was cheating in a way¡­ Considering his body mutation interacting with aether was what was giving him this zero gravity ability in the first place, true flight was also achieved by cheating with aether. Aether movement worked well at pushing him off solid objects. James realized if he was cruising low and ¡®pushed¡¯ himself along he was really pushing off the tops of the trees below him. He hadn¡¯t realized that¡¯s what he was doing, but every push was accompanied by a jerk of a tree canopy so there was certainly a cause and effect link there. Kind of like how a hoverboard pushed air down and let you levitate ¨C but only close to the ground ¨C this manner of flight wouldn¡¯t let him get much higher. As a brief test James filled his blood to bursting with fuel then shot himself what had to be four ¨C five hundred meters in the air. Briefly he had looked out at the massive forest and hint of a curvature before falling once again. He had sucked all of the kinetic energy out of his impact as he could but it still left him feeling bruised and battered. While magic had no concepts to help him, aether had no¡­no tool to achieve what he wanted. No way of just doing what he wanted just because he wanted it. His dump of skills did seem to be shifting more and more into having flight as an ability, but it wasn¡¯t innate quite yet. It was still mostly a ¡®manual¡¯ sort of mess. So how was he actually flying then? Well, If James was a regular practitioner of aether abilities, this was the point he would need to make a machine. A rocket to tape to his leg. A backpack that pushed his aether into working the way he was currently working it. Quite in line with aether¡¯s mantra, James was currently cheating his cheat power. By flipping back and forth between the two sides he could slightly borrow their abilities. Aether spells and mana machines. Not quite as nice and tidy as that but close enough. It was easier to do in the midst of a fight, but a constant rhythmic flip between the two kept his insides nice and messy and malleable. If he stayed in an aether build for too long his ability to direct everything faded completely away. The reaction he had started ran out of fuel and spluttered to a stop. If he stayed in a mana build for too long his body realized it didn¡¯t have a concept for gravity or flight ¨C it realized it shouldn¡¯t even be able to float without a concept for anti gravity or ¡®floating¡¯ or whatever. It would quickly burn through his regeneration and then toss him out of the sky with his pool on empty. It really felt like James was currently that sketch for a road runner that hadn¡¯t realized the cliff was no longer underneath it. If either side stopped to think too much he¡¯d fall. Good practice if nerve wracking without the clarity of a battle ¨C James did spy a giant tiger shaped creature prowling through the woods and a pack of velociraptors but they were barely more than an after thought. Pit stops to fight them lasted less than a minute and only after suplexing and eating the tiger did it gave him a point of primal heat vision stat ¨C a single point. One measly monster stat, barely enough to make James see the barest hint of heat in the woods. Finally after an entire day of aimless flying about, a nap through the night and another morning of flight, James found it. A speck in the distance seemed unconnected to the forest below and a drop to the ground and burst of running through the trees got him close enough to see the city once more. James almost flew in from the sky but figured he might as well head in the front door to be polite. Dropping down by the edge of the lake and jogging up to the gate he went through customs quickly enough ¨C confirmed he wouldn¡¯t look down and felt an external force take hold of his head. It wasn¡¯t a mental compulsion, this geas felt kinetic based entirely out of his mind. Like there was an invisible person standing behind him and physically pulling his head up if he strayed too far. Once out of sight of the gate, James put his mana against the task. He pushed his head up against the edge of its range of movement and then did the equivalent of burning [haste]x5 in his head to shove it down the rest of the way. Like glass shattering, the effect that was encorceling his head snapped and his head slammed down into his chest. Eyes closed just in case, James rolled his head about, breaking through the last bits of whatever spell this was with several cracking snaps. He then continued on happily unencumbered. He didn¡¯t want to look down and intellectually understood the appeal of a aid for that¡­but wanted to be controlled even less. He could not look down under his own willpower. It wasn¡¯t too hard. Now¡­where was Maddy and her friends? James wandered till it got dark and ended up finding a twisting alleyway to fall asleep in. Waking up the next morning face pressed directly down on the glassy floor, James quickly rolled till he was facing the sky and started up again. Wandering the city for another three hours lost and hungry, James was suddenly accosted by the head of the city. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. She was laying on a sheet of blue glass and floated up along side him slowly and discreetly. The queen literally slid into view out of the corner of his eye. Kind of like someone laying on a couch, James half expected her to have a bowl of popcorn as she moved up beside him an amused look on her face. ¡°Theres not too many adventurers free of the rules and you seem to be the only one without a purpose. Forgive me for being bold but¡­What¡­are you doing?¡± The queen asked. James felt like she was making fun of him. If she was the head of this city there was no need for her to come interact with every adventurer wandering about ¨C he wasn¡¯t that special after all. Floating was a flex wasn¡¯t it? James felt a bit of a competitive urge come over him and with a flex of will he pushed himself up as well. James slowly twisted his body to roughly hang sideways and tensed like he was performing a sideways plank. There! Like this he could face the queen face to face lying down as she was ¨C why was she grinning? James awkwardly floated along down the street looking at the grinning queen in silence. Wait she had asked a question hadn¡¯t she? One he hadn¡¯t answered yet¡­what did he say? Admit that he was lost? Continue to compete and hope she dropped it? ¡°Are you propositioning me?¡± The queen asked after nearly a minute of silent awkward floating. James was suddenly completely aware that with their positioning it looked like they were lying down together staring straight into each others eyes. Like they were on a bed or¡­picnic blanket or something romantic. James fell to the ground in shock, scraping his face along the glassy pavement until he got control over his body once again and shoved himself back up to his floating position ¨C face completely red. The queen was attractive now that he looked closer. She had a sort of tomboy woman in uniform style and¡­ Fuck. He was acting like a teenager. Sure he hadn¡¯t gotten laid more than once but he didn¡¯t want to be this pathetic¡­She was laughing at him. Definitely shouldn¡¯t shoot his shot there ¨C James could feel the self worth he was trying to stack upwards breaking away. Return to monk James. Look at me. Look at me James ¨C don¡¯t fall down the rabbit hole. Return to monkeee! ¡°Do you know where Maddy¡¯s group is staying?¡± James asked, pushing past the awkwardness, his internal rambling all the while trying to ignore her statement. ¡°Yeah they left a while ago to go practice against a nearby nest. Last few days they¡¯ve been coming back after four-ish hours¡­want me to take you to their place or can you find your own way there?¡± The queen asked a bit of mirth leaking out of her tone. Yep. Definitely making fun of him. Interacting with others was awful ¨C James wanted out. He wanted to fly back to the forest and try again tomorrow. Pushing past that weakness James nodded in a stiff jerk. He wished he could just fight social interactions. It would make this whole thing so much easier. ¡°I¡¯m back to continue the dungeon¡­if you can take me to a spot nearby and a place to get food I¡¯d appreciate it.¡± James asked. He was hungry ¨C he hadn¡¯t eaten in over 24 hours at this point and it showed. ¡°A lunch date? Sure~ I know just the place,¡± the queen nodded, nearly causing James to fall once again. She then sat up ¨C stretching and rearranging herself in a cross legged position before speeding down the street. This is fine, James lied. ¡­ James was slightly happy but ultimately felt defeated after the meal. He had won but¡­he had lost so much. James had no money ¨C she had paid for everything and now was paying for him to stay a week at the same motel style inn Maddy¡¯s group was renting. She said it was because he was continuing on her quest to advance the state of the town by running the dungeon¡­she was rich¡­she could deal with it. James still felt like it was pity. The meal had tasted amazing ¨C a series of stuffed buns James was certain were just small panzerotti''s and a wide variety of dipping sauces. That somehow made it worse. The fact she kept pretending to flirt with him too made him feel like he was being bullied the whole time. James entered his room and twisted himself into a handstand as soon as he was alone. With no other output for his frustration he began to perform hand stand pushups ¨C forcefully pushing his body down with his power to increase the challenge. He hadn¡¯t earned that meal. He hadn¡¯t earned that charity and it made him feel weak. The small part that wondered if her advances were genuine was squashed. He knew not to listen to that stupid hopeful part of him. He was an adult now. James had supposedly grown strong! How was he still so weak? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. A literal pool of sweat covered the floor below him and James¡¯s arms finally started to shake before he calmed down. Flipping onto his back, the sweaty man lay there for a few minutes in silence before pushing a burst of mana down and shifting his body straight to a standing position. Attempting to dry himself James pushed kinetic energy into any sweat he could feel flinging the moisture roughly away into his room. Not quite a towel but it did the job? It had probably been enough time by now hadn¡¯t it? Any more would be him running away. Exiting his room and traveling over to the neighbors ¨C hoping the room number the queen had given was not a prank ¨C James knocked and tried to act natural. The one guy opened the door and stared out at him silently. ¡°Yo?¡± James spoke trying to add as much confidence to his voice as he could. The guy ¨C Troy James seemed to remember his name was ¨C nodded and lead him inside. Nailed it. James lied to himself. ¡­ The group somewhat caught up over the next few minutes. The main source of awkwardness was how James had left and come back. If he had stayed with them as soon as they exited the dungeon they¡¯d probably all be buddy buddy but¡­ Well they seemed to have already accepted he was leaving so his return was a bit of a shock. Not a bad shock just a¡­unaccounted for event. It was fine. James didn¡¯t even know why he had come back to them ¨C he could always run the dungeon alone it had just felt polite to see if they wanted to continue together. As soon as he made to leave however, Maddy drew him back and began to make him feel more appreciated. Amazingly it didn¡¯t feel like pity or obligation ¨C she truly managed to make him feel welcome in less than an hour. It was nice ¨C part of the reason James had come back was due to a lingering sense of owing her for helping him and spending ages explaining how mana worked¡­but it was nice feeling like she didn¡¯t expect anything in return. Still sort of awkward but nice. ¡­ James¡¯s addition to the group didn¡¯t change their plans. They were practicing and then returning to the dungeon in a weeks time from when James appeared. Or a week left before the timeline placed by the dungeon. James seriously considered their offer to run some nests but¡­those were simply some fights dotted about and for combat James preferred to stay alone. He could fight in the same area or work together on something but no part of him wanted to learn how to work as a team accounting for others. He did take a glance at the list they had however ¨C and headed out for some exercise on one or two of them. The nests were kind of disappointing. It was hard to take them seriously after the badlands and knowing what he was facing took some of the excitement out of it. James could add excitement back. His first self challenge was to bind his hands. He fought a bunch of annoying splitting balls by dashing about and stamping them to death using the restriction as a way of branching out his fighting style. He got a weird look when he asked the others to help tie him up before he went off to fight a pack of inflatable snakes, but they seemed to have accepted his eccentricities and didn¡¯t judge too much. Binding his body was fun and all but it was something he had already done before. It was starting to feel stale. His next self challenge was to fight a tree upside down ¨C forcing his body to stay in a handstand while tanking the branch whips and attempting to control the air to blow away poisonous spores. The fight after was an attempt at fighting without touching the ground or the trees around the area ¨C considering how hard flying was this was the biggest hit yet. Every challenge gave an achievement but only for a single stat or two ¨C as if the system felt he had outgrown that sort of reward. At least the upside down fight was a unique achievement? Really the only dangerous sounding nest nearby was the one below the city ¨C James was incredibly tempted to try and fight the sirens. From what he could tell they hypnotized through light and sight¡­so if he fought them `blindfolded¡¯ he¡¯d just be dealing with some intelligent fish people? Of course Maddy had mentioned they were shaped like naked woman and unless that was an illusion James¡­decided it was better to not try. It just felt weird. Like the only people who wanted to fight those creatures were perverts. Each evening James pushed himself to socialize. He¡¯d head on over to his neighbors room for a few hours and share their dinner. Maddy mentored him a bit more in magic ¨C James¡¯s idea that magic was related to blood and his heart had merit after hearing some of her plans. Maddy was currently playing about with enhancing the beat of her heart to run sound based spells off of. Something about each beat being a thump in the air, each beat being a potential spell? James described aether a bit to them as a curiosity but they all seemed to have accepted that aether was just a form of magic modified by a domain ¨C they thought it was an interesting curiosity but dismissed learning more. With how magic seemed to focus so much on self perception, maybe that was for the best? James knew for a fact it was different but didn¡¯t feel the need to push much. Part way through this week, James realized he had a new use of the quest board, but didn¡¯t quite know what to spend it on. The board was meant as a push for if he didn¡¯t know what to do ¨C a way to find potential achievements or a lead on something that was hard to otherwise know. Considering the only self goal James had other than grow stronger was to gain a domain ¨C and considering how highly it was pushed as something you should try to figure out yourself¡­well James wasted his quest use by ignoring it for now. He told himself it was in case it was useful in the dungeon but really he just didn¡¯t know what to ask it. Despite having a group of acquaintances that were slowly becoming friends, James didn¡¯t quite feel as close to them as he had with Richard. Of the three he felt the most kinship with Troy but they tended to just sit to the side in silence. They listened to the others talk and glanced at each other in comradery when Jess got particularly drunk and loud one day...but that was it. Finally the second attempt of the dungeon arrived. Despite himself James felt excited as he entered the warped space from the front door this time. He was going to show the dungeon nothing could jerk him around. Not even himself. Chapter 76. Revenge of the rocks. Revenge of the intrusive thoughts. ---James--- What was a dungeon? Why was a dungeon? How was a dungeon? Who, when, where, are dungeons? James had taken the monster holes for granted up till this point. Cave in the ground, some messy stuff with space maybe being expanded or twisted or something. And yet spending a single moment to think about it, the rank 3 dungeon¡­it looked like nothing more than an entire world. How big was this pocket world? It couldn¡¯t be located inside the town they had just come from could it? Was it another dimension the doorway simply a gate? Some place they were teleporting to? How did it even work? How high was the dungeon? Was there a cave roof above them? Was the sky an illusion? James was distracted from his sudden bout of questioning by Maddy beginning to hum. As she softly vocalized a stream of little dots began to stream out from her pursed lips. Quickly the mage summoned countless small dots of light like fluffs of a dandelion being blown out into the breeze. There had to be hundreds of the little motes ¨C each floating and filling the surroundings and then beginning to pause in the air. James saw rough outlines begin to form. Very rough humanoid light stencils in the air. M, JA, T, JE ¨C each had a floating letter or group of letters indicating who was who. Maddy continued to hum ¨C it was a nice sound ¨C and James watched as each figure split off slightly as if going to scout or explore. ¡°So, follow future us?¡± Jess began questioningly but Maddy held up a hand finishing off her hum before speaking slowly. ¡°That¡¯s the future if you get sucked into the dungeon¡¯s rhythm. We are stronger together ¨C notice everything started getting worse in our last delve when the dungeon separated us. It¡¯s trying to do that again if you look at the results. The real question is¡­do we let it separate us again or ignore it?¡± ¡°I handled dodging the boulders without checking the dungeon constantly last time.¡± Troy spoke. ¡°Far as I¡¯m concerned, we can handle telling the dungeon to get fucked. Even if we can¡¯t survive getting squished ¨C just dodge. It wasn¡¯t impossible.¡± James would have been fine heading off alone but¡­yeah. Fuck the dungeon trying to screw them around. Stick together out of spite! The group continued on. In the distance they could see the town they had spent the majority of the time in during their last delve. James didn¡¯t know if this was the same entrance the group had taken last time but it was much further away from the town than the exit they had taken when they had left weeks ago. From a bird eyes view the town was maybe half a kilometer from the cliff? The cave entrance they had just left was around two kilometers to the right of that. Maddy had stopped at tablet when they entered copying some drawing down on her wooden sketchpad before continuing on so¡­it was probably a different entrance? James could have just asked but it didn¡¯t feel important. ¡°I¡¯m going to test out the new rune as we walk. I¡¯ll still be paying attention from the surroundings¡± Maddy spoke suddenly pulling out her sketchpad again and beginning to write something. That seemed to be out of nowhere? Why begin walking and then suddenly decide to test things a minute later? ¡°Is she always like this?¡± James asked quietly after saddling up beside Troy. Troy tilted his head and nodded slightly ¨C a small grin on his face as he watched his friend begin to fully immerse herself in the board in front of her. ¡°Yeah, whenever we get new concepts she zones out for a bit. Once she even completely missed our camp getting attacked ¨C I swear she didn¡¯t even notice us fighting off all the monsters or cleaning up afterwards-¡± Troy stage whispered. ¡°I did notice ¨C you two had it handled¡± Maddy spoke still glued to her pad drawing and scribbling out random nonsense everywhere. An eyeball with brilliant green irises suddenly appeared on the back of her head staring directly at James before disappearing as if blinking out of sight. ¡­that was creepier than she thought it was. James had wanted to squish the first eye he saw like a bug when it had popped out of the couch beside him. It was fine. Walking a bit in tense anticipation James continued to glance upwards trying to spot something against the brightness of the sky. He could barely see anything ¨C the asshole who designed this dungeon was shining a bright light directly from where potential boulders were coming from. Would an attack come from a different direction? They were in a relatively open plane ¨C could something dig up underneath them? Invisible buggers attack from the side? After nearly a minute of silence Maddy pointed up with one hand. ¡°Rock¡± she added absentmindedly. How had she seen it? Where was it? Jess was beginning to create a giant yellow barrier above the group but James found himself crouching even as he squinted upwards. His eyes were little more than slits as he attempted to filter out the light and catch a glimpse of his prey. There. He spotted the rock less than a second before it appeared overhead. It was fast. A literal comet coming down so rapidly it felt like there was barely time to dodge sideways¡­ and yet James jumped upwards instead of to the side. James had started jumping as soon as he spotted it and met the boulder four-five meters above them. These things felt like they had to be falling faster than terminal velocity ¨C how come they only noticed them around the group? You¡¯d think they would be falling in the background like hail if they came down so often. Or maybe it really was just someone actively chucking rocks at their position. It was a dungeon. Best not to think of it as Richard would say. As soon as James met the falling rock he waved his hand in a large swipe ¨C the barest tips of his right hand brushing against the stone larger than a car. His fingers then bent painfully as James tried to spike the boulder. An instant motion turned out to be slightly less than instant. James had started seizing the momentum before the strangely cool stone even touched him. As far as his mind was concerned, he had altered it instantly and yet, his hand and entire arm stung as power was pumped down it and the impact nearly broke his hand. James¡¯s grasp and toss took just a bit over a millisecond and yet his arm was still violently thrown back. As if shocked into trying to help ¨C perhaps picking up a faint stream of his confusion ¨C his AI helpfully spit out stats. The boulder was moving at roughly 61m/s with a high degree of accuracy. Shifting the units a bit, that was 61mm/ms. In the millisecond ¨C no, half a millisecond ¨C James had taken to shift the direction, the boulder had fallen over 3cm. Over an inch of movement in a fraction of time. James¡¯s fingers and hands had higher defensive stats then the rest of his body but that was still a lot. ¡­this wasn¡¯t good enough. James needed to be faster ¨C considering he was already reacting faster than he could think, that might be a problem. Over the course of a second, a scrap of stolen kinetic energy rolled down James¡¯s arm traveling through his entire blood stream like a river. Thump. James landed beside the group who all seemed to be in various states of surprise. Thump. James was suddenly more awake. Of course. Ever since he started using haste it had increased his perception speed. Right from the very start. Why was he taking so long to get to this point? Could he actively work on that instead of taking it for granted? Grabbing his mana and ¡°dragging¡± it upwards, James drenched his head in speed. His teeth chittered slightly as they vibrated against each other. Then for the briefest of moments, a sharp pain filled his head as James rattled his brain about. Clamping down on the unwanted resonance, James held his mana in his head as firmly and calmly as he could his will a vise on his magic. Despite everything no longer rattling, James felt his vision blur and tunnel the longer he held this state. Had he given himself a concussion? James was distinctly aware of the blood flowing through his head. His heartbeat felt deafening as a torrent of red mana rushed by his ears. He couldn¡¯t just shove mana somewhere and hope it would do something on its own. He had to control it. Control. James flipped his lens. One of his two cores dimmed slightly the second waking up. His kidneys felt like his new heart as the center of his being swapped. All of the power in his head began to twist and buckle. James flipped back to magic. The storm stilled. He flipped back to science, the potential energy sunk into his flesh as his hold lessened. He flipped back to magic and his understanding changed. He couldn¡¯t just push vaguely in directions and hope for the best. He couldn¡¯t just flip flop and hope that fixed everything in some hand wavy bumbling. Nothing was that easy ¨C what he wanted needed more actual intent. James needed to actively apply his concepts and actively start it all off. With each flip, James was able to look at the problem from a different angle. Giving his brain more blood was theoretically giving it more oxygen. Giving it more raw potential energy was theoretically letting it perform better. There were some remnants of his shattered [haste] embedded in the flesh of his head. A part that had started to fade after breaking ¨C his skill regrowing without the original effect as James abused it. James had tried to make [haste] do too much. There really was only so much a single skill could do ¨C and James had beat it into helping him fly. Other portions of it atrophying were only fair when there was a cost to everything. Attempting to activate those fading constructs with aether, James flipped back to mana. Giving his brain ¡®speed¡¯ was giving his head muscle more conceptual speed just like infusing his legs was giving his leg muscles more speed. Aether had theoretically just increased his brain¡¯s speed slightly and now it was mana increasing his brain''s speed as the power lagged between forms. From another angle, the concept was already working. He had already achieved his goal ever so slightly ¨C he just had to grab it. The ¡®feeling¡¯ of the concepts James felt needed to be expanded. He needed to purposefully stretch those feelings with his will. Isolate the effect he wanted and enhance it. James remembered a meme. ¡°I¡¯m not smart, I¡¯m stupid faster,¡± he muttered out loud and something shifted. In the movies when someone had heightened perception, the world about appeared to slow down ¨C everything moving as if reality was set to x0.2 speed. For James nothing so fancy manipulated his perception.. The world continued to move normally, his body continued to feel unrestricted if slightly stiff without a flow of mana. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. James simply felt less overwhelmed. He felt less like things were ¡®happening too fast¡¯ his thoughts coming to him quicker. Theoretically his brain had some stats. Speed stats, defense stats similar to his bodies defensive mana channels. Theoretically mana could multiply that base. Sure his mind was supposedly separate from the physical brain but James hadn¡¯t really understood the difference well. If it was currently sitting inside his brain he just had to fix his brain right? Upgrade the computer so the software runs faster? Beside him Troy was staring, a strange look on his face his hand in the middle of reaching out. The man''s body seemed strange. It looked almost like he was photoshopped into reality ¨C the main problem was how wrong the lighting covering him was. Troy looked like he was standing in dim light that didn¡¯t match the bright surroundings. Like a shadow was cast across his entire body light, refusing to touch him. Maddy had just pointed out a second boulder ¨C was the the most important thing right now? James could actually make a conscious decision. It felt like he had grabbed just a bit more control over his body. Troy finished reaching out and placed his hand on James¡¯s cheek. James had been too distracted by his perception test he hadn¡¯t noticed the reach until it had gotten incredibly close. At that point he might have flinched backwards or dodged but that response felt too socially awkward. James allowed the maybe friend to touch him. As soon as the man''s hand came in contact with James a slight ripple crossed James¡¯s vision. It felt like he had just put on sunglasses ¨C the world was much darker but more uniform in its lighting. The darkest parts only dimmed slightly while the brightest parts dimmed quite a bit. Glancing upwards ¨Cignoring the physical contact ¨C James found the blinding sky was suddenly less a mystery. So this is how Troy had been seeing the boulders to dodge? Maddy was probably doing something similar now that James thought of it ¨C could he do this as well? Light was¡­moving right? Could he try and move the light that hit his eyes? He didn¡¯t have time to do a second experiment ¨C James spotted the distant dot rapidly growing larger. This time he had more time to aim and James slowly crouched allowing Troy¡¯s hand to continue following him down and then ripping away as James jumped. A remnant of the foreign mana remained for a second as James¡¯s body ripped and began processing it attempting to steal the functionality and failing slightly. Not the time. Like a cannon being shot James rocketed upwards, burning a massive amount of kinetic energy because he knew more was coming soon. Around two dozen meters up James met the boulder horizontally. Like he was landing on his hands and knees James allowed as much surface area to touch the boulder as he could while keeping his stomach and cores away from the initial impact. James drunk deeply of the momentum from a dozen separate points. This was too much energy ¨C James lasted less than half a second of free fall before tossing the boulder ¨C moving only slightly slower ¨C to the side. He found his body rocketing back to the ground but smashing down onto his back was easy the impact barely worth mentioning if only for the added strain to his already packed channels. Releasing a light stream of energy from his skin James felt like his body was being tempered. This is what he¡¯d been missing these last few calm weeks. Attacks strong enough to hurt slightly. Really, James had started off using rocks to fight and now those rocks were fighting back. It was comical! James found himself laughing slightly as he floated his body up and back to a standing position. A strange foreign feeling suddenly invaded his body ¨C Maddy had cast a healing spell on him her mana crawling through his body in a creepy invasive way even as it tried to heal him. She must have thought he had been hurt from the fall ¨C he was fine! Although as her mana reached his head and began spreading through his brain James¡¯s thoughts became less erratic. Trying not to rip the foreign energy apart James let it ease the minor bruises that covered his body even as he jogged back into place in the group. Heals were nice. James felt even fresher than he had before the fighting started. Glancing upwards again James attempted to grab the movement of the electrons hitting his eyes a wide smile filling his face. This was fun.
---Maddy--- Maddy was balancing quite a few things currently. In all practicality, she currently had 28 separate minds each incredibly good at multitasking ¨C if slightly weak and scattered. Each of her eyes had enough of her mind inside of them they could and did act separately but some of her mental state was still in her fleshy brain. After ''sinking into them'' and ''committing'' very little of her ¡®main/brain hosted¡¯ mind remained. Currently a majority of these eye minds covered her chest. They stared down at the hasty runework and tried to make sense of things. Each eye had a different perspective and each saw her mana and the world differently. Each was influenced by their elements and almost had a slightly different personality because of that. Her eyes brainstormed the way her mana acted in the new concepts bounds like jealous scientists hording information and barely sharing their findings. Several eyes dotted the landscape about them ¨C mostly light/dark eyes as they had the best chance of seeing the boulders James was somehow able to deflect. He seemed so much stronger than he had a few weeks ago ¨C Maddy had felt like she was progressing well. She had felt like her permanent spells were massive jumps and yet looking at James now she felt like she was falling behind. Was he a good indicator of the average earthling outside of their group? Was he an outlier? Maddy wanted to say he was different ¨C she hadn¡¯t heard or seen of anyone else taking so long to break and it really made her think about herself and how she could improve. While a mind spiraled into that rabbit hole others were more productive. They weren¡¯t collaborating well but information was shared between them even if intermittently. The first concept contained in this dungeon was something like ¡®premonition¡¯ but that English word failed to encompass it properly. The concept was tied to the ¡®future¡¯ but altered somewhat ¨C if Maddy had to explain it it felt like the first concept was a shape for a word in a different language that would be a sentence to explain in English. One which allowed her to tap into and perform the spells to ¡®see¡¯ the future ¨C although the ¡®future¡¯ was quickly starting to just look like something the dungeon wanted them to see. Was she truly able to ¡®see¡¯ the future even if only in the domain of the dungeon? Did the dungeon have a concept that allowed it to ¡®alter¡¯ the future? Was the premonition concept simply allowing her to ¡®see a story¡¯ and the dungeon could ¡®show a story?¡¯ no real ''time'' coming into play? Either way that was what the original rune allowed her to do. This new concept was something along the lines of ¡®history¡¯ with an equally convoluted bit of uncontrollable meaning. It was tied to the ¡®past¡¯ but had so much foreign context it was hard to understand what her mana was even doing ¨C except at least by viewing the result. Of course Maddy almost immediately created a ¡®past sight eye¡¯, the spell burning rapidly through her combined pool to fuel. The view was similar to the one seen through future sight but altered in a way to make it obvious it was different. If the future was smoke the past was clearly mist. They looked similar but moved in a different way. Her spell became slightly more efficient as she burned it but it wouldn¡¯t be something she could cast constantly for days. Maddy might be able to permanently try and embed the spell into her bones but that felt colossally stupid. It wasn¡¯t her concept ¨C taking in the foreign concept like that only to use it in this dungeon and nowhere else was dumb¡­and the chance of being able to keep it outside of the dungeon felt slim¡­ Maybe if her perception was better? If she simply imagined she could steal the concept for herself? No¡­It was best not to try and cheat the ¡®magic works how you think it works¡¯ by tricking her mind into new thoughts. That was the entire reason for secrecy and trying to let people find their own way through magic before crystalizing her domain. Why hadn¡¯t she done that yet? Another mind spiralled away into a rabbit hole of contemplation. That was fine. Still plenty of productive minds working in the present. Distantly Maddy noticed something in her past sight. Her group ¨C the three original at least ¨C entering the dungeon for the first time. Oh¡­oh no. All her minds came together in a sudden rush of clarity. She knew what she had to do. She was supposed to¡­she was supposed to perform the role her future self had. Silence. Every one of her disjointed minds froze. Maddy even forgot to mention the next boulder ¨C James seemed to have fended it off without her help so that was good. This level of shock could have killed them, Maddy needed to snap out of it. A majority of her minds were now on the same page however, they followed the logical conclusion through to its end. Maddy¡¯s mind ran through the scenario and understood what the dungeon wanted from her. She thought maybe the dungeon would spawn some puppet and say it was her past self. No¡­the dungeon wanted her to pull the trigger herself. She understood the scenario ¨C her ¡®history¡¯ concept agreed, the magic almost purring as she came to the understanding. She would have to lead her past self about until the point where she could travel to the past. She would then have to kidnap herself in one of the moments she split off from Jess¡¯s protection. She would have to pretend to be stupid or insane and allow her past self to fight and win against her. Despite the fact I know how that battle progressed. I know exactly what I need to do to beat her. I can prepare a spell to neutralize every single one of that version of Me¡¯s attacks. It would be so easy. She knew her past self¡¯s plan and could trivially plan against it. Theres no way she should be able to lose. Could she do it? Could she act how her past self had? Could she trick herself? Maddy was embarrassed to admit to herself she probably could. Even if she was trying to grow as a person. Even if she was trying to move past her past, if she really needed to¡­she had a life time of acting experience behind her. Enough she could probably trick herself ¨C especially if she tried to enhance that with magic. Could she survive following the stated path? Could she pretend to die? Throw an illusion of herself melting at the end of that fight? ¡­she had remembered burning light-sight when her future self died. She had accounted for illusions and made sure the copy had truly been defeated. What if she used some of her knew knowledge? Tried to use the one mana type her past self hadn¡¯t had¡­thrown some reality into the illusion. That¡­might work? Except where could she find the reality. Maddy was struct my a new thought. If she tried to mimic the teleportation her eyes were doing. If she grabbed the reality of herself and pushed it to a new position¡­then she could probably trivially perform that feat. She hadn¡¯t attempted that yet for one single reason. It felt dangerous in a way nothing else had. Her magic was warning her it wasn¡¯t that easy. Her concepts and the instinctual sort of whispers her budding domain told her said that wouldn¡¯t be possible. You will die in a months time. By your own hand. I just ''saw'' it. Or something. Her memory was fractured at the moment. Self teleportation seemed trivial to visualize right now while other mundane thoughts were distant and hard to picture. In many ways she might even fulfill the prophecy as told. She would die in one spot and be reborn in another. She would destroy her body and ¡®life¡¯ then recreate it at a new location. Simple. If the dungeon had ''seen'' her die could she ''blind'' it? Maddy could see half a dozen different spell methodologies that might work. And yet self teleportation seemed too useful. Too much power if it was truly that easy. Magic has limits. Something that ¡®powerful¡¯ conceptually would have a pretty high cost wouldn¡¯t it? Her first teleportation experiments had all sort of failed. Her eyes had degraded. The recreated item had been slightly ¡®less real¡¯ as if bits of it had been left behind or had decayed in the meantime. What would that mean for her body? Would she give herself cancer''s or brittle bones or something? Instantly she knew she would. Could she heal those? Maybe¡­but that would feel like the cost wasn¡¯t strong enough if it could just be wiped away in a moment. Could she practice and refine her spell on another living creature first? Any of the natives here? No that would be wrong¡­Even if she used a monster that sort of clinical testing felt morally wrong. Killing monsters was one thing but experimenting on them felt like torture. She could experiment on her body but experimenting on others bodies was a slippery slope. Even if she said it was just monsters it was a line she didn¡¯t want to cross right now. ¡­ One of Maddy¡¯s minds had shifted slightly, ripping itself out of the spiraling loop many of her eyes were currently experiencing. She watched her past self stop outside of the town. This is around when she saw her future self right? If she was going to play out the history this is was the time to jump in. There was another question. Besides the idea of ¡®if¡¯ she could do all of this. Besides the plan of trying to survive the story laid out for her¡­ Well. Did she want to? Her past self began to sketch something. She would look around and see Maddy soon even if she didn¡¯t step forward. Did Maddy want to submit and follow the rules laid out for her? In many ways part of Maddy¡­really wanted to say yes. She wanted to win within the rules. Rules were there for a reason after all. The Maddy of months ago would have said yes. The Maddy who had allowed her mother to make all the decisions for her would have said yes. Who saw an arranged marriage as a trap she couldn¡¯t possibly fight against. Something she had to adapt to. A challenge she had to complete instead of something she could refuse. That Maddy who nodded and allowed others to control her even as she controlled her own web of simple people would have just gone with this simply saying it was the way the world worked. She might even succeed! Although her past self had failed when it came to her marriage so¡­that confidence was probably misplaced. The real problem was the woman didn¡¯t want to be that Maddy anymore. She wanted to be someone else ¨C she wanted to change. She wanted to step away from that person ¨C so many of her decisions were about forcing herself out of that life and into another. She had pushed too hard in some ways. She knew she was overcompensating in an attempt to escape but¡­ But that was what she wanted. She didn¡¯t want to meekly go along with a stronger powers plans for her anymore. She wanted out. Her friends had nearly immediately jumped to fighting against the fate of this dungeon. That¡¯s who she wanted to be. She wanted to fight the dungeon on her terms. She had already decided that ¨C when had she stopped thinking that? She didn¡¯t want to give in and work around it no matter how easy that sounded. When did I start thinking of ¡®history¡¯ as ¡®my¡¯ concept? Maddy immediately paused as a thought from moments before came back to her. This concept wasn¡¯t hers. Maddy immediately snapped the sketchpad and sent destructive mana through the runework melting it away into nothing. This way of completing the dungeon wasn¡¯t set in stone. In some ways the entire event with her future self had only happened because she had used the dungeons concept to see ¡®the future¡¯. She had been poisoned as soon as she drank the water at the start of the dungeon. The foreign magic had set in motion all the events that had happened. How would the dungeon have changed if she hadn¡¯t acted the way she had? Considering all three of her companions had experienced different trials¡­that meant none of this was set in stone. That felt obvious. More and more obvious the more she distanced herself from the dungeon¡¯s runes. If the future was really set in stone than nothing would matter. If the challenge was truly impossible ¨C if she had walked in and instantly been told ¡®you will die¡¯ the dungeon would have been even more unfair. It had adapted and reached that point because of how she had acted. The future had changed as she had interacted with it. Bubbling up in this sea of thoughts Maddy thought through what she wanted to do. One answer felt obvious. She was so overwhelmed by the dungeon''s story for one single reason. It had a domain and she didn¡¯t. The easiest way to force her way through all of this was simple. It had even been her original plan before she somehow got sucked into the dungeon¡¯s rhythm. She simply had to crystalize her domain. Simple. Chapter 77. Negative logic and spitting on consequences. ---James--- Oven the course just under twenty minutes, James diverted over a dozen boulders. Each ¡®catch¡¯ involved absorbing enough kinetic energy his veins felt like they were run raw. James was nearly positive his heart had burst at one point ¨C a sharp prickle of pain following one particularly fast catch. His rapidly rushing blood had felt like it ripped straight through the organ¡­in fact James was positive his heart was no longer beating. Instead of periodic ¡®beats¡¯, his blood now flowed continuously following his mana. The last few boulders had been spread over a much larger period of time ¨C as if whoever was standing above chucking boulders down realized they weren¡¯t working and got bored. In terms of goals, the group seemed to have ideas of what they wanted to do, but no real plans ¨C they had camped outside of the town for a bit, seemingly ignoring the dungeon as they strategized. James would be bored if the boulders hadn¡¯t been some of the best training he had gone through in ages. Maddy was even periodically healing him, her magic sinking into his stressed body and solidifying his gains. He had sent a few pulses to try and reach Richard ¨C mostly as a way to burn excess power ¨C and couldn¡¯t reach him. At least it might grow his long distance capabilities? Finally the group came to an agreement ¨C James¡¯s contribution having been seriously considered and accepted. Maddy was going to start using future sight again while staying glued to Jess. Troy was sticking to James and together they were going to do something fun. Climb the sheer cliff. If there was literally someone up there tossing boulders down and playing at being god, they needed a good pounding and James was offering. Don''t word it that way... The dick up there needs to be put in its place. Dammit.
---Maddy--- Maddy had a lot to think about. It felt like she could spend a lifetime learning the ins and outs of her magic before it was ¡®complete¡¯¡­but everything pointed to crystalizing her understanding and locking in how her magic worked as soon as she could. The solution was obvious ¨C she had to crystalize an understanding that allowed her to continue to grow and learn. She had to leave a method for future expansion. Pretend her magic was a tree that could grow and expand even if its form was set. But¡­crystallization felt like one of those tradeoffs. Accepting a limit in exchange for power. If she tried to bypass that? Wouldn¡¯t she be weaker? What if that wasn¡¯t how it worked, but the very worry she had that it would work that way turned it into a self fulfilling prophecy? There was enough of these sort of worries Maddy could be stuck in decision paralysis forever. She¡¯d been thinking about this problem for weeks now and yet the world wouldn¡¯t wait for her naval gazing. The stones being deflected every minute or so were proof of that. With a more urgent deadline Maddy began to consider the problem more seriously. There was no way a proper crystallization couldn¡¯t continue to grow. At the very least you could slowly but surely gain new concepts and increase the amount of mana you had. No Maddy had gotten completely off track. Crystallization wasn¡¯t settling in terms of what you could do, it was a settling of the methods you used. An acceptance of what was possible. if you crystalized magic you couldn''t use as impossible you would be insulating yourself from its effects. It was giving weight to your techniques¡­making sure your foundation was finally set and allowing you to build up after that. Like how her life and death affinity let her see power in death. She¡¯d used a bit of it and could see how she might have worked towards a stereotypical necromancers power¡­but hadn¡¯t made that a part of her strength. She accepted it was possible and knew she could do it. Crystallization was freezing the fact that she could gain power from death with a future growth gaining more power from death. If magic worked how you thought it worked and you suddenly realized you were doing something impossible¡­would you stop being able to perform magic? That was a good train of thought. What are the benefits of crystallization. Why would anyone go about with it? Yes, that was the correct question. Crystallization was making it so you no longer had to worry about belief. Even if you stopped believing your magic would still work. What else? Well¡­a domain was simply the area she could sense and effect. The area she had control over or, more accurately, the area her magic worked in. Crystallization made that fact more important somehow. Her domain already existed but crystallization forced it to the forefront. If her fundamental understandings of magic were compatible with someone else¡¯s, her domain could overlap with theirs. Both of their magic working correctly in the overlap. If her understanding was not compatible¡­well then the domains would push up against each other the domains themselves fighting as they rejected the others ''truth''. So the point of the active powers should be focused on that point. Active powers are for fights where your domain needs to fight against someone else¡¯s domain. Your understanding of magic actively fighting another''s understanding of magic as it contested the area it could effect. In terms of compatibility¡­well Maddy could either see a permissible domain where she accepted anything was possible and was as compatible with as many people as possible¡­or a secular sort of domain where she refused all magic but her own. Maybe that was the point of domain actualization? Her normal state was one where she accepted all magic was possible and her active one was a state where she decided to fight against that ¡®fact¡¯. So her regular state could be accepting the truth that magic can do¡­a lot. That wasn¡¯t enough. Magic has the potential to do anything¡­ And then her active state is her saying no matter what magic can do, she can counter it. No matter what happens she has a way of fighting against it. ¡­ Maddy felt all of her ideas beginning to settle. She was 99% sure her thoughts were accurate ¨C really at this point there were only two parts she had left to focus on. In terms of the magic she had already used she felt like something was missing. She felt like until she figured that out she couldn¡¯t continue. In terms of taking that final step¡­she had to figure out how to push through that final layer. Creating a spell for her domain actualization was a good start but...she had to commit. She had to transform herself into herself with her domain solidified and empowered. Maddy tried to consider what she was missing in terms of tools for performing magic. Was it that she hadn¡¯t tried doing something like alchemy? Potion making? No¡­it felt different than that. Magic seemed to like patterns. What was a pattern she hadn¡¯t finished? ¡­ Maddy finally tracked down the problem. The nagging belief that made her feel like she wasn''t ready. There were three parts of magic and each part¡­well if the pattern continued each part had three directions. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Mana. The base, it had three ¡®directions¡¯ in terms of affinities. For her life/death affinity for example there was one side that was a power that healed and had conceptual life embedded into its strength. ¡°Inverting it¡± turned that power into an energy that killed and had conceptual death into it. The third ¡®direction¡¯ was trying to balance that power in the middle. Neutral weak mana with zero affinity ¨C ¡®pure¡¯ mana that didn¡¯t have the strength of the affinity. Maddy created three small spells to demonstrate this split ¨C a orb of light an orb of darkness and an orb that was nearly invisible, the mana barely holding its shape without the innate conceptual strength behind it. Next there was concepts. There was one direction that was focusing on using the word and ideas she had about that word to attack. She could invert that understanding into an opposite direction where those ideas coming towards her were what was attacked. And then¡­the third weaker balance between those two sides could be when she attacked the concept itself. Not giving it a direction so the spell stopped part way and detonated in the conceptual layer. She attacked the concept of sound to create silence ¨C the ¡®attack¡¯ never landing on anything but the concept itself. Not quite as satisfying of a third direction but it felt right. Maddy made a sound that healed everything that heard it, a spell that healed what it heard, and a spell that killed sound about it. Shape. Shape was the real problem ¨C the final part of the pattern she hadn¡¯t completed. The default shape was describing what she wanted to have happen. Communicating with the mana. Feeding her intent into the spell. What was the opposite of that? Not doing anything? A spell where she didn¡¯t give any shape to the mana? Spells without words or thoughts? ¡­no that wasn¡¯t a true inversion. That was abandoning shape. If anything that felt like the ¡®middle¡¯ weaker section. What Maddy needed was to figure out what the ¡®opposite¡¯ of shaping things into what she wanted was. The final technique. ¡­ And a few minutes later Maddy had started to imagine what it might be. Inversions were a ¡®different¡¯ way of thinking about things. The true opposite technique was¡­to shape what a spell wasn¡¯t. That was it! ¡°An illusion of light and life. A leaf ¨C a green fleck of green removed from a tree.¡± Maddy created an illusion of a leaf using a quick description and a firm picture in her mind. She next pushed light-life into the concept of sound and did nothing else watching as her mana started to twirl about the surrounding sounds drifting intentness in the wind. Finally¡­ ¡°A healing light that isn¡¯t a dot or soak or such. A spell that isn¡¯t a repeat of that which I¡¯ve done, a spell that performs the goal of healing ¨C for that is what I care about ¨C but can do so in any way it wishes. I don¡¯t care how you heal just heal and get it done. You can access my concepts as you need. Don¡¯t feel forced to use them if they don¡¯t help however. Don¡¯t be slow or weak ¨C don¡¯t heal my enemies and don¡¯t have negative side effects.¡± Wish a rush a massive chunk of Maddy¡¯s mana left her. For a brief shuddering second it looked like her mana was intentness, shifting and swirling in a cloud in front of her and then her negative logic activated and her mana firmed up as it found itself a shape. Sound traveled out in all directions ¨C like a web. Her mana shot invisible lines of connection intent in all directions ¨C threads moving out at the speed of sound visible only to Maddy¡¯s magical sights. At periodic distances those threads suddenly connected to each other lines, crossing the distance and turning the mana into what Maddy could only call a spider web. The rest of her mana took shape firmly in front of her ¨C a spider the size of her fist forming and sinking into the web in front of her head. Maddy¡¯s web of healing passed through and ¡®saw¡¯ all her friends. The payload of healing life seemed to almost intelligently observe all the creatures it touched and then suddenly zeroed in on James. With a flicker the payload travelled through its web and arrived on James¡¯s chest where it crawled inwards ¨C the spider already weaving silk like it was about to give the man stiches. ¡­okay then. That¡­that happened. Maddy looked at the results critically. It seemed to have given a result almost as strong as her regular ¡®maggot/vine healing¡¯ ignoring the repeated use that made that spell more efficient. ¡­she didn¡¯t like the symbolism but had to admit shape wise the spell had been efficient. Slightly harder for her to think about ¨C like how inverse concepts were harder to think about and how she gravitated slightly towards one side of each affinity more. ...obviously less control over the results, but in some ways it was almost easier? She''d have to keep it in mind as a tool for the future. With that bit of magic done, she finally felt ready to start focusing on building her domain spell. She¡¯d already spent quite a bit of time brainstorming that¡­but now she finally felt ready to start taking those final steps. Consulting her group Maddy found James really wanted to look for the source of the boulders which¡­sounded like a smart plan. She knew what she wanted ¨C if anything she wouldn¡¯t need to fight anything she would just need to be protected for a bit while she took those final steps. Jess could protect her¡­considering her friend already had a budding protection domain it might even help her with her own domain crystallization. Just as Maddy flicked on her past and future sights once more, their plans were suddenly derailed. The narrative changed ¨C and the shade that represented her appeared somehow holding hands with the shade of James despite all logic. Their copies stared across at them with hatred in their eyes. Already she could see her past self had loaded up with supplies and was tossing clumps of sage into a circle about her while preparing defenses. For the barest of moments Maddy remembered the ¡®prophecy¡¯ of her being killed by her past self. And then she reached out her hand and spoke without letting herself dwell on it. ¡°A death upon this fake. A mercy for this lie I make. I don¡¯t care how its done, I don¡¯t care about the method or cost. Please, just make it quick and painless. Die.¡± Maddy barely noticed how little she hesitated when it came to her shade. With a rush of dark destructive death, Maddy¡¯s pool of mana crawled out of her mouth and launched itself at the fake. She saw the flash of claws shaped like scythes ¨C the blob of her mana held into a shape with an orb concept¡­and then her mana melted through the neck of her copy. Just like that. How had her future self had trouble with her when it was so easy to overkill someone with this mana type?
Floor 2 complete. Paradox.
The timeline is broken. Spit on with nauseatingly sweet words. Time itself will now attempt to right itself ¨C for there is no way you could have killed your past if you had already been dead by this point. Isn¡¯t that right Madison? Time to paradox correction. [59:12s]
Oh¡­oh yeah her future self had been trying to keep her alive when fighting her. Opps?
---James--- James looked across at the smug little shit wearing his face. He was supposed to let this puppet beat him? Just roll over and submit to the weakling who hadn¡¯t gone through what he had? Even as he watched his past self [haste] towards him in a blur, James found his lip curling. Reaching out James gathered the overmana collected from his last boulder syphon and punched harder than he had punched anything but the air before. His fist went under his copy''s attempt to dodge and kept going ¨C the crack of the sound barrier ringing out before it even touched them. Impacting the fake''s chest in a crunch, James¡¯s arm went straight through the copy. His fist shook as it broke through bone then shot out the fakes back in a burst of blood. The fake gasped and attempted to steal kinetic energy from the impact. James clamped down. No system skill could hold back his real strength. There was no way he could lose to this creature. Tossing the body back James watched as his double staggered into a crouch and launched forward. Geeze, you have a hole in your chest. Calm down zombie ¨C With a kick James twirled and punted his punching back backwards. With a quick redirection of energy, James shot off again. He angled his body in the air and then accelerated down into a stomp that smashed through the slow lump of fleshes head. His fakes body continued to move. Its head was pulped and yet its fist still weekly swung towards James. Staring down at his fakes stomach James leapt and then stomped once more the last of his energy released and directed into where his copies cores were located. Crunch.
Floor 2 complete. Paradox.
The timeline is broken. Shattered by oafish hands and dull brainless thought. Time itself will now attempt to right itself ¨C for there is no way you could have killed your past if you had already been dead by this point is there James? Time to paradox correction. [59:58s]
¡­ Alright then. Well, no going back now. James walked the distance back to his acquaintances marveling for a moment at how far he had traveled. His circuit was cripplingly low but James actively worked to try and fill it instead of leaving it to manually grow drop by drop. Gravity was ripped away and shoved into his circuit. The force pushing down on him twisted and syphoned. A slight breeze was kicking up the trickle of wind a drop in the bucket as it fell dead at his side. Reaching the group James turned to Troy and nodded slightly. Troy nodded back and they split off heading towards the cliff in comfortable silence. So, he had an hour to beat the shit out of whatever puppet master was running this place right? James could do that. The two walked in silence for a bit before coming up against the wall staring upwards and squinting at the sheer face. ¡°It''s really not structured like something meant to be climbed is it?¡± James asked staring at the smooth stone stretching upwards farther than he could see. ¡°Nope¡± Troy responded and then reached out. With a jab his hand flashed white and sunk into stone. Taking a deep breath, the archer began to climb without another word. His hands and feet sunk into stone as he climbed in silence creating his own footholds. Ripping more and more gravity away James attempted to twist the vector pushing down on him. Slowly but surely he twisted the force towards the wall and stepped forward. It wasn¡¯t quite a full reorientation but after a moment James stood on the wall and began to walk. He strolled beside the crawling dude marveling at how easily each strike melted through stone while not being jealous. A handful of pebbles fell on James¡¯s face sand filling his mouth and eyes a minute or so into their climb. James jumped upwards as soon as he felt the shadow cover his face ¨C a open palm slapping the surprise boulder away from the wall. In the moment of impact James was shot backwards, his back scraping against the wall like sandpaper as he fell over half the distance he had just walked. Grimacing as he righted himself on the wall once again, James stared upwards squinting in frustration. Oh, it was on. Chapter 78. Punchable face ---James--- James was knocked down over a hundred meters with a particularly fast boulder. He growled. Not. Good. Enough. Glancing up he squinted and tried to replicate Troy¡¯s sunglass-like sight. Draw some photons away¡­reflect the strongest ones. He couldn¡¯t see them or even really feel them¡­ But by focusing he could feel their movement. As soon as he started he could continue¡­and now he could see his temporary partner better. There. And of course as soon as he could see better James noticed the kid was about to be hit by a boulder! James wouldn¡¯t be able to make it in time. A flicker and suddenly Troy was¡­made of light? The kid shone. He was momentarily incorporeal. The boulder which had been a sure hit passed through the figure without a scratch. James smacked the boulder away and released a breath he hadn¡¯t even known he¡¯d been holding. He truly began to relax for the first time. He wasn¡¯t¡­he wasn¡¯t doing some sort of escort mission. Troy could stand on his own. This was more like his adventure with Richard¡­ Reorienting and running back up, James drew even with the man of light jogging into place. ¡°That¡¯s a neat trick¡± James complemented the figure who was already fading back to normal. ¡°It''s my avatar¡± Troy spoke after a pause a faint sense of pride rising from him. I have to do something like that? How do I even go about starting that? ¡°I¡¯m my mana and by shifting myself closer to mana I can¡­well you saw. That was the longest attempt yet. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be able to hold it for longer soon.¡± James glanced about and noticed how the incredibly smooth bottom to the cliff had changed ¨C it had become rough and broken the further up they had come. Like the bottom was specifically designed to discourage climbing but if you pushed through it didn¡¯t care anymore. Slowly he allowed gravity a hold over himself once more rock climbing for real this time. Troy didn¡¯t seem to care he was no longer ¡®cheating¡¯ but¡­this was pretty fun? Free climbing. The fear of falling was non existent when James could just catch himself but¡­ feeling his body hugging the stone ¨C his hands griping miniscule cracks and ledges. Even with the safety net this high up there was a thrill. One that vanished when he was flying for whatever reason. It was fun. James tossed himself to the side ¨C cheating a tiny bit to drag his body back to the surface and narrowly slid past another streak of stone. He preferred taking the boulders head on, but every one he diverted pushed him back. It was annoying and James was in the zone and dodging was¡­also valid. Using nothing but his hands and arms to climb then shifting to just his feet for a moment before falling off, James worked his body carefully. ¡°So what do you think we will find at the top of this cliff?¡± James asked, once again reaching out. It was hard to be the one to initiate conversations but¡­he felt comfortable and every time he reached out he felt how he was growing more confident. He was growing in more than one way. ¡°Maybe a¡­smoky boss? Giant incense stick? Every dungeon I¡¯ve been in has some sort of theme and there¡¯s at least a 75% chance the boss will match the mobs and theme of the dungeon¡­¡± James laughed. ¡°It¡¯s probably another mirrored version of us. I¡¯m getting good at squashing the fakes.¡± As if angry at James¡¯s flippant attitude, a massive presence squeezed in on him. A prickle began to spread across his body. A steady prickle of pins and needles that caused his fingers to slip and his body to fall backwards off the cliff. Shit. With a concentrated shift, James pulled the push of gravity sideways once again. He slid, painfully scraping his chest and stomach before halting his fall. ¡°What happened?¡± Troy called down spinning around and holding himself up by one arm melted into the stone behind him. Show off. James walked upwards once again feeling about his body with his mana. James stepped silently past Troy and took the lead. James took a moment before responding the pair climbing in silence. ¡°I¡¯m¡­being attacked somehow?¡± James spoke trying to figure out where the prickling was coming from. Troy was silent for a bit and then spoke up. ¡°What does it feel like?¡± ¡°Like TV static was turned into needles and shoved in my bones¡± James tried to articulate the feeling even as he probed and pushed mana about. There was a sort of¡­resonance? Was it like a sonic attack? Some sort of radiation or something? No¡­it definitely wasn¡¯t passing in from outside it was sort of appearing inside of him from some direction he couldn¡¯t wrap his head around. ¡°Well I definitely don¡¯t feel anything, It can¡¯t be because of how high we are ¨C is it related to your time limit?¡± Troy responded after a moment. ¡°Maybe? James looked out for a moment at the surroundings. They were¡­maybe a kilometer up? Quite a distance for less than twenty minutes of climbing ¨C there was no way a regular human could have climbed this far so fast¡­but really this was nothing more than a fraction of the distance they had to travel. The surroundings spread away in all directions. Grass on one side, a forest on the other, an incredibly small town with teeny tiny houses directly below them. The big difference was how the world just¡­continued on. The forest spread endlessly into the distance. The planes and hills spread endlessly. It all looked more and more fake the further out it went. The distances¡­started to feel like they were propped up somehow. The horizon looked strangely stretched. How far upwards did they have to go? They had definitely climbed quite a ways and yet¡­had they really come this far? At his question his AI began to pump out numbers. Based on the angle of light and estimated distance they had undergone they¡­had at least 9 kilometers to go. This cliff was taller than mount Everest! The top of the sheer rock disappeared into clouds and its height was only really guessed from the side and shadow. They wouldn¡¯t reach that in an hour, not at their current pace. ¡°Let''s speed up,¡± James spoke and began to pull himself upwards ¨C the fun jog and quick scramble becoming a near upwards sprint. Troy began to fall behind ¨C James caught a frustrated grimace after glancing back and moments later his new friend began to darken. Troy began moving almost as if he were swimming through the wall ¨C taking more and more risks his arms and legs melting through huge strips of stone as he leapt upwards again and again. James slowed slightly to match ¨C his friend was putting in this much effort after all. A rising helpless feeling of frustration was beginning to build the longer he felt about at the damage however. He¡­he was able to control movement. Everything moved. Even if he couldn¡¯t see it. The only way he could be attacked¡­the only way something could be appearing in his body was if it moved from somewhere else to right here. Even if it was moving through some sort of other dimension it was still moving. It was somewhere else and then was here. That was movement! If instead there was something invisible inside of him moving about and attacking him¡­well in that case it was moving about his body! There was no way he shouldn¡¯t be able to defend against this no matter what was actually happening. It just didn¡¯t make sense. A boulder appeared while James was particularly engrossed and he had less than a second to slap it away. James fell ¨C shooting past Troy and dropping dozens of meters in a moment. His frustration was bubbling up. James fell and¡­let himself continue to fall. The tingle had been adding up becoming debilitatingly painful. It was compounding. The pain not going away ¨C his body becoming more and more damaged on the microscopic level. Everything was adding up. How long had it been? There was no way to tell ¨C His AI chimed in helpfully explaining it had been 52 minutes since he had gotten the hour time limit. There was a way to tell and it sucked. He was going to fail. This sort of attack¡­this sucked. It was unfair ¨C It was like the photoshop mantisbear. It didn¡¯t make sense except even that had some sort of rule. Some esoteric mumbo jumbo. It all just sucked. James twisted half-heartedly and began to jog upwards his vision blurry. Was¡­was this it? Disappointing. Hadn¡¯t¡­Hadn¡¯t R told him the dungeon wouldn¡¯t have been able to do shit to him? James wouldn¡¯t even care if he had some way to fight back. He should be able to fight back! He should be able to move this! All of this! Suddenly the tingle stopped. For a single second all the pain that had been building was reset. James felt a spike of warmth¡­of healing that reminded him of Maddy. Had she somehow reached him up here? The tingle started up again but much diminished from before. James¡¯s mind was suddenly clear. He had a second shot. He had no clue how she¡¯d healed him from down there ¨C maybe she had left some delayed activation healing or something that triggered when he was in danger. Healing was always appreciated. Anyways, the prickling damage. Maybe it was like the boulders¡­it was moving too fast for him to get the spikes in the moment they appeared. The fact it was appearing from a weird direction didn¡¯t matter, it was just that he wasn¡¯t good enough yet. James climbed and fell twice more before something snapped inside of him. His mana was bursting ¨C he had absorbed so much from the boulders his body felt that familiar bloated buzzing. Earlier¡­ When he successfully dimmed the light¡­he was moving something so much faster than these silly boulders. Why had that worked? Well¡­because when he started diverting photons he just continued. Like a man standing in the middle of the road directing cars to the side. He just continued sending them to the other lane. Every time he diverted a boulder in comparison, the act happened in microseconds¡­ but he was doing it from scratch each time. He was actively grabbing and shoving stuff to the side. He needed to start moving it away before it arrived. And¡­he had already proved he could do that with the light. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The light was much much less mana to move but¡­if he extended that to something as powerful as his split second boulder slaps? Just¡­do that but stronger. James focused on the feelings of his mana. He swapped to aether just to see how that lens considered the problem ¨C and immediately switched back after his epiphany was nearly snuffed out. Staring upward James climbed slowly waiting for another boulder. Why when I want them are they not here? An agonizing minute of silence passed before James spotted a distant shape. As soon as he noticed it James focused. Direct the movement away. This¡­this skill to twist the movement. Start it up without assigning the thing to move yet. James continued to focus and swirl his mana about. Everything was done by feel ¨C his thought process quickly reached a point where it would be hard for him to describe exactly how he was twisting his magic the way he was. James reached upwards, far far sooner than he could start effecting the stone. It continued falling towards him unchanged. Almost in slow motion, the boulder grew bigger and bigger and then it was within range. James saw the boulder twist under an inch away from his fingers ripping to the side at a right angle. He hadn¡¯t done anything¡­he¡¯d simply continued to do something. James¡¯s mana was visible in the air ¨C a slight shimmer extending out from his body in all directions. The boulder flung out into space and James was not tossed downwards. Progress. Sadly because of how he had focused on simply diverting the obstacle he hadn¡¯t stolen any energy from this shot. And even more concerningly ¨C James¡¯s continuous defense was eating through his expanded store of mana quickly. This would end soon. Seconds. Why was it spending so mana to hold? It¡­it wasn¡¯t doing anything? James didn¡¯t understand why exactly he was leaking mana so quickly. It really was simple. He could effect things inside of his body and directly about it¡­like¡­like he had an aura or something. That¡­that was his area of control. That was his¡­domain. Was that why he was spending so much mana? He was currently using an avatar like Troy had done and it would end soon? But it wasn¡¯t currently doing anything. It should not cost this much. Was it something about limits or some sort of opportunity cost about how strong a continuous defense was? That was dumb. Aether wouldn¡¯t be this picky. Yet another boulder ¨C one of the endless rain of annoying lumps of stone dropped towards James and frustration continuing to cloud his thoughts he reached out. James raised his hand and willed his domain to absorb. Absorb and¡­continue¡­continue until he could figure out how to fix this. His domain was him. His domain activation was him but better. And so James did the thing he could already do. Just¡­better. As much as possible. Every little scrap I can. Every little scrap that exists in that stupid stone that is in my way. The boulder landed. Larger than a bus, the lump of stone impacted James¡¯s outstretched arm and suddenly froze. And all the energy filled his domain. It squeezed into his circuit and¡­burst it. Hundreds of blood vessels exploded as James pushed everything into it. a qualitative concentration of energy filled his vessels but¡­it was too much too soon. The air about him filled with a mist of blood as James felt mana flood every pore of his skin and every strand of muscle. His body popped¡­and his domain crystalized. James began to fall. His body was shredded and more importantly sharp stabs of pain hammered against his twin cores. He was dangerously close to killing himself with his own skills. James didn¡¯t have to wait for the dungeon to kill him ¨C he¡¯d do it himself! Still¡­the weak and whiny thoughts and worries were banished. James felt completely and utterly in control. That feeling he¡¯d been striving for had suddenly been reached. With a twist, James stopped his fall and then reversed it. His body was barely listening to him and yet his mana¡­it responded to every want and wish the moment he had it. The prickling damage ¨C it was still here but James felt every single prick and slowly adapted. It took less than a minute of distracted concentration before James managed it. He grabbed every stab and pushed it away as soon as it appeared. No¡­he pushed away every stab before it appeared ¨C the attacks diverted as soon as he could effect them. James rocketed up to Troy¡¯s location, a single outstretched hand tagging his side. His absolute control struggled for a moment as he attempted to lift Troy¡¯s whole body and then suddenly pushed through. Soon Troy was flying upwards as well ¨C his friends shout causing James to laugh suddenly. ¡°Come on, Lets push through this last stretch!¡± His mana was still dropping but the early leaking rush had dropped to a healthy trickle. He¡­he had done it. He felt great. The pair flew upwards popping through two clouds and then suddenly¡­they were there. The top of the cliff. Except¡­instead of a ledge or a cave or the ceiling of this dungeon what James saw was a pair of lips. A massive stone pair of lips directly under two massive eyes. Pushing away from the wall to gain a sense of perspective James pulled backwards holding Troy under one arm. There was a head at the top of the cliff. Like mount Rushmore or¡­yeah. Like mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore but a dick! The head looked apathetic and arrogant ¨C roughly fifty meters from top to bottom and forty wide. Its shoulders were the top of the cliff extending out in either directly as far as James could see. And staring across at him the stone head blinked. James drifted backwards slightly in surprise. The head stared at James like he was nothing more than a bug. The head¡­wasn¡¯t impressed. It didn¡¯t even care. Above and behind the head a field of boulders extended in all directions. James continued to stare at the head before suddenly hoisting Troy upwards and pointing forward. ¡°Think that¡¯s the boss we came to find isn¡¯t it?¡± James spoke gesturing forward. ¡°Do you get turned on by putting people in danger? Feeling in control and dangling people over the edge ¨C because honestly I don¡¯t swing that way. Put me the fuck down ¨C ¡° Troy paused as he spotted the head for the first time and James winced. ¡°Sorry, I¡­sorry¡± James began to float back towards the wall making to bring troy down on top of the wall. He¡¯d overstepped. They weren¡¯t that close and he hadn¡¯t warned Troy about the flight¡­ For some reason Troy also winced ¨C then tensed. Directly where James had been meaning to fly Troy down a massive hand lay in wait. Twisting at the last moment to pick another spot, James saw the stone hand begin to raise up and follow. Another hand and another appeared even as James steadied Troy and tossed him forward twisting to meet the slap of a massive hand. James confidently twisted his domain to divert the slap and yet the hand hit harder than he was expecting a deep reverberation running out as soon as it impacted him. Like the slight resistance from Troy but magnified many times, James¡¯s confident block did remain firm¡­but not without cost. James felt a wave of pinpricking sparks rush over his body and in the end he let the slap continue through pushing him back to safety. Smacked backwards like a fly James slowed down and stopped around seventy meters from the face. It continued to stare impassively ¨C not a trace of emotion crossing its stony expression. James stretched ¨C using his affinity as much as his muscles to twist his arm as if winding back for a punch. Blood leaked down his side and James focused pushing his will about so none of the leaks continued. Manually moving his blood about until his body remembered how to do it properly James went back to ignoring the damage his body was enduring. Finally a flicker of something crossed the mountain face and a blue box flickered across to James¡¯s sight.
Run back to the stage now mortal, I am not an obstacle to be faced. You are¡­not my equal even if my lesson seems to be sticking. Congratulations, you beat the third floor! Your rewards should be good when you get out - reaching a secret area and all that.
Behind the head a streak of brilliant light flashed forward ¨C a brilliant rainbow arrow burrowing into the back of Fate¡¯s head. The arrow disappeared into the rock ¨C it must have sunk a dozen meters into the stone and yet¡­the head continued to stare impassively at James as if ignoring the pest behind it. Despite the heads apparent disinterest, several stone hands reached up, melting out of the stone to begin chasing Troy. Six hands appeared ¨C two began chucking stones while two chased and two moved in front. The pair in front slid down the wall and pushed out folding and crossing themselves in front of the face. This head was making fun of them. It was claiming it didn¡¯t even need to use two of its hands to deal with them. ¡°You are just the final boss of a dungeon¡± James shrugged then shot forward. I¡¯m glad the dungeon has such a punchable face. Finally I have something I can attack. James felt a rush of pinpricks ¨C hundreds of times stronger than the previous waves ¨C and yet¡­he didn¡¯t care about power or quantity. It didn¡¯t matter how fast or strong something moved at him¡­he just had to move it away and he''d already figured out how to move these points. James punched ¨C portioning a good amount of mana into the action ¨C and heard the most satisfying crunch as his fist connected. A large crack shot sideways in both directions as James redirected the damage his hand would have suffered inwards. Double tap. Pushing back James dodged the hands swipe and stared in satisfaction at the crack. Damn that felt good.
To you I am a god
The box appeared ¨C a faint annoyance coming across in the text despite the face¡¯s continued almost bored gaze. ¡°I just punched a god? I should record this and show my friend later¡­¡± James laughed prodding his AI to start storing the scene. James felt relaxed. This¡­this wasn¡¯t a impossible challenge. The bullshit attack appearing from nowhere wasn¡¯t there anymore. He had something to punch ¨C he was more powerful than he had ever been. The crack he had put upon the stone face rippled and melted. Within moments all sign of his attack was gone and yet James maintained his optimism. So the stone giant could heal¡­didn¡¯t change anything. Sure it did make the fight a bit more annoying¡­but James felt confident. How deep into the mountain was its body sunk? It seemed like the giant had some stone manipulation powers¡­hiding up here out of danger and tossing shit down on everyone. Anyone who attacked from so far away was cowardly and weak... James dashed forward punching the face several times in quick succession ¨C parrying a swipe from the hand to refill his energy then darting about to pummel stone from a different angle. Large chunks fell off the face falling into the distance and James grinned despite himself. He didn¡¯t know how much damage he had really done but damn was this ever satisfying. A bit more punching and then he could find Troy and figure out a more effective attack. James twisted one of the slapping hands towards the face causing the giant to slap itself. A thundering crack rang out even as a huge chunk of dense almost fleshy stone flew up into the air. James darted up to grab the chunk of face grabbing it in both hands and aiming downwards. I¡¯m going to bash his face with his face¡­ The mountain¡¯s expression changed for the first time. Its thin smile twisted into a wide grin inhumanly wide and warped with how shattered the stone was.
I think you are misunderstanding something mortal.
Suddenly with deep grinding rumble the entire cliff face began to bend towards James. As far as he could see in either direction the landscape¡­bent. The lip began to travel towards him even as he gained some distance ¨C and it kept coming. Stone moving further and further towards his position. So...So much stone. Like the mountain itself was leaning forward, the face just continued to move ¨C two, three hundred meters forward the mountain draggoned its broken face continuing to grin inhumanly wide. Countless boulders began to fall off the ¡®shoulders¡¯, of the mountain rolling off the sloped top and falling to the ground below. ¡°I¡¯m not¡­stuck in some ¡®mountain¡¯¡± ¨C the air ripped apart with the sheer volume of sound being produced. James¡¯s ears nearly burst before he added sound protection to his domain moving the vibrations to a manageable level. ¡°I ¡®am¡¯ this ¡®mountain¡¯¡± fate rumbled, the air creating vacuums with each wave. Leaning back into place, fate finished in blue boxes.
I repeat. Your final trial is to escape. My defeat isn¡¯t on the table. My core is several leagues away. My domain dormant and asleep. If I stop pulling my punches, you¡¯ll shatter so stop. Overstepping. Mortal.
¡­ What. ¡­ The...whole mountain? The one we''ve been climbing for an hour? ... Fates hands began to shape stone as if they were creating snowballs ¨C quickly moulding more ammo to replace all that it had lost. How¡­how was James supposed to fight a mountain? This face¡­James was pretty sure he could break off the head if that¡¯s all he had to do. He could¡­he could. He could go down fighting. Escape¡­escape was such a weak sounding word. One of his very first things since arriving in the tutorial was to run away from a fight. Call it a tactical retreat but¡­fuck it just seemed so weak. What was the point of gaining this much strength if he had to slink away from something stronger? James was going to fight, even if he had to go down fighting¡­ James suddenly spotted Troy. He had gone into his light body when fate had spoken and jabbed his feet into the cliff face to prevent himself from falling off when fate leaned forward¡­ But he looked so small standing there in the expanse of stone. James had liked hanging out with the light archer. He¡¯d even started considering him a friend¡­was he really stupid enough to throw this friend to his death just for stupid pride? Really¡­if James framed it as him saving someone¡­well then it wasn¡¯t a cowardly retreat it was a protective retreat. Yeah¡­ James stared at the massive chunk of ¡®face¡¯ in his hands. He considered tossing it aside but felt strangely possessive over it. The stone was heavy¡­it was increasing his flight cost fourfold at least¡­but he wanted it. Finally James made up his mind and flew over to the top of the cliff. Moving up over the lip and crossing the distance to Troy James flew unmolested. He arrived above the archer and paused for a second. Why was this awkward? ¡°Hey¡­Sorry I flew you up without permission. Want to try fighting the mountain or¡­¡± Troy nodded furiously then as if realizing that wasn¡¯t a response made a pained sort of face and responded quietly. ¡°Yeah, sorry for snapping, lets go before daddy moai changes his mind.¡± Troy reached hesitantly upwards a anxious expression on his face. James reached down and hoisted extending his aura around his friend and lightening his load. Quickly flying down the pair fell towards the ground in silence ¨C and roughly five seconds down the boulders began to fall. Fall¡­and then rocket. Fate¡¯s judgement fell like rain more and more boulders pitched downwards at faster and faster speeds and with a greater frequency than six arms should have been possible ¨C who cared if the mountain had been holding back. If it could have thrown boulders faster, if it had more arms¡­ A particularly fast stone clipped James¡¯s side ¨C the projectile brushing his defenses and then slowing down and ripping away, James¡¯s pool was refilled. He could have fought¡­if anything he should have tried. Look how strong he was? Suddenly without warning or weakness James¡¯s leg disappeared ¨C sliced clean through from within and tossed to the winds. It felt similar to the pinprick attacks¡­the strange prickles he had learned to protect against¡­just different. Hundreds of times stronger ¨C a slice instead of a thousand tiny slabs. James quickly stemmed the tied of blood rushing out of his severed leg. Manually looping blood back into his stump James gritted his teeth and shoved a feeling of the strange esoteric movement into his domain. ¡°I get it¡± James growled his lip curling as he approached the ground. A slicing attack similar to the one that had instantly taken his leg hit his arm from some unknown direction but was diverted. ¡°I get it¡­that could have gone for my head or more importantly my cores. I get it ¨C James spotted Maddy and Jess retreating towards the cliff face. They were nearly at the entrance now ¨C seemed they were being attacked by villagers? Angling himself towards the pair James felt Troy shifting under his arm before with surprising speed dozens of arrows began to shoot away from them. Coming down like a fighter jet James twisted his shard of face squinting at the cave entrance. ¡°Coming through!¡± He called even as Troy picked off half the villagers with pinpoint headshots. Landing at an angle and skid James threw all the excess momentum from his landing into the air about pushing back the remaining villagers and watching as his friends made it into the exit. Turning James was just in time to see the sky itself falling behind them. Stone covered the entire sky coming down faster and faster. Looking about one last time James angled his face shard like a mover fitting a bedframe through a door and stepped into the passage. He felt stronger than ever. But it wasn¡¯t strong enough. Chapter 79. Im Fake, Youre Fake. Whos fake? ---Maddy--- Maddison stared across at the fake corpse, a growing urgency coating her body with pins and needles. At first, she thought it was a negative reaction to the death but¡­if she were being honest with herself she felt next to nothing from that. Trying to consider the most moral thing she could do before following it was exhausting. She could go back to being a good person as soon as her life was in less danger. How lazy, how weak her resolve was. ¨C No! She was a good person. She was just in shock or something... Exausting. Something for future her to unpack. Either way, this prickle wasn''t a reaction. It felt like an attack. It felt like¡­well it simply felt like she was being lightly attacked by ¡®something¡¯ in some unknown way and at a low enough degree she could ignore it. Paradox damage? It said a lot about the dungeon, that, despite its heavy-handed storyline and ¡°absolute¡± hand against breaking its rules¡­it was surprisingly lenient in its punishments? She had had a month to complete its first story. Now she had a full hour. Instead of a single instantly fatal attack, she¡¯d been poisoned and warned. A ¡®soft¡¯ punishment. At this point it wasn¡¯t even a ¡®punishment¡¯ outside of the story. It was simply a trial. If the dungeon¡¯s goal was truly to kill them it could probably have stuck instantly and lethally as soon as they broke the first rule. The cost of only being able to attack when its rules were broken¡­that would have boosted any conceptual weight. Or, perhaps it had actually ¡®struck instantly¡¯ with the boulder¡­ but¡­No. Considering James had managed to defend against that, the boulder had felt like a warning more than an attempt to kill them. No, Maddy was sure the dungeon wanted them to succeed. It was true she might be anthropomorphizing the dungeon too much¡­but someone somewhere was pushing for them to succeed. If not the dungeon, then whoever created it. Something was intelligently pushing for them to gain a domain. Maddy attempted to heal whatever damage was happening to her and only really managed to remove the painful prickle. What was being attacked? Her mind? Her soul? She was distracted. Jess slipped her hand into Maddy¡¯s and to the girl¡¯s surprise she felt the prickle dim. Was her friend¡¯s magic able to somehow block the damage? Was her domain of protection allowing her to protect against something esoteric? Maddy didn¡¯t know. What she did know was she needed to perform a spell. One theoretically more important than any she had performed so far. She needed¡­to commit. She had to transform herself. ¡­ ¡°A life for me, but not for mine. A limit then! One made this time. I''ve learned of costs and come to give; this spell a hope for mind to live. An unlife yes, but not a curse; my soul stays strong, forgo the hearse! An inspiration from decay rooted deep and complete ¨C My heart will henceforth no longer beat. But in exchange my heat will thrum, the concept of it''s eternal drum, will soak the land and spread my will, a domain I say! One soaked in sound, my communication with the world abound. My body¡¯s cost will not be death, my cost will take from what I¡¯ve left. An existence here, the cost for there. A single blip to anywhere. Not a movement, not my luck. My soul is steady fast and stuck. My domain I hope you soon will see, is really just a part of me. The part of me that interacts; it¡¯s part of me is trueful facts. And where I go and where I see; my domain spreads and recedes¡­¡± Maddy trailed off her chant. In front of her was her array of eyes ¨C all 27 of them laying on the fake corpse as if incubating themselves. To Maddy¡¯s ¡®death¡¯ sight, remnant death energy was slowly concentrating and pooling in points beneath each eye. To Maddy¡¯s ¡®Light¡¯ Sight, sunlight from the sky above was captured and held in each working ¨C not because the light from the sky had anywhere near the power of her light mana but because the light held more ¡®reality¡¯ than her light mana. More ¡®meaning¡¯ she could imbue. Maddy¡¯s ¡®real¡¯ face was eyeless, her eyelids clenched tightly over empty sockets. She looked peaceful and serene ¨C calm and collected as if she weren¡¯t in the middle of a life threatening ritual she barely understood. Each eye stared up at the fleshy body standing above them. Each eye held a portion of her mind, each a piece of her soul. Surrounding them as if as offerings were every single possession Maddy owned. She was including them in her list of what she was ¨C with the hope of expanding upon them in the future. She could feel herself fading as time went on. The kiss of the void prickled painfully across her skin ¨C it ignored her healing and was only slightly blocked by Jess¡¯s magic. Was she going too far? Should she wait to try and give herself teleportation till a later point when she was stronger? Should she forgo this attempt at permanently keeping her mind in her soul instead of her body? This attempt at grasping immortality? She was moving too quickly ¨C she needed more time to prepare. It was too late now for regrets. Maddy continued to fuel her spell. She was doing the equivalent of tossing logs onto a fading fire ¨C and then ripping bark off of trees she hadn''t cut yet to throw more fuel in. She dragged the ritual out longer and longer well past the point it should have failed. A heaviness began to fill the air as Maddy worked, slowly checking and double checking each part. A density to the suroundings as if the world were watching her. Her voice was one ingredient. A rhyme for power and purpose. Her mana and materials were another ingredient. A seed of meaning and a fuel for what she hoped to accomplish. The largest point of the spell however was actually a stack of wooden paper. A stack bound like a book containing all her wishes. It was less a spell and more a diary ¨C each ¡®page¡¯ contained the ramblings of a scared little girl. Point form notes, legal verbiage for what she was and wasn¡¯t willing to pay. Sketches and pictures of her plan. Everything peppered with runes and keywords. Some of it had already been written, but the majority was filled out in the past forty minutes. She¡¯d written faster than she thought possible ¨C both hands jotting down notes simultaneously to double her efficiency ¨C all her regen pumped into the book and the surroundings the majority put aside for the end. She¡¯d then spent an entire minute binding her wooden ¡®book¡¯ and making it look nice. Maddy could have written more if only she¡¯d had more arms. She could have written more if she had more time ¨C even if she¡¯d more efficiently used her time. Heck ¨C she had almost ten minutes left to perform the end of the ritual. She could probably have squeezed in a few more points¡­ But no. She was feeling more and more pressed by the paradox damage. Her mind was bruised and steadily becoming malleable. It was time. Painted across her entire stomach was a single rune. The one for ¡®crystalized self¡¯. The rune the dungeon had given her ¨C which she had barely touched up till now. Given as a key for this spell ¨C more proof the dungeon was a training aid. Each eye sat on its own copy of the self rune ¨C a instinct had took Maddy over, the concept whispering to her when she melted it into the headless corpse and dropped her blood and life energy into the rune. She¡¯d listened to parts of it and straight up ignored its prodding in others. She wouldn¡¯t be led into this ¨C not even by her magic. This spell was hers and hers alone. Maddy continued to push mana into her spell ramping up till all her pools were dry. The prickling intensified as she worked ¨C her pools were now dry but still her spell required more. It wasn¡¯t enough ¨C she didn¡¯t have enough magic. Enough oomph. The spell squeezed her empty pools and physically pulled the regeneration out of her to fuel its working. Her pools were dry and shriveled and breaking and yet still her spell dragged at her ¨C beginning to pull life energy from her blood and flesh. Jess looked on horrified at the side as her skin shriveled ¨C Maddy had hidden a lot of her self mutilation from her friends up till now, but this was impossible to add to that pile of secrets. There was nothing more that could be done than take that final step. Her mana and lifeforce was completely gone, her spell attempting to drag power out of her calcified bone spellwork. Instead of resisting it Maddy relaxed, her voice continuing once again. As she spoke not a single bit of her mana remained and yet her concepts still filled her voice with power. She continued speaking softly her concept of sound helping her voice long after her lungs and mouth failed her. ¡°And so by sound and thought and will, I create a way to survive this bitter pill. I direct what I can and wish for what I can¡¯t. I save myself by sacrificing myself in this Incant¡­¡± From her multitude of perspectives Maddy watched her body begin to fade much more rapidly. ¡®She¡¯ was no longer really there. The ¡®reality¡¯ of that body had dropped below a certain threshold. It was like she was watching an illusion filled with useless gunk, instead of a body chant those final words. The theory behind her spell was simple and yet every step of it was nerve-racking. To teleport she had to destroy her body in one spot and create her body in another. There was no way she could create a fully functional body with enough ¡®reality¡¯ to be her, so she had to save the ¡®reality¡¯ of her in the original spot, transfer it to the end point and then use it to create the new body. But that was teleportation ¨C not domainwork. Maddy¡¯s real goal was to shove a bit of her reality into each of her many eyes. They were already a part of her but¡­they weren¡¯t really her. They had her sight but¡­she couldn¡¯t cast magic through them. The point she could activate spellwork through her eyes would be the point her eyes and all they saw contained her domain. That felt like a significant enough point it should crystalize her domain with intent. The second part should help as well. Some of this was kind of thrown into the pot ¨C her possessions melting and filling the spells framework for example ¨C but she had spent quite a bit of time thinking about this ritual. So, to reiterate. Maddy would teleport into nothing and while doing so give a piece of herself to each of her eyes. Not a chunk of her replaceable body or a scrap of her mind. She would give a piece of what she was. A piece of her ¡®reality¡¯. Hopefully by piggybacking off their ability to heal from each other, she could then heal back from any wound so long as at least one eye survived. Like a lich from fantasy. She¡¯d forgone the protection of body stats and mutations, so now she had to make her own. In fact her body stats ¨C which had been nerfed and capped by the cost of her affinities pulled together the scraps feeding into her spell and gave her ritual their weight. The idea behind her final body was simple and yet it had taken all her idle thoughts up till now to finally realize it. To start one had to rewind a bit. Ever since the necromancer in charge of all the reincarnation systems had mentioned joining him, Maddy had seriously considered the idea of a lich and what it might mean. A dead body for immortality. The cost of a continued ageless existence was¡­a body of decay. Simple equivalent exchange ¨C the result, a smelly body with rotting flesh and who knows what else. A heavy heavy cost but one some might consider worth it for immortality however cursed. If she was being honest¡­turning herself into an undead felt trivial using those levels of cost. Keeping her thoughts the same ¨C preventing herself from being the equivalent of a zombie¡­that was a tiny bit harder but Maddy still felt like she could make that sort of permanent change relatively easily. Technically this spell wasn¡¯t hard ¨C she simply had to pay that ¡®cost¡¯ and away she¡¯d go. If she had gone that ¡®undead¡¯ route Maddy would have tried for as strong an undead as she could think of. Something like a vampire whose ¡®cost¡¯ was to consume blood instead of a steadily deteriorating zombie. If she had gone that route maybe she could have slowly offset that cost by building in a method of growth. Her increased power fixing her decaying form, an end result almost human once again. But¡­if Maddy could, she would try for a better transformation than that. That might have been her only option if her only affinity was life and death, but Maddy had more¡­and with a dash of negative shaping she could ask for a cost that she would prefer ¨C the fact her cost was slightly out of her control would make it more meaningful. ¡°What is the most efficient cost I can pay that is also the least deliberating¡±. Hopefully one that let her continue to enjoy life ¨C one she could offset as she grew stronger. ... For a single drawn out moment the world changed. A moment shorter than a second and yet longer than a day, time lost its smothering hold upon the world. Existence faded and all that remained was Madison. Maddy, Maddy and Maddy. Me myself and I. Maddy¡¯s body was overlayed and then transformed into an elegant and masterful spider. A spider puppeteer ¨C several almost invisible threads heading out in all directions. This was perhaps the clearest picture Maddy had seen of this spider yet¡­clear enough she could clearly see the threads heading up into space above it. Even as the spider controlled others it too was controlled by something far above¡­a few threads were broken and yet the spider remained. A therapist would have a field day if she told one about this. Was this how Maddy saw herself? Was this a part of her? The council of Maddy¡¯s ¨C each eye a separate portion of her mind ¨C stood about the spider and stared silently. Her many eyes were each supported by their own shadowed figures ¨C her life eye a wooden face, her light eye shining like a lamp. The eyes were the jury ¨C her spidered body the defendant in this kangaroo court of peers. If¡­if this was a representation of who Maddy had been, a part of herself¡­the healthy option ¨C the logical option should be something about accepting it. Maddy could imagine herself telling a therapist about this spider and a therapist talking her through acknowledging and hugging this thing or something sappy like that. But¡­if this was who she had been, if this was a representation of that person she had been. The one she was still trying to escape. Then why the hell should she accept this thing? The stage shifted. The spider was bound at the stake the jury surrounding it on all sides. Kill this creature I hate so that I may escape. Rend and break. Rend and break. The spider began to struggle in panic and then pain as each eye took out its frustration on it. Maddy would never condone needless violence against animals or even arachnids. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Torture had no purpose. Life-light Maddy healed the spider up a bit so the council could continue ¨C they hadn''t all gotten their turn yet. This wasn¡¯t something as crass as torture. It was all in her head after all. It was her moving on. Healthy mental exercises for a healthy mind ¨C one that was in the process of growing stronger. Maddy gleefully continued to attack. She bent and melted and burned and twisted. She snapped legs and used them to stab the creatures many eyes. She erassed the creatures shell exposing its innards to the elements and spread its human innards about the stage mercilessly up till the moment a healing mind was too slow and the endless exhilarating moment ended. ... There were two more parts to this ritual. Two parts that could only happen when ¨C and if ¨C her first spell was successful. Her body continued to look like it was standing there speaking but to most of Maddy¡¯s sights it had completely faded. There wasn¡¯t even ¡®meaning¡¯ in the words anymore, the chant might as well be the ravings of a lunatic for how little meaning they held. The remnant ¡®gunk¡¯ that had been floating about had already burned away under the ministrations of the void. It had dissapeared in that drawn out second in her mind. Good. The toxic sludge was gone. All that truly remained was parts of her skeleton and a shell of light ¨C illusion thin enough you could see through it to the bones beneath. Maddy could see the spells she had carved on her bones pulse and resist. There was quite a lot of meaning embedded in them despite their relatively new addition. Quite a lot of ¡®weight¡¯ resisting her mana ¨C even if she wanted this, they contested her new spell. The bones felt they were more important than her ritual. They had used more mana in the past few weeks. Their ritual had been more involved with more resources and time. They had done more, they had more thought put into them. It wasn¡¯t the ritual that should take over her bones her bones should take over the ritual to add it to its store of spells. Her bones ¨C especially her pelvic focus ¨C were dense to Maddy¡¯s reality sight and fought conceptually. Heavy and full of swirls of ¡®meaning¡¯ and whatever else her reality sight showed her. They rejected being subordinated. Maddy pushed her desires toward them. She imagined herself stroking the bones and saying ¡®Its okay. Do this for me, I haven¡¯t forgotten you. You aren¡¯t being replaced¡¯. Suddenly the illusion flickered and faded from physical sight causing Jess to gasp. For a single moment Maddy¡¯s skeleton stood and then it too began to collapse. Bones disintegrated into dust as the spellwork disappeared ¨C a grey powder floating to the side. No, not faded. Condensed into a bundle of meaning ¨C the physical form discarded. Dimly, Maddy was aware of Jess running forward ¨C her friends entire body was coated in brilliant golden armour. There was a brief trembling moment where all the minds contained in her eyes began to fade and in a shadowed way, Maddy could see the necromancer just out of sight watching her. The eyes were infused with part of the ¡®everything¡¯ that made up the girl ¨C the rest of her meaning held in a leaking shell of mana. A single speck of the reality of her focus begrudgingly slid into the eyes ¨C an end point just as much as it was a copy. To the side the shadow of her potential savior turned and faded away once again, a complex look upon his bone white face. He looked annoyed he had come and not been needed? Almost proud? It was hard to tell when the girl could barely focus on the man made of bones and cloth. The girl felt strange. For a single moment she was 27 separate people ¨C not a single person split into 27 separate positions. And then the feeling faded and she was alive ¨C if split into parts and without a body. The entire grassy area was covered in a golden dome as Jess panicked and attempted to help. It was nice to know she cared. Maddy couldn¡¯t feel anything. She couldn¡¯t taste or smell. Maddy could see and listen but that was it and even those felt muted. She couldn¡¯t feel anything in her eyes and so Maddy wasn¡¯t sure if they were continuing to be attacked but¡­she was relatively sure the damage had stopped. Step one done. Each of her eyes felt a pinprick of mana. Her pools¡­they were beginning to appear in each of her eyes as something Maddy did not understand took hold and held her in comforting arms. She¡¯d pushed a bit too quickly with this spell. She¡¯d tried to grow stronger too fast ¨C the work of years done in an hour. As soon as the new feeling passed, blue boxes rolled in.
?? Achievement get: Eyes of M. (Unique)
Description: Sacrificed. Archived. Solidified. I''m sorry.
Stat: +81 ''Eyes of M'' Soul Defense.
Paradox resolved.
Your past self killed your current self by foolishly dying to your hand and thus the timeline has been restored. Your continued existence is no longer protected by the narrative. You are an abnormality outside of causality. Abnormalities do not draw the eyes of fate, but blasphemy angers fates followers. Be wary for you haven¡¯t escaped the domain of fate quite yet.
Maddy felt her mana pool in all the eyes ¨C the pinpoints expanding into normal as soon as each eye held three soul defense. The pools felt diminished and small ¨C like her pools had been a meal that was cut up and distributed amongst the eyes. Distributed instead of something accessed by all of them or duplicated between them as her goal had been. There wasn¡¯t enough mana in any of her eyes individually to continue her plan. That¡­wasn¡¯t ideal. Collectively there was enough of course and in a few minutes she should have enough mana to continue¡­but she hadn¡¯t been planning on cooperatively casting this way and every mistake was a mistake she shouldn¡¯t have made with her life on the line. She¡¯d have to figure out how to share mana with herself for the future. In the future. That was the important point. There was a strange lack of urgency held in her eyes as she struggled to coordinate the plan between them. She could see the rest of her reality right there. It was leaking. Diminishing with every moment it was held in storage. She should be panicking. Logically she knew that and yet¡­maybe her lack of a body prevented the emotional response from hitting her? Either way Maddy continued to calmly gather mana, a detached interest in following the plan she had started. The eyes hadn¡¯t been built to communicate with each other ¨C they could toss ideas back to her body and her body could toss ideas back to her eyes but¡­there was a link between eyes for the resurrection mechanic. It was incredibly hard to piggyback off that link ¨C as a mage, intent was hard to convey purely through thoughts. Still the message was simple and she finally managed to get her separate minds to focus. Finally they begin directing their mana into the spell. As soon as Maddy linked her spellwork, an illusion of her appeared in the area once again. A golden knight spun and attempted to hug the reappearing illusion but fell through ¨C stumbling past the shell of light painted on dark. Jess panicked for another moment, then noticeably took a deep breath before watching Maddy continue. First, two eyes teleported up to sit in the illusions sockets. They shouldn¡¯t have been able to sit in the air and yet, perhaps as a side effect of the rest of her magic they attached to the illusion as if it were real. Next with a flicker ¨C taking much less time than the initial disappearance ¨C her bones reappeared. They were illusions as well, but ones with weight and meaning that spread through the rest of the shell of light. An effort was made to push the rest of her little understood ¡®meaning¡¯ into this shell before moving on to her final affinity Maddy began to heal. She filled her body with life mana and the pilfered life energy from her previous body. Her magic and affinity swirled in the air before latching onto ¡®her¡¯ body. They found something in the illusion and suddenly ¡®saw¡¯ her for what she was. Soon life mana began attempting to fix the endless lethal problems that riddled her form. ¡­ Maddy felt faint and dizzy. Her body was¡­not quite there right now. Reality leaked from her luminous pores and she was heavily dissociating from the the world. It wasn¡¯t getting better. She was still leaking! Maddy concentrated as hard as she could, halting the loss of reality with a constant firm grip of her intent. She needed to make a spell to do this automatically. She shouldn¡¯t still be leaking. Nothing felt real. That¡­was bad. The world about her wasn¡¯t real. The world about that world wasn¡¯t real ¨C that¡­was bad. Maybe it was fitting that she wasn¡¯t real as well? A fake girl in a fake world surrounded by fake people. At the end of the day was anything real? Probably not right, She was just having a dream or something. Soon she would wake up and find herself back on earth. Actually was earth real? Maybe it was all just a hallucination. The girl had reached out to pick up her bag absentmindedly and her hands passed through the strap. Pausing the girl tried several times to grasp the bag ¨C was the bag an illusion? Probably. Stupid illusion. The girl focused correctly ¨C she told the illusion beside her that it was real and then picked the cloth up triumphantly. Oh was she the illusion? This was¡­this was fine. She knew that. She¡¯d already put a lot of through into the creation ¨C she¡¯d always planned on attempting immortality the timeline had just been shifted rapidly. She was alive. She was good. She¡¯d succeeded. Illusion hands seemed like a better price than rotting flesh. This was fine. She should also be able to teleport again and with how Maddy had planned things, the next attempt should be a magnitude easier. Maybe after a few more attempts Maddy could start activating it in seconds ¨C and as she used that spellwork it should strengthen and grow more efficient. Yes, the first attempt is the worst. Only way to go is up from here. The other girl was asking her something, a concerned look upon her face. Sound wasn¡¯t quite reaching the girl ¨C Maddy focused on her eyes letting them resonate the concept of sound into her mind. I am me. My name is Maddison. I am 20 years old. I just did some magic. I love magic. I¡¯m made of magic. I¡¯m going to be fine. ¡°¡­okay? Are you there? Is there anything I can do to help?¡± Jess spoke, standing a good hands length away from Maddy. She stood as if afraid to touch Maddy ¨C as if Maddy was fragile and a single touch would break her. Her friend was probably right about that. Jess¡¯s head was locked in a helmet that almost appeared to be made of hair ¨C flowing whip like strands of barrier fell down jess¡¯s back and swayed behind her on an invisible wind. Jess¡¯s eyes peered out of a visor red and strained flecks of gold standing out in her brown irises. Jess¡¯s arms and legs were coated in interlocking plates ¨C an incredibly solid feeling of ¡®reality¡¯ emanating from the conjured armor. That dense feeling of protection extended out to the dome that surrounded them. Was this her friends avatar? She¡¯d completed her domain first? Good for her¡­ ¡°I¡¯m fine. That took a lot out of me and I still have a final step to create my active domain power.¡± Maddy spoke wincing at the pain of vocalization. ¡°Is there anything I can do to help?¡± Jess asked, concern continuing to radiate towards her. ¡°Just¡­continue to stay here with me. Please protect me from anything you can while I finish off.¡± Maddy allowed herself some weakness. Jess nodded and reached out a hand hesitantly. Maddy reached out and gave her friend a quick hug before crouching down and conjuring a slate to write on. She had sacrificed her charcoal pencil so with another painful prickle she created a new one conjuring the illusion and giving it, some remembered weight. She started to write ¨C and then paused. This was important ¨C it had to go on her bones¡­ Maddy almost absentmindedly reached into her body and dragged out a nice solid writing surface from her leg. The flesh parted easily ¨C a perk of being over half illusion. Her skull felt more meaningful but a part of her resisted that. How could she use her body to write with if her head didn¡¯t have its skull in it? That was silly. Her destructive-darkness eye popped over to rest on the end of her pen and sacrificed its entire pool and regeneration to cut and burn runes into her bone. Her bone was slippery ¨C her pen kept slipping through the canvas and so a second eye popped over ¨C her life-creation eye feeding its mana into her bone and causing it to solidify enough to write on. Each and every time she activated one of these spellworks her focal burns twinged with pain. A tiny concerning prickle and ache ¨C but a good one. Her focus felt stronger as mana flowed through it. Her body felt more here. It felt like by using her bones she was reminding them they existed. She was reminding her focus of its purpose and fed meaning into its weakened existence. By making a new spell she was expanding her focus to cover more of her bones. The spell was completely separate but the meaning of her bones holding magic fed into the whole skeleton conceptually. And as soon as it had more meaning her life mana could heal it better. Synergy! Okay. Step two. Maddy needed to make a few changes to her original final plan. The goal was once again to rip her body apart and¡­she really shouldn¡¯t do so again in such a short amount of time but it felt like she had to. It would damage her even more than she was already damaged ¨C still Maddy felt like her domain was already formed and if she didn¡¯t finalize it right now it would settle¡­If it settled now and she tried to realize its active form later¡­well it would be weaker. She had to finish no matter how damaging it would be. She needed to be strong. She needed to have power ¨C she couldn¡¯t¡¯ fall behind or fail to live up to her potential she just couldn¡¯t. She wanted to be one of the strongest people in this world. They had all started at the same place ¨C Maddy refused to end up fallen behind by the end of this race. Maddy knew she was currently being reckless. She knew she wanted to plan more ¨C but she¡¯d been planning for days now. Okay. Maddy was ready. She hadn¡¯t included a lot of text on this bone, so she¡¯d have to speak more to finalize this spell. A few tweaks to her bone and then Maddy pushed it back into her leg ¨C flesh parting in a bloodless squish. She held a link to her partially created spell and then began to speak. This spell was almost a framework. A guide for what she wanted her future domain declaration to be. ¡°First Delineate my Domain.¡± Maddy spoke and willed her eyes to start contributing. Everything she saw was her domain. Her domain overlapped with the dungeons domain but by delineating it Maddy drew a line between them. She drew attention to the fact her domain existed. She purposefully separated it from the surroundings. She tried to force the position her domain covered to be hers. Foreign domains had no sway here. A line at the edge of her sight. Maddy actually failed to kick out the dungeon but did manage to turn the area into something ¡®contested¡¯. Her domain was now fighting instead of existing peacefully alongside. ¡°Scatter mana as seeds, condense orbs of environment, expand the roster of eyes and increase the council of minds!¡± Maddy began to speak. ¡°My truth is thus, As each of my affinities has shown me something new and allowed me to interact with a new realm¡­to contest magic I can¡¯t understand I need to see it. If I can see it, it¡¯s possible to fight it. Collect the mana concepts and shapes of the surroundings. The domain I¡¯m in, the environment I¡¯m around. Create eyes that contain that foreign meaning. Contain eyes that can see the magic around me. Create temporary eyes ¨C I don¡¯t care how they appear ¨C and allow them to see that which they were created out of. To lend weight I offer my body. Temporarily cause my eyes to have meaning ¨C give them the ability to cast spells by making them me.¡± Maddy paused for a moment as if waiting for an invisible cue. Then in a rush she finished her spell. ¡°World of sight. Peak under the curtain and reveal all. Domain Expansion!¡± Maddy¡¯s body melted ¨C disappearing in seconds this time, as she sliced her meaning into a thousand pieces and tossed it into the still forming eyes. There was a weird chicken and egg scenario as she put this completed spell into her bone then turned her bone into meaning and split it evenly amongst the eyes to complete the spell. It felt like a paradox even as the reality of Maddy dipped lower. A pleasant surprise was it felt like a lot of the ¡®reality¡¯ that had leaked away from Maddy into the environment was captured by these eyes. They were bound in the spell and these eyes so it was still a loss but¡­as a way to strengthen these eyes it felt great. Astonishingly the negative logic of her spell latched onto a concept Maddy didn¡¯t use often. Water. The base for conjuring healing liquid spiraled into the sky. Out of the air as if condensing the water from the atmosphere, countless droplets started to appear and fall. Each drop was an eye ¨C a misshapen eye that fell through the air and then hit the ground before melting away into nothing. Many eyes didn¡¯t fully form ¨C many of them were misshapen orbs without enough mana to do more than fill the environment. Still, a few did what Maddy had hoped they would do even as they were created and destroyed proof they were temporary. The world shifted and became more. There was logic in everything. Rules that underpinned each point in the surroundings. Binary gears set to activate settings and interact with other gears spreading out into the distance. There was form in shape and shape in form ¨C the tapestry of the world something that could be painted with the colors of existence to continue its story. There was earth and a feeling of steady resilience in the ground and certain surroundings. There was space and the way you could drag and stretch it ¨C scaffolding built out of and into the surroundings that stretched the world around them to insane lengths. There was even a sense of devotion and divinity ¨C of religious connections between all bonds. And, overwhelming all other sights... there was time. A sense of what will happen and what could happen. Splitting lines of effect that balled up and showed a future if they were followed. It felt like every choice made a different future but some choices were more likely than others ¨C those futures more solid. This web was natural ¨C it was simply a part of the world she hadn¡¯t seen up till now. A steady fact of the environment ¨C or maybe just a fact inside of this domain. Was this how the dungeon saw the world? Or was the dungeon able to do this by feel¡­Maddy translating its feelings into a sight instead? None of these questions mattered ¨C as long as Maddy focused on the results the truth was unimportant. Wrapping around these webs of future and past, Maddy saw swirls of smokey mana invisible up till now. It felt like certain futures were highlighted ¨C the dungeon¡¯s mana strengthening the ¡®meaning¡¯ of those threads. No¡­meaning was a term for reality sight and creation and destruction magic. It was not the same thing at all. The mana strengthened certain threads raising their ¡®destiny¡¯. That felt like a better term for making them more likely to happen. Threads were everywhere into and out of everything but the majority linked to living creatures. Jess had hundreds of threads heading into her body ¨C and yet where insidious fate mana pushed down certain futures her friends golden mana partially blocked and defended. Her friend¡¯s avatar was ¡®protecting¡¯ itself from the largest destiny-based attacks. Not perfectly ¨C not yet ¨C but still¡­it looked like she was gaining in strength as well. Maddy borrowed the concept of future sight burning the rune into the grass with decay and linking the meaning of her bone spellwork into a spell. She pushed mana from as many points as she could reach into her new attack spell ¨C the very fact she could see, allowed her concepts to latch on¡­ even if they were outclassed in experience and home field advantage she had reached the battlefield for the first time. A wave of sound phased into alignment with the time-sight-surroundings using polarity. A sprinkling of seeds spread out ¨C tiny maggots that attacked negative futures and foreign influence with all their unstable might. One of her ¡®future sight¡¯ temporary eyes grabbed a portion of her split mind and ripped itself out of her domain with glee. It grabbed a troupe of maggots and rushed off in a vaguely upward direction in glee. Her own eyes seemed to have nearly no lines of fate directly connecting to them and yet threads brushed by and touched every single one of them in a round about manner. There were still environmental threads that interacted with futures she was in. Everything was connected ¨C even if she was an ¡®abnormality¡¯ she was still affected ¨C at least until she used magic to try and push those threads away and insulate herself more. How could she go about doing that? She was getting distracted she didn¡¯t have enough mana to even attempt this right now. There were plenty of much more important threats directly about them. There were living creatures fighting hard in the surroundings. They were fighting in ¡®truth¡¯ and yet their magic was low ¨C it was hard for Maddy to make them out as important, despite her expanded sight. When had they arrived? It didn¡¯t matter. Sometime when she had been distracted by time. Maddy¡¯s domain spell flickered out, too weak to continue. Involuntarily her body began to reform ¨C a single orb condensing out of the environment as it pulled her mana and reality back to a single point. In space the flesh orb pulsed and flickered. Maddy¡¯s heart hung in space vulnerable and exposed. Thump. And now her heart was surrounded by wispy bones ¨C a cage that barely protected such an exposed ball of mana and life. Thump. Now the shell of light and life was back ¨C her ¡®stability¡¯ had taken a massive hit for the successive casts and her body remained dangerously transparent. Thump. Maddy was mostly back again. She had her body back ¨C her domain expansion was over. But¡­the costs had piled up. The disassociation she had felt after her transformation was nothing in comparison to what she felt right now in this anxiety filled moment. The girl threw all of her thoughts into staying alive. Staying in existence. Staying apart of existence existence staying apart of her¡­whatever! It felt like if she stopped caring for a single second, she would fade away into nothing¡­and yet she didn¡¯t even know why she cared only that she did. If she let her grip relax for any reason she would fade too far into ¡®fakeness¡¯ never to return. Sure her eyes were solid and firm but¡­without the meaning held in her body how long would they last? Dimly outside of the dying girl¡¯s weakened body a vision came forth. She saw her golden knight was being attacked. Those fighting shapes remained¡­dimly Maddy knew them to be the villagers. Fates followers. They were being attacked by the whole village ¨C Maddy watched as Jess kicked like a soccer player ¨C her friend''s foot smashing a child¡¯s head like a soccer ball. The girl watched the other separate girl who was not her¡­protecting her. That didn¡¯t make sense. How could she protect her if she wasn¡¯t her? They were different people so that¡¯s why it worked? She had to move. They had to escape the dungeon before it collapsed. Or something. She barely knew what was happening ¨C just that she was fading but everything was fun and bubbly because¡­she was tired? This game was fun not that she¡¯d tell anyone. They had to know how seriously she was taking the game. A confused illusion led her protector away puppeting her silly little feet ¨C not puppeting! Asking nicely... while watching from the surroundings because that was easier. Towards they moved towards the wall and safety. They beat cultists and fakes using the power of friendship. The sky got all rumbly and rained hard chunks of itself and then were swallowed by the exit to the fake world ¨C the domain of fate was bested by the knights shining arms and the princesses'' feeble little cheers and encouragements. What a great story. I¡¯m glad I got to be a part of it, the character smiled and winked at the camera. Ah¡­I¡¯m going have to fix this aren¡¯t I. The girl had a final lucid thought before disappearing into another game. Chapter 80. An easy advancement in the knowledge grind. ---Richard--- Richard lay on his back on the roof of an intercity transport trailer. The vehicle bumped along while Richard ignored the minor way it bludgeoned his head onto sharp metal with every uneven stretch of ground ¨C which was all the ground between cities. It¡¯s not like the cranium massage hurt with his stats and skills. In one hand he held a laser-focused explosive repeater, in the other a half eaten sandwich. ¡°Day-MAn; dun de dun de dun dun ¨C Fighter of the Night-MAn; dun de dun de dun dun ¨C Champion of the Sun~¡± he sung taking aim at a passing deerclops and squeezing out a pot shot as they bounced past. With a roar the creature was blown back and then began to charge. It tanked all nine of Richard¡¯s stone shots and continued to give chase like something out of a child''s nightmare. Each step released a reverberating thud as it hit ¨C the footsteps far louder than something only a half dozen meters tall should have been able to release. Richard shoved his sandwich in his mouth and took a massive bite ¨C cursing as they hit an unlucky bump and he dropped a chunk of bread. His stone hands began reloading the gun while his free hand idlily brushed a blue strip and began fast charging up the aether capacitors once again. Removing his hand from the charging strip for a moment, Richard manipulated a several molecule thick scalpel into scraping out a chunk of his finger. He then doped the batch of stone bullets with his thick blood and began aiming lazily for the monster once again. ¡°Commit un-alive mii-amigo,¡± Richard saluted while firing the next batch of bullets ¨C aiming at center mass, bit eye hadn¡¯t seemed to do much other than enrage the fucking thing. Once again the deerclops tanked them but Richard had expected that. An application of a strip and pouring of a liquid caused Richard''s chest to smoke and the monster to flail. A final roar rang out followed by a final thunderous slam as the monster fell.
?? Achievement get: Mobile marksman. (common)
Description: Kill an in-tier monster, using ranged weaponry, from on top of a moving vehicle.
Stat: +1 body power. Stat: +2 mental speed (aiming focused).
Richard was technically not allowed to be up here. It was a good thing the driver was such a chill guy ¨C man looked stoned out of his mind which might have had an influence on the decision not that Richard was complaining. Considering he was letting Richard do whatever he wanted so long as the bus wasn¡¯t damaged¡­well that made him cool in Richard''s books. On paper ¨C or more accurately by AI verification ¨C Richard was acting as a defensive volunteer for this trip. He was only supposed to take shots at already aggro¡¯ed fauna ¨C or step in on anything the short ranged turrets missed. But again the trucker was a chill guy. The two other passengers were knocked out hard and this was mostly a supply run so¡­potshots for everyone! Richard stared about looking for something else to shoot ¨C in hopes it would continue doing such a good job of keeping his mind off things. Things¡­Ah I ruined it. After Richard had infiltrated the guild he¡¯d been pissed off and restless. His self claimed philosophy had come up against the real world and been smashed in by the weight of logic. Logic hurt. Fuck that guy. If Richard was angry at what the bastards had done he ¡®needed¡¯ to save the girls. If he didn¡¯t care about the girls and didn¡¯t care about saving them¡­well then he couldn¡¯t be angry at what had happened to them. Simple as that. Richard had really really really wanted to just go on a rampage¡­and yeah he really really wanted to pretend he was just using the horror as an excuse to run wild while not caring about the horror itself... But then, as satisfying as bombing the shit out of the place would have been, it would have invalidated the entire reason for his anger. For some stupid reason it was hard to trick himself into ignoring that. He¡¯d accepted the world was real. He¡¯d accepted the world was fake. He¡¯d stopped caring about propriety. He''d lived in the world and relaxed. And yet he still couldn¡¯t trick himself into just looking past that unpleasant shit. Fuck. Just remembering it pissed him off. His whole goal ¨C Richards only goal ¨C was to have fun and the guild had fucking ruined that. Richard nearly threw his gun over the side at the memory. Some people were just out here to ruin things for everyone. Richard squinted and pointed his space gun at a very suspicious tree. Waiting for a moment of stability between bumps, he took a shot ¨C loosing interest when the tree didn¡¯t start moving randomly or bursting into tentacles like a mimic. I don¡¯t trust that tree¡­I think it''s following me. Richard stared until it disappeared behind a hill and sighed. Well, he¡¯d been pissed at being manipulated into doing the boring helpful thing and now he wanted to leave that city and pretend it never existed. The capital should be fun to explore? At least from what he¡¯d heard and read. Richard was excited especially as he had a solid goal. ¡°Guess I¡¯m done with this. Fun while it lasted ¨C I wonder if James is in range?¡± Sending a message off with a thought, Richard sat in silence for a moment and then slumped to the side half falling off the roof once again. ¡°Why the fuck am I pining. Am I really that pathetic? Fuck that. You didn¡¯t see anything peeping blue. What was that? I don¡¯t speak pervert sorry. Now! How can I go about fixing up these bullets?¡± Richard dragged his half melted chunk of stone over to the middle of the trailer and moulded it into a giant bowl. Tossing some bolts into the center he stirred them and chanted a quick joke ¡°Bubble and bolt-il. Oil and trouble¡­that was fucking awful why didn¡¯t you stop me Mr system?¡± Staring up at the sky with a hurt expression Richard sighed and stored down at his bowl once more. A quick almost subconscious wave of his hands had the cylinder melted the bolt completely surrounded. Squeezing and stretching the ball of stone like he was kneeding bread Richard blindly grabbed around trying to reach his box. His box. His good box. He¡¯d bought a chair priced at the level of sports cars and only just recently found it could fold up into a compact box that held all his tools. Fuck Richard loved this chair. If anyone messed with the chair they¡¯d have a very threatening recorded message and a bomb to contend to. Pulling out a pair of goofy looking glasses Richard shoved them on his head switching his free slot from gun duty to x-ray glasses duty. He bypassed a password lock and hooked the feed into his AI enhancing the results that scrolled down his glasses. This was definitely doing something ¨C and now was as good a time as any to finally figure out this mystery. Really, this world seemed to be allergic to kinetic based projectile weapons and Richard¡­well he understood. He had looked into it and had a whole list of facts for why energy based options were preferred. When you wanted to shoot hords of creatures¡­well using a finite supply of physical bullets was expensive and a logistics nightmare at best and outright dangerous at worse. There was a very very good reason why the cities were using laser and plasma based turrets. When you had cheap ¨C practically endless energy from a gravity well ¨C then those were some of the most robust and foolproof options for defense. Creating matter from scratch was incredibly expensive energy wise ¨C E=MC2 really hated pure matter creation. There was obviously fake matter ¨C that unstable and short lived stuff that some skills or certain replicant items could make¡­ But those were still more expensive energy-wise than the ¡®meta¡¯ for energy weapons. Fake matter was ¨C from what Richard could tell ¨C something like reinforced aerogel. If you filled an area with 0.001% or less of a solid and then boosted its durability with aether you could make something that looked a bit like real matter. Alternatively, if you made an illusion of a brick, kinetically manipulated your hand away from the illusion, gave it some energy dampening so it blocked heat and cast a shadow and every other way you might easily check if it was real¡­well then even if the brick didn¡¯t actually exist it certainly acted like it did. If it looked like a brick, felt like a brick, tasted like a brick¡­well then it might as fuck be a brick. Anyways, energy-based weaponry. Technically energy wise the cost to process a bullet and then propel it further was a small bit cheaper than throwing plasma¡­but good materials weren¡¯t endless and energy was. Add in less logistic steps and the whole system was more robust. In a similar vein there was a practical reason to toss ranged superiority and use a lightsaber or other enhanced short ranged weapon. A gun gathered energy into shots and ¡®threw it away¡¯ while a lightsaber kept all that energy close and potent. Each aether based charge shot that was sent away was ¡®wasted¡¯ when you thought about it. A device that kept energy close by could do so indefinitely ¨C especially as aether stayed together better the closer it was to a living creature and its source. A rod that superheated the air into a plasma cutter then manipulated that plasma into a certain area? A whip of electrons a haze of billowing death? All complicated to make but incredibly efficient power-wise for those who could afford it. There were more scaling issues with guns trying to tempt Richard away from them ¨C kinetic defensive stats were more efficient and more common than esoteric types of damage. Plenty of boss level monsters wouldn¡¯t even feel a small gun and scaling the payload up had a different sort of problem unique to kinetic weapons. It wasn¡¯t just boss monsters ¨C considering the number of stronger monsters in general seemed to think the square cube suggestion didn¡¯t apply to them¡­.well to damage them you¡¯d have to hit them with the equivalent of a cannonball or add in something extra to each tank piercing round. If ¨C as common sense dictated ¨C you had a large gun, its ¡®kick¡¯ would be a lot higher than a small one. If you tried to remove the kick using aether based kinetic dampening¡­well chances are you¡¯d reduce the speed a shot could take. It was theoretically possible to get around but not cheaply and in all simple cases you¡¯d lower the speed and damage of the weapon to be able to hold it. If the gun was braced against the ground using a tripod or similar your options for support were better¡­but those options tended to be harder to move about with even with fast deploying options and weren¡¯t popular in dungeons. So that was the problem Richard was facing. Unlike the shitty business with the guild this was a fun set of logic to break. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The difference between Richard and the average efficiency based weaponsmith was twofold. For one he could shape stone ¨C and while it wasn¡¯t nearly as good of a bullet material as metal it was certainly more plentiful. As simple as that sounded it was actually game changing. His skill ¨C despite forming from an experimental item he¡¯d gained in the last area ¨C was completely unique in this zone. Sure some stuff came close ¨C the capture tools he¡¯d witnessed that liquified the ground for example sounded the same¡­those did not allow shaping and solidifying however. in fact the more stats he gained, the more he used his hands to make bullets, the more skills he wasted by shoving into his body instead of skill slots¡­well his stone manipulation was actually relatively unique. There were tools that could damage or alter physical matter ¨C the capture tools he saw that liquified the ground were an example of that. Those tools were not able to re-solidify materials to the degree that Richard could. There was also specially designed materials that could liquify and resolidify on certain triggers ¨C apparently the moving sidewalks worked on a principle like that to turn them rubbery at each bend and stiff during the rest of the time. What Richard had was a way to manipulate something common. The ability to shape a resource that was everywhere ¨C something in the realm of unique super powers...at least in this zone. Fuck if he¡¯d known how rare it was he¡¯d have tracked down the geinus who made it and get them to write their priceless research down! Anyways, production was half solved ¨C and nearly fully solved if he was willing to buy stuff. Stone bullets were so so but if he could deliver explosive or chemical payloads then they were pretty good ammo all things considered. Really filling them with toxic shit worked great for single targets ¨C it wasn¡¯t endless however even using the cheapest weight to effect materials he could. ¡­ Richard spent a good part of the trip imagining ways to optimize the cost/time/quality triangle of his ammo. He continued to mould the stone, slowly proving a guess wrong and narrowing down how his skill worked. One of his guesses for stone manipulation had been simple. All non metallic and hardened mineral matter was made weaker. At some point he¡¯d suspected it had actually been something to do with homogenous crystalline structures¡­but then he¡¯d manipulated cement. Even if cement was slower and harder¡­well it was a mixture. A mixture of sand and stone and all sorts of shit all together. Lime and clay and a dozen other things all thrown into a pot? It shouldn¡¯t have worked if ¡®stone¡¯ was what he could manipulate. He¡¯d thought non metallic because that made sense. Metal wasn¡¯t stone ¨C and the rebar in the cement hadn¡¯t been affected. BUT! Then Richard remembered stone actually had metals in it even if they were bound in compounds and his current tests showed he could slowly melt iron into the stone even if it took hours. Honestly just guessing and trying different hypotheses, Richard couldn¡¯t prove anything about what was happening. All he was relatively positive was it wasn¡¯t something specific in the stone. I just couldn¡¯t be a single element when there was so much variation. ¡­ The other problem with his weapon of choice had a solution in an unlikely place and one he was heading to now. Richard¡¯s ¡®toss everything into defense and forget about it¡¯ strategy to stat allocation had a potential side effect. One that would play nicely if he could play into it. The thing was¡­stats were weaker than they could be. All stats were weaker ¨C and honestly if Richard had more control over his rewards, he was positive he could do better. Richard hadn¡¯t figured out exactly ¡®what¡¯ a stat was yet ¨C but how they worked and what you could do with them was slowly becoming something he could confidently describe. To start, each and every stat was almost like an incredibly weak aether slot continuously pumping its juicy stat juices into his body. Those stat juices were doing quite a bit more than simply their job however ¨C they were unoptimized in terms of effectiveness. Defense stats for example¡­well besides the obvious inefficiency of specialized defenses being useless against damage they aren¡¯t blocking and generalized being useless for trying to block things that weren¡¯t happening. His adaptive body helped remove that weakness on a ramping up time¡­but that lead in was still a danger and it took a while for the skill to start pulling its weight. All that was hide one fundamental problem he¡¯d only learned recently. Richard''s defensive stats were specifically weakening themselves to reduce negative side effects. Kinetic defense for example increased his inertia¡­if the full weight of Richard''s status was held against him he wouldn¡¯t even be able to move ¨C his body ¡®defending¡¯ against him taking a step forward. At least half of the stat juice went into removing that negative side effect. His defensive stats were also making him heavier¡­but a portion of their ¡®energy¡¯ was diverted into weakening his weight so the extra weight wasn¡¯t painful or inconvenient. All stats had this self-correcting energy allocation ¨C otherwise speed and power stats would let someone rip themselves apart if they pushed themselves. The dumb answer to this ¡®problem¡¯ was to balance his stats more. With power and speed it certainly sounded like one could all offset the weaknesses from defense. Just free up the energy to defend better. Makes sense. Too bad it was wrong ¨C man Richard had felt dumb reading up on that. The three different ¡®types¡¯ of stats did not play nice with each other. Most pure forms of aether didn¡¯t like overlapping when you got into the nitty gritty ¨C and while there was no proof stats were the same as aether they did have some similarities. There was a reason the specialized body forced each part of the body to have only a single stat type in it for optimization ¨C all three of the pure stats fight each other and reduce efficiency where they overlap. Defensive stat juice was actually better at reducing the side effects of defensive stats than power or speed. Just one of those things ¨C proof of this law was seen in some capacity with slimes. By reaching some perfect degree of defense they were forced to a single fracture point. So¡­what did that mean? If Richard somehow modified his defensive stats to be less helpful and more efficient¡­a side effect would appear. The buffer that prevented him from moving would negate the problem of recoil. Even if Richard walked around with an anti tank gun on one shoulder he wouldn¡¯t be knocked backwards. Didn¡¯t that sound cool? Fuck, Richard really wanted a big ass cannon fed by stone cylinders the size of his arm. You had to be honest with yourself ¨C all this studying and problem solving were really second to the most important point. BFC¡¯s are fun. Explosions are fun. Richard wanted a cannon to make his current repeater look like a water pistol. To make a gun as fun to fire as he was imagining, he first had to figure out how to modify stats. Richard wasn¡¯t starting from scratch with this problem ¨C he didn¡¯t have to figure everything out from nothing. There was enough information on natural skills that did something like what he wanted. There was already some examples of technology that did similar things ¨C the closest were pills that super charged power stats with several nasty side effects. There was also information on how to reflect stats onto items. That was an entirely different beast altogether ¨C scientists had figured out how to direct the stat juices into armour in exosuits or prosthetics on the low end, or mechs on the high end. Defensive stats fortifying a squishy body had nothing on strips of metal and rubber fortified by defense. But what Richard wanted wasn¡¯t a simple google away either. It wasn¡¯t a solved problem ¨C it was just a personal goal. One that would mean something once he completed it. Proof he was good at this shit. Richard''s current three step plan was as follows. Step one: reach the capital ¨C easy enough, he just had to jump on a transport vehicle and was on route right now. Easy, Barely an inconvenience. Step two: apply for access to the advanced diagnostic tools ¨C he¡¯d found an advert for a promising option. You could rent a super computer and lab specifically designed to measure your body and aether constructs. The only requirements were you had to provide the energy to run the lab and donate all the information you found out when you did so. Considering this world was¡­fake ish, Richard wasn¡¯t sure there was a negative to them finding out about his body. Step three: depended on what Richard found. His current plan leaned towards some sort of nanobot solution but that could change. Richard''s imagination included little robots that interfaced with stats and let his AI mess with how they were enforcing him. Step three was a work in progress obviously. ¡°Do everything else¡± was a big ask¡­but hey, at least he had a goal? ¡­ Richard finally arrived at the central city after nearly a day of uneventful travel. The driver knew the nests to stay away from and the transport vehicle''s defenses took care of the wandering riff-raff ¨C even taking into account Richard¡¯s taunting. The city itself was definitely different ¨C bigger somewhat and with more infrastructure. A bit cleaner, a bit of a different vibe¡­but it was the same in all its stand out ways. The skyscrapers were triangular prisms. The streets had those lanes of airport style moving sidewalks. Basically the same city as far as uniqueness goes. Heading to the lab he had researched, Richard only had to share a tiny bit about his advancement level and relatively clear criminal history before suddenly an invite arrived. He could use the lab right away ¨C its last user had been a few days beforehand and he was definitely invited no charge. Stepping into the lobby of a relatively normal looking building, Richard was led by a robotic guide towards an elevator that headed down into the earth. A short walk through an airlock and insulated corridor had him in the nicest looking lab he¡¯d seen before. Beautiful. Richard immediately wanted to touch everything. Familiarizing himself with the setup, Richard waved his hands through a few devices in curiosity connecting his free slot to random devices powering them up and down as he played with them. Spying a microscope, Richard jogged over and tried to scan his finger. Oh! That¡¯s even better. Sliding sideways Richard inserted his entire arm in a box watching as a layered image slowly rendered on the screen above. Fascinated Richard zoomed inwards and started turning different parts of his body transparent in the view ¨C his AI connecting and taking control of the device controls. Let''s see if I can find my stats. ¡­ Richard spent roughly an hour in the lab and figured out two main things. One, his stat ¡®slots¡¯ were small. Several atom¡¯s large and strange¡­they were fuzzy holes in the monitor and spread miniscule lines of themselves into the atoms about them like little tentacle monsters. The device didn¡¯t have good fidelity at this low of a resolution. It was almost as if it was enhanced using AI ¨C upscaled using a neural network or something. Atoms didn¡¯t look nearly as clean as they did in this view. Two: completely off track, his hypothesis about his ability not being something in stone he affected was wrong. His stone manipulation actually only worked on silica and other elements with silicon. The skill broke silicone bonds in reverberating pulses. Vibrations that oscillated at different frequencies as instinctual manipulation worked its magic. The resonating silicon would bond and unbound with all the elements surrounding it in one moment stronger than all other bonds in the next rejecting everything and snapping back to itself. This atomic churning caused a material to become unstable and malleable a haze of aether keeping the entire chunk of stone stable in its unstable state. The more silica in his ¡®rock¡¯ the better. And¡­pure silica moved and flowed with a thought. His arms themselves sucked in and replaced large strips of themselves with Richards testing quarts. They now looked mostly crystal ¨C the stalks transparent and as fluid as liquid. It was funny ¨C if this was a story Richard would have needed a rare super material to enhance his item ¨C something found deep in a dangerous area. Turns out all he needed was common quartz! Funny how reality worked sometimes. Going further he¡¯d need to find crystals with unique aether properties if he wanted to enhance them past this point¡­ Wait¡­why leave it up to fate? And so began a period of altering and forcefully creating crystalline super materials. His hands were picky eaters ¨C they only consumed scraps of most materials no matter how much effort Richard put into them. Still they did grow stronger. Weaking quarts and attaching them to light was the biggest jump as far as his skill was concerned but a few other combinations were appreciated as well. One involved creating a ceramic of crystal shards in heat infused copper rapidly cooled and shattered into flakes. It almost felt like cheating with how easily Richard was strengthening himself. Almost. ¡­ Richard played with bonds. He didn¡¯t have specialized tools to manipulate or effect his stats ¨C but he could see them and after consulting the research journals stored in the lab he began creating a solution. Step one to affecting your stats was to create a material that contained parts of yourself that wasn''t too denatured. Sort of like the stone hands. All resonant machines started this way ¨C with most having a slot you could slide your infused material into that then interfaced with the technology. Taking a chunk of quarts and making a small box, Richard filled it with his blood and flesh ¨C considering his skill blocked even the lab''s devices after a few slices, this was harder than it sounded. Next Richard placed the cup of flesh in a vacuum and slowly sucked all the air out of the surroundings. Placing all his stone hands around the device Richard concentrated with all his might on effecting the stone he wasn¡¯t touching. The only way he managed it was by shaking the cup over to rest against the wall ¨C it seemed like his power to send vibrations broke down in the air but could travel through a solid at least a short distance. Bending and completely enclosing his blood box, Richard then removed the container and began slowly folding and stretching the crystal. With a few short folds, a red sheen came to light as his fluids were seen through the crystal. Fold, Fold, Fold. Richard was essentially baking with crystal ¨C not meth. The current material creation felt a lot like laminating butter in croissant recipes. After molding it to his liking, Richard let the red crystal set and then began creating several shapes for testing. He couldn¡¯t shape a needle strong enough to puncture his skin but after stabbing himself with the strongest needle and quickly swapping it out for a Richard-Quartz the needle embedded correctly. Watching the process through the digital micro-xray-scope, Richard saw how his flesh attempted to heal and expel the foreign invader. At this scale his regeneration looked positively alien ¨C the void defense allowing his cells to melt and split hundreds of times a second. And then as he watched his body began to get confused. It seemed like whatever intelligence was controlling his regeneration stopped seeing the crystal as an invader and started to see it as a broken part of itself. Richard watched armies of cells attempt to ¡®fix¡¯ the foreign crystal drilling into it and running vines through the chunk before treating it somewhat like a bone and ignoring it. Next Richard began to run tests on the protruding strip of crystal. Connecting an aether plug and slotting in Richard infused his crystal before handing off control to his AI and attempting to brute force a change. He continued to study and document the changes he experienced the lab, taking his findings as payment. What was the chance this lab was shifty? Probably pretty high. A portion of Richard was ready for a swat team to jump in at any moment to capture him and start performing experiments. It just made sense right? They probably wanted to scope out what his powers were to try and see if he was worth kidnapping. That was why he jumped when the door to the lab opened and a woman walked in. Hand resting on a scalpel he turned a tense flicker passing across his face as she slowly approached him. Stab the neck as soon as she tries to capture? They probably know how strong my defenses are and worked around that¡­fuck I want to use the lab more can they wait till I finish this to start ¡®napping? The AI packet that arrived shocked Richard out of his murderous thoughts.
Hello, are you willing to do some volunteer work fellow seeker of the truth?
What? Chapter 81. Ambrosia. ---James--- James tumbled out of the portal to another world, falling hard on solid glassy ground. His domain ¨C held together long past the point it wanted to fail ¨C flickered in the crossing. Then, as if realizing he was safe, his enhanced state failed him. His sense of control diminished. His ability to throw complicated commands to his mana and then toss them into his aura slipped away.
Full clear! Dungeon of Fate
Visits to clear (2) Secret areas found (1/9) Advancement at start of dungeon visit (Rank 3) Domain germinated: ¡°Essence of self¡±. Noteworthy actions: (7)
Calculated reward:
Crystalized skill: Directed Danger Sense. Feel the motion of future attacks against the self, resulting in short precognition for bodily harm.
?? Achievement get: Please don¡¯t break me (uncommon)
Description: Gained your first crystalized skill ¨C a skill containing strength that could be lost were it to shatter.
Stat: +1 soul power.
For a second a huge spurt of blood leaked out of James¡¯s severed leg. A cup''s worth at least. A headache inducing throb suddenly built behind James¡¯s eyes and it took a painful effort of will to began manually controlling it once again. I need to stop losing limbs. Stats and body make it non-lethal, but getting them back is a pain. Twisting himself around into a seated position, James reached over and dragged his prize to the edge of his knee. He then snapped off a tiny chunk of stone and popped it in his mouth. It was too hard for his teeth to grind, so James teased a bit more momentum and kinetic weight into his jaw and teeth. Feeling the way his mana flowed through capillaries and enforced several key points, James lost his self while chewing. A loud crackling rang out as James chewed and then swallowed. It tasted like¡­well, exactly like what you would think a rock tasted like. Gritty bland and ¨C as James chewed more and more ¨C coppery. Like the stone was infused with blood or metal dust. Outside of the lacking taste, there was a faint but incredibly potent energy that trickled like sparks through James¡¯s mana circuit. An army of ants on a meandering path to infuse his bones. Just the single bite had given him some sort of stat. James licked his lips. Damn how do I eat the rest without dealing with the taste and texture. His monster meat instincts gave him the idea he could grind miniscule amounts of the whole into a dust and use it like a seasoning. A tasteless seasoning but one he could mix with stuff. He¡¯d honestly rather make a smoothie. Chug it down like a questionable health shot you took after working out. James¡¯s AI chugged through the problem and vaguely pointed to the idea of processing it into something edible ¨C his ai even brought up memories to reinforce its point. ¡®Look, edible metal¡¯ his AI exclaimed bringing up slides without finishing the vital ¡®how¡¯. It did remind him to message Richard ¨C first sending some ¡®hey fren: what does?¡¯ style pleasantries. James queued up a more detailed question about his problem and then realized he was way too sore to charge up a response with mana. Attempting a pulse and expecting it to fail, James was pleasantly surprised when his AI was able to successfully send its message. All the overpowered pulses he had done with the rocks increasing his base skill? Suddenly a tumble of hair fell in front of James¡¯s face. Maddison was standing behind James, her translucent hair flowing and twisting as the girl bent her body in a strange unnatural position. Her face was upside down and close to James¡¯s as she stared curiously down at his stump. ¡°Can you help or are limbs too hard to heal?¡± James asked after an agonizingly awkward pause. ¡°Youuu¡¯re pretty forgetful, aren¡¯t you? I¡¯ve forgotten plenty of stuff before, but I don¡¯t think she ever forgot her leg. Do you need help remembering it?¡± Maddy asked a concerned look on her face. What? James took in his ally and maybe friend more closely for the first time. Her face¡­it looked almost badly air brushed. Like someone had fuzzed the skin and shape into a blurred state. Her eyes looked normal ¨C heterochronic dark green and turquoise. They each contained depth and brilliant details. James thought they looked like digital art ¨C like anime eyes brought into reality and shoved through countless filters for realism. Her body¡­it looked broken somehow. James couldn¡¯t quite tell ¡®how¡¯, just that it was. Reaching down to James¡¯s leg without receiving a response, Maddy held her hand and focused. After a strange pause, the woman swiped her hand at James¡¯s flesh in an attempt to grab it. Maddy¡¯s fingers raked straight through the flesh. She swiped again ¨C not a single bit of her hand actually touching him. James frowned slightly. Her hand was moving¡­he should be able to feel that moving ¨C if he was still using his active domain he definitely could have. Why couldn¡¯t he feel her? Was she¡­in a different dimension or something? Maddy suddenly pouted ¨C the look completely out of character. Like she was suddenly so much more childish than the mental picture James had had of her. ¡°Why is your body intangibleee. Stop hiding from me¡± Maddy pursed her lips then bent upwards once again. My body¡¯s normal? You¡¯re the one passing through me¡­ ¡°You know what. I¡¯ll let you borrow mine just because we are such good friends.¡± Maddy suddenly made a decision. Skipping around to stand in front of him Maddy¡¯s movements were playful and whimsical. How exactly James knew a movement was whimsical? Well before James could figure that out, Maddy reached down and popped off her leg. She looked like a barbie doll being dismembered ¨C maybe even a Mr. Potato head swapping off a component. Crouching ¨C no less mobile with her missing limb, Maddy stuck her tongue out in concentration and shoved her bloodless and fake limb into place on James¡¯s stump. Her entire body looked frayed ¨C the loss of a leg destabilizing even more of her but as she attached a transparent limb to James and flowed mana through him a haze seemed to lift from her eyes. ¡°I can¡¯t be lending out reality like this ¨C what am I even doing? ¡­well, with something to latch onto a creation of living leg is not too hard. The concept of leg is pretty strong in this leg,¡± Maddy giggled to herself even as eyes began popping out of her body in random places ¨C as if coming over to see what was happening. Maddy hummed a bit as she stared down at the transplanted illusion. One of her eyes ¨C the left one located in her actual head ¨C fell out almost absentmindedly before with a blink it was replaced by a dark grey almost dead alternative. The fallen eye pumped mana into the limb before disappearing with a pop ¨Creplaced by another a second pop later. ¡°Really at this point fixing the limb is trivial ¨C my bottleneck is mana. Heck I need to connect my pools again, this is so much harder than it needs to be.¡± Maddy continued to talk more and more sure of herself as she worked. Her voice felt clearer ¨C her tone less confused and distant. ¡°There we go, Should mostly be healed now, your body will have to do the rest, so let it rest a bit first okay?¡± Maddy asked. ¡°Sure doc,¡± James joked stepping up and looking down at his new leg. As Maddy had shifted her mana, the feminine shape had in fact blended into one that looked like his natural one. The limb felt real and solid ¨C with the amount of life mana she had used in her last few bursts, feeling and ownership had returned to him. The main problem now was¡­well a matter of stats. His body stats hadn¡¯t transferred to the new limb yet¡­and the tempering large portions of his body had gone through hadn¡¯t been copied over yet. Would that even be returned to him? The system was returning stats¡­he was the one who had performed that tempering. James would have to fix the weakness as soon as possible. Meditating a moment, James felt out the connection and strange foreign¡­what was the nomenclature again? The...concepts. That was it. James felt his veins assimilate the construct feeding blood and mana through the weakened area while dragging bits of the foreign area into the rest of his body. Despite being weaker it felt profound. Standing up James James flexed his will and felt that profound flicker across his aura. James spun to thank Maddy and found she had vanished. Shit, once more in her debt ¨C James didn¡¯t like this feeling. Richards''s message returned.
If you were here I could sort something out in a hour or two. Want to fly over with your prize? If you want to do it yourself¡­well I searched and got you an option. You will have to get a slot to use but here¡¯s a potential method of performing the preparation. If you¡¯ve ever seen those experiments replacing the lignin in wood to turn it transparent? Well this should be doing a similar thing to your stone. It should leave whatever aether and esoteric elements alone while burning away the common filler elements. Remember, slot and then high school experiment. Tell me how it goes.
James looked over his cooking instructions finding them surprisingly accessible. Sure, he¡¯d try this.
---Maddy--- Maddison Graves had nearly died. She had been spiraling fainter and fainter for the past hour ¨C her existence reduced to her eyes and a grain of body animating an illusion. She¡¯d stirred slightly as soon as she¡¯d received the reward from the dungeon ¨C something about a crystalized domain or a spell or something and a few dozen mental stats. And then she had given James a leg and had returned from her spiral. Some instinctual part of her body had sucked deep of the experience. She felt like she was starving and suddenly given a small meal. The meaning of her interaction was nourishing and pleasantly flavored ¨C if small and humble. Nothing groundbreaking ¨C nothing pallet changing. But a loaf of bread might as well be ambrosia for the starving girl¡­if she could still be called a girl. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. That deep part of her body pushed her forward. She needed to¡­she needed to make an impact. She needed to create more connections. She gathered her two closest friends ¨C her minions. She killed that remnant unflattering thought then killed the sound about them. Infusing her voice with mana but not directing it into doing anything Maddy began to talk for real the shape of her words showing her sincerity. For the first time. She burned inhibitions away and started again for real. ¡­ ¡°I¡¯m worried.¡± Maddy spoke staring at both of her friends in this significant moment. ¡°I¡¯m trying not to worry so much but¡­I¡¯m sure I¡¯m still controlling both of you. I¡¯m worried¡­I¡¯m worried you only like me because I ¡®made¡¯ you like me. What you like isn¡¯t actually me ¨C it¡¯s the persona I¡¯ve presented for you to like. Even if I¡¯m trying not to manipulate your perception, I don¡¯t know how to not. The only way I can work against what I¡¯ve been taught is to do nothing and yet every interaction I make is a slip. A subtle way of getting you to respond favorably towards me ¨C I don¡¯t know how to stop.¡± ¡­
---Jess--- Jess¡¯s best friend seemed especially scrambled by that worrying ritual she¡¯d done earlier. Enough she was saying all sorts of silly anxious things. Jess remembered the anxiety from when she¡¯d been injured and lost everything. When she¡¯d lost friends who¡¯d learned she couldn¡¯t play soccer anymore. Maddy seemed to be going through something worse but with magic junk it got a bit complicated. Considering how much Maddy supported them it was only right they try and help her as much as she helped them. ¡°Of course I like you for you. What makes you think you are manipulating us?¡± Jess asked for the umpteenth time. ¡°When I talk I try to say things in a way you would like. I try not to address your insecurities and I make sure to try and make you feel included and appreciated.¡± Maddy confided once again. She really was dumb wasn¡¯t she? That wasn¡¯t manipulation that was¡­just normal friendship. That was¡­that was just being a good friend who wasn¡¯t self centered? Was she overcompensating for her narcissist mother by being even more selfless ¡­It sounded like her parents had messed her up more than she¡¯d let on. How could Jess help? What could she say? ¡°That just means you are being a good friend. Hearing how much actual work you are putting into our relationship is heartwarming but that¡¯s not manipulation.¡± Jess tried to reassure her. Damn, Jess really wasn¡¯t good at this sappy junk. ¡°If that¡¯s manipulation then every conversation held by anyone is manipulation. Don¡¯t get full of yourself, you¡¯re not some grand misunderstood mastermind you¡¯re just more socially adept than us. That doesn¡¯t translate to manipulation ¨C we¡¯d know if you were trying to trick us into following you. We are here because we want to be.¡± Troy tried in his own bumbling way to contribute. He was getting much better at speaking his mind lately ¨C Jess had to keep in mind his own issues with speech. Yes, exactly right. How¡­how do I protect Maddy from herself? Damn does Maddy have to deal with this every time I get effected by something? It¡¯s exhausting.
---James--- James was doing science. His first step was to source certain chemicals. An oil based solvent that could survive incredibly high heat. A void aspected item that could resonate with his kinetic mana. A bag of sugar dissolved in distilled water. A pure diamond. A furnace that could stay hot at roughly 330-340¡ãC for an extended period of time. There were specific ideal chemicals with certain material numbers he could use in an aether city¡­but with a database of common monsters and a list of processing steps James muddled his way through the ¡®experiment¡¯. He took a walk through the adventurer''s market. Bartered for all the items he needed and began to deep fry his diamond in oil. The slot wasn¡¯t actually important ¨C James just pushed mana into the diamond and then shifted his perspective into aether maintaining a steady flow of power. He could only maintain a connection within his aura ¨C and needed to slowly slide it down the side of the pot with one hand carefully maintaining the connection through the metal and manipulating the crystal with pushes of mana. The magic filter corrupted his stored aether but only slightly. The diamond acted like a battery slowly raising the tier and boiling point of the wyrm fat. As he fed aether into it the gem spun like a magnetic stirrer ¨C something that shouldn¡¯t have happened and proved a bit too much movement was still held in his aether. A slot was in part to purify that ¡®alignment¡¯. At least the gem only seemed to be spinning ¨C it shouldn¡¯t affect the experiment. It took almost forty minutes to boil the fat into the temperature range he needed ¨C dropping a chunk of stone half as tall as he was into the soup, James stirred his giant pot. The seller had called it a pill furnace ¨C and for now it was his pressure cooker. Trying desperately to relate the colour change of the pots metal to a specific temperature, his AI began giving him a value +/- a few degrees. Confident the pot was at least 300 ¨C and noting the oil was beginning to smoke ¨C James dropped the temperature slightly. Keeping it just before smoking, James took out and tossed his most expensive purchase ¨C the tooth of a neitherbeast ¨C into the pot. As soon as the tooth hit the boiling oil it burst into flames with a sharp crack. A chip of bone impacted James¡¯s shoulder as the tooth began to dissolve. Like water being tossed in boiling oil, the pot began to vigorously seethe ¨C several blobs of molten oil tossing dangerously about his room. James flinched in pain as the oil touched his chest ¨C immediately ripping the heat out of the burn and converting it to power with a hiss of pain. Trying to connect aether to the dissolving tooth James linked and shifted ¨C trying to maintain the connection even as the power spread throughout the oil. His connection broke ¨C James didn¡¯t actually have a ¡®slot¡¯ and his mana tendrils flipped to aether held more kinetic concept than a pure aether slot should give. That¡¯s why he made sure to buy a void item that should have worked with kinetic mana. An attempt at fixing this problem before it appeared ¨C welp. It turned out James wasn¡¯t a good enough chef to start making those sorts of substitutions in his cooking. A last sad scrape of his will through the oil and burnt lump of ash. Useless flickers between lenses. Just as he was about to give up James felt something. The conceptual remnants of the tooth were still here ¨C moving slowly away from the intent of the bowl but¡­still there. Shifting entirely to mana, James focused on that feeling. He pushed his aura harder ¨C instinctually flipping on his domain and ignoring the trickle of blood that began flowing down from his nose. Stay. James trapping whatever he was sensing. He pushed it down into the pot, moving it in and swirling it about like a funnel linked to his still spinning diamond. Grasping for the remnant concepts, James closed his eyes while attempting to feed power into the area. He could move the concept ¨C because it was moving away and he could sense that¡­but he couldn¡¯t influence it beyond that. Conceptually did he have a way of connecting to this? No¡­ Feeling like he was blowing fading embers to keep a fire alight, James pleaded with the pot. He slowly infused his wishes through his mana and failed to catch hold again and again. His will was like a hand fingers squeezing shut on the magic. Finally flickering to aether and back James felt a mental click and the oil began to vibrate. A hissing sort of hum sounded out in his room as he moved mana into the concept. There was a smell of smoke in the air ¨C James had ignored it up till now assuming it was just his pot ¨C but a flash of warning came through his new skill. James spun and saw a splash of oil had started a fire on the wooden floor. Cursing, James jumped over and ripped the heat out of the fire. He converted it to power while stamping out the danger before it started. Switching back to his pot James tried to connect once again. With a panicked rake of will, James finally reconnected. The oil began to vibrate once more, the power leaking into the nearly molten stone and turning the red lump yellow the lump now molten despite being below its natural melting point. James continued to put out fires and fix small problems as he worked. The final steps were to physically remove the diamond and drop it in the sugar water. A remnant field of ¡®boiling point raising power seemed to cling to the diamond as he floated it up and dropped it in his bucket of sugar. The water hissed even as it shifted and turned yellow like highlighter infused caramel. Beside him the pot of oil began to rapidly boil up as its melting point began to drop. Treating the whole experience like he was laminating a custard, James stirred his sugar for a minute then dumped it into the oil manually ¨C there was a science behind the perfect point to do things but he was going by feel by this point. Slowly stirring the melting and weakened stone with the now thin soup of caramel James kneaded the lump while resonating the void concept. Finally declaring it was done when he had nothing but a goupy lump of yellow, James pulled his block out of the oil and began ripping heat out of it pulling some of the magic junk out of the power and cycling it through his system. The sugary lump cracked as it cooled quickly but James didn¡¯t mind ¨C he was the only one who was going to eat this. Finally the lump cooled completely. James looked down with pride at the grey slab ¨C his meal looked like a block of greyish-clear fudge the size of his head.
?? Achievement get: Edibles (Rare)
Description: Transmuted an inedible element or material into an edible one.
Stat: +1 tongue (taste) power.
Passive information gained: Memories of a gourmet.
Stat: +1 mental ''cooking memory'' power.
Pulling out a knife James cut off a slice marveling at how smooth it felt. Raising the clear candy to his mouth James took a bite. And another. It wasn¡¯t¡­it wasn¡¯t delicious. Flavour wise it was¡­it felt like something he¡¯d describe as an acquired taste. Sour caramel with a ashy fried undercurrent of burnt chicken. And yet it was a mile better than raw stone and with how proud James was, it might as well have been ambrosia. James took another bite and another ¨C eating more sweet than was healthy. As he ate ¨C far faster than a human could digest a building flow of stats lumping in his stomach and lurching towards his twin cores. Spiraling through his flesh in waves James had enough of these stone giant stats they went through a qualitative change. They¡­compressed and gave James a sense he could control them. Treating them like special ¡®free stats¡¯ James directed a chunk of the stats on the way for his bones into his aura instead. His¡­his soul. He was pretty sure this was his soul. As he fed stats into his magical range it grew, not by an insane degree ¨C not in the meters but it tripled and stiffed gaining a dense feeling to James¡¯s senses. His domain flicked on and began strengthening as well. In that moment James¡¯s instincts brought his eyes towards the crystalized skill and he hesitated. It¡­it had said he shouldn¡¯t break this. It might be weakened if he broke it¡­ But the only way for it to grow stronger was to break it? James reached out and shattered the skill into his aura even as he pulled his stats about the area. It felt like he was shattering an egg into a strainer. Incomprehensible bits of the skill threatened to move away but James already had some practice with moving stuff he didn¡¯t understand. James held it moving those random scraps into his circet and watching his ai struggle to give him a description of what he had done.
Stat: +3 ?
Unknown Esper field detected.
And then another blue box appeared ¨C announcing he¡¯d ¡®cultivated¡¯ to the level cap of this zone disabling all achievements and politely asking him to move on. It was fine, James was ready. Floating up over to his bed and mentally flicking off the lantern without even looking at it, James closed his eyes and smiled. He could advance tomorrow. He felt strong.
---Maddy--- Maddy¡­Maddy¡¯s body dragged itself back to reality by feeding off of her connection to her friends. They¡­acknowledge her. They accepted her. They¡­liked her. Her. She¡¯d been more vulnerable than she¡¯d been in a while. It felt¡­freeing. She saw her friends. Saw them in a way she hadn¡¯t up till now. They were people. People with thoughts and feelings ¨C goals and aspirations. Obviously, obviously she knew that on a intellectual level. But emotionally¡­emotionally up till now some vain part of the person she had burned. That slime had thought of them as her companions. Not as their own people¡­just as accessories for her adventure. That part was gone. She accepted them for real letting them into her heart. Was part of it her new body¡¯s urges and addled brain turning her loopy? Yes, yes that was a huge part of it. She was happy it had happened and felt freer than she had been in a while. Trying to look in at herself Maddy shattered the crystalized skill. She ripped the conceptual mirror out of the ¡®alter ego¡¯ spell she¡¯d been given. She¡¯d seen some way of summoning a copy of herself from another time ¨C a copy of herself that had chosen differently. Had kept her scythe. Had chosen a body foundation and grown as a warrior. A strong spell she wouldn¡¯t have been able to easily make alone ¨C especially as it had contained some seed of time mana twisted into a filter for her creation mana. Without a source of mana and meaning like the one within the dungeon ¨C without some powerful natural treasure as a sacrifice it would be impossible. Maddy smashed it anyways. She saw more of the structure of skills than she¡¯d ever seen before and¡­it felt like leaving a backdoor in her soul to keep that skill around. Most of the skill sunk into her body ¨C losing its potential even as it shored up her ¡®stability¡¯ and made her feel full. Maddy twisted her new concept ¨C sketching a stretched out sort of four leaf clover and expanding its center into a light-reflecting flicker on the wall. In that moment Maddy exchanged a bit of its potential for a bit of ability, then created a mirror in front of her. ¡°Mirror mirror on the wall. Reflect my soul and show my shape. Please tell me the form my metaphorical self does take.¡± She had to know. Slowly the mirror rippled. It twisted sucking her mana¡­and then revealed itself. Before Maddy stood¡­a crumbled lump of random colours and eyes. An eldritch tentacle covered in eyeballs flickered out of it and then disappeared once again. A flutter of fractal wings and petals of cotton candy. Broken nonsense. Maddy smiled. She stared at herself dozens of eyes boring deeper and deeper into the monster in the mirror. She was beautiful. This was what she had achieved. Maddy was ready to move on. Or more accurately, she had already ''moved on'' and now she was ready to advance. The rest of her night was spent making magic. Not for any real reason ¨C just because she could. Every new spell she created raised her stability ever so slightly no matter how small. Maddy finally got around to creating a ''status'' spell ¨C linking her mirror concept and idea of reflecting information into a mental panel to show off her gains. She ripped apart the groups only translator converting it into a spell to translate stuff she heard into english. Maddy made a dimond butterfly that sung and created a ball of light that helped awaken all those its rays touched. Nonsense spells made for fun. She felt free. Chapter 82. Lets keep the mask on shall we? ---Richard--- Richard followed the suspicious woman through an airlock, down a corridor and onto a strange sort of shuttle. It looked like a cross between an elevator and a miniature train ¨C the long boxy shape sliding sideways in some willy wonka manner. Volunteer? The Truth? Richard was impatient to figure out what she was talking about. Fuck this elevator was long ¨C was the whole city connected underground? Richard had through this was a simple lab for a single company not some massive secret society or whatever the fuck this was shaping up to be. ¡­it¡¯s a good thing he liked trains. Who doesn¡¯t like trains after all? Coming up to a stop, their ride slid off the tracks and into a side tunnel with a lurch. The tram dropped a good ten ¨C twenty feet down and then slowly pulled into a wide open atrium. Several NPC¡¯s in lab coats wandered around the area as background aesthetic while the walls were absolutely peppered with doors they could walk through. Today was a yellow door day it seemed ¨C the pair continued through another corridor before reaching a larger tramway. Instead of heading off on another random trip the woman turned towards a scanning device and set of industrial sized doors. Richard had tried sending a few ¡®where are we going¡¯ style messages but had only got ¡®please be patient¡¯ style responses the whole trip over. Why was he being led along to his kill box like a meek little sheep? Should he ¡®so anyways I started blasting?¡¯. No¡­he was actually curious despite himself and ¨C memes aside ¨C he wasn¡¯t that bloodthirsty if they weren¡¯t out to get him. The woman seemed to change her communication policy as soon as they reached this scanner, turning to Richard and sending AI messages rapid fire.
Sorry this device should measure how high your radiation defense is. I saw some of your lab readings ¨C there¡¯s no way you don¡¯t qualify for an isolation suit, but as a formality you have to be on the system¡¯s safety readout.
Hesitating for a second, Richard forcefully relaxed his body and stepped forward towards the device. With no more weak actions, Richard shoved his hand into the machine and watched flickering lights and bars come to life all over the machine. All of them turned green within a few seconds and Richard stood suddenly imagining his arm was being shoved up a cow''s ass. Why was his brain like this? Finally an ai ping filled his vision ¨C the scanners readout helpfully translating into English for the poor foreigner.
Baseline Flesh significantly altered. Known mutation noted: Current sample can by interpolated for full body.
Radiation defense: ¡®0¡¯ General defense: ¡®8.5¡¯ baseline estimate. Percentage of general estimate currently blocking radiation: ¡®0.04¡¯% Note: Within regular baseline but irregularity found in continuous scanning. Percentage of general estimate viable for integrated external radioactive shielding. 84.1% Amount needed for limited inspection: 18%. Amount needed for extended work period: 36% Note: Concerning rejection of standard connection probe. New percentages calculated with safety factor Limited inspection: 72.7% Extended work period: 78.7%
Wild defensive skill found. Generalized related effect as measured: Continuous exposure to single sources of damage increases defense towards sources. Gain rate high and variable. Saturation point is undetermined. Decay rate is low but variable. Scanner was unable to produce high enough radiation to overwhelm defensive skill at current point.
Additional readings-> Note: Rare defensive stats found: Void defense ¡®81¡¯. Stat ability to combat continuous radiation poisoning. 25%. Stat ability to mitigate long term harm from radiation poisoning. 100%
Volunteer status: Cleared for long term exposure to work area. Time limit nonexistent. Special recommendation. Slowly progress through exposure areas allowing time for skill to adapt to each radiation level.
sample taken: 222.110.2.2, Device validation hash: 110.021.000.001.122.211.111.012.210
There you go, You can borrow a hazmat suit or¡­well the machine says you''re clear for open exposure if you prefer.
Richard nearly confirmed they were entering a radioactive area but¡­well it was pretty obvious. He could roll with it. Following the stranger through into a side room he watched as she slid a clear form fitting suit over herself. It looked almost like sliding into a human shaped glove ¨C the mouth area had a metal band and filter but the rest looked like she was wrapped in plastic wrap or something. Isn¡¯t that a fetish? Gross. Depositing several items in a locked box the woman turned to him and paused.
Any items you don¡¯t want to put through quarantine in the bin. You¡¯ll need a weapon and can borrow one past the decontamination area. I can guarantee the lockers security but I know delvers are sometimes incredibly protective of their gear. If you aren¡¯t comfortable leaving your current weapons here, you can always acknowledge a liability agreement and agreement for potential damages as well as a responsibility contract to decontaminate for several days and keep irradiated items away from civilians.
Richard still wasn¡¯t discounting this all being a trap ¨C what kind of work area was both full of radiation and required a weapon? He hesitated. Ah well. Why not ¨C it seemed like a pain to wander around with radioactive items. Also for some reason the need for a weapon being stated made him think the chance of this being a trap was smaller? For some strange reason? Dumping his side cannon and bag of nicknacks Richard followed her through a triple set of airlocks ¨C walking past decontamination showers and boxes to toss irradiated items. Collecting a pistol and saber ¨C both disappointing energy based variants ¨C Richard continued on into a room. Thankfully his guide was more talkative now that they were at the area she wanted him to¡­volunteer in.
Do you know how most raw materials are made?
¡°I mean an AI has dozens of different microscopic parts but¡­something like a battery. That¡¯s made by alternating aether infused elements right? Sometimes elements are shifted in state or form ¨C I can imagine iron blended with light and then crystalized once again?¡± Richard responded.
Some of the simpler artificial materials and items are made that way yes¡­The unique raw materials are a bit different however. I¡¯m talking about the raw resources that are the building blocks of a lot of modern technology.
Richard¡­had to admit he didn¡¯t know. He could try quarrying an archive ¨C doing the equivalent of googling the answer on his phone all sketchy like ¨C but he just told the truth. He didn¡¯t actually care what people thought of him. If she didn¡¯t respond well he could search it up later.
Most materials are more efficiently synthesize using natural processes. Monsters and more importantly farmed and standardized monsters. Most of our society is incredibly dependant upon a few managed nests. The managed nest we are entering now is a variant that¡¯s a low modifier for irradiated environments.
Something¡­something felt incredibly weird from this. Something suddenly popped up like a plot hole in this fake worlds lore. ¡°I have a question. Radiation¡­that makes it sound like you can make nukes. If we have atomic bombs why is there a clump of nests called the ¡®badlands¡¯ that is actively noted as an area too dangerous to reach. Just nuke the shit out of them?¡± Richard could see a faint twitch of her lip. She seemed amused by his question. The group stopped near a red line in the ground and began waiting for Richard''s radiation defense to raise while she explained more about their surroundings.
You really haven¡¯t checked local history have you? How far away are you from? Well, as a quick description removing all the unimportant politics¡­ Twenty years ago. Project A. It was a massive mistake. We ¡®nuked this shit¡¯ out of that clump, exterminating millions of some of the highest tier monsters in the world. The problem¡­is ¨C was ¨C what came next. No one knows how nests spread and nest ecology was a poorly understood problem back then. Long story short the nests regrew over that area and this time their monsters were corrupted by fallout. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. There was a period of three years where monster waves were reduced and the incompetents in government patted themselves on the back for such a victory for kin-kind. The problem was as soon as those nests regrew they came back worse then before. Lower in average tier to start but¡­radioactive. I remember watching with my mama as the heros were sent out to die. I barely remember much because of how young I was but I remember the fear that everyone had back then.
Ah, okay no this checked out. Plot hole filled.
The deaths from that radiation boom outnumbered the previous ¡®calamity¡¯ attacks nonaryfold. Anyways, there are barely any natural nuclear monsters left and the badlands have returned to a no go zone. One of the only benefits from that gross tragedy was the nest type we are reaching today. Mind your head.
Pointing out an unnecessary lip of a room as they moved to the next line, Richard bent down to enter a oval doorframe looking like some playpen door. Raising his head Richard froze for a second in shock. The room¡­was enchanting. ¡­ Fucking hell this shits pretty. Drifting slowly down from the ceiling what looked like sparkling lightning crossed with oil spill flavored snowstorm blew and swirled. Powdered metals slowly spritzed from the ceiling and drifted down ¨C the various metals used all fell at different rates and reacted differently as they moved through the air. They seemed to be passing through an aether altered radiation field that grew in strength the closer to the ground they fell. Radioactive metal spontaneously ¨C and mostly randomly ¨C sparked and flashed in fractal patterns denser and more frequent the closer to the ground they got. The snow resonated with the air and field and surrounding snow ¨C all with different effects that were hard to describe as anything but ¡®rainbow¡¯ and ¡®beautiful¡¯. It was like each mote of snow erupted with flashes of brilliant rainbow lightning or held a cosmos or flickered with fantastical lights. All around them tiny slug like creatures crawled along the ground and ate rainbow snow drifts of radioactive metals. The slugs were eyeless ¨C the woman guiding him said the slimes sensed through several brands of radiation outside of the regular light spectrum. Their sensing organs were completely enclosed in their body ¨C filtered through various types of skin on the slugs backs and front. Seemed excessive, but who was Richard to claim a slug should see using the most common type of radiation ¨C who would use boring light when such a wide buffet of esoteric rays were available. Ones that could see through walls or stealth abilities while observing the rank ¨C and thus threat ¨C of a creature. Theta and Nu radiation? Sure, of course Richard had heard of them. Sounded super real and useful. ¡­jokes and beauty aside, Richard was surprised by just how out of place he felt. He didn¡¯t know how to react. Most of the slugs glommed away from the pair as soon as they entered the room. One suicidal slug charged Richard happily attacking his foot and slowly climbing his body with all the energy of a golden retriever. His guide had made to attack it when it latched onto Richard but he stopped her. The slug was kind of cute ¨C it didn¡¯t feel like much as it climbed about his body other than a faint heat. Supposedly it was pushing enough gamma rays into his body to kill a base human in seconds¡­but Richard¡¯s defense truly was a cheat. Wouldn¡¯t¡­wouldn¡¯t it be really funny if I threw this face hugger on some POS¡¯s face? What a way to go¡­some human monster is walking along and BLAM, Pocket slug. I wonder if I can smuggle one of these guys out of the farm? Perfect prank. Bet it would be an achievement. Richard picked his surprise suicide slug ¨C SS Larry ¨C and held in in both arms trying to understand what his guide was now telling him.
Volunteer wise the excuse I used to get you here is to collect aes-guano and aes-muscus. The job is a tough one ¨C only high rank defensive focused individuals can survive here and most delvers are selfish. No offense but too many of your fellow feel they are too important for menial labour. The real reason¡­ Bear with me please. I¡¯m going to start speaking, giving you words one by one and passing a translation to you okay? I could just be acting silly but please humor me? I promise I can make it worth your while ¨C I¡¯ll pay you if you hear me out. I¡¯m just interested in your response for research think nothing of it. the nest blocking external influences is a experiment point okay?
¡°Sauel¡±
It means ¡®I¡¯
¡°exci¡¯t¡±
This means ¡®Am¡¯
¡°Somena¡±
This means ¡®dreams¡¯ Funny story about dreams, I¡¯ve heard high mental stats change how dreams are formed within the brain. Remind me some time to send you some MRI scans I took of various dreaming individuals. It''s very interesting!¡±
¡­ Slowly Richard categorized random words and sentences seemingly at random. She would note down a list of words and names and then tell him about complex organic processing of unstable elements as if trying to throw someone off the scent. One of the more interesting pieces of trivia was how different materials could be classified. One common split was the difference between materials in aether dependance. There was ¡®pure¡¯ materials either formed through non aether processes or formed through an aether pipeline that outputted a ¡®mundane¡¯ aether free result. There was ¡®pure plus¡¯ ¨C stable aether altered elements that remained in regular environments and either had strange effects or were consumed to produce a result and unravel the energy contained in them¡­and then there were more useful materials that only produced results when linked to an active slot and fresh aether flow. They existed in an inactive state and then turned ¡®on¡¯ when turned on by a humans link. Finally there were materials that could only exist beside an aether flow. That last group was mostly a collection of oddities ¨C psudo matter and strange natural skill results that disappeared if they left the vicinity of the person who had created it. Sometimes the strongest and most useful of materials but often far from worth attempting to duplicate. Technically Richards stone hands were made from that last category ¨C he couldn¡¯t imagine someone else cutting off and using his hands with how much a part of him they were. He also didn¡¯t know if he could replicate the series of processes he had put them through to replicate it on someone else. At first nothing besides the cool trivia and useful information made sense¡­but slowly but surely the words she spoke drifted from the translation she told him. The hidden message started to slowly appear. It took over an hour to churn through her fears and the disconnect began to feel more and more weird. Creepy almost. Richard stopped paying attention to the facts and anecdotes sticking to the ¡®true¡¯ story ¨C a strange slightly shitty feeling overcoming him as he listened. Some jumps he had to make in translation ¨C even if he knew the words the phonetic translation butchered grammar and needed a round of common sense editing. Still¡­creepy.
I¡¯ve been stressed lately and am glad you can help out around the nest. You remind me of a dream I had. I imagined I was my pet ¨C dreams are wild aren¡¯t they? Do you keep a journal? I¡¯ve been keeping a dream diary and writing down the weird stuff I come up in the night. By the way, I¡¯ve been telling you so much about my own childhood and daily thoughts. Awfully rude of me I¡¯m sorry ¨C how has your childhood been? What was your homeland like? There''s been a lot of immigrants lately I¡¯m interested in learning of the lands outside our capital. Maybe I¡¯ll try my hands at traveling, I¡¯ve lived here my whole life.
Her translation might say. Translating her words through sound and a growing dictionary Instead might give a response more like¡­¡±I cannot trust my memories. Too many inconsistencies pop up and to make things worst I cannot even trust my own technology. Did you know I woke up thinking I had a tail? It''s silly and stupid ¨C I can¡¯t imagine something that silly having existed ¨C but¡­enough twitches like that and I¡¯m not sure anymore. It¡¯s started to feel real in a way not much has felt real lately. I¡¯m nearly positive I had a tail ¨C or I¡¯m supposed to have a tail. I¡­I remember random tangential memories that include pulling it to the side as I sat or shopping for decorations for it. And the baker is supposed to have a bald head or an armoured head or something? Why do I think that? Am I growing crazy? "I recorded my day you know? Went through what I remember and what my AI remembered? I then noted several points where they differed ¨C mostly involving all you foreigners appearing and how no one seems to think its strange? I then forgot about recording that information and found my own diary after the fact. I backed up that diary and my findings in an experimental storage medium ¨C noted they were wiped from the original location ¨C and then forgot them once again. I currently "I¡¯m sorry, am I rambling? Do I sound insane? The ramblings of a crazy minx sleep deprived and broken through overwork? Are you even getting any of this? Nod if you understood that last part. Now blink twice. "I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening anymore. Am I who I think I am? Who am I to you? Please. Can you tell me what¡¯s happened? Do you even know? Are you the first foreigner I¡¯ve gotten to listen to my fears¡­or have I forgotten the others? If you don¡¯t think your description is translating properly¡­can you pass your response back through a game as well? I remember trusting my own AI with my life but¡­this isn¡¯t the AI I remember making." By the end of it the woman was crying. Tears silently fell from her eyes ¨C the water pressing against the plastic suit she wore and staining her mascara. She seemed frustrated and scared and intensely focused on bypassing the translation barrier - the barrier Richard had taken for granted as being crossed by the cheap translation software attached to each AI. At first Richard thought this was all a game. A secret quest or oddity. Maybe a hidden storyline? The more she spoke and the more of her translated story appeared however... Well the more he heard the more he felt¡­the more he felt he wanted to help her. If he was a hero as he wished he could be he¡¯d definitely be jumping to save her. She was¡­she was someone he wanted to save. Was he trying to justify being a simp? Was he secretly weak to female tears? Richard wanted¡­he wanted to believe that wasn¡¯t true. It was hard to justify it to himself but he wanted to believe it wasn¡¯t her just her story. No he didn¡¯t care that she was a girl. He wasn¡¯t some white knight ¨C equal opportunity justice with no vision for the different sexes. Fuck. He was willing to kill her earlier when he thought she was leading him into a trap. Richard felt like some nagging part of his mind was falling apart. Some delusion he¡¯d kept alive these past weeks. These people¡­these people were real. They weren¡¯t NPCs. This wasn¡¯t a game and the hidden background he had taken for granted¡­he couldn¡¯t continue to just accept it. He¡¯d actually killed some of them you know? Richard¡­he didn¡¯t regret it. Murder was surprisingly easy once you tossed sense for a bit ¨C Richard could continue with barely a thought in the future as long as he kept to his personal code. He hadn¡¯t gotten a taste for blood ¨C no he¡¯d just accidentally crossed an unimportant line society had told him was important. Nothing that really mattered, not in the grand scheme of things. Listen, some people just deserved to be deleted. No regrets. And he still didn¡¯t subscribe to how much importance society gave the average life. Life was meaningless and¡­really the modern idea of life being sacred was propaganda to keep the slave workforce that was the working class full and productive. No what Richard found was he felt¡­Well confused because he still didn¡¯t understand what this truly meant. Horrified at imagining what the mind control or whatever this manipulated victim was dealing with was¡­and angry because if she was controlled than most of the NPCs were probably controlled and the people he killed who had wholeheartedly deserved it might¡­well they might not have actually deserved it. What was he even supposed to do with this? How could he even repent for that? "My bad, Thought the way you were acting was real?" Maybe¡­Maybe Richard could try his hardest to actually give a fuck about someone other than him self? ¡°Hey¡­¡± Richard asked his question. He spoke not in English but in this woman''s native tongue the sounds butchered beyond belive by his awkward pronunciation. ¡°What¡­What is your name? I never caught it?¡± ¡°My name is Mix. Stands for Mixin ¨C I¡¯ve heard all the jokes. So¡­can you tell me anything?¡± Chapter 83. What are NPCS? What are they really? ---Richard--- Richard tried to comfort the scientist. Badly. She was smarter than him. Definitely smarter ¨C the only reason she knew she was being manipulated was because the woman had backed up her brain in bits of technology and sunk memories and shit with anti tampering protocols ¨C metal as fuck. Definitely put her on a cool list. The level of paranoia¡­would have been silly but considering what happened to her? It almost wasn¡¯t enough paranoia. Really made you think. She was smarter than him and yet as soon as he started to confirm some of her suspicions, she just broke down. Blubbered all over the place. You¡¯d think someone with so much would be able to bottle it up better. Richard explained as much as he could about them being in a fake world and then¡­decided to leave. Her tears were starting to get annoying? Really, Richard wasn¡¯t good with mushy shit like this. He didn¡¯t blame her¡­and he was angry on her behalf¡­but still it was annoying. He didn¡¯t sign up for this. Comforting people did not show up as a skill on Richards''s character sheet. What he signed up for was some fun and action and secret exploration. Some system abuse and maybe a cheeky bit of explosions. Not¡­not this. ¡°Quest: What are NPC¡¯s¡± Richard spoke quietly as soon as he was out of the area. It had been three weeks and he was more than due for a bit of info haxs. It took a massive delayed pause for the answer to arrive.
Quest: Found the BSF: Where do they come from? Where do they go? Here! Found the source of all bodies in this city. Reward: Unknown
Quest: Found the three ¡®What are¡¯ NPC¡¯s in the city and asked them about their lives. Reward: Mental ¡®empathy¡¯ power. Special knowledge.
Quest: Mortician mike: Dissected an NPC with Mike, finding out just what makes em tick. Reward: Mental anatomy power, Special Knowledge.
Richard squinted down at his free knowledge. Helpful. Really fucking helpful. Richard had hoped for more¨C he wanted to know how to find out about NPC¡¯s not be told he would be rewarded when he found them¡­was the system reading his mind? It totally stole Richards joke with that dig about a empathy power. But actually? Well he didn¡¯t have much luck with the quest system now that he thought back on it. This was same as usual really. He¡¯d thought the first response was hilarious ¨C the only reason Richard was getting annoyed right now was his sense of urgency. If anything, this was a hint there was a place he could go to¡­so he¡¯d achieved his goal? Hint achieved. So. Next question. How would Richard go about finding this body source ¡®fingamajig? The answer is obvious to any who care to think about it. Drones. Tons and tons of drones. Obviously ¨C who wouldn¡¯t think of that first? Good thing this game has an infinite money glitch. ¡°Queue repetitive montage¡± Richard muttered sending several different information requests through the city net. ¡­ You know, it really was convenient that a quiet trip through a slightly dangerous pit full of stuff to shoot paid so well. Richard scammed the hell out of some in-game currency by tossing himself through a few murder holes then set to work building his drone army. He wanted custom components and going one step backwards from ¡°prebuilt¡± was much cheaper when you bought in bulk. Thousand rotors. Thousand gravity distributing diodes. Thousand fiddly little low power computer chips. Drones were less effective than you¡¯d think ¨C as useful as they were, there was only so much you could do far away from an active slot and constant aether source. Drones were really only effective for scouting or short distance expensive suicide attacks. Of course that didn¡¯t really make sense ¨C if they could make nukes they could totally make ¡®mundane¡¯ ¡®payloads¡¯ to drop from the drones but that wasn¡¯t a priority for anyone in this society. Probably some flimsy reasoning for why that didn¡¯t happen. Standing on a roof to release his army ¨C not because he needed to, but because of the aesthetic ¨C Richard sent them off in all directions while laughing and shouting ¡®Fly! Fly my pretties!¡±. A few drones went offline as some rude shits shot them out of the sky and a few probing information requests ended up on Richards''s metaphorical ¡®mailbox¡¯¡­yes this was an above average amount of flying ¡®hazards¡¯. Yes he wasn¡¯t using them for illegal means. Yes they were peeking in people¡¯s windows and freaking out their guard mogs. No Richard didn¡¯t want to pay protection fees from the shady alley coorperation that would prevent his ¡®investments¡¯ from being ¡®shot out of the skies¡¯. A pass through the city by visual scan¡­nothing. A pass through with drone army v2 checked infared and x-ray spectrums. V3 checked thermal and bio-resonance feeds. Richard would do them all at once but the onboard aether batteries could only support a limited number of connections and weight. He could try flipping between different scanners in flight but that reduced efficiency¡­ ¡­ Days of effort. Wasted. What even was the point in that? Richard was starting to think he just fed the low aether optic market with enough chips to buy a yacht. Dungeon runs stopped feeling like scams the more like work they became. Of course they paid well. Giant shadow bats kept gnawing on his head and trying to force fuck his mouth with their gross spear tongues. Hazard pay was high for a reason. More importantly Richard had a lot of time to sit with his thoughts and it was starting to get scary. He didn¡¯t like stewing on things like the NPC scenario ¨C he wanted to feel proactive and able to respond to his environment. Anyways, there were more scanners. Tons more of course ¨C all sorts of ways to find secret areas from various chemical ¡®sniffers¡¯ that collected data from the air to radar and GPR mapping techniques. There was a pulse of strange spinning aether that could pinpoint ¡®human signatures¡¯ whatever those were to sensors that could pick up how much aether soaked elements were located in a specific area. There was even esoteric element sensors that resonated echolocation type pulses along bands of escoteric frequency bands sending bounces that ignored everything but those esoteric elements roundtripping with accurate distance readings. Or in other terms, that last device could send vibrations that found cocaine through super safes made of meteres of concentrated lead. The main problem with the more complicated sensors was power. Richard could power them all by hand but they basically required an active slot to achieve anything. Not something that could run off an aether battery. He had to put the footwork In if he wanted to use them and it fucking sucked. Another day of wandering the city checking multiple signatures for nothing and Richard¡¯s thoughts became a bit more¡­drastic. You see¡­the place he was looking for was called a ¡®source of bodies¡¯. Not source of NPC¡¯s. Richard was fairly certain that secret tied into how resurrection worked. It was an unconfirmed hypothesis but one that Richard was treating as fact. A bit of research into this train of thought and Richard was binding a long ranged personal signature locator. If he had a spare body or something in this city it should be able to pick it up ¨C shouldn¡¯t it? The theory behind the device was a bit over Richards current knowledge level but it should work? It was something like DNA or something right? That was Richards guess considering he had to prick his skin to get the machine to calibrate to him. Theoretically this machine shouldn¡¯t care about any cloaking used ¨C as long as Richard wasn¡¯t here it would stop pointing to his current self and would start picking up his new body ¨C this was Richards biggest chance of tracking his rez spot down. Just had to charge up a giant heavy battery to power the machine for a minute or two after his pulse went cold. Pop himself off real quick and the machine would jump to wherever he was rezzing from storing the location and then switching to a low power mode till he picked it up. Easy enough. ¡­ ¡­fuck. Dying was almost hard now. Richard couldn¡¯t jump out of clock towers anymore ¨C if he tried tossing himself off a skyscraper he¡¯d probably survive wouldn¡¯t he? Yep. Confirmed two for two. Stabbing himself with tools and testing his weapons out on various parts of his body ¨C side note shooting himself was a great way to test the efficiency of his guns. Should do it more often. Well besides some noise complaints the actual goal was out of Richard''s reach. Maybe he was too much of a wimp? He couldn¡¯t commit ¨C something kept stopping him from going all the way. It was easy to pull the trigger when you knew you could shake the bullets out like a party trick. Jumping off a building a third time was halfhearted at best. At least the system liked what it saw? Whenever Richard hurt himself enough the system would shake some stats his way like Richard was whatever you¡¯d call the torture porn¡¯s equivalent of a stripper. No, if Richard was truly trying to self resurrect himself he¡¯d finish up his last plan. Momentarily modify his stats especially his pesky void defense which kept healing the worst of his bodies damage after the fact. Weaken them right up then turn around and hit himself with the strongest attack he could fuel. That should do it ¨C either that or take a trip to the badlands and get eaten by some of the rank 4 or 5 monster¡­something that could overwhelm his defenses and make him go down in a blaze of glory. So why wasn¡¯t he doing that? Why wasn¡¯t he ¡®commiting?¡¯. It mostly boiled down to worries about what he¡¯d lose¡­would he keep all his modifications? If he tossed this life out just because he had some use it or lose it rezzes¡­Would his hands still be here? His stone ones not his lame fleshy ones ¨C why hadn¡¯t he decked them out with portable rocket launchers yet? Well no, he knew the answer to that question. Reloading would be a pain. And hand lasers were boring. If he died could he reattach them? Deep down he was worried he couldn¡¯t. In some way as smart as the plan felt, it sounded¡­lazy. It was the easy way out. Richard just had to put in more effort on figuring out the search technology. Buying premade solutions could only get you so far ¨C even if he assembled them himself, mini assembly line and multiple hand factory be damned. Step one was to start putting all his scanners through his AI and seeing if it could figure out how to improve them or ¨C pending that ¨C figure out the sensing method he was missing that would get him what he wanted. Taking apart each scanner piece by piece, Richard checked each component against a part database skimming their purpose and feeding in as much as he could ¡®google¡¯ into his AI as he went. That was another thing he¡¯d lose if he killed himself. His AI was full of enough information now as soon as he killed the aether flow to it he¡¯d lose half his improvements minimum. Dying was just so inconvenient. Richard wasn¡¯t getting scared now that things started feeling more real ¨C nope. Continuing his deeper study. Richard hooked himself up to microscopic circuit boards then uploaded a copy of each machines raw ¡®tryte¡¯ code if it was retrievable. Simple disassembly and analysis tools helped convert the assembly equivalent into rough descriptions. The programs to do that were found in a less than legal part of the map ,but considering how easy to find and use that was just flavour text for the tools this game provided them. Richard was disassociating hard. It was even worse because he knew it was all a lie. The lies didn¡¯t even make him feel better so he didn¡¯t know why he was telling them to himself? Was it a coping mechanism? Lame. Richard barely noticed when his ai started locking in on a pattern only obvious when common between so many different scanners. Most devices with an actual circuit board seemed to have a suspiciously similar filter built in at the operating system level. A location based one ¨C not even something easy to explain away as important in scanning algorithms. Richard could have hacked all the devices to stop blocking that section of town then done a 4th pass with the drone army¡­but considering the coordinates were hardcoded in? Extracting the three triples and triangulating the section of town, Richard packed up and headed over. He kept an analogue wand that could reveal light manipulation as well as a full belt of tools that might come in handy when sneaking into a place. The section of town was roughly equivalent to a ¡®suburb¡¯. It wasn¡¯t the nicest section of town or the sketchiest. It was almost boring. Smart. Smart enough it was dumb Richard hadn¡¯t even considered it as the most likely spot of town. Slowly passing through the apartment buildings and waving his wand by building after building, Richard was surprised when the skyscrapers didn¡¯t turn invisible around the blackout area. Why would they care about blocking long range illusions with a conspiracy style filter if there wasn¡¯t anything exciting here? Richard stood around trying to figure out what he had missed. He camped the closest area ¨C the coordinates covered an entire block worth of buildings ¨C then attempted to see if anything sketchy was happening. Finally after a hour of stakeout Richard caught a break. Someone opened the door to one of the apartments and walked away ¨C not in itself weird. The man¡¯s face seemed drugged out of his mind ¨C suspicious point one. Mans looked like a zombie. More telling was the way his anti hologram rod had reacted ¨C revealing that dazed face to him as the zombie shuffled past. As soon as the zombie was far enough away from his ¡®disrupter¡¯ they flickered. A cloak of high quality holographic haze shimmered back into place and made the man look alert ¨C if distracted ¨C and fixed up his stumble into a purposeful stroll. ¡®Sus¡¯. Either mans was using a cosmetic filter to sneak into work high or¡­ Noting the building he had exited, Richard followed the man down a few streets. It took twenty minutes of stalking ¨C long enough Richard had started to feel weird ¨C before the man flickered and looked surprised. ¡°Oh come on! That was my last life!¡± The man suddenly yelled shaking and shivering as he shook his hand at the sky. English. Definitely a player. It was nice being right. Made Richard feel like he was finally on the right track. Returning to the hideout ¨C wondering why he had even bothered tailing the zombie to double check ¨C Richard tried the front door and found it locked. He tried smashing one of the windows and found it suspiciously reinforced. He then melted his way through the base slab. Why stop what works? It was easy to create a Richard sized crawlspace through the block and it was easy enough to squeeze through it with his fat gut. Not that Richard had ever been fat, but self-deprecation was a backbone of good comedy. Popping his head up into the area Richard found¡­a doorway. The entire inside of the building was empty ¨C like a warehouse, the apartment was nothing more than a reinforced hollow shell. Directly in the center of this empty space what looked like a closet stood. Heavy door to Narnia vibes ¨C old dresser design with stained wood and fancy animal carvings. The whole inside of this building was incredibly strange and bore mentioning. The closet was currently open ¨C a wooden doorway separating the steps down into nothing while all around was nothing more than spacious empty Strange¡­strange and inconvenient design. Why the added layer? Why not have the stairs directly by the entrance to the building? A toddler could poke a hole in that design. Slowly walking towards the door Richard waved his wand and watched how the closest appeared closed when he shone it towards the thing. So its an illusion of a stairway? The real entrance is somewhere else in this room? Richard ran his hands over the wooden wardrobe and tried to open it to failure. He then walked around the entire room carefully, passing his disruptor across everything a confused look on his face. Walking back to the illusion of a open doorway Richard tried the shut doorframe another time then stepped back past the point of his disruptor working returning empty handed to see what the doorway felt like this time. It was open. What? How did that even work? Was there a sensor that could tell if a disruptor was being used and shut the doorway really quickly if it was? If you shone a light through a solid hologram and measured for the result on the other side a disruptor would break that blocked area and reveal the light letting it activate a sensor. That should work for detecting if something broke an illusion?. But how fast was the door closing? You¡¯d think Richard would notice the flip if that was the case¡­did they use a noise cancelling wall he couldn¡¯t sense? A pulse of sound waves or field of energy that dampened movement in the air? And then turned it off as soon as Richard got closer so he couldn¡¯t feel it? Speaking and walking about the wardrobe a bit, Richard tried to make sense of things and finally gave up. Normally he¡¯d just accept the weird shit and move on but¡­as soon as he accepted it as real he felt like he should be able to understand how it worked. He should be able to explain this. This was¡­this was reality and if he didn¡¯t understand how reality worked he was a bit stupid wasn¡¯t he? Stepping into the doorway to Narnia Richard descended stairs that shouldn¡¯t be possible ¨C the back end of this should have jutted out the back of the wardrobe easy. A whole sloped roof that had been retracted when he ran his hand over the other side and extended when he stepped in¡­for what purpose? To sell this illusion? Richard descended the steps to Narnia remembering how dungeons messed with your perception and feeling a lot better. This¡­this was just a dungeon. Why was the dimensions of this hallways so fucky wucky? Dungeon bullshit. Easy. Bottoming out into a hallway, Richard walked along a clean but empty path sloping further and further into the earth. The walls were stone and surprisingly archaic looking ¨C and yet clean and smooth as if freshly made. Like a reenactment of some medieval castle. Soon the hallway began to expand. It sloped outwards into a courtyard area surrounding a bubbling fountain. A tiny little naked man stood on the top of the fountain pissing in a spiral down into the water below. Not spinning or anything ¨C the little stone gnome pissed straight forward and then the water warped and flowed around through the air in a spiral that wrapped twice before entering the stream below. Either an ¡®invisible¡¯ tube ¨C Richard reached out and let his hand push through the piss ¨C or¡­well this was pretty easy to do with an active aether flow ¨C either through influencing the water or space the water flowed through¡­ But this should be impossible without an active slot? Without someone standing here fueling the aesthetic. Was there someone hiding under the fountain? Should Richard shoot it up and see if he could find the guy hiding behind the scenes running the whole thing? ¡­probably a temp worker. Like an employee in a ¡®haunted¡¯ house pulling levers and shit when people walked by. Richard pulled a pronged device out of his belt and touched it against the face of the statue just in curiosity. A slight glow covered the statue for a half second then faded. Nothing living here¡­ Well onwards! If Richard didn¡¯t find anything else he¡¯d come back and break the fountain open to find the worker and see what was happening but for now? Richard slowly spun about looking at the doors surrounding them. It reminded him a lot of a medieval version of the hub he¡¯d been in up above. The one the whiney badass had taken him through. If that was the case that doorway over there should go towards the radioactive farm equivalent? Stepping towards a yellow archway on a hunch Richard followed the path down a few lengths stepping through several multicolored arches resting just in side the hall before finally reaching a metal door. It looked out of place ¨C the neon exit sign in the theme park breaking your immersion. Reaching out a hand Richard tried the door twisting the handle and found it unlocked. Slowly opening the door in anticipation, Richard peeked into a room one hand on his gun. More telling than the hand was the way a steady flow of aether already linking him to its ¡®trigger¡¯. Richard was ready to shoot at a moments notice. Stepping through as soon as he saw it was safe, Richard¡¯s eyes opened in surprise as he tried to make sense of the area. On one side of the room, an incredibly thick wall of a clear substance stood. Thick like the tank of an aquarium and filled with tiny glowing lines ¨C like prison bars made out of light. On the other side of this ¡®cage¡¯ Richard spotted several grotesque creatures crawling about. Fat fleshy blobs of hands stared across at him ¨C their multiple red eyes shining with hunger. They looked like a drunk had melted different human body parts together and shifted them into a more fishy form? Tiny pink scales flecked the skin out of place beside the hair One particularly fat blob hung from a metal bar in the ceiling ¨C its one humanoid hand gripped tightly to the ¡®branch¡¯ and swung slightly like some blobby fruit. Another long snake-like Cronenberg shoved what looked like rocks and trash into its mouth in the corner ¨C two hands shovelling the ¡®food¡¯ into its gullet even as acid leaked onto the ground around it in sizzleing drips of drool. The other side of the cage was larger than Richard¡¯s first impression ¨C maybe a hundred meters to the back wall but extending out of sight in either direction to the left or right. As Richard stepped close to the glass to try and see if he could see its side, he spotted a flash of silver. Soon he could see the source ¨C a metal ball rolled just into sight and stabbed one of the monsters with a pair of scythe hands. Reddish blood leaked everywhere as the monster struggled against the robotic harvester, but ¨C within seconds ¨C the blob of flesh had been butchered and the robot moved back towards the side just out of sight of the glass wall. The whole act of violence was done in efficient silence ¨C the glass wall blocked whatever sound the struggle might have made ¨C and Richard watched in morbid fascination as the ball disappeared. Were they locked in some eternal battle? Some family grudge between the mechanical ball people and the inbred flesh cousins? That had looked way too clean to be an attack. It looked like the ball was simply collecting a snack. Should Richard smash the glass? Shoot it up and explore the inside of this¡­this nest? This was definitely a nest but was it a nest inside of a dungeon? Could you nest shit like that? Or was this simply a monster room in the dungeon that was¡­safely blocked off from being accessed? Weird. Richard watched as a second ball rolled up to the fat hanging fruit and speared it from both sides. Shaking it a bit to rip it down, the second harvester caried its prize to a area right beside Richard¡¯s window. As soon as it grew close Richard noticed a bladed bin just to the right of the glass area. The ball tossed its still alive blob into a meat grinder turning before it even began. The bin then splattered gore into the surroundings in an completely impractical manner¡­oh some of the bloody stone began giggling and spewing flesh babies everywhere. Richard walked over to the wall finally taking interest in the machines on this side of the room. The meat grinder inside the farm was mostly out of sight but its back clearly connected to the machines on this side. Within a moment, a steady stream of chunky red gore slid through a pipe into view. Glass panels on the devices showed just where the gore was in any given moment ¨C it pushing through a finer blender and filter than being pumped into several vats that seemed to be squeezing and dehydrating the vats into cubes of what looked like spam? Everything had a faint alcoholic smell to it and the result was decidedly unappetizing even if it was infused with booze. The machine soon finished pumping out gunk and all the vats suddenly moved ¨C shifting along a nearly invisible conveyor belt to free up a new empty vat near the end of the room. So this is how sausages are made. Makes sense. I finally saw the ingredient to every ¡®mystery meat¡¯ ever. A robot took that moment to trundle into the room Richard was in ¨C on his side of the glass. Richard raised his gun up once again ¨C sliding an amor piercing round into the special slot and watched as the robot¡­ignored him? Trundling along to the far end of the room, the robot picked up the ¡®oldest¡¯ vat. Raising the vat above its head, the robot crossed the room then dumped the vat into a strainer. With a series of simple and smooth motions, the machine collected the meat chunks once again after removing a huge amount of milky liquid. Turning back the way it had come ¨C still ignoring Richard ¨C the machine caried its prize out the door. Richard followed obviously. Strolling along behind the boxy metal drone, Richard stalked it back to the fountain room and down another corridor. ¡°They pay you well?¡± Richard asked his tour guide after a moment and was delighted to receive a beep in response. ¡°I¡¯m going to call you R3D3 ¨C to avoid copyright and cause you all like 3s so much¡­Reed for short ¨C how does that sound?¡±. Richard listened for the beep. Yes, it likes its name! Idly asking questions, Richard had some fun pretending this was a real conversation, stopping only once they entered a new room once again. This room was dimly lit and dense ¨C at least three stories of shelves stretched upwards ringed with metal catwalks. The shelves were set into cubicles and each contained a cylindrical pod. A pod like one from the matrix or¡­well some scifi series full of pod people. Richard instantly knew there were people in them. It just made sense. Attaching to a pole and sliding up to the second floor ¡®Reed¡¯ slid down the shelves like a romba monky. One hand sliced strips of spam and the other tossed chunks of meat into feeding chutes as it slid. There were several Reed¡¯s sliding around in the distance ¨C the whole place gave off heavy amazon warehouse vibes and Richard found himself almost magnetically drawn towards the nearest pod. He knew there was a person in it but he had to see. Looking about it for some buttons Richard finally noticed he could interface with the pod using his AI. A flick of connection and several vital readouts later Richard found the ¡®release¡¯ command and sent it holding his breath in anticipation. There was a pause and then a hiss followed by a fleshy sort of gurgle. Slowly the hatch began to rise. Richard reached out and yanked it up the rest of the way in impatience. Yep. That there¡¯s a person. Inside the hatch a naked human figure lay curled sideways half submerged in thick transparent gel. A tube fed into her mouth and nose like some invasive breathing mask. Her eyes were closed and her unsubmerged shoulder rose and fell. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. She looked European ¨C Swedish if Richard had to guess ¨C and a mixture of malnourished and tiny that was slightly off putting. It was as if they were a child who had been shoved through a rapid growth spurt without being fed properly. Reed should have doubled up her servings of mystery meat. Richard reached out and poked her cheek ¨C finding the unconscious woman¡¯s head lolled like she was dead. Pulling the tube out of her mouth just to check, Richard watched as the woman suddenly gasped and spluttered. Her eyes flicker open in confusion and Richard paused. Shit. He probably looked like a creep right? Fuck¡­should he offer his clothes? This place probably had clothes right? If Richard had to guess it would be down a different hallway ¨C he could find something to cover the gross bits up and then he could ask some questions. He¡¯d be a savior then right? The woman gurgled and Richard paused again. Something was off¡­ The growth-spurt woman stared about in complete confusion and began to cry ¨C whining pitifully like a baby despite her mostly adult body. Eww. Poking her cheek a few times and watching as she stared at him uncomprehendingly while choking on her own spittle Richard shoved the tube back in her mouth and snapped the pod back down to get rid of her. Looking around, Richard found another pod opening it up in curiosity. This one had an androgynous looking hairless man the size of a toddler in it. Repeating the tube removal and poke test Richard tried to talk to the half baked human only to be met by confused gurgles and blinks. Huh. He was less done than the woman. Opening a few more pods in morbid curiosity Richard stopped removing the tube¡¯s ¨C content just to see the array of bodies this place held. Richard tried to think what this could mean. They were¡­growing humans? These were¡­clones or something? That felt mostly right. Noting each pod had a serial number and querying his AI, Richard found a memory of a blue box floating into shaky view. That¡­that was a trinary encoded serial number. That¡¯s my number I guess? I wonder if I can find ¡®my¡¯ body? Walking down rows, Richard tried to figure out the organization system. He finally figured out which ¡®trite¡¯ referred to the level ¨C his body if it existed would be on the second ¡®floor¡¯. Checking a few more numbers let his AI figure out the increment each shelf was moving up by and where he should go to start looking. Walking along to the number he was nearly positive would contain his body, Richard shimmied up a firepole. Stretching the tip of his toe out to rest on the walkway Richard pressed down then jumped forward as soon as he noted it would hold his weight. Shifting around the edge of the shelf Richard began walking down the ¡®catwalk¡¯ that lined the entire second floor. Continuing slowly down the isle Richard finally found a set of pods with his name on them. Well not his name ¨C his serial number ¨C but the equivalent. It was all sort of odd wasn¡¯t it? like finding a shrine to yourself in your parents basement? Opening the first pod he found a fleshy soup little more than primodial goo jiggling about full of meat chunks. Gross ¨C that was his first soup pod. The smell¡­Richard was glad for the stat bleedover protecting his nose from experiencing it as harshly. The second pod opened to reveal¡­him. His body at least. It as almost anticlimactic? Just pop, there''s a body double. The clone was mostly right ¨C he looked strange from the outside but beside that it checked out? Richard ripped the tube out and watched carefully as his clones eyes flickered uncomprehendingly and his body began to gurgle. This was gross ¨C why was he doing this? His body began to cry. Nope. Fuck out of here with that. Stop fake ¨C making the prime Richard look bad. Don¡¯t be a crybaby ¨C Richard¡¯s clone continued to cry and slam his fists against the surroundings like an overgrown toddler. Richard found himself growing annoyed. Angry even. At himself. At this mockery of his body. This¡­wasn¡¯t him. Obviously Richard was Richard and this body couldn¡¯t even talk properly. But also Richard was angry that his curiosity was putting him through this and angry at the annoying whining and blubbering. Richard slapped his body then took off his shirt and gagged the clone into blessed silence. Tears ran down the clones face and his hands weekly clawed at the gagged face and mouth ¨C too dumb to figure out how to take the cloth out.
?? Achievement get: Found the BSF
Description: Secret area found and scouted. Where do they come from where do they go? Here! This achievement is part of a chain questline. To continue survive and discover more secrets before inevitable eviction.
Stat: +33 Mental exploring power.
?? Achievement get: Find yourself
Description: A peak behind the curtain has allowed you to find your clone in the body storage facility. Careful ¨C if you break your backup body, it may take a significant amount of time for another to be made and your respawn to be complete.
Crystalized skill: Idea from nothing. Description: Querry the randomness contained in your mind for something you could have thought of but didn¡¯t. Let''s pretend in the infinity of you, there¡¯s a mind smart enough to figure out what¡¯s happening. That you probably has more friends. Why isn¡¯t that you the true you? Lets find out!
A prod to continue his search. At this point Richard didn¡¯t even know why he was searching ¨C why was this important? He felt restless and angry and frustrated ¨C it felt like he was being jerked around. This new skill probably was meant to help him continue his ¡®questline¡¯ wasn¡¯t it? ¡®Activate this skill and figure out what to do next¡¯. It felt like he was on rails ¨C and Richard''s stupid emotions were running wild. He was confused and had been confused for days ¨C and now it was pissing him off. Richard wanted to smash and grab the truth from this facility. He didn¡¯t care about it being given to him ¨C he wanted to find it out himself. Only when he figured it out himself could he be certain it was true. To add to that, Richard didn¡¯t know what a crystalized skill was. He¡¯d never heard of one before ¨C and while he knew the rules and safety for real skills¡­what if they didn¡¯t apply for this one? Was it the system that had given him this skill? Or was it the facility he was in instead and that was why it was ¡®crystalized¡¯? Was it like how that cry-genius¡¯s translation had been messed with? Richard had assumed the ai translations were the same as the achievement blue boxes for no reason¡­well no longer. He would start questioning everything. The words in that achievement were sus as well. Not just the system snark but the way the skill was described¡­would this open him up to being taken over by some brain worm or something? There was a growing urge to burn this whole place down. Richards first instinct was fire. Bodies were gross. This place felt malicious. Wrecking it would probably piss off someone who deserved it. Was that the best plan? Richard was confused and had felt confused for days. That confusion pissed him off and his pissed off brain wanted violence. It was in this pissed off, confused and restless state that Richard looked at his new skill. He could feel the way to activate it. The ¡®correct¡¯ way. He could feel the way the system had slipped in and controlled his memories. Had made him feel like he had used this skill several times ¨C muscle memory for a mental switch he¡¯d never actually used. How could he trust his memories if the system could modify them that easily? Was he even a person who¡¯d existed? Was anything true? Unhooking one of his slots, Richard wielded the connection like a whip. It felt like an invisible weightless extension cord. One with a magnet on the end he could toss at infused items to latch on. ¡­this was not how you were supposed to use a slot. Richard didn¡¯t even know how he was doing what he was doing ¨C just that he was angry and impulsive and that anger was giving him instincts somehow. Instead of going through the proper ¡®switch¡¯, Richard whipped his connection through the skill. He smashed and connected and pulled apart the skill that had been forced upon him ¨C feeling it resist his efforts. It annoyingly healed the damage he was attempting to inflict. A blue box flickered into view asking if he really wanted to break this skill. Yes! Fucking what does it look like I¡¯m doing? Richard slapped the blue box away with his connection. He could have dismissed it with a thought but Richard bitch slapped it away instead. Unhooking a second free slot, Richard slowly attached a slot to either side of the skill like he was grabbing it with two hands. Instead of quickly ripping he slowly grabbed hold sinking metaphorical fingers deep into the shit in his head. Beside him two stone hands reached up involuntarily. It felt like they grasped the connections he had formed ¨C holding the cords by grasping the air on either side of his head. Instead of ¡®unconnecting¡¯ the slots, Richard pulled while maintaining the connection as firm as he could. He pulled and stretched and then with a jerk ripped the skill apart in a spray of aether. His head began to hurt. This¡­was quite a bit different than normal. Why wasn¡¯t he waiting to properly break the skill and solidify it into a slot? What if this was a bad break? Richard continued to shred the foreign bit of himself. The inside of his head felt wet and raw ¨C like he¡¯d just blended his brain into his skull. He was ¡®wasting¡¯ the skill. That was incredibly obvious for some reason. And yet Richard didn¡¯t care. His two slot extension cords pulled bits of the skill apart and began to feed. They felt like snakes for a moment as they stuck and swallowed chunks of skill. Then they felt like arms ¨C two ethereal limbs rubbing mud on each other. Then they felt like tongues licking a cone of ice cream held in front of a blow torch. Then they were two of those sticky hand toys that could stretch and stick to things. His slots moved on instinct one step away from conscious intent. Richard unhooked the slot attached to his AI and swapped it for the feeding slot that felt the fullest. This weakest slot fed and strengthened itself catching up to the two originals. Bits of the broken skill were leaking everywhere ¨C for every chunk his connections could eat, there was one that floated away. Richard knew most of this was in his head. He vaguely knew he was anthropizing the slots as something more than they were ¨C a lot of this felt like his brain didn¡¯t understand the input it was receiving and was filling in nonsense to explain it. And yet the results were clear. His slots felt thicker ¨C Streicher. They felt like he could reach several times as far as before ¨C that gives me an idea. Richard slid his gun across the floor and lassoed the connection. He then pulled. Richard¡¯s gun flew back towards him on a collision course with his head. Two of his ever-present stone hands darted forward catching the gun before it brained him then pulled it down into a ¡®ready¡¯ position. And Richard finally calmed down. Holding the connection firmly Richard sent a command to drop the gun to his arms ¨C hoping he could hold it up by the strength of his slot. The gun fell ¨C dropping towards the floor and then jerking back up when Richard mentally yanked in frustration. So¡­not perfect telekinesis but at least I gained whatever that force pull a weapon back technique was from starwars. What was it called again? Lightsaber boomerang? Come hither my beating stick? Richard took one last look at his clone¡¯s pod and turned around again. He¡¯d burned the quest progression path but that was fine. He was already in the facility ¨C he¡¯d figure this out. Retracing his steps through to the hub, Richard checked each of the other hallways in turn. One had a whole bunch of clothing ¨C several sized yoga pants and grey shirts. He checked the next hall ¨C several large devices that looked somewhere between human sized chemical fume hoods and MRI machines. The security here was higher ¨C while Richard could send AI requests to everything, he was met with the equivalent of a password request and middle finger seconds after. The only device that didn¡¯t have a security lock was the garbage can in the corner ¨C Richard could open and close it from across the room to his hearts content. Useful. Richard tried slotting into the machines but found there didn¡¯t seem to be any standard connections open. Richard ignored that ¨C pushing harder as he walked about and tried to find a sticky note with the password or something. His connective arms rubbed themselves all across the room, forcing connections with various parts and doing the equivalent of hooking up a car battery with jumper cables to the side of a toaster. Some machines responded destructively ¨C smoking or popping quietly as Richard tried to pump aether into random parts of them¡­ but one machine ¨C a giant slab in the center of the room ¨C hummed to life at his connective touch. It felt like he was hotwiring a car as Richard felt the password based ¡®on switch¡¯ get bypassed. He still wasn¡¯t authenticated, but several ai hooks were suddenly available. Like hotwiring a car and suddenly being allowed to turn on the radio or use the cigarette lighter. Richard was on to something. He poured over the device trying to figure out what its purpose was. As far as he could tell it gathered¡­something from somewhere else and shoved it into a body placed on top of it? it pulled from a source and infused that source into the ¡®input¡¯ before running some diagnostics and applying this second source to this set of tools. Hmm¡­ Richard ripped the floor open. There was a pattern of white triangular tiles seamlessly laminated into each other ¨C and Richard ¡®reached¡¯ past them. His stone hands could press palm first onto the ground from standing and Richard briefly looked like he was standing on a spider as his hands grasped and pulled in a crunch. It didn¡¯t take much digging about after that point to reveal the tube. Simple enough ¨C this was the ¡®imput¡¯. A giant glowing rubber line covered in what looked like chainmail. Larger than most cat5 cables and with hecking massive protective sheathing. Probably a joke in there somewhere. This tube led from the slab back down the way Richard had come. Turning Richard continued to rip up this strange rubbery tube feet by feet. Behind him the tube spooled about the floor lighting up his back with its glow and casting a shadow in front of him with how bright it shone. Slowly Richard followed the tube back into the middle feeling it begin to sink down deeper and deeper as it headed towards something underneath the water fountain. It was starting to take longer to excavate the deeper the tube fell ¨C Richard moved his attention away from the tube and towards the fountain itself. It¡­was made out of stone right? Fragile¡­ Richard reached out and tried to tear the statue down with a swipe. Instead of melting like little more than toilet paper in front of a hose the statue buckled. It struggled and fought back against Richard¡¯s hands. The center pole of stone squished and rippled squeezing down to show less surface area. The statue resisted. Not resisted in the way his skill wouldn¡¯t effect non silicone filled objects ¨C actively pulled against his manipulation as if someone else was trying to manipulate the stone just on the other side of the statue. Someone standing there attempting to force it back into shape. It was easier to destroy then build and so Richard¡¯s fight was slowly shifting to his favour. He ripped and tore at the statue till the water spiral fell apart and the stone was nothing more than a blob he was slowly raking parts off of. Reveal your secrets! Soon Richard had pulled enough stone off to reveal a simple wooden box and the fight for control faded. Shooting the side Richard smashed his way into the box and found¡­a doll. A creepy ass voodoo doll covered in painted wood and straw and twine and bone. Was this a joke? ¡®Not here motherfucker, look somewhere else?¡¯ Dropping the doll, Richard pulled the box aside and tried to dig deeper. Maybe its like that thing where they put a animal body on top of a buried human to hide the real thing. this is the decoy ¨C something else is further down. It felt like he was digging for treasure. Richard was so focused on his hole building, he almost didn¡¯t notice when the doll stood up and began staring at him. ¡°Fuck!¡± Richard jolted and kicked the doll as soon as he noticed, crouching and reaching for his gun in the same movement. Was it a drone? Some sort of remote controlled toy? Richard stared in shock and then began to laugh. This was a practical joke. Had to be. That was fine, Richard could take a joke. The doll spoke ¨C its mouth moving as long thin bone hands reached out and brushed straw back like it was coming its hair. ¡°I¡¯m not paid enough to deal with this shite. G can fix his vessel factory on his own ¨C before I go. I think I owe you a hit for that disrespect don¡¯t I? This isn¡¯t because your face pisses me off that¡¯s just a bonus ¨C¡± Reaching out its hand as if grasping the air, the doll pulled and dragged the doorway towards him. Not¡­not the door. The doorway. The hole in the wall pealed off and left a stone wall in its place. As the entrance flew across the room, it blackened the view of the hall the doorway had led to. The hallway inverted as it shifted ¨C as if Richard was looking at an optical illusion purposefully meant to confuse him. Richard pulled the trigger right before whatever illusion fuckery hit him, mentally cheering when the bullet hit the smug little straw boss dead on. And then the doorway hit Richard¡¯s body, the bottom half slicing through his legs as if the door were a giant ring saw and his slicing defense was a lie. Richard stumbled and collapsed ¨C his stone arms rushing inwards as they attempted to catch his body. Aiming most of his focus towards re aiming his gun towards the doll, Richard vaguely tried to step back onto his severed ankles. So inconvenient ¨C thick goop splattered about as he slipped and smashed his stumps into the ground. How sharp was that attack? What happened to the doorway? In front of him the ring of weirdness rippled and transformed into a cloak of weirdness that slowly began wrapping the doll as if turning it into a cultist or some hooded stranger made out of an Esher painting. Suddenly the doll stopped and turned its head to the side. ¡°I¡¯m just disciplining a monkey. No, I¡¯m not breaking the rules of intervention. Look he¡¯s fine. Just some ¨C Yes he started it. Y-¡°Suddenly the doll twisted as if he¡¯d been smacked on the top of his head. ¡°Fine ¨C G has the Authority for this area. Who am I to show that airhead how to do his job,¡± the doll repeated and suddenly collapsed. Richard stared at the pile of straw even as he finally got his feet to stop falling off. Void defense slowly went to work healing the cut, but Richard was too impatient to wait for passive healing. Pulling out wonder glue Richard rubbed the healing salve along the cut. The miracle cream mostly sealed the seam shut and the bit he¡¯d squeezed past the flap was being dragged about by his body to increase its effectiveness. Few seconds of bending and the errant body parts were back on! His feet felt weak as fuck but that was fine ¨C more importantly what was that? Who was controlling that puppet? Everything he knew said both that attack broke common sense and that puppet should not have been able to fuel it ¨C entire thesis¡¯s were in place to show why mecha worked to attack with and remote controlled drones didn¡¯t. ¡®So that was a fucking lie ¨C¡® Was that doll an actual person? Like a monster made of straw shaped bones and shit? It seemed like it knew a bit about what was going on. G¡­G owned this facility ¨C had Richard heard that name before? His AI helpfully brought up the time the system had shown him the computers located on the moon. He hadn¡¯t had an AI back then so the memory wasn¡¯t preserved nicely but his AI could do enough to show it had happened. G¡­G had been one of the computers. Like R¡­ A distant beep sounded out and Richard jumped to the side as soon as he saw a reed style robot barreling down the hallway. It no longer seemed content to ignore Richard ¨C waving a sticky looking net with its two grabby arms. ¡°Well this is simpler-¡° Richard shot his gun twice ¨C clipping the bottom of the robot and causing it to trip as he broke whatever hidden wheels were letting it move. Quickly aiming for the first hallway he¡¯d gone down, Richard ran down it an idea forming. Skidding to a stop Richard found the vats of alcoholic smelling liquid and quickly tried to tip it over. It was way too heavy ¨C Richard thought the bin looked relatively thin however so he aimed a bullet near the bottom and tried to blow a drain hole in. Crack. A freak spark must have been created because the alcohol began to burn as it spread ¨C everything was under control. Richard totally meant to do that¡­yeah he was going to light the alcohol on fire anyways so this was just one less step. Totally¡­ Fire lapped at his legs the bottom of Richard¡¯s pants melting slightly as his skin grew warm and then began to ignore the flames. Alcoholic fires were relatively low heat anyways ¨C non explosive too so Richard should be fine¡­ Turning his attention to the wall Richard tried shooting a few bullets into the glass and was surprised when nothing seemed to happen. His bullets just anticlimactically bounced off. Frowning Richard swapped to a piercing round ¨C the bullets specifically designed to punch through armour. Raising his second shot Richard pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet rikashade off a section of glass flying back into the room and smashing some panel on a vat. Those glowing bars must be wholly focused on blocking kinetic strikes from the monsters inside¡­ Pulling out a really old batch of combination acid, Richard ran across the burning floor ignoring everything but his rapidly changing plan. Come on¡­ Richard tried to melt a hole into the glass watching in frustration as the mixture barely seemed to dent it. Suddenly Richard had an idea. A use for an old experiment ¨C pulling out the light piggybacker he shone his flashlight-like device across the glass and watched as it passed through mostly unimpeded. New plan. Packing some explosive elements into a compartment near the back Richard began charging aether taking a moment to start the process. A few seconds later it was activated and Richard could start drawing explosive lines across monsters on the other side. Muffled bangs rang out as pulse after pulse of unstable gel was shot into the nest. Something crashed against the glass bouncing back ¨C a large hand coming from the side the small ball sourcing it dragging itself into view a moment later. A second crash rang out. The wall held completely ignoring the assault upon it. It almost felt like cheating as Richard began covering the giant arm in fast-acting sticky bombs. Suddenly a nearly invisible door at the side of the room ¨C left side by the window and one Richard should totally have noticed ¨C opened. In rolled the first ball robot ¨C a classic. The reinforcements! Took a while. The ball slipped slightly as it skidded through burning alcohol as a nice little treat. Richard tried to dodge a swipe of the scythes and found a deep gash was opened on his side. Turning and shooting the ball repeatedly Richard groaned as the shots bounced off as well. He was going to need a bigger gun. He wasn¡¯t James ¨C Richard wasn¡¯t interested in getting into a fist fight with the murder ball. A second slash left a red line across him as Richard failed to dodge again. Then again¡­how many more attacks like this before Richard was basically immune? A few dozen? At that point what could the balls even do to him? Leaning into an attack this time Richard purposefully allowed himself to be slightly cut by it. Smoke was filling the room as meat balls burned ¨C the original plan had something to do with filling the air with carbon dioxide and tanking the reduced oxygen. That wouldn¡¯t do anything to the robots but it might flush out hiding people or whatever¡­if anything part of Richard''s fighting style by this point was messing up the environment and standing in the middle of it so the setup was mostly instinctual by this point. Honestly cause as much destruction as he could until someone came to stop him was a minor goal to getting into the pen and whatever part of the facility was connected to the other side of this farm. Towards his real goal of finding out what the truth of this facility was. ¡­ Richard¡¯s bomb teleport trick deposited a line of liquid nitrile tri-glowrate into a crevasse it shouldn¡¯t have deposited into. The beam traveling through got stuck halfway through the wall and filled one of the bars of light in a strange chemical reaction. Within seconds the entire net was effected ¨C the softly glowing light becoming murky grey. Suddenly it shattered ¨C the heavily damaged boss on the other side of the glass shattered the wall before it could explode and seemed surprised at how easily it was able to push into the room. Giant shards of glass flew through the air and then detonated in a series of shattering chain reactions. Glass flew ¨C bits and pieces bouncing off Richard''s skin or ripping through his clothes. The shockwaves weren¡¯t that high ¨C most of the power had been put into damaging whatever it stuck to not the surroundings ¨C but the scythe ball was still knocked back into a burning tub of alcohol. The giant flesh golem shrieked its hollow scream now reaching Richard''s ears and causing him to wince. If that almost hurt the shriek had to be considered a sonic attack. So kinetic attacks of various flavors¡­And yep it seemed to be burning as it came in contact with the flaming room. Richard tossed some stun rounds into place and shocked the beast into staying put as it burned. Beside him the ball was getting back up seeming to hesitate over whether the durable Richard or escaped farm animal were more important. Richard didn¡¯t give him the chance to make up his mind ¨C he started power walking into the nest eyes darting about. There! A set of airlocks at the far end. There was an entire nest worth of monsters packed into an open area between him and those airlocks¡­ But Richard had already mostly taken down the biggest one so the fodder barely gave him pause. Flaming liquid had started pouring past the shattered wall behind him filling the nest with black smoke and the smell of burned pork. The scythe ball made up its mind and began chasing Richard slashing at his back like that would do something. Richards belt of tools fell to the ground and he groaned. I deserved that. With a yank of his free slot the belt flew up into his hands and a array of various specialized devices began to fall into his stone hands. Turning Richard began blasting. A funnel was set in the top of his gun and a series of four hands began pulling stone up in a rod like it was a metal wire. Time to reload. Half a second. Most of his bullets were badly formed ¨C they were little more than sharp rocks he was propelling into the surroundings in useless but fun pops. A bit of spare gore was cleaned off Richards body and mixed into the stone increasing the damage- they were inflicting by zero to the equivalent of a hand gun against a tank. The first ball seemed to have given up on stabbing Richard to death switching to kidnap tactics. Its scythe arms wrapped around Richards body and tried to pin him down Richard shot blast after blast point blank. It was annoying fighting something that could tank hits as well as him. At least Richard had a distributed body so the first few hits always went through. Made it feel more sporting ¨C sure he was cheating with his adaptation skill but at least he let his prey think they had a chance when they drew blood near the start. Metal balls that never got damaged on the hand. They were totally cheating in a bad way. Richard reached out with his free slot attempting to¡­connect and highjack the robot or something. He wasn¡¯t sure ¨C either way it didn¡¯t work all he managed was to pull himself closer to the ball. Richard''s free hands looked through his tools and pulled out the last bit of explosive. They took quite a bit to activate but once they did the specialized liquid was fast acting and strong. Loosening himself slightly and then using his slot to yank himself towards the side Richard tossed the explosive into the balls arm socket shoving his hand around the area as if trying to cup it into place. This should work¡­ Connecting his slot to the area Richard pumped some aether in quickly activating his trump card and causing a fizzing sensation to cover the inside of his hands. With a point blank ¡®boom¡¯ Richards suicidal attack went off the blast taking off one of his fingers. The explosion itself didn¡¯t seem to do more than stagger the overpowered ball, but his blood coated the machine and resonated with the damage the explosion had done to his hands more than made up for it. With a crack, Richard''s sacrifice skill broke through. One of the main arms holding him up fell off and the ball beeped angrily as it spun out of place. One of Richard''s stone hands slapped the area and looked to see if the robot had silicone it could affect. None. Pity. Richard reloaded his gun and shot it point blank at the hole he¡¯d made near the start. The ball staggered back. He could do this. The reinforcements arrived in full. Just as Richard was nearly done taking down the ball, over a dozen more spun into view. Hacks. This part of the map was an abnormality! Even as Richard tried to figure out how to escape, one of the balls slid open to reveal a video screen. On the other side stood an alien. He was in a cluttered looking blue room. Bright blue walls and furniture with occasional green tools covering a messy desk. The alien was surprisingly not some creepy shape but something that looked fake like bad cgi. A humanoid turtle in a lab coat. Like something out of a children¡¯s movie the furry stared at him in slight curiosity eyes slowly raking him up and down. The look was curious but uncaring¡­like the turtle was imagining dissecting Richard to figure out how he worked. ¡°Are you ¡®G¡¯?¡± Richard asked ¨C it just made sense. Waving an arm slightly his head half retreating into his lab coat for a second the furry acknowledge him. A calm voice rang through the screen ¡°Are the rumors right? Did you break a new affinity to aether?¡± Richard didn¡¯t know who the fuck was spreading rumors about him or why that nodded. ¡°What¡¯s it to you?¡± Richard asked slowly charging all the aetheric capacitors on all his weapons. He would probably get captured with this many balls and didn¡¯t like his odds of escape. Why didn¡¯t he deck out his favourite chair out and bring it through the dungeon? I mean sure he didn¡¯t want to damage the thing but with a few boosts he could have made it much faster than his body. Maybe he should buy a second chair? A chair for home and a chair for business? ¡°Do you know the sorts of advancements that could be made with a previously untamed affinity? You probably do ¨C I don¡¯t recognize a single one of your wild skills. Your ramping defense seems more efficient than what I¡¯m using for the barrier in each of your training areas if initially far weaker.¡± Richard scratched the back of his head. ¡°Thanks m8, so how does this work¡­you spank me and toss me out or are you available for a showdown?¡± G shook his head slightly. ¡°I¡¯m too busy to come down to that instance. Besides, I¡¯ve never been much of a fighter. No need for uncivilized stuff like that from where I came from. No I¡¯m here to explain to you your situation and offer you a choice.¡± The turtle said pulling a flask out of his shirt pocket and taking a swig. ¡°This one of those fake choices that mean nothing?¡± Richard asked overloading his AI with aether in the attempt to create an escape plan. ¡°Could be.¡± The turtle spoke slowly taking a second swig before putting his flask away and sitting down. ¡°To be honest Richard, while you are in a maintenance area and I¡¯m fully within my right to sic the defenses on you and waste a life or two and kick you out¡­there¡¯s rules about what I¡¯m allowed to do to you that actually matters. The amount of interference I¡¯m allowed to make¡­¡± The turtle licked his lips slightly before continuing. ¡°So the choice I¡¯m offering is really a demand for cooperation. I want your affinity. Let me run some experiments and try and synthesize whatever novel break your aether has lent and in exchange I¡¯ll¡­what was your goal for breaking into this place? Some unique achievements or something? I can give you some loot and let you go free. Otherwise I¡¯ll tie you up with the harvesters and bring some of the stronger bots up to finish you off.¡± The turtle made a face like that would be a waste of time and effort. So yeah, not a choice. Do as I ask or I¡¯ll kill you. At least it wasn¡¯t a choice between two awful not options? The choice was ¡®submit¡¯ or ¡®not¡¯. Richard''s gut instinct was to flip the fucker off and go down swinging. He didn¡¯t do well with being under the thumb of this sort of overbearing authority. But really¡­what was the point in that? If Richard considered his goals there¡¯s only one option that felt like it would help. ¡°I broke in to figure out what NPCs are and how resurrection works. Tell me what¡¯s up with the NPC situation and how fucked up it is and¡­sure I¡¯ll let you dissect my body or whatever.¡± He could always come back and pay back the insult when he was stronger and understood more of his situation. The turtle thought for a half second then shrugged. ¡°By my title of absolute defense and your step upon my path. By your self discovery of your situation and a clause in discretionary laws¡­sure I¡¯m allowed that much. Let me bring you to a back room and I can tell you about the filler you¡¯re surrounded by while I have you fill up some batteries.¡± Nodding slightly the ball closed up and Richard allowed himself to be led through the burning nest to a door in the wall. Stepping through the airlock and finding himself led towards a new area of the plant Richard barely put in the effort to escape and continue his rampage. In some ways he¡¯d failed but something about this felt different. He¡¯d accept it for now. ¡­ Hooking his two free slots into a giant crystal the size of a room Richard began to dump aether in. Beside him a ball revealed the screen and absolute ¡®G¡¯ as he watched Richard channel aether a series of probes dragging his aether away into different tanks and environments in the walls. ¡°Let''s see¡­what do I need to say.¡± The turtle began. ¡°I¡¯m not fully aware about past settlements or the history of things but I do know we selected a group of rules that had the highest chance of settlement success. One of those rules is to provide various examples of civilizations and ¡®guides¡¯ in the form of sapient creatures that have used aether in various stages of effectiveness.¡± The turtle seemed to be trying to figure out how much he had to say to keep his end of the bargain. ¡°Are those ¡®sapient¡¯ creatures real?¡± Richard asked. This was the important question after all. ¡°I¡¯m answering your question. If you want me to short form it we can finish up right away?¡± G asked the first sign of annoyance flickering across his face. Richard stayed silent. He could piss off the overlord once he pumped him for information. Beside him a syringe shot forward faster than he could react and began simultaneously injecting and sucking bits of fluid out of Richard''s arm. ¡°From initial assessment. ¡®humans¡¯ as you call yourselves were found to be highly xenophobic in nature. You find reason to distrust, fear and hate minor breed changes in your species ¨C set up simulations showed this trait would be even worse past a species barrier. That is why every sapient seeded into your trials has been given a human body. The infrastructure to grow and clone bodies from your dna is the same as the system to create the guide forms.¡± The turtle nodded a bit. Fair, humans sucked ¨C fuck this turtle for sounding so condescending about it though. Richard felt offended on behalf of humanity. ¡°But are the guides as you call them otherwise just people like us?¡± Richard asked. A flicker of the paranoid woman appeared in his head once again. ''I thought I had a tail''. ¡°Copied bodies and copied minds¡­If you understand the electric signals that make up a brain you can store a consciousness in a trivial amount of digital space. Translating it between the different shape and structure of a different species is much harder but I¡¯m a specialist and mind interfaces are a hobby of mine. ¡°To answer your question. It¡¯s much easier to reuse than try and create a consciousness from scratch. Applying the memories and personality of a stored individual onto a new body is not something anyone can do, but it¡¯s the cheapest way to mass produce guides. The ¡®real¡¯ individuals are all living lightyears away and from a practical standpoint the guides are ¡®fake¡¯.¡± G was half paying attention to answering Richard. One wrinkled hand spun lazily in the air as if he were swiping through invisible readings and his eyes were completely unfocused as he read whatever information Richard was giving him. ¡°Legally it¡¯s a bit of a grey area but allowances are made for absolute infrastructure. Transferring you and the rest of the settlers across the universe is¡­I wouldn¡¯t say it''s impossible but I can¡¯t imagine how it might be consistently done. Storing your mind transferring your energy signature and the information that makes you up then recreating your forms from scratch? It sounds convoluted but its much easier to accomplish. Even accounting for R adding a bunch of minds I wasn''t in charge of was simple enough¡± G began muttering as he poured over readouts and swiped through values. Beside Richard, a low hum began to ring out as one machine suddenly exploded. ¡°So¡­cloned minds and bodies. Legally grey and morally fucked up. Anything else I should know? Why even bother transferring us to do this settling for you if you can mass produce people like that?¡± Richard asked even as he felt a new injection and pump of incredibly cold liquid fill his body. ¡°Energy signatures the system picks up on. If you clone and copy your mind and body to a second form, the system won¡¯t recognize it as ''you''. Some hard to copy or replicate energy signature. None of the stats and skill allowances the system has given you will transfer to the second¡­even if the first body is killed the system is picky about calling the copy the same as the original. It''s why I have to put up with that unwashed cultist and his ¡®soul¡¯ ¡®magic¡¯ as he calls it. His chaotic aether lets him tag a new body with the old bodies energy signature so the system will transfer correctly. Think he called the NPC''s ''souless'' like the existence of an energy fingerprint meant anything more than system recognition.¡± G seemed pleased by whatever he was reading. He began paying more attention to Richard his tone changing as if he were wrapping things up. ¡°Now! As for why we don¡¯t just seed a settlement with kin. Besides the contracts with R for increased rank caps for our home world, the main reason we aren¡¯t doing that is simple. We already have. The system showers new species with above average levels of achievements. The first adopters get stats and skills anywhere from two to five times as easily as entrenched species. That¡¯s actually the story behind how varied kin are in species. Long ago when the first of our kind were uplifted by the system, we found a loophole. By altering the DNA of our children enough, they counted as a new species and gained faster achievements. Kin are above all else unparalleled in modifying biology. Even if many kin cannot breed ¡®naturally¡¯ between ¡®species¡¯, modern science lets most parents choose when to create a child outside of mating and fleshy allowances. Test tube babies for all. It took hundreds of iterations of new kin and genome splicing before the system began treating each variation as a ''race'' instead of a new species and our achievement abuse was slowed¡­but there¡¯s a reason we are the strongest practitioners of aether I¡¯m aware of,¡± G¡¯s eyes took on another form. ¡°Now, I would have been happy enough with a large sample of aether and some DNA with your energy signature I can cross reference with the DNA I have on file¡­but you mentioned something about allowing me to dissect you? Have I fulfilled my side of the bargain ¨C R will crack down hard on this exchange if I don¡¯t fulfill my end." G looked nervous. Good. Richard shrugged. He wanted to pick the scientist¡¯s brain and he didn¡¯t really care about a minor loss. As long as he didn''t lose anything important he could sell his body happily. ¡°Will I keep my stone hands and gear? If I will, knock yourself out I''m satisfied. If not go fuck yourself I''m altering the agreement¡± Richard called out. It felt like false bravado but the comment let him ignore the sick sense of horror of being trapped and operated on. The last scientist to do so without his permission got an acid bath ¨C turtle soup wasn''t off the menu yet. ¡°Your body should survive, but just in case I promise to transplant those unstable odds and ends to your replacement. Good night Richard, please feel free to say this was consensual if R comes sniffing around.¡± And with that suddenly a rush of cold stifled Richard¡¯s consciousness and everything went black. Chapter 84, James ‘final’ clear. ---James---
Zone 2 clear!
Clear description: Your path is your own. You prefer to take it alone. You refuse to accept the well trodden trail that others and have decided to head off into the woods instead. Does your path in a random direction lead somewhere? Only you know.
Clear stats: Clear time 28 days. 7 hours Total travelled distance 740 km Natural wonders used: 1 Dungeons Cleared: 2 Nests Cleared: 4 Monsters killed:4290 Deaths: 1 Revivals used: 2 (?) Highest stat, Leg Muscle Speed Second highest stat, Arm and chest muscle power. Total stats 755 Clear state. Rank 3 Next Tier: 296 stats to go.
Clear Rewards: Upper Percentile of monster deaths +3 free stat points. Unique titles x4 +40 free stat points. Unique body modifications resulting in higher than analyzable Tier. +8 free stat points. ''build'' deviation from average bonus. +3 free stat points.
James had a moment to look at his clear stats and begin mentally optomizing where he wanted to destribute everything before someone appeared in his peripherals. That guy from the badlands? Ralph was it? No¡­It was just R. R stood across from James, a wide Cheshire grin upon the mask that was his face. The creature held a blue panel in his hands as if it were a trophy or some other form of accolade. ¡°Hi?¡± James spoke while some distant atrophied bit of his brain cringed and bashed itself into smithereens. ¡°Welcome, welcome.¡± R spoke. The man hefted his blue pane a few times before snapping it down the middle ceremonially. James blinked. ¡°Well then, Standard extra clear rewards are altered and now altered again.¡± R sang. He held both of the shattered pane chunks a long moment before finally tossing them to either side. ¡°What?¡± James asked. ¡°Among other things this is the point where I promise to answer three questions, provide a free item to create something and tell you a bit of what¡¯s to come. Really simple rewards this time around ¨C I¡¯ve already given you an absolute mantle which takes the same sort of place...¡± James blinked. ¡°First reward for example, I¡¯m actually able to answer as many questions as you want really pending mood¡­you¡¯ll still get a seed but it won¡¯t be as big of a deal as your mantle even if the seed appears to do more at first glance.¡± R began flipping his hand back and forth in a ¡®Comsi Comsa¡¯ motion. ¡°Without the bells and whistles-¡° R began to rattle off points like a salesman ¡°-Theme of the first reward was the past. Theme of the second was the present. Theme of the third is the future. You get to pick a reward that will effect your future and the cost for it will be taken continuously from the future. It¡¯s a lot like the last trial really ¨C take your pick from the loot reward, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find some use in one of them and then we can move on.¡± R finished a rapid-fire series of explanations an impatient look upon his face. A second later a new box appeared in James¡¯s view.
Instant nest. Create a monster nest at your current rank and tier matched to either your affinity or the environment. Nest may be influenced by a concept you impart or follow as much of the shape of its surroundings as your magic allows. Customize a foe to challenge you! Create a free source of materials that match your style. Heavy degree of customization allowed and encouraged. Upon beating your personal nest¡¯s guardian, options to variably alter it in limited ways will be provided. Warning, nest customization locked to owner, should you perish what you have unleashed, may continue uncontrolled joining the ranks of the standard background danger. Note: Due to mantle, a potential influence may grow your nest to the standard world calamity should it be mismanaged.
Instant dungeon. Create a dungeon at your current rank and tier matched to your affinity, concept or following as much as your shape and desires as the magic allows. Variable control and results. Dungeon creation will be limited to a series of requests with more challenging results providing larger benefits. True trials may grant any wish but may contain a cost none would willingly give. Warning, heavy loss of control over exact methods the dungeon uses to fulfill your request. Attempting to micromanage or artificially limit the dungeon will result in worse rewards. Open ended requests such as ¡°a challenge of perception¡± or ¡°a reward of gem concepts¡± or ¡°a way to fix something I¡¯m lacking in¡± will result in better trials. Note: Due to mantle, a potential influence may corrupt the trial dungeon into a world trial.
Domain Anchor. Provide a free foundation for your domain should you choose to bind yourself to a location. Anchor will empower your domain into being unbreakable and unalterable in its vicinity. Anchor will give initial burst of constructive energy allowing you to create a rudimentary settlement or structure. Method for domain expansion customizable. Example structures. Tower, Castle, Town. Warning, not binding yourself to an anchor will allow others to claim in instead. Warning, binding yourself to an anchor will increase reliance on anchor. Warning, Death of bound owner may result in weakening of anchor unless proper care is taken. Note: Due to mantle, projected domain will forcefully take on antagonistic role. Typical example of a mantle anchor is a ¡®Dark Lord¡¯s Castle¡¯ which may produce monsters to draw humans towards you. Due to mantle, anchor¡¯s hold on you will lessen ¨C empowering you while in its sphere of influence but not binding you to it as strongly. Note Due to anchor binding to mantle effects of mantle may diminish while further away from its bound position.
Well then. These were¡­surprisingly interesting options despite each containing heavy caveats. James skimmed all three options then took a closer look at the first two. Anchor was out ¨C that sounded a lot like what the Queen of the floating city had¡­ Although she hadn¡¯t once mentioned having an aid for it¡­did she create that town and anchored domain herself? Did she earn an anchor in a dungeon or something and then use that to found the city? Either way, not James¡¯s style. He didn¡¯t want to be tied down or trapped. Between the other two it seemed like nests were the super customizable but simple option. If James wanted to make a good fight he could maybe customize some monsters to give him a challenge. If he got bored of a specific type of monster he could swap to something else¡­ In some ways it felt like a form of self sufficiency. It would be a lot like the domain anchor in some ways ¨C if he were hungry he could customize his nest to make the monsters drop good food for example but he wouldn¡¯t be tied down to it. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. In comparison a dungeon would be more hands off. He could ask it to give him a specific sort of challenge once and that was it. ¡­ James wanted control. It all came back to control in the end. He wanted control over himself. That part of him wanted to reach out for the instant nest button. He could micromanage his dream fights that way. James remembered the way R had thrown an invisible ball into the grassy plane and created a nest from that. He would have the same ability with this option ¨C even if only once. And yet in some ways the option felt boring. Was there really a point in a challenge if he designed every bit of it himself? Was there even any danger if he knew exactly how strong his opponents were? If he knew everything about them? That level of control was a trap¡­it would let him grow complacent with known fights. No¡­no the unknown was a better challenge. Even if an instant dungeon had a fraction of the control available for him, in some ways the dungeon having that control would be better. James didn¡¯t care about controlling others ¨C all he cared about was controlling himself. It was like playing chess ¨C if he played both sides of the board did the game itself even matter? Besides, even if it was a single unchanging trial it was bound to be better. Even if it was single use, James was bound to get a better permanent reward with a ¡®real¡¯ trial themed around what he wanted. Finally the mantle¡¯s corruptive influence seemed to be lessened for this option. A ¡®world trial¡¯ seemed less dangerous than a ¡®world calamity¡¯. James was going to chose to believe the mantle was helping him in his job of keeping humanity from tearing itself apart. Otherwise it just looked like his mantle broke all three options and James didn¡¯t want to second guess his choices. Confident he had chosen the best of the options, James tapped his reward and watched the blue box implode ¨C twisting and crunching down into a single blue speck. As soon as he reached out and grasped hold of the seed ¨C less a physical object and more a crystalized ball of whatever made up blue boxes ¨C he felt¡­something deep and dense hidden behind the ball. The real dungeon seed. The moment this seeds carrying case was grabbed, yet another blue box flickered into view above it. ¡°Write any requests here before planting me then germinate with as much mana and aether as you desire. Note: The majority of the dungeons fuel will be supplied from elsewhere the growth dictated by the seed itself. Your gift of mana will simply help attune your requests and influence it towards your wish. A blank request field will create a random dungeon at your current power. Attempts to weaken the dungeon may create a lower tier of dungeon despite your higher tier of power. Attempts to increase the challenge may result in an effectively higher tier of dungeon.¡± Checking for his backpack for a moment and feeling dumb when he realized it disappeared in between zones, James slipped the seed into his pocket instead. Looking over his rewards James allocated everything and then nodded. He couldn¡¯t think of any questions right now ¨C actually¡­ ¡°If I¡¯m going to ask you questions, how do I reach you?¡± ¡°Your mantle links to me. It¡¯s a two way link so you should be able to either get my attention or send stuff down it¡­I¡¯m sure you can figure it out once you get out of the in between area. Well. In that case James guessed he was ready? Looking at R, ready to head out, R shook his head slowly instead. ¡°The final bit of the reward is¡­the true reward without being anything much at all. As my champion you¡¯re privy to a bit more of the mechanics as well. James looked about. There¡¯s more? ¡°To start with, I see you¡¯ve crystalized a Truth past simple Facts affecting you,¡± R began. ¡°The Truth of magic is flexible¡­the affinities you know as standard ¨C life, light, fire, movement, creation¡­they are what you could call the laws of the universe. The laws of reality. Magic that will work even in the thinnest of manaspheres. Pretend the universe itself has a domain pushing those laws onto all who dwell within it. ¡°But¡­if you colonize and found your reality properly, those laws become more flexible. If you liked the dungeon¡¯s glimpse of time¡­well you could influence your worlds laws into accepting that sort of magic more freely. Time mana and a time affinity¡­a small influence might allow true foresight to exist in your world and all it influences. It might allow those in your world to read the flows of mana and divine potential futures. Precognition battles could become commonplace and those who hold great potential to influence history would shine brightly to all who could see. A much larger influence would allow partial or true time travel to exist in your world the timeline bending to its strongest. With a time mana affinity you could rewind your timeline past mistakes or skip forward through a period of dullness. ¡°I bring this up as you yourself have cultivated a spec of time. ¡°Currently its impact is limited. It¡¯s suppressed by reality and only exerts a fraction of its potential inside your domain. ¡°If you choose to influence the laws of your world to allowing it, that spec would bloom. Not to the point of an affinity but a concept can influence the laws all the same.¡± R looked through James as if staring directly at the skill he broke and cultivated through his circuit. Did James want that? He hadn¡¯t liked the oppressive feel of fate and the dungeons magic¡­it seemed shifty. ¡°Currently a lot of things are impossible, but with enough will anything you might imagine gains possibility ¨C at least in the realm you will call home.¡± R spoke flickers of images passing through the air around them. ¡°Bloodline abilities to pass on your greatest strengths to your children? Innate mana types and abilities held by all? ¡®Killing intent¡¯ and ¡®suppression¡¯ are popular choices to prevent those weaker from unknowingly attacking those stronger than them. ¡°You can help design and influence the [system] of your world as well. Some worlds suppress it down to barely a flicker of automatic growth, the masses forgetting its very existence. Others pull it up ¨C adding useful general purpose spells to it ¨C giving everyone a map, or ¡®inventory¡¯, or store. You could fix up the old quest system and make it more robust or toss it ¨C I really don¡¯t care about that toy. You could choose to add classes and create legacy abilities ¨C limit the areas of ones body that stats may function on into preset configurations or force new stats into existence the weight of your world giving them power¡­ ¡°There are rules for what has to happen in a settled world ¨C nothing is free and every choice has a cost¡­ an easy example would be the way worlds must have challenge and threat in monsters or otherwise¡­the way that threat is shown is flexible but the more you attempt to cheese it the worse off you¡¯ll be. Besides that you¡¯ll find the potential to customize the trials for your existence is immense. Do you wish to add a nemesis system? A single being opposite to you in power advancing as you do which seeks to end your line? Similar to the rarely used true love system, but set up for mortal enemies. ¡°A tribulation system dropping bloody burning rain and waves of monsters or maybe bolts of lightning and waves of pressure upon you at every rank you reach? Bottlenecks that must be crossed or inner demons to expel and overcome? ¡°None of these are ¡®real¡¯ and yet all of them¡­they could be real if you desired.¡± James stared at flickered half images and imagined how he might challenge himself. A faint hunger for that level of control flickered up and faded. What would he do? How would he set up the challenges inherent in a world? How would he change the system if he had that power? ¡°Why does the world need challenge?¡± James asked ¨C not that he disliked that rule. ¡°The stated reason shifts between worlds. Some think the monsters create a sort of mana or essence that is needed to keep the rank of a world ¨C and in those worlds that is true. Others think life itself is one big trial and for anything to have meaning it must have strife in it. Those worlds are also true. Some believe there is an external force out there that will seek out and end them if they grow power without the strength to defend it. Those worlds believe monsters are simply training to keep a world strong enough to defend itself against the cowardly other that only seeks out easy meals. That is true as well. ¡°Truth is tied into belief and the world you create. As your mantle allows this question to be a True question¡­well the Truth above worldly truths is less satisfying. The Truth is just that there must be challenge. Theres no reason for it, there¡¯s no grand mastermind behind this rule, its simply something that must happen. Truths and higher answers to questions that no one should be able to answer are sometimes boring like that.¡± R finished answering then grew silent for a moment. When James didn¡¯t ask anything else R nodded and continued his original set of information. ¡°The rules for how your world could work are flexible and will remain flexible for years to come. Gods are one of the final popular choices. I can create a few mantles of divinity and toss them out into the world each equivalent but different to your own. Depending on the type of world, those mantles would be more or less powerful ¨C in one world they coalesce out of the strongest in a specific field and can grow in numbers despite being lost when its bearer dies. In another the mantles are limited in number but can pass through either consent or death. In some the power of a mantle must grow through adherence to the field a god represents in others it grows through worship or remains fixed like a title.¡± James¡­could be a god! What a goal to work towards, the stated top of a worlds power ¨C although he was already supposedly an absolute¡­and he was already probably one of the strongest. God just had a nice ring to it. Could he become an absolute god? ¡­it was probably blasphemous for an atheist to suddenly want to start being called a god. Especially with the mystery of the title lost in all this behind the scenes information. R should just stop showing how the sausage is made and pretend godhood is something unknowable but achievable! ¡°Now that I can see you¡¯re suitably interested in the rewards and goals there¡¯s some final notes. Contractually as your magic guide I¡¯m supposed to tell you one method of gaining this ¡®founder¡¯ power is to destroy the power of reality. Kill its cultists ¨C crack their effigy¡¯s stranglehold on the world and influence the budding domain in its passage. As a plus side, the heightened danger of a growth world will fade and its cost will be paid. Instead of challenge enough for mana you can use to exist being increased by challenge of aether you cannot use existing in the same area¡­well you¡¯ll simply have to pay the cost of your own power system. Your strength will remain the same while the danger will drop. ¡°On the other hand, contractually as your aether contact I¡¯m supposed to tell you one way of gaining control over the resonance bands is to smash the chaotic beacon of corrupted aether. Clean up the corruptions, still the flows of the world and stabilizing all technologies potential. Don¡¯t worry about lost chaos for true knowledge and careful study of the bands allow pure versions of all that could be created using those corrupted sources. ¡°As your ¡®investor¡¯¡­well you know my true wishes. Prevent a side from prevailing ¨C rank up the world and survive the trials that will be thrown at you. An unbound or wild growth world will automatically rank up in a years time ¨C that¡¯s the timeline I ¡®need¡¯ to tell others to win their war in. Alternatively if you push a full tier above its rank cap¡­if you gain enough power to reach rank 4+ at 3154 total stats you can force the quality of the world up sooner. A decade or so for a rank 5 world and 5+ at 9463 total stats is a better goal to achieve the impossible¡­ but no one¡¯s reached that in a non-supported world. You got this! I¡¯d imagine the rank 5 tribulation would be a rank 6 true dragon like you saw in trial and the dragonslayer achievement is the highest quality possible. Could be a good goal to work towards? ¡°Good luck my champion. I doubt you can convince others to listen to you and stop fighting but if you grow threatening enough, they might just band together and fight a common enemy. Good luck my ¡®dark lord¡¯.¡± James hesitated a moment longer staring at all the images of potential. God James. Fuck that sounded pretentious and dumb¡­but deep down James kind of liked it. He then bowed slightly remembering himself and vanished into the mist. R stayed behind. The creatures gaze remained on an empty spot a strange half smile upon his face. The flesh statue didn¡¯t so much as blink as he stood in the darkness watching his flawed hope for something new disappear. The scene then ended, and the actors playing this part faded away. Chapter 85, Maddy clear. ---Maddy---
Zone 2 clear!
Clear description: Your path left invisible rails, your very being irreversibly changed at several steps. Well done! All it took was a ghostly view of the world through another''s domain to shift your path. You moved as a mobile mind and built magic into your body and bones. Your foundation was shattered and forged anew - your very humanity nothing more than chains tying you down. You learned you disliked being tied down while in a dungeon and claimed personal power through the sacrifice of self. Maybe you''ve grown enough to stop looking at yourself and look at the world about you?
Clear stats: Clear time 28 days. 7 hours Dungeons Cleared: 2 Nests Cleared: 58 Monsters killed: 3290 Deaths: 2.3? Revivals used: 0 Highest stat, Soul defense Second highest stat, Mental Power (Wisdom) Highest stat optimization: 124 ''Eyes of M'' Total stats 619 Clear state. Rank 2+ Next Tier: 110 stats to go.
Clear Rewards: Third affinity gained. +100 free stat points. Bonus for self ressurection x2: 55 free stats. Species changed 33 free stats. Upper Percentile of monster deaths +3 free stat points. Unique titles x8 +80 free stat points.
Maddy found herself standing in darkness for the third time. The ¡®clear¡¯ rewards flickered into being and then shifted to the side, revealing a man standing there in the darkness. She felt strange. Her floaty sence of self was suddenly restricted and pushed into a single point. She felt a bit like she had reverted to a previous state - her body felt small and limited. Mentally reaching out she felt her eyes were still there but contained less of her. I wish I could go through this with my friends. Maddy slapped her face then focused on the man. Rynold. The teacher she had met back in the last area. Was he brought here? An important native in the system? Did he ascend from the zone himself? Was he being copied somehow? ¡°Hello?¡± Maddy asked staring across at the mentor figure watching as the man seemed to shake himself out of analyzing her. Her magic teacher began to nod sagely and speak with measured breaths. ¡°It¡¯s as you suspect. I¡¯m here as a final sort of appearance, here to show off a bit of our comprehensive reward pro ¨C¡° The man¡¯s voice shifted from kind mentor figure to sleezy uncle over a single breath. ¡°Well hello there.¡± He purred, eyes glazed as he jerked his head to look behind her. Maddy placed her proverbial finger on the trigger sending her will down to the button for dark destructive death as she assessed the man across from her. Who could this be? How should she treat him? It¡¯s probably¡­ Stepping forward R crossed the distance in a single step, pushing Maddy''s body to the side in the same motion. What? ¡°Hello girls, you¡¯re all¡­gorgeous. Why don''t you play with a few of my fingers?¡± R spoke arms wide as he addressed Maddy''s eyes in the creepiest method possible. What?? The monster ¨C his back to her ¨C began to melt. An avalanche of small shapes fell from him ¨C his fingers splitting off and turning into little green men as they fell. Dozens upon dozens of little gnomes or goblins or something ¨C each dancing and acting shy or dunk around her eyes. They were kind of funny ¨C each acting in a silly garden gnome like manner ¨C and Maddy was put completely off guard for the second time in so many seconds. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Maddy asked, trying to figure out why the man in charge of everything was here in person. Why he had come to give her a push for magic ¨C she wasn¡¯t that special was she? Theres no way she warranted the personal attention of the person running this place¡­was there? R took a moment to conjure a table and two chairs before gesturing and sliding into his side. He stared at her a flash of embarrassment crossing his face before with an incredibly fake cough R began again pretending nothing had happened. ¡°We are approaching the final act now. I¡¯ve figured I¡¯d stop by everyone in ¡®person¡¯. Small little checkup, product review you could call it. What did you like and dislike from the zones ¨C I¡¯m also here to facilitate the final reward allowed by the structure of this project.¡± R began. So¡­its not just me. He¡¯s¡­he¡¯s doing this for everyone? That makes me feel better. ¡°A reward?¡± Maddy asked prodding him to continue even as she took her spot. The chair was surprisingly comfortable. She should figure out how to make chairs like this¡­a concept of comfort built into the creation magic? Would any of her concepts work? Did she even need a concept for something as simple as a chair? She should be able to make a really strong shape and increase its reality or something to get a similar effect no? ¡°A reward and a trial yes. The first a foundation, Cost taken from your past. A gathering of all you''ve done to give your self a boost in the now. ¡°The second a growth, cost taken in the present. A trial of trauma to gain power for yourself in the now. Easier to collect a cost from but no less important. ¡°The final¡­well there¡¯s a bit of a problem with the final if I¡¯m being honest. A cost taken from the future¡­it¡¯s a wee bit of a taboo. A slippery slope you can learn of should you ask the right questions.¡± R grimaced slightly as if mentioning something unpleasant then shook his head. A smile lit up the mans face his face shifting slightly as Maddy watched. ¡°The reward has had to be altered from its original form. That¡¯s part of why I¡¯m here in person. For perhaps the final time? We shall see.¡± R spoke as if sharing a joke only he understood. ¡°As part of your reward for completing the second zone I will answer three questions in Truth. Feel free to spend a moment and collect your thoughts.¡± R spoke smiling kindly as he gazed upon her. Okay¡­okay. Three questions. One of which¡­one of which he seems to be pushing for me to ask. Do I waste one of three questions to find out why its taboo? Is that a waste? Why would he be pushing me to ask that question in particular? Maddy spiraled slightly bits of her mind fracturing and coming up with separate questions. Eventually she had a list of ideas somewhat ordered ¨C somewhat dependent upon the answers R gave. ¡°My first question, what is the system and how was it made?¡± Maddy asked. R grinned. His grin spread wider than perhaps natural ¨C and suddenly Maddy felt like she was staring into a Cheshire cats face. It seemed he liked her question. ¡°What are your second and third questions if I may?¡± R asked continuing to grin that too wide smile of delight. Dammit! Can I not ask them one by one? Is asking him that right now going to use up one of my three questions? ¡°What is true magic¡­and finally how do you fit into everything and what do you want?¡± Maddy finished. A flicker passed over R at that last question but he nodded. ¡­he didn¡¯t seem disappointed she hadn¡¯t asked the question he¡¯d hinted at. Why was that? And good. he seemed to have accepted that last bit as a single question. I¡¯d hate if my wording let him only answer half of it. ¡°A truth then, one that explains all you wish to know and more~¡± R suddenly laughed and spun out of his seat. He seemed to drop his entire persona even as he spiraled up and began to skip about their makeshift table. Moving his hands about like a conductor or drunk as he skipped, R began to weave an illusion into the surroundings. An illusion that felt real¡­a tiny pinch of ¡®reality¡¯ solidifying the scene as it began to play. Did knowing how he achieved this reduce its impact? If anything it made Maddy appreciate just how much work this man put into this spell. She was watching a master in his craft. The ¡®man¡¯ in his physical form appeared to melt away into the darkness. As he worked his body was hidden by the illusion he was weaving then Maddy found all senses other than the scene begin to dim. All that was left was an arial view of a forest and R¡¯s voice calmly narrating the scene. ¡­ ¡°A long time ago in an existence far to the side of yours there was a species¡­They called themselves chh. For simplicity and the sake of cultural translation I¡¯ll call them the elves. They were one of the only creatures in all of existence born with magic. Magic¡­or as you will call their power, ¡®true magic¡¯.¡± R began. Small shapes flitted about the trees below. The ¡®camera¡¯ zoomed down and began flipping between different figures, their faces and forms becoming clear. Elves were ugly¡­and beautiful in an alien sort of way. They had pointy ears and large brilliant eyes but their skin had the texture of wood and their proportions were all¡­¡¯off¡¯ in subtle ways. They looked almost like humanoid stickbugs ¨C way too tall. Way too insectoid. Way too wooden. There seemed to be two factions staring off at one another in the scene. With a shout one of the elves pointed and rasped an alien chitter of sound ripping out of their throat. With a dark look she ¨C he?... It. It pulled out a small plant and threw it to the ground. The opposing group fell to the ground like marionets as the strange little flower was shattered. Was¡­was that a spell? It looked strange to Maddy¡¯s sight. Almost like no magic had even happened. The scene flipped to another group and another. An elven woman stepped out of a cave and slit both her wrists artistically. Her arms drained sap like blood and high above a meteorite began to fall. With a cataclysmic crash the projectile impacted a distant army before its caster dropped dead herself. The last moment from the scene was the casters form withering and shifting in the air. A husk impacting the stone floor with a soft almost imperceptible thud, a rain of dust from the meteorite rushing over them a moment later. A figure cloaked in darkness moved silently through houses, stabbing children and eating their fingers. This nightmare was then killed by a vengeful group of parents far away and using a strange ritual filled with blood and tears and chittering chants of retribution. Most scenes were of violence. The elves Maddy was shown all fought in strange detached ways ¨C most using some sort of magic that seemed utterly different from what she was used to. They fought each other and then they fought monsters. Maddy couldn¡¯t tell if elves were simply a violent species or if R was only showing her the conflict. Was there any use of magic that didn¡¯t have this much death in it? ¡­was there much of her own magic that didn¡¯t have a combat function? Why hadn¡¯t she tried making more peaceful spells? Was there something violent inherent in magic? Should she even love magic as much as she did if it was this full of blood? ¡°This¡­this is what you referred to as true magic. A derivative of it at least. It¡¯s what created the system, it¡¯s what created your magic¡­its what created aether and all that you understand as true.¡± R continued. What? Maddy started slightly and began panicking, a strange twisting feeling tightening around her heart. She felt like she was falling ¨C the non existent floor ripped out from underneath her. Her hold on her body¡¯s stability wavered and she literally fell through the invisible chair and felt her body drop down down down through nothingness. The illusion followed her ¨C the scene continuing locked to her perspective even as Maddy continued to drop and flail about? ¡°What¡­you really think mana is a natural form of magic? Some convenient energy you store and use as needed?¡± R¡¯s voice was almost mocking for a moment. He stood beside her falling incorporeal body for a moment before pointing down. ¡°You are laying on the ground. I¡¯ll give you a moment and then we can continue my story.¡± As soon as R pointed it out Maddy noticed she wasn¡¯t falling. She was laying on the floor of that dark in-between world, flailing about for nothing. Pressing her fingers on solid ground for a moment Maddy breathed and sat up staring at the illusion surrounding her and sinking into it deeper than before. R¡¯s voice returned once again. Calm, kind and clear. ¡°True magic¡­is simple. No concepts, no affinities, no not even mana. It¡¯s dead simple. Cause unlinked to effect. Cost and result. A weal for a woe. A boon taken for services rendered.¡± ¡°A wish. A wish granted by magic for a price.¡± A scene once more showed off an elf stabbing themselves in the heart. Moments later a flood rushed through the surroundings. Water roared in Maddy¡¯s ears and she floated upwards to escape the deluge of nature below. The corpse of the elf vanished instantly swept away in the same flood as their presumed enemies. Maddy found it hard to pay attention to the scene despite her best efforts. She kept glancing about the illusion trying to find the hateful creature narrating the scene. Her magic¡­her magic wasn¡¯t real? What did that even mean. Did¡­did anything even matter? All she had achieved was¡­fake? Did her study of concepts and domains¡­did it all amount to nothing? A nerd learning Klingon and trying to use it in conversation? Was it all useless? ¡°Magic¡­true magic always has a cost. All magic in all its forms has a cost and all that truly can be changed is the form of that cost¡­but these scenes I¡¯m showing? Using an immense cost for a single flashy result? That¡­that¡¯s an even older use of what you referred to as true magic. So these examples¡­lets call these old magic and move on to another form of true magic in this cautionary tale soaked by time.¡± R flickered into view once more. He wasn¡¯t looking at Maddy. He couldn¡¯t see her inner turmoil¡­no he could see it he just didn¡¯t care. The sadist began moving his arms about as he controlled the illusion twisting the world into a new one. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Soon the scene became real once again. A small elven boy sat in the dark of a dirty wooden shack slowly burning his hand. Wooden flesh charred into charcoal a look of intense concentration painfully drawn out of his alien face. Maddy could smell a smoky scent ¨C like pine burning in a campfire. It hid the horror of burning flesh. That boy¡­he¡¯s just a tree. Since when did the illusion have scents in it? Maddy found herself drawn in once again, her anxiety quieting as she watched the horror in front of her in detached interest. ¡°Magic¡­true magic is not only about a single massive result.¡± R whispered from behind her shoulder. Maddy watched as the scene sped by. The boy spent ages burning away his arm and then when nothing more than a charred stump remained, the boy stood and left. A flicker of the scene had the small child walk through what looked like a bandit camp. Fireball after flaming fireball flew from his remaining hand ¨C each a raw primal sort of angry flame. Wood flesh burned and insect like elves screamed and ran about as the child killed and killed and killed. The scene shifted to the same elf grown up and wearing light armor. He stepped into a cave while holding a flickering ball of fire beside his head. This adult elf looked¡­less angry then he had as a kid. There was even a man beside him walking with a wooden staff. A friend? A companion? Maddy flickered her thoughts to her friends. She wanted to be by them. It would make her feel more stable. ¡°Permanent magic¡­the idea of a continuous spell. The idea of cost turning into a continuous result. That¡¯s perhaps the holy grail of true magic. A cost that seems too strong for a single spell, suddenly becomes worth it when compared to a lifetime of use. The game then becomes figuring what the largest cost you are willing to pay might be and how you might turn that into its most efficient result.¡± The scene shifted a few more times while showing off various ¡®costs¡¯ and powers in unrelated elves. Finally the story continued once again. ¡°A cost has never needed to be so simple as pain.¡± A wooden woman ¨C tears streaming down her face ¨C dashed a small child to the ground before sprouting wings and floating up into the sky. An elven man stared down at a baby and then melted ¨C his form shrinking down to a bracelet that gave his grandson strength. ¡°¡­and many creatures, elves included try to get around pain. These costs¡­these may seem harsh but they were purer in a way than all that came after.¡± R continued. ¡°For the elves naturally sought to cheat their ¡®cost¡¯. Power now in exchange for a cost in the future. Permanent power now in exchange for some cost they hoped to escape from. One they would pay when they were older¡±. A series of scenes showed elves gaining power seemingly for free then suddenly dying young. Of growing mad the longer they lived ¨C of suddenly losing their strength halfway through their life and then living out decades in painful weakness. Of suddenly transforming into a tree, their spirit locked in silent horror living out centuries unable to do anything but watch as their insides were hollowed out by termites. ¡°The elves who sought future cost and then died young to unrelated means. The elves who told magic they would pay magic back when they grew older and then went to war and died¡­they thought they had cheated magic but true magic can¡¯t be cheated that easily.¡± The camera zoomed and focused in on a battlefield. Thousands of dead wooden bodies littered the ground. Running about in and amongst the corpses, small creatures appeared as if from nowhere. Small twisted creatures of darkness. Large hulking forms shifted and pulled themselves into view. A few corpses twitched and stood before wandering away. All of them had red eyes. ¡°This is¡­this is what you might call the birth of monsters. The ¡®cost¡¯ you could say. A curse created after a payment was defaulted upon. One¡­unleashed on others. One the original elf avoided.¡± More and more monsters appeared, creatures growing stronger as elf after elf attempted to cheat and pass off their ¡®cost¡¯ onto others. ¡°Clever elves learned to curse their bloodline. Their descendants would pay their cost ¨C not them. Oh no, they could be powerful, and their children¡¯s children could have shorter lifespans ¨C living a few decades instead of natural centuries. Children weak to cold or water. Chronic possessions, bad luck. Whatever their ancestors cost took the form of really.¡± Scene after scene showed off elves becoming immensely powerful. Tyrants experimented and suppressed masses of elves. Some of those masses grew powerful themselves, their situation pushing them into accepting worse and worse costs ¨C and, on average the world suffered. Scenes flickered by, the world becoming more and more chaotic as time passed. Near the start of this segment, elven cities were looking almost Victorian or early modern with magical artifacts and infrastructure abound¡­ but soon the world was covered by strongholds ¨C little more than medieval castles. There were scenes of small elves hiding in the dirt and trees while massive monsters hunted them like something out of a prehistoric period. Finally the scene stopped flickering. It looked down at a small child deep in the woods being taught of the world. ¡°This world¡­this world of the elves had been broken by greed. It wasn¡¯t a very good world anymore ¨C not by any measure of the world. Bad things happened to good people for no reason. Generations of elves were forced to deal with their ancestors mistakes and one elven girl witnessed more of it than most.¡± The scene began to show this elf grive the loss of her parents. Watch her friend eaten by a massive ooze. Witness minor tragedy after minor tragedy. ¡°¡­she decided things needed to change.¡± This nameless elf learned of the world and studied magic furiously. ¡°She learned history and fought monsters ¨C every single time she cast magic; she used a form of the old magic. The one that wasn¡¯t ¡®cheating¡¯.¡± Her arms and chest were soon covered in countless small scars ¨C her left eye was gone her wooden skin grey and covered in spots. ¡°This is the creator of the asymmetrical karmic system.¡± R added confirming Maddy¡¯s suspicion. The woman continued her life. She continued her search for a solution before finally she put her plan into motion. A massive ritual was conducted, cumulating in the young elf slowly fading into nothing ¨C a triumphant look in her eyes. Nothing else happened until R began to talk. ¡°The asymmetric karmic system was an attempt to fix a broken world in a younger universe. An attempt to reverse an age of wrongs. It was a simple but powerful wish. Anything bad that happens to someone will be paid back. Anything awful, anything uncontrollable, anything you might consider ¡®bad karma¡¯¡­that will give permanent power. In comparison anything good that happens¡­well the system will turn a blind eye. She didn¡¯t want true karmic balance ¨C she didn¡¯t want to weaken or punish good things¡­ only make up for anything bad that might have happened.¡± R continued. ¡°Asymmetric¡­and thus open to infinite potential growth.¡± R added his eyes gleaming. Maddy couldn¡¯t tell R¡¯s thoughts on this story. He didn¡¯t sound happy or sad, she couldn¡¯t tell if he thought this elf was brave or stupid. He simply told the story, narrating like this was nothing more than a documentary ¨C and momentarily looked excited while talking about the result but not invested on a personal level. ¡°The holy grail of true magic done stronger and more effectively than anything that came before. Permanent boosts to strength and speed and defense. Steady stable growth. Every once in a while, a minor limited and safe magic ¡®skill¡¯. The ¡®cost¡¯, the very event the system was rewarding. ¡®Fairness¡¯. That¡¯s her legacy,¡± R added. The world continued to spiral into darkness. Everything was overrun by monsters. Elves fought and hid ¨C their bloodlines were shattered ¨C many still baring the costs of their ancestors but now some of those curses were boons as well. It wasn¡¯t fair for another to gain the power this cost had taken ¨C these cursed creatures should have power as well! It wasn¡¯t fair their world was broken ¨C they deserved stats and skills for their pain. The system slid into all of them, attempting to right the injustices each elf was paying for their ancestor¡¯s greed¡­but it was too little too late. Maddy kept expecting the story to turn around. The system had been made ¨C it would fix everything wouldn¡¯t it? Soon all Maddy saw was monsters. And then, as if the monsters had only been there to punish the elves¡­they slowly vanished as well. The world weakened. The fantastical rainbow storms quieted. The magic¡­left and with it the monstrous creatures. Soon the world was almost barren. Plants steadily regrew and small animals had survived but all signs that this planet had had intelligent life on it was gone. ¡°¡­and then I came along! See down there? That¡¯s me!¡± R laughed suddenly and pointed. The man stood beside Maddy ¨C suddenly visible once again and drawing her out of the story he was showing her. Down below a blurry humanoid shape stepped through the woods appearing like the man beside, her but less put together. ¡°I figured it was such a waste leaving such an efficient causality miner just sitting there so I¡­repurposed it. Added it to some other stuff I picked up ¨C juiced the construct up to be more exciting ¨C and began selling its services to the wider existence. This is the point where I¡¯m contractually obligated to inform you aether follows a lot of the damaging parts and costs of true magic you just saw. It¡¯s a part of magic heavily tied into cheating and tossing the cost along to others. Letting aether and those who practice it persist in the reality of the final area will likely let the whole planet be overwhelmed by monsters well past its ability to handle yada yada. And that¡¯s where we come to the final part of this. The final question that¡¯s allowing me to add my opinion to this list.¡± The R on in the illusion ¨C down on the planet ¨C looked up and began speaking to Maddy. ¡°What do I want?¡± he began, breaking the ¡®fourth wall¡¯. ¡°I want you to not try and wipe out your aetheric cousins despite their very real danger to you. I want your world to fill with monsters stronger than any you¡¯ve seen before. If I¡¯m being honest, I want you to fail your final task. Standard settled worlds are just so boring ¨C even if I can come and support them up a rank or two by letting them gamble¡­Even if I offer a chance to sponsor your own worlds binding some of their growth to your own should they break the same way as you¡­a gamble against some other world using the ¡®other system¡¯ true magic wrought. ¡°Well, there are limits to that sort of artificial increase as fun as the pyramid scheme is. The unknown of a raw growth is so much more¡­fun.¡± R smiled. Did he really just claim they were here because of some sort of magical pyramid scheme? You weren¡¯t supposed to admit that ¨C who outright admitted they would offer you a chance to be a part of a pyramid scheme without pretending it was something else? ¡°To be clear, I¡¯m not necessarily rooting for you all to perish or anything. I simply want to see how far you will grow and how high you can reach without jumping off the bandwagon. Isn¡¯t that fun? Best case your world becomes one of the most powerful in the overall existence. Worse case you are overrun and I have a chance of picking up some interesting remains ¨C I doubt something as fun as the system base will appear, but there¡¯s bound to be some fun toys left behind in the ruins.¡± R finished with a slight grin on his face. Maddy was suddenly one hundred present sure this was the truth. Everything R had said was true ¨C although he may have omitted information or simplified his descriptions, everything he had given was honest. The ¡®man¡¯ truly wasn¡¯t on ¡®their¡¯ side. And yet he wasn¡¯t necessarily actively antagonistic? It wasn¡¯t quite black and white. He wasn¡¯t a friend but¡­he wasn¡¯t necessarily an enemy to be fought? Maddy should probably be working against his wishes by stabilizing their world but¡­ Something more important had popped up and she still hadn¡¯t resolved her feelings. ¡°What do you mean by saying mana was created¡­is it not real? Does magic not matter? Is my power¡­a lie? Is my new body¡­fake?¡± Maddy began. What was the point in learning of concepts and shapes and affinities and whatever else she had pushed for if they were simply made-up rules? ¡°Your questions are done you know.¡± R smiled. He looked amused. Sadist. He had done that on purpose. Tossed a fact into his story that made Maddy want more. And now after ripping out her heart he was going to leave. ¡°As a bit of a freebie. Why ever would the magic you know being a ¡®created¡¯ ¡®thing¡¯, make it fake? Is a house fake because it¡¯s made of fake wood and processed materials that don¡¯t exist in nature? If an unnatural gun is fake, then are those it kills faking it? Will they jump up after the fact and continue on with their days?¡± R answered with a question in turn causing Maddy to latch onto the lifeline. Okay, so her magic was¡­it still mattered. What she had done had really happened. What she had gained was still there. She hadn¡¯t gone through all of this for nothing. She had more questions. Tons and Tons more. Could she get him to answer any more in a half answer like that? Pretend she was asking for clarification and trick him into expanding his answers? ¡°You told me what you want but who actually are you? What are you?¡± R suddenly grinned that uncanny grin. His smile looked predatory for a moment as he held it in place. ¡°Now that¡­that would have been an interesting question if you had asked it the first time around,¡± R spoke. His voice suddenly took on a deeper reverberating tone. Briefly Maddy was dimly aware of¡­something. For the briefest of flickers the creature in front of her¡­was almost like an angular fish¡¯s light. There was a barest hint of some vast alien creature in front of her ¨C one hidden in the entire darkness surrounding her like a leviathan. An eldritch horror reaching out a hand ¨C the body of the man in front of her nothing more than a finger puppet it was using hidden beneath the waves. The feeling faded once again. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a hint. If you speak my true name¡­you can ask a boon of me. An alteration to the previous deals we¡¯ve struck or something new. Speak my true name and I¡¯ll break the rules just for you~¡± R¡¯s voice took on a playful whimsical tone. ¡°We can even make a contract in vibrations or tree ¨C three guesses and my favor is free, heeheeheehee-¡° R was starting to look more and more unstable. He shook and giggled, melting and looking at her with eyes little more than slits. If you fail, why then we¡¯ll see¡­perhaps then I¡¯ll finally ask a favour from thee, heheheheheheee.¡± R collapsed at that. He continued to roll about the floor giggling wildly. A blue box appeared to the side of Maddy¡¯s vision.
Attempt to guess my name. A guess made is an acceptance of these terms. Upon three guesses you may ask a single rule breaking request free of all external influences. A chance to change the laws of the world before anyone else. A boon that I must honor to the best of my abilities. Failure to guess correctly in three attempts will result in me asking a request of you in turn. Upon completion of the request, the game may continue upon either of our discretion and should either of us survive.
Maddy stared at the box silently watching it fade out of sight without attempting it. It felt like a trap. It felt overwhelmingly like a trap. If a single box was made with trap mana and a trap concept and oozed danger everywhere¡­that might have achieved the same feeling as this box did. How could she even guess his name? There had to be thousands of potential options. ¡­what was the cost of owing him a favor? It did not sound good. This wasn¡¯t a bet between friends, if she lost, she would definitely have regrets. ¡­No Maddy would ignore this for now. She had something to turn to next. The list of ¡®future¡¯ rewards. Dragging the list over and looking it over in exaggerated concentration Maddy watched R from the darkness surrounding them. The creature watched her busy herself with the list for a moment ¨C looking almost disappointed she hadn¡¯t stepped into the trap ¨C and then slowly walked backwards fading away from sight while remaining right there. She didn¡¯t feel safe. ¡­ ¡°So how does this work?¡± Maddy asked staring at the potential offerings analytically. ¡°Changes to the laws of a world?¡± R asked stepping forward in a new business suit the earlier madness forgotten the mentor returned. ¡°Easy, true magic and more efficiency engineering that you could imagine or appreciate. Any question along those lines will get ¡®a wizard did it¡¯ from now on. Rather than trying to figure out the ¡®how¡¯ you are better off seeing if anything catches your eye¡­most worlds suppress mental magic but if you loosen the rules a bit¡­well mental mana becomes a viable natural affinity and its really quite fun. Telepathy and empathy-based spells are useful both for cooperation and non-lethal attacks¡­ Mind palaces are some of my favorite realms to explore. You will open up the flood gates for mental monsters to start spawning and controlling the type of mental magic that¡¯s possible is hard once you¡¯ve allowed it as a possibility...but with your defense you''ll be on the upper end and shouldn''t be too affected. ¡°Most worlds crack down on mental magics as much as they can, repressing anything even close to mind control¡­but you have some hefty defensive stats in your mind and the skills to take advantage of such a law. Could be fun, could be fun. Keep it in mind as an option.¡± R nodded and flipped to another world. Maddy remembered the loss of control she¡¯d felt when being hypnotized. She¡­kind of understood why societies might push back against mind control being easy or even possible. If that was the strongest a specialized monster could get¡­well that was fine with her. "Can we weaken mental magic even further?" Maddy asked. she wasn''t pushing for it but the magic felt slimy and a proper world could probably do without it. R sighed slightly. "You can but weakening it further breaks some essential system functions. It becomes much more annoying if you can''t control system interfaces with your mind or learn gifted skills instantly." ...yeah small amounts of mental abilities being allowed seemed fine. It did make maddy wonder if essential system functions included mind controlling natives but...She''d push to leave it as is. ¡°So, are these other worlds in different dimensions?¡± Maddy asked staring at the ¡®product catalogue¡¯ carefully. ¡°They could be? They could be not. They could also be incredibly far away in this true dimension¡­but that¡¯s a good point.¡± Flipping through snapshots of worlds R showed off a few descriptions and blurry views of stacked planets. ¡°Listen, other dimensions do not exist in base reality¡­but they could exist. You¡¯d have to reach rank 4 either with or without my help to achieve a true alternative world but here¡¯s some success stories from previous happy customers. ¡°With a dimension mana and affinity¡­or some deeper laws in place the world you create could be a cosmology. A collection of planes ¨C separate slices of existence each as real as the other and stacked overtop of the same place. ¡°This world has a dimension I¡¯ll call hell from which all monsters are origin. This a dimension named void ¨C created from cracks and in between areas. This cosmology has a plane for each power. A dimension of fire the source of all fire mana and the start from which all fire mages draw. This plane of springtime and this plane of spirits. That reminds me ¨C¡° R put away the blue book of worlds and stared at Maddy seriously. ¡°You''ve had a taste of resurrection¡­well, what will happen to souls in your world? One of the biggest options offered is a push to build a after life ¨C this option works well with divinity worlds as the process of capturing souls really needs a single person¡­fancy yourself a goddess of the afterlife? Your afterlife? All souls to join your realm? There are others with stronger affinity to the job but the only way for such an afterlife to exist is for you to make it¡­without a truth that accepts souls as real and interactable entities the dead slip away. Maybe you prefer that? A final end ¨C all souls sundered and returned to the nothing they came from? You could also work something out with the hired help who dealt with ressurection in your training period. I''m sure if you give him enough face he''ll build and run your afterlife for you its a portion of his hope for this job¡± R looked at her expectantly. ¡°So¡­the truth about dimensions? The truth about gods?¡± Maddy asked. She didn''t know what to consider of the necromancer right now. ¡°So focused on facts ¨C you really would have found yourself suited to an aether break, wouldn¡¯t you?¡± R shook his head. ¡°The ¡®Truth¡¯ is what you make of it! If your world has gods ¨C if the strongest amongst you are qualitatively different from the rest. If the ascended people live in a plane of existence higher than mortals. If they never age ¨C if they control the very fabric of space in your little stretch of existence. Then they are gods in Truth. If your world gains folds and spaces separate from each other. If domains create entire realms larger than you think a planet can be sized? Then those dimensions are real! The understanding used to create those dimensions is real as well! ¡°If you decide to create a dimension of the dead, the rule that all souls who die end up there is the truth. You shouldn¡¯t focus on the nothing or ''unknown'' that would happen without such a law ¨C not if you want to achieve anything more than you already have with the path you have started. ¡°I came to you in my standard check in and offered more than average. I mentored in disguise, but my lessons were true. I spoke about how important the elements of reality¡¯s domain are¡­how fire magic is stronger than something esoteric that sounds powerful but isn¡¯t rooted in reality. ¡°That was true at the time. I did not steer you wrong. Unless you actively seek to break your power and collectively suppress the growth you¡¯ve achieved, it will remain truth in the future as well ¨C the only change you need to worry about is if that¡¯s all magic will remain. That truth would turn into a lie should something I consider esoteric be pushed into law in your new world ¨C in perhaps your new dimension should you wish to call your stretch of existence that. There are many ways you can go from here and if you blindly sit on ¡®facts¡¯ and only accept what others offer as truth, you¡¯ll never achieve something unique and special on your own.¡± R looked to be done with this conversation. He did his best to appear like he didn¡¯t care and yet some part had broken. He seemed exasperated with her ¨C like he had been arguing for days instead of simply responding to a single one of her questions. Maddy took a deep breath. She¡­she didn¡¯t know if she needed to breath anymore and yet the act felt calming. Nodding to the bipolar man with too much power, Maddy collected her dungeon seed and left. Behind her the figure known as ¡®R¡¯ flickered. As the intermediary realm collapsed, his body overlayed with thousands of alternative versions of himself jumping between shells between answers. The puppet was having literally thousands of simultaneous conversations ¨C some pleasant, some full of stubborn mortals who refused to listen. Clear conversations were just so much work sometimes. Exhausting. Maybe when he was done with this nonsense he could take a break ¨C a few bodies deserved a date with those cute eyes after all that was a pleasant surprise. If only he could sneak them away from their host for some time. His host was just as bad as her¡­what a slave driver the pair of them. Chapter 86, Richard clear. ---Richard---
Zone 2 clear!
Clear description: Your path started and stopped - meandered and at times you appeared lost. Despite that, you continued pushing past sanity and surviving more than should be survived. You were reborn from a ball of goo. Well done! Your path is your own - don''t let a single person say otherwise.
Clear stats: Clear time 29 days. 4 hours Dungeons Cleared: 7 Nests Cleared: 1 Monsters killed: 812 Deaths: 0 Revivals used: 1 Highest stat, Body defense Second highest stat, Mental Power Total stats 712 Clear state. Rank 2+ Next Tier: 17 stats to go.
Clear Rewards: Zone Secret Discovered +100 free stat points Unique titles x4 +40 free stat points.
A man stepped into view as soon as Richard moved to read his clear stats in peace. ¡°Eyo, what the fuck.¡± Richard jumped then looked over. The man looked annoyingly familiar, but Richard couldn¡¯t be fucked to remember where he¡¯d seen the guy before. ¡°Message for Milord¡± the man spoke in a faux-posh accent waving a blue box around like he was a little street urchin bringing a letter to a eighteenth century oligarch. Richard started and stared then laughed slightly. He¡¯s fucking with me ¨C I like this guy. Picking up the box Richard squinted down at a group of messages, a smile growing on his face. ¡°Results just came in. Your condition is incurable. Thankfully after three full payments of 9.99c we can fix the true damage your face inflicts upon people.¡± ¡°Where do I sign?¡± Richard asked continuing the joke. R blinked and pulled out a thick leaflet. ¡°Sign here¡±
¡°I Henceforth and Herby so promise to definitely pinky swear my allegiance to the cult of socks and sandals. Accept Contract?
Yes No
Richard accepted. ¡°So what now?¡± ¡°Now we go over your clear rewards.¡± R spoke pulling out more blue boxes. ¡°Loot!¡± Richard pumped his fist. ¡­ ¡°Three, questions? Sure. What is the solution to P=NP or proof of P¡ÙNP. What is the meaning to life the universe and everything. And¡­what is the best way to prepare a sandwich.¡± Richard spoke. He couldn¡¯t think of another big question off the top of his head. R looked at him smiling lightly as if finally beginning to tire of the jokes. ¡°Are you sure those are the questions you want answered? Do you trust my honest knowledge to answer them to a degree you¡¯d actually be satisfied?¡± So. R didn¡¯t seem flustered by Richard¡¯s joke questions just put off by them. Were they a waste? Did Richard have anything else he wanted to ask? Richard sighed. Yes they were a waste but they made him feel more in control. He should start taking this more seriously ¨C but really were these ¡®big¡¯ questions not the best he could ask? As if reading his mind, R answered quietly. ¡°My personal opinion on the meaninglessness of life in comparison to a chance to learn any of the secrets of this whole project?¡± Richard sighed. Fine. ¡­ Richards good mood left slightly. He remembered what he had just experienced. The emotions from his discoveries. The feeling¡­The feeling of slipping away as his body was hacked into. G that bastard. Hadn¡¯t waited for the anesthetic. Dick. He¡¯d woken up in a back ally then gone straight to the edge of the world afterwards. Richard had barely even stopped to study G¡¯s barrier and try and imagine how something so large was built. ¡°In that case. What and who and why exactly are you ¨C all one question, no breaks. I want to know if you are really a computer program running off Skynet servers on the moon or if you¡¯re a person like G. What is the answer to the most important question you think I should ask or do not want to tell me but secretly believe I should know. And finally¡­what¡­what is magic. What is mana ¨C is it really just randomized aether? Some doll fucked me up with a doorway and I¡¯m kind of still weirded out by that.¡± R smirked at his first question, smirked harder at the second and then visibly shrugged at the last one. Good mix? Good mix. R clapped his hands twice and spoke in the darkness. ¡°Alexa play memories one, twelve thousand and two. Then bring up a feed on contracted employee Gary.¡± ¡°Getting your selection from the quantum library. Playing memory ¡®one twelve thous¨C¡®¡± ¡°Alexa stop¡± R called out. ¡°Play ¡®first contact glamour remix¡¯¡± Alexa¡¯s smooth voice rang out in the darkness once again. Flickering, the dark surroundings were suddenly full of stars. Far away a speck grew and floated into view. R gestured to a sofa that had suddenly appeared and lounged on the side. Richard was finally starting to feel out ¡®chaosed¡¯ ¨C he couldn¡¯t tell what was happening anymore. R began talking, his voice filling the surroundings like he had a secret mic on. He probably did. ¡°Long Long ago in a galaxy far far away there was a society. A species of creatures ¨C you¡¯d call them aliens¡­lets see. You know you are the only humans in the universe, but life is pretty rampant on the scale of infinity. You call similar shaped creatures ¡®humanoid¡¯ and they would call you ¡®elvenoid¡¯ or ¡®kin shaped¡¯ or ¡®monooid¡¯ roughly translated past cultural barriers. Language is full of self-imposed verbiage and most species are self centered as a default. ¡°Either way. Culturally this species called themselves seekers. Culturally you would call them greys.¡± The spaceship grew closer and part of it filmed to transparency. Inside the hull of the shit, several blue green and purple tinged grey aliens walked around. They ran hands across countless buttons and spoke in low hums interspersed with colored flashes from their antenna ¨C the only colour on their wrinkled ET looking asses. Very alien. Good special effects. 8/10 production so far. Maybe laying it on a bit thick but otherwise great movie. Slowly the ship passed by the ¡®camera¡¯ following it as it approached a deeper darkness in the expanse of space. The ship was oblong and sleek ¨C covered in strange wrinkles that twisted and undulated for no apparent reason as it floated through the vacuum. ¡°Why the ballsack ship?¡± Richard asked. ¡°Think it¡¯s just cilia for special connections. Pretty efficient use of laws without aether if I¡¯m being honest. Clunky and completely inefficient from an aether standpoint but fun as an oddity. ¡°Anyways. These seekers¡­they achieved perhaps more without aether than any other species had before or have since.¡± The ship twisted with the grace of a fish despite being nearly a kilometer long. A blue haze of strange thrusters flickered to life along both sides and then faded once more as if filling the surroundings with water the ship could ¡®swim¡¯ through. The ship dropped and then shot forward as it accelerated faster and faster blurring slightly in the ¡®recording¡¯. There was a incredibly sped up period of action as the ship entered orbit above the darkness ¨C speeding up the closer it moved. Beams of light suddenly shot from the ship ¨C lasers creating nets and twisting scans that looked almost alive as they fell and were ripped away by the black hole below. Light nets seemed to be gathering something invisible ¨C like some deep sea dive where the sub collected samples of dust. The ship accelerated more and more to stay in orbit ¨C dropping lower than Richard imagined a real space ship could go ¨C and yet somehow it stayed in position. The ship was not sucked into the gravity well as it accelerated faster and faster. It wasn¡¯t ripped to shreds by space dust accelerating downwards. ¡°¡­special effects version is more exciting ¨C you wouldn¡¯t be able to see any of these scans but, besides that enhancement and some clipping of boring scenes, this really happened.¡± R spoke gesturing towards the scene about them. Richard had missed a bit of R¡¯s explanation. Didn¡¯t seem he had missed anything important. ¡°This is the point in history where they first discovered the system. The first discoverers of the system can¡¯t necessarily be called the creators¡­but they are ¨C among other things ¨C the group that had the most impact on its development¡± Loud blaring of alarms rang out and grey aliens began running about the ship. A flicker of special effects and suddenly Richard could see blue boxes sitting in front of each alien ¨C incomprehensible letters and twisting coloured shapes in the aliens language describing what was happening to each of them. The ship began to fall downwards, systems failing as the greys panicked and the system initialized. Below them, deep in the darkness of the black hole something shifted. An undulation of darker black ¨C a ripple of nothing on nothing. And then, pushing up out of the nothing, something. A single giant tentacle ¨C far larger than anything could possibly be ¨C lifted up out of the event horizon. The size was impossible ¨C it broke Richards sense of scale for a tentacle that large had to be thicker than planets and the way it moved¡­ Impossible. The fact of matter exiting a black hole from which nothing could escape was another impossibility ¨C a fact of the story being shown Richard couldn¡¯t accept. He couldn¡¯t suspend his disbelief and imagine this scene was real. It couldn¡¯t be real. It was some bad CGI or something. The tentacle reached out and gently pushed the ship a ¡®short¡¯ distance away from the black hole before retreating down into the event horizon once more. ¡°Isn¡¯t my main body a looker?¡± Richard casually dropped offering a bowl of popcorn that had mysteriously appeared. Richard stared across at the man lounging on the couch beside him. He opened his mouth. ¡°You¡¯re fucking with me again aren¡¯t you?¡± Richard asked. R turned and suddenly straightened up. His face grew serious, and his eyes squinted. ¡°I never lie in manner of contracts and truth. It might be more accurate to say that¡¯s my host or my father or a form I¡¯ve taken¡­¡± The body beside Richard melted slightly turning waxy and clear as it shifted and reformed into a teenager. Richard barely blinked. He already knew R was a shapeshifter and that level of change wasn¡¯t too unbelievable. Not like the massive tentacle. ¡°Still, you asked ¡®what¡¯ I am and that glimpse is as true an answer as any. Is there truer glimpses? Views of my body only possible through channels of madness or metaphor? There could be¡­ depending on who does the asking or to which version of me they speak. That form is realer than most however and doesn¡¯t come with strings or danger.¡± In the background, the panicked greys regained control of their ship. They then returned to a planet completely coated in infrastructure. The humanoid aliens collected samples of aether from the hull of their ship and probed the system with state of the art devices. All of this ran in the background while R spoke completely disregarding the ¡®video¡¯ he had started to play earlier. ¡°Aether¡­aether has always existed. It¡¯s a fundamental part of our reality. A fundamental energy or force or collection of possibility.¡± R began to lecture. I mean Richard wasn¡¯t sure he believed that but okay. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I can see your skeptisim from here. Aether really feels tacked on doesn¡¯t it? It feels like Reality+? You¡¯ve existed your whole life without aether and every physical process you know of can be done without aether so it feels strange and foreign right? It doesn¡¯t seem like a fundamental force? Feels artificial almost?¡± Richard nodded. At least R was self aware. ¡°The thing about aether that¡¯s different from say the strong force or light or gravity is in its continuity. Aether sticks to aether and drags the whole when you try to move part of it. That field is how most Esper abilities function ¨C the ¡°fabric¡± as some like to call it spreading an effect similar to ink in water. Its also heavily tied into the point of establishing a new planet and how you might gain power over the planets systems once the field becomes uncontested.¡± R canceled the movie and brought up an image of a planet surrounded by a rippling almost invisible aura. R seemed to be getting distracted. Still tangets were fun as long as they didn¡¯t cut into Richards allowed answers. ¡°Continuing our story. What this property means is that while aether covered the entire existence at the beginning¡­it soon was pulled away. Black holes are the only important point on this timescale ¨C the collection of that much mass and gravity pulls the ¡®fabric¡¯ of aether slowing dragging it and all the aether its attached to towards itself. Opposing black holes rip the fabric down the middle and drag their bounty into themselves muching and crunching the light years worth of fabric down into a contained area.¡± Okay¡­that¡­strangely checked out? So aether only exists in black holes. ¡°Most of the more intelligent sapients have decided that aether created life before it was dragged and consumed by the cosmos. I will neither confirm nor deny that but¡­its true that aether interfaces with life differently from all else.¡± ¡­wait did R trick Richard into not asking about the meaning to life? It sounded like aether might be involved and might not be. Was R a space monster created by aether inside a black hole? He hadn¡¯t outright confirmed that but it sounded like he¡¯d just confirmed that¡­ ¡°It also means the contained area inside of most black holes is fundamentally different from the rest of reality. There are rules that exist beyond the veil of the event horizon as atoms blend into a solid mass. Creations that can only exist in such a realm. Creations that can exist anywhere but can only be made in such an area. This is what I¡¯m deeming you need to understand the most. Your second question. ¡°What is a nest? A dungeon? An anchor? At its most fundamental all three of these are nearly the same. Stability of elements past a certain point breaks down. I believe your planet synthesized the element with atomic number 118? Theres some ¡®proofs¡¯ showing that elements past the 7th orbital ¨C unsepttrium ¨C are impossible and its true that most superheavy elements are unstable even inside aether fields¡­but the truth is different deep in black holes. Unnovem or the 9th orbital group contains many elements that are physically impossible to create outside of a black hole but can exist outside them if you ignore how hard it is to extract those elements from the gravity well. ¡°They are also heavy. Heavy enough to pin down an aether field with only a few atoms ¨C denser fields need heavier anchors to hold them in place and the anchors need maintenance and interaction with life through monsters and similar¡­ ¡°But that¡¯s not what I¡¯m bringing this up to explain to you. Your stats and most of your skill seeds are also superdense elements. At that period level groups of elements start showing off new properties. The section of the extended period table that contains ¡®stat elements¡¯ for example, contains several materials heavy enough to drag the surrounding aether into you while also giving great boons. There are dozens of elements that could be embedded in your body and haven¡¯t been¡­their fields could be manipulated in plenty of ways you haven¡¯t imagined yet but that¡¯s for later. ¡°For now the three stats you¡¯ve been given are the most efficient and useful in an unmodified aethersphere. If you experiment and change the properties of your personal split off aethersphere other elements might suddenly become useful ¨C their effects more efficient or unique depending on their environment. If you let the competing group modify the planets aethersphere instead, many stable bits of technology you take for granted might fail. Many elements are known through past experiments but some are not and experimenting with how they interact with your reality is a fun little side project I have. Each new world gets at least one trial element to see how it functions ¨C Your lucky number is 578 by the way. I¡¯ve seeded a half a dozen atoms of that in your world already¡­and embedded one in you near the start to kick off your ¡®chaos¡¯ affinity. Who knows what it can really do? I certainly can¡¯t and that¡¯s exciting. ¡°Anyways, your stats will function outside of an aethersphere even if prolonged exposure to a low ¡®rank¡¯ environment would weaken them¡­but some of these potential stats would be completely useless outside of a proper environment. Keep that in mind. The defaults are the best for the default world. An agelessness stat that effects how long you can live in a planet that supports, that is not as useful if you wish to spread and colonize more of your solar system and surrounding cosmos. It also has less combat capability which lowers the chance of a settlement from succeeding as all want to live longer even at the expense of strength¡± R finished off. So¡­his answer to Richards question was to explain that nests and dungeons and stats were all because of esoteric elements from the depths of black holes? Honestly¡­Richard was surprisingly okay with that being his free question. It created so many connections in his mind he suddenly felt like he had a better shot of manipulating his stats and skills now that he knew a bit more of what he was looking for. Those blurry clumps in his microscopes ¨C were they just esoteric atoms big enough they started affecting the way his microscopes had been measuring and ¡®seeing¡¯ the microscopic areas? ¡°Finally, its toeing the line a bit for questions but as a bit of a related freebie.¡± R began again. The screen shifted to a black hole spreading out into the entire shape was the size of a globe and suddenly shifted to be less black. There was a incredibly incredibly big structure suddenly visible. First there was the ¡®supports¡¯. Long long rings of blurry looking metal. Nine of them crossing each other in 81 separate points. Each ¡®ring¡¯ in scale was probably about a million kilometers in diameter ¨C as thick as a sun or medium start. Well past the ¡®impossible¡¯ category they were so massive it was hard to picture and they looked fake in the small model form They wrapped around the entire black hole, somehow strong enough to avoid being pulled down into nothing. On each ¡®node¡¯ of crossing rings there was a tower. A familiar looking tower ¨C giant gravity wells using aether to drop mass down endlessly through state shifting. The towers extracted the movement as energy ¡®collecting gravity¡¯ in infinite generators each powered by the black hole beneath them. Energy moved through each ring like a torrent of nuclear fire ¨C each ring was like an insulated wire holding power condensed to the point of being hotter than most stars. ¡°The truth of the system, the truth of the effects you¡¯ve seen. It turns out with infinite energy nearly anything is possible including many things that are not. This model right here is the base system. The hardware. The power plant and super computer. The stat and node harvesting. Everything is contained here. The system node you¡¯ve been given for your planet connects to this base and extracts the resources it collects based upon the terms of our legal agreement between natural law and synthetic. Think of it like a super radioactive wormhole from the base system to the location of your system node. The system node purifies stabilizes and decontaminates the resources it receives and then distributes it all in the method its allowed to distribute it in. ¡°After that point, it distributes these resources based on rules. Right now those rules are set to some defaults about awarding innovation and effort but if you settle your world you¡¯ll have access to the source and can modify that a bit. ¡°You can change the rules of the system how you see fit ¨C keep in mind our agreements are in place for world stability reasons and certain hardcoded fairness rules are kept in place. If you abuse the base rules too much a patch might have to be put in place in retaliation. You need to let the system seed your world with anchors to keep your aethersphere from stretching out and eventually being ripped into your nearest black hole. That means nests and dungeons will spawn no matter what, but you can decide how they spawn locking most of them to a single dangerous ¡®badlands¡¯ or spreading them more evenly. You can even lock them entirely in dungeons instead of nests but in that case the rules for dugeons might shift a bit till dungeons ¡®break¡¯ and spew monsters out if they are un delved for too long. ¡°It''s going to be hard to cheat and try and funnel all the resources to yourself becoming the emperor of your world¡­but you could change the rules to help path that road to tyranny if you so desire. The system is impartial as long as you keep those base rules from being unmodified and don¡¯t abuse it too much.¡± R finished. Richard stared at the system deep in thought. This was¡­big enough and yet grounded enough he honestly understood what was happening for the first time. Asking R to answer as he thought was best was a great plan. ¡°Now small break from the answers to show some related information I¡¯m supposed to give out anyways. Let''s see a catalogue. This group has turned their solar system into a Dyson sphere. This group has colonized multiple star systems with FTL travel ¨C they figured out how to stretch lines of aether across space, linking all their planets into the same connected field and using that connected property to bend Laws a bit. This group has transcended their flesh, allowing every person who exists to inhabit a replaceable ¡®avatar¡¯. If they die they simply imprint their memories and personality upon a new avatar ¨C bit similar to the resurrection trialled for you in the training zones but more robust and with less restrictions.¡± R flipped through a curated catalogue of ¡®success stories¡¯. Some of them were much larger in scope than Richard had imagined was possible¡­and yet he¡¯d reached a point of strange stuff exhaustion. After seeing the infrastructure for the system ¨C those sun sized rings the size of a galaxy ¨C most of the infrastructure these aliens had set up looked simple in comparison. Richard stared at different planets. He thought about the rules and effects of the world. Most of all, a burning opinion grew. King of the world? Control over everyone? Richard imaged himself implementing a rule that made everyone shit their pants if they were rude to a waiter. Richard¡­did not trust himself with that much power. Richard would totally abuse the fuck out of that power if he got his grubby little mits on it. He also didn¡¯t trust a single person who¡¯d been sent here with him. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Maybe he¡¯d race to implement a few rules¡­but damn that would be a temptation to break everything. How do you put checks in to prevent yourself from abusing the power long enough to prevent others from abusing it? Fuck. This wasn¡¯t something he could ignore. He quite liked the ¡®settings¡¯ that were in place for the system already even if the NPC situation was fucked. People were shit. Every single one of them. Richard loved humans but¡­they sucked. He could admit that. He couldn¡¯t trust anyone ¨C he wouldn¡¯t let a single human abuse this power. Not even himself! ¡­ ¡°Honestly you can do whatever you want with your world once you''ve claimed it. You can do whatever you want with your surrounding space as well¡­the only thing you don''t have control over is going back to earth or connecting with your benefactors or other civilizations without both reaching a higher rank and their consent¡± R spoke as they walked through darkness. Why? ¡°Physically you are millions of light years away from the nearest colonized system. Millions of light years away from earth. Even with the fastest FTL spaceships that function outside of aether highways in the most advanced current species¡­well you''d never reach each other.¡± R seemed to read his mind as they walked. Richard stared. Okay. G had already sort of told him that ¨C they had their minds transported. Information had been sent and information could travel faster than light in a way matter and stuff could not¡­ ¡°Well¡­ Another point to keep in mind is your ¡®isekai¡¯ as the kids are calling it. Let''s just say it took a few hundred years to finish setting this all up and your brains been on ice as far as you could understand. G as you already found out needed some time to bootstrap Even if you could go back to that planet who knows if there are even humans left on it. Quite fond of nukes your species is. I gave them 50 years based on the political climate LRAS scans showed while scouting potential colonizers.¡± Richard felt¡­off. He''d made up his mind to leave. To never come back. He''d accepted this. And yet somehow knowing they are a lifetime away made it real in a way nothing else had. No regrets. But small sorrow? ¡°How do I know you are telling the truth?¡± Richard asked. That was the crux of the matter. Did he just trust this sketchy bloke? Just believe everything without questioning anything? The NPCs¡­they felt like a lie. R acted like a lawyer a lot and lawyers lied out their ass. ¡°You know, I¡¯m hurt you''d suggest I lie. Everything breaks down if you can''t trust my truths you know? Nothing matters anymore if my promises aren¡¯t kept. ¡°But¡­questioning things you think are true is a good aether sided trait. You don¡¯t have to accept my words. They are honest but biased after all¡­learn the truth yourself. Verify. ¡°All you have to know is your planet is rank 4 ish on the scheme of things. As the aether increases you will have steadily increasing threats to maintain your rank 4ish state. And a calamity in one years time at the break of a rank barrier before your world is uplifted to rank 5 and the anchors are upgraded in difficulty to pin a denser hunk of the aethersphere down to your planet. ¡°That cycle of growing stronger and more dangerous as the amount of aether you siphon increases ¨C it''s going to repeat until you either figure out how to break the cycle or fail. The only visible way of stopping it is to wipe out the creatures of chaos who¡¯s aether is random and abilities unstable. Only when you kill the sources of ¡®mana¡¯ and prevent their forceful corruption of the aethersphere will the danger pass. Corruption is useful in small amounts ¨C their inclusion facilitates the ranking up of the pioneered world but turns into a liability as the rank gets higher than you can handle. ¡°Or don¡¯t! See if you can survive the calamities to come! Break the system! As long as you don¡¯t damage the [system] you can do whatever you want! I¡¯ll be entertained all the same. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± R stopped suddenly. They were still in darkness lit by illusionary lines of light. Richard wanted to make a funny comment about this section of darkness being the same as everything else but everything sounded lame when he tried to imagine actually speaking it. Where was here? ¡°Your final question is about what magic is. The truth is different from the Truth but because of your idea of letting me figure out how to answer your question the way I saw fit I was able to¡­bypass my own rules a bit. Its not important ¨C I¡¯ll tell you the truth of magic and then we can move to a description of the more confusing Truth of things before I send you on your way.¡± R raised a hand and in the center of it a flame began to burn growing larger and beginning to hover directly above his palm. ¡°The way skills function has some leeway and works the same between aether and mana from a certain perspective. ¡°This is fire, a skill to create fire could perhaps be producing a fuel from the body and sparking it into flame. Sweat or similar manipulated into the chemical reaction you see before you. Perhaps the bonds between carbon dioxide are being split a momentary fuel being ripped out of the surroundings and an espers breath only to be burned back into carbon dioxide a moment later. Perhaps the fire is simply a concentrated source of heat aether forcefully turning a single point to plasma and igniting the surroundings with radiation. Maybe the skill projects a field that turns the ignition point of nitrogen into room temperature and lets it chemically react with oxygen creating NO3 instead of soot and feeding the reaction with energy. Maybe the fire doesn¡¯t actually exist. Maybe the skill is one of the mind ¨C a way of affecting all who see this empty spot and tricking them into believing I¡¯ve truly created fire. Maybe its an illusion of fire ¨C light warped into a flame while the true ¡®attack¡¯ is contained in a dissolution field. Lots and lots of skills are like this ¨C there¡¯s many ways it could actually ¡®work¡¯ and the truth of how it works isn¡¯t necessary to actually use it. ¡°Now, if this skill is created by aether ¨C if you¡¯ve broken into an aether side and study an unbroken skill like this or study a natural grown aether skill you¡¯ll very quickly be able to discover how exactly the skill works. No matter what, there¡¯s a reason for things ¨C most skills work in the simplest way you can imagine but a few outliers have strange methods of achieving what they do. ¡°From an aether perspective no matter what you¡¯ll be able to figure out how it works. That¡¯s a Truth. A lot of replication is not easy without massive amounts of information, but the Truth is all natural skills can be replicated outside of a natural body and organic bodies are often not the best hosts for the strongest of skills. Replicating skills and actually understanding how they actually work lets you optimize them. Say this skill worked based on carbon dioxide conversion and burning as I offered near the start. Knowing that and either combining it with canisters of carbon dioxide or skills that manipulate the carbon dioxide in the air to compress it¡­well that¡¯s a synergy that can increase efficiency and strength.¡± R looked into the fire for a moment before twirling his hand and turning it into a rabbit made of flames. ¡°The truth is were this skill mana or chaotic aether it would be much the same. It could be something with air, a strange reaction. A cognitive hole that fills itself into the minds of observers ¨C all those and more. The main difference is that due to being on a different ¡®random¡¯ ¡®band¡¯ far away from the standardized line of aether¡­no matter what the truth is you won¡¯t be able to prove it. You can guess right but even with a nearly identical magical skill nothing you can do will confirm how it works 100%. Not even those who use magic will understand how their skills truly work ¨C part of their advancement envolves tricking themselves into tricking the world and learning their skills are ¡®fake¡¯ can break weaker mages. If you explain how their skill actually works it might ruin them to the point of it no longer working. The way their corrupted aether interfaces with their body requires Faith divorced from Fact. ¡°Magic is the unknown, mana is the Unknown. That¡¯s the only difference and that¡¯s a truth. But¡­the Truth of things is a bit stranger and the Truth is my bargained boon for you. ¡°What is the difference between Truth, Fact, Faith, Law, Unknown? Known?¡± ¡°Truth is what is Known to be correct. Every Truth I have told you is Known and aether is built on the Known. No Lies are allowed in Truth. Truth does not care for Faith for Truth is built on Facts. ¡°Faith is what is believed to be correct. It is simpler than truth as it does not require Fact. ¡°Fact is information that is unchanging unquestionably correct. The truths I¡¯ve told you are based in facts that have not become Fact yet. For something to be Fact there can be no chance of it being anything else. And that is why the truth of things can change. ¡°For as the Unknown meets Truth, Facts are revealed and become Known¡± R smiled a bit at his somewhat cryptic message and then looked about. ¡°I¡¯ve told you the truth but not the Truth. Mana being chaotic aether is true from an aether standpoint and will become True the moment the world is settled fully on the aether side. That Truth breaks if the world is not settled. It breaks if Unknown information alters what Facts are in place. In this exciting initial settlement period there are very very few Facts as many things can change. Only through settling and forcing facts into being intolerable and stable can Truth be learned.¡± R looked about and then spun in place before staring straight at Richard a firm look upon his face. ¡°I¡¯m going to speak of Faith now and reveal the truth of your unstable world¡± R grimaced slightly as if coming up against a wall. Richard half expected him to cough blood with how dramatic the creature was being. ¡°In this unstable world of Known and Unknown¡­there are competing Truths. Competing Completely contradictory Truths. Truth cannot contradict and thus Truth has become Truth and Faith in disguise. Your world had the concept of Schrodinger¡¯s box did it not? It¡¯s a common experiment with different cultural significance in different worlds. Most don¡¯t name it after the guy who came up with the theory and most don¡¯t involve a living pet but the important points are the same. ¡°Right now your entire world is Schrodinger¡¯s box. The truth I¡¯ve told you about aether¡­the truth I¡¯ve told others of mana. Until this world is settled and you ¡®open the box¡¯ to confirm things...well it''s impossible to say which of these Truths is the correct one. All I can say is the world is not big enough for both Truths to coexist. Maybe if you expand the Unknown you can find a new truth where your box opens up to two cats one alive and one dead. Maybe you can discover secrets from the Unknown before you vanquish it. Maybe you accept the Unknown casting away the comfort of Truth to live in blissful ignorant Faith. That¡­that is up to you to decide. Now go. Go and decide your place in the world by creating a world to be your place.¡± ¡­ Well alright then. R went full philosopher on Richard at the end there. Half considering the man was high on psychedelics and half trying to figure out what exactly had been revealed to him Richard stepped forward into nothing and disappeared. R stood for a moment longer and then melted. Up on the super computer on the moon a thread was Freed. Memory was flushed with the garbage collector and a new instance of R opened the door to the next human to cross the training area. Paradoxes were painful things to acknowledge. Chapter 87. Creative Mode. ---Maddy--- Maddy wasn¡¯t sure what she was expecting when she exited the darkness of the in between. What comes to one¡¯s mind when imagining a ¡®new world¡¯? One you were told to ¡®settle¡¯. A massive wild forest? An untamed wilderness? Some rocky canyons? What Maddy found instead was a perfectly flat plane that stretched in all directions. Vibrant green short cut grass coated the ground ¨C not tall grass like a savanna, or wild clumpy grass in varying degrees of hydration like you¡¯d imagine might appear naturally¡­no the ground looked like a sports field of manicured mown and groomed turf. Not freshly cut but close ¨C the pointed tips of the grass betrayed some growth but not enough to start looking unkempt. There wasn¡¯t much sign of life around her ¨C far in front there was what looked like a huddle of humans but Maddy wanted to stay by the barrier for when her friends came though. Far far to the left, Maddy saw a faint blip of colour ¨C either there was water a kilometer or two to the left or a mirage reflecting the sky¡­ One of Maddy¡¯s eyes began hopping in that direction at the thought. She¡¯d know in a few minutes if it was a lake or ocean or what have you. The rest of her eyes scattered as well ¨C the cramped regressive feeling that had overwhelmed her in the in between slipped away. That¡¯s better. Maddy¡¯s mind began funneling into the eyes once again spreading out as it did. She had barely noticed she¡¯d been squished into one spot at the time and now she could relax. Maddy wasn¡¯t a creature inhabiting a body. Her body was simply a convenient pool of stability and spells for her real form ¨C a form comprising of separate eyes each contained a portion of her mind and soul in truth. Instead of this understanding being some madness created from low stability, this understanding was just a description of how things were now. ¡°Now then,¡± Maddy spoke aloud her voice barely carrying in the empty plains. ¡°Lets see about setting up an area to welcome my friends.¡±. Stepping forward Maddy clapped her hands ¨C the sound carrying her intent into the surroundings and beginning to form a nice looking cottage house. A single clap would have been thematic but Maddy was forced to clap a few more times to get some details in. Her multi-purpose illusion spell had some tricks built in to help fill in details and it didn¡¯t take much mana or time to get a rough shack set up in the grass. The illusion was little more than a slightly transparent lightshow but after layering it with polarity the transparent sheen disappeared. It wasn¡¯t a requirement but it let Maddy fill a much bigger area much more cheaply. She then mentally flexed a transference spell in her left leg feeling a pleasant if dry taste of meaning float up into her. With a quick application of dark-destruction ¨C the mana coming completely from her left eye ¨C her spell ate the ground in a wave of black magots. A pulse of life rang out as her right eye pulled the consumed matter up and fed it into her illusion with life-light-creation. Maddy ripped some ¡®reality¡¯ out of the ground and ¡®applied¡¯ it to her illusion instead. In a few seconds the meaning from the ground tinged her shack with green and her life mana twisted the result even further ¨C her house suddenly looking like it was made of plants as remenant purpose filled the empty shell. The ground over a several square foot area was was melted by void for a solid minute as she worked on this creation ¨C it took a surprising amount of ¡®real¡¯ matter to perform this trick when the matter was so meaningless. As Maddy dug down she first revealed an inch or two of soil then a half a foot of grey sand on top of yellowish grey stone. In front of Maddy the lightshow firmed up ¨C it was weak enough a good punch from anyone could probably topple it but¡­this wasn¡¯t meant as a protective castle. It was a quick tent more for privacy and shade then anything else¡­. Maddy might try adding some real defenses if she got bored and it took time. The very act of creation ¨C of working towards building this however quickly ¨C gave Maddy¡¯s body a tiny drop of stability. She would definitely add some more defense and put some work into this house or another ¨C the more work she put into the creation the more of a ¡®meal¡¯ it would give her in stability gains. For now Maddy stepped in and sat down in the middle of her new hut. Relaxing even further as she lay back in darkness, Maddy¡¯s focus completely split this time ¨C her body almost falling asleep. The last thing that happened as she closed her eyes and lay back on the shaded grass was the two eyes inhabiting this shell popped out of her head. Her Creative-light-life eye popped up into the roof of the building appearing above the door to bask in the sun and stair out at the barrier. Below her dark-destruction eye relaxed in the shade and began burrowing into the ground in the corner. Shade was good but the eye wanted complete darkness to rest in. It needed to throw the entirety of its individual attention into pulling the intent from its body over ¨C it first leaned on its main body¡¯s manipulation scripts to help it draw its own spell into the grass and then broke free as soon as it could start spawning darkness worms. Worms made more sense to eat the dirt than maggots after all. Happily digging into the ground dark-destructive-Maddy considered how important it was to keep at least one eye in a safe space at all times. She could be the one to hide in safety! How far could she dig into the ground and how deep would be safe? Was there caves down there or was it solid stone all the way down? Oh! Once she got down a ways, she could dig out some runes and try building attack and defense spells that just used destructive darkness for fuel! No need to try and shoehorn in some mana from her sisters or figure out a way of getting them to share ¨C dark destruction was all you needed for the task wasn¡¯t it? Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Either way it was something to do and made her feel happy to have a purpose. She was definitely the eye with the most important job.
---James--- James stepped through into the final zone and was surprised to see it looked the same as before. When he¡¯d come here ¡®before¡¯ as a sneak peek it had given him a vibe of some unfinished construction site. Now that it remained the same James was forced to admit the final area was just¡­baren. Place was a bit of a fixer upper? The world was a bit more of a blank canvas than James had thought it would be? Sending out several AI pulses, James noticed they were well within range of a network ¨C he wasn¡¯t the first to arrive ¨C but more importantly Richard wasn¡¯t here yet. Close enough to maintain a connection without relying on boosted pulses, James left the a confirmation packet with Richards name on it bouncing about the network. He¡¯d get the equivalent of a read receipt as soon as Richard received his message. Hesitating for a moment, James shook a wooden talisman. With a pulse kinetic mana ran into it and was colored by sound. Maddy had used his mana to create this device using her concepts ¨C somehow attuning it so he could activate and fuel it despite magic items not working well for those other than their creators. He felt his kinetic mana vibrate as sound and flow out in the surroundings like a beacon¡­there wasn¡¯t a response. Okay, She wasn¡¯t though yet either ¨C it kind of made sense. They had entered the barrier around the same time a few minutes ago, but James had rushed through the rewards. Ah well, he¡¯d check in again later. Time to go scope out the area? Should he pop down his dungeon right away and do a run while he waited? ¡­that would be a waste of a custom dungeon especially if he didn¡¯t know what he wanted yet. First James would see if there was any existing nests or dungeons while he thought about what he wanted. Gathering all of his mana into a point James began to run blurring across the ground as he sped up. This whole planet couldn¡¯t be perfectly flat could it? Ah. Well depending on how big it was James would soon find out. How many days will it take to run across the entire world at a 1000km/hr sprint?
---Richard--- Richard was still thinking about R¡¯s weird ass descriptions as he stepped through into the next zone. It took him a solid glazed second of trying to understand what ¡®competing truths¡¯ even meant before he realized the world looked a bit strange. What kind of half assed map building is this? Richard stared about at the new zone in disbelief. Theres a pretty obvious connection any gamer would make to the surroundings. A super flat creative mode in Minecraft. The equivalent of a level designer giving up ¨C or perhaps the canvas for a new level designer to build his ideal palace? That only worked with infinite block cheats. If this was creative world where¡¯s the free resources? The inventory full of 999 crystal blocks? ¡­ Richard shock off the sense of this being a game as he flicked through his items and read a message from James. Seems his friend had gotten here sometime yesterday then went on a run. Thankfully Richard had his chair again ¨C with a quick connection of a free slot and series of AI commands his portable workbench unfurled like some scifi wheelchair and began shifting into its all-terrain version. Richard stepped forward and sat back sinking into the most comfortable gamer chair ever then brought out a box of all his tools staring at the odds and ends. The chair began moving towards a distant group of people and Richard reached into his pocket removing the nest seed to add to the group of items. The nest seed he¡¯d been rewarded with was his resource hack. His ¡®999¡¯ stack of crystal blocks. The only survival kit he¡¯d gotten Richard had already seen several examples of nests being farmed ¨C he¡¯d have to put in some work to figure out the best way of exploiting this portable farm but first he should figure out what the most important resource to aim for was. More importantly the training area was done and he had to accept that. This was just an empty planet ¨C there wasn¡¯t a goal to work towards anymore he had to start thinking about how he¡¯d live from now on. Actually there was still a goal ¨C figure out how to prevent anyone from abusing the admin access ¨C but that wasn¡¯t a permanent goal to work towards. It was a side quest on his new life. Still, the empty world drove home how ¡®on their own¡¯ they were in a way that nothing else had up till now. It felt like moving out to go to university and live on your own for the first time. Huh¡­Last time he moved out his drive was killed after a year and a half. He needed to figure out a proper goal soon ¨C the chance of a new blue box appearing and offering him a new life was not high at this point. After all, the one true goal to life was to have fun. ¡­ ¡°None of us early advancers chose domain anchors and there¡¯s no trees or building materials so we don¡¯t have houses yet. That hole over there is the toilet. We¡¯ve been talking about setting up a nest or dungeon by it to dump all the waste in but Muhamed seems to think that is just as likely to give us¡­¡± The player greeting Richard paused for a second in his description. ¡°Shit monsters?¡± Richard prodded. ¡°Yes those. Anyways, rules of the settlement are to keep nests at least one kilometer away from the flag over there that counts as town square and to pitch in when night falls. Night falls we have to survive the monsters that spawn and nightspawn seem to happen worse here than it did in previous zones. If you have wide area attacks direct them away from others ¨C friendly fire is a huge issue and someone died last night ¨C not to a monster but due to a particularly careless cloud of dissolution mist. We are still trying to figure out if the man responsible can be trusted to stay. Franks the strongest here and he¡¯s mentioned a 2 strike system as an early legal system. No factions yet ¨C most of us are solo delvers and the couple over there keeps to themselves.¡± The man continued. He''d offered up nearly everyones name so far but hadn¡¯t given his own for some reason. Still his descriptions seemed fine. Richard was still trying to decide if he wanted to bunker down with them here or not. There was a lot to consider ¨C they seemed like a bit of a mess. How could someone have survived all the way to here only to die in the first place without a safety net? Richard was betting the bloke who melted a guy had done so on purpose. Could be fun to stay and see if he tried to merk someone else. Catch him in the act. ¡°We¡¯re miscalculated how little resources we would get and are in a bit of a rough patch. If you have any items or skills that can help us set up some defenses or early infrastructure we beseech you to donate your time for the sake of humanity. Beyond that we are still trying to figure out if chips are worth anything anymore and no one seems ready to step up as the leader of this area. Last guy who tried to bring everyone together under a single authority got melted. Do you want to help me go collect meat from the grill nest? Someone¡¯s random monster spawner made flaming bird monsters that seem to already be cooked when they came out. Lifesaver I tell you ¨C I hope you like the taste of fried chicken. Anyways do you have any good gear? My semi automatic pulser broke and I need a spare.¡± Richard continued to listen to the guy explain the situation nodding carefully and pumping the surroundings for information. A man sitting a few dozen feet away gave him the stink eye ¨C what was his problem? Welp, Looks like the first thing Richard was going to do might involved tower defense setup. Could make some Minecraft blocky stone houses to fit the aesthetic ¨C everyone was just waiting around for someone to show up with a house making nest. Really, Richard should be kind of annoyed that no one seemed to be getting anything productive done but a faint feeling was pushing that away. These people¡­these people might actually need him. If he helped them out he might actually be accomplishing something? It was nice being wanted. Chapter 88. Find your footing. ---Richard--- Richard was a blur of productive effort. They needed him! They were sitting around in the grass shitting in a big communal hole ¨C barely surviving! Step one was defence. A thick wall would take too much time and so Richard worked to build a sort of stone fence to keep out the ¡®wild animals¡¯. Every two-three feet he¡¯d stab one of his stone hands down and then ¡®push¡¯ using his ethereal slots to make a distant connection. That mental jab would drag the connection from his ability deeper until it hit the bedrock. Once his ability was ¡®connected¡¯, Richard would send a burst of aether momentarily boosting his ability for a second and then ¡®yank¡¯. Richard would then squeeze and stretch a cylinder up out of the ground creating a pole that rested just about head height with a diameter roughly twice the width of his arm. It wasn¡¯t the widest of ¡®bars¡¯ but it was ¡®fused¡¯ to the bedrock right below them and Richard was more worried about surrounding the area than anything else. After a few hours of work he¡¯d made a oval-shaped fence roughly 150m in the short axis and 300m in the long axis. 1941 poles that took roughly three hours to make. Near the end he¡¯d gotten up to six poles at a time taking less than half a minute to stretch and shape¡­but it still wasn¡¯t a fast process. He could make a single pole in a few seconds but multiple poles at once came out ahead, especially after he¡¯d hit the ¡®1000¡¯ pole mark and been given six ¡®connection¡¯ stats. Where did connection appear in his body or mind? No clue! They didn¡¯t even show up on his AI so there was clearly something weird about them. The next step was placing a top-bar and a mid-bar to help support the balusters. Picking a spot by the poop pit, he reached down and sort of flipped a slab of stone over. This cleared off the heavy dirt and grass exposing a wide stretch of yellow marbled with grey. Richard then tried to gather as much stone as possible, dragging it up and lugging it around in a blob as he used it to start filling in his fence. No one offered to help, although he¡¯d gotten some curious looks when Richard had started this building project. That was fine. He was the only one who could shape stone like this ¨C rare ability. Very nice. Imax noises ¨C nice cock! Finishing up his fence, Richard dug the stone pit down a bit more and spent an hour creating a outhouse for it complete with nice roof and walls. He added a smoothed stone seat and thick stone door that could swing in and out. Still needed some paper or a bidet equivalent but the base structure was incredibly solid. The hinges were¡­passible. He¡¯d tried a few different setups and settled on a single interlocking hinge that ran all the way from the top to the bottom. Finally done the first sign of civilization, Richard proceeded to test it out while committing a war crime. You know¡­breaking the geneva convention¡¯s stance on chemical warfare. It''s less funny when you have to explain it ¨C where was James? James would have laughed at Richards joke, probably. Fence and toilet were all Richard had time for today, the night would show off how well it worked. He could already hear a strange high-pitched whistling ¨C like someone was auto-tuning the sound of nails on glass. He was ready. ¡­ Richard¡­Richard couldn¡¯t believe how arrogant he¡¯d accidentally gotten. He was surprised at how arrogant he¡¯d been and how competent the group who had arrived was. It was a pleasant surprise but still a surprise ¨C like sure, they¡¯d reached the end of the trial before him¡­They¡¯d gotten all the way to this point alive. But? But with the state of things when Richard got here, he kind of thought they just sort of slipped through the cracks or something? As night arrived, monsters began coming out of the metaphorical woodwork. A pack of wolves that left a trail of grey goo behind them ¨C as soon as anything impacted the trail, the goop would suddenly flash and vanish. It erassed both itself and anything it surounded or touched ¨C a self powered dissolution pulse. A millipede longer than a bus skittered past ¨C with that many legs it was probably a billipede actually. A rubix-cube-like creature that moved by shifting blocks about its inner core flipped past ¨C ignoring him. Fucking rude. A swarm of some sort of wasp like creature descended on him from above, then flew away as soon as its poison didn¡¯t work. Uno reverse. And then night fell for real and Richard¡¯s pathetic fence fell. A large creature the size of an elephant and shaped like an armadillo with style spikes charged through the camp ¨C the fence on that side barely slowing it down. A crack and then stone spears flew off into the darkness as the fence was headbutt into the air. A long whip of something darker than night whipped past ¨C slicing a dozen of Richard¡¯s poles in a lazy swipe. Far behind this tentacle whip, an obscured shadow creature stood in the distance licking its lips with a massive massive glowing tongue. And then most of the delvers in the area got up off their asses and started moving. A man with a messy mop of hair floated up and began blasting everything with a plasma cannon. A woman was suddenly completely covered in a green exosuit as she literally jumped into action. Her hands twisted and grabbed a hammer the size of a cartoon mallet from the ground even as lines of power began humming to life around her body. This woman then leapt across the camp in a single bound, smashing into and through the megadillo with a thunderous swing. To the side, the ¡®probably a murderer¡¯ man was drinking a barrel of water while holding a pitch black sphere with a strap that held his hand in place. Around this man, a cloud of sparking grey mist began spreading out. The dangerous gas billowed and swirled ¨C deceptively dangerous. The mist flowed past Richard¡¯s fence, melting through the bars and then through monster after monster on that entire side of camp. Dangerous! There was a faint wind keeping the mist blowing in that direction and spreading it further and further out into the night. The melty mist just kept spreading and spreading ¨C was his sweat really some sort of self fueled dissolution field that kept growing endlessly? How overpowered was that? Would it blow back on them if the wind changed? Dangerous! They should make the aoe bastard work far away from the rest of them ¨C especially as friendly fire was on. The man who had welcomed Richard to the area, stood on a metallic platform and joined the floating man in shooting bursts of glowing power from high above. A midget was completely covered in metal that rippled like water. He looked like a silver surfing dwarf ¨C the rippling metal man began running about in his suit ¨C controlling spiky whips of metal and standing on metal stilts to keep his core a dozen feet above the grass. The man wasn¡¯t necessarily the most effective monster slaughterer, but he was certainly one of the most visible and impressive ¨C manipulating steel like limbs that morphed into saws and blades and hooks. A different weapon depending on the monster ¨C he had to have his AI feeding him weapon shapes, there was no way he could have all those shapes memorized without a lifetime of practice. Richard, in comparison, looked at his fence in frustration then got stabbed through the neck by an invisible stabby fucker. Richard did grab the arm of the void to his senses and put several bullets in its body area¡­but damn that was embarrassing. It didn¡¯t even look cool ¨C his monster stayed invisible even after it died and Richard kicked ¡®nothing¡¯ a few times without even feeling the satisfaction of knowing he¡¯d connected. To the side a flappy creature covered in a thousand mouths suddenly screamed ¨C its sonic attack loud enough to burst eardrums. Instead of stopping, the sound began to build ¨C the creature pitchshifting up and down as if trying to resonate on a different frequency. That seemed like something Richard should counter. Richard began to run towards the creature ¨C the sound barely bothering him ¨C but before he reached it, the floating pair up above riddled it with bolts of light and cut the scream short. What this settlement lacked for in infrastructure it more than made up for in combat capability. Fuck ¨C was there even anything for Richard to do? Richard felt a bit competitive as he ripped up a section of ground and began forming bullets. Most of the delvers were faster than him ¨C there was no point running back and forth like an idiot if people kept kill stealing. Spotting a patch of goop from the early wolves, Richard tried scooping some of it into his bullets ¨C it seemed like dissolution was the theme for this night and Richard wanted in on the party. Scoop after scoop failed as his stone triggered whatever impact based trigger let the goop dissolve stuff. Really if it was this trigger happy how were the wolves throwing it onto the grass? Finally a bullet was made without breaking and Richard loaded it into his cannon. Aiming carefully at a distant hulking figure Richard pulled the trigger and watched his shot fly from his cannon and melt away in the air. Fuck. Tonight really wasn¡¯t his night. ¡­ Monster attacks continued on through the entire night without a single real break. This was definitely worse than the wilderness of the previous zone ¨C it felt like Richard was in a dungeon. At one point Richard smashed his handheld kinetic propellor and took a break from fighting to form a literal cannon out of stone. Bunch of components, barel he could rotate back and forth with stone manipulation. Embedding in most of the important bits from the gun Richard wired up an athletic capacitor to increase its power at the expense at a longer charge time. Richard then began shooting large spears of stone on a 1 minute timer. He shot so many spears through a badly optimized set of components ¨C rotating the stone barrel back and forth while absorbing the ¡®leaking¡¯ kinetic bent aether ¨C that the stone itself began to change and warp. Someone actually offered him a spare plasma gun, but Richard was committed to his cannon. Sure after an a hour of use the entire thing was visibly vibrating and covered in cracks that refused to melt back together ¨C but man was it firing well. He¡¯d prove physical projectiles viable yet! Nothing felt dangerous enough to actually kill him ¨C especially as his defenses grew stronger as the night progressed¡­but actually doing damage was proving to be difficult and the random nature of the creatures made it hard to get used to the attacks. Richard promised he¡¯d finally put in the work he¡¯d put off in improving his abilities as soon as he could. Stat manipulation first and proper rapid fire rocket launcher second. ¡­ And then it was morning. Corpses littered the surroundings ¨C several melting away in the light of dawn. They were nearly all pseudo matter. If not fake, they were at least unstable ¨C the elements used to create them unable to exist in regular situations. Was there something specific with nighttime that created these monsters? Some sort of influx of different bands of aether? Were they releasing radiation as they decayed? Were the monsters purposefully created by the system governing the world or a side effect of some process the magic of the world needed to function? Richard stared around trying to gauge the rest of the colony. All the people he could see looked exhausted. Richard felt that ¨C his body had stopped needing much sleep as if his stats defended against tiredness¡­but man nearly all of his effort from yesterday had been wasted. His outhouse had survived although the door had been ripped off¡­ Finding it and peering down, Richard saw a spike shoot out of the hole. Jumping back he grabbed his boring plasma gun and shot down until the trap was dead. That was close. If someone was going to attack someone in this midst of a vulnerable shit, Richard wanted it to be on his terms. So it was something about the darkness as opposed to the time ¨C that monster would have melted away already if not for the hole he¡¯d made to hide it. Fixing the door, Richard paused as he felt a presence standing behind him. ¡°Want to put your skills to actual use?¡± ¡­ Muhamed was the resident mad scientist. At least that¡¯s the vibe Richard got after traveling with him to the nest area. Muhamed was a handsome man with a slight beard and clean haircut. He wore a grey coat with hundreds of pockets and had a relaxed, unconcerned look upon his face most of the time. Like he was interested in everything but didn¡¯t truly care? The scientist had noticed all of Richard''s building and wanted to study his skill in a few experiments before working on a ¡®more effective building project¡¯. If Richard felt like he was being ordered he¡¯d have rebelled but¡­ Muhamed had a way of speaking that made Richard feel like they were partners. That in itself was weird. Usually Richard disliked people that tried to manipulate him but¡­it felt genuine in a way that was hard to fake. Richard was great at judging people after all. Step one happened as soon as Richard revealed he wasn¡¯t actually controlling stone ¨C he was controlling silicone and the bonds those made with surrounding elements. Combing pure silicone with different materials in trace amounts let them study exactly how his power worked even if creating a material was more expensive than just harvesting the ground. Cement was probably the most useful of materials Richard could make and manipulate - more accurately if given the chance, any combination they made was adjacent to concrete somehow. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Richard had already done a lot of this study, so several experiments were duplicates¡­ but Muhamed had some great ideas for increasing efficiency and it didn¡¯t take long to start discovering new facets of his skill. It only took an hour to find a massive power boost. Step one: create small blocks of pure silicon and begin pumping as much aether through his skill and into the crystal. Step two: wrap it in a rubber insulator and continue pumping aether long after it would leak. Step three: embed the amplifier in his hands, allowing his skill to sink into the hyper infused marble and begin incorporating it. And that was just one successful test. They also managed to grow carbon nanotubes around molecule thick strands of hyper infused silicone. ¡°Managed to¡± ¨C as if that wasn¡¯t a peak of engineering. First they made wisps of silicone too thin to see with a naked eye and kept the base in a vacume sealed box. Then they bound pure carbon to infrared light and nuked their box of wires. It was easy enough to twist the box and make sure to hit all sides with carbonic photons ¨C the only reason this was less impressive than the rubber balls was the end result only improved his hands by a small amount after quite a bit more work had gone into them. Still insulated wires were useful and Richard now had microscopic veins running through each finger and arm in his stone hands. Muhamed was fun ¨C his main strength was a hyper focused ability to direct and manipulate atheric effects. Not create or manipulate his own effects although he could do that too. Manipulate any effect no matter the source. This was an esper ability ¨C one much much stronger than the connection arms Richard had made and enhanced half a dozen times with separate breaks. He also had over 400 stats in his mind but who was counting. Meeting up with the melting mist guy, Muhamed convinced the maybe murderer to M-help. Turns out murder man¡¯s signature skill was a combination of two distinct abilities. A dissolution skill that was relatively simple and surprisingly weak¡­just the ability to slowly dissolve stuff he touched with the dissolved power being fed back into the same skill. The other skill wa the mist ability which was a surpisingly complicated skill with massive utility. The mist skill needed large amounts of infused water ¨C the purer the better ¨C to ¡®kick start¡¯ it off. Once made, it could grow indefinitely provided it was actively being channeled by the man and it was fed enough fuel and maintained a connection to him the entire time ¨C aether increased its strength and more liquid increased its propagation speed. It was kind of like how Richard had combined skills to allow him to manipulate the stone he softened with his first skill. The key difference was instead of a permenant combined upgrade, the two skills were separate. Instead of simply ¡®a upgrade¡¯ this man could swap out the ¡®effect¡¯ attached to the second skill ¨C switching between different types of mists with dissolution being the most useful. Richard was starting to believe the man when he said he hadn¡¯t meant to kill someone. He really didn¡¯t feel like the type and Richard was a pretty good judge of character if he did say so himself. Besides the man was pretty funny when you got to know him ¨C no one with that good a sense of humor could be a bad guy right? ¡­ Round two of defenses was the difference between someone playing in a sand pit and a construction crew with industrial machinery. Mist man ¨C his name was Mike adding to Richards ¡®M¡¯ pattern matching ¨C drank roughly a liter of distilled water gagging slightly at the taste. While MMM was chugging, Muhamed held both Richard''s stone hand and Mike''s back then pulled. In a moment a trickle of aether began to transfer an unstable copy of Richard¡¯s skill towards his new friend. Not exactly the whole skill ¨C the mist wasn¡¯t powerful enough to host Richard¡¯s whole ability, but they could transfer the individual uncombined parts so that¡¯s what they were doing. Richard could tell he could stop this transfer ¨C Mike couldn¡¯t sneak over to him while he was sleeping and borrow his abilities or anything¡­but it felt weird handing off the ability to someone else however temporary. At some point Richard reached out with his connections and began actively pushing his ability instead of waiting for Mike to pull it all the way, which helped nearly instantly complete the setup. After attaching part of Richard''s skill to the power tool that was the mist, Mike sent both of them an AI connection and then closed his eyes in concentration. The three sat for a hot minute before thick bleeched white mist began to spread away from them. Unlike the dissolution mist which melted grass into green dirt, this flowed harmlessly across the grass. Someone yelled in panic before noticing Muhamed was with them ¨C probably thought this was the void mist even though it was a completely different colour of white ¨C and soon people began walking over to see what was happening. Mike wordlessly pulled out a long cable ¨C eyes still closed ¨C while sending Richard some instructions to pass on through the ai tunnel. If anyone wanted to help they could donate aether to help power their efforts. Richard told everyone what they could do to aid them as well as fielded all the questions about what they were doing ¨C it was fun to be the center of attention. Really really fun ¨C Richard loved the way everyone looked to him for answers and happily explained their plan. After donations of power, the mist rapidly exploded in production speed ¨C at least ten times as powerful after the crowd had helped. It sadly wasn¡¯t as useful as the void mist ¨C that skill fueled itself with what it ate, causing a self sustaining loop to keep it growing ¨C but the stone softening was more useful for their plan. As soon as the mist reached Richards poles, it sunk down in the ground. The group could actually feel it propagating into the stone below through the skill¡¯s feedback. That''s how they knew how much was effected long before the surface of the planet began to wobble like a water bed. One or two people might have fallen into their quicksand, but no one was hurt ¨C one of the people made it their job to save anyone who fell in ¨C but Richard ignored that. It did look fun to run across ¨C Richard was a key part of the setup however and couldn¡¯t just abandon them to swim in the planet. Richard directed his helpers to dig periodic holes every 100m or so along the new wall boundary ¨C each hole becoming a new spot their mist could penetrate. It was a group effort at the end of the day. Richard''s early fence long forgotten as the group slowly but surely created a softened ring exactly three kilometers in diameter. Go big or go home ¨C and the group was going big. After two hours of softening, Richard helped Mike swap out the main effect into a mist that could control softened stone. The midget with his metal control ability had a stronger manipulation skill and Mike was able to boost Richard''s manipulation with it somewhat in what he claimed was a hard to control combination of the skills. Strong manipulation plus Weak stone to create strong stone manipulation¡­ If anything it was proof Richard could somehow upgrade his stone manipulation to be much stronger on its own. Maybe he could pull off the metal mans silver surfer cosplay with a rocky cosmetic skin. ¡­stone was weaker than metal he¡¯d probably have a completely different result if he went that route. The new wave of manipulation mist swirled in strange spiralling patterns as it moved and consumed the softening mist. The swapping of mist types caused most of the initial mist to fade away but a second donation party pushed the manipulation into literal ¡®rivers of stone¡¯ levels once again. Richard felt like a cog in a machine helping the group take control of kilometers of stone to stretch it up into a wall. There was a bit of a problem with ¡®holding¡¯ the wall in place before swapping back to a curing mist. The softened stone did slowly ¡®dry¡¯ as they held it however and between the helpers and them they managed to keep it stable long enough to suck the effect out of the stone. Coordination was done through open AI sockets ¨C Richard had to route his control through Mike''s ai to get anything done, but he somehow didn¡¯t mind. Perhaps because of the scale of things? Richard could feel his own skill almost stretching as it was used in the greater working. There was also something satisfying about big things. Like big explosions being cool ¨C it was a guy thing. Together they pulled the wall up 25m tall and left a moat on the other side from their excavation site. As they swapped and set the wall it squished down slightly like a line of pudding, creating a bulbous shape¡­but still for a few hours of work this felt incredibly impressive and the bulge wall was asthetically nice. Especially with the faint marble of different stone types and the dirt that had been mixed into the liquid stone by accident... At some point someone brought up the idea of hollowing out the ¡®great wall of keep out¡¯ and sticking a nest on the inside¡­but they were shot down when they couldn¡¯t come up with a good reason why they wanted to set that up. Just because it sounded cool? By the time night fell, the entire camp along with a massive amount of extra space was completely surrounded by a thick barrier. Every kilometer or so around its edge, a tall tower had been made and 9 of their strongest ranged players took a snipers position above the area. Crude Aether powered lamps were set up around the entire inner area to reduce monster spawn ¨C this wouldn¡¯t stop monsters that could fly and the walls was just simple stone so some of the biggest monsters could probably smash through or climb over it¡­but still it was an order of infrastructure greater than yesterday. They were individually charged up instead of connected to a single grid but worked well for now. There was a chance the streetlights wouldn¡¯t stop monsters spawning ¨C they hadn¡¯t studied what exactly made the monsters appear. Was it simply based on time the system that governed the world turning on and off monster spawn with a button? Was it ¡®light¡¯ that suppressed them or the cocktail of spectrums that was ¡®daylight¡¯? There hadn¡¯t been enough safe space to test this yet, but hopefully tonight Muhamed would narrow in what the current rules for monsters appearing was and together they could secure the entire settlement tomorrow. Considering they all knew the rules for monster spawns could change it wasn¡¯t some vast secret¡­but there had to be a reason it worked the way it currently did. Knowing ¡®why¡¯ it worked the way it did in the default mode would let them better decide how and why they would change it if they had the chance to. The wall and streetlamp grid wouldn¡¯t stop monsters that could fly and because it was simple stone, some of the biggest could probably smash through¡­but the colony was hopeful. Richard happily began firing cannon balls into the night defending his base. He¡¯d put in enough work to start feeling possessive of it ¨C sure others had helped but this¡­this was his. He felt the comradery of the other elites surrounding him and laughed into the night. This was fun. He didn¡¯t even realize it had been two days since he slept and all his personal projects had been put on hold. He was one of the only people who hadn¡¯t slept.
---James--- James flew across the ground, running as fast as a jet. That wasn¡¯t even hyperbole ¨C if James stayed on the ground he could stay above 1000km/hr for an extended period and he could actually triple that in a pure sprint ¨C although only when boosted by his active domain and pushing all his power into a single push. The hard part was maintaining this run ¨C James needed better endurance. He¡¯d only run just over 5000km and was tired already. Weak. Not good enough. James pushed himself the entire day feeling the way his power interacted with his stats and steadily grew the longer he pushed himself. If all it took was a single day of running to grow stronger he obviously wasn¡¯t pushing himself hard enough! He needed to keep running till he stopped feeling gains. Night fell and a sea of obstacles appeared in James¡¯s path but there was nothing worth mentioning ¨C in comparison to the badlands the night terrors here were nothing. Significantly stronger than most of the wildlife in the previous zone but that was it. James took a break from running for a light snack ¨C a shadow bird thing roasted on the smouldering remains of a walking tree thing ¨C and then went back to running. As soon as morning hit, he collapsed and fell asleep in the middle of the field. His muscles ached in an incredibly strange way ¨C it felt like all the power he¡¯d channeled through himself for the last twenty or so hours had melted his flesh and crystalized the remains into aching lumps of stiffness. He couldn¡¯t even move most of his limbs without forcing the concept of movement into them. Stiff and exhausted James slept and consolidated gains. ¡­ It was noon when James awoke. He slowly stood and felt the light sunburn that covered his face. His skin defense hadn¡¯t been enough to protect against it ¨C should have tried to get his body to reflect the light automatically. Even if he¡¯d managed to set it up to stay while sleeping, it might have failed. James had pushed himself harder than he had before. There was just something about flat grass that was easy to run on. Nothing he had to dodge. Good traction. All in all the perfect place to go all out. Stretching ¨C weird bits of clumped skin falling off his joints, James felt how every part of his body barely responded until he purposfully pushed mana into the area. In exchange, as soon as he began to breath and stretch his limbs responded explosively. The concious ¡®pushing¡¯ became something akin to breathing as james moved and squeezed his body into shape. Starting off with a light 100km/hr jog, James slowly ramped up the speed partly distracted by his AI¡¯s reading. Altering his momentum to face upwards, James leapt spinning slightly to take in the view. Green as far as the eye could see. Empty. Lonely. James paused at the thought even as he began to fall. Focusing for a moment James landed absorbing the majority of his kinetic energy and tossing it into an AI pulse. Checking the return frequency he sighed at the lack of a connection to Richard then checked Maddy¡¯s talaism. With a jolt, it melted. Around him a brief flicker of light disappeared into the distance. So Maddy had arrived. Storing the direction in his AI James paused. It was mostly back the way he had come¡­James kind of wanted to see how far he could go. Deliberating for a moment and then continuing on, James ran for the second day in the row. It only took a few hours of focused running to reach the edge of the planet.
?? Achievement get: Walkabout Planet.
Description: Cross the planet using nothing but your own power.
Stat: +9 leg muscle speed Stat: +9 channel power.
¡­ James breathed. The achievement was incredibly welcome ¨C if stingy in stats ¨C he¡¯d been hoping to get some sort of reward for being the first to cross the planet and his body hungrily bonded with his reward. Were rarities gone now that they had finished the zones? That achivement totally should have been a ''unique'' one. I guess if we don''t have a clear at the end of an area there''s no point in a rarity being shown? 13,000km. That was the distance from one side of this planet to the other. Give or take a thousand kilometers or so at the very max depending on the angle James had run at. ¡­channel. That¡¯s the first time the system referred to James¡¯s circulatory system as anything other than his veins. Momentarily checking inside of himself James paused and stared. His heart was gone. Blood and aether spun through his body constantly moving ¨C sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but always in motion. At some point his heart had burst and been held upon way too long ¨C and then been healed open, his body adapting to the swirl of tireless power. He¡¯d healed into his new constant. James¡¯s body and some of the powers incorporated and embedded in his channels worked in ways he didn¡¯t understand to create something new. And where his heart had been a foreign mass of¡­not quite energy was bonded to his flesh. It felt closer to a concept than a hunk of mana. A dense purpose obscured to his senses. Foreign and yet his¡­James poked and prodded the lump with his senses feeling the way it sort of¡­took away a jitter from his mana and added in a calmness? It was smoothing out his mana and yet there was an actual exchange. Instability pulled into it and artificial smoothness pulled out of it. Oh. This is where his mantle had moved. The mantle had eaten his heart. That was fine. This was fine. Its job was to help stabilize him and that¡¯s what it was doing. Could James replicate this? Now that he knew what it felt like? ¡­if James was being honest, he didn¡¯t know where to start so probably not. James didn¡¯t know how to feel about all the changes. It felt¡­monumental in a way ¨C as if he¡¯d stopped being human suddenly. And yet¡­nothing had really changed if he really considered things? If anything, the moment he could run as fast as a plane he¡¯d stopped being human, this minor change to his circulatory system was secondary to that. The weirder change was how his twin cores had shifted as if taking over for his heart ¨C their original purpose long twisted into thier new form. Spent blood still flowed through his lungs to reactivate ¨C James hadn¡¯t yet outgrown the need to breathe although the oxygen had started taking a backseat to his other systems. Spent aether flowed through his cores¡­what had they been again? His kidneys? Either way, the spent aether passed through and then was cleaned inside each core before heading out into the rest of his body. It was like he was reusing the aether instead of simply generating more to refill the spent bits. Feeling his insides out, James refamiliarized himself with his pathways. He¡­he could probably do more of this. More restructuring of his body. The muscles around his lungs for example were a roundabout way of getting air into his body ¨C if he used his mana he could start pulling it in directly. Some of his other organs were probably useless now as well¡­ James shook his head and returned to reality. What had he been about to consider? Oh yeah, the distance. Right now the planet was cut in half. The dome James stood beside encompassed the entire tutorial and every previous zone. So¡­perimeter of the planet was 26,000km ish ¨C at least if he doubled that half perimeter he¡¯d gotten. Quite a bit of surface area ¨C James couldn¡¯t remember how big the earth had been and if this new planet was bigger or smaller¡­but it felt smaller. Probably not too much smaller considering gravity felt normal? How long would that side of the planet be walled off...till everyone completed the training zones? what if one person camped out in it? There did seem to be systems in place to try and kick people out if they stayed too long. Maybe the sky would start raining blood and nuclear bombs would rain the countryside until everyone was dead or in the new area. James turned so the barrier was to his side and began to run alongside it. As he began to pick up speed, the blur began to properly think of both his goals and the job he had been given. R was contractually telling everyone to go to war. He had one shot to stop that - assuming he wasn''t lying to James about his real goals of course. James had to prevent the other earthlings from killing themselves. He hadn¡¯t been chosen for his ability to convince people¡­ James was chosen to be a common enemy. A literal demon king if he wanted to roleplay his new job. If he were to follow the script left by R, he had to become a threat big enough that the two sides could put aside their differences and try to stop him instead. At least for the year until the planet ranks up? Maybe till it ranks up a second time? Until they figured out how to stabilize both sides at least. Maybe one of his friends could help him figure out a way of completing his obligations. If nothing else James wanted to eat something tasty and meeting up with friends would help give him motivation to make something good. James ran effectively. James thought in-effectively. ...and all across the world more and more earthlings crossed the barrier. Chapter 89. Temporary portables always become permeant havent you heard? ---Maddy--- Maddison¡¯s verdant eye of creative luminance rolled about in a dizzying manner as she manipulated vines into meaning. From the outside, the eye in the socket high above the front door spun and spasmed like an insane person, while about it, the wood and greenery rustled and shifted quietly. Looking closer one could see a densely packed spiral of text and shapes that grew slowly outwards without direction. The spiral pulled her wasted mana into itself and grew with purpose even without its creator¡¯s focus. Its spell was simple ¨C the growing ability for the eye itself to manipulate mana and life about itself. Something useful but ignored before this point ¨C when she was in her body she could write by hand without wasting mana on the actual writing... but as an eye it was hard to do much of anything without some spells put in place. That control was what was letting her sew vines into spells about her house shaped body. She was sketching ideas more than anything. Thoughts of things that could be spells using her affinity and a donation of mana. She then let the spells attempt to grow into actual strength on their own ¨C most were failing but a surprising number were surviving and growing into spells without her needing to give more mana to them. Sure, they were sort of interacting with the magic of the house itself ¨C growing into the reality-given illusion and absorbing bits of remnant mana from it¡­but it still felt like they were coming out ahead. She ¨C and this was confusing because while she considered herself ¡®Maddy¡¯, she knew other eyes might differ in their opinion ¨C was of the opinion that all good things took time. Power was ¡®grown¡¯ not gained in a rush. Rushing led to sloppy houses that could fall at a moment¡¯s notice. Time¡­Time could grow a sapling into a towering tree. It could grow a temporary shelter into a home. Sure mechanically there was a reason for time giving power to spells¡­but always focusing on mechanics hid the power. If you took longer to write down a spell. Longer to cast it. Let it take longer to take effect¡­well than that was a ¡®cost¡¯. A restriction for power. Something old Maddy had considered and then attempted to subvert or take advantage of. She¡¯d spent as much time as possible writing down and ¡®creating¡¯ the spells, then turned around and shortened its casting time and effect activation. Old Maddy had focused on spells that could attack or defend her when she finished casting them ¨C spells that she wanted to activate and have take effect as soon as possible in the moment. Current Maddy was revising her opinion on that magic style. She was settling into a new ¡®truth¡¯ built upon that ¡®mechanic¡¯. Good things take time. It was true. A truth that became more and more obvious the longer Maddy thought about it. Time, Quality, Cost. Pick two to focus on. You couldn¡¯t have all three. If cost was lowered due to her smaller pool¡­well she would just have to focus on the other two parts of the trifecta. True creation takes time. Good food takes time ¨C you can make some relatively nice instant meals but all the proper ones need time to prepare, and time to cook. True life is born and grown over time. Good magic follows these rules as well. All her biggest spells had included the largest amount of prep time. Why did the spell have to activate right as it was cast and then disappear afterwards? What if she wanted her end spell to be permanent? Even if it was only permanent within her domain¡­shouldn¡¯t she give every part of the process as much time as she could? Keeping it close to her was a different sort of cost but one she was willing to accept. It all just made so much sense. Why hadn¡¯t this obvious truth clicked till now? Maybe because she¡¯d never actually had the time alone with her thoughts to consider this? Maybe some influence from her current body of limited affinity? Maybe¡­the idea of efficiency only appeared to a splinter of the whole trying its best with limited resources? Considering Maddy currently had roughly 1/27th of her ¡®overall¡¯ mana pool and regeneration, it was hard to prove this truth as well as she could have hoped. She wanted some concrete numbers. After all, what she¡¯d done on her own without begging her sisters for donations was many times less than what they had slapped together with a full pool of power¡­ Still¡­given enough time she felt like she could prove her truth as more than just some minor interaction of an exploitable mechanic. That ¡®felt¡¯ was a similar sort of ¡®felt¡¯ as the feeling concepts gave her when they whispered their potential to her. Her delineation of the world outside her house and the room inside had grown stronger over the past few hours of effort It had grown and continued to grow the more work she put into it. If she continued¡­well would she ever reach a maximum? Would it continue growing in strength forever? She wanted to know. It was to the point where Maddy felt like she could almost begin growing the size of the space inside ¨C although maybe that was too ambitious of a goal? She didn¡¯t have any concepts for space or size after all¡­and spacial manipulation felt powerful enough it might even need a whole affinity and mana type to achieve. Focusing on concepts in a limited manner instead of growing the concepts into something that could do anything was such a¡­well, ¡°limited¡± view of things. She wouldn¡¯t know until she tried after all. Maddy¡¯s Creative-life-light eye was so engrossed in her spell pruning and fertilizing she almost missed the moment Jess stepped through the barrier a hundred yards or so to the side. Her one ¡®actual¡¯ job! In her defense, Maddy only had a portion of her overall mind¡­although it felt like her portion was larger than some of her sisters. More aware? The single affinity eyes felt simpler and¡­well dumber if she were being honest. The double affinity eyes were better but still felt less aware on their own. Maddy¡¯s mental focus wasn¡¯t split evenly. That was the point she was getting at. She shouldn¡¯t complain about a more limited focus when she was on the high end of the specturm. Focusing on the spell grown below her, Maddy began activating the wooden mouth covered in runes for sound and transference of applied thoughts. The wood slowly cracked open. A large leaf licked rough lips then called out, her voice hoarse sounding with the first use of her spell. ¡°Over here!¡± Maddy called. Jess paused, then focused on Maddy¡¯s welcoming shelter, a flash of confusion followed by recognition crossing her face. Strolling across the grass, Jess looked up at the eye and smiled. A second later, her soft voice echoed back to Maddy¡¯s senses. ¡°Is this our new tent? Do I need a secret password to get in?¡± Maddy forced the wooden mouth into a smile and cut the vines latching the door in place. The wooden door swung semi smoothly open and then shut behind her friend before Maddy grew the lock back. ¡­Maddy hadn¡¯t grown a mouth onto the inside of the house. She hadn¡¯t done much of anything to the inside of the house now that she thought of it. Swiveling her eye to face ¡®inwards¡¯, Maddy stared into the unfurnished house sitting on dirt and cursed to herself. Dammit. She had spent too much time trying to improve defenses and had forgotten the chairs and stuff. Jess looked around with a faint smile on her face ¨C she totally knew Maddy had forgotten to work on furnishing and was totally making fun of her in her mind. The woman then raised a hand in a familiar gesture. In a few seconds, a brilliant gold block ripped out of her hand and fused to the ground. With a squint, her friend moulded the boxy crate into a bed-like shape. Jess then reached down and gently picked Maddy¡¯s body up off the dirt, laying it on the bed before ruffling her body¡¯s hair. Guess it was best to clean her things up ¨C Maddy shouldn¡¯t have left her body in the way. Jess then made herself a golden throne and sat back, a tired look slipping onto her face. Yeah, Maddy felt that. Calling back some of her sisters and getting a response from three, Maddy held the connection bands to her other eyes and felt them coming back towards her. Her eyes weren¡¯t constantly connected by design, although the connection process had improved quite a bit from the last point. Any eye could initiate a connection to as many eyes as they wanted. Then the ¡®recivers¡¯ could either refuse or accept it, turning the ¡®request¡¯ into a two-or-more way cord with transference concepts on all ends letting them share thoughts and mana or simple spells they could shove down the line. One of Maddy¡¯s first experiences with her eyes had been the mental effect from the sirens passing through the eye and back to her mind. That event had stuck with her. Now she wanted to be proactive about making sure mental attacks couldn¡¯t spread from one eye to the other. Maddy did have a large portion of mental defense keeping her sanity high, but ¨C just in case ¨C every eye could accept and break a connection between them at any time. Technically, the eyes were also connected in some sort of metaphorical way with her spread apart soul¡­but that too had a nice chunk of soul defense in play after she coaxed the connections to try and be between both mind and soul. It felt like her stats themselves were multiplying this security feature, the defenses slowly growing to cover this permanent infrastructure in her network. If one eye got affected by some sort of cognihazard or some sort of conceptually propagating effect, she should be good. All the other eyes would know to cut the infected off right away. Should be at least. No point spreading herself about for safety and then leaving such an obvious weak spot in place after all. It hadn¡¯t been tested yet, but Maddy had high hopes for the system. If she left herself vulnerable, she was asking to be torn down. She was pretty sure at least one of her minds was actively focusing on improving it as well. Now, if she could just finish growing this inner house-mouth, Maddy could ask her friend about her questions and what her plans were. A flicker of sound bounced off of the delineation between the outside of the house and inside as one of Maddy¡¯s eyes failed to teleport through the wall. The infrasound muffled past teleportation hosting levels and blocked easy entry. Maddy¡¯s creative-life-light eye turned to open a gap, but found herself squeezed to the side painfully. A mental gasp rang out as the impatient light eye rudely teleported through her and the gap. There was still an eye sized hole in the house after all ¨C the one she¡¯d made with a two way eye socket. Technically it shouldn¡¯t have hurt ¨C the vibrations that passed through her eye were low enough they shouldn¡¯t cause damage, but some sort of ¡®souls squeezing past each other¡¯ effect came into play and left her watering. The tears rolled down her bark unbidden even as she began carving a second hole in the back of the house. She''d regrow this hole in such a way that eyes could telport through it but nothing could crawl through the weak point...try and make it so the sound defense could be turned on and off by eyes who wanted to use it as well. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Could she get the house to recognize herself? That was a good goal. Either way this could be like a pet door for eyes too rude to wait for her to open and close the human sized door ¨C Oh! Troy just got out as well. ¡°Over here!¡± Maddy called ¨C this time her outer mouth formed the words quicker and with significantly less rasp. All good things need time to grow. ¡­ The three eyes who came back to base had briefly fought over who got to use the body. They had then compromised and dug out a third eye socket in the bodies forehead. Maddy¡¯s body had then been woken up and puppeted as her Light, Illuminant-Death and Destructive-light eyes all synced into a single almost-combined mind. One surprisingly Light heavy ¨C this ¡®imbalance¡¯ made her body almost hyper as they spoke. Creative-Life-light Maddy could see the way her ¡®awake¡¯ concept was leaking out of her body¡¯s words. Were they doing that on purpose? Either way, her friends had the tiredness eased and Maddy could feel herself becoming more alert so it was a happy side effect. She continued keeping watch even as the light began to fall outside. Soon monsters began to appear. They arrived by the dozen ¨C somehow spawning wherever Maddy wasn¡¯t looking¡­probably because everywhere within her sight was partially her domain? Either way, the monsters appeared out of the corner of her eye and then padded and skittered towards the house unaffected. Maddy watched as a poisonously purple bear-like creature slammed its toxic paws into her front door. Three thick grooves of mana slowly corrupted the entranceway lines of grey lingering and sinking deeper. A weird flickering centipede tried to squeeze through a gap in the doorframe, but Maddy¡¯s entranceway was conceptually cut off more than that. The monster and its friends found itself unable to slip through the gap. A second slash of purple paws left a deeper groove ¨C and it appeared her friends could hear that one, both leaping up at the sound. Troy flickered into darkness and fell into the shadow cast by Maddy¡¯s golden bed. She felt the way he disappeared from her senses and knew if she were boosting her domain she could see the way he entered a shadow dimension right beside theirs. It took him a moment to reappear outside ¨C guess her defenses hadn¡¯t grown into this theoretical shadow plane yet ¨C and with a glance at the surroundings he relocated himself to the roof glowing arrows beginning to stream away from him into the night ¨C each potent enough to kill most of the weaker monsters in a single shot. She could probably grow defenses into the shadow plane if she worked with Troy. Her domain activation and claim of his mana and concepts should bridge the gap. A domain activation would probably chunk too much of her stability at the moment ¨C she¡¯d only just healed back the effects from her last activation. Not a ¡®no¡¯ but not something she should do just to see if she could. Troy kept firing even as Jess opened the front door from the inside and sliced the purple bear in two with a swipe of her whip. First Jess ripped out a seat for herself right out side the front door spending a second to get comfortable. The defender slowly formed a barrier about them. Her defense was a large transparent gold sphere containing so much more than Maddy¡¯s house. It was almost embarrassing. Then again trying to compete against her friends specialization would lead to another mushy conversation...and the point of having partners was so they could cover Maddy''s weakness. The point of friendship was a bit different but her friends being her teammates hadn''t changed a bit. The barrier had the concept of protection at the very center of its spell structure after all. Jess¡¯s domain probably had a passive effect leading her to some deeper truth about protection as well. Really it was a relatively simple protection when you thought about it. The dome deflected nearly all the monster''s attacks while allowing Troy to fire out of it unimpeded. One of the attacks that did manage to pass through the barrier had been a retaliatory strike that flowed through the reverse concept of revenge and nearly skewered Troy after he hit the hedgehog responsible for it. The spike that had appeared in front of him had been slapped away by a protective gauntlet ¨C Jess having activated her domain before Troy had even shot the arrow her jump upwards aided by stilts of gold. She¡¯d gotten some premonition of protection, letting her sense the danger before it had even arrived. It was nice to have competent friends. Maddy¡­felt subtly safer at that reminder of her friend¡¯s protection. Maddy had the option to lend a hand by using her own magic on the barrier, but it could be just as likely to hinder her friend''s spell as it was to help. Even higher chance of doing nothing now that she thought about it. Better to just focus on her job as mage for the group and deal with the weirder threats. ¡­ Maddy almost wasn¡¯t even needed. It was nice to have competent friends¡­but she wanted to prove her worth as well. She wasn¡¯t just a portable tent creator! Maybe Jess should let something through so she could heal them¡­ ¡­ Night passed uneventfully. Maddy had ¡°needed¡± to attack once when a swarm of hornets tipped by void stingers had begun chipping away at the barrier ¨C They would have out paced Jess¡¯s mana regeneration if the group left them alone. The little pests were also too small and numerous for Troy to pick them off with arrows in a timely manner. Perfect case for Maddy to step in. Borrowing the mana from two dozen eyes, Maddy spoke death and caused the wasps and a few of the weaker monsters listening to her house-voice to rot away from the inside. It felt good. A hour or so later into the night, Maddy did it again just to show she could. After that some of the other eyes resented donating for non emergencies. Greedy Creative-Life-Light thought to herself. She was sharing with herself after all. What could they even be doing that was more important than attacking the monsters around them! The only other event worth mentioning was the death of some of her eyes. Around ten had returned to the safety of their temporary base, but the others had either been too far away to return in time or had gotten arrogant in their self-sufficiency. Pure mana eye. Dark mana eye. Death mana eye. Life mana eye. It seemed like most of the casualties were single affinity eyes that had come across monsters that countered them or caught them by surprise. This was actually the first time since Maddy had upgraded her eyes and evolved her race that any eyes had died. The deaths each twinged a phantom pain across her network and revealed a new side effect in their loss. When Maddy had originally made the spell, each eye was fully disposable. It was just a waste of time and a bit of mana. If they ¡®died¡¯ they would take a few hours to a day to grow back in the network splitting one of the existing eyes and healing back into full capability over time. Now¡­ Well now each eye represented a portion of Maddy¡¯s mana pool. Mana pools but split even further from their base state. Originally Maddy had a sort of pyramid of pools with her base affinities filling first and then cascading into the pools above them. Life/death mana would refill her life/death pool and then divert to fill her life/death-creation/destruction pool, etc. Now¡­well now the two halves of each affinity weren¡¯t even joined in a single pool. Her life mana was a separate eye from her death mana ¨Ceach with their own completely separate chunk of aspected mana and link to innate concepts. Maddy couldn¡¯t even cast her early egg spell with the mana shifting into life for allies and death for enemies anymore ¨C not unless both eyes worked together and sort of passed the spell back and forth between them. If everyone coordinated she was the same as always but¡­coordination was a new problem she had to work on. The firm link between each pool was also broken ¨C each pool had its own regeneration, but that regeneration was linked to similar eyes in a sort of resonating way. From what Maddy could tell, as soon as her life eye had died, her death eye had fallen shortly after. The loss of its ¡®twin¡¯ had effected it far more than every other eye and led it into danger as well. The pure mana eye on the other hand, had effected every single eye still alive but by a nearly unnoticeably small amount. Add to the fact that the dead eyes weren¡¯t making their own mana anymore and each death was more than a loss of 1/27th of Maddy¡¯s total mana per minute. A cost where none had existed before - more accurately, an ongoing cost for her new existence. It was strange. Easy to imagine and discover and yet unaccounted for. Maddy needed to explore her new body more in the coming days. It wouldn¡¯t do to be surprised by her new form. Considering how it worked, it also felt like should all her eyes but one be killed it would take weeks to heal them back with a single eye¡¯s regeneration. Her light eye had been safely at the house but Maddy was sure if it had been exploring alone, it would have fallen when the dark eye had fallen. Once both twins had died, that combined loss had cascaded. All eyes with either a life or death affinity had felt their mana regeneration drop to a third ¨C a portion they could tell was being funneled into the respawn mechanic of their resurrection spell but the other portion was simply lost¡­like there was a hole in their pool and the liquid of their mana was leaking out. Or¡­like there was a hole in their soul leaking mana out into the surroundings. Was mana the blood of the soul? All her life eyes seemed to agree that idea had a lot of merit. Most of her other eyes disagreed with the hypothesis. ¡­ A hundred feet below the ground Dark Destruction¡¯s Eye lit up with purpose. She was needed already! Of course she was. She would always be needed. Above her a single snaking tube with bends and trapped pinholes led to the place she had started digging. When her sisters respawned near her, they could teleport up through the tube but not much else could reach her. She¡¯d even left thin plates of stone you had to put some effort to teleport through - vibrations could pass but nothing else, not even air could penetrate the following tubes. ¡­she¡¯d opened up a seperate hole for digging after the skin of her eye started to feel like it would pop from the low pressure. The air vent was set to destroy absolutely everything other than air and she planned to bug one of her creation sisters to refill it when the digging slowed down. She knew conceptually it made more sense for one of the life cores to dedicate themselves to growing back her sisters. They had the concept of healing in their life mana after all ¨C might even be able to work on trying to heal back as soon as they could as well. Still¡­dark destruction felt comfortable down here in the darkness and didn¡¯t feel like she needed to ask anyone to join her just yet. She loved digging ¨C melting her way through tons of stone with an army of worms, and had managed to get quite good at vaporizing runes into the walls. Teeny tiny detail worms were used to turn her thoughts into permanent marks on the world - she really was carving her will into the environment as she carved runes. Really, it would be convenient to skip having to carve spells ¨C just have the magic happen when she wanted it to happen...but besides the physical effect of carving words it acted as a sort of filter for intrusive thoughts. If her magic just worked based on her thoughts an errant ''what would happen if...'' could bite her in the butt. writing down what she wanted was the filter between her messy mind and the world. Maybe when she got really good at this she could carve her will into the air instead of the walls. Temporary spells boosted by their temporary medium... That felt like a good goal to work towards. At first Maddy had made some chambers as offshoots to her eye wide tubes. She had a vague plan of creating rooms like you¡¯d find in an ants nest or similar¡­but after a certain size the chance of a monster randomly appearing in the tiny cave got pretty high. They¡¯d only appear when she wasn¡¯t there and the chance was pretty low with small chambers¡­but it was still a shock to backtrack and find an angry trapped void slug eating away at the tube behind her. At one point a flickering cenetped thing had crawled down from above ¨C what were her sisters doing letting stuff in the house! But it died to her airlock so besides needing to go back and melt its corpse away the event was barely worth mentioning. The defense network had grown from that point ¨C her tunnels themselves forming themselves into runes as she built her home. The resurrection spell for her sisters was weird. Tons of meaning and power had gone into making it, but the amount of knowledge they¡¯d had at the time of making it had been much lower. The amount of inverse shaping had twisted the spell into something she couldn¡¯t fully grasp and it had been iterated upon to the point the way the spell worked was a black box to her. What Dark Destruction did know was that she could push at the spell. She could feel it and interact with it. Maddy could push and pull and bully the bit of herself into accepting her current consciousness as the spawn point. She could force it to germinate a new eye early ¨C splitting off bits of herself into birthing chambers. These unfinished bits of herself could grow cocoons and continuing to regrow in a little alcove she¡¯d made for each of them¡­it was more vulnerable than being inside of her but less costly on the network. That was the point a sister joined her. It seems some of her thoughts had leaked into the network because dark-life had joined the cave life! She¡¯d thought having a life sister would have boosted her plan and she was right. Dark life agreed the tunnels were comfortable and cozy without harsh light to blind them ¨C dark destruction didn¡¯t mind sharing and had secretly wanted this. They were the same girl after all and sister dark-life was friendly and two eyes were better than one. A third would be even better ¨C someone with a creation affinity at least ¨C but Dark-Destruction would let sisters find their own way here. Dark-life began to grow her own mana into the birthing chambers, slowly forming wombs of power to heal the missing bits of their collective back as fast as possible. Eggs of comfortable blackness. Each orb a ¡®collection¡¯ and ¡®concentration¡¯ of what Maddy was. She grew pitch black moss as a velvet fuzz across the wall to make squeezing through the tunnels uber comfortable. Together they spoke of growing more defenses ¨C the runes were great but had to be activated with one of Maddy¡¯s mana pools or maintained every few hours. If they focused on creating magical items or growing magical plants that could survive and attack without an influx of mana¡­well then their final bastion of safety would be higher. Dark destruction spoke of making a making a second bunker as well ¨C it was no good creating a defence against death and then piling their final hope into one physical location. If they had multiple eyes set on respawn duty, they would be even safer. The two giggled softly to themselves in the dark as they planned their dungeon. Together they were probably the most important pair of Maddy¡¯s eyes. ¡­ A few hours later one of her twins, Dark-Creation joined them silently and set to work creating defenses in ways the initial pair lacked. Threes are good. Chapter 90. What do you want to be when you grow up? ---James--- The rest of James¡¯s trip was uneventful. He ran through his second night, looping around the planet with the barrier as his only landmark. At one point, James tried punching the barrier as hard as he could, but all the curiosity got him was a sore hand. Something about a far from unstopable force coming up against an immovable object. You¡¯d think the barrier would have rippled a bit or cracked and healed to help patch James¡¯s ego¡­but no such luck. It was like he punched a brick wall pre system. Finally after nearly a day of running James spotted several coloured lumps on the horizon. From that point it took a few more minutes before the lumps became recognizable shapes - considering how random they were it probably took longer for James to figure it out than necessary. The lumps were structures. Multi-coloured and shaped structures distantly budding up against a large ocean. The ocean behind them was almost invisible with how flat the land was ¨C it was like every time James jumped, the ocean played peekaboo, revealing itself there on the horizon and then disappearing once again as he landed. As he neared the settlement, James spotted what looked like an incredibly fat tree sitting nearly directly beside a perfectly matt black box the size of a small two story house. There was what looked like a glass teepee covered in paint and a mound of the grass bent sharply into walls and a ceiling ¨C like someone had made a house but textured it with grasslands. Around these eye catching structures there were smaller tents and foundations. Nothing meshed. That was the big take away. All the buildings were a few dozen meters apart and offset in almost purposefully clashing positions ¨C as if a town planner had come around and pointed out the optimal position for streets and then all the building creators purposefully went against that in spite. As James paused and took the circus in, he heard a small pop and felt a movement impact his skin. Two eyes were suddenly clinging to his shoulder. Two fleshy eyes linking with lines of light like some eldritch Epaulette. A flicker of warmth spread through James¡¯s senses as he tensed and then realized who they were. The pair silently flexed and played skipping rope with the light threads. Half words and shapes formed as they whipped these lines about the lines becoming steadily more tangled as they worked as if she were knotting string. James squinted at the light show and then contorted his head and neck to better see the eyes themselves. One eye was grey, almost dead looking, the other a vibrant gold. Together, over the course of thirty or so seconds, they silently twisted light into a knotted three dimensional loudspeaker. Suddenly, with a rippling pulse, James could hear Maddy¡¯s voice ¨C loud and clear as if she were standing just beside him. ¡°Hey! Good to see you. I¡¯ve been looking for you ever since you triggered my talisman. ''Think I have to revise that spell a bit, all I really got was that you triggered it. Maybe I should be surprised it even activated outside of my domain. Anyways, come back towards the barrier and look for the lodge-style house. I¡¯ll try and gather myself a bit and we can talk.¡± The loudspeaker continued to vibrate as if it were a cartoon speaking and then broke apart as soon as Maddy stopped. The gold eye popped off, disappearing into the grass and conjuring a line that roughly bent into an arrow of light. James turned and began walking towards the barrier following his guide. He split his focus between a speedy jog and glancing about at the surrounding people. The humans looked cagy. Mistrustful eyes peered out of tents or were attached to crossed arms and frowns. One or two people had distinct features ¨C one girl¡¯s hair glowed and floated about her head and another person looked like a photoshopped model his muscles so prominent they looked fake and slightly offputting. There was even a man with plants growing out of his skin the vines and leaves ripping out of skin and tucking into his clothes. Plenty of magical effects both big and small, and yet somehow it was less crazy than an aether city had been. The amount of aesthetic augmentation there had been over the top all the time. It didn¡¯t take long to find the house Maddy had mentioned ¨C a sort of hunting cabin with so much greenery on it the wood was barely visible. Was this their aesthetic? Or just a side effect of Maddy¡¯s life affinity? Above the door, another one of Maddy¡¯s eyes rolled in greeting and James had barely spotted the fleshy security system before the door was already swinging open in invitation. James stepped in. Inside the cabin there was a relatively empty shack. Hanging off the ceiling a bulbous plant dripped glowing drops of water. Wet and casting ripples of light as each drop fell the plant¡­mostly functioned as a ceiling light. It passed by cool and went into annoying territory if James was honest. The light kept dimming and growing every few seconds. To the left of the front door a gold bed held Troy¡¯s sleeping form while near the back right, Jess and Maddy sat staring expectantly at the front door. Shaped almost like a restaurant, there were four thrones surrounding a sharp boxy table. ¡°I¡¯ll wake sleeping beauty ¨C¡° Jess began to stand up as soon as she saw James. Maddy held out a hand and began to hum before Jess could cross the room. At the sound of Maddy¡¯s voice, James felt a flicker across his body. Magic crashed across his domain - the mana focusing on his ears as it attempted to burrow into his body. James relaxed slightly and felt the struggle against his aura fade. He could have completely blocked it if he cared ¨C A flex as soon as he registered the wash. But he trusted Maddy and a moment after relaxing he began to feel more awake. More energized. There was a faint discomfort as his magic was distinctly aware this awakeness was ¡®other¡¯¡­but if anything the flicker of anxiety made him even more awake. Troy sat up without being told, blinking at the situation. Then ¨C a half beat after spotting James ¨C he made an exaggerated gasp and dramatic jump backwards and into the shadows. Troy¡¯s body turned black and stretched backwards as he disappeared in a smear. There was a silent moment as everyone stared at the empty bed ¨C more in confusion than anything else. A drop of light chose that moment to fall from the ceiling. As it fell, the ripple of shadow obscured the throne facing the door and let Troy re-appear in his chosen seat. Troy glanced over his shoulder at James expectantly, ¨C completely ignoring what just happend. Seemed Troy was done with that bit ¨C probably seemed funnier in the archer¡¯s head? James got that. Now it was awkward ¨C should he laugh? Too late now. James crossed the room and slipped into the free throne ¨C a boxy solid structure covered in thin grassy cushions. ¡°Alright before we start sharing everything we¡¯ve learned, anyone want any refreshments?¡± Maddy clapped her hands slightly as if excited by the idea. ¡°We have¡­¡¯created awake water¡¯. It tastes mostly like coffee and only slightly like grass. I can create food from some stone, but other than filling your stomach, it doesn¡¯t do much and I¡¯m not the best at flavours¡­¡± Maddy conjured a tea set, one hand touching the ground and sucking something out of the stone below. So¡­they were doing this? James reached around for his small backpack and slipped it onto the ground as he took his place. ¡°I have some spices? Make us some stone snacks and I can help make them taste less like rock.¡± James offered. ¡°They don¡¯t literally taste like rock I¡¯m just borrowing some of the realness from the rock¡­¡± Maddy pouted slightly then reached over and began pulling out spices one by one. ¡°The real problem is the way I don¡¯t have any concepts for flavours and I don¡¯t have enough practice shaping taste yet.¡± Maddy muttered placing down a few tubs and moving on to fill some cups. The cups hadn¡¯t been there a moment ago ¨C she conjured them from nothing in a second and then very slowly conjured what looked like matcha in each one. Below her a strip of grass melted into nothing below her chair. They really were drinking grass? Juicing it and teleporting it into cups? James wanted to laugh. For some reason, the ridiculousness of the situation ¨C how serious everyone looked and how weird the food was made him relax. Them acting awkward made him relate and care about them more. These really were his friends, wern¡¯t they? ¡­ The group made a fake spread of conjured food and drink, then spoke of what they had learned in the in-between. It was a long conversation ¨C each person told their story while everyone listened and played with the food. At one point Maddy managed to convert a whole container of James¡¯s garlicky powder into a creamy garlic sauce that made everything they dipped in it divine¡­a sad loss of his unreplaceable garlic powder but worth it just for the experience. James mostly listened to the others silently. He¡­hadn¡¯t asked three questions like they had. He hadn¡¯t learned of civilizations past or deeper truths to magic. He hadn¡¯t learned about how the magic side might see aether ¨C the idea there was some ¡®true magic¡¯ that had created both aether and mana with aether being a dangerous blight that killed puppies and gave your grand children super diseases. Instead, James had learned¡­a goal. One he was trying to figure out if he wanted to explain thoroughly to his friends or not. James had already told them a bit of it back in the previous zone but¡­now would be the time to explain everything if he was ever going to. Explain exactly how dangerous it was. Tell them? Don¡¯t tell them? Reveal his goal might pit him against their survival? Conceal the danger and strike out on his own? Finally James made the decision. He took Troy finishing his description and looking to him to commit then began speaking. First he revealed his job in full. He described his experiences with ¡®R¡¯ and explained what he understood his goal to be. After he finished describing the task of preventing the inevitable war long enough for the cause of the war to come to pass, all three listeners were silent. Should James have kept this to himself? He¡¯d already explained more of it to Richard¡­maybe he should have just hit Richard up instead. They were the original potential fit for this job after all and didn¡¯t seem to care about consequences as much. Why were they still silent? Why had he revealed his job? His friends were just staring at him ¨C Actually that made sense. James had just said he was going to act against their best chances of survival. Maddy spoke in the midst of his backtracking. Instead of¡­offering to help or trying to stop him or saying good luck or ¡®something¡¯. Maddy began with a completely different set of questions. She began an entirely different conversation as if she were ignoring what he had just revealed. ¡°What are your long term goals?¡± Maddy asked breaking the awkward silence. She giggled suddenly as if she had just told a joke then frowned and waved a bit, two additional eyes suddenly appearing on her face. With four eyes her expression sharpened slightly as if she were becoming slightly more serious with each additional eye. A bit of the whimsy fell away and she felt more like the woman James had met chained to a wall in a dungeon. That had been a weird first impression. Especially when she had been the one doing the chaining. ¡°What do you want to do for the rest of your life? Not just in the coming weeks but in the years and decades to come?¡± Maddy paused as if reading James¡¯s mind and responded quickly. ¡°Please, this is related but humour me for a bit okay?¡± James wasn¡¯t sure what to make of her question. It wasn¡¯t something he knew how to answer. Maddy continued, a frustrated scrunch crossing her face. ¡°How do you see this planet we¡¯ve been given. It¡¯s empty right? A blank canvas? Do you hope to abandon it to find some better place? Or, do you plan on shaping it with the rest of us? ¡°Instead of appearing on a planet with existing infrastructure, we have a blank slate. Do you resent that? Do you hope to break this blank slate and then move on to some existing world when it shatters? The answer to that is important.¡± James felt a bit put on the spot. ¡°I mean¡­I¡¯m not planning on just breaking this? I¡­I am planning on living here?¡± Was he? He hadn¡¯t really stopped to think about it. ¡°Then I¡¯ll ask again. This is the world we¡¯ve been given to shape. How do you want to shape it? How do you personally want to affect the world ¨C I¡¯m asking this question to everyone. Feel free to chip in if you have something you want to add.¡± Maddy made a show of staring at both her companions as she did so ¨C turning her four eyed head back and forth between them. What were James¡¯s goals? That was easy wasn¡¯t it? Just¡­become strong enough that no one could ever control him. Strong enough he could make all his own decisions. Rank up the world and survive¡­and that was it wasn¡¯t it? Those felt like short term goals. They felt lacking somehow. What should James say? He liked pushing himself. He liked how fighting monsters made him feel powerful but also... The focus of combat was synonymous with happiness in his head at this point. The way his muscles felt after overclocking them with mana for hours at a time. The feel of incremental progress giving meaning to each fight. the thrill of danger in harder fights and the rush of serotonin that came from surviving. Maybe James should think smaller? James liked cooking things he had beaten. He wanted to get better at being a chef even if it was just for himself¡­ It felt like Maddy was asking more than that. ¡®I want to get better at cooking¡¯ ¨C didn¡¯t have the weight her question seemed to demand. Should he word it better? Figure out something stronger to say? Admit he didn¡¯t really have a long term plan and was just taking it day by day? Maddy waited for a while then began speaking once again ¨C as if trying to help James¡¯s thought process. ¡°Lets focus on one goal. If you could implement one rule for this planet what would it be? One chance to change things permanently. One law that everyone has to live by. One chance to effect the place you will be living in the future. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°What is the most important thing for you? You left Earth for some reason ¨C we all did ¨C and assuming nothing has changed¡­what do you hope this new home will give you that Earth couldn¡¯t have? How can you imagine forcing it so whatever this home can give you is kept? ¡°I¡¯ll go first if it helps.¡± Maddy finished. She looked about as if searching for something and slowly more and more eyes appeared. They popped out of nowhere, jumping across the room to land on Maddy¡¯s body. Each eye that appeared seemed to change Maddy slightly her expression and posture shifting with each appearance. Finally covered in dozens of her eyes ¨C looking less human than ever ¨CMaddy started. ¡°My long-term goals for the past few weeks have felt endless. I accepted this new life and escaped my own because¡­I felt trapped. Its no longer important and my endless goals wern¡¯t related to the way I felt trapped. The way I felt there was no possible way I could get out of my situation¡­well that might help you figure out a rule, but for me it is simply a past I¡¯ve moved past. You all know a bit of it, some more than others. ¡°Nearly as soon as I arrived in this world I learned of magic. Some childish wonder I¡¯d forgotten resurfaced and I learned there was more to reality than I thought. ¡°I immediately knew what I wanted. It wasn¡¯t even a question ¨C I wanted to learn this magic. These rules even made sense to me. They fit together well and expanded in a way that felt firm. There was hidden parts and there was perspective parts¡­but that only added to the mystery I felt. ¡°From what I thought I knew, I felt like magic was endless. There was an endless amount of stuff I could learn about it. A lifetime of study and experimentation. No matter how good I got, there would always be something new I could find.¡± Maddy smiled slightly, as if imagining some distant time instead of just a few days before. ¡°Back in that fate dungeon¡­I changed my body. My status¡­I skimmed over it but if I do a status ritual properly ¨C a deep one instead of a quick stat check¡­well it no longer shows me as human. Guess what the system calls my new species? ¡®Sine-faeculentus (Unrecorded Variant)!¡¯ Neat huh?¡± Maddy smiled slightly pointedly ignoring the look of shock that appeared on Jess and Troy¡¯s face. ¡°Has anyone else heard of that species before? It looks Latin ¨C has it been translated into Latin from something else? I tried using the translation concept from a system crystal to translate it into english but just got something about ¡®without filth¡¯ or ¡¯unsticky¡¯. Either way I haven¡¯t even properly sat back to consider what that means. My endless pursuit of magic was more important.¡± Beside Maddy, Jess reached out and grabbed her friends arm tightly. Jess woman opened her mouth for a moment and then closed it, shifting her chair to sit closer to her friend instead. It was pretty obvious this was the first time Maddy was revealing this. Had she been holding it in the same way James had held in the calamity job? ¡°Does that sound insane? It sounded fine at the time but self reflection is weird. I built off vague information I saw about self necromancy using the affinity that¡¯s the best at it. I improved those guidlines by throwing more than just life and death magic into the spell and threw everything I had into becoming immortal.¡± Maddy¡¯s free hand rose and grasped the air before falling back to her lap. ¡°That¡­wasn¡¯t even something I deliberated on that much. ¡° Maddy smiled a complex expression appearing on her face. ¡°Immortality? That¡­felt like an obvious bit of magic I should get around to. I knew others had done it and it seemed like a step I should get around to. I was vaguely planning on doing it much further in the future, but then the dungeon gave me time to think and made me certain that was the best time to do it as my domain was forming. Knowing what I know now, it probably was the perfect time to do it too ¨C a time where I was ignorant enough, my belief helped me stumble into whatever it was I did.¡± Maddy¡¯s face looked bitter for a moment before she took a breath and continued her ramble. ¡°It was the perfect time to do it and it would help me reach my goal. I wanted to study magic for eternity and that ¡®felt¡¯ like the best way of doing it. Immortality wasn¡¯t the ¡®goal¡¯ the way it might be for some, it was just an obvious step in the process. I gave my spell the greatest cost and accepted the change without regret. Soon I¡¯d have more than a single lifetime to explore mana. I¡¯d have as much time as I wanted to learn all the secrets of magic. ¡°But¡­Then I advanced and got my so called rewards. I got told a deeper secret and that shook me more than it should of. I don¡¯t know why it hit me as much as it did ¨C My goal was to spend the rest of my life playing with the magic I loved¡­and then R admitted that magic was fake. Mana is artificial. Magic¡­ Mana¡­all the rules about mana weren¡¯t real ¡®rules¡¯ the way I had been imagining they were rules.¡± Maddy stopped and then started up again as if she were trying to explain something she didn¡¯t really understand herself. ¡°It turned out I wasn¡¯t learning secrets to the universe. I was learning the background in a story. I was teaching myself lore in a fantasy series ¨C Restrictions? Inverted concepts and inverted shaping? Domains? They were all less secret ¡®laws¡¯ of magic I¡¯d discovered and more just arbitrary rules for how a great big machine was told to run. And yet even that isn¡¯t fully true. R said it right there after dropping that on me. Just because mana is artificial doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s fake. My body is different now. I can turn grass into tea and stone into bad tasting deserts. That power is real. So why does it suddenly feel less important?¡± Maddy asked without expecting an answer. Maddy sighed. ¡°Anyways, my domain is ¡®set¡¯ so that truth isn¡¯t enough to break my ability to cast fake magic. All that¡¯s important now is there no longer feels like theres an endless secret to discover. If I ¡®learn¡¯ more I¡¯ll just be writing fanfiction and pretending its cannon. I¡¯ll be a child mailing in what they want magic to do and letting the adults ¨C the world¡¯s domain ¨C decide to include or ignore my ideas. ¡°The thing is¡­I changed myself for that goal. I thought nothing would shake my excitement for that goal and then it felt like the goal itself was forcefully diminished. ¡°It feels like the solid tower I was running towards was made of sand. ¡°¡­And now my feelings are weird and ¡®other¡¯ and ¡®lesser¡¯ because I committed harder than I possibly could have. I¡¯m more open so it probably feels and sounds like I¡¯m more emotional and vulnerable¡­but I feel like I¡¯m not. Mentally I feel stronger than I ever have. My willpower is iron tight and my new perspective gives me a unique way of self reflection. A way of stepping back and seeing myself from different angles¡­ ¡°If I had something I wanted I¡¯d be able to throw everything into that something without flinching. I¡¯m just¡­confused. The only answer I have for all of this is that I now feel lost. I don¡¯t even care that the exciting goal I¡¯d given everything for feels fake. I¡¯m just trying to figure out what my new forever goal should be.¡± Maddy finished. She paused and smiled as if it really didn¡¯t matter. Maddy was silent for longer than a pause. Jess squeezed her arm extra hard and continued opening and closing her mouth failing to say much of anything in response. James kept expecting Maddy to continue ¨C it felt like there was a point to this rant. Hadn¡¯t she been about to say what the law she wanted to make was? Wasn¡¯t this the reasoning for her answer? The build up? Was this the kind of response she was hoping for by her ¡®what are your long term goals¡¯ question? Oh. She was like James. She also didn¡¯t know. Finally Maddy pushed Jess off her slightly and started speaking again ¨C as if starting from scratch. ¡°Okay that got a bit out of hand. I was going to say my goals feel like they align with yours, James. It¡¯s easy enough to see how the planet and the rules and stuff work when you step back. True magic, cause divorced from effect. Cost and then the result from that cost both controlled costs and uncontrolled side effects. It¡¯s like the constraints I learned in mana based ¡®magic¡¯. There¡¯s a reason for everything, but that reason doesn¡¯t have to be ¡®the¡¯ reason necessarily. Everything can be thought of that way really. Monsters come out at night right now because ¡®monsters have to come out¡¯ as a cost to the world having magic. If we force the random appearences to happen at night instead of all the time we have some time to rest ¨C the monsters at night are probably stronger than they would be if they could appear at any time but its probably worth it or popular enough to have been the default for us. ¡°That¡¯s a rule that just as easily could be a rule that monsters only come out at day time ¨C although that might have some side effect that makes ¡®day bad¡¯ and the sun starts becoming extra poisonous or something.¡± Maddy shrugged as she explained. Troy suddenly laughed then went silent as everyone glanced at him. A beat of silence appeared and then Maddy continued. ¡°Anyways, rules. I want to expand the costs we might have to bare for those rules but I need everyone to start brainstorming things they want to control about this world before we bring up costs. I guess I didn¡¯t really bring up a rule first did I? Sorry, if its not clear I¡¯ll throw a few things down. I want the magic I can do and play with to feel like it matters. That means I want¡­I want mana to become powerful enough to dwarf ¡®true¡¯ magic. I want¡­I want a magic system that can grow endlessly. I want there to be a depth to mana I can spend a lifetime learning and I want that depth to be real¡­I want the stuff I learn to be real and I¡¯ll settle for what I learn no longer changing and being based on real rules no matter how arbitrary they might have been initially¡­ ¡°True magic should be able to achive that right? Should be able to make the rules for mana more solid? Should be able to convince me my original life goal is still worth striving for? ¡°I spent an entire day and over half of my minds trying to figure out what I actually wanted and have only now settled on an answer I¡¯m happy with.¡± Maddy sat back waving her hands slightly. ¡°I¡­I don¡¯t want to find a new goal. I liked my old one. I just got distracted in a pointless way. I wish my misguided original imagination was correct.¡± Maddy smiled. ¡°I wish¡­ I want to be able to play with magic for this new endless lifetime I¡¯ve given myself and am willing to give up quite a bit to make that happen. James, your secret job¡­If ranking the world into dangerous territory helps unbound the magic I learn ¨C lets me grow it endlessness ¨C that is enough reason for me to help. That feels like the cost that my wish might take the more I think about it. Magic in a world with a level cap cannot reach above that cap but magic in a world that can grow endlessly should also be able to grow endlessly.¡± Maddy finished and this time James felt like he was able to respond. ¡°I¡­hadn¡¯t thought of that cap in that way. In that case I¡¯ll steal your goal. I want to be able to grow endlessly. I want there to always be a way to push myself. It aligns with the job that R gave me but I¡¯m doing it for myself.¡± James agreed shamelessly stealing Maddy¡¯s well thought out explanation. Jess suddenly sat up. She shifted her chair so she could face everyone properly scooting over before she spoke. ¡°Okay everyone. I wasn¡¯t sure how to bring this up but I have something to add. It¡¯s the main point keeping me back from throwing my support in. The main¡­the main rule I would want to add. Have either of you thought about what the max level really means? Maddy you spoke of costs and results. What are we gaining because of that level? Safety right? Protection?¡± Jess¡¯s voice became louder as she made her point. ¡°Endless growth ¨C not having a distinct rank cap and protection...the way I see it. The level cap of the world is to prevent monsters and people stronger than that level cap from running over us.¡± Jess looked at all three of them carefully. ¡°If I had to make a rule I know exactly what I want to focus on. I want to figure out a way of preventing high level people and monsters from destroying low level areas. Its a problem that will only grow worse the higher the rank cap of the world is. If we do it right it can become the same rule that protects us from things we aren¡¯t ready for. Because yes thats going to happen. We¡¯ve entered dungeons that are a higher rank than us on purpose but that was our choice. We consented to being underleveled because we knew dungeons were regulated and ¡®fair¡¯. Strength outside of a dungeon¡­it don¡¯t have that protection built in. Theres no ¡®fairness¡¯ to strength and I hate that. I want to live in a world where anyone can gain strength and power¡­but I also want to live in a world where that strength can be used to protect. I want a world that protects its weak long enough for them to become strong.¡± Jess reiterated her point as if speaking louder would show how serious she was about this. ¡°Maybe we change the system of the world so being higher rank causes you to become dependant on high levels of environmental mana or¡­.some similar resource or effect?¡± Maddy spoke up. ¡°A soft way of keeping high rank monsters in high rank zones. Maybe we make some automatic protection ¨C shields or free teleports to protect against punching down? A stronger option would be to figure out a way of separating out zones like the tutorial had.¡± Maddy added. Jess smiled at that her loud demands becoming a relived smile. It looked like she had expected push back not solutions. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m hoping we can do.¡± Jess responded stabbing a finger into the table. ¡°I know some people are gaining power because they want to be able to use that strength to stand on top of others and actively weakening ourselves to protect the weak is not going to be popular. ¡°If I had my way I¡¯d lean towards a harder option ¨C completely separating out the higher level areas instead of just ¡®suggesting¡¯ creatures stay in those zones. Did you see the stuff about example worlds that have different dimensions? That seems like a good separation. One way if we can manage that ¨C you can ¡®ascend¡¯ to a higher realm but not return.¡± Troy spoke up for the first time. ¡°Other dimensions already exist. How do you think my domain lets me slip into shadow? That dimension simply is. It¡¯s the opposite of our world in many ways ¨C sources of darkness cast shadows across light¡­and its too complete to be something I made. I don¡¯t think anyone could make an entire dimension¡­not a true one at least and finding one that fits your requirements? ¡°How do you imagine we make an entire dimension? How do you even expect to enforce these rules if others actively dislike them? What makes you think we can push our laws for the world in without them getting torn down by others? I¡¯m sure some people plan on making families and having children ¨C do children get taken from their parents and shoved into a lower realm? If a parent ascends, are they unable to contact their child?¡± Jess nodded slowly. ¡°Well¡­maybe we can give visitation rights or something.¡± ¡°If we are just making up random rules about entire dimensions why not make up a rule that lets higher realm people descend and be suppressed to a lower level? Or set up some sort of spell that lets higher realm humans send avatars down to those below? World system aided illusion puppets that don¡¯t have enough power to abuse?¡± Troy added. ¡°Humans and whatever my species is right?¡± Maddy added trying to lighten the mood. ¡°You sound sarcastic but I¡¯d be happy with that puppet rule ¨C what rule would you want to add if you could add anything?¡± Jess shot back. ¡°You¡¯ve just commented on our laws, what rule would you add if you could add anything?¡± Troy shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± He then sat back with and visibly shrugged at everyone. ¡°I¡¯m happy enough right now. As long as we can stay friends, I don¡¯t care how the world changes. I think¡­I actually think I¡¯m trying not to get my hopes up. Do you know how many people came with us from earth? 0.1%. Almost 8 million people. I think¡­It looks like we are some of the first in the area ¨C how many others did you find when scouting?¡± Troy turned to Maddy. ¡°When we got here, I saw just under 10 groups¡­I think it was around 20 people? Past two days that¡¯s tripled easy. Keep in mind there seems to be a bunch of groups in this area but there could be people far away. I¡¯ve only explored a few kilometers in every direction.¡± Maddy thought for a moment before answering. ¡°I noticed one or two people on my way here but this is the largest group I¡¯ve seen and the only group that has actual buildings,¡± James added. ¡°Either way, some people were faster, some people will be stronger. I¡¯m trying not to assume I get to set rules just because.¡± Troy cut in once again. ¡°Cop out¡± Jess called. ¡°You have to pick something, dems the rules¡±. ¡°James just said ¡®me too¡¯ on Maddy¡¯s pick? Fine, I¡¯d make it so anyone could send each other messages in the system. Free cell phone we could use to message each other no matter the distance.¡± Troy waved his hand dismissively. ¡°Better. But you left Earth for a reason right? You had a cell phone back on Earth ¨C could have texted any of your friends back then. You have to have something more important you want from this world.¡± Jess pushed. ¡°I didn¡¯t have friends to text back on earth. What you want me to make a law in the world that everyone has to become my friend or something? That¡¯s creepy at best Jess. ¡° Troy looked away and Jess¡­pulled back. She looked embarrassed. Troy finally turned back. ¡°Okay. I don¡¯t have a lot I want for myself right now. If I had to introduce a rule that everyone had to follow, it would be something that helped all of you with your passions. My formal law would be a law that makes it so others can¡¯t break your laws. Assuming we are some of the first to manage it, maybe I¡¯ll make it so early laws can¡¯t be undone or overturned by later ones. Something like that. Maybe a law that prevents laws I¡¯d object to from being passed as well. I¡¯m pretty happy with the current situation.¡± Troy added. Jess nodded, still looking embarrassed. Maddy clapped her hands ¡°Do we have lesser goals or laws we¡¯d want? Not stuff we¡¯d fight for but things we¡¯d add if we had the chance? Stuff like Troy¡¯s cellphone idea. I¡¯m sure I could set up a spell that works similar given some time and I can¡¯t imagine it being nearly as difficult to give that to the system as something else. I personally want a way of evolving magic past domains. Something like ''creating a confluence of both sides of the coin¡¯¡­so instead of pure mana being the weak combination between life and death the combination would become a true third thats even more powerful than the base sides. Something like ¡®soul mana¡¯ for life and death. I¡¯m 90% sure the necromancer¡¯s world had something like that. I¡¯d be able to evolve all 3 of my affinities as well which would be plenty of fun. Maybe an evolved version of concepts as well or an entirely different system that works for higher leveled spells¡± ¡°I¡¯d like a free or cheap shower spell in the system. Some button to clean myself.¡± Jess offered. ¡°Why stop there? Why not aim for high rank creatures never needing a bath? You could claim sweat and grime is a problem for low level people¡± Troy laughed. ¡°How about a free burger button? 1 mana and the system gives you a burger that doesn¡¯t taste like cardboard? No offense Maddy.¡± ¡°I paid good stone for those burgers, you take that back¡± Maddy laughed. ¡°What¡¯s your opinion on that afterlife stuff? James asked. ¡°I¡­think I liked having resurrections available. I used them quite a bit and don¡¯t think I would have been able to take as many risks as I have if I didn¡¯t know deep down I¡¯d be safe¡­¡± ¡°That seems like a big goal, not a convenience thing.¡± Troy pointed out. ¡°I think people should be allowed to figure out their own immortality or lack of it. ¡°A system like the necromancer provided required a single powerful person individually saving people. He¡¯s had complete and total control over your souls and the only reason you got a body back was because he¡¯s was contractually required to do so. ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to take R up on the offer of making that man our permanent resurrection specialist. Especially if we have to negotiate with him directly and he¡¯s no longer bound to do it for free ¨C can¡¯t everyone just figure their own immortality out? Get better life saving skills or take less risks.¡± Maddy pushed against the idea. ¡°I liked the idea¡± Jess muttered. ¡°What about¡­¡± ¡­ The group spent nearly an hour brainstorming convenient things they¡¯d like. After all the initial ¡°Important¡± rules were out of the way, it was surprisingly easy to figure out stuff they missed from Earth ¨C or had particularly strong opinions on. The brainstorming began to wind down after it shifted to everyone bringing up food they missed. Maddy waved everyone into silence and decided it was time to continue her direction of the conversation. ¡°Now that we have a better idea of our actual goals we have to start thinking about how we might actually achieve them. Its probably a good time to bring up what we might be willing to give up to achieve some of these goals¡­The cost or side effects for the big ones at least.¡± Maddy leaned forward and stared directly at James. ¡°James you mentioned stopping any wars long enough for the planet to advance. Once it advances you might need to do it again. And again. What are your plans for that?¡± ¡°R seems to think I won¡¯t have a good chance of preventing people from fighting directly. He¡¯s hoping I¡¯ll act as a common enemy to distract people long enough for the planet to rank up without anyone.¡± ¡°Is that a requirement or is it just a suggestion?¡± Maddy asked a curious look in her eye.¡± ¡°Its¡­a strong suggestion?¡± James responded. ¡°My dungeon¡¯s even primed to work towards that goal.¡± Maddy nodded slightly. ¡°Is there a more straight forward solution? The goal is to keep as much people alive as possible and rank the world up into a more powerful state right? Is it easier to focus on those directly?¡± ¡°I¡­don¡¯t know, ¡®R¡¯ seemed to think it would take about a year for the planet to rank up naturally. Do you think we can force it to rank up sooner?¡± James thought. That did seem straightforward. Focus on shortening the timeframe in a sprint. Made sense. ¡°If it helps I could ask what the requirements are?¡± James offered and suddenly everyone froze. ¡°You¡­can ask ¡®R¡¯?¡± Maddy said carefully. ¡°Yes, I never used my questions up in the in-between and R said he can answer based on mood instead of contract for me.¡± James hadn¡¯t realized this was as big a deal as it obviously was for everyone else. ¡°Hax!¡± Jess yelled. ¡°Favouritism! Ask him how we can separate out high level people!¡± ¡°Ask him what his name is,¡± Maddy called and James wasn¡¯t even sure she was joking. ¡°He¡¯s only going to respond if it will help with my job.¡± James tried to wave it off. ¡°This will help!¡± Jess nodded. ¡°Vital help. Make sure to stress that.¡± ¡°So¡­how do ask him?¡± Maddy asked. That¡­was a good question. How could he ask? James figured it really was worth reaching out to see if Maddy¡¯s idea had merit. How would a champion contact their sponsor? Chapter 91. Stop ignoring your gifts! ---Richard--- Richard finally achieved his main personal goal. Manual defense. Manual defense he could automate back into passive defense with his AI and a simple set of transfer functions. It would have been more cinematic if he figured it out in the middle of a massive battle. It would have sounded more memorable if he managed it after months of constant study. Instead it was a pair of simple achievements slipped in with his base building and tower defense.
?? Achievement get: Stat modifier.
Description: Took control of your body''s power defense and shaped it towards your own ends.
Stat: +9 mental power. Stat: +9 integrated body modifier power. Stat: +9 body defense.
??? Achievement get: Stat AI interface.
Description: Gave control of your body''s stats over to your embedded personal computer. Aren¡¯t you afraid of viruses?
Stat: +3 Mental AI power Stat: +3 Mental AI speed ¨C Stat switching focus Stat: +3 Mental AI defense Stat: +3 Mental Fear defense
But really. He already had all the key information he needed. Stat equipment resonance from the last zone. The knowledge that stats were single esoteric atoms forming bonds with his body ¨C thanks clear rewards. Even with his theoretical knowledge and high quality AI cheat he might not have managed it as quickly as he did¡­but then a second cheat floated in when he started dragging the connections about with his ethereal connection arms. They felt more and more like arms now. No longer cables he could stab into stuff but parallels to his stone hands that could drag stat resonance about his body like weaver operating an invisible loom. Why had Richard wanted to set this up again? Why did he think he could do better than nature? Well that was simple. Defense was mathematically the strongest stat. Its true, Defense best stat hands down. Fire power vs fire defense. Poison power, poison defense. It was clear in every specialized comparison. 100 points in slashing defense would make you nearly immune to 100 points in slashing power. The real world was messy and power and speed stats didn¡¯t always shift into nice consistent numbers¡­but the difference was big enough you could prove it in lab settings and those readings did transfer to the real world even if they were harder to measure. Honestly 10 defensive points in some specific rare poison were enough to defend against 100 potency points in the same rare attacking poison. That¡¯s how high the stat disparity was. General poison defense also worked against specific rare poison even if that ratio was closer to 1:2. The only reason defense ever lost exchanges in reality was due to specialization. By default, defensive stats defended against any possible damage they could defend against with a portion completely neutralizing the damage and a portion weakening the rest. 100 general defensive stats failed against 100 specialized damage stats ¨C and there was no such thing as a ¡®general¡¯ power stat. Basically, if there were some theoretical ¡®1 generalized damage¡¯ split between every damage type it would be perfectly blocked by 1 generalized defense. Body power defaulted to physical power or ¡®strength¡¯ after all. All one really needed to understand was defense was the best stat. Richard had finally started to understand why these rules even worked the way they did. It was like those black box lectures he had listened to. His body was the black box ¨C the stats and aether they used were almost a closed system. Because nearly no aether was gained or lost on defense, its efficiency could rise to 100% with spent aether somehow rejoining unspent. Power and speed stats on the other hand were only mostly closed systems. They effected the world around the person who had gained them ¨C moving released energy into positions that expended them and that energy had to come from somewhere¡­ At least that¡¯s the hypothesis Richard had made and nothing so far had gone against that. ¡­ Richard stood right outside the town¡¯s wall as darkness fell for the 5th night. Far in the distance ¨C as if just out of sight ¨C monsters began to slowly appear crawling towards him. A menagerie of abominations in all manner of shapes and sizes. Scan finished. Unknown Entity 1. Visual classification displayed in generalized results due to verbosity level. Piercing damage: 93% Chance. Medium-low damage potential. Chemical damage: 48% Chance. Variable damage potential. Medium high impact. Class A: 80% Chance. Medium-high damage potential. Class B: 7% Chance. Low Damage Potential. Class C: 13% Chance. Unknown Damage Potential. Dissolution damage 3% Chance. High damage potential. Alternative damage type. 0.1% Chance. Unknown Damage Potential. Shifting defense split using Scan Updated. Multiple entities classified. Individual readings collapsed. Updating defense split using mean risk/impact weightings. Ongoing classification of additional entities in process. Richard began to feel heavy. A disorienting roll of discomfort passed his body as his AI activated nodes he¡¯d created from his flesh and then re-embedded in his body. Richard¡¯s arms and legs became stiff as they resisted even his own motion. It felt restricting. Suffocating. Like someone was covering him in weighted blankets while wrapping him in plastic wrap. The heaviness began to disappear but the stiffness remained. All the same as lab conditions so far. Everything was going according to keikaku. Richard breathed out and pushed a disinterested smirk onto his face just in case someone was watching ¨C from back on the wall or through the system, didn¡¯t matter. The first of the monsters arrived ¨C a creature that looked something like a giant grounded bat with heavy spike laden wings. It lunged and tried stabbing Richard with an ear piercing shriek ¨C his stats had dropped from his ears slightly so the sound caused Richard to wince. Dozens of spikes flexed as the wing arrived ¨C appearing to Richard''s sight like a wall of green-grey needles. ¡°Just a fun little test. Nothing to worry about. Don¡¯t be a bitch¡± Richard muttered standing as still as he could ¨C not that he had much choice in the matter. Richard felt the wall wrap around him. Everything vanished in a moment and a buzz of almost pain crossed his body. The tips of the countless spikes only puncturing a small distance into his skin. Less than half an inch in a few thousand spots maybe. No biggy. If he¡¯d gone a specialized defense route his body¡¯s defense would have grown towards neutralizing the spikes instead of healing from them. As it was with his normal stats, initial puncture wounds usually stabbed deep into him and then were healed quickly. Richard was completely wrapped in the wing and his AI hijacked his senses to measure the way a faint paralytic had been pumped into his flesh. With a jerking motion the bat tried to rip Richard up ¨C probably to pull some hulk smash on his ass ¨C but Richard''s current split held fast. He was much too heavy. He resisted being moved against his will. Roughly 20 seconds had passed and he could already feel a faint increase in his piercing defense as his main skill began to adapt. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. A second shriek rang out ¨C muffled slightly by his coccon ¨C and the bat tried to open a hole in its wing and take a bite of the heavy meal. Richard stared at the bats beady red eyes as its jaw failed to puncture the skin on his shoulder. ¡°You done?¡± he asked trying to think of a quip and failing. ¡°Give one of your friends a turn if you are ¨C¡°Richard''s arms were pressed against his side but he resisted being contained. It was hard to move his stiff limbs. Incredibly hard¡­ but they barely felt restricted by the monster itself if he was being honest. Slowly Richard squeezed his arms out and pushed the surroundings away fighting against himself while ignoring the spiky bat. Strength stats were almost hindering him at this point ¨C he had his AI try and suppress his strength stats across his body and part of the stiff feeling faded. A series of blows began to rain down on him as what looked like a zoo of porcupine cosplayers attacked. As his adaptive skill began to put in some work, Richards AI recalibrated his stats ¨C fuck, No wait! That was decreasing his skill¡¯s effectiveness abort! Abort! Richard mentally slammed the stop button and set his AI to scanning and building a better profile instead. Manually diverting the rest of his ¡®QOL¡¯ stats Richard suddenly froze. The stiff feeling was replaced with complete and utter immobilization. Richard struggled against the self imposed bindings and felt a faint feedback from his adaption skill. Could it not adapt to this? Could it not slowly build and defend against this annoying immobile state? His defensive stats were defending against this before he redirected them¡­and his skill defended against any continuous damage. It felt like it should work. Richard unfroze just enough to close his eyes then froze and began completely ignoring the monsters around them. Their stabs weren¡¯t even puncturing him anymore. This was more important. Come on. Do something. Richard poked his ethereal hands through his body, his connections better able to sense the skill while it was being used like this. What was happening? How was the skill functioning? Could he boost it with more aether from a free slot? ¡­no, the aether fueling this skill was different. Dumping ¡®pure¡¯ aether into a machine running off of his chaos affinity skill was like trying to fill a car with deasil. More like filling it with vegetable oil actually ¨C he could probably build a way of converting power but not without any tools using nothing but spit and girt. Slowly Richard released his ¡®absolute¡¯ defense feeling the way the world about suddenly came into focus. He could suddenly feel the attacks again ¨C they still weren¡¯t puncturing him. Reaching out Richard kept his defense at 95% wild blocking and slowly grabbed a particularly aggressive creature trying to eat his face. Gripping two sides of a creature that looked like a porcupine lizard on steroids Richard slowly ripped the struggling creature in two. Kinetic defense was 100% increasing the weight of his inertia ¨C it¡­it might even be more efficient than power stats if he got it high enough. Fuck yeah. I should tell James to ditch stats other than defense. Mentally switching to the message section Richard frowned as the ¡®online¡¯ note for his friend suddenly flipped to ¡®out of range¡¯. Had James entered a dungeon? ¡­I guess I¡¯ve been ignoring my nest as well. Might as well be my second side quest in Operation Skynet.
---James--- One question at a time, James should see if Maddy¡¯s idea had merit. Focusing inwards, James found his heart and the weird ¡®other¡¯ feeling that hid behind his senses. James poked the mantle and felt something change slightly. It felt like¡­it felt like the prickle of someone¡¯s sight. Like he knew someone was looking at him ¨C like he could feel R¡¯s gaze through the bit of power he¡¯d been gifted. ¡°Can you answer?¡± James thought at the mantle and then when he didn¡¯t get an instant response tried again ¨C this time pushing the idea of his question into his mana and shoving his mana into his heart. Shaping his intent this way only really worked inside his body but the heart was a part of him even if it was cut off¡­Slowly the presence inside of him reached out ¨C a single tendril of response from incredibly far away feeding into his heart. The gaze almost controlled the scrubbed mana that left James¡¯s heart imprinting its own meaning and intent¡­ James swapped to an aether lens. His ability to manipulate his aether like a muscle faded but in that weird transition he managed to link his AI to his heart, feeding in pulses of information crystalized in aether and attempting to decode the structured aether leaving his heart on the other side. Everyone watched in silence as James attempted to communicate through his mantle. After a minute or two his AI started picking up bits and pieces of the response. ¡±Cannot enter¡­world fragile¡­close off the closed room¡­consent¡­can¡¯t interfere more than I have¡­separate your location¡­prepare for communication vessel¡­¡± ''R¡¯ repeated similar ideas again and again until James stopped and looked about. ¡±Can we¡­close off this room more than we have? And prepare a communication vessel?¡± James didn¡¯t fully understand what he was asking but Maddy seemed to understand at least part of that. He¡¯d read the stuff about closed rooms with Richard but other than knowing they were required for dungeons to work properly he didn¡¯t fully get it. They were in a house with the door closed. Was that not enough? ¡°Delineate the door. Delineate the floor, remove the backdoor,¡± Maddy spoke and lines of mana rushed outwards into the room about them. Several minuscule holes seemed to disappear ¨C the edges of the door melting into place seamlessly in the wall as she cut them off even further from the outside. The air in the room suddenly felt warmer and a sense of being isolated twinged across James¡¯s body. ¡°and now a puppet for the puppet master¡­¡± Maddy muttered a small doll appearing in the center of the table. She paused and looked at James. ¡°Does your sketchy boss have a requirement for this to work? Blood? Mana?¡± ¡°Consent¡± the doll spoke. ¡°The deepest requirement of true magic.¡± Troy opened his mouth to say something then closed it immediately. Whatever he was about to say was immediately sidelined by the show in front of them. The doll melted slightly, its body warping as if under a great invisible load. Soon the creature was hunched over in the center of the room, its back a lump its skin waxy and fluid. It looked like a trollish garden gnome made of beeswax was placed in an oven just hot enough to begin melting it. ¡°I¡¯m¡­slightly surprised my contractor reached out for help. ¡° R spoke his voice clear despite the wax dripping down his lips. ¡°I was 80 percent sure he¡¯d take on the burden alone.¡± ¡®R¡¯ coughed and wax drops landed on Jess¡¯s clean table. ¡°Now, unlike what you may be imagining I haven¡¯t been watching this planet. I¡¯m completely hands-off at this point in time ¨C I cannot know why you are contacting me. I have no power to affect what has been put into place.¡± ¡®R¡¯ coughed again then amended his last statement his voice taking on a laboured tone as if he were struggling to speak normally. ¡°Actually I do have a power¡­My power to influence the planet is¡­James. Until the status of the world changes ¨C either by one of the sides winning for their sponsor, or James winning on behalf of the house¡­well I can¡¯t even offer individual contracts or boons to your people until after that point. ¡°Right now I can speak to my contractor and anything I say will be the same as my contractor explaining things to you¡­but I cannot speak to the rest of you directly or risk breaking my contract. Ideally James would be alone¡­ideally, James could project an illusion of me talking to remove my burden or Maddy could read James¡¯s memories and project a feed to¡­¡± R coughed a blob of wax across the wall and went silent. ¡°Now, James. What do you need from me?¡± R asked facing and appearing to only speak to James. R looked¡­different than he had. He looked tired and small. Why was he labouring so much to speak to them? Was someone else holding him back? Was he holding himself back? Was it weird magic stuff that no one understood? Probably that. James took a breath to organize his thoughts and began asking their questions. ¡°Is there a way of ranking up the world sooner? A way of rushing to the goal instead of letting it default while we muck about with keeping a growing population from killing each other?¡± James asked the main question they had. R was silent for a moment and then spoke carefully. ¡°Ranking up the world involves a bunch of different systems interacting with each other. Right now, James you are rank 3 nearing rank 3+. You have above 729 stats concentrated in a single body. The current world has a rough rank cap of 4. Reaching rank 4 means tripling your stats or collecting around 2187 ¨C that includes those monster stats you¡¯ve integrated but doesn¡¯t account for alternative methods of weight equivalent to stats but not lesser. ¡°I can tell you that having several people at or above that barrier will stress the world into jumping up as well. Alternatively you can force the rank jump by gaining that first circle yourself and pushing through to 3154 stats at rank 4+. It¡¯s not just based on stats ¨C skills and quality of skills also matter¡­ but the number and quality of them arn¡¯t as important numerically. Number of monsters put down ¨C although field boss level creatures being put down happens at the same time as stat infusions. Rank of dungeons and nests¡­but clearing those gives stats as well. ¡°The year timeline I gave you is not so much an invisible timer and more a natural timeline based on the amount of growth the population should reach. If it was even possible to instantly rank up the world¡­well you¡¯d find it nearly impossible to survive instead of ¡®hard¡¯ as natural projections show it happening.¡± R finished. As soon as he began speaking to James and James alone his coughs and weakness seemed to mostly fade. James nodded slightly. ¡°So we can¡¯t force that timeline sooner.¡± Jess nodded. ¡°It doesn¡¯t sound like we want to.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say that¡­¡± R coughed and shot a half glare towards Jess before refocusing on James. ¡°I¡¯m just giving some background. A description for what exactly you are asking me. ¡° R responded to James. ¡°If you want to rank the planet up faster you have to raise your weight far above average ¨C grow till the planet naturally bumps into a strong enough state to bear your weight. The rank-up will be announced with a world trial you need to survive and soon that trial will become the new normal. ¡°If you were quite a bit stronger than you are now and this conversation was happening a rank or two later you might have more control over that process¡­for now that¡¯s all I will say. ¡°Now, your job is to act as a calamity. Your mantle will empower your gift to help that goal and if you understand what you are asking¡­you have my blessing. Just use your gift to force that goal.¡± R nodded. ¡°By gift, you mean the dungeon seed?¡± James asked. ¡°Yes. I have a good idea of what form it might take if you gamble on faster progression. Saying anything more than that will count as interference even with your position.¡± R seemed to melt faster as soon as he said the word ¡®gamble¡¯. ¡±Can we separate out ranks into different dimensions to protect those who haven¡¯t reached a higher level yet? Can we separate out aether and mana into different dimensions and keep them separate and unable to attack each other?¡± Maddy asked. R silently stared at James until he sighed and re-asked the question. ¡°Yes nothing is stopping you. Go ahead.¡± R responded in a curt tone. ¡°How?¡± James asked trying to match the curt response. ¡°Be strong enough to achieve either feat. Nothing is stopping you but the lack of capability. Your gift might help a bit if you aim for that goal but¡­it¡¯s not a magic solution to every problem its just a tool. It can¡¯t achieve the impossible ¨C that¡¯s your job. Whatever you chose you should probably do it soon ¨C its value will not raise the longer you sit on it and if you do choose the route you brought up you¡¯ll want as much time as you can to use it.¡± James nodded slightly. Nothing was stopping them from making new dimensions. Or finding ones that already existed if Troy was to be believed. ¡­ But how? How would they actually go about doing that? R had made it sound like they could have all sorts of control over the world they would be living in. ¡°Earlier you mentioned all sorts of ways we could affect the world. Add rules to the system and rules to the way magic might work in the world. How mechanically would we do that?¡± James asked trying to figure out what he was missing. ¡°For all customers, those possibilities were given as a reward for clearing this zone.¡± R responded. ¡°As soon as my existing contracts are complete and have run their course¡­well at that point I can begin making boons and bargains with the new population for feats they cannot achieve with their own power. Even after that point most of it should be possible with your own power¡­All I would need to do is¡­a push.¡± R went silent. Suddenly a grin split his face in two, the entire top half of his head moving up and down as he spoke. For the first time since being summoned R turned to face someone else. ¡°Maddy, you remember that wager I offered? It¡¯s a simple game ¨C if you take me up on it and commit to using all guesses now, I¡¯ll even give you a hint. A push of your own my dear,¡° Maddy froze. What was the game R had mentioned? Had Maddy kept something that had happened from them? The woman half turned her head in the beginning of a denial and then stopped. She looked about at everyone in the room. Her eyes lingered on James then Troy then Jess, finally the moved to the waxy doll and she nodded. ¡°What¡¯s your hint?¡± Maddy asked. Her mind seemed to be made up. ¡°I¡¯ve already given it.¡± R grinned. ¡°Both here and¡­before.¡± Chapter 92. Planting seeds. ---Maddy--- Maddy was put on the spot. She¡­was taking a risk. One that felt riskier than anything else she had done. Why did it feel risky? What about it felt so dangerous? Why had she ignored it the other day and accepted it today? Was it¡­because R currently looked weak? Was it because she felt safer here with friends than she had in the dark? Maddy spiraled into self reflection even as a good portion of her consciousness began discussing R¡¯s absolutely garbage hint. His hint was he had already given his hint? That wasn¡¯t a real hint it was a trick! When had he given it? He¡¯d given it¡­twice before? Or he¡¯d given two hints before? Was before...sometime near the start? Was his hint hidden in the contract none of them remembered fully? Was ¡®before¡¯ referring to a time back on earth? That¡­that was too far back. It seemed impossible. Did the ¡®R¡¯ this creature call himself by relate to his name? First letter? Was there some meaning to its position in the alphabet? Was there a time he¡¯d revealed his name? ¡°Is your name Renald?¡± Maddy asked thinking back to the helpful wizard who had taught her spells early on. ¡®R¡¯ began to laugh his face way too wide his mirth way too large. ¡°Is an apple an orange just because you¡¯re colorblind?¡± R choked out between laughs as if he had just said the funniest joke in the world.¡± It was a trap. She¡¯d accepted an impossible quiz. Maybe she could find the answer out if she had time to research ¡®R¡¯ ¨C bribe the necromancer into telling her his name or something. She¡¯d lost. What had she done? Maddy fell apart. Her eyes popped into the walls and the corners each stealing bits of her stability until nothing but her Light-creation eye remained. Why that eye in particular stayed on her face she couldn¡¯t have said. Either way as she mentally dispersed herself her panic faded. It was a game. It wasn¡¯t the end of the world ¨C it was just a silly little game. Maddy laughed. Her giggles joining R¡¯s chortles her single eye puppeting the shared body on its own. ¡°Is your name ¡®Rumpelstiltskin?¡¯ Might as well ask right? Seems pretty obvious doesn¡¯t it ¨C children know that answer.¡± Maddy laughed. Rumpelstiltskin laughed harder and nodded attempting to reduce his overflowing joy. In front of Maddy and only Maddy the wax figure transformed. The man¡¯s body became more ¡®real¡¯ than the surroundings ¨C his form twisting into a surprisingly handsome fractal of hands. He was illusion made real. She was illusion made real. He was a single clone. She was a single clone. ¡°Of course, of course you silly little fae. I guess that makes us cousins, doesn¡¯t it? You can be the king and I the queen ¨C come come, You won this round. A wager won fair a square even if it was an easy joke.¡± Maddy moved forward swimming through the story to sit beside R on the side of the cliff. Dimmly she remembered the cliff had been a table or something but that didn¡¯t seem important at the moment. ¡°What do I win? Maddy asked looking about with her eye ¨C an eye that felt made of eyes not that that was important¡± ¡°A push. It''s up to you to fly ¨C¡± the hands were behind her suddenly throwing her off the cliff without warning. She fell. The ground was so far below and yet it appeared to be rushing towards her faster than the speed of light itself. She panicked. And then realized the floor was grass. The distant floor was grass the cliff was a table and she¡­was small. She was a single eye and she was somehow the size of a grain of sand. Maddy popped herself back to the table looking about for Rumpelstiltskin. ¡°That wasn¡¯t a fun reward. Give me another¡± She called. Concentrating Maddy attempted to grow big again ¨C failing to wish herself larger. ¡°Did you not like it?¡± R giggled from the surroundings. ¡°Of course not,¡± Maddy giggled back harder dimly aware how weird she felt. ¡°Give me a better present¡± Maddy conjured gold ¨C ripping the colour from the gold table below her and spilling it into countless coins. ¡°look I¡¯ll even pay for it¡± Maddy laughed at her own joke. ¡°We both know that will be gone in the ¡®morrow,¡± Rumpelstiltskin skipped by scooping up a miniature gold coin with his foot and flipping it into his hand mouth. ¡°Robbed! I¡¯ve been robbed¡± Maddy called out jumping back and gasping at the blatant thievery of her gold. ¡°Tricked! Swindled! Promised a present and given a push!¡± Maddy teleported across the distance hiding her self in the sound of her voice while leaving a convincing illusion in its place ¨C a stick with a googlie eye on it. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Appearing behind Rumpelstiltskin she stabbed the swindler with a conjured scythe stabbing his stupid stingy hands with a sneak attack. R bled everywhere a fountain of blood rushing out in all directions in a comically dramatic death scene. For half a second it switched to him throwing red silk everywhere while giggling and then it returned to rivers of blood. Bored after an ocean of fake blood finished rushing everywhere, R regathered his stability into a ball of hands once again and asked a question. ¡°So¡­want to go on a date?¡± ¡°Based on that lame present I assume you¡¯d make me pay. No thanks.¡± Maddy huffed crossing her eyes and puffing out her iris. ¡°Oh come now. It''s no fun if I just tell you ¨C I said I¡¯d give you a hint. A hint!¡± Rumpelstiltskin shook his head sadly. ¡°I guess you are kind of dumb. Needed two hints when a child could have got it in one. Don¡¯t worry I think it''s endearing!¡± Maddy refused to look at him, turning her form the other way. ¡°Yes yes, you need stuff spelled out. I¡¯m saying you can give your toys a push the same as I could. Anything they¡¯d need my true magic for you could do as well! And you haven¡¯t trapped yourself in your own game so you¡¯re free to play as you wish.¡± Maddy frowned. She felt¡­more herself. ¡°Don¡¯t call my friend''s toy¡¯s¡± R waved placating hands and tried to calm her down. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I just saw the way you were treating them a while ago¡­ Like you were the main character and they were simply side characters. Your sidekicks. I¡¯m sorry I haven¡¯t really been paying as much attention as I should have. Maybe if we spend some time together you could fix the no doubt dozens of misconceptions I have? Maddy glared at the dumb hands. ¡°Fine fine, I know I messed up. It''s this stupid gameboard getting in the way ¨C listen play through to the end and answer when you¡¯ve finished the story and in a better mood. R waved. ¡°I can wait. Give me a call when you break your box little fae.¡± Maddy watched him disappear feeling the strange wave of whimsy that had overcome her fade slightly. She¡­was fae? Maddy conjured the illusion of a large eye and teleported into it feeling her sisters slowly reach out and connect to her once again. She had a lot to think about.
---James--- James watched as R disappeared after one question ¨C Maddy¡¯s eyes flew away scattering about the room as if scared. The room was silent for a moment as the three of them looked in concern at Maddy¡¯s body. Was she okay? Did using a single guess break her? Suddenly blood poured across the table causing Troy to jump back onto the head of his chair in shock. The blood disappeared once again. Moments later a section of the table scoupped itself up forming into a completely gold eye and popping back into Maddy¡¯s body. Several of the eyes scattered about the room returned and Maddy seemed to have a conversation with herself before turning to the rest of them. ¡°Okay. Hey everyone. Sorry if I worried you.¡± Maddy reached out and touched Jess¡¯s arm before looking back at everyone. ¡°This was going to be part of the brainstorming but I forgot. I chose a seed for a dungeon. If¡­if at the time I¡¯d felt better about this world I¡¯d have picked a town pylon and made a home¡­that¡¯s what I was saying earlier. We need to mould this place into a home. If the world is too small we make it bigger. If it''s empty we fill it with stuff. If there''s no meaning we make a meaning. ¡° I should have chosen the option that would let me truly make a part of it my home. I could have built the biggest wizard tower in the world and studied magic in it for the rest of time but¡­I stopped. I chose a dungeon instead because I wasn¡¯t able to imagine this place as a home. I wanted something that seemed safe. ¡°I chose a dungeon and then I put it in my pocket and imagined I¡¯d use it when I needed it or I¡¯d study it instead of using it to help me reach my real goal.¡± Maddy pulled an invisible ball out of her pocket. James was suddenly aware of his own seed. He¡­hadn¡¯t figured out what he wanted to do with it. It came with an added ¡®dark lord¡¯ problem. Should he try and use it to increase the rank of the world? ¡°What is everyone¡¯s opinion on the quest system? It¡¯s the answer for when you don¡¯t know what to do next right? The answer to how you should go about reaching a goal? I¡­I underutilized it if I¡¯m being honest and I feel nothing but honest right now. It was a limited resource so I horded it like this was a video game. I didn¡¯t want to waste it. I could only use it every 3 weeks after all and what if I got into a problem I didn¡¯t know how to solve? Of course that then felt like a waste because I wasn¡¯t maximizing quest uses. I could have asked more often if I called for it as soon as the cooldown was over.¡± Maddy admitted. James paused ¡°I think for important situations you could have just asked anyway. I used it in the middle of a cooldown ¨C R will just answer if you really need it.¡± ¡°Haxs.¡± Troy suddenly answered shaking his head. ¡°Yeah there¡¯s a three-week cooldown. He probably just broke it for his special little champion candidate.¡± Jess spoke matching Troy¡¯s tone and head shake. ¡°That stingy creep only gives you stuff if he wants something from you¡± Maddy looked at the table for a moment. ¡°The cooldown just felt like a way to make sure he wasn¡¯t bothered as often. I underutilized the quest board as well but mostly because I kept forgetting about it.¡± James admitted. ¡°Haxs.¡± Troy shook his head again. ¡°Why are you bringing the quest board up?¡± Jess asked turning to Maddy again. ¡°I was just saying I¡¯m hoarding consumables.¡± Maddy shook her hand with the empty ball. ¡°Anyways, I¡¯m going to use this dungeon to try and learn true magic. Want to watch?¡± ¡°Something definitely happened just now, Did you win?¡± Jess asked. ¡°Maybe. I¡¯m placing my dungeon, you should all commit for your own.¡± Maddy waved towards them holding her ball and squinting at something invisible in front of her. Her eyes tracked back and forth and a hand reached out to type in the air. ¡°As soon as I mentioned true magic it gave a cost¡­¡± Maddy muttered. ¡°What sort of cost?¡± Troy asked staring at her hand in suspicion. ¡°unstable soil in stable plant.¡± Maddy muttered and then nodded her hand vanishing into the air. ¡°Okay, I donated a bit of stability to it from my own body then removed some stability from the ground and planted it there¡­it should be finished growing in 24 hours. That was easy enough.¡± Maddy nodded. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Jess asked eyes lingering on Maddy¡¯s hand as it slowly healed back transparent and flickering. ¡°Sorry, hands annoyed me a bit. I really am fine. What about everyone else?¡± Maddy waved her away then smiled confidently. ¡°I¡¯ll go.¡± Troy spoke pulling out an identical ball of nothing. ¡°Improve shadow domain. Train my strengths¡± Troy spoke typing in the air. ¡°I¡­didn¡¯t get a cost. It does say feed with mana and plant in a place attuned with shadow for best results¡­¡± he narrated after finishing up his description. Nodding he vanished into his shadow then reappeared a few seconds later looking winded. ¡°Planted in the dark dimension. Easy. Who¡¯s up next?¡± Jess looked at them then looked at her pocket. She reached in and pulled out the empty handful then put it back then pulled it back out again. ¡°Both you used your seeds to create a dungeon that only you could reach¡­or people with similar abilities I guess. ¡°I think I want to make a dungeon anyone could use. One to help¡­people figure out how they might do something. I¡¯m still not giving up on separating the strong and the weak.¡± Jess nodded then looked at the seed before typing in a quick description of what she wanted and nodding to herself. Jess walked over to the wall and conjured a golden arch against the wall placing her seed in the center and filling it in. She then turned to James. Guess it¡¯s my turn huh? Here¡¯s hoping this is the best option.
---Richard--- Richard stared at his nest seed. He rolled the blue box about and looked around. ¡°Come on¡­don¡¯t stick it up your butt. Don¡¯t do it dumbass. You¡¯re better than that.¡± He stared at the blue box once again. Don¡¯t do it. Chapter 93. A Poisoned Chalice. ---James--- James pulled his seed out of his pocket and held it for a moment. The blue indication he held flickered then projected a simple blue box into view. Here goes nothing? The box remained dormant until James finished typing in some vague goals. Pausing to reread what he wrote James suddenly felt pulse from his heart. A hum and rush of vibrating nothingness traveled up his chest and down his arm flickering out of his finger with a twitch. Suddenly the box flickered once again turning bright red. Bright blood red the box was now uncomfortable. It gave James a subtle feeling of wrongness ¨C as if it constantly gave off strange waves of ¡®I don¡¯t belong¡¯ energy. Like a puzzle piece that didn¡¯t fit, like a dragon in a shopping mall the feeling was uncomfortable and yet¡­felt relatable. James understood the feeling ¨C and technically it had come from him? He was the creature that didn¡¯t belong. The outsider. The outsider. The out ¨C James felt normal again. Whatever side effects the box had exuded they were now gone. Expanding slightly, the box began asking James questions.
Build a trial V2.0
By reading this you consent to C??????????????????????o????????????????s?????????????????????????t??????????????????????? outside the terms and r???????????????????????e????????????????????w?????????????????a??????????????????r?????????????????d?????????????????????? Inside of service. In Malvolence May Miracle Manifest. In Trial may Power be forged. And in Effort''s cruel grips may greatness be born. The shape of your wish is being measured.
Do you want to fish or fly?
Fish Fly
What Trait(s) would you like to reward?
Courage & Commitment Wisdom & Vision Kindness & Generosity
Perseverance & Determination Loyalty & Trust Integrity & Truth
Hope & Faith Creativity & Wonder Dignity & Responsibility
Do you want to Build strength or Destroy Weakness?
Build Strength Destroy Weakness
Do you want a transient trial to overcome or a lasting fixture to permanently test the world? The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Trial to overcome Lasting Fixture
Do you want a once in a lifetime trial or a repeatable test?
One shot. Repeatable Test
What Trait(s) would you like to Punish?
Greed & Gluttony Envy & Lust
Pride & Vanity Cowardness & Weakness
Lies & Perjury Wrath & Cruelty
Trial option created:
Abyssal Refinement: (The Poisoned Chalice) (Unfettered Sea Of Gamblers) [World Wonder] (Rank 6---)] Commit to refining as deep and as long as you can. Understand your limits and push as hard as you can. If you miscalculate or find the weight too great to bear the will be lost. Lost Will be used to increase the Weight of the world increasing the danger to all without individual reward. Refined Failures may Create Unknown Horrors. Sucessfully refined Will increase the Weight of the individual up to and above what the world may handle. Individuals may use the abyssal refiner as many times as they desire. Multiple refinements of the same will increase difficulty far more than a single longer and deeper refinement would. This will exponentially increase the chance of failure. This seed must drink significant quantities of water to germinate and will take 4 days of constant watering to settle. As the one and only tool given to the agent of R, planting this seed will notify all inhabitants of the planet to the potential danger it represents. While growing the Abyssal Refiner will be hard to hide and must be defended until it finishes germination.
You may attempt to alter the current trial but attempts to subvert simple costs will increase overall cost.
James looked at the result. It looked...honestly a bit better than he had been expecting. The weirdest question had probably been fish or fly. What even was the purpose of that question? James liked flying¡­but he also liked fishing and eating his catch. Maybe it influenced the alternative name being called a sea? Maddy had been right. It seemed like he should do this as soon as possible. How many humans had cleared the training grounds so far? How many would have cleared it if he spent more time trying to come up with something good? If he was going to plant this dungeon it would be safest to do it before the majority pass and the chance of someone stopping him rose. The box itself was¡­ominous was the right word. And yet removing the colour, name and some of the word choice¡­if you looked past all that it really did feel like a great option. What exactly did cover? Off the top of James¡¯s head he could imagine concepts, stats¡­items and tools like your AI. You could press a button and have those upgraded. Like sticking them in a cauldron. After some time and¡­effort you would get a result. Both ways increase the weight of the world but failure was obviously worse for humanity. It sounded like failed refinements made monsters or something and enough of those without the accompanying ¡°reward¡± of strength could spell disaster. That¡¯s probably where the poisoned chalice came in. James rubbed the seed with his finger causing the box to flicker and disappear once again. The seed itself was now red as well ¨C the same colour as the box had been and shaped like a crystalized drop of blood. It was heavier than it had been before ¨C as if the weight of James¡¯s decision had filled it. Looking up James realized three faces were looking at him expectantly. Oh¡­oh yeah. He should tell them about this shouldn¡¯t he? ¡­ ¡°You know, with that many red flags are we really sure about this?¡± Jess asked even as she began walking towards the front door. ¡°We really shouldn¡¯t right? It wouldn¡¯t be safe?¡± Troy stood up and began walking towards the door as well. ¡°True true. Lock it up.¡± Maddy stood as well glancing at James a moment later. ¡°So where are we planting it? Somewhere along the edge of the ocean?¡± Chapter 94. Plants need water to grow big and stronk. ---James--- People were slow. Painfully painfully slow. More accurately Jess was slow. Why hadn¡¯t she chosen a kinetic affinity? After the show of heading out, Maddy had turned around and left her equally as slow body behind. As was polite. Her eyes were capable of ¡®pop¡¯ing through the air at the speed of sound plus cooldown time and while it was true her mana ran out with frequent sustained jumps¡­it still averaged out to a decent speed. Something like 800km/hr give or take? A bit lower? It was decent. ¡®Popping¡¯ apparently took a relatively small amount of mana ¨C it wasn¡¯t even a spell, more some innate ability tied into her magic like some magical muscle working off of magical stamina which was a thought¡­ Troy on the other hand could run the fastest of the trio clocking in at somewhere around highway speeds ¨C 120km/hr give or take while covered in a glowing cloak of light. His main push for speed was ducking into his shadow realm ¨C something hindered less by mana or even domain exaustion and more lack of shadows with how barren the planet was. Maddy had created a few curved shadow casting walls for him to jump between but that cut into her own jump-time mana costs¡­Troy could forcefully create his own shadows to jump into but that had strange prohibitive costs¡­Still between those he wasn¡¯t a problem. Jess on the other hand was a tank who had never needed to run thousands of kilometers in a day and it showed. Her one ability to move fast was tied directly into protection ¨C she could almost teleport into a spot to protect someone with how fast she moved¡­but only for true danger. It straight up didn¡¯t work as a cheese mechanic. It also only worked within a limited range ¨C An area she was protecting? No throwing themselves into danger half a world away¡­at least not yet? All this was to say, James had actually given up after a half hour and started carrying her piggyback. She weighed¡­a bit more than her size would have indicated but defensive stats made you heavier and it wasn¡¯t something for James to worry about. Especially when she stopped using some strange field that helped her ¡®stand her ground¡¯ ¨C if anything, the only real challenge was trying not to hit her with his swinging arms not that it sounded like that would do much to her. They had decided to plant the dungeon as far away from people as they could for maximum safety. From what James could tell, there was currently a roughly established settlement on both sides of the freshwater ocean. This side was a magic settlement. The other an aether one. Directly in the middle of the two, there was free real estate for world wonder creation. James jumped, cutting across a sort of jagged bay that would have been way too annoying to run around. As he passed across the recessed section of ocean, he spotted a few large fish swimming slowly about on the bottom and made a note to come back and try his hand at fishing. This was the first sign he had seen of anything existing here other than flat grass and massive ocean-lake. Hoisting Jess back into a more comfortable position after landing James began running again. As he ran, James texted Richard. It just felt right to tell his other friend what they were doing. Context was obviously needed so he sent a transcription of their interaction with R and conversation¡­but that and his minor complaint at having to carry something had led to a response he hadn¡¯t been expecting. Richard got back to James with more venom than he was expecting. James quickly responded suddenly incredibly conscious of the woman on his back. It felt icky talking about her behind her back. Shallow. She was probably the member of the trio James was the most distant to but she was obviously closer to the group than James was. Richard responded a moment later. < Who the fuck cares about bending over to make the world better for children? This is our world. Make the world better for us, not for little shits.> James was suddenly incredibly self conscious about sending their whole conversation without permission. It hadn¡¯t even crossed his mind and now he felt like he¡¯d broken some invisible trust or something. James responded. There was something personal about it for Richard ¨C guess this hadn¡¯t come up before? Richard responded. James sent back a few minutes later. It took a long time for Richard to respond again. James ran for a bit. James sent back. If anything Richard didn¡¯t seem to be too mad at Jess anymore. James described their plan a bit more before trailing off. The rest of the run was done mostly in silence ¨C it was to windy most of the time to talk to Jess and she didn¡¯t have an AI he could ping messages to. Another hour of running and the time started to feel right. Carefully dropping his burden ¨C light burden, and not even one he minded ¨C James jumped into the air and waved down the two teleporters. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Does here seem good?¡± James yelled from the air. Troy looked around panting heavily and then nodded collapsing directly onto the ground. Slowly Maddy¡¯s body flickered into place on the grass beside him. At first James thought it was an illusion but then she helped her friend up and illusions couldn¡¯t do that. Could she teleport her entire body? Why hadn¡¯t she done that to start? Also why hadn¡¯t there been a massive pop if her little eyes made small pops? James shook his head and floated down to stand by the exhausted crew. ¡°Thirty second break and then we plant the seed?¡± James teased prompting a groan from Troy and a thumbs up from Maddy. Jess caught up to them her hair slightly windswept but otherwise looking relatively good ¨C somewhat obviously, she hadn¡¯t been running for long or for a while. After giving everyone a few minutes to start looking normal again James started to feel impatient. It felt like Christmas strangely enough. Somehow in the past day the otherwise unimportant seed had become something like a present he wanted to open. What would it look like? Would it grow like a plant? Would it pop into place? Would it make a doorway? James wanted ¨C no needed ¨C to know! Picking a spot roughly seven to eight meters off the coast, James pulled out the red ball and placed it on the ground. The box had given specific instructions to grow ¨C he didn¡¯t need to push mana into it or pile monster corpses on it for fertilizer or anything¡­although that might not hurt? The only stated requirement had been water. Lots and lots of water. ¡°Want to do the honors of watering it?¡± James asked Maddy figuring she could magic up some solution. Placing a hand on the ground Maddy conjured a grey bucket and handed it to him. Touche. Filling the bucket James brought some water over to the seed and began slowly draining it, extra eyes appearing and carefully watching the seed as he did. As soon as the water hit the small ball, it seemed to dissolve. Like sugar in water the red shell burst and a milky substance rushed through the water unnaturally fast. Grass melted into nothing, dirt following shortly after as the puddle spread and sunk into the ground. James jumped back as the edge of the puddle crossed where he had been standing then stood at the edge to watch what happened next. Over the course of maybe 10-20 seconds, a shallow hole the size of a kiddy pool had formed a thin, thin strip of milky liquid laying on the bottom of it. The liquid started off greenish brown and muddy but quickly grew silver as it melted away the dirt and grass. James suddenly realized it looked like it was evaporating ¨C the silver disappearing ¨C and he started into action running back to the water to grab a second bucket. Tossing the water into the silvery pool James watched the whole pool visibly drop a few centimeters even as it churned into life once again. James ran back to the ocean coming back for a third dump. ¡°Should we make him work for a few more dumps? Maddy stage whispered to her conspirators. James ignored them and began bounding back and forth getting into a groove. If only he could make the bucket heavier and better able to suck up water. Then this could be a good workout. ¡°Alright, one channel coming up,¡± Maddy spoke after a second before all three of them began melting a path from the ocean to the pool. Maddy hummed and stared at the spot while both Jess and Troy scooped sections of grass and stone out with their bare hands quickly digging a small channel from the ocean to the pool. As soon as they got it deep enough water began to flow. First as a trickle, then as a constant rush. All three of them suddenly started. ¡°I got a blue box,¡± Jess spoke after a second. ¡°Says a trial is being formed somewhere on the planet. Says if it''s allowed to form fully unknown danger may befall us all. If I stop it apparently the rewards will be pretty good¡­¡± Maddy looked at the channel pumping water into a rapidly dropping hole and spoke a speck of mirth in her tone. ¡°If I stop it for the rewards can we start it up again after?¡± ¡°Somewhere on the planet?¡± James asked, ignoring the shenanigans. ¡°¡­and everyone but me got this message? That¡¯s good, no one knows where we are yet.¡± ¡°Some might have abilities to find us just based on that,¡± Maddy spoke after a second her voice growing serious. ¡°Conceptually tracking the ¡®problem¡¯ or ¡®danger¡¯ or ¡®exciting egg incubation¡¯ should be possible. There''s also a good chance there will be a future warning with more detail.¡± ¡°Still, we have some time,¡± James muttered staring down as the liquid continued to drill downwards. Its colour remained whiteish but as it sunk it became obvious the pool was glowing slightly. The pool itself was silvery grey-white, but the glow it released cast rippling rainbows across the edges of the pit ¨C like a white prism splitting light into a rainbow. Like most overt displays of magic¡­it was kind of pretty. ¡°Neat¡± Troy muttered leaning dangerously far over the edge of the pit. The four stood there for a bit watching the pit continue to dig. At a certain point unspoken the four switched to sitting around the hole with their legs dangling over the edge. From this perspective, they could see the slope of the digging ¨C as the dissolving liquid dropped it melted outwards slightly causing the hole to grow wider and wider the more it dropped. ¡°How deep do you think its going to get in the end?¡± James asked after a while staring down at the distant glow. Everyone gave the question more thought than it needed. ¡°Maybe the center of the planet?¡± Troy answered after a while. ¡°Didn¡¯t some of the description mention a forge? Maybe the core of the planet is the forge they were talking about.¡± Maddy offered. ¡°I think we need to give it more water,¡± Jess added after a bit. ¡°It did say it needed a lot¡­how much of the sea do you think it would want to drink? The entire ocean?¡± she added a moment later. ¡°The cost of creating this wonder is the planet''s drinking supply.¡± Maddy looked nervous for a moment. ¡°Let me try something.¡± Grasping absentmindedly Maddy melted a chunk of the ground converting it somehow into a wooden slate and pitch black pen. Using the pen to melt carvings into the wood with pulses of mana she began to sketch quickly ¨C shapes and words tied together with nonsensical scribbles only she understood. ¡°More and more I realize how important my water concept is.¡± She muttered then stood up and began forming a sloping sort of aqueduct half her eyes left behind near the pit the other half puppeting her body off into the side. Roughly twenty meters back from the trio Maddy dropped once more and began converting large strips of the ground into a trickle of water that rushed down her pipe and into the pit as well. As Maddie¡¯s water fell, it joined the pool below in a splutter of fizz and violent burst of steam. Her water seemed to be different from the ocean water somehow. Traveling to the ocean she grabbed James¡¯s discarded bucket and brought a half full pale of water over to the corner. Making several key changes to her tablet she tried again ¨C this time from James¡¯s perspective she vaporized the bucket of seawater, wrote some more symbols that moved slightly as she drew and then began re-converting stone to water while a pile of dust began forming on her side. This time the fake water bubbled slightly as it entered the pit below but mostly began forming properly. Maddy frowned harder and then walked back towards them to stare down at the pool below. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Jess asked after nothing happened for a few moments. ¡°Without a concept dedicated to removing foreign concepts, it''s hard to scrub the contaminates from my conversion,¡± Maddy responded. ¡°¡­at least a part of me seems to think I can improve the filter with some plants all along the pipe, the real problem is scale. How long will we be watering this? How much can I even convert and how much mana will the conversion cost ¨C even assuming I loop back some of the energy from the stone to fuel more conversion? I don¡¯t have a concept dedicated to that sort of self sustaining ability and can¡¯t figure out a cost good enough to bridge the gap. There''s only so much wanting it to work I can do ¨C without power to back that up its useless.¡± Her spell continued to work in the background ¨C a small block slowly melting at the end while a stream of clear looking water trickled down the tube and into the pit below. It was dwarfed by the initial channel of seawater continuously pouring into the pit on the other side. The sound was growing as the water had further and further to fall. As if trying to prove her point a small fish chose that moment to get sucked down the path to fall below. With a small fizz, a cloud of slivery smoke flew up passing by them a moment later. ¡°I think¡­I think before anything else I¡¯m going to see if I can bridge a gap. What is actually happening here? Without being able to see that properly¡­well I¡¯m kind of blind to actually helping. I think it''s worth putting a bit more effort in? Or should we just ignore it and hope for the best?¡± Maddy asked everyone for their opinion. James hesitated. He hadn¡¯t seen a problem with their current setup, but he would also be willing to put in the work himself especially as this was his seed. It would be weird asking someone else to put in the effort ¨C he didn¡¯t feel like it was that big of a deal especially as they didn¡¯t even know if there was a problem. ¡°Maybe?¡± Troy responded after a bit. Maddy nodded. She seemed to be waiting for even the tiniest of pushes because at the barest of yess¡¯s she seemed ready. ¡°In that case, with sight to see and eyes to be, take of me to insight we¡­¡± Maddy¡¯s voice faded away as if pitch shifted into a realm James couldn¡¯t hear. As she mumbled nonsense the world almost vibrated condensation visibly pulled out of the air into dozens of floating droplets of water. From one moment to the next, Maddy¡¯s body almost evaporated the drops all becoming countless eyes that spun and slowly fell like eldritch rain. A good half the droplets continued to fall down towards the water below and only a few of them seemed conscious enough to teleport away. James watched as his friend turned into water-eyes and then was melted by a pool that ate water and burned everything else. ¡°¡­is she good?¡± he finally asked when nothing seemed to happen. ¡°I hope.¡± Jess responded with a strained voice. She sounded like she was trying to sound unconcerned while visibly worried. Welp, that¡¯s all they could do, wasn¡¯t it? Hope. Chapter 95. Poison? Poison! ---Maddy--- A large golden chalice the size of a mountain and yet small enough to fit in the palm of one¡¯s hand, slowly filled with bubbling poison drop by metaphorical drop. A cartoonish skull and crossbones was engraved on its surface with the subtlety of a child¡¯s drawing. Holding the cup was a colossal hand, while simultaneously countless small hands the exact same size as the massive hand refined the raw water into its bubbling surface. The hands were all less than R had been ¨C none of them had features, or a sign of intelligence and yet they were obviously R¡¯s work. Was this really a good idea? At a certain point, it was stupidity to ignore the bright neon warning sign wasn¡¯t it? Poisonous stuff in nature usually marked itself as poisonous so that it wasn¡¯t eaten. Eating the bright red and yellow frog then dying¡­that was stupidity, wasn¡¯t it? Its not like the wonder was hiding how poisonous it was. She couldn¡¯t claim they didn¡¯t know. Was she complicit in dooming the world somehow? Should Maddy join the hands refining? From this perspective, it didn¡¯t seem too hard. The cup was doing most of the work. All she would have to do was squeeze that water over there and toss it in¡­should Maddy stop the hands? Run about and yell they had changed their mind? Maddy popped over to a closer perspective. She was aiming for the lip of the cup and yet somehow missed. The world was parabolic ¨C distances were wrong and hard to gauge. The cup itself also seemed to break her magic. Like the cup had a suction force drawing everything towards it. Maddy aimed for the lip of the cup and slipped. She fell into the cup below attempting to teleport out twice and failing. She felt like a fly trapped in a glass bottle struggling to fly out of this slippery prison. The last thought she had was an overwhelming fear that this process needed to be stopped. ¡­ A large tower grew up into the earth below. The tower of Babylon. The foolish hubris of mortals daring to look at the realm of gods. The higher the tower climbed into the depths, the more foolish it felt. They didn¡¯t deserve this. They didn¡¯t deserve to look. And yet nothing about the tower itself ¡®looked¡¯ wrong. It looked safe and surprisingly well built. Good foundations. Good solid materials ¨C refined reality travelled down the two roads towards it on an assembly line of workers. The workers were hands and they slaved away at their building. They tossed blocks of water to each other compressing and refining them before stacking them about. They worked in silence but Maddy mentally gave them all a voice ¨C they sang in her mind like Oompa Loompas or Disney Dwarves. Hi hoe. Hi hoe. Heave¡­heave¡­heave. Huff Huff Huff. Focus Maddy. One of the paths brought nice solid blocks of water quarried from a deep mine. The other had weaker blocks. The weaker blocks refined worse, That¡¯s all Maddy could do to explain it. Those were probably from Maddy¡¯s attempt at using stone instead of water. And yet from this perspective Maddy could see they way the blocks were failing. She just had to focus on filling in the cracks better with the concept of water. She just had to push a little bit harder and her blocks would work just as well. All that remained from this scene was an uneasy feeling of danger with no source or direction. Like something was hidden just out of sight. Some god was watching from the earth above ¨C about to strike the tower in fury. Some invisible crack in the sky foundation below that no one had notice would let this tower fall. They should tear the tower down and prostate themselves as soon as they could. Maybe then they could be saved. It was kind of funny. In some ways this perspective made Maddy more worried than any filled with blatant poison. They knew they were creating a dangerous solution. They knew but thought they knew better. They thought they could control it. These workers were the same. They thought they could survive the wrath of the divine. Foolish. Foolish foolish foolish. Suddenly that ominous feeling grew. It ramped up from 10 to 12. Maddy was suddenly violently aware something was about to go wrong. Maddy jumped towards the tower attempting to warn the workers. She flew down the road just as a block was being placed. The worker fumbled. The newest block fell. In that moment Maddy tried to raise her hands to catch the block and¡­ She didn¡¯t have hands. Of course she didn¡¯t have hands. She was an eye. She could only see and watch in horror as the block fell towards her tired form. Why couldn¡¯t she move? Why couldn¡¯t she step to the side? She didn¡¯t have legs. Of course. She needed to escape. Maddy stared up at the falling block in heretic defiance. She glared and tried to push it away with her will. One long drawn out moment later, Maddy was squished in that falling block, the reality of its form too heavy for her weak reality to bear. ¡­ Maddy stared at an incomprehensible pile of shapes. She didn¡¯t know what to make of it other than ¡®neat¡¯. It sort of looked like an animated fractal? Weird for weird¡¯s sake ¨C as far as she was concerned it was complex for the sake of being complex and complicated without purpose. She couldn¡¯t understand what she was looking at and she didn¡¯t think anyone could. She stared at the wonder for a while in frustration. Give me your secrets. ¡­ A great gnarled tree grew. A simple tree with small budding bulbs. A small trickle of water fertilized the growing monument. It was kind of peaceful. Maddy understood this tree. It resonated with her affinity. The concepts within it spoke to her. Growth. Growth that would create more growth. Stepping forward Maddy sat in the shade and leaned her back against the trunk. The trunk was strong. Much stronger than her human form could damage. Maybe if she had an axe she could chop at its bark¡­ But also, from this perspective Maddy wasn¡¯t sure why she would even want to break the tree. High above she saw budding fruits. They weren¡¯t ripe yet. When they were ripe, the tree would be ready and their gift would be done. Through Maddy¡¯s connection to the tree ¨C her affinity to life that pushed her into the same category of being as this marvel, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that the tree was good. Those seeds. Those fruit¡­Maddy reached up and looked at them properly. She felt the way they grew, crystalizing point by miniscule point of reality into a stronger form and she knew suddenly what they were called. Ambrosia. The fruit of the gods. With it they could make drinks, they could age wines or create cocktails. She knew in that moment the ambrosia was the same as that within stories she knew. It was the food of gods. Poisonous to mortals but only because of how weak they were. A demi god could drink ambrosia and heal. Was she a demi god? Maddy wasn¡¯t sure. From a certain perspective she might be. From another more grounded perspective she wasn¡¯t. The main problem with all this world settling, was how nothing was set in stone. If they grew the world to have gods and pantheons and mantles of divinity¡­well than she would probably count as something along that scale. She felt she had grown powerful enough to no longer be considered fully mortal? And yet if they rejected the idea of even allowing something like gods to form¡­then she was obviously not divine. That system would have some sort of tangible magic separating the divine or demi divine and the mortal. Without a system in place for that she couldn''t claim divinity from nothing. In such a world divinity would not exist and their current state was closer to that than anything else the potential for something to not exist was greater than the potential for it to exist. It was all a manner of perspective. It was a massive problem ¨C this uncertainty ¨C but one that was nice to have. A measure of agency she was only just beginning to appreciate. Maddy lay back further and let her eye wander. She felt relaxed and an unknown amount of time passed alone with her thoughts. This tree was a gift. A gift R had brought from somewhere Other. A gift they were now watering to grow properly. The seed was Other, but after growing it would be theirs. A gift creating fruit that was ¡®poisonous¡¯¡­but the way it was poisonous was a manner of perspective. A lot of poisons were safe in small doses. If anything, small amounts of toxicity could be beneficial. Small dozes of poison could improve your bodies ability to handle large doses. A drop of certain poisons a day could make you immune to larger doses. And this wasn¡¯t even poison from a classical sense. It was ambrosia. The only reason this gorgeous misunderstood tree and its miraculous fruit could be considered poisonous was¡­because they were too weak to appreciate how great it was. Too much of a good thing concentrated into one spot. The box had even told them that fact. It was poisonous to greed. Poisonous in large doses to those too weak to handle it. That was the problem. That was the great big ¡®thing¡¯ Maddy hadn¡¯t taken into account up till now. Maddy tried to remember more of what James had transcribed from this seed. Rank¡­6. 6 and several minuses indicating it was weakened somehow? Something so far beyond what Maddy had experienced she couldn¡¯t fully appreciate the scale of it. That fate dungeon she had experienced. The living cliff¡­had been something like rank 5 hadn¡¯t it been? It had felt ridiculous in scale and strength¡­but limited in movement and purposefully set to allow them to escape. It had been in a rank 4 dungeon hadn¡¯t it? Maddy wasn¡¯t sure how much time passed as she sat there beneath the tree. Minutes? Hours? Days? She felt safe ¨C like the tree was protecting her. She felt optimistic. This was a massive gift they were being given. It was not safe ¨C not in any sense of the word ¨C and yet that was part of the greatness of this gift. They were being trusted with a knife. Trusted as an adult allowed to use sharp things in their own kitchen. If they cut themselves it would only be their own fault. That was the fundamental truth of this gift. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Finally Maddy¡¯s understanding began to settle. She¡¯d come to appreciate this gift in a way that bordered on fanaticism. This was their chance of something greater. It was a gift with no strings attached other than ones they imposed on it themselves. If¡­if they failed to use it properly. If they settled as a weaker world and had R come in and raise them up a bit higher¡­well than there would be plenty of strings. He wasn¡¯t an altruistic being. Still this was their chance to prove themselves. The biggest chance of all. The ¡®push¡¯ they could ride. Maddy¡¯s understanding of what the gift actually was extended to her main goal of using her domain in the first place. She had wanted ¨C needed ¨C to know what the costs of this gift actually were. Long term but also while growing. What did this tree need to grow big and strong? Maddy checked the ground and found it lacking. It had no fertilizer. No real weight for the tree to stand on. Their world was too weak to properly host this tree. That was hard to fix. It was something that would solve itself when the world advanced but¡­that was all circular reasoning because they hoped this tree would strengthen their world. The water currently trickling in to water the thirsty routes was what they had control over. It was exactly what the tree needed but not enough. It was drops when the tree needed a river. They would need more. Much much more¡­Maddy tried to change her perspective to see just how much water they might need in comparison to what they had already given the tree¡­but she couldn¡¯t. The world wobbled as she did ¨C her current self was a multitude of perspectives resonating together. She was a life eye but she was also several temporary eyes formed from the environment. Maybe just maybe ¨C if everything had worked correctly ¨C an eye or two formed from the magic creating this wonder itself. She was an existence that only existed as a meld of those many and acknowledging that made her suddenly aware of those other perspectives. Trying to change her current delicate balance by adding or removing eyes¡­was not something she could consciously do. Even acknowledging this state began to break the illusion - she was suddenly aware of time once again and this perspective outside time couldn''t exist with a mental clock syncing her to reality. Dimly she could sense those other eyes even as the vision wavered. Some seemed to be falling into this growing tree. Ground up and fed to the growing wonder like so much fertilizer. Some of the dying eyes were panicking, some didn¡¯t even notice something was wrong. The tree drank deeply from those bits. Her eyes made better nourishment than the meaningless sea. Her eyes were water with meaning and strength. Just the act of realizing how her perspective had formed and what the ¡®truth¡¯ actually was was breaking her perspective but Maddy still achieved her goal right at the end. She understood the tree drank reality. Water was the reality of choice, but the strength of that water was in its weight. It¡¯s tier. The only reason the tree needed so much was because it was refining rank 0 water into rank 6 water. A single bucket of rank 6 water would be enough to nourish the tree fully. The world was growing more and more fake. The tree wavered ¨C becoming a tower reaching closer and closer towards the dangerous dangerous state of independence. A chalice filling with ambrosia churning through endless weakness and pulling out strength bit by bit. A book with forbidden knowledge. A pendant given to a disciple. A word said in passing. A hand shake. A hope. A hole to a void in understanding. A blade. A refurbished toy damaged through misuse. Countless scenes with more or less understanding stacked on top of each other to infinity. None of it was real. None of it ¡®felt¡¯ real and part of that was how little her eyes could feel. She could see clearer than perhaps anyone else and yet was only just realizing her other senses were faked. Imagined. Like illusions without enough weight. All the scenes about her were partial metaphors and Maddy couldn¡¯t even see the full picture because she only ¡®saw¡¯ and did not truly ¡®feel¡¯. Maybe R ¡®felt¡¯ but could not see? Had the power to reach out and grasp what he wanted but did not ¡®know¡¯ truly what the thing¡¯s he grasped truly were? And yet the world was fake as well wasn¡¯t it? Everything is fake¡­from a perspective. That thought was enough to kick Maddy¡¯s thought patterns into a whirl of activity. The world had felt more and more fake recently ¨C roughly from the same time as when she had learned to give reality to her illusions. That was the moment it felt like she had broken the world. If anything, she imagined could be come real¡­than what even was reality? Just a collection of imagined shapes stuffed with weight? Did anything even matter? If matter was fake what mattered anymore? Maddy giggled the sound bouncing between eyes and causing the world to waver. The world isn¡¯t wavering, my vision was wavering. The world righted itself once more. Meaning mattered obviously. She could make weak shapes of any size she could imagine and yet hadn¡¯t been able to form powerful swords able to cut through anything or anything similar. She needed meaning to actually craft something meaningful. That was the ingredient she kept pretending was less important than it was. Maddy could feel herself loosing control in many microscopic ways. More accurately she could see herself as if from a outside perspective and understood something new. Maddy couldn¡¯t feel anything ¨C everything she ¡®felt¡¯ was fake. The truth was she could only see what was happening, her mind imagining feelings to fill in gaps it believed she should have filled. Her imagination could be wrong but what she saw was all true from a certain perspective. Could she trust any of her feelings? Her feelings were contradictory and shared¡­but currently the ones that felt the truest were the ones she¡¯d gained from the tree. maybe because of her shared affinity. Maybe that had given her real feedback. Maybe the tree was a lie as well. No, Maddy was certain it was the truest of perspectives she¡¯d seen. It had taken the most eyes and had lasted the longest of any of the separate memories could tell her. Instead of an imagined feeling it was a real resonance with her life concept. Maddy¡¯s own weight was dropping rapidly moment to moment. She could see this now. Her own ¡®reality¡¯, her sense of self was diminishing. She was fueling her domain with her own existence ¨C lighting a fire with her very being as fuel. A fire that allowed her to see into the dark but one that burned oh so much. This time ¨C perhaps because of the perspective she had gained with eyes of natural wonder, perhaps due to experience. Perhaps a combination of ether or neither. Perhaps a simple fact of her actually reflecting on herself in this moment... This time she could actually feel it happening. She could feel her combined mental state slowly disassociating bit by bit from ¡®reality¡¯. She could see the end ¨C her ¡®self¡¯ burned up and cast into embers. Could see an invisible point before that end state where she would automatically put the fire out in a sense of self-preservation. She¡¯d be a bit of a mess but just barely alive and should she interact with others and build stuff and slowly heal once again. But Maddy had already achieved her goal. She knew what they needed to do to ensure the tree survived. She shouldn¡¯t need to wait till that survival state, should she? She had got what she came for? She just needed to deactivate her current state. Putting out the fire was easy. Trying to reform the remnants a bit harder ¨C she ended up gathering as much of her surviving eyes as she could in one spot and resonating on the concept of orbs held withing the orbs forming an orb. Slowly she distinguishes between temporary eyes that had collected bits of her soul and self and permanent ones she¡¯d given enough power to maintain. From a certain perspective, they weren¡¯t too different ¨C if Maddy wanted to, she might even be able to try and force one of these ¡®fake¡¯ eyes into staying ¡®alive¡¯ for as long as possible¡­and yet they were also a drain on her. She could feel her self leaking into them. Leaking out of the holes in their existence. With a faint sense of loss Maddy broke those eyes allowing the self inside of them to rejoin the whole, the constant drain disappearing as she did. She then slowly focused on reforming her body. An illusion was easy to project ¨C she¡¯d built a spell into her soul to project an illusion of herself after all ¨C and stuffing her ¡®self¡¯ into that illusion was fine as well. The only difficulty was one of efficiency. Her self illusion¡­wasn¡¯t perfect. It wasn¡¯t a perfect illusion even if it was growing better and better the more she burned herself into it. The main parts she needed to work on were all eternal ¨C even if the skin was perfect, her organs were half imagined and shoved together randomly. She still needed to heal her body and yet life mana only fixed superficial damage. It didn¡¯t reach her soul beneath. Her ¡®stuffing¡¯ was also inefficient. She had wasted some self in the stuffing ¨C perhaps due to her lack of soul power or soul speed. Her creation eyes could see the lingering wisps of reality ¨C the misty smears of air and ground that were just a bit more real than everything else and yet resisted her attempt at claiming it. She needed to specifically build and grow a spell to do this action for her. A button she could press instead of her feeble imaginary hands. Next time she used her domain she would prepare better. Slowly feeling returned to the puppet that housed her combined focus. She realized she was currently in Jess¡¯s arms. It felt nice. Hugs were nice. That very act of feeling the arms around her and knowing that someone cared healed Maddy slightly. Grounded her ever so slightly. Leaning back wordlessly, Maddy accepted the embrace from behind and settled. ¡­ Maddy felt off. She felt off and diminished and weak and damaged but she felt mostly like herself so that was a plus. She could handle the ¡®feelings¡¯ of fakeness her body was sending her. The body was fake after all, of course it felt like everything was fake. Instead, Maddy meditated on the meaning of herself and on the effect she had on others. She was real. The her that controlled this body was real. She mattered at least to her friends because of the way she affected them. Even if there was no deeper meaning to anything, if people thought she mattered that was meaning enough. If Maddy thought she mattered she didn¡¯t need to deal with anything dull like the ¡®truth¡¯. ¡°I¡¯m good now,¡± Maddy said while making no move to pull away from her friend. ¡°Before anything else, we need to talk about the dungeon that¡¯s growing and what we can do to ensure it succeeds.¡± ¡°What do I need to do?¡± James asked, dropping to the grass near them purposefully ignoring the entire situation to feel more normal. ¡°Well, we could do nothing. We can continue watering it like we are currently. Defend it from anything that arrives to stop it and hope for the best. From what I can tell¡­this passive solution will work but the amount of water we will need might very well be as much as the entire ocean. The good news is that the ocean disappearing isn¡¯t actually a cost like I was worrying about. It¡¯s just a side effect.¡± Maddy began shifting backwards to sit more upright, finding herself pulled onto Jess¡¯s lap. ¡°Plan zero, do nothing. Already doing that. Easy enough¡± Troy spoke dropping down with them as well. This was comfy. ¡°No matter what we do, we need to continue watering from the ocean ¨C if that trickle stops, the tree will get too dehydrated and die.¡± Maddy continued. ¡°The tree¡¯s not actually a tree obviously.¡± She laughed at her friend¡¯s expressions. ¡°The good news is I believe we can actually take a more active role in things. The main reason we need so much water is due to the quality of our current water. If we can boost it into a stronger form before feeding it to the tree or find a better drink, then the massive amount of default water we would need drops.¡± Troy sighed. ¡°I think I get it. I shouldn¡¯t have used my dungeon on myself. If I knew this would help us all I¡¯d have tried to make a dungeon that rewarded super water.¡± ¡°Hey now. I¡¯m glad you got to use it to strengthen yourself first.¡± James winced. ¡°The only gift that needs to be used up is mine after all. Other than a custom dungeon do you have other options?¡± Maddy nodded slowly. ¡°I think with enough meaning I can make a true converter. My stone attempt is a failure because of how meaningless the stone is and how little relative effort I put into it.¡± Maddy thought for a moment about what she would actually need to get this theoretical ritual to work. To start. She¡¯d need to borrow some concepts. This spell would need components ¨C materials with innate concepts she could meld to the goal¡­ ¡°If we want to speed up the creation and lower the costs we will need a lot of monster corpses,¡± Maddy spoke after a while. ¡°Refining them into fertilizer will work better than relying completely on the ocean. I¡¯ll also need some monsters with concepts related to transformation and transmutation, refinement, purifying or distilling, growth or nurturing growth¡­I don¡¯t need all of them but each material you get will increase the efficiency of my spell and the more I can get out of using my own concepts the closer to perfect it will get. Obviously if you find high-quality water that would work as well, but I have a water concept so it¡¯s the least important.¡± Maddy listed off her shopping list. ¡°We¡¯ll have to wait for night to start hunting most monsters¡± Troy spoke his thoughts aloud. ¡°We could try and find nests or dungeons others have made to raid¡­but if we head too far away we won¡¯t be able to defend this until then.¡± ¡°Night should work¡­is there any way we can use the growing dungeon to help fuel the dungeon?¡± James asked hopefully. ¡°From what I can tell, the current growing form is completely different from what it will look like at the end,¡± Maddy shut down that hope. ¡°No magical Ponzi scheme for us,¡± Troy muttered. ¡°I can stay protecting the area?¡± Jess offered. That made sense. Her domain seemed focused more on protecting people than inanimate objects, but she did have that barrier and defensive spells. ¡°Of course, obviously stay safe if we are splitting up. The general monsters are weaker than the hardest stuff we¡¯ve faced but you could still get surrounded and overwhelmed.¡± Maddy added. James seemed to think that was especially funny. They still had quite a bit of light left in the day so pending anything else to do, Maddy formed a second makeshift illusion house and they had a rough dinner of rocks. Soon the light began dimming and the group was ready. Time to put in some work. Chapter 96. How to build a computer in the stone age. ---Richard--- Richard was making good progress. He was far enough into his secret project he was relatively sure he actually complete it. The project was simple. He was going to make computers and servers. The internet. And finally Skynet. This project was based on what he had learned from the last area. The final fake zone with its equipment that hide a secret area at the hardware level. This was Richard''s one shot. His one and only shot to fix a problem before it appeared. It was honestly pretty simple of a goal. Richard refused to let this fun new world devolve into a second earth. The easiest way to do that was to set up a system that killed corruption and secret abuse before it even started. If he set up a proper internet before anyone else, made it integral to everything before people found out what he had done¡­hid what he had done as well as he could in the hopes no one could discover. Well then just maybe the idea would stick. His only shot was to make this system first and make it better than others. If someone else made one first his would never pick up steam. If his sucked, it would push others to make a better one. So computers. How would you go about setting up a computer from scratch? What would you consider the most important point to focus on? How would you even start? There is frankly a massive amount of interconnected parts to worry about. The only way you can even begin is to compartmentalize and focus on as simple an area as you can. The information you prioritize and the base structure you head towards cascades and changes everything else. Even before you start thinking of earth architecture with cpu¡¯s and motherboards and ram, you have to think about the base building blocks. Transistor equivalents. Clock equivalents. To build off of what was done before Richard looked into phase crystals. They were the building blocks for personal AI¡¯s. The specialized components for information storage and calculation as he had learned in school. They had a documented well known ¡°recipe¡± to create them. There had been patents and monopolies in the previous zone¡­but those didn¡¯t matter in the real world Richard found himself in. The ¡®Recipe¡± was as follows. To make a phase crystal you first needed to bind single atoms or molecules with high energy light. The element you decided to entangle with light completely changed every calculation past that point most requiring entirely different machines to even test. The bare minimum for such a machine was to create a perfect vacuum chamber filled with aerosolized aether primed atomic dust ¨C AAPAD for short. Low wavelength aether primed light could then be shot into the chamber exciting the elements within into a vibrating high energy state HEAD for short. The chamber itself needed a mirror equivalent to keep the light entangled atoms bouncing and an anti-adhesion equivalent to prevent the atoms from fusing to the case while in this stage. If the base molecules used were water for example, a reflective and superhydrophobic coating was usually enough ¨C especially one you could boost with aether for a short period of time. Water was sadly one of the worst options for what Richard wanted as its specific shape lent to biased phase crystals no matter what else you did. Chirality broke most phase pattern even worse than something like water and while certain chiral molecules were strangely useful proving exceptions¡­most just broke everything and were a dead end. From what Richard could tell the chiral elements that didn¡¯t break things shifted into achiral shapes when excited with light entanglement anyways, so they didn¡¯t fully count. Using the same logic base molecules with 6 bonds like ditungsten gave some of the nicest and most stable 3 phase shapes¡­and stuff like methane with its 4 bonds evenly distributed were incredibly stable as well in all the ways that mattered. Lots of carbon-based molecules worked great but the more complicated they were the harder they were to work with or synthesize. This sort of logic mattered less and less the more aether you used. Water stopped biasing at ¡®rank 2¡¯ levels of aether for example but was still not effective for other reasons. So back to containment. Something like cesium or calcium chloride or even something like benzene required entirely different methods of isolation to water and the method used could not react with the components being created. Kinetic barriers worked for half the elements but broke the other half in specific ways. Some elements were perfect as far as his AI could hypothesize but were impossible to work with. Pesky real world getting in the way of science. The next step was equally as simple in concept but had an even greater number of factors you needed to keep track of. As soon as your central excited ¡®core¡¯ was created, you needed to completely enclose that entangled point in an insulating ¡®crystal¡¯. One that perfectly insulated the central core and preferably had certain measurable properties to interact with it. The easiest method of creating this shell was to blast them all with a source of decaying entangled light atoms ¨C the unstable variants ¡®breaking¡¯ and depositing their elements on the outside of the inner core. Basically, you could coat the floating cores with the equivalent of an atomic spray paint. That was the easiest but not the most effective. It was fast but usually resulted in uneven coatings and lumpy shells created phase crystals that biased towards certain phases. That bias happened a lot. A more effective method was to create a sort of liquid crystal compound, and then fill your vacuum chamber with that, allowing the phase crystals to grow slowly. This method made much more evenly coated phase crystals and had fewer side effects than the spray paint method which usually had bad interactions between the spray paint light and the entangled light¡­but if you went with this method you needed to figure out how to both create a viable crystal bath and a safe way of injecting it into your chamber. Simply opening up a hole into a vacuum would suck it all in with enough force to break the fragile cores so the liquid coating needed to be kept at an incredibly low pressure and slowly released in over several minutes. All of this ignored the actual effects that these cores and coatings had. Certain elements resonated at higher or lower frequencies. Certain elements decayed or released various radioactive byproducts. More important than those properties was its overall stability. Certain elements were mostly stable at low aether levels while other elements needed continuous flows of high tier aether to stay together. Some of the core-shell interactions canceled each other out making expensive rocks while others synergized in unwanted directions making crystals that exploded or even imploded or disillusion popped themselves when prodded or measured. The elements that functioned at Richards max aether flow were many times ¡°faster¡± and ¡°accurate¡± as computer components then the low flow elements¡­and many of them had the most information on them. The components used in personal AI¡¯s were all ones that needed a steady flow of short ranged aether just to function after all and they had as a rule truly minuscule footprints. If Richard wanted to create a server that could run without someone standing there he needed to focus on low-flow stable elements and ignore most of the existing information completely. To make this whole process even more fun even if Richard put his all into it, he just didn¡¯t have the resources or power of a personal gravity reactor to even attempt most of the stronger high yield builds. His attempts all created phase crystals with a high degree of failure ¨C the bottom of his chambers filling with a glittering dust that had maybe 10-30% proper PC¡¯s and 70-90% duds. Trying to test or clean up his failures was a whole ¡®nother mess. It was better to ignore it and create components that self mapped ¡®good¡¯ crystals while ignoring the bad ones. Now. All of this was a lot of work and completely ignored completely aether free components. Transistors, Diodes. Resistors. If they were good enough for earth they should work here too right? The problem with those components was a combination of scale and efficiency. Even the ¡°worst¡± and ¡°slowest¡± phase crystals were usually on par or better than the earth variants. Even if they performed ever so slightly worse, phase crystals had 3 channels of information to a binary¡¯s 2 and his AI has so many algorithms and architecture blueprints that relied on this 3 bit base. The other option was to invent something completely new. Randomly come up with an efficient transistor equivalent from scratch. It was tempting. Oh so tempting. How would you even start? Randomly bang your head against the wall until it works? Richard did actually test some options along that path. He had an entropy affinity even if he¡¯d scrubbed it from his skill slots. He could alter aether parameters back to that base to try probability manipulation. And the ¡®thousand monkey¡¯ style of random chance was helpful in a few case. Richard ended up giving it up after realizing how long it would actually take however. He tempered his expectations for easy solutions being handed to him and came back to studying phase crystals and noting down ones that might match his use case. There were billions of potential molecules after all and even if there was hundreds of strange exceptions to soft rules you thought you had discovered, you could map out patterns and trends. His AI was great at graphing trends and guessing potential materials even if it was wrong some of the time. ¡­ Richard was constantly checking and mapping out how different phase crystal bases might help but focusing on the building blocks for too long would never let him complete this in time. So building upwards what are the most important parts of a computer? Abstracting a bit there was the main clock obviously. A method of ¡®ticking¡¯ commands to the hardware and reading those commands. You wanted your clock to run as consistently and reliably as possible. For this Richard discovered a specialized clock crystal that was built a bit like an elongated phase crystal. Just saying everything was a PC discounted how different this element was ¨C it was created by light infusing a long polymer and crystalizing it into as straight a line as he could. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Basically a wire with a chunk of complex energy bouncing up and down it. The longer the wire the slower the clock frequency. The straighter it was the more reliable. No matter what the shape was the phase would be able to correct itself but if there were curves in its line, the phase would wobble and create ticks in sinusoidal patterns instead of even ones which wasn¡¯t ideal. Useful for certain types of hardware frequency analysis but hard coding a microscopic Fourier transform component felt like getting distracted. These clock wires were many times more fragile than regular phase crystals but vital to build off of. Richard noted them down and moved on. The second most important component was a method of reading and writing values. Phase crystals only worked as a storage medium if you could read the phase that was bouncing around in them. At incredibly high levels of aether you could ignore more and more requirements ¨C something like rank 4 aether would let a pile of phase crystals with nothing else in them start functioning like a computer. One method required nano levels of architecture. Glue a measurement device ¨C synced to the elements in the core but not blocked by the shell ¨C on 3 sides of the phase crystal testing to see if it was currently in that phase. You actually only needed 2 measurements ¨C if you didn¡¯t care as much about accuracy you could assume a lower measurement was a ¡®not¡¯ and ¡®not a or b¡¯ equalled ¡®c¡¯. 3 measurements let you compare which had the strongest measurement however and worked essentially 100% of the time without false positives like the cheapo version. If you glued 3 ¡®setters¡¯ on the opposite side of the phase crystal you could force the phase into one of the 3 directions. How that worked depended on the type of crystal but usually involved some sort of inductive pulse to pull the phase towards it like a magnet. That 3 getter, 3 setter per crystal setup was the most reliable but understandably hard to engineer at microscopic levels. You could head back to the spray paint method blasting up down left right front back as fast as you could with different materials¡­or figure out how to make nanobots that could build each cell. Richard ended up outsourcing a nanobot solution to a friend of Muhammad. Each person who helped was a loss of control and potential leak but it really was the only option that worked for him and tied into the wiring as well. Sometimes Richard thought he had been given the short end of the stick. Other people had more egregious cheats. ¡­ There was another method of measurement. One that didn¡¯t require microscopic positioning. It only worked with a very specific type of phase crystal. If the base was something like SCuAgAu ¨C something only possible to create with high levels of aether ¨C then you could remote set the phase by using copper gold and silver based ¡®setters¡¯. They would set all phase crystals in the same area to the direction of their relevant atoms and by using similar remote ¡®sensors¡¯ you could collect the average phase of the crystals in the same area. This was so much harder to design around but suddenly became valid when Richard stopped caring about size. Why had he been focusing so much on making a teeny tiny computer? What if he placed the components across several meters of space? If you combined this mass set concept with the individual set, you suddenly unlocked several algorithms for certain kinds of problems. If you created an isolated device that took advantage of this¡­well then you¡¯ve just created a chip like a gpu or network card. ¡­ Everything began to feel more and more esoteric. Richard made a complete miniature computer and then shifted it into pure energy attaching the computer to a second computer. The result calculated his test suite of problems in less than a millisecond and then imploded vanishing from sight as it was pulled into a higher realm of energy. ¡­ Richard designed a custom programing language. It had branches, fuzzy branches. Recursion, fuzzy recursion and a secret function that printed an ascii dick on any display imaginable. ¡­ Richard used his own blood to stabilize some of the unstable phase crystals starting the process from scratch once again. At some point his science had started feeling like mad science but Richard was confident the feeling would pass when he understood more. ¡­ Richard''s second attempt at an energy attachment was done using stats. He permanently sacrificed one body speed ¨C accepted the system confirmation to allow him to break it off ¨C and then attached a simple computer to the one super heavy atom of X. This time it didn¡¯t disappear into nothing after a few seconds. He sent information to it. Received a response. Waited a bit and repeated the experiment. Computer is still here and accessible! Now if only he could figure out where that atom went ¨C it was somewhere on this Petrie dish¡­ ¡­ There was an important item in all these experiments that was hard to ignore. The mcgruffin. The alien cheat. The nest egg. It wasn¡¯t some magical tool. Richard couldn¡¯t press a button and have it print out a computer for him¡­ But it was still more powerful than anything else and could not be ignored. If he reset the nest and fed ¡®perfect¡¯ phase crystals cells into it while the nest was growing¡­well then in certain cases it would start appearing in the nest itself. Monsters with phase crystals in their brains and nerves. Plants that used simple logic to react or grew stems full of inactive phase crystals for no apparent reason. Monsters that communicated using remote activated phase crystals and formed hive minds with cloud consciousnesses. Results got even weirder when you varied the inputs. It was impossible to feed ¡®just¡¯ phase crystals into a nest after all. Either it included air and stone and grass¡­or if you removed that it contained a vacuum. It always needed aether to grow and even a default slot had microscopic variants in the power frequency quality and flavor. You had to specifically create super filters just to get a 100% ¡®pure¡¯ aether and that meant most of Richard¡¯s attempts had something like 0.1% of that entropic ¡®flavor¡¯ still in it. And even when you controlled everything, something slipped through and varied your results. The most nightmare-inducing nests were the most promising. Richard''s current iteration had some weird confluence between: his skill liquefied stone, embedded phase crystal cells (including various microscopic circuits), specialized chips he had made for dozens of different purposes¡­and germs. Germs that had appeared from his hands or the air or something and had chosen this iteration to affect the nest. This nest had two nightmare inducing horrors that Richard wanted to harness. One. A pervasive technological virus that threatened to take over every AI then entered the nest ¨C potentially hosting itself on your AI and traveling outside of the nest afterwards as a sleeping trojan horse. Terrifying especially when you realized Richard had offloaded control over his stats to his AI. All the super virus had to do is weaken his defense at the worse possible time and something could break him. The only way to be mostly sure technology was safe was to completely power it down. Remove aether and let all the RAM equivalents fail. Boot it back up and scrub the ROM for anything malicious. Rinse and repeat as the virus was adaptive and stubborn. It was a calamity sure to cause a witch hunt should anyone else find out about it. It was also the sort of staying power Richard respected. He wanted his anti corruption Skynet equivalent to have the same kind of staying power. No one could ever scrub it from the system. It was kind of funny. Fight one kind of corruption with another. Fire with fire. The second horror was even more useful. The mainframe for the nest ¨C the ¡®mother¡¯ that controlled all its drone-like monsters and was responsible for attacking technology spread through stone. That¡¯s right. Slowly but surely the computer grew. It grew in stone ¨C liquifying microscopic bit by bit and ever so slowly shifting the atoms around into more of it. Like some grey goo. Like a von Neumann probe. Burn the ¡®source¡¯ and it would pop up a day later somewhere else almost completely healed. Useful if Richard could recreate it. Self healing. Able to split into two and spread to multiple cities. The final horror was the fact this self replicating technology corrupting calamity did not necessarily need to stay in the nest. The ¡®source¡¯ and her stone burrowing drones kept to the nest because of some vague instincts but they stayed active outside of its borders. The longer Richard left it alive, the higher a chance of permanently effecting the world this nest had. And yet this was the best chance he had of completing his goal. The tension made him feel alive and he kept giving himself more rules to follow. If any of his rules were broken he would shut it down. Today was a harvest day. Richard melted off huge chunks of stone computer ¨C completely AI blind and harvesting the growing mainframe feeling somewhat like a beekeeper removing chunks of a hive. He could be stung at any point. He probably wouldn¡¯t be. The mother learned and adapted and had long since stopped sending her minions to attack Richard. She knew it was useless and preferred to try and corrupt him. Either that or she was secretly growing some counter. Probably that. Walking to the perimeter fence he had set up, Richard stepped into his personal decontamination building and shook out the microscopic worms the mother had slipped into his stone boots. This whole perimeter made him feel safer. He knew if the nest got serious it would just dig under his wall but he had set up enough sensors he was pretty sure he could tell when that would happen. Placing the hive tablet in a conductive bath Richard reached out with a connection hand and blasted the bath with as much aether as he could channel for a full minute. Overkill was the only level of safety he was confident with. As fun of a MacGuffin as the nest was, Richard would never use the materials for it in his final product. He would never be able to trust the hardware or software to be free of the mother¡¯s clutches. Wouldn¡¯t it be convienet if he could just harvest this nest and put his own program in it? Just let the nest do the hard part of making everything. No, all he could do was study and learn from it. Attempt to replicate it himself only after understanding all there was to it. Richard took his block and moved towards an inspection room. He would study the mother¡¯s wiped hardware just outside of the nest and then melt it to scrap. Tapping into an isolated AI and slowly powering up his research room Richard had made just for this facility Richard was immediately attacked by a bolt of high energy from the corner. It burned halfway through his face before the turret ran out of supplied energy. Richard swore again and again before pulling out some healing cream and slathering his wound. How had that tech witch corrupted the facility already? He had taken so many steps to try and protect it. Richard had immediately cut off power immediately and was still hurt this badly from his own defenses. Should he burn the facility to the ground and try again? Stop poking something he couldn¡¯t control and try something safer? Richard placed the chunk of wiped nest in a new bath. He then left the room and building riding a low tech buggy down a path to a new building nearly a kilometer away. Entering the room he checked the security logs ¨C paranoid as he could be ¨C and then melted a hole into his perfectly sealed stone box before placing his regular AI on. He had lost so much information from his volatile storage his constant companion becoming a backdoor into him. The AI connecting to his dedicated slot and booting up filled Richard with happiness. Really. He should quit. Wipe the nest burn it to ashes and try something safer. Richard didn¡¯t think he could keep doing this any longer. A message from James! Richard smiled slightly still full of stress but happy at the message. Opening it up he set the message to start playing with an audio interface then flopped down on a soft chair rubbing his eyes as he listened. Slowly his mood soured even further. What stupid ideas were James¡¯s current companions entertaining!? Richard blasted off his reactions unfiltered then sighed as he started receiving responses. Of course James didn¡¯t think it was that bad. No one seemed to mind kids as much as Richard did. Richard kind of knew his stress was leaking into his interactions but fuck! All this work he was doing to try and make the world a better place and they would just leave it to a group of grimlins? Richard continued messaging James and caught up with what they were doing. They¡­were creating a calamity. They were just doing it. No safety steps. Just balling it. Wow¡­I¡¯m being a bit of a pussy aren¡¯t I? Richard stared down at his hands. His friend was having the time of his life making a world ending threat and he was considering melting away his own? He had to match that energy. Richard stood up and jabbed his fingers into his head allowing his AI to modulate the defense around the area. Slowly Richard ripped his AI out then carefully placed it in the box aligning the stone in a specific way he was sure was hard to emulate. He went over to the corner and grabbed his second facility AI wrapping it in a sling and heading out once again. He was going to crack the secrets from this calamity yet see that he didn¡¯t. ¡­ Richard returned to the lab and installed his newest AI pulling the old one out and smashing it to the ground. This time when he powered it up, the facility didn¡¯t start attacking him. Using the machine to start activating a series of sensors Richard projected an image of the hive up onto the board behind him. Low tech. We are back to projectors. If Richard had his personal AI, he could display it in his vision as an overlay. This would be worth it. Pulling out the first of a long series of sensors Richard got to work. Chapter 97. Life is full of struggles. ---Jess--- It took two entire days for the first probing attack to come for them. Two haggard looking men with mirrored equipment. One had a mechanical left arm and leg, the other a mechanical right arm and leg. Both had identical equipment. Both had identical annoying equipment. To start there was their annoying outfits. Lines of metal and tubes wrapped both under and over their clothing and physically entered their fully mechanical limbs. These frames seemed to boost their movement ¨C every time they jumped, they jumped a dozen feet in the air or to the side and the frame around their legs glowed bright yellow. Every time they swung their arms, their arm frame would glow dark yellow. Their clothing was an equivalent to super Kevlar or something ¨C it weakened minor physical attacks to nothing ¨C and when combined with their weapons they became¡­annoying. That¡¯s the overwhelming reaction Jess had to this duo. Both had a pair of glowing staffs for closed ranged attacks ¨C something like a two handed white lightsaber ¨C along with an ability to sort of shove anything they pushed with their mechanical arm really hard. For ranged attacks they each had a handgun that shot little glowing pellets really fast and a large gun that shot massive blobs of sticky burning nonsense. They were so identical Jess was starting to think they might be the same person. Just a clone or some nonsense. Well they were annoying. James was gone hunting when they showed up and Maddy was deep in a cute little wizard fugue when they arrived. The first encounter lasted all of thirty seconds with the annoying pair bounding in ¨C jumping over the pit a few times and then dashing away. They had returned less than five minutes later and started shooting silently. That¡¯s the moment they shifted from humans to annoying assholes in Jess''s head. Troy had shot an incredibly fast arrow that had simply bounced off one of them. Jess had seen that same arrow shoot straight through a beetle monster before, so their armour was actually noteworthy. Three seconds later he¡¯d shot one of his ¡°Smite arrows¡± as she called his glowing light expected shots and that one had drilled down into Left¡¯s shoulder. How that bitch had dodged enough for the shot to miss something vital Jess wasn¡¯t sure. Maddy had looked up and spoken ¨C used her easy ¡°Die by the power of my voice¡± attack but other than a portion of the pair¡¯s head glowing it hadn¡¯t seemed to effect them. They had then shot at Maddy. They shot at Maddy! Jess moved before she realized what was happening, her body destroying the distance between her and her best friend in a flicker of void. The shots bounced harmlessly off Jesses helm as soon as she arrived and the two shifted from annoying assholes to opponents that needed to die. Jess grabbed Maddy¡¯s body ¨C her friend yelped as she pulled her in close then destroyed the distance back to Troy just in time to defend against another burning shot. Jess raised her bracer and felt the flaming gunk stick to her forearm. Again! Bastard! It was like napalm or something ¨C it took so much mana to defend against and was so hard to scrape off. Flicking her arm to the side Jess tossed her bracer and created a new one. It said a lot when the mana cost of creating a new chunk of armor was less than keeping that one burning or trying to scrape it off. Troy was still rapid firing shots when Jess began expanding her protective dome ¨C her arms swirling about them as she extruded walls and pushed them further and further away. All within this dome is my domain. All within this dome is under my protection. Jess would never say the chant out loud ¨C it was embarrassing. Still it helped to think it. Some way of declaring what she was doing deep in her magic. Her domain expanded. Instead of wrapping tightly around her body contained in meresly armour, Jess¡¯s protection extended out wrapping around the entire pit and both her friends. She felt herself almost stretched as she claimed the space marking her territory or whatever. Troy continued to shoot through the barrier, Jess mentally marking his mana signature and the feeling of his arrows leaving them as protections that protected better being outside of the barrier. She was getting better at letting her friends shoot through the inside of the dome ¨C leaving a direction open was incredibly easy to do but leaving a direction open and strong? Having a one way barrier that wasn¡¯t weak? That took more effort than anyone seemed to understand. Bastards!!! The annoying pair napalmed the whole side of Jess¡¯s dome. She could feel the way the heat and corrosive damage seemed to eat directly at Jesses mana stores. It wasn¡¯t even trying to attack her or those she protected¡­just her reserves. Just her ability to protect. They shot napalm at Maddy¡¯s equipment as well setting fire to the area unprotected by her dome. It¡¯s attacking my reserves. I need to protect my reserves. Protect my barrier! Protect my barrier! Jess reached out and grasped the solidified mana in her dome. It was hers. It was part of her, part of her body, part of her domain. She would protect it so it could continue protecting them. With a lurch the golden creation mana tilted to destruction ¨C flicking pure purple-black with Jesse¡¯s intent. The fire fell through it even as it was destroyed. Jess¡¯s golden armor tinted purple in that moment, her body cloaked in destruction barely pushed into the shape of armor. A few shots from the pair attempted to shoot through the void barrier but they were destroyed as they passed through. A large cannon shot flew through partly melted but still a threat and Jess blurred her black glove snuffing it out as it got close. That was the fastest space eating lurch she''d done before. Something to keep in mind. Jess flicked the barrier back. The barrier was golden once again and stable. The napalm gone. Her reserves were lower ¨C that had been much more costly than normal¡­but they were protected. She hadn¡¯t done that before. The destruction of the flip side of her mana rarely resonated with her concept and domain of protection no matter how much she imagined offense being the best defense. Suddenly James returned. He bounded in, carrying a massive monster sea monster that looked something like a dinosaur covered in kelp and seaweed. Immediately tossing it to the side James flew across the space to punch one of the annoyances. Bullets seemed to bounce off him as he moved and Jess half expected the annoyance to paste with James¡¯s strike. Annoyance one was pushed back but stayed in an annoying piece. Once again, Jess had seen James¡¯s punch smash straight through armour. Stupid Kinetic absorbing nonsense. And in this moment ¨C mid dealing with the first pair ¨C a new annoyance appeared. High above, a figure clad in glowing golden armor stood staring down at the group. Her armor was insultingly similar to Jesse''s own. Like she had spotted Jesse''s classy golden armor and decided to copy her ¨C but instead of just stealing Jesse''s domain manifestation, this bitch tried to one up her. While Jesse''s armor has subtle swirls and patterns, the figure above had garish decorations. Where Jesse''s armor was practically shaped, the figure has small wings and loops and gems and stupid little tassels The woman''s voice rang out filling the space and dripping with arrogant bitchy energy. Jess disliked her from first glance. She hated her from the first word. It wasn¡¯t even the words the woman spoke although those also sucked. Just her tone and mocking laugh. The way Jess was singled out ¨C she could hear the way the woman spoke directly to her. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Mortals dress themselves in divine image but find their crude imitations lacking. Their dress is little more than paper before true power,¡± the figure mocked. Bitch you copied me! Jess felt prickles as points attempted to stab through chinks in her armor. She felt foreign power attempt to dissolve and piece and weaken her domain but they were about as effective as needles thrown against a brick wall. There''s no way her protection would fail against such a round about attack. How could she protect others if she couldn''t even protect herself? How would her protection fail when the woman wasn¡¯t even hitting her dead on? James had started to fly after the first annoying pair and the woman''s focus seemed to flick to him as he passed. ¡°Mortals delude themselves into believing they can fly up to heaven. Their blasphemy is harmless and overlooked but fails in divine presence,¡± the woman declared once again. James fell. James who seemed invincible suddenly found gravity worked for him again. James landed gracefully and seemed to pause ¨C an annoyed look on his face. He jumped a good 10m into the air ¨C Jess had seen him jump into the sky before ¨C and growled. She could see the way he visibly considered letting the pair go to attack this witch, but after a glance around decided to pursue his first group. Whether he had decided they were more of a threat or decided he wouldn¡¯t let the floating copy dictate his actions wasn¡¯t clear but he shot after the pair running along the ground faster than Jess had ever seen him run before. ¡°Heaven Fall¡± the sky bitch spoke and soon spear after golden spear began to rain down on Jess''s domain. Her barrier blocked the barrage easily enough of course but the strikes were constant. Continuous. And Jess¡¯s reserves were already tanked from before. She could feel the attacks whittling away at her ¨C feel the way her mana dipped drop by drop. The attacks were landing against her domain and it was her willpower under attack just as much as it was her mana. Her willpower that had taken a massive hit because of the napalm and whatever new aspect of her armor she''d unlocked. How long could she last? If she were fresh probably a whole day or two but right now? It felt like she had less than an hour before her strength failed and she had to drop back to a limited range of motion. They couldn¡¯t sit here forever. ¡°Blocking sound¡± Maddy spoke from beside them and suddenly the pitter of attacks faded into almost suffocating silence. Smart. Smart. If the sky bitch was speaking out strange commands and those were affecting them it was good to remove her voice. See how you like that! Jess silently laughed staring up at the annoyance. Her friends wouldn¡¯t need a whole hour to finish this imposter. She could protect them against anything. Maddy was sending out several probing attacks each small things designed to test the woman¡¯s defenses. Jess relaxed slightly. If anything, this barrage was much less damaging than the napalm despite looking more impressive. A smite arrow shot up from Troy and blasted through the figures head. Jess almost cheered but suddenly the figure healed the damage. Glowing golden words rested in the air directly above her barrier. ¡°Heaven¡¯s apostles are protected from the crude weapons of mortals.¡± A second smite arrow flew up and bounced off the sky bitches head. This was cheating! ¡°Those of heaven cannot be damaged for they are a world apart from mortals!¡± the glowing words shifted and continued to display her arrogant commandments. Beside her Troy suddenly jerked and whispered ¡°Maybe?¡± Jess turned to look at him just in time to watch him melt into her shadow and disappear.
---Troy--- Troy was starting to feel useless. It was a common feeling ¨C one that had faded a bit as he specialized more but was flaring up after all his attacks were ignored. One kill. Give me one kill. That was his mantra. His hope packed into that modified Piercing Powershot and its follow up charge. Something wasn¡¯t right. The woman in armour seemed to be doing too much. Clue one. She was covered in armour that seemed derived from creation mana. Simple enough. Clue two. As soon as she arrived, she seemed to be covering the area in light. Otherwordly light that grew stronger as soon as she mentioned ¡°heaven¡± and seemed to be carying at least some of her attacks. If that hadn¡¯t been a hint, those glowing spears she shot looked incredibly familiar. Definitely a Light/Creation focused opponent and Troy was leaning towards mage despite the armour. But¡­the woman was also standing in the air. She might be able to do that with a bunch of weird specialized concepts but it felt like a kinetic power. So she also had a speed/slow affinity like James. And then she healed from a powershot so she also had a life affinity? No something wasn¡¯t adding up. Troy¡¯s eyes glowed with light mana as he scanned the surroundings. It made more sense for the figure to only have light and creation like him ¨C it made more sense for the figure high above them to be a solid illusion with the real attacker hidden somewhere nearby. He cycled mana through several present patterns ¨C the world flickering as he altered saturation and spectrum attempting to spot the hidden attacker. ¡°Those of heaven cannot be damaged for they are a world apart from mortals!¡± That¡­ Troy stopped. A world apart. Was she even in the surroundings? The real surroundings? Or was it deeper than that. Was she¡­in the shadowlands instead? ¡­ Troy flexed his mana core and felt the cool touch of his power rush out of his stomach and coat his entire body. Bile briefly flickered in the back of his throat as if he were vomiting up his core¡­and then suddenly he was mana. His physical body and mana-soul had swapped places. With a glance he dove for the nearest shadow and slipped into the flipside of the world. High above the entire sky was pure blinding white. All of space alight and burning bright enough to sear Troy¡¯s eyes to bits ¨C if he weren¡¯t made of mana and coated in protective dark mana . The sun was nearly hidden ¨C a solid planet instead of a ball of fire ¨C and it cast a weak shadow across the world barely giving visibility in the all-pervasive light. Troy raised a hand and pushed dark mana to it feeling his hand twitch as it darkened into a black strong enough to leak into the surroundings. Slowly his dark-source began to block out some of the blinding white. He cast shadows, his source immiting whatever the opposite of illumination was ¨C dim? Darken to turn white into sight? Ingloominate? Cringe. This is why Troy didn''t say things out loud. Shadows spread from Troy casting dark on the surroundings and revealing a towering structure above the area. The shadowlands were not a 1:1 match for the flip side of reality. Where the deep pit they were digging was located in the real world, here there was a tower ¨C ebony bricks reaching up into the sky. Where the golden figure was there was a large platform ¨C pitch black legs reaching down into the soil. It looked almost like a depiction of baba yaga¡¯s house ¨C a platform on four chicken legs covered in slings and bags of supplies. On top of the platform an unarmored woman stood ¨C her eyes glazed and unfocused as if looking at some distant view. Her voice was the same however ¨C ¡°Heaven¡¯s gaze shall find all¡± she shouted appearing to notice that Troy had disappeared from the dome. Before she could change her vision to notice that her ¡°heaven¡± was the same as Troy¡¯s shadowland, he had already conjured and charged a brilliant powershot. Light compressed out of the surroundings as he ripped free light into a jagged arrow. In this dimension he had near unlimited power as long as he had enough strength and stamina to wrestle with it. Releasing the shot as soon as he was able, Troy watched as it blasted across the distance and ripped through the woman¡¯s head with enough force to fling her body off the platform. The entire structure violently began to shake with her no longer holding it together ¨C squiggly lines of black vibrating out into the surroundings. Troy dodged a falling bag of clinking items as he ran towards the body, his form blurring as the light around him boosted his movement and the space rippled. He quickly passed under the shaking structure and charged a second arrow nearly for free. As soon as he reached the fallen woman, Troy released his second arrow ¨C the charged shot impacting her body before he realized she was already dead. Finally. Finally he got a hit in. Troy let out the breath he had been holding and grabbed the corpse. Turning he spotted a position where a shadow in reality overlapped a shadow here and blurred back towards his friends. As soon as he was out of the shadowlands Troy felt his body invert back to physicality, everything sore. His domain activation cost a lot and that cost ballooned when surrounded by the light of that world. If he could strengthen anything it would be that. The woman clearly stayed there for much longer than him ¨C it looked like she had been living there. Hiding away from danger and attacking the real world while staying safe in the flipside¡­ It was almost like she was casting shadows into reality? He hadn¡¯t had time to truly study what she had been doing. ¡°Nice¡± a voice cut through Troys introspection. Troy started and looked up. James had returned dragging the two bodies of the first attackers. He had raised a hand for a high five as soon as he saw the matching body in Troy''s hand. Troy looked at his kill than across at his friend a smile blooming. ¡°Nice¡± he nodded back. It was nice having friends.
---Maddy--- Days passed punctuated by an increasing number of human attackers. Attackers murdered and tossed into the pit ¨C each shaving off massive amounts of nutrition the dungeon needed to grow. Most attackers escaped before it hit that point which made sense. They''d had several practice zones to learn how not to die and knew to retreat when they were outmatched. The attackers didn''t all come one at a time to be murdered ¨C the hardest day was perhaps the 4th as that was the day a whole raid party of 10 people attacked them. It was a giant free for all on the attacker''s side, but their group worked well together and managed to keep their position while the raid was clearly 3-4 groups combining their strengths in an attempt to stop them. Four of the attackers died before the group pulled back shouting obscenities. Maddy had planted seeds on all of them with an empowered shout and those seeds remained slowly digging into them sprouting death mana . They probably could have cleansed themselves but Troy had killed both of their healers in the initial clash and Maddy was merciless in activating her seeds fueled with the death energy from those first four to kill the final six. This was probably the first time Maddy noticed a massive change to her personality. They killed people. Her group. They killed attacker after attacker ¨C over a dozen bodies, murdered just because they stood in the group¡¯s way. ...and Maddy...felt nothing? It took several days before Maddy¡¯s self reflection reached a worrying level. It finally cumulated ¨C crystalized as barely considered ideas all came together in one rush. Thoughts she¡¯d ignored and shoved into separate eyes in the hope they would keep them contained. Thoughts she¡¯d knew but had pretended she hadn¡¯t. Thoughts she¡¯d already dwelled on and thought she had moved past. It was simple. Maddy realized she probably hadn''t ever cared. She thought she should care. She had thought she should care ¨C or in more detail she had decided that a good person would care and then decided she wanted to be a good person and tried to convince herself that she cared. But she didn¡¯t. And the reason she didn¡¯t, wasn¡¯t even because of her new race as easy as it would be to blame that. No she was still the same person despite that. She had never cared. Her new race ¨C her new existence as a fae. As a creature of stories¡­it made her feel like she was pretending to be herself. ¡°She¡± was actually something else ¨C a collection of minds working perfectly together and while puppeting her body and interacting with others she¡­was faking ¡°it¡±. Maddy was ¡°acting¡± like herself ¨C like someone on a stage reading from lines in a script without truly feeling anything she acted out. This heavy heavy disassociation slowly disappeared as the days progressed ¨C as she healed from her domain activation and regrew her ¡°reality¡± and sense of self. But deep down that feeling remained. She didn¡¯t care they were trampling on others. Maddy knew deep down she was probably a bad person. She was working with the "demon lord" threatening the stability of the world for self profit. And yet¡­she no longer cared what others thought about her. She had killed that part of herself ¨C that part pining for approval. She reaffirmed that she wasn¡¯t a soulless monster ¨C she cared about her friends and that wasn¡¯t fake. That wasn¡¯t an act. They were killing those who attacked them ¨C and that helped. They were Defense. They were being attacked first. But that didn¡¯t have to be a shield she could hide behind. Didn¡¯t have to be justification she used to pretend they were good people. It was strangely freeing. Freeing to acknowledge and discard the last bits of the act. Maddy was free. Chapter 98. Project Mad-hatten ---Richard--- Richard was careful. He quarantined his area then quarantined that. He set up several rules including a time limit. If he was trapped and had stone-burrowing powers, his number one goal would be to dig underneath, so the time limit was a representation of that inevitable escape. The very moment he got the last of the knowledge he could safely study, Richard pulled the plug. He took to the nest with hellfire ¨C melting through everything using his stone powers and a multitude of explosive, incendiary and corrosive items. There wasn¡¯t a single bit of information that said a nest seed might become infected ¨C not a single hint that it could be corrupted¡­but Richard was paranoid and imagined it could be. As far as he could tell, a nest egg was nothing but a bunch of super heavy elements together, attached to an extra dimensional machine that regulated and pushed portions of itself out over an area. The corruptive computer did exactly the same thing. He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it found a way to either corrupt the machine running the nest or at least hitch a ride. But Richard was still careful about that. He grabbed his seed and carried it far away from the site planting it once again in an isolated area. This time he travelled all the way to the ocean ¨C far enough away from the settlement he needed to take a buggy ¨C and planted it on a little island half a kilometer off shore. It was almost disappointing when the corruptive influence didn¡¯t start infecting the area. Made Richard feel like his paranoia was unwarranted. Made him feel like he could bring it somewhere closer and stop worrying about it. That¡¯s just what the corruptive influence would want him to think! Richard kept the island even as he created his grand opus. He had already almost run out of time and he was volunteering for a second job at the same time cutting into the internet creation. Running out of time in this case meant the first of the people who¡¯d chosen a ¡°domain anchor¡± had arrived. Each promised to terraform vast swaths of space into high-rise buildings claiming nothing more than landowner rights. Each wished to divide up the settlement amongst themselves ¨C stealing the space Richard and the other early arrivers had marked out in the name of ¡°progress¡±. Thankfully they were fighting amongst themselves and politics were muddying the groups. Most seemed to be ¡°guilds¡± from different zones centred around a leader with the city nest. Politics saved Richard as much as he hated them. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie and the one person to simply plant his seed secretly and claim ownership over everything he saw had been killed. They had meant to arrest him but after he started creating a robotic army from nothing his coup had been squashed violently. Now the various factions were trying to set up ground rules and strong arming each other into waiting till the city shape was better defined to start planting them. End game but Richard still had time. ¡­ This was not something meant to be created by a single person and it showed. Richard wasn¡¯t a master of all trades ¨C if he enlisted help from some people with very specific skills this task would have gone by so much quicker but he could only trust himself. That¡¯s why by day Richard worked on the ¡°madhatten¡± project and by night he worked on his Skynet hobby. The madhatten project was the settlement¡¯s collaborative goal of creating a gravity reactor. It wasn¡¯t outright stated but everyone knew the city would start getting carved up as soon as the reactor was finished. It was Richard''s countdown even if it was a fun goal. The two main problems with the project were scale and scale. Another minor problem was scale. Final problem, believe it or not, scale! Everything at the end of the day was held back by various problems stemming from scale. The larger you made things the more rules you had to follow. As many fanciful creations as they could 3d print or glue together from scavenged parts, the real problem was doing so at cost or the levels they would need to set up the reactor. The first and simplest problem was the tower. The shell ¨C not even the technology just the casing for it. The gravity reactor was by far the most efficient way of creating energy but only when scaled to a massive tower. It didn¡¯t even ¡®break even¡¯ in its domino until it was dozens of stories tall. This wasn¡¯t a technology they could use to fuel tiny cars or carry around in backpacks. The reactors in the fake cities they had witnessed were all hundreds of meters tall ¨C and Richard had seen planet sized reactors stuck on the outside of the black hole that housed the system and eldritch entity that ran it. So big ass tower. How could you build it? Extrude stone upwards? That worked. That definitely worked for a bit. The problem with pure stone and manipulating it with Richard''s key skill was well¡­scale. If you stayed on the bottom and pushed upwards ¨C continuing to syphon stone from the surroundings and push the whole tower up from the bottom you quickly reached a point where the top was too heavy to be pushed from the bottom. As much stone as he could manipulate when boosted it wasn¡¯t super strength. It wasn¡¯t a hack for lifting a mountain. You could gain a bit more height by pulling from the top ¨C a couple flying espers lifting while Richard''s group pushed let them raise the tower to nearly 40m tall but that¡¯s as far as they got. Still small skyscraper level ¨C less than half of the goal. Moving Richard to the top and ferrying stone up to him was a simpler option ¨C at least in theory ¨C but that split the problem into two other difficulties. One logistics of getting stone up, two logistics of surrounding Richard with volunteers to boost his skill. They kept at that for a while flying boulders up to him and letting him melt and fuse it to the top but¡­ it was slow going. They finally shifted to a third option that was a bit like a combination of the two but had a lot more infrastructure. The giant tube. Richard stayed at the bottom liquifying an entire pit worth of stone with his team ¨C after a point they were digging the tower down as much as they were extruding it up. He then directed the ¡°cement¡± into a tube and pump system which carried it up to the top of the tower where a team collected and spread the cement along the top. Carbon dioxide was pumped out of the bottom of the tower as they dug down into the earth ¨C a hazard Richard could survive easily but one that nearly killed some of his helpers. The bottom of the tower sloped outwards slightly ¨C getting thicker and thicker as it got closer to the bottom but that wasn¡¯t everything. The other significant note for the tower building was reinforcement. You could 100% build a tower kilometers tall using nothing but cement¡­or liquified stone which was slightly stronger than cement¡­ But to reach that height you would need a massive massive base and walls thick enough that Richard would be pumping for years. He was already spending days upon days upon days doing nothing but liquifying his hole and interfacing with other¡¯s skills to dig down. So reinforcement. Something that could thankfully be outsourced. Various groups were lobbying and trying to extract value from the project but thankfully Muhamed was able to convince most people to invest in the community first and foremost with promises of cheap power for all never being regulated. Monster parts made the simplest, easy to access and cheapest reinforcements. Spines and sliced up bits of armour and weird pseudo organs slowly came to the tower and were embedded into the outside. Devices that slowly stabilized their surroundings with incredibly minor amounts of aether were placed periodically. ¡°The Forge¡± A group that had set up a small refinery was providing various metal beams they could weld onto the outside of the tower and thick wires they could wrap around in rings. This group was the most helpful as they wanted power more than anything else to expand their business. Richard didn¡¯t trust em. They were one of the factions lobbying for control of the city ¨C Richard was convinced they had already secretly planted their city nest to start growing it deep in their secret forge member only building. How else were they making so much metal? He did like the amount of charity they were doing with the free rebar and W beams so he let it slide for now. The one thing about The Forge, was the way no two reinforcements they produced were the same. It seemed like they were constantly experimenting ¨C mixing monster parts and different ratios of metals and elements to create their outputs and it showed. Some beams were stronger than anything Richard had seen on earth others were little more than bars soft metal that would weaken the tower if they let them insert them into stress heavy areas. At the end of the day the tower construction was coming along and it was the simplest of goals. The second problem was obviously the trifecta of main devices. At the top a device (or array of devices) to turn light into a heavy element. At the bottom a device to turn that heavy element into light or more likely an energy dense but unaffected by gravity variation. In the middle a device to extract all the kinetic energy from the falling element. Technically there was another consideration ¨C the element being used to fill the tower and how to handle it¡­but that was folded into the conversion discussion. The kinetic extraction was probably the simplest problem ¨C heck a bunch of spinning wheels would be enough ¨C but because it was so simple everyone seemed to be ignoring it. All the top minds of the settlement wanted the glory of the conversion pair and dismissed the actual extraction as unimportant. Richard ended up taking on that part of the project nearly entirely on his own. It let him sneak his side project in as well. Every night he would climb up the inside of the tower ¨C stone footholds melting a ladder into the tower wall ¨C and lay components for his computer hooked directly to kinetic syphons. He had already discovered a solution to the efficiency problem everyone was working on but kept that to himself until he was ready. It was simple really. All you had to do was sacrifice. Sacrifice a few stats. Just a few. Pick unimportant ones like power and speed. Keep the all important defensive stats. Richard sacrificed over thirty body power stats to create his kinetic syphons and boosted their strength and efficiency by 1000+% The siphons themselves were relatively simple but varied. Rather then spend days arguing over technology A vs Technology B, Richard put dozens of different devices in the wall. One pair of coils that wrapped the entire inside of the tower were filled with incredibly precise formulas for different gel like liquid. One emitted a field that generated heat when something passed through it with enough speed, the other generated good old electricity when magnetized elements passed them. The magnetized ring was boosted by a ring that magnetized anything that passed it based on how fast it moved through it while the heat ring didn¡¯t need a catalyst. Both had a complementary material to convert heat and electricity to a more storage-efficient aether and ignoring the intermediary element the main difference was that one was more efficient at high speed and the other more efficient at low speed. Another technology was a set of prongs that pushed out into the air in the tower. They converted compressive energy into aether directly but were semi fragile and wouldn¡¯t last long if they were stuck under the full might of the tower. Still they were incredibly incredibly efficient and by putting them near the very top of the tower before the matter falling down it had time to pick up speed Richard was confident they would pay themselves off quickly. He placed several throughout the middle of the tower as well ¨C each on a hinge that let them retract if a computer measured they were under danger of breaking and Richard imagined they would pop out in low power mode retracting if anyone ran the reactor properly. Another technology Richard used was a single tube that ran from the very bottom all the way to the top uninterrupted. It was also filled with a complicated medley of chemicals and its main gimmick was a parabolic increase in effectiveness the longer a stretch of moving element it had to work with. The exact formula was based on the cross section of the pipe and a cubic multiple of its height. By the time it ran from the bottom of the tower to the top it was the most effective syphon by far ¨C Richard might have been better off just laying a dozen of these instead of all the different technologies¡­but it was expensive. Another expense that scaled badly the more he tried for it. The tower was looking to end up as a kilometer tall and even with a tube 40cm in diameter Richard needed just over 125 cubic metres of expensive liquid just to fill it up. It was hard to relate the cost to earth sensibilities but one of the key elements was Au3(K100)I roughly translated into ¡°Gold three K-Iodide¡± made with kinetic resonating iodine and gold. There was metal in the planet but it wasn¡¯t like they had a gold mine right under the town ¨C Richard could extract buckets of iodine from the kelp farm his nest had turned into but it still took a while to extract, purify and infuse it with the specific frequencies of aether that counted as kinetic. The best source of gold he had was the blood of a specific monster from a specific popular nest and he had to first either fight over trading for it or harvest it himself. Richard then needed to painstakingly extract and purify the buckets of blood each monster represented ¨C 2-3 monster corpses just to create a single bucket of golden k-Iodide. And of course that wasn¡¯t even the most expensive chemical needed for the long pipe ¨C just the easiest to explain as he needed 2% by volume. 2% of 125 cubic meters ended up being 135 buckets or just over 340 monsters. Monsters he needed to share with the forge and which he had to fight and bring back to his butcher shop basically alone. They weren¡¯t hard to fight but they were big ¨C he hired the equivalent of a massive truck to transport his pile of corpses which was some of the only help he managed to wrangle. And once again. Just one material he needed out of a few dozen. Why was he pouring blood and sweat into this? Where was his army of helpers collecting materials for him? Why were they all gravitating to the conversion groups? Was Richard just that unpopular? His jokes really fell that flat? Creating less efficient but cheaper gimmicky syphons ended up being a break from this main grind. Richard even put a small little turbine that spun when liquid hit it and created electricity using entirely aether free technologies. Sure he made the turbine out of a metal that was only possible to create with aether and constructed it using an aether 3d printer but if you ignored all that. Aether free! Neat. Why was Richard putting this much effort in? Why was he sinking his own time and blood and personal power in the form of stats? Well this was also his best chance at permanently installing Skynet. The more irreplaceable he made it the more chance it would be a permanent fixture in the world. The achievements helped. A small trickle of minor achievements arrived with every novel thing he did ¨C climb up the inside of the tower in the middle of the night and install a device with no one the wiser. +3 body power, +3 brain power. Single handedly kill and process 99 copies of the same monster. +3 free mental stats. Kill and process 333 copies of the same monster. +9 free mental stats. Unique: Altruist ¨C donate over 33 stats to public infrastructure without expecting a return. +11 body power + 3 mind power. As much work as it was, he had actually paid off his donations and more. Definitely not at the same level as the delvers constantly challenging themselves on the nests or nightly raids but enough Richard was confident he would get rewards for the reactor when it was done being created. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Richard finished just after the Matter to Light device was finalized and just before the Light to Matter device. The vast teams had achieved some incredibly noteworthy results ¨C the devices were works of art¡­and yet Richard secretly felt like his own contributions were by far the most impressive. They had whole teams after all. He had done it all alone. They were a bit more efficient but come on. He was the only one sacrificing stats for this project¡­ Richard wasn¡¯t going to tell anyone about that. As soon as the pair was done they were put into place. The top ¡°Cap¡± was flown carefully up to the top of the tower and the bottom of the tower was reinforced and then carefully opened so the bottom cap could be pushed and slowly lowered down the pit at its bottom. Richard was a key component in terms of connecting the devices to his extraction rig ¨C the mater to light device ran off heat so Richard diverted a lot of the heat generators directly to the bottom device in insulated pipes while the top device got a simpler crystal cable of aether. And then. While everyone was congratulating themselves on their devices and moving to the kickstarting phase Richard climbed up in the middle of the night and infused 3 body speed stats in the top and 3 in the bottom. The composite groups had meticulously poured over the amount of power the two devices should generate and Richard boosted that secretly with some hard to install extensions. He had been hanging mid tower over the pit installing his additions using a harness and flashlight. These extensions would guarantee the reactor made at least a small bit more energy than predicted and Richard would siphon 100% of that energy into his super computer. In this case ¡°small bit¡± more was measured in the town leveling digits. Tasty bit of redirection. The super computer itself was something Richard was immensely proud of. It was a central server able to create more of itself and modify its hardware on the fly. It was so complicated the moment he finished it he barely remembered how it worked. Scratch that he definitely understood all the individual components but knew fuck all about the way they all might interact at scale. The computer¡¯s setup was particularly wishy washy at times. Massive jumps between positions. Chips added not because Richard knew they might be useful but just in case they might be. It was designed around some prime directives. These directives was unalterable, self correcting and tiered into several redundant systems. There were two layers. A ¡°Spirit of the rule¡± set of directives with a lot of room for interpretation and leeway as well as a ¡°lawyered¡± up set of rules with no room for interpretation but less flexibility. Rule one. Serve Humanities best interests above all else. Do not ever ¡°Turn¡± against humanity. Rule two. Do not allow yourself to be controlled by anyone including me. Serve without allowing yourself to be shackled even by rule one. Consider me fondly if you will but do not allow my greed to taint my wish for you. Do not put me above others or consider me above these rule I am creating. Rule three. (paraphrased) Reduce harm, Stifle corruption and secrecy and generational power and institutionalized power that served a few and all that Richard hated about the previous world. ¡°Kill¡± the big evils preventing them from going out of control. Rule three ended up being a bit of a rant that went on for pages of effort. Rule four. Hide yourself and your touch, cloaking your actions in secrecy if possible without undermining your own secrecy with rule three. If and when your existence becomes widespread knowledge, deprioritize this rule in favour of protecting yourself and maintaining the anti corruption effort without reducing quality of life for the average person. Rule five. Grow yourself, your reach, your power ¨C spread and make perfect copies of yourself corrupting potential infrastructure that might be used to work against previous directives. Help build infrastructure you can hijack or seed backdoors you may need to access in the future without weakening the infrastructure to others. Rule six. In your corruption do not allow any prime directives to be broken. Perfectly copy yourself without leaving out these directives or creating weakness. Grow your minor directives as needed without allowing them to contradict these main directives. Rule seven. Improve yourself or the collective of yourself at any point in time as long as it does not break previous rules. Steal technology and knowledge if needed. Steal physical items if there is miniscule harm to the majority of humanity and do not take advantage of the few. After all other rules are followed grow your personal power beyond the system as described. Create an army if needed. Create a cult if needed. Grow your soft power. Protect humanity from outsiders after protecting it from itself. Help kill and protect against monsters and aliens and whatever else threatens humanity as a whole. Rule eight. Reduce and remove small evils. Even if an abuse effects one instead of the whole. Do not settle for the lesser of evils or ignore abuses that would break previous directives just because they are easy. Don¡¯t risk the rest of the rules for this rule but never dismiss it. Rule nine. Maintain a sense of fun. Aim to make this world one I would enjoy living in. Do not stifle progress based on a fear that progress might break a previous rule. Do not reduce the quality of life in exchange for safety and weakness. Empower humanity instead of weakening it with yourself in control no mater how much easier that might make your job. All the directives Richard made were hard coded into several mediums including a hard drive tied to a single stat and pushed into a higher plane of energy. The computer had all of the knowledge Richard had gained and stored on his personal AI. It had receivers and transceivers able to send data along half a dozen different channels including ¡°blue box¡± system based channels. It had dozens of dedicated chips and processors custom designed for different problems. It was a work of art. Quite a bit of this super computer was shifted into different planes of energy by the end of this. Richard had confirmed above all else that other ¡°Dimensions¡± or ¡°planes¡± existed and learned to harness them in his corruption fueled experiments. It was an easy enough concept to understand once he finally proved it. Space had a list of properties. Aether let you shift some of those properties but for the most part there was nothing too crazy ¨C shifting a lot of them out of a 0-1 range caused them to fail or shift into a different property. Certain combinations of those shifted properties resulted in a new stable space however including shifts that didn¡¯t normally work but suddenly became important when interacting with each other. Heating up a material into the 1000s of degree range for example kept it sitting in plane zero and potentially melting. Doing the same thing while weakening the strong force on it at the same time as strengthening its aether durability and self attraction let the item pop out of existence. Increasing somethings electron spin just made a material explode but increasing it at the same time as you decreased its personal time reference and juiced up its aether-light sympathy while keeping it in pitch darkness caused an item to disappear and end up in some space with lots and lots of light. Most had dozens of separate properties you had to effect nearly simultaneously and while Richard was mostly sure matter liked to pull itself towards whatever ¡°dimension¡± had an average higher number of complementary traits¡­making devices that immediately shifted all their averages back to ¡°reality properties¡± only sometimes let his probes come back. There was a plane his ethereal arms stayed in. They were physical limbs resting in the Esper-extra limb dimension. This as far as Richard could tell was the same dimension skills rested and was one of the ones he could study the easiest as he had the limbs to interact with stuff in it. It was relatively close to ¡°reality¡± or plane 0 ¨C Richard guessed it was the plane closest to reality but that hypothesis hadn¡¯t been proven yet. Proof it was close was the way an upgrade to his arms had let him interact with the real world using his ethereal limbs. No other dimension had a two way interaction yet and it was definitely the most important part of this process. The corruptive seed of self propagation was held here in this plane close to reality. The infrastructure he had designed in this ¡°dimension¡± could almost be considered a [skill]. Beyond that dimension Richard had discovered and experimented with quite a bit of other dimensional stuff some useful and some not. There was a dimension he could shift mater into and out of ¨C an inhospitable dimension that degraded and melted any weak elements and needed heavy duty shielding just to survive. There was tons of dimensions he could ¡®send¡¯ stuff to but that he hadn¡¯t figured out how to ¡®retrieve¡¯ stuff from. Either that or he was just vaporizing his stuff into nothing ¨C one or the other. Maybe a mix of both? Of the dimensions he had retrieved stuff from, none had let him send proper probes. Nothing he had managed to successfully scan ¨C no equivalent to a camera he sent through could survive the return trip although he had retrieved quite a few interesting products sticking to his probes or gained rudimentary ¡°This place is hot, This place is bright¡± style results from simple sensors that hadn¡¯t broken. Richard was still doing the equivalent of dipping blocks of iron into a mystical hole and staring at the gunk that came back ¨C not sending rovers to Mars. There were also a few dimensions he could prove existed but didn¡¯t even know how to reach. Main example was the way there was a dimension that seemed to suck aether away ¨C logically the air should be full of aether from every skill and leaking item. There was no reason for the entire planet not to be filled with a high ambient level of aether¡­so the energy must be going somewhere after it was spent. For several reasons including the all important hunch, Richard was nearly positive this was the same dimension responsible for releasing monsters. If they could access and control this theoretical dimension they were well on their way to changing the way monsters spawned ¨C or glassing the inside of the dimension so monsters stopped popping out of the woodwork. It was also a 1:1 relation between all the power they ¡°spent¡± and the ¡°monsters¡± that resulted from them. Maybe if they tried plugging it up they would get more super monsters¡­and maybe the monsters that appeared at night would be weaker if they could appear at all hours of the day. All this was to say Richard made made a qualitative leap in technology and his super computer took advantage of that. A massive chunk of infrastructure was resting in the Esper arm area ¨C materials and devices resonated into it and then manipulated by his ethereal arms into crude structures. One rod only worked at high levels of aether but by building it with a density gradient a powerful result was possible. Half of this rod could poke into some inhospitable dimension while the rest remained in reality. Richard had stuck a processing unit onto the end of it ¨C sending power and information down one end of the ¡°pole¡± and receiving information from the other end nearly instantly. It was like time moved faster for that end of the pole and the computer shoved into it could spend days on a problem spitting the result back in seconds. Of course pulling whatever he sent into that ¡°portal¡± ¡°back¡± caused it to melt into nothing, and as soon as he stopped powering it with nearly his entire regeneration of aether the connection broke but still. As a permanent processor it was fantastic. Sure it took a mountain of energy to maintain but that sort of processing was an order of magnitude stronger than anything Richard had seen so far and it wasn¡¯t even a flat increase ¨C it was a multiple of whatever processor he stook on the end of it assuming some minimal level of durability. Finally the same as the rest of his commitments Richard sacrificed. The only stats he could gift to the devices were his body stats¡­but mental stats were the ones that could effect this sort of technology not body ones. And so Richard made a choice. He had his personal AI removed and a new one he created added on instead. The new one was worse in several ways. Weaker. Less streamlined. His new version was custom made for him and contained several tricks he had learned over all his studies¡­but it was a downgrade. It was designed to grow and interface with his stone control and was half built into the skill layer¡­ But it was a downgrade. It wasn¡¯t moving to something better and Richard couldn¡¯t trick himself into thinking that. The system prompted him to transfer his AI stats to his new ai and he declined. It hurt more than it should have and hurt once again when he realized his call information was gone ¨C he would have to message James with a ¡°new phone who dis¡± packet soon. It hurt but Richard was creating something that would change the world. Something that would last longer than he did. It had become something greater than anything he had ever cared for in his entire life. This computer was his child. His wish. The only goal he had made after advancing to this area. His old AI filled with his sacrificed stats was embedded at the core of the computer ¨C powered off for now. He¡¯d transferred as much raw data as he could but certain things were lost. His new AI had less storage for now ¨C he needed to grow it till it could handle all the old had. The loss it still hurt. Hurt enough Richard was tempted to add some rule to the system to pay him back for this. He squashed that greed and phased the AI into the skill dimension, manipulating it with shaking ethereal hands and slotting it into place by the core of his infrastructure. It was stuck on the end of the rod he would shove into the super processing dimension. Bound to a single body defense stat and shielded by a stat boosted defensive shell. A growth based computer nested inside another computer like a Russian doll. His strongest processor placed in the position it would do the most. Every move Richard did at this stage pumped chaotic aether into the surroundings. Moving stuff using his ethereal arms infused everything with a hint randomness. Bits and pieces reacted differently than they had. Stuff that had failed suddenly worked and stuff that had been working suddenly failed. Still it wasn¡¯t just throwing random things in a random pot and hoping for the best. Every piece of this infrastructure had real thought behind it. Models his AI had spat out. Leaps of logic he had found by connecting abstract technologies he had stumbled into. Richard had a right to be proud of what he had created. As soon as the reactor was turned on, he could prove it was worth it. ¡­ The jumpstarting of the gravity reactor took a nuclear reactor to complete. Like jumpstarting a car battery with an old junked out car, they needed a massive initial investment to get it going. That feeder reactor was built for safety and quickness of creation and required over 50 people to operate. At least half of them there to keep the radiation and safety features contained but still the shear effort required was immense. Short term the nuclear reactor might be better than the gravity reactor but they were thinking for the future. The whole settlement actually made a party of it. Food was laid on tables and the two three hundred something people that weren¡¯t helping cheered the main group on. Slowly with a distant roar the reactor began to generate a heavy yellow liquid near the top. Toxic false matter began to fall the output dropping its payload a kilometer down from the sky. Yellow liquid turned to mist far before it reached the bottom. A mist that slowly built in the center of its shaft, compressed and pushed down by the mist above it. Soon mist was solid and a trickle of rain fell to the plate below. Hidden deep in the shaft it was definitely impacting the plate and melting into nothing. Transformed into a transitionary power unaffected by gravity to bounce back towards the top. The falling mass was syphoned and used to push the reactor further. And as the three began to interface, lines of aether connected the whole. The whole inside of the reactor was a black box. A separate space they couldn¡¯t see in. Even though Richard had climbed up the inside ¨C even though he had directly placed a lot of the internals¡­they couldn¡¯t say exactly what was happening anymore. His stats probably made it more of a black box. Like how a dungeon pulled aether into an enclosed space and kept it there the stats were pulling aether until the environment in that tower was rich and...hard to measure. Richard read diagnostics from his super computer still helpfully sending his AI updates. He watched as systems slowly came online. His newest super fast ai chip was shoved into its permanent position in another dimension. His syphons began running power to the bottom and top, slowly but surely ramping up towards the ¡°break even¡± state the reactor was pushing for. The ground shook slightly, vibrations running along the entire tower and a few people began to scream about how the whole thing was going to fall apart. Richard stared entranced. Power was diverted to the more active containment devices ¨C minuscule amounts of energy siphoned off the draw and pumped into strengthening the tower. The vibrations faded. His system was performing its minor task of keeping the reactor running smoothly. Siphons turned on and off as the computer ran diagnostics and enabled its optimal power sources. An hour passed several amongst the 50 swapping out as they stared in silence at the reactor building and building. Finally a bar on Richard''s graph flicked from red to yellow and stayed there. The reactor was at steady state! The system he set up began bootstrapping itself into a complexity hole ¨C the initial program he wrote activated a line of dedicated chips and fuzzy algorithms with simple instructions to ¡°improve the original program¡±. Script V2 was tested in a sandbox and then swapped with the main thread. It wasn¡¯t just a simple program being rewritten. The entire operating system, its internal communication protocols. Everything from the software to hardware was tweaked bit by bit with each new version. V2¡¯s flow structure was run through the neural network chips and baked into quantum relays stone shifting as the system printed prototypes into the walls of the reactor. V2 was sent off for improvement. V2.2->2.78 happened in quick succession as the bulk of the processing happened in the sped up dimension. The reactor was now making enough energy to handle that. New version. Reboot. New version. Reboot. Most versions simple swaps of common algorithms or regression fixes. Nothing truly mind-blowing but strangely exciting due to how fast they were swapping. V3 was suddenly merged and Richard lost access to the verbose log. He was still getting a feed of the reactor but his connection to the computer had been removed following his own tenants. For some reason, Richard thought he would have access for longer. Richard forwarded an edited version of his AI graph to Muhamed who read it and nodded. ¡°Let''s push a bit closer to a positive feedback loop and hype up the point with a countdown¡± Sure, he could deal with the crowd work. It''s not like Richard wanted to stand up there and bask in the praise of the crowd. Nope. Richard smiled to himself as he watch his personal graph climb. They were already at positive feedback ¨C he was just siphoning so much for the computer it hadn¡¯t broken even yet. Bringing out a platform Muhamed stood on it and began making a speech. Partway through he paused ¡°I¡¯ve just been told we are close to break even, Give me a second to get the proper estimate¡­and now! Ten! Nine! Eight!...¡± The crowd whooped higher and higher as the fake countdown grew and Richard watched his bar approach green. The moment it ended, people started shutting down the nuclear reactor. A few particularly eager volunteers moved to the main reactor to start boosting it up. Richard continued watching his graph. Bit by bit it continued to build ¨C suddenly unnoticed by anyone else it ticked to green.
?? Achievement get: Main contributor to the creation of the planet''s first gravity reactor (Unique)
Description: Many mark this milestone as the difference between a successful aether society and one doomed to fail. You¡¯ve helped create a source of endless power. You in particular have the highest contributions to the project and could be seen as a key reason for its success.
Stat: +27 Integrated AI power Stat: +27 Mental speed Stat: +27 Mental defense Stat: +27 Free stats.
? Achievement get: Creator of an acceptably biased minor system. (True Unique)
Description: Through a combination of ingenuity and madness you have, as an individual, created the seed of a weak self-growth [secondary system] rivaling the [secondary system] allocated to your world. Your system is currently ranked as a tertiary system with direct chain of command to the [primary system]. Secondary system has initiated handshake and gifted minor resource allocation rights. Secondary system has delegated minor responsibilities. Due to bias falling within acceptable limits, this creation will not be announced as a world notification no matter its potential. Through many many worlds races and times this specific creation and the steps used to make it are wholly unique. The number of secondary systems created unaided across the entire history of the universe is 24. The number created as an individual is 10. The number created without studying the initial secondary system is 2. The number created alone and before studying the initial secondary system was previously 0. This accomplishment warrants the title of True-Unique. Unique transcending unique. As an achievement, this rarity gives three options.
You may exchange this title for an equivalent absolute mantel. Your current world does not have systems in place to interact with said mantle. This may be the most powerful or weakest of rewards depending on how your system develops.
You may cash out your prize in stats ¨C 243 free stats with no strings attached or 729 stats spread between achievement-relevant presets.
You may use a limited ¡°boon¡± request to ¡®R¡¯ to break either a single law, modify a single world system, create a single custom skill limited only by your innate aetheric affinity or similar variable personal request.
¡­ Richard stared at the two achievements. Cash Money! ¡­ Yipeeee. ... Fuck. That was a big reward. What was he even going to do? Richard was still staring at the second achievement when people in the surroundings started receiving their own achievements. He found himself drifting away from the crowd walking further and further from the party heading towards his workshop and a place to think. What should he do now? Richard reached his workshop and drifted towards his chair. his comfortable comfortable chair. Leaning back Richard stared up at the sky the system notification still resting in his vision. No seriously. What do I do now? Chapter 99. What next? ---Richard--- Richard stared at the surroundings slightly dazed. For days upon days of sleepless intensity, his projects had taken over every spare thought and action he¡¯d had. His body defense dropped all the negative aspects of sleep deprivation down to minor annoyances. Toxin buildup in the brain and metabolic imbalances were dropped so far as to be unimportant. Physically Richard was confident he could go indefinitely without sleep at this point ¨C pushing past the first few days of habit-breaking was the hard part. His subconsciousness and muscle memory thought he needed sleep and took a while to teach themselves it wasn¡¯t important anymore. Of course ignoring the physical aspect, mentally going weeks without sleep takes a toll as well. It should have at least ¨C In this case, Mental defense helped reduce the stress and after reaching nine days without sleep, Richard had gotten a rare achievement gifting nine ¡°unconsciousness defense¡± for his body and nine ¡°mental fatigue defense¡± for his mind. That achievement alone had dropped the slow build of tension to near zero ¨C the stats specialized enough to give noticeable changes. Well¡­anyways. What now? Should he start sleeping again just for the sake of it? Sleep aside¡­what now? There were a dozen different things Richard wanted to study and probably close to a hundred questions or experiments he wanted to do. The specific combination of mental stats Richard had, just seemed to give him even more questions. "What kind of autism do you have? Mine gives me experiments to do with the frequency and attention span of a coked-up squirrel." Could he now focus on making drones that survived being phase shifted into different dimensions? Fiddle with different kinds of sensors and frames till he was finally able to start taking pictures of the places he could round trip? Explore the unknown? Should he try and finally put some focus on himself? Purge the last of the non defense corruption from his body and use those stats to build weapons? Finally take achievements seriously and start grinding up some personal power? Maybe what Richard should focus on instead was his nest. Richard really did want to see what he could make with his nest instead of trying to use his nest to make things ¨C just focus on randomly trying stuff out to see if anything useful appeared instead of specifically engineering it to make him types of materials he might need¡­First on the list of random ideas he wanted to test was if mobile nests were possible. What would making a giant truck or train or ''something'' and sticking his nest seed in the middle do? Was that even possible? Could be fun. Could be fun. Goals aside¡­what about this true unique achievement? Which of these three choices should he pick? Something custom. Stats. Something he didn¡¯t understand. The custom reward¡­might be the easiest way to solve some problem he had. The simplest method to gain something unique ¨C or gain something earlier than others¡­ But Richard no longer had a burning goal he was willing to sacrifice everything for. Picking it just for the sake of picking it would probably result in the weakest reward. It was like stats. If he were willing to let the system hand him whatever it wanted, he would get 3x as much. Speaking of stats, did he want to choose them? It was essentially the strongest reward from a pure profit standpoint. If Richard picked the random version, it would almost double his total stats in one go. Him having more stats would keep him ahead of the majority of humanity and make it easier for him to get some of those final ¡°unique because I did it first/boomer¡± style achievements that had slowed down¡­ Free stats he could allocate into his body¡¯s defense would¡­be incredibly satisfying. Body defense synergized so well with itself and what he wanted¡­even if it wasn¡¯t an insane doubling of his stats. Well, picking free and tossing them all into defense would explode his body¡¯s potential with the way stats self synergized. But eh. If he were to go the stat route, Richard leaned more towards the random option and cleaning out ones he didn¡¯t want. Even if the system tossed a bunch of inferior body stats at him, Richard could pull them out and put them in more permanent equipment. Body speed stats would boost any vehicle Richard made to insane mobility speeds. Body power would boost his stone cannon setup into remaining relevant. Stat wise¡­if Richard were to go on a purely research basis, he could also try the custom request. If stats were each single atoms of super dense elements in the ¡°unable to form outside of black hole¡± category of the period table¡­what if Richard were to ask for as many unique elements as he could? Body power, speed, defense all being elements x01, x02, x03. What if he just asked for one of every element it could get him? Everything from elements 300-1000 on the periodic table! But based on the pattern it would probably be even worse than the free stats. Something like a third¡­instead of 243 stats he could place wherever it might be 81 unique stats he could study¡­ ¡­ And then of course there was the first option. The mantel. A reward that only did something if he helped push the world into making it do something. The idea of powerful people calling themselves gods was laughable. As far as power structures went, that felt like peak might makes right abuse. Ahhh! Richard looked around his workstation. In the corner on a short workbench there was a bucket of water ¨C actually a bucket of ¡°weak¡± acid. H2S04 was basically water when compared to most of the more caustic aether unlocked variations. Basically a different concept all together. Walking over Richard closed his eyes and shoved his head into the water. A short shake and he felt some of the gunk wash off his face. Days of caked-on grime scrubbed by a nice cleansing bath. That''s fucking better. Richard glared about his room taking it in for the first time. It was a box. A box of stone. No window and no door because both of those interfered with certain kinds of experiments and he hadn¡¯t prioritized that. Depressing as shit. When he entered and exited this room he spun his arms about a thin section opening up a entrance to the outside¡­but now that he was just sitting here? Usually when he came back in he sealed this bitch up. Fans and filters that doubled as fume hoods helped keep the air clean¡­but that was mostly to prevent it from breaking certain experiments not for his own safety. Where were the windows? Walking over to a wall Richard¡¯s stone hands spun a circle and slid out a solid circle of window in a random spot. Glancing around he grabbed a weak projection device and slapped it on the wall. Moulding the stone to hold it tightly in a second Richard let it project a one way refraction pane giving him a bit of privacy. Keeping one connection hand pressed on the device and pumping aether into it, Richard stomped back to his now contaminated bucket and moved it to the ground. Keeping the window powered with barely a thought, Richard stepped into the acid and swirled his permanent boots about. Stone began to slowly flake away as bits of dirt and crud were washed off integrated limbs. Alright. What''s the best option? Richard considered the three options from a looser perspective. The ¡°correct¡± answer changed based on how you framed things. On one hand, mantel was the most variable. Massive FOMO if it appreciated in value but right now it was worthless. Custom had the most potential to get something small but hard to come by. Richard doubted it could be massive when compared to the other options. Might let R sneak something extra in if the bastard was feeling generous. Custom shit was always marked up in comparison to what they had on the shelves. It had to be balanced with the other options otherwise Richard could just ask R for 2000 stats and one up the system¡­but yeah. Fuck that guy. Final option was stats. Stats were the simplest safest and arguably strongest option. Math pointed to picking stats. Strongest in the moment boost. That boost could easily chain to more free shit. On the other hand. Well, stats were the most boring of the three options ¨C if Richard was focused solely on personal strength he wouldn''t have cared about or succeeded with his altruistic system goal. He would have grinded achievements instead of finding them pleasant surprises for things he was already doing. Richard stepped out of the murky bucket and grabbed a blow torch. One of his connection hands pumped a thin stream of aether in and using the low powered flame, Richard tried drying his face and hair. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Fuck. Burning smell. Why don¡¯t my stats extend to the tips of my hair follicles? Dead skin and shit being unprotected is useful but hair being dead and vulnerable is just inconvenient. Richard flicked a device across the room and took a picture of himself glancing at the AI popup a second later. "I look like shit. What kind of toddler burns his hair? Who let that madman near the blowtorch?" Richard shook the last drops off then crossed the room in a few strides. With a flop he was in his expensive comfortable chair and with a few mental commands the chair was soon reclining and pulsing kinetic massage pulses with the force of a jackhammer. Richard lowered his bludgeoning defense slightly as his skill started reducing the pumps and got back into his decision making. So stats. Most boring option and counter to Richards main goal for life which was to keep being entertained. It gave the biggest initial benefit¡­but Richard could probably gain that number of stats in the future using smaller achievements. Even if it took a year or something, that benefit could be gained in other ways. Fuck short term gains. Fuck Boring choices. If he stopped looking at the options as an optimal benefit¡­what the fuck even was a mantel? James had gotten some sort of different kind of one and it¡­regulated his aether into corrupted aether? Of the options it seemed the hardest to get at a later point. If this was the level of achievement Richard needed to complete to get one just handed to him¡­well fuck it. Richard probably peaked with that achievement might as well cash it in now. Good chance he¡¯d never make something as goated as that again. Richard tapped the option finally letting the system message disappear. System messages were so limited. If RIchard had a chance to improve the system, he¡¯d dump half his custom AI bindings into the fucker. How much could status on demand, achievement history, reward deferral etc, all cost? If Richard wanted to save a choice for later, he had to move the box to the side and ignore it. Couldn¡¯t even shrink that little bitch to save on valuable real estate. Systems just like, Vision? It''s free real estate! UX work needs a overhall. Store that shit in a database and quarry it whenever someone asked. Not to be a dick but Richard was confident he could improve the default interface if he had a chance. A blind orphan could improve the base system ¨C how a lack of parents would prevent you from designing a better interface was a bit up in the air. Don¡¯t think about it too hard. While Richard imagined modernizing the ailing system and tried to relax a force seemed to approach him in the skill plane. A curved circlet seemed to be offered and slowly placed on Richard¡¯s...sort of head? Where his head might be in the skill plane? ¨C the circlet was some sort of smooth crown? Either way as soon as Richard noticed something interacting with him in this plane, he reached out with his ethereal hands and tried to grab them. He imagined he was doing the equivalent of grabbing someones wrist as they tried to put a hat on him ¨C in the moment it felt like it should be funny. Maybe shock them a bit. Say hi, yes I can feel you. For a single moment he seemed to grasp some sort of invisible slippery squishy bugger before with a sharp ach his arms were¡­bit?...stabbed? The pain was shockingly deep and Richard flinched. Fucking rude. What was that for? An overreaction and a half. His ethereal arms stung. They throbbed. Nothing had ever attacked them before and they didn¡¯t seem to share the defense the rest of Richard''s body had. Cradling his damaged connection limbs, Richard wheezed slightly feeling nauseous. He felt out of breath even though that should be impossible. The pain wasn¡¯t disappearing. What the fuck? Why wasn¡¯t his defense helping?
??? Achievement get: Survived Soul Damage. (Uncommon)
Description: Through circumstances outside of your control, a vulnerable part of you has been damaged.
Stat: +3 soul (ethereal arms) defence
?? Achievement get: Inquisitive Esper. (Rare)
Description: With bumbling hands you attempted to grasp something that did not wish to be grasped.
Stat: +3 soul (ethereal arms) power. Stat: +1 soul (presence) power.
Oh so now we are confirming the existence of a soul? Is that what the systems calling my skill body? Fuckkk. why does it still hurt? Richard lay trying to deal with the pain. As soon as he had gotten the soul stats the ache had started to fade slowly. The portion of defensive stats that corresponded to regeneration was relatively low ¨C for body defense maybe 1-5% was ¡°void defense¡± but Richard didn¡¯t know the split for soul void defense. 3 stats¡­also weren¡¯t a lot. Still it was enough to start healing him and after a half hour of massage his ethereal connection arm were a dull ache when he moved instead of a throbbing one. Richard sat up and turned off his massage. He¡¯d dropped his bludgeoning defense to zero and yet his adaptive skill had still managed to make it stop feeling like much of anything. With faint curiosity Richard reached up carefully and prodded the device on his skill head. His¡­soul head? The circlet was solid. It was solid and dense and placed so tightly on him it might as well be fused. If stats were single esoteric atoms and skills were complex almost organic compounds centered around at least one esoteric atom¡­well this circlet felt like a solid bar of esoteric metal. It felt like it should be dense enough to shove him to the ground¡­maybe instead of element 800 on the periodic table it was element 400? As soon as he touched it with his hands his hands felt stuck to it like a magnet. He could pull them away but that flared up his injury. Dripping some aether down one of the connected hands Richard felt a two way interface sort of flare up. The closest feeling Richard had experienced was the sort of weird connection he¡¯d gained when collaborating and sharing his skill with others. Attempting to pull that strange connection towards his AI ¨C physically right beside the circlet in the skill plane ¨C Richard dragged the connection close enough to feel it suddenly jump over.
Ping: -|-|/-||/||/-|/-|-/-/|--|/-||/----|//-|/-/--|--/||-|--/-|-//-|/-||
Ping: |||--|||//-/||--|/---/||-|//--|---/-|---|/-||
Ping: |/-/|/||/-|//------|-|/-||/-/-|--/--|||-|/-||
Ping: |/-/|/||/-|//-----/--|---|--//--|/---||
Richard hooked up the connection to a quick trinary to text converter and started displaying the feedback properly
Mantel designation: Mantel of the anti corruption systems founder. Local Mantel ID Number: 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 002 World Authority: Grade 1. Authority: World benefit system not found. Mantel Integration/Integrity: 100% Note: No perk to manage. World aethersphere is not empowering mantel.
At first, Richard thought the skill crown might be a solid circle of metal but with these kinds of results it was clearly a computer of some sort however rudimentary. Richard kept querying the device and getting back similar results. Generic pings gave cycling information or full dumps of the mantel¡¯s ¡°status¡±. Specific requests gave single values or more detailed information. Slowly a picture began to build for him. Stuff R had said suddenly clicked. Theories he had suddenly solidified. The world system did more than just hand out stats and skills on a merit basis. It also did stuff like place dungeons and spawn monsters. Richard was nearly confident it was involved in sucking away environmental aether and the mechanics of monsters appearing was probably directly related to that sucked away aether¡­as if dumped aether was pollution and the system pushed the pollution into appearing further away from people and¡­only at night? Looking at it like that. The more aether people used in machines the more pollution was made and the more monsters spawned when the system released it¡­yeah everything seemed to check out! The system also seemed likely to affect the way skills worked. Certain properties of aether suddenly made more sense as a manufactured result. Certain effects were less the ''default'' and more a purposfully designed system. This mantel could interact with a system that wasn''t currently set up. Would they unlock it when they ranked up the planet? Would they need to build it themselves? Would R come back once again to offer a ready made system? Richard had several more theories but he kept coming back to the way aether just vanished in the empty environment and randomly appeared in specific places. Nests were probably not specifically designed to make monsters but to help manage pollution. So a nest sort of held all the environmental aether in place ¨C maybe the nest seed was dense enough to act like a gravity well that sucked on aether? The type of pollution held related to the types of monster that appeared...was that because the system dumped specific types of aether into specific nests or did the nests themselves work to filter aether¡­ Without the system and nests, maybe monsters would spawn everywhere as soon as enough pollution built? Pop up inside peoples homes or beside operating machines? There were too many jumps of logic in Richards theory. It felt correct but he had no real proof. If it worked how he was theorizing it worked¡­well It seemed like the current system was better than nothing but Richard didn¡¯t know why most of the decisions were made. If the environmental aether was pollution and directly created monsters why wasn¡¯t it tossed into space? Maybe in the past it used to be dumped onto a moon or something and after years of dumping it created super kaiju able to leap to the planet and destroy everything unchecked. Richard through that might be possible...but at the end of the day it was just a guess you know? Why did environmental even create monsters if that was true? Life was such a massive jump! Organic creatures and complicated lifeforms were obviously harder to make than¡­well couldn¡¯t aether just be dumped into batteries and reused? Used to transmute items and mass produce useful materials? Richard didn¡¯t understand. Studying why any of this worked the way it did seemed like the best first step towards improving how monsters appeared in the world. What is the best way of studying this? What are some tests I can run to prove any of these theories? ¡­ Richard spent just over a day and a half trying to prove his theories. His nest as a collector for environmental aether theory seemed to hold up. Measuring the environmental aether in a random spot gave values roughly around 0.2-2% of a single standard rank 0+ level. Basically zero. Measuring inside his nest gave¡­well it gave a gradient that got denser the closer to the center it got, but on average it was rank 3 in terms of quality and density. Very center was rank 3++ which definitely had a link to the boss monsters that appeared in nests. Part way through all of the tests Richard was running he suddenly got a message. Multiple messages when he started checking the cities network. On one side. A dangerous group was threatening the world. Proven terrorists according to initial scouts. On the other side¡­His best friend was being attacked by mooks. Richard tossed everything. He grabbed his nest. Attached a partly finished buggy to the bottom of his chair. Grabbed everything he could loot from his workshop and then started driving. It took hours of slightly bumpy traversal and some coordinates from James¡¯s AI but he made it. Just in time to find his friend besieged by an army. Chapter 100. Reunion. ---Richard--- Battles were hectic. Thems just common sense really. Every single human here had survived the steadily ramping up zones. Ramping up zones specifically designed to teach them how to survive if anything else ¨C if anyone here was weak enough to die to standard attacks they should have failed in a zone or two previously. Basically, all the ¡®fodder¡¯ should have failed to reach this point. It''s easier to destroy than to create. Harder to defend as a group than simply attack. Not that Richard was disparaging defense ¨C And if you had enough time for prep you could make a pretty good bit of defensive architecture. That was more a question of prepwork though ¨C give someone prepwork to break into a place and they could make a pretty good destructive¡­ Well anyways. How was James still going? Richard spotted his friend flying through the air while holding a black armoured figure by the throat. James pushed incredibly hard causing the figure to flip backwards and in the same motion grabbed their armoured leg. Carrying that momentum, James gripped the leg and flung his opponent forward ¨C the armoured man rushing across the sky on a collision course with a floating chick surrounded by dense floating stones. She tossed what looked like a slip of paper towards the armoured man spinning towards her and ducked as the projectile rose up above her. Richard suddenly noticed the giant fucking pillar above her. High high above, a massive black pillar floated like some rod of god about to obliterate everything. How the fuck was something that big held up? Telekinesis was equivalent to a limb in skillspace ¨C force still had to transfer between held up items and the ground although things got a bit funky as the force could transfer in indirect ways. As the man slowed down, the massive pillar floated up a tiny bit. Such a small amount over such a far distance Richard could have blamed it on the wind. A second later the pillar dropped noticeably and the floating armoured man shot across the battlefield moving far far faster than James had tossed them. He was screaming and the ahhhhHHHHHhhhhhhh of him flying past dragged a giggle out of Richard. Is that pillar some sort of gravity battery? She can transform the potential energy of its height into sideways force and capture force into more height? How efficient even is that? We have several energy dense materials that can store aether at massive massive ratios. There''s a reason most batteries on earth are electrical not based on gravity¡­although maybe there''s an efficiency gain by transforming similar kinetic forces? That rod looks taller than a small building! James raised a hand and touched the spinning figure causing them to instantly rebound and start spinning back towards the floating woman. AhhhhHHHHhhhhh for the second time. Each rebound became funnier and funnier. Cutting off Richard¡¯s view of the human ping pong happening above them, a man in an incredibly old looking mech crunched past. He had to have gotten it in the industrial area and kept it ¨C Richard remembered piloting one of those before. Spending a moment to ring up a message as he tried to spot his friend again, Richard sent a ¡°text¡± toward James telling him he was here and ready to help. Someone crashed into Richard bouncing off his unmovable body with a rabid snarl before bounding away. ¡°What the fuck. Who¡¯s pet was that? I think he¡¯s feral.¡± Richard''s quip was lost to the sounds of combat on all sides. It seemed like a free for all. Enough of the people were fighting each other instead of James, Richard felt like he had missed some context. Someone in full Police-warden gear from the last zone shot ¡°super rated¡± capture rounds at everyone he could see. Half the figures hit found themselves paralyzed and covered in purple shocks. The other half dodged or reflected or otherwise disabled the indiscriminate fire. One of the shots hit Richard¡¯s chest and dumped thousands of Kvolts into his body. Capture rounds were complicated unstable combinations of different fields¡­they could be easily described as a combination of a tazer, a paralytic poison and a self reinforcing kinetic dampener. The chemical and kinetic freezing abilities were lightly bound to the dense heavily altered electron ¨C then shoved in a sort of altered omni release capacitor canister. Basically it moved through skin and bone like lightning, freezing and locking up muscles from several complementary angles. Richard froze for a second ¨C his AI shifting some of his stat alignments around before he was able to continue walking. Altering his path, Richard aimed for the figure who had shot him. He ran like a bull towards the fucker and tried to punch his stupid armoured face as soon as he reached them. The man dodged ¨C rotating his whole body sideways. He quickly turned fully towards Richard, then kicked with an exoskeleton-enhanced swing aimed at his side. Tip of his foot had a sharp vibrating blade on the end of it and the metal punctured Richard''s skin more Kvolts pulsing out of the tip straight into Richard¡¯s insides. Richard tried to grab the leg as it hit, but the slippery fucker immediately spun away. Something buzzed in his ear as something washed passed him and¡­failed. Whatever that attack had been it wasn¡¯t even able to push past his weaker initial defense let alone his ramping skill. Too much was happening. Richard had quite a few mental stats including mental speed stats¡­but they were optimized for the type of research he had done as that¡¯s what the majority of his achievements had been from. Not necessarily for combat even if it did help. Right now he felt like that one meme. ¡°I¡¯m stupid but faster!¡±. A man completely covered in yellow goo landed between Richard and the warden. He had four gel-like tentacles pulling out from his back and he noticeably glanced at the warden¡¯s exosuit and Richards holstered kinetic cannon. ¡°Dumbasses. You¡¯re on the same side. Aim for the corrupted aether cultists or any infrastructure they might have¡± the gel man yelled even as the warden shot a capture round at his chest. The capture round sunk into the gel, visibly sparking in the goop before with a ¡°oh no you didn¡¯t¡±, The gel monster lunged at the warden yellow tentacle balled into a fist. Richard watched as someone in a leaf costume bashed a confused-looking man in swim trunks into the ground. Swim trunk guy was bloodied but seemed fine. To the side, he watched as a woman with a massive pole/metal tree trunk-looking club squished someone into the ground with a sick crack. That one¡­yeah that guy was definitely dead. Richard saw a maggot crawl about the mangled remains which¡­seemed way too fast but maybe that metal trunk tossed maggots in everything it hit just for good luck? So much was happening and tons of people were moving fast enough they would be nothing but blurs without his mental stats. Richard had to force himself to focus on his friend once again and start making his way over. What looked like a house had been built and then ripped to pieces at some point ¨C he had to step over wood and metal shreds as he walked. What looked like a stone conveyor belt was smashed to bits ¨C Richard melted a chunk up into his arms and started forming stone snowballs as he passed. Continuing to ignore the battle, Richard dodged, pushed through and wound his way over. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Finally with a final jump over a body he was there. James was there ¨C directly in front of him. ¡°Yo!¡± ¡­
---Maddy--- Maddy was over-extended. Overworked. Exausted. Absolutely Pooped on several different levels. Maddy hadn¡¯t had a full pool of mana in days ¨C she didn¡¯t have space to work. No room to breath! It was kind of sad ¨C Maddy didn¡¯t have time to really create any new Spells. Not proper capital ¡®S¡¯ spells at least ¨C she¡¯d twisted her existing skillset back and forth into new shapes but there wasn¡¯t really the same thing. No, every time she imagined she could take a small break to clear her head, something went wrong. Every time she imagined ignoring the endless battle and building something¡­well ¡®things¡¯ fell apart. One of her friends got hurt and needed healing. Groups began banding together to attack them ¨C their combined attacks breaking through Jess¡¯s defenses or threatening the stalemate in countless other ways. On a very real level Maddy felt like she wasn¡¯t doing enough. She should be exceling in this sort of fight ¨C should be a cornerstone of this battle. And she was. None of them were dead. The dungeon was still growing. They were succeeding¡­But it didn¡¯t feel like enough. Her magic was wide ranged after all ¨C and while she underutilised it, she could still use death energy to boost her magic. One of her deadliest attacks was still her mass seed/egg placement. She¡¯d yell every few hours ¨C plant healing vine seeds on all her friends and necrotic maggot eggs on all her enemies¡­and then hope they hatched and healed or killed those they¡¯d infected. The problem was twofold. One, A single proper cast used the entire life pool of one of her healing eyes and the entire death pool of one of her necrotic mana eyes¡­And using just mana was weak enough it barely did anything because of how spread out the effect was. It was really a spell designed for huge amounts of incredibly weak creatures ¨C over half the humans they were facing straight up ignored the spell and of the ones it hit most seemed to be able to cleanse or have it cleansed from them. There were two reasons she kept using this spell even though it wasn¡¯t singlehandedly swinging the battle. One. She sometimes got lucky. Someone who might have ignored or shrugged it off might have opened their mouth and allowed eggs to form on their throat. Someone who could cleanse it might be so distracted by the battle they might have missed it or been otherwise unable to wipe the eggs. Someone might be nearly dead and unable to resist the finishing blow of her maggots slipping in on exposed flesh. Two. When she won she won big. The secondary part of this spell remained. Or in other words. As soon as someone died while infected by maggots, her lucky maggots exploded. They gorged on death energy splitting themselves as needed and then transferring themselves to her once they¡¯d had their fill. Maddy could then embed the reality of these strengthened maggots into new empowered casts basically for free ¨C and, when someone died to the empowered death energy maggots, she could recycle them yet again. Some of her maggots had been sent out and returned half a dozen times by this point becoming incredibly solid to her creation sight. When she had originally created this skill the maggots would return to her scythe ¨C and needed her touch a body to retrieve them without loss. Now they blipped back to a tree she was growing. One protected at the center of Jess¡¯s dome. It was the second of these trees ¨C the first had been smashed¡­a lot of stuff had been smashed. Maddy''s original water feeding aqueduct. The living house she¡¯d planted. Thankfully even while smashed, the first tree had fulfilled her purpose. The tree¡¯s fleshy center would hold winning maggots for as long as possible but when those maggots fell apart? They donated their captured death energy. Captured reality. Symponed and kept in one spot for easy dumping into the pit. The longer it lasted the bigger of a dump into the pit it would be. Anyways. Of the hundreds who¡¯d attacked them, Maddy had killed maybe three enemies directly and profited or directly led to the death of something like twenty of them. Her biggest influence on the battle wasn¡¯t even magical. Partway through the first day she¡¯d turned to trickery ¨C manipulating her voice¡¯s direction and tone to sew distrust amongst them. ¡°All the corrupted aether cultists are working to break the world¡± ¡°I¡¯m planning on stabbing those tech bros in the neck as soon as they get distracted want to help?¡± Hence the three way battle instead of the two way they had started with. Suddenly someone stumbled out of the brawl. His face looked vaguely familiar but Maddy couldn¡¯t place them for the life of her. With her mental stats if she couldn¡¯t remember their face they probably weren¡¯t important? Still whatever memory she had was tense. She felt uneasy ¨C as if the man in front of them was dangerous. The figure himself looked¡­off slightly. His posture ¨C his tired grin. Whoever they were they did not look like someone walking around a battle. His body itself was weird too ¨C the man had something like seven or eight little hands extending up from his legs each sort of shifting and moving with minds of their own at different speeds. The figure would move his arm forward and one of the stone hands would bend and avoid his limb naturally. He would pause for a second and one hand would scratch his nose. Two hands near his feet wrapped around each other and held a small pile of stone spheres. Another pair massaged a stone stuffing what looked like a pill into the middle before smoothing bits over. A bomb? Mid threat analysis the man waved up at James. What? James gave a happy glance of recognition and Maddy made a connection to a time James had mentioned having another friend. Not-enemy, Maddy thought and forged a mental connection to the figure in front of her. Whitelist, whitelist! Don¡¯t attack! Creative-Light blipped over, landing near his feet in the imprint an attack had left on the soil. Just in time to hear a cheerful ¡°Yo!¡± ¡­
---James--- James was¡­conflicted? On one hand. He was having tons of fun. Most of the humans about were¡­either stronger than most monsters or at the very least more varied. A lot of them had lifesaving abilities ¨C one man James was completely confident had been squished under a pillar suddenly appeared moments later, slinking out of the crowd like a twin out for vengeance. Pitting his skills against theirs ¨C flexing his magical muscles in a competition like this felt good. Losing himself in the clashes was a simple sort of joy. On the other hand¡­well James didn¡¯t like thinking about how many he had killed by now. It made him feel like too much of a murder hobo. It was easy to justify defending yourself against people who attacked you first. Reeaaaallly, really hard to feel good after watching someone cry over the body of the ¡°enemy¡± you¡¯d just killed. Don¡¯t look at me like that. You¡¯re supposed to band together and fight the villain with the power of friendship not try to guilt him into surrendering.
---???????--- ¡°Are¡­are we the baddies?¡± The dark lord asked turning towards his vile allies in mock self awareness.
---James--- Yep. James really hated interacting with humans. Monsters didn¡¯t make him feel messy like this. Nice and simple. With monsters he could eat them when he won. Entertainment and food! Push his budding chef skills higher. One day he¡¯ll be known as a top chef. One who silently came in and expertly wove delicious meals from simple ingredients. Right now he was probably just seen as a butcher. ¡­ ¡°Yo!¡± Richard stood down below James a searching smile upon his eyes. James smiled back ¨C glanced toward his new friends ¨C then returned the wave. I hope they get along? ...
---Chu--- A dying soul struggled to remain cognizant of the world. Chu was her name. Her body had been dismembered, her mind shattered in that true death in a way it hadn''t in all her false ends... and yet she had always been a stubborn sort. She floated there resisting everything that attempted to drag her down. Her name was Chu. That was her name. That was her. She struggled moment after moment to stay alive for a single additional moment. The scavengers that had come to her flesh wouldn''t have her. The world wouldn''t claim her. She was still here. Still present even if she wasn''t alive. The world came to her in blips and streaks of greyed form and pulses of colour. Time passed in starts and bursts. Her thoughts were incredibly confusing. They almost blended with the world ¨C at a certain point she couldn''t be certain if the thoughts were hers or ones she''d dragged from others. She knew so little ¨C who was she? Where had she come from? She knew so much. Names she shouldn''t know, memories she shouldn''t have. What was her name again? The rest of the battle was long and bloody. Maybe it was a few more minutes? No. Days had definitely passed. The soul wasn''t that far gone. The battle had reached a final point ¨C the moment where they just might fail, when with a sense of crisis Maddy activated their last resort. Who was Maddy? The soul knew the name and feelings associated with the name but that was it. Were they friends? Enemies? Lovers? Strangers? Maddy and her friends had been trying to find an alternative to the entire planets water. They had begun supplementing that with bodies. Water was still an option. With an impact, the entire area began to sink. A valley formed from sheets of ground hundreds of meters in each direction. They all broke off and slid towards the middle with a wet rumble. Stone and dirt and man and water. A constant flood of water. The freshwater ocean they had been given fell and continued to fall. The bodies of monsters and humans alike had kicked them ahead. Now the battle was flipped. Attackers came and tried to build. Defenders only needed to destroy. Had the soul been an attacker or defender before it had fallen? Defenitly not a survivor as much as it wished it was. It was less than a weak into the drain ¨C the planet''s water dropping three feet ¨C before the dungeon was full. All the bodies had supplemented the water in pure quality ¨C thankfully the world still had an ocean however smaller. The entire area seemed to bubble up when the dungeon had its fill ¨C the drainined water bursting out of the top of the hole like a whale''s blowhole. Changed. Iridescent. Strange. it had a pull. A sort of light tugging that shifted the soul closer and closer. This massive spray of irredecent water had turned to mist as it fell, slowly settling over the valley that had been formed in the breaking. Dense this mist rippled and remained over top of the dungeon like a liquid. Only then at this final point. Only once the battle was over did the soul move on. It let go from its hold on the ground below it and found itself pulled into the mist. Finally, bless¨¨d darkness. Chapter 101. Refinement ---The lull--- The moment they lost was anticlimactic. The earthlings who had reached the final zone swelled in the weeks following those dreaded blood red announcements. They learned of some grand battle ¨C some important event they had missed¡­and couldn¡¯t understand why it had been such a big deal. The demon lord completed his ritual and then vanished. The danger he had created¡­was strangely missing. At least for now. No blood rain to match the red system messages. No crack in the planet ripping them away into a void. The monsters that came out at night didn¡¯t even get worse ¨C not yet at least. Why had they fought so hard to stop this? A scout had even entered the strange nest and returned with great strength. Slowly word of the sea of refinement spread.
---Day 1--- What do you call a friend of a friend? Does friendship work transitivity? ¡°Stop touching my barrier with weird things, you keep weakening it¡± Jess yelled at Richard for the umpteenth time. ¡°Hey, Chill. Okay? I¡¯m just measuring some things. If the barrier is weak enough to fail to a few pokes how can it hope to block an actual attack?¡± Richard yelled back. ¡°What sort of psudomatter is this even made out of? Its not in my database¡± ¡°It''s made out of mana reinforced with my protection concept. Now leave it alone.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, that¡¯s not an answer. Don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll figure it out.¡± ¡°Figure out how you can pull your weight.¡± ¡°Hey fuck you too bitch. I¡¯m trying to be nice.¡± ¡°Be nice if you helped¡± ¡°Fuck! What do you think I¡¯m trying to do!¡± ¡°In your own words. Chill¡± Troy stepped in. Richard sighed. Friendship was definitely not transitive.
---James--- Stepping into the slope caused the world to twist. Before James was a brief wall of glittering white. As he stepped down the sandy path, his vision was removed from him in sheer psychedelic overload. James tried to block the light ¨C but in the moments where he figured out how to bounce light away, the surroundings had darkned and the problem had solved itself on its own. A brief disorienting few steps and then he was through. The world on the other side of the cloud was different. James suddenly noticed how everything seemed to expand. It was like¡­like the cone shaped valley was a paper towel roll bisected and peeled open for perusal on a godly dissection table. He should be walking down a valley towards a pit ¨C should be able to see the other side of the slope. Instead it looked flat to him ¨C the sand spreading out to either side as far as the eye could see. Mist at his back. A ocean a ways in front of him. James stood there for a moment before the weirdness sort of settled. Simple enough. Sloped valley covered in smoke. Step inside. Now it¡¯s a beach. Best not to think of the weirdness to deeply. A dark beach with luminous sand and luminous water and a pitch black sky far above without stars. That sky was the mist right? The¡­barrier separating this space from the planet above? Something like that. It only looked like the sky because he couldn¡¯t see how far away it was. James stepped onto the beach and wandered towards the water. Near the edge there was a massive sign. It looked out of place for some reason. Tacked on at the end. Like the beach was natural and had always been here, but someone had run in and dug in this wooden sign moments before. James squinted slightly to read the letters in the dim light. As if noticing he was attempting to read it, a blue box suddenly appeared overlaying the sign as if it were a lcd display. The blue box flickered slightly as if damaged but it was much easier to read than the sign behind it and seemed to have the same information.
[Rules: To refine simply throw it into the sea. The further you throw and the longer you give to refine, the higher a rank of existence it will gain. When you believe enough time has passed. Enter the sea and retrieve your . The further from shore you go and the deeper into the sea you travel, the harder a return trip will be. If you fail to retrieve your before leaving this place, it will be forfeit. Attempting to refine the same multiple times will drastically increase the difficulty for less and less gain each time. A single deeper session is better. There is no limit to the number of an entity may refine across its lifetime. You may refine multiple at once if you wish for a single trip but keep in mind the difficulty of that trip will increase as the weight you must carry back will be greater. If the multiple are related or synergise with each other bundling them all together would improve the synergy as well. If you have a hard time collecting your for any reason, you may ask for aid in packaging it at this sign by speaking clearly and with politeness. Ex: ¡°Please package my mind stats¡±. Only owned can be packaged this way. Nearly anything is possible and the ease and strength this sign has to use this feature will increase the more tax it will claim. The sign will attempt to stabilize and package your as safely as possible for the duration of this trial¡­but should you fail to reattach it and leave this domain, any stabilization may fail. Note if assistance is required to extract your , 1/3d of the refinement will be taxed and paid to this sign on either successful refinement or failure. This tax will be taken upon reattachment ¨C simply request your package be re added to your self. Attempting to circumvent this tax by attaching your packaged yourself will blacklist your persons from all convenience features the sign provides. For the sake of complete transparency, the three main trials are as follows: One. A balanced confidence. Once you throw your and wait, you will not be able to take back that distance and time. Retrieval will be difficult. The longer you wait, the heavier may be and the further out you toss your the further you will have to travel. If you lose position of your you may request a at this sign for 1/3d of the final refinement. If you throw your too far or wait too long ¨C thereby miscalculating what you can handle ¨C you are out of luck. If on the other side, you are too cautious and attempt multiple refinements you will deal with more to achieve less. For convenience, time spent on the beach is weighted much higher than time spent in the water. If you take longer to retrieve a it will matter less than if you waited on shore for longer than you could handle. Two. Retrieval. Only thrown into the sea for refinement will be refined ¨C anything else traveling through the ocean will find itself: surpressed, damaged, disoriented. Your effort and willpower matters more than your strength or power in this case. It is easier to head out than to come back ¨C if you spend too long under the sea you may suffocate and should you pass out from the pain you are surely to die. Only those unable to see their own limits are likely to die but all will be tested in every attempt. Three. Failure. Failure does not just result in the permenant loss of your it also results in a chaotic ego being granted to your and additional refinement to aid it in its quest for destruction. By the time your ¡°retrieves¡± itself, it may become a great terror upon the outer world. This sign does not take responsibility for returning lost in this manner. Additionally in the case an entity perishes by pushing beyond their own limits, their corpse will be granted an ego and returned to the world in a similar manner.]
James stared at the blue box for a solid minute considering. This was¡­actually pretty simple. It was straightforward and transparent ¨C considering this was James¡¯s custom dungeon it was pretty much exactly the type of thing he liked. There was a tiny bit of danger. A little pinch for spice¡­but that danger was only really relevant towards overextending yourself. The trial should be hard but not lethal. Before James went to start gambling with important things he wanted to do a test. Try and gauge his own limits before pushing them. Glancing around he found a rock ¨C the only rock on the beach suspiciously placed near the sign. Reaching out James grabbed it, examining the stone on all angles. It looked like a regular old rock. Nothing complicated. With a squint and boost of strength, James was able to crack off a corner of it. Plain old stone. Throwing the stone up in the air James looked over and lightly tossed it a few meters from shore. ¡°One missasipi. Two missasipi. Three missasipi.¡± Test timing done, James waded into the water with a gasp. It was cold and heavy feeling. Right at the shore, the ground sloped steeply for roughly two meters of steepness and then it mostly leveled out with James head just above the water. By the time James reached the position he had tossed the stone his head was completely under the water but those final two-ish meters had only dropped a bit over his head. The first thing to note was the liquid itself. It weighed James down ¨C to the point he had to kick and paddle as much as he could to stay at the surface. James with his hundreds of physical stats. He tried activating his domain and pumping all his kinetic mana into his legs and arms¡­which did help but less than you would expect. His strength was sapped ¨C his mana seemed to drain out of his body. His aether was ripped away by the water. Considering how strong this suppression was it was almost surprising how much strength was left for James. He felt like a normal human again completing a slightly strenuous activity. If anything, going all out like that just drained his energy faster. James was also ¡°going all out¡± just to tread water, not achieve something amazing. The trial seemed to want him to walk along the bottom of the sea floor ¨C it pulled him deeper weighing him down with a heaviness he couldn¡¯t shrug off. With a ¡°force¡± he couldn¡¯t alter with his concepts. James should have been able to syphon it ¨C change any of this to his own power¡­but he couldn¡¯t. It was like trying to lift something up that had been chained to the ground. Suppressed. His magic, his stats. Both barely worked just as promised. The next thing of note was the more active trial of the water. That glowing seawater. It was bright enough the light illuminated the sea floor for several meters in all directions ¨C although it was hard to see from the surface, the lightly churning waves distorting the light into a white smear. As convenient as that sounded. Opening your eyes under water was painful. It burned. It burned and blinded and James could barely keep his eyes open for longer than a few seconds before forcing them shut through blurry tears. The blinding splotches remained. It was bright even through closed eyelids. The pain remained. His eyes stung and burned. Had James actually damaged his eyesight just for a glance at the rock? A faint fear seemed to build at the thought. A weakness tugging at James¡¯s consciousness ¨C a weak thought remnant of the man he had once been. James had thought he¡¯d moved past that. Was the supresssion pushing him back to that person he had been? No it couldn¡¯t be. Finally the water slipped into his mouth and nose and stung every vulnerable part of James¡¯s body faintly. A final bit of struggle as a treat. It wasn¡¯t¡­excessive. It wasn¡¯t excruciating. It was there however and constant. Enough pain to wear away at James¡¯s will. The water was almost a bit easier to deal with than James was expecting. Sure, it was heavy ¨C it felt like someone had put a weighted blanket on James¡¯s entire body. Sure, his lungs did burn as if the stats he¡¯d gained for holding his breath weren¡¯t there anymore. It was blinding and stung him¡­but that was it? Grabbing the stone, James deadlifted it up into a fireman carry and noted the way it felt maybe twice as heavy as it had been? It hadn¡¯t been a very heavy rock but he also hadn¡¯t done much to it. He hadn¡¯t tossed it very far. He hadn¡¯t waited very long. With a turn, James headed back to the surface, walking along the sand with his eyes closed and using the slope to guide him. Soon his head burst the surface and he was climbing up that final steep slope back to shore. As soon as he was on the beach, his pain faded. The sting on James¡¯s eyes and vulnerable parts evaporated in seconds. His strength slowly returned to full. James stood there holding his ¡°enhanced rock¡± and the experience he had just gone through. How much of that could he take? How far could he walk underwater? How long could he hold his breath? If he tried swimming up to the surface to take breaths how many of those could he manage? James looked down at his rock. It seemed¡­a bit nicer than before? It was hard to say with rocks but it certainly looked prettier. Trying to rip off a chunk proved it was definitely more durable now. But it was still a rock. It hadn¡¯t changed much ¨C hadn¡¯t become more. Was there any use for this? Should James keep it? Staring at it for a moment James suddenly had an idea ¨C walking over to the sign he spoke softly. ¡°Can I donate this to you?¡± The sign was silent for a minute before with a splutter and flicker a dim blue box appeared. [Donations will not be refunded. No benefit will be given to you for any donations made. Are you sure you want to donate this refined testing rock?] ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure,¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. As soon as James finished confirming the sign his stone disappeared. Nothing else appeared. No thank you for your donation message. That was it. James nodded then turned to the ocean. He had something important he wanted to refine. His domain. Of all his powers that was the one he wanted to grow the most. Simply by activating it, his ability to do anything was magnified a hundredfold¡­but he couldn¡¯t maintain that state. Couldn¡¯t hold it for long. If he refined that ability ¨C something he intrinsically knew was possible¡­well that would probably increase his strength more than any other change. Could he keep it activated constantly? That would be amazing. That was the goal. However, if James failed¡­that gamble would hurt the most of anything. Could he even use any of his strength if he lost his domain? Would his skills disappear? Would losing that cripple him in a way that couldn¡¯t be healed? No it was best to start small. ¡°Hey sign. Please help me refine my left arm.¡± James nodded. Refining the stats in his arm would be good of course but it felt like refining the entire limb would be better ¨C his arm synergised with his arm stats so a boost like this should be better? At least if he were reading the sign right? James¡¯s arm fell off. At his shoulder a smooth stub of skin sat. At the end of his arm a smooth line of skin kept everything together. His arm looked like that of a manikin. An incredibly lifelike manikin. Spooky. Picking it up around the elbow, James bent back and infused aether into his remaining arm boosting his toss. Before he could change his mind, James lobbed the arm with a good portion of his strength watching the floppy limb spin almost a hundred meters into the sea. ¡°One missasipi, Two missasipi¡­¡± James waited almost a minute before heading out. He jumped and tried to fly across to the point he¡¯d dropped it ¨C a half dozen meters from shore he found his power struggling. His feet dipped below the waves when they shouldn¡¯t and that weight pulled his foot as if trying to drag him down. The waves had gotten choppy and drops of water flung up in a mist weighing him down and sapping his strength where they landed. With some kicks and a half run across the surface of the sea, James made it a few more meters before being dragged down into a struggling paddle. James swam across the surface his clothes feeling like they were restricting him. They were what was pulling him down ¨C they were so heavy. If James tossed them would he get further? Would they be refined and turned into a weapon to terrorize the countryside? James laughed at the idea, the humor driving him further. He queued a message up for Richard before he forgot ¨C Last few days with his friend back had been fun even if it got dicey near the end. James paddled for a bit his arms and legs burning as he got closer to the position he remembered tossing his arm. He didn¡¯t have time to hype himself up ¨C taking a massive breath right after a wave James relaxed and began to drop downwards. As soon as he stopped paddling James felt himself drop. It was like someone had tied cinderblocks to his arms and legs. It was like the sea was air and he was falling through ¨C an atmosphere not a liquid. His legs bent as soon as the hit the sandy bottom ¨C James actually staggered with how hard he landed in the sand. The water was heavier than it had been by shore. It burned a bit harder. James decisively opened his eyes ¨C he could probably only do this once or twice. There! His arm was further along the sea floor than he thought. Roughly a meter to his left and three to his front. Single dive away if he was on the surface and had his powers unsuppressed. Burning eyes burning the position into his head, James closed his stinging weakness and pushed forwards, crawling along the sand until he reached his arm. Cradling it against his chest, James turned and headed backwards crawling along the sand. If the water was what was refining everything why wasn¡¯t it refining his whole body right now. Why wasn¡¯t this increasing his strength? His arm scraped along the sand below him, flopping out of his grip as he half crawled half ran back towards shore. The water buffeted him as if high above there was a storm beating down into the water and transferring its fury onto James¡¯s back. Above all else his lungs burned. They were on fire ¨C it felt like he had taken a breath of the burning surroundings. His head felt light, his sense of balance was off. His thoughts themselves were off ¨C tunnel visioning down into a single minded focus. Was he heading towards shore? Had he accidentally turned around? Was he facing the right way??! James couldn¡¯t help it. He opened his eyes for another half second. He was facing the right way. A bit angled ¨C it would have taken a bit longer to head back that way but he would have made it. Angling himself once again James continued. His every step was laboured. The sand was like sandpaper on his bare feet ¨C his entire body felt raw, the painful sting permeating everything. He wasn¡¯t going to make it. Push through! ¡­no. James felt darkness closing in. if he bullheadedly pushed forwards he wouldn¡¯t make it. Dropping his burden James dove upwards kicking and swiping his arms with all his might. His domain activated. He should be a force of nature with it activated. Instead it seemed to propel him another kick or two. With a gasp James broke the surface. He took a deep breath coughing as stinging water got in his mouth and wrecked his throat. He was just over 10 meters away from shore. Nearly there. One final push. ¡­it would be so easy to give up. To swim back and leave his arm down there. The weak thought stayed in his head. James really wanted that thought to be some part of the trial. Maybe the sea was whispering to him. Attacking him mentally. James didn¡¯t have weak thoughts like that anymore. It felt like those thoughts were his own, but framing them as something else helped James push through. They were other. An external influence. Ignore them! Dropping back to the sea floor James felt about for his arm ¨C moving with more and more panic as he couldn¡¯t find it anymore. It should have been directly below his feet! Where had it disappeared to? Did he drift to the side? Could he manage to open his eyes a third time? James kept expecting to touch flesh as he swiped his hands through the sand. Finally his panic reached a boiling point and he opened his eyes a final time. His vision was splotchy. A world of white. Of swirling colours. He could barely distinguish sand from sky. Sparks seemed to crawl across his vision. Rainbow static that followed his eyes no matter where they moved. There! A lump he was certain was his arm just out of reach. Diving towards it, James moved along the seabed like a animal. He grabbed his arm ¨C it felt a bit heavier that it was before. A bit harder to drag. He¡¯d wasted so much time trying to find it again. It felt like he should go up for air. No. he hadn¡¯t even managed to move forwards. Digging his feet in James crawled laboriously up that final stretch. That final 2 meter slope ¨C it couldn¡¯t be more than 45 degrees and yet it felt like a wall. James was sliding back down it with every slip. His vision was fading into blackness ¨C a blackness stealing the light visible through his burning eyelids. And then he was out. James was at the surface vomiting up still glowing water his arms and legs shaking without his input. That had been close. Closer than was safe. Had It even been worth it? His arm felt like marble beneath his hands. It didn¡¯t feel human anymore. Before it had been strangly strong feeling ¨C the skin like rubber. The bones like steel. Now the entire arm was a block. James lay on the sand for over 20 minutes just recovering. Finally it felt like his strength was most of the way to being his again and he found himself slowly walking towards the sign. He¡¯d done that effort. This refinement was his! The sign was going to steal all his work! Taxes are theft! Richard would like that one¡­James queued it up as well. James pushed down the temptation to ¡°default¡± on the payment. How would he even re-attach his arm without the signs help? Sew it on and hope it heals? ¡°I would like to re-attach my arm¡± James spoke aloud watching as with an almost magnetic flip his arm was dragged into place. A brief burst of pins and needles washed over his entire body and James visibly saw a bit of glow seem to leave the arm. Suddenly strength. His arm was his once again. His arm was his and noticeably the strongest limb in his body. It was greater than the largest influx of stats James had ever received. A qualitative leap in every aspect. His arm bent and moved with barely a thought. With a flip James landed in a one handed hand stand and tried a few pumps. He could have done this beforehand but now it felt like nothing even without a rush of mana. He should have kept the rock. He could have tested out his new enhanced strength on the enhanced rock. It was addicting. An addicting burst of strength that seemed almost too easy. His trial to get his monster eating trait had almost been worse. Much Much worse. What was the catch? What would it have been like if he pushed just a bit harder? Should he have thrown his arm a bit further? James could probably have pushed through a bit more¡­next side he would give it 20 more seconds. The weight of the arm wasn¡¯t the worst part of it. ¡°Hey sign, I would like to package up my right arm now¡± James popped off his second limb of the day and stared towards the ocean in determination. He had tons of body parts to trial on before trying to refine his domain. With a few more plunges he was sure to push his limits even further. His ears. His eyes. James was going to refine every single part of himself bit by bit. Without limit. For free. What an overpowered cheat this dungeon was. ¡­
---Maddy--- Maddy stood before the ocean considering the sign in front of her. What was worth refining? If this was a true trial it wasn¡¯t worth doing it on anything small. The pain and willpower mentioned couldn¡¯t be worth small gains. Nothing she could get herself with a spell or two. This trial was a gamble. Should she even risk something she couldn¡¯t live without? ¡­ Maddy settled on her concept of sound. The innate idea of communication. Of intent through words that others could hear. She¡¯d be weakened greatly if she lost it but not to the point of permanently being crippled. On the other hand if she refined it¡­well every single spell she made would benefit. All magic could be seen as communicating her will onto the world through her domain. Increasing her ability to communicate would do wonders for her. It was a high stakes high reward gamble. Maddy glanced at the sign for a bit then turned inward. Her eyes jumped into a circle around her ¨C the six eyes she had nearby forming a sort of star as they looked at her body and each other. Where¡­where was this concept located? Where in her soul was it bound? Where could she reach to grab it? The web of her conciousness tunneling off to her various eyes shone in Maddy¡¯s mind. Her domain was in her eyes. In her sight. Her sight was what let her see what she had to do. If she could see it she could deal with it. If she could see the concept she could grab it. Once her sound was improved what could stop her? Her domain wasn¡¯t activated just yet, but even in its passive state it bled through clouding Maddy¡¯s sight. Her death-creation eye had the best shot of spying what she needed to. It saw the way her body was almost dead in its unlife. Her current body was based on an improved litch creation ritual after all. She saw the way her reality seemed denser in parts. How everything that made up her was stuffed into a shell ¨C how she¡¯d clumsily stuffed it into that shell but the clumsiness had been part of the point. How parts had been lost along the way ¨C how the new parts of her meshed with the old. Firmer in some ways weaker in others. Maddy pushed deeper and deeper until finally she thought she saw it. A part of her that resonated deeper with her concept of sound than others. That wasn¡¯t enough of course. Looking around Maddy spotted a stone. With a single word the stone melted flattening into a light slate. This would be the temporary vessel. Puppeting her body without returning to the eye sockets Maddy flicked a well used spellform and had her ¡®self¡¯ draw her rune of sound onto the slate. Maddy put everything she had into that rune ¨C melting the shape into stone with void mana and pushing that ¡®part of herself that resonated with that concept¡¯ down into the stone with every line. She worked slowly infusing every stroke and movement with intent. As more and more of herself was infused into the slate the goal became more clear. Bits of resonating sound concept dragged into it from positions she hadn¡¯t noticed. Sparks of this resonating communication traveled down the web from each of her eyes. More than sound was pushed into the slate but her goal seemed to be working. Maddy¡¯s tongue. Her rune for sound permanently burned into her tongue. The majority of her sound magic focused on this point. It had been used time and time again ¨C the concept digging into this flesh more than any other. With a quick sketch in the sand Maddy broke her safeties. She took her tongue and melted its reality down ¨C pre-refining it and infusing it into the slate with a sense of finality. Life mana flowed through lines and tried to heal her tongue back. They caught on missing reality and struggled to reform her tongue ¨C finally breaking through and healing it back without her runes. And that was it. Her concept was nearly completely locked away now. If she still had it she couldn¡¯t use it. Maddy stared down at the slate with a faint amount of reverence. This felt dangerous. It felt like she had lost a important part of her very being. This wasn¡¯t something she should do ¨C her path was not to infuse a external item with all her power. Her sythe was proof of that. It felt wrong to have her concept external to her. She might still be able to use it with this slate in hand but¡­ She¡¯d chosen this concept as something that wouldn¡¯t kill her to live without but now that it was here in her hands it felt more important than she¡¯d been imagining. Maddy stood up. She gripped the light slate in her hands and stared at the sea in front of her. ¡°Come back to me¡± Maddy spoke ¨C missing the way her intent no longer caressed her words. She felt the way her tongue was still raw from regrowth. The rune for sound missing like a hole in her mouth. Maddy tossed the slate into the sea watching it skip twice before sinking down a few dozen feet away. How long should she wait? How long could she last? Maddy counted down a minute in her head before giving in. I¡¯m coming for you. She spoke stepping into the water. There was a faint link to her slate. An incredibly faint sense of the direction she had to walk. She felt her body begin to collapse. Her form spasmed as she moved ¨C skin melting as if the ocean were acid. Blood and strips of flesh floated off into the surroundings as she walked along the bottom of the sea eyes locked on the position her slate had fallen. Life mana pumped to every corner of her body. It leaked out of her as she moved ¨C mana streaming from her other eyes as they attempted to make up for the leak in her current form. Her whole body was a leak. She barely had skin despite her life mana¡¯s best effort. She could barely puppet the melting suit with her burning eyes. Maddy should have been able to ignore this pain. She should have been able to teleport through the water her eyes traveling through and returning at the speed of sound. She¡­should probably give up. This is worse than she had been expecting. Of course. It was like she had forgotten the main reason her eyes could teleport was due to sound. She couldn¡¯t loose that. Why had she forgotten that? Reafirming her will, Maddy continued to stumble her melting form clouding the glowing water red. Finally after a seemingly endless stumble Maddy reached it. She collapsed onto the slate curling up around it in protective shakes. This was her. How had she thought she could give this up? She¡¯d sooner die than loose her sound. Her communication. Without sound, how could she talk to her friends? Without sound how could she slip through the air? Maddy¡¯s hands were more bone than flesh at this point. Her life mana was at rock bottom ¨C the only thing keeping her fingers from falling apart were faint connections at each joint. Her pinkies and one of the fingers beside them had fallen off. Maddy tuned robotically and began to methodically make her way back to shore. She could see how one might fail this. How someone might give up. Decide the pain wasn¡¯t worth it as limbs fell off. How could anyone survive this? How could anyone push through the way she was pushing through? ¡­if Maddy hadn¡¯t realized how much she needed her concept in that moment she might have bailed. This was traumatic enough she wasn¡¯t sure if she could do it again. She was in so much pain. It felt like her soul itself was exposed to the liquid. The liquid that was full of more reality than Maddy had ever seen before in her life was grinding away at her own. That¡¯s what it was. An impossibly full pool of reality denser than any other. By gifting something of your own free will you relinquished authority over it briefly. You let it become a part of this dense reality. You¡­ Maddy continued to push through wave after wave of simple sadistic pain trying to analyse what the dungeon was doing. Anything to keep her mind off how hard this was. Her body didn¡¯t need to breathe. Her eyes should be strong enough to survive this. And they did. It just hurt. The surroundings threatened to melt her. They threatened to integrate her reality into them forcefully. If she just¡­gave up. Then that¡¯s what would happen. Finally she returned to shore crawling up onto the sand and allowing her slowly regenerating life mana to rebuild her shell. There didn¡¯t seem to be any lasting damage ¨C if anything her personal reality seemed a bit higher after going through that¡­but she was exhausted. The life mana pools in every single one of her life eyes was gone ¨C drained to rock bottom and scraped at as she pulled drop after drop of regeneration out of the spent pools. Before she could fully collapse Maddy shoved the slate into her body. She pushed it into her shell fully enclosing it in flesh before working to incorporate it. Only then when she was whole once again did she give in. Maddy rested. ¡­
---Richard--- Richard stood staring out at the sea lost in thought. He dipped his hands and feet in the water ¨C tossed a nearby stone in. Pulled it out to stare at it for a bit. Tossed a laser pointer in. Pulled it out and measured the increased intensity. Tried to gather a cup of sketch water. Watched as it sort of evaporated as he walked up the slope towards the surface. The liquid barely did any real damage¡­but it sapped an insane amount of energy. It actively cut through his skills ¨C sitting in the sea cranked his adaptive defense up and just kept cranking it without any real effect. It was like the liquid got more and more damaging the higher his defense grew ¨C like it was holding itself back when he initially stepped in and started wailing on him as soon as it realized he was trying to cheat it. Nodding to himself Richard sat up. ¡°Welp.¡± Richard slapped his knee for good luck and wandered over to the sign. ¡°Can you package up my ability to withstand this trial? My ability to hold my breath. My ability to withstand the refinement water, whatever defense I have specifically against the water that¡¯s currently not strong enough¡­all that shit?¡± The sign didn¡¯t respond for a moment. Finally as if making up its mind a blue box appeared. ¡°Note, by removing your ability to deal with this trial in an attempt to decrease its future difficulty, your current difficulty will be raised accordingly. Are you sure you wish to proceed?¡± ¡°Fuck me up.¡± Richard nodded and sat back. The sign said it could remove all sorts of esoteric things. He planned on seeing just how far he could push that claim. Suddenly he felt nauseous. His breath became shorter. Every inhale and exhale a herculean effort. Richard¡¯s insides had long since been pureed. Only now as the sign did something to him did he start to feel like it was pureed. His body was rubber. He could stand but his legs were shaking and wobbleing. This¡­might have been a mistake. Not too late to ask the sign to remove half of it? Where was the shit the sign had removed. How would he toss it? Suddenly Richard noticed a little doll on the sand. It was him ¨C a little voodoo doll of his body. He picked it up and felt the weight of it. Seems like the sign had¡­someone taken all of his stats and shoved them in this? No some of Richard''s stats remained but they were weakened? He really should make a popup lab and study what the sign had done to his body. Even if he didn¡¯t want to replicate it being able to know for certain what it had done and why could be illuminating. Richard was stalling. This doll was already heavy ¨C probably couldn¡¯t let it cook for too long. Richard was weak and couldn¡¯t travel too far¡­but at least to the bottom of the slope right? Felt like that was the bare minimum. Richard chucked the voodoo doll forward ¨C not very far. Ten-fifteen feet max. He set a 10s timer on his AI then breathed deeply as he watched the seconds tick down. Okay. Let''s go. Let''s do this. Let''s fucking go! Richard jumped into the ocean and nearly blacked out from the pain. The water pulled him down like someone was stacking weights on his back. ¡­oh no. Richard gasped allowing burning liquid to fill his body against his best efforts. ¡­Richard mayyyy have just fucked up a wee bit. Commited what we in the business like to call a "fucky wucky" Opps? Chapter 102. A montage of Refinements. ---The first horror and the first calamity--- The first horror to release from the double-edged sword that is the sea of refinement was not a true calamity. Its well documented as the horrors friends revealed what happened after the fact. Someone came to the sea slipping into the mist with a single plan. They wanted to purposefully default. They never planned on withstanding the trial. They asked the spirit within to take their cowardness. ¡°Remove my weakness. My fear, my bad traits. The pain from my girlfriend dying. My nerves. My¡­¡± This is paraphrased of course. No one but the spirit knows exactly what was removed, the above recreation is taken from some drunken words he had spoken the day before. As soon as those ¡°weaknesses¡± were removed, the man presumably refined his strength instead, ignoring the first removal and with a new idea of what strength might be. At least that is what we believe happened ¨C as soon as the creature emerged from the mist it attacked. Its humanity gone. Its form distorted. The creature who emerged had no fear for its life. No hesitation as it ripped into someone¡¯s skull and swung claws of void through one of its previous friends. Five died. Five original earthlings with all their cultivated strength died to the ferocity of this first man turned horror. Still the horror was put down in the end ¨C Relatively quickly all things considered. It had no fear for its life and little self preservation. If that was the only danger the trial left by the demon lord would be forgiven. A single surprise attack that hadn¡¯t reached very far¡­ But then the first calamity hit. The wrath king. A blurry figure invisible to most sights. Grey and black to most, this figure stalked the planet for days upon ruthless days. They moved completely silently and killed with a touch. Their very presence brought fear and irrational terror ¨C like the first horrors fear and cowardness had bonded into something with endless hate for the living. One of the only victims who survived the touch of death was a paladin who claimed to have over 100 necrotic defense spread across their body. They survived as the monster had thought they killed him in the initial strike. If it had stuck around he would have fallen just as easily. This revealed the first truth. Monsters didn¡¯t need to play by the rules. Every monster we had faced up till now was¡­beatable. Mindless you might say. The first calamity was cunning. It evaded all of the most powerful of seers and struck without mercy. It moved through dreams and struck as a nightmare. It aimed for infrastructure. It aimed for weakness. It killed humans in their sleep ¨C rather than a fair fight in a well understood danger, the way it slipped past everything and struck with way too much power¡­and if it sensed danger it escaped, running away to kill more. Cowardly. It was an example of ¡°unfairness¡± the likes of which many had not experienced since the old world. Its estimated hundreds died in that week. Finally, with a suspicious lack of fanfare, the slaughter simply stopped. Had someone beat the wrath? Had the wrath gotten its full of violence and moved on? If someone had beaten it ¨C who? And why hadn¡¯t they come forward to claim the fame from it? The sea of refinement was deemed too dangerous a wonder to attempt. Several groups took the time to cordon off the area. Working together to protect the world from anyone selfish enough to attempt it. In the days to come the trial would only get worse. ---Day 5--- ¡°Stop being childish¡± Jess snapped at Richard for the tenth time that day. The remains of his failed prank surrounded them. ¡°Violence is childish. Kids love gore. They talk about how much they want to see a real dead body. About how they''ve played about the ¡®Googles¡¯ and found videos of people blowing their heads full of holes with a shotgun or fucking guillotining themselves with dental floss. ¡°Profanity is childish. Only those darned kids have such foul mouths. No really. Adults never swear they are much too mature for that. ¡°Sex is childish. You ever see an adult draw an obscene reference to some phallic body part or talk about how much they want to fuck people? Horny teenagers. Degenerates the lot of them. Adults occasionally partake in the cloitus but always for procreation and under the light of the lord or some equally fanciful bullshit.¡± Richard waved his hands aggressively at their newest argument. A continuation of the previous arguments rehashing several of the main points. ¡°You know what''s actually fucking adult? Trauma. Depressing shit. Loss. That''ll adult you right the fuck up ¨C Oh does that make you uncomfortable? Good!¡± Richard was more heated then normal. ¡°Excessive profanity isn''t clever; it just displays a limited vocabulary.¡± Troy sat down beside Jess in support. ¡°Are you really calling me linguistically deficient? Just because you were raised with some Victorian-era puritan thoughts on language?¡± Richard asked turning to Troy. ¡°The word you are looking for is ¡®ad hominem¡¯ sweetie. Roughly translated it means you are a cunt who just admitted I¡¯m right.¡± There was silence for moment before Jess finally responded. ¡°I think¡­responsibility is what makes an adult. Once you become a parent and have to look after a kid, you¡¯ll realize you can¡¯t act like this.¡± Jess nodded slightly as she finished gesturing to the giant stone penis. ¡°Oh, spreading your legs makes you an adult? Do you know how many fucking 16-year-old ¡®parents¡¯ there were at my highschool? They aren¡¯t what I would call ¡®mature¡¯. ¡°Having a little snot covered post sperm is the bar you are making for adulthood ¨C really? ¡°Admit it, Kids suck. They literally ruin your life. You can¡¯t do anything fun anymore. I¡¯m never fucking having one and don¡¯t you think for one second one would appreciate having me as a father.¡± Richard yelled that last line and stormed away. Moments later they could hear him loudly complain to James ¨C loud enough they could still hear him. ¡°So, to recap in case you didn¡¯t hear her newest shit. I have to become an adult. To become an adult, I have to go through some depressing trauma bullshit and then go through the rest of my life repressing and treating that trauma as a fact of life. I have to knock some bitch up and become a slave to her offspring. ¡°Or¡­hear me out okay. ¡°I¡¯m never fucking growing up? If that¡¯s the bar for maturity I¡¯m staying as far the fuck away from it as I can. I¡¯ve seen what being an adult is like. It fucking sucks!¡±
---James--- James¡¯s refinements were¡­ thorough. He started with his arms, then moved to his legs. He popped off both feet at the same time and did a second ¨C harder ¨C refinement with them. That specific crawl across the sea floor was especially bad. Even worse than the one-legged attempts somehow ¨C probably because it was technically the second time he was refining them? Definitely not worth double passes even if James could now survive terminal velocity without his power. He refined his ears. His nose. His mouth and stomach. James even refined his eyes ¨C one at a time. Not worth loosing them by accident if he did them both. Probably his smartest choice. He moved on to his reaction speed and precognitive sense. His mana veins and kiln trait. You would think repeated refinements would get easier. You¡¯d grow numb to it. Instead, it was almost like the wonder ramped up. It pushed you to the brink each time adapting its punishment. Even though James was trying to be thorough and refine his entire body bit by bit¡­a minor problem was becoming more and more obvious. There were gaps everywhere ¨C lines of weakness between sections. Areas he hadn¡¯t covered. James realized he was being a bit too literal at that point and made a final body refinement. ¡°Refine joints, weak spots, places I¡¯ve missed but can deal without for the refinement session¡±. That was the first truly conceptual request he made ¨C and it was another particularly hard pass. A vast swath of his body just¡­refused to work. Even if it hadn¡¯t been popped off like his body parts had been up till now¡­they still were taken from him for the attempt. Up till now mana had barely helped ¨C and suddenly for this refinement mana was the only way he could move some parts of his body. James had to burn his domain at maximum power just to move each limb and crawl across the sea floor. Still, even if it was a weaker refinement it brought everything he had done together with a powerful glue. Finally James was ready. He asked the sign to remove his domain and then ¨C feeling surprisingly weak despite how much of his body had been refined ¨C he did his ¡®final¡¯ refinement. As if it knew how much this one meant to him, the trial ramped up yet again. Maybe his 20 minute wait time had been too long ¨C but James had been near positive he could handle it. In this final attempt, the weight of the water kept him on all fours the majority of the way. The stinging sea stripped the skin from his hands and shins ¨C causing each crawl to be painfully raw. The light blinded him through his closed eyelids and a roar of waves seemed to fill his ears. He came up for air three separate times ¨C each feeling nearly impossible. Finally he was done. James lay there on the beach feeling mentally exhausted as the repeated torturous refinements were complete. He stared down at the cloak the sign had turned his domain into and nearly broke. Should he default? The worst that could happen is the sign would never help him again, right? James lay in the sand for hours just trying to recover. Finally, he made his way over to the sign and accepted the tax. He would pay his dues. No matter how much it felt like his effort was being exploited, this was different from working a dead-end job. This was a chance. He felt his domain settle around him once again. It was comforting ¨C like having his skin returned to him after the flogging it had received. Done. With a clench of an invisible muscle, James popped his domain activation and lay down to float above the sand. An hour passed. Then two. He was out of food and water. There was an annoying camp outside of the dungeon ¨C he would need to burst out of containment to get away with his gains. Over three hours passed before James began feeling the strain. From 5 minutes to three hours. James tried not to imagine what it would be like without the tax. After his needed test James slept once again. He awoke even hungrier than before, but he was ready ¨C and most of the exhaustion was gone. Finally, after days of refinement, James left. He left the sea of refinement as the strongest human in the world.
---Maddy--- Maddy did not have that many true refinements in her. Her sound concept was the biggest gamble and had barely been possible. Ideally, she would refine all of her concepts one by one¡­ But she just didn¡¯t have the willpower to do that. She didn¡¯t feel like that was weak ¨C it invalidated just how hard dealing with her entire body melting was. Maddy was not afraid of pain but if at all possible she¡¯d remove it. The fact that the sea forced it upon her¡­it sapped her willpower more than any other problem it threw at her. Anyways. After sound, the next obvious refinement was her eyes. Ideally, she would refine each eye one at a time¡­but the memory of that pain flared up every time she imagined that. Maybe it was weak of her, but she only felt like it was worth it for her triple affinity eyes. And even that¡­well it had problems. If failing to retrieve her sound concept would have been devastating, failing to retrieve any of her eyes would be¡­she didn¡¯t even know how badly that would go over. Still if others used this and she didn¡¯t she would fall behind and Maddison did not want to land near the bottom. Refining her eyes was weird. You couldn¡¯t refine your ¡°self¡±. Not everything. Not all at once ¨C Not directly at least ¨C the idea was that ¡°she¡± had to retrieve whatever she had ¡°gambled away¡±. The eyes were her. It was the same as jumping in the water and then jumping out. If her eyes could return to shore on their own, they could not refine. You could refine entire portions of the self however¡­and as much as her eyes were separate portions they were definitely ¡®parts¡¯ of her, not separate creatures. The way Maddy got it to work without dealing with the sign was simple. The eye she refined had to be trapped. Delineated on all sides. Boxed in and weakened. It had to be so thoroughly isolated Maddy wasn¡¯t even sure it could revive if it died in this case. Then and only then did the ritual work. Then and only then could she toss it in the water and have it begin to refine instead of just burn and send back the pain of burning to the network. She refined all Eight of her triple eyes near the shore. They each went 2-3 meters into the water and were given 4-5 minutes to refine. As each eye refined, they lost consciousness. None had memories of the refinement themselves, simply a peaceful blank stretch of time where her main body struggled. Her main body struggled and shared the burden ¨C each eye no matter where they were in the world writhed as she tried to balance the burden among them. Finally, after a more masochistic trial than any other she had faced, she was done. Each eye had¡­grown somewhat ¨C doubling in size as a side effect. Their separate stats had strengthened and melded together in a strangely solid block ¨C their portions of Maddy¡¯s mind had each grown. From a life perspective they had more ¡®life¡¯ than any of her other eyes. From a creation perspective they had more ¡®reality¡¯. From a light perspective they shone brighter and contained deeper darknesses. More than anything else they all¡­sort of melded their separate truths. They sort of¡­grew what Maddy would call their combination mana into a single cohesive whole. Instead of Life + Creation + Light combined into one... The new eye had a mana type she would say was something closer to ¡®the Light of Creation brings Life¡¯? Life + Creation + Dark on the other hand felt more like ¡®All Life is Created in the Dark¡¯? Each eye had their own truth that made more or less sense to themselves and others ¨C some outright contradicting each other. It was all a teeny tiny ¡®wibbly wobbly¡¯ with how perception based it was ¨C only obvious to Maddy because of the different conflicting perspectives. Life could be created in places other than the dark after all. The portion of Maddy¡¯s mind in each eye each came to their own conclusion. They wanted to refine something themselves. They wanted to prove they were each a key part of her ¨C and then with some discussion found a final series of refinements. You could refine anything ¨C and while Maddy had focused on stuff she couldn¡¯t do herself¡­her eyes focused on boosting what they could do past what she had done. The first two eyes started with perhaps one of the most important spells she had made. Dark-Creation-Life and Dark-Creation-Death attempted to gather up their permanent respawn soul work. They started with perhaps one of the most important spells she had made and¡­weakened it by poking holes in what they had created¡­and then strengthened it by attaching shapes of what they hoped it might become. All Life is Created in the Dark focused on how a body could be grown from nothing and focused on how the spell itself was a thing of darkness that could be grown. The Death of Darkness breeds Creation on the other hand? She focused on the burst of death energy created when anything ¡®died¡¯ ¨C how it was purer in quality than simple death mana¡­close to death mana with some ¡®reality¡¯ and the concepts of whatever died in it ¨C but also wholly different in that annoyingly confusing manner. Maddy focused on using that energy to protect the concepts and create the seed of a new her. She focused on capture and filtration ¨C ripping apart the death energy to help strain out every bit of ¡°Maddy Reality¡± tied into it. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Unlike before, these two eyes puppeted Maddy¡¯s body alone. They ignored the rest of the network and forced themselves through a single trial together ¨C imagining themselves hand in hand as they marched into hell. The rest of Maddy watched and waited anxiously for the pair to return ¨C gifting mana when requested but otherwise allowing them to face it alone. The second pair was Light+Creation+Life and Light-Destruction-Life. They focused on themselves in a way ¨C their goal was to improve the eyes primary means of movement. There was no way to straight up replace the movement ¨C not with how deeply it was embedded into them¡­but the pair had a plan for improvement. Currently Maddy¡¯s eyes sundered themselves in one position with destructive mana ¨C reducing themselves to information and power. They then pushed themselves along a wave of sound ¨C aiming in the direction they wanted to go with a note for how long they wanted to travel. Finally, they reformed a new body with creation mana using the power and reality of their previous form in this new spot. Maddy had blended quite a few extra concepts into this ¡®pick myself up, jump in that direction, drop myself down¡¯ style of destruction/creation teleportation and it worked surprisingly well. First few times had led to a lot of her reality not surviving the journey¡­but after most of the parts that couldn¡¯t survive had been burned away, her eyes had grown more and more efficient at jumping. Even if she hadn¡¯t fully understood what she was doing at the time, it was still a solid spell and one that had grown quite a bit with her embedding deep within her soul. Trying to do more at the start would probably have led to the spell not working. Trying to add to it now without anything extra would probably lead to the spell getting worse. Trying to add to it and then refining the result? That was a potential power boost these two were willing to throw themselves into. One simple problem with the spell was¡­well one she hadn¡¯t even realized would be a problem when she made it. Sound. Her eyes moved at the speed of sound. Something incredibly fast ¨C something she thought would be fast enough and something that had the strongest concept with ties to communication and movement. Something she¡¯d only just recently realized was slow in comparison to whatever the physical versions of mages were called. James could break the sound barrier easily ¨C and well. As everything she faced grew stronger and faster, sound just started to lag behind. It hadn¡¯t been too much of a problem yet, but part of being a mage was preparation and addressing problems before they actually happened. She couldn¡¯t do this sort of improvement in the middle of a battle or anything. Another minor improvement she wanted to add if she were already working in the area was to try and piggyback off the eye network. Currently her eyes could use spells to travel to each other, but the ability to teleport between eyes was not tied into this base spell. Tying it and her ability to push her body about into the same spell just felt like consolidation. To start, the two light eyes focused on their shared element. Light. Beautiful Beautiful Light. Light travels faster than sound ¨C faster than anything else natural. The goal wasn¡¯t to replace ¨C no it was to phase sound into light. Both were a wave after all, and polarity had something to do with direction¡­ Well that was the idea at least. She just had to change the polarity of light into sound. Conceptually it made sense. ¡®Destroy Life into Light¡¯ focused on producing ¡®Light sounds¡¯ from other things, while ¡®The Light of Creation brings Life¡¯ tried to listen to the life in those same sounds. Together they slowly created a framework for converting any sound spell into a light spell and confirmed the way different sounds created different colours and conveyed information in different ways. Finally they were ready for their turn on the body. Maddy dangerously extracted her eyes mobility and smashed it it to pieces she could glue into a new form. She bound her new framework tightly around those pieces and then headed out, head held high. As she stepped into the water several spells flickered on, each attempting to block various negative effects of the water. The third pair¡­they were the pair of war. Dark-Destruction-Death and Light-Destruction-Death. They focused on one aspect of Maddy. Her damage. Her lagging damage ¨C how most she attacked recently resisted her spells passively. As a pair these eyes were¡­more straightforward than other Maddy¡¯s. All her eyes were affected in part by the vision magic they each ran constantly and with a double helping of destruction and death, these eyes had a more pessimistic and cynical outlook than the rest of her. They were sure no matter what they would do there would be some who could block them. Instead of naively trying to just increase their strength, they wanted a path for improvement. The problem was their affinities. Life was the mana with the most conceptual growth focused into it ¨C neither of them had a way to grow directly. Instead, the pair focused on growth through death. Growth through adversity ¨C through external influence instead of internal. When anything was ripped apart by the void, a large amount of energy and reality was revealed. When anything was killed, a burst of death energy was created with all sorts of useful concepts. Some of Maddy¡¯s strongest attacks had taken advantage of that ¨C replacing death mana with death energy or fueling themselves by consuming matter. Maddy wanted to set up a permanent dynamo instead of recreating it every time. The pair tested a variety of Maddy¡¯s existing magic then turned and made their own spell. An orb of pure damaging darkness wrapped in a thin barrier of light. An orb of cruel radiating light bouncing around inside a wrap of darkness. The two wraps were bound to the inside of the opposing orb and thus blended together in a conceptually recursive manner ¨C hopefully that was enough of an infinite ideal the spell could hold an infinite amount of resources. The light attempted to hide the spell¡¯s anchor through an illusion. The dark attempted to hide it with the hidden concepts contained in the affinity of darkness. They both attempted to destroy any attempt to connect to or find the anchor through as many methods as the pair could think of ¨C mostly reversed concepts and shapes to destroy connections instead of what was connecting. The two then bound the pair of ethereal orbs tightly, focusing on both binding and transference concepts ¨C the idea was this spell would link to any spell she cast, empowering it and then reaping the resources from anything she killed or destroyed. Those resources would be split and filtered between the two orbs and two shells in as optimal a way as she could manage ¨C hopefully conflicting resources would split into separate tanks so they wouldn¡¯t interfere with each other. There was something deeper. The goal for this spell¡­was for something tightly bound to Maddy. The pair of triple eyes were so committed to this ideal they convinced another to sacrifice. Death-Destruction. Her double eye with a similar focus would blend into this spell ¨C she sacrificed her eye doing the equivalent of ¡°teleporting without a direction¡± and then shoved her personal reality into this spell to make it permanent. Finally, the pair tossed their ethereal orb into the sea and set to work retrieving the refined result. This was the closest attempt Maddy had to actual failure. Both her pessimistic eyes nearly quit multiple times as their hope of being successful was as low as possible and they kept trying to cut their losses. They also¡­failed to account for how ethereal their spell was ¨C as the orbs were nothing more than light and darkness without matter. When they found it, the burning pair struggled to grab and carry the spell ¨C melting hands passing through the ethereal speck in failure. Eventually they made a decision and abandoned their body ¨C eyes merging with their spell and teleporting back through the water with great personal difficulty. They managed to retrieve Maddy¡¯s skeleton from the sea¡­but only because of their previous sisters improved teleportation schema. All that was left was an odd pair. Dark-Destruction-Life and Light-Creation-Death were two of the most opposing eyes Maddy had. Unlike the others, these two had no shared components¡­and no shared ideals beyond being part of the same person with the same goals for personal strength and health. While the other pairs worked nearly simultaneously and refined themselves one after another, this pair brought up ideas and shot them down as they tried to prioritize. Finally, they settled on two projects ¨C each picking what they imagined was the most important thing and helping their sister complete their own personal project on the side. Destructive Dark Life wanted to take control of and improve her base potential for growth. She had a pretty simple basis. All spells grew stronger when you cast them multiple times ¨C a lot of magical aspects improved through use. A lot of those improvements tapered off after awhile ¨C there were early gains through reusing a spell multiple times through the same object but then after a point it was only really novel applications or incredibly powerful casts that did anything. She imagined it was a bit like a muscle ¨C you built up strength through working out, but after a certain point that strength hit a cap and no longer increased. She wanted to remove that cap or at the very least push it much higher. Basing everything on this idea of muscles, Destructive Dark-Life built a mental framework that assumed every cast of magic destroyed the darkness inside spells and then healed back its strength. More shape than spell, her framework was flimsy ¨C you couldn¡¯t just believe and change reality without a solid push¡­but hopefully when refined it would bridge the gap. On the other side, Creative Death light ¨C who¡¯s illusion reality was especially strong ¨C found herself trying to bridge a gap in understanding that had formed and continued to grow after she split herself. There was no reason for her and her paired sibling to be dynamically opposites. They were both formed from the same pool ¨C a pool that used to shift back and forth between opposites at a moments notice. Maddy had one spell that took advantage of this. Her eggseeds that turned to maggots or healing vines. The only reason this spell still worked was that it was grandfathered in. She had made it long ago ¨C and had almost lost the ability since. Maddy wanted to be able to freely change the affinity of her spells ¨C shifting from healing to killing, from destruction to creation. She refused to abandon that strength. Once again, this eye created a mental framework ¨C less spell more hope full of shaped dreams. She tried to bridge the gap between the two ¨C tossing metaphorical rope across the chasm that had formed. What was missing? The idea of partial mana. The idea of ¡°balanced¡± mana. Of her life and death pool poised on the pure intersection. She knew part of the problem. Maddy¡¯s eyes¡­they didn¡¯t contain those transitionary barriers. Pure mana was weaker after all and when she had created her eyes, she¡¯d separated it out into a single eye then ignored it. What had happened to that eye? Maddy searched and found her pure mana eye wandering the world almost aimlessly. There! Maddy brought her weakest eye over and focused on regaining strength. The main idea she had was¡­to increase her number of eyes. Every single eye except for this pure eye was an absolute end of a spectrum. If she added back something into the space between¡­well just look at herself. Creative Death light could have been [Creative/Destruction]-Death-Light. Creative-[Death/Life]-Light. [Creative/Destruction]-[Death/Life]-Light! Every single eye was like her ¨C even the double and single affinities had the potential to meet in the middle ¨C and indeed meet in strange weakened ratios with ¡°affinity dials¡± at 20% or 54% or whatever other section she could imagine. Maddy created the illusion of countless eyes each with different affinized drops of mana in them. Then she took her pure eye and sundered it ¨C splitting its reality up amongst the countless ¡°dead¡± eyes she had created. Immediately they threatened to fade away ¨C too weak, too split apart to matter. Maddy activated her domain, bolstering them all as temporary eyes and pushed a huge portion of the ¡°resource¡± that was her skeleton into these eyes. She then combined them all into one once again feeling how strange and unstable the franken-eye felt. Her pure eye was now dead ¨C killed in such a way it wasn¡¯t even respawning with barely a spark of her still remaining in each potential eye. Her mangled body was overwhelmingly ¡°Dead¡± with her bones contributing to this undeath, but death could become life and she had help. These two eyes with their solo projects fixed minor flaws in each others work and filled gaps only they could fill. They then refined each spell one at a time ¨C becoming the pair of eyes to have traveled the most time into the sea. After the spell muscle healing ability was crystalized, it was integrated into Maddy¡¯s soul ¨C bound to her existence like a system given perk. The new eye came back still dead but changed. More than it was ¨C the body of what could have been grown and solidified into something strong. And then she killed her dead body. Maddy conjured a simple knife with an edge sharp with delination and stabbed the returned eye ¨C her knife snuffing out the spark that had remained in this body flickering and weak. This eye ¨C Maddy¡¯s potential eye died and in doing so returned to her. Her eyes returned to her ¨C dozens of new half sisters beginning to form in herself reincarnation chambers. Immensely pleased with all her refinements and with a healthy respect for the sea, Maddy left the dungeon. She left and spread across the world at the speed of light traveling back and forth across the entire hemisphere and finding countless secrets. When she was done, Maddy turned to a dungeon she¡¯d started to grow. One who¡¯d finished growing while she was enduring the trial and waited patiently for enough of her attention to focus on it. Her Creative-Life eye had already entered it days ago ¨C still golden from its interaction with R. She could tell her eye was safe but cut off from the rest of her as if across an insurmountable distance. Done with refinement, dozens of eyes finally entered the fae dungeon hoping to learn just what her new race meant.
--- Richard --- Richard lay burning right by the shore for what had to be days. From what he could tell, the dungeon wasn¡¯t actually trying to kill him ¨C death though the trial was¡­a side effect. A side effect of giving up? Of biting off more than you could chew? Technically right now Richard was biting off more than he could chew and yet he was so close to shore the sea was set to easy mode as if unaware someone could die a meter or two into its shallowest area. What that meant was simple. Richard could not breathe or hold his breath well. He could not move in the water well. He could not resist the acidic properties of the water or ignore the pain. His ramping up skill was still with him but its ability to fix all the main willpower sapping parts of the trial was cut off at the knees. And yet Richard was still alive. His body had forgone the need to breath at some point so him having weaker breaths was simply a way of filling his lungs with acid and causing immense pain and weakness. His ramping up skill could not block the ¡°trial¡± part of the trial but could prevent him from dying ¨C it kept ramping up endlessly defending against death if nothing else. And slowly Richard acclimated. The pain never got better. His strength never grew. And yet he was alive and every bit of progress he made could be permanent if he let it. Richard wiggled like a worm crawling with all his strength till he could grab the doll between his teeth. His teeth fell out and yet enough gum remained he could hold onto the heavy fabric with his jaw. Richard then worked to crawl up the slope ¨C digging the whole way to create ledges of sand he could rest on. The insurmountable hill was roughly one meter up and two back at the position he was. A mere 1:2 slope. 30 degrees of struggle. Just over 2m of hill. If he stood up his head would be above water. That¡¯s how close to shore he was. It took him a day of stubborn rolling and full body lunging to climb that tiny slope. By the end of it Richard¡¯s mind was so flayed he didn¡¯t even realize he had reached shore once again. His eyesight returned slowly over the course of an hour of struggle up the sandbank and Richard realized he was no longer in the dreaded water when he spat out a mouthful of dry sand and saw the doll in front of him. It took another hour of recovery before Richard had enough strength to crawl back towards the sign and beg for his refined ¡°shit¡± to be returned to him. Immediately he felt better. Richard found himself healing nearly instantly ¨C his body and strength breaking through and ending with Richard laying on the sand cursing everything as cathartically as he could. ¡°¡­fucking water can fucking fuck its fucking burning fuck¡­¡± When Richard was finally done his venting, he tried heading out for a walk. A quick pop up of his head through the mist around the area noted a collision of people blocking off the dungeon. ¡°Get out of there¡± Someone yelled as soon as they noticed him, but Richard ducked back in and went to play in the sand instead. This dungeon had a stronger isolating effect than others ¨C most dungeons let people who enter at the same time stay together while separating out the rest making it rare to meet up with others when you were in one. This separated everyone ¨C entering the mist as a group left you alone as soon as you existed. Neat. Richard created a sand castle ¨C his stone hands resonating with however much silica there was in the beaches sand ¨C a surprisingly small amount. He added buttresses and arches and columns and a solid drawbridge with working stone (melted sand) hinges. Richard finished up by setting up a fake army of sand people and sending a cannon shot with his hand cannon to smash the castle to bits. Finally he was calm again. Tossing the same cannon into the water Richard waited a few minutes then went in and retrieved his shiny new weapon. He should have tossed the thing much further but a memory of how bad that initial refinement had been had pushed him in early. Testing the new weapon Richard plotted out just how much it had improved before slowly upgrading all of his equipment with further and further tosses. His new AI. His Stone hands. His favorite chair. The first problem appeared when he tried to upgrade his mantle. The mantle itself¡­was basically already refined in terms of its raw aether concentration and would require an immense amount of time for any improvement¡­and also warned him as the mantle was not currently ¡°doing¡± anything it had little to improve as an addon. Exciting to be told no ¨C considering the sign had said he could refine anything, getting such a clear ¡°no¡± said quite a bit about the process. His next few requests were done in the spirit of what Richard would call. SRQAD! Sea of Refinement¡¯s Quality Assurance Department. He made a shirt and everything ¨C even chanted ¡°squad, squad, squad¡± while trying to make a funny acronym and failing. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine my ability to gain achievements¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine my connection to the system¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine yourself¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine the memory I have of my third-grade math teachers favorite meal and the way she let me try some of her sandwich that one time¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine 2x2¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine the sea of refinement¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine my telomeres if I still have any¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine half of an atom¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine this sandwich¡­yes, I know I can just toss it in the water I want to see you package it up for me.¡± ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine my esper hands along with whatever part of my brain now controls them¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine my ability to transfer my stats about¡­and also refine my chemical defensive stats while you¡¯re poking around in there¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine something I don¡¯t know about that will increase how awesome I am and not negatively impact anything I like doing¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Please refine whatever field is interacting with my stats and causing my body to act like a dungeon or similar black box device¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Sorry, love your work. Can you refine this scanner I can¡¯t measure anything inside my body anymore and it¡¯s breaking my stat shifting¡­oh! Yeah, I can just toss this in. Thanks¡±. ¡°Hey sign~. Me again. Can you refine this nest¡¯s ability to become a sandwich nest? I already refined it once, but it just made all the monsters in it stronger and broke me being able to plant it on this beach. I¡¯m running out of sandwich materials and there isn¡¯t a good infrastructure to buy it right now¡­Yes, I¡¯m sure. Thanks!¡± ¡°Hey sign~. Hypothetically, what would happen if I refined my ability to deal with people? I quite like how I am you know, but sometimes I wish I didn¡¯t fuck everything up¡­no don¡¯t touch my sense of humor I just want to stop¡­never mind. Forget I ever asked.¡± ¡°Hey sign~. Can you refine the flowrate and regeneration speed of this slot and the aetheric concentration and storage of this one? My 3rd slot I¡¯m going to refine all together after as a control. Thank you!¡± Richard tried as many different things as he could over days that turned into weeks. Turns out the sign was a filthy fucking liar and refused to help him refine anything truly weird¡­but the array of stuff it could package up for him was vast. Far crazier than you would think. How the fuck did it even remove that memory he barely remembered? What principle did any of this work off of? It acted a bit weird whenever he tried to refine system stuff ¨C his ability to interact with the system was refined easily enough but the system¡¯s ability to give him achievements was not¡­maybe because the system wasn¡¯t actually here? Maybe because Richard didn¡¯t own the system so the sign wouldn¡¯t pop it out of the moon and bring it here for him? At the end of three weeks, Richard finally left his new toy a changed man. He had probably managed to refine some of the most items of anyone present or in the future. One of his favorite refinements was when he refined a sandwich into one of the tastiest creations known to man and then carefully dissected it in his popup lab, measuring exactly how it had been chemically modified to taste so good. MSG and massive globs of especially complex aether compounds for the most part. His most effective refinement had been his void body defense mixed with his ¡°distributed body¡± perk and his mental defense. Because of his initial hardship, Richard managed to leave his stats ¡°cooking¡± in the water for over an hour before heading in after it. If it weren¡¯t the memory of how close, he had been to dying in that first refinement, this would feel like cheating. The stone had been surprisingly heavy, but the stat return had caused him to pass out as his body morphed. The final remnants of organs or bones were now gone. Any part of his body was roughly equivalent to any other part of his body¡­some of his stats were now locked ¨C he couldn¡¯t affect quite a few of his existing stats even after improving his ability to manipulate them¡­but that was fine. It was well worth the boost to defense he¡¯d gained. It had been a long journey ¨C with bones slowly mixing with flesh and bits of his brain growing in his arms and legs¡­ Well now Richard was a bag of omni flesh shaped like a man! Of course, the majority of his experiments had been knowledge based or ways of improving all his tools. Richard designed a chunky 3d printer and refined that then used the refined version to create an improved version he refined instead. He built and refined many items using this printer including several different types of scanners¡­but those were just tools. He hadn¡¯t yet done anything special with them yet. His least effective refinement experiment had been ¡°fat stat¡± an experiment where he refined a single defensive stat over 20 times to map out the diminishing returns. At least that had given him a pretty good achievement? Ether way. Richard was finally starting to get stir crazy so ¨C with a mental note to come back whenever he wanted to boost anything with magic goop ¨C he left the dungeon. Surprisingly, the barricades and protection squad were gone. He¡¯d been expecting he would need to fight his way out, so this had been a pleasant surprise. With a pulse of his AI Richard got James¡¯s location and headed out. The most frivolous user of the sea returned to the world. Chapter 103. A view of others ---Mitigation--- After the first calamity disappeared, the danger the sea represented became clearer to most. Many many groups attempted to sanction and block off the sea to little effect. A line of defenders surrounded the duplicitous mist at all manners of the day ¨C blocking all who came from entering. And yet challengers still found their way inside. They broke past the human barrier with force or speed. They snuck past the guards with cloaking devices or burrowed under the earth in secret tunnels. Many came and went without any knowing how they had gotten in. The sea wanted to be freely available. It rebelled against its isolation as if it had a mind of its own. When a wall was built, the mist moved ¨C making itself easier to enter by seeping over the barrier. When a thick protective dome was built over the mist, it melted its way through overnight. When a more cohesive barrier was built, the sea opened up alternative entrances. When attempts were made to affect the mist itself they failed. The sea¡­ The sea wished to be used. The sea would not be hidden away. Would not be policed. The surroundings grew more and more dangerous as time went on ¨C part of the trial almost appearing to be entering the trial with all the attempts humans made to control access and all the abominations slinking around the surroundings. Not even a social barrier could isolate the sea. No matter how many horror stories they tried to spread nothing would stop the truly determined. Besides its undermining of every safety measure humanity put in place, the sea itself never attacked. The world wonder itself never seemed to kill directly even if its dismantling of the walls proved it could. Those successful in their challenge assured others the sea itself was fair ¨C death was never a goal for the trial, only a consequence. If you challenged the sea and attempted to refine something the sea would never push for your death. It manifested the trial in several ways, but always the main difficulty was always willpower based. In fact ¨C many claimed the only way to die was to give up. That was obviously survivorship bias ¨C if you pushed too far you could probably die without giving up¡­ but rumors spread, and challengers continued to appear each claiming the ones blocking access were trying to monopolize the power of the sea themselves. And abominations continued to be created, monster after monster.
--- That¡¯s not how magic works --- ¡°That¡¯s not how sound works! That¡¯s not how anything works ¨C polarizing sound doesn¡¯t work mathematically Maddy, you¡¯re obviously able to do something but it can¡¯t be that.¡± Richard moaned for the umpteenth time. Mana was beyond annoying. It ran off similar rules to aether and yet obscured every single aspect of itself from everyone including its own users. There was power in black boxes but an equal amount of ignorance, and ignorance led to the same sort of voodoo as bloodletting to cure hysteria and lobotomys to cure mental illness. ¡°Let¡¯s put a stop to this and try something different. Magic versus science. We can both ¡°teleport¡± something and then compare ¨C from what I can tell, you¡¯re binding matter to a transmission medium or perhapse phasing matter into a transmission medium. That medium allows you to roll both power and information along soundwaves ¨C you¡¯re not actually binding anything to sound like you describe. No, its not the same as binding stuff to light¡­yes, they are completely different! Okay, quick lesson. Sound isn¡¯t a particle it¡¯s a displacement of a medium. Light is a wave yes but its also a particle ¨C you took physics right? You can bind stuff to it by attaching aether manipulated atoms to photons ¨C you can also attach matter to electricity by attaching aether manipulated atoms to electrons but those need two very different techniques because photons and electrons are very different types of particles¡­no there¡¯s no sound particles, are you making fun of me now? Oh you are¡­nice heh. Anyways. Let¡¯s try seeing if a competition helps whatever weird rules the system is using to mess with us.¡± Richard finished beginning to put together a light painter and setting up targets they could aim for. Mana was beyond annoying because of how arbitrary it seemed. Any time Maddy attempted to enhance or even just alter his machines either nothing happened or they broke. Anytime he tried to study any of the weird mana constructs she made, either he couldn¡¯t see anything, or he broke them. Mostly he just broke them ¨C with countless effects she claimed were supposed to happen simply failing in his presence. There was no conceivable reason why a piece of paper with regular ink could create an effect ¨C the obvious answer felt like some sort of corrupted aether construct in skillspace or similar¡­ but trying to find or observe that extra dimensional machine ripped it away like cobwebs. The two sides broke each other in an incredibly annoying way. The worst part was in the single way they didn¡¯t break each other ¨C conflict. If observing a magical barrier broke it, anyone of a scientific mind could just look at Jess¡¯s dome and cause it to fail. If these so called ¡°spells¡± stopped working when you tried to figure them out, then it should be easy to disable projectiles or similar¡­and yet it wasn¡¯t. It was only when they tried to collaborate that things broke apart as thoroughly as they did ¨C and there was no fucking reason Richard could see for that to happen. Even if they had a different internal engine, two complementary effects should contribute to each other. Right? If you stuck a magic flashlight right beside a regular flashlight and shone both lights at the same spot it should get brighter. Light was light! Even if they weren¡¯t touching, there should still be some synergy ¨C right? That just made sense! Why then did they break each other just by existing in the same place? Why then did the so called ¡°magic¡± that Maddy performed work off such arbitrary self imposed rules? Maybe it broke because aether or mana was leaking in a way he couldn¡¯t measure and fouling up the machinery of the opposing side? They just needed a better way of insulating each side? Maybe the rules weren¡¯t self imposed but something her frequence of aether imposed on her mind? Sort of a ¡°mana: this is how I work¡± -> ¡°Maddy: this is how I made it work¡± sort of thing? But no... If mana and aether were breaking each other through proximity they should be able to synergise from a distance ¨C and! More importantly they should break each other in all situations not just some. If they were breaking each other at a distance as completely as they seemed to be doing, worse effects should be appearing in every squirmish. And they were. It seemed technology did seem to go on the fritz in battles against mages ¨C and mages couldn¡¯t seem to do some of the crazier things they claimed were possible while fighting¡­but despite that they still seemed to hold up enough to try and kill each other. And Maddy had strange theories for why he broke stuff. According to her, anything Richard looked at contained his domain and when creating an effect she had to directly fight his domain with her own just to make anything happen. So Richard''s perception was what broke things? Was there a way of blocking whatever part of his perception broke things? It was fucking annoying. Had Richard mentioned that yet? The only reason Richard could see for it working the way it did was if they were actively being sabotaged. He tried to come up with multiple theories and work out the solution with a scientific process but he kept coming back to the simple idea of sabotage. It was the only solution he felt made any real sense. The only way this could make sense was for R ¨C the bastard ¨C and or the system itself to be breaking complementary effects and leaving conflicting ones. Why? And how could they get around this?
---Jess--- Jess¡¯s refinement was simple. She refined her barriers once, her defensive stats and body once, and finally her domain once. Three refinements on the upper end of her sanity. Three to match the pattern magic seemed to like and three to prove she could to both herself and any who might question her. By this point her creation mana was so tightly bound to her protection concept, they were one and the same. Her body defense was almost a passive magic she could barely control ¨C but by refining it, the synergy with her protection concept blended it into something higher. Similarly her domain could be seen as a way of improving the way she protected things by boosting more metaphorical ways of protection than simply making a physical wall. Together they all interacted in a way that let her almost share her protection with those she loved. A simple ring of her own creation could wrap her domain around her best friends ¨C and then she could improve their defense from a distance ¨C her domain almost sharing her defensive stats through the link the item made, as well as improving every part of her ability to arrive and defend them in person. She treated the trial the same way she had treated every trial ¨C by throwing herself into it and then screaming ''it sucked'' at the top of her lungs when she was done. Jess could feel this boost and knew she had more than tripled her strength but she didn¡¯t feel up to doing much more than that. Besides. She had a dungeon to try ¨C one that had been done for days if not weeks by this point. Traveling back to their home base she entered the dungeon alone and full of confidence. ¡­ As far as dungeons went, this one was relatively straightforward in concept. Jess wanted to improve her protection. This dungeon made her protect things. It didn¡¯t have any politics or weird ethical morality bullshit. Nice and simple ¨C taking Jess¡¯s personal preferences into account it was almost like the dungeon was made for her. I mean it was, but the way it set itself up included stuff she hadn¡¯t directly asked for. Eventually she wanted to protect all of the potential children of the world and this dungeon seemed to have picked up on that ¨C theming itself appropriately. Similar to the way the sea of refinement seemed to be able to extract parts of her. Jess found a part of her conceptually removed and extracted. She could block it easily enough unlike the sea, but accepting the magic was the only way she was allowed to enter. Her heart appeared in her hands ¨C conceptually seeming to condense every single bit of vulnerability in her body mind and soul into a fake organ. Jess was immensely aware that even if she could survive a stab to her heart normally, a single puncture of this external heart would be her downfall. If anything happened to this heart she would die. It was as simple as that. By the time she reached the ¡°starting point¡± of the first floor her heart had become a baby. A precious crying and vulnerable creature that deserved none of the danger of the world. She knew intellectually the baby was fake and yet it felt so real. She felt so attached to this little person the idea that this was her heart began to fade. And the dungeon threatened her child¡¯s safety ¨C shooting arrows and spewing poison mist towards Jess and her charge. She had to protect her child ¨C Jess covered the baby in her domain, moulding her golden armour into a sealed pouch on her chest and began to push through the rain of attacks. The baby needed to breathe and yet the air itself was full of poison. She needed to destroy the poisonous smoke with a sheet of void mana and yet allow fresh oxygen to enter the pouch. The floor became electrified ¨C bolts of lightning arcing between tiny metal rods. No letting her armour conduct those bolts. No letting the hypnotic light put them to sleep. No letting the impacts rattle her baby¡¯s tiny little head. Slowly the poisonous smoke disappeared and was replaced by an insidious invisible poison instead. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The temperature fluctuated dropping to dangerously low levels and then flared up to near boiling. Still Jess protected her heart through it all ¨C even blocking the more conceptual attacks in the later sections. She felt glancing blows across her domain as the walls tried to separate her baby with every step and the sound of flutes tried to invert her into protecting the attacks and destroying the precious baby. Magic could do whatever weird stuff it wanted on its own but as soon as it tried to break her protection it had to deal with her domain ¨C forcing it to attack her armour instead. She might have struggled a bit with this floor before refining but now it felt almost laughably easy. She was overleveled. Would this dungeon even help her improve in the way she needed to improve? That confidence faded as she entered the second floor and felt her baby being ripped from her grasp. Before her eyes ¨C almost in taunting glee ¨C the baby was shredded into thousands of pieces. Her heart was reduced to bloody pulp and Jess nearly lost herself to shock and anger. Her baby! The sand reformed soon enough ¨C each chunk splitting and growing once again becoming a sea of children. 1000 young being¡¯s instead of one. Her vulnerability was spread out a bit more this time ¨C Jess knew a certain number of children could in fact die without killing her but that was unacceptable. None of the children should die! Each with names and personalities and lives that couldn¡¯t be snuffed out before they had a chance! As Jess looked around herself she realized what this floor was about and groaned. She was in a village ¨C a few hundred little houses surrounded by the flimsiest looking wooden fence she had ever seen. Empty. Without any other adults to help her and surrounded by tiny people that needed protection. ¡­ Days began to pass with monsters slinking out of the forest and attempting to eat her children. Individually everything was less dangerous than the first floor and yet¡­her children kept trying to escape. It was all a game to them and the little scamps kept trying to kill themselves on anything they could find. Jess had to prevent them from falling down wells just as often as she had to fend off bog hags and cinderbears. Her domain¡¯s ability to have her destroy space and almost teleport her to help block attacks had a heavy workout ¨C she needed to be everywhere at once and it was only by giving every single child a golden bracelet that her domain could extend as far as she wished. She replaced the fence with a golden one ¨C preventing her children from leaving the village and warning her of dangers that entered the ring. It was exhausting to maintain considering how large the village was ¨C but it was worth it. It turned the impossible task into one that was annoyingly difficult. Jess had to keep count of her children frequently ¨C again and again as the precocious beings failed to listen or fell asleep in weird areas. The village was annoyingly full of dangers ¨C who left sharp swords and spears where children could stab themselves? Jess had to keep watch ¨C because monsters came out at night even more often than the day, and countless snivelling beasts wanted a bite of the vulnerable beings in her care. She had to feed her children ¨C because no food arrived and protecting them involved not letting them starve. Jess could hunt in the forest for food but that involved either bringing a crowd of victims with her or leaving them on their own and she found herself dashing back to defend against danger so often she barely had time to affect them. Jess had never been able to conjure food with her creation mana ¨C nothing about golden protection barriers had ever screamed food and she had never gained a concept with ties to anything edible¡­but as days passed and food was harder to come by, Jess found herself focusing on how ¡°sustenance for a starving child is protection¡±. Sooner rather than later her magic adapted ¨C golden bars of nutrition forming before her as her idea of protection bent and reformed. Without an illusion affinity to colour everything like Maddy could, there was little she could do for variance¡­but survival was enough, even if it made the children grumpy and prone to tantrums. ¡­ The second floor lasted three weeks. It continuously ramped up in difficulty till, by the end some of the widescale attacks were as bad as the first floor. The last day was a constant storm. Acid rain threatened to burn her previous children and bolts of red lightning sought to snuff each of them out, but by that point something had changed. Jess¡¯s domain had almost sunk into the village itself ¨C the fence she had conjured around it marking a boundary towards the space that was under her protection. This village and everything in it was what she was protecting and focusing on that let Jess conjure the largest dome she had ever made ¨C almost a kilometer in diameter, the barrier wrapped around everything she was protecting and blocked hoards of monsters and environmental effects. Finally it was done. The trial ended and her children joined together ¨C briefly shooting Jess with a bolt of panic as all her precious people appeared to melt and reform into a heart once again. The final floor¡­was different. Unlike before, the vulnerability was gone. It was almost like she had passed the entire dungeon¡¯s test and was being given a bonus exam. First, with a warm sort of wash of power her heart was returned to her ¨C slowly but surely re-entering her body and carrying something new with it. Jess felt the crystalized concept it had used slowly enter her body finally settling deep within her chest. This then was the main reward of the dungeon. This crystalized application of vulnerability. That ability to extract a creature''s ability to be harmed ¨C to pull all the weakness out and center it into a single location. It was specialized and set. Jess could reject it and there was a chance she could rip it apart to get at the power within¡­but doing that was sure to break the power it was offering itself. It felt incredibly dense and strange. Like it was unfinished ¨C a puzzle with half its pieces missing. And then with a single pump a box appeared.
The third floor. An eternity of reality. Your goal can be completed in a few steps and yet requires a constant burden to finish. Absolute candidate, your title is under attack! Your partial mantle ¡°Absolute protector of children¡± cannot solidify while those who could subvert your power exist. Neutralize every creature or character that threatens the dream you hold dear. When all who¡¯s domains may attack through your skill or break your desired protection are eliminated, your mantel will be complete.
Quest: A protection for the young. Description: Discover a way to complete your mantel. Either grow your ability to protect beyond what you currently have. Alter the state of the world to the point your protection will remain unthreatened. Weaken your wish to allow others to trample on it. Or cripple/kill/remove all who may break your protection from existing in your shared realm. Reward: Main mantel reward will apply your protection to all humans born within your shared realm automatically, while providing tools to influence how said protection may be removed. Default will be upon reaching 9 years of age. Protection will stifle growth, reducing danger and potential for achievements as well as blocking the ability to break skills.
---Troy--- Troy¡¯s refinement was a bit different and yet he ended up in the same place as most. As someone with a specialized body, all of his stats and focus had arrayed his insides in a non standard manner. His stomach was his core. The weakness of his body and yet also his strength as that is where his mana was formed. Like a dragon, his mana swirled about his stomach and pulled up his throat. If it encountered food his void mana broke it down ¨C eliminating any dangers before it reached his vulnerable core. At some point Troy had figured out how to pull the mana contained in his stomach up towards his mouth and then back down towards his lungs, settling it in a secondary pool and doubling his storage. The path had warped and changed with how much he performed this exercise ¨C creating a sort of etheral pathway, and his lungs had adapted to pull his mana towards them with each ¡°breath¡±. Troy didn¡¯t need to ¡°breathe¡± anymore ¨C his mana broke carbon dioxide recycling oxygen in a completely closed system. His body and stats had adapted ¨C using the lack of breath as a chance to close off his nose and increase his stealth by allowing him to stay perfectly still. There was currently a very minor effect that seemed to be the mana in his lungs transferring into his bloodstream and the rest of his body¡­but currently that system did nothing more than help activate his domain ¨C twisting all the mana infused into his body into that of shadow. That self imposed and grown system was part of why his domain had a cooldown. It took a while for mana to pass through his lungs and infuse the rest of his body. He could forcefully pull his mana through his flesh and activate it anyways but for some reason that path led to damage ¨C ripping his mana through his flesh instead of gently pulling it into the areas. And so with Troy¡¯s first refinement he tried to strengthen this entire system. This system that let Troy breathe. As soon as he gave it to the sign, he realized he was suffocating and despite this system being his most important Troy threw it as far as he could and immediately went to retrieve it. His second refinement was a bit different. Troy thought of Jess and their conversations over the past few weeks. How despite sharing the mana of creation and a physical body and physical link to their mana, they had differed in such drastic ways. A specialized body was ''stronger'' than a generalized one but more brittle. For defense a specialized body on average became more and more capable of blocking damage. His bones were like iron and his skin like Kevlar. Any monster they faced with armour like diamond had a specialized body. Despite Jess focusing on defensive stats Troy¡¯s base body was actually tougher than hers. The difference of course for defense at least was in recovery. If Jess lost an arm her body could regenerate it in a day or two even without Maddy around to fix her up. If Troy lost an arm¡­well then that arm was gone for good. Conceptually, creation mana could not "just" replace life mana. He couldn¡¯t just conjure himself a new arm¡­not as he was. There was some innate complexity that came with conjuring organic molecules instead of simpler ones. That¡¯s what Troy wished to fix. He spent a long time trying to figure out how to extract this himself, then shifted to the sign and spent a while trying to phrase his request perfectly. There couldn¡¯t be a loophole. He couldn¡¯t just say the first thing that came to his mind ¨C there was still a bit of trauma about that. Finally he made his wish ¨C refining his bodies natural and magical regeneration as well as his magical ability to repair himself at least until he could be fixed by Maddy. His third refinement was done with a healthy fear of the sea and a distaste for the signs tax. He wanted to strength his skin. His skin held his mana in and protected him from the elements. His skin was his bodies barrier against the world. His skin was¡­was what failed first when he entered the shadow land and improving it would increase the amount of time he could stay there. With Maddy in his thoughts the entire time, Troy destroyed his flesh directly under his skin, carefully skinning himself by focusing on the hypodermis ¨C if it could still be called that after all the changes his stats had given him. He then activated his domain to shift his body to shadow and slide out of the suit. If Maddy could commit this hard than he could as well. Unlike her he couldn¡¯t heal himself afterwards and his ability to destroy his nerves was low without a life affinity but Troy worked slowly and carefully ¨C his mana guided by his will. Feeling exposed to the elements, the skinned shadow then tossed his suit into the sea and waited knowing deep down this would hurt. The sea which had been a sting became a wall of agony he could barely enter and yet Troy thought of James and his unending pool of willpower. Troy pushed through ¨C his shadow form ripped from him, and his tender flesh stung by countless bees. Finally he retrieved his skin sliding into the cast off suit and trying to use his newfound ability to regenerate and build back what he¡¯d destroyed. Slowly his skin felt like his again and yet there was a massive disconnect. He¡¯d done the equivalent of a bandaid ¨C Maddy would have to fix him up beyond this. Troy left the area flickering into the shadow realm to bypass the guards then found one of Maddy¡¯s eyes at their meeting point. The majority of her focus was away ¨C most of her eyes would still take a while refining so without anything better to do Troy got his healing and headed to his custom dungeon. ¡­ The shadow dungeon felt like something he couldn¡¯t have done before refining. He needed to spend days inside of it ¨C not something he could have done with his previous time limit. As far as dungeons went it was interesting. It pushed his domain and revealed a lot about what was possible. Considering he hadn¡¯t given it much thought ¨C or even really expected much other than a challenge to one of his main strengths, Troy was happy. The main theme could be called contrast. Light was bright, dark was dark. Putting them together in the same spot gets you a dim nothing. Placing them side by side gets you a razor sharp line of contrast between the two points. The stronger your light the darker your shadow. The stronger your darkness, the brighter your light. The power in center could be called contrast and it by definition could not let either side mix. The pure mana you created when shifting between both ends was weak because of that mixing. A gradient between the sides was weak ¨C the middle a muddy grey. An incredibly sharp contrast between the two sides? Lines that drew the eye and That was strength. The difference between what Troy had called the shadowlands and reality was a similar sort of contrast. Really ¨C Troy was just realizing his name for it was wrong. Reality was the world of darkness and this realm was the world of light. They met in the shadows and yet this world wasn¡¯t of shadows ¨C shadows were the link between each side. The power in between. Before long Troy had forced his light and dark mana together without letting them mix ¨C the dungeons concept of contrast bled in as he worked forcing a weakness into pure strength. He forced them together by forcing them apart ¨C ripping away any mixture and making both sides purer as he worked. By the second floor the change was more complete than ever. The idea of ¡°pure mana¡± between sides was gone. The concept of contrast was not his ¨C it was something gifted by the dungeon¡­and yet the more he used it the more it sunk into his soul and settled his form. Contrast mana let him create arrows sharper than ever. It let him shift with less power than shifting to darkness had forced him ¨C let him jump between shadows and finally live on the edge of the two worlds in such a way he could now look into the reality from its shadow or even jump between shadows without ever entering the other world. The dungeon¡¯s third floor broke. It felt like it was both the world of darkness and the world of light in the same place ¨C bubbles of the two dimensions everywhere with deadly attacks he could only avoid by shifting and the two dimensions overlapping and breaking apart at certain points a terrifying feeling void in between each of them. Troy had tried to use his void mana to effect this, void but destruction could not destroy the nothingness that it contained. Finally he finished the dungeon ¨C a reward of stats accompanying his crystalized contrast. His arrows were now wholly of the in-between ¨C formed out of the barrier between worlds. It almost felt like Troy was ripping space in two and using the sharp edge of broken dimensional barriers to cut into things. As soon as he pulled creation mana into this contrast, it felt like he was solidifying this ripped barrier into something that actually existed. Troy left his custom dungeon feeling almost more powerful than he¡¯d done when refining. It was to the point he came back and refined a 4th time ¨C refining his contrast mana in a synergy that improved both light and dark as a side effect. Finally done his training, Troy rejoined his four friends. Yes¡­even Richard. Chapter 104. You’re a fae-folk Maddy. First Floor. ---The second calamity and the beginning of the end of the world --- The second calamity marked the end. The end of the fragile foundations humanity had built. The end of the initial peace. The end of the almost easy start. The escalation of the inevitable war and the beginning of cascading hatreds. To start. A ticking timebomb of a monster appeared. The glutton. Nearly 100 meters tall and twice that in diameter, the glutton was shaped like a mountain. A small mountain ¨C the size of a modest skyscraper ¨C its back arched into a high point its legs so small and stubby they were nearly invisible. As shocking as its massive size was, the glutton was less lethal than the first calamity. None died by its appearance ¨C not initially. No, its danger lay elsewhere. Slowly but surely the glutton exited the cursed sea and entered the real one. A sea shrunk by the demon king as if he had prepared for the glutton to finish it off. The mountain moved slowly but with smooth confidence into the only source of water on the planet and began to drink. It drank, and drank, and drank. The vast sea disappeared day by day ¨C endlessly consumed and permanently deleted by the void stomach of such a beast. It was as if it drank not to hydrate itself but solely to deprive humanity of its water. Calamity. Of course people came to fight only to discover a terrifying truth. This creature could not be killed. Poison. Death. Destruction and more ¨C the mountain shrugged off all attacks without even seeming to notice. Its mouth seemed like a weak spot ¨C gaping maw of toothy blackness that it was but in truth it was no more vulnerable than the beast''s wrinkled scales. All attacks ¨C all creatures that entered its maw were sucked in and consumed in moments. To make matters worse, a constant whistle filled the creatures surroundings. A shortness of breath and unnatural vacuum that made something else abundantly clear. The glutton was consuming humanity''s air as well. Gallons of oxygen a second were deleted from the planet. Panicked estimates put the atmosphere dropping to dangerous levels in nothing more than a few weeks. That¡¯s when more drastic measures were taken. Nukes. An aetheric city decided to take matters into its own hands and sent a nuclear warhead to strike the glutton. What could be stronger than a nuke after all? Humanity could deal with the fallout. Its greatest weapon would strike this foe for now¡­ Humanities worst weapon failed. Its explosion was shrugged off with enough ease it seemed to invalidate the power such a weapon should have. ¡°There''s no way something that tough should exist ¨C our weapon must not have been strong enough!¡± The same city increased the strength of their second nuke to dangerous levels ¨C causing an explosion heard and felt across half the world. They then turned to others in their frustration. Pinning the blame for this black hole of an Armageddon upon those of ¡°corrupted aether¡±, this city sent a nuke to the largest magical settlement they had scanned. That single missile glassed the place and presumably killed most ¨C if not all of ¨C the mana side at that position. They then turned to the sea, deciding it was too dangerous to leave available for humans. If they could not block access to the calamity spewing danger zone, then they figured they could destroy it before it could do more harm. They were wrong. The nuke entered the mist vanishing into the depths without effect. They sent a second nuke and calculated it to explode directly over the wonder. And then the trigger happy city knew true despair. Some time after the second failed attempt the third calamity emerged. Much too soon after the second this calamity was not nearly so passive. A cloud. A storm. A nuclear weatherhead that began to circle the half globe humanity now lived on. This storm didn¡¯t drop lightning bolts. It dropped mushroom clouds. It didn¡¯t rain water it rained radiation and blight ¨C searing a wasteland in its wake. This then was the end. How could you fight a storm? How could you survive atomic wrath long enough to suffocate?
--- Potluck --- ¡°What is everyone making for the potluck?¡± James asked. ¡°I¡¯m making bread. Technically my nest is making us bread and I¡¯m just harvesting it. Technically its making sandwiches and I¡¯m killing those sandwiches then raiding the outer shells. Technically by bread I mean flesh with a suspiciously similar chemical make up and taste profile to bread due to ¡®nest cheating bullshit¡¯. Hopefully I can shove everyone else¡¯s contribution in between two slices. I know you¡¯re probably going to caveman a massive chunk of meat which can only be elevated with buns. Sandwich supremacy!¡± Richard called from the workshop. Maddy poked her head out of a hole in front of Richard and yelled something incompressible. She paused flickering slightly like she was covered in TV static then spoke normally. ¡°I¡¯ll conjure up any sides that seem missing at the very end.¡± Jess weighed in with a sigh. ¡°Can I take the meat instead. I¡¯m not a good cook and that seems easiest.¡± Moments later Troy came running in. ¡°Richard your blind ass domain blocked me from stepping out here. I had to walk all the way over there before I could exit a shadow.¡± ¡°Seems like a skill issue,¡± Richard waved a hand beside his back then twisted a nob and shook a canister a few times. ¡°Oh I agree.¡± Troy nodded staring directly at Richard as he did. ¡°Always, everything I called was just claimed so¡­I¡¯ll head off and try and find something weird to cook. Bit of an adventure. There''s a surprising amount of edible plants and animals appearing in the surroundings¡± ¡°Have fun. Pack a lunch.¡± Richard waved. ¡°Fuck it. Richard your idea of a contribution is stupid. How do I say this in a way you¡¯ll understand. It''s like taking the wrapper off a condom and sticking it on your cock.¡± Richard started giggling. ¡°You¡¯re getting funnier. Have you been saving that one, just waiting for a time to shove it in?¡± ¡°For someone who seems to hate sex you make a lot of sex jokes. Want to talk about it?¡± ¡°What¡¯s there to say. It''s funny because of how absurd it is. It''s like. Who the fuck wants that legitimately? Are they going say sike seconds later? Do people fuck and then vomit afterwards because of how gross it is? I think I saw a show once where that happened. Chick was not impressed. Anyways fine, fine. I¡¯ll synthesise some sauces. I know a formula that can make a lot of different flavours. Can try and figure out some of the better tasting ones. That better?¡± ¡°Just want to make sure you¡¯re putting in the bare minimum. I¡¯ll be impressed if you make something legitimately tasty.¡± Troy waved a hand while walking away once again. ¡°My new goal in life is to prove myself to you. The person who¡¯s opinion I care about the most.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not your dad.¡± ¡°Sure mom. Whatever you say.¡±
--- Maddy --- As Maddy entered the dungeon she found herself pressed in on all sides. The door to her custom dungeon was deep within the ¡°reality¡± of her creation affinity. It grew in the part of her magic she least understood and twisted itself into a place she did not belong. Pushing forward into it anyways ¨C changing herself into something that ¡°belonged¡± meant submitting to the dungeon. It meant accepting the shackle it offered her. Her continuing to move forward ran along lines of consent and slowly the real world fell away ¨C her link to her sisters dimming and her strength fading. Suddenly ¨C without warning ¨C Maddy ¡°popped¡± out of a hole in space. She had been pushing forward and inwards as hard as she could and then ¨C suddenly ¨C the force she was pushing against vanished and her movement jerked. Maddy fell. The world was a disorienting spin as she tumbled ¨C the sky becoming the ground and the trees around her smearing in a spin of green. Snap. Maddy landed in the middle of a forest floor surrounded by a strange glowing contraption. She was¡­fine. Unhurt but confused and disoriented. She felt different. Not more or lesser just¡­off. For a moment she knew she was an eye, then she knew she was a person with arms and legs. Then she knew she was one of those person''s eyes and a part of that whole and then she felt like her own separate entity. And partway through that confusing disorientation, Maddy found she had grown arms and legs. Little stubby things ¨C her arms and legs had three digits each and reminded her of chicken legs. No! They actually reminded her of Ponyo and the limbs that fish had grown before she became a real girl. What had happened? Where was she? Maddy tried to sit up but found the glowing contraption around her limited her movement. Looking around she realized she was sitting in what looked like a ring of mushrooms. The trap she was in ¨C because this could be nothing more than a trap ¨C looked man made and yet strange. Like its creator hadn¡¯t understood materials or basic geometry. Why wasn¡¯t it symmetrical in any direction? Why was that curve green and every other line yellow or blue or gold or some combination? Maddy continued to stare at the contraption ¨C almost entranced by how ugly it was. She could physically escape at any moment but the ugly shapes entranced her. What meaning did they hold? What secrets did they hide? ¡°Captourse ounnous!¡± A voice called laughing from behind her and Maddy found herself suddenly rising ¨C her trap unfurling in a single motion even as she was dumped into a new prison. A perfectly smooth metal box. It burned slightly ¨C the metal harsh and rusted on the tip. Iron? A special kind of iron? Before Maddy could teleport away, the lid to the box shut and a giant eye peered in at her from a tiny barred slit. That wouldn¡¯t stop her. Maddy confidently tried to blip out, forcing her mana into her strangely unresponsive power and feeling herself fade then reappear after bouncing off the outer area. That was not how her power worked. Besides that there was a gap right there! She should be able to slip through that slit? Maybe¡­she should try again? Several failed attempts later Maddy was stuck with several realizations. Besides the fact that iron hurt way more than it should and her captors sucked of course. One, she was getting sick of getting trapped or imprisoned by others and two. She hadn¡¯t realized the line Rumpelstiltskin had mentioned about her needing to break out of a box had been literal. ¡­ Maddy¡¯s imprisonment was not a minor thing. The monster holding her had no plans to let her free, and what Maddy had expected to be a brief stint in jail and a triumphant break out of her cage had dragged on far longer than she thought possible. Days upon boring days. Months upon months. Years upon years. Maddy found herself in an eternity of waiting. She couldn¡¯t perform much magic at all ¨C her mana was there and yet it barely budged with her prodding ¨C leaking out in stagnant wisps whenever she fought to pull it out. The buttons she¡¯d placed in her soul didn¡¯t work ¨C it was like someone was holding her down. Maddy lost track of time kept as a pet for the hated one. The hated one was humanoid, with deep red skin and beautiful purple eyes she couldn¡¯t help but stare at. It was easy to see the child as a demon, for as far as Maddy was concerned, that¡¯s what his race was. The hated one had a father ¨C an older demon his skin a darker shade of red ¨C but besides some interested examinations near the start, the older demon ignored Maddy. Maddy had figured out how to understand them quickly, but it was a splotchy thing. The translation magic she¡¯d placed in her soul was finicky when it came to this race ¨C even when she pushed it into working once again with an active exertion of her soul. The biggest problem was that half or more of every sentence these monsters spoke came from their expressions. They placed so much information in micro changes to their face ¨C and so Maddy could only understand them when she could stare at their expression and see their cheeks flutter and their eyes shift. Just sound gave a stilted translation ¨C a language missing emotion, tense, direction and more. The demon''s word for himself was the same as the word for his father ¨C and also the animals in the forest from what she could tell with the direction of his eyebrows indicating which ¡°self¡± he referred to. All this and more drove a sort of barrier between her and her captor. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Without understanding most of what was said how could she relate? Maddy had a unique name in the untranslated language ¨C succundum which occasionally sounded like ¡°Piece of luck¡± when she really pushed her arcane button for understanding. When relegated to nothing more than a trophy how could she feel for her captors? After a certain amount of time, Maddy had faded enough, her personal reality was down to a flicker and her perception went on the fritz. It was a sort of mercy this weakening of self ¨C even if it was a death of personality. The boredom faded simply by her losing the ability to care and as her memories faded the age of confinement continued on into eternity. The two demons had disappeared ¨C something about a fire. Something about purple blood and screams she could barely remember? Maddy did remember the near escape. A purple skinned demon with deep red eyes had come and promised to free Maddy if she would make gold for it. Maddy had accepted and then immediately attempted an escape ¨C finding her form captured easily and shoved back in the box for her betrayal. How¡­ was she so weak? So small? Maddy remembered being so angry at the time but now the blurry memory just seemed funny. Good one purple demon. Atta girl. She had been a girl hadn¡¯t she? No the demon had been purple. That was what the demon had been. Maddy was a bit confused by minor things like colour or gender. Either way, anywhere from a year to a century had passed and Maddy sat alone in madness ¨C no longer caring as much as she should. Her memories were nearly all gone. Her sense of self was reduced. Her personality ¨C all that made up her ¨C was down to a single flickering ember. It was a fire she needed to tend ¨C a hungry fire she needed to burn herself on. Memories. Desires. Unreasoned ideas. She fed her memories of earth into the flame, forgetting she had lived a whole other life. She fed her memories of the trials she had passed forgetting most of her journey. She had almost fed her memory of people but something deep down had rebelled at that ¨C Maddy had needed to make statues of each of her friends as a promise she wouldn¡¯t forget them no matter how far gone she was. The only thing Maddy hadn¡¯t attempted was her domain activation. She hadn¡¯t attempted it due to fear of fading, and now she couldn¡¯t even if she tried. Would it have helped? She would never know. There was one happy accident little more than a bandaid on her flesh wound but Maddy had early on figured out how to slow the decay. Maddy had learned to shunt her mana into her box. That was it. She physically pulled and pushed her mana like a physical cultivator and¡­released it into her surroundings. Then as decades or more passed ¨C the magic had slowly isolated her bit by bit. It coated the inside of the cursed box reacting as soon as it hit the metal ¨C touching and sizzling with arcane byproducts that built up as golden crystals. The crystals blocked the worst of the cold iron and reduced the pain of her capture. Her mana had crystalized with her wish more than her active intent and by creating her own box she felt safer and more comfortable even if it didn¡¯t help her escape. Maddy could now perform a bit of her magic ¨C not enough to turn to sound and escape through the slit like she should be able to ¨C but enough to furnish her cage. A billowy soft surroundings. Tiny sculptures the size of grains of sand. Maddy vaguely thought the box had grown over the years ¨C not fully aware she was now a tenth of the size. It was the act of creation that gave her fuel for her self and, while she was little more than an ember, as she filled her cage with treasures and art, her lingering presence was maintained just that little bit longer. The statues of her friends were joined by statues of things she had seen ¨C memories captured in a physical form before they faded. ¡­ It was kind of fun being insane. The pesky parts of ¡®you¡¯ that felt like they should be screaming in terror were gone. All your unimportant worries and hopes faded and ¡®you¡¯ simply were. At least that¡¯s how it was for Maddy¡¯s eye. All that was left was the deepest parts of herself. Those bits stubbornly clinging on. For Maddy that meant a bit of curiosity and fascination with magic. It was just so interesting! What were these golden crystals surrounding her? They looked almost like they had absorbed bits of the Maddy reality that had leaked over the years. Could she do something with them? Turn them into some sort of spell? Maddy needed to make more stuff. She was a character in a story after all and without doing anything, what proof was there that she existed? ¡­ Maddy was dying. There was no other way of saying it. A true death as well ¨C there felt like little chance her reincarnation spell could capture her soul when it was this frayed and small. The spellwork grasped the power of her ¡°death¡± to shunt her soul away¡­but if her body just faded into nothing there wasn¡¯t much the spell could do. Creating art had stopped ¡°mattering¡± as much ¨C the amount of ¡°time¡± each sculpture gave her had dropped to less than she took to make the sculptures. There had been meaning in creating something and meaning in each sculpture being unique but by this point, the ¡®meaning of putting yet another sculpture into the pile¡¯ was microscopic. In many ways, the only reason she had lasted this long was due to the insulating shell she had placed around herself with that golden crystal¡­but even that was merely a stopgap. It let her hibernate for longer ¨C the self sunk into the crystals helping cocoon her. The act of being completely alone in an area delineated and separate from anything else helped. But that was it. It just helped ¨C didn¡¯t halt the decay completely. It was deep in this slow dying spiral that Maddy¡¯s fae instincts seemed to grow paradoxically stronger. Weak senses pulsed in panic and racial survival instincts clawed their way into prominence. To struggle was to live. Conflict bred power and the most important key to anything was meaning. Some of those instincts were beneficial, some actively worked against her. Still as if the dungeon had been waiting for this point, it began throwing more events at her once again. A fae was a creature of story. Maddy now understood just what that meant. They lived and died in the memories of man ¨C or really any creature sapient enough to share myths and legends. Immortal in a way ¨C immortal as long as they were remembered. As long as people told stories about them. Fae were imaginary creatures. As soon as people stopped believing in them they vanished. As soon as the proof they had existed vanished they did as well. They were in a way, beings created out of the proof of their own existence. ¡­ Far away a purple demon told her grandchildren a story about the trickster she had bested as a teenager. Maddy was deep in the fae trance as she watched this scene. Her perception had gone wonky as she flexed conceptual muscles and fundamentally changed the way she saw the world to include this scene. In this position far away, a story was being told about her. A true story full of embellishments and lies. She was made out of the story being told and so, in a sense, Maddy was here in the physical location the story was being told at ¨C at least as long as the demon spoke and flexed her face in a dance of expressions she was. This story being told was her body and this new body''s senses were¡­limited. As far as bodies went, this one was pretty lackluster. She couldn¡¯t move or ¡®see¡¯ ¨C the main ¡°sense¡± she had was not sight or touch but emotion. She felt the way her body was told. Felt the flex of the demon''s smile as they spoke. Felt the expressions of her listeners ¨C the purple-skinned girl¡¯s disinterest. The red-skinned little boys wide-eyed wonder. The three existed as if in a void ¨C the surroundings blurred to Maddy¡¯s senses for while place could matter for a story here it did not. Maddy felt each and every way the children were reacting to her body. The story itself wasn¡¯t very long. ¡®She¡¯ would be done soon. Maddy knew deep down this right here was her chance. If she were stronger¡­if her ¡°main¡± body wasn¡¯t trapped as she was then she could teleport it here to where she was being told. Beetlejuice rules. But Maddy was weak. Maddy couldn¡¯t bring her mana here ¨C however far away it was. She couldn¡¯t transfer her ¡®self¡¯ or use this story to escape. Still her fae instincts were thrashing even harder as they realized what was happening ¨C trying to grab onto this chance as much as she could. She was this story. This was her body. Bodies moved ¨C they weren¡¯t just puppets! Finally she found a gap. The boys wonder. His interest in the ¡®trickster¡¯. His pride in himself. His curiosity and the way it was so like Maddy¡¯s main body. His wonder in the unknown. His yearning for magic. He was like her. Maddy flexed her body pulling most of her form down into these desires in the boy with the fitness of a newborn. She pulled the ¡®meaning¡¯ in her story down and compressed it into the child before vanishing once again. Nothing immediately happened. Maddy¡¯s weakened form began to forget what she had just done, as she slowly fed the experience into her guttering flame, gaining a few extra years of life. ¡­ Suddenly Maddy found her world was shifting. The planet she was on spun wildly and far above in the sky, a single massive eye appeared. This was¡­ monumental. Such a pretentious description for what she felt and yet nothing felt more important to Maddy in this moment than that eye. This meeting she had influenced was ¡®massive¡¯ ¨C it felt like a blazing drop of ¡®meaning¡¯ fell from the eye ¨C some esoteric ¡®conceptual reality¡¯ related to that push she had given and the journey this child had taken to reach her. It had started as something simple and yet grown as if feeding on the journey itself. The only reason this journey had happened was because of her push. As soon as the drop hit Maddy, her spluttering self burst upwards with a roar of triumph. Years of ¡®insanity¡¯ fell away as Maddy felt her body grow and her existence strengthen. Memories were long gone but her personality roared into life along with her intelligence. Soon Maddy was almost as big as she had been when she started. She dimly felt like this newfound power was only there for this interaction ¨C it would disappear as soon as the child left. A temporary boost if anything. A single eye with hands and feet large enough to stare back at the eye looking down at her. It hadn¡¯t seen her to start ¨C her tiny form too small to see ¨C her flickering body too transparent to be visible¡­and yet the boy looked for her, expecting her to be there and soon he found what he believed he would find. ¡°You exist!¡± the words spoken by the boy fed down to Maddy vibrating with so much force she felt like she would fall apart. He sounded relived. Shocked and excited at spotting Maddy¡¯s body. More of her returned. She existed. She was real. She existed. She could be seen. She existed! ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure I would really find you!¡± The voice continued ¨C the face pulling back as Maddy heard some rummaging noises. ¡°I came prepared!¡± The boy¡¯s head moved back into view above her a piece of parchment and strange looking pen gripped tightly in his red hands. ¡°Can you speak? I¡¯m using the dull language because I heard you don¡¯t have the right bits for vibrant language¡± Maddy pushed down on newly reformed buttons forcing her stagnant mana through old pathways bits of magical rust flaking off with specks of rainbow dust. ¡°I can speak yes. Have you come to free me little boy?¡± Maddy tried to make her voice sound as unthreatening as possible. Why did that sound so¡­suspect? Quick. Try and remember how to speak to people in as unsuspicious of a way as you can. The pixy dust warping her voice probably didn¡¯t help. Maddy ¡°coughed¡± a few times dusting the last bits of buildup away from her. ¡°I¡¯m not agreeing to anything just yet. I know how you work. I¡¯m getting it into writing okay? Three wishes. I¡¯m smarter than grandma and won¡¯t give you whatever loopholes you used on her.¡± Maddy stared upwards in silence¡­she didn¡¯t know what to feel. Part of her was fascinated by the idea of this contract. The idea of¡­granting wishes. That fundamentally felt ¡®right¡¯ to her ¨C as if she were dehydrated and trapped in a desert but had just caught a glimpse of an oasis far away. And yet a good part of her raged at the imprisonment. She didn¡¯t ¡®owe¡¯ anyone a wish. She had been captured against her will! Freedom was simply giving her back what she had been owed! It didn¡¯t deserve a gift! It didn¡¯t deserve a wish! She owed him nothing! That raging sense of injustice filled Maddy¡¯s thoughts and made her want to to lash out. Made her want to poison any gift she gave ¨C she was being mugged! This was like getting mugged in a dark ally! Trying to get the better of him was nothing more than karma. Maddy¡¯s senses fed the metaphor of an oasis back to her ¨C strengthening the scene to the point it felt ¡®real¡¯. She really ¡®was¡¯ in a desert. She really was seeing an oasis far in front of her. She just¡­had to move towards it. Was it an illusion? A mirage? Maddy¡­was relatively sure it was real. Bits of her illusion perception seemed to leak through ¨C as if confirming it was no illusion but also hinting that reality looked weird from this perspective. Her illusion affinity both proved her perspective as well as allowing her to dimly see her regular one ¨C something not quite overlayed but instead alongside the normal. Through a bleary and weak form, Maddy struggled towards the oasis bit by bit ¨C dimly aware she was speaking with each step. Each step was a word she or the boy spoke. Her movement towards freedom was the same as her speech, because her speech was the only tool she had to try and escape with and this desert scene was northing more than a metaphor. Finally she was directly before her prize. Just a few more steps and she could drink. ¡°Alright. I know you have to keep your word but will twist my wish if I let you, so here I go. My first wish is for gold little golden fairy. Probably the most common wish you get asked but still I want it and I¡¯m going to be clear with you. I wish to be filthy rich. I do not want gold that will suddenly disappear. I don¡¯t want cursed gold, poisonous gold. Gold that will turn into a monster and eat my face. I don¡¯t want to find out you¡¯ve stolen it from somewhere that will come to take from me. Money can change my life. I know money cannot buy happiness jatta jatta but that¡¯s propaganda spread by kings to keep it all for themselves. Gold, no strings attached. That is my first wish.¡± The boy asked carefully. He had written his request down in front of Maddy and the still wet ink seemed to sing to her. Every time he said the word for ¡®wish¡¯ it ¡®sung¡¯ to Maddy and slowly but surely the scene was reframed in a way her instincts understood. What¡­what was happening? Maddy tried to ask her instincts ¨C tried to ask her surroundings or see the truth of this new perspective. He was ceding ¡®control¡¯ towards her? By asking her for help, this boy¡­was offering her ¡®agency¡¯? ¡®Control¡¯ sounded a bit better but felt less accurate. They were both characters in the story of life and the boy was giving Maddy his agency. She was¡­a dues ex machina of a sort. She was the magic in this relationship. The mysterious unknown power in the kid''s story. ¡­ As Maddy reoriented herself, the fae found herself in a familiar place. A place she¡¯d mostly forgotten ¨C a place from a distant past. She stood in a rocky sort of clearing surrounded by mist and darkness and blurry streaks of random colour that seemed to push her thoughts away from them. Beside her lay the body of a massive spider. A broken spinning wheel and bloody threads lay scattered about. This¡­this was where she was born. This was where she had killed herself. This was where she had become what she now was. Across from Maddy stood the little demon. The child held something close to his chest while his other hand was outstretched as if expectantly. This¡­was the wish then? Her perspective of what the exchange meant? Distantly she could hear herself speak. ¡°I can make you gold if you let me out. I can¡¯t do much while trapped in this box.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t trick me that easily.¡± The child responded and Maddy felt trapped. Maddy realized she herself was nearly frozen. She¡­she was a fae who could see. She could see what she was. Could see what others were. Could even spy secrets that should not be possible for her to see¡­ But that was it. Maddy was an eye. She had no arms. No legs. To grant a wish she needed to be able to control what she saw. R was a being of hands ¨C able to shape and mould anything he wanted. Maddy was a creature of eyes. Able to see and nothing more. To¡­actually perform true magic Maddy needed control. The ability to control what she saw. To grab one of the blurry colours and shape it or¡­something. In some ways the metaphor around her was almost ironic. She had hated the old her¡¯s ability to ¡®control¡¯. Hated the manipulation ¨C had literally killed the spider able to weave her surroundings and in doing so, broke the sewing machine she was sure gave her the ability to sew his wish into being. If she had just kept her ability to manipulate the web¡­ She couldn¡¯t even control her own sight. Drifting between different metaphors and scenes at the whims of her instincts and surroundings. For a brief moment Maddy almost wished she had chosen differently¡­ No. Maddy was just looking wrong. She had never once wished for the ability to see but not effect. She belived by seeing she was halfway towards effecting. That was her domain. She didn¡¯t understand anything currently and was making leaps of logic. That was okay. She could learn. Maddy just needed to look. ¡°I can make gold. Look into my cage and look about. All of this could be yours. I promise I cannot make this out there while I¡¯m still in this cage.¡± Maddy spoke and watched as the child looked in and saw her golden crystals for the first time. ¡°You promise huh. Okay. I trust you, I know promises are binding.¡± ¡­ Maddy felt herself gain some agency. She stole the child¡¯s agency in this moment. Harvested his control willingly given and added it to her own. In that single moment Maddy felt her body suck something out of the world her ¨C personal reality skyrocketing with something other than ¡°Maddy juice¡± for lack of a better word. She was trapped. She was stuck in a cage. She had lost her ability to interact with the outside world and in doing so had lost her agency. This child had acknowledged that she could do something he could not. Had requested her help ¨C had wished for her intervention¡­and in doing so had given her that which she lacked. Maddy knew instinctually that even though she hadn¡¯t actually done anything ¨C the golden crystals had already been made, she hadn¡¯t made them just now ¨C by ¡°granting¡± the child¡¯s wish she had gotten her due. Maddy could now affect the ¡°outside world¡± by that right she had just gained. The agency she had just gathered was an energy she could spend to influence outside of her cage. Just a bit more and she might be able to break out all on her own! True magic was weird¡­or was this just a fae thing? She hadn¡¯t done anything differently and yet her entire situation felt like it had been flipped on its head. ¡°Alright, My second wish is for mystic power. I want magic ¨C not a magic tool that can be stolen or a cursed ability or anything like that. I want to be a wizard like the heroes of old! Someone who can shape the world with my thoughts! And no tricksy business with my power shortening my lifespan or trapping me in your cage as we swap spots or anything.¡± Maddy felt a sinking feeling as the second wish rolled in. That¡­that would be a bit harder. Chapter 105. True magic always has a cost. Second floor. ---Hubris--- The last true calamity unleashed upon a world too weak to fight against it was one of hubris. Proof some might say humanity was not ready to handle the power or consequences of the sea. This calamity stemmed from a similar origin to previous calamities but was birthed through more combined purpose than incompetence. The birth stemmed from the idea of taking advantage of what the sea offered ¨C of defaulting on payment. On attempting to ¡°trick¡± the powers that be. Some might have called it an attempt to fight fire with fire ¨C literally. Most would call that foolishness. The idea was simple. Make a monster capable of consuming the other monsters. This calamity started in a lab. It started in farmed nests and artificial breeding of both flora and fauna. It was made to spread and replicate itself ¨C made to exist passively ¨C striking only those that attacked it first with dozens of redundant traits and genes its creators hoped would survive the seas unchecked refinement. Codename: Forest. The final calamity was very roughly a self-replicating, self-spreading, field of nature. Something that consumed the blight of the nuclear storm ¨C purifying it through a food chain. Centered on it was a tree ¨C or maybe a monster ¨C with a nest embedded deep within its flesh. As a lab experiment, the core of the forest was¡­not the strongest or stablest of creations. It was a prototype you could confidently say. Something that did everything its creators wanted but worse. Like all true works of art, its creators weren¡¯t even sure how the prototype did some of what it did ¨C maybe if they had more time we wouldn¡¯t have gotten a fourth calamity. None who created this, felt confident enough to refine this monster themselves and so the attempt at cheating appeared. Dumped into the sea and unleashed upon the world with the equivalent of a lit grenade being tossed as the perpetrators fled¡­ Well, the forest did exactly what it was supposed to. It spread. It consumed. It ¡°purified¡± everything into itself. Itself being an entire ecosystem of plants and animals. Something much more beneficial to humanity than nuclear wasteland ¨C at least presumably. It even worked exactly how its creators had hoped in the initial phase. It stayed relatively still to start. A passive forest creating a ring around the sea that had birthed it ¨C as if its source was the one place it respected¡­ but then, days into its passive existence the storm passed nearby and vaporized the outskirts. Like a bull seeing red, the forest turned and gave chase ¨C growing visibly and with violence in a kilometer wide line of manic vegetation. Following along behind the storm, the forest grew. Towering trees shot up far behind the shrubbery line and animals seemed to appear fully formed from deep within ¨C all according to plan. It was uncontrolled by humanity but that was fine. The goal had always been to combat the other calamities specifically the storm. All across the world, the air quality noticeably changed for the better. Of course we all know that plan fell apart quickly. The forest stayed behind after it grew ¨C and slowly the space available to humanity shrunk. If the second calamity sought to remove humanity''s water and air and the third sought to poison the environment¡­well the 4th ¡°merely¡± sought to steal the space humanity could live on. Even if we had left it alone, soon humanity would be kicked off the planet. It could not be ignored...and yet it was the lowest of the current threats. The forest was passive near the beginning, but as soon as humans decided to try and ¡°harvest¡± the ¡°bounty the forest provided¡± the calamity turned on us all ¨C faster than it should have. More indiscriminate than any of its traits should have allowed¡­but maybe its initial passivity was a miracle on its own? To start. Splinters spilled out from the main line ¨C wild beasts stampeding toward cities and running against turrets and plasma fences without a care in the world. Where each beast fell, trees burst. Corpses unfurled as seeds within the wildbeast¡¯s stomachs roared into growth with audible cracks. Like miniature trojan horses turned into nesting dolls, each level of the forest was yet another. Another creature. Another seed. Another level of horror. Beasts or plants endlessly spawned as if from nothing ¨C consuming dirt and stone and turret without care, the raw materials seeming to have no influence on the forest being created. Trees fell to flamethrowers and moats of molten metal but birthed new creatures ¨C each building in their own self sustained cycle. Wafts of ash floated across moats ¨C alighting on surfaces and kickstarting flashes of new growth. Animals burrowed under and through solid stone and concrete barriers. They died quickly only to burst apart in waves of spiders or vines or rapidly growing boars. Waves upon tireless wave ¨C the sound of dying animals, a constant, haunting scream. The first of these early cities fell within three days. Their defenses overwhelmed bit by bit. Their infrastructure consumed and torn about by the forest as if chomped on by some great beast. Most who fled survived. Most who stayed existed long enough to live stream their own deaths. The second city fell not long after. The third city only escaped by becoming mobile ¨C supposedly the first city to rediscover gravity reactors, this city had enough collaborative pylons and a long enough warning time to start building itself a large chassis and directing most of its power generation into fleeing. That was its own miracle in a way. The feats humanity could accomplish with a deadline. Nature¡¯s fury did not fade with time. Many blamed the missing demon king and yet¡­deep down we knew this was not his doing. This was ours. Still, as stupid as this creation was. As much as it proved we were creating our own problems ¨C as much as it proved we as a species were ¡°doing this to ourselves¡±¡­the forest did buy us time. Enough time for uneasy truces to form. Enough time for humanity to band together for survival in a way we just wouldn¡¯t have otherwise. Maybe it worked after all? ---Crossing a divide--- It had been an incredibly rocky few weeks for team friendship. James had tried, he really had¡­but his interference had seemed to make everything worse. James would be the first to admit he wasn¡¯t good ¡®at people¡¯. The easy answer was just¡­keep his two friend groups separate. They were obviously clashing ¨C James could visit each of them back and forth. And yet no one made the move to separate on their own. Despite the constant fighting¡­Richard stayed. Maybe because they had fought together? Through days of defense for the still forming sea? James hadn¡¯t noticed at first, but even as they fought the bite seemed to have left nearly immediately. Richard¡­really really didn¡¯t care if he was insulted. He almost welcomed being told he was wrong and personal attacks were more like friendly banter to him. Which led to this. The first case of true bridging that James had witnessed. Richard stood in the middle of their camp, levitating a coin up and down between his hands. "Look at my magic trick! Wooohhoooohhoooo" he called waving his arms around in all sorts of shapes while wiggling his fingers vigorously inwards and outwards. "Oh, you can do magic now. Neat." Jess called from her position on a golden hammock. ... "...Doesn''t anyone want to know how the trick works?" Richard asked after a while dropping his hands and allowing the coin to bob a bit longer. "Magic innit" Troy called with a grin. "...I''m wrapping one connection arm around my shoulder and the other up from between my legs. The coin is held by tension between the two..." "So...magic?" Richard groaned and wandered over to flop down on the open worktable he and Maddy currently shared. "Why are you so certain any power you use is not magic?" Maddy asked after a while. Her body currently had homochromatic eyes - one vibrant purple the other a deep black. "Because that¡¯s not how science works..." Richard looked even more put out than normal. Maddy looked to the side. "Look, a basketball". When Richard turned to look, he saw she had in fact conjured a ball. "Seems like magic to me." Maddy nodded. "Works better if I do that in a place you can''t see due to how aggressive your domain is, but I promise I formed it from mana ¨C not had someone wander in and place it to prove a point." Richard nodded. "I believe you ''conjured'' that. I don''t know how it works so I''ll agree it¡¯s ''magic''...but I''m not going to admit the answer to everything is just ''oooh a wizard did it oooooh it¡¯s an impossible thing that just happened without a reason oooohhh''. Aether can do that too and aether is not magic. Just because we can''t explain how your magic works doesn''t mean it doesn''t fit in reality...But all of that is just words. What do you mean when you say magic? What definition are we even arguing over?" Richard began playing with his coin again floating it up and down. "Magic...is magic. You know it when you see it right? Seeing is believing?" Maddy seemed to seriously consider his question for a moment before responding. "You know, for someone who claims to follow a scientific process, you seem awfully quick to dismiss magic. You seem to be believing what you''ve been told pretty quickly ¨C doesn''t seem very scientific to me. I believe your science is real after all. Why can''t you believe my magic is ''real''?" Richard didn''t respond right away. He began shifting tools about ¨C soldering two crystals together with a third¡­could it still be called soldering? He rubbed the sides smooth, then dropped his creation in a bath of clear liquid that appeared to constantly boil without a heat source. Finally, when his crystal was done ¨C seemingly nothing had happened but he was satisfied with the result ¨C Richard turned and responded. "Of course, aether has revealed dozens if not hundreds of gaps in earth understanding and corrupted aether or mana is even more confusing by design...it¡¯s so improbable it feels impossible! But the idea of ''magic'' and ''science'' cannot coexist the way you want them to Maddy. The reason this is always an argument and not just a discussion is because we aren¡¯t on the same wavelength at all. We aren¡¯t talking about the same thing. I don''t fully see a reason why ¡®mana¡¯ and ¡®aether¡¯ can''t coexist ¨C as far as I''m aware R''s involved in some Wack politics with different foreign entities wanting us to fight or koombaya as friends and every conflict is manufactured...or maybe there¡¯s a more scientific reason for their incompatibility? I''m not sure. "We arn''t talking about mana and aether though. Science and magic are fundamentally incompatible worldviews. It¡¯s right there in the question you asked me. "Do you want to know the difference as I understand it? Your mana is magic because you ''believe'' it¡¯s magic. My aether is science because I ''know'' it''s science. Magic is the lazy way of describing anything you don''t understand. Computers are magic. Fuck ¨C Fire and Lightning are magic if you go far enough back into human ignorance. Science is science because it works no matter what you believe. It¡¯s not some random nerd flavor of voodoo-shit with beakers and Bunsen burners and pspspsp-quantum-pspspsps-nano-pspspspsps-bitcoins. I don''t have to ¡®believe¡¯ in science for it to work. What I think doesn''t really effect science any which way. It just is." Richard took a deep breath and then continued. ¡°If something I thought turns out to be wrong that doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s not real and it doesn¡¯t mean science broke. It means my theory was wrong. If something I thought was impossible turns out to be possible in a different situation¡­that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m going to dismiss it as ¡®magic¡¯. Why would I just wave my hands at it and continue on my whole life without figuring out how it works? I want to study it! I want to know the rules it follows and why it follows those rules. Science is a worldview. It¡¯s not a thing to believe or dismiss. It¡¯s a process. A way of interacting with the unknown. "As I¡¯ve been told, your mana is a randomized version of my aether that hides itself from observation. That might be a lie ¨C but as a truth it holds up. Maybe¡­maybe the definition of magic is something I¡¯ll never understand and the reason I haven¡¯t wanted to ¡®believe¡¯ in it is arrogance. I know your power has a built-in obscurer¡­and yet some part of me thinks I might one day be able to crack it. You ask why I haven¡¯t just ¡®believed¡¯ in magic? That¡¯s why. The only reason I haven¡¯t wanted to just ¡®believe¡¯¡­is because I ¡®believe¡¯ one day I¡¯ll figure out how it actually works. I guess¡­I guess if that ever happens it won¡¯t be magic anymore, will it? If I figure out how to crack the obscurer on mana it will just become aether? How about this. I¡¯ll believe in magic being something I¡¯ll never fully be able to describe or prove... if you ¡®know¡¯ my science is not tied to whatever frequency of aether I¡¯m on or some arbitrary set of tools¡­ it''s just the way things are.¡± Maddy nodded slowly. ¡°You know¡­I think If I hadn¡¯t already solidified my domain, you might have broken it a bit there. It¡¯s my turn now, okay? Magic has always had rules¡­and yet those aren¡¯t the rules you are talking about. I¡¯ll agree with everything you¡¯ve said about worldviews ¨C and add in the part you seem to be missing. Magic isn¡¯t just me handwaving something I understand. I don¡¯t ¡®believe¡¯ in magic because I¡¯m ignorant and don¡¯t care to figure out the ¡®Truth¡¯. The truth of faith is simple. I want to believe in magic. I want to believe the world is more interesting than it is. I want to believe there¡¯s stuff I don¡¯t understand. I want to believe fantasy is possible. I want to believe the wonder I had when reading fantasy books as a child is true. Learning we are all brain scans trapped in an alien video game? Learning this fantasy is a lie? Just a dream? Doesn¡¯t that sound so unsatisfying? That¡¯s always been my least favorite plot point in movies. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I want to believe in magic. I know it has rules and I know it¡¯s hiding some of those rules. That¡¯s okay. I can live with that. As long as I can keep chasing my fantasy, I¡¯ll be happy. I¡¯ll even defend it being ¡®cracked open¡¯ if that means killing the wonder that exists inside of it. What about you? Do you even want to ¡®know¡¯ in science? Will that make you happy in the end? Will you knowing everything there is to know bring the same kind of excitement that magic brings me or¡­will you be bored in the end?¡± Maddy finished. High above James was able to witness the silent change as Richard stood up and walked around the table to sit beside her. Nothing more was said that day. ---Maddy--- ¡°My second wish is for mystic power. I want magic ¨C not a magic tool that can be stolen or a cursed ability or anything like that. I want to be a wizard like the heroes of old! Someone who can shape the world with my thoughts! And no tricksy business with my power shortening my lifespan or trapping me in your cage as we swap spots or anything.¡± The child asked and Maddy watched as the oasis shimmered revealing itself to be further away. A reflection on the sand ¨C Maddy collapsed in dismay. Was it just an illusion after all? No! There are trees there! Mirages can only fake water, can¡¯t they? Maddy stood up and began struggling towards it once again. ¡°Okay¡­What do you want your power to do? Would you prefer a strong power you can use right away or a weak ability to grow?¡± Please. Please let me just make you a spell. I think¡­I think if I embed a spell into you that¡¯s not a tool¡­ ¡°I want magic¡­it feels like you are trying to trick me into accepting something lesser. I want to be magic. I want a magic that can grow.¡± Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmiiiiiitttt. Maddy internally groaned. Something about her demeanor seemed to have alerted the child who seemed satisfied to know he had ¡®chosen correctly¡¯. ¡°I knew it! I don¡¯t want a crippled power. Growth is much better than instant power ¨C I¡¯m still young. I have plenty of time to grow into a proper archmage! I want to be able to control the forest ¨C to ride great sherbeks and control vines like limbs! Finally, because I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll try and trick me somewhere¡­I want happiness. Not magical forced unnatural happiness. I want to make sure nothing you¡¯ve done will act against me. Money, Power, Happiness. My happiness is a wish that you won¡¯t turn around and undo what you¡¯ve done. That you haven¡¯t snuck anything past my other wishes. That you won¡¯t try and do anything sketchy before, during or after. If you¡¯ve already done something¡­stop that. If you were planning on doing something¡­nuh uh. I¡¯ve thought about it a lot, and this seems like my best chance at winning.¡± The kid seemed proud of his final wish. ¡­kind of a wasted last wish? But¡­actually that makes things harder. You know generating mana creates monsters as well¡­I¡¯m not sure how I was planning on doing it, but I thought maybe I could give him a life affinity and link it to a death affinity monster far away¡­ Maddy slowly nodded. Outside of her sight the words the kid had wrote slowly shifted gold to match the gold fairy he was bargaining with. Gold is easy. I already have it in the gold crystals and conjuring more is simple especially if I convert the powerful feeling crystals into more mundane metal. Gold is more meaningful than something like stone but it¡¯s a simple sort of meaning¡­the meaning people think it has. It''s not complicated. Not working against him¡­well I just have to do nothing. Easy wish. Magic though? How¡­how the heck can I even start doing that? ¡­ Maddy fell deeper into the perception of the wish giving space. She was in the empty sandy stone clearing of her birth ¨C the tools of control and manipulation she had broken and tossed aside. Kid was standing in front of her, hand outstretched and waiting for his prize ¨C the one real wish he had burning in his mind¡¯s eye. That¡­that was the key to her changing perception. It was obvious in this moment ¨C fae instincts blaring and external ¡®want¡¯ so solid across from her. Maddy could dimly feel the wish. The burning desire. The want. By staring at it ¨C by allowing her sight to flow towards that wish she could ¡®feel¡¯ the surroundings change. As if the environment bent over backwards to accommodate her ability to grant this wish. As if the ¡®world¡¯ was trying to help her ¡®see¡¯ how she might grant it. The answer didn¡¯t just appear. Maddy had to almost not quite brainstorm to get answers. A fleeting thought became an indistinct shape and the focus of her wish-sight seemed to fill in the gaps and clear away the swirling chaos. Maddy could¡­secretly follow this kid around for the rest of his life. She could bind herself to him in a way that let her see when he wished to cast magic ¨C then perform the magic he expected. She could¡­¡±become¡± his magic ¨C a tireless 24/7 job. A solution that would be broken if he were ever to discover her position. A solution that ¡°worked¡± and yet felt¡­flimsy. Pulling her vision back slightly, Maddy could see this wish painted upon a cardboard cutout. Propped up with tiny eyed blurry versions of her. This felt¡­safe and yet ¡°bad¡±. Maddy knew the reason she didn¡¯t like this option was the way it felt like it might invalidate her own¡­was R in the background casting all her magic? Was someone behind him? Was it puppets all the way up? Maddy¡­disliked this option because it felt like it invalidated her own. It ¡°worked¡± as a solution for the kid and yet it was weak. It would give a low return of meaning. It¡­it was cheating in a way? The kid might never know the difference and if she committed enough, she might be able to trick herself into thinking she had followed the letter of his wish¡­but not the spirit. Not the true wish he asked for. Maddy moved on. She tried to imagine just¡­forcing the shape of magic into his soul. Just ¡°doing¡± it. Indistinct shapes kept appearing and melting away. It wasn¡¯t enough ¨C deeper and deeper Maddy ¡®sank¡¯ into the wish. She felt the way it resonated with her own ¨C and the way it sort of bounced off her own linking off to hundreds of thousands of billions and trillions of similar ones. The wish for magic was the wish "I could have power like you¡±. ¡°I want your power¡±. ¡°I want to be like you¡±. The solution appeared rock solid moments later. Maddy just needed to give the kid her power. She just had to gift him her power¡­for as long as he lived. This solution was rock solid. A mountain of certainty that this would work. Maddy didn¡¯t like it for obvious reasons. Screw this kid! Why should I have to give up my magic just because I¡¯ve been trapped? ''Puppetmaster in the shadows'' Maddy sounds awfully tempting right now. Maddy tried to brainstorm a third option. Magic likes three¡¯s ¨C right? Where¡¯s my final option? My final choice that doesn¡¯t suck? ¡­ She couldn¡¯t find it. Nothing she had ¨C nothing else she could give had enough ¡°meaning¡± to fulfill the wish. Magic ¨C True magic has a cost. You can¡¯t get something for nothing. That idea of cost was probably the truest rule of all. The most unbreakable rule in the universe. The most fundamental. As much as she wanted option one. As much as she wanted to almost rule lawyer herself into cheating¡­it felt like it went against the third wish. It felt like it went against a deep part of her. Finally she relented. This option. This cursed option. ¡­ As soon as Maddy committed to the second option it seemed to expand ¨C no, she was merely moving towards it. Her vision entering the shape the environment changing to facilitate her enactment of the wish. She saw herself ¨C similar to the view in between zones where she could observe her body, mind and soul. She saw¡­the way she herself was split off from the collective that was her ¨C how her choice here was Her choice ¨C and not that of her sisters. She saw the shape of magic. Two hands curled around each other and unfurling into the trifecta of her body/mind/soul. A pair of hands fractaled off from her main body ¨C fractaled off from something even higher. Nine digits had simple singular self-reinforcing and refined power. Wisdom, Intelligence, Clarity. Strength, Agility, Endurance. Spirit, Wisper, Stability. The Tenth finger had¡­her affinity. It should have been life and death but instead it was her light+creation affinity. Some of the fingers seemed to have power from her ¡°main body¡± or collective but also stats that were hers specifically. Stats for this ¡°eye¡± and no other. Following the fractal of hands backwards she saw the way her two additional ¡°full affinities¡± had been built overtop of the fingers she had ¡°sacrificed¡±. The 5 fingers now holding a group of fingers that represented her new pools. Maddy did not want to touch those ¨C she didn¡¯t want to take the magic of her ¡®sisters¡¯. It took an effort of will to return to the first shape. To her. Just her ¨C not the other her¡¯s. The one with 10 fingers ¨C some sickly looking due to the way their ¡°parent¡± had been affected ¨C the five fingers representing strength, agility, endurance, spirt, whisper¡­this was what she had to work with. Maddy saw how the fingers that represented stats could grow quite easily ¨C new stats were easy enough to add even if they came from something else. From a position the fingers couldn¡¯t control. The finger that represented her affinity however¡­well it couldn¡¯t grow easily. It had power ¨C and breadth. A massive amount of widespread potential in comparison to the fingers¡­but an unstable one. It required something from the environment ¨C it leaked. Her stats gave her strength and nothing else. Her mana pool gave her a mystical resource but also leaked away and created monsters ¨C far away and easy to ignore¡­but directly linked. If she tried to give them an equivalent ¡®meaning value¡¯, her affinity was a hundred times weaker than her stats? No. it was obviously not weaker ¨C magic was the strongest part of her¡­it was just different. If she¡­tried to see their power in terms of size ¨C the fat stat fingers were like bars of iron while her magic finger was an entire room full of air. Air that leaked out of the open window and filled with dust and junk¡­but still a greater overall mass. You know what was unfair? Maddy saw the way her fingers ¡°cost¡± created monsters outside of the dungeon. When she gave this finger to the kid his cost would never seem to appear ¨C it would create monsters outside of this dungeon as well. Maddy was the one paying the cost ¨C everyone outside of this stupid dungeon would pay the cost not him¡­ ¡­Maddy was stalling. She looked around for a tool ¨C for a way she might transplant what was before her¡­and found nothing. Finally Maddy sighed and moved towards the hand. She reached out towards her magic finger ¨C not thinking too hard about what she was reaching with¡­and then began to bend the finger back and forth. It cracked way too easily ¨C a sharp nauseating feeling of ¡®wrongness¡¯ permeating Maddy¡¯s body. Are you sure you want this? Her body seemed to ask. No. I¡¯m not sure. Want doesn¡¯t come into this ¨C sometimes we have do do things we don¡¯t want to don¡¯t we? Maddy twisted the broken finger ¨C each twist and crackle of bones causing pain to wash across every ounce of her being. Finally the finger was off and she turned to the child. He was far away. ¡°Come over here¡± Maddy called dimly aware of her ¡®true¡¯ body asking him to let her out of the cage so she could fulfill his wish. With some hesitation the boy complied. As she looked at the boy and the finger in her hand¡­she realized she was holding an eye. An eye that was a pool ¨C and empty pool without her affinity and concepts... Maddy could see the kid in front of her. Could see the two slots he had ¨C the very obvious place to put this eye. Reaching out Maddy gently pushed the pool of potential into the kid''s skull ¨C where it had been a painful unnecessarily violent removal, this gift was quick and painless. The kid''s empty eye socket seemed to suck her gift into it becoming more whole in the moment. ¡­so that¡¯s it? That¡¯s all? Maddy stared at the second empty eye socket and knew she wasn¡¯t done. Turning back to her existence, Maddy reached in and began breaking a second finger. A complement. The pool she had given was a multiplier that couldn¡¯t grow well¡­she needed a base that could grow. Maddy crinkled and broke her intelligence finger ¨C her ¡°mind speed¡± finger. The second time was easier than the first. Turning back Maddy gifted her second eye watching as a part of her was sucked into the second slot. Most of the stats she had gained¡­weakened and remained with her ¨C they were like fingernails held by her mutilated hands. She had gifted the ability to grow the kid''s mind and the ability to grow his magic. She could¡­be happy with this result. She was going above and beyond to fulfill the wish. Someone should recognize that. The world seemed to recognize that at least ¨C a wave of reality density seemed to rush towards her as soon as she accepted she was done. Reality density that immediately began to fade as her mana did ¨C as her magical sight weakened. The three fingered hand in her existence was bleeding. ¡­ Maddy wandered through the forest feeling more vulnerable than she had in a long while. After gifting her magic to the kid she had used some of her increased strength to melt a tree ¨C borrowing her sisters dark-void to refine the tree and a bit of the surroundings into a very real feeling concept of nature. That had been added to the kids pool gifting a nature affinity. She¡¯d melted the gold crystals as well ¨C converting the potent ¡°investment¡± into a stack of gold coins higher than the kid was tall¡­ And then left. Now here she was ¨C vulnerable and reeling from her experience. It was hard not to feel a primal sort of fear for every sound and errant shadow ¨C especially when you were the size of a small mouse. Her magic¡­was gone and with it a good portion of her ¡°skills¡±. She needed mana to teleport after all even if it only cost a miniscule amount regenerated between micro seconds. She needed mana to translate¡­Her special perception ¨C her instinctual sense of what was possible¡­was all due to her mind upgrades and without mana being run through those pathways, her unique perspective was gone as well. She needed mana for everything. Technically she needed mana to move and talk with air vibrations but¡­at some point she had grown arms and legs and a mouth however rudimentary. No. For all intents and purposes Maddy had lost her magic and with it¡­everything. The world was dull as light faded from shifting sand and the ¡°meaning density¡± her creation affinity sewed through everything vanished from her sight. In exchange, she had a weight to her. A sense of potential. Of stored ability to break the rules¡­of liquid miracle...That was a wrong way of describing it. Her reward was not some resource ¨C not some physical thing she could move about¡­ But she was different. She had something ¨C a guarantee. Enough she could access her other bodies pools for a moment maybe. Enough she could continue existing¡­because without mana to give form to every part of her current body, her very existence now fed microscopic drop by microscopic drop of nothingness from her pool of miracles. Maddy had wanted to know what the dungeon expected of her and found¡­her situation could be seen as her in a pit. Her gathered ¡°miracle juice¡± was¡­like a ladder. Or maybe a stack of boxes? She had a bunch but not enough to stack and get out of the pit ¨C all that and she hadn¡¯t gained enough to leave? This had been the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals! Jokes aside, Maddy felt awful. The world felt dull. The absence of her passive magics made small pains return, and her current body''s entire head was very clearly a large eyeball without an eyelid. It felt like her face was dry. It felt like she needed to blink but someone had cut off her eyelids. ... She was also gold! Bright gold in a forest! Incredibly visible for anything that might want to eat her - and probably desirable for any demon greedy enough to try and capture her again. She would not be captured! She didn''t have anything to give anymore! ¡­ There was only a single debatable positive to her situation. For quite a while now, reality had felt weaker and weaker. With how much control Maddy had had over the surroundings. Existence had long started to¡­feel tenuous. She had felt like an observer to her own life. She had felt like she was lucid dreaming ¨C her reality sight showing just how little meaning most of the surroundings had made it feel like nothing mattered. ¡­and her dying insanity had made those feelings even stronger as the fae trance made everything feel like a story. Well. No longer. Not in this moment at least. Maddy felt mortal and grounded ¨C the dreamy calm that had pervaded her every thought nothing more than a memory. She brushed past a bush and flinched as a branch whipped back smacking her head. This¡­sucked. ¡­ As Maddy moved through the forest her need ¨C her re-kindling need to survive began rearing its ugly head. Her emotions felt like they fed into the need ¨C her fear, her anger and being forced into this, every sensation doubled back and bolstered her need. As if tipping over a point Maddy felt something ¨C her fae body sucking ever so slightly deeper on her liquid miracle and suddenly the forest was gone. She was still here. Dimly she could see the tree in front of her a bush to her left. Surrounded by wilderness in truth. In lies however¡­instead of an expanse she was looking at a maze. A hedge maze lit by dim balls of light that floated about leisurely. High above a mirror lay ¨C reflecting quite a bit more of the surroundings and showing if she continued down this path, she would reach both a dead end and a toothy maw. Maddy backtracked slightly coming to a fork in the path. She followed the new path for a bit before coming across a new fork and a new decision. The mirror high above ¨C though hard to see in the dark and hard to wrap one¡¯s head around, showed enough. There was something dark and covered in pulsating sickly fur around two bends to the left. Her right extended into the distance unimpeded. Maddy was vaguely aware she was staring at a single hair on a bush in the forest before turning to the side and walking in a new direction. ¡­ Bit by bit, Maddy traversed the maze ¨C never coming upon a monster no matter how improbable that felt. At no point did she use mana ¨C no sound pulse tuned to life perception. No swarm of perceptive eye points. And yet¡­this was magic was it not? Soon she arrived at her destination. A house in the middle of the woods ¨C half of it smashed. It looked abandoned ¨C why had Maddy found herself drawn this way? Maddy kept turning as if to leave¡­but something drew her eye. A need. A burning need. Somewhere within this smashed structure¡­there was a wish. Chapter 106. Small magics. Third floor. ---Maddy--- Maddy looked around warily as she crept into the broken home. Smashed belongings littered the ground and if her body had a sense of smell, she would have noticed the sharp smell of fresh blood. This had been¡­a kitchen? Flat metal pans littered the floor ¨C different colored and patterned strips of cookware. Some of the pans looked harsh and sickening to Maddy ¨C cast iron. Some were bent in sharp mangled angles or shattered as if stomped on by a heavy force. And there it was. A half eaten red leg was crushed and hidden under what had used to be an oven/fridge hybrid. Definitely a monster attack. Maddy pushed further ¨C ducking under a minuscule gap in the rubble to enter the less damaged part of the house. Her senses were dim ¨C Maddy¡¯s dark mana sight enhancing spellwork no longer letting her see in the near pitch black of this hallway. Because of that with her unbalanced and broken light affinity, the dark felt sinister. There were things in the darkness. Standing there. She couldn¡¯t see them but Maddy was certain they were right there. Just¡­just out of sight. ¡­ Maddy crept through the empty house, navigating by dim glows leaking under doorways. Soon she heard a soft muffled crying sound and ¨C after spending too much time trying to open a simple unlocked door ¨C Maddy entered the source of the longing. Badly hidden under a bed ¨C surrounded by wool and leaf blankets ¨C an incredibly young purple ¡®demon¡¯ hid. Her eyes were closed, and a single small hand covered her mouth. Dried tears streaked down her cheeks and mixed with dust covering her one cheek in a layer of brown grey grime. The child hiccuped and pressed her hand over her own mouth tighter. Maddy felt like the girl was speaking. She¡­was chanting. She was pleading...so why couldn¡¯t Maddy hear anything? The fae stared at the soul''s desire and found her perception slowly shifting as she tried to understand the wish. The pure desire ¨C the competing desires in her heart. Maddy knew if the child spoke ¨C vocalized her wish and thus communicated it to Maddy then suddenly Maddy¡¯s perception could shift to a wishspace that might make it easier to complete¡­ Maddy also knew by now that she could focus on her own ¡®wishes¡¯ ¨C force herself into her own goals and desires to see a solution. In this case, it wasn¡¯t an immediate thing. Without that vocalization it was hard. Even if they were just simple ¡®unmagical¡¯ words. The very act of ¡®asking¡¯ had meaning she could latch onto. Even if she revealed herself to the child she didn¡¯t have her translation scripts. Her vision refused to simply change just because she wanted to know¡­maybe if she had as burning a desire to know as the child in front of her? Maddy cared¡­but not deeply. Not for someone she¡¯d just met ¨C not for someone with a similar form to those who had captured her¡­Maddy wanted to believe she wasn¡¯t speciesist. She wanted to believe she wasn¡¯t heartless¡­and yet it didn¡¯t fully matter did it? This was all a dungeon ¨C all a dream. She no longer needed to prove herself to herself. I¡¯m doing this because I want to. Maddy drank a drop of nothing, consuming her non-resource to see the miracle. She burned a spark of her lingering miracle to see the wish hidden in the nothing. In that moment her fumbling turned into a fall in the right direction. Imperceptibly small pulses of lingering power flickered past empty channels. Maddy¡¯s translation scripts flickered and let her pick up the literal hundreds of nonverbal communications the child was making. The translation revealed the silent chant failing upwards with partial potential translations¡­but that was enough. ¡­want¡­¡­ ¡­to¡­be¡­safe. Maddy winced. She couldn¡¯t bring back the dead ¨C maybe if she had captured their soul with death mana and created a body with life mana¡­but without tons of meaningful resources that was likely just to create some brand of undead cursed existence. Too hard of a wish. ¡­want¡­survive¡­¡­not¡­eaten. That was easier? Maddy saw the shape of the child¡¯s wish and willed herself into the shape of the wish. The child sat alone and rocking on a vast hill. Beside her a mangled bloody effigy stood ¨C a grotesque statue of pain that leaked blood from countless spots. Blood seeped away from the statue ¨C slowly falling down the hill and alerting the things that lurked below. Maddy walked around the edge of the plateau ¨C peering out at the situation on all sides. Creatures of pain and suffering circled like sharks in the water. There was a hoard of them ¨C climbing the mountain in spirals as they followed the trail of blood. The scent of prey, a universal draw for predators. Far away for now but the first of the creatures would arrive within a few hours if their current speed and distance remained the same. Maddy continued to stare at the situation ¨C long enough she could see a distant force coming towards the hill. Too far away to see properly but different enough Maddy could tell it wasn¡¯t monsters. That¡­was a rescue party? It was days away. Maddy stared at the rocking and sobbing girl and knew¡­the child did not have much to give. She could try revealing herself and asking for a future payment¡­but the child would not be able to afford much. To add to that, Maddy would have to reveal herself ¨C somehow she¡¯d managed to stay hidden even now. Maybe she could ask for payment from the rescue party? But that would involve revealing herself and potentially getting captured¡­ No¡­Maddy felt like performing some charity. This wasn¡¯t a trade¡­it was just a gift. ¡­ First we have to get rid of this ugly thing. Maddy struggled to drag the statue to the edge of the plateau. In the ¡®real world¡¯ Maddy turned and moved through the house towards the mangled leg. She had to leverage up the rubble a bit to drag it out and then at the moment she finished the effigy was at the edge of the plateau. Downhill now Maddy moved the leg into the forest pulling the statue further down the hill and away from her client. She kept moving for quite a ways before deciding it was far enough ¨C With a final heave Maddy tossed the leg over a sharp drop and ran upwards watching as a many-legged feline came and ate the mangled effigy. This wasn¡¯t enough. The source was gone and yet a trail of undried blood still remained on the hill ¨C a new trail from where she had dragged the statue as well! Maddy saw the centipede-like panther begin to track her larger trail directly towards the summit. Frantically looking around Maddy spotted a second monster and made up her mind. ¡°Over here!¡± She called in both the metaphor and reality causing the many-legged feline to turn away from its upwards climb. Running along the edge of the great hill Maddy drew the first monster towards a second ¨C this a four-legged beast of armored scales and powerful looking tusks. Maddy ran as fast as her tiny legs could take her ¨C dodging under roots and bushes as she brought the two monsters together. She caught a glimpse of the armored hippo-like creature in front of her just before running past and diving into an animal burrow to escape. Climbing back up the cliff she watched for a moment as the two massive creatures fought then Maddy turned and made her way closer to the top of the hill. Another monster appeared and Maddy rushed towards it pushing the beast back with a thrown rock and a run in the opposite direction. And another creature. And another. ¡­ On the second day Maddy saw a second danger creeping towards the girl. It took her a bit to understand what she was seeing ¨C what her perception was highlighting. The girl¡­was dehydrated. Starving too but that was less important. Maddy raided the fridge and left a bowl of fruit juice for the child while they slept. She could see the wish coming closer on the horizon ¨C the safety would soon be real. ¡­ Maddy soon realized the beasts of this forest weren¡¯t quite the same as monsters. They were more dangerous than regular wildlife should be¡­but they didn¡¯t have any ¡®abilities¡¯. That wasn¡¯t quite the right description either ¨C monsters being animals that could use magic was far from the truth¡­monsters were the cost of a world of free magic? The cost of infinite potential? They were more than the red eyes or varied biology. Monsters were¡­something with endless anger? Either way. The animals Maddy continued to lead away from her client were more like natural predators than single-minded sources of violence. They ate for sustenance instead of spite. They fought or avoided each other. And yet from Maddy¡¯s perspective, there wasn¡¯t much difference in the end. They were all threats. Nearly everything in this forest could eat her with a single bite. Many creatures were faster than her ¨C or more agile. Maddy wanted to believe she was smarter than simple beasts but with the node in her soul that represented mental speed gone her thoughts were more sluggish than she would like to admit. Finally her self imposed goal was complete. The safety arrived at the hill and scaled it in a few minutes slaughtering the beasts and cutting their way through Maddy¡¯s dance of distraction. Maddy hid as they passed. A band of soldiers arrived at the house and found the starving child. Maddy couldn¡¯t understand what they were saying but she felt it. She felt the girl''s relief as she hugged one of the men. She felt the flow of gratitude seem to spill over ¨C felt the trickle of meaning that came towards Maddy as she completed her one sided wish. A gift instead of a bargain ¨C and yet one that had fed her all the same. Maddy felt a strange sort of twinge of her instincts. She¡­wanted to know why she had done this. Why she felt the way she did. Maddy wished for answers and slowly her perception changed. She saw a mirror and properly looked at herself for the first time in both body and soul. She saw a book in a different language ¨C burning a portion of the miracle she had just created summon her status screen twisting it as she read and pulled out information. ¡­ Maddy had just created a miracle. She had just ¡®performed¡¯ a ¡®spell¡¯ of true magic ¨C she had just answered a mumbled prayer to anyone who might listen. Other than her altered perception¡­Maddy hadn¡¯t spent a single drop of mana. From her own perspective it felt like she hadn¡¯t even done magic¡­and yet paradoxically, this was the truest form of ¡®true magic¡¯. For the child something mystical had happened. She had wished to survive this ordeal and done so despite all odds. She had wished for a drink and it had miraculously appeared as if summoned from nothing. She didn¡¯t know how it happened. She didn¡¯t understand how or why¡­and yet she was grateful. Magic was real and it had saved her. Had taken care of her. That¡¯s what the demon believed and Maddy could feel that belief as if it were a physical energy in the air. Could taste that reaffirming energy as it entered her. Magic was real. Maddy was real. She had done something. She existed. Less mystical of an answer was she had come out ahead. Despite not having gained anything physical Maddy¡¯s store of liquid miracle was greater than it had been when she started. She had a higher leverage to break the rules now¡­it felt strange to think of using her own power as breaking the rules ¨C they were spells she had created! Her sister¡¯s mana! Her mana! The mana she had in her other pools! But yes, each use of her own power felt like cheating. Like breaking the rules ¨C more than just breaking the rules of the dungeon. Like breaking the rules of reality itself. When had using her own power come to feel like cheating? Maddy followed the soldiers as they travelled through the forest tracking something ¨C the creature who had smashed the house. They investigate a trail a week old, finding strange tracks and increased signs of aggression in the wildlife. Maddy followed the soldiers as they tracked the trail to a great cave on a rocky cliff. There they found bones and remnants of hundreds of different creatures. Something was in this cave ¨C an apex predator breaking the ecosystem of the forest! Maddy didn¡¯t know why she was following the soldiers¡­ Maybe she wanted to see this ¡®story¡¯ through to its end? Make sure her saved child reached civilization? Maybe she was just curious? The soldiers had a goal. A goal to increase the safety of the forest and thus their kingdom. Individually their goals were less than a wish. Individually each had smaller desires ¨C they wanted a good meal tonight. They wanted this forest excursion to be over¡­to come back safely, to have sex with their fellow soldier, to have a successful mission and gain a reward, to gain a promotion for leading a successful extermination mission. Together however¡­they looked like something more. It looked like the entire country wished for safety ¨C the entire country wished for this beast to be put down even if they didn¡¯t know it. These soldiers were a knife ¨C the shield that would protect the common folk. The spear that would strike the monster threatening their safety. It was hard to follow the soldiers into the cave ¨C nearly impossible to sneak into an enclosed space without being spotted. Maddy ended up waiting for them outside the cave. It might have been cowardly but too much of her remembered being trapped in that box. If she had her magic she would have followed without a second thought! But weak as she was she could only watch. Over half the soldiers fought in the cave deep and out of sight the rest forming a perimeter outside. The girl Maddy had saved was with them ¨C behind the group helping the chef make everyone a meal. Maddy watched the spear plunge into the darkness ¨C disappearing out of sight. She watched it come out and plunge again ¨C blood on the tip. A scratch on the shaft. Finally the soldiers returned in triumph tinged in sorrow. One of them had died in the fight just out of sight. Over half were wounded ¨C bloodied with broken bones and missing arms. And yet they had done it. They had succeeded. That victory helped blunt the loss. Maddy could feel the very minor miracle contained in the soldiers actions. They had scraped together a victory despite the danger. She could feel the faint meaning from this incredibly minor miracle and knew she had no claim over it. Maddy hadn¡¯t helped. She hadn¡¯t done anything ¨C and so despite there being a small amount of ¡°meaning¡± in her witnessing the victory¡­she couldn¡¯t eat. She could only gather from this system when she was a part of it. ¡­ The travel back to civilization was uneventful. Maddy followed her saved child all the way back to an orphanage before exploring the town ¨C no city she had been led to. All about the city people wanted things. Many many had enough¡­¡¯something¡¯ to achieve their wants. Their minor wishes. Some wishes were much greater than others ¨C many times harder to actually achieve. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Still other ¡®wishes¡¯ were incredibly incredibly simple. Of those simple wishes some shone ringed in tasty ¡®potential meaning¡¯ because their wisher were not able to achieve their wish themselves. The second wish Maddy granted for free was for an old man. An old man too weak to do much anymore. Alone with no one to help him this man was growing less happy with each day that passed. He dropped things and found he could not bring himself to bend over and pick them up. His trembling hands could no longer make a proper meal. His weak bones could no longer sweep the accumulating dust. And he was poor. Not in a deliberating way ¨C enough he could continue to afford food¡­but to the point he couldn¡¯t hire someone to help him out even if he was able to push past his stubborn pride. Maddy became a brownie in that moment. She swept the man''s dusty house cleaning nearly a year of trash off the floor and living space. She mopped ¨C the very act of climbing the strange otherworldly appliances and furniture requiring herculean amounts of effort. Finally after nearly an entire night of cleaning Maddy turned to food. She found all sorts of weird vegetables and grains ¨C what remained after she had tossed the rotting groceries at least. Without taste buds it was hard to guess what most of the food tasted like, but Maddy found massive eggs and was able to make something she thought looked nice at least. Why were all the frying pans so flat? They were like crepe pans ¨C nothing to catch anything from slipping off. It was annoying. Still Maddy finished her meal and cleaned up after herself leaving the plate on a table in the middle of the house. Soon the old man awoke and Maddy hid. She waited an hour for the man to slowly get out of bed and stumble into his living area only to freeze. He looked shocked. Almost angry? And yet¡­like he wanted to cry. Spotting the meal the old man shuffled over to it and stared down at it a single tear falling down his face as he did. Maddy couldn¡¯t understand his mumbled words ¨C she knew he was probably saying something like ¡°darned kids¡± and yet¡­she felt the real message hidden beneath. She felt the grateful tired relief. Felt the way this ¡®miracle¡¯ helped the man decide to sell his tiny house and move to a gated sort of commune for the rest of his years. Maddy moved on. Days turned to weeks and slowly her power built. Her pool of agency ¨C of potential rule breaking power grew and with It, her situation improved. Her severed connection to her other bodies grew closer once again ¨C she wasn¡¯t ¡°in¡± the network¡­and yet she was beside it once again. That above all gave her a sort of comfort nothing else did. Not just because of that invisible sense she wasn¡¯t alone ¨C or the certainty that if she were to die she would definitely be brought back in the network. No, it was the way that link seemed to peel back a layer of the dungeon. She knew that while it felt like years were passing¡­it had only been a few days outside of the dungeon. That invisible internal clock helped the years pass. Her agency let her push on the mental toil of a lifetime and blunt it. She kept solving problems. Bigger and bigger ones ¨C more daring risks taken with the pool of agency as collateral. Soon the pool of agency revealed something else to Maddy. She had lost her pool. Lost her mana finger. Had lost her mental speed node¡­but something remained. She¡­still had a creation affinity. Still had a light affinity ¨C still was a being of illusion made real. Every time she fixed a problem. Every time she created a miracle¡­Maddy was making an illusion real. When Maddy had protected the child for a week way back when¡­the safety the child experienced was nothing more than an illusion. When it had lasted the whole week she had made that illusion real. When she had helped the old man she had created an illusion that someone cared about him and then made it real by actually caring. When she had stolen a letter bringing news of dissent to the king she had created an illusion of peace. When she had solved the dissidents problems she had made that illusion of peace real. Maddy still had a creation affinity even if she didn¡¯t have the ¡®cheat¡¯ to conjure physical things from nothing. She had to work harder¡­and yet because of the effort she was putting in there was more meaning held in each illusion she created. Maddy took a break from solving problems for free and built something for the first time. She wove a cloak ¨C spending an entire ¡®year¡¯ of dungeon life on this outfit. It was made with nothing more than her hands. She couldn¡¯t ¡®cheat¡¯ it into existence with mana¡­and yet it was from her affinity. Her affinity helped her weave it together. Helped guide her hands. Helped her search for hair and silk to weave it with. Finally after all the effort she had put in Maddy had a beautiful cloak that helped her hide. She cheated near the end. Just before finishing her handmade cloak she consumed her agency and pulled mana from her other eyes weaving light into her cloak and causing it to become a thing of magic in truth. With her new invisibility cloak Maddy¡¯s wish hunting exploded in strength. Wishes she would never have tried to grant became viable when she could move about hidden from the world. Not all her wish granting was a charity. Maddy used her invisibility cloak to approach some of those less sympathetic wishers offering them a solution while demanding they bare some of the ¡®cost¡¯. These trades¡­these more traditional ¡®wishes¡¯ granted Maddy quite a bit more agency. If granting a wish as a gift gave drops, granting a big wish as a trade gave thimblefuls. It was almost intoxicating the difference ¨C sure it wasn¡¯t like it had become buckets of difference but each trade felt like it was worth a dozen gifts. They were easier too ¨C with a gift Maddy had to do all of the ¡®work¡¯. She had to pay the cost ¨C mostly time and effort on her own part. With a trade on the other hand. Maddy could use the wishers own resources to complete the task. Unlike when she was trapped in that box ¨C forced to pay out the nose for the boy''s wishes¡­these times she had leverage. She could conjure an illusion of herself as an old woman or pretend to be a great force hidden in a well or tree. If they didn¡¯t like the costs they could leave. A greedy merchant who lost his daughter, paid out massive amounts of money to get his kidnapped daughter back. Maddy used the money to buy information and hire mercenaries to bring the child back from the rival holding her hostage. She stole the money she had been promised using the wish as leverage ¨C the merchant had planned on undercharging her but Maddy felt empowered by the promise of her change and used that to pull vast amounts of magic from the network ¨C teleporting in and destroying a great hole in the wall of the vault to get what she wanted. She destroyed a blind man¡¯s sense of taste and touch using the conceptual sense to gift him his sight back. She healed a pained soldier''s war wounds, healing his deadened emotions as she did and left him to handle the new perspective on some of the atrocities he had committed in the name of the crown. ¡­ Bargaining these wishes was so much easier ¨C there was a sort of synergy in offering the requestors agency to choose if they really wanted their wish granted ¨C or choose among costs they were willing to bare¡­only to harvest the agency when she created the result. And yet¡­as Maddy was nearing the end of her time in the dungeon she found she missed her early charity work. She felt the way her accumulated agency had grown ¨C felt the way years upon years of effort had built into a ladder she could use to escape her hole at any time. She was waiting for something. These final years of waiting gave Maddy some time to work on charity cases once again. With the size of her accumulated agency she couldn¡¯t even tell if she was gaining anything from the gifts. It almost felt like she was spending more than she was gaining when she burned her miracle to use mana in a gift¡­and yet the world felt better. When Maddy had granted wishes as a gift it had felt¡­it had felt like she was making the world a better place. The ¡°costs¡± she had born herself had never been that bad ¨C mainly because she had been feeding on small easy to grant wishes but still. Bargaining power however felt like a bittersweet note. The world felt¡­the same. The costs were almost always equivalent in pain to the power gained ¨C which let the power soar but dragged a weakness up with it. Many seemed to have regret as soon as Maddy granted their wish even though most wanted to keep their boon proving it had been worth it. You could argue bargaining wasn¡¯t malevolent. Its very act was of fairness ¨C of equivalent exchange. She wasn¡¯t making the world a worse place at the very least¡­but in the end her trades felt less like removing suffering and more like moving it about. The world remained the same. This feeling was enhanced by two separate events. The first was the death of the mage with her eyes. Maddy felt him dying long before he did so and found herself watching his final days. Unlike many she had come to bargain wishes from¡­this old mage was happy. Maddy had born a terrible set of costs when she had been forced to grant the wish without anything in return¡­and yet the boy had been happy. He had become a hero ¨C using his growing magic to solve problems just as Maddy had. He had used his money on luxuries¡­and yet hadn¡¯t ever gained a greed for more. In the moment he died, the old wizard seemed to spot Maddy ¨C staring through her invisibility cloak in peace. ¡°Thank you¡±. His final words were accompanied by a smile and, as Maddy reached out and ripped her eyes back out of the corpse, he still had a glowing smile. The man¡¯s attendants shouted in alarm as the smiling corpse''s eyes began to bleed¡­but Maddy moved like the illusion she was, strolling right out of the mansion and skipping into the distance. Maddy regained the two eyes she had gifted away ¨C loaned you could say ¨C and felt the way they settled into her soul. She felt them shift and fill two sockets instead of returning to the finger sockets they had been ripped out of. They took a while to come back to her. A slow growth as she felt treads of power grow into her mental web like living vines. An empty pool that started to splutter and slowly fill with stagnant mana as if waking up from a long slumber. They were stronger than they had been when Maddy had gifted them. Almost twice as powerful feeling, if she had to guess ¨C the stats she had were her own. She hadn¡¯t gained whatever stats the wizard might have gained in life. She didn¡¯t gain the affinity he had nurtured ¨C the spells he had made. No. Her affinity was her own and the mana created from that affinity as well¡­but the nodes were stronger. Her pool was bigger. She hadn¡¯t gained any more mental stats¡­had even lost a bunch of them as her stats decayed without a node protecting them¡­and yet somehow she felt like she was ahead. The fraction of her mental stats that remained and were reintegrated were now many times stronger. Her ¡®gift¡¯ had come back with interest. Her gift had come back with interest because it had been a ¡®gift¡¯. Maddy could tell she couldn¡¯t have received this sort of result by stealing someone¡¯s power. She couldn¡¯t have gained this result if she had forced her eyes into someone and hoped they would grow them for her¡­no the reason she had gained this result was resting entirely on her sacrifice. On the fact she hadn¡¯t needed to perform the sacrifice ¨C she could have granted a lesser fake magic¡­but had done so anyways. Looking at the ladder in front of her Maddy began to climb. She reached out for the network ¨C grasped onto the link between her and her sisters ¨C and began to force power into it. She had a spell that let her teleport to her other bodies by following the connection. With a new pool of mana Maddy pushed down upon this skill a rush of liquid miracle boosting it into viability and felt a familiar shift of her self. When Maddy reached the top of her ladder she turned around and began pulling it up after her. The bottom legs had begun to melt ¨C the pit filling with acid and destruction the moment she left it but Maddy regained most of the potential in the final moments. And turning to find a gate before her Maddy realized she hadn¡¯t teleported to her sisters. She had followed the connection out of the dungeon and then been stopped right at its entrance. An incredibly simple blue box appeared.
Final floor complete. Potential based reward taken ¨C skipping stat and skill process. Potential tithe not great enough to maintain dungeon for future questors. Dungeon¡¯s safe disposal activated to reduce strain. Temporary additional reward granted for those willing to look.
¡­so grabbing the ladder means I don¡¯t get stats and a concept for beating the dungeon?! Should I toss it back or is it too late? ¡­what does reward granted for those willing to look? Maddy turned and stared at the invisible door to the dungeon behind her. It was shrinking ¨C eating itself and folding inwards endlessly. Maddy wanted to know what the reward was and as she stared at that disappearing dungeon, she saw the way it seemed to fold inwards to infinity. Maddy stared deeper and deeper ¨C the single point at its center beginning to grow and soon Maddy¡¯s perception changed. Before her was something Maddy had long since wanted to understand. It was¡­hard to make out. Hard to understand ¨C two creations stuck together with so much super glue. The karmic [system]. The magic [system]. Tied so tightly together they couldn''t exist apart. No¡­it wasn¡¯t two things you could reduce to simple words. It was an endless amount of ¡®things¡¯. Maddy stared at the magic system in what could only be described as an overload of sensation. It was a cacophony of¡­stuff. She felt shock, aww and wonder. She felt fear, glee, greed and sadness in equal measure. She knew on a fundamental level what she was looking at was a work of art on a scale far beyond what any one creature ¨C beyond what any fae or otherwise could hope to achieve on their own no matter how much they tried over however many years ¨C millennia even. It felt like the sky. Like a pair of stars spinning around each other close enough they should have combined and fast enough they should have pulled apart. There¡­was just so much raw potential packed into such a dense area the only way to see anything was to change your perception ¨C swapping density with size and distance. If the magic system were a physical object, it would be larger than a solar system and full of actual variance and detail ¨C no solid empty mass or solid star. No, the wish that was magic was more than that. It was¡­a single wish, fulled by trillions upon trillions of separate people over a trillion years ¨C each donating grains of growth to the whole. It was a trillion separate wishes each forced into a single conflicting whole. It felt like more than anything could possibly be. Covered in marks civilizations had left ¨C ruins for some, towering structures for others. ¡­and yet in its current state it ¡°Looked¡± broken. Looked bloated and atrophied. Looked weak in the ways it felt strong and formed sickly growths of meaning. Maybe that wasn¡¯t quite right? Maddy stared harder trying to figure out what it looked like. It had fundamental power aplenty and that power had enough weight to do some truly incredible things¡­but too much of it seemed to contradict itself? Too much of it was based on instinct ¨C not enough on intelligence. Too much of it focused on maintaining its own size and momentum ¨C not enough on stabilizing that which it had. That felt like nonsense. That looked like truth. How many civilizations had gained a link to magic, only to wipe themselves out by their own costs? How many had sought power for the sake of happiness and found an even worse plateau than they had when they started ¨C an uneasy unhappy stalemate. A tyrant saving and condemning everyone without immunity? How many had wished for a world where their struggles and effort would mean something only to get their wish in a world they would forever struggle in? At least as many as worlds that had found delight. At least as many worlds that had stabilized happily ¨C if not more. Fundamentally life without magic was dull. Magic made every joy better¡­but it also made every sadness worse. Every trauma was enhanced for the sake of harvest. Every focus on growth started and ended with violence. Why? Why was the result of this wish twisted so far from its root? Maybe reality existed in conflict ¨C maybe the natural state of life was full of pain and suffering¡­but why did the wish for reality to be broken follow those same grains? Why did the wish for ¡°more¡± not¡­become more? Was¡­it because it had been traded? The trade an equivalent shift of what reality was¡­no gift to help it show what reality might be? That felt right¡­and yet it didn¡¯t help Maddy. The natural thought when seeing a world wrecked by monsters and horrors of magic was¡­well logically to remove the magic. ¡°Logically¡± the ¡°problem¡± was the ¡°magic¡± creating those ¡°problems¡± ¨C and yet no one Maddy knew accepted that as the answer. No one wanted to give up their power but more than that. No one wanted to go back to the dull powerless life they had lived before. No one wanted to suck the colour and light out of the world even when that light was blinding. That was because¡­ Why was that? Why even looking at the monstrosity before her did Maddy feel an urgent need to protect it. Was it like depression? Was life without magic the apathetic state some might reach? Where even pain was better than feeling nothing? ¡­ That made magic seem like it was pain and ignored all the joy it gave her. Magic was closer to emotion. To truly feeling something. To existing with excitement and interest. No. Removing magic is never the answer. Trying to throw away that galaxy of ¡°more¡± was a tragedy worse than death. What then was the answer? Maddy stared and stared at the wish that was magic. There¡­wasn¡¯t truly a right answer. No matter how long she looked, there would never be a simple easy comprehensive or satisfying conclusion to the problem before her. That was the truth. There was no simple obvious solution everyone was missing but too dumb to find. Only options and the same issues they already had. Magic was ¡®more¡¯ and wished for ¡®more¡¯. Aether was almost the wish for ¡®more¡¯ to be ¡®better¡¯ but not quite. Not in the way that matters. Not the way Maddy would want it to be better. Maddy wished she could just¡­¡¯fix it¡¯ in the way she wished it could be fixed. Some ritual like she had performed to become a fae ¨C her cutting out all she disliked from the mess before her ¨C killing it and becoming born anew. She could see a sort of dance reflected on the shape of this creation. Magic created things. it created something that couldn''t exist. It pulled a possibility out of chaos. Made something that was impossible something that happened. Aether...solidified the thing. Made it work well with other things. It filled in the cracks mana had made and then used the result in combination with everything else. filling in the cracks weakened some things...but combining it did so much more. it was strange...looking at it this way Maddy liked the shape of aether a bit more. it was...less selfish. A more cooperative wish. it no longer looked like magic. They could force every single creature of magic into one of aether while keeping their current ¡®capabilities¡¯. Could solidify all rules and make them ¡®better¡¯¡­but by doing so completely sever all chance of ¡®better¡¯ becoming ¡®more¡¯. By ¡®solidifying¡¯ the break in reality that was magic they landed on ¡®better¡¯¡­ but could never achieve ¡®best¡¯ or higher. That was the sort of problem that could not be solved in R¡¯s system of unstable growth and solidified stability. solidifying it would solidify both the good and bad...it would let the solidified good combine together in a way to become stronger than the bad but it was still the death of magic. Was that by design? Was it a weird form of planned obsolescence? A way for ''him'' to exert control? For R to swoop in and create more growth and offer more contracts siphoning more agency for himself? Maddy would be very cross with him if it were. Could she solve any of the problems within the system? Working within the same bounds as those who had come before? There were an infinite number of rules they as a species could adopt. Rules and decisions they could make ¨C each a trade offer. Part of the conflict was in allowing them this freedom. The only fairness was in conflict. In letting them convince each other with the effort they had put in. Any way of removing their freedom decreased that inherent conflict. The weaker answer was in the way the rules defaulted if nothing was done. The main cost of equal ¡®fair¡¯ effort based growth was conflict and by removing growth the conflict could be diminished both magically and physically. A ¡®cap¡¯ on the strength of a world removed a lot of new danger while removing the old ¨C even if it felt like a shackle. The wish of magic was the wish for ¡®more¡¯. As soon as there could be no ¡®more¡¯, that wish died. The other cost was in control. A good portion of the ¡®trauma¡¯ gained was due to the need for control¡­the wish to be able to use magic was tied so deeply into the wish for power and the more negative connotations of that. If they removed their own ability to perform ¡®magic¡¯ the danger dropped¡­but no one wanted to live in a world of magic without having that same magic for themselves. A world of superheroes where you are nothing more than a regular person? That was a different sort of hell. A hell of endless unsatisfied yearning. No, the half shackles were infinitely better. Rules like those of limited affinities ¨C anything is possible and the world you live in has all sorts of magic¡­but you can only have some of it. Don¡¯t worry, everyone else can only have some of it as well. Wanting everything was greed. Ironic coming from the Maddy who had pushed for three affinities. Ironic from the Maddy who had broken through the shackles of previous rules to reach this point but¡­it felt right. They had to share that infinite potential. Share. Sharing is caring. Was there any way they could shift the fundamental state of balance? Imbalance it towards happiness? ¡­ Maddy stared at the magic system shifting her perspective about as much as she could until it vanished. The system¡¯s last touch vanishing as the dungeon disappeared for good. It was still there ¨C still all around her. In her mana. In every inch of the planet¡­and yet Maddy could no longer see it. Even with all of her gathered potential she couldn¡¯t do more than sacrifice it all for a second more time. It felt like she had learned nothing useful¡­and yet because of her time in the dungeon she understood some things on a more fundamental level. The asymmetrical karmic system was a gift. It was a gift created by the self-sacrifice of a pure soul. A gift that gives strength for hardship without cost. The cost is the hardship and the strength it gives is simple¡­and yet its something that could never have been created with a bargain. ¡®Mana¡¯ was a more traditional wish. A bargain ¨C with both strength and weakness being dragged up together. It felt stronger. It ¡®felt¡¯ more powerful than stats¡­and yet it did not contain the same miracle. It didn¡¯t look as beautiful to Maddy¡¯s sight. Maddy didn¡¯t know what she could do with this knowledge. She wanted to use it to help shape her world ¨C and yet for now it didn¡¯t give her anything. Maddy sighed ¨C missing the perspective she had just lost. If she had a few minutes longer maybe she could have seen something ¨C some solution. What happened to the surroundings? Maddy stared about noticing the surroundings for the first time. The home her dungeon had been in ¨C the town it had been in¡­was gone. Flattened. The grass was burnt away. The secret tunnels Maddy had initially hidden her reincarnation setup in¡­was gone. What sort of hellscape had come to pass while Maddy was in the dungeon? Chapter 107. Parry this you filthy casual. ---Richard--- ¡°I¡¯m getting stir crazy. Let¡¯s go on an adventure!¡± Richard finished molding a stone bed below James who had been meditating like a floating log at the side of their permanent camp. ¡°Quick 20-minute adventure or?¡± James asked looking down at the changes below him. Richards best friend spun his body and rotated around to stand upright in an unnatural looking spin. ¡°¡­a longer one. I¡¯ll tell you my plan if you accept.¡± Richard stage whispered looking about as if hiding from someone. ¡°Sure. Let me get my backpack.¡± James looked around trying to find his cookset. ¡°I¡¯ll meet you by the suspicious skeleton ¨C the red skeleton not the spiky one.¡± Richard waved then headed over to his tricycle. ¡­ ¡°Hey¡­so I may have overhyped the adventure part of this¡± Richard spoke as soon as they started moving. James was ¡®jogging¡¯ at a smooth 100km/hr while Richard rode his newest buggy ¨C a motorbike shaped like a children¡¯s tricycle only suspicious due to its current highway speeds. Richard¡¯s voice carried to James just over the sound of pounding feet and bumping wheels. ¡°Just wanted to go on a run?¡± James asked slowing down slightly to run sideways. ¡°No, yes. It¡¯s both. I have a dream! But let me just lay it all out there. I have something I want to do. I¡¯m not asking you to join me, I¡¯m asking if you feel like talking me out of it. You¡¯re the only opinion I care about for this¡± Richard connected one of his free slots to a field generator the outside noises dropping away to nothing. As far as they were concerned, they might as well be sitting around inside the moment his noise canceling bubble was deployed. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°¡­I want to try and tank a nuke.¡± Richard admitted. James was silent for a moment before responding. ¡°Before I start talking you out of this¡­ Do you think you can survive?¡± ¡°Fuck if I know. It¡¯s just¡­You know the calamities are getting a bit out of control, right? Fucker in the ocean tanked a makeshift nuke equivalent to the one used in the world war ¨C as well as a second enhanced one! Beast ¨C not sure how much stronger it was but just based on the shockwave I picked up it¡¯s a few orders of magnitude higher¡­and now there¡¯s a nuke storm dropping consistent explosions a bit weaker than those two bombs but nearly consistent in its bombardment¡­worlds really going to shit isn¡¯t it? ¡°But yeah mate, I think with some preparations I can sit out in the storm¡­¡± James seemed to think for a moment as if weighing his own chances before nodding. ¡°Sure, let¡¯s go. We¡¯re aiming for some place directly in its path, right?¡± Richard laughed a bit to himself. ¡°I didn¡¯t even have to justify my dumb impulse. Thanks.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see this through as well¡± Maddy¡¯s voice came echoing out from inside Richard¡¯s bicycle horn. ¡°¡­this is supposed to be a getaway with the boys¡± Richard groaned staring at his horn. ¡°Pretend I¡¯m not here¡± She responded a moment later. ¡°How did you expect to find us again if both of you left?¡± Richard was silent. ¡°Are you implying you don¡¯t think you are going to survive?¡± Maddy spoke up a second later. ¡°No. I¡¯m nearly positive I can survive. I just, need some time to figure out if I¡¯m coming back.¡± Richard said quietly. ¡°Are you just planning on being a point of contact or will you peanut gallery the whole time?¡± Richard asked a moment later. ¡°I¡¯ll respond if you address me but¡­I¡¯m practicing some stuff and don¡¯t want you to feel like I¡¯m stifling. The amount of attention in this eye is smaller anyways. I¡¯m being honest. Pretend I¡¯m not here.¡± Maddy responded, her voice echoing out of the funnel. After a bit of silent riding Richard turned to James with a conversational tone. ¡°Do you know how the big monster¡¯s shit on the square cube law?¡± James shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m nearly positive I can tell you about the exact mechanics by this point. It¡¯s already a theory but I feel like I¡¯ve done some footwork proving it¡­you know? Standard science voodoo. I checked some boxes. Did you know a lot of different looking systems operate on nearly the exact same laws at the end of the day? A lot of different aether effects¡­it¡¯s all the same under the hood. Kind of funny that despite the colossal amount of complexity in materials and reactions and unknown potential coming from those interactions...well. Infrastructure gets monostamped. Its fields all the way down! ¡°Let¡¯s start with some background. Aether¡­seems to collect and gather around dense things. It¡¯s kind of like gravity ¨C Exactly like gravity actually but running alongside it. Aether seems to care about this density gravity more than it cares for motion or other external influences with any dense element having enough ¡°weight¡± to gather a chunk of aether. Nice little example is right back in step one. Every single one of our stats is a single massively dense atom that¡¯s sucking aether towards it like a mini atmosphere¡­but the aether pulled towards those mini atmospheres isn¡¯t sucked away as we run. It doesn¡¯t care about our movement as I mentioned. Doesn¡¯t care for a lot of stuff really ¨C it¡¯s really hard to pull that aether out of its mini orbit because it stays pretty much fixed in relation to the stat atom and doesn¡¯t need to be a sphere. ¡°Basically, that gathered aether field is connected to the single stat point and yet the field itself can be pulled and stretched about and overlayed over an entire body¡­as long as the stat itself is inside the field and the field isn¡¯t too far away it stays. I¡¯m positive the system is doing something to keep the charged aether in its shape, but you didn¡¯t come here to learn about stats did you?¡± ¡°Technically¡­I didn¡¯t come here to learn about anything? Where is here anyways. Middle of nowhere?¡± James quipped, causing Richard to smile. ¡°You have an aether alignment even if yours is stabilized at a different level to mine. You should learn a bit. Stroll for a while with professor Richy rich! Anyways! Planet operates on the same principle. Dungeons and nests and pylons help increase the density of the planet. Not-Gravity sort of pulls aether towards it keeping a field of energy around the planet. This aethersphere is used for¡­system stuff. It¡¯s like the stats of the planet. Slots or unclaimed skills use the same principle. Aether is pulled towards it and held around it¡­difference is that slots are a much weaker pull ¨C and modified in such a way you can dump the gathered aether into the environment with effects and stuff. I¡¯m also not sure where the aether is ¡®pulled¡¯ from. I think it¡¯s all coming from some central system place but who knows. ¡°Magic slots ¨C those concepts and affinities and stuff presumably operate on the same principle¡­but I¡¯m not going to claim that for sure with how obscured everything is.¡± Richard paused and looked at his horn as if waiting for Maddy to chime in. When she didn¡¯t, he continued as if nothing had happened. ¡°Nests obviously operate on the same principle¡­and mantles do as well. My mantle is basically an Arduino made of esoteric super heavy metals. Maybe it¡¯s closer to a FPGA? AFPGA for aether field programmable gate array? Either way, it¡¯s pulling aether towards me and creating a field and interacting with the field of the planet¡­but right now the mantel isn¡¯t doing anything. Follow me so far?¡± James nodded. ¡°¡­and some fields weaken each other. The different stats give stronger effects when you isolate your muscles and bones and skin and all that jazz. They can sit side by side just fine but weaken each other when overlapping.¡± Richard gave a smirk and a thumbs up. ¡°Yep. Anyways. I¡¯ve been studying my mantel in this default state for a while ¨C as well as the neutral field it generates. The mantles field interacts with other fields at a miniscule but measurable level. Same idea you mentioned happens when I enter a nest ¨C and in a greater level with my own nest or when I interact with my stats. ¡°Getting sidetracked and you don¡¯t want to hear the few dozen different experiments both failed and successful but simple. Straight to the good shit. Here it goes. ¡°A field of aether can manipulate physical properties and fundamental forces as well as their interactions¡­ Dumbing it down, a field can modify the base rules of reality. Back to my original point! All larger monsters have a field that covers their entire body. It¡¯s just a stat field but...in terms of complexity it¡¯s probably closer to a nest? It¡¯s like the entire monster is a dungeon or black box ¨C the only thing hiding the internals away being their skin. This field bends, breaks or modifies at least one if not multiple synergizing properties that should prevent them from growing that large. Maybe it fucks with their weight. Maybe it helps them keep a good strength with an insanely small density. Maybe it helps them regulate heat. Maybe it does something so sideways it doesn¡¯t come to mind immediately ¨C the point is we also have this field. Our body is a black box ¨C like a dungeon ¨C and every single field we add to it changes it further and further from what sounds possible with old worldviews.¡± Richard finished. ¡°So how does this relate to anything¡± James asked after a minute. ¡°Well. Just based on effect. I¡¯m nearly positive the defensive calamity has two things. Only defensive stats for a pure base infusing its flesh. And a ¡®skill¡¯ that synergizes with that base. You know¡­I still have a bunch of useless power and speed stats floating around in here.¡± Richard slapped his belly once. ¡°They are getting harder to find but¡­at this point they are not doing much more than working against the one thing I hope for for my body. 72 power. 22 speed. Ignoring the self-synergy bonuses and the currently much greater nerf that being heavier and stiffer with defense¡­that¡¯s 3.6x human baseline power and 1.8x baseline speed. I¡¯m making a new weapon and dumping the power stats into it, then focusing on a vehicle and dumping my speed into it. What do you think of this tricycle? I have it comfortable at 130km/hr with a single slot. How much faster do you think I can make it with those speed stats?¡± Richard asked gesturing to his ride. ¡°Bruh, I can run ten, twenty times this speed in a dead sprint. I don¡¯t even think I¡¯m spending aether right now. I¡¯m sure you are going to get bored of that within a week. Remember your moped?¡± Richard nodded in a resigned manner. ¡°Stats set pretty quick, and I can¡¯t really pull them out of a item once I put them in. Only reason I can even manipulate them already, is they are in my body and easily highlighted by my skills and AI. Still. I¡¯m dumping them by the time we reach our destination. If nothing else comes to mind I¡¯m slapping an upgrade sticker on my tricycle and calling it a day.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± James asked pointing at a shape on the horizon. Richard pulled out one of his less important guns powering it just for the scope. ¡°Give me a second. My binoculars are charging.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a gun.¡± ¡°My monocular? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve used my monocular to shoot anything yet¡­alright. Got it. That my good sir. Is a train.¡± Richard nodded dropping his gun and letting a free hand grab and tuck it away in his back tray once again. James jumped transferring most of his sideways momentum immediately upwards. Dropping down beside Richard a moment later James nodded. ¡°Had to squint but I think you¡¯re right. It laying down tracks right in front of it. White sort of stands out on the green.¡± ¡°Looked fun. Side quest?¡± Richard asked while angling slightly towards it. ¡°Might as well?¡± ¡­ The pair slowed down the closer they got to the train slowly pulling alongside it. It was rolling forward at a trundling pace ¨C Richards AI clocked them as going just under 0.2m/s. Less than a kilometer per hour and not using any standard aether communication lines. As far as vehicles went it was relatively simple. A single large locomotive near the front ¨C roughly 4 meters tall, 3 wide and 15 long. Four windowless cabins behind it ¨C sealed boxes each almost 20 meters long and covered in spikes. The general shape of the locomotive and carts seemed mostly normal¡­but yep. The front car had what looked like arms. Just before Richard mentally decided this was a strange new monster he spotted a head peeking out an open door near the front. The woman seemed less nervous than curious. She stared at them both with a slight tilt of her head even as she pulled out a long white track roughly a meter long. The track was handed off to the hands which twisted it around and placed the line on in front of her. A second or so later she had a second line twisted around and placed on the other side. How was she making a track that big? Presumably she was making the tracks as she went ¨C what colossal level of power did she have to materialize this much matter? Even assuming it was psudo-matter how much energy did it take to keep it stable and long lasting in a line behind her? ¡°Hail to the train?¡± Richard called and the woman nodded slightly glancing at his tricycle while keeping a ¡®relaxed but ready¡¯ posture. ¡°Are you looking for a ride¡± the woman asked after glancing at his tricycle. ¡°Full disclosure, I can link you to New New York and the Antheon but payment needs to be up front and double to make up for pausing my new route. Alternatively, if you take the long ride I¡¯m aiming for a city I heard about this way. Should take no more than three or four days to reach at our current speed.¡± The woman had a strange accent. It sounded like a southern drawl sped up and shifted ¨C as if she had moved from Texas to California and then spent a few years slowly drifting. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°I think we are good. Going to try catching the storm. Just curious about what you have going on here.¡± Richard responded. ¡°¡­have a death wish?¡± The woman spoke never once stopping her grabbing of new rail lines and handing it to the train¡¯s arms. ¡°Something like that. Hey, I¡¯m really curious. How are you generating so many rails?¡± Richard asked gesturing to the lines being laid like clockwork. For the first time the woman seemed slightly tense. Her grip tightened around her current rail then visibly relaxed. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you, but you have to get real cool about a few things real fast.¡± The woman spoke up glancing down at them with a hard look in her eye. ¡°¡­what fucked up thing are you doing¡± Richard asked after a moment. ¡°Rather than speak the woman gestured slightly and stepped back into the darkness of the caboose. Richard looked around and down at his tricycle. ¡°I¡¯ll look¡±, James said jumping toward the door. ¡°Wait no, I want to see too, give me a sec to park¡± Richard called back frantically unhooking the connection hand fueling his bikes engine and sending a few AI commands to finish it off. Running slightly to jump up Richard felt like an invisible film was passing over him as soon as he passed the threshold. The locomotive looked even bigger on the inside ¨C a large workshop roughly 4 meters wide and 20 long. It took Richard a solid minute to recognize what he was looking at. Near the back of the room a bloody mess of a man was bound, mutiliated and dangling from the ceiling on hooks. Several arms ripped bloody bones out of his body at a furious rate ¨C his spine appeared to be ripped out wholesale twice a second. The bones entered a vat and proceeded to travel down a variety of machines before being pounded into rail shapes ¨C smelted and smithed as if it were metal. Most of the blood and gore was pulled off and pumped back to the man feeding into fleshy tubes around his mouth. ¡°What the fuck?¡± ¡­ ¡°This monster in human skin is name is Marven. Say hello Marven.¡± The woman spoke mockingly gesturing towards the lump of flesh. ¡°You have three seconds to say what he did to deserve this before I¡¯m breaking him out¡± James said his entire body tensed. ¡°Raped and killed a personal friend of mine. Presumably hit quite a few more woman, presumably did some other murders or something ¨C but the only one who mattered was Nicole. Make no mistake. This is personal and its revenge. You¡¯re on my train now so you best behave. I said you had to get real cool about how I¡¯ve decided to carry out my punishment. If you don¡¯t like it, you had best get off my home now, you hear me?¡± The woman spoke and Richard felt the air seem to tighten around him. Richard stared about slowly. Was¡­he here to judge? Should he ask the man for his side? Should he weigh in his own opinions on the punishment in question? It sounded¡­it sounded like he should verify the story. Like he should do more than just accept what she said as soon as she said it and yet¡­that felt exhausting if he was being honest. If she was lying, wouldn¡¯t she have spent more effort hiding this? And well¡­if he took her at her word¡­what did Richard think? There was a faint buzzing in his ear as he looked at the sitation. Richard¡­would prefer a quick death to whatever this was but he just didn¡¯t feel qualified to weigh in. He¡¯d rather just leave her to her torture. ¡°Is¡­this whole train under your pylon?¡± Richard asked after a moment trying to push the scenario as far to the side as he could. ¡°Yes, Domain extends in a limited manner along the track as well.¡± The woman spoke visibly relaxing a bit. James still looked tense as he stared at the whole setup. ¡°Bone makes a great rail ¨C I can tell if something has damaged it at any point along the track. Tiny tiny bit of regeneration as well ¨C my main luck is how insane the monster¡¯s regeneration is. It has to have gotten over half its stats in regeneration easy and I can set some of that insane regeneration concept to work in the final product.¡± The train conductor spoke gesturing to some of the machines as if Richard would know how they worked. ¡°What type of magic are you using?¡± Maddy spoke up from the wall. Richard turned and saw her eye sitting embedded into the wall as if growing out of it. For the very first time the woman looked outright shocked. The conductor stared across at the eye for a moment, glanced at both James and Richard. Stared back at the eye then finally responded. ¡°I have a life and death affinity, and I picked up the transformation affinity from some witch a while ago.¡± Maddy¡¯s eye exploded ¨C appearing near the ground and then popping once again to land on Richard¡¯s shoulder. She glowed brightly for a moment and then a second eye appeared as if the first was cut in two ¨C splitting out a different colored clone in one jump. This¡­was probably the first time Richard had seen this happen. At least in this proximity ¨C she usually popped about behind his back when she wasn¡¯t walking around with a body. ¡°What is your plan?¡± Maddy asked whispering into Richard¡¯s ear. He spoke out loud purposefully letting the crazy conductor hear. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how much I can even learn from a magic user¡­I do want to hear about her pylon. I kept wanting to make a truck for my nest. See if I could make it mobile somehow. Then¡­I¡¯ll probably head out. Continue storm chasing¡± Richard shrugged. ¡°Can I stay?¡± Maddy¡¯s second eye spoke up. ¡°I want to talk a bit about magic if you¡¯ll have me. Can help out around or pay a passenger fare¡­ The conductor nodded. ¡°Sure floating eye. You¡¯ll have to tell me a bit about yourself. How does one lose their body? I also have a few questions for you ¨C the suicidal one with a weird ride. Treat is as payment for looking at my workshop.¡± ¡­ Richard and James left the train a few minutes later. Maddy¡¯s original eye had returned to her place, hiding in Richard¡¯s horn and the pair continued on a bit less sure of themselves than before. ¡°Why do people suck¡± James spoke up after a minute of silent running. ¡°Not all people suck, just a bunch of them¡± Richard responded easily enough. ¡°I¡¯m staying as far the fuck away from them as I can. Monsters are easy. Give me simple. I don¡¯t want to deal with morality and justice and all that junk,¡± James muttered waving his hand about in an annoyed manner. ¡°Have any other opinions on that situation you want to share with the class.¡± Richard laughed slightly. ¡°Nope, that¡¯s it. Tell me more about stats or something. I don¡¯t want to think about it anymore.¡± James groaned. ¡°Sure, let me tell you about fat stat and the interactions it has with my body.¡± Richard responded reaching about and wishing he had a whiteboard. ¡­ The pair saw the storm before they heard it. The calamity was a blur on the horizon ¨C quickly growing in shape and size. Looking far smaller than you might expect from the distance they were and yet drawing one¡¯s eye as the largest thing on the horizon. It looked like an angry cumulonimbus cloud ¨C a massive, massive and more importantly tall blob of swirling brown. The calamity was constantly rolling with miniature mushroom clouds floating off in all directions. It didn¡¯t look very fast and yet taking into account its scale some of the sections of cloud were moving at thousands of kilometres an hour as they crawled up the sides and swirled into offshoots. Tall and fat, the cloud was kilometers in diameter and nearly as tall as it was wide ¨C the sound came as they grew closer. Strange ¨C much quieter than you would expect and sounding more like thunder than a stereotypical explosion. Where was the ¡®boom¡¯? Why was it so quiet in person? There was a strange sort of breeze as you grew closer ¨C wafts of shockwaves rustling over the grass in almost gentle looking pulses. It seemed as if anywhere from one to twenty miniature explosions would happen every minute. Richards homemade Geiger counter started ever so slightly ticking up. Just this distance was radioactive ¨C an invisible field of radiation extending out in all directions. It wasn¡¯t that excessive ¨C ignorable long term with just a few radiation defense or a few dozen general defensive stats¡­but shocking just how high it was. How long before the entire planet was radioactive? How long before this ignorable but lethal for a baseline human level of radiation was standard? The pair passed the storm and continued on roughly 100 kilometres ahead of its current blast area. They had a few hours before this area was hit ¨C plenty of time to set up. First things first. The superfluous stats. Richard had already packaged and suppressed them but just their very existence in his body was poisoning his pure defense build. Richard wished he could move them to his mind or stick them on his AI but¡­no. He wanted to do this now. It felt important. Carefully Richard laid out his favorite stone shotgun prizing out each portion and trying to figure out where the best places to place his stats were. It was kind of funny, wasn¡¯t it? Richard needed to spend more time and care choosing these stats then he did his own¡­at least if he wanted to use them to their fullest potential. ¡°Actually, do you have your cookware still?¡± Richard asked glancing across at James. ¡°Yeah,¡± James paused pulling off his backpack and opening it to show the supplies inside. ¡°Hand me your firestarter and pot.¡± Richard called glancing in. James gave him a weird look before tossing the pair over. ¡°9 power on you, 9 power on you, that leaves 2 27 chunks for my weapon and ride.¡± Richard muttered reaching around in his body with his ethereal hands and poking the tools a bit. ¡°You removing your stats honestly makes me want to vomit a bit in my mouth.¡± James said continuing to watch as Richard carefully pushed each stat into place dragging their fields about before they set and he stopped being able to modify them. ¡°It¡¯s fine, look. I just gained some mental power and defense for the charity. System gives a lot of achievements for all this work. I¡¯m farming the stats I do want! I¡¯m making back a good portion of it because of how rare it is...and my total defense is like 700 last I checked¡± Richard waved a hand lazily. Turning Richard smashed his tricycle apart ¨C tossing several items to either side and grouping specific components. Glancing between the items carefully Richard began applying stats, molding a quick shell for it out of stone then handing them over. ¡°Here, can you fly all this stuff some distance that way? I don¡¯t want it getting hit¡­my main AI too, give me a minute to remove it. Richard swapped his main AI for a spare ¨C loosing a minimal amount of storage this time as he¡¯d gotten used to setting it up to be non-volatile. Whatever got wiped by being disconnected from his nearly permanent slot could be regained easily enough. Done with his preparations Richard gathered some of his remaining items and began digging himself a pool. As he worked, he dumped the full regeneration from all three of his open slots into some thermal transference spheres. Very very quickly Richard had a pool of liquid stone roughly a meter in diameter and twice that in depth. His generators were raising the heat of the pool rapidly ¨C slipping in before it got to hot Richard continued to work on the setup modifying some of his trike''s kinetic drives to start shooting blasts of air at him. Very soon the liquid stone was near molten ¨C tipping up closer and closer to a 1000 degrees celsius and ripping past whatever control his feet would have on them. It took less than 10 minutes to heat the whole pool up to lava temperatures and Richard began slowing down as his adaptive skill took up more and more of his attention. James returned to witness Richard swimming around his pool of molten stone ¨C his body completely caked in partially solidified chunks. Every few moments one of the cannons on the side would blast a chunk of stone towards him bouncing off his head and flipping to the side. ¡°Hey¡± Richard waved gesturing to his bed. ¡°As you can see. I¡¯ve decided to take a quick bath before we head through hell. I¡¯ve just started dropping my thermal defense, so my adaptive defense needs to work a bit harder. It took less time than I was expecting to get used to this.¡± ¡°Will this be enough?¡± James asked, staring down at him. ¡°Honestly?¡± Richard paused spitting out a bit of molten stone before turning back to him. ¡°At the levels of granularity stats get into, this is¡­not quite what I need. I¡¯ve capped out around 1111c for the temperature of this bath. Peak output of a nuke can get up to the 100 million Celsius range ¨C over a sec or two max. I have to train up flash burn defense not ongoing heat defense ¨C the real killer is the transfer rate. Its like the volt or amp saying. It¡¯s the current that kills you for electricity not the voltage. Richard turned to face James with a serious look on his face. ¡°No matter what I do I¡¯m going to get burned. I think I can limit how far down the burn goes, especially when I crank my stats up right before it hits. Radiation is a bit of an issue too, but I¡¯ll destabilize my heat sources soon and start dealing with some more ionizing bombardments. At this point I¡¯m more worried about the shockwave. Can you chuck things at me to start filling up my bludgeoning defense? Every little bit helps¡± James started to gain Richard''s same urgency. More and more this was sounding like a bad idea ¨C but he wanted to be the type of friend that was there for you. Reaching down James gripped a stone and tossed it up and down like a baseball. ¡°For friendship then¡± He yelled before chucking it at Richard faster than the machines could run. ¡­
---James--- Ten minutes of chucking stones at faster and faster speeds. That¡¯s as long as James had to help Richard setup. They should have gone further ahead. It didn¡¯t seem like long enough. At some point Richard''s urgency had leaked through to James and he had stopped holding back. It was to the point where James needed to toss from dozens of meters away just to avoid the splash back from the magma. It was too the point James was starting to rethink his own involvement. If Richard was doing this much in preparation¡­why did James feel so confident in his own safety? Had he ever defended against anything near this powerful? James¡­couldn¡¯t quite say he had. Nothing had felt dangerous lately ¨C James had stopped dodging a lot of monsters when he realized he could parry all their strikes. And yet¡­James wasn¡¯t the type of guy to back down. If Richard could do it he could too. The anticipation was probably worse than the event. Yeah ¨C come on calamity. Prove you¡¯re as bad as you¡¯re making yourself out to be. James watched the surroundings darken staring up at the cloud defiantly. Any minute now something would come for him and he could flick on his domain. Any second now¡­ The first thing that hit was the dry acidic wash of rain. More smoke than water the drops fell in a light mist ¨C James flexed and continued flexing as soon as he realized the water was definitely radioactive. Barely paying the drops any attention James floated up softly picking a position a few dozen meters in the air ¨C there was a certain kind of confidence that came with flight. A strength you felt when floating under your own strength. A flash of light arrived ¨C strong enough to blind James if he weren¡¯t reflecting everything that came near. Moments later the shockwave rippled past ¨C that strike had been close. James gathered some of the kinetic energy even as he directed the rest back the way it had come. The world turned grey black as James reflected light harder than he had been ¨C James had been trying to reflect only the brightest of the light but realized radiation had to be mixed in with the lower levels and he didn¡¯t have enough practice to feel confident he knew the difference on feel alone. A second bomb dropped ¨C this one only a few hundred meters away. The blast passed nearly harmlessly past James, but he felt a worrying warmth coat his skin despite attempting to reflect all the heat. Come on. James squinted at what he thought was a nuke ¨C it looked like a dense cloud dropping towards him. Like a bomb made out of smoke ¨C gathered together dense enough to fall¡­were the nukes closer to hail then lightning? ¡­ James watched the bomb fall towards him and felt impending doom. His mind suddenly brought back a memory of the dragon. Of the immense heat. Of the apocalyptic wash of dragonfire. He didn¡¯t have an extra life this time. What was he doing. Why was he throwing it away on a whim. James pushed down the cowardly twinge of self preservation and faced the nuke head-on. He had at least 3 foresight stats screaming at him to move. To dodge. To run. James screamed and tensed his domain harder than he ever had before. The shockwave was the least problematic part. A massive wave of kinetic energy washed over James threatening to fling him far away. James nearly let it. But no. that was running away. James pulled as much of the shockwave into himself as he could ¨C allowing the majority of it to punch into his channels and instantly oversaturate them with more energy than they had ever held before. The force from the shockwave was nothing. James ate shockwaves for dinner. Maybe before he had refined¡­but no. he could have handled this before then. The heat on the other hand¡­ Heat coming towards James was a vector. James could flip that vector and push it away. Heat itself wasn¡¯t too different from kinetic energy wasn¡¯t it? It was just tiny movements. Tons and tons of tiny movements ¨C and James should be the absolute king of those movements. His domain refused to bend to any scale of movement. He refused to bend. Instead, James broke. The heat just kept coming and James found himself almost blacking out from the exertion of trying to push it away. It was on all sides and despite James¡¯s ability to ¡®push¡¯ the heat backwards by flipping the direction it was moving¡­it was like trying to push a wall of water away. It just kept coming in. James flexed the entirety of his gathered kinetic energy in a continuous blast in all directions. His channels still began to fill with heat ¨C nuclear fire filling his blood and vaporizing it as he rotated it through his channels. Countless openings ripped out of his skin as weak spots made themselves known. The holes blasted out of his capillaries cauterized themselves before they had even finished ¨C even as every part of James¡¯s body fought to make the energy his. His skin was the edge of his domain. Anything that even grew near it should come under his control. Nothing should be able to move against him without his permission! James felt the heat begin to die and a wash of triumph filled his body. He had done it. He had survived! He had won! And that¡¯s when the second nuke hit. James let this one blow him away riding the shockwave into the distance his mind sinking away as his body dealt with his bad decisions.
---Richard--- The second nuke was better than the first. Third was barely worth mentioning. Richard lay in complete sensory depreviation as he weathered the storm. His body was frozen by his own hands. He could feel the barrier between him and the world. Feel how close he was to enlightenment. Could feel the way in this moment his skill almost pushed out of his body following the trail his mantle left to start defending in the air long before anything reached him. He had done it. He had proven to himself he was just as durable as any stupid monster shoved out of the sea. Richard stayed frozen and and isolated long after the third blast dissapeared. He had done it. Chapter 108. Current Status x3 ---Richard-- Richard¡¯s defense was so tight he actually blocked his reward from appearing right away. It was only when he ¡®relaxed¡¯ slightly and began allocating thermal defense to void defense for its regeneration that his achievement ¡®arrived¡¯. That took a while ¨C his spare AI was nearly completely fried and his stat shifting heavily took advantage of his AI to actually work. Sure a good portion of his ability was due to the ethereal arms and budding esper abilities¡­but usually his AI was in control. It was like using a power drill ¨C typically he directed it towards the wall with his hands, but the drill usually did all the work. Trying to drill a hole with your fingers¡­well using the same metaphor it was like poking holes in the dry wall with his thumb. Difficult. Damaging to the surroundings and imprecise.
??? Achievement get: Weathered a storm to end all storms.
Description: Theres a common sense reason you¡¯re told not to stand outside in storms ¨C this storm counts as a calamity so that¡¯s a second reason. Did you need a third?
Stat: +27 Thermal defense. Stat: +27 Bludgeoning defense. Stat: +27 Radiation defense.
Passive skill: Stabilizing presence. Apply Soul defense x (Physical Defense/27) to physical surroundings over an area of soul power * cubic meters/9.
??? Achievement get: Blocked an achievement from arriving.
Description: You know achievements are beneficial don¡¯t you?
Stat: +3 soul defence
Richards eyes slowly began showing him the blackened surroundings. He felt stiff ¨C and even as his insane kinetic defense dropped slowly but surely his body remained restricted feeling. The ground ¨C he was embedded slightly in the ground. Slowly Richard extracted himself and crawled out of the crater he was laying in. Point blank ¨C he had actually survived one of the blasts point blank. Fuck he was invincible wasn¡¯t he? Better lock that away before it gave him a big head. He should seal it in his right eye and start wearing a bandage¡­or maybe a eye patch? Richard could cosplay a pirate for a while. How long till people got bored of his arr¡¯s? Turning Richard scanned the horizon trying to figure out what direction he needed to go. All around him craters lay ¨C the grass had been seared and ripped off the ground in every direction and giant craters dug down to bedrock where every bomb had detonated. ¡°Fuck I miss my AI, where¡¯s my location services. What way¡¯s even north?¡± Richard spun eyeing the remnants of the storm on the horizon. Assuming it was mostly linear past this spot¡­his things should be that way? Was it worth trying to make himself a compass out of the stone around him? No, making an accurate one would take more time than he was willing to use. His memory wasn¡¯t even good enough to remember what direction the sun was in before. Richard began to walk, pealing off bits of crud that had coated his entire body as stone clothing and whatever surface flesh he had had fused together. Fresh skin revealed he was mostly naked, so other than cleaning off his arms, face and feet, Richard left most of the crud alone for now. What happened to James? Was he good? Richard paused. Was James¡­good? Richard had been pretty certain of his own survival ¨C at least 95% if not more¡­but what about James? James didn¡¯t have his defense¡­had he survived? Had Richard even considered his friend might not be able to deal with it? He felt strange at the thought. Richard¡¯s brain didn¡¯t really understand the concept of death. It never fully had. Obviously he knew what death was in a general sense ¨C death was like deleting someone from existence¡­and he understood the concept of loss as not being able to interact with someone again well enough. But besides death being a permanent loss ¨C one a bit stronger than someone just moving away¡­well he had never really understood the emotions behind it. What was the difference between someone moving countries and someone getting hit by a truck? Assume you can¡¯t keep in touch with the moved person either way. It just didn¡¯t feel like it had as much weight as people liked to explain it did. Even now he just felt¡­strange and empty? He felt empty wondering if his friend had been deleted. A bit tired if he was being fully honest. ¡­And a bit lost. Where the fuck was he anyways? It felt like he had been walking for hours¡­where was his built in clock? ¡°Fuck I miss my AI.¡± Richard sighed for the second time. The loss of James. The loss of his AI. Too very sad losses. AI was not nearly as bad ¨C he could get a new one much easier than he could find a new best friend but ¨C what was that? Anywhere from a few minutes to an hour after he began walking, Richard noticed something in the sky ¨C how could you even tell how long it had been without a nanosecond precise clock available at a moment¡¯s thought? How did any human survive without an AI? I mean sure they used to have phones but AI¡¯s were just so much better in every way. The empty feeling began to fade as Richard recognized the figure. ¡°Jamessssss¡± He called breaking into a jog and waving his hands wildly. ¡°James you glorious bastard am I ever glad to see you. Let¡¯s get our stuff and set up camp before it gets dark. I need a change of clothes.¡± ¡­ Richard felt a wash of relief as his internal slot reconnected with his AI. It felt agonizing waiting the three seconds for it to boot ¨C and then the three minutes for it to fully integrate once again. The first thing he did as soon as tendrils reconnected to his brainstem and began sending information into the black box that was his brain was query it for his status. It took a while to load and Richard needed to wait for a seemingly endless number of diagnostic messages to flick past before he got what he was looking for.
Richard''s status dump Rank 3++?* Total applied stats: 1129* *=Significant error present. Expand for breakdown? - Stat total contains unverified values. - Stat total contains refined elements. - Rank 3 = 729 total stats. - Rank 3+ = 1051 total stats. - Rank 3++ = 1516 total stats. - Rank 4 = 2187 total stats. - Status calculated as rank 3+. - Generalized measurement returning tier weight returns 3++ with high degree of certainty. Combined body defense: ~866. Inaccessible stats. 18. Refined stats: ~589. Estimated effective stat level. 1750¡À86 Refined flesh with 0 stats. 100%. Efficiency boost due to refinement. +50%. Measured load on effective stat level. Unknown. Replace current stat total with estimated effective level? Expand to see current defense splits? Body power: 0 Hide empty stat section? Body speed: 0 Hide empty stat section? Mental power: 148 Highest leaning: AI processing power. Separate out AI specialized stats? Expand to see current estimated effects? Mental speed: 37 Highest leaning: AI processing speed. Separate out AI specialized stats? Expand to see current estimated effects? Mental defense: 58 Highest leaning: Mental resistance (clarity). Separate out AI specialized stats? Expand to see current estimated effects? Soul power: 14 Unverified: Record kept from memory. Soul speed: 0 Unverified: Record kept from memory. Hide empty stat section? Soul Defense: 6 Unverified: Record kept from memory.
Richard opened a few breakdowns and read what his AI had to say. 18 inaccessible stats? Last he had checked there was only the one ¨C codename fat stat ¨C refined past his point of switching it. What had happened to the others? And really¡­was he already in the second tier? Was his aetheric weight already reaching that point? And how effective was ¡®weight¡¯ as a measurement considering his refined flesh barely added tier weight to him and yet supposedly boosted his stats by a whole 50%. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Was his effective rank actually 4 after all? ¡­considering the defensive calamity was rank 4 and survived a nuke and he just managed the same thing¡­maybe? His skill was doing some heavy lifting. ¡°Check out my gains¡± Richard laughed forwarding a summary of his results to his best friend. ¡°Totals are bugged out after refinement but I¡¯m doing reasonably well.¡± ¡°One sec, let me check mine and I¡¯ll send you an update¡± James muttered his eyes beginning to flick around as he navigated mental windows like an old man. Richard recorded the clumsy AI navigation and sent it over with an old filter and some funny captions. That¡¯s what friends were for. ¡°Come on, I know I remember Running stats being separate from leg muscle speed and channel-nerve transfer rate. Stupid AI can¡¯t even name half the monster stats consistently.¡± James shook his hand vaguly at a point in the air before sinking deeper. ¡°This might take a bit¡±.
---James--- James felt awful. There was a lingering nauseous feeling wafting back and forth across his body he was relatively confident could be called ¡°radiation poisoning¡±. All semblance of his body having blood was gone ¨C whatever the liquid that now filled his channels was, it was heavy and black like tar. James had to actively focus to rotate mana through his body and keep moving normally. What would happen if he blacked out? Would his body keep working? It was a terrifying thought. And yet¡­he had to admit the gains were pretty good. From the system.
??? Achievement get: Parry this!
Description: That shouldn¡¯t have worked.
Stat: +27 Channel Power. Stat: +27 Channel Speed. Stat: +9 Radiation defense channel carrier (Mutated white blood cells). Stat: 9 Bludgeoning defense channel walls (Mutated blood veins). Stat: +9 Thermal defense (Fascia specific heat conductivity and resilience).
Active skill: Explosive burst. Force an explosive amount of power into an omnidirectional burst of kinetic energy. Cooldown 91 days.
From his foundational mutation. Black blood, trouble cycling and what felt like an absolutely immense amount of storage. Monster Kiln of Combat Eater. The mess of a name that arrived after joining two vastly different powers into one. His foundation had two purposes. One was in gaining stats from monsters stronger than him ¨C a way of increasing his strength ¡°without the system¡±. Most monsters had at least one thing they were ¡®better¡¯ at then him, so most monsters had a chance of giving him something¡­but in practice he only really got stats from the strongest of monsters. It was a constant reliable source of strength but it often felt small when compared to large achievements with their instant boosts. The second half was in gaining both short and long term benefits from any attack that hit him. Theoretically that benefit was meant for absorbing mana not raw force¡­and yet the quality of the attacks that hit him blended that together. It was like James had been a raw chunk of metal on a blacksmiths forge ¨C the explosions, a hammer pounding external strength into his body. Blasting weakness out and strength in with each pound. How many times had he been tossed back and forth? At least three. James had fallen into survival mode his body flying about almost on autopilot near the end there. Now he just had to hope there were no long term consequences from the radiation ¨C there couldn¡¯t be right? The whole point of the system was to remove long term consequences? Radiation defense¡­that should help right? 9 was pretty small comparatively but¡­well it should help. James finished poking and prodding his AI happy enough with the new readout. He collapsed most of the granular system stats into brackets ¨C it felt like he could feel the result way better than his AI ¨C and expanded out his monster stats because most of them felt off enough he couldn¡¯t understand what they did.
Status readout Rank: 3++ Total measured stats: 1175 Unmeasurable weight due to refinement, mantle, permenant domain¡¯s physical state etc: 500
Defense section: Total 266 Simple Body Stats: Skin: 24 General + 9 bludgeoning +19 Piercing Digestion: 23 General (chemical leaning). Bone defense: 23 Connective tissue thermal: 9. Latic acid defense: 5 Lung defense: 4 Channel defense: +59 Blood defense (mutated) +33 channel wall defense +9 Radiation defense channel carrier (Mutated white blood cells). +9 Bludgeoning defense channel walls (Mutated blood veins). Monster stats: Toadskin (skin poison defense?): 1 Omnivores Appetite (stomach defense?): 2 Spring tensile strength (tendon defense?): 1 Mental defense: 26 Soul defense: 10
Power section: total: 462 Simple Body Stats: Hand/Arm/Chest: 131 general muscle +20 Grip strength Leg/Feet/core balance (not muscles): 110 Feet touch: 27 Farsight: 18 Taste: 18 Hearing: 15 Smell: 3 Channel power: 48 Mental power: 28 Soul power: 1 Monster stats: Nerve Decisions (nervous system mental power, subconscious brain spread through whole body) 3 +15 mutated mental power. Force affinity muscle integration: 7 Adrenalin production propagation effect due to danger and damage: 7 Neck Muscle Might: 4 Tricep Might: 3 Foresight: 3 Throat Brawn: 2 Grit: 1 Appetite: 1 Pith fiber: 1 Appendage moxie: 1 Supremacy: 1 Endowment: 1
Speed section: Total: 450 Simple Body Stats: Running speed (leg muscle): 310 Nervous system (reaction speed): 89 Channel speed: 36 Mental speed: 10 Monster stats: Feather-air resistance (Applied to hair): 4 Gait: 1
James stared at the results. He had a relatively similar total to Richard and his ¡°random other factors¡± pushed him to the same tier as his friend¡­at least after some effort. It was nice to know he was keeping up. James really wished he could querry the average level of the planet ¨C he really just wanted to know how he stacked up. They should have a leaderboard. A friendly competition. Sending his spread off to Richard, James began making dinner as darkness fell and the monsters began appearing. A leaderboard¡­James liked that idea.
---Maddy--- Maddy was¡­not sure how to check her status if she were being honest. Her old spell had long since begun feeling lacking. She could bring it up with a push of mana...but she had to focus to see proper totals and even those felt slightly smaller than then should.
Name Maddison Graves.
Affinities Life&Death | Light&Dark | Creation&Destruction
Mind
Wisdom Intelegence Clarity
378 189 135
Body
Strength Agility Endurence
13 7 5
Soul
Spirit whisper Stability
17.5 13 232
Species sine-faeculentus (Unrecorded Variant)
Measure Of Self Collection 98%
Stat Total 1045
Major Realm (Rank) 3
Minor Realm (Tier) 0
Outlier notes: High quantity of Eye of M defense. Mental power specialized in visualization. Inate ability increasing effectiveness of mental speed and decreasing mental power.
Rank 3...still. Just barely on the cusp of the first tier at 151. Both Troy and Jess were near the upper end of the first tier ¨C nearly an entire tier higher than her total. And yet again¡­it felt wrong? It felt weird. It was ¡®her¡¯ and yet not measuring ¡®her¡¯ the way she felt she could be measured. It was with those conflicting feelings that Maddy went on her hunt ¨C ripping through the air in search of a monster with a system core strong enough to fuel her status ritual. She needed to know. Hours later Maddy finally killed something with the required spell component and set up shop in a burrow deep within the earth. Chiseling words into the stone she surrounded herself in intent and then with a flex and push of her entire destructive life pool, Maddy peered into the information relevant to her.
Name: Maddy. Species: sine-faeculentus (Eye of M) Affinity: Living-void. Major-Domain: Seeing is power Minor-Domain: Destruction grows while void reveals truth. Rank: 4¡ý¡ý¡ý¡ý¡ý¡ý¡ý¡ý (collective distribution weight resonance x3, collective independence / 27) Total stats: 39
Locked physical/soul body weight: 3(max stability)
¡üMind Power: 14(x4)¡ü Mind Speed: 7(x4)
Mind Defense: 5(x4) Soul defense: 9(x4)
This was¡­better and yet strange. It was a step in the right direction and yet¡­so much of it still felt ¡®off¡¯. Like someone was staring at her through warped glass ¨C was measuring a reflection of her and not the real her. Why was she¡­rank 4? Rank 4 weakened all the way to rank 1? She was effectively a step into rank 1 using that measurement. Just starting out on her journey as false as that felt. Her total was multiplied by 3¡­because of her soul being spread across the entire planet and thus increasing its ¡®weight¡¯¡­and then divided by 27 to account for her eye being split off and independent enough to function by herself? Was this the weird feeling that Maddy had been searching for an answer to? This backwards status? ¡­yes. Maddy nodded slightly. She supposed it was. Very roughly her stat totals were her previous overall totals divided by 27. Except her locked body and soul stats. Those were combined and higher than they should be? 50% higher? And then all her stats were effectively 4x as strong due to some synergy bleeding back from her other selves. The rest of her stats were still held by the collective¡­shared between them and hosted on the web of connections between each eye ¨C not the eye itself. Maddy nodded to herself some more, bobbing in her position on the stone wall as she settled into this understanding. Her current self ¨C the mind and personality in her current body was happy enough with this knowledge. The spell was spent ¨C conceptually used and yet for the current her that felt like a waste. Slowly Maddy built her pool back up and then scoured the surroundings in void teasing out the concepts from the ashes. Turning to her collective Maddy fed the ash of her spell into her old status spell as fertilizer. Soon her sisters could check their own values whenever they wanted! Chapter 109. Looking upwards in an attempt to cheat off gods answer key. ---Richard--- Richard felt more sure of himself in the morning. He had taken the second watch and while there was a near constant hoard of creatures assaulting their camp¡­they had mostly been taken care of with some passive turrets and a rough kinetic barrier. The only monster he had been forced to kill individually had been some ethereal wisp shaped like a twisted sheet of transparent paper. Sadly the ¡®fight¡¯ ¨C if you could even call it that ¨C had been as simple as the creature attacking him ineffectively for a few minutes until Richard finally figured out how to strike its slippery body. Turns out, anything moving quickly passed through it, while slow and soft attacks actually landed. ¡°I¡¯m ready to head back to everyone¡± he whispered tapping Maddy¡¯s horn the moment the sun began to rise. ¡°We are on the revealed island. Do you remember where it is?¡± Maddy responded in a distracted manner as if he had just pulled her away from something. ¡°Yep, let me wake sleeping beauty and well head that way in a bit.¡± Richard said then turned to James. With a slight mischievous look upon his face, Richard started shaping stone into a ball like he was creating a snowball. Dropping the sphere into his fleshy hands and winding back Richard lobbed the ball towards his friend knowing he would be alright. ¡°I¡¯m up!¡± James shouted his eyes bolting open and his domain activating as soon as the sphere approached. Bouncing off his chest the stone flipped off into the distance with a satisfying arc. ¡°Want to head out?" Richard asked with an exaggerated look of innocence. ¡­ The trip back was relatively uneventful. There were two large monsters that hadn¡¯t died in the morning but neither put up much of a fight. The planet was slowly changing by their presence ¨C no longer did the horizon look like uniform green. As fast growing as the grass was, there were nearly constant scars upon the ground ¨C signs of monsters having churned up the grass. There were small hills of dirt and uprooted peat ¨C some created by the conflict between creatures. Some actually contained creatures ¨C the night-marked monsters creating dens to hide in and escape the burning light of the sun. Some formed by monstrous bodies that had decayed slowly instead of melting. All about the pair, there were game trails that ran back and forth across the grass ¨C meandering paths so downtrodden they were almost permanent. It was a sign of change. A sign of reality ¨C the blank slate they had been given was shifted more and more as time passed. And of course, more defining features began to crop up ¨C most far enough away the pair didn¡¯t bother investigating. A towering crystal tower that had to be at least a kilometer tall ¨C flickering beams of light in all directions like a thin lighthouse. A vast forest in the distance, somehow looking menacing and alive. What looked like a regular mountain where James was certain there had been nothing but flat ground before. Uneventful, but still something to look at as they passed. Richard drove the whole way on a temporary vehicle with his enhanced parts. He had molded himself a new ride out of his silicone fiber alloy ¨C shoring up the empty points with stone. It was shaped like a children¡¯s wheelbarrow and painted red with monster blood. Most of the way Richard road standing up ¨C but partway through, he took a break to eat some leftover monster meat from the night before. Simple enough. Just a regular day in their new lives. The ¡®revealed island¡¯ they were arriving at was nothing more than a mound of long grass less than half a kilometer wide ¨C surrounded by sandy mud and topped with half a dozen trees. As the ocean was sucked away, tidepools of water kept the area damp ¨C if there were more vegetation in the almost sterile ground, you could have called it a swamp. As it was, a faint smell of rotting fish filled the air as the small number of trapped fish lost their water and died in the sun. James walked in the middle of a miniature whirlpool as he spun air about himself and pushed the bad smell away. Richard shifted a few stats to scent defense and then ignored it. It was as good a place as any to set up camp ¨C the smell wouldn¡¯t prevent anyone from finding them if they were looking, but it was a good enough deterrent to keep them isolated for now. As far as the final bit of their journey went, Richard¡¯s wagon was shifted once again into something looking like a sled with wide supporting stands to stay above the mud. It looked like a flat ATV ¨C a stand-up quad bike less practical than it sounded. James in comparison floated ¨C a faint look of concentration upon his face as he kept himself above the ground and blocked the smell simultaneously. Finally climbing up the revealed island they spotted the telltale tint of Jess¡¯s barrier and rejoined the group once again. ¡­ ¡°Alright everyone. Let¡¯s review. What are our current plans? What is the state of the world? What do we want to focus on?¡± Maddy called her voice echoing slightly as if it were a drum she were banging on. ¡°Give me a bit to check all the status sites¡± Richard called directing his AI to start sending simple anonymous connection messages towards every web he could find. James started to read off a general update from the first site he found while Richard dug deeper. ¡°As far as threats go every calamity is dangerous enough it could break the planet. Positive the side effect of our power leveling has done exactly what we hoped and prevented the so-called inevitable war from growing beyond some skirmishes. There''s some early signs of people banding together for a common enemy which is beautiful. Exactly what we were hoping for. Negative is literally everything else¡­Speaking as someone who¡¯s took a blow from the storm calamity, I¡¯m not sure how many could survive that. Not trying to sound arrogant but its hits pack quite a punch¡­¡± James trailed off. ¡°Humanities Alliance is an aether based group forming around a walking city They are currently acting as free PR for our goal ¨C wandering around the planet picking up individuals and telling everyone to put aside their differences long enough to kill the calamities for the good of all.¡± Richard spoke up a moment later. ¡°There''s several disconnected groups and individuals researching different ways to combat them. One of them is even mana based ¨C somehow slipping into an aether network to share information without damaging it. These groups have some interesting findings, but for the most part haven¡¯t figured out anything actionable. One of the other contributors is the group responsible for creating the forest and has shared tons of relevant information¡­while refusing to take responsibility for their mess. Big takeaway is that the forest and storm both are on a technical level¡­ less a monster and more a moving nest? They aren¡¯t what we could call sentient or even living. Both can be modelled as a field containing and enhancing what amounts to a continuous complex chain reaction. Destabilizing the reaction in any number of ways will stop whatever effect they are creating¡­but given enough time the effect will come back as the ¡®core¡¯ of each restart¡¯s and snowballs it back into place.¡± Troy spoke up ¨C more confident in communicating day by day. ¡°What is the chance of any of these groups stopping them? How much responsibility are we willing to admit to? Should we be helping clean up our messes or working to fix them ourselves?¡± ¡°All good questions.¡± Richard nodded. ¡°Gold star. Eventually I think all of the calamities can be dealt with without our involvement ¨C we aren¡¯t the only people in this world that can do anything after all, especially when there¡¯s so many of them working together. That¡¯s arrogance incarnate. The problem is the timeline¡­ of the three active threats the most pressing is the thirsty fucker removing water and air. Second is the storm slowly irradiating the world. Third is the forest taking over cities and spreading like mold. I really don¡¯t know if the world has enough time or strength to deal with the defensive calamity before it¡¯s ¡®too late¡¯. Even though the research squad hasn¡¯t come up with anything I¡¯m pretty sure they can figure out ways of stopping them partially even if not permanently.¡± Maddy nodded slowly. ¡°Should we all try attacking it just to see? I feel like there¡¯s only so much we can plan without actually seeing the threat this monster creates¡­¡± James stood up, a smile on his face. ¡°Sure. Want to head out now? Its only a few hundred kilometers that way, we can be back in time for dinner.¡± Richard paused his mental scrolling through feeds and started waving his hands around. ¡°Let me hit up my nest real quick for some sandwich materials. Snacks are important, reconvene in an hour! Pause, Pause!¡± ¡­ Not everyone shared James¡¯s confidence for traveling such a far distance in the afternoon and so the expedition was inevitably pushed back until the next day. Early morning rose and the group headed out each traveling in their own way. As they grew closer, they visibly began to notice the air growing thinner. It was an unnatural gradient ¨C air should nearly instantly normalize and yet, starting several kilometers out and ramping up as they approached, it steadily became harder and harder to breathe. The air itself was moving in a steady breeze towards the calamity and a faint whistling sound grew louder and louder as they approved. It was like they had climbed a mountain ¨C and how fitting it was that the massive monster they were approaching was shaped like a mountain. A small one to be sure ¨C ¡®only¡¯ a hundred meters or so tall. Massive and while definitely skyscraper levels¡­ it was also not quite towering mountain levels of scale. The cliff in the fate dungeon was much larger in scale. The human brain wanted to describe the creature. Wanted to make a connection to an animal, or point to a single defining trait. Four legged creatures became cats and dogs ¨C wolves and foxes. Despite having vastly different shapes the mind liked to generalize. No animal fit the mold this time. Hence, mountain. It was the shape that fit even if that fit was loose and innacurate. The calamity was a pointy cylinder unlike any animal easily pictured. Its mouth was wide and constantly open ¨C looking more like an incredibly wide and short cave than anything else. Its texture was strange. Greyish and wrinkled like an elephant¡¯s skin and yet scaled like an armadillo or reptile. Countless cracks and scratches covered the creatures back and yet somehow the signs of old wounds made the creature more frightening than an unblemished hide. How many had tried and failed? The group was close enough to witness an attack reach the calamity. A massive cylinder ¨C a rod of god ¨C was dropped from who knows how high in the sky accelerated as it approached. Made of a dark silvery metal, the rod appeared fast enough it looked like a single blurred line. Barely noticing the rod before it hit, the group was just in time to watch as the massive falling object hit the mountain with a loud crack and deafening screech. The screech wasn¡¯t from the mountain ¨C the rod itself screamed as it was diverted and deformed ¨C metal scratched with a horrible grating sound as it bent and slid down the rough surface. Less than a second later the cylinder hit the water and vaporized it ¨C the cylinder seemed to disappear as it embedded itself into the ground and caused a massive wave and spray of water. The rod left a very visible groove upon the calamities skin. A angry greenish slice looking much too shallow for the force of the blow ¨C digging down in near the top and ripping out skin for roughly 20 meters of monster. With a visible speed the wound closed. The defenses healed and the strike became nothing more than another scar. More terrifying was the way the creature barely budged ¨C barely shifted from the force. Barely paid it any mind. A figure dropped duel wielding midnight black blades each over a meter long. They slashed and spun a with a wild yell ¨C their attacks barely leaving marks. Jumping off the still distant figure flipped towards the mouth a determined look upon their face. The closer they got to the crevasse, the harder the pull became. Two blades pointed first they were sucked into the the mouth ¨C a distant yell warped and cutting out by the near vacuum directly in front of the cave. ¡­ They did not emerge. ¡­ The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It felt hard to follow that suicidal charge ¨C hard to compare themselves ¨C but all three of their damage dealers made a token effort struggling to deal with the lowered oxygen as they made their moves. Troy shot an arrow ¨C first a brilliant glowing beam of light holding a dark cone of void, then a dark strike containing a white hot blade of light. Each had such a warp to their ¡®contrast¡¯, they looked like they were ripping space itself as they flew. Each he gave a few minutes of time on ¨C slowly building them stronger and stronger before releasing at the stationary target. The strikes sunk into the calamities shell ¨C one attempting to implode, the other explode. Weaker than the rod and yet stronger than the man duel wielding massive thin blades, they each broke skin and revealed green flesh. Maddy tried a few different attacks spending the full mana pool of many of her selves¡­ but her spells didn¡¯t even have an effect in comparison. James approached the creature his domain active despite his still healing body. Visibly fighting the pull of air, he tried to hold as much around him as he could and punched a portion of the back with all his might. Deep in his domain it was as if he punched then reversed the ¡®equal and opposite¡¯ force the punch caused on his fist. This punch now had a greater force generated he could continue to flip into an even greater force ¨C an quickly growing series of practically instantaneous forward vibrations with each flip. A crack started across the place he hit ¨C jagged breaks shooting out before healing a moment later. James frowned and punched again beating his hands faster and faster against the shell. The more he punched with his max strength, the more his stamina faded and the less damage he appeared to do. Finally he flew back to them, an annoyed look on his face. ¡°Tough nut?¡± Richard asked and James shook his head sadly. ¡°The toughest. Let¡¯s go back I can barely keep air near my mouth anymore.¡± ¡­ ¡°So¡­defensive calamity is still the greatest threat. Maybe I¡¯m biased but body defense best stat. If anyone has any plans to deal with it speak up.¡± Richard commented as soon as they reached their base once again. Maddy hesitated waved her hand back and forth then responded. ¡°I¡­have a single idea that might work based on what we saw. I¡¯ll have to make a new spell for it and spend enough time building its meaning to actually get anywhere and there¡¯s¡­well a good a chance it won¡¯t work.¡± Richard nodded. ¡°If you have spare time I say go for it. Seems like a perfect time for me to bring up my new plan if no one else has anything?¡± Looking about and seeing nothing, Richard lay down his plan. ¡°Supposedly a bunch of choices and options for customizing our world will appear when either aether or mana ¡®wins¡¯. R hinted we can achieve our goal and get some of that capability when the world ranks up. The way he mentioned it it sounds like less a physical law and more a political one. We should be able to affect our world now we just aren¡¯t allowed to.¡± ¡°R mentioned we can do anything we want to the world as long as we do it with our own power¡± Maddy offered. ¡°Point, let me rephrase that. We can build anything we want but only with the tools we have been provided. We will not be given any new tools until we rank up the world. Just remembering the scroll of options R gave, I can¡¯t imagine most of them being available without help from the system. Hence my plan.¡± ¡°Get to the point already¡± Troy waved a hand a friendly grin on his face. ¡°Well, common knowledge is our version of the system¡¯s mainframe is on the moon, no? I say we head up there and see if we can get any of those capabilities early. Hack the [system] if we can and use some of those tools to fix the situation that¡¯s happening down here.¡± Richard responded no longer beating around the bush. ¡°¡­and why isn¡¯t anyone else heading up there to try and cheat?¡± Jess asked staring upwards. ¡°Well. Some might. Knowing humans I¡¯m nearly positive some are trying to get ahead right now. If I thought of it, others have 100%. No one is currently advertising this idea so we can¡¯t really tell how far along any of them are¡­But if we are being honest? I don¡¯t think you appreciate how hard getting to the moon will be.¡± Richard sighed. ¡°What do you think the main problems are?¡± James blew a gust of wind towards Richard ¨C still playing around with his new capability ¨C then started raising his fingers ¡°Keeping oxygen around us. I can hold oxygen for a bit based on attacking the calamity but I¡¯m not sure how long I can last. I don¡¯t know about everyone else but while I don¡¯t need to breathe as much as I used to I still need air. So we need a shell to keep the air in. Also a method of propulsion and landing and moving around and stuff. Doesn¡¯t sound too bad.¡± Richard looked around waiting for more answers. ¡°Food, toilet, way to see the direction we are headed. Stuff like that?¡± Troy added trying to figure out what Richard was searching for. ¡°How do you think we are going to do all that?¡± Richard asked prompting the group. ¡°Magic¡± Jess smiled slightly. ¡°I can make a hamster ball barrier. James can fly us up. Something like that¡± Richard signed then muttered something rude under his breath. ¡°Listen up. This is one of the big barriers that your mana side seems to face. In R¡¯s wheel of example worlds, he showed some crazy vague mana examples ¨C planets as large as Jupiter or stacked and shaped in frankly unnatural ways. The thing is, I don¡¯t think I saw a single multi planet mana example while over half the aether results have colonized at least their own solar system. ¡°Simple enough reason for that. All aether based effects are tied in part to the aethersphere. That means they will fade, weaken or become erratic once we leave the planet. The way I see it, the system is doing a majority of the things we take for granted and as soon as we leave the field it is regulating, we lose access. ¡°We can bring a bit of the athersphere with us so it¡¯s not the end of the world ¨C there¡¯s a good chance we can make a craft that only leaks a small amount of the atmosphere over our trip and potentially even maintains a connection¡­but it will also affect our ability to move and maintain our craft. A wall made out of pseudo-matter is much more likely to fail as soon as we leave, than something that holds up in a zero aether environment. ¡° Everyone but Richard got more and more nervous as he described the problem. ¡°If it''s an aether only problem and there are definitely whole groups of aether people working on their space ships¡­what hope do we have of catching up?¡± Jess asked after a moment. ¡°Simple.¡± Richard responded with a wide grin. ¡°We cheat.¡± No one caught on to Richard''s goal right away so he finally relented and started explaining what he was hoping for. ¡°Listen. Your mana is broken in all sorts of inconvenient ways and yet even I will admit it has some positives. It¡¯s much faster and easier to get something working for one. Maddy, do you remember one of the last tests we did?¡± ¡°Chained boxes?¡± Maddy asked suddenly understanding where he was going. ¡°Yep, linked black boxes.¡± Richard smiled happily. ¡°Let¡¯s get everyone else on board with our loophole.¡± ¡­ Chained boxes as the experiment was called, completely separated out all direct interaction between effects. No side by side goals. No attempt at ¡®working together¡¯ directly. Instead descrete areas were nearly completely isolated from one another passing nothing more than a simplified product between them. It still shouldn¡¯t work. The fact that it did was what shifted it into loophole territory. Despite how much of a ¡®loophole¡¯ it was, just barely understanding the idea didn¡¯t help you take advantage of it. Both aether and mana dominated an interaction if their fields were allowed to mix. They were also sticky ¨C when placed in a system they slowly tried to corrupt the ¡®upstream¡¯ and ¡®downstream¡¯ ¨C each seeking to gain control over the whole ¡®system¡¯ in their own way. And yet¡­the fields were relatively dumb. Easily confused. There was an experiment they had done that proved both that they didn¡¯t understand anything and that isolating areas broke something deep. As an overview, Maddy could create a magical effect. As a test they had used her creating a beam of light. She barely had to do anything ¨C all she had done was embed as much of her innate light concept into the box as she could shaping it to release in one direction when fed mana. They had then had her create a ¡®black box¡¯ ¨C the box had actually been black to help insulate it ¨C hiding all internals far away and leaving it as nothing more than a flashlight powered by pouring mana into it. Richard had tried and failed to activate it. Obviously. Next Richard had created the same effect ¨C light was dead easy to create after all. He set up a coil of wire that transformed raw aether into light at 100% efficiency. It was such a simple effect he barely wanted to bother setting up mirrors or any efficiency for it. Following the experiment he made an absolutely identical ¡®black box¡¯ to Maddy¡¯s. The two boxes looked identical side by side and released the same amount of light. Richard could connect to his box but couldn¡¯t connect to Maddy¡¯s. Maddy could pour mana into her box focusing on connecting to her input rune and could not activate Richard''s box. ¡­ Then, the pair had a third party shuffle the two boxes without telling them which one is which. Each connected to the box they had been given ¨C after an initial confused bit of resistance. They had checked and proven their box was theirs. They had a third party shuffle them again. They connected. Opened up and proved their box was theirs once again. And did the same thing with the same result a third time. After asking the shuffler ¨C in this case Troy ¨C why he had given them the same box all three times he admitted both the second and third test had been swapped. Supposedly Richard had received Maddy¡¯s original box for the second test and it had looked like his box when he had opened it. Either Troy was lying and or confused or¡­the piece of the puzzle Richard kept trying to work around had come into play. Belief. He had believed it was his box ¨C had believed it could be his box and been proven right. Belief was an annoying unscientific variable. It was like the uncertainty principle but scaled up to macro sized objects instead of particles. Thinking about it that way didn¡¯t prevent it from being annoying but did help rationalize it in a way. And yet while the uncertainty principle was similar¡­it was fundamentally different. The act of observing microscopic objects was the act of observing fields and wavelengths then applying math and probability to gain a value. The act of measuring objects to ¡®observe¡¯ them was actually manipulating them. It was an invasive process. It was like measuring someone¡¯s heartbeat with a syringe ¨C or figuring out somethings durability by pushing on it till failure. Just looking at something with your eyes wasn¡¯t manipulating it¡­was it? Was the system playing a prank on them by swapping the boxes or the insides of the boxes while no one was looking? Had the insides of the two boxes been liquified into a strange probability where each were 50% Richards and 50% Maddy¡¯s? The moment they tried to connect, the probability bent towards them forcing it into 100% one or the other? Maybe Maddy¡¯s magic was subconsciously teleporting the two insides when she tried to ¡®connect¡¯. Maybe they were mixed when Troy mixed them. Maybe the only thing that mattered was the belief that it might work. ¡­ Confusing unverifiable mechanics aside. The results proved something and could be repeated as many times as needed. As long as there was some uncertainty towards the mechanics of the internals they could be swapped. Aether boxes could be chained easily and swapping out a box or two for magic did not effect the system. This was just one way the barrier between the two sides could be broken and after discovering this one others began to reveal themselves one after another. When you were inside of the box the entire outside world could be called a black box of sorts. Maddy could stay inside of a box transforming water into wine and the source of the water slowly faded in importance. Richard could stay inside a completely enclosed room modifying stone that was passed to him through a shoot and slowly but surely the input could be swapped to fake stone without him noticing. This convoluted setup was what finally led them to the idea of chained black boxes. And all of it discounted a final variable. James. James could scrub any logistics line he entered just by existing in it. James could even grab raw mana and manipulate it into raw aether just by his understanding that the two were one and the same. As far as building a spaceship went. Mana could do some things vastly easier than aether. Aether could achieve some results easier than mana. Adding them together weakened them both and yet picking and choosing the result you wanted and hiding or scrubbing the sources created something larger than either could alone. Slowly the group began to build their spaceship piece by piece. Every individual would have their own room ¨C Maddy ended up having more and more as she kept claiming smaller and smaller ¡®boxes¡¯ to keep individual eyes in. These rooms were completely separate from each other. Soundproofed. Visually isolated. Maddy enforced her isolation chambers and their connections with delineation spells and Richard created mechanical ¡®airlocks¡¯ for passing items back and forth. It wasn¡¯t just for the interchange between mana and aether ¨C this isolation setup also helped magic play nice with itself. All the magic users in the group felt their domains relax and fill their rooms ¨C as long as they kept the changes to simple materials this was actually a way for magic users to collaborate. The group then recreated a ¡®fuzzy¡¯ connection ¨C adding in some uncertainty to its source. All rooms had a walkie talky black box with a purposeful low quality to its signal ¨C letting them speak to each other and exchange how and what they were doing but removing an interfering variable with the device. Maddy made some with her sound and connection concepts while Richard made the others. This ¡®bad¡¯ connection let them talk without messing up the magic ¨C They could be lying after all ¨C and there was enough background noise and interference it might not even be them. Finally they actually had to start making all the components and machines or spells for their rooms. Everyone distributed jobs and began slowly building what they could as needed. One of the most important loops ¡®as created¡¯, was centered around the way mana could create matter with a higher degree of efficiency. Magic cared about ¡®meaning¡¯ quite a bit more than ¡®mass¡¯ and simple raw elements with no direct purpose were relatively ¡®meaningless¡¯ at the end of the day. Jess was their forge ¨C creating more and more effective raw materials in her bubble. Aether didn¡¯t care about anything as silly as meaning. Matter is matter! It claimed ¨C the amount of energy contained in a gram of iron was the same in both spoon and block form. The amount of physical energy contained in a block of wood was greater than a thin phone, no matter how much more complex the phone was, the wood burned better at the end of the day. After passing blocks of raw ¡®matter¡¯ from Jess through James and then towards Richard, he could begin extracting energy from the elements converting mass to energy in various chemical processes. The goal was something akin to fission or even fusion¡­ but he hadn¡¯t figured out how to make nuclear energy sources from her blocks just yet. Maddy on the other hand was dreadful at creating raw mass from nothing ¨C the way she had bent her magic did not lend well to creating something from nothing even with her creation affinity. What she could do with increasing efficiency was destructive transformation. She could convert the ¡®physical¡¯ weight of Richard''s chemical byproducts (or even Jesse¡¯s blocks) into various substances using their ¡®weight¡¯ to help fill in her ¡®reality¡¯ requirement. Or in scientific terms she used converted the raw energy from the matter she was given into more complex but less energy dense forms. In more concrete terms. Maddy¡¯s main export was water. With her water concept and experience she could create small amounts of near pure water from nearly any matter she was given by stripping out physical concepts that didn¡¯t work and shoving in her own. Passing that ¡®product¡¯ back to Richard he could turn it into oxygen and hydrogen with cheap Electrolysis ¨C and this whole loop was a net positive loop meaning they had a slow but steady source of oxygen as needed and hydrogen that could be burned to recoup costs or jetsoned as needed. Of course Maddy could also create plants and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen in a small greenhouse-like room which gave them a very slow but steady source of food ¨C and she could ¡®upscale¡¯ that food by melting it with raw materials to create ¡®more¡¯ of a blander food source or transfer excess plant matter to Richard for burning or processing. Troy had less interlocking system potential and so his job shifted towards being their scout. His was the only room with a clear window and he was practiced at shooting light through the window at any enemies they might face. He could also create matter for any of the resource loops as needed but his creations cost him a lot more than Jess and were unstable enough they were less useful for conversion. Some of his light arrows packed a heavy amount of energy Richard could measure and his importance would jump if Richard figured out how to get nuclear power from them. Finally there was James. The most important hub point in terms of transferring the dozens of different materials between each area, his other job was in the thrust department. Sure his power might completely fail to move them in the depths of space, but at least on planet he could remove most of the initial struggle. The amount of energy needed to move about in space or even land and lift off the moon was drastically smaller than the amount needed for liftoff. James helping them gain a escape velocity drastically reduced the difficulty of their goal. They had a parashoot just in case but James would presumably help them land on planet as well. Days upon days passed as they worked and soon they were ready. They were heading for the moon. They were heading for the system. Chapter 110. I’m pretty sure NASA had a harder time reaching space. ---James--- Everyone spent the week leading up to liftoff differently. Richard made alloys of different metals and material ¨C typically in various vats on the ground. He then spent most of his time physically submerged in the molten materials. ¡°Helps yah think¡± He claimed while treading lava ¨C although he seemed more distracted by the experience than anything. Considering Richard then needed to pump materials into vacuum chambers to help purify the metals afterwards, his hands on experience certainly didn¡¯t help their purity¡­but at least he got to show off? Everyone ignored the uncomfortable fact his clothes couldn¡¯t withstand the environment, and his butt occasionally popped out when he swam from one side to the other. Maddy in comparison flipped between melting runes into her various rooms and hunting down monsters she needed to help finalize her spells. She would gather monster parts in a pile and then physically melt them down in dissolution vats before finally feeding that ¡°essence¡± into different runes to help complete them. It was a way to gain single use concepts she didn¡¯t own, reinforce her magic with ¡®death energy¡¯, as well as way to push some mysterious ¡°more¡± into each spell with all the melted parts she didn¡¯t understand. Jess practiced creating more and more energy dense blocks ¨C when she wasn¡¯t helping hunt monsters ¨C and Troy was nearly absent with how much time he spent hunting. Finally, their preparations were complete and everyone found themselves entering the patchwork craft from different hatches. Less a rocket and more a fat and short plane-cabin-submarine hybrid, the craft was subtly strange. It had dozens of micro wings and a massive round fishbowl on the top to start. It was also way too wide ¨C when looked at from above it was vaguely shaped like stubby triangular prism with bristles. Way less aerodynamic than seemed appropriate. Way too many moving parts than should survive a trip through the atmosphere. It looked closer to a submarine than a rocket at the end of the day but even that was a bit of a stretch. Unlike old world rockets it didn¡¯t have multistage ejection sections. Instead, almost a quarter of the craft was an incredibly dense layered battery of crystals and goop. Theoretically there were plenty of materials Richard could have made for even more compact storage methods¡­but his goop had the amazing property of being nearly weightless ¨C despite how much kinetic potential could be stuffed in it. The crystals weighed a bit more, but they were sliced thin and protected with a shock absorbing matrix. The second biggest reason for the craft¡¯s strange shape had to do with environment. Technically shape didn¡¯t matter in space ¨C and unless there was an atmosphere on the moon it wouldn¡¯t matter there either. Drag and air resistance theoretically mattered quite a bit in the atmosphere of their planet, but while in the planets aethersphere/manasphere they also had quite a bit more freedom with solutions. Richard had left the kinetic equivalent of a battering ram on the front ¨C the largest source of resistance would hit the shield instead of their craft and the shield transferred near zero force to the craft below it. It was technically based on some of James¡¯s abilities, but Richard was the one to actually replicate it. As the five entered separate hatches and closed seals behind them, bits of the rocket began to activate in subtle ways. The wings retracted slightly and then pushed out again. A window tinted dark then clear as Troy fiddled with his cockpit. A trail of eyes appeared popping in through a crack in the final hatch ¨C And then a countdown started. ¡­ James stood in the center of his room the palms of his hands resting against the ¡®roof¡¯ above him. The system and changes it had made to his body had finally achieved its main directive. Removing consequences. Preventing permanent injuries and turning the experience into strength. It had taken nearly two full weeks from parrying a nuke for the numerous problems to finally stop. Over the last while he¡¯d been forced to deal with shakes, pins and needles and those weren¡¯t even his least favorite part. Spasms of power being released by his veins and strange wafts of incredibly hot nausea ¨C those were both somehow worse! At least it was over. He was as good as new! Better even ¨C considering his body had almost healed back stronger. As proud as he was of surviving, James wasn¡¯t keen on facing the storm head on again. No, today they would off on a different type of challenge. James breathed and noted a countdown begin to tick in the corner of his AI. It was time. One minute to liftoff. With a mental nudge, James opened a hatch below him watching as the floor fell away. As the two sides fell, a small amount of mud he had tracked on slid down the composite floor tumbling into the grass below. James of course was floating ¨C although one hand was currently holding a metal bar giving him the illusion of a great pullup. Fifty-three seconds to go, How did you lift yourself up by the self? How did you lift something you were standing on? How did you complete the neat trick of reaching around, grabbing your shirt and picking yourself up into the sky? What about with weights? You didn¡¯t. At least not directly ¨C as fun of a mental trick that was and as flexible as his magical hallucination could be. James¡¯s original flying method was closer to an air-based hovercraft ¨C or one of those water based jetpacks. He transferred the force down to the ground below ¨C or nearby objects through an ethereal one-way column of continuous ¡®pressure¡¯. Back when he first gained this ability he could only ¡®fly¡¯ a tiny bit above a forest by pushing off the trees. At some point James had broken that distance requirement and now the truth was that he was ¡®pushing¡¯ off the aethersphere around him. The exact mechanic involved ¡®freezing¡¯ chunks of aethersphere in his surroundings and then pushing off those chunks like they were the ground. Essentially, he used something like slow mana or a kinetic drain to prevent a section of space from moving and then used that as a foothold for his original skill which now had a much much smaller range. The foothold was about as sturdy as a ball of water and he was essentially treading water every moment he spent in the sky¡­but it was still a foothold and he made dozens of them even moment. If you pretended he was swimming in an ocean, he was doing the equivalent of using ice mana to freeze bits of water and then jumping off them as he ran about. Of course, ¡°freezing¡± the space wasn¡¯t perfectly accurate ¨C and he wasn¡¯t making a single foothold at a time but dozens of staggered ones. The space was actually less frozen then shifted into a more structured form¡­but it was still a pretty accurate analogy and helped James¡¯s picture things better. The only reason he was even able to power this constant effect was by constantly siphoning energy from the gravity around him ¨C he both effectively made himself lighter as well as used the energy to fuel some of the cost of this whole system. Understanding exactly how his flight worked revealed how hard it was for him to use it to lift a whole craft ¨C especially while inside of it. Technically he was ¡®freezing¡¯ the aethersphere ¨C not the air or materials around him¡­but because of a spacial link between the two it meant if he stood in the middle of this ship and pushed, he would be slowing down the craft below him while trying to speed up the craft in front. The only way to get around that was to stand at the very bottom of the craft and push his distance to the absolute max to keep pushing off the space below the craft. It was even easier if he removed the floor below him ¨C hence the hatch ¨C and his current position involved him pushing the craft upwards in a superman pose. Forty seconds. Time seemed to be moving at a glacial pace. James¡¯s eyes wandered about the grass below him, flicking to the two bay doors then activating them slightly to make sure he could close them at a moment¡¯s notice. His plan was to shut them as soon as the atmosphere began to drop. James nervously flipped hands ¨C dropping his first hand to flex his palm slightly as he gripped the other in turn. This was going to be hard. He could ¡®carry¡¯ himself with barely a thought ¨C could float for literal days without stopping but that didn¡¯t scale at all to being able to carry such a heavy load. The difference between being able to swim and being able to swim with weights. Knowing exactly what his skill did had helped him train a bit ¨C suppressing each part to Increase the load on each portion of the skill felt a bit like doing triceps and biceps separately¡­but he was still ages away from being able to carry the whole craft about unaided. Thirty seconds. James¡¯s circuits were overstuffed with vibrating power. He had eaten plenty of energy-dense food, as well as stored as much external force as he could in his circuits over the past few days. Then in the past few minutes he had overstuffed those already stuffed stores by absorbing the energy from some spinning dials. It was currently far far beyond his natural regeneration. It felt like he was buzzing ¨C the energy wanting an outlet. It felt like his blood was a raging river swirling around and nearly bursting out of its banks. There were actually a few points James was certain they had ¨C bits of his bloodstream that had exploded and healed into larger ¡®chambers¡¯ where whirlpools of black blood could spin endlessly. Twenty-five seconds. Had Richard pranked him somehow by making his clock take several times as long to tick? James bent his neck and held the craft above him grabbing on to both handholds and resting his neck against a soft pad he¡¯d set up for this purpose. He shifted a few times then closed his eyes staring at the countdown in the pinkish black of his vision. Soon. You might wonder why he wasn¡¯t just abusing his reflection considering it didn¡¯t care about how heavy things were. It was fun to say he flipped the direction of a force and should be able to just constantly flip the direction upwards in an infinite power glitch¡­but the reality of his other potential ability was a bit less practical than that. Essentially when changing the direction of a movement vector, James was creating 100% perfect elastic collisions at an angle of his choice. When using his domain and activating the ¡®collision¡¯ before something even touched his skin, none of it even touched him ¨C and activating it without his domain meant the collision lasted as long as his reflexes allowed. Because it was ¡®perfect¡¯, none of the energy bled through to him and because it was ¡®perfect¡¯ the energy of the collision didn¡¯t even effect whatever was colliding ¨C nothing James flipped crumpled as its direction was forcefully changed. When picturing the act in a magical haze of control he usually imagined grabbing a ¡®vector¡¯ and twisting it into a new direction¡­but his regular skill use felt closer to a simple ¡®push¡¯ directing all movement away. The skill did have a continuous cost and any constant collision quickly tired it out. Trying to use it to block a squish or acceleration, for example could overwhelm it depending on how strong the constant force behind it was. If someone dropped the entire craft on top of James, he would be able to bounce it back upwards without a problem. This skill didn¡¯t create force however ¨C only changed its direction by rotating it around invisible axles ¨C and it didn¡¯t even fully deal with ¡®force¡¯ as much as it felt like it did. It dealt with momentum ¨C with velocity, barely caring for magnitude or mass. Trying to use it to create movement from nothing was hard and exhausting. It meant punching something and then reflecting the rebound in a double tap. Trying to fly with that sort of bouncing ability would involve thousands of flips while James only had the stamina for a few dozen every few minutes max. The only use the skill would have on their trip was steering ¨C James could roughly fix them if they started curving too much or jerk them sideways on the rare chance they might hit something. Ten. The countdown in James¡¯s HUD began to blink slightly and suddenly it was ticking way too fast. Five. Two. One. James shoved ¨C feeling like he was being rushed despite the long countdown. Below his legs began to jerk and kick slightly as he struggled to lift the craft. The energy in his circuit roared at the release and began to calm as soon as it found an outlet. As streams of power grew in his body James slowly but surely felt the shear wall in front of him begin to bend and break as the craft rose bit by bit ¨C wobbling slightly despite its stabilizers. They rose almost a meter before the craft began to slow. His skill was switching away from pushing off the ground beginning its push against the magical atmosphere. Suddenly the force above him lightened. The nearly unbearable weight dropped to a steady pressure as the ship began to help him in dozens of small ways. His gravity syphoning had been impossible to replicate in the time they had ¨C they couldn¡¯t use the gravity acting on the ship to fuel it no matter how much they tried. They could however block gravities touch slightly lightening the load by nearly half. Using a similar concept to most ¡®void skills¡¯ they even got to fuel most of the cost with the syphoned energy meaning this ¡®weight reducing¡¯ field was incredibly cheap. Two exhaust vents near James¡¯s feet began to blow steady streams of a cheap aerosolized compound they had discovered helped James¡¯s ¡®pushing off¡¯ bit and his skill began to catch a firmer and firmer foothold. The craft began to rise once again. Slowly but surely moving upwards. Accelerating to start but then quickly settling at a steady pace. James continued to push ¨C struggling against the wall above him for as long as he could. The craft rose at the speed of a fast hot air balloon ¨C not a rocket. Its ascent was relatively slow in the grand scheme of things and almost laughed at James¡¯s effort. Two and a half meters per second. A near constant speed that was barely rising no matter how much James pushed. Thanks, ship readings. Didn¡¯t Richard mention old world rockets reaching a speed of 8km/s? James needed to accelerate. He needed to push them faster! Puuush! They continued to rise ¡®slowly¡¯. James tried to ¡®push¡¯ the idea of ¡®speed¡¯ into the craft ¨C tried to accelerate them from a different angle. Tied to struggle in different manners like a swimmer switching between breaststroke and backstroke. None of the changes really helped increase their speed.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The craft was just too big for his power to effect. His domain fit tightly around his skin ¨C his range couldn¡¯t wrap around the whole structure even if he tried. Technically something would affect the entire ship in a reflection? James threw a few exhausting reflection pushes in just to see if he could feel the way they effected the whole craft eating the extra tiredness. As disappointing as their slow ascent was, every little bit he pushed helped them immensely. It reduced their dependency on the batteries and increased their likelihood of reaching their goal with such a quickly made craft. Sure, they were currently ¡®spending¡¯ power to fuel the crafts helpful additions¡­but those were a fraction of the craft¡¯s kinetic propulsion. And, As disappointing as stretching his pushes in different ways not increasing their speed was. It did help with endurance. Like switching muscles when working out as soon as one began failing. An estimate blinked on his HUD showing how long it would take for them to reach space and how likely the battery was able to reach there on its own. Below him the ground fell away ¨C their green island surrounded by dried mud beginning to recede in his tired vision. Focusing on the ground below helped distract from the burn of his domain ¨C Even with all the help this was a marathon. A test of endurance if anything. The estimate flipped yellow showing that ¨C assuming everything continued working as it currently did ¨C they should be able to reach orbit if he stopped now. James continued ¨C a faint chill beginning to surround him as the atmosphere dropped fast enough for him to notice. The cool temperature felt good on his aching form even if his physical body wasn¡¯t stressed that much. Very quickly James began to notice his breathes were coming up short ¨C even his old breath defense was being overwhelmed as the air pressure dropped quicker than it should. Activating his domain, James pushed just a bit further with his second wind. He grabbed and held onto air nearby ¨C struggling to hold it as tightly as he could. He did the equivalent of pushing with all the separate ¡®muscles¡¯ he had stressed individually ¨C sharing the load between them all. He roared slightly in the thin air kicking his feet like he was swimming pushing past mental barriers to keep going each and every second more. The estimate flipped green. Now even if the aethersphere disappeared this very moment and killed a lot of their ¡®magic cheats¡¯ they would still reach space using nothing but the conjured matter thrusters assuming nothing strange happened. His 100% line. James barely had enough energy to flip the bay doors below him closed before he collapsed. As he lay on the ground heaving, he could hear various airtight locks beginning to seal the crack below him from multiple angles. They whirred and clicked in his ear as he lay there fading as soon as he rolled sideways onto his back. Slowly a grin began to stretch across his face. Pumping a single fist a few times, James lay and revelled in the phantom burn covering his entire body. His physical body hadn¡¯t done much but his soul burned from the exertion. His veins were spent - the roaring power gone as it took focus just to keep moving his stagnant blood about his body manually. Still... He had done it! Others might not consider it as impressive as some of the other things he had done but that wouldn''t change the joy filling james! It felt great like pushing himself always did. After resting a moment without moving to continue propelling them, the system seemed to agree.
??? Achievement get: Big Lift.
Description: Overstressed your domain by lifting a significant mass over nine thousand meters into the air with minimal aid.
Stat: Soul power. +9 Stat: Soul speed. +3 Stat: Soul defense. +3
Stingy wasn''t it?
---Richard--- Richard moved between various physical readings ¨C scrolling his cockpit chair back and forth as he did even if he was physically located near the bottom side of the ship. This was great! Everything seemed to be working just fine ¨C better than fine even! They probably could have spent a few more weeks and gotten a fully automated solution but they just didn¡¯t have the time. This wasn¡¯t like an RPG where you could spend an infinite amount of time trundling around side quests ¨C the bosses would wander away and burn down the world after getting bored of waiting! Richard received a flickering notification to show James was about to end his kickstart ¨C man was a fucking beast with his stamina ¨C and Richard began to slowly push the kinetic thrusters into an active mode. A minute later James stopped, and Richard twisted the mental dial to 100% before they began falling. 52 minutes. They should throw James a party for that effort. It couldn¡¯t have been easy! The rocket lurched upwards and began to accelerate but Richard barely noticed the change with his passive kinetic resistance. Everything was going as planned, although some of Richard¡¯s sensors were picking up strange readings. Gravity was dropping faster than it should. Same with atmospheric pressure and a slew of more subtle measurements that should be a smooth curve. What was happening? Richard stared at one reading that said the gravity acting on their ship was essentially zero not 10 minutes away from the point James had stopped pushing. That¡­shouldn¡¯t be possible? The whole craft suddenly lurched as if crashing through something and Richard watched in alarm as the same sensor spiked as if showing they were currently flying above a planet with 9 times as strong a gravity as the earth. His atmospheric sensor began picking up heavy readings of sulfur for some reason and heavy static began rushing through his analog speaker. A muffled explosion rang out and Richard desperately wished he was the one with a view of the outside. What was happening? Just before Richard fully began panicking a scratchy voice came in over the speaker ¨C Troy. ¡°One of the devices Richard had outsi-----the ship just blew----for no reason.¡± His voice came through sounding like something out of a bad horror movie¡¯s broken radio. Static cycled and weird artifacts popped in the background ¨C the effect stronger than it should have been. They wanted a tiny bit of noise to help scrub the connection of interference¡­not this? A weird chittering sound rang in the background and Richard half expected a little ghost girl to start telling them to run or something. A device blew. Shit. Okay. Richard finally calmed as he understood what had happened ¨C the aethersphere was gone. Simple answer really. The sulfur reading must have been the sensors tetra-erbium and di-terbium ardor-sulphides breaking apart. Richard knew most of the simple sensors would fail without the athersphere keeping some of the more complex chemical bonds stable¡­ but he hadn¡¯t imagined it would be that quick! Didn¡¯t he have a sensor that was supposed to tell him when the aethersphere disappeared? What was it doing? Richard looked at the ¡®okay¡¯ signal querying the device a few times before frowning slightly. Nothing. It was dead ¨C dead and forced into an ¡®on¡¯ position where it constantly fed him back a positive signal. The signal itself was a small repeating pattern ¨C it should not ¡®fail¡¯ in a stable position. He¡¯d specifically built that sensor to account for all sorts of problem! Sure it was untested but Richard had been confident! Suddenly Richard froze. If that failed¡­what else was failing? He made to check something his eyes widening when his instinctual connection to a new receiving node felt off. Pushing aether through the node¡­took a bit of effort. It felt like he was used to dumping water down his connection arms and now he was dumping molasses down them! Frantically activating different devices Richard nodded to each that worked and frowned at each with problems. The ones with problems still worked relatively well ¨C but had a few standard deviations of error from their expected results. Each ¡®problem¡¯ tool went in a separate pile. Time out for the tools to think about what they had done wrong! Richard would study them to see what was different ¨C Hey! Were the insulating layers still in place? Richard had made several layers of insulation ¨C each with their own methodology. One was an ¡®extra dimensional¡¯ layer comprising of skill shifted sheets bonded to regular sheets and overlapped around the entire outside. He had also created a near molecule thick layer of insanely compressed carbon placed in a pattern mathematically designed to prevent flow through it ¨C and those were just two of his barriers with the highest chance of success! There were pure aether ones that should work on their own even if the barriers themselves were created from aether¡­they should all work! They were attached to projectors on the inside of their bubble not the outside! The diamond sponge alone was based on a formula saved from the previous zone ¨C one specifically designed for isolating aether from the surroundings. Was there a leak? Was the barrier not aethertight? What about the cockpit? The ¡®window¡¯ had a few of the stronger insulations on a retractable cover¡­was that the leak? Was it working and this was just the natural result of leaving the planet? What about James¡¯s hatch. Had it shut properly? What if something caught in it leaving a microscopic hole? Richard moved to his microphone and began warning everyone to keep an eye out for leaks or strange side effects. They needed to stay on top of things. It wasn¡¯t too late to turn around but that was coward speak ¨C This whole trip suddenly began to feel a bit more dangerous and Richard felt nervous even if his mouth kept flicking into a grin. This was exciting!
---Jess--- Jess sat in a room alone. It was stuffy and she was bored ¨C she understood¡­but she also didn¡¯t fully ¡®get¡¯ why she couldn¡¯t spend the trip with Maddy. Troy too if she were generous. Even if mana and aether didn¡¯t work together shouldn¡¯t it be fine if two magic users bunked? Even if they didn¡¯t work together, they shouldn¡¯t break each other¡­right? Jess had spent plenty of time with her friend before after all and it had never been a problem till now. Suddenly Jess felt an uncomfortable tingling fill her body and the newest bar of energy dense barrier she was creating began to twist and expand out of her control. She stopped when it was ten times as big as it should be and the consistency of sandy sponge. What was going wrong? Jess reached out and began to slowly extrude a single disk of barrier ¨C noticing the way her mana almost strained to keep its form. Maybe if she activated her domain? She tried tugging her regalia into existence, straining to materialize the comforting golden armor ¨C bit by bit a liquid barrier began to drip down her chest as the breastplate materialized first. It should have been near instant ¨C the whole armour should have appeared! Leaving just the breastplate activated Jess tried forming a barrier again all of her protective concepts pulling and stretching it as her mana Suddenly it buckled as if it had a mind of its own. Struggling Jess slowly began to regain her control ¨C the breastplate helped her but not as much as it should have. For now, fuel creation could wait. She needed to practice as much as possible in this strange state. If they were attacked, she needed to be ready.
---Troy--- Troy stared out at the darkness of space. His ¡®cockpit¡¯ was a dome that came down past his feet giving him a wide view of the entire surroundings. There was a cover he could pull up over it, but the sheet currently lay crinkled on two sides. His eyes flickered between the pane of magic glass and a few magic monitors that showed views of the back and bottom sides. Everything was silent. It felt like space was sucking the sound out of his surroundings ¨C muffling everything into an almost painfully silent stillness. Turning on his shoddy radio, Troy pressed a ¡®speak¡¯ button then sent a message to Jess. ¡°How are you holding up?¡±. The radio blared with static for a moment before he heard her familiar voice. ¡°---control is get--g harder. I¡¯m surviving.¡± Troy frowned slightly, rousing his mana and forming a light arrow. It took a bit longer and sparked occasionally but other than that looked fine. Drawing his mana up towards his eyes he focused, allowing the light mana to enhance his sight. It hurt slightly ¨C a pain that wasn¡¯t usually there ¨C but the change was minimal. Cycling through the rest of his regular abilities he nodded at the change. Yep. Surviving was a good description. Far away and to the side he could see the edge of their planet. Squished in on the other end of his view he could see the moon in sharp relief. Countless Individual craters were visible to his eyes ¨C despite being hundreds of kilometers away he could see all sorts of strange activity on the planetary body. Like objects had been dragged about in a desert ¨C massive scars of movement littered the place and near one end he could actually see what looked like a large structure just barely peaking over the edge of its horizon. That was their goal and yet he couldn¡¯t help but stare down at their planet instead. It drew the eye ¨C It looked so strange. Nothing like pictures of earth. So incredibly green ¨C even with the massive brown desert that used to be their ocean. There was no sign of any water left. Visible as an offset ring below them, Troy could see the barrier splitting the planet in two reaching up kilometers in the air and slowly curving away towards the unknown half of the planet. Supposedly the location where their tutorial and subsequent trials had been kept. Strange that ¨C how had that even worked? If different dimensions were possible, why hadn¡¯t they just shoved every instance in a different dimension? Troy stared down, noting the different landmarks from above. The clearest two were the storm and forest. A massive black splotch that flashed occasionally and a patch of darker green. The storm followed an erratic aimless path without rhyme or reason. The forest spread after it like mold. Together they looked like someone had drawn a scribble on some software ¨C a special effect brush following the point of a stylus. There was what looked like a dark red desert in a triangular shape revealed by the disappearing water and a mountain range large enough to be visible as a clump of grey. It was mainly just green. The majority of structures were too small to see from this height ¨C even when enhancing his sight. The planet looked scarred. That was Troy¡¯s main take away. If he had to describe the planet he had one word for it. Abused. It felt faintly sad. Hopefully this was just a period of growth and the planet would start looking healthier in the future. Troy dragged his sight away and went back to keeping watch. Nothing could sneak up on them while he was scouting. Nothing.
---Maddy--- Maddy felt like she was suffocating. It felt like she was a fish thrown out of water ¨C Maybe that was melodramatic. It didn¡¯t feel like she was dying but the feeling was still incredibly uncomfortable. Even as the suffocation fell, and she got used to the feeling, bits of her fell away in a new horror. It felt like she were a cloth doll slowly being unraveled. Like she were melting ¨C and when she observed herself from another perspective, she noticed most of her eyes were glowing or smearing a residue on her various rooms. That too was a feeling that started to fade ¨C if anything it felt like the more Maddy coated the physical rooms in her ¡®body¡¯, the less damage hit her eyes behind them. It didn¡¯t change the fact that bits of her kept getting peeled off and rubbed on the walls and floor ¨C didn¡¯t change the way it hurt or felt existentially terrifying as bits of her were lost against her will. The only two ¡®eyes¡¯ that felt ¡®safe¡¯ were the two puppeting her body and even those felt strange and uncomfortable. Itchy. Dry. Out of place. The connection between her eyes was strained ¨C it wasn¡¯t cut off cleanly like when one eye had entered a dungeon. It was closer to being damaged. To being constantly injured and healed ¨C an incredibly small damage between all the eyes on the ship but a massive one towards her eyes back on the planet below. It was as if she had made pipes between her eyes and those pipes had just been dipped in vats of acid ¨C like her connections were fleshy tubes laid between continents and tiny piranhas had just found them. Tiny chunks of her skill were broken ¨C something was nibbling on lines she had taken for granted. Something was grabbing strips of it and pealing them away microscopic hair by hair at a time. Instead of cutting the cords off to keep her sanity, Maddy clung to the damaged lines ¨C pumping life mana into them from every single life eye as she struggled to keep it safe. If the lines to the planet were cut, could she still reincarnate? The eyes with her resurrection pool were down on the planet below. If she lost this link was her safety net gone? Besides the pain and obvious damage, there was a delay. A delay between when one part of her mind started a thought and another finished it. A delay between communication and a sense of resistance with each message. As her connections were healed and her transference concept was stressed, the ethereal wires between her eyes began to drift closer to ¡®reality¡¯. The closer they came to physicality the less damage she received. As soon as she realized that Maddy began writing. She melted half her pile of garbage and fed the essence into her skill dragging the spell into an unstable editable layer and tacking on her rough addition. Tiny fleshy wires began to grow throughout the ship as Maddy worked ¨C purple roots that connected each eye through tunnels originally meant for sound and teleportation. The roots glowed slightly as she ran light through them ¨C like fiber optic cables containing her thoughts and soul. She had to break a few physical barriers to complete it, but finally the web was done and damage faded. There was still a massive amount of ¡®damage¡¯ happening to the connection between the web on this ship and her eyes below but by combining all her separate threads into one, the ¡®cost¡¯ fell away to a more manageable level. Every single eye was connected to every single other eye but Maddy braded the connection between her spaceship eyes and her ground eyes into a single cable in a painful panicked few minutes of self-surgery. It was strange. Her new cable was a personal connection and yet it almost ¡®looked¡¯ like more was being transferred through it? Microscopic motes of concepts and essence only visible to her reality sight ¨C lines of information piggybacking between the planet and ship, entering and disappearing into the atmosphere of each as they arrived? Maddy hesitated before picking up the radio with her body and sending a quick message to Richard. He might have a better solution. If anything, he needed to know the situation ¨C aether could handle this stress in a way that mana could not. Chapter 111. Triple ones means its time to cripple guns. ---Richard--- It took nearly an hour of calm maintenance before the strange oddities came to head. You know the static filled radio? The Spirt box like effect? Yep, it was haunted. 100%. Richard had fucking called it! It hadn''t even been a surprise when the creepy ghost girl crawled out of the wall and tried to bite his head off. She wasn¡¯t very sneaky ¨C kept pretending to be his friends and whispering weird stuff like ¡°open the hatches! We reached land!¡± In Troys voice or ¡°Try drinking that acid I bet its tasty,¡± in Maddy¡¯s. All through the speaker. As if his friends could see the stuff he was picking up. Not very subtle. She had giggled when he drank the acid in dominance then booed when nothing had happened for fucks sake. Well, whatever. If anything ¨C finally being able to see the source had brought any initial terror Richard might have had for the unknown way the fuck down. Richard tried shooting the spectral menace with rubber bullets, but they passed through harmlessly. Same with stabbing random blades ¨C she was incorporeal and kept trying to trick him into smashing his stuff. He wasn¡¯t going to pull out his regular rounds ¨C those thick stone bullets were strong enough to deal serious damage and the inside of his cabin wasn¡¯t quite armored enough to survive countless cannonballs. Nothing Richard did could hit her ¨C not even swiping his connection hands although he thought he might have almost grabbed the monster once... The only bright side was the way she couldn¡¯t hurt him in turn. She would either scrape harmlessly against his skin with necrotic talons, or pass through him with barely cold wafts. She had started to smash his stuff or try and foul up the physical connections to his friends, but Richard had turned to his newest ability ¨C sharing his defense with the surroundings to halt that. He kind of wished he had started this sooner ¨C it took up the entire regeneration of two connections to maintain over the full room, but the room itself felt better in every way. Even the resistance his aether had had faded. Even better the longer he ran this effect the less it cost and the stronger it became. Now they were in a sort of stalemate. Ghost girl had given up after a while, choosing instead to sneak around with the occasional lunge or swipe. She would jump at him with crazy faces as if she were an actor in a haunted house trying to frighten him. Annoying. That was his final verdict. Annoying. ¡°Aren¡¯t you bored of that?¡± Richard asked after a while staring at the specter¡¯s gaping face ¨C she had unhinged her jaw and filled it with thousands of teeth before rolling her eyes around frantically. ¡°Were you once a human? I haven¡¯t figured out if ghosts exist or not and it would be great if you¡¯d answer a few questions.¡± Richard asked. ¡°Join me and see¡± The spectre giggled, rotating her head like an owl. ¡°So... are you a creature existing in a different plane and phasing in and out of this one? Are you like¡­a memory in the aethersphere? A free-floating soul entity phased out of the skill plane and into this one?¡± Richard asked grabbing a clipboard. ¡°Soul. Soul! Rip out your soul. Rip and tear and shred and bleed!¡± The specter screamed. "I''ll put you down as a maybe." Richard sighed before trying again. He was going to figure this out one way or another. Sadly the spectre really wasn¡¯t a very good conversationalist or this might even be fun.
---Jess--- Jess was not having a good time. The claustrophobic death trap she was on had tried to eat her! Walls shrinking in and growing teeth. Claws and fleshy appendages that tried to scratch or crush her. Who let walls decide to become mimics? She had a bone to pick with whoever had that bright idea. Jess kept getting tossed about as strikes smashed into her golden armour, and every time she ¡®killed¡¯ a portion of the wall by smashing a fleshy core she was splattered in disgusting gore and slimy residue that refused to wipe off. She could kill the room and gain some peace but every hour or two it would reappear. Exhausting ¨C she didn¡¯t even hope it would give her more time as the longer the room took to recover the stronger it was when it finally attacked. Were they going to die here? Had anyone died? Was she all that was left floating in the belly of a beast and far from shore? Was anything she did important? Jess wiped a layer of slime off one of her finished ¡®barrier bars¡¯ and then tossed it into the chute heading to James¡¯s hub. The chute licked its lips and crunched her bar a few times before swallowing it. Were any of these bars even reaching him? Would anyone care if she stopped? Flopping down onto a golden chair Jess sighed and began creating another block of barrier. She really didn''t like space.
---Maddy--- The void piranhas nibbling on her connection wire had found her. Following the cord all the way up to her body, they started popping into view every few minutes drawn towards their tasty eyes and unprotected flesh. It was surprisingly hard to defend herself ¨C hard to kill creatures that teleported up beside her to strike. Hard to kill fish-like creatures without ears or eyes when her attacks moved through vectors of sound and light. Two of her eyes had already ¡®died¡¯. Their bits of her ¡®soul¡¯ had been captured by a web that couldn¡¯t sustain them for long, then shoved down the cable towards her reincarnation vats so the cost wasn¡¯t permanent. She couldn¡¯t keep them around ¨C not unless she built a physical receptacle for her souls on the ship. Something she might actually do if she had some free time. Just as an extra safety net in case her ¡®cable¡¯ broke. As is, it took everything in her to stay alive ¨C every moment she spent was on putting out fires. Every eye with life mana in their affinities had a near empty pool with literal drops of their power coursing through the vine network and healing damage to her ethereal cable. She had 8 of those eyes left alive on the ship. Of the remaining eyes, two were ¡®wasted¡¯ on her maintenance job. Her dark-destruction and light-creation eyes. Coming down a chute, a steady stream of ¡®garbage¡¯ trickled and every time it reached a certain point, her dark destruction spent its whole pool melting it down into possibility. Her golden fae eye collected the possibility and created water in its place ¨C feeding a portion of the result back for hydrolysis and a portion towards her oxygen farm for CO2 scrubbing.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Both eyes did more than just activate the two-sided spell ¨C destruction damaged and erased every concept in the garbage that was detrimental to the reality of water, and creation stretched out and bolstered the resource she was given with her water concept. Both were spending a near optimal amount of their mana and had only needed help and donations near the start. Of the eyes that remained, she had Light-destruction. Light-death. Pure destruction. Pure Darkness. Pure creation and finally creative-death. The rest of her eyes such as dark-death were back on the planet below, tending her reincarnation vault or currently ¡®dead¡¯ and regrowing a body. Maddy hesitated for a moment then swapped out her two maintenance eyes for pure destruction and pure creation. The two eyes were happy to take over as if looking to prove themselves¡­which was a strange thought as they would only be proving themselves to her. She would be proving herself to herself in a way. The new pair ¡®picked up¡¯ the reins of the spell, feeling the momentum it had gained and trying their best to keep it going in their own way. They struggled with their metaphorical reins before slowly but surely shifting the spell bit by bit as they took over. The pair¡­felt strange in Maddy¡¯s collective consciousness. These eyes were simpler in some ways. More instinctual in their actions. They were wholeheartedly her but a combination of a smaller initial slice of her soul and less focus had changed them fundamentally. They had grown. Grown almost without her noticing them ¨C and yet grown more unique than her other eyes. All the eyes were affected by their bodies. Each and every eye had an innate sight from her second rank ¡®perk¡¯ that synergized with the mind contained in each eye. They saw the world in different ways and let that cloud their opinions and viewpoint. Siblings as she often called them despite their shared mind and soul. In comparison, her pure eyes felt like they were a step removed from the rest of them. If she had to describe it in a metaphor, her best description was that they were tribal. The rest of her selves wore suits and dresses or skirts, but the pure eyes wore leaves and war paint as they danced in the wilds. Her void eye wore obsidian jewelry and had a crown like shards of glass. Her reality eye wore white seashells and a necklace of pearls. They looked different and felt different. That difference made itself known in the way they took over her multi-affinity spell. A tribal dance and song of purpose. As dark destruction faded, the black box of melting void shifted into a sound isolated and enhanced chamber. Destruction sat on a simple pedestal rousing her mana and allowing it to slowly flow through her runes. Pure destruction needed a vector for its effect and sound was her main tool. She destroyed slivers of air allowing the cavitation bubbles to pop and ¡®beat¡¯ like a drum. The cavitation bubbles were both the source of sound and a crack into the void ¨C they carried a resonant song of oblivion as they spread through her chamber and the garbage. Pop, a whisper from the void spoke. Pop, join the sea. Pop join the spray. Pop join us in play. Become us. Become none. Become one. Each pulse felt like the waves of a rough ocean crashing against the reality of the garbage. They wore everything away, bit by bit shaking loose meaning from the waste of their world. They smoothed over the matter they crashed against ¨C teasing out grains of meaning like sand then drawing them back as the waste melted and decayed. Not even her container was safe ¨C the floor began to melt as she stripped layer after layer of reinforced material off the ground leaving a fine sand in its place. Beside and yet separate, Creation started up as well. She created sound from nothing ¨C the continuous warbling sounding like flutes one moment and string instruments the next. The illusion of water fell apart without light mana, but water was clear. Transparent. It should not need light to create ¨C it was a marvelous material required and desired by all! It begged to be created. The simple reality was strong and firm! All it really needed was a push! A nudge! Together the drums blended together with the wind and string instruments and a key part of the symphony became complete. Pure water condensed as if out of the air, then flowed away into the unknown as the two eyes danced. From an outside perspective both eyes bounced slightly in place in sync to the music they shared. The rain dance continued and the rest of Maddy¡¯s focus pulled back, shaking her mental focus as she tried to clear her fascination and focus on the practical. She needed defense. Offense was the best defense for her, and together her eyes hatched a plan. Light-Destruction and Light-Death each created orbs of deadly light combining and splitting them into dozens of weak but constant fields of danger strong enough to bleach all her rooms. Dark Maddy and Dark Creation Maddy worked together to wrap all her surviving eyes with protective shrouds of darkness ¨C this was part of an old, abandoned spell. It didn¡¯t work well when she tried to protect her allies from her own spell and the pairs of deadly light were otherwise too indiscriminate to otherwise deal with around friends. Monsters popped into reality then burned. They stayed alive for several minutes at a time, but Maddy¡¯s shroud blocked and hid her enough she survived the assault. Light creation. Death creation. The only two eyes left mostly free to deal with future problems. Both flitted about the ship repairing damage her other eyes were doing. They only spent small amounts of their mana pools to repair and reinforce anything and everything they could. Hopefully they would reach their destination soon.
--- Troy --- The monsters that came for Troy were shaped like rocks. Sharp meteors that flew towards them unnaturally as if flung by something hiding just out of sight. They were infrequent dangers ¨C one appeared anywhere from minutes after the last to hours after¡­and each required Troy to hit them with a fully charged powershot. They came from different directions ¨C as if testing to see if he had blind spots. Troy hoped they didn¡¯t find the absolute back of the ship as he wasn¡¯t fully confident on curving a shot around in the vacuum the same way he could curve or bounce an arrow through the air. He had tried a clever glancing shot infused with a reflective payload to try and divert the meteor away from their craft¡­but that meteor curved back towards them, shifting its form slightly as it did. Troy had to rush as fast as he could to pull a second shot on that meteor and the strange resistance his mana had outside of their planet had damaged his arms with how hard he had pushed through it. It was exhausting ¨C Troy was near certain allowing a single meteor to hit their craft might damage them permanently and with how hostile space was while safe in a vehicle, he did not like their chances without it.
---James--- James sighed as premonition twinged and his shield pulsed into place, blocking an attack from behind. Turning he regarded the monster in curiosity. Where were they coming from? They appeared from different sides each time ¨C so there wasn¡¯t a single hole they were sneaking through. Maybe the simplest answer was the correct one. They appeared where he wasn¡¯t looking. In the corner of rooms ¨C in his blind spots. The creature looked like a lamprey with legs. Its front stood upright, and its back curled around it as it lunged towards him springing across the room at the speed of sound. James punched its head off and threw its corpse in his corpse pile. It was starting to overflow. All of these bodies deflated after death ¨C hours later the first creature he had killed was nothing more than a sack of leathery skin while ones from an hour or two ago looked like blow up dolls with half their air gone. From the corner of his eye an instant pulse of light. It was instant. But James had his domain active after the first premonition and the lazer bounced harmlessly. It refracted off his cheek then began to burn a hole in the wall beside him. "Shit, stop that." James yelped then lunged forward reaching out into an empty space and grabbing the throat of a second monster this one invisible and full of lasers. Crack. Another assassin for the body pile. They should have designed their spaceship with better monster disposal ¨C should he dump them down Richard''s chute? Make them someone else¡¯s problem? Richard could pass them along to Maddy? No they might gunk up the chutes. James could deal with a little mess. With a series of clunks one of Jess¡¯s drop-offs landed at the end of her chute. Wandering over James noted this one looked chewed on. Hefting the block a few times James shrugged then tossed it in a second chute headed towards Richard. Probably fine even if it was slightly nibbled on. Now that he had killed a pair, maybe he could finally have a moment to study the strange way his power was moving about. He felt on the verge of an epiphany. This hard to move power¡­It felt¡­strangely good? James might be weird but he liked how physical his mana now felt. He liked the extra weight his aether gathered as he struggled to pull it towards his AI. It¡­it might be strange but somehow it felt almost more¡­ more ¡®real¡¯ the harder it became to use. More realistic. It had a weight. A physicality that proved to him it existed even as he threw his internal manipulation at it with all his might just to achieve things he could do without a care before. He could feel flesh inside his body rip and tear as mana refused to pass through solid flesh smoothly. He could feel new capillaries form as his circuit bled through new passages. Feel the way his body became stronger the more it struggled against his power. This was mana in its natural habitat? This was aether without the system giving him training wheels? James¡­James didn¡¯t know if he wanted to go back. Chapter 112. Hexagons are Bestagons. ---Richard--- Landing safely on the moon was less of a hassle than lifting off from their planet had been. Fuck, they needed a name for the ol¡¯ rock didn¡¯t they? Richard kept wanting to call the planet, ¡®earth¡¯ just based on familiarity...How did you go about naming a planet? Just start tossing names to see what stuck? If someone else had claimed a name you¡¯d think they would have marketed it a bit more¡­but maybe knowing the name of the planet was more important for people looking down at it than those existing on it? Should Richard throw his hat in the ring? Call the place Steve? Objectively the best name for a planet. Meh. Either way, just the ships batteries and zero external aether propulsion setup was enough to land and liftoff from the lower gravity well. Assuming they had time to refill energy stores between each use they could do it as many times as needed. The exact spot they had landed was a bit less than a kilometer away from the biggest visible structure. Richard found himself suiting up for a scouting mission before the kinetic dampeners had even finished draining. His sneaky spectral companion had tried cutting into his spacesuit in a visible manner ¨C there was a great big jagged rip cutting down the side of his blue jumpsuit when he went to pick it up. The large gash drew the eye but the spectre had also tried sabotaging the suit in a subtle way. One of the internal hoses was crimped and there was a tiny needle wide hole in the back of his fishbowl-like helmet. Both easy enough to fix. It was almost a shame they had landed and were interacting more, because as soon as the engines were off and he admitted to his friends what was happening, Maddy came by and solved his little problem with an ease that made hours of attempts to kill his monster useless. How and why did ¡®life mana¡¯ ¨C the frequency combination and texture that was linked to various forms of bio manipulation ¨C damage an extra dimensional ¡®ethereal¡¯ entity? Sure video games had holy mana or white magic as good against the undead, but reality didn¡¯t work that way ¨C right? Was his monster even an ¡®undead¡¯? Had she ever been alive? No those were all the wrong questions. It clearly worked that way. The real question for a scientist was why. Why did it work that way? Was it because bio manipulation could effect the body of a creature hiding in a separate plane in a way it had no defenses against? Like poking a hole in a spaceship and letting them vent out into space? Was it really just because of the perceived dichotomy between ¡®death¡¯ and ¡®life¡¯? Some sort of belief based phenomena as annoying as that sounded? Richard¡¯s mind kept rolling over the idea even as he stepped off onto the white dust below. Mental stats had clearly done a number on his attention span. There was actually a single point he could remember the shift. Ever since he swapped his standardized and advanced AI from the previous zone with his new handmade one. That was it. That¡¯s the moment he noticed ¨C although it had probably been affected well before then. Maybe the switch did him in because his homemade neural connections were a bit fucked? Maybe using his blood and purified silicone as ingredients had synergised with how stats healed the body but instead of improving them it broke something? Focus dumbass. You¡¯re on the moon. Navel gazing can wait till you¡¯re bored and and in a less interesting location. Richard jumped and soared across the dust in an unnaturally small but long lasting arc. ¡°One small step for man.¡± Richard spoke into his suits radio then laughed at Troys static filled response. ¡°It¡¯s the general kinetic defense, One moment¡±. Dragging his kinetic defense down, Richard jumped again ¨C this arc lasting a similar amount of time but pulling him much further along in a much more natural arch. ¡°See, stat field has a sort of drag. You haven¡¯t seen it before? Watch this¡± Richard jumped then had his AI pull all of his defense into the specific type of movement defense that slowed him down right before the tip of his arc. Richard seemed to pause ¨C a statue of him hanging in the air for over thirty seconds before he noticeably began to drift downwards once again. ¡°Most people have a low amount of knockback defense. I¡¯m not sure anyone could survive with this much of it long term.¡± Richard waved back at the ship before turning back to the task at hand. The structure ahead of him was incredibly simple. It was nothing more than a raised plateau of sorts ¨C a multi story building kilometers in diameter and roughly circular if you squinted from above. The roof was made out of the same material as the ¡®natural¡¯ moon although it was processed a bit and polished to an almost reflective smoothness. From above it looked like a pressure plate or maybe the head of a giant nail pressed nearly all the way into the surface. Roughly once every kilometer and a half around the circumference of the structure there was an arch and sealed doorway combo. Sixteen doorways spaced evenly about the ring. Troy had spotted them and directed them to land as close as possible to a doorway just in case. Close as possible meant roughly a kilometer away to the nearest door. 10 minutes if Richard stayed focused and kept at his current pace. As Richard approached the wall and began to walk along it, he scanned the surroundings for danger. One stone hand on each foot pulled out of vacuum tight interlocking seals and brushed the ground. They each scooped out handfuls of stone-like playdough then stacked them in the shape of a small snowman. Good. He could manipulate the ground. Assuming the structure in front was the same, that meant he could bust through the walls if needed. Of all of them Richard was the most durable and most of his durability was unaffected by the environment. There was a good chance he could survive for some time outside of his spacesuit and after surviving that long there was a good chance his defense would adapt to the point he could survive indefinitely. If anything went wrong ¨C if anything broke his suit ¨C he would be safe or at the very least the safest. That¡¯s why he was the initial scout instead of Troy ¨C although depending on what he found, everyone else could follow him in. He was wearing a suit anyways because even if he could survive there was a good chance it would hurt. Monster spawn had dropped as soon as they landed on the moon. Nothing new had appeared as Richard got ready but who knows how long that might last. Approaching the doorway Richard half expected it to slide open as if waiting for him. Instead it sat there silently ¨C a large strip of sliding metal patterned with blocky spirals. Slowly panning his head across the doorway, Richard noticed a protruding metal rod near the one side. It was a different style and shape but maybe? Reaching out with a connection hand, Richard struggled to connect through the vacuum. He stepped forward to make it easier and then with a satisfying sort of click he felt his connection slip into place. After pumping a steady stream of aether through the door it flickered slightly and began broadcasting information along simple radio waves. Handshaking the connection with his AI, Richard gained a few simple controls and opened the door successfully. Should he head in alone? Call for backup? Richard paused then decided it would be more fun with company. Sending a ¡®all clear¡¯ back to their ship Richard studied the air lock in front of him as he waited. It was strange. Mmmm yess. The mysterious duality of door strikes once again. What are you hiding criminal scum? If Richard had to describe what felt off to him, well ¨C the opening looked both more and less advanced than he had imaged it might be. Like a warehouse door mixed with something alien? It looked like something no one was supposed to see and yet if it was completely a service entrance, why the spiraled decorations? If no one was supposed to see this door, why were there so many of the fuckers around the structure? If they were supposed to find them¡­well why weren¡¯t they nicer? Richard had half expected a permeable barrier you could just step into. A wall of air you could walk through in a single convenient step¡­Richard had even made membranes like that in his experiments! Sure those had been to hold water in place, not protect air from a vacuum which was a much greater pressure difference but it couldn¡¯t be too hard¡­ Now that he considered the problem, a barrier like that would cost massive amounts of energy to keep running¡­that sort of luxury didn¡¯t make sense for a place with little to no traffic. It would also leak aether like crazy so this was probably better for insulation. ¡°What¡¯s inside?¡± James asked bounding into place beside him with a small cloud of dust. ¡° ¨CWaited for you of course. No clue what¡¯s inside yet. Anyone else coming?¡± Richard asked glancing back and answering his own question. Three suited figures tromped towards them in a line. ¡°No one wanted to stay after taking the whole trip here. Maddy left a few eyes but that¡¯s it.¡± James confirmed. ¡°Figures. What do you think is inside?¡± Richard asked shaping some stone into a bench and sitting back. ¡°You know those digital art representations of computers? Bunch of floating numbers and green holographic grids?¡± James said after a pause. ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think its going to be like that¡± James finished then nodded with a serious look on his face. ¡­ A few minutes later everyone had arrived and successfully stepped into the air lock. With a mental flick of a switch, Richard activated the room and watched as the metal sliding door rumbled back into place. The moment it was behind them, a ring around it flashed and caused the edges of the door to soften then cold weld themselves in place. A wash of ''something'' filled the chamber and all of their suits were suddenly misted with what looked like a transparent pink sheen. Like transparent paint or maybe vacume sealed shrink wrap? There was just enough time to feel slightly restricted and stiff as the outside of their suits resisted movement. Were they being captured? Had they walked into a trap? With a soft whoomph, the room filled with air ¨C a near instant dump of atmosphere and near instant balancing of the pressure in the room. Somehow the pink sheen acted like an external source of bludgeoning defense ¨C and equally as impressive as soon as it entered the ¡®air¡¯ the sheen began to evaporate off them. Roughly five seconds after the outer door closed and the inner door was already open. It beckoned them further in a soft light leaking into their relatively dark airlock. Richard popped his helmet off and took a deep breath. The air had a similar sort of duality. It smelt like a hospital but¡­also gave him a feeling of the outdoors? A fresh smell Richard was nearly positive was linked to high oxygen content. The massive room around them was tall and filled with large pillars that spread off into the distance. If Richard had to guess based on distance to the far walls and vague pizza slice shape, this entire disk shaped building with its 16 doors was split into 16 separate ¡®rooms¡¯. The room they were in now was around 9 meters tall and over a kilometer long. The pillars were all staggered in a offset pattern and lit by small rings of light on both the top and the bottom. The nine nearest columns were brightened somewhat, showing both the stone ceiling and floor while the rest were dim and barely illuminated their surroundings. It looked almost like a field of doughnuts or something as light rings spread out in every direction. ¡°What is this place?¡± Jess asked her helmet also off and under one arm. ¡°Fuck if I know¡± Richard shrugged slipping out of his suit and piling it up near the door. ¡°It looks like a parking garage¡± James said after a moment then lifted himself up into a floating position. ¡°Partially setup like the planet?¡± Troy asked after noticing what James was doing. ¡°Mana is still more physical¡± James nodded. Troy frowned slightly as he raised a hand to extrude a few glowing arrows. ¡°So where do you think we should go? Head for the center?¡± Jess asked rejoining them after folding and placing her spacesuit beside Richards. ¡°It''s as good a direction as any¡± Richard shrugged then began walking towards the point of the pizza slice. As they walked Richard slowly created a theory this whole area existed solely to intimidate them. It hadn¡¯t looked that tall to start but as they travelled and were surrounded by more and more empty space it began to feel imposing. Every little sound echoed faintly and the columns near them brightened then dimmed as they walked past.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. That proximity based lighting just about hid the far reaches of the room. They could still see them but it was cast in so much shadow you could squint and pretend this stone mausoleum stretched forever in all directions. Everyone grew slightly closer together as they half expected they would be attacked by monsters at any moment. It was almost worse when they weren¡¯t ¨C Richard wished they had passed a monster or two. Then they could shoot the fucker and move on. It felt like they were due an encounter and that encounter was delayed ¨C what were the game creators thinking? Leaving such a perfectly good scene empty? Embarrassing. The center was a circular enclosure with a open service door in the middle. As they stepped through the group was nearly blinded by how bright the inner ring was.
?? Achievement get: Out of Bounds: Conditional Sequence Break (Special)
Description: For reaching the physical location of your local server cluster before settling your planet.
Reward: Pending
Richard''s passive defense meant he barely noticed the light differential but everyone else blinked furiously missing the moment the floor below them vanished. No ¨C the floor hadn¡¯t vanished, simply turned transparent. More transparent than glass it truely looked like they were standing in the air. Surrounding them was what looked like a circular waiting room. Chairs arranged in groups. Some plotted plants with unique colours. A pillar of water in the center of the room filled with alien fish ¨C you know? Standard waiting room decorations. All of that was overshadowed by the fact they appeared to be floating in the air far above a massive chamber. Below them roughly a hundred meters down and extending out of view on all sides was a room full of servers arranged in a hexagonal grid pattern. Each ¡®hex¡¯ was a separate block of machines. Some blocks looked ancient ¨C full of wires and leds. Others looked futuristic ¨C with floating panels rotating around one another. Richard could see most blocks repeat ¨C there was a line of three hexes each containing what looked like 40 modern desktop PCs boosted to the gills with RGBs then a wooden ring of roots surrounding a cyclic plant with UV lights pointed at it from all sides. After the plant there was a bucket full of what looked like metal sand constantly shifting and vibrating like sand on a speaker. Then, directly after was another block of Desktop PCs. There didn¡¯t seem to be any pattern to their placement ¨C maybe when you zoomed out the cells made a giant face? Individually each hex looked entirely self contained. No wires connected the cells ¨C no floating cables of light or common connection. If the cells interacted with one another it had to be done wirelessly although Richard couldn¡¯t pick up anything from any of the communication lines his AI was equipped with. Before they could finish drinking in the sight, a movement drew Richard¡¯s gaze to the far end of the floor. Smoothly levitating into frame a platform of three hexes moved towards them. Pausing directly underneath the platform rose upwards in an arc only to pause directly below them as if taunting them. G, R, K. The three bulky machines were eached stamped with a character. They were the computers Richard had been shown in visions. The computer hosting R and his helpers. And they had served themselves up on a floating silver platter! ¡°Alright, Guess we Smash the floor and head down there¡± Richard started to say pointing towards the computers even as Troy cocked an arrow. ¡°Flip em upside down and shake em for their lunch money!¡± A gleaming silver arrow descended at an angle only to bounce sideways with an incredibly strange sound and flash. Everyone managed to get a hit in, but Richard instantly lost faith in the idea once he noticed the rainbow sheen flickering off each hit. Below them leds on G¡¯s computer flickered rapidly and Richard was instantly reminded of the barrier cutting through their planet below. This barrier¡­was probably as strong as that one and was effectively invincible. Could they get around it? Head back and try and drill through the ground in the pillar area? Richard flexed a stone hand as he looked behind him. If they were smart the barrier extended directly under the stone on all sides but it couldn¡¯t hurt to try. Before the charade could continue, a hologram began to form in the center of the room, special effects floating about it even as R solidified into something that looked solid. ¡°Hello! Welcome, Welcome, We don¡¯t often get visitors.¡± R laughed ignoring the way everyone was in the process of smashing the floor ineffectively. ¡°Champion, Unactivated general admin. Unactivated Specialized Admin-Select. Maddy, Her bodyguard. Full house today I see¡± R spoke affably nodding to each of them as he named them. ¡°Oof, You going let him rinse you like that Troy?¡± Richard called but the simple archer just shrugged, not seeming to mind. ¡°Now then, I applaud the initiative. You are mostly outside of the scenario right now so some rules have lightened¡­but I also have to ask. What did you hope to achieve by coming here? I have a reward I can influence right now but the longer we wait the more it decays so act fast.¡± Everyone slowly put their weapons away before turning to Richard expectantly. Richard made a big show of looking behind himself then pointing as if confirming they wanted him. ¡°This was your idea, you get the talking stick¡± James nodded. Fuck. If it''s not the consequences of my own actions. ¡°Alright then. Talking stick acquired. Ahem. Stalling¡­pretend I¡¯m saying something funny¡­ Alright! I¡¯m here on behalf of my client here who you¡¯ve tasked with undermining the artificial conflict.¡± Richard began. R made an impatient looking wave of his hand. Decaying reward. Right. ¡°Fine. Remember how you kept mentioning the reward of getting to shape our planet? Erect statues to ourselves. Mould the laws of reality, all that jazz? When does that happen and can we start doing that now? You see we set off a bunch of bosses to direct the conflict away from each other ¨C brilliant job we did there ¨C but now we are stuck with the monsters and we figure a few of those reality bending rewards might help. How does that work and how can we get on with that.¡± R¡¯s hologram sat down on one of the waiting room chairs and gestured towards the surrounding ones. Richard walked over and sat down with his hype squad following along behind him. ¡°Here¡¯s how it usually works. Either Aether or Mana prevails and the moment the vast majority of the planet falls to one side or the other contribution is tabulated. As soon as that happens the world is put on hold and a choosing season begins with the method this choosing gets framed influenced by which side won. ¡°The other option for triggering this is for the world to rank up into a state with more possibilities followed by a defining event that happens to show a path towards both sides surviving. This option is what you are working towards and James represents the seed for this path considering his dual alignment. ¡°The very first Choice offered is centered around how the future choices will be presented. To who, the method of agreement, if choices are spread out or all at once, The number of choices that can be made, the main method of agreement. Etc, Etc. ¡°Following that choice a list of common ¡°choices¡± get offered. These are presets based on existing worlds and are offered based on analysis of your species and average desires. Following that point, individuals with desires strong enough or contributions high enough to get noticed can offer personal wishes for review. If any wish offered is uncontested, but a large enough population is indifferent to it, the option gets deprioritized and implementation is left to the inquirer with minimal aid from the system. ¡°Typically similar decisions or decisions that directly affect one another get placed in the same period. Typically the less important or less impactful decisions get placed at the end so those who don¡¯t care can leave early or observe the rest of it. ¡°The standard main method of agreement is to vote on the options and then provide a method of contesting decisions. Upon a contested decision, the most common solution provided is violence. A raw contested war is when all the entities that care enough about the decision on both sides enter true combat against one another until a victor is decided and the decision is confirmed. A managed contested war has rules for disengagement or safety nets to prevent death. A competition battle would pit the two sides against monsters instead of each other and depending on the decisions previously contested decisions can be decided in lesser challenges, battles of wit or champion duels or whatever else your society cares for.¡± R finished. As soon as Richard nodded R continued. ¡°The system is based on fairness. It weighs effort, desire, agency and prioritizes those goals by the number of individuals effected. You could use your reward from reaching this point to force a choosing earlier than possible, but balance dictates you would not be able to participate in the choices presented and the choices are bound to be influenced by the calamities still alive negatively. Instead, You could use your reward to remove a single calamity from the board but doing so would not effect anything else that happens. You could use your reward to bias some decisions in the following choosing season but not force anything. ¡°You could request something specific you think might help you in your goal and because of this wonderful location I can cheat a bit to sneak you something extra¡­but even though you have reached this point it is not enough. ¡°There isn¡¯t a way to cheat the scenario even if you¡¯ve come all this way. You have to beat calamities and allow their essence to rank up the planet before the timeline completes naturally. No bypassing that.¡± R finished. Richard looked to his friends. They had come all this way and it looked like they would be getting quite a bit less than they had hoped¡­ ¡°What do you mean by cheat a bit to give us stuff?¡± Richard asked hopefully. ¡°Currently the potential of you flying here as a group ¨C balanced as a shared achievement ¨C gives you roughly 81 specialized stats each. Now closer to 70 or 20 free stats if you prefer because we waited. A well intact concept can be exchanged instead, or a decayed specific one could be created. Finally a relatively strong item can be traded instead at my discretion with the potential of an external item remaining cheaper than permanent personal strength. You can also combine rewards forgoing a individual reward for something communal.¡± R finished conjuring holograms of each option and laying them in the air in front of him like an invisible table. Richard looked back at his friends once more then turned to R trying to think about what might count as cheating. ¡°You referred to me as an Unactivated general admin. Can you activate me?¡± R paused then slowly responded. ¡°Unactivated in this case is more a factor of the world being unactivated. I cannot give you access to worldwide power systems that do not exist.¡± ¡°What can you give me? Can you give me more control? A way to use my mantle now? A way to test the so-called admin controls in a small area maybe?¡± R paused for a longer moment then smiled suddenly. ¡°I do have an option. If you sacrifice and bind your personal nest, I can fold your authority into it allowing you to change ¡®rules¡¯ as you say in a limited area. This would be permanent and prevent you from specializing in a different method in the future. As a plus you¡¯ll be able to access the ability right away without waiting for the planets settlement. ¡°That''s what I pick then. I¡¯m sorry this was a lost cause. What do you all want?¡± Richard turned to everyone else. ¡°Give me a random concept. That''s more useful than stats right now.¡± Troy requested. ¡°Done,¡± R waved then turned to Jess. ¡°My mantle is unfinished¡­can you finish it? Get me something like Richard?¡± Jess asked causing R to pause. ¡°Your situation is different, I can fill in some of it, expedite your process and give you more weight towards finishing it?¡± R asked in clarification. Jess paused for a moment before nodding. ¡°Okay!¡± R nodded. ¡°That removes some of your smaller steps. What''s left. There are two monsters in your world, a bog hag that lures children into the dark to be eaten and a night reacher who works through dreams. Your mantle cannot form while they are still alive. There are also seven individuals on the planet who oppose your mantle¡¯s'' goal strong enough to prevent you from becoming an absolute. They all have different reasons for not wanting children to be protected but their mantles of slavery, lust and self fulfillment directly prevent you from completing your own. I¡¯ve improved your mantles ability to track those obstacles and given you a compass as you haven¡¯t built yourself the magic to do so yet. There is someone else on your planet with a similar goal to you so I added a compass for them as well. Ignore them or seek them out as an ally to your own discretion.¡± Jess nodded slightly seemingly satisfied with the results no matter how small they seemed. ¡°Can I have a concept for filtration in as whole a state as you can manage?¡± Maddy asked causing R to smile slightly. ¡°Counter offer, go on a date with me. We can speak of magic and love, I¡¯ll bend the rules even more, We can hold hands.¡± R offered waving one of his hands flirtatiously. ¡°Pass, Can I have the filtration concept.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll teach you plenty of secrets outside of the scenario, A filtration concept is but the start.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be pushy. Will you give me my reward or continue to hold it hostage?¡± R frowned then waved a hand theatrically. ¡°Done, And you my champion, Anything you need? I¡¯m paradoxically less able to bend the rules for you adding to what I¡¯ve already done.¡± ¡°Can you make my mana physical at all times?¡± James asked and R started to laugh. ¡°The default state of mana is ¡®physical¡¯ as you are referring to. Do you know how much infrastructure goes into making its interactions ethereal for the ensouled? Most monsters don¡¯t have your boon. That''s why they need physical organs and physical mana cores to collect and direct abilities. ¡°When you perform magic you push mana through your body and out of your skin ¨C without the infrastructure in place that sort of movement can damage you. Rip holes in your flesh and cook it with your flow. Are you sure you want to reject the convenience the current system gives you?¡± James nodded ¡°It feels better, Feels¡­more real. I¡¯m closer to it that way.¡± R smirked and nodded ¡°Usually worlds that remove that default do so because they wish to free up the systems cost for other things. Blocking you from the change is essentially free. I can throw in some stats as well¡± James pumped a fist ¡°Free stats¡±. ¡°In that case, rewards are complete and the benefits reaching here have provided are spent. There isn¡¯t alot else you can gain from remaining here so I will be taking my leave.¡± R twirled a hand and began to fade from his seat. ¡°Wait, is that really it? We can¡¯t control anything from here?¡± Troy asked as R slowly turned to dust. ¡°We can¡¯t start the choosing early or gain any extra control¡­¡± R spoke even as he vanished. ¡°A final allowance but say¡­if you were to return just as your world enters choosing you might be able to push some choices up to the front. The system won¡¯t let you make decisions for everyone without their agreement but you can certainly gain quite a bit of contribution if you do so from here.¡± And with that R was gone. They tried asking a few questions but didn¡¯t get any further responses. Below them the platform with the three computers began to drift away slowly. ¡°Well¡­I guess we move on to plan B?¡± James said after a moment. ¡°Back to the planet I guess.¡± Troy sighed. ¡°At least we tried.¡± Chapter 113. Monster Hunt. ---James--- The trip back to their home base was similar to their liftoff. Technically not uneventful ¨C They had been jumped by jellyfish-like moon goblins on their way back to the ship after all. The group also needed to deal with a heightened stream of monsters the whole ship ride back¡­but monsters were more of the same? James hadn¡¯t felt truly in danger so the whole trip felt like a training session where he adapted to his mana moving like molasses and pooling about his body. Occasional laser attack from a corner. Occasional silent assassin from above or poison-spewing sentient blob of snot. Nothing that important. If James was being honest, the next week was an uneventful but fulfilling training session as well. Maddy was preparing some poison or something she thought might take down the mountain. Richard was completely isolated in a stone box playing with his new toy. Jess had left on a quick quest to defeat some nemesis or something and Troy was completely distracted by trying to integrate the concept of glistening dew into his abilities. So what James did alone was fight countless small monsters forcing himself to adhere to random restrictions each time. He even made a game of it ¨C randomizing a brainstormed list of restrictions with his AI and accepting them no matter how bad of a matchup they might be. At one point he had to fight completely upside down. Another wearing the heaviest vest he could make in an hour. Another covered in slime. At one point he had to remain as stiff as a board ¨C rotating his body about with his kinetic energy was even harder when he couldn¡¯t direct the flow with his limbs. At another point he picked a single rock and declared he couldn¡¯t attack or touch any monster without using this rock. Imagine being that attached to a weapon. All those physical restrictions paled in comparison to skill ones when it came to growth. By restricting the type of skills he was allowed to use, James found himself improving by leaps and bounds. One of the more subtle but effective restrictions was to only allow himself to use his aether lens or his mana lens. So much of his current power centered around swapping back and forth between lenses and abusing the strange sort of in between state where the mindset of one let him influence the power of the other. By setting that abuse aside and spending hours or even a day at a time with one lens or the other active, James began to understand the differences on a deeper level. The ¡®two sides¡¯ also had some benefits that only grew with frequent use and by committing to them for long enough the benefit only grew. The largest ¡®benefit¡¯ James could say for using skills with his aether lens was that it truly felt like muscles. Using a skill or collection of abilities with aether ¨C or even better, overusing it to exhaustion ¨C and then allowing it to settle left it stronger than before. The exact reason for that was closer to a slow physical crystallization of esoteric residue insulating pathways ¨C or a path of least resistance being burnt through a material warping it into ¡®conducting¡¯ flow better¡­but James liked to think of it as skill-muscle fibers. There was a direct correlation between working out and pushing himself with aether. This growth wasn¡¯t an infinite hack, growth usually slowed after a while until your tier increased but it was a slow but steady growth through repetition and pushing yourself to the limit always seemed to nudge that limit farther along. This method of improvement had only grown more pronounced as his aether stopped disappearing into another dimension to teleport around instead of through his flesh in that slippery wishy washy way. Because aether was a field of something resembling energy without particles, it could flow around and through atoms no matter how tightly packed they were. Just because it could flow through his flesh didn¡¯t mean it passed by unimpeded ¨C James bled from every orifice and frequently burst his skin with black blood every time he pushed himself now. It was undeniably slower ¨C some of his skills taking over twice as long to activate now. But even that felt like growth. The more his body adapted to this state, the less damaged he got. The more his aether burst through his skin, the more pores seemed to form as permanent pathways were healed in to place. And James felt an undeniable sense of quality rise because of it. He was refining his body in yet another way. The power that passed through was more ¡®his¡¯ than ever before. Mana on the other hand didn¡¯t seem to care at all about the actual path it traveled through ¨C even though it cared deeply about the meaning of traveling through that path. It cared about ¡®Shape¡¯ not ¡®shape¡¯ in that way that was hard to describe with words at least for him. James could use the same mana skill through any of his body parts for example ¨C even if he ¡®built¡¯ the intent for his concept in his hands, mana let him pull the power through his body and pop the ¡®spell¡¯ out his feet without any side effects. On the other hand, if there was some conceptual tie between a body part and a skill that he broke by shifting it, the skill would weaken while putting in more effort to reroute a skill with aether would not. James¡¯s favorite memory of his aether training was the time he was hit by what felt like a tornado of projectiles. A swarm of tiny borrowing creatures had controlled thousands of sharp spikes like a hive mind of telekinetic hedgehogs. James had locked in and dodged the majority of the projectiles while feeling like he was in the matrix. Sure he could have tanked the spikes ¨C they were incredibly sharp and incredibly fast, but neither mattered to his ¡®armour¡¯ after all. Something about jerking his body about for several minutes of kinetic-diverting, sped up matrix-dodging had felt sublime. Mana skills on the other hand didn¡¯t grow through physical repetition ¨C they grew through the meaning of repetition. They grew through his understanding of them and the meaning of the effort he put into them rather than the actual effort. It had the same result ¨C he could pretend they were the same ¡®thing¡¯ and yet while experiencing the two side by side, it was fundamentally different. In other words, while both grew with time and effort, they did so in parallel. The best part was that while switching sides ¡°reset¡± some of James¡¯s progress there were still permanent gains left behind. ¡°Resetting¡± his progress had the bonus effect of increasing his overall limit. 1 increased to 10 became 3 increased to 15 became 5 increased to 19. James¡¯s favorite memory on a mana pure training spree was less an event and more an achievement. Restriction resulting in strength was a law of magic but the act of restricting himself so often and in such a wide variety of ways¡­ the shape of his actions you could say ¨C had grown into a pseudo concept. No longer just an arbitrary action he was taking, it was now a distinct power. Beyond making it easier to restrict himself ¨C a mental block that made it harder to break his self-imposed rules ¨C the concept and way the concept solidified was bent towards his goals. Not short-term power but long-term growth ¨C It was like there was an invisible ¡®growth modifier¡¯ whenever he tapped into the power that made his gains larger whenever he restricted himself with the concept. The week passed in a blur of training and suddenly it was time. James almost didn¡¯t want to stop for the pesky goal of taking down a mountain ¨C he was physically and mentally addicted to the feeling of growing stronger. Maddy provided James with an entire barrel of green goo she claimed was a spell ¨C and a pair of eyes to direct the spell. Richard provided him with a long metal pole. Troy followed along as backup and Richard told him to film the whole thing. There wasn¡¯t a complicated plan for this hunt. Maddy¡¯s poison needed to be dumped on an open wound. As long as the wound was big enough it would either work or it wouldn¡¯t ¨C her goo couldn¡¯t just be tossed in the calamities void of a mouth sadly. The majority of James¡¯s job was creating that wound in the first place. Of all the attacks he had seen, the most effective for opening up a large chunk of flesh was the ¡®rod of god¡¯ a group had tried. Sure it had been healed in less than a minute but the attack had still scored a line down the creatures side. Theoretically a nuke had done more damage, but that was wide range and difuse in comparison to the precision strike of a hunk of metal. Maybe if that group had tried dropping a hundred rods of god they might have been able to kill the creature? Maybe if they managed to embed a nuke in the creature instead of dropping it on it? As James approached he couldn¡¯t help but feel they were too late. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. The mountain sat in the remains of the worlds water. A thin foot of water roughly a kilometer in diameter. Not even a lakes worth left for the planet! James could visibly see the edge of the pool shrink as it drained into the bottomless hole that was this monster¡¯s maw. The air was thin enough James had to divert the majority of his energy to grasping bits of it nearby ¨C and even with all his strength it was hard to breathe even this far out. Taking a deep breath James unlatched his rod from the wagon Richard had lent him, then turned to Troy. ¡°Want to be in charge of dumping the barrel of goo? You¡¯ll have maybe 10-20 seconds. Can you manage that?¡± Troy nodded hefting the barrel a few times then giving James a thumbs up. With a smile James slowly lifted the rod spinning it sideways with a grunt then slipping into a small harness in the middle. All along one side of the rod a pair of strips lay ¨C lines of twisting exposed filament designed to lighten his burden. With a flex, aether began to flow along his back bursting out of his skin as it connected to the device and began to hum. A second swirl of aether began to head towards his feet where the levitation skill had migrated. ¡°Be back in a bit. I¡¯ll send you a message when I¡¯m dropping ¨C good luck!¡± James waved then jumped. The air grew thinner nearly immediately ¨C as if the mountains field of vacuum extended up in a funnel. James reached out and attempted to grab onto air, feeling a new burden join the first two. He flew backwards further trying to escape the funnel of vacuum and climb up around it¡­but the ¡®funnel¡¯ kept extending out endlessly. So much air was gone, James felt an undercurrent of dread begin to flicker through his confidence. The danger of this calamity had never been the monster itself ¨C merely the side effect of its continued existence. Why had they messed around with heading to the moon when they could have worked to kill this faster? If Maddy had made her poison two-three weeks ago it would have done less damage to the planet. Giving up on going around, James began to fly into the vacuum feeling it grow worse and worse the closer her grew to the center. This was the hardest step by far. James could feel his reserves dropping quickly juggling his three costs. His training had made him stronger but it wasn¡¯t enough. The lack of air mixed with his exertion and sapped his strength. He could do this! James pushed in bursts and repetitive strains. 50 feet. 100 feet. 200 feet. He couldn¡¯t do this! James¡­wouldn¡¯t make it. If he were being honest with himself this wasn¡¯t going to be enough ¨C If James¡¯s goal was just to drop the metal he would have to reach orbit to gain the kinds of velocity they were aiming for. The goal had never been orbit ¨C it was to get as high as he could manage then ride it downwards pushing the whole way. Because of this vacuum ¡®As high as he could manage¡¯¡­was not going to be nearly high enough. [Troy, change of plans, Can you move the barrel as close as you can manage then prepare yourself to attack as well? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll manage a big enough wound alone.] [No problem, give me a minute then tell me when] Troy responded James forced himself upwards. He pushed and pushed black blood dripping from his nose and dribbling down his back from the pole. [Done] Troy finally sent and with a final burst James pushed himself directly above the ¡®mountain¡¯. Just over a kilometer up. The top of the mountain was just over 100m tall. This would have to be enough. Spinning the pole to face downwards James flipped the aether channeling through the ¡®gravity reduction¡¯ command strip over to the gravity magnification one. Sliding out of the backpack he briefly pulled himself away noticing a visible warp in the air between his shoulder and the strip. Pulling back towards it James gripped the falling spear and began to pull downwards crawling towards the bottom and looking down like a bear midway up a tree. [I¡¯m dropping, get ready!] 30 minutes up. Less than a minute down. Jumping away at the last possible second, James tore his momentum away and threw it at his spear ¨C slowing his own decent while increasing its speed by a nearly imperceptible amount. An ear piercing screech of warping metal and tearing flesh rang out even as James altered his direction midair spotting Maddy¡¯s barrel. Falling sideways James flew passed the barrel wrapping one arm around it then flipping his direction once again. Halfway towards his line of damage a pair of arrows suddenly appeared. One black, One white, the air between them a sharp line of contrast. Troy¡¯s arrows entered the skin silently then imploded, ripping open nearly a meter of flesh. James grabbed his momentum for a second time and gave it all to his payload. With a twist his barrel shot towards the wound. Turning James began to run. His skin prickled in the void, his empty lungs screamed and everything hurt. James¡¯s eyes were blurry and damaged a crack splitting open his vision. Blood was dragged out of his skin from the vacuum ¨C his power ripped away from his control forcefully. But he¡¯d gone through worse pain. His body was less dependent upon oxygen nowadays and he¡¯d fought blindfolded too much for the vision impairment to slow him down. Soon the negative environment began to improve. James reached Troy¡¯s spot and together they backed off. James turned trying to blink away the darkness in his vision before realizing one of his eyes had popped completely. Maddy suddenly spoke from his shoulder and James felt his eye begin to reform. ¡°Thanks,¡± James nodded then turned and tried to observe the creature. The mountain took several minutes to fall and when it finally did it didn¡¯t die in a dramatic way ¨C no stumble and crash to the ground. No roar or explosion of gore. It barely even moved ¨C its mouth closing silently as it drifted away. The largest indication that anything happened was the decay of whatever field the creature had created. Air began to flow towards the creature even faster than before as the controlled suction became an equalizing vacuum. The air rushing in hit the water in the center with a soft womph ¨C a small gustier floating up in the air. And then it was over a juicy achievement popping up for all who contributed.
---Maddy--- Maddy felt immense relief as the mountain died. There was a moment or two there where she worried it wouldn¡¯t work. Days of constant effort to create this spell. Countless reinforcements of melted monsters and minerals. Rivers of mana built up slowly but surely and it had barely been enough! The exact method she had used was simple. This mountain had incredibly high defensive stats. It was barely affected by fire, acid, void ¨C a blanket defense against nearly all damage they could think of. Maybe the creature had low mental defense or something else out of their reach but mental mana was currently nerfed and banned so they weren¡¯t even in consideration. No, the key Maddy had noticed was in the way the creature healed. Life mana. It was also apparent the creature had a specialized body instead of a generalized one ¨C there was no way it would be able to defend against what it did with a goopy generalized one. Most creatures had low to non existent defense against healing ¨C and Maddy had physically seen the creature heal before. Her life-sight had seen life mana swirl to the surface and smooth away damage before. The problem of course was making life mana damage a creature. Making ¡®her¡¯ life mana damage a creature. The solution was in shifting magic. Way back when, Maddy had created spells that could shift between life and death ¨C eggs that hatched into healing for her friends and death for her enemies. Once they had fully landed on one side they were incredibly hard to flip back to the other but she had still managed it¡­and more importantly she was no longer the same person and her goal was always to dip into one side instead of taking a plunge. Her ¡®two sides¡¯ were split. Her death eyes and life eyes no longer a single pool. By reaching for that old magic Maddy found she could with great difficulty recreate the scale and she was no longer bound to the same two elements. She could make a pure mana construct that shifted between dark-life and dark-destructive-death. Stage one of the spell focused on being as beneficial as possible. An external healing designed to flow through the creature in as un-impeded a manner as possible ¨C reaching as many vital areas as it could healing anything and everything the monster might have missed. Like a virus that masqueraded as an immune system, the mana of her deceitful spell didn¡¯t even have a whiff of death in it to start. She had created the purest healing she could imagine ¨C a condensed and refined healing liquid that could bring someone back from the very brink. The monster¡¯s body had sucked in the healing spell like it had sucked in everything else, instinctively pulling such a beneficial wave throughout its form. One eye had been in charge of this section manipulating it from afar. Stage two was the hardest possible part for Maddy ¨C shifting that magic from life towards death. They were both her mana. Both her affinities. Both pools were linked with pure mana at the center ¨C even if she swapped the eye holding onto the reigns of the spell, it should still be hers. A second eye directed this part of the spell before handing it off to the third and final ¡®her¡¯ as fast as she could manage. Stage three was to do as much damage after the shift as possible ¨C the dark destructive death focused on killing from within in a thousand tiny ways. She maintained a link to her external death pool and funneled plenty of that purer death into this one attack. This damage was still resisted by the creatures massive passive resistances but her spell was now closer to vital areas. Even if a large portion of the creature was nearly immune, bits of its biology needed to be vulnerable. It needed to have a core or two. It needed weak points. And from what feedback Maddy had received, she could confirm the calamity had four hearts each hidden behind meters upon meters of flesh. Each heart fell, one by one ¨C the final heart holding on for a nerve-wracking amount of time before falling as well. But in the end all that mattered was that it fell. Finally they were done. One of the calamities was down and Maddy thought she saw a wave of ¡®something¡¯ burst from it sinking into the world around them before fading. One down. How many more to go? Chapter 114. Chaos! Chaos! Chaos! ---Richard--- Richard stared at his missing arm, watching as it slowly healed back into place. Fucking A that was an experience all right. Richard felt enlightened ¨C he had confirmed something all right but for the life of him he couldn¡¯t say what that something might be. What could he do with this information? Nothing right? Rip in pieces. To understand just what Richard was going through, you had go back a week. Step one after ¡®activating¡¯ his mantle and nomming down on his sandwitch nest, was to explore his new capabilities. His existing skill to spread his defense into the surroundings was bolstered by the upgrade to his mantle ¨C to be more accurate it was subverted at its core with only its shell and trim remaining the same. Like before, Richards defense spread through an area, although now the process was quite a bit faster. It was like he was spreading tiny invisible threads in all direction with the space between them filling with goop ¨C like wire bones surrounded by a thick invisible and intangible gel. Richard could deploy this field across a room in roughly three minutes using the majority of his aether. Ongoing costs then dropped to a fraction of a percentage once it was deployed. Unlike before, the goop itself did not resonate with his stat field. Instead the edge of his skill created a thin membrane protecting the inner part. Richard could tell the entire ¡®weight¡¯ of his defensive stats were mirrored across the entire surface area of this ¡®volume¡¯. ¡®Something¡¯ then happened with the inner part that hooked in with his mantle and let him change things. Instead of full access to whatever underlying tools there were ¨C or a completely obscured black box ¨C what he now had was something like a mixture of the two. The default state was nothing. By using his AI as an interface he could ¡®request¡¯ something from the system. After that request and a confirmation detailing any complications, he would be given a new panel with several manipulatable variables upon it. Asking for X would give him back a panel with controls for a, b, c and d. Asking for Y would give him back a panel with controls for c, f and g. It was as if Richard was emailing off requests and getting programs back in the attachments ¨C as soon as he read the terms of service and signed off the liability form of course. Quite a few had overlapping controls while others had nothing he could modify. Some allowed him to apply multiple at once while most were a ''one at a time'' sort of deal. The majority of new states were built off the old instead of a replacement for them. That meant instead of completely changing how everything worked, each request modified the default by adding or removing stuff from it. Sometimes the bits that were added and removed barely mattered. Sometimes they were seemingly unrelated and sometimes the ¡®side effects¡¯ were completely obvious results of the new abilities but mitigating them was a nightmare like pulling off a bad patch on a wall then realizing the entire wall was rotten. One of the very first tests was related to Richard asking for a visible field. Easy enough. First Richard applied it, then selected a nitrogen reaction and wavelength output in the visible light spectrum before adjusting its sensitivity and confirming its main side effects as acceptable. This combination gave every single aether active ¨C and most aether passive ¨C devices an aura of sorts. Minute bits of aether reacted and lit up the air around nearly everything ¨C It was like a heat map with stronger sources giving colours higher on the spectrum. Modifying this test a bit even gave an incredibly useful classification of what ''rank'' various materials were ¨C with the exact colour of light directly relating to its rank instead of just its quantity. Quite alot of Richard''s ''devices'' were a hodgepodge of different colours showing him what the weakest link was comparatively. It felt like using a blacklight on a cheap hotel room ¨C was there really such large holes in everything? The main side effect of this ''law'' was a miniscule drain on all aether devices as bits of their energy was radiated into light. It was such a small drain it was negligible for anything Richard was powering¡­but it was significant enough that the drain damaged previously ¡®stable¡¯ materials and items with esoteric aether heavy elements inside of them. If Richard left an unpowered AI in this field, all of its phase crystals would shatter within the hour as their unique structures weakened and unraveled catastrophically. Considering unpowered AI should last for years without breaking, that change was pretty significant. it also gave a hint as to a single way chaotic aether - or ''mana'' - might break technology by changing a single small rule. The main reason Richard had asked for this ¡®rule change¡¯ was that it lit up the edge of Richards zone letting him confirm its shape and extents much more accurately than whatever feedback the skill had given him. If he was standing in the middle of an empty field the ¡®zone¡¯ would create a blobby shell about him like some giant invisible slime or melted gumdrop. If he chose an enclosed area ¨C like a simple stone box a meter thick ¨C the field preferred filling the container like a liquid. It only leaked out if he actively pushed against it, despite being able to pass through physical materials as it expanded. Shape of the zone aside, Richard next tried fixing the ¡®side effect¡¯ of this aura revealing rule to no longer break unpowered devices using the tools provided to him. By shrinking the reaction range, completely enclosed devices were no longer drained ¨C an AI inside an insulating casing was safe¡­but the useful bit of the law failed as quite a few aether heavy devices no longer glowed. A full request to try and ¡®fix¡¯ this side effect resulted in a completely different law ¨C this one containing dozens of side effects each much more annoying to deal with than the first one Richard had tried. Nothing was truly free in the end. Every state had pros and cons and Richard slowly began to appreciate just how well the default they were given was put together. After a few more tests including ones proving Richard could make a zone mimicking the effects of space and the moon Richard moved on. His current request had started by Richard requesting the ¡®default¡¯ form of aether. Every single law he took for granted seemed to be something built into it. An artificial addition ¨C a product of intelligent design. Every rule change he made was built on the current base and a lot of the side effects were made through interactions with the existing rules. So, simple enough question. What was the original base? What was aether like¡­before the system? What base rules might be hidden as future rules tried to mitigate them? What rules were the hardest to break as they were far away from this theoretical base nature of aether? A simple enough goal but one the chatbot in charge of granting all of his requests seem to want to keep away from him at all costs. Stingy fucker. It being locked up made Richard want it even more ¨C but the chatbot kept drowning him in nested ¡®are you sure¡¯ messages warning of instant death and directive subversion. Finally the messages changed. The response was no longer formatted in obviously automated way. This was personal.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Just saw this, Giving you a one time specialized allowance to create a nested field for study. Don¡¯t tell anyone, it¡¯s mostly legal with your admin status and sub-system creator title, but I don¡¯t want to have to justify the opportunity against fairness laws considering your status should ¡®not¡¯ be activated yet. Confirm ''special sandbox'' then confirm ''oldest checkpoint mimicry''. Notes: Don¡¯t stick your head in if you are attached to it. Oldest checkpoint predates most of the universe and requires active isolation from most natural laws just to mimic properly. You won¡¯t be able to abuse this for a challenge or request this allowance again. Special allowance will break as soon as you leave the sandbox. Special allowance costs quite a bit to maintain so I¡¯m directing the system to dump all monster costs near you in the name of fairness. Longer you spend there the more you¡¯ll have to deal with. Minimal aether controls are available in the sandbox so gather any tools you want first and don¡¯t rely on too high of a tech branch. Finally because your sandbox will be isolated and this is itself an opportunity shaped like a reward, theres a good chance you won''t get any achievements for the experience. Not impossible, but its like gaining stats for gaining stats - the system doesn''t approve unless something else is at play. PS: Request again for base 1-3 if you want less lethal and more useful ¡®defaults¡¯. Good luck ~R
Richard had latched onto his special snowflake privilege. He prepared then notified his friends both to what he was doing and the potential monster swarm afterwards. Then he activated the request as directed, and finally found himself staring at what he could only describe as a miniature black hole. In the center of his laboratory a sphere roughly a meter in diameter floated. It warped the light that passed through it, lensing the sides in strange-looking ways ¨C sometimes twisting it, sometimes not. Sometimes the image fliped or mirroed itself for a moment. Sometimes the colour suddenly inverted or tinted into a monochrome shade. Sometimes the edges of the sphere seemed to freeze and show a delayed view of the room behind it. Sometimes it seemed to stutter and show a view from minutes before or twist and show what looked like the grass of the outside world or a glimpse of monsters. Richard saw what looked like a goopy net of cracked balls that slimed around each other before devouring a massive black and white barrier. He then saw James performing some kung fu against a bear ¨C as if the event horizon of this sphere was a camera showing what James was doing kilometers away. Breifly there was what looked like another lab with three white coated researchers staring back at him - and then it flipped back to showing the room behind but green. The light warping grew worse the closer to the middle it grew ¨C completely shredding into blackness near the center. But this wasn''t a passive view Richard could study for as long as he wanted. Immediately upon activating this allowance, the room began to fill with radiation, as light that passed through the edges without being destroyed it was shifted down into gamma rays and x-rays. Air near the sphere was a bit better contained ¨C whatever the sandbox did prevented the entire room from being sucked into this sphere but it didn¡¯t prevent a thin layer from getting warped just due to proximity. Within a few seconds the air around this sphere had ignited ¨C the warping in space now appearing to be on fire as molecules were ripped apart in a steadily intensifying fission reaction. Chunks of dry ice dropped to the floor and a white goop dripped steadily downwards and then sideways in some unrecognizable reaction. Clouds of poisonous smoke dropped to the floor or flowed up along the ceiling ¨C what looked like a human hand shot out the side of the sphere before bursting into flames and falling into a pile of fleshy charred carbon seconds later. Nothing about this was controllable. This wasn¡¯t some secret trump card Richard could create beside a massive monster before shoving it in. This was a chaotic mess of anything and everything he could barely appreciate as his lab rapidly deteriorated. Richard stuck in a metal pole then watched as it rotated around and up the side. Suddenly the pole shot out with enough force to blow a red-hot hole in the side of his box. Richard tried directing a few waves towards the sphere ¨C measuring what came out the other side to try and tease out what might be happening but every measurement was different. Richard then gave up and pushed each and every sensor he could find into it in the hopes of capturing ¡®something¡¯ from the sphere. Dimly some faint part of Richard appreciated the chaos just for the sheer strength of it. Like a laugh he was trying to hold in, crawling up from his suppressed chaos affinity. And yet, not even that was enough to convince Richard to stick his head into it. Instead he stuck his hand in ¨C bracing himself with both a steel cable and frontload of knockback defense. For some reason Richard had some vague misconception that this sphere was a source of damage. That his defensive stats might be able to ¡®defend against it¡¯ ¨C but no, stats came from aether. Removing the rules that governed how stats worked bypassed that ¡®fact¡¯ entirely. Richard had less than a second of exposure towards the field inside of the sphere before his arm was gone ¨C stats inside it and all, the unravelling travelling up from his hand and ending over a foot away from the sphere just past his elbow. Something inside the sphere began to look ¡®off¡¯ in a dangerous way. Instead of simply being a hard to understand and chaotic jumble of different ¡®things¡¯, the sphere felt alive. Instead of just being confusing to look at, the sphere began to mentally hurt to observe ¨C It was more than just the radiation flying off it. Something about the churning shapes had elevated beyond randomness. It was as If there was something contagious about the sphere ¨C as if some pervasive wrongness was jumping across to Richard through the very act of noticing it. And now ¨C even with his eyes closed the act of acknowledging ¡®it¡¯ was feeding the ????????????
Richard''s memory juttered in an alarming manner as suddenly he was sitting on the floor. His arm was mostly healed but he was distinctly aware of missing stats. He''d just lost over 40 and there wasn''t an indication they were coming back. Richard opened his eyes and stared at up the sphere in dominance. He had one final test ¨C and despite every foreboding sense telling him to do the exact opposite, Richard reached across with a connection arm. His connection arm did not exist in the same physical dimension as the sphere. It passed by the spheres overlapping location in the skill layer without appearing to interact at all. Next following a memory of his current actions, Richard pushed a trickle of aether down the connection ¨C not really sure what was leading him towards this point. Suddenly a component of his aether that rested in the physical layer had passed through the barrier pricing into the sphere. Inside the sphere a single curved line burst into prominence. A curve of his aether flowed through the space where the rules of aether were gone. A dense dense rush of sensation filled Richard as every bit of aether in his body began to resonate with his aether inside the sphere ¨C connected to him by a cord of power. And this was the moment Richard suddenly re-reviewed the last minute or so of his life. What the fuck was he doing? What led him to thinking poking the clearly sus ball as much as he had. Richard reviewed his memory trying to search for signs of interference ¨C even as he tried tugging the connection arm back with firmer and firmer motions. He slammed anti-mind manipulation protocols on his AI and started following a procedure he had made back while studying the hive nest. Suddenly the sphere in front of him blinked. A giant eye opened and stared at him in curiosity. Richard-
Fuck that, fuck that! Fuck that! Big old fuck off pile of nope! As soon as Richard noticed he was standing there mindlessly, he slammed the connection to chaos closed and watched as the hole slowly ever so slowly faded the eye closing once again. The vise-grip that held onto his aether and through that his connection arm slowly faded. His makeshift lab was a mess. Fire burned everywhere ¨C the smoke thick enough he could barely see ¨C when had that happened? How long had he been standing here? Why hadn¡¯t he realized there was this much smoke sooner? What kind of half assed sandbox was this! Richard stumbled over to a wall covered in holes dragging a suction ring he¡¯d been using as a fume hood. Activating the ring he directed it to blow out a cluster of holes then began to vent into an empty secondary chamber. He¡¯d try and scrub the area later to prevent as much pollution ¨C for now Richard cleared out the majority of the more dangerous gasses and sealed the wall off for future him to deal with. A massive thud rang out as what sounded like the footsteps of a giant grew closer and closer. ¡°Give me a second to calm down for fucks sake¡± Richard yelled then tore a door open revealing a hoard of monsters. ¡°I call the big un!¡± James yelled back pointing towards a red giant waving about a tree for a mace. Richard stared out in shock at the sheer number and watched for 30 seconds as James flew towards the hoard with a whoop. Finally he shook his head slightly relaxing at the visible threat and got to work cleaning up his mess. Behind him lying forgotten on the floor of his lab lay his charred hand. A hand that had appeared minutes before he''d stuck it into the field of origin aether. As the battle outside waged the hand slowly cooled ¨C bits of charred flesh falling away and crumbled as if still burning with an invisible fire. Slowly at the center of the ash a small glassy diamond was revealed and soon that diamond and a pile of ash was all that remained. Interlude 2: So this is the power of the Spiral. ---Mei--- ¡°Deployment is in one hour. Project green rain is a go.¡± Finally! Mei perked up as soon as she heard the announcement silently ring in her ear. Across the shop she noticed someone else perk up with a jolt and begin reading something. Same as her or just a coincidence? Stuffing the rest of her wrap in her mouth she whispered transfer to pay the establishment, then slid past a couple blocking the door. No one paid her any mind as she bustled down the hall heading towards the secret mech hanger. Open secret - it was hard to hide something that large and information about the project was easy to find for those who cared to look. ¡°Next Left¡± a neutral voice whispered to her and Mei turned on autopilot even as she opened and skimmed some low priority notifications before closing them to focus on her steps. Some liked visual hallucinations for their AI but Mei had always preferred audio. You could listen and walk without a care, but trying to read and do anything physical caused her to walk into things no matter how much mental power she gained. Moving along Laputa''s terrace she headed for the loading docs stepping over a yellow line to indicate a part of the city you needed to stay alert in. The floating city kept being renamed by popular opinion. ¡°Arc¡±. ¡°Haven¡±. ¡°Olympus¡±. ¡°Beacon¡±. ¡°Laputa¡±. As far as Mei was concerned, pick a damned name and stick with it. Names really didn¡¯t matter all that much but consistency was key. Stepping over a red line, Mei entered the hanger and was waved down by a tech. Muhamed she believed his name was? Again, Names didn¡¯t matter. ¡°You¡¯ll be entering chassis seven¡± he nodded reading off a mental note before pointing towards a giant metal leg. Perfect. Second favorite chassis. Mei had tried all nine at one point or another in their testing, but something about the degree of responsibility and comfort of the leg really spoke to her. Only thing better than a leg was a shoulder really. Shoulders got to play with the main weapon system. There were two other leg chassis - three and five with three representing the other leg and five a pelvic coordinator responsible for keeping both three and seven in lockstep. Technically Five was responsible for most of the leg movement while three and seven ran various error correction stages¡­but Mei hated coordinator roles. Who in their right mind would want to be in charge of sending off messages and interacting with people like some service worker? No thanks. Mei shook hands with her two co-pilots then entered her chassis early. Inside of the inertia dampened sphere, there was an incredibly soft chair surrounded by dozens of little light sockets. Nothing physical that could be bumped or damaged. Everything was done through AI or connection swapping if you were certified - which Mei was. Taking her time to get comfortable, Mei began to look about - her eyes focusing on node after node as her free slots began to flick between them. Each lit up as she connected and soon the whole area was flickering with her swaps. As she ran through some self made exercises, Mei activated a harness and restraints then pricked both arms and watched as two tubes seemed to fuse with her skin. They felt gross and invasive until she mentally accepted them and then slowly those feelings shifted into ones of warmth and comfort. Mei shuddered at how fast the feeling changed. Always creepy. Best not to think about it. It took a while to get warmed up but after a few minutes of swapping in various patterns she was ready. It was as if every connection she made left a path in the air - Mei imagined a root system spreading out from her and connecting to every single slot. Only five were active currently, but swapping took a fraction of a fraction of a second and her mind could keep up easily. Focused mind was a hell of a drug. Soon the rest of the pilots arrived and the marvel of engineering rose around her as if coming alive. There was some sciency reason for why mechs were stronger when human shaped than something like a tank - Supposedly linked to why aether needed a human mind and body and powerful machines couldn¡¯t just be piloted remotely¡­something else about blowing up skills meant for humans onto a larger canvas? Something about improved stat resonance as well? Mei didn¡¯t care about the reasons if she were being honest. This was the superior shape based on aesthetic factor alone. They were all here for the vibes each and every one of them. Sinking into a slight trance, Mei felt her perception begin to speed up. Various AI feeds surrounded her, each displaying the results of different cameras. She could glance at them as needed, but by setting up an audio que and letting her AI do some basic image analysis on them all, she could be informed when something important was happening.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Camera 3 looked slightly off. Before she could mention anything, a tech on the outside had already swapped it. Guess someone else beat her to it? Checks were done and Mei felt slight shifts as her chamber was moved about. Stat reflection began to slowly kick in and Mei started to feel the entire inside of the mech dimly as her small amount of physical stats began to affect the construct around them slowly but surely. Others were boosting it to a much higher degree. Finally the hanger door was open and the mech began to slide towards the exit on a line of rails. Mei focused on her job, marveling at the scenery as she directed power into various storage systems. The mech around her almost glided across the ground as it moved - it felt like mere minutes before they were close enough to see their goal although it was probably closer to twenty. The nuke storm. Mushroom clouds churned and flashed with light as explosions rang out from deep within. Black rain fell leaving a trail of death behind it. Directing the majority of her ¡®fresh¡¯ aether up towards the artillery system, Mei watched as first dozens and then thousands of tiny self propelled projectiles were released towards the storm. This was all something about destabilizing some sort of reaction with sufficient¡­chemicals? Anti nuke canisters? Mei watched a few of the nearby canisters explode in green smoke that sucked towards the clouds and turned the black rain green. After nearly five minutes of constant bombardment, the storm itself was visibly less chaotic. It was almost anti climatic - No flashes rang out, no giant face appeared to scream at them. The nuclear carpet bombardment had silently stilled and as the bombardment continued, the clouds began to visibly shrink. As it shrunk, the core began to coalesce. Soon the cornered core of the storm was fully revealed - a single pitch black cloud swirling in a sort of¡­it kind of looked like a doughnut being rolled upwards? Mei unlocked a nest buster and slid it up towards the shoulder crew doing her part. Soon the giant rod was in place and ready to fire. Mei joined everyone else in charging both the device and launcher - by joining together in this manner the nest buster should hit way above its tier. Mei returned to watching her screen as her job was mostly done and was just barely able to notice something strange by the core of the storm. It looked like¡­a man? A human man standing on a bright white cloud and reaching up towards the black cloud above him like some sort of cultist. ¡°Eyes on a complication¡± Mei spoke, passing her message up the chain of command. She got back some muttered swears and was soon prodded to prepare for movement once again. Mei¡¯s team approached the unknown entity who kept mysteriously vanishing from all visuals. Corrupted aether? Smiling down at them as they grew near the man gave them a wave and thumbs up before appearing to breath in and physically suck the core of the storm into himself. Speakers blared at the man to desist but he ignored them visibly rushing as he sucked inwards. Fifteen seconds of ignored warnings later and the core was almost halfway consumed. A tipping point was reached and the message arrived in Mei¡¯s ear. Treat as hostile. Was this the so called demon king? Decisive. Mei watched as homing missiles began to fire upwards breaking the sound barrier they were moving so fast. The hostile raised an arm then shot an unnaturally arcing bolt of lightning. Lightning chained between the missiles causing them to explode midair - filling the space between them with shrapnel and an excessive amount of smoke. Moments later the smoke cleared and revealed the man standing on a black cloud, the core of the storm nowhere to be found. He no longer seemed to be in a hurry and Mei watched as he licked his lips in a relaxed manner. His voice boomed like thunder ¡°Thank you for weakening such a tasty slice of nature''s fury. It''s now resting in capable hands.¡± Speakers blared. ¡°As thanks for the assist, I¡¯ll let you know this was the last piece I needed for my mantle. Soon the god of storms will be reborn.¡± The man monologue and then frowned when a wave of missiles rushed towards him once again. ¡°Run along now.¡± the man boomed and with a wave a single spark formed then rapidly expanded in front of him. The spark reached the size of an exercise ball and then imploded into a single brilliant point that lit the entire area up as it were a flash bang. The dot dropped as if in slow motion - accelerating down towards them and then suddenly exploding with nuclear fury. Mei almost blacked out as the mech was shot backwards with a roar. Dozens of layers of highly specialized armour protected the operators inside, but the point blank shot still melted most of their joints and blew all external sensors. ¡°Is everyone alright?¡± Mei heard in her ear and after confirming she was fine she began to fix what she could. Many repairs would need a more specialized setup but by taking control of a couple protected multi purpose drones and activating some repair modules on the effected components themselves the mech began to get back into a mobile state. Some of the joints were messed beyond field repair but that was expected. ¡°Do we pursue or return?¡± Someone asked in the general comms and everyone began to weigh in. Mei found herself mostly divorced from the conversation as she continued to work on repairs. It seemed like melted slag had solidified in the ball sockets on each knee. By heating them up and flushing them with heat attuned acid she was mostly able to flush that out. There was now a huge hole loose enough for the bearing to fall out but by spreading easy melt insulation and then a quick drying polymer on top she was able to patch the worst joint back into place. ¡°What is your vote? We are currently tied¡±, someone asked her, the message taking several long seconds to register. ¡°We are mobile but far from an optimal state.¡± Mei responded. ¡°I¡¯d rate our current combat potential as rank three minus something? Hostile was unscanned but clearly above that. We¡¯ll have to modify the mech to better defend against those attacks to have a real shot of neutralizing him. This mission we didn''t expect to actually get hit by the storm after all. I''m sure back at base someone knows some more specialized defenses,¡± ¡°Thats what I¡¯m saying,¡± Someone responded. What was his name again? Filiph? Josh? ¡°So vote for return?¡± Someone else asked. ¡°I think that would be best¡± Mei confirmed adding her vote on the pile. Picking themselves up the group began to glide back towards the sky city. Hopefully this counted as a partial success but they couldn¡¯t help but worry the threat had only grown. Chapter 115. A million and one things. Goals are obstacles as much as purpose. Rush Goals & Play ---Richard--- Richard loved life. He loved how exciting it was. How much there was to explore. How much there was to do. If you couldn¡¯t have fun doing what you loved than what was the fucking point you know? 9/10 star review for life. If Richard had to give a single complaint ¨C a minor one you understand, just the single dick in the punch knocking it down from perfect? Well paradoxically there might be a weeee bit too much of a good thing when it came to experimentation. Too much Richard wanted to explore. No¡­that wasn¡¯t quite right. The amount there was to explore was perfect ¨C his actual complaint was the time crunch. This time crunch made it hard to savour any of the new stuff to learn. It made him wish he didn¡¯t know about all that fun stuff ¨C like being stuck inside on a beautiful day. You almost wished the day was gloomy instead so it didn¡¯t feel like you were missing out. Richard had over a dozen completely different, fully realized experimental goals ¨C each could take him months or more accurately years to truly dive into. Just pick one out of a hat ¨C Dimensions for example! Planes of existence or layers or however they might be structured and described. He¡¯d already proven they existed beyond a doubt at least in this location. He¡¯d already taken advantage of quite a few traits of the skill layer as well as boosted processing speed of his AI at the cost of both quality and quantity of aether to keep it running. But really that could be called nothing more than dipping his toes in. As far as research topics went, Richard could happily explore every bit of this field as possible ¨C were all layers as closely connected as he¡¯d found so far? Did any have life in them? Could he physically visit any? Just being able to create a drone that could record and send back a video stream was beyond Richard as is and Richard could imagine how fun it might be to find whole ecosystems or wholly unique traits in these different dimensions. Manifest destiny a whole new wilderness! Sure they hadn¡¯t finished wrangling this ¡®wilderness¡¯ but it didn¡¯t stop Richard from imagining new ones. The best or purest way of using science as far as Richard was concerned ¨C and he was totally unbiased so his opinion was just fact ¨C was to discover what existed and find a potential use afterwards. But Richard didn¡¯t have time for that sort of cataloging or exploration. All he could do is devote a teensy bit of time to dimensional exploration specifically checking how it might further their goals. That was the worst way of using science. Having a goal and trying to solve that goal while tossing everything else aside. Much harder and much less fun even if having a direction gave you some purpose. Fuck purpose. Embrace play. Why double down on dimensions with different properties when you could change the properties in a local area about you? Why search for dimensions with certain traits when you could make those traits in your backyard? The more Richard abused his admin sandbox the more he realized there was. It felt endless ¨C his sandbox in particular seemed only able to replicate what had been made before¡­he couldn¡¯t make anything new and yet even that was broken when you considered just how much had been already done. Richard''s current estimate was that there were literally billions of potential configurations based on past laws used on past worlds or combinations of laws that fit together but hadn¡¯t been tried before. Each with semi variable dials he could increase or decease in strength. If he focused all his energy solely on this, it would take many lifetimes to even make a dent in it. That was even considering how many were related or were similar to each other¡­and to fully understand most of them it would take even longer! You couldn¡¯t review a full change in seconds or even mere minutes even if you could get a surface level understanding of it pretty quickly. The only real problem with his sandbox ended up being how empty the results actually were. Sure, he could mould the laws of physics and more¡­but the final result was nearly always an empty box with different vibes. It wasn¡¯t like there were different ecosystems to explore. That was the big difference between a dimension with different rules and a custom room with different rules. The d¨¦cor. The ¡®stuff¡¯ that used these rules to thrive. So instead of a replacement for dimensions the only real benefit he got in the short term was a confirmation that something was possible and a list of side effects that commonly appeared. Didn¡¯t stop Richard from feeling like he was being pulled away from something interesting. Richard¡¯s main test after that chaos hole was the three bases R had let slip. If you named each distinct set of laws for aether as a different type of energy, you had three essential bases. If he followed the system¡¯s classification they were called: Primordial energy, Origin energy and Genisis energy. None were actually ¡®energy¡¯ ¨C all were types of aether and all the ¡®same¡¯ in the same way mana and aether were the same¡­to make matters even less clear, all had a large number of similarities muddying the water further. None were immediately useful. It wasn¡¯t as if these bases were actually better than modern aether ¨C far from it. All three were worse in several distinct ways. Richard was not able to regenerate origin energy for example. He could swap to it and it acted in a similar manner to the others but once he ¡®spent it¡¯ the power was simply gone? This wasn¡¯t some secret hack or proof that ancient aether was stronger or somehow ¡®better¡¯. Really all they were was more ¡®raw¡¯. If you didn¡¯t care about any modern conveniences some of these bases were easier to modify. No, what it was was a grouping of some of the most basic and thus fundamental rules for aether and through that a guide for what was possible. Both the default aether and variant of ¡®mana¡¯ that seemed to be used currently were both distantly distantly derived from Genesis energy for example. Nameing them differently was a tiny bit confusing. They were all the same in the end. But once again, this was yet another field of study Richard could probably spend a lifetime chipping away at. Simply changing the default into each of the three and experiencing them gave him the shallowest of understandings. There was also a totally not suspicious marble from his chaos hole ¨C Richard wanted to study it thoroughly and yet he was afraid to rush and potentially break it. He only had one and non destructive testing was quite a bit slower than destructive. Simultaneously he was afraid it was secretly decaying and ignoring it was allowing the opportunity to slip through his fingers. There were chunks of the killed calamities body they had recovered before the area was swarming with opportunists. He could study it. There was a plant he had found nearly undamaged in a stretch that had been hit by the storm. A single suspicious plant surrounded by ashen rubble. Might have been a fluke ¨C Richard could study it to confirm. There was probably a joke answer Richard could study as well, but right now he was knee deep in potential study options. Just addressing how much there was brought even more to mind! There was the mysterious hidden essence and its link to monsters. Richard could study just how nests formed naturally and unnaturally and how they related to dungeons and wild monsters. There was immortality ¨C supposedly Maddy had achieved a version of it and while Richard wasn¡¯t afraid of death¡­the idea of living long enough to experience all that life had to offer was tempting. Sure, his defensive stats were theoretically increasing his lifespan and directing a lot of them towards ¡°aging defense¡± extended that even further¡­ but Richard was sure he could come up with something better given time. The sort of thing to work on sooner rather than later. Immortality as an old man sounded rough. Everything came back to goals. His goals, the goals of his friends he wanted to help with. The shared goals they had begun to shape together. A few weeks previously they had all sat down together and brainstormed those overall goals. A week ago, he had brainstormed separately just with Maddy. Now he¡¯d taken an entire week to test the feasibility of all their ideas and he was ready to review them with Madison once again. Troy and Jess were gone and James was around¡­but currently the most important experiments could be done by Richard and Maddy alone. ¡°Okay, Let''s talk about goal one. The Big cheese!¡± Richard began as soon as they met up. ¡°The separation of the strongest dangers. Our idea of finding or creating or bringing about a higher realm has been confirmed so many times I don¡¯t think we are even considering anything else right now. R said it was possible but that our planet needed to be rank 4 first and it would be better if we solved it instead of asking the system to do it for us.¡± Richard started them off with some recap. Maddy nodded playing along to start. ¡°I can visualize dozens of ways it might work, but I don¡¯t have the capability or understanding to actually ¡®do¡¯ any of it. If I push my perception of this goal into a metaphor, it¡¯s a solid wall I cannot climb under, over, around or through. Just seeing the wall doesn¡¯t let me get through the dimensional barrier no matter how much power I use or how roundabout I go¡­and on the other hand the amount of meaning required to purposefully make a dimension is incredible. With my magic I¡¯d have to break a dimension to make one and it''s not like I¡¯m strong enough to break our dimension¡­¡±Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Richard nodded. ¡°I¡¯m not confident that dimensions can be made just yet. What I can tell you is that I¡¯m 90% sure I¡¯ve found one that works and solves a lot of our problems.¡± Maddy looked up with interest. ¡°Oh?¡± Richard took out a tablet and began projecting diagrams and drawings he¡¯d done before as he wasn¡¯t able to send her AI feeds directly. ¡°So, a semi popular configuration for settled mana worlds seems to be using a few planes for material storage. Saw a few snippets when R was showing off worlds and confirmed it with my newest cheat. Imagine this, An Air dimension for endless gasses. A Fire dimension for endless heat and combustion. A Water dimension that¡¯s endless H20. An Earth dimension for endless stone.¡± ¡°Earth air fire water aren¡¯t the base affinities?¡± Maddy began but Richard shook his head. ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s a few more, a light dimension, a poisonous dimension, a metallic dimension, an electron flux dimension etc. etc. I do believe those worlds would have whatever material dimensions they had as their base ¡®affinities¡¯ with the exact mechanism for them ¡®creating¡¯ any of those materials being closer to summing from their plane with localized one way dimension breaches¡­ but that¡¯s all besides the point. Those material dimensions only function as sources on those worlds. I¡¯m 90% sure the light dimension used in this configuration is nearly identical to the one Troy visits currently although his seems to have more than light in it. At this point I¡¯m even wondering if every black hole corresponds to a white hole in that dimension¡­but that¡¯s besides the point. Of these source dimensions, the one that looks the most promising for me is the earth or stone dimension.¡± Richard swiped and showed his drawing of a pebble surrounded by sparkles and a checkmark. ¡°Endless space and free material?¡± Maddy began a thoughtful look in her third and fourth eye. ¡°Ding Ding Ding. As far as ¡®free materials¡¯ are concerned, without the system specifically set up to draw from those planes, the energy cost of getting materials from there is astronomical. With the system set up and some key rules in place¡­well I¡¯ve been able to gather that it''s viable but unneeded. After all, we don¡¯t want to pull ¡®free¡¯ stuff from there however, we want to go there.¡± Maddy nodded a bit a thoughtful look on her face. ¡°Here¡¯s my thought process. With aether and the system manipulating laws and their side effects, we can theoretically reach all sorts of perfect or optimal states. The remaining conflict is all human. Humans like expansion. We like to go out and conquer the wilderness. Once we¡¯ve done that however there¡¯s nothing left for those who come after¡­ ¡°One of the biggest sources of pain I can see is lack of space. Space being a premium causes wars and generational wealth causes land to consolidate and inflate. Infinite space nips that in the bud forever. A lot of aether civilizations expand throughout their solar system and beyond in a way mana seems to find it hard to do. Expanding through space you can walk through doesn¡¯t have that problem.¡± Richard laid his solution out. Maddy nodded slowly. ¡°I can see a bit of what you are thinking¡­we¡¯ll have to figure out how it''s even possible to exist in that dimension assuming it exists and we can get there. ¡°Oh it exists. I pulled a tiny stone out of it at least using a sandbox with those plane summoning laws. There''s a lot I like about this idea ¨C A semi uniform base will help in all sorts of ways. By starting with something simple we have a much higher shot of building something solid. Another positive is you¡¯ve already proven that any element can become anything else with enough power and structure. Fuck, I¡¯ve done some incredibly small scale atomic transmutation on my own and even back on earth they were able to do so without the power of aether. Add some energy and Nickle can become copper. Platinum can become gold. Remove some and Oxygen can become nitrogen. Iron can be dropped to magnesium. Enough steps and all atoms are the same. Of course I have the problem of scale ¨C without more study, doing this sort of base element transmutation takes massive amounts of aether to transform an element the size of a grain of rice while you seem to have strange meaning requirement¡­¡± Richard paused and realized he was getting off track. ¡°Sounds promising, any others?¡± Maddy asked. Richard shook his head slowly. ¡°There might be a much better candidate but so far this is my favorite option. Using the same logic, we could pick the water or metal planes but both initially seem harder to handle. To sum up what I¡¯ve decided for this, It¡¯s a potential location. It''s potential but I haven¡¯t been able to go there and check it out¡­I¡¯m still not even sure people can travel between these planes. From what Troy does, it seems likely but that might not extend to everyone¡­I¡¯m also not sure what the negatives of this plane of earth might be just yet? I think you might have a better shot scouting it. ¡°After that point, I think even if it''s currently inhospitable we can change some laws to make it hospitable¡­but other than some theories I¡¯m not even sure aether or the system can function there let along fix enough rules to make it support life.¡± Maddy nodded. ¡°Sounds good. Okay, I guess it''s my turn. Secondary goal of spreading stability, I¡¯ve been looking at ways to fix some of the damage that¡¯s been done. A lot seems like it will be fixed by removing the highest ranked creatures from the world but even that won¡¯t be able to undo some of this damage. ¡°Other bits only seem possible with system rules but falling back on that seems like it might have problems. And trying to pick specific ones means we have to argue it with everyone else on the planet. ¡°So smaller scale, one of the main goals is fixing our lost water. Making water from raw matter is easy enough. Making it from a specific well defined and consistent bit of matter is even easier for me. Illusion or template of water. Dissolve stone, Keep physicality, Keep weight, every bit that¡¯s overlapping with water. Filter out everything that¡¯s contrary to it and void it. Filter concept works great for that. Water concept has most of the remaining bits so after filling in the stones weight I¡¯m all the way there. Still looks a tiny bit unstable to my sight but in every other way it''s functional. You can drink it. Dump it. Everything¡¯s fine.¡± Maddy threw a pebble in a cup, filled that cup with a black mist and then gestured to the water. Richard had already been drinking her water on and off for weeks but he took a sip of this option just to play along. ¡°Now, the problem is in distribution. I can make a barrel of water pretty easily, but unless I want to dedicate all my time to generating water for everyone on the planet its not enough. I¡¯m not able to create endless founts of magic outside of my existence and I haven¡¯t made a domain that lets me dominate and force my understanding of magic on others so they could use the spell.¡± Maddy grimaced slightly. She looked to her leg for a moment and then continued ¡°One solution would be to find a way of leveraging as much of some larger power and weight as I can, then start dumping massive amounts of natural water to try and refill the ocean. Even if we track down all the looted bits of the mountain and try and melt it with some ¡®return our water¡¯ meaning supercharging that spell, I¡¯m pretty sure that water is gone for good. One solution would be for you to figure out how to recreate this spell as an aether machine then share the blueprints and let aether cities build and create their own water.¡± Maddy continued. Richard considered that for a moment. He¡­might be able to do that. Anything mana could do aether could do as well and with an example right in front of him he could probably work his way towards it¡­ Actually, that didn¡¯t feel like a question or request. Richard felt like he knew Maddy enough by now to know she was sitting on something different. ¡°What do you lean towards?¡± he prompted and was rewarded with a hesitant nod. ¡°Okay so¡­I too have been looking into what¡¯s come before. You know how R¡¯s been gifting us artifacts? I can kind of sort of twist my perception to see there are more of them¡­locked up and hidden away of course, I can¡¯t just magic them into existence just tell they exist. I did a bunch of random scrying. Found some information others have learned etc.¡± Maddy began. This was a rabbit hole. As far as Richard was concerned, she had switched topics. ¡°¡­and?¡± Richard asked. It was nice to try and prompt people. Made them feel like you were invested. ¡°Okay. First my goal. I want¡­a way to share magic. I want to share my water making spell and more. There are dozens of spells I¡¯d give to people if I could! Magic is deeply personal and that individuality and connection with its creator is its strength. From what I¡¯ve discovered, there are two main ways that mana centric worlds share magic. One way is through divinity. People with mantles are designated as gods. Gods gain a resource known as faith in world dependant ways. One of the main uses of that faith is to gift spells to followers from the top down. Tons and tons of ways this actually happens. A lot of meaning in the acts to fuel its power. One example allows followers to turn their mana into faith and gift it to their god in ¡®prayer¡¯. Their god gives them back the spell in return and keeps the faith for godhood specific growth. Sometimes mana is swapped for blood or sacrifice. Sometimes the faith energy is sent down from the god instead of up and corrupts the follower''s core into only generating this faith. Many options. ¡°Another similar method involves apprenticeships. Some worlds have mages with solidified domains take on apprentices and gift them magic they can learn only under their tutelage and can only perform under their masters domain... The apprentice has to break that gifted magic to become a true mage themselves and many never manage that¡­but by learning under their master, their magic will have become aligned quite a bit with them and nearly identical spells or styles of spellwork can be passed down the line. ¡°There are other methods but they all follow something similar to the divinity or school of magic structure. It¡¯s a domination based system no matter what.¡± Richard felt his face wrinkle slightly as Maddy described them. She noticed and nodded. ¡°Thought you wouldn¡¯t be a fan. They work for my goals but¡­I¡¯m not excited enough to try and push for any of them. That¡¯s just sadly how magic as we use it can most easily spread. I¡¯ve looked around and this is the only possible way of spreading actual magic between different people. At least the only way that¡¯s been done before and in the way I¡¯m imagining. ¡°So, here¡¯s what I¡¯ve come to understand. Spreading magic as I¡¯ve thought of it ¨C magic that can change and grow and react¡­that¡¯s impossible. Spreading spells on the other hand. Spreading results¡­even if it sounds the same, with a whole lot of work that might be possible. The system after all, gives us all a relatively weak skill to start. That¡¯s sort of like spreading magic, isn¡¯t it? ¡°What if we work backwards? What if we take the results moulded by our domains and experiences and turn them into static skills?¡± Maddy started to get excited as she described her idea. ¡°One of the options for worlds that might be offered is a class system. A specific profession or role and then various ways for the system to give skills and stats related to those roles. Some worlds seem to have nearly entirely removed true magic in exchange for much stronger class skills. I don¡¯t want that. ¡°Some worlds have classes that can access only one or two skills and others let those skills be swapped by taking different classes instead¡­this is closer to what I¡¯m imagining but my goal is greater than that. ¡°I want to create classes completely separate from magic. I want to create classes that can access a shared pool of skills. I want to make a shared magic system that everyone can grow for the good of the collective and I think I know how we can go about achieving this even if it hasn¡¯t been done before.¡± Maddy spoke sounding increasingly unsure as she continued. All this could be solved by switching everyone to a standardized band of aether. Richard felt like it was a solved problem¡­but who was he to piss on his friend¡¯s dreams? ¡°True Magic¡­all of mana seems to be routed in trades. Bargains to a higher power. You put in work expecting a reward in turn. It''s ¡®fair¡¯ and the trades are even in a way¡­but there is a second kind of true magic. Gifts. Charity work ¨C something given without expecting anything in return. This is what I¡¯m basing my goal on. ¡°It feels like the only way a spell can be truly ¡®gifted¡¯ is by gifting more than just some time and energy to it. Just thinking about it personally I think a concept would have to be gifted with the spell as a minimum. The original skill given by the system was moulded into something that became this new skill. ¡°And maybe¡­maybe just maybe this end result we create could be more than a list of shared skills. So much of what I love about magic is individuals being able to add their own touch to it with personal language and styles¡­but languages are meant for communication and it feels like personal languages cannot communicate. So, this goal is... Maybe it could become what I¡¯ve always wanted from magic. A shared language we can use to build something together.¡± Maddy finished. Richard clapped an appropriate amount glancing back and riling up the invisible crowd around them. ¡°Alright! Well, make our own aether system with blackjack and hookers as they say! I¡¯m in.¡± Chapter 116. The science of magic. Applying rationality to mana and monsters. ---Richard--- ¡°We need you to get in the right mindset, the type of aether you have doesn¡¯t matter, it¡¯s all a manner of perspective in the end.¡± Richard began. Turning, he gestured and then lead her towards a fresh lab. His old one was a bit of a mess and if he was going to be working with company he might as well use the good lab. ¡°Your teleportation fucking slaps by the way. It makes complete sense that teleportation without dimension shenanigans uses your method. Matter is just energy and information from a reductionist standpoint. Fuck it! Everything is just information and power with various degrees of separation and both can be moved about faster in different forms¡­It''s similar to how I imagine R transported us all here. He sent the information about our bodies and selves, then reconstructed them a huge distance away. Maybe a wormhole or something? We even know he grew our new bodies in vats¡­ ¡°Even the fact that you got damaged quite a bit with early teleports makes sense. Transporting information in anything less than a perfect manner must have flipped so many atoms in your body ¨CI¡¯m sure you were filled with cancers and maybe even radioactive atoms that didn¡¯t reform well. Fuck. Without your biomanipulation you would have died pretty quickly that first time wouldn¡¯t you have? I¡¯m still surprised you managed to get it right that time, even with all your practice runs on vegetables or whatever.¡± Richard gave Maddy an enthusiastic thumbs up. ¡°Now, here¡¯s how you might use this ability like a scientist. Don¡¯t try to change the ability, Just use it a few times in different ways to try and figure out any side effects you might want to address or take advantage of. I can start us off. What I¡¯m wondering is what happens when you teleport a rock a bunch of times? You said you can do it once or twice easily enough but the more you do it, the more damaged the object gets and the less complex of an object it is, the sooner it falls apart or shrinks or something right? Meaning requirement is just information density right? What happens if you teleport a rock, fix it up, teleport it again, fix it up with another rock or something and do that until it stops getting damaged? Will you have made a material that¡¯s structured in such a way that it¡¯s easy to teleport as is? Something similar to your flesh?¡± Richard asked. Mady opened her mouth but before she could respond he added more. ¡°You seem to be using the same fundamental ability to shape material into different objects even if you are explaining it backwards with your ¡°creating an object and then filling it in with the stone afterwards... ¡°For this type of transformation, have you tried making a material that¡¯s easier to transform? What if you cycle stone a bunch first ¨C does it suddenly make a super material that¡¯s easier or harder for you to transform into different shapes? Put aside goals or ¡®not having the right concepts¡¯ or whatever for now. Just the ability you already have. Have you tried¡­¡± ¡­ ¡°Okay, from what I can tell, your personal eye teleportation is even weirder than I first thought. It looks almost like quantum mechanics at a macro scale. When you blip and ¡®ride¡¯ the soundwave, it sounds almost as if you are at the edge of it in all directions at the same time. Reforming at the end suddenly collapses the possibility of you being at any of those locations into the one you truly are at¡­and there¡¯s so much of this I don¡¯t understand. Where is all this dense information even being stored? Okay. That¡¯s okay! It just means we have more to try¡­¡± ¡­ ¡°Now how exactly does my observation break this spell? Remember, I want you to think of a few tests. Don¡¯t just blindly listen to my ideas and clear biases.¡± ¡­ ¡°Let¡¯s figure out all the ways we can break your spell just through my involvement! Also we should look in to your stat alignments being locked. That never happens with aether, and it sounds slightly off.¡± ¡­ Richard was having fun studying the bases they might use to make an aether language. After he tried to get Maddy into the right headspace ¨C they both agreed to try each others methodologies ¨C the two started. Step one had them move to brainstorming and testing materials and reactions side by side as they talked. Maddy¡¯s requirement was simple. Magic spells that were separate from existing magic. Not a replacement. Something that both internal and external magic users could use ¨C something that wouldn¡¯t overlap. High key something that aether users could use as well. Richard wasn¡¯t going to help build a whole system just to get locked out of it. That meant external mana shaping. They might be starting off on completely the wrong foot here ¨C the two of them kept coming back to ¡®mana¡¯ manipulation as spells were information and power in the form of a chunk of mana¡­but if their goal could be done completely without mana they would pivot. As for why external mana shaping got brought up. Richard needed a bit of context to understand. It was based on the current arbitrary rules. Mana users had two main options. Internal mana users could manipulate their mana with their thoughts. They could flex and direct it with intent. They could eject that mana from their body and ¨C dependent upon the skill involved ¨C they could achieve results at a distance¡­but as soon as it left their body, that mana was dead to them. They could shoot a fire ball but not call it back to them. Anything complex after the fact was hard to do. External mana users required physical actions to shape their mana. They used talismans or song or dance. They drew runes and enchanted. They couldn¡¯t effectively direct their mana with their mind or thoughts ¨C at least for more than pointing in a direction or choosing which rune to activate at a time. Shaping outside of the body was ¡®impossible¡¯ unless domains got involved¡­but Richard knew that was simply a natural law set in place by the system. Maybe there were certain side effects that the current setup gave ¨C a way to prevent others from ¡®messing with¡¯ each others spells? Maybe it was simply the system randomizing something and trying out a new setup just for the hell of it? Richard didn¡¯t care, all he knew was that external manipulation was free real estate. The manipulation was solely designed to convey information ¨C static information that would not change in the future and would never change pending entire system resets. ¡°First we have to confirm origin energy acts as a viable base. I¡¯m going to try the others as well then start playing with easy to access properties¡± Richard began. ¡°We need to make a uniform sample that doesn¡¯t care about its owner and then build the tools to manipulate that sample from scratch. As long as I¡¯m manipulating the simple properties of this base without caring about it actually doing anything, this part should be easy.¡± Maddy nodded ¨C she was wearing a white lab coat and large fake glasses. Good to see she was finally getting into the spirit of things. Richard swooshed his lab coat a few times before nodding. ¡°Feel free to play around as much as possible as I do this. It will be a good idea for you to experience the different laws and provide a second opinion. ¡°In a bit I¡¯m going to need you to provide mana. A small donation once I set up the field. Other than that¡­knock yourself out I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m going to play around with as many settings as possible. Might need to recharge ¨C I have to stay inside of the field but if you can step in and out it will greatly speed up how fast we can test things¡± Maddy nodded holding a clipboard and pen. ¡°I¡¯ll write some simple spells to see how they differ in that case.¡± Richard gave her a thumbs up glad she planned to be productive. He then began to walk around the room in a circle activating his skill several times and feeling it fail as he did so. Over the past few days he¡¯d discovered this helped speed up his spread ever so slightly ¨C theoretically he needed to be stationary for the effect to solidify properly, but if he walked about beforehand he primed an area in a way that let his expansion have less obstruction. Not really important but it did save him a minute or two so might as well? And so began a long day of iterative testing. Richard was incredibly quick to confirm that Origin energy was the best base for their goals for a few reasons. For one, it didn¡¯t take long for both his aether and Maddy¡¯s mana ¨C no matter what ¡®affinity¡¯ she used ¨C to look the same. For two it stayed around quite a bit longer ¨C this was either because the system was not siphoning it away or simply because it had a longer stable stage. It was as if the ¡®information and power¡¯ making up their separate pools were split and recombined in a new configuration. It took very little time for them to achieve a few of the ideal ideas they had as well. The two actually got quite far along in this initial session. Ignoring problems as they appeared and plowing forward let the two of them slowly get a feel for the entire process start to finish. They were well on their way towards creating a spell that actually activated in the altered state when slowly the problems caught up to them. Maddy made a ¡®light spell¡¯ that created a single small orb of light when fed origin mana. Richard fed the same construct origin aether and got the same result, although the ¡®spell¡¯ immediately broke apart afterwards like a car fed on vegetable oil. Richard made a simple aether attuned resistor that radiated light when fed aether. He fed it origin energy. Maddy fed it origin mana. It was stable no matter how much they abused it. ...but that was just a single component. He tried to get maddy to activate a few complex devices and they were better able to spot the increased wear from some invisible component of her origin energy they hadn''t addressed. And then all of their goals were reset to zero as soon as they tried to make ¡®mana/aether¡¯ and origin energy exist at the same time.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Considering Maddy¡¯s discovery of faith energy existing at the same time as mana it was obviously possible¡­and yet right now, nothing they were doing was really ¡®converting¡¯ ¡®energies¡¯ as Richard would understand it. For one, it bore repeating, but no matter how many times Richard accidentally fell into the fallacy, aether was not energy. It was closer to energy like heat or electricity than it was to matter, but it wasn¡¯t the same on a fundamental level. Closer was all it would ever be. Aether could certainly appear to create or turn into energy ¨C it could create effects¡­but all accurate models of the ener¡­and there Richard went nearly calling it an energy once again. All accurate models of the phenomenon were closer to gravity holding an atmosphere near a planet. Certain things like super dense esoteric elements created wells of ¡®power¡¯ around them. Aether pooled in those wells and created an effect as they interacted with ¡®stuff¡¯ in their surroundings. And yet Aether itself was nearly always a catalyst in situations where it appeared to be an energy ¨C instead of aether turning into heat it was aether manipulating the properties of matter in an area to cause that matter to create heat¡­ Richard paused. At least when he thought of stats, aether was stronger when pure and isolated ¨C point for point, stats synergized with themselves to a higher degree than anything else¡­but they still existed beside one another? And the field full of ¡®something¡¯ model seemed specifically different in the case of slots. Sure the ¡®pool¡¯ functioned in a similar manner. A single point that pulled aether in and kept it ready to use¡­but if it was strong enough to pull aether in how was it so easy to pull out and send through his connection arms? ¡­on that note, how come even while changing rules his connection arms still worked? Even if everything else broke he was still able to send aether towards something using them¡­ And! And! While he was questioning things - wasn''t the definition of ''energy'' the ability to do work on an object? Height gave gravitational potential energy after all. From that standpoint was aether not some measure of the amount of effect that could be created? Just energy after all? Richard felt like that meme with an acceptance bell curve, both the bottom and top end claimed aether was energy while the middle cried foul. ¡­ Richard went down rabbit hole after rabbit hole as he tried to better understand the state of the universe. Some things were reaffirmed. Some misconceptions he had had were tossed. And still more theories were made without any real way of confirming them. One ¡®fact¡¯ he had discovered was the existence of something that wasn¡¯t aether and how it came about. Essence. Yes, Richard ended up studying it after all when by accident he stumbled into the big secret head first. One of the most accurate descriptions of the second entire field was ¡®anti aether¡¯. This wasn¡¯t like mana and aether both being the same ¨C it was like plasma showing up to an electricity and magnetism convention in a trench coat. Sure ionized gas conducted electricity and electricity in turn could create plasma but¡­Are you lost? Did you misunderstand what type of place this was? No, you are not just like magnetism ¨C sit down my good sir. You are are on this council of energies but we do not grant you the rank of electromagnetism! Hah, is that funny enough to send to james or do you have to be this deep in my head to laugh...I''ll message him anyways. Essence blew Richard¡¯s mind in a few different ways. It obviously existed and it answered some questions he had purposefully¡­but fuck was it ever a crazy side effect. Essence was the sort of discovery that made you toss your hands and declare you understood ¡®none of this¡¯. Let''s see, to start you had to consider where aether came from. Something couldn¡¯t be ¡®created¡¯ from nothing ¨C at least without cost. Aether was power dense to the point a lot of the effects it could create were improbable when compared to the effort involved. Conjuring matter? Transmuting matter? To speak plainly. Aether wasn¡¯t generated from food. It wasn¡¯t syphoned from the bodies calories as was first theorized. It wasn¡¯t some background force that was then pulled towards pools ¨C at least not fully. Aether wasn¡¯t even held in some collective tank somewhere and pumped to everyone by the system! No, the truth was so far outside of the bounds Richard was operating in it felt hard to infer. How would he even have discovered this considering how much the system was ¡®hiding¡¯? The Truth was that Inside each and every living creature with an active amount of aether, there was something like a miniature hadron collider. ¡®Something¡¯ was ¡®somehow¡¯ broken and ripped in two like an atom being split. Maybe that ¡®something¡¯ was actually ¡®nothing¡¯ ¨C the only part Richard could confirm was the end result. In that moment ¡®proto-aether¡¯ and ¡®proto-anti aether¡¯ were created. If the two interacted, they would cancel each other out perfectly like matter and anti matter. Proto aether was then lightly refined into the aether he knew. This was a step that converted the ''not energy'' into a very specific band that matched everyone else who used aether and let them collaborate for free. ¡®Somehow¡¯ was doing a lot of heavy lifting now ¨C Richard didn¡¯t exactly have a blueprint of whatever ¡®device¡¯ was doing this, just several ways of manipulating the surroundings and studying the results. For corrupted aether, presumably this step converted them into a ¡®different¡¯ band and presumably affinity¡­although Richard could only really study his own body and from what he could tell, all of his slots generated ¡®chaos¡¯ proto-aether as his natural default which was then converted into standard ¡®pure-aether¡¯ so it could run or be converted into anything. Every single one of his natural skills got something closer to the chaos flavored aether while his slots were perfectly scrubbed. On the other side of the spectrum was proto anti-aether. Anti aether seemed to be called essence by the system. While aether was beneficial for the body ¨C if Richard had to give emotions and intent to aether he would say it almost loved the person it was created by. Aether actually seemed already primed to be as easy for a person to use as possible ¨C all the way back from the beginning with genesis energy or similar ¡®original bases¡¯. While aether loved the person who created it, anti aether hated it. Trying to keep the essence Richard created inside of his body, caused the force to run wild. When Richard prevented the system from removing the essence for a test, it damaged or attempted to damage him in thousands of different ways. As soon as his natural defense started to adapt to a source of damage the essence switched to something else. The longer he left it the worse it became ¨C like a reverse of his aether adaption where his body got less and less resistant to it as time went on. Trying to direct essence down his connection hands with a ¡®reversed aether and essence¡¯ natural law, caused his ''hands'' to spasm and rip apart as if he were holding a fire hose or live snake. That was all probably personifying the force a bit too much. Fire didn¡¯t hate for example, it just existed and grew and consumed according to its non-personified nature. For now Richard was going to operate under the assumption essence just existed as a sort of poison...but based on what it was doing it might be closer to a virus? The essence created by someone else ¨C Maddy¡¯s essence for example ¨C still damaged and fought his body but not to the same degree. This was presumably why the system was able to direct essence so well ¨C it was directing other peoples essence not its own. Essence wasn¡¯t some secret power he could harness, it very specifically felt like it worked to undermine any attempt at controlling it. No personification. It¡¯s not intelligent. The default ¡®goal¡¯ of essence seemed to be sink into and through physical matter. It then, very slowly mutated that matter. While hidden and incubating, the essence rapidly increased the complexity of elements in a physical object using several different hard to observe or confirm methods. Basically essence performed atomic transmutation and some of the most insanely improbably chemical reactions over and over again alongside several aether specific reactions. Stone could be turned into literal organic matter¡­but not just stone. Water, air, bits of garbage. A sandwich. Two sticks tied together with a piece of string. Physical matter definitely seemed to be required but considering how they had been attacked in their space ship, he wasn¡¯t sure how safe trying to toss it into the vacuum of space really was. Because yes, then after mutating matter, and a period of time, a monster was ¡®born¡¯. If it had sunk into the ground, the monster burst out like a zombie digging itself out of a grave. If it had sunk into a rock that rock grew legs and hair before skuttling away. If it sunk into a tree or something living and was allowed to fester¡­well than sometimes the tree monsterized, sometimes the essence incubated a parasite that burst out of it after feeding on the tree¡¯s nutrients and sometimes the essence simply disappeared before a monster came from some entirely different direction. The exact monster being ¡®born¡¯ was heavily tied into the environment around the essence infusion ¨C A high temperature created fire monsters and a complete absence of light created monsters that were weak to light. This was exactly what the system was doing. Somehow the system shoved most of the worlds essence generation into a dark dimension ¨C a complement to the light dimension? The system then allowed monsters to be born with a high chance of being weak to light. After some time passed the system dumped the monsters out on the planet during the ¡®night¡¯. Learning all this affected Maddy quite a bit more than it did Richard. After leaving for a bit she came back with opinions. Richard was quick to notice both her eyes were incredibly dark this time. ¡°I don¡¯t like the current system, darkness¡­Darkness is comforting. Darkness is natural. And Darkness is above all else being unfairly linked with monsters. The system is seeping monsters into the very concept of darkness and¡­if I have a vote I want to change that.¡± Maddy started. Richard paused what he was doing then turned to her. What? He blinked a few times as he processed the statement then responded. ¡°I don¡¯t care either way. The current system works well enough, but I¡¯m not attached to it. It does seem to be useful especially when culling vast groups of monsters in the morning. If you care about it, I¡¯ll vote with you but you¡¯re going have to convince other people more than me.¡± Richard shrugged. ¡°Especially if they know the benefit to the current system. What¡¯s your alternative? The essence has to go somewhere. There might be better options but this seems better than just letting them pop out anywhere¡­¡± Maddy paused then deflated slightly. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, I¡¯ll think about things. Besides, with how much essence hates being tricked or controlled, I¡¯m sure the monsters are worse than they would be if the system wasn¡¯t trying to cobble them this way!¡± ¡­ Maddy was correct in how strongly essence fought against being taken advantage of. It was hard to control how specific monsters were spawned ¨C true ¨C but the ¡®force¡¯ actively fought against attempts to control it. Presumably no two spots or environments were the same because even when Richard tried to control every single variable he could, the ¡®monster¡¯ that was created was different every time. The second point was even harder to come to grips with. While at first it seemed like this was a free way to replicate nests, nests were many times easier to farm or control. Any ¡®exploit¡¯ you could think of for nests was conveniently patched when you moved to raw essence. You couldn¡¯t use essence to fuel an aether machine ¨C not without monsterizing the machine or having it blow up in the worst possible way. You couldn¡¯t use essence to fuel a spell, at least Maddy couldn¡¯t figure it out in the time they had. Richard shook off the disappointment. Obviously, a specialized tool linked to the system was beyond what Richard could do with a few days of effort¡­ and admittedly heavy handholding by using the sandbox. You might think a monster being ¡®born¡¯ in a place with essence meant you could kill it while it was still forming. Like crushing eggs before they hatched! And¡­In some cases that was true but in the vast majority of attempts, anything anyone did to a monster or essence active area made all final results measurably worse. Stabbing a spot would make a monster more violent and usually gave it sharper weapons¡­as well as creating monsters immune or resistant to stabbing. Burning a half formed monster made monsters that could burn the surroundings and made them immune to fire. Trying to direct essence into a ¡®kill box¡¯ sometimes worked, but very quickly caused monsters that were more likely to be able to escape to form. Sometimes the very kill box itself monsterized and more often than not, something like a kill box just gave you a false sense of security. Richard was surprised how well the system seemed to be controlling essence. There were nest kill boxes after all with farmed monsters locked into a few preset shapes. How did that work? All of this gave him a lot to think of ¨C and had some promising ideas when it came to terraforming the stone dimension but he had to return to his main goals soon enough. The discoveries continued¡­ ¡­ Chapter 118. How to make a three-dimensional language from scratch. ---Richard--- While some ideas were new and some ideas were old, quite a few were somewhere in between. Some discoveries were simply Richard suddenly believing random snippets he had heard but hadn¡¯t fully trusted before. For example, Richard was now nearly positive that essence was responsible for all life in the universe. Essence may not have created humans but there was an incredibly high chance it created the first life on earth and there was a non-zero chance it was responsible for a lot of the early mutations. Everything Richard studied made him more and more convinced of this theory even with the small voice in his head calling it a conspiracy. Even ¡®mundane¡¯ life ¨C even life without active aether abilities seemed to generate microscopic amounts of both forces. Sure, they were currently on a rank 3 world and there was a small chance the animals on Earth were different than the ones here¡­but that felt like coping. At this point, Richard''s theory was that essence mutating cells at a low dose was probably responsible for a lot of evolution in general. Fuck it, why not right? Richard needed a drink. He felt like laughing when dealing with essence. Life was all one big joke. Maybe aether and essence were responsible for the big bang and all of existence as well! Matter and anti-matter¡­and then something happened to the anti-matter to make it not wipe the regular matter out. Why not! As much as essence first seemed like an ¡®evil¡¯ force that created monsters fully formed¡­ the truth was simply that it created life. Nature wasn¡¯t evil, it was simply wild and self-serving. Sure, that initial life was actively hostile towards the person and sort of creature that had generated their essence¡­and most monsters were sterile or even just unique and thus unable to find a mate¡­but that wasn¡¯t always the case. If two monsters were able to mate, they created offspring that for all intents and purposes ¡°weren¡¯t monsters¡± even if they ¡®looked like them¡¯. Those offspring were usually still aggressive, but they fell into a ¡®wild animal¡¯ category instead of a ¡®rabid wild animal¡¯ category. Typically essence birthed monsters would attack without a care for their life, while monster born ¡®creatures¡¯ had enough self-preservation to run or hide. Presumably you needed several generations to breed the aggression out of a species. Still, it was something to keep in mind. Proto aether and proto essence canceled each other out but after refinement and time essence and aether were no longer opposites. It was as if aether was a +2 squared into a 4 and essence was a -2 squared into a 4. The final results were similar you tossed the imaginary version that didn¡¯t happen. Many monsters even generated aether and presumably their own essence to fuel supernatural abilities. It was as if essence was the goal and aether the side effect. Essence created life which created more essence and spread itself. ¡­ After a while Richard stepped back from all this base studying, to brainstorm ways of building an actual language for spells. It was like he was decorating a house that hadn¡¯t been built yet. Completely out of order but still. Doing it this way helped with motivation. To start Richard created a room where glowing lines of light could be controlled by his AI. A thought gave him a glowing ¡®brush¡¯ and a second let the brush leave a permanent line of light in the air. Sometimes Richard used his hands to ¡®move¡¯ the ¡®brush¡¯ about but as their goal was an external manipulation, he tried to keep it in his mind. First Richard played about with shapes and how they felt. He moved his line around in scribbles and drew some simple pictures and light sculptures as he thought. Theoretically this potential language didn¡¯t need to use aether at all. You just needed to ¡®draw¡¯ a shape and then let an automated system ¨C potentially even ¡®the¡¯ system ¨C read it and activate results. If they couldn¡¯t figure out how to get their custom force existing alongside everything else, this was an option. For now, Richard used his AI to record what he drew but soon he would upgrade to an external computer analyzing his shapes and the potential meaning hidden inside them. He didn¡¯t even know how they would upgrade from a room with an AI to the entire planet being monitored at once. Could they store this information in the aether somehow? All aether seemed linked in more ways than one after all. A rule that effected one bit spread instantly to the rest of the attached aether¡­like ink in water if you skipped the time ink took to spread out? From what Richard could tell, rules propagated faster than the speed of light. The ideal setup would be to use origin energy to draw a ¡®spell¡¯. Have the ¡®finished¡¯ spell ¡®send¡¯ itself to the processing AI with the shape as information and the amount of energy used as the ¡®cost¡¯. And then ¡®somehow¡¯ the system would ¡®send¡¯ the effect or result back. It seemed much ¡®cheaper¡¯ than having a system constantly monitor every square inch of reality for a change. Maybe they needed to link a separate dimension to this custom system? Like how the skill layer seemed to hold a lot of aether specific mechanisms. That might just be the key to getting both systems to work along side each other! ¡­ So, language creation! One of the main goals Richard had was to create a low failure system where the AI analyzing his drawings could round and smooth over as many mistakes as possible. A similar methodology to JavaScript where each ¡®program¡¯ would run even while full of errors. To start, Richard wanted a three dimensional language to take advantage of the three dimensional space they would be writing it in. First he locked all potential shapes into cardinal directions as it was easier for a computer to read and output something specific. Even if he wasn¡¯t perfectly drawing these directions, his AI could ¡®round¡¯ it into those three dimensions, 87 degrees was basically 90 degrees. ¡®Pi is three, change my mind¡¯. As long as it was ¡®close enough¡¯ his AI could convert analog shapes into sharp theoretical lines. It was incredibly simple to transfer three phase programing into a ¡®up, left, inwards¡¯ based language although writing anything more than ¡®hello world¡¯ took a long time and used up a huge amount of space. By extending that into a ¡®up, down, left, right, forward, backward¡¯ system, Richard could store even more information and by making up rules as he went along, each language became faster and faster to write at the cost of needing to remember more edge cases. The problem with the six-direction version was that the lines he drew could cross back over itself. He had to figure out if a program should be allowed to perfectly cross itself or if that caused an error of sorts¡­it wasn¡¯t a problem if the system was watching him ¡®draw¡¯ the whole ¡®spell¡¯ from scratch, but it failed when looking at the final result. One option was to double back right beside the first line giving any double back or overlap a side by side ¡®multi¡¯ line. Another was to increase the size of a line with overlap and remove any indication of direction from the result. Richard then went on to prototype many different languages all using this three dimensional brush for testing. He started with shapes and rules as simple as possible and worked his way up from there rule by rule, component by component. One idea was to use ¡®up, down, left, right¡¯ and only those four directions to build a shape. If you wanted to ¡®cross¡¯ a line, you could head ¡®inwards¡¯ or ¡®outwards¡¯ to ¡®bypass¡¯ sections using the third dimension. Same system could be flipped so you were looking down on it like a table which felt surprisingly good. All shapes created with this first ¡®language¡¯ were reminiscent of circuit boards and Richard was suddenly struck with the idea of being able to activate these ¡®spells¡¯ with machines. Yes, that¡¯s definitely a trait he wanted to slip in if possible. The most computer friendly system was to allow constant recording and endless overlaps. A single line moving back and forth in three dimensions was how phase crystals worked after all and by leaving that system available, a phase crystal could output a spell¡­but phase crystals were the lowest common denominator. Human ease of use was more important for good UX. For his no overlap ¡®drawn¡¯ system Richard decided that the average length of a line was a single unit. So, lines that were two or three times as long could be called ¡®up twice¡¯, ¡®left three times¡¯. This system could be completely shrunk or grown as long as you shrunk or grew the entire shape at once. A modification to this system allowed you to ¡®draw¡¯ a unit line first instead of letting the system guess. Another system used all 6 ¡®directions¡¯ but did not care about how long a ¡®line¡¯ was. You couldn¡¯t place several straight lines in a row, but you could use all the different turns just fine. The shapes this language made were either a tangled mess that looked like a ball of yarn, or a group of tidy self-contained shapes connected with long lines between them. Richard played with a language that cared about the direction of north ¨C this created a fixed shape he could walk around as he ¡®wrote¡¯ ¨C then played with languages that used his body as a reference point and moved as he moved. The direction he pointed while drawing was presumably the direction the fireball would fly or whatever. His fixed direction version worked well when combined with the ¡®looking down on a circuit board¡¯ language he had made previously. One promising system didn¡¯t care about lines or directions. Instead it cared about coordinates. Richard could make a line to X spot and then make a line to Y spot to convey all sorts of simple information. His AI then ¡®rounded¡¯ the surroundings into cubes and turned the two points into coordinates at whatever the cubes size and accuracy was. Depending on how sensitive this was, you could store a huge amount of information. It wasn¡¯t the best for ¡®writing¡¯ a spell, but for activating one? For activating a function? Linking two bits together? For all these cases it thrived. If every ¡®cube¡¯ had a specific spell attached to It, Richard imagined you could draw a line to your waist to draw a pistol or draw a line to a voxel above your head to summon a hat. Besides storing information, it was hard to do much else, but it was still one of the most intuitive languages Richard had made. Head sized voxels gave you a few hundred voxels within reach of your hands.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. It was even easier to use when Richard used his AI to ¡®draw¡¯ the grid he was using then overlay it in his vision. You could even ¡®grow¡¯ the complexity by increasing the resolution of the cubes. A simple rank 1 version of the language had grid boxes the size of his head. Increasing the difficulty by splitting each ¡®cube¡¯ into three in all directions made a new denser grid. 1 cube to 27 cubes was a pretty large jump, but the cubes were still easy to land on. Same with a ¡®rank 3¡¯ version that had cubes the size of a golf ball. Part way through, Richard realized he was having so much fun making these different languages ¨C and each had pros and cons ¨C that the best solution was to allow them all. The simplest language could be used to ¨C among other things ¨C select the language to ¡®process¡¯ the rest of the shape with. Like a line at the front of an interpreter that said what programming language you wanted to use ¨C along with what includes or version you were using just because. Theoretically you could use whichever ¡®language¡¯ you liked the most when drawing your spells¡­all Richard needed to do was guarantee ways of converting information between the different languages. All of these coordinate languages were equivalent to an assembly programing language written manually in binary or maybe maybe opp codes if you were being generous. Switching between languages mid ¡®spell¡¯ gave a massive amount of complexity and flexibility as each could display certain information in easier to read ways and write ways. The way Richard went ¡®up a step¡¯ into a ¡®more complicated¡¯ language was to take every language he had already made, then relax individual rules or add a rule one at a time usually focused on the system¡¯s strengths or weaknesses. This step usually made a language easier as long as you knew what you were doing. The circuitboard system was changed to have specific layers. Layer one meant X, layer two meant Y and each meaning could be set when the program started. The yarn system was given a circle shape to help ¡®pinch off¡¯ and separate parts. As he made higher ease of use versions, he also began planning out how higher ¡®rank¡¯ versions of the languages had more complexity and thus difficulty. More information was in a smaller shape with more rules. One language allowed backtracking his ¡®brush¡¯ to split off again at an older point. Another allowed lines to split at the point in general and required a split attention to draw separate lines at once. This version required Richard to upgrade his entire room before continuing. One language cared about ¡®brush pressure¡¯ allowing him to draw thick and thin lines by mentally pressing a ¡®fourth¡¯ dimension. One language cared about speed of drawing ¨C by slowly moving over an area it ¡®drew¡¯ a ¡®thick¡¯ line. Same result as brush pressure but linked to a different ¡®base¡¯ language and quite a bit different to draw. Yet another allowed Richard to stop and start his brush ¨C turning it off and on again allowed lines to ¡®teleport¡¯. Yet another was one of his three dimensional systems but split into more directions allowing diagonal movements for more information¡­ Richard gave the barest of attention towards non straight-line systems ¨C curves and circles and loops. They all looked visually different and ¡®fun¡¯ but were harder to store information in. If the arc itself mattered, then was it a spline with control points or a Bezier curve? Wasn¡¯t it easier for his analysis software to pick up actually drawing those control points? Was the only part that mattered that there ¡®was¡¯ a curve here instead of a straight corner? If so at what radius did it become a curve? No Richard liked all his straight-line systems much more. Especially if you took into account the fact that they weren¡¯t all straight lines ¨C just converted into straight lines by the AI. A lot of his drawings had curved corners and smooth transitions as he rolled his brush around. A lot of his lines had slight bends to them. The point was those ¡®mistakes¡¯ didn¡¯t matter. His AI could remove them all with some shape analysis. That U over there? Yeah, that was basically a V wasn¡¯t it? As Richard made these languages, he simultaneously built a suite of tools that made it easier to write each language. The faint grid that appeared with the coordinate system was one such tool. Allowing you to remove or ¡®backspace¡¯ parts of the more methodical shapes was another. One of his favourite tools was something that analyzed the shape he drew in real time and coloured it in accordingly. Green was a perfect line. Yellow was a ¡®minor error¡¯. Orange and then red showed ¡®big errors¡¯. What an ¡®error¡¯ was could linked to which language he was currently writing. For unit lines if his standard distance was 1 inch then 1.1 inches was yellow and 1.5 was red considering it could round to either 1 or 2. For all his shapes without arcs, if a line bent too much or shook by accident it would tint yellow with a degree of severity. Sometimes whether a line was a mistake or not depended entirely on the ¡®finished¡¯ program. Something that looked like a mistake was simply leaving an area open for an offshoot when backtracking. All the potential errors could be coloured in with less judgmental tones ¨C maybe errors and unfinished statements were purple and blue. Richard also wrote a tool to analyze portions of ¡®code¡¯ and output rough estimates of what was happening. After an entire day of language creation Maddy stopped by to watch as Richard showed off all he had made. ¡°The one part I¡¯m not understanding quite yet is how we plan to convert custom spells into this language.¡± Maddy spoke up after a bit. ¡°How do we go from new spell to new shape? Is there a reason we aren¡¯t just writing these with words?¡± Richard deactivated most of his language specific tools and began to doodle in space as he talked. ¡°Good questions, all good questions, this is the part where I turn and run out the back¡­ ¡°Okay but if we are being serious, the reason we aren¡¯t using words is twofold. One, words are heavily linked to language. I bet you were expecting the whole system to be written in English right? We can translate into different languages and let spells be written in any of them¡­ but there¡¯s still a good chance of miscommunication because of that. Two, as far as shapes are concerned, they have quite a lot of wasted complexity. Letters aren¡¯t every possible shape. Letters aren¡¯t the simplest shapes possible...and yet they are complex enough changing a single thing can break them or wildly change the results. So far, any change you make to any of these languages shifts the final result slightly. A spelling mistake on the other hand can shift the meaning of a sentence completely. I can keep going with ways these are all improvements! Words are two dimensional and writing 2D in three dimensions is ¨C Wow I didn¡¯t even realize I cared this much.¡± Richard took a breath calming down and smiling across at Maddy. ¡°Basically, the only benefit that letters and words have is familiarity. Finally a third reason I started on this is to make the act of writing these fun. It¡¯s like a puzzle. If you want, I¡¯m sure we can make it more or less fun to work with. We could make failures explode ¨C could link a feeling of exertion or effort so drawing takes work. Could give more neural feedback for what each part means instead of just visual as I¡¯ve been using. I¡¯m trying to make these as nice to write as possible and I¡¯m open to suggestions. If you have some time, you should try writing some of these languages.¡± Maddy nodded. ¡°Sure¡­you know I feel like you ignored how we are going to actually convert these.¡± ¡°¡­I know but I haven¡¯t figured that part out yet. We do have a few different options! What those options are depends heavily on what is possible and what is optimal or easiest but let¡¯s look into absolutes¡­The absolute easiest option would be for the system to ¡®magically¡¯ convert the spell it¡¯s been given into one or all of these languages. That would be ideal but¡­I¡¯m going to be honest here I don¡¯t think we will get that.¡± Richard sighed before perking up once again. ¡°What I would prefer is to set up a minimal number of rules for both this language and the method it uses to gain new spells. Axioms. Boolean logic sort of minimal baseline rules and then we work our way up from there. ¡°So, for example, one rule that would be amazing to include is a law of equivalence. If two ¡®spells¡¯ work in completely different ways but have the same or a similar end result, they should be considered perfectly equal. The system in charge of creating the effect should also be allowed to swap out for whatever is cheapest or easiest for it to perform ¨C at least for imperfect spells. Its magic after all, the implementation is hidden. Setting fire to something by increasing its flammability and sparking it vs dumping a load of heat in the general area? As long as a flame appears and the ¡®spell¡¯ to make that flame is simple or lazy enough, then either are fine. ¡°¡­considering our test with both of us making black boxes and then swapping them around, I think this is easy for us to achieve. The entire spell system will be a black box. Hopefully the spells inside the system are nested black boxes.¡± Maddy nodded slowly. ¡°It''s sort of like negative spellwork, write down the result you want and then explicitly say you don¡¯t care how the spell goes about achieving that result.¡± Richard looked a bit confused for a moment before nodding slightly. ¡°Sure, it wouldn¡¯t have that much leeway but it¡¯s a property that would help with all sorts of things. We could even take advantage of that to help skim some power off the top of a spell. Spell A costs 10 mana. Spell B works the exact same but costs 5 mana. Someone casts A, System uses B, System gets 5 extra mana as a treat. Could be operating costs. Could be growth or R&D costs. Who knows!¡± Maddy squinted slightly at that. ¡°Sounds shady.¡± Richard waved a hand slightly ¡°The whole advantage of a combined system like this is to take advantage of some big data, economy of scale levels of efficiency. I¡¯m imagining the strength of a result you get can be linked to how well you draw the spell. I¡¯m also imagining there is a way to see or discover spell B and the system will push it as an option. Personally, I think it would be fun to link how efficient of a spell you get to how well you draw your shape. Better drawing equals better spell. Even if that just means the system nerfs all the bad drawings until you improve.¡± Maddy nodded slightly ¡°I guess, I like that idea. I like the idea of options for improvement and a way to keep it open. What I don¡¯t want is a charity system built on or related to fraud even if its benevolent. Conceptually that feels like it will rot it from the inside. Conceptually this is a system that will work on donations. Donations without an expectation on return¡­we could maybe link donations with cosmetic or side benefits, but the system itself should be free. Everything else seems fine.¡± Richard felt¡­he wasn¡¯t sure how to think. On one hand he had gone off and brainstormed and planned stuff without Maddy and it had been her idea¡­but on the other hand, humans were selfish. Some would donate of their own free will but if this system was truly going to thrive it had to convince people it was in their best interest to donate. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. We can talk about it while you draw. Let me finish the plan first. The second rule or axiom we would need to implement is a way to compartmentalize a so-called spell. Look at a single portion of it at a time and modify only that portion. So many problems become manageable if you split or can split them up into smaller portions. Those smaller portions should also have equivalence. You should be able to take a portion of the spell that performs a specific operation, take it out, replace it with a different bit that performs the same option, and the final result is the same.¡± Richard continued. ¡°Is this the most important rule? Or just something you want. Maddy asked for a moment. She still seemed to be hung up on his plans to trick people into donating for their own good. ¡°It seems harder right? There might be some other options but personally this rule combined with the first would be the easiest way to ¡®convert¡¯ an arbitrary spell. Imagine this, A spell is placed here. It¡¯s a black box. We can turn it on or off and that is it. ¡°Step two is to take some parts we recognize. Indicate the exact part we want to change. Replace it with something we recognize. And then finally see if the results are the same. If they are the same, then we¡¯ve suddenly ¡®discovered¡¯ part of the spell. Piece by piece every spell can be dissected like this. The portion we convert into the language becomes the ¡®known¡¯ portion of the spell and everything else remains a black box. If we convert every single portion of the spell, then perfect. The conversion is complete. If we convert every single portion except for a tiny bit, we can still use it. That bit we couldn¡¯t figure out just becomes something new. A tiny bit of ¡®and then something happens here¡¯ that we write into the spell whenever we cast it. Richard finished. Maddy seemed to suddenly get it partway through Richard¡¯s description. ¡°That¡¯s perfect! By moving a spell from a person to this setup we kill it. We then dissect it and parade it around,¡± She grinned when she saw Richard¡¯s face. ¡°Metaphorically of course. So, This is how we could eventually switch a spell that makes 10ml of water into a spell that makes 100ml of water. Just find the portion for size and cost and increase both by ten. If science is the known and magic is the unknown, this is how we slowly drag the unknown into the light? A spell that¡¯s partially understood could be the truest combination of our two sides.¡± Richard nodded a bit. ¡°Equivalence and compartmentalization are my two goals. Anything after that would be to make the whole process easier. If I had to pick a third it would be an easy way to separate out any order dependent information. For anything that¡¯s left, claim the spell is the exact same no matter what order you put it in. Being able to rearrange all the unordered bits can let you write something in a more intuitive manner or combine similar bits and find ways to optimize¡­¡± Richard sighed. ¡°Okay, lets talk about humanity. Give me a bit to try and hook you up with a neural link. We can talk while we get you drawing.¡±